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The European Union Twitter ElectionsFollowing the successful example of Barack Obama's bid for the White House, widely credited for its effective use of internet resources, many current and prospective Members of the European Parliament...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 12:18 pm Unpaid Contributors Provide Corporate Tech SupportHugh Pickens writes "The NY Times writes about Justin McMurry of Keller, TX, who spends up to 20 unpaid hours per week helping Verizon customers with high-speed fiber optic Internet, television and telephone service. McMurry is part of an emerging corps of Web-savvy helpers that large corporations, start-up companies, and venture capitalists are betting will transform the field of customer service. Such enthusiasts are known as lead users, or super-users, and their role in contributing innovations to product development and improvement — often selflessly — has been closely researched in recent years. These unpaid contributors, it seems, are motivated mainly by a payoff in enjoyment and respect among their peers. 'You have to make an environment that attracts the Justin McMurrys of the world, because that's where the magic happens,' says Mark Studness, director of e-commerce at Verizon. The mentality of super-users in online customer-service communities is similar to that of devout gamers, according to Lyle Fong, co-founder of Lithium Technologies whose web site advertises that a vibrant community can easily save a company millions of dollars per year in deflected support calls' and whose current roster of 125 clients includes AT&T, BT, iRobot, Linksys, Best Buy, and Nintendo. Lithium's customer service sites for companies offer elaborate rating systems for contributors, with ranks, badges and kudos counts. 'That alone is addictive,' says Fong. 'They are revered by their peers.' Meanwhile McMurry, who is 68 and a retired software engineer, continues supplying answers by the bushel, all at no pay. 'People seem to like most of what I say online, and I like doing it.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 27 Apr 2009 | 12:13 pm First Android netbook due out this summer - VNUNet.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:40 am Flip Ultra HD now available in the retail marketSection: Video, Portable Video
The latest model to hit the retail store shelves is the Flip Ultra HD and unlike the Mino, this one, at least from the images appears to have a slightly larger size that is more comparable to the original Flip cameras. Of course, that is still not large by any means. As for features, the Flip Ultra HD offers two hours of recording time, has a rechargeable battery that is removable and an HDMI out. Another nice perk is that when the rechargeable battery is out, the Ultra HD can also be powered by two AA batteries. As for pricing, it looks like it will be retailing for $199.99. Read [gaxonline] Via [engadget] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:23 am mocoNews - Chipmaker Qualcomm Settles Broadcom Patent Spat for ... - Washington Post
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:19 am British government backs down over national database planLONDON - The British government says it has no plans to set up a national database of every phone call, email and website visit made in the country. The government said in October it...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:16 am Artificial intelligence's next frontier: Jeopardy - ZDNet
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:08 am Flip Mino HD Unboxed Before it Officially Exists
If you wanted a Flip camcorder and high-definition video, you had one choice — the Mino HD, a $230 pocket camera at the top of the Flip range. And according to Flip and its website, that’s still the only option. Unless you head down to Bestbuy, where a brand new Flip Ultra HD can be had for just $200. This still unofficial camcorder was picked up by a fellow named Gary Cannon, and he has posted the unboxing pics to prove it. We’re not sure if the new Ultra HD picks up some of its big brothers functions such as fast forward and rewind, or h.264 compression, but we do know that it will shoot for two hours (twice that of any other Flip), it has a supplied rechargeable battery which can be removed and replaced with a coiuple of AAs. It also has an HDMI-out, which means that — if that is an uncompressed signal — this could be used as a very cheap front-end for a big video capture setup. We’ll be keeping an eye on the Flip site for the official details. Flip Ultra Hd Unboxing [Gaxonline via Engadget] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:05 am Apple Shakes Baby, Kills Freedom of Speech - TechNewsWorld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:03 am National Consumers League scolds MPAA on DVD copying - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:00 am French Coast Threatened By ErosionClimate change is now threatening France’s Aquitaine coast, which stretches north from the Spanish border to the Gironde River, causing erosion that is endangering coastal communities.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:56 am Apple “willfully” infringed patent, fined $19m in damages - SlashGear
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:53 am PSP firmware 5.50 to make users more organized and secureFROM GAMERTELL - PSP owners should start preparing for the forthcoming release of firmware 5.50. The update will add two Trend Micro internet security trials and allow for media folders, instant game internet searches and a PSP news ticker. Source: Gizmodo | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:40 am Mashimaro Weird Rabbit MP3 PlayerBy Evan Ackerman This is Mashimaro. It’s supposed to be a rabbit, but it’s called Mashimaro because it looks like a marshmallow or something. It is, I guess, Korea’s defense against Hello...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:39 am METALS INSIDER-LME Spreads...Here Be Monsters!-- Andy Home is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. For more Metals Insider columns, top Reuters metals stories and third party content, please visit the free Base Metals Community...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:32 am Texas Instruments supports ZigBee Alliance plan to integrate Internet Protocol standards for smart energy applicationsDALLAS, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced the company's strong endorsement of the ZigBee Alliance's recent...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:30 am GameStop Briefly Takes Pre-orders For Guitar Hero: Van HalenThis post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net I’m a huge Van Halen fan, and was really stoked when I saw Hot For Teacher on Guitar Hero: World Tour (and You Really Got Me on GH II)...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:29 am Apple eyes Verizon iPhone deal; Network matters or negotiation tool? - ZDNet
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:27 am Wind-Up Vibrator is Powered by Your Wrist
The Earth Angel Wind-Up Vibrator is typical of green, wholemeal, tree-hugger penitence. The “world’s first 100% eco-friendly wind-up sex toy” builds the punishment into the pleasure — you need to work for your thrills. The vibrator is made from 100% recycled plastic and parts — a do-gooder’s dream — and requires you to do four minutes of furious cranking for every half hour of use. It does store your juice, though, so you can put in the wrist-power now and enjoy the fruits at your leisure. You get four speeds and easy three button up-down-off control. For those of you for whom size still matters, the length is just 8.5” and the circumference 5.3” (a diameter of 1.7”). We actually like the battery-saving design, although not because its eco-friendly. No, I like it because I now have one more task which I can thrust upon my subservient gimp. Chen’ll love it. $69 (of course). Product page [Love Honey via Shiny Shiny] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:21 am Voluminous Soap Hairdos - Extra Strong Priorin Shampoo Campaign(TrendHunter.com) This ad campaign by JWT Frankfurt for Extra Strong Priorin Shampoo is great. After all, who doesn't remember making huge soapy hairdos in the bathtub as a child? The first ad depicts...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:20 am UPDATE 2-InBev picks KKR as $1.9 bln buyer of S.Korea brewer* OB official, banking source confirm KKR picked as buyerSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:19 am Apple Corrects Form 10-QCUPERTINO, Calif., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple(R) today filed an amendment to correct the Form 10-Q it submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:16 am Thoughtcrime Experiments: Remixable, CC-licensed science fiction anthology
Sumana sez, "Sumana Harihareswara and Leonard Richardson selected nine mind-squibbling SF and fantasy stories from the slush pile, commissioned five works of art, paid the authors and artists, and packaged the whole thing as a high-quality anthology that you're free to copy and remix. Artists include E-Sheep's Patrick Farley and fanfic darling Erin Ptah; authors include Mary Anne Mohanraj, Carole Lanham, and Ken Liu. We also wrote an essay describing the process, which you can read if you're interested in how we did it or what the SF/fantasy market looks like from the editor's perspective."
Thoughtcrime Experiments
(Thanks, Sumana!)
Thoughtcrime Experiments: Remixable, CC-licensed science fiction anthologySumana sez, "Sumana Harihareswara and Leonard Richardson selected nine mind-squibbling SF and fantasy stories from the slush pile, commissioned five works of art, paid the authors and artists, and packaged...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:14 am DISH Network Corporation Announces Conference Call for First Quarter 2009 Financial ResultsENGLEWOOD, Colo., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH) will host its first quarter 2009 financial results conference call on Monday, May 11,Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:05 am Desktop Linux: Why it may have lost its chance (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - It's time we faced it: The Year of the Linux Desktop, long foretold, isn't coming.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2009 | 10:00 am Disney Gets Ready - Finally - To Hold Hands With Hulu [MediaMemo]
The arrangement will add Disney (DIS) programming — primarily TV shows from ABC like “Lost”, though it will also include some of the company’s movies — to the joint venture between GE’s NBC (GE) and News Corp.’s Fox (NWS). In return for giving Hulu exclusive access to some of its content — but not for some high-profile programming like ESPN — Disney will get an equity stake in the joint venture, and seats on the company’s board. It’s a big deal for Disney, which until now has been focused on driving Web traffic to its own properties. And it’s a big deal for Hulu, which will have locked up three of the four broadcast networks. Does all of this sound familiar? It should. It’s pretty much where things stood nearly a month ago, when I was told a deal was going to be struck “any day”. So what’s the hold up? Just the tedium of “i”-dotting and “t”-crossing, I’m told. In this case, it comes in the form of haggling over programming decisions: Which shows and movies will appear on Hulu, how quickly they appear after their offline debut, how long they will stay there, etc. A week ago, an executive involved in the negotiations told me the deal was “down to the short strokes”. By the end of last week, the four companies involved were massaging the language for press releases, I’m told. The long gestation period has led some observers to wonder if other players with a stake in online video — like Comcast (CMCSA), Google (GOOG) or CBS (CBS) — had been able to convince Disney’s Bob Iger not to go forward with the pact. “Everyone’s been trying to tell Iger how stupid this deal is,” a TV executive tells me. The nuance of the critiques differ depending on who’s making them, but all of them make the same point: Throwing in with Hulu will strengthen the joint venture, which also includes investor Providence Equity Partners, but it won’t provide Disney with significant upside. But the complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears. While Google was able to get a deal with Disney to run excerpts of some of its programming on YouTube — a consolation prize, basically — it’s been unable to cobble together a deal for long-form programming. Earlier this month, YouTube unveiled a new Hulu-like section for movies and television shows. But its inventory of TV shows and movies remains paltry, and it doesn’t have any of the first-run shows that the TV networks highlight on their own sites — and on Hulu. One thing to watch going forward, no matter when the Disney/ABC deal gets done: Just how much access to those first-run shows will Hulu users get? Hulu is a hit with viewers, but its network backers are still wary of training viewers to expect to watch their favorite shows on the Web, whenever they want to watch them. Which is why many of Hulu’s first-run TV shows have particularly short shelf-lives. You can only see about half of this season’s run of NBC’s “The Office“, for instance. And if you want to watch new episodes of “Rescue Me“, which airs on News Corp.’s FX, you’ve got to be patient, then act fast. New episodes don’t show up on Hulu until 8 days after they premiere on the cable channel, but they don’t last there for more than a couple of weeks. In TV parlance, this now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t programming is called “windowing”, and casual Hulu users tend not to notice or complain about it. A small dustup in January about “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” a disappearing FX sitcom, is the exception that proves the rule. But what happens if NBC, Fox and ABC shows start taking longer to get to the Hulu, and leave sooner? We may find out. An executive at one of the joint venture’s network backers tells me to expect more restrictive windowing in the future, as the TV guys try to get a handle on the Web. Source: Gizmodo | 27 Apr 2009 | 9:31 am Wesabe Meets Mint In The iPhone Finance App Arena
So how do the apps stack up? Well, there are two key differences: Mint’s looks nicer, but Wesabe’s is more dynamic. What I mean by that is, with Mint’s iPhone app you can only see an overview of your finances, and look at things like the budget you set up online. With Wesabe’s iPhone app, everything is editable. And that’s a nice feature because more than a few times with Mint, I have seen a transaction categorized wrong, but had to login on my computer to edit it. One cool feature that comes out of this ability to edit and add transactions from the app is that you can use your phone’s GPS to geo-locate wherever you made a purchase. This means you won’t have to type out the name of every merchant if you really want to take a hands-on approach and enter every purchase you make manually. The app also allows you to tag items on the fly, which is core to Wesabe’s offering. If you’re really worried about security, you’re probably not going to use either of these apps. But one nice thing Wesabe’s features is a separate security layer that allows you to set a password for accessing the app. This is great if you don’t have a password set on your iPhone and worry about losing your phone and someone seeing your finances. Wesabe’s iPhone app gives you access to all the accounts you set up online through the service. Unfortunately, while you can sign up for a Wesabe account through the app, you cannot import any bank accounts or credit card accounts through it — you’ll have to go to a computer to do that. Wesabe CEO Marc Hedlund tells me that functionality will be available in an upcoming release of the iPhone app. Ultimately, the choice of which app you’re going to use on the iPhone will come down to which service you use. But if you’re deciding which to sign up for and being able to edit your finances easily on a mobile device is important to you, than Wesabe may be a good choice. Find the Wesabe app available for free in the iTunes App Store. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2009 | 9:10 am Cross-Distro Remote Package Administration?tobiasly writes "I administer several Ubuntu desktops and numerous CentOS servers. One of the biggest headaches is keeping them up-to-date with each distro's latest bugfix and security patches. I currently have to log in to each system, run the appropriate apt-get or yum command to list available updates, determine which ones I need, then run the appropriate install commands. I'd love to have a distro-independent equivalent of the Red Hat Network where I could do all of this remotely using a web-based interface. PackageKit seems to have solved some of the issues regarding cross-distro package maintenance, but their FAQ explicitly states that remote administration is not a goal of their project. Has anyone put together such a system?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Gizmodo | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:34 am VASCO Data Security Launches DIGIPASS Ready Partner ProgramOAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. and ZURICH, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VASCO Data Security, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:23 am VASCO Data Security and OpenTrust Jointly Offer End-to-End PKI-Based SolutionsVASCO's VACMAN and DIGIPASS CertiID will be integrated into OpenTrust Smart Card Manager (SCM) OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. and ZURICH, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VASCO Data Security International, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:22 am Confirmed: Former AOL Exec Mike Jones To Take COO Role At MySpace
An announcement will be made later this morning. Jones and Van Natta will join Jonathan Miller, the CEO Digital Media, at MySpace’s Los Angeles offices today to address employees. Jones is a well respected entrepreneur who founded Userplane, a video chat service that added social features to dating and other sites. Userplane was bought by AOL in 2006 for around $40 million. The acquisition was made at the time that Jonathan Miller was the CEO of AOL, and Jones knows Miller well. As we said in an earlier post about the changing of the guard at MySpace, News Corp. is making a clean sweep of the top executives. Cofounder and CEO Chris DeWolfe is out. Cofounder and President Tom Anderson is is having “discussions” about “assuming a new role in the organization.” Our guess is that the final Cofounder, CTO Aber Whitcomb, is next to go. Jones left AOL in 2008 to start a new company, Tsavo, which sources tell us is off to a very fast start. The company raised a substantial amount of capital from American Capital and has made a number of acquisitions. Sources also say that the company is profitable. Jones will be stepping into a board of directors and advisor role, and he certainly leaves the company far more structurally sound than his new boss Owen Van Natta did with his own Project Playlist. This is the kind of executive that many hoped Miller would bring in to run the massive MySpace property, which remains one of the largest sites on the Internet despite lagging badly behind Facebook in growth. Jones won’t have the same authority in the No. 2 position at the company, but if Van Natta is smart enough to give him room to run it will be a good sign for the company. Another good sign - Jones is a long time user of MySpace and is very active on the site. CEO Van Natta barely has a presence, and Miller isn’t yet on the site. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:06 am Consumers Rank Wireless Power Charging in Top 20% of Lifestyle Demands According to Market ResearchWireless Power Consortium pursues universal wireless power to fulfill consumer need HONG KONG, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Citing syndicated and proprietary international market research from sources including Ipsos Vantis, AcuPOLL, and Frost & Sullivan, the Wireless Power Consortium (the Consortium) continues to drive toward an interoperable wireless power standard for consumer devices requiring up to 5 Watts of power.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:00 am Autonomy Reaches New Benchmark for Managing World's Largest Data ArchiveCAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:00 am Autonomy Delivers First-Ever Cloud-Based Web Content Compliance SolutionNEW YORK, GEARUP 2009 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING ROADSHOW, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU.), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, today announced a new solution that allows businesses to automatically record and archive dynamic website content.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:00 am Ricoh Expands its Managed Print Services for a Smarter and More Efficient OfficeLONDON, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh Europe (http://www.ricoh-europe.com) is offering businesses increased opportunities to achieve cost savings, increase productivity and reduce environmental impact, with the expansion of its Managed Print Services.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:00 am VASCO DIGIPASS for Mobile Available for DOCOMO i-modeOAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. and ZURICH, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VASCO Data Security, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:59 am Back to School: New MySpace CEO Van Natta Starts Today (Joined by Former AOL Exec Jones as COO) [BoomTown]
New MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta starts on his first day on the job at MySpace bright and early this morning, coming to its Beverly Hills HQ, as he takes over for former CEO and Co-founder Chris DeWolfe. And, along with him will also be a new COO, former AOL exec Mike Jones, whose appointment will be announced this morning, sources said. Jones was the founder of Userplane, a social networking application maker that was bought by then-AOL head Jon Miller in 2006. Miller is now the digital chief at News Corp. (NWS), which owns MySpace. (News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.) Jones left the Time Warner (TWX) unit last year to start Tsavo, a digital content start-up. Van Natta, who was also running the Project Playlist start-up until his appointment, has stronger Silicon Valley ties. For now, he will commute to MySpace from Northern California, where his family lives. Van Natta was a former top-ranking Facebook exec, still holding a small stake in the MySpace rival, and he also has worked at Amazon (AMZN). But, with a strong product and technology background, the Los Angeles-based Jones is an excellent choice to be a partner to Van Natta–who was hired by Miller last week in a flurry of change at the social networking site. Their challenges include: Reinvigorating the MySpace brand, upgrading its technology, adding more innovation to its feature set, continuing to grow its nascent advertising business and dealing with the tough renegotiation of its lucrative search and advertising deal with Google (GOOG). They must also play deft diplomats at MySpace, where many remain loyal to DeWolfe and to co-founder Tom Anderson. Anderson is in talks to step down as president for an unspecified new role in the company. He currently remains president. See a chat I had with Jones in the video below that I did at a gathering of Beta South, a networking organization for digital start-ups in the Los Angeles area, last year. (Jones is at the start, talking about the differences between Silicon Valley and Southern California.) And, if you want to read an informative and solidly reported piece on Van Natta–and are perplexed as BoomTown is by factually-challenged and agenda-stuffed diatribes of some about him–try out this one in The Wall Street Journal today. Here is Jones in my video:
Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:44 am 90% of kids kind of sort of have cellphones
What does this mean? Well, the Age believes kids are addicted to cellphones they way they are addicted to their rock and roll and fancy dancing which could mean the end of society as we know it once those kids stop listening to intelligent older men and start going off driving their cars at all hours of the afternoon and spending time in my yard throwing stones at the sparrows in the feeder and then going off to school to learn about rap music and all that evolverution stuff or whatever they teach these kids these days. It could also mean that parents now have a line to their kids no matter where they are, something that I, as a parent and older man am glad of. When did you guys give your kids cellphones? Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:39 am Facebook: Islands in the Stream [Digital Daily]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going to turn the social network’s “stream” of user experiences and information into a revenue stream one way or another. And if that means allowing others to pan its waters for gold, then so be it. And so at an event in Palo Alto later today, Facebook will reportedly announce plans to open its stream to third-party developers, offering them the chance to build new services and applications outside the site that–with users’ permission–access the status updates, photos and videos they upload. According to The Wall Street Journal, it will provide that access via an open standard and it will do it for free. An attractive proposition for developers: Access to a community with some 200 million members and the only real barrier to entry a user’s privacy settings. In the months ahead, we’ll undoubtedly see it give rise to countless new services in much the same way as Twitter ash spawned an ecosystem of developers. In doing this, Facebook is positioning itself as a social data clearinghouse feeding a myriad of other third-party services. More importantly, by doing so the social networking behemoth is also acknowledging that we’re not likely to conduct all our social interactions in a single network. But it’s also betting that we may be willing to conduct many of them through one. And in the end, that’s just as good–especially if that social network is Facebook. Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:35 am Vernor Vinge predicts singularity by 2030
Destiny sez, "In a new interview, Vernor Vinge predicts the Singularity within 21 years. 'I'd personally be surprised if it hadn't happened by 2030,' he announces, saying humankind may become 'the only animal that has figured out how to outsource its cognition' to superintelligent machines.
Since 1981 Vinge has been popularizing the idea of a massive technological shift which replaces 'the human era' with an advanced humanity augmented by artificial intelligence. 'It is very unsettling to realize that we may be entering an era where questions like 'What is the meaning of life?' will be practical engineering questions,' 64-year-old Vinge agrees. 'On the other hand, I think it could be kind of healthy, if we look at the things we really want -- and look at what it would mean if we could get them.'"
I'm on record as being a skeptic about this stuff, but man, Vernor's fun to read.
Singularity 101 with Vernor Vinge
(Thanks, Destiny!)
Etisalat and Nokia Collaborate to Boost Advanced Mobile Internet Based Services in the UAEABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates and ESPOO, Finland, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of their plans to further boost the adoption of advanced Mobile Internet services in the Middle East, Etisalat and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced a joint collaboration to provide convenient access to advanced mobile Internet based services.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:11 am How We Got Here and How We Get Out of Here [Voices]This is the end of my year at Columbia and I want to really thank you for having me. I’ve had a totally terrific time. I learned a ton from Sree throughout this year, so thank you Sree, as well as from the students who came to the lectures. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:05 am Swine Flu: Twitter’s Power to Misinform [Voices]Who knew that swine flu could also infect Twitter? Yet this is what appears to have happened in the last 24 hours, with thousands of Twitter users turning to their favorite service to query each other about this nascent and potentially lethal threat as well as to share news and latest developments from Mexico, Texas, Kansas and New York (you can check most recent Twitter updates on the subject by searching for “swine flu” and “#swineflu”). Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:04 am Silicon Valley’s Wired Race for Governor [Voices]With Governor Schwarzenegger’s approval ratings plummeting and a budget crisis looming, Californians are already looking for their next gubernatorial savior–and Silicon Valley is stocking the till. The Valley used to be the state’s political bank, a place where candidates–some, like the Governator, hailing from Hollywood–could go to bankroll their campaigns. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:03 am Why Email Clients Need to Change [Voices]My inbox is broken. Not in an I-can’t-check-my-messages kind of way, but in a fundamental, inboxes-will-never-be-the-same-again kind of way. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:02 am Journalists: Where Do You Add Value? [Voices]Every day, with everything they do, the key question for journalists and news organizations in these tight - that is, more efficient - times must be: Are you adding value? And if you’re not, why are you doing whatever you’re doing? Sitting in a hotel room, cruising by CNN the other day, I caught a behind-the-scenes segment that wanted to show us just how cool it is to be a reporter dashing from story to story. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:01 am Power On Self Test: That better be a damn good Pepsi
Photo: Heather Beschizza, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Crystal City, VA., near Washington, D.C. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:00 am NTT Com Expanding Its Presence in Europe and IndiaTOKYO, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- NTT Communications (NTT Com) announced on April 27 that following the establishment of NTT Communications Russia LLC in Moscow, Russia this past January, the wholly owned subsidiary will now set up a branch office in St.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:01 am Attunity Reports First Quarter 2009 ResultsBURLINGTON, Massachusettes, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Attunity Ltd (OTC Bulletin Board: ATTUF.OB), a leading provider of real-time event capture and data integration software, reported today its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009. - Key financial metrics for the first quarter of 2009: - Net Operating Profit - (Non GAAP): $80,000 net operating profit compared to $39,000 Non-GAAP net operating profit in the first quarter of 2008.Non-GAAP operating profit excludes equity based compensation expenses (see footnote 1 at the end of this release), and software development costs capitalization and amortization (see footnote 2) - Net Operating Loss - (GAAP): $418,000, compared to $223,000 in the first quarter of 2008. - Revenues: $2,213,000, a decrease of 32.4% compared to $3,276,000 in the first quarter of 2008. - Net Profit (Loss) (Non-GAAP): $64,000 compared to ($68,000) net loss in the first quarter of 2008.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:00 am A Look At the Wolfram Alpha "Search Engine"An anonymous reader points out a ReadWriteWeb piece on an hour-long demo of Wolfram Alpha (which we discussed at its announcement). Stephen Wolfram does not like to call it a "search engine," preferring instead the term "computational knowledge engine." It will open to the public in May. "The hype around Wolfram|Alpha, the next 'Google killer' from the makers of Mathematica, has been building over the last few weeks. Today, we were lucky enough to attend a one-hour web demo with Stephen Wolfram, and from what we've seen, it definitely looks like it can live up to the hype — though, because it is so different from traditional search engines, it will definitely not be a 'Google killer.' According to Stephen Wolfram, the goal of Alpha is to give everyone access to expert knowledge and the data that a specialist would be able to compute from this information."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:59 am The story of the PlayStation
Only a few devices really redefined my life: that stent, a fire truck, the Ford Fairmont, and the PlayStation are a few that come to mind right now. Edge Magazine has a great look at the history of the PlayStation, from its humble beginnings as a SNES with a CD drive to the device that changed the gaming market forever.
From the ashes of that partnership came Sony’s effort to rule the gaming world for all time, a noble and, some would say, lofty goal. The result? Sony opened the game platform wars to another player and the world is better for it. Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:53 am Toshiba to Ship Higher Capacity Flash Chips From July (PC World)PC World - Toshiba plans to begin shipping from the middle of this year flash memory chips that are more tightly packed than current models and will make possible even smaller gadgets.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:50 am Qualcomm to Pay Broadcom US$891 Million in Patent Settlement (PC World)PC World - Qualcomm, the world's largest maker of mobile phone chips, agreed to pay chip designer Broadcom US$891 million to settle a long running patent dispute to end all courtroom proceedings globally.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:40 am Facebook plans to give developers more access: source (Reuters)Reuters - Internet social media company Facebook plans to allow outside developers access to core parts of the website so they can build new services, a person familiar with the situation said.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:34 am John Kelly: Shuttle's past says time isn't on its side - Florida Today
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:12 am MBAs: Most Bloody Awful, Aussie radio documentary on the problem with biz-schoolIn this superb Australian public radio documentary, "MBA: Mostly bloody awful," the idea of "scientific management" and "professional management" is subjected to an extremely critical look and comes up wanting. Focusing on the Harvard Business School and the circumstances that gave rise to it (America: "a corporation founded by a corporation"; "scientific" Taylorism and its focus on quantifying the unquantifiable, the fad to quantification in management, such as Meyers-Briggs). It looks at the difference between MBAs and real entrepreneurs, looking at all those successful founders who didn't get MBAs (Gates, Jobs, Bezos, etc), and at the pants-wetting insecurity on display in the number of times the word "leader" and its associated terms appear in the bumpf for management programs ("every leader needs to have a bunch of followers -- do we want a world of followers?"). This is extremely meaty stuff, funny and engrossing and refreshing at once. Definitely worth the listen.
MBA: Mostly bloody awful
(via Justine Larbalestier)
Source: Boing Boing | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:03 am Have Kindle, Will Travel — And Stay Up-To-Date Thanks To Offbeat Guides
Starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to find 500 of the company’s newest guides in the Kindle store at prices ranging from $3.99 for smaller cities to $7.99 for larger ones. Here’s why these are great. Just like the Offbeat Guides regular guidebook products, its Kindle-ready guidebooks are way more up-to-date than traditional guidebooks. While there have been some guidebooks available on the Kindle in the past, most are only updated once a year. Offbeat Guides are updated every month. This means they can include information such as real-time events for specific cities, like concerts or festivals. It also means the guides can have a Kindle menu option to find out something going on in the city you are visiting that night. For tourists who don’t know anyone in a particular city, that’s a great feature. There are a couple downsides. Naturally, because the Kindle only handles grayscale images, you won’t get the full color pictures you usually find in other tour guides. And because the Kindle’s screen isn’t ideal for displaying maps, tailored, local maps that are a part of Offbeat Guides regular guides aren’t included here. But, at 10.2 ounces (for the latest version), the Kindle is likely lighter than regular tour guides. And, if you’re planning a multiple city trip, you can obviously load up a bunch of these guides on one Kindle. One thing that particularly excites me is the fact that you can also view these on your iPhone if you go somewhere and don’t feel like carrying around a Kindle. Because the Kindle app on the iPhone stays in sync with the Kindle content, you can bookmark pages and look at them later on your phone. Offbeat Guides has been working on these Kindle-tailored guides for 6 months now, CEO Dave Sifry tells me. He also notes that there are 5 times as many cities available as compared to other guides. Right now, if you plan on traveling to a city often and want the most up-to-date guide, you’ll have to buy a new one each time. But Sifry says they will explore the possibility of having subscriptions for certain cities if customers demand that. Such a feature may even be useful to locals of a particular city to know what is going on. But the focus right now remains on leisure and business travelers, he says. Find a full list of the Offbeat Guides Kindle options here.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2009 | 5:00 am TC/CG Meet-up: Important Helsinki Update
NOTE - The new start time is now 8pm. We’ve decided to have the meet-up at A21 on Annankatu 21 [Google Map]. PLEASE RSVP ASAP so I can offer them a head count. N.B. If you have a start-up to discuss, please have some information handy, preferably in electronic form. It will probably be hard to do demos unless they’re on a mobile phone, but if you contact me beforehand we can probably sit down to look at your product on a laptop.
UPDATE - Nokia is chipping in from 8pm-9pm! For last minute changes follow me on Twitter. See you in Helsinki! Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:58 am GSM spy ear! Dial in from anywhere!
Cease and desist letter be damned! Your woman is cheating on you with that Blood Efl!! Put a spy ear in her room! She talks to him! You hear! You go crazy! You go to jail! 65 dollars! Jail is fun because you’ll have time to read!
Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:58 am Can game-design promote human rights?The Council of Europe has released a set of guidelines on the human rights of video-game players, calling on game-creators to design systems that encourage freedom of expression and creativity (many online games actually put up an "agreement" every time you patch them in which you promise not to assert your right to either). On the academic games blog Terra Nova, Ren Reynolds points out problems with this approach and sets out a course for improving it.Providers (designers and publishers) of online games design and make available products which can promote the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the freedom to express, to create and to exchange content and communications while respecting the rights of others. Designed and provided in an appropriate manner, games can be powerful tools to enhance learning, creativity and social interaction, thereby helping users to benefit from the information society.Human rights & the 'online game provider' Source: Boing Boing | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:57 am Time Warner Cable customers powerless - Kennebec Journal
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:54 am EU set to vote to remove neutrality from the net, give ISPs and govts the power to arbitrarily block siteCarsten sez, "On May 5, thus in only two weeks, the politicians in Brussels will vote on a package of laws regulating the Internet in EU countries. This is the so-called telecoms package. If the lobbyists' and bureaucrats' version is adopted, ISPs will be able to arbitrarily block sites to their customers, and governments will be able to impose three-strikes measures without involving the judiciary. A group of MEPs, among them the Swede Eva-Britt Svensson, are proposing some amendments which will effectively table a set of digital 'Citizen's Rights' which will effectively prohibit filtering and cutoffs unless as decided in a courtroom with adequate cause/proof. If the Citizens' Rights amendments are accepted, Europeans will gain important safeguards, if not, lobbies and governments and Network Neutrality-bashing ISPs will get a free ride."
Tell the European Parliament to vote against conditional access to the Internet!
(Thanks, Carsten!) 500 million Indians prove their vote by flipping the birdRishab sez, "India's election commission has a sense of humour. It has insisted that when about 500 million Indians vote in the general elections this summer, they will be marked on their middle fingers with indelible ink to prevent double voting. The photograph shows the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state (and his wife) showing their middle fingers to the camera, apparently only realising later what it looked like."Voters will now show middle finger (Thanks, Rishab!) Source: Boing Boing | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:50 am US refuses to let jet into its airspace because it is carrying a journalist who criticizes US foreign policyIrene sez, "On April 24th, an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico had to make an unscheduled stop in Martinique when US air traffic controllers notified the jet that it would not be receiving permission to fly over US airspace. The plane was not en route to the US, just passing over some of it. On board the plane was Colombian Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for the French left-wing journal Le Monde Diplomatique and wrote about US involvement in Latin America. Ospina and his publisher said they will sue for compensation."What makes the whole incident even more interesting is that Air France had only sent its passenger manifest to the Mexicans, but now it is clear that Mexico shares this information with the United States.Air France jet diverts after being told to stay clear of US airspace (Thanks, Irene!) Source: Boing Boing | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:42 am Apple may hear Verizon now At the risk of repeating myself for the millionth time, in many peoples' minds, the Achilles' heel of the iPhone is the network it's on in the US: AT&T. Since the day it was announced as being exclusive to that provider, people have been wondering one thing: How long until it's on Verizon? Rumors have surfaced time and again about the possibility, but today brings perhaps the most concrete news yet that the two sides are talking.
The two sides are discussing the possibility of getting Verizon version of the iPhone ready for 2010, sources tell USA Today. There are likely two reasons it would take until next year. The first, is that Apple's exclusive contract with AT&T runs through next year. The second is that a Verizon version would presumably have to be CDMA-ready, which means the innards of the iPhone would have to be slightly tweaked, as the current iPhone is GSM-only (which AT&T, and most other cell networks run on).
Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:28 am TC/CG Meet-up: Important Helsinki Update
NOTE - The new start time is now 8pm. We’ve decided to have the meet-up at A21 on Annankatu 21 [Google Map]. PLEASE RSVP ASAP so I can offer them a head count. N.B. If you have a start-up to discuss, please have some information handy, preferably in electronic form. It will probably be hard to do demos unless they’re on a mobile phone, but if you contact me beforehand we can probably sit down to look at your product on a laptop.
UPDATE - Nokia is chipping in from 8pm-9pm! For last minute changes follow me on Twitter. See you in Helsinki! Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:26 am Researcher produces egg-laying male fishA researcher at Ohio State University says he is working on producing larger bluegill by breeding super males with two Y chromosomes. The male bluegill are about twice as big as females and thus more profitable for fish farmers, The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday. Han-Pin Wang, a researcher in the Ohio State aquaculture lab, uses a method based on the genetic difference between males and females.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am Tiny Enterprise Models Channel Quirky Star Trek Visions<<
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J.J. Abrams envisioned a sleek, updated version of the Enterprise for his upcoming Star Trek movie, but the director can't claim a monopoly on pimping out Captain Kirk's interstellar ride. Street artists, filmmakers and designers from around the world have been beaming down their own versions of the Enterprise for an exhibition of arty starships, shown earlier this month at the ShoWest movie convention in Las Vegas and now popping up in Los Angeles theater lobbies. Bizarre paint jobs and weird materials turn the Enterprise models into unique works of art. Project organizers from Paramount Pictures invited creative types from Poland, Nicaragua, Korea, Thailand and the United States to put their stamp on undecorated Enterprise models produced by effects shop FX Company and modelers Quantum Mechanix. Click the thumbnails above for alternate takes on Star Trek's beloved starship, as seen through the eyes of cheerfully twisted sci-fi buffs. On this page: Complete with lights and decals, this model by The FX Company/Quantum Mechanix was designed to mirror the actual ship seen in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek film, due in U.S. theaters May 8. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Los Angeles-based pop street artist Mr. Brainwash, aka MBW, slapped a UPS logo on his Enterprise. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Duncan Lemmon, a street artist from Santa Monica, California, drew inspiration from chameleons and subway graffiti. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Grindhouse) wanted his model to reflect what Khan would have done to the starship had the villain succeeded in taking it over from Captain Kirk. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
House Industries designs fonts laced with "typographic optimism." They adorn billboards, greeting cards, hot rods and this toothy Enterprise. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
In this version, by Costa Mesa, California, artist Brandon Ragnar, the Enterprise goes green. Ragnar produces artwork for galleries, books, magazines and television. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Jesus Diaz, the zany Gizmodo.com illustrator who produced this eye-catching Enterprise, says he wears Star Trek underpants most days. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Pop artist Amanda Visell, of Pasadena, California, says she wanted her Enterprise to convey the idea that "Star Trek's version of the future is optimistic, colorful and inclusive." Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Slusho in space? Thai-American artist and animator Amy Vatanakul, who works at Bad Robot Productions, worked Abrams' favorite faux drink into her Enterprise design. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Based in Warsaw, Poland, artist Olka Osadzinska created ads for Nike, Reebok and Jagermeister before tackling the Enterprise. Most recently, she showed off her acrylic paintings at an exhibit called Nite Stories. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Creative graphic design collective H5 crafted this Enterprise. The firm specializes in music and luxury products. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Italian graphic designer Turbokrapfen cites strong colors and pop art as Enterprise inspiration. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
New York-based artist William Lemon III decorated his ship with dried baby rosebuds, dried chysanthumums, tree bark and mushrooms slices. "I set about to make something natural and beautiful that would counter the smell of the toxic matter it was cast out of," he said. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Jeremy and Claire Weiss, aka American photography team Day19, turned the Enterprise into a probably unrideable skateboard. The pair specializes in portraits of musicians and celebrities. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Nicaraguan-born illustrator and sculptor Rafael Burgos says he imagined the end of the Star Trek story when he created his dramatic Enterprise model. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Artist Jeremy Kaplan grew up in Philadelphia "writing on walls" and now works in Los Angeles. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Jim Lee, a Korean-American comic book creator, artist and publisher, is best known for his work on DC Comics' Batman and Marvel Comics' X-Men. Photos: Courtesy Paramount Pictures 
Source: Wired Top Stories | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am April 27, 1998: Koko Goes Ape in AOL Chat1998: Koko the gorilla, student of American Sign Language and surrogate mother to orphaned kittens, holds the first-known live, interspecies internet chat. America Online, then the gorilla of internet service providers, got plenty of mileage out of the stunt. It didn’t hurt Koko’s benefactor, the Gorilla Foundation, either, which saw the publicity as an opportunity to call attention to the plight of man’s closest relative. Koko, a lowland gorilla who has lived in captivity her entire life, has been the face of the Gorilla Foundation for over 30 years. She was taught American Sign Language in her infancy by her trainer, Penny Patterson, making her one of the few (but not the only) primates capable of communicating, albeit in a very simplified form, with humans. According to Koko.org, Koko understands approximately 2,000 words in English. Another of the foundation's lowland gorillas, Michael, was taught to understand English and sign as well. He died in 2000. Koko also raised the gorilla "cute factor" by the power of four by adopting and caring for several kittens, which Patterson says shows "she's just as much a person as we are." Roughly 8,000 AOL subscribers joined the chat, which featured Koko, who signed her answers; Patterson, who interpreted them; and an AOL chat facilitator. As the transcript clearly shows, Koko’s responses were a bit vague, but no more inane than some of the drivel littering Facebook pages these days. Not everyone was impressed, some AOL audience members apparently expecting Koko to hold forth in Shakespearean English. (She didn't.) Koko made a second visit to cyberspace in November 2000, in another AOL webcast. By then, the commercial possibilities of the web were firmly established, so there was a web store selling Koko bric-a-brac, too. Source: Various Source: Wired Top Stories | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am Clive Thompson on Puzzles and the Hive MindRecently, Jonathan Blow issued a plea to his audience: Don't use a walkthrough to play my videogame. A walkthrough is a set of step-by-step instructions that fans write to help one another make their way through a complex game. It's a collaborative phenomenon: One player posts a walkthrough online, then others instantly begin adding details, cataloging every nuance of a game. Last August, after Blow released Braid—a clever, moody puzzler for the Xbox—players assembled a complete walkthrough within days. Which is precisely what bothers Blow. From his standpoint, walkthroughs ruin the pleasure of puzzles. In an online letter to his fans, he explained that he created Braid to be teasingly hard—but not impossible—for one person to solve. Reading the walkthrough, he complained, spoils the sense of accomplishment you get from cracking a tricky puzzle. "You will feel cool and smart," he wrote. In some senses, Blow is right. Walkthroughs can ruin the pleasure of a puzzle that's designed for one person to solve. But he's ignoring the fact that people don't necessarily want to solve puzzles on their own. They often enjoy attacking them in online collaborative groups that include dozens, sometimes millions, of fans. These groups are collectively far smarter than their individual members, and regular puzzles don't stand a chance against that many brains. So how do you design a puzzle for the hive mind? Don't fight the groupthink, use it. Take alternate reality games. Two years ago, a group called the Society of the Ancients was handing out flyers at the park near my home. I didn't discover until weeks later that the handbill held an early clue in an ARG promoting the videogame Halo 3. Later hints included ringtones that people needed to play into computer mics, an altered version of a Lord Byron poem, and coded messages left at scores of retail stores nationwide. Yikes! Because ARG clues are distributed so widely across the globe, it is impossible for any one person to solve the mystery alone. The joy of playing an ARG isn't in doing it yourself. It's in becoming a neuron in a much bigger intelligence: Finding a piece of evidence, contributing it to the wiki that players inevitably create, and brainstorming with others to figure out what everything means. ARGs could not have existed before the Internet. Other forms of entertainment have evolved in a similar way. Consider television's Lost, the plot of which has been so incredibly baffling from episode one (A smoke monster? Seemingly ageless characters? The "others"? Polar bears on a tropical island?) that fans immediately began clustering online to detangle what in god's name was happening. They collaborated on theories and freeze-frame stills to analyze barely glimpsed numbers and onscreen text. Your experience of the show isn't eroded. Quite the contrary. Lost is so opaque that you need networked smarts to fully enjoy it. Granted, Blow has a point. There's a deep pleasure in testing the limits of your mind—decoupling from the Borg and cracking a puzzle purely on your own. But audiences know this. Researcher Mia Consalvo has found that gamers are judicious in how they use networked smarts. Most play puzzle videogames alone, dipping into walkthroughs only when they get truly stuck and then only briefly, like a temporary brain enhancement. We are now experienced enough with the power of groups to understand when we want to use them and when we don't. So why take that option away from people? Sure, the rules of our gaming have changed, but that just means the designers of our games will have to as well. Email clive@clivethompson.net. Source: Wired Top Stories | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:00 am AOL Launches Online “News Magazine” PoliticsDaily AOL is adding a twist to old-fashioned political journalism with the launch of its new political news and blog site, PoliticsDaily.com. The site, which will primarily focus on in-depth political commentary as opposed to breaking news, will only provide original content, from long-form analysis to blog posts on issues in the U.S. political landscape. Led by former New York Times Washington Correspondent, Melinda Henneberger, PoliticsDaily wants to tie the old media’s in-depth political analysis with a sustainable digital medium PoliticsDaily is the brainchild of Martin Moe, senior vice president at AOL and is built under Bill Wilson’s new MediaGlow division, which is building new content brands distinct from AOL itself. MediaGlow, which recently launched topic directory Love.com, runs AOL News, Engadget and TMZ.com, among other properties. PoliticsDaily is part of the AOL News network, which received more than 27 million unique visitors in March, according to comScore stats. New York Times Digital by comparison had close to 46 million unique visitors in March. PoliticsDaily has enlisted a “dream team” of experienced political journalists from both new and old media, including Walter Shapiro, former columnist for USA Today and former Washington bureau chief for Salon; Jill Lawrence, former national political correspondent for USA Today and columnist for the Associated Press; Carl Cannon, former Washington bureau chief for Reader’s Digest and White House correspondent for the National Journal and the Baltimore Sun; Lynn Sweet, blogger and Washington Bureau Chief of the Chicago Sun-Times; and Patricia Murphy, founder of Citizen Jane Politics, a non-partisan website for women. The site will include blogs such as “Woman Up,” a blog focused on political issues from a woman’s perspective; “The Daily FLOTUS,” a blog which focuses on First Lady Michelle Obama; and “The Cram,” a student-focused blog on political news. Consumers are more frequently looking online news for political news, as we saw in the past presidential elections and during the current downturn in the economy. PoliticsDaily hopes to be a mainstream source of analysis and news and shuns the idea of being a news aggregator. While the all-original content includes both long-form articles and blog posts, the site will not be primarily focused on breaking political news—perhaps leaving the real-time, short-form news to other political news competitors like The Politico,The New York Times, The Huffington Post and the A.P. The competition in the political news sphere is tough, especially online. PoliticsDaily will have to build a credible brand with its original content, going up against media organizations that have long been offering in-depth analysis, like the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Atlantic and The Huffington Post. PoliticsDaily will also face some competition from The Politico, which incorporates blogs, breaking news, interactive multimedia features and in-depth reporting into one site. And while the New York Times and Washington Post are hemorrhaging money from their print publications, their in-depth political coverage and analysis on their websites is strong, deploying a wide array of multimedia, blogs and long form commentary. News broadcasters sites also provide popular political coverage—CNN.com. MSNBC.com, and FoxNews were among the top five trafficked news sites following the election in November. Moe maintains that PoliticsDaily’s long-form magazine content will differentiate the site from The Politico and other real-time focused news sites. Moe pledges that the differentiation between PoliticsDaily and the Huffington Post will be even more clear. Moe says that while the Huffington Post is largely a content aggregator, has a leftward bent, and doesn’t pay many of its bloggers, PoliticsDaily will be 100% original content from “experienced” paid writers, and will be “poly-partisan” with perspectives from the liberals, centrists and conservatives. Of course, with the financial backing of AOL, PoliticsDaily has the advantage of being able to pay all those editors and reporters. But if PoliticsDaily is supposed to be an online new magazine, why isn’t AOL’s sister subsidiary Time Inc. running it? Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: Gizmodo | 27 Apr 2009 | 3:08 am World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Opt-OutsAnt writes in to mention the World Privacy Forum's top ten information collector/user list, which shows opt-out instructions (or at least a starting point): "As privacy experts, we are frequently asked about 'opting out,' and which opt outs we think are the most important. This list is a distillation of ideas for opting out that the World Privacy Forum has developed over the years from responding to those questions. ... Many people have told us that they think opting out is confusing. We agree. Opting out can range from the not-too-difficult (the FTC's Do Not Call list is a fairly simple opt out) to the challenging (the National Advertising Initiative (NAI) opt out can be tricky). Our hope is that this list will clarify which opt out does what, and how to go about opting out. In this list, some opt outs can be done by phone, some have to be sent in a letter via postal mail, and some can be accomplished online. Some opt outs last forever, some have time limits, and others can be changed at will. If an opt out is on this list, it is because we thought it might be important enough to be worth whatever annoyance it may pose. "Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 27 Apr 2009 | 2:50 am Apple May Hear Verizon NowAt the risk of repeating myself for the millionth time, in may peoples' minds, the Achilles' heel of the iPhone is the network it's on in the US: AT&T. Since the day it was announced as being exclusive to that provider, people have been wondering one thing: How long until it's on Verizon? Rumors have surfaced time and again about the possibility, but today brings perhaps the most concrete news yet that the two sides are talking.
The two sides are discussing the possibility of getting Verizon version of the iPhone ready for 2010, sources tell USA Today. There are likely two reasons it would take until next year. The first, is that Apple's exclusive contract with AT&T runs through next year. The second is that a Verizon version would presumably have to be CDMA-ready, which means the innards of the iPhone would have to be slightly tweaked, as the current iPhone is GSM-only (which AT&T, and most other cell networks run on).
Source: Gizmodo | 27 Apr 2009 | 2:45 am Apple May Hear Verizon Now
The two sides are discussing the possibility of getting Verizon version of the iPhone ready for 2010, sources tell USA Today. There are likely two reasons it would take until next year. The first, is that Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T runs through next year. The second is that a Verizon version would presumably have to be CDMA-ready, which means the innards of the iPhone would have to be slightly tweaked, as the current iPhone is GSM-only (which AT&T, and most other cell networks run on). Perhaps now we know why it’s been reported recently that AT&T was pushing hard to get Apple to extend its exclusive deal another year, into 2011. Verizon is AT&T’s main rival in the US, and is actually larger. But Verizon lacks the one device that people are switching networks just to get. In announcing its most recent earnings, AT&T said that as many as 40% of all customers who sign up for iPhone contracts are new to AT&T — that is huge. But here’s something to think about: A new iPhone is almost for sure going to launch sometime this summer. It will be AT&T only — and, you will presumably have to sign up for a new 2-year contract to get it (and certainly you will have to do that to get it for the subsidized price). If people know a Verizon iPhone is possible in 2010, will a lot of potential buyers hold off? I think so. Hell, given the recent issues I’ve had with AT&T’s network, I’d consider not getting the new iPhone if Verizon was really a possibility for next year. But it’s still a big “if” at this point. Who knows, Apple would just be talking with Verizon (the company that originally spurned the iPhone) just to increase the pressure on AT&T to give them a sweeter deal. You know, negotiations 101. But if Apple truly does envision the iPhone as a product that it wants to dominate the market with, it will need to get onto other networks eventually. It seems inevitable, but is 2010 the year? Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: Gizmodo | 27 Apr 2009 | 2:03 am The Woman Who Established Fair UseThe Narrative Fallacy writes "The Washington Post has an interesting profile on Barbara A. Ringer, who joined the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress in 1949 and spent 21 years drafting the legislation and lobbying Congress before the Copyright Act of 1976 was finally passed. Ringer wrote most of the bill herself. 'Barbara had personal and political skills that could meld together the contentious factions that threatened to tear apart every compromise in the 20 year road to passage of the 1976 Act,' wrote copyright lawyer William Patry. The act codified the fair use defense to copyright infringement. For the first time, scholars and reviewers could quote briefly from copyrighted works without having to pay fees. With the 1976 act that Ringer conceived, an author owned the copyright for his or her lifetime plus 50 years. Previously under the old 1909 law, an author owned the copyright for 28 years from the date of publication and unless the copyright was renewed, the work entered the public domain, and the author lost any right to royalties. Ringer received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, the highest honor for a federal worker. Ringer remained active in copyright law for years, attending international conferences and filing briefs with the Supreme Court before her death earlier this year at age 83. 'Her contributions were monumental,' said Marybeth Peters, the Library of Congress's current register of copyrights. 'She blazed trails. She was a heroine.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 27 Apr 2009 | 12:42 am Facebook To Let Others Play In Its Stream
Facebook is expected to announce that third-parties will now have access to data from the site that was previously unavailable, before an event set to take place at 4PM PST tomorrow. The Wall Street Journal has a few of the details, including that developers should be able to access the all-important photos and videos that users upload. Apparently, these third-party developers, assuming they get users’ permission to use this data, could build their own sites and services with some of it. Also of note is that apparently Facebook will begin supporting more open standards for the transporting of data. It’s not yet clear exactly what this will mean, but presumably it could help alleviate some of the issues I wrote about last week in noting that Facebook, Google and others were creating what were essentially proprietary profiles, that forced all of us to actively use and update all of their services. I’ll be very interested to see what this means when it comes to Facebook Connect. If Facebook really is opening most of its data, it would seem to me it’s a smart move to stop some of the momentum that smaller rivals, like Twitter, are getting. After all, Facebook still has its big stick — over 200 million users and more importantly, their data. Now it may be able to fully swing it. [photo: flickr/rachel thecat] Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2009 | 12:38 am Eight Reasons Your Next Computer Should Be a PC (PC World)PC World - Let's just say it: For the vast majority of computer shoppers, buying a Windows PC doesn't quite qualify as a decision. Around nine out of ten computers run one version of Windows or another, making it the world's default option in operating systems. It's opting for something else, like a Mac, that always represents a conscious choice.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2009 | 12:00 am Rapidshare Divulges Uploader InformationGorgonzolanoid notes a post on TorrentFreak reporting that the German Rapidshare is divulging uploader information to rights holders. Record labels are apparently making creative use of "paragraph 101" of German copyright law, which gives them a streamlined process to ask a court to order disclosure of information such as an IP address. "In Germany, the file-hosting service Rapidshare has handed over the personal details of alleged copyright infringers to several major record labels. The information is used to pursue legal action against the Rapidshare users and at least one alleged uploader saw his house raided."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 10:29 pm Report: Soaring demand will slow InternetDemand for Internet bandwidth is growing so rapidly that connectivity will suffer starting as early as next year, U.S. experts predict. Nemertes Research, a U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Apr 2009 | 10:24 pm Pleo Creator Ugobe Declares Bankruptcy The first real casualty of the economic crisis has emerged, and it's a lovable robotic dinosaur. Decreased demand for expensive toys has left Pleo's creator, Ugobe, wallowing in debt. As a last ditch effort to remain solvent, they're going to try to auction off the rights to Pleo, but there's no guarantee that the poor critter will ever be made again.
Pleo has always been a favorite over here at CrunchGear, so we put together a little goodbye tribute video in case the adorable robosaurus is indeed extinct.
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 10:01 pm Pleo creator Ugobe files for bankruptcyThe first real casualty of the economic crisis has emerged, and it’s a lovable robotic dinosaur. Decreased demand for expensive toys has left Pleo’s creator, Ugobe, wallowing in debt. As a last ditch effort to remain solvent, they’re going to try to auction off the rights to Pleo, but there’s no guarantee that the poor critter will ever be made again. Pleo has always been a favorite over here at CrunchGear, so we put together a little goodbye tribute video in case the adorable robosaurus is indeed extinct.
It actually seems likely that the rights to make Pleo (and the machinery owned over in China) will be snapped up, but if one of the big toymakers does so, they’re under no pressure to continue production. They might wait for the world economy to recover, but they also might just shelve it, knowing they’ve spoiled any competitors’ hopes of capitalizing on Pleo. Whatever the case, it’s a sad day indeed. Videos from previous posts and YouTube. Music is Crosby, Stills, & Nash’s “Might as well have a good time” from Daylight Again. A nice smooth yacht-ballad is what Pleo would have wanted. [image credit: this blog via GIS] Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:59 pm Al Gore Defends His Right To Invest In Green: “Congresswoman, You Don’t Know Me.”On Friday, during a Congressional hearing on the Obama Administration’s proposal for a cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse gases, Al Gore had to defend his honor. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican Congresswoman from Gore’s home state of Tennessee, questioned his motivations behind supporting the proposal because of his investments in green startups through his role at Kleiner Perkins, where he is a partner. (Watch the video above, courtesy of Talking Points Memo). Blackburn comes off as clueless and Gore comes off as defensive. She didn’t seem to know too much about Kleiner Perkins other than that it is a “capital firm” and that it has invested “$1 billion in 40 companies that are going to benefit from cap-and-trade legislation,” or at least that is what she gathered from an old New York Times Magazine article. “Are you aware of that company?” she asked him. Then she asked Gore if he stood to personally benefit financially from these investments, and that set him off:
He pointed out that “every penny” he makes from these investments, his book, and movie go to the nonprofit Alliance For Climate Protection. Blackburn responded by saying that she was just trying to get clarity on the issue, but Gore was having none of it:
Is this video from a parallel universe or did the Republican Party become anti-capitalist all of a sudden? Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:21 pm Cosmetic NeurologyThe New Yorker has a long piece examining the growing trend of healthy people, not diagnosed with any mental condition, taking drugs that enhance mental functioning, including Adderall and Provigil. The profiles include a Harvard student, a professional poker player, a number of brain researchers, and a self-described transhumanist. "Zack [Lynch]... has a book being published this summer, called 'The Neuro Revolution'... In coming years, he said, scientists will understand the brain better, and we'll have improved neuroenhancers that some people will use therapeutically, others because they are 'on the borderline of needing them therapeutically,' and others purely 'for competitive advantage.' ... Even if today's smart drugs aren't as powerful as such drugs may someday be, there are plenty of questions that need to be asked about them. How much do they actually help? Are they potentially harmful or addictive? Then, there's the question of what we mean by 'smarter.' Could enhancing one kind of thinking exact a toll on others? All these questions need proper scientific answers, but for now much of the discussion is taking place furtively, among the increasing number of Americans who are performing daily experiments on their own brains. ... [A cognitive researcher said,] 'Cognitive psychologists have found that there is a trade-off between attentional focus and creativity. And there is some evidence that suggests that individuals who are better able to focus on one thing and filter out distractions tend to be less creative. ... I'm a little concerned that we could be raising a generation of very focused accountants.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:13 pm 4 Things to Consider Before You Try to Join the AmishMaggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine. I know, I know. The recession blows. The job you may soon lose* is stressful and unpleasant. And beards are more popular these days. But before you abandon your fast-paced lifestyle for a quieter, more-cow-filled one, I recommend consulting my book, Be Amazing. There are a few things you need to think about.
1) Can You Tell the Difference Between Amish and Mennonite?
2) Do You Know the Best Place to Move?
3) Can You Find Where the In-Crowd Hangs Out?
4) Will You Be Able to Buy a Farm?
The Electric Amish really are a band, and you should listen to their music. *ETA: Thanks for the heads-up on my grammar brain-fart. It's Saturday. My brain takes the day off today. Source: Boing Boing | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:12 pm Why MLB.TV is the service to beat in terms of online sports streamingSection: Video, Content, Video Providers, Web, Web 2.0, Websites, Online Music/Video, Features, Originals  Any self respecting baseball fan knows each game out of a 162 game season is very important. Every die-hard fan tries their utmost to catch as much of the game as possible. Now unfortunately, people move away from their town where their team plays, so they may not be able to catch the game often. Fortunately for them, MLB has rejuvenated their online video service with many special features including live streaming games. While I can’t say I’ve actually watched a lot of games through MLB.TV, I’ve watched a few and I have to say, I am very pleased. What exactly is MLB.TV?To put it simply, MLB.TV is a service than runs on a monthly, or yearly subscription, with a price that isn’t all that expensive considering all their features. In previous years, the service has been relatively simple—just stream the game the viewer wants to see. However, in the offseason, a division of MLB, MLB Advanced Media, worked hard to revamp the service to include many new and exciting features. I wholeheartedly believe that the future of online video streaming, especially for sports, will include many of these fantastic features. The featuresWithin MLB.TV’s Premium service, you have access to live game highlights, live game radio feed options, HD quality picture, DVR functionality (meaning you can rewind and pause the live game), watch up to 4 games at once, picture-in-picture, and player tracker (which is great for following Fantasy players). Previously, you could only get these features on a HDTV, but the fact that it is now available online for nearly every team; that is truly remarkable and it just goes to show how far technology has come. In addition, MLB Advanced Media even has plans to create an iPhone app and allow for live streaming coverage. As soon as the 3.0 software comes out, MLB plans to unveil their At Bat app with live streaming and such. By reaching out to all major technology venues, like Internet and cell phone, MLB is making a strong case to show that they are the sport to beat in terms of technology. The PriceIt is very easy these days to catch everything you would normally view on TV, on the Internet and your computer. As a result, it is very possible to drop your TV and cable service altogether and stick to what you can view online. With that in mind, the price of MLB.TV isn’t too expensive. For all the Premium features I listed above, a yearly subscription would run you about $109.95 (which covers 162 games from April-October), while the monthly deal $19.95. Now, without all those advanced features I talked about above, it costs $79.95 yearly, and $14.95 monthly. Despite the current plight of the economy, MLB.TV has more subscribers than last year, and they can probably thank that to the exceptional new features the Premium service has to offer. With a fast, crisp Internet service, users can expect streaming quality to be comparable to normal TV quality. Will the revamp be worthwhile?Since this is the inaugural season of the MLB.TV Premium service, it is hard to say whether it will be more successful than MLB.TV in previous years. To give some perspective on how MLB.TV did last year, and where it should stand at the end of the season, consider this. Last year, it had over 500,000 subscribers and “generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue.” Even though the economy is going to make it tough for some potential users, MLB has dropped the price of the MLB.TV service by 10 dollars, so they do recognize the problem. I do believe that all true baseball fans will find some way to purchase a subscription and try to save money elsewhere. For all other sport fans who would like to see their respective leagues create something similar to MLB.TV, fear not. NHL has already rolled out a video service, called thePORTAL, they plan to use for the Stanley cup coverage. While the features are not as extensive as MLB.TV, I imagine that many sports will follow suit and launch their own video services, as it is quite a profitable business. Check it out [MLB.TV] Read [BusinessInsider] Read [BusinessInsider] Source: Gizmodo | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:00 pm So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of April 19, 2009Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2009 | 8:34 pm Flip Ultra HD unboxed and toyed with
Lots more images here, but unfortunately not a lot more information. [via Engadget] Source: Gizmodo | 26 Apr 2009 | 8:30 pm That $100 Android netbook will be $250
It’s too hard to say at this point whether this form factor will really take off; the ARM processor and extra-small form factor put it dangerously close to MID territory, and that sector isn’t doing so well. Will people go for this sub-netbook style? Will they rebel and go all dv2 style, wanting more but not as much as a laptop? Only time will tell, but I can tell you that I’d sure like to have one of these Alpha 680s sitting around just for kicks. Source: Gizmodo | 26 Apr 2009 | 8:00 pm US Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flumallumax sends word from the NYTimes that US government officials today declared a public health emergency over increasing cases of the swine flu first seen in Mexico. Here is additional coverage from CNN. From the Times: "American health officials [say]... that they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United States and expected to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of the outbreak. Other governments around the world stepped up their response to the incipient outbreak, racing to contain the infection amid reports of potential new cases from New Zealand to Hong Kong to Spain, raising concerns about the potential for a global pandemic. The cases in US looked to be similar to the deadly strain of swine flu that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico and infected 1,300 more." Reader "The man who walks in the woods" sends a link to accounts emailed to the BBC from readers in Mexico. While these are anecdotal, they do paint a picture of a more serious situation than government announcements have indicated so far.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:58 pm Swine Flu Spreads Panic Over The Web
Earlier today, the U.S. declared a public health emergency over the Swine Flu, after confirming 20 cases of the flu spreading to humans in New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. More than 80 people have died in Mexico from the disease, which has potentially spread to other countries, including Canada and France. Although Federal officials are urging Americans not to panic about the disease, fear of contracting the potentially deadly flu is quickly spreading over Twitter, Google, and blogs across the web. Swine Flu is the top trending topic on Twitter at the moment, with users rapidly tweeting about the latest news about the disease, including whether it has spread to other states, the Center for Disease Control’s announcement, etc.
Google Trends reports that “Swine Flu Ohio” is the 27th most popular search keyword currently, with searches for the “CDC” and “Swine Flu Symptoms” also making the top 100 keyword searches on Google. Google Maps have also been created to chart the spread of the Swine Flu. Below is a Google Map created by a bio medical engineer, that charts suspect and confirmed cases of the Swine Flu in the U.S. and Mexico.  Technorati’s index, which graphs the number of times the search term occurs in blog posts across the web, shows that mentions of Swine Flu in blog posts has risen sharply from Friday to nearly 2800 blog post mentions today. Keyword popularity across the Blogosphere
This chart illustrates how many times blog posts across the Blogosphere contained the following keywords.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:51 pm Apple loses patent suit, will have to pay $19M
Apple attempted to convince the jury that the patent was invalid, but that apparently amounted to a confession once all the cards were down. The jury found Apple guilty and the company was handed a fine to the tune of $19 million and change. That’s not going to put a dent in their cash reserves, but I think we can all agree that anyone would rather keep the $19 mil rather than throw it away. Well, at least justice was served. [image courtesy of Ars Technica] Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:30 pm Canadian music pirates of 1897 This NYT article from 1897 about Canadian music piracy is awfully familiar sounding -- search-and-replace "Canadian" with "Swedish" and "post office" with "ISP" and you get...
The Long War: Music Piracy in 1897 (NYTimes)
What We Can Do About Massive Solar FlaresReader resistant sends in an update to our discussion a month back on the possibility of violent space weather destroying power grids worldwide during the upcoming solar cycle. Wired is running an interview with Lawrence Joseph, author of "Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation into Civilization's End," and John Kappenman, CEO of electromagnetic damage consulting company MetaTech. The piece brings two new threads to the discussion: the recently discovered presence of an unusually large hole in Earth's geomagnetic shield, magnifying our vulnerability, and possible steps we can take over the next few years to make the power grid more robust against solar flares and coronal mass ejections. There's also that whole Mayan 2012 thing. Quoting John Kapperman: "What we're proposing is to add some fairly small and inexpensive resistors in the transformers' ground connections. The addition of that little bit of resistance would significantly reduce the amount of the geomagnetically induced currents that flow into the grid. In its simplest form, it's something that might be made out of cast iron or stainless steel, about the size of a washing machine. ...we think it's do-able for $40,000 or less per resistor. That's less than what you pay for insurance for a transformer. [In the US] there are about 5,000 transformers to consider this for. ... We're talking about $150 million or so. It's pretty small in the grand scheme of things."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 6:43 pm Taking Gaming To the Next Billion PlayersHugh Pickens writes "June marks the launch across Brazil of Zeebo, a console that aims to tap an enormous new market for videogaming for the billion-strong, emerging middle classes of such countries as Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and China. Zeebo uses the same Qualcomm chipsets contained in high-end smartphones, together with 1GB of flash memory, three USB slots and a proprietary dual analogue gamepad. It plugs into a TV and outputs at a 640 x 480 pixel resolution. 'The key thing is we're using off-the-shelf components,' says Mike Yuen, director of the gaming group at Qualcomm. This approach means that, while Zeebo can be priced appropriately for its markets — it will launch at US $199 in Brazil compared to around US $250 (plus another US $50 for a mod chip to play pirated games) for a PlayStation 2 in the region — and next year the company plans to drop the price of the console to $149. But the most important part of the Zeebo ecosystem is its wireless digital distribution that gets around the low penetration of wired broadband in many of these countries, negates the cost of dealing with packaged retail goods, and removes the risk of piracy, with the games priced at about $10 locked to the consoles they're downloaded to. Zeebo is not meant to directly compete with powerful devices like Sony's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, or the Wii. 'In Latin America, where there's a strong gaming culture, that's what we'll be, but in India and China we can be more educational or lifestyle-oriented,' says Yuen. One Indian gaming blog predicts Zeebo will struggle, in part due to the cultural reluctance toward digital distribution and also the lack of piratable games."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:28 pm Who killed Mobile Internet Devices? iPhone and netbooks blushSection: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers, Netbooks
A MID is a compact device made for surfing the web and performing typically less demanding tasks than a laptop or desktop computer. Their form factor was never agreed upon, so often they have a slide out keyboard or an odd left hand and right hand keypads at either side of the screen. Typically size was about 1/2 a 8x10 sheet of paper and an inch thick. The UMPC was similar only it had a more powerful engine and was capable of demanding tasks. Last week, word came that OQO would not be making more of the Model 2+, their MID. While there are expected to still be units in the supply chain, the company announcing no more will be made is either trying to justify a price hike or lack of customers. My money is on the latter. The reasons are easy. Our smartphones have become our mobile PCs. We can surf from anywhere, rather comfortably, get email, even get applications OTA. For many, an iPhone and desktop/laptop completes the picture, no more is needed. For those that feel the screen is too small, a cheap netbook fits the bill to solve the issue. A $1000+ device, like the MID and UMPCs demanded never figure in to the picture. Smartphone demand continues to rise while telecoms are starting to flood the market with $99 or less netbooks with service contracts to try to keep the netbook market moving. There is no going back. The odd devices that were UMPCs and MIDs time has passed. We’ll miss them, not for their accomplishments, but mostly for how odd they look. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:27 pm Swine Flu Symptoms Worse in Mexico than U.S.Why has the swine flu engulfing Mexico been deadly there, but not in the U.S.?Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:12 pm Intel launches mystery "Fsdfsda" product
The front page at Techmeme currently has an awesome Intel ad on it. This could be the perfect conversational marketing opportunity for Mark's "Untitled" series of posts. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Apr 2009 | 4:43 pm Magnetic poetry-writer automatonToday in London's Spitalfields Market, I was blown away by this wonderful little automaton, a tiny mechanical poet who writes graceful magnetic poetry when you spin a magnet beneath him. The proud maker -- who goes by Alefs in Wonderland -- let me shoot a little video of it (apologies for the crummy focus later in the shoot).
Miniature paper scribe Windows 7 RC1 upcoming, XP Mode coming laterSection: Computers, Software / Applications  Windows 7 is certainly getting a lot of attention recently as Windows users try to forget about the mistakes of Vista and focus on the next OS. It seems every major release of the OS has appeared on torrent sites before ever appearing out in public. There’s always a lot of speculation as to when it will be released and how quickly the newness might wear off. But, since it’s not here yet, we still have room to hope, even more so in recent announcements. Microsoft has finally come clean with the release of Windows 7 RC1, which will in fact be released on May 5th as we’ve expected. But, they also made an important announcement. Turns out those who go all out for the Professional and Ultimate versions of 7 will be able to download a new “XP Mode.” XP Mode will allow for users to run programs in a XP environment, which will apparently run just the same as Windows XP does now. The programs will even look like they are running in XP, complete with the familiar XP title bar. It should be useful to those who use abandoned software that only runs in XP, or for companies who use software that is only available for Windows XP at least until it gets upgraded. The new XP mode could potentially sway a lot of people to buy the Ultimate edition if Windows markets it correctly, especially if it works well. What should be interesting however, would be if a 64-bit version of 7 can emulate a 32-bit version of XP in XP Mode. There are some programs now that will work well on XP and Vista, but not on 64-bit Vista, which leaves those users out in the cold. This XP Mode could potentially serve as an easy solution to those issues. Read [Electronista] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2009 | 3:08 pm We all want an Apple netbook, but who really needs it?FROM APPLETELL - Houston Neal at Software Advice is getting specific in his rationale for the need of an Apple Netbook; specifically, as it pertains to the medical industry. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2009 | 2:24 pm Dropbox lets you sync for freeSection: Computers, Networking, Software / Applications, Peripherals, Storage, Web, Downloads, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Websites  There’s a fairly new file syncing program in town, and it is getting lots of positive feedback from its users. Dropbox is an online sync and storage service that is able to be used over Windows, Linux or Mac. It relies on Amazon S3 storage, and has both a free and a paid storage service; although the free version does provide you with a more limited amount. They claim to have over one million members currently, which isn’t bad for a rather recent start-up. Signing upWhen you first sign up with Dropbox and create your virtual machine, it then uploads the “virtual disk” to their site. The time this takes can vary depending on your upload speed, but once this disk is created, it then gets syced with all of your Dropbox machines. P2P coming soonOne feature they don’t have yet, but are supposed to be getting is P2P sharing. This will let users that share the same network share any of their files directly. They will be able to bypass first uploading them to the Dropbox servers. As it stands, you can open up your virtual disk from any machine on the network, make any changes you want and sync and save them, and the changes on the virtual machine are able to be seen by everyone. A word of cautionThere is one important thing you will want to take note of before using Dropbox though. If you make any major changes to a file, you have to wait for it to completely finish syncing before shutting down your computer, or you will lose your changes. Also keep in mind if you are looking to do an large shared install…make sure there is enough room if you are using the free version (2 GB), you may need to go Paid which gives you 50 GB. Have you used it? Do you like it? Let us know your thoughts. Product Site: [Dropbox] Full Story » | Written by Jodie Andrefski for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:17 pm Weekend Update, 4.26.09 [Digital Daily]
First up, BoomTown’s anticipation for pistol-packin’ Carol Bartz’s first earnings appearance paid off when Bartz dropped the F-bomb, live and uncensored during Yahoo’s (YHOO) earnings call. And in a very rare occurrence–actually the company’s first-ever year-over-year quarterly sales drop–Microsoft (MSFT) glumly laid out the facts of the recession’s toll on its business. On the musical chairs front, with Chris DeWolfe stepping down as CEO of MySpace (NWS), word surfaced that Facebook alum Owen Van Natta would be stepping into the position. The news was confirmed on Friday. BoomTown has all the details, including the press release. In the ongoing ballad of the newspaper industry, The New York Times’s (NYT) news of five Pulitzer prizes was offset by additional news that ad sales are down 27 percent, regardless. In further bad news, the newspaper industry is unlikely to get any bailout from Washington. No big takeaways from Apple’s (AAPL) earnings call–Steve’s fine and the company still not at all interested in developing a netbook. MediaMemo has all the details in a liveblog of the call. MM also notes that Netflix (NFLX) is probably one of the only businesses to benefit from the recession so far, since folks are far more likely to rent DVDs from the comfort of their browsers than venture out to the local multiplex during these hard times. In Personal Technology this week, Walt Mossberg discusses the many new OS and system developments coming down the pike that should inform new computer buyers in the near future. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt lays out the details of syncing to an iPhone on MobileMe. And in the Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret explores the new Nintendo DSi. In comparison to earlier iterations of the DS line, as well as on its own merits, it wins some well-deserved praise. More next week. RIP Bea Arthur. Source: All Things Digital | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:00 pm Webcam Viewers Saddened Over The Death Of Bald Eagle ChicksWebcam viewers of the only bald eagle nest on Santa Cruz Island are mourning the deaths of two bald eagle chicks that died only days after hatching, The Associated Press reported.Nature lovers across the country were given the chance to witness the re-growth of the declining bald eagle population on a set of islands off the Ventura County coast, but that excitement lasted only a few days.Webcam viewers posted their sighting experiences on an Internet chat board hosted by the Nature Conservancy, a worldwide conservation organization.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:55 am Bahrain Steps Up Protection Against Wild Animal TradeOfficials in Bahrain are working to confiscate swarms of wild animals being smuggled into the country."Our teams have managed to confiscate monkeys, crocodiles, young tigers and various types of snakes of different sizes," Salman Abdulnabi, an official at the ministry of municipalities, told AFP."We have discovered crocodiles, snakes, wild cats, in total about 30 species of wild animals ...Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:48 am
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In what seems to have been a pretty quite announcement, we now have another option to choose from in the Flip handheld video camera lineup. Unfortunately, this latest addition comes with very little information in terms of specs. So far what we have learned is coming from a user unboxing and not an official press release, however, even with limited information, the Ultra HD seems to be a worthy addition in the Flip lineup. 
Is a deal between Disney and Hulu, which has been the works for more months, finally ready for prime time? Yes, say multiple people familiar with the matter, who tell me an announcement should be coming in the next few days.
We’ve 
I used to think the Kindle was stupid. Then I bought one and realized I was 
I’ll be in Helsinki next week and I’d like to plan a very informal meet-up on Tuesday, April 28 at 8pm. All those attending, please email me at john@crunchgear.com with the subject line “RSVP HELSINKI.”
The Election Commission is ensuring your message goes out loud and clear -- they are giving your index finger a go-by, and painting your middle finger with indelible ink instead. A Commission official said the change was necessitated by the recently-concluded elections to local bodies in some parts of the country. "Since these voters will still have their index fingers marked, we decided to uniformly mark the middle finger of the left hand," he said.
At the risk of repeating myself for the millionth time, in many peoples’ minds, the Achilles’ heel of the iPhone is the network it’s on in the US: AT&T. Since the day it was announced as being exclusive to that provider, people have been wondering one thing: How long until it’s on Verizon? Rumors have surfaced time and again about the possibility, but today brings perhaps the most concrete news yet that the two sides are talking.
Seeing the 
It was not that long ago when an announcement of a new mobile internet device, such as this one from Samsung would get us all aflutter. These devices seemed to have missed their window, an unfortunate mistiming of faster network speeds and competition from two sources kept these devices in the rarely seen category. The party responsible for finally slamming the door shut? The mighty iPhone.
It was a banner week for earnings calls. Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple all got the liveblogging treatment on All Things D.