Source: Gizmodo | 29 May 2009 | 11:00 pm

China Online Firms Not Playing Around; Games Get Ahead (Investor's Business Daily)

Investor's Business Daily - The growth of online PC gaming in China not only has boosted the fortunes of several companies there, it could portend a major shift ahead in the worldwide video game market.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 May 2009 | 10:45 pm

Guide to some of the military's rock bands

Over at Playboy.com, the inimitable Jack Boulware surveys the greatest of the military rock bands. Some are "official" while others, called "kix bands" by the Navy, are in it just for the, er, kicks. From Playboy.com:

Hang Ten aka US Navy Pacific Fleet Rock Band

Based at: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Members: Nine

Official Description: “An extensive repertoire encompassing popular music from the 1960's to today's latest hits…everything from rock and pop to disco and light jazz”

Playlist: Guns N’ Roses, Gwen Stefani, Bob Marley

Original Songs: None listed

Bonus: Navy publicity requested control and approval over this story!

"Battle of the Battle Bands"





Source: Gizmodo | 29 May 2009 | 10:40 pm

Credit Crunch Squeezing Data Center Space

miller60 writes "Many companies have saved money by leasing wholesale 'plug and play' data center space instead of building their own facilities. But the credit crunch has slowed the construction of new data centers, and analysts say this will create a shortage of data center space in 2010 in key markets like northern Virginia and Silicon Valley where demand exceeds supply. The situation is already becoming critical for companies with large space requirements, as indicated by a flurry of leasing recently in northern Virginia, where the remaining space may be quickly absorbed by government stimulus projects."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2009 | 10:38 pm

Obama to create White House cybersecurity post (Reuters)

Reuters - President Barack Obama said he will name a White House-level czar to coordinate government efforts to fight an epidemic of cybercrime, which even touched his presidential campaign.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 May 2009 | 10:37 pm

Alex Pang on Tinkering

Just in time for the Maker Faire Bay Area this weekend, my Institute for the Future colleague Alex Pang wrote a fascinating essay about tinkering. I love the word "tinker." Back in Cincinnati, my oldest brother Mark, a lifelong maker who is now a research scientist and physician, spent his teen years digging around in an electronics hobbyist supply shop called The Tinker where resistors and capacitors were sold by the pound. From Vodafone Receiver:

What is interesting is that at its best, tinkering has an almost Zen-like sense of the present: its 'now' is timeless. It is neither heedless of the past or future, nor is it in headlong pursuit of immediate gratification. Tinkering offers a way of engaging with today's needs while also keeping an eye on the future consequences of our choices. And the same technological and social trends that have made tinkering appealing seem poised to make it even more pervasive and powerful in the future. Today we tinker with things; tomorrow, we will tinker with the world.

What is tinkering? Discovering that certain snack tins can be used to make an antenna that extends the range of your wi-fi network, using electric toothbrush motors to power small robots, building a high-altitude balloon that takes video of the edge of space, are all examples of tinkering. It is technical work and a cultural attitude. Tinkering is customizing software and stuff; making new combinations of things that work better than their parts; and discovering new capabilities in or uses for existing products. Despite its fascination with things and bits, it is resolutely human-focused: you don't make things 'better' in some dry technical sense, you make them work better for you. Tinkerers modify everything from cars, computers, and cellphones, to virtual worlds and computer code. They are driven by a desire to experiment, to make existing technologies more useful, and to customize them to better suit users' needs.

According to MIT professor Mitch Resnick, tinkering might look at first like traditional engineering, but it is very different. Both are about designing and making things; but engineering tends to be top-down, linear, structured, abstract and rules-based - a highly formal, organized activity, meant to be carried out in (and in the service of) large organizations. Tinkering, in contrast, is bottom-up, iterative, experimental, practical and improvisational: informal and disorganized, accessible to anyone who is willing to learn (and fail) and it doesn't follow any plan too closely.

"Tinkering to the future"


Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2009 | 10:32 pm

Web Zen: Feline Zen

05.29.09 : feline zen 2009

Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2009 | 10:28 pm

Google’s Public Policy Chief To Be Deputy CTO for Obama Administration

Google’s head of public policy, Andrew McLaughlin, will join the Obama administration as deputy chief technology officer, according to a report by the New York Times. McLaughlin will assist former Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra, who President Obama appointed as CTO in April.

McLaughlin has been leading Google’s public policy efforts for quite some time now. According to this blog post, he was the first member of Google’s policy team in 2005.

Before his time at Google, McLaughlin launched the nonprofit group Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, where he serves as vice president, chief policy officer, and chief financial officer. Previously, McLaughlin was a senior fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet. Most recently, McLaughlin was working on the Obama/Biden presidential transition team in Washington.

McLaughlin isn’t the only Googler to join the Obama administration. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who was speculated to be CTO, was recently named to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Former Google product manager Kate Stanton joined the White House as its director of citizen participation earlier this year.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 10:28 pm

Sorry I'm Late: stop-motion film

Sorry I'm Late is a fantastic stop-motion short film by Tomas Mankovsky. It was shot from above using a still camera. (Thanks, Carrie!)


Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2009 | 10:24 pm

ME BIGFOOT. ME ON TWITTER.

@hellobigfoot. Usually, him one does following, but now it is your turn.

If you don't have any of the books already, do yourself a favor. If nothing else, you can use one as a shield when he sneaks into your tent and tries to make off with all your granola and bullets. Here they are:
* In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot
* Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir
* Bigfoot: I Not Dead

(Thanks, Graham Roumieu, and thanks for turning me on to the books like 5 years ago, Susannah Breslin!)

Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2009 | 10:23 pm

Bartz’s (S)mash Note to Ballmer: The Photographic Proof [BoomTown]

If a search and advertising partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft is ever struck, perhaps a little CEO-to-CEO note-passing should get some credit.

Yesterday, we wrote about the purple Post-It that Bartz passed to Ballmer via the makeup person in the D: All Things Digital Green Room.

Both Bartz and Ballmer were interviewed onstage at D7 this past week, and were asked about the talks, which ended yesterday in Carlsbad, Calif.

BoomTown also reported that Ballmer and Bartz, as well as key deal execs at both Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT), had met in person once again about such a partnership at the conference.

Onstage, Ballmer dodged the question about meeting, joking about the sticky note Bartz had left for him.

That Post-It was stuck in a D7 program book that is kept by Dawn Griffith, our most excellent makeup person for all seven of the conferences.

Over the years, Griffith has asked all D7 speakers to sign programs next to their bios and Wall Street Journal-style dot drawings.

This year, Bartz and Ballmer shared a page in the book.

Bartz spoke on Wednesday morning and put the note below Ballmer’s picture, knowing he’d sign the program when getting his makeup done for his Thursday morning appearance.

And, not surprisingly for Bartz, it was a tough-love poem–although, thankfully, there is no cursing.

Here’s the image of the note (click on it once to make it larger), which reads:

“Steve,
Forget it
Won’t help
Ha
Carol”

Source: All Things Digital | 29 May 2009 | 10:07 pm

Communication Intelligence Corporation Closes Financing

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., May 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Communication Intelligence Corporation ("CIC" or "the Company") (OTC Bulletin Board: CICI), a leading supplier of electronic signature solutions for business process automation in the financial industry* and the recognized leader** in biometric signature verification, announced today that it has closed a financing, on May 28, 2009 led by Phoenix Venture Fund LLC (the "Investors"). Under the terms of the financing, which was effected as a supplement to the financing closed by the Company in June of 2008, the Company received gross proceeds of $1.1 million from and issued warrants to the Investors to purchase shares of the Company's common stock.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 10:04 pm

Swiss Writing Knife

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

Recently my jeweler daughter, Isabel, made me a great “Swiss Writing Knife” with symbols of seven of the things I’m interested in: A Zhabotinsky scroll (for cellular automata), the Mandelbrot set (for fractals), a robot, A Square (for the fourth dimension), Infinity, a UFO, a Cone Shell (for diving, cellular automata, universal automatism, and SF). It’s gold-colored metal and the little “blades” swing in and out, with the icons in silver-colored metal riveted on.

I tend to adjust the knife according to what kind of story or novel I'm working on, and I keep it by my keyboard as a good luck amulet, or an embodied muse.

Isabel's business, Isabel Jewelry is in Pinedale, Wyoming, and she makes most of her sales over the web. One of her customers was in fact Boing's own Cory Doctorow, who had her custom-make a pair of crypto-device wedding rings.

As a sometime zinester, Isabel has a cool drawings site as well---check out her "Get Back" story about thongs. Isabel's graphic novel, "Unfurling: The World's Longest Comic Strip," will be on display this November at the SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco, all four hundred or so feet of it!

Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2009 | 10:03 pm

Are Amazon's Web Services Going Open Source?

ruphus13 writes "Amazon has been one of the early movers in the cloud computing space, with its AWS offerings, including S3 and EC2. Now, there is a lot of chatter around the imminent open sourcing of all its APIs and services and the impact that will have on the other 'clouds' out there — public or private. From the article, 'Amazon faces significant threats from open source cloud computing efforts if it pursues a purely proprietary path [...] Amazon can't ignore the cost advantages and diversity of product offerings that open source players are already offering in the cloud computing space. The company's best move is to open source its tools, which will end up diversifying them, play on a level field in terms of cost with the open source alternatives, and charge for services. Absent these moves, the company will lose potential customers to free, open source alternatives [...] Word is Amazon's legal team is currently 'investigating' open sourcing their various web services API's including EC2, S3, etc.', although these have not been confirmed by Amazon."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2009 | 9:54 pm

PROMISES, PROMISES: Battling cyber turf wars (AP)

AP - The digital battlefield is proving to be difficult terrain for President Barack Obama.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 May 2009 | 9:49 pm

What's Goin' Down at Maker Faire

Maker Faire, the largest festival for DIYers, runs this weekend with more than 600 exhibits. 80,000 people are expected to attend.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 29 May 2009 | 9:40 pm

What's Goin' Down at Maker Faire

Maker Faire, the largest festival for DIYers, runs this weekend with more than 600 exhibits. 80,000 people are expected to attend.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2009 | 9:40 pm

Spy Vs. Spy: The Spymaster Backlash Begins And Twitter Needs To Fix It

Spymaster, the Twitter-based game that we covered last night, is spreading like crazy today. It’s been a trending topic on Twitter throughout the day, even ahead of the hype around Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. Because of this popularity though, some Twitter users are getting inundated with tweets from the service in their streams. It’s not really spam, because it’s their friends doing it, but to some, it’s very annoying. Former Digg lead architect, Joe Stump, is particularly pissed off.

“I’ve started both unfollowing and reporting users of this game to @spam. This isn’t because I hate my friends, it’s because I have no other recourse to stop this application’s abusive behavior,” he writes in a blog post today. While Stump isn’t entirely accurate that the only way to gain points is by tweeting out your actions in the game, the spirit of what he’s saying is correct because you are encouraged to tweet out your actions in the game to earn more points. He notes that this is similar to what happened with Facebook Platform early on, as games like Zombies took over people’s streams. This is something that VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon notes as well, joking that maybe they should rename the game “SpamMaster.”

But the real issue here, which both Stump and Eldon bring up, is that this is the perfect example of why Twitter needs filters of some sort. We’ve been railing on this for a while, and I’m actually quite glad this game has come along to bring the issue to the forefront. The problem isn’t that the game is spam, it’s that Twitter is not at all set up to handle games like this, even though it is positioning itself to be a robust platform.

You need to be able to do things like block certain hashtags or keywords, and to be able to group together certain friends. Currently, various third party sites/services handle thing on top of Twitter, but it’s not enough if Twitter is really going to be a new form of communication. Because if Twitter gets overrun by these types of viral games, people will simply stop visiting Twitter, and it will destroy the platform’s backbone.

Not that these are trivial things for Twitter to implement given its crazy rate of growth right now. But it will be needed if that growth is to continue in the future. At the very least, Twitter should allow you to block which apps you get updates from — though I think it still considers Spymaster updates to be coming from the “web.”

For his part, Spymaster co-founder Eston Bond says, “Backlash has been pretty minimal. Some people find Spymaster noisy but I’m amazed at how many people defend their tweeted spymaster actions to others (search can give you some examples.) For now, everyone’s having fun and I want to make sure that we can keep the game compelling in the long term. I have lots of content ideas that I’ll be hopefully implementing soon.”

Again, I don’t consider this Spymaster’s problem — but there is a problem, it’s Twitter’s. You’ll see this as more of these style games come along. It’s a matter of when, not if.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 9:33 pm

Cellular South Ready for 2009 Hurricane Season

Wireless Provider Bolsters Network For Uninterrupted Service In Any Emergency RIDGELAND, Miss., May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 2009 hurricane season right around the corner, Cellular South has taken steps to bolster its network and mobilize its employees to protect against a major storm-caused disaster.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 9:33 pm

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen game includes sweetest unlockables ever (cartoons!!)

While I won’t go as far as the press release does in calling this unlockable content “unprecedented” and “incredible,” it certainly is something I’d be happy to grind levels for. The Transformers game itself is coming out June 23rd on pretty much every platform, but the PS3, 360 and PC versions will be the only ones with these great bonuses:

• Six FULL episodes of the original Transformers animated television series
• Slideshows of original Hasbro comic art, propaganda-style comic covers and Luxoflux game concept art
• Generation 1 skins of Ironhide, Starscream and Long Haul, who are all playable characters in the single-player and multiplayer modes
• All in-game cinematic videos for replay
• One EXCLUSIVE standalone CG cinematic movie that cannot be seen anywhere else

Free cartoons? Original skins? That’s hotter than Megan Fox dipped in magma! The last time I really worked on unlockables was pretty much Shadow of the Colossus, so this will be nice.

Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2009 | 9:30 pm

Cellular South Prepared for 2009 Hurricane Season

Wireless Provider Offers Customers Emergency Communications Planning Tips RIDGELAND, Miss., May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 2009 hurricane season about to get underway, Cellular South, the nation's largest privately owned wireless communications carrier, is offering consumers and businesses in storm-prone areas some important disaster planning and communications reminders to use before, during and after any storm. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090319/CG86339) Before the Storm Charge your primary wireless phone battery and secure back-up batteries and a vehicle charger in a dry, accessible location.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 9:26 pm

5 Questions with Tumblr’s Marco Arment

Section: Web, Web 2.0, Websites, Features, Interviews

A lot of us use Twitter.  But when you want to post images, videos, and audio, you might want to move to something like Tumblr.  It’s an extremely easy blogging solution.  But, who’s behind Tumblr?  Get to know Marco Arment in this edition of “5 Questions.”  He put together much of Tumblr.  Would a Tumblr guy use Facebook?  His answer may surprise you.

1. Who are you?
I’m Marco Arment, a web programmer in New York.  I work for Tumblr and develop Instapaper on the side.

2. Facebook, Twitter, or something else and why?
Tumblr, because I wrote much of it, so I’m a bit biased.  Tumblr fits the way I publish online much better than anything else.  I use Twitter a bit because it’s a different publishing context with a different community that I get some utility from. I currently have no use for Facebook, and most days, I forget that it exists.  Like Windows.

3. Gadget you couldn’t live without (and why)?
A good Mac.  As great as other gadgets get, the personal computer is still far more useful to me for far more tasks than any other device can be.  I don’t foresee the general-purpose computer being meaningfully replaced in my lifetime.

But if a computer’s presence is assumed separately, I’d have to go with the iPhone.  So much usefulness hasn’t been packed into a single device since… the personal computer.

4. Most regrettable piece of tech you own [mine’s an original Sony Reader]
Every TV tuner or video-capture card that I’ve ever purchased, from the old Hauppauge MPEG-2 PCI tuners to the modern USB-stick ATSC versions. Every time I buy one, I barely touch it for months or years and eventually get rid of it.  A year or two later, I’ll forget that I never really use them and I’ll buy another one.  I think I’ve gone through about six of them so far.

5. If you could wish a gadget into existence, what would it be?
A vastly improved type of battery.

Nearly all technological progress for portable electronics rests on battery technology. Without better batteries that hold more power with less volume and weight, progress slows to a crawl. And battery technology tends to move very slowly.

Otherwise, I’d have to pick an iPhone with better camera optics, video recording, more RAM, a faster CPU, and fewer App Store headaches for developers.  The good news is that it sounds like I’m likely to get the former four items in about two months.

Site: [Tumblr]
Site: [Instapaper]
Site: [Marco.org]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 9:23 pm

Judgement Against Microsoft Declares XML Editing Software To Be Worth $98?

Many people have written to tell us about the patent infringement lawsuit that resulted in a $200 million judgement against Microsoft by a small Toronto firm called i4i. Techdirt has a line on the details of the suit where the patent in question is for "separating the manipulation of content from the architecture of the document." i4i argues that this covers basic XML editing to the tune of $98 per application. "It's quite troubling that doing something as simple as adding an XML editor should infringe on a patent, but what's even more troubling is that the court somehow ruled that such an editor was worth $98 in the copies of Microsoft Word where it was used. An XML editor. $98. And people say patent awards aren't out of sync with reality?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2009 | 9:11 pm

Hackintosh maker to open actual physical hackintosh store in LA

Is it confidence or hubris? Hackintosh company Quo Computers is looking to set up shop right in Apple’s back yard (well, down the street a little too), and for some reason they think their fate differ from Psystar’s. The difference, they say, is the quality of their products, despite the fact that those products are expressly forbidden by Apple’s OS X EULA. Still, it’s hard to get mad at these bushy-tailed little entrepreneurs when they say stuff like “I’m hoping that Apple sees the value in what we are doing.”

The deal doesn’t seem quite so different from Psystar and PearC, but the proprietors say they’re going to focus on having everything be as close to Apple-quality as possible, and will be talking to schools to get their frankenmacs into classrooms. Very ambitious!

Their site isn’t quite up yet, but they’re hoping to open online and in meatspace come June 1st. Something tells me their first customer might be an Apple lawyer. If you want to be there when it happens, head over to 2401 West Main Street in Alhambra, wherever that is — I guess near Pasadena, wherever that is.

Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2009 | 9:00 pm

Oil, gas lies north of Arctic Circle

Russia stands to benefit greatly from untapped oil and gas reserves north of the Arctic Circle, U.S. geologists said. Thirty percent of the world's untapped gas and 12 percent of its undiscovered oil lies in that region, U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 8:42 pm

Video: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings On The Economics Of Movie Streaming

A couple years ago, Netflix began supplementing its DVD mail rental business with movie streams over the Web. for a few thousand select titles. Today, millions of Netflix customers stream their movies instead of waiting for them to come in the mail (or, more often, do both). ComScore Video Metrix estimates Netflix’s online viewership a bit lower at 645,000 unique viewers in March. They watched 6.9 million video streams and the average time spent watching per viewer is an amazing 128 minutes for the month, which is right up there with YouTube in terms of time spent (having full-length feature films helps keep people around longer).

You pay Netflix a subscription, and you can watch your monthly allotment of movies any way you want. Netflix doesn’t care where you watch your movies, whether it is on your TV, xBox 360, Windows Media Center, or other devices.

Streams still make up a small portion of the overall movies watched by Netflix customers, but it is growing as the company expands its streaming catalog, broadband improves, and computers become more like TVs (and vice versa). I ran into Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the AllThingsD conference this week, and asked him in the video above how his streaming service is going and how its economics compare to that of mailing out DVDs. As you can imagine, it costs much less to stream a movie over the Internet than it does to mail it as a DVD. But Netflix ends up paying twice anyway because it already owns the movies on DVD. It has to pay the studios an additional streaming fee. The studios like that. “If the studios have their way, we’ll pay them two or three times,” quips Hastings. But he is resigned to paying wtice for movies he’s already bought. The way he looks at it, Netflix is paying the studios instead of the Post Office.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 8:41 pm

Ex-Employee Fingered in Texas Power Company Hack

The FBI raids the man's house as it investigates a computer intrusion at a large Texas power company that crippled the firm's electric consumption forecasting for a day.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2009 | 8:36 pm

McRae Industries, Inc. Dividend Declared

MOUNT GILEAD, N.C., May 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- McRae Industries, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 8:30 pm

EU Reports Decrease In Overall Emissions In 2007

Greenhouse gas emissions dropped in Europe for the third consecutive year as the European Union announced on Friday that it is on track to meet its long-term climate goal.Emissions of six greenhouse gases from the EU’s 27 nations dropped by 1.2 percent in 2007.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 8:29 pm

Facebook Revs Up For Payment Platform With Updated Terms

Facebook developers are dying for a unified payment platform, and all signs are pointing to one coming soon. In the latest news, the site has just released a draft of its proposed new Payments Terms, which will dictate how transactions will be conducted going forward. While the updated terms are in line with Facebook’s recent trend towards using simplified language in its legal documents, the company’s blog post also notes that the new terms will “give us the flexibility to try new features”. This isn’t particularly surprising - there have recently been reports of Facebook planning to begin testing payments some time soon, after months of delays.

Facebook is using the same community commenting process it used during its site-wide Terms of Service fiasco before it officially rolls out the new terms, giving users three days to voice their thoughts on the site’s Governance site.

You can read through the proposed list of rules here (there’s also a FAQ). Most of them are pretty straightforward - Facebook basically says that it licenses all of your virtual goods and credits to you (you don’t own them), and it can do whatever it wants as far as changing the price of credits. It’s also not responsible for anything you buy (aside from ensuring that your Facebook Gifts are delivered), and there are no refunds (though the company says that it may intervene in disputes betwen users concerning payments, but that it is under no obligation to do so). Some of the language refers to transactions between users and third parties, which is indicative of the upcoming payment system.

There are a few interesting tidbits worth looking through. My favorite is this one, which seems to indicate that Facebook can randomly disperse virtual gifts to friends if you fail to use your credits in three years (which could have some potentially hilarious consequences, depending on who receives those virtual bikinis and cans of Coors Light):

3.6 If you leave a balance of credits unused for three years, we may redeem those credits by sending virtual gifts to your Facebook friends or donating the credits to a nonprofit organization of our choice (and charging standard redemption fees for those transactions).

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

Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 8:23 pm

Video Shows Taliban 'Human Sacrifice,' Military Claims

Classified video taken from a B-1 bomber purports to show the Taliban engaging in a human sacrifice, which the military says justifies its actions during a firefight that resulted in civilian deaths.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2009 | 8:21 pm

It’s… a functioning beam katana

Similar to a light saber but more Nintendo-y, this DIY beam katana seems to be an actual working device, although I question its lethality. The creator won’t reveal his secrets, but I think it’s pretty clear there’s some kind of little smoke generator and one of those green high-powered lasers involved. Get a couple more high-powered ones or a mirror setup in there and you could actually start burning through some junk, though admittedly not at a true beam katana rate.

Here’s another video, with some cosplay thrown in there for good measure:

He looks like the kind of person my mom warned me about.

Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2009 | 8:20 pm

Schwarzenegger dedicates Livermore laser

California Gov.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 8:14 pm

If Your Phone Requires A Headset Adapter, Your Phone Sucks

Listen up, 2.5mm-to-3.5mm headset adapters. You too, crappy shape changers required by an absurd chunk of the worthwhile phones out there: We’re through. Game over. Just like voicemail and hand shakes, we’re officially declaring war on any middleman component required to pump audio from a cell phone, along with the phones that require them.

There was a time when this sort of thing was acceptable. It was only a few years ago. Most phones were hitting the shelves with but a few hundred megabytes of storage space, while standalone audio players touted capacities that all but the most dedicated downloaders had a hard time filling. Then came microSD and its high capacity variant, allowing users to pack up to 16 gigs of data (soon to be 32 gigabytes and, with the eventual evolution of SDXC, up to 2 terabytes) onto a card roughly the size of your thumbnail. Then came the iPhone which, whether the decriers like it or not, made much of the general populace give a damn about what their cell phones could do. With 3G networks up across the country and 4G networks beginning to roll out, audio streaming and on-the-go music downloads are becoming commonplace.

Phone manufacturers can no longer afford to implement media playback as an afterthought - but if they insist on requiring headset adapters, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Read the rest of this post >>

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

Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 8:14 pm

Plant to use salt to create energy

A desert solar plant closed in 1999 is being reopened in Barstow, Calif., to produce energy from the sun, molten salt and water, Rocketdyne engineers said. Rocketdyne is building components to enlarge the plant from 1,800 stationary mirrors, each about the size of a billboard, to 15,000 tilting mirrors, each about 25 feet wide, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. The mirrors will heat molten salt to more than 1,000 degrees, driving steam through a heat exchanger that powers an electricity-creating turbine, said Terry Murphy, president of SolarReserve, Rocketdyne's partner in the project. The technology was proved workable in the 1990s but there wasn't enough market for the energy, Murphy said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 8:11 pm

Foursquare To Serve Up APIs, More Mobile Apps, Free Beer

It’s been over 2 months since Foursquare launched at SXSW and something strange is happening: My friends are still using it — a lot. Sure, for the service to have real success, it will have to spread well beyond pockets of tech hipsters, but even this success is something we haven’t seen with the majority of location-based social networks so far. But Foursquare’s strategy is smart in that it’s just as much of a game, in which you collect badges and gain mayorships of your favorite local places, as anything else. And now it’s gearing up for a further expansion with an API.

Initially, team hopes this API will be used to build more mobile clients, co-founder Dennis Crowley tells us. Right now, there is only a native app for the iPhone, but he says that there are already a few people working on a native Android app as well. And they envision someone building a BlackBerry app shortly as well. I know that will be music the ears of a lot of my friends who are forced to visit Foursquare’s website from their mobile browsers, which is a less than ideal experience right now.

Crowley also says that someone has already used the APIs to build a desktop client on Adobe AIR.

As for the iPhone app, version 1.2 has just been submitted for approval to the App Store. As we know, that’s always a crapshoot, but assuming it gets approved in relatively short order, there will be a lot more cities the service will be available in. The team also recently rolled out a way to submit your own badges.

But the recent news that most interests me has to be how some cities have establishments that are acknowledging mayorships. You can a mayorship in Foursquare basically by being the person who checks in there most often (on different days). One bar in LA, Good Hurt, is giving away a free beer to the “mayor” every time they come in! Another place in Denver is giving away free lunches to the mayor, and some bar in Brooklyn has a blackboard which they write the mayor’s name on, Crowley tells us.

He says that the team is thinking about ways to work with more establishments to offer these sorts of deals. It’s really a pretty ingenious idea for both the service and the establishment, as it drives usage of both. It’s sort of like what some brands are using Twitter for, but the location aspect is particularly interesting and could be much more targeted. And yes, that could even eventually blossom into business model.

But basically, I just want some San Francisco bars to acknowledge my mayorships and give me a free beer. That’s my business model.

[photo: flickr/a4gpa]

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

Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 7:57 pm

If Your Phone Requires A Headset Adapter, Your Phone Sucks.

Listen up, 2.5mm-to-3.5mm headset adapters. You too, crappy shape changers required by an absurd chunk of the worthwhile phones out there: We’re through. Game over. Just like voicemail and hand shakes, we’re officially declaring war on any middleman component required to pump audio from a cell phone to decent headphones, along with the phones that use them.

There was a time when this sort of thing was acceptable. It was only a few years ago. Most phones were hitting the shelves with but a few hundred megabytes of storage space, while standalone audio players touted capacities that all but the most dedicated downloaders had a hard time filling. Then came microSD and its high capacity variant, allowing users to pack up to 16 gigs of data (soon to be 32 gigabytes and, with the eventual evolution of SDXC, up to 2 terabytes) onto a card roughly the size of your thumbnail. Then came the iPhone which, whether the decriers like it or not, made much of the general populace give a damn about what their cell phones could do. With 3G networks up across the country and 4G networks beginning to roll out, audio streaming and on-the-go music downloads are becoming commonplace.

Phone manufacturers can no longer afford to implement media playback as an afterthought - but if they insist on requiring headset adapters, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Enjoying audio on the go has always been a two part experience. You have the first part, the player itself, acting as the storage and control unit. You have the second part, the headphones, which allow you to bask your ears in aural delights without blasting away everyone around you. That’s all it should be. Introduce a third component, and the whole idea gets thrown out of whack due to one key problem.

It’s the same problem that forces TV networks to dispense 3D glasses in grocery stores nationwide every time they want to do a 3D segment: people lose crap. They can jam their cellphone in their pocket, and headphones are cumbersome and commonly used enough across multiple devices that they’re actually somewhat hard to lose. That little 2-inch wire tacked on to the end for use with a single device? Two days after taking it out of the box, it’s stuffed in a drawer or glovebox, destined for an “Oh, that’s where I put that” moment months from now.

Making things worse, phone manufacturers often decide that they don’t even need to include an adapter in the box. Take the T-Mobile G1, for example. It was the world’s first Android-powered phone. It had a relatively decent media playback offering, along with access to Amazon’s MP3 store. Yet, for the first 2 months after launch, there was no adapter included in the box. Sure, you could use the absolutely terrible headphones they included in the box, which were pre-shaped for compatibility with the HTC ExtUSB port. Or you could jam needles in your ear. Same difference, really. Phone manufacturers seem to have the idea that if they include a crappy pair of headphones in the box, they’re off the hook. This idea is crap.

So now they’ve forced you to use some stupid dongle whenever you want to use your own buds, but they didn’t put one in the box. At least they’d make it easy to buy one, right? Nope - usually not. These items are too low-margin for most manufacturers to bother selling directly, and carriers rarely offer them. RadioShack has the 2.5mm-to-3.5mm bits, but I’ve yet to see any carry even the most popular brand-specific adapters. With the obvious options out, you’re now forced to make a purchase on Amazon or slum it with the third party resellers on eBay, just to listen to your music on the phone you just dropped $200 bucks on.

Eventually this problem might just fade away, thanks to stereo Bluetooth headphones. That is, be it that you want to drop another few hundred bucks on a quality pair of Bluetooth headphones, and if stereo Bluetooth headphones ever stop being complete trash. Even with the nicest Bluetooth headphones I’ve tried, the slightest bit of interference can make the sultry sounds of Norah Jones or Marvin Gaye sound as if they’re being played back through a garbage disposal. Maybe Bluetooth 3.0 will come and save us all - until then (and probably long thereafter), we’ll go ahead and stick with our standard, 3.5mm headphones.

We’ve been saying this to manufacturers for quite some time now, raising the issue any time they demoed a phone on which a 3.5mm port was absent. We’ve heard every excuse, from “There’s no space!” to “It wasn’t cost effective”. Garbage, every one of them. Figure out how to make it fit. As for the cost of squeezing it in there? Consider it the final cost of any research, development, and licensing associated with media playback, as it’s all entirely in vain if you’re requiring an audio adapter.

From here on out, this is going to be one of the very first things we look for. If your phone requires a headset adapter, your phone sucks. If a new phone is announced and lacks a 3.5mm headset port, we’ll make every effort to highlight this fault. When we review phones that lack 3.5mm headset ports, we’ll put it in big bold letters. We will never again recommend anyone buy a phone that requires an audio adapter. It’s time for these things to die.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 7:53 pm

DR Congo Announces More Protected Land For Bonobos

The environment ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sanctioned land for the protection of indigenous bonobos.The environment ministry announced Friday that it "has created the Kokolopori Bonobos reserve in the Equator province across 4,800 square kilometers (1,853 square miles) of land,” said Cosma Wilungula, director general of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN).The reserve is home to an estimated 1,000 bonobos, said Wilungula.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 7:44 pm

BLOG: Clouds Form on Spores

A third of the material that clouds form around is not just dust but stuff of biological origin.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 May 2009 | 7:41 pm

Dustbot: a real-life Wall-E you can text

Assuming you are European and never have more than a head-sized bag of garbage to throw away, this Dustbot appears to be the perfect trash-related companion. I believe the idea is that an army of these things will lurk in every city and constantly collect garbage, eliminating the need for garbage trucks to come to every home. It navigates via GPS and can be summoned by a text message — sounds like some people I know.

It’s essentially a Segway with a trash compactor on top, driving on a wire, but that’s still pretty awesome. Although it was designed and built for Italian cities (those narrow streets are murder for garbage trucks), the obvious application is Japan. They love this stuff, and I can’t believe it wasn’t invented there first.

There’s plenty more pics and video at the Dustbot site, though it’s mostly in Italian and some of the huuuge pictures download at less than 10KB/sec. Come on.

[via TG Daily]

Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2009 | 7:30 pm

Armpits: 'Rain Forests' For Bacteria

Even healthy skin is covered in a greater variety of bacteria than previously thought.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 May 2009 | 7:21 pm

Finally! Verizon announces new Storm software

Well, it’s about time! After a few missteps, Verizon has finally gotten their act together and managed to get a much needed software update for the Blackberry Storm through testing. Right now, it’s still unknown what the soon-to-be released 4.7.0.148 software will do for all you patient Storm owners out there, but what we do know is when you can get your mitts on it: you can download it directly from RIM this Sunday, May 31 at 3 PM sharp. For those of you who are a little less motivated, it’ll be available as an OTA update starting at 10 PM that same night.

For all the good it’s bound to do, it’s puzzling that no one has let slip what this will fix. Storm owners, what do you want to see taken care of before you ditch your trusty handset for a Storm 2?

EDIT: Not minutes after this was posted, one of BGR’s trusted ninjas came through with the change log. Take a look after the jump!

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 7:19 pm

Circuit City relaunches with new website and owners

Section: Business News, Web, Websites

The old Circuit City may have been dead and buried, but new ownership may help relaunch the once popular electronics retailer.  Systemax has acquired the company and has already reopened the Circuit City.com website.  The company purchased the e-commerce site for $6.5 million back in April.  Systemax owns Tiger Direct and made a similar acquisition of CompUSA last year.

Systemax states that the company plans to focus on building a competitive online electronics retail store with low shipping costs and discounting pricing on well known electronic brands.  The company hopes that the brand’s 60 year history will bring in big numbers for the company.  However, one has to wonder whether this tactic will prove beneficial to Systemax.  It doesn’t seem like a chain electronics store would have that many loyal customers that would prefer to buy from a relaunched online store over other sites.

A quick glance of the site shows that it has the same basic inventory of other online electronics stores. Categories include cameras, camcorders, TV, Mp3 and Video Gaming. The pricing and policies are very similar to those found on the Systemax owned Tiger Direct.   

Site: [Circuit City]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 7:15 pm

Obama To Name Cyber Czar For Protection Of US Networks

President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he would name a new  "cyber czar" to ensure the country is protecting the security of its computer networks.  Speaking at the White House, Obama said the U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 7:15 pm

Comcast Not Really Feeling All That “Comcastic” Right Now [Digital Daily]

The econalypse and the job losses and lower housing starts it’s brought with it are having a nasty effect on Comcast’s bottom line. And according to CEO Brian Roberts, that’s not going to change any time soon. “It’s still a scary time,” he said in remarks at Sanford Bernstein’s 25th annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. “Everybody wants to say this thing is over, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

While Comcast (CMCSA) had forecast a slowing of subscriber growth in its second quarter, the decline it’s now seeing is far worse than expected. “It is across all units,” said Roberts. We’re really not seeing a surging of disconnects. We’re just not seeing a surging of orders.”

Is that entirely econalypse-related? Or might it be due to competitive pressure from telcos? Roberts conceded that the market is an “intensely competitive one, but said Comcast has really just been dragged down by the souring economy. “I think there’s a general slowing of consumer expectations….” he said. “There are fewer opportunities to sell things.”

Source: All Things Digital | 29 May 2009 | 7:13 pm

Amazon now accepting DVD and Blu-ray trade-ins

Just in case you have some DVDs or Blu-ray discs laying around, Amazon wants ‘em and is willing to give you a gift card for ‘em. All you have to do is head over to Amazon and print out a shipping label. The discs do have to be worth more than $10 and in good condition. They don’t want your nasty-ass used discs.

Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2009 | 7:05 pm

Pinnacle Fund Issues Letter to Asure Software to Nominate Directors for Election at the 2009 Annual Meeting

NEW YORK, May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Pinnacle Fund (controlled by Pinnacle Partners, LLC which is partly controlled by Red Oak Partners, LLC) announced today that on May 28, 2009 it sent a letter stating its intent to nominate Directors for election to Asure Software's ("ASUR's" or the "Company's") Board of Directors at the 2009 Annual Meeting.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 6:56 pm

Theorists Reveal Path To True Muonium

Image Caption: In this artist's depiction of how experimentalists could create true muonium, an electron (blue) and a positron (red) collide, producing a virtual photon (green) and then a muonium atom, made of a muon (small yellow) and an anti-muon (small purple). The muonium atom then decays back into a virtual photon and then a positron and an electron. Overlaying this process is a figure indicating the structure of the muonium atom: one muon (large yellow) and one anti-muon (large purple). (Graphic: Terry Anderson, SLAC.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 6:54 pm

The Walking Dead: Yahoo 360 Officially Closes, Again

Yahoo 360, which was supposed to close early last year, is finally officially shutting its doors on July 13, according to a blog post written on the site today. The social network/blogging service that nobody really used (except in Vietnam) steadily lost its steam, especially in the U.S. According to ComScore, Yahoo 360 had 13.9 million worldwide unique visitors in April. But only 982,000 of those unique visitors were from the U.S. This is down from 1.8 million unique U.S. visitors a year ago (see chart below).

Yahoo 360 was built to create a social network around a blogging platform, and simply couldn’t compete with other social networks like Facebook and MySpace, and other more popular blogging platforms like Wordpress and Movable Type. Similar to the company’s original announcement in 2007, Yahoo is promising to help move blog posts and friends lists over to a more general Yahoo profile. What took it so long to pull the plug? Yahoo says it took almost two years to shut down the service because the company was trying to find “a sustainable and adequate solution” for retaining user’s personal data from the site. The blog post also mentions that they have a solution for users but neglects to mention what exactly that is.

Yahoo also shut down its other venture into social networking, Mash, last summer. Perhaps Yahoo is going to focus its efforts on its Twitter-clone microblogging platform Yahoo Meme, which has been rolling out invites recently but isn’t getting resoundingly positive reviews. Maybe Yahoo should just give up on creating a social network and buy one instead (Twitter!). Or maybe it should just make a deal with Microsoft for boatloads of money.

UPDATE: Yahoo responded to us via Twitter (!) with this: “the solution we have for users is a new blogging tool, found in user’s profiles.”

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

Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 6:50 pm

Attorney General Corbett Announces Arrest of Internet Predator Accused of Using Animal Costumes to Sexually Proposition Teenage Boy

HARRISBURG, Pa., May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced the arrest of a Cumberland County man accused of using Internet chats and instant messages to sexually proposition a 15-year old boy from Harrisburg - including discussions about dressing up in animal costumes and engaging in various sex acts with the boy. Corbett identified the defendant as Alan David Berlin, 40, 1 Bellaire Ave., Carlisle. Corbett said that Berlin, a legislative staff member with the Pennsylvania Senate, allegedly used the screen name "alan_panda_bear" to approach a 15-year old boy.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 6:48 pm

Fusion Notifies NYSE Amex of Its Intention to Voluntarily Delist From the Exchange

NEW YORK, May 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fusion (NYSE Amex: FSN) today announced that it has notified the NYSE Amex Exchange of its intention to voluntarily withdraw its securities from listing on the NYSE Amex Exchange and to de-register from Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 6:47 pm

What to See, Do, Hear and Hack at the Maker Faire

Maker Faire, the largest festival for DIYers, crafters and hackers, happens Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31, in San Mateo, California. More than  80,000 people are expected to attend this year to check out what the 600 odd makers have to show, including robotics, music, crafts and food.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Steve Chamberlin’s 8-bit homebrewed CPU.  Nearly 1,253 pieces of wire were individually hand wrapped to create the connection and Chamberlin has built a functional computer based on it. The computer and the CPU will be on display in booth 296 at the main Expo Hall.
• A group of Disney Pixar’s Wall-E movie aficianados will also be showing their handmade Wall-E robots and other characters from the movie. The hobbyists have  created life-size, fully functional replicas from the scratch that are indistinguishable from their namesakes in the movie. The robots will be on display at booth 147 in the Expo Hall.
• There will also be interesting musical instruments on display such as the Yotam Mann’s multitouch musical pad. The musical pad has optical lasers, a webcam and some custom software rigged together to provide an inexpensive way to make some cool music. The contraption will be on display at booth 211 in the Expo Hallo.
• The Bay Area Lego Users Group (BayLUG), which has more than 100 members, will show an entire city constructed of Lego bricks. The exhibit, with individual members responsible for building a single city block, will measure about 2,000 square feet.
• Other cool exhibits include Daniel Fukuba’s DIY Segway. Fukuba, with some help from other Segway enthusiasts, has created a balancing scooter, first with a wooden frame and then an aluminum frame.  “I started with raw, plain PCB boards and soldered on all the components for the speed controller and the logic controller,” says Fukuba. The project took about two months and $4000. And at the Faire, he will be sharing his expertise on how to do it yourself. Fukuba’s DIY balancing scooter will be on display at A1 in the Bike Town pavilion.
• We are also eager to see the two-person self-propelled Ferris Wheel where riders use their arm muscles to shift their weight and turn the wheel. This Ferris Wheel is about 20 feet tall, made of plywood and will be in the Midway M2 area.
• Don’t forget to also check out the CandyFab Project that uses low-cost, open-source fabrication to create 3D sugary confections. A completely new CandyFab machine will be on display at booth number 293 in the Expo Hall cranking out some sweet goodies.

Know of some other cool exhibits or events at the Faire? Post them in the comments below.

And follow @gadgetlab on Twitter, where we’ll be tweeting throughout the weekend with tips on the most interesting, fun and wacky things to see. Stay.

For more on the event, check out O’Reilly’s Maker Faire website.

Photo: Wire wrapped 8-bit CPU/Steve Chamberlin

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 29 May 2009 | 6:44 pm

On second thought, DJ Hero is sorta silly

I know that, in the beginning, the idea of DJ Hero appealed to me. As a fan of house and related genres—Renaissance The Master Series Part 13, mixed by Hernán Cattáneo, just hit the Internet—I was looking forward to playing the role of a big haired animated DJ. But then I realized: what a minute, actually DJing isn’t that hard at all! Why bother playing a DJ video game when you can actually DJ?

It’s a similar argument to the one often used to belittle Guitar Hero: why bother playing on a plastic guitar when you can learn to play the guitar for real? Well, hot shot, because playing the guitar is hard; playing the guitar competently is harder still! But DJing? With technology today, it’s never been easier to pretend your Carl Cox or Jojo Flores.

Here’s what you need to be a DJ in 2009: a MacBook, preferably one with a lot of stickers on it; a pair of over-the-ear headphones (as much as for looks as it is an actual tool); some sort of mixing software that you can pirate in five second, like M-Audio’s Torq or Traktor; and, if you want to impress your friends, a mixing device, like this cheap one from M-Audio. Bam! You’re a DJ.

Of course, having this type of low budget setup won’t get you onto the cover of BPM Magazine, otherwise every guy named Joey or Nicky or Tony from Bergan County would be interviewed. But the fact is, DJing—beat matching, blending songs, etc.—really isn’t that hard to do. Yeah, there’s a skill (again, otherwise our friends from Bergen County would all be superstars) to it, but it’s awfully easy to trick your friends into thinking you actually have a talent. I say this having created plenty of “sets” in Torq and Traktor over the past two years.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the barrier to entry to becoming a DJ is a lot less than it is to becoming a competent guitar player—there’s less of a “need” for DJ Hero than Guitar Hero. Will the game still be fun? Sure, probably. But I think you’d have just as much fun, if not more, actually DJing, even with a hastily put together, low budget setup.

That’s all.

Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2009 | 6:30 pm

Counting Sheep In Climate Change Predictions

Climate change can have devastating effects on endangered species, but new mathematical models may be able to aid conservation of a population of bighorn sheep.The effects of a changing climate on a population of bighorn sheep can be mathematically predicted, as described in a recent paper recommended by Faculty of 1000 Biology members Barry Brook and Lochran Traill.Researchers from Germany, the US, and Mexico studied a population of bighorn sheep introduced to Tiburon island, Mexico, in 1975.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 6:29 pm

NASA, Russia sign contract extension

The NASA space agency says it has signed a contract extension with its Russian counterpart regarding crew transports to the International Space Station. The U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 6:21 pm

China to launch Mars space probe

China's first Mars probe has completed testing and is on target for launch, the Shanghai Academy of Space Flight Technology said Friday. The Yinghuo-1 is to be launched later this year by a Russian carrier rocket and will go into orbit around Mars in 2010 after a 10-month, 236-million mile journey, Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, reported Friday. Yinghuo -- Chinese for light from firefly -- is to study environmental changes in Mar's climate, including the disappearance of water from the planet, said Zhang Weiqiang, a spokesman for the academy.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2009 | 6:14 pm

Advantest's New DDR3 Memory Test System Configuration Offers Industry's Highest Throughput, 256-DUT Parallel Test Capacity

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE), a leading supplier of automatic test equipment (ATE) to semiconductor manufacturers worldwide, today announced availability of its new, expanded configuration T5503 high-speed memory test system, boasting the industry's highest parallel test capability of up to 256 DDR3 devices -- double that of the previous model.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2009 | 6:13 pm

City WiFi Gets New Green Lease on Life

The tech that was supposed to bring WiFi to the cities is being redeployed to bring intelligence to the electric grid.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2009 | 6:00 pm

Mega Man 2.5D: Holy wow

This is a new trailer for Mega Man 2.5D, a new version of the classic Mega Man currently in the works. It’s being built by designer Peter Sjostrand and looks like 15 pounds of amazing.

Revel in the video and here’s a 720p still.

Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2009 | 5:50 pm

From the Good Name Department: ITG xpPhone

Truth be told, I’d be more inclined to buy one of those old people cellphones than something like this (or the iPhone for that matter!) The ITG xpPhone, which will debut at Computex, is, yes, a cellphone that, yes, runs Windows XP. Yes. As a Mac user, the only reason I’d boot into Windows XP is to fire up uTorrent, or play Team Fortress 2, neither of which I see running too well on the phone.

What else does it have? Well, besides the full keyboard, it’s got space for up to 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive or 64GB solid state drive, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3.0-megapixel camera, etc. It’s a phone in the year 2009: that’s what they do now.

But let’s be honest for one second: there’s a zero percent chance that any of y’all will drop your BlackBerry/iPhone/Android/Pre for this.

But, yes, it’s neat to see what’s “out there.”

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 5:20 pm

Who’s on Crack in Tech: 5.29.09

Section: Audio, Video, Communications

With the big June smartphone releases,  everyone is on edge.  Verizon is taking smack to Sprint, Iyaz is covering up again, Google’s got a slew of Android phones headed to you, iPhones track your college experiences,  and finally, MS still

<3's Zune?

Verizon kills Sprint’s woody

With one phrase from Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam, Sprint’s wagon just got the e-brake pulled.  Verizon says they’ll have the hot, sexy Palm Pre in just 6 short months.  Suck on that, Sprint.

Not only that, my money is that Verizon will have the exclusive on the new Palm Ante, a super-sexy all-touch phone featuring webOS that has us all excited.  Pure speculation but the next obvious step (to me, anyway).  Bring on the Ante.  Our Natesh Sood had this to say: “...since they have plans to sell one of the most anticipated phones since the iPhone, Verizon will attract many potential Sprint customers to wait just several months until Verizon can start retailing them”

Iyaz covers up

Thankfully, our Editor Iyaz’s experiment that pitted common sense vs. unsafe computing practices is over.  Iyaz ran a fresh Windows machine naked on the net for a full month to see what horrible virus, click-tracker, or other malware he’d pick up.  Says Iyaz, “I tried to be even more of an idiot than usual for this week.”  The surprising answer: nada.  Zip.  Zero.

So are we being duped by companies like Symantec?  Is all this security really necessary?  Can I finally turn off that stupid wall of protection that seems to interfere in everything I do?  Hallelujah!

Google bringing a sack of Android phones

Our Jodie tells us: “According to Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms for Google (as well as being the head honcho for the Android OS), there will be a minimum of 18 and perhaps as many as 20 Android-based phones out by years’ end.”

20 Phones?  What is Google auditioning for the next Survivor???  20 phones, 20 days, 1 tropical island…  Google is intent on getting this OS out there and in folks hands.  Apparently there will be 3 flavors of Android, a light, a medium control, and an app food fight where anything goes.  It will be interesting to see how consumers take to these phones vs. what Apple and now Palm have.  We’ll be watching.

Streaking the quad?  Leave your iPhone off!

What would you trade an iPhone for?  Would you trade your privacy?  Would you give up your right to skip class?  How about the school monitoring where you are at all times?  Sound creepy?  Yep.  And more schools are hooking kids with free iPhones in exchange for all of it.

Jodie posts: “The school maintains that they will be a minimum requirement for course work, and will be used to deliver orientation info to freshman, and also send out other course materials”.  The GPS function keeps track of you and could be used for attendance plus some nefarious purposes such as who really kicked over the sprinkler heads or who really stole the school mascot?

Of course, you could always pay the freshman to take your phone to class for you.  Where there is lazy, there is a way.

Zune to live on, like my Bonsai tree.

It should be dead.  It is universally hated.  It isn’t pretty, nothing seems just right about it and it doesn’t play well with a bunch of stuff I bought.  I am talking here about my bonsai tree but could be referring to Microsoft Zune which Microsoft just confirmed they are producing a Zune HD.  HD presumably stands for Hokey-Dokey?  Hasty Departure?  Half-Daked?  There are all a stretch.

Loyal Zunies will be thrilled by thte OLED screen, the jump-in-the-air-and-heel-click HD radio and HDTV output.  Everyone one else will scratch their head and say, “so?”  Personally, I don’t get it.  Zune is lower than Vista in brand power and they stopped touching Vista with a pole months ago.  So why keep Zune going?

The market is saturated.  iTunes has a stranglehold.  Zune HD doesn’t bring much new to the table.  And no freaking camera?  Even my half-dead bonsai isn’t buying it.

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 5:00 pm

HTC Hero coming to Orange in the last week of June?

Almost immediately after we opened our tips line, someone whispered to us that France Telecom was prepping the HTC Hero for launch on Orange UK and Orange France sometime in the last week of June. This was the first time this source had contacted us, so we were a bit wary; we dug a bunch, couldn’t find any leads, so we held off on posting it.

Now, a second, entirely unrelated source has come forward saying that they’ve heard the same thing: Last week of June, Orange UK/France. It’s by no means absolute proof, but it seems a bit too coincidental to be a complete sham. With the HTC Hero already making its way into promo videos, a release roughly one month from now doesn’t seem too deep in the crazy zone. Assign this rumor whatever grain of salt keeps you comfortable - we’ll keep our eyes pealed.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 4:28 pm

SLIDE SHOW: The Week's Top Stories

Browse through images of the Discovery News' top stories this week.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 May 2009 | 4:20 pm

Torso Reveals Cancer Risk for Astronauts

Radiation detectors laced into dummy torsos that flew in space bear sobering news.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 May 2009 | 4:10 pm

To the Army, Sweat = Threat

If you walk weird, make funny faces or sweat a little too much — watch out, when you walk into an airport. The U.S. military wants to use those irregularities as "indicators" of "possibly suspicious and harmful intent."

Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2009 | 3:59 pm

Obama Says New Cyberczar Won't Spy on the Net

The administration's internet overseer will secure government networks and protect critical U.S. infrastructures, but will not spy on private networks.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2009 | 3:56 pm

HTC Hero Promo Video Outted, Taken Down, Put Back Up

Whether it was an intentional leak or someone just missed the “Private” button, we’re not sure - but for just a few hours today, a promo video for the as-of-yet unannounced HTC Hero found its way online.

It was taken down pretty quick, but not before the guys over at AndroidCommunity managed to snatch it up for reposting. It doesn’t show much we haven’t seen already (Rosie UI, interface changes, and that the Hero has one hell of a chin on it), but it does give us a glimpse at the color schemes that we might be seeing later: Neon Yellow, Red, Orange, Pink, White, Turquoise, and good ol’ Black.

Video after the jump.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 3:54 pm

Recently on Offworld

Recently on Offworld we took a longer look at Bonsai Barber, the WiiWare debut game from Martin Hollis (former project lead on the Nintendo 64's GoldenEye 007) and his team at Zoonami. It's precisely what it sounds like: a mashup of zen-gardening and that traditional daily social life revolving around the barbershop, and smarter than you might think -- truly one of WiiWare's finest.

Elsewhere we dug up a fantastic iTunes visualizer based on DS favorite music game Rhythm Heaven, heard the first details of what Id has in store for its multiplayer-enabled iPhone version of Doom, saw the ghost-trapping abilities of the DSi's first augmented reality game, and saw World of Goo creators 2D Boy releasing their open-source rapid prototyping framework into the wild for other indie game creators.

We also peeked into two developer studios with 2 Player Productions -- the company behind chiptune documentary Reformat the Planet -- visiting inFamous studio Sucker Punch, and Simon Parkin posting a photo set of his trip to Parappa the Rapper dev NanaOn-Sha, and saw the latest NES rom flier for NYC chiptune showcase Pulsewave.

And our 'one shot's for the day: Devo wards off space invaders, who then invade Madrid, LittleBigPlanet's 2000AD crossover has a trouser malfunction, a broken Konami Code leads to a life of smothering darkness, and the evolution of BioShock 2's Big Sisters.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 29 May 2009 | 3:17 pm

BB Video - Boiler Bar: Oilpunk Creations + Sexy Burlesque Gyrations

(Download / Watch on YouTube)

Today's Boing Boing Video episode is a special pre-Maker Faire warmup extravaganza: the oil-punk creations and sexy burlesque gyrations of the Boiler Bar. Creator and host Jon Sarriugarte (who I first met through SRL) explains:

Oilpunk: is Punk, Hot Rod, Geek, Blue Collar, and Maker Culture mixed together with the Petroleum Golden Age of the last century. It's the intersection of petroleum products, art, and science. It harkens back to a time when hard work, combustion engines and industry shaped us, yet it speaks to the future. It's taking the castoffs of modern industrial culture and objects from the last decade to reuse today. Dirty, greasy, sweaty, it's a work hard, play hard style.

The Boiler Bar is what blue collar out of work down on their luck Bay Area artist decided to do with their spare time and last dollar. Come by and share our delight of the sparkle in the dust of this golden age of petroleum. Drink our hooch and watch the girls sing and dance their way to you heart, then be dazzled by the labor of men spent in seconds in glorious aerial and earthly displays of plenty. And as always ravers and DJ's are welcome to talk.

They'll be at Maker Faire this weekend, and Dorkbot very soon. Here's the Golden mean fan club on facebook for our email list for upcoming shows.

Also in this episode: The snail car! a real-live blacksmith! Who also happens to be a chick! And the Neverwas Runabout, cousin to the giant Neverwas Haul! All of this and more awaits this weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2009. Image below courtesy dharmabum90: the Neverwas Haul, being towed by a 90-year-old steam-powered tractor.

Where to Find Boing Boing Video: RSS feed for new episodes here, YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

(Thanks to Boing Boing's video hosting partner Episodic, and to Shannon O'Hare of the Neverwas and Jon Sarriugarte of Boiler Bar. And big thanks to BBV guest host Aaron Muszalski and our field producer and shooter Eddie Codel.)

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 29 May 2009 | 3:09 pm

Profits down, Dell is still optimistic

Section: Business News, Computers

It should be of no surprise that yet another computer manufacturer is declaring a disappointing quarter in comparison to the same quarter of the previous year.  Thankfully not every company is posting losses like Sony and Palm did.  This time it’s Dell’s turn to admit that although it’s still making a profit, the profits aren’t as much as they could have been.

Dell is posting a 63% drop in profit, though it still managed to pull a net income of $290 million, compared to $794 million during the same quarter last year.  A large reason for the decline is that Dell relays mainly on business and government sales, with those sectors making up three quarters of its business.  Between the recession and possibly the upcoming Windows 7 businesses and governments just aren’t buying that many computers right now.

Dell is also having a hard time keeping up with Acer, who is now tied with Dell for the second largest computer maker (HP is number one).  Acer can sell their computers for much less than Dell can when it comes to consumers sales.  Though the consumer market is secondary to Dell, it’s still important if it wants to continue in the way it has.  But for the moment, consumers might be more likely to go for the cheaper Acer computers simply for the price.

Dell remains optimistic about the year, which isn’t surprising.  The release of Windows 7 might see an increase of computer sales as people upgrade to the new OS.  There is always a chance that some consumers won’t want to upgrade after Vista let them down even fit they never used it.  However, once people actually try 7 they might be interested, and could prove Dell right by going out and buying a new computer.

Read [NY Times]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 3:04 pm

Secret Newspaper Cabal Agenda (Sort Of) Revealed! [MediaMemo]

So what exactly were the 24 newspaper publishers who gathered in suburban Chicago yesterday talking about? We don’t know, because the meeting was held off the record and participants like the New York Times (NYT), Gannett (GCI) and Hearst aren’t talking about it. Except we do know, sort of.

We know that, in general, the papers have been talking about ways to make more money from their products, including subscriptions and microtransactions, and have been talking about this for months. And we know, via the Atlantic’s James Warren, that the subject of yesterday’s meeting was “Models to Monetize Content” and that the agenda included sessions titled “Journalism Online: Presentation on proposed service to charge for access to newspaper content and to license that content that (sic) online aggregators” and “Fair Syndication Consortium/Attributor.”

That first session sounds pretty straightforward. What’s that second one about? I asked the PR firm that reps Attributor, the content-tracking service referred to in the session’s title, and it declined comment. But it did refer me to the Web page for the Fair Syndication Consortium, which it turns out is the name for the Attributor-led program that wants to get the likes of Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) to share some of the ad revenue they make when they sell ads against copyrighted content.

You can read more about that in this Wall Street Journal story published in April. See? Not so mysterious, after all.

Source: All Things Digital | 29 May 2009 | 2:55 pm

Sharp to aggressively expand cell phone business outside Japan

The majority of those awesome Japanese cell phones I keep blogging about unfortunately never leaves this country (at least in legal ways). But this may soon change, as Japan gets older (which results in a rapidly shrinking customer base) and is severely hit by the recession. Especially Sharp seems to now be bullish about bringing some of their cell phones to America and other areas.

The company said yesterday in a press briefing in Tokyo that it aims at selling a total of 4 million cell phones outside its home market of Japan this fiscal year, up a whopping 150% from 2008/2009. During that time period, Sharp only sold 20% of all their cell phones outside Japan (1.6 million units).

Last year, the company entered China with only six models but now hopes to sell 2 million phones in this fiscal year. It plans to start selling smart phones in Europe for the first time in the same time frame. Sharp also announced it wants to release its solar-powered cell phone (pictured) in international markets within 2009.

The company seems to act under enormous pressure. Having aimed at selling 14.8 million cell phones (in Japan and other markets), Sharp in fiscal 2008 only sold 9.92 million units.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subcription]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 2:46 pm

Tech Lets Plants Phone for Water

Is that your plant calling? A microchip in plants rings farmers when the crops need water.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 May 2009 | 2:15 pm

Arrivals Put Space Station at Full Capacity

A Russian space capsule arrives at the space station, doubling its crew to six.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 May 2009 | 2:15 pm

2Bits: What about an Oscars equivalent for the video game industry?

FROM GAMERTELL - In the latest installment of our gamer-vs-gamer debates known as 2Bits, a pair of Gamertell writers ponder the possibility - and possible necessity - of a major video game industry award. Would an awards ceremony the size and spectacle of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science’s (AMPAS) Oscars… MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 2:02 pm

Convertible Chopsticks Unroll for Maki Rolls

Rock’n'Roll is a takeaway transformer. The concept design takes a thin sheet of steel and rolls it into a cylinder. The trick is that, rolled one way it becomes a bracelet, and rolled the other way, along the long axis, it turns into a chopstick. You will, clearly, need two.

Would this work? We’re guessing that the natural state of the sheet is the chopstick form, and that you’d have to unfurl this with some force to make the wrist-strap, which would itself be held in shape by your arm. We like the playful use of materials, but come on — you can walk into pretty much any sushi bar and get some disposable chopsticks from there, although we admit that a regular wooden stick can’t double as a drinking straw.

Product page [Tuvie via Core 77]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 29 May 2009 | 1:29 pm

Seniors call for cellphone bill crackdown

Sure, your grandparents never seemed like the most tech-savvy people on the block, but a recent release by The Seniors Coalition aim to change that. According to them, not only do old folks know their stuff, they want to change things for the better.

A study commissioned by The Seniors Coalition shows that a stunning proportion of cell phone users are woefully unaware of the conditions of the contract they’ve locked themselves into. 40% of users surveyed, for example, had no idea how much they would be charged if they ended their contract early. Similarly, 54% surveyed admitted to using fewer minutes than they pay for each month. Spokesperson “Grandma” Green (seriously, that what everyone calls her) urges customers to try and better under their contracts and plans so they don’t pay out the nose for unnecessary minutes and features, but she admits it can be hard:

Consumers need to have a good handle on how many cell phone minutes they use each month.  But who can really blame them for having trouble keeping track of this when they get the gobbledygook bills provided by most cell phone companies.

Now this is a cause we can all get behind. Ultimately, The Seniors Coalition aims to get this information in front of Congress, in hopes that they will crackdown on puzzling cell phone bills and charges as hard as they did on credit card companies. If their hard work pays off, we’ll all be in better shape, and hey, we can show our appreciation to grandma and grandpa by using our new found savings to pick up some bird feeders and prune juice.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 29 May 2009 | 1:17 pm

Gadgetell Experiment: Naked Windows final update

Section: Computers, Security, Software / Applications, Features, Originals

If you didn’t know, I was running an experiment for the month of May where I would run two Windows XP machines.  Neither one would have anti-virus or anti-spyware running.  One machine was dubbed “Win Idiot” and was used in a way an idiot would use their computer—clicking everything that popped up.  The other machine, “Cautious Windows,” is one of my personal machines where I only visit “safe” download sites and “safe” video sites.  Let’s see where we stand at the end of the experiment.

Win Idiot

I tried to be even more of an idiot than usual for this week.  I downloaded music from less than reputable sources, visited porn sites (for science, of course), and used the default search page in Internet Explorer 6.  Surely, something would happen here.

Using the Symantec Security Check (an online virus scanner), 21,541 files were scanned with zero infected files.  I also just installed Ad-Aware free to see if there was anything else on the system.  35 cookies, but nothing major.  Four weeks of acting dumb and still no viruses. 

Cautious Windows

If you’ve been following along, you know what you’re going to read here. 68,808 files scanned, zero infected files.

The moral of the story

I actually consulted friend of mine, an IT professional, before running this experiment and he offered lots of cautious advice and he seemed kind of freaked out at the concept.  Then again, he was probably used to lots of different computers being used by lots of different people and all kinds of who-knows-where-they-have-been USB drives. 

It is possible to run a system without anti-virus or anti-spyware running without ill effects.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check your system from time to time.  I’m pretty sure that if I kept running this experiment that it would only be a matter of time before I clicked the wrong thing.  Would I suggest this kind of setup for everyone?  No.  Can it be done?  Yes.

Curious about how the other weeks went? 
Part 1
Part 2
There was no week 3 update

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 1:08 pm

Palm Pre Will Sync Seamlessly With iTunes

Word is that the Pre will sync seamlessly with iTunes. This is a ballsy move from Palm, and we totally love it: a big fat middle finger at Apple.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 29 May 2009 | 12:48 pm

Departing Yahoo Media Exec Dossett to AdventureLink as CEO [BoomTown]

Yesterday, BoomTown broke the news that Yahoo’s SVP North American Audience, Jeff Dossett, was leaving the Internet company because of personal reasons.

But I also noted that sources said he was likely to quickly land at a start-up, and in fact, he has resigned from Yahoo to do just that.

Dossett, who came to Yahoo from Microsoft in November, is taking a job as CEO of AdventureLink, an online site aimed at adventure travel and booking such trips.

The Los Angeles-based AdventureLink is a good fit for Dossett, who is an avid mountain climber.

He took two years off from Microsoft (MSFT) in 2002 to climb the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, finally reaching the summit of Mount Everest in May of 2004.

Dossett reached the summit of Everest again for a second time last year.

Well-known adventurist Richard Bangs–who does content for Yahoo (YHOO), as well as television, and who serves on AdventureLink’s board–was involved in bringing Dossett on board.

Here’s the full press release:

ADVENTURELINK NAMES SENIOR YAHOO EXECUTIVE JEFF DOSSETT AS CEO

JEFF DOSSETT TO GUIDE ADVENTURELINK TO NEW HEIGHTS

LOS ANGELES (May 29, 2009)–AdventureLink, Inc., the world’s largest online source for booking adventure travel, today named former Yahoo! Inc. Senior Vice President Jeff Dossett as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Dossett will be responsible for building global recognition for AdventureLink as the preeminent online marketplace for booking adventure travel.

In February 2009, AdventureLink launched the world’s first online booking system for adventure travel developed in conjunction with its partner, VAX VacationAccess. The AdventureLink system opens up booking capability for adventure travel opportunities worldwide providing easy access and distribution to over 70,000 leisure travel agents across North America.

Mr. Dossett joins AdventureLink from Yahoo! Inc., where he served as Senior Vice President, Audience Experiences, North America Region. Prior to joining Yahoo, Mr. Dossett was the Executive Producer & General Manager of MSN in the United States. He also served as CEO of Carpoint and General Manager of MSN HomeAdvisor.

In announcing Dossett as CEO, AdventureLink Chairman and Founder Kelly Tompkins states, “I love the fact that Jeff is a risk taker and an accomplished mountain climber, having summited Everest twice. But more than that, as an executive, he has demonstrated tremendous leadership both at Microsoft and, most recently, Yahoo.”

Samit Varma of Anthem Venture Partners explains, “We have been working to get Jeff on board for several months, and we’re thrilled to have him. He’s a perfect fit for AdventureLink. He brings not only a distinguished professional track record but also a personal passion for adventure travel.”

Mr. Dossett, a passionate adventurist, states, “I’m thrilled to join the AdventureLink team. It’s truly a unique opportunity to combine my personal passion for adventure travel with my desire to help build the world’s largest, most effective, online global distribution and reservation system for adventure travel. My ultimate goal is to help make it easier for consumers to discover, book, and experience life–changing adventure travel using AdventureLink’s technology.”

Richard Bangs, co-founder of Mountain Travel*Sobek and host of the PBS series, “Adventures with Purpose,” was instrumental in the choice of Dossett for CEO. Bangs, who serves on AdventureLink’s board of directors, has followed the company since it started three years ago.

“AdventureLink has created a unique model in developing the world’s first global marketplace for adventure travel,” states Mr. Bangs. “Over the years, I’ve seen AdventureLink grow by leaps and bounds due to its ability to develop unique technology as well as its ability to build strategic relationships within the travel industry. When Kelly invited me to join the board, I knew Jeff would be a great partner in helping Kelly realize his dream in making adventure travel accessible to everyone. Jeff’s passion as an adventure traveler and his executive experience with online media make for a perfect match in taking AdventureLink to new heights.”

Source: All Things Digital | 29 May 2009 | 12:16 pm

Greenland Ice Melt May Threaten Northeast

The melting Greenland Ice Sheet could spell trouble for the northeast U.S.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 29 May 2009 | 12:15 pm

Mac cloner Psystar files for bankruptcy

FROM APPLETELL - Surely you remember Psystar, the pesky little company that just wouldn’t stop cloning Mac computers despite what anyone did. Well, it seems as if the legend that was Psystar will soon be coming to an end.
MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 12:12 pm

Visit the Canon Camera Museum Today

Today we’re going to recommend that you visit a museum. “Oh, great,” you’re thinking, “that idiot Sorrel is going to start talking about some stupid place down the street from his house. Thanks a lot, Charlie.”

You’re right. But it’s also right down the street from your house. It’s the Canon Camera Museum, and as you can see from the aerial photo above, it’s a handsome place, and better still, the tickets are free. Click on over and you can find out about the dawn of the EOS system (excuse the pun) back in 1987 (I was a teenager with a Saturday job in a camera store back then, and my co-workers took me to the EOS launch to get me drunk and laugh at the result) and the entire history of Canon right back to 1933.

It’s a fascinating way to spend a few hours, or a few minutes, and for once we actually like the fact that it’s a Flash-based site that lets us flip around the campus. Go check it out, and find out such fascinating facts as the meaning of the Canon name (”standard for judgement or biblical scriptures”, weirdly) and the origins of the company’s first product (a Leica clone, showing that the company is proudly built on piracy).

Canon Camera Museum [Canon via Retro Thing]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 29 May 2009 | 12:00 pm

Nerd Cushion for Really Simple Sleep

You can subscribe me to this RSS cushion right away. The best thing about this pillow is that you don’t need to go to bed to get your rest — simply put your head on the iconic orange cushion and any sleep will be delivered right to your brain, as soon as it becomes ready.

This cushion is hand made by Craftsquatch, the person who brought the world the Photoshop Plushie and other soft additions to the Adobe Creative Three Piece Suite, and the 12″x12″ fleece feed icon can be yours for $15. Or at least it can be when Craftsquatch gets around to making another batch: Current stock has sold out.

Product page [Etsy via Geeky Gadgets. Thanks, Roland!]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 29 May 2009 | 11:11 am

Palm Pre bits: iTunes syncing confirmed, App Catalog details and the love of Twitter

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

The Palm Pre continues to be a the highlight on the Internet.  Here we have another day that brought a bunch of good news for potential Pre users.  In the form of a press release, Palm has offered up a few details about what we can expect in terms of syncing, the App Catalog and even announced the integration of Twitter.

First things first though, Palm has confirmed the ability to sync with iTunes, which, in itself, is pretty nice.  The syncing will be called Palm Media Sync and according to the release it is a “feature of webOS.”  Of course, as you would expect this syncing will only work with DRM-free tracks.  Additionally, you will also be able to sync photos and videos using the Palm Media Sync functionality.  This also means the Pre is the “first non-Apple device that syncs directly with iTunes without the use of third-party software.”  In addition to syncing with iTunes via the Media Sync functionality, the Pre will also act as a mass storage device and allow you to drag and drop content including music, photos and videos.

Moving on, the App Catalog, which is one area that could sink the Pre despite how good or bad the handset may be.  I would venture a guess that potential Pre customers are well aware of the Apple App Store and have become used to doing just about everything on their smartphone, the App Catalog for the Pre is going to need to be full of a wide variety of apps.  Just recently during the D7 Conference, a beta version of the App Catalog was shown off and it offered a look a some of the available apps.  So far it looks like users will have a few goodies such as Pandora, AP News, Fandango and uLocate.  However in this case it is not all just about the apps, it is about how the apps integrate with the Pre itself.  Take the Fandango app for example, in this case it is much more than just buying a ticket.  The app will let you watch movie trailers and then use the built-in location based services on the Pre to find your local theater.  Once the theater is found, you can then buy a ticket.  Sounds pretty standard so far, however the app will also add a calendar entry based on your ticket purchase as well as give you directions (if needed) on how to get to the theater.  Other apps, such as Pandora will also have a nice feature—the ability to run in the background as well as using the notification bar to show you the current song and offer basic controls without having to go back into the app.  So far, the App Catalog, and perhaps more important, the ability for apps to take full advantage of webOS sounds great.

Finally, it would seem that Palm believes that Twitter is a valuable source of information.  They announced that the Twitter search will be integrated into the Universal Search on the Pre, which means that it will join others such as Google, Google Maps and Wikipedia.  One nice perk of this addition is that anyone can search Twitter, meaning you do not need a Twitter account to take advantage of the search functionality.  That said, the results may be enough to convince so current non-Twitter users to sign up for the service.

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

Palm Unveils More webOS Details: Palm Media Sync, Twitter Integration, App Catalog

New Palm webOS Features Demonstrated at D: All Things Digital Conference

CARLSBAD, Calif., May 28, 2009—Today at The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) introduced attendees to the latest features of the Palm® webOS™ platform,
including Palm media sync, the integration of Twitter in universal search, and a beta version of its App Catalog. Jon Rubinstein, Palm executive chairman, and Roger McNamee, Palm director and co-founder of
Elevation Partners, debuted the new webOS features, which will be available on the new Palm Pre™ phone when it launches June 6 on Sprint’s mobile broadband network.(1)

Palm Media Sync

Palm media sync is a feature of webOS that synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes, giving you a simple and easy way to transfer DRM-free music, photos and videos to your Palm Pre.(2) Simply connect Pre to
your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select “media sync” on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop. You can then choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.

“We designed Palm media sync to be an easy and elegant way for you to take the content you own and put it on Pre, and it’s just one of the ways we think you’ll be amazed by webOS,” said Rubinstein. “We’ve had
an overwhelming response since we introduced Pre at CES, and with availability just days away, we can’t wait to let everyone see firsthand what the excitement is all about.”

Pre also acts as a mass storage drive, letting you side-load your media content. Once connected to a computer using the USB cable, Pre will appear as a drive on the computer desktop. You can drag and drop
music, photos or video files onto your Pre, or drag files from your Pre to the computer. And, just like a digital camera, Pre works directly with your computer’s default desktop photo software to seamlessly import photos captured with Pre’s built-in 3-megapixel camera.

In addition to listening to music transferred from your desktop, you can use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air. You can search by artist, song and genre,
and preview and purchase music files. You can then download purchased tracks when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Twitter in Universal Search

Palm also announced that Twitter search is integrated into webOS universal search.(3) Universal search is about finding what you want quickly, whether it’s an on-device contact to call, a place you’re trying to get to, or a Wikipedia article for encyclopedic information. Just start typing and Pre will figure out if you’re looking for a contact, an application, or even let you search the web via Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and now Twitter. Universal search uses Twitter’s search service to sort through real-time current events and news, so universal search now covers every aspect of search on the web: general info, location, encyclopedia, and news.

Twitter’s ability to show what’s going on right now is a perfect fit for what universal search and Pre are all about. You don’t have to be a Twitter user to benefit from Twitter in universal search. It’s available for all users, even if they don’t have an account, so anyone can keep on top of real-time news and the latest trends.

App Catalog

Rubinstein and McNamee also gave conference attendees an advance look at the beta version of the App Catalog, which will be available on Pre at launch. The beta version will feature applications from developers
such as AP News, Citysearch, Fandango, Pandora and uLocate.

“We’ve received excellent feedback from participants in the Mojo SDK early access program and look forward to the SDK’s public release. Developers are very enthusiastic about the platform’s ease of use and
industry-standard development model,” said Rubinstein. “We’re excited to launch Pre with the beta version of the catalog, which will give a taste of how the overall webOS ecosystem will work.”

The App Catalog was demonstrated at the conference using Fandango’s webOS application, which takes advantage of Palm Synergy™, a key feature of webOS. It also uses Pre’s location-based services to find
theaters near you, and lets you watch trailers, buy tickets, add showtimes to your calendar and get directions to the theatre.(1) Also included in the beta App Catalog will be Pandora, which makes use of
the platform’s multitasking capabilities, running elegantly in the background while you’re using other applications. It highlights a unique aspect of the notification bar that lets you know what song is currently playing, and control pause and play without having to go back into the application.

The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and $100 mail-in rebate. More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre and www.palm.com.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a leading mobile products company, creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enable people to better manage their lives on the go. The company’s products for consumers, mobile
professionals and businesses include Palm® Treo™, Pre™ and Centro™ phones, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm online stores (http://www.palm.com/store).

More information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com.

 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2009 | 11:06 am