AP - Cisco Systems Inc. says it has agreed to buy Tandberg ASA, a Norwegian company that makes hardware for video conferences, for $3 billion. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Oct 2009 | 4:32 am
We may just have found the perfect partner for Gadget Lab’s most beloved employee, the Beer Robot. A testosterone-pumping, twist-grip throttle toting, gas-powered blender.
The two-stroke, 43cc engine spins a blade inside an 85oz stainless steel pitcher, which should make enough margaritas to keep even our cocktail-guzzling NYC bureau chief John C Abell happy on his train-rides home. And because it is self powered, the blender can be used anywhere. Just make sure you bring enough ice.
A match made in robot heaven? Yes, but it’ll have to be a long distance relationship. California emissions laws mean that the gas blender can never visit the Beer Robot at home in San Francisco. $285.
marcansoft writes "On September 28, Nintendo released a Wii update, titled 4.2. This update was targeted squarely at homebrew, performing sweeping changes throughout the system. It hardly achieved that goal, though, because just two days later a new version of the HackMii installer was released that brings full homebrew capabilities back to all Wii consoles, including unmodified consoles running 4.2. However, as part of their attempt to annoy homebrew users, Nintendo updated the lowest level updateable component of the Wii software stack: boot2 (part of the system bootloader chain). Homebrew users have been using BootMii to patch boot2 in order to gain low level system access and recovery functions (running Linux natively, fixing bricks, etc). The update hasn't hindered this, as users can simply reinstall BootMii after updating (it is compatible with the update). But there's a much bigger problem: Nintendo's boot2 update code is buggy." Read on for more details.
Boffins at Panasonic subsidiary Activelink have built a working Power Loader suit, just like the one Ripley used to go hand-to-hand with the alien queen in the movie Aliens. And better than that, they went on to make an eye-wateringly dull video of it in action.
The aluminum exoskeleton stands just over 5 feet tall, weighs 230KG (507lbs), and will let the user lift loads of up to 220lbs, as well as actually walking around while wearing it. That’s not enough to toss an alien into an airlock, but it may be enough to help rescue disaster victims (one of the suit’s main purposes), and to do it without crushing their puny human frames: The Power Lifter uses force-feedback to let the wearer feel the robot’s movements.
You will not be slipping one of these on anytime soon, though. Research has been going on since 2005 and marketable models aren’t expected for another 15 years.
Environmental damage, shoddy urban planning, corruption and other man-made problems are magnifying the human cost of natural disasters almost every time they strike in Asia, experts said. Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:49 am
The iPod Touch is a great device, especially for those who don’t want to drop $70-plus per month on a cellphone contract. Sure, it still doesn’t have a camera, but most of us have a camera anyway, whether a proper point and shoot or a terrible cellphone-cam. The same can’t be said about GPS. If only there were a way to add GPS to the iPod Touch…
Wait. There is! The “GPS Navigation & Battery Cradle for iPod Touch” is a slim case which slides onto the Touch and gives it a GPS unit. The best part is that it not only works with the mapping application from the unit’s maker, Dual Electronics (free with the cradle), but will provide GPS information to any application, meaning that all those cycle-computer apps you were itching to try out will now work.
The unit itself also contains a battery to save on iPod power-drain, and a bigger speaker so you can actually hear turn-by-turn directions. It even comes with a car mount and cigarette-lighter power cable in the box. In fact, the only thing missing right now is the price: while the shipping date – November - has been decided, the cost has not.
So far, we’re totally digging the deep hardware hooks put into the iPhone OS v.3, and the fact that it allows this kind of add-on. When Apple finally adds a camera to the Touch, and this GPS unit perhaps also gets a compass, it’ll truly be a phone-less iPhone.
The European Union has unveiled an updated satellite navigation system that is up to five times more precise than the current GPS system. EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani says... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:36 am
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union launched a free satellite navigation network on Thursday that could help pilots, drivers and blind people by fine-tuning the accuracy of the U.S.... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:35 am
(TrendHunter.com) You know what was a really good idea? Giving old people video cameras so they can express their opinions about the wayward youth of today. An even better idea was putting those videos... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:29 am
STOCKHOLM, October 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Edward "Ed" Kozel, the
internationally well recognized telecoms executive, has been appointed as
Chairman of Telepo Board of Directors. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:21 am
STOCKHOLM, October 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Edward "Ed" Kozel, the internationally well recognized telecoms executive, has been appointed as Chairman of Telepo Board... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:21 am
(TrendHunter.com) You can make anything out of LEGO and this includes creepy, crawly LEGO monsters. These sculptures are mostly recreations of famous evil machines from movies such as Alien, Predator... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:19 am
(TrendHunter.com) Couture connoisseur Jean Paul Gaultier has collaborated with Dr. Martens to create a boot for Fall/Winter 2009 that is heavy on style and the eyes. The see through boot may not do... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:09 am
AP - You almost have to feel bad for Microsoft. The software maker isn't known for hip marketing tactics, and now that a Windows 7 video has hit it big online, people are laughing at the company, not with it.
AP - The latest novel from best-selling romance author Jude Deveraux isn't exactly a book. "Promises" is a reading and viewing experience, a digital text in which videos not only complement the narrative but add to it.
SEOUL, Oct 1 (Reuters) - State-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) has begun drilling a field in northern Iraq that could hold up to 1.2 billion barrels of crude, the firm said on Thursday. Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:01 am
OLDWICK, N.J., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- href="http://www.spybusters.com/">Murray Associates , counterespionage strategists for business and government, identified two Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am
The Bank of America in Tampa, Florida has a no-exceptions policy requiring a thumbprint when cashing a check. And they do mean no exceptions: the bank refused to cash a check for a man with no arms because he couldn't provide a fingerprint.
"They looked at my prosthetic hands and the teller said, 'Well, obviously you can't give us a thumbprint'," Steve Valdez told CNN on Wednesday.
But he said the Bank of America Corp branch in downtown Tampa, Florida, still insisted on a thumbprint identification for him to cash a check drawn on his wife's account at the bank, even though he showed them two photo IDs.
The Bank of America in Tampa, Florida has a no-exceptions policy requiring a thumbprint when cashing a check. And they do mean no exceptions: the bank refused to cash a check for a man with no arms because... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 2:52 am
AP - ViaSat Inc. is acquiring Wild Blue Communications Inc., a provider of high-speed Internet access via satellite, for $568 million in cash and stock, according to a person familiar with the situation. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Oct 2009 | 2:49 am
SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Indonesia's energy explorer, PT Medco Energi Internasional , plans to develop its second geothermal project this year with an estimated investment of $400 million in northern... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 2:47 am
Flickr user Graphic Nothing has a delightful set of "Movie Posters for Minimalists" that contain the minimum visual information necessary to convey a sense of the film. I have a feeling that a lot of... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 2:45 am
Flickr user Graphic Nothing has a delightful set of "Movie Posters for Minimalists" that contain the minimum visual information necessary to convey a sense of the film. I have a feeling that a lot of these would work better for people who've already seen the movies, rather than as enticement to go to the cinema in the first place, but I'm still very pleased by them.
According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is a paradigm of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. According to Larry Ellison, it's nonsense and water vapor.
The chief executive of Oracle last week at the Churchill Club sat down with former Motorola CEO Ed Zander for a fireside chat about the future of the company he co-founded, the pending acquisition of Sun and the implications thereof, and the state of the economy in general.
Most amusing however, was his ranting on cloud computing, captured on video by TechPulse360. Of course, we've heard his refreshingly critical take of the buzzword du jour before, but he continues to make it a valid point. (after the jump)
TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp said on Thursday it has taken over Fujitsu Ltd's loss-making hard drive business as it seeks to eke out growth in notebook PC hard drives in a market dominated... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 2:24 am
NEW DELHI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The Indian cabinet on Thursday allowed state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp's subsidiary to invest an additional $149.5 million for expansion of its oil block in Vietnam. Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 2:23 am
coondoggie writes "The crew of the classic science-fiction show's Starship Enterprise wore small devices on their chests that they could tap to communicate instantly with their colleagues. Such communications technology is now closer to reality thanks to a Finnish company which this week demonstrated high-tech clothing that can send and receive messages via satellite. The demonstrator antenna, built by the Patria Aviation Oy company, looks like a simple patch of cloth but is capable of operating in the Iridium and GPS frequency band as part of clothing. The Iridium satellites allow two-way voice and data communication, while GPS provides positional data to the user. Iridium could also relay the position of the user."
LONDON, October 1 /PRNewswire/ --
- PathFinder Number Portability Discovery Service Offers Widest Global
Coverage of Portability Data; Neustar Selected to Operate Database
The GSMA today announced the launch of PathFinder Number Portability
Discovery, a GSMA-managed service that will be operated by Neustar, Inc.
Designed as a state-of-the-art solution for global number portability, the
new service encompasses 2.2 billion telephone numbers that are impacted by
number portability worldwide, a figure which is expected to rise rapidly.
Number Portability is currently implemented in over 52 countries globally,
with many more, including China and India, expected to launch by the end of
2010. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Oct 2009 | 2:00 am
MSN, Microsoft’s online portal, released a beta version of a service to let users manage their health information on the Web.
Called My Health Info, the Microsoft (MSFT) offering includes a range of widgets and other Web tools, wading into an area that many are attempting to crack, including Google (GOOG).
The service, which will be located on MSN’s health site, will use Microsoft’s HealthVault platform and also its Silverlight technology, taking the company’s effort to create a platform for storage of health information mainstream.
Due to issues of privacy and security, consumers have been slow to warm to loading up their personal health information on the Web.
Microsoft said users can also “research medical concerns, read the latest health news, gain guidance from medical experts, learn about nutrition, and monitor conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.”
Google also has a similar beta product called Google Health, and there are others. In fact, the former head of Google Health, Adam Bosworth, has a similar start-up called Keas.
All efforts are trying to get consumers to embrace and feel comfortable in putting their health information online and offer easier tools to do that.
Here’s a screen shot of My Health Info:
Here’s the Microsoft press release on the service:
MSN Introduces Online Tools to Help People Make Smarter Health and Lifestyle Decisions
From swine flu info to symptom checkers, MSN My Health Info includes a broad range of widgets and tools to attract health-minded consumers.
REDMOND, Wash.–Oct. 1, 2009–Today, MSN released the beta of My Health Info, a new online service that helps people manage their health information on the Web. My Health Info is a unique service that offers people a variety of tools and widgets to upload, organize and monitor health information stored in their personal Microsoft HealthVault accounts. The new service allows people to research medical concerns, read the latest health news, gain guidance from medical experts, learn about nutrition, and monitor conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.
In addition, MSN is launching a specialized swine flu information center today on the MSN Health & Fitness home page (http://health.msn.com), spotlighting the virus that is currently top of mind for people. MSN works with trusted consumer health information providers such as Harvard Medical School and the MayoClinic.com to keep people informed and armed with data to help them prevent contracting the virus, assess for risk factors, find out where to get vaccinations in their local neighborhood when they become available, and more.
My Health Info delivers features designed for busy parents, adults who are managing the health concerns of aging parents, and people managing chronic conditions and multiple medications. Because the data is stored in Microsoft HealthVault, people can access their information via the Web whenever they need it and share it across multiple connected health applications. My Health Info will allow consumers to do the following:
Customize their page with tools such as allergy, medicine and blood pressure trackers, a lab results bank, body mass index calculators, vaccination information and more
Use information from personal health devices such as heart-rate monitors and pedometers
Access profiles of multiple family members at one time, allowing caregivers to more easily manage not only their information, but their family’s as well
Stay informed by receiving the latest in health news from sources they trust
“People care deeply about credible, timely and comprehensive information about health topics. MSN My Health Info will provide an exceptional selection of resources, tools and information available from a variety of sources in one convenient location,” said Scott Moore, U.S. executive producer, MSN. “We are committed to delighting our customers with information, services and tools that keep them informed and simplify their lives.”
Consumers are increasingly looking for online solutions that help them take better control of their health decisions and their families’ information, and that connect them to the broader health ecosystem in which they interact. The My Health Info service enables MSN to offer a timely service to its users, which will be continually updated to help ensure that consumers are offered relevant tools. The service is connected with Microsoft HealthVault, which stores consumer health information in a controlled and privacy-enhanced environment, while enabling consumers to easily collect and transfer their data across the health system for a more holistic and better quality healthcare experience. The My Health Info site is powered by Microsoft Silverlight technology to deliver a rich, interactive Web experience.
“As consumers are increasingly being asked to manage more of their health and wellness, they are looking for solutions that help them navigate an overwhelming amount of information, enabling them to take control of their personal health data,” said David Cerino, general manager of consumer health in Microsoft Health Solutions Group. “Building on the power of HealthVault, My Health Info demonstrates how we are continuing to provide consumers with the trusted and relevant tools they need to make more informed decisions in support of their health and the health of their families.”
(TrendHunter.com) These tasty treats for geeks are a sure bet to please all the senses and the stomachs of those hard-at-work nerds. What better way to enjoy these geek eats but by using equally dweebtastic... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 1:20 am
(TrendHunter.com) If you can't send your kid to school with a pack of Oreos (with a completely clean conscience), at least you can send them with a backpack made out of Oreo cookie wrappers. TerraCycle... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 1:10 am
By R. Colin Johnson, Contributor, Smarter Technology
Google maps are great for navigating to an address, but once you arrive, it’s up to you to find the office, meeting room or vendor inside. Now Micello takes over where conventional navigators leave off, mapping your route inside buildings, malls, convention centers and other points of interest.
“Micello is quite literally Google maps for the insides of buildings,” said Ankit Agarwal, founder and CEO of Micello. “We are mapping the last unchartered territory—the last mile—between the front door and where you are going. We are building the foundation for an indoor location-based services market.”
To a busy emergency physician, a split lip or a case of poisoning is just one of those things they deal with. But to a computer mining the patient’s medical history, it could be the last diagnosis needed to decipher a pattern of domestic violence.
Now, a group of researchers at Harvard University has created the first computer model to automatically detect the risk that a patient is being abused at home. The results were published Sept. 29 in the British Medical Journal.
Let’s be clear. Sidewiki is a land grab. Google has now set up real estate on every single website for commentary from the masses.
Once a person is signed up (and anyone can — it’s part of the Google toolbar), he or she can comment on any page and see comments from others on those pages. Google uses an algorithm to decide which comments go at the top. And Google, not the site owner, decides which content must be taken down because it’s inappropriate.
By Mark Suster, Entrepreneur, Blogger. www.bothsidesofthetable.com
When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. I would argue that the shut-down of September 2008 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw.
I’ve used Google Reader religiously since it launched. I’m a few days away from quitting it forever. Pretty much every blog I read tweets the titles of their posts along with a link. Better yet, the people I follow retweet their favorite links, providing a very efficient way for me to discover new articles to read and publishers to follow.
Contrary to all the uninformed handwringing about how Twitter is making people dumb, I find I’m reading more long form blog and newspaper content than ever. And the stuff I’m reading is more interesting and relevant. That’s a good thing.
“Throughout this report we have focused on the main ‘branded’ smartphones like iPhone, Android, Pre, BlackBerry, and Treo,” the market researcher explained. “And yet there are many more smartphones in use today, manufactured by the likes of LG, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia, running either the Windows Mobile or Symbian operating system. What’s going on with these smartphones? For one thing, many users can’t identify their operating system. While Android users know they have a phone on the Android platform, most Windows Mobile or Symbian users have no idea what operating system is running their phone.”
That’s bad news for Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) because not only do these “other” smart phones tend to perform the most poorly in customer satisfaction, most of their owners would like to abandon them for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry or the Palm (PALM) Pre.
“The ‘generic’ smartphone is unloved, unappreciated, and unlikely to encourage any devotion among its users,” CFI concludes. “Its main role appears to be as a stepping stone to a ‘branded’ smartphone….Our data indicates there is little future for the ‘generic’ smartphone. Or, to be exact, the first generation of ‘generic’ smartphones. The iPhone has clearly raised the bar, but given the performance of the initial versions of the Pre and Android, the gap is narrowing. It’s clear from our data that the Android and Pre are worthy competitors to the iPhone, and more recent versions of the BlackBerry pose a bigger threat.”
LEHIGHTON, Pa., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- YellowPraises.com is poised to become the leading Christian business directory and church listing destination on the Internet. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Oct 2009 | 1:01 am
(TrendHunter.com) Nigel Lythgoe may have been shocked by the 'So You Think You Can Flash' scandal which aired on September 29, but I, on the other hand, am not. When the sixth-season hopeful flashed... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Oct 2009 | 12:50 am
SANTA ANA, Calif. and ISMANING, Germany, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SCM Microsystems, Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Oct 2009 | 12:30 am
When it comes to free media streaming, the United States is flush with premium content from great sites like Hulu and MySpace Music. But aside from a handful of exceptions, the rest of the world is out of luck. Today, the balance changes a bit: MySpace has just launched its hugely popular MySpace Music service in Australia and New Zealand, bringing those regions unlimited streaming of songs and albums from all four major music labels, as well as many indies.
AU/NZ users will have access to the same features as the US site, including shareable playlists, artist activity feeds, and other social functionality. But there is at least one notable difference: while MySpace Music launched in the United States with Amazon as its partner for purchasing digital downloads, the AU/NZ version has teamed with Apple’s iTunes. MySpace wouldn’t comment on whether this is foreshadowing a larger partnership, but we may well see the Apple deal extend stateside. MySpace likely had an exclusive partnership with Amazon for the US launch, but it’s been a year (which may well have been the length of the deal), so it may soon be free to explore other options.
Since launching last fall, MySpace Music has been something of a bright spot for the otherwise faltering social network. The site has seen a tenfold growth in traffic since launching, with the US portal drawing 18.95 million users (it’s also the #1 site in time spent for the all important 18-34 demographic, though some of this can be attributed to the fact that users can leave it playing in the background). MySpace Music also recently rolled out a much improved homepage and has seen a number of exclusive releases.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
A few weeks ago, we wrote about Swedish startup Twingly and its stealth memetracker Twingly Channels. Tonight, Twingly is launching in closed beta. In the past, Twingly has brought us a microblogging search tool, a search engine for blogs, and a global ranking system for blogs. Twingly Channels essentially lets users to create their own personalized real-time memetracker. To sign up for an invite, click here with the code “TechCrunch.”
As we wrote previously, Twingly is a mix between Digg and FriendFeed. Twingly Channels lets users to create their own personalized social memetracker by collecting feeds and search terms covering any topic or event into a channel they share with others. And the site has real-time functionality. Users can post links posted by users, content from RSS feeds, and real-time search results for terms from blogs and microblogs (i.e. Twitter). The resulting stream is filtered into a Friendfeed-like channel where people can comment on, like, or dislike incoming items.
Channels will be public by default, but to comment or subscribe you will need to sign up. Twingly will also employ a ranking system to filter content using a proprietary alogorithm. Every item coming into the channel is continuously ranked using links from blogs, Tweets, user comments and likes. The highest ranked items are shown in the Popular view. Twingly Channels can also be used by companies for brand tracking and social media monitoring and can be kept private for these purposes.
The site could be useful for aggregating RSS feeds, tracking specific content on blogs and microblogs and then sharing that content with others, all on one site. The blog/microblog search is powered by Twingly’s search engine which tracks close to 26 million blogs around the world. It’s similar in some ways to Streamy.
Reuters - The explosion of ways people watch television is confounding the media industry, which has relied for decades on the Nielsen ratings but now must adapt to the realities of the Internet and on-demand video. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Sep 2009 | 11:09 pm
An anonymous reader writes "Consortium members read like a Whose-Who in technology research for the Battery 500 Project which aims to use nanotechnology to extend the range of all-electric cars 200 miles beyond the 300-mile range of gasoline powered cars. IBM, the University of California at Berkeley and all five of our U.S. National Labs are collaborating to make the 500-mile electric car battery. Within two years, they promise to have a new kind of battery technology in place for the 500-mile electric car. If that happens, then I predict a mass exodus from gasoline to electric powered cars that will make the Toyota Prius look like a fad."
So, Justin Timberlake was supposed to be at a party tomorrow night in San Francisco. The “special, private celebration” was in honor of the company Particle (which counts Timberlake as its lead investor), which recently launched its Robo.to service. Myself and fellow writers Jason Kincaid and Paul Carr were so excited that we’ve been gossiping about it all day in back-channel conversations. I believe Paul even bought a JT book for him to sign, earlier today. But sadly, Justin, is bailing on us.
It appears that like most celebrities, Timberlake came down with a case of the “scheduling conflict,” and had to fly back to L.A. (or stay there, not sure if he left or not) to go be a movie star. But we’ll forgive him this time because of the reason for his conflict: He needed to be on the set of The Social Network, yes, the Facebook movie.
But Paul has a brilliant back-up plan. Why doesn’t Particle get Sean Parker, the Facebook founder that Timberlake is portraying in the movie, to be Justin’s stand-in? Perfect, right? Of course, Parker may be busy, seeing as he has three or so jobs at the moment, the most recent of which is being a member of Yammer’s board.
Timberlake needs to understand that the real way to get rich — and I’m talking real rich — is to be a Silicon Valley star, not a movie star portraying a Silicon Valley star. Next time, JT, next time.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Forbes today released their annual 400 richest Americans list — no surprise, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is on it at number 158. His net worth is $2 billion, one-fifth of Facebook’s $10 billion valuation.
At 25, Zuckerberg is by far the youngest member of the Forbes 400 list. The next youngest person on the list is hedge fund operator John Arnold, who is 35. Last year, Zuckerberg debuted on the list at #321. His net worth at the time was $1.5 billion.
Zuckerberg started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, and now Facebook is the third largest site on the internet. In May, Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies invested $200 million into Facebook, setting its $10 billion valuation.
Earlier this month, Facebook announced that they now have 300 million users and cash flow positive for the first time last quarter.
In case you haven’t had enough location-based news tonight, here’s another very interesting bit. It looks like Apple has very quietly bought an online mapping company, Seth Weintraub of Computerworld reports tonight.
Apple’s purchase of Placebase actually took place this past July, and a founder of a partner company that was using Placebase maps tweeted about it. But it slid under most people’s radars as that was the only news out there about it. But Weintraub dug up Placebase CEO Jaron Waldman’s LinkedIn profile tonight, and sure enough, he is now part of the “Geo Team” at Apple.
Here’s why this is very interesting: It could well signal yet another rift in the relationship between Google and Apple. At the very least, the fact that Apple bought a Google Maps competitor, was probably yet another reason why Eric Schmidt had to step down from Apple’s board of directors (which he did in August). But the bigger picture is that such a purchase could potentially allow Apple to move away from its dependency on Google Maps, which it uses on the iPhone and also its iPhoto computer software.
Obviously, much has been made about Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice app, but remember too that they also rejected (or did not approve, whatever) Google’s Latitude app, forcing Google to make a browser-based version. The reason Apple gave for not approving it was that it would confuse users with the built-in Maps application on the iPhone — the one that runs, yes Google Maps.
And Google actually helped Apple build the entire Maps application, aside from just letting them use their mapping data. So this whole episode has been bizarre, to say the least. But it may be over soon with the Placebase purchase.
Or maybe not. It is certainly possible that Apple simply realized the importance of geolocation, especially in the mobile space, and wanted to acquire talent in that field. While Placebase was a competitor to Google Maps, it also was slightly different, focusing on different layers and customizations.
When we first got word that Verizon would be announcing the Razzle today, a handful of potential posts popped into our brain almost instantly. Thing is, when it comes that easy for us, it came that easy for everyone else, too.
For instance, we could fall back on the fact that “Razzle” rhymes with “dazzle”, making some joke about how, with a 2.2″ screen and 1.3 megapixel camera, the only thing likely to “dazzle” anyone is the crazy twist-and-swivel design. From there, we could play on the idea that the manufacturer, PCD, is “really twisting it up” by having a QWERTY keyboard on one half of the rotating design, and music controls and stereo speakers on the other.
But you know, we won’t do that. And if we won’t write that, what’s left to write?
Not a whole lot. Look for it on the shelves for a cent shy of $70 some time in October.
Crunch Network: TechCrunchobsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Aaaand the rumor mill nails it again. Confirming rumors from a few weeks back, Verizon has just announced that their big, beautiful Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, the HTC Imagio, will be launching on the same day as 6.5 itself: October 6th.
Tucked behind that 3.6 inch, 800×480 (WVGA) screen is a good amount of muscle. Here’s what we know so far:
We spent a bit of time with the Imagio prior to launch. We didn’t dabble with it enough to write up a full hands-on (we weren’t even allowed pictures) but we walked away impressed.
The hardware was stunning. The bezel around the face has an odd dotted texture that we didn’t appreciate — it reminded us of a basketball — but the overall look of the handset made up for it.
This is the first smartphone to support Verizon’s V CAST TV, allowing the user to stream content from the likes of FOX, Nickelodeon, The Food Network, ESPN, and a number of other content providers. The stream quality was better than we expected, though flipping between content channels (done with a swiping motion across the screen) seemed a bit slow. If you’re willing to drop $15 a month on the optional service, the Imagio seems like a decent way to take it all in.
One of our favorite features is one we’ve certainly seen elsewhere before, but is one we weren’t expecting on the Imagio: a kickstand built into the backplate. A small button on the back releases the kickstand, making for prime viewing when paired with an airplane tray table or a table in a coffee shop.
Come October 6th, you’ll be able to walk out of the store with one for $199 after mail-in rebate and a two-year contract.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Think what you will, but we're big believers in "keeping it real" 'round these parts. While we swoon whenever a new smart phone hits the scene, the vast majority are still stuck in the flip phone zone - and you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. Have no fear, flip fans, Verizon is here to fulfill all your flipping needs with the new Nokia 2705 Shade.
Aaaand the rumor mill nails it again. Confirming rumors from a few weeks back, Verizon has just announced that their big, beautiful Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, the HTC Imagio, will be launching on the same day as 6.5 itself: October 6th.
Think what you will, but we’re big believers in “keeping it real” ’round these parts. While we swoon whenever a new smart phone hits the scene, the vast majority are still stuck in the flip phone zone – and you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that. Have no fear, flip fans, Verizon is here to fulfill all your flipping needs with the new Nokia 2705 Shade.
Being marketed as a “light-weight, compact and colorful” flip phone, the Nokia Shade will initially only be available online and will come in two tasty flavors: “normal” – one with a camera (more below)*, and “secret agent” – a model without a camera, for all of you who can’t carry camera-equipped devices into your info-sensitive work places (we presume).
In regards to the “colorful” aspect of the device (don’t mind the black press shot of the phone above), Nokia is keeping with the old-school theme (think early 2000s) and will be offering interchangeable “Xpress-on” covers in blue, red, and purple for $19.99. Considering the Nokia Shade with camera, itself, will cost just $29.99 (with a new two-year customer agreement), spending almost $20 a pop per color cover (66% of the total price of the handset, for crying out loud) is pretty comical. The new flipper will be available online beginning Oct. 6 at verizonwireless.com.
Here are the rest of the juicy details:
Key features:
• Large display on one of the smallest devices available at Verizon Wireless
• VZ NavigatorSM-capable to give customers access to more than 15 million points of interest
• Connect in color with Xpress-on changeable covers (sold separately)
Lifestyle features:
• Stylish and sleek with interchangeable covers for added personalization
• Stores up to 1,000 contacts
• Light-weight and easily fits into a pocket or purse
• Text, picture and voice messaging capabilities
• Up to 300 minutes of usage time or up to 360 hours of standby time
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth® compatible with support for the following Bluetooth profiles: headset, hands-free, phonebook access, basic printing, and object push (for vCard and vCalendar)
• Micro USB 2.0 compatible
• Access to Mobile Web
Domestic Violence Awareness Month*
Because purple is the awareness color for domestic violence, those who purchase the Nokia Shade with a camera online during Domestic Violence Awareness Month will receive a free picture frame phone lanyard and a purple Nokia Xpress-on Cover while supplies last. Additionally, the Nokia Shade features pre-loaded wallpapers that highlight HopeLine®, Verizon Wireless’ phone recycling and reuse program, and it is the first Verizon Wireless phone to have #HOPE pre-programmed into the contact list. When customers dial #HOPE, they are connected to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, where they can receive information or help with domestic violence situations or questions. To learn more about Verizon Wireless’ efforts around Domestic Violence Awareness Month, visit www.verizonwireless.com/HopeLineDVAM.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
When we first got word that Verizon would be announcing the Razzle today, a handful of potential posts popped into our brain almost instantly. Thing is, when it comes that easy for us, it came that easy for everyone else, too.
Since the PSP Go is coming tomorrow, it was reasonable to expect a firmware update the PSP. We just didn’t expect one this full of content. Will it be enough to get the homebrew people to upgrade? Probably not, but for the casual user it’s quite the step forward.
The new firmware update adds compatibility with the new MediaGo function, as well as with the upcoming change to the way PSP titles are published. The update will also make it possible for you to tether your PSP to any Bluetooth connection (mobile phone, PC, etc) and game online when you don’t have access to a wifi.
Included in the update (in a way) is the upgrade to the PSP store online. Sony is changing the look of the store in order to make sure that it works properly with MediaGo, which is a PC application that will enable you to organize and transfer your music, movies, and photos to the PSP/PSPGo. It will also enable you to purchase and download software from the Playstation Store using your computer, as an alternative to downloading using your actual device.
Over, it’s quite impressive for a combination firmware update and store refresh. But the PSP Go is still overpriced.
Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog celebrating the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.
It was just another hot day in Jaipur when Harish, an autorickshaw driver, sees Whitney, a University of Chicago student, in the distance and was awestruck. He asks her out for a cup of tea and she says no. He asks again, and she says no again. But Harish's persistence pays off, by the fourth time she comes around and they both grab a cup of tea. He shows her around Jaipur and, at the end of the day, he proposes to her. She accepts.
I'll admit, there is a part of me thinking, "typical colonized South Asian men always chasing after white women. I give it two months." And to that part of my brain I say shut it,let them bask in their happiness. What do you guys think?
National Geographic magazine is running an article about the redwood forest this month, and part of that article included a very special vertical panoramic shot of a 300 foot tall tree. Shooting in the redwoods is particularly difficult because you lose the sense of scale. If there’s not something like a house or a bus next to the tree, you really can’t show how massive the trees really are.
Photographer Nick Nichols traveled out into the forest to do just that: capture a photo of a tree that’s over 300 feet tall, while keeping a sense of scale. Standard photographic techniques just wouldn’t cut it, so Nick had to get creative.
What the photographer ended up doing was building a custom rig containing 3 cameras, each one taking a slightly different shot: one to the left, one to the right, and one on the dead center. The rig was mounted to a gyroscope, and then the cameras took a series of pictures as the rig was lowered to the ground.
The end result: a vertical panorama comprised of 84 pictures, all stitched together to create one of the most complete pictures of a redwood tree we’ve ever seen. Check it out:
I noticed something interesting tonight. In the new build of Tweetie 2 (not out yet), a bunch of little red location markers started appearing next to tweets in my stream. Knowing that this new version was built using Twitter’s new Geolocation APIs, I inquired if this mean they had been turned on. Sure enough, they have, developer Loren Brichter just confirmed after talking to Twitter.
But there’s a slight problem. Apparently, the reason these geotags are showing up for all tweets (even those not actually geotagged) is that the documentation was a little unclear of how to handle non-geotagged tweets, Brichter says. The result is that every single tweet is tagged with a location somewhere just off the coast of Africa, south of Ghana. Either this is Atlantis, the Island from Lost, or we have a problem. [Update on the location below]
Brichter is aware of the issue and has already resolved it, and has resubmitted Tweetie 2 to the App Store for approval. Since no one officially has Tweetie 2 yet, this probably doesn’t affect you at all. But you have to wonder if other Twitter app developers were confused by this as well. If so, we could see a lot of apps with some wonky geolocation data.
Twitter hasn’t yet responded to my request for more information. It’s not clear if they meant to turn this on tonight. We do know that they had originally planned to launch it last week at the Twitter Conference in LA, but it wasn’t quite ready yet.
Earlier today, Twitter announced the new Lists feature, which will also feature an API. And of course, everyone is waiting for the Retweet API as well.
Update: As our apparently geography major readers have informed me, the area just off the coast of Ghana is lat/long 0,0. This makes sense — there is no location data attached to these tweets, so apparently they default to 0,0.
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Geologists in Tamil Nadu, India, said a trove of dinosaur eggs was peeping out of the sand beds on grazing land in plain site as they walked by.
The site is part of an area rich in ancient organisms dating back 140 million years, geologists told The Times of India.
Ah, the Windows install process. Long associated with repeated clicking of the “Next” button, it’s also home to one of the more shady practices to exist in modern software: the bundled application. Hapless users looking to get through the process as quickly as possible inevitably wind up installing some junk software that they don’t really want or need, only to scratch their heads when their browser is suddenly slowed down by a clunky new toolbar. Users may not like them, but many developers don’t want to scrap these bundled software packages entirely because they’re a steady source of income. OpenCandy, a startup that launched last year, may offer the solution by pairing up users with software they might actually want. And today it’s announcing that it’s been integrated with the latest version of PrimoPDF by Nitro PDF, the most popular freeware PDF creator.
We’ve written about OpenCandy before, when it made the revolutionary decision to ban germ-spreading handshakes from company board meetings, but until now we haven’t explored the company’s product. From the user’s perspective it’s quite simple: when you go to install an application that uses OpenCandy, you’ll be presented at some point during the install flow with an option to install a sponsored application. It may sound just like those unwanted app installs that we’ve seen for years, but it has a few key differences.
First, everything in OpenCandy is opt-in. While many apps default to the “install” option for these tag-along apps (which is why people accidentally install them), OpenCandy makes you click a checkbox make sure you really want the app. The company is also doing its best to only work with high quality applications — co-founder Chester Ng says that OpenCandy will only work with high quality publishers, and only suggest applications that it thinks people might want to actually use. Some apps that are currently being advertised through OpenCandy include doubleTwist, TuneUp, and Xobni — all apps we’ve covered before and don’t come with any nasty spyware.
OpenCandy also brings some intelligence to the install process. Rather than bundling the same applications every time, OpenCandy rotates the applications it advertises, effectively serving as an ad network. It also tries to apply some intelligence to the process, suggesting apps that are complimentary to what the user is installing instead of choosing one at random. And unlike some of the bundles that include these tag-along apps as part of the initial download even if you don’t want them, OpenCandy only downloads one of these apps after you’ve stated that you want it.
Finally, OpenCandy doesn’t collect any personally identifiable information. It does, however, collect some basic info (like whether or not the user decided to install the suggested application or if it wasn’t compatible with their computer). This helps them suggest better applications in the future, and Ng says that if an app is clearly underperforming (i.e. people don’t want it), OpenCandy will remove it from their list.
This is obviously a tricky area — some people object to the idea of upselling applications during the install process at all. But provided it is consistent about advertising high quality apps, I think OpenCandy may be a good compromise: developers will still get paid for including these ads in their installers, and users may just stumble across a new application they actually want.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Today, we introduced a new search feature that makes it easier for you to find forum posts or discussions related to what you're searching for. This new addition to Google search results applies to sites that tend to have a large number of posts on a specific topic. When several different discussions on a site are relevant to your query, we indent them under the primary result and include the date of each post.
So for instance, if you search for [getting from rome to florence] you will see, below the third result, a list of relevant discussions on various ways to get between these cities.
It's always nice to know what others are saying about the best ways to get around (by boat or train) and how recent those comments are — especially if it's your first time traveling to Italy.
We hope this feature gives you a deeper view into the relevant content available on sites throughout the web — even when that content spans multiple pages or discussions. At the same time, the main search results are diverse as always — so if you can't pinpoint a useful comment there's a list of relevant sites there to help.
Posted by Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management
An anonymous reader writes "A NASA probe found that cosmic ray intensities in 2009 had increased by almost 20 percent beyond anything seen in the past 50 years. Such cosmic rays arise from distant supernova explosions and consist mostly of protons and heavier subatomic particles — just one cosmic ray could disable unlucky satellites or even put a mission to Mars in jeopardy."
What if the desktop on your computer was just like your actual desktop? That’s the core idea behind BumpTop, a really nice looking graphical overlay for Windows-based operating systems. But as cool as BumpTop looked, you still had to use your mouse and keyboard to manipulate it. As I made clear yesterday, I want those to die. So good news for me today: BumpTop is adding multi-touch support. And the result is awesome.
When we think of multi-touch right now, most of us think of the iPhone. But really, with such a small screen, there are only so many gestures you can do. Multi-touch BumpTop greatly expands that roster, and includes several gestures that it claims to have patents for. Basically, they have gestures that use all of you fingers, and both hands, and even the side of hands. You can “lasso” things, “shove” them, “scrunch” them, and “crop” them.
This graphic below shows a list of the gestures BumpTop offers that competitors don’t, including the ones that they apparently have patents on (labeled as “BT”).
Naturally, for these multi-touch capacities to work, you’ll need a computer with a touch screen surface that supports multi-touch. Right now, those aren’t widely available. But all indications are that soon enough, there could be a range of devices on the market with such capabilities (sadly, this is Windows 7-only — so no, it won’t work on an Apple Tablet). If you don’t have one of those however, BumpTop will continue to work on a majority of Windows-based PCs just fine with more traditional input devices.
The most obvious use of Mutli-touch BumpTop is with media, as you can easily manipulate images (watch the video below). But the service also works with documents (dragging them around, bunching them together, Google Gadgets, and even webpages as widgets. Also, there is social networking support, so if you edit an image in BumpTop, you can easily upload it immediately to Facebook or send it to Twitter.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that as soon as I have a computer that can run this, I want this. If not, you’re crazy, just watch it in action below. And below that find more examples of its multi-touch gesture support.
Reuters - Google Inc is in the early stages of looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid vehicles to the power grid, minimize strain on the grid and help utilities manage vehicle charging load. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Sep 2009 | 7:40 pm
Here’s the big media deal everyone has been waiting for. Or at least, here’s the report: Sharon Waxman of TheWrap says cable giant Comcast (CMCSA) is buying all of NBC Universal from GE (GE) for $35 billion.
The deal was hammered out by reps at a Tuesday meeting, Waxman reports, citing “two individuals informed about the meeting”. The $35 billion price tag happens to be the value that a recent JP Morgan report assigned to the company.
Comcast, in a statement, says the story is untrue: “”While we do not normally comment on M&A rumors, the report that Comcast has a deal to purchase NBC Universal is inaccurate.” NBC Univesal has no comment.
Clintonian parsers will note that Comcast’s denial has potential wiggle room: It isn’t denying, for instance, that the two companies had or are having talks. On the other hand, this is exactly the situation where corporate pr protocol calls for the “we don’t comment on market rumor and speculation” line. That way, you have the option to update your statement if the story does turn out to be true. And for what it’s worth, I can’t recall the last time I saw a big, publicly traded company respond to an M&A story with this specificity.
UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times’ Joe Flint now says that Comcast is “kicking the tires” at NBC U, according to “people familiar with the situation.” His report is much more hedged than Waxman’s.
All that said, this is a tie-up that has a first-blush logic to it: Comcast is flush with cash, and could presumably take on more debt if it wanted to, and has shown an interest in branching out into content before. In 2004, it made a run at Disney (DIS). And the drumbeat for GE to dump its 80% stake in NBC U has been more or less constant, even while the industrial conglomerate insisted it had no interest in selling.
Those drumbeats get louder every year around this time, by the way. That’s because Vivendi, which owns the remaining 20% stake in NBCU, has a put option that kicks in every November, and which could theoretically force GE into buying out the stake or spinning the whole thing out to the public.
More theoretical ammunition for a deal: Comcast is one of the few potential buyers who could swallow up all of NBC U. While might be lots of people interested in NBC U’s cable properties (USA, Bravo, SciFi, etc) there aren’t many who also want the company’s flailing broadcast property.
And while Universal’s film library is potentially attractive to some buyers, many of them — like Time Warner (TWX), for instance — have no interest in the film studio, because they already have one.
If you want to play out the theoretical implications for digital, things could get very interesting. NBC is one of the founding partners at Hulu, the free Web TV portal that’s caused consternation for Comcast and other cable providers, who worry that the site is undermining the value of the TV programming they spend big money on. And Comcast and Time Warner have been trying out a “TV Everywhere” strategy that is in part a reaction to Hulu’s initial success. But let’s let the dust settle for a minute before we head in that direction.
One of last year’s TechCrunch50 startups,Bojam, is launching in public beta today and we have 500 invites. Bojam is a Web-based sound studio that lets musicians practice playing music, find other musicians around the world to jam with, and lay down tracks together on the same song. Click here to try out the service.
Bojam is a fully functional music mixer. You can adjust the volume on each track or add effects like distortion and reverb. Similarly, you can solo or mute instruments, loop, cut, copy, paste and trim audio clips. Bojam also includes a plugin that allows you to record and upload directly into the mix, or you can upload tracks recorded in Garage Band or other software.
One upcoming interesting feature of Bojam’s mixer is the ability to embed a mixing widget in blogs, social networks and websites where users can remix and edit audio from within the embeddable widget. The widget should be rolled out within the next few months
Beyond being a collaborative tool, Bojam is also a community for musicians to find other musicians to play with anywhere in the world, asynchronously. If a song is really good, the musicians can decide to sell it on iTunes or Rhapsody for 99 cents. Music teachers can also use the service to auction off their services (as can studio musicians half-way across the world).
Super-smart phones based on Google’s Android operating system have been relatively slow to take off since the first one appeared a year ago. Despite Google’s iconic brand, they have yet to develop the strong bond with U.S. consumers achieved by the Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry or the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. And, after a year, Android has less than 10% of the 85,000 apps the iPhone now offers.
[ See post to watch video ]
But Android is beginning to blossom in the market for this class of device, which is really a hand-held computer that performs many laptop-like functions.
In August, T-Mobile began offering a new $200 myTouch Android phone. Motorola (MOT) will shortly launch a new $200 Android model called the CLIQ. And, on Oct. 11, Sprint (S) will start selling perhaps the most unusual Android phone so far, the $180 HTC Hero. I’ve been testing the Hero, a touch-screen phone without a physical keyboard that has some important distinctions from earlier Android models. In general, I like the Hero and can recommend it to Sprint customers, or others looking for something powerful, but different.
HTC, a veteran Taiwan-based maker of phones, has altered Android more than anyone else so far. It has been gradually developing its own signature software layer that sits atop phone operating systems. With the Hero, it has applied this software for the first time to an Android phone, and that’s what sets the Hero apart from its Android brethren. The latest, beefed-up, version of this HTC software is called “Sense.”
Sense includes handsome, large widgets with extra features that go beyond the vanilla Android experience supplied to everyone by Google (GOOG). So the Hero looks and behaves somewhat differently. For instance, a contact page in the address book application consolidates that contact’s Facebook and Flickr accounts. The music player and photo album look better, and the Hero with Sense can use Microsoft’s Exchange service to synchronize mail, calendars and contacts.
Sprint’s HTC Hero
Sense also offers something called Scenes—entire collections of sets of screens and apps, either canned or customized, that can change the phone software’s look and feel. With just a couple of clicks, you could switch between a work-oriented “scene,” that prominently features apps such as a stock tracker and your work email, and an entertainment-oriented scene filled with the music player, photo album and other apps.
As with Sprint’s Palm (PALM) Pre, the Hero’s price is a bit deceptive. To get the phone for $180, you must remember to mail in a rebate form worth $100. At purchase, you have to put up $280. On the other hand, Sprint’s monthly fees can be much cheaper than those for other carriers. You’ll have to pay at least $70 a month to use the Hero, the same minimum fee that AT&T charges iPhone owners. But Sprint’s fee, unlike AT&T’s (T), includes unlimited text messaging and unlimited free calls to any mobile number on any network.
The Hero’s hardware isn’t especially beautiful. It’s a dull grey, noticeably thicker than the iPhone, with a smaller screen and six buttons plus a trackball, which adds another navigation option to the touch screen. It’s the same length as an iPhone, but is a bit narrower and lighter. It comes with just two gigabytes of memory, compared with eight gigabytes on the $99 iPhone and 16 gigabytes on Apple’s $199 model, though the Hero’s memory, unlike the iPhone’s, is expandable via a hard-to-reach slot under its removable back cover.
One big drawback is battery life. Sprint is only claiming up to four hours of talk time for the Hero, versus five hours for the Pre and iPhone. But, unlike the iPhone’s, the Hero’s battery is removable. Another drawback: I sometimes found the touch screen unresponsive, requiring multiple pokes at an icon.
On the plus side, the Hero has a much higher resolution camera than the iPhone’s or Pre’s—five megapixels versus three megapixels.
It also functions as a video camera, and in my tests, both still photos and videos I took looked very good. Phone calls, even on speaker phone, were clear and strong, and the phone has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in addition to Sprint’s high-speed network, which in my view is better than its reputation. Web browsing was adequate.
HTC’s Sense gives the Hero seven screens on which to place apps, versus Android’s standard three screens.
And, in addition to the standard Android apps and the 8,000 downloadable apps from Android’s Market app store, there are a variety of large, beautiful HTC “widgets” you can use. The downside of these is that they can occupy an entire screen.
The most impressive widget is called People. It’s an address book in which each contact’s page features a scrolling bar at the bottom with icons that allow you to see that person’s most recent Facebook status, photos from Facebook and Flickr, plus emails and text messages she’s sent to you and recent calls between you. This is somewhat similar to Palm’s Synergy feature, which is also based around people.
Overall, I found the HTC Hero to be the best Android phone I’ve tested, and a worthy competitor to the iPhone, the BlackBerry and the Pre.
Sometimes genius looks like an elegant equation written in chalk on a blackboard. Sometimes it’s a hodgepodge of wires, canisters and aluminum-foil-wrapped hoses, all held together by shiny bolts.
Despite its homebrew appearance, this device, a scanning tunneling microscope, is one of the most extraordinary lab instruments of the last three decades. It can pick up individual atoms one by one and move them around to create supersmall structures, a fundamental requirement for nanotechnology.
Twenty years ago this week, on Sept. 28, 1989, an IBM physicist, Don Eigler, became the first person to manipulate and position individual atoms. Less than two months later, he arranged 35 Xenon atoms to spell out the letters IBM. Writing those three characters took about 22 hours. Today, the process would take about 15 minutes.
“We wanted to show we could position atoms in a way that’s very similar to how a child builds with Lego blocks,” says Eigler, who works at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. “You take the blocks where you want them to go.”
Eigler’s breakthrough has big implications for computer science. For instance, researchers are looking to build smaller and smaller electronic devices. They hope, someday, to engineer these devices from the ground up, on a nanometer scale.
“The ability to manipulate atoms, build structures of our own, design and explore their functionality has changed people’s outlook in many ways,” says Eigler. “It has been identified as one of the starting moments of nanotech because of the access it gave us to atoms, even though no product has comes out of it.”
On the 20th anniversary of Eigler’s achievement, we look at the science, art and implications of moving individual atoms.
It's the 20th anniversary of a major research breakthrough from IBM, in which physicist Don Eigler moved and positioned individual atoms to spell out the letters I-B-M. We present a gallery of nifty single-atom compositions and Eigler's thoughts on the significance of his work.
It's the 20th anniversary of a major research breakthrough from IBM, in which physicist Don Eigler moved and positioned individual atoms to spell out the letters I-B-M. We present a gallery of nifty single-atom compositions and Eigler's thoughts on the significance of his work.
We hear about holographic storage time and again, but look around — do you see any holographic drive arrays around you? Didn’t think so. At the moment it’s just not cost-effective (compared with plain ol’ HDDs) and not fast enough (compared with SSDs and other flash arrays). That doesn’t mean it’ll be an exotic technology forever, though: GE is hard at work making it more compatible with existing technology, and thinks they’ve come up with something good. Their optics labs have increased reflectivity in their media to the point where a standard Blu-ray laser can be used to read them, though nothing is said about writing.
The resultant discs, the same size as CDs and DVDs, would be able to hold 500GB at current densities, going up to 1.6GBTB in densities achievable in a year or two. What does this mean for you? Probably nothing, but it’s good to know they’re all hard at work, right?
Maybe in 2011 you’ll be able to buy a modified Blu-ray drive (assuming the format is still around) that will have a mode for reading these holographic discs. You might even be able to get a special drive to write on ‘em. Seems a bit weird talking about “next-generation” optical technologies when almost all media is going online, but there’s always a use for discs like these. Assuming the discs aren’t too volatile, this kind of storage capacity would be great for backups.
Aaanyway, don’t worry your little head about it. When something happens, you’ll know (because we’ll tell you). In the meantime, get your holographic storage shirt here.
While we’re still in the dark as to when it’ll launch or how much damage it’ll do to our wallets, we just got word of where future owners will be picking up their new Nokia-made netbook. You want one? You’ll have to talk to the dudes in the blue polos.
At their holiday gift guide event, Best Buy announced that they’ll be the exclusive retailers for the Nokia Booklet in the U.S. That’s great – but look out for the big mean security guards on the way out.
PC World - Newcomers to the mobile-phone market are driving more wireless Web access at the expense of the phone makers that have been around for a while, according to a new report from AdMob. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Sep 2009 | 6:20 pm
Anyone who plays Warhammer 40K knows how much work goes into your army. The modeling, the filing, the painting, on and on and on. Then you send hours compiling your army list, carefully pack the Emperor’s superhuman servants in foam, take them down to the local game shop, and for what? To have them destroyed by heretics, foul xenos, and unsupervised kids. Such is the glory of tabletop gaming.
Codex Pictures, the same company that brought us LEGO BIONICLE, announced that they will be putting the Emperor’s finest into a 70-minute CGI thriller. The news came at UK Game Day to thousands of Games Workshop enthusiasts. Erik Mogensen, Licensing and Acquired Rights Manager for Games Workshop, stated, “We’re working closely with the talented team at Codex Pictures, who have an excellent understanding of the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property and an inspired vision for the movie. We can’t wait to see our universe come to life on-screen.” The picture is titled Ultramarines. Check the link for latest news.
If you’re trying to lose weight or stay healthy and enjoy metrics and graphs, then you should check out the Withings WiFi Body Scale. The scale’s built-in Wi-Fi automatically transmits your weight, lean and fat mass, and body mass index to your own Withings webpage. You can also have the data transmitted to the free Withings iPhone app called WiScale. Body fat is calculated as actual weight rather than as a percentage using bioelectric impedance analysis. Up to 8 users can track stats per scale - the scale automatically detects who the user is once he or she steps on the scale. The scale design is pretty sleek - it’s only 0.9” thick in a mix of black, steel, and glass. The scale is shipping now and is available from Withings.com or Amazon.com for $159.
FROM APPLETELL - If you’re in the market for a new iMac or Mac Mini, you’d be well advised to hold on for a week or two more. Reports from around the web all point to a refresh of both by October 9th. MORE »
The Dallas Arts District Theater was a magnificent piece of crap. Affectionately dubbed the Shed, the junky, corrugated-steel construction looked more warehouse than Koolhaus, but it was basic enough that wild-eyed visionaries would routinely rip out and rearrange seats to fit whatever the current show demanded. Then, in 2005, the Shed was torn down.
[1] Aluminum siding. The Wyly is sheathed in aluminum tubes whose cylindrical profiles deflect the infamous Dallas hail. For nicer weather, there's a partially enclosed deck with a killer view.
Photo: Tim Hursley
Fortunately, its replacement, which hosts its first production in October, is a worthy successor. The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre was designed by New York megafirm Rex to be an enormous Transformer that can suit almost any directorial whim.
[2] Adjustable Balconies. To accommodate different stage layouts, the balconies move up and down, hoisted by the same winches that raise and lower stadium scoreboards.
Photo: Jeff Buehner
The seating, for example, shifts easily to accommodate changes in stage design: Movable balconies hang from the ceiling; cylindrical jacks can tilt and shift the downstairs chairs in response.
[3] Underground back stage. Because a traditional back stage would interfere with the four-sided open plan of the performance space, engineers secreted all the standard theatrical machinery—and then some—belowdecks.
Photo: Jeff Buehner
The theater is also surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass panels that pivot open for al fresco drama. Audiences can then wander in from all sides; the Dallas skyline can serve as a backdrop. It takes as little as 15 minutes to reconfigure the theater, and so far Rex has come up with eight variations. More are sure to come. The Shed lives on, in spirit.
Mary Spio has been a server at McDonald's and an aerospace engineer at Boeing. She holds one of the patents that make it possible to send movies to theaters digitally (no. 7,065,355, relating to "very high data rate satellite transmission"). She also founded a successful singles magazine called One2One Living and currently runs Gen2Media, an Internet-oriented video production and distribution company.
Now Spio is bringing her talents to Xbox Live. About 17 million people subscribe to Microsoft's online entertainment service, and a new one signs up every five seconds. But they still come mainly for gaming; the media offerings are mostly network fare—not exactly in the strike zone for Xbox users. "They're not watching American Idol or America's Got Talent," Spio says. "They're playing Rock Band." What these kids need, she says, is customized content.
So she's planning a show called The Verge, a cross between—of course—America's Got Talent and Rock Band. Independent artists will produce their own music and submit it via e360live.com. Viewers and a panel of industry professionals will then pick 20 entrants to be featured on Xbox Live, and subscribers can vote on their favorites. Spio's production team will shoot footage and gather backstories on the 20 finalists, to be woven into weekly programs leading up to the finale this winter. "This is the Guitar Hero generation," Spio says. "We want to make shows that match their taste." Sure, it's harder than selling Big Macs—but probably easier than building rockets.
EconolineCrush writes "The Tech Report has published the first details describing the architecture behind Nvidia's upcoming Fermi GPU. More than just a graphics processor, Fermi incorporates many enhancements targeted specifically at general-purpose computing, such as better support for double-precision math, improved internal scheduling and switching, and more robust tools for developers. Plus, you know, more cores. Some questions about the chip remain unanswered, but it's not expected to arrive until later this year or early next."
We try not to cover too many concept cars and devices, but sometimes it’s just too compelling. I’ve always liked Subarus, personally, and although I’ve pledged not to buy a car until I can get a full electric, I might have to go back on that if this Tourer hybrid goes to production. I hope they find a better name, though, it’s a bit “Rural Juror” for me. But gullwings, baby, gullwings!
It’d be a pretty traditional hybrid, as unexciting as that sounds, and it would have a full-sized 2L, 4-cylinder boxer engine as well as two power plants, 10 and 20kW, for electric propulsion. It will of course be all wheel drive.
It just looks awesome to me. A practical, roomy AWD Subaru, rocking gullwings? Man, if I don’t get one, at least I’ll see them all over the place because they’re so awesome. Assuming they ever get made, that is.
For most of us, today was a day of extreme disappointment as we found out that we didn’t receive one of the 100,000 Google Wave invites that were sent out. That’s no reason to not learn as much as possible about Wave before we get a chance to use it. Developers have been hard at work to bring extensions to the service while we’ve all been waiting for its release. One the more interesting extensions is 6rounds.
6rounds was given the opportunity to be the first video chat option on Google Wave and seems to have been a great choice. 6rounds offers not only a chance for plain video chat, the service also has features such as effects and “gifts” you can give the other person involved. What sets it apart from other video chat options is the opportunity to visit websites with your chat partner or play games offered by 6rounds as well. All of this can be done within a Wave without having to install extra applications.
6rounds looks to be an interesting addition to Google Wave and its features could add a lot to the service. The fact that you can use it without having to setup an account with 6rounds makes it even better; that way you will only need to convince people to use Google Wave, as if there should be any convincing at all. 6rounds was given a great opportunity in being chosen to make a Wave extension and it looks like it’s done a good job.
It’s old news that news consumers shield themselves from pesky dissenting viewpoints by patronizing only those outlets that present a comfortably conforming world view. The web and iPhone service "Newsy" hopes to help remedy the situation by creating short, original video clips with their own reporters highlighting how various sources reported the same news item.
Finding readers good things to read has been a long-standing tech challenge that has mostly disappointed readers looking for a personalized newspaper. Wired.com tries the newest contenders to see if any of them delivers.
Lake Michigan's food chain is under threat from an invasive fish and biologists are working on ways to keep it out of the lake, university scientists say.
A $9 million electric fish barrier keeps Asian carp from migrating between the Mississippi River and the lake and the Army Corps of Engineers just boosted the power, the Milwaukee Journal Gazette reported Wednesday. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 4:58 pm
CWmike writes "Microsoft will block users running counterfeit copies of Windows from installing the free Security Essentials antivirus software, said Alex Kochis, director of Microsoft's Genuine Windows team, in a post to a company blog. On-again, off-again debates about the wisdom of blocking security-oriented downloads like patches or defensive software have centered around the argument that Microsoft should protect all users, including pirates, since hijacked PCs threaten the entire Windows ecosystem. In this case, though, one analyst isn't buying that line. 'I can't see any justification for making Microsoft give away Security Essentials [to counterfeit Windows users],' said John Pescatore, Gartner's primary security analyst. 'Those people have many other choices, including free. There are plenty of alternatives to Security Essentials,' he said, adding that that makes a difference. Windows patches, on the other hand, aren't available from anyone but Microsoft."
REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today recognized six vendors as recipients of the 2009 Microsoft Vendor Program (MSVP) Excellence Awards. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Sep 2009 | 4:30 pm
This week's Wired podcast uncovers a long-rumored Soviet device that really exists and is still operational. Also: We look at a riotous group of internet pranksters that's driving the Church of Scientology nuts.
New, Major Release Affirms Designer/Server as the Defacto Standard Data Visualization Platform for Demanding Developers
ROCKVILLE, Md., Sept. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Sep 2009 | 4:15 pm
Zipcar, a widely used car rental service, has raised the bar with tech-savviness with its new iPhone app, which launched in the App Store this week.
Available for free, the Zipcar app automatically lists nearby Zipcar locations on a map. Tapping a location pin displays cars available for rent, as well as their rental fees.
Inside the app, Zipcar members can make, change, extend and cancel reservations. A fancy feature is called “Drive,” where you can tap buttons to unlock, lock, or even honk the horn of your rental car.
We haven’t rented a Zipcar with the app just yet, but we’re interested to see how it’s working out for users. Anyone out there test drive the Zipcar app yet? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.
Check out a video below the jump to see the Zipcar app in action.
By Brett Arends, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Jason Epstein, the book publishing legend, had a warning on Tuesday for the rest of his industry.
You’re toast.
Not in so many words, of course. But 81-year old Mr. Epstein, who was the editorial director of Random House for many decades, warned that new technology risked making traditional publishers obsolete. Authors, he said, can now publish their books themselves, using the new standalone Espresso Book Machine built by Mr. Epstein’s company, On Demand Books.
edumacator writes "Our school is working hard to provide our students with relevant opportunities of study. We have a short 'seminar' period that meets three days a week for thirty minutes. I've chosen to teach a seminar on 'Home Grown Technology' even though I'm an English teacher and only an amateur techie. If you had thirty minutes, three days a week, for nine weeks, what would you teach a group of high school students? I'm considering the Wii-mote smartboard and multitouch displays, but I'm afraid I'm overreaching."
With the economy still on a downturn, tech retailers are preparing for the upcoming holiday season by offering a variety of cheap gadgets. With no hot new must have gadget this year and consumers not as willing to snap up pricey gadgets, retailers are hoping that cheap gadgets will have enough appeal to keep their sales up.
Netbooks, digital cameras, digital picture frames and speakers are some of the items retailers are hoping will be big sellers for the frugal set. Best Buy is also hoping to cash in on the growing popularity of e-books by setting up sections in stores dedicated to several varieties of e-readers all going for less than Amazon’s Kindle. RadioShack is offering a 7 inch portable TV for $199, and Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all slashed prices on their video game consoles. Walmart meanwhile has dropped the price of some Blu-ray players to $99.
Some retailers, such as Sears and Kmart, are hoping their layaway programs will help encourage consumers to make some big ticket purchases. Electronics are already the most popular items placed on layaway. Sears also plans to follow Best Buy’s lead and offer e-readers this holiday season.
While experts agree that most consumers will be budget conscious this holiday season, and predict sales will be the second worst in 42 years, manufacturers still plan to push some high ticket items such as the new LED ultra thin TVs that go for upwards of $2000. Vizo is hopeful its latest model, which connects to the internet and comes with a roll out keyboard, will be a hot seller but the $1700 price tag may turn off many. Most consumers will be looking for deals on small ticket items rather than splurging. Retailers plan to appeal to this mindset by offering BOGO deals and promoting add-ons and accessories.
What are your plans for this holiday season? Do you plan cut back on gift buying? Let us know what your holiday shopping plans are!
How long would it take to translate all the world's web content into 50 languages? Even if all of the translators in the world worked around the clock, with the current growth rate of content being created online and the sheer amount of data on the web, it would take hundreds of years to make even a small dent.
Today, we're happy to announce a new website translator gadget powered by Google Translate that enables you to make your site's content available in 51 languages. Now, when people visit your page, if their language (as determined by their browser settings) is different than the language of your page, they'll be prompted to automatically translate the page into their own language. If the visitor's language is the same as the language of your page, no translation banner will appear.
After clicking the Translate button, the automatic translations are shown directly on your page.
It's easy to install — all you have to do is cut and paste a short snippet into your webpage to increase the global reach of your blog or website.
Automatic translation is convenient and helps people get a quick gist of the page. However, it's not a perfect substitute for the art of professional translation. Today happens to be International Translation Day, and we'd like to take the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of translators all over the world. These translators play an essential role in enabling global communication, and with the rapid growth and ease of access to digital content, the need for them is greater than ever. We hope that professional translators, along with translation tools such as Google Translator Toolkit and this Translate gadget, will continue to help make the world's content more accessible to everyone.
Earlier today, we passed on word of a rumor that the Sprint Touch Pro 2 would be seeing a price cut from the oh-so-absurd price of $349 (after a $100 mail-in rebate, mind you) down to the much more reasonable $149. It sounded great! With Verizon’s Touch Pro 2 already at that price, it certainly didn’t sound too good to be true – but it was, for the most part.
Turns out, the original source got the details wrong. While Sprint will begin offering the Touch Pro 2 for $199, that’s not the price you’ll see – that is, unless you work at a big ol’ corporation with 100+ lines of service.
The bad news came by way of a Sprint Rep, who sent the following comment to Brighthand:
Starting tomorrow, the price drop for HTC TouchPro2 from Sprint is only available to corporate liable customers with 100+ lines. All other channels will sell at original price $349.99 with a two-year service agreement and after $100 mail-in rebate.
Oh well – looks like Sprint will continue to sell their Touch Pro 2 at an absurd price along with everyone else.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Here's the trailer for the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's bleakly horrific, post-apocalyptic novel The Road. It looks mighty grim. I'll be first in line to see it on November 25.
An anonymous reader writes "Google maps are getting extended indoors next month with a new app called Micello that takes over where conventional navigators leave off — mapping your route inside of buildings, malls, convention centers and other points of interest. You don't get a 'you are here' blinking dot yet — but they do promise to add one next year using WiFi triangulation. At the introduction next month, Micello will only work in California, but they plan to expand to other major US cities during 2010."
Dropbox, a popular cloud-storage service, on Tuesday released an iPhone app available in the App Store. We had some time to test the app, and it’s truly brilliant in its simplicity.
Here’s how you would use Dropbox: First on your computer you sign up for a Dropbox account at getdropbox.com. Then you download the Dropbox desktop software. After installing that, you’ll be able to access your Dropbox folder, where you can toss in files to be hosted over the cloud, meaning you can access them from any computer — and now the iPhone — so long as you have an internet connection.
The iPhone app is seamlessly integrated into this service. Launching the app loads your Dropbox on your iPhone, and you can then navigate through your folders and launch files. (Various music and video formats are supported.) You can also upload photos and video from your iPhone’s photo album (no, not from your iPhone’s iPod library).
It’s pretty neat. Dropbox users can even share folders one another. Currently on my iPhone I’m listening to a Dropbox folder of songs shared with my friend Teresa.
The Dropbox service is free for 2GB of storage per month. It costs $10 per month for 50 GB and $20 per month for 100GB. The iPhone app is free, so why not give it a try?
It's been a couple of years since I checked on Clifford Pickover's The Wikipedia Knowledge Dump, a blog about deleted (or marked for deletion) Wikipedia articles. I forgot how much fun it is!
Maja Einstein is the younger sister of great scientist Albert Einstein. Maja was the only friend of Albert during his childhood. When little Albert saw his sister for the first time he thought she was a kind of toy and asked: “Yes, but where does it have its small wheels?”
Most news websites offer an alert service — they'll send you a quick e-mail whenever a headline that interests you hits the wires. There are other methods you can use, too, like homepage widgets. Read our simple guide to setting up a news alert.
In December of 2007, Free Range Studio released the excellent video, "The Story of Stuff", in an attempt to educate people about over-consumption. It has been so well-received that many schools include it in their curricula.
Now, in what may likely be an opening salvo in the coming attack on Cap & Trade legislation, Right Wing front-man Glenn Beck is attacking "The Story of Stuff" as socialist propaganda, suggesting that it is un-American.
Beck suggests, "The reason why America is not as happy as it was in 1950 or 1920 or whenever, 100 years ago, is because our priorities are wrong, but it has nothing to do with exploiting the planet and has everything to do with losing faith in God."
An anonymous reader writes "In a foot-meet-bullet type move, NVidia is going to disable PhysX engine if you are using a display adapter other than one that came from their company. This despite the fact that you may have an NVidia card on your system specifically to do this type of processing. 'For a variety of reasons some development expense, some quality assurance and some business reasons Nvidia will not support GPU accelerated PhysX with Nvidia GPUs while GPU rendering is happening on non-Nvidia GPUs.' Time to say hello to Microsoft dx physics or Intel's Havok engine."
Photos, above and after the jump, shared with Boing Boing by Audrey N. Carpio of The Philippine Star. Her first-person account from the ongoing disaster follows, and includes recommendations on how you can help the victims. She shot the photos in this post two days after the typhoon, on a relief drive in a town called Tumana. Link to Flickr set.
Typhoon Ondoy by Audrey Carpio
Typhoon Ondoy, aka Tropical
Storm Ketsana dumped 40 cm of rain on the Philippines last Saturday before
he/she left to wreak watery havoc upon Vietnam and Cambodia. But Manila and its
surrounding environs are still in various states of calamity, with many parts of
the city still submerged under dirty brown water and others, while drying out,
caked in leptospirosis-inducing mud. The government and its presidentiables have
been slow to act upon what could've been their Hurricane Katrina-hero moment but
quick to seize upon relief efforts for electioneering. Instead, it is thanks to
the generosity and ingenuity of the Filipino people who mobilized themselves
through Twitter and Facebook that hundreds of thousands of victims have been fed,
clothed and sheltered.
As early as Saturday evening, when people began to realize that floods have
flashed rather quickly and videos of drowning trucks emerged on YouTube, relief
plans grew almost organically on the networks. Tweets encouraging people to
gather food, blankets, and clothing for donations were some of the earliest; by
the next day there was an updatable and sharable Google spreadsheet on all the
drop-off and volunteer centers; by Monday, almost all status updates and tweets
had to do with emergency hotline numbers, relatives of friends who were stranded
on a rooftop, and traffic advisories warning which roads were impassable. A Google map of people in
need of rescuing was uploaded, although its usefulness is questionable,
considering the general low-techness of the National Disaster Coordinating
Council's rescue squads they only had 13 rubber boats with which to deploy to
the affected barangays
†or villages (to put it into perspective, 1.9 million people were inundated
with flood water, nearly 380,000 have been evacuated into schools, churches and
other emergency shelters, and 246 people have died.
But many lives were undoubtedly saved through information dissemination, random,
repeated and retweeted as they may be. Through a shotgun marriage of new and old
media, all the streaming online updates and SMS messages were filtered through
Gang Badoy, a social advocate (www.RockEdRadio.com) who took it upon herself to
hit the FM airwaves and broadcast the news she was receiving: which places
needed help, who was about to give birth, and whether crocodiles really escaped
from the zoo. Radio still reaches a heck of a lot more people here than anything
put on the web. Erwin Romulo, a journalist and colleague of Gang's, says,
"The only thing some people had were cellphones that could pick up only FM.
Going for 16 hours straight over three days, she reported what people sent in.
Any info. Citizen journalism in all its raw and brazen glory. Gang never wavered
though she sometimes sounded delirious or distraught with each update. Reacting
real time, you'd think she sounded crazy. But at that time, she was the sole
voice of reason."
It
has been four days since the deluge, and Metro Manila is still struggling and
on survival mode. Donation tweets have been getting more specific: "Please
bear in mind need for halal food aid for Muslim flood
victims in Maharlika Village," and "Folks,
volunteerism is flourishing but not enough goods. Women need sanitary napkins, babies diapers, antitetenus
injections, can openers." This country was not prepared for a disaster of
this sort; climate change wasn't even on the agenda. A new storm is about to
come in -- we'll keep you posted on how we do. In the meantime, watch this video.
You may donate here (UNICEF) or
here (Red Cross/Philippines).
(Special thanks to Karen Marcelo for her kind assistance.)
Go figure. You’d think publishers would be all over reducing overhead and being content providers. You’d think reducing how much they are chained to print houses and paper producers would make publishers thrilled. Fact: apparently, I don’t know the first thing about publishing.
But I do know that publishers are holding out on the Kindle. Former Governor Sarah Palin’s book, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” is not yet available for Kindlers. The publisher is holding out for more hardcover sales thinking that those interested in the inner thoughts of public figure are willing to shell out more cash at the holiday. We’re not talking about pushing it back a week either. The book will be on sale Nov 17th while the Kindle edition won’t be here until after Christmas.
If book lovers have Kindles, and every Kindle owner I’ve run across is so passionate about the darn gadget, then the non-book lovers are the new target of publishers? It would seem publishers will starve the very same folks that talk up books at work, at the gym, in airplanes and as a result, they sell fewer hardcovers. But to reiterate, I don’t know the first thing about publishing.
If I were a Kindle owner, this would bug the heck out of me. The publishing industry is conspiring against Kindle owners, the very ones who devour books? Wha? What’s more, this isn’t the only title or publisher making these kind of staged launches. This is the first time for Harper, but Twelve, an imprint of Lagardère SCA’s Hachette Book Group has also delayed the Kindle version. Amazon’s Kindle would seem to have less value if publishers are going to play these kind of games.
The WSJ says this is possible more about Amazon’s policy of selling new titles for $9.99 and the publishing industry refusing to become more or less a $9.99 album ala iTunes.
itwbennett writes "If antivirus protectors could collect data from machines and users, including geographic location, social networking information, type of operating system, installed programs and configurations, 'it would enable them to quickly identify new malware strains without even looking at the code,' says Dr. Markus Jakobsson. In a recent article, he outlines some examples of how this could work. The bottom line is this: 'Let's ignore what the malware does on a machine, and instead look at how it moves between machines. That is much easier to assess. And the moment malware gives up what allows us to detect it, it also stops being a threat.'"
Aaron sez, "George Preti has a fridge full of human body odor samples. John Daly of the National Institute of Diabetes had a refrigerator packed to the gills with amphibian toxins.
Ivan Amato, a C&EN editor and avid photographer, is collecting photos of interesting lab refrigerators. If you have any good pics, send them to i_amato@acs.org ."
Lots and lots of Big Red’s customers (not to mention potential defectors from other carriers) are getting really excited about the purported launch of an Android-powered, Motorola-made mobile for Verizon. New images of what was originally known as the Motorola Sholes, and more recently rumored to be named the Motorola Tao, have surfaced on the Interwebs.
More specifically, they’ve popped up on an unofficial Motorola Sholes forum over at HowardForums. The new pics mostly show Google Maps (including the Sky view) running on the ‘droid, as well as a peak at an Apps screen, the back of the battery, and the unlock screen. So what’s all the fuss about? These leaks happen to be the first time the phone has been seen turned on, and one of the first times its been “handled” in the flesh.
Unfortunately, the man (er, forum member who leaked the images) behind the curtain, wnrussell, refused to reveal the new DPad or QWERTY keyboard, but hey, at least he was kind enough to post the shots below. In any case, here’s what we’re hearing about it so far:
The battery is rated at 1390mAh, which is slightly lower than the Cliq’s 1420 mAh, but a little bump up from the MyTouch’s 1340 mAh
It’s metal-tastic design makes it a bit hefty, but downright gorgeous, and supposedly nice and thin
Should come rockin’ the latest and greatest Android build upon release, aka Eclair
Crunch Network: TechCrunchobsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Trichodesmium has important role in nitrogen cycle and carbon sequestrationA new study of microscopic marine microbes, called phytoplankton, by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of South Carolina has solved a ten-year-old mystery about the source of an essential nutrient in the ocean.Roughly a decade ago scientists discovered a rare form of organic phosphorus in marine organic matter. Not only were the researchers surprised to find this form of phosphorus, called phosphonate, but the concentrations in which it was found were very high, throughout the ocean. Scientists hypothesized that phosphonate is produced and consumed in the ocean, but no one understood where it came from and why it was so abundant.Enter Trichodesmium. In 2006, WHOI biologist Sonya Dyhrman along with other WHOI colleagues initiated a field and laboratory study with this phytoplankton group, which is plentiful in low-nutrient warm tropical and subtropical waters. They discovered that Tricodesmium uses phosphonate to fuel its biological processes, including the fixation of carbon and nitrogen.Their finding was unexpected because, chemically, phosphonate has a very strong carbon-phosphorus bond that requires a lot of energy, and a special set of genes, for Trichodesmium to break.But Dyhrman and her colleagues’s discovery that Trichodesmium could use this form of phosphorus to support carbon and nitrogen fixation still didn’t solve the basic mystery: where were the high concentrations of this rare compound coming from?Now, a study newly published in Nature Geoscience by Dyhrman and her colleague Claudia Benitez-Nelson, a marine geochemist with the University of South Carolina, has solved the long-standing mystery.“We’ve been fascinated by these phosphonate compounds for a while,” said Benitez-Nelson. “Sonya and I decided that something had to be producing them, and we had to start looking at all these organisms to figure out who it was.”“After culturing several different kinds of phytoplankton and analyzing them using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we found high concentrations of phosphonate in cultures of a specific Trichodesmium species – in fact an average of 10 percent of the cellular phosphorus is in the form of phosphonate. Ten percent may not sound like much, but this is the most phosphonate ever detected in a marine microbe,” said Dyhrman.They selected many species of phytoplankton, grew them under different conditions in the laboratory, and then collected the cells onto filters. The filters were dried, and then analyzed by NMR. “Our procedure is unique in that we are measuring filter samples directly using solid state 31P NMR” said Benitez-Nelson. “By carefully folding the filters, and using a non-destructive NMR method, we avoided subjecting the samples to anything that would break those phosphonate bonds. We got our detection limits down to extremely low levels.”“When we first saw the phosphonate peak in the Trichodesmium culture, we were stunned, after a 10-year mystery it seemed ironic for Trichodesmium to both consume and produce this compound. We ran it again. We grew them under different nutrient conditions and, sure enough, the results were the same,” said Benitez-Nelson.Trichodesmium plays an important ecological role in both the global carbon and nitrogen cycles. Like other phytoplankton, it photosynthesizes, drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to supply the Earth with oxygen and transforming carbon into a solid compound. Even more impressive, Trichodesmium can use nitrogen gas from the atmosphere and transform it into a compound that other organisms can consume. Because the open ocean is nitrogen-barren, nitrogen fixers such as Trichodesmium are critical to the marine food web, supplying nutrients, and stimulating more phytoplankton growth, which in turn moves more carbon and nitrogen through the food web.This study determined that Trichodesmium transforms a percentage of all dissolved phosphorus into phosphonates – which is not readily consumed by other organisms. Living in low-phosphorus environments, this gives Trichodesmium a potential advantage over its competitors and, as nutrient supplies to the ocean change with climate, could shift the composition of phytoplankton communities in the ocean.“Not only does this solve a mystery about where these forms of phosphorus are coming from, but the fact that it is Trichodesmium has ramifications for how the phosphorus cycle is linked to the cycling of carbon and nitrogen and how those cycles will function in the future ocean,” said Dyhrman.There is a lot yet to be learned. “If we don’t understand what kinds of phosphorus are present in the ocean, we have no hope of predicting to what extent marine phytoplankton will sequester carbon in the future ocean,” said Dyhrman.As ocean surface waters warm, scientists expect even greater limitations on the nutrient supply, particularly phosphorus. This could drive the production of phosphonate and the use of phosphonate as a phosphorus source. For Trichodesmium, which can use phosphonate, this scenario could be beneficial, and, for humans concerned about climate change, it could enhance the extraction of carbon from the ocean. However, Dyhrman and colleagues warn, if the phosphonate used by Trichodesmium is a methylated form, it could produce methane – a powerful greenhouse gas.It is an interesting wrinkle that will be the focus of future research.This work was funded by the National Science Foundation and WHOI.---Image Caption: Trichodesmium, shown in micrograph above, is a photosynthetic bacteria, common in warm, tropical and subtropical surface waters. Trichodesmium cells form filaments called trichomes that associate into the roughly 2mm colonies seen in these images. (Abby Heithoff, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 12:53 pm
Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog that celebrated the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.
UPDATE: We just got word from the Eggers camp that they will be providing us signed copies of Zeitoun! Not sure how many we'll be given for the giveaway, but will tell you all as soon as we know. Also, there's a new deadline - tomorrow, Thursday at 7 AM PST. We'll announce winners this Friday! It'll be hard to top zombie haikus, but let's try!
New work by chemists at UC Davis shows that ethylene, a gas that is important both as a hormone that controls fruit ripening and as a raw material in industrial chemistry, can bind reversibly to tin atoms. The research, published Sept. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 12:46 pm
You know what? Your phone could play Crysis at a high resolution with the settings cranked way up, and I wouldn’t really care all that much. But coax it into playing SNES ROMs? I’ll take three.
With a bucketful of elbow grease and more tech know-how than anyone should be allowed to have, Konttori (One of the Maemo project managers) and the DRNokSNES team have managed to squeeze a full-blooded emulator onto the Nokia N900. No, no – this isn’t the first time we’ve ever seen an SNES emulator on a phone. Hell, just about every major platform has an SNES emulator of its own. But get this: it has TV out support. Oh – and because jamming away at the keyboard might get old after a while, they went ahead and threw in Wii controller support for good measure. I think I’m in love.
The first-ever scientific autopsy of an Egyptian mummy concluded that the woman had died from complications with ovarian cancer, but a new study has shown that conclusion may have been wrong.Augustus Bozzi Granville, a British physician and obstetrician, completed the first-ever mummy autopsy in 1825. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 12:05 pm
AT&T announced today that they are teaming up with Terrestar to release a smartphone with satellite capabilities. Previously, satellite phones were limited to just voice calls, or the occasional tethering (that didn't work very well).
Colorado Springs: Home to 415,000 people, scary-ass gravity-defying boulders, and, as of this morning, AT&T’s 850 Mhz 3G Network.
As we saw in San Francisco and New York last month, Colorado Spring’s towers have now been tweaked to dedicate the 850 Mhz spectrum to 3G data rather than TDMA, which theoretically ups the number of simultaneous users the data network can handle. We’re still not quite sure how effective this upgrade is at solving the bottleneck that sprung up right around the time the iPhone launched – but we’re just happy they’re trying.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Delegates at UN climate talks in Bangkok on Tuesday were urged to include plans to reward nations for saving their forests in any deal on global warming, AFP reported. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm
Sources in the publishing industry have hinted that Apple's rumored touchscreen tablet will focus on reviving dead-tree media (i.e., newspapers, magazines and books).
The 13th edition of Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics rewards Hewlett-Packard for putting a PC on the market that is virtually free of PVC (vinyl plastic) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Only the power supply unit and cable still contain these hazardous substances.
Earlier this year, Greenpeace had staged protests at HP's headquarters in Palo Alto, USA, and at its offices in China and the Netherlands, in response to the delay on the company's commitment to eliminate these substances from its computing products, by the end of 2009. With the ProBook 5310m Notebook, however, it appears that HP has now re-prioritized its toxic phase-out commitment.
The more you think about it, the more obvious it is that an Apple tablet would specialize in reviving dead-tree media (i.e., newspapers, magazines and books). All the rumors suggest the device would be a larger iPod Touch/iPhone with a 10-inch screen. Previously Wired.com argued that redefining print would would be a logical purpose for a gadget this size, and Gizmodo today has even more details to prove that this is Apple’s goal with the tablet.
Gizmodo’s Brian Lam cites two people related to The New York Times, who claim Apple approached them to talk about repurposing the newspaper onto a “new device.” Lam notes that Jobs has called the Times the “best newspaper in the world” in past keynotes. (I recall him saying that when introducing the iPhone’s web browser at Macworld Expo 2007.)
Lam proceeds to cite a vice president in textbook publishing who claims publishers McGraw-Hill and Oberlin Press are collaborating with Apple to move textbooks to the iTunes Store. The possible distribution model would involve a DRM’ed “one-time-use” book, which could spell out to lots of money for publishers while reducing pricing of e-books for consumers.
Lastly, Lam claims several executives from magazines met at Apple’s Cupertino campus to demonstrate their ideas on the future of publishing, where they presented mockups of magazines in interactive form.
Those are all strong data points, and we agree with the overall argument. Wired.com in July speculated that an Apple tablet, in addition to an e-book section in iTunes, would be a killer combination to compete against Amazon’s Kindle and e-book store. We suggested an à-la-carte purchase model for textbooks so students could download single chapters as opposed to purchasing entire books. The suggestion from Lam’s sources about a DRM’ed “one-time-use” book would probably be a more attractive model for publishers.
Meanwhile, Amazon recently launched a pilot program with some universities to determine how to sell Kindle-compatible textbooks in the Amazon.com e-book store. It doesn’t appear to be going well: Princeton students are complaining the Kindle DX is disappointing and difficult to use, according to a Fox News report. We’re not surprised: In May, Wired.com polled students on their impression of the Kindle DX as a replacement for textbooks, and most of them dismissed the idea. Apple has a clear opportunity to seize the e-publishing market, and it appears the company has that precisely in mind.
CellPhoneForums.net member Cathy was kind enough to post information regarding two new HTC hotfixes, one for the Touch Pro2 and the other for the Diamond2.
The first hotfix (available here) provides an update for the HTC Touch Pro2’s caller ID display:
“This update for the HTC Touch Pro2 lets you, your friends and loved ones become closer, making receiving calls as personal as greeting them in person.
Installation Instructions:
Note: This update can only be applied to ROM version 1.20.xxx.x or previous, otherwise the update will fail.
Follow the instructions below to download and install the update on your device:
1. Make sure you have Microsoft ActiveSync® installed on your Windows XP PC or Windows Mobile Device Center on your Windows Vista® PC. You can find Microsoft ActiveSync from this link or Windows Mobile Device Center from this link.
2. Connect and synchronize your device with your PC via Microsoft ActiveSync® or Windows Mobile Device Center using the USB cable.
3. To download this update select the update below and the location closest to you then click Download.
4. Copy the update, which is an .exe file, to your device. To install the update, tap the .exe file and follow the on-screen instructions.
Note: If you perform a device hard reset, you will need to reinstall the update after the hard reset.
As for the Diamond2, the update (available here) addresses a power LED notification issue:
This update for the HTC Diamond2 allows you to see the battery charging status right from the LED. Now enhanced to illuminate green when fully charged, with a quick look you will know when your phone is powered and ready to go.
Installation Instructions:
Note: This Update only can be applied for ROM version between 1.36.XXX.X to 1.44.XXX.X and 1.66.XXX.X to 1.76.XXX.X
Follow the instructions below to download and install the update on your device:
1. Make sure you have Microsoft ActiveSync® installed on your Windows XP PC or Windows Mobile Device Center on your Windows Vista® PC. You can find Microsoft ActiveSync from this link or Windows Mobile Device Center from this link.
2. Connect and synchronize your device with your PC via Microsoft ActiveSync® or Windows Mobile Device Center using the USB cable.
3. To download this update select the update below and the location closest to you then click Download.
4. Copy the update, which is an .exe file, to your device. To install the update, tap the .exe file and follow the on-screen instructions.
Note: If you perform a device hard reset, you will need to reinstall the update after the hard reset.
Crunch Network: TechCrunchobsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Are we having fun yet? Apparently not, as shown by the massive amounts of effort devoted to helping us amuse ourselves no matter where we are or what we are doing.
The collective intelligence poured into inventing new portable games over the past several centuries is equivalent, scientists estimate, to the outpouring of genius from a whole year’s worth of Nobel prize winners. Except instead of curing cancer, we’re making toys for kids who have trouble paying attention in school!
The PSPgo is merely the latest in a long string of pocket games. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of pocket entertainment from the past. In this and the following pages, we highlight 12 of the best — and the 13th, of course, is Sony’s cute but pricey PSPgo.
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments and, if we can find a decent, public-domain photo, we’ll add it to the gallery here and give you our undying thanks. Above: The cup and ball game has been tormenting children for centuries. Requiring little more than a little woodworking skill and a length of string to create, it was cheap, clever and devilishly difficult to play. As a bonus, it taught hand-eye coordination and the importance of not swearing loudly even when very frustrated — skills that in later centuries would prove useful on the golf course, freeway and cubicle farm.
Tetris, anyone? Sony's newest portable console, the PSPgo, is just the latest in a long line of pocket entertainment products. From the ball-and-cup toy to the iPod Touch, we've got the greatest hits of pocket playability.
Federal officials say they are considering giving killer whales in Washington state's Puget Sound a broader protective zone.
Boats are now required to stay 100 yards away from the whales. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 11:33 am
If you are a developer, you better watch the content you post on Facebook or else you could be on the receiving end of a Secret Service investigation. This has occurred after a third party application was pulled that allowed users to create Facebook polls. A recent poll that was placed on Facebook posing the following question: “Should President Obama be killed?”
The answers to the poll were either “yes,” “maybe,” “if he cuts my healthcare” and “no.” The Secret Service agency spokesman James Mackin has said an investigation has been launched because of the poll. Facebook users reported the poll to the site owners and it was quickly taken down. The application has been suspended until the developer can prove that they can better filter the content generated by the poll creator. Facebook handles these situations by asking users to police the site and flag any inappropriate content.
It appears that the application was created over the weekend and first appeared on the developer’s page Advanced Alien Technology. The user that created the poll has yet to be named.
(These guys are excited that they might soon be able to buy the Sprint Touch Pro 2 without declaring bankruptcy.)
Good news, everyone! According to some dude on the internet who heard it from another dude — and a bunch of people who have already managed to get the deal — the Sprint Touch Pro 2 is going to see a huge price drop as early as tomorrow. How huge? Like 44% huge. They’ll be dropping it from the wallet-crushing price tag of $350 down to the much-more-reasonable (and now standard amongst smartphones) $199.
One thing worth noting here is that this essentially price matches Sprint’s Touch Pro 2 to Verizon’s, which was previously the cheapest by far. That leaves just AT&T and T-Mobile up at the higher price – so as it stands, a GSM Touch Pro 2 will set you back nearly twice what a CDMA model will.
Sony's "edgy" marketing gets it attention, but it's remarkable how tone-deaf it is to what people other than teenage boys will think. It's as if it doesn't see that the story should be "PlayStation 3," not "look how crude and offensive Sony is."
University of Miami researcher Kathleen Sullivan-Sealey helps create the first sustainable tourist project in the BahamasIt is well known that people from all over the world come to the Bahamas to enjoy the pristine waters, spectacular coral reefs and great fishing. Tourism produces approximately 55 % of the gross domestic product and employs up to 60% of the total workforce in the Bahamas. However, building of hotels and facilities that make it possible for visitors to come and enjoy the natural beauty of the islands can also damage the marine environment they come to take pleasure in.Consequently, researchers from the University of Miami teamed up with developers from Discovery Land Company , to establish the first Bahamian project that employed on-site environmental scientists to guide the construction of a sustainable development called the Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club, (BBC) located in the Northeastern Bahamas. This project uses BBC as a case study and documents best practices and construction impacts, especially on the marine environment. The findings were published earlier this year in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.The goal of the project was to establish an Environmental Management Program with realistic environmental goals, explained Kathleen Sullivan-Sealey, associate professor in the Department of Biology at the UM College of Arts and Sciences and principal investigator of the project."Working with land-planners, developers and engineers was new and required re-thinking about the important ecological and geological information that this group needed to know for construction on an island," Sullivan-Sealey said. "Information and ideas that ecologists take for granted are not part of the thinking for most developers."The Bahamas is comprised of 700 low-lying islands and 2,000 small keys, with carbonate limestone banks and limited sources of fresh water. For that reason, reducing the impact of development on water supply was a priority. Other mitigation measures in the project included creating sustainable sewage and waste management, removal and replacement of invasive, non-native vegetation with native vegetation, and the creation of coastal buffer zones and private ecological preserves to lessen the impact of development on the terrestrial and marine environments.The work involved following the project from the EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) in the planning stages, through the implementation of the Environmental Management Plan during the four years of construction. The study documents the efforts, costs and resources necessary for the project. Some of the important findings are:* About 15% of the total project budget was necessary for environmental and coastal protection programs- with long-term benefits.* Tourism development in the Bahamas must look for sustainable alternatives to meet required water demands due to the limited fresh water resources in the islands.* Coastal buffer zones and private reserves (especially small wetlands) within the development project are important in protecting the island from the impact of floods and storms and can help meet environmental goals and reduce costly mitigation projects.* Coastal development setbacks are necessary to reduce beach erosion as well as protect vital wildlife habitats.* Restoring functional landscapes is critical in new developments to maintain minimum population thresholds of local species.* Land-base sources of pollution must be reduced to maintain the value of near shore marine resources."BBC is the first project in the Bahamas to employ Bahamians with college degrees in environmental science and management and it represents a major step forward for the country to create jobs in environmental management," explained Sullivan-Sealey."This opens up new and exciting career options for Bahamians and creates job opportunities in the hotel/ hospitality industry that are dependent on marine and environmental resource management," she said.Dr. Sullivan-Sealey heads the project on Coastal Ecology of the Bahamas, supported by the EarthWatch Institute. The 10-year project involves visiting the major islands in the archipelago to assess the state of the coastal environment.---Image 1: This is an aerial view of the Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club, located in the Northeastern Bahamas. Researchers from the University of Miami teamed up with developers from Discovery Land Co. to establish the first Bahamian project that employed on-site environmental scientists to guide the construction of a sustainable development called the Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club. Credit: Discovery Land CompanyImage 2: Coastal buffer zones and private reserves (especially small wetlands) within the development project are important in protecting the island from the impact of floods and storms and can help meet environmental goals and reduce costly mitigation projects. Credit: University of MiamiImage 3: The mitigation plan for this project included deployment of artificial reef modules to maintain minimum population thresholds of local marine species. Credit: University of Miami Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 10:15 am
The official cause of death of nine bonnethead sharks and two black tip sharks found dead in Marco Island, Fla., remains unknown, officials say.
Collier County pollution control specialist Rhonda Watkins said fish tissue samples taken from the sharks found dead Tuesday on Sand Dollar Island were being tested along with water samples to determine what killed them, the Naples (Fla.) News reported.
Watkins suggested the 11 sharks, which did not wash up in the same location on the beach, may have been dumped by fishermen after accidentally being caught in fishing nets.
The county official said a stingray and four gafftopsail catfish were also found on the beach. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 10:15 am
At Gizmodo, Briam Lam writes about the true target of Apple' tablet: readers.
Two people related to the NYTimes have separately told me that in June, paper was approached by Apple to talk about putting the paper on a "new device." The R&D labs have long worked on versions of the paper meant to be navigated without a keyboard or mouse, showing up on Windows tablets and on multiple formats using Adobe Air. The NYTimes, of course, also publishes via their iPhone application. Jobs has, during past keynotes, called the NYTimes the "best newspaper in the world."
Apple's gamble is that is e-ink isn't all that important to most of us: we are used to glowy LCD screens and our eyes don't need the passive look of paper to enjoy reading. Moreover, it's realized that the Kindle and its kin have a broad potential beyond reading long documents, like novels, where e-ink is a real help. We read an awful lot of little things, and that's the real market.
The world's largest living lizard species, the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), is vulnerable to extinction and yet little is known about its natural history. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Sep 2009 | 10:10 am
Pale and precise behind rimless spectacles, Johann Jungwith looks the consummate engineer; though a longtime U.S. resident, Formula 1 is still his sport. As president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz' U.S. research arm, it's his responsibility to oversee development of new technologies intended to make driving safer and drivers smarter. Today, however, more pressing matters are at hand: he's showing us how to pair an iPhone with a Merc.
Disclosure: Mercedes-Benz is a sponsor of BBG. Last week, we drove the new E-Class and were the first bloggers or journalists to get a look inside their North American R&D lab. We're writing a series of posts about the tech we saw there; Mercedes-Benz has no editorial involvement in these items.
"We work closely with Apple," Jungwirth says, taking us through the stumper that stumped us. It turns out to be a quirk of the iPhone's Bluetooth UI. He reminds us again, just a little sternly, that telematics and the other research that his team pursues aren't just about entertainment and sound systems. Then it's back to the task at hand. "Apple's implementation is a little different to the Blackberry."
Trivial matters, for sure. But the top-shelf entertainment and comms stuff (the pairing complete, calls can be made from the dashboard) is part and parcel of systems that range from center console iPod controls to ingenious safety systems that scan the space around you. Developed at the unassuming Palo Alto lab, just a couple of blocks from a branch of Frys, it all adds up to a futuristic experience--if you can afford it. In the garage, sat near a tiny Smart car and a hydrogen-fueled prototype, the 2010 E-class is what Mecedes' PR folks want us to see: $50k for the basic E350, $57 if you like the V8, and all packed with the telematic technology. But its the stuff you can't yet buy that we came for.
"Palo Alto's focus is primarily on future technology," Jungwirth said. "Technology that awaits certain infrastructure or technical requirements before it can be utilized in passenger vehicles. The best way to describe the relationship of the E-Class to Palo Alto is to say that the E-Class contains the necessary -- and the latest -- building blocks for where we're looking to go -- in this instance in the areas of telematics and safety."
Within a couple of years, for example, buyers will have the option of an always-on 4G cellular connection through next-gen LTE networks, streaming HD video, Google streetview and an appstore full of whatever developers can dream up, right to the dash. If all goes to plan, within a few years the machine will detect forthcoming intersections and hit the brakes if you don't spot a red.
Offered a demo of the Smart Stop tech--a portable traffic light set up in the lab's car lot and a prototype vehicle--we saw that it worked flawlessly, but needs UI polish in the cabin.
As we accelerated toward the "intersection," warnings blared. The driver put his foot down. Yards out, antilock brakes pulsed and the machine shuddered to a halt, inches from the invisible line. My distracted future self is safe ... assuming there's no distracted future tailgater behind me.
It isn't yet ready for the real world: the difficult task of convincing governments to install compatible intersection technology looms. Even before then, the industry as a whole must agree to the standards and implement them. It it were not for these hurdles, it could already be saving lives.
That said, their driver-assisting safety tech program is already bearing results. In the 2010 model, the autonomous braking system can spot a rear-end collission about to happen and hold your horses.
Sensors in the steering wheel know the subtle finger movements characteristic of a driver nodding off: a pixel-art coffee cup flashes behind it. Radar warns of road users lurking in the blind spot: wing mirrors flash amber for attention, red for risk. It sees lane markings and can tell the difference between intended maneuvers and sleepy drifting. A rear camera and proximity sensors make parallel parking a feasible proposition for lovers of boatlike long-wheelbase sedans. It keeps other drivers in mind--high beams dip when oncoming traffic closes in--but control freaks can relax. Jungwirth was quick to point out that it can all be disabled.
The interactive stuff and entertainment are presented through the COMAND system, accessed through dash controls, and whose interface has its vices and virtues: a large screen and solid performance made sat-nav and tune-picking less distracting, but conversations with the voice recognition software proceed slowly. Users at third-party forums such as MB World, Benzworld and Mercedes Forum offer mutual support on the details.
Though pushing the high-tech story hard, Mercedes has also cut the entry price of the E-class to squeeze beefy rivals like BMW's gas-guzzling M5 and Audi's A6. The 2010 E's reviews are generally positive: Mother Proof wrote that it is "cutting edge of safety innovations," and Edmunds reported that it'll "serve you well." The Car Connection complained about vinyl seats in the base model and a "steep learning curve" with the tech. A roundup at Rankings and Reviews puts it on top of its class. The Truth About Cars says that Mercedes needs to offer more.
Even with the lower prices and new tech, however, the challenge of impressing critics is just a start: luxury cars aren't big sellers this year, according to Forbes.
Borders has recently announced that they will begin offering free Wi-Fi in their 500+ retail locations. The announcement comes as part of the recent partnership with Verizon and will allow for customers visitors to surf the Internet for free beginning sometime in mid-October.
According to the official announcement; Borders Group chief executive officer Ron Marshall stated that “re-engaging with customers as a serious bookseller is one of our strategic priorities.”
Of course, to me that seems like they are making a move to get people to start visiting their retail locations a little more often.
He also went on to state that “by offering free Wi-Fi, we are extending the open atmosphere of exploration that is at the core of every great bookstore experience and furthering the sense of community we have always fostered at Borders.”
Using eight cheap webcams, a GPS receiver and open-source software, Roy D. Ragsdale built a rig that can do what Google’s Street-View cars do: take images of the world around it and stitch them together into panoramas. The difference? This version can be carried on your head and cost just $300 to make.
You know the foolish game of cat and mouse Palm has been playing with Apple? The one where Palm hacks it’s own Pre phone to masquerade as an iPod and climb unnoticed into iTunes’ bed? It’s over. After repeatedly getting thrown out of the bedroom by a furious Apple, Palm has taken a new lover, and it is Amazon.
The Amazon MP3 Store to be precise. The Pre’s latest software update, webOS 1.2, brings cellular downloads from the MP3 store (previously you could only use Wi-Fi). In reality, it’s not much of a sop to those who were sold on the Pre’s official iTunes compatibility, but then that’s the risk a company takes when they sell and easy-to-break hack as a feature.
The new webOS, released on Monday, has a lot of other new features, most of which are similarly anti-climactic: bookmarks are now backed up on sync, files are downloadable from the browser and you can copy-paste in the browser and mail applications. There is also type-ahead filtering in mail and - at last! - snooze now works in the calendar.
We tease. While there are no blockbuster new features, the update fixes a lot of things and tweaks some others (the full list is linked below). But what Palm should really do is to make an iTunes rival, a media-playing, content-syncing, Amazon MP3-friendly application. And it should make it work not just with the Pre, but with any device you might own, including the iPhone. That would stick it to Apple, and there is already an app out there which Palm should buy: DVD Jon’s DoubleTwist.
Think about it. If DoubleTwist can manage to read the iTunes database (including all playlist) along with the movies and photos stored on a Mac or PC, then it should be easy for Palm, with its complement of ex-iPhone employees, to build something at least as polished. In fact, reading from the iTunes Library like this is the proper, official way to do things and there is a brace of applications which do this, from Mac alarm clocks to mini-iTunes controllers.
Sure, the “works seamlessly with iTunes” tactic was gutsy and whipped up a lot of publicity, but its hardly a grown-up way to work. And even if Palm doesn’t want to make an iTunes rival, that’s okay too. Just providing a link to DoubleTwist on its site would be cheeky enough. The application already supports the Pre out of the box, and a mystery new Mac version will debut on October 6th, which is very likely to work with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and (we’re making an educated guess here) could bring an alternative, jailbreak app store.
Using eight cheap webcams, a GPS receiver and open-source software, West Point graduate Roy D. Ragsdale built a rig that can do what Google’s Street-View cars do: take images of the world around it and stitch them together into panoramas. The difference? This version can be carried on your head and cost just $300 to make. The hacked-together software suite can even throw out files that can be viewed in Google Earth. Ragsdale:
Construction was straightforward. On a flat octagonal heavy-cardboard base, I glued small posts for the cameras’ clips to latch onto. I aligned each unit and then placed the USB hubs and the GPS receiver in the middle. I secured the cables with Velcro and sandwiched everything with another piece of cardboard. The whole thing’s the size of a small pizza box, weighing less than 1 kilogram. Excluding the notebook (a 2-gigahertz machine with 512 megabytes of RAM running Ubuntu Linux), the hardware cost about $300.
Ragsdale tested out the camera, which he calls PhotoTrail, by walking around Boston, holding it above his head. Then, to stress the system, which grabs sets of 1280-by-1024 jpeg files in eight second bursts, he put it on top of a jeep and drove it around his home base, West Point NY. The result? Success. The camera grabbed pictures every 20 seconds at speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour (62mph).
Ragsdale is hoping that a tool like this could be useful to soldiers — for instance, making a visual record when patrolling dangerous routes. But it could be useful in a wide variety of civilian situations, too.
Ragsdale plans on shrinking the kit even further: the webcams can shed their bulky plastic cases, and replacing the laptop which controls the cameras with a custom-made circuit board could make it “small enough to be integrated into a headband or hat.”
You hear that, Google? Hire this guy to make you a camera and send it to me. I’ll shoot the tiny streets of my city that you left out of your Street View and send them to you. You’re welcome.
A TechCrunch 50 finalist, Threadsy is a compelling way to consolidate communication. I’ve been using Threadsy for the past week instead of GMail and the results have been impressive. Here is how Threadsy might make your life easier.
Inbound
In the left pane, email is displayed along with @me Twitters and Facebook messages. The idea is to have only the stuff that was specifically directed to you be in your inbox. You can choose to view all of this or just the incoming mail from individual providers (like just Twitter). Users can search through messages and this search was surprisingly fast. Emails can be composed as either quick replies right from this screen or open and reply seeing the full message.
Unbound
In the right pane (which users can control its width), are the streams you follow from Twitter and Facebook. As with the Inbound pane, you can choose to filter just Facebook or Twitter streams or view them all. Another tab on top allows you to access GMail chat, which is very handy.
Impression
I really dig this web app. Bringing all this together enriches the experience and should make communication better. Neatest trick: open an email and Threadsy shows you their latest Tweets, latest Facebook status and bio; pretty slick. This is the application I’ve been looking for.
Overall, Threadsy was speedy and didn’t have too many problems. Keep in mind, this thing just went live last month, so there are some kinks. Things like sometimes emails I deleted would show up again, the feed from Facebook would show status updates with the incorrect time (making them seem like they were new), new chat messages don’t alert you very well that a reply is expected and the program sometimes felt sluggish. There are some quirks, to be sure, but the app has enough things going for it to overlook these for now.
Will I keep using Threadsy? Heck yes. Bringing together all these streams of communications is awesome. While I too can’t wait to see what Google Wave has up its sleeve, Threadsy has a lot of great features going for it and it is only getting better. The company is currently in a private beta but invites seem to be steadily flowing out. So sign up to get an invite and check it out.
It's true that bandwidth is precious -- so precious it must be rationed! So AT&T's "3G" cellular "network" goes, and iPhone users get to enjoy the results: almost a third of all calls placed on the small Apple get dropped in the Big Apple. One user, complaining to Apple after a fifth of his calls fritzed out on NYC, was told that his experience was unusually good. [Gizmodo]
SanDisk is introducing its brand new line of M2 memory cards for the Sony PSP Go. The PSP Go has 16GB of internal storage, but that is expandable with these m2 cards. This new standard was developed by both SanDisk and Sony. SanDisk is packaging the m2 cards with Memory Stick Pro Duo adapters so if you have any other PSP you can use the m2 with the adapter.
SanDisk is aiming to keep the pricing competitive with Memory Stick Pro Duo cards.
2GB $27.99
4GB $44.99
8GB $74.99
16GB $142.99
SanDisk is also introducing a new Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo at a whopping 32GB capacity and it has a MSRP of $279.99.
Nintendo DSi cards
For the Nintendo DSi, SanDisk has a special SDHC card. What makes it special when compared to other cards? There’s a Nintendo seal of approval on these things. SanDisk told us that there were very strict guidelines in order to get that Nintendo seal of approval, so these cards are guaranteed to be compatible and will be very reliable. There will be two cards for the DSi, a 4GB model at $32.99 and an 8GB mdel for $47.99.
Assuming we can believe these recent images, then it looks like AT&T will soon have the BlackBerry Bold 9000 available in white. Nothing really to this story just yet, however there is, for better or worse a white BlackBerry Bold 9000 being listed.
Personally, I like white phones and I like a good BlackBerry, but something about the Bold in white just strikes me as being a little off. Let’s just hope they do not try and offer this with the leather backing that they have currently have on the black model.
Finally, as you would expect when being offered an image as evidence of an upcoming release, there is nothing being said in terms of when it will be available.
Flickr user Graphic Nothing has a delightful set of "Movie Posters for Minimalists" that contain the minimum visual information necessary to convey a sense of the film. I have a feeling that a lot of these would work better for people who've already seen the movies, rather than as enticement to go to the cinema in the first place, but I'm still very pleased by them.
According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is a paradigm of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. According to 
No wonder Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is 
When it comes to free media streaming, the United States is flush with premium content from great sites like Hulu and MySpace Music. But aside from a handful of exceptions, the rest of the world is out of luck. Today, the balance changes a bit: MySpace has just launched its hugely popular 
So, Justin Timberlake was supposed to be at a party tomorrow night in San Francisco. The “special, private celebration” was in honor of the company 
Forbes today 
In case you haven’t had enough 
Think what you will, but we're big believers in "keeping it real" 'round these parts. While we swoon whenever a new smart phone hits the scene, the vast majority are still stuck in the flip phone zone - and you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. Have no fear, flip fans, Verizon is here to fulfill all your flipping needs with the new Nokia 2705 Shade.
Since the 
I noticed something interesting tonight. In the new build of 
What if the desktop on your computer was just like your actual desktop? That’s the core idea behind 
Anyone who plays Warhammer 40K knows how much work goes into your army. The modeling, the filing, the painting, on and on and on. Then you send hours compiling your army list, carefully pack the Emperor’s superhuman servants in foam, take them down to the local game shop, and for what? To have them destroyed by heretics, foul xenos, and unsupervised kids. Such is the glory of tabletop gaming.
We try not to cover too many concept cars and devices, but sometimes it’s just too compelling. I’ve always liked Subarus, personally, and although I’ve pledged not to buy a car until I can get a full electric, I might have to go back on that if this 
For most of us, today was a day of extreme disappointment as we found out that we didn’t receive one of the 100,000 Google Wave invites that were sent out. That’s no reason to not learn as much as possible about Wave before we get a chance to use it. Developers have been hard at work to bring extensions to the service while we’ve all been waiting for its release. One the more interesting extensions is 6rounds.
Earlier today, we passed on 
Maja Einstein is the younger sister of great scientist Albert Einstein. Maja was the only friend of Albert during his childhood. When little Albert saw his sister for the first time he thought she was a kind of toy and asked: “Yes, but where does it have its small wheels?”
Lots and lots of Big Red’s customers (not to mention potential defectors from other carriers) are getting really excited about the purported launch of an Android-powered, Motorola-made mobile for Verizon. New images of what was originally known as the Motorola Sholes, and more recently rumored to be named the Motorola Tao, have surfaced on the Interwebs. 
AT&T announced today that they are teaming up with Terrestar to release a smartphone with satellite capabilities. Previously, satellite phones were limited to just voice calls, or the occasional tethering (that didn't work very well).
If you are a developer, you better watch the content you post on Facebook or else you could be on the receiving end of a Secret Service investigation. This has occurred after a third party application was pulled that allowed users to create Facebook polls. A recent poll that was placed on Facebook posing the following question: “Should President Obama be killed?”
Assuming we can believe these recent images, then it looks like AT&T will soon have the BlackBerry Bold 9000 available in white. Nothing really to this story just yet, however there is, for better or worse a white BlackBerry Bold 9000 being listed.