|
|
|
|
Drivers Support Ban On Text Messaging Behind The WheelDrivers seem to be responding favorably to new legislation signed by NY Governor David Paterson Thursday that bans text messaging, checking e-mail or surfing the web while behind the wheel. NY1 reports...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 5:06 am Coming soon: Dual-screen laptop - Economic Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:43 am Dilbert on cell phones appsDilbert's take on cell phones apps. [via IntoMobile]Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:26 am Understated Jewelry Shoots - Jessica Stam Exudes Sensuality for Eric Guillemain in Vs Magazine (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) As far as jewelry shoots go, Eric Guillemain's gorgeous editorial featuring Jessica Stam for Vs Magazine has to be up there in terms of elegance and understated beauty. The editorial...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:10 am Google Voice Warms Up For iPhone, Cuts Off Calls After 15 Minutes
From one user: “almost every call I make now dropping at 15 minutes and some seconds.” Other users complained of the same issue, and Google confirmed the problem, saying: “Thank you everyone for your reports. We identified the cause of the 15 minute dropped call problem and we expect the issue to be resolved now. If you continue to see this issue, we appreciate your feedback.” I’m using Google Voice for all of my mobile calls and haven’t noticed the issue, but my calls are rarely more than a few minutes. And as a recent iPhone user, I’ve learned to live with dropped calls, so I probably wouldn’t even notice. I’m not sure I ever managed to go fifteen minutes on the iPhone without the call dropping at least once. We continue to expect Apple to accept the Google Voice application for the iPhone sometime soon rather than deal with any further investigations that might uncover some…irregularities…with their recent communications with the FCC. Dropped calls after 15 minutes will hardly be an issue with those new iPhone users. Heck, they’ll just blame AT&T anyway. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:07 am Google Voice Warms Up For iPhone, Cuts Off Calls After 15 MinutesGoogle Voice users have been complaining the last couple of days that calls using the service are unceremoniously terminated after 15 minutes. The service is still in beta, but as we've written before,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:07 am Developers Call BS On $2.4B iPhone App Store NumberEstimates that the iPhone App Store is worth $2.4 billion a year are utterly ridiculous, iPhone developers say. The Yankee Group also says the numbers are way high, and AdMob defends its estimates, kinda,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:00 am Nokia Makes LGPL Version of PyQtEtaCarinae writes "Nokia didn't succeed in convincing Riverbank to change its licensing terms on PyQt, and so decided to create their own LGPL'ed version of it. From the FAQ at the PySide site: 'Nokia's initial research into Python bindings for Qt involved speaking with Riverbank Computing, the makers of PyQt. We had several discussions with them to see if it was possible to use PyQt to achieve our goals. Unfortunately, a common agreement could not be found , so in the end we decided to proceed with PySide.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 30 Aug 2009 | 2:43 am Coupons You Dont Clip, Sent to Your CellphoneMobile coupons usually text messages with discount codes sent to a cellphone are becoming the blue-light specials for the digital age, reports The New York Times, promoting last-minute clothing sales,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 2:32 am Utah Gets Tough With Texting DriversIn most states, if somebody is texting behind the wheel and causes a crash that injures or kills someone, the penalty can be as light as a fine. Utah is much tougher. The New York Times reports. After...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 2:29 am Clickatell Shortcode SMS MessagingIf you are considering a marketing campaign using text messaging, think no further than Clickatell's short code messaging solution. It's one of the options offered by the world's leading SMS messaging...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:28 am The Lost Formula For Start-up Success. No, Really
You know the story. A group of friends come up with an amazing product idea, lock themselves away, code like demons, eat pizza, drink coffee and several months later come out with a prototype. The prototype is good enough to convince some investors, they raise money, build the full product, launch it, users love it, product gets traction, acquirers circle and then founders exit to a large pay-off. They then give media interviews which gets summarised into something that sounds like the above story. What is wrong with this picture? Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:28 am The Lost Formula For Start-up Success. No, ReallyThis is a guest post by Nigel Eccles, co-founder and CEO of Hubdub Ltd, the company behind Hubdub, the news prediction game, and Fanduel, the daily draft fantasy sports game. Over his last three start-ups...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:28 am More Than Half of All 12-Year-Olds Have Cell PhonesFor the first time, more than half of the 12-year-olds in the United States have a cell phone of their very own. Xchangemag reports. Back in 2004, just 18 percent of the 12-year-olds had their own cell...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:22 am India loses radio contact with moon o... - CNN
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:07 am IM+ 3.4 to support Speech Recognition for Twitter and IM (for a price)
Unlike some people around these parts, I loves me some Twitter (psst, follow me.) Thing is, just about every time I get a chance to tweet, I can't. Maybe my hands are covered in grease as I'm stuffing my face with a delicious burger; maybe I just don't want to come home from a long day of blogging and have to squeeze my thoughts into 140 characters with my iPhone's made-for-babies keyboard.
Voice recognition Twitter apps are intriguing, but none of the major Twitter clients have it yet (as far as I know), and I'm just not hardcore enough to drop money on any apps that might offer voice-tweeting as its sole functionality. Fortunately, an already worthwhile app has come along and solved all my problems via upgrade.
Source: CrunchGear | 30 Aug 2009 | 12:48 am IM+ 3.4 to support Speech Recognition for Twitter and IM (for a price)Unlike some people around these parts, I loves me some Twitter (psst, follow me.) Thing is, just about every time I get a chance to tweet, I can’t. Maybe my hands are covered in grease as I’m stuffing my face with a delicious burger; maybe I just don’t want to come home from a long day of blogging and have to squeeze my thoughts into 140 characters with my iPhone’s made-for-babies keyboard. Voice recognition Twitter apps are intriguing, but none of the major Twitter clients have it yet (as far as I know), and I’m just not hardcore enough to drop money on any apps that might offer voice-tweeting as its sole functionality. Fortunately, an already worthwhile app has come along and solved all my problems via upgrade. IM+, a pretty dang decent instant messaging app (which supportsAIM, Yahoo, Twitter, Skype Chat, Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo, and more), has just submitted a build which packs Voice Recognition for Twitter and IM as one of its major features. It’s not quite up yet, but Taimur over at RedmondPie managed to scrounge up a pre-release copy. While we’ll have to wait to see if we’ll give the Voice Recognition the Crunchtastic Seal of Approval (which I actually just made up right now), it doesn’t seem to stumble over Taimur’s mild accent. It seems to rely on a server to do the crunching, which introduces two caveats: it’s a bit slow, and it’s not free. That said, it’s only .99c a month - and if that means I can tweet without slathering my iPhone in burger grease, it might be worth it. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 12:41 am Boehringer stroke drug proves a winner in trial* Pradaxa shows 34 pct relative risk reduction vs warfarinSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am Astra drug beats Plavix without major bleed risk* Brilinta shows 16 pct relative risk reduction vs PlavixSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Aug 2009 | 12:00 am The Story of a Simple and Dangerous OS X Kernel BugRazvanM writes "At the beginning of this month the Mac OS X 10.5.8 closed a kernel vulnerability that lasted more than 4 years, covering all the 10.4 and (almost all) 10.5 Mac OS X releases. This article presents some twitter-size programs that trigger the bug. The mechanics are so simple that can be easily explained to anybody possessing some minimal knowledge about how operating systems works. Beside being a good educational example this is also a scary proof that very mature code can still be vulnerable in rather unsophisticated ways."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 11:20 pm Shuttle steers closer to space statio... - The Associated Press
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:41 pm Tiny pinfire gunsThese tiny Austrian 2mm pinfire guns look to be exquisitely engineered. From the video description: Originally made by Austrian watchmakers as decorative pocket watch chain fobs or as cufflinks, these miniature pinfire pistols are now prized collector's items. These are some from my own collection dating from 1904 to the 1970's. All of them fire 2mm blank pinfire cartridges. The revolvers are the world's smallest working double action blank firing pistols. They measure just 38mm in length and are smaller than the famous Swiss Mini Gun which measures 55mm.(via MAKE)
Previously:
 Source: Boing Boing | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:26 pm AT&T U-verse Arrives in LouisvilleLouisville Customers Benefit from New TV Choice, Compelling Features and More Competition LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Louisville residents now have a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:01 pm Lightning fast robot handResearchers from the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory at the University of Tokyo presented this incredible video of a high-speed robotic hand at the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. The laboratory's Web site has many more videos related to this project, called Sensor Fusion. Sensor Fusion: High Speed Robots Source: Boing Boing | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:00 pm Br.st Throws Its Hat Into The URL Shortener Ring
Big surprise. There’s another URL shortening service that wants to throw its hat in the ring and into a field that’s pretty much saturated. Do we really need another URL shortener? Brinkster, the web-hosting startup behind Br.st seems to think so. Similar to many of its competitors, Br.st offers statistics (in your own time zone) about your links, including number of clicks, referrers, and origin (by country or region) of all of the clicks. Bit.ly, which is one of the current leaders in the URL shortening space, offers all of these analytics as well. Additionally, Br.st filters submitted links through malware filters. Br.st’s service lets you post to over 10 social networks and sites including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Digg, and will soon offer Google analytics. The site also offers bookmarklets to add to your toolbar. And Br.st has opened up its API. Br.st says that it will also offer image and filer sharing (similar to yFrog or TwiPic) and will let you see detailed stats on these links. Though full of useful features, Br.st is entering a space that’s inundated competitors and it’s a dog eat dog world out there in the URL shortening field. It seems that every week, there’s a new URL shortener out on the market. TweetMeme just debuted its own URL shortening service, ReTwet.me. Of course, one URL shortener Tr.im, has dropped out of the race. And recently, Royal Pingdom conducted a study on which URL shortener was the fastest and Ow.ly and Bit.ly came out on top. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 29 Aug 2009 | 9:25 pm Rails Rumble 2009 - Vote For Your Favorite App
The competition has ended and now that many of the contestants are awake again, it’s time for the public to kick the tires on these mini-applications and vote to decide who will take home the championship belt (and no, that’s not a figure of speech in this case. There really is a belt). The 22 finalists include something for everyone, whether you’re a developer working to nail down requirements, a boozehound trying to figure out what cocktails you can make with the leftovers from last night’s party, an old-school arcade nut looking to play multi-player Asteroid, or a hopeless romantic trying to employ Twitter to woo a crush. Even the teams that don’t come away with any material prizes will have gained some very valuable feedback on whether their idea might have any legs in the long run. Fifteen of the entries from the 2008 competition are still active and available to users, including all of the prize-winning applications. So head on over and check out the applications, leave some feedback, and vote for your favorite(s). Voting ends tomorrow, Sunday, at 5 pm PST. You’ll be deciding a grand prize that includes a netbook for each team member and a bottle of 12 year Pappy Van Winkle Whiskey (from GitHub - I knew those guys were classy), not to mention year-long bragging rights. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 29 Aug 2009 | 9:22 pm Chinese Censor-Beating Software Resembles Malware, But Isn'tcoondoggie writes "Software designed to beat Chinese censorship may behave in ways that seem suspect, but it is all part of the application's strategy to fool the Great Firewall of China, according to one programmer of the software. 'There are many built-in tricks that do all kinds of things to confuse the firewall,' says David Tian, a scientist for NASA who works spare-time on UltraSurf, the free software designed to promote unrestricted Internet access for citizens of China persecuted for being members of Falun Gang, the religious group the Chinese government is trying to suppress."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 7:30 pm AJAX Search: Is Google Sweating Bing Or Just Feeling The Need For Speed?
One such user is Mike Stoppelman, a software engineer at Yelp. But Stoppelman’s take on it is interesting, and worth noting because before he worked at Yelp, he was an engineer at Google for four years. As Stoppelman sees it, Google is bringing out AJAX Search to combat Microsoft’s Bing search product, which has garnered quite a bit of attention since its launch a few months ago. Some claim that Bing is faster than Google, but an AJAX Google would undoubtedly be faster than Bing. Of course, as I mentioned, Google has been testing this since well before Bing was born, but the timing of a wider roll-out could well be a result of Bing. Google has denied making changes as a result of competitors in the past, most recently for its new “Caffeine” test, but at some point they have to concede that they do watch what rivals are doing and change plans accordingly — it would be foolish not to. It’s worth noting that Caffeine appears to use AJAX search results as well. There’s also the issue of whether or not this speed increase really matters all that much? After all, both Google and Bing are now serving up results in fractions of a second, and any increase probably isn’t going to be perceived in a meaningful way by end users. But remember, this is Google. A move to shave off fractions of a second definitely seems like something they would focus on, knowing that those fractions add up. Shave enough fractions of a second off of everyone’s searches and you’ll be supplying people with more time to do more searches — which of course means more ads served, and most importantly, more money. So how will you know if you’re getting the AJAX results? Look at the URL. A normal Google Search has something like the following at its end:
An AJAX search result replaces that with something that looks like:
As I mentioned, if you don’t see the AJAX results in your regular Google results, you can see it on the Caffeine test page here.
[photo: Paramount Pictures] Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 29 Aug 2009 | 6:14 pm Weekend Update, 8.29.09–The "Skank" Issue [Digital Daily]
The Open Book Alliance formally launched the manifesto this past week with which it’s challenging Google’s settlement with authors and publishers. The organization now has a Web site and quite an array of allies–which includes, of course, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO) and Amazon (AMZN). And as if Google doesn’t have enough on its plate, turns out that all along, Microsoft has been holding regular “Screw Google” meetings, the bastards. Uh, I thought that’s what people pay good money to learn in Business School. On a happier note, Howard Stern fans everywhere were happy to learn that Sirius XM (SIRI) has debuted a device that can turn an iPhone or iPod Touch into a full-fledged satellite radio. Over in Personal Technology, Walt reviewed Snow Leopard and found it to be an improvement upon its predecessor, but with a lot of the upgrades under the hood, invisible to most users. Not the typical object of desire we’re trained to expect out of Apple. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt answers reader email about choosing a vendor to buy a computer online, and setting parental controls in Firefox. In the Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret explores the trials and tribulations of BlackBerry and iPhone users switching one for the other.
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 6:00 pm Ares Manager Steve Cook Resigns From NASAFleaPlus writes "Steve Cook, project manager for the Ares I-X, Ares I, and Ares V rockets, announced that he will resign from NASA MSFC after 19 years at the agency, leaving for an executive position at Dynetics, Inc. This raises doubts about the future of the Ares program, which has been plagued with development problems and massive cost/schedule overruns since its inception. Steve Cook also oversaw the (since discredited) 2005 ESAS study which scrapped NASA's prior plans to adapt already-existing commercial rockets for human/beyond-LEO exploration in favor of internally developing the Ares rockets."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 5:00 pm Dell Says Re-Imaging HDs a Burden If Word BannedN!NJA writes "In an amicus curiae brief filed on Aug. 24, Dell asked the judge overseeing the Eastern District Court of Texas to reconsider its order blocking sales of Word, part of the original ruling in favor of Canadian software developer i4i. In the worst case, the brief argued, the injunction should be delayed by 120 days. 'The District Court's injunction of Microsoft Word will have an impact far beyond Microsoft,' Dell and HP wrote. 'Microsoft Word is ubiquitous among word processing software and is included on [redacted] computers sold by Dell.' 'If Microsoft is required to ship a revised version of Word in Dell's computers, a change would need to be made to Dell's images,' Dell wrote. 'Making such a change would require extensive time- and resource- consuming testing.' An addendum to the brief notes that it was authored in Microsoft Word, part of Office 2003."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Aug 2009 | 4:31 pm WITN?: Exit ignorance, pursued by a bear. The truth behind Obama’s plan to take over the Internet
My first find was this story about a bear who had got trapped in a Colorado skate park, presumably after breaking in to practice his Ollies, or whatever it is bears do on skateboards. The bear was finally rescued when townsfolk dropped a ladder into the park, allowing him to climb to freedom. To any normal person, a bear trapped in a skate park would be little more than a heartwarming newsbite; a quirky story to distract from another week of war and terrorism and kidnapped children living in back yards in Antioch. But not for the lazy tech columnist looking for inspiration. For the lazy tech columnist looking for inspiration, a bear trapped in a skate park easily becomes a metaphor for the attitudes of certain Silicon Valley types who are trapped in their little Northern California bubble and don’t realise - or care - that there’s a world outside. And the ladder, I suppose, represents the columnist whose job it is to provide escape from the ignorance. Perfect. Another Saturday box ticked. Move on, nothing to see here. But just as I was about to shut down Firefox and start scribbling skateboard jokes in my special columnist’s notepad, another headline caught my eye, this time from CNET. It read: ‘Bill would give president emergency control of Internet‘. Wow, I thought, this Bill guy sounds like a dick. But no, as it turned out, the Bill in question is the Rockefeller-Snowe bill (S.773), notable both for being the first piece of US legislation to be named after a Fatboy Slim track and for the fact that it gives the President the power to shut down the Internet whenever he feels like it. Unsurprisingly, the 1000+ comments on the article are somewhat hostile, helped by a link from Matt Drudge who thoughtfully added his own scare quotes around the word ‘emergency’. ‘This has nothing to do with “prorecting” [sic] the internet,’ wrote one commenter, ‘and everything to do with the power drunk, dicatorial [sic] Obama engaging in an unprecedendted [sic], unconstitutional power grab, orchestrated by his psychotic lunatic fringe “czars”.’ A bold statement, from that rare person who can spell ‘psychotic’ and ‘czars’ only to stumble over ‘protecting’. ‘Can you say, “Caesar Chavez?”‘, asked another, presumably rhetorically - while a third managed to wrangle two talking points into one meaningless one with: ‘Of course this goes along with the Obamacare nonsense that the government will have direct access to your bank accounts if this Obamacare BS becomes law. Hitler all over again’. Well said, Sir. It’s a scandal that Adolf Hitler’s cybersecurity bill and healthcare proposals don’t get the criticism they deserve. But behind the megaditto rhetoric, some of the commenters do actually have a point. Unlike the previous administration’s PATRIOT act, which promoted freedom of information by wiretapping every man, woman and child in America, the Democrats’ Rockefeller-Snowe bill does sound pretty creepy and invasive. All the President needs to do is declare a state of emergency and he’ll have the right to disconnect US citizens from the web, access their computers and even hack into the servers of private companies. That’s a horrendous power-grab for use in an unspecified emergency. Or at least it would be. If that’s what the bill actually proposed. In fact, in its current form, the worst the bill does is to clarify the President’s existing power to take limited control of communications networks in the case of national emergency or war. Like President Bush was able to order all planes to be grounded on September 11th, the bill would allow President Obama to ground parts of the Internet in similar circumstances. But at this stage even those powers aren’t set in stone - the bill is still in draft form, having already been redrafted after early objections that the wording was too vague. And it’s still too vague, to the point where Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, says: “we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.” Indeed. What we really have here is a classic situation of an ambiguously-drafted bill, not even close to passing but which has the capacity to generate some pretty scary headlines. Last week it was death panels, this week it’s Obama stealing our Internets. Like a bear trapped in a skate park, critics - mainly of the President rather than the bill - are running round and round, without any kind of information ladder to help them out of their pit of paranoia. And so, as ever, it falls to me to provide that missing ladder. Don’t ask me how (*cough* French hacker *cough*), but I’ve managed to get hold of a copy of a secret memo sent to Senators Rockefeller and Snowe by the Whitehouse, outlining exactly what powers Obama wants over the Internet, and why. I think you’ll agree, it makes pretty interesting reading…
So there you have it. The bear of ignorance, rescued by the ladder of facts. My work here is done: let the mature, informed debate begin. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 4:00 pm Apple says it's not to blame for 'exp... - CNET News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Aug 2009 | 3:44 pm Shuttle steers closer to space station for hookupSpace shuttle Discovery's seven astronauts are steering ever closer to the international space station in preparation for their linkup. The shuttle will dock at the station Sunday night.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Aug 2009 | 3:42 pm UPDATE 1-AIG weighing many options for ILFC -sources* AIG, Udvar-Hazy weigh several options for ILFC -sourcesSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Aug 2009 | 3:33 pm American copyright lobby attacks Canadian politicians for supporting balanced copyrightCanadian Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party and former frontman for the awesome punk band L'Etranger Charlie Angus sez,I saw your comments on the Toronto town hall copyright forum [ed: in which the NDP was threatened with expulsion for handing out fliers calling for a moderate new copyright law that balanced public rights with the rights of copyright holders]. The fallout has been very bizarre. A copyright lobbyist with the American federation of Musicians is circulating an online e-mail demanding the NDP apologize for our "disgusting" position on balanced copyright.
Previously:
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Virgin America's FreeFest Express Takes FlightDo-Gooders Enjoy "Free.I.P." Treatment with Gogo(R) In-Flight Internet, a Mile-High Video Gaming Lounge and VeeV Cocktails on Cross Country Flight SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29 ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Aug 2009 | 2:55 pm Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellitestoolpigeon writes "All communication links with the only Indian satellite orbiting the Moon have been lost, India's space agency says. Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was lost abruptly early on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based Space Research Organization (ISRO)."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Aug 2009 | 2:48 pm Dramatic reading of a break-up letter
"And now, a dramatic reading of a real break up letter from a real person." Dramatic reading of a break-up letter (via Sean Bonner)
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 2:10 pm Appletell Review: Facebook 3.0 for iPhone and iPod TouchFROM APPLETELL - After a short wait, Apple has reviewed and accepted the Facebook 3.0 App Store application. This update brings many features that the Facebook website has had for a while. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 Aug 2009 | 1:51 pm Remember the Game Gun? The guy is taking preorders on the final version!
In the meantime you can enjoy some concept sketches and videos of him saying “Wireless game gun!” And of course, this image: [via Reddit]
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Aug 2009 | 1:42 pm Pigeon Protocol Finds a Practical PurposeSelanit writes "Since David Waitzman wrote his tongue-in-cheek Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers, there have been occasional attempts to actually transmit information via pigeon. One group back in 2001 successfully sent a PING command. But now there's a practical use for pigeon-based communications: photographers working for the white-water rafting company Rocky Mountain Adventures send memory sticks full of digital photos via homing pigeon so the photos will be ready when the rafters finish up. The company has details on how the pigeons are trained and equipped. It may not be a full implementation of the Pigeon Protocol, but it works in narrow canyons far off the beaten path — and just as David Waitzman presciently predicted, they occasionally suffer packet loss due to hawks and ospreys."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Aug 2009 | 1:37 pm Rising to the Top: 5 ways indie developers succeed on the App Store It's no secret: there's some Benjamins to be made on the App Store. In fact, the App Store is now a $2.4 billion dollar per year business, according to AdMob's monthly mobile metrics report. Here's another fun fact you probably already know: most app developers fade into the App Store abyss long before they ever find fame and fortune. Even if you ignore the junk apps and the million e-books each published as a separate app, you've still got a solid 5-10,000 apps clamoring to grab a piece of the App Store pie. Many developers feel like the App Store is akin to high school: an anarchic and ruthless popularity contest to see who's got the biggest, well, um, you know what I mean.
That brings us to the $2.4 billion question: how do you succeed on the App Store? We've spent the last few weeks trying to answer that question and have come up with a list of tips and tricks that'll help you edge your way into App Store glory. Now, none of these will replace making a good product or compensate for a million-dollar advertising and PR budget, but they'll likely help you get noticed or keep your current momentum.
TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 1:15 pm Week in Apple: Snow Leopard discoveri... - Ars Technica
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Aug 2009 | 1:08 pm DHS Clarifies Laptop Border Crossing ... - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:49 pm Rising to the Top: 5 ways indie developers succeed on the App Store
That brings us to the $2.4 billion question: how do you succeed on the App Store? We’ve spent the last few weeks trying to answer that question and have come up with a list of tips and tricks that’ll help you edge your way into App Store glory. Now, none of these will replace making a good product or compensate for a million-dollar advertising and PR budget, but they’ll likely help you get noticed or keep your current momentum.
1. In this race, the Hare beats the Tortoise. Develop fast, release often. This message was delivered loud and clear from every developer we talked to: don’t waste a lot of time on one app. Spend 1-2 months max on an app and then let that puppy go. If it sticks and users like it, iterate and release updates to keep users engaged and loyal. Dave Castelnuovo of Bolt Creative (makers of the wildly successful Pocket God) wrote a story in IndustryGamers in which he provides 10 tips to succeed on the iPhone. He writes, “Don’t expect your game to be a hit, and move on if it doesn’t fly… There are lots of really incredible games out there and even though people might give you a lot of positive feedback about yours – well, compliments are free. It’s hard to predict what people will actually buy. Just move onto the next one, keep your momentum, and focus on a new concept.” However, when you do get a hit, make sure to update frequently. The graph below from Bolt Creative’s blog shows you what an effective updates can have. 2. Make sure the price is right. If developing fast and often was the most agreed upon subject, pricing was the least. Honestly, nobody understands the mess that is pricing on the App Store. So instead of pulling a bullcrap decree out of our behind, we’ll just give you all the wisdom we heard. First, from Ian Marsh of NimbleBit: if you’re app is in the top 100, price it at $0.99. You want to get your app in the top 25, so price it low and watch it soar. Second, if it’s not in the top 100, compare yourself to other apps in the same genre: users can’t tell the difference between your app and another’s, so you kind of have to play the race-to-the-bottom. For most of you, that means you should price at $0.99. Third, watch your damn metrics. Whether you use Pinch Media or TapMetrics or some other App Store metrics provider, you should know how prices affect your app’s sales. Do the math regularly and change your price whenever its not working. 3. Show off your feathers. Back to the high school analogy: a nice pair of stilletos and some sexy lip gloss can definitely help you get noticed on the App Store. Imangi Studios, which made the top-rated Harbor Master (iTunes link), described it best at iPhoneDevCamp. They said that Harbor Master’s icon really “popped” on the App Store list, so users would notice it over other icons that were more drab or busy. They spent hours with their artist refining and perfecting the icon for Harbor Master. Ultimately, this makes sense: the icon and the name of the app are the only things a potential customer sees when browsing through the store, so you better make a good impression or you probably won’t get a second chance.
Over the past few months, as Harbor Master has stayed in the Top 25, fellow App Treasures games have seen an uptick in sales as well. The App Treasures landing page gets between 5-10,000 hits per day, and though conversion rates are small, it is still a great way to keep your app on the map. Don’t have enough developer friends to create your own mini-label? Piggy-back on another: Social Gaming Network (SGN - the dudes who made F.A.S.T.) recently announced on their website that you can partner with them to cross-promote your game in theirs. According to SGN CEO Shervin Pishevar, SGN is now on 1 in 3 iPhones + iPod Touches. Basically, even if your game gets promoted on 1/10 of those iDevices, you’ll be in good shape. If none of that works, cross-promote other games you like in your “More Games” section and earn an affiliate fee for each sale. You won’t get a whole lot of cash from it, but it’s nice to have an additional revenue stream. 5. PR isn’t all its cracked out to be. This is more of a time-saver than an App Store-buster, but still important. Every developer we talked to was surprised that getting coverage on blogs or gaming sites was hardly a boon for long-term success. Each saw a short spike in sales (usually, less than 20) after an article went out, and not much after that. Of course, firing off a few solid e-mails to game reviewers is a must-do; coverage from a well-read blog is still better than no coverage at all. However, this may mean that hiring a dedicated PR team or firm for the App Store is probably not worth it. There’s a great graph from Streaming Colour Studios below that shows exactly what effect certain review sites have had. BONUS Half-Tip: 6. Get sponsored by Apple. Yeah, we don’t really know how to achieve this, but it’s obviously the holy grail of App Store success. The developers we interviewed agreed; one said, “Getting featured on the App Store is kind of critical to success on the App Store, but we don’t know anything about it.” Another developer said, “It’s a black hole.” Ultimately, playing nice with Apple can really boost your chances of glory so don’t forget to send them a basket of fresh-baked cookies when your app gets released. Other than that, we’ve got no clue what gets you sponsored. All in all, this is just a snapshot of some ways to succeed on the App Store. There are definitely other great strategies, as well as counter-examples to our points above. Let us know what you think in the comments. Who knows? Maybe you’ll walk away with a nice pair of bluetooth headphones. [Flickr / AMagill] Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Source: MobileCrunch | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:47 pm Snow Leopard: What's gone where (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - When you first take a look around OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), you might think Apple has done away with some of OS X 10.5âs applications and utilities. What, for instance, happened to the Exposé application? It used to be in the Applications folder. Is it really gone?Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:43 pm Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Space Shuttle Main Engines Deliver Extra Supplies to Expand International Space StationCANOGA PARK, Calif., Aug. 29, /PRNewswire/ -- Three Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) successfully powered the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery onSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:36 pm James Murdoch Criticizes BBC For Providing "Free News"Hugh Pickens writes "News Corporation's James Murdoch says that a 'dominant' BBC threatens independent journalism in the UK and that free news on the web provided by the BBC made it 'incredibly difficult' for private news organizations to ask people to pay for their news. 'It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it,' says Murdoch. 'The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision.' In common with the public broadcasting organizations of many other European countries, the BBC is funded by a television license fee charged to all households owning a television capable of receiving broadcasts. Murdoch's News Corporation, one of the world's largest media conglomerates, owns the Times, the Sunday Times and Sun newspapers and pay TV provider BSkyB in the UK and the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News TV in the US." Note that James Murdoch is the son of Rupert Murdoch.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:30 pm Video: Robert Loggia hired to whip PC into shape
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:29 pm The Amazon Kindle is actually more eco-friendly than books?Section: Gadgets / Other, Green, Household, Lifestyle, Web
At first glance, it is hard to imagine a piece of electronics to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than something we have been using for centuries - books. Right off the bat, the Amazon Kindle is not better than books, but under the right conditions, these eBook readers by Amazon are better for the environment than traditional print media. A study conducted by Cleantech Group has been searching for the answers about the Kindle. At production, the Kindle produces 168 kilograms of carbon dioxide, while books simply produce 7.46 kilograms. In addition, it is important to consider that these devices require electricity to run which is why the carbon dioxide production is increased. Now, let’s say the Kindle you brought replaces purchasing three books a month for four years. Doing that would save 1,074 kilograms from being released into the environment. Let’s say you are using the Kindle DX to the “fullest capacity,” then you would be saving 26,098 kilograms of carbon dioxide gas. Just to break even, users would have to replace buying 22.5 books during the gadget’s lifetime. It looks like colleges are beginning to understand the potential with eBook readers as six colleges are already making textbooks available for the Kindle. Something that saves trees and prevents students from lugging around heavy textbooks. One thing remains clear, if the Kindle can help replace the amount of books you buy, it will certainly help the environment in the long run. Another problem Amazon has to consider is recycling the device and its battery components. Fortunately, they have devised a recycling center for the gadget and a way to mail in used batteries. Read [Cnet] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:28 pm The Countdown to TechCrunch50 is on!
TechCrunch50 celebrates entrepreneurship, and we want as many start-ups involved as possible. There is still time to participate in TechCrunch50 with prices that can’t be beat: $2,995 DemoPit Tables include 2 tickets to TechCrunch50 and one day to demo (that’s cheaper than 2 tickets to the conference)
BUY HERE, based on availability. $8,000 Exhibitor Tables include 4 tickets to TechCrunch50 and two days to demo (as cheap as 4 early-bird tickets to the conference)
BUY HERE, based on availability. Hope to see you in just a few short weeks. Reminder, early bird ticket prices expire Monday, 8/31 at midnight pst. Buy now, last call.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:24 pm What Cleantech Should Learn from Nanotech (Before It’s too Late)
It seemed like a great investment thesis for a few reasons: There was actually real patentable science there and because the possibilities seemed so limitless, it was a huge market. A February 2005 BusinessWeek cover pegged it at nearly $300 billion by the end of the decade. (You know, now.) There were some VCs who shied away, some—like Steve Jurvetson—who went whole hog, but most were somewhere in the middle. In other words, they didn’t really know if this tiny thing could be huge, but wanted some horses in the race just in case. In all more than $1 billion was invested in the space, according to that same BusinessWeek cover, and some 1,200 startups created. (The typical venture research firms don’t break out nanotech investments so better numbers are hard to find. I think BusinessWeek’s figures are actually pretty conservative considering fundings of $20 million-$40 million a pop weren’t unheard of.) By some measures, the movement succeeded. According to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Project on Emerging Technologies more than 1,000 nanotech products are available to consumers now, up from only 212 products in 2006. The director of the study David Rejeski told PEHub he expects the number of products to reach 1,600 within the next two years. Awesome. Oh, wait. Not awesome—What about the exits? Where’s all that nano-cash the Valley was supposed to be awash in by now? Pending IPOs of companies like Nanosys, Nanofilm and Konarka never happened. (All three companies are still in business and have raised hundreds of millions in venture capital and private equity between them.) What exits nanotech had were, well, tiny. There was never a huge, iconic nanotech IPO to justify all that hope and keep the believers believing and investing. Looking at the Pew study, the product potential was clearly there. So what happened? One of three things: The markets for those products were too small and the companies couldn’t scale as hoped, the products and science was just too incremental to turn into a big hit, or some huge IPOs are still around the corner. In some ways, that’s not too different than complaints lodged at the Web 2.0 generation. Skeptics say that most of the startups are less companies and merely Y Combinator-style features and apps that at best will get acquired for $20 million or so. The difference with Web 2.0 is these sites and apps are incredibly cheap and quick to build and host. Designing sub-atomic particles that will be manufactured into pants are not. You know what else isn’t? Most of the big opportunities in cleantech. Cleantech investments are down 30% this year in terms of deals and 60% in terms of dollars—with a big shift going away from energy generation towards energy savings. It’s in danger of looking a lot like nanotech several years from now. For the billions that have poured into cleantech—what do we have so far? There’ve been a few public exits. We’ve had a smaller number of jaw-droppingly killer products, mostly in the car space with companies like Tesla, Fisker and Better Place. And….what else exactly? As oil prices have spent much of the last year in more reasonable territory and the whole Inconvenient-Truth-fad has faded, cleantech needs a huge Netscape-like IPO to get everyone excited and ignite real investment in needle-moving science and development, not play-it-safe software programs to manage smart grids more effectively. VC Paul Holland of Foundation Capital says in the Press:Here clip below that there are a few contenders on the horizon right now. [Discussion near the 4 minute mark.] Others have speculated that several cleantech companies were readying themselves to go public before the crash, signaling a potentially active 2010. But most of these are well under the $1 billion market cap level. For an industry that billions have been invested in—that’s like kissing your sister. No doubt the opportunity is huge for cleantech to remake nearly every old-line industry in the world. And I don’t doubt that it will. The question is whether it succeeds where nanotech failed and remakes the golden era of VC returns. [BTW: Steve Jurvetson, if you're reading this and that big IPO is just around the corner, we'd love a guest post rebuttal on why nanotech is still alive.] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:15 pm Twitter Conferences Continue To Grow
A few months ago we wrote about the growing number of Twitter-focused conferences that are taking place around the world. Many were informative, with thought-provoking and compelling insights made by VCs, pundits and entrepreneurs. At Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference in New York in June, Twitter investor and VC Fred Wilson expounded on Twitter as a power-distributor of passed links. Of course, this particular conference was not without glitches, as noted eloquently by TechCrunch’s Paul Carr. It looks like the trend of Twitter conferences is growing, with more events popping up around the country. As we’ve said in the past and will continue to say, there are tremendous opportunities for businesses, brands, non-profits and individuals to use Twitter as a tool for customer support, fund raising, brand management, advertising, job search and much more. Twitter continues to grow at a steady rate and is mulling over different ways to monetize. There was some light shed on possible revenue streams during the whole Twitter document leak fiasco. And Twitter recently made a move to engage businesses by launching “Twitter 101,” a how-to guide for how businesses can best use Twitter. Whether Twitter will successfully monetize its platform is yet to be decided but one thing is for sure: conference coordinators around the country are banking on the buzz. Here are the ones we found taking place over the next few months: TWTRCON DC 09: Taking place in Washington D.C. on Oct. 22, TWTRCON focuses on discussing how to use Twitter as a business platform, paying particular attention to use by non-profits and government agencies. Speakers include Craig Newmark and Scott Harrison, from Charity:Water, which wrote about here.
140 Characters Conference: Organized by Jeff Pulver, this conference had its first stop in New York City in June. 140 Characters will be taking place in Los Angeles on Oct. 27 and like its sister conference, will address Twitter’s disruption of social media and look at microblogging’s effect on businesses, brands and advertising. Panelists include Jason Calacanis, Dave Winer, and Billy Bush. Cool Twitter Conferences: This is a roving conference that makes stops accross the country, aimed at advertising and marketing professionals and entrepreneurs who want to leverage Twitter’s real-time and viral platform. It seems to targeted towards those who are newbies to Twitter and want to learn some of the basics. Future stops include San Francisco and Boston. If there are other Twitter conferences taking place in the near future, let us know in the comments. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Aug 2009 | 12:00 pm DHS Clarifies Laptop Border Crossing Rules: What You Need to Know (PC World)PC World - Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made it clear that border crossing officials could continue to search any device that can store electronic media without any suspicion of wrongdoing.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Aug 2009 | 11:58 am EMC Leaders Mourn Passing of Co-Founder Dick Egan, The 'E' in EMCHOPKINTON, Mass., Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirty years ago this week, Richard J. "Dick" Egan and his friend and college roommate, Roger Marino, filed incorporation papers with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to form EMC Corporation.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Aug 2009 | 11:44 am Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Worries ResearchersNeverVotedBush writes with an update to a story we discussed early this month about an enormous accumulation of garbage and plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean, a thousand miles off the coast of California. The team of scientists has now returned from their expedition to examine the area and say they "found much more debris than they expected." The team will start running tests on the samples they retrieved, and they are preparing to visit another section of ocean they suspect will be full of trash. "The Scripps team hopes the samples they gathered during the trip nail down answers to questions of the trash's environmental impact. Does eating plastic poison plankton? Is the ecosystem in trouble when new sea creatures hitchhike on the side of a water bottle? Plastics have entangled birds and turned up in the bellies of fish, and one paper cited by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates 100,000 marine mammals die trash-related deaths each year. The scientists hope their data gives clues as to the density and extent of marine debris, especially since the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may have company in the Southern Hemisphere, where scientists say the gyre is four times bigger. 'We're afraid at what we're going to find in the South Gyre, but we've got to go there,' said Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Aug 2009 | 11:26 am More comedy from The Pirate Bay Sale: Key partner says there’s no money, CEO has property repossessed
Years from now, when the history of BitTorrent-related Internet piracy is written, there will have to be at least one chapter devoted to The Pirate Bay. It showed up just as the likes of Suprnova and LokiTorrent were being shut down, and quickly became the go-to place for, shall we say, the less savvy BitTorrent user. It also became a symbol of the copyright reform movement, though the site’s cavalier attitude toward any sort of authority ultimately led to its undoing. (The whole “we’re untouchable!” gimmick the site had played up was, we can now say, ill advised.) But if an entire chapter is to be devoted to TPB, then it only makes sense that the sale of TPB being given at least two. It emerged two days ago that Global Gaming Factory X, the company slated to buy TPB for nearly two months, had acquired the financing required to go through with the acquisition. The plan, somehow, was to turn TPB legitimate, completely ignoring the makeup of its user-base. These people use TPB: do you really think you can take this community (if you can even call it a community), take away the one thing it had going for it (“Free stuff!”), and completely turn it on its head? Laughable. Even more laughable when you consider what a key would-be technology partner of TPB 2.0, Peerialism, has said. And that is, essentially, that GGF has no money. No money to buy TPB, and no money to buy Peerialism. It is, in fact, difficult to buy something when you have no money, a concept that’s perhaps lost on people who are used to getting things for free. Oh, there’s more. The CEO of GGF, Hans Pandeya, has had his car and motorcycle repossessed after being unable to pay back a tax debt of $110,000. I can’t stress how bad that makes GGF look, if it’s even possible to make these guys look any worse. Here you have a company that’s trying to buy, and turn legitimate, the best known piracy site on the Internet. According to the company that was set to transform TPB into a prim and proper organization, it has zero money to do so. And now, its CEO is seeing his personal property being hauled off for his inability to pay tax debt. If you can’t afford a motorcycle, you probably shouldn’t be in charge of a company that’s trying to spend millions of dollars to turn TPB into a shining beacon of legitimacy. Good luck to all parties involved, of course, I’m just a little bit skeptical.
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Aug 2009 | 11:25 am Production notes from new Kids in the Hall seriesKids in the Hall superfan Tavie sez,Kids in the Hall (Thanks, Tavie!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 29 Aug 2009 | 11:19 am Facebook's iPhone update paves the wa... - CNET News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Aug 2009 | 11:01 am Hot gaming news for the week of 8-23-2009Section:  No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:42 am ESA Sent Takedown Notices For 45 Million Infringements In Fiscal 2009eldavojohn writes "The Entertainment Software Association has released this year's fiscal report (PDF), putting out their numbers to level the finger at new targets. Following up on last year's published report, this one has a whole bunch of new numbers to ponder. The top five P2P game piracy countries this year are: Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Poland. The ESA's anti-piracy program notes, 'Chief among this year's actions were five separate law enforcement raids against game pirates in California, resulting in the seizure of several thousand games and dozens of modded consoles, and the arrests of five individuals.' But don't worry, they've expanded to other countries. 'The ESA sent takedown notices to ISPs covering more than 45 million instances of infringement of member company games in more than 100 countries worldwide.' They also strive to show they are actually doing things, like endorsing 43 bills aimed at regulating content or controlling access to video games — with not a single one of them making it into law. They did put some into effect at the state level; mostly making it a crime to sell mature games to minors. You can also find their activities localized to you, as this report has sections arranged by state and country. Conspicuously absent this year are any global numbers of what piracy cost the entertainment industry, so unfortunately Ars Technica will have to find someone else to audit, although Venture Beat has a good breakdown."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:24 am Burglars Using Social Networks to Tar... - eWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:01 am CrunchDeals: Garmin nuvi 885T for $310
Data is fed from MSN direct — traffic, flight status, Doppler radar weather, gas prices, movie listings, stock info, news, and more. There’s also a built-in Bluetooth speakerphone and voice compatibility that allows you to request information from the device using spoken commands. The GPS unit itself features a 4.3-inch widescreen display (touchscreen), four-hour battery life, microSD expansion slot, and is 0.7 inches thick. Garmin nuvi 885T 4.3-inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator [Amazon]
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Aug 2009 | 10:00 am How Sony can beat the Kindle, provided it can find its shoes and its glasses after it wakes up
He basically writes:
Whoa, slow down there Zen Master. Sony had been spinning its wheels for half a decade. Its memorysticks, its UMDs, and its ATRAC files have been kept around in a wrong-headed effort to “define” the market the way it had defined hardware during the 1980s and 1990s and it has fallen so far that I doubt it even knows who the iPods rivals are let alone how to avoid their traps. The same goes for the ereader. My thinking is this: the ereaders will sell. They’ve already sold about 400,000 of the first generation. People buy them because they have lots of PDFs they want to read and they live outside of the US. Those are the only reasons why they buy them. All Amazon has to do is start selling the Kindle outside of the US and it’s curtains. Sure there will be second tier readers, but I doubt Sony’s will be one of them. The second tier will be a cheap ebook for students that will soon replace the written word and will probably be based on an open-sourced hardware design. In the end, Farhad means well. Sony had a good run but I wonder if a company with such a tin ear is listening to his advice, let alone understanding why it needs it.
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Aug 2009 | 9:27 am Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 29 Aug 2009 | 9:21 am Slate offers advice to would-be Kindle killers: “Be better and cheaper”Section: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle  For a couple of days I’ve railed on Sony’s eBook reader as more of the same. Seems I am not the only one who can’t see the tactic Sony is taking as one with a chance to succeed. Slate.com’s Farhad Manjoo offers up two step plan to beat the Kindle by doing the “exact opposite” of Sony. Manjoo adds a subheading that says, “Study everything the iPod’s rivals did.” I assume he is referring to Sony and their Walkman brand, but I had to stop and think about it. I wonder if the folks in Cupertino consider Sony a rival for iPod business? I am getting sidetracked. Manjoo’s plan is a simple two steps. Let’s take a look at each: Step 1: Better and CheaperWow, really? Manjoo wrote, “Beat the Kindle on features, not just price.” Seriously? So if I make something better and cheaper, I should get more customers? Genius! Quick, someone fire all the product marketers, kill advertising dollars, just make it better and cheaper and we are done here. What does “better” mean to Manjoo? A touchscreen is in the right direction, as is formatting issues. I’ll come back to these. Step 2: The big pictureManjoo’s second pointer is to not only be concerned with the reader, but also with the pipe to deliver content. Manjoo points to the success of the iPod/iTunes ecosystem that continues to keep customers hooked and draw new ones in. Other players lacked such tight integration and suffered for it. Manjoo suggests opening up what content you can put on your reader. “Kill them with openness” is his drive here and it has some merit. Trading books is an interesting idea Manjoo raises. What Manjoo missesOur editor and I talked about this yesterday while taping the latest InterrupTech (spoiler alert) and both agree that what a Reader device needs is something to grab consumers imagination, something the latest crop sorely misses. There is no aspiration to carry around a book or a stack of books. The device needs a visionary that can capture and create the desire to own products. Changing formatting issues or adding a touchscreen won’t necessarily break through the clutter of daily life and get Joe Consumer to focus on this product as something he needs. But what if the device cost was subsidized by the local paper? Whoa, these cash poor institutions can’t afford that; you’ve seen their readership numbers dwindle, right? What if the subsidization comes with a 2-year commitment plus a percentage of anything purchased on the device (books, magazines, etc). By bundling the device with services, you create not only a content reason to buy but a bunch more folks trying to sell your product. By making the entry costs low, consumers will come. Americans have proven time and time again we’d rather pay nothing up front and get killed on the back end. Take advantage of this, learn from it. You don’t have to do the impossible (make it better and cheaper) to turn the corner. Just be smarter. Read: [Slate] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 Aug 2009 | 9:01 am CerevoCam: New camera automatically uploads pictures to social media sites
I just came back from the CNET Japan Innovation Conference 2009 [JP] in Tokyo, where Cerevo, currently one of the most ambitious tech start-ups in Japan, showed its self-developed digital camera aimed at heavy social media users for the first time.
The company has just seven employees (two of them are part-timers) but big plans: Cerevo intends to dramatically simplify the process of uploading and sharing pictures online by providing both an extra-easy to use camera (the "CerevoCam") and a photo sharing site ("CerevoLife") specifically geared towards owners of that camera. And the company wants to bring its idea in front of a global audience.
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Aug 2009 | 9:01 am Snow Leopard Proves No Threat to Windows 7 (PC World)PC World - After months of headlines about the phenomenon known as Snow Leopard, it has hit the streets and reality has set in. It turns out that the updated Mac OS X is.....well, it's simply an updated Mac OS X.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Aug 2009 | 9:01 am Sun absorbs $147M loss as Oracle deal looms (AP)AP - Sun Microsystems Inc. recorded a $147 million loss while sales eroded 31 percent in the April-June period, likely the server and software maker's last full quarter as an independent company.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Aug 2009 | 8:00 am India loses communication with lunar satellite (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Aug 2009 | 7:46 am Apple Defends Exploding iPhonesComputer software giant Apple claims “external force” is to blame for the breaking of iPhone screens, and that they have no evidence that the problem is caused by overheating batteries.The incidents happened in France, where authorities have now opened an investigation into the safety of the wildly popular smartphone, after several users claimed that their screens had dangerously shattered while being used.There have not been any accidents with the phone causing serious injury, but Apple was forced to defend the safety of its star phone before the European Union this month, contending that the exploding screens were "isolated incidents.""To date, there are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits," the firm said in a statement to AFP."The iPhones with broken glass that we have analyzed to date show that in all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone," added the company.An AFP tally said that there have been 10 users in France to report unexplained shattered iPhone screens.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Aug 2009 | 7:25 am Sen. Rockefeller working on bill that would give president “emergency” control of the Internet
West Virginian Senator Jay Rockefeller is working on a bill that would give President Obama control over the Internet in the event of what he terms a “cybersecurity emergency.” The bill would allow him to declare such an emergency and take control of private-sector networks. It doesn’t however specify what would constitute such an event or why the president would need to control the Internet during one. The bill, co-sponsored by Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, has been revised but ISPs and civil liberties groups are still deeply troubled by it.
The bill also includes provisions for a federally run certification program for cybersecurity professionals and a mandate that certain private-sector networks and computer systems be run only by people who have obtained that certification. It also directs the White House to do “periodic mapping” of networks classified as critical and for the companies running those networks to hand over certain information to the government. While the government certainly must start taking cyber threats and security a lot more seriously, taking control over private networks should be the least of its concerns. Right now they need to exercise a lot more control over their own, which have been hit by DDoS attacks in recent weeks. President Obama himself admitted the government is not nearly as prepared for such events as it should be. He promised to create a new cybersecurity coordinator position within the administration, but months later it still has not been filled. It’s hard to understand why Sen. Rockefeller thinks the government should be able to take over private networks when it can’t even secure its own properly. Read[CNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 Aug 2009 | 7:19 am Scientists Track Mouse Evolution IconGenerations of tiny pale deer mice have evolved a sandy-colored coat, which camouflages themselves from predators, just within a few thousand years. These mice acquired the mutation for pale fur naturally and then rapidly passed it on to the next generation.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Aug 2009 | 7:05 am Game Trends: Expect to Log On (PC World)PC World - All around the world, the focus of games has been moving from video games to arcade games and further towards online games. Currently, the online game market is growing steadily with an increasing number of users due to higher provision rates of broadband, enhanced console network functions, diversification of online game genres and an expansion of casual MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Aug 2009 | 7:02 am Review: Toshiba U505 Is a Butt Ugly Notebook With Performance Chops
You want more, don’t you? Read the rest of the riveting review right here.
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 29 Aug 2009 | 7:00 am Copyright Town Hall security threatened MP, students with ejection for handing out flyersAt last week's Canadian copyright town hall meeting in Toronto -- the one where the speaker-roster was overwhelming stacked with representatives from giant entertainment conglomerates -- security guards prevented the Canadian Federation of Students from distributing literature by the doors that advocated for more liberal copyright rules. They also stopped a Member of Parliament from one of the opposition parties from distributing flyers.The Canadian Federation of Students has issued a press release disclosing a disturbing incident just prior to last night's townhall in Toronto. CFS says that students attempted to distribute a flyer outlining the organization's position on fair copyright outside the townhall. The students involved were approached by private security guards who threatened to remove them from the hotel if they continued to do so. The CFS decided to distribute the flyers specifically because of the limited number of speaking slots and the fear that they would not be called upon to speak (they were not). It is hard to understand how distributing relevant materials outside a public, government-run townhall is viewed as grounds for ejection. As the chair of CFS-Ontario notes, "it is ironic that while students are concerned that new legislation may allow copyright owners to lock up information, the government is locking up its own consultations."Why Did Security Guards Stop CFS From Distributing Flyers at the Copyright Town Hall?
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 29 Aug 2009 | 4:10 am
|
This is a guest post by 
Since February, Google has been 
As of this week, pretty much anyone can tell you–”Skank” blogging just doesn’t pay. Unless your $15 million privacy lawsuit against Google ends up going your way, that is. Rosemary Port–the person who used Blogger to anonymously insult former model Liskula Cohen–was
Feeling a bit under the weather yesterday - presumably my body’s reaction to the fact that San Francisco has suddenly become sunny - I decided to take a jaunt around the Internet for column ideas. My deadline was a whole 24 hours away, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?
It’s no secret: there’s some Benjamins to be made on the App Store. In fact, the App Store is now a $2.4 billion dollar per year business, according to 
4. Partner for success. This was perhaps the most innovative tip we heard. A group of five indie developers noticed something: all of the big shops (such as 
Back before we had Web 2.0 and cleantech to obsess about the Valley was abuzz about nanotech—the idea that sub-atomic particles would suddenly be the building blocks of, well, everything. It would make the paint on our houses last longer, the non-stick on our pans stick less, and our pants impervious to wrinkles. Somewhere, someone was probably promising their board they could use nanotechnology to make Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak a reality.
The Kids in the Hall are shooting 
Amazon’s got a fully-loaded Garmin nuvi GPS unit for $310 after a $53 discount, good today only. The 885T features traffic, weather, Bluetooth, and even “directs you to the preferred lane while driving.”
For a computer that’s supposed to be “thin and light” the Toshiba U505 really isn’t. It’s thick 2.8 inches because of an enormous battery that juts out on the bottom. And it’s heavy, at 5.6 pounds. But does it perform? It does! From Christopher Null: