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Domestication Led to Horse Color ExplosionHorses' coats exploded into colors after domestication took off some 5,500 years ago.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 7 May 2009 | 2:05 pm Potential Disease Threats To Washington Sea Otters FoundMany of Washington State's sea otters are exposed to the same pathogens responsible for causing disease in marine mammal populations in other parts of the country, according to a study published by researchers from NOAA's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 May 2009 | 1:52 pm AT&T to discount iPhone service plan?
According to Cote Collaborative, AT&T is pondering a price cut on monthly service charges for iPhone owners when Apple will purportedly announce new hardware at WWDC in June. Apparently Apple and AT&T are under enormous amounts of pressure to sell more iPhones and there’s a “strong possibility” of a $10/month discount on the entry-level $69 plan. If this is true then the overall discount on a two-year contract amounts to $240. Could be true or it could be a load of bullhonky. We’ve contacted AT&T for comment but have not heard back yet. via The Street Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 1:52 pm Two New Ways to Update Facebook Pages without Using FacebookToday, competing services hellotxt and Ping.fm both introduced features that let Facebook administrators update Facebook Pages. The pages, which also include the new Public Profiles introduced after the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:48 pm Mechanical Stress Leads To Self-Sensing In Solid PolymersImage Caption: This shows progressive images of a mechanophore linked elastomer during tensile loading. After the polymer reaches a critical strain, a force-induced red color results from selective covalent bond cleavage in the mechanophore just prior to failure. Credit: Beckman Institute ITG, Darren Stevenson and Alex JerezSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 May 2009 | 1:44 pm Xerox draws on Oregon technology for new device - OregonLive.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 1:43 pm Lawmaker makes push for legal online gambling (AP)AP - It's time to regulate gambling on the Internet rather than outlaw it, says Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 1:43 pm Nvidia plays Windows 7 tit for AMD's tat - TG Daily
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 1:42 pm Garmin Oregon 550 and 550T add GPS to a 3.2-megapixel camera
This clever little piece of kit is basically a great GPS unit bolted to a 3.2-megapixel camera with 4X zoom. It also has a tri-axial compass so you don’t have to have the unit level to tell your direction. The Garmin 550T costs $599.99 and includes US topographical maps while the 550 includes a worldwide map.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 1:41 pm Disney Calls Off Thrill Ride Boob CopsThis will put the thrill back in thrill rides ... Disney has reassigned the elite surveillance team that has spied on thrill rides for random acts of exhibitionism for at least the past 10 years.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 1:41 pm DJ Hero controller makes an appearance
Presenting the controller for Activision’s upcoming DJ Hero game. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s a turntable with buttons on it. Now we wait for Harmonix to release DJ Band with a dual-turntable setup at which point Activision will respond with DJ Hero World Tour with its own dual-turntable setup. Two images were posted to a Twitter account called “djhero” and, according to Kotaku, the images were later confirmed by an Activision press release. Here’s the second one:
DJ Hero will be available later this year, although no exact date has been set. [via Kotaku]
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 1:40 pm Gas Becomes Solid At Surface Of Oldoinyo Lengai VolcanoCarbon dioxide completely "disappears" into the atmosphere at all other volcanoes on EarthScience has unearthed the secret to what might have been alchemy at Oldoinyo Lengai volcano in Tanzania.There, in the ancient East African Rift at a place known to local Maasai people as the Mountain of God, Oldoinyo Lengai spews forth carbon dioxide-laden lavas called carbonatites. The carbonatites line the volcano's flanks like snowballs.Oldoinyo Lengai is the only place on Earth where carbonatites currently erupt--and where carbon dioxide from a volcano doesn't vanish into thin air as a gas.In a paper published this week in the journal Nature, scientists report the results of a study of Oldoinyo Lengai's volcanic gas emissions, sampled by the team during a carbonatite lava eruption."We now know the origin of one of the most peculiar magmas on Earth," said William Leeman, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. "These scientists have found that, based on new studies of the chemistry of gas emissions at Oldoinyo Lengai, a very small amount of melting of Earth's mantle, akin to that beneath mid-ocean ridges, can produce carbonatites."The carbonatites consist of high amounts of carbon dioxide, some 30 percent. Unlike most lavas that are liquid at temperatures above 900 degrees Celsius (1,652 F), carbonatites are much cooler and erupt at only 540 degrees Celsius (1,004 F). However, they're extremely fluid, with a viscosity like that of motor oil."We were able to collect pristine samples of the volcanic gases because Oldoinyo Lengai was erupting and under tremendous magma pressure at the time," said Tobias Fischer, a volcanologist at the University of New Mexico and lead author of the paper. "There was minimal air contamination.""The gases reveal that the carbon dioxide comes directly from the upper mantle, just below the East African Rift," said David Hilton, a geochemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography."These samples of mantle gases allow us to infer the carbon content of the upper mantle where the carbonatites are produced."It's about 300 parts per million, a concentration virtually identical to that measured below mid-ocean ridges.The finding is significant, said geochemist Bernard Marty of the CNRS-CRPG (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Centre de Recherches Pe'trographiques et Ge'ochimiques in France), "because it shows that these extremely bizarre lavas and their parent magmas, called nephelinites, were produced by melting of typical upper mantle minerals--which don't have a high carbon dioxide content." Previous research, mainly based on laboratory experiments, suggested that a higher carbon dioxide content is needed to produce nephelinites and carbonatites."Oldoinyo Lengai magmas also contain an unusually high amount of sodium, up to about 35 percent," said Pete Burnard, a geochemist at CNRS-CRPG."It's this sodium content that makes the Lengai carbonatites solid rather than gas at the surface. At all other volcanoes on Earth, carbon dioxide 'degasses' into the atmosphere without forming the sodium-rich carbonatite magmas of Oldoinyo Lengai."Not all Oldoinyo Lengai's carbon dioxide becomes carbonatite, however. Like other volcanoes, Oldoinyo Lengai does emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a gas.The scientists conclude that the upper mantle below the continents and the oceans is a uniform and well-mixed reservoir in which the compositions and abundances of carbon dioxide and other gases like nitrogen, argon and helium are essentially the same.The University of New Mexico Research Allocations Committee (RAC), Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifque (INSU-CNRS), and Programme Intérieur de la Terre also funded the research.---Image Caption: Carbonatite lava that erupted a week before this photo was taken flows from Oldoinyo Lengai volcano. Credit: Tobias Fischer, UNMSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 May 2009 | 1:38 pm Amazon's Kindle DX Poses Profitability Challenge To Publishers - InformationWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 1:36 pm WoWPod: a self-contained hut for WoW playersCati Vaucelle, Steve Shada and Marisa Jahn, three MIT students, created the WoWPod, a self-contained hut for WoW players to inhabit for very long stretches of time. Vaucelle is a "maxed out level warrior engineer" who thought he "should engineer a project based on this experience and environment." The Pod provides an environment for lengthy, distraction-free raiding.WoW Pod
Update: Andrew sez, "The MIT Museum hosted WoWPod creators Cati Vaucelle, Steve Shada and Marisa Jahn a few weeks ago as part of the CMS Colloquium Series. Here's a great podcast available of the event."
(via Make) What Data Center Designers Can Learn From Legos1sockchuck writes "It take most companies at least a year to build a new data center. Digital Realty Trust says it can build a new data center in just 20 weeks using standard designs and modular components that can be assembled on site. The company equates its "building blocks" approach to data centers to building with Legos — albeit with customized parts (i.e. the Millennium Falcon Lego kit). Microsoft is taking a similar approach, packaging generators, switchgear and UPS units into pre-assembled components for rapid assembly. Is this the future of data center design?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 May 2009 | 1:27 pm Blockbuster Survey Reveals Most Popular Sci-Fi StarsBy Shane McGlaun I was hooked on sci-fi the first time I saw Star Wars on video when I was a kid. I missed the first two in the theaters, but I saw Return of the Jedi like 18 times in one weekend. The...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:26 pm DirecTV Group 1Q profit falls 46 percent (AP)AP - DirecTV Group, the nation's largest satellite TV provider, says its first-quarter profit dropped 46 percent as it offered promotions to attract and retain customers.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 1:25 pm Bang & Olufsen Unveils 103-inch BeoVision 4By Shane McGlaun Most of us would think that a 50 to 60-inch plasma or flat panel TV in our living rooms was big. Sure you can get larger screens, but when you get into big sizes of TVs they tend to get...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:23 pm General Growth agrees to new bondholder-backed loanNEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - General Growth Properties Inc has agreed to a new bankruptcy loan from a group of investors including some of its bondholders that will replace the debtor-in-possession financing...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:21 pm Virgin to trial 200 Mbps service - in ENGLAND
Hey, you could use fast Internet, right? Like 200 Mbps speeds, right? Like fast fast fast. Like so fast you could cough between saying “lightning” and “fast” and during that cough you could download like all kinds of porn. Well, Virgin Media is offering 200 Mbps service in Ashford in Kent, a tiny town in Southeast England. The pilot will run for 6 months and there is no pricing available. Considering most folks use about 1 Mb per day, really - email and web browsing isn’t very intensive - it’s hard to see them rolling this out at a higher price point than the current 100 Mbps services available. That is until people realize they can stream HD movies like a dream.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 1:20 pm Dell Mini 10v: $299 and coming this month
The Dell Mini 10 started shipping a month ago and we are already seeing the next incarnation of the netbook. This time around though, the hot Atom Z-series CPU isn’t an option, but this model is also $100 less than the original. Everything else seems to have survived the cut and the 10v still packs the 120GB HDD, 1GB of memory, and 1.3MP webcam option. Plus, it can be configured with a 32GB or 64GB SSD for an extra $75 or $125. Do you see what Dell is doing here? Yeah, the Mini 10v really isn’t a top-of-line netbook. Basically, this netbook isn’t anything special. It packs everything that most netbooks had from last year in to a Dell packaging. That doesn’t really take away anything from the netbook as for a webrowsing, emailing machine. We’re just pointing out this $299 netbook’s little secret. Anyway, if you’re still interested, expect this boy mid-May.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 1:20 pm Twitter: We're Not for Sale - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 1:19 pm First Look at the DJ Hero Turntable Controller [Gaming]Activision is working on a game called DJ Hero (think of it as Guitar Hero for house music). Here's the first shot of the game's new turntable controller. It's notable that all controls seem to be...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 1:17 pm Wikipedia Quote Revealed As Student Hoax, Social ExperimentA fake quote posted on the online Wikipedia encyclopedia has been published in obituaries worldwide, the Irish Times announced.The false quotation was credited to French composer Maurice Jarre who passed away this March.Shane Fitzgerald, 22, a sociology and economics senior at University College Dublin, stated to the newspaper that he added the quote to the website as part of a research project on globalization.He falsely quoted Oscar-winning composer Jarre as saying, "One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:13 pm Verizon Wireless Expands 3G Network in Maine with 76 New Cell SitesUnicel Network Integration Nears Completion, Additional Upgrades to Existing Cell Sites across Eight Counties Effectively Doubles Network Coverage WILMINGTON, Maine,Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:10 pm Verizon Wireless Expands 3G Network in Maine with 76 New Cell SitesUnicel Network Integration Nears Completion, Additional Upgrades to Existing Cell Sites across Eight Counties Effectively Doubles Network CoverageSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:10 pm Microsoft headed towards more “disasters”- BallmerSection: Web, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites, Google  Yesterday in a speech at Stanford University, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggested Microsoft will be taking more risks with its search entries. Acknowledging Google’s dominant position, Ballmer pointed to opportunities Microsoft can afford to chase and evolve. According to Ballmer, some will be hits, some will be disasters.
Ballmer pointed to the success of the LiveSearch Cashback program where users were paid to use the site. The plan was interesting for sure and seemed to give the company some traction.
Ballmer was later asked about Yahoo search possible acquisition and declined to comment substantially about it. He did say that appropriate discussions may or may not be taking place; which is helpful. Ballmer did note that having more customers is helpful and presumably Yahoo can help with that. Let the new Microsoft-Yahoo rumors begin again! Source: [CNET]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 May 2009 | 1:09 pm TELUS Corporation - Notice of cash dividendVANCOUVER, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of forty-seven and one half cents ($0.475) CanadianSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:08 pm TELUS Corporation - Notice of cash dividendVANCOUVER, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of forty-seven and one half cents ($0.475) Canadian per share on the issued and outstanding Common shares and forty-sevenSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:08 pm TELUS Reports First Quarter Results2009 guidance updated TELUS TV surpasses 100,000 subscriber milestone VANCOUVER, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - TELUSSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:06 pm TELUS Reports First Quarter Results2009 guidance updated TELUS TV surpasses 100,000 subscriber milestone VANCOUVER, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - TELUS Corporation reported first quarter 2009 revenue of $2.375 billion, an increase of $25 million or one per cent.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:06 pm Olymp Ski & Snowboard SimulatorBy Andrew Liszewski While Wii Fit is probably a more affordable way to simulate some skiing or snowboarding action in the off-season, I’m pretty sure it’s not the most effective way to train...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:03 pm UPDATE 1-Labopharm Q1 loss narrowsMay 7 (Reuters) - Labopharm Inc posted a narrower quarterly loss, helped by higher revenue from its pain drug, and said it was launching its once-daily tramadol pain treatment in the United States.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:03 pm AtMail Launches Unlimited Email Archiving CapabiltiesAtMail's Unlimited Email Archiving Software helps satisfy legal discovery and email archiving requirements BRISBANE, Australia and COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- AtMail, a leading provider of easy-to-use, Linux-based email management appliances and software, today announced the availability of the ArchiveVault Software.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:03 pm Tellabs Presentation at the Robert Baird 2009 Growth Stock Conference to be Webcast LiveNAPERVILLE, Ill., May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Timothy J. Wiggins, Tellabs executive vice president and chief financial officer, will speak to the investment community at the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:03 pm AtMail Launches Unlimited Email Archiving CapabiltiesAtMail's Unlimited Email Archiving Software helps satisfy legal discovery and email archiving requirements BRISBANE, Australia and COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:03 pm Tellabs Presentation at the Robert Baird 2009 Growth Stock Conference to be Webcast LiveNAPERVILLE, Ill., May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Timothy J.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:03 pm All 172 Star Trek Voyager Episodes Played Back at Once [Space Week]Computer! Yes captain? Place all 172 Star Trek Voyager episodes onscreen. Voyager? Yes. Not TNG? No, not TNG. You're sure not TNG? I said Voyager, dammit. And play them back at 14x speed! ...OK...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 1:02 pm Tesoro plans California hydrocracker overhaulsHOUSTON, May 7 (Reuters) - Western U.S. refiner Tesoro Corp said Thursday it plans to overhaul hydrocracking units at its 166,000 barrel per day San Francisco Bay area refinery and 100,000 bpd Los Angeles...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:02 pm Microsoft tweaks antipiracy tech for Windows 7 - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm IBM adds portal view to Rational line (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - IBM Rational will refresh its Rational software and product lifecycle management product line Thursday, adding a portal tool and leveraging the company's Jazz platform and Telelogic portfolio.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm AT&T Study: Nine in 10 Florida Businesses Ready for the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane SeasonIT Execs Continue to Invest in Backup Systems and New Technologies MIAMI, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With hurricane season less than four weeks away, a study announced today by AT&T* reveals that nine in 10 businesses in Miami, Orlando and Tampa have business continuity plans in place.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm Six Flags' Mr. Six Has a Lot to Say...On TwitterNEW YORK, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Six Flags, Inc., (OTC Bulletin Board: SIXF) has welcomed back an old friend and reintroduced the recognizable face of its brand, Mr....Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm NVIDIA Continues to Lead Windows 7 ReadinessNVIDIA is the First Hardware Vendor to Release Windows 7 WHQL Certified Drivers for All PC Platforms; Complete Line of NVIDIA ION, GeForce and Quadro Products SupportedSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm LeCroy Introduces New Line of Ultra Low-Cost USB 2.0 Analyzers- USBMobile(TM) T2 combines CATC Trace display with advanced debug features - Offers several flexible configurations starting at $799 SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- LeCroy Corporation, a worldwide leader for serial data test solutions, announced today the availability of a new low-cost USB 2.0 analyzer called the USBMobile(TM) T2.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm IBM Announces New Resources to Help Organizations Design and Deliver Smarter ProductsIBM software and services to help clients develop products that are increasingly intelligent, instrumented and interconnected ARMONK, N.Y., May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As demand increases for products that are digitally aware and interconnected, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new software platform and related services to help product manufacturers and designers create innovative products that help people work and live smarter.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm Deloitte and Redwood Software Announce Financial Process Automation(TM) Based Services and Solution Available to Customers Using SAP(R) ApplicationsHelping Companies in Their Efforts to Achieve a More Efficient, Less Costly Period-end Close NEW YORK, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Deloitte's Finance Transformation practice and Redwood Software are combining their respective knowledge and skills and Redwood Software's technology to make their Financial Process Automation(TM) services and solution available to customers using SAP(R) applications.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 May 2009 | 1:00 pm Blu-ray going like gangbusters
A report by NPD Group founds that Blu-ray players sold over 400,000 units, an increase of 72 percent over 2008 while sales increased 14 percent. Also, folks are more likely to get a Blu-ray player sooner than later. Why? Mostly because of price - they cost $214 on average - and now that folks are getting laid off they have more time to watch South Pacific in HD. Sadly, the poll only looked at 6,994 consumers, offering a sample size that could be skewed towards people who were near the phone when the pollsters called. While I agree that Blu-Ray is making inroads, I doubt many above a certain age will upgrade to BR so soon.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 12:57 pm Duke Nukem Developer Shuts Down: ReportYou thought Duke Nukem would never see the light of day — and you're right. A report says that the developer of gaming's most celebrated vaporware, in development for 12 years, is shutting down.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 12:56 pm How-To Make a Laptop Desk, and How Not to Buy One
You might be surprised to hear that I think laptop desks are a pretty good idea, especially when you consider them to be little more than tea-trays, and uni-tasking tea-trays at that. You will be less surprised to hear that I think that buying laptop desks is a terrible idea, even if they are as sleek as the Cushdesk from Belkin. The name aptly sums up the design — it’s simply a small flat surface with a cushion stuck to the bottom. The problem is that it costs $30, and that’s $30 you could be spending on beer instead of just squandering it. Reading the features list shows just how much spin is needed just to come up with a mere four bullet points. Sample: “Its slim design allows for easy storage in your home but with its stylish design, you may want to display it around the house.” Better to roll your own, and — in the words of Blue Peter’s Lesley Judd* — here’s one we made earlier. It’s a beauty:
I made this a while back from an old aluminum baking tray, and in its original incarnation it was just that — a plain metal sheet on which to rest a MacBook Pro. The aluminum is perfect for “wicking away” heat from the hot underside of the computer and even in plain form keeps things cool enough to sit atop your legs. However, a modification was in order. Remember the Laptop Lifters, those slug-like rubber lozenges which keep the air flowing under the notebook? That’s what you can see in the photo — I removed them from my MacBook as I didn’t like the extra height but there was enough stick left on them to attach to the tray.
Now, it is the perfect size for any machine, including the Lady’s white MacBook. Better, it means we can watch movies in bed without anything mechanical overheating. Well, without anything mechanical and computer-shaped overheating. Product page [Belkin via Gearlog] See Also: *Sorry, readers outside the UK and/or under 30 years old. This joke is not for you.
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 May 2009 | 12:54 pm PermaFLOW Self Cleaning Drain SystemBy Andrew Liszewski It might not have wifi, Bluetooth or even a built-in camera, but as someone who recently spent a most unpleasant afternoon trying to remove a bowl of chili that was dumped down the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 12:49 pm The Verizon MiFi 2020 EV-DO portable WiFi router
We’ve had a special place in our hearts for the Novatel Wireless MiFi ever since we played with one at CES. Verizon let it leak via the MiFi’s online manual that the carrier was getting the portable EV-DO router sometime soon, but now we have info to fill in the blanks. The Verizon MiFi 2020 appears to be all of the hotness that the pre-production Novatel was with ability to share a Verizon 3G connection over 802.11b/g to five WiFi devices simultaneously. The battery should last up to four hours when in active use, and 40 hours in standby mode. You would think that Verizon would charge a hefty premium for such a device, but actually, it’s not that bad. The monthly plans start out at $40 with a 250MB cap, with the 5GB plan fetching $60. Then there is the 24 hour “DayPass” that charges the user only $15 for usage, but also requires that the MiFi be purchased at the full, and also unannounced, price. Expect to pay $100 after a $50 with a monthly service plan when the MiFi drops on May 17th.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 12:47 pm The Verizon MiFi 2020 EV-DO portable WiFi router
We’ve had a special place in our hearts for the Novatel Wireless MiFi ever since we played with one at CES. Verizon let it leak via the MiFi’s online manual that the carrier was getting the portable EV-DO router sometime soon, but now we info to fill in the blanks. The Verizon MiFi 2020 appears to be all of the hotness that the pre-production Novatel was with ability to share a Verizon 3G connection over 802.11b/g to five WiFi devices simultaneously. The battery should last up to four hours when in active use, and 40 hours in standby mode. You would think that Verizon would charge a hefty premium for such a device, but actually, it’s not that bad. The monthly plans start out at $40 with a 250MB cap, with the 5GB plan fetching $60. Then there is the 24 hour “DayPass” that charges the user only $15 for usage, but also requires that the MiFi be purchased at the full, and also unannounced, price. Expect to pay $100 after a $50 with a monthly service plan when the MiFi drops on May 17th. Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 12:47 pm Apple and AT&T 4EVR? Naw Some analysts have said the obvious and informed the world that the iPhone won't be on one carrier for much longer. Why? Because Apple will ravage AT&T until it is a dark husk fill with bile and sputum, take as many customers wishing to use GSM and AT&T coverage as possible, and then move on like the chitinous, swart beasts from The Dark Crystal. And that's the upside.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 12:46 pm Apple and AT&T 4EVR? Naw
Some analysts have said the obvious and informed the world that the iPhone won’t be on one carrier for much longer. Why? Because Apple will ravage AT&T until it is a dark husk fill with bile and sputum, take as many customers wishing to use GSM and AT&T coverage as possible, and then move on like the chitinous, swart beasts from The Dark Crystal. And that’s the upside. What do we say? There will be a CDMA iPhone, probably on Verizon. There will be a cheaper unlocked iPhone coming down the pike for those wishing relative freedom. Also, I want to work as an analyst, because they get to make stuff up out of whole cloth and call it “research.” When we do it, we call it blogging. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 12:46 pm Unclean Military Hard Drives Sold on eBayAn anonymous reader writes "Highly sensitive details of a US military missile air defense system were found on a second-hand hard drive bought on eBay. The test launch procedures were found on a hard disk for the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) ground to air missile defense system, used to shoot down Scud missiles in Iraq. The disk also contained security policies, blueprints of facilities and personal information on employees including social security numbers, belonging to technology company Lockheed Martin — who designed and built the system. First part of story. scary that they did not wipe it to Department of Defense standards which I believe is wiping the whole disk and then writing 1010 all over it."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 May 2009 | 12:44 pm Can a Palm Pre multitask better than an iPhone? - CNN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 12:37 pm Hacker's demand: $10M for Virginia prescriptions database - The Virginian-Pilot
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 12:36 pm New color printer cuts printing costs, costs $20,000
Cheap color printing has long been the holy grail of grade-schoolers everywhere*. As you well know, Dad or Mom usually has a copier at work. This copier, at least in my day, was used to make multiple copies of hand-drawn comic books. These comic books are then sold at school for five or ten cents each. If those grade-schoolers parents had had a color copier, however, the entire situation would change. They could sell the comics for 25 cents. That’s why Xerox’s new color copier is so great. It uses cubes of solid ink and half-page of color would cost about three cents - down from the standard 8 cents or so for most other printers. That is, of course, ignoring the fact that the machine will cost $20,000. News in the printer industry is limited to a few things. Design is one, size is another. Then there’s price for color prints. Every year or so you get someone crowing about cheap color printers, which is fine by me. I just wish these ColorQube printers didn’t cost as much as a house in Detroit. * Note: This may apply only to me and my friend Richie.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 12:34 pm NES and Rubik's Cube Mice Now Exist [Attention]We all know, if someone invented either a Rubik's Cube mouse or an NES controller mouse, we'd post about it. But what if someone invented both at once? (Obviously we'd still post about it.) In a...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 12:30 pm Twitter co-founder says company not for sale (Reuters)Reuters - The popular micro-blogging and social networking service Twitter is not for sale, one of the company's founders said on TV on Wednesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 12:05 pm Gender-Bending Siblings - Tush Magazine Features Androgynous Brother & Sister (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Heres an idea for a gender bending cover: Get a female model and her real brother to pose and let people try to figure out which sex is which. Tush Magazine uses that concept in its...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 12:00 pm The Charms of Soyuz: Blasting Off In a Crazy Russian Rocket [Astroblogger]Our astronaut guest blogger Leroy Chiao is one of the few spacemen to have flown in both a US Space Shuttle and Russia's five-decade-old spacecraft, the Soyuz—any guess which one he prefers?...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 12:00 pm Do We Really Need a National Climate Service?coondoggie writes "I suppose its natural for Washington to try and wrap issues up in a tidy legislative package for bureaucratic purposes (or perhaps other things more nefarious). But one has to wonder if we really need another government-lead group, especially when it comes to the climate and all the sometimes controversial information that entails. But that's what's under way. Today the House Science and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing on the need for a National Climate Service, that could meet the increased demand for climate information, the committee said. The NCS would provide a single point of contact of information climate forecasts and support for planning and management decisions by federal agencies; state, local, and tribal governments; and the private sector."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 May 2009 | 11:57 am AMD Announces New Quad-Core Reorg [Digital Daily]
Oh, speaking of that last reorg, Randy Allen, the 24-year AMD veteran who figured so prominently in it, is leaving the company. AMD offered no explanation for his departure and there’s no word yet on where he’s headed. That said, some surmise he may be following a path beaten by two of his former colleagues, Raja Koduri and Bob Drebin, who both fled AMD for Apple. Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 11:55 am Transparent Mac SE/30 is Plain Beautiful
You thought that the iMac G3 was the first see-through Mac? So did I, until I saw this stunning, transparent Mac SE/20. It is only one of 10 clear-cased test models, run out of the mold before the rough texturing was added. They were used to make sure that all the internal parts fit properly before signing off on production. True to Apple form, this isn’t just some half-baked internal test run — look closely and you’ll see that it has a colored Apple logo on the front panel. This particular Macintosh was owned by a Charlie Springer, and was sold back in 2006 for an undisclosed sum. You can bet it went for more than an old iMac G3, though: I saw one on sale yesterday in the local Cash Converters for just €50 ($66). Product page [Regnirps via Retro Thing]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 May 2009 | 11:51 am Study Shows Seahorse Ancestors Stood UprightA new study indicates that the ancestors of seahorses likely stood upright some 20 to 25 million years ago, when the expanse of ocean between Australia and Indonesia was much shallower and full of sea grass.In the most recent edition of Royal Society Biology Letters, researchers explain that upright posture – an exceedingly rare occurrence in the animal kingdom – was adopted some time during the Miocene epoch and allowed seahorses inhabit what was essentially a shallow underwater lawn.The researchers noted that the atavistic behavior of modern seahorses – which still tend to reside in sheltered areas, such as beds of sea weed and coral reefs – corroborates their theory.“Not only can an upright fish maneuver much better in such an environment than a horizontally-swimming one, but the upright sea grass blades would have improved their camouflage,” explained co-author of the research project Peter Teske, a postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University’s Molecular Ecology Lab.“Camouflage is of great importance to seahorses, which are poor swimmers,” he added. “It affords them both protection from predators and allows them to sneak up on their prey – including small crustaceans and tiny fish – without being noticed.”Teske and his colleague Lucian Beheregaray’s research began when they started to question the origins of a small “non-upright proto-seahorse” known as the pygmy pipehorse. They wanted to find out when these small bony fishes diverged from their seahorse cousins and how this split fit into the bigger evolutionary picture of the Syngnathidae, the family of fish that includes seahorse, pygmy pipehorses and sea dragons.Comparing genetic information between the genera Hippocampus and Idiotropiscis, which includes all seahorses and pipehorses respectively, they began to construct a phylogenetic family tree.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 May 2009 | 11:50 am Warner Music Group Walks Away From Digital Startups LaLa, iMeem and Loses $33 Million [MediaMemo]
Less boast-worthy: Warner has written off almost all of its investments in lala.com and imeem, two digital music startups it once thought would help save it from the slumping CD. In 2008,Warner invested $20 million in lala and $15 million imeem.Now the label is taking a $33 million charge on the two startups. The company’s 10-Q filed this morning spells it out: It wrote off $16 million in imeem — its entire investment — and half of its investment in lala. It also threw away $4 million via a “receivable write-off” related to imeem — that is, the startup owes Warner money and the label doesn’t expect to see it. This appears to explain why Warner wasn’t bothering to renegotiate its streaming rights deal with imeem earlier this year, even though it owned an equity stake in the company: It looks like the label had already concluded the company wasn’t worth saving. Asset writedowns — acknowledgements that the stuff you bought back in the boom is worth a lot less now — have been par for the course for big media companies following last fall’s crash. If anything, Warner is a little late to the game here — many of its peers took their lumps last quarter. But it is unfortunate for imeem, which has just raised an emergency funding round — something in the single digit millions, I’m told — and is still out trying to land more cash. For the record, Warner said music sales were down 17.6% in the last quarter, and the company lost $0.45 cents a share on revenue of $668 million. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $730 million. Warner attributed a loss of $0.22 cents a share to the writedowns. Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 11:44 am Source of Massive Bloom DiscoveredThe origin of the massive green tide of algae that nearly wrecked the Beijing Olympics sailing regatta has been discovered by scientists, BBC news reported Wednesday. Satellite images divulge evidence that swift development of farmed seaweed nearly 200km down the coast is the cause for the colossal algal bloom.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 May 2009 | 11:42 am Diet Plates - The Plus Minus Dining System Controls Your Food Portions (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Setting the table has never been so much fun with Soo Kwon's dining set. The Plus Minus system of bowls and plates makes portion control simple! The design employs a visual trick that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 11:40 am MHub iPod Dock Plays Nice With Blackberries, Too
The Dexim “Premium MHub Dock” is at heart an iPod dock, but it adds a whole lot extra to the mix and, unlike Griffin’s effort, the mis-named “Simplifi”, it does it without uglifying your desk. Along with the dock connector, which will fit pretty much any iPod except the various Shuffles, the MHub gets three USB ports (and comes with a universal set of AC adapters so you can power them) and a card reader to further ease up on your desktop USB needs (although it doesn’t accept CF cards like the Simplifi). There’s more! With the included cables, you can hook up a Blackberry, too. The only problem is the price. $100 is a little steep for a dock/hub, even if it is neat looking and crafted from Mac-matching aluminum. Product page [Dexim. Thanks, Patrick!] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 May 2009 | 11:36 am Intel, Microsoft, Dell band together for WiGig (AP)AP - Wi-Fi, WiMax, WirelessHD, WHDI and now ... WiGig?Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 11:33 am Apple To Introduce Parental Controls For iphone Platform - ITProPortal
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 11:29 am Dell Mini 10 Will Drop To $299 This Month [Dell]Dell's May catalog lists the next version of their Mini 10 netbook—the functionally identical 10v—for $299, a full $100 less than its predecessor. Smart move, as price has always been the...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 11:26 am Nintendo sees slowdown ahead (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 11:22 am Barely-There Bikinis - Scandalous Swimsuits to Flaunt Nearly Everything Youve Got (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) These people in the gallery above are showing their courageous abilities to reveal themselves with these barely-there bikinis. Most of these bikinis are just pieces of fabric that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 11:20 am Sony unveils the limited edition Danielle Steel Reader, Kindle fans laughSection: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle
It turns out that in an announcement that was totally shadowed, Sony unveiled their latest limited edition Reader. This time it is a Danielle Steel edition and for just $279.99 you can get a special red colored Reader that comes with a red leather cover with the Danielle Steel name embossed in the lower right hand corner as well as three books and a personal letter from Danielle Steel. Sounds like a good deal for a Danielle Steel fan, however while I understand she is a popular author I cannot help but wonder if a limited edition Reader is really needed. Basically, this just seems like Sony is trying to compete in the ebook space, however it appears as if they are not really bringing much in terms of an a-game. Product [Sony Style] Via [electronista] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 May 2009 | 11:01 am Dry-Erase Wall Clocks - Ricardo Saint-Clairs Timepiece Lets You Visualize Your Schedule(TrendHunter.com) This dry-erase wall clock from Ricardo Saint-Clair lets visual learners see their daily schedule. Rather than a list-based daily planner, this timepiece allows you to write in your...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 11:00 am Garmin Oregon Handheld GPS Line Gets 3.2 Megapixel Camera, Geotagging [Garmin]Garmin's 550 and 550t upgrade to the Oregon handheld GPS lineup add a few new features for outdoorsy types—a 3.2 megapixel camera with geotagging, a 3-axis compass and a enhanced sunlight...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 11:00 am Floor-Wiping Worm Robot Provides Crucial Missing Link in Robotic Fossil Record [Robo-swiffer]In animal terms, the Fukitorimushia floor-cleaning robot would be the Roomba's distant evolutionary ancestor. It wipes instead of vacuums, inches rather than rolls, and generally looks like it...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 10:54 am Why I'm Fascinated By Virtual Fashion DisastersVia Peter Stindberg's Flickr stream Here's a glorious example of a face light gone horribly wrong, an invisible attachment meant to gently illuminate the avatar's profile-- but above, acting more like...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 May 2009 | 10:52 am Nintendo's annual profit rises 8.5 percent (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 10:22 am BoomTown to ChiTown: No Posts Today, but Enjoy These Lovely Chicago Videos [BoomTown]
BoomTown is winging it across the country for a Dow Jones event in Chicago–we do our part here for the mother ship at All Things Digital!–so there will not likely be posts today. That is, unless Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) merge, buy Twitter and mount a cavalry attack on the Googleplex (GOOG). One can dream! Until Friday then, here are some lovely Chicago-related videos: Blues Brothers, “Sweet Home Chicago”: “All That Jazz” from “Chicago”: What Chicago News Anchors Do During Commercial Breaks Tom Cruise Attack on Oprah’s Couch: Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 10:16 am Panasonic Movie DSLR Gets High, High, Price.
Panasonic’s hot new video-shooting Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera, the DMC-GH1, has finally received a price, and the news isn’t good, especially is you plan on buying one outside the US. The DMC-GH1 rather quickly superseded the DMC-G1, Panasonic’s first DSLR-style MFT camera, adding hi-def video and proper sound inputs, quickly making it the camera to wait for for budget indie moviemakers. Unfortunately, while the original, non-video version sells for $630 including kit lens, the 1080p-capable camera will go for an astonishing $1500, although that does include a longer lens (14-140mm ƒ4.0-5.8) which has silent running for shooting talkies and can be focused as you film. Whether this lens justifies an almost $900 price hike is unlikely, though, especially as it has those terrible maximum apertures which, combined with the smaller MFT sensor means you can’t get the shallow depth of field that is the whole point of these movie-makin’ DSLRs. It’s worse in Europe, where you’ll pay around the same price, only in Euros — €1550 translates to $2050. Press release [Panasonic] Panasonic announces prices for DMC-GH1 [DP Review] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 May 2009 | 10:04 am Shinoda's Curvy 145" Display is 1mm Thick, Does 720p [Displays]Last time we saw one of Shinoda's ever-growing 1mm-thick flexible displays, its squat figure and sorry 960x360 resolution weren't exactly blowing minds. But this version—essentially two of the...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 9:56 am Historical Perspective: At Least This Time Around We Don’t Have Incubators For Incubators
I’m not just talking about three massively funded pet food delivery services. Nor am I talking about blowing a billion dollars on home grocery delivery. No, I’m talking about possibly the most absurd idea to come out of the bubble years: Incubators for incubators. Startup incubators are businesses that help startups get on their feet. They supply office space, human labor for things like legal and human resource expenses that are easily outsourced, and other services. In return they get equity in the startup. The incubator model, which has been infinitely tweaked, can work. Some great startups came out of well known incubators like idealab, such as GoTo.com, which later changed its name to Overture and was bought by Yahoo for $1.63 billion. But for the most part incubators have been the punch line in bad jokes about the bubble, and deservedly so. But they were hot in the late nineties, particularly off the back of perceived idealab success. So when, in 1999, a slew of startups decided to not just be incubators but rather incubators of incubators, it sort of made sense. At least, it made sense to Red Herring writer Sarah Lai Stirland, who wrote a masterful article on the flowering niche. The article is long gone but was preserved at Vault.com and I’ve copied it below for historical hilarity (I have no idea what the copyright status of this is, but if someone has a fit we’ll gladly take it down - but I won’t delete it from my hard drive, no way). The article profiles not one but a whopping four “incubators of incubators,” or companies that would incubate companies that would incubate startups: Incubatorincubator.com, KnowledgeCube, InQbiz, and The Atlantic. The article begins with “Jonathan Abrams has a cunning plan: capitalize on the incubator craze by starting an incubator of incubators.” (yeah, that Jonathan Abrams). Everything that follows is absolutely hilarious. An early quote from Abrams: “It used to be that after you sold your company to Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) or Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) for $200 million, you might start another company. But now that has become passe, and anyone with a glimmer of pseudo-success is starting an incubator.” When told about the other three incubators of incubators, Abrams said “Wow, I had no idea I had competition.” Before you stomp on Abrams: he says it was all a joke and he was amazed Red Herring took it so seriously. He says in an email yesterday explaining the article “i was working on my first startup HotLinks, a social bookmarking company circa 1999, and was talking to an editor at Red Herring about HotLinks and he kept going on about incubators (which were a hot topic at the time) and I spontaneously made a joke that I was gonna start an incubator for incubators. This is typical nerd/programmer recursive/meta humor, like when I did FriendFeedFeed.com. anyways, some writer from Red Herring calls me about it and wants to write a serious article about it, so we went along with it as a joke, not really 100% believing they were gonna take it seriously. at least I think thats about what happened, this was a while back… the whole thing was pretty silly” I believe Abrams, since his quotes are so off the wall. But the rest of the article is apparently serious. I’d highlight the best parts but, really, the whole thing is the best part. Just read it all. Here it is: Who will incubate the incubators? Jonathan Abrams has a cunning plan: capitalize on the incubator craze by starting an incubator of incubators. For-profit incubators are a form of training-wheels venture funding that are supposed to help novice entrepreneurs along before they receive larger sums from traditional venture capitalists. Idealab founder Bill Gross is seen as the pioneer of commercial Internet incubators, but investors tend to view them as nascent CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI)s, the publicly traded venture capital fund that had its share value increase 19,541 percent since starting its venture activities in 1995. “It used to be that after you sold your company to Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) or Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) for $200 million, you might start another company. But now that has become pass?, and anyone with a glimmer of pseudo-success is starting an incubator,” notes Mr. Abrams. Part of the attraction comes from the business model: incubators routinely take 50 percent equity stakes in new ventures, and they also establish the value of the services that they provide their companies, according to research done by Ben Cary, a second-year student at Harvard Business School, for the Cambridge Incubator. On top of that, incubators can boost their valuations when and if they go public, since they can claim that all their companies work together to provide each other services and assets, increasing the value of the companies and by extension that of the holding company. Without a trace of irony, the 30-year-old Mr. Abrams proposes to leapfrog that process himself by helping would-be business hatcheries beat their competitors. Mr. Abrams, who launched an Internet search portal called Hotlinks last September and who is funded by @Ventures, a subsidiary of CMGI, says that his incubator of incubators will help to speed up the whole process. He already has gone so far as to reserve the domain name Incubatorincubator.com, although he hasn’t figured out a schedule for implementing this idea yet. “Incubatorincubator.com will be taking perhaps 5 to 10 percent of the equity of the incubators. This will in turn mean we indirectly get a stake in the companies those incubators incubate, since the incubators will take stakes in those companies, and we will have a stake in the incubators. This will provide us with a very large portfolio!” Mr. Abrams says. THE RACE IS ON “Wow, I had no idea I had competition,” says Mr. Abrams. He does, and his competitors are going global. A small group of financiers, working independently, are starting to incubate incubators around the globe by providing their own resources and packaging these resources with local and global technology partnerships. In effect, they’re spreading the commercial model of incubation by teaming up with and training local management teams to establish their own incubators, which eventually will become nodes of global incubator networks. While bigger companies such as Softbank, CMGI, and Hong Kong’s Pacific Century Cyberworks are also busy setting up global venture networks, the deals being set up by incubators are typically smaller, ranging from $50 million to $500 million. GOING GLOCAL “We’re really training these people to run local incubators,” explains Matt Bruck, KnowledgeCube’s vice president of corporate development. “So we incubate both technology companies and local incubators. We believe we have created the prototype for incubation.” KnowledgeCube directly incubates technology startups in New York, Boston, and Seattle, but also is building satellite “Cubes” around the globe. The local incubators will be set up like traditional venture capital funds in which KnowledgeCube is both an investor and a partner, says Mr. Bruck. As he describes it, KnowledgeCube incubates the local incubators in the traditional sense of incubation by providing them with the expertise, funding, and connections to get them up and running quickly. Other partners in the local venture fund/incubator will be local conglomerates who have the connections and expertise within those specific markets, Mr. Bruck says. Mr. Bruck says that deals are in place for Cubes in Hong Kong and S?o Paolo, Brazil. The effort is so new that the company won’t disclose how much it aims to spend or who will be involved, since terms still are being negotiated and the intended executives have yet to give notice at their current jobs. But Mr. Bruck says that managers of the regional offices will have local business connections and American business experience (one is an investment banker, the other an entrepreneur, and both are currently living in New York). KnowledgeCube’s management has good pedigrees. President and CEO Max P. Michaels was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (Nasdaq: MWD) and a McKinsey consultant, while senior vice president of technology and operations Dave Tottle was most recently an executive at Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU). Mr. Tottle, Mr. Michaels, and Mr. Bruck are all MIT alumni and have snagged Ed Roberts, an MIT Sloan School of Management professor and former partner and cofounder of Boston-based venture capital firm Zero Stage Capital, as the chairman of the advisory board. NO GARDEN-VARIETY INCUBATOR “What’s happening is if anybody provides any portion of the range of services needed, they’ll call themselves an incubator,” he says in disgust. For his part, Mr. Lind sees himself in the business of exporting and importing intellectual capital from various countries around the world to places where it’s applicable. For example, companies within the InQbiz network will have most of their IT support outsourced to India, where such support is cheaper than elsewhere in the world, while some of the business plans for the startups may be modeled after U.S. Internet startups. Like other incubators, his ultimate aim is to create a network between the various startups in order to share their knowledge, users, technology, and expertise. InQbiz invests money in startups around the world and hooks international professional services and technology companies such as Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) up to local entrepreneurs. Like KnowledgeCube, it also will establish local incubators through strategic partnerships with local companies. Mr. Lind, an entrepreneur who in 1997 founded Strategic Partners, an emerging markets corporate finance firm specializing in telecommunications and finance, has so far established InQbiz incubators in Bombay, India, and Cape Town, South Africa. He was in Hong Kong to interview candidates to help him to set up an incubator there. He also has plans to set up an incubator in Singapore and to partner with local firms in Japan and Korea. The local InQbiz incubators typically take a 50 percent interest in the incubated companies. Companies that are being incubated in InQbiz India include StrategicNewspapers.com, a sort of Verticalnet (Nasdaq: VERT) of India; eEngineering, a portal for outsourced engineering workforce solutions; Findstone, a business-to-business site for trading industrial stone; and SoulKurry.com, a portal for Indian women. Mr. Lind expects most of these startups to complete IPOs on their countries’ main stock exchanges, rather than on Nasdaq. He anticipates InQbiz completing an IPO sometime within the next year to fund the growth of its network. OVER THERE The Atlantic, which just started a holding company called eMIT Capital (short for emerging markets technology), plans on taking a 50 percent stake in local incubators that it partners with. The markets that it’s eyeing include Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, and China. Since the managers were still fund-raising at the time, they declined to provide any more details about their plans. But Scott Gordon, CEO of eMIT Capital and former president and CEO of ING Emerging Markets Investors, does say that with such low consumer penetration rates in emerging markets, the best opportunities are in the so-called business-to-business arena. Again, the company’s pitch to local entrepreneurs is its ability to provide seed capital, in addition to a global network of business connections. All the activity surprises one person who’s prominent in the incubator business. “Is there such an animal out there?” asks Alberto Saavedra, who sits on the board of advisors for a number of incubators, including Venture Catalyst in Santa Monica, California; Software Greenhouse in Barcelona, Spain; and Talentum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Incubating runs in the family: his wife is a taxonomies manager at Business.com, a company being incubated by the Jake Winebaum/Sky Dayton incubator eCompanies. While making pizza at his house in Los Angeles, Mr. Saavedra says he’s been cooking up ideas for two such incubators of his own: one perhaps for IBM (NYSE: IBM) and another for the government of Uruguay. He claims individuals working for those entities have told him that they have large sums of money to invest. “The point is to train management teams to start incubators, since there aren’t enough of them,” he says. “That’s my thought process — I haven’t thought that much about it.” Meanwhile, he says that he’s also coined another new term for the incubator lexicon: the one-man incubator. “For some reason, a lot of people who want to do startups come to me for advice, so I provide it in exchange for shares,” he says. “This is a bit of fun, so I’m doing it. Next week I might not care about other companies though, and I might start my own.” Hmmm, self-incubation. Wonder what the market will think of that? TROUBLE AHEAD? InQbiz’s Mr. Lind says that his confidence stems from his belief that incubation as a business model is a fundamentally new way of doing business, though a volatile market might mean slower expansion and less acquisition currency for the Internet companies. “The emerging markets are tough after [Tuesday]; it’s like the tail wagging the dog,” he says, referring to Tuesday’s bizarre market volatility, which saw the Nasdaq Composite Index drop 575 points, or 13.6 percent, at one point, only to rally back to finish the day down less than 75 points. Back in Mountain View, California, Mr. Abrams shrugs off the Nasdaq’s wild wobbles. “It’s a just a blip,” he says. Time, and the market, will tell. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 9:42 am EU kills "3-strikes" Internet rule, affirms Internet is a fundamental rightAfter a last-minute scramble, the EU has been persuaded to kill the idea of forcing "3-strikes" copyright/internet legislation on European states. The "3-strikes" rule says that you can have your Internet connection taken away after a copyright holder accuses you of infringement three times -- but the rightsholder doesn't need to show any evidence that you've done anything wrong.The entertainment industry has been lobbying around the world for the right to decide who gets to use the internet. In New Zealand, they managed to get Bill 92A, a 3-strikes rule, adopted by Parliament, but sustained, noisy activism from local geeks and artists forced the government to reverse its decision and go back to the drawing board on copyright. In France, Sarkozy pushed hard for a 3-strikes rule (his wife is a pop-star who is demanding more sweeping powers for entertainers over the internet), but was defeated. 3-strikes is a feature of the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which the US, Canada, Japan, the EU and other rich countries are conducting behind closed doors. The entertainment industry slipped 3-strikes into the EU through an amendment to the notorious "Telecoms Package," a huge, complex piece of legislation. To counter this, progressive MEPs wrote a set of "Citizens Rights" amendments that established that internet access was a fundamental right in Europe that cannot be taken away without judicial review and an actual finding of wrongdoing. Activists went down to the wire this week, phoning and emailing their MEPs to ask them to vote to defend due process and citizens' rights, and it paid off. Yesterday, the citizens' rights amendments passed 407/57 -- and the EU banned Sarkozy from reintroducing his failed copyright proposal. A formidable campaign from the citizens put the issues of freedoms on the Internet at the center of the debates of the Telecoms Package. This is a victory by itself. It started with the declaration of commissioner Viviane Reding considering access to Internet as a fundamental right1. The massive re-adoption of amendment 138/462 rather than the softer compromise negotiated by rapporteur Trautmann with the Council is an even stronger statement. These two elements alone confirm that the French 'three strikes' scheme, HADOPI, is dead already.Amendment 138/46 adopted again. Internet is a fundamental right in Europe.
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 7 May 2009 | 9:41 am Attention Kmart Shoppers: Your Social Elements Are On Aisle 3
MySears and MyKmart were built to foster a community around the long tradition of shopping at those retailers. The idea being that this community would not only be interested in buying things, but would be interested in rating items, having discussions about items and giving feedback to the company itself. Perhaps if you got users to interact and form this community, eventually they’ll keep coming back to Sears or Kmart to do their shopping, was the thought. And after over a year of testing, it seems to be working pretty well. Yes, MySears and MyKmart have actually be around in one form or another as a testing ground for a while, Rob Harles, SHC’s VP of community, tells me. It started out as an experiment to see where it would lead. And even with the sites officially launching, it remains an experiment, he says. But it’s one the company is getting much more comfortable with. The sites have been built in conjunction with Viewpoints, a consumer review social networking site. And as Harles tells it, SHC seems to have a pretty good grasp of what could conceivably work and what won’t. It doesn’t, for example, want to build another giant social network like Facebook or MySpace. Instead, it aims to stay within its reach, engage customers, and eventually, hopefully, create a sense of the small town shopkeeper who knows all of his customers, as Harles put it. That may be a bit of wishful thinking on the part of a company that owns Kmart, one of the world’s largest retailers, but at least it’s thinking small rather than thinking too big.
Something else Harles said that made a lot of sense to me is that SHC also doesn’t want to restrict users into having to create yet another profile on yet another social site. He hopes to use various other site’s APIs to help his customers fit MySears and MyKmart into their online social lives that already exist. He wouldn’t go into specifics about what exactly he was thinking about with this, but one could imagine sites like this using something like Facebook Connect to tie Facebook profiles to MySears and MyKmart accounts. Harles conceded that when the project first launched, the sites were limited to the demographics you normally associate with Sears and Kmart — which is to say, older house moms. But over the past several months, various other groups of users have come to try out the sites and find out information about products. But he notes that a network like this may be good for the parents of the Facebook and MySpace generations to step into the social graph. Sure, a lot of the elements on these sites are the old tried and true standards of just about every other social networking site, but it’s good to see old stalwarts of retail attempting to transition into the new age. An age where online customer feedback and input is important. And they’re apparently willing to keep on shifting along with the ever-changing web.
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Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 9:40 am Beak-Like iPhone Stand is for the Birds
There’s certainly a need for a little, sturdy stand to prop up the iPhone whilst watching video, but we doubt that the iClooly is it, mostly because it adds too much bulk to the phone. In “stand” mode, the iClooly works both vertically and horizontally, and the big clip curves down like a curlew’s beak to provide a secure, shake free “standing experience” (a marketing term we just invented). But in “teenage jeans pocket mode” it offers little more than a signal to pickpockets. “Here’s my iPhone” it calls, in the voice of the aforementioned curlew (it’s a piercing cry), “Please, steal me,” it wheedles, in a melancholic tone. A missed opportunity, to be sure, and the company has clearly passed up the chance to make a protective case with a simple foldaway kick-stand and instead embraced the bird-spotting crowd. We can’t help but think that this might be a mistake, even in today’s market of niche products and “long-tails” (something the curlew doesn’t have). €25 ($33). Product page [MaxiMobile via Likecool]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 May 2009 | 9:32 am Documentary on Canada's DMCAA group of Canadian copyfighters produced this mini-documentary, "C-61," about the proposed new Canadian copyright law, which the US government is pressuring Canada to pass (that's why the USA added Canada to a nonsensical list of pirate nations). Previous attempts to pass this bill have been a disgrace -- famously, former Industry Minister Jim Prentice refused to discuss the bill with Canadian record labels, artists, tech firms, or telcos, but did meet with American and multinational entertainment and software giants to allow them to give their input. In the bill's earlier incarnation as C-60, its sponsor, Sam Bulte, was caught taking campaign contributions from the same US and multinational entertainment companies, and went berserk at a town hall meeting when questioned about it, decrying "user-rights zealots and EFF members." "C-61" does a good job of explaining what passing American-style copyright in Canada would mean and why it's a bad idea. I contributed some narration to it, as well!
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 7 May 2009 | 9:30 am Zendesk Secures Funding For SaaS Help Desk System, Heads To The U.S.
The company declined to comment how much financing it secured from the VC firm exactly, but in a telephone conversation did say it was a fairly small round. Zendesk previously raised $500,000 in seed funding from PageFlakes co-founders Christoph Janz. Zendesk is a web-based, SaaS-delivered help desk / support ticketing solution that gives companies, big or small, a simple way to manage incoming support requests from end customers. The aptly-named startup is delivering its hosted help desk system, which can be set up in just a matter of minutes, to a wide range of customers, including some familiar names like Rackspace, Condé Nast, MAXroam, Twitter, MSNBC and Scribd. Zendesk comes with a free version, but it is fairly limited since you can only provide support for up to 50 end-users, plus you don’t get to brand the interface. There are six packages that you can subscribe to on a monthly basis (all come with a 30-day free trial), ranging from $19 for 1 support agent to $475 for 25 agents. Needless to say, these prices are way below what most traditional help desk system vendors dare charge for their products and services. I very much like the fact that the startup is so laser-focused on what they do and do well, instead of overloading the product with unnecessary features or over-extending it to broader use (i.e. project management, to-do listings, etc.). That would put them up against some stiff competition and it seems to be carving out a nice niche for itself by focusing on end-user help desk management as it is, so that just wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Zendesk was also smart enough to have come right out the gate with an extensive API third-party developers and/or customers can use to plug the tool into other applications. Bet we’ll here more from this company in the future.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 9:30 am Dreamcast, Brand New and Boxed, Available for Order
ThinkGeek is selling Sega Dreamcasts for $99 a pop. Frikkin’ Dreamcasts! Better yet, they’re brand new and in the box, and “arrived mysteriously at our warehouse… delivered by a blue hedgehog.” For many, the Dreamcast was the best console ever, and its premature death solidified the sentiment, in a kind of Marilyn Monroe/James Dean fit of rose-tinted nostalgia. It did, though, have the excellent Virtua Fighter, although Sonic was pretty much dead at that point. It was actually a pretty forward-looking console, although a look at the contents of the box gives us a curiously retro-shiver:
Web Browser 2.0 is a fantastic name, by the way. If you want one of these, order now — the last batch sold out almost immediately. $99 plus $15 for a second controller, no games included. Product page [ThinkGeek]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 May 2009 | 9:07 am iPhone Beta 5 Odds and Ends: No More MMS, Better YouTube? [Iphone Beta]The official script may have minimized it as a maintenance release, but some users are finding out that iPhone Beta 5 contains more than bugfixes. So far: YouTube's improved, and hacked MMS is no...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 8:22 am @Google - @Twitter To Start Indexing Links For Search - Washington Post
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 8:17 am Duke Nukem For NeverPLSQL Guy writes "Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms is shutting down, according to Shacknews. They cite 'a reliable source close to the company,' who said the developer is finished and employees have already been let go. It looks like all of the Duke Nukem Forever jokes are turning into reality; DNF might turn out to be the ultimate vaporware after all." 3D Realms' webmaster, Joe Siegler, confirmed the closing, saying that he didn't know about it even a day beforehand. Apogee and Deep Silver, who are working on a different set of Duke Nukem games (referred to as the Duke Nukem Trilogy) say they are not affected by the problems at 3D Realms.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 May 2009 | 7:33 am Texas police accused of highway robberiesCNN reports that police are accused of having robbed at least 150 drivers in Tenaha, Texas. The amount stolen is close to $3 million, says a lawyer who has filed a class action suit against the town and police department there. Some of the victims (who are mostly African American) said that when they complained to the police about the police, the police threatened to take the victims' children away. In one case, the district attorney sent a couple who'd been robbed a form letter to sign that said, in exchange for forfeiting the $6000 that had been stolen from them, "...no criminal charges shall be filed...and our children shall not be turned over to [child protective services]." The video is loaded with lots of other tragicomically sordid details. Police In Texas Accused of Committing Highway Robberies
Source: Boing Boing | 7 May 2009 | 7:32 am @Google - @Twitter To Start Indexing Links For Search
Speaking on a panel today, Santosh Jayaram, Twitter’s new VP of Operations, had some very interesting things to say, Webware’s Rafe Needleman who moderated it, reports. The most interesting thing is that Twitter Search will soon begin crawling the links that people tweet out and indexing them. This immediately takes Twitter Search, which is still a very basic service, to the next level. This means that no longer will it just be a stream of textual tweets, but it will include millions of web pages as well — web pages that are more or less already curated by the individuals who tweet them out. Sure, there will be some spam, maybe even a lot of it, but this user curation should help real good content from around the web bubble up. Apparently, Twitter Search will index the content of these pages as well. Yes, this is what Google does. So it should be no surprise when I say that Jayaram was the former VP of Search Quality for Google. Of course there is no way Twitter Search will index as many pages as Google, but that’s not the point. Twitter Search isn’t meant to replace Google, that’d be dumb. At this point, no one is going to beat Google at its own game (you hear that Microsoft?). Twitter Search is meant to be a different kind of powerful search engine in its own right. A smaller, potentially curated, real-time search engine. Twitter’s biggest trump card here is the real-time factor. It’s not entirely real-time right now, and there are often delays, but it’s faster than Google — mainly thanks to the nature of tweets (fast to send) versus the nature of webpages (slow to build). And so it’s not yet clear how indexing these linked pages would impact that aspect of Twitter Search. You’d have to assume it would slow it down, but really there’s not much point in assuming anything because it’s not yet really clear how Twitter would use this webpage data in search results. One thing that is more clear is that Twitter is also looking at ways to better tailor search results. As I mentioned, right now the results are a very basic collection of tweets with key terms. Jayaram says that the company wants to add some sort of reputation filtering to offer better results. Now before everyone gets in a tizzy about the word “reputation” just like when Loic Le Meur brought up the idea of filtering Twitter Search by “authority,” Jayaram says Twitter’s engineers are still determining the best way to calculate this reputation. That seems to indicate that it wouldn’t be something silly like just being based on the number of followers you have. Things should get very interesting in this space over the next several months. Unless, of course, Google buys Twitter first. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 7:18 am Duke Nukem For-Never? 3D Realms Shutting Down - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 May 2009 | 7:11 am Next best thing to “teleporting”? [Voices]Cisco CEO John Chambers doesn’t just talk a good game about telepresence, the videoconferencing technology that creates the illusion you’re in a room with someone who’s actually thousands of miles away. He’s planning to install his company’s high-end system in his Silicon Valley home, provided he and his wife can agree on a spot for it. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 7:05 am What Google Can Do To Make The Web Less Of A ‘Cesspool’ [Voices]After years of debate about the value of the near monopoly owned by the folks in Redmond, it would appear that this particular discussion is quickly moving south to the Googleplex. And from where I sit, appropriately so. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 7:04 am Why the Law and Tech Aren’t Friends on MySpace [Voices]There’s a fascinating case coming to the New Jersey courts in early June about a bartender and waitress at a restaurant who were sacked because of comments they made in a private MySpace forum. The two created a private group in which they vented about management at Houston’s restaurant in Hackensack, NJ. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 7:03 am Forging Ahead [Voices]A little over a decade ago, archaeologists experienced a collective nightmare–the emergence of eBay, the Internet auction site that, among other things, lets people sell looted artifacts. The black market for antiquities has existed for centuries, of course, with devastating consequences for the world’s cultural heritage. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 7:02 am The Biology of B-Movie Monsters [Voices]Size has been one of the most popular themes in monster movies, especially those from my favorite era, the 1950s. The premise is invariably to take something out of its usual context–make people small or something else (gorillas, grasshoppers, amoebae, etc.) large–and then play with the consequences. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 7:01 am Daily Crunch: Pleased to Meat You Edition
MeatCards: Print Your Business Cards On Beef Jerky With A Frickin’ Laser Beam
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 7:00 am Nintendo Sees Record Sales, Profits Despite Recession (PC World)PC World - Nintendo achieved record sales and profits in the year to March as consumers around the world snapped up its Wii console and DS handheld despite the recession, it said Thursday. The performance was ahead of revised estimates issued by the company in January this year but within the numbers was evidence of a big drop in business in its home market.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 7:00 am BlackArmor NAS: A polished storage server with an open source heart (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Bottom Line Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 is a Johnny-come-lately to the NAS market, but Seagate seems to have done its homework.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 7:00 am YouTube River Diverted Into The Google Social Ocean As Well
To be clear, you could previously link the two together, but starting today, if you sign up for a new YouTube account, you automatically get a Google account to go with it. And more importantly, buried at the end of the post on the YouTube blog, Google notes that, “some of the new features we roll out down the road may require a Google Account. In these cases, we’ll be there to help you link your YouTube Account to a Google Account if you want to check the features out.” Without saying what it means by that specifically, I think it’s pretty clear that Google has big plans for its hugely popular online video site in its overall social scheme. Not only does that probably mean little things like being able to feature YouTube videos on your Google Profile (just like you can with pictures now), but also placing videos in the upcoming “Updates” news stream area. That’s seems likely to be the name of the area that will be Google’s version of the News Feed — where all of your social data and the data of your contacts is collected in one place. This area, which has yet to be unveiled, is very important if Google is to find cohesion in its social plans which have so far been scattered. For the big two social networks, Facebook and MySpace, pictures have been a huge part of each of their networks. Videos are now increasingly becoming a big part as well as recording and encoding technologies improve — and broadband speeds get better. And there’s no bigger site for video than YouTube, which in the U.S. far outpaces its next closest competitor, Fox Interactive Media, which runs, yes, MySpace. So Google is set on the video end for its social network that is coming together. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 6:30 am NASA's Next-Gen Space Duds: The Constellation Space Suit System [Space]The Constellation Space Suit System (CSSS) is NASA's first major redesign to the iconic space suit in 40 years, and it looks like it's designed to be able to handle the next 40. The CSSS is helmed...Source: Gizmodo | 7 May 2009 | 6:20 am Xerox looks to make color printing more affordable (AP)AP - The economics of color printing in big offices are simple: A page of black and white costs about 2 cents per page, while color runs about 8 cents.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 May 2009 | 4:59 am Bacteria Could Help Stop DesertificationBridgette Steffen writes "In attempt to slow down desertification, a student at London's Architectural Association has proposed a 6000 km sandstone wall that will not only act as a break across the Sahara Desert, but also serve as refugee shelter. Last fall it won first prize in the Holcim Foundation's Awards for Sustainable Construction, and will use bacteria to solidify the sandstone."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 May 2009 | 4:39 am iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 5 out already
What’s that? You finally just got around to installing Beta 4 of iPhone OS 3.0? Sorry - it’s update time again. Read the rest of this entry >>
Source: CrunchGear | 7 May 2009 | 4:11 am iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 5 out already
What’s that? You finally just got around to installing Beta 4 of iPhone OS 3.0? Sorry - it’s update time again. Breaking their normal stride of every 2 weeks, Apple has just pushed Beta 5 to the Developer Center. Does this slight speed up mean anything? Could 3.0’s public release be right around the corner? We’re not expecting any dramatic changes or new features this time around - but if we see anything, we’ll let you know. Update: We just got two strange reports, both claiming the same thing: MMS and tethering have both stopped functioning, even for those with modified carrier bundles. However, plenty of people are saying it’s still working. One idea is that it varies depending on if you did a clean install or if you restored from a backup. Anyone out there having this problem? Tethering no long working sort of makes sense - they might be tweaking things a bit to make it (slightly) harder for jailbreakers to get tethering on the free. But MMS? That’s usually limited on a network level. Strange. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 4:08 am How the Next Kindle Could Save the Newspaper BusinessJournalists and the people who love them are non-plussed by the next-generation Kindle, a device that is supposed to make the digital reading of writing that was meant to be on paper a more satisfying experience. But there's a way that large-format e-readers could help lead the industry out of near-certain extinction, and it's hidden in plain sight.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 4:00 am Magic and the Brain: Teller Reveals the Neuroscience of IllusionOne of the first tricks in Penn and Teller's Las Vegas show begins when Teller—the short, quiet one—strolls onstage with a lit cigarette, inhales, drops it to the floor, and stamps it out. Then he takes another cigarette from his suit pocket and lights it. No magic there, right? But then Teller pivots so the audience can see him from the other side. He goes through the same set of motions, except this time everything is different: Much of what just transpired, the audience now perceives, was a charade, a carefully orchestrated stack of lies. He doesn't stamp out the first cigarette—he palms it, then puts it in his ear. There is no second cigarette; it's a pencil stub. The smoke from the first butt is real, but the lighter used on the pencil is actually a flashlight. Yet the illusion is executed so perfectly that every step looks real, even when you're shown that it is not. Penn and Teller demonstrate the seven basic principles of magic. The trick is called Looks Simple, and the point is that even a puff on a cigarette, closely examined, can disintegrate into smoke and mirrors. "People take reality for granted," Teller says shortly before stepping onstage. "Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn't mean it is simple." For Teller (that's his full legal name), magic is more than entertainment. He wants his tricks to reveal the everyday fraud of perception so that people become aware of the tension between what is and what seems to be. Our brains don't see everything—the world is too big, too full of stimuli. So the brain takes shortcuts, constructing a picture of reality with relatively simple algorithms for what things are supposed to look like. Magicians capitalize on those rules. "Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology," Teller says. "If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful. I've exploited the efficiencies of your mind." Now that on-the-job experimentation has taken an academic turn. A couple of years ago, Teller joined a coterie of illusionists and tricksters recruited by Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, to look at the neuroscience of magic. Last summer, that work culminated in an article for the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience called "Attention and Awareness in Stage Magic." Teller was one of the coauthors, and its publication was a signal event in a field some researchers are calling magicology, the mining of stage illusions for insights into brain function. "Tricks work only because magicians know, at an intuitive level, how we look at the world," says Macknik, lead author of the paper. "Even when we know we're going to be tricked, we still can't see it, which suggests that magicians are fooling the mind at a very deep level." By reverse-engineering these deceptions, Macknik hopes to illuminate the mental loopholes that make us see a woman get sawed in half or a rabbit appear out of thin air even when we know such stuff is impossible. "Magicians were taking advantage of these cognitive illusions long before any scientist identified them," Martinez-Conde says. 
For sleight-of-hand master Teller, magic is a form of experimental psychology.
Photo: Carlos Serrao Penn and Teller are an n of 1 in American culture: avant-garde artists who perform for the Vegas masses, skeptical philosophers who somehow got a cable TV show. For the past 25 years, they've played the same characters onstage. Teller is the silent, impish illusionist—"People are always surprised that I can speak," he says—while Penn is the hyperkinetic impresario, juggling knives, teasing the audience, and swallowing fire. These personae reflect the men's offstage personalities. Penn Jillette is 6'7", with a mane of curly black hair. When he walks, he pounds the floor like a clown in oversize shoes—not surprising, since he graduated from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Teller is nearly a foot shorter and dresses in dapper three-piece suits. He has an eerie grace, as if he can move without displacing air. The two started performing together in 1975, playing Philadelphia street corners and Renaissance festivals. Along with a third artist, they called themselves the Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, an absurdist act that mixed knife-juggling with "unusual and disgusting" classical music. They were not especially popular. "I always assumed I'd spend my life happily performing in artsy-fartsy little theaters," Teller says. After their first Renaissance gig, where Teller performed in tights and Penn in leather, they were headed back to New Jersey. To kill some time in a diner, Teller was practicing his version of Cups and Balls, a classic sleight-of-hand trick popularized by ancient Roman conjurers. It involves a series of "vanishes" and "transpositions" as the balls appear and disappear underneath the cups. Teller hadn't brought any props, so he used wadded-up napkins and clear water glasses. Penn & Teller demonstrate their version of Cups and Balls. Somehow, this made the trick even better. Although it was now possible to follow the crumpled napkins as Teller variously palmed them, squished them, and moved them from cup to cup, the illusion persisted. "The eye could see the moves, but the mind could not comprehend them," he says. "Giving the trick away gave nothing away, because you still couldn't grasp it." They eventually worked this version of Cups and Balls into their show, and audiences loved it. But the magic community—whose cardinal rule is "Don't tell 'em how it's done"—reacted with outrage and even threats of physical violence. Penn and Teller were exposing an ancient secret! Two arty geeks were destroying the mystery! All that criticism got press attention, which made people want to see Penn and Teller even more. Before long, they were performing Cups and Balls on Letterman. The trick became a centerpiece of their first off-Broadway show. "It was so liberating to be able to treat the audience like intelligent adults," Teller says. Instead of engaging in the "usual hocus-pocus clichés," the clear cups forced the crowd to confront the real source of the illusion: the hard-wired limitations of their own brains. Because people were literally incapable of perceiving the sleight of hand—Teller's fingers just moved too fast—it didn't matter that the glasses were transparent. Penn and Teller still perform Cups and Balls—it's one of the few old bits in their current Vegas show. Several of their other pieces take a more direct cue from research on perception. In the Cowboy trick, an individual from the crowd is given a video camera; Penn says he's going to make a tiny plastic cow disappear from his hand, and he asks the audience member to film the vanish as the feed is projected onto a large screen for the rest of the room. While the mark focuses on Penn's flamboyant hand gestures—and the impertinently nonvanishing cow—Teller rearranges the entire stage in plain view. The audience cracks up; even when the poor sap looks up from the viewfinder, he fails to notice that anything is different. Richard Wiseman demonstrates the Colour Changing Card Trick. "The idea for this trick came straight from science," Teller says. "We thought it would be fun to show people how bad they are at noticing stuff." Called change blindness, the phenomenon is illustrated in a video (on YouTube) that inspired the duo. Shot in 2007 by British psychologist Richard Wiseman, it ostensibly documents a simple card trick—the backs of the cards in a deck are magically transformed from blue to red. But during the course of the video, Wiseman's shirt, his assistant's shirt, the tablecloth, and the backdrop all change color, too. Most viewers watch the card trick unspool and miss the other alterations. Attention, it turns out, is like a spotlight. When it's focused on something, we become oblivious to even obvious changes outside its narrow beam. What magicians do, essentially, is misdirect—pivot that spotlight toward the wrong place at the right time.
Looks Simple, Doesn't It? 
During Penn and Teller's show, the audience laughs at the patsy onstage. But that part of the act is clearly intended as an indictment of human perception. "The irony," Teller says, "is that what we're doing to the volunteer is the same thing we've been doing to the crowd all night." Teller designed his own house in the Las Vegas foothills, and he delights in showing first-time visitors around. He starts the tour by pointing down a hallway at a window, through which I see a beautiful view of the sprawling neon city below. "Go take a look," Teller says. I amble down the hall and—just before reaching the end—smack into something hard, leaving a wet mouth-print on polished glass. The "window" is merely a reflection; the hallway ends in a precisely angled, mirrored door. "You didn't see the illusion because you weren't expecting one," Teller says. "You assumed I wasn't fucking with your head and that this hallway is actually a normal hallway. Those assumptions work great until you walk into a wall." The fake window is only the beginning. The house also has a bookcase that's actually a door, lightbulbs that appear to change color mysteriously, and a bronze bear statue that tells you what card you're thinking of. After demonstrating that last prank, Teller watches as I try in vain to figure out how it's done. He relishes the confusion of his audience—and even fellow illusionists: "I had Criss Angel over here; he couldn't figure out how the bear worked, either." Unless Teller sees the symptoms of astonishment—mouth agape, eyes widened, pupils dilated—he doesn't consider the trick a success. "The magic show is a competition," he says. "The audience is trying to figure you out. They aren't suspending their disbelief—they're trying to expose you as a scam artist." This is what makes magic so difficult: The magician must sell people a lie even as they know they're being lied to. Unless the illusion feels more real than the truth, there is no magic. What's surprising is just how limited the repertoire of magical illusions actually is. The Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper lists nine fundamental "conjuring effects" of modern magic, from the vanish and the restoration to telekinesis and ESP. While these basic tricks have been varied endlessly—you can "restore" a cut rope, a sawed-in-half assistant, a shredded piece of paper—each of the effects relies on a specific perceptual phenomenon. This may be why exposing the "secret" of a magic trick is so often deflating. Most of the time, the secret is that we're gullible and our brains are riddled with blind spots. This isn't just the stuff of magic shows; those perceptual phenomena also allow us to make sense of reality, as we translate the blur of photons hitting our retinas into a coherent world of three-dimensional forms. Consider a technique used by the legendary pickpocket Apollo Robbins, another coauthor of the Nature article spearheaded by Macknik and Martinez-Conde. When the researchers asked him about his devious methods—how he could steal the wallet of a man who knew he was going to have his pocket picked—they learned something surprising: Robbins said the trick worked only when he moved his free hand in an arc instead of a straight line. According to the thief, these arcs distract the eyes of his victims for a matter of milliseconds, just enough time for his other hand to pilfer their belongings. At first, the scientists couldn't explain this phenomenon. Why would arcs keep us from looking at the right place? But then they began to think about saccades, movements of the eye that can precede conscious decisions about where to turn one's gaze. Saccades are among the fastest movements produced by the human body, which is why a pickpocket has to trick them: The eyes are in fact quicker than the hands. "This is an idea scientists had never contemplated before," Macknik says. "It turns out, though, that the pickpocket was onto something." When we see a hand moving in a straight line, we automatically look toward the end point—this is called the pursuit system. A hand moving in a semicircle, however, seems to short-circuit our saccades. The arc doesn't tell our eyes where the hand is going, so we fixate on the hand itself—and fail to notice the other hand reaching into our pocket. "The pickpocket has found a weakness in the way we perceive motion," Macknik says. "Show the eyes an arc and they move differently." While the magicians are educating the scientists, so far the scientists haven't offered much in return. Cowboy trick aside, Teller says, "this is an example of entertainers getting there first." And he wishes it weren't so. Teller hopes that laboratory insights will offer ways to break free of the stale tricks that have defined magic for decades—much as new technologies made possible the illusions of David Abbott in the early 20th century. A loan shark in Omaha, Nebraska, Abbott performed innovative, late-night shows in his living room. (Harry Houdini was one of many magicians who made the pilgrimage.) "Abbott used to say he wasn't satisfied with a trick unless people began to weep," Teller says. "He was that good." Abbott's audiences were practically preindustrial—all it took to fool them into thinking that spirits move among us was a radio receiver wired into a papier-màché teakettle. Today's consumers of illusion are both hungrier for deception and savvier about its practice, a dichotomy due in no small part to Penn and Teller's own acts over the years. Teller has spent enough time with researchers to think they might be the key to an entirely new category of stage magic—that the quirks and flaws of perception uncovered in the lab can be commercialized, essentially, into illusions for an ever more sophisticated audience. "Maybe I'll learn something from these scientists," he says with a wry smile. "Maybe one of their discoveries will inspire a new kind of illusion. Maybe that's how I'll make people cry." Until he shows them how it's done. Jonah Lehrer (jonah.lehrer@gmail.com), author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist, wrote about the Allen Brain Atlas in issue 17.04.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 4:00 am Gear Gallery: Block Rockin' Earbuds, Luminous Flashlights, Ultra Cheap LCDs : The UE-11 Pros are packed with four, count 'em, four drivers: There's a double dose of bass, one for the midrange and one chiming the highs. If you're looking for the most precise, separated sound possible, then this is the earphone for you. Throughout the play list I heard clarity and detail in the music I'd never heard before. This rang especially true with classical tunes — it literally feels like sitting in a symphony hall and having every instrument speak directly to you. To get that kind of superior fidelity you'll certainly have to pay the piper. But you'll really love the music while Rome — or your bank account — burns. WIRED Most clear, separated and detailed sound. TIRED Try convincing your spouse you need a $1,150 set of headphones. $1,150, ultimateears.com
Read our full UE-11 Pro review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The slate-gray, high-impact polymer body houses three LEDs capable of blasting out a peak 270 lumens for 15 minutes, or a more useful and long-lasting 90 lumens for 60 minutes. Both settings have an emergency low-power 25-lumen mode (equivalent in brightness to most common household D-cell flashlights) for an additional 60 minutes. WIRED High-power pro flashlight pumps out awesome illumination and recharges ridiculously fast. Flashlight will outlive you. Seriously brilliant, blinding — a boon for flashlight junkies. TIRED Pricy front-end investment. Comes with a 12-volt car charger. $170, 511tactical.com
Read our full 5.11 Tactical Light review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : In our tests, we threw all things digital at this 68-pound slab. And while it does not perform as superbly as its higher-price brethren from Sony, Samsung and Sharp, it still shows off a completely acceptable high-def image and above-average sound. So where has Westinghouse cut corners? Oh, let's see. How about the borderline embarrassing 1000:1 contrast ratio? In a well-lit room, the screen looks more washed out than a warehouse full of Maytags. And even though the set offers the 120-Hz spec, fast motion still looks a bit blurred. WIRED High resolution and decent sound at incredible rock-bottom price. Convenience features integrated into menu. Quality remote not found in higher-priced TVs. TIRED Displays some pixelated speckled noise in darker and mid-hue images. Analog-station reproduction is downright blurry. No worries though — analog TV has flatlined. $700, Westinghouse.com
Read our full Westinghouse TX-42F450S review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : It's not quite a netbook, not quite an ultralight PC. Whatever it is, Samsung's NC20 is a dazzling feat of engineering: an extremely usable 12-inch laptop with epic battery life, impressive specs and a downright mystifyingly affordable price tag. But the NC20 doesn't make depressing tradeoffs to achieve those scores. Battery life is three hours, 40 minutes (22 percent longer than the S10) and weight is just 3.3 pounds, comparable to the Asus Eee PC 1000H. All that and you get a 12.1-inch LCD, too, instead of the usual 10.2-inch netbook display. WIRED Everything a netbook should be: Offers the best performance available from a computer this portable and inexpensive. Very usable keyboard. Good quality audio. Includes three USB ports, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and SD card slot. TIRED LCD could be a touch brighter and quality sharper. Chassis design is a bit boring. $550, samsung.com
Read our full Samsung NC 20 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Pure Digital's Flip has proven that it's possible to build a super-small flash memory camcorder and offer it up for fewer than two hundred bucks. But there are tradeoffs with going small and cheap, like optics and battery life. Canon takes a completely different tack with its newest solid-state cam, the Vixia HF S10, which delivers some fantastically brilliant moving pictures, but at a stiff cost. Out in the field, auto focus and auto exposure were both very impressive in a wide range of situations, from the intense brightness of the beach to shady and contrasty venues. Every camera suffers indoors, thanks to low light, and everyone complains about it, but the S10 did a credible job with low-light shots and it's clearly better than previous cams of this ilk. WIRED Improved audio quality. Big, bright lens. Speedy processor. Lots of creative control options. More intuitive menus than previous generation Canon camcorders. TIRED Loose lens cover noisier than cutlery caught in a garbage disposal. Still images come off looking a bit overexposed. $1,300, canon.com
Read our full Canon Vixia HF S10 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Dry your eyes, plasma junkies. The untimely demise of Pioneer's Kuro line doesn't mean you'll have to forgo those deliciously deep blacks and theater-perfect colors for long. In fact, even as the last of the Pioneer Kuro Elites make its way into a few lucky U.S. homes, a new lineup of HDTV sets are already poised to seize the plasma king's vacant throne. Key to this plasma's visual appeal is its integrated THX mode. In addition to blessing various audio components, the home-theater ninjas at THX began bestowing plasma and LCD certification a few years back. Each set is subjected to approximately 400 individual tests, ranging from evaluations in signal processing to luminosity. Basically, the idea behind G10's THX mode is to recreate the precise color gamut filmmakers use during the in-studio post-production process. WIRED Mind-boggling blacks with tons of detail. THX mode is a godsend for movie buffs. Integrated SD card slots transform your plasma into a giant digital photo frame. Amazing color saturation. TIRED THX mode is bit dim for brightly lit rooms. Ethernet connectivity is nice for VieraCast, but Wi-Fi would've been better. Three HDMI ports (two in the back, one on the side) don't cut it. More power-hungry than LCD TVs. Where's the PiP? $1,300, panasonic.com
Read our full Panasonic TC-P42G10 Viera G10 Series Plasma review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The PogoPlug is a device, which looks like a supersized AC adapter, plugs into almost any external hard drive (even a USB stick) and then pumps that content onto the web, giving you access anywhere in the world you can get an internet signal — including your iPhone. But the PogoPlug isn't without the occasional snafu and annoyances. Only image files are available for preview. PDF, Word documents or even HTML files have to be downloaded before viewing. Worse yet, when we unhooked the device, it caused our PC to crash twice in a row. We're still not entirely sure if this was due to a glitch in the PogoPlug or in Windows. WIRED Easy to use. Simple setup. Great utility: I must be able to access my collection of LOLcat photos from anywhere. The iPhone app is solid software. TIRED No wireless mode ... yet. Poor security — it's a wise idea to keep those tax returns or bank documents off the PogoPlug. Computer crashes are deeply flummoxing. The iPhone is currently the only mobile device that supports remote access. $100, pogoplug.com
Read our full Cloud Engines PogoPlug review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : NatureMill's Pro edition is an indoor composter we can pretty much dig. Using minimal electricity, a small motor turns a heavy-duty mixing bar, heats the mixing chamber (no sunlight needed) and powers an air pump that works with a carbon air filter to help reduce smell (each filter lasts four to five years). Just add starter dirt, drop in some sawdust pellets to combat odors and dump your food scraps in. NatureMill recommends that you cut organic material into 4-inch bits before plopping it in. We didn't, but aside from the motor making some gnarly noises, it didn't seem to affect compost production. NatureMill's Pro version also features some automatic activation. We were able to leave ours sitting for weeks without pushing the button even once; it mixed and heated itself just fine. WIRED Stainless steel mixing bar made short work of uncut banana peels. Relatively small and exceptionally lightweight = easy to stash and transport. Foot pedal eliminates lid touching. Mighty Morphin' Power Saver: only draws 5 kwh a month (roughly 50 cents on an average electric bill). Not as much of an eyesore as it could be and it's available in a range of colors (including, you guess it, green). TIRED Little to no stench — until top opens (that's hard to remedy, and burger/fish/salad remnants smell worse than a dead wildebeest doused in Eau D'Bile). Polypropylene housing is light, but may not last forever. Disposable carbon filters reduce smell, but also cut down on the green factor. Regular maintenance (scraping the mix chamber walls) isn't fun. $400, naturemill.com
Read our full Nature Mill Indoor Composter — Pro Edition review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : You can get away with a lot if you're beautiful. Such is the case with the new Porsche Design P'9522 phone. In some ways, it's a wonderful and capable cellphone, but in most others, it's dumber than the gorgeous block of aluminum it was machined from. Someone forgot to include e-mail — an absence that had us trying to mar the Porsche phone's scratchproof screen with claws of rage. Unfortunately, that screen is tough, so the P'9522 will be lauded and drooled over — despite our many gripes with it. WIRED Gorgeous. Touchscreen interface is easy to understand, if limited and frustrating. Preloaded ringtones include the roaring engines of the 911 GT3 and Turbo. Its 5-megapixel camera has autofocus and captures clean, vivid images. LED flash doubles as a flashlight. Unlocking the phone with its fingerprint scanner is very MI5. TIRED Fingerprint scanner is also very POS: Who thought it would be a good idea to use fingerprints to access a device you're likely holding in one hand while juggling multiple other tasks? Preloaded ringtones include bad German techno. Touchscreen is deeply frustrating. Seriously — no e-mail? $800, porschedesign.com
Read our full Porsche Design P'9522 Phone review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds. Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device. WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including — wait for it — DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability. TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you — we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter. $500, samsung.com
Read our full Samsung i8510 INNOV8 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel. In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer. WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter … slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive. TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool. $200, Logitech.com
Read our full Logitech G19 Keyboard review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine. But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse. WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds. TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts. $470 (as tested), dell.com
Read our full Dell Mini 10 Netbook review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car — even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds — and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z. Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do. WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone. TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone. $33,970 (as tested), nissanusa.com
Read our full Nissan 2009 370Z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions. Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 — and has its own text-to-speech function. WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired. TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory. $600, plustek.com
Read our full Plustek BookReader V100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Photo: Dylan Tweeny/Wired.comApple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow. The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls. WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop. TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in. $80, apple.com
Read our full Apple iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it. WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle. TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me. $175, newtonrunning.com
Read our full Newton All Weather Trainer review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box. As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that. WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price. TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path. $2,100 (as tested), hp.com
Read our full HP Firebird 803 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming. You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy. WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo. TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown $74,085 (as tested), Cadillac.com
Read our full Cadillac Escalade Hybrid review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so. Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle. WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces. TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better. $360, amazon.com
Read our full Amazon.com Kindle 2 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect. But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass. WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes. TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled. $70, srslabs.com
Read our full SRS Labs iWOW Adapter for iPod review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  :
Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery). But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option. WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans. TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty. $300 (with 2-year contract), t-mobile.com
Read our full Samsung Memoir. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents. Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop. WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam. TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard. $400 as tested, asus.com
Read our full Asus Eee PC 1000HE review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker. WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required. TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there. $150, universalremote.com
Read our full Universal Remote Digital R50 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents. We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light. WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence. TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic. $500, casio.com
Read our full Casio G-Shock MTG-1500 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though — despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers. The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though.
WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse — on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing. $600 (as tested), asus.com
Read our full Asus ET1602 Eee Top review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer). But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor. WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent. TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project. $120, swannsecurity.com
Read our full Swann Micro-VideoCam Recorder review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Kodak’s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss. What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go. WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content. TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content. $300, Kodak
Read our full Kodak Theatre HD Player review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler. On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun. WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time. TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle. $3450, Ohm Cycles
Read our full Ohm Cycles XS700 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook. Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category. WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls. TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray? $800 as tested, Gateway
Read our full Gateway UC7807u review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program. WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong. TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software. $500, Polar
Read our full Polar RS800CX MULTI review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device. Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable. WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware. TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes. $400, Optoma
Read our full Optoma EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking. About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other. WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility. TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade. $300, Olympus
Read our full Olympus Stylus 1050 SW review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments. Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones. WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive. TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback. $200 with a two year contract, RIM
Read our full RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting. The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album. WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device. TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype. $112 (estimated), Three
Read our full INQ1 Facebook Phone review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential. Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle. WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader. TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show. $1550 (as tested), HP
Read our full HP TouchSmart tx2z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.  : Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo. Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch. Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system. WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away. TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna. $125, Tivo
Read our full Nero LiquidTV TiVo PC review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 May 2009 | 4:00 am Six Little Words: Cool Crossword Keeps Everything in the Grid
Tyler Hinman has won the last five American Crossword Puzzle Tournaments (2005-2009), all before turning 25. He works at Google and writes the occasional puzzle.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 4:00 am Gear Gallery: Block Rockin' Earbuds, Luminous Flashlights, Ultra Cheap LCDs: The UE-11 Pros are packed with four, count 'em, four drivers: There's a double dose of bass, one for the midrange and one chiming the highs. If you're looking for the most precise, separated sound possible, then this is the earphone for you. Throughout the play list I heard clarity and detail in the music I'd never heard before. This rang especially true with classical tunes — it literally feels like sitting in a symphony hall and having every instrument speak directly to you. To get that kind of superior fidelity you'll certainly have to pay the piper. But you'll really love the music while Rome — or your bank account — burns. WIRED Most clear, separated and detailed sound. TIRED Try convincing your spouse you need a $1,150 set of headphones. $1,150, ultimateears.com
Read our full UE-11 Pro review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The slate-gray, high-impact polymer body houses three LEDs capable of blasting out a peak 270 lumens for 15 minutes, or a more useful and long-lasting 90 lumens for 60 minutes. Both settings have an emergency low-power 25-lumen mode (equivalent in brightness to most common household D-cell flashlights) for an additional 60 minutes. WIRED High-power pro flashlight pumps out awesome illumination and recharges ridiculously fast. Flashlight will outlive you. Seriously brilliant, blinding — a boon for flashlight junkies. TIRED Pricy front-end investment. Comes with a 12-volt car charger. $170, 511tactical.com
Read our full 5.11 Tactical Light review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : In our tests, we threw all things digital at this 68-pound slab. And while it does not perform as superbly as its higher-price brethren from Sony, Samsung and Sharp, it still shows off a completely acceptable high-def image and above-average sound. So where has Westinghouse cut corners? Oh, let's see. How about the borderline embarrassing 1000:1 contrast ratio? In a well-lit room, the screen looks more washed out than a warehouse full of Maytags. And even though the set offers the 120-Hz spec, fast motion still looks a bit blurred. WIRED High resolution and decent sound at incredible rock-bottom price. Convenience features integrated into menu. Quality remote not found in higher-priced TVs. TIRED Displays some pixelated speckled noise in darker and mid-hue images. Analog-station reproduction is downright blurry. No worries though — analog TV has flatlined. $700, Westinghouse.com
Read our full Westinghouse TX-42F450S review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : It's not quite a netbook, not quite an ultralight PC. Whatever it is, Samsung's NC20 is a dazzling feat of engineering: an extremely usable 12-inch laptop with epic battery life, impressive specs and a downright mystifyingly affordable price tag. But the NC20 doesn't make depressing tradeoffs to achieve those scores. Battery life is three hours, 40 minutes (22 percent longer than the S10) and weight is just 3.3 pounds, comparable to the Asus Eee PC 1000H. All that and you get a 12.1-inch LCD, too, instead of the usual 10.2-inch netbook display. WIRED Everything a netbook should be: Offers the best performance available from a computer this portable and inexpensive. Very usable keyboard. Good quality audio. Includes three USB ports, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and SD card slot. TIRED LCD could be a touch brighter and quality sharper. Chassis design is a bit boring. $550, samsung.com
Read our full Samsung NC 20 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Pure Digital's Flip has proven that it's possible to build a super-small flash memory camcorder and offer it up for fewer than two hundred bucks. But there are tradeoffs with going small and cheap, like optics and battery life. Canon takes a completely different tack with its newest solid-state cam, the Vixia HF S10, which delivers some fantastically brilliant moving pictures, but at a stiff cost. Out in the field, auto focus and auto exposure were both very impressive in a wide range of situations, from the intense brightness of the beach to shady and contrasty venues. Every camera suffers indoors, thanks to low light, and everyone complains about it, but the S10 did a credible job with low-light shots and it's clearly better than previous cams of this ilk. WIRED Improved audio quality. Big, bright lens. Speedy processor. Lots of creative control options. More intuitive menus than previous generation Canon camcorders. TIRED Loose lens cover noisier than cutlery caught in a garbage disposal. Still images come off looking a bit overexposed. $1,300, canon.com
Read our full Canon Vixia HF S10 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Dry your eyes, plasma junkies. The untimely demise of Pioneer's Kuro line doesn't mean you'll have to forgo those deliciously deep blacks and theater-perfect colors for long. In fact, even as the last of the Pioneer Kuro Elites make its way into a few lucky U.S. homes, a new lineup of HDTV sets are already poised to seize the plasma king's vacant throne. Key to this plasma's visual appeal is its integrated THX mode. In addition to blessing various audio components, the home-theater ninjas at THX began bestowing plasma and LCD certification a few years back. Each set is subjected to approximately 400 individual tests, ranging from evaluations in signal processing to luminosity. Basically, the idea behind G10's THX mode is to recreate the precise color gamut filmmakers use during the in-studio post-production process. WIRED Mind-boggling blacks with tons of detail. THX mode is a godsend for movie buffs. Integrated SD card slots transform your plasma into a giant digital photo frame. Amazing color saturation. TIRED THX mode is bit dim for brightly lit rooms. Ethernet connectivity is nice for VieraCast, but Wi-Fi would've been better. Three HDMI ports (two in the back, one on the side) don't cut it. More power-hungry than LCD TVs. Where's the PiP? $1,300, panasonic.com
Read our full Panasonic TC-P42G10 Viera G10 Series Plasma review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The PogoPlug is a device, which looks like a supersized AC adapter, plugs into almost any external hard drive (even a USB stick) and then pumps that content onto the web, giving you access anywhere in the world you can get an internet signal — including your iPhone. But the PogoPlug isn't without the occasional snafu and annoyances. Only image files are available for preview. PDF, Word documents or even HTML files have to be downloaded before viewing. Worse yet, when we unhooked the device, it caused our PC to crash twice in a row. We're still not entirely sure if this was due to a glitch in the PogoPlug or in Windows. WIRED Easy to use. Simple setup. Great utility: I must be able to access my collection of LOLcat photos from anywhere. The iPhone app is solid software. TIRED No wireless mode ... yet. Poor security — it's a wise idea to keep those tax returns or bank documents off the PogoPlug. Computer crashes are deeply flummoxing. The iPhone is currently the only mobile device that supports remote access. $100, pogoplug.com
Read our full Cloud Engines PogoPlug review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : NatureMill's Pro edition is an indoor composter we can pretty much dig. Using minimal electricity, a small motor turns a heavy-duty mixing bar, heats the mixing chamber (no sunlight needed) and powers an air pump that works with a carbon air filter to help reduce smell (each filter lasts four to five years). Just add starter dirt, drop in some sawdust pellets to combat odors and dump your food scraps in. NatureMill recommends that you cut organic material into 4-inch bits before plopping it in. We didn't, but aside from the motor making some gnarly noises, it didn't seem to affect compost production. NatureMill's Pro version also features some automatic activation. We were able to leave ours sitting for weeks without pushing the button even once; it mixed and heated itself just fine. WIRED Stainless steel mixing bar made short work of uncut banana peels. Relatively small and exceptionally lightweight = easy to stash and transport. Foot pedal eliminates lid touching. Mighty Morphin' Power Saver: only draws 5 kwh a month (roughly 50 cents on an average electric bill). Not as much of an eyesore as it could be and it's available in a range of colors (including, you guess it, green). TIRED Little to no stench — until top opens (that's hard to remedy, and burger/fish/salad remnants smell worse than a dead wildebeest doused in Eau D'Bile). Polypropylene housing is light, but may not last forever. Disposable carbon filters reduce smell, but also cut down on the green factor. Regular maintenance (scraping the mix chamber walls) isn't fun. $400, naturemill.com
Read our full Nature Mill Indoor Composter — Pro Edition review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : You can get away with a lot if you're beautiful. Such is the case with the new Porsche Design P'9522 phone. In some ways, it's a wonderful and capable cellphone, but in most others, it's dumber than the gorgeous block of aluminum it was machined from. Someone forgot to include e-mail — an absence that had us trying to mar the Porsche phone's scratchproof screen with claws of rage. Unfortunately, that screen is tough, so the P'9522 will be lauded and drooled over — despite our many gripes with it. WIRED Gorgeous. Touchscreen interface is easy to understand, if limited and frustrating. Preloaded ringtones include the roaring engines of the 911 GT3 and Turbo. Its 5-megapixel camera has autofocus and captures clean, vivid images. LED flash doubles as a flashlight. Unlocking the phone with its fingerprint scanner is very MI5. TIRED Fingerprint scanner is also very POS: Who thought it would be a good idea to use fingerprints to access a device you're likely holding in one hand while juggling multiple other tasks? Preloaded ringtones include bad German techno. Touchscreen is deeply frustrating. Seriously — no e-mail? $800, porschedesign.com
Read our full Porsche Design P'9522 Phone review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds. Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device. WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including — wait for it — DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability. TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you — we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter. $500, samsung.com
Read our full Samsung i8510 INNOV8 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel. In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer. WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter … slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive. TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool. $200, Logitech.com
Read our full Logitech G19 Keyboard review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine. But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse. WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds. TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts. $470 (as tested), dell.com
Read our full Dell Mini 10 Netbook review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car — even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds — and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z. Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do. WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone. TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone. $33,970 (as tested), nissanusa.com
Read our full Nissan 2009 370Z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions. Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 — and has its own text-to-speech function. WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired. TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory. $600, plustek.com
Read our full Plustek BookReader V100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Photo: Dylan Tweeny/Wired.comApple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow. The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls. WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop. TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in. $80, apple.com
Read our full Apple iPod Shuffle 3rd Gen review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it. WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle. TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me. $175, newtonrunning.com
Read our full Newton All Weather Trainer review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box. As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that. WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price. TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path. $2,100 (as tested), hp.com
Read our full HP Firebird 803 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming. You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy. WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo. TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown $74,085 (as tested), Cadillac.com
Read our full Cadillac Escalade Hybrid review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so. Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle. WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces. TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better. $360, amazon.com
Read our full Amazon.com Kindle 2 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect. But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass. WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes. TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled. $70, srslabs.com
Read our full SRS Labs iWOW Adapter for iPod review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. :
Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery). But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option. WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans. TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty. $300 (with 2-year contract), t-mobile.com
Read our full Samsung Memoir. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents. Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop. WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam. TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard. $400 as tested, asus.com
Read our full Asus Eee PC 1000HE review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker. WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required. TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there. $150, universalremote.com
Read our full Universal Remote Digital R50 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents. We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light. WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence. TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic. $500, casio.com
Read our full Casio G-Shock MTG-1500 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though — despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers. The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though.
WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse — on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing. $600 (as tested), asus.com
Read our full Asus ET1602 Eee Top review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer). But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor. WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent. TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project. $120, swannsecurity.com
Read our full Swann Micro-VideoCam Recorder review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Kodak’s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss. What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go. WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content. TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content. $300, Kodak
Read our full Kodak Theatre HD Player review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler. On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun. WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time. TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle. $3450, Ohm Cycles
Read our full Ohm Cycles XS700 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook. Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category. WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls. TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray? $800 as tested, Gateway
Read our full Gateway UC7807u review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program. WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong. TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software. $500, Polar
Read our full Polar RS800CX MULTI review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device. Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable. WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware. TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes. $400, Optoma
Read our full Optoma EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking. About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other. WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility. TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade. $300, Olympus
Read our full Olympus Stylus 1050 SW review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments. Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones. WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive. TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback. $200 with a two year contract, RIM
Read our full RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting. The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album. WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device. TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype. $112 (estimated), Three
Read our full INQ1 Facebook Phone review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential. Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle. WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader. TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show. $1550 (as tested), HP
Read our full HP TouchSmart tx2z review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily. : Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo. Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch. Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system. WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away. TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna. $125, Tivo
Read our full Nero LiquidTV TiVo PC review. Check Wired.com's latest Product Reviews, updated daily.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 4:00 am May 7, 1959: Can't We All Just Get Along?In a famous lecture, C.P. Snow describes a big split between intellectuals in the humanities and their counterparts in science. Is he hallucinating, or is this the beginning of the end for Western civilization?
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 4:00 am Review: Invigorated 'Star Trek' Sparkles With Wit, SpectacleA shiny new crew takes the Enterprise on a fast-paced adventure in J.J. Abrams' successful relaunch of the venerable franchise.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 May 2009 | 4:00 am A Few More Tickets To Star Trek Tomorrow. Plus, Free Popcorn And Drink!
We’ve got a few more tickets to the Star Trek screening tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in Redwood City (see here and here for more details). We are letting people in at 6 p.m., so get there early. We’re paying for the price of the ticket, and charging a $2 fee to minimize no shows. After the show we’ll meet at the nearby Red Lantern for a drink or three. Get your tickets here. And we now have three sponsors for the event. Microsoft Live Search, which helps more than 200 million people a month find stuff on the web, is buying everyone a soft drink at the movie theater (remind me to disclose this when we write about the new search launch). Trapster, a location based mobile application that alerts users in real time when they approach speed traps (iphone app here), is buying everyone popcorn (woohoo). And Eventbrite is helping with the cost of the tickets. Thanks very much, Star Trek sponsors.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 2:44 am Kim Kardashian Joins FriendFeed, Befriends 35,000 Users, Gets No Love Back
Now, she did this thanks to FriendFeed’s new one-click Twitter login functionality. This allows you to sign up for FriendFeed using your Twitter name and transfer your information over via OAuth to FriendFeed, as well as automatically friend anyone you are following on Twitter. It’s a smart move by FriendFeed, as it ports your social graph over from a more popular service. But this simplicity and close tie into Twitter raises a couple concerns. First, Twitter, a service with which FriendFeed is often compared, hit its watershed moment recently during the Ashton Kutcher/CNN race to a million followers. Now that it’s mainstream and celebrities are starting to see the benefits of using these types of services to promote themselves, are they already staking out other less mature services to become the “Ashton” of those services and bring them to the mainstream? Second, FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit isn’t even sure if the Kardashian account really was created by her (or her people). It’s possible that squatters are going to start staking out on popular names in the hope that the service will grow in popularity and gain some of these real celebrities. Or worse, that people are going to start signing up for the service pretending to be celebrities on there. Either way, it’s just going to lead to a bunch of noise. And some users are already getting upset about it. But there’s hope: Of the 35,000 people that Kardashian friended, only around 350 people subscribed to her. FriendFeed users, a much smaller base than Twitter, seem to be more savvy. When they see that Kardashian is only porting in her Twitter updates to FriendFeed, they’re probably not going to start following her back, as she adds nothing to the service, which prides itself in conversations about entries. Everyone is already on the hunt for the “next Twitter.” Kim Kardashian (or someone pretending to be her), apparently thinks it’s going to be FriendFeed. And FriendFeed users don’t seem to care. Can one of these services go mainstream without celebrities? Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 2:34 am New Irish Internet Tax?MarkDennehy writes "The Broadcasting Bill 2009 (currently in the last stages of becoming the Broadcasting Act 2009 and then being commenced into law in Ireland) has thrown up a rather unpleasant little nugget for broadband users in Ireland. It now defines a television set as being an electronic apparatus able to receive TV signals or "any software or assembly comprising such apparatus" which would mean that even if you haven't got a television set, even if you don't watch streaming content from RTE.ie (the state broadcaster's website), you'd still have to pay 160 euro a year for a television license for your iPhone, or netbook, or laptop or desktop if you have fixed or mobile broadband."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 May 2009 | 2:13 am No Mob Wars Here: WonderHill Nabs $7 Million To Build Wholesome Casual Games
It’s quickly becoming clear that social gaming is a goldmine. Zynga is reportedly making as much as nine figures in revenues, and as users become more accustomed to microtransactions, these figures are poised to grow even more. But it’s also an incredibly difficult space to break into - for every successful game, there are countless others that go unnoticed, even if they have very similar gameplay. So when I say that a new startup called WonderHill has a good chance at making a name for itself in social gaming, it’s not something I’m taking lightly. While some companies like Zynga have dominated the youth demographic with games like Mafia and Poker, WonderHill is looking to target an entirely different audience, honing in on the 30+ demographic with games with a broader appeal. The company has just closed a $7 million Series A funding round led by Charles River Ventures and Shasta Ventures, and currently has two games live on Facebook and MySpace. The company’s greatest asset is its team. CEO James Currier founded Tickle, one of the earliest pioneers in viral marketing, in the late 90’s (it later sold to Monster.com for over $100 million) and is on the board of directors at Linden Labs (the makers of SecondLife). CTO Stan Chudnovsky was also a long-time Tickle employee, becoming that company’s CEO following Currier’s departure. And Chief Creative Officer Nick Rush has held executive positions at Pogo, Electronic Arts Online, and iWin, where he created a number of very popular games. He was also involved with You Don’t Know Jack (one of my all-time favorite games) and the Flying Toasters screensaver. As for the games themselves, Currier says that WonderHill is looking to take the “Pixar approach”, building family-friendly games with high production values that could be played by anyone, without having to dumb them down too much for children. They’re fun and casual, but non-violent. At launch the available apps include Dog World, a virtual pet app with around 1.25 million active users across Facebook and MySpace, and Green Spot, a gardening game with 1.5 million active users. The company plans to build out more casual games in the near future, beginning with some of basics (word games, card games, etc) and eventually ramping up to entirely new gameplay. For starters these games will all be played through social networks like MySpace and Facebook, but the company has plans to expand to the iPhone as well. Revenue will be generated through micro-transactions - the company isn’t going to be relying heavily on advertising. WonderHill isn’t by any means a sure bet. There are already quite a few social games made ‘for everyone’, even if they aren’t all flying under a single banner. But it’s hard to argue with the experience these guys are bringing to the table, and the older demographic they’re targeting is among the fastest growing on social networks - and they’re probably going to be looking for something other than Vampires to pass the time.
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Source: TechCrunch | 7 May 2009 | 2:02 am Quickoffice Brings Editing to iPhones, But Put It on Hold [Personal Technology]I am typing these words in a full-fledged word processor on an Apple iPhone. It’s a third-party app that allows you to edit, format or create Microsoft Word and Excel documents, and then send them back to a PC or Mac where they can be opened in Word or Excel. Oh, and it has cut, copy and paste in its word processor — a capability long missing from the iPhone that isn’t due from Apple (AAPL) itself until this summer. Devotees of older smart phones, tired of iPhone hype, will be quick to note this is no innovation. Devices like Windows Mobile phones, Palm (PALM) Treos and BlackBerrys have made these abilities available for years. But, for the 37 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners, it’s potentially a major step forward, closing a hole in a hand-held computing platform that is otherwise more elegant and versatile than any other. This new app, called Quickoffice, has some nice features. Its cut, copy and paste function is very well designed. It can save files locally on the phone. It has a built-in email function for sending files to others, and it can upload or download files to and from a PC or Mac, or to and from online storage. But there’s a catch. While Quickoffice, which is also available on other platforms, did work OK in my tests, it has some major drawbacks that keep me from recommending it right now. The product’s maker, Quickoffice Inc., acknowledges these and is working to fix them by summer. But, especially because Quickoffice costs $19.99, a Rolls-Royce price in the iPhone’s app store, you might want to hold off on buying it until the fixes are in place. In particular, Quickoffice can’t simply load and edit any Word or Excel file you receive as an email attachment. The company claims this is a built-in iPhone limitation, but it’s still a big problem for users. Instead, to get files into Quickoffice for editing, you have to transfer them using a Wi-Fi network from your PC or Mac, or from the iDisk online storage feature of Apple’s MobileMe Web service, which costs $99 a year. Also, amazingly, Quickoffice shipped without any automatic typo-correcting function or spell checker. For various technical reasons, it couldn’t even use the one built into the iPhone. So, you have to do a lot of correcting of typos once the file gets onto a computer. For instance, the first words of this column, as originally created in Quickoffice, read: “I am typing these words in a full-feledged word pricessor … ” I had to clean them up in Word on my laptop.  The Quickword app on iPhone And, while you can view a text or spreadsheet file in landscape mode, you can do only limited editing of text documents in this mode, and no editing at all of spreadsheet documents viewed in landscape. Quickoffice for the iPhone consists of three modules. One is Quickword, the word processor. The second is Quicksheet, the spreadsheet program. These two, also separately available from the app store at $12.99 each, can handle standard Microsoft (MSFT) .doc and . xls files, but not Microsoft’s newer .docx and .xlsx formats. The third module, called Quickoffice Files, merely transfers and displays files, but doesn’t allow editing or creating them. It handles a much wider variety of file types, and is sold separately for $1.99. Cut, copy and paste is implemented nicely. You simply double-tap to select a word or triple-tap to select a paragraph. Small dots appear at either end of the selection, allowing you to expand or contract the selected section of text. Once your selection is done, you can then cut it or copy it, or change its formatting. To cut or copy your selection, you just choose cut or copy from a popup menu. To paste, you tap once elsewhere in the document, and then select Paste from a popup menu. You can paste text copied or cut from one Quickword document into another, but not into any other app on the iPhone. (Apple will add that ability this summer.) Quickword is the better of the two main modules. It has an impressive suite of features, including the ability to bold or italicize characters, change fonts and colors, create bullet points, and undo or redo changes. All of this formatting was retained correctly when I transferred the files to a computer, and vice versa. Quickword doesn’t have every feature of Word on a computer, but its feature set is strong. Quicksheet has 125 functions. It also does formatting of cells well, and has undo and redo. Again, it isn’t as powerful as Excel, but its capabilities are decent. Unfortunately, unlike in the word processor, I found some problems in Quicksheet. In one simple spreadsheet I imported, it failed to properly display text that stretched across multiple cells, and failed to do a simple recalculation that worked perfectly in Excel. Also, it lacks cut, copy and paste. Getting documents into the app is a pain. Unless you have a MobileMe account, on either Windows or Mac, you have to type a geeky numerical address into a Web browser and then choose a file from your computer using the browser page that comes up. Quickoffice is an OK start, but it needs a lot of work. Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com. Source: All Things Digital | 7 May 2009 | 1:04 am Dead horse becomes a motherA horse put down after breaking a leg during a tornado in Colorado produced progeny almost a year after her death through surrogate mothers, her owner says. Two foals were born in April, KUSA-TV in Denver reported.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 May 2009 | 12:41 am G1 users to receive Android 1.5 update starting next weekSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Google
A lot of news has been circulating about the update (a.k.a. Cupcake) to the Android OS, which the T-Mobile G1 runs on, and it is ready for showtime. Word has just been announced from T-Mobile that the G1 will begin receiving the over-the-air update starting at the end of next week. Since many people own the G1 in the United States, it will take the rest of May for all users to receive the update, so don’t get frustrated and begin calling customer support if your update takes longer than expected. With the new update comes a lot of improvements and features, here are some that caught my eye. Essentially, functions such as contacts, call log, favorites, SMS & MMS, Internet browser, Gmail, calendar, and camera will all run smoother than before. The camera will start up and take shots faster than before. The GPS technology within the G1 is said to capture the GPS signal faster. Since Android is created by Google, you can bet that Android engineers made sure the 1.5 update fixed things up for Gmail. In addition, if you prefer touch to physical typing, the new update allows for on-screen touch typing. All in all, you can count on much of the G1 to be improved and some new features added. T-Mobile is still trying to knock off the iPhone, so they are going to do everything possible to match the iPhone and their new 3.0 software. For a full list of improvements, feel free to check out the Android Developer website below. Let us know what you think of the 1.5 update when you receive it. Read [Android Developer] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 May 2009 | 12:35 am Phony Wikipedia Entry Used By Worldwide PressHugh Pickens writes "A quote attributed to French composer Maurice Jarre was posted on wikipedia shortly after his death in March and later appeared in obituaries in mainstream media. 'One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear,' Jarre was quoted as saying. However, these words were not uttered by the Oscar-winning composer but written by Shane Fitzgerald, a final-year undergraduate student, who said he wanted to show how journalists use the internet as a primary source for their stories. Fitzgerald posted the quote on Wikipedia late at night after news of Jarre's death broke. 'I saw it on breaking news and thought if I was going to do something I should do it quickly. I knew journalists wouldn't be looking at it until the morning,' The quote had no referenced sources and was therefore taken down by moderators of Wikipedia within minutes. However, Fitzgerald put it back up a few more times until it was finally left up on the site for more than 24 hours. While he was wary about the ethical implications of using someone's death as a social experiment, he had carefully generated the quote so as not to distort or taint Jarre's life, he said. 'I didn't expect it to go that far. I expected it to be in blogs and sites, but on mainstream quality papers? I was very surprised.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 May 2009 | 12:20 am Train set in a briefcase
$1500 buys you this model train set in a briefcase. Liveblogging the Steverino (Ballmer) Show at Stanford: Soul Mates! [BoomTown]
BoomTown went down to Silicon Valley’s most exclusive country club–also known as Stanford University–where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took to the stage today for a talk at Memorial Auditorium for the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar. 4:32 pm PST: Ballmer was pretty much on time, delivering a rousing hello and some good words about being back. He had attended Stanford Business School many moons ago, before dropping out and joining Microsoft (MSFT). Good move, I’d say. He offered anyone in the room jobs, if they were smart, and then gave out his email. Although he did leave out the pertinent fact that the software giant just laid off 3,000 workers earlier this week. Well, that.
Then, Ballmer launched into his speech, which began with him talking about the “tough economy.” The slide behind him was a picture of a glass half-empty or half-full, depending on your attitude, with the notes: Economic “Reset” Less debt, more innovation and productivity. Optimistic about the future. 4:40 pm: Ballmer then told into his “entrepreneurial” story. There was a lovely picture of the young Ballmer with some hair. Not much, but some. Lots of chatter about old computers ensued. Zzzzzzzz.
The early days of Microsoft were next, including how Founder Bill Gates was worried about how Ballmer would bankrupt the nascent company by hiring more staff, a delightful story the pair told at our D: All Things Digital conference last year. 4:46 pm: Then the “emerging technology trends.” Which were, according to Ballmer: Many-core processing; screens everywhere; natural UI; all content digital. Like All Things Digital! I always knew Steve and I were soul mates! Because it is Microsoft, he moved into “software-powered experiences,” which means, according to Ballmer’s slide: a rich client + cloud, spans multiple devices and is persistent and personal. “You world needs to be brought together,” said Ballmer. “You may not want to manage the cacophony of devices you deal with today.” I may not. Or I may. Ballmer. may I?
4:55 pm: It was not a long nor much of a content-rich speech. Ballmer wrapped up with the idea that “The Time Is Now.” He noted that it is a great time for start-ups, with “all the right ingredients” that “dream big.” What ingredients? What dreams? Ballmer was not saying much about his secret cooking tips for baking a tech behemoth. 4:57 pm: Time for questions from the students. The first was about whether big or small company experience is better. Both, said Ballmer. Depending on the problem. “You want to blend those things pretty well,” he said. It is all about the ingredients! And blending. Also sifting, in my humble opinion. The next was about the state of the browser business. Ballmer said it will get more innovative. We’re waiting! The next question was about what the main problem typically is with companies that have trouble making it. “Too many companies can actually hang on for almost too long, because there has been too much money funding these ideas,” said Ballmer. Yes, we are soul mates! 5:04 pm: The next question was about the culture of a company from its start and how Ballmer has shaped its culture. “I would say I have shaped Microsoft culture a lot,” he said. “Sometimes for the better, sometimes worse.” Ballmer compares himself and Gates to “parents” of Microsoft. That was very Iowa of him. (Like Is said: soul mates!) 5:09 pm: The next question was about how he decided to leave Stanford Business School. “They still have a spot for me if I want to go back and finish my MBA,” Ballmer joked. But, he noted, it was not much of a risk to leave school.
When Ballmer did waver about going back to school, Gates convinced him to stay. Thank goodness, as he said he would have become an investment banker or a consultant. The next question was about Google (GOOG), which was not named, I suppose for fear that it would set Ballmer off and there would be chairs a-flying. “The No. 1 player [in search] is a lot bigger than us,” said Ballmer. “We are like a start-up.” Well, a really, really, really rich start-up, which has been sued by the federal government for antitrust violations and convicted. 5:14 pm: The next question was about ideas he might have missed. Ballmer called himself “a mini-venture capitalist,” noting that figuring out what investments to make is tough. He joked about the disastrous Microsoft Bob product. That always gets a laugh. The next question was about how much attention Microsoft will give to cloud computing. It gave him the chance to make a pun using the movie, “Three Men and a Baby,” noting that the “future is about three screens and a cloud.” Ahahahahahahaha! Okay, not at all. A question was asked about taking risks and tips for dealing with it. “Valuable experience is valuable experience,” said Ballmer. Say what? Is that a word puzzle? This is starting to feel like “Angels & Demons.”
Ballmer advised the students to “love doing the work that you’re doing.” It is apparently all about the love at Microsoft. Who knew? 5:22 pm: Two questions about consolidation, which is code for Yahoo (YHOO). “I’m glad we went down the road,” said Ballmer, waxing nostalgic about the failed takeover attempt. But he added he still thought a partnership of some sort between the pair is a good idea. “There may or may not be appropriate discussions,” said Ballmer. There may. Or may not. Carol, may Steve? Then there is some love for competitors, Facebook, even Apple (AAPL) for the iPhone. Feel the love! 5:25 pm: The last question is about what he wished he had done if he could do it over. He would have taken more computer science courses. We are so not soul mates. Source: All Things Digital | 6 May 2009 | 11:40 pm Programmable color LED array from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
Our evil pals over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have a neat demo video of their Peggy 2 Light Emitting Pegboard kit that they've populated with red, green, blue, and white LEDs. One thing worth noting (and that we demo in the video) is that you can diffuse the big RGBW pixels into one continuous full-color display by placing a thin diffusing plastic layer above the LEDs-- it really works well. (The Peggy 2 just so happens to be the cover star of MAKE Vol. 18.) Peggy 2 RGB
South Carolina AG threatens to press criminal charges against Craigslist
McMaster said in a letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster that the section is used as vehicle to advertise and solicit prostitution. He also accused the service of not following though on the commitments it made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and 43 AGs around the country back in November. At the time Craigslist agreed to improve measures to prevent its service from being misused. It began requiring advertisers to provide a valid phone number and pay for ads in the erotic services section with a credit card. It also said it would donate all revenues gained from that section to charity. Craigslist responded to McMaster in a blog post:
This is not the first time the erotic services section has come under fire. The service recently met with AGs from Missouri, Connecticut, and Illinois who all want the section removed in their states as well, and last month a Boston University student was arrested and charged with murdering a woman he arranged to meet through the erotic services section. He’s also accused of kidnapping and beating two other woman he met through the site. It looks like Craigslist is in hot water. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found themselves handed a lawsuit by the family of the woman who was murdered. Despite their repeated claims that removing the section would violate Constitutional rights, it’s clear something needs to be done to make the service safer and more accountable if it is going to continue. It’s not as if they are the only ones offering such a section though. Pick up any weekly paper like the Phoenix or Village Voice and you’ll find a similar section. However it appears the online nature of Craigslist seems to make it more attractive-and as we’ve seen, deadly. Read [PCWorld] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 6 May 2009 | 11:30 pm Star Trek's Warp Drive Not ImpossibleTrunks writes "No doubt trying to ride the hype train that's currently going for the new Star Trek film, Space.com has a new article detailing how warp drive may not be impossible to acheive. From the article, '"The idea is that you take a chunk of space-time and move it," said Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project. "The vehicle inside that bubble thinks that it's not moving at all. It's the space-time that's moving." One reason this idea seems credible is that scientists think it may already have happened. Some models suggest that space-time expanded at a rate faster than light speed during a period of rapid inflation shortly after the Big Bang. "If it could do it for the Big Bang, why not for our space drives?" Millis said.' Simple, right?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 6 May 2009 | 11:04 pm Critics Decry New DHS Chief Geek as Bioterror 'Disaster'Depending on who you ask, the Obama administration's controversial pick to be the Department of Homeland Security's geek-in-chief is either a leading authority on the deadliest terror threats -- or a biowar chicken little, dangerously out of touch with reality.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 11:02 pm News Flash: Paying for Coverage Is Still “Taboo”
“…while compensating bloggers was considered taboo a few years ago, there has been a paradigm shift in thinking over the last year…” Really? Yeah, I guess that whole Google resetting the page rank of PayPerPost bloggers was all the way back in November 2007. I must have slipped into a coma and missed the “paradigm shift” since. Each time I’ve gotten this email, I have written back something like, “I’m sorry, I still consider paying for coverage incredibly controversial and, for a reporter, unethical. Can you explain to me what has changed about this issue?” No response. Month or so passes, then I get the same email. I honestly don’t know if the emails are being sent to me for press consideration or as a nudge that I should sign up, because it’s just obliquely titled “suggestion” in the subject line. So, let me address this publicly, to save the time of future Izea employees cutting and pasting the email and sending it to me again: There is no time during my life on planet earth or beyond that I will *ever* consider accepting payment for coverage. There is no circumstance or situation where I will respect a journalist who does, especially if the details of that conflict aren’t clearly disclosed. P.E.R.I.O.D. The release backs up this assertion that it’s no longer taboo by touting Forrester Research as endorsing “compensated conversation” as a great addition to your PR and marketing strategy. The great test case? Kmart. Wow. I wouldn’t consider trading in my credibility for, say, a lifetime shopping spree at Bloomingdale’s, but it’s definitely not worth talking up the latest blue-light-specials. What’s more, I wonder how they’re measuring that “success” as I haven’t been hearing any great Kmart buzz of late… I’ve always had massive respect for former Forrester analyst Charlene Li and current analyst Jeremiah Owyang and was shocked that the firm would endorse this. So I sent a note to Owyang who quickly sought to put it in context and with good reason. According to Sean Corcoran, who authored the research note, Forrester said that this could work and could be OK, but with strict parameters including full disclosure of the items or services being received for free, and encouraging the bloggers to be negative if they had a negative experience. At no time, did Forrester suggest that it was no longer controversial and said that journalist-bloggers should never be considered in the “compensated conversation” mix. “We write for marketers and, like it or not, this isn’t going away,” Corcoran said. “Companies were thoroughly confused, and we want to show them how to do it the right way.” Ok, fair enough. Reviewers are frequently sent free items with the understanding that they’ll write whatever they think. They also usually have to send the item back. I’d argue there’s a world of difference between that and cash payment that’s disclosed on another page of the blog. Interestingly, Owyang tipped TechCrunch to the company in the first post we ever wrote on them saying he had “grave concerns” but that founder Ted Murphy was not “the devil.” More interesting, the post he wrote about it at the time, is no longer available on his site. He says he never pulls any post, and that it’s an old blog and a Web hosting problem. (I believe him.) He also notes that he wrote that in the early PayPerPost days when it was an undeniably shadier service with no disclosure rules. As is clear from Forrester’s careful clarification, the problem with the thinking here– well, one of them– is that it lumps “bloggers” into one category. In reality, blogging is a tool that lots of professionals use, not really one profession. There are bloggers– like the ones at TechCrunch– who are independent journalists and then there are bloggers like Owyang who write about the industry and have smart things to say, but also get paid by clients. Then there are corporate bloggers or in-house employees who write about their companies’ news. It’s basically a more conversational press release and there’s nothing wrong with it, because you go to it realizing the company is going to put itself in the best light. In each case these are professionals using a conversational tool to get across a given message. As long as we get what they do for a living, there’s no harm or foul. I appreciate the insight of an analyst, and more openness from reading blog posts written by companies like Google or Twitter. Then, there’s the Izea concept: Sure it’s been tweaked to include vague disclosures, but as seen by how they positioned Forrester in this release, there’s just an underlying shadiness to the venture. Just go away. Or at least stop emailing me. (For Michael’s endless rants on the subject, go here.) Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 6 May 2009 | 10:53 pm GOOD: Lake Mead is drying up
This morning, GOOD posted my piece about the consequences of Lake Mead in Nevada drying up in decade or so. Lake Mead stores water from the Colorado River. When full, it holds 9.3 trillion gallons, an amount equal to the water that flows through the Colorado River in two years. The water from Lake Mead is used for many things. It irrigates a million acres of crops in the United States and Mexico, and supplies water to tens of millions of people. Its mighty Hoover Dam generates enough electricity to power a half-million homes. Additionally, the power from Hoover Dam is used to carry water up and across the Sierra Nevada Mountains on its way to Southern California.Read the rest of the essay at GOOD Source: Boing Boing | 6 May 2009 | 10:35 pm White Mischief steampunk variety night returns to London, May 23Toby Slater sez,WHITE MISCHIEF: "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" (Thanks, Tobias!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 6 May 2009 | 10:32 pm Ad for air purifier shows microobes marching into gaping nostrils
From Street Anatomy: “Bacteria”, a creative campaign created by M&C Saatchi for a new series of high density Plasmacluster ion generator air purifiers, in time for the peak influenza season. Source: Boing Boing | 6 May 2009 | 10:29 pm Groundbreaking Kansas rep netroots candidate takes another run at election with a new XKCD-style toon Sean Tevis -- the "candidate from the Internet" who caused an enormous stir when he financed a run at Kansas State Rep by soliciting micro-donations from people around the Internet who were inspired by an XKCD-style comic about his vision for the state -- is taking another run at the Kansas House and has the comic to prove it. I really like Tevis's approach, his platform, and his ideals. I can't give to his campaign -- I'm a dirty foreigner and I don't even live in the USA (though the IRS is happy to tax the hell out me!) -- but you can! Running for Office: Option 4 (Thanks, Danjite!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 6 May 2009 | 10:28 pm Mahalo Answers Is Hijacking Twitter Questions From IMshopping
Last week we wrote about a startup called IMshopping, which lets you ask questions to human shopping guides about products to buy. One of the ways you can do this is directly through Twitter by asking a question to @imshopping. I tried this earlier today by asking for Mother’s Day gift suggestions. Imagine my surprise when I started getting back answers not only from @imshopping, but also from @answers, lots of them. The @answers account belongs to Mahalo Answers, the Q&A site that is run by Jason Calacanis. Could it possibly be that Mahalo Answers is hijacking questions directed at IMshopping. Yes, it is. My question is now posted on Mahalo Answers, where anyone there can answer, and every time they do I get another message on Twitter. I never posted this question on Mahalo Answers nor asked them to. Mahalo Answers is stealing my question, isn’t it? Calacanis (who is our partner in organizing the TechCrunch 50 conference), confirms, “We pull in about 100-200 questions a day from twitter… Usually anything with ‘does anyone know…’” And only “less than 1%” of Mahalo’s total traffic comes from Twitter. I asked that also. Finally, Calacanis points out: “It’s all public, so folks love it (ie free research).” I am not sure about the loving it part. If I ask a question on Twitter, usually I am looking for an answer from people who are following me. I don’t know if there is such a thing as answer spam—I mean, I did put the question on Twitter—but this comes pretty close. In the two hours since I posted my questions (I also asked for gift suggestions for my wife since we have children), I’ve gotten three answers on Twitter from IMshopping and 11 from Mahalo answers. Both link to a page where the question is posted, along with all the answers. IMshopping doesn’t send you a new tweet every time there is anew answer, which is a far less spammy way to do it. Actually, I don’t really care that Mahalo is hijacking these questions if I end up getting better answers as a result. And there is an evil genius component involved which is admirable in its sheer audaciousness. Who steals somebody else’s questions? So how do Mahalo’s answers stack up to IMshopping? To be honest, I found both sets of answers equally unsatisfying. The guides on IMshopping suggested a “personalized oversized metal family tree sculpture,” an engraved wooden keepsake box, personalized throw, and chocolates. The folks from Mahalo Answers came up with a digital picture frame, a gift certificate (thanks), tea, and time with her grandchildren. I am still looking for a good, original answer—something that is not too tacky would be nice. If you have one, please leave it in comments.
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Source: TechCrunch | 6 May 2009 | 10:17 pm IP Enforcement Treaty Still Being Kept SecretHugh Pickens writes "More than a thousand pages of material about Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), are still being withheld, despite the Obama administration's promises to run a more open government. The EFF and Public Knowledge filed suit in September of 2008, demanding that background documents on ACTA be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). "We are very disappointed with the USTR's decision to continue to withhold these documents The president promised an open and transparent administration," said EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel. Publicly available information about the treaty shows it could establish far-reaching customs regulations over Internet traffic in the guise of anti-counterfeiting measures. Additionally, multi-national IP industry companies have publicly requested that ISPs be required to engage in filtering of their customers' Internet communications for potentially copyright-infringing material, force mandatory disclosure of personal information about alleged copyright infringers, and adopt 'Three Strikes' policies requiring ISPs to automatically terminate customers' Internet access upon a repeat allegation of copyright infringement. 'What we've seen tends to confirm that the substance of ACTA remains a grave concern,' said Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Sherwin Siy. 'The agreement increasingly looks like an attempt by Hollywood and the content industries to perform an end-run around national legislatures and public international forums to advance an aggressive, radical change in the way that copyright and trademark laws are enforced.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 6 May 2009 | 10:00 pm FDA approves new schizophrenia drugThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Fanapt tablets to treat adults with schizophrenia, a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder. Schizophrenia can be a devastating illness requiring lifelong treatment and therapy, said Dr.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 May 2009 | 9:53 pm FDA OKs flu vaccine production facilityThe U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 May 2009 | 9:38 pm Gold nanorods can detect and treat cancerU.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 May 2009 | 9:33 pm Research Suggests 'Hobbits' Are Indeed A New SpeciesImage Caption: A cast of a Homo floresiensis skull, American Museum of Natural History. Image Courtesy Ryan Somma - WikipediaSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 May 2009 | 9:30 pm Big Solar Flare Portends Sun's Return to NormalThe discovery of a new major sunspot could herald the beginning of a new solar cycle. Researchers are giddy at the prospect.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 9:29 pm Debian Switching From Glibc To Eglibcceswiedler writes "Aurelien Jarno has just uploaded a fork of glibc called eglibc, which is targeted at embedded systems and is source- and binary-compatible with glibc. It has a few nice improvements over glibc, but the primary motivation seems to be that it's a 'more friendly upstream project' than glibc. Glibc's maintainer, Ulrich Drepper, has had a contentious relationship with Debian's project leadership; in 2007 the Debian Project Leader sent an email criticizing Drepper for refusing to fix a bug on glibc on the ARM architecture because in Drepper's words it was 'for the sole benefit of this embedded crap.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 6 May 2009 | 9:13 pm T-Mobile G1 owners to get Android v1.5 Cupcake update next week (For real this time)
After a somewhat steady stream of T-Mobile USA customers reported that the Android “Cupcake” update had hit their G1s last week, all went silent. Not everyone had gotten their updates, and it seemed as if the rollout had suddenly stopped. Whether this first batch of updates was a mistake, we’re not sure - but at least now we know when it’s coming for everyone. The update will officially begin rolling out at the end of next week, with roll-outs continuing through the month. Yeah, we know - that’s about as vague as it comes, but it’s good to know that Cupcake is finally on the way.
It’s been a long time coming, but the wait was worth it. On-screen keyboard, video recording abilities, custom widget support, live folders, stereo bluetooth - the list goes on and on. T-mobile’s official statement:
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Source: MobileCrunch | 6 May 2009 | 9:04 pm In case you missed it: the Kindle DX DemosSection: Gadgets / Other, Household
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 6 May 2009 | 8:32 pm The Nokia E52 just keeps going, and going, and going
What has 8 hours of talk time, 23 days of standby time, noise cancellation, and comes from Espoo? If you guessed the Nokia E52, you’re psychic. Or you just read the headline and assumed. Whatever - either way, you’re right. Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Source: MobileCrunch | 6 May 2009 | 8:18 pm So you say you’re a geek? Take our quiz to be sure.Section: Computers, Gaming, Imaging, Peripherals, Web, Features, How To  So, you say you’re a geek. You’re proud of the title. You wear you geekiness as a badge of honor, eh? Well, before you slap that big “G” on your chest, take our little Geek-o-Meter quiz to find out where you really rate on the Geek Scale. First, do you even know what a “geek” is?? Well, according to good old dictionary.com…it means a few different things. Now, let’s hope you aren’t trying to be number three. Ummm…gross. geek Slang. Now that we have that out of the way, on to the nuts and bolts of it. Are you or aren’t you a bona fide member of the Geek Club? How many of the following questions can you answer “yes” to? (without googling). And I didn’t even make these especially hard, so let’s see how you rate. 
1. Do you know how to monitor network traffic? 2. Do you know how to find a website IP address without web/command prompt access? Get a new command prompt by opening Notepad and typing: command.com 
3. Do you know how to hide a file behind a jpg? 4. Do you know how to retrieve data off a crashed hard drive? 
5. Do you know how to safely straighten the pins on an older CPU? 6. Do you know how to code HTML? 
7. Can you beat Quake in under one hour? 9. Do you know how to get into a Windows computer after you forgot the password? If that doesn’t work, try a cracker like ophcrack loaded on a USB drive or bootable CD might be the ticket. Now again, this is for your own computer of course. Not someone else’s. .gif)
10. Do you know a “constructed” language? So, out of ten, how geeky were you? Geek in training or Geek President? But remember, a geek never stops forging ahead on his quest of geekdom…so stay at it.
Full Story » | Written by Jodie Andrefski for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 6 May 2009 | 8:16 pm Microsoft gives out 3,000 pink slips in their second wave of job cutsSection: Business News  Yesterday, Microsoft let go more than 3,000 of its staff, almost double the amount that it laid off during their first wave of job cuts back in January. During that time, Microsoft had said that they planned to lay off 5,000 employees in order to stay afloat during the recession. This number has almost been reached after the pink slips were handed out yesterday. This could mean that another announcement could be on its way that will cut even more positions. The layoffs occurred in both United States and international Microsoft operations. Different tech sectors of Microsoft were affected by the job cuts. CEO Steve Ballmer sent out the following memo to Microsoft employees regarding the new round of job cuts, “As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.” However, on a positive note Microsoft is hoping to hire more workers in different areas of development. This includes online services and the expected number of hires is in the 2,500 range. Read: [CNET] Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 6 May 2009 | 8:07 pm 'Hobbit' New Species After All, Says StudyAnalysis of the feet of ancient hobbit-like fossils suggest they were their own species.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 May 2009 | 7:55 pm Throbbing Gristle Interview, and Hacked Synth Tech (BB Video)
So, what is it like to see industrial music legends Throbbing Gristle perform live? "Next closest thing to an internal organ massage standing next to [SRL's] V1 pulsejet engine," said BB pal Karen Marcelo, after one of the dates on the band's 2009 reunion tour. "It was like my diaphragm resonated until my lungs became a subwoofer while words once from a man's mouth sprung from the same woman's mouth," twittered TG trufan t. Bias.
"Oh, we got some frequencies," he laughed, "Yeah, we definitely got some frequencies ready for you people tonight." Those "frequencies" are part of what make TG's music so transcendental and disturbing, and in the BB interview with Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, we explore their technical and creative underpinnings. 
Information on TG's remaining 2009 tour dates here. Industrial Records just released a special limited edition framed vinyl LP to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of Throbbing Gristle's debut album, "The Second Annual Report" -- more info here. More recordings (digital and otherwise), t-shirts, and other merch are here.
RSS feed for new episodes here, YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video. (Special thanks to Boing Boing's video hosting partner Episodic, and to Target Video, who shot some of the archival clips shown in this episode). Previously on Boing Boing: Throbbing Gristle: What A Day. (Boing Boing Video shoot notes)
Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 May 2009 | 7:23 pm Hydrogen Fuel Made Using Green EnergyNASA designs a green-powered fueling system for buses that run on hydrogen.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 May 2009 | 6:20 pm Some chips will not run Windows 7 XP Mode
The reason why is simple: XP Mode, when running on Intel chips requires Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT). For many businesses it shouldn’t be an issue getting laptops with chips that have the technology. There are a lot of consumer laptops that use Intel chips that do not support this technology, however. A large number of chips in the Core 2 Duo line, one of the most popular chip lines for laptops don’t have Intel VT, making it difficult to find the ones that do. Of course, Intel’s labeling system can also contribute to confusion, there’s a lot of similarly numbered Core 2 Duo chips out there. This actually does make sense, but it still depressing for those who don’t have Intel VT chips and maybe wanted to use XP Mode for something. It might turn out to be sort of a blessing for Microsoft if the average consumer can’t use XP Mode. It will force them to find programs that are better suited for 7, and not break up the GUI as much. It will also force developers to make Windows 7 versions of software rather than relying on the XP version. Though it might not convince people to switch from XP given the choice. I know I’ve run into a large number of people who groan when I tell them about the available Windows 7 RC, thinking it’s just the same as Vista. Read [CNet News] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 6 May 2009 | 6:04 pm Sprint employee spills more details on the Palm Pre
Sprint employees may be getting fired for piping up about the Pre, but that hasn’t stopped this guy. Blasting away at a keyboard “deep within customer care”, InsideSprintNow has a few previously unearthed details to share about the Pre. Don’t have time to read all that? Here’s everything in one neat little package:
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Source: MobileCrunch | 6 May 2009 | 6:00 pm 9.7-inch Kindle DX brings big screen to e-book reader
Amazon's Kindle DX has a 9.7" e-ink display with 1200x824 pixels, 16 shades of gray, and faster page transitions. 10.4 inches long and 7.2 wide, it is 0.38 inches thick and retains the basic capabilities of the standard model: EVDO internet and the Amazon store. New features include native PDF support and 4GB of storage, two line-items that Sony's Reader can no longer claim as advantages over Amazon's model. The Kindle DX also does automatic orientation adjustments when you rotate the tablet, like the iPhone and other accelerometer-equipped gadgets. The giant screen does it for me. The price -- $490 -- is a challenge. Kindle DX Offers 9.7 Inches of E-Ink for $489 [Gizmodo] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 May 2009 | 5:33 pm T-Mobile + Samsung = One big leak
Samsung tends to have a hard time keeping things secret, and T-Mobile’s pipes have been pretty leaky lately as well. Put the two together and the best plumber in the world couldn’t plug the holes. Such is the case here. For some reason, an unnamed camera carrying employee got some time with T-Mobile’s upcoming Samsung lineup and was able to document the whole thing. Samsung’s playing on the trends here, as it’s jam packed full of QWERTY keyboards and touchscreens.
Up above, we have the Gravity 2 in Red/Pink and Graphite/Orange, snuggling up close with T349. Down below, we have an unnamed Samsung touchscreen phone. We can see it’s running the TouchWiz UI, with the shot of the back showing a fancy-patterned battery cover right below a 3 megapixel camera. The anonymous poster “forgot the name” of this next one, but it’s looking like a funky Samsung-made lovechild of the Sidekick and the LG enV. Details are sparse, but it’s “due this summer”.
[Via TmoNews Forum] Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: MobileCrunch | 6 May 2009 | 5:00 pm Tid bits on the Amazon Kindle DX: Why the “DX,” P2P, and no expansion?Section: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle Why “DX” designation? It actually stands for deluxe since it is a bigger model. So I was wrong when I thought it stood for developer xylophone (in retrospect, that didn’t make much sense). Amazon plans to do future industries like medical and legal later. They are just focusing on colleges and newspapers. High schools and grad schools will have to wait. The Amazon Kindle DX has 3.3GB of space and still does not have an expansion port. The textbook demoed during Jeff Bezos’ presentation (a biology textbook) only weighed in at 10MB. Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 6 May 2009 | 4:09 pm Dating Sites ID the Smell of LoveTwo dating companies turn to science and odor to help couples find their match.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 May 2009 | 4:00 pm First impressions on the Amazon Kindle DXSection: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Features, Originals
Instead of having that bubble wrap, circular key style, these are more like capsules. They seemed to have a better travel than the Kindle 2. Also, the Amazon representative stated that the keyboard was better suited to actually laying the DX down and typing on it for annotations. The other buttons on the device operate the same way. The price seems a bit hefty, but if I had the chance to have this in college, I may have gone for it. I spoke with a friend of mine who has a biology background and we discussed how problematic it could be to see biochemical figures with only several shades of gray. While the Kindle DX could replace a number of textbooks, it may not work so well for the sciences. Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 6 May 2009 | 3:51 pm On Being Gizmodoed, Boing Boinged and HydrogenatedThis is Michael's response to our post Gizmodo mounted on maple blocks, sounds great, in which audiophile gear is made fun of. (See John Mahoney's original item at Gizmodo, Why We Need Audiophiles.) We thought Michael's post would languish at the bottom of a month-old post's comment thread, so he spruced it up as a guest feature, and here it is! — Rob
Do I think this guy's a pervert who stops people in the street walking their dogs so he can feel their dog's balls? Of course not, but judging by some of the hysterical reactions to Rob Beschizza's post "Gizmodo mounted on maple blocks, sounds great," I guess some of you would see the ball-handler doing his job and think feeling dog's balls is all that guy did. Such were the ridiculous, frequently irrational caricatures posted of audiophiles in general and me in particular, under Beschizza's post. Beschizza deserves part of the blame, tossing you red meat instead of truth by suggesting that writer John Mahoney's Giz piece hypothesized "...that even if normal people can't appreciate what makes ultra-expensive gear special, audiophiles can. This is a myth, and to honor it like this is to sell it." In fact his piece concluded that anyone can hear how great an expensive high performance audio system can sound. Mahoney had visited so he could write, from first hand knowledge, the usual anti-audiophile tripe about clueless obsessives with expensive gear in bad rooms who repeatedly play the same five records or CDs. He was expecting to hear some loud, offensive assemblage of stupidly expensive, grotesque sounding "show off" gear--like the typical custom car stereo. Or "I had no idea this was even possible! How come I didn't know about this!" Or they describe how listening made them feel--how listening to recorded music had never before elicited such strongly felt emotions. Everyone walks away in a pleasant daze--the way you do exiting a live concert. I still do, even though this is my job and I experience it daily. As is usually the case, knowledge and experience are inversely proportional to glibness. The glibber the post here, the more ignorance is behind it. I took the test, along with dozens of others attending, many of them recording engineers. When the results were announced, the organizers said that I'd gotten 5 of 5 identifications correct. My editor at Stereophile, John Atkinson, got 4 of 5 correct. But the overall result was statistically insignificant. Most test takers could not distinguish among the amplifiers. Guess what? I was declared a "lucky coin" and my result was "thrown out!" Take the test and pass and they find a way to discredit you. When I relate this story on "objectivist" websites the response is always "Not enough samples!" Well, I didn't design the test, I just took it. I jumped through their hoop and I guaranty you had I been 0 for 5 it would have been deemed a very well designed test. THE FINAL WORD BECAUSE IT'S OUR BLOG AND EVERYTHING Thank you, Mr. Fremer! And there was me thinking you guys sit there listening to the THX surround sound noise over and over again. Most high-end gear is audibly better than even decent equipment, and Fremer is right to point out that mainstream skepticism encourages listeners to be cynical about it. Moreover, it doesn't take an audiophile to prefer a good platter over joint-stereo 128kbps MP3 files and badly-mastered CDs. We skeptics also sometimes confuse those areas where extreme quality can make a difference (amps and long cable runs, for example), with those areas that are pure snake oil. (Such as little maple blocks placed strategically around the listening room.) My "attack" on John's piece was really about the lack of rigor involved in tests of specific gear, like AC cables, which I do think are snake oil. They're either (a) doing nothing worthwhile or (b) doing nothing that couldn't be accomplished with much cheaper stuff. Take the water filtration example Michael poses: as filthy as tap water can be, will a $4,000 filter clean it better than a $3,000 one? Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 May 2009 | 3:30 pm Smuggler Tries to Conceal Birds in SocksA man tried smuggling songbirds into the country by hiding them in a pair of leggings.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 May 2009 | 3:00 pm Hands-On: Kindle DX Is a Pricey Pleasure — Despite Many Flaws
NEW YORK — In the gadget world, smaller is usually better, but not so for Amazon’s Kindle. Unveiled Wednesday, the large-format Kindle DX is even more of a pleasure to hold and read than its smaller predecessor, but its flaws are still aplenty. Amazon launched its next-generation e-reader here Wednesday. With a screen that measures 9.7 inches diagonally — two-and-a-half times the size of the current-gen Kindle 2 — the DX is aimed squarely at penetrating for the first time the $9.8 billion textbook market, as well offering some life support for the struggling business of subscription-based electronic newspapers. UPDATE 10:30 a.m. PDT: Wired.com got an early peek at the device during the event. Scroll down for our hands-on report and closeup photos of the Kindle DX. In its product launch, hosted by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Amazon announced partnerships with three major textbook publishers representing 60 percent of the higher-education market. Five universities — Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, the University of Virginia, and Pace — have agreed to test the Kindle DX with their students. Bezos also announed that three newspapers — The New York Times, the NYTimes Co.-owned Boston Globe and The Washington Post — will offer a reduced price on the Kindle DX in exchange for a long-term subscription. “A particular class of book that shines with this display is textbooks,” said Bezos. “We’re going to get students with smaller backpacks, less load.”
Among the new features are an auto-rotating screen, technology iPhone users will be familiar with, and a native PDF reader, finally adding support in that ubiquitous digital format. The device measures one-third of an inch thick. Its 9.7-inch screen offers 1200 x 824 pixels at 150 dpi, and 16 levels of gray (like the Kindle 2). The screen is held within a plastic housing that measures 10.4 inches tall by 7.2 inches wide; the unit weighs about 1 pound 3 ounces. Like the two earlier Kindles, the Kindle DX has wireless download capabilities via the Sprint EVDO network. It contains about 3.3GB of usable memory for storing books, and can display or play a wide variety of text and document formats — including, significantly, at least three open formats: PDF, MP3 and TXT. Shipping this summer, the Kindle DX costs $490 and is available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Read on for our impressions and more photos of the DX.
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 May 2009 | 2:53 pm Gadget Lab Hardware News and Reviews Hands-On: Kindle DX Is Pricey Pleasure Despite Many FlawsAmazon unveils a large-format Kindle: The DX is 2-1/2 times the size of the Kindle 2 and is aimed at college students. The company also announces partnerships with three major textbook publishers that represent 60 percent of the higher-education market.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 May 2009 | 2:53 pm Recently on Offworld
We also saw Ashley Wood -- the comic artist behind the PSP's Metal Gear Solid digital comic -- teaming up with Chess with Friends iPhone studio (and former Age of Empires/Halo Wars devs) Newtoy to create a new game based on Wood's graphic novel series World War Robot. And: Namco shows off their DIY spirit with Noby Noby Boy sushi rolls, Rockstar creates official Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars papercraft, DS favorite Henry Hatsworth unveils their latest late-night TV campaign for guaranteed Villain Enhancement, and we look straight through game consoles with X-ray spex. Finally, the day's 'one shot's: NerdDad's PlayStation controller strikes a chord with every new father, Blade Runner in Crysis, and Andy 'komadesign' Miller (the illustrator behind the upcoming Indie Rock Coloring Book [!]) shows off his fantastic work for Sony with the PSP ad above. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 May 2009 | 2:32 pm Disease Strikes Great Barrier ReefBlack band disease, which kills coral as it eats tissue, has infected the Great Barrier Reef.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 May 2009 | 2:00 pm Five Technologies Our Kids Won’t Even Recognize
By the time you lazy-bones, time-zone-challenged North Americans read this, the hot new Kindle Magnum should be all over the news. It has many hopes pinned upon it, from the ludicrously optimistic wishes of the newspaper industry to the rather worried expectations of the chiropractic industry (no heavy textbooks equals no spinal injuries to treat). One thing is sure, though. Tech rolls in and out of fashion, and today the turnover is faster than ever. It won’t be long before many seemingly permanent gadgets disappear and become mere curiosities. Here are a few things that will seem as retro to the kids of tomorrow as the steam ship seems to us today. VCR Just last night I asked the Lady “When was the last time you taped a TV show?” It was, of course, years ago. In fact, the only reason she still has a VCR is because the TV remote is lost, so the VCR is effectively a giant channel changer. Does anybody out there still have a video under their TV? You can’t rent movies, recording is both a pain and low, low quality and even buying a machine is tricky. Death Rating 5/5 Books This one will take a while, but paper books will eventually be the written equivalent of the vinyl record — loved, collected and sold in small numbers, but really just a niche market. The e-reader isn’t nearly ready enough yet, but if the Kindle Magnum (or DX, or whatever) makes its way into schools and colleges, the formative experience of reading will be electronic, not paper, and that will be the beginning of the end. Death Rating 2/5 Letters More paper, and more words. A letter that comes in the mail is so rare these days that we can probably declare it extinct, with a few unsubstantiated sightings every year — much like Bigfoot. It’s a shame — writing a letter was a longer, more considered affair than banging out an email, an act which itself already seems out-of-date in these days of the Twitter. And receiving one from a friend or loved one is magical. This romantic, personal method of communication has also formed a good chunk of history, something that will be lost — can you imagine the collected e-mails of a famous person being published after their death? Death Rating 5/5 The Newspaper The news isn’t going anywhere. The opposite, in fact — it is now possible to consume news from an almost endless supply, from amateur video to local blogs to forward thinking magazine-based sites (like Wired.com, for example). But the newpaper? Dead. Or at least on life support, begging to be put out of its misery. The reason is, of course, the internet. Gutenberg’s legacy might limp on a little longer, but the internet does the exact same job — dispersing information — much more efficiently. In fact, the jump from printed paper to electronic delivery makes the original move from handwriting to movable type look like a mere historical blip, and that isn’t to put down the printing press in any way at all. Death Rating 5/5 The Desktop PC What? Yes. The beige box is headed the way of the mainframe. Notebook computers already outsell desktops, and for good reason — the performance of a portable is close enough to the desktop for everyone except Pixar. More importantly, computing is so ubiquitous and essential that anyone who can afford a computer wants their own machine, and they want to take it with them. A laptop is no longer a luxury, it’s the norm. But even these are going to disappear, or perhaps be consigned to remain, ironically, on the desktop. Take a look around you: What do you see in everybody’s hand? That’s it — a cellphone. And the cellphone is fast becoming the only computer most people will need. It will probably also be their book, their newspaper and their VCR. Death Rating 4/5 See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 May 2009 | 1:29 pm Seahorses 'Stood Up' 25 Million Years AgoSeahorses adopted their upright posture to take advantage of grassy habitats.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 May 2009 | 1:16 pm Sprint employees fired for talking about the Palm Pre
The employees violated an NDA signed during the hiring process and therefore had to be let go. It’s dumbfounding that a company would lock down info so tight about a product that has already been announced, handled, and in the wild anyway. We pretty much know everything about the Palm Pre at this point besides the price and release date. And even that info doesn’t seem that important in the long run to fire people over. I mean, we’re going to find out about it eventually anyway. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: MobileCrunch | 6 May 2009 | 1:02 pm 'Pre' FAQ Surfaces on Sprint Employee BlogA nameless Sprint/Nextel employee is blogging FAQs about the Palm Pre and, revealing some interesting tidbits about Palm's iPhone killer.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 May 2009 | 12:50 pm Video: 1960s Hover Bike Driven by Bank ClerkTake a look at this and tell me you don’t want a Hover Scooter. This amazing vehicle, obviously a cast-off from Flash Gordon, is billed as a cross between and motorcycle and a hovercraft. The test vehicle from the 1960s is being taken for a spin in leafy Surrey, England, and the pilot looks like he could be on his way to a job at the local bank. Beautiful. Why don’t vehicles look so good today? Hover Scooter [YouTube via Neatorama]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 May 2009 | 12:26 pm
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After three years AMD (AMD) is finally getting around to merging it’s microprocessor and graphics divisions, another stab at reaching profitability after more than two years of losses. On Wednesday afternoon the company said it would 
It’s par for the course for big music labels to boast about their digital music sales as their CD sales tank. And Warner Music Group (WMG) does that this morning, pointing out that its digital revenue was up 26% this quarter.
It turns out yesterday was quite the big day for ebook readers. Well maybe not big in terms of importance, but in terms of large as the newly unveiled Kindle DX is now larger in both size and price. Of course, we cannot forget that in addition to Amazon and their Kindle, we also have some other companies with ebook readers on the market, one of which is Sony.
When it comes to the web, one name that doesn’t exactly jump out at you is Sears Holdings Corporation (SHC). Certainly, you might think that during a economic downtime, the parent company of Sears and Kmart has more pressing things to worry about than social networking. But it is thinking about them. And tomorrow, it’s launching a couple sites to prove it.
Twitter Search
It’s pretty obvious that Google is getting ready to fully cast its social net over its web properties. It’s been doing things like 
I’ll be honest. I have no idea what Kim Kardashian does. I wouldn’t even know who she is if it weren’t for jokes on Pardon The Interruption (an ESPN sports show) about some sex tape a few years back. But apparently, she 
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster is threatening to file criminal charges against Craigslist if they don’t remove the “erotic services” section from the S.C. section.
Here’s a tip: If your business is so polarizing that you have to change your name the mere passage of time doesn’t suddenly make it all mom-and-apple-pie. In the last few months I have gotten the same pitch from PayPerPost (now called Izea) all sent from different names. My favorite part is this:
Gadgetell was on the scene at the Kindle DX announcement. If you want to watch Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ demo of the Kindle (which went wonky at the end of the video), we’ve got it. Also, you can take a look at the Kindle in action while an Amazon rep shows off what you can do with the device. That auto-rotate feature looks very interesting. 
There is no P2P for sharing. For a class setting, a professor would have to e-mail her students and they could have it on their Kindle DX in that way. You can’t just ask your friend to send over the file from Kindle to Kindle. 
Gadgetell got a chance to check out the Amazon Kindle DX. The display is pretty much the same as the Kindle 2. The biggest difference is the keyboard. 
Everyone, take notice: 