Source: Gizmodo | 28 Sep 2009 | 8:00 pm

The tiniest drill ever: now shipping

Remember the littlest drill in the world? Well it’s now available for purchase. Sure, €85 seems a bit much to pay for a drill that won’t put a hole in anything, but let’s face it, we’ve all spent more on less at some time or another.

Buy it here, but expect a couple weeks for construction and shipping.

Source: CrunchGear | 28 Sep 2009 | 7:30 pm

Comparing Microsoft’s 720p LifeCam Cinema to an iSight

I’ve just hooked up the LifeCam Cinema to my desktop, and thought an SD comparison was in order. In a stroke of genius, I attached the LifeCam to the top of my Mac so it and my iSight were pretty much aligned — though not so much that it’s seamless. I did a little video so you can compare color, fidelity, and all that. Best to watch it in HD so you can see the differences between the two.

It’s a bit difficult to get a read on detail since I can’t directly overlay the two images — but have a look at these two full-size images from the videos (click to embiggen):

I think the LifeCam has the iSight beat handily in all areas, though neither one is very good at catching motion naturally and dynamic range is pretty much non-existent. Of course, the iSight is a built-in thing the size of my pinky fingernail, and the LifeCam is actually the size of the original cylindrical iSight.

The LifeCam has a better low end in the audio but also has a hiss that gets pretty pronounced if you need to boost the volume. That can be taken out with a mild low pass filter, though.

Full review will be coming a little later in the week.

[Updated: I think this thing is called the Cinema now, not the HD. I'm not by the box so I can't tell. Also, it doesn't appear to work on Macs natively, although some programs are able to at least get a signal from it.]

Source: CrunchGear | 28 Sep 2009 | 7:00 pm

Apple Store goes down for mystery updates

We’re used to seeing this message flash across the Apple Store every time Steve Jobs graces the stage – but on a random evening at the beginning of the work week? That’s a bit strange.

Any guesses as to what’s in the oven? The latest whispers around the Interwebs all suggest that iMac and MacBook revisions are on the way – but they weren’t expected to trickle out for a few more days. Might they be sneaking out a bit early? Perhaps. Might Apple just be adjusting their gradient-y drop shadows and bumping some margins? Perhaps. We’ll see soon enough.

Update: It was something along the lines of the second one. It just came back up and, as far as we can tell, nothing changed. Let us know if we missed something.

Source: CrunchGear | 28 Sep 2009 | 6:49 pm

Palm Pre firmware update on the way

Section: Communications, Smartphones

Palm has announced that an update to the Pre’s WebOS firmware is on the way.  The update, WebOS 1.2.1, offers over 70 fixes and improvements including a revised cut and paste, notifications via the LED light on the Pre, the browser can now download files and open links as new cards.

Some reports say it may even restore the Pre’s ability to sync with iTunes, which was blocked when iTunes 9 was released.  While many Pre users will welcome the return of iTunes syncing, some experts say Palm may be in for a lawsuit from Apple if they don’t back up, something the still struggling company can ill afford.  Is it worth the fight or would Palm be better off creating its own music and media store?  We’ll have to see what Palm decides.

Along with the firmware update, rumors are flying that Palm also plans to update the Pre App Catalog to finally allow paid apps, something that may allow it to better compete with Apple’s App Store and BlackBerry’s App World.

What the firmware won’t do is improve the Pre’s build quality, which has generated numerous complaints including screen issues and loose keyboards.  Hopefully the upcoming Palm Pixi will benefit from the lessons learned from the Pre (and seeing how it had a built in keyboard rather than a slide out one perhaps it has).  The update is expected to be released within a week but the actual release date will be up to Sprint.

Read [PCWorld]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 6:26 pm

Apple Pushes Unwanted Software To PCs, Again

itwbennett writes "Blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols wags his finger at Apple for indiscriminately pushing the iPhone Configuration Utility 2.1 update out to Windows users, since it is a tool for business system administrators to set up and administer corporate iPhones — the blogger himself (and practically every other iPhone user) not being of the corporate iPhone user persuasion. But more than just unnecessary, the update actually puts him and millions of other iPhone owners/Windows PC users at increased risk by installing 'not just a configuration program, but the Apache Web server as well,' says Vaughan-Nichols. 'A Web server like the one Apple [is] adding to your PC... [is] a gateway just asking to be hammered on by an attacker. Managed properly Apache is as safe a Web server as you'll ever find, but ordinary PC users shouldn't try to manage it, and even an expert can't do anything with it if they don't know it's there.'" Reader CWMike notes that Apple pulled the iPhone Configuration Utility from the update list after a few hours.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Sep 2009 | 6:10 pm

Electric Fish Turn Down Charge for Energy Efficiency

It takes a lot of energy to produce electricity, so these fish shut it down during the daylight hours, while they rest.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 6:00 pm

8-Bit Players Take on Miles Davis and MGMT

In July, a 23-year-old electronic artist named Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours ("I Become a DJ in Three Days"), pictured left, released Da Chip, a collection of Daft Punk covers made entirely with the sound processors found in classic videogame systems. It became an instant underground hit, charting up to 25,000 downloads a day and elevating the chiptune—a Game Boy-inspired genre that's been kicking around for two decades—from fanboy in-joke to serious headphone fare. Waxy blogger Andy Baio has taken the genre to the next level with Kind of Bloop, a technically accomplished chiptune tribute to Miles Davis. Other 8-bit acts like Dr. Zilog have refashioned songs from Animal Collective and MGMT into chilling mini-symphonies of blips and bleeps. And the recent release of 8Bitone, a chiptune synthesizer app for iPhones, means that now everyone can play along.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 6:00 pm

Could a Gravity Trick Speed Us to Mars?

Putting a human on Mars might be easier than anyone thought. A flight to the Red Planet currently takes at least six months, which is why we send robots—the trip is boring, fuel costs are astronomical, and cosmic radiation is nobody's friend. But NASA engineer Robert Adams has a solution: the two-burn maneuver, an all-but-forgotten secret of orbital mechanics that could cut travel time in half.

Dreamed up in 1929 by Hermann Oberth, one of the fathers of rocket science, the technique relies on the simple fact that faster-moving objects have more energy than slower ones. So, let's say you're in a spaceship at a fueling station in Earth orbit, near the moon: First you thrust back toward the planet (burn number one), where the force of gravity accelerates the craft. Then you point yourself in the right direction and punch the rockets again (burn number two). The result? "More bang for the buck from my propellant," Adams says.

Oberth came up with the maneuver when space travel was still just writing on a chalkboard. Thanks to Adams, NASA considered trying it on a planned mission to the moon. But he says the savings don't really kick in until you think bigger. Use the extra fuel to blast people to Mars faster, or save money by building a smaller ship. After that? We hear the Jovian moons are lovely in springtime.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 6:00 pm

Lighthouse SQ 7: A “Social Media Tablet” With Voice Recognition

Social media applications are increasingly abstracted from their web-app roots, be it in Adobe air or an iPhone app. Devices like the Chumby have made some inroads towards completely breaking something like Facebook away from your desktop, but they haven't been popular enough or good enough to catch on. I doubt that will change too much with the Lighthouse SQ7, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong. It's just that incorporating voice recognition technology into your device seems like overreaching, as cool as it would be if it worked. At any rate, it's good to see companies still plugging away at what seems like a sort of awkward tweener device, but honestly, one I might like to have around. A combination alarm clock, social media doodad, and lightweight browser — fitting somewhere on the twisted continuum between tablet computer and digital picture frame.
Source: TechCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:55 pm

Indiana prosecutor says she's duty bound to prosecute grandma who bought cold medicine

Vermillion County Prosecutor Nina Alexander is proud to be "enforcing the law as it was written" by prosecuting Sally Harpold, a grandmother who bought two boxes of cold medication in less than a week. Alexander admits she knows Harpold had no intention of making meth with the medicine. That's beside the point. "The public has the responsibility to know what is legal and what is not, and ignorance of the law is no excuse," she Alexander.

Vigo County Sheriff Jon Marvel got his chance to show off a rock-solid understanding of cause-and-effect, too:

“I feel for her, but if she could go to one of the area hospitals and see a baby born to a meth-addicted mother …”

Because the best way to prevent meth-addicted babies is to arrest women who buy cold medication for their grandchildren.


Source: Boing Boing | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:43 pm

Police stop during drug raid to play Wii Sports (with video)

FROM GAMERTELL - Some central Florida law enforcement officers are in hot water after getting caught Wii bowling during a nine-hour drug bust…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:36 pm

Outright.com Leaves Beta, Adds New Partners To Streamline Small Business Accounting

Running your own small business has plenty of perks: you can set your own hours, work from home, and there’s nary a TPS report in sight. But there are also a number of downsides, not the least of which is the fact that you have to take on role of your business’s accountant. That means keeping tabs on business expenses, filing taxes four times a year, and plenty of other headaches. Cue Outright.com, a startup launching out of beta today that looks to be the “absolute simplest” online application for small business back office tracking, accounting, bookkeeping, and more.

Getting started with the site is quite easy, because Outright has recently partnered with a number of financial services: you can import invoices from Freshbooks, receipts from Shoeboxed, your PayPal transaction history, as well as your credit card transactions through a deal with Expensify, which supports 94% of US credit cards. You only have to do this once — once you’ve linked your account, they’ll keep automatically updating until you unlink them.

Once you’re done with the initial setup, everything on Outright is fairly self-explanatory (which is sort of the idea). The home screen presents you with a chart pitting your costs against your income to give you an at-a-glance look at your business’s health. At the top of the screen you’ll see tabs for Income, Expenses, Taxes, and Reports, where you can hone in on the transactions you’re looking for. Transactions are automatically sorted into different categories (for example, the site knows that your airline’s tickets belong under the ‘Travel’ category), and you can also generate reports on a per-customer basis, which would be helpful for eBay sellers. Beyond that the application helps with taxes by offering reminders when a deadline is coming up and an estimated amount that you’ll have to pay.

Outright isn’t as robust as some other financial services out there, but if you’re looking to keep things simple it’s certainly worth a look. The company was formerly called GoBoostrap.com, but changed its name in conjunction with news of its $2 million funding in February.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:29 pm

Video: Fulton Innovation Releases White Paper: The Need for a Universal Wireless Power Solution

ADA, Mich., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Fulton Innovation (Fulton), the creator and exclusive licensor of eCoupled(TM) intelligent wireless power has released their first in a series of white papers to educate consumers on wireless power.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:24 pm

Warhol and the bounty hunters

Coop took this great photo of Andy Warhol. Coop: "In the future, everyone will be an intergalactic bounty hunter for 15 minutes." Click the image for the Flickr post.


Source: Boing Boing | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:20 pm

Mainstream Press "Cringes" At Win7 Launch Parties

lurking_giant writes "Well, Microsoft has done it again with the YouTube Windows 7 launch party video that is turning the stomachs of even the mainstream press with its clueless and campy marketing style. A Washington Post reader was quoted as saying 'If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool.'" Even the Guardian's resident die-hard Apple hater calls it "the most nauseating advert in history."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:20 pm

RAF Technology Introduces Argosy Mobile(TM) powered by Smart Match(TM) for Advanced Mobile Computers

REDMOND, Wash., Sept.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:11 pm

French burlesque film: The Dancing Pig

Le Cochon danseur is a delightful French burlesque film from 1907. (Thanks, Mike Love!)


Source: Boing Boing | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:10 pm

New Verizon HTC Imagio shots surface, release date still unknown

Half the fun of waiting for a new phone to be released is meticulously combing the internet for every minute little detail: specifications, what comes in the box, hell – even just a picture from an angle you haven’t seen before. If what I’ve described sounds a touch too familiar for comfort and your current mobile obsession is Verizon’s forthcoming HTC Imagio, then get a load of these new shots courtesy of Phone Arena.

The Imagio is looking better and better the closer it gets to primetime, and it packs a surprising new addition to into its sleek frame: Media FLO capability is said to be included, making it Verizon’s first smartphone able to use the VCast Mobile TV service. Thanks to Phone Arena’s VZW buddies, a few images of the instruction manual have leaked out too, for all you cell phone completists out there.

Unfortunately, there’s still no confirmation on when the Imagio will be hitting shelves, but we wouldn’t be surprised at all if it made an appearance at your local Verizon store come October 6.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm

RIM Call Volume Rising; Falling Knife? [Voices]

By Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Tech Trader Daily, Barron’s

When last we left the Waterloo, Ontario-based maker of BlackBerries, Research in Motion’s (RIMM) shares were falling like a rock. Or, perhaps, like a kitchen knife. The stock is down $1.63 today, or 2.4 percent, at $67.28, after falling as low as $66.67, and down 19 percent since offering a lackluster outlook on Thursday night.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:00 pm

How to Make an Authentic German Pretzel From Scratch

A large, chewy German pretzel is the best thing to enjoy alongside a mug of beer. Learn how to make your own with this detailed recipe and instructional video.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:00 pm

WATCH: Death Toll Combines Local Counts

Tropical cyclones often mean widespread damage and, unfortunately, high death tolls.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 5:00 pm

Keep up with the latest trends using Google Search

Today, we're launching a new web search feature that will help you stay in touch with the latest trends on the web.

You might already be familiar with Hot Trends, which lists the fastest rising searches on the web at any given hour. Now, when you search Google.com and your query matches one of the top 100 fastest-rising search terms, we'll show you a graph at the bottom of page, with more information — like how popular the query is, how fast it's rising over time, and other useful data.

Below is a picture of what you'd find today if you searched for [reina capodici], who just wed American Idol star Justin Guarini. Or try another example: [gotthard base tunnel], which is set to become the longest tunnel in the world. (But make sure you search for these examples today — nothing stays hot for long.)



Source: The Official Google Blog | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:51 pm

Intel set to make faster Atom processors

Section: Computers, Hardware, Netbooks

For the past year the Intel Atom processor has been the default netbook processor.  It’s small, efficient, and fast enough to run the small machines.  The next version of the Atom, code named “Pine Trail” is due out by early 2010 at the latest.  It will feature graphics on the CPU and as a result be more energy efficient.  Now it looks like Intel wants to make the Atom processors faster.

According to Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney, the next generation of the Atom will prove to be faster than the 1.6GHz versions we have right now.  This would put the Atom on a similar “tick-tock” routine that the other processors now follow.  The tick-tock refers to each year alternating between advancing the architecture and the manufacturing process technology.  For netbooks, however, it’s unlikely well see more than just speed increases.  As of now, dual-core Atoms use far too much power and are better suited for the nettops they call home now.

Faster Atom chips would certainly be a welcome addition to netbooks.  Sure, they’re only meant for light usage, but faster processors will make them that much better.  There are some users who treat netbooks as more than what they are and load them up with data and applications, which will cause them to run even slower than usual.  Faster Atom chips would certainly help in that regard.  Next all they need is 2 GB of RAM to be standard to go with those faster processors and perhaps netbooks could be more usable to more people.

Read [CNet News]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:43 pm

Melting Memory Chips In Mass Production

chill writes "Nature is reporting that 'South Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of a new kind of memory chip that stores information by melting and freezing tiny crystals. Known as phase-change memory (PCM), the idea was first proposed by physicists in the 1960s.' With transistor-equivalent cells only 20 nm wide, switching time is around 16 ns. The first target market is cell phones, but the companies behind the technology see applications in PCs, servers, and other devices as well."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:30 pm

Gallery: Tablet Computing From 1888 to 2010

The word “tablet” used to refer to a flat slab for bearing an inscription. Leave it to the tech industry to make it into something far more complicated and confusing.

Scores of products marketed as “tablets” have come and gone, and now — with rumors of imminent tablet computers from Apple, Dell, Microsoft and others — the category seems ripe for a rebound.

“If people can figure out a new device category that consumers will want to buy that isn’t a laptop or a phone, that opens a whole new possibility in markets to conquer,” explains Michael Gartenberg, a tech strategist with Interpret. “That’s why companies continue to invest in this space, and we have a large number of bodies that are littered in this space.”

Let’s take a look at tablets past, present and future. If the upcoming tablets are to succeed, they’ll need to learn from hideous mistakes like the Apple Newton and the Tablet PC.

Origins
The origins of the tablet computer can be traced as far back as the 19th century. Electrical engineer Elisha Gray registered an 1888 patent (.pdf) describing an electrical-stylus device for capturing handwriting. Famous for his contributions to the development of the telephone, Gray’s idea with a “tablet” was not for drawing, but rather a method of using telegraph technology to transmit handwritten messages. (Think of it as a primitive form of instant messaging or e-mailing.)

Gray’s concept wasn’t merely a flat slab. His patent depicts two instruments: a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is a pen-like device connected to two electric circuits acting as interruptors. Current interruptions are used to translate the transmitter pen’s movements into signals transmitted to the receiver pen to mimic the movements, thereby reproducing the message on a piece of paper.

This description hardly sounds anything like a tablet, but later electronic-handwriting-recognition patents built from the idea of transmitting and receiving instruments, eventually combining them into one slab-shaped device like the tablets we see today.

The Apple Newton

The Newton MessagePad (above) was the first attempt by a major computer company at producing a commercial tablet-type computer for the mass market. Weighing in at about two pounds, Apple’s 1993 foray into tablet computing sported a powerful-for-its-time 20 MHz processor and a pen-centric interface. Writing recognition in the first version was so bad that it was famously mocked in a Doonesbury cartoon, and though it subsequently improved, the Newton never recovered from the initial PR blow. In 1998, Apple discontinued the Newton when Steve Jobs retook the helm as CEO, leaving a small coterie of true believers to keep the product’s memory alive.

PDAs and Smartphones

While no one refers to their iPhone as a “pocket tablet,” these devices are an important stage in the development of tablet computers.

Palm founder Jeff Hawkins learned from Apple’s mistakes and set out to build a pocket-sized computer that was smaller, cheaper, more modest in its ambitions and ultimately more useful than the Newton. He succeeded wildly with the 1996 launch of the Palm Pilot, spawning a long line of pen-based personal digital assistants from Palm, HP, Dell and others.

When Apple returned to the touchscreen world with the iPhone in 2007, it showed that it had paid close attention during the decade since the Newton flopped. The iPhone was simple, small, elegant and did a handful of things — make calls, browse the web, handle e-mail — very well. The fact that it wasn’t an all-purpose portable computer didn’t seem to matter so much compared to its usability and design.

Graphics tablets

Graphics tablets are computer input devices with a stylus-controlled interface. The technologies used vary, but generally all graphic tablets use the received signal to determine the horizontal and vertical position of the stylus, distance of the stylus from tablet surface and the tilt (vertical angle) of the stylus. Popular among digital illustrators, tablets facilitate a natural way to create computer graphics, especially 2-D illustrations.

Given their specialty, graphics tablets fill a niche for digital artists. Some consumer applications include writing Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters, working with handwriting recognition software to transfer them onto the computer. The stylus can also be used as a mouse.

However, for other languages, including English, the majority of consumers prefer typing on a keyboard for speedier writing, according to Gartenberg. Thus, the graphics tablet fills a niche in the design industry, but it is not a major product category in the consumer market. Wacom is the most prominent manufacturer producing graphics tablets today. (Example above: Wacom Bamboo Fun)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:18 pm

What's Tablet Computing? The Tech From 1888 to 2010

Tablets are hot -- but tech manufacturers mean many different things by the term. Wired.com takes a look at some of the ways the term has been used, and what we can expect from tomorrow's tablets.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:18 pm

What's Tablet Computing? The Tech From 1888 to 2010

Tablets are hot -- but tech manufacturers mean many different things by the term. Wired.com takes a look at some of the ways the term has been used, and what we can expect from tomorrow's tablets.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:18 pm

Developer: Apple Dinged Health Care App for Political Reasons

Apple rejects an iPhone app advocating a single-payer health care system, saying the app was too political, according to its young developer. The rejection adds to the litany of complaints against Apple's incredibly successful third-party market for its popular smartphone.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:16 pm

Kool-Aid Guy Too Harsh? Then How About These Visual Metaphors for Twitter's $1 Billion Valuation! [BoomTown]

Earlier today, BoomTown wrote a tongue-in-cheek post to depict what I thought of the $1 billion valuation that Twitter recently got from investors.

It was meant all in fun, as poking holes in the frothy atmosphere around the innovative microblogging hottie is kind of an easy layup.

But Matthew Alexander, Fox News’s new media editor, called my use of the wacky Kool-Aid pitcher man image (see below) “harsh” in a tweet.

And I got several other how-could-I-not-see-the-genius-in-overblown-investing-hype emails too.

Sensitive Sallys all, but in the interest of fairness, here are some other visual choices–in images and videos–for a metaphorical depiction of the Twitter valuation.

Please select whichever suits you!

Frothy beer mug hat:

Nena-99’s Luftballoons (How much do I love this song? Muchly much!):

Bubbles the chimp with his special friend:

Violet Beauregard blowing up like a blueberry in the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” movie, including cool Oompa-Loompa song:

And, for all your dreamers, just right:

Source: All Things Digital | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:13 pm

1971 French translation of Chester Himes novel shows woman with smart phone

Joshua Glenn says: "I've just discovered that the French already had BlackBerries iPhones... back in 1960. Who knew?"

What is she holding?


Source: Boing Boing | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:11 pm

This Just In: YouTube Is Ginormous! [MediaMemo]

You already know this, but it’s always good to be reminded: In online video, there’s YouTube, and then there’s everybody else. Today’s data point: ComScore’s (SCOR) August video report, which shows Google’s video site generating 10 billion views and owning 39.6 percent of the market.

That’s 10 billion views, and that’s just counting Web surfers from the U.S. Factor in international visitors and…it would be a lot bigger.

The rest of the rankings look about the same as they as they always do–puny compared to Google’s (GOOG) status. That is, if you add up the next nine biggest sites, they won’t come close to matching YouTube’s share. But for the record, Hulu gained share but lost a position to Fox Interactive Media/MySpace, its corporate cousin from News Corp (NWS). And Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL replaced Disney’s (DIS) ABC at the bottom of the rankings. Click table to enlarge:

Yet another reason it’s amazing that it took Warner Music Group nine months to hammer out a deal to get its video back on YouTube–and bear in mind that they’re not there yet. If you’re in the music video business and you pull your videos off the world’s biggest video site, you had better have a very good reason for doing so.

In other shocking news: This movie is 12 years old. That’s older than Google!

Source: All Things Digital | 28 Sep 2009 | 4:02 pm

Company Offers Customizable Web Spidering

TechReviewAl writes "A company called 80legs has come up with an interesting new web business model: customized, on-demand web spidering. The company sells access to its spidering system, charging $2 for every million pages crawled, plus a fee of three cents per hour of processing used. The idea is to offer Web startups a way to build their own web indexes without requiring huge server farms. 'Many startups struggle to find the funding needed to build large data centers, but that's not the approach 80legs took to construct its Web crawling infrastructure. The company instead runs its software on a distributed network of personal computers, much like the ones used for projects such as SETI@home. The distributed computing network is put together by Plura Processing, which rents it to 80legs. Plura gets computer users to supply unused processing power in exchange for access to games, donations to charities, and other rewards.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:41 pm

Quantum Entanglement Visible to the Naked Eye

Physicists devise a way to bring the strange phenomenon known as quantum entanglement into the macroworld.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:40 pm

Can You Hear Me Now? iPod Volume Restrictions On The Way - PC World

Times Online

Can You Hear Me Now? iPod Volume Restrictions On The Way PC World Have you heard? iPods in Europe are about to get a lot more quiet. Regulators have released a new set of standards governing how loud portable music players can go, and that means the default max volume is going take a big dip from where it currently ... EU seeks to turn down MP3s music player volumesReuters EC to revise volume control standards for MP3 playersAfterdawn.com EU volume policy latest example of "iPod anxiety"Ars Technica Apple Insider -PC Magazine -TopNews United States all 511 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:39 pm

Project Playlist Pushes The Line Between Music Search And Music Hosting

If there is a poster child for the battered Web music startup, Project Playlist is it. The company had to fight lawsuits from the record labels, is still trying to iron out licensing deals with those labels, lost its last CEO Owen van Natta to MySpace, lost its CFO Mike Sheridan, and by the looks of it is losing its audience. What else could go wrong?

Well, it looks like the self-styled music search engine is actually hosting MP3s of major label artists via content delivery networks such as Limelight. If you search for Britney Spears songs, for example, the second result is “(You Drive Me) Crazy.” The originating site where the MP3 was hosted, http://www.sarzamin.org/, is no longer available. But not to worry because Project Playlist cached the song on its CDN, Limelight Networks. Khalid Shaikh, a TechCrunch reader and developer who wanted to harness Project Playlist to create his own music site, discovered this arrangement and sent me the screencast above to prove it.

In the video, Shaikh speculates on the legality of this method of caching, which is impossible to say one way or the other without knowing the terms of Project Playlists’ licensing agreements with the labels. Project Playlist does have a licensing agreement with Sony, which owns the Zomba Label that Spears is on. But it certainly is a strange way to build a catalog of songs. And there are plenty of other examples, such as Alanis Morissette, who is on Warner Music, which is the one major lbel that still has not dropped its lawsuit against Project Playlist.

Project Playlist bills itself as a music search engine that lets people share playlists, not the songs underlying those playlists per se. On its About page, here’s how the service describes itself:

Playlist.com is an information location tool similar to Google® and Yahoo!® but devoted entirely to the world of music. Our purpose is to help you find and enjoy music legally throughout the web in the same way that other search engines help you find webpages, images, and other media

and . . .

Playlist.com allows you to discover all of this free music legally because we respect the rights of copyright holders and we insist that you do as well. . . . If an artist tells us that our search engine is linking to an illegally posted song, we will immediately take down the link to that music file.

The site doesn’t say anything about caching songs which have been taken down, for whatever reason, from other sites. But it does raise some interesting questions. Has Project Playlist crossed the line from a music search engine merely indexing the music that is already freely available on the Web to a music hosting service (albeit through its CDN proxies)? Or is Project Playlist acting just like Google or any other search engine here, merely caching the most popular content in its index?

When I contacted Josh Brooks, vice president of programming and content, he seemed genuinely surprised and said that this is the first time he’s ever seen anything like that. After viewing the screencsat, he says:

“Watching that troubles me and it should trouble anyone trying to do anything n digital music. It is a problem that has to be fixed. All I can say is it is going to be remedied because it needs to be.”

He also says that Project Playlist is in the middle of negotiations with labels to stream licensed songs directly:

“Playlist.com technology neatly aggregates song searches on the web and directs a user to a stream of music from the site where the song is hosted. In the very near future, our hosted music service will find a linked stream and replace it with a stream from the broad library of music we have licensed. Users can then listen and share the music on Playlist.com or through an off-site embeddable player. There are dozens of linked services out there. Playlist is actively working with the content owners to insure proper reporting and accounting for music we have licenses for.”

in other words, Project Playlist doesn’t want to be a music search engine anymore. It is already moving away from through the way that it is caching songs, but it needs to host those songs in a more straightforward manner if it wants the labels to take it seriously.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:38 pm

Prosecutors Set Stage to Appeal Lori Drew Ruling

The government told a court it will appeal a decision that threw out a cyberbullying conviction in the Lori Drew case. Drew was prosecuted on hacking charges for violating MySpace's terms of service when she and two others used the service to harass a neighbor's child, who later committed suicide.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:28 pm

You’re Worth It: How the “Premium” Perception Is Changing the Way We Buy Gadgets

This guy was asking the quality question way before the PSP Go

The PSP Go just launched and the blogworld is in a tizzy about the price – $249 – and the apparent chintziness of this new PSP replacement. You see, the device doesn’t support Sony’s exciting UMD optical standard and is generally reported as “feeling” cheaper than the bulky but solid PSP. The PSP Go also requires you to buy your old games in UMD-less form, at least for the time being.

So basically you get a smaller device, are forced to pay for downloadable content you probably already own, and, according to the teardown we linked to above, you get a poorly-made device with quite a few extra potential points of failure.

Why am I bringing up this litany of complaints? Because of something Sony execs said back in June, namely that they PSP Go is a premium product and was therefore priced higher than, say, the Nintendo Wii.

Quoth Andrew House of Sony Europe:

“Those aren’t the factors. When you introduce a new piece of hardware you have the opportunity to say there is a certain premium that is associated with it, and we took that into account.

So what is this “premium” of which he speaks and why would you have been laughed out of your local Egghead if you had mentioned it maybe 15 years ago?

Over the past few years manufacturers have jumped on the “premium” bandwagon. This has been especially apparent in the past year with HP, Dell, and even Asus creating “unique” products at a higher price to offset the cash they’re losing selling $299 laptops at Wal-Mart. For example, I have no fewer than three premium laptops in the house right now, and that’s not even mentioning the supposed premium offered by Apple in their MacBook Pro line.

Premium in this case is a loaded word. What is premium anyway, but perceived value attributed to a device by price, design, or packaging? There is a lot to be said for the iPhone’s sexy box – it’s sealed in a coffin when you get it and it opens up with a puff of air reminiscent of opening a box from Tiffany or Cartier. A laptop I just tested came in that same sort of box and the Dell Adamo came in a plastic coffin that looked like it had been delivered via pneumatic tube from the inner sanctum of haute ordinateur designers.

This is not to say that premium products aren’t worth it. I’d recommend a MacBook Pro over a standard laptop any day and I’d have a number of reasons for my recommendation. I always recommend Bose noise-cancellers when folks and not because I’m drinking the Bose Kool-Aid.

But there is also a bad habit some manufacturers fall into that destroys the premium paradigm completely. This happens, when, like the PSPGo launch, the product clearly does not match up with its “premium” moniker. Sony, of late, has been the worst offender in the “false premium” market and it comes from a sense that their products are still leading in terms of mind share but they are definitely lagging in terms of quality, availability, and value. Samsung, too, has fallen into this trap and I would say that many point-and-shoot camera manufacturers create “false premium” products through the use of visual design cues to suggest quality (knurled knobs and analog read-outs are a big tip-off) while stuffing the same old gear into the same old boxes.

If everything is premium, nothing is premium.

Manufacturers have painted themselves into a corner. For the price of a nice meal in Midtown you can basically buy yourself a laptop or a smaller desktop. LCD monitors cost less than some keyboards and printers are basically free. Computing machinery, on the whole, is cheaper than it has ever been.

But the tendency to create a two-tiered system is becoming disingenuous and difficult to take. While some companies know how to do it well – Apple and Bose are marketing geniuses who add a little value to commodity hardware and then add a few zeros to the price – but the rest of the manufacturers seem to be building “premium” models that never sell for an audience that doesn’t exist. Imagine an U-graph. On one side you have the “real” premium products like gaming machines and on the other you have the Wal-Mart specials. The valley between the consumer Apple is aiming at with the MBP and the consumer HP is aiming at with their cheap-o Wal-Mart specials is deep and wide, and it’s tough to move from one end to the other without creating problems of perception and losing value. Does HP make commodity consumer hardware or “high-end laptops?” It does both. Is the PSP Go a cheaper, fun game machine or a “high-end product for the gaming professional?” Who knows and, more importantly, who cares?

Clearly Sony thinks no one does, more importantly, it believes it can get away with any number of shenanigans to make some profit. The same goes for any number of PC manufactures who are, currently, walking that thin line between quality and price.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:12 pm

Google Muscles Android Developer, Offers Olive Branch

Android is an open platform, but watch out: It includes a lot of proprietary apps, including Google’s.

A popular Android hacker found out the hard way when he received a cease-and-desist letter from Google for his latest modification of the Android OS. Steve Kondik, also known as “Cyanogen”, has been distributing a version of the Android firmware that includes multitouch and other capabilities not included in the base version. Google took exception to his inclusion of code owned by the search giant and sent him a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he stop distributing it.

Kondik’s story created an uproar within the Android community and raised questions about how much the Android OS relied on closed-source applications for its functionality. That’s because the base of the platform is indeed open source, but without the applications that run on top of it, it’s not very useful to consumers.

However, the controversy has sparked constructive discussions about the future of Android, and has even motivated Google to extend a helping hand to independent developers.

In 2007, Google, along with 47 other companies, formed the Open Handset Alliance to oversee the first free, open mobile platform to accelerate innovation in the mobile ecosystem. The Android Open-Source Project became the platform of OHA, allowing enthusiast developers to freely contribute and improve the mobile experience for others.

Google stated Kondik was illegally distributing closed-source applications within his revamped Android OS.  These closed-source applications include Gmail, Maps, gTalk, YouTube, Market, Contact Sync and other essential services — what many people, perhaps naively, may consider to be the heart of the OS.

Google’s legal action most likely stemmed from the latest CyanogenMOD update, which included Google’s not-yet-released upgrade to the Android Market. An excerpt from a statement on the official Android Developer blog clarified the line between Android and Google’s proprietary applications:

“These apps are Google’s way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself,” Google’s Dan Morrill said on the company’s developer blog.

The situation even irked an engineer within Google, Jean Baptiste Queru, who tweeted, “To my Apple, Microsoft and Palm buddies: are you hiring to work on mobile stuff?”

However, Queru later moved the discussion in a more constructive direction, tweeting a link to a Google Group post where he calls on the Android community to help improve Android, asking “Who’s with me?”

The Android engineers at Google are now making available previously unreleased components — makefiles and configuration files — that will give independent developers the ability to create Android releases in the same manner that Google does, but without using Google’s proprietary apps. These engineers are working with volunteers from the community and have already begun working on alternatives to the proprietary Google applications.  Meanwhile, other developers have formed a new group, the Open Android Alliance and they, too, are working on building alternatives to Google’s applications.

Eventually, these tools should allow developers to create working versions of Android that work “out of the box,” something that is currently very difficult to do.

According to Kondik’s latest blog post, he is working around the setback by building a backup tool that will let users of vanilla Android distributions save a copy of their existing applications.

Then, after installing Kondik’s Cyanogen mod, they can restore their apps and continue using them — without having downloaded them from Kondik’s site.

“There are lots of things we can do as end-users and modders, though, without violating anyone’s rights. Most importantly, we are entitled to back up our software,” Kondik wrote.

Photo credit: Andareed/Wikicommons

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:10 pm

Google Muscles Android Developer, Offers Olive Branch

Google sent a cease-and-desist letter to the developer of a popular independent version of the Android operating system. While the platform itself is open source, the applications — so far — are not, Google says.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:10 pm

Champagne Bubbles Burst with Flavor

Champagne bubbles create a mist that wafts the aroma to the drinker.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 3:00 pm

Gadgetell Review: Kodak Zi8 pocket camcorder

Section: Imaging, Camcorders, Reviews

What is it?

The Kodak Zi8 is a pocket camcorder capable of shooting 1080p video for under $200. 

What’s in the box?

• Kodak Zi8 camera
• Rechargeable battery
• USB charger, charging cable
• HDMI cable
• Composite video cable
• ArcSoft MediaImpression Software

The Good

The Kodak Zi8 is a nice improvement on the older Kodak Zi6.  The device is smaller thanks to a rechargeable battery pack.  The older model used rechargeable AAs that could be replaced with alkaline batteries.  The Zi8 comes in more colors than its predecessor as well, which ought to appeal to those who want options beyond pink and black.  The button layout on the Zi8 is streamlined with simpler capsule-shaped buttons. 

Of particular note is the Zi8’s microphone in jack.  Many full sized camcorders do not include a microphone in jack.  Perhaps Kodak is looking to go after a different market than the other guys with this feature.  Tests using a powered shotgun mic yielded decent results, however the audio was a bit on the low side.  The built in mic picked up audio very well. 

The included macro mode is handy for shooting details up close.  The Zi8 accepts SDHC cards so you can get plenty of video recording done.  The built-in USB connector no longer swings out at the touch of a button, but still does the job of getting video to your computer. 

The several shooting modes (1080p, 720p/60fps, 720p, WVGA, and still camera mode) are quite nice and selecting them is easy from the on screen menu.  The Zi8 can even shoot still pictures at 5MP, but that’s probably not why a person would buy it.

The video quality is very good.  It captures details like individual hairs on a dog.  Detail is obviously easier to see when the subject or camera is still.  The Zi8 handles lower light situations like expected - you’ll want good light to get good video.  The 1080p video is very detailed, although this camera will probably not challenge a dedicated camcorder in the over $500 range. 

The Bad

There’s not a whole lot bad about the Kodak Zi8.  There is internal memory so you can shoot about 10 seconds of video, but you will have to buy a SD card of your own.  At high speeds, video gets a bit wobbly.  An example is shooting video of telephone poles from a moving vehicle.  They appeared to be slanted in the video.  Quick hand movements will create wobble as well.  There is a lack of image stabilization - but that seems to be the trade off for these pocket camcorders.  Get a steady hand or be prepared to get motion sickness. 

The Crux

At $180, the Kodak Zi8 is up against lots of competition from things like the Flip, the iPod nano, and even point and shoot cameras with HD video.  However, the Kodak Zi8 has a great feature set for a quick point and shoot HD video camera - it is a great value and is one of the better pocket camcorders in the market today.

Product Page: [Kodak Zi8]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 2:56 pm

Hyenas Better Team Players Than Primates

Spotted hyenas may not be smarter than chimpanzees, but a new study shows that they outperform the primates on cooperative problem-solving tests.Captive pairs of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) that needed to tug two ropes in unison to earn a food reward cooperated successfully and learned the maneuvers quickly with no training.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 2:09 pm

New way to fight bacteria studied

Canadian researchers say they've identified a chemical compound that targets drug-resistant bacteria in a different way from existing antibiotics. McMaster University scientists say their discovery is an ideal starting point to develop new interventions for resistant infections.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 2:05 pm

Speedier computer circuits created

Physicists at the University of California-San Diego say they've created speedy integrated computer circuits capable of working in very cold environments. The circuits, built with particles called excitons, can operate at commercially cold temperatures, bringing the possibility of a new type of extremely fast computer based on excitons closer to reality, researchers said. The accomplishment follows the team's demonstration last summer of an integrated circuit capable of working at 1.5 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:38 pm

HTC Desire gets FCC and Wi-Fi Alliance approval – Verizon bound?

Uh oh! Looks like the Motorola Sholes isn’t the only Android-totin’ kid hanging around on Verizon’s block.

According to BGR, Verizon’s cracking away at an HTC-made Android handset called Desire, which they plan to launch shortly after the standard approvals and regulations are dotted and crossed. And what do you know? Both the FCC and the Wi-Fi Alliance just gave it the thumbs up.

Expect more news sooner than later.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:35 pm

Using Technology To Determine Climate Change’s Melting Impact

Scientists are taking a more in-depth view of how climate change could affect Antarctica’s ice, and how even a small change in temperature could lead to a global rise in sea levels."If you're going to have even a few meters it will change the geography of the planet," Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told Reuters."Greenland and Antarctica are two huge bodies of ice sitting on land that could really have very serious implications for the levels of the seas," said Pachauri.Scientists are looking to technology in their search for more definitive answers.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:35 pm

Minnesota Moose In Danger Due To Climate Change

Moose in Minnesota are likely to become more rare with the broader introduction of climate change, researchers said Monday.Last month, experts issued a special advisory that found the moose population at risk of becoming less prevalent in the US.The August report from the Moose Advisory Committee noted that more research was needed to determine why Minnesota’s moose population is on the decline, and what measures could be taken to preserve them.According to the Associated Press, Maine holds the most moose in the lower 48 states, with about 60,000.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:30 pm

NIH gives U. of Pittsburgh $5M in grants

The National Institutes of Health has given the University of Pittsburgh $5 million to explore new ways of growing replacement cells from existing tissues. A $2.9 million, five-year grant was presented to Professor Eric Lagasse to support development of a novel concept: using the body's many lymph nodes as sites for growing replacement cells for other tissues and organs. Professor Ipsita Banerjee received a $2.2 million, five-year award to study how embryonic stem cells develop into mature cells and create possible techniques for influencing their growth to suit specific organs. Lagasse's work focuses on lymph nodes, which are important in responses to bacterial and viral infection and are found throughout the body. Our regenerative medicine approach for healing damaged tissues and organs might not have moved forward without this new grant concept, Lagasse said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:09 pm

Is Walmart trying to kill the Zune HD?

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video, Features, Originals

I finally got around to checking out the Zune HD yesterday.  Like everyone else, I hit up my local Walmart’s newly refurbished electronic area; no special press access for me, thanks.  I like to think of it not as a snub from MS, but more along the lines that Ballmer and Co get me: I want to experience the device like a consumer would.

I found the new electronics department really nice.  I was drawn into the iPod area, took quick video on the new iPod nano, gawked at how impossibly thin they keep making the iPod touch and then saw the Zune HD.  There it sat waiting to be loved.

Physically, the player is a 10/10.  Great looks, great feel, a perfect size.  This thing is gorgeous.  But that is all I can tell you about the player thanks to the units not being powered.  Instead images were placed on their screens and would-be users can’t interact with the device.  Who wants to play with a brick?

Contrast that to the iPod where I figured out how to take video in all of 3 seconds or even the (IMO) crappy other players that littered the display next to the Zune.  How can consumers make a choice if someone was too cheap to make the units usable?  I have to assume this was Wal-Mart’s doing as they tend to script everything in their stores.

So without seeing the OLED screen, how the UI works (I can relate to older Zune models, but can consumers?), or getting the feel for the overall device, how can I choose anything besides the Apple products?  You would have to be a loyal Zunista to make an informed decision and we know that Microsoft can’t rely on that to keep the division going.

So what’s the deal?  Why does Walmart show non-working devices?  Did Microsoft look to cut some costs here?  Is it a conspiracy by Apple?  I’ve no idea, but tell us this: is your local Walmart showing off working Zunes?  Let us know in the comments and we’ll try to piece this one together.

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:07 pm

Back to school with Google Docs

As interns on the Google Docs team this past summer, we were excited to be able to work on making Google Docs that much more useful for students like us. We've now added a bunch of back to school features which should help our fellow students make the transition from summer to school that much easier — and we hope they'll be useful to you non-students as well!

We created an equation editor so you can easily complete problem sets online or write papers that include equations. If you're taking math, you can now take notes in class or answer questions using Google Docs.



Source: The Official Google Blog | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:04 pm

Are Recessions Good for Our Health?

The Great Depression was actually good for U.S. health, according to a new study.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:01 pm

Cars! Interior textures of the 2010 E-Class (Gallery)

Everyone knows what the new E-Class looks like from outside; and the dashboard, and all its technological doodads, feature strongly in all the extant coverage. So the first thing I noticed when clambering into the E-Class were the fine details that never get mentioned: textures, stitching, friction pads on air vents. I bet you can't guess where all of these are from!

O.K., so that one's pretty easy.

More info is at Mercedes-Benz's website.

 


Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

Scientists watch E. coli bacteria move

Yale University scientists say they have, for the first time, observed and tracked E.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 12:58 pm

USGS grants to boost earthquake monitoring

The U.S. Geological Survey says it is awarding $5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants to upgrade earthquake monitoring networks. The money is being awarded to 13 U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 12:40 pm

BlackBerry Curve 8530 sneaks into Verizon’s inventory

Now, now. Don’t get too excited. Verizon tends to put stuff into their inventory months and months earlier than they need to.

You can, however, get a little bit excited: this more or less confirms that the low-end (but still Wi-Fi enabled!) BlackBerry Curve 8530 is coming to Verizon.. you know, eventually. In fact, it look like it’ll be coming in two colors: one black, the other lavender.

[Via CrackBerry]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 12:24 pm

Increase sought in climate-health spending

A recent analysis suggests the United States should spend roughly $197 million more than it now does to research the impact of climate change on public health. The analysis, reported in the form of a commentary, found the U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 12:13 pm

Which cell phone provider has the best customer service? You might be surprised

Given how much people depend on their mobile phones these days, it’s pretty much catastrophic when they stop working. Most these days don’t have a traditional land-line, so when your phone stops working, you lose touch with the world. So which carrier has the best customer service? Who can you depend on to help you in your hour of need?

It all depends on how you want your customer service. Laptopmag did some investigating, and they found that the major carriers vary significantly depending on if you call, go to the store, or check on the web. They asked three fairly advanced questions, and then compared the accuracy and quality of the results. It makes for an interesting read, but the winner in the end was T-Mobile. T-Mobile gave the most accurate answers, and seemed to have the best grasp on what exactly their phones could do.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 12:10 pm

Stem Cells Point to Space Ills

Stem cells in microgravity express different proteins and could explain some space ills.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 11:50 am

QNAP gets in on the network media player game

Section: Video, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray

A few of us adventurous types have hooked up a computer to our living room television set up.  However navigating with a keyboard and mouse in a living room is less than ideal.  There are other ways to access your home video library and web content on your TV.  QNAP has its new NMP-1000 network multimedia player and it aims to bring HD content to your TV. 

The QNAP has Gigabit Ethernet and can connect to your computers on your network.  Gigabit is plenty fast enough for HD content. The NMP-1000 can support lots of file formats including MPEG2, H.264, MKV, M2TS (Blu-ray), FLAC, MP3, AAC, and plenty more.  If you want local storage, you can add in an internal 3.5” SATA hard drive.  The device has USB and eSATA connections so you can just copy data over locally.  The NMP-1000 also can handle bit torrent (without a computer) and DNS.  There is also access to YouTube and Flickr. 

The video interface looks pretty nice (you can see it in the video below), although not as polished as Windows Media Center or Apple TV.  The only price information I could find was on QNAP’s forums—the retail price should be $399.  Street price will probably be closer to $300-$350.  That price may be a little steep when compared to a full-fledged computer, but it depends on how involved you want to be with this home theater component. 

Back of the QNAP NMP-1000

Product Page: [QNAP NMP-1000]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 11:41 am

Last week's Atlanta flooding set records

The U.S. Geological Survey says Atlanta area flooding last week involved magnitudes so great the odds of it happening were less than 1 in 500 in many areas. The USGS can reliably say just how bad these floods were.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Sep 2009 | 11:32 am

Warranty-Voiding Teardown Reveals PSPgo’s Internals

The PSPgo isn’t even in stores yet, and the hardware mavens at iFixit have already stripped it down to its logic board.

Continuing their tradition of tearing down shiny, expensive new gadgets almost as fast as the gadgets hit the market, the iFixit guys grabbed a new PSPgo and pulled it to bits. Among their discoveries:

• The PSPgo’s 930 mAh battery has more capacity than the Nintendo DSi (840 mAh) and the 3rd-gen iPod Touch (789 mAh).
• The battery is not officially user-replaceable like the DSi’s, but it is easier to swap than the Touch’s — opening the case and removing the battery requires no soldering and isn’t too tricky.
• A 16GB Samsung NAND chip provides the device’s internal storage, essentially replacing the UMD slot in the old PSPs.
• The PSPgo relies on Wi-Fi — or a PC connection — for downloading new media and games, but its Wi-Fi chip only supports old, slow 802.11b. Get with the times, Sony!
• The connectors for the joystick, top buttons, headphone jack, and Select/Start buttons are tricky to undo.
• Fortunately, the Select/Start button is all you need to disconnect in order to remove the logic board, and then the whole board comes right out.

Check out the entire PSPgo teardown on iFixit’s web site, or watch the embedded video (and a couple more photos) below. And don’t miss Wired’s review of the PSPgo and our gallery of PSPgo photos.

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IFixit’s 2 minute, 33 second video shows how the PSPgo compares to other PSPs, and provides stills of many of the disassembly steps. Note: If you don’t care for annoying, bloopy electronic music, you can mute the soundtrack — you won’t miss anything.

Photos courtesy iFixit

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 28 Sep 2009 | 11:27 am

Snow business

Neat fact: about a third of Boing Boing readers use Macs, and of those, 21.28 percent have already upgraded to Snow Leopard. For reference, BBG is at 35.31 percent, Offworld at 27.92 percent, Daring Fireball is at about 60 percent and Macworld reports just over 50 percent. Unfortunately, there is no word yet from the Official Webpage of The Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 11:22 am

Windows 7 party time!

Watch:

Then:

Source

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:53 am

Android-powered Motorola Sholes clears the FCC

Ah – there we are. Just as the long rumored Motorola Sholes started to slip off the radar after failing to make an appearance at Motorola’s big (read: somewhat underwhelming) Android announcement earlier this month, it has moseyed its way right through the FCC.

Now that the FCC has verified that the Sholes wont melt your brain or ruin all nearby radio equipment, when can we expect it to launch? Well, these things aren’t exactly definite by any means – we’ve seen plenty of devices clear the FCC only to launch as much as 6 months later – but we’d imagine the Verizon is anxious to get their first Android device out the door. With the Sprint Hero and Motorola’s other Android device, the Cliq, going on sale on T-Mobile come October, it wouldn’t be a bad time for Verizon to hop in and throw down.

[Via IntoMobile]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:52 am

VTech’s new phone pairs with your cell and downloads your address book via Bluetooth

Section: Communications, Accessories

I know I’m not the only person who has had to search for his mobile phone while it rang or missed a call because my cell phone was in another room.  For a lot of people, landlines have given way to cell phones, but there are still ways to get landline-like convenience with a cell phone.  VTech’s new DS6321-3 cordless phone lets you pair your cellphone to it via Bluetooth.  The really cool feature is that this phone can download your address book over Bluetooth and it supports up to 6,000 contacts.  This system supports up to 12 handsets.  The handsets can also be used as an intercom or you can use them for conference calls.  If you still have a landline, you can hook that into these cordless phones as well.  The price for the base station with three handset is $99.95 and is available now online and will be in stores October 2009.  Additional handsets are under $20.

Product Page: [VTech]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:39 am

New Zealand law poised to ban GPS, e-mail, etc. on in-car cellphones

A well-meaning law, yes, but one that just misses the mark. I refer to, of course (as if you have any idea what I’m talking about), the Road User Amendment Rule 2009 in New Zealand. It would make it illegal to use a cellphone as a navigation device while inside a car.

The problem with that law, as I see it from the other side of the world in a “All Your Oil Are Belong to U.S.” t-shirt (it had much more of an impact in 2004, admittedly), is that is still permits you to use a cellphone, provided it’s in a cradle, to make and receive phone calls. Oh, and you can use stand-alone GPS devices.

So that means you can’t use a phone to do turn-by-turn, but you can use a stand-alone device. That doesn’t make much sense to me, especially if the goal of the law is to prevent accidents caused by distracted driving.

You also can’t use a phone to check e-mail, read Web sites, or anything like that. So it’s more of an anti-phone law than anything else.

And just if you can any faith in this post, here’s my knowledge of New Zealand: I’ve heard of the University of Waikato; I know the All Blacks are traditionally really, really good; and Russell Crowe is probably the most famous “kiwi” on Planet Earth.

via SlashGear

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:25 am

Rocky Mountain Bank sent your banking details to random Gmail account, got judge to shut it down

When Rocky Mountain Bank mistakenly sent banking info to the wrong email address, it demanded that Google tell them who owned this email address. Google: "No." How did Federal Judge James Ware respond? He ordered gmail to close the innocent gmail user's account. [TechDirt]

Deleting an account to delete a single email sent to it? It's not even the sort of thing one can map to useless "best justice money can buy" assumptions about the U.S. legal system. It's just plain stupid, a line of drool linking this clueless bench jockey's bottom lip to 1972's best guess about who should prevail when the interests of businesses conflict with those of the general public. This particular Judge, as you might imagine, has an interesting history.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:21 am

Crunchgear talks of the coming tablet PC war (in which it is a participant.)

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:19 am

Mechanical Tumor

Watch in HD. Via Gizmodo.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:13 am

More insight into claimed content on YouTube

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Biz Blog)

We announced last week that we now have over 1,000 partners using our content identification and management tools to control how and where their videos are distributed on YouTube. Every major U.S. network broadcaster, movie studio and music label is using Content ID to identify user-uploaded versions of their videos, and decide whether they to want block, track or make money from them. As Content ID is proving to be an effective way for media companies to control, promote and monetize their content on our site, we're always thinking about how we can make these tools even more valuable for content owners of all kinds.

Today, we're excited to integrate Content ID with YouTube Insight. Previously, when you claimed a video with Content ID, we were only able to show you basic information (like view counts and tags) associated with the video you claimed. But now, all the statistics and data we share directly with uploaders in YouTube Insight is available to Content ID partners too, making our content management tools more useful than ever — especially for partners whose claimed user videos generate lots of views for them. For example, using Insight with claimed content, Sony Music learned that the JK Wedding Entrance Dance video is currently the music label's 8th most popular video on YouTube.

In addition to rankings, you can also learn about demographics, discovery sources and other metrics for videos that you've claimed, and then compare them to your own uploads. Do the audience demographics of a claimed video differ from those of the official version? What websites or search terms drive the most traffic to user uploaded versions of your content? We think integrating Content ID and Insight can help answer questions like these and will be very helpful as you think about distributing, marketing and making money from your content online.

If you're a Content ID partner, you can find this new information in the Reporting section of your CMS (Content Management System) account.

Posted by Martin Landers, Insight Software Engineer and Walter Lee, Content ID Product Manager
Source: The Official Google Blog | 28 Sep 2009 | 10:00 am

WATCH: Search for the Smoking Gene

A new genetic test for lung cancer may make it easier to find out who's at risk.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 9:45 am

Review: PSPgo Makes Us Drool, Weep a Little Bit

With its upcoming PSPgo, Sony is betting that you like sexy, shiny new gadgets more than you like saving a few coins.

That’s not to say that we dislike it. In fact, the PSPgo is attractive, playable and pleasingly compact. The fourth entry in the PlayStation Portable line is considerably more toteable than its predecessors. It’s about half the size of the original PSP; to access the controls, the bottom section slides forward with with a smooth but firm mechanism that seems sturdy enough to resist clumsy gamer hands. For such a tiny device, it’s surprisingly playable, too.

Drawbacks? It won’t work with any USB peripherals you might already have for your older PSPs — and you’ll have to re-purchase any UMD games you own, since they won’t work with the PSPgo.

So the real question is why you’d buy a $250 PSPgo instead of a cheaper Nintendo DS or PSP 3000 — or a pricier but far more capable iPod Touch.

Continue reading Wired’s review of the PSPgo, by game gadget gearhead Nate Ralph, over on Wired.com Product Reviews. And don’t miss our gallery of mouth-watering PSPgo closeup photos.

Photo credit: Jim Merithew / Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 28 Sep 2009 | 9:44 am

Feathered Dino Predates Oldest Bird

Fossils of a feathered dinosaur may help scientists' understanding of bird evolution.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 9:35 am

iPhone exclusivity ends - but not in the U.S.

Section: Apple, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones

Over in the U.K., Apple iPhone exclusivity is over.  Welcome to the new world order.  O2 and Apple were like peas and carrots, but now Orange will also be able to sell the iPhone later in the year.  No specific release date was announced.  Imagine a place where you can have the phone you want with the service you want.  The U.K. might be that place for some.  O2 had the iPhone as an exclusive for two years.  In the United States, the original iPhone was launched on AT&T a little over two years ago.  How long before a non-AT&T iPhone in the United States?  A lot of rumors have placed that event in January 2010.  Will that come true?  We’ll see.

Read: [UK Press Association]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 9:08 am

Negotiators urged to speed up climate pact talks - Reuters

guardian.co.uk

Negotiators urged to speed up climate pact talks Reuters BANGKOK (Reuters) - Delegates at the start of marathon climate talks in Thailand on Monday were told to speed up "painfully slow" negotiations as they struggle to settle on the outline of a tougher pact to fight global ... UN warns leaders time running out for climate dealThe Associated Press Road to Copenhagen: Finding the money to pay for climate solutionsJakarta Post Danish Climate Minister on Urgent Mission to BangkokScandAsia.com Jakarta Post -Reuters -Reuters all 814 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 28 Sep 2009 | 9:03 am

Viking 2 Likely Came Close to Finding H2O

If the 1976 Viking lander had dug a couple of inches deeper, it may have hit water.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

iPhone no longer exclusive to O2 in the UK, heads to Orange ‘later this year’

Some pretty big iPhone news to share with y’all this morning: the iPhone will no longer be exclusive to O2 over in the UK, becoming available on Orange “later this year.” So for all of you in the U.S. who one day hope to see the iPhone on a different wireless provider (like, say, Verizon Wireless, differences between CDMA and GSM notwithstanding), well, you now have a precedent.

While both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS will be available on Orange, no details (price, subscription fees, etc.) have been released yet. It will, however, be available at Orange shops, its Web site, and “selected High Street partners.” I’m not sure what the big electronics stores are in the UK, but a High Street vendor in the U.S. would be someone like Best Buy or the former Circuit City. (On a side note, man do I miss not having a Circuit City to go to, especially given my ongoing boycott of Best Buy.)

In fact, people interested in an Orange iPhone can go to a special Web site to be placed on a mailing list. Presumably you sign up and then Orange e-mails you the details as they develop.

Another thing I don’t know: how Orange and O2 compare. I only know O2 because it used to be Arsenal’s kit sponsor; I have no idea what Orange is all about. Is one perceivably “better” than the other? Is one’s mobile Internet more reliable than the other? Do they work well outside of London? I know here in the northeast United States (well, the greater New York City area), that Verizon Wireless has far and away the best reception, but then you have to put up with VZW’s sorta limited selection of phones. So do you want a fun phone, or do you want to be able to hear the person on the other end of the line? (Or maybe the actual phone part is secondary to you, and all you’re really concerned with is Apps, mobile Internet access, etc.) Any info here would be appreciated.

Let the rumor mill begin!

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 8:43 am

New software analyzes whether you are a good employee

Section: Computers, Security, Software / Applications

New software that is being released through the company Cataphora can analyze whether an employee is a productive worker or not.  The way that the software will work is that it analyzes electronic footprints left behind by each employee.  This includes monitoring emails sent, calls made, and documents worked on.  The software will also alert employers of red flag activities, like writing in all CAPS and sudden changes in language.

The software has the ability to be customized to each business’s individual needs.  It can scan all files within a network or instead focus on email communications and website browsing.  Although the software can report employees emailing friends or going to non-work related sites like Facebook, the software makers stress that the program is more to evaluate overall productivity and not simply spying on employees.  To tell if you are a good employee, the program will evaluate how much content you produce as well as how many interactions you have.

Not everyone is happy with the thought of surveillance in the workplace and there are concerns over the accuracy of evaluating an employee in this manner.   

Read: [CNN]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 8:31 am

PSP Go reviewed and ripped apart

Sony's renovated Playstation Portable gets its public debut, and performs as expected: it is a smaller, better, less UMD-ey gaming gadget. Ross Miller calls it a sturdy, classier game system but chokes on the mean-spirited marketing gamesmanship that Sony will never, ever realize is bad for its image. "Needless to say, there's still no second analog stick" adds Mark Wilson, who finds its charms dated by newer tech like the ZuneHD.

iFixit provides the most interesting coverage, as usual, splaying the machine's insides out for the world to see and understand, a tableux that our future robot masters will doubtless cite in their condemnation of mankind. On the other hand, maybe it is merely an exercise waiting to be recapitulated as art.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 8:17 am

Appletell reviews the iPhone compatible Sony Xplod Bluetooth Car Audio System Head Unit

FROM APPLETELL - Now that I’ve had iPhone compatible Sony Xplod Bluetooth Car CD System and have been able to spend time using it, I don’t know how I went without it.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Sep 2009 | 8:17 am

Cars! Battle of the little green electric urban go-carts

Nissan's Leaf is out next year; a year after that comes the Reva NXG, recently shown off at the Frankfurt motor show.

It's a similarly equipped little plug-in, with the emissions of a butterfly and the driving range of a bee: it lasts 125 miles and can go 80 MPH. Perfect for Pittsburgh, but not so much for anything that involves tasks other than shopping and commuting. Unless it is making technologically suspect "MPG" claims, of course! But still, I want one: in pastel lime green, naturally. And with a free tankful of electrons. [Jalopnik]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 8:16 am

Behold! RED camera accessories rendered in THE THIRD DIMENSION

It is unfair to accuse RED of pushing vaporware, as its technology is real and it rules. But its relentless teasing of product concepts hit the hype ceiling long ago, and maintaining the interest of those already convinced is the order of the day. Today's news is that some accessories made the omnidirectional leap from working prototype to 3D rendering. Meanwhile, intrigued amateurs drift back to affordable prosumer junk, while the "DSLR cams that also shoot HD" meme is already last year's dog and pony show, precisely 12 months old.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 7:40 am

Put linux on a Zipit, get a $40 netbook

A cheap little cellular WiFi handheld, Zipit does instant messaging in similarly single-minded fashion to how the Peek does e-mail. Unlike the Peek, however, the Zipit now has a real Linux distribution that turns it into a cute, ingenious, and nearly-useless laptop. From Lilliputing:

You might be interested in running Linux, installing DOSbox, or maybe an NES emulator. The Zipit has a 300MHz XScale processor, 32MB of RAM, and a Mini-SD card slot for stroage. It has a 2.8 inch QVGA display and a 1000mAh Li-Ion battery. It connects to 802.11b/g WiFi networks. And if you follow a series of steps from hacker Hunter Davis, you can install a working Linux operating system with the Fluxbox window manager.

"The speakers are remarkably underpowered," says Hunter Davis, creator of this neat how-to video.

[Lilliputing]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Sep 2009 | 7:33 am

Confirmed: Dopplr Snapped Up By Nokia

So finally the official word is in, with a very short blog post by CEO Marko Ahtisaari: Dopplr has been acquired by Nokia. Update: Nokia's press release Update 2: Dopplr angel investor Martin Varsavsky on the deal: 'Nokia as a force of good in the European start up scene' No word on price, but when Michael Arrington broke the news last week on TechCrunch, he wrote that Nokia had picked up the fledgling company for between €10 million and €15 million ($15 million – $22 million based on current exchange rates).

Source: MobileCrunch | 28 Sep 2009 | 7:30 am

BIG PIC: Mercury on the Horizon

A NASA spacecraft captures a stunning view of the solar system's innermost planet.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 7:30 am

Roman Statues Found in Blue Grotto Cave

Italy's Blue Grotto sea cave was once decorated by statues of sea gods, surveys reveal.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 28 Sep 2009 | 6:50 am