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Windows 7 Release Candidate to get a May 2009 public release?Section: Computers, Software / Applications
While the Release Candidate is certainly not the final version, I am excited to see it run. I have been using the public beta (build 7000) for a while now and have a very good experience overall. Also, for those keeping track, the latest version of Windows 7 is build 7061, which was released on March 11, 2009. Additionally, it looks like a first beta of Office 14 will be available for public testing sometime in early July, with a final release showing up in early 2010. Read [neowin] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Mar 2009 | 4:09 pm Did Bat Hitch a Ride To Space On Discovery?suraj.sun writes "A bat was seen clinging to the external fuel tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery before its launch on Sunday, apparently clung for dear life to the side of the tank as the spaceship lifted off. The shuttle accelerates to an orbital velocity of 17,500 milers per hour, which is 25 times faster than the speed of sound, in just over eight minutes. That's zero to 100 mph in 10 seconds. Did it make it into space? No one knows yet. But photos of Discovery as it cleared the launch tower showed a tiny speck on the side of the tank. When those photos were blown up, it became apparent that the speck was a bat."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2009 | 1:29 pm IBM Is Indeed Eyeing Sun (Finally!) [BoomTown]
About three weeks ago, BoomTown surmised that the they’re-practically-giving-them-away prices for some prime but distressed tech companies–combined with cash hordes by stronger players–would eventually result in some acquisition activity sooner than later. One combination I flagged most prominently, based on several sources, was that IBM would try to grab Sun Microsystems. And today, The Wall Street Journal reported that that was indeed the case. Talks, the story said, were talking place with a premium price of about $6.5 million as a possibility, a 100 percent premium to Sun’s current market valuation. We’re not so sure IBM will pay that much in this market, but it’s a good idea for the pair. Such a deal has been long rumored in Silicon Valley, so I wasn’t the first to suggest such an obvious move and these talks come as a surprise to very few, which would rescue the long-declining Sun and give heft to IBM’s Internet aims. In fact, on February 26th, I wrote:
The other deal I mentioned as a major possibility is also commonly bandied about in Silicon Valley and is considered to be just a matter of time and price: Google (GOOG) buying hot microblogging service, Twitter. Source: All Things Digital | 18 Mar 2009 | 1:00 pm Sun In Talks To Be Acquired By IBMgandhi_2 writes "Sun Microsystems soared in European trading after a report that it was in talks to be acquired by IBM. The Wall Street Journal, quoting "people familiar with the matter," reported Wednesday that International Business Machines was in talks to buy the company for at least $6.5 billion in cash, a premium of more than 100 percent over the company's closing share price Tuesday. Officials of Sun and IBM could not immediately be reached for comment."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 18 Mar 2009 | 12:51 pm Ceramic and Silicone Knives Stay Sharper Longer
This is the Rock-N-Hold knife, a ceramic and silicone construction which has already won a Red Dot design award, despite the fact that it won’t be in shops until later in the year. The knives will come in various sizes (7" and 6" chef, 6" slicer, 5" utility, 5" santoku, 4" utility and 3" paring) but the most important part is that they are sharp. The knife blades are made from the crystalline ceramic, zirconium, and should stay sharp ten times longer than a metal blade. That is, until you drop it onto a tiled floor — we’ll see if the company behind the Rock-N-Hold, Silicone Zone, has licked the problem of brittle ceramic blades. The handle is made from recycled silicone, which will “pamper the most demanding culinary artist." according to the pitch. The real reason for featuring these high tech knives here, though, is the amazing product shot. If ever you are slimed by a black ectoplasmic ghost, you’ll know what to do. Press release [24-7 via Core 77] Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Mar 2009 | 12:46 pm Sun shares soar on report of IBM deal talks
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 Washington Post | Analysis: Apple's iPhone Shows How Upgrades Should Be Done PC Magazine by Sascha Segan Never mind the cut and paste. Never mind the picture messaging, or all the other stuff that should have been in iPhone 1.0. Apple Unveils Hundreds of New Uses for iPhone Apple Raises Its iPhone Ante |
In the opening scenes of Jurassic Park, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill*) uses a computer outdoors. You will, of course, remember the homemade cardboard hood which shields the screen from the sun. A nice, easy hack, although not particularly portable.
Think Tank’s Pixel Sunscreen 2.0 is a hood for your notebook, and is much more suited to grabbing when on the run from a velociraptor. Actually, it’s more of a tiny, mobile office for outdoor use — the shield has holes in the back and sides to run cables, pockets inside for pens and a clip to hold paperwork. The rather goofy looking feature on the right of the picture is an extra fold-out flap for very bright conditions.
Lastly, the whole thing folds flat, although you’ll have to practice. One wrong move and your investment will be useless. The first instruction on the included PDF states:
WARNING! Be sure to fold Pixel Sunscreen properly. Failure to do so may cause irreparable damage and will void warranty.
The Pixel Sunscreen 2.0 costs $70. For that, you could buy a lot of cardboard boxes.
Product page [Think Tank. Thanks, Brian!]
*Full disclosure. I once spent the weekend hanging out on boats and by hotel pools in Monaco with Sam Neill’s daughter. True.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 Times Online | WWF-Canada: Countries at Polar Bear Meeting Keep Climate ... MSNBC TROMSO, NORWAY - A meeting of the parties to the agreement on the conservation on polar bears has excluded NGOs, an Indigenous organization, and other observers from the critical parts of the meeting, the parts that would discuss climate change, ... Polar bears at risk, climate deal needed -Norway Meeting to discuss the endangered Polar Bear |
Presentation buffs can now get their fix when they’re on the move, thanks to the mobile website SlideShare just launched about an hour ago. Simply point your mobile phone browser to m.slideshare.com and you’re good to go.
Note that the mobile version is in beta at this point and was hacked together at Open Hack Day India last month (using Yahoo’s Blueprint platform), so there may still be some technical issues, warns the company.
At the mobile site, you can take a look at the latest, featured and popular presentations if you’re using any smart phone and/or on all phones that have Opera Mini installed, and you can also search for slidedecks. There’s no requirement to download or install software on your phone, and it lets you log in to your account to view your favorite slidedecks and messages from your contacts. Comments are currently not displayed yet, and it doesn’t support upload from mobile phones, but other than that it works like it should; on my iPhone at least.
Update: here’s a short presentation about SlideShare Mobile from … SlideShare
To the best of my knowledge, this is the only mobile website that does this at this point, and considering SlideShare is one of the most popular cloud-based presentation sharing services there’s bound to be a heap of great content you can watch on the go. If there are any others, speak up in comments.
SlideShare’s been doing some cool stuff lately, like launching a free Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 plug-in that allows for one-click publication of your presentations to the cloud, and support for embedding YouTube videos in SlideShare-hosted presentations.
The company is based out of San Francisco and raised over $3 million in capital to date, from VC firm Venrock and a number of prominent angel investors like Dave McClure, Mark Cuban, Saul Klein, Jonathan Abrams, Hal Varian and more.
(Thanks to Christian Heilmann for the tweet tip)
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Google is the most successful advertising company in history. So why is it spending money trying to convince advertisers to spend even more money online?
Google (GOOG), in conjunction with ad agency heavyweight WPP, is plowing $4.6 million into a three-year research program on “how ads in traditional and digital media work together to influence consumer choices”, the WSJ reports.
Translation: Everyone knows that Google’s searchs ads work great when people are searching for stuff. But marketers have yet to be convinced that online ads can help consumers buy stuff they didn’t want, or at least didn’t know they want.
It’s the paradox of online advertising. The Web generates much more sophisticated and accurate tracking data for marketers than traditional advertising ever did. But while an advertiser can’t really be sure exactly how many people saw their TV ad for laundry detergent, many feel more comfortable spending money on a TV campaign than a Web one, because they think they know what they’re getting.
And if Google and WPP can convince them otherwise, they’ll get credit for one of the great campaigns in advertising history.
Fujitsu’s Flepia, the color e-book last seen in testing at an upscale Tokyo restaurant, is now available to buy. Don’t get too excited though — even if you’re in Japan, where the Flepia is on sale, it will cost you a whopping ¥99,750, or just over $1000.
You get a lot for your money, though. The reader has a an 8" screen which displays 260,000 colors, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (b and g), a mini USB port and, most important of all, a touch screen (although it comes with a stylus so we expect that it is a resistive touch screen, not capacitive like the iPhone.)
This is completed by a soft, on-screen keyboard (just like the Kindle should have) and a battery life of 40 hours (continuos use — Fujitsu says 2400 page turns). Books are stored on an SD card and can be bought from the online bookstore Papyless.
Curiously, the Flepia seems to be a kind of tablet/e-book hybrid. Along with the book reading software, the device comes loaded with Windows CE 5, meaning support for e-mail, spreadsheets, web browsing and the like. If you view this as a low powered, long life computer instead of a color e-book reader, it starts to look less expensive. The Flepia will start shipping on April 20th.
It looks like the age of the e-book is finally upon us, the dream of every science fiction writer ever. Next up — flying cars.
Press release [Fujitsu]
See Also:
 Techtree.com | Google Chrome Gets New Beta, Features Techtree.com Google has just released a Beta version of its Google Chrome browser boasting of new features and a considerable speed boost. Wait, didn't Chrome "come out" of beta a few months ago? Google updates Chrome Web browser to boost speeds Google's New Chrome Beta: 'Twice as Fast' |
 Siliconrepublic.com | Sun Shares Jump on IBM Takeover Report New York Times By DAVID JOLLY PARIS &# 151; Sun Microsystems soared in European trading after a report that it was in talks to be acquired by IBM. IBM in talks to buy Sun Microsystems US Stock-Index Futures Decline; IBM Drops, Sun Micro Rallies |
You crash your motorbike and lose a chunk of your finger. What do you do? If you’re Finnish nerd Jerry Jalava, you fashion a prosthetic finger from silicone and install a USB “thumb" drive inside.
That’s not all. Jerry has various operating systems installed on the 2GB drive. He just pops off his finger, jams his digit into a USB port and he can boot into Billix, CouchDBX or Ajatus. And version 2.0 is already in the works: “I’m planning to use the other prosthetic as a shell for the next version, which will have removable fingertip and RFID tag." says Jerry.
USB finger, more details [Protoblogger. Thanks, Annaliza!]
Photos: Jerry Jalava/Flickr
 Post Chronicle | FTC urged to investigate security of Google services NetworkWorld.com By Jeremy Kirk , IDG News Service , 03/18/2009 An online privacy group is calling on the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Google is making deceptive claims over the security of data stored in cloud-computing services such as Gmail and ... FTC questions cloud-computing security Group asks US FTC to probe Google privacy safety |
 ABC News | McCain "Twitterview" not a journalistic high point CNET News by Larry Magid ABC's George Stephanopoulos is an excellent reporter and Senator John McCain has given some great interviews. But while yesterday's "twitterview" may have been a watershed moment for Twitter, it was far from a high point for either ... The Highs and Lows of ABC's 'Twitterview' with McCain Can “twitterviews” grow popular in American journalism? |
When I fed Steinar Birgisson’s iSight fisheye hack into Google Translate. there was bad news: “We are not yet able to translate from Icelandic into English."
Luckily, a picture really is worth a thousand words, and as Steinar chose to do lavishly illustrate his forum posting with step-by-step photos, we don’t need no steenkin one of them.
The ingredients: Apple’s iSight camera. This FireWire webcam seems to have disappeared for the Apple Store, but can still be had from Amazon for anywhere up to $500 (yes, $500). Any webcam should do, though, as long as it is similar in size to the Holga Auxiliary Fish Eye Lens ($80), an add-on for the Holga medium format camera from Lomo.
Take the iSight, slide a roll of insulating tape around the barrel and then slide the lens on top. The whole thing slots together as if designed that way. This is a guess (I don’t speak Icelandic, remember) but it seems likely that Steinar had these thing lying around and one day noticed how well they matched up.
The result is a super wide-angle webcam with the trademark curved distortion of a fisheye. Head to the page to see the results, carefully calibrated using a tape measure. And any Icelanders reading this should feel free to add translations in the comments. And one more thing -- putting any camera lens in front of your built-in webcam will give some interesting results. I tried it with a telephoto and my MacBook's iSight and it beat out the speceial FX in Photo Booth, to be sure.
iSight með FishEye linsu - myndir [Maclantic. Thanks, Steinar!]
Photo: Steinar Birgisson
See Also:
Pictures and rumors of FLEPia, a color ebook mady by Fujitsu, have been floating around the web for around 2 years now. Last October, we saw a working prototype during the CEATEC electronics exhibition in Chiba, Japan and were impressed.
Today, half a year later, Fujitsu announced the release date in Japan and price for the device (press release in English). And it turns out to be a very expensive piece of hardware.
The world’s first color e-paper mobile terminal, as the FLEPia is called by Fujitsu, will carry a price tag of around $1,000. It’s going to be released in Japan on April 20 (in white and black), but Fujitsu hasn’t said anything yet about bringing the FLEPia to other markets as well.
The e-book features an 8-inch XGA touchscreen (260,000 colors), 4GB memory via SD card(storing the equivalent of 5,000 paper-based books), Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, WiFi, and a USB port. Fujitsu promises a battery lifespan of around 40 hours. The Japanese version of the FLEPia is equipped with Windows CE 5.0 so you can work with MS Office documents (Fujitsu explicitly states this is a Japan-only OS).
The FLEPia is sized at 158mm×240mm× 12.5mm (thinnest section: 11.3mm, weight: 385g), while the Kindle 2 measures 203mmx135mmx9mm and weighs 290g (screen size: 6 inches). Fujitsu hopes to sell 50,000 units by 2010.
 Canada.com | Marvel, startup ink online gaming deal Reuters NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Marvel Entertainment and Gazillion Entertainment have struck a licensing deal to develop massively multiplayer online games based on Marvel characters. Marvel, Gaming Startup Join Forces for Online Titles Gazillions Of Gamers? |
Amazon Web Services is discontinuing the Alexa Site Thumbnail service, which has been providing developers with programmatic access to millions of thumbnail images for the home pages of web sites that were stored in Alexa’s index since July 2006. New subscriptions are no longer being accepted, and existing subscribers will only have operational access until June 12, 2009. The service hits the deadpool.
Alexa Site Thumbnail was a paying service (developers were charged $0.0002 / thumbnail URL returned i.e. $0.20 per 1,000 thumbnail URLs) but in an e-mail sent out to developers Amazon admits that it never really took off and that the company will do the smart thing and focus their resources on more popular services.
Update: commenters are pointing to Girafa and PageGlimpse as alternatives.
Dear Alexa Developer,
We are announcing the deprecation of the Alexa Site Thumbnail service as of March 13, 2009. After this date, the service will be closed to new subscriptions.
The Alexa Site Thumbnail service will continue to be operational for existing subscribers for 90 days, until June 12, 2009. Use of the service has been relatively low, and we have decided to focus our resources on more broadly used services in order to provide the greatest benefit to Alexa customers. Thank you for your use of the service. We regret any inconvenience to you.
Thank you,
The Alexa Web Services Team
(Hat tip to Marc Hodgins)
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Earlier this week, Vudu added Pandora as its first web-based music application, using the RIA (Rich Internet Application) platform the company has been working on over the last year.
Adding this app to the most recent ones, including access of Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube and the Vudu box is finally starting to match up in the web app space to competing media entertainment boxes. Most important, it's a good way for the company to keep current owners from moving away to the ton of other web-focused gadgets that are coming out this year. For example, the creators of Chumby recently announced a streaming expansion that also seeks to place Pandora on the big screen.
According to some reports, Vudu will also soon be announcing a streaming video off PC option, pending codec support. This will enable people who've been hoarding illegally downloaded movies for the years to use the elegant Vudu control that everyone loves.
The Pandora app works pretty much the same as the web version, where you can create new stations and adjust them through obsessive thumbs-up and thumbs-down picks. Through the box, the app also supports the management of multiple accounts, which is presumably quite sleek to move between when using the remote.
But despite the fact that an optimized-for-HDTV display Pandora is a cool thing, Pandora comes looking out better than Vudu here, I think. After all, managing Pandora is a one-song-at-a-time exercise and it can be done on a number of platforms, including the iPhone. The Vudu is just one more box they can add to their tally.
For now, getting a nice sound system to go along with Pandora's music selections is probably more important than being able to see it on a 42-incher. If a substantial UI innovation for the web app comes to the Pandora team due to the experience of using it through this set-top box, then this development will grow in relevance. But I doubt it.
Photo: Wired Magazine
The Counting Crows have ended their eighteen-year label relationship with Geffen Records (now part of Universal Music Group), lead singer Adam Duritz says on the band’s website.
Duritz says the band will go it alone, saying “the internet opens a world of limitless possibility, where the only boundaries are the boundaries of your own imagination.” Apparently UMG didn’t approve of breaking down some of those boundaries. Duritz added “Unfortunately, the directions we want to go and the opportunities we want to pursue are often things that our label is simply not allowed to do.”
The band joins Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and others who’s explored releasing music outside of the normal label/distributor world, and more are sure to follow. Labels are pushing all of their artists to sign 360 music deals that give them a cut of every revenue source, as CD sales become increasingly shaky. Without those deals, the labels are unlikely to be able to make much money from even their top artists after 2011 or so.
This trend of big money artists leaving labels to try things on their own is bad news for a music industry that faces falling CD sales, a terrible concert event economy in the short run and a general drying up of venture-backed startups willing to pay exorbitant settlement costs for copyright infringement cases. That’s good news for the rest of us in my opinion - we’re likely to see an explosion of music related innovation in the coming years.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
When she reorganized the Yahoo management ranks three weeks ago, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz left some glaring empty spaces in her management chart, including for a chief financial officer, the top international exec and a new post for some kind of customer advocacy czar.
Here is the chart of direct reports to Bartz with the unfilled-as-yet spaces at Yahoo (YHOO) in it (click on the chart to make it larger):
So, who should get the nod for each?
There are many likely candidates for the CFO role, of course, especially given the person who gets the nod does not have to be an Internet exec and also that there are lots and lots of high-ranking financial folks more available then ever these days.
But Yahoo will probably opt for a CFO who can both weigh in judiciously on how to focus spending going forward at Yahoo (as one person close to the situation said to me: “Yahoo cannot just cut itself to greatness”), as well as be able to make deals.
One of the many names that have popped up as an interesting idea from a source is former Microsoft (MSFT) dealmaker Bruce Jaffe. The former VP of corporate development left the software giant in January of 2008, right before it made its failed bid for Yahoo, and has since worked as an advisor to Glam Media.
As for international, there are lots of potential candidates for that job too, such as London-based Joost CEO Mike Volpi (who is actually always on a lot of Web company job short lists) to the plethora of internationally-focused execs all over the map, so to speak.
But BoomTown is altogether perplexed at who would be good at the customer advocacy job, which sounds kind of squishy and unclear. Is it like a newspaper ombudsman or like the fine folks over at Consumer Reports?
Or is it meant to me someone who looks over all products and services at Yahoo to make sure those creating and tweaking them always has the consumer in mind?
Because, if that’s the case, it seems to me that is Job #1 for Bartz, as well as everyone working at Yahoo.
That said, my personal candidate: Martha Stewart–a closet geek and someone who can tell you when it’s a good thing.
Or not.
Microsoft and its partners are reaping big rewards from the $300 million Windows marketing campaign.
That’s my conclusion after reviewing February U.S. retail PC sales data released by NPD on March 16. Apple’s steep U.S. retail sales declines continued in February, comparatively worse than January’s already dismal showing. Meanwhile, Windows PC sales continued their recent year-over-year growth rally.
The contrast is startling. U.S. retail Windows PC unit sales rose 22 percent year over year in February compared with a 16.7 percent Mac sales decline. By revenue, Windows PCs posted modest 1.4 percent growth, compared with a stunning 23.3 percent Mac revenue decline. It’s not a Mac bloodbath, but massacre.
For the first time in six years, enrollment in computer science programs in the United States increased last year, according to an annual report that tracks trends in the academic discipline.
The revival is significant, according to computer scientists and industry executives, who in the past have pointed to declining numbers of science and engineering students as a canary-in-a-coal-mine indicator warning about the nation’s weakening ability to compete in the global economy.
The number of majors and pre-majors in American computer science programs was up 6.2 percent from 2007, according to the Taulbee Survey, an annual survey conducted by the Computing Research Association following trends in student enrollment, degree production, employment and faculty salaries for computer science, computer engineering and schools of information in the United States and Canada.
For the past five years, John Rennie has braved the towering waves of the North Atlantic Ocean to keep your e-mail coming to you. As chief submersible engineer aboard the Wave Sentinel, part of the fleet operated by U.K.-based undersea installation and maintenance firm Global Marine Systems, Rennie–a congenial, 6′4″, 57-year-old Scotsman–patrols the seas, dispatching a remotely operated submarine deep below the surface to repair undersea cables. The cables, thick as fire hoses and packed with fiber optics, run everywhere along the seafloor, ferrying phone and Web traffic from continent to continent at the speed of light.
The cables regularly fail. On any given day, somewhere in the world there is the nautical equivalent of a hit and run when a cable is torn by fishing nets or sliced by dragging anchors. If the mishap occurs in the Irish Sea, the North Sea or the North Atlantic, Rennie comes in to splice the break together.
Telecom equipment maker Ericsson says the unthinkable is now the possible: 500Mbps transmission speeds over ordinary copper wiring. Looking at the details, though, it’s not clear that the news will give Verizon any reason to rethink its hugely expensive fiber-to-the-home strategy… or that such speeds will be coming to a DSL line near you anytime soon.
DSL, which relies on twisted-pair copper wiring in common usage around the world, suffers from a host of problems as distance increases between the home and the central office with the DSLAM. Crosstalk, the interference that one wire causes on the other wire, increases along with distance, for one thing. Using crosstalk cancellation technology and a short line length of 500m, Ericsson was able to see sustained data transfer rates of just over 0.5Gbps. It’s the latest telecom maker to report the potential for huge speed increases on copper wiring.
In the recent “Games of 2020″ competition, Gamasutra, plus sister websites GameCareerGuide and GameSetWatch challenged readers to envision what kind of video games would be played in the year 2020.
As part of the challenge, the 20 best entries — whether complex, clever, impish, genuine, or anywhere in between — were awarded with All-Access GDC Passes, collectively worth over $40,000.
Entrants were tasked with naming a game that will be popular or cutting-edge tech in 2020. Contestants then needed to describe how the game is controlled, as well as its chief design concepts and innovations.
What the hell is a SyFy?
Our life with cables
The Dell Adamo is finally official
iPhone to finally get cut and paste
iPhone 3.0 wrap-up: Cut and paste, MMS, Push, and more
So what did $1,900 buy? The run-down bungalow had already been stripped of its appliances and wiring by the city’s voracious scrappers. But for Mitch that only added to its appeal, because he now had the opportunity to renovate it with solar heating, solar electricity and low-cost, high-efficiency appliances.For Sale: The $100 House (via Waxy)Buying that first house had a snowball effect. Almost immediately, Mitch and Gina bought two adjacent lots for even less and, with the help of friends and local youngsters, dug in a garden. Then they bought the house next door for $500, reselling it to a pair of local artists for a $50 profit. When they heard about the $100 place down the street, they called their friends Jon and Sarah.
Admittedly, the $100 home needed some work, a hole patched, some windows replaced. But Mitch plans to connect their home to his mini-green grid and a neighborhood is slowly coming together.
Now, three homes and a garden may not sound like much, but others have been quick to see the potential. A group of architects and city planners in Amsterdam started a project called the “Detroit Unreal Estate Agency” and, with Mitch’s help, found a property around the corner. The director of a Dutch museum, Van Abbemuseum, has called it “a new way of shaping the urban environment.” He’s particularly intrigued by the luxury of artists having little to no housing costs. Like the unemployed Chinese factory workers flowing en masse back to their villages, artists in today’s economy need somewhere to flee.
Medical Museum's Flickr streamThis previously unreported archive at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., contains 500,000 scans of unique images so far, with another 225,000 set to be digitized this year.
Mike Rhode, the museum's head archivist, is working to make tens of thousands of those images, which have been buried in the museum's archive, available on Flickr. Working after hours, his team has posted a curated selection of almost 800 photos on the service already, without the express permission of the Army.
"You pay taxes. These are your pictures," Rhode said. "You should be able to see them."
Rare Trove of Army Medical Photos Heads to Flickr
Source: Boing Boing | 18 Mar 2009 | 6:40 am
Editor’s note: The following guest post is written by Angela Benton, founder and Publisher of Black Web 2.0, where it originally appeared.
While working on a follow-up story to the Global Grind celebrity mass that they currently perpetrate as content I came across something much more interesting. The CEO of the company Navarrow Wright is no longer listed on the company About Us page suggesting that Wright and the company have parted ways. A cached version of the page from March 17th at 6:28pm still lists him as CEO so the split was more than likely the result of internal disagreement and definitely abrupt.
This is no surprise especially if you take a look at the direction of the product since Russell Simmons has become more involved in his new role as Editor-in-Chief, which said simply means Simmons leveraging his celeb contacts for content. In most cases to the detriment of the product. My bet is the 2, Wright and Simmons, couldn’t see eye to eye on the direction of the product and what it actually is. I’m calling this more than a hunch since it was clear there was tension between the 2 when they were featured in a video while at NPR studios for an interview in November of last year:
Russell’s need to constantly over talk the CEO and wrongly correct what the product is a number of times is more than enough to prove the working relationship of the 2 wasn’t the best. The bigger question though is now that Wright seems to be out what will Global Grind become? Is it on its way to the deadpool, and will ACCEL lose their $4.5 million investment with media mogul Russell Simmons running this web start-up? Or does Simmons have it in him to rise to the occasion and save the faltering property?
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
My 10-year-old son wanted the chance to walk from our house to soccer practice behind an elementary school about 1/3 mile from our house. He had walked in our neighborhood a number of times with the family and we have driven the route to practice who knows how many times. It was broad daylight - 5:00 pm. I had to be at the field myself 15 minutes after practice started, so I gave him my cell phone and told him I would be there to check that he made it and sent him off. He got 3 blocks and a police car intercepted him. The police came to my house — after I had left — and spoke with my younger children (who were home with Grandma). They then found me at the soccer field and proceeded to tell me how I could be charged with child endangerment. They said they had gotten “hundreds” of calls to 911 about him walking. Now, I know bad things can happen and I wasn’t flippant about letting him go and not checking up, but come on. I live in a small town in Mississippi. To be perfectly honest, I’m much more concerned about letting him attend a birthday party sleepover next Friday, but I’m guessing the police wouldn’t be at my house if I chose to let him go (which I probably won’t).A Mom Lets Her Son Walk to Soccer…And The Police Come Calling
Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon
Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort managed to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.Created by the four students under the guidance of teacher Jordi Fanals Oriol, the budding scientists, all aged 18-19, followed the progress of their balloon using high tech sensors communicating with Google Earth.
Team leader Gerard Marull, 18, said: "We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs, to send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible."
(Image: METEOTEK IES LA BISBAL SCHOOL/BARCROFT MEDIA)
Source: Boing Boing | 18 Mar 2009 | 6:29 am
FROM APPLETELL - If you have an hour and a half to spare, you can now watch today’s iPhone 3.0 presentation at Apple.com. Get to know the new faces of Apple, and get your first peak at the iPhone 3.0 software. MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Business News
If you have ever shopped at Best Buy or looked at their advertisements, you probably know that they will match the price of a local competitor, as long as you show them valid proof. This helps both the company and the consumer, it takes sales away from their competitors, and it may be more convenient for a customer to purchase a specific item at the local Best Buy.
According to a report by HDGuru, several customers have sought a price adjustment only to be denied by employees. The reason they were declined the price adjustment? The competitor store had the sale for a limited time only (3 days) and the employees claimed they do not honor limited times sales. The interesting thing is, if you take a look at the graphic, nowhere does it specify limited time offers aren’t honored. If you think about it, most amazing deals are limited time offers. If the price difference is only a few bucks, then people aren’t likely to even attempt to ask for a price adjustment, but when there is a significant deal going on, chances are it’s a limited time offer.
This ordeal doesn’t end here, however. An unnamed Best Buy source claims that employees were denying price adjustments because they received orders from higher management. In today’s economy, many companies are doing everything that they can to save money (even if executives are receiving insane bonus payments). If not honoring price adjustments means saving several thousand dollars and keeps jobs, then Best Buy will do that. Whether or not this anonymous source is telling the truth or not remains to be seen.
If any other developments surface about this, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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Valedictocracy n. Obama's America, a nation run by onetime high school valedictorians and Ivy Leaguers. Columnist David Brooks coined the term in praise of the administration's elitism, but some are wary of a White House staffed with wonkish "Obamatrons."
Self-embedding disorder n. A disturbing trend among teenagers involving the insertion of small objects under the skin for self-injury. Radiologists have found needles, paper clips, and glass embedded in the fingers and necks of patients.
ISS Toolbag n. Amateur astronomers' nickname for the $100,000 repair kit that Endeavour astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost on a spacewalk. Last seen orbiting Earth, the bag became a favorite target for satellite watchers.
Chemistrode n. Just as a microelectrode measures electrical signals, a chemistrode tracks chemical signals—hormones, for example—between living cells. The instrument promises to shed new light on fields like neurology and endocrinology.
— Jonathon Keats jargon@wired.com
1931: The first practical, electric shavers go on sale. They're definitely a cut above their clumsy predecessors.
The gizmos were the brainchild of Jacob Schick. He served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War and after. Schick developed dysentery in the tropics, and after a yearlong recovery, the Army transferred him to Alaska for his health.
Schick was a key member of the team that strung more than a thousand miles of military telegraph lines into the harsh Alaskan interior. He also designed the General Jacobs Boat, for use in shallow water.
After retiring from the Army in 1910, Schick explored for gold in Alaska and British Columbia. He liked the adventure but hated shaving in the 40-below weather. (At that exact temp, BTW, it doesn't matter whether the weather is measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit.)
When he broke his ankle and had to stay in camp to recuperate, Schick set his mind to devising a more comfortable way to shave. He devised rough plans, so to speak, for a shaving head at the end of a flexible cable that was powered by an external motor. He sent the idea to manufacturers, and they quickly rejected the idea.
Schick returned to active duty when the United States entered World War I. As a lieutenant colonel, he headed the Army's intelligence and criminal-investigation unit in England.
After the war, he wanted to improve and market his electric shaver invention, but needed capital. So he applied the concept of the ammunition clip to the razor with the Magazine Repeating Razor. It was a forerunner of the injector razor: You could load and unload the blade without risk of cutting your fingers.
He sold that business off to return to the electric shaver. With exquisite timing, he put his first electric shavers on the market in 1929, just in time for the stock market collapse and ensuing Great Depression. The early models didn't sell well. The design was still a clumsy contraption with a heavy motor connected by a metal cable to the reciprocating shaving head.
Business was so bad that the Schicks had to mortgage their home to get money to keep the company going. But Schick figured out how to make his product a success by making it handy.
He got rid of the flexible cable and put a small electric motor inside the same unit as the shaving head. The entire apparatus was encased in sleek, black bakelite and fit comfortably in your hand. An electric appliance cord supplied power to the motor, which had to be kick-started by a turn-wheel switch on the unit.
Schick set up a factory in Stamford, Connecticut. The new model went on sale in New York City on March 18, 1931.
They sold for $25 each (that's about $350 in today's money). About 3,000 moved the first year, and sales increased until 1.5 million were in users' hands by 1937.
Despite early claims, they didn't shave closer than a wet steel blade, but the shavers were convenient. And when you factor in the cost of blades, shaving cream and other appurtenances needed for a wet shave, fans didn't think it seemed so expensive after all. Especially when prices dropped as competitors like Remington, Sunbeam, Philips, Zenith and even Gillette got in on the market.
Schick got rich and retired to Canada. But his lingering health problems caught up with him, and he died in 1937. He said the lifespan of a man who shaved correctly every day would be 120 — he lived less than half that time.
Source: Electric Shaver Page
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.The National Museum of Health and Medicine is bringing its dramatic photographic history of medicine to the public by scanning its images and uploading them to Flickr. We've selected some of our favorites from the World War II collection here, including the X-ray of a fatal bullet wound and a flyer warning against venereal disease.
This previously unpublicized effort to bring publicly owned photos to light has already yielded a curated collection of 800 images, and a half million more have been scanned so far. Public access to an archive like this one is a rarity. Click through the gallery to sample our favorite selections.
Left: To ward off malaria, a pipe-smoking GI sprays the interior of an Italian house with 10 percent DDT and kerosene. 32nd Field Hospital, Unit B Installation. Feb. 26, 1945.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.Woman's leg carries a trap holding healthy typhus lice for further testing. She was given extra rations during this wartime experiment.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.This X-ray shows the skull of a man wounded while heating a .50 caliber incendiary round with a blowtorch while manufacturing an ashtray. The entrance wound is just below the right eyebrow, and the round can be seen lodged at the base of his skull. Eleven days after the accident, the patient began hemorrhaging. Blood flow was so profuse it was impossible to carry out emergency procedures, and the man died. 4th General Hospital.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.This blood transfusion set was captured from the Japanese.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.This World War II-era venereal-disease–prevention poster was drawn by editorial cartoonist C.D. Batchelor for the American Social Hygiene Association.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.GIs suffering from trench foot exercise at a base hospital in France, under the supervision of Capt. Edward Bendittz of Worcester, Massachusetts, and 1st Lt. Muriel Woolhouse of St. Paul, Minnesota. March 3, 1945.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.This blood-plasma bank and first-aid station was on the Pacific island of Tarawa.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.Atabrine is the trade name for the anti-malaria drug Quinacrine used during World War II. This sign was posted at the 363rd Station Hospital.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.This patient is being treated for gas gangrene. Photographed by the 21st Signal Service Corps, Fort Pepperell, Newfoundland. June 21, 1943.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.A C-46 transport plane flies a medical-evacuation mission from the Philippines.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.Doctors perform brain surgery in a mobile hospital on Biak Island, Dutch New Guinea. The doctors are Capt. Bernard Sollard of Baltimore and Capt. Sidney Kahn of Chicago. They are assisted by PFC Gregory A. Mattio of Walsenburg, Colorado. June 16, 1944.
: Photo: Otis Historical Archives/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.These posters from the European theater helped train GIs to recognizes poison gases. The guy on the left bears a passing resemblance to Mussolini.
Online document sharing site Scribd has announced that it has partnered with a number of major publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Workman Publishing Co., Berrett-Koehler, Thomas Nelson, and Manning Publications, to legally offer some of their content to Scribd’s community free of charge. Publishers have begun to add an array of content to Scribd’s library, including full-length novels as well as briefer teaser excerpts.
Offering book excerpts to entice readers is nothing new - Amazon and Google have been doing this for years, and Amazon’s Kindle allows readers to download book samples to their devices for free. But these options aren’t conducive to sharing content that you’ve discovered on the web, as they don’t allow your to embed them in your blogs and websites. Scribd’s iPaper Flash document viewer is built to do exactly this, so inserting a book excerpt into a blog or even an author’s site is easy.
Authors also benefit from increased exposure on Scribd itself, which sees a monthly readership totaling as high as 50 million. Authors can also expose their work to a much broader demographic - for example, author Tess Gerritsen, whose largest audience has historically been women in their 40s and 50s, was able to attract a younger readership when she temporarily posted her novel “The Surgeon”.
Scribd has actually been posting both full text and excerpts of books from some of these publishers for a few months now as they conducted trial tests. The fact that they’re now publicly endorsing the platform seems to indicate that they’re pleased with the results, and I won’t be surprised if we start seeing more publishers sign on. Also worth noting is that this announcement stands in stark contrast to the accusations of Scribd’s willingness to host pirated content - I doubt many publishers would be willing to partner with the site if they thought it was wrought with piracy.
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MySpace has just released a major upgrade for MySpaceID, its product that allows users to sign in to third party sites with their MySpace credentials to import their social graphs and profile information into these third party services. The update addresses many of the features MySpaceID has lacked since it first launched last June, including the ability to syndicate activity feed items from MySpace to third party sites (the ability to send activity items in the opposite direction is coming soon). The new upgrade also incorporates a combination of the OAuth and OpenID authentication systems, allowing users to sign in to external sites using their MySpace credentials.
MySpaceID is comparable to Facebook Connect, allowing users to tap into the data stored on the social network for use on external sites. Its biggest selling point over Facebook is that it is built on the open stack, incorporating OpenSocial, OpenID, and OAuth (in contrast, Facebook Connect is a proprietary system, which makes some developers uneasy).
The upgrades are sure to be a welcome addition to the product, but I can’t help but wonder if MySpace has already missed the boat on this one. Despite announcing its Facebook Connect product a day after MySpace first announced MySpaceID (which was formerly called Data Availability), Facebook still beat MySpace to the punch by months, rolling out Connect in early December. Reception has generally been very positive, with Facebook Connect now supported by a number of popular iPhone applications and thousands of websites. From a more anecdotal perspective, there has been much talk at SXSW about the possibility of Facebook becoming the de facto login standard around the web (a thought that some people are opposed to if the social network doesn’t make good on its promise to become more open). Number of times I’ve heard talk of MySpace becoming the dominant force on the web? Not once.
But all is not lost for MySpace by any means. Yahoo is currently bucket-testing its new homepage, which includes MySpaceID functionality as a featured item in its sidebar (you can see a screenshot below). We haven’t heard when the new page will roll out to everyone, but given that Yahoo’s homepage sees 82 million users a day, it’s sure to provide a big boost to takeup of MySpaceID. MySpace may also be able to make up ground if it can work its media offerings like MySpace Music, which Facebook has been unable to compete with, into MySpaceID.
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Section: Computers, Security, Web, Websites
Harvard University and Consumer Reports have joined together to create a web community dedicated to providing information and support to consumers regarding malware, spyware, adware, and malicious websites.
The site, a joint effort of Harvard’s Berkman Center and Consumer Reports’ Webwatch, is called BadwareBusters.org. The site administrators say they want BadwareBusters to be the first stop for anyone who’s been victimized by malicious software, had their computers or sites hacked, or had a site flagged as suspicious by Google.
Now I’ve been to the site and so far I’m impressed. This is something the web really needs. When a person finds their computers or websites infected with a malicious program, their first instinct is usually to do a Google search. While this can be helpful, it can also add to their confusion as it usually brings up a huge amount of info, some of it conflicting, some written in technical language average consumers may not be able to understand, and some just plain dangerous.
Not long ago I had a technical issue with my computer involving a buggy software installation. The first site that came up in Google’s search results advised that the only solution was a complete wipe of the registry! Now anyone that knows anything about the Windows registry knows you don’t touch it unless you really really know what you’re doing. (By the way it turned out all I really needed to do was download a patch from the software’s developers!) Someone could really have done irreparable damage to their system if they followed that site’s recommendation.
BadwareBusters.org could become a valuable tool in the fight against scammers and spammers on the net. With a comprehensive, reliable, and up to date collection of information in one place, consumers will have safe place to get help instead of having to navigate a collection of search results that may lead nowhere.
Have you ever had a run in with malware and/or a malicious site? Would a site like BadwareBusters have helped? Please leave a comment and share your story!
Read [PCWorld]
The crew just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe St. Patrick’s day before we go off to get you an exclusive review of some delicious lager. Drink responsibly, and try to talk about something other than iPhones. I’ve got Apple-induced nausea at the moment, and the only prescription is spicy ramen, green beer, and company.
Martin Luther must be turning in his grave. He was able to fight the Roman Catholic Church over indulgences and managed to avoid being burned at the stake. But Luther didn’t face an even greater enemy: the Internet.
Enter Information Age Prayer, a new web service that lets you pay for computer prayers. The company uses “the latest technology in text-to-speech synthesizers” to read aloud your typed prayers “at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying.”
In other words, forget praying. Just pay them to do it.
IAP isn’t just for the Jesus followers out there, either. In addition to serving Protestants and Catholics, prayers for Jews, Muslims, “unaffiliated” and “other” are also available. There’s a special on Hail Mary prayers, just $0.07 each. There’s also a handy prayer for financial help (see image below).
The end, finally, is nigh. As I suspected, it was the Internet that did it.
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Section: Communications, Accessories, Gadgets / Other, Green, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Features, Originals
Who says it’s not easy being green? With these five fun gadgets…being green has never been quite so red hot!
This one might be handy to have around for those times out hiking or bike riding when you can’t exactly plug in your charger in the nearest tree to charge up. The solar cell strap from Strap Ya runs (obviously enough) on solar power. It features a tiny solar cell, that allows the sun’s power to charge your phone. Of course it doesn’t give you the same jump as a real charger, and you won’t get indefinite talktime, but for a some extra boost, it’s not bad. It can be charged 500 times, and if it’s cloudy or dark out, you can even use the included AC adapter. (Though that kind of defeats the “green” point of the thing).
Talk about green! You can save on gas and get your exercise all in one shot. Puma has a glow in the dark bike that helps make sure you are seen in those short daylight hours. You can pick from two color choices—cream to green, or deep to a golden orange. Either way, you are bound to make quite the statement as you ride. The Glow Rider has one gear, an integrated wire lock system, disc brakes, a carbon steel chain, and andonized silver alloy rims from Jalco. Not too shabby. It’s also foldable. Besides glowing (it helps if you leave it out all day first), it does still come with regular head and back lights. Be gone ugly safety vests!
Ummm, all I can say is, huh. I’m not sure what to say. I just had to include this one just to share. I mean, the fact that they are actually selling a Goblin car. Wow. It just looks like something those little dudes from the Wizard of Oz would drive around on the Yellow Brick Road. But hey! I bet it does indeed save on gas and help the environment, so kudos for that. So, if you want to get your very own GoblinAero High MPG Vehicle, you can get more information about it here. You can pick one up for about $6,000. They just became available last month.
Nope, it isn’t the height of feng-shui. But, it is pretty darn environmentally friendly. What it lacks in style it makes up for in basic green functionality. That tube looking thing poking out of the side is actually the “battery.“ When it runs out, you just go to the sink and fill it up again with plain old water. Each refill lasts about three months. Besides telling the time and date, as well as having an alarm, this clock also tells you the temperature, and has a gravity sensor. When you want to change from the date/time to temperature, you just change the clock’s position. And hey, since it is recyclable, no more buying batteries!
Ok, so this one isn’t really out there for purchase (yet). I found it on a site for a gadget design contest, and could see the humor yet brilliance behind it too. The guy who designed the Guilty Wallet had the concept that even years from now, despite all the efforts of trying to “go green” our landfills would just then be filled up with tons and tons of green gadgets. We weren’t really getting to the root of the problem, which in his mind was overspending and buying a bunch of stuff we don’t really need. So, he came up with all these different little techie wallets that each represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins and make those overindulgent shopping sprees just a little more difficult to carry out. You can see his designs and more about how they work here.
So, there you have it. Five gadgets to help you get your green on!
Full Story » | Written by Jodie Andrefski for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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Asus has made a name for itself as the hot manufacturer of netbooks, the increasingly popular, tiny laptops that cost around $300. But the company isn’t stopping there.
This week, I tested Asus’s (usa.asus.com) first entry into the all-in-one PC category: the Eee Top. All-in-one computers like Apple Inc.’s iMac save space by building in a computer’s guts, speakers and disk drive directly behind the monitor, and they’re typically more expensive than separate computer towers and monitors. But Asus’s Eee Top costs $600, half the cost of the least expensive iMac or Hewlett-Packard’s all-in-one HP TouchSmart.
Like the TouchSmart, the Eee Top has a touch screen and runs its own software to make its touch features more usable, like large icons and menus that get pulled onto the screen with swiping gestures. But it’s a lot smaller than the $1,200 HP TouchSmart — about a third of the HP’s size.
This computer would fit well in many kitchens and its small footprint — 1.67 inches deep — means it won’t take up valuable counter space and could easily be stored out of the way. But its touch-friendly software lacks tools for scheduling and isn’t customizable; instead, it uses preloaded icons that can’t be changed. And some of the Taiwanese company’s Asian influence shines through in menu titles that seem to have been lost in translation. Who knew you could find music and photos in a category called “Eee Cinema”? Still, as a secondary PC for the kitchen or a kid’s room, this all-in-one fits the bill.
The Eee Top is head turner. Its 15.6-inch, resistive touch LCD screen, though small, appears to be hovering on the countertop thanks to a clear, plastic stand. It comes in black or white and has a wired mouse and keyboard. The keyboard tucks snugly into a holder behind the screen when not in use, and I kept it there for most of my time with it. A handle on the back of the Eee Top makes it easy to carry this 9.5-pound PC from room to room.
It has one gigabyte of memory and a 160-gigabyte hard disk. Also included are built-in Wi-Fi (802.11n), a memory-card reader and six USB ports, including one that stands alone for those annoyingly large plug-in devices (ahem, Flip camcorders). Two speakers below the screen pipe out surround sound that quickly fills up a room, and a built-in 1.3-megapixel Webcam captures videos and still photos.
As is the case with Asus’s low-priced netbooks, the bargain Eee Top has its tradeoffs. For starters, it runs Windows XP and uses Intel’s Atom N270 processor, which is used for most Asus netbooks. This processor consumes less power, but can give the PC a sometimes sluggish feeling. More than once, my Eee Top crashed when I had several programs opened at once.
The Eee Top’s touch software, called Easy Mode, lacks a calendar and an address book, two tools that are of utmost importance for families who will use this PC in their kitchen.
Another missing element in this all-in-one is a DVD drive, but thanks to downloadable software, music and videos, I don’t think most people will miss it. If so, Asus is selling $64 external drives that plug into the Eee Top via a USB cable.
I navigated around the Eee Top using my finger for almost everything and never used the optical mouse. A stylus that pops out from the side of the keyboard can be used to pinpoint hard-to-tap icons in Windows, but everything in Easy Mode is large enough to touch or swipe with a finger.
Easy Mode is divided into four categories that are labeled with tabs at the top of the screen: Communication, Fun, Work and Tools. Communication includes Skype, Email, Eee Memo (virtual Post-Its) and Internet, which opens 12 preset links to URLs that Asus chose. This last section could be filled with personalized favorites for sites like a school’s daily lunch menu or WSJ.com, but Asus really blew it by prohibiting changes here.
When it’s time to enter text in Easy Mode, a virtual keyboard saves you from pulling out the physical keyboard. This virtual keyboard is surprisingly easy to type on because it can be resized to fit your fingers by dragging one corner. It was adequately comfortable for quick tasks like entering URLs and labeling photos, but vertical typing wasn’t conducive to lengthier tasks, like emails, so I used the physical keyboard instead.
But the virtual keyboard doesn’t automatically appear when you need it; instead, you must open it. And when you’re done typing, say after you’ve entered a URL, the keyboard isn’t smart enough to automatically disappear, and this gets frustrating.
A handwriting-recognition option can be used to enter text with either the stylus or a finger. Though this worked well, it was slower to use compared with the virtual and physical keyboards, and I opted not to use it.
I switched back and forth between the Easy Mode layer and regular Windows XP by hitting a house icon from either mode. Opera is the default browser in Easy Mode, and it has a slightly different setup than most people are used to in more popular browsers. But Internet Explorer is a click away, and opening it automatically returns users to the Windows XP side of things.
A useful pop-out menu In Easy Mode called the Eee Bar is accessible from any program. This thin, horizontal menu holds links to all programs in Easy Mode and is the only menu that can be customized by deleting or adding programs. But I think people will forget about this bar since it’s hidden most of the time.
Projects like documents, spreadsheets and slideshow presentations can be made on the Eee Top using Sun’s preloaded StarOffice/StarSuite rather than Microsoft Office. These programs are similar enough for newcomers to use StarOffice without too much trouble.
The Eee Top is a great-looking computer that brings the fun and accessibility of a touch-screen computer to people who might not otherwise afford it. If you can accept its shortcomings and sometimes slow speed, it could work well in your home as a secondary PC.
Edited By Walter S. Mossberg
After refreshing developer.apple.com 347923691423964 times I could finally manage to download the beta version of the iPhone OS 3.0. It is available only for those in possession of a developer account and a registered iPhone in the developer program. So no, you should not download this from torrent, it will have your iPhone wiped and locked, inactivated unless you have a dev account. Getting the iPhone OS 3.0 beta was only a slightly better experience than the Windows 7 beta’s first day of existence.
The first thing that caught my eye is that they changed a couple of icons. Otherwise the home screen is the same as it was before. Accessing the search screen feels just right. You swipe the screen to the right and it’s there. You can search contacts, music and mail. Photos and text messages don’t seem to show up for me.
The email screen looks like the same as it was before but if you swipe down you’ll notice the new search bar. If your search has no results in your inbox you can expand your query to your original Gmail account.
Browsing seems a bit faster too; it took about 10 seconds to load crunchgear.com. Maybe they put some of Safari 4’s performance tweaks into the iPhone browser.
The iPhone gets copy/paste! Everyone go crazy!
So this is where I double tap. Now I can choose to select a region specified by me or to select the whole text. The following is pretty self-explanatory.
The undo function works like a charm. Shake to undo and shake again to redo. This is not instant, though, so you don’t have to be afraid that you’ll accidentally undo or redo something if you put the phone down or something.
The Voice Memos app has a sweet built-in decibel meter. After you record your stuff you can share it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever use this application but it’s fun.
The memo app and its menu
I tried to send an MMS to myself but it seems that I have to set it up with my carrier first (why would an iPhone plan support MMS right now after all). Bluetooth will also remain a mystery for now.
We’ll keep you informed of any new stuff we find, easter eggs, bugs, or what have you, so check back.
Just announced this morning, iPhone OS 3.0 is the talk of the town. Though Apple’s SDK distribution servers had a rough time handling the initial rush this morning, things have since stabilized and developers are starting to flash their handsets to the first beta copies of the new software. In turn, the first screenshots and early impressions have started to trickle in to our inbox.
Update: We’ve also found a few new features lurking around in the Podcast player.
What we’ve heard so far:
Check out the gallery at MobileCrunch >>
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FROM APPLETELL - Boxee, a company known for providing software for the Apple TV and other platforms, has created an application for the iPhone that will allow you to use your mobile device as a remote. MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Another Y Combinator startup launched at the SXSW festival: Echodio. It lets you back up your iTunes music library to the Web and then stream it from there. At launch it only supports streaming through Boxee, the media browser. But in a few weeks it will launch its own Web player, which will allow you to stream your iTunes songs from any computer with a Web browser.
TechCrunch readers can sign up today for 300 invites good for 5 GB worth of music storage each (up from the normal 1 GB). Simply use the promotional code TC/DC when prompted during set-up. The download currently works only on Macs.
Launching with Boxee seems a bit odd. Most people will want to wait for the Web player to become available. But the idea of backing up your iTunes playlists to the Web and literally turning it into a jukebox in the sky is appealing. Lala does something similar. And it seems like a feature Apple should build into iTunes as well.
Until that happens, there is Echodio. You download the app, and it installs a plugin to iTunes. You create a new Echdio playlist and put in all of the songs you want to back up. Then you can stream it through Boxee or eventually Echodio’s own Web player, which will have two-way sync so that when you play a song via the Web it will count as a play in iTunes. Ratings and other tags get synced as well. But the most useful part of the syncing feature is that you can sync iTunes between two or more different machines. The startup is also working on an iPhone app (I guess for over-the-air syncing or for all the songs that you can’t fit on the iPhone’s own iPod).
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Mobile Q&A answer service ChaCha is shedding one third of its employees. We’ve confirmed with the company that it laid off 25 people, leaving it with 56 employees. ChaCha cited the layoffs as necessary to ensure profitability in the future. The layoffs have been added to the TechCrunch layoff tracker. From one tipster who says she was let go today:
Wanted to drop you a quick line informing you of layoffs at ChaCha today. There were 25 people layed off, leaving the company with 56 employees. Some very high ranking people were let go today, including 2 Directors of Development, the Vice President of Engineering, 2 Product Managers, a Sr. Director of Product Management, Director of Marketing Communications, 2 Linux System admins, and a Senior Program Manager. These were some of the larger layoffs. The rest of the company will also be taking a 10% decrease in pay, along with Upper MGMT taking larger cuts.
The news today about the $12 million is a ruse. Its just confirmation of a round we closed back in October.
These cuts come in the face of a drowning company. The ex VP of Mobile Ad Sales at Yahoo, Rob Wilk, has been in the NYC offices for 8 weeks now, and has not closed one single deal for any advertising on ChaCha’s platform. After I was let go, there was a company meeting in which Scott Jones layed out a pretty bleak estimate for the coming times. If the company can’t get to a crossover point and make money in 2 months, the whole thing is over.
Strangely, ChaCha hid the layoffs in a press release announcing a $12 million equity financing round, which may or may not be an extension of the $30 million round we reported on in January. (We are awaiting more details)
UPDATE: ChaCha informed us that they never officially announced their C funding round, but the amount was approximately $15 million and closed in October 2008. The company closed their $12 million Series D round last week, with funding from Morton Meyerson, Scott Jones and other investors.
We haven’t been big fans of ChaCha in the past and cited many reasons why the startup needs to reevaluate its business model. Still, the company was growing on us and their occasional snafu was always entertaining.
UPDATE: ChaCha issued this response to the tipster’s assertions about Rob Wilk: “Rob Wilk was a top performing advertising sales leader for Yahoo and he is leading an advertising sales effort for ChaCha that is resulting in significant revenue growth each month. Rob started 6 weeks ago and opened our New York office.”
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Imagine a Segway that creeps around on little metal lobster feet instead of wheels, and you've got a pretty good idea of what the Cajun Crawler looks like.
This demonic project is so perfect that we can't resist embedding the video here. The students at University of Louisiana who came up with this are obviously well on their way to becoming deranged, mad scientists.
But you know what this would be perfect for? On Halloween, you could put on a Dr. Zoidberg costume, then tool around on the Cajun Crawler, terrifying elementary school children.
Via TEDBlog
FROM APPLETELL - Apple has finally brought push notifications to the table for the iPhone and iPod touch. Fair enough, they’re a few months later than they originally said, but it’s here now, so let’s take a look. MORE »
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Section: Communications, Cellphones, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile
Wow, Apple let loose a barrage of improvements today at their iPhone 3.0 preview. With these improvements on the celebrated iPhone, is the Pre still looking like the champ it was back in January? If you caught my morning post on what the Pre didn’t want to see, you already know things just got a bit hot in here.
I still say it is embarrassing that the iPhone lacked this ever, much less for two years. Their implementation looks pretty though. Palm Pre: of course I have it, fool.
The Pre touts their background applications are just a card swipe away. Apple announces background notifications. While perhaps not as grand a concept as what the Pre has going, battery life was the concern from the Apple camp. Is the Pre just more sophisticated or does it have a bigger battery or will juice time suck?
The Pre has got this nailed. So far, it doesn’t look like we’ll see anything from Apple on this one. Yet. Having contact info pulled from various sources automatically is futuristic and I dig it.
The two candidates would rather we skip this question, nnnkay?
One thing I didn’t mention this morning about the Pre is the ability to just start entering info and let the phone figure out which app you might be thinking of heading to. For example, typing in Jon would bring up relevant contacts, a searchbox for Jon on the net, maybe a book written by Jon, etc. Apple is bringing Spotlight to the iPhone, and they think so highly of it, it will be the left most page of applications or starting point. This says to me that Apple will be pulling out a “today” page so you can sort your notifications and get to your data faster.
I believe the iPhone pulled pretty close to even on this one, on paper at least. What say you? Let us know in the comments.
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The iPhone 3.0 news is out and Appletell will be covering every detail possible to get you the best coverage on the new OS. Check out their coverage of the newest features that will be available on the iPhone and iPod touch this summer. While you’re there, check out Appletell’s great unbiased reviews of all kinds of Apple and Apple-related products.
Check it all out at Appletell!
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Sure, we liveblogged it, scored it, and summarized it, but if you crave more iPhone 3.0, I’ve got just the thing for you. Apple’s got video of the whole thing ready to stream, at your command. Plus, we’ll have a hands on in just a few minutes, so hang tight.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tanita just announced that they’ve teamed up with Garmin to create a wireless body composition monitor to wirelessly link all kinds of fitness information to your PC or even a Garmin FR60 Fitness Watch. Now you’ll be able to constantly track such exciting information as your body fat percentage, hydration levels, and metabolic age rating in real time.
The BC-1000 Body Composition monitor is a platform that you step on to, and then it will measure your muscle mass, overall physique rating, daily caloric intake, metabolic age rating, bone mass, and visceral fat levels. That information is then transmitted wirelessly to your computer or the Fitness Watch, where the information can be stored and tracked. It doesn’t sound exciting, but for anybody on a diet or just interested in fitness it could be really useful.
It’s currently available online at thecompetitiveedge.com — you’re looking at from $300-$400 for the whole setup.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Topps card company is now adding augmented reality features to baseball cards in order to bring the staid (OK, dying) business into the 21st century.
Combining a camera tracking system, any webcam, and image processing software from Total Immersion, tiny cartoonish 3D versions of players are super-imposed onto the real-world, and seen on your PC. Once they're 'alive' (residing on top of their own card), you can play simple games with them using your keyboard, including one where you can whack at slow-moving baseballs.
The AR technology found in the Topps cards is similar to the one we featured last year from Germany's Metaio. That one superimposed 3D UFOs onto the real world on top of books, and just like the Topps system, the camera's frame is used to create a perfectly synchronized image overlay. This allows a kid to move the baseball card around without the virtual player falling off the frame.
As you can see in the video below, the games offer nothing more complex than anything in a basic flash-based web app, but it’s interesting to see little avatars appear on the screen next to people, even if they’re not really there.
To play the games, you have to visit Topps' ToppsTown website and choose the player in your 'enhanced card.'
Card companies have been losing buzz for years and it’s not surprising to see them trying something techy and more immersive.
According to the New York Times, the baseball card industry was once a billion dollar business but it's now shrunk to $200 million a year. And it's still falling. Part of that probably has to do with the fact that the internet provides an infinite amount of access to stats that couldn't be squeezed in the back of a card. And the other is that high-end card collecting always depended upon relatively accurate comparisons between players from different eras and that all ended with the Steroid Era, which devalued modern stats.
As a result, card companies have recently resorted to peddling items of historical figures with a longer shelf-life, like Presidents. Pieces of great athletes' uniforms were inserted into cards, real strands of hair from people like Abraham Lincoln and Marylin Monroe were in 'special edition' sets (see right), and one even came with pieces of the Berlin Wall.
I think I'm going to wait to buy a pack until they have the Abe Lincoln 3D avatar that deliberately throws baseballs to Stephen Douglas' noggin.
See also:
Remember Reagan and his infamous Star Wars Defense Initiative? 25 years ago, scientists suggested that the U.S. build a network of laser equipped satellites to knock down Soviet missiles out of the sky. While that idea never really took off, the technology is currently being re-purposed to shoot down mosquitoes.
Seriously, the scientists that came up with the SDI are currently working to create a system that will take out mosquito’s instead of nuclear missiles. Intended to used to fight malaria, the laser system is being financed by some “big money” people like Bill Gates, the UN and several non-profit organizations.
The laser was recently demonstrated in Seattle, and while the beam didn’t actually kill the mosquito (it was a non-lethal version) it did accurately fire a beam and hit the mosquitoes from a distance of about 100 feet away.
I love this idea. The ultimate bug zapper - no more waiting for them to come to you. Even better, malaria is responsible for killing about a million people a year, and if this can be made to fight that epidemic, it would be a really great use of a cold war technology.
This morning at Apple's special iPhone 3.0 event, Gizmodo's Brian Lam showed me and other linestanders his secret blogging weapon (above). Yes, that's right: Backpack straps clipped onto a black board for his notebook to rest on — so he can stand, walk, type and maybe even smoke a doobie while he's at it. What better way to say, "Don't mess with the press"?
Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com
Faith and begorrah! It's St. Paddy's day and you know what that means in the G-Lab: green gadgets. And we're not talking about ones that are actually colored green, we're taking a look at four gizmos that are eco friendly, made from recycled materials, and even promote sustainability.
Steven Leckart and I get down with a wetsuit composed from reconstituted components that won't harm the earth, a laptop bag from Voltaic that has a solar panel attached to it, a Motorola cell phone comprised of plastic water bottles, and a composter that's, as Steven put it, "a pot of mold." Mother Gaia herself would be proud.
This video podcast was produced by Annaliza Savage, edited by Fernando Cardoso with camera work by Annaliza Savage and Fernando Cardoso.
Neil Strauss has a new book, "Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life", which reveals the secrets of people who in a hypothetical apocalypse will be roasting your femur over oil barrels. He made this video showing how to make a knife from a cigarette for Danger Room. Too bad my cigarettes use cotton filters.
Now that Steam supports DLC, micropurchases (like horse armor), and extra levels, you can expect the same crippled, semi-complete games you get at retail places. After all, why release a whole game when you can release two thirds of it and then charge $10 for the ending?
Of course, DLC isn’t all garbage, but everything that comes from EA is. Indie favorite The Maw is the first to take advantage of the new system, and it wouldn’t have survived if it didn’t have a serious first offering. Similarly, I don’t hold Half-Life 2’s episodes against Valve, because they weren’t working on Episodes 1, 2, and 3 before they finished the first game, as was the case with, say, Spore.
At any rate, this reduces the advantages retail has on digital distribution by one. That’s always a good thing.
We just got a couple Rumor 2s into the CG office and in the short time we’ve had with the device, we can say that it picks up where the first one left off. The hardware feels sturdy and the keyboard is quite nice. The camera seems like it takes decent pictures (test shot: Canon lens box) when there’s enough light available as well, but we’ve only taken one test shot and it’s so-so. The menu system is pretty straightforward. There are a handful of included apps like, Loopt, Nascar, NFL Mobile and Social Zone. The queerest thing I saw was the “chat & dating” option under messages (the last two images). Anyway, we’ll have a full review soon.
Thanks to Al Franken, we all know that Bill O'Reilly wrote a terrible pornographic novel in 1998. Now the Village Voice's head garage-sale nut has digitized a bunch of choice clips from the audiobook (read by O'Reilly), including "Say baby, put down that pipe and get my pipe up," "Cup your hands under your breasts and hold them for ten seconds," and "Cunnilingus involves the lips and tongue."
As William Gibson sez, "PLEASE! THE MASHUP!! SOMEBODY DO THE MASHUP!! "
"Off With Those Pants": Bill O'Reilly Seduces You in Clips From His Dirty Audiobook
(Thanks, Bill!)
Source: Boing Boing | 17 Mar 2009 | 9:04 pm
Here's Neil Gaiman on the Colbert Report last night, talking about his excellent YA novel, The Graveyard Book -- a retelling of The Jungle Book with ghosts instead of jungle animals.
Neil Gaiman On The Colbert Report, March 16, 2009. (Thanks, David!)
The times online has three fun lists about novels: 10 Spectacular second novels, 10 Cursed second novels, and 10 Literary one-hit wonders.
The Beautiful and Damned - F.Scott FitzgeraldHe confirmed the reputation won with This Side of Paradise two years earlier. The Beautiful and Damned was the Jazz Age chronicler's first great novel, published by Scribner (who will publish Audrey Niffenegger's second) in 1922. His third was The Great Gatsby.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R. Iowa) thinks AIG execs shouldn't be taking bonuses. Instead, they should resign or kill themselves. He said:
...the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.And in the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology.Lisa Katayama of Tokyo Mango's response:
There's a major distinction that Grassley should be aware of here -- Japanese execs who fuck up kill themselves when they feel that their shame is too heavy for them to carry on living; in the AIG case, clearly the execs are acting completely shameless even after all the screwing up they did.
Elecom is an excitable (lots of exclamations) Japanese electronics manufacturer that makes a lot of different stuff, among which is an extensive line-up of mice. I like the Egg Mouse and this one with a thumb wheel orientated differently from most. But this “Scope Node” one is intriguing, even if I’m a bit skeptical. It purports (as far as the translation allows it to purport) to have a form factor such that holding it is like holding a pen. I think this is a good idea but the ergonomic design is probably not refined enough to make it as revolutionary as it seems.
The “BOTANREZAMAUSU” (I think that’s “Button Razor Mouse”) costs about $65. I’d get one to review (along with some of their other cool stuff) but I get the feeling it’d be a huge chore, not to mention difficult for readers to order one even it it were to be super cool. Either way, it’s definitely a sweet-looking mouse. If the sensor is at the corner there, it would be a different experience for most people, who have mice with a dead-center sensor.
I’ll see what I can do about getting one to test out.
Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution.Minister won't confirm belief in evolution (Thanks, Stuart!)"I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate," Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
A funding crunch, exacerbated by cuts in the January budget, has left many senior researchers across the county scrambling to find the money to continue their experiments.
Some have expressed concern that Mr. Goodyear, a chiropractor from Cambridge, Ont., is suspicious of science, perhaps because he is a creationist...
“It is the same as asking the gentleman, ‘Do you believe the world is flat?' and he doesn't answer on religious grounds,” said Dr. Alters. “Or gravity, or plate tectonics, or that the Earth goes around the sun.”
Perhaps I shouldn't be so enamored of LaCie's "iamaKey" and "itsaKey" flash drives—I have at least a dozen flash drives of varying sizes sitting around the house and hardly ever use them—but something about the way they look like regular keys just appeals to me in a way that putting another flash drive on a keyring does not. They're around $16 for the 4GB versions; $26 for the 8GB.
That one on the right? It's the "PassKey", a microSD reader. It's $10.
Apple showed off the third version of its iPhone operating system today, introducing features long-desired by fans: cut and paste, multimedia messaging, push email notification, landscape mode text entry and turn-by-turn GPS navigation.
The cut-and-paste announcement, which reportedly drew cheers, works across applications and includes undo support. Accompanying it are new programming hook-ins for application developers.
Multimedia messaging means that iPhone users will no longer have to visit a crappy AT&T web page to view pictures sent from many other cellphones.
The imminent release of Palm's Pre cellphone, hailed as the first device to challenge Apple's on its own technological turf, brought the iPhone's shortcomings into sharp relief. The updates, some hankered for since the gadget's original 2007 launch, seek to address this issue.
iPhone OS 3 will be available in the summer as a free update to iPhone customers and to iPod Touch users for $10. Owners of the original iPhone won't get MMS or stereo bluetooth.
Users didn't get everything they wanted.
The frequently-expressed hope that Apple would permit programs to run in the background will remain just that. Battery life and performance constraints were cited as reasons.
Adobe's Flash technology, which could allow better web-based apps and games outside of the official App Store, is still not in. AT&T will not yet offer a tethering plan, though Apple itself supports it.
Nor was the fabled Apple Tablet PC or netbook announced, despite a spasm of 11th hour rumors.
Scott Forstall, Apple's SVP of iPhone software, also introduced:
• Peer-to-peer linkups between individual iPhones -- great for gaming, collaborative work and sharing business cards or other files.
• The ability for developers to create custom applications that communicate directly with specialist hardware, even using bluetooth or custom protocols. Examples given included an FM transmitter with advanced controls, and a a remote blood pressure monitor.
• Google Maps as a public API, meaning that developers can embed them in programs.
• Server-side email search using IMAP, and more search options throughout the system.
Forstall also said that there would also be general enhancements to the App Store. Magazine subscriptions, expansions for games and eBooks will all gain special channels in the system. Developers will also be allowed to sell such items from inside their own applications.
Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of hardware marketing, told gathered writers and reporters that the iPhone sold 13.7 million units worldwide in 2008. In total, there are now 30 million iPhones and iPod touches sold, creating a vast market for software sold at the App Store.
Also at the event:
• JD Power ranked the iPhone #1 for customer satisfaction, according to Forstall.
• EA announced Sims 3 for iPhone, while Ngcomo announced a Nintendogs-like pet game and a multiplayer first-person shooter that works over the 'net.
• Web-based instant messaging service Meebo demoed its new iPhone client, made possible by the push notification service.
• Oracle's Hody Crouch introduced a selection of fascinating business applications.
(Headline suggested by Pete Mortensen)
⌦ Camcorder – Creative Vado 8GB 720p pocket camcorder for $130, shipped. [Slickdeals]
⌦ Canon Lens – Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II DSLR lens for $85, shipped. If you own a Canon DSLR and do not have this lens you're doing yourself a disservice. [Dealnews]
⌦ Hammock – Parachute Silk Nylon Double Hammock for $42, shipped, about $110 off. [Dealnews]
⌦ Star Wars Bobble Heads – Today's Woot is a bizarre six-pack of Star Wars Bobble Heads, with the exception of Darth Maul they're exclusively from the original trilogy.
Gazaro is a free service that keeps track of the pricing history, across multiple sites, of consumer electronics. The aim is to make it obvious when a "sale" is bullshit, and to notify you of genuinely precipitous drops. [Gazaro]
Peek email-only handsets are $30 each until April 3, but there's a catch: you have to buy 5. They cost $20 a month to run, too, though there's no contract and you can quit whenever.
Product Page [Peek for Business]
Dell's Adamo is .65-inches thick at its thickest point, weighs four pounds, has a 13.4" 1,366 x 768 display, 2GB of RAM, and Intel GMX4500 video. Dell claims 5 hours of battery life, and it has 2 USB ports and a USB/eSata combo port. It has a 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and comes in black or white.
At $2,000 to start, it makes the MacBook Air look cheap. For $2,700, you get WWAN, a faster processor, and 4GB of RAM. It's available for pre-order now.
CNET is getting the exclusive and has posted its unboxing. Early this morning, Blogee.net spotted the Adamo 9 on a compatibility list: a netbook version! Netbook choice has more information.
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Some new sources are pointing to a slightly modified release schedule for Windows 7. Though still unconfirmed from Microsoft, it looks like a Release Candidate version will be available for a select group of testers during April and then made available for public testing in late May 2009. 
