These are some very early prototypes Japan's No. 1 telecommunications company NTT recently showcased during the JPCA Show 2009 in Tokyo, but they are pretty cool to look at and may show a glimpse of the near future. The basic idea is to one day be able to offer cell phones featuring an interface for attachable and replaceable hardware add-ons.
These are some very early prototypes Japan’s No. 1 telecommunications company NTT recently showcased during the JPCA Show 2009 in Tokyo, but they are pretty cool to look at and may show a glimpse of the near future. The basic idea is to one day be able to offer cell phones featuring an interface for attachable and replaceable hardware add-ons.
The company’s Institute for Advanced Technology is researching on how to transform a conventional cell phone into a “physical”, two-piece flute, for example. Users would then attach the upper part of a flute to their cell phone and press its keyboard buttons to make music. Songs can even be shared wirelessly with other users.
A bit less spectacular is the blood test unit users can plug into their cell phone in order to transfer data to their doctors. Straight out of Minority Report: An add-on that lets you read newspapers or magazines displayed on the cell phone screen via an integrated sheet of digital paper so that you don’t have to read stuff on those tiny screens anymore.
NTT is hoping to develop practical versions (not commonly available phones, mind you) in 2015.
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For many years, Google, on its Explanation of Our Search Results page, claimed that “a site’s ranking in Google’s search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.” Then in May of 2007, that statement changed: “A site’s ranking in Google’s search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.” In this third and final interiew with Google’s search team, Google Fellow Amit Singhal helps us understand why.
John Paczkowski: Talk a bit about the history of search evaluation and your role in it.
Amit Singhal: Search evaluation was born in the late 50’s and the early 60’s in the U.K. In the beginning it was very basic because back then, search was Boolean. The first evaluation measure was recall. You take a query and 100 documents relevant to it. How many of those documents does your search on that query retrieve? We quickly found out that it was very easy to get 100 percent recall. But we also found that our searches often returned a lot of irrelevant documents along with the relevant ones. So we came up with a second measure: Precision. That tells us what percentage of our search returns is actually good. So if a search returns 100 out of 100 relevant documents for a query, but it returns 1,000 documents total, its recall is 100 percent, but its precision is only 10 percent.
And those two measures or some combination thereof have evolved over time, and even modern search engines like Google use them. So since search began, there have always been teams in the lab judging how relevant a search return is to a human query.
JP: But relevance is a subjective notion.
AS: Right. But these evaluation measures don’t directly affect the results returned to our users. They are only used to evaluate whether an algorithm is working well or whether a new algorithm is working better than an old one. They don’t directly impact user experience. They are simply just calibration tools.
JP:Matt and Scott spoke at length about human search evaluators. Just how broad is their role at Google?
AS: Well, our search evaluation is based on many components. And one of those components is human evaluation. We have automatic systems as well–things that tell us if, for example, users suddenly stop clicking on a number-one result and instead begin clicking on the number-five result. Together these techniques tell us how well our system is doing at any point. And we do this in over a hundred languages.
JP: How do you balance fresh results with more historical ones?
AS: When is a fresh result more relevant than a historical result? That is a question… very important for our users and thus for our algorithms. So we evaluate queries for freshness—this query deserves freshness today, but it did not three weeks back. We do the same thing with documents. We are always asking how fresh is the document? How relevant? How useful? And we put the answers to those questions together purely algorithmically and present them to users in our universal search results. All this is done automatically. No human being is sitting there and saying GM is important today or Mumbai is important today. Because at the end of the day, human beings are far too prone to subjectivity to do it. Algorithms are not. And they can make the same sorts of determinations in hundreds of languages.
JP: How far have we come in search?
AS: We are still barely at the beginning. We are nowhere close to being done. Search is a hard problem, and the hard part about it is that user expectations are deep, and they keep going higher and higher as you keep improving search. And so search by no means is a solved problem.
JP: So what’s next?
AS: What is next in search? Much, much better search… universality of search, and by that I mean search where the user doesn’t have to go to YouTube specifically to search for video or to Google for documents. Whatever type of content is relevant to you should just show up in your search results. So search becomes focused on who you are and where you are. So it would be local to you as a person and it would be local to your geography as well. And those two things combined will give you universally relevant results much more relevant to you and to your locality.
JP: Circling back a bit to the role of human evaluators in search, do you think they will always be necessary? Will they be more necessary in the future or less necessary? How will their role change?
AS: I believe that the role of the human evaluator in search will be there until we can understand language by computers, which is a far distance from where we are today. You know, we have made great advances but by no means is our language understanding technology close to saying this person really meant to get this document or not.
On Thursday, one of the world’s wealthiest men, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, launched a joint $100 million project with the Mexican government and the World Wildlife Fund to protect Mexico’s environment."I believe that looking after the environment will be one of the big generators of jobs in the future," Slim told the AFP while on a beach on Mexico's Caribbean island of Cozumel."Whether there's a crisis or not, the cost of looking after the environment and reducing risks is more advisable than not doing anything," Slim said.The joint effort aims to encourage sustainable development in Mexico, one of the world’s most biodiverse nations.Six priority regions of Mexico, representing 30 percent of the nation, are involved in the project and will receive funding from the private and public sectors, said Mexican Environment Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada."It's more important beyond the money. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:43 am
SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trimble (Nasdaq: TRMB) announced today it has acquired privately-held NTech Industries based in Ukiah, Calif. NTech is a... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:30 am
Roxio CinemaNow Now Live on LG Network Blu-ray Disc Players NEW YORK, June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Consumers can now digitally stream movies from Sonic... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:30 am
We see no reason why this Lego remote control shouldn’t become reality. In fact, quite the opposite. We don’t see why the world should be deprived of such a superlative setup.
Think about it. Not only can you, as designer fueledbycoffee intends, endlessly rearrange the switches to suit your tastes, much like icons on the iPhone screen, you can play around with this during more boring shows. Connecting the various components shouldn’t be too hard — the base could take care of power and actually beaming the info to the TV and the “buttons” simply contain switchable RFID tags.
Just don’t tell Sony. The company would probably bring out a licensed version missing the skip and fast-forward buttons to force you to watch ads.
If you want to know about All Things Pre on All Things D, then we’ve got a page just for you.
While you can use our search to find out about the coverage our crack staff has done about the new smart phone from Palm (PALM), for example, you can also just jump over our special “featured” pages we are now offering.
Essentially, they are mini-sites that automatically grab content–posts, reviews, pictures, quotes and video–from all over ATD and put it into one attractive package.
Our Web genius Adam Tow gets the kudos for these terrific pages, which we think will be helpful for readers who want to drill down on popular topics.
Adam has created, for example, pages for all the speakers of our recent seventh D: All Things Digital conference, such one here for Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol “Cussing” Bartz.
The Pre page is even more robust, with a a range of stories, videos, photos, interviews and more, including Walt Mossberg’s review yesterday.
We’ll be creating pages for a lot of other topics–we probably cannot resist the Apple (AAPL) and its iPhone and Twitter–but please weigh in on what you’d like to see us add in the comments below.
Mike Torres, Lead Program Manager on Microsoft’s Movie Maker team, has kicked off a series of blog posts about the upcoming release of Windows Live Movie Maker, the stripped down web-based version of the desktop video editing software that has come pre-installed on Windows machines ever since Windows ME hit the market.
So far, the web application has been in public beta, but many have criticized the inclusion of the program in Live Essentials in such a rudimentary state, claiming it should have been left out until it was ready.
Torres acknowledges as much:
“We also learned a lot by releasing an early beta of Movie Maker last year. People were surprised (or shocked, rather!) at the limited number of transitions, effects, and overall functionality in the program. We wanted to release the beta to start the conversation about the use of the ribbon and some of the overall changes to the software model, but in hindsight, the application just wasn’t useful enough for that. So, thanks for bearing with us as we’ve continued our work on Movie Maker.”
Windows 7, Microsoft’s next operating system, will not come with Movie Maker out of the box, so Microsoft wants to make Windows Live Movie Maker - official release due “later this year” - the primary tool for users who want to do some basic video editing. For that and other reasons, I thought it was pretty funny that one of the oft-requested features Torres cites in the blog post is support for Windows XP, the OS that pre-dates Vista.
Those users are out of luck, by the way, since Microsoft has decided not to add support for XP “given the technical requirements” (Windows XP lacks the new graphics driver model built into Vista and the upcoming Windows 7, as well as DirectX).
It’s one of Microsoft’s greatest tragedies: while they keep trying to better their products and adapt them to rapidly evolving technology in both hardware and software, they also need to factor in those tens of millions of users that are still using older systems and seem reluctant to upgrade to a new OS. The thing is: if Microsoft doesn’t innovate, it inevitably gets left (further) behind online, and when it does the company often alienates a large part of its customer base.
Or what you’d call finding yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place.
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You say you’re not convinced by the first TV spot for Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine? Then feast your eyes on these puppies, which AdAge says were supposed to run later this summer but have been moved up because Team Redmond “realized that the market would be receptive to our product messages sooner than expected.”
I think these clips are reasonably good at getting across the notion that regular search engines — that’d be Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) — aren’t as good as they could be. But again, I’ll let you folks handle the ad critique. I remain dubious with the overall strategy, which involves spending up to $100 million to promote a Web service.
BEIJING, June 5 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Xinhua Sports & Entertainment Limited ("XSEL" or the "Company"; Nasdaq: XSEL), a leading media ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 10:00 am
Dan Kegel (who admits to being a Chrome developer) writes to point out a post from Mike Smith and Karen Grunberg, Product Managers for Google Chrome, with some good news for non-Windows users who want to play with Chrome: "In order to get more feedback from developers, we have early developer channel versions of Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux (for a couple of different Linux distributions), but whatever you do, please DON'T DOWNLOAD THEM! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software." (The announcement continues below.)
AFP - US computer giant IBM has named Chieko Asakawa as the first blind engineer -- as well as the first Japanese female -- to receive the company's highest technical honour.
MOSCOW, June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mobile TeleSystems OJSC ("MTS" - NYSE: MBT), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, and Nokia signed... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 9:24 am
Is this the new iPhone? It has the matt-finish back that has been rumored, along with the non-shiny metal bezel. It also has what looks like an extra button on the lower right side of the case, and an extra slot in the fascia at the top near the earpiece, along with a green LED. Speculation says that these could be a hardware shutter release for the camera, and a second, forward facing camera for video-calls.
It also looks like the headphone jack has been moved down next to the dock-hole, simultaneously bringing it closer to the iPod Touch and pissing off thousands of third-party accessory makers.
We used to be very skeptical about leaked shots of Apple gear, but the last year or so has brought us plenty of accurate leaks. This one, however, appears to have been snapped from a monitor rather than from real life, which causes some Photoshop-mockup alarm bells to ring.
Tea Stains is an ingenious solution for anyone working in the kind of office where you send some poor sap to make the tea for everyone. The makers, a pair of English sisters (which is why it’s called Tea Stain and not Coffee Stain) have invented a tray liner which not only reminds you who takes what how, but also reminds you which cup is which when you get back to your desk.
As you can see above, the Gadget Lab office is pretty easy, and everyone’s drinks are so distinctive we don’t really need the tray liner. Dylan prefers his girl-drinks, starting pretty early on the “hard” stuf. Danny Dumas of course keeps any steaming, hair-curling liquid away from his barnet and instead chooses styling gel. Priya is surprisingly hardcore in her drinks choice, and it’s hard to get a word out of Brian these days that isn’t about kittens or motorbikes.
The blank spots? Those are for visitors. The mat is glossy and can be written on with a white-board (dry-erase) marker. Lizzie and Ally will even sell you an eight-sided dice to decide who’s turn it is to visit the kitchen. Tea-tastic! Mat £5 ($8), dice £1 ($1.60).
Yahoo’s purchase of FoxyTunes for a rumored $30M legitimized the add-on play as a product strategy for Israeli startups.
I see new startups in this category almost weekly. We’re bearish on add-on plays because the “get them to download, install and use” parts are tricky - and monetizing those users is nearly impossible. In recent months, though, SimilarWeb’s name keeps popping-up and the reason may be the technology it’s spent two years building out. Sequoia Capital Israel, we’ve heard, is spending extra time looking into it and your typical add-on play doesn’t normally make their cut. So what is it about this little company?
On the surface SimilarWeb is everything you’d expect from a discovery Firefox/IE add-on. Once installed it docks to either side of the browser and displays similar sites, displayed as thumbnails or as a list. Users can rate each result with a thumbs up or down, the latter removing the result all together. Users can also suggest a site by pasting-in a URL. This not only customizes the user’s own results, it also impacts global results for all users. If you don’t want to install the add-on but still want to see it in action, try SimilarSites which pretty much mimics the experience in a web app.
Or Offer, CEO, was visibly uncomfortable every time I tried prying details about their technology, but finally relented with some general explanations: The backbone of SimilarWeb’s technology is based on multiphase analysis, which in plain English means that there are several engines running in the background, analyzing websites based on different mechanics, metrics and workflows. These include: user browsing trends, user ratings, tag analysis, ecosphere analysis, semantic breakdowns, and automated background research.
The company claims to have mapped millions of sites, and adding tens of thousands daily. This means that it will always suggest other sites, regardless of whether the site the user is currently on is a popular one, or one much further down the tail.
Nothing of the above stands out particularly or sheds light as to what’s so interesting about this company. A technical due diligence may be what’s necessary to truly understand SimilarWeb’s edge. No matter how you look at it though, the company is doing what it needs to be taken seriously… It has amassed thousands of users in the three months since its launch. Dr. Yossi Vardi is an investor and they seem to have Sequoia’s attention. Must be satisfying after two year’s worth of coding under the radar.
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Yahoo's purchase of FoxyTunes for a rumored $30M legitimized the add-on play as a product strategy for Israeli startups. I see new startups in this category almost weekly. We're bearish on add-on plays... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 7:45 am
Reuters - Microsoft Corp's chief software architect said on Thursday the profit margins on providing online services -- broadly known as cloud computing -- would likely yield a lower profit margin than the company's existing software business.
When you think of spyware, Sears probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind. But the Federal Trade Commission announced today that the retailer had agreed to settle a complaint alleging it had installed tracking software on visitors’ computers without providing adequate notice.
Silicon Valley was abuzz Wednesday with news that the Justice Department had begun an antitrust investigation into the hiring practices of some of the best-known companies in the technology and biotech industries, including Google, Apple, Yahoo and Genentech.
The question being asked most frequently was how the word “anticompetitive” could possibly be applied to the industry’s perpetual fight over talent.
When newspaper executives met in Chicago last week to discuss new business models for the industry, they expected to hear from Steve Brill about his well-publicized venture to charge for online content. But the executives were surprised by a last-minute addition to their agenda: Alan Mutter, a veteran newspaper editor and entrepreneur widely known as the Newsosaur.
A variety of social network gaming applications are making lots of money from virtual goods. But could these services soon find themselves in trouble for allowing gambling — and get slapped with large fines or other punishment?
Don’t count AMD as being out. In response to the ever growing netbook/small laptop market, AMD and HP have recently announced an update to the HP dv2. We liked the original dv2 — however, adding a little more grunt to it with an improved processor can only be a good thing.
Using the Neo CPU, the updated HP Pavillion dv2 is expected to be available on June 10th, and will have pretty much the same feature set and price point as the original dv2. AMD has been struggling lately against Intel, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s coming up in the near future for the CPU manufacturer.
R3d M3rcury writes "The Lunar X-Prize is a contest offering $20 million to the first private organization to land and maneuver a robotic rover on the moon. There is also a $1 million bonus to anyone who can get a picture of a man-made object on the moon. But one archeologist believes that 'The sites of early lunar landings are of unparalleled significance in the history of humanity, and extraordinary caution should be taken to protect them.' He's concerned that we may end up with rover tracks destroying historic artifacts, such as Neil Armstrong's first bootprint, or that a mistake could send a rocket slamming into a landing site. He calls on the organizers to ban any contestant from landing within 100KM of a prior moon landing site. Now he seems to think this just means Apollo. What about the Luna and Surveyor landers? What about the Lunokhod rovers? Are they fair game?"
DC is apparently riddled with secret fiber-optics carrying national security stuff -- and it's maintained by a gang of Men In Black in black SUVs who will show up at a fiber break in minutes and send you and your backhoe to Gitmo if you're unlucky enough to break one of the unmarked conduits.
Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove up, a half-dozen men in suits jumped out and one said, "You just hit our line."
Whose line, you may ask? The guys in suits didn't say, recalled Aaron Georgelas, whose company, the Georgelas Group, was developing the Greensboro Corporate Center on Spring Hill Road. But Georgelas assumed that he was dealing with the federal government and that the cable in question was "black" wire -- a secure communications line used for some of the nation's most secretive intelligence-gathering operations...
Black wire is one of the looming perils of the massive construction that has come to Tysons, where miles and miles of secure lines are thought to serve such nearby agencies as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center and, a few miles away in McLean, the Central Intelligence Agency. After decades spent cutting through red tape to begin work on a Metrorail extension and the widening of the Capital Beltway, crews are now stirring up tons of dirt where the black lines are located.
DC is apparently riddled with secret fiber-optics carrying national security stuff -- and it's maintained by a gang of Men In Black in black SUVs who will show up at a fiber break in minutes and send you... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:25 am
Here's a treasure-map showing the relationships of C++ and its many offshoots, proponents, clones and pretenders. C++ Coral Cache mirror of map (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) Previously:XKCD's log-scale map... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:21 am
James sez, "The web site Skin Deep covers the issues related to the lack of oversight regarding the safety of cosmetics:"
Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group.
Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 42,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety.
A sample listing:
AMERICAN BEAUTY DOUBLE LUSH MASCARA PLUS PRIMER (ALL SHADES)
Ingredients in this product are linked to:
Cancer
Developmental/reproductive toxicity
Violations, restrictions & warnings
Allergies/immunotoxicity
Other concerns for ingredients used in this product:
Neurotoxicity, Endocrine disruption, Persistence and bioaccumulation, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Multiple, additive exposure sources, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Enhanced skin absorption, Contamination concerns, Occupational hazards, Biochemical or cellular level changes
James sez, "The web site Skin Deep covers the issues related to the lack of oversight regarding the safety of cosmetics:" Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:16 am
ThinkGeek's Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin Mold is just what every elegant dinner party needs, especially if you make an aspic-and-baby-marshmallow gelatin salad with it.
ThinkGeek's Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin Mold is just what every elegant dinner party needs, especially if you make an aspic-and-baby-marshmallow gelatin salad with it. Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:10 am
I'm not sure what's so "supreme" about the Jabba the Hutt Supreme Edition Costume, but man, you would certainly play some pretty weird "naughty Hutt and stern bounty hunter" scenes with it. Jabba the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2009 | 6:05 am
I'm not sure what's so "supreme" about the Jabba the Hutt Supreme Edition Costume, but man, you would certainly play some pretty weird "naughty Hutt and stern bounty hunter" scenes with it.
Photography is an expensive hobby. Between special lights, making sure your color balance is set right, and never mind the camera, you can spend thousands of dollars on expensive equipment, all to make sure you get that one perfect shot. Now, the clever programmers at Pixelexip have come up with a way you can use your iPhone to make some of those tasks easier (and less expensive).
The first one is “GrayCard“. Anyone who studies photography seriously will tell you that white balance is critical to taking a good picture. This more useful of the two applications allows you to adjust your white balance to more accurately reflect the lighting conditions you are shooting in.
The other application is “Lightsource” which is slightly less useful in my opinion. Lightsource supplies you with, well, a light source that is selectable based on your needs. The options include some common sources like tungsten, halogen, sunlight, and some more esoteric choices like blacklight or candle. The drawback with this application is unless you are doing some macro photography, the iPhone really doesn’t put out enough light to make this application useful. I will admit however, I’m intending to pick both of these applications up myself for use in product shots. I’ll try to let you know what I think of them later.
Both applications are available via the iTunes application store, for $0.99 each.
The iPhone 3.0 operating system is tantalizingly close to completion — but don’t plan on lining up at the Apple Store for a new phone just yet. That’s because it’s unlikely the OS will be ready for consumers to download by next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which Apple is hosting. And without the promised software, Apple is unlikely to release new phone hardware to go with it.
Based on conversations with developers and Apple’s past product launches, Wired.com expects Apple to announce the final iPhone 3.0 roadmap to developers at WWDC, and the software and next-gen handset will likely follow within three to four weeks, or by early July.
Although developers contacted by Wired.com agreed that many features of the iPhone 3.0 OS are almost fully-baked, Apple still has not distributed a crucial piece of the software to developers for beta testing: in-app commerce. The feature, demonstrated at Apple’s iPhone 3.0 SDK event in March, will create a new revenue stream for developers wishing to sell additional items and features (such as song titles, or even weapons in shooter games) within their iPhone applications. But the feature isn’t actually working yet, a major iPhone developer told Wired.com.
“They’re building the catalog system for selling within your app,” said the developer, who chose to remain anonymous because of Apple’s non-disclosure agreement. “Based on that fact they haven’t announced the final roadmap … we’re guessing end of June to early July is the soonest [iPhone 3.0] will become available.”
That would also suggest Apple’s next-generation iPhone will not be landing in stores next week, either, since the new handset will probably ship with the 3.0 operating system — similar to the way Apple announced the current iPhone 3G in June 2008 and officially released the iPhone 3G concurrently with the iPhone 2.0 software a month later. Therefore, at WWDC, Apple will most likely announce the release dates of the new handset and 3.0 OS, requiring consumers to wait a few weeks to get their hands on them.
Although Apple has shared plenty of details about its iPhone 3.0 software, the company has not made any official announcements about a hardware upgrade for the popular iPhone. However, evidence including screenshots, leaked photos and even a sentence in tech columnist Walt Mossberg’s review of the Palm Pre suggests a hardware upgrade is imminent. Mossberg’s review hints that the hardware upgrade may be revealed at WWDC next week.
There is a small possibility that Apple will release iPhone 3.0 at WWDC without in-app commerce capability and add that feature later. Some developers polled by Wired.com said they expected Apple to release the OS next week. Kai Yu has been developing his instant-messaging app BeeJive to work with iPhone 3.0’s new push-notification feature, and he strongly believes the OS will be ready for download by WWDC.
“3.0 is pretty stable at this point, so I would be surprised if it didn’t come out next week, especially since WWDC is becoming Apple’s big event, like Macworld of the past,” Yu said.
However, it would be uncharacteristic for Apple to release iPhone 3.0 until it’s been fully tested, and in-app downloads is a key addition. Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, who develops Tap Tap Revenge, said he is doubtful Apple will release the OS next week.
“This is a big launch, and in the iPhone context typically [Apple has] given developers a final-stretch timeline of three or four weeks to prepare,” Decrem said.
The good news is, not much later. Apple did, after all, recently release iTunes 8.2, which includes compatibility with iPhone 3.0, indicating that the OS is close to completion.
WWDC kicks off Monday, and Wired.com will be reporting live from the event. Keep up with our WWDC coverage right here on Gadget Lab.
The iPhone's 3.0 operating system is stable and near completion, but Apple has one large feature it still needs to test before the OS becomes available for download, according to a developer.
Let's cut to the chase and hit you with the sell: The MSI X340 is a MacBook Air at half the price. Interested? Read on.
For starters, the X340 (aka the X Slim) is considerably better muscled than your typical netbook, featuring a glossy 13.4-inch (1366 x 768 pixels) screen, 320-GB hard drive and 2 GB of RAM. Like Apple's ultralight, it's incredibly thin — about 0.8 inches at its thickest — and it actually weighs slightly less than the Air, just 2.9 pounds.
Before you start salivating over the prospects of a half-price Air, note that Apple's laptop does trump the X340 in a few significant ways. The Air includes Nvidia graphics, while the X340 is stuck with Intel's integrated chipset.
The screens are night and day: The Air is renowned for having one of the brightest LCDs available, while the X340 is merely average in this department.
WIRED Gorgeous design; slap an Apple sticker over the MSI logo and no one will ever know. Performance bests most netbooks, though it's hardly top-notch. Surprisingly good graphics and responsiveness. Includes the usual goodies: 1.3-MP webcam, Bluetooth, 802.11n.
The first day we took the car for a spin we kept the front-mounted 5.9-liter 470 BHP vehicle on a strict diet of city driving: no freeways, no tightly coiled back roads. Trudging through heavy traffic almost felt sadistic — kind of like taking a thoroughbred racehorse and giving it polio. But after exiting the city limits and tearing down a stretch of asphalt connecting San Francisco with Napa Valley, the DB9 snapped up, greedily devouring 90-degree curves with just a hint of oversteer.
WIRED Fast like a sports car, more refined than a quart of 40-weight. Gorgeous; induces whiplash in head-turning bystanders. Zippy acceleration for a GT — you can't front on a 4.6-second zero-to-60 time ... unless you're armed with a Ferrari or a Bentley.
TIRED Hood-release switch located in impossibly hard to find/reach nook (as if an Aston owner would ever do that). iPod access tres difficult to set up. Chugs gas like an ASU freshman rips beer-bong hits. Back seat harder to get into than MIT.
If you don't mind looking like an extra in a 1-800-Dentist commercial and have no reservations about looking like a crazy person yammering to yourself, the Plantronics Voyager Pro may be the perfect Bluetooth headset for you.
This headset is big, bulky and (surprise, surprise) silly looking. The 3-inch boom extending out toward your mouth is the main culprit of these crimes against style. But despite being tacky, the Voyager Pro delivers strong performance. It's easy to use, withstands drops, bumps and haphazardly tossed laptops, has decent battery life and pairs effortlessly with a range of smartphones, including the iPhone.
WIRED Easy to use. Super sound quality. Stays attached to your ear. You will look like a telephone operator from the '50s.
TIRED You will look like a telephone operator from the '50s.
After a few grim years ceded to the iMac, PC-based all-in-one desktops are making an LL Cool J-esque comeback. Their next move: Make the switch from semi-luxe gear designed for highly aesthetic environments to the megacheap world that the netbook has built.
Specs look exceedingly promising at first: 250 GB of hard drive space, 2 GB of RAM, integrated Wi-Fi, DVD burner, an SD card slot and a very bright 19-inch touchscreen display. If nothing else, it's one of the best-looking touchscreens (non-capacitive; a stylus works better than your finger) we've seen at this screen size.
But the Achilles' heel of the Wind Top is its baffling choice of an Atom 330 processor to power these guts. Although the dual-core 330 is known as the "fast" version of the Atom (it draws 8 watts instead of the 2.5 watts used by the netbook standard Atom N270 and has double the L2 cache), it's still woefully inadequate for a computer this ambitious.
WIRED Amazingly affordable and loaded to the gills. Touchscreen makes this a perfect kiddie computer. Slim profile lets it fit just about anywhere. Cuter than a box of puppies.
TIRED Performance problems dog the user at every turn. Flashing blue hard-drive activity light is front and center, terribly distracting and impossible to cover up. Bundled keyboard and mouse are beyond cheap. Webcam aim can't be adjusted.
The new Chrome Soyuz is an ambitious (if slightly crazed) reimagining of the urban commuter backpack. It's a weird hybrid of a river-rafting drybag and laptop case, all contained within a stylish wedge of black and red nylon.
It sits comfortably behind your back, letting you weave through traffic on your fixie without fear of snagging on the projecting mirrors of double-parked delivery trucks. It can ride between your knees on a crowded train. And it tucks neatly below an airplane seat, leaving just enough space on either side to squeeze in your feet so you can stretch your legs.
WIRED Wedge design keeps load balanced, trim and compact. Expandable waterproof compartment shrinks down to nothing when empty. Heavy-duty 1,000-denier cordura nylon withstands abuse. Main compartments are completely waterproof. Heavy-duty metal strap locks make adjustment easy. Glorious enameled metal "Chrome" logo.
TIRED Narrow openings + deep compartments = where the hell did my keys go? Not quite big enough to contain a six-pack (unless you put the bottles in one by one). Padding traps heat, steaming your back on long rides. No hip belt. Pricier than a metric ton of pig iron.
The pristine fidelity these headphones deliver is the result of a dual-armature layout, which bathes your tympanic membranes in accurate audio reproduction. The earpiece's dual drivers have the added benefit of propping up the typically flaccid base that seems to plague many other in-ear monitors.
The only major downside is that great sound comes at a considerable price — $230 to be precise. For most people, that's likely to be as much (or more) than you spent on your MP3 player. But as my neglected Audio Technicas can attest, in this case, you undoubtedly get what you pay for.
WIRED Exquisite sound reproduction in an insanely small package. Handy in-flight attenuator saves you from Captain Blowhard's eardrum-exploding announcements. Fuller, richer base and wider frequency response than previous UEs.
TIRED Spendiferous. Cable noise will distract joggers or anyone planning to use the headphones while exercising. Despite its redesign, the pocket case is still too small to fit all the accouterments.
Digeo's Moxi HD DVR sports a slick, Emmy-winning (seriously) user interface and all the commercial-skipping accouterments of competitors like TiVo. It even ditches a monthly bill in favor of flat pricing and grants access to online video and music.
The Moxi's stunning high-def UI is full of slick transitions and responsive performance. Unfortunately, sleek visuals don't conquer all. Basics like surfing through the program guide (or accessing a previously recorded show) took a lot of hunting and pecking through a menu tree. Finding pre-recorded shows and getting them to play took searching, highlighting, selecting Play, confirming that you selected Play, and then finally watching.
WIRED No monthly bills. Sleek high-def interface has nifty animations and transitions. Hard drive expandable to 1 TB for power recorders. Dual tuners let you watch one show while recording another. Offers a whopping 1.5-hour buffer time per HD channel.
TIRED Hefty entry fee. Online video chops not quite up to snuff. No dedicated Guide button on the remote?! Unnecessarily complicated menus. Programming schedules are displayed in cramped vertical list instead of friendly grid.
We're a little dismayed by the E71x. The device is almost identical to the E71: same 3.2-megapixel camera, same .04-inch profile, same vibrant 320 x 240 QVGA display, same business apps and multimedia functionality. The operating system is slightly tweaked so there are some differences in transmissions and page loading. But as a whole, the phone is relatively unchanged.
These are the key differences: a new $100 price tag (good), a black paint job (badass) and the omission of our favorite feature from the original E71 (ugly). We're talking about the two separate, customizable home screens, something we absolutely loved about the O.G. E71. One screen was designed for business, the other for personal use. It was a great function: You could literally edit spreadsheets from 9 to 5 on one screen, then toggle over to the other and watch a couple of episodes of 30 Rock on the media player.
WIRED Windows interface means you don't have to learn a new menu convention to browse your old files. Dumping the data of only one (or all) of your multiple PCs takes less than five mouse clicks. You can set up a password in the toolbar.
TIRED Dock and multi-PC backup capability only provided with 500-GB version. Full hard-drive recovery requires booting from a CD. Windows-only means it fails to bridge the gap in inter-OSial households.
The Replica comes with bare-bones software and strikes a good balance between peace of mind and individual-user control.
After the hard drive is plugged in, the Replica starts mirroring your computer's content. The startup process is short, taking only a couple of minutes, though the actual backup is a time-gobbling endeavor. (It took us about four hours to transfer 130 GB of data). A blue light on the top of the Replica's case blinks continuously while data is being transferred. It's also stealthy for a hard drive, emitting only a quiet whir when working at full speed.
WIRED Windows interface means you don't have to learn a new menu convention to browse your old files. Dumping the data of only one (or all) of your multiple PCs takes less than five mouse clicks. You can set up a password in the toolbar.
TIRED Dock and multi-PC backup capability only provided with 500-GB version. Full hard-drive recovery requires booting from a CD. Windows-only means it fails to bridge the gap in inter-OSial households.
Panasonic's new HDC-TM300 shoots in "Full HD," marketing speak for 1080p — aka 1080 x 1920 resolution with progressive-scan video. Translation? Stunning Blu-ray-level video that should more than lives up to the most critical expectations of prosumers and video enthusiasts.
The highlight of this shooter is the high-def footage. Not only does the phenomenal zoom reel in distant objects, but thanks to the triple sensors and quality lens, it nails far-off details perfectly. The architectural features of distant buildings we shot in downtown San Francisco showed up like we were standing on the window ledge -- not in a park three blocks away.
WIREDReproduces colors like a Crayola factory. Closeups pop with sharp, clear details. Nice performance in low light. Einstein-smart automatic shooting features are like having your own DP built into the camera. 32-GB onboard memory is expandable via SDHC slot. Great zoom tackles action better than Jason Statham.
TIRED Fast pans in bright daylight turns up more artifacts than a Mayan ruin. May require second mortgage.
In the aftermath (heh heh) of the bass-heavy Beats by Dre Studio headphones, Monster decided to pack the Doctor's finicky sound quality specs into two tiny earbuds. Naturally, audiophiles (including myself) were skeptical. Sure the Beats suffered from shoddy construction and fell apart after a few months of ownership, but they also provided some of the best bass we've ever heard in a set of cans.
Sure enough, the bass response from these things is rich and full. The lowest frequencies rumble with a force akin to the thud of a decent subwoofer. Keep in mind these are not miniaturized 12-inch Kickers designed to blow your eardrums out. But for a device that is essentially a tiny speaker with no auxiliary power, they're superb — especially when compared to the white earcruds doled out by Apple with every iDevice.
WIRED Excellent all-around frequency definition and particularly impressive bass response. Monster’s durable, ingenious anti-tangle cable means jumbled cords are a distant unpleasant memory.
TIRED The bright red cable is slightly ostentatious. Peak bass only hits at earwax shattering volumes.
The UE-11 Pros are packed with four, count 'em, four drivers: There's a double dose of bass, one for the midrange and one chiming the highs. If you're looking for the most precise, separated sound possible, then this is the earphone for you. Throughout the play list I heard clarity and detail in the music I'd never heard before. This rang especially true with classical tunes — it literally feels like sitting in a symphony hall and having every instrument speak directly to you. To get that kind of superior fidelity you'll certainly have to pay the piper. But you'll really love the music while Rome — or your bank account — burns.
WIRED Most clear, separated and detailed sound.
TIRED Try convincing your spouse you need a $1,150 set of headphones.
The slate-gray, high-impact polymer body houses three LEDs capable of blasting out a peak 270 lumens for 15 minutes, or a more useful and long-lasting 90 lumens for 60 minutes. Both settings have an emergency low-power 25-lumen mode (equivalent in brightness to most common household D-cell flashlights) for an additional 60 minutes.
WIRED High-power pro flashlight pumps out awesome illumination and recharges ridiculously fast. Flashlight will outlive you. Seriously brilliant, blinding — a boon for flashlight junkies.
TIRED Pricy front-end investment. Comes with a 12-volt car charger.
In our tests, we threw all things digital at this 68-pound slab. And while it does not perform as superbly as its higher-price brethren from Sony, Samsung and Sharp, it still shows off a completely acceptable high-def image and above-average sound.
So where has Westinghouse cut corners? Oh, let's see. How about the borderline embarrassing 1000:1 contrast ratio? In a well-lit room, the screen looks more washed out than a warehouse full of Maytags. And even though the set offers the 120-Hz spec, fast motion still looks a bit blurred.
WIRED High resolution and decent sound at incredible rock-bottom price. Convenience features integrated into menu. Quality remote not found in higher-priced TVs.
TIRED Displays some pixelated speckled noise in darker and mid-hue images. Analog-station reproduction is downright blurry. No worries though — analog TV has flatlined.
It's not quite a netbook, not quite an ultralight PC. Whatever it is, Samsung's NC20 is a dazzling feat of engineering: an extremely usable 12-inch laptop with epic battery life, impressive specs and a downright mystifyingly affordable price tag.
But the NC20 doesn't make depressing tradeoffs to achieve those scores. Battery life is three hours, 40 minutes (22 percent longer than the S10) and weight is just 3.3 pounds, comparable to the Asus Eee PC 1000H. All that and you get a 12.1-inch LCD, too, instead of the usual 10.2-inch netbook display.
WIRED Everything a netbook should be: Offers the best performance available from a computer this portable and inexpensive. Very usable keyboard. Good quality audio. Includes three USB ports, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and SD card slot.
TIRED LCD could be a touch brighter and quality sharper. Chassis design is a bit boring.
Pure Digital's Flip has proven that it's possible to build a super-small flash memory camcorder and offer it up for fewer than two hundred bucks. But there are tradeoffs with going small and cheap, like optics and battery life. Canon takes a completely different tack with its newest solid-state cam, the Vixia HF S10, which delivers some fantastically brilliant moving pictures, but at a stiff cost.
Out in the field, auto focus and auto exposure were both very impressive in a wide range of situations, from the intense brightness of the beach to shady and contrasty venues. Every camera suffers indoors, thanks to low light, and everyone complains about it, but the S10 did a credible job with low-light shots and it's clearly better than previous cams of this ilk.
WIRED Improved audio quality. Big, bright lens. Speedy processor. Lots of creative control options. More intuitive menus than previous generation Canon camcorders.
TIRED Loose lens cover noisier than cutlery caught in a garbage disposal. Still images come off looking a bit overexposed.
Dry your eyes, plasma junkies. The untimely demise of Pioneer's Kuro line doesn't mean you'll have to forgo those deliciously deep blacks and theater-perfect colors for long. In fact, even as the last of the Pioneer Kuro Elites make its way into a few lucky U.S. homes, a new lineup of HDTV sets are already poised to seize the plasma king's vacant throne.
Key to this plasma's visual appeal is its integrated THX mode. In addition to blessing various audio components, the home-theater ninjas at THX began bestowing plasma and LCD certification a few years back. Each set is subjected to approximately 400 individual tests, ranging from evaluations in signal processing to luminosity. Basically, the idea behind G10's THX mode is to recreate the precise color gamut filmmakers use during the in-studio post-production process.
WIRED Mind-boggling blacks with tons of detail. THX mode is a godsend for movie buffs. Integrated SD card slots transform your plasma into a giant digital photo frame. Amazing color saturation.
TIRED THX mode is bit dim for brightly lit rooms. Ethernet connectivity is nice for VieraCast, but Wi-Fi would've been better. Three HDMI ports (two in the back, one on the side) don't cut it. More power-hungry than LCD TVs. Where's the PiP?
The PogoPlug is a device, which looks like a supersized AC adapter, plugs into almost any external hard drive (even a USB stick) and then pumps that content onto the web, giving you access anywhere in the world you can get an internet signal — including your iPhone.
But the PogoPlug isn't without the occasional snafu and annoyances. Only image files are available for preview. PDF, Word documents or even HTML files have to be downloaded before viewing. Worse yet, when we unhooked the device, it caused our PC to crash twice in a row. We're still not entirely sure if this was due to a glitch in the PogoPlug or in Windows.
WIRED Easy to use. Simple setup. Great utility: I must be able to access my collection of LOLcat photos from anywhere. The iPhone app is solid software.
TIRED No wireless mode ... yet. Poor security — it's a wise idea to keep those tax returns or bank documents off the PogoPlug. Computer crashes are deeply flummoxing. The iPhone is currently the only mobile device that supports remote access.
NatureMill's Pro edition is an indoor composter we can pretty much dig. Using minimal electricity, a small motor turns a heavy-duty mixing bar, heats the mixing chamber (no sunlight needed) and powers an air pump that works with a carbon air filter to help reduce smell (each filter lasts four to five years).
Just add starter dirt, drop in some sawdust pellets to combat odors and dump your food scraps in. NatureMill recommends that you cut organic material into 4-inch bits before plopping it in. We didn't, but aside from the motor making some gnarly noises, it didn't seem to affect compost production. NatureMill's Pro version also features some automatic activation. We were able to leave ours sitting for weeks without pushing the button even once; it mixed and heated itself just fine.
WIRED Stainless steel mixing bar made short work of uncut banana peels. Relatively small and exceptionally lightweight = easy to stash and transport. Foot pedal eliminates lid touching. Mighty Morphin' Power Saver: only draws 5 kwh a month (roughly 50 cents on an average electric bill). Not as much of an eyesore as it could be and it's available in a range of colors (including, you guess it, green).
TIRED Little to no stench — until top opens (that's hard to remedy, and burger/fish/salad remnants smell worse than a dead wildebeest doused in Eau D'Bile). Polypropylene housing is light, but may not last forever. Disposable carbon filters reduce smell, but also cut down on the green factor. Regular maintenance (scraping the mix chamber walls) isn't fun.
You can get away with a lot if you're beautiful. Such is the case with the new Porsche Design P'9522 phone. In some ways, it's a wonderful and capable cellphone, but in most others, it's dumber than the gorgeous block of aluminum it was machined from.
Someone forgot to include e-mail — an absence that had us trying to mar the Porsche phone's scratchproof screen with claws of rage. Unfortunately, that screen is tough, so the P'9522 will be lauded and drooled over — despite our many gripes with it.
WIRED Gorgeous. Touchscreen interface is easy to understand, if limited and frustrating. Preloaded ringtones include the roaring engines of the 911 GT3 and Turbo. Its 5-megapixel camera has autofocus and captures clean, vivid images. LED flash doubles as a flashlight. Unlocking the phone with its fingerprint scanner is very MI5.
TIRED Fingerprint scanner is also very POS: Who thought it would be a good idea to use fingerprints to access a device you're likely holding in one hand while juggling multiple other tasks? Preloaded ringtones include bad German techno. Touchscreen is deeply frustrating. Seriously — no e-mail?
Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds.
Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device.
WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including — wait for it — DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability.
TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you — we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter.
As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel.
In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer.
WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter … slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive.
TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool.
Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine.
But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse.
WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds.
TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts.
The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car — even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds — and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z.
Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do.
WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone.
TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone.
Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions.
Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 — and has its own text-to-speech function.
WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired.
TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory.
Apple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow.
The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls.
WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop.
TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in.
Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it.
WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle.
TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me.
The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box.
As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that.
WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price.
TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path.
I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming.
You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy.
WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo.
TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown
The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so.
Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle.
WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces.
TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better.
The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect.
But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass.
WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes.
TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled.
Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery).
But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option.
WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans.
TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty.
From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents.
Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop.
WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam.
TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard.
The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker.
WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required.
TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there.
Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents.
We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light.
WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence.
TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic.
The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though — despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers.
The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though.
WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for hiding porn er, convenience. Runs whisper-quiet.
TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse — on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing.
This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer).
But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor.
WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent.
TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project.
Kodak’s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss.
What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go.
WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content.
TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content.
Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler.
On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun.
WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time.
TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle.
For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook.
Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category.
WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls.
TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray?
It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program.
WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong.
TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software.
The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device.
Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable.
WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware.
TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes.
Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking.
About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other.
WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility.
TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade.
Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments.
Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones.
WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive.
TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback.
This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting.
The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album.
WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device.
TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype.
HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential.
Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle.
WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader.
TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show.
Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo.
Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch.
Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system.
WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away.
TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna.
Two years ago, few outside of fanboyland knew who Guillermo del Toro was. Film geeks name-dropped him as one of the "Three Amigos," a triad of up-and-coming Mexican-born buddies that includes Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) and Alejandro Gonzàlez Inàrritu (Babel). But del Toro was probably the nerdiest of the three—the pasty indoor kid behind Hellboy who doodled in his notebook and painted pewter dragons while his pals made "important" films with Clive Owen and Brad Pitt.
That changed with Pan's Labyrinth, his grimly vivid coming-of-age fable set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Nominated for six Oscars and winning three (including Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction), Labyrinth instantly elevated the talented schlock-meister from geek totem to critically beloved prophet. He was handpicked by Peter Jackson to helm the two-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings and took on a slew of projects that will keep him in the spotlight for years. His plate is now piled high with a Frankenstein adaptation, revisionist Dickens, loyalist Vonnegut, and more. Suddenly, we're looking down the barrel of the Del Toro Decade.
But don't worry: While he's poised to succeed Spielberg and Lucas atop Blockbuster Mountain, the 44-year-old kid from Guadalajara is still a talented schlock-meister. Who but a committed nerd would carve out time between making Hellboy II and developing The Hobbit (with executive producers Jackson and Fran Walsh, as well as scribe Philippa Boyens) to cowrite splattery vampire novels? (The Strain, a sort of modern reply to Bram Stoker's original Dracula and the first volume in an epic bloodsucker trilogy, is due out June 2.) Del Toro is tight-lipped about his three-year Hobbit odyssey—the screenplay isn't finished, and casting has yet to be announced formally. But he's more than ready to hold forth on vampires, his creative process, and the future of movies. Hint: They'll be more than just films—and you, dear reader, will be in them. If you dare.
Wired: You're pretty busy these days. What made you want to write vampire-themed horror novels?
Guillermo del Toro: I originally wrote a very long outline for a TV series I wanted to do called The Strain. And then the network president at Fox said to me, "We do want something with vampires—but could you make it a comedy?" Obviously, I responded, "No thank you" and "Can I have my outline back?"
Wired: So you turned a TV show into a novel, which you cowrote with best-selling crime author Chuck Hogan. Why a collaboration?
del Toro: I've written short stories in Spanish and English. I've written screenplays. But I'm not good at forensic novels. I'm not good at hazmat language and that CSI-style precision. When Stoker wrote Dracula, it was very modern, a CSI sort of novel. I wanted to give The Strain a procedural feel, where everything seems real.
Wired: But "real" for you is so ... unreal. You set The Strain in New York. In the past, your depictions of the city, from Mimic to Blade II to Hellboy, have had a fabulous aspect.
del Toro: It comes from my first trip to New York as a child. I was walking around Central Park, and I saw one of these expensive apartment buildings. At the top was a Gothic tower, and I said to my mother, "A vampire lives there." I wasn't being metaphorical. Then we went into the subway and—wow! For a guy from Guadalajara, the subway is mythical. The underground of the city is like what's underground in people. Beneath the surface, it's boiling with monsters.
Nerd's Labyrinth: Guillermo del Toro inside his monstrous LA lair.
Photo: Art Streiber
Wired: With Pan's Labyrinth, you proved you can indulge your love of monsters and seek artistic credibility at the same time. Do you still get push-back from an industry that believes the science fiction/fantasy genre and "serious filmmaking" don't mix?
del Toro: People think because you love genre you don't know anything else. It's condescending. If the emotion is provoked and the goals are achieved, what does it matter? Is Thomas Pynchon a more worthy read than Stephen King? It depends on the afternoon. And I love Kurt Vonnegut. He threads the profane and irreverent with the profound and soul-searing.
Coming Soon: The Del Toro Decade
Guillermo del Toro is slated to write, direct, or produce at least 11 movies in the next decade. He's got the chops, but he's only human. The two Hobbit flicks alone will take roughly three years, which leaves just seven for the rest. Here's a rundown, with our projected odds of their hitting the big screen.—Scott Pierce
= How much we want to see it
= How likely it is to happen
The Hobbit
With a reported $300 million total budget, del Toro is in New Zealand preparing to shoot his back-to-back prequels to The Lord of the Rings, set for release in 2011 and 2012. Wouldn't it be so cool if Bilbo had eyes on his palms?
Hellboy III
A $237 million worldwide gross for this franchise will likely mean a trilogy. Del Toro could step in as a producer to sell tickets, but there's probably not a snowflake's chance in Hellboy he'll be directing. We'll still see it for Ron Perlman.
Drood
Charles Dickens as a killer? Del Toro was all over Dan Simmons' revisionist novel well before it was published earlier this year. Drood is just one of the projects in del Toro's multiyear first-look deal with Universal. Targeted for a 2012 release.
Pinocchio
Del Toro hopes to produce this film, possibly in stop-motion, based on Gris Grimly's dark 2002 novelized reimagining of the classic tale. But with Henry Selick's Coraline and Wes Anderson's upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox, we say, no mo' stop-mo!
Slaughterhouse-Five
Another film for Universal. Del Toro plans to stay true to Kurt Vonnegut's novel—unlike a certain Hugo-award-winning movie from 1972. We can't wait to see how he'll update our all-time favorite tale of World War II and alien abduction.
At the Mountains of Madness
Another Universal endeavor, this one is a big-screen adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's mythic tale. Universal, however, appears to be sharing the Lovecraft, with another H. P.-related project reportedly in the pipeline—with Ron Howard behind the lens.
Frankenstein
Del Toro is eager to direct his longtime passion project. But after Kenneth Branagh's disappointing 1994 effort (Robert De Niro, what were you thinking?), we need another Frankenstein reboot like we need two bolts in the neck.
The Witches
The blogosphere says that del Toro will direct his own stop-motion treatment of this Roald Dahl fantasy. A script is in the works, but another stop-motion? It's doubtful that del Toro has time to play with figurines.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
With scores of film adaptations out there, we're of two minds on another redo of the classic novella. Still, del Toro has expressed interest in making it a portrait of addiction—and one installment in a series of grisly, Victorian-era horror films.
Doctor Strange
Del Toro and Neil Gaiman discussed an adaptation of the obscure Marvel character. But with dueling schedules (including Gaiman's Graveyard Book—a children's fantasy novel—and his screenplay for The Road to En-Dor), this one is purely fiction.
Wired: Is that what attracted you to Slaughterhouse-Five?
del Toro: Of course. Enormous truths can be revealed with a sense of humor and whimsy. With Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone, which is a less well-known film, I was trying the same thing, in a way. And with my first feature, the vampire fable Cronos, too. I tried to take genre premises and explore them obliquely, where the fantastic is either tangential or illuminates reality in a different way.
Wired: The movies you've booked will keep you busy for another decade or more. They will also make you the dominant fantasist for this period, which promises profound tech-driven upheavals in both content and distribution. What will we see?
del Toro: In the next 10 years, we're going to see all the forms of entertainment—film, television, video, games, and print—melding into a single-platform "story engine." The Model T of this new platform is the PS3. The moment you connect creative output with a public story engine, a narrative can continue over a period of months or years. It's going to rewrite the rules of fiction.
Wired: It sounds like you're talking about an entirely new form of storytelling.
del Toro: Think about the way oral tradition became written word—how what we know about Achilles was written many, many years after it made its way around the world with different names and different types of heroes. That can happen when you allow content to keep propagating itself through different kinds of platforms and engines—when you permit it to be retold with a promiscuous form of mythology. You see it when people create their own avatars in games and transfigure their game worlds.
Wired: How is that interactivity going to change Hollywood—and the way directors like you make movies?
del Toro: [Legendary B-movie producer] Samuel Arkoff once told me there are only 10 great stories. That's where the engine and promiscuity come in. Hollywood thinks art is like Latin in the Middle Ages—only a few should know it, only a few should speak it. I don't think so.
Wired: So how will the public story engine tell those same 10 stories differently?
del Toro: We are used to thinking of stories in a linear way—act one, act two, act three. We're still on the Aristotelian model. What the digital approach allows you to do is take a tangential and nonlinear model and use it to expand the world. For example: If you're following Leo Bloom from Ulysses on a certain day and he crosses a street, you can abandon him and follow someone else.
Wired: You're describing a model that's more like a videogame. Is the merger of movies and games the first step?
del Toro: Unfortunately, I've found in my videogame experience that the big companies are just as conservative as the studios. I was disappointed with the first Hellboy game. I'm very impressed with the sandbox of Grand Theft Auto. You can get lost in that world. But we're using it just to shoot people and run over old ladies. We could be doing so much more.
Wired: But these nonlinear, hybrid storytelling forms involve gaming tech, which could trap them in a geek ghetto. What's going to bring down that wall?
del Toro: Go back a couple of decades to the birth of the graphic novel—I think we can pinpoint the big bang to Will Eisner's A Contract With God. Today, we have very worthy people doing literary comics. I think the same thing will happen on the Internet-gaming side. In the next 10 years, there will be an earthshaking Citizen Kane of games.
Wired: Are you going to create it?
del Toro: I'll be trying to make it. But I won't be trying until after The Hobbit.
Wired: Seems like you're pulling an Obama on us: doing everything at once. That's an interesting strategy.
del Toro: Look, the fact that I have a simulacrum of a career is a wonder. To paraphrase John Lennon, a career is what happens when you're making other plans.
Contributing editor Scott Brown (scott_brown@wired.com) wrote about the Terminator franchise in issue 17.04.
For those who believe that opportunity exists in every setback, look no further for proof than Mozilla 1.0, the first major milestone for the open source browser.
Let's cut to the chase and hit you with the sell: The MSI X340 is a MacBook Air at half the price. Interested? Read on.
For starters, the X340 (aka the X Slim) is considerably better muscled than your typical netbook, featuring a glossy 13.4-inch (1366 x 768 pixels) screen, 320-GB hard drive and 2 GB of RAM. Like Apple's ultralight, it's incredibly thin — about 0.8 inches at its thickest — and it actually weighs slightly less than the Air, just 2.9 pounds.
Before you start salivating over the prospects of a half-price Air, note that Apple's laptop does trump the X340 in a few significant ways. The Air includes Nvidia graphics, while the X340 is stuck with Intel's integrated chipset.
The screens are night and day: The Air is renowned for having one of the brightest LCDs available, while the X340 is merely average in this department.
WIRED Gorgeous design; slap an Apple sticker over the MSI logo and no one will ever know. Performance bests most netbooks, though it's hardly top-notch. Surprisingly good graphics and responsiveness. Includes the usual goodies: 1.3-MP webcam, Bluetooth, 802.11n.
The first day we took the car for a spin we kept the front-mounted 5.9-liter 470 BHP vehicle on a strict diet of city driving: no freeways, no tightly coiled back roads. Trudging through heavy traffic almost felt sadistic — kind of like taking a thoroughbred racehorse and giving it polio. But after exiting the city limits and tearing down a stretch of asphalt connecting San Francisco with Napa Valley, the DB9 snapped up, greedily devouring 90-degree curves with just a hint of oversteer.
WIRED Fast like a sports car, more refined than a quart of 40-weight. Gorgeous; induces whiplash in head-turning bystanders. Zippy acceleration for a GT — you can't front on a 4.6-second zero-to-60 time ... unless you're armed with a Ferrari or a Bentley.
TIRED Hood-release switch located in impossibly hard to find/reach nook (as if an Aston owner would ever do that). iPod access tres difficult to set up. Chugs gas like an ASU freshman rips beer-bong hits. Back seat harder to get into than MIT.
If you don't mind looking like an extra in a 1-800-Dentist commercial and have no reservations about looking like a crazy person yammering to yourself, the Plantronics Voyager Pro may be the perfect Bluetooth headset for you.
This headset is big, bulky and (surprise, surprise) silly looking. The 3-inch boom extending out toward your mouth is the main culprit of these crimes against style. But despite being tacky, the Voyager Pro delivers strong performance. It's easy to use, withstands drops, bumps and haphazardly tossed laptops, has decent battery life and pairs effortlessly with a range of smartphones, including the iPhone.
WIRED Easy to use. Super sound quality. Stays attached to your ear. You will look like a telephone operator from the '50s.
TIRED You will look like a telephone operator from the '50s.
After a few grim years ceded to the iMac, PC-based all-in-one desktops are making an LL Cool J-esque comeback. Their next move: Make the switch from semi-luxe gear designed for highly aesthetic environments to the megacheap world that the netbook has built.
Specs look exceedingly promising at first: 250 GB of hard drive space, 2 GB of RAM, integrated Wi-Fi, DVD burner, an SD card slot and a very bright 19-inch touchscreen display. If nothing else, it's one of the best-looking touchscreens (non-capacitive; a stylus works better than your finger) we've seen at this screen size.
But the Achilles' heel of the Wind Top is its baffling choice of an Atom 330 processor to power these guts. Although the dual-core 330 is known as the "fast" version of the Atom (it draws 8 watts instead of the 2.5 watts used by the netbook standard Atom N270 and has double the L2 cache), it's still woefully inadequate for a computer this ambitious.
WIRED Amazingly affordable and loaded to the gills. Touchscreen makes this a perfect kiddie computer. Slim profile lets it fit just about anywhere. Cuter than a box of puppies.
TIRED Performance problems dog the user at every turn. Flashing blue hard-drive activity light is front and center, terribly distracting and impossible to cover up. Bundled keyboard and mouse are beyond cheap. Webcam aim can't be adjusted.
The new Chrome Soyuz is an ambitious (if slightly crazed) reimagining of the urban commuter backpack. It's a weird hybrid of a river-rafting drybag and laptop case, all contained within a stylish wedge of black and red nylon.
It sits comfortably behind your back, letting you weave through traffic on your fixie without fear of snagging on the projecting mirrors of double-parked delivery trucks. It can ride between your knees on a crowded train. And it tucks neatly below an airplane seat, leaving just enough space on either side to squeeze in your feet so you can stretch your legs.
WIRED Wedge design keeps load balanced, trim and compact. Expandable waterproof compartment shrinks down to nothing when empty. Heavy-duty 1,000-denier cordura nylon withstands abuse. Main compartments are completely waterproof. Heavy-duty metal strap locks make adjustment easy. Glorious enameled metal "Chrome" logo.
TIRED Narrow openings + deep compartments = where the hell did my keys go? Not quite big enough to contain a six-pack (unless you put the bottles in one by one). Padding traps heat, steaming your back on long rides. No hip belt. Pricier than a metric ton of pig iron.
The pristine fidelity these headphones deliver is the result of a dual-armature layout, which bathes your tympanic membranes in accurate audio reproduction. The earpiece's dual drivers have the added benefit of propping up the typically flaccid base that seems to plague many other in-ear monitors.
The only major downside is that great sound comes at a considerable price — $230 to be precise. For most people, that's likely to be as much (or more) than you spent on your MP3 player. But as my neglected Audio Technicas can attest, in this case, you undoubtedly get what you pay for.
WIRED Exquisite sound reproduction in an insanely small package. Handy in-flight attenuator saves you from Captain Blowhard's eardrum-exploding announcements. Fuller, richer base and wider frequency response than previous UEs.
TIRED Spendiferous. Cable noise will distract joggers or anyone planning to use the headphones while exercising. Despite its redesign, the pocket case is still too small to fit all the accouterments.
Digeo's Moxi HD DVR sports a slick, Emmy-winning (seriously) user interface and all the commercial-skipping accouterments of competitors like TiVo. It even ditches a monthly bill in favor of flat pricing and grants access to online video and music.
The Moxi's stunning high-def UI is full of slick transitions and responsive performance. Unfortunately, sleek visuals don't conquer all. Basics like surfing through the program guide (or accessing a previously recorded show) took a lot of hunting and pecking through a menu tree. Finding pre-recorded shows and getting them to play took searching, highlighting, selecting Play, confirming that you selected Play, and then finally watching.
WIRED No monthly bills. Sleek high-def interface has nifty animations and transitions. Hard drive expandable to 1 TB for power recorders. Dual tuners let you watch one show while recording another. Offers a whopping 1.5-hour buffer time per HD channel.
TIRED Hefty entry fee. Online video chops not quite up to snuff. No dedicated Guide button on the remote?! Unnecessarily complicated menus. Programming schedules are displayed in cramped vertical list instead of friendly grid.
We're a little dismayed by the E71x. The device is almost identical to the E71: same 3.2-megapixel camera, same .04-inch profile, same vibrant 320 x 240 QVGA display, same business apps and multimedia functionality. The operating system is slightly tweaked so there are some differences in transmissions and page loading. But as a whole, the phone is relatively unchanged.
These are the key differences: a new $100 price tag (good), a black paint job (badass) and the omission of our favorite feature from the original E71 (ugly). We're talking about the two separate, customizable home screens, something we absolutely loved about the O.G. E71. One screen was designed for business, the other for personal use. It was a great function: You could literally edit spreadsheets from 9 to 5 on one screen, then toggle over to the other and watch a couple of episodes of 30 Rock on the media player.
WIRED Windows interface means you don't have to learn a new menu convention to browse your old files. Dumping the data of only one (or all) of your multiple PCs takes less than five mouse clicks. You can set up a password in the toolbar.
TIRED Dock and multi-PC backup capability only provided with 500-GB version. Full hard-drive recovery requires booting from a CD. Windows-only means it fails to bridge the gap in inter-OSial households.
The Replica comes with bare-bones software and strikes a good balance between peace of mind and individual-user control.
After the hard drive is plugged in, the Replica starts mirroring your computer's content. The startup process is short, taking only a couple of minutes, though the actual backup is a time-gobbling endeavor. (It took us about four hours to transfer 130 GB of data). A blue light on the top of the Replica's case blinks continuously while data is being transferred. It's also stealthy for a hard drive, emitting only a quiet whir when working at full speed.
WIRED Windows interface means you don't have to learn a new menu convention to browse your old files. Dumping the data of only one (or all) of your multiple PCs takes less than five mouse clicks. You can set up a password in the toolbar.
TIRED Dock and multi-PC backup capability only provided with 500-GB version. Full hard-drive recovery requires booting from a CD. Windows-only means it fails to bridge the gap in inter-OSial households.
Panasonic's new HDC-TM300 shoots in "Full HD," marketing speak for 1080p — aka 1080 x 1920 resolution with progressive-scan video. Translation? Stunning Blu-ray-level video that should more than lives up to the most critical expectations of prosumers and video enthusiasts.
The highlight of this shooter is the high-def footage. Not only does the phenomenal zoom reel in distant objects, but thanks to the triple sensors and quality lens, it nails far-off details perfectly. The architectural features of distant buildings we shot in downtown San Francisco showed up like we were standing on the window ledge -- not in a park three blocks away.
WIREDReproduces colors like a Crayola factory. Closeups pop with sharp, clear details. Nice performance in low light. Einstein-smart automatic shooting features are like having your own DP built into the camera. 32-GB onboard memory is expandable via SDHC slot. Great zoom tackles action better than Jason Statham.
TIRED Fast pans in bright daylight turns up more artifacts than a Mayan ruin. May require second mortgage.
In the aftermath (heh heh) of the bass-heavy Beats by Dre Studio headphones, Monster decided to pack the Doctor's finicky sound quality specs into two tiny earbuds. Naturally, audiophiles (including myself) were skeptical. Sure the Beats suffered from shoddy construction and fell apart after a few months of ownership, but they also provided some of the best bass we've ever heard in a set of cans.
Sure enough, the bass response from these things is rich and full. The lowest frequencies rumble with a force akin to the thud of a decent subwoofer. Keep in mind these are not miniaturized 12-inch Kickers designed to blow your eardrums out. But for a device that is essentially a tiny speaker with no auxiliary power, they're superb — especially when compared to the white earcruds doled out by Apple with every iDevice.
WIRED Excellent all-around frequency definition and particularly impressive bass response. Monster’s durable, ingenious anti-tangle cable means jumbled cords are a distant unpleasant memory.
TIRED The bright red cable is slightly ostentatious. Peak bass only hits at earwax shattering volumes.
The UE-11 Pros are packed with four, count 'em, four drivers: There's a double dose of bass, one for the midrange and one chiming the highs. If you're looking for the most precise, separated sound possible, then this is the earphone for you. Throughout the play list I heard clarity and detail in the music I'd never heard before. This rang especially true with classical tunes — it literally feels like sitting in a symphony hall and having every instrument speak directly to you. To get that kind of superior fidelity you'll certainly have to pay the piper. But you'll really love the music while Rome — or your bank account — burns.
WIRED Most clear, separated and detailed sound.
TIRED Try convincing your spouse you need a $1,150 set of headphones.
The slate-gray, high-impact polymer body houses three LEDs capable of blasting out a peak 270 lumens for 15 minutes, or a more useful and long-lasting 90 lumens for 60 minutes. Both settings have an emergency low-power 25-lumen mode (equivalent in brightness to most common household D-cell flashlights) for an additional 60 minutes.
WIRED High-power pro flashlight pumps out awesome illumination and recharges ridiculously fast. Flashlight will outlive you. Seriously brilliant, blinding — a boon for flashlight junkies.
TIRED Pricy front-end investment. Comes with a 12-volt car charger.
In our tests, we threw all things digital at this 68-pound slab. And while it does not perform as superbly as its higher-price brethren from Sony, Samsung and Sharp, it still shows off a completely acceptable high-def image and above-average sound.
So where has Westinghouse cut corners? Oh, let's see. How about the borderline embarrassing 1000:1 contrast ratio? In a well-lit room, the screen looks more washed out than a warehouse full of Maytags. And even though the set offers the 120-Hz spec, fast motion still looks a bit blurred.
WIRED High resolution and decent sound at incredible rock-bottom price. Convenience features integrated into menu. Quality remote not found in higher-priced TVs.
TIRED Displays some pixelated speckled noise in darker and mid-hue images. Analog-station reproduction is downright blurry. No worries though — analog TV has flatlined.
It's not quite a netbook, not quite an ultralight PC. Whatever it is, Samsung's NC20 is a dazzling feat of engineering: an extremely usable 12-inch laptop with epic battery life, impressive specs and a downright mystifyingly affordable price tag.
But the NC20 doesn't make depressing tradeoffs to achieve those scores. Battery life is three hours, 40 minutes (22 percent longer than the S10) and weight is just 3.3 pounds, comparable to the Asus Eee PC 1000H. All that and you get a 12.1-inch LCD, too, instead of the usual 10.2-inch netbook display.
WIRED Everything a netbook should be: Offers the best performance available from a computer this portable and inexpensive. Very usable keyboard. Good quality audio. Includes three USB ports, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and SD card slot.
TIRED LCD could be a touch brighter and quality sharper. Chassis design is a bit boring.
Pure Digital's Flip has proven that it's possible to build a super-small flash memory camcorder and offer it up for fewer than two hundred bucks. But there are tradeoffs with going small and cheap, like optics and battery life. Canon takes a completely different tack with its newest solid-state cam, the Vixia HF S10, which delivers some fantastically brilliant moving pictures, but at a stiff cost.
Out in the field, auto focus and auto exposure were both very impressive in a wide range of situations, from the intense brightness of the beach to shady and contrasty venues. Every camera suffers indoors, thanks to low light, and everyone complains about it, but the S10 did a credible job with low-light shots and it's clearly better than previous cams of this ilk.
WIRED Improved audio quality. Big, bright lens. Speedy processor. Lots of creative control options. More intuitive menus than previous generation Canon camcorders.
TIRED Loose lens cover noisier than cutlery caught in a garbage disposal. Still images come off looking a bit overexposed.
Dry your eyes, plasma junkies. The untimely demise of Pioneer's Kuro line doesn't mean you'll have to forgo those deliciously deep blacks and theater-perfect colors for long. In fact, even as the last of the Pioneer Kuro Elites make its way into a few lucky U.S. homes, a new lineup of HDTV sets are already poised to seize the plasma king's vacant throne.
Key to this plasma's visual appeal is its integrated THX mode. In addition to blessing various audio components, the home-theater ninjas at THX began bestowing plasma and LCD certification a few years back. Each set is subjected to approximately 400 individual tests, ranging from evaluations in signal processing to luminosity. Basically, the idea behind G10's THX mode is to recreate the precise color gamut filmmakers use during the in-studio post-production process.
WIRED Mind-boggling blacks with tons of detail. THX mode is a godsend for movie buffs. Integrated SD card slots transform your plasma into a giant digital photo frame. Amazing color saturation.
TIRED THX mode is bit dim for brightly lit rooms. Ethernet connectivity is nice for VieraCast, but Wi-Fi would've been better. Three HDMI ports (two in the back, one on the side) don't cut it. More power-hungry than LCD TVs. Where's the PiP?
The PogoPlug is a device, which looks like a supersized AC adapter, plugs into almost any external hard drive (even a USB stick) and then pumps that content onto the web, giving you access anywhere in the world you can get an internet signal — including your iPhone.
But the PogoPlug isn't without the occasional snafu and annoyances. Only image files are available for preview. PDF, Word documents or even HTML files have to be downloaded before viewing. Worse yet, when we unhooked the device, it caused our PC to crash twice in a row. We're still not entirely sure if this was due to a glitch in the PogoPlug or in Windows.
WIRED Easy to use. Simple setup. Great utility: I must be able to access my collection of LOLcat photos from anywhere. The iPhone app is solid software.
TIRED No wireless mode ... yet. Poor security — it's a wise idea to keep those tax returns or bank documents off the PogoPlug. Computer crashes are deeply flummoxing. The iPhone is currently the only mobile device that supports remote access.
NatureMill's Pro edition is an indoor composter we can pretty much dig. Using minimal electricity, a small motor turns a heavy-duty mixing bar, heats the mixing chamber (no sunlight needed) and powers an air pump that works with a carbon air filter to help reduce smell (each filter lasts four to five years).
Just add starter dirt, drop in some sawdust pellets to combat odors and dump your food scraps in. NatureMill recommends that you cut organic material into 4-inch bits before plopping it in. We didn't, but aside from the motor making some gnarly noises, it didn't seem to affect compost production. NatureMill's Pro version also features some automatic activation. We were able to leave ours sitting for weeks without pushing the button even once; it mixed and heated itself just fine.
WIRED Stainless steel mixing bar made short work of uncut banana peels. Relatively small and exceptionally lightweight = easy to stash and transport. Foot pedal eliminates lid touching. Mighty Morphin' Power Saver: only draws 5 kwh a month (roughly 50 cents on an average electric bill). Not as much of an eyesore as it could be and it's available in a range of colors (including, you guess it, green).
TIRED Little to no stench — until top opens (that's hard to remedy, and burger/fish/salad remnants smell worse than a dead wildebeest doused in Eau D'Bile). Polypropylene housing is light, but may not last forever. Disposable carbon filters reduce smell, but also cut down on the green factor. Regular maintenance (scraping the mix chamber walls) isn't fun.
You can get away with a lot if you're beautiful. Such is the case with the new Porsche Design P'9522 phone. In some ways, it's a wonderful and capable cellphone, but in most others, it's dumber than the gorgeous block of aluminum it was machined from.
Someone forgot to include e-mail — an absence that had us trying to mar the Porsche phone's scratchproof screen with claws of rage. Unfortunately, that screen is tough, so the P'9522 will be lauded and drooled over — despite our many gripes with it.
WIRED Gorgeous. Touchscreen interface is easy to understand, if limited and frustrating. Preloaded ringtones include the roaring engines of the 911 GT3 and Turbo. Its 5-megapixel camera has autofocus and captures clean, vivid images. LED flash doubles as a flashlight. Unlocking the phone with its fingerprint scanner is very MI5.
TIRED Fingerprint scanner is also very POS: Who thought it would be a good idea to use fingerprints to access a device you're likely holding in one hand while juggling multiple other tasks? Preloaded ringtones include bad German techno. Touchscreen is deeply frustrating. Seriously — no e-mail?
Weighing just 140 grams, the handset offers some of the best optics we've ever found crammed into a cell phone: sharp, noiseless pics (3,264 × 2,448 pixels) and decent image stabilizer punctuate video capture that puts full-figured handicams from 2008 to shame. You can even shoot VGA at 30 fps or QVGA at a whopping 120 fps (yes, 120!), including slow motion footage in 1/4 and 1/8 speeds.
Amazing, sure, but not a picture perfect phone. The i8510 functions almost exactly like a standard point-and-shoot, except for the zoom button, which is placed inexplicably, and awkwardly at the bottom of the device.
WIRED Beaucoup codecs, including — wait for it — DivX! 2.8-inch screen excellent for playback. Intuitive photo/video editing suite. Equally intuitive navigation. Automatic lens cover. MicroSD slot good for 16 GB (enough for aspiring Scorseses to go epic). All the usual smartphone suspects: 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, accelerometer, GPS. Decent earbuds with ample cord. 3.5mm audio jack. Most excellent: TV-out capability.
TIRED Side-mounted headphone jack makes phone harder to pocket. Optical control pad is a tad sensitive (between us and you — we don't want to hurt its feelings). Most bogus: Metal shell retains enough scratches to fill a DJ Shadow album. A little on the clunky side. Most bogus: Flash needs to be brighter.
As the successor to Logitech's G11 and G15, this huge hunk of plastic comes with gaming hardwired in its DNA. Like its relatives, it has a blocky aesthetic that harkens to the days of the Model M. There are, however, a handful of very modern flourishes that make this latest G-board a distinctly modern marvel.
In the end, the G19's main drawback is the same one that has plagued fancy keyboards since the days of yore: It's freaking huge. That swiveling LCD? It actually requires a tiny onboard Linux computer to run, which in turn requires its own power source. Should you choose to make use of the two self-powered USB ports, you'll potentially have more wires shooting out of this thing than your computer.
WIRED More customizable than a box of Legos. Two self-powered USB ports. Dedicated D-pad and menu keys let you control LCD directly from the keyboard. Convenient cable management lanes carved into bottom of unit lessens clutter … slightly. Choose-your-own-color adventure with adjustable backlighting. Keys are pleasantly clicky and responsive.
TIRED Limited desktop space? This is not your keyboard. Price tag to match gargantuan footprint. Requires power brick to run. After its novelty wears off, built-in LCD becomes more of a distraction than a useful tool.
Want to catch the last episode of Battlestar Galactica while hanging out in the local java joint? Going to download a season of The Simpsons for viewing on the plane? Giving an impromptu screening of your vacation photos at a friend's house? The Mini 10 is your machine.
But there are infuriating shortcomings to the Mini 10. The trackpad is one of the worst we've seen. Dell's decision to integrate the buttons underneath the pad itself makes using it both unpredictable and challenging. When you click on a button, the cursor may hit the target, wiggle off a centimeter or two, or teleport off into a remote corner of your screen. While it got easier to use after a week of practice, our advice is to invest in a cheap travel mouse.
WIRED Bright, responsive screen. Integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam. Not gunked up with crapware. HDMI-out port shows charming, if unwarranted, optimism about the netbook's video capabilities. Light weight: Just 2.6 pounds.
TIRED Infuriating trackpad with integrated buttons hidden underneath. Excessively glossy screen produces distracting glare. Windows XP is starting to look pretty tired. What, no solid-state option? Despite the HDMI port, the netbook can't deliver HD video without fits and starts.
The new 370Z upgrades come in the form of a sexy body with a hood, hatch and doors of lightweight aluminum and a chassis significantly stiffer to reduce performance-robbing flex. To make up for the beefier chassis, Nissan's engineers pared more than 225 pounds from the rest of the car — even the audio system lost 3.5 pounds — and the result is a car that weighs 88 pounds less than the previous 350Z.
Every model gets the same 332-horsepower V6, an engine that makes this Z the quickest yet with a zero-to-60 time of 4.6 seconds. That kind of performance, however, is contingent on your skills as a driver. If you don't posses Lewis Hamilton levels of talent don't fret. The Z's abundant power and excellent handling will let you think you do.
WIRED Insanely easy to drive, insanely quickly. You'll run out of nerve before you run out of grip. Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a gramophone.
TIRED Rev-matching transmission makes heel-toe shifting more obsolete than a vinyl record. Tympani-like tire roar, piccolo-like exhaust note. Hummer-sized blind spots make lane changes a gun-it-and-go-for-it leap of faith. Fake brushed-aluminum interior bits don't fool anyone.
Using the BookReader is simple: Just plunk a novel on the platen, punch a button and you're relaxing to the dulcet sounds of Jill, a computerized voice with a voracious appetite for literature. All the menus read themselves off when you mouse over them, and they have keyboard shortcuts, which is useful if you have reduced vision. Jill is pretty good at recognizing words. We tried out several books, including one heavy with medical jargon, and she held her own with just a few exceptions.
Useful as it is, we could not help noticing that the BookReader seems to be slightly undercooked. A few of the buttons don't really do anything, and you can't customize the dictionary to alter Jill's interpretation of commonly used, but horribly flubbed words, acronyms or numbers. The unit seems to be terribly overpriced as well. Plustek wants $600 for the BookReader, despite the fact that the OpticBook only costs $250 — and has its own text-to-speech function.
WIRED Reads books to you at the push of a button. Platen glass goes right to the edge to accommodate books without strain. Turns text into MP3s for portability. Includes several accessibility features to help the visually impaired.
TIRED The included software lacks polish and seems rushed. Squat, ugly looks make it seem at home in a cubicle farm. The reader voice may not screw up often, but when it does, it's a doozy. High price nears gouging territory.
Apple's newest Shuffle (almost 50 percent smaller than previous Shuffles) could easily be mistaken for a stick of Trident, features no buttons, and pimps voice-identification technology. But even given its apparent readily consumable stature, there are a few features on the Shuffle that are a bit tough to swallow.
The biggest gripe on the 4-GB Shuffle we tested is definitely the control set. First off, it's completely counterintuitive; Apple says you can easily use it without looking. We still don't have the hang of it after a few days of testing. What's worse, if you have a decent set of earbuds (say, a pair of Shures or Ultimate Ears) you're totally hosed — you'll have to endure the 'buds that come with the Shuffle or pick up specially made third-party headphones. Our recommendation? Pick up a new Shuffle only if you're prepared to deal with proprietary headphones and ambiguous controls.
WIRED Thumb-drive size. Can double as a tie clip. Battery life lasts for 12 freaking hours. Short USB sync cord is sexy. Yes, we'll admit, it's another beautifully designed piece of hardware from Apple. Battery bonked out after 11 constant hours of blasting Thunderstruck on loop.
TIRED Proprietary headphones required. Control set awkward to use, hard to get used to. So small, it nearly gets lost in the packaging it comes in.
Rather than foam, gel or compressed-air cushioning, the soles on Newtons have a series of "actuator lugs" just below the ball of the foot. The lugs are designed to help encourage you to land on your forefoot, to protect that part of the foot, and (best yet) to propel you forward. When you land, the lugs push into hollow chambers in the midsole. This cushions your landing, and helps make it comfy to land midsole or forefoot rather than on the heel as you might be accustomed. As your foot moves forward, these lugs then essentially lever out, and as you lift your foot, they return the energy by pushing up and out in the same direction as your stride. Newton claims this makes them more efficient than traditional foam or gel soles that simply absorb energy but don't return it.
WIRED So cozy they're like a Snuggie for your feet. Actuator lugs get you off your heels better than a La-Z-Boy. Lightweight at 10.2 ounces. Designed for all stride types. Stomps cold weather like global warming, and keeps out the drizzle for shizzle.
TIRED Not waterproof. Worse on single-track trails than a skateboard. $175??? OMG, for that much money I could just pay somebody to run for me.
The Firebird features a hybrid design — using 2.5-inch hard drives (two 320-GB models) and dual graphics cards originally designed for laptops — but powers it all with a desktop CPU and desktop-sized DIMMs. As with a laptop, wireless is built in, but the power supply is not: To save on wattage, HP breaks out the (enormous) power adapter instead of integrating it into the box.
As cool as the Firebird is on the whole, it isn't without some foibles. The inclusion of an ExpressCard slot is on the baffling-to-useless side, and the external power supply (it's huge) is more annoying to deal with than it sounds. But our biggest gripe is that the Firebird's streamlined shell means it includes no front-mounted ports at all, not even a single USB slot for your thumb drive. Seriously HP, even the Mac Pro finds room for that.
WIRED Amazingly quiet and conscientious in its power consumption. Outstanding design; belongs on top of the desk, not beneath it. Solid all-around performance at a fair price.
TIRED No front USB port. Curvy design means you can't put anything on top of the case. Functionally locked down, with no real upgrade path.
I shouldn't love this truck. I should hate it. I purposely do not own a car, and this all-black behemoth represents everything I hate about SUV culture: conspicuous consumption, insensitivity to our rapidly shrinking world and crowded cities, middle finger raised at global warming.
You could slap a cold fusion generator under Big Poppa Cadillac's hood and the first two issues would still apply, but I was kind of wrong about that last one. Have you ever seen Godzilla vs. Megalon? Where Godzilla fights on behalf of the people of Japan against a giant rhinoceros/cockroach? Sure, Tokyo's favorite monster still smashes a bunch of buildings and steps on some people, but he's trying to be good. Same goes for this Hybrid Chromedaddy.
WIRED Decent pickup for a motorized bomb shelter. Combined ABS and regenerative braking system do a terrific job of hauling the beast down from speed. Trick motorized step makes it easy for shorties to climb into your rolling condo.
TIRED Thing has a car phone. No, not Bluetooth, but an actual phone built into infotainment system. (It's actually just Onstar, but there was no other option for hands-free calling.) What is this, 1989? Cadillac — God love 'em — uses the fact that this is a hybrid as an excuse to bling up the truck even more: Hybrid badges are plastered on every hard surface, on the sides of the door, even the windshield. —Joe Brown
The Kindle 2 is zippier, with pages turning 20 percent faster (yes, you can tell the difference). It has more memory (2 gigabytes, enough for storing more than 1,500 books onboard). And it flaunts a more powerful built-in battery: Amazon claims that the Kindle lasts four to five days with the wireless on (we got 4.5 days in our first test) and up to two weeks with it off. After a week of limited wireless, my meter is around 50 percent. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice. That means that most users won't have to replace the battery (a $60 procedure) for about a decade or so.
Looking over the horizon, it's clear that Amazon's biggest competitor in selling digital books will be Google, whose recent agreement with publishers and authors will make it the virtually exclusive seller for millions of books in copyright but not in print. But right now at least, the Google and Amazon formats aren't compatible: I was unsuccessful in getting a PDF of a public-domain book downloaded from Google to appear in readable form on my Kindle.
WIRED The best e-reading system on the market. Welcome improvements to aesthetics, more functional industrial design, better graphics and longer battery life. Sleeker than the original: One-third of an inch thick and 10 ounces.
TIRED Quite expensive. Book content shackled with DRM. Interface is improved, sure, but it could be even better.
The iWOW adapter from SRS Labs promises to coax more "immersive" sound from your iPod, and it actually delivers — provided you're listening to the right kind of music. Setup is easy: Snap on the slick little 1-inch extension, plug in some spendy headphones, press a button, and you do indeed get a fuller sound with more depth — especially if you enjoy songs like Sting's "Fragile," a track hand-picked by SRS to highlight the effect.
But when iWOW was applied to songs that were heavy on low-end thump or had multilayered sound (Exhibit A: Beck's "Cold Brains") the iWOW performed more like iMeh. At top volume, bass beats splintered, while at lower volumes tracks sounded muddled and crowded. SRS claims the device "dynamically locates and restores audio detail" and creates a more natural sound. We're not buying it — most of the audio we threw at the iWOW was punctuated with a subtle hiss and fuzzy bass.
WIRED Relatively small adapter. Snaps easily onto your iPod and lends some oomph to certain tunes.
TIRED The effect is nearly lost when using ear buds, the device won't work with older generation iPods, and music that already has a fair share of bass sounds muffled.
Leaps ahead of other cam phones, the Memoir's not limited to the 8 megapixels it captures. In shooting mode, the touchscreen has shutterbug controls — zoom, brightness, timer and flash — that float around the image. And just hitting the shutter will take you into camera mode. The Memoir includes a 1-GB microSD to augment the phone's 100 MB of storage (and it's an easy-access slot, rather than hidden under the battery).
But for all its convenience, the Memoir simply isn't a competitor for even the lowliest of dedicated cameras. First off, it's pokey: slow to focus, slow to snap and very touchy when it comes to movement. And though it touts a 16x digital zoom, it has no optical-zooming option.
WIRED Cool touchscreen and accelerometer helps you shoot or view pictures. Compact, pocket-friendly shape, even for hipsters in painted-on jeans.
TIRED Vampiric light sensitivity makes for washed-out shots. Slow to focus, shoot and recover. E-mail functions are even slower. The screen is hard to see in sunlight. Lens cover doesn't close all the time, so the lens can get dusty.
From the outside, the 1000HE doesn't look much different from other netbooks. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents.
Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors. It's not lying. This is the fastest netbook we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop.
WIRED The first netbook to feature the new Atom N280 chip. MMC and SD media reader slots. Attractive, pearly finish. Decent 1.3-megapixel webcam.
TIRED At 3.1 pounds, it's one of the heaviest puppies in the netbook litter. Lame keyboard.
The R50 is remarkably easy to set up and use. As you program each component into the remote using the setup wizard, you test a few controls to make sure it has the right code. The remote instantly recognized all our components, and it took us about 10 minutes to get the AV rig up and running. As part of the setup, you name each component, which then appears as an icon on the screen: in my case, a Sony HDTV, Yamaha amp/receiver, Squeezebox, Oppo DVD player and Soundmatters speaker.
WIRED Cool, reddish backlight perfect for nighttime navigation. No computer or web connection needed for operation. No charging cradle required.
TIRED No user manual means gizmo novices might get lost in setup. $150 price point isn't super pricey, but then it's not the cheapest universal remote out there.
Like other watches in the 25-year-old G-Shock line, the MTG-1500 is forged with Mr. T levels of toughness: It can easily survive being banged clumsily against tabletops or whacked against a surfboard in a wipeout. And it's water-resistant to 200 meters. But unlike most other G-Shock watches, which are primarily plastic, the MTG-1500's body and band are stainless steel, with a few tasteful black plastic accents.
We half expected to find the MTG-1500 lacking in minor features. Surprisingly, it didn't. It's got a stopwatch mode, dual time-zone support, five different alarms and a countdown timer. Free abundant sunlight or bright artificial light recharges the battery as you wear the watch. Once fully charged, the battery should be able to power the watch for 6 months without additional light.
WIRED Handsome, two-toned steel-and-black styling doesn't blare "nerd," "Swatch-wearing poser" or "too lazy to take off my gym watch." Self-syncs with superaccurate official time stations. Gives you an excuse to say "solar" and "atomic" in the same sentence.
TIRED Digital display too small and can be obscured by watch hands. LED provides uneven illumination in the dark. $500 can buy a timepiece that's much fancier, albeit not atomic.
The skinny on this countertop unit is pretty straightforward: It's the touch-based kitchen computer that won't put you out of house and home. Don't go rushing out to cash in that 401(k), though — despite a recession-friendly price, the Eee Top still feels a little light in the loafers.
The glossy white, semi-opaque keyboard and mouse look stylish out of the box, but after extended handling their light, plastic-y build became annoying. The slim chassis sat solid on our countertop, while the bright, 15.6-inch screen and the integrated speaker bar make up the majority of the Top's sleek profile. Rounding out the device are six USB ports, memory card reader, 1.3-MP web cam and integrated Wi-Fi. We were pretty bummed at the lack of an optical drive, though.
WIRED An all-in-one for the Top Ramen set. Quick, responsive touch interface. Compact design has integrated storage for both keyboard and stylus. Integrated 802.11n and gigabit ethernet ensure throughput thrashings. One-touch shutoff button for hiding porn er, convenience. Runs whisper-quiet.
TIRED Underpowered for heavy web video. A wired keyboard and mouse — on an all-in-one?!? Heats up after extended poke/prod sessions. Anemic 160-GB hard drive. Even a cheapy, noisy optical drive would've been nice. No battery means no mobile computing.
This camera is about the size and shape of a pack of chewing gum, and weighs just 0.68 ounces. It records videos at 352 x 288 pixels, encoding them in the 3-GP format used by many cellphones (the videos can be played on your computer using most media-player software, including QuickTime and RealPlayer).
But the MovieStick is oozing with design flaws. The pinhole-sized lens is located on the long side of the device, rather than the short end, limiting your ability to go truly undercover. Add to that a confusing series of lights that supposedly indicate when the cam is charging, turned on or recording, and you end up with more than one inadvertent video of the floor.
WIRED The smallest video camera we've seen yet. Simple to set up and use. Makes you look like a double agent.
TIRED Location of camera lens makes it hard to go covert. No internal storage or memory card included. Recorded video is shakier and blurrier than outtakes from The Blair Witch Project.
Kodak’s Theatre HD's raison d'être is straightforward: to shuttle the contents of your PC directly to your television using ethernet or Wi-Fi. Pictures, videos, podcasts, music or any other digital content that may be living on your hard drive (as long as it's not squelched by some DRM straightjacket) can be whisked away by this tiny little box to your television with little to no fuss.
What really sets the Theatre HD Player apart from the rest of the field is how immaculately it performs its tasks. Once you've downloaded Kodak's EasyShare display software, everything is pretty much taken care of. Have a hard drive filled with extra content? No problem. Simply hook it up to one of the player's USB ports and you're ready to go.
WIRED Intuitive UI coupled with a handy RF remote makes setup and playback of multimedia a Zen-like experience. Wealth of connectivity options: component, HDMI, optical or RCA audio, dual USB ports. Transforms crappy YouTube video into semi-watchable content.
TIRED Requires Kodak EasyShare software to get the streaming party started. No Mac compatibility (for now). Pricey, especially for a device without a hard drive. Needs more internet content.
Skidding in at 53 pounds (on the lighter side for this category), Ohm's mountain bike-inspired geometry and its nine-level power-assist and regeneration system make it a smart, nimble and efficient two-wheeler.
On pavement and trail the BionX power plant, mounted on the rear hub, employs a unique sensor technology that is constantly adjusting the level of assistance it gives you based on the terrain. Encountering some mushy road? More power is delivered to the gears. Gliding down paved asphalt? The juice is dialed back. And if your thighs are flushed with lactic acid on a sheer hill, a flick of the trusty thumb throttle cracks the whip and the motor totally takes over, no pedaling required. But for all this innovation and comfort, you will, however, have to part with a spouse-enraging $3,450. Is it worth it? Well, it is a ton of fun.
WIRED Excellent Shimano parts mix with disc brakes and RockShox suspension fork. Lockable battery compartment hides space for mobile phone, wallet, media player and your other little stuff. Regeneration mode gives extra on-bike battery life. Comfortable suspension seat post. Four- to six-hour charge time.
TIRED Throttle position needs to be improved for optimal bike handling. Price steeper than any hill the bike can handle.
For about $300 more than the average netbook, the UC7807u offers a scintillating array of grownup specs. Intel 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU? Check. 250-GB hard drive? Yep. 3 GB of memory, a glossy 13.3-inch display, a slot-loading optical drive and ports galore (three USB and an HDMI)? You betcha! Best of all, with its fetching brushed aluminum chassis, no one will mistake this for a budget notebook.
Unfortunately, the UC7807u also has all the telltale signs of some obvious corner cutting. Forget about gaming. Due to Intel's torpid integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics card, even moderately intensive titles won't run properly. But our main beef with the UC7807u is the feeble 6-cell battery which clocked in at a disappointing 3 hours, 25 minutes — a full hour shorter than most other notebooks in this category.
WIRED Recession-worthy price. Built like a tank. Slick, touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls.
TIRED Tips the scales for a notebook in this category. Battery drains faster than an ATM at a strip club. Epic fail on the tiny circular touchpad. It's cramped and serves no discernable purpose. Onboard speakers spit out tinny, distorted sound. HDMI, but no Blu-ray?
It's no wonder this watch ran away with my heart; for the competitive runner or multisport athlete seeking a personal best in 2009, the Polar RS800CX is the required training device. Because of incredibly robust desktop software, tracking of obscure performance metrics, and a wide variety of add-on sensors, the RS800CX can help you measure, analyze and improve nearly every aspect of your training program.
WIRED Offers better heart-rate monitoring than your average hospital. Incredibly customizable from in-watch display, to software interface, to training programs. GPS and barometric altimeter combined with location tracking mean you'll never wonder where you wandered. Extensible pods make watch more sport-versatile than Lance Armstrong.
TIRED Even beer goggles won't pretty up this ugly watch face. May need to hire a coach anyway — just to teach you how to use the PC-only desktop software.
The pocket rocket we've been packing in our pants recently (full name: Optoma DLP EP-PK-101 Pico Pocket Projector) is one of the first mini projectors to hit the market. It's also one of the best, even though a number of flaws spill from the tiny device.
Styled like a '40s-era Zippo, the piano-black portable feels more natural in the hand than a lot of cellphones. But it's not size that matters to us, it's the video components! The projector is comprised of a combo-rig LED lamp and a DLP chip (courtesy of Texas Instruments) that sets the resolution at 480 x 320 pixels with a range output of 9 lumens. Yes, we know this is low compared to full-bodied projectors like Benq's gargantuan MP512 ST 2500-lumen projector but for something this small, it's remarkable.
WIRED Perfect projector for parties. Rectangular lens creates wide image that keeps the image from stretching. Fine picture quality, 8-96 inches. Startup time > 4 seconds. Dead-sexy hardware.
TIRED Lithium-ion batteries die after 2 hours' use; how are we supposed to watch our Battlestar marathon? Battery recharge time 4 frakkin' hours. Suck-tastic speaker. Unless you have a video-out adapter, you can't project Office docs from your PC. Projector gets hot enough to fry bacon after running 30 minutes.
Are you the schlemiel who's always dropping his cellphone or camera at parties? Or maybe you're the schlemazel who always gets the drink spilled on him? Either way, if you're looking for a camera to fit a clumsy or accident-prone lifestyle, the shockproof, waterproof, and cold-resistant Stylus 1050 SW can take the beating from fumbles, faceplants or full-speed crashes, and still keep clicking.
About the size and shape as a pack of smokes, the 1050 is equipped with an accelerometer letting you tinker with settings by tapping on the top and the sides. This lets you do useful stuff like turn the flash on and off with a gloved mitt or preview pictures with one hand while you fend off a tiger shark with the other.
WIRED Shockproof to 5 feet and waterproof 10 means you can bang it on the edge of the pool as you fall in with no harm done. Tap feature lets you change settings without futzing with buttons, and the camera can handle alpine frigidity with aplomb. Comes with a microSD adapter for greater media versatility.
TIRED Lens cover slides more easily than Ricky Henderson. The battery is easily inserted backwards, making you think it's dead or the camera is malfunctioning. Weak zoom and poor macro ability; this camera could use a bifocal upgrade.
Touted as the thinnest and lightest BlackBerry yet, the Curve 8900 has some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor, but also some disappointments.
Wi-Fi is hot and easy to set up, the camera got a bump to 3.2 megapixels, the 16 GB MicroSD storage can hold up to 20 hours of video, and the high-res screen is fantastic in any light. On the other hand, callers were hard to hear, documents were difficult to create, and RIM's revamped proprietary browser is good for surfing the Internet but isn't as smart about automatically resizing webpages as the browsers on competing smartphones.
WIRED Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording capabilities; 3.5mm headphone jack means no clumsy adapters. Near 5-hour battery life is most impressive.
TIRED 3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback.
This handset (which arrives in some of the most gorgeous packaging I've ever seen a consumer electronic encased in) is almost laughably banal in its actual construction. A silver slider with wide-spaced keys, it posses a passing resemblance to the Nokia 5200, albeit with a larger (2.2-inch) screen. But, once you switch it on and start using it, things begin to get interesting.
The operating system orbits around Facebook synchronization. Basically you take the phone online, pair it with your Facebook account, and all of your various Facebook applications become active on the mobile. Your Facebook address book syncs up with the phone's address book. Events from your Facebook calendar become part of the phone's calendar. Take a picture with the 3.2-megapixel camera, and you can automatically upload those shots to a Facebook album.
WIRED Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile picture. Extremely cheap for an unlocked device.
TIRED Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype.
HP has been tinkering with touch tech for a couple of years. But they have yet to nail the bull's eye with a machine that mixes mature hardware with a haptic interface that feels like more than just a half-assed effort. So, we were cautiously optimistic with the TouchSmart tx2z. The good news? As HP's first multitouch convertible tablet, it's got a lot of potential.
Converting from notebook to tablet proved painless, thanks to a solid hinge and the included pen. After swinging the 1280 x 800 screen around (and folding it back), we found two goodies. First, using the pen automatically disables the touchscreen (to prevent palm-related havoc), and second, HP included an active digitizer for handwritten input. This made reckless activities like e-mailing while strolling around the block surprisingly easy. Even jotting down quick notes using a finger (instead of the pen) gave us minimal hassle.
WIRED Fully baked as both a touch and tablet device. Travels well with its compact and stylish chassis. Includes quick keys for rotating screen orientation. Mini media remote and pen conveniently hide away in chassis. Altec Lansing speakers strike decent balance between volume and clarity. Extra goodies aplenty: biometric security, webcam, dual headphone jacks, 802.11n compatibility and 5-in-1 card reader.
TIRED Bloated OS hinders performance of otherwise decent specs. Occasionally laggy switches between notebook and tablet mode. No multitouch love for the trackpad. Terrible viewing angles and weak visibility in direct sunlight. Fan sounds like a leaf-blower at a My Bloody Valentine show.
Nero's LiquidTV TiVo PC looks like a TiVo and acts like a TiVo, but, brother, it ain't no TiVo.
Actually, the package makes your PC act like a TiVo by adding a USB TV tuner and the same TiVo software that drives the set-tops. You also get a for-reals TiVo remote and an IR receiver so you can command content from the couch.
Ironically, that's where you're gonna get pissed. The remote can't launch the software, so you'll have to physically walk over and mouse it open. The remote can be programmed to turn your TV on and off, but it can't put your PC in standby mode or wake it up again. If you do that manually, the IR receiver fails to wake up with the rest of the system.
WIRED Includes a one-year TiVo subscription, and after that it's a cheaper-than-set-top $99 per year. The software can auto-convert recordings to iPod or Sony PSP format. Integrates with any TiVo boxes you already have. Extra storage is just an external hard drive away.
TIRED The remote lacks necessary PC controls. Not measurably better than Windows Media Center — which, incidentally, is free. The tuner supports ClearQAM, but the software doesn't, so forget digital channels unless you hook up the antenna.
Volunteers across the country are planting flowers and counting bees to help scientists determine how many native bees are out there and if they'll be able to pick up the slack in the wake of honeybee declines due to colony collapse disorder.
The iPhone's 3.0 operating system is stable and near completion, but Apple has one large feature it still needs to test before the OS becomes available for download, according to a developer.
Special Meeting of Stockholders Postponed until July 10, 2009
DALLAS, June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Entrust, Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2009 | 4:00 am
Michael_Curator writes "Gary Edwards, president of the now-defunct Open Document Foundation, helps sort out the challenges Google faces displacing Microsoft on the desktop, pitting the strengths of Microsoft's proprietary stack against the developer candy that HTML 5 represents."
I’m not sure how big the demand for this will be, but new site haloscreenshots.com is confident that you’ll want to preserve that epic teabagging for all time. So confident in fact, that they have licensed the ability to print framed gallery quality screen shots from Microsoft and Bungie.
Not content with just basic quality prints, haloscreenshots.com is able to print your submitted screen shot on either paper or canvas, with a plethora of options such different frames, sizes, filters, and digital effects to really make that flag capture match your sepia-toned memory.
Depending on the options you choose, prints will run you from $17 to $120. But really, any price is worthwhile to have a permanent memento on the wall of your friend’s pwnage.
Fans in our high-powered PCs keep getting bigger and louder, since our high-powered CPUs and high-powered video cards keep pumping out more and more heat. And no matter how “silent” they’re advertised as being, four of five of them in one case will always make some noise. So what can you do? Liquid cooling is a possibility, but installation can be complicated and failure can be catastrophic. So why not go for a passive solution? Sure, it’s not quite as “effective,” but it’s incapable of making noise — kind of like my friend’s cat.
These big-ass heatsinks just sit on top of your CPU and just let the heat seep out at its own rate. They’re so big, though, that the heat always has somewhere to go and eventually what airflow you do have (I guess you can have a couple fans) will whoosh it right out the vents.
The problem is that these heatsinks, being enormous, are also super heavy. If you’ve got a side-mounted motherboard, and 99% of you do, it’s totally inadvisable to clamp one of these suckers on there, cause it’ll probably rip the CPU right out of its seat. However, if you’ve got a HTPC that sits on its side (yet has the depth to hold one of these monsters), it won’t be a problem. Just don’t reach in there and touch it, it’s hot and sharp.
Here’s some bittersweet news for those of you eagerly awaiting Google’s Chrome browser for Mac or Linux: tonight Google is publicly releasing developer versions of the Chrome browser for both operating systems, and anyone will be able to download them. Unfortunately you won’t be able to ditch Safari or Firefox just yet — these builds are not close to stable, and you won’t be able to use them on a day to day basis. But you’ll still be able to put something in your Dock that says Chrome, so that’s something, right?
For those who haven’t been paying close attention to the progress of Google’s browser on platforms other than Windows, you’ve actually been able to download builds of the open-source project behind Chrome, which is called Chromium, for quite a while. In our testing these builds have proven to be quite speedy, somewhat stable, but nowhere near ready for prime time — they don’t yet support plugins (including Flash), and there are a number of options that you’d expect out of a browser that simply aren’t there yet.
This developer version of Chrome is essentially a rebranded version of the Chromium project, and doesn’t represent a much-improved new branch that Google has quietly been working on. It still doesn’t support plugins, and there are still some other missing key features, like printing.
My initial impression to tonight’s news was that, while the stable version of Chrome might be a little ways away, tonight’s release might indicate that we’re at least getting close. Unfortunately, it still sounds like we have a while to wait (or at least, Google doesn’t want to get our hopes up early). This is the first part of Google’s three step release channel, which begins with the Developer version, continues to Beta, and finishes up with a build the company is comfortable deeming ‘Stable’. We’re at step one.
Google’s spokesman went as far as to say that the company doesn’t want us to download this version of Chrome unless we’re ready for frequent crashes and a generally not-so-great experience. But if you’re looking to start testing the evolving browser under the name ‘Chrome’ rather than ‘Chromium’, then have at it.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Earlier this year three key MySpace executives jumped ship only two months before the company’s major reorg. Since then they’ve been pretty quiet — we’ve learned that they raised a $10 million funding round led by August Capital and Redpoint Ventures, but aside from that there hasn’t been much to go on. Now, more details are starting to emerge: we know that the company will be called Blue Rover Labs, and we’ve gotten our first glimpse of the homepage.
Earlier this afternoon each of the team members tweeted out a link to Blue Rover Labs at approximately the same time, with no explanation given. The page is quite sparse, with little on it other than a list of the current staff. The three MySpace execs, Amit Kapur (former MySpace COO), Steve Pearman (former MySpace SVP Product Strategy) and Jim Benedetto (former MySpace VP Technology) have apparently brought on Kunal Anand, a former MySpace Senior Technical Lead (and later, Grockit Engineer) as a fourth member.
The company describes itself as a “well-funded stealth internet startup”, and includes a note telling us that it’s happening “right now” and to “stay tuned for exciting news”. There’s also a link to a hiring page, where the company writes that it’s looking for “PHP ninjas, LAMP architects, memcached gurus, rock-star product managers, UX/UI experts, and other swiss-army-knife hackers”.
That’s about all we know so far, but it sounds like more details will be coming soon. We’re optimistic about this team, and eager to see what they come up with.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
A few weeks back when the specs of the PSP Go were leaked, 1up made a little mockup that reflected what they felt the new slider handheld was going to look like. Sure, all signs pointed to the thing being a modified Mylo, but still, their little artist’s conception ended up being uncannily like the actual design. There are so many bad mockups and fakey fake photoshop jobs out there that it’s just nice to see one that gets it right.
Reuters - Apple Inc kicks off its annual developers' extravaganza on Monday under a tight lid of secrecy, with investors expecting the electronics maker to unveil new or cheaper versions of its popular iPhone.
35 years ago today, on June 4, 1974, one of the most infamous events in sports history occurred. In 1974, the Cleveland Indians played at the extremely capacious Municipal Stadium. Unfortunately, the '74 team was mediocre at best, so there weren't many fans (about 8000 was normal) and the place often looked deserted. The Cleveland brain trust hit on what they thought was a great idea to increase attendance - 10 cent beer night.
Well, beer night worked. Lots of people did show up, about 25,000 in fact. The Tribe took on the Texas Rangers that evening. The box score shows the Rangers surged to a 5-1 lead in the early innings. The fans took it harder than normal since they had been drinking cup after 10¢ cup of Strohs beer pretty much since the gates opened. According to Wikipedia:
. . . the crowd in attendance continually misbehaved. A woman ran out to the Indians' on-deck circle and flashed her breasts, and a naked man sprinted to second base as Grieve hit his second home run of the game. A father and son pair ran onto the outfield and mooned the fans in the bleachers one inning later. The ugliness escalated when Cleveland's Leron Lee hit a line drive into the stomach of Rangers pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, after which Jenkins dropped to the ground. The fans in the upper deck of Municipal Stadium cheered, then chanted "Hit 'em again! Hit 'em again! Harder! Harder!"
As the game progressed, more fans ran onto the field and caused problems. Ranger Mike Hargrove (who would manage the Indians and lead them to the World Series 21 years later) was pelted with hot dogs and spit, and at one point was nearly struck with an empty gallon jug of Thunderbird.
By the time the ninth inning rolled around, a full fledged riot broke out. Umpire Nestor Shylak, (my all time favorite umpire by the way) after dodging rocks and ripped out stadium seats forfeited the game to Texas.
There have been no more unlimited 10-cent beer nights since.
Sure Shigeru Miyamoto is a god in the pantheon of game manufacturers but he’s always up for a little competition. Look at how he’s eyeing the PSP Go. He looks like he’s thinking about buying one.
Today, Verizon announced a new BlackBerry smartphone, the new Pearl Flip 8230, hitting all Verizon stores on June 19. Verizon touts the newest smartphone features high quality 3G connectivity, with email, and other multimedia support.
In terms of other specs, it comes with high-res color display, an external and internal screen, 2.0MP camera on the exterior, video recording as well as flash, and a QWERTY keyboard to facilitate data or text entry. For us music fans, let’s not overlook the built-in media player for audio and video support. In addition, it sports a microSD and SDHC memory slot for expanded memory up to 16GB. Since it is a RIM device, it comes preloaded with some BlackBerry software. For those of us who like to connected at all times, the Pearl Flip 8230 has easy access to prominent social networking websites including Facebook and MySpace, but don’t forget all your IM apps.
Pricing and availability are as follows: the phone itself will be available for $129.99 following a $70 MIR and a new 2 year contract on Verizon. As I previously mentioned, the phone will become available on June 19 (after the Pre and latest iPhone launch) only in the color of silver. Sorry Verizon, but I am much more interested in the Pre, iPhone, and new T-Mobile G1 successor phones coming out this summer.
I'm pushing 30, which means I've officially entered that stage of life where self-preservation becomes less about avoiding pain, and more about boosting my chances of reproductive success*. In other words: regular health check-ups, infrequent jacuzzi and always a pillow or jacket between the MacBook and my precious, heat-sensitive manstuff.
I tend to forget to use such protection, though. That's why adding a ThermaPAK to my laptop bag seems like a no-brainer**. Small (13.5" X 11.5" X 0.5"), relatively lightweight (23 oz.) and reasonably-priced ($30), the pad contains "phase change material" crystals (sodium sulfate decahydrate), which melt to help absorb the heat output from a laptop battery, then crystallize back up when they cool after use. The quilted-like surface on the laptop side also comes into play. According to the manufacturer:
ThermaPAK's pad grooves channel air under the laptop, and use the second law of thermodynamics (which states that heat will tend to flow from hot areas to cold ones to reach equilibrium) to draw heat from the laptop.
I can attest to the reduced heat. Last night I sat with the laptop in front of the TV and then in bed. No issues at all in terms of keeping my junk cool. The pad did it's job and was mostly comfortable (feels similar to the lead apron you wear for dental x-rays, only lighter). However, that rigid surface is a tad on the slippery side. The first few times I leaned forward, my computer nearly flew off the pad. Not a deal breaker, but something to be aware of.
The company claims these pads can extend your laptop's battery life. My experience: at 10:43 pm, I had 19 minutes left on my battery. By 11:11pm, I had 8 minutes. At 11:16pm, 3 minutes (while running iTunes, Firefox and TweetDeck).
How the pad may have affected my sperm count, I can't say for sure. But piece of mind is irrefutable.
*I don't have children, but I do want at least one.
**I've never used a USB fan, which is another option.
Are you planning on going into space any time soon? No? Maybe it’s hot where you are, though. Yes? Then you need to be drinking some of this! The Right Stuff, a NASA-developed sports drink/zero-calorie electrolyte liquid concentrate, was designed to basically be the greatest drink on or off the planet. I mean, it’s astronaut proven, probably the highest standard ever. Check out the stats:
Developed as a remedy for dehydration, it helps prevent the loss of body fluids during heavy exercise, heat exposure and illness. It also can be used to treat and prevent dehydration caused by altitude sickness and jetlag.
The novel electrolyte formula contains a specific ratio of key ingredients, sodium chloride and sodium citrate, for rapid restoration of hydration. These electrolytes, dissolved in water, optimize the levels of sodium ions in the body. The beverage is an isotonic formulation that restores both intra- and extracellular body fluid volumes in dehydrated astronauts, athletes and others.
What they don’t tell you is that it’s going to be half of the next great fad drink: one part Right Stuff and one part any Russian vodka creates the International Space Station. I’m such a genius.
They’re coming to sports stores soon, or you can order some online; it comes in citrus, wild berry, and “unflavored,” which I guess just tastes like… electrolytes. Too bad it’s super expensive: if you buy 10 they’re about $2.70 each. Come on, NASA, we don’t all have astronaut salaries.
SPEED(R) Max Process Has 50 Percent Fewer Out-Of-Control Particles Compared To Current Gapfill Technologies
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Novellus Systems (Nasdaq: NVLS) has developed a sub-45nm, in-situ chamber clean process on the SPEED Max High Density Plasma (HDP) CVD gapfill platform that significantly reduces defect density and out-of-control (OOC) particle events. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2009 | 12:37 am
SAN FRANCISCO, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Wired Real Estate Group ("WiredRE"), the nation's leading data center planning and procurement firm, have launched a free colocation and data center search and listing service to support the firm's Brokerage Practice.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090604/SF28209LOGO)
With the new data center listing service, Technology, Internet, and Telecommunication firms can now easily identify new retail, wholesale and shell data center sites, including mapping of street locations. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2009 | 12:33 am
The BlackBerry Tour 9630 could go down in history as the most leaked cell phone ever. The phone isn’t suppose to hit carriers until mid-July and we already know everything about it after this latest leak. Heck, there have been full reviews done of the upcoming BlackBerry. In case you missed those, or just want a handy-dandy spec list, here ya go.
MobileSyrup.com dug up this info from the Canadian carrier, Bell. It’s safe to say that the Verizon-spec’d model, which will be available on July 13th btw, should ship with the same stuff. Now, if we only knew the price…
The BlackBerry Tour 9630 could go down in history as the most leaked cell phone ever. The phone isn’t suppose to hit carriers until mid-July and we already know everything about it after this latest leak. Heck, there have been full reviews done of the upcoming BlackBerry. In case you missed those, or just want a handy-dandy spec list, here ya go.
MobileSyrup.com dug up this info from the Canadian carrier, Bell. It’s safe to say that the Verizon-spec’d model, which will be available on July 13th btw, should ship with the same stuff. Now, if we only knew the price…
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
jhutkd writes "On June 3rd, 2009, ICANN and NIST announced formal plans to use DNSSEC to sign the DNS root zone by the end of 2009. This is a huge step forward for the deployment of DNSSEC."
FROM APPLETELL - Walt Mossberg has written a review of the Palm Pre in which he spends a large portion of his time comparing it to the iPhone. Towards the end of the article he spends a little time speculating about what he expects to come from Apple in the iPhone space. MORE »
Huh, this could work out. Remember Dash? It was that the little GPS start-up company that made the innovative PND that had a monthly subscription, but also routed you around traffic issues through the magic of the cloud. You probably never saw one in person because, well, no one wants a GPS with a monthly fee. Anyway, RIM, the makers of BlackBerrys of course, just purchased the company.
Hopefully this means the two will combine forces and produce a BlackBerry with a killer navigation system. $10 says that the two companies can get something on the market before the Garmin-Asus does. They have been working for years and we still haven’t seen anything on retailer’s shelves.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
AP - The federal government has severed the Internet connection of a company accused of helping criminals serve up a "witches' brew" of nasty content online, from computer viruses to child pornography. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Jun 2009 | 11:55 pm
Reuters - Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment will join the online music video service being developed by Google Inc's YouTube and Universal Music Group. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Jun 2009 | 11:53 pm
The SEC charged Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo with securities fraud. He is accused of "selling his Countrywide stock for nearly $140 million in profits while knowing that Countrywide's business model was deteriorating."
A year ago we modeled out the true value of various social networks based on the idea that users in high-value online advertising markets like Japan, the UK and the U.S. were worth more (financially speaking) than those in lower value online advertising markets. Facebook had recently become the largest worldwide social network in terms of users, but based on our model MySpace was still by far the most valuable social network.
Based on the original year-old model, if Facebook was worth $15 billion (their then-current valuation), MySpace, with far more U.S. users, was worth nearly $20 billion:
Our model takes Comscore data for available countries and regions. We’ve graphed each of 26 well known social networks with the data we have been able to collect. We’ve then calculated the average advertising spend (estimated by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in a recent report) for each person online in each of those countries. For example, in the U.S., the total 2008 estimated Internet advertising spend is $25.2 billion. We’ve divided that by the number of people online in the U.S. according to Comscore (191 million), to get an average Internet spend per person of $132. View the raw data and calculations here.
The U.S., by the way, is only the 4th most valuable market per Internet user, trailing The UK ($213), Australia ($148) and Denmark ($144).
We’ve then multiplied the average Internet spend per user in each market with the number of unique users each social network has in that market, essentially creating a “weighted average” based on the advertising dollars chasing users. If a social network has more users in the U.S., Japan, the UK, Germany, Australia, and other bigger advertising networks, they will have a higher weighted average valuation.
We believe this model is an effective way to rank various competing social networks. It bumps down networks like Orkut and Friendster who have tens of millions of users in markets with very little advertising spend, and bumps up networks with lots of users in higher value markets.
Based on this model, MySpace is by far the most valuable social network. Second place Facebook has just 75% of the value of MySpace (even though it now has more users), followed by Bebo (26% of MySpace value), Hi5 and Amebio. LinkedIn comes in at no. 11, at 6% of MySpace’s value.
The new model takes into account the dramatic rise of Facebook usage over the last year, the massive recent decline in MySpace usage, and less dramatic changes in the other social networks. We’ve also modeled out the various valuations with the old Bebo ($850 million) and LinkedIn ($1 billion) valuations as pivot points. We’ve also added Twitter to the list just for kicks.
The bottom line: If Facebook is worth $10 billion today, MySpace is worth just $6.5 billion. Bebo is worth $1.8 billion, Twitter is worth $1.7 billion and LinkedIn is worth $0.8 billion. Facebook also accounts for 37% of all social networking value points in our model. Another way of saying this: If Facebook is worth $10 billion, the value of the entire social networking industry is $27.1 billion.
Lots of charts and graphs below. The full model is here if you want to look at all the data (I recommend zooming unless you have super vision). Thanks to TechCrunch intern Dan Romero for running the new model.
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Research In Motion has acquired Dash Navigation for an undisclosed amount, according to a spokeswoman for RIM. Dash, which makes makes the car GPS device Dash Express (read our review of the device here), had been struggling to compete with GPS device competitors like Garmin, and shifted its focus away from the hardware business last year towards selling its software to other device manufacturers.
Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia backed, Dash originally manufactured a network-connected GPS that pooled the location and speeds of all nearby Dash owners to give them back real-time traffic reports. The device has some notable features but couldn’t build a large user base and was forced to change its business plan and lay off 65% of its staff in November. We wrote back then that Dash’s API program was strong, so switching to licensing its software made sense. But the primary appeal of Dash’s software, which is built around being connected to other Dash owners and sharing driving data with each other, could be lost if the software is licensed by a device manufacturer.
RIM refused to comment on how Dash will be incorporated into its business but it’s safe to assume that the company will use Dash’s technology to upgrade the GPS in their devices in some capacity. This is similar to Nokia’s acquisition of digital map maker NAVTEQ in 2008 to help add map technology to their devices. Although RIM’s acquisition is on a slightly smaller scale, Dash’s technology does give RIM some important mapping and car navigation technologies, many of which can be applied more broadly to cell phones. If the connectivity feature of Dash is maintained by RIM, this could prove to be a useful tool for Blackberry users, given how many Blackberry devices are out there.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
grigory writes "GameStop's business model depends on a healthy flow of used games: incredibly '[GameStop] enjoys a 48 percent profit margin on used games.' Game publishers do not see a cut of the secondary sale because it falls under the first sale doctrine. Now, some publishers and manufacturers want a piece of the pie. 'One marketing executive, who did not want to be identified for fear of angering GameStop and other retailers, said the used game sale market is still depriving publishers of money because it gives consumers an all-too-easy alternative to buying a new game.' Interesting picture of companies fighting for your business, and (surprise!) complaining about being left out of the money stream."
Kevin Henry, hometown boy from Granby, made this tribute video, which features then-and-now images of destroyed buildings, as well as an epic mini-Killdozer vs. Roomba battle.
At this point, most everyone may know what Twitter is, but who’s using it, what they’re saying and who they’re saying it to are increasingly research fodder.
Lexicographers at Oxford University Press released findings today, based on 1.5 million tweets from January to April, showing that the average message was 15 words, with an average of 10.69 words per sentence and 1.4 sentences per tweet. Ten percent of tweets contain a question, says Oxford, publisher of the Oxford dictionary and other reference works.
“To get a full picture of the English language, compilers of current dictionaries need to incorporate all forms of communication into their research,” Judy Pearsall, Oxford’s senior publishing manager for English dictionaries, said in a statement. “A tweet is a message to the world, but it’s a short one: with just 140 characters to play with, we’re seeing different and sometimes very creative uses of language.”
WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) is pleased with the overall support for reviewing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) accountability, transparency, and efficacy as expressed by members present at Chairman Boucher's House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet hearing on Thursday.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070724/DCTU006LOGO)
The hearing focused on ICANN and its relationship with the US government, as the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) binding the two together is set to expire in September 2009. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jun 2009 | 11:04 pm
A screenshot purporting to depict an unpublished version of AT&T’s support web site reveals an item called “iPhone Video,” which could perhaps be the name of the next-generation iPhone.
The screenshot (right), sent to The Unofficial Apple Weblog by an anonymous tipster, shows a drop-down menu of iPhone model choices, and “iPhone Video” appears beneath “iPhone 3G.” The model name corroborates with rumors that the next-generation iPhone will include an improved camera with video-recording capability.
iPhone Video. Sounds like a reasonable name, but not sure if we buy it. Then again, MacBook Air was kind of a funky name, and that turned out to be real. Your thoughts? And while we’re at it, what would you like the next-gen iPhone to be called?
One of the most fundamental reasons for Google’s success is the site’s speed — search queries typically take a fraction of a second, and most of the company’s other services are usually very snappy as well (save for Gmail, which occasionally bogs down). Part of this speed can be attributed to the company’s obsession with minimalist design and its vast server farms, but you can be sure there’s no shortage of optimization that’s going on to make sure pages load as quickly as possible on the front end, too.
To help streamline its sites, Google has been using an internal tool called Page Speed, and starting today it’s opening up the tool to the developer community. The newly open-sourced tool is a Firefox plugin that integrates with Firebug, making suggestions on how to speed up your site based on best practices.
From the Google blog post:
For example, Page Speed automatically optimizes images for you, giving you a compressed image that you can use immediately on your web site. It also identifies issues such as JavaScript and CSS loaded by your page that wasn’t actually used to display the page, which can help reduce time your users spend waiting for the page to download and display.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because Yahoo offers a similar tool for Firefox called YSlow, which is also meant to help developers streamline their websites.
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Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Information released a report late Monday (June 1) showing that the most popular Web sites in the United States all share data with their corporate affiliates and allow third parties to collect information directly by using tracking beacons known as "Web bugs" - despite the sites' claims that they don't share user data with third parties.Researchers Joshua Gomez, Travis Pinnick and Ashkan Soltani spent a year analyzing the data collection and data sharing practices of the 50 most visited Web sites. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jun 2009 | 10:40 pm
Can you feel the tingling in the air? If you haven't found it already,you will. This is going to be the summer of love. I am talking, of course, about smartphone love. The serenades have already begun for the June 6 launch of the Palm Pre. Next week, Apple will reveal it's next iPhone (you know MG is going to get one). Blackberry might come out with its second Storm by summer's end. And the lovefest will continue throughout the year with launch after launch of new Android phones as well. It will be practically nonstop. I hope you can handle it.
A U.S. judge has shut down an ISP after FTC complaints that it offered a haven to spammers, child pornographers, hackers, and more. ISP Pricewert, also known as 3FN and APS Telecom has been disconnected from the net.
The FTC claimed the ISP deliberately advertised to malware distributors, botnet servers, spammers, illegal porn sites and others involved in illegal activities. It also offered a forum to help cybercriminals communicate with each other.
“Pricewert hosts very little legitimate content and vast quantities of illegal, malicious, and harmful content, including child pornography, botnet command and control servers, spyware, viruses, trojans, phishing related sites, illegal online pharmacies, investment and other Web-based scams, and pornography featuring violence, bestiality, and incest,” the FTC said.
The company ignored take down requests and used different IP addresses to help their customers avoid detection. A spokesman for Pricewert said the company was “confused” by the ruling and would have no further comment at this time.
Can you feel the tingling in the air? If you haven’t found it already,you will. This is going to be the summer of love. I am talking, of course, about smartphone love. The serenades have already begun for the June 6 launch of the Palm Pre. Next week, Apple will reveal it’s next iPhone (you know MG is going to get one). Blackberry might come out with its second Storm by summer’s end. And the lovefest will continue throughout the year with launch after launch of new Android phones as well. It will be practically nonstop. I hope you can handle it.
These aren’t just attractive new playthings. They represent something much deeper and more meaningful. They represent a major transition in both the mobile phone industry and in mobile computing. The iPhone paved the way, but now the Web phones are ready to take over the world. Their relative numbers compared to basic feature phones may still be small, but their mindshare and profits are large. Already, the iPhone and Blackberry Web phones are gobbling up a majority of the industry’s profits.
Why? It has nothing to do with making phone calls. The Web in your pocket means you always have something to read, you are always connected to your digital network, and you can always reach out and Tweet someone or poke them or send them an email. And if all that fails, you can still call. But the problem with actually speaking to someone is that you can only carry on one conversation at a time. With a Web phone, you can keep track of your entire conversation stream.
The iPhone has been around long enough that everybody wants one. But if you don’t like AT&T, now there will soon be plenty of other options. Everyone is obsessing about the Palm Pre today, with its Twitter search and soon-to-be blocked iTunes syncing (maybe). John Biggs at CrunchGear thinks the Pre will be an also-ran, but it will probably be the biggest-selling also-ran in Sprint’s lineup. Today’s preliminary Plam Pre excitement will soon be overtaken by iPhone mania (it might have a glowing apple!).
The new iPhone will still be missing some crucial things, like the ability to run more than one app at the same time. And this will leave an opening for BlackBerry to keep growing side-by-side the iPhone and for the the steady march of Android into the realm of significance numbers-wise. Before you know it, everyone will be carrying a Web phone of one kind or another. But be careful. These shiny new beacons promise to free your mind, but they also have the power to drag you down. They demand attention at all times, even when you are walking down the street. Remember, it is important to look away every now and then, otherwise you might get hit by a car.
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xzvf writes "A disgruntled Clemson University staffer shows how US News and World Report college rankings are manipulated. Techniques include bad-mouthing other schools, filling out applications from highly qualified students that never intended to apply, and lying about class size and professor salaries." The school, naturally, denies that anything unethical went on. The New York Times has a more detailed article, which links to this first-person account of the presentation.
NEC’s latest desktop display is a curved beauty of Amazonian proportions. The 43-inch ultrascreen desktop display, called NEC CRV43 , has a 10,000: 1 contrast radio and a 2880 x 900 double WXGA native resolution.
The display provides a wider field of view for its users, said NEC. “It has a greater dynamic range with its resolution and 32:10 aspect ratio,” said NEC in a statement. The display claims super-fast response time of 0.02 milliseconds.
It is designed for use in applications such as professional graphics and in government, finance or home offices.
Feast your eyes on it for it carries a price tag of $8,000.
For the past several weeks, I’ve been noticing something about my iPhone: Severe slowness. I put it sleep and wake it back up, clear its memory (with an app), restart it and even sometimes manually reboot it — some of these methods alleviate the symptoms, sometimes. Other times, I have to just deal with it being too unbearably slow to do much of anything, including the basic phone functionality like placing a call or sending a text message. And sometimes the iPhone gets really hot, even when it’s in its sleep state, and I’ll turn it back on to see the battery mostly drained.
And while I’m not above simply complaining about my own problems with tech, I’ve talked to a lot of other people recently who are having the exact same issues. I’m not sure why this is happening. Some people think it’s because the device has been around for about a year now, and a lot of us have loaded a ton of apps on the thing. I should probably do a factory reset of the device, wiping it on iTunes. But as anyone who has done that before will know, that’s a big pain in the ass.
So my solution is an expensive one: Wait for the new iPhone. We all know it’s coming, it’s just a matter of when. There still seems to be some debate if Apple will actually announce it at the WWDC keynote on Monday (which we’ll be at), or if it will use that event to focus on OS X Snow Leopard and the new iPhone OS 3.0. But seeing as Apple already had an event for the new iPhone OS, I think we will see the new hardware unveiled at the event, just like we did last year. Though I suspect it won’t be available in stores until later on, probably July, once again.
The new hardware, which is believed to be significantly faster, will solve my issue — for now. But there’s a larger question behind it: Should you really have to update your phone once a year?
The answer is of course, no — but just as with the iPod line of products, Apple sets their yearly update cycles knowing full well that a lot of current model owners are going to opt to upgrade. But what if I didn’t want to? Would I be stuck with this phone that is driving me crazy? Has Apple developed a device which is only optimized to be used for about a year? It may sound crazy, but even if you chalk mine and everyone else’s performance issues up to some weird too-many-app bug, you still have the battery issue to consider.
The iPhone doesn’t have a battery that a user can easily replace. While some people complain about this for long trips, the real issue is that battery performance wears down over time after a certain number of recharge cycles. And after about a year with this iPhone 3G, the battery life is noticeably worse than it was when I got it. So if I did want to keep this device, I would have to send it in to have the battery replaced for me. Guess how much that costs? Just about $100.
Hopefully, that helps you see a big issue: Aside from the performance issues, do I pay Apple $100, and lose my phone for a few days while they replace the battery, or do I pay a little bit more to get an entirely new phone?
AT&T makes this a pretty easy call by allowing us to pay the subsidized contract price ($199 or $299 versus $499 or $599), even though we technically haven’t completed our last 2-year contracts. And it’s of course a smart move, because it’s another two years of lock-in that they have over us.
At some point, you’re going to want to get out of that contract. But Apple’s yearly iPhone refresh combined with the 2-year contract means that for many of us, we’re unlikely to ever see our contract time dip under a year to go. It’s a vicious cycle.
I bought the original iPhone two years ago, and right before the iPhone 3G came along, I wondered what would happen to all those first generation models — would they all go to heaven? The answer is no. Instead, they either went to family members, to eBay, or in my case, to the side of my bed as an ultra expensive alarm clock.
My contract for that first iPhone would just be expiring on it right now — something which Palm knows, and why it wanted to launch the Pre now. The Pre sounds great. I know some people who have used one and say that it is a really nice phone. But most of them also say that it won’t replace the iPhone for them, so it’s not really even something I’m considering at this point. The amount of money and time I’ve invested in my app collection is reason alone for me not to switch. Oh yes, but I couldn’t anyway since I have a year left on my AT&T contract.
Instead, I will buy this third generation iPhone and be stuck with two ultra expensive alarm clocks. Actually, I not even sure my iPhone 3G will work in that capacity at that point. I still believe it’s one of the best tech purchases I’ve ever made, but it’d be nicer if it had a lifespan of more than a year.
RADNOR, Pa., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement issued yesterday by the law firm of Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check, LLP has been updated. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jun 2009 | 10:00 pm
Hydroxatone is so effective, it was given away in gift bags at international film festivals!
- advertisement for Hydroxatone, a very expensive wrinkle cream flogged constantly on late night cable television and talk radio stations.
Allo! I am Marcel, zee scienteest in charge of gift bag quality control at ze large internationale film festivals. Every day, I am faced with ze daunting task of carefully evaluating the products of the thousands of companies eager to put free samples in the gift bags of Hollywood stars.
But only the best products, like Magic Jack or Almighty Cleanse make it through our rigorous, film-festival gift-bag quality control.
As hard as I try to safeguard ze integrity of our gift bags, sometimes the unfortunate occurs. One time, during a screening of Rochelle, Rochelle at Cannes, and against my better judgment, I allowed Kevin Trudeau to place inferior quality promotional ball point pens in ze gift bag. One of them leaked ink on Halle Barry's cashmere sweater. If Angelina Jolle had not taken the Shamwow from her gift bag and blotted up ink, mon Dieu, I would left be sweeping streets in Marseilles.
U.S. medical scientists have determined a new arenavirus is the cause of a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in South Africa and Zambia.
Scientists from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jun 2009 | 9:28 pm
Sean0michael writes "Australian scientists have restored the sight of three human test subjects using stem cells cultured in contact lenses. All the patients were blind in only one eye. Two were legally blind, but can now read the big letters on an eye chart. The third could read the first few lines, but is now able to pass a driver's test. The University of New South Wales reports that these patients all had damaged corneas, and the stem cells came from each person's good eye. The best part: the procedure is inexpensive, raising hopes for being able to push this to the third world sooner than other, more expensive medications."
Kasper Hauser, the comedy group that wrote the supremely funny parody of the SkyMall catalog called SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy From a Plane, has a new book out called Obama's Blackberry, which the Iranian media seems to think is some kind of terrorist hacker document.
Jesse Thorn says:
The Iranian State-funded english-language TV network Press TV is currently reporting that Kasper Hauser, the noted "virtual reality 'terrorist' group," of "cyber hackers" have plans to "circulate President Barack Obama's private text messages."
American publisher Little Brown has decided to circulate President Barack Obama's private text messages after cyber hackers cracked into his Blackberry.
The publisher announced plans to expose the president's messages on June 8.
The U.S. space agency is detailing pre-launch activities for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission to the International Space Station.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration shuttle is to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida June 13 at 7:17 a.m. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jun 2009 | 9:13 pm
Tesla, which has now delivered 500 Roadsters, will be opening several new sales showrooms this summer, the company says. Currently the company has showrooms only in California. Three of the new showrooms will be in Europe - London, Monaco and Munich. New York, Seattle, Chicago and Miami are also on the list.
The company says that the first Roadsters will be delivered to European buyers this summer. At least three Tesla buyers have exported their cars to Europe already, though (one each to Germany, Norway and Spain).
The mad Ukrainian leather-artists Bob Basset have a pair of claw gloves to go with the claw shoes from earlier today. I sense a theme (especially when combined with one of their smashing Cthulhu fetish masks).
sgt scrub writes "I've never thought about sniffing my CDs before buying them but that is all about to change. According to this Yahoo! news article, dogs can be trained to tell the difference between a legit copy of a DVD and one from those pesky pirates. From the article, 'A DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog named Paddy has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials said on Wednesday. Paddy was given to Malaysia by the MPA to help close down piracy syndicates, which churn out vast quantities of illegal DVDs. The dog is specially trained to detect chemicals in the discs.'" We ran a story about anti-piracy dogs being trained in Ireland a few years ago.
Germany’s Bremerhaven zoo reports that two “gay” adult male penguins have hatched a chick and are now acting as its adoptive parents. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:35 pm
A high school teacher in Sammamish, Wash., says one of her students successfully diagnosed herself with a granuloma.
Eastside Catholic High School teacher Mary Margaret Welch said her student, Jessica Terry, uncovered the secret to her failing health while researching intestinal diseases with classmates, Seattle's KOMO-TV reported Wednesday.
All of a sudden she says, 'I think I found something.' I say, 'what?' 'Miss Welch, Miss Welch, come over here. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:35 pm
"Purefold" will be an online video series developed in conjunction with Ridley and Tony Scott with the central theme "What does it mean to be human?" If that sounds a little bit like one of the major themes of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner", you aren't just hallucinating unicorns. From Ag8 (the other group involved in Purefold):
The franchise contains infinite interlinked story lines, turned into short-format episodes by Ridley Scott Associate Films' global talent pool of directors, and informed by real-time online conversations from the audience, which are harvested through FriendFeed, the world's leading 'life streaming' technology.
Taking place in the near future, Purefold enables participating brands to take an alternative route to brand integration than traditional product placement and embrace invention within a narrative framework.
Once Pinnacle's definitive proxy statement for the annual meeting becomes available, Pinnacle strongly advises stockholders to carefully read that definitive proxy statement, as it will contain important information. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:13 pm
Sidekicks are cool If you're a teenage girl or Soulja Boy Do you like the scrolling ball? I do. Easier to use than a touchscreen. Keyboard is awesome, and I like Chatting on Twitter and AIM Keeps me in the
Loop. But, it's also very Xpensive. For $200, I'd rather get a Palm Pre.
When researchers set out to study the origins of human laughter, some gorillas and chimps were literally tickled to assist. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:10 pm
ARMONK, N.Y., June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced major enterprise client wins for Lotus collaboration software over Microsoft as businesses seek cost efficiencies in today's economic climate. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:10 pm
Researchers have discovered the skeleton of a whale that died around 10,000 years ago in connection with the extension of the E6 motorway in Strömstad, The University of Gothenburg reported. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:07 pm
FROM GAMERTELL - Nintendo is releasing some new color schemes for their prized Wii and DSi systems, they just won’t be available in North America. MORE »
Notify NYC expands to bring important alerts to residents citywide
WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- New York City's closely watched notification and alert program expanded recently to serve residents citywide, thanks to the success of the initiative's pilot phase which has been supported by Blackboard Connect(TM) mass notification technology from Blackboard Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:05 pm
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Peerless Systems Corporation (Nasdaq: PRLS), a licensor of imaging and networking technologies to the digital document market, today reported financial results for its 2010 first fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2009.
First quarter revenue was $0.9 million, versus $3.2 million in the first quarter a year ago. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jun 2009 | 8:00 pm
An anonymous reader writes "Brian Aker, one of the core developers of MySQL, has written up a lengthy blog on how the Drizzle fork is handling both its code contributions and its testing. He has listed the tools they use and how they work with their processes. He also makes an interesting statement about the signing of corporate code-contribution agreements and how there are some, including Rasmus (creator of PHP), who refuse to sign them."
TGRblog has a created this very clean, simple guide to the rumors floating around the third iteration of the iPhone. They even used Gadget Lab as a source for several of the data points. But man, less than a 50% chance of an OLED screen? Get a box of crayolas and color me disappointed.
I think the conversation about "The Earth Is Hiring" sensitized me to this point: Watching the trailer for Home, I couldn't help but think, "Oh, I get it. The beautiful shots are the ones without humans."
Scott Amron sells these juicers made from old bottles for a reasonable $6.50, but they look like something you could do yourself with a nice serrated blade. [via Charlie Sorrel]
An anonymous reader writes "The Federal Trade Commission has convinced a federal judge to pull the plug on a 3FN.net, a.k.a. 'Pricewert LLC,' a Northern California based hosting provider. The FTC alleges that 3FN/Pricewert was directly involved in setting up spam-spewing botnets, among other illegal activities, the Washington Post's Security Fix Blog writes. From the story: 'Pricewert hosts very little legitimate content and vast quantities of illegal, malicious, and harmful content, including child pornography, botnet command and control servers, spyware, viruses, trojans, phishing related sites, illegal online pharmacies, investment and other Web-based scams, and pornography featuring violence, bestiality, and incest.' The story quotes a former Justice Dept. expert saying the FTC action may be a smoke screen for a larger criminal investigation by the federal government in 3FN's activities."
Matt Westervelt is an avid user of Foursquare, the social service that lets friends check in to specific places, gain special merit badges, and even become "Mayor" of a location if they're its most frequent visitor among other Foursquare players. Westervelt often takes his son to Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill in Seattle, dutifully checking in to Foursquare. He's the park's mayor.
The reviews are in and the consensus is that the Palm Pre is a stunning device and a worthy competitor to the iPhone, despite drawbacks such as a tiny keyboard, short battery life, and a sparsely-populated App Catalog.
The phone will be available exclusively on the Sprint network starting June 6 and is priced at $200, after a $100 mail-in rebate, when you commit to a two-year contract with Sprint.
If you want to buy one, here’s where to find the Palm Pre:
And if you buy from Best Buy or RadioShack you don’t have to mail in your rebate. At these stores, the rebate is instantly deducted at the register.
Sprint is trying to manage expectations around the Pre. Lynn Fox, a company spokesperson told the New York Times that Sprint doesn’t expect long lines at its stores because the Pre is no iPhone. “We are not like Apple,” she said.
So how excited are you about the Palm Pre? Will you stand in line to get it? Vote in the poll below and let us know.
After flexible displays, the memory chip is the latest electronic component to get twisted and bent. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a flexible memory device that they say is inexpensive and can be easily manufactured.
“We have fabricated a lightweight memory device,” says Nadine Gergel-Hackett, one of the researchers on the project, “that uses transparencies seen in overhead projectors as the material for its flexible sheet.”
Flexible components are a promising new area for electronics makers who envision using them for bendable, flexible, rollable, or merely curved devices that contain electronic circuits. Current silicon and circuit-board technology requires components to be flat and rigid. But flexible components would open up a whole new class of possibilities. For instance, they could be used to create small medical sensors to monitor heart rate or blood sugar.
Though some flexible components have already been created, it’s been a challenge to create a pliable memory chip that is inexpensive to produce, says Gergel-Hackett.
Gergel-Hackett and her colleagues took polymer sheets and deposited a thin film of titanium oxide on their surfaces. To deposit the titanium oxide, they used a sol gel process that consists of spinning the material in liquid form and letting it set, similar to how gelatin is made. They added electrical contacts and created a flexible memory switch that operates on less than 10 volts.
The device can also maintain its memory when power is lost and can function even after being flexed more than 4,000 times, according to a paper in the upcoming July issue of IEEE’s Electron Device Letters journal. The paper does not specify what the capacity of the prototype flexible memristor is.
What also makes this bendable memory device special is that it has the characteristics of a memristor– a new component for electronic circuits. The memristor or memory transistor is seen, along with the three other widely known elements–the capacitor, the resistor and the inductor–as a fundamental circuit element. A memristor changes its resistance depending on the amount of current that flows through it, allowing it retain the resistance even after the power is turned off.
The flexible memristor is still in the prototype stage and faces some challenges before it can be ready to market. Reliability and consistency between the different devices made are two issues, says Gergel-Hackett. But because of the fabrication process, she hopes some day it can be as easy to print a flexible memory component as it is to print a slide on a transparency.
Workers were busy putting up App Store window decals at Moscone Center early this a.m. in preparation for WDC. As the early reviews of the Palm Pre have made clear, competing with Apple's head start on apps is gonna be tough.
If you have a better headline, please leave it in the comments...
Sometimes reporters write things that don't even make any sense! Here is Time, recounting an incident on Qantas Flight 72 last year:
The plane abruptly entered a smooth 650-ft. dive (which the crew sensed was not being caused by turbulence) [ED NOTE: HUH? THEY SENSED THAT?] that sent dozens of people smashing into the airplane's luggage bins and ceiling.... After seemingly an eternity -- in reality, the nosedive lasted 20 very long seconds -- the flight crew wrested control of the plane from its wayward computer....
Ha, WRESTED! I think that means they hit the OFF BUTTON, but nice job making the autopilot sound like the HAL-9000.
Internet giants are constantly changing their terms of service agreements with their customers. The EFF crafts a new website tracking those changes, which often have an impact on privacy and copyright.
A sentence in Walt Mossberg’s review of the Palm Pre suggests the Wall Street Journal columnist already has his hands on Apple’s next iPhone.
“Whether the Pre is better than the iPhone depends on your personal preferences, though I’d note that the new iPhone to be unveiled next week will have lots of added features that could alter those calculations,” Mossberg wrote in his review.
One interpretation is Mossberg could be speculating about the next iPhone based on rumors. But it’s worth noting Mossberg got his hands on an early test unit of the original iPhone in June 2007 — weeks before its official release. So it’s more likely Mossberg is alluding to the third-gen iPhone sitting on his desk, which he can’t yet write about in full detail.
If Mossberg does indeed have a third-generation iPhone, that means he also knows when the new handset will be announced — next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference, the sentence suggests. We’re placing our bets on that happening.
Oh, say it isn’t so! Based on hints given by Jonathon Miller, the newly appointed chief digital officer of News Corp., Hulu may not remain the place to go for free video on the ‘net, because it will be coming with a price tag attached to it.
Miller used to run AOL, and hasn’t even gotten to a Hulu board meeting yet (that will happen Monday). But, that isn’t stopping him from speculating on the direction that he sees Hulu going. According to statements he made at an Internet Week event sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, he can see a future which includes at least some of the movies and TV shows on Hulu only being made available to subscribers. “In my opinion the answer could be yes. I don’t see why over time that shouldn’t happen. I don’t think it’s on the agenda for Monday [but] it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing.”
Hulu is co-owned by some biggies in the entertainment business, News Corp., NBC Universal, and Disney. I have a funny feeling if it does come to pass that certain programming is only available to paid subscribers, it’s not gonna be the 30 minute nature show about the mating habits of cockroaches. No, it’s gonna be those with the big draw.
Now, should we really worry about what some guy is spouting who hasn’t even sat in at a board meeting yet? Ummmm…yes, when it’s this guy anyway. What he thinks is gonna count. Miller is the guy put in charge of figuring out how News Corp properties leverage their offline content to make money, online. Coming up with ideas like this is why they pay him the big bucks.
Now, maybe since he keeps making sure to back everything with the fact that it is only “in my opinion”, it isn’t all set in stone. But, they brought him aboard for a reason, and I don’t think it was to serve the rest of the board members coffee.
I really hope they don’t go ruining a good thing with doing a “Now you have to pay to watch”. We are already willing to watch their ads…doing this will just make a lot of people jump ship. Either to alternate legal routes, or some….well…less than.
Unless you are going to offer something you don’t already have for the price, and the rest stays the same…don’t do it Hulu.
FROM GAMERTELL - The press conferences for the Big Three - Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft - put at least partial rest to months of speculation, rumors and artist renderings of supposed motion control devices being released by each company. The good news is that all three were able to perform live demonstrations of… MORE »
AT&T has just recently lowered the pricing on two of the top notch BlackBerry handsets. Effective immediately, the BlackBerry Bold is now retailing for $199.99 and the newly available BlackBerry Curve 8900 is down to $149.99. Just to offer a little comparison, the Bold is down from $299.99 and the Curve 8900 is down from $199.99.
Of course, in order to get either of these prices you need to be willing to sign a two-year agreement. Additionally, these prices are both coming after a $100 mail-in-rebate, which means that at the time of purchase you are going to have to shell out $299.99 and $249.99 for the Bold and Curve respectively.
All things considered though, these prices are great. Heck, I purchased a refurbished Bold for my wife a few months back and paid slightly more than the current price for a new model.
Keep in mind, if you have recently purchased either of these phones, and by recent I am talking about within 30 days or so then you may want to call and ask for a credit based on what you paid. That happened with the refurbished model that I picked up. Just a few days after my purchase, AT&T lowered the price by $50—a quick call to customer service quickly got me a credit in the same amount.
Touch. One look around the industry and you’ll find touch has invaded in a big way. From the mighty iPhone, to Microsoft’s Surface, to home appliances; devices are begging for our physical interaction. The elusive touch tablet time is almost here, courtesy of none of the usual suspects.
It seems like an obvious next step from the clamshell laptop to tablet netbook. Phones have gone the same route, so why not computers? We’ve been speculating for years that Apple would build a larger touch to grab a larger bit of the education, e-reader markets. Obvious to everyone except those with the power to actually build and sell one.
So it may come as a surprise that a blog has decided to take things into their own hands. TechCrunch has put the resources behind this project and the image above is their launch prototype rendering. The design looks good: it is bright, thin and looks to be what one would hope when building a tablet. The price looks to be nearing $300, which is higher than targeted by TechCrunch but tech costs money sometimes and I don’t believe $300 is a deal breaker.
The device runs on Linux and features a webkit browser. According to a video from last month, the unit has a software keyboard that looks a tad shy of slick; but it seems to be usable. Says Arrington of the latest itteration:
This launch prototype is another significant step forward from the last prototype. The screen is now flush with the case and we’ve decreased the overall thickness to about 18 mm. The case will be aluminum, which is more expensive than plastic but is sturdier and lets us shave a little more off the overall thickness of the device.
Two years ago, I would have been on the edge of my seat waiting for such a device. Heck, I might have even jumped up and down with excitement. But two years ago, I started using my iPod touch/iPhone for couch computing. Sure, this tablet is bigger and probably more engaging but that argument leads us to questions about apps and the massive momentum the Apple App Store has. Is the world ready for this tablet or has it’s time passed? I don’t know, do you?
FROM GAMERTELL - Dropping wires and even the need for an object to hold, Microsoft’s Project Natal utilizes what appears to be a special video camera bar with microphone that works in cooperation with motion sensing and video technology… MORE »
Football, cornhole, leap frog and horse shoes. Sound like a Sunday in the Midwest? No – it’s Toss! for the iPhone, a recently-released suite of games by Apptagious. This all-in-one app consists of four games with the same basic premise - you use the iPhone’s accelerometer to mimic “toss”ing, and your goal in all of the games is to throw something to hit a target. Apptagious has definitely demonstrated the iPhone’s capabilities in this game, much like WiiSports demonstrated what the WiiMote could do. However, the game’s charm is ephemeral, and the app doesn’t offer very much depth.
The first game is Cornhole, the traditional lawn game where you toss beanbags onto a wooden plank with a hole in it. A bag in the hole is three points, while landing on the plank is one. If you jerk your hand too too hard, the bag flies past the hole – and it falls short if you are too timid. A major plus is the two player mode, which is great for those alpha males who want to assert dominance over challengers.
The second game is Football. Essentially a field goal kicking game, your task is to split the uprights by performing the same “toss” motion that you do in cornhole. Unlike cornhole, which was a game of gauging depth, this is a game of accuracy. You tilt the iPhone left or right to battle the wind, which unpredictably shifts in either direction.
Next up: horse shoes. This is pretty much what you would expect—your goal is to throw the horse shoe so it lands on the stake at the top of the screen. This would be great if it was actually as hard as horse shoe is in real life. It isn’t. Instead, as long as you throw it straight as hard as you can, you are guaranteed to get it on the stake.
Finally, leap frog. Probably the best of the games, maybe because it’s the only one that is truly challenging. You are a frog trying to jump onto various leaves floating still in the lake in front of you. It’s hard because the leaves are often not aligned with the frog, so there is a depth and accuracy component to it. Also, getting the frog on the further leaves gets you more points, and is incrementally more difficult.
The app definitely sounds fun, and some may find it worth the $3.99. To me, it just doesn’t offer enough. It did offer a much-needed ego boost, though; I managed to get a perfect score on all games within the first two hours of gameplay!
What we like:
Solid physics engine. Definitely felt like my faux throwing could have replicated a real-life toss.
Two-player. Though only offered on two games, this is a feature I wish more games had.
Variety. Four games > one.
What we didn’t like:
Too easy. I don’t think a seizure would’ve prevented me from winning at this game. Though the physics of throwing the item deep or short was well-designed, it was too easy to aim laterally, making half of the games ridiculously simple.
Lack of depth. Four games sounds like a lot, but it just didn’t cut it for this thirsty.
Replay value. Once you figure out how to beat it, this game just isn’t fun to play again.
You’re soon going to be able to live out your Dick Tracy fantasy when LG ships out its video-calling watch phone this July.
Folks in Europe will get the first crack at the GD910 on Orange, but soon after Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and Latin America will all get a turn - pretty much everyone but us here in the States. It’s all good though, we didn’t wanna have fun video calling our peeps anyway.
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There are phones with GPS and then there are GPS phones. The Pharos Traveler 137 is in the latter camp, a device designed to be a GPS unit and a phone in one. Pharos has been making mapping software and devices for years, mostly for a less commercial market, and their specific knowledge in what makes a good GPS device is quite important when looking at the 137.
The 137 is a G.S.M. 3G phone with a special interface overlaid onto Windows Mobile 6.1 and includes a MicroSD card. It will be available today on Amazon and will cost $599.95 or $350 after T-Mobile rebate. It’s an unlocked quad-band phone with touchscreen, stylus, and little scroll wheel.
I’ll dig through this puppy this week and report back. The full specs follow.
Pharos Delivers First Windows Phone to Provide 3G Speeds on Both Major GSM Networks
Available for the first time today, the Pharos Traveler 137 offers unrivaled 3G connectivity and best-in-class navigation on a sleek new phone
TORRANCE, Calif. — June 4, 2009 — Pharos Science & Applications, Inc., a leading provider of location-based information and services, today announced the immediate availability of the Traveler 137, a striking Windows phone that is the first to give users access to 3G data speeds on both the T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless networks. The Traveler 137 features hybrid navigation software, giving it the unique ability to provide voice-prompted navigation even without a connection to a carrier’s network. The Traveler 137 is sold unlocked, enabling users to use local GSM SIM cards worldwide and avoid international roaming charges. The Traveler 137 is available today from Amazon.com, Dell.com, eXpansys.com, and Newegg.com for the suggested retail price of $599.95. Users can obtain a $250 discount on the phone if signing up for a new T-Mobile two-year contract through Pharos.
“When it comes to phones, we believe consumers deserve the full spectrum of choice,” said Stephanie Ferguson, general manager, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Corporation. “The Traveler 137 is a great example of a Windows phone that gives consumers the choice of 3G networks, the choice of personalization and the choice to use a single, powerful phone for both work and life.”
“The Traveler 137’s ultra-sensitive aGPS gives users the ability to navigate quickly; its high speed 3G capability brings a world of information to users’ fingertips; its touch-and-sweep interface on a crisp WVGA screen makes using the powerful Windows phone fun and easy,” said James Oyang, PhD, President, Pharos.
Traveler 137 Specifications
* Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, updateable to Windows Mobile® 6.5
* Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528MHz
* Memory: 256MB DDR SDRAM, 512MB Flash ROM
* Phone: unlocked GSM quad band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, EDGE / GPRS,
* Talk time: up to 7 hours on GSM, 5 hours on 3G and 200 hours standby
* Display: 3.5″ TFT LCD with touch panel, 480 x 800 Wide-VGA with 65K colors
* Wireless: GPS aGPS compatible, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth™ v2.1 + EDR , FM tuner
* Camera: 3 megapixel for picture or video, 0.3 megapixel on the front for video conference
* Expansion: USB 2.0, micro SD slot support SDHC, stereo audio jack
* Battery: 1380 mAh Li-Ion, rechargeable/replaceable
* Size: 4.60in (L) x 2.40in (W) x 0.51in (H)
* Weight: 4.9 ounces
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
These are some very early prototypes Japan's No. 1 telecommunications company NTT recently showcased during the JPCA Show 2009 in Tokyo, but they are pretty cool to look at and may show a glimpse of the near future. The basic idea is to one day be able to offer cell phones featuring an interface for attachable and replaceable hardware add-ons.
ThinkGeek's Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin Mold is just what every elegant dinner party needs, especially if you make an aspic-and-baby-marshmallow gelatin salad with it.
I'm not sure what's so "supreme" about the Jabba the Hutt Supreme Edition Costume, but man, you would certainly play some pretty weird "naughty Hutt and stern bounty hunter" scenes with it.
For many years, Google, on its Explanation of Our Search Results page, claimed that “a site’s ranking in Google’s search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.” Then in May of 2007, that statement changed: “A site’s ranking in Google’s search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.” In this third and final interiew with Google’s search team, Google Fellow Amit Singhal helps us understand why.
We see no reason why this Lego remote control shouldn’t become reality. In fact, quite the opposite. We don’t see why the world should be deprived of such a superlative setup.
Mike Torres, Lead Program Manager on Microsoft’s Movie Maker team, has 
Yahoo’s 
On the surface SimilarWeb is everything you’d expect from a discovery Firefox/IE add-on. Once installed it docks to either side of the browser and displays similar sites, displayed as thumbnails or as a list. Users can rate each result with a thumbs up or down, the latter removing the result all together. Users can also suggest a site by pasting-in a URL. This not only customizes the user’s own results, it also impacts global results for all users. If you don’t want to install the add-on but still want to see it in action, try 
Don’t count AMD as being out. In response to the ever growing netbook/small laptop market, AMD and HP have recently announced an update to the HP dv2. We liked the 
Photography is an expensive hobby. Between special lights, making sure your color balance is set right, and never mind the camera, you can spend thousands of dollars on expensive equipment, all to make sure you get that one perfect shot. Now, the clever programmers at 
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= How much we want to see it
= How likely it is to happen
I’m not sure how big the demand for this will be, but new site haloscreenshots.com is confident that you’ll want to preserve that epic teabagging for all time. So confident in fact, that they have licensed the ability to print framed gallery quality screen shots from Microsoft and Bungie.
Here’s some bittersweet news for those of you eagerly awaiting Google’s Chrome browser for Mac or Linux: tonight Google is publicly 
A year ago we 
One of the most fundamental reasons for Google’s success is the site’s speed — search queries typically take a fraction of a second, and most of the company’s other services are usually very snappy as well (save for Gmail, which occasionally bogs down). Part of this speed can be attributed to the company’s obsession with 
Can you feel the tingling in the air? If you haven't found it already,you will. This is going to be the summer of love. I am talking, of course, about smartphone love. The 
A U.S. judge has shut down an ISP after FTC complaints that it offered a haven to spammers, child pornographers, hackers, and more. ISP Pricewert, also known as 3FN and APS Telecom has been disconnected from the net.
For the past several weeks, I’ve been noticing something about my iPhone: Severe slowness. I put it sleep and wake it back up, clear its memory (with 
Hopefully, that helps you see a big issue: Aside from the performance issues, do I pay Apple $100, and lose my phone for a few days while they replace the battery, or do I pay a little bit more to get an entirely new phone?
Tesla, which has now delivered 500 Roadsters, will be opening several new sales showrooms this summer, the company says. Currently the company has showrooms only in California. Three of the new showrooms will be in Europe - London, Monaco and Munich. New York, Seattle, Chicago and Miami are also on the list.
Football, cornhole, leap frog and horse shoes. Sound like a Sunday in the Midwest? No – it’s 
