Source: Gizmodo | 13 Aug 2009 | 8:30 pm

Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede, one of the all-time great American comedy sf novels, will be a movie

Holy CRAP this is good news: Bradley Denton's incredible comic sf novel Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede is being made into a movie directed and written by Robert Rugan.

Buddy Holly is the story of Oliver Vale, whose mother was obsessed with Buddy Holly, and who one day discovers that Buddy Holly is on the TV, on every TV, on every station, with a guitar around his neck, standing in a bubble on the surface of Ganymede, disoriented, musical, and periodically reading out a sign saying that further information is available from Oliver, and supplying his home address.

The entire world chases Oliver at this point: cops, radio cops, televangelists and their flocks, aliens -- you name it. And Oliver begins a road-trip across America to Lubbock, Texas, there to exhume Buddy Holly's corpse and verify for himself that the famous musician is not on a distant, airless moon.

When this book came out, I was a bookseller at Bakka in Toronto, the venerable science fiction bookstore. If you were a science fiction reader in Toronto in those days, it's a damned good bet I sold you a copy of it. I hand-sold about 750 copies of that book, and would have sold more. Will sell more.

Bradley Denton is a stone comic genius and no two of his books are alike, but this is the one I love -- I worship -- as the apotheosis of a certain kind of gonzo, brilliant, marvellous thing that is to American science fiction comedy what Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' series is to British sf comedy.

To see it come back and to the big screen, too -- marvellous. Congrats, Brad, and well-deserved.

Jon Heder to star in 'Buddy Holly' (via IO9)



Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2009 | 8:15 pm

iFixit breaks down… a Starbucks Barista espresso machine

I bet you thought iFixit only tore apart Apple products and high-profile electronics. Not so! The Starbucks Barista is in fact not a barista but a machine that makes espresso. You could argue that’s what real baristas are as well, but we can talk about that another time. The Barista espresso machine is a good representative of the home-espresso machine world, and it isn’t some cheap piece of garbage, either. It’s got lots of real metal in there and… are those molex connectors?

The insides are pretty much what you expect: a boiler, pump to move water to the spout or steamer, and some common-looking wiring making sure power and signals go to the right doodads.

I’d dissect my stovetop espresso machine, but it only has five parts. I think I like that better.

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Aug 2009 | 8:08 pm

Dingbat dictatorship in Belarus invents magical anti-cancer pockets for school uniforms

Evgeny sez, "Authorities in Belarus, the last authoritarian regime in Europe, are considering introducing a new school uniform that would protect schoolchildren from electromagnetic radiation that comes from their mobile phones. The phones would be stored in a special pocket. The government is apparently very excited about it."

Belarus develops school uniform that makes tin foil hats obsolete (Thanks, Evgeny!)

(Image: Maker Faire 2007: Tinfoil Hat, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from r3v || cls' photostream)

Source: Gizmodo | 13 Aug 2009 | 8:00 pm

Nokia 5130 coming to T-Mobile in September, no one notices

Dear T-Mo faithful, are you being overstimulated by flashy phones like the myTouch 3G? Does the Touch Pro2 pack too much power under the hood for you? Do keyboards on phones like the Blackberry Curve 8520 completely flummox you? Well, fret no longer, because T-Mobile has an unremarkable candybar that’s just right for you! That right, Nokia’s latest (and by latest, we mean 6 months old) XpressMusic handset is due to shuffle onto T-Mobile store shelves come September 16.

All snarkiness aside, Nokia’s 5130 looks to be nothing if not a solid addition to T-Mobile’s lineup of entry-level phones. The specs have been well documented, which isn’t a surprise considering how long it’s already been floating around, but they seem adequate for the users T-Mobile’s targeting the phone at. Let’s take a peek:

• 2-inch QVGA display
• Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Support for up to 16 GB of expandable memory
• Stereo Bluetooth
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• FM radio with RDS

Sure, it probably won’t set your world on fire, but for all y’all folks looking for something pocketable on the cheap, it looks poised to do the job. Pricing is still unavailable, but we’ll be sure keep the four of you who actually care posted.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 7:44 pm

(BB Video) Mighty Boosh, part 2: Crimpin' Ain't Easy

(Download MP4 / Watch on YouTube)

Part 2 of Boing Boing Video's interview series with Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, co-creators, writers, and stars of the "psychedelic comedy" series The Mighty Boosh. In this installment, Noel and Julian share insights into the role music plays in their TV show and live stage performances, and we also learn about "crimping" -- the nonsensical, nerdy, embarassingly British dork-raps you'll see often in their hit BBC program. Imagine these two grown men in crazy character costumes acting out nursery rhymes, and you've got the idea. Or, watch this episode, in which they perform a "Boing Boing" crimp. Yup.

BB caught up with the Boosh gang when they were touring the US to promote the stateside release of a three-season DVD set, also available on iTunes. Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" recently begain airing episodes in the US, too.

If you missed part 1 of our interview series with Noel and Julian, you'll find that here.

Did you know there's a supervillain made of bubblegum? Watch this episode 'til the very end, and feel his chewy justice.

Previously:

(Special thanks to Mark Kleiman and Stefanie Fletcher for their generous support of this Boing Boing Video interview series.)

Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2009 | 7:41 pm

Fight to keep Google Voice app off iphone catches fcc's eye - USA Today

Siliconrepublic.com

Fight to keep Google Voice app off iphone catches fcc's eye USA Today By Robert Galbraith, Reuters By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY Who should control wireless applications — customers, carriers or handset makers? That is the core question being considered by the Federal Communications Commission, which has asked Apple and ... The 10 Most Idiotic iPhone AppsPC World Nintendo DS lookalike app hits the App StoreCNET News Developers Start To Look For Work-Around To Apple App StoreWall Street Journal eWeek -MiamiHerald.com -Eurweb.com all 318 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Aug 2009 | 7:24 pm

Even insiders don't know everything -- especially at Apple

John Gruber put his angry old man of the Mac hat on today to snark about Gizmodo's supposed "insider" information regarding the forthcoming Apple tablet.

So Lam's source is an "insider" but has no idea what the OS is and has the ship date wrong. Sure.

Gruber's snipe fails, however, because there is indeed a particular kind of "insider" who knows little about the technology, but much about the looks and hooks: talent hired by marketing.

As you can imagine, these people also tend to know only the preliminary bullshit on release dates, and are the most accessible to reporters hungry for leaks.

At Wired, we scored a massive hit in the run up to the MacBook Air's release with the above mockup (created in about 90 minutes at very short notice), and I'm still pretty proud of it, mistakes notwithstanding. To illustrate it, I relied on an extremely subjective description of the machine, provided by a verified insider who would have had no clue at all about its technology or the ship date. To them, it was just a silver laptop with certain features that everyone kept talking about, and had an extremely distinctive profile

It has an extremely thin profile and is shaped like a teardrop when closed-- thicker at the top behind the screen, tapering at the bottom behind the keyboard.

The most remarkable thing, however, was that this person, who certainly saw the machine, provided us with several completely inaccurate details.

Naturally, I wish I'd taken the source's word even more literally about the teardrop thing -- it seemed quite absurd at the time!

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 7:18 pm

WiSpi EX30: Watch everybody, all the time

The guys at Brickhouse security are now selling the WiSpy EX30, a wireless camera that transmits to a handheld screen and has a built-in DVR and night IR night vision.

The device records right onto SD and also notifies you when something steps into the frame. The device costs $169.95 sans memory card and transmits directly to a small, handheld 2.5-inch screen.

Visual alerts when visitors are approaching
Nightvision recording for dark situations
Home security recording for day/night your home
Covertly monitor friends, family, coworkers
Nanny camera for monitoring your kids with the babysitter

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Aug 2009 | 7:00 pm

Apple Partners Won't Be Sad To See Entourage Go - ChannelWeb

Ars Technica

Apple Partners Won't Be Sad To See Entourage Go ChannelWeb News that Microsoft plans to replace its Entourage e-mail client with Outlook for Mac is going over well with Apple VARs, many of whom say they won't be shedding any tears when Entourage fades into the sunset next year. ... New Mac Office: Outlook replaces EntourageComputerworld Microsoft Ships Entourage Web Services EditionPC World Mac Office Adds Biz Edition; Outlook Arrives in 2010PC Magazine Washington Post -ITProPortal -Register all 351 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:56 pm

Review: Dell Latitude 2100

The netbook stemmed from the need to offer a cheap, low powered computing solution for kids in classrooms. Now Dell has come out with an Atom powered portable aimed squarely at the academically minded. Reviewer Priya Ganapati explains:

The 2100’s most striking feature is the matte, rubber-like coating that envelops the netbook. Its grainy texture lets tiny, slippery fingers get a firm grip. It also repels dirt, grime and the occasional candy collision. When one Wired editor put it to the test by grinding a peanut M&M into the façade, we were able to brush the chocolate off with a quick swipe of a damp cloth.

The 10.1-inch display is bright and does well in both bright sunlight and under the harsh fluorescent lighting typically found in public school classrooms. And with the 80-GB hard drive there’s just enough storage space to toss in pictures, homework and maybe a Hannah Montana video or two.

Speaking of downloading Miss Montana, the Latitude 2100 also has a network-activity light built into the top of the lid. This small rectangle illuminates when you are connected to a Wi-Fi network or an ethernet connection. It also flickers (albeit weakly) when we browsed the net. The idea? Making sure kids are not surfing the internet when they should be working on a math problem.

Want to know more? Of course you do! Check out the full take on the Dell Latitude 2100 on our reviews site.

(Photo by Jon Snyder/ Wired.com)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:30 pm

There are RPGs for the TI-83?

Mother of God. I used to have a TI-83 for calculus classes, but all I ever had on it was DrugWar and a little racing game that was as hard as nails. Come to think of it, how did I even get those on there? They must have been copied, device to device, all the way from the originals. We didn’t have the benefit of the internet at the time (at least, not as it is today). But who knew there were full-fledged RPGs on the thing? I guess that, considering a large amount of high-school and college students are required to buy these things, it’s actually a pretty popular platform. There have to be 20 or 30 million of them out there at the least!

I don’t know how the TI-83 stacks up against the original GameBoy, which had some serious RPGs on it, but I have to imagine they’re at least close relatives. This amazing list of great RPGs for everyone’s favorite calculator both intrigues and repels me. The idea of spending hours staring at the device that made my life hell for at least a year or two makes me queasy, but on the other hand… RPGs on a graphing calculator, people!

And in the related section on YouTube… Zelda?!

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:30 pm

Is This the Dell Smartphone?

Dell has reportedly been working on a smartphone for more than a year. But so far, the device has been a bit of a mythical beast–often written about but never seen.

Now, the first blurry pictures have leaked. According to the fairly trustworthy mobile rumors site Boy Genius Report, the Dell smartphone will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, 3-megapixel auto focus camera with 8x digital zoom and 30 fps video shooting mode. It will also have GPS capability.

As Wired.com had reported in April, the phone will launch first in China and is expected to be available by the end of the year.

But from what little we can see of the Dell smartphone, we are not impressed. If this is indeed the form factor and design, it seems two years too late to the party. The slim brick-like look is reminiscent of the recently launched T-Mobile myTouch or for that matter every other touchscreen smartphone since the iPhone. And the specs aren’t hefty enough to make the device stand out. Unless Dell has some features in there that we don’t know about, this device is likely to face a tough battle for consumer attention.

See also:
Dell Plans a Smartphone of its Own

Photo: Rumored Dell smartphone/Boy Genius Report

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:22 pm

Zer01 Encounters New Setback (PC World)

PC World - Zer01 Mobile, the company that says it can deliver a true unlimited mobile-phone service, announced on Thursday that it has ended its relationship with network marketing company Global Verge.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:10 pm

BIO-key International Enters Into Agreement to Sell Law Enforcement Division to Interact Public Safety Systems for $11 Million

WALL, N.J., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BIO-key International, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:02 pm

iTunes 9 wish lists list wishes

Ahhh, Apple. Their followers are always fanatical, spending days dreaming away when and what the next product announcement will be. I bet Dell and HP wish they had this kind of following. Since September is typically when Apple announces their new products, the webs are all abuzz with people guessing what new shiny thing will be coming out. Some are even writing wish lists, but of course like an abusive parent, Apple will snub them and ignore their cries for attention.

I have to say however, that I do agree with some of the things that Macworld is hoping for. Personally, I’d love to have a “watch folder” feature, since I convert video to my iPod all the time. Don’t particularly care about the SD vs. HD thing, and I already have my library running on my NAS.

So Scott, I hope you’re right. It’d be nice to see a new version of iTunes come out. I just hope you aren’t disappointed when Daddy Steve ignores your cries.

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:00 pm

July video game sales show sharp decline (AP)

AP - Hurt by the recession and few hit game launches, U.S. retail sales of video games dropped sharply in July, showing an even bigger decline than what many analysts were expecting.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:59 pm

A Planet That Orbits Its Star the Wrong Way

Smivs writes "BBC News is reporting that astronomers have discovered the first planet that orbits in the opposite direction to the spin of its star. Planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, so they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star rotates. The new planet is thought to have been flung into its 'retrograde' orbit by a close encounter with either another planet or with a passing star. The work has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal for publication. Co-author Coel Hellier, from Keele University in Staffordshire, UK, said planets with retrograde orbits were thought to be rare. 'With everything [in the star system] swirling around the same way and the star spinning the same way, you have to do quite a lot to it to make it go in the opposite direction.' Professor Hellier said a near-collision was probably responsible for this planet's unusual orbit. 'If you have a near-collision, then you'll have a large gravitational slingshot from that interaction,' he explained. 'This is the likeliest explanation. But it might be possible you can do it by gradually perturbing the orbit through the influence of a second planet. So far, we haven't found any evidence of a second planet there.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:57 pm

The EntreTech Forum Announces ... 2009- 2010 Program Calendar

BOSTON, Aug.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:55 pm

Study: Fire used to make tools 75000 years ago - msnbc.com

Telegraph.co.uk

Study: Fire used to make tools 75000 years ago msnbc.com Early humans crossed a threshold around 75000 years ago, when they started painting symbols, carving patterns and making jewelry. A new study found they also began to use fire to make tools around that time. Until now, this complex, ... Ancient Weapons Point to First Use of Fire for Tools?National Geographic Ancient toolmakers discovered fire treatmentThe Associated Press Early Humans Used Heat-Treated Stone for ToolsNew York Times NPR -Arizona Republic -Science Now all 94 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:51 pm

Who's that girl? Facebook entries stir jealousy (AP)

AP - Alice Connors-Kellgren was surprised by her boyfriend's new Facebook profile picture a few weeks ago: He was kissing another girl on the cheek.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:47 pm

What’s a mouse-a-sketch? I don’t know, but it looks awesome

MAKE calls it an XY table, and I can sort of work out what that means. It’s like a giant Etch-A-Sketch, but it doesn’t sketch or etch. It just kind of moves around on a… is that a skateboard? And why does the contraption sound like the beginning of that one Air song off of Premieres Symptomes? I must be dreaming. Get it together, man!

Okay, I’ve just checked and I’m not dreaming. It’s the world that’s gone mad. It really is a huge mouse-controlled Etch-A-Sketch suspended in the air in someone’s garage.

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:30 pm

Qik finally makes it to the App Store, live streaming not included

I want live streaming video recording apps on the iPhone. You want live streaming video recording apps on the iPhone. Everyone wants live streaming video recording apps on the iPhone - except for Apple. Though such applications have been available through unofficial means for over a year now, Apple remains mum on the matter. There they sit in Apple’s review queue, rotting away beneath an “In Review” label.

Looking to find some way onto the platform, developers have begun to scale back their applications until they reach a point Apple is willing to greenlight. We saw it earlier this month with Ustream’s streamless app, and now Qik has followed suit. Beginning today, Qik’s own sans-streaming app is available for the iPhone 3GS.

Like the Ustream app, Qik’s new tool is primarily for pre-recorded video already camped out in your Camera Roll. You can also record video on the spot, but uploading does not begin until the recording is complete.

Though not a completely cutting-edge concept, Qik does claim a couple of firsts:

• Auto Uploading: If you record within the app, videos are uploaded immediately after shooting is complete.
• Record video in either portrait or landscape mode.
• Geotagged video uploads, based on your position at the time of upload
• Auto uploads to Facebook, Youtube, and various blog services.

It’s not the jailbreak-free streaming solution we’re dying for, but it’s the best we’ll get until Apple gets friendly with the concept.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:28 pm

I Can Now Make FriendFeed As Ugly As I Want

When FriendFeed launched new themes back in June, I wanted but one feature: The ability to create my own. Today, I got my wish.

Despite being purchased by Facebook for close to $50 million earlier this week, FriendFeed is still rolling out new features. Today brings customizable themes, which allow you to tweak your template to make it as pretty or as ugly as you would like. Naturally, I’m going for ugly, as I stated my desire to mimic the excellent “Eggplant Orange Juice With Blood” theme I created for Gmail when that service launched customizable themes.

So far, my best effort (below) is called “Dictionary.com Cheer Carrot Theme” after my new favorite website. To FriendFeed’s credit, they make it pretty hard to make a truly ugly design, like you can easily do on Gmail. One reason is that theren’t are as many variables to change the colors of.

One interesting note about these themes is that by default, you will see other users’ themes when you click on their profiles. You will also see the themes that admin’s create in rooms that they manage. You can turn this off, and choose to only see your theme, in the settings.

And just for comparison sake, the old Gmail design I did:

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:24 pm

Qik Finally Makes It To The App Store, Live Streaming Not Included

I want live streaming video recording apps on the iPhone. You want live streaming video recording apps on the iPhone. Everyone wants live streaming video recording apps on the iPhone - except for Apple. Though such applications have been available through unofficial means for over a year now, Apple remains mum on the matter. There they sit in Apple's review queue, rotting away beneath an "In Review" label. Looking to find some way onto the platform, developers have begun to scale back their applications until they reach a point Apple is willing to greenlight. We saw it earlier this month with Ustream's streamless app, and now Qik has followed suit. Beginning today, Qik's own sans-streaming app is available for the iPhone 3GS.

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:23 pm

Study claims 40% of Twitter is “pointless babble”

Section: Web, Web 2.0, Websites

A new study by Pear Analytics has declared that 40% of Twitter is nothing more than “pointless babble.”  The Texas company sampled 6 hours of Tweets a day for 10 days, gathering 2000 total.  They then analyzed them and placed them into the following categories:

• 40.55% were what they considered babble. This includes tweets such as “Having a beer” or “Bored at work.”
• 37.55% were considered conversational. This includes polls, tweets that are questions, and back and forth tweets between 2 or more people.
• 8.7% were re-tweets and links.
• 5.85% were self promotion tweets. This includes members tweeting about their latest blog post, podcast or companies.
• 3.75% were blatant spam.
• 3.60% were news tweets from media sources like CNN.

Now just how scientific is this study?  I think it’s safe to say that what one person may consider conversational someone else may consider babble, and we all known there is a very fine line between self promotion and spam.  One must also note that the samples were taken between 11am and 5pm.  Had the samples been taken after 5 or on the weekend the results would likely be quite different.  Maybe the study itself is somewhat pointless?

It is a little sad that there is more spam on Twitter than news.  Twitter is supposed to be at the head of the new media class after all.  However I don’t think they will get a passing grade until they get a real handle on their spam and security issues. The URL blocker they instituted is pretty much useless since all the bad guys have to do is use an URL shortening service like Bit.ly or TinyURL to hide their links.

If you’re a Twitter fan tell us what you think of the study and how you would categorize your newsfeed!  I can safely say the majority of mine is conversational with some links and retweets and a bit of news.  Thankfully, there is hardly any spam in the mix and I’ve yet to see a tweet I thought was pointless!

Read [PCWorld]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:10 pm

Insider divulges information on Apple’s tablet

FROM APPLETELL - Gizmodo’s Brian Lam has received some juicy details on the mysterious Apple tablet.  The insider “may or may not” have sat in Apple meetings regarding the tablet, and apparently has held mock ups of the device.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:06 pm

Nstein Technologies announces improved 2009 Q2 results

MONTREAL, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Nstein Technologies inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:05 pm

U.S. video game sales down 29 percent in July: report (Reuters)

Reuters - U.S. video game equipment and software sales fell 29 percent in July to $848.9 million, research group NPD said on Thursday, as the gaming industry limps through the economic downturn.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:03 pm

Fetish: Zune HD Player Is a Contender

The Zune HD steps up the media-player game by integrating into your home entertainment system. Buy and watch vids on your Xbox 360 and they'll download to your Zune the next time you plug in. Also, it's got the first HD Radio receiver on a portable player. Sweeet!

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:00 pm

Stylish ceramic speakers: expensive but very cool

These speakers are pretty crazy looking, but apparently they sound quite good due to the acoustic qualities of porcelain-enclosed cork. The raw design is eye-catching but a little busy, although the toaster-esque volume control looks totally awesome. You’re not going to pick them up at your local electronics store, though; they’re being custom made and are likely going to cost at least $400.

You can pre-order them starting in September, and pre-preorder at the designer’s site. At just 10W per speaker, they’re not going to be filling a room, though for a desk they would be both sufficient and efficient due to their small footprint.

[via Cool Hunting]

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:00 pm

Fetish: Zune HD Player Is a Contender

The Zune HD steps up the media-player game by integrating into your home entertainment system. Buy and watch vids on your Xbox 360 and they'll download to your Zune the next time you plug in. Also, it's got the first HD Radio receiver on a portable player. Sweeet!

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:00 pm

Gays and lesbians often seek health care

A study finds about twice as many gay, lesbian and bisexual Californians sought mental health or substance abuse treatment last year than did heterosexuals. The study was conducted by UCLA scientists and involved data from a survey of more than 2,000 Californians. The researchers found 48.5 percent of gay lesbian or bisexual individuals said they participated in treatment during the past year, compared with 22.5 percent of heterosexuals.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:00 pm

Digital Power Reports Financial Results for the Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2009

FREMONT, Calif., Aug.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:00 pm

Homebrew Robot Raises Hand to Call Attention to Tweets

If you are struggling to keep up with all the twitter updates from your friends, there’s a little robot that can help you out.

The ‘Guardian Robot’ is an adorable machine that monitors your twitter feed for “happy” or “sad” updates from friends and then alerts you of the tweets by either raising its hand for a high-five or lowering its head, reports U.K. publication The Guardian. The robot that can sit on your desk will even tweet a reply on your behalf from its own twitter id @guardianrobot

The Guardian Robot is not as sophisticated as the Cybraphon, a musical band housed inside an antique wardrobe that we recently wrote about. The Cybraphon monitors its Facebook, Twitter and Flickr pages and plays music that reflects its online popularity at that moment.

But what makes the Guardian Robot interesting is how inexpensively it has been put together. It costs just over £60 ($70).  It uses two servos–one to rotate the arm and another to raise or lower its head– and two microswitches. The body of the robot has been created out of a discarded Nintendo Wii Sports Resort game box.

All of this is connected to an Arduino board that powers and controls the switches. The Arduino, an open source single board microcontroller, is connected to a desktop via a USB. The board connects to an application written in the open source programming language, Processing 1.0.

The app polls Twitter every minute for tweets that match a specified criteria. When it finds a matching tweet it classifies it as a “happy” or sad one and directs the robot to the appropriate response.

For more details on the robot works or to see its actual code, check out The Guardian. 

See Also:

• Wired 14.01: The 50 Best Robots Ever
• Robot Teaches Itself to Smile
• Robot Band Plays Music, Obsesses About its Online Followers …
• Sony Camera Robot: You’ll Always Find Him On The Table at Parties …

Photo: Guardian Robot/The Guardian

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:57 pm

Mixed Conclusions About Powerline Networking vs. Ham Radio

Barence writes "Since writing about the success he's had with powerline networking, a number of readers emailed PC Pro's Paul Ockendon to castigate him for recommending these products, such as HomePlug. They were all amateur radio enthusiasts, claiming the products affect their hobby in much the same way that urban lighting affects amateur astronomers, but rather than causing light pollution they claim powerline networking causes radio pollution in the HF band (otherwise known as shortwave). Paul's follow-up feature, 'Does powerline networking nuke radio hams?' documents his investigation into these claims, which found evidence to support both sides of an intriguing debate."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:52 pm

SCVNGR Lets You Build Awesome Scavenger Hunts For Any Mobile Phone

For many people, the term “Scavenger Hunt” conjures childhood memories of running around the neighborhood on a quest for knickknacks like thimbles and socks — an experience that loses its luster beyond the age of ten or so. But as it turns out, they’re big businesses: major corporations and universities have successfully used more elaborate scavenger hunts as team building exercises, and a well-designed course can be extremely fun. SCVNGR is one young startup that’s managed to tap into this niche market very successfully, and today it’s launching a new consumer platform that will allow anyone to build their own scavenger hunts, which will work with any mobile phone. The new platform, called XPLR, is now in private beta, and the first 100 TechCrunch readers to go here and enter the code ‘TECHCRUNCH’ will be able to sign up and build their own missions.

In conjunction with the news, the company is also announcing that it has closed a $750,000 funding round from Highland Capital.

SCVNGR is still a very new company, making its debut last fall as part of the DreamIt Ventures incubator program. But it’s already seen use by over 300 universities, including Harvard and Princeton, as well as corporations, who have used the company’s enterprise-grade game builder for things like employee team building excercises and orientation events. It’s a fantastic idea for a number of reasons: games are easily deployable with little to no cost outside of licensing the platform, it works on any cell phone, and games can be tweaked with a minimal amount of effort.

XPLR (pronounced ‘explorer’) is meant to serve as a more accessible framework to build these games. And, unlike the more robust SCVNGR builder, XPLR is free. It comes with a number of restictions: you’re limited by how many people can play the game simultaneously, you can’t tell which users have been playing (as you might want to in a commercial app), and the platform is only for non-commercial, non-institutional use. But if you wanted to set up a tour of your hometown, or perhaps a barcrawl for your friends to follow, this is exactly what you’d want to use. You can see a screenshot of the editor below.

So how do the games actually work? If you’d like to try one out for yourself, there’s a free application for the iPhone that includes a training game, but here’s the gist of it: the service sends questions to the phone, oftentimes alongside a text, audio, or video clue to help figure out the answer. Once you think you’ve solved it, you type in your solution and if you’re right, you proceed to the next question. The system works fine as a basic puzzle game, but it’s far more engaging when it’s used for scavenger hunts, with questions that require you to actually walk to a certain landmark. For example, there are a number of SCVNGR missions set up for the city of Boston, which guide users through some of the city’s most well known landmarks. Here’s an example series of questions, taken from a Philadelphia tour:

Clue: Which is greater? This stairs in this famous staircase in Philadelphia or the sequels in this never-ending saga?
Answer: Rocky Steps
Challenge: Great! Now run there and tell me, on the statue of Rocky at the top, what size shoes is he wearing?
Answer (obtained by looking very carefully at Rocky’s shoes): 9.5
An alternate challenge could have been: Now take a photo of your and your team doing the Rocky Pose at the top! Send in the photo to move on!

SCVNGR offers apps for iPhone and Android, but they’re also playable on more basic phones too using SMS (just sent a special keyword to the company’s shortcode and the game will start sending you clues). That said, the smartphone experience is definitely better: some games include multimedia clues, and there are also special photo missions that ask users to submit pictures of themselves doing various tasks. These photos get uploaded to the site’s server, and whoever is running the mission can then distribute them as mementos later on.

SCVNGR is really doing a great job with its service, and its impressive roster of customers is a testament to that. We’ll be keeping an eye on them in the future.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:45 pm

AT&T files program complaint against Cablevision (AP)

AP - AT&T Inc. has filed a complaint with federal regulators charging that Cablevision Systems Corp. is violating federal law by denying AT&T's video customers in Connecticut access to Cablevision's New York area sports programming in high-definition format.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:35 pm

T-Mobile, Alltel, and Verizon don’t suck at customer service.

J.D Power and Associates just issued Volume 2 of their Wireless Customer Care report, which runs from January to June of 2009.

It’s a big three-way tie this time around, with T-Mobile, Alltel, and Verizon all taking a victory lap. AT&T follows behind with an “About Average” (3/5) rating, while Sprint stumbles with a paltry 2/5.

At this point, T-Mobile can pretty much build a small fort out of these little glass trophies, having taken one home 9 out of the last 10 reports. Don’t be too surprised if these things start popping on the garage sale circuit.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:34 pm

Review: Gritty Lead Performance Drives 'District 9' Alien Verite

While its insectlike extraterrestrials are definitely from out of this world, the heavy themes explored in this realistic sci-fi flick prove down-to-earth and thought-provoking. Actor Sharlto Copley stands out as a corporate drone on a transformational journey.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:33 pm

Kindle Averts Battle Over Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” [Voices]

By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Book Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Many publishers were eager to see if Random House would challenge Amazon’s (AMZN) strategy of pricing the book industry’s most successful titles at $9.99 for the Kindle e-reader by withholding the e-book edition of Dan Brown’s upcoming novel, “The Lost Symbol.”

They got their answer Thursday, when Random House announced “now that all of our security and logistical issues surrounding the e-book of ‘The Lost Symbol’ have been resolved, the e-book will be released simultaneously with the hardcover on Sept. 15.” Random House’s Doubleday imprint is printing 5 million hardcover copies for the U.S.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:30 pm

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

Cool video about the Hubble ultra deep field in 3D. A photo of utter blackness taken in "a patch of sky no bigger than a grain of sand held out out arm's length."


Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:22 pm

Photo-crashing squirrel

Too cute not to post: Melissa Brandts' photo, featured in NatGeo.

My husband and I were exploring Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park-Canada when we stopped for a timed picture of the two of us. We had our camera set up on some rocks and were getting ready to take the picture when this curious little ground squirrel appeared, became intriqued with the sound of the focusing camera and popped right into our shot! A once in a lifetime moment! We were laughing about this little guy for days!!

Squirrel Portrait, Banff (Via Andrew Hearst)


Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:16 pm

CrashCorp Demos Augmented Reality iPhone Application

CrashCorp, the joint venture between former Digg Lead Architect Joe Stump, and former co-founder of Socialthing, Matt Galligan, have released two videos of a proof-of-concept app developed for the iPhone. After speaking Matt Galligan, he mentioned that CrashCorp is changing the direction of their company. He also notes:

Right now, there's a gap in the market, as it relates to making it easy to add persistent location to mobile apps. We're simply addressing that gap by providing an end-to-end location solution for app developers. Part of that solution will include developing SDK's for mobile devices, that will allow app developers to quickly add new ways to view location data.

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:08 pm

Climate warming and treelines studied

New Zealand scientists say a study of climate change suggests global warming is not spurring the advancement of Earth's treelines as expected. Scientists at New Zealand's Bio-Protection Research Center said their study -- the first global quantitative assessment of the relationship between climate warming and treeline advancement -- tested the premise that treelines have been advancing since 1900 in response to global warming. Treelines are the elevation at which trees are capable of growth or survival and are considered to be early indicators of climate warming because they are constrained primarily by low temperatures. Harsch and her colleagues used a multivariate meta-analysis of a global dataset of 166 treeline sites with temperature data taken from the closest climate station to each site.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:02 pm

Kid-Friendly Netbook Has Grown-Up Chops

It's aimed squarely at kids, but the young at hear (or just the accident prone) can enjoy the Dell 2100, too.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:00 pm

Kid-Friendly Netbook Has Grown-Up Chops

It's aimed squarely at kids, but the young at hear (or just the accident prone) can enjoy the Dell 2100, too.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2009 | 4:00 pm

NII Holdings Announces Pricing of Senior Note Offering

RESTON, Va., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NII Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: NIHD) today announced the pricing of the offering, through its wholly owned subsidiary NII Capital Corp., of $800 million principal amount of 10% Senior Notes due 2016.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:52 pm

Not Bullshit: Penn & Teller Launching New Product At TechCrunch50

We guard the final 50 new products and startups that launch at TechCrunch50 closely, and don’t let anyone know the final list until the day of the event (not even press gets the list). But we also generally pre-announce one of the presenting companies to give the audience a taste of what’s to come.

And this year, I’m very proud to announce that Penn & Teller will be launching a new consumer tech product at TechCrunch50.

The duo has worked together for 30 years, and in September they’ll be celebrating their fifth year as headliners in their own theater at the Rio All-suite Hotel & Casino, as well as two Emmy nominations for one of my favorite shows, their Showtime series “Penn & Teller: Bullshit!” (I even embedded a clip of their show in this post about bottled water).

Plus, Penn Jillette will be on stage showing their new product for the first time to the 2,000 or so people who will be at TechCrunch50. And I think you’re going to love it.

That’s all we’re saying for now. Get your ticket here.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:50 pm

Why Should I Trust My Network Administrator?

Andrew writes "I'm a manager at a startup, and decided recently to outsource to an outside IT firm to set up a network domain and file server. Trouble is, they (and all other IT companies we could find) insist on administering it all remotely. They now obviously have full access to all our data and PCs, and I'm concerned they could steal all our intellectual property, source code and customers. Am I being overly paranoid and resistant to change? Should we just trust our administrator because they have a reputation to uphold? Or should we lock them out and make them administer the network in person so we can stand behind and watch them?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:49 pm

Network-1 Reports Second Quarter 2009 Results

NEW YORK, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Network-1 Security Solutions, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: NSSI) today announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2009.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:41 pm

CrashCorp Demos Augmented Reality iPhone Application

CrashCorp, the joint venture between former Digg Lead Architect Joe Stump, and former co-founder of Socialthing, Matt Galligan, have released two videos of a proof-of-concept app developed for the iPhone.

After speaking to Galligan, he mentioned that CrashCorp is changing the direction of their company. He also notes:

Right now, there’s a gap in the market, as it relates to making it easy to add persistent location to mobile apps. We’re simply addressing that gap by providing an end-to-end location solution for app developers. Part of that solution will include developing SDK’s for mobile devices, that will allow app developers to quickly add new ways to view location data.

One of these views might be something similar to the proof of concepts Galligan posted to his Flickr account, which are embedded below for your connivence.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:37 pm

Hackers Use Twitter to Control Botnet

Hackers are using the popular micro-messaging service to send updates to zombie computers that spew spam and steal passwords, a researcher discovers.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:34 pm

Early Fire Use Ignites Discussion About The Evolution Of Human Brainpower

New evidence that early modern humans used fire in southern Africa in a controlled way to increase the quality and efficiency of stone tools is changing how researchers understand the evolution of human behavior, and in particular, the evolution of human brain power.Curtis Marean, a paleoanthropologist with the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, and an international team of researchers with members from South Africa, England, Australia and France found 72,000-year-old, silcrete rocks that had been fired and flaked to make stone tools in a cave along the coast of the southern tip of Africa in Mossel Bay.The finding indicates that humans' ability to solve complex problems may have occurred at the same time their modern genetic lineage appeared, rather than developing later as has been widely speculated.----------Image Caption: These are tools created by the experimental use of fire-treated silcrete blocks.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:19 pm

National Writers Union Opposes Google Book Settlement

The National Writers Union, which represents freelancer writers, is opposing the Google Book Search settlement, saying that Google is being stingy with past profits and will become a privacy-invasive book monopoly in future.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:10 pm

CSC to Host Institutional Investor Meeting on November 18, 2009

FALLS CHURCH, Va., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CSC (NYSE: CSC) will host an institutional investor meeting on Wednesday, November 18, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. EST, followed by lunch.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:07 pm

Peregrina and Chipilo cheeses recalled

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the recall of some Peregrina- and Chipilo-brand cheese products because of possible bacterial contamination. The Peregrina Cheese Corp.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:01 pm

Zune HD Now On Sale, Priced Lower Than iPod

Microsoft’s Zune HD portable digital music and video player will go on sale next month at a price of $220 for the 16GB model and $290 for the 32GB version, Microsoft said Thursday.The Zune HD’s pricing is noticeably less than Apple Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm

Raising The Alarm When DNA Goes Bad

EMBL scientists identify a rapid response team that monitors and quickly responds to DNA damageOur genome is constantly under attack from things like UV light and toxins, which can damage or even break DNA strands and ultimately lead to cancer and other diseases.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm

Early Humans Shaped Stone Tools with Fire

Human forged stone weapons and tools much earlier than once thought.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm

delSECUR CORPORATION Announces Approval of the Majority of Shareholders in Favour of the Agreement to Purchase the Intellectual Property Assets of the Corporation

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:59 pm

Toshiba Unleashing Biggest Memory Card EVER

64GB!!!

Some hyperbolic highlights from the press release:

world's first 64GB1 SDXC Memory Card... capable of operating at the world's fastest data transfer rate3 for reading and writing to a flash memory card... world's first memory cards compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard Version 3.00, UHS104, which brings a new level of ultra-fast read and write speeds to NAND flash based memory cards: a maximum write speed of 35MB4 per second, and a read speed of 60MB per second... with these cards, it will be possible to download a 2.4GB video in only 70 seconds.

Available spring 2010.

[via Gadgetwise]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:58 pm

Verizon announces new ZTE AD3700 3G modem

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Broadband Cards, Computers, Laptops, Netbooks, Wireless

Set to be on sale on August 14, Verizon recently introduced a new global modem manufactured by ZTE and dubbed the AD3700.  Designed for those who travel often and far, the AD3700 boasts the ability to provide broadband connections in over 175 countries. 

Verizon predominantly uses the EVDO Rev. A network in the United States, but the AD3700 can support GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and UMTS/HSPA networks in other countries.  In addition, it features VZAccess Manager software in order to help users connect faster and easily to a network.  It also facilitates installation.  Portability is key for this device, as the USB tip easily swivels away so it will not be loose during travel.  Any laptop/netbook running Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows Vista will be able to support the AD3700. 

In terms of pricing and availability, the device will be available in all Verizon stores on August 14 and will sell for $79.99 after a $50 MIR, assuming you inked a two year contract. 

Read [Verizon]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:57 pm

Local Privilege Escalation On All Linux Kernels

QuesarVII writes "Tavis Ormandy and Julien Tinnes have discovered a severe security flaw in all 2.4 and 2.6 kernels since 2001 on all architectures. 'Since it leads to the kernel executing code at NULL, the vulnerability is as trivial as it can get to exploit: an attacker can just put code in the first page that will get executed with kernel privileges.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:54 pm

Microsoft's Zune HD Could Be Too Little, Too Late - CNNMoney.com

Telegraph.co.uk

Microsoft's Zune HD Could Be Too Little, Too Late CNNMoney.com SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Thursday made available a high-definition version of its Zune digital music player, the company's latest attempt to claw market share away from dominant Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPod, in the music device ... 5 Reasons Microsoft Zune HD Will Rival Apple ipodChannelWeb Microsoft revs up Zune HDV3.co.uk Microsoft announces new Zune to take on iPodTimes Online Telegraph.co.uk -msnbc.com -Computerworld all 509 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:53 pm

New Findings Show Increased Ocean Acidification In Alaska waters

 The same things that make Alaska's marine waters among the most productive in the world may also make them the most vulnerable to ocean acidification.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:45 pm

A "Tramp Stamp" I Can Get Behind...

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:45 pm

High pathogen loads found in CCD bees

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:39 pm

T-Rex To Be Auctioned Off In Vegas

Image Caption: Tyrannosaurus specimen AMNH 5027 at the American Museum of Natural History. Courtesy Wikipedia
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:38 pm

Research Finds Higher Pathogen Loads In Collapsed Honeybee Colonies

Honeybees in colonies affected by colony collapse disorder (CCD) have higher levels of pathogens and are co-infected with a greater number of pathogens than their non-CCD counterparts, but no individual pathogen can be singled out as the cause of CCD, according to a study by an international team of researchers.The researchers, who represented Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, University of Liege, Gembloux Agricultural University, North Carolina State University and the U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:30 pm

Shark bean bag chair

This shark bean bag chair, available from an online bargain retailer in Australia, would be a great gift for a friend who fears sharks, you know, so he can work on getting over his phobias at home.

[Product page via Neatorama]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 2:13 pm

$18M Contract For Transparency Website Released — But Blacked Out

zokuga writes "The US government recently approved an $18 million contract for Smartronix to build a website where taxpayers could easily track billions in federal stimulus money, as part of President Obama's promise to make government more transparent through the Internet. However, the contract, which was released only through repeated Freedom of Information Act requests, is itself heavily blacked out. ProPublica reports: 'After weeks of prodding by ProPublica and other organizations, the Government Services Agency released copies of the contract and related documents that are so heavily blacked out they are virtually worthless. In all, 25 pages of a 59-page technical proposal — the main document in the package — were redacted completely. Of the remaining pages, 14 had half or more of their content blacked out.' Sections that were heavily or entirely redacted dealt with subjects such as site navigation, user experience, and everything in the pricing table. The entire contract, in all its blacked-out glory, is here."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2009 | 1:59 pm

Do you hate the iPhone? Probably not as much as this guy.

Lets say you hate the iPhone. Maybe its because the plans are too damned expensive. Maybe it’s because it’s because Apple’s app approval process is twelve kinds of terrible. Maybe it’s because it’s taken over all of your favorite gadget blogs for the past 3 years.

Whatever reason you have for disliking Cupertino’s little flamewar generator, you don’t hate it as much as this guy.

Like others, he decided he was done with the iphone. Unlike others, however, he didn’t just cram it into a sock drawer and forget about it. He crammed it between a couple of logs, then shot it with a 9mm.

Oh, and then he burned it. You know, just in case anyone wanted to try and use it after two bullets had passed through the screen, innards, and back casing.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 1:49 pm

Apple Keynote Rumored for September; iPod Event Is Likely

Apple is planning to hold a September keynote event, multiple music industry sources have told MediaMemo. To launch what? It’s time to start guessing.

The event will be held the week of Sept. 7, MediaMemo’s sources say. Apple declined to comment on the event.

Taking into account Apple’s past events, it’s easy to deduce that this event will likely revolve around upgrades for the iPod family. In previous years, Apple’s September events have each involved iTunes or iPods. We can expect this rumored keynote to carry a similar theme.

Will Apple simply introduce iPod Touch and Nano models including cameras? Or will the company also unveil its epically anticipated touchscreen tablet rumored for a fall release? Given today’s reports on the rumored tablet, we’re optimistic that this event will be epic — especially if Steve Jobs, who recently returned from medical leave, emcees. Stay tuned: We’ll keep you plugged in.

See Also:

• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• Dear Tablet Naysayers: Stop Looking Back When We’re Thinking Ahead …
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010
• Rumored Apple Tablet Will Sell 2 Million Units in 2010, Analyst …
• Rumor: $800 Apple Tablet Coming in October

Photo: 1happysnapper/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 1:23 pm

Planetary Smash-Up Leaves Ring Around Star

A high-speed collision between two fledgling planets leaves a debris ring.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 1:20 pm

Sony gunning for Amazon Kindle by supporting ePub

Section: Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle

Despite its year advantage in the ebook reader market, Sony hasn’t much luck against Amazon’s Kindle.  To counter, Sony first announced it will be dropping the price of the next versions of the Sony Reader, and one will even include wireless so a computer won’t be needed to get new books.  This isn’t enough to take down Amazon, however.  Cheaper doesn’t always equal better sales, just look at the iPod compared to most other media players.

Sony’s next plan is to support to industry-created ePub format, which is becoming the industry standard.  Sony will be switching from selling its proprietary ebook format to the open standard.  That way, not only will those who own Sony Readers benefit from Sony’s ebook store, those with other devices like Plastic Logic’s upcoming eReader, and smartphones with ebook reader software, will be able to as well.  With the Sony Reader supporting ePub, owners will be able to buy ebooks from other stores as well, including Fictionwise, Barnes & Noble, and the free Project Gutenberg.

While Sony being more open with the Reader is a great idea, how well it will be able to unseat the Kindle is questionable.  Amazon offers the store through every Kindle, which can make books almost impulse buys.  Sony requires more thought for a purchase as you must go to a computer, buy, download and transfer the files.  In addition to that, we’ve seen that while those involved in the tech industry care about having open standards, the average consumer doesn’t seem to care as much.  The iPod may not have sold as many if people cared enough about DRM when the iTunes Store was covered in it (still is, for apps and movies, at least).  The Kindle having DRM and proprietary files means nothing compared to its ease-of-use for most people.

Read [NY Times]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 1:18 pm

Making the Case That Virtual Property Is a Bad Idea

pacergh writes "Many legal commentaries on virtual property argue that it should exist. Others argue why it can exist. None seem to explicitly spell out what virtual property will look like or how it will affect online worlds. Lost in the technology love-fest are the problems virtual property might bring. The Virtual Property Problem lays out a model for what virtual property might look like and then applies it to various scenarios. This highlights the problems of carving virtual property out of a game developer's rights in his creation. From the abstract: '"Virtual property" is a solution looking for a problem.' The article explains the 'failure of property rights to benefit the users, developers, and virtual resources of virtual worlds.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2009 | 1:07 pm

Nano Air Vehicle takes flight

The Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) is a small bird-sized aircraft that uses flapping wings to fly and hover. It was developed by UAV-pioneers Aeronvironment with funding from (you guessed it) the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA). Aeronvionment is now working to improve the robot so it can fly in outside winds. From New Scientist:

Aeronvironment's flapper appears to achieve propulsion, stabilisation and control all at once using its paired wings. Details of the technology are confidential, however, under the US ITAR arms control export restrictions...

DARPA has said it wants a 10-gram aircraft with a 7.5-centimetre wingspanMovie Camera that can explore caves and other hiding places, relaying GPS data and images to base. It will need to fly at 10 metres per second and withstand 2.5-metre-per-second gusts of wind.

That goal is a long way off, but DARPA programme manager Todd Hylton says Aeronvironment is on the right track. "Progress to date puts us on the path to such a vehicle," he says.

"Hover no bother for flapping 'nano' aircraft"




Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:59 pm

T-Mobile fires up 3G in St. Louis, MO

Fact: That is actually what 3G radio waves look like. Yep, little tiny 3Gs. Crazy coincidence.

You feel that warmth, St. Louis? That’s the feeling of 3G radio waves swimming around your head. Following launches in El Paso, Bakersfield, Thousand Oaks, Milwaukee, Chattanooga, Jacksonville, and a ton of other cities, T-Mobile has just flipped the switches in St. Louis, MO. They’ve still blanketed but a tiny chunk of the US - but progress is progress, right? See the current 3G map after the jump.

So, go ahead - you’ve waited long enough. Whip out your G1s, your myTouches, and your Touch Pro 2’s, and browse away at a reasonable speed.

Dark purple spots are 3G coverage areas. Shot taken on 8/13/09:

[Via TmoNews]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:51 pm

Dery: "Head Case" in Cabinet Magazine

Mark Dery is guest blogger du jour until August 17. He is the author of Culture Jamming, Flame Wars, Escape Velocity, and The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium. He's at work on The Pathological Sublime, a philosophical investigation into the paradox of horrible beauty and the politics of "just looking."

As its name suggests, the Brooklyn-based quarterly magazine Cabinet is a wunderkammer between two covers, a Baedeker for psychogeographers, a random walk through the postmodern baroque.

Although many of its contributors are card-carrying members of the professoriat, a significant number are artists and some are "independent scholars," a discreet euphemism for defrocked academics; trust-fund autodidacts who've disappeared down the rabbit hole of their obscure obsessions; intellectual omnivores with a magpie's eye and a hummingbird's attention span who Want to Know Everything About Everything (a cardinal sin in an age of intellectual niche marketing).

Slavoj Žižek, the Plastic Man of continental philosophy, has called Cabinet "my kind of magazine; ferociously intelligent, ridiculously funny, absurdly innovative, rapaciously curious. Cabinet's mission is to breathe life back into non-academic intellectual life. Compared to it, every other magazine is a walking zombie." Zizek's emphasis on the importance of non-academic intellectualism is deeply political, a pointed jab at the intellectual foppishness and laughably extravagant self-regard of academe at its worst, typified by academic journals like October, a petting zoo for mandarins. Re/Search magazine's Industrial Culture Handbook, early Amok Press catalogues, Disinformation.com and The Baffler and Hermenaut in their heyday, Juxtapoz magazine (when it isn't taking its studious lowbrowism to sub-Bukowski extremes), not to mention the art criticism of Dave Hickey's Air Guitar and Ralph Rugoff's Circus Americanus, the Ballardian urbanism of Geoff Manaugh's BLDGBLOG, the edgy enthusiasms of New New Journalist Ron Rosenbaum, and virtually anything by Mike Davis, 21st century socialism's unchallenged master of intellectual parkour: all of these examples of bracingly original analysis are a standing rebuke to the timidity and claustrophobic self-referentiality of too much academic cultural criticism. They remind us that the academy doesn't have a monopoly on the Act of Thinking Deeply; that some of the most critically engaged analysis of the world around us is being done by thinkers willing to wade hip-deep into it; and, to belabor the obvious, that intelligent analysis---intelligence, period---isn't an academic prerogative. (Yes, some of the writers mentioned above have been academics, but most of them keep one foot in the popular arena, and tap much of their intellectual voltage from non-academic sources.)

According to founder/editor Sina Najafi, Cabinet is committed to "the politics of curiosity." And that rage to know is evident in every one of its themed issues. (I've always loved the editorial coherence, the intellectual holism, of themed issues. Granta uses this device to brilliant effect. Why haven't more magazines followed suit, I wonder?) Its post-postmodernism notwithstanding, Cabinet exudes a Victorian gentleman-scholar eccentricity, a mauve-glove, pince-nez appetite for the curious and curiouser. Call it Richard Dadd-aism. A bouquet of titles, gathered from the magazine's 34 issues to date: "Speaking Martian"; "The Celestographs of August Strindberg"; "Incorruptible Teeth, or, the French Smile Revolution: Laughter and the Birth of Dentistry"; "The Golden Lasso: Wonder Woman and the Birth of the Lie Detector"; "The Human Telegraph: Francisco Salva's Shocking Invention"; "Captured Lightning: The Fractal Beauty of Lichtenberg Figures"; "A Minor History of Useful Corpses: Not All Bodies Molder in the Grave"; "Ingestion: The Beast Within---The Tale of the Tapeworm"; and, apropos of nothing, the "Condensed Directions for Using the Drake Electrical Vibrator, 1922."

As it happens, I've appeared in a number of issues, including the latest, Issue 34: Testing (Summer 2009). My contribution to the titular theme is "Cortex Envy," a psychobiographical essay on the IQ test in which I refract the social history of the Wechsler and the Stanford-Binet through the prism of my intellectual anxieties, rooted in a suitably neurotic childhood. Trying to make sense of the enduring effects of an IQ test I took in early childhood, I peel back the scientific "objectivity" of intelligence testing in American society, revealing a muck pond of eugenicist social engineering. Then, I guinea-pig myself by confronting the IQ test again, at the age of 49---a revealing, if harrowing, experience. (And no, you can't see my scores. But I do disclose some revealing details.)

A snip from my essay:

For much of their history, intelligence tests have been rotten with the cultural and class biases of their makers, a diagnostic deck stacked against minorities, immigrants, and those at the bottom of the wage pyramid.

[Louis Terman, inventor of the Stanford-Binet test] begrudgingly conceded that environmental factors might play some small part in IQ-test scores. For the most part, though, he was a thoroughgoing hereditarian. "High-grade or border-line deficiency...is very, very common among Spanish-Indian and Mexican families of the Southwest and also among negroes," he notes, in The Measurement of Intelligence (1915). "Their dullness seems to be racial...Children of this group should be segregated into separate classes and be given instruction which is concrete and practical. They cannot master abstractions but they can often be made into efficient workers."

At the very moment that intelligence testing was sanctifying the race-based educational neglect of blacks, Mexicans, and other textbook examples of the "defective germ plasm," legislatures in 33 states were writing the compulsory sterilization of the "unfit" into law, a stroke of the pen that would lead, over time, to the coerced sterilization of 60,000 Americans. The black stork of the eugenics movement was spreading its wings across America, and in much of the era's officially sanctioned bigotry, the IQ test was a silent partner. "While America has had a long history of eugenics advocacy," notes the historian Clarence J. Karier, "some of the key leaders of the testing movement were the strongest advocates for eugenics control. In the twentieth century, the two movements often came together in the same people under the name of 'scientific' testing."

Knowing what a blunt instrument the IQ test is, what a dark and storied history it has, why am I so nervous about taking the WAIS [Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale test]? Why am I so inordinately proud when I knock a few softball pitches---What is the speed of light? Where were the first Olympics held? Who was Catherine the Great? What is the Koran?---out of the park? Why do I experience a near panic attack when I can't name three kinds of blood vessels or (to my undying chagrin) the seven continents?

Read the rest in Cabinet 34: Testing, available---forgive product placement---here.

IMAGE TOP: Prison inmate taking the cube-pattern performance section of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale, 1939. From Paul F. Ballantyne, American Schooling, Administrative Reform, And Individual Ability Testing: Assimilation and Sorting before World War I.

IMAGE MIDDLE: Additive Structure of Human Intelligence, from Peter Sandiford, Foundations Of Educational Psychology (1938). From Paul F. Ballantyne, American Schooling, Administrative Reform, And Individual Ability Testing: Assimilation and Sorting before World War I.

Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:39 pm

My favorite nearby waterfall, once the home of rockets (iPhone video snapshot)

Here's a quick video snapshot I took over the weekend from one of my favorite local hikes here in Southern California: the Solstice Canyon trail above Malibu. The video's nothing special, but as I was shooting it (on my iPhone 3GS, with a twig for a tripod) I thought "this might be an inspiring little ambient morsel for BB readers to zone out to during their work day. So here it is. I mention the device used because I was pretty wowed by the video and audio quality. Here's my Flickr set of more video snapshots from the waterfall (others are higher-quality and less compressed than this).

There are some spots on the trail where you can look out over the Pacific, and if the season's right you may view a migrating gray whale or two. According to an LA Times article published in 1988 when this land became a state park,

[The site] was formerly used as a laboratory to test payloads for space shots for TRW Inc. and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. (...) [T]he aerospace firms picked the site because they needed a "non-magnetic setting," or an area far removed from telephone lines and electrical cables. One of the buildings had a removable roof so that heavy equipment could be lifted from the structure.

Near this 30-foot waterfall, there's an old stone cabin from the late 1800s, one of the oldest residences in the area. Also on this trail: the burnt-out remains of an amazing midcentury ranch mansion designed by African-American architect Paul Revere Williams. I love walking through those ruins. More on that after the jump.

Above, what was once the view from the breakfast nook in the now-destroyed Roberts home. The building was constructed in the 1950s, and burned down decades ago. There are lots of wildfires in this area, even a big one just last year.

Snip from a website about the architect who designed it:

In 1952, Fred and Pearl Roberts bought land in Malibu Canyon and had Paul R. Williams design a rustic but elegant home for them. The house was built of stone and wood, fitting naturally into its canyon environment. This interior photograph illustrates a Williams' architectural feature, bringing the outside in as part of the design. Assemblyman Fred Roberts, a lifelong Republican, was a contemporary and political sparring partner of the progressive Charlotta Bass, owner and editor of the Eagle, an influential African American newspaper in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Roberts died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident before he and Pearl could move into the house Williams designed for them.

(Image: Residence, Roberts Ranch House, Los Angeles, CA Julius Shulman Photographic Archive, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute)


Source: Boing Boing | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:33 pm

New Opera Browser Beta Gets Facelift, Performance Bump

The latest beta release from the browser maker is still not as fast as the competition, but it's packed with features like tricked-out tabs, a setting that speeds up page loads over slow connections and support for bleeding-edge web standards.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:25 pm

Microsoft And Nokia Need Deal To Remain Relevant To Mobile ... - ChannelWeb

guardian.co.uk

Microsoft And Nokia Need Deal To Remain Relevant To Mobile ... ChannelWeb The new alliance between Microsoft and Nokia under which Nokia will integrate Microsoft's Office and other applications into its smartphones is a necessary move for both companies to remain relevant in their business market and compete against rim's ... Five Benefits of the Microsoft-Nokia PartnershipPC World Microsoft, Nokia Take Aim at BlackBerryWall Street Journal Nokia's Linux strategy broadens with upcoming Maemo 5 deviceArs Technica BusinessWeek -Afterdawn.com -TelephonyOnline all 1,017 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:24 pm

For two days only, Metal Gear Solid Touch is $2.99

Didn’t buy Metal Gear Solid Touch the first time ’round? Good, because Konami just dropped the price by $5. Yup, it’s now $2.99 on that there App Store [iTunes link] for two days only. Once August 15 hits, it goes back to its full price. So if you were ever on the fence, you know…

And in the interest of linking to random YouTube videos, check this out if you have the chance. It’s the Eminence Orchestra performing the Metal Gear Solid theme.

Trivia: I used to be able to play that classical guitar part on my very own classical guitar. These are the things you do when you’re 16 and have no real reason to wake up in the morning!

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:15 pm

Yahoo Revives Pay-per-email, With Charitable Twist

holy_calamity writes "Yahoo research have started a private beta of a scheme that resurrects the idea of charging people to send email to cut spam. Centmail users pay $0.01 for each message they send, with the money going to a charity of their choice. The hope is that the feel good effect of donating to charity will reduce the perceived cost of paying for mail and encourage mass adoption, making it possible for mail filters to build in recognition of Centmail stamps."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:12 pm

Apple tablet details leak! Maybe.

Blam got a purported leak from an insider:

"The device, which I've held mock ups of, is going to have a 10 inch screen, and when I saw it looked just like a giant iPhone, with a black back-- although that design could change at any time."

In brief, it'll come in two editions (one for schools) be about $800, can be used as an auxiliary display for Macs, has been in development for about 5 years and prototyped since the end of 2008, and will launch for Christmas.

Happy Christmas.

Source [Gizmodo]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:09 pm

Palm Pre Snoops on Users by Phoning Data Home

Palm Pre users watch out. Palm may know a lot more about you than you would like to share.

Programmer Joey Hess found that Palm Pre’s operating system webOS sends his GPS location back to Palm every day. Hess also found code that sends Palm data on which webOS apps he has used each day, and for how long he used each one.

“I was surprised by this,” Hess, who bought the Pre about a month ago, told Wired.com. “I had location services turned off though I had GPS still on because I wanted it to geotag photos. Still I didn’t expect Palm to collect this level of information.”

In its defense, Palm says the data is used to offer better results to users. For instance, when location-based services are used, the Pre collects information to give users relevant local results in Google Maps, says Palm.

“Palm takes privacy very seriously and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off,” says Palm in a statement. ”Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience.”

Palm’s actions trigger questions about consumer privacy and the extent to which handset makers and developers are gathering and using data about buyers’ behavior. In this case, some of the concerns may be overblown, says Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Golvin cites Sun CEO Scott McNealy, who said in 1999: “You have zero privacy. Get over it.” Says Golvin, “While that is certainly overstated, it is also true. Consumers, in general are concerned about privacy but look at the number of people who are willing to give up every detail of their personal lives for the opportunity to win a big screen TV.”

Palm launched the Palm Pre on June 7 exclusively on the Sprint wireless network. Despite some criticism around its battery life and display, consumers have appreciated the phone’s sleek hardware and the webOS operating system. Palm built webOS from scratch for the Pre.

Hess says he stumbled on to the privacy problem while trying to find a fix for another issue. “I bought the Touchstone (wireless) charger and found that the screen stays on all the time when the phone is on it,” says Hess. “That was keeping me up at night so I started looking around to find a fix .”

Instead Hess, who works as an embedded systems developer, stumbled into the code that showed how the webOS collects data.

As with most phones and computers, the Pre reports back to Palm with data when an application crashes. But where Palm may have erred is in how it discloses to Pre users that it is collecting this information.

“Palm says users have settings in their phone to turn this off,” says Hess. “But, as far as I can see, I haven’t been able to do that.”

Individual apps on the iPhone, for instance, often check in with users asking for permission to use location. The iPhone itself has a setting that allows users to turn location services on or off. For Palm lack of full and clear disclosure may be the problem.

“The question here is the level of granularity when it comes to seeking permission,” says Golvin. ” If the permission on part of the user is overarching, which seems to be the case with the Palm Pre, then it is a rather crude way of doing things.”

Palm, so far, is yet to respond to user concerns. The company is yet to spell out clearly how users can opt out of this data-sharing service. It has also not disclosed if it is sharing the information it collects with Sprint or other third parties.

Meanwhile, Hess is still waiting to hear from Palm. Palm hasn’t gotten in touch with him since he highlighted the problem.

See Also:

• Nothing Unusual in Palm Pre Return Rates, Say Analysts
• Palm Pre Hits Sprint Stores
• Sync Your Palm Pre with iTunes. Again
• Palm Pre App Catalog Makes a Slow Start
• Palm Pre Review
  

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:07 pm

Palm Pre Snoops on Users by Phoning Data Home

A programmer finds that the Palm Pre's operating system webOS sends users' GPS location to Palm every day, along with data on which WebOS apps they use and for how long. The move triggers concerns over data collection on consumer behavior by handset makers.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:07 pm

Talkback Thursday: Would you use tags if we implemented them?

Welcome to our first ever Talkback Thursday, where we reach out to our readers for feedback on what they want to see. We generally feel that community committees lead to chaos (and that alliteration is amazingly awesome), but we like you guys.

MobileCrunch has grown a lot over the past year or so. A lot a lot. I’m not sure if we’re revealing the numbers just yet - but take an already decent number, then increase it a few thousand percent, and you’d get a rough idea. We’ve built up a good sized base of regular readers. We’ve got a few small changes we’re considering implementing for the sake of making the site that much more enjoyable, but figured our readers could help us gauge if it was worth the time.

One thing we’re considering, and the topic of this poll, is tagging each post (including all archived posts) with relevant keywords. It’s a blog standard, but something we’ve never really done - at least, not very consistently.

Not sure what the benefit of tagging is? It’s pretty simple. Lets say we wrote a post about a gang of exploding iPhones mugging a Palm Pre (which happens more often than you might expect.) Below the main body of the post would be a handful of links, one for each major topic in the post: Apple, iPhone, Palm, Pre. Clicking “Apple” would take you to a page with every Apple story we’ve ever written, while clicking “iPhone” would take you to a page with every iPhone-specific story we’d written. For example, here’s the tag page for Talkback Thursday. This is the first Talkback Thursday post, so there’s one post there.

Our backend supports it, and our sister and parent blogs do it; the only reason we don’t, really, is because the team prior to the current one didn’t. It would require 6 or 7 hours of tearing through the archives and assigning tags to the past posts. If even a handful of folks think they’d use it from time to time, we’ll get it done.

Would you use tags if we implemented them?(answers)

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 12:03 pm

Robot alerts you of happy and sad Tweets

This is an adorable robot, created by one Ken Lim, that alerts you of important Twitter messages and encourages you to respond in his own cute cuddly way:

...when it finds a "happy" post, the Guardian Robot raises its head and arm in triumph. It holds the pose until you give it a "high five" by pushing the switch in its raised hand. Once you do that, the robot pass the high five on to your buddy via a reply Tweet.

[Guardian via Make]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 11:56 am

iPhone charging dock made from cedar wood

Do you love your gadgets just as much as you love nature? This dual iPhone-iPod docking station found on Etsy is made of real cedar wood, so it smells lovely and looks like a little log cabin just for your gadgets.

Link

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 11:50 am

Rumor: Dell’s smartphone gets rendered, specs revealed?

We probably won’t be seeing Dell’s smartphone hit our shores anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t piqued our interest. I mean, come on: It’s Dell, who brings a fresh face to this whole crazy (and stagnating) world of cell phones, and it’s Android.

Along with the absurdly blurry render you see up above, BGR got their hands on some new details which purportedly represent the specs in Dell’s handset. More than half of the list could have been assumed be it that this handset actually is running Android, though a few interesting bits are tucked throughout:

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12
Size: 68.6cc
103g grams weight
Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm
Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors
OTA capable
Microsoft Exchange support
Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support
3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor
USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
A-GPS
On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI
MicroSD slot

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Aug 2009 | 11:12 am

Microsoft Surface now onsite at Harrah’s in Atlantic City

Section: Computers, Hardware, Software / Applications, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle

It was just over a year ago that we saw the Microsoft Surface make an appearance at Harrah’s Rio bar in Las Vegas and now it will also be on-site at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City.

The Surface will be on display at the Xhibition Bar and visitors will be able to sit down and get hands-on with any of the seven available units.  Those visiting will be able to use Hip-notic, which is a video application that shows online videos as well as play High Roller (a bowling game), Last call (a music memory game) and See and Be Scene which features photos taken from Harrah’s both in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.  Additionally, the Surface units will also have Virtual AC so visitors will be able to get a virtual tour of Atlantic City.

All things considered the Surface is fun and exciting to play with, that said, the last application that I mentioned (Virtual AC) sounds like it could be better unused.  I am not saying that I would not sit down and play with the Surface for a few minutes if I were in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but getting a virtual tour of a city that you are in just sounds bad, remember technology is cool, but we also need to get out and enjoy the real world.  Given that, Virtual AC would be nice to scout out some potential locations that you may want to visit.

Read [Microsoft Surface Blog]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 11:02 am

BLOG: Bad Tasting Animals Survive

Tasting bad appears to be a useful anti-predator defense strategy for some animals.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 11:00 am

Cave Complex Allegedly Found Under Pyramids

A massive complex of passageways is found beneath the pyramid field at Giza.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 10:54 am

Insider Spills Rumored Apple Tablet Details to Gizmodo

Wired.com’s good friend Brian Lam of Gizmodo tells the most riveting tale about the rumored Apple tablet yet, in which a “deep throat” of sorts spills the juicy details.

In summary:

• The tablet is described as a 10-inch version of the iPod Touch
• The product will come in two editions: One for webcam and the other for education use
• Pricing will be between $700 and $900
• It’s possible the screen will be used as a secondary touch pad for controlling Macs
• The project has been in development for four to six years
• A prototype was built around the end of 2008
• The product will likely launch this holiday season.

Yowza! An education device? That’s what I was pushing for in my opinion piece titled “How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com.” We’re hoping what this source says is true!

Check out Lam’s post for a fun, intriguing read.

See Also:

• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• Dear Tablet Naysayers: Stop Looking Back When We’re Thinking Ahead …
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010
• Rumored Apple Tablet Will Sell 2 Million Units in 2010, Analyst …
• Rumor: $800 Apple Tablet Coming in October

Image: Gizmodo

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 10:28 am

China Finally Getting the iPhone in September

Considering iPhones are made in China, and they’re already being counterfeited there, you would think that an authentic Apple iPhone would have been available in the country long ago. But it appears carrier China Unicom and Apple are just finally sealing the deal to begin selling iPhones in September.

The carrier has paid Apple 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) for 5 million iPhones, according to International Business Times. An 8GB model of the iPhone is estimated to sell for 2,400 yuan ($350), and a 16GB may be sold at 4,800 yuan ($700), said Yu Zaonan, general manager of the customer development department of China Unicom, in an interview with IBT. The report says China’s iPhones would work with the WCDMA-standard for 3G connectivity.

The report does not clarify whether Unicom would be selling the new iPhone 3GS, or if these are the previous 3G models. However, it’s likely the 8GB model is an iPhone 3G, since there is no 8GB iPhone 3GS.

Shortly after IBT published its report, China Unicom attempted to refute it by claiming IBT’s sources never commented on the iPhone. However, IBT said it had voice records of the interviews. Our interpretation: The company accidentally broke the news, which was supposed to be Apple’s job. Whoops!

See Also:

• NYT Investigates Suicide Over Missing iPhone
• China Mobile Still Open to iPhone Deal
• Report: Missing iPhone Prototype Pressured Chinese Worker to …
• China Mobile to Launch iPhone Without 3G, Wi-Fi
• China Mobile and Apple Call Off iPhone Negotiations
• Chinese iPhone Knockoffs Described With Hilarious Engrish
• Factory: 'iPhone Girl' Is For Real, Not Fired

Photo: Stuck in Customs/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 10:13 am

Zune HD pre-orders open

Microsoft's Zune HD comes out on September 15 and will be available in 16GB and 32GB models. [Engadget]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 9:42 am

BLOG: Preventing Man-Made Quakes

The thought of triggering earthquakes in our search for renewable energy is terrifying.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 9:38 am

Rumor: Apple Tablet Will Feature OLED Screen

Another analyst is stepping up to bat with his predictions on the rumored touchscreen tablet from Apple. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research claims hearing the tablet will sport an 8- to 10-inch OLED screen and an ARM Holdings dual-core Core9x chipset. He believes the device will cost $900 and ship first quarter of 2010.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Aug 2009 | 9:26 am

Neanderthals Likely Didn't Like Brussels Sprouts

A gene found in Neanderthal bone would have made Brussels sprouts taste bitter.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 9:18 am

Chocolate Helps Hinder Heart Disease

Eating chocolate can help heart attack survivors cut their risk of heart disease.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 9:15 am

AT&T sued for lack of iPhone MMS

Section: Business News, Apple, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers

When Apple first announced the iPhone 3.0 upgrade and later when it debuted the iPhone 3GS it was happy to tout the new MMS features.  The feature would roll out immediately with 3.0 to most every iPhone carrier.  AT&T was the one exception, though at the time it was said MMS support would come by August.  Well, it’s now August and MMS is still nowhere to be found.  Cue lawsuit.

This particular lawsuit is a class action from Louisiana under the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.  The suit complains that Apple “advertised heavily” the arrival of MMS on the iPhone.  Apple did make a big deal out of MMS support for the 3.0 upgrade, so that is no surprise.  There’s also complaints that AT&T was advertising the new iPhone’s ability to send MMS messages, which it still hasn’t implemented.

What doesn’t make sense is that the suit complains about AT&T not upgrading its towers to handle MMS.  AT&T can certainly handle MMS on every other phone on the network, it just doesn’t support the feature on the iPhone.  Presumably this is to prevent the network from collapsing (similar to why the SlingPlayer for iPhone only works on Wi-Fi).

The surprising part is that it took this long for someone to sue for lack of MMS on the iPhone.  It seems like such a standard service now.  It was always pathetic that the cheapest feature phones could send them when the iPhone couldn’t.  It seems like a bit of a waste to file a class action lawsuit, however.  Chances are Jobs is more annoyed about AT&T not supporting the new features than any of us are.

Read [TG Daily]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 9:14 am

Rumor: Apple Tablet Will Feature OLED Screen

Another analyst is stepping up to bat with his predictions on the rumored touchscreen tablet from Apple. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research claims hearing the tablet will sport an 8- to 10-inch OLED screen and an ARM Holdings dual-core Core9x chipset. He believes the device will cost $900 and ship first quarter of 2010.

That differs a bit from past rumor reports where anonymous sources have told other publications that the rumored tablet would cost between $500 to $700 with subsidy from a carrier and ship as soon as fall of this year. (For our collection of earlier rumor reports, see the links below.) Particularly interesting is the idea of an OLED screen. Is it necessary? It would add to the product’s overall cost, but one could imagine it would help distinguish this rumored device from Apple’s iPod Touch.

Take this rumor with a grain of salt, like any Apple prediction provided by an analyst. (MacRumors’ Arnold Kim wrote an insightful post about analysts and rumor “research” back in 2007; it’s worth checking out.) Chowdhry, like many analysts, has often missed with his guesses. For instance, he predicted that by January 2009, Apple would sell iPhones for $150 at Costco. Stee-rike!

Still, nobody beats Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster when it comes to making ballsy, borderline crazy Apple predictions. Last week, Munster even made an estimate that this unconfirmed device would sell 2 million units, generating $1.2 billion in revenue. Getting a bit of a head start, isn’t he?

Check out the article “Apple to Offer $899 Tablet With OLED Screen?” from Barron’s.

See Also:

• Financial Times Confirms Apple Tablet for September
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Rumored Apple Tablet Will Sell 2 Million Units in 2010, Analyst …
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• Rumor: $800 Apple Tablet Coming in October
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010
• Analyst Claims to Have Seen Apple Tablet

Illustration of an imaginary iPhone tablet: Factoryjoe / Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Aug 2009 | 9:10 am

Mimobot’s making a fancy Hello Kitty USB Flash drive

FROM GAMERTELL - To help celebrate Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary, Mimibot is releasing a USB Flash drive featuring the feline’s image and pre-loaded with digital goodies…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 8:19 am

Microsoft officially confirms Zune HD pricing and availability

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video

It looks like all the rumors we posted on the Zune HD’s pricing were indeed correct.  Unfortunately, the rumored date of September 8, was off and the Best Buy packaging indicating a September 15 release date was also correct.  Today, Microsoft issued a press release containing information on availability and pricing. 

On September 15, the 16GB and 32GB models alike will be available in the Zune official website, Amazon.com (since they posted the price), Best Buy (also heavily involved in rumors), Walmart, and of course Microsoft.  The estimated retail price for the 16GB model will be $219.99, while the estimated retail price for the 32 GB model will be $289.99.  The interesting part of the press release is when the pre-orders will take place.  Starting Thursday, customers have the opportunity to pre-order a Zune online at Zune.com .  Starting August 16, Best Buy will be taking pre-orders and if you go to a store on August 22 or 23 customers will be able to test out the new Zune.

It looks like with this official statement, all the rumors will subside.  The ball is in Apple’s court and it will be interesting to see what they do with it. 

Read [Microsoft Zune]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 7:36 am

Nanoparticles Reveal Ancient Artwork

Silver nanoparticles help scientists uncover the original colors of ancient art.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Aug 2009 | 7:18 am

Microsoft's 'Custom XML' patent suit could put ODF at risk - CNET News

Siliconrepublic.com

Microsoft's 'Custom XML' patent suit could put ODF at risk CNET News The infamous US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has slapped Microsoft with a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the ... MS Word Ban: Microsoft Knew Of RivalInformationWeek Microsoft Word Lawsuit: XML ExplainedPC World Will i4i Go After eWEEK with XML Patent?PC Magazine TopNews United States -eWeek -BetaNews all 832 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:46 am

PAX 2009 schedule announced

FROM GAMERTELL - PAX09 is approaching and the event schedule has been locked down. Click through for look at the event’s highlights and to download the complete schedule…
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Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 6:35 am

Bored with your Sony Reader PRS-505, hack it and run homebrew apps

Section: Gadgets / Other, Miscellaneous

If you ask me, there is certain technology that should just be used in the way it was intended, but that said, I do think it is pretty interesting to see what devices are capable of aside from what the manufacturer specifies.

Anyway, the latest device to receive a little hacking attention is the Sony PRS-505 Reader.  It turns out that the PRS-505 (and possibly the other Sony Readers) run a stripped down version of MontaVista Linux and that makes tinkering possible.

So far, nothing overly exciting has come from this hack, but it was proven that the PRS-505 is capable of running homebrew code.  At this point the hack allows the user to do things like customize their fonts, icons and graphics as well as remap certain keys and play a few basic games.  Hey like I said, nothing overly exciting, but the possibility is there.

Now, assuming you have a PRS-505 and want to play around a little, the good news is that this hack does not appear to be all that difficult.  According to the how-to, which you can find over at The Register, you need to create a special SD card.

Of course, as with any tinkering, if you choose to go this route and render your Reader unusable I, as well as Gadgetell take no responsibility.  Otherwise have fun.

Read [The Register]  Via [Gizmodo]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Aug 2009 | 5:14 am