Source: Gizmodo | 5 Oct 2009 | 7:22 pm

New technology will detect chemical weapons in seconds

In the never-ending battle to protect our freedoms, detecting chemical agents and illegal drugs remains a top priority. Luckily, the smart people at Queen’s University in Belfast have just come up with a new way that will provide instant results, and won’t be something that can be tricked by covering scents or other materials.

There’s an obvious problem with the current technology. The cheery TSA person rubs a swab on your shoe, and then on a pad that changes color if you’ve been say, walking through fertilizer and fuel oil recently, or possibly working with aluminum powder, and then you end up spending some time in a locked room explaining exactly what you were planning. Lots of false positives, and likely a fair amount of false negatives as well (we’ll never know how many).

The new technique will use the “Raman Spectroscopy” method, which involves shining a laser beam into the sample, and then measuring the energy of the light that is scattered by it to determine what exactly the chemical compound is. This method allows for near-instant measurement of minuscule particles, making the detection processes extremely fast and accurate.

The technology is not currently available however, since it is only about halfway through the development process. The applications, aside from the obvious Homeland Security use, will include a new generation of breathalyzers and field testing equipment.

Source: CrunchGear | 5 Oct 2009 | 7:00 pm

Remember this thing? The Apple Quicktake 200

It’s possible that this escaped my attention in 1997, because at the time, I would have been listening to Smashing Pumpkins and playing Riven most of the time. Meanwhile, Apple was slapping its name on a Fuji camera and trying to pioneer a new industry — and failing. It was a noble effort (like the Newton), but ultimately the Quicktake 200 was too early and probably too expensive.

This is a pretty good retrospective of the device, which took 640×480 pictures onto a 2-megabyte flash card. That was a lot of space back then, remember? I’m actually surprised it didn’t take 3.5″ floppies. If they were each about 40-50kb, you’d be able to get 35 or 40 pictures on there, no problem!

Unfortunately, at $600 it was kind of expensive, and you could get much better quality from a scanned 3×5″ photo. Hell, you can still get great quality out of a scanned 3×5 today! In any case, it went the day of the dodo and until relatively recently, Apple (bitten once) was twice shy about returning to the imaging field.

Source: CrunchGear | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:30 pm

Someone loves chrome logos as much as I do

I can’t get enough of the awesome raised or etched lettering you see on high-end and old-school hardware. You know, like the Leica symbol, or the great old lettering on the backs of cars. It has a very permanent feeling, and these days there isn’t enough of that. Too much plastic, too much dye, too many displays. Luckily for me (and people like me, if there are any), there’s a whole blog dedicated to this kind of stuff.

It’s mostly car lettering, but they recently put of some great shots of some great old Leica and Kodak cameras, so that makes it relevant to this blog. Don’t you want your gear to be this real? To have this kind of weight? I’ve got a Fujifilm Finepix F70EXR on my desk, as well as my two Canon DSLRs and the Casio FC-100. None of these, as excellent as they are, have the same feeling of weight, power, and style that my old Ftb had, and it was basically just a steel brick with a lens on the front.

The blog itself, Chromeography, is mainly just a repackaging of a Flickr stream, which you can see here if you want to get the high quality stuff.

Source: CrunchGear | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:30 pm

Verizon to iPhone Users: "Want Five Times More 3G Coverage? There’s a Map for That." [Digital Daily]

Want five times more 3G coverage? There’s a map for that.

That’s the cheeky slogan of a new Verizon ad reportedly set to debut during tonight’s “Monday Night Football” game. Riffing on the tagline from Apple’s iPhone commercials, it essentially turns widespread complaints about the quality, coverage and speed of AT&T’s network into a Verizon marketing campaign–if it wasn’t that already. “Browse the Web and download music and apps, at 3G speed, in five times more places than the nation’s number two wireless carrier,” the ad suggests. “Before you pick a phone, pick a network.”

Quite the sucker punch from Verizon, and a well-timed one too. AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity deal is set to expire sometime next year. And recent reports suggest that Apple, by signing on Verizon as a second carrier partner, could double U.S. iPhone sales in the near term. Verizon (VZ) pointing a mocking finger at AT&T (T) in an ad like this certainly isn’t going to do anything to make AT&T’s negotiations with Apple (AAPL) go any more smoothly.

UPDATE:

Here’s the ad:

[Image Credit: TechFlash]

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:24 pm

The Dyson DC25 Blueprint is probably not meant for you

People, stop everything that you are doing and let me introduce to you the sexiest vacuum of all time: the Dyson DC25 Blueprint. This my, friends, is the epitome of unnecessary but totally rad luxury items. First and foremost, it’s a Dyson DC25 ball vacuum, which is a great vacuum as I found out last year, but this one’s done up in a special edition livery dubbed Blueprint. It’s a white vacuum in case you haven’t noticed which means once you’re done vacuuming, you’re going to have to grab a dust rag and clean this guy too. That’s crazy. And doesn’t it look somewhat like R2-D2? Expect a full review in a week.

Source: CrunchGear | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:00 pm

Monstrous Mechanical Marvels: 9 Enormous Gadgets

When it comes to phones, notebooks and portable game consoles, smaller is nearly always better. But sometimes a gadget just needs to be really, really huge.

True to their size, gigantic contraptions accomplish tasks enormously useful to our everyday lives. Take for example the Bagger 293 (above), a 31.3-million-pound bucket-wheel excavator capable of mining 220,000 tons of brown coal in a day. And if the only cost-effective way to get the Bagger 293 to the mine is to drive it across the Bavarian countryside, so much the better. Because people love to gawk at gigantic machines.

Ever seen a giant wind turbine? Any idea what a crawler transporter does? How about a building-sized solar furnace? Read on for a glimpse at some of the biggest, baddest “gadgets” on Earth.

Bucket-Wheel Excavator
Towering 310 feet high and weighing 31.3 million pounds, the Bagger 293 holds a Guiness World Record as the largest and heaviest land vehicle in the world. The machine, shown above, looks and sounds intimidating, but its operation is actually quite simple: 18 gigantic buckets are attached to a giant wheel; when the wheel rotates, the buckets scoop up earth and dump it onto a conveyor belt. Each bucket is capable of holding 1,452 gallons of earth — about the equivalent of 80 bathtubs. The Bagger 293 now resides in brown-coal mine in Hambach, Germany, awaiting the day when it will again be free to roam the Earth.

Photo: RWE

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:00 pm

How to Fix a Dented Beer Pong Ball

During a night of Beer Pong, balls are bound to get stepped on, crushed, whatever. Here's how to salvage the balls and save some beer money.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:00 pm

Mr. Know-It-All on Laptop Autopsies, Rookie Journalism, F-Bomb Tweets

My geeky 8-year-old son wants to take apart my old laptop. But the thing still works, so I could also donate it. What's the right call?

If philosopher John Stuart Mill were alive today—and able to escape his grave in southern France—he'd advise you to employ the "greatest happiness principle." Make the choice that will bring maximum enjoyment to the maximum number of people. If you turn the laptop into an engineering project for your son, you'll thrill him for a few hours and teach him a bit about circuitry—lessons he could also learn by disassembling a less valuable gadget. But if you donate it, you could provide months or years of happiness to someone else's child, and perhaps to the rest of their family as well.

So find a reputable organization that will get the laptop into needy hands. And while you're at it, see if you can track down a completely dead computer (ask a friend or check craigslist) so your son can dissect its innards. Just promise you'll closely supervise Junior's tinkering; while learning about semiconductors, he should also discover the glories of goggles and the magic of battery recycling.

My old college newspaper is posting its archives online—including some truly awful pieces I wrote in the '90s. Can I ask to have them taken down?

The most basic tenet of journalism is that, save for when factual errors must be corrected, the published record is immutable. Embarrassed interviewees aren't permitted to retract foolish quotes, and embarrassed scribes can't disappear their weaker efforts. Such is the unwritten contract we enter into when we dabble in journalism, whether on campus or in Wired. Suck it up.

"Ultimately, what you're asking to do here is lie, to say, 'I'm perfect,'" says George Sylvie, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "Every little Catholic fiber in me says you just don't do that." Nobody expected digital distribution, my friend, but just because you thought your half-baked op-eds were destined for the memory hole doesn't mean you get a mulligan. Technically, your pieces have always been available, whether stacked on a library shelf or spooled on microfilm. You just weren't famous enough for anyone to care.

Anyway, you're probably worrying too much. People are generally quite forgiving of the intellectual missteps and inappropriate revelations of youth. We were all 20 once. And if someone does confront you about a truly inflammatory bit of prose, point out that a person's views can evolve dramatically over time. After all, Ronald Reagan started out as a Democrat.

What's the policy on profanity in tweets? Is it OK to drop f-bombs at will, or should I replace curse words with pound signs and ampersands?

The only profanity enforcer on Twitter is the invisible hand: ticked-off readers voting with the Unfollow button. Is that enough of a disincentive to keep your filthy mouth—er, fingers—in check? That depends on your long-term plans for Twitter domination. Who exactly is your target audience? If your forte is passing along links about parenting or needlepoint, then blue language may rankle your core demographic. But if your chief selling point is acerbic cultural commentary, foulmouthed musings may actually increase your popularity. Look at film director Kevin Smith (@ThatKevinSmith)—more than 1 million followers as of this writing, and his tweets occasionally include explicit references to his wife's most private parts.

But honestly, if any of your followers are too fragile to endure a single ribald tweet, they probably shouldn't be anywhere near the Internet in the first place. Have you seen some of the nasty $#@! on there?

Need help navigating life in the 21st century? Email us at mrknowitall@wiredmag.com.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:00 pm

Clive Thompson on How the Real-Time Web Is Leaving Google Behind

When Michael Jackson died on June 25, millions of people flooded onto Google News to find the latest information about what had happened. The spike in traffic was so massive that Google suspected a malware attack and began blocking anyone searching for "Michael Jackson."

It's a funny story, but it illustrates how the Web is changing. People increasingly turn to the Internet for up-to-the-minute information about, well, everything—blog postings about celebrity antics, status updates from friends, and pictures and videos of political events as they unfold, like the protests over the Iranian election. Studies have shown that these types of search requests are on the rise.

Pundits call it the real-time Web. It's upending the Internet as we've known it, and it's not something that Google can easily dominate.

For more than 10 years, Google has organized the Web by figuring out who has authority. The company measures which sites have the most links pointing to them—crucial votes of confidence—and checks to see whether a site grew to prominence slowly and organically, which tends to be a marker of quality. If a site amasses a zillion links overnight, it's almost certainly spam.

But the real-time Web behaves in the opposite fashion. It's all about "trending topics"—zOMG a plane crash!—which by their very nature generate a massive number of links and postings within minutes. And a search engine can't spend days deciding what is the most crucial site or posting; people want to know immediately.

So a new generation of search engines like Tweetmeme, OneRiot, Topsy, Scoopler, and Collecta are trying to redefine what makes a piece of information important.

Some of these sites offer a Digg-like indexed front page that displays hot topics, while others just include a simple search field. But most of them rely heavily on Twitter. When a burst of tweets citing a particular subject or URL emerges, it's a "signaling event," as Rishab Ghosh of Topsy puts it. To make sure they're not just getting hoodwinked by spammers, these new search engines employ some clever tricks, like crawling tweeted URLs and discarding those that land on sites containing spamlike language. Most disregard Twitter users who behave like spambots—for example, ones that follow thousands of people but have very few followers themselves.

Other ploys abound. OneRiot has a toolbar that lets users flag an interesting post immediately. Collecta actively imports blog posts and tweets so they appear in search results less than a second after they go live, rather than the hours it can take regular search engines to catalog the same info. "We want to be limited only by the speed of light," Collecta CTO Jack Moffitt jokes.

The result is something curiously different from regular searching. If you hunt for "Michael Jackson" on a traditional engine like Ask.com or Bing, the vast majority of the links remain the same day to day. Authority changes slowly on the "old" Web. But real-time search engines deliver different, updated results almost every time.

The creators of these new engines argue that their goal isn't to answer questions— à la Google—but to organize experience into a keyhole glimpse of what the world is doing at this very moment. "It's exactly what your friends are going to be talking about when you get to the bar tonight," OneRiot executive Tobias Peggs says. "That's what we're finding." Google settles arguments; real-time search starts them.

Edo Segal, a pioneer in real-time search, thinks the field is going to explode as updates become more automatic, with our devices autoreporting where we are, how we're feeling, and what we're doing and seeing. Old-school search will never vanish, but real-time news will create a society where we have an omnipresent sense of the moment. "Google organized our memory," Segal says. "Real-time search organizes our consciousness."

Email clive@clivethompson.net.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:00 pm

Semtek Announces Closing of Series B Financing

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Semtek Innovative Solutions Corporation announced today the closing of its Series B round of equity financing. VeriFone Holdings, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Oct 2009 | 5:47 pm

Netgear WNR3500L Open Source Router Announced

MyOpenRouter writes "Netgear has announced the WNR3500L, a brand new, open source, wireless-N gigabit router is customizable with third party firmwares. MyOpenRouter is the dedicated source for Netgear open source routers, with the full scoop including a review with screenshots, how-to's, tutorials, firmware downloads, etc. Here's a review and the downloads page." The router can run popular open source firmware including DD-WRT, OpenWRT. and Tomato. It will list for $140.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Oct 2009 | 5:41 pm

Samsung and T-Mobile continue Android onslaught with Behold II

Section: Communications, Smartphones

There certainly has been no shortage of Android news as of late.  There was the T-Mobile release of the myTouch 3G in August, the Hero coming to Sprint, the Motorola CLIQ, and the version 1.6 Donut upgrade.  Now Samsung is piling on more news with the announcement of yet another T-Mobile Android phone, the Samsung Behold II, which will put T-Mobile at four Android handsets by the time of its release.

The Behold II, as referenced by its name, is a follow up to the feature phone Samsung Behold, which did not feature Android.  Though it features a new OS, the Behold II actually features the same TouchWiz interface as the original.  TouchWiz features a 3D cube on the main screen with commonly used apps mapped to its faces, with YouTube, music, web, photos, video, and Amazon MP3 mapped at the start.  Aside from the OS, the phone offers a 3.2 inch touchscreen, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, and up to 16GB of storage space.

The Behold II looks like it could be the least desirable of the T-Mobile Android phones.  Given the strange UI, the newness of MotoBlur, the Behold II looks like its main goal is to attract feature phone users into the smartphone market.  There’s no mention of pricing and only a “before the holidays” release date from T-Mobile, so comparison to the other three Android phones on the carrier is mostly speculation.  It’s doubtful that anyone will switch to T-Mobile for the phone, unless they are huge fans of AMOLED screens, or really, really like 3D cubes.

Read [PC World]

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 5:39 pm

Fast, Slim Pocket Camera Is Paparazzi-Ready

Shooting pics of shady characters in low lighting? Sony's new TX1 will capture vibrant images in the darkest conditions.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 5:15 pm

Fast, Slim Pocket Camera Is Paparazzi-Ready

Shooting pics of shady characters in low lighting? Sony's new TX1 will capture vibrant images in the darkest conditions.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 5:15 pm

Hotmail Users Get Phished [Voices]

By Nick Wingfield, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft says a phishing scheme is behind the exposure of passwords to thousands of Hotmail accounts late last week and adds that it’s helping affected customers regain control of their accounts.

On Monday, the Neowin technology blog posted a story saying that an anonymous user on Oct. 1 had uploaded a list with password details of more than 10,000 Hotmail accounts to a Web site called pastebin.com, where developers typically share programming code with each other. Neowin said it had seen part of the list, which has since been removed, and notified Microsoft of the issue.

After an internal investigation into the leaked Hotmail credentials, Microsoft (MSFT)said in a statement that it determined the passwords were obtained through a phishing scam. In a phishing scam, hackers send out legitimate-looking emails under the letterhead of banks, eBay (EBAY) and other institutions, usually telling consumers they need to reset online passwords to their Web sites for security purposes.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Oct 2009 | 5:14 pm

Google PowerMeter's first device partner

Today, we're very excited to announce we have secured our first official device partner. (That means having a smart meter installed by your utility is no longer a prerequisite for using Google PowerMeter!) For the last several months, a few hundred Google employees have been testing a number of in-home electricity monitoring devices. Those of us lucky enough to have one of these devices installed in our homes experienced first-hand how access to high-resolution energy use information drives meaningful behavior change (PDF). So we set out to make that data easier for everyone to access and understand by sending the collected data to our Google PowerMeter software.

The TED 5000 from Energy Inc. is an energy monitor that measures electricity usage in real-time (TED stands for "The Energy Detective"). As of today, we're pleased to announce that anyone in North America can purchase and install the TED 5000 and see personal home energy data using our free software tool, Google PowerMeter, from anywhere you can access the web including through iGoogle for mobile phones. (If you already have a TED 5000, you can download a free firmware upgrade to enable this functionality.)

Combined with Google PowerMeter, the TED 5000 device can help you understand your electricity usage to save energy and money. Energy Inc. is just our first device partner and if you are working for a company that manufactures energy monitors, we'd like to hear from you. Stay tuned for more!

Posted by Tom Sly, New Business Development & Charles Spirakis, Software Engineer
Source: The Official Google Blog | 5 Oct 2009 | 4:52 pm

Dow Chemical Rolling Out Solar Shingles Next Year

Several users wrote to tell us that Dow Chemical plans on selling solar shingles as early as next year. The solar version can be integrated with normal asphalt shingling and will be introduced in 2010 with a wider roll-out scheduled for 2011. "The shingle will use thin-film cells of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), a photovoltaic material that typically is more efficient at turning sunlight into electricity than traditional polysilicon cells. Dow is using CIGS cells that operate at higher than 10 percent efficiency, below the efficiencies for the top polysilicon cells -- but would cost 10 to 15 percent less on a per watt basis."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Oct 2009 | 4:51 pm

Flash Lands on iPhone — One App at a Time

Adobe on Monday announced plans to roll out mobile versions of its Flash platform to several smartphones. Apple’s popular iPhone, however, is gaining a lesser Flash experience.

At its worldwide developer conference in Los Angeles, Adobe said it would be releasing Flash for mobile platforms including Microsoft Windows Mobile, Palm’s webOS and Google Android. But don’t expect Flash to come to the iPhone’s Safari mobile browser. Instead, Adobe is adding support to its Flash Professional CS5 developer kit to convert software written in Flash into standalone iPhone applications.

Let’s put it this way as an example: Ever watch videos on Hulu? If you own a Windows Mobile-powered phone, or the Google-Android G1, you’ll be able to watch Hulu videos through your phone’s browser. But for the iPhone, Hulu would have to use Adobe’s new development tools to create an iPhone app containing the Hulu experience.

Why the segmented experience for iPhone customers? Apple declined to comment, but some iPhone developers speculate Apple opted against a full Flash experience because of technical problems it could raise on the handset, such as battery drainage or sluggish web browsing. They also noted Flash apps could pose potential conflicts with Apple’s App Store policies. By requiring such applications to be submitted to Apple for inspection and approval, the Cupertino corporation retains control over the iPhone OS experience.

“These [smartphone] processors are going to become a lot more powerful now, but I think right now between battery and memory and raw processing power, performance is a major issue,” said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, developer of the popular iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge. “As an app developer I’m very focused on performance. I can see how Flash may not have the right performance characteristics yet.”

Many consumers have complained that the lack of Flash on the iPhone causes them to miss a major chunk of the internet. Several websites rely on Flash to support their streaming video, and a plethora of Flash applications and games are also available on the web. In the UK, two customers complained that Apple was falsely advertising the iPhone in a TV commercial by saying “all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone” when the handset does not support Flash. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority deemed the ad misleading and pulled the ad.

In November 2008, iPhone developers told Wired.com they did not foresee a full Flash experience appearing on the iPhone at any point. The iPhone developers’ terms-of-service agreement prohibits Flash from appearing on the iPhone.

“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise,” reads clause 3.3.2 of the iPhone SDK agreement. “No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”

Previously, iPhone programmers also pointed out that supporting the Flash framework would open a backdoor for Flash apps to appear on the iPhone, which could conflict with Apple’s approval guidelines for its App Store. Third-party software that Apple would prohibit from the App Store, such as apps containing malicious code, could possibly make it onto the iPhone via Flash.

Also, Flash apps could pose competition with Apple’s App Store. And while the App Store continues to flourish, recently exceeding two billion downloads served, there’s no economic incentive for Apple to rush to deliver a full Flash experience, said Scott Meinzer, co-creator of iPhone development house Tap Tap Tap.

Meinzer added that he wouldn’t expect a full Flash experience to arrive on the iPhone anytime soon. He said even on desktops, Flash is not a smooth experience, often causing sluggish browsing and frequent crashes. Thus, running on a phone, a full Flash experience would not be any better, he said.

“It seems like for Flash to work well on the iPhone, Apple has to bless it in some way,” Meinzer said in a phone interview prior to Adobe’s announcement that it would support coding Flash apps for iPhone. This compromise of Flash apps rather than a full Flash experience, then, appears to be Apple’s blessing.

Adobe said a public beta of Flash Professional CS5 will be available by end of 2009. Some Flash iPhone apps are already available in the App Store.

The jury is out on whether consumers will find individual Flash iPhone apps a sufficient substitute for a full Flash experience. What are your thoughts? Vote in the poll or add your comments below.

See Also:

• False Hopes: Adobe Desperate to Install Flash on the iPhone …
• iPhone Users: There Will Be No Flash Soup For You
• Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone

Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Oct 2009 | 4:12 pm

WARF and Intel Settle Patent Suit Over Core 2 Duo

reebmmm writes "The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Intel have settled their patent suit over technology developed by Gurindar Sohi, a computer science professor at the University of Wisconsin — Madison. Professor Sohi developed technology that was ultimately patented by WARF using money he received from Intel. Last month, Judge Barbara Crabb found that the funding agreement was ambiguous, but that e-mails revealed that the money was an unrestricted gift and carried with it no obligation to license or assign any inventions to Intel. Trial was scheduled to begin today. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Oct 2009 | 4:04 pm

Palm’s first paid application for WebOS goes live

Four months after the launch of the Pre, and just a few weeks later than we’d expected, paid application downloads for WebOS arrived today. And what application did Palm choose for their premium premier? What monster of mobile merrymaking would serve as the model for all that follow? Would it be some advanced navigation application, or one that pulled Palm’s hardware to its absolute limits?

No. It’s Air Hockey.

Yeah, yeah – it’s a bit silly. Actually, it’s really silly. But we’ll pretend there’s some logic here: maybe Palm wanted to kick things off with an app that would get downloads, but not too many downloads. Stress testing and all that. Anyway – pardon us, we’re going to go play us some Air Hockey.

[Via Engadget]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:49 pm

Video Gaming Proponent: 'We Can't Wait for More Debate'

MORRIS, Ill., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Recent revelations that Cook County's rush to opt out of video gaming is tied to casino industry interests have led union leaders and the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association to urge a delay in the Tuesday vote scheduled on the issue.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:45 pm

SuccessFactors Founder and CEO to Present at the 2009 World Business Forum

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:41 pm

PIPS Technology Automated License Plate Recognition Protects Denver

UNIVERSITY PARK, Ill., Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:33 pm

Shroud of Turin Replica Casts Doubt on Original

The Shroud of Turin was a fake, according to a group that reproduced the revered cloth.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pm

I-CAN Provides Technology for Intel's SODA Winners

N.C. software company offers its Online Learning Community Platform to six schools recognized nationally for innovative math and science programs
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:29 pm

How to Make an 'LotR' Sword

Take a look at how the craftsmen at Weta Workshops created swords for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:20 pm

$11,115 Toshiba TV Can Time-Shift Owners into Bankruptcy [Digital Daily]

Toshiba has seen the future of television: A 55-inch, liquid-crystal display jacked into a three-terabyte set-top box capable of displaying eight high-definition broadcasts at once.

The unit boasts 14 different tuners compared with the typically high-end set, which has about three. Its speakers are reportedly comparable to those of a high-end stereo system, and with its Cell chip and image-processing technology, it is capable of improving the resolution of a crappy YouTube video to near high-definition quality. Finally, in addition to displaying eight high-def broadcasts at once, the TV can record them–simultaneously. Oh, it can time-shift them if you’d like, too.

What is this TV among TVs, this holy grail of couch potatoans called? the Cell Regza 55X1. And it costs $11,115.

$11,115? For a TV? In this recession? When TV prices are declining?

Damn right. And Toshiba expects to sell about 1,000 of them a month in Japan before bringing them to market in the U.S. and Europe in 2010.

[Image credits: Toshiba and AVWatch]

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:19 pm

President Obama signs executive order banning texting while driving for federal employees

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones

Last week during a two day distracted driving summit, President Obama signed an executive order banning federal employees from texting while driving when in government vehicles.  In addition, the DOT will ban texting and restrict the use of cell phones by truck and interstate bus drivers.  To further drive the point home, school bus drivers who have been convicted of texting while driving will find themselves barred from getting a commercial license. 

The DOT also plans to introduce permanent restrictions on the use of cell phones by rail workers as well.  This comes after several recent train accidents, several with fatalities, caused by drivers who were texting rather than paying attention to what they were doing.  Federal employees will also be banned from texting while driving in their own private vehicles if those vehicles are being used for government business.

It’s hoped the executive order and new restrictions will help set an example for safe driving.  The dangers of texting while driving are becoming more and more of a concern as texting’s popularity grows.  A PSA in the U.K. graphically shows the horrific consequences of a teen’s choice to text while driving..  Texting has eclipsed e-mail as the most popular way to keep in touch among young people, and they are the age group most likely to text while driving.  While most states have laws banning talking on a phone while driving or requiring hands free only devices to do so, anti-texting laws are not yet commonplace but are increasing.  A proposed bill in the Senate would reduce federal highway funding to states not willing to ban texting while driving.

I’ve seen many teens and young adults brag about texting while driving, or claim the studies saying a driver texting while driving has the same reduced reflexes as a drunk driver are false and that they can do both just fine.  Some even brag about how good they are at driving with their knees!  As a pedestrian I have lost count of the times I’ve been nearly run over by a driver who was busy talking or texting on their phone and couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the road.  If you text while driving, STOP. 

The bottom line is no text message is worth risking a life for.

Read [PCWorld]

 

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pm

Mercury Computer Systems to Report First Quarter Fiscal 2010 Earnings and Host Conference Call on October 27, 2009

CHELMSFORD, Mass., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mercury Computer Systems, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pm

Renewable Hydrogen Production Becomes Reality At Winery

The first demonstration of a renewable method for hydrogen production from wastewater using a microbial electrolysis system is underway at the Napa Wine Company in Oakville.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:12 pm

Microsoft Research Shows Off Multi-Touch Mouse Prototypes

Engadget has snagged some of the details behind a bunch of multi-touch mouse prototypes from Microsoft Research. The prototypes range from the wacky to the extreme, but at least they are thinking outside the mouse trap. "Each one uses a different touch detection method, and at first glance all five seem to fly in the face of regular ergonomics. The craziest two are probably "Arty," which has two articulated arms to cradle your thumb and index finger, with each pad housing its own optical sensor for mission-critical pinching gestures, and "Side Mouse" which is button free and actually detects finger touches in the table immediately in front of the palm rest. Of course, there's plenty of crazy in the FTIR, Orb Mouse and Cap Mouse (pictured), which rely on an internal camera, orb-housed IR camera and capacitive detection, respectively. Of course, there's no word on when these might actually see the light of day"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:12 pm

TRX Releases New Version of TRAVELTRAX

ATLANTA, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TRX, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

Microsoft’s Project Pink Might Be Dead In The Water

To say we were unimpressed with the first leaked shots to come out of Microsofts “Project Pink” would be a bit of an understatement. This was Microsoft’s first in-house foray into the mobile hardware space, and we’d been hearing tales of it for years; yet in the end, what we were seeing was bad enough that we equated the two leaked devices to “a midgie Pre and a Touch Pro crossed with a jellybean”.

And now, it all begins to make sense. We were recently contacted by a source with a seemingly exhaustive knowledge of Microsoft’s Project Pink, and what they’ve shared with us doesn’t sound good. If what they’ve shared is true, it seems that the project as a whole began — and will likely end — in vain.

For the sake of proper disclosure, a bit on our source: they have maintained absolute anonymity. While they were careful to hold back any potentially identifiable details, they exhibited a very well defined knowledge of the project. We have since verified enough of the details with independent sources to believe what they’ve shared to be true.

Here’s what we have been told:

• Much of the Danger/Sidekick team has left or been fired since the 2008 acquisition. According to our source, there is “no braintrust that understands how to build a product” left on the Pink team.
• If a product does ship, it will lack the third party application support/store that rumors have indicated it would have – the remaining team members simply don’t know how to get it done.
• Amongst remaining employees, dissent is high. Much of the team uses iPhones around the office, or their old Sidekick handsets. Employees “hate the product” internally, many feeling that the division exists only to “challenge [the Windows Mobile 7 team] and upset them into competing.” Our source outright indicated that they felt the product was never intended to ship.
• At this point, the project is roughly 2 years behind schedule. In order to continue moving forward toward some undefined launch date, basics such as a calendar application have already ended up on the cutting room floor.
• On the “Turtle” (the smaller of the two devices): The touchscreen is unusable, as there are too many elements on screen at one time. “Your finger covers 50% of the screen”, says the source. The unit was designed “on the fly”, with a design drawn up and then sent to Sharp for verbatim manufacturing. Our source says this backwards design process has lead to a “near disastrous” battery life. “Designers forced Sharp to build to sketch and not ‘worry about that stuff.’”
• The UI concept work was originally done by an outside party, and Microsoft engineers have been “struggling to replicate it ever since”.

Signing off, our source says that the project “is near death and probably will be canceled.”

If what our source has shared with us is true, this is all rather depressing. Not because it means the Pink phones might not ship, mind you — as mentioned, we weren’t all that keen on the project to begin with — but because of what it means for the Sidekick line of phones. Danger took a massive hit when it lost some of it’s greatest minds to competing companies (CEO Andy Rubin took off to lead Android at Google, while Lead UI designer Matias Duarte is a big player behind Palm’s WebOS), but we’d always kept a special place in our hearts for the ol’ Kick. Our hopes of one more great Sidekick — possibly one rockin’ Android, or any other smartphone OS — were dashed when Microsoft snatched up the company last year. Now, it seems impossible.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:54 pm

Hands On: New Wii Fit Plus Workout's Custom Routines

We test Wii Fit Plus, the upgraded version of Nintendo's exercise software with more mini-games to work you out.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:46 pm

FDA orders pedicle screw system studies

The U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:34 pm

Study finds how bacteria combat mercury

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:30 pm

Satellites Capture Monster Super Typhoon Melor

Image 1: The Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Super Typhoon Melor in the Western Pacific Ocean during the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 2009. Melor has intensified to Super Typhoon strength and is currently a category 5 typhoon (with maximum sustained winds near 161 mph) on the Saffir Simpson scale. Credit: NASA MODIS Rapid Response TeamImage 2: Aqua's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured Melor's high thunderstorm cloud temperatures (in purple) that were colder than minus 63 Fahrenheit. This image from Oct. 4 at 12:29 EDT clearly shows Melor's eye. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:23 pm

What Belongs In a High School Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit Class?

flogger writes "I have been asked to help develop a literature course for Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. What do you consider to be appropriate selections of short stories and novels in these genres for high school students of all ability levels? I'd also like to know why you choose certain selections. This class will be 'regular' class and not a class for 'flunkies' to earn a credit by sitting docile and listening to lectures. The following is a course description that I have been given as a guideline. This description can change. Any ideas? 'In this Junior/Senior level course, students will focus on the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Students will survey the histories of these genres and recognize how world events have been reflected onto other worlds. From the early formation of the genre, with Verne, and the classics of Clarke, Tolkien, Bradbury, and LeGuin, to the contemporary works of Card, Jordan, and Vinge, the genres have been about portraying humanity in possible scenarios. These works have mirrored events throughout the troubled situations of our history and provided optimistic outcomes and horrifying predictions. Through this course, students will utilize analytical skills and reading strategies to evaluate our current situation and project into the literature of different worlds while sharing and learning of an author's insight. Possible areas of interest will be topics of the environment, energy conservation, war, social issues, and others. '"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:22 pm

How Will Future Sea-Level Rise Linked To Climate Change Affect Coastal Areas?

$1.03 million grant from Defense Department program to fund Florida State University studyThe anticipated sea-level rise associated with climate change, including increased storminess, over the next 100 years and the impact on the nation’s low-lying coastal infrastructure is the focus of a new, interdisciplinary study led by geologists at The Florida State University.“Our hypothesis is that the historic storm record, which extends back only about 150 years, isn’t a reliable indicator of true storm frequency, but the long-term geologic record is,” said Joseph F.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:15 pm

7 Glow-in-the-Dark Mushroom Species Discovered

Seven new species of luminescent mushrooms have been discovered, bringing the total number of known glowing-mushroom species to 71.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:15 pm

Sudden Tropical Storm Grace Explodes In Far Eastern Atlantic

Image Caption: NASA's Aqua satellite AIRS instrument captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Grace's clouds on Oct. 4 at 10:17 a.m. EDT. At the time of this image, Grace had not yet come together as her clouds (purple as cold as -63F) had not yet organized into the signature tropical storm shaped-swirl. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:09 pm

Satellite Sees Olaf Stretch Out And Fizzle Over Northwestern Mainland Mexico

Image Caption: The Aqua satellite flew over Olaf on Oct. 3 at 5:05 a.m. EDT captured infrared imagery of his clouds streaming into northwestern Mexico. The images showed some high, cold, thunderstorm cloud tops (purple) as cold as -63F near Olaf's center indicating some moderate rainfall. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:06 pm

Aqua Satellite Sees Tropical Storm Parma Lingering In The Luzon Strait

Image Caption: The MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Parma in the Luzon Strait, heading into the South China Sea, during the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 2009. Parma was passing the Philippines (south) and Taiwan (north). Credit: NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:04 pm

Everything Must Go: Game Crazy begins clearance sale prices

FROM GAMERTELL - Game Crazy is closing 200 locations, which means it’s time to start clearing out the merchandise including consoles and recently released games…
MORE »

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 2:01 pm

Nobel Winners Isolate Protein Behind Immortality, Cancer

The discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that can cause cells to live indefinitely, was honored with the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday. Finding a way to counter the effect of telomerase could help scientists fight cancer.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Oct 2009 | 1:51 pm

Shroud of Turin Reproduction Proves Original Is Fake

An Italian scientist claims he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, the linen some Christians revere as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.Luigi Garlaschelli said his reproduction proves that the original 14’4" x 3’7" shroud, which bears the reversed image of a crucified man some believe is Christ, is a fake."We have shown that is possible to reproduce something which has the same characteristics as the Shroud," said Garlaschelli, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia.He plans to demonstrate the results at a conference on the paranormal this weekend in Italy.The original Shroud of Turin shows the front and back of a bearded man with long hair and arms crossed on his chest.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 1:50 pm

Climate Ministers Accuse Rich Nations Of Trying To Kill Kyoto Protocol

Denmark’s climate minister on Monday warned that America could lose its “position as a world power in dealing with major global problems” if it and other rich nations are unable to reach a global climate agreement."In the 21st century, I cannot imagine a global climate accord without
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Oct 2009 | 1:39 pm

Pantech’s messaging duo announced at CTIA

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile, Trade Shows, CTIA

Pantech has two new quick messaging phones on AT&T in time for the holidays this year.  The Reveal and the Impact both feature a full QWERTY keypads that easily slide out so users can bang out quick messages on AT&T’s 3G network.  Pantech’s phones are typically economically priced.

The Reveal is interesting in that its number keys stay on the screen as opposed to most sliders whose keypad gets covered.  Only the qwerty keypad slides down.  When typing, the number pad stays active so adding numbers is easier then finding the function key - pretty original.  GPS is on board and the phone is set to launch October 18th.

The Impact is a bit flashier with a bright OLED screen and haptic touchscreen in addition the slide out qwerty keypad.  A unique feature here is users don’t need to slide out the keypad, instead they can tap on the soft keyboard (on screen).  This was one of my big issues with the Palm Pre.  No word on a date yet but the phone will be available in Pink and Blue. 

Company site: [AT&T]

Image credit: Pantech

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 1:06 pm

iPhone Erotica: Looks like Apple’s okay with it, as long as it’s tiny.

Looking for nudity in the App Store? Well, it exists. Contrary to what hundreds of application denials might have implied, it seems that Apple’s perfectly okay with showin’ the goods within an application – so long as said goods are shown in itty-bitty (though zoomable) thumbnails.

Before we dive too deep, we should make it clear: We’re very much in the “This shouldn’t be an issue” boat. We don’t mind at all that a collection of pixelated chests have found their way into the app store. To be completely honest, we think there’s a damned absurd amount of money to be made if Apple embraced a “Well, as long as it’s legal!” mindset and opened up an age-restricted section for those who’s interests swung that way.

That said, we’re also very much in the “Apple needs to figure out their damn rules” boat. Apple has previously dropped the banhammer on apps for offenses as minor as showing someone with a hole in the crotch of their jeans (Warning: that link is very much NSFW), and now they’re letting bare boobs right on through.

The boobie-bootleggin’ app in question here is “Boundless – Emotional Photography” (iTunes Link), a 99c photo gallery app. Essentially a “Bikini Babe” app sans the bikinis, Boundless contains around 50 artistic photographs of the female form by photographer John Covington. More accurately, it contains 50 thumbnails of said photographs, with each thumbnail layered above a tightly cropped, higher quality copy of the photo. While the higher-quality lower layer always keeps the naughty-bits just off screen, the goods are on full display for anyone who zooms into the thumbnail. The breasts may be pixelated, but they’re breasts none the less.

It’s also worth noting that some of the thumbnails have been manually blurred – whether this was done pre-emptively or at Apple’s request, we’re not sure. Either way, it shows that someone recognized that these pictures tip-toe a line that has never been defined.

It’s time to define that line, Apple.

[Thanks Greg!]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Oct 2009 | 12:42 pm

Vonage Mobile released for iPhone and BlackBerry

Vonage, the once almost-zombie VoIP company, has roared back from its flirtation with the deadpool (er, from being sued into near oblivion for patent infringement by Verizon et al.). Its latest product, Vonage Mobile, will surely continue to ruffle all the big telecoms’ feathers because it allows consumers the ability to circumvent their mobile carriers’ networks to make low cost international calls with their smartphones via Vonage’s network.

Available for the iPhone / iPod touch (2G) and BlackBerries, Vonage Mobile:

works with your existing mobile plan. This lets you keep your number, mobile device, existing contacts and mobile service provider.

You’re simply adding a pay-as-you-go app that lets you make low-cost international calls from your current mobile phone. Set up your pre-pay amount and use Vonage Mobile whenever you make international calls.

The free app works over both cellular and Wi-Fi networks (the latter for iDevices only). When used over a cellular network, consumers can:

Call anywhere, with no calling cards or dialing codes. When you dial an international number from your mobile device, your call is routed through the Vonage network. That way, you get our great international rates and only use local minutes under your regular carrier’s plan. (Carrier roaming charges may apply when outside your calling area)

Better yet, iPeople can make “calls from any Wi-Fi hotspot, anywhere in the world. Not only will you get our low international calling rates, but you won’t use any of your mobile minutes.”

Sounds pretty sweet, doesn’t it? But, it’s also a bit of a head-scratcher, as the AP points out, considering all the recent drama with Google Voice. Both apps work by circumventing AT&T’s network to offer consumers low(er)-cost international calling rates. However, Google Voice has not received approval (supposedly for violating the App Store’s terms), while the Vonage app has been accepted by Apple.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said the company considers Vonage’s application to be in the same category as other VoIP apps that have already been approved for the iPhone. She would not elaborate on whether Apple considers there to be significant differences between Vonage’s program and Google Voice.

We’re betting Google might feel slightly different about this latest round of shenanigans. Either way, Vonage Mobile is available now for iThings and CrackBerries, for free, via VonageMobile.com.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Oct 2009 | 12:03 pm

Cancer Researchers Win Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in medicine went to three Americans who inspired new lines of cancer research.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Oct 2009 | 11:30 am

AT&T announces Pure and Tilt 2 phones with new Windows 6.5 OS

Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile

AT&T has announced two new Windows 6.5 phones that they are adding to their mobile lineup: the Pure and the Tilt 2, both produced by HTC.  The phones have all of the features that have been announced earlier for the new Windows Mobile OS.  This includes My Phone backup, IE browser and support for Windows Mobile Marketplace.

The Pure is the company’s version of the HTC Touch Diamond 2 with an all touch screen used for operation.  It will have a 3.2 inch widescreen display, expandable memory, and ambient light sensor.  The Pure has a 5 megapixel camera with video capture installed.  Meanwhile, the Tilt 2 includes both a touch screen as well as a slide out QWERTY keyboard.  The screen is 3.6 inches and the phone utilizes dual mics and dual speakers.  A 3.2 megapixel camera will also be included with the Tilt 2.  Both phones will come with HTC’s TouchFLO 3-D interface.

The Pure will be released today for $150 while the Tilt 2 will be available later this month for $300.

Read: [Info Sync World]
Image Credit Info Sync World

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 11:09 am

Adobe Flash 10.1 to support just about every mobile OS (except the iPhone’s)

Adobe took the wraps off its latest and most versatile version of its Flash Player to date earlier today. The newly announced Flash 10.1 software will be available “for smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices, allowing content created using the Adobe Flash Platform to reach users wherever they are.” It’s kind of a big deal.

Version 10.1 represents the first Flash iteration that will work on just about any computing device floating around meatspace. More importantly (at least to us) is the freshly announced support for just about every mobile OS platform on the market, except you know whose (more on that below).

According to the official release:

A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows® Mobile, Palm® webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year. Public betas for Google® Android™ and Symbian® OS are expected to be available in early 2010. In addition, Adobe and RIM announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash Player to Blackberry® smartphones[.]

In other words, by the end of Q1 2010, we should see Flash running on WinMo, webOS, Android, Symbian, and BlackBerry mobile devices. This is pretty huge. Regardless of what anyone thinks about Flash, it has clearly become a major Web standard over the years. Its presence has been noticeably absent from mobile browsers, forcing developers to create workarounds or avoid including particular features from their mobile sites all together.

But with 10.1, these issues should become history. Not to mention, the upcoming Flash Player has purportedly been designed to maximize today’s (and tomorrow’s) cutting-edge mobile hardware.

New mobile-ready features that take advantage of native device capabilities include support for multi-touch, gestures, mobile input models, accelerometer and screen orientation bringing unprecedented creative control and expressiveness to the mobile browsing experience.

However, once all the dust had settled earlier this morning, there was still one mobile platform that had not yet joined the party – iPhone OS. But then again, we already knew that to be the case. Until Apple learns to play nice with others (er, at least Adobe), it should no longer claim to offer access to the “full Internet” via its iDevices.

In any case, like any new hardware or software claims made these days, the jury is definitely still out until we see some solid evidence to support Adobe’s puffery. The promise of mobile access to “virtually all Flash technology based Web content and applications wherever they are” sounds fantastic. Now we’ll just have to wait and see.

For more, check out Adobe’s demo vids or take a spin through their new FAQ.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Oct 2009 | 10:39 am

BLOG: Apollo 11 Site in High Def

Apollo hardware is evident as bright artifacts on the lunar surface in newly released images.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am

BIG PIC: Glow-in-the-Dark Mushrooms

Seven new glow-in-the-dark fungi shed light on the evolution of luminescence.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Oct 2009 | 10:01 am

Pet Turtle Disease Could Spread to Humans

A pet turtle is diagnosed with a infectious bacterial disease that could spread to people.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Oct 2009 | 9:50 am

Fast, simple and now stylish: Google Chrome with Artist Themes

We're always keen to share updates about our browser Google Chrome. This past month, we launched a new stable release with speed improvements and updates to key features, as well as a little something extra to make your browser pop: themes. Today, we're excited to build on this initial splash of color. We invited leading artists, architects, musicians, illustrators, filmmakers and fashion and interior designers from around the globe to create artwork for an unusual canvas: the modern web browser. The result? Artist Themes for Google Chrome, a fusion of art and technology, with a hundred Artist Themes that we hope will enrich and personalize your web browsing experience.

We're honored to have had the opportunity to work with artists including Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Karim Rashid, Jonathan Adler, Oscar de la Renta, Anita Kunz, Tom Sachs, Kate Spade, Donna Karan, Kid Robot, Casey Reas, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Graves, Todd Oldham, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Mariah Carey (and that's just to name a few!). We would like to extend our thanks to all the artists for lending their vision, imagination and hard work to this collaboration.

For a behind-the-scenes look at one illustrator's unique creative process, check out the Google Chrome Blog. And for a preview of these themes, here's a video flipbook we've compiled to showcase some of the artistry behind this project:



If you haven't tried Google Chrome recently, download the latest version and give the Artist Themes a whirl. If you're already using Google Chrome, check out the themes gallery and try on your favorite Artist Themes.

Posted by Glen Murphy, Software Engineer, and Mark Sabec, Associate Product Marketing Manager
Source: The Official Google Blog | 5 Oct 2009 | 9:47 am

Google intros “sponsored mail with enhanced content” in Gmail

Section: Communications, Email / IM, Web, Google

A new feature arrived in Gmail over the weekend, and despite a pretty banal sounding name, it does seem interesting.  Anyway, officially the feature is called “Sponsored mail with enhanced content” which sounds really official and sort of like something that will end up giving us more ads to stare at try and ignore.

Thankfully this is not going to be bringing more ads for everyone.  It adds an “interactive gadget” which appears to be a fancy name for a favicon, along with the email message which will appear on the subject line just to the left of the time the email was received.  What it will do is actually pretty neat; it will allow you to interact with the website without leaving Gmail. 

So far I have not seen a full listing of sites that would be sending mail with a favicon, but according to the description it sounds like Babycenter will be participating.  Additionally, I have seen a few reports that also mention Netflix.  In terms of Netflix it looks like users will be able to do things like view and/or add movie recommendations to their queue.

Like I mentioned earlier, this feature will not be bringing ads to everyone.  In order to see these favicons you will need to be on the sender’s mailing list and that sender will have to be part of the program.  Of course, in the good Google way, you can also choose to disable these if they are bothering you.  To turn this feature off:

“just open a message and click the down-arrow in the upper-right corner of the message and select Do not customize mail from [sender].”

Read [Gmail Help] Via [Google Operating System]

 

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

Joey Roth's Ceramic Speakers

Joey Roth, designer of the wonderful Sorapot, has a new creation: Ceramic Speakers.

As you can see, it's a speaker system made from porcelain, cork, and maple wood. I wanted to reduce the speaker system to its most simple form, using raw materials that show their natural beauty and aren't usually associated with electronics.

Gorgeous, but quite beyond my price range! Roth is soliciting pre-orders for the first run, which is of just 200 pairs. They are $495 a set. Specs.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am

Rugged, Waterproof Hard Drive Keeps Your Secrets Safe

How do you like the sound of 640GB of take-anywhere, kick-anywhere, dunkable hard drive? Then you’ll be pleased to learn about the A-Data SH93, an external drive with a rubber body and wraparound USB cord that van be left underwater for a half hour with no ill effects.

Why on earth do you need an underwater hard drive? Well, of course you don’t, until you have found a waterproof computer to go with it, but if your extreme computing adventures are anything like mine you are narrowly avoiding spilled wine and beer related-calamities on a daily basis. Yes, my computer might die, but with an SH93 on my team, I will never lose my precious collection of Wired.com staff blackmail photographs: an extremely useful commodity, I can assure you. Comes in 250 GB, 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB sizes, prices to be announced.

Product page [A-Data]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:53 am

Sidekick servers "impacted" by outage.

T-Mobile's Sidekick data outage entered its third day on Sunday, according to The Consumerist. The official word:

While we anticipate a significant portion of data services to be restored by Monday, some richer data services may lag. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your patience as we work hard with Danger/Microsoft to resolve this issue. We will continue to keep our customers updated as we have news to share.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:53 am

Little Dog

Via RGS

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:51 am

If only these retro fake ads were for real products!

Bobster855's collection of ancient "National Lampoon" advertisements is fantastic--like a cross between comic book ads and Skymall.

I'm pretty sure that digital grandfather clock came to be.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:37 am

Introducing the Kindle Gutenberg Bookreader

The end-user license agreement is up at McSweeney's:

Congratulations on purchasing the newest iteration of our electronic readers, the Kindle Genius Browser. We have made this new device compatible with all previous versions of the e-book, but there are some new features we'd like to introduce.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:33 am

Flotsam Robots

Prices start at $250. [Etsy via Dinosaurs and Robots]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:30 am

Balloon Probe Seeks Clues to Universe's Beginnings

A high-flying, balloon-borne instrument seeks clues to how the universe began.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:30 am

Technical illustrations by Karl Hans Janke

An entire world could be built around them. More at Biblio Odyssey.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:26 am

Beautiful Japanese Valve Amplifier Is a Metal Monolith

When Elekit, supplier of high-end kits to audiophiles of taste and style, decided to sell a ready made valve-amp, it turned to Japanese designer Koichi Futatsumata. The result is this beautifully minimal amplifier hewn from aluminum.

Normally a valve amp leaves its components exposed to aid cooling of the hot vacuum tubes, but Futatsumata’s design encases everything in a smooth metal heat-sink — even the dials are aluminum disks. The simple aesthetic carries through to the controls: All you get is volume and tone. No input selectors, no jiggly sound-boosting nonsense, nothing, just like amps from the good old days.

You don’t get an iPod dock, and neither do you get house-shaking sound, as the amp puts out just 10 Watts per channel. It is, instead, all about the quality, with a frequency response of 5Hz ~ 50kHz: enough to outfox even the best of human ears. The release date is disappointingly “TBA”. I want one, but i have a feeling that pumping MP3 files into this thing will be a little like going to the French Laundry and asking them to order me a Big Mac.

Product page [Case Real via Dezeen]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:13 am

T-Mobile rolling out Wi-Fi calling for corporate BlackBerry users

T-Mobile is set to begin offering corporate customers the ability to use BlackBerry devices to make calls over office Wi-Fi connections without using up cell plan minutes. Calls initiated via office Wi-Fi would automatically switch over to T-Mobile’s network when the caller left the office, too.

T-Mobile is positioning the offering as a way for businesses to ditch their landlines altogether in an effort to save money. However, T-Mobile “will charge a flat monthly fee on top of cellular rates,” according to Reuters. The fee will vary based on the number of users.

The service is similar to network-extending devices offered from Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon, although those companies sell hardware boxes that extend cellular coverage using a customer’s home broadband connection, while T-Mobile’s offering would work with standard wireless routers.

[via Reuters]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Oct 2009 | 8:04 am

AdSense for Mobile optimized for high-end phones

High-end mobile phones, like iPhone, Android-powered devices and the Palm Pre , continue to grow — Gartner estimates that global sales of smartphones will soar by 27% in 2009, to 177 million units. Naturally, as a result more and more people are browsing the web on the go.

Because these devices offer a browsing experience that is similar to desktop computers, advertising on smartphones is a natural extension for any AdWords campaign. However, it's not always been easy for advertisers to reach people on smartphones. That's why we're investing in new high-end mobile advertising products such as our search ad options for high-end phones and AdSense for mobile applications. We hope to make advertising on high-end mobile devices as intuitive, effective and user-friendly as our existing AdWords tools.

Today, we're excited to announce a new feature for our AdSense mobile publishers that enables them to serve text and image ads on their sites — specifically on these high-end smartphones. This helps mobile publishers earn revenue and fund more mobile-specific sites and web content.

New features like this help to nurture the smartphone ecosystem by encouraging the creation of more mobile content and by helping advertisers to grow their businesses by reaching new audiences. Our users' experience is also improved, with increasingly relevant and device-optimized mobile ads that load faster and fit better on small screens.

For more info about this feature, check out the Inside AdSense Blog.

Posted by Danielle VanDyke, Software Engineer
Source: The Official Google Blog | 5 Oct 2009 | 7:17 am

Behold! The Samsung Behold II with Android

What do you get when you add Android to TouchWiz? WizDroid! Samsung’s new Behold II is running a nicely modified version of Android with some unique UI improvements.

We’ve known about this old girl for a few weeks now but it’s finally been announced on T-Mo. No pricing or availability date.

Following the success of its predecessor, the Samsung Behold®, the Behold II will be available exclusively from T-Mobile and is currently scheduled to launch before the start of the holidays. The sleek touch-screen phone is the first from T-Mobile USA to feature a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, which provides crisper colors and wider viewing angles. In addition, the Behold II is equipped with Samsung’s innovative TouchWiz user interface, allowing easy customization with widgets located in a slide out tray on the left side of the home screen and providing one-touch access to a customer’s favorite and most commonly used features and applications. The Behold II offers three different home screens to drag and drop widgets onto the screen and organize the different workspaces with favorite widgets and application shortcuts. Samsung’s intuitive cube menu also provides quick access to six top multimedia features, including music, photos, videos, the Web, YouTube™ and Amazon MP3 for music downloads.

SAMSUNG MOBILE AND T-MOBILE USA INTRODUCE SAMSUNG BEHOLD® II

Samsung’s First Joint Android™-Powered Mobile Phone from Samsung and T-Mobile Offers Rich Internet, Multimedia Experience

DALLAS, and BELLEVUE, WASH. — Oct. 5, 2009 — Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile)1, the No. 1 phone provider in the U.S. 2, and T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Behold® II powered by Android. The Behold II is a full touch-screen phone integrating the open and innovative Android platform from Open Handset Alliance™ with Samsung’s next generation TouchWiz™ user interface and T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network for a rich mobile experience.

Following the success of its predecessor, the Samsung Behold®, the Behold II will be available exclusively from T-Mobile and is currently scheduled to launch before the start of the holidays. The sleek touch-screen phone is the first from T-Mobile USA to feature a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, which provides crisper colors and wider viewing angles. In addition, the Behold II is equipped with Samsung’s innovative TouchWiz user interface, allowing easy customization with widgets located in a slide out tray on the left side of the home screen and providing one-touch access to a customer’s favorite and most commonly used features and applications. The Behold II offers three different home screens to drag and drop widgets onto the screen and organize the different workspaces with favorite widgets and application shortcuts. Samsung’s intuitive cube menu also provides quick access to six top multimedia features, including music, photos, videos, the Web, YouTube™ and Amazon MP3 for music downloads.

“We’re excited to announce Samsung’s first Android-powered device with T-Mobile in the U.S.,” said Omar Khan, senior vice president of strategy and product management for Samsung Mobile. “The Behold II follows the success of the Behold that launched last year taking the device and user experience to the next level with the Android platform, a large 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, next generation TouchWiz user interface and customization capabilities and premium features.”

“T-Mobile continues to expand our line-up of Android-powered phones in time for the holiday season with the addition of the Samsung Behold II,” said Travis Warren, director, product marketing, T-Mobile USA. “The premium screen and quality camera coupled with Samsung’s innovative cube menu makes the Behold II a multimedia powerhouse that’s made even stronger by T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network.”

The Behold II will keep customers organized and entertained with access to built-in Google™ mobile services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™, YouTube and Google Talk™ as well as thousands of applications and games available for download from Android Market™. The Wi-Fi-enabled Behold II also supports personal email and corporate email with Exchange ActiveSync, as well as instant messaging, and text, picture and video messaging. Additional features include a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash, five shooting modes and video capabilities, visual voicemail which allows customers to listen to voicemails in order of preference, MP3 player, up to 16GB of external memory, assisted GPS and Bluetooth® 2.1.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Oct 2009 | 7:10 am

Custom Bike Features Built-In U-Lock

Tony Pereira of Pereira Cycles in Portland, Oregon, has put together this super-customized bike as an entry into the “Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge.” The bike has several rather nice mods, including a hand-made taillight and a color-matched frame-pump, but what caught our eye is the integrated U-lock pictured above.

The lock is from Kryptonite and the actual Kryptonite locking core is now inside the steerer tube. The other end slots into a hole in the top-tube, thankfully surrounded by steel and not paint to keep you from chipping things.

Bringing new meaning to the advantages of shopping locally, the bike is made to lock easily to the “Portland Staple” bike rack, and sits in a slot in the included handlebar-mounted bag when you ride. No, the lock doesn’t protect either of your wheels but it looks ideal for a quick in-and-out of the store trip. See the whole rundown of custom features on Pereira’s Flickr page.

Integrated u-lock [Flickr via Bike Hugger]

Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge

Photo: pereiracycles/Flickr

See Also:

• Hands Off! With the Kryptonite Evolution Mini
• A Junkie Stole My Bike: Why All Locks Are Not Equal

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Oct 2009 | 7:07 am

Will Flash be iPhone’s downfall?

Section: Communications, Accessories, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile

Remember way back when Adobe was angling to work with Apple to get Flash on the iPhone?  Apple seemingly had no interest in working with Adobe and to date, the mighty iPhone can’t handle Flash.  Fast forward a couple years and it seems that Adobe was kind of upset Apple for the cold shoulder.

Back then, Steve Jobs said that Adobe was built for large machines with vast resources.  Running it on an iPhone consumes too much power, too much computing power, and runs slowly.  Maybe the iPhone just can’t handle it?

Seems other smartphones can.  Adobe announced it has deals with Palm for the webOS, Google’s Android, and even RIM’s BlackBerry OS.  Flash (not Flash Lite) is coming to mobiles and Adobe thinks it is going to be a hit.  Symbian and Windows Mobile are also on the schedule.  It is likely, Palm’s webOS will get first crack at the new Flash 10.1.

From paidcontent.org:

The new Adobe Flash Player 10.1 software will be one piece of software that work across PCs, smartphones, netbooks and other devices, which is the vision of the company’s Open Screen Project

Adobe admits there still may need to be some tweaking to get full Flash working on these mobile operating systems but downplays it.

Back in March of 2008, I said that Flash would suffer from a lack of iPhone compatibility.  With HTML5 in the near future, I am not sure how this is going to play out.  It will be interesting for sure.

Read [paidcontent.org]

Image credit: boingboing.net

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 7:01 am

Animals Survived Apocalypse by Burrowing

A pig-sized animal seems to have survived the Permian Extinction by digging burrows.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 5 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

48Cake

I like Rob Brennan's cake. [flickr]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Oct 2009 | 6:03 am

Asus intros the O!Play HD media player set-top box

Section: Video, Accessories, Content, HDTV

Anyone looking for a low-cost set-top box that will allow for HD playback on a big screen may want to check out the recently released O!Play from Asus.  To begin with the Asus O!Play is selling for $99. 

Now, here is what we can expect feature wise:

• Plays up content up to 1080p
• eSATA, Ethernet, and USB inputs
• Composite and HDMI outputs
• Bitstream or Dolby Digital and DTS Surround audio

Additionally, it seems to have a wide variety of supported file types including MPEG1/2/4, RM/RMVB, VC-1 and H.264 for video as well as MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC and AIFF for audio.  The O!Play is also able to stream and view JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF image files.

Otherwise, the unit ships with a remote control and a set of composite cables.  The one drawback here, aside from not having a HDMI cable included, is that the O!Play does not have built-in Wi-Fi.  Of course, getting back to that price, $99, that is not all that surprising.  It seems to be a nice option for those looking to not spend a ton of money.

Product [Amazon]  Via [Liliputing]

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

---

Source: Gadgetell | 5 Oct 2009 | 5:01 am