Source: Gizmodo | 4 Sep 2009 | 4:30 pm

Twitter Co-Founder to Throw Opening Pitch in St. Louis [Voices]

By Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

How do you get Twitter creator Jack Dorsey to speak at your college? Having a hometown advantage, as well as major-league baseball connections, seems to do the trick.

The Twitter co-founder will give a speech at Webster University in St. Louis the morning of Sept. 18, then throw the opening pitch at the Cardinals-Cubs game that night.

“I’m practicing every day!” Mr. Dorsey said in an email exchange.

The school did its homework, confirming through his old tweets that he was originally from St. Louis and a fan of the local team.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 4:26 pm

Appropriate Interviewing For a Worldwide Search?

jellomizer writes 'I am a manager of a small Software Development department, looking to hire some more developers. By edict of the CEO, the search must be made globally, so we are dealing with different cultures and different ideas of truth and embellishment, etc. To try to counteract this, we give the potential employees tests where I watch what they do, to see if they actually know what they say they know. However, it seems a lot of applicants drop out when I mention that this test is mandatory. Is this a sign that we caught them in a lie, or are we weeding out good people where we shouldn't be? Would you be willing to take a test as part of an interview? If so, is there any type of heads up you would like to know beforehand to make the decision of whether to take the test easier?' What other difficulties have people seen while trying to hire from many different cultures?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 4 Sep 2009 | 4:17 pm

TiVo to DISH: Let's Do The Time Warp Again … [Digital Daily]

It’s not the $974.5 million TiVo (TIVO) had been looking for, but the $200 million in sanctions against EchoStar’s Dish Network (SATS) it’s been awarded isn’t exactly petty cash, either. On Friday, a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Texas ordered the satellite broadcaster to cough up that sum for its continued infringement of TiVo’s “multimedia time warping system” patent. This in addition to the $192.7 million DISH was ordered to pay for violating that same patent up to April 2008. You see Dish, though it had been barred from shipping DVRs with the patent-infringing functionality, continued to do so, justifying its behavior by claiming it had implemented a noninfringing workaround. But in June of this year a court found that not to be the case. It again reprimanded DISH and ordered it to pay TiVo $103 million in additional fines for the violations that occurred during the time in which the “workaround” was implemented. And now, it’s added another $200 million to that.

TiVo, as one might imagine, was overjoyed by the ruling, which leaves open the possibility for further sanctions if Dish should not abide by the injunction. “We are pleased by the Court’s ruling to impose contempt sanctions of approximately $200 million against EchoStar for its continued violation of a Court-ordered permanent injunction, and to award TiVo its attorney fees and costs incurred during the contempt proceedings,” the company said in a statement. “This brings total damages and sanctions in this case to approximately $400 million through July 1, 2009, plus attorney fees, and is exclusive of potential further damages and sanctions. Additionally, we are pleased that the Court ‘will seriously entertain the award of enhanced sanctions’ if ‘EchoStar is unsuccessful on appeal and nevertheless continues to disregard this Court’s orders.’”

Source: Gizmodo | 4 Sep 2009 | 4:00 pm

Does Google Book privacy policy go far enough? - ZDNet

Times Online

Does Google Book privacy policy go far enough? ZDNet One of the many objections to the Google Books settlement is the question of how much information about customers' book browsing, reading and buying habits is going to be captured by the Google Books Registry, passed along to publishers, available to ... Privacy Group Asks to Join Google Book LawsuitWired News How Safe Is Your Privacy on Google Books?PC Magazine Google, Allies Defend Book SettlementInformationWeek San Francisco Chronicle -V3.co.uk -BetaNews all 944 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:54 pm

New Palm Pre firmware gets leaked - by Palm!

When PreCentral user go4craig went to go wipe his Pre with Palm’s end-all-be-all restoration application, he got a little surprise: v1.2 of the Pre firmware, which hasn’t been released yet. Whoops! Thats why you keep this type of stuff on completely separate servers with safety checks in place.

Tucked away inside the firmware is a handful of new features, albeit nothing earth shattering:

• Accounting/Credit Card information in the App Catalog, opening the door to for-pay applications
• A toggle which allows you to control how your location is determined (GPS or Google’s LBS engine)
• “Select All” in the browser, implying that copy and paste will get a revamp
• Data usage toggle

Don’t get too excited, though - at least, don’t jump the gun. Palm has since fixed the unintentional distribution method. While the firmware package has leaked to the internet, it’s a dangerous game. The first person who installed the firmware has since wound up with a bricked device, after the Pre tried to install v1.1 over v1.2.

[Via PreCentral]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:44 pm

23andMe Founder Linda Avey Leaves To Start Alzheimer’s Research Foundation

Linda Avey, one of the two founders of personal genomics company 23andMe, is leaving the startup to start a new foundation dedicated to studying Alzheimer’s disease. Avey, who has been with the company for over three years, writes that the new foundation will make use of 23andMe’s research platform to “drive the formation of the world’s largest community of individuals with a family history of Alzheimer’s, empower them with their genetic information and track their brain health using state-of-the-art tools”.

Avey notes that the foundation will be starting with the connection between Alzheimer’s and ApoE4, which helps in the breakdown of peptide plaques associated with the disease. The decision seems to be driven in part by personal reasons, as Avey’s father-in-law suffered from Alzheimer’s.

Avey sent the following Email to the 23andMe team:

Dear all-

As I trust you all know, 23andMe is very special to me. I also recognize that the company has reached a critical point in its growth where new leadership can take it to the successful heights we all think it can achieve.

I’ve decided that I’d like to focus my efforts on an area that is personally significant and will continue to have a huge impact on our healthcare system–Alzheimer’s disease. Effective today, I’m leaving 23andMe and have begun making plans for the creation of a foundation dedicated to the study of this disorder. The foundation will leverage the research platform we’ve built at 23andMe–the goal is to drive the formation of the world’s largest community of individuals with a family history of Alzheimer’s, empower them with their genetic information and track their brain health using state-of-the-art tools. We’ve always planned to include Alzheimer’s in our 23andWe research mission…I’m just approaching it from a new angle.

Some of you might be aware that my father-in-law suffered from Alzheimer’s and passed away last year. For this reason, Randy and I are motivated to do what we can to improve the understanding of what leads to the debilitating symptoms and what might prevent them from starting in the first place. The ApoE4 association is barely understood but gives us a great starting point.

I’ll miss working with you but will be excited to hear about the progress I know you’ll be making!

All the best,
Linda

Anne Wojcicki, who founded the company with Avey and is also noted for being Sergey Brin’s wife, sent out the following letter.

Team:

As Linda has told you, she will be leaving 23andMe to focus her energy on transforming Alzheimer’s research and treatment, leveraging the 23andMe platform. While I am quite sad to see her leave I am excited and hopeful as she takes on this mission. As Linda’s co-founder and partner over the last three years, it has been clear that revolutionizing research has been a primary passion. Our drive to change health care has always had roots in our personal lives and we have tried to structure 23andMe so that any individual or organization could actively participate in research. Linda and I have talked about doing research in Alzheimer’s since the inception of the company and the need for the Alzheimer’s community to have a strong leader. With Linda’s involvement, I believe that the APOE4 community could be the first asymptomatic community to successfully develop preventative treatments. I hope that going forward we’ll both be able to shake up and transform the health care space, making health care and treatments better for all.

Linda’s departure is also a sign of 23andMe’s maturation. When we started the company, the personal genetics industry did not exist; now it is a thriving and competitive landscape. Our company has grown and we continue to be an innovative industry leader. While our success has been exceptional, it is also clear we have a lot of work ahead. We have created a significant and empowering tool, but we must find new and better ways to promote the value of knowing your DNA. In the weeks ahead, we will outline a strategy for the company that we believe will make genetics a routine part of health care and will lead us to making significant research discoveries.

Linda has been instrumental in making 23andMe what it is today and we thank her for her passion and dedication to the company. We have many exciting opportunities before us, and I look forward to working with all of you to make 23andMe a spectacular success.

Anne

Worth pointing out is Wojcicki’s statement that 23andMe needs to find “better ways to promote the value of knowing your DNA”. That may be tricky — while there are some traits that are well understood, this is a field that is still in its infancy and the relationships between our genes and most traits are murky. At some point personal genomics will play a key role in our health care system, but I’m not sure we’re there yet.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:42 pm

Enterprise sells $150 million of shares (AP)

AP - Enterprise Products Partners LP, which transports natural gas and oil through its pipeline network, on Friday said it agreed to sell $150 million worth of common stock.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:35 pm

Review: Cheap portable media player with built-in NES emulator

Behold! A portable convergence device from faraway lands! It plays music, it plays videos, it takes photos, it’s an e-book reader, a dictionary, a notepad, it slices, it dices, it does it all! But none of that matters. None of it. Why? Because this little $30 gem plays NES games.

And so we dance…

Officially called the “1 GB Portable Media Player” and available from computer parts vendor Geeks.com for $30, this device features a 2.5-inch LCD screen with 320×240 resolution, a 4-way directional pad, and four action buttons. You’ve also got an OK button, an ESC button, and a top-mounted power button. There are two tiny, tinny speakers on either side of the screen, a 1.3-megapixel camera on the back, and a miniSD card slot and a reset button underneath.

This review will focus solely on the NES emulator feature. Please watch the video below if you don’t feel like reading.

For starters you’ve got 1GB of built-in storage to work with, which ought to be more than enough for all your favorite NES ROMs. Actually, if memory serves, all the NES ROMs in the world don’t take up an entire gigabyte. The device shows up as an external hard drive in Windows Explorer and ROMs are dropped into a pre-made folder called GAMES.

I had trouble getting a few titles to work correctly. Some just wouldn’t load at all, some would play the first few seconds of audio and then crash out, and some contained jacked-up graphics. While a fair amount of these non-working ROMs could just be bad ROMs to begin with, my favorite game of all time — Bad News Baseball — doesn’t work even though it runs fine on my computer. Most of the games I threw at this thing worked just fine, though.

Actual processing power is surprisingly impressive. Games run smoothly and with full audio, closely resembling gameplay on an actual NES console. The screen is bright and detailed, and I was able to play games for hours on end without any eye strain or headaches.

Battery life is a bit iffy. I’m able to squeeze in about an hour and a half of play time before I need to recharge. On the flip side, the device is super light. The first time I picked it up, I thought the battery was still in the box.

The D-pad is on the mushy side, but it gets the job done. I found games that require a lot of precision — some sports games and shooters, for example — to be frustrating from time to time but, hey, the thing costs $30. Racing games, side-scrollers, and fighting games all played pretty well, though. The A and B buttons are correctly placed (B before A) and work just fine, although they’re pretty small and spaced closely together. I did get used to them pretty quickly, despite my Shrek-sized thumbs.

One glaring omission is that the volume can’t be controlled while you’re playing games — it can only be turned all the way off in the device’s settings menu. So you’re stuck with sorta-loud audio or no sound at all unless you use headphones. Even with headphones, though, the audio level can’t be changed. Inexpensive device or not, the ability to control volume levels should ALWAYS be included. You can control the volume while using the music and video playing features, though, so it’s just been left out of the emulator.

Another thing I personally would have liked are save states. In most computer-based NES emulators, you can save your in-game progress to one or more save state slots, to be continued later. Not here, unfortunately. You’ll have to go super old school and write down game codes just like you used to when you were a kid. It was fun and nostalgic once or twice, but it got old faster than a first-timer on prom night. I’d even trade the volume control feature for save states. Unfortunately, I have neither.

All in all, though, if you love old NES games, you should probably treat yourself to this little doodad. It’s literally provided me with hours and hours and hours of enjoyment and it makes a great travel companion. At $30, too, even cheapskates like me can’t complain about the price.

1GB USB 2.0 MP4/MP3/ FM/Voice/ Camera w/2.5″ LCD [Geeks.com]

Source: CrunchGear | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:30 pm

Microsoft: Cyber-crooks Exploiting Unpatched IIS Bug (PC World)

PC World - Microsoft says that cyber-criminals are starting to exploit an unpatched bug in its IIS server software that was made public earlier this week.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:30 pm

Hartford Courant competitors seethe over Web site (AP)

AP - After cutting its newsroom by half because of the recession and sagging advertising revenue, The Hartford Courant found a new source for news — its competition — and found itself in a plagiarism scandal.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:26 pm

Amazon offers to replace Orwell books on Kindles (AP)

AP - Amazon.com Inc. is offering free books or $30 to Kindle customers whose copies of the George Orwell novels "1984" and "Animal Farm" were deleted from their electronic reading devices in July.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:25 pm

New England Prep School Library Goes Entirely Digital

An anonymous reader writes to mention that Cushing Academy has decided to leap into the future by getting rid of all the books in their library and going completely digital. Instead of dusty stacks, the library is spending close to half a million dollars to install all the hallmarks of a digital learning center. Flat screen TVs, "laptop friendly carrells," and a coffee shop are just the first step in building an area that allows students access to millions of books as opposed to several thousand. Of course, not everyone is completely sold on this move: "[Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association] said the move raises at least two concerns: Many of the books on electronic readers and the Internet aren't free and it may become more difficult for students to happen on books with the serendipity made possible by physical browsing. There's also the question of the durability of electronic readers. 'Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I don't see how that need is going to be met,' Fiels said. 'Books are not a waste of space, and they won't be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand, survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens, there will be next to no difference between that and a book.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:21 pm

Web-monitoring software gathers data on kid chats (AP)

AP - Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids' online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their children's chat messages — and sell the marketing data gathered.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:16 pm

Microsoft Word Ban: Maybe it Wouldn't be so Bad - PC World

Techtree.com

Microsoft Word Ban: Maybe it Wouldn't be so Bad PC World It looks like Microsoft has the advantage -- at least for now -- in its David vs. Goliath legal skirmish with Canadian software developer i4i, which recently won a patent infringement suit against the software giant. A quick recap: Last month, ... Judge Stays Microsoft Word BanInformationWeek Microsoft to Continue Shipping Word Pending AppealPC Magazine Appeals court stays Microsoft Word injunctionBetaNews Virtualization Review -Techtree.com -eWeek all 347 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:15 pm

TDS to Present at Kaufman Bros. 12th Annual Investor Conference

CHICAGO, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE:TDS; TDS.S) today announced that Jane W. McCahon, TDS vice president of corporate relations, and Julie D.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:13 pm

Surgeon's soap reduces blood infections

Washing critically ill patients with the same solution doctors use to scrub in can dramatically reduce blood infections, researchers in Maryland said. A daily wash with chlorhexidine glutonate is a cheap and effective means of protecting patients from so-called "super bugs, researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, said. Johns Hopkins found a daily application of 4 percent chlorhexidine glutonate in solution reduced blood infections by as much as 73 percent. Blood infections occur in as much as 20 percent of patients in hospital intensive care units, increasing their chance of death by as much as 25 percent, said the study published in the journal of Critical Care Medicine. Even when not fatal, blood infections lengthen hospital stays by an average of a week and can add as much as $40,000 in medical costs, epidemiologist Dr.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:12 pm

The Hurt Keeps Coming: Dish And EchoStar Ordered To Pay TiVo Another $200 Million

The battle between Dish and TiVo rages on. As reported by Bloomberg, a judge has ruled that Dish and EchoStar must pay TiVo around $200 million for continuing to provide DVR service to its customers after being told to stop because it was violating TiVo’s patents. Dish and EchoStar plan to appeal the ruling. The new ruling brings Dish and EchoStar’s total payments to TiVo to around $400 million in damages and other fees after a five year legal battle. In this latest round, Dish and EchoStar say they tried to work around TiVo’s patents, but a judge ruled that they had failed to do so. The $200 million figure is based on a $2.25 per month royalty for every Dish DVR user, extending from April 2008, when an appeals court reaffirmed TiVo’s patent, to July 1 2009.

Source: CrunchGear | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:10 pm

Lihua International Announces Exercise of Over-Allotment Purchase Option

DANYANG, China, Sept.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:08 pm

How Wired.com Built Beer Robot, Our DIY Kegerator

This is the story of Beer Robot, an ugly old fridge that grew into a super geeky kegerator.

It started out innocently enough. After work one day at the local brewpub, three Wired.com staffers had a revelation: “What our office really needs is a kegerator!”

We didn’t know this passing idea, the kind you often have after several beers but never follow up on (”Dude, we should totally road trip to Jazzfest this year!”), would culminate in a keg party at that same brewpub to celebrate the public debut of Beer Robot.

But at the next editor’s meeting, we suggested converting a fridge into a kegerator for our How-To Wiki. Who’s going to say no to that? Nobody in that meeting anyway. Soon we had dreamed up a super geeky, tricked-out kegerator that would have all sorts of functions involving everything from a Twitter stream to a Wii.

With a budget of $200, we quickly determined that the fridge would have to be free, because the cheapest conversion kit we could find was $192, on sale. Fortunately, there is a lot of free stuff on Craigslist, where we found a fridge that was just right: a homely, but working, almond-colored fridge that had been left on the sidewalk in Alameda to make way for a newer model.

It turns out converting a fridge to a kegerator is pretty easy. You only need a conversion kit and a few tools, and there’s really only one step you can mess up, which we discovered by messing it up. We were only on step five of 32 steps when we drilled a hole that was too big. But we managed to recover using only our wits and a broom handle.

A keg of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale materialized and… success! The beer was cold, and it flowed. Perfect pints, with lovely head, at the ready. Mmmm… beer.

On to the pimping.

With our budget wiped out, we turned to our readers and Twitter followers for help pimping our kegerator. We received tons of good ideas, a few volunteers and even some free stuff (some are included at the end of the story). Our readers had similar geeky, gadgety ideas involving wheels and lights and twittering how much beer is left. Professional motorcycle airbrush artist Robb Ortel of Orange County Choppers even offered to “pimp that bad boy with some cool paint,” but unfortunately we couldn’t send Beer Robot to him in New York because, well, there was already beer flowing.

Fortunately we also received an awesome offer from Jeff Stallings of Print NW to make and send us a custom vinyl wrap for Beer Robot with whatever design we could dream up. We decided to stick with the gadget theme. After all, a kegerator is really just a big, awesome gadget that serves cold beer.

We are lucky at Wired.com to have a talented designer on staff, Dennis Crothers, who is apparently easily duped into doing a load of extra work. He patiently turned our many ideas, good and bad, into beautifully designed parodies of an iPhone, Sony PSP and Flip Mino, and never once cursed us (to our faces) when we changed our mind about what the apps should be or the Space Invaders score.

The end result turned out better than we ever imagined. The front, iPhone-like face of Beer Robot displays 13 “apps” including Top 10 List Generator (useful for coming up with story ideas), Frosty Mugs, The Tap Store, /root beer (for the tap) and just above that, iFoam. The Flip side has a HAL 9000 eye where the lens should be, and almost every number we used on all three sides has some sort of geeky significance.

Somewhere along the line, the kegerator project grew to include testing two commercial kegerators. With so many hungry taps to feed, we began looking for help from some of our favorite local brewers. The folks at 21st Amendment, just a block away from the Wired office, loved our idea. Rather than just filling a kegerator for us, they threw a debut party for Beer Robot at the pub. This involved wheeling Beer Robot across streets, through a park and up the stairs to the mezzanine level of the pub as seen in the video below. Not surprisingly, San Franciscans barely blinked at the sight of a giant iPhone kegerator parading down the sidewalk.

Wired staff, family, friends and Twitter followers of Beer Robot (which has been tweeting since before it could even serve beer) and Wired gathered to admire the kegerator and enjoy several kegs of 21st Amendment’s Brew Free or Die IPA.

In a contest to identify the significance of the numbers on Beer Robot, only one person got them all. Perihan Cumali, who learned of the party by following @beerrobot, took first prize (which was this paragraph right here) by being the only one to know that 37 is the UHF frequency reserved for radioastronomy.

“I had a vague recollection about 37,” Cumali said. “I did reinforce my cloudy knowledge with my iPhone. But I did take astronomy at RPI!”

For the tap-to-tap kegerator competition between Beer Robot and the commercial kegerators, North Coast Brewing Company in Fort Bragg, California provided a keg of Brother Thelonius and Speakeasy of San Francisco provided a keg of White Lightning American Wheat. We rounded out the trio with a keg of Deschutes Brewery’s Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Oregon.

We wanted to see how our $200 conversion stood up to the budget Edgestar KC2000 ($425) and the fancier Sanyo BC-1206 ($650) kegerators. The commercial kegerators put up a good fight and performed well, but according to all who attended the competition, Beer Robot was the clear winner. Though we are clearly biased. We love Beer Robot. A lot.

The geekifying of our fridge is an ongoing project. One of Beer Robot’s fans, bioengineer Bryan Hermannsson installed a flowmeter that will keep track of how much beer has been poured, and has a digital readout of how many pints are left. As I write this, Hermannsson and genomicist Tim Reddy are working on hooking this device up to the internet and writing a program to convert the information into tweets.

“Programming has never been more fun,” Reddy said. “Trying to maintain the optimal level of sobriety was a real challenge. I think we went passed it a couple times.”

A web cam will soon be installed, pointing at the tap of course — we don’t want to discourage people from visiting Beer Robot. And we hope to get more ideas from our readers for other upgrades. Keep ‘em coming!

Beer Robot is a work in progress, but already it has exceeded even our wildest drunken expectations. And to think, just two short months ago, our glorious kegerator was just a sad, lonely, almond-colored refrigerator abandoned on the side of the road.

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

See Also:

• How-to Make a Kegerator
• Ready-Made Kegerators Cure What’s Ale-ing You
  
• Extreme, Custom and Pimped-Out Kegerators
• Help Wired Pimp Our Kegerator, Win Free Beer

Selected Reader Suggestions for Beer Robot:

Perhaps a Roomba robot kit that will automatically dock at the fridge, be filled with the tap and then be able to be remote controlled back to the beer drinker ? — Adrian Walleigh

I think the front of beer robot should look like Han Solo frozen in carbonite. Now that’s cold! — Adam Price (We did consider this idea, but found that the tap would have a rather unfortunate location in Han Solo’s crotch.)

Put an RFID activated nozzle that only allows WIRED authorized mugs with RFID embedded chips to get beer, and then measures the amount dispensed, so it knows when it is time to send out a re-order notice to your local beer distributor. It could also send out Tweets when it is getting dangerously low on suds. — John Azevedo.

Now, this may not sound very Canadian style, but it’s how everybody would have a Kegerator up north. First we need some sort of weight system to determine when the Keg is near empty. This would submit a signal to Twitter posting a Tweet that we need more beer. But this weight system gets better. When a new keg is placed, the weight system will be aware of this and initiate what is called the “Party Mode.” First a tweet is posted again to update everyone on a potential crisis averted with the replacement of the keg. Then, with the use of Bing travel, a 747 is chartered from Moscow, Russia to San Francisco full of Russian Strippers. Then a private jet is chartered to Toronto so that I (The genius behind this entire plan) can be picked up and brought to the party. And no recession will ever put a stop to our party, as the Bing Account will be linked to the White House’s Visa Card as It has proved time and time again, able to bail out anybody in their time of need. I expect my Jet on the tarmac by June 31st. — Jon Bianchi.

The following people contributed to this project: Jon Snyder — originator, namer, photographer. Betsy Mason — originator, coordinator, laborer. Dennis Crothers — designer, watchdog, wrapper. Dylan Tweney — geekifier, utility player. Danny Dumas — geekifier, rim shooter. David Kravets — originator, partaker. Evan Hansen — decider, protector, supplier. Chris Becker — converter, handyman. Fernando Cardoso — videographer, partaker. Michael Lennon — videographer, choreographer. Brian Chen — partaker, stalker. Stephan Leckart — partaker, loiterer. Alexis Madrigal — keg lifter, beer getter, partaker. James Temple — loader. Jim Merithew — unloader. Terrence Russell — partaker, backstop. Chuck Squatriglia — cheerleader, supporter. Michael Calore — consultant. Hadley Leggett — cheerleader. Shaun O’Sullivan — beer supplier, sponsor. Rob Strasser — event planner. Bryan Hermannsson — geekifier, partaker. Tim Reddy — programmer, partaker. Jeff Stallings — wrapper, sponsor.

Follow us on Twitter @betsymason, @beerrobot and @gadgetlab.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:03 pm

How Wired.com Built Beer Robot, Our DIY Kegerator

Wired.com set out to build, trick out and internet-enable a kegerator, with help from some of our readers. The results exceeded our wildest expectations. Here's how we did it.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:03 pm

How Wired.com Built Beer Robot, Our DIY Kegerator

Wired.com set out to build, trick out and internet-enable a kegerator, with help from some of our readers. The results exceeded our wildest expectations. Here's how we did it.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:03 pm

Extreme, Custom and Pimped-Out Kegerators

There’s something about a giant gadget that dispenses cold beer that inspires people to extremes. Here at Wired.com we have been busy pimping out our own fridge-turned-kegerator, Beer Robot, and we wanted to pay tribute to the most extreme, tricked-out and awesome kegerators we’ve come across. Here are some of our favorites.

The Octane 120

Who knew mixing beer and videogames was such a good idea? Apparently a lot of people did, because there are no fewer than three different companies offering combination kegerator/arcades online, and at least one home-made one is in the works. Even our own Beer Robot has Space Invaders on one side.

Dream Arcade’s Octane 120, pictured above, takes top prize in this category for many reasons, but it could be a winner based solely on the fact that it has an “in dash beer tap.” Just in case the tap directly behind you isn’t close enough, you’ve got one right next to the steering wheel. You don’t even have to take your eyes off the road to refill your beer, let alone stand up.

It has a high-output DLP projector, a 120 inch projector screen and comes with your choice of Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or a gaming PC. Dream Arcades owner Mike Ware told Wired.com that the company is adding a removable arcade control panel and 200 classic arcade games, including Pac-man and Centipede.

The seat is adjustable, the steering wheel and shifter are leather-wrapped, the pedals have variable resistance, it can hold a full-size keg or two five-gallon kegs and, of course, there is a conveniently located drink holder directly below the dashboard tap so you can refill mid-game.

Yes please, I’ll take one of those … if it weren’t for the $6,000 price tag. I’d be more likely to own an actual car that costs this much. Not surprisingly, Dream Arcades does not sell a lot of these. “This is mainly a high-end toy for CEOs, actors and such,” Ware wrote in an e-mail to Wired.com. If you aren’t one of those, perhaps the standup arcade he plans to offer for $2,600 in time for Christmas is more your style.

Photo: Dream Arcade

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Top Gear for Elementary School Students

Primary school is a time when your tykes first learn about the wonders of the internet and the benefits of technology. And what better way to send them into the world than equipped with gear that's both fun and functional?

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Extreme, Custom and Pimped-Out Kegerators

We bring you 10 of the most incredible, tricked-out beer-cooling and beer-dispensing systems ever built.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

High School Gear for the Gossip Girl Set

Accept your inner Gossip Girl with gear even Blair Waldorf would love.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Become the Big Man (or Woman) on Campus

College is a time for experimentation and self-discovery. You're away from home for the first time, meeting new and exciting people, drinking new and exciting beverages and taking new and exciting drugs. But if you want to excel in academics and be a big shot on campus, you'd best pick up a bag filled with the following tech.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Wired.com's Got the Gear You Need On and Off Campus

From DIY kegerators to study drugs to PlayStation 3, Wired.com has all the tech you need to survive school.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

High School Gear for the Gossip Girl Set

Accept your inner Gossip Girl with gear even Blair Waldorf would love.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Extreme, Custom and Pimped-Out Kegerators

We bring you 10 of the most incredible, tricked-out beer-cooling and beer-dispensing systems ever built.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Top Gear for Elementary School Students

Primary school is a time when your tykes first learn about the wonders of the internet and the benefits of technology. And what better way to send them into the world than equipped with gear that's both fun and functional?

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

I Dream of Genius: Herbal Drugs Promise Big Neural Gains

Can a pill make you smarter? Wired.com puts four study aids to the test to see which ones nourish your neurons and which ones are just playing head games.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Become the Big Man (or Woman) on Campus

College is a time for experimentation and self-discovery. You're away from home for the first time, meeting new and exciting people, drinking new and exciting beverages and taking new and exciting drugs. But if you want to excel in academics and be a big shot on campus, you'd best pick up a bag filled with the following tech.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

I Dream of Genius: Herbal Drugs Promise Big Neural Gains

Can a pill make you smarter? Wired.com puts four study aids to the test to see which ones nourish your neurons and which ones are just playing head games.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Wired.com's Got the Gear You Need On and Off Campus

From DIY kegerators to study drugs to PlayStation 3, Wired.com has all the tech you need to survive school.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Confirmed: Foursquare Gets $1.35 Million To Play With From Union Square And O’Reilly AlphaTech

As we alluded to two days ago, the location-based social network Foursquare has just raised its first round of funding. PaidContent found out about the seed round through an SEC document, and we’ve confirmed the round with the company.

As expected, Union Square Ventures is one of the investors, but also participating in the round is O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and some angel investors, that co-founder Dennis Crowley was not ready to reveal at this point. The round is in fact $1.35 million.

For weeks, there has been plenty of talk about how Union Square’s Fred Wilson has taken a liking to the New York-based company. But it’s not Wilson who will be joining Foursquare’s board, instead that will be Union Square’s Albert Wenger.

Foursquare has been a hot startup among some tech early adopters, especially in cities like San Francisco and New York. The service is primarily used through its iPhone application right now, but it just launched an Android version, as we first reported two days ago. A BlackBerry app will be available in the coming weeks as well, and a Windows Mobile app could be available as soon as next month. There is also a mobile web interface that users can use.

Recently, Foursquare has started doing some things with its app to show the potential of using location for a business model. The company has started alerting users when there is a deal at a venue nearby. Right now, these deals are centered around “mayors” of places, meaning if a person has checked-in the most times at a location. Some venues are starting to offer deals like free beer to mayors, as it obviously benefits them to get people wantin to come back more to check-in.

Foursquare is an interesting player in the location space in that it’s just as much of a game as anything else. Users compete for mayorships, and try to earn badges and get points for checking in more places. The idea of the “check-in” rather than a constantly updated background location, also differentiates it, and makes some people less uneasy about the location tracking aspect, since you have to explicitly check-in at a location.

Foursquare was started by Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, after Crowley rather famously left Google not exactly pleased with the company after they bought his previous (similar) startup Dodgeball, and decided to do nothing with it. This past January, Google officially deadpooled it. Crowley maintains that he has a good relationship with Google now despite what happened.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:58 pm

23andMe Co-Founder Linda Avey Leaves Personal Genetics Start-Up to Focus on Alzheimer's Research [BoomTown]

BoomTown just got the following email from Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, the personal genetics start-up, about the departure of her co-founder, Linda Avey (pictured here). She will be starting a foundation related to Alzheimer’s disease.

The pair founded the high-profile company–whose Series A investors include Genentech (DNA), Google (GOOG) and New Enterprise Associates, as well as Wojcicki’s husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin–in 2006.

It has collected almost $23 million in funding.

Avey noted in an email to staff, which is posted in its entirety below: “I also recognize that the company has reached a critical point in its growth where new leadership can take it to the successful heights we all think it can achieve.”

Wojcicki’s email reads, in part:

I wanted to let you know that Linda Avey will be leaving 23andMe to focus her energy on transforming Alzheimer’s research and treatment, leveraging the 23andMe platform. Linda and I have talked about doing research in Alzheimer’s since the inception of the company. Linda, whose father-in-law recently died from the disorder, will be leveraging 23andMe’s platform as she works to revolutionize the research, treatments and prevention for Alzheimer’s.

Linda will be greatly missed by me and my colleagues but we’re glad she will continue to be in a related field, and we are committed to continuing the work that she and I started three years ago.

And here is the email from Avey to the staff, as well as Wojcicki’s below it and then the official press release:

Dear all-

As I trust you all know, 23andMe is very special to me. I also recognize that the company has reached a critical point in its growth where new leadership can take it to the successful heights we all think it can achieve.

I’ve decided that I’d like to focus my efforts on an area that is personally significant and will continue to have a huge impact on our healthcare system–Alzheimer’s disease. Effective today, I’m leaving 23andMe and have begun making plans for the creation of a foundation dedicated to the study of this disorder. The foundation will leverage the research platform we’ve built at 23andMe–the goal is to drive the formation of the world’s largest community of individuals with a family history of Alzheimer’s, empower them with their genetic information and track their brain health using state-of-the-art tools. We’ve always planned to include Alzheimer’s in our 23andWe research mission…I’m just approaching it from a new angle.

Some of you might be aware that my father-in-law suffered from Alzheimer’s and passed away last year. For this reason, Randy and I are motivated to do what we can to improve the understanding of what leads to the debilitating symptoms and what might prevent them from starting in the first place. The ApoE4 association is barely understood but gives us a great starting point.

I’ll miss working with you but will be excited to hear about the progress I know you’ll be making!

All the best,
Linda

Team:

As Linda has told you, she will be leaving 23andMe to focus her energy on transforming Alzheimer’s research and treatment, leveraging the 23andMe platform. While I am quite sad to see her leave I am excited and hopeful as she takes on this mission. As Linda’s co-founder and partner over the last three years, it has been clear that revolutionizing research has been a primary passion. Our drive to change health care has always had roots in our personal lives and we have tried to structure 23andMe so that any individual or organization could actively participate in research. Linda and I have talked about doing research in Alzheimer’s since the inception of the company and the need for the Alzheimer’s community to have a strong leader. With Linda’s involvement, I believe that the APOE4 community could be the first asymptomatic community to successfully develop preventative treatments. I hope that going forward we’ll both be able to shake up and transform the health care space, making health care and treatments better for all.

Linda’s departure is also a sign of 23andMe’s maturation. When we started the company, the personal genetics industry did not exist; now it is a thriving and competitive landscape. Our company has grown and we continue to be an innovative industry leader. While our success has been exceptional, it is also clear we have a lot of work ahead. We have created a significant and empowering tool, but we must find new and better ways to promote the value of knowing your DNA. In the weeks ahead, we will outline a strategy for the company that we believe will make genetics a routine part of health care and will lead us to making significant research discoveries.

Linda has been instrumental in making 23andMe what it is today and we thank her for her passion and dedication to the company. We have many exciting opportunities before us, and I look forward to working with all of you to make 23andMe a spectacular success.

Anne

Linda Avey to Create Alzheimer’s Foundation

Mountain View, CA–September 4, 2009–Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe, an industry leader in personal genetics, announced today that she is leaving the company to start a new foundation focused on Alzheimer’s disease. Ms. Avey’s foundation will leverage the 23andMe research platform to search for causes and treatments for the disease, which afflicts more than 5.2 million people in the United States.

Ms. Avey and Anne Wojcicki founded 23andMe together in 2006. The company provides personalized genetic information through DNA analysis and allows individuals to interact with their private information through a variety of web-based tools.

“I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished in the three years since Anne and I created 23andMe, and I am excited to take the next step in applying my experiences to one of the great health challenges of our time,” said Ms. Avey, who has more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. “There is a clear need for revolutionary research and concentrated effort to confront Alzheimer’s, and we need to start now in order to make meaningful progress. The resources are out there–my goal is to marshal them to find answers for families, like mine, who have lost family members to such a debilitating disease.”

Concurrent with Ms. Avey’s announcement, Ms. Wojcicki said that 23andMe expects to make its genetic data platform available to Ms. Avey’s foundation in order to advance its research.

“Linda has been a true partner with me over these last three years, an innovative leader for our company and our industry, and instrumental in making 23andMe what it is today,” said Wojcicki. “It is only fitting that she will be making full use of our work together and leveraging the 23andMe platform for a tremendous cause. We look forward to joining her as a partner in her efforts.”

Ms. Avey’s departure announced today takes effect immediately.

Here is a video, in two parts, of Avey and Wojcicki demoing some new features of 23andMe at the sixth D: All Things Digital conference in 2008.

In the first one, they introduce 23andMe, explain the main service and ask News Corp. (NWS) head Rupert Murdoch, Walt and me about our tolerance for milk and about our racing abilities. (Full disclosure: News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones and this Web site.)

In the second one, Avey and Wojcicki survey Murdoch on his genetic traits and show me what genes my kids have in common (and discover that I am not hyperactive).

Here are the D6 demos:

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:49 pm

AT&T Addresses Network Challenges, iPhone’s MMS Delay in Video

As a follow-up to Thursday’s announcement that multimedia messaging is finally arriving for iPhones on Sept. 25, AT&T has posted a video outlining the growth of smartphone traffic to explain why it’s taken this long to deliver MMS.

The video stars Seth Bloom, AT&T’s spokesman, who explains some of the technical intricacies involved in expanding the network to support services, including MMS, for iPhone. Here at Wired.com we’ve corresponded with Bloom often for comment regarding AT&T and the iPhone, and we like working with the guy. We like the video, too, because it does a decent job offering technical explanation to help justify the delay.

But the comments in the YouTube forum suggest that customers don’t appreciate this video as much as we do. Perhaps it would’ve been a better move in June, when Apple originally announced AT&T iPhone customers would have to wait until “late summer” for MMS. An earlier explanation (as opposed to a vague statement) probably would’ve evaded a lawsuit filed by an iPhone customer upset about the delay in MMS.

This could serve as a PR lesson for AT&T, whose notoriety has increased exponentially ever since the iPhone 3G exploded into the mainstream: When there’s damage, seek to rectify it as fast as you can.

See Also:

• How AT&T Stumbled Through the iPhone 3GS Launch
• iPhone Owner Sues AT&T, Apple for Tricky MMS Marketing
• AT&T Breaks Promise to Deliver iPhone MMS by ‘Late Summer …
• AT&T: SlingPlayer for iPhone Would ‘Create Congestion’ for 3G …
• Wired.com’s iPhone 3G Survey Reveals Network Weaknesses
• AT&T Plans 3G Network Upgrades, 4G Rollout
• What’s Wrong With the 3G in iPhone 3G?
• IPhone Users Report Network Outages; Second 3G Lawsuit Emerges …
• Suit Alleges AT&T, Apple ‘Oversold’ iPhone, Strained 3G Network …

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:47 pm

AT&T Responds to iPhone MMS Irritation - PC World

Ars Technica

AT&T Responds to iPhone MMS Irritation PC World AT&T's been catching a lot of flak since announcing its delayed launch of MMS support for the iPhone this week. In addition to missing its original (and self-set) "late summer" deadline for introducing the multimedia messaging service, the company has ... AT&T defends its iPhone network via YouTube outreachApple Insider Friday Poll: MMS is iphone-bound; now what?CNET News Better Later Than Never: iphone Finally Gets MMS on September 25DailyTech InformationWeek -ZDNet -San Francisco Chronicle all 677 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:42 pm

Don’t forget, Star Trek returns to IMAX today

Kiddies, you must go to your local IMAX theater and see Star Trek during its two week re-run. Even if you saw it the first time around on a standard screen. Trust me, it’s so worth it on an IMAX screen. Click through for a list of the participating IMAX screens.

Theater List

Mesa , AZ – Gateway 12 + IMAX Theatre
Phoenix , AZ – Deer Valley 30 with IMAX
Aliso Viejo , CA – Aliso Viejo Stadium 20 with IMAX
Camarillo , CA – Camarillo 12 with IMAX
El Dorado Hills , CA – El Dorado Hills Stadium 14 with IMAX
Emeryville , CA – Bay Street 16 with IMAX
Escondido , CA – Escondido Stadium 16 with IMAX
Fairfield , CA – Fairfield Stadium 16 + IMAX
Fresno , CA – Fresno Stadium 21 + IMAX
Ontario , CA – Ontario Palace Stadium 22 + IMAX
San Diego , CA – Palm Promenade 24 with IMAX
Santa Clara , CA – Mercado 20 with IMAX
Simi Valley , CA – Civic Center Stadium 16 + IMAX
South Gate , CA – South Gate Stadium 20 with IMAX
Stockton , CA – Downtown Stockton 16 + IMAX
Universal City , CA – Citywalk Stadium 19 with IMAX
Westchester , CA – Bridge De Lux 18 + IMAX
Altamonte Springs , FL – Altamonte Mall 18 with IMAX
Aventura , FL – Aventura Mall 24 with IMAX
Cape Canaveral , FL – IMAX Theater
Fort Myers , FL – Gulf Coast Town Center Stadium 16 + IMAX
Jacksonville , FL – Regency 24 with IMAX
Orange Park , FL – Orange Park 24 with IMAX
Orlando , FL – Pointe Orlando Stadium 20 + IMAX
Orlando , FL – Waterford Lakes Stadium 20 with IMAX
St Petersberg , FL – Baywalk 19 + IMAX
Tallahassee , FL – IMAX Theatre Tallahassee
Tampa , FL – Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI)
Tampa , FL – Veterans 24 with IMAX
Tampa , FL – Channelside Cinemas Stadium 9 + IMAX
Augusta , GA – Augusta Exchange Stadium 20 + IMAX
Kennesaw , GA – Barrett Commons 24 with IMAX
Morrow , GA – Southlake Pavilion 24 with IMAX Honolulu , HI – Dole Cannery 18 with IMAX
Boise , ID – Boise Stadium 21 + IMAX
Batavia , IL – Randall 14 + IMAX
Lincolnshire , IL – Lincolnshire Stadium 20 + IMAX
Woodridge , IL – Cinemark 16 + IMAX
Noblesville , IN – Hamilton 16 IMAX
Portage , IN – Portage 15 + IMAX
Louisville , KY – Stoney Brook IMAX
Newport , KY – Newport Levee 20 with IMAX
Harahan , LA – Elmwood Palace 20 with IMAX
Boston , MA – New England Aquarium
Saco , ME – Cinemagic Saco 12 with IMAX
Detroit , MI – Detroit Science Center IMAX Theatre
Grand Blanc , MI – NCG Trillium Cinema + IMAX
Lansing , MI – Celebration – Lansing 19 + IMAX
Sterling Heights , MI – Forum 30 with IMAX
Ypsilanti , MI – Showcase Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX
Roseville , MN – Rosedale 14 with IMAX
Saint Louis , MO – Ronnies Cinemas 19 + IMAX
Charlotte , NC – Stonecrest At Piper Glen Stadium 22 with IMAX
Concord , NC – Concord Mills 24 with IMAX
Council Bluffs , NE – Star Cinema 16 with IMAX
Henderson , NV – Sunset Station Stadium 13 with IMAX
Las Vegas , NV – Brenden Palms 13 + IMAX
Las Vegas , NV – Red Rock Stadium 15 + IMAX
North Las Vegas , NV – Aliante Station 16 with IMAX
Brooklyn , NY – Sheepshead Bay 14 with IMAX
Deer Park , NY – Deer Park Stadium 16 and IMAX
New Rochelle , NY – New Roc City Stadium 18 + IMAX
Williamsville , NY – Transit Center Stadium 18 +IMAX
Columbus , OH – Easton Town Center 30 with IMAX
Springdale , OH – Showcase Springdale 18 IMAX
Bensalem , PA – Neshaminy 24 with IMAX
Homestead , PA – Waterfront 22 with IMAX
Philadelphia , PA – Tuttleman IMAX – Franklin Institute
Tarentum , PA – Pittsburgh Mills Mall 17 + IMAX
Myrtle Beach , SC – IMAX Discovery Theatre
Chattanooga , TN – Tennessee Aquarium
Knoxville , TN – Pinnacle Stadium Cinemas 17 + IMAX
Colleyville , TX – Colleyville Cinema Grille & IMAX
Garland , TX – Firewheel 18 with IMAX
Houston , TX – Gulf Pointe 30 with IMAX
Mesquite , TX – Mesquite 30 with IMAX
Sugarland , TX – First Colony 24 with IMAX
Sandy , UT – Jordan Commons 16 + IMAX
Midlothian , VA – Commonwealth Stadium 20 with IMAX
Virginia Beach , VA – Lynnhaven 18 with IMAX
Woodbridge , VA – Potomac Mills 18 with IMAX
Kent , WA – Kent Station 14 with IMAX
Lacey , WA – Martin Village Stadium 16 + IMAX

Canada

Hull , QC – Canadian Museum Of Civilization
Victoria , BC – National Geographic Theater

[pic via cinemablend]

Source: CrunchGear | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:40 pm

Mixing Coal and Solar To Produce Cheaper Energy

Al writes "It might not please many environmentalists, but a major energy company is adding solar-thermal power to a coal plant and says this could be the cost-effective way to produce energy while lowering CO2 emissions. Abengoa Solar and Xcel Energy, Colorado's largest electrical utility, have begun modifying the coal plant, which is based near Grand Junction, Colorado. Under the design, parabolic troughs will be used to preheat water that will be fed into the coal plant's boilers, where coal is burned to turn the water into steam. Cost savings comes from using existing turbines and generators and from operating at higher efficiencies, since the turbines and generators in solar-thermal plants are normally optimized to run at the lower temperatures generated by parabolic mirrors."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:40 pm

AT&T Has A Human Working For It. And His Name Is Seth.

It’s pretty easy these days to think of AT&T as a giant corporation of demons sent to Earth to destroy iPhone users’ productivity. But apparently, it is a company just like any other, with humans working for it. How do we know? There is video evidence.

Apple 2.0’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt posted a video of Seth Bloom today, an AT&T rep that is also know as “Seth the blogger guy.” In this video, Bloom explains AT&T’s iPhone MMS service, which was finally announced the other day (set for September 25), as well as some of the issues that plague AT&T’s network due to his smartphone usage (read: iPhone usage).

We’ve actually been working with Bloom for a number of months as AT&T issues have continued to mount. He’s quite helpful in answering the questions that he’s allowed to answer, which we appreciate. The problem Bloom has is that he can only answer questions, he can’t actually solve AT&T’s problems. And while the network is trying, it’s still not where it needs to be in many regards.

But that’s why these videos are good, they humanize AT&T. Rather than having us cite an AT&T spokesperson talking about the issues they’re facing, it’s good to put a face to the problems. Again, this doesn’t solve them, but hearing them explained from AT&T is a smart play. Certainly smarter than saying nothing.

Of course, as Elmer-DeWitt notes, Bloom has actually been doing these videos for a while, but when AT&T starting running into some reason problems over the summer, he went silent. Now he’s back that AT&T has some good news to offer (MMS). If anything, we could use these videos more when AT&T is having issues.

Speaking of those issues, PC World has a rather ridiculous headline today, “Network Woes? Hate the iPhone, Not AT&T.” The main idea is that it’s the iPhone fault for AT&T’s service issues because it’s so popular and is overloading their network. That’s undoubtedly true, but it completely skirts around the fact that we’re all paying a large amount of money for a service that is completely unreliable.

It would be much easier to cut AT&T a break in that regard if they were to say, offer up discounts to paying customers for poor service performance. It’s simply hard to feel bad for a company you’re paying in excess of $100 a month to, for a service they’re failing to provide.

It’s certainly a fair point that the massive success of the iPhone likely would have overloaded any company, including Verizon. But if anything, that speaks to why we need to get rid of the exclusivity agreements.

Watch Bloom below:

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:39 pm

AT&T Responds to iPhone MMS Irritation (PC World)

PC World - AT&T's been catching a lot of flak since announcing its delayed launch of MMS support for the iPhone this week. In addition to missing its original (and self-set) "late summer" deadline for introducing the multimedia messaging service, the company has neglected to provide any update on the status of tethering -- another long-demanded feature made available by the iPhone 3.0 update but not yet offered to AT&T customers.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:39 pm

The Hurt Keeps Coming: Dish And EchoStar Ordered To Pay TiVo Another $200 Million

The battle between Dish and TiVo rages on. As reported by Bloomberg, a judge has ruled that Dish and EchoStar must pay TiVo around $200 million for continuing to provide DVR service to its customers after being told to stop because it was violating TiVo’s patents. Dish and EchoStar plan to appeal the ruling.

The new ruling brings Dish and EchoStar’s total payments to TiVo to around $400 million in damages and other fees after a five year legal battle. In this latest round, Dish and EchoStar say they tried to work around TiVo’s patents, but a judge ruled that they had failed to do so. The $200 million figure is based on a $2.25 per month royalty for every Dish DVR user, extending from April 2008, when an appeals court reaffirmed TiVo’s patent, to July 1 2009.

It could have been worse. TiVo was looking for nearly $1 billion — or all of Dish’s DVR profits — as it accused Dish and EchoStar of willingly infringing on its patent. The judge ruled that the infringement had been unwilling (in other words, the companies had tried to work around the patent but failed to do so), hence the smaller penalty.

None of this bodes well for AT&T and Verizon, who are also being sued by Tivo for infringing on its “Time Warping” patent.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:18 pm

Red Hat defends its subscription license model for Linux (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - Anyone finding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) subscriptions a tough sell for management used to Microsoft's one-time license fee for Windows must emphasize that there are more factors to be considered, chiefly return on investment, Red Hat officials said Friday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:14 pm

Town declares plastic pink flamingo its official bird, Sims cities should, too

FROM GAMERTELL - If Madison, Wisc., can do it, why not The Sims? Come on EA, we love the pink bird, too!
MORE »

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:12 pm

Lasers Generate Underwater Sound

Image Caption: Scattered light from a 532 nm laser pulse can be seen as it enters the water in the Salt Water Tank Facility, and ionizes a small volume of water for acoustic generation. Air bubblers and controlled water and air temperatures can create ocean-like conditions in the laboratory.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:11 pm

HealthHiway Raises $4 Million For Web-Based Hospital Software

Indian software company HealthHiway has raised $4 million in an unattributed round of funding from Greylock Partners. Based in Bangalore, India, HealthHiway provides web-based software to help hospitals, clinics, insurance providers, pharmacies and diagnostic centers collaborate on billing, patient records, x-rays and claims.

Launched in 2007, HealthHiway was started by the Apollo Hospital Group, one of the largest healthcare groups in India, and offers clients a number of software products.
ClinicConnect organizes patient registration and medical records, ClaimsExchange is an online claims processing system, and ImageConnect captures and processes radio images such as X-rays, CTs and MRIs that can then be shared.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:05 pm

DivX Announces Jerry Murdock to Resign From Its Board of Directors

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIVX), a digital media company, today announced that Jerry Murdock has submitted his resignation from the Board of Directors of the Company, effective December 31, 2009. Mr.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:05 pm

Genetically superior: Man tries to beat GTA IV record of most hours consecutively played

What’s the longest you’ve ever played GTA IV? A couple of hours, maybe? That’s a shame, since the official Guinness World Record currently stands at 28 hours. “Currently” is the operative word, since a 26-year-old man is currently attempting to break said record.

The beauty of it is that you can follow the man’s exploits live on Ustream. It’s pretty much just a guy playing GTA IV, so not exactly must-see-TV.

One of the people in the video has an Arsenal shirt on, so that’s neat.

All of us here wish the man nothing but the best of luck in his future endeavors.

And I sincerely hate to use the same pic as Destructoid did, but it’s just too perfect not to use.

Source: CrunchGear | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:00 pm

SLIDE SHOW: The Week's Top Stories

Take a look at the past week's top news in the Flashback Slide Show.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 2:00 pm

Study suggests type 2 diabetics eat poorly

A study of people with type 2 diabetes suggests many of them would benefit from dietary counseling, researchers in North Carolina said. The most important thing about controlling diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, is being able to manage energy in and energy out, and the best way to do that is through diet, said Mara Vitolins, lead author of the study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In a study of 2,575 type 2 diabetics though out the United States, Vitolins and her team found 93 percent exceeded the recommended percentage of daily calories from fat, 85 percent exceeded the saturated fat recommendation and 92 percent consumed too much sodium. Less than half of those in the study met the minimum recommended daily servings of fruits, vegetables, dairy products and grains based on the year 2000 U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:59 pm

San Francisco Shops Offer Free Tattoos to Sellouts

Attention all Apple, Microsoft and whatever-brands-people-worship-these-days fanboys and fangirls: Your weekend has come. On Sept. 6 and Sept. 7, San Francisco tattoo studios are offering to tattoo your favorite brands for free.

You can reserve any piece of flesh as permanent advertising space for whatever company you wish: A Swatch cross stamped on your wrist, orange Cheetos to replace your eyebrows, or an Apple logo slapped on your left butt cheek. You name it.

Source: MyBrandz (Thanks, Debra!)

Photo: Sigalkos/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:55 pm

Full Coverage From Penny Arcade Expo

Labor Day weekend gets its game on in Seattle. Get the latest live reports from the massive show.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:55 pm

Symantec Wants To Use Victims To Hunt Computer Criminals

Hugh Pickens writes "Business Week reports that security experts plan to recruit victims and other computer users to help them go on the offensive and hunt down hackers. '"It's time to stop building burglar alarms to keep people out and go after the bad guys," says Rowan Trollope, senior vice-president for consumer products at Symantec, the largest maker of antivirus software. Symantec will ask customers to opt in to a program that will collect data about attempted computer intrusions and then forward the information to authorities. Symantec will also begin posting the FBI's top 10 hackers and their schemes on its Web site, where customers go for software updates and next year the company will begin offering cash bounties for information leading to an arrest. The strategy has its risks as hackers who find novices on their trail may trash their computers or steal their identities as punishment. Citizen hunters could also become cybervigilantes and harm bystanders as they pursue criminals but Symantec is betting customers won't mind being disrupted if they can help snare the bad guys. "I'm convinced we can clean up the Internet in 10 years if we can peel away the dirt and show people the threats they're facing," says Trollope.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:48 pm

Thicker Thighs May Mean a Stronger Heart

The thinner your thighs, the greater your of heart disease, says a new study.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:45 pm

The Arctic's geological record indicates warming is human-caused - Los Angeles Times

CBC.ca

The Arctic's geological record indicates warming is human-caused Los Angeles Times Close study of the sediment timeline shows that increased ice melt coincides with the birth of the Industrial Age. It's strong evidence that global warming is man's work, researchers say. By Thomas H. Maugh II Long-term climate records from the Arctic ... Studies of the Arctic Suggest a Dire SituationTIME Arctic now warmest in 2000 years, researchers sayReuters Next Ice Age Delayed by Global Warming, Study SaysNational Geographic The Associated Press -San Francisco Chronicle -MiamiHerald.com all 685 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:40 pm

The Growing Problem Of E-Waste

Disposal and recycling standards for old computer equipment and other electronic waste must be harmonized for this rapidly growing problem to be dealt with effectively across national borders.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:38 pm

CNET loves them the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

OK, the bad: the Oppo BDP-83 is $500, it doesn’t have WiFi or any digital download dilvery system like Netflix, Pandora, Amazon, or YouTube. But on the plus, CNET ranked the player above all others - including the PS3 - and that’s good enough for me. Where’s my credit card…

Source: CrunchGear | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:30 pm

Google’s Android app store to get makeover

Section: Communications, Smartphones, Computers, Software / Applications

According to a blog post on Thursday from Google, the Android Market, Google’s application store will get a makeover when the latest 1.6 version is released.  The update will allow developers to better market their applications by having the ability to provide screenshots and descriptions.

More sub-categories are being added as well in order to help provide more targeted search results.  These categories include health, themes, comics and sports.  The interface of Google’s Android Market is getting an overhaul as well.  New buttons are being added to the site to provide easier navigation.  You can now search applications by Top Paid, Top Free, and Just In, a similar set up to Apple’s iTunes App Store.  There is also a new search icon at the top of the page.

Since January, Google has been selling paid applications through Android Market for use on Android devices.  New features added to the store should hopefully drive traffic to the site since paid application sales have been poor.

Read: [Android Developers Blog]

 

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:30 pm

BLOG: Tree Houses Hit New Heights

Take a look at the world's first tower made from living white willow trees.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:30 pm

SLIDE SHOW: Top 10 Extreme Observatories

Explore how far scientists will go to search the sky with these extreme observatories.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:30 pm

Google Algorithm Predicts When Species Will Go 404, Not Found

Computational biologists have used the Google PageRank algorithm to identify critical species in an ecosystem — and it turns out the algorithm that pops up the most relevant web pages in a search is good at predicting coextinctions, too.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:28 pm

Privacy Group Asks to Join Google Book Lawsuit

A privacy group seeks to intervene in the Google Books settlement, arguing that traditional reader privacy rights are endangered and Google privacy promises aren't enough. At stake is the library and bookstore of the future.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:15 pm

Alcohol impairs vision, blurs faces

Alcohol consumption impairs vision and makes faces appear less clear, South Korean researchers studying sexual attraction have determined. Researchers at Kyungwoon University asked 10 adults with an average age of 22.4 years and healthy vision to each drink a 12-ounce bottle of soju, a Korean drink with an alcohol content of 19.7 percent, The Chosun Ilbo reported Friday. An hour later, the average blood-alcohol content was at its highest at 0.32 percent and the participants' vision, on average, had dropped 0.32 diopters, said Cho Hyun-gug, a professor of visual optics who led the research. Three hours later, the average blood-alcohol level was 0.17 percent with vision, on average, down 0.27 diopters.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:08 pm

$1000 iPhone cases belong to samurai, at least in spirit

These iPhone cases from Japanese phone company Softbank were designed specifically to look like they belong to samurai. Each design is themed after a famous warrior's characteristics &mdash for example, the one with the crescent moon would have belonged to Date Masamune, a warlord whose helmet had a crescent moon on it, too. They're made of lacquer with gold specks, which only partially explains the $1000 price tag.

[Japanese press release via Cnet]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:02 pm

Who is this guy? Duke from G.I. Joe?

Ok, I stated that astronauts have balls of steel yesterday. That is still true, but this guy is in a totally different league. That’s a F-18 Hornet a foot above his head. [via Geekologie]

Source: CrunchGear | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

CrunchBoard: Threadless, SlideShare, and More!

If you’re on the hunt for a new job, check out our CrunchBoard. We’ve added nearly 50 new jobs from leading internet businesses in the last two weeks. Here’s a quick sample:

• Senior Developer
  Threadless - Chicago, IL

• VP, Products
  TokBox, Inc. - San Francisco, CA

• Senior Operations Engineer
  SlideShare - San Francisco, CA

• Marketing Manager
  TrialPlay- Mountain View, CA

• Operations Manager, Digital Media International
  MTV Networks International - New York, NY

For job hunters in Europe, check out our Europe CrunchBoard.

Click here to see all the jobs on CrunchBoard.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

MG Explains Why ISPs Want To Lower The Definition Of Broadband

Video Games - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

What’s the deal with Comcast, Verizon, and other ISPs petitioning the FCC to lower the definition of broadband? It’s all about money—broadband stimulus money—MG Siegler explains on G4’s Attack of the Show.

As the Obama administration looks to expand broadband access to rural and urban areas that are still under-served, the ISPs want to lower what constitutes broadband so that they can get some of the billions of dollars in stimulus money without shelling out as much to actually deliver the broadband access the stimulus package is designed to create.

Those phone and cable companies are tricky. Watch the video above.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:57 pm

Australian Scientists Introduce Reef And Beef Project

Scientists in Australia have launched a new project that will give new meaning to the term “surf and turf.”Under the so-called “reef and beef” program, researchers Tony Parker, from James Cook University, and partner Rocky de Nys, plan to feed cows seaweed in order to reduce their carbon emissions.The researchers have estimated that cow flatulence accounts for 20 percent of man-made methane emissions.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:50 pm

Urine, wood ash potent fertilizer

Human urine mixed with wood ash makes a potent, inexpensive fertilizer without risk of disease, scientists in Finland have learned. The mix can be safely substituted for expensive synthetic fertilizers to produce abundant crops, researchers at the University of Kuopio said. During the winter of 2007-08, researchers Surendra Pradhan and Helvi Heinonen-Tanski collected human urine from several eco-toilets in private homes, storing the urine for six months at 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:42 pm

AT&T: Seth The Blogger Guy Responds on Network Issues [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

So, AT&T (T) has jumped into action in response to the growing chorus of complaints about the deteriorating quality of the company’s wireless network: they’ve posted a video by someone called Seth the Blogger Guy. (He’s actually Seth Bloom, who works in the telco’s PR group.)

Sayeth Seth: “The bottom line is this: we have heard you. We are on it. And we will use this hard-won experience to lead the industry into the future.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:39 pm

New TechCrunch50 Logo, And Our Apologies To Apple

We’re happy to show off our new TechCrunch50 logo this morning. The old logo, which is below, was getting a little stale.

The logo was created by DESIGN about TOWN, who worked with us over the last few weeks on a number of concepts.

The goal of the logo is to convey a sense of community and discussion. Thus, the text chat bubble. Real time feedback from the audience and judges to launching startups is a crucial part of the culture of TechCrunch50.

Our apologies to Apple, who may think they now own the idea of a text bubble. If you want to discuss, you know where to find us. And we promise we were locked into this design before the news about the supposed trademark.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:37 pm

New Era Of Conferencing Technology

Poor image and sound quality is encountered all too frequently in the world of video and telephone conferencing, but powerful compression technologies are set to consign these problems to the past – even in the humble living room.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:31 pm

The Black Diamond Sprinter, a headlamp for traveling night runners

Some people like to run in the morning. Others like to run in the mid-afternoon. Yet others wait until the sun goes down to hit the pavements &mdash maybe because the air is cooler and streets are emptier, or they're just too busy during daylight. Black Diamond's new Sprinter headlamp that could be a lifesaver for the latter, especially if you're a night runner who travels a lot. The Sprinter has an adjustable but very-bright-at-its-max beam that extends up to 54 feet so you don't run into anything, and a flashing red LED on the back so nothing runs into you. The neatest thing about the Sprinter is that it's rechargeable, and comes with three additional outlet plugs for when you're traveling overseas. The Sprinter hits stores next month and costs $80.

[Black Diamond Equipment]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:30 pm

Hands-on video with the Sharp PC-Z1

This teeny, tiny little laptop is really teeny. It almost unusable and, as to be expected from Japanese laptops like these, not really meant for the Shrek-like Western mitts. The woman who showed it to me was really nice.

It runs Ubuntu and has a tiny screen. No specs but seriously - what are you going to do with this? Prop up a table leg?

Source: CrunchGear | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:30 pm

Hood to Coast 2009

This past Monday, when my co-workers asked me what I did over the weekend, I casually mentioned that I ran a 197 mile race. Thankfully, Hood to Coast is a relay, so I finished with my legs intact after journeying from Mount Hood to Seaside, Oregon with 11 other Googlers.

Team Google One was comprised of Googlers from the AdSense, AdWords and engineering groups. We competed against more than 1,000 other teams, including blazing fast running shoe companies and other tech companies.

We kicked off the first leg near the top of Mount Hood at 6:45 pm last Friday, as our first runner barreled down 4,000 feet of elevation. During the relay, each team member ran three legs, varying in distance from three to eight miles. At exchanges, the current runner handed off a snap bracelet baton and cheered on his swiftly departing teammate. When not running, we wolfed down PB&J's, and slept in the vans or in massive congregations of sleeping bags along the road.

We started with the sun setting over dramatic gray-blue mountains and ran through the night as reflective vests became fireflies flickering down country roads. We finished at 2:25 pm Saturday afternoon in 19 hours and 40 minutes on the beach where a funk band was laying down some grooves. The time earned us eighth place overall and second place in the corporate division, according to the still unofficial results (PDF).

In addition to medals, we walked away with sore legs, cross-office friendships and some great stories.

Team Google One pauses for a moment as we prepare to descend Mount Hood

Posted by Matt Kane, Associate, Consumer Operations

Source: The Official Google Blog | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:27 pm

LG Chocolate BL20 is a bit less crazy than that other one

Our collective jaw just about hit the floor when we first saw the first leaks of the LG BL40. Not because it had a touchscreen, and not because it could double as a yardstick, but because it looked nothing like any Chocolate-branded device we’d seen before. All of the Chocolate handsets that came before were wonky little sliders with an occasional flip phone thrown in for good measure; we figured thats where the brand would stay.

Well, it doesn’t seem that LG’s quite ready to leave that comfort zone entirely just yet. Dutch phone site All About Phones was wandering the halls of the IFA trade show in Berlin when they spotted in: a full page ad dedicated to the LG Chocolate BL20, an as-of-yet unannounced handset, complete with images and specs. It’s much more along the lines of what we’d expect from a Chocolate phone - that is, it’s a kind of boring (though rather pretty) slider.

[Via GSMArena]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:20 pm

Britain’s Oldest Working Computer Roars to Life

The oldest original working computer in the U.K., which has been in storage for nearly 30 years, is getting restored to its former glory.

The Harwell computer, also known as WITCH, is getting a second lease on life at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The machine is the oldest surviving computer whose programs, as well as data, are stored electronically, according to the museum.

The Harwell WITCH is a relay-based machine that used 900 Dekatron gas-filled tubes, each of which could hold a single digit in memory. It has paper tape for both data input and program storage. The computer was used in the design of Britain’s first nuclear reactors. (Read more about the computers used at Harwell in the 1940s and 1950s.)

“Its promises for reliability over speed were certainly met – it was definitely the tortoise in the tortoise and the hare fable,” says Kevin Murrell, a director and trustee of The National Museum of Computing. “In a race with a human mathematician using a mechanical calculator, the human kept pace for 30 minutes, but then had to retire exhausted as the machine carried on remorselessly. The machine once ran for ten days unattended over a Christmas and New Year holiday period.”

It was a feat for its time. Harwell was operational until 1957 and was then used in computer education until 1973. After that it was disassembled and put in storage–only to be revived now.

The Harwell will be housed alongside the rebuild of the earlier, code-breaking Colossus Mark II, the world’s first electronic computer.

Check out more photos and video of the Harwell computer below.

B.F.H. Coleman, a lecturer in charge of digital computing at Wolverhampton College of Technology, checks a punched tape for the 1950s WITCH. The picture above was taken in1964.

Also see BBC’s video of the Harwell computer.

Top image: The machine being used at Wolverhampton and Staffordshire College of Technology in 1961

Photos courtesy of The National Computing Museum and Computer Conservation Society/UKAEA/Wolverhampton Express and Star

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:08 pm

SAP Named Highest-Ranked Software Company in 2009 Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes

WALLDORF, Germany, Sept.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:08 pm

Britain's Oldest Working Computer Gets Restored

The Harwell computer, which has been in storage for 30 years, will be revived and put on display at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park in England.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:08 pm

DNA shows farmers replaced hunter-gatherer

The ancestors of modern-day Europeans likely were farmers and not hunter-gatherers, British researchers said. DNA analysis taken from burial grounds suggests early farmers migrated into Europe with plants and domesticated animals and replaced Stone Age hunter-gatherers, geneticist Mark Thomas of University College London said in a release Friday. There is little evidence of a genetic link between the hunter-gatherers and the early farmers, said Thomas, who worked with researchers at Germany's Mainz University. Humans arrived in Europe 45,000 years ago and replaced Neanderthals.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Google Plans Update to Android Market - PC World

Geeky gadgets

Google Plans Update to Android Market PC World Google is promising changes to the Android Market, the same week that a prominent application developer complained about issues with the store. The changes, to be introduced "soon," address some of the common developer complaints, but not all of them. ... Google Revamping Android MarketInformationWeek Google tweaking Android MarketCNET News Google Sprucing Up Android MarketMediapost.com PC Magazine -BetaNews -FOXBusiness all 71 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:54 am

Google Algorithm Detects Critical Species

Google's algorithm for ranking web-pages can be used to determine which species are critical for sustaining ecosystems. Drs.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:50 am

Pretty designer juicer with integrated seed-stopper

Not only does this lemon squeezer look good, it also has a little scoop that catches seeds and prevents them from falling into the juice.

[Joseph Joseph via Dezeen]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:45 am

Who’s on Crack in Tech 09.04.09

Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Gaming, Web, Downloads, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack

Welcome to this week’s “Who’s on Crack,” where I get to point out events of the week that lead us to suspect perhaps drugs were involved in reaching their decision to move forward.  Behind every product is someone who said, “This is going to make us rich!” and about 90% of the time consumers say, “Are you freaking kidding me?”  Here’s my list for this week:

• Guitar Hero course at NYU ruffles feathers
• NFL wants to control Twitter
• MS to drop WinMo 6.5 in October
• The poor hate knock offs too

Bothered by Guitar Hero?  I agree.

This fall, 16 students will surprise their parents by taking a class in Guitar Hero, the popular video game.  From our sister site Gamertell, “New York University professor Gary Marcus is teaching a freshman seminar called ‘Guitar Heroes (and Heroines): Music, Video Games and the Nature of Human Cognition.’ No, really.”

My problem with NYU offering a course on Guitar Here is simple: they picked the wrong game.  Who needs help with the five finger fret?  What would be helpful and worthy of a lot of my parents money would be help with Mario Kart.  I mean, how many vehicles/character combination have you figured out?  Throw in your Wii Mii and the variables grow higher.

Imagine the topics: Risk Analysis and the Green Turtle Shell; Short Cuts and Their Emotional Impact,  Cornering: Advanced Drifting (prerequisite: driver’s license and health form waiver).  Mushrooms gone bad.  I could go on all day and still not be done.

Guitar Hero is such a shallow game: like following the bouncing ball it, the game is spoon fed.  Don’t get me wrong, I love rocking out with everyone else, but don’t believe that many students need help with the game.  Just commit to endless hours like the rest of us and you’ll get it.  A student’s $50k a year would be better served by learning the finer points of Mario Kart’ I think we could even convince parents of this.  Almost.

The NFL bans more stuff

The NFL is overbearing regarding all its properties.  The league is no stranger to restricting anything it believes it can control and in this case, it has set its sights on tech.  From Gadgetell: 

“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.”

Can you imagine the NFL employee that has to sift through each player’s Twitter and Facebook accounts checking the time on postings to ensure they are clear of violations?  What a load of garbage!  Fan interaction is a bad thing?  Are we next to ban smiling to the camera? 

Or did the NFL just buy a bunch of stock in MySpace who doesn’t seem to be listed a place you can’t post?  If so, well played, NFL.  We’ll add NFL players to the bands and pervs that hang there.

Windows Mobile to update version on October 6

A quick 20 months after moving to 6.1, the crackerjack Windows Mobile team is set to crank out 6.5 this fall.  It feels like I just updated my Samsung Blackjack to 6.0 and already here comes 6.5?  The funny thing is the iPhone I replaced it with is almost out of its 2-year contract.  Does the Windows folks giggle at that too?

With all the hype of the coming Android phones, the Palm Pre and possibly a new webOS version, Nokia trying to make inroads, who’s going to be wowed by these?  I am not sure and I don’t think the MS folks are either.  Is there room at the table still or did Android steal their seat at the end of the last tune?

The poor hate knock offs too

Our Heather Wood shined some light on seemingly do-gooders efforts to turn lemons into lemonade: the new counterfeit give-a-way program.  As Ms. Wood explains: “starting next month, the New Jersey and New York branches of US Customs and Border Protection are planning to launch a program that involves donating seized counterfeit iPods, TVs, DVDs, and clothing items to the poor and homeless.”

Seemingly harmless, possibly helpful, right?  No.  Have you ever tried to use some of these products?  Trying to load a song from your computer can be frustrating at best.  It is like dropping off a load of brussels sprouts at your local food bank or donating your worn-out, smelly Stan Smiths you used to mow the lawn 1,000 times.  Thanks, but no thanks.

What’s to stop these folks from eBaying these trinkets and thus putting the fake gear back on the market (though the fake logos will have to be put back on)?  The very goods they took off the streets go back, get captured again, given back the folks that sold them only to sell them one more time.  Around and around we go.

Obviously, I am kidding here and surely the program has the right intentions, I just don’t know how practical it is.

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:44 am

Fox Adds Tweets To Reruns

On Thursday night, Fox ventured into new territory by adding tweets to a rerun of its “Fringe” program.The move represents the network’s attempt at capitalizing from the broad popularity being enjoyed by the microblogging site.Throughout the entirety of the rerun, Fox ran tweets written by executive producers Jeff Pinkner (JPFringe) and J.H.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:40 am

Scientists find new way to study quakes

A new method of monitoring earthquakes allows scientists to better understand the behavior of deep tremors, Scottish researchers said. By studying seismic waves from separate earthquakes, scientists at the University of Edinburgh were able to measure tremors deeper in the Earth than they could
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:38 am

AT&T Contributes $30,000 to the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Red Cross to Help Local Families Displaced by Fires

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- To help California residents displaced due to the wildfires in the Los Angeles area, AT&T California today announced it is contributing $30,000 to the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:27 am

Liquidware Labs Named as Finalist in the Best of VMworld 2009 Awards

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Liquidware Labs Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:20 am

Half of Solar Firms to Fail, Analyst Says [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

Half of the existing solar manufacturers may not survive through the end of next year, according to the market research firm The Information Network, as reported by DigiTimes.

The piece said Information Network chief Robert Castellano believes “massive inventory buildup and huge overcapacity” are having a serious impact on solar panel manufacturers. The industry is up to 122 days of inventory, from an average 71 days in 2008, he reports. Capacity utilization in the industry is down to 27.9 percent, from 48 percent last year.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:04 am

AIDS Vaccine Possible with New Antibodies

New antibodies that neutralize HIV may hold the key to an AIDS vaccine.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 11:00 am

Concept: Bluetooth rings that turn your hand into a phone

Oh, you thought Bluetooth accessories made you look crazy before? Oh-hoh-hoh. You just wait, friend. You just wait.

If Bluetooth earpieces are a 4 on the “How crazy do I look?” scale, this new concept from design studio bck will rank in at somewhere around a 13. Heres the gist of it: you wear two little Bluetooth-powered rings. You put the earpiece-ring on your thumb, and the microphone-ring on your pinky. When your phone call comes in, make the standard “talking-on-the-phone” hand gesture, and bam - your hand is now your phone. And everyone thinks you’re not only talking to yourself, but talking to yourself through your hand.

I’ll take 3.

[Via IntoMobile]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 10:57 am

Why Buy When You Can Hire? Time Warner Cable Gets a Joost Guy. [MediaMemo]

What happens to a start-up whose business never materializes? One option is to try to peddle the company based on the value of its human capital–aka the “acqhire.”

We’re seeing lots of that as the last bubble shakes out (see: MySpace and iLike, Facebook and FriendFeed). But that strategy also raises plenty of eyebrows from other buyers, who figure that they’re happy to let a struggling company fold, then pick up the talent piece by piece.

Did that just happen with Joost and Time Warner Cable (TWC)? Looks like it.

The cable provider has snapped up former Joost CTO Jason Gaedtke. The company tells Cable Digital News that Gaedtke will report to Mike Hayashi, the multiple system operator’s executive vice president of advanced engineering.

The assumption is that Gaedtke will be helping the company build out its own version of “TV Everywhere,” the Web-video-for-subscribers scheme that everyone from Comcast (CMCSA) to AT&T (T) is trying out.

Not an earth-shattering hire, but I’m noting it here because prior to Joost’s decision to all-but-pull-the-plug, the start-up was trying to peddle itself to buyers like…Time Warner Cable.

The theory: The Web video company hadn’t been able to generate much business, but it had a lot of smart people who could help, say, a cable company build out its own Web video strategy.

So, given that the Web video industry is in the midst of a long-awaited contraction, is Gaedtke’s hire the kind of thing that could undermine other potential deals? We’ll see.

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 10:40 am

Space Junk Just Misses Space Station

A piece of space junk missed colliding with the space station by less than a mile.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 10:40 am

Sambus? [Digital Daily]

A quick update on the Samsung/SanDisk story I posted earlier this morning. Now that Samsung has officially called off its bid for Sandisk, shares of Rambus (RMBS) are trading higher on a rumor that it might soon be the target of Samsung’s attentions. The company’s stock spiked more than nine percent to $17.49 on the speculation, though analysts say such a deal is unlikely.

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 10:39 am

Swine Flu Deaths Higher in Older Kids

A CDC study finds that swine flu takes a higher toll on school-age children.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 10:15 am

Thieves Clear New Jersey Apple Store in Seconds - PC World

Mashable

Thieves Clear New Jersey Apple Store in Seconds PC World We all know how important the Apple Store's décor is to the shopping experience: the glass windows, the well-lit aisles, the wood tables with the MacBooks, iPods, and iPhones carefully laid out. But customers aren't the only ones to appreciate the ... Thieves Take MacBooks, iPods From New Jersey Apple StoreChannelWeb Heist empties Apple store in just 31 secondsCNN International Apple Store pillaged in 31 secondsRegister CBS News -InformationWeek -iPhone FAQ all 65 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 4 Sep 2009 | 10:11 am

Helping create responsible digital citizens

With more and more kids going online, whether to connect over social networking sites, mingle in chat rooms or play games, it's become increasingly important for families, schools and service providers to work together to ensure that the younger generation understands their responsibilities while they explore the virtual world.

A few weeks ago, Google participated in the 21st Annual Crimes Against Children Conference in Dallas, where over 3,500 members of law enforcement, child advocacy groups, the tech industry and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) convened to share ideas, discuss strategies and explore new technologies designed to combat the many and varied forms of crimes against children. We had the opportunity to describe some of the positive steps Google is taking to educate and safeguard minors who use our products and services, as well as the unique ways we support the individuals on our staff who do child exploitation-related work.

According to a recent NCMEC study in patterns and trends in online child victimization, the past few years have seen a 6% increase in reports of kids providing images and videos of themselves when asked by online acquaintances; sending naked photos of themselves through text messages ("sexting"); and cyber-bullying. This new trend underscores the need to educate our younger users, their families and teachers on ways to create and enjoy safe online experiences.

We're doing our part by working with child safety organizations and law enforcement around the globe to spread positive messages about life online. For example, in mid-September, we're launching a global training program on YouTube to help teens teach other teens about these issues. This is just one step among many that we're taking to help create a generation of responsible digital citizens.

Posted by Alice Wu, Policy Specialist, YouTube

Source: The Official Google Blog | 4 Sep 2009 | 10:00 am

How Old Is This Internet Thing, Again? [Voices]

By Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Poor Al Gore has been teased mercilessly for supposedly claiming he invented the Internet.

But that’s not the only portion of cyber-history that’s in dispute.

Media outlets are celebrating Sept. 2 as the 40th anniversary of the day the Internet was invented. Security company Symantec (SYMC) even chose to ring the day in by creating a top-10 list of the most notorious online threats, with No. 1 as 2000’s “I Love You” worm, which infected an estimated 5 million computers.

UCLA’s engineer school, on the other hand, is recognizing Oct. 29 as the 40th anniversary. That’s where computer-science professor Leonard Kleinrock and his team were credited with sending the first computer-to-computer messages.

Well, which is it?

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 9:44 am

New Yorkers can now buy the dead trees version of The Economist from their mobile phone

The Economist, the famous British weekly, has a new way to order hard copies: your phone. Yup, starting this week New Yorkers can use the weekly text messages that the Economist sends to order the dead trees version of the newspaper, then have it sent to their door by 6 a.m. The future!

Of course, buying things with your phone may seem like a shiny, new thing to the average American (though I doubt the average American reads the Economist), but it’s really not all that shiny or new. Over in Japan, you can practically buy a mortgage with just a few clicks of your phone!

And while the trial period is only available to New Yorkers, the Economist says that it plans to roll out the service across the U.S. as the river of time flows.

Keep in mind that you’re not really saving any money here; it’s just convenient. The Economist usually costs $6.99 at the newsstands, the same price you’ll be paying if you order via your phone.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 9:36 am

Microsoft Word not banned for now

Section: Business News, Computers, Software / Applications

A few weeks ago we learned that Microsoft was to halt the sale of Word, one of its most popular applications.  The ban of Word came from a patent dispute with the Canadian company i4i that holds the patent for “custom XML.”  The suit saw Microsoft having to pay damages and halt the sale of the program that infringes the patent, which is Word.

Now it looks as if that ban will be halted, or at least delayed.  Microsoft gained the stay of the injunction through an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  This isn’t the end, however, far from it.  Microsoft and i4i will give their arguments to the Court of Appeals on September 23, 2009.  The original ruling was to have the program banned from sale within 60 days, putting it in mid-October.

We knew Microsoft was appealing the decision, so the delay comes as no big surprise.  Even if this does end with the injunction staying as it was, there’s no way Microsoft will allow Word to not be sold.  If the Court of Appeals rules in favor of i4i, expect Microsoft to write them a check to license the XML they used for Word files.  If the ruling comes down for Microsoft, maybe i4i will try to go after other companies that might infringe on their patent.  Or maybe we can all go back to having no idea who i4i is.

Read [Reuters]

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 4 Sep 2009 | 9:16 am

Streaming Video Better on Pre Than on iPhone? [Digital Daily]

Though it got off to a slow start, Palm’s App Catalog is slowly evolving into the ecosystem for which the company had hoped. It recently surpassed four million downloads and is poised for a bit of a growth spurt now that more applications have begun to appear on its virtual shelves. Indeed, in the last week, the number of applications available for the Pre increased by 40 percent to 58.

Now, that’s still a trifling number when compared to the 50,000 or so available in Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes App Store, but it’s something, and it shows that Palm (PALM) is managing to convince iPhone-addled developers that writing WebOS applications will be lucrative business.

Among the latest and most promising of those new apps, DirecTV’s (DTV) NFL Sunday Ticket. Though the app–which allows users to watch NFL games on their cellphones–is available for the iPhone as well as for the Pre, it may offer a better experience on the latter, as Pali Research analyst Walter Piecyk notes in a research alert this morning.

“We will be interested to see how this application performs on Sprint’s (S) network compared to how it will perform on the iPhone on AT&T’s (T) network,” Piecyk writes. “Sprint is more likely to allow a less compressed stream and therefore higher quality video on its network as we have seen with Sprint’s implementation of YouTube, which is much higher quality than viewing YouTube clips on the iPhone over the AT&T network. When the iPhone is forced to WiFi, the quality of the YouTube clips improves to the level we experience on the Palm Pre but that kind of defeats the purpose of the mobile internet.”

An interesting point and an interesting potential selling point for Palm and Sprint–especially given the beating AT&T’s network has been taking in the media lately.

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 9:10 am

BLOG: Video Shows Tunnels Under Pyramids

A video claims to reveal a network of tunnels beneath the Giza plateau.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 9:05 am

What's the best multiple-button mouse for Macs?

It's funny how the little irritations of pre-OSX era Mac ownership still have little aftershocks, at least for everyday consumers. Such as having to buy third-party software to get hardware support for extra mouse buttons with certain vendors. [jwz]

Back in the day, vendors often took advantage of the assumed ignorance of Mac users. For example, at a newspaper I used to work at, we'd long-ago bought an unbelievably expensive proprietary database-software combo for our Mac-based news ecosystem. When the vendor finally moved to OSX--about four years after OSX came out--the cost to upgrade just the database was pitched to us as a five-figure sum.

Taking a closer look, however, it turned out that the "new" database was, in fact, MySQL. We opted not to "upgrade," since it is, of course, pre-installed on modern Macs. Indeed, we already used it for the website! We were nearly maneuvered into paying big money for someone to run a script to copy the contents of their proprietary database into a free one. And only then as part of broader upgrades (to the client software, etc) that had similarly stiff pricing.

Further investigation revealed that the proprietary "database" had in fact been a mere index of plain text files all along, with the folder names encrypted to make it inconvenient (but not impossible) to figure out what was in the directory tree.

In other news, Logitech's Mac support is a joke. It's one of the only major vendors whose interest in and support of the platform is in decline.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 4 Sep 2009 | 8:39 am

WATCH: Doc Digs Electronic Health Records

How hard is it to digitize our health records? Find out what one doctor had to say.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 8:30 am

Amazon Offers Redelivery or $30 to People Who Lost 1984 [Voices]

By Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Amazon (AMZN) took a lot of heat in July when it wirelessly deleted copies of two George Orwell titles from the Kindle e-readers of some customers. CEO Jeff Bezos eventually apologized for the incident, calling it “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.”

On Thursday, Amazon went a step further by e-mailing an offer to return the deleted books to effected Kindles–or to give owners a $30 Amazon gift certificate.

The incident prompted a class action lawsuit, filed in part on behalf of a student who said the deletion rendered useless the notes he had taken for a school assignment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 4 Sep 2009 | 8:09 am

BIG PIC: Pyro-Cumulus Cloud

An impressive cloud over Hollywood was formed by wildfires.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Sep 2009 | 8:05 am

iPhone MMS arrives on September 25th

FROM APPLETELL - It’s official; AT&T have issued a press release stating that MMS will be coming to the iPhone on September 25th, as part of the iPhone OS 3.1 software update.
MORE »

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 4 Sep 2009 | 8:00 am

Sprint’s HTC Hero to be $180 out the door at Best Buy - no mail-in rebate

Best Buy has our backs. No one likes mail-in rebates and so the retailer is going to sell the Sprint HTC Hero for $180 out the door with a two-year blood oath.

Sprint Stores however will sell it too you for $280 and hand you a $100 MIR. But just like with the Palm Pre, you’re not going to have to deal with those shenanigans at Best Buy Mobile who is also the exclusive retailer to have the HTC Hero. So yeah, why would you buy one at a Sprint Store?

Best Buy®Mobile Will Sell HTC Hero™ Smartphone in Stores Beginning October 11

Best Buy Mobile will apply rebate savings for the new smart phone at the point of purchase to help customers avoid the hassles of mail-in rebates.

MINNEAPOLIS, September 3, 2009 – Best Buy Mobile, now in all 1,044 Best Buy locations as well as 48 standalone stores around the U.S., is the exclusive national retailer for the much anticipated Sprint HTC Hero™ smart phone, which launches October 11. The HTC Hero runs on Google’s innovative Android operating platform.

Customers who purchase the smart phone at Best Buy Mobile can avoid the hassle of mail-in rebates with instant savings applied at the point of purchase. The phone will retail for $179.99, after $150 instant savings, with two-year activation.

“We want to bring the absolute best mobile technology that we can to our customers and the HTC Hero helps us do that” said Best Buy Mobile President Shawn Score. “The addition of the HTC Hero to our already extensive assortment allows our customers the convenience of comparing this new phone with other popular smart phones, such as the iPhone 3Gs, Palm Pre and Blackberry Tour, side-by-side and under one roof.”

Best Buy Mobile has become a leading destination for smart phone purchases, in part because of the promises the store offers its customers: better choice of phones and networks; impartial, informed advice; straightforward pricing; and someone to be there for the life of the phone.

In addition to the instant savings, Best Buy Mobile offers an array of services aimed at improving the mobile phone buying experience, including:

§ Upgrade Checker: A quick and easy in-store service that gives customers the ability to see when they are eligible for their next phone upgrade. When the upgrade time is nearing, customers receive a complimentary reminder call or email.

§ Walk Out Working™: Free in-store smart phone setup by a Best Buy Mobile Phone Specialist who will sync personal email accounts, set up Bluetooth® headsets, transfer contacts and activate other services to allow the customer to leave the store with a fully functional new smart phone.

The new HTC Hero runs on the Sprint network and is the first phone to feature HTC Sense™ - an intuitive, seamless interface experience built on the principles of personalization, connectivity and discovery. HTC Hero lets users view important content at a glance with a selection of customizable widgets that can be placed right on the home screen. Contacts’ information is easily accessible with all text exchanges, email conversations, Facebook status updates, Flickr photo albums and phone logs, neatly organized by contacts’ names. The integrated Flash player optimizes the HTC Hero for Web browsing while a dedicated search button provides for a more natural, contextual search experience that enables searches through Twitter, contacts, emails and in any other area in the smart phone.

About Best Buy Mobile

Best Buy Mobile features one of the largest selections of carriers, handsets and accessories available anywhere, as well as a highly-trained staff to help customers make the most of their mobile phones. Best Buy Mobile locations feature more than 90 different handsets from nine carriers, and over 130 accessories. Employees undergo at least 80 hours of intensive training, as well as continuing education on mobile phone technology and trends. Look for your mobile phone solution at Best Buy Mobile locations in every Best Buy store as well as in standalone stores nationwide.

About Best Buy Co., Inc.

With operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, China and Mexico, Best Buy is a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services with a commitment to growth and innovation. The Best Buy family of brands and partnerships collectively generates more than $45 billion in annual revenue and includes brands such as Best Buy; Audiovisions; The Carphone Warehouse; Future Shop; Geek Squad, Jiangsu Five
Star; Magnolia Audio Video; Napster; Pacific Sales; The Phone House; and Speakeasy. Approximately 155,000 employees apply their talents to help bring the benefits of these brands to life for customers through retail locations, multiple call centers and Web sites, in-home solutions, product delivery and activities in our communities. Community partnership is central to the way we do business at Best Buy. In fiscal 2009, we donated a combined $33.4 million to improve the vitality of the communities where our employees and customers live and work. For more information about Best Buy, visit www.bestbuy.com.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Sep 2009 | 7:45 am

Good news: Pre-DVD movie releases.  Bad news: MPAA wants to break your TV to do it.

Section: Business News, Video, Content

Since June 2008, the Motion Picture Association of America (“MPAA”) has moved forward with a petition to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the right to use selectable output control (SOC).  This practice involves disabling the analog or digital portions of a video stream to the consumer.  The MPAA claims using SOC would allow them to offer pre-DVD releases direct to the consumer while still protecting its copyright.

The problem is that the SOC could leave some current home entertainment technology disabled, particularly those that don’t have digital inputs.  Estimates of just how many households would be affected range from 11 to 20 million.  Right now, the MPAA is taking up the issue of these estimates with the FCC.  It argues that there is a lack of a verifiable source for the estimate and that it is overinclusive of households that own both older and newer TV sets.

Read: [Ars Technica]

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 4 Sep 2009 | 7:15 am

Toshiba Swaps Teams, Announces First Blu-ray Player

Poor Toshiba, once proud member of the HD-DVD team, now relegated to sitting on the Blu-ray bench, waiting for an opportunity to play.

And at last, it got that chance, with the announcement of a new, Toshiba-branded Blu-ray player, the BDX2000. The $250 player is as ordinary as could be: BD-Live, 1080p (at 24fps if you like), an SD card slot and AVCHD playback. It’s almost as if someone told Toshiba that it had to make a Blu-ray player but, hungover and spent from months of drowning its sorrows in a motel room, it could barely summon the energy to do more than put some chips in a box and slap on a logo.

In fact, the only “extra” is that it if you hook it up to a Toshiba Regza TV vis HDMI, you’ll only need one remote. And at least Toshiba managed to make it look not horrible.

Available November.

Press release [Toshiba]

See Also:

• CES 2008: Toshiba Faces Music on HD-DVD: “We're Not Dead …
• Toshiba Kills HD DVD
• High Def Battle Cost Toshiba One Billion Dollars

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 6:05 am

Weather Pro: Full-On Meteorology App for iPhone

The English are famous for talking about the weather, and I’m no different. We’re also inveterate whiners and gloaters. Combine these and you’ll see why Weather Pro is important: I get to chuckle when I see how cold and wet it is in my parents’ Devonshire village, and at the same time complain about the humidity here in Barcelona.

Weather Pro beats out the weather app that ships with the iPhone in so may ways. Instead of a quick and dirty “forecast”, you get proper information. You also get as many stats and measurements as you need to do your own forecasting

First, detailed (and accurate) forecasts by the hour, supplied by data from the MeteoGroup in Germany (don’t worry, it works worldwide) which include relative humidity, actual temperature as well as perceived temperature — right now it is 80º (F) here, but “feels like” 91º (F), wind speed and direction and likelihood of precipitation (percentage).

Hit the stats button top-right and a further embarrassment of raw data is corralled into graphs, plotting everything from wind-gusts to sunshine duration over a week to temperature fluctuations. In short, everything you could need to see what is about to happen, and what has already happened.

But get out of the dull data and into the fancy animated sections and you have something with which to really impress your father. Weather Pro also pulls in weather radar and satellite information, plotting them onto maps of your area. Hit play and you get a looping animation of cloud movements in your corner of the country (radar) or your whole continent (satellite). It’s just like watching the weather forecast on TV, only without the smarmy, impossibly white-toothed wisecracker in a loud suit and “funny” tie.

Here, for instance, is a capture of South-Western Europe right now. The counter-clockwise spiral indicates that… Oh, lord, I don’t know. It indicates clouds or something. As a kid, I used to switch off when the weather came on TV and my dad would demand silence. I still shut up during forecasts to this day, but all I can glean from this chart is that my weather is hot, and England’s is cloudy. Ha!

Weather Pro costs $4 in the iTunes Store

Product page [iTunes]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 5:26 am

Toshiba officially announces the BDX2000 Blu-ray player

Section: Video, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray

Toshiba, once know for fighting the on the HD DVD side has officially unveiled the BDX2000—a Blu-ray player.  Of course, we did recently see Toshiba apply to join the Blu-ray Disc Association, so this news should not really come as all that surprising.

In terms of features, the BDX2000 is pretty standard as far as Blu-ray players go.  We can expect it to feature BD-Live (profile 2.0) and Bonus View, have 1080p output, AVCHD playback, an SD card slot as well as support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio playback.

While not yet available, it looks like we are not going to have to wait all that long, Toshiba has stated that the BDX2000 will be in stores this November with a retail price of $249.99.

Product [Toshiba]  Read [PR Newswire]

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 4 Sep 2009 | 5:14 am

Magnetic Bike Pedals Stick to Your Feet

Mavic, maker of bike parts and accessories, has gone all Sony on us. The EZ-Ride Evolve pedals don’t look too different from a normal platform pedal, but that little circle in the center is a magnet. When combined with the matching shoes (and here’s the proprietary Sony-style part) which are only supplied by Mavic, your feet will snap into position as the powers of attraction take hold.

Or will they? A small magnet, however strong, will never replace proper toe-clips or cleats as mechanisms for keeping feet on pedals. On the other hand, the stiffened soles will make riding more comfortable and efficient than a pair of Converse, and the matching male and female X-shapes, along with the magnet, will at least keep your feet in the proper position on the pedals.

The problem is that you can only buy your shoes from Mavic. We imagine there may be a tiny demand for these in the mountain biking market, but otherwise, use toe-clips or just learn to put your balls on the pedals (the balls of your feet, that is). Mavic’s magnetic pedals cost around $60 per pair, the shoes $90.

Product page [Mavic via Bike Radar]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 4:37 am

Dahon FreeCharge Turns Pedal Power into USB Power

Dahon, maker of folding bikes, has shown off a rather ingenious and incredibly useful little gizmo at the Eurobike show. The BioLogic FreeCharge is a little silicone-encased box which hooks up to your bike’s generator hub and siphons off power for charging your gadgets. The unit comprises a battery and circuitry to both store electricity and to smooth the inevitable bumps and spikes in the generator’s output.

Then you simply plug in your cellphone or iPod to the USB port, juicing the GPS as you ride. The time to a full charge is three hours, but the most likely use for this is topping-off, keeping your gadgets going indefinitely as you trundle along. And think about cycle touring: you can charge iPods, phones and even camera batteries, freeing you from the tyranny of camp-sites and power outlets. Fantastic, and $100 when it ships in March 2010.

Charge your iPod with your bike [Bike Hugger]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Sep 2009 | 3:57 am

Disclaimer | About

World : News Archives | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Technology | Science | Marketplace Audio

India : News | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Telugu |

Blogs : Humor pages | Norkay's Blog | Kids Stories | Indian Recipes | Database Tech Blog

Sundries : World Video Clips | Songs Clips | Indian Video Clips |