Is Office finally coming to iPhone?

MyHeritage: Avoiding the MetaCafe Curse

BNEI ATAROT- In case you don’t recognize it, that dateline is the name of a small village about forty-five minutes from Tel Aviv. Don’t worry, my concierge hadn’t heard of it either. It may actually have more roosters than people living there. But tucked away, in a hundred-year-old house built by German Templars is one of the most exciting Web companies in Israel: MyHeritage. It’s also completely outside of the Israeli Web “scene.” I’ve never seen founder Gilad Japhet at any of the Web mixers, and I’ve never gotten a pitch from his PR people. In fact, I had to do a bit of hounding to get a meeting.

But don’t be fooled by the low-profile: MyHeritage is boasting some of the best numbers of any Israeli Web startup. It’s got 31 million registered users, who have documented 330 million family members, some living and some dead. The company has been backed by blue chip investors Accel Partners and Index Ventures. And Japhet told me on Monday, the company is starting to bring in real revenue from premium services and eCommerce transactions. (Think: sending flowers and candy to your parents for their anniversary). Japhet admits the company should have focused on this earlier, but says the lean operation should be break-even by the end of the year.

After a tour, Japhet said, “How long do you have? Because when I get going, it’s hard to stop.” He’s not kidding. He also took the liberty of giving me a bigger notepad. I think I asked one question, but mostly nodded and ate the homey selection of apples, pears and bananas that was laid out for us. But I’m not sure there’s anyway to tell the story of MyHeritage quickly. It’s been a long road and little has come easily for this company. As a result, more than a few people have described Japhet as a little crazy. That’s ok. I like crazy entrepreneurs. Frequently, you have to be one to succeed.

After all, when he started MyHeritage no one was interested in a mainstream Web genealogy startup. He bootstrapped the company for years, mortgaging his house and begging a German company for free access to its facial recognition software. He was turned down for venture capital so many times, when he finally got a small round from prominent Israeli angels, he had to give up a lot of equity. “Have you ever heard this word ‘Chutzpah?’” he asked smiling.

It’s not that Japhet is modest: He clearly crowed over MyHeritage’s technology and other things he believes he’s done well. But he openly admits where he has struggled. One of the most pivotal events in his company’s history: The launch and monster $100 million valuation of competing site Geni.com. On one hand, it legitimized the space. But as his investor Simon Levene of Accel told him, “Be careful what happened to MetaCafe doesn’t happen to you.”

The story of MetaCafe is one you hear over-and-over again in Israel. The company is still alive, but the founders have left, traffic has stalled, and according to Arrington at least, acquisition attempts were thwarted. In case you aren’t familiar with MetaCafe, it was a lot like YouTube, only it launched earlier. It was growing nicely when, like an Israeli cabbie, YouTube came out of nowhere and sideswiped MetaCafe. (Yes, I’m trying to make Israeli driving jokes in every post about the country. I’m actually a big fan of the taxi drivers here. I’ve arrived at meetings in record speed over the last two weeks.)

If I’ve heard about the so-called MetaCafe curse at least two dozen  times since I’ve arrived, no doubt Japhet has heard about it more. After six years of building this company, putting a strain on his family and having to give away most of his equity to keep it alive, Levene’s words were like a call to action. “He didn’t say we were going to lose,” Japhet says. “He said, ‘You’re going to work really, really hard to make sure you win.’” And as TechCrunch has reported, MyHeritage is killing Geni in traffic, and buzz-wise everyone seems more excited about Geni founder David Sacks’ newer company, Yammer. Japhet likes Yammer too. “David Sacks is a very talented guy and now I only have to compete with half of him,” he says.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Geni’s user interface, and it’s still better. But MyHeritage gives you more to do. While everyone in Israel has been in a lather about Face.com this week, MyHeritage has long had pretty impressive facial recognition software that could also tag photos on Facebook, Flickr and other sites. Again, Face.com is glitzier, but at least Japhet knows this is a weakness. This is the real reason he bought the UK’s Kindo recently. “They didn’t have a ton of assets, but they were good at UI,” he says.

It’s been a tough road for Japhet. Maybe he built the company too early. Maybe he should have focused more on the Web than a downloadable client. Maybe he should have focused more on revenues a few years ago. But there’s also an advantage when things don’t come easily for entrepreneurs: They take nothing for granted and are less likely to get sideswiped by an upstart.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Is Office finally coming to iPhone?

520 Tesla S Sedans reserved in one week: Company gets $2.6 million in fees

Frost & Sullivan Anticipates Slovakian Electronics Manufacturing Market to Sustain Rapid Growth Despite the Economic Slowdown

CrunchDeals: An automatic watch of non-dubious heritage for $98

It seems Watchismo has a full complement of Quicksilver Baron watches lying around for your consumption and he’s selling them at $98, 42% off list. This watch, called the Copper Baron, has a 45mm wide stainless steel case with screw down crown, mineral crystal, and 10ATM water resistance. It even has a little date window and sub-seconds at 9 o’clock.

If you’re not down with Quicksilver you can always check out Watchismo’s amazing collection of new-old-stock vintage watches. I like these vintage Sornas. The movement is so simple it’s like they made it out of wood.

Autonomy Completes Integration of IDOL into iManage Worksite

Twitter Confirms And Details New “Discovery Engine”

We’ve been getting a lot of tips today and yesterday about the limited roll-out of a new Twitter homepage design, which gives the search functionality a more prominent place along with some additional features.

We couldn’t see it ourselves on our accounts, but now co-founder Biz Stone has confirmed the changes in a blog post, calling the new feature a ‘discovery engine’. (see it here on the Flickr account of Adam Jackson)

With the redesign, the search box has moved to the right sidebar of the interface (only for a small subset of users at this point), where Stone claims it’s a more ‘natural part of the Twitter experience’. I agree, and it shows that the company realizes very well that real-time search is a killer feature they should be nurturing and monitoring very closely. When you do a search, the results no longer appear on a separate page but remain on the homepage, and by default it only crawls the tweets from the accounts you’re following.

You can also save search queries and revisit the results at a later time. Since the searches you save stay on your homepage, this feature makes it a lot easier for people to keep track of conversations around a given topic (e.g. a brand, event or person) and also sort of makes the plethora of third-party monitoring tools obsolete for basic queries. We’ll have to see how this will affect the applications that are currently centered around monitoring Twitter conversations (take for instance, the Yahoo Sideline desktop app we covered yesterday), but it’s clear that the more emphasis Twitter puts on that, the less relevant they become.

Twitter is also going to display popular trending topics below the search box, which will in turn make it easier for people to discover what the Twitterverse is talking about the most at any given time. Stone reminds us Trends is in beta, but like he says, it has potential.

Meanwhile, a lot of people are still reporting missing tweets and direct messages, a problem that’s been lingering for several weeks now.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Linux Needs Critics (PC World)

paidContent.org - @ Cable Show: Comcast's Roberts: Online Video ... - Washington Post

paidContent.org - @ Cable Show: Comcast's Roberts: Online Video ... Washington Post Most of the discussion swirling about making paid programming ubiquitous across platforms calls for no additional charges for the consumer. 1-CABLESHOW-Execs say cable TV shows on web not a threat Reuters Cable TV companies mull impact of online video The Associated Press Wall Street Journal - ZDNet - Computerworld - CNBC all 91 news articles

Aussie Minister Backs Down on Internet Censorship

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cellcom Israel Announces Dismissal of a Purported Class Action

Hey, Lauren! Is Apple’s 17-Inch MacBook Pro Expensive? [Voices]

There’s something about comparing the prices of Windows PCs and Macs that makes otherwise cool and collected people–Windows and Mac users alike–become profoundly emotional and partisan, until steam shoots out of their ears and their eyeballs turn bright red. You can see this passion crop up in some of the comments on Ed Oswald’s two recent posts on Microsoft’s new “Lauren” ad comparing 17-inch Windows laptops to the MacBook Pro. I’ve also encountered it every time I’ve tried to do the math on the Windows vs. Mac question–which I started doing within a few weeks of Technologizer’s launch last summer.

I haven’t returned to this issue since last October, but the moment Microsoft put it at the heart of a major national TV commercial last week, the blogosphere started debating it all over again. I continue to think it’s worth trying to answer the question in a very specific and unemotional way. The specific part is important because asking whether Macs are more expensive than Windows PCs is like asking whether Audis are more expensive than General Motors cars: It’s a meaningless question without context, since the answer is entirely contingent on the models you choose. And the unemotional aspect of my research tries to strip out any bias based on anything but the computers at hand. (Note that in the commercial, Lauren sets off a powder keg of controversy the moment she says she’s not “cool enough” to own a Mac–me, I want to judge computers, not people.)

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Billion Dollar Charlie Takes on the RIAA [Voices]

Charlie Nesson isn’t one for small gestures—the Harvard law professor is known as “Billion Dollar Charlie,” after all, and he was one of the lead lawyers in the famous industrial dumping case that became the book (and then the movie) A Civil Action. So when he took on the defense of a 25-year old Boston University physics grad student who was accused of sharing copyrighted music online, the case suddenly promised to be more than usually interesting. It has not disappointed so far.

But it has also seemed like a bit of a circus, what with attempts to depose lawyers from the other side, the filing of official apologies, motions on webcasting the trial, threats of judicial sanctions, and Nesson’s desire to record everything—including typically-private lawyer-to-lawyer conference calls. Things grew strange enough that even noted RIAA scourge Ray Beckerman wrote, “To you law students and young lawyers out there; please don’t think you can learn anything from this case. Just ignore everything you are seeing from both sides. I have seen more bizarre filings from both sides’ lawyers than I would imagine possible.”

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Why Google’s Free Music Deal in China is so Important, and What it May Really Mean [Voices]

I have mentioned Google’s music-related activities in China a few times during the past two years; and just yesterday this topic seems to have heated up considerably. I think these developments are crucial and need further exploration.

As you may know, Google owns a good chunk (or all?) of the Chinese search engine Top100.cn, one of the biggest rivals of the Chinese super-portal and ruling search giant, Baidu. However, Google is still a more or less distant second in the Chinese search market (in 2008, Google had approx. 16.6 percent vs Baidu’s 76.9 percent) and really needs its Top100 property to better compete with Baidu. The major issue here is - you guessed it - the availability of CONTENT- or rather, the simple displaying of links to millions of music & film files that those hungry freeloaders i.e. digital natives want to stream or download. Baidu allows this - in fact, thrives on it - while Google / Top100 does not (i.e. it filters and removes the links to the files). This is a huge handicap for Google, because the filtering of those content-links is basically driving away all of those hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users that are looking for just that.

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IBM Stands for ‘I’ve Been Moved’ [Voices]

Shifting U.S. jobs overseas is nothing new for technology giant International Business Machines Corp. — or the tech sector in general — but a brave new employee relocation strategy at Big Blue is raising some eyebrows.

The plan, announced earlier this year, gives U.S. employees the opportunity to move their jobs to emerging market countries, and in turn, the company will foot some of the relocation costs.

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Complex [Voices]

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.”
— John Gall

If there’s a formula to Apple’s success over the past 10 years, that’s it. Start with something simple and build it, grow it, improve it, steadily over time. Evolve it.

The iPhone exemplifies this strategy. There’s a long list of features many experts and pundits claimed the original 1.0 iPhone needed but lacked. Ends up it didn’t need any of them. Nice to have is not the same thing as necessary. But things the iPhone did have, which other phones lacked, truly were necessary in terms of providing the sort of great leap forward in the overall experience that Apple was shooting for.

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Christmas in April: Twitter Co-Founder on “The Colbert Report” Tonight! [BoomTown]

The national PR tour of Twitter Co-founder How-To-Succeed-in-Biz-Without-Really-Trying Stone continues tonight with a television appearance that is sure to be tasty.

Stone (pictured here)–who has clearly become the chatty spokesmodel for the hot microblogging service at public events all over the place of late–is set to be a guest on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

Stone, of course, just updated everyone about the show on Twitter and also his his blog site.

It’s past 2am here in NYC and I’m battling email until I pass out—tomorrow, I’m on the Colbert Report! I’ll keep you posted. 9 minutes ago

Just landed at JFK with my wife, @livia (who grew up in Manhattan) — looking forward to a couple days in NYC! about 4 hours ago

Normally I’d fly @jetblue but since I’m headed to NYC to be on Colbert tomorrow night I’m flying American (flight is delayed) about 11 hours ago”

I have no doubt it will be snarktastic, especially given the bullseye piece Stephen Colbert’s comic twin Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” did on Twitter recently, nailing the unholy media obsession with tweeting.

Until the show, which we will post later, here is a very funny video Colbert did for our 2007 D: All Things Digital conference about the Internet, when Viacom (VIA) head Philippe Dauman was interviewed onstage, so Biz can better prepare for his comic grilling, um, interview.

And Stewart’s Twitter-bashing video is also below too.

Stephen Colbert:

Jon Stewart:

Daily Crunch: Sleepover Edition

Squeez Bacon actually not a bad idea
Another whacky USB gadget from Japan: Mini beach sandals and surf board memory cards
Big Gun Brush and Gun Hook: Two gadgets for gun lovers
Anti-DIY: 4 Senses Lounger costs a lot for something you can make on your own
HP’s MagCloud turns us all into magazine publishers

VASCO Expands Training Capacity With New Authorized Training Centers

Sony’s TG5V camcorder is small, light, and expensive as hell

If you’re looking for a portable video solution, but don’t want to go the cheapie route (Zx1 or Flip MinoHD), these tiny camcorders are a good bet. That is, if you’re prepared to drop a Cleveland on it. “Around $1000″ is the asking price for this sexy little piece of kit, and to be honest I’m not sure it can possibly merit that. But let’s see what it has to offer.

It’s got a nice Zeiss 10x zoom, although when you’d need that much zoom in a video is beyond me — wobble and aperture would limit its usefulness. And you sure can’t fault its form factor. The pistol-grip style has worked will in the past, and its extremely slim and foldy design (with 2.7″ screen) makes it excellent for travel as well. The 1920×1080 video will be as good as it can be given the small sensor and AVCHD compression, which is certainly good enough for any TV you’ve got.

Interestingly, it’s got a built-in GPS unit, so it’ll geotag your stuff. Might be cheaper to write where you are on a napkin, but hey it’s your money. It records to Memory Stick Pro Duo, which of course I’m sure you’ve got lying around the house in various capacities. Oh wait, I’m thinking of every other format. That’s right, I went there.

It’ll be available in May, so better start saving up.

"Marx was Right!"

German retro-futuristic group-dancing

Check out the wild futuristic dancing in this classic German 1960s space opera Raumpatroullie.

Funny futuredance (Raumpatrouille Orion) (via IO9)


Source: Boing Boing | 2 Apr 2009 | 6:23 am

520 Tesla S Sedans Reserved In One Week: Company Gets $2.6 Million In Fees

Tesla says that 520 S Model all electric sedans have been reserved by customers in first week since it was announced. Each customer must pay a $5,000 reservation fee, which is refundable if they choose not to buy the car. The base price for the Model S, which will be available starting in 2010, is $49,900 after a federal tax credit of $7,500. A limited editon of the Model S is available for a $40,000 reservation fee.

The Model S is the second car unveiled by Tesla after the sportier Roadster, and it’s half the price. But it’s no slouch on performance. The car will do 0-60 in 5.6 seconds (the Roadster is 3.9 seconds) and has an electronically limited top speed of 130 mph. The car should go up to 300 miles between charges. Best of all, I believe I may actually fit in the Model S. The Roadster isn’t fully compatible with people my size.

If you want one, you can reserve it here. You should get it by late 2011.

Tesla says they delivered 104 Roadsters in March and about 320 all time. The company has raised $186 million in capital to date, and has applied for $350 million in federal loans.

Here is the Model S and Roadster side by side:

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

HTC Announces the Snap S522 - Techtree.com

Geekzone

HTC Announces the Snap S522 Techtree.com The CTIA has kicked off at Las Vegas, and as expected, there have been a slew of new launches and announcements. Like others, HTC too had something up its sleeves in the form of the "Snap" S522, which has now been officially announced. HTC Snap aims to simplify e-mail CNET News HTC 'Snaps' To It With E-mail-Prioritizing Smartphone ChannelWeb PC World - eWeek - Mobile News - Yahoo! Tech all 94 news articles

First of its Kind Software Saves Homeowners Thousands

Kyocera's New Messaging-Focused Phones Disappoint

LAS VEGAS -- Kyocera launched two new slider phones Wednesday targeted at users who primarily want a device for email and text messages but don't want to compromise on features. But the new phone models' run-of-the-mill features and all-too-familiar looks aren't likely to win it big fans.

Kyocera said it plans to offer two new devices, the G2GO M2000 and Laylo M1400.

The G2GO M2000 has a slide-out QWERTY keypad, reminiscent of the Sidekick phone from T-Mobile. It also comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera that has a digital zoom, a 2.4-inch display, and a music player. Along with Bluetooth capability, the phone supports a WAP 2.0 browser.

The Laylo has a 2.2-inch display that slides out upwards and includes features similar to the G2GO phone.

"The G2GO and Laylo provide consumers with a blend of style, functionality and affordability,” said Eric Anderson, vice president of sales at KCI in a statement.

But the company didn't back that up with pricing or expected availability on the phones. What could be a potential stumbling block for Kyocera is that its latest phones have little to distinguish them from rivals such as Motorola and Samsung that offer far more innovative and stylish devices. Kyocera's latest phones may be perfect for someone who wants just a basic device. For more discerning consumers there's little here to grab their attention.

Detailed specs on the two phones [Kyocera]

We're Related on Facebook Platform Fools Millions

NTT DoCoMo Tantalizes With Waterproof Phone

LAS VEGAS -- Unarguably the Japanese have some of the coolest cellphones. But just how cool? At the CTIA wireless trade show NTT DoCoMo, Japan's leading telecom service provider, showed a few of the cellphones that it offers.

What caught my attention was the DoCoMo Prime F-01A. The phone from Fujitsu is waterproof enough to make calls under water at a depth of about three feet for up to 30 minutes.

It' not the only waterproof phone that the company has. NTT also showed a range of kids phones offered in Japan that are fairly rugged and can be dropped into the toilet with little damage.

The F-01A GSM phone comes with a 3.5-inch touchscreen and has a 5.2-megapixel camera. As a NTT DoCoMo marketing executive at the company's booth put it, "It's great when you want to make some calls even when you are in the shower."

The phone has been available in Japan for a few months but sadly there's no chance of it coming to the U.S.

Study suggests PVC linked to autism

Sensata Technologies and Melexis Sign Agreement on Sale of Vision Business

OASISOne Platform Guarantees Mortgage Lenders a Proven Solution for the Home Value Code of Conduct (HVCC)

Thriftstore paintings enhanced with Katamari Damacy

The Sad Saga of Silicon Graphics: The Final Chapter - BusinessWeek

ITProPortal

The Sad Saga of Silicon Graphics: The Final Chapter BusinessWeek There was a time when Silicon Graphics Corp. was the Apple Inc. of corporate computing. It received coverage out of all proportion to its size, certainly by BW. Fallen star SGI to sell most assets for $25M San Jose Mercury News SGI Assets To Be Sold For $25 Million To Rackable Systems ITProPortal CNET News - InformationWeek - Reuters - eWeek all 253 news articles

New Legislation Would Federalize Cybersecurity

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gadget Lab Explains: How to Get Rid of Old Gadgets

Most of us grew up with the Environmental Protection Agency's friendly "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" motto* — but when it comes to gadgets, being environmentally responsible isn't quite so easy.

That's because electronics are neither easy for manufacturers to create nor simple for recyclers to disassemble. On top of that, laws on handling e-waste are inconsistent between countries, states and even cities. Long story short, the biggest problem with recycling gadgets is it's confusing as hell for consumers.

But it really doesn't have to be. Over at Wired.com's How-To Wiki, Gadget Lab rounds up a list of major companies and how their recycling programs work — so your next useless cellphone doesn't end up sleeping in a drawer or leaching toxics into a landfill. We start with the easiest stuff first and move on to the more complicated programs.

So check out our friendly guide before tossing that dead iPod in the garbage, won't you?

And if the thought of recycling bores you, check out Wired.com's awesome photo gallery of a recycling facility we visited. We promise it'll get your eco-friendly juices flowing.

* Or "Recycle, Reduce, Reuse," if you grew up being misinformed by Recycle Rex.

Photo: James Merithew/Wired.com

IPhone competitors ready application offerings - San Francisco Chronicle

Straits Times

IPhone competitors ready application offerings San Francisco Chronicle On Wednesday, BlackBerry opened its Mobile App World, a new mobile storefront for BlackBerry programs that will compete head to head with the App Store. Option bulls line up for RIM calls before earnings Reuters CTIA: Hands On with blackberry App World PC Magazine Forbes - Wall Street Journal - BetaNews - Computerworld all 770 news articles

Ovation 3G stick, small as a thumbdrive

Novatel's latest 3G USB stick gets a theoretical 7.2 Mbps on European HSPA networks. it's less than a centimeter thick, according to the blurb, and will be available this summer.

Sony Takes Flight With HD Camcorder Designed for Savvy Travelers

How to build your own Windows Home Server rig - Computerworld

ITProPortal

How to build your own Windows Home Server rig Computerworld By Michael Brown April 2, 2009 (Computerworld) The attraction of a home server, such as Windows Home Server, is obvious for any household with several computers. Microsoft Formally Announces 'Netbook' Server PC Magazine Windows Server 2008 Foundation: April Fools? CNET News PC World - ChannelWeb - ITProPortal - Reuters all 182 news articles

Top Gear squeezes 70mpg from a VW Rabbit of ancient and evil vintage

With a probably overambitious goal of building a car that can achieve 70 mpg, scoot to 60 mph in less than 7 seconds and cost only $7K to build, Project Sipster was born. Lots of cuts, cussing and sleepless nights later, a Reagan-era Volkswagen Rabbit was transformed from a cute beater into an eco-friendly tire burner; a modern turbodiesel engine and aerodynamic modifications brought the heat to this Cold War relic. Through (too many) trials and (frequent) tribulation, Project Sipster took shape, but could we nail our targets? Find out below with exclusive Project Sipster videos, stories and photography.

Catch up at their project page. [Top Gear]

April 2, 1922: Rorschach Dies, Leaving a Blot on His Name

1922: Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach dies. He leaves behind a widely known, but no longer widely used, test for diagnosing mental illness with inkblots.

His father was a painter and art teacher, and the young Rorschach contemplated a career as an artist. In fact, he spent so much time drawing that his high school buddies nicknamed him Kleck, from the German verb "to daub," or the noun for "inkblot." (Hmm, Doktor, und vat do you make of that?)

Rorschach eventually settled on medicine, but not on a single med school. He studied in Zurich and Bern, Switzerland, and in Berlin and Nuremberg, Germany. His specialty was psychiatry, but he retained his interest in art ... and its relationship to the mind. By 1913, he had already published papers on analyzing mental patients' artwork as an avenue of insight into their troubled psyches.

A mid-19th century German doctor had published a popular book of poems, each of which was inspired by an accidental inkblot, and Rorschach was likely aware of this. What's more, French psychologist Alfred Binet (yes, he of the standardized intelligence test) had experimented with inkblots as a creativity test.

Rorschach learned in 1917 that fellow Swiss shrink Szyman Hens was studying people's fantasies by using inkblot cards. Rorschach believed that what different people perceived in ambiguous inkblots would reveal differences in their basic personality structure. So, he began his own inkblot work the next year, asking patients, "What might this be?"

It might seem obvious (at least in these psychologically informed days) that a person who repeatedly sees people fighting in a series of inkblots might have a different mindset from someone who keeps on seeing people dancing, or people performing sexual acts. Or that someone who always (or mostly) sees people would differ psychologically from someone who sees only birds, or mainly animals and rarely people, or someone persistently seeing inanimate objects rather than living things.

That would be sort of a general projective test indicative perhaps only of a person's mood at the moment, or perhaps of her or his underlying psyche, depending on the interpretative skills — and biases — of the psychiatrist. But Rorschach, with the characteristic inclination of a nation of watchmakers, set out to devise a precise system for scoring his test, based on whether and the extent to which a test subject was interpreting movement, color or form.

After studying 300 mental patients and 100 control subjects, he wrote a book on the new system, Psychodiagnostics. Although he had served as vice president of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society, Rorschach had trouble getting it published. When it appeared in 1921, it attracted little notice at first.

But word spread, and the Rorschach test was eventually included in the arsenal of tests wherever psychiatry and therapeutic psychology were being practiced. Over the years, new and complicated systems of scoring evolved, and competing schools of therapy vigorously disputed one another's methods. The scoring systems are not as widely used now as they once were, because of continuing doubts over their reliability.

The inkblots, however, became a staple of the popular-culture view of psychiatry and mental illness, appearing in countless films and TV shows. Most recently, the ambiguous inkblots have graced the masked face of the character Rorschach in the graphic novel and now movie and videogame, Watchmen.

All this, alas, was not to come in Rorschach's own lifetime. The year after he published Psychodiagnostics, he died of appendicitis. He was only 37.

Source: Various

Stock-Boy Bots Are Stealing American Jobs

Robots are stealing American jobs. In a 76,000-square-foot zone of the 832,000-square-foot Zappos warehouse in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, 72 robotic "drive units" organize and deliver shelves of goods—from argyle socks to handbags. People remain in charge (for now), because it takes human dexterity to pack items into a box for shipping. But the bots still have plenty to do, picking up the slack on boring tasks like shifting inventory.

The droids roll at 3 miles an hour, navigating via barcodes stuck to the floor and commands from a central server. And they're buff, able to lift half a ton.

Expect to see more swarms soon; Kiva Systems, the company that created them, is working with Staples and Gap, too. "Watching the warehouse from the ground is like seeing a choreographed dance, a concert of motion," says Mick Mountz, Kiva's CEO. "But conceptually, it's like computer-chip architecture." Funny—that's just what they said about Skynet.

Where Gadgets Go to Die: Facility Strips, Rips and Recycles

When gadgets die, they go to a place like the one pictured here — if they're lucky.

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency came under fire for allowing U.S. tech companies to export millions of pounds of hazardous, used electronics to Asian countries where they are recycling with a lot less environmental oversight.

Negative press, new e-waste legislation and a depressed economy are pressuring tech manufacturers into assuming far greater recycling responsibly to show they’re part of the green movement. As a bonus, domestic recycling lets them save some money on materials, such as precious metals, while they’re at it. Manufacturers who handle recycling responsibly in the United States work with professional facilities like this one, where old gadgets are dismantled using a part-man, part-mechanical process.

With 15 locations in the United States, Sims Recycling Solutions is one of the world’s largest electronics scrap recyclers. Pictured here is the "demanufacturing" center of the company's Roseville, California facility, where workers disassemble everything from printers, cameras and computers to Jumbotrons for their reusable materials. The facility receives roughly 150,000 pounds of used electronics a day.

Follow along for a photographic tour of the Sims facility, where you'll learn exactly what happens to unwanted gadgets as they're dismantled, their components sorted and their raw materials melted down for scrap.

Workers separate parts into bins based on their materials as well as whether they have metal in them, and, if so, what kind of metal. There are roughly 60 full-time workers at Sims who handle disassembly; the nature of their jobs require them to attend monthly, company-sponsored safety meetings. Parts that are too difficult to dismantle by hand are separated and sent to the onsite shredder for grinding and separation using various automated technologies.

"New" junk arrivals roll in on a conveyor belt, and workers throw the gadgets into their respective boxes. Sims employees say they occasionally receive some awesome antiques, such as the 8-bit Commodore 64 home computer.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

James Robinson, a senior associate at Sims, unscrews a server power supply box to remove hazardous waste, such as batteries and mercury switches, before shredding. This is one of the most difficult electronics to disassemble, because it contains large heat syncs that sometimes cause issues during the mechanical shredding process.

Video cards and motherboards are piled into this bin. Because of their complexity, having humans disassemble these circuit boards would be economically unwise for Sims; the cards will be torn apart with the factory's shredder. After being ground up, the material is automatically sorted into commodities.

Old, burned-out power supplies don't have to die alone.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Hard drives come here for recycling, too. They are shredded down to small pieces the size of a quarter.

Old desktop towers are piled on top of one another, awaiting disassembly. Workers manually remove the hazardous wastes — lithium-ion batteries and mercury switches — from the plastic housing. More complex materials, such as motherboards, are sent to the shredder for grinding and automatic disassembly.

Old routers don't just disappear. They end up at recycling facilities like this one, assuming you've recycled them responsibly.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Chips, ahoy! One-hundred percent, fat-free old chips are prized primarily for the gold contained in their connectors.

These dinky video adapters look like a waste, but there's precious metals in them thar connector pins. Put enough of them together, and you've got something valuable. Even the plastic wrappings are removed and recycled.

Notice that this container is blue? That's because it's in a tub marked hazardous materials. These batteries are sent either to a battery recycler to be reused or to a hazardous waste facility, where they're incinerated.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

It ain't a pretty picture, but cameras have to be recycled, too. Assuming consumers followed recycling instructions properly, they cleared out the memory of these cameras before sending them in.

Plenty of Mini DV tapes are coming in for recycling now that tapeless, memory-based camcorders are the new fad. Their plastic is removed for recycling. Tape goes either to a hazardous waste facility to be destroyed or a possible landfill, depending on its materials.

Yup, these are recycled, too. So you can stop saving them for coasters.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Spooky: Parts of the warehouse look like a printer mausoleum.

Even old, discarded energy meters end up here for recycling.

Broken glass gets separated and eventually shipped to a glass broker, who reconstitutes the glass for reuse.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Employees inspect the shredders, which perform the metal-reduction process before separation.

This chart summarizes the metal-separation process of the factory shredder. The waste falls into two shredders and then a granulator for grinding. A screen filters out the copper, and then magnets of varying strengths separate the steel and aluminum.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Metal scraps get shipped to their respective yards. Sims sells the metal to brokers, who eventually reuse it in new products.

This is what steel looks like after it's spit out of the separator. It looks pretty warped and messed up, but sure enough it's reusable.

These shredded computer boards contain plenty of precious metals.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Electric wires make a real mess, but there's plenty of copper in them, too.

Once again, plenty of precious metals here, too. Yes, it looks worthless, but the shredder collects between 4 to 12 ounces of gold per ton of shredded materials.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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Learn more about how to recycle e-waste.

Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre

In 1991, Klaus Teuber was well on his way to becoming one of the planet's hottest board game designers. Teuber (pronounced "TOY-burr"), a dental technician living with his wife and three kids in a white row house in Rossdorf, Germany, had created a game a few years earlier called Barbarossa and the Riddlemaster, a sort of ur-Cranium in which players mold figures out of modeling clay while their opponents try to guess what the sculptures represent. The game was a hit, and in 1988 it won the Spiel des Jahres prize—German board gaming's highest honor.

Winning some obscure German award may not sound impressive, but in the board game world the Spiel des Jahres is, in fact, a very, very big deal. Germans, it turns out, are absolutely nuts about board games. More are sold per capita in Germany than anywhere else on earth. The country's mainstream newspapers review board games alongside movies and books, and the annual Spiel board game convention in Essen draws more than 150,000 fans from all walks of life.

Released in 1995, The Settlers of Catan only recently caught fire in the U.S

Because of this enthusiasm, board game design has become high art—and big business—in Germany. Any game aficionado will tell you that the best-designed titles in the world come from this country. In fact, the phrase German-style game is now shorthand for a breed of tight, well-designed games that resemble Monopoly the way a Porsche 911 resembles a Chevy Cobalt.

But back in 1991, despite having designed a series of successful German-style titles, Teuber still thought of making board games as a hobby, albeit a lucrative one. "With all the games, we would sell 300,000 the first year and then next to nothing the next," he says. So Teuber stuck with his day job selling dental bridges and implants, struggling to keep afloat the 60-person business he had inherited from his father. At night he would retreat to his basement workshop and play.

One day Teuber began tinkering with a new theme for a game: an uncharted island. In his original vision, players would slowly discover the island by flipping over tiles, then establish colonies using the indigenous natural resources. The game incorporated elements of other ideas Teuber was working on, but for some reason this one seemed special. "I felt like I was discovering something rather than inventing it," Teuber says.

Every once in a while, he would bring the new game upstairs to test it out on his family. They would play along, but Teuber could tell that the game wasn't working. Sometimes, in the middle of a match, he would notice his youngest son, Benny, reading a comic under the table. Other times his wife would suddenly remember a load of laundry that needed immediate attention. After each of these sessions, Teuber would haul the game back downstairs for further refinement. He repeated this process over the course of four years.

Eventually, Teuber whittled his invention down to a standard pair of dice, a handful of colored wooden houses that represented settlements and cities, stacks of cards that stood for resources (brick, wool, wheat, and others), and 19 hexagonal cardboard tiles that were arranged on a table to form the island. He had hit on something with this combination—the enthusiasm on family game night was palpable. During nearly every session, he, his wife, and their children would find themselves in heated competition. The game was done, Teuber decided. He called it Die Siedler von Catan, German for "The Settlers of Catan."

Released at the annual Essen fair in 1995, Settlers sold out its initial 5,000 copies so fast that even Teuber doesn't have a first edition. That year, it won the Spiel des Jahres and every other major prize in German gaming. Critics called it a masterpiece. Fans couldn't get enough, snapping up 400,000 copies in its first year. "It was a maturation of the form," says Stewart Woods, a board game scholar at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. "It wasn't until Settlers that the whole thing broke wide open."

Since its introduction, The Settlers of Catan has become a worldwide phenomenon. It has been translated into 30 languages and sold a staggering 15 million copies (even the megahit videogame Halo 3 has sold only a little more than half that). It has spawned an empire of sequels, expansion packs, scenario books, card games, computer games, miniatures, and even a novel—all must-haves for legions of fans. And it has made its 56-year-old inventor a household name in every household that's crazy about board games, and a lot that aren't.

Most impressive of all, though, Settlers is actually inducting board-game-averse Americans into the cult of German-style gaming. Last year, Settlers doubled its sales on this side of the Atlantic, moving 200,000 copies in the US and Canada—almost unheard-of performance for a new strategy game with nothing but word-of-mouth marketing. It has become the first German-style title to make the leap from game-geek specialty stores to major retailers like Barnes & Noble and Toys "R" Us.

Settlers is now poised to become the biggest hit in the US since Risk. Along the way, it's teaching Americans that board games don't have to be either predictable fluff aimed at kids or competitive, hyperintellectual pastimes for eggheads. Through the complex, artful dance of algorithms and probabilities lurking at its core, Settlers manages to be effortlessly fun, intuitively enjoyable, and still intellectually rewarding, a potent combination that's changing the American idea of what a board game can be.

Klaus Teuber took four years to create what some have called the perfect board game.
Photo: Baerbel Schmidt

Board games have been around for millennia: 5,500-year-old examples have been found in Egypt, playing cards were imported to Europe from the Muslim world in the 1300s, and chess has existed in its modern form for at least 500 years. But the mass-market board games we know today were born during the Great Depression, when Monopoly took off in the US. Over the years, new icons were established: Candy Land in 1949, Risk in 1959, Battleship in 1967.

Board games have continued to thrive for a simple reason: Whether for adults or children, they are—like poker nights, softball games, and bowling leagues—an excuse to hang out and interact with friends and family. As Jesper Juul, a ludologist, or game expert, at MIT explains, they create a communal experience that brings people together. Who won the last time and how, some interesting tactic, or a particularly remarkable stroke of luck all produce a shared memory.

Yet in the US, only a few types of games have really taken off. There are so-called lifestyle games, like Scrabble and chess, intellectual skill-based games whose devotees are interested in playing little else; party games like Trivial Pursuit and Jenga; and traditional strategy games like Risk and Monopoly, which are generally seen as child's play or possibly something to do while trapped in a snowstorm without power—just before you eat your own foot.

But part of the reason we don't play much Risk and Monopoly as adults is that those are actually poorly designed games, at least in the German sense. Derk Solko, a garrulous former Wall Streeter who cofounded the Web site BoardGameGeek.com in 2000 after discovering Settlers, explains it this way: "Monopoly has you grinding your opponents into dust. It's a very negative experience. It's all about cackling when your opponent lands on your space and you get to take all their money." Monopoly, in fact, is a classic example of what economists call a zero-sum game. For me to gain $100, you have to lose $100. For me to win, you have to be bankrupt. Gouging and exploiting may be perfect for humiliating your siblings, but they're not so great for relaxing with friends.

Monopoly also fails with many adults because it requires almost no strategy. The only meaningful question in the game is: To buy or not to buy? Most of its interminable three- to four-hour average playing time (length being another maddening trait) is spent waiting for other players to roll the dice, move their pieces, build hotels, and collect rent. Board game enthusiasts disparagingly call this a "roll your dice, move your mice" format.

Unfortunately, Monopoly still dominates. "It's the Microsoft of our world," Solko says. "If I could wave a magic wand and replace all the copies of Monopoly out there with Settlers, I truly think the world would be a better place."

German-style games, on the other hand, avoid direct conflict. Violence in particular is taboo in Germany's gaming culture, a holdover from decades of post-World War II soul-searching. In fact, when Parker Brothers tried to introduce Risk there in 1982, the government threatened to ban it on the grounds that it might encourage imperialist and militaristic impulses in the nation's youth. (The German rules for Risk were hastily rewritten so players could "liberate" their opponents' territories, and censors let it slide.)

Instead of direct conflict, German-style games tend to let players win without having to undercut or destroy their friends. This keeps the game fun, even for those who eventually fall behind. Designed with busy parents in mind, German games also tend to be fast, requiring anywhere from 15 minutes to a little more than an hour to complete. They are balanced, preventing one person from running away with the game while the others painfully play out their eventual defeat. And the best ones stay fresh and interesting game after game.

Teuber nailed all these traits using a series of highly orchestrated game mechanics. Instead of a traditional fold-out board, for example, Settlers has the 19 hexagonal tiles, each representing one of five natural resources—wooded forests, sheep-filled meadows, mountains ripe for quarrying. At the beginning of every game, they're arranged at random into an island. Next, numbered tokens marked from 2 to 12 are placed on each tile to indicate which dice rolls will yield a given resource. Because the tiles get reshuffled after every game, you get a new board every time you play.

The idea is that players establish settlements in various locations on the board, and those settlements collect resource cards whenever the token number for the tile they are sitting on gets rolled. By redeeming these resource cards in specific combinations (it takes a hand of wood, brick, wheat, and wool to build a new settlement, for instance), you expand your domain. Every settlement is worth a point, cities are two points, and the first player to earn 10 points wins. You can't get ahead by rustling your opponents' sheep or torching their cute wooden houses.

One of the driving factors in Settlers—and one of the secrets to its success—is that nobody has reliable access to all five resources. This means players must swap cards to get what they need, creating a lively and dynamic market, which works like any other: If ore isn't rolled for several turns, it becomes more valuable. "Even in this tiny, tiny microcosm of life, scarcity leads to higher prices, and plenty leads to lower prices," says George Mason University economist Russ Roberts, who uses Settlers to teach his four children how free markets work.

Wheeling and dealing turns out to be an elegant solution to one of the big problems plaguing Monopoly—sitting idle while other players take their turns. Since every roll of the dice in Settlers has the potential to reap a new harvest of resource cards, unleash a flurry of negotiations, and change the balance of the board, every turn engages all the players. "The secret of Catan is that you have to bargain and sometimes whine," Teuber says.

Teuber also made the game as flexible as possible, with numerous means of earning points. Building the longest road is worth two points, for instance, and collecting development cards (purchased with resource cards, these can offer a Year of Plenty resource bonanza or straight-up points) also brings you closer to victory. Having options like this is critical. The games that stand the test of time have just a few rules and practically unlimited possibilities, making them easy to learn and difficult to master. (Chess, for example, has 10¹²⁰ potential moves, far more than the number of atoms in the universe.)

Finally, the game is designed to restore balance when someone pulls ahead. If one player gets a clear lead, that person is suddenly the prime candidate for frequent attacks by the Robber, a neat hack that Teuber installed. Roll a seven—the most likely outcome of a two-dice roll, as any craps player knows—and those with more than seven resource cards in their hand lose half their stash, while the person who rolled gets to place a small figure called the Robber on a resource tile, shutting down production of resources for every settlement on that tile. Not surprisingly, players often target the settler with the most points.

In addition to deploying the Robber, players will usually stop trading with any clear leader. In tandem, these two lines of attack can reduce a front-runner's progress to a crawl. Meanwhile, lagging opponents have multiple avenues for catching up.

All of this means that players must use strategy and move smartly, but even flawless play doesn't necessarily lead to easy victory. This is why kids can play with adults, or beginners with experts, and everyone stays involved.

"When a lot of us saw it, we thought this was the definition of a great game," says Pete Fenlon, CEO of Mayfair Games, Settlers' English-language distributor. "In every turn you're engaged, and even better, you're engaged in other people's turns. There are lots of little victories—as opposed to defeats—and perpetual hope. Settlers is one of those perfect storms."

Settlers may be the Mona Lisa of the board game renaissance, but Teuber makes for an unlikely da Vinci. He's balding, slight, and surprisingly modest. Each year, he makes an appearance at the Spiel convention in Essen, Germany's board game mecca. At an autograph-signing session there in October, a small line of teenage boys, middle-aged women, and starstruck 9-year-olds clutched copies of Settlers for Teuber to sign. Dressed in sensible black shoes and a blue shirt, he was so soft-spoken that fans had to lean in closely to hear him when he signed their games. He hardly comes across as the rock star he has become.

Teuber got into board games for one main reason: to entertain his wife, Claudia. The two were married in 1973, and that same year they had their first son, Guido, and moved to western Germany so Teuber could fulfill his mandatory military service. Not knowing anyone in town left Teuber with a lot of free time. "We played chess, but my wife always lost—and that's no fun," he says. "So I looked around for things we could both play." This quest eventually lead Teuber to Germany's game culture and ultimately to creating games himself.

Though he spent a few years studying chemistry before going to work for his father's business, Teuber doesn't have the academic pedigree of the other big names in German board games. Reiner Knizia, for example, a prolific designer who has created hundreds of titles, holds a PhD in mathematics. Wolfgang Kramer, another frequent Spiel des Jahres contender, studied software engineering before deciding to make games full-time.

Teuber tends to build his games organically—introducing an element here, tweaking an element there—until he's developed a fast, balanced, refined experience. The end result, however, is every bit as mathematically intricate as those of his colleagues.

In 2006, Brian Reynolds, a founder of Maryland software company Big Huge Games and the programmer who developed the AI behind the addictive computer classic Sid Meier's Civilization II, set out to make an Xbox 360 version of Settlers. To help programmers develop the game's AI, Teuber spent months exploring the mathematics of his most famous creation, charting the probability of every event in the game. The odds of a six or eight being rolled are almost 1 in 3 for example, while the chance of a four being rolled is 1 in 12. There is a 2-in-25 chance of drawing a Year of Plenty development card. Teuber created elaborate logic chains and probability matrices in a complex Excel spreadsheet so the videogame developers could see how every possible move and roll of the dice—from the impact of the Robber to the odds of getting wheat in a given scenario—compared. The end result was a sort of blueprint for the game that gave Big Huge Games a head start and showed just how complex the underlying math was. "It was the biggest, gnarliest spreadsheet I had ever seen," Reynolds says.

But even with such a precise outline, success isn't easy to repeat. Teuber has now made millions of dollars with Settlers and its multitude of offshoots, but the glass trophy shelf in his Rossdorf studio is getting a bit dusty: He hasn't won a major German board game prize since 1997. When asked about this, he seems genuinely unperturbed. "I don't have a secret recipe," he says. "I'm really lucky to have discovered such a great game once."

Once may be enough. Settlers has become so successful in the US that other German-style games are starting to ride in its wake, even in the midst of the recession. New Mexico entrepreneur Jay Tummelson licenses, translates, and imports German mass-market hits like Carcassonne alongside more offbeat titles like Galaxy Trucker by Czech designer Vlaada Chvatil. His company, Rio Grande Games, sold half a million of these titles in 2008. "We're growing at 30 to 35 percent a year, compounded," he says. "In the US, most of my customers this year weren't my customers two or three years ago. They didn't know these games existed."

Even the mass-market giants are starting to pay attention. To make Monopoly more competitive with German-style games, new editions are reemphasizing an old rule that no one paid much attention to: If a player lands on a property and chooses not to buy it, that real estate immediately goes up for auction. This engages everyone at the board and pushes property into the mix much faster, cutting the 74-year-old game's playing time by more than half. "It makes the game more intense and much quicker," says Helen Martin, Hasbro's vice president of global marketing for Monopoly. "And we know that people who play that way play more often." Hasbro similarly revamped Risk to speed up play; new rules make winning the game possible in less than an hour.

Settlers still has a long way to go before it overtakes classics like Monopoly, though. Part of the problem is brand recognition: Monopoly has been a best seller since the '30s and has been played by more than 750 million people. When it comes to board games, familiarity is key: The average board game buyer, according to Hasbro, is a mom getting her kids a gift. She's not going to take a chance on something she doesn't know.

That makes it tough for a foreign import with an odd name. "Settlers isn't mass-market yet," says Michael Gray, Hasbro's senior director of product acquisition. "Could it be? Anything's possible. But Settlers can still take over an hour to play, and it has a lot of rules."

Teuber's plan for overcoming this challenge is, oddly enough, computers. He hopes that digital versions of Settlers will help conquer (sorry, liberate) the US market. He and his son Guido are convinced that moving the game online and onto platforms like Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS is the best way to win converts outside the board game world. The idea is that after getting to know the game and its rules on the PC and game consoles, people will be more likely to buy the analog version—still the most fulfilling and social Settlers experience—to play with friends.

In 2007, Teuber launched the English- language version of PlayCatan.com, an online community that draws 15,000 or more players a day from around the world. The US audience is the site's fastest-growing segment. That same year, Big Huge Games released a downloadable version of Settlers for Xbox 360. And a PC version of the game and its expansions will come out in English this spring featuring multiplayer and AI smart enough to challenge the strongest players.

Will it be enough to take on the likes of Hasbro and become the go-to game in every American's hall closet? That's certainly the plan. "The challenge is to stay at a high level for years, to catch up to Monopoly," Teuber says. "It's a very, very high goal. If we could come into the neighborhood, that would be great." Only a few billion wheat-for-sheep trades to go.

Andrew Curry (andrew@andrewcurry.com) wrote about re-creating the Pleistocene in issue 16.10.

Where Gadgets Go to Die: Facility Strips, Rips and Recycles

When gadgets die, they go to a place like the one pictured here — if they're lucky.

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency came under fire for allowing U.S. tech companies to export millions of pounds of hazardous, used electronics to Asian countries where they are recycling with a lot less environmental oversight.

Negative press, new e-waste legislation and a depressed economy are pressuring tech manufacturers into assuming far greater recycling responsibly to show they’re part of the green movement. As a bonus, domestic recycling lets them save some money on materials, such as precious metals, while they’re at it. Manufacturers who handle recycling responsibly in the United States work with professional facilities like this one, where old gadgets are dismantled using a part-man, part-mechanical process.

With 15 locations in the United States, Sims Recycling Solutions is one of the world’s largest electronics scrap recyclers. Pictured here is the "demanufacturing" center of the company's Roseville, California facility, where workers disassemble everything from printers, cameras and computers to Jumbotrons for their reusable materials. The facility receives roughly 150,000 pounds of used electronics a day.

Follow along for a photographic tour of the Sims facility, where you'll learn exactly what happens to unwanted gadgets as they're dismantled, their components sorted and their raw materials melted down for scrap.

Workers separate parts into bins based on their materials as well as whether they have metal in them, and, if so, what kind of metal. There are roughly 60 full-time workers at Sims who handle disassembly; the nature of their jobs require them to attend monthly, company-sponsored safety meetings. Parts that are too difficult to dismantle by hand are separated and sent to the onsite shredder for grinding and separation using various automated technologies.

"New" junk arrivals roll in on a conveyor belt, and workers throw the gadgets into their respective boxes. Sims employees say they occasionally receive some awesome antiques, such as the 8-bit Commodore 64 home computer.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

James Robinson, a senior associate at Sims, unscrews a server power supply box to remove hazardous waste, such as batteries and mercury switches, before shredding. This is one of the most difficult electronics to disassemble, because it contains large heat syncs that sometimes cause issues during the mechanical shredding process.

Video cards and motherboards are piled into this bin. Because of their complexity, having humans disassemble these circuit boards would be economically unwise for Sims; the cards will be torn apart with the factory's shredder. After being ground up, the material is automatically sorted into commodities.

Old, burned-out power supplies don't have to die alone.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Hard drives come here for recycling, too. They are shredded down to small pieces the size of a quarter.

Old desktop towers are piled on top of one another, awaiting disassembly. Workers manually remove the hazardous wastes — lithium-ion batteries and mercury switches — from the plastic housing. More complex materials, such as motherboards, are sent to the shredder for grinding and automatic disassembly.

Old routers don't just disappear. They end up at recycling facilities like this one, assuming you've recycled them responsibly.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Chips, ahoy! One-hundred percent, fat-free old chips are prized primarily for the gold contained in their connectors.

These dinky video adapters look like a waste, but there's precious metals in them thar connector pins. Put enough of them together, and you've got something valuable. Even the plastic wrappings are removed and recycled.

Notice that this container is blue? That's because it's in a tub marked hazardous materials. These batteries are sent either to a battery recycler to be reused or to a hazardous waste facility, where they're incinerated.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

It ain't a pretty picture, but cameras have to be recycled, too. Assuming consumers followed recycling instructions properly, they cleared out the memory of these cameras before sending them in.

Plenty of Mini DV tapes are coming in for recycling now that tapeless, memory-based camcorders are the new fad. Their plastic is removed for recycling. Tape goes either to a hazardous waste facility to be destroyed or a possible landfill, depending on its materials.

Yup, these are recycled, too. So you can stop saving them for coasters.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Spooky: Parts of the warehouse look like a printer mausoleum.

Even old, discarded energy meters end up here for recycling.

Broken glass gets separated and eventually shipped to a glass broker, who reconstitutes the glass for reuse.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Employees inspect the shredders, which perform the metal-reduction process before separation.

This chart summarizes the metal-separation process of the factory shredder. The waste falls into two shredders and then a granulator for grinding. A screen filters out the copper, and then magnets of varying strengths separate the steel and aluminum.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Metal scraps get shipped to their respective yards. Sims sells the metal to brokers, who eventually reuse it in new products.

This is what steel looks like after it's spit out of the separator. It looks pretty warped and messed up, but sure enough it's reusable.

These shredded computer boards contain plenty of precious metals.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Electric wires make a real mess, but there's plenty of copper in them, too.

Once again, plenty of precious metals here, too. Yes, it looks worthless, but the shredder collects between 4 to 12 ounces of gold per ton of shredded materials.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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Learn more about how to recycle e-waste.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Your Old Gadgets

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Your Old Gadgets

Survey Says: Workers Are More Worried About Their Colleagues Being Laid Off Than Themselves

When it comes to layoffs, the light always seems darker over your co-worker’s cubicle. A new employee confidence survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of company/job review site Glassdoor.com shows that 26 percent of respondents are concerned about being out of work in the next six months. That is up from 21 percent in the last quarter. But when asked about their colleagues, a full 44 percent said some of them wouldn’t last through the summer. You never think you are the one who is going to get fired until your boss calls you into his office for a little chat.

More than half of those surveyed, 57 percent, said that layoffs or planned layoffs had occurred at their companies the past six months. Other findings from the survey:

• 35 percent think their company’s outlook will improve over the next six months
• 51 percent think their company’s outlook will stay the same
• 36 percent of employees still expect a raise, down from 40 percent last quarter
• 39 percent are confident they could find another job with comparable pay and experience if they had to
• 70 percent would be willing to take on more projects and responsibities to keep their jobs
• 62 percent would be willing to work longer hours to keep their jobs
• 40 percent would be willing to take a pay cut
• 35 percent would be willing to accept reduced health or dental benefits
• 34 percent would take an unpaid leave of absence to save their jobs longterm
• 30 percent would give up vacation time

Interesting what people value the most. More people would take a pay cut before giving up health benefits or vacation time. What would you give up to keep your job? Full survey results embedded below:

Glassdoor Employee Confidence Survey 1Q09 - Get more Business Plans

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: Gizmodo | 2 Apr 2009 | 3:12 am

Conficker.C appears on schedule, but only as a whisper - Ars Technica

New York Daily News

Conficker.C appears on schedule, but only as a whisper Ars Technica It's April 1—do you know where Conficker is? The worm's reactivation date has passed relatively quietly, but security researchers warn that the worst could still be coming. Conficker May Be More Widespread Than Previously Thought PC World Conficker: What Happens After April 1? ChannelWeb PC Magazine - Wall Street Journal - msnbc.com - eWeek all 2,453 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Apr 2009 | 2:45 am

Skype's iPhone limits irk some consumer advocates - USA Today

New York Times

Skype's iPhone limits irk some consumer advocates USA Today By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY Apple's (AAPL) unique treatment of the new Skype Internet calling feature on the iPhone - the free app works only on Wi-Fi, not the cellular or 3G network - is raising concern among public-policymakers and consumer advocates ... Review: Skype finally does VoIP right on the iPhone Ars Technica Analyst Ponders Multiple Versions of Next-Gen iPhones PC World CNET News - eWeek - FOXBusiness - CNNMoney.com all 831 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Apr 2009 | 2:44 am

Google Bans Tethering App From Android Market

narramissic writes "Maybe Android and the Android Market aren't so open after all. A developer who contributed to the WiFi Tether for Root Users app reports that Google has banned the application from the Android Market. The developer writes in his blog that Google cited a section of the developer agreement that says that Google may remove applications if they violate the device maker's or the operator's terms of service. T-Mobile, the only operator to offer an Android phone, expressly forbids tethering phones to a computer. This incident raises some interesting questions, the developer notes in his blog. 'Does this mean that apps in the Market have to adhere to the ToS for only T-Mobile, even when other carriers sign on? Will all apps have to adhere to the ToS for every carrier that supports Android phones?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 2 Apr 2009 | 2:33 am

Texas to Windows Vista: Keep Walkin'? (PC World)

PC World - "I have read a lot about the problems they have with this particular software."
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Apr 2009 | 2:26 am

Now Hear This: Palm Pre Mojo SDK Open

Yo mang, jonesing to to develop some dollar menu applications for the Palm Pre? Now's your chance. Starting now you can put your application in for the Mojo SDK over at the Palm developer site.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Source: Gizmodo | 2 Apr 2009 | 1:30 am

Palm expands developer circle, announces emulator for old apps

Palm has made its webOS “Mojo” SDK more widely available, after releasing it some time ago to a select group of developers. You might want to check your email if you didn’t make the first cut. Of course, there’s other news that might just obsolete your ideas for a webOS app altogether: MotionApps will be releasing a program called “Classic,” which will emulate the old Palm apps — but it won’t be free. Still, it’s a good security blanket for those a little unsure about taking the plunge. What am I talking about, who’s afraid of switch from PalmOS?

Palm also mentioned some stuff about cloud services, but do you really want to know about that?

Check out the full press release below:

Palm Extends webOS Early Access Program for Developers

Company Reveals Expanded SDK Program, Plans for Integrated Cloud Services, and Palm OS Emulator Application from MotionApps at Web 2.0 Expo

Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco 2009

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Here at the Web 2.0 Expo, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) today revealed additional details regarding its developer program for the new Palm® webOS™ platform. In a keynote address, Palm’s senior vice president of Application Software and Services, Michael Abbott, said that Palm is expanding its early access program for the Palm Mojo Software Development Kit (SDK), and discussed the company’s plans for integrating cloud services into the new platform. Palm also today announced an application from MotionApps that will allow legacy Palm OS® applications to run on webOS devices.

The Mojo SDK, previously available only to a select group of partners, will be provided to a broader set of interested developers that apply for access to the program at the Palm Developer Network website (http://developer.palm.com). Access to the program initially will be limited as the tools and systems continue to be refined and improved, with general availability scheduled for later this year.

“Developers are an incredibly important part of the webOS ecosystem, and we’re eager to get the SDK into their hands,” said Michael Abbott, senior vice president, Application Software and Services, Palm, Inc. “Now that the SDK will be available to a broader base of developers, we think the enthusiasm for webOS will only grow and accelerate. We’re very excited to work with developers to make this unique development environment even better.”

With Mojo, developers have the ability to integrate their applications into core webOS functionality, such as linked contacts, layered calendars, multitasking, notifications and GPS capabilities.(1) webOS applications run natively on the device. They don’t depend on any server connection to run and can cache data locally. Providing developers with the freedom to integrate unique webOS functionality and services into their applications paves the way for a rich catalog of innovative offerings for webOS users.

Palm webOS is a new kind of mobile platform. Standard web technologies, such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS, are deeply integrated into the webOS architecture, enabling a much broader developer community to easily create compelling applications. The ability to customize webOS applications will appeal to developers and ultimately benefit consumers with a unique and differentiated user experience.

“webOS makes mobile application development incredibly easy – we were able to get a version of Pandora running in no time,” said Tom Conrad, chief technology officer, Pandora. “And because webOS has true multitasking capabilities, Pandora runs elegantly in the background while you’re using other applications. The unobtrusive notification bar lets you know what’s currently playing, and allows you to pause and play without having to go back into the application. It’s an incredibly powerful and flexible platform.”

“The webOS functionality and integration opportunities provide a richer experience for moviegoers on the go,” said Ted Hong, chief marketing officer for Fandango. “With Fandango’s webOS application, you can watch trailers and buy tickets, pick your showtime, which is automatically added to your calendar, then get directions to the theatre, and easily forward the showtime to friends or family. You can even create a reminder to let you know when a specific movie is opening so that you can buy tickets in advance on Fandango. The webOS technology helps further our goal of making moviegoing experience as convenient as possible.”(1)

Integrated Cloud Services

Palm also announced that it would deploy its first Palm branded cloud service. Cloud services are software resources provided over the Internet. These services can deliver direct benefits to the end user, such as giving them access to their favorite web applications, or can be incorporated by developers into their applications to enhance the end-user experience.

When the Mojo SDK is broadly released later this year, it will include a developer-facing offering called the Mojo Messaging Service, an XMPP publish/subscribe service. The Mojo Messaging Service is an elegant, standards-based way to exchange information over the Internet. When new information is available, it is “published” to the cloud and all interested parties who are subscribers are notified that new information is available. This will allow developers to push live content to their applications or services. The Mojo Messaging Service initially will have a limited feature set and service level that will evolve over time.

Palm OS Emulator Application

Palm also announced that MotionApps (www.motionapps.com) is creating an emulator application that will allow most Palm OS applications to run on webOS devices. The application, called “Classic,” will be available for purchase when the Palm Pre™ phone becomes available from Sprint in the first half of 2009, and gives users peace of mind as they transition to Palm’s new webOS.

Since Palm OS applications running in Classic won’t be able to leverage core webOS functionality, Palm is working with partners to ensure that popular Palm OS applications are made available on the webOS platform and are optimized to take advantage of everything it has to offer. In the meantime, the MotionApps Classic application will allow customers who have invested in the Palm OS platform to use Palm OS applications they’ve grown to love and depend upon on their new webOS devices.

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Source: MobileCrunch | 2 Apr 2009 | 1:03 am

Network Hard Disk by Western Digital Offers Easy Backup [Personal Technology]

External hard disks that can be attached directly to a home network for use by multiple computers have been around for a few years now. They’re valuable tools, making it likelier that all your files on every machine will be backed up, and allowing music, photos, videos and other files to be accessible all over the house.

But, unlike external drives that just plug into a single PC, these stand-alone, networked hard disks have tended to be techie products. Too often, they require a deeper familiarity with networking and file-sharing procedures than most folks possess. And some are aimed only at Windows or only at Macs, leaving out mixed-machine households.

Now, there’s a new networkable hard disk that, in my tests, proved so simple that anyone who can plug in a cable can use it, with no setup or knowledge, provided your computers have the most current operating systems. It works concurrently and seamlessly with both Windows PCs and Macs, and can even stream music to Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes program installed on either platform.

In addition, it can stream music, photos and videos to a TV, if you have a compatible add-on box attached, such as an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Its contents also can be accessed over the Internet from any major Web browser.

The product is the My Book World Edition, from Western Digital (WDC). This second version of the World Edition sells for $230 for a model with a capacity of one terabyte (roughly 1,000 gigabytes) and $450 for two terabytes. It’s available from various retailers, or at westerndigital.com.

Western Digital’s new My Book World Edition

The My Book World Edition isn’t flawless. Its Internet remote-access feature isn’t great, and it’s more complicated to use on computers running older operating systems, like Windows XP or Apple’s Tiger. It’s also sluggish with older PC hardware. But for its basic functions — backup, centralized file storage and sharing, streaming of music and other media — the My Book World Edition is simple and speedy on relatively new computers with current operating systems.

I tested the My Book on my home network, using several Macs running Apple’s Leopard operating system, as well as Windows PCs from Dell (DELL), Sony (SNE) and Lenovo. Some of the latter were running Vista, some XP and one was using the prerelease version of the new Windows 7 operating system. I also tested it with an Xbox 360.

To start, I just plugged the My Book into an electrical outlet and connected it to my home network’s router with a standard networking (Ethernet) cable. Almost immediately, all of the Macs, and all of the Windows PCs running Vista or Windows 7, displayed an icon called MyBookWorld, making it appear like a regular hard disk on the computer.

Opening the icon revealed two folders, one called Download and one called Public. The latter folder contained three subfolders: Shared Music, Shared Pictures and Shared Videos.

Without installing drivers or any other software, I could copy files onto the My Book from the Windows PCs and Macs. I copied some Microsoft Word and PDF documents, plus several hundred songs, photos and videos. This copying process went quickly, almost as quickly as with a directly connected hard disk. And I was able to open, display or play the files on the My Book on all of my test machines, Mac and Windows.

Then, I opened Apple’s iTunes on all my test machines, and discovered a MyBookWorld entry on the left-hand side, from which I could play the songs on the shared drive. In the case of songs from the iTunes store, however, the machine had to be registered to my iTunes account.

Next, I installed Western Digital’s backup program on several of the computers. It comes in Windows and Mac versions, works automatically, and allows you, via a simple interface, to select which folders or which types of files you want backed up automatically. It worked fine.

For my tests, I then hooked up an Xbox to my TV set, navigated to the media section of the Xbox, selected My Book from a list as my media source, and was able to play on the TV all music, display all photos and watch any videos that were compatible with the Xbox.

I also tried accessing my files over the Internet from remote PCs and Macs, using a free service Western Digital offers called MioNet that merely requires a Web browser. It worked on Windows and Mac, but it was so slow as to be painful, so I would only count on it in emergencies.

I also don’t recommend buying the My Book for use with older PCs running Windows XP. With XP, the shared drive isn’t immediately visible; you have to install the included software to get it to show up. That’s not a big deal on a newer XP computer, but on an older XP laptop I tried, that installation was painfully slow, and so was using the My Book.

When used with modern operating systems, though, the My Book World Edition is the simplest, speediest networkable hard disk I’ve tried.

Source: Gizmodo | 2 Apr 2009 | 1:00 am

Vodafone’s Betavine R&D Lab introduces “easy as pie” Mobile Widget platform, developer contest underway

What do you get when you mix HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Opera, select cell phones (for now) and a Vodafone Group’s R&D lab, Betavine? Mobile Widgets!

For anyone who has ever wanted to develop a mobile web-app but lacked the specific technical skills, Betavine’s new Mobile Widget platform may just be what you’ve been waiting for.

So what is a Mobile Widget? Betavine defines them as:

Essentially, Widgets are the new touchpoint for how users will access the internet on their mobiles. They are mini Web applications that reside on the phone but can be personalised to easily fetch relevant information from the web and present it to the user. They require a device to have a Web Run-Time (WRT) environment which enables them to behave like applications (rich GUI, can be used offline) yet are as easy to code and update as a mobile internet browser site. Consequently, widgets can deliver relevant, ‘always on’ services to users – they are typically based on 1-2 use cases, for instance, a simple weather forecast or an Amazon search feature.

Take Carsonified’s “Slimline Twitter Search” Mobile Web Widget, Twiggy, for example (screenshots above). Ryan Carson and Co. built Twiggy in just 4 days (as opposed to the multiple weeks and/or months that a “full” app might take). Twiggy “is a simple mobile widget that allows you to search Twitter, right from your phone.” According to Carson, Mobile Widgets like Twiggy are the future of mobile app development:

The importance [of Mobile Widgets] is that [they] offer web developers and designers a whole new market to build for: non-iPhone devices (1M+ and growing). Also, the widgets, because they’re built in open web technology (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) will work on any device that has the Web Run Time. There is an exciting initiative called BONDI which is helping all the device manufactures agree on a set of API’s that will be consistent across all devices, that will give mobile widget developers access to device level functionality, like location and contacts. This means someone could build a mobile widget and it would work on a huge array of devices.

Furthermore, Vodafone (via Betavine) is currently offering mobile developers a chance to win £20,000 in its new mobile widget contest. Not only do they walk home with that hefty chunk of change, but:

The winner will receive a commitment from Vodafone to promote the widget to users in one of Vodafone’s major markets. Two runners up will also receive a £1,000 cash prize.

All developers submitting widgets will also have an opportunity to make their entries available through the Vodafone Widget Manager Beta application, which is currently being rolled out across a range of 10 popular S60 handsets in Germany, Italy, South Africa, Spain and the UK.

The competition started began back on Feb. 2 and runs through April 30, 2009. For specific rules and more detailed information, head on over to the Betavine contest site. What are you waiting for? Start Mobile Widgeting!

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:55 am

Vodafone’s Betavine R&D Lab introduces “easy as pie” Mobile Widget platform, developer contest underway

What do you get when you mix HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Opera, select cell phones (for now) and a Vodafone Group’s R&D lab, Betavine? Mobile Widgets!

For anyone who has ever wanted to develop a mobile web-app but lacked the specific technical skills, Betavine’s new Mobile Widget platform may just be what you’ve been waiting for.

So what is a Mobile Widget? Betavine defines them as:

Essentially, Widgets are the new touchpoint for how users will access the internet on their mobiles. They are mini Web applications that reside on the phone but can be personalised to easily fetch relevant information from the web and present it to the user. They require a device to have a Web Run-Time (WRT) environment which enables them to behave like applications (rich GUI, can be used offline) yet are as easy to code and update as a mobile internet browser site. Consequently, widgets can deliver relevant, ‘always on’ services to users – they are typically based on 1-2 use cases, for instance, a simple weather forecast or an Amazon search feature.

Take Carsonified’s “Slimline Twitter Search” Mobile Web Widget, Twiggy, for example (screenshots above). Ryan Carson and Co. built Twiggy in just 4 days (as opposed to the multiple weeks and/or months that a “full” app might take). Twiggy “is a simple mobile widget that allows you to search Twitter, right from your phone.” According to Carson, Mobile Widgets like Twiggy are the future of mobile app development:

The importance [of Mobile Widgets] is that [they] offer web developers and designers a whole new market to build for: non-iPhone devices (1M+ and growing). Also, the widgets, because they’re built in open web technology (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) will work on any device that has the Web Run Time. There is an exciting initiative called BONDI which is helping all the device manufactures agree on a set of API’s that will be consistent across all devices, that will give mobile widget developers access to device level functionality, like location and contacts. This means someone could build a mobile widget and it would work on a huge array of devices.

Furthermore, Vodafone (via Betavine) is currently offering mobile developers a chance to win £20,000 in its new mobile widget contest. Not only do they walk home with that hefty chunk of change, but:

The winner will receive a commitment from Vodafone to promote the widget to users in one of Vodafone’s major markets. Two runners up will also receive a £1,000 cash prize.

All developers submitting widgets will also have an opportunity to make their entries available through the Vodafone Widget Manager Beta application, which is currently being rolled out across a range of 10 popular S60 handsets in Germany, Italy, South Africa, Spain and the UK.

The competition started began back on Feb. 2 and runs through April 30, 2009. For specific rules and more detailed information, head on over to the Betavine contest site. What are you waiting for? Start Mobile Widgeting!

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: MobileCrunch | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:52 am

4 April Fools’ video game pranks you can play on friends

FROM GAMERTELL - If you’re looking for tricks to pull on your gamer friends this April Fools, Gamertell has you covered with four possible pranks you can put into action.
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Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:41 am

Microsoft Asks Fed For Bailout

snydeq writes "Microsoft requested on Tuesday some $20 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, claiming that as the company controls an overwhelming share of the OS market, it is too big to fail. Low adoption rates for Vista, the ensuing ad campaign trying to convince people that they really do like Vista, and the increased need for development resources to rush Windows 7 to market to make people forget about Vista have necessitated the bailout, the company said. "We want to make it absolutely clear that this is not a crisis of mismanagement," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a prepared statement. "This is simply a crisis of dollars — a crisis of not having enough dollars coming our way.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:41 am

CTIA09: Hands-on with the Motorola Evoke QA4, with video

Long time MobileCrunch readers may know that I have a bit of an aversion to Motorola. They’ve never done anything wrong to me, personally - it’s just that every handset they’ve released in the past 4 years is a mundane, haphazard piece of garbage. However, I’m glad (though a bit reluctant) to say that they’ve strayed from this path with the Evoke QA4; it has its flaws - but as far as phones that tiptoe the line between smartphone and featurephone go, the QA4 seems pretty nifty. Check out our impressions and the full hands-on demo video after the jump.

The main screen is primarily dedicated to a widget panel, which always show one of seven widgets (Myspace, USA Today, RSS feeds, Google Search, Weather, Picasa, and Youtube). Hopping from one to the other is a matter of a quick finger slide, and any panel you don’t find yourself using often can be disabled within the settings. Unfortunately, the Motorola rep said the seven widgets that come out of the box are all that we can expect; they don’t currently plan to release any new ones, nor open up development to others.

Our main fault with it is that they went with a number pad for the slide out layer, rather than QWERTY. If you’re going to bulk it up with a slider layer, at least make it a keypad that can’t be almost faultlessly replicated on a touchscreen. Beyond that, it seemed like a decent piece - the slider was smooth, and the touchscreen was responsive. The silver bezel around the face seems gaudy, but we’ll write that one off as a personal nitpick.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:35 am

Palm Opens Early Access Program For Pre SDK

Today at the Web 2.0 Expo Keynote, Palm’s Michael Abbott has taken the stage to walk the audience through some of the principles driving Palm’s webOS platform, which will drive its upcoming Pre phone, which CrunchGear first revealed back in January.

Abbott notes that on the webOS Platform, developers can run applications using HTML, JavaScript, and can access data from hardware on devices, including location and the accelerometer. He says that webOS spans the device and the cloud, and that web applications can run natively on the platform even without internet connectivity. “So why is Palm here”?

Abbott says Palm wants to expose the web environment to developers. Today they’re launching developer.palm.com, giving developers early access to the SDK. The program will only be available to a limited number of developers to begin with, and Palm has not announced when it will be generally available to developers.

There was some speculation that Palm might announce the release date for the Pre, which it has previously said would be some time in the first half of 2009. Unfortunately, the actual release date and pricing point for the phone remain a mystery.

From the Palm blog:

We are happy to announce our new early access program for developers interested in creating applications for the Palm webOSTM. The early access program is an opportunity for developers to test-drive and provide feedback on the Palm MojoTM SDK prior to its public release.

Admission to the program is by application – we’ll admit a small group of developers to start and gradually increase the size of the program as the tools mature. We’d like to let everyone in, but we want to make sure that we can provide a solid development experience and attentive developer support before we scale up. We are eager to get the SDK into developers’ hands and will expand the program as quickly as we can.

The program will continue until the SDK is officially released to the public, at which point any developer will be free to download the SDK. No, we’re not announcing the date that will happen yet.

If you wish to to apply to the early access program, complete and submit this application form.

If you’re admitted into the program, you’ll be able to download the Mojo SDK, which includes the tools you need to develop and test apps for the webOS platform. You’ll also have access to the early access program portal, where you’ll find documentation, sample code, and community forums where you can share experiences, tips and tricks with fellow early access developers. Because this is early access, all program participants will be required to accept an SDK Agreement which will require you to maintain confidentiality until the end of the early access program.

We are very excited about the expansion of access to the SDK, and can’t wait to see what you are going to build.

For more, see this post on the Palm blog.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:29 am

Web 2.0 Expo: Location Apps Come to Laptops, Desktops [Voices]

Is this the year that location-based applications, already popular among mobile users, migrate to desktops and laptops as well?

Ryan Sarver, director of consumer products at Skyhook Wireless, which operates a Wi-Fi-based positioning system, is betting so. “It feels like 2009 is a huge year for location on laptops,” he told the crowd of techies at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco Wednesday.

In a panel entitled “Adding ‘Where’ to Web Applications,” Sarver aimed to convince the audience that even regular old desktop software can be more useful if it’s geo-aware. Take local search. Today computer-users seeking the closest Starbucks (SBUX) might search for locations near their ZIP code, getting dozens of options. But if they search with a service that can detect their location, they can be instantly presented with the closest few locations they’ll actually consider going to.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:16 am

Is Office Finally Coming To The iPhone?

I’m here at the Web 2.0 Expo keynote, where Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division, hinted that we may be seeing Microsoft Office make its way to the iPhone some time soon. After his interviewer Tim O’Reilly caught him on the comment, Elop backtracked a bit, stating “not yet, keep watching”. But it’s clear that an iPhone version of Office is on his mind.

Rumors of an Office client for the iPhone have been circling for over a year, as users clamor for a way to edit their Word and Excel files on the go (the iPhone allows them to view them, but doesn’t include any editing functionality).

Unofficial editing suites are also on the way. Today saw the annoucement of QuickOffice, a suite of applications that can edit office files (though it has yet to be released). Also worth checking out is this spreadsheet application.

In other Office-related news, Elop said that Microsoft plans to launch an ad-supported online version of Office for the web, though it won’t be out this year. He also notes that of the 500 million people who use Office, only 250 million actually pay for it. When asked what Microsoft’s biggest fear concerning Office was, Elop said that it was afraid of innovation slowing down, explaining “It’s not about having bolding or underlining in the browser… The real threat is if we’re not continuing to innovate”.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch | 2 Apr 2009 | 12:01 am

Xiocom Wireless Appoints Jeff Spence as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors

ATLANTA, April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Xiocom Wireless, Inc., a global provider of integrated wireless broadband solutions, announced today the appointment of Jeff Spence as its Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:52 pm

CTIA 2009: Hands On With The Sony Ericsson T707

LAS VEGAS — Hey look, Sony Ericsson is still in business!

Yes unbelievable as it is, the somewhat maligned handset maker is still pumping out hardware. Its latest effort is the T707, a handset that despite having no real smartphone capabilities, still has a few cool features.

"Some people just want a phone that simply makes calls," says Sony Ericsson's Jon Mulder.

Yep the T707 makes calls. It also has a couple of other quirky features like gesture control which allows you to hang up on fools with a quick shake of the phone. Integrated into the device is also a subtle LED that flashes red when your boss or someone from the office calls or green when it's one of your pals.   

Sony Ericsson reports that they're hard at work on a device that will flaunt Android for an OS. They just have to "get the hardware and software just right with a Sony Ericsson skin," reports Mulder. 

Sony Ericsson press barf after the jump.

Photo: Danny Dumas/Wired.com

Light up your life with Sony Ericsson's stylish new T707 mobile phone
26 March 2009

Add a touch of glamour to your day with the stunning new T707 mobile phone from Sony Ericsson. This innovative phone radiates style and glamour with its unique, eye-catching light effects and gesture control to guarantee you will never be left in the dark!

Miami, USA – 26th March 2009 – Sony Ericsson today announced its latest mobile phone, the T707, with tennis star and style icon Maria Sharapova, who perfectly epitomises the phone's sleek and elegant qualities.

The T707 truly interacts with the user – it lights up when you receive a call and you can personalise the light settings to each of your friends, so you always know who wants you. If you are too busy to answer, simply end the call with a wave of your hand over the screen – you can also do the same gesture to snooze the alarm – your very own magic wand!

"The T707 is my ultimate new accessory," said Maria. "I am always on the go and I need a phone that is easy to use, and of course chic as well! I never miss a call with the eye-catching light effects and personalised pulsation settings and I love the fact that I can just wave my hand to mute a call using the gesture control. I can also use my practical and stylish Bluetooth™ Headset HBH-PV715 to take my calls, check my emails and blog to my website from the phone. It's great to have a phone that looks good but also lets me keep up-to-date with everything I need."

Perfect pixels for every pose
Coordinate the T707 to any outfit, as it comes in a rainbow range of three clam shells to suit every mood. Whatever you wear will be perfectly captured by the 3.2 megapixel camera, making sure that you stand out on screen as much as you do in real life. The photos can then be uploaded to your personal social networking site using the HTML web browser, so you and your friends can keep up to date wherever you are.

Customise your phone like your clothes
With the T707 you will never be left behind in the style stakes, as the 2.2 inch screen is waiting to be customised to your individual taste. The changing wallpaper themes will ensure that you are never caught wearing clashing colours! The theme also changes from day into evening, which is perfect if, like Maria, you need to match with everything from tennis whites to a little black dress.

Packed with extras, as one option is never enough…
This is one accessory you will never leave home without as the T707 packs in more extras than even your handbag. The FM radio and Bluetooth™ audio streaming will entertain you when you are out and about, and you can download music, games and ringtones at the touch of a button with PlayNow™ to ensure that boredom is something which happens to other people!

"The T707 is the next step in the style evolution from Sony Ericsson," said Linda Schori, Global Marketing Business Manager for Style Category, Sony Ericsson. "Maria Sharapova is the perfect partner for us as she exemplifies not only elegance but also substance, just like the T707. It works hard and is also sleek, glamorous and desirable – a truly winning combination!"

Maria knows that all eyes will be on her this season and thanks to her new T707; she can rest assured that whatever she does, she will look stylish, glamorous and be in control of her life with just the wave of a hand.

The T707
The light of your life

• Unique pulsating notification and light effects
• Day and Night changing theme
• Gesture control for muting calls and alarm
• Capture moments with 3.2 MP camera

The T707 supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 2100. The
T707a supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100. The T707 will be available in selected markets from Q2 in the colours Mysterious Black, Spring Rose and Lucid Blue.

The Sony Ericsson T707 at a glance

Camera

* 3.2 megapixel camera
* Up to 3.2x digital zoom
* Photo fix
* Picture blogging
* Video blogging
* Video recording
* Video light

Music

* Media player
* Mega Bass™
* Album art
* PlayNow™
* TrackID™
* Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
* Music tones (MP3/AAC)

Web

* Access NetFront™ Web browser
* Web shortcut search key
* Web feeds
* Photo feeds

Communication

* Polyphonic ringtones
* Speakerphone
* Vibrating alert
* Video calling (main camera)

Messaging

* Email
* Exchange ActiveSync®
* Text messaging (SMS)
* Chat View
* Picture messaging (MMS)
* Predictive text input
* Sound recorder

Design

* Light effects
* Pulsating light notification
* Gesture control
* Day and Night changing theme
* Picture wallpaper
* Wallpaper animation

Entertainment

* Media
* YouTube™
* 3D games
* Motion gaming
* Java
* FM radio with RDS
* Video streaming
* Video viewing

Connectivity

* Bluetooth™ technology
* Modem
* Synchronization
* USB mass storage
* USB support

Organizer

* Alarm clock
* Calculator
* Calendar
* Flight mode
* Notes
* Phone book
* Stopwatch
* Tasks
* Timer

Location-based services

* Geo tagging of photos
* Google Maps™

Accessories

In-box:

* The T707
* Battery
* Charger
* Stereo Portable handsfree
* User documentation

Facts and Figures

* Size: 93 x 50 x 14.1 mm
* Weight: 95 grams

Colours:

* Mysterious Black
* Spring Rose
* Lucid Blue

Main screen

* Type: 262,144 colour TFT, scratch-resistant
* Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels
* Size: 2.2 inches

External screen

* Type: Monochromatic OLED, scratch-resistant
* Resolution: 128 x 36 pixels
* Size: 1.1"

* Phone memory: Up to 100MB

* Memory card support:
* Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)

* Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 10 hrs
* Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 400 hrs

* Talk time UMTS: Up to 4 hrs
* Standby time UMTS: Up to 400 hrs

* Video call time: Up to 2 hrs

Availability and versions

Networks
T707

* GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
* UMTS/HSDPA 2100

T707a

* GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
* UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:32 pm

Blizzard Shows Off Diablo III Archivist Class, WoW Dance-Off

It's been a busy day for the folks at Blizzard, who have released major announcements for several different games. The next Diablo III class has arrived: the Archivist. Despite their frail appearance and hunched, labored movement, they are quite deft at launching Quest Bolts at nearby foes, or conjuring a whirling Lore-nado of spinning books. Loud monsters can be silenced with a devastating Shush attack. Blizzard also put Starcraft II's latest unit on display, the Terra-Tron, which is a giant, robot uber-weapon assembled from the buildings in your base. Finally, for World of Warcraft they announced two features that have been requested by players for years: a battle of dances, where you can show off your avatar's hippest moves, and the ability to 'p1mp' your mounts. (Not sure exactly what that means, since I don't speak elvish, but there's a Nightsaber with a cannon — holy crap!)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:27 pm

CTIA mobile gems of 2009: Day 1

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Features, Trade Shows, CTIA

Welcome to Gadgetell’s round up of the hottest action coming from Las Vegas, Nevada’s CTIA show.  Opening day has been sprinkled some interesting developments, both at the show and those looking to preempt it a bit.  Here is what is happening today:

Blackberry App World

Blackberry (finally) launched its App store.  App World, brings together a bunch of apps users probably didn’t know existed and puts them in one place.  Bloggers have been arguing all day on whether or not this service is of any worth.  The store requires a PayPal account for now, trackball or touch screen and 4.2 OS.  Easy enough, right?

The store itself looks good.  200+ apps already in there.  Right now, apps are $2.99 and up.  To be as big a hit as Apple’s version?  We’ll see.

HTC Snap

Though it won’t be called that by HTC in the US (though I will be, I promise you that, HTC), this phone looks pretty snazzy.  Many have compared it to the BlackBerry Bold and for a Windows Mobile 6.1 phone coming this summer, it doesn’t look that bad.  Besides good looks, it’s got “Inner Circle” that culls your favorites messages to the top of your email.  Inner Circle is an interesting filtering concept that I am sure we are going to hear lots more about.

WiFi, AGPS/GPS, microSD, and more.  This, too, is one to watch.

Palm looks set to announce old apps are Pre apps!

Dieter from PreCentral says his tour of the Pre included an icon they didn’t mention that says, “Classic” which he infers to mean the webOS that runs on the Pre will emulate the old Palm OS so all those apps hanging around can run on the Pre immediately.  Could the Pre hit the ground running a 1000 apps strong?  Looks promising.

Nokia aims to identify everything with Point & Find

Nokia announced the beta version of their Point & Find program that aims to provide users with more information based on things they point their phone at.  The beta is releasing in the US (holy cow, Nokia cares about the US???) and the UK (phew!).

However, I am totally suspect:

“With Nokia Point & Find, businesses are able to target engaging experiences and calls-to-action to consumers,” said Philipp Schloter, general manager of Nokia Point & Find.

Ways to scam advertising dollars aside, Nokia’s got something here.  Similar to WikiTude that identifies landmarks via Wikipedia entries, Nokia’s scheme could have huge potential.  things like museums where users need only point their phone at the Mona Lisa to learn she is not smiling and in fact, not a her (guessing here).  I could see this idea working on many levels. 

Wait till you see what Day 2 brings!

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:24 pm

Adrollo Launches Dynamic Ad Network Platform For The iPhone

Since Apple’s App Store launched last July, a number of ad networks have emerged that allow iPhone developers to place advertising in their apps so that they can generate revenue, even when an application was initially sold for free. But as the number of ad networks available has increased, developers are being faced with a new problem: once they’ve deployed an application with a certain ad network, it’s tough to switch to a new one. Typically developers have to issue updates to their apps, which can take days or weeks to make it through Apple’s approval process.

Adrollo, a new service that launches today, is looking to help developers make this process more efficient, allowing them to switch between different ad networks on the fly without having to submit a new application to Apple. At launch the service has support for five different ad networks, with more on the way shortly.

After integrating Adrollo into their application, developers can view their current ad setup from the service’s web panel. From there they can specify which ad networks they’d like to rotate between and how often they’d like their ads to appear in their application. Developers can also set up Adrollo to automatically switch between all available ad networks, optimizing CPM rates to ensure that their apps are generating as much revenue as possible (it can also fill an ad unit when the current network runs out of inventory, which can be a problem on popular applications).

AdRollo - Free Your Ads from iPhone Developers on Vimeo.

Adrollo co-founder Sam Yam says that developers can make as much as twice as much money using the optimizations available on the platform. Yam acknowledges that there are a few other options for developers to pull ads from multiple ad networks, but that they come with their own issues. Some services aggregate ads from various networks on the server-side, then send them to the iPhone applications, but Yam says that these typically only support basic ads. Adrollo supports all ads served up by the networks, and also allows developers to include their own ads in their applications (for example, you could place an add for your premium app in the free ‘lite’ version).

Adrollo is going to be available to developers for free. Yam says that the company’s monetization plan is to eventually begin offering its own ad inventory, which will also be deployed through the platform.

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Source: TechCrunch | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:20 pm

No One Wants to Play Sega with Harrison Ford

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger. Artist Brandon Bird's website has many pleasures, including the lovely piece above these words, "No One Wants to Play Sega with Harrison Ford." I really wish this painting were mine. I'm so jealous of whoever owns it. A pity that all the prints are sold out, too. Maybe if enough people email him and want them, he'll do a new edition! Are you listening Brandon? Do not miss the "Letters to Walken" section of his site documenting an art project of Bird's that saw school children writing their annual Christmas letters to ... Christopher Walken. Thanks Lenora Claire!


Source: Boing Boing | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:18 pm

CTIA09: Hands-on gallery of the AT&T Nokia E71x

Original E71 on left, AT&T E71x on right

It seems a bit silly to do a full hands-on of the just announced Nokia E71x for AT&T, seeing as it’s essentially identical to the original E71 - which we’ve already given a thorough reviewing. Besides the obvious color difference (Black on black, rather than silver on white), the changes are somewhat trivial: it has Feature Pack 3 rather than Feature Pack 2 (which is just about the same thing, from the end user’s standpoint), AT&T’s standard service suite, and it lacks the FM radio of the x-less edition.

While there may not be all that much to write about it*, that doesn’t stop it from being pretty; we stopped by Nokia’s booth to give it a bit of lens time alongside the original E71 - check out the fully gallery below.

(If we did have one thing to say about it, it’d be: holy crap, fingerprints. We wiped this thing down a good 10 times during the photoshoot, but fingerprints are still visible in every shot. Maybe it’s the Vegas grime all over my hands, but I just couldn’t keep this thing clean.)

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:18 pm

Is Alcohol Killing Our Planet?

Andy_Spoo writes "Something that I've been trying to get an answer to: Is alcohol killing our planet? Alcohol is a byproduct of yeast, but another is CO2. As we all know (unless you've been asleep for years), CO2 is helping to warm our planet, sending us into destruction. So how much is the manufacture and consumption of alcohol contributing to the total world CO2 level? And don't forget that bars and pubs force beer through to their pumps using large compressed cylinders of CO2. Does anyone know?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Apr 2009 | 10:40 pm

Verizon Wireless sees Kindle-type e-readers coming (AP)

AP - Amazon's Kindle might soon be getting new competitors in the market for electronic-book devices.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Apr 2009 | 10:35 pm

Conficker Doomsday appears to be April Fools’ joke

Section: Computers, Security

As expected, today’s alleged Conficker doomsday turned out to be more of an April Fools’ joke.  The worm did phone home quietly, but no major attacks or events have happened.  Conficker did contact its control servers for an update, visiting 500 randomly generated domains to receive an update and further operating instructions.  Security experts aren’t sure if it was all just hype or if the minds behind the worm changed their plans due to all the publicity the April 1st date got.

April 1 is not the first time Conficker has been programmed to change the way it operates. Similar trigger dates have already passed with little change, including January 1, according to according to Phil Porras, a program director with SRI International. Security experts at Symantec, the maker of Norton Antivirus, also believe the threat is overblown and says Conficker today will “start taking more steps to protect itself” and “use a communications system that is more difficult for security researchers to interrupt.”

Fear not, however.  Microsoft has offered a $250,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the people responsible for Conficker, and several experts say they’ve found a flaw in the worm that makes it easier to detect and even interrupt.  But even with these breakthroughs, it still has the possibility of becoming a massive botnet that could flood us with even more spam or even attack government networks.  All Windows users are urged to keep their version of Windows and their anti-virus software fully updated.  It’s not something to put off.  Even if Conficker does prove harmless there are lots of other security threats out there and new ones arriving all the time.

Read [PCWorld]

Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 10:12 pm

Venture Money Dries Up for Clean Tech

With the economy in trouble, funding has dried up for green tech companies trying to bring new clean energy technologies to market, according to two new research reports.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Apr 2009 | 10:12 pm

New math formula might predict tsunamis

British mathematicians say they've created a formula that can be used to predict tsunamis and how destructive the tsunamis might become. Scientists at Newcastle University, led by Professor Robin Johnson, studied the 2004 tsunami that devastated coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand when an ocean earthquake triggered a long surface wave that resulted in six massive consecutive wave fronts. The third wave, the largest, reached a height of more than 65 feet and, among other things, lifted a train from its tracks along the Sri Lankan coastline, killing nearly 1,000 people. Johnson and Professor Adrian Constantin of the University of Vienna, said they discovered that the number and height of the tsunami waves hitting the shoreline depends critically on the shape of the initial surface wave in deep water. We have shown that it is possible to use the initial wave pattern to work out how the wave will evolve and, importantly, how it might interact with the complicated motions close inshore to produce the tsunamis that we experience, said Johnson.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 10:01 pm

Conficker worm reaches go time, to no effect (AP)

AP - The Conficker Internet worm's feared April Fools' Day throwdown for control of millions of infected PCs stirred lots of panic but came and went with a whimper.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:59 pm

TiVo Announces DVR-SuperAdvance

mark0 writes "TiVo has announced the TiVo DVR-SuperAdvance. The PC World review says, 'Familiar TiVo interface; DVR can record not-yet-broadcast programming; potentially useful as a wagering aid,' though, '[it is] expensive; access to programming is limited; footage is displayed in standard definition only.'" Hopefully, TiVo will supply a review unit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:54 pm

Feds Begin Post-9/11 Airline Watchlist Takeover

We should all feel safer, shouldn't we? The Transportation Security Administration is beginning to compare airline passenger names to the approximately 16,000 names on the TSA's two terror watchlists. The move begins to relieve airlines charged with doing the comparisons and comes six years after it announced the plan.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:53 pm

CTIA 2009: Hands on With the Nokia E71X

LAS VEGAS — When we first saw the precursor to this device, the E71, we were colored impressed. Actually more than impressed. The go anywhere, do anything handset became our favorite smartphone of 2008.

Now Nokia has tweaked the device a bit and will soon start selling it in US markets via AT&T. Dubbed the E71x, it carries a pricetag that's been reduced a bit. Down to $99 freaking dollars from the original unlocked E71's $485. So says Nokia phone maven Joe Gallo:

"Really, this is going to become a premier device with AT&T's great coverage and Nokia's fantastic functionality."

Marketing jive aside, the E71x does feel like a great device. Just like the E71 before it, the device has a substantial heft, slick keyboard and lovely 3.2 megapixel camera. Besides the fact that it will be locked to work on AT&T, we couldn't spot any other major differences between the E71 and E71x...besides that black steel color scheme that we're feeling extra creamy about.

The E71x will be available for a hundred bucks from AT&T probably around May.

Photo: Nokia 

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:52 pm

Verizon Wireless downplays Linux phones (AP)

AP - Verizon Wireless considers Linux-based software a possible long-term contender for use on its phones, but doesn't view it as a "preferred" solution, the carrier's head said.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:43 pm

Preponderance of Positrons Points to Dark Matter

Scientists have found an unexplained increase in the amount of positrons, electrons' anti-particle, bombarding the Earth that looks suspiciously like evidence for dark matter.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:37 pm

Vowing to Prevent 'Cyber Katrina,' Senators Propose Cyber Czar

U.S. lawmakers are proposing a cybersecurity czar to prevent what they call a looming "cyber Katrina" attack on the nation's computer infrastructure. The proposal follows the creation of a car czar and copyright czar during the past few months.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:30 pm

Ex-CEO of BetOnSports pleads guilty (AP)

AP - The former chief executive of BetOnSports pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal racketeering conspiracy, admitting that the Internet company falsely portrayed Web-based gambling as legal and caused customers to lose millions of dollars they'll likely never get back.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:23 pm

Fallen star SGI to sell most assets for $25M (AP)

AP - Silicon Graphics Inc. will sell the remaining shreds of its fraying franchise to Rackable Systems Inc. for $25 million, punctuating the downfall of a former high-tech star that once dazzled investors and customers with the prowess of its fancy computers.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:21 pm

Server Vendors Jump on Intel Xeon 5500 Bandwagon (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - A record number of server and workstation vendors are enthusiastically backing Intel's Xeon 5500 processor rollout, with the new chips already poised to launch in 230 different computing systems from Cisco, Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, NEC, Sun Microsystems, and other vendors.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:14 pm

IPv6 Over Social Networks

An anonymous reader writes "A new RFC has been published this morning to significantly speed the deployment of IPv6. With IPv6 over Social Network (IPoSN), '[e]very user is a router with at least one loopback interface,' and 'Every friend or connection between users will be used as a point-to-point link.' It is noted that latency on the network can be very high, though."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:03 pm

Butterfly Wings Can Be Both To Mates, Predators

Image Caption: Oliver found that the eyespots of some butterflies, such as this pair of mating Bicyclus anynana, serve to both attract mates and ward off predators. (Photo: William Piel)
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 9:00 pm

NASA Briefing To Provide Check-Up On Arctic Sea Ice

NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., will hold a media teleconference on Monday, April 6, at 11 a.m.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:57 pm

Unicorn Chaser beverage from ThinkGeek!

ThinkGeek has launched a fantastic new Boing Boing-inspired product, the Unicorn Chaser! Sadly though, they got their facts wrong about the creator of the Unicorn Chaser. They said "the brilliant minds at BoingBoing (esp. Cory Doctorow!) originated the concept for a Unicorn Chaser." Actually, it was Xeni. Our badass attorney will be in touch. So buy the beverage now before our C&D shuts 'em down! It'll be the best $2.99 you never spent. From the product description:

We've all been there. You are innocently Twit-blogging on the Interscape, logging a few hours on Facebook, or checking your e-mail and you click on a link without thinking. Suddenly, you are confronted with an image or video so horribly nauseating it makes your eyes bleed. Whether it be pictures of someone's overstretched nether regions or a video of two young ladies sharing substances they oughtn't - your mind begs for cleansing (or a swift death)!...

Introducing, the Unicorn Chaser - a drink shot specially formulated to cleanse your mind and soul. Featuring a perfect blend of vitamins, herbs and minerals (each selected for its body purification, mood elevation, stomach calming, and other beneficial qualities), the Unicorn Chaser is a life saver. Chug it within one minute of viewing the offending internet image (really, as fast as possible) and in mere seconds you will begin to feel better. It won't erase your memory, but each Unicorn Chaser will pump you with enough goodness that it just won't matter. You'll be healed. You're welcome.

Think Geek's Unicorn Chaser beverage

Source: Boing Boing | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:49 pm

CTIA09: Hands-on with the HTC Snap

By all major counts, I should hate this phone. I don’t generally like candybar QWERTY phones, and I don’t like Windows Mobile 6.1. But somehow, HTC has brought both of these things together in a way that I really like.

The hardware itself is rock solid; it’s well balanced and nicely weighted in the hand, and the 12mm profile looks deadly sharp.

The software is virtually identical to that of the HTC S743 - that is, it’s Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard with a few modifications, such as custom text messaging and weather applications amongst the sliding panels on the homescreen.

The camera booted up quickly, without much lag upon taking a photo. The speaker wasn’t the loudest we’ve ever heard - we could hear music playing back over the rumbles of the passing crowds in the Las Vegas Convention Center, but not very well. That’s an unfair metric, however - for most cases, it’s likely to be plenty loud.

The keyboard buttons were nearly perfect - they were sized and shaped well, but they were a bit too close together for our tastes. HTC went almost all the way to the edge with the keys to maximize the size - but as a result, the keys are a hairs width from touching each other. For clumsy typists like myself, this means the occasional double-key press. Fortunately, the large size of the keys makes up for it - after a few moments, we were blasting away like Mavis Beacon.

The flagship feature here is the “Inner Circle”, which allows one-button access to a whitelist of contacts you consider most important. Tap it at anytime, and it’ll pull up solely those emails which are from your preselected closest compatriots. There’s no noticeable lag in the process whatsoever. It seems well designed; it works across all of your active inboxes, and adding people to the white list can be done directly from an email, or manually from the Inner Circle application. When doing it the latter way, Inner Circle prints out all of the people you’ve ever communicated with - not just your address book contacts. Fortunately the search function is just a click away.

For a form factor we generally despise and a platform we avoid, we liked it far more than we expected to. Solid job, HTC.

Check out our fully gallery below.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:44 pm

Flame Retardants Are Concern To US Coastal Ecosystems

Health Care Concerns Also NotedNOAA scientists, in a first-of-its-kind report issued today, state that Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), chemicals commonly used in commercial goods as flame retardants since the 1970s, are found in all United States coastal waters and the Great Lakes, with elevated levels near urban and industrial centers. The new findings are in contrast to analysis of samples as far back as 1996 that identified PBDEs in only a limited number of sites around the nation.Based on data from NOAA’s Mussel Watch Program, which has been monitoring coastal water contaminants for 24 years, the nationwide survey found that New York’s Hudson Raritan Estuary had the highest overall concentrations of PBDEs, both in sediments and shellfish. Individual sites with the highest PBDE measurements were found in shellfish taken from Anaheim Bay, Calif., and four sites in the Hudson Raritan Estuary. Watersheds that include the Southern California Bight, Puget Sound, the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico off the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. coast, and Lake Michigan waters near Chicago and Gary, Ind. also were found to have high PBDE concentrations. “This is a wake-up call for Americans concerned about the health of our coastal waters and their personal health,” said John H. Dunnigan, NOAA assistant administrator of the National Ocean Service. “Scientific evidence strongly documents that these contaminants impact the food web and action is needed to reduce the threats posed to aquatic resources and human health.”PBDEs are man-made toxic chemicals used as flame retardants in a wide array of consumer products, including building materials, electronics, furnishings, motor vehicles, plastics, polyurethane foams and textiles since the 1970s. A growing body of research points to evidence that exposure to PBDEs may produce detrimental health effects in animals, including humans. Toxicological studies indicate that liver, thyroid and neurobehavioral development may be impaired by exposure to PBDEs. They are known to pass from mother to infant in breast milk.Similar in chemical structure to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, they have raised concerns among scientists and regulators that their impacts on human health will prove comparable. PBDE production has been banned in a number of European and Asian countries. In the U.S., production of most PBDE mixtures has been voluntarily discontinued.The NOAA Mussel Watch survey found that the highest concentrations of PBDEs in the U.S. coastal zone were measured at industrial and urban locations. Still, the chemicals have been detected in remote places far from major sources, providing evidence of atmospheric transport. Significant sources of PBDEs introduction into the environment include runoff and municipal waste incineration and sewage outflows. Other pathways include leaching from aging consumer products, land application of sewage sludge as bio-solids, industrial discharges and accidental spills.NOAA and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project have recently held meetings with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the California State Water Resources Control Board to discuss water quality monitoring of emerging contaminants. NOAA’s research and monitoring information found in this report will be used by relevant resource managers to better understand, assess and address the threats from PBDEs. NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. ---Image 1: National Distribution of 200X PBDE tissue concentration in parts per billion lipid weight (where 200X = between 2004 and 2007). Categories low (green dot), Medium (yellow dot), High (red dot) were determined by cluster analysis. (Credit: NOAA)Image 2: National Distribution of 1996 PBDE tissue concentration in parts per billion lipid weight. Categories low (green dot), Medium (yellow dot), High (red dot) were determined by cluster analysis. (Credit: NOAA)
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:41 pm

Final Podium winner announced, Dermis Skins for iPhone 3G contest still underway

FROM APPLETELL Appletell has finally determined the winner of the final Podium Stand for iPhone.  Now, if you didn’t win, your next opportunity is underway. Next week, we’ll be awarding four Dermis Skins MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:31 pm

Astronomers Find Hidden Exoplanet in Hubble's Dustbin

Astronomers in search of information on an exoplanet use an algorithm to comb through the Hubble Space Telescope's data archive to unearth an image taken in 1989. The technique could be used to uncover other planets in 200 similar Hubble data sets.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:30 pm

Recuperating Industrial Waste Heat

Tapping industrial waste heat could reduce fossil fuel demands in the short term and improve efficiency of countless manufacturing processes, according to scientists in Japan writing in the International Journal of Exergy.Lihua Zhang and Tomohiro Akiyama of Hokkaido University, Sapporo, explain that heat waste from industrial processes, such as combustion and electricity generation is sometimes of low energy and diffuse.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:29 pm

Looks like the Palm Pre will run PalmOS apps, too

Precentral has made a delightful discovery: It looks like the WebOS-powered Palm Pre will have official emulation to run old PalmOS apps.


Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:28 pm

News bits: LG, Optimus Prime and your TiVo is watching you

Section: Video, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray, Communications, Cellphones

Product Placement: LG and the Transformers sequel

The LG Dare will be playing the part of Optimus Prime in the next Transformers movie.  The move was made to allow for better product placement.  The idea is that kids would see the LG Dare version of Prime and want their own.

Alright, none of that is true, but LG has announced a deal with Paramount and Dreamworks where they LG will “launch a multi-faceted marketing campaign to promote the LG Mobile Phones brand and the overall theme of technology in the film.”  The “overall theme of technology?”  Sure, the Transformers is about a race of warring alien robots, but cell phones?  Expect a tie-in version of the LG Versa so you, too, can feel like an Autobot if Autobots used cell phones.  [Source]

TiVo is watching you

You know those reports from TiVo telling you what was the most watched commercial in the Super Bowl?  Well, that’s because they are sending all kinds of information from your DVR to its servers where they calculate all kinds of things so they can make reports.  Anyway, TiVo announced that its Stop||Watch (yes, it has two parallel lines in its name.  Maybe it’s a pause button?) service will now collect data from 300,000 TiVo users this fall.  The service used to collect data from 100,000.  The TiVo rating service probably doesn’t have the same sway as the Neilsen ratings, but perhaps they can influence what stays on television and what doesn’t.  [Source]

Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:26 pm

US To Host First Arctic-Antarctic Joint Session

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host the first joint session of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the Arctic Council next week.Slated to take place on April 6, the first-ever meeting is aimed at “bringing together the two most important bodies involved with diplomacy at the Poles,” according to a statement from the State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs.Nearly 400 diplomats, Antarctic program managers and logistics experts, and polar scientists from 47 countries, including 28 Consultative Parties with a scientific presence in the Antarctic are expected to meet and discuss issues such as environmental protection, the advancement of science, and the management of tourism, according to the statement.The meeting coincides with the 50th anniversary year of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, and at end of the International Polar Year.“Ministers and other high-ranking officials will discuss accomplishments of the International Polar Year, an international and interdisciplinary undertaking that has mobilized thousands of researchers from more than 60 countries, to work on more than 160 projects in the Polar Regions.”“U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:15 pm

Instant Messaging Vulnerable To New Smiley Attacks

titus writes "Security researchers Yoann Guillot and Julien Tinnes have found a way to encode malicious code into smileys and provided a proof of concept encoder to automate the process. The researchers said their discovery paves the way for IM malware that would be impossible to detect since the malicious code would be 'indistinguishable from genuine chat messages.' I've tested the proof of concept code which works very well. Time to panic?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:11 pm

Plant growth gene may shape global warming

British scientists say they have made a discovery about plant growth that might have an enormous impact on crop production as global warming increases. Researchers at the universities of Leicester and Oxford say they've identified a gene that's responsible for controlling plant growth in elevated temperatures. Dr.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 8:03 pm

CTIA09: Motorola Evoke QA4 likely to launch on US Cellular, as well

Yesterday, Cricket announced their plans to carry Motorola’s just disclosed Evoke QA4. What wasn’t announced, however, was whether US Cellular would also be carrying the device, as previous rumors had indicated. If the demo phones on the floor at CTIA are any indication, it just might.

We just met with Motorola for a quick hands on demonstration of the Evoke (video of which just so happens to be uploading now). After they’d handed it over to us, we accidentally powered the device off while learning to work it. For about 3 seconds while the device was booting, the US Cellular logo was on screen, clear as day. Alas, our camera had already found its way back into our pocket, and the logo was gone by the time we whipped it back out - but it was undeniably there.

Of course, this doesn’t absolutely mean it’s destined for the US’s 6th most popular carrier. It could have been a place holder, and plans might change - but as far as we can tell, it’s likely we’ll see it hit US Cellular within the next few months. Motorola, as expected, declined to speak about unannounced carrier plans.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Apr 2009 | 7:53 pm

Real-life Super Mario Rube Goldberg Machine

The 22nd Annual Rube Goldberg machine contest saw many fun attempts at comical inefficiency this year, including this Super Mario machine entry from engineers at Penn State. [via PopMech]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 7:44 pm

CO2 Emissions Absorbed By Underground Water

Researchers said on Wednesday that water deep below ground has safely trapped carbon dioxide for millions of years and may one day help absorb emissions of the greenhouse gas to help slow climate change, Reuters reported.Chris Ballentine, a researcher at the University of Manchester, who worked on the study, said the finding shows that such carbon capture and storage is possible provided scientists find an area where the geology is suitable.Therefore, researchers can locate ancient deep water systems miles below the surface to ensure gas doesn't escape back into the atmosphere."Clearly we want to bury carbon dioxide in the ground, that is a no-brainer," Ballentine said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 7:42 pm

Review: IE8 features good, but no need to switch (AP)

AP - I procrastinated for nearly two weeks before installing Microsoft Corp.'s new Web browser.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Apr 2009 | 7:39 pm

Science Advisor Warns World Population Exceeding Limits

The Earth’s population has exceeded its “limits of sustainability,” according to Nina Fedoroff, a highly influential science and technology advisor."We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can't support many more people," said Dr Fedoroff said, A National Medal of Science laureate, Fedoroff has advised the US secretary of state since 2007, when she began working with Condoleezza Rice.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Apr 2009 | 7:28 pm

Apple to release keyless keyboard

FROM APPLETELL - Apple has unveiled plans to release a keyboard that forgoes the standard QWERTY-style keyboard layout for a complete lack of keyboard layout.  Dubbed the iBoard, the device—to be available in both wired and wireless versions.
MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 7:21 pm

A look back at 5 fan-designed PSPs and what the designs tell Sony

FROM GAMERTELL - Gamertell looks back at five designers’ concept art for the PSP and PSP2, and looks at what system features or abilities fans want based on the designs. MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 6:56 pm

Man dances in public, videotapes self for 366 days straight "to do something new"

Richard Metzger is the current Boing Boing guest blogger. Meet Mike Long, a Canadian performance artist from Hamilton, Ontario. Mike freaky danced and taped himself doing so for 366 days straight, mainly in his hometown, but he includes NYC, SF and various European locales in his work. He has great taste in music and some of these videos are hysterically funny, reminding me a lot of Spike Jonze's classic Fatboy Slim video. Here is his interpretation of the Delta 5's "Mind Your Own Business": Mike says "I made a dance video, almost always in public places, every single day for an entire year. I am only here to make you smile and hopefully change the way you think about 'genres,' and show you what honest reactions to music look like.' He added "And to do something new." Mike told me that he next plans on releasing twelve books in one year. Three are already complete. When asked what he's writing about, Mike says, "Everything and nothing. Being and living. Wit and lowbrow culture. I will write about every topic I can think of." He seems to have a lot of energy! I believe he'll do it. Thanks Tara McGinley! Can "Vitamin C" A Number of Names "Sharevari" Black Sheep "E.F.F.E.C.T." (NSFW, but hilarious) Captain Beefheart "Zig Zag Wanderer" Toots & the Maytals "Pressure Drop" Brainiac "Nothing Ever Changes" The Stooges "Shake Appeal" Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You" Mummies "Stronger than dirt"


Source: Boing Boing | 1 Apr 2009 | 6:49 pm

Nom Nom Nom: The Bunny Song.

Link to video. It is cute, and it is kid-safe, and it may make you hungry. For what the bunnies are eating, or, heck, maybe for the bunnies themselves. (Thanks, Allison Kingsley, via John Walsh!)

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Presented By:

Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p

Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >> natgeotv.com/guantanamo

Ads by Pheedo

Source: Boing Boing | 1 Apr 2009 | 6:48 pm

Dark Matter Detected in Energy Signal

An unusual abundance of positrons recorded by a satellite may be a sign of dark matter.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 6:26 pm

Jabra unleashes new BT stereo headset. Thinking iPhone 3.0?

Section: Audio, Headphones, Speakers, Communications, Accessories, Mobile, Trade Shows, CTIA

Today at CTIA in Las Vegas, Jabra is announcing two new products: the Halo Bluetooth stereo headset and the SP200 speaker phone.  The headset is due out in May ‘09 and the speaker phone this month.

The Halo

The Halo headset features Jabra’s Noise Blackout technology and claims to work with any Bluetooth phone or mp3 player.  According to Jabra, if connected to a mobile phone and listening to music, the headset music will fade out so you can take the call; no word if it has an integrated microphone to actually take the call.  On the whole, it looks very sleek.

With iPhone 3.0 software being opened up to Bluetooth stereo accessories, Jabra’s Halo could be a big winner for all of us that hate cords.  Of course, Jabra built in wire compatibility if your devices doesn’t have Bluetooth, which is pretty clever.  At $129 MSRP, I could see this getting on many peoples short list.

Bluetooth Speakerphone

The SP200 speaker phone looks to be the little brother to the SP700 I reviewed and loved a while back.  This one is less expensive and not quite as good looking but does offer some refinement: namely in the volume control wheel, and dedicated on/off switch.  The attached clips hooks easily to a cars visor where in many states hands free phone is the law, or you can use the speaker phone in an office or kitchen for handy conversations without dropping your phone in the pasta sauce (yes, it happens, long, sad story).

The SP 200 looks to be a nice update to their line.  MSRP: $59.99 and is due out this month.

Company site: [Jabra]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 6:01 pm

Louis C.K. and his Leica in Iraq

Comedian Louis C.K. recently went to the Middle East to entertain the troops and brought along his camera:

The gunners reached out into the open air and leveled their guns with a great slot and click sound. They trained them on the ground. I felt my hands tense up. I realized, for the first time, that both my hands were wrapped tightly around my Leica. Oh my god, my Leica! I have the greatest camera in the world in my fucking hands and I'm in the middle of this shit right here.
In that moment, ALL FEAR was gone. I was right where I wanted to be in the whole world. I reached into my pocket, which was difficult with the armor, and took out my light meter. I got readings out the window, inside, the floor under my feet. I did quick averages of the readings in my head. Now all my thoughts were of film. "Okay I'm at about 5.6 outside if I'm at 250 which is a good speed from a moving helicopter. If I want to get stuff outside, I'll squeeze the fstop down to about 8. If I want inside the bird I'll open to 2.8, 4 if I want a bit of both." I set all these functions on the camera and started firing away. The helicopter leaned forward and we tore off across Baghdad.

[via MeFi]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 6:00 pm

Tolkien's City of Kings made from matchsticks

Marevelous matchstick artist Patrick Acton - maker of the matchstick Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, matchstick battleship, matchstick Notre Dame, and dozens of other sculptures - is currently building a model of JRR Tolkien's City of Kings from the Lord of the Rings. He expects the model to be completed next year. Acton is proprietor of the Matchstick Marvels Tourist Center in Gladbrook, Iowa and you can also see many of his models online. Matchstick Marvels (thanks, Kirsten!)

Previously:

• Matchstick Hogwarts - fantastic and detailed! - Boing Boing
• Wacky/gorgeous online gallery of burning matchstick art - Boing Boing
• Matchstick Rockets! Fun! Link - Boing Boing

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Presented By:

Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p

Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >> natgeotv.com/guantanamo

Ads by Pheedo

Source: Boing Boing | 1 Apr 2009 | 5:49 pm

Please allow 30 days for search results

Source [Ffffound via Giz]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 5:48 pm

Picture frame wraps around wall corner

At $120 it's too rich for my taste, but the "Wrap-Around-the-Corner Frame" is a cute idea that is just a hacksaw and a trip to IKEA away from being yours. [via Freshome]

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Presented By:

Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p

Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >> natgeotv.com/guantanamo

Ads by Pheedo

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 5:22 pm

Googling for Conficker help can be dangerous

Section: Computers, Security

If you have succumbed to the fear of the massive damage that the Conficker worm can inflict on your computer, then you probably have spent time scouring the web for methods to protect yourself.  What you may not realize is that Googling Conficker search terms can lead you to malicious sites.

Malware installers have started registering Conficker domain names in hopes to get visitors to their sites.  Once visitors arrive at the sites, the domains offer fake anti-virus software in order to test and clean your computer of the Conficker worm.  Besides installing malware, these sites are also charging users in order to purchase these fake anti-virus programs.  These Google searches have been optimized in order to attract the most users to the fake sites.

Users must instead rely on trustworthy sources for Conficker worm removal and assistance.  You should type in the URL into the address bar of your preferred anti-virus software provider instead of using Google and other search engines for Conficker help.  Trend Micro offers a free system scan and removal program for Conficker and other related malware. 

Site: [Trend Micro]

Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Apr 2009 | 5:15 pm

Chicks Are Smart, Scientists Confirm

Baby chickens aren't just cute; they are also whizzes at math, a new study reveals.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 5:10 pm

Data Dump: Japanese toilet outputs statistics via RSS

Japanese toilet manufacturer Inax has begun soft launching a toilet in shopping centers that will analyze stool for bacteria counts, blood, fat content, and more, then beam the results to the web with a unique URL for later viewing. If I'm parsing this correctly, you can also subscribe to an RSS feed for a particular toilet, making it possible to see how the neighbors are doing. [Digital World Tokyo via CrunchGear]


Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 5:02 pm

BLOG: Mysterious Lights, Boom ID'd as Meteor

A meteor, not space junk, likely caused a boom and flashing lights over Virginia.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 4:57 pm

Future Engineers

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 4:51 pm

First Ship Sunk in WWII Revealed in Sonar

Images of the U.S. vessel City of Rayville, sunk by a mine in 1940, are taken by sonar.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 4:35 pm

SGI sold to Rackable for $25 Million

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, such as the bloodthirsty velociraptor. [Reuters]

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Presented By:

Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p

Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >> natgeotv.com/guantanamo

Ads by Pheedo

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 1 Apr 2009 | 4:13 pm

Gold Nanospheres Sear Cancer Cells to Death

Newly developed hollow gold nanospheres search for and burn tumors.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 3:48 pm

CTIA09: HTC Snap keeps your best friends up front

Contrary to what Facebook friend counts may lead you to believe, most people really don’t have hundreds upon hundreds of friends. Sure, they may know some absurd number of people - but according to a study by HTC, about 55% of people really only care about communicating with five or fewer people.

Playing around with this idea a bit, HTC has just introduced a new feature they’ve dubbed “Inner Circle”, which prioritizes messages from a select group of people, granting them special notifications and one-button access. Want to see the e-mails from your mom, your wife, and your kids - but no one else? Tap the Inner Circle button, and they’ll shoot onto the screen.

The first handset to make use of this new functionality is the HTC Snap, which they’ve just announced at CTIA 2009 moments ago. Coming in at an oh-so pocket friendly 11.9 millimeters, the Snap’s packin’ Windows Mobile 6.1 running on 528 Mhz processor. We got a chance to play with one a few hours ago, but cameras were strictly prohibited. We’re off to see it again in a matter of hours, so be on the lookout for hands-on impressions and shots later today. The Snap will launch in “select channels” in Q2 2009, “around the world” in the second half of 2009, and in the US (as the unlocked S522 at 850/1900 Mhz with HSDPA support) sometime this summer.

(Oh - and for the sake of those wondering which one is the Inner Circle key, it’s the green circle on the bottom right of the keyboard.)

Full Specs:

• Qualcomm MSM 7225, 528 Mhz
• Windows Mobile 6.1
• 256 MB ROM, 192 MB RAM
• Expandable via microSDHC
• 4.59″x2.42″x.47″ (LxWxT)
• 4.23 Ounces
• 2.4″ QVGA (320×240) display
• HSDPA/WCDMA 900/2100 Mhz (HTC Snap) or HSDPA/WCDMA 850/1900 Mhz (HTC S522)
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900 MHz
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• 802.11g WiFi
• GPS/AGPS
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• 1500mAh battery
• 8.5 or 5 hour talk time (GSM, WCDMA respectively), 15.8 days or 20 days standby (same)

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Rogue Aussie Camels Infiltrate Communities

Wild camels are entering communities in the Australian outback in search of water.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 2:00 pm

More Girls Born in the Tropics

The nearer a mother lives to the equator, the more likely she is to give birth to a girl.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 1:20 pm

Long-Necked Dinosaurs Held Heads Horizontally

The image of a long-necked sauropod, head in the treetops, may need a revision.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 1 Apr 2009 | 1:10 pm

CTIA09: Celio to release REDFLY Mobile Viewer public beta later today

To put it gently, the Celio REDFLY didn’t launch without criticism. Essentially a mono-purposed netbook which is fueled by and acts as an extension of a Windows Mobile smartphone, the REDFLY pulls your WinMo handset’s display onto its own, and pushes all keyboard/touchpad input back to the handset. The main issue people seemed to have is that they simply didn’t understand why it was necessary; they already carried a laptop, and they already carried a phone - why bring more hardware into the mix?

A few months ago, Celio announced that they were working on a fix for this fault. Rather than requiring users to add more gear to their kit, they would release an application which more or less replicated the functionality of the REDFLY on any Windows computer.

Later today, Celio will be releasing the first public beta of this app, which they’re now calling the REDFLY Mobile Viewer. The application will be free throughout the beta once it’s made available on Celio’s site, but will go for $39.95 once the beta has come to an end.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: MobileCrunch | 1 Apr 2009 | 11:06 am

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