Source: Gizmodo | 20 May 2009 | 9:35 am

Sony's TransferJet Tech Moves Closer to Reality (PC World)

PC World - TransferJet, a data transmission technology developed by Sony that allows information to be exchanged between gadgets by simply bringing them close to each other, took a further step towards commercialization this week when Sony said it would begin accepting applications from companies interested in licensing the system.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 May 2009 | 9:20 am

NEC develops world’s first USB 3.0 host controller

We all will get faster USB devices very soon. NEC Electronics just announced the µPD720200 chip, which is the world’s first USB 3.0 host controller.

The so-called SuperSpeed controller features a transfer speed of up to 5Gbps, which is ten times faster than USB 2.0. NEC claims that it takes just 70 seconds to transfer 25GB of data to a Bluray disc, for example. The same procedure would take 14 minutes via a USB 2.0 connection.

The controller also supports USB 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0. NEC plans to ship the first batch of samples of the chip to customers as early as next month with each unit priced at $15. The company says it wants to produce one million chips monthly by september.

Source: CrunchGear | 20 May 2009 | 9:00 am

Aricent Delivers ISS-Metro, the Industry's First Pre-Packaged Intelligent Switching Solution With PBB, PBB-TE and Ethernet Protection Switching

New Release of Industry-Leading Licensable Framework Offers Complete Solution for Ethernet Access, Aggregation, Edge and Transport Equipment PALO ALTO, Calif., May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Aricent(TM), a global innovation, technology and service company focused exclusively on communications, today announced ISS-Metro(TM), a new release of its market-leading Intelligent Switching Solution (ISS) specifically optimized for carrier and metro Ethernet product development.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 May 2009 | 9:00 am

Mac OS X Users Vulnerable To Major Java Flaw

FruitWorm writes in with word of a vulnerability in Java that has been patched by everyone but Apple. "Security researchers say that Mac OS X users are vulnerable to a critical, 6-month-old, remote vulnerability in Java, a component that is enabled by default in Web browsers on this platform. Julien Tinnes notes that this vulnerability differs from typical Java security flaws in that it is 'a pure Java vulnerability' and doesn't involve any native code. It affected not only Sun's Java but other implementations such as OpenJDK, on multiple platforms, including Linux and Windows. 'This means you can write a 100% reliable exploit in pure Java. This exploit will work on all the platforms, all the architectures and all the browsers,' Julien wrote. This bug was demonstrated during the Pwn2own security challenge this year at CanSecWest, but the details were not made public at that time. Tinnes recommends that Mac OS X users disable Java in their browsers until Apple releases a security update."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Gizmodo | 20 May 2009 | 8:55 am

Crocheted grinning grenades

Check out WooWook's crocheted grenades: "I made these grenades from rows of popcorn stitches and double crochet stitches, with increasing single crochet stitches between each row." Make textiles not war.

Green 'round Grenades (Thanks, Shellie!)

Source: Gizmodo | 20 May 2009 | 8:00 am

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Chooses Imanage Universal Search

CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

Source: Gizmodo | 20 May 2009 | 7:59 am

Bezeq Group Reports Record First Quarter 2009 Financial Results

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First quarter net profit attributable to shareholders increased 48% year-over-year to a record NIS 608 million, on record revenues of NIS 3.16 billion First quarter EBITDA increased 18% year-over-year to a record NIS 1.29 billion First quarter free cash flow rises 157% to a record NIS 804 million Bezeq - The Israel Telecommunication Corp., Limited (TASE: BEZQ), Israel's leading telecommunications provider, announced today its financial results for the first quarter 2009 period ended March 31, 2009.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 May 2009 | 7:36 am

Former MySpace Execs Get Funding For New Venture; Some Details Leak

Remember when MySpace lost three key execs before the whole chaotic reorganization? They announced their departure in March. And we’ve now confirmed that they are closing a substantial round of funding, even before they’ve picked a final name for the company.

The company, whatever it will be called, was founded by Amit Kapur (MySpace COO), Steve Pearman (MySpace SVP Product Strategy) and Jim Benedetto (MySpace VP Technology). The company is now backed by August Capital and Redpoint Ventures, who jointly funded a roughly $10 million venture round. David Hornik from August and Geoff Yang from Redpoint have joined the board of directors.

What do we know so far about the company? Not a whole lot except that Redpoint and August are rumored to be “very excited” about it. The company is supposedly targeting the message board/Internet forum space with technology that aggregates content and serves advertising against it. Real time search (bingo! fundable!) may be part of the business plan as well.

Whatever this thing is called, and whatever it does, I know one thing - I like the team. These were three of the most respected and creative execs at MySpace. Keep an eye on them.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 20 May 2009 | 7:32 am

Internet Gold Reports First Quarter 2009 Financial Results

PETACH TIKVA, Israel, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Internet Gold Golden Lines Ltd., (NASDAQ: IGLD)(TASE: IGLD) today reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2009. Highlights - Strong revenues and EBITDA: First quarter revenues up 8% to NIS 302M; adjusted EBITDA up 15% to NIS 69M. - Strong operating cash flow: NIS 53M in Q1 2009.Net finance debt as of March 31, 2009 decreased by NIS 60M from the beginning of 2009. - 012 Smile.Communications: Record quarterly net Income attributable to operating growth and favorable exchange rates. - Smile.Media returns to bottom line profitability. - Share and bond buy-back programs continue. Q1'09 vs. (in millions of NIS) Q1'09 Q1'08 Q1'08 Revenues 302 280 8% Gross Profit 95 91 4% EBIT 40 27 48% Adjusted EBITDA 69 60 15% Net Income 33 1 3200% Financial Results for the First Quarter Revenues: Revenues for the first quarter of 2009 were NIS 302 million (US $72 million), a 8% increase compared with NIS 280 million in the first quarter of 2008.The increased revenues reflect the results delivered by 012 Smile.Communications, together with the modest contribution of Smile.Media. Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2009 was NIS 69 million (US $16 million), a 15% increase compared with NIS 60 million for the first quarter of 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 May 2009 | 7:16 am

We must ensure ISPs don’t stop the next Google getting out of the garage [Voices]

If politicians want to effect economic recovery, national competitiveness, good public health and high civic engagement, they have a duty to keep the internet free and open. But politicians around the world seem willing to sacrifice their national interest to keep a few powerful phone and telcoms companies happy.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 20 May 2009 | 7:05 am

Celebrating Saunas and Cellphones [Voices]

You can’t get more Finnish than saunas and cellphones — and both are being celebrated with contests this August.

One is the ninth annual Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships, set for Aug. 22 in Punkaharju, in eastern Finland.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 20 May 2009 | 7:04 am

A Service to Prove You are Really You [Voices]

On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, as the New Yorker cartoon famously said. But what if, while you are surfing, you want to prove your pedigree?

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 20 May 2009 | 7:03 am

Terms of Use: A Real Difference Between Wolfram|Alpha and Google [Voices]

Google and Wolfram|Alpha are providing utterly different services, and as you might expect, that means the terms of use are also utterly different.

Wolfram’s Terms of Use are not at all what I would expect from a search engine, probably because that isn’t exactly what Wolfram|Alpha is providing.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 20 May 2009 | 7:02 am

Why journalists deserve low pay [Voices]

Journalists like to think of their work in moral or even sacred terms. With each new layoff or paper closing, they tell themselves that no business model could adequately compensate the holy work of enriching democratic society, speaking truth to power, and comforting the afflicted.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 20 May 2009 | 7:01 am

Pets

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 May 2009 | 7:00 am

Daily Crunch: Bus Stop Edition

A bunch of random flash drives
Google Street View trikes up close
The bus stop of the future… today
International Playthings’ Ecotronic Mr. Robot Head is like Operation, but way cooler
Snoozy the Sloth: Breathe with me

Source: CrunchGear | 20 May 2009 | 7:00 am

More Reasons to Make the WSOP With Everest Poker

LONDON, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Official WSOP sponsors, Everest Poker, have always been all about their players and, as a result, they are offering two further exclusive incentives to their players for this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP) in addition to their $1,000,000 shared player bonus. i) Bring A Friend.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 May 2009 | 7:00 am

The Freemium Model And A Desktop App Get The Thumbs Up With Pandora One

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who tries the online streaming radio service Pandora that doesn’t like it. In fact, some users like it so much that they actually ask for ways to pay the company, to make sure it stays alive (something that has been a question mark given the oppressive Internet radio licensing costs). And while there has been a limited subscription version for some time, Pandora has never proactively promoted it. But starting tomorrow it’s taking the freemium model seriously, with the launch of Pandora One.

The most obvious feature of Pandora One is the removal of ads from the site (this was the only feature of the previous subscription version) — that means not only the ads on the page but the in-stream audio ads as well. And there are five other keys to Pandora One that you get with your $36-a-year subscription price: The biggest one is access to a very solid Pandora desktop app. The others include high quality streaming, a personalized look, a mini player and extended player timeouts.

All of those should be fairly straightforward, but just to hit on some of the key points:

• With its new desktop app, you no longer have to keep Pandora open in a web browser to enjoy it. And you can still do all the same voting/bookmarking/skipping that you do on the site from within the app. You also have access to all of your stations and can create new ones. The app is built on Adobe’s AIR platform, so it will work on either a Mac or a PC. Note: Pandora did try to release an AIR app once before, but it was basically just the Pandora web version ported to AIR — complete with ads. We didn’t like it too much, and neither did Pandora, which killed it. This new one is a lot like the iPhone app, which is to say, awesome.
• Pandora One will enable streaming of music over the web at 192Kbps — that’s by far the best quality you’ll find when it comes to streaming music on the web, Pandora CTO Tom Conrad tells me. For some perspective, that’s higher quality sound than iTunes used to sell its music at, until recently when it upgraded all its tracks to the iTunes Plus format. And if the 192Kbps stream is proving too much for your Internet connection, you can always take it back to regular quality.
• With no more ads, Pandora’s background would look pretty barren. That’s where the personalized look features come into play. Basically, you can select from a handful of different nicely designed backgrounds ranging from feminine to masculine.
• Extended player timeouts means that you can leave music streaming on your computer for up to five hours now without worrying about it Pandora cutting off your stream. With the free version, Pandora would stop music after an hour of inactivity — they did this because it obviously costs them money to stream the music and sometimes people leave their computers with the site still open. But this longer time out is great if you actually plan to leave the site open while you’re doing something else.

The ad model is of course what keeps Pandora alive. And it’s actually doing very well. Pandora is coming off of its biggest ad sales quarter in the history of the company, Conrad tells me. Ad sales were up 80% over the year ago period and the company is tracking to make $40 million in revenue for the year — which would double last year’s total. More importantly, it means that 2010 could be the first profitable year for Pandora, according to Conrad.

Of course, that doesn’t matter if the lingering online streaming radio royalty issue isn’t resolved, but that could be coming shortly as well. “We’re optimistic about the prospects of a resolution in relatively short order,” Conrad tells me.

So things are looking up and up for Pandora, but at the same time, the company, which has always focused on being a sustainable business (unlike some of the other music startups out there), feels the time is right to branch out a bit. It’s affiliate sales model (which lets users of Pandora buy music through iTunes or Amazon), is already proving to be a nice little secondary model — one that is growing thanks to the iPhone. But it’s the freemium model that could really be a nice source of money.

The reason is that while the company knows that it will always be just a very small percentage of its user base that will pay for the service, that small percentage is actually a lot of people given Pandora current usage numbers. Right now, Pandora is seeing 10 million monthly users on its website, and it has 5 million members using the iPhone app and another million now using the BlackBerry app (it’s the leading music app on both platforms). If just 3 to 5 percent of its audience signs up for Pandora One, that’s not an unsubstantial amount of money for the company.

Other services in the space have played around with this model as well. Notably, Last.fm has a monthly subscription option — but it also requires that all users not in the U.S., UK or Germany pay a fee to use their service. Of course, Pandora is currently only available to users in the U.S., so it doesn’t have to worry about some of the tricky advertising situations around the world.

In terms of how Pandora One will affect the company’s popular iPhone app, premium subscribers will also have ads turned off in the app as well. Unfortunately, the 192Kps streaming quality is limited to the web version and the desktop app only right now, though Conrad says it’ll look into possibly giving premium users on the iPhone the ability to stream high quality over WiFi. Likewise with the BlackBerry app — and Pandora will have an app ready to go for the launch of the Palm Pre on June 6, Conrad says.

It’s worth noting the that desktop app is a feature that was added at the last second when Pandora’s lawyers informed them they had to disable another planned feature from Pandora One: The ability to see the next artist set to play if you skip a track. Internet radio’s often odd rules prohibit you knowing what song is going to play next, but what’s amusing here is that Pandora was only going to show the next artist — not the actual song — but apparently that’s a no-no as well. So instead we get something much cooler: The desktop app.

Conrad and his team were planning to launch the desktop app in a few weeks anyway, but hunkered down the past week to get it done in time for this launch. I’m playing with it right now — it will definitely rival iTunes as the source of music constantly playing on my computer. And unlike quite a few other AIR apps, Conrad assures me that it has none of the memory leak and CPU-usage problems.

Sadly, you will have to sign up for Pandora One to use the app. And while the company isn’t expecting too much, that may just be the leading perk that gets people to sign up.

For roughly 95-97% of Pandora users out there, this news about Pandora One may not ultimately mean too much. You’re likely to continue to use the service exactly as you have been — for free — and Pandora’s fine with that given how well ad sales are going. But for the other 3-5%, Pandora One will undoubtedly be a must-buy as $3 a month is nothing to wipe out ads, get higher quality and a nice desktop app, if nothing else. And yes, if you happened to be one of the people that actually had the subscription version of Pandora before, you will be upgraded to Pandora One with your membership.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 20 May 2009 | 6:58 am

Facebook Verified Apps Rolling Out Tomorrow

We knew it was coming, but we weren’t sure when. We’ve gotten word that Facebook’s Verified Apps initiative, long awaited by developers since the program was first announced last year, is finally ready for the masses. Developers are getting notified that their approved applications will soon be highlighted with green check marks next to their names starting tomorrow.

Here are some of the other details we’ve gathered:

• In thanks for their participation in the platform (and likely because of the long wait), developers are receiving extra Facebook advertising coupons.
• While an application’s Verified status lasts for a year, Facebook will be continuously monitoring Verified Apps for any deviation from the program’s requirements and Platform’s Terms of Service
• Facebook will be heavily marketing the Verified Apps program. The company will be rolling out a video to Facebook members describing the benefits of the program and approved applications, and applications will be prominently featured in the Facebook application directory.

The purpose of the Verified Apps program is to help Facebook highlight the cream of the crop of Facebook Platform, which has previously had issues separating the good applications from the bad. Developers pay a $375 annual fee to participate, and in return they’re given a badge meant to inspire user trust, as well as priority placement in the application directory.

Now that the directory is ready to go live, it will be up to Facebook to convince users why these approved applications are better than others. That may not be as easy as it sounds (especially if some of their favorite apps aren’t granted approval), so expect a heavy dose of “educational” advertising and promotion as Facebook brings everyone up to speed. Verified Apps will play a key role going forward for Facebook Platform, especially once Facebook’s payment system goes live and users have to decide where they should be comfortable spending their money.

Thanks to “Kilgore Trout” for the tip.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 20 May 2009 | 6:32 am

Microsoft may unveil new search engine next week: report (Reuters)

Reuters - Microsoft Corp is likely to show a new version of its Internet search engine publicly for the first time next week, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 May 2009 | 5:53 am

How Microsoft Degrades Their Users (In a Good Cause)

blackbearnh writes "We all know that slow Web pages drive users crazy, but where is the boundary between too slow and too simple? As Microsoft's Eric Schurman points out, the fastest-loading page of all is a blank one, but it's also the most useless. In an interview with O'Reilly Radar leading up to his appearance at the Velocity Conference, Schurman talks about his experiences working on some of Microsoft's highest-volume sites, including the home page and Live Search. In particular, he discusses how Microsoft will selectively degrade the performance of pages to small sets of users so that they can see how various amounts of delay at different times and places affect user behavior. 'In cases where we were giving what was a significantly degraded experience, the data moved to significance extremely quickly. We were able to tell when we delayed people's pages by more than half a second, and it was very obvious that this had a significant impact on users very quickly. We were able to turn off that experiment. The reasoning... was it helps us make a strong argument for how we can prioritize work on performance against work on other aspects of the site.' He also talks about what it's like to be one of the most often-targeted DDoS sites on the planet."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 20 May 2009 | 5:45 am

Bush cronies land jobs charging for advice on not getting eaten by the monsters they created

From USA Today: "More than one in four members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet have landed jobs with consulting or lobbying firms in which they can help clients navigate the departments they once oversaw." Michael "DHS" Chertoff is now charging for advice on how not to get screwed by the DHS (the former director of the CIA is working for him); Ashcroft is working for companies that his own DoJ brought anti-trust charges against. Nice work if you can get it.

Several Bush officials work in areas related to former jobs


Source: Boing Boing | 20 May 2009 | 5:25 am

BitAuto: A Chinese Canary in an Online Ad Coal Mine

The hardest thing about being an American journalist in China is discovering local entrepreneurs. Part of the reason is that there is just so much going on. There are so many intriguing expats and returning Chinese nationals in Beijing’s start-up scene, you could spend months just meeting with them. But the bigger challenges are the language and cultural barriers. China has no shortage of fascinating local entrepreneurs, it can just take some time for Americans– with very, very poor Mandarin– to find them. Local entrepreneurs will definitely be a bigger focus in my next trip to China, as will seeing some more of the country. And, ahem, learning a bit more Mandarin before I arrive.

But as a sneak preview, I had a meeting yesterday with William Bin Li, the 35-year-old founder of BitAuto. Like most local entrepreneurs he’s squarely focused on China’s massive domestic market, and local guys like Li will always have a leg up on returning Westerners zealously eying that same prize.

BitAuto is like Cars.com, AutoTrader and Consumer Reports rolled into one and sitting smack dab in the massively growing Chinese auto industry. It operates a Web site that sells new cars, one that sells used cars, and is also powers the auto verticals of major Chinese portals like Tencent, Sina, and even Yahoo. It also produces a one-hour-per-day car-themed radio show that’s syndicated on 200 stations, a car review magazine, and a one-hour-per-week car-themed TV show that’s syndicated on 20 stations. And if that weren’t enough, a sister company places $400 million RMB (roughly $56 million) in car-related advertising around the Web every year.

I asked Li why not focus on just one of those major categories and he replied, “This is China.” By that he explained, through a translator, that in China car adoption, Internet adoption, online ad markets and car-related media were all growing from a standing start at the same time. So there was no dominant entrenched leader in any of those categories. Why not take on all of them?

Li is plenty ambitious. He started his first business doing Web hosting in 1996 while a student at Beijing University, studying computer engineering. At 20, he was part of the original team at DangDang, known as the Amazon.com of China. In 2000, he founded BitAuto. He got a $1.5 million investment from a state-run car dealer and started to build out his team. Then the Internet bubble burst. (Yep, the whipsaw was the same over here.)

Li’s backers didn’t want him to spend the money, but trouble was, he’d burned through $600 million of it. So he took out a personal loan and gave the whole amount back. (And took back 100% ownership of the company in the process.)

Li and six other guys worked without pay out of Li’s apartment for the next four years or so. To pay the bills, they came up with an OpenTable-like inventory software program for car dealers, followed by an ad serving product for dealers advertising online. That got them about $500,000 in revenues through the end of 2004— enough to stay afloat. By then the Chinese car market was surging, the Internet was hot again, and the market was finally ready for what Li had set out to build back in 2000.

Fast-forward to today: Li has raised about $30 million from Lenovo’s venture arm, Nippon’s venture arm, and DCM’s China office. He admits he was way too early back in 2000. Not only was the consumer Internet more nascent, but there were only half a million cars in Beijing and only 5 million in all of China. Today, there are 3.6 million cars in Beijing and 40 million in all of China, and the market is still growing at a rate of between 20%-30% per year.

And while people are fond of saying online advertising isn’t a real business yet in China, automobiles are the number one category of spending, to the tune of 1.3 billion RMB a year. For such a young online ad market, that number holds up surprisingly well next to 5 billion RMB spent on newspaper car ads and 4 billion RMB for television. I asked Li why and he said that car dealers have told him that their customer surveys have shown that more customers learn about different car brands online than on any other single medium. In addition, the demographics of people in the market for new cars dovetails nicely with the people who are using the Web already in China.

There are clearly some risks to Li’s business. He’s trying to do a lot at once, and many Web companies succeed when they focus. (Ahem, Google.) He’s managing a whopping 1,200 employees throughout China. Much of his time is spent building out a local sales force for the huge country’s fragmented market of auto dealers. That’s about double the employees of Facebook, for some perspective. Needless to say, the company isn’t profitable yet, but so far 60% of its revenues come from the seven largest cities, so a far-flung sales force in second and third tier cities could yield substantial growth over time. And because BitAuto gets a lot of traffic by powering the auto sections of major portals, its own brand isn’t as prominent in China as Li would like.

But Li has conviction. Like a lot of Chinese entrepreneurs, when his company stumbled he didn’t just scrap it and move on to the next idea. This was it, and he’d wait out the market. Since it’s in the leading vertical, BitAuto will be an interesting company to watch to see how big the online advertising market can get in China—and how long it’ll take to develop. That’s a topic of a lot of debate right now with a lot of Web names not even trying to develop an ad-based business model.

It’s also worth noting the board has eliminated one of the biggest risks: Li’s penchant for climbing dangerous icy mountains. A board member went with him on one of his frequent trips and the kibosh was quickly put on the hobby. Li misses it, but figures he’ll build the business for the next 15 years then climb again when he’s fifty. I wonder if it’ll seem boring compared to building an Internet company in China.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 20 May 2009 | 5:16 am

Windows Media Center gets Netflix’d

Looks like Windows Media Center, that hub for video and audio which I’ve never used, is getting full Netflix streaming support. This is good news for those of you running HTPCs with Vista on them — no need for an extra layer or frontend, just open up WMC, enter your info and you’re on your way.

If you’re not a member, hit up some free trial action and you could be watching a movie in about two minutes without leaving your chair.

Personally I don’t like the all-in-one media applications like iTunes and Windows Media Center, but for people who don’t want to futz around with codec packs and weird open source stuff like Media Player Classic, VLC, and other stuff, the increasing robustness of omnibus media players must be comforting. After all, you do your queue online, why shouldn’t you be able to open up your default player and watch stuff there?

You can find more info at the Media Center site, or at this post on TV on your PC.

Source: CrunchGear | 20 May 2009 | 5:16 am

Silent, low-power ionic cooling for laptops -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Steven's got some exciting news about the possibility of replacing laptop fans with silent ionic cooling systems. My laptop runs as loud and hot as a jet-engine, as does my wife's -- add to that the noise from the consoles and the PVR and our living room sounds like the inside of a wave-machine.

Tessera's ionic cooler sits near a vent inside the laptop. Heat pipes, which transfer heat using the evaporation and condensation of a fluid, draw heat away from the computer's processing units and toward the ionic-cooling system. Inside the ionic-cooling device are two electrodes: one that ionizes air molecules such as nitrogen, and another that acts as a receiver for those molecules. When a voltage is applied between the two electrodes, the ions flow from the emitter electrode to the collector. As they move, their momentum pushes neutral air molecules across a hot spot, cooling it down...

The system can extract roughly 30 percent more heat from a laptop than a conventional fan can, and lab tests show that it could potentially consume only half as much power, the company says...

Ionic-Cooling Laptop

Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets


Source: Boing Boing | 20 May 2009 | 5:13 am

Minimum font-size for credit card fine-print

The new US credit-card bill specifies a minimum type-size and a list of approved fonts for the terms and conditions, to replace the mind-clouding teeny-weeny eye-strain-o-rama font that normally fills a Bible-sized tome that accompanies your standard credit card.

Section 122 of the Truth in Lending Act (U.S.C. 1632) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

"(d) Minimum type-size and font requirement for credit card applications and disclosures. -All written information, provisions, and terms in or on any application, solicitation, contract, or agreement for any credit card account under an open end consumer credit plan, and all written information included in or on any disclosure required under this chapter with respect to any such account, shall appear-

"(1) in not less than 12-point type; and

"(2) in any font other than a font which the Board has designated, in regulations under this section, as a font that inhibits readability.".

H. R. 627 (via Kottke)


Source: Boing Boing | 20 May 2009 | 5:11 am

Trailer for new game from the makers of Shadow of the Colossus

The new game from the creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has a trailer. Although I was skeptical for the first minute (what is it?), I was convinced by the end. I’m 100% sure that Team ICO can make this into an extremely compelling game.

Chatter is that this is an early, internal trailer, accounting for the fact that some surfaces and models are more polished than others. You can draw your own conclusions, but E3 is coming up in two weeks and you better believe we’re going to live blog Sony’s presser, so watch for it.

Also, if that thing dies at the end, I’m going to go into my room and never come out.

[via Reddit]

Source: CrunchGear | 20 May 2009 | 4:51 am

Nam Tai to Make New, Second Offer to Privatize Its Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed Subsidiary

HONG KONG, May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nam Tai Electronics, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 May 2009 | 4:49 am

Sigma Bluetribe Bluetooth Headphones

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 20 May 2009 | 4:24 am

HP's profit drops, more layoffs looming (AP)

AP - As a gauge of how personal computer sales are faring, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s quarterly results clouded the issue rather than provided clarity.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 May 2009 | 4:01 am

Verizon Business Advances Global IP Networking With New Tools to Improve Application Performance and Enhance Security Across an Extended Enterprise

New 'Cloud-Based' Network Management, Monitoring and Reporting Tools and Security Enhancements Constitute Next-Generation Private IP Capabilities
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 May 2009 | 4:01 am

Games Without Frontiers: How Gore Gets in the Way of Gameplay

Is it the violence that fuels the popularity of many videogames? A new study says no.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 20 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Gallery: The Extreme Mammal Hall of Fame

Think of it as Guinness Book of Records meets the Smithsonian, as the American Museum of Natural History mounts a display of the biggest, toughest, orneriest mammals you'll ever see.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 20 May 2009 | 4:00 am

May 20, 1747: A Limey Ship, and Proud of It

Scurvy has ravaged the fleet for years. But a doctor plays his hunch, and the disease meets its match.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 20 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Double Vision: Parsing Images That Trick Our Brain

Look at the picture above and you see Albert Einstein. Now walk across the room. Suddenly, he morphs into Marilyn Monroe. Trippy, right? Aude Oliva, an associate professor of cognitive science at MIT, uses images like this one to study how our brains make sense of sight.

Our eyes pick up resolutions with both high spatial frequencies (sharp lines) and low ones (blurred shapes). By blending the high frequencies from one picture with the lows from another, Oliva creates images that change as a function of distance and time—allowing her to parse how humans absorb visual information. Turns out that we perceive coarse features quickly, within the first 30 milliseconds, and then home in on details at around 100 milliseconds. We also focus on the higher frequencies close up and register softer shapes from afar.

"It's something we never think about," Oliva says. "But we still don't know how our brains digest new images so seamlessly and so rapidly." The answer could help treat cognitive disorders or assist in the development of more-perceptive bots. Because, let's be honest: What good is a robot if it can't tell the difference between a sexy, troubled icon and Marilyn Monroe?

Source: Wired Top Stories | 20 May 2009 | 4:00 am

8K laser projector: better picture, less retina-burning

Although the demand for 8K projectors isn’t exactly blowing up, it’s useful for specialty stuff (digital dome projectors, scientific stuff, other applications you don’t think about) and for scrubbing through portions of your 28K footage. Evans & Sutherland was unimpressed with current projection solutions, however, and decided it’d be better to make a totally awesome laser projector that does 8K and even allows for splitting into 4K 3D footage.

Nobody is distributing 4K movies yet (2K, or 1080p is just becoming a real standard), so 8K is a long ways off. But that doesn’t mean this thing isn’t a useful piece of kit. The laser projection method avoids the “gapped pixels” in other projection methods, which do indeed have blank areas at perfect focus. Sure, they’re barely perceptible, but visually demanding consumers will enjoy the knowledge that their new projector uses “a moving column of light” instead of those other, more vulgar solutions.

It’s a little sketchy that it’s only available in render form right now, but I’m sure they’ll fix that.

[via Gizmodo]

Source: CrunchGear | 20 May 2009 | 3:48 am

The City of Heroes Expansion & the Issues of User-Created Content

eldavojohn writes "Wired has a piece on the new City of Heroes content that is created by players — or rather the severe abuse of it. Namely, creating missions for the characters. The problem is that gamers game this system, even though Paragon City has tried to maintain a good risk/reward ratio for experience in these missions. Making the situation even worse is that people who architect highly-rated missions get architect awards, which are redeemable for prizes — almost ensuring experience farming missions. Eric Heimburg (lead engineer and producer of Asheron's Call and the upcoming Star Trek MMO) comments on this: 'It may seem sad that giving the players what they want is detrimental to the player's overall length of enjoyment of the game, but that's the truth. Once you reached that top of the hill, if there's nothing left to do or see, players are likely to move on. Length of enjoyment (equals) amount of money earned, so developers have a strong incentive to keep players from gaining power and levels too quickly.' Matt Miller (lead designer of CoH), addressed the community on this very topic. This is resulting in an unexplained ban/loss of experience if you are determined to be abusing the mission architect, causing an uproar in the community. Is user-generated content a dead end for an MMORPG?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 20 May 2009 | 3:28 am

Footbo Raises $1 Million For Social Network Focused On The World’s Most Popular Sport

As the world’s most popular sport, soccer (or football as it is called in most of the world) has no shortage of devout fans, and with the World Cup coming up in just over a year, that popularity is set to skyrocket once again. So it’s no surprise that social networks dedicated to the sport have emerged that are looking to capitalize on this massive market. One of these is Footbo, a soccer-centric social network that has just closed a $1 million funding round from Pitango Venture Capital.

Since launching last June, the site has built up an international audience of 240,000 across English, Spanish, and German-speaking countries. The site has also recently implemented Facebook Connect, and is working to further increase exposure through a number of widgets.

While Footbo is touted as primarily a social network, it offers a handful of major interlocking components. Its social network includes standard functionality like allowing users to connect with friends, participate in groups, and message each other. There’s also a collection of data and statstics of professional teams from 70 international leagues, including scores, standings, and fixtures (schedules). The site also has over 50,000 team and player profiles.

Users can interact with this data through prediction games (which have also been integrated into Virgin Media), customized news feeds, and subjective grading of how their favorite teams fare during a game, which they can then compare to other users. Users can also add their own content, including blogs and wiki pages revolving around players and teams. Members can also use the Footbo platform to create their own teams and leagues for recreational play.

Footbo competes with a number of other soccer-centric sites, including ESPN’s Soccernet.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 20 May 2009 | 3:20 am

Writing and Painting

(Rudy Rucker is a guestblogger. His latest novel, Hylozoic, describes a postsingular world in which everything is alive.)

I finished a new painting this week, seemingly just a still life of a geranium---often I paint more surreal kinds of things, as you can see on my paintings site.

With this geranium I did, however, have something extra in mind, that is, I'm working on a kind of urban fantasy/sf novel called Jim and the Flims, and my characters are about to make their way to the castle of the King of Flimsy.

[Somewhat irrelevant picture of a beautiful neon sign.]

I should mention that Flimsy is an alternate world that is, I think, our afterworld, kind of medieval and bucolic---and I had the idea that the castle could look like a giant geranium. Those leaves are thick, you see, with rooms in them, and the flims (that is, the denizens of flimsy) are buzzing around them like gnats, only too small to see in the painting---that's the part I need the word-processor for!

You can hear me reading a draft of the first chapter of Jim and the Flims at my Feedburner podcast station, which you can access by clicking the button below.

As for painting and writing, Charlie Jane Anders has a nice article, "SF Writers Make Art," in the io9 SF site, featuring interviews with SF writers who paint, including me, Audrey Niffenegger, and Mary Robinette Kowal.

Source: Boing Boing | 20 May 2009 | 3:18 am

Video card retrospective: take a trip down Video Memory Lane

If you’ve been a PC gamer for more than a few years, it’s definitely worth your time to take a look at this long history of PC video cards. I jumped into the hardware game around the middle, when the Riva TNT was vying for dominance with the Voodoo2 and Rage 128.

If you have a technophobic spouse or work somewhere where people think “PCI express” is a kind of train, you probably should hide this article from view. Picture after picture of glorious old-school video cards, along with their specs and impact. It’s enough to send any sane person running for their lives. The rest of you, get your bookmarking hats on.

Back in the day, things were a lot different: no fewer than five or six companies were serious contenders in the video card game, as opposed to the two there are today. That must have been hell for game developers, although DirectX did serve as a handy rallying point. Anyhow, it’s a great little trip to make if you like being nostalgic about old computers (I hope I’m not can’t be the only one).

Source: CrunchGear | 20 May 2009 | 3:04 am

Court Rejects RIAA's Proposed Protective Order

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "You may recall that a few weeks ago the Court rendered a detailed decision providing for safeguards in connection with the RIAA's proposed inspection of the defendant's hard drive in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum. The decision instructed the RIAA to submit a proposed protective order consistent with the Court's decision. The RIAA submitted a proposed protective order yesterday, which attracted some thoughtful commentary by readers of my blog, but today the Court rejected the RIAA's suggested order, explicitly rejecting many of the 'enhancements' included by the RIAA, including production of 'videos' and 'playlists' which might be found on the hard drive. Instead the Court entered an order the Court itself had drafted. The Court explained that 'the purpose of compelling inspection is to identify information reasonably calculated to provide evidence of any file-sharing of Plaintiffs' copyrighted music sound files conducted on the Defendant's computer. Once this data is identified by the computer forensic expert... any disclosure shall flow through the Defendant subject to his assertion of privilege and the Court's authority to compel production, just as disclosure would occur in any other pre-trial discovery setting... (1) As should have been clear from the Court's May 6, 2009 Order, although the Plaintiffs may select experts of their choosing, these individuals are not to be employees of the Plaintiffs or their counsel, but must be third-parties held to the strictest standards of confidentiality; (2) the inspection is limited to music sound files, metadata associated with music sound files, and information related to the file-sharing of music sound files — it shall not include music "playlists" or any other type of media file (e.g., video); (3) the Examining Expert shall be required to disclose both the methods employed to inspect the hard drive and any instruction or guidance received from the Plaintiffs.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 20 May 2009 | 1:15 am

Damien Hirst's giant replica of a kid's anatomy model

Damien Hirst was sued by the company that makes the 14-inch Young Scientist Anatomy Set for his giant sized replica of the same, but it was so worth it.

Giant Anatomy


Source: Boing Boing | 20 May 2009 | 1:12 am

Shields Up!: 419 Scams

Section: Computers, Security, Features, Originals

I doubt there is anyone with an email address who hasn’t gotten an email like this at least once:

Well, I am Barrister kelvin Jones, a Solicitor. I am the Personal Attorney to Mr.Steve , who used to work with SIAMRAK Company Limited in Bangkok Thailand.
On the 21st of April 2004, his wife and their three children were involved in a car accident along Sukhumvit Express Road.
. . .
Upon receipt of the fund, I will come over to your country to meet with you for the disbursement of the fund and then you and I will share the money in this order: 70% will be for me, 30% will be for you.

Yep and if you fall for this there is a lovely bridge in Brooklyn and some oceanfront property in Arizona with your name on it.  Welcome to the world of 419 scammers.

The “419 scam,” also known as the “Nigerian scam,” has been around since the 80’s and is one of the most sent types of spam in existence.  The scam gets its name from the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with fraud. The emails, most of which claim to come from people in one of the African nations (some also claim to be from people located in South America, Central America, or Europe), contain a variation of the same basic story involving a bank account containing millions of dollars. 

The recipient is either told they have inherited this money from a long lost relative, is asked to accept the funds from the owner who is usually terminally ill and has no family, or is asked to help move the funds and promised a huge percentage as a thank you. 

Popular variations on this include the “You’ve won a foreign lottery/sweepstakes” scam, and the dating scam.  In the dating scam, a man is lured into an online relationship with a woman located overseas.  Many photos and letter are sent until the woman gains the man’s affection and trust.  Then the scam begins.  She starts asking for financial help, supplying one fake story after another and promising she will come over to be with him if he’ll just help her get her finances in order.  Once the money runs out, the woman disappears.

If the recipient’s greed overrules their common sense, they will be asked to forward a processing fee to be used to transfer the funds.  From there, the scam unfolds.  They’ll be asked for more and more money for various reasons from bank fees to bribes.  By the time the victim realizes they have been scammed, it’s usually too late-their bank accounts have been sucked dry and the scammers are long gone.  Since they usually insist on the fees being sent via Western Union, they are impossible to trace.

Tragically, it isn’t just money that is lost in some cases.  So far about 25 deaths have been linked to the scam.  Many were suicides by victims unable to cope with their losses, but a at least 3 people have been reportedly murdered by the scammers after traveling to Africa in search of the money they were promised, and in one case, a woman shot and killed her husband after she lost $17,000 to a 419 scam.  There have even been reports of kidnappings.

There have been few arrests made in 419 scams.  The scammers are simply too difficult to find and often have corrupt police on their side.  If you’ve fallen victim to one of these scams, contact the U.S. Secret Service with as much documentation as you can:

United States Secret Service Financial Crimes Division
950 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20223
(202) 406-5850

These types of scams seem to get by spam filters regularly.  The best thing to do is just delete them.  Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to reply with threats or insults.  All you’ll succeed in doing is telling the scammers your address is valid and you are someone that reads their stuff.  The result?  Even more 419 spams!

Do you have a 419 scam story? Leave a comment and share it with us!

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 20 May 2009 | 1:07 am

Nokia Sees Mobile Users Wanting Services Over Phones (PC World)

PC World - Services, such as maps and music downloads, will dictate how consumers select their mobile phones, and hardware will adapt to meet this trend, said Tero Ojanperä, Nokia's executive vice president of services.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 May 2009 | 12:30 am

Astronaut Reaches Mt. Everest Summit (BB Video Update)

(Download MP4 / Watch on YouTube)

UPDATE: Astronaut Scott Parazynski, the astronaut whose climb we followed in yesterday's episode of Boing Boing Video with Miles O'Brien, has reached the summit of Mt. Everest! Read more about their trumphant ascent here, including the GPS devices they're using to track and publish the effort. He tried this last year, but was injured when he was very, very close to reaching the summit -- so this success, a year later, is all the more sweet. Congrats, Scott!

Source: Boing Boing | 20 May 2009 | 12:07 am

AT&T mulls cheaper data plans for phones (Reuters)

Reuters - AT&T Inc is considering offering cheaper data service plans with limited Web surfing for advanced cell phones including Apple Inc's iPhone.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 May 2009 | 11:56 pm

My recent money-related posts at Credit.com

I've been having a blast blogging for credit.com. Here are a few recent posts:

Spend Less by Keeping Large Bills in Your Wallet: You're less likely to spend your cash if it's in large denominations, reports the authors of a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page: Included in this ebook are a number of great tricks and tips for both spending less and earning more.

Make a list of the 10 most expensive things you own vs. the 10 things that make you the most happy: "Consumerist capitalism is the least oppressive system of mass trait display ever developed."

My Personal Credit Crisis - a New York Times' economics reporter's tale of financial disaster: Edmund L. Andrews says he willingly "joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages."


Source: Boing Boing | 19 May 2009 | 11:50 pm

Yahoo searching for ways to show fewer Web links (AP)

AP - Yahoo Inc. is pruning Web links from its Internet search results as it strives to provide more immediate gratification and lure traffic away from the market leader, Google Inc.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 May 2009 | 11:42 pm

Gmail intros new lab - automatic message translation

Section: Communications, Email / IM, Web, Google

A lot of us have family living in multiple countries where they probably speak different languages.  How many times have you received an email from a relative in a different language and had to resort to translating online?  I’m sure most of us have encountered such a problem at one time or another.  Today, Gmail attempted to solve this problem by introducing a new lab which, essentially translates the email from the foreign language to one you are more comfortable with.

To access this lab, begin by going to Gmail and navigating to the lab page.  Once there, find the message translation lab, enable it, and find an email that is in a different language than your current settings.  Luckily, I have in email in my inbox that is in French, so I’ll use that email to test out the lab.  Immediately, a message came up displaying three options - “Translate message to: English,”  “Change Language,” and “Learn More.”  After pressing translate to English, it took about three seconds to change the body of text from French to English.  The translation was made possible by use of Google Translate, which is a decent translator, but not as best as a human translator. 

It’s pretty interesting how Gmail was able to recognize that there is French text in the email, because the email I translated contained both French and English.  Keep in mind that there may be a few translation errors, but I’m sure you will be able to get the gist of the message.  As most Gmail Labs, it takes a few days for it to roll out to all accounts, so be patient!

Read [Gmail]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 19 May 2009 | 11:12 pm

Robot Warriors Will Get a Guide To Ethics

thinker sends in an MSNBC report on the development of ethical guidelines for battlefield robots. The article notes that such robots won't go autonomous for a while yet, and that the guidelines are being drawn up for relatively uncomplicated situations — such as a war zone from which all non-combatents have already fled, so that anybody who shoots at you is a legitimate target. "Smart missiles, rolling robots, and flying drones currently controlled by humans, are being used on the battlefield more every day. But what happens when humans are taken out of the loop, and robots are left to make decisions, like who to kill or what to bomb, on their own? Ronald Arkin, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is in the first stages of developing an 'ethical governor,' a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire. His book on the subject, Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots, comes out this month."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 May 2009 | 10:59 pm

Advanced Algorithms Enlisted To Fight Cyberwars (PC World)

PC World - First Estonia. Then Georgia. Increasingly, the theoretical potential for cyberwar is becoming hard reality. One new report argues that the unchecked proliferation of cyber warfare weapons is comparable to that of nuclear warheads. At least one branch of the US military, United States Navy takes the threat seriously and monitors cyber threats on a daily basis.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 May 2009 | 10:50 pm

Cory Doctorow Draws the Line On Net Neutrality

Nerdposeur points out that Cory Doctorow has a compelling piece in The Guardian today, arguing that network neutrality is not only crucial for the future of the Internet, but is what the ISPs owe to the public. He asks, "Does anybody else feel like waving a flag after reading this?" "If the phone companies had to negotiate for every pole, every sewer, every punch-down, every junction box, every road they get to tear up, they'd go broke. All the money in the world couldn't pay for the access they get for free every day... If they don't like it, let them get into another line of work — give them 60 days to get their wires out of our dirt and then sell the franchise to provide network services to a competitor who will promise to give us a solid digital future in exchange for our generosity."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 May 2009 | 10:12 pm

Auto phone calls help patients take meds

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 9:34 pm

Spy Satellite Photos Used To Fight Drug Smugglers

Hugh Pickens writes "The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, part of the Department of Defense, is using satellites to track the activities of drug cartels operating along the US-Mexican border. The agency is supplying photos to pinpoint Mexican narcotics operations and anticipate smuggling attempts into the United States. During a conference on border security held in Phoenix last week, Scott Zikmanis said his agency already has supplied some data to the El Paso Intelligence Center, a federal clearinghouse for investigating drug cartels. Any border-security surveillance will be done over Mexico, not the US says Zikmanis because a federal law, the Posse Comitatus Act, strictly limits US military operations on American soil unless such operations are authorized by Congress. Civil rights attorneys question the use of satellite technology in law enforcement. 'We are in the midst of a really dangerous time in terms of technology,' said Chris Calabrese, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. 'The idea that such a powerful tool might be turned on US citizens is really troubling.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 19 May 2009 | 9:27 pm

Biological particles found in high clouds

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 9:23 pm

NASA awards $6.4M to enhance learning

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says it has awarded $6.4 million in U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 9:13 pm

Twitter co-founder announces that site will remain ad-free

Section: Web, Web Apps, Websites

Twitter founders are looking for ways to make money from the wildly popular micro-blogging site, but as of right now they are not pursuing ad revenue options.  Co-Founder Biz Stone said on Monday at the Reuters Global Technology Summit that the company will instead look to marketing specialized tools to businesses.

Twitter is steering clear of advertising due to several reasons.  For one, they feel ads will annoy their users.  Additionally, the company has no interest in hiring and maintaining the staff to run an advertising department.  Twitter wants to make money in new and interesting ways instead of relying on advertisements, like most Internet start ups.  Interestingly enough, Twitter turned down an offer of $500 million from Facebook last year as well as a potential deal from Google.

Although right now Twitter remains ad free, this does not mean that the company will not change its mind and pursue this source of revenue.  Official details about the business tools to be available on Twitter have yet to be released, but Stone said to expect to see some of them available by year’s end.

Read: [Reuters]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 19 May 2009 | 9:04 pm

High-Speed Cameras Reveal the World Inside Time

A hummingbird’s neck is structured like a bucket that acts as a holding tank for liquids. If it hadn’t evolved this way, the bird would choke to death whenever it tried to take a sip of water.

This accidental discovery was observed not by human eyes, but through the lens of a super high-speed camera. It’s just one example of interesting phenomena revealed when video is played back in extreme slow motion. The hummingbird clip appeared in an episode of Time Warp, a show whose premise is to make the ordinary extraordinary with one trick: slowing it down.

“We’ve evolved for 5 billion years just to do what we needed to do to be alive … and we can see 30 to 50 things a second,” said Jeff Lieberman, co-host of Time Warp. “With high-speed cameras we can see a million things a second, and we’re looking at everyday things and seeing an entire world that exists underneath.”

Typically costing upward of $100,000, high-speed cameras are capable of shooting at amazingly high frame rates, stretching a single second into minutes of super slow-motion playback. In order to achieve this feat, each of these cameras draws its powers from a unique, highly advanced complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) — or, in simpler terms, an extremely beefed-up pixel sensor. The cameras were designed for military testing, scientific research and other industry applications.

Though earlier high-speed cameras used film, digital devices have since become the standard due to their more precise ability to capture serendipitous and unexpected phenomena, utilizing a special data-writing method. With hundreds of thousands of frames captured per second, the data needs somewhere it can travel speedily. The high-speed cameras process images using the fastest DRAM available, and writing is performed using a data structure called the circular buffer. The circular buffer keeps recently written data while overwriting older data when the buffer is full, thereby preventing overloading.

In Time Warp, Lieberman leaves the camera recording for as long as he wishes, and when he spots a segment he wants to keep, he hits a trigger. Then, the camera stores only those few seconds that he wishes to keep, erasing earlier, unwanted data.

“It’s not really feasible to record 20 minutes when all you want is 100 milliseconds,” said Andrew Bridges, sales and marketing manager of Photron, which manufactures some of the cameras used in Time Warp. “Digitally you have these various options…. And it’s a lot better than the old film way where the event had to occur in the brief amount of seconds the camera was actually recording onto film.”

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 May 2009 | 9:00 pm

High-Speed Cameras Reveal the World Inside Time

When you slow things down -- really slow things down -- you can learn a lot.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 19 May 2009 | 9:00 pm

High-Speed Cameras Reveal the World Inside Time

When you slow things down -- really slow things down -- you can learn a lot.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 May 2009 | 9:00 pm

Study: Women underrepresented in science

A national survey commissioned by L'Oreal USA finds 65 percent of U.S. adults cannot name a single famous female scientist. The telephone survey, conducted by the Opinion Research Corp, also found 74 percent of U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 8:48 pm

Clinton Urges World’s Cities To Protect Planet

Leaders of the world's cities heard from former US President Bill Clinton at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, where he urged them to act swiftly to save the planet for their grandchildren, The American Free Press reported.Executives from the 40 largest cities plus 17 affiliate municipalities, which produce over two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions, attended the summit in Seoul, the third such event since 2005.Clinton’s own Climate Initiative develops programs to help cities cut the emissions blamed for global warming.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 8:45 pm

Ionic-Cooling Laptop

What if every time your laptop hit 100°F, you didn't have to hear a noisy fan? Technology Review reports:

One novel idea is to cool a system by using ions to push air molecules across a hot microprocessor, thereby creating a cooling breeze. So-called ionic-cooling systems have been demonstrated in research labs before, but now Tessera, an international chip-packaging company based in San Jose, CA, has demonstrated an ionic-cooling system integrated into a working laptop... Tessera's ionic cooler sits near a vent inside the laptop. Heat pipes, which transfer heat using the evaporation and condensation of a fluid, draw heat away from the computer's processing units and toward the ionic-cooling system. Inside the ionic-cooling device are two electrodes: one that ionizes air molecules such as nitrogen, and another that acts as a receiver for those molecules. When a voltage is applied between the two electrodes, the ions flow from the emitter electrode to the collector. As they move, their momentum pushes neutral air molecules across a hot spot, cooling it down... The system can extract roughly 30 percent more heat from a laptop than a conventional fan can, and lab tests show that it could potentially consume only half as much power, the company says... Tessera isn't the only company looking at ionic breeze as a means to cool consumer electronics. Researchers at Garimella's own lab at Purdue have demonstrated a similar technology, which is being developed commercially by an early-stage Silicon Valley startup called Ventiva.

[image via Sherritalley]


Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 19 May 2009 | 8:38 pm

Nokia Patent Seeks Emoticons for Phones

Feeling blue? Let your phone say that to the world. Nokia has filed a patent for a system that would allow a phone to transmit the user’s basics emotions along a text or voice message and have the receiver’s device flash the appropriate light to indicate the emotion.

“Light messaging allows a user to express a mood while having an ongoing call or while sending a text message,” said Nokia in its patent filing. “The light messaging may set the tone of the communication. People react to lights and colors very deeply and emotionally.”

That means when a user sends a text message, they can choose an appropriate mood from the phone’s software options. A color corresponding to that emotion is embedded with the message and sent. The receiver’s phone then lights up displaying that color along with the message.

Here’s how the system would work, says the filing. It would consist of a transmitter, a light indicating signal such as an LED and firmware to select the mood. When, for instance, a text message is to be sent,  the user would select a color to go with it, such as red for high priority messages. When the message is received, the red color is displayed either through a special LED element or on the entire keypad or as a backlight of the appropriate color to the message.

It seems like a rather simple and easy system, one that Nokia doesn’t need to really patent. So the question is, is there really any value to a user from this? Does this improve the phone’s usability? We think not. But its a nice gimmick to have on a phone.

Nokia’s Patent Application [via NewScientist]

Photo: (turbojoe/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 May 2009 | 8:35 pm

Apple: Beware Static In Your Earbuds

Those trendy, white earbuds we’ve all come to know and love could turn against us in the form of a static shock, according to a support bulletin issued by Apple.

According to Apple, static can build up in the earbuds under a number of conditions: very dry environments, very windy environments, taking your device in and out of your pocket, jogging or exercising with your device, or contact with clothes composed of synthetic fibers such as nylon.

Apple’s advice? Buy stuff. A portable humidifier will add moisture to the air; anti-static sprays remove static in the air; anti-static hand lotion will help if you have dry skin; and, well, clothes that aren’t nylon would help, obviously.

Other than that, Apple advises to keep your media player out of the wind by using a case, or leaving it in your bag or pocket. Also, resist whipping out your iPod/iPhone repeatedly like you’re Clint Eastwood.

Apple said static build-up is not isolated to Apple earbuds, meaning other devices could experience the same issues.

Support bulletin [Apple]

Photo: mil8/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 May 2009 | 8:31 pm

Clever box from LeapFrog grabs parents' attention, not kids'

LeapFrog sent me their new Text & Learn kids PDA. God knows why—I pushed the buttons a few times, then started to cry when the pixel puppy began to judge me. I will push the buttons when I want to, dog, not when you command me from your bubblebath. Here is a new lesson: I am a human and you are a dog. Now let me in that bubblebath. But I love their box, with its horror movie font and the ruined real PDA (looks like a Palm). It's not anything that kids will care about, but it should grab parents' attention long enough to get them to open up the front flap to find the Text & Learn inside.


Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 19 May 2009 | 8:14 pm

Music Labels Want Pirate Bay Shuttered

The recording industry wants to add new fines to the $3.6 million levied against the four co-founders of The Pirate Bay. The four face a one-year prison term and fines for copyright infringement for running the world's most notorious BitTorrent tracker.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 May 2009 | 8:13 pm

Remarkably Preserved Fossil May Be Missing Link

The remarkably preserved fossil remains of a lemur-like, 47-million-year-old creature was unveiled amid great fanfare at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on Tuesday.  Some say the fossil, named Ida, is the "missing link" between modern primates – humans, monkeys and apes - and their more distant relatives.Ida’s preservation is so good that the outline of its fur and even traces of its last meal are visible.However, some independent experts are critical of the hype surrounding the fossil’s unveiling, and are skeptical that the fossil represents the missing link.Ida was discovered in the 1980s in a fossil treasure-trove near Darmstadt, Germany, known as Messel Pit.  The fossil has been in a private collection since that time.Although details about Ida have been published in only one scientific journal, PLoS One, a book and a TV documentary about the discovery are already in the works.Jorn Hurum of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, led the investigation of the fossil's significance.  In an interview with BBC News, he described the female animal as "the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor", and called the discovery "a dream come true".Ida lived during a time in Earth’s history known as the Eocene, which was critical for the development of early primates.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 8:10 pm

Review: Terminator Salvation for the iPhone

There are few iPhone games that I would label as a ‘premium’ title or as a ‘must have’ and one would expect a $10 title to garner such a nod, but Gameloft’s Terminator Salvation unfortunately falls short of receiving such accolades. That’s not to say the game is horrible. Far from it, actually, but I just expected more than two hours of gameplay. At the very least, I hoped to walk away with the desire to replay the game. It seems as though a lot of folks have felt that way: Gameloft has since slashed the price of the game to $6, which is a bit more tolerable for the eight-level shooter.

If you’ve played Brothers In Arms for the iPhone, the control scheme is exactly the same in TS. In all, there are four control schemes, but the default scheme is definitely the easiest to use. One scheme allows you to control the character (John Connor or Marcus Wright) using the accelerometer, but I have no idea why anyone would want to do that. Ever. Seriously.

The default setup has an on-screen joystick to your left that controls horizontal and lateral movement while swiping across the screen with other phalanges points you in whatever direction you want to go. Sauron’s eye must be tapped should you wish to fire upon your enemies.

Aiming for your enemies on the iPhone screen isn’t too difficult, as the game features auto-targeting. When you point the crosshairs of your machine gun in the general vicinity of an enemy, you’ll automatically lock on.

There is plenty of variation between enemy types, but the AI is lacking. That said, we’ve yet to see any game on the iPhone with impressive AI, so we’re not too surprised. They do mix things up a bit; each enemy you encounter has their respective strengths and weaknesses, so you’ll have to adjust strategy accordingly.

Mini-games and bonuses are virtually non-existent in TS. Other than some really lackluster BioShock-like vending machine hacking games and the ability to replay the game as a T-600, what you see up front is what you get.

There’s nothing compelling enough that makes me want to come back and play the game a second time around. The graphics and 3D rendering are fairly good, but we noticed a good amount of framerate lag throughout the 2 hour game.

Terminator fans might dig it, but I’d have a hard time recommending it to anyone else. Big Head Games and Dark Horse Comics have a top-down Terminator shooter hitting the App Store in the next day or so, so it’ll be interesting to see which fares better.

Terminator Salvation [iTunes]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 19 May 2009 | 8:05 pm

Tiny, DIY Satellites Get NASA Boost

NASA launches a $3 million nanosatellite Tuesday to see what happens when you try to kill yeast with anti-fungals in zero gravity. Wired Science takes you inside the Stanford lab where the tiny, low-cost satellite concept was born.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 May 2009 | 8:00 pm

Embryo heartbeat drives stem cell creation

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 7:45 pm

Leonard Shlain, surgeon and author, dies

Leonard Shlain, a pioneer of laparoscopic surgery and author of three best-selling books, has died at 71 in San Francisco of brain cancer. Shlain had been ill for about two years, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 7:40 pm

'Whole Earth Telescope' Spies White Dwarf

Dozens of telescopes worldwide join forces to continuously study a dying star.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 7:20 pm

NASA names high school competition winners

The U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2009 | 7:15 pm

Solid state drives in servers?  It’s coming.

Section: Computers, Hardware, Peripherals, Storage

Fusion-io, who has an awesome front page image (as seen above), is working with Samsung to put in solid state drives into servers.  The first thought I had was, “Why?”  After all, solid state drives make a lot more sense for portable electronics like laptops since they can increase battery life and avoid damage when moved around.  Servers aren’t exactly known for their portability.

So why do this?  It’s actually about the lifespan of drives.  Traditional hard drives have moving parts which inevitably fail in the long run.  Why not put in a drive with no moving parts?  Samsung is bringing the NAND flash and Fusion is bringing its ioMemory controller. 

Now the only thing holding down server uptime will be the operating system, hackers, and people who trip over Ethernet and power cables. 

Company Site: [Fusion-io]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 19 May 2009 | 7:14 pm

Yahoo Seeks Web-Search Needle in Mobile Haystack

Yahoo thinks web searchers don't really want to search: They just want answers. So it's embarking on a new approach, informed by the terse, results-oriented necessity of mobile search — and moving that to the web.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 May 2009 | 7:00 pm

New Wave of Apps Build 'Where' Into the Web

The Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, which runs this week, will feature the latest in mobile applications, mapping technology and geo-enabled gadgetry, all of which is being used to build the next wave of location-aware web apps.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 May 2009 | 7:00 pm

Side by Side: Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3G

Now that the June 6 launch date and the $300 (before a $100 mail-in rebate) price tag is official for the Palm Pre, it is time to take a closer look at how the Pre compares to the iPhone 3G.

When the Palm Pre was first announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it offered features like universal search that scans contacts on the phone and the web, copy-and-paste and multi-tasking that were not available on the iPhone 3G.

But in March Apple closed the gap significantly. The iPhone 3.0 update to be released this summer would bring many of the Palm Pre’s features to the iPhone.

It’s an even contest for now.

Though Sprint’s network ranks third among the big carriers, Palm Pre users in some areas will have access to Sprint’s 4-G network. AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone is not expected to start rolling out its 4-G network until next year.

Meanwhile, the iPhone trumps in the App store. Apple and AT&T have advertised the independent applications available through the store heavily. And, so far, despite attempts by competitors such as Research in Motion’s the BlackBerry App World store, the iPhone’s App store is still far ahead in the choices it offers. Though Palm has launched its own app store, we’ll have to wait and see how successful it is gathering developer interest.

For those interested in the raw specs, here’s how the Pre and the iPhone compare (click the image to see the spreadsheet full-size):

Source: Palm and Apple websites.

See also:

• Six Reasons Why the Palm Pre is Special
• Palm Unveils Its Long-Awaited Smartphone, the Pre
• Video: Hands-On With the Palm Pre
• New WebOS Is Palm’s Secret Sauce
• Up Close and Personal With the Palm Pre

Top photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 May 2009 | 6:53 pm

Side by Side: Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3G

The Palm Pre comes out June 6 with a $300 price tag (before a $100 mail-in rebate). Let's see how the Palm Pre compares to the iPhone 3G.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 19 May 2009 | 6:53 pm

Side by Side: Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3G

The Palm Pre comes out June 6 with a $300 price tag (before a $100 mail-in rebate). Let's see how the Palm Pre compares to the iPhone 3G.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 May 2009 | 6:53 pm

Skeleton Sheds Light on Primate Evolution

A 47-million-year-old skeleton may help illuminate the early evolution of apes and humans.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 5:50 pm

Try out Microsoft’s My Phone totally free!

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Computers, Software / Applications, Peripherals, Storage, Web, Web 2.0, Web Browsers, Websites

Here is a quickie but goodie for you.  How do you like free?  (I’m sure the editors will have a field day with that lead in…a free quickie).  But, you know what I mean.  And hey!  Free is good.

Microsoft’s My Phone backup service for Windows Mobile has shifted from “by invite only” mode to public beta.  And what does that mean for you?  It means that anyone can rush on over and sign up to try it out.  And this one just may be worth the price of sign up.  Oh yeah, it’s free.  Well, still worth it.

My Phone syncs anything you have on your phone (any Windows Mobile 6+ phone that is) to their 200MB per person cloud.  Your contacts, text messages, calendars, photos, music, videos, all of it.  It also offers up a web interface to use so that you can view, edit and add to them.  If it’s on your phone, it’s on your cloud.  Simple.  There is a default backup scheduled once a day.

“We’re opening the beta to all users – no more waiting list or promotional codes! So you can tell your friends, family and colleagues with Windows Mobile phones to visit [the website] and start using My Phone today. We’ve heard from several of you who lost your phones about how My Phone saved the day. We love these stories,” revealed a member of the My Phone Engineering team.

Although it is totally free to sign up and try out the service right now, this probably isn’t going to stay that way forever.  Once Microsoft rolls it out officially, they are probably going to attach a price sticker to the service.  When is the “official launch” said to be expected?  Look for it when Windows Mobile 6.5 is released.

[Microsoft’s My Phone] via: slashphone

 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 19 May 2009 | 5:00 pm

Komodo Dragon's Deadly Bite Explained

It is poison, not bacteria, that gives the Komodo dragon's bite its lethal power.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 4:45 pm

Gamertell Interview: Author Micheal Scott on promoting books through Gaia Online

FROM GAMERTELL - Fans of the Alchemyst will get a chance to talk to the books author Micheal Scott on Gaia online. During interview with Scott he explains all the things mentioned in his books can be researched by curious readers…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 19 May 2009 | 4:30 pm

National Emission Limits to Conserve at a Cost

New fuel and emission standards will save oil for an extra $1,300 per vehicle.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 4:05 pm

Mockingbirds Can Tell People Apart

If you've ever wronged a mockingbird, you may want to watch your back.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 3:25 pm

Dell launches education focused touchscreen netbook

Section: Computers, Netbooks

Netbooks, we all know they can be great little devices for kids.  They’re cheap, small and can go with them everywhere.  They even sell the things in toy stores.  It makes sense then that Dell would release a netbook that’s focused on K-12 education.

The new Latitude 2100 is a 10.1” screen netbook designed to be handled by children.  It has a “rubberized” grip on the top and the bottom of the machine that Dell likens to a four-square playground ball.  It also has a touchscreen option and a gigabit Ethernet port to help is stand out against all the other netbooks. 

The Latitude 2100 will be offered to schools with a special 24-machine media cart for classrooms.  The media cart will be able to store and network 24 of the netbooks with a single power cord and ethernet cable, presumably it has a built in router.  When the students are using the netbooks in class the teacher can monitor the network activity lights on the lid of each netbook to see if maybe some student is too busy browsing the internet to pay attention.

The idea of an education focused netbook is very nice, and Dell also expects this to appeal to others outside the education space.  However, looking at its awful design and rubberized casing, I don’t know anyone that would prefer this machine.  The touchscreen is nice, as is the option to get it with Ubuntu Linux, XP or Vista, but the netbook just looks too ugly.  Dell was doing so well with the design of their machines as of late, which makes this disappointing.  Just because little kids are the main focus doesn’t meant that it has to look so damn unappealing to anyone else.

Read [Dell]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 19 May 2009 | 3:17 pm

Next-Gen iPhone Specs, Launch Date Revealed?

A source closely connected to Apple’s hardware team claims to possess knowledge of the next-generation iPhone’s specifications and release date.

The source told iPhone fan blog Apple iPhone Apps that the new iPhone will launch July 17. Many of the provided specifications corroborate with past rumors that the device will introduce a digital compass and a video recorder, among other features. (The source did not provide a photo; the image to the right is from a past rumor report for the sake of comparison.) Here’s the list:

• 32GB and 16GB storage (up from the current 16GB and 8GB models)
• $199 and $299 price points to be maintained
• 3.2-megapixel camera (up from the current 2-megapixel camera)
• Video-recording and editing capabilities
• Ability to send a picture & video via MMS
• Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
• OLED screen
• 1.5 times the battery life of the current models
• Double the RAM and processing power
• Built-in FM transmitter
• Apple logo on back will glow
• Rubber-tread backing
• Sleeker design
• Built-in compass
• The camera, GPS, compass and Google map combined will identify photo and inform about photo locations
• Turn-by-turn directions

Overall, if these claims are true, this is a relatively minor upgrade. The most notable new features would be the built-in compass (which appeared in earlier rumor reports), the video recorder and editor (the current iPhones don’t support video recording unless you Jailbreak them), the built-in FM transmitter and the OLED screen (which would improve battery life).

One of the features that sticks out to me is the built-in FM transmitter. I see no compelling reason for Apple to put this in the iPhone, as it is not a feature that users have been demanding, and it hasn’t appeared in other iPods.

Another specification I find strange is the OLED screen. That would be a welcome change because it would look nicer than the current LCD screen. But OLEDs are generally pricey, and if the current price points are maintained, I’m not sure if I believe this one.

Otherwise, the rest of the specifications appear not too far-fetched. If the source is simply taking shots in the dark, then most of these specifications are very conservative guesses derived from previous rumor reports.

What do you think, readers? I’m curious as to whether this list of purported specifications is enough to get you to upgrade from a current iPhone. Or if you don’t own one, will you buy one if these rumored features turn out to be true? Let us know in the comments below.

I, for one, will be standing in line for Apple’s next iPhone this summer whether or not these rumors are true. After all, my iPhone is resting in rice.

Updated 1 p.m. PDT to correct a typo: The current iPhone features an LCD screen, not an LED screen.

Updated 8:20 a.m. PDT to clarify earlier in the story that the source approached Apple iPhone Apps, not Wired.com.

Source Reveals Specs And Release Date of Next iPhone! [Apple iPhone Apps]

See Also:

• Rumor: Next-Gen iPhone Will Be a Snoozer Upgrade
• Easter Eggs Give Clues to Next-Gen iPhone
• Next-Gen iPhone Will Contain a Compass
• Screenshot Hints at Video Recorder in iPhone 3.0
• Apple’s Next iPhone Will Rule at Gaming
• Leaked Photos: Is This the Next iPhone?

Photo: MacRumors

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 May 2009 | 2:59 pm

Astronauts Say Goodbye to Hubble, for Good

Astronauts release the Hubble Space Telescope after five days of risky repairs.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 2:55 pm

Docomo’s cell phone line-up for this summer (part 2: PRIME and PRO series)

NTT Docomo not only announced eight new cell phones in their SMART and STYLE series today but also presented nine other models that are part of the so-called PRIME (top row in the picture) and PRO (the three devices on the right in the bottom row) series. Here is the complete rundown of the PRIME and PRO models. Some of the specs are unbelievable.

PRIME series

Fujitsu F-09A

(touch screen with 3.4-inch rotating WVGA display (90 degrees) and 8.1MP CMOS camera)

LG L-06A

(HSUPA cell phone (5.7Mbps maximum) with 3-inch touch screen, 5MP CMOS camera and quick access to various Google services)

NEC N-06A

(Wifi cell phone (IEEE 802.11b/g compatible, 54Mbps maximum) with rotating touch screen and 8MP camera)

NEC N-07A

(designer cell phone with 3-inch WVGA display and pre-installed sports apps)

Panasonic P-07A

(VIERA cell phone with 8.1 CMOS camera, LED flash and 2.1-inch QVGA sub display)

Sharp AQUOS SHOT SH-06A

(AQUOS cell phone with 10MP CCD camera and 3.3-inch touch screen)

HTC HT-03A (aka HTC Magic)

(the first Android phone in Japan, due out in June or July)

Sharp SH-07A

(cell phone with double digital TV tuner, 10MP CCD camera, Bluray recorder support, 2GB of internal memory and rotating 3.3-inch WVGA display)

Toshiba T-01A (aka TG01)

(alleged iPhone competitor with 1Ghz CPU, Windows Mobile and a 4.1-inch touchscreen, due out in Japan in June or July)

Find part 1 of the Docomo summer 2009 line-up here.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 19 May 2009 | 2:54 pm

Video: A rosie future for Android

Android hacker extraordinaire Haykuro is at it again. Just days ago, he ported a build of Android from the HTC Hero to the G1, showing off a handful of features we’d never seen before. This time around, he has managed to get his hands on a build that looks to have seen a ton of visual polish - but by who? We don’t know if the visual overhaul is an official act of Google for the sake of the platform, HTC for their own releases, or just some guy who is damn good at making things look pretty. What we do know is that we want it.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 19 May 2009 | 2:15 pm

Animal Biodiversity Keeps People Healthy

A study shows as populations of animals lose diversity, disease rates increase.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 2:15 pm

Docomo rolls out 17 (partly awesome) cell phones in Japan (part 1: STYLE and SMART series)

Following Softbank, Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier NTT Docomo announced its summer cell phone line-up [JP], consisting of a total of 17 new candy bars. Docomo breaks down the handsets into four series: STYLE (top row in the picture), SMART (the two phones on the left in the bottom row), PRO and PRIME. And some of the models just look awesome (sales begin this month).

Here are the eight cell phones that belong to the STYLE and SMART series.

STYLE series:

Fujitsu F-08

(compact and water-proof cell phone, which is 17.8mm at its thinnest part)

LG L-04A

(slider with 3-inch touch screen)

NEC N08A

(extra-slim (13.9mm) cell phone with 8MP camera and 3-inch WVGA display)

Panasonic P-08A

(slider with 8.1MP CMOS camera)

Panasonic P-010A

(water-proof cell phone with 3.1-inch QVGA display)

Sharp SH-o5A

(water-proof handset with 8MP CCD camera and special map function)

SMART series

Panasonic P-09A

(super slim (12.5mm) cell phone with superior sound quality)

NEC N-09A

(business cell phone with “leather” case, a 3.2-inch WVGA display and a 8.1MP CMOS camera)

The PRO and PRIME models can be found here.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 19 May 2009 | 2:06 pm

Buzzd Unveils Location-Based Entertainment Guide For The BlackBerry

buzzd, a location-based city guide and social network, has launched a native app made for BlackBerry smartphones, which brings many features of its mobile Web version to a native mobile application. The network was one of the recipients of the first round of investments from the BlackBerry Partners Fund (similar to Facebook's fb Fund) last October. Previously only available via a mobile web browser, buzzd has also launched a companion website (for a computer browser) that offers the same information. buzzd's app answers the question, “What’s going on around me right now?" Buzzd will tell you which bands are playing at local bars, the location of a four-star eatery, which bar is most popular and other similar information. The interface lets the user share information with others on buzzd, so people can setup their own social networks.

Source: MobileCrunch | 19 May 2009 | 2:05 pm

What you always wanted: Blu-ray and DivX together at last

Section: Video, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray

Not sure why you’d need it, but you can have one set top box that can play Blu-ray and DivX video.  LG has put together these two technologies in its LG BD390.

This might actually make some sense.  Every electronics manufacturer needs to do something to differentiate their products from their competitors.  Samsung’s got its “Touch of Color” line of electronics and LG puts together technologies in one box.  It’s a safe bet to say that Blu-ray players were picked up by tech-savvy people.  Adding in DivX support will grab some more technophiles. 

The player will be able to decode up to 1080p videos over the network (it even has built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi), a DVD, or USB device.  I’ve seen some samples of HD DivX video and it’s pretty impressive.  You can get some nice quality video in a small file.  Maybe it’s not so crazy after all.  It’s available now for $450.

[Product Page] via [PRNewswire]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 19 May 2009 | 2:00 pm

Were Dinosaurs Gassed Out?

Carbon monoxide, spewed into the air, may have led to the dinosaurs' demise.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 19 May 2009 | 1:49 pm

Boom! Palm Pre to Launch June 6th, $300

Palm says the Pre will go on sale on Saturday June 6th for $300. That's just two days before Apple’s WWDC, where many are expecting the announcement of a new iPhone.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 19 May 2009 | 1:00 pm

Palm Pre launching on Sprint June 6th for $200

Finally! Sprint has officially announced that the Palm Pre will be launching on June 6th for $200 after a $100 MIR and a two-year contract. You'll be able to purchase a Pre from Sprint, Best Buy, Wal Mart, and Radio Shack. When purchasing a Palm Pre you must add one of the following plans: Everything Data plan or Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plan, which start out at $70. Also available on launch day are the Palm Touchstone and Touchstone back cover for $50 and $20, respectively. There's a Touchstone Kit available for $70 that, you know, includes the dock and back cover. That's it for now.

Source: MobileCrunch | 19 May 2009 | 12:41 pm