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ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 14 June 2009Are you itching to get out of the office and network with your peers? Why not head out to one of the venues listed in our roundup of upcoming social Web events. The events guide is a regular feature here...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm On the Road with Kesey and Truman(Bill Gurstelle is guest blogging here on Boing Boing. He is the author of several books including Backyard Ballistics, and the recently published Absinthe and Flamethrowers. Twitter: @wmgurst)
Today's the end of my guest blogging stint on BoingBoing and I'm in the mood for a summertime road trip. Unfortunately, my car is 1999 AWD Ford Explorer with a 5.0 V-8 and gets, maybe, 16 miles to the gallon. The thing about it is that nothing ever goes wrong with it. It's a great vehicle, gas mileage aside. Wired magazine ran a great article explaining that the greenest vehicle is the car you already own. So, If I do go somewhere, I'll rent a Civic instead. DTV Transition Mostly Smooth, Windows Media Center Problemsdritan writes "While most of the transition to digital seems to have gone smoothly, those who use Windows Media Center saw their screens go dark. Users are complaining that Media Center did not pick up changes to channel assignments that took place on Friday. Someone forgot to update the static channel lists distributed with the program guide. Users either have to wait for Microsoft to fix the problem, or manually edit the configuration files." Reports indicate that the FCC received upwards of 300,000 calls on Friday from consumers seeking late help with the transition, but they were prepared, with over 4,000 operators available to handle problems. The FCC's DTV website also had over 3 million hits on Friday. Both phone and internet traffic have now tapered off, and supplies of converter boxes appear to have held out just fine.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:30 pm For TechCrunch, Twitter = Traffic (A Statistical Breakdown)
Some people use Twitter to organize street protests in Tehran. Some people use it to share their daily thoughts and observation. But it is increasingly becoming clear that one of the most common ways people use Twitter is as a social information filter and link distributor. Over the past few months, TechCrunch has experienced the power of this micro-media firsthand as the percentage of traffic we get from Twitter has grown to the point that it is now our second largest source of outside traffic after Google. In the past 30 days, Twitter accounted for 9.7 percent of all traffic to Techcrunch.com, up from 1.8 percent six months ago. This is out of millions of visits. Looking at our Google Analytics numbers, here is the breakdown of visits to TechCrunch by source over the past 30 days: Top Sources of Traffic To TechCrunch Twitter has been rising up that chart, just recently surpassing Digg. TechCrunch is certainly not typical of most Websites, but this data certainly shows the potential of Twitter to generate traffic. A large portion of that traffic comes from the TechCrunch account on Twitter, which has nearly 715,000 followers (it is one of the accounts suggested to new users). For many people, Twitter is replacing their RSS readers. One of the ways we use that account is to Tweet out links to our stories, which then spread virally as followers retweet those links. Retweets are becoming a new type of link currency. We are big believers in retweets (in fact, there is now a retweet button at the bottom of every post). About a month ago we started using Awe.sm, which lets us send out our own custom short links (http://tcrn.ch) and track how much traffic we get from them. About 73 percent of our Twitter traffic comes from people clicking on an http://tcrn.ch short link. Another 23 percent comes directly from Twitter.com via other short links such as bit.ly’s. We can also approximate how much Twitter traffic comes from desktop and mobile clients. At least 44 percent of Twitter traffic comes from clients, and that counts people clicking directly on http://tcrn.ch links from those clients. So the true number is easily more than half. For us, and I’d argue increasingly for other large Websites as well, Twitter is not just about micro-media. The most powerful Tweets are those which point elsewhere. Or to put it another way, the shortened link may just be the most powerful type of micro-media there is. Those retweeted links are turning Twitter into a social broadcast media that rivals any other on the Web. (Photo credit: Flickr/Brett Weinstein) Top 5 TechCrunch Traffic Sources Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:22 pm Palm Pre gets a NES emulator!
Got a Pre? Like Nintendo? If you fit in the overlapping intersection of that particular Venn diagram, then have I got some good news for you. Some enterprising individuals over at the Pre Dev Wiki have gotten a NES emulator up and running on the Palm Pre. It’s not for the faint of heart, as it’ll require you to gain root access to your Pre followed by compiling FCEUltra and then tweaking a few display settings to get the games to run at 320×480 resolution. But if you’ve gotten your hands dirty before and you know your way around Linux, it’s a fairly straightforward five-step process. Actually, the fifth step is “Play your favorite games.” So that’s an easy one. Pre Dev Wiki [via Engadget]
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:00 pm Orthodox Jews launch "kosher" search engine (Reuters)Reuters - Religiously devout Jews barred by rabbis from surfing the Internet may now "Koogle" it on a new "kosher" search engine, the site manager said on Sunday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Jun 2009 | 1:56 pm Orthodox Jews launch "kosher" search engineJERUSALEM (Reuters) - Religiously devout Jews barred by rabbis from surfing the Internet may now "Koogle" it on a new "kosher" search engine, the site manager said on Sunday.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 1:53 pm Pfizer eyes deals to raise emerging mkts presenceDUBAI, June 14 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc , the world's largest drugmaker, is looking to conclude deals in emerging markets over coming months to raise its share of a market worth an estimated $80 billion,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 1:31 pm Swine Flu Vaccine In Productionravjen writes with news that "Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG said they have successfully produced a swine flu vaccine weeks ahead of their expectations. The vaccine was made in cells, rather than grown in eggs as is usually the case with vaccines." This announcement came just a day after the World Health Organization declared H1N1's spread to be a pandemic. The vaccine has not been tested in humans yet, so the first batch is set to be used in clinical trials and pre-clinical testing. If all goes well, the new production method would allow Novartis to get the drug to market in large quantities by this fall. Other drug companies, such as Baxter International, have confirmed that they're in "full-scale production" of H1N1 vaccines as well.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Jun 2009 | 1:22 pm AT&T warns that iPhone pre-orders may not do you much goodSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones  Pretty much like has happened the past couple of years, it looks like those folks pre-ordering the iPhone 3G S probably aren’t going to get their phone on the launch date. Due to major sell-outs, anyone pre-ordering from Saturday, June 13th and later are not going to get them at launch. AT&T’s internal sales system is directing staff to let customers know sorry, it’s not going to happen. Instead, they can expect their phone to show up 7 to 14 days after the order is made. So, if you want one on launch day, and you held out on placing a pre-order, you are going to have to go to an AT&T or Apple store and wait. The regular availability is now set to begin at 8:00 am, rather than the 7:00 am start time they were previously hailing. Those people who did place a pre-order are supposed to expect an email letting them know when their phone is in stock. For those that already have a pre-order in, you still get to join the line at 7:00 though, and let everyone else duke it out later for what is left. Best Buy and Walmart are also supposed to have them, but not until regular store hours on June 19th. Can’t wait to see this circus when it comes to town. Read: [appleinsider]
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Jun 2009 | 1:00 pm HD Video Phones - Samsung and Nokia Initiate a New Mobile Phone War (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) With the launch of mobile phones with 720p resolution and 24 fps in video mode and 8+ megapixel resolution in camera mode, Samsung and Nokia have officially initiated a brand new mobile...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:59 pm 100 Outrageous Swarovski Creations - From MINI Limos to Blinged-Out Birthday Cakes (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) This slideshow of ridiculously opulent Swarovski creations from the Trend Hunter archives is sure to add some sparkle to your Sunday. Below, you'll find all that's Swarovski-studded,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:49 pm Italy recalls 'radioactive' wood pellets: reportAn Italian court has ordered the recall of 10,000 tonnes of wood fuel pellets imported from Lithuania over fears that they could have dangerous levels of radioactivity, newspapers reported...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:40 pm DIY Bottle Catamarans - Recycle Plastic Bottles in Fun Floating Science Project (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) For those not up to building a full-sized bottle catamaran, a nifty toy catamaran might fill a need. The Fun Mechanics Kit Bottle Catamaran includes everything needed (except for...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:39 pm CrunchDeals: Asus Eee 900 for $170
Newegg.com is selling the Asus Eee PC 900 for just $170 with free shipping. That’s for a new unit, too, not a refurbished one. The specs won’t blow your toupee off your head but, hey, the price is right. You’ll get an 8.9-inch screen at 1024×600, a 900MHz ultra low voltage Intel Celeron M processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB solid state drive, four-cell battery, and Linux. ASUS Eee PC [Newegg.com via dealnews]
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:30 pm French Kiss Photography - Snog by Rankin Captures Raw Intimacy (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) While his beauty photography features luscious colors and kaleidoscopic effects, Rankin keeps things natural in his Snog photo series. Snog features people of all ages and sexes making...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:29 pm Recycled Animal Corpses - Shadowy Art from Macabre Mummified Critters (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Tim Noble and Sue Webster created, 'Dark Stuff,' a work that was included in the exhibition, Statuephilia 'Contemporary Sculptors at The British Museum', London in 2008--09. The couple...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:19 pm Colnect Is A No-Frills Collectibles Marketplace And Wiki. Someone Wake Up David Cowan!The granddaddy of all venture capital funds, Bessemer Venture Partners, keeps a tally of the mega-successes it passed on in a list known as the Anti-Portfolio. In it, renowned VC David Cowan (http://www...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:11 pm Colnect Is A No-Frills Collectibles Marketplace And Wiki. Someone Wake Up David Cowan!
Good news David, lightening may in fact strike twice for you because here’s your chance to invest in Colnect, a community site for collectors of coins, banknotes, stamps, phone cards and bottle caps. And no, I’m NOT kidding at all. Colnect (Collect+Connect) is a collector’s community site that assists its users to organize, share, trade and sell their collectables. There are no fancy algorithms, the UI is modest—old school some may argue—and it’s literally a one-man show having been founded, coded and operated by 29-year-old Amir Wald. He’s still the only employee(!) The core of Colnect is a community driven wiki where Contributors add content (collectibles), Editors make changes to existing items, and Coordinators supervise content contributions and provide permissions to Editors. Wald also employed crowd-sourcing to translate the site to 35 languages. Colnect’s catalogs currently encompass 158K phone cards, 68K stamps, 15K coins, 15K banknotes and 5k bottle caps. Users have marked 11M items so far: 6.6M collectibles in wish lists, 4M in collections, and another 800K in swap lists. Wald tells me that in the last month alone over 650,000 items were marked in the system. He plans on continuously adding categories, with upcoming candidates being PEZ dispensers, Kinder Surprise toys, baseball cards, and waif for it—barf bags. Different strokes for different folks I guess. Part of Colnect’s charm is that it really doesn’t try to impress you, it just aims to provide basic but critical utilities for collectors of mass-produced collectibles. Collectors can easily manage their inventory with personal collection, swap list and wish list management tools. There’s also auto-matching between collectors’ inventory and wish/swap lists (huge time saver I’m told). Then of course there are the run of the mill social features such as personal profiles, ratings, friends and private messages. These are all on top of the actual catalogs which are continuously updated and therefore a godsend to collectors. All trades on Colnect are currently free of charge for now. There is however a premium membership option starting at just over $6 per month with the purchase of a one year subscription. Benefits include Custom Personal Lists, Premium Member Highlighting which helps member profiles and their items stand out, and the removal of ads across the site (AdSense and eBay ads are plastered everywhere). So there you have it Mr. Cowan, your second opportunity to invest in stamps, coins and barf bags. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:11 pm IRS Looking To Save Companies Money With Cell Phone TaxAn IRS official informed the press on Friday that they are working to fine-tune accounting methods for personal cell phone use on employer-paid phones that will help companies save money, Reuters reported.Until now, companies have been following a 1989 law that requires companies to track personal use with scrupulous records of minutes if they intend to deduct worker cell phones as an expense. But, the new law will make employer and worker compliance much simpler."Minute by minute documentation really doesn't make any sense -- we've been hearing all about it, and we said yes it makes no sense," said a senior IRS official, who was not approved to speak for attribution.The IRS has presented changes that are aimed to "reduce how much employers have to spend trying to comply with the tax law," the official added.Workers are obligated under the existing law to pay tax on cell phone use that is personal in nature on a work phone as a fringe benefit.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:10 pm Disastrous Papercrafts - Spitefuls DIY Disaster Dioramas Add New Tragedies (UPDATE) (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Last August, Pearl wrote about Spitefuls Disaster Dioramas. Several have been added since then: Pompeii; The Great Chicago Fire; and Sir Shackletons Endurance (Part 1) have joined the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:09 pm Scientists Wonder What Fingerprints Are ForHugh Pickens writes "The BBC reports that scientists say they have disproved the theory that fingerprints improve grip by increasing friction between people's fingers and the surface they are holding. Dr Roland Ennos designed a machine which enabled him to measure the amount of friction generated by a fingerprint when it was in contact with an acrylic glass at varying levels of pressure. The results showed that friction levels increased by a much smaller amount than had been anticipated, debunking the hypothesis that fingerprints provide an improved grip. Ennos believes that fingerprints may have evolved to grip onto rough surfaces, like tree bark; the ridges may allow our skin to stretch and deform more easily, protecting it from damage; or they may allow water trapped between our finger pads and the surface to drain away and improve surface contact in wet conditions. Other researchers have suggested that the ridges could increase our fingerpads' touch sensitivity."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:09 pm Legendary Lake In Vietnam Being Gently Cleaned For Giant TurtleResearchers have started testing "SediTurtles," a device they say will defend a renowned Vietnamese turtle while at the same time clean the lake where it lives.Experts debuted the sediment-consuming machines as part of a cleanup program on Hoan Kiem Lake, located at Vietnam's capital.The Lake of the Returned Sword houses a mysterious turtle that symbolizes Vietnam's exertion for independence.The children’s story of the 15th century rebel leader Le Loi says that he used a sword to fight off Chinese invaders.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Jun 2009 | 11:50 am Apple, Dell And HP Scrambling For Top Green SpotPersonal computer makers are targeting "green" goals, creating more options for customers focusing on their monetary and communal options.Analysts note that going green has developed into a business approach: a way to stand out, and appeal to environmentally aware customers.The three largest U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Jun 2009 | 11:40 am Auctioning Saliva - Sale of 'Pretty Girl Drool' Banned from Chinese Auction Site(TrendHunter.com) Claiming that saliva collected from pretty teenage girls is a tonic, a man set about to make his fortune on the Chinese equivalent of eBay, Taobao.com. The site removed the product...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 11:29 am New Facebook URLs raise cybersquatting fears - VNUNet.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Jun 2009 | 11:20 am 18 Profane Innovations - From Clocks That Curse to Profanity Fashion (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) Despite what your grade-school teachers told you, it's officially okay to curse. Well, according to these innovations, at least. This slideshow encapsulates the best in profanity-laced...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 11:19 am Minn. woman who lost music-share suit gets replayThe Minnesota woman who became the nation's only music file-sharing defendant so far to go to trial is getting a replay two years after losing the case. Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 10:51 am Minn. woman who lost music-share suit gets replay (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Jun 2009 | 10:51 am A Twitter Client For the Commodore 64An anonymous reader writes "Johan Van den Brande has developed a Twitter client for the Commodore 64, allowing 140-character messages to be posted directly from this TV-connected 1982 home computer. This YouTube video shows how the Twitter client is — slowly! — loaded from a 5.25" floppy disk, how the latest Twitter messages are downloaded and shown on the TV screen, and how this tweet is posted. All that is needed is a C64, a TV, and a C64 Ethernet card. The Twitter client is implemented with the Contiki operating system, which otherwise is used for connecting tiny embedded systems to the Internet."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Jun 2009 | 9:05 am Whooping crane bound for zoo - MiamiHerald.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Jun 2009 | 7:06 am Bing lands with a bang, but will it boom? - Los Angeles Times
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Jun 2009 | 7:04 am Lockheed Martin Delivers New Flight Software Architecture for SBIRS GEO SpacecraftPARIS, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- PARIS AIR SHOW -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today that it has delivered the final block of a new flight software architecture that willSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 6:45 am Malaysia to aid Indonesia ahead of haze seasonMalaysia has offered to help Indonesia curb forest fires blamed for the choking haze that shrouds the region each year, media reports said, as air quality fell in the country. In the drySource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Jun 2009 | 6:25 am Microsoft Seeking Hot-Or-Not Patenttheodp writes "In its just-disclosed patent application for the Online Personal Appearance Advisor, Microsoft describes the 'invention' of its three Microsoft Research employees in these words: 'The contributor uploads self images for viewing and rating (or voting) by viewers who choose provide an opinion on different fashion and/or cosmetic looks of the contributor.' So what do you think — is Microsoft's invention really Hot or Not?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Jun 2009 | 6:12 am SingTel launches music service for mobile phones (Reuters)Reuters - SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest telco, on Sunday launched in Singapore a service that lets mobile subscribers download music files and videos which it hopes to introduce to other parts of Asia.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Jun 2009 | 5:44 am BlackBerry Messenger update in the wild It’s not available yet, but BGR got his hands on the latest build of RIM’s upcoming update to BlackBerry Messenger. The following are new features to the PIN-based messeging system: Avatar support, GPS location integration, Proximity sensor, Set conversation subjects, and Homescreen support.
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Jun 2009 | 5:11 am BlackBerry Messenger update in the wild
It’s not available yet, but BGR got his hands on the latest build of RIM’s upcoming update to BlackBerry Messenger. The following are new features to the PIN-based messeging system: Avatar support, GPS location integration, Proximity sensor, Set conversation subjects, and Homescreen support.
via BGR Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Jun 2009 | 5:09 am PSP Go battery life worse than PSP-3000
Here’s some new PSP Go info in case anyone wants to know. There will be three new features on the Go that aren’t available on the PSP-3000: Game sleep function, Bluetooth function, clock and calendar application. And PSP Euro Product Manager Adam Grant says the Go will have 3 to 6 hours of battery life for gameplay and 3 to 5 for videos.
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Jun 2009 | 5:00 am Have botnet prices crashed?Years ago, my friend John Gilmore told me he thought accounts of the spread of botnets (massive networks of virus-compromised machines that can be used in concert to send spam, attack servers, etc) were overblown, because if botnets were really all-pervasive, then the price of using them should have crashed. Now comes this spam, on one of my personal blogs, and I wonder, has the great botnet price-crash finally hit?Tired of a competitor's site? Hinder the enemy? Fed pioneers or copywriters? Source: Boing Boing | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:55 am Escher lizard paving-stones
GeckoStone makes tesselated paving stones that look like Escher's interlocking lizards. (hilariously, they've registered a trademark and claim copyright on this work derived from a classic Escher work that is, itself, copyrighted -- and there's no evidence that they licensed the design from Escher's estate; every pirate wants to be an admiral!)
GeckoStone
(via Make)
T-Mobile Dash 3G spotted by Mr. Blurry Cam
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about the upcoming T-Mobile Dash 3G and earlier today TmoNews posted a shot of the device that’s expected to launch on July 1. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:50 am Canadian ISPs need you to tell the regulator to force Bell to stop screwing them -- and the Canadian publicRobbo sez, "Rocky Gaudrault, CEO of TekSavvy [ed: fantastic, indie Canadian ISP that does not practice throttling, unlike the major semi-monopoly, Bell Canada], sent this email to customers today. Seems important for people in Canada even if they aren't TekSavvy customers:"In March 2008 Bell started throttling its Wholesale Customers (TekSavvy among a group of many) without notice. We attempted to have the CRTC force Bell to stop as it removed our ability to do business and give Market choice. The throttling was done in the name of congestion, even if Bell, at the same time launched higher speeds (which they did not share with their wholesalers) and also dabbled with launching IPTV, which consumes even more capacity.Man, would you look at how hard it is to link to a specific docket at the Canadian telco regulator? It's almost as though they don't want activists to be able to exhort people to go and take action. Either that, or they don't know how the Internet works. I'm not sure which one is worse. Submit a telecom-related request (Thanks, Robbo!) Source: Boing Boing | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:47 am MGS4 engine tweaked for MGS: Rising because the Xbox 360 can’t handle it
Kojima made it very clear from day 1 that the Xbox 360 could not handle the MGS4 engine. When it was announced at E3 that the MGS franchise would be coming to the Microsoft platform I wondered if Kojima had made progress in making the MGS4 engine compatible with the Xbox 360, but that appears to be untrue. During the latest Kojima podcast, Sean Eyestone stated that Kojima has reworked the “engine from scratch” to make MGS: Rising compatible with all three major platforms. Kojima podcast via GamerCenterOnline
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:45 am Swiss Pirate Party
Laurent sez, "The Switzerland's Piraten Partei (Pirate Party, of course) will be loaded July the 12th in Zurich.
There is also a Facebook group : Piratenpartei Schweiz - Parti Pirate Suisse - Partito Pirata Svizzero
Mondial."
The original Swedish Pirate Party won a seat in the recent EU election (two seats, once the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified), the German PP got 1% of the popular vote, and there are affiliate parties all over the world now. All this in just a few years -- I wonder how far the Green Party got in its first three years?
Parti Pirate Suisse
(Thanks, Laurent!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:41 am Associated Press will syndicate non-profit investigative journalismThe Associated Press (who once suggested that bloggers should pay for five-word excerpts of its stories, and should be forced to promise not to use those excerpts to make fun of the AP) have found a new progressive streak and announced a plan to syndicate investigative journalism stories financed by nonprofits:Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which will be free to publish the material...A.P. in Deal to Deliver Nonprofits' Journalism (via /.)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:37 am onOne updates Canon DSLR support, Nikon support in v1.1
Portland-based onOne Software has updated their list of supported Canon DSLRs for the DSLR Camera Remote app for the iPhone. Nikon owners should take note that the iPhone app will soon support Nikon DSLRs when v1.1 gets pushed out next month. USB * Rebel XT/350D/Kiss Digital N USB * Rebel XTi/400D/Kiss Digital X The following Nikon DSLRs will be supported in v1.1.
Canon Update [onOne]
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Jun 2009 | 4:27 am Daily Routines: a blog about the habits of interesting peopleThe brief at the Daily Routines blog is to collect stories of "How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days." I'm a total creature of habit, even when I'm on the road, a 5AM-rising daily writer; the last thing I do before bed is all the breakfast prep for a huge, elaborate three-course breakfast for the family so that I can bang it all out in ten minutes after getting to inbox0 from the night's email and getting through all the morning's blogposts, hot and ready by 7AM. I get a nap, half an hour's reading and half and hour's yoga every afternoon, get in two pages of the novel, two pages of the short story, and about 3 to 5 times a week, I write a column. Every Monday is podcast day. Monday and Wednesday night, I leave the office ten minutes early, get the kid from day care and make sure she's bathed, fed and in bed by 7 when the sitter comes by so Alice and I can go to a proper 1.5h yoga class around the corner. Sunday mornings we have breakfast out, and I walk the kid to the PO Box, stop and play in the park on the way back, drop off all the stuff from the box at my office, then come home and put the kid to bed while Alice kills zombies on the Xbox. I love my routine.Despite all this activity Churchill's daily routine changed little during these years. He awoke about 7:30 a.m. and remained in bed for a substantial breakfast and reading of mail and all the national newspapers. For the next couple of hours, still in bed, he worked, dictating to his secretaries.Daily Routines (via Kottke)
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Jun 2009 | 3:00 am Should Wikipedians Edit Stories For Pay?Hugh Pickens writes "The Register reports that a longtime Wikipedia admin has been caught offering to edit the online encyclopedia in exchange for cash. Someone noticed a post to an online job marketplace where he was advertising his services: 'Besides technical writing, I also am an accomplished senior Wikipedia administrator with several featured articles to my name,' read the post, which has since been changed. 'If you need a good profile on Wikipedia, I can help you out there too through my rich experience.' Wikipedia promptly opened a discussion page to try to reach consensus on the community view of 'paid editing.' So far opinion seems to be divided between those who say it's ok as long as full disclosure is made and 'edits are compliant with WP:NPOV, WP:RS, WP:BLP, WP:N,' and others who believe that paid editing automatically creates a conflict of interest. Back in 2006, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales shot down a company known as MyWikiBiz, which promised that you could 'author your legacy on the Internet.' The company subsequently had to reinvent itself with no reference to Wikipedia. 'It is not ok with me that anyone ever set up a service selling their services as a Wikipedia editor, administrator, bureaucrat, etc., I will personally block any cases that I am shown,' wrote Wales."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:45 am RIM, Android, Palm and Motorola devices confirmed by Verizon Wireless CEO It hasn’t been a secret for months, but Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam has confirmed that a multitude of devices from RIM, Palm and Android-based devices are coming to the nation’s largest network in the next six months.
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:31 am VZW CEO confirms Palm devices, multiple BlackBerrys, and others coming in six months
via CEN Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:29 am Odaiba Gundam lights up the night
Tokyo’s Gundam lives! Hit the jump for a video and photo gallery.
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Jun 2009 | 2:16 am 800,000 callers phone digital TV hot line (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:50 am Sniffing Browser History Without JavascriptErgasiophobia alerts us to a somewhat alarming technology demonstration, in which a Web site you visit generates a pretty good list of sites you have visited — without requiring JavaScript. NoScript will not protect you here. The only obvious drawbacks to this method are that it puts a load on your browser, and that it requires a list of Web sites to check against. "It actually works pretty simply — it is simpler than the JavaScript implementation. All it does is load a page (in a hidden iframe) which contains lots of links. If a link is visited, a background (which isn't really a background) is loaded as defined in the CSS. The 'background' image will log the information, and then store it (and, in this case, it is displayed to you)."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Jun 2009 | 12:32 am Video: Satanic Walkerbot will haunt your dreamsOur buddy Phil Torrone built one of these Walker Bots using a laser cutter and some servos. The sound it makes as it comes at you is truly creepy and you can be assured the robots will use this noise as a method to terrorize the populace as they begin their first assault. They may be small but those feet are very sharp and I blame Phil for encouraging the growth and evolution of these monsters. May God help us all.
Source: CrunchGear | 13 Jun 2009 | 11:00 pm The App Store Needs A Genius Feature, ASAP
I spent this week at Apple’s WWDC conference in San Francisco talking to quite a few iPhone app developers. One thing that struck me was just how many of them shared the exact same concern with the App Store: App discovery. By now, you’ve likely heard some of the success stories from the App Store (Apple does what it can to promote these at just about every event it holds pertaining to the iPhone now). But for each of those, there are also a ton of developers who work hard on apps only to watch them fall by the wayside. Apple’s greatest strength with the store — the fact that there are now 50,000 + apps — is also turning into its weakness with many developers. And if it doesn’t adapt the store to its huge growth, those developers might start looking at other platforms. The problem is that while early on, it was pretty easy for small-time developers to make an app and get it noticed in the store, now with 50,000 apps, we’re getting to the point where you need to do something else to promote your apps. That’s good news for big time development studios like EA, which can throw marketing money at the problem. But for some smaller developers — some of which are just one person — that’s simply not an option. But there is one potential solution, and it’s one Apple already has built-in to iTunes: Genius recommendations. Apple rolled out its “Genius” feature for recommending music on iTunes last year. Based on my experience with it, I believe it really is genius — it scans your music library and uploads the information to iTunes’ servers where it compares it to other users’ libraries (anonymously) and sends back recommended playlists based on the other songs you have on your computer. And, perhaps more importantly, it also recommends songs on iTunes that you will probably like based on songs in your library. Apple also more recently rolled out the same feature for movies purchase recommendations on iTunes. And it’s the iTunes Store recommendations that are key, because it could easily do the same thing with the App Store.
While such a system may not be perfect, it would be much better than the current system of app discovery through iTunes, which really isn’t too fair to little developers. Apple features some apps within iTunes, but those are usually skewed towards ones made by the bigger App Store players. For example, look at the apps featured along the top of the App Store right now: The Sims 3 (an EA game), ESPN Scorecenter, A Home & Garden app, a Lonely Planet app and a Square Enix game. Now, to be fair, those are all popular things in their own regards, so the largest collection of people would probably be interested in them and so it makes sense for Apple to highlight them. But in doing so, it’s perpetuating a type of “rich get richer” system that threatens to take over the App Store. And if you are a smaller app, it’s not like being featured on this main iTunes App Store page matters all that much anyway. I spoke with one developer of a top application this week who told me that when his app was featured on this main page, they only say a single-digit percentage point bump in terms of downloads. Much bigger, he says, was when it was featured on the iPhone version of the App Store.
The Top Paid and Free app lists are great when it comes to helping with downloads, I hear as well. Of course, you have to actually move a lot of apps to get on those lists to begin with. So it’s another of the “rich get richer” situations. Some smaller developers have started to think outside the box to promote their apps. A bunch of them have started banding together, forming their own networks of sorts, for promotion. This method allows them to not only promote each other’s apps over the web, but within the apps themselves. That way if one of them takes off, the likelihood that another one of the apps in this group will be seen, is much greater. Another outlet that app makers use to try and get traction is the press. Every day, we’re pitched dozens of apps, even though we don’t really cover that many apps here at TechCrunch. If we happen to, that seems to be a decent way for an app to get some downloads, but that fame is often fleeting. A developer’s best chance in this regard is to hope that their app gets enough coverage from multiple outlets over an extended period of time. That should help it both spread by word of mouth and hopefully make it onto one of the top apps lists. But again, this is very hard to do. And these alliances and means of promotion pale in comparison to having Apple actively promoting your app. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that if you can get our app on one of the iPhone’s television commercials, your downloads will absolutely go through the roof. And if Apple puts your app on the demo units in its store, that helps sales in a big way as well. But Apple can only do that for so many apps. There needs to be a better way, that scales to a huge store — which the App Store has become. All this matters because there is plenty of money behind all of this. The App Store is already a big business for many developers, and increasingly for Apple itself. And when Apple launches the in-app payment system in the iPhone 3.0 software due next week, I think the store could even jump to the next level in terms of people making money off of it. But to keep the overall momentum the store has going, Apple needs to make sure its ecosystem is enticing for the small developers to work in. And that’s getting to be a problem with so many apps now in the store, and with so many big name development houses now making apps. I think a Genius app recommendation feature would go a long way to help this.
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Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jun 2009 | 10:56 pm Things A Startup Founder Will Never SayChris Yeh from PBWorks responds to Things A Venture Capitalist Will Never Say slide show with a few funny-because-they-are-true slides of his own: Things A Startup Founder Will Never Say My favorite: “We reached out to you because your portfolio shows you are about as selective as Paris Hilton.” Good one! Second favorite: “Our marketing plan is to pray for TechCrunch coverage.” Founder Non-Admissions
View more OpenOffice presentations from Chris Yeh.
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Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jun 2009 | 10:55 pm A.P. To Distribute Nonprofits' Investigative JournalismThe NY Times is reporting on the Associated Press's decision to distribute the investigative journalism of four nonprofit groups. This ought to benefit both struggling newspapers, which have cut investigative staff, and the nonprofits where, we can hope, many of those laid-off journalists are plying their trade. It's refreshing to see this kind of forward thinking coming out of an organization not normally known for its progressiveness. "Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which will be free to publish the material. The A.P. called the arrangement a six-month experiment that could later be broadened to include other investigative nonprofits, and to serve its nonmember clients, which include broadcast and Internet outlets."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 13 Jun 2009 | 10:32 pm Quick Look: 18.4-inch Averatec D1100 All-In-One PC
The 18.4-inch D1100 from Averatec showed up at my house recently and I thought, hey, lazy Saturday — let’s set it up. I had forgotten the specs, the price, and all the relevant details but when I had gotten everything together (a process which took less than ten minutes) I can tell you that I’m impressed by how nice the computer looks. Especially since — surprise! — it only costs $599. The body is a nice, shiny black color, with the 18.4-inch screen resting on a chrome neck that adjusts up and down in order to reach a comfortable viewing angle. The LCD panel can be laid flat and pushed down to rest atop the machine’s body should you need to move the computer to another room. Unfortunately, the screen doesn’t swivel from side to side — just up and down. And the wired mouse and keyboard kind of detract from the whole all-in-one idea. They just kind of look out of place with their cords running to the back of the machine. Again, though, this thing barely costs as much as a high-end netbook. Internally, you’ve got a 64-bit AMD dual-core 3250e CPU, 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, DVD burner, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, built-in 1.3-megapixel camera and, of course, the 18.4-inch screen, which features a native resolution of 1680×945 (so no 1080p, sorry) and is powered by an ATI Radeon HD 3200-series GPU. The machine comes preloaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, which returns an Experience Index score of 3.0 — the lowest subscore being in the graphics department. Everything seems relatively snappy so far, but I haven’t really loaded anything onto the computer yet, aside from replacing IE with Google Chrome and uninstalling Norton Antivirus because it asked too many questions and wouldn’t let me close out of it without resorting to the Task Manager. And, of course, the question on everyone’s mind: How does Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (that’s right, 06) play on it? It plays wonderfully. The graphics only top out at 1024×768, but everything looks nice and fluid. The sound from the tiny speakers is pretty tinny, though. Tin-like, that is. Full review coming up once I put this thing through the paces. Here are some photos: Averatec D1100 Series [ShopAveratec.com]
Source: Gizmodo | 13 Jun 2009 | 10:00 pm Hot gaming news for the week of 6-07-2009Section:  No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jun 2009 | 9:42 pm U.S. company accuses China of stealing software (Reuters)Reuters - A California software publisher will seek an injunction preventing U.S. companies from shipping computers with Chinese anti-pornography software it says was stolen, the company's president said on Saturday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Jun 2009 | 9:39 pm Are Code Reviews Worth It?JamaicaBay writes "I'm a development manager, and the other day my boss and I got into an argument over whether it's worth doing code reviews. In my shop we've done both code reviews and design reviews. They are all programmer-led. What we've found is that code reviews take forever and tend to reveal less than good UI-level testing would. The payback on design reviews, meanwhile, is tremendous. Our code is intended for desktop, non-critical use, so I asked my boss to consider whether it was worth spending so much time on examining built code, given our experience not getting much out of it. I'm wondering whether the Slashdot crowd's experience has been similar."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 13 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pm New chair from legendary designer Niels DiffrientHumanscale's new Diffrient World Chair is the latest outing from legendary designer Niels Diffrient, the man who (as Bruce Sterling points out) literally wrote the book on ergonomics. Reading this description is sheer chairporn. $740 is out of my budget, though I have no doubt that it's worth every penny.Humanscale Sets New Bar With Ultra Simple Task Chair (via Beyond the Beyond) Source: Boing Boing | 13 Jun 2009 | 8:43 pm Week in Microsoft: No bundled IE8 for Europe, Apple's Win 7 ... - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Jun 2009 | 8:37 pm Soviet-era punks Murilee sez, "English Russia has dug up some excellent photos of crypto-punks of the Late Brezhnev Era, when it still took plenty of guts to dress like a freak."
Soviet Punks
(Thanks, Murilee!) Dell Makes $3 Million From Twitter SalesBarence writes "Dell has admitted to raking in over $3 million from advertising its products on Twitter. The PC maker has been using Twitter for two years, and employs proprietary software to track sales from users clicking through from Twitter links. Of that $3 million, the company claims that $1 million was made in the past six months following an explosion in Twitter's popularity. (Here is an analysis indicating that 72.5% of Twitter users joined in 2009.) The majority of sales have come through the @DellOutlet account which posts six to ten special offers a week — with at least half of these being Twitter exclusives. Though the $3 million is a drop in the bucket given the Dell's $12.3 billion in revenue during the first quarter of this year, it further bolsters Twitter's case for charging businesses."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 13 Jun 2009 | 8:16 pm Interview With NPR On Process JournalismYesterday I did an interview with NPR’s On The Media about the idea of Process Journalism. Process Journalism is the posting of a story before it’s fully baked, something the New York Times officially despises, but they do it too. From my original post:
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Source: Gizmodo | 13 Jun 2009 | 8:15 pm Task Force To Draft First Ever US Ocean PolicyPresident Barack Obama announced the creation of a high-level Ocean Policy Task Force on Friday that will craft a national policy for sustainably managing the oceans.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Jun 2009 | 8:10 pm Mobile phones, Facebook, YouTube cut in Iran (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Jun 2009 | 7:46 pm The Word Gets Out(Bill Gurstelle is guest blogging here on Boing Boing. He is the author of several books including Backyard Ballistics, and the recently published Absinthe and Flamethrowers. Twitter: @wmgurst)
Well, my time guest blogging on BoingBoing is almost over. So many things to write about and so little time. A few things I like that deserve more, than the few words I'm able to provide:
Source: Gizmodo | 13 Jun 2009 | 7:30 pm Best Buy Mobile announces a new promotion involving the BlackBerry StormSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
Starting June 14, Best Buy Mobile is offering the Storm to Reward Zone Members. Basically, if you are a Silver or Premium member within the Reward Zone, you are eligible to pick up the new Storm absolutely for free, as long as you are signing up for a new two year contract as well. Considering the phone costs $199 with a two year contract, you are saving quite a bit of money. Of course, not all Reward Zone members are Silver members, so the rest of us can buy a Storm for $49, again with a two year contract. Now, in case you aren’t a Reward Zone member, today is the last day to sign up and still be eligible to participate in this promotion. It ends on June 20, so if you are interested, you better pull the trigger fast. With the emergence of the new iPhone 3G S and Palm Pre, many consumers are in the market for a new smartphone. Offering a big discount for a good smartphone will definitely boost sales for Best Buy Mobile and Verizon’s BlackBerry Storm. Via [BGR]
Source: Gizmodo | 13 Jun 2009 | 7:00 pm iPhone 3G S pricing - get over it already!FROM APPLETELL - AT&T is saying current iPhone 3G users won’t get any special discounts to upgrade their current phones to the new iPhone 3G S. Let the chaos and destruction begin, right? But AT&T and Apple are perfectly right to charge an early upgrade fee. Here’s why. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jun 2009 | 6:57 pm Taiwan passes major green energy billTaiwan has passed a bill on renewable energy in a move which is expected to attract 30 billion Taiwan dollar (937 million US) worth of investment, the government and reports said Saturday.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Jun 2009 | 6:47 pm Week in Apple: WWDC mania! iPhone 3G S, Snow Leopard, Safari 4, more - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Jun 2009 | 6:39 pm Hands Down, The Best Facebook Vanity URL
As you no doubt heard last night, the whole Facebook vanity URL grab thing was big. Within seven minutes of the service being available last night, 345,000 users grabbed one. Within 15 minutes, over a half million had, Facebook spokesperson Larry Yu told Bloomberg. But who got the best one. The best one I’ve seen by far, was grabbed by Christine Shipley of San Francisco. Rather than go for facebook.com/christine.shipley or even facebook.com/shipley, she went with facebook.com/default.aspx. Yes, her name could easily be confused as the default landing page for Facebook. (Though, savvy users will know that the site is actually built in PHP, and not ASP, which the .aspx extension suggests). Not surprisingly, people are already trying to sell their Facebook vanity URLs as well. The service Assetize, which we wrote about yesterday, already has 4 accounts for sale. The accounts listed are: cotman, pokerbook, sexybook and shekhar. The listing amount for each is “best offer” — none have any bids. But according to the service, one name has already sold, though it has to be bogus. Assetize just started partially blocking out names sold so you can’t see which ones were purchased, but I loaded the page earlier and saw that it was facebook.com/alex. Apparently, it sold for 99,999,999.99 — so unless it went to Alex Rodriguez, I say this buying and selling system is already broken. What else is odd about this is that alex is a 4-letter URL, which is against Facebook’s rules. So unless it was a Facebook employee who got the URL and was selling it, the whole thing seems to be a sham. Not everyone was happy with the results of the landgrab. Michael was one of the unlucky ones who didn’t get the name he wanted, even though he originally broke the story. Knowledge, it seems, isn’t always power. [thanks Loic] Information provided by CrunchBase
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Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jun 2009 | 6:23 pm CIA Steps Into Using Web 2.0 ToolsCIA officers said Friday that the organization is adopting Web 2.0 tools like blogs and collaborative wikis, but not without struggles in an agency with an ingrained culture of secrecy."We're still kind of in this early adoptive stage," said Sean Dennehy, a CIA analyst and self-described "evangelist" for Intellipedia, the US intelligence community's version of the popular user-curated online encyclopedia Wikipedia."There's a lot of cultural issues we have to encounter with bringing this kind of open source ethos into the intelligence community," Dennehy said during a panel discussion organized by the Washington office of Internet giant Google.The Central Intelligence Agency analyst recalled Mahatma Gandhi's quote: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.""We've been ignored, we've been laughed at, on occasion we've been fought and we haven't won yet," he said.Dennehy said Intellipedia, which runs secure government intranets and is used by 16 US agencies, started as a pilot project in 2005 and was formally launched in April 2006."From that point to where we are here in 2009 it's been a struggle," he said.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Jun 2009 | 6:15 pm Rat Island Is Now Almost Rat FreeAlaska's Rat Island is finally rat-free, after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the island 229 years ago, decimating the local bird population. According to the U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Jun 2009 | 5:50 pm Twitter "twitpocalypse" affects Mac, iPhone apps (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - The surging popularity of the Twitter messaging service has broken at least one Twitter client application and affected another as a part of what is being called âthe Twitpocalypse.âSource: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Jun 2009 | 5:15 pm AT&T already sold out of launch day iPhone 3G S pre-orders - Apple Insider
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Jun 2009 | 4:56 pm Chinese Filtering Software Code May Have Been StolenA software company in California has alleged that stolen programming code is being used in Internet-filtering software which China has mandated for all new personal computers, The Associated Press reported.The "Green Dam-Youth Escort" filtering software that must be packaged with all computers sold in China from July 1 supposedly contains parts of similar software designed by Solid Oak Software of Santa Barbara, the company said Friday.Brian Milburn, Solid Oak's founder, said he plans to seek an injunction against the Chinese developer of the software."I don't know how far you can try and reach into China and try to stop stuff like this.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Jun 2009 | 4:09 pm Twitter Helps Dell Sell on Outlet Site - eWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Jun 2009 | 3:36 pm Scientist Seeks Correction In Number Of Moose SpeciesIt is a misinterpretation of the application of the bedrock of scientific naming with regard to the number of moose species that Kris Hundertmark, a University of Alaska Fairbanks wildlife geneticist at the Institute of Arctic Biology, seeks to correct.The adoption of Carl Linnaeus' two-part, genus-species system of naming, called taxonomy, has been used for centuries on all described organisms on Earth and is considered one of the greatest triumphs in science.Hundertmark will be presenting his research during the American Society of Mammalogists 89th Annual Meeting June 24-28 at UAF."When we give something its own name we're saying this is a unit of biodiversity that deserves to be conserved," Hundertmark said.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Jun 2009 | 3:26 pm Safari numbers still dwarfed by Firefox downloads - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 13 Jun 2009 | 3:16 pm Notorious spammer could face jail time for violating Facebook orderSection: Computers, Security, Web, Web 2.0, Websites  Notorious spammer Sanford Wallace could face jail time for violating a restraining order barring him from accessing Facebook. In February, the social networking site sued Wallace and fellow spammers Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw for spamming its users and running a phishing attack on the site. As a result a U.S. District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order against them which forbid them to access Facebook in any way. Due to the violation the judge referred him to the U.S. District Attorney’s office for criminal proceedings.
Last year MySpace won a $230 million judgment against Wallace for spamming the site with ads for porn. He promptly filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying. He’s known for his blatant disregard for the courts, ignoring orders to turn over certain documents and refusing to show up for court dates. Wallace has been spamming since the mid 90’s and has been sued by such companies as AOL, Compuserve and Concentric Network. His activities earned him the title of “Spam King”. He has had no comment on his latest legal troubles. Read [PCWorld] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jun 2009 | 3:02 pm Everest Poker Launches New Player Focused WebsiteLONDON, June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The official sponsor of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Everest Poker, has redesigned their website to further incorporate their brand essence -- Passionate About Your Game.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Jun 2009 | 2:41 pm So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of June 07, 2009Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jun 2009 | 2:32 pm Ancient Mass Grave Found Under British 2012 Olympic SiteAn ancient burial pit of dismembered bodies has been found under a road being built for the 2012 British Olympics, and is suspected to be a mass war grave from Roman times.Recently beginning the site excavation, archaeologists have not yet determined who the bones might belong to.Dig leader, David Score, of Oxford Archaeology said, "We think that these dismembered bodies are likely to be native Iron Age Britons.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Jun 2009 | 2:05 pm BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 6-07-2009Section:  We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jun 2009 | 2:02 pm
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The granddaddy of all venture capital funds, 
It hasn’t been a secret for months, but Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam has confirmed that a multitude of devices from RIM, Palm and Android-based devices are coming to the nation’s largest network in the next six months.
You may not realize it yet, but the App Store is broken.
At its most simple level, it could probably work like this: Say there’s an app that you downloaded and really like, Apple should be able to recommend other apps of a similar genre you might like based on what others’ downloading habits are. But Apple could probably go much deeper than that and see which apps you use (or at least launch) the most, and use that as a basis for these recommendations as well. And it could also use the star rating system it already has in place as another point of recommendation — though it should probably make it easier to rate apps from within iTunes if it does that.
But let’s look at the featured ones there. It’s largely more of the same: ESPN Scorecenter, a THQ game for the new Disney movie Up, the Sims 3 again, an AT&T app, etc. Apple does do a much better job diversifying this list, wrapping in some smaller apps as well, but there are still only so many apps they can fit in this area — especially since it’s on a much smaller screen. Again, a Genius feature on the iPhone or iPod touch would go a long way in helping to uncover new, under-the-radar apps.
Made from just eight major parts and weighing less than 25 pounds, the Diffrient World chair achieves Humanscale's signature weight-sensitive recline through an innovative new design that functions without a mechanism. Utilizing two frame components, the user's body weight, and the laws of physics, the Diffrient World chair's mech-free recline action automatically adjusts to the needs of each user, offering appropriate levels of resistance without unnecessary locks, dials or other manual controls.
One of the premier smartphones available on any network is the 
