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Tenderizer Ring and Other Weaponized Jewelry
Ken Goldman makes jewelry. Weird, dangerous jewelry that is functional, but if you used it you would probably cause yourself some irreparable damage. Above right you see his Tenderizer Ring which, if used to hammer a sheet of meat into succulent submission would likely do the same for the knuckle within. It is actually built from a spare tenderizing hammer he had at home. Thankfully he has never made a Ring Tenderizer. The Ring It Up is equally dangerous, putting a scary paper-spike onto your finger. Useful, we guess, when you are explaining to your accountant that that $2000 dinner at Lotus of Siam was a legitimate business expense. Thankfully both home-made, and staying that way. Make your own, or head over to Ken’s Flickr pages to check out his dangerous creations. Product page [Flickr via Core77]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:37 am EU probes Oracle's bid to buy Sun (AP)AP - European Union regulators on Thursday launched an antitrust probe into U.S. software maker Oracle Corp.'s takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc., saying the deal could mean higher prices and limited choice for database software.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:30 am Trimble Expands the Reach of its VRS Now Service to Include the Czech Republic and the State of MississippiVRS Now H-Star Service Also Launched for High-Accuracy Mapping Applications SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trimble (Nasdaq: TRMB) announced today the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:30 am Bookmark 2.0: Page-Marker Updated
Bookmark II is and elegant upgrade for the old-fashioned slip of card or paper of old, or the awful page-corner folding practiced by neanderthals like me. Actually, Bookmark II is the sequel to a tacky, novelty placeholder which incorporated a “cute” rubber hand waving from the top of the book. We shall ignore it. The bookmark is a rubber band that wraps around the wad of read or unread pages to keep your place, and has a handy pointer for those so sieve-brained that they can’t remember the last line they read. We like that it also works to hold the pages open for one-handed use, ideal for sipping a platform Heineken while you read. Keep an eye on the novelty tat-stores and museum bookshops in your town for this to appear, or you could bookmark the product page for an update on the release date… Wait, no you can’t. In a fit of irony, the entire product site is in Flash, and therefore unbookmarkable. Good luck! Product page [Propaganda Online via Oh Gizmo via Moco Loco]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:26 am In which an acoustic rendering of the Super Mario Brother’s theme is made available to you, the readerAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. And now, for your listening pleasure, I present the Super Mario Brothers Theme as recorded by my friend Rick. You are welcome.
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:21 am T-Mobile Has A Pulse: First Pay-As-You-Go Android Smartphone T-Mobile UK this morning announced the Pulse, the first pay-as-you-go Android 1.5 smartphone and the third coming from the network. Available for £180 starting October exclusively on T-Mobile, it boasts a 3.5" HVGA touchscreen display, the biggest yet on an Android handset, a 3.2-megapixel camera and a TeleNav-powered GPS (more specs below).
The new device comes courtesy of Huawei, which had been rumored to be working with T-Mobile since displaying a device at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year.
More details about the device:
The phone runs on a Qualcomm's MSM7200A chipset and weighs 130g. It features a trackball and a 3.5" HVGA touchscreen display with auto-rotation. The T-Mobile Pulse also features a 3.2 mega pixel, auto-focus camera (no flash) that allows photos to be uploaded straight to the Internet, a 2GB internal memory and a micro SD card slot for storing media.TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:18 am EU opens probe into Oracle bid for Sun MicrosystemsBRUSSELS - European Union regulators have launched an antitrust probe into U.S. software maker Oracle Corp.'s takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc., saying the deal could mean higher prices...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:17 am VCs Exit As Music Retailer Buys Half Of 7Digital For $12.6 MillionLaggard UK music retailer HMV is buying a 50 percent stake in the UK-based online music retailer 7Digital for $12.6 Million (7.7 million). The move looks set to give HMV a 'great leap forward' in digital,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:15 am VCs Exit As Music Retailer Buys Half Of 7Digital For $12.6 Million
The purchase creates a neat exit for 7Digital’s VC backers Balderton Capital and Sutton Place Managers. CEO Ben Drury told me that the VCs got a “positive return on investment” - though terms have not been disclosed. In January last year it took £4.25 million in a round led by Sutton Place Managers that included original investor Balderton Capital. HMV Group will now use the five year-old 7Digital as its sole supplier for “all of its existing digital operations” in the UK and Canada. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:15 am EU reveals probe into Oracle's bid (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:05 am CIOs hit the snooze button on Snow Leopard - ZDNet
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:04 am No new AppleTV at music keynote
The Loop has a source who told another source that there wouldn’t be any new AppleTVs at the end, which could mean that there will either not be AppleTVs at the event or there will. In related news, whatever.
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:04 am Product Management, Engineering and UI Design for Yahoo News Moving to Taiwan [BoomTown]
In a risky but interesting move that has some at the company nervous and others excited, Yahoo is in the process of moving key development responsibility for its juggernaut Yahoo News unit to Taiwan. Under the new system, product management, engineering and user interface design for the powerful Yahoo (YHOO) property will become the responsibility of staffers there. Editorial employees for Yahoo News–which is the No. 1 news site on the Web and Yahoo’s flagship content offering–will remain in the U.S., largely located at its Santa Monica, Ca. office. Sources had alerted BoomTown to the change this week and many I spoke to about it were deeply worried about further separating key functions in the creation of Yahoo News. “We are losing more and more of our ability to make quick changes and react to new technologies, which has worked pretty well so far, since we are #1,” said one staffer. “First, we all worked together across a room, then hundreds of miles away and now it is thousands.” Previously, as was first reported here in February, the distributed and regional method of developing content was shifted to a central global product development organization, with product management, engineering and UI design centered at its Sunnyvale, Ca. HQ under CTO Ari Balogh. The argument for the shift posits that centralizing the product development of a Yahoo media offering drives efficiencies, saves money, eliminates redundancies and accelerates growth across the world. Those who do not like the idea think it is wrong to separate the development of a product from the programming because the two are intricately dependent and need to be tweaked delicately. In addition, they argue, it makes Yahoo media offerings, which have been largely successful, less unique and more dull. Well, tough tomatoes, because Yahoo confirmed the transition to BoomTown, which it announced internally several weeks ago. In an interview I did yesterday afternoon with Jeff Kinder, SVP of media products and solutions, who is spearheading the change, he said it was key that Yahoo News streamline how it makes its products, in order to be more innovative and responsive on a global basis. Before the shift to a global system, he pointed out Yahoo had 26 different news products worldwide, using nine content management systems. “This is part of building a global media platform,” said Kinder, who leads development of Yahoo’s anchor media properties, as well as its listings and regional products around the world. Kinder said the staff in Taiwan was selected to take on Yahoo News, because they had been creating top-level news products and were passionate about the arena. Nonetheless, similar functions for other major Yahoo content categories–Sports, Finance and Entertainment–will still remain in the United States. In addition, he noted, with employees in Taiwan taking over these functions at Yahoo News, it would “free up some of the talent” in Silicon Valley to work on other critical content projects. Kinder dismissed worries about any logjams in the ability of U.S.-based Yahoo News staffers to make changes to offering, either for consumers or advertising partners, noting there were weekly calls between the teams and plenty of ways to communicate online. But those worried said the reason for the move was to more made to further cut costs in the content arena, which–like many parts of Yahoo–has undergone layoffs and expense reductions. Countered Kinder: “We are all driving to the same goal…This is not about cost savings, but about accelerating change and leveraging a global team.” Source: All Things Digital | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Are we in for a CPU war? 7 Japanese companies team up against Intel
There is exactly one 800-pound gorilla in the CPU arena, and that’s Intel. But the company, which controls about 80% of the global CPU market, is soon getting some serious competition from Japan. A pool of Japanese companies has decided to team up and produce a made-in-Japan CPU that’s supposed to rival Intel’s products. The CPU will be jointly developed by Fujitsu, Renesas, NEC, Canon, Panasonic, Hitachi and other companies from Japan. It will be used in a range of consumer electronics, servers, robots and cars and it’s “green”. The CPU adopts itself dynamically to the amount of data being processed, resulting in energy savings of up to 30% when compared to the power consumed at normal times. Initially, each company is supposed to contribute a CPU on its own, aiming at a final model that’s supposed to run on solar cells. The new CPU and the corresponding software are supposed to constitute a industry-wide standard that will be positioned against Intel. The Japanese companies expect the new format to be in place by the end of fiscal 2012. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is ready to help with $33-43 million in financial support. Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am DivX Announces Licensing Agreement With Realtek for Next-Generation DivX Plus(TM) HD TechnologyRealtek chip series to support playback of DivX Plus HD Video up to 1080p in the MKV container SAN DIEGO and HSINCHU, Taiwan, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DivX, Inc....Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am ViewCast's New Niagara Streaming Media Appliances Set for European Debut at IBC 2009Low-Priced Niagara 2120 and innovative HD Niagara 7500 streaming media appliances positioned for breakout success in fast-growing European market PLANO, Texas, Sept. 3...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Samsung Introduces its First DivX Certified(R) MP3 Player at IFA 2009Newest Samsung MP3 player allows consumers to view high-quality DivX(R) videos while on the go SAN DIEGO and SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DivX,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am RMI(R) Corporation Signs Licensing Agreement for DivX Plus(TM) HD Certification of Ultra Low-Power Processor FamilyRMI processors enable mobile devices and digital media players to playback H.264 video in the MKV container SAN DIEGO, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq:Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am How Companies Twitter in Germany: August 2009 Trend ReportBlatterwald and Zucker. Investigate Twitter Content From More Than 50 International Companies: About Half of all Tweets are in Dialogue. Though, Report Reveals a Lack of Clarity Over...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 3:58 am REFILE-Cisco, EMC eye technology services tie-up-WSJ(Refiles to attribute headline to the Wall Street Journal)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 3:50 am EU opens in-depth probe into Oracle, Sun dealBRUSSELS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators launched on Thursday an in-depth probe into U.S. software firm Oracle's $7 billion takeover of computer maker Sun Microsystems , citing...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 3:49 am Automation Services -- The Formula for Sustaining Business During Recession, According to Frost & SullivanFrost & Sullivan to Host Analyst Briefing on Automation Services Market during Recession, on Wednesday, 9 September 2009, at 16.00 BST LONDON, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ --...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 3:46 am Samsung N130 and N140 launched
There are rumors that these will be Russia-only, which sounds ridonkulous. It’s also supposed to have 11 hours of battery life, which is ridonkulouser.
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 3:39 am Sony eyes consumer 3D cameras as way to drive new format - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 3 Sep 2009 | 3:33 am Boring Keyboard with Interesting In-Built Trackpad
This keyboard is hideous, a piece of design so startlingly humdrum that, like the perfect spy, it could slip into your office and remain unnoticed for weeks or months. But Adesso’s AKB-440 has one extremely useful feature, especially in an age where almost everyone uses a laptop. It has an integrated touchpad, along with a pair of mouse buttons, situated below the useless section which contains the “insert”, “page down” and “end” keys. The arrow keys have been shifted across under the, uh, shift key, laptop-style, to make room. Now a mouse, with all its fancy buttons, might be more efficient than a trackpad, but once you get used to having one there at your finger and thumb-tips as you write, reaching over to grab the rodent starts to get annoying. I have a lovely old sprung external keyboard which is propped against the wall because I am so used to my MacBook keyboard and oversized trackpad. And even if you love your mouse, there are times when you are surfing one handed (drinking a cup of coffee, I mean) that an integrated trackpad much easier. Hell, just scrolling a long document would benefit. The $60 keyboard has one other great selling point. If anyone in the office does notice it, they’ll never steal it. It’s just too plain ugly. Product page [Adesso via Business Wire]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 3 Sep 2009 | 3:26 am Apple Heist Empties Store in Just 31 Seconds
allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" Apple’s carefully thought out notebook designs, and the clean lines of the iconic Apple Stores, make things very easy for smash and grab thieves. Better. Faster. Easier. That is the slogan for Apple’s new operating system, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It could also refer to the heist that took place yesterday in Marlton, New Jersey. First, the uncluttered, open design of the store, unencumbered by ugly metal shutters, made it easy to smash the plate glass window with just one blow. Next, the thieves signaled to the security guard that they had a gun and took off along the long, clear tables of merchandise, the straight run allowing them to efficiently scoop MacBooks and iPods into their swag bags. The magsafe cords detached instantly, offering no resistance and leaving power sockets undamaged. Finally, the stiff unibody shells means that the villains could grab the notebooks one handed from a corner with no flexing, and no risk to the internal circuitry, the tough aluminum bodies resisting the jostling clanks inside the sacks. And so we see that it is true that Apple really does design for the end-user, with small efficiencies that all add up. Thanks to Apple, the scoundrels managed to load up their booty - 23 Macbook Pros, 14 iPhones and nine iPod Touches - in just 31 seconds. As Steve Jobs might say, “Boom!” Store employees should watch for anyone wanting to buy 23 mains adapters in the next few days. Laptops, iPhones stolen from Apple Store [ABC Local via TUAW]
Source: Gizmodo | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:57 am Sort of live at the Panasonic press conference at IFA
I present to you the Digital Hearth. This hot mess of standards and devices shows us just why CE companies are so clueless. Somewhere, someone is proud of that slide. They got everything, including the CEO’s dog, into there with inches to spare.
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:52 am Netgear Jumps; Barclays Upgrades [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Netgear (NTGR) shares rallied sharply today after Barclays Capital analyst Jeff Kvaal boosted his rating on the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight. He moved up his price target to $22, from $18; the stock closed Tuesday at $16.96. Kvaal lifted his 2009 EPS estimate for the company to 35 cents, from 26 cents. For 2010, he goes to 90 cents, from 78 cents. That’s well above the Street, at 24 cents for the year and 78 cents for next year. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:30 am Crooks clear out an Apple store in 31 seconds
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"
src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=&station=wpvi§ion=&mediaId=6996090&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&site="> Crooks broke into a New Jersey Apple store and took 23 MacBook Pros, 14 iPhones, and nine iPods. By the time the roly-poly security guard saunters back in the crooks have broken the window, taken the haul, and run back out. It clearly looks like these boys have been practicing this run.
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:30 am Not enough Facebook friends? Buy them (Reuters)Reuters - Who says you can't buy friends? An Australian online marketing company is selling friends and fans to Facebook members after offering a similar service to Twitter users.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:27 am HTC Hero coming to Sprint Phandroid just found a mention on the Sprint Android Dev Network for the HTC Hero, everyone's favorite Android phone. Don't get that excited just yet. The phone won't be officially on the network until late October and probably won't be for sale until December.
Announcing the HTC Hero, which will be the first Android device running on the Sprint network. By the end of September, the Sprint developer program will deploy an Android development section that will highlight some resources, value added services applicable to all android developers. FYI, you start developing now by downloading the Android 1.5 SDK Register to attend our upcoming 2009 Open Developer Conference, where Sprint and our ecosystem partners including HTC will be talking Android: - Technical overview sessions on Oct 26 - Android hands on coding labs the evening of Oct 26 Oh, BTW we have some BIG announcements coming by the end of the month that will be of great interest to all android developers…we promise it won’t disappoint.
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:24 am The Bookmark IIBy David Ponce We like it when designers re-invent the wheel elegantly. In this case, someone’s re-invented the bookmark and actually made it more useful. The Bookmark II is a simple rubber band...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:23 am Fancy Bar Graphs of the Week: Zero Surprise–the Youngs Love New Media More Than the Olds [BoomTown]
Every week, BoomTown is calling all those who make cool graphs, charts and stats done prettily about tech to send them to me pronto. I am–truth be told–a secret stats fanatic. A bargraphaholic. Yes, even a closet pie-charter. The last set of data I posted was a comparison of the share and consumer loyalty of the three big search engines–Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO) and, of course, Google (GOOG). This week, in its annual survey of consumer technology attitudes and adoption titled “The State of Consumers and Technology,” Forrester Research found that…wait for it, wait for it…the kids love the Internet! As you can see from the 4-1 chart below (click on the image to make it larger), new media beats traditional media for consumers younger than 40 years old, in terms of hours spent. Still, they also use traditional media too, through both online and television channels, as you can see on the 4-2 chart here, although TV is the most likely way everyone accesses most big media offerings. Well, except the Weather Channel, which leads in “cross-channel media use,” which means it is doing swimmingly in diversifying its distribution. Lastly in the 4-3 chart, as with the first chart, while Web sites like News Corp. (NWS) social networking site MySpace and its rival Facebook show up on the 10 most regularly consumed channels for the youngs, the olds are still mostly chomping on networks, newspapers and cable. In other words, traditional media’s demographic is the group more likely to die first! But, at least they’re loyal!
Source: All Things Digital | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:22 am UN chief: rapid progress needed in climate talks - The Associated Press
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:21 am HTC Hero coming to SprintPhandroid just found a mention on the Sprint Android Dev Network for the HTC Hero, everyone’s favorite Android phone.
This news has been percolating for a while and there is some belief that the CDMA version will be chinless, a blow to those who like chins. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: MobileCrunch | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:21 am Sold Right Away: Zoomdoggle's BuckyballsBy David Ponce I’m impulsive, but heck… not this much. But when I saw the Buckyballs from Zoomdoggle, I made a purchase right away. Like, within 30 seconds. It’s a set of 216 small...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:10 am Stench Seeker Can Measure The Quality Of Your FartsBy Chris Scott Barr When it comes to passing gas, usually the thing people are most likely to argue about is the source. After all, most people don’t want to admit that they were the one who let...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:07 am Logitech Announces Harmony 700 RemoteBy Chris Scott Barr It seems like not all that long ago, universal remotes were very plain gadgets that you’d pick up at you local store when you lost your TV remote. Then you’d get it home...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Logitech announces two new products, Squeezebox Radio and Squeezebox Touch
That little Touch might be handy to keep on your nightstand or whatever — your whole media library in a little package like that, it’d be perfect for late night reading. From the press release: Limitless Choices: Logitech Brings Your Digital Music Together, Unveils Two
Source: CrunchGear | 3 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Logitech debuts Squeezebox Touch, Radio
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 Boston Globe | Firefighters wage 5-day battle to save Mt. Wilson Observatory Los Angeles Times In a mile-high duel, driven firefighters are determined to keep flames from the historic facility. By Paul Pringle and Louis Sahagun It was near midnight Monday, and Larry Peabody looked toward a leading flank of the giant Station fire as it advanced ... LA Fires Spare Cell Phone Towers Fire Threat Eases on Peak Where Hubble, Einstein Studied Stars LA fire likely to pass across Mount Wilson |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 DailyTech | Windows 7: Upgrading Can Be Hard to Do BusinessWeek The easy in-place upgrade is available only if you have Vista and 16 to 20 gigabytes of free disk space. Otherwise the process is highly frustrating By Stephen H. Wildstrom Windows 7 is the best operating system offering from Microsoft (MSFT) in many ... Windows 7 free download "for all"; RTM trials and tribulations Microsoft, Intel Pump Up Windows 7 Microsoft Announced 90-day Trial Version Of Windows 7 Enterprise |
AP - Online bookseller Amazon.com Inc. is warning a federal judge that Internet search leader Google Inc. will be able to gouge consumers and stifle competition if it wins court approval to add millions more titles to its already vast digital library.
A little over a year ago we saw the launch of Anyvite, a Y Combinator funded competitor to Evite that was looking to streamline event planning. Tonight, that startup is launching a spin-off site called Tweetvite — a site dedicated to helping plan and discover Tweetups.
For those that haven’t encountered the term before, a Tweetup is a real-life get together between people who use Twitter. Beyond that, the rules are flexible: Tweetups can be large events or small gatherings, can involve grabbing a few drinks or just socializing for a bit, and can be planned for in advance or spontaneous. Founder Jeff Morin says that while there are plenty of sites that cater to traditional events, like birthday and BBQs, the Tweetup niche is underserved.
Setting up an event with Tweetvite will be familiar to anyone who has used an event site like Anyvite or Evite. To get started, you enter the name of your event, the location, who is hosting it, and other essential information. But the site includes a few attributes that you won’t find anywhere else: it asks you to designate a hashtag for the event, as well as a custom shortened URL. The site also makes it easy to Tweet out your event, or share it with other services like Facebook and MySpace. Another big difference from traditional events sites is the fact that Tweetvite offers a directory of upcoming Tweetups (given the nature in which they’re announced, they’re generally open to the public).
Once you’ve created your event, you can use the site’s control panel to monitor for any tweets containing your hashtag and see how many people have viewed your page and RSVP’d. The site also offers a widget that you can embed on your blog to inform visitors of your upcoming tweetup.
Tweetvite looks great, with a very polished interface and a streamlined event creation process that only takes a minute or two. At this point the biggest question in my mind is how many people actually throw Tweetups — they may be becoming increasingly popular but are nowhere near as common as traditional events are, so it may be tough to build a business around this niche. That said, Twitter is obviously still in its infancy, so the number of Tweetups may grow rapidly over the next few years.
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I don’t know about you, but I never really consider September to still be the Summer. But it is, until September 22, anyway. Why that matters is that AT&T promised iPhone users in the U.S. MMS capabilities by “late Summer.” So, technically AT&T, you have three weeks.
I shouldn’t have to remind everyone how utterly ridiculous it is that about three months now after much of the rest of the world got it, the U.S. still has no MMS capabilities for the iPhone. Reasons seem to vary for why exactly it is taking AT&T so long, but my favorite is the one where they have to manually remove MMS opt-out codes from each iPhone contract. Genius planning right there, if that’s true. And still, why exactly does that take three months?
The lawsuits are already starting to come out of the woodwork over the lack of MMS (and tethering) on AT&T. And if AT&T is not able to hit that September 22 date, expect a hell of a lot more. And, of course, more calls for Apple to break up with AT&T. The company bought itself a little bit of time by actually, for once, not having anything to do with a nightmare situation (the Google Voice fiasco). But at the end of the day, AT&T still badly needs to improve its execution.
While the service has been doing some upgrades to its services in particularly bad cities (San Francisco and New York), I think it’s all too easy to forget that we really shouldn’t be lauding them for that — it’s their job to provide us with service, and we’re paying them very well for that. They can complain all they want about being overwhelmed, but we all have contracts that state we pay them and they provide us with service. As I see it, only one side is living up to those contracts: Us.
While Netflix is dishing out unprompted refunds for little hiccups in their service, many of us have probably accumulated days of basically no service with AT&T. How many of those refund emails have you gotten from AT&T? Because I’ve seen none.
Apple is holding an event in one week to show off its new iPods. The event is said to be music-centric, but if we don’t hear a peep from Apple about MMS, I’m going to be pretty worried about the whole “end of Summer” promise. Actually, I’m already worried, it’s freaking September.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Booing
v. The audio equivalent of tweeting, booing first gained attention as a tool for BBC reporting on the G-20 protests. The brief clips are posted via iPhone to the "sound-sharing" site Audioboo.fm.
Green trade war
n. The global conflict predicted if the US adopts carbon caps and imposes protectionist tariffs on goods from nations with less-stringent environmental regulations.
Decision engine
n. Microsoft's attempt to rebrand the term search engine. Its new service, Bing, delivers fewer results than Google, which Redmond claims is a remedy for "search overload." It follows Wolfram Alpha's "computational knowledge engine," which answers queries from its own limited database rather than the Web.
Psychedelic frogfish
n. A species of carnivorous fish discovered last year off the coast of Indonesia. Its orange, blue, and white swirls are worthy of an acid trip. Even trippier, the fish vanished from sight soon after ichthyologists named it.
—Jonathon Keats (jargon@wired.com)
The news comes only a week after Facebook announced plans to drastically increase the size of its workforce by as much as 50% by the end of the year, during a time when most of Silicon Valley is not hiring and is cutting back on perks. Clearly, the social network is doing everything it can to make the decision to join as easy as possible.
Facebook has spelled out all of its other perks on its homepage, which include a robust benefits package, free food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), free Caltrain passes, and laundry services. The company also used to offer housing vouchers to employees that lived in Palo Alto, but discontinued that program some time ago.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
By Pui-Wing Tam, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Venture-capital firm Khosla Ventures announced Tuesday that it had raised more than $1 billion in two new funds–the first time the firm has raised funds from outside investors instead of just investing the money of its founder, Vinod Khosla, a longtime venture capitalist and a founder of Sun Microsystems (JAVA). Khosla Ventures is putting two thirds of the money towards clean technology investments. But what about tech?
David Weiden, one of Khosla’s partners who concentrates specifically in tech investments, said the firm is allotting more money towards clean tech because that sector boasts “a lot of opportunity where there’s relatively little competition relative to the size of the market.” In the crowded tech field, meanwhile, opportunities can be “somewhat harder to come by,” he said.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
Say what you will about Mark's grody kombucha, but it does not contain floaty dead amphibians: Frog or toad found in Pepsi can, FDA says(Ed. Note: The Boing Boing Video site includes a guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. We'll post roundups here on the motherBoing.)
Source: Boing Boing | 2 Sep 2009 | 6:09 pm
YouTube Said to Consider Pay Movies (New York Times)If a deal is reached, it would be a major change for YouTube, which has largely offered free content supported by advertising. It would also put YouTube, which is owned by Google, in direct competition with services from Netflix, Amazon and Apple, which allow users to buy or rent movies online.
YouTube, which already offers some older free movies on its site, is talking with Lions Gate Entertainment, Sony and Warner Brothers about making newer titles available on the site, the person said. Scott Rowe, a spokesman for Warner Brothers, declined to comment, and representatives for the other two studios were not immediately available.
The most efficient possible display technology would be something that bypasses the eyes altogether and sends information straight to the brain. Sadly, cranial USB ports are still pretty hard to install. The second most efficient possible display technology anyone's devised projects images directly into the eye. The dream of a wearable virtual retinal display, or VRD, has been around for nearly two decades; it's on the horizon, but it's still going to be a while until it gets here.
The idea of VRD was first tossed around at the University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Lab back around 1991. Thomas Furness, who'd been working on helmet-based displays for the Air Force in the '80s, and research engineer Joel Kollin were part of the team that put together the initial (and enormous) prototype. The concept was that tiny, ultra-low-power lasers could paint an image onto the human retina by scanning across it at high speed, essentially treating it as a tiny TV screen. If you could assemble a set of microscopic red, blue and green lasers, stick them where they could project onto your eyes, and hook them up to a computer, you could still see whatever you'd normally see, but with three-dimensional, full-color displays of additional information or imagery overlaid on the visible world—an effect called "augmented reality." Think of Arnold Schwarzenegger's sunglasses in Terminator, and you're on the right track.
Prof. Steven Feiner, of Columbia University's computer science department, notes that the potential advantages of retinal displays are energy-efficiency and unobtrusiveness: "What many of us want is something you're always wearing so that you can experience overlaid stuff, as opposed to having to put something on." There is clearly some money to be made with augmented reality, and a Seattle-area company called Microvision has been working on commercial applications of the HITLab's VRD concepts since the early '90s. (More recently, the Japanese printer company Brother Industries has been developing a similar technology, which it calls "retinal imaging display.") The military has paid Microvision to research VRD eyewear for soldiers and pilots, who need to have a lot of information instantly accessible in addition to what's in front of their eyes.
But there are plenty of day-to-day civilian uses for an unobtrusive, full-color "heads-up" display—one that wouldn't require looking away from its users' physical, nonvirtual surroundings. A mobile phone could have a "screen" as large as its user's visual field. Driving directions could appear in front of your eyes while you're looking at the road, even in bright daylight. Cooking wouldn't require shuttling your attention between the stove and a cookbook. Hearing-impaired people could see voice-recognition transcriptions of what people around them were saying. Surgeons could keep watch on their patients' vital signs and medical reference texts without looking away from an operation.
So where are your Terminator shades? In 1992, Furness and Kollin claimed that it would be at least five years until full-on VRD was a reality, and it's been considerably more than that. One problem is that people's eyes don't stand still—in practice, projecting an image onto a retina is like trying to project a movie onto a moving screen. Another is that, while the wearable part of the system may be small, the gear that needs to be hooked up to it is still gigantic; if it's not portable, it's not very useful.
Still, Dr. Bruce H. Thomas, the director of the Wearable Computer Lab at the University of South Australia, believes that "in the near future we might actually see head-mounted displays become consumer products because of iPods—a legitimate video delivery unit that lots of people carry around with them." In the meantime, primitive VRD has begun to appear in the real world. Microvision released the Nomad Expert Technician System in 2004. (It cost $4,000 a unit and only projected images in red; Honda ordered some for their training centers, but the NETS never caught on, and was discontinued by 2006.) And Brother announced last year that it was hoping to make their retinal imaging display device commercially available sometime in 2010. Maybe by then it'll be small enough for a non-Schwarzenegger-sized person to carry around.
Ars Technica reports: A series of technical breakthroughs has led to myriad new ways to look what used to be peripheral — today there is a new display technology for a every possible use, and a possible use for new every display technology.
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It's a bright sunny day at the Great Wolf Lodge, a water park in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, but the Whooping Hollow Kiddie Slides and Slap Tail Pond Wave Pool are empty. Where is everyone? Sprinting through the hotel hallways waving plastic wands at corny D&D-style dioramas. They're playing MagiQuest, a real-life World of Warcraft for the Chuck E. Cheese set.
Invented by Creative Kingdoms, a company that designs theme-park attractions, the game is built around infrared sensors embedded in the wands. "It's like having a joystick that controls a 20,000-square-foot facility," cofounder Denise Watson says. After paying $14.99 for a wand (plus more to soup it up with fantasy bling) and a $10-per-hour activation fee, players begin a scavenger hunt for Tolkienesque paintings, sculptures, and installations scattered throughout the hotel. Video kiosks of wizards and maidens dispense clues and track your progress by picking up your unique IR signature. Guides in Elizabethan garb roam the grounds dispensing advice. Victories and discoveries trigger up to 150 visual and audio effects, and frantic kids drag weary parents to and fro until they catch them all.
Startup costs for MagiQuest aren't cheap—they range from $500,000 to $4 million. But since its 2005 launch, the franchise has expanded to 15 US cities and two locales in Japan. In August, Creative Kingdoms planned to launch a multiplayer online extension of the game, designed with the creators of Myst. The online version lets players accrue rewards and "powers" that carry over to the physical locations. The company is also trying to expand beyond sword and sorcery; it now has a dinosaur-themed hunt in Los Angeles. Cofounder Rick Briggs imagines a bright, nerdy future in which shopping malls and movie theaters are equipped with branded Star Trek or Hannah Montana quests. "This is a mobile technology platform that can work anywhere," he says. "Well, we can't do underwater yet, but we're working on it."
Arm Yourself.
Buy an IR wand and pay activation fee.
Train Up.
Watch a video of a bearded wizard, who explains the rules in Tolkienese.
Pick a Mission.
Wave your wand at an ersatz tree and a video screen will flicker on and ask you to choose one of five adventures, such as the Dragon Rune Quest.
Go Exploring.
Search for treasures in the "forest" (two floors of the hotel painted to look outdoorsy.) As you wander, you'll find fantastical objects that respond to your wand. Wave it at, say, an image of a mushroom and a voice proclaims, "You found the knot hole fungus!"
Deposit Loot.
Take the objects you've collected to the designated spot. You'll receive praise from a CG pixie or a real maiden in a Renaissance fair costume. Now go back to the fake tree and initiate another quest.
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Adventurer, welcome to the realm of MagiQuest! It's a videogame, a theme park ride, and a renaissance fair all wrapped up in one. Click on the embedded YouTube clip to see a trailer for MagiQuest, which has players wandering through sprawling installations waving smart wands at objects to earn points and powerups. The game can be played at 12 locations around America and two in Japan.
I visited the one at the Great Wolf Lodge, a hotel/indoor water park in the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania, and brought a camera along. Click the thumbnail images to see how a MagiQuest mission unfolds.
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I began by visiting MagiQuest's faux-medieval shop on the second floor of the hotel. Clerks in medieval garb sell plastic wands with embedded RFID tech, as well as assorted wand upgrades and bling, for $15 to $20. Gamers choose a handle, register in the MagiQuest database, then head off to quest through two floors of the resort.
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RYFM! Before beginning, thou must reade ye freakynge manual! MagiQuest noobs file into the vine-covered training room to watch a video of a bearded Gygaxian wizard who lays out the rules of the game. He explains that players are now Magis in search of mystical runes.
To win each rune, they must find five or six magical items — paintings, sculptures, crystals — hidden throughout the "forests" (actually, two hotel floors done up to look sylvan and old-time-y). Whenever the player's wand is waved at an item, his or her ID and score are updated in the game's computer system.
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Believe it or not, this sturdy oak that I'm waving my wand at isn't real. It's a MagiQuest prop, an Ent-like talking tree located near the hotel elevators. I begin a rune quest by waving my wand at it. This cues a video of the quest master, who assigns missions to players. He's prone to saying things like, "Seek out the five crystals with colors so bright: red, yellow, blue, purple, and — most powerful — white."
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About a dozen items line four hallways that've been retrofitted for the game. As you wander Whispery Woods, Enchanted Woods, Piney Path, and Tangled Woods, keep an eye peeled for anything that looks like a Jethro Tull album cover. It's probably part of your quest.
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Waving the wand at certain items triggers a cheesy audiovisual effect — a shining green lantern or a mushroom painting declares, "You found the knot-hole fungus!" The item is added to your inventory in the game's database.
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MagiQuest helpers in medieval garb are ready to lend a hand. (Hey, it beats having to wear a stifling Donald Duck costume all day.)
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Yes, this item is a bust of two wolf heads. The eyes glow red when a wand is waved at them.
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A star item in the ceiling tile sparkles blue after a quick flick of the wand.
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MagiQuest may seem a tad silly to grown-ups, but it casts a powerful spell on the tweens who make up its target demographic. Because the clues are spread out over two floors of the hotel, the young Magis must run up and down stairs dozens of times to complete the tasks. After a day at the water park, fatigue quickly sets in for parents, who can often be found trailing behind their pajama-clad kids, nursing a beer for sustenance.
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After collecting the necessary items, the quest concludes inside this diorama. Waving the wand triggers a video of an animated pixie or live-action maiden who praises your skills, and bestows a virtual rune — now added to your database. "Brave Magi, you have shown me you are worthy in bringing the Healing rune," the maiden says, "may peace find you, and good luck on your journey."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Digg announced a seemingly small, but rather interesting change on its blog today: It has added a “rel=nofollow” tag to every link on the site that it doesn’t trust. What this means is that all the spammers who submit their stories to Digg, are now basically out of luck.
Sure, all spammer who submit something to Digg hope that it hits the frontpage and brings a rush of traffic. But more important to them are the links associated with Digg. If a story is popular on Digg, it will also likely garner quite a few links back to it. But even if it doesn’t become popular, the link coming from Digg itself gives some weight to the spammy URL in a search engine crawler’s eyes.
Digg using nofollow has been a subject of debate since at least 2007, when the service was exploding with popularity. Around that time, Wikipedia decided to use nofollow for all of its outbound links. But what’s interesting here is that Digg isn’t adding nofollow to all of its links, and instead is only doing it for the untrusted ones.
“This work was done in consultation with leading experts from the SEO/SEM and link spam fields, in an effort to lookout for the interests of content providers and the Digg community,” Digg’s John Quinn writes today. This would seem to suggest that company realizes it’s still in the interest of most content providers to get the link juice that comes from Digg. It would also seem to suggest that it doesn’t want firestorm of controversy similar to the one it created with the DiggBar.
This move comes at an interesting time for Digg, as sites like Bit.ly look to be setting up to battle for who has the most interesting link data on the Internet. Twitter itself has been testing out the tracking of links from its site, though it claims to be just doing so for internal product purposes.
How Digg judges which sites they trust, they don’t say. But one would have to assume that these sites are different from the ones that are straight-up blocked from the service for being spammy. Untrusted links in comments, profiles and story pages will also get the nofollow tag as well.
[photo: flickr/brianware3000]
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video
Today, Creative announced a new PMP that is already available for pre-order and is set to be on display at the IFA 2009 event. Available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB models, the Zen X-Fi2 is able to store any sized media library, especially considering memory can be expanded via microSD cards.
In addition, the device boasts a 3-inch TFT LCD touch screen, FLAC support, TV-Out, and superior audio quality using X-Fi technology. X-Fi technology is used in order to boost sound quality, an achievement Creative loves to claim. In fact, the X-Fi2 is set to succeed their old PMP, the Creative Zen X-Fi. There are two X-Fi features within the audio component of the device, X-Fi Crystalizer and X-Fi Expand. Basically, the Crystalizer part aims to “restore lost detail, and enhance the digital audio content to amazing clarity.” X-Fi Expand tries to give the listener a sense of depth because the audio is designed to sound farther away from the ears, while maintaining clarity. While this is all nice and dandy, superior audio quality can be found in good headphones; you probably won’t notice much of a difference with cheap headphones.
More than just audio, Creative wanted to revamp the whole device making the overall music and video experience that much better. A touch screen coupled with a larger display aims to help users view videos and photos with ease. The ability to watch videos and view photos on a larger screen is practically a must these days, and Creative added TV-Out functionality to the device. Owners of the original X-Fi device will notice the X-Fi2 to be an overall slimmer device with a much cleaner feel to it claims Creative.
In terms of supported formats, the Zen X-Fi2 supports MP3, AAC, WMA, Audible 4, and FLAC. In terms of video file supports, the device can play any video in WMV9, MP4, DivX, and XviD. The device is available for pre-order immediately at Amazon, Creative.com, or Frys.com. The suggested retail price is $129.99, $179.99, and $229.99 for the 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB models, respectively.
Via [Creative Press Release]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
This morning I wrote about NetBase Solutions’ healthBase, a semantic search engine that aggregates medical content from millions of authoritative health sites including WebMD, Wikipedia, and PubMed. But is it a semantic engine or an anti-semitic search engine?
Several of our readers tested out the site and found that healthBase’s semantic search engine has some major glitches (see the comments). One of the most unfortunate examples is when you type in a search for “AIDS,” one of the listed causes of the disease is “Jew.” Really.
The ridiculousness continues. When you click on Jew, you can see proper “Treatments” for Jews, “Drugs And Medications” for Jews and “Complications” for Jews. Apparently, “alcohol” and “coarse salt” are treatments to get rid of Jews, as is Dr. Pepper! Who knew? I’ve included the screenshots of the results below if you don’t believe me. Now, I don’t think that healthBase is being intentionally anti-semitic, but for a technology which is supposed to understand the nuances of human language, this is about a big a fail as you can get. It is plainly obvious that its technology needs to be fixed before it is parsed out to other companies and media corporations.
I emailed NetBase to figure out exactly how this could appear and this is the response I received:
This is an unfortunate example of homonymy, i.e. words that have different meanings.
The showcase was not configured to distinguish between the disease “AIDS” and the verb “aids” (as in aiding someone). If you click on the result “Jew” you see a sentence from a Wikipedia page about 7th Century history: “Hispano-Visigothic king Egica accuses the Jews of aiding the Muslims, and sentences all Jews to slavery. ” Although Wikipedia contains a lot of great health information it also contains non-health related information (like this one) that is hard to filter out.
Personally, I think such basic distinctions should have been ironed out before launching the site. This is just the most flagrant example of site giving non-health answers to health-related questions. If you look at the pros of AIDS (yes, it thinks here are pros to having AIDS), it comically lists the “Spanish Civil War.” One of the causes of hemorrhoids is “Bronco” (I don’t even want to know).
HealthBase is touted to be a showcase for NetBase’s semantic technology, which can supposedly understand language. Clearly, it doesn’t understand language well enough. And if the technology is going to be peddled to other companies to be used to power additional search engines, it needs to be improved immediately.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Rejoice, British Web surfers! You’ll soon be able to watch your favorite music videos on YouTube again.
Google has reached a settlement with a British licensing group in a dispute over royalty payments, which means that YouTube’s U.K. outpost will begin showing licensed music videos again. The clips disappeared five months ago when YouTube and PRS for Music, the U.K. body that collects money on behalf of songwriters, couldn’t come to terms.
Google (GOOG) executives wouldn’t disclose how much they’re paying songwriters for the rights to play videos that feature their songs, but said they would be cutting PRS for Music a single check that covers the length of the deal. The new pact will extend through June 2012 and will retroactively stretch back to the beginning of this year.
The deal may provide a blueprint for resolving a similar dispute between the video site and a German rights society. But I’m not sure it will do much for the one Google is still (still!) stuck in with Warner Music Group (WMG).
Meanwhile, this video doesn’t feature a British composer or performer and wasn’t shot in Britain. No connection at all, really. But if you like Lou Reed, louche ’70s fashion and/or awesome ’70s facial hair, you’re gonna like it.
 guardian.co.uk | Netbook Fail: Nokia Booklet Sports a Big-Laptop Price PC World Nokia has announced pricing for its upcoming Booklet 3G netbook. At a hefty list price of $820, the Booklet 3G is sure to cause sticker shock among netbook shoppers. Apparently Nokia did not get the memo that the point of a netbook is to provide a ... Nokia Unveils Windows 7 Netbook Nokia Announces Laptop Details and Rolls Out New Phones Nokia Unveils N97 Mini, Touts N900 Tablet |
Amazing demo of Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad computer design program, which he developed in the early 1960s.
"John, we're going to show you a man actually talking to a computer..." (via Tinsleman)
Source: Boing Boing | 2 Sep 2009 | 4:51 pm
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FROM APPLETELL - Wall Street analyst, Gene Munster, believes the September 9th event from Apple could see an upgrade to the two-year-old Apple TV, alongside a subscription service for the device to integrate into the iTunes Store.
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Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Forgetomori has a good blog post exposing jackasses through the ages who pretend to levitate as a way of bilking deluded suckers.
Levitation Secret Revealed (70 years ago)
Source: Boing Boing | 2 Sep 2009 | 4:22 pm
The Apple/Google Voice fiasco just got more interesting. Toktumi, a startup that lets small businesses build office-caliber phone systems with their mobile phones and computers, just had its application Line2 approved by Apple — nearly three months after it was originally submitted. The powerful service allows business employees to assign two phone numbers to their iPhone: one that they can give to family and friends, and another that can be given to business contacts, with features that allow for call filtering and a professional-grade voicemail system. But it’s also notable for its many similarities to Google Voice, an application that Apple has kept out of the App Store for months now.
The story so far: late last July, Apple abruptly pulled all third party Google Voice applications from the App Store, explaining that they somehow were duplicating the iPhone’s native functionality. Later that day, we broke the news that Google’s official Google Voice client had been barred from the App Store, sparking a media storm and a FCC inquiry into Apple’s rationale for the ban.
Line2, an iPhone client that lets you easily tap into the Toktumi service, got caught in the crossfire. From a technical standpoint the application is quite similar to Google Voice: both services allow you to hand out a ‘virtual number’ to contacts. When they call, the service can either relay the call to your ‘real’ number (the AT&T number assigned to your iPhone), or it can send it to voicemail, depending on the way you’ve set up your call filters. You can also use both services to make cheap long distance calls. In fact, the Line2 app was built by developer Sean Kovacs — the same developer who built GV Mobile, one of the handful of third party Google Voice apps that Apple pulled.
But there are some key differences. For one, Toktumi doesn’t include support for SMS at all; Google Voice does. And Toktumi costs $14.95 a month, while Google Voice is free. Toktumi is also marketing its service to a very different audience: while Google Voice is trying to let you use a single phone number for everything, Toktumi wants to give small business employees who lack a dedicated work line the flexibility to use two phone numbers from the same mobile phone, and includes some features that Google Voice doesn’t. Here’s how we previously described it:
Line2 would allow users to use two different numbers with their iPhones — one which they could hand out for business calls, and the other for personal. This setup would allow employees to keep their personal numbers private, and also allows businesses to set up professional features on the business line, with features like an phone directory (”Press 1 for sales…”) and a single support number that calls the mobile phones of multiple employees.
Even with those differences, Toktumi CEO Peter Sisson says that many consumers do actually use the service as an alternative to Google Voice — if you just hand out your Toktumi number to everyone, you can use the service’s filtering options to manage your calls much as you would with Google’s service (he does note that Toktumi’s filtering is less flexible than Google’s, but it should be sufficient for most people).
Soon after the Google Voice story broke, Sisson grew concerned that his application’s similarities might keep it from being accepted to the App Store, so he attempted to reach out to Apple executive Phil Schiller. Schiller got back to him, saying that he would have an answer soon. Then the FCC launched its inquiry, and Apple went silent. Sisson says he’s been pestering Apple over the last month, and it looks like his persistence worked.
It’s great news to hear that Line2 has been accepted, and it may indicate that Apple is coming closer to accepting Google Voice — given Apple’s approval of Vonage this morning, it the App Store may even have some new policies in place regarding this kind of app (though details on the Vonage app are still sparse). Also worth noting: Line2 clearly “replaces” the phone’s Voicemail and keyboard in the same way Apple complained about in its FCC response about Google Voice (this claim has always been laughable). If Apple still won’t approve Google Voice after this, it will be clear, as if it wasn’t already, that it’s not worried about the user experience — it’s worried about Google.
If you’d like to try Toktumi out for yourself, visit Line2.com, and the first 200 US-based users to sign up using the promo code 743623718 will be able to access 3 months of unlimited US/Canada calling and cheap international calls, as well as Toktumi’s other features like a professional-grade voicemail system. You can download the iPhone app here.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Apple may get all the press, but the venerable BlackBerry is untouchable when it comes to sales. Three of the top five best-selling smartphones in the first quarter of the year were BlackBerries, according to research company The NPD Group.
So why aren’t the devices better? Sure, BlackBerry users rely on their physical keyboards to pound out e-mails, as they always have, and Research In Motion’s longstanding support for push notification and corporate mail servers means you’ll never miss an urgent message from the boss.
But even though BlackBerries have been adding gee-whiz features like multimedia playback and touchscreens, the devices still seem like a mishmash of undercooked ideas. Here are five things RIM needs to fix if it wants to maintain its lead.
Browser: Take a poll among BlackBerry users about what they don’t like in their phone and the poor browser comes up every time. Unlike the iPhone or the Palm Pre, the BlackBerry does not display web pages just the way your PC would. Instead, Blackberry users have to contend with a stripped-down, mobile version of a web page that is decidedly 1990s in its look. BlackBerry users also complain about the slowness of the browser.
RIM isn’t oblivious to the complaints. Last month, the company bought Torch Mobile, which makes the Webkit-based Iris browser. Webkit is the layout engine that is also used by the iPhone, Android and Symbian mobile operating systems.
But there’s no word yet from RIM on when the company’s own devices will start getting Webkit-based browsers.
Touchscreen: BlackBerry Storm. Need we say more? RIM introduced its first touchscreen phone last year but was a lackluster debut, to say the least. Though some die-hard BlackBerry users like it, the Storm’s touchscreen pales in comparison to the iPhone and the Palm Pre. RIM’s decision to introduce haptic feedback by making the whole screen click down whenever you pressed a virtual key just didn’t help: Ironically, it made typing on the Storm slower than on either an iPhone or a BlackBerry with a physical keyboard.
But this is one problem the company seems ready to fix quickly. The Storm 2 is expected later this year and leaked videos online suggest that it will sport a new, improved touchscreen. This time around, RIM will not just have to do better than the first generation of the Storm but also beat the benchmark that the iPhone touchscreen has set in terms of responsiveness and ease of use.
App store: Over the past decade RIM is estimated to have sold more than 65 million phones. The company has about 56 percent share of the U.S smartphone market. It sold 26 million phones in just the 12 months ending February 2009. By comparison, Apple said in June that it has sold 40 million iPhones in the two years since the device debuted. With millions of users more than the iPhone, there’s no reason the BlackBerry app store should lag behind the iPhone’s so much. Apple’s iPhone App Store has about 70,000 applications available while the BlackBerry marketplace has 2,322 apps in it, according to Medialets. Even the Android marketplace, so far available on just three phones in the United States, has 9,148 apps available.
The success of Apple’s App Store has shown that consumers like the idea of easy-to-use, fun applications that take the phone beyond just voice and data. Even if they don’t wind up actually using many of those apps, the mere presence of 70,000 possible ways to upgrade your phone is a powerful incentive to go with an iPhone. But RIM seems to have embraced that idea only half-heartedly. It launched its app store in March but the company has done little to get consumers excited about the apps in it. While Apple has made its catchphrase, “There’s an app for that,” part of pop culture punchlines, RIM is still riding on the glory of push e-mail — which it no longer claims exclusively.
Sure, there’s a difference between the Apple and the Blackberry audience. While the iPhone is almost completely a consumer product, RIM is a favorite of business users. That’s not to say BlackBerries are not popular among celebrities and general users. Nearly 45 percent of RIM’s subscribers last quarter were non-business users.
If RIM wants to grow that user base, it needs to make the BlackBerry more fun to use. The company will have to court developers and put its marketing muscle behind its app store. Catching up to Apple may be tough but at least beating Android should be easy.
Wi-Fi: Research In Motion clearly bills itself as a premium handset maker. Then why would it have smartphones that come without Wi-Fi connectivity? Wi-Fi has become an immensely popular feature among mobile phone users and even telecom carriers recognize that. Earlier this year, AT&T bought Wi-Fi services provider Wayport for $275 million. In so doing, the company added about 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to its network. Overall, AT&T has about 80,000 hotspots worldwide.
Sounds great, except for BlackBerry Storm or users of the recently released BlackBerry Tour. Both the Storm and Tour offer 3G connectivity but don’t have Wi-Fi. RIM reportedly plans to release another model called Essex that will essentially have all the features of the Tour, plus the addition of Wi-Fi. It can’t come soon enough. Meanwhile, why doesn’t the company have Wi-Fi in all its devices?
Desktop software: Even the most loyal of BlackBerry users are quick to fess up to how difficult it can be manage their music and data through the company’s software. The BlackBerry desktop software runs on the PC and is ostensibly designed to make it easier for users to transfer files, music and data. But the software needs a rethink. Online forums are filled with users who can’t get the software to work as promised. The system also significantly lags Apple’s relatively seamless setup process. If RIM’s going to play in the consumer space, it needs to overhaul the software and make it as easy to use with the BlackBerry as iTunes is with the iPhone.
See Also:
Photo: peyri/Flickr
Event ticketing and management site amiando is reporting some impressive growth in revenues. In a company update the private German startup is circulating, it is reporting 200 percent annual revenue growth in the second quarter, and 65 percent growth over the first quarter of 2009. The report doesn’t give absolute numbers, but I’ve learned that it is in the range of a few million Euros a year, split evenly between its two main businesses, amiandoTICKETS (ticket sales) and amiandoEVENTS (event registration and management). The company says it is on track to become profitable by early next year.
On the ticketing side, amiando is selling about 30 million Euros worth of tickets a year, of which it gets a cut of 7.5 percent or less. It offers tickets in 15 currencies and has been used for more than 70,000 events since it launched three years ago. About 45 percent of its revenues still come from its home country of Germany, but more than half come from outside. And since it opened up its ticketing API last December, about a dozen social networks now offer amiando as a ticketing app.
Facebook Connect alone accounts for 5 percent of its event traffic and 2 percent of revenues. And Twitter recommendations are growing fast. Although email recommendations drives more referrals than anything else.
While Amiando is coming up the ranks, it still trails Eventbrite in traffic. Other competitors include Eventbee and TicketLeap.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
More information is coming in about that $14 million third round of financing that personal finance service Mint closed last month. That financing, we’ve heard from two sources close to the company, valued Mint at a whopping $140 million post-money valuation.
That’s not bad for a company that launched just two years ago - Mint won the top prize at TechCrunch50 2007.
In a “normal” round of financing a company would dilute by 25-35%, meaning the expected valuation on a $14 million round would be, roughly, $45 million - $60 million. The $140 million valuation shows two things - Mint is on a roll, and they don’t seem to need much capital.
Mint has grown to 1.4 million registered users, tracking $175 billion in transactions and $47 billion in assets. The site also reports that it has identified $300 million in potential savings offers for its users. It primarily makes its money by generating leads for financial institutions, but it’s also sitting on a goldmine of user data that it hasn’t even begun to tap into yet.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video, Gadgets / Other
The Zune HD is coming and apparently wants to shove all other Zunes out of the way. With the impending release of the Zune HD on September 15th, Microsoft has decided that the HD shouldn’t have to share the same stigma of the rest of the Zune line. The rest of the Zune line is now discontinued to make room for the Zune HD.
The Zune is generally considered to be a failure in its current form, even before this discontinuation. Sales were never all that great and it failed to take any significant percentage of the MP3 player market from Apple and the iPod. The move away from the old form factors seems to be the way the direction Apple is going as well. The iPod classic has all but lost its appeal to the touch and even the nano. The move makes a lot of sense given that fact, however, it also severely limits the option for those who don’t want a fancy touchscreen on their MP3 player.
Touchscreens, while very nice for allowing more screen area for apps, can be annoying for those who use their players mainly for music. With a touchscreen there is no way to easily reach into your pocket and pause music or switch a track. Of course, there’s also the fact that physical buttons mean you’re less likely to get fingerprints on the screen that can become so distracting while watching video. Sure, the Zune HD looks great and is a product that is actually desirable (unlike the original Zune for most people), but it might not be Microsoft’s greatest move to make it the only option. Of course, this also means that once the Zune HD is released, those old Zunes will be dirt cheap.
Read [Wired]
Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 MiamiHerald.com | Amazon: Google Books deal an 'unprecedented' copyright hack CNET News Amazon's opposition was made public last week when it joined the Open Book Alliance, but the company filed its own brief with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York Tuesday arguing against making the proposed ... Amazon Objects to Google Books Settlement Amazon.com makes its case against Google book deal Amazon files Googlebooks pact with the monopolies |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
RIM made an interesting decision in introducing the SurePress screen (which allows them to kinda-sorta-simulate the feeling of pressing an actual button, rather than a touchscreen) on the original BlackBerry Storm. The idea of a touchscreen BlackBerry alone would have been enough to fuel the flamewars - throw in some crazy clicky mechanism, and it’s sure to see some resistance.
While it seems that most complaints about the SurePress screen dwindled off as people either got used to it or jumped to a different device, the controversy was apparently loud enough to reach RIM’s ears. A new video floating around shows that the SurePress functionality can be turned on and off - at least, it can on the current pre-release build. This is where we’d normally embed the video for your perusal; alas, it seems that someone is hunting down all copies of it and getting them taken down by way of copyright complaint. We’re looking for a still-working copy - let us know if you find one.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Imaging, Accessories
At just 0.4” or 9.2mm, the Lubix L’Book is currently the thinnest ebook reader on the market today. The L’Book was announced today at the IFA fair in Germany. Unfortunately, the most remarkable part is the thickness of the device.
The rest of the specs: 6” screen, 600x800 resolution, and 128MB internal memory don’t add up to much. The device can handle ebooks in PDF, TXT, FB2, JPG, BMP and the L’Book can handle MP3s. It also features a SD card slot for expansion.
This product is being shown off by Lubix Europe, a company that sells Korean-made goods such as wireless iPod adapters, an MP3 player, Bluetooth headsets and the like. This looks to be the company’s first ebook reader.
Read: [IFA]
Company Site: [Lubix Europe]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Yesterday, Clearwire announced the expansion of its CLEAR 4G WiMAX Internet Service to 10 new markets, bringing the total number of markets served up to 14 with coverage for over 10 million users.
This is good news for all the WiMAX fanboys and girls out there, and especially for those who reside in the Lone Star state. The newly serviced areas include: Boise, Idaho; Bellingham, Wash.; and eight Texas markets, including Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Killeen/Temple, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Waco and Wichita Falls.
According to Clearwire:
“CLEAR combines two of the most exciting technological advances of our generation ─ mobile communications and the Internet ─ in order to free our customers to take their rich home or office broadband experience with them anywhere around town or on the go,” said Mike Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer for Clearwire. “Our 4G WiMAX network provides a valuable new category of Internet service designed to make people’s lives more enjoyable and more productive by giving them access to the connections, information and resources that matter most, wherever they happen to be.”
As far as pricing is concerned:
CLEAR’s mobile and residential plans can be purchased by the day or by the month, with several no-service-contract options available. Home Internet service plans start at $25 per month; while mobile Internet plans start at $35 per month, or customers can purchase a convenient mobile day pass for $10. For a limited time, customers can also choose the Pick 1 Unlimited plan option; offering an unlimited home or mobile Internet for $22.50 for the first 3 months and $45 per month thereafter. Customers can find full details about pricing options, business plans and purchase the service online at www.clear.com, or by visiting numerous retail locations throughout these markets, or other authorized CLEAR dealers.
Like any new “life-altering” technology, WiMAX’s promise of ubiquitous Internet coverage sounds amazing in theory, but has yet to prove itself in practice. Sure, Clearwire has now expanded to a whopping 14 markets, but until the entire country is blanketed with “the stuff,” the jury is definitely still out on CLEAR’s ability to provide broadband speeds anywhere and at anytime.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FROM APPLETELL - AT&T employee has leaked information that leads to a September release of iPhone OS 3.1. The update is rumored to include MMS activation and Bluetooth file transfers, and could arrive at Apple’s September 9th event.
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple users have less protection from viruses and malicious software than Windows users do. But they’re still safer, security experts agree, because so few malware programs target the Mac.
Apple’s new Snow Leopard operating system, which landed in stores Friday, adds a few security enhancements to protect Mac users from malware. But like previous versions of the Mac OS, Snow Leopard lacks security features that are built in to Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, such as full Address Space Layout Randomization to thwart attacks from malicious code.
That makes Macs more vulnerable to attack, explained Charlie Miller, a security researcher and author of the book The Mac Hacker’s Handbook. But despite its weaknesses, Mac users have no reason to panic — yet. Apple’s PC market share is still roughly only about 10 percent, giving hackers and malicious software coders very little economic incentive to target the Mac.
In short, Mac users are ducking behind a short wall — but as long as the enemy is firing in another direction, they’re not in grave danger.
“If you’re a bad guy and you’re doing this to make money … you don’t want to spend 90 percent of your time on Windows and 10 percent on Mac,” Miller said in a phone interview. “You’re going to want to spend 100 percent of your time on Windows.”
The security debate has long raged between Mac and Windows fans. Apple has actively fostered this feud, marketing its Mac software as superior with security. In a memorable TV ad, actor Justin Long, who personifies the Mac, teases “PC” actor John Hodgman for being more vulnerable to catching viruses.
Mac owners’ smugness may not last forever. As Apple slowly expands its market share, it is gradually becoming a bigger target for attack. Two years ago there were zero pieces of malware targeting the Mac platform, and in the past year, there were a few hundred, according to John Viega, a security researcher and author of the book The Myths of Security.
Those hundreds of pieces of malware are small compared to the 1.8 million total pieces of malware discovered last year, but it would be unfair to compare these numbers directly, Viega said. He noted that because so few Mac users are running anti-virus software, there’s far less need for malicious coders to create hundreds of different variants of the same attack, as they do for Windows.
In Snow Leopard, Apple has added security enhancements including Executive Disable, which prevents memory-corruption attacks, and some virus detection. Apple also added hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention, which defends against buffer-overflow attacks — a major security feature that Windows has had for years, Miller said.
However, the anti-virus function in Snow Leopard only blacklists the most common pieces of malware, so it’s not a complete anti-virus system, Viega said.
Also, Apple has only just started implementing the Address Space Layout Randomization anti-exploitation technique by moving to 64-bit addressing in Snow Leopard, Miller said.
“I think that Apple is pointed in the right direction,” Viega said. “They care about getting security right. It’s just that they are much farther behind the rest of the industry because they got a late start, and they have a little bit of a disconnect in their marketing department, who wants to brag about their great security.”
“Their good track record is more a matter of luck in small market share,” Viega added. “As their market share continues to grow, they’re only going to become a bigger and bigger target.”
When discussing security, another issue to consider is that the landscape of internet threats has evolved over the years to be less platform-centric, said Leander Kahney, owner of the Cult of Mac blog and former news editor of Wired.com. Phishing, for example, is a security threat that involves tricking the user into handing over personal information.
“It’s a different kind of criminal activity,” Kahney said in a phone interview. “There’s going to be exploits where they try to steal people’s passwords, identities or credit card numbers. The kinds of attacks you can get through a website or an e-mail are not platform specific.”
What will make the Mac OS just as secure and safer than Windows? Miller said all Apple has to do is finish adding Address Space Layout Randomization. He expects Apple will soon.
“I’m going to keep saying Snow Leopard is less secure than Windows 7,” Miller said. “Fix that one thing and I would stop saying it.”
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Photo: ShannonKringen/Flickr
Nokia has introduced two new phones loaded with music features and revealed the pricing of its upcoming Booklet 3G netbook at its ongoing Nokia World conference in Germany.
Here’s a rundown of the key announcements.
Last month Nokia introduced the Booklet 3G, a netbook-sized laptop that promised some power-packed features. Booklet 3G will have a 10.1-inch screen, up to 12 hours of usage time, Atom processor and Windows 7. It will weigh about 2.75 lbs and include 1 GB of RAM and 120 GB hard drive. It will also sync with a Nokia handset and offer easy access to Nokia services such as its Ovi app store. See the complete list of specs. But the Booklet 3G comes with a rather hefty price tag. It will cost €575 or $820.
Nokia showed off two new phones at the conference, the first of which is the Nokia X3. The X3 slider phone will have a 2.2-inch display and 3.2-megapixel camera. The phone targeted at music lovers will have stereo speakers, dedicated music keys and support for up to 16GB of storage via microSD card. The X3 will have a ‘flight mode’ so users can listen to music in-flight even though their phones need to be switched off. Music on the phone can be managed using Nokia’s Ovi Player PC software and and Windows Media Player 11. The X3 will be on sale in the fourth quarter of the year for €115 or $165, before taxes and subsidies. See additional features of the Nokia X3.
Nokia also launched the X6 phone. The slim phone has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 32GB storage and will include access to the company’s ‘Comes with Music’ music subscription service. The X6 also has a 5-megapixel camera, dual LED flash, TV-out, video editing, full web browser and Flash Lite support. It will also ship in the fourth quarter for €459 or $655, without taxes and subsidies.
Nokia also disclosed the pricing of its N97 phone. The device, which gathered mixed reviews, has a 3.2-inch touch display, QWERTY keyboard and fully customizable homescreen. The N97 will cost €459 or $655, without subsidies.Meanwhile, check out Nokia’s hands-on video with the Booklet 3G laptop.
See Also:
Photo: Nokia
Steve Jobs’ “forgotten child,” the Apple TV, might receive an upgrade at Apple’s media event taking place Sept. 9, predicts an analyst.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster noted that the delivery time for the 40GB Apple TV has changed from 24 hours to 1-2 week delivery, which he finds “puzzling ahead of next week’s event,” The Loop reported. Update: The Loop has posted an update citing “very reliable” anonymous sources who say there will be no Apple TV refresh at the Sept. 9 event.
Add to that the fact Apple hasn’t refreshed the Apple TV in two years, and Munster infers Apple may phase out the 40GB model and reduce the price of the 160GB version (currently $330) to make room for a newer model, presumably with more hard-drive space.
Apple this week sent out invites for a Sept. 9 media event to be held in San Francisco. Though Apple has not disclosed what will be announced, the company has traditionally held events every September for the past several years, and they’ve always centered on iTunes or iPods.
We believe the prediction of an Apple TV refresh is plausible, but we don’t find that nearly as interesting as the possibility that Apple will add cameras to its iPod Nano, iPod Touch and possibly even the iPod Classic next week. Read Wired.com’s predictions and analysis of what will likely be announced Sept. 9. And look forward to our liveblog and news coverage at the event.
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The Shanghai Corporate Pavilion, which will be part of the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, has a facade made from thousands of plastic tubes that were originally CD cases.
[via Inhabitat]
Although not the first of its kind (in fact there are similar programs operating at 29 other U.S. airports, and in Europe), the newly announced paperless boarding pass system at San Francisco International Airport allows passengers to download their “ticket” onto their mobile device, be it a cell phone or PDA, by visiting a secure link that is e-mailed to them after booking a flight.
According to the San Jose Mercury News:
At the terminal entrance, TSA officers scan the passenger’s cell phone or PDA device at a small kiosk, which validates a two-dimensional, tamper-proof bar code included on the traveler’s paperless ticket. The passenger then shows a government-issued ID card to the TSA agent to gain entrance to the boarding area.
The TSA has three cell phone-reading kiosks at SFO, at a cost of about $2,000 each.
At the time of this posting, the only airline to sign on to this new, more eco-friendly, supposedly more efficient service at SFO is Continental Airlines, which services a little more than 5% of SFO’s passengers. According to Continental, so far, so good…there have been no issues reported so far with the program at SFO, and if there was an issue, it would simply be resolved by a customers service rep printing out a paper pass at one of the check-in kiosks.
This modern, Jetson-like system is still very much in its infancy. Only five other carriers are currently signed up for the digital boarding pass system across the other 29 participating airports, but the TSA has high hopes to sign up additional carriers and attract more passengers to use this 21st century service over the coming months.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Section: Business News, Gadgets / Other, Green, Household
Witricity, a wireless electricity developer, predicts that televisions and computers may stop relying on their power cords for operation within the year. Witricity is on the verge of releasing technology that powers light bulbs wirelessly from a wall socket placed several feet away. Witricity works by converting electric power into a magnetic field and then sending it through the air at a particular frequency.
The CEO of the company, Eric Giler expects that this technology can help consumers get rid of power cords and batteries. It can stop consumer reliance on disposable batteries and become greener. Although wireless technology has been in the works for years, it has never been developed well enough to be offered commercially. For instance, Powercast is a company that offers wireless electricity to low power appliances. However, their technology does not have the ability to power products such as laptops and mobile phones.
To accept the wireless power, the technology will need to be added to electronic devices. Giler says this will not cost much and thinks that as long as companies were willing to make the tweak, it could greatly reduce the environmental impact of disposable batteries.
Read: [CNN]
Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Officially now back at my Offworld post (following a long break away to the Bay Area, that, most excitingly, saw me complete the first leg of the journey through the infinitely fascinating reality game The Jejune Institute), we return with some catching-up coverage that includes breakneck stunt-man simulator Canabalt -- a five-day stripped-down Experimental Gameplay entry from Adam Saltsman -- a game whose one-button simplicity completely belies its action/sci-fi flick inspired roof-top leaping thrills.
We also found the first details on DeathSpank (above) -- the upcoming Diablo/LucasArts adventure mashup from former Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert, and discovered that a remake of classic multiplayer strategy game M.U.L.E. was in development, including an upcoming port to the iPhone.
Elsewhere we saw new footage of Offworld-favorite 2D/3D platformer Fez, Nathan Fouts' gloriously garish Grapple Buggy, and dug through a flurry of new announcements from Nintendo with new color DSis/Wii Remotes and an updated Wii Opera browser now available for free.
Finally, we saw a tiny custom (Shadow of the) Colossus Munny, and an NES Ghostbusters instruction manual T-shirt, and our 'one shot's: Olly Moss's gorgeous new prints for This American Life-inspired games podcast A Life Well Wasted, and Vera Bee's carny/sideshow illustrations make their LittleBigDebut.
I took this photo of a Kindle 2 hacked by Jesse Vincent at Foo Camp this past weekend. Apparently, aside from being a popular e-book reader, the Kindle is like Lego for Linux geeks. Here's Jesse's description of what we're looking at:
What you see there is a Kindle 2 with the Ubuntu 9.04 port to ARM running in a chrooted environment. On the screen you see xdaliclock in front of an xterm with the remains of a "top" command and a few mildly embarrassing typos.To open up the Kindle, I used the USB networking debug mode Amazon left hanging around when they first shipped the Kindle 2, a statically linked telnetd and a cross-compiler to bootstrap myself. From there, I built a daemon that can convert DRM-free PDFs and ePubs into something Amazon's reader on the Kindle can deal with.
After that, I started to get curious about what else might be possible. It only took a few evenings to get a moderately usable Ubuntu environment running.
Mostly, the Kindle is a lovely little Linux box. Getting X working took a bit of hacking, but everything else "just works" with very little configuration.
Just a bit over a year ago, we were tearing into Motorola for launching the i776, the ugliest iDEN (Push-to-talk) handset we’d ever seen. A good few months later, they launched the iDEN Clutch ; while it wouldn’t take home any beauty pageant tiaras, it was a huge step up from the monstrosity it followed.
Now it seems that Motorola has really started to get this iDEN phone thing down - which, considering that iDEN is their technology, probably shouldn’t’ have taken this long. With that said, Motorola’s new Debut i856 for Boost Mobile is a slider with a bit of visual charm, layered on top of a 1.3 megapixel camera, Stereo Bluetooth, microSD, and GPS. It’ll set you back $169 (this is Boost Mobile, so no contracts) - and if that means you’re the only contractor on the block with a phone that doesn’t look like it’s from another planet, its probably well worth it.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
OMG TV, which bills itself as "the only analog station in NYC," has spent the last two months broadcasting on Channel 14 in New York. So what on Earth are they showing? The station aggregates online video content and then lets viewers vote (online, ha!) on what makes the televised broadcast. Sounds assbackwards, but that's part of the point.
According to the founders:
On the web, so many options create a panic of possibilities. On OMG TV, there is no fast forward button or other videos to distract you. In OMG TV's simplicity you can sit back and watch one video at a time.
The station was created by Jon Cohrs, who also founded the Urban Prospecting movement we wrote about in May. What's particularly cool about the project isn't the content itself, but the fact it shows you could easily do this, too.
Jon created an Instructables guide on how to set up your very own local analog tv station — everything from first finding some "whitespace" to locating a transmitter.
Here's part of Step 1: Find a Free Channel:
Although after the 2009 DTV transition in June a lot of "whitespace"(i.e. unused television bandwidth) became available, most of this whitespace is still legally dubious and many of these channels are still tied to the original owners via legal identity and copyright. However, because of this legal ambiguity a lot of free space is still up for the taking.The best option for finding free space is the FCC's own search engine for these things
Thanks, FCC!!!
image by georgia.g
Man - ever heard of raining on someone’s parade, Sony Ericsson? Today’s the first day of Nokia World, a big ol’ event dedicated to, well, Nokia. That isn’t keeping Sony Ericsson from holding their own seperate bash, where they’ve just announced the Xperia X2, the followup to last year’s rich-blooded QWERTY-sliding X1. We’d heard rumors a few days ago that Sony was going to make it official this week - and sure enough, it’s the real deal now.
While SE says that it’ll be available in “selected markets” by Q4, there’s no word yet on pricing. With that XPERIA label slapped on there, though, don’t expect it to come cheap.
Check after the jump for the full details
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X2 at a glance
XPERIA™ X2
Camera8.1 megapixel camera
Up to 16x digital zoom
Auto focus
Geo tagging
Image stabilizer
Send to web
Touch focus
Video light
Video recording
MusicAlbum art
Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
Equalizer
Sony Ericsson media player
Music tones (MP3/AAC)
Equalizer
Sony Ericsson media player
Music tones (MP3/AAC)
PlayNow™ arena*
Stereo speakers
Windows Media® Player
WebBookmarks
Google™ search
Internet Explorer®
Pan & Zoom
Web feeds
CommunicationCall list
Conference calls
Polyphonic ringtones
Speakerphone
Vibrating alert
Messaging
Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync®
Handwriting recognition
Instant messaging
Picture messaging (MMS)
Predictive text input
Text messaging (SMS)
DesignAuto rotate
Media
Picture wallpaper
Touchscreen
Wallpaper animation
Windows Mobile® 6.5
Entertainment3D games
Java™
Motion gaming
Tracker
Video streaming
Video viewing
YouTube™ application
ConnectivityA-GPS
Bluetooth™ technologyDNLA Certified™
Google Maps™
Modem
Synchronisation
TV out
USB mass storage
USB support
Wi-Fi™
OrganizerAdobe® PDF Reader
Alarm clock
Calculator
Calendar
Flight mode
Microsoft® Office Mobile
Notes
Phone book
Stopwatch
Tasks
Timer
Accessories
In-Box:XPERIA™ X2
Battery
Battery Charger
Stereo Portable Handsfree MH500
USB cable
TV out cable
4GB SanDisk microSD™ memory card
User guide
Optional accessories:Bluetooth™ Headset PV740
Car charger AN300
Video Viewing Stand IM920
Facts and Figures 1)2)Size: 110 x 54 x 16 mm
Weight: 115 grams
Colours: Elegant Black, Modern Silver
Main screen: 65,536 colour TFT
Resolution: 480 x 800 pixels (WVGA)
Size: 3.2 inches
Phone memory: Up to110MB
Memory card support: SanDisk microSD™ and microSDHC™, up to 16GB
Talk time GSM: Up to 10 hrs
Standby time GSM: Up to 500 hrs
Talk time UMTS: Up to 6hrs
Standby time UMTS: Up to 640hrs
Music listening time: Up to 20hrs
Availability and versions
Networks:XPERIA™ X2
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 900/1900/2100
Available in selected markets from early Q4 2009.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Finally, after almost five months of searching (and kind of cheating by actually buying one ready-made), we’ve found a donor bike for the Gadget Lab fixed-gear conversion. It’s an old Massi Master road bike, with Italian Gara Cro-Mo steel tubing and forks. The groupset, or brakes and gears and everything else that moves, is Shimano 105 ,which has the gear-shifters built into the brake levers (that threw me at first).
As you can see, the frame is a rather lovely metallic purple color and the style of the graphics plus a little googling makes me think that the bike is from the 1980s. Judging by the comments we get on any of our bike posts, I’m sure y’all can do a much better job of identification.
The wheels have the matching Shimano hub with Wolber rims, and they look so nice that it seems a shame to swap them out. But swapped they will be, as however slick this looks as a road bike, it was bought to be sacrificed.
There’s one problem, and the eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted it already. The frame has vertical dropouts, meaning chain tension can’t be adjusted without either luck or an ugly tensioner. I will be using a half-link BMX chain, so fingers crossed — but the frame is so nice I couldn’t help but buy it.
The conversion will take place over the next few days, replacing wheels, chain, seat (it’s a nice seat, but plastic saddles in the summer are hell) and stripping off all the extra metalwear.
I need a few tips. First, the rear brake cable runs trough the top tube, entering and exiting through lugged holes. I’m keeping all the parts I strip, in case I decide to change back in the future, but this looks impossible to re-thread. What kind of voodoo is needed to do it?
Also, tips on chain-tensioners are welcome. I’m going to do my best to match up gear ratios and chain to avoid adding one, but otherwise what is the smoothest, quietest way to go?
I think everything else will be pretty easy, between a lifetime of tinkering and all the good advice the Gadget Lab readers have lent over this series of posts. First, though, I have a puncture to fix: The guy I bought it from hadn’t put enough air in the tires and I got a pinch-flat.
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“Oh, Snap!” proclaims Alltel, seemingly out of nowhere.
Verizon glances over. “What? Don’t say that. It hasn’t been cool since nineteen ninety never. It makes you sound like a jerk.”
“No, no. Not like that. I just started offering the HTC Snap.” Alltel responds, staring off into the sky.
“I already offer the HTC Snap, and I own you.”
“Well, now I can offer the snap in the 91 markets you weren’t allowed to take over when you bought me.”
“Oh. Well, you’re still a jerk.”
Yep - Alltel’s got the HTC Snap now. They want $80 bucks a pop (after a $70 mail-in rebate) with a 1-year contract for this guy. If you’re down with WinMo 6.1 and are in one of the markets still flying the Alltel flags, that’s really not too bad of a deal.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
We’ve already noted the dangers of driving while texting, but today there’s evidence that suggests many other people recognize the problem. A recent survey conducted by Nationwide Insurance says that some 80 percent of Americans support some sort of legislation “to restrict cell phone use while driving.” How you define “cell phone use” then becomes an issue.
It seems people are less inclined to restrict their ability to talk on the phone than they are to restrict their ability to text, surf the Web, etc. Only 67 percent of people would be in favor of banning talking on the phone while driving. I guess people perceive talking as being less dangerous than other actives, which is poppycock. Distracted driving is distracted driving.
Even more troubling, only 49 percent of people say that such a law would change their behavior. Never mind how you’d enforce the law. Are we supposed to hire extra police—isn’t California bankrupt?—to patrol the roads to make sure you’re not texting your BFF while waiting at a stop sign?
But that’s an argument for another day.
Another argument could be made that we have so many car accidents in this country because we hand out drivers licenses like candy corn at Halloween. “Turn here, stop here, three-point turn here. Grats, you can now have a mount.”
via Consumerist
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Section: Web, Web 2.0, Websites
The NFL has announced that beginning this season, players, coaches, and league officials will be banned from tweeting or posting Facebook updates starting 90 minutes before games and until all post-game interviews are completed. The ban extends to anyone who represents a player or coach on any such accounts as well.
But wait, there’s more. The NFL also says that members of the media will be banned from posting game updates on Twitter or Facebook as well, citing a long standing policy regarding live descriptions of games.
The ban on tweeting during games themselves has been in place for sometime now, the result of some players doing so as part of their touchdown celebrations. The reason for the extension of the ban to before and after the game is unknown but some speculate Donte Stallworth may hold some of the blame.
The disgraced star, currently suspended by the league for the entire season after being arrested and convicted of DUI and manslaughter, (Stallworth killed a man while driving drunk and received an outrageous and insulting sentence of just 30 days in jail for it) talked about his arrest, suspension and incarceration on his Twitter account, and it’s likely the league was not amused.
Whether the ban will be respected or able to be enforced remains to be seen. Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco has already stated he intends to ignore the rule and tweet during his games. Since cell phones are banned from the bench area it’s not clear just how he intends to do that without risking fines or suspension.
Read [CNet]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Geeky gadgets | Xbox 360 'Least Reliable' Console PC World A new study on game console reliability confirms the popular attitude that Microsoft's Xbox 360 is the least reliable of the current crop of set top systems. According to SquareTrade, Nintendo's Wii is nine times more reliable than Microsoft's Xbox, ... Microsoft to cut Xbox 360 Elite price for Japan Wii tops console reliability study Study: One-quarter of Xbox 360s fail, but RROD decreasing |
Talk about strange - while Google Voice can’t get so much as their foot in the App Store’s door, Vonage has just done a pirouette and waltzed right through. According to a recent release from the Jersey-based VOIP giant, their new Vonage mobile application has been approved for inclusion into Apple’s App Store as soon as it comes out of beta.
Details at this point are still lacking: we have no idea when it will actually release, nor do we know how much it’ll cost for all you Vonage-faithful out there. The press release doesn’t even go into what kind of services the app will provide, but we can certainly hazard a few guesses.
Given Vonage’s position in the VOIP industry, it seems likely that we may soon have a Google Voice-esque app that allows users to make and receive calls that tie into an existing Vonage phone number, but right now your guess is as good as ours. For all we know, we could be looking at something as lackluster as an extension of Vonage’s existing Visual Voicemail service, but hopefully the app won’t stop short of what it should be.
Of course, given the ease of Vonage’s app approval, one question in particular is bound to come up. Apple claims that the deciding factor in holding up Google Voice’s approval was that it “[replaced] the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail”. It’ll be interesting to dig in and see how Vonage adapts to Apple formula, but it looks like it will be a while before we can judge for ourselves.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
August 17, 1955.
photo from Adolph B. Rice Studio via The Library of Virginia
Today, HTC officially announced the Touch2 with Windows Mobile 6.5 that includes My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. HTC was skimp on specs, but we do know that the Touch2 will have TouchFLO and a slew of Google products pre-installed. And the new IE Mobile supports Flash. If you’re into that sort of thing, which we suspect you are. The Touch2 launches on October 6 with availability spreading to the rest of Europe and Asia in Q4.
TAIWAN – SEPTEMBER 2nd, 2009 – HTC Corporation today introduced the HTC Touch2™, a compact and stylish smartphone that is one of the first Windows® phones. Utilizing Windows Mobile 6.5® and new services like Microsoft My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, HTC Touch2 delivers a full touch experience that enables you to do all the things you want on your phone easily. The Touch2 expands HTC’s portfolio of touch-based phones and is focused on delivering an advanced touch experience to a broader group of people.
“The HTC Touch2 delivers a familiar touch experience that millions of people have come to expect and rely on from HTC in their daily lives,” said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation. “Whether it’s making a call, checking in with a friend or simply responding to an important email, the HTC Touch2 puts you in touch and in control.”
The HTC Touch2 ensures that everything is at your fingertips in a compact design that fits comfortably in your hand. An advanced smartphone with everything you expect and more, the HTC Touch2 includes a variety of HTC enhancements including TouchFLO, an enhanced user interface that includes integrated weather updates and quick touch access to a variety of the most popular applications. In addition, the Touch2 includes Google Maps for Mobile, YouTube and more.
As a new Windows phone, the HTC Touch2 showcases the powerful messaging, browsing and productivity capabilities delivered by Windows Mobile 6.5. Offering a best in class e-mail experience complete with the ability to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange, you have the ability to check and manage multiple email accounts.
With the re-designed Internet Explorer Mobile, the Touch2 accurately displays desktop style Web pages, allowing people to experience content in the way it is meant to be viewed. The HTC Touch2 includes a zoom bar for reflowing text to an optimum size. In addition, you can pan and zoom to find and enjoy what you are looking for more easily. Internet Explorer Mobile also supports Adobe Flash, enabling Flash video content, like YouTube, to be viewed easily.
With a Windows phone you can now easily find and download a wide variety of applications onto the HTC Touch2 via the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Microsoft’s new My Phone service enables you to automatically back up and synch photos, music, contacts and text messages for free from the Touch2 to the web.
Availability
The HTC Touch2 will initially be available to customers on October 6 with broad availability in a variety of European and Asian markets in early Q4 2009.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Section: Video, Content, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray, HDTV, Video Providers
3D TV is coming. At IFA in Germany, Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer will throw down the gauntlet and announce next year we’ll see 3D TVs from the company. Sony could use a big hit and bringing the hardware is an important step as content and distribution look to figured out.
Sony is expected to make the announcement today, according to Financial Times, who almost never get it wrong. Not only that, the cheeky bunch at FT are quoting the future Stringer, as if they’ve found some time/space portal, sweet. Not only will the Bravia TVs adopt 3D but so will Vaio laptops and PS3. A whole wave of Sony products will feature 3D technology.
Two big obstacles stand in 3Ds way: standards and customers. Are we headed for another battle of format standards? Perhaps, as there is currently no standard for 3D. Hynduai, LG, Samsung, Phillips, Mitsubishi, and Panasonic all have 3D TVs in their sights as well. Sony is using electronic glasses that shutter to create the effect.
As for customers, blind faith that TV makers can force a new technology to make up for flat-lining big screen HDTVs with 3D is hopeful at best. You thought searching for the remote control was frustrating, wait until you have to search for four pairs of glasses, too.
While sports nuts are probably an easy sell, it isn’t clear that 3D in the home is going to be a winner. 24/7 Wall Street says, “Sony may find out the hard way that ‘2D’ video is just fine.” Will the market take to 3D?
Read: [Financial Times]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Leica shows just how small a lens can be, if you have a camera with a half-sized sensor and no big mirror-flipping gap between it and the lens itself. This is the new LUMIX G 20mm ƒ1.7 ASPH, and it aptly belongs to the class of lenses called “pancake”.
That 20mm focal length translates to a 40mm equivalent, a little longer than the standard rangefinder length of 35mm. But its the speed that we’re interested in, that this lens is fast. ƒ1.7 means enough light will be gathered for low-light hand-held shooting, and that, when opened right up, it will throw pretty much everything out of focus except, say, your subject’s eyes. The ASPH part means that the lens uses aspherical elements, which are, as the name suggests, not a section of a sphere. This keeps lenses simpler and sharper.
That it was announced today is no coincidence. The lens is designed as a companion for Panasonic’s new Pen rival, the GF1 (it’s the one you see in the picture on that post) and looks like the perfect fit for this kind of camera.
It’s odd that the hot camera category right now is for low megapixel cameras with fixed focal length lenses, rather than multi-pixel mega-zooms. It’s almost as if some somebody had been listening to our whining. $400, which sounds fairly reasonable for Leica glass, and available October.
Press release [DP Review]
Section: Computers, Mobile Computers
A few details on the once rumored Android based Internet tablet from Archos have recently been leaked courtesy of online retailer B&H. What we have so far are details in regards to storage capacity and pricing. It looks like the prices will be pretty competetive, and of course are dependent on the type and amount of storage that you choose.
According to the B&H listings, we can expect to pay $294 or $370 for a unit with either a 16GB or 32GB SSD respectively. In addition, the Archos 5 will also be available in a 160GB or 500GB model that will sell for $320 or $420 respectively.
Other features of the Archos 5 include a 4.8-inch display and there are also rumors of it supporting 720p video output. As of now, it still looks like an official announcement will be coming on September 15.
Read [Forums.ArchosFans.com] Via [Pocketables]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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Laggard UK music retailer 
Logitech announced two new audio devices today, the Squeezebox Radio and Squeezebox Touch. The Squeezebox Radio is intended to be a portable device, with a built in speaker and wifi capability (allowing access to your music library). The Squeezebox Touch is intended to tie into your home theater system, providing the same type of access (via your home network) to you music library.
