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MSI Wind Notebook. 20% Bigger, 20% Duller
Like the MSI Wind, but don’t like the way the tiny 10-inch netbook slides effortlessly into a small bag? Then the 12.1-inch Wind U210 might be for you. Aside from the extra inches, from the outside the Wind looks just like its little brother, with the usual netbook compliment of three USB ports, an SD card reader and the like (although it does add an HDMI-out port). Inside things are different, with the usual Intel Atom chip replaced by a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40, 2GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive. The display (1366×768) is driven by an ATI Radeon X1250, and the whole thing can easily fit into the space taken up by a 12.1-inch laptop. Humdrum indeed. Even the oversized keys fail to get us excited (they’re 51% bigger, making them easier to hit, apparently — perfect for typing whilst nodding off to sleep). The big Wind is at least cheap, at just $430, and the rather pedestrian looks mean that it will probably never be stolen. In short, it is probably the most sensibly boring notebook you could buy. Product page [NewEgg. Thanks, Mark!] See Also:
Source: Gizmodo | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:54 am Pakistani stocks end on highest closing this yearKARACHI, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Foreign investors' appetite for Pakistani energy shares helped Karachi's benchmark index close at its high level this year on Wednesday, though local institutions stayed on...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:42 am Panasonic Announces LED Bulb That Will Last For 19 YearsBy Chris Scott Barr Changing a lightbulb is rarely an exciting task, unless you’re trying to solve one of those age old questions such as "how many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?" questions...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:35 am Happiness May Be Catchingchrb writes "The NY Times Magazine has an interesting article about research, based on the long-running Framingham Heart Study, modeling real world social networks. It seems that tendencies to be happy, not to smoke, and not to become obese are passed between nodes in a directed graph in a way that suggests such concepts are 'contagious.' Well-connected nodes in the graph (i.e., people with more friends) are more likely to be happier than less-connected nodes, even when the edges represent more distant friendships. Individuals quitting smoking, or becoming obese, influence not only their immediately connected friends but also friends of friends, with the effect sometimes skipping the intermediary node. The contagion effect is most noticeable when a tendency is passed from one person to another of the same sex — friends of the opposite sex, including spouses, are not as influential."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:33 am UPDATE 3-Commods trader Noble: Investor may buy big stake* In detailed talks with one investor, may or may not happenSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:28 am Frost & Sullivan's Survey Sheds Light on Building Illumination MarketAPAC Consumers Not In The Dark About Using Energy Efficient Light Bulbs SINGAPORE, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, announces...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:26 am IDFC unit says buying BP's Indian wind power assetsNEW DELHI, Sept 16 (Reuters) - India's Green Infra, a unit of IDFC's private equity arm, is buying the Indian wind power assets of energy giant BP , chief operating officer Sunil Jain said on Wednesday...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:23 am Asus Eee Keyboard Confirmed For October LaunchBy Chris Scott Barr Remember that spiffy Eee Keyboard that Asus announced back at CES? Well we’ve finally gotten a confirmation on a release. It seems that it will be shipping next month, for between...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:15 am Aricent and Cavium Networks Collaborate to Provide LTE Evolved Packet Core SolutionsPALO ALTO, Calif., Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Sep 2009 | 3:00 am New World Newsfeed: Second Life Content Creators Sue Second Life Creator Linden LabMediaPost News: Second Life Sued For Allowing Sale Of Impostor Virtual Goods Yesterday, top Second Life content creators Munchflower Zaius and Stroker Serpentine filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:56 am Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer Impressions - GamePro.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:42 am Offshore Subsalt Oil: Like Putting Someone on MoonNice quote on offshore subsalt oil exploration off Brazil:Despite world-class discoveries coming one after another, the massive subsalt plays in the deepwater and ultra deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:34 am The IsoFlow Infusion Catheter Allows For More Precise, Powerful Cancer TreatmentBy David Ponce Chemotherapy is relatively effective at treating cancer. But because its effects are indiscriminate it’s also unfortunately pretty good at damaging the patient in the process. It’s...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:20 am Ceramic Speakers Claim Better SoundBy David Ponce These handcrafted ceramic and cork speakers by Joey Roth claim better sound by virtue of their construction materials not absorbing any sound waves and thus more faithfully reproducing whatever...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:02 am Jaspersoft Announces New JasperReports Professional With Enhanced Data VisualizationSAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaspersoft, provider of the world's most widely used business intelligence (BI) software, today announced the immediate availability of JasperReports Professional, now with Flash-based geo-visualization and advanced charting capabilities.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:01 am New Set-Top Box Promises To Bring 3D to Television [Voices]By Sarah McBride, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal 3D technology is coming one step closer to home with the development of a new set-top box system that will allow consumers to browse through and access 3D offerings from their cable or satellite TV company. The prototype, developed by digital content security company Nagravision SA, based in Cheseaux, Switzerland, and 3D company 3ality Digital LLC, Burbank, Calif., will be shown at the 3D Entertainment Summit this week in Los Angeles. It’s called the Nagra Media Guide for 3D. Although no cable company has yet committed to the set-top technology, the prototype offers a window into the evolution of 3D home technology, which is getting much closer to what is available in movie theaters. Consumers will be able to access 3D programming using today’s set-top boxes, but the Nagra Media version will show the information using 3D graphics. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Alibaba Turns 10 Aims To Create 100 Million Jobs, Employ 10 Million PeopleAlibaba is best known for its international B2B e-commerce and sourcing market place Alibaba.com, but also operates Taobao - the "eBay of China" and largest C2C Internet retail web site, Alimama - an online...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Alibaba Turns 10 – Aims To Create 100 Million Jobs, Employ 10 Million People
George had the opportunity this weekend to attend Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group’s 10 year anniversary celebration, dubbed the “Alifest”. Alibaba is best known for its international B2B e-commerce and sourcing market place Alibaba.com, but also operates Taobao – the “eBay of China” and largest C2C Internet retail web site, Alimama – an online advertising exchange and affiliate network – as well as Alipay, China’s most popular third-party online payment system modelled after Paypal but offering additional features such as escrow services.
Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma, a former English teacher, founded Alibaba in 1999 out of his Hangzhou apartment. Ten years later the company has grown to China’s second largest Internet company, after digital entertainment giant Tencent. His company Alibaba.com’s 2007 IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange was the second largest Internet offering ever after Google’s debut on NASDAQ in 2004. Since 2005, Yahoo! is a strategic shareholder when it acquired 39% of Alibaba Group for US$ 1 billion. In return Alibaba operates the portal Yahoo! China, but the secondary role Yahoo! China plays for Alibaba became evident when Ma shared his vision for the next 10 years of Alibaba during this weekend’s press conference. This was once again underscored yesterday when Yahoo! sold $150 million worth of shares in Alibaba.com.
Jack’s dream is to focus on empowering and encouraging small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) across the globe and it centers around 3 major goals for the next 10 years: Goal 1: 10 million people “work at” Alibaba By “working at” Jack symbolically referred to millions of SME entrepreneurs that will not literally be employed by Alibaba but are turned to “netrepeneurs” and independently utilize and work online with Alibabas trade platforms and software solutions: Alisoft was established in January 2007 and offers software as a service solutions for SME’s. In July 2009, Alisoft was merged with Alibaba Group R&D Institute to lay a solid technology foundation to further develop Alibaba Group’s businesses. At the same time Alibaba Group this weekend announced the establishment of a new subsidiary focusing on cloud computing. In the medium run, it is evident that Alibaba will strive to emerge as a leading software solution provider for SME’s, eventually competing with Western players such as Salesforce.com.
Goal 2: 100 million new jobs created worldwide by Alibaba A megalomaniac target at first glance, this could very well become reality when considering Alibabas resources and Jack Ma’s obviously wide-reaching personal connections that became more apparent to me through the course of Alifest. In May 2007, Alibaba.com introduced the Ali-loan program offering financing to small Chinese businesses in partnership with leading Chinese banks. This model was now hinted to be extended across other countries in cooperation with Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen bank. The second corner stone to achieve this goal involves Alibabas training department, Ali-Institute that was upgraded this July to become a new profit-oriented business unit under Alibaba.com. During the cleverly staged Alifest program speakers such as Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus, former president Bill Clinton (both over video) and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz underpinned the importance of fostering SME development across developing nations and endorsed Alibabas global efforts. This is quite remarkably for a Chinese company. Provided, you still consider it as such: “In 10 years we wont make differences between local or international companies any more, but only between differences in integrity”, Jack Ma said during his speech this weekend. All points considered Alibaba is indeed in a powerful position to shape the worlds economy in the coming decade. Taking Alibabas already undisputed status among SME manufacturers in what is soon to become world’s largest economy, even the third proclaimed goal by Jack Ma can seem plausible: Goal 3: 1 billion people trading on Alibaba Group’s platforms The roadway to Alibabas most eager goal was visualized to us impressively when Alibaba.com’s CEO David Wei gave us an exclusive tour of his company’s new headquarters. (Which by the way also has a basketball court inaugurated by another of Jack Ma’s friends Kobe Bryant, who was also present in Hangzhou this weekend) David presented us Alibaba’s realtime trading statistics generated from the three pillars of its business: international trade, domestic Chinese wholesale and domestic Chinese retail. (the according graphs can be seen in the picture above from left to right). During the time of our visit last Friday evening at around 7pm Chinese time, 2.87 million concurrent users were active on Alibaba.com’s B2B portal. According to David the daily average concurrent user number is 4 million, around 10% of its 42.8 million worldwide registered users. The groups domestic C2C e-commerce marketplace Taobao holds around 78% of the online consumer market in China. As of mid-2009, it served 156 million registered users. Transaction volume on Taobao reached nearly US$ 11.8 billion in the first half of 2009, and by that exceeded the largest retailer in China in transaction volume during the same period. David continued to say that “Alibaba’s combined trading statistic give us 3-6 months lead time to predict Chinas domestic trade and export volumes”. These are without doubts immensely powerful insights to possibly the biggest driver of our current world economy. Not without reason, Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma was one of the first to recognize the economic downturn in February last year, when he predicted “a though (economic) winter is coming, dark clouds are forming and the thunder is coming closer” during the annual Alibaba all-employee conference. “Today, the darkest period for Chinese exporters is over”, Alibaba’s CEO David Wei confirmed to us. I asked David to tell us more about AliExpress – a new international wholesale platform for small-sum orders from its Alibaba.com database of Chinese manufacturers. He confirmed “the platform is still in beta but bound to launch in rather weeks than months from now”. The service offers minimum orders as low as 1 item, escrow payment and delivery with full tracking. Advertising “factory prices on even the smallest orders” the service is de facto a B2C marketplace just like Amazon and in part eBay that connects the Chinese manufacturers on Alibabas existing B2B portal Alibaba.com with the US consumer market. It will also be the first international roll out of Alibaba’s online payment and escrow system Alipay now competing with PayPal China in fight for Chinese SME merchants. Alipay currently facilitates about 4 million online payments worth up to US$100 million per day. It surpassed 200 million registered users in early July 2009.
With AliExpress the company for the first time attacks eBay directly in its home market. In China the US company already lost against Alibabas Taobao, giving up its domestic eBay platform and partially selling it to Chinese Internet group TOM Online in 2006. Not included in that sale, however was eBays and PayPals cross-boarder business of Chinese merchants selling to US consumers, that continues to be operated by PayPal China itself. This remaining eBay asset is now under serious threat, with Alibaba entering the B2C export business. The move nevertheless comes with many risks for Alibaba. Only in December last year, Alibaba’s competitor Global Sources Direct, a division of NASDAQ-listed online sourcing platform Global Sources, announced it would discontinue its wholesale services. The platform was established in 2005 as a joint venture between Global Sources and eBay. A major part of the failure was attributed to the fact, that in such a cross national market place setting, it is impossible for its operator to guarantee quality, availability and delivery times. Instead it has to rely on the goodwill of its merchants, which in a developing market like China is a huge challenge. It remains to be seen how Alibaba can solve this problem better than its competitors. Additionally to its international challenges Alibaba Group is under constant attack from rising Chinese rivals such as Baidu’s new C2C e-commerce platform Youa. Since the end of last year China’s number one search engine Baidu.com has blocked all Taobao merchants offers in its natural search results, leading to a huge loss of search volume. In retaliation Alibaba Group, previously one of the biggest ad spenders on Baidu, stopped all its PPC campaigns. In the “Art of War”, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu writes “concentrate your energy and hoard your strength”. However, Alibaba’s Jack Ma seems to ignore this advice by competing on multiple battlefields both at home and abroad, potentially stretching his company’s resources too thin. Yet the man reinforced his modesty in yesterdays closing speech when he said “looking back we are now a big company, but looking ahead we are still a very small company”. Having seen Ma passionately in action this weekend, it is clear that he’s lost none of the tireless energy that has made him successful, instead gaining in charisma and determination that will be necessary for the next 10 years ahead. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am IPC Expands Global Network Coverage with Collaboration from 2Connect BahrainJERSEY CITY, N.J., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- IPC Systems, the leading provider of indispensable communications solutions to financial services firms, today announced that it has expanded its global network coverage through a partnership with 2Connect Bahrain.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Autonomy Applies its Advanced Meaning-based Technology to Transform Database MarketAdvanced Probabilistic Technology Developed by Autonomy for Unstructured Information Now Brings Intelligence to Structured Data CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, September 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
Source: Gizmodo | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:30 am Rubicon Project Buys Others OnlineSeattle-based behavioral targeting data provider Others Online has been acquired by the Rubicon Project in Santa Monica for an undisclosed price. Rubicon announced the news this morning, although the acquisition...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:19 am Cables mistakenly cut Sydney's central business districtAccording to The Sydney Morning Herald, thousands of homes and businesses in Sydney's Central Business District will be without phone, internet or mobile services today - and some could be cut off for...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:17 am Zune HD’s UI: The Full Tour The Zune HD is upon us, and whether you love it or hate it, you have to admit that it is devilishly good-looking. I happen to think it's also a great media player, based on my day with it and on previous demos, but the final judgment will come in a day or two with the full review.
In the meantime, I'm sure a lot of people have been waiting on a decent walkthrough of the Zune HD's interface. I've got just that for you, in HD no less, so click that play button and get an in-depth tour of the music and video navigation, browser, and marketplace.TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
Source: TechCrunch | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:13 am Zune HD’s UI: the full tour
In the meantime, I’m sure a lot of people have been waiting on a decent walkthrough of the Zune HD’s interface. I’ve got just that for you, in HD no less, so click that play button and get an in-depth tour of the music and video navigation, browser, and marketplace. For the record, I didn’t choose the thumbnail. I’ll get a YouTube version up for the review since the HD matters for readability. I’ve tried to strike a balance between brevity and completeness, but it ended up being over 10 minutes long anyway. Well, what else have you got going on? Look at these pictures while I talk talk talk in the background. I didn’t have time for the dock and HDMI out, video of that and the TV UI will be in the full review. It’s nice, but you’re not missing out on much — if you really must see it right away, there’s a video with no explanation or sound hereabouts.
Source: CrunchGear | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:12 am Governing from the cloud - San Francisco Chronicle
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:10 am Is This A Good Idea? Preparedness for Zombie Attacks? [Voices]By Patrick J. Kiger, Writer, Blogger, The Science Channel Some of my critics have noted that I’ve been writing a lot lately about the pros and cons of developments that so far exist only in science fiction, such as warp drives for spacecraft and head transplantation. Why don’t you write about something that actually might happen?, they chide me. My response: Let’s see if you like this week’s topic better. Should we be better prepared for a flesh-eating zombie attack? OK, roll your eyes back into your head. That seemingly far-fetched menace is the subject of an actual scientific study, “When Zombies Attack! Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection.” Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:05 am Understanding Users of Social Networks [Voices]By Sean Silverthorne, Editor, HBS Working Knowledge If the ongoing social networking revolution has you scratching your head and asking, “Why do people spend time on this?” and “How can my company benefit from the social network revolution?” you’ve got a lot in common with Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski. Only difference: Piskorski has spent years studying users of online social networks (SN) and has developed surprising findings about the needs that they fulfill, how men and women use these services differently, and how Twitter—the newest kid on the block—is sharply different from forerunners such as Facebook and MySpace. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:04 am Now, Even the Government Has an App Store [Voices]By Miguel Helft, Reporter, New York Times On Tuesday, Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, unveiled Apps.Gov, a Web site where federal agencies will able to buy so-called cloud computing applications and services that have been approved by the government to replace more costly and cumbersome computing services at their own locations. The push to promote cloud computing is part of the Obama administration’s effort to modernize the government’s information technology systems and to help reduce the $75 billion annual budget for federal I.T. in the process. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:03 am The Story Behind the Story [Voices]By Mark Bowden, National Correspondent, Atlantic Monthly With journalists being laid off in droves, ideologues have stepped forward to provide the “reporting” that feeds the 24-hour news cycle. The collapse of journalism means that the quest for information has been superseded by the quest for ammunition. A case-study of our post-journalistic age. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:02 am Is Apple Tying All Media to its Proprietary IPhone Platform [Voices]By Daniel Eran Dilger, Executive Publisher, RoughlyDrafted Magazine Tomorrow’s crisis today: Apple’s critics haven’t yet realized that the iPhone App Store has fueled millions in software development efforts to produce content exclusively tied to the company’s proprietary Cocoa Touch mobile platform. Is this a credible threat, and what is Apple’s (AAPL) real motive behind its iTunes rich media content strategy? Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:01 am Epson PowerLite Pro Cinema 9100 Wins CustomRetailer 2009 EXC!TE AwardLONG BEACH, Calif., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Adding to Epson's home entertainment projector accolades, the new PowerLite(R) Pro Cinema 9100 has been honored as a 2009 CustomRetailer Magazine EXC!TE Award winner.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:01 am Daily Crunch: A New Way to Listen to Music Edition
The Xbox Series Zune HD slaps video game logos all over the damn place
Source: CrunchGear | 16 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Panasonic's New LED Bulbs Shine For 19 YearsMike writes "As lighting manufacturers phase out the incandescent bulb, and CFLs look set to define the future of lighting, Panasonic recently unveiled a remarkable 60-watt household LED bulb that they claim can last up to 19 years (if used 5-1/2 hours a day). With a lifespan 40 times longer than their incandescent counterparts, Panasonic's new EverLed bulbs are the most efficient LEDs ever to be produced. They are set to debut in Japan on October 21st. Let's hope that as the technology is refined their significant cost barrier will drop — $40 still seems pretty pricey for a light bulb, even one that promises to save $23 a year in energy costs."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:56 am Zune HD: You call that a browser? - CNET News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:46 am Opera releases test version of new mobile browser (Reuters)Reuters - The world's top mobile browser maker, Norway's Opera Software, released on Wednesday a test version of its mobile browser, Mini 5, promising new features, easier usage and new design.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Sep 2009 | 12:07 am Agito Networks Delivers Mobility Solution to Hertford Regional College to Improve Voice Connectivity and Reduce ExpensesSANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2009 | 11:55 pm List of books read by backpackersI like this list of "backpackers books," compiled by Bookride.I am not sure which books backpackers carry with them these days so this list may be a little out of date. The concept of backpacker books goes back to the days of the hippy trail when travellers would carry such classics as the I Ching, the Tibetan Book of the Dead or anything by Herman Hesse. A backpacker classic should have an element of profundity, preferably mystical -if not it should have cult status or be a statement about who you really are. There is an element of self discovery in setting off - the path to enlightenment, the journey inwards...A backpacker book is not a 'beach read'--the book must be worth the weight and space it takes up and should be reverentially handed on to other travellers or left in a hotel or bus station for another seeker to chance upon. Here's a snippet of the list: Backpacker Classics Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2009 | 11:51 pm House panel questions new direction for space - CNET News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Sep 2009 | 11:41 pm Group: Congo gorillas killed for bush meatAs many as 100 gorillas a year may be killed by poachers and sold for bush meat in a single region in the Republic of Congo, an environmental group says. Endangered Species International said it conducted an undercover investigation in Kouilou, 60 to 80 miles up the Kouilou River from Pointe-Noire, the country's second-largest city and a major port. If poaching continues at its current rate, gorillas could disappear from the region within a decade, the group's president, Pierre Fidenci, told the BBC. Fidenci said the group's investigation began in the markets of Pointe-Noire, where observers spent a year examining what was on sale and talking to traders.
Source: Gizmodo | 15 Sep 2009 | 11:30 pm DVRs dominate talk at confab
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 New Zealand Herald | Coming to Dealers Soon: An Array of Electric Cars New York Times FRANKFURT — The electric car is at the starting line, and the gun is about to sound. A blog about energy, the environment and the bottom line. Now automakers must prove that the technology, and the market, are ready. ... Better Place software tallies electric cars' charge CORRECT: MOTOR SHOW: Renault Launches Electric Car Concepts Supplying the Brains for Electric Cars |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
It’s a sad fact of life that many of the most insightful and helpful people on the web (and in real life, for that matter) aren’t financially rewarded for their efforts — they may well be satisfied with the good they’ve done, but that doesn’t help to pay the rent. The Whuffie Bank, a new non-profit organization that’s launching today at TechCrunch50, wants to fix this by launching a new currency that rewards people for their positive contributions on the web.
The startup is hoping to promote change in the web by rewarding users with a positive impact on the web with this karma-like digital currency. The service will monitor your activity across various websites, including things like comments, posts, and more. When you complete positive actions, you gain Whuffies, and you lose them when you do something that the organization deems to be detrimental. The company hopes that as we use the web more and more in our day-to-day life this positivity will extend beyond the web.
To get started you enter your username on Twitter (Facebook support will be coming). The site displays how many Whuffies you have, along with a graph of your progress over time. The site ranks its users by Whuffies, in the hopes of helping surface the top users in different fields.
The algorithm takes into account ‘public endorsements’, or the number of times a user’s tweets are retweeted, or a Facebook post is Liked. It also takes into account who is making the endorsement, and the content in the messages that are being posted. You can make offers to other users using Whuffies as payment (for example, I could ask someone to help me draw a logo, offering 100 Whuffies as payment).
The company says it was inspired by the Creative Common nonprofit model. The name comes from Cory Doctorow’s book Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
Q&A with panelists Dick Costolo, Reid Hoffman, Sean Parker, Mike Schroepfer, Chamillionaire, and Robert Scoble:
RH: The problem with this kind of currency is you need banking system… There are people on the web whose political views mean nothing to me. This will be very difficult, but as a concept I think it’s cool.
DC: I was thinking about Reid’s comment and the interesting thing about virtual currencies is that even when they’re not scarce, you can make people think they’re scarce. In Zynga, chips cost a certain amount of money. It’s a challenge to incite scarcity, but you can do it. We’ve seen things like this before.
Chamillionaire: I want to hear in one line, what do I get? Seems like a lot of work..
A: We try to have ways to detect people who are trying to exploit the system. This project isn’t sustained on accumulation of work or capital. In order to be wealthy, you have to be respected by other people that are important.
Calacanis: Mike, doesn’t Facebook have a social currency going on that’s unspoken?
MS: I think the devil is in the details. It depends on context. I could say they have lots of likes and comments. It means they post interesting things, but what does that mean.
A: Purpose of making this non-profit. Guaranteed that it would make this independent of any social platform out there, ensures transparency.
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Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Reuters - Facebook is making enough money to cover its costs and now has 300 million users, the world's largest social networking site said on Tuesday, proving the Internet's newest star industry can be a viable business.
We’ve all been there: the classic group photo, with twelve friends side by side doing their best to look as happy as humanly possible. The first shot is easy — but wait, the guy next to you has their own camera, so it’s time for another one. And then another. Soon muscle fatigue kicks in, and those happy smiles fade into grimaces as everyone wonders why isn’t an easier way to share their photos. Cue Clixtr, a new location-based photo sharing platform that’s launching today at TechCrunch50. The app is available on the App Store now, and you can download it now for $2.99 here.
Clixtr’s service is primarily designed for concerts, weddings, and other major events where lots of people are taking lots of photos, with no good way to aggregate them all together. The service revolves around an iPhone application that uses the smartphone’s integrated camera, data connection, and GPS to faciliate quick photo uploads to a shared album. Using it is simple: take a photo, and upload it to Clixtr. If the app detects that you’re near where a lot of other people are uploading media, it will group them into an album.
You can browse these albums directly from the iPhone app in a stream view. You can also use an ‘explore’ function, which uses the phone’s GPS to locate any events that are going on at any nearby events. To create an event, you simply enter a descriptive name, and then invite friends who are nearby to view and participate in the album.
Of course, photo sharing sites have been around for ages. But few of them are really based around location — instead, you usually have to create an album and manually invite each of your friends. If you don’t have someone’s contact information they’re out of luck, and the whole process can be time consuming and tedious.
Q&A with panelists Dick Costolo, Reid Hoffman, Sean Parker, Mike Schroepfer, and Robert Scoble:
MS: I think that was awesome. I’m curious how you can do mapping to events. Do you have to be invited.
Michael Arrington: full disclosure for MS, at some point, you will have location. MS: It’s something we’d like to do…
A: When you launch the application, we show events that are nearby. Events are server side and sent back donw.
RS: My phone doesn’t let you do anything while it uploads the photo. But it’s a nice install. Don’t have to do signup.
Q: How does it make money
A: Costs less than a cup of coffee at 2.99. Possibly location based advertising.
RH: I think doing local photo could be good. I would up incentive for participation. One thing that could be distinctive for when Facebook app starts doing their own. If all my friends are already on graph A (Facebook), that’s hard. You’ll need to up level of incentive to participate.
DC: I would look at what Foursquare is doing, with the game element. People want to be mayor of a certain place.
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Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily
Clearwire (CLWR) today announced the launch of its a developer version of 4G service in the Bay Area. The developer version of the WiMax-based network covers “more than 20 square miles” in Santa Clara, Mountain View and “parts of downtown” Palo Alto. (Parts? Downtown Palo Alto isn’t that big; it only cover parts of it?) Clearwire notes that the service area includes the headquarters of both Intel (INTC) and Google (GOOG); the Cisco (CSCO) campus will be adding “in the coming months.” All three companies will be
“partners” in the project, the company said.
Clearwire plans to launch full service in the Bay Area in 2010.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
Starting to feel like Android's "Cupcake" update (v1.5) from May is getting a bit stale? Google's got a new treat for you. They've just launched version 1.6 (which, under Google's pastry-oriented naming scheme, is known as "Donut") of Android to developers, which packs a hefty handful of new features and polishes up much of what was already there.
The bit that plays best to our geeky-blogger side (rather than our geeky-consumer side) is whats been added for the sake of lineup expandability. Namely, we're talking about CDMA support - which, while not immediately awesome, opens the doors to Android handsets on the likes of Verizon, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile. Beyond that, they've also bumped the supported resolutions list to include screens all the way up to 800x480 - in other words, Android can now push much prettier images to higher-end screens.
FROM GAMERTELL - Mad Catz, creator of great controllers and accessories, is coming out with a new Marvel vs. Capcom 2 arcade stick, just in time for the game…
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Astro Boy—the beloved '60s Japanese anime series—is launching on the big screen on October 23! Woo ... wait a minute. Haven't we been here before? The Technicolor hemorrhage that was Speed Racer recently taught us that anime doesn't necessarily benefit from the Hollywood-blockbuster treatment.
Astro Boy, however, promises to be different. For starters, it's not live-action; it's CG produced by Imagi Studios, Hong Kong's version of Pixar. The company's founder, Francis Kao, not only secured the movie rights but also hired the son of Astro Boy creator (and god of manga) Osamu Tezuka as a creative consultant. "I was encouraged to expand on the universe," says the flick's director, David Bowers. "But at its core the movie is still faithful to the original." Case in point: Our favorite rocket tyke sports a windbreaker and slacks (good-bye red undies and go-go boots), but his original powers (x-ray vision and turbo butt) remain unchanged.
Even Nicolas Cage, who voices scientist Dr. Tenma, was a stickler for accuracy. "The first time we met, Cage went into incredible detail about the '60s version, including the very specific sound Astro's feet make when he walks," Bowers says. "So we went to the Tezuka archive and found the sound effect, and we use it a little bit in our movie as an homage." We hear that.
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Get ready for Astro Boy. They call him the Mickey Mouse of Japan, and this fall American audiences will get a chance to see the iconic anime character on the big screen in an English-language movie.
The film, set for an October 23 release, features a big-powered voice cast, including Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) along with Samuel L. Jackson, Charlize Theron, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Eugene Levy, and Donald Sutherland.
But make no mistake: Astro Boy himself is the star. Created by Osamu Tezuka as a manga comic book character in1951, the boy robot hooked more fans when he starred in a 1963 TV series. Inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004 and immortalized on Japanese postage stamps, Astro Boy, complete with a high-crested haircut, jet-powered boots, and mighty cannon arms, commands center stage in director David Bowers' adaptation.
Here's a look at Astro Boy in the making.
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Production designers developed the film's look by borrowing from architect Isamu Noguchi. His abstract works inspired the filmmakers to use simple shapes that they then brought to life through advanced computer lighting, texturing, and modeling techniques.
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This pencil sketch captures the essence of Astro Boy as imagined by director David Bowers, who made Hugh Jackman's animated rat movie Flushed Away.
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Renderings were produced by Hong Kong-based animation outfit Imagi Studios. Founder Francis Kao said, "We worked very closely with Tezuka Productions and with the creator’s son, Macoto Tezka, to ensure we got everything right.”
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Cartoon characters with saucer-shaped eyes didn't start with anime. In the course of prepping the film, Bowers learned that Tezuka was influenced by Disney's Pinocchio character.
The sickly green background is no surprise: Astro Boy inhabits a world in which pollution has ruined Earth's atmosphere.
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Animators for Astro Boy drew inspiration from 19th-century woodblock artist Katsushika Hokusai, whose landscapes eliminated visual clutter in favor of a stripped-down image.
Starting to feel like Android’s “Cupcake” update (v1.5) from May is getting a bit stale? Google’s got a new treat for you. They’ve just launched version 1.6 (which, under Google’s pastry-oriented naming scheme, is known as “Donut”) of Android to developers, which packs a hefty handful of new features and polishes up much of what was already there.
The bit that plays best to our geeky-blogger side (rather than our geeky-consumer side) is whats been added for the sake of lineup expandability. Namely, we’re talking about CDMA support – which, while not immediately awesome, opens the doors to Android handsets on the likes of Verizon, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile. Beyond that, they’ve also bumped the supported resolutions list to include screens all the way up to 800×480 – in other words, Android can now push much prettier images to higher-end screens.
With that said, v1.6 isn’t without obvious, user-facing improvements. The homescreen, for example, has been modified to include a new “Quick Search” box, which lets you dig through the web or your browser bookmarks, history, and contacts in a vein similar to that of the iPhone’s spotlight screen. The camera has seen a dramatic overhaul, improving load times by as much as 39%.
They’ve also added a new battery usage system, which is one of the more interest additions here. Think of it like the activity monitor on a computer, which keeps track of which apps are using the most CPU and RAM – but instead, it tracks how much of your battery is being gobbled up by a specific app. Battery life has been a huge complaint with Android devices so far, with much of the blame laying in the hands of applications being a bit too reliant on background processing. This lets you nail those out without having to deal with the process of elimination.
Last but by no means least: Android Market improvements. The Android Market used to be about as visually pleasing as a funeral during a rain storm, covered from edge to edge in black backgrounds and white text. They’ve done away with the drab here, instead opting for a whole lot of white with accents of the signature Android green. It may not be everyone’s style, but at least it doesn’t make you want to curl up and cry. They’ve also filled a request that developers have been making since day one: app descriptions can now include screenshots.
There’s a ton more going on behind the scenes here, including a new kernel, support for custom gestures within applications, accessibility improvements, and a whole lot of new APIs.
This is, as usual, a developer-only thing for now. Easy (or, at least, less intimidating) installation paths are sure to pop up for existing Android devices sooner or later (they already exist, to some extent), but Google expects the first sanctioned appearances on devices to begin sometime in October. In other words, expect this on the Cliq.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
About half of all our CrunchDeals are Viewsonic monitors, since they seem to be eternally on sale for crazy prices. In fact, look, there’s a 24″ for $164! But if you’re in the market for a real TV, Viewsonic has you covered too. So covered, in fact, that they released six TVs today just to make sure you had a selection to choose from.
You’ve got six models; I’ll give you the quick rundown:
VT2042: $299, 20″, 1600×900, 10:000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
VT2342: $349, 23″, 1080p, rest same as above
VT2645: $449, 26″, 1366×768… why would you do that?
VT3245: $649, 32″, 1080p, 4000:1 static contrast ratio
VT3745: $799, 37″, rest same as above
VT4280: $999, 42″, 1080p, 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
They all have a 5ms response time, which is solid. They also feature SRS TrueSurround XT technology, which is a fancy way of saying they have an extra-nice sound bar. Even the nicest sound bar in the world would be beaten by the cheapest set of 5.1 speakers out there, so do yourself a favor and pick some up.
I’d say the best deal of these is the 32″ at $649. Unfortunately, it does have the lower contrast ratio. If you’re really wanting a new TV but don’t want to spend more than that, I’d suggest getting one that doesn’t have a sound bar, and springing for some speakers with the money you save, if possible.
[via Electronista]
The Zune HD’s lack of a compelling software market will make it nothing more than a repeat failure, according to mobile developers and an analyst.
Microsoft on Tuesday released its newest media player. Priced at $290 for the 32GB version, it’s packed with impressive hardware features, including a vibrant, touch-sensitive OLED display. Still, the hardware alone won’t be enough to make the device a success, observers say.
“They apparently had no idea the App Store was coming or was going to be big,” said Phillip Ryu, co-creator of the popular iPhone app Classics. “This all reeks of last-minute scrambling.”
The center of criticism is Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, the Zune HD’s version of an app store. But it’s not really a store: Third-party developers cannot easily create apps to be sold through Zune Marketplace. In fact, no apps will be sold at all.
Instead, Microsoft has handpicked third-party companies to code apps that will be offered for free in Marketplace. The initial software available for Zune HD will include games, a weather app and a calculator. And in November, Twitter and Facebook apps and some 3D games will launch in the “store” as well.
Unlike other mobile stores, Microsoft’s Marketplace is essentially closed to outside developers.
That’s an unusual move in the mobile tech landscape. By contrast, Apple’s App Store allows anyone to submit iPhone and iPod Touch apps, although Apple exerts stringent (and often capricious) control over which apps make it to the public. Google’s Android Market is completely open to any developers who wish to offer apps for it. Research in Motion, Verizon and Palm have also all opened mobile app stores to compete with Apple’s.
Even Microsoft is drafting developers for its Windows Mobile 6.5 app store — but oddly enough, the company is not integrating the same store for its Zune media player.
Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager Brian Seitz said the Windows Mobile Marketplace is being separated because the Zune HD has a different focus than smartphones. Seitz said the Zune HD’s focus is music and video playback.
However, Microsoft’s message is contradictory, because Seitz later said that since the Zune HD features Wi-Fi and not a constant cellular connection, the device would focus on gaming.
“The thing that Zune HD is made for is really rich music and video playback experiences for people,” Seitz said in a phone interview with Wired.com. “We know there’s other things folks want to do with these devices that are sometimes connected … and those apps are typically games.”
Seitz added that the Zune HD’s primary goal is not to compete with Apple’s App Store. However, he did acknowledge the Zune HD’s main competitor is the iPod Touch.
Matt Drance, Apple’s former iPhone evangelist and current owner of Bookhouse, an iPhone app development company, said Microsoft was wise to shy away from directly competing with the App Store, because the tech giant is already too far behind in this market segment.
“I’ll give [Microsoft] credit for acknowledging they’re not ready to compete,” Drance said in a phone interview. “They’re going to have to do something really special at this point. When you’re staring in the face of 75,000 apps in the App Store that have been downloaded 2 billion times, you can’t just say, ‘Hey, me, too.’”
There’s very little Microsoft can do with the Zune HD at this point, MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen said, because the software that launched with the Zune is too underwhelming to drive momentum for the gadget.
Kuittinen questioned why Twitter and Facebook apps were not immediately available for the Zune HD upon launch, because practically every smartphone today supports this type of software. He added that Microsoft failed to communicate to the public, via marketing and media, what exactly the Zune HD would do other than play music and video. This added up to a poorly executed launch, he said.
“To get the maximum impact you have to have the software services the moment you’re ready,” Kuittinen said. “When you start bringing it out later it dilutes the impact.”
“We’re getting close to Christmas now, so if you don’t start now telling consumers what the device can do, it’s going to be kind of late to give them Twitter app in November,” Kuittinen added.
What, then, should Microsoft do? Lower the price, suggests Kuittinen, who believes the price difference between the iPod Touch and the Zune is not a strong enough selling point. Microsoft is selling the 16GB Zune HD player for $220 and the 32 GB version for $290.
Apple’s iPod Touch comes in three models: $200 for 8GB, $300 for the 32GB and $400 for a 64GB model.
The iPod Nano, by contrast, costs $180 for a 16GB version, making it — price-wise — another possible competitor to the Zune HD.
“What exactly do they have to lose at this point?” Kuittinen said. “Why not just go to $130 or $140? They’re going to lose money anyway.”
See Also:
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Treehugger profiled Abe and Josie about their neat off-the-grid homestead in Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert. (Abe is the brother of Shawn Connally, MAKE's managing editor!)
Amidst the Chihuahuan Desert, Abe and Josie built a home out of dirt, designed a wind turbine from scrap parts, and raised their newborn without diapers and other conveniences ... Abe and Josie have the smarts to survive well in the big city, but they have chosen a different life, a remote life, off grid, debt free, and on their own terms and timeline. What is refreshing about this couple is that they are not rebelling against modern times. On the contrary, they are embracing it, and are in a sense early adopters of a lifestyle that was not possible until very recently. That is because their off grid, pay as you go lives are dependent on emerging technologies such as affordable DIY energy harvesting, satellite internet, and other modern advances. While off grid systems can be a costly investment, Abe and Josie have found the lo-fi, affordable route, proving that there is no reason to wait for off grid technology to improve or become more affordable.Young Couple Says NO to a Mortgaged Life
Make Online has a new microsite called the Science Room, which offers "projects, tools, and techniques for backyard scientists." From Gareth Branwyn's introduction to the microsite:
The Make: Science Room is our DIY science destination. Here you'll find how-tos on setting up a home lab, evaluating and buying equipment and supplies, and conducting all manner of fun and educational home science experiments. We also provide a forum, through Comments, for our readers to share their ideas and collaborate on their own experiments and discoveries. Robert Bruce Thompson is your host. He's the author of the best-selling Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (O'Reilly/Make: Books, 2008) and the (not-yet-published) Illustrated Guide to Forensics Investigations. We'll be including modified content from these books as well as creating original content. As time goes on, we'll expand the Science Room to include sections on astronomy, Earth sciences, biology, and other disciplines. We already have dozens of additional articles on deck and will be posting batches of them each week, so check back often.Welcome to the Make: Science Room
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video, Communications, Computers, Mobile Computers
While Microsoft is busy releasing the Zune HD today, Archos also pushed out its Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet on Amazon.com. It might not be the redemption of a formerly flailing brand, though it is possibly a bit more interesting that the Zune HD. While the Zune HD is being pushed as a major iPod competitor, the Archos 5 is being pushed as an Internet tablet that also has a wide range of media capabilities.
The Archos 5 is an interesting device in that it packs GPS and 3.5G HSDPA support into what could be used predominantly as a media player of Internet tablet. It runs on Android, though it can only use a small number of Android apps - that list does include popular apps such as Twidroid, Craigsphone, and eBuddy. What really shines on the Archos 5, however, is the sheer number of codecs supported. Unless you have a media file that’s wrapped in DRM from Apple, Microsoft, or other places that at one point used DRM, chances are it will work on the Archos 5. It can play back H.264 HD, MPEG-4 HD, MPEG-47, Flac, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, MP3, and numerous others. With the DVR Station the Archos 5 can record your favorite shows, output HD video to your HDTV, or even stream content to your PC.
The Archos 5, with all its features, despite being a bit larger than the Zune HD and iPod touch looks to outdo both devices easily. It can handle many more codecs, and is not restricted to proprietary software of any kind. It comes with either flash memory or hard-drive based options ranging from 8 GB to 500 GB (with the flash versions supporting microSD cards for expanded storage). Heck, it even has a stand built in for when you want to set it down and watch the video. With a price starting at $249.99, it could hopefully be the media player of choice for some. It’s a great example of just what Android can do, and looks to be a great device.
Read [Archos]
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AP - Adobe Systems Inc. said Tuesday it will buy Web analytic software company Omniture Inc. for about $1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers measure the effectiveness of such content.
It’s not the news of the century, but this little gadget from HP looks pretty useful. After all, there are plenty of people out there who need a separate number pad, whether it’s because they’re on a compact laptop, they like small keyboards, or whatever. The problem is that, like all USB devices, it takes up a USB port. If you’re a power user, every port counts, and who knows whether a certain fat thumbdrive will fit in next to the other thing, right? Luckily, the Calcpad also has two USB ports built right in.
Yeah yeah, it’s not that exciting, but this could be something you may actually use at your job, as opposed to stuff like that Ferrari iPod dock, which is hot but… come on.
[via JK on the run]
If you have a job, chances are you use Microsoft Outlook.
But are you using it to your best advantage?
Despite the popularity of Microsoft Outlook, several of its functions aren’t noticeable unless you dig around in menus or try out keystroke shortcuts. Many of these tricks can be found by reading a user manual, but users would rather be spending their time in Outlook responding to or writing emails.
In last week’s column I reviewed a program called Postbox, which displays email and its contents in unique ways. In that review I mentioned that Outlook, too, has extra functions, but that these aren’t always as obvious as they should be. Below, I’ve compiled a list of what I consider to be some of Outlook’s lesser-known talents. I focused on Outlook 2007, which many people currently use, and I also included a handful of notes about what Outlook 2010—due out late spring or early summer—will include. With any luck, you’ll find a few tips here that make your time in Outlook better spent.
Rather than simply entering a word into the Outlook search box, you can help the search engine narrow its results by giving it specific parameters. For example, if I remember that my friend sent an email with “LSU tickets” in the subject line, I can type “subject: LSU” to pull out all emails about the Louisiana university. Or if I want to find all emails from Molly, I can write, “from: Molly.” This works with several other terms including “to,” “sent,” “cc” and “message size.”
Search Folders, shown in the folder list with a magnifying glass icon beside them, offer a way of saving the searches you perform most often. If, for example, you often search for flight confirmation emails, you could make a Search Folder called “Travel” that would contain a constantly updated list of emails containing the names of airlines.
New folders can be set up by right clicking on the Search Folders icon, selecting New Search Folder and following steps to select a type of folder from one of many pre-set types of folders—such as “mail sent directly to me,” “large mail” or “mail flagged for follow up.” Or you can create a custom Search Folder by telling it to search for certain words that appear within specific message fields.
To make certain emails stand out in a large list—like emails from your boss or messages addressed only to you—you can set up a rule that makes the email show up in a specific color. Or you can set certain emails to appear in bold font, or in a specific font type and size. Just think of all the emails from your mom that will never go unnoticed again thanks to red type, 14-point font and underlined text.
Setting up the way emails are displayed can be done by going to the Tools menu, selecting Organize, Using Colors and then choosing specific colors for emails from specific people. More advanced automatic settings for applying font type and size to emails can be added by selecting Automatic Formatting in the top right corner of the Using Colors screen. Click “Add” to create more rules.
The Outlook Calendar can be organized to look the way you want it rather than the way it’s set up by default. For example, if you like looking at your day in hourly intervals rather than Outlook’s default 30-minute blocks, you can right click anywhere you see hours shown and select 60 minutes. Other increments are also available, like five, 10 and 15 minutes.
Outlook can also display other time zones right beside your own time zone by right clicking on the listed meeting hours, selecting Change Time Zone and checking the box labeled Show an Additional Time Zone. This is helpful for people who often work with distant colleagues, saving them from making a mistake and not factoring the right time zone for the other person. A Swap Time Zone button here quickly changes from one set zone to another, which could be a boon for people who regularly travel to different places and want their Outlook settings to reflect that they’re working from there.
Like color-coded emails, calendar events can be automatically sorted into pre-set categories like Personal, Travel and Family by setting formatting to look for certain words like Tennis (Personal), United (Travel) and Mom, Dad or Allison (Family). Added events that use these words automatically get labeled with a designated color to give your calendar a visual way of distinguishing different types of activities.
Another useful calendar tip: You can hold Control while selecting certain dates on the small view of the calendar and you’ll see only the schedules for those dates. So if I want to see Sept. 19, 22 and 24, I hold Control while selecting each date to see the three days’ activities displayed in the right viewing panel.
All Contacts in Outlook can be labeled with a photo of the person, which you add by double clicking on the small head icon in someone’s contact card and then choosing a photo from your collection. People who work in the same company and use Outlook can add their own photo to their contact and it will show up with their emails.
The top right corner of each contact card shows what a person’s digital business card would look like; this is an image that can be edited and copied using a right click, and then it can be copied and pasted to any email signature.
In Outlook 2010, due out next year, Microsoft (MSFT) says it hopes to streamline work in Outlook, creating smarter rules that do more with less manual work.
One example of this approach is that emails in the next version of Outlook will be, by default, sorted into conversations—a little like Gmail’s current system. An Ignore button will move all future emails related to the same conversation into the Deleted Items folder. That will include those with changed subject lines because Microsoft uses a special identifier to know which emails are associated with one another. A Clean Up button moves all redundant replies to the Deleted Items folder, leaving just the most recent message in the conversation.
Another feature is Reply with Meeting, a button in Outlook 2010 that will let users create a meeting out of an email. Selecting Reply with Meeting automatically invites those included in the email to attend a meeting.
The title of the meeting is the same as the subject of the email. If the users are in the same corporate network and they all use Outlook Calendar, this tool also looks for the next available time and date on everyone’s calendar.
Quick Steps, another streamlined feature of Outlook 2010, are one-click shortcuts that simultaneously perform several common actions that people take when handling email. If you select a Quick Step called Reply and Delete, it replies to an email and deletes the original. Users can create their own personalized Quick Steps like one labeled Social that, when selected, marks the email as read, moves it to a special folder and labels it under a certain category.
Edited by Walter S. Mossberg.
Write to
Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com
FROM GAMERTELL - PS3 firmware 3.01 has been released and it fixes problems users may have had with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune or Batman: Arkham Asylum freeze. It doesn’t, however, contain a fix for controllers that stopped working with firmware 3.0.
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Here's a clip from a 1962 Russian movie called The Planet of Storms. The design of the vehicles and spacesuits is very nice. The information panel on the YouTube page has instructions for downloading the entire movie.
"The Planet of Storms" was one of the first Soviet fantastic films directed by Pavel Klushantsev, a screen version of the novel of Alexander Kazantsev about space travel. The film has been made with use of unique technologies of the combined shooting at times leave behind of advancing foreign analogues existing in those days.The Planet of Storms (Thanks, Mike!)On a planet Venus goes joint Soviet-American expedition on three spaceships. One of the ships perishes at collision with a meteorite. The remained crews make decision to make landing on Venus and left on an orbit only one person for support of communication with the Earth. The spaceship and a glider from other ship sit down far apart...
Sanyo Japan has announced a small monitor [JP] that can be used to display pictures and video material from digital cameras and cell phones. The so-called Albo can also play your MP3s and is capable of infrared communication, meaning users can transfer data from their cell phones wirelessly.
The frame features a 7-inch LCD (800×480 resolution), 500MB of internal memory, 0.5W mono speakers, SD/SDHC/memory stick Duo support and a USB port. Videos can be viewed at 30fps with 640×480 resolution.
The Albo will be offered in three colors (white, brown and the inevitable pink) and is expected to retail for $150 when it hits Japanese stores next month. Sanyo Japan hasn’t said yet whether the frame will be sold abroad as well so you might want to contact the Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U if you want to get one shipped outside Japan.
3. The person who determines what a writer should do for others is the writer, not you. Why? Well, quite obviously, because it’s not your life, and you don’t get a say. And if you’re somehow under the impression that well, yeah, actually you do have a say in that writer’s life, take the following quiz:Think of your favorite writer. Now, are you:
1. That writer?
2. That writer’s spouse (or spousal equivalent)?
3. Rather below that, a member of that writer’s immediate family?
4. Rather below that, the writer’s editor or boss?If the answer is “no” to the above, then guess what? You don’t get a vote. And if you still assume you do, that writer is perfectly justified in being dreadfully rude to you. I certainly would be. I certainly have been, when someone has made such assertions or assumptions. And if necessary, I will be happy to be so again.
UPDATE: Here's Glenn Reynold's video interview with author John Scalzi.
On The Asking of Favors From Established Writers
Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:20 pm
Section: Computers, Security, Features, Originals, Columns
Windows 7 will be the most secure Windows version to date. Okay I agree, that really isn’t saying much, now is it? Windows has never been bulletproof, that’s why the underground economy of cybercrime is booming. But this is different. Windows 7 may very well be a security powerhouse. Security experts are saying it may be so secure that scammers will have to look at other ways to do their business:
A new report by PureWire’s Paul Royal, published in SC Magazine, a publication geared towards security professionals, indicates that Windows 7 will be the most secure Windows operating system to date. He concludes that all but the many casual attackers will be frustrated enough to turn to easier routes of attack, such as social engineering schemes.
There’s more good news too. Windows 7’s XP Mode has been shown to disable or cripple many malware programs, and the mode itself, because it uses hardware virtualization, will cause most rootkits to fail. Since malware is written not to run on any system where hardware virtualization is detected, most of it won’t run on Windows 7. It’s certainly possible for hackers to come up with workarounds and rewrite their programs, but it’s likely to be a huge and unprofitable headache.
Firefox and IE8 also patched up most of the common routes used by hackers to inject malicious code into memory. IE8 and Firefox, along with their plug-ins, benefit from this new layer of protection making the OS even more secure.
Experts don’t expect malware to go away any time soon and you can bet there will be some industrious hackers out there who will work to find away around the new security features of Windows 7. However, security wise it looks to be a big improvement, perhaps big enough to justify the $120 upgrade price. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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By Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Fancy new smart phones and laptops may generate more buzz, but the desktop PC remains the workhorse of the office. Bosses who outfit staffers with mobile devices, however, may be able to wring more work out of them, according to a new Forrester (FORR) study.
The research firm surveyed more than 2,000 employees at companies with 100 or more workers to find how they use technology. Three-quarters use desktop computers, and two-thirds are anchored to their desks for at least four hours a day.
Laptops were only available to one in three computer-using workers, though this varied by profession–47 percent of business employees had them, compared with only 17 percent of retail and manufacturing workers. A mere 11 percent of workers owned smart phones, though that percentage was higher for salespeople and marketers.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
A comment from earlier in the day sparked a bit of a conversation in the official CrunchGear chat room: what’s to stop someone from ditching the iTunes-iPod “universe” and switching to the Zune HD? (We’re all pretty keen on the Zune HD for whatever reason.) Those of you with iPhones are pretty much stuck using iTunes, but what’s to stop someone from saying, “You know, I’ve used an iPod in one form or another for the past five years, so I think I’m gonna try something new for a change.”? Let’s see what’s up.
I don’t think the excuse that you have a Mac is valid anymore. Any Mac bought within the past three years can run Windows, so whether you poney up the money for the operating system or acquire some other way (I don’t care what you do, and that’s not relevant right now anyway), you can run whatever software the Zune HD comes with. And what does your iTunes library consist of: a couple (thousand) MP3s? Those will play just fine on the Zune HD, and you can easily set it up so that all your music syncing is done within Windows. How often do you really need to sync your music library with your portable player?
I know in my case, what I’d do is continue to use Mac as my everyday operating system—I’m not switching to Windows full time just to use a portable device—then boot into Windows like once a week just to sync the library, download updates, etc. Thanks to things like Spotify, I don’t really need to have a huge library of songs constantly on my computer. So, host my library on the Windows partition, then keep a smaller one/use spotify for when I’m in Mac OS X. I get to use the Zune HD and my preferred OS.
Again, iPhone users are pretty much stuck with iTunes, but if you have an iPhone then you probably have little need for a Zune.
All I’m saying is, it’s probably not as hard to switch from an iPod-iTunes combo as you might think. This only refers to music, of course, because if you’re buying movies and TV shows from iTunes you’ve pretty much committed yourself to iTunes.
A woman holds a small rectangle of bullet-proof glass in front of her face while a man (her husband?) stands off in the distance and fires a rifle at the glass. (via Richard Wiseman)
Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:43 pm
Like the Wall Street Journal? Enjoy catching up on the latest business news while on the go via your iPhone, CrackBerry, or other mobile device? Love to spend money? Well then you are in luck! The Wall Street Journal is preparing to charge users for mobile access to its content according to Rupert Murdoch, owner of the paper and everyone’s favorite news mogul.
With newspapers all over the country struggling to remain afloat, owners are scrambling for new ways to squeeze money out of their publications. The WSJ is set to begin charging $2/week for non-subscribers and $1/week for subscribers for mobile access “in one or two months.”
Murdoch is no stranger to charging users for access. The Wall Street Journal began charging readers for online access to the paper some time ago, and remains one of the few traditional newspaper-turned-webpaper to succeed with paid content.
via Y! Tech
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Remember that hot new Archos tablet we mentioned a little while back? Five inch touchscreen? Runs Android? Right. Well it’s not just PR shots and specs now; it’s been handled by just about everyone on the internet, and the consensus is: solid, but maybe wait for the first update, which will add full HTML browsing by default and perhaps Flash support. At any rate, the pricing is confirmed and they’re available now.
Laptop Magazine has a little hands on that shows it being pretty much what you’d expect. The touchscreen, although the lady says it’s very responsive, appears about as laggy as my G1’s. Still, with 60GB of storage and some serious firepower running the thing, it’s still a pretty serious super-PMP.
 New Zealand Herald | Intel Says European Commission Antitrust Case Is Flawed Wall Street Journal Intel Corp. (INTC) is arguing the European Commission presented a flawed case in its antitrust ruling against the chip giant that led to an unprecedented $1.45 billion fine, according to a summary of the company's appeal. ... Intel contests EU on $1.45 billion fine Intel Asks Court to Dismiss EU Antitrust Case Intel anti-trust appeal details released |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 guardian.co.uk | Google's Fast Flip: Odd and Imperfect, but Useful PC World Did I just say that one of the differences between Bing and Google is that Bing is splashy and Google revels in its plain jane interface? I lied. Google had a TechCrunch50 announcement of its own this afternoon, and involves a new Google Labs feature ... Why You Should Check Out Google Fast Flip Now Hands on: limitations of Google Fast Flip make it a novelty Google's latest: Are you flipping for Fast Flip? |
A teardown of Microsoft’s Zune HD digital media player revealed the secret to the device’s longer battery life when compared to the iPod Touch. The combination of the OLED screen, the Nvidia Tegra processor and a lightweight device has helped put the Zune HD ahead of the iPod.
The Zune HD weighs only 2.6 oz, almost 35 percent less than the similarly-sized iPod Touch. Zune has a Samsung-manufactured 3.3 inch OLED display, which is also probably its single most expensive component. At just 1 mm, the OLED screen is incredibly thin and seems more rugged than a traditional LCD panel, says iFixit, which did the teardown.
Microsoft Zune HD hit stores Wednesday and the device got a favorable review from Wired.com
for its design and software.
As we have reported earlier, the Zune HD has a Nvidia Tegra 2600 processor. Tegra includes an 800-MHz ARM CPU, a high-definition video processor, an imaging processor, an audio processor and an ultralow-power GeForce GPU in a single package. In comparison, the third generation iPod Touch uses a Samsung ARM processor.
Betting on Tegra has paid off for the Zune in an unexpected way. The Zune HD’s battery capacity is 660 mAh, about 16 percent less than the 789 mAh battery in the new iPod touch. Yet the Zune promises a longer run time than the touch for both music and videos.
The battery on the Zune should also be easier to replace than on the new iPod Touch, says iFixit. The Zune’s battery has individual wires for the battery leads. In the Touch, the battery leads run through a single ribbon cable, making hand-soldering a challenge.
Unlike the latest version of the iPod Touch, the Zune HD does not support 802.11n Wi-Fi. Instead, it’s has a Atheros AR6002GZ 802.11g chip. iFixit’s teardown showed that a Toshiba NAND flash and Hynix SDRAM. But there have been reports that Microsoft is using a few different suppliers for these parts.
The Zune HD unit taken apart by iFixit carried an inscription ‘For our Princess’ on the interior casing–a tribute to a Zune team member who passed away during development.
Interestingly, Zune HD is manufactured by Foxconn, the same company that produces iPods for Apple.
For a detailed step-by-step break down of the Zune HD check out iFixit’s post.
More photos of the Zune HD’s innards
Nvidia’s Tegra Processor inside the Zune
Zune HD’s different components
See Also:
Photos: iFixit
 BBC News | Bug testers: Google is clean, Bing is buggy CNET News Google was the favorite search engine of independent bug testers who scoured the search landscape for bugs. An independent search engine bug bash gave high marks to Google's bug testers and found that while Bing is buggy, it's also doing ... Translator battles: Bing edges forward, Google pulls ahead Bing Aims to Pull Visual Search Into Focus Microsoft Bing's Visual Search Takes on Google's Similar Images |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We’ve been wondering what was inside the Palm Pixi since it was first announced – specifically, how would it vary from the Pre? Looks like we’re finally getting some (leaked) information on what exactly is going to be inside.
Qualcomm leaked some information recently, and it’s looking like the Pixi will have the new MSM7627 chipset, which is going to be close to the same performance as the Pre, including supporting OpenGL 2.0 for graphics. While they’ve nixed the WiFi and bumped the camera res and screen size down a bit, it’s look pretty similar when you get deep down under the hood.
Here’s what Qualcomm has to say:
The high-performance MSM7627™ chipset solution is designed to enable mass-market devices with advanced functionality and rich multimedia capabilities that take advantage of the broadband data speeds available through 3G networks worldwide.
The MSM7627 solution features an industry-leading level of integration, enabling devices with high-end functionality to be slimmer, sleeker and last longer on a single battery charge.
Powerful multimedia capabilities integrated into the MSM7627 chipset translate to a richer, more compelling experience while browsing the web, accessing online applications, playing 3D games, capturing high-resolution pictures and video, and more.
And the full technical spec on the Pixi:
* Two ARM cores integrated into a single chip – a dedicated CPU core and a dedicated modem processor – for an unparalleled level of integration:
o 1. 600MHz applications processor with floating point unit and L2 cache
o 2. 400MHz modem processor
* Supports both CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. A and UMTS HSDPA 7.2Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps, and GSM
* In addition to the two ARM cores, features 320MHz application DSP for multimedia supporting full 30 fps WVGA encode/decode, 200MHz hardware-accelerated 3D graphics core supporting OPEN GL 2.0, high-resolution camera, integrated GPS
* 12mm x 12mm footprint
* Optimized power consumption
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video, Communications, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation
Today, the Zune HD launched to very little fanfare. Early in, Twitter was abuzz with talk of problems getting the thing to work out of the box. This player was supposed to be the best Microsoft’s Zune unit could bring out and early pics on talk was that it could best the legendary iPod touch.
Today, the headlines are full of the exact opposite. Things like:
“Microsoft Zune Team Launches Latest Exercise in Futility”
Microsoft Zune HD: Cool, but no iPod killer
Zune HD launches today with app strategy as scattered as ever
Even tech-man Joshua Topolsky of Engadget tweeted, “sort of wowed by the pure trouble of getting this Zune HD working properly. Poorly played.” What is going on?
One of the biggest surprises is the lack of an app store. MS is working with developers on specific titles that they’ll offer to Zune users for free. But as for an application market, the company line is that is something the Mobiles Window team is working on and we don’t want to duplicate efforts. Yes, because having a successful app store would be a total waste of time. Either your device is worth the investment in an app store or it isn’t. The Zune team seems to think they can sidestep the Apple App Store success by not competing with it.
The device already has had its guts displayed for all to see over at anythingbutipod.com. According to that site, written inside the device is “for our princess”. The site explains: “For those wondering why the inside cover says “for our princess”, one of the Zune team members passed away during the development so they decided to dedicate this device to her. A very cool memorial. ” Otherwise the guts are small.
Maybe all those folks that thought the Zune HD would burst on the scene had their attention diverted by a little French wonder from ARCHOS. Also available today, the ARCHOS 5 Android MID launched via Amazon.com. The device runs on Google’s Android OS and is music, GPS, internet and lots more all in one. This one is a bit thicker than similar devices from Apple and Microsoft but worthy of a look, none the less. Check out PC World’s first look here.
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Seagate's no-nonsense sneakernet movie box--slide in a 2.5" external drive or thumbdrive and press play--gets a bump to 1080p in the new edition. Previously reviewed here in its 720p incarnation, the latest FreeAgent has a second USB port and HDMI output to boot.
It also supports HFS+ (i.e. OSX) formatted drives in addition to NTFS and the FATs, and comes with some media management software if dragging and dropping AVI, MOV, VOB, ISO, DIVx and Xvid files is too challenging.
Product Page [Seagate]
HP has combined sleek, brushed metal and colorful, fluttering butterflies into a new collection of designer notebooks that will hit stores later this year.
With a new 13-inch and 15-inch laptop that pack in some powerful specs in a slim body, the company took a shot at the ultra-thin notebooks category. The new slim laptops will carry the the ‘Envy’ brand and are targeted at road warriors and executives who want a full-sized notebook without the heft.
Separately , HP also showed a new netbook design from Vivienne Tam on the catwalks at the New York Fashion Week. HP has a long-standing partnership with Tam who designed an earlier version of the HP Mini netbook.
Over the last year, the ultra-thin notebooks category has caught on among PC makers. Apple created a stir with the MacBook Air, a laptop introduced in January 2008 and cleverly presented as slim enough to fit inside a manila envelope. Earlier this year, Dell released the Adamo, a notebook with a 13.4-inch display, 1.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2-GB memory and 128-GB solid state drive for prices starting at $2000.
Envy 13 has HP hopes to beat those specs. The $1700 Envy 13 has a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 3GB RAM and 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 GPU. It will come with a 250GB hard drive and and an external DVD-RW drive
At 3.74 pounds, the Envy 13 is heavier than the MacBook Air’s 3 pounds but lighter than Adamo’s 4 pounds. Still for an ultra-thin that little extra weight on the Envy comes as a surprise and can be annoying.
Though HP has dropped the ‘Voodoo’ brand from these laptops, the PCs carry the Voodoo legacy forward in looks and design. The brushed metal look, subtle etchings around the keypad and the square edges are very reminiscent of the HP 13.3-inch Voodoo Envy laptop released last year. But that also means a sense of deja vu–there’s nothing in here to surprise potential buyers.
What is new is the optional Slim Fit extended life battery, a neat slab of power that snaps on to the bottom of the Envy 13 and doubles the standard seven-hour battery life.
The $1800 Envy 15 is heavier at 5.18 lbs and come with Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB memory and a 15.6 inch display.
The two laptops are expected to be available starting October 18.
Separately, the company showed off a ‘digital clutch’ at Vivienne Tam’s fashion show at Bryant Park in New York. The HP Vivienne Tam digital clutch is expected to be available in spring 2010.
Check out more photos the Vivienne Tam digital clutch
See Also:
Top Photo: HP Envy 13/HP
JAGTAG announces today that they are now able to utilize Twitter’s network to decode their proprietary 2D barcodes and then easily broadcast the resulting links and media via Twitter’s re-tweet function. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has hooked up with the company to promote their new Blu-ray/DVD launch of X-Men Origins: Wolverine via this method. It’s an interesting way to use mobile devices outfitted with Twitter clients, to decode and share video and other content, especially as an ad campaign tactic. Will it catch on? We’ll have to see, but it’s definitely an innovative way to marry some existing technologies. I appreciate the “rigging together” of a concept like this. That’s a compliment, by the way.
From the press release:
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and JAGTAG, the only 2D barcode solution that does not require consumers to download an application and the only mobile medium to successfully deliver optimized multimedia to standard phones and smartphones, today announced the launch of the first viable Twitter integration from a 2D barcode tied to the Blu-ray/ DVD launch of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The Twitter integration allows consumers to tweet with 2D barcodes, sharing exclusive video content from X-Men Origins: Wolverine with their friends and followers.
I used an iPhone to test it out, but you could use any mobile platform and Twitter client that supports image upload. For the sake of practicality, the way it works is like this:
1. You take a picture of a JAGTAG you see out in the field (the one to the right is the demo tag from the JAGTAG website)
2. You save it to your library
3. You open a mobile Twitter client (I used TwitBird Pro)
4. Open and type a new tweet
5. Attach the photo of the JAGTAG in your library (TwitBird Pro uses Twitpic to upload and encode a link to the photo)
6. Append JAGTAG’s shortcode preceded with the @ symbol (@524824) to the end of your tweet.
So, the tweet would look like this:
getdonovan http://twitpic.com/f4mjj @524824
Once you do this, the JAGTAG will be decoded and that content will be returned as a link in your account’s @ mentions. You can then re-tweet that mention to easily pass the link on to your followers. The response will look like this:
524824 @getdonovan See our demo video here: http://tinyurl.com/nghfx6
Why is this important? Well there are a few things to note.
1. This bypasses the need for MMS functionality to decode a JAGTAG, say, if you are on an iPhone. MMS is still lacking on iPhone (until Sept. 25th unless you have already taken measures into your own hands with certain hacks available out there). So, you can use Twitter as a surrogate MMS solution for the iPhone. (Incidentally, JAGTAG does support an email solution for iPhone—emailing tag pics to jag@jagtag.net gets a similar response, just via email).
2. It automatically posts the content link into Twitter for you, eliminating the need to cut and past a URL string for the compelling content you want to broadcast on Twitter. This is a nice shortcut anyone on a mobile device can appreciate. And if it’s compelling content you are looking for…just check out JAGTAG’s recent campaign with Sport Illustrated for the Swim Suit Issue. ZING!
It may seem like a bit of a convoluted process on paper, but anyone familiar with the ins and outs of mobile tweeting will likely not be daunted. Once I tried it out myself, I could see how I would use this functionality. Apparently Fox Home Entertainment is a believer as well. It will be a case study to keep your eye on to see if it catches on.
Now, if only I could find a JAGTAG to decode that’s not just an ad for a mobile phone or DVD (see Nokia’s JAGTAG-wielding ad in Wired for an example). That’s not really the content I want to pass on to others. It is still valuable but more for personal consumption. I think once JAGTAG reaches a critical mass of clients publishing content that, while still possibly ad-based, has functional and informational value on its own (location based content, time sensitive events, limited use content…basically all the plans their web site lays out) that we’ll see their speed to market with this Twitter-based experience will have proven worthwhile.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
[Moneual via Akihabara News via Crunchgear]
There was a ton of laptop news from HP this morning (September 15, 2009), but there were also some desktop offerings. The HP MediaSmart Server now plays better with Macs. Take a look at some screenshots. Also, the new HP MS200 all-in-one PC debuted with a pretty slick form factor and aims to be the choice for those small on space.
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
After running 10 miles, even walking on hardwood can feel painful. Enter recovery sandals, or shoes that are designed to let your feet rest after lots of hard work. I've been alternating between these two — the Crocs Prepair (right) and the Sole Sport Flips.
The Prepair feels like sticking your feet in jello — it's really that soft. Crocs claims that it reduces peak pressure by up to 50% and peak muscular effort by up to 25%. It's also anti-bacterial, so no musty funky fungus. The problem I have with these is that the fit is not perfect — this could be a problem with the shape and texture of my feet, but if I walk for too long in these the skin between my big toe and second toe starts to chafe. The cushy Croc-y material is definitely great for pain relief though. For athletes who can't afford foot massages after every run, dropping $35 on these is not a bad idea.
Sole is a company that mostly makes custom footbeds, so they've applied their expertise on molding and arch support to a good-looking sandal that costs $70 and comes in some really cool color combinations. I love switching from my sweaty kicks into these because they're very light and airy, and even after a long time there's no chafing or hot spots. Did I mention they're approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association?
The first rumors started spreading about two weeks ago, and it was officially announced yesterday: Major Japanese cell phone makers Hitachi, NEC and Casio are merging their mobile phone operations to become Japan’s No. 2 maker (following Sharp). The name of the new venture will be “NEC Casio Mobile Communications”.
The merger will shrink the number of Japanese mobile phone makers from eight to six: NEC Casio Mobile Communications, Sharp, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Kyocera. The new company will control just over 20% of Japan’s 100 million handset market, following Sharp’s 21.8% share.
The integration will take place in April 2010. NEC will take over a 66% stake, with Casio and Hitachi owning 17.34% and 16.66%, respectively.
And today, it came to light the new company aims at cracking certain cell phone markets outside Japan, too. Major shareholder NEC in particular is said to be interested in going international before launching LTE, as the Japanese home market is shrinking rapidly.
In fiscal 2012, NEC Casio Mobile Communications intends to sell 7 million phones in Japan and 5 million in other markets (two to three times more than now). NEC gave up its cell phone distribution network in Europe and China in 2006.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Section: Business News, Web, Google
A new ad exchange available through Google is preparing for a public launch according to reports. It is expected to debut in two weeks during Advertising Week, an annual exhibition that takes place in New York. The ad exchange will be made available through the DoubleClick unit of Google and it will allow access to excess ad inventory. The excess ads are sold to advertisers at a low rate through an open bidding process.
This ad exchange focuses on display ads instead of Google’s traditional top selling text ads. Display ads include banner and image based online advertisements. In 2008, Google acquired DoubleClick in a way to venture into money making opportunities through display ads.
Although the new display project will not go public for another couple of weeks, Google has opened up DoubleClick on an invitation only basis to some of their best advertising partners. There has been no feedback on the DoubleClick branch since all parties involved are bound by non-disclosure agreements. Google has not released any official word on the launch of DoubleClick.
Read: [Clickz]
Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Last Thursday, Motorola announced its first Android-based smartphone, Cliq, alongside its new custom Android interface, MOTOBLUR. Although no specific availability or pricing information was released, it was pretty clear (read: T-Mo’s CTO was on stage) that T-Mobile would be the exclusive carrier of MOTO’s new Hail Mary device.
But that was so last week. Fast forward a few days and there are now reports suggesting that T-Mo’s exclusivity will either be short-lived, or possibly even non-existent. According to the Wall Street Journal, Motorola co-CEO, Sanjay Jha, said Monday that his company is “in talks with all large operators in U.S.” and is “fairly hopeful [Motorola] will begin to engage with all the U.S. operators.”
In all likelihood, we’re willing to bet that T-Mobile will indeed be the exclusive Cliq carrier, albeit for a very brief time. If the Cliq is really going to save Motorola, then by all means, it’s clearly in MOTO’s best interest to have it and its soon to be revealed MotoDroid siblings available on as many mobile carriers as possible.
FierceWireless via WSJ
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
This pamphlet, purportedly leaked fresh from someone in the know at T-mobile, is fantastic for two reasons. For one, it says “298 minutes away from cake.” which, while we have no idea what the hell it means, sounds intriguing. Beyond that (and that’s really the primary draw here), it also happens to list the pre-order date for Moto’s new Android-powered baby, the Cliq.
As TmoNews points out, the October 19th pre-order date fits right in place. Other rumors indicated that this thing would hit the shelves on November 2nd, so a mid-October pre-order window would give them just enough time to hype it up, get some orders, and get the units onto delivery trucks.
The last leaks pin this thing at 400 bucks sans contract, and mind-blowingly free if you’re willing to sign up for 2 years. If that latter detail ends up true, expect these things to soar right off the shelves.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
The fact that they’re only the 5th largest carrier in the United States hasn’t kept MetroPCS from dreaming big. Far from it – they’re gunning for the big boys today by announcing their vendors for the eventual big switch to LTE. From the looks of it, they’ve got a pretty solid team lined up: Ericsson will be handling the new network infrastructure, and Samsung has been tapped to provide Metro with their first LTE handset.
What has piqued everyone’s interest though, is their commitment to getting a spanking new dual-mode smartphone by the end of 2010. Whether or not this is the LTE launch handset Metro and Samsung alluded to is unknown (we’d guess no), but if the Samsung isn’t looking to claim that spot for their own, then ZTE seems poised to snap it up for themselves.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Section: Computers, Laptops, Netbooks
HP is pushing the limits on what a “mini” is with an 11.6-inch HD screen on the Mini 311, but it’s a looker. Additionally, HP has built a budget and style conscious laptop called the Pavilion DM3 that goes for under $600 and it’s under 1-inch thick and weighs only 4.2 pounds. How do these new notebooks look in real life? Take a look.
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
While Lenovo isn't so slack, sometimes review units arrive with an earlier writer's "footprints" left unerased. Regrettably, I've never found anything interesting.
Section: Computers, Laptops, Netbooks
HP introduced the HP Mini 110 designed by Studio Tord Boontje to go after the fashion conscious (and budget conscious) netbook user. On the other side, HP also introduced the ProBook 5130m, a laptop designed for the very mobile business person. Take a look at these laptops getting manhandled by Gadgetell.
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Web, Web 2.0, Websites, Online Music/Video, Google
Find web news too slow? Google is looking to change that with its new lab service Fast Flip, a lighting fast view of a news page. Google believes that what is holding online news back is the time to load. Are they right?
Users who are surrounded by newsprint and magazines should feel right at home at Fast Flip. The service puts pages of news into a bar and allows you to flip through them quickly, just like you would if the pages were laid out in front of you. The bonus: no lag for those of us with super-short attention spans. The news is even speedy on an iPhone, where a simple swipe changes pages.
Google partnered up with news outfits such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Fast Company. Interestingly, the revenue from the display ads that run along side the content will be split between Google and the content creator. Google is looking to give a helping hand to struggling news outlets.
The publishing industry faces many challenges today, and there is no magic bullet. However, we believe that encouraging readers to read more news is a necessary part of the solution. We think Fast Flip could be one way to help, and we’re looking to find other ways to help as well in the near future.
My take on this is loading time is not what is killing news sites. Users have very different motives when looking at news via paper when compared to the internet. Fast Flip, while remarkable for its speed and cleverness, makes finding news cumbersome. To boot, it is awkward having to click on the news in Fast Flip online to have an identical but live page pop up to read the second page.
In Fast Flip each site’s style is shown through, muddling the news. Headlines are not as easy to pick out and your attention is shared with designs you may or may not find attractive. Either way, it isn’t an experience that is going to change news. Not just yet, anyway. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.
Product page: [Fast Flip] via [Official Google Blog]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Last time we saw Danny MacAskill, he was shredding the streets of Edinburgh with insane bicycle stunts. Now, he’s back, and he’s still putting the “skill” in MacAskill.
This latest video is an ad for some Scottish recruitment company. Whatever. The conceit is that you should be doing a job you like, and MacAskill is dressed up as an office worker as he leaps off the tops of tall buildings and somehow manages to do backwards nose-wheelies, or something.
So, enjoy the video, and think how much fun it would be to work in even the grimmest northern office if your commute went anything like this.
Video page [YouTube via Rantwick]
Danny MacAskill - One amazing talent [S1 Jobs]
See Also:
The $150 Space Camera.
Bespoke is old hat. Off-the-shelf is in. Even Google runs the world’s biggest and scariest server farms on computers home-made from commodity parts. DIY is cheaper and often better, as Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh found out when they decided to send a camera into space.
The two students (from MIT, of course) put together a low-budget rig to fly a camera high enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth. Instead of rockets, boosters and expensive control systems, they filled a weather balloon with helium and hung a styrofoam beer cooler underneath to carry a cheap Canon A470 compact camera. Instant hand warmers kept things from freezing up and made sure the batteries stayed warm enough to work.
Of course, all this would be pointless if the guys couldn’t find the rig when it landed, so they dropped a prepaid GPS-equipped cellphone inside the box for tracking. Total cost, including duct tape? $148.
Launch
Two weeks ago, on Sept. 2, at the leisurely post-breakfast hour of 11:45 a.m., the balloon was launched from Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Lee and Yeh took a road trip in order to stop prevailing winds from taking the balloon out onto the Atlantic, and checked in on the University of Wisconsin’s balloon trajectory website to estimate the landing site.
Because of spotty cellphone coverage in central Massachusetts, it was important to keep the rig in the center of the state so it could be found upon landing. Light winds meant the guys got lucky and, although the cellphone’s external antenna was buried upon landing, the fix they got as the balloon was coming down was close enough.
The Photographs
The balloon and camera made it up high enough to see the black sky curling around our blue planet. The Canon was hacked with the CHDK (Canon Hacker’s Development Kit) open-source firmware, which adds many features to Canon’s cameras. The intervalometer (interval timer) was set to shoot a picture every five seconds, and the 8-GB memory card was enough to hold pictures for the five-hour duration of the flight.
The picture you see above was shot from around 93,000 feet, just shy of 18 miles high. To give you an idea of how high that is, when the balloon burst, the beer-cooler took 40 minutes to come back to Earth.
What is most astonishing about this launch, named Project Icarus, is that anyone could do it. The budget is so small as to be almost nonexistent (the guys slept in their car the night before the launch to save money), so that even if everything went wrong, a second, third or fourth attempt would be easy. All it took was a grand idea and an afternoon poking around the hardware store.
The project website has few details on how the balloon was put together — but the students say they will be posting the step-by-step instructions soon. UPDATE: The instructions will be available for free, not $150, as earlier reported.
Project Icarus page [1337 Arts]
Photo credit: 1337 Arts/Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh
See Also:
Microsoft's ZuneHD is obviously an excellent gadget: small, beautiful and high-end. But the service is broken on launch day, making it impossible to access pretty much anything on a device that can't do anything interesting or new without this access. The marketplace is inaccessible ("Try again later") and my first two hours with it have been an exploration of "unknown" errors like C00D11CD, which could be a DRM failure, a full Zune, a full hard drive, or a network error (that's a bingo!)
I was able to get the Zune 4 software installed, at least, so am able to copy music to it that I already own. Sounds great.
Update: It's fixed! Things are downloading right now.
Update II: It's not fixed! It lets me see the apps and stuff and I can click "download," and it tells me its "100% downloaded," but then it changes its mind and says Can't Download. I'll click on some more stuff and see what happens.
Update III: At last! Apps are now IN COLLECTION. This stuff wouldn't be that big of a deal were it not for the fact that the service side is where the magic is. (Moreover, the ZuneHD doesn't do anything out of the box, not even appearing as a removable drive: it must be sync'd to a Windows PC first and updated.)
How is it that two such cold, hard substances — glass and concrete — can combine to make a warming, almost organic object? It may have something to do with the flickering orange lights inside, or the fact that concrete is a surprisingly lovely material, as welcoming as wood when used right. Take a look at the dome on the Pantheon in Rome if you’re about to argue.
Whatever the reasons, we love the Nixie Concrete Clock, a block of concrete with holes into which are slipped six Z560M Nixie tubes, the glowing digital displays of old East Germany, and spiritually the LED-readouts of the steampunk age.
As with any timepiece of substance, this one takes a little learnin’ to read: The hours, minutes and seconds are delivered in vertical pairs, so that the picture above shows 10:23:54. Simple, beautiful and slightly aloof, it could be the one nixie clock that drives us, finally, to build our own.
NIXIE CONCRETE v0.01 [Nixie Concrete. Thanks, Radhika!]
We’ll be honest. The only reason that we’re posting about Wieder’s Powerbell is because of its looks. For a piece of fitness kit, it… Well, it doesn’t look much like a piece of fitness kit.
While we have no intention of spoiling the smooth, skinny lines of our arms by ever lifting one of these weights, we can appreciate its modular form. Unlike regular kettle-bells, which are bought one-by-one in a variety of weights, the Powerbell has one handle which, when unlocked, allows flat plates to slide in and out.
And while it is certainly space-saving, it isn’t quite the money saver Wieder would have us believe. The product site shows a row of kettle-bells lined up, prices at the side. These add up to $300. The Powerbells? $400 or $300, depending on the maximum masses of 20 or 40 pounds, plus $25 shipping. Right now there is a “sale”, where these “drop” to a still-too-close $200 and $250.
Still, it has one major advantage over any other weightlifting gear. When you give up on using it after a week, it will still look good as a doorstop.
Product page [Wieder via Uncrate]
We can’t decide which is better: The buttonless Kymera Magic Wand universal remote, or the wonderful website which accompanies it. The pages look like pages from an epic, ancient tome, complete with hand-drawn illustrations and crinkly, yellowing paper.
The wand itself is a simple stick, containing the hair of a unicorn’s mane. Wait, no. It’s a stick containing an infrared LED. In practice mode, you can try out any of the 13 gestures and the wand will vibrate and pulse a coded pattern to let you know which one. When you are ready to do some serious magic (change channels), the wand learns simply by performing a gesture and beaming a boring, modern-day remote at its tip. Change channel by flipping left or right, for example, or increase the volume with a quick clockwise twirl.
A wonderfully whimsical device, the 14-inch wand will be available on October 1st for £50, or $83, batteries included.
Product page [The Wand Company]
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This is a guest post by Shanghai-based entrepreneur George Godula. His company 
Patrick Suskind. Perfume
Here’s the thing I love about Reid Hoffman. There’s no “We-don’t-comment-on-rumors-and-speculation” BS with him. You ask him a question and he gives you an answer.
Google Docs has changed the landscape of computing office suites. By moving everything to the cloud, accessing documents is easier now than it ever has been. But unlike a lot of the other things Google is working on, Google Docs isn’t particularly social. 
It’s 5 p.m. and we’re in the homestretch! The experts and the Twitterers seem to be less impressed with the companies this afternoon than the ones this morning. That or we’re all just getting tired after 40-something demos.
Short version: A great set of computer speakers with a built in iPod dock and USB sound card. They sound great, no matter if you’re listening to music or just playing games. My only complaint about them would be the price, but frankly, they’re worth it.
