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How To Slow Google: Get Barack Obama To Speak [MediaMemo]
Of course. Check out the chart below, via the “Official Google Blog“, (GOOG) which shows the overall volume of queries at the search engine yesterday. That valley in the middle of the graph? That’s the period when Obama actually spoke during his inauguration ceremony, starting a little after noon eastern time. That’s one powerful speech.
[Image Credit: Jef Poskanzer] Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:08 pm Fuzz.com Hits Deadpool, Spin-Off Blip.fm Alive And Well
Here’s the notice, which can be found on their blog and was also e-mailed to its registered users:
Fuzz is pointing to its own Blip.fm, JamBase and Nimbit as alternatives. The company raised funding from angel investors in February 2008; we have an e-mail in with the company to learn how much and from whom, and also to confirm our logical assumption that the startup likely wants to dedicate its resources in developing the Blip.fm service. (Hat tip to Tanya Breshears for the heads up) Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:53 am BASF Podcast: The Chemical Reporter - What is Spider Silk Made of?LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany, January 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Over millions of years of evolution, spiders have developed the perfect material for constructing a net: spider silk....Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:46 am UPDATE 2-London's Evening Standard sold to Russian tycoonLONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev is buying a majority interest in London's struggling Evening Standard newspaper for a nominal sum, current owner Daily Mail & General...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:44 am London newspaper to be sold to Russian tycoonThe owner of London's Evening Standard said Wednesday it has agreed to sell a majority stake in the newspaper to Russian tycoon and former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev for what it described asSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:41 am Ericsson reports profit drop, to cut 5,000 jobsWireless equipment maker LM Ericsson on Wednesday reported profits dropped 31 percent in the fourth quarter, citing restructuring charges and weaker handset sales, and said it would slash...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:38 am Sony Announces Restructuring Plan - AHN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:37 am Biggest ever credit card data breach - Computerworld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:34 am Firmware 2.60: extras revealed - CVG Online
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:29 am Bookham to Debut New Focus(TM) Optomechanics Products at Photonics West 2009SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bookham, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKHM), will debut three new optomechanics product lines from the New Focus(TM) brand at Photonics West...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:25 am Apple Earnings Preview: How Are Sales? How Is Steve? (AAPL) - Silicon Alley Insider
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:24 am White MacBooks Upgraded, Nearly Match Unibody Specs [Apple]Despite all the fanfare about the new, upgraded unibody MacBooks, the old (polybody?) MacBooks are still on sale for $999. Thankfully, Apple has updated the base specs on our sad, white friend. The...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:17 am Google Kills Off iPhone-Optimized iGoogle - InformationWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:16 am Wireless Prep Paid Off for ... - InternetNews.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:06 am IBM Pushes Further Into The ... - InternetNews.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:06 am Snow has limited effect on local area - Sumter Item
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:05 am Announcing the AMD Divestituron [Digital Daily]
Purchased in 2006 as a means of bolstering its position in the commercial desktop and mobile computing markets — two areas where the company had little success — ATI is as noteworthy for the impairment charges it’s brought AMD, as it is its technologies. AMD paid $5.4 billion for ATI in 2006. Since that time it’s taken $3.2 billion-worth of impairment charges related to the acquisition and its market cap has slipped to $1.22 billion. Clearly, the ATI deal has not proven to be the panacea for which AMD had hoped. And in these turbulent economic times which are already playing havok with its finances, the company is wise to divest itself of some ATI ballast. Better to shore up its finances and focus on its core microprocessor business, than founder in a sea of impairment charges. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Crossing Automation Optimizes Vacuum Wafer TransportMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Crossing Automation, Inc., ( href="http://www.crossinginc.com/">www.crossinginc.com ) today launched ExpressConnect(TM), a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Tenzing: An Elevated Brand of Managed IT Services is LaunchedTORONTO, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ - The official launch of Tenzing marks the emergence of a sophisticated and focused managed IT services company honed from over 10 years experience...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Campus Living Villages Graduates to NetSuite OneWorldLeading Student Accommodation Provider Signs Deal to Implement NetSuite OneWorld Across 50+ Global Campus Locations SAN MATEO, Calif., Jan. 21...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Sun's open source Java move gets mixed reviews (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - In November 2006, Sun Microsystems began making all of its Java technology implementations open source, offering them under the GPL. More than two years later, reactions are mixed as to what exactly has been the impact of this momentous change.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Hands-on video guide to Windows 7 (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Now that Microsoft has made the Windows 7 beta available for public download, many people are trying to figure out what's new and different. And many others not willing to risk their PCs by installing a beta OS are curious, too. (Thinking of installing the beta yourself? Use InfoWorld's free Windows Sentinel applet to see if it's compatible with Windows 7.)Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Samplify Systems Receives Top Honors From Electronic Products and EDN MagazinesCompany's SAM1600 Family of Analog to Digital Converters, with Integrated Signal Compression, Received Electronic Products' Product of The Year Award for 2008;...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Travelers Serious About Air SafetyTripAdvisor Survey Reveals Majority Pay Attention to the In-flight Safety Presentation or Know It by Heart; 93 Percent Check Location of Exits NEWTON, Mass., Jan....Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am 12M Albums on Jogli Now Embeddable Record Label Nightmare ContinuesIsraeli startup Jogli, the music search engine we previously covered, is now making all of the 12M albums it streams easily embeddable, even on MySpace (example). Beyond albums, the widget (embedded at...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:51 am 12M Albums on Jogli Now Embeddable – Record Label Nightmare Continues
Beyond albums, the widget (embedded at the end of the post) also allows the embedding of playlists, artists’ best hits and radio stations. It’s color customizable (think YouTube’s player) and if you want to play with the embed parameters, its size can also be altered. Jogli makes heavy use of YouTube’s API to power its service. I asked the for company’s perspective about all that has gone about lately with Project Playlist getting banned (here and here) and Warner pulling out of YouTube. David Schwartz, Jogli’s CEO:
Jogli’s experience with the sound muting underscores the futility of tactics on the part of record labels. Schwartz claims that alternatives to most muted videos were uploaded within days. Jogli also uses other music sources, and says the muting delivered a negligible effect on the service itself.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:51 am Cordless Kitchen Platters - Sleek Warming Tray Keeps Hot Foods at Safe Temperatures (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) This Cordless Warming Tray is perfect for keeping your food warm without overheating it. The platter heats up in 8 minutes and can hold a steady temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:39 am V8 Powered Snowblower Can Probably Plow Through Cars TooBy Andrew Liszewski While most of us would just leave a discarded V8 engine sitting on our front lawn until the grass grew high enough to hide it from the neighbors, Kai Grundt decided to use his to build...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:38 am Network supplier Ericsson reports sharply lower net income (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:38 am Maybe the Feds Can Diagnose What Ails Apple and Steve Jobs (and Whether It Matters or Not) [BoomTown]
Early this morning, Bloomberg reported that regulators are looking into Apple’s disclosures about the health–or lack thereof–of its iconic CEO Steve Jobs. According to the story, the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a review of Apple (AAPL) “to ensure investors weren’t misled, a person familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s review doesn’t mean investigators have seen evidence of wrongdoing, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public.” And while BoomTown has railed against the creepy obsession the media has had with Jobs’ health and the publishing of rumors and innuendos about it as fact without a whole lot of reporting, I hope it is true. It is also entirely appropriate that the government agency charged with keeping an eye on public companies does investigate–at the very least, to get the story right. Because if the press and blogosphere and Apple aren’t going to do it, I vote for the one with subpoena power to sort it all out and make some level-headed determinations about the rules of the road. (And, frankly, it is good to see the SEC more vigorous, after its stunningly moribund record of late–Hello, Bernie Madoff!) Apple’s COO and acting CEO Tim Cook, by the way, will likely be questioned about the SEC look-see, Steve Jobs’ health and more at its first-quarter conference call at 2 pm PST today. Of course, the health of its business is the most important thing–sales of iPods and iPhones, new products and what Apple will do with its $25 billion cash horde. But the focus will surely be on Jobs and now this government inquiry. What will be most interesting is exactly how much companies do have to reveal about the health of their leadership and whether the relative fame and brand-critical nature of that exec matters more. For example, does someone like Jobs or, say, Martha Stewart have more need to discuss their health than some lesser known CEO who might have a similar problem? And since it has been well known that Jobs has suffered from a bout with pancreatic cancer and recovered, does he have to disclose it all, given that even his curable version of the illness has complications that are well documented? And, most of all, how specific does Apple and Jobs have to be, and how frequently do they have to update, especially since a diagnosis is always a moving target? More to the point, given the bordering-on-crazed attention given to Jobs–who engenders so much passionate emotion–has also been off-putting and, worse, all over the map in terms of accurate information, what clarity can regulators provide? Apple has been under increasing pressure, since Jobs revealed he had a “hormonal imbalance,” soon after which he then announced that he was taking a five-month medical leave from his duties because his health problems were “more complex.” I am less strident than others on this turn of events, since having accurate health information about yourself is not quite the same as, say, details of a merger and who knew what when. Plus it has been clear for a long time that all has not been well with Jobs, something any investor had to be aware of. I have no inside information nor have I talked to anyone who has treated him, but anyone who has not been on Mars for the past year could see Jobs was not looking great, especially from his woefully haggard appearance. As I have written:
Who knows if the government will find out more, but it would be good if some of the smoke could be cleared away to see if there is some actual fire or not. And if not, Jobs can get the peace he is seeking to try to recover his health. As he said to Bloomberg last week: “Why don’t you guys leave me alone–why is this important?” It would be nice to be get that answer and then, hopefully, let Jobs get on with getting well. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:36 am The Games We Played - The Original Grand Theft Auto (PC)By Andrew Liszewski It really wasn’t until the infamous third iteration of Grand Theft Auto that the game became a target for the media and the poster child for video game violence. But believe it...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:35 am Target-Inspired Desk Accessories - The Bulls Eye Dart Pen is Write On Point (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Make your mark on the world with the Bulls Eye Dart Pen. This desktop set comes with a pen in the shape of a bulls eye dart and a magnetic base that doubles as a paperweight. You...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:19 am Coleman Frywell Portable FryerBy Andrew Liszewski Whenever I go camping I’m happy to walk away from my cellphone, computer and the small arsenal of electronics I carry with me every day, but the one thing I refuse to leave behind...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:14 am Fujitsu LifeBook's Tiny Secondary Display Tested on Video [Fujitsu Lifebook]Fujitsu's LifeBook N7010 is an unsurprising mid-to-high-end multimedia laptop, except for one thing: the 4-inch, 480x272 secondary screen. Akihabara News got their hands on one and ran it through its...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 10:12 am Regain Control Over Your Twitter Social Graph With Tweepler
When you first sign up, you register for an account using your Twitter credentials and Tweepler will automatically import users you are following and who are following you (this part is a little buggy). Once the import is finished, the latter group is thrown into the bucket of unprocessed followers along with bits of information which make it easier for you to decide if you should follow them back or not. Tweepler will show a list of users along with their avatar and bio, which you can sort by newest follower or alphabetically by name or Twitter username (there’s also a decent search engine built in). If the person doesn’t protect his or her updates, you can view more details about the user, such as the average amount of tweets per day, total number of tweets so far, how many people the user is following and how many are following back as well as the last 3 messages. You can easily move users into your ‘Follow’ or ‘Ignore’ list by clicking arrows on either side of the middle column. You also have the option to follow or ignore the lot of them by clicking the bulk processing buttons.
Tweepler is definitely a time saver and an easier way of managing followers on Twitter than the currently available apps and Twitter.com, but it’s also something that you’ll likely use only once or twice, unless you’re really popular and gain dozens of new followers a day. Tweepler was built by Jessy Ouellette (@JessyO) and Cory Schop (@coryschop), who believe they have a way of generating revenue from the application. Essentially they would give people the option of advertising their account so they’d show up on top of the interface and/or as a ’suggested follow’ and pay up per follower they gain through Tweepler. As much as I like the application and the people who built it, I can’t imagine that this business model will work, and frankly I hope they’re not expecting too much from it. But if you’re on Twitter, make sure you give it a spin and see if it’s a better way for you to manage your Twitter social graph. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 21 Jan 2009 | 9:56 am Regain Control Over Your Twitter Social Graph With TweeplerTweepler is a brand new application for Twitter users who are finding it difficult to sort through new followers and decide if they should follow back or not. The application offers an interface that divides...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 9:56 am Pandora Trying Out Invasive Commercial BreaksNathan Halverson writes "The popular online radio service Pandora.com has added brief commercial interruptions to its service. Pandora says this is a trial and is targeted to a subset of listeners at this point. In one case, a brief ad for the Fox TV show 'Lie To Me' interrupted the music stream for about 15 seconds after ten songs had initially played, and the same commercial interrupted 22 songs later. 'But [Pandora's] founder promised the site will never carry as many audio ads as broadcast radio, despite the fact it pays substantially higher royalty fees to the recording industry.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2009 | 9:56 am Adventures in Chinese GDP FiguresChina is to issue its Q4 GDP number late tomorrow, and Reuters has the consensus at 7.0 percent growth annualized. While that is down from recent quarters, anyone want to hazard a guess on the likelihood...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 9:33 am Finjan Announces the Appointment of Dennis Wolf as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial OfficerSAN JOSE, California, January 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Finjan Inc., a leader in secure web gateway products, today announced the appointment of Dennis P. Wolf as its executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer. Mr.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 9:00 am REM Announces Partnership with KACEATLANTA, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- REM Enterprise Solutions, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 9:00 am Quote du Jour: Drugs and BanksThe British government plans to provide insurance for new asset-backed securities. That is like helping a junkie to detox by guaranteeing drug supplies until the local dealer resumes normal service...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:54 am iNose iphone appDisgusting takes on a whole new meaning with iNose, described as "the first and best nasal hygiene game for the iPhone". Your job is to clean out the nose before time expires. Dig in deep, and see what...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:25 am The Plot to Kill Google [Voices]By Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein, Contributing Editors, Wired When Google’s lawyers entered the smooth marble hallways of the Department of Justice on the morning of October 17, they had reason to feel confident. Sure, they were about to face the antitrust division—an experience most companies dread—to defend a proposed deal with Yahoo. But they had to like their chances. In the previous seven years, only one of the mergers that had been brought here had been opposed. And Google wasn’t even requesting a full merger. It just wanted the go-ahead to pursue a small deal that it was convinced would benefit consumers, the two companies, and the search-advertising market as a whole. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:02 am Inaugurating Social TV [Voices]By Saul Hansell, Blogger, New York Times Bits CNN’s live streaming of the inauguration next to a feed from Facebook is a powerful demonstration of how television can use social media and an equally powerful demonstration of what Facebook can do for various Web sites. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:01 am How the iPhone and Poor Apple Management Have Contributed to the Downfall of Apple [Voices]By Andy Zaky, Blogger, Bullish Cross In April of 2007, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced that Apple would be using what is commonly referred to as the “subscription method of accounting” for sales of the iPhone, where the sales revenue from the iPhone is deferred and recognized over a 24-month period instead of at the point of sale. That decision and the underlying reasons supporting it would go down as being some of the worst in Apple’s history. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am Why Microsoft Should Forget About Yahoo and Buy Palm. [Voices]By Farhad Manjoo, Technology Columnist, Slate Nearly a year ago, Microsoft made an unsolicited $44 billion bid to buy Yahoo. No good came of it: Yahoo’s executives, who appeared chronically allergic to any move that might reward shareholders, wasted a precious year fending off Microsoft rather than finding a way to beat their chief corporate rival, Google. Microsoft emerged looking no better; as it puzzled for months over whether to go all out for Yahoo or leave it alone, the company seemed to fall ever further short of developing a business strategy to compete with its main rival—yes, Google again. Do you see a pattern here? The only beneficiary of all of these chaotic merger talks has been the company that Microsoft and Yahoo are most desperate to beat. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am Whitehouse.gov Remodeling Includes Larger Windows, More Doors [Voices]By John Murrell, Blogger, Good Morning Silicon Valley The change anticipated for so long by so many came quickly, just after noon in Washington. After centuries of struggle and halting progress, the nation was finally able to welcome … its first White House new media director. He is Macon Phillips, formerly with Blue State Digital, and he is the first to post in a new White House blog, one of the features of the instantly remodeled presidential site, whitehouse.gov. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am Cat Gets Good Vibrations From Subwoofer [Cats]There's nothing I find more entertaining than cats using technology to amuse themselves—whether it be boxing with printers, riding roombas, or just chilling with the help of a subwoofer, like...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am New Customer Win for Longtop in Southern ChinaXIAMEN, China, Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am Onion on the inaugurationThe Onion's inauguration day issue stands as one of its finest moments (Obama Inauguration Speech Ruined By Incessant Jackhammering being torture-comedy of such exquisite caliber that it had me howling by the end) and it's at its absolute best in "Vice Presidential Handlers Lure Cheney Into Traveling Crate":A team of nine specially trained handlers have successfully lured outgoing vice president Dick Cheney into a reinforced steel traveling crate in order to transport him back to his permanent enclosure in Casper, WY, official sources reported Monday. "He's a smart one. Once he sees the crate, he gets pretty nippy, but we've learned a few tricks over the years," chief VP wrangler Ted Irving breathlessly said while applying pressure to a deep gash on his forearm. "If we break a rabbit's legs and throw it in there, he will eventually go in to finish it off. Doesn't work with dead rabbits, though. Cheney only eats what he kills."Vice Presidential Handlers Lure Cheney Into Traveling Crate
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:30 am A study says GPS-enabled cell phones to get more popular in coming yearsSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation  It seems that the economy is affecting nearly every industry, especially tech industries. For instance, we reported that Logitech is experiencing a lot of financial problems, and they usually do very well. You would probably assume that smartphone manufacturers such as Apple, RIM, Nokia, etc would experience losses because their phones are pretty expensive. However, ABI Reseach finds that many people are addicted to smartphones, and would be willing to spend money for a quality phone. Now, ABI Reseach says that GPS-enabled smartphones will slow down a little this year, but still grow by 6.4% over 2008, which is pretty impressive. They also go on to say that smartphones shipment rate will increase by 19% every year until 2014. If this is true, then companies such as Apple, RIM, Nokia, etc. will be very happy and should manage to survive this economic recession. In addition, by 2014, 9 of every 10 smartphones will contain some sort of GPS chip, which is a great increase as compared to 1 in every 3 in 2008. GPS chip manufacturers will also be able to survive our economic woes if ABI Research is telling the truth. Senior Analyst, George Perros, had this to say about their study and its results:
Will GPS-enabled smartphones and smartphones alike prosper in the coming years? Only time will tell. Via [BusinessWire] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:28 am VASCO Announces DIGIPASS 855 Strong AuthenticationMultiple authentication functionalities, connected and unconnected user modes and "what you see is what you sign" in one card reader OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. and ZURICH, Switzerland, Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:21 am Where the Hell is Matt? The videogame editionRobbo sez, "The viral video phenomenon of 'Where The Hell Is Matt?' - dancing around the globe - has now extended itself into the world(s) of gaming - with hilarious results. I especially loved what the characters do in Second Life." This is totally, absolutely awesome. Where the Hell is Matt? - Team Fortress 2 Style (Thanks, Robbo!)
Source: Boing Boing | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:18 am IT Crowd third season DVD up for pre-order
The IT Crowd, a nerd sitcom from Graham Linehan, the creator of the fantastic Father Ted, has just concluded its third season, and the DVDs are up for pre-order on Amazon. This was the funniest season yet -- the Friendster episode was nothing short of brilliant. The show has hit its stride and is triumphantly stalking the airwaves. Best of all were the shots of the densely decorated set, which was dressed by Boing Boing readers and fans of the show, who sent their favorite nerd memorabilia to the show for inclusion. The actors exist in a cave that is carpeted and wallpapered in awesome geek crap -- what a delight.
Previous DVDs in the series have sported totally badass easter eggs (subtitles in 1337, for example), and I'm sure this one'll be no exception. I can't wait to get mine. The title ships on Mar 16, and it's a region-free disc (yay!).
The IT Crowd: Series 3, The IT Crowd: Series 1-3 Box Set
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:15 am Intel Slashes Processor Prices - Techtree.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:13 am Car dealers left out of Detroit buyouts - Atlanta Journal Constitution
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:09 am SMIC Releases Preliminary Version of Three 65-Nanometer Standard Cell LibrariesSHANGHAI, China, Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:00 am New York's Finest buy NYPD.telNEW YORK, January 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Telnic Limited (http://www.telnic.org), the registry operator for the new .tel top level domain (TLD) today announced that the New York Police Department had purchased its trademark-protected .tel domain name.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:00 am Telecommunications Companies Get Behind .telNEW YORK, January 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Telnic Limited (http://www.telnic.org), the registry operator for the new .tel top level domain (TLD), today announced that a significant number of telecommunications organizations were not only registering their brands for .tel domains but were investigating the .tel as a platform for added-value services themselves. Numerous operators, including fixed-line, mobile or Voice over IP (VoIP) companies, including Orange, Vodafone, Hutchison 3G, T-Mobile, Sprint, Virgin Mobile and Skype, have all supported the new communications-focused .tel TLD by securing their brands. "We'd like to thank those telecommunications providers who've registered their brands for understanding that .tel is not just another top level domain but that instead it provides an innovative and neutral platform for service interoperability," said Khashayar Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic Limited.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:00 am NetMotion Wireless Expands into Europe with Mobile Productivity Software OfferingSEATTLE, Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 7:00 am An Early Look At New Features In OpenOffice.org 3.1ahziem writes "With the final release two months away and an alpha version available, it's time to look at OpenOffice.org 3.1's new features: eye candy, better charts, replying to notes in the margin, overlining, macros in Base, RTL improvements for Arabic and Hebrew, and (believe it or not) better sorting. Download and report any bugs you find."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2009 | 6:46 am Android G2 Photos: Thinner and No Keyboard [Rumor]Here they are: Alleged spy photos of the second generation Android cellphone, the thinner, shinier, and totally lickable T-Mobile G2 made by HTC. It has no keyboard and its back looks...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 6:40 am SCM Microsystems Japan Joins SSFCTOKYO, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SCM Microsystems Japan, Inc., a subsidiary of SCM Microsystems, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 6:30 am How to teach your iPhone custom wordsFROM APPLETELL - Want to teach your iPhone a thing or two? Turns out that currently, there’s only one way to teach your iPhone new words. Sadly, it’s not screaming at it repeatedly, nor is it typing the same words over an over again. No, you’ll have to Google it. Apparently, the only… MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 6:16 am Charge your gadgets with the wrist band portable batterySection: Communications, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Peripherals
Sure, you could plug your cell phone into the wall and charge it - but where’s the fun in that? This “Wrist Band Portable Battery” is designed to charge all your favorite gadgets on the go while making you look undoubtedly super cool (or maybe super dorky) in the process. The wrist band comes packed with lithium-ion batteries and has 7 different adapters to fit all your favorite toys. The wrist charger is available now for around $25. What do you think about these? Would you wear one of these on the regular to keep your gadgets charger, or is it too much? Read: [Chinavasion] Full Story » | Written by Emily Price for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 6:09 am Autonomy Corporation Plc Announces Results for the Fourth Quarter and Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2008CAMBRIDGE, England, January 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- - Record Quarterly and Annual Results Ahead of Expectations With Highest Revenues and Profits in Autonomy's History; Full Year Revenues up 47% to Record $503.2 Million; Full Year Profit From Operations (Adjusted)* up 91% to Record $207.5 Million; Record Operating Margins at 50% in Q4'08 - Autonomy's Fourth Quarter Conference Call Will be Available Live at http://www.autonomy.com on January 21, 2009, at 9:00 a.m.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 21 Jan 2009 | 6:00 am Seagate Firmware Fix Turned Barracudas into Paperweights [Fail]Seagate's SD1A firmware update, meant to fix problems with its Barracuda 7200.11 models, only managed to make things worse—bricking the drives of those who bothered to install it. They've...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 6:00 am IBM sunny about 2009 despite dreary forecasts (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 5:55 am Instinct beats iPhone again: first to go Pink and $99Section: Communications, Cellphones, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile
It would be hard for us to believe there will be an “Instinct 2” or loyal following with this phone, but I am sure there is someone who has been waiting for a pink version of the Sprint touchscreen powerhouse that was pitted against the iPhone in advertisement after advertisement. Anyone out there willing to stand up and tell us how much they love this phone? Product Page [Sprint] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 5:29 am LG’s new TVs claim 1,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio
I’m sure this new TV from LG has excellent picture. It may even have one of the best pictures on the market! But the question is not its absolute quality but its relative quality. How much better is it than a TV half its price? How much benefit is there from having a billion to one contrast ratio, as opposed to a million or ten thousand to one? The same question goes to the Hz issue. Is the human eye even capable of perceiving the benefits? It’s getting out of control, people. Fortunately you and I can let the same suckers pay for 1,000,000,000:1 TVs as pay for $500 ethernet cables. They’re probably going to watch VHS tapes on them anyway. Source: CrunchGear | 21 Jan 2009 | 4:53 am Seagate Firmware Update Bricks 500GB BarracudasVoidsinger writes "The latest firmware updates to correct Seagate woes have created a new debacle. It seems from Seagate forums that there has yet to be a successful update of the 3500320AS models from SD15 to the new SD1A firmware. Add to that the updater updates the firmware of all drives of the same type at once, and you get a meltdown of RAID arrays, and people's backups if they were on the same type of drive. Drives are still flashable though, and Seagate has pulled the update for validation. While it would have been nice of them to validate the firmware beforehand, there is still a little hope that not everyone will lose all of their data."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2009 | 4:37 am PSP phone may be squashedFROM GAMERTELL - Sony Ericsson’s plans to produce a PlayStation branded phone has been shot down by Sony. Sony refuses to let Sony Ericsson use the PlayStation brand for use in cell phones unless it is produced exclusively by Sony. MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 4:29 am Whopper sacrifice campaign ends on Facebook
After more than 233,000 people were de-friended in favor of a Burger King Whopper on Facebook, the application has ended due to privacy issues. This popular application gave users a free Whopper coupon if they dumped ten of their friends. It was an extremely popular campaign and more than 23,000 coupons were given out to users. Burger King used the campaign to appeal to people’s stomachs as well as their senses of humor. When Facebookers would choose the 10 friends to delete in favor of a Whopper, the defriended was sent a humorous notification. The notification let them know that they were ditched in favor of a hamburger. Facebook felt as though the application violated their privacy policy, since typically no type of notification is sent if a person is deleted as a friend. Instead of adjusting the campaign, Burger King decided to end it prior to reaching its promotional limit of 25,000 free Whopper coupons. Currently, Burger King has no future plans to launch any similar campaigns on social networking sites. Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 4:19 am SlideShare Now Lets You Fuse YouTube Into Your Presentations
Back in 2006 when we first introduced SlideShare, we called it a mix between PowerPoint and YouTube. Today, that statement gets even more accurate. SlideShare will now allow users to embed YouTube videos into their Flash-based presentations - an oft-requested feature that has countless potential uses. Users will now be able to include personal introductions to their slideshows, offer video that supports the contents of the rest of the presentation, or (in the case of startup pitches) include demonstrations of a website’s features. In the past users wishing to include video in their presentations have been forced to include links to separate video files, which sort of defeated the point of having a dead-simple way to share PowerPoint presentations. The feature seems to work as advertised, though I have a few gripes. It isn’t currently possible to make a video auto-play (though CEO Rashmi Sinha says this will be coming soon), and users will also have to deal with YouTube’s standard ‘feature’ of linking to a video’s YouTube address whenever you accidentally click outside of the ‘play’ arrow. Other than that, it’s a great addition to the product. We should also note that while this is the first time SlideShare has supported embedded video, the site has allowed users to embed audio alongside their slideshows since 2007. You can check out a sample slideshow with YouTube video embeds below. Last month SlideShare also launched an impressive new cloud-based feature that ties your native PowerPoint client your SlideShare account. Other players in this space include SlideRocket, DocStoc, Scribd, SlideSix, and SlideBoom. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 21 Jan 2009 | 4:00 am Arthritis drug may treat diabetesA Harvard researcher's discovery in a old German medical journal may provide a new, cost-effective way to help treat diabetes. Steven Shoelson found an 1876 article in the journal that suggested the arthritis drug salsalate may help diabetics control their blood sugar, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Shoelson and colleagues at the Joslin Diabetes Center have been testing the anti-inflammatory drug in several small studies of type 2 diabetes and found it significantly lowered spikes in blood sugar.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 Jan 2009 | 3:54 am Like never before, inauguration experienced online (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 3:45 am Facebook’s Big Day: 1.5 Million Obama-Related Status Updates Via CNN
It may be Obama Day today, but it was definitely also Facebook Day - the company had its Facebook Connect service integrated nicely into the live CNN.com coverage of the inauguration. Facebook users could log into Facebook while watching the event, read comments from friends (or anyone) and leave their own. We updated our post at 10:15 PST with some of the user stats sent over by Facebook - over 600,000 status updates had been posted from the live stream by then. We requested updated stat this evening, and got them. Things sure didn’t let up. Since this morning more than 1.5 million status updates have been posted through the feed (there were 200,000 b 8:30 am PST). During the broadcast an average of 4,000 status updates were written every minute, and 8,500 were written every minute during Obama’s speech. That was one hell of an advertisement for Facebook. Nicely done. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 21 Jan 2009 | 3:36 am Internet into overdrive as millions express Obama hopes (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 3:19 am Not your typical e-card: program warns of possible STD
When you see an e-card in your inbox, you are probably expecting the typical messages: Congratulations, Happy Birthday, Thank You, etc. However, a new e-mail notification program is sending out a different kind of message to users: I’m sorry, but you need to get checked for an STD. The program inSPOT is working with several other states and countries to let partners know anonymously that you have been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease. As long as you have their e-mail address, you can send your sexual partners a heads up about their risk of infection without feeling embarrassed about the omission. To send a notification, you can select from one of several different designs. Each card details the STD that the person may have been exposed to and urges the person to go for testing. You can choose to provide your email address or send the notification anonymously. Although the email notification can carry numerous benefits, it does have its drawbacks. For instance, users can log on and send the notifications as a way to play a cruel joke on friends. Also, if it was a casual encounter, you may not know the partner’s e-mail address in order to make the notification. Read [NY Times] Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 3:18 am Women have tougher time staying on trackU.S. researchers say a new study suggests women aren't able to control their brain response to favorite food as easily as men. The U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 21 Jan 2009 | 3:17 am Today on Offworld
Today on Offworld, we rang in the new administration with our vote for gaming's best president: the mech-fighting, West Wing exploding commander in chief of Xbox import rarity Metal Wolf Chaos.
We also saw a number of excellent looking games on the horizon: a WiiWare remake of Edmund McMillan's visceral platformer Meat Boy, Square Enix's troublingly addictive puzzler Yosumin, Jeff Minter's typically psychedelic Xbox Live Arcade remake Gridrunner+++, and, above all else, Arkedo's just-released brilliant looking firework-debris dodging DS arcade shooter Big Bang Mini.
Finally, we heard about a new homebrew creation that uses Wii remotes to teach us how to knit sensible hats and octopus toaster covers, brought down Kyle Gabler's website by downloading his incredible World of Goo soundtrack, and, best of all, re-downloaded area/code entertainment's absolutely fantastic iPhone game Drop7 -- one of my top-most recommended iPhone games released thus far.Source: Boing Boing | 21 Jan 2009 | 3:01 am Today on Offworld
Today on Offworld, we rang in the new administration with our vote for gaming's best president: the mech-fighting, West Wing exploding commander in chief of Xbox import rarity Metal Wolf Chaos. We also saw a number of excellent looking games on the horizon: a WiiWare remake of Edmund McMillan's visceral platformer Meat Boy, Square Enix's troublingly addictive puzzler Yosumin, Jeff Minter's typically psychedelic Xbox Live Arcade remake Gridrunner+++, and, above all else, Arkedo's just-released brilliant looking firework-debris dodging DS arcade shooter Big Bang Mini. Finally, we heard about a new homebrew creation that uses Wii remotes to teach us how to knit sensible hats and octopus toaster covers, brought down Kyle Gabler's website by downloading his incredible World of Goo soundtrack, and, best of all, re-downloaded area/code entertainment's absolutely fantastic iPhone game Drop7 -- one of my top-most recommended iPhone games released thus far. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:38 am Chinese Bathtubs Are Now Bullet and Bomb Proof [Bathtubs]I've finally found a bathtub that'll give me the ultimate peace of mind: A tub that's both bullet and bomb proof. The catch? It's made out of glass, which makes it completely transparent awesome. So...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:30 am Energy Star Program Needs an OverhaulMartin Hellman writes " DeviceGuru.com ran my piece raising questions about the EPA's Energy Star program. For example, an Energy Star compliant TV that claims to draw 0.1 watts in sleep mode appears to do that — but only seems to sleep about 25% of the time that it is 'off.' The other 75% of the time it draws about 20 watts, for an effective sleep power draw from the user's perspective that is 150 times what the manufacturer claims. Based on the observations described, it is also questionable how many PC's really are sleeping when their screens are blank, even if the user has turned sleep mode on. Given the billions of dollars and tons of CO2 that are at stake, this situation demands more attention."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:28 am Satellites, balloons, and math used to count inauguration crowd (CNET)CNET - U.S. President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday in Washington. But the number of people who braved the frigid D.C. weather to watch the historic event could have been anywhere between 800,000 and 3 million, depending on who you talk to.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:23 am To celebrate the Inauguration, Peek device is on sale againSection: Communications, Email / IM, Mobile, Gadgets / Other
The first part of the deal is that if you live anywhere in the country and your house address has “1600” on it, congratulations! You just scored a free Peek. In case you don’t live in a house with the number of 1600, you can score a Peek for $44.44, but hurry, you only have the next 44 hours to get your Peek for free or for $44.44. Unlike the lifetime service deal, you would still have to pay $20 in monthly fees. In case you missed the last Peek deal, you might want to go through with this one. Read [Peek] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:19 am Bing, Bong, the Bush is Gone / 1-20-09: END OF AN ERROR.Boing Boing pal and frequent Boing Boing Video collaborator Eddie Codel is in Washington DC today, and has been videoblogging from the inauguration. Above: He shot this amazing, simple little video of the "helicopter of happiness" carrying George W. Bush and fellow war criminals out of DC, and back to the hell that belched them forth. As I watched Eddie's chopper clip just now, I couldn't help but think of that scene in the Wizard of Oz where the wicked witch zooms off on her broomstick, then everything turns into dancing munchkins and everlasting uptempo musical numbers.* I poked around on YouTube and couldn't find the clip where the witch flies off to screaming violins, but I remember it looking a little like Eddie's video above. I did find the Oz clip that follows, which feels a little like America does tonight, with all the inaugural balls and "END OF AN ERROR"** keggers erupting throughout the land. I suspect the next four years won't quite live up to the massive, collective, candy-colored orgasm of hope we experienced today. But progress, not perfection, is enough for me right now.
Incidentally, Wizard of Oz came out in 1939, in the waning years of our nation's first Great Depression. I don't think the present one's anywhere near over for us. But I hope its ending is as happy as this. * I am not insinuating that Obama is Dorothy, or a friend of Dorothy. Previously: ☛ BB Video: Shepard Fairey and the Obama Poster, on Inauguration Day
Update: Boing Boing commenter THEQUICKBROWNFOX points out that for them, Obama's inauguration ceremony hearkened back to the inauguration speech of Nelson Mandela in 1994. Mandela was, of course, South Africa's first black president, and his ascendance marked the end of apartheid. Link to video of that speech, over at msnbc.com (I couldn't find anything embeddable that included his speech in entirety).
Source: Boing Boing | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:13 am Skipping Your Computer’s Warm-Up Time [The Mossberg Solution]
The time it takes to boot up a computer can be a source of frustration — especially if you’re in a rush and just want to log on, get information and move on with your day. If televisions took as long as PCs take to start working, we’d miss game-winning touchdowns. Slow boot-up times are especially common with the Windows Vista operating system. One way to evade slow boot-up syndrome is to use a special operating environment that performs a handful of basic tasks and works as an alternative to Windows. If installed on your computer, a system like this can start up instantly when you press your PC’s power button — like turning on a TV. Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (PTEC) and DeviceVM Inc. both offer popular quick-start environments. Phoenix offers two solutions, called HyperSpace Dual and HyperSpace Hybrid, for five PC manufacturers, including Lenovo, Toshiba and Acer. DeviceVM’s product, called Splashtop, comes preloaded on PCs from Asus, VooDooPC and Lenovo, and each brand calls this feature something different, like “Quick Start” on a Lenovo laptop. I used HyperSpace Hybrid on a Lenovo ThinkPad X301, but didn’t get a chance to try Splashtop. Closed WindowsIt’s misleading to say that the Phoenix HyperSpace products offer a faster way to start up your computer, because they don’t actually open Windows, which is your computer’s heart and soul. Instead, they offer a primitive, bare-bones user interface that relies on Web-based applications. For example, you can send and receive email, but only by using a Web-based email program like Gmail or Hotmail. Documents must be created using a program like Google Docs, and when you watch videos, you must use a player like YouTube rather than something like Windows Media Player or QuickTime. Photos can be viewed either via a photo Web site like Flickr or in the HyperSpace browser. Nothing like Word or PowerPoint is available in this slimmed-down environment. HyperSpace Dual, which costs $40 a year or $100 for three years, operates only one environment or the other (Windows or HyperSpace) at a time and must shut one system down to start the other. HyperSpace Hybrid costs $60 annually or $150 for three years and can run both Windows and HyperSpace side by side. Hybrid users can easily toggle back and forth between systems by pressing the F4 key. If your PC meets the required specifications, you can download a 21-day free trial of HyperSpace Dual or Hybrid from HyperSpace.com. (DeviceVM’s Splashtop doesn’t run side-by-side with Windows, so is more comparable to HyperSpace Dual. But it does have features that are currently missing in both versions of HyperSpace, including a music player, photo manager, Skype and an instant-messaging program that works with popular IM services.) Though Windows exists on the same machine, its contents aren’t capable of synchronizing with the Phoenix quick-start system. So if I wrote and saved a draft of this column in Windows, and opened HyperSpace on my laptop a few days later, I wouldn’t be able to see my column or any other files on the Windows side. And browser bookmarks don’t synchronize with the HyperSpace browser. In HyperSpace Hybrid, you can download files from the Web, like photos from Flickr, and save them to a My Documents folder. Confusingly, this has nothing to do with the My Documents folder on the Windows side, and Windows can’t view those files. But anything I download to HyperSpace Hybrid (not HyperSpace Dual) can be transferred to and opened in Windows by clicking an option that says “Open in Windows.” This is essentially using Windows as a viewer. Using Less PowerIn addition to zippy start times, Phoenix claims that its quick-start environment doesn’t use as much power as a full operating system like Windows. According to the company, both versions of HyperSpace are capable of improving a machine’s battery life by up to 30% because while HyperSpace is working, Windows is automatically set into sleep mode, fewer things are happening in HyperSpace compared with Windows, and the processor is operating at a lower speed. Before I could download HyperSpace, I had to make some adjustments to the laptop’s internal startup system, or BIOS, which I did without much trouble by following some clear directions from HyperSpace’s Web page. I also had to change my hard-disk partition to allow for more room so that HyperSpace would fit. When I finally installed HyperSpace Hybrid, its wireless Internet didn’t work at all, and it also shut down the wireless capability on the Windows Vista side of my machine. Phoenix Technologies said these were special circumstances related to my laptop, and that not everyone would have the same experience I did. Links to Web AppsThe HyperSpace environment has a left-side panel filled with icons that link to Web-based applications like Facebook, Flickr, Amazon (AMZN) and Gmail. It seems odd that a subscription program comes loaded with what could be seen as advertisements. What’s more, none of these widgets can be removed or repositioned in the panel. And users can’t add their own icons linking to Web sites that they like. In March, the company says an updated version of HyperSpace will be able to synchronize some information between Windows and HyperSpace, like Internet Explorer favorites, and it will include built-in players for DVDs and music, as well as games like Sudoku. The new version also will let people plug a digital camera into their HyperSpace Hybrid PC to view and save photos; now, USB ports are turned off in Hybrid to save battery life, disallowing digital-photo uploads. If you dread the time-sucking process of booting up your PC just to do a quick Internet search, you might want to try downloading HyperSpace. But the confusing installation process might persuade average computer users to get a laptop with a pre-installed quick-start program or suffer with slow boot times. Edited By Walter S. Mossberg
Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:10 am Dude's Ripped-Off Arm Replaced With Realistic Prototype Bionic I-Limb [Video]One day while riding in his friend's car, Evan Reynolds' arm got ripped off, and he became one of the first people to score a fully functioning Luke-Skywalker-style robotic I-Limb from Touch Bionics....Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 2:00 am RAM-Shaped USB Flash Drive Reaches For The Next Level [Usb Ram]In the hierarchy of memory types, RAM ranks higher (faster, closer to the processor) than hard drives, but lower than L2 cache. This Segon USB flash drive thinks it's better than itself. It comes in...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 1:34 am Cost-cutting Google scraps newspaper ad program (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 1:29 am The new Downadup worm has affected millions of PCs
A new virus, Downadup, is spreading across the virtual community like wildfire and has already affected millions of PCs. To spread the virus, hackers are directing traffic to bogus Barack Obama websites. The worm originated back in October and was then known as Conficker. According to analysts, the worm has reemerged and has wreaked havoc on more than 3.5 million computers in under 24 hours. It has been renamed Downadup and consists of a network of worms that can prove difficult to remove, especially if a network of computers become infected. The way that it works is it becomes part of MS Windows services.exe, and then establishes an HTTP server from the infected PC. In order to spread the worm, hackers are using the inauguration to generate visitors to fake websites. Spam emails have been sent in order to get users to visit these malware producing sites. In order to protect against Downadup, computer users should have an updated version of anti-virus software installed. Also, installing Microsoft updates and patches can help avoid infection with the worm. You can also receive advice from the F-Secure website on how to stay protected. Read [Top Tech News] Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 1:14 am 100% recycled materials backpack looks squarey but nice
Not only are you getting a feel-good recycled bag, but part of the price is donated to American Forests, so you’ll be planting trees as well. [Via Treehugger and Ecopreneurist] Source: CrunchGear | 21 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Accelerometer-Equipped Cock Ring Counts How Many Boinks It Takes To Reach Female Disappointment (NSFW) [Nsfw]One? Two-hoo? Threeee? Three. Sigh. [Product Page via Shiny Shiny]Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 1:00 am Patrick Farley sums up the Bush Era: "All Circuses and No BreadAs Stefan says, "This is breathtaking.""Trying to explain what was wrong with the Bush Era feels like trying to vomit up a cannonball. I don't think my jaw can stretch that wide.Patrick Farley sums up the Bush Era: "All Circuses and No Bread" Source: Boing Boing | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:54 am Nokia Tumbles Pre-Earnings; Estimates Falling [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Nokia (NOK) shares are sagging badly ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report due Thursday morning. Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha this morning cut his 2009 handset industry sell-in forecast to down 10 percent, from down six percent previously. Citing expectations of continued inventory reductions in the industry, he cut his 2009 EPS estimate to 74 euro cents, from 87 cents. For Q4, he now sees the industry selling 319 million units, flat sequentially, but up 10 percent year over year. He expects Nokia’s unit sales in the quarter to be 115 million units, down two percent sequentially and down 14 percent year over year. For the quarter, he sees Nokia posting revenue of 12.9 billion euros and profits of 25 euro cents a share, below the Street at 13 billion and 27 euro cents. Garcha also cut his estimates on Ericsson (ERIC), citing his reduced handset forecast. Source: All Things Digital | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:48 am IBM profit and outlook beats Street projections (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:41 am Inauguration video draws record crowds online (AP)AP - The inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama made for a busy day at the two leading companies that deliver Internet video.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:32 am Apple Counters Secondhand Sales With Discount Refurbished in China [Refurb]Apple's set up an online refurbished discount store in China, lowering prices by up to 22% in order to combat secondhand non-Apple-approved sales going on in the country already. The refurbs, based...Source: Gizmodo | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:30 am Ubuntu Mobile Looks At Qt As GNOME AlternativeDerwent sends along a Computerworld piece which begins: "The Ubuntu Mobile operating system is undergoing its most radical change with a port to the ARM processor for Internet devices and netbooks, and may use Nokia's LGPL Qt development environment as an alternative to GNOME. During a presentation at this year's linux.conf.au conference, Canonical's David Mandala said Ubuntu Mobile has changed a lot over the past year... 'I worked on ARM devices for many years so a full Linux distribution on ARM is exciting,' Mandala said, adding one of the biggest challenges is reminding developers to write applications for 800 by 600 screen resolutions found in smaller devices. 'The standard [resolution] for GNOME [apps] is 800 by 600, but not all apps are. For this reason Ubuntu Mobile uses the GNOME Mobile (Hildon framework) instead of a full GNOME desktop, but since Nokia open sourced Qt under the LGPL it may consider this as an alternative.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:22 am New SSDs by Intel from Kingston
I’m not going to list out all the nitty gritty details, you can just check out the Kingston site for those. I will tell you a few things. They are both 2.5-inch drives utilizing the SATA 3.0Gb/sec interface. The E series boasts high life expectancy and low power consumption while the M series features higher IOPS (input output operations per second) And they feature S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) a technology that will apparently inform you right before the drive dies. These babies aren’t cheap though. They’ll cost around $700-900 each. Ouch. Source: CrunchGear | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:20 am Logitech is the newest victim of the downturned economySection: Tech News, Peripherals, Mice / Keyboards
Logitech announced its third quarterly net profits dropped an astounding 70 percent to $40 million or 22 cents a share. Compared to the prior year, Logitech’s gross margin fell to 29.9 percent in the quarter. The company contributes poor sales, a weak dollar and steep price cuts to their lost of revenue. CEO Gerald Quindlen released a statement that made it clear that the company expects to be hit even harder in the coming months. Besides cutting jobs, the company hopes to generate cash flow from their operations and continue developing new product technologies. Quindlen also stated that he hopes the changes that the company plans to make would help them recover once the economy shifts. Logitech is expected to make most of the job cuts within their fourth quarter, which started this month. Read [CNET] Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:10 am A Closer Look At The Helio That Almost Was
Last month, an eBay auction appeared for a Helio phone that wasn’t supposed to exist. Now, we’d heard whispers of this phone before, but we only really knew two things: 1) It was a Helio-branded and modified version of the Samsung F400, and 2) It was cancelled. Being the fairly obsessed Helio geek that I am, I just had to play with one - but somehow in the stir of craziness that is December, my intent to bid was forgotten, and the device (known only as the A533) slipped from my grasps. My disappointment was colossal - until I found out that the winner of the auction was a close friend of mine. It took a few weeks to work out, but the A533 has now spent a good amount of time in my hands - and in my lightbox. Source: CrunchGear | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:46 pm A Closer Look At The Helio That Almost Was
Last month, an eBay auction appeared for a Helio phone that wasn’t supposed to exist. Now, we’d heard whispers of this phone before, but we only really knew two things: 1) It was a Helio-branded and modified version of the Samsung F400, and 2) It was cancelled. Being the fairly obsessed Helio geek that I am, I just had to play with one - but somehow in the stir of craziness that is December, my intent to bid was forgotten, and the device (known only as the A533) slipped from my grasps. My disappointment was colossal - until I found out that the winner of the auction was a close friend of mine. It took a few weeks to work out, but the A533 has now spent a good amount of time in my hands - and in my lightbox. Want to know more about the Helio phone that almost was, but never will be?
A533 Specs & Facts:
The firmware on this prototype still has some kinks in it, although we believe it was the final build created before the project ended. As such, we’re not going to give it a full review - but we’ll touch on some highlights. Media playback, Slideout Speakers:  The Media browser on the Opus is quite similar to that found on the Helio devices that preceeded it, albeit a bit more polished and seemingly snappier. The video player, which has always been a wee bit lacking on past Helio handsets, is surprisingly capable - our test video was encoded in H.264 at 24fps/512kbps, and it was smooth as butter. The slideout speakers are loud. Really loud. I’m a sucker for loud speakerphones on mobile devices, and these definitely meet the bill. SMS:  Threaded SMS! This would have been the first Helio device with threaded SMS support. UI:  Helio devices all share a common user interface, albeit with slight modifications depending on which OEM software they’re working with. On every device but the earliest, the theme has been a rainbowy smorgasbord of color which we’ve heard referred to more than once as the “Circus” theme by Helio expatriates. On the Opus, it appears they were toying with a much more modern look: glowing blue icons on an all black background. It’s very stealth, and it’s way easier on the eyes. Browser:  The browser found on the Opus seems quite similar to that found on other Helio devices - except that it has tabbed browsing, which was sorely missed in all prior versions. While we may never find out why this project was canned, we’re quite disappointed for Helions everywhere that the Opus will never see the light of day. With a bit of polish on the overall firmware stability, this would have easily taken the throne as the best non-Ocean device Helio ever put in their lineup. Check out all seventeen Opus shots below. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: MobileCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:38 pm Possible Last-Minute Problems With Vista SP2crazyeyes writes "It looks like Microsoft is facing problems with Windows Vista SP2. The final Service Pack for Vista and Server 2008 (before Windows 7 comes out) has been delayed. The folks who broke the launch details and dates of previous Service Packs for XP and Vista have Microsoft's latest internal schedule. Can Microsoft get it out before Windows 7? According to the new schedule, just barely."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:36 pm People Paying Good Money To Cheat Pointless Twitter Competition
Twitter users were asked to nominate others and then vote on the finalists in each category. And apparently the competition for the award, absurdly, has driven some people to buy votes on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The going rate? $0.48 per Tweet. Dan Zarrella noticed and posted the details on his blog. He claims another finalist in the Social Media category, Dan Hollings, was paying Mechanical Turk users $0.48 to create a Twitter account and vote for him. “DO NOT post publically that you are being paid for your work,” he warned. The organizers of the event seem to be discounting the votes, and Hollings has fallen from over 400 votes to just 115 now. This comes on the heels of Belkin paying people 65 cents for good reviews on Amazon, which at least has a clear logic trail (good reviews = more sales). I’m not so sure a Shorty Award is quite so monetizable. One thing to remember with all of these gaming stories is that it isn’t possible to certifiably connect the Mechanical Turk posting to the person. A third party could be doing it to discredit them instead. Only Amazon could verify it by saying who’s doing the paying, and that isn’t likely. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:31 pm Nine Reasons Why Blu-ray Will (Not) Succeed
There's a lengthy article over here written by a well-meaning but perhaps slightly self-deluding Sony apologist, detailing nine reasons why Blu-ray will succeed. It's worth looking at, but it's pretty clearly the view from one side. So check it out and then come back and see if you agree with the following tempering of that laudable but unwarranted optimism.
Source: TechCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:30 pm A Bird’s Eye View Of The Inauguration (First Satellite Image)
No, those aren’t giant ants swarming around the Washington Monument all the way up to the U.S. Capitol Building. This is the first satellite image of the inauguration taken at 11:19 AM EST today by the GeoEye-1 satellite. This is the same satellite that supplies Google with images for Google Maps and Google Earth, so we may see this image show up there one day as well. All those clumps of people in between the Washington Monument and the Capitol are clustered around Jumbotron screens. The image was taken from 423 miles in space and shows objects as small as a half-meter. Click on the image for a larger view. (I had to compress all the images to put them online). That doesn’t look like two million people. Does it? TechCrunch T-shirt to the first reader to accurately count all the ants. Below are two cropped images showing more detail:
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:17 pm Satellite image of inauguration This is a half-meter resolution image of the US Capitol and National Mall taken by the GeoEye-1 satellite this morning during President Obama's inauguration. That sure is a lot of people. 2009 Inaugural Celebration. Washington D.C. National Mall (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!) Source: Boing Boing | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:13 pm Obama's whitehouse.gov nukes 2400-line Bush robots.txt fileYesterday, the robots.txt file for whitehouse.gov had ca. 2400 lines worth of files and directories that search engines were not allowed to index. Today, the file is two lines long: "User-agent: *" and "Disallow: /includes/"User-agent: *The country's new robots.txt file Source: Boing Boing | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:12 pm Lincoln-Douglas Debate audiobook: civics, history and rhetoric lesson in 16 hours I've spent the past week listening to BBC America's 16-hour dramatic reading of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, America's most mythologized political discourse. I've been reading about the Debates since I was a teenager reading Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death (he holds them up as a substantive counterpoint to the soundbite-heavy, content-lite Reagan- I'm glad I did. Not because the Lincoln-Douglas debates live up to the myth (they don't -- and probably nothing could) but because of all the flaws and human foibles they disclose about these two towering orators out of America's past. The recordings are performed by David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck, The Bourne Ultimatum) and Richard Dreyfuss (American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, etc). Strathairn sounds pretty much what you'd expect Lincoln to sound like: folksy, a little unpolished, humble, but sharp. Dreyfuss plays Douglas for a goad, nasal and grandstanding (and judging from the text, this isn't a bad guess at how he must have sounded). (For those of you unfamiliar with the debates: Abraham Lincoln stood as the first-even Republican candidate for the senate, running against Judge Stephen A Douglas, an incumbent from Illinois; they conducted seven debates across the state, focusing on the question of slavery.) The debates start out with Lincoln on the back foot. Douglas has his number, exactly the right combination of insinuation and accusation to get Lincoln frothing and shouting and interrupting, a spectacle that goes on until Lincoln is literally dragged off the stage by his buddies, who audibly mutter warnings about alienating the crowd (stenographers from the Chicago papers got every word). But as the debates wear on, Lincoln manages to get his temper under control and to resist Douglas's provocations, and once he does that, he reveals himself as a swift thinker-on-his-feet, rebutting Douglas smoothly and lucidly, bounding out of his seat when his time starts with absolutely unbeatable logic (he's also funny and sometimes rude, as when he wonders aloud if Douglas has gone insane, or tells a hilarious joke about a fisherman's wife whose drowned husband is dredged up filled with eels) ("Take the eels out and set him again.")
Douglas, by contrast, is so relentlessly, stodgily on-message that it becomes a chore to listen to him, as he repeats his points again and again (and again and again), sometimes word for word. Douglas was the senior politician (Lincoln having only served a single What was surprising to me was how much of the debate hinged on what had been said previously, and where. Lincoln wants to prove that something was said in Congress, but he has to fetch up some gigantic, leatherbound book by stagecoach to the next city in order to prove it. They debate newspaper accounts, times and dates, items from the federal register -- if Google had existed at the time, the debates probably could have been dropped from 16 hours to about three. There's also an enormous amount of attention lavished on what the framers of the constitution meant by "All men are created equal" (specifically, whether black men were part of "all men"). In this regard, the slavery question under debate sounds an awful lot like other constitutional debates, niggling over the meaning and sense of the foundational document of the Republic. But the majority of modern constitutional debate I've been privy to treats the constitution as sacred because it's the rules of the game, the thing you need to agree to in order to be an American. By contrast, Douglas and Lincoln argue about the framers' intent because the framers were infallible geniuses, and if they intended slavery for the union, then slavery it should be. This scriptural debate is almost talmudic in character. The debate progresses by inches (largely thanks to Douglas's stubborn refusal to stop repeating himself), but as it rises and falls, both of the men lose the veneer of civility and resort to the kinds of smears that we're apt to shake our heads at in modern debate, the kind of thing of which we say, "Oh, to have the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and their substantive civility!" But Lincoln and Douglas accuse each other of being liars, oath-breakers, conspirators, and say that their respective views are indications of insanity. And the audience hoots and hollers and cheers them on (thousands of people standing for three hours while Lincoln and Douglas go at it hammer and tongs in the August heat -- it's no wonder that they were glad of a little prurient fire). Douglas's main objection to Lincoln is that he is a radical who wants to end slavery immediately. He claims that all of Lincoln's reasonable middle-ground talk is just code for a revolutionary agenda that he is sure to unleash on the nation, bringing it to the brink of collapse through violent upheaval. In this accusation, it's hard to fault him. (There's plenty else to fault him for -- for one thing, he's clearly working to bring slavery to the whole country, and he's a racist even by the low standards of 1858). And Lincoln? Well, when it comes to race, he's kind of a jerk, though perhaps not compared to many of his contemporaries. He repeatedly affirms that he does not want to end slavery abruptly, but over a gradual process lasting a century or so, fairly compensating slave "owners" for the loss of their "property." And while he speaks of slavery as a great evil, he nevertheless promises that he does not want to give black people citizenship, the vote, or the power to sit on juries or intermarry. He avers that black people are racially inferior, "incapable of self-government," but that they are nevertheless entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This isn't Lincoln the liberator as we know him -- and while many of his contemporaries were worse, there were plenty of comrades in his cause with the courage to speak of true equality. One thing you can say about Lincoln, though: he was a fast learner. Over the seven debates, he gets snappier, more controlled, sharper, while Douglas degenerates into Cheney-esque sour muttering. By the end of things, Lincoln feels like a winner (and despite this, he lost the election!) (but won the next one). BBC America is selling the Lincoln-Douglas debates as a DRM-free MP3 download through Zipidee for $30. This 18 hours is a crash course in rhetoric, politics and history, and I say it's cheap at the price. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (DRM-free MP3 download) Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 on Wikipedia, Lincoln-Douglas debates text on Google Books,
(Image: Lincoln debating douglas.jpg, public domain image from Wikimedia Source: Boing Boing | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:10 pm CNN’s Inauguration Photosynth will blow your mind
You’ve likely seen Photosynth in action before, but reader KSA sent this in and we thought we’d share. Look at all those people! Check it out. Source: CrunchGear | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:07 pm Nine (questionable) reasons why Blu-ray will succeed
Ready? Then let’s begin the deconstruction. Let’s take it step by step. [Note: just so we're clear, I am disagreeing with the points suggested in bold.] 1. Digital downloads will not eliminate the need for discs anytime soon. 2. Having one clear standard is a big advantage. 3. Blu-ray isn’t going to be replaced by another disc format anytime soon. 4. Prices for large-screen HDTVs will continue to drop. 7. Sony will sell lots of PlayStation 3 game consoles. 8. Sony can’t afford to have Blu-ray fail. Don’t get me wrong, I like physical media. I like the boxes, I like the extra stuff, I like the objects. But high-definition video is made for a digital life cycle. It belongs on a hard drive, or in the cloud. I feel differently about e-books, for example; many books and magazines belong on the printed page, although that too is changing. But the optical disc establishment is being torn down and it’s about time. Blu-ray is the last stand and is making a good thing of it, but let’s not be unrealistic in our praise or expectations; why polish the knobs on the Titanic? Why not look towards something new? Source: CrunchGear | 20 Jan 2009 | 11:00 pm Yahoo Live May Live Again As Y!Undead
Now someone is trying to bring back Yahoo Live as an independent service at Y!Undead. There is little information on the site, other than a sentence on the about page saying “From the ashes of Y!Live… [Insert cliché about Phoenix rising etc etc].” We’ve heard speculation that former Yahoo employees who worked on Live are behind the new service. We’re looking into that, and trying to get into the service itself, which is in private beta, to have a look. If you have an account, please let us know. Update: The site now says “1/20/09: Looks like we got TechCrunch’d. Just as a small note– we’re not affiliated with Yahoo or the Yahoo Live service in any meaningful way. We’re working with TokBox to roll out a webcam chat service similar to the likes of what died in December. We’ll keep you posted.” Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 10:54 pm Edible "Intelligent Pills"Ian Lamont sends along a brief note from the Industry Standard about "intelligent" pills that can help doctors record information about drug dosages, heart rate, respiratory rate, and other metrics. The pills, being developed by Proteus Biomedicals, have "digestible sensors" made out of food products and are activated by stomach fluids. A receiver that is similar to a skin patch picks up the data and can be passed on to a 3G mobile network, and from there to hospitals or doctors' offices. According to the Proteus site, the sensors cost a few cents per pill. The devices, currently in clinical trials, made #8 on Wired's list of the top technology breakthroughs of 2008.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 20 Jan 2009 | 10:51 pm Pandora Radio Starts Serving Audio Ads
Pandora Radio, the cool personalized radio station that recommends songs based on its Music Genome Project, has started serving audio ads. The high royalty costs associated with streaming licensed songs seem to have finally caught up to the service, which until now has primarily used image-based advertising. The ads seems to be fairly sparse, but have received enough attention that the company’s official Twitter feed just annouced “So you know, we did not take on audio ads lightly. We try to be extremely respectful of your listening experience, & promise to be prudent.” We’ve confirmed that the ads are appearing on Pandora’s main web-based service, and are trying to find out if the ads will begin appearing on Pandora’s incredibly popular iPhone application, which was the most-downloaded application on the App Store for 2008. The iPhone app launched over the summer without any advertising, and began implementing new image overlay ads in September. This isn’t the first time Pandora has experimented with embedding audio advertising into its streams - in early 2007 the company experimented with some ads that were met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction. Users that are really can’t stand the ads (seriously, they’re not that bad) are invited to sign up for Pandora’s $36/year premium membership.  Thanks to Richard Bowles for the tip. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 10:35 pm “Solve a problem with Windows 7 beta” actually works?
Lately I’ve been using the 64-bit version of Windows 7, and I’ve had almost no problems with it. I have one driver issue, and just one other thing that’s been driving me crazy. I have a Flip Video Ultra. I love it. Problem is, the software that you have to use with it doesn’t work properly with Vista. I’ve upgraded, reinstalled, read support forums, what have you. It just doesn’t work right for me in Vista. Works fine on my wife’s XP machine, luckily, but not on mine. I find this to be very annoying. So today, after shooting some video yesterday, I tried to use the Flip with Windows 7. I was expecting to have problems, so I wasn’t surprised when the software showed no video, despite the fact I can see it when I browse to the camera as a USB device. So I went to the Flip website, downloaded the latest version of the software, and installed it. That’s when I ran into trouble. Every time I tried to install the software, it would crash. I tried two or three times, rebooting, removing the camera and trying to install, etc. And these messages would pop up from the Action Center. And I’d click through them, ignoring them. Until the last time. An issue with the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) client in Windows 7 beta is causing Explorer and some MSI-based installers to stop working properly.To solve this problem, follow these steps:So I did as Windows suggested, laughing softly to myself. “Yeah right,” I think, “Windows is going to provide me with a solution that actually works!” After following the instructions, I fired up the Flip software. And it installed perfectly. Of course, it still doesn’t work right with my camera, just like with Vista, but that’s not the point. Windows provided a timely, contextual, and helpful error message. Along with instructions on how to fix it. Now doesn’t that just blow your mind? Source: CrunchGear | 20 Jan 2009 | 10:33 pm Kiss-O-Meter meant to detect bad breath
Breathing into your cupped hand and then sniffing is an ineffective way to check for bad breath. The Kiss-O-Meter might work better. Brownlee has more over at Boing Boing Gadgets."Kiss-O-Meter gauges halitosis with cute icons and blinking lights" Source: Boing Boing | 20 Jan 2009 | 10:17 pm Get Out of Sprint Freehyades1 writes in to let us know that Sprint has extended to Jan. 31 the time in which subscribers can switch carriers without paying an early termination fee. "Last month we learned that Sprint was increasing its administrative fee to $0.75, giving customers until January 1 of this year to back out without a penalty. It seems that $0.75 wasn't going to cut it as Sprint has raised its fee yet again, this time to $0.99. Customers now have through January 31 to sever ties sans-ETF, so if you missed the boat last month you're in luck. Though some customer care reps apparently aren't yet aware of the change, we did confirm it with Sprint so keep trying and as always, contacting them via chat seems to go a bit more smoothly than calling them up."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 20 Jan 2009 | 10:03 pm Test Drive: 2009 Lincoln MKS AWD
Test Drive is a new series that we’re starting at CrunchGear wherein we get a hands-on look at new or interesting modes of transportation. It’s not limited to just cars, either. We’ll take a look at just about anything from scooters to rockets and everything in between. This ain’t your daddy’s Lincoln Town Car. In fact, it’s completely different than anything you’ve ever seen before. With balls to the wall power and a teeth shattering sound system, the MKS from Lincoln is a whole other beast. And I like it. Like our other Test Drive features, I won’t get into the gearheadesque details of reviewing a car, but, rather, focus on the technological side of it. I will start with a few notes about how fast it is, though. Flying down Highway 101 at over 100MPH has never been so comfortable and the exact opposite of petrifying. The 3.7-liter Ford Duratec V6 clone musters up 273 ponies and 270 pounds feet of torque. It’s fast and the AWD system ties the beast to the ground. Acceleration is a little wonky when in Standard drive mode. It revved a bit longer than I would have liked and didn’t want to switch gears. But in manual mode, the six-speed Lincoln was a powerhouse off the line. I had no idea how fast I was going on most occasions. How I walked away from my visit to the Bay Area without getting a ticket is beyond me. The interior of the MKS is plush, to say the least. Covered in black leather the driver’s chair (as well as the rest of the cabin) is extremely comfortable and I’d say 90 percent of the comfort factor comes from the electronically adjustable seat. Sure, it does the standard adjustments, but the MKS has an adjustable lumbar support. You can pump it up or down depending on your preference and move it down towards your bum or upper-lower back. Climate control systems are usually pretty featureless, but one aspect of the MKS climate control system stole my heart. I don’t do so well when it’s warm out. I’m not as bad as John Biggs wherein I sweat through my clothing in a matter of seconds, but I heat up pretty quickly. If you suffer from swamp of the ass then the cooling fans located in the bottom and backs of the driver or passenger seat will surely keep your core temperature under control. If you get cold easily you simply need to turn up the seat warmer and vice versa. Three variable levels keep you cool or warm at all times. This just might be my favorite feature in the MKS. Or there’s the shifting headlight system that turns when you turn (while driving). The only downside and maybe this applies to all cars, but I didn’t think the MKS threw out enough light. I felt like I could only see 10 feet in front of me. Like most Ford vehicles, the MKS comes with Sync and it sure made getting around the Bay easy. It comes at a price, though. The Ultimate Package will set you back $5715, but it comes with a ton of goodies like 19-inch rims, dual panel moonroofs, adaptive headlamps (turn when you turn), rear view camera, THX built 5.1 surround sound system and a voice activated navigation system. But I like the time sensitive greeting it gives me when I fire up the MKS. Maybe I haven’t spent enough time with PNDs but after using a TomTom XL the weekend prior to receiving the MKS I have to say that in-car nav systems trump any and all PNDs. That shouldn’t really come as a surprise but you should know that Sync works fantastic. It even recognizes voice commands from those that aren’t native English speakers or those with heavy accents. Of course, you have to speak clearly enough for the sytem to register your command, but I was impressed with how well it worked. The only annoyance is the waiting between commands while the system offers you options. Routing and rerouting were snappy and are displayed beautifully on a big 8-inch touch screen. The British lady crammed into the dash is not annoying or berating like the ones found in PNDs. When you’re roughly one mile from the next turn the display goes split-screen to show you what the exit will look like. If you’ve driven in the Bay or even LA area then you know how complicated some of the on- and off-ramps can be. Needless to say I adored the simplicity and acurateness of the navigation system in the MKS. Sirius satellite radio service as well as Sirius Travel Link is also offered. Travel Link offers pertinent data to your commute like real time traffic info, fuel prices, movie listings, weather, and sports scores. This service will set you back $7/month. The center console offers a USB port and line-in port so you can recharge devices and/or plug in your iPod, Zune or “PlaysForSure” devices. A complete list of supported devices can be found here. Ripping CDs to the built-in Jukebox is simple and whomever had the car before me left plenty of new and great bands to listen to. If memory serves me correctly, it’s a 20GB HDD that cannot be accessed by the owner. Unless you’re one of those nuts that likes to take things apart to see how they work. Controls on the steering allow you to make/receive phone calls, control music playback and activate Sync without ever having to fiddle with touch screen or controls on the dashboard. I did run into a few occassions where you have to tag-team the system from the steering wheel and dashboard to pull up what I needed to see on the display. One of the only issues I encountered with the Sync system was hooking up my iPhone 3G. For some odd reason it wouldn’t play back tracks through the system after having paired the device so I could make hands-free calls. I could search and see my library, but nothing was coming through the speakers. After hooking up another iPhone it started to work again. Not sure what happened there, but it was one of the faulty things I encountered during my review. The only other thing I noticed was that it didn’t list everything that was stored on my iP3G. For example, I have two Nico Vega EPs and only one of the albums would show up. But when I played all tracks in my library the EP that was missing was present in the playlist. Has anyone else encountered this? In case you didn’t know, you can receive text messages while driving and the Sync system reads them aloud if you want it to. There are 15 existing replies you can choose from that makes things easier while you’re driving. The MKS has keyless entry and a push button start. While the car was on I tried walking away with the key fob to see if the car would shut off but nothing happened, but I’d imagine it wouldn’t start if the fob weren’t in the car when started. Understand that I haven’t driven in quite some time so I really liked the rear view camera that appeared when the car was put into Reverse. It displays three stages of closeness denoted by green, red and yellow lines. It beeps like all hell when you’re super close, too. There are also sensors in the front bumper that beep when you or something gets too close to you. Now let’s talk about the first THX 5.1 surround system built for an automobile. Before we get into how it sounds let’s cover the basics. The MKS is equipped with 15 speakers, one 10-inch subwoofer and is powered by a combined 600W amplifier system that’s broken down over 12 individual amplifiers. The highlight of the system for me is the center slot speaker that powers the Razer THX Mako 2.1 system. That one speaker alone pulls the entire system together to make it sound phenomenal. It’s also not as big as the speaker grill would have you think. The Ford engineers just want you to know that there’s a speaker there. The slot speaker only takes up a small section that’s roughly four or five inches by an inch or so. Those measurements aren’t correct but I don’t think they’re far off either. It’s a bassy system and even when the bass is turned all the way down the system had no issues making my brain rattle while listening to Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. That’s not a bad thing but it depends on the type of music you listen to. I like bass, but I realize not everyone else does. You’re also going to need to crank up the volume for it to really bother you, too. Sound quality is top notch and cranking up the volume doesn’t affect that. The THX system offers two Digital Signal Processing modes: Stereo and Surround Sound. Surround Sound was far superior to Stereo mode. One of the drawbacks to raising the volume is that it makes it very hard to hear the nav system give commands. The system automatically cuts out the front speakers while giving directions but when it’s loud the rear speakers overpower the front. So be sure you have a rough idea of where you’re going or simply turn down the volume. As a youth, I was into car stereo systems and having a system like this would have been a dream come true. The overall sound quality is crisp and clear. The AWD MKS was a fun car to drive while I was at home. I know I drove a lot faster and blasted the stereo system louder than I should have, but it sure was fun. It sucks up a lot of gas, though. Estimated EPA is rated at 16MPG/City and 23MPG/Highway. The MKS we tested has an MSRP of $45570. Some of these images were taken while driving so they might be blurry. Source: CrunchGear | 20 Jan 2009 | 9:50 pm UPI NewsTrack Health and Science NewsPeanut butter recall still expanding WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the recall of possibly contaminated peanut butter products has again been expanded. The Kroger Co.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 9:44 pm Plantronics laying off 18% of employees, now!
Source: CrunchGear | 20 Jan 2009 | 9:37 pm Intel Testing Solar Power For Data Centersmiller60 writes "Intel has installed solar panels at a New Mexico facility to test the potential for using photovoltaic solar power in data centers. Solar has proven impractical in data centers thus far for reasons of cost (too high) and capacity (too low). Intel will test the 10-KW solar array with data center containers and as supplemental power for summer capacity challenges, and says the project is a first step toward solar data centers. The project is housed at the New Mexico site of Intel's recent research in air side economizers in data center cooling."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 20 Jan 2009 | 9:16 pm Nederlanders execute plan to resurrect Polaroid film
Of course, how they are planning to make profitable something which brought a major corporation to its knees is another business altogether. Using “optimised components” and a “streamlined modern setup,” I’m guessing they will be delivering a smaller, more high-quality Polaroid-esque camera system along with a “better” integrated film system. It will be back-compatible with older Polaroid cameras, so don’t worry about that part. They’ve also got a 10-year lease on the manufacturing equipment, so at the very least we can expect to see a little more film on the market. A worthy endeavor from every perspective. Source: CrunchGear | 20 Jan 2009 | 9:00 pm Experts Use New Snow Lab To Predict AvalanchesEd Adams, a civil engineering professor used to spend time studying the nature of avalanches after setting them off with dynamite from a nearby shack on a steep slope at Bridger Bowl in Montana.Now, Adams, 58, has traded in his dynamite for a more sophisticated approach: using a $2 million lab aimed at gaining a better understanding of how avalanches occur, and more importantly how to predict them.Based at Montana State University, the so-called Subzero Research Facility was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Murdock Charitable Trust.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 8:55 pm Sniping Could Be the Next Killer iPod AppAn anonymous Coward writes "Knights Armament Corp. who supply sniper rifles to the US military have developed a iPod Touch mounting system and software for the US Army M110 sniper rifle system. The use of off the shelf hardware no doubt cut costs and allowed rapid development of this system." If it automatically played a theme song after every head shot, this would be the coolest rifle accessory ever.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 20 Jan 2009 | 8:31 pm Nature Lead Early Civilization To Leave PeruResearchers say that nature lashed out against civilization 3,600 years ago, by using earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, which drove away residents of an area that is now in Peru."This maritime farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years, they had no incentiveSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 8:12 pm Robot Lamp for dim, robotless rooms
For the room that doesn't have enough robots. Which, let's face it, is basically every room. $30. Robot Lamp [Urban Outfitters via Bot Junkie] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 7:43 pm Changes in Grazing Practices Could Increase Productivity, Fight Climate ChangeA scientist with the World Agroforestry Center called for new grazing practices among farmers as an effective way to fight global climate change while improving farm productivity.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 7:36 pm Another danger for coral health ID'dU.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 7:33 pm Appetite For Reef Fish Devastating Coral TriangleThe growing appetite for live reef fish throughout Southeast Asia is devastating fish populations in the protected Coral Triangle, which supports 75 percent of the world’s coral species and contains the richest ocean diversity anywhere on the globe. Spawning of reef fish in this marine area has dropped 79 percent over the past 5 to 20 years, depending on location, according to a recent report in the scientific journal Conservation Biology. Overfishing, especially of spawning aggregations that occur when some species of reef fish congregate in great numbers in one place to reproduce, may be the underlying reason, said Yvonne Sadovy, a biologist at the University of Hong Kong. Sadovy co-wrote the report along with scientists from Australia, the United States, Hong Kong and Palau.The report’s conclusions were based on the first global database on the occurrence, history and management of spawning aggregations, she said. The report includes data from 29 countries or territories along with interviews with more than 300 commercial and subsistence fishers in Asia and the western Pacific from 2002 to 2006.“The Coral Triangle has relatively few spawning aggregations reported in the communities we went to,” Dr.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 7:30 pm SRS launches TruMedia in hopes of improving cell phone audio
Yeah, this definitely isn’t the first time we’ve heard an audio company promising that they’re going to blow your face off with the audio quality improvements they’re bringing to your cell phone. Hell, it’s probably not even the fifth. Regardless, SRS has just announced TruMedia, a fancypants new sound engine for mobile handsets. According to the announcement, TruMedia should be just the fix needed for everyone looking to rock out to some 5.1 audio on the go. Even if it doesn’t make your media sound like it was being played live by the original artists in your head, they’re hoping to improve call quality as well. If SRS’ system detects a noisy environment, it’ll crank up the volume on the call while tweaking the sound for maximum clarity. Sounds nice but, again, we’ll wait to give it a proper runthrough before we get too excited. The first off the line with TruMedia enabled handsets will be NEC, who is looking to use the sound suite to provide a “compelling entertainment experience complete with deep rich base!” [sic]. “Deep rich base”? Is that like an underground facility for well-off folk? Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: MobileCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 7:20 pm China to distribute new AIDS drugsChinese health officials said new AIDS drugs will be distributed to combat resistance to first-line anti-retroviral drugs. The Ministry of Health said two new second-line anti-retroviral drugs-- TDF and Kaletra-- will be distributed for free, Xinhua news service reported Tuesday.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 7:08 pm Folding Bicycle Backpack is a cross-country dream
This Folding Bicycle Backpack designed by Bergmonch is undeniably sexy, although it makes me pine for the future, flabbier days of backpackable Segways. Folding Bicycle Backpacks [Bergmoench] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 6:51 pm Lizards evolving to escape fire antsScientists say they've discovered U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 20 Jan 2009 | 6:47 pm Kiss-O-Meter gauges halitosis with cute icons and blinking lights On the average day, I kiss a lot of people. Young, old, it doesn't matter... in the dark. Yet I also suffer from bronchial-searing halitosis.
In truth, this was why I originally purchased my budgerigar, Humbert Humbird: a little buddy to trim my nose hairs and pick the mottled skin off my lips most of the time, but whom also played the role of "canary in the mine shaft." It's Humbert's more sterling qualities of dignity and forbearance that have prevented me from cramming him down past my uvula for a whiff like his predecessors. Thankfully, technology. For only $30 — only a bit more than the price of a budgerigar — you can get a portable Kiss-O-Meter to accurately gauge the stench emanating from the sunken butt of your throat. Kiss-O-Meter [Urban Outfitters via Geeksugar] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 6:42 pm Palm Pre automatically messages others when late for meetings
Another newly announced feature of the upcoming Palm Pre sounds like it could be pretty spiffy, depending on its ability to be controlled by the user: it will automatically send messages to people if you're going to be late to a meeting or appointment. When you're late it — remember, this thing has GPS; it has a clock; and it has your calendar. So it not only knows where you are, it knows where you're supposed to be and when....so when it realizes you're going to be late, it says, 'Hey, not only are you going to be late, but I can take care of it for you. I'll send an email to your assistant or to the people in the meeting, which would you prefer? And oh, by the way, here's the map.' That sounds ostensibly rad, as long as it can be turned off. But Matt Buchanan at Gizmodo — their sinistral but cute-as-a-button ginger — makes an excellent point: The proper way to handle being late is to make it seem like your presence is imminent, no matter how far away you are. Back when I worked at HSBC in Dublin, this tack was the exact method I used to stay at the pub and out of meetings all day long. Why Elevation Partners Invests 425M in Palm [Yahoo Finance] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 6:27 pm Leaked screenshots of Visual Voicemail for the BlackBerry Bold
Whispers of Visual Voicemail coming to the BlackBerry Bold have been lingering for a few weeks now, and now things are about as concrete as they come. Doin’ what they do with their ninja leak squad, BGR has managed to finagle a set of shots detailing the new Visual Voicemail functionality from head to toe. It all seems fairly simple - tapping into any voicemail in the list brings up playback control, while highlighting one and pressing the softkey allows for callback and message management (We’re wondering what that “Forward” option does). AT&T’s Visual Voicemail infrastructure is already in place - now it’s up to RIM and AT&T to get OS 4.6.0.219 rolled out to the masses.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: MobileCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:58 pm Rich meets stupid: ElectroLux Swarovski Vacuum Cleaner
Electrolux has just announced a vacuum cleaner "designed" by the implausibly named Lukasz Mistletoe: its main feature is the ability to instantly Hoover up any of the 3,730 pieces of Swarovski crushed glass that will fall off the side when the glue starts to degrade. ErgoRapido Vacuum Cleaner Encrusted With Swarovski Crystals [Born Rich] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:53 pm Get a Matte Book Pro for $199
The lack of a matte option on the unibody MacBook line continues to elicit protest on the Internet. I used to be a squealing member of this camp, since my reaction to my own reflected physiognomy is Medusa-like, if not in calcification than in nightmarish, shrieking ululation. But it's funny how quickly I became a convert: while the occasional reflection is annoying, ultimately, the colors on the screen really do look a lot better, and the ability to wipe mysterious genetic filth off of the screen with anything on hand can't be underestimated. Glass is great. Regardless, if you still want a matte MacBook Pro screen, Techrestore can hook you up. It's not just a cheap matter overlay: it's a replacement LCD said to be the "same specs" as Apple's. I don't actually think the price is that unreasonable: $199 for the replacement LCD, which seems cheap compared to some of the $500 MacBook paintjobs some companies sell. Matte Screen MacBook Pro [Techrestore via Ars via Crunch] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:40 pm Sun Could Power Arab StatesGulf Arab states should take advantage of solar power, industrialists say.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:30 pm Do ultra-mobile computers need cameras? YES! Jenn of Mid Moves, embarking on a blogging tour using devices like the new OQO model 2+, takes a side in the long-running religious war over whether these things should have world-facing cameras.
I am sitting at a cafe near the entrance of Magic Mountain wishing the OQO Model 2+ I’m typing this on had a camera. And not even a very good one. Just *something* that would allow me to take a quick picture and add it to this post. ... The Model 2+ doesn’t have a memory card slot ... Expect more micro blogging and text-only posts than anything else today. *sigh* Not a good day so far. There's a class of UMPC user who gets offended when this point is made. In that view, wanting a camera on a UMPC is impurely proletarian: why not leave such functions to smartphones such as Apple's iPhone or Sony's Xperia X1? How dare you blog on a handheld computer? It is for work! Screw those guys: the lack of a camera, or at least an SD card slot, is the OQO's principal failing for precisely these reasons. And yes, utilitarian quality is just fine, too! This could be fixed with an accessory, at least for those UMPCs and MIDs that have appropriately located USB ports: a rigid camera, the size of a small thumbdrive, that plugs into the slot. I can't actually find anything like this (they all have long cords and other flaws) -- anyone know where to get one? Do MIDs need cameras? [MID Moves] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:25 pm Natural Disasters Doomed Early CivilizationAncient quakes and floods once pushed people out of what is now Peru.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:22 pm Obama administration takes over Whitehouse.gov
Of note to our readers, the "Technology Agenda" page. An excerpt: • Protect the Openness of the Internet: Support the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet.The whole page could be excerpted, really, and I encourage everyone, especially American citizens, to give it a read. It's broadly encouraging, although it's clear that the most liberal of technoweenies—myself included—aren't going to get every reform we want. Also, as @anildash noted, Whitehouse.gov has a blog! Before and after screenshots by Brian Warren Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:19 pm Super Mario Land etched on an Eee
With the help of NYC Resistor, Flickr user revolvingdork etched the entire world map of Super Mario Land for the Nintendo Gameboy on the case of his Eee netbook. I assume he used a pattern he found on the Internet, but I could probably have managed to do this from memory, given an appropriate, pea-soup-green netbook lying around and a stray etcher. Etching Overview [Flickr via Hack A Day] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 Jan 2009 | 5:16 pm iPhone App Review: Snatch
The concept behind Snatch is simple: the iPhone is basically one big touchpad, so why not put it to work as one? There are two components to the app - a free server, available from Hoofien’s site, and the client, which is the bit you’ll shell out $7.99 for in the App Store. After configuring the server, which is as painless as it could possibly be (just set up a name and password for the session), simply connect your iPhone to your home’s wireless network, input the session data, and away you go. The primary screen looks just like a notebook’s touchpad: a right and left mouse button and a big area for cursor control. There’s also a screen that’s dedicated entirely to scrolling, so there’s no need to worry about fat-fingering a scrollbar along the side of the main touchpad area. A third screen reveals a keyboard, as well as the remote section, which is where Snatch really shines. Snatch allows you to configure up to four separate remote controls to manipulate any program with keymapped functions. You can pick the size, placement, labels, and even colors of as many buttons as you can cram onto the iPhone’s screen. I have remotes set up for VLC and iTunes: combined with an HTPC connected to the TV in the living room, I have all the functionality of a full-featured, dedicated remote for each program, for a full $105 less than Microsoft’s overpriced monstrosity, with a touchpad and tiny keyboard to boot should I get the itch to surf the web from the comfort of the cushions. And, since there’s no IR receiver to fiddle with, I can jump up, hoof it across the frozen wasteland of laminated pine, hop into bed, and have Hulu singing me to sleep within minutes. Forget gaming. Snatch is the sort of thing that puts the iPhone in a class of its own. Get it in the App Store for $7.99. Your toes will thank you. Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies Source: MobileCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 4:52 pm Peek e-mail device selling for $44.44 for 44 hours in honor of the 44th President
I don’t know about you but when I think of the inauguration of our 44th President, I think about the Peek e-mail device. I can’t shake it! It’s all I can see when I close my eyes! Peek knows this and is offering the device for $44.44 for the next 44 hours in honor of the 44th President, Barack Obama. Wait! There’s more! Read the rest of this entry >> Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: MobileCrunch | 20 Jan 2009 | 4:50 pm BLOG: Change? No Thanks, Say AstronautsAstronauts of the next shuttle mission say they're not eager for change at NASA.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Jan 2009 | 3:56 pm How Did Galileo Do It? Astronomer's DNA May Hold CluesGalileo's DNA may reveal how his vision affected what he saw in space.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Jan 2009 | 3:29 pm Problem Solved: The Best Way to Board a PlaneA physicist calculates the optimal time- and money-saving way to board a plane.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Jan 2009 | 3:10 pm Ozone Levels: Now a Wintertime ConcernThe first-ever ozone alert during winter is noted near a natural gas field in Wyoming.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Jan 2009 | 2:10 pm Coffee Could Fuel You, and Your CarWill used coffee grounds be the next big thing in biofuels?Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 20 Jan 2009 | 2:10 pm
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Until today, we weren’t even aware of the fact that San Francisco startup 
Israeli startup 
In its battle to stay relevant, Sprint is pitching its Samsung Instinct in a new color and at a new price. The fastest-selling EVDO device in Sprint history recently added support for corporate Exchange to the surprise of many. We were surprised in the fact it wasn’t there at launch.
Just several days ago, the Peek was being offered for 
Logitech is the latest company to announce that it’s financially flailing due to the downturned economy. On Monday, the popular tech retailer announced that they need to cut as many as 600 jobs in order to keep afloat during the potentially challenging months ahead.
The floors in my house are incredibly cold this time of year. Being a resident of East Texas, I’m sure there are those who’d hem and haw about how I don’t know what cold is, but I made the unfortunate choice to take up residence in a sixty-year-old house with hardwood floors, and there are days when I consider opening my front door and selling tickets to what could with a minimal amount of labor be transformed into the world’s first residential ice rink. This, combined with the fact that I’m terribly lazy, makes me accept any tool which allows me to keep my feet off my frigid floor with open arms. In short, I am the person Hoofien had in mind when they designed Snatch.
