Aricent Simplifies Long Term Evolution LTE Development With eNodeB Software Framework on Intel(R) Architecture

Salesforce.com Drives Enterprise Cloud Computing Adoption Across Europe, Middle East and Africa

AU Optronics Corp. Reports March 2009 Consolidated Revenue

Boxee Continues To Innovate With API And New Alpha Version For Mac, Apple TV

Free entertainment hub Boxee keeps on getting better and better. A couple of hours ago, the venture-backed startup released a full API that allows developers to build applications for the open-source platform using a set of API calls in Python and writing the GUI using XML. At the same time, the company is laying the groundwork for a richer App Box, which it refers to as an open application store where they are not the gatekeeper (like Apple for its iPhone App Store) but rather a facilitator.

Heck, they’re even prepared to act as middleman for connecting freelance web developers with companies looking to leverage their API. Hard not to love that type of company.

Boxee is today also introducing a new test version of the Boxee alpha version for Mac and Apple TV (get it here for Intel Mac OS X 10.4+), adding two applications that were built using the brand new API. The new Boxee alpha comes with a lot of music goodness as it includes both Pandora, the popular music streaming service, and RadioTime, which enables their users to access over 100,000 traditional radio stations from across the globe.

This comes right off the heels of the introduction of a (basic) iPhone application.

The new version of the software for Mac and Apple TV features support for Hulu too, but in the work-around way, i.e. using a custom browser built on top of Mozilla technology (sort of like a stripped down Firefox). As you know, Hulu is doing everything it can to keep its content from being streamed on Boxee, while Boxee is doing much of the same to do the exact opposite.

Boxee says it’s now working on updated versions for Ubuntu and Windows.

As a PC user, I can hardly wait.

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

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. Announces Monthly Net Revenues

CODA Beefs up Accounting App for Salesforce.com (PC World)

Hotspot Shield: Destroyer of Google, Yahoo and NBC? [Voices]

Consider, for a moment, what would happen if the identities, geographies and surfing histories of a large number of internet users suddenly became invisible.

Read the rest of this post

How I Came to Get a PC and Not a Mac [Voices]

Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunters” commercials have generated lots of Mac vs. Windows PC debate. Surely there can’t be enough, so I’d like to generate even more. Quite unexpectedly, I’m a PC.

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Don’t Blame Google and Scribd for Your Own Business Model Problems [Voices]

Another weekend goes by and another old school newspaper guy writes a long screed condemning Google as a menace hellbent on destroying all that is good and right in the news business. This one, by Henry Porter in The Guardian, is particularly amusing due to the logical inconsistencies within.

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Even Dirtier IT Jobs: The Muck Stops Here [Voices]

Hey, we can’t all have careers at Google. Sometimes when you work in IT, you have to hold your nose and hope for the best.

Last year we named “The 7 dirtiest jobs in IT,” but we barely scratched the topic’s grime-caked surface. In the world of technology, there’s plenty of dirt to go around.

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A New Chapter in the Theory of Messages [Voices]

One of the goals of the software coder is parsimoniousness. Because every line, even every character, of code places a demand on the computer processor, the pruning of instructions to their essence makes for faster, more efficient programs and an optimized system. The art of the coder, like that of the aphorist, is one of compression.

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It’s Actually About Figuring Out How to Sell the Sizzle and Not the Steak, Dean [BoomTown]

BoomTown read a ton of the various columns reacting to the Associated Press’ announcement of a new initiative to–as near as I can tell–stop the Internet from being the Internet.

I tease, as it is clearly a lot more complicated than that. But AP board Chairman and MediaNews group CEO Dean Singleton seemed very exorcised about his mission to “protect news content from misappropriation.”

It’s going to surely be an interesting debate, throwing even more light on both the way the Web has impacted media companies, but also just how valuable those companies are (or are not–for an interesting take on that, see this excellent piece by ZDNet blogger Larry Dignan).

The winner for the most curious quote yesterday, though, was from an interview that Singleton gave to paidContent.org’s Staci Kramer about new models to come.

Said Singleton: “Print is still the meat. Online’s the salt and pepper.”

I would actually say online is increasingly the sizzle.

But what Singleton left out, especially given the financial trouble his company is currently in, was far more important–it’s the consumer doing the grilling.

Thus, it goes without saying that the meat could be in danger of being a tad well done, if media companies are not careful in how they handle this new attack on how those consumers prefer to get their news.

In the meantime, here is a very pertinent–the Internet is good at that stuff–and very funny video of an “eat your steak” commercial:

Verizon Business to Help Equens Italia Comply with Payment Card Industry Standards

SAP Enhances SAP(R) BusinessObjects(TM) Edge Solutions, Providing Small Businesses and Midsize Companies With Improved Visibility into Business Information and Insight to Any Business User

SinoHub Approved as AA Customs High Credit Enterprise by General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China

Just In: HP Pavilion dv2 - Washington Post

DigiTimes

Just In: HP Pavilion dv2 Washington Post The first laptop to use AMD's Athlon Neo processor, the HP Pavilion dv2 extends the range of ultraportables into the territory between notebooks and netbooks, delivering reasonable power for a moderate price. HP Pavilion dv2: Netbook or notebook? ZDNet HP Pavilion DV2 Notebook Launches I4U CNET News - SlashGear - Softpedia - CrunchGear all 12 news articles

Astadia Announces New Release of the Marketing Desktop

Australia To Build Fiber-To-the-Premises Network

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jazzy covers of Mister Rogers' songs

1. Won't You Be My Neighbor
2. You've Got to Do It
3. I Like to Be Told
4. Sometimes People Are Good
5. It's You I Like
6. When the Day Turns Into Night
7. Everybody's Fancy
8. Please Don't Think it's Funny
9. Look & Listen
10. This is Just The Day
11. Many Ways to Say I Love You
12. You Are Special
13. I'm Taking Care of You
14. Peace & Quiet
15. Then Your Heart Is Full of Love
16. It's Such a Good Feeling Mister Rogers Swings!


Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:41 am

Nerd tuna tees -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Steven's found these swell, tuna-as-nerd tees:

Critter Tees is a line of t-shirts for fisherman and fishophiles. They sure do love wordplay: Bob Marlin? Salmon' Be Jammin'? I'm no pro angler, but I'm partial to their "big eye tuna on campus..." tee. A pocket-protector-toting fish? In horn-rimmed glasses? ...that are, of course, taped at the bridge. Sign me up.

Geeks Are Big Eye Tuna!?

Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets


Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:35 am

National Federation for the Blind protest at Authors Guild in NYC today over Kindle text-to-speech

The Reading Rights Coalition and the National Federation for the Blind are staging a protest in New York today (Tuesday) at the offices of the Authors Guild, to let the Guild know that their successful campaign to remove the text-to-speech feature from the Kindle has hurt blind people and undermined their ability to access a wide variety of works in a more-accessible form.

The Authors Guild argued that the text-to-speech feature in the Kindle violated their copyrights, saying that the private use of a file-conversion feature infringed the "performance right" in copyright, and that it was illegal for Amazon to make devices that could be used to infringe copyright, even if they could also be used in non-infringing ways. Neither of these premises stand up to legal scrutiny, but Amazon withdrew the feature anyway -- now, text-to-speech works only on books that have it switched on.

The Authors Guild has gone on record saying that this has nothing to do with blind people (who have a statutory right to transform books to "assistive formats") because the Kindle's touchscreen wouldn't work for totally blind people.

This is nonsense, and I assume the AG knows it.

First, because "legally blind" is not the same as "totally blind." Indeed, the Kindle's ability to dynamically resize text makes it a natural for readers with limited vision, and it's entirely likely that a disproportionate number of Kindle owners are legally blind.

Second, and most importantly: even if the Kindle had a big, Braille, "I AM BLIND READ EVERYTHING ALOUD TO ME" button (thus rendering all its text accessible to even legally blind people), the Authors Guild's legal theories would still prohibit its production.

Under the theory that any devices that can convert text to audio is illegal if it's possible that some of those texts aren't "licensed for text-to-speech conversion," then no device that can convert arbitrary ebooks to audio will ever be legal.

Sorry, blind people, guess you're out of luck.

The Reading Rights Coalition, which represents people who cannot read print, will protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 outside the Authors Guild headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009, from noon to 2:00 p.m. The coalition includes the blind, people with dyslexia, people with learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many others for whom the addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 255,000 books.

Reading Rights Coalition Urges Authors to Allow Everyone Access to E-books

Previously:

• When it comes to the Kindle, authors are focused on the wrong risk ...
• Wil Wheaton vs. Authors' Guild vs. Kindle - Boing Boing
• Authors' Guild: "text-to-speech" software violates copyright ...
• Reading Rights Coalition to protest Authors Guild whinging about ...

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:30 am

Stephen Wolfram talks to Rudy Rucker

Stephen "Mathematica" Wolfram, author of the tome A New Kind Of Science, has been developing a new browser search engine called Wolfram|Alpha. BB pal Rudy Rucker, a brilliant mathematician in his own right, spent two hours on the phone with Wolfram and wrote up his notes for h+ Magazine. From h+:

Kicking off our conversation, Stephen remarks that, "Wolfram|Alpha isn't really a search engine, because we compute the answers, and we discover new truths. If anything, you might call it a platonic search engine, unearthing eternal truths that may never have been written down before..."

Wolfram|Alpha can pop out an answer to pretty much any kind of factual question that you might pose to a scientist, economist, banker, or other kind of expert. The exciting part is that you're not just looking up pages on the web, you're getting new information that's generated by computations working from the known data. Wolfram says the response can be so speedy because, "We've found that, of all the things science can compute, most take a second or less."

Wolfram sees his new program as being part of a history of mankind's attempts to systematize knowledge. "We have the encyclopedists trying to write everything down. We have people like John Wilkins trying to create an analytical language for thought. We have philosophers and scientists hoping to find a universal theory of the world. But all these attempts founder on the vastness and the subdivisibility of the tasks."

He feels that the turning point came with Newton and Leibniz. "Before Newton, nobody had the notion of trying to compute the truth. They always thought in terms of reasoning things out like a human would do. But the point isn't to emulate a human being. The point is to find an answer. Leibniz came closest to the notion of Wolfram|Alpha, with his plan for a universal library, and with his dream of a logical system for calculating truth."

Wolfram|Alpha: Searching for Truth

Previously:

• Wolfram: Tomorrow's bridges will be evolved and random - Boing Boing
• Wolfram's giant book free online - Boing Boing
• Rucker's students do Wolfram simulations - Boing Boing

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:23 am

Monster motorcycle helmet -- Boing Boing Gadgets

One thing about riding a two-wheeled vehicle on a four-wheeled road, you 've got to be visible: that's why our Joel on Boing Boing Gadgets is so excited about these lovely, hi-viz helmets:

These are DOT-approved (or at least were) motorcycle helmets crafted by a Brazilian artist who uses "animal teeth, fangs, bones, and hairs besides fines stones from the Amazon river" to make these $100 helmets.

This is a motorcycle helmet

Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets

Can't see the video? Click here

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:18 am

ATM card skimmer in real life -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel's spotted a rara avis from the criminal underground:

A Consumerist reader found a card skimmer on a WaMu ATM. He ripped it off and reported it to the police and the bank. The police said they'd never actually seen one in real life.

I always check for card skimmers at the ATM by smashing the front repeatedly with a sledgehammer, starting with the camera.

Local man finds card skimmer on ATM

Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets


Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:16 am

Cannonball floating in mercury

Twenty six seconds' worth of science: a cannonball floating in mercury!

Cannonball in mercury (via Kottke)


Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:14 am

Accordioning vanity set

From the "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary" exhibition at the New Museum of Arts and Design, this wonderful accordioning vanity set made out of bits and pieces of old furniture, sawn and reassembled.

'psiche complexo' by courtney smith, 2003 (armoire, vanity table, stool with cushion, two side table/cabinets, hinges, other hardware)

(Image: Vincente de Mello)

Source: Gizmodo | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:10 am

Teaching journalism with virtual worlds

Joshua Fouts writes, "Rita J. King and I are premiering *today* a new documentary exploring the potential of immersive virtual journalism as a tool for empowering global journalism as the industry continues its transformation amidst the current upheaval and collapse. The documentary comes out of a project we did with the Larry Pintak at the American University in Cairo in which we brought a group of 8 Egyptian political activist bloggers into Second Life to explore the potential of the space for empowering and augmenting their work. We were fortunate that our first effort brought a high ranking US State Department official, James K. Glassman, who was then US Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy. Some interesting issues came up."

The Launch of a Journalistic Experiment: The Virtual Newsroom of the American University in Cairo


Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:09 am

Tata Technologies Brand Launches Internationally

Consolidation of former operating companies yields all-new organization SINGAPORE, DETROIT, LONDON and PUNE, India, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Tata Technologies Limited, a global leader in Engineering Services Outsourcing (ESO) , Product Development IT services, and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) this week announced the launch of its brand worldwide, and the retirement of the brand names of its former operating companies, INCAT and iKnowledge Solutions (iKS).
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Apr 2009 | 5:00 am

Enterprise Communications Software Socialcast Secures $1.4 million in Series A Funding

Socialcast, a social communication SaaS provider for enterprises, has secured $1.4 million in Series A funding from True Ventures and angel investors. True Ventures led the round with $1 million and angel investors contributed $400,000. Socialcast was a finalist for the 2009 Crunchies Award for “Best Bootstrapped Startup.”

Om Malik, the founder of tech blogging network GigaOm and venture partner at True Ventures, will be joining Socialcast’s board of directors. On Malik joined True Ventures last September. Socialcast is Malik’s first investment at True Ventures and his first board appointment as a partner at the VC firm.

Founded by Tim Young, Socialcast is a communication tool businesses can use to incorporate social networking with messaging to share knowledge across enterprises. Socialcast’s software (for $1 per user per month) combines social bookmarking features, Twitter-like microblogging and FriendFeed-like streaming into one platform. And the software integrates with other social networks including Facebook, Twitter, and Del.icio.us. Socialcast can also import activity from your iPhone, Gmail account and YouTube. And all of this activity is private, making Socialcast an ideal program for real-time, internal communication within businesses. Yammer, a winner at last year’s TechCrunch 50, is a similar Twitter-like microblogging and communication platform for businesses that has gained popularity.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: Gizmodo | 7 Apr 2009 | 4:40 am

Shroud of Turin hidden by Knights Templar

Research suggests the Shroud of Turin -- said to be Jesus' burial cloth -- was hidden by medieval knights for more than a century, the Vatican said Sunday. The Vatican's weekly newspaper said a researcher in the Vatican Secret Archives has found a document that suggests the shroud was hidden by the Knights Templar and secretly venerated for more than 100 years after the Crusades, The Times of London reported Monday. The newspaper said the shroud disappeared in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade and was not seen by anyone outside the order until the middle of the fourteenth century. Researcher Barbara Frale told the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano that the missing years had long puzzled historians.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2009 | 4:34 am

Salesforce offers customers free mobile service

Source: Gizmodo | 7 Apr 2009 | 4:20 am

Reznor's Innovative Run Continues With Nine Inch Nails iPhone App

Musical rebel Trent Reznor puts even more power into his fans' hands with a new iPhone app and a seriously upgraded website.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am

April 7, 1933: Gimme a Tall, Cold One

1933: Although it will be another eight months before Prohibition is officially repealed, this is a red-letter day for beer drinkers. Suds containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol by weight are legally obtainable again, without having to get the glad eye from some guy behind a peep hole and telling him, "Louie sent me."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signature repealed the Volstead Act, legalizing 3.2 percent beer. It also paved the way for the December ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment and deep-sixed Prohibition altogether.

The Volstead Act, which is how the National Prohibition Act was widely known, was pushed hard by religious and temperance groups and passed Congress in 1919 over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson.

The prohibition movement had been active in the United States for 80 years before its adherents finally succeeded in ramming through an outright national ban on alcohol. The original movement lost some steam during the Civil War (soldiers drink; deal with it) but was revived with a vengeance by the Prohibition Party and Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Conservative Protestant groups formed the backbone of the prohibition movement, although dissenters popped up within that branch of Christianity. Scandinavian Lutherans, for example, favored proscribing alcohol, while their German brethren opposed any ban. The Baptists? They loved the idea, Northern and Southern alike.

In any case, Prohibition was another instance of a motivated minority forcing its self-righteous views on the amorphous mass that is the unthinking, perhaps nonthinking, American public. Passage of a prohibition act, however, did nothing to slake the drinking man's thirst for alcohol.

So the practical effect of Prohibition was to serve as a boon to organized crime during the Roaring '20s, with bootlegging and illegal speakeasies flourishing all over the country. Al Capone began his criminal career as a bootlegger, before diversifying his portfolio.

Bootleggers smuggled legit booze, but could also get pretty creative in concocting home-brewed liquor. The quality of this stuff, known generically as bathtub gin (gin being the most popular distilled beverage of the day), varied widely. The worst of it could be lethal.

With the stock market crash in 1929 and the coming of the Great Depression, opposition to Prohibition intensified. Plenty of people needed a drink now. The so-called Noble Experiment had run its course, and FDR was more than happy to heap dirt into its grave.

Except for the bluenoses and the crooks, Prohibition's repeal was greeted enthusiastically by most Americans.

Source: Various

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am

Gadget Gallery: The Zippy 370Z, Finger Clickin' Keyboards, and 8-megapixel Infused Camphones

:

Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds.

Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device.

WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including — wait for it — DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability.

TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you — we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter.

$500, samsung.com

Read our full Samsung i8510 INNOV8 review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

:

As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel.

In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer.

WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter … slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive.

TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool.

$200, Logitech.com

Read our full Logitech G19 Keyboard review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

:

Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine.

But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse.

WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds.

TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts.

$470 (as tested), dell.com

Read our full Dell Mini 10 Netbook review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

:

The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car — even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds — and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z.

Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do.

WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone.

TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone.

$33,970 (as tested), nissanusa.com

Read our full Nissan 2009 370Z review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

:

Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions.

Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 — and has its own text-to-speech function.

WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired.

TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory.

$600, plustek.com

Read our full Plustek BookReader V100 review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

: Photo: Dylan Tweeny/Wired.com

Apple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow.

The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls.

WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop.

TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in.

$80, apple.com

Read our full Apple iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

:

Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it.

WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle.

TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me.

$175, newtonrunning.com

Read our full Newton All Weather Trainer review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

:

The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box.

As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that.

WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price.

TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path.

$2,100 (as tested), hp.com

Read our full HP Firebird 803 review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

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I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming.

You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy.

WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo.

TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown

$74,085 (as tested), Cadillac.com

Read our full Cadillac Escalade Hybrid review.

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The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so.

Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle.

WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces.

TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better.

$360, amazon.com

Read our full Amazon.com Kindle 2 review.

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The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect.

But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass.

WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes.

TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled.

$70, srslabs.com

Read our full SRS Labs iWOW Adapter for iPod review.

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Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery).

But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option.

WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans.

TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty.

$300 (with 2-year contract), t-mobile.com

Read our full Samsung Memoir.

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From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents.

Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop.

WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam.

TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard.

$400 as tested, asus.com

Read our full Asus Eee PC 1000HE review.

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The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker.

WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required.

TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there.

$150, universalremote.com

Read our full Universal Remote Digital R50 review.

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Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents.

We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light.

WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence.

TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic.

$500, casio.com

Read our full Casio G-Shock MTG-1500 review.

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The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though — despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers.

The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though.

WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for hiding porn er, convenience. Runs whisper-quiet.

TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse — on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing.

$600 (as tested), asus.com

Read our full Asus ET1602 Eee Top review.

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This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer).

But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor.

WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent.

TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project.

$120, swannsecurity.com

Read our full Swann Micro-VideoCam Recorder review.

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Kodak’s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss.

What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go.

WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content.

TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content.

$300, Kodak

Read our full Kodak Theatre HD Player review.

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Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler.

On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun.

WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time.

TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle.

$3450, Ohm Cycles

Read our full Ohm Cycles XS700 review.

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For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook.

Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category.

WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls.

TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray?

$800 as tested, Gateway

Read our full Gateway UC7807u review.

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It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program.

WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong.

TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software.

$500, Polar

Read our full Polar RS800CX MULTI review.

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The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device.

Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable.

WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware.

TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes.

$400, Optoma

Read our full Optoma EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector review.

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Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking.

About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other.

WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility.

TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade.

$300, Olympus

Read our full Olympus Stylus 1050 SW review.

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Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments.

Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones.

WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive.

TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback.

$200 with a two year contract, RIM

Read our full RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 review.

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This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting.

The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album.

WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device.

TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype.

$112 (estimated), Three

Read our full INQ1 Facebook Phone review.

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HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential.

Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle.

WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader.

TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show.

$1550 (as tested), HP

Read our full HP TouchSmart tx2z review.

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Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo.

Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch.

Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system.

WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away.

TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna.

$125, Tivo

Read our full Nero LiquidTV TiVo PC review.

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Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am

Gadget Gallery: The Zippy 370Z, Finger Clickin' Keyboards, and 8-megapixel Infused Camphones

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Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds.

Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device.

WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including — wait for it — DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability.

TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you — we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter.

$500, samsung.com

Read our full Samsung i8510 INNOV8 review.

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As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel.

In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer.

WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter … slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive.

TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool.

$200, Logitech.com

Read our full Logitech G19 Keyboard review.

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Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine.

But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse.

WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds.

TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts.

$470 (as tested), dell.com

Read our full Dell Mini 10 Netbook review.

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The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car — even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds — and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z.

Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do.

WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone.

TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone.

$33,970 (as tested), nissanusa.com

Read our full Nissan 2009 370Z review.

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Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions.

Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 — and has its own text-to-speech function.

WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired.

TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory.

$600, plustek.com

Read our full Plustek BookReader V100 review.

Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.

: Photo: Dylan Tweeny/Wired.com

Apple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow.

The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls.

WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop.

TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in.

$80, apple.com

Read our full Apple iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen review.

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Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it.

WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle.

TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me.

$175, newtonrunning.com

Read our full Newton All Weather Trainer review.

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The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box.

As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that.

WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price.

TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path.

$2,100 (as tested), hp.com

Read our full HP Firebird 803 review.

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I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming.

You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy.

WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo.

TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown

$74,085 (as tested), Cadillac.com

Read our full Cadillac Escalade Hybrid review.

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The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so.

Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle.

WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces.

TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better.

$360, amazon.com

Read our full Amazon.com Kindle 2 review.

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The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect.

But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass.

WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes.

TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled.

$70, srslabs.com

Read our full SRS Labs iWOW Adapter for iPod review.

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Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery).

But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option.

WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans.

TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty.

$300 (with 2-year contract), t-mobile.com

Read our full Samsung Memoir.

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From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents.

Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop.

WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam.

TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard.

$400 as tested, asus.com

Read our full Asus Eee PC 1000HE review.

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The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker.

WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required.

TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there.

$150, universalremote.com

Read our full Universal Remote Digital R50 review.

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Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents.

We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light.

WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence.

TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic.

$500, casio.com

Read our full Casio G-Shock MTG-1500 review.

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The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though — despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers.

The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though.

WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for hiding porn er, convenience. Runs whisper-quiet.

TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse — on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing.

$600 (as tested), asus.com

Read our full Asus ET1602 Eee Top review.

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This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer).

But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor.

WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent.

TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project.

$120, swannsecurity.com

Read our full Swann Micro-VideoCam Recorder review.

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Kodak’s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss.

What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go.

WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content.

TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content.

$300, Kodak

Read our full Kodak Theatre HD Player review.

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Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler.

On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun.

WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time.

TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle.

$3450, Ohm Cycles

Read our full Ohm Cycles XS700 review.

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For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook.

Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category.

WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls.

TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray?

$800 as tested, Gateway

Read our full Gateway UC7807u review.

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It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program.

WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong.

TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software.

$500, Polar

Read our full Polar RS800CX MULTI review.

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The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device.

Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable.

WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware.

TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes.

$400, Optoma

Read our full Optoma EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector review.

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Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking.

About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other.

WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility.

TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade.

$300, Olympus

Read our full Olympus Stylus 1050 SW review.

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Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments.

Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones.

WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive.

TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback.

$200 with a two year contract, RIM

Read our full RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 review.

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This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting.

The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album.

WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device.

TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype.

$112 (estimated), Three

Read our full INQ1 Facebook Phone review.

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HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential.

Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle.

WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader.

TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show.

$1550 (as tested), HP

Read our full HP TouchSmart tx2z review.

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Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo.

Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch.

Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system.

WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away.

TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna.

$125, Tivo

Read our full Nero LiquidTV TiVo PC review.

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Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am

Internal Instant Messaging Client / Server Combo?

strongmantim writes "I manage an internal help desk (25-30 people) for a medium-large company in the healthcare industry. We're looking for an internal, secure, FOSS (if possible) instant messaging / presence awareness client and server combo. Transmission of Protected Health Information is a sensitive issue, so the server has to be able to log any conversations that occur. It is preferred that the client not support outside protocols such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.; if it does, I will have to promulgate and enforce yet one more policy that my techs not connect to them. All of the computers that will connect run Windows XP. The system should be scalable up to ~100 people (in case we decide to include our entire office in the roll-out). Hardware and OS for the server are not an issue. Oh, and one more thing: It has to be free. Suggestions?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2009 | 3:23 am

iTunes Tiered Pricing Goes Live

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple and major music labels are betting that the launch of three-tier pricing at the iTunes Music Store will boost music sales with a new mix of song-based packages and give consumers more options.

Apple will announce its new three-tier price points at 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29 on Tuesday, according to several people familiar with its plans. Since opening in 2003 all songs in the iTunes store have been priced at 99 cents. Some songs were already reflecting the new pricing scheme.

The previous 'one price fits all' strategy has long caused friction between Apple and the music labels, who argued that songs should be priced differently to reflect their perceived value by consumers.

The labels will finally get their wish.

While the majority of songs will still be sold at 99 cents, a certain number of new hit songs will now be raised to $1.29. Many older catalog songs will now go for 69 cents.

Perhaps anticipating a consumer backlash against price increases executives, who spoke to Reuters on background ahead of the launch, pointed out that for every one song they raise to $1.29 they will be reducing 10 songs to 69 cents.

But these executives said the biggest advantage of the new pricing would be flexibility to create new digital products beyond the album.

"We're thinking outside of the disc to reach a new generation of consumers who are able to consume music on any device, it's not just the track any more," said one music label executive, who was involved with the talks, but did not want the label identified ahead of the launch.

For instance, a label could sell a brand new song and its music video for $1.29 or package it with a ringtone. The lower pricing could eventually mean that iTunes can sell albums at more competitive prices though early indications are that album prices will not change right way.

Major label owners like Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Music say they can make money with more flexible prices and possibly help make music retail a profitable enterprise again.

"If we can gain traction with $1.29 that will be good for greater margin," said another label executive, also involved in discussions, but who did want to identify the record label.

Music sales have plunged as traditional retail outlets for CDs have shuttered and the growth in digital sales have slowed in 2008. Data from Nielsen SoundScan show album sales, once the profit engine of the music business, fell by 14 percent in the U.S.

Industry estimates show that 10 to 15 percent of albums account for 90 percent of all sales, according to Digonex, a dynamic pricing software company which has worked with major music companies including Warner Music.

"This is an opportunity for the labels to get the maximum they can for the music," said Michael Wanchic, vice president of digital media at Digonex. "The beauty of variable pricing is that if the prices are too high customers simply won't buy."

APPLE'S ROLE

According to NPD Group, 87 percent of digital music buyers in the U.S. used iTunes to download music in 2008 versus just 16 percent who used Amazon.com's digital music store.

Apple has already been experimenting with new packages at different prices. In February it partnered with EMI Music to announce the first iTunes Pass with Depeche Mode, offering fans the album, exclusive singles, remixes, video and other content for $18.99.

All parties are also betting that the new lower 69-cent song offering will boost sales of catalog music -- described as older songs and albums released about 18 months or more earlier.

According to one of the label sources, 35 to 40 percent of iTunes music sales are of catalog songs and albums, and that share is growing as labels digitize more of their older songs.

"Apple has such a dominant position, frankly another 30 cents won't make much of a difference to most people," said Russ Crupnick, analyst at NPD Group. "There may be more gold in the discount on the catalog, Americans love a bargain."

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing Bernard Orr)

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2009 | 1:49 am

Adgregate Markets Scores Distribution Deal With Google’s DoubleClick

Adgregate Markets, a TechCrunch 50 startup, has signed a distribution deal with Google’s DoubleClick. Adgregate’s ShopAds allow consumers to browse, interact, and ultimately purchase directly within an ad unit. Normal display ads take users away from a publisher’s site and brings them to a third-party store but Adgregate lets users buy products featured in ads without moving away from the page. Adgregate, which presented its technology at TechCrunch 50 last fall, received positive reviews from our panelists, who included entrepreneur Marc Andreessen; MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe; Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, angel investor Yossi Vardi; and former Yahoo executive VP Ash Patel. The panelists unanimously agreed that Adgregate was a great idea that will make money and address a need in the display ad market.

It was only a matter of time before Adgregate’s technology attracted big-name interest. ShopAds, which is a widget, can replace any size banner ad and will now be available to all of DoubleClick’s advertisers. If a user views the ad widget and wants to buy the product it’s advertising, they need only to click the description button under the ad and click “add to cart” to buy it. From there, the user can pay directly in the widget by inputting credit card information in a secure buying process.

Adgregate will share revenue with both DoubleClick and the retailer whose goods are being sold in the ShopAd widget. But the publisher of the ad only gets a share of revenue if the retailer has accepted them as an affiliate publisher. If that is the case, then the publisher will also get a separate commission fee from the advertiser. This isn’t a bad deal for publishers. Advertisers have an incentive to pay a higher commission to publishers so they put their ads in a more prominent spot on their page, but the money is being split an awful lot of ways.

Competitors to Adgregate include Nooked and Lemonade, which both also allow publishers to embed an e-commerce widget on their sites, but lead users to the retailer’s site for purchases. Adrgregate’s technology is useful to publishers because users can purchase an item in the ShopAd widget without having to ever leave their site.

Display ad network DoubleClick was bought by Google in 2007 for a $3.1 billion, outbidding Microsoft and pushing through eventual approval of the deal in both the U.S. and Europe.

Here’s an example of one of Adgregate’s embeddable ShopAd widgets:

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2009 | 1:40 am

Microsoft Boasts 96% Netbook Penetration

An anonymous reader writes "Citing figures from market research firm NPD, Microsoft says Windows' share of the US netbook market has ballooned from less than 10% in the first half of 2008 to 96% as of February. 'The growth of Windows on netbook PCs over the last year has been phenomenal,' wrote Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a post Friday. Information Week author Paul McDougall notes Microsoft's 8% decline in Windows sales is due to netbooks sporting Linux. How does Redmond make an 80% gain in netbook market share without the sales numbers reflecting that gain?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2009 | 1:20 am

Michigan accepting marijuana applications

The state of Michigan has started accepting application for medical marijuana from residents with debilitating illnesses, officials said Monday. Michigan is the 13th state to legalize the use of medical marijuana, the Detroit News reported. The Michigan Department of Community Health said it can take up to 15 days to review an application, which must include a form from a Michigan-licensed doctor certifying that a patient suffers from a qualifying medical condition.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2009 | 1:17 am

The Good Old Days Are Back: Twitter Succumbs To A Day Of Glitches

After a day of missing avatars, lost Tweets, and vanishing DMs, Twitter is down for the count (at least for the next 30 minutes or so). The site has posted its ‘unscheduled maintenance’ image, featuring some frozen yogurt and a caterpillar in lieu of the infamous Fail Whale (which now seems to be reserved for temporary glitches). And the status blog now says that the site will be down for an hour or so (which began at 5:45 PM PST).

Twitter was notorious early last year for its rare bouts of uptime, though the service has performed admirably since last summer despite incredible growth. Now that the service is down this evening, it gives users the perfect opportunity to try out the new FriendFeed beta.

Update 6:28 PM PST: And they’re back after less than 45 minutes of downtime. Not too shabby.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2009 | 1:15 am

Ad: Richard Deacon for Thermodor

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Apr 2009 | 1:15 am

FriendFeed Is In Danger Of Becoming The Coolest App No One Uses

FriendFeed is a wonderful application that allows users to track what their friends are doing online. Photos, videos, blog posts and anything else that’s published online with a RSS feed can be brought into the service and viewed by anyone who wants to subscribe to you. And the FriendFeed team is continuously innovating and creating new features. All in all, it’s a service that should be bound for success.

But there’s trouble on the horizon, and FriendFeed is in danger of becoming the coolest application that no one uses.

Growth at Twitter, FriendFeed’s primary competitor, continues unchecked. According to Comscore the site is growing at approximately 33% a month and attracted just under 10 million unique worldwide visitors in February. It had just 1.2 million in February 2008. More importantly, every time I turn on the news, it seems the talking heads are pushing their Twitter account as their online identity. That kind of mainstream attention is driving users by the boatload. Meanwhile, competitor FriendFeed, despite a continuous stream of innovative new features, is languishing. It has just 637,000 monthly uniques according to Comscore, or about 6.4% of Twitter’s flow.

FriendFeed has less users today than it did last October, according to Comscore. Cofounder Paul Buchheit says that isn’t accurate (and I believe him), but it’s clear that the service hasn’t grown much in the last few months. Twitter is adding more users every week than FriendFeed has in total.

Twitter is turning into a growth monster, and the trajectory and continued media hype suggest that will continue well into broad mainstream adoption. This is despite the fact that Twitter rarely launches new features (or perhaps because of that) and had to buy its search feature.

Meanwhile, all those innovative features that FriendFeed launches are routinely copied by Facebook and others, minimizing their positive impact. And the fact is that FriendFeed may just be too complicated for the average user to quickly understand. Twitter is fairly simple: spout off on whatever you like in 140 characters or less, and if you’re interesting enough people will begin to subscribe to you. FriendFeed, by contrast, is a much more complex system with numerous bells and whistles. The power users love it. Novices can be overwhelmed.

Buchheit says that there’s no reason multiple players can’t compete in the microblogging/activity stream space and find success. He points to email as an example (and as the creator of Gmail, he knows what he’s talking about). But I’m not so sure that this space will go the same way as email. Twitter’s lead may be insurmountable by anyone other than Facebook at this point.

At the end of the day, this wonderful company may tire of swimming upstream and go for an easy exit. I’m sure that a number of larger companies would love to snap up FriendFeed to get the technology, team and userbase. I mean, it’s not like Google is just going to sit there and watch this all play out without them. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2009 | 12:46 am

Video: Timelapse LEGO Nintendo DSi build

Sean Kenney built this 7-foot Nintendo DSi out of 51,324 LEGO elements. It's currently on display at the Nintendo World Store in Manhattan. [via Gizmodo]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Apr 2009 | 12:38 am

Electric Motorcross Impresses Riders and Spectators

In an unprecedented race, 50 people log a few thousand miles in 24 hours to prove electric motorcycles are here, and here now.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2009 | 12:30 am

The Growing Complexity Of Facebook Is Confusing Your Mom

Facebook has a thing for moms.

The last two times I’ve attended a Facebook event - both the unveiling of its redesign and its announcement of Connect on the iPhone - Facebook employees emphasized how excited they were about the fact that their mothers had recently joined the social network. The milestone is a symbolic one, indicating that Facebook is expanding beyond historically internet-savvy generations to include an older user-base, namely folks who use their computers primarily for basic tasks like Email and photography but have largely stayed out of the social-media craze. Yes, there are plenty of older tech-savvy computer users, but this is hardly the norm.

Facebook is clearly trying to bridge this gap, and it’s making significant progress. But it still has a long way to go.

Thing is, I really don’t think Facebook is that user-friendly for people who are trying out social networks for the first time. In fact, with its plethora of granular privacy settings and the somewhat foreign concept of ‘Networks’, Facebook can be downright baffling for new users. I’ve been using the site for years and I still have trouble configuring privacy settings for various photo albums and Friend Lists. The settings are all there, somewhere, they’re just confusing. Homepage redesigns and somewhat frivolous new features aren’t really helping the matter.

Facebook’s default privacy settings aren’t exactly geared towards novices, either. Creating a new photo album lists the default sharing option as “Everyone”. It’s trivial to change, but how many people simply click ‘next’ and share their photos with the world without really meaning to? And new accounts are set by default to share their information with everyone else on their network, which works out to quite a few people if you happen to join a regional network (which Facebook suggests during the signup process).

What Facebook really needs is a ’safe mode’. Something that caters to the the kind of person who may occasionally lend a few thousand dollars to a Nigerian princess, or who sends out chain-letters that originated in 2002 to dozens of friends at time. Many of these people are quite intelligent. They just haven’t grown up with the constant threat of scams and phishers. And they’ve been told so many times not to adjust a program’s settings (for fear of doing something wrong), that they’re afraid to explore the site and figure out the privacy settings for themselves.

A ‘Safe Mode’ could take any number of forms, from a profile with stricter default privacy settings to a Clippy-like virtual helper (hopefully with fewer annoying tendencies than Microsoft Office’s old sidekick). Just something that makes the site a little easier to use for those people who aren’t really sure what they’re doing.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2009 | 12:17 am

iPhone 3.0: Will the Gold Rush Continue?

In the past nine months, Wired.com has reported on a few developers who struck it rich with huge sales of their iPhone applications. However, with Apple's App Store recently surpassing 30,000 apps, competition is getting fierce among developers, forcing them to slash prices. Now New York Times reporter (and former Wired.com writer) Jenna Wortham wonders if the upcoming iPhone 3.0 upgrade will fuel a second Gold Rush for developers.

A few developers tell Wortham that yes, iPhone 3.0's new features — such as peer-to-peer networking, multimedia messaging and cut-and-paste — will indeed give birth to more big money-making opportunities.

However, they left out one new feature that we think developers should focus on if they want to be the next iPhone millionaires: iPhone 3.0's ability to interact with special accessories via Bluetooth and the dock connector. We think this enhancement has so much potential we even coined a new term for it: dongleware.

Why? Because the iPod-and iPhone-accessory market surpassed a billion dollars years ago. Incidentally, the App Store is quickly burgeoning into a billion-dollar industry as we speak. There's a huge amount of money to be made here off the accessories and the apps — so long as developers are willing to step beyond software and dream up some nifty gadgets, too.

Wired.com readers have already submitted and voted on wishlist items for dongleware they'd like to see for the iPhone; some of those ideas are quite clever. Any iPhone entrepreneurs want to make a million dollars? Consider some of our readers' suggestions.

See Also:

• iPhone 3.0 Wish List: Accessory-Powered Apps We Want
• Apple Bestows Cut-and-Paste, MMS on iPhone Users
• Pictures: iPhone 3.0 USB Tethering Already Activated
• Gadget Lab Video: Masked Developer Demos iPhone 3.0 Beta
• Screenshot Hints at Video Recorder in iPhone 3.0

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2009 | 12:13 am

Sun unmoored as acquisition talks hit standstill (AP)

AP - Without IBM Corp.'s $7 billion takeover offer, Sun Microsystems Inc., a Silicon Valley rebel known for independence, is possibly alone again. Unless a new suitor somehow emerges, Sun will have to overcome the wobbly finances that forced it to shop itself around.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Apr 2009 | 12:03 am

Microsoft to reportedly keep XP alive for another year

Section: Computers, Desktops, Mobile Computers, Laptops

Interestingly enough, XP was supposed to die by May 30 of this year, yet reports indicate that Microsoft is going to allow HP to continue using XP in their computers until April 30, 2010.  With all the hype surrounding the news Windows 7, it seems odd that Microsoft would still let XP float around, but according to a rumor, it’s very possible that is the case. 

Now, don’t think they will be continuing to upgrade XP, only security updates will be maintained.  The future of Microsoft lies with Windows 7 and Vista, not with the 8 year old XP.  Of course, it will still cost you to downgrade to XP from Vista, as Microsoft wants people to give Vista a chance.  However, if HP gets the green light to keep installing XP on their computers, I wouldn’t be surprised if other companies were allowed to use XP as well.  Windows 7 is still slated for an October release, so it will be interesting to see how Windows 7 fares when XP is still going strong.  The people who have tested the beta version of Windows 7 have been pretty pleased with the performance, as Microsoft learns from their Vista mistakes.

While I like XP very much, it’s sad to see Microsoft clinging so tightly to such an old OS.  They are spending lots of money on advertising, praising Vista and Windows, and bashing Mac, but they are still sticking to XP.  If this rumor proves to be true, one day Microsoft really needs to man up and stop XP and go with their new OSs and show they are making significant progress.

Via [PCWorld]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:51 pm

Court orders Mobinil sale to France Telecom (AP)

AP - The chief executive of Orascom Telecom said Monday he expects France Telecom to launch a tender offer for Mobinil, Egypt's top mobile phone service provider.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:41 pm

Local man finds card skimmer on ATM

A Consumerist reader found a card skimmer on a WaMu ATM. He ripped it off and reported it to the police and the bank. The police said they'd never actually seen one in real life.

I always check for card skimmers at the ATM by smashing the front repeatedly with a sledgehammer, starting with the camera.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:40 pm

Hot Stone Grill

Giles & Posner, which seems to specialize is mostly useless culinary monstrosities like fondue fountains, also sells this Hot Stone Grill that lets you cook shishkebob like a Phoenician George Foreman. It's a relatively affordable £30, plus shipping. [via Appliancist]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:38 pm

This is a motorcycle helmet

These are DOT-approved (or at least were) motorcycle helmets crafted by a Brazilian artist who uses "animal teeth, fangs, bones, and hairs besides fines stones from the Amazon river" to make these $100 helmets. [via I, Gizmodo]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:33 pm

Behind The A.P.’s Plan To Become The Web’s News Cop

With its news syndication business under direct attack by the growing abundance of other news sources on the Internet, the Associated Press announced today that it will begin to police the Web and “develop a system to track content distributed online to determine if it is being legally used.” The A.P., it appears, wants to become the RIAA of the flailing newspaper industry—ferreting out information pirates and threatening lawsuits if they don’t turn over some of their Google gold.

The A.P. has a broad view of what constitutes its content. It is not just entire articles copied wholesale by spam blogs. The A.P. has problems with the unauthorized use of its headlines, even when they include links. Many of its policies ignore the concept of fair use. And even when it has cause to go after copyright violators, it sometimes relies on antiquated and tortuous legal theories. The A.P. is so backwards in its thinking that we’ve banned links to all of its stories on TechCrunch.

Now it wants to go after unauthorized use if its news articles across the Web. Forget for a moment that its notion of what constitutes unauthorized use may not hold up in a court of law. The A.P. is going directly after the search engines and news aggregators which often point traffic away from A.P. sources directly at the supposed infringers.

So how exactly does the A.P. plan on policing the Internet? Here I must rely on informed speculation, but I think I have a pretty good idea. The A.P. already monitors the Web for any partial or whole re-use of its articles and photos through a partnership with Attributor, a startup that has indexed the Web and can find any content for which it has a digital fingerprint. After identifying the worst offenders through Attributor, the A.P. could simply present that list to Google or any other site pointing to those offending sites and demand action. This action could be anything from redirecting links to A.P.-sanctioned sites to demanding a portion of the offending sites’ AdSense or other advertising revenues if they happen to be a customer.

Would Google comply with such requests? If doing so gets the A.P. and Rupert Murdoch off its back, and it believes there is a good chance that copyright infringement is taking place, it very well might. The real troubling aspect here is that this determination would not be made by a courts, but rather placed into the hands of Google and the A.P. The A.P, for one, has already proven that it cannot be trusted to distinguish between fair use and infringement on its own behalf. And Google’s policy when it comes to claims of copyright infringement is to take down the offending content and ask questions later.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:31 pm

Seismologist Forced to Remove Quake Warning From the Internet [Voices]

After an earthquake in the Abruzzo region of Italy killed at least 100 people, a local scientist is demanding an apology from authorities and saying that he was forced to take his warnings off the Internet. A week ago, Gioacchino Giuliani, a seismologist at the nearby Gran Sasso National Laboratory, predicted that a large quake could occur soon after several small tremors. According to Reuters, his warning prompted vans with loudspeakers telling residents to leave their homes.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:30 pm

Fonera 2 To Launch With Extended Functionality

The next installment in the Fonera router family is set to make its debut in a couple of weeks, and the additions to the hardware are relatively impressive. Promising full support for networked storage, automatic downloads, sharing of a USB 3G connection, and a few other perks in addition to the normal range of functionality found in the Fonera routers this package packs quite a punch. "Like the original Fonera and Fonera+ routers, the principals of this hippie-love-in-styled product still apply. You buy the router and hook it up to your internet connection as normal. The trick is that the router shares a part of your bandwidth on a public-facing connection. Other Fon owners can log in and use this public network for free. In turn, you — as a Fonera owner — can travel the world and use other Fon hotspots. It's a neat idea and everybody wins, except the money-grabbing telcos."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:13 pm

Commodore 64 laptop designer looking for work

Ben Heckendorn is looking for work as an industrial designer. Why should you hire him? Because he's the sort of person who can design and build a Commodore 64 laptop from parts in less than two weeks.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 11:12 pm

Is Web 2.0 Abandoning the UGC Ship?

Does anyone remember that show Project Greenlight? It came out of LivePlanet, the 1999-era dot com started by Ben Affleck, Chris Moore and Matt Damon that aimed to use the Web to transform traditional entertainment. It was user generated content before we had an over-used buzz-phrase for it.

The premise of the show was that would-be writers and directors would submit their work via the Web and the guys would pick the most talented person and produce his or her movie. It was an entertaining show, but the movies always flopped. In the later seasons, I remember a scene where a frustrated Matt Damon says something like, “Are we saying we were wrong and all the talent is already in Hollywood?”

Welcome to the catch-22 of User Generated Content. And guess what? It hasn’t changed with time. We all know there are talented people who never get their lucky breaks, so democratization works in theory. But there’s a problem: It doesn’t make money. Users don’t want to pay subscription fees for something aspiring writers, singers, and actors are uploading for free, and advertisers don’t want to be next to dodgy and unpredictable inventory, no matter how gaudy the page views or streams.

In the LivePlanet-era, costs and excesses ran fledgling UGC companies into the ground. But this time around, with more people online, greater access to bandwidth, a more established online advertising ecosystem, and far lower burn rates, there was reason to believe the monetization nut could be cracked. After all, there was a time when no one thought you could make money off of search. Tim Koogle reportedly used to brag at Yahoo analyst meetings that search traffic was going down, because how could you possibly make money off people leaving your site?

Then, the financial world blew up the economy for us. And the most rosy-eyed optimists have come to realize that even though Web companies didn’t cause the meltdown this time, they’re still getting hit. Companies need revenues and in a duck-and-cover economy, it seems UGC isn’t going to get them there. Across the Web 2.0 world, we’re seeing a quiet-but-knee-jerk shift away from UGC in favor of professional content.

I wrote about this idea back in February when Slide—a company that’s long championed the marketability of individual expression—did a deal with Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Media. But in the last few weeks, there’s been a better example: YouTube. Last week, news leaked that YouTube was close to locking Disney up in an exclusive deal for long-form content, and now, we hear of a potential deal with Sony Pictures.

One of two things has happened: Either YouTube has spent years trying to work on deals with Hollywood,and they all happen to be closing at the same time; or the biggest champion of the user generated content revolution is changing its game plan.

Of course, YouTube won’t say it’s turning its back on user generated content, the same way Max Levchin said calling UGC a loss-leader was “too harsh” a few months ago. (Never mind, he had just described it as a great way to bring in users but not a great way to make money….you know, the definition of a loss leader.) That’s because smart entrepreneurs realize user generated content still matters, it just doesn’t directly translate to revenues. UGC is the core of why so many people are on these sites and without the eyeballs, the tech platforms don’t have as much negotiating leverage with Hollywood. Without Hollywood, it seems, they may not get revenues anytime soon.

It’s an interesting catch-22 for entrepreneurs and executives. Web 2.0 companies need to shift their emphasis away from UGC, without seeming like they are. In other words, they can’t abandon the soft, fuzzy ROI of UGC, as much as the immediate need to make money is pressing down on them. Otherwise, they risk driving users away and opening the door for the next wave of Web upstarts—the same way Web 1.0 did when its leaders stopped chasing eyeballs in favor of premium services and subscriptions.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 10:54 pm

Dork Yearbook

Mr. Bill was both a computer camp attendee and young mechanic.

Despite being disfigured in a horrible book explosion, ckindel still looked stylish in the Webb Computer Lab.

Derek K. Miller has a picture so geeky he even wrote an index of each increasingly dork feature, including his Computer Faire name badge.

As a child, J Carter had never heard of ergonomics.

Bigspum got to play games in the UCLA Machine Room in 1971.

These boys got busted wardialing. They were sentenced to 12 years in Pizza Delivery Prison, where they caught Hep-C from the Noid.

Woopop used his TURBO 10MHz 8088 to teach his brother the alphabet.

Linnea wins.

(Keep 'em coming!)

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 10:45 pm

Sony Pictures in Talks With YouTube

CNet is reporting that Sony Pictures may be in talks with YouTube to license full length movies to the video sharing site. Set to post nearly a half a billion dollars in losses this year, YouTube could certainly use some juice to combat sites like NBC-owned Hulu which already has an array of movies for streaming. "Details about what a final agreement could look like are sparse, but any partnership between the two powerhouses would likely benefit both. Representatives from both companies declined to comment. Word of the negotiations comes a week after Disney announced it had licensed short-form content to YouTube. Those clips will come from a range of Disney brands, including ABC and ESPN. For YouTube, obtaining short-form clips from Disney is an important step but still doesn't provide what YouTube needs most."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Apr 2009 | 10:29 pm

Nintendo DSi Now Available in the US: Wired Predictions Mostly Right

Back in November, Game l Life's Chris Kohler smuggled a Nintendo DSi back from Japan and reviewed it for us on the product reviews website. At the time, not much was known about the version that would later be sold in the United States. So Kohler being Kohler made some bold, informed predictions about the device. Turns out he was (mostly) right. Here are some highlights:

Predicted price? $190. Actual price $170.

Downloadable games? Yep. Available now.

Run games off the SD card? Nope. Not a chance.

Available colors?Bblack and sky blue for now.

You can read the rest of Kohler's review of the Nintendo DSi right here.

Photo by Jim Merithew for Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Apr 2009 | 10:26 pm

BlackBerry Ready With a Sequel to Storm?

A BlackBerry without a keyboard is here to stay as Research In Motion reportedly prepares to launch a follow up to its BlackBerry Storm phone.

Storm 2 could debut on Verizon around September this year, according to a report in SlashGear and it could add features such as Wi-Fi that is missing in the first version.

Research In Motion released Storm, its first touchscreen phone, in November last year. The phone received some harsh reviews on its debut from critics unhappy with the software and the user interface. But it has been a big hit among Verizon subscribers to the tune of 1 million sold within two months of its launch.

With Wi-Fi and improved touchscreen, a sequel to the Storm could be what Verizon needs to counter the iPhone on AT&T and the upcoming Palm Pre phone on Sprint.

Photo: BlackBerry Storm (Echo9er/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Apr 2009 | 10:16 pm

Nine Words From Science Which Originated In Science Fiction

An anonymous reader writes "Oxford University Press has a blog post listing nine words used in science and technology which were actually dreamed up by fiction writers. Included on the list are terms like robotics, genetic engineering, deep space, and zero-g. What other terms are sure to follow in the future?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Apr 2009 | 9:37 pm

Radical Overhaul for Pentagon's High-Tech Arsenal

Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposes the most sweeping overhaul of America's arsenal — and the Pentagon budget — in decades. Major weapons programs, from aircraft carriers to next-gen bombers to new school fighting vehicles, will be cut back or eliminated. Billions more will be put into growing the American fighting force, both human and robotic.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Apr 2009 | 9:35 pm

Kindle Readers Ignite Protest Over E-Book Prices

What's the right price for an e-book? No more than $10, says a group of Amazon Kindle e-book owners — and they have found a novel way to make themselves heard.

Some 250 Kindle readers are using Amazon's own book-tagging system to mark e-books priced more than $10 with the tag '9 99 boycott'. Their argument: A Kindle book is more restricted in its use than a paper book and therefore should not cost as much.

"It just doesn't seem right," says Crystal O'Brien, a Connecticut librarian who bought a Kindle last year. For the last few days, O'Brien has spent a few minutes every day in the Kindle book store tagging the more expensive digital books with the '9 99 boycott' tag and removing it once the price drops below the threshold.

"You are not getting something you can lend out to other people, you are not getting a physical item," says O'Brien. "So you shouldn't have to pay so much for a digital copy."

The protesters are the latest in a long line of consumers to rebel against restrictive copy-protection technologies. Music lovers have been circumventing copy protection for decades, leading some labels to begin removing digital rights management (DRM) technology entirely. Film studios and consumers have clashed over copy protection in DVDs. Even iPhone apps are not immune from DRM-busting pirates.

As e-book sales have taken off, they may become the next copy-protection battleground. Last year, sales of e-books rose 68.4 percent from the year before to $113.2 million, even as overall book sales fell 2.8 percent, according to the Association of American Publishers. Much of that growth has been driven by the Kindle's popularity.

The Kindle reader revolt is likely to be little more than a minor annoyance for the fledgling e-book reader. Amazon launched the first generation of the Kindle in November 2007 and an updated version in February this year, and while the company has not released official sales figures, analysts estimate that the company sold half a million Kindles in 2008. By comparison, 250 users is a tiny drop in the bucket.

Still one of Kindle's strengths over its competitors has been the number of  books available in Amazon's book store. Amazon has often said New York Times bestsellers and new releases are available for $10.

But O'Brien says that the $10 price is just one part of the story. Looking back at her history of purchases on Amazon she has found prices of e-books steadily creeping up.

"Some of the Kindle books now cost more than their paperback version," she says. For instance, she points out that she purchased a digital copy of Small Favor, a book by Jim Butcher for $10 in June last year. The Kindle price then jumped to $13.94 and is now back to $8. A paperback version of the book costs $10.

"On material items, prices can fluctuate but why would a Kindle book go up in price?" says O'Brien. Amazon.com has not yet responded to a request for comment.

O'Brien and other Kindle users who have joined the revolt have used the boycott tag more than 7,200 times so far. "It doesn't take that much time to do, and it sends out a message," she says.

Kindle books are limited in their use: They cannot be donated to a library, sold to a used-book store or even Amazon's used marketplace or traded elsewhere. In addition, some books are badly designed and offer little pictorial or other kind of visual relief, they say.

It's a valid argument for readers to make, says Andrew Savikas, vice president of digital initiatives at O'Reilly Media. "The typical knee-jerk response from publishers is to usually explain their costs," he says. "But readers are speaking vocally and implicitly with their pockets about what they are willing to ultimately pay and that's what matters."

For publishers, the majority of a book's costs is not in the printing or shipping, says Savikas. It's in sales, marketing, product development and editorial. "Its more about the fixed costs," he says.

But communicating that to buyers isn't easy. So instead of setting the price of e-books based on costs and a small profit, publishers should find a new way to price their products, says Savikas.

"Ask what price the market will support, and then build the cost structure that will allow you to make money at that price," he says. O'Reilly Media doesn't sell digital books through Amazon's store but offers e-books through its own website.

Kindle owner Tim Stevens, a software consultant who bought his e-reader last year has so far purchased about four books from Amazon's store. Stevens hasn't joined the '9 99 boycott' movement yet. He says he can understand why some users feel so strongly about e-book pricing but is not sure picking on $10 as the magic number is right.

"It seems rather arbitrary to me," he says. More importantly, it misses the point of an e-book. "No doubt I would want e-books to be cheaper, but its more about the peace of mind that comes from the convenience of the format," he says. "I don't mind paying a few dollars more for it."

For Amazon and book publishers, the best hope now is that more Kindle owners continue to think like Stevens rather than O'Brien.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Apr 2009 | 9:33 pm

New glioblastoma target identified

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 9:23 pm

Brazilian Demon Helmets Ensure Safety, Induce Fright

Here's a guaranteed method for motorcyclists to create a "space cushion" on the road: Wear a helmet that scares the crap out of everyone so they keep their distance.

The helmet pictured above is one of several for sale through a New Jersey-based Craigslist entrepreneur, who claims a Brazilian artist crafted these pieces of headgear out of teeth, fangs, bones, hair and stones found along the Amazon. Here's the best part: They're supposedly DOT-approved! $99 to disturb peace of mind.

Craigslist [via Jalopnik]

Photo: "Mike"/Picasa

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Apr 2009 | 9:22 pm

Google revises searches to go more local

Section: Web, Websites, Google

Google made some changes its search results.  You can search for something like “restaurant” in a standard Google search and you will get local results.  You don’t have to include a location because Google figures it out via your IP address.  If Google gets it wrong, you can just hit the “Change location” link. 

Changing locations is pretty simple.  One click and a new field takes the place of the local results without reloading the page.  You can have Google remember the location via a check box. 

If you want, you can still search as normal with other locations.  That’s a pretty handy feature.  Google just gets more and more powerful. 

Read: [Official Google Blog]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 9:20 pm

Disease-resistant plants are study's focus

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 9:12 pm

97 of Top 100 Classified Sites Are Craigslist

According to a recent report, 97 of the top 100 classified sites are just localized versions of Craigslist, up from 88 just last year. Combine that with a massive rise in traffic to classified sites in general and you have a recipe for one raging behemoth. "Craigslist isn't just crushing the newspaper industry and crowding out other classified sites. It's also taking an increasing slice of total U.S Internet traffic: the site's market share in February was up 90% year over year, accounting for about 2.5% of total US Web site visits."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:54 pm

Double Hand Transplant Reawakens Brain Control

Two patients who receive double hand transplants regain motor control of their hands, suggesting it's possible to regenerate brain control systems.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:33 pm

Stem cells to aid oral disease treatments

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:31 pm

Shroud of Turin Secretly Hid by Templars

The Knights Templar may have hid a cloth bearing the likeness of Jesus for 150 years.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:31 pm

Pentagon Chief Rips Heart Out of Army's 'Future'

The U.S. Army introduced a gargantuan plan In 2003to wage the wars of tomorrow. Now, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is looking to all-but-end the Army’s "future combat systems."

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:30 pm

Kindle Readers Ignite Protest Over E-Book Prices

A group of Kindle e-book readers is protesting the price of e-books being higher than $10. Their rationale is that Kindle books cannot be distributed, traded or sold, and should cost much lower than their paper counterparts.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:30 pm

Kindle Readers Ignite Protest Over E-Book Prices

A group of Kindle e-book readers is protesting the price of e-books being higher than $10. Their rationale is that Kindle books cannot be distributed, traded or sold, and should cost much lower than their paper counterparts.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:30 pm

Next iPhone rumored to have support for 802.11n and more

FROM APPLETELL - Either Apple is doing what they obviously should by adding 802.11n to the feature list of the next iPhone or someone knows what I want and is making up detailed rumors to make me salivate. I’m sticking with the first.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 8:24 pm

Rumor: BlackBerry Storm 2 coming in September, has WiFi

Outside of the iPhone and the G1, very few phones fuel the forum flamewars like the BlackBerry Storm. As the first touchscreen BlackBerry, it was bound to have some haters. Whether you’ve been enamored since day one or a zealous skeptic since the beginning, the phone has one fault that is undeniably unfortunate: no WiFi.

There’s nothing that can be done on the WiFi front for the original Storm - but what about take two?

As with any phone that sells reasonably well, rumors of a follow-up are already abound; According to SlashGear, RIM is already busy crackin’ away at the BlackBerry Storm 2, complete with WiFi. That all sounds perfectly reasonable (hell, we could have assumed as much) - but the release window seems a bit crazy: according to their source, they’re aiming at September of this year.

The Storm was released in November 2008. If the Storm 2 were to hit the shelves this September, that’s roughly 10 months between the original product and the followup. Sure, it’s possible (phones generally take a year and a half to go from concept to consumer, but they could have been working on Storm 2 for months prior to the original Storm’s release) - but even Apple, king of planned obsolescence, puts a full year of padding between their handset releases. Does RIM really have the gall to outdate one of their biggest ventures before it even hits its first birthday?

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Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:58 pm

Molecular Ripcord For Chemical Reactions

Molecular ripcordThe research team (Dr. Alessio Piermattei, Dr. Karthik Sivasubramanian and Dr. Rint Sijbesma) of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, both at TU/e, is the first to have demonstrated that a catalyst can be switched from a dormant to an active state (see illustration) by pulling on a polymer chain, a "molecular ripcord." The researchers were able to use this catalyst to initiate a variety of chemical reactions, including polymerizations (formation of polymer chains from small molecular building blocks called monomers).Self-repairing materialsThis discovery paves the way to creating self-repairing materials that strengthen under the influence of mechanical stress. If a material were to tear, for example, this would simultaneously break the metal complex in half, thereby activating the catalyst, and the material would be instantly repaired.This work will also lead to research into other applications in which it should be possible to turn chemical reactions on and off as desired. Potential applications include the injection molding of plastic objects, where the technique could be used to simplify processing, or microscale chemical synthesis.How does it work; weakest linkThe researchers packed a catalytically active metal ion completely in using two molecular caps (ligands). They attached two polymer chains to these caps, creating a long chain with a metal complex in the center. These complexes were dissolved in a liquid that was irradiated with ultrasound, causing bubbles to form in the liquid. When these bubbles imploded, they created an extremely strong current that stretched the chains and ultimately broke its weakest link – the metal complex – in two. The cap on one end was now broken off from the active metal ion, which allowed the metal ion to become catalytically active. In other words, it could now accelerate chemical reactions.This research was sponsored with an ECHO project subsidy from NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research). The subsidy, in the amount of 240,000 euros, is intended to promote outstanding chemical research, especially on creative and risky ideas.---Image Caption: A catalyst can be switched from a dormant to an active state by pulling on a polymer chain, a "molecular ripcord". Credit: Rint Sijbesma
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:47 pm

Reading Rights Coalition to protest Authors Guild whinging about Kindle 2 text-to-speech

The Reading Right Coalition and the National Federation of the Blind will be hosting a protest tomorrow outside the offices of the Authors Guild in an attempt to convince the Guild to quit busting Amazon's balls over the Kindle 2's text-to-speech technology that turns any eBook into a robotic audiobook. (Cory wrote about this a bit just recently.)

Here's their point: "The Coalition believes authors and publishes absolutely have the right to be paid for their work and control the rights to audio performances of their works however, it is discriminatory for authors and publishers to charge disabled consumers more for an e-book than they charge the rest of the general public as the only difference is the method by which the disabled person will read it."

The Kindle 2 is such a boon for the blind and others who have trouble reading printed books. I'm not in New York any more, but if I were I would probably still not actually go protest because I'm really lazy, but I would at least feel guilty about not going. I could sign an online petition, but you know how those work out.

If you're in New York tomorrow, have a more generous heart than I, and want to support the Reading Rights Coalition for a couple of hours starting at noon, here's where they'll be.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:46 pm

Microsoft confirms that Windows 7 users will be able to downgrade to XP

Section: Computers, Software / Applications

Microsoft has confirmed that users of the new Windows 7 will be able to downgrade to either Vista or XP. Downgrade rights will be open through the company’s PC partners, including HP.  This will allow users that are more comfortable with Vista or XP to downgrade their operating system at no cost.  Large businesses may also not want to change their operating system, especially if certain staff members will be using older versions of Windows.

The rumored target date that Windows 7 will launch is in October.  It is also rumored that downgrade rights will be available from October until an undisclosed date.  It is also likely that users that choose to downgrade to Windows XP or Vista will still have the ability to access Windows 7 upgrades. 

Users would be able to access these upgrades through the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program by doing a clean install of Windows 7.  Also, consumers that purchase Vista equipped PCs from June 2009 to January 2010 can upgrade for free to Windows 7.

Read: [ZDNet]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:29 pm

Fonera 2 Combines Wi-Fi Sharing, BitTorrent, Network Storage

The newest router from Fon will add file-sharing, automatic YouTube video uploading and network storage capabilities to the company's signature router, which already enables internet sharing via Wi-Fi.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:15 pm

Fonera 2 Combines Wi-Fi Sharing, BitTorrent, Network Storage

The newest router from Fon will add file-sharing, automatic YouTube video uploading and network storage capabilities to the company's signature router, which already enables internet sharing via Wi-Fi.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:15 pm

Climate change: Reduce or spread disease?

U.S. government scientists are disputing studies that predict climate change might expand the scope of human infectious diseases. Kevin Lafferty of the U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:13 pm

Cooperative Behavior Meshes With Evolutionary Theory

One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist.Cooperative behavior has puzzled biologists because if only the fittest survive, genes for a behavior that benefits everybody in a population should not last and cooperative behavior should die out, says Jeff Gore, a Pappalardo postdoctoral fellow in MIT's Department of Physics.Gore is part of a team of MIT researchers that has used game theory to understand one solution yeast use to get around this problem.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 7:05 pm

Rumor: Nokia still looking at netbooks, going with Foxconn as the OEM?

Remember back in February when Nokia’s CEO went on the record saying they were “looking very actively” at pushing out some Nokia-branded laptops? It looks like they may have moved past the “looking” stage.

According to TheStreet’s unnamed sources, Nokia has partnered with Taiwanese super-manufacturer Foxconn for their laptop (or, as we postulated before, their netbook) endeavors. Never heard of them? Look around your house. Got a PS2, PS3, Wii, 360, Kindle, Mac Mini, iPhone, or any one of countless other electronic goodies? It came out of a Foxconn plant.

If Nokia’s laptop is indeed a netbook, the move makes sense; netbook profit margins are about as slim as they come, so going with one of the masters of mass production is probably a better idea than going at it alone.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 6:56 pm

Residents Ready For Alaskan Volcano To Quiet Down

Residents of Alaska's largest city near Mount Redoubt are being forced to take strong measures due to the irritation caused by volcanic ash spewing from the volcano’s top, the Associated Press reported.Those near the volcano occasionally have to wear air-filtration masks and stretch panty hose over the air intake of cars and trucks.Anchorage resident Brad Sandison, a retired truck driver and avid cyclist who carries a face mask and goggles whenever he rides near the volcano, said he is losing his patience with the mountain."I would like it to have a big boom and get it over with," he said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 6:55 pm

Study solves butterfly wing eyespot puzzle

Yale University biologists say they've determined butterflies seem able to both attract mates and ward off predators by using different sides of their wings. You want to be noticeable and desirable for mates, but other onlookers, including predators, are paying attention to those signals as well, said Jeffrey Oliver, a Yale postdoctoral researcher. Oliver was interested in whether the eyespots on the upper side of butterflies' wings serve a different purpose than the ones on the underside.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Apr 2009 | 6:54 pm

Frank, the LEGO Firebot

Brent Waller's Job Bot #3: Frank is a cutie. [via Brothers-Brick]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 6:50 pm

Pogoplug turns USB hard drives into personal miniclouds

Engadget reviews the Pogoplug, a simple box that turns any USB hard drive into a networked device, accessible from even the wild yonder of the internet:

All-in-all, we like the Pogoplug a lot, but we do have a couple of quibbles. Mainly, we wish this were a WiFi enabled device, which would spare some cables and setup pain. Additionally, it would be nice to see a device of this nature with multiple USB ports instead of just the one -- yes, you can attach a hub, but you're already dealing with a mess of lines as it is. Still, for $99, the ability to turn a random drive into not only a network-accessible device, but a remotely-accessible device is huge, and we plan on putting it into heavy rotation around here.

Update: Here's another one, called the SheevaPlug, that isn't out yet. It looks so similar I wonder if it isn't the same basic product being rebadged twice.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Apr 2009 | 6:42 pm

Stroke Dialer makes number dialing relative and blind-friendly

It has only been a few months since Stevie Wonder was at CES to ask the phone industry to make the handsets more accessible to the blind, but it looks like it’s starting to catch on.

Dialing on a touchscreen can be a huge pain, even with full vision. Take eyesight out of the equation, and the lack of tactility makes things pretty much unmanageable. Two Google engineers have banded together to form “EyesFree“, a dev team devoted to “creating applications for Android that help change people’s lives.” That’s a big promise to make, but they’ve already started living up to it. Already having premiered a talking dialer, talking compass, and a text-to-speech library, they’re now demonstrating “Stroke Dialer”, which removes the need to see the screen by making all key pad presses relative.

Confused? Think of it this way: you know a phone’s layout. If you knew which key you were on, you could determine which direction you’d have to move your finger to get to any other key. With Stroke Dialer, wherever you put your finger on the touchscreen becomes the location of the 5. Release the press, and you’ve pressed 5. If you slide your finger in the direction of another number before releasing, however, you’ve pressed the relative key. Press down and move up? That’s a 2. Press down and move down? That’s an 8.

Why not just use voice dialing? Accuracy, presumably. Voice recognition is getting better and better all the time, but it still tends to trip up an unfortunate amount. Plus - sometimes it just feels good to actually dial a number, rather than tell creepy-robot-voice lady which number to dial for you.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 6:15 pm

Original 'Schindler's List' Found in Sydney Library

A list of Jews saved from the Holocaust by Oskar Schindler is found.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 6:11 pm

Openmoko scraps next-gen FreeRunner, shifts to “Plan B”

Although HTC was able to realize its Dream (aka G1), for many hardcore mobile enthusiasts, Openmoko’s open source and ultra-hackable smart device - Neo FreeRunner - was the real dream.

Running on Openmoko’s open source Linux platform, the FreeRunner was arguably the first smartphone made specifically for hackers (er, developers) who, according to the Openmoko Wiki, “will appreciate the total freedom they have to use and design software for the FreeRunner.”

Unfortunately for them, Openmoko has decided to scrap its next-gen smartphone. Speaking at a convention in Switzerland, Openmoko CEO Sean Moss-Pultz informed the audience that the FreeRunner’s successor (known internally as “GTA03″) has been discontinued so that the firm can refocus its efforts on the development of a new non-mobile/non-smartphone device fittingly known as “Plan B.” Moss-Pultz also noted that Openmoko has reduced its workforce by 50% in order to remain afloat.

Maybe styling their “revolutionary” open source device after a generic handheld GPS keychain wasn’t the best of ideas in the end (jk!)…but hey, at least there’s still a “Plan B”!

Oh, and you can still get your hands on a 2G FreeRunner for $299.

[via Phone Scoop]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 5:47 pm

Movies from Sony Pictures coming soon to YouTube?

Section: Web, Websites, Online Music/Video

YouTube is now in talks with Sony Pictures to acquire rights to many of their full length feature films.  You can now find certain movies from Sony Pictures, like Wild Things on the Sony owned Crackle.com.  This possible deal follows last week’s announcement that Disney would be putting shorts produced by the company on YouTube.

These deals could mean a further pull away from YouTube’s initial model as a user generated video sharing website and could also mean a further crackdown on pirated content that is broadcast on YouTube.  Currently, Sony Picture’s Crackle.com has more than 60 full length movies online and this could bring a boost to the movie content on YouTube.  Although it is more likely that Sony Pictures would probably not permit more than 10 to 20 movies at a time on YouTube.  Also, it is not likely that Sony Pictures would allow YouTube users to embed their movies on other sites.

No deal has yet to be released and neither company has given an official announcement on the status of the negotiations.

Read: [CNET]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 5:16 pm

Dog Overboard Found Four Months Later

A pet dog that fell overboard in rough seas survived alone on an island for four months.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 4:45 pm

Fonera 2 coming with awesome new ideas

Section: Computers, Networking

Fon, the European company that specializes in sharing Internet connections between its users is set to release its new router soon.  The Fonera 2 will still have the same basic functions of the Fonera 1 that makes it a Fon router.  The routers create two networks, one private and one public.  The idea being that you can use your own private network at home, and access any other user’s public network when you’re not at home.  The Fonera 2 has so much more, though.

One huge draw of the Fonera 2 is the ability to connect Network Attached Storage to the router through the USB port.  The NAS drive can be shared across the network as storage or backup (which may actually support Time Machine for OS X), whichever you prefer.  Or, the drive can be used to store BitTorrent, RapidShare or MegaUpload downloaded files that the router handles on its own, so it’ll no longer be necessary to have a computer on all night, or over a vacation to download your (obviously legal) files.  Or, the USB port can be used to attach a 3G dongle, and the Fonera 2 can share the 3G connection over the network, which should prove fairly useful for some.

The Fonera 2 seems like a bit of a breakthrough in routers.  It’s almost surprising nobody ever thought of packing all these features into a router, which can even read your NAS for a “YouTube” folder and upload all of the videos to the website.  The downloading feature can potentially save a lot of electricity rather than having a computer or laptop plugged in all night downloading files.  The previous Fonera never seemed to be too popular in the US, but with the May release of Fonera 2, it might prove a bit more popular, or maybe gain some traction beyond those who obtained a free Fonera a few years ago and hacked it to do what they wanted it too.

Read [Wired]

Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 3:20 pm

As Itch Scratched, Brain's Nerves Show Relief

Scientists identify nerves in the brain that spell relief when an itch is scratched.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 3:15 pm

T-Mobile readying Android home phone system, 7-inch tablet device?

T-Mobile will apparently be selling an Android-based home phone system and some sort of Android tablet device next year, according to “confidential documents” obtained by the New York Times.

T-Mobile wouldn’t comment on the supposed offerings but admitted that “several devices based on Android” are currently in development.

Read the rest of this entry >>

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Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 2:45 pm

New Exoskeleton Gives Soldiers Super Strength

Soldiers could soon be running up to 10 mph while carrying a 200-pound load.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 2:20 pm

Powerful Quake Shatters Medieval Italian City

More than 90 people are dead after Italy's most powerful earthquake in three decades.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 2:20 pm

Specs of three upcoming BlackBerrys leak out

Well, well. What do we have here? It seems that we might have specs of some upcoming RIM BlackBerrys: Onyx, Driftwood, and Magnum. Don’t get too excited as release info and pricing haven’t been released, but these specs are enough to drool over for a bit anyway.

All three handsets should come in the 9000 series and are headed to GSM carries such as T-Mobile and AT&T. The Driftwood will probably end up at AT&T seeing as the W-Fi supports UMA, which allows for cellular calls to be routed to Wi-Fi networks. The other to handsets, The Onyx and Magnum, both sport similar specs such as GPS, a camera, QWERTY keyboard, and Wi-Fi but lack UMA support. We wish we could tell you when these will launch, but sorry, can’t do it. We don’t know. A guess: late summer.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 2:10 pm

Twitter without all that annoying typing: TweetCall

Section: Communications, Mobile, Web, Web 2.0, Websites

140 characters got you down?  Need to tweet while driving around and don’t feel like causing an accident?  Here’s a solution: TweetCall.

TweetCall bridges the gap from your life on Twitter, the social networking service that is popular with everyone from the technorati to the members of Congress, to when you otherwise wouldn’t be able to tweet.  The fun doesn’t stop there, non-technical users can use TweetCall to get in on the action and so can those users that wish not to pay for text message tweets.

So how does it work?  Simple, call in to the toll free number, speak your peace (in 140 character segments) and it gets posted to your Twitter stream.  Easy right?

Hold up, what if I say, “I am booking in Times Square on my wheels,” but what gets transcribed from voice to text is “I am hooking in Times Square in high heels.”  Embarrassing, right?  Worry not, TweetCall uses voice recognition technology developed by Quicktate which is a “highly accurate transcription service, which uses humans to proofread all messages for proper syntax, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation before they are submitted.”

Sarcasm aside, one really interesting concept TweetCall brings the ability to post not just text to your Twitter stream, but the audio as well.  That opens up Twitter to some interesting ideas.

What do you think?  Helpful tool or niche of a niche?  Let us know in the comments.

Product page: [TweetCall]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 1:30 pm

Solid Earth Tide Triggers Quakes

The tug of the sun and moon on Earth can trigger temblors, a study proves.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 1:30 pm

Nokia N97 gets some quality time with the FCC

The talented shutterbugs at the FCC recently got their hands on a sexy Nokia N97 ahead of the phones US release. Not only did the government suits photograph a previously unannounced color scheme, but also published all the details about the phone. We kind of already know most about the phone after spying it at Nokia World ‘08 last December. Really, all we wanna know about is Nokia’s upcoming app store, ovi, which isn’t discussed within the government filling.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Apr 2009 | 1:15 pm

Bottled Water Carries Hidden Cost to Earth

Our growing thirst for bottled water is bad for the environment, say researchers.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Apr 2009 | 1:10 pm

Pogoplug now shipping

Section: Computers, Networking, Gadgets / Other

The Pogoplug, a device that lets you get to the stuff on your hard drive through the internet, and one of Gadgetell’s favorite things at CES, is now shipping to US customers. So, if you pre-ordered it, your wait is finally over. If you didn’t order one yet, you can pick one up now for $99 at the company’s site.

If you didn’t catch Gadgetell’s coverage of the Pogoplug from CES, the Pogoplug is a small box-shaped device that lets anyone easily gain access through the internet to their pictures, music, and other files stored on a connected hard drive. Set-up has been made really simple. You plug in the Pogoplug to an electrical outlet, connect it to the internet via an ethernet cable, and then plug in your USB hard drive to the Pogoplug. That is it – a home server that anyone can set up, which is exactly what Pogoplug’s designers wanted. In fact, one of the designers told our Editors that he designed the Pogoplug to be simple enough for his mom to use.

Gadgetell Editors had a chance at CES to see the Pogoplug in action and are eager to get their hands on the device. Who can blame them? Instead of uploading photos and videos to online sharing sites, Pogoplug lets you act as your own server. Imagine not having to bother with purchasing a FTP, a domain name, or having to cough up a premium fee for your online photo sharing site because you need more storage allowance. For $99 (not including tax or shipping), Pogoplug lets you simply send a link to anyone you want to see your files and storage space is limited only by the size of the hard drive you connect to the device. If Pogpplug actually works like its designers say it will, which I certainly hope it does, it is going to change the game of file sharing.

Company Page [Pogoplug]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Apr 2009 | 12:00 pm

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