|
|
|
|
Chevy Chase nails his Steve Jobs impression on Chuck last night
Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:30 pm Ellis Gets Sales Promotion at AOL’s Platform-A [BoomTown]
More moving of the chairs at AOL’s Platform-A. The Time Warner (TWX) online unit will announce today that Mark Ellis has been promoted to EVP of sales at the advertising division. He will lead Platform-A’s digital ad sales, sources said, including premium efforts at AOL’s MediaGlow content unit and for its third-party ad network. It is all part of extensive management reorganization being done by Platform-A president Greg Coleman, former sales head at Yahoo (YHOO). New CEO and chairman Tim Armstrong started yesterday and told staff in a memo that even more change was coming, as part of a 100-day effort to evaluate how to revive the online company. Ellis has been at AOL for a while, most recently as SVP of vertical and product sales. Previously, he worked at sports marketing company IMG, at Quokka Sports, a sports Web site and at Time Inc. as publisher of Time Inc. New Media. Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:30 pm IPEVO announces Skype desktop phone
Looking and functioning exactly like a standard desk phone, the SO-10W is wireless, at least as far as you internet connection goes. Obviously, you’ll still need power, but the phone is set up to use a 802.11b/g network. It functions completely independent of a computer, so if you need a solution for someone that’s a bit less technical, this might just be the thing. Currently available from IPEVO’s site for $169.99, it appears to be in stock. Source: Gizmodo | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:16 pm Cyberspies penetrate electrical grid: report (Reuters)Reuters - Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:12 pm Nokia Will Sell Its Life Tools in India - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:12 pm Microsoft Ending Mainstream Support For XPSlatterz writes "Come next week, Microsoft will be in the unusual position of no longer offering mainstream support for its most widely used product. Windows XP will pass another milestone next week on the road to retirement when mainstream support ends on 14 April 2009, over seven years after the OS originally shipped. While the company said that it will continue to provide free security fixes for XP until 2014, any future bugs found in the platform will not be fixed unless customers pay. Windows XP accounts for about 63 percent of all Internet-connected computers, according to March 2009 statistics from Hitslink, while Windows Vista makes up about 24 percent."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:12 pm Murmurs of the HearthSource: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:10 pm Cable’s Pay-Per-Byte Plan Finds A Foe In Congress [MediaMemo]
That instruction comes from New York Rep. Eric Massa, a Democrat who represents the Rochester area, and it’s aimed specifically at Time Warner Cable (TWC), which is starting to experiment with broadband “caps” in Massa’s hometown. Rabble-rousing quote: “Just at a time when access to information is driving our economic recovery, Time Warner is moving to stagnate the 21st Century technology needed to rebuild America.” But any of the big Internet pipe players who are contemplating charging their users on a per-use basis — and most of them are — can expect to get similar blowback from lawmakers. It’s a no-brainer: Consumers now expect to be able to use as much data as they want. And the cable guys — or the phone guys, in the markets where AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) are offering Internet service — are easy political targets. That’s a problem for the cable/phone guys, who want to use the caps to manage the boom in Web video. Their spin: They need the caps to make sure that power users who are consuming hours of movies, tv shows, etc via their PCs shoulder an appropriate bill for the bandwidth they use. The cynics among us think the plan is designed to discourage people from ditching their cable TV service in favor of Netflix (NFLX) on-demand, Hulu and TV downloads from Apple’s iTunes (AAPL). The cable guys are aware of the brewing backlash. At the industry’s annual convention last week, they were musing openly about better ways to sell their plans: Not as “caps” on use, for instance, but as “additional levels of service.” That’s going to take some awfully persuasive campaigning, and that’s not the kind of thing monopolists excel at. But perhaps they can just use this Simpsons clip to make their case: Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:05 pm 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee: Good Looking, But Is It Enough? - Jalopnik
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 8 Apr 2009 | 12:01 pm Russia LUKOIL says no talks with PKN on MazeikiuMOSCOW, April 8 (Reuters) - Russian oil major LUKOIL denied on Wednesday it had resumed attempts to buy shares in Lithuanian refiner Mazeikiu from Poland's No.1 refiner PKN Orlen .Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:56 am Dictionary.com Launches Free iPhone App
Dictionary.com, part of the Ask.com network, has launched a free iPhone app that delivers lets you look up definitions and synonyms from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, reaching into a database of more than 275,000 definitions and 80,000 synonyms. The app also features audio pronunciations, similarly spelled words and Word of the Day. The app lets you easily access spelled words, alphabetical indexing, synonyms example sentences, non-standard uses, word origin and history. Another cool feature of the app is the ability to access definitions and synonyms offline. You can also hear pronunciations of words. The app store currently features ten dictionary apps with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s app priced at $24.99. Dictionary.com’s app. Dictionary.com was bought by IAC-run Ask.com in July of 2008 when the conglomerate bought Lexico, the operator of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. Dictionary.com drew nearly 3.2 million unique visits in March, according to Compete. Merriam-Webster.comhad over 7 million unique visits in March.  Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:55 am Dictionary.com Launches Free iPhone AppDictionary.com, part of the Ask.com network, has launched a free iPhone app that delivers lets you look up definitions and synonyms from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, reaching into a database of...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:55 am IPhone App Keeps You Upright, Everything is Alright
The app uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to measure when you move. Tap the screen once to calibrate and from then on, any deviation will cause an alarm and/or a vibrating alert. This part of the plan works just fine. The problem comes with the iPhone itself. You need to either put it in a shirt pocket (where you cannot, of course, actually touch the screen to start to application) or hang it from a lanyard (yes, they actually exist ), which is clearly a bad idea. The “Slouch Sensing” can be adjusted between high, medium and low, and you can also set a “grace period” so you can, say, reach down and grab a dropped paperclip without setting of the alarm. For instructions on adjusting these or any other settings, see here. The worst part? I would have just looked at the screenshots and come to the exact same conclusions had the PR e-mail not contained a promo code for the application. I downloaded it, and then typed the code into iTunes. This was the exact point at which I discovered that promo codes, like drug-mules, cannot cross borders. The US-only code is as useless as a burst, heroin-filled condom here in Spain. Outtasight. Product page [iTunes] Source: Gizmodo | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:40 am UPDATE 1-Kenya's CMA suspends Kenol trading for day* Acts after price plunges following FY results (Adds analyst)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:37 am UPDATE 2-Roc Oil's Zhao Dong field on way to meet '09 plan* Current gross production at 21,500 bopd from Zhao DongSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:35 am Broadband stimulus seen as haphazard - United Press International
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:35 am Apple's New Nehalem Xserves 'Twice as Fast' - Wired News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:34 am Wanna upgrade from Windows 7 beta? Go back to Vista first - Register
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:32 am Open Text Buys 3D Interface Innovator Vizible
Vizible essentially transforms consuming just about any type of content into a rich, visual 3D experience and thus aims to ‘humanize’ how people interact with digital media. The company breaks the Web into basic units which it refers to as “cells”, which can be virtually any type of media: text, images, audio, video. Once the media has been placed in a cell, that cell can then be tagged, categorized and manipulated in a number of ways. The units can be filtered, searched and organized; they can also be coded to respond to input, linked to other content, or viewed in a three-dimensional space along with other cells. The technology was used by AT&T (an investor in Vizible) for its 3D browser initiative Pogo, which we covered when we learned the company’s business development unit was working it, although the project never actually came to fruition; the website PogoBrowser.com now redirects to AT&T Music. Open Text, a publicly-traded company, will fold Vizible’s products into its own digital media solutions, which help its customers manage rich-media content. All Vizible employees will become part of the company’s Digital Media group and remain in the Toronto area, where Open Text also has an office. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:27 am Open Text Buys 3D Interface Innovator VizibleLater today, enterprise content management juggernaut Open Text will announce to the world that it has acquired Toronto, Canada-based Vizible for an undisclosed sum. I'd never heard of Vizible before,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:27 am Apple's New Nehalem Xserves 'Twice as Fast'
Apple says that the two new models offer “twice the performance”, although the numbers themselves don’t look much different. The top end model runs at 2.93GHz against the old quad-core 2.8GHz version, so it’s clearly the change from the Harpertown to the Nehalem architecture that has done the trick. Well, that and the new, faster 1066 MHz DDR3 memory that the other Macs have had for a while. The Xserves come with three drive bays, and there is now the option to put in a solid state drive, useful for running the OS in a server farm where you want to save all the electricity (and heat) that you can. The other advantage here is that it doesn’t actually take up one of the bays. The base model, with 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Xeon 5500, 3GB RAM and a pathetic 160GB hard drive will run you $3000. If you opt for the top end octo with two quad-core 2.93 GHz chips and, like the Zen Buddhist in the pizza store, ask Apple to “make me one with everything”, you’re looking at over $12,000. Press release [Apple] Product page [Apple Photo of Nehalem Bay: Michael Cornelius/Flickr See Also: Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:26 am Youth of Arctic sea ice revises predictions of ice-free pole - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:24 am Google lawyer: We’re good for newspapers - Bizjournals.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:22 am QOTD [Digital Daily]
Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:16 am Toshiba Japan rolls out new LED backlit Regza LCD TVs
Toshiba announced a total of 10 new full HD Regza LCD TVs in Japan yesterday [JP]. The company just recently said it decided to step up production of LCD TVs. It’s new LCD TVs are marketed as the “Z series”, the ZX8000, ZH8000 and Z8000. They will be sold in Japan starting April 25 through July this year. The two models of the ZX800 (SV670 in the USA) series, available as 46- and 55-inchers are by far the most interesting ones. They use a direct white LED backlight control system that’s based on a self-developed LSI and leads to a spectacularly high dynamic contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. Toshiba also throws in a Full HD Clear Panel, ClearScan 240Hz motion and USB/HDD LAN video recording. The 46-inch model costs $5,000, while the 55-incher will set you back $6,000. The ZH8000 is less impressive, but it also comes with the Full HD Clear Panel and features a built-in 300GB HDD. Both the 47-inch model ($4,000) and the 55-inch model ($5,000) also allow for USB/HDD LAN video recording. The Z8000 is available in three versions: 37 inches ($2,700), 42 inches ($3,200) and 47 inches ($3,700). All models come with a Full HD Clear Panel and USB/HDD LAN video recording. It’s unclear at this point when these new Regzas will become available outside Japan. Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:15 am Zippi Receives Approval From Apple Computer and Zippi Cash iPhone Application Is Now Available for DownloadSAN JOSE, Calif., April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Zippi Networks Inc., (Pink Sheets: ZIPN), a leading provider of mobile commerce applications that enable Americans to recycle...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:15 am Sharp forecasts bigger loss amid global slowdownJapanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. is forecasting a bigger loss than first anticipated for the fiscal year ended March, blaming the global recession, a clean out of inventory and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:07 am UPDATE 1-Atlantia board to last only one year - sources* New pact likely ready by April 2010 (Adds quote, details)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:07 am Campari CEO says Wild Turkey deal to add $132 mln salesMILAN, April 8 (Reuters) - Campari's purchase of Wild Turkey bourbon from France's Pernod Ricard will add 100 million euros ($131.9 million) to sales on an annual basis, Chief Executive Bob Kunze-Concewitz...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:02 am Sprinx in Sync . . . With Microsoft Office Outlook(R)!Free Trial Editions Available at href="http://www.sprinxcrm.com">www.sprinxcrm.com LOS ANGELES and PRAGUE, April 8 /PRNewswire/ --Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:01 am Rebit Signs D&H Distributing as Authorized National DistributorLeading Technology Distributor Expands Rebit Channel Accessibility LONGMONT, Colo., and HARRISBURG, Pa., April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Rebit(TM) Inc., the company...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 11:01 am Acer intros the 11.6-inch Aspire One netbookSection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops, Netbooks
The new addition to the Aspire One family begins with an LED backlit 11.6-inch display with a WXGA resolution and is powered by a (yet unspecified) Intel Atom processor. Other features of the Aspire One include a multi-touch trackpad, a 160GB hard drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, Dolby Pro Logic Sound as well as a built-in card reader and webcam. The The 11.6-inch Aspire One will be available in your choice of white, black, dark blue or red. However as of now, both the pricing and the availability date are still unannounced. Read [Acer] Source: Gizmodo | 8 Apr 2009 | 10:58 am My iKid iJacked My iPhone: A Geek Parenting Tragedy [BoomTown]
BoomTown is not proud of the problem. Not at all. But, after hearing the same situation described over and over again from many other parents like me, I am also not alone. As it turns out our almost-seven-year-old son, Louie, has morphed into an iJacker. That would be of my iPhone, which I switched solely to recently, after a longtime attachment to my Blackberry. That RIM (RIMM) mobile phone never turned into a CrackBerry for him, as Louie did not care much for its lovely keys for emailing that so captivated me. But now he wants to grab my iPhone from my holster all the time, having become entranced by apps–lots and lots and lots of apps–that now litter the digital pages of my Apple (AAPL) device. DizzyBeeFree and Super Monkey Ball. Touch Hockey and Paper Football. Finger Sprint and MoodPhone. Bounce On and Crazy Penguin Catapult. Lie Detector and Crazy Snowboard. Tic Tac Toe and Hangman. And iChess, iCheckers, iBowl. Of course, there are also the bubble poppers and light sabers and more cowbells. And, good lord, how did a “Race to Witch Mountain” app get on there? So, I don’t need any stats to tell me that the iPhone and the iPod Touch too have turned into a gaming device of great impact. But there are stats, like yesterday’s from comScore (SCOR), showing at 12 out of the top 25 All-Time iPhone apps are games. (See the chart below; click to make it larger.)
It’s easy to understand why. The ease of use, the small form factor, the great graphics in this mobile phone that is actually a powerful computer. In fact, Louie hardly has any interest in the desktop computer anymore or even a laptop. Although we limited his access to it, it’s moot, since he hardly ever uses it now that the iPhone is around. Why? It is clear, most of all, that Louie loves the movement and the touch features, which turn the experience into a visceral one. And, uh-oh–according to a post last week on the blog Blorge.com, “The industry patent watch reveals that Apple has filed patent applications that seek to patent certain user interface ideas for the iPhone, including the use of movement, vibration, and pleasure. Oh, this is not going to go well when Louie is a teenager. Thus, aside from switching to a Microsoft (MSFT) Zune, what are our parenting tactics to stave off that day from coming sooner? Well, obviously, as much as he might beg–and he does beg and wheedle and plead–Louie gets to use the iPhone sparingly, on short car trips mostly. And he has play not only the sillier games, but use ones like iChess or word games that require some brain power. Lastly, Louie must be analog more than digital and playing inside and outside more than any of it. There should be more rules, I know, but for now he seems just as riveted to baseball and kickball too, so I am not quite in the panic stage. More the do-not-leave-the-iPhone-on-the-counter-if-I-ever-hope-to-see-it-again phase. Louie’s almost-four-year-old brother, Alex, is less interested in games on the iPhone, as it turns out.
Instead, for him, the iPhone is a magical music video device on which I bring him old musical numbers. Last night, it was “I Like to Be in America” from “West Side Story” and the night before, “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from “Oklahoma!” He was as delighted and mesmerized, as I was when I first saw those classics on the television when I was a kid. And, even seeing them on an iPhone, of that, I am proud. But, to give you the full picture of the situation, here is a video interview I did of Louie in action with my hijacked iPhone (it is not pretty):
iJac Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 10:43 am DIY Funeral Printing - Produce Memorial Materials With the Funeralprinter Templates (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Whether you need to print flyers, programs, prayer cards, bookmarks, or a number of other funerary items, you can download funeralprinter templates and print them from your computer...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 10:39 am 3D Felt Pets - Kay's K9s Makes Custom Miniature Replicas of Your Favorite Animals (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Canadian artisan Kay Stalher makes amazingly lifelike and cute replicas of dogs, cats and other pets out of felt. She uses a technique called needle felting which involves poking wool...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 10:19 am Intel Announces Next-Gen 2Ghz Atom
“Happy birthday Atom! You’re Fired!” This is, we imagine, what the ubiquitous netbook processor saw on its birthday cake this year, alongside one lonely, sputtering candle. The little can-do chip, the 1.6Ghz Atom, has been joined on its anniversary by two new Atoms. The older, slower Atom won’t be discontinued yet, but its orbit will certainly start to decay (yes, I just made a particle physics joke). The Z550 and Z515 are their names. The Z550 is the one you’ll see showing up in netbooks — it’s a 2GHz chip with a sub-three watt power consumption. The Z515 is a lower powered chip which can be underclocked to save even more juice. Intel doesn’t call it underclocking, but instead says that the performance can be boosted on demand using “Burst Performance Technology”. To us that sounds like an underclocked 1.2GHz Atom, but then, we’re cynical enough to make fun of a poor chip being laid off on its birthday. This is good news. Low power consumption is what is needed to fix netbooks, not faster processors. Putting both on the same chip is just perfect. Price and availability to be announced. Press release [Intel] Photo: Foxtongue/Flickr Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 8 Apr 2009 | 10:11 am All-White Leica Special Edition M8 is Gorgeous
Price is, of course, in the “if you need to ask” bracket (actually, you will need to ask — Leica hasn’t announced it yet) and the specs are just the same as that of a normal M8. The lens, though, looks a little fancy — the Elmarit 28mm ƒ2.8 aspherical lens comes in a rather fetching silver finish. The White M8 seems, now, to be called just that — “white”. This is dull, so I suggest another name. Snow Leopard. Catchy, huh? Wait, what do you mean, it’s taken? Special Edition All-White Leica M8 [Luxist. Thanks, Pieter!] Source: Gizmodo | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:45 am Daniel Yergin on $40 OilDaniel Yergin of energy research consultancy CERA on the prospects for $40 oil on continued economic weakness.Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:14 am RCTiger Is Now Free Obviously it's really hard to convince people to drive tanks in a German office remotely over the Internet for a few Eruro so the folks at RCTiger have now made their service free.
The service, as you'll recall, is basically a fun game that lets multiple players compete in real-time using model tanks in a cute little wooded playing field. They've made the game run 24/7 now and are basically giving away spots for free, presumably to amuse and enthuse audiences who might be put off by paying for such a service.
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:06 am RCTiger Is Now FreeObviously it's really hard to convince people to drive tanks in a German office remotely over the Internet for a few Eruro so the folks at RCTiger have now made their service free. The service, as you'll...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:06 am US Electricity Grid Reportedly Penetrated By Spiesphantomfive worries about a report in the Wall Street Journal ("Makes me want to move to the country and dig a well") that in recent years a number of cyber attacks against US infrastructure have been launched over the Internet: "Cyberspies have penetrated the US electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. The spies came from China, Russia, and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the US electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:05 am RCTiger is now free
The service, as you’ll recall, is basically a fun game that lets multiple players compete in real-time using model tanks in a cute little wooded playing field. They’ve made the game run 24/7 now and are basically giving away spots for free, presumably to amuse and enthuse audiences who might be put off by paying for such a service. Here’s our own video of gameplay but feel free to pop over and give it a try. Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:04 am Kanomi Plays: En Garde, Turn-Based Fencing Strategy Based On Officially Licensed Board GameKanomi Pikajuna Reviews Second Life's Most Promising Games Title: En Garde! Released: September 30, 2007 Genre: Turn-based strategy Age Category: PG Summary: Two players line up and square off in a duel...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:03 am Active Control and 3D-P Announce Intent to CollaborateSCOTTSDALE, AZ and TORONTO, ON, April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - 3D-P, a leading provider of technology products for the mining industry, and Active Control Technology (TSX-V:ACT), producer of ActiveMine(TM), the premier wireless voice communication and tracking system for mines, are pleased to announce that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Under the MOU, ACT will leverage 3D-P's Intelligent Endpoint(TM) product line to extend its product and services offerings.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2009 | 9:00 am CSC Launches Global Conversion Service for Life, Annuity and Pensions CarriersConversionEdge Offers Fast, Cost-effective Policy Administration ConsolidationSource: Gizmodo | 8 Apr 2009 | 8:58 am Where Data Goes to Die [Voices]
Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 8:52 am Daughter Uses Cellphone GPS to Find Mother Cheating, Father Kills All KidsA man and his oldest daughter used the GPS locator feature on the wife's phone to track her down and discovered she was cheating. That night, the man shot his five kids ages 7 to 16, most of them in their...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2009 | 8:50 am Good morning my friend are you involved in wanting a mini iPhone? For you I have nice one!SlashyG has a 9 minute video of some vaguely Russian man describing the failbox that is the CECT M188 MINI Dual SIM Card Phone with Bluetooth, essentially a mini iPhone knock off with a VGA camera, FM radio, and memory card slot. Best of all, the bugger only costs $103 which makes it perfect for your strange little kiosk in the smoky central train station where you unlock Nokias and sell illegal Turkish pornography under the counter. It’s also a great fit for your uncle who was in the army and came out a little weird and now spends all his time with his “girlfriends” in that park by the English school where the older prostitutes do business. Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 8:27 am CrunchGear PSA: Don’t buy Smartparts products
I’ve recently discovered that Smartparts, makers of Wi-Fi enabled picture frames, is going out of business and will no longer be supporting their products. Your best bet is to wait until their junk is on clearance and then pick it up cheaply. Otherwise, steer clear. A word from the company after the jump.
Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 8:19 am Card skimmers becoming bolder, less elusive
Anyone else seen these in the wild? Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 8:14 am Motorola’s Co-CEO Sanjay K. Jha got $104 million last year, you got laid off
Remember Motorola? They used to make phones. Anyway, co-CEO Sanjay K. Jha (the other CEO is Batman, but you never see Sanjay and Batman in the same room so…) works for the company and apparently spent most of last year and all of this year fishing, taking dance classes, and spending time with his kids because Motorola has done fuck-all to save itself in the face of high-powered feature-phone competitors like LG and Samsung let alone Palm which, just fifteen minutes ago, was ready to croak. Motorola needs it’s own Pre but it won’t get it. Why? Because whatever odd mutant strain of brain parasite they’re putting in the food in the MotoCFTRIA has essentially melted the frontal lobes of Motorola’s executive team and ensuring they’ll drive this truck into the river by Christmas 2009. Your thoughts? Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 8:02 am Bumptop: A better Windows desktop
VBeat has an interesting article on BumpTop, a Windows overlay that adds a little 3D to the Windows desktop that moves all the crap you don’t really use - widgets and the like - to a set of 3D walls and stacks up files and folders a la OS X stacks.
The light version of the app is free and a more powerful version costs $29. Give it a gander. Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:43 am Fox tells 4chan MOAR
Fox News has discovered 4chan.org and blames the odd community on a number of worldwide calamities including, but not limited to:
That’s right: Fox News has become a /b/tard. As BBG points out, breathless prose like this makes 4chan into something more so odd and all-powerful that you wonder why they didn’t slip the word “terrorists” in there… Oh wait.
Now my dad, who isn’t conservative but pretends he is to piss me off, can email me about 4chan. Thanks, Fox News! Source: CrunchGear | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:17 am Jackman 'heartbroken' over leaked superhero film (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:08 am Twitter Traffic Explodes…And Not Being Driven by the Usual Suspects! [Voices]Twitter seems to be just about everywhere these days, infiltrating pop culture and challenging traditional communication channels as people answer the simple Twitter question, “What are you doing?” Many people have hopped on the Twitter bandwagon–from businesses to celebrities to professional sports players to President Obama. Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:05 am Finding That Free Lunch [Voices]One of the most common sayings in economics is “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” And, it’s true: everything you do has some sort of cost in terms of opportunity costs. That was the point of that statement. Unfortunately, however, it appears that some have tried twisting that statement into saying that “free” doesn’t work as a part of economics. Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:04 am Let’s Stop Speaking Like Machines and Start Speaking Like People [Voices]The path from engineering to marketing is usually not a straight line. Often there can be many stops along the way, as a product goes from idea to a spec to prototype release build, through the quality assurance process, and eventually general availability to the marketplace. Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:03 am The Speech the NAA Should Hear [Voices]The Newspaper Association of America is meeting in San Diego this week and they’re preaching up at their own choir loft with angry, self-righteous fire and brimstone about their plight. Today, Google CEO Eric Schmidt will address them, but he’ll be polite because that’s the way he is and because there’ll be a few hundred aging but armed publishers with blunderbusses aimed at his heart. Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:02 am Sosius launches a zoomable fractal map for data aches and pains
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:01 am Eminem’s “We Made You” Is Way Behind the Times [Voices]Here are some things that have happened in the world since the last time Eminem released an original album: * America elected its first black president. Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:01 am Duluth Pack Regains Intellectual Assets With Assistance from MozendaSALT LAKE CITY, April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 13th, Michael Sterner's worst fears were realized.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:01 am Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Shows Rogue Security Software a Top Threat to Internet UsersCybercriminals take advantage of increased online savvy and human nature. REDMOND, Wash., April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:01 am Accel Partners Adds Google Executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy as CEO-in-ResidenceSukhinder Singh Cassidy Brings Growth and Early Stage Experience to the Global Firm PALO ALTO, Calif., April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Accel Partners, a leading global venture and growth equity firm funding companies from inception through the growth stage, today announced the addition of Sukhinder Singh Cassidy as CEO-in-Residence.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:00 am Verizon Business Enhances 'Compliance ScoreCard' to Help Enterprises Track Security Programs Against Industry Standards and RegulationsOnline Dashboard Allows Enterprises to Compare Success Against Industry Peers; Latest Enhancements to Security Management Program Reflect Growing Demand for Enterprise Tools BASKING RIDGE, N.J., April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Business customers now have an enhanced, industry-leading tool to help them track their security activities against relevant standards and regulations.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2009 | 7:00 am UMC Reports Sales for March 2009TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 8 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TAIEX: 2303), (UMC) today reported unaudited net sales for the month of March 2009. Revenues for March 2009 Period 2009 2008 Y/Y Change Y/Y(%) M/M(%) March 4,541,317 8,498,439 -3,957,122 -46.56% +44.45% Jan.- Mar.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2009 | 6:50 am London cop's unprovoked attack on G20 protestor BYSTANDER who then has fatal heart attackA London cop charged Ian Tomlinson,Video reveals G20 police assault on man who died (Thanks, Dan and everyone else who suggested this!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 8 Apr 2009 | 6:13 am DIY Multi-Touch Tabletop "Surface PC"notthatwillsmith writes "We've all seen the nifty demos of Microsoft's Surface PC. Now Maximum PC details how you can put together your own multi-touch tabletop PC. The article shows how you can build the cabinet and combine that with a standard PC, a decent projector, about $350 worth of assorted hardware (cameras, lenses, mirrors, and screens), and a handful of free apps to build your own Surface-like PC — without giving Microsoft $10,000."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 8 Apr 2009 | 5:56 am DoubleTwist lets you manage all your media from one place -- UPDATEDJon "DVD Jon" Johansen sez,doubleTwist - Play, Sync & Send photos, videos and music for Blackberry, iPod, Android, iPhone, PSP, LG. Free download for Mac, PC. (Thanks, Jon!) Update: Jon sez, "One small correction: this version of doubleTwist does not have DRM support (it's finally gone from music anyway!) Our main aim is to provide a unified device management experience, including support for proprietary devices such as the iPod and the iPhone."
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 8 Apr 2009 | 5:46 am Taiwan Chip Maker Sues Apple Over IPhone, IPod Touch
|
| World : News Archives | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Technology | Science | Marketplace Audio |
| India : News | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Telugu | |
| Blogs : Humor pages | Norkay's Blog | Kids Stories | Indian Recipes | Database Tech Blog |
| Sundries : World Video Clips | Songs Clips | Indian Video Clips | |
IPEVO announced their new desk style Skype certified phone today. Designed for the “love Skype, hate the headset” crowd or people who need something that looks a bit more professional, the SO-10W is the latest addition to IPEVO’s product line.
A New York congressman has a message to cable companies who want drop their all-you-can-eat broadband Internet plans: Don’t even think about it.
Later today, enterprise content management juggernaut 
Even as a supporter and regular user of netbooks, to me there has to be a size limit when it comes to the display. Previously, we thought that was 10-inches, however we have seen others such as Dell and Gateway sneak past with some larger models and now Acer has unveiled the Aspire One with an 11.6-inch display. So, netbook or small notebook, either way, the new Aspire One seems like a worthy addition to the existing Aspire One lineup.
I don’t cover enterprise applications often, but today 
While conducting research for his 
Here's a preview of the artwork from old-school underground comix genius Basil Wolverton's 
"Women have a larger interest in reproductive events because they have fewer opportunities for passing on their genes than men," said George Preti, a Monell Chemical Senses Center organic chemist...
Spam levels have returned to the level they were at before the shutdown of nefarious ISP McColo, which was known for its acceptance of spammers and scammers as customers. After the shutdown, spam levels dropped an amazing 75%, largely in part because three botnets were cut off by it: Mega-D, Srizbi, and Rustock. Mega-D. At least one, Mega-D (named after one of the fake pharmaceuticals its spam hyped), has resumed operations. Experts say it has most likely relocated to an overseas host, probably in Romania or Estonia.
Don’t worry: these won’t come out here. The S312 is a 2-megapixel camera phone with dedicated “camera” button for taking impromtu snaps of your friends and relations. It should be available in Q3 2009.
