The Mountain Goats Get a Colbert Bump and, Interestingly, It Creates a Unique Music Marketing Opportunity

The Mountain Goats get a Colbert Bump and, interestingly, it creates a unique music marketing opportunity

I was just watching the Colbert Report and on came the Mountain Goats aka John Darnielle, one of the best indie songwriters out there. The interesting part? The ColbertNation.com website is streaming his new album for 24 hours, a nice little window for the curious to visit and listen (and, if they’re horrible, horrible people, use a stream catcher to grab the music, but don’t do that.)

In short, in the Venn diagram of TV you have Colbert Report watchers and Mountain Goats listeners. Many of us exist, obviously, but the confluence of these two audiences into one tasty streaming opportunity is quite cool.

There are lots of services out there that allow for music discovery but this seems like a nice way to ensure that an obscure artist gets the attention he or she deserves while also winning over old and new fans of said artist. After all, guys like John Darnielle and Stephen Colbert bring something unreplaceable to each and every day although I won’t go as far as to say that we’re hearing the cogs all slipping at the same time.

Amazon cuts Kindle price, adds global version (AP)

Oct. 7, 1806: Do You Copy? Carbon Paper Patented

Kindle Goes International — With a Little Help From AT&T

Although Amazon’s Kindle e-reader has become the first major hit in its category — and the best-selling product in Amazon’s entire store this year — it does have its drawbacks. One of the biggest is that its wireless connection to the Kindle store works only in the U.S.

That changes on October 19, when Amazon begins shipping a new version of the Kindle that can be used to purchase and download books in over 100 countries. The new version, with the snappy name of “Kindle with US and International Wireless,” will sell for $280 and can be pre-ordered now.

The current version will still be for sale, and Amazon is dropping the price from $300 to $260. The bigger Kindle DX is unchanged.

As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explains it in a phone interview with Wired, “The two Kindles are identical, except for the radio.” The new device does not sync with Sprint, which was previously the exclusive supplier for Amazon’s Whispernet technology. Instead, it works with AT&T’s wireless network, which has the global reach that Amazon needs for its international plans.

This seems to push Sprint out of the long-term Kindle picture. Won’t everybody want to spend 20 bucks more on the AT&T version that that works all around the world, even if a cross-border trip isn’t on the immediate horizon? “I would!” says Bezos. Indeed, having a Kindle that downloads from overseas means you can get your favorite newspapers and magazines delivered instantly, at the same cost you pay at home.

It makes the Kindle a travel guide, too: If you want the lowdown on a Kyoto temple, or are wondering where to get the best fries in Amsterdam, you can download a relevant guide on the spot. And for the first time, the Lonely Planet series will be sold on Kindle, along with the previously available travel books from Frommer, Rick Steves and Michelin. No wonder the Amazon press release has an ecstatic quote from AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson and not a word from Sprint honcho (and vanity TV pitchman) Dan Hesse.

Other unhappy people may include owners of current Kindles who travel internationally: Their gadgets can’t be switched to AT&T versions. Bezos suggests that they give away or resell their Kindles (first-gen Kindles are currently going for around $190) and buy new ones. Those who bought a Kindle in the last 30 days can exchange them for the international version. Maybe the biggest gripes will come from those who bought the most expensive Kindle, the supersized DX. Imagine sitting in a Paris bistro with your US-download-only $490 DX and watching some tourist with a puny $280 Kindle filling up with newspapers, Michelin guides and the latest Michael Connelly thriller.

The international Kindle is not just for Americans traveling abroad. Bezos says that Amazon’s sales patterns show a sizable demand for English language books in countries that speak other languages. Until now, readers in those countries have found such books to be expensive and hard to find, not to mention slow to arrive after being ordered. The global Kindle will make the process cheap and instant.

Amazon staved off copyright problems by negotiating an arrangement with English language publishers that pays royalties depending on the territory of purchase. (If you buy a copy of The Perfect Thing in London, for instance, the UK publisher Ebury press gets the sale, instead of US publisher Simon & Schuster.) Still, the rights clearances aren’t yet comprehensive; of the 350,000 books in the Kindle store, only around 200,000 will be available in some countries.

While I had Bezos on the phone, I asked him about some other e-book issues. He wouldn’t comment on Amazon’s filing against the the Google Books settlement. Nor would he respond to Google’s comment that Amazon was being hypocritical in its objection. He also had nothing to add to the apology he gave to Kindle users for the company’s abrupt and scary retraction of copies of a Orwell’s 1984.

But he did have a response to a recent strategy employed by publishers of books expected to be mega-sellers, like Teddy Kennedy’s True Compass and Sarah Palin’s upcoming memoir, Going Rogue. The respective publishers think that withholding lower-cost Kindle versions for a few months will boost hardcover sales. Bezos believes this is short-sighted, and that offering a book on Kindle increases the total sales. He notes that when an author comes out with a new book, he or she will do publicity or get reviews. “When you’re on NPR and someone goes on their Kindle to look for the book, it’s your chance to make that sale,” he said. “They won’t remember in a month or two.”

As proof of the way that the Kindle has changed reader habits, Bezos brings up an amazing statistic. Earlier this year, he startled people by revealing that of books available on both Kindle and paper versions, 35 percent of copies sold by Amazon were Kindle versions. Now, he says, the number is up to 48 percent. This means that a lot of people have bought Kindles (Amazon won’t reveal the figures) and that Kindle owners buy a lot of books.

Bezos hasn’t missed the buzz about upcoming digital tablets. He says that Amazon is hard at work making software apps (like the one already available for the iPhone) that will extend the Kindle system to other devices. He’s also still open “in principle” to rival e-reader manufacturers who wish to use the Kindle store to provide content. But he feels that while people may read on phones and web-surfing tablets, the dedicated e-reading device will keep improving.

“We want Kindle to be the best way to read,” Bezos says. And now, people can read books that they download outside the US.

Photo: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

Facebook Reports Access Problems, Again

Source: Gizmodo | 6 Oct 2009 | 9:20 pm

MIT Axes the 500-Word Application Essay

netbuzz writes "No longer will those applying to MIT have to write the storied 'long' essay — long as in 500 words. 'We wanted to remove that larger-than-life quality to that one essay and take away a bit of the high-stakes nature of that one piece,' says the dean of admissions. Not everyone agrees with the bow to brevity, including a current MIT student who penned a scathing critique in The Tech and offers up her own essay as an example of what the form can provide to both MIT and the applicant." [125 words, including these.]

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 9:16 pm

Flo TV gets official announcement and pricing

We’ve been watching the evolution of the Flo TV story with some interest; it may prove to be an interesting little gadget for compulsive TV-watchers. We heard the rumor, we broke the interface, we saw the box, and now we have it straight from the horse’s mouth: Flo TV is, as expected, a mobile TV device with a 3.5″ 4:3 capacitive touchscreen and built-in stereo speakers, and it accesses “live and time-shifted” programming via a “dedicated multicast network.” Sounds pretty sweet to me.

I used the LG Vu for a bit, and I have to say that instant-on portable TV was kind of fun to have, even though I’m not much of a TV watcher. Its selection was much more limited than the Flo TV’s, though. Qualcomm lists CNBC, Comedy Central, MSNBC, MTV, NBC, NBC 2Go, NBC News, NBC Sports and Nickelodeon as channels. You can check out the lineup here, and the program guide here.

Battery is rated at 5 hours of TV and 300 hours of standby. It remains to be seen how the picture is, of course, and how well the signal holds, but you leave that to us.

The device itself costs $250, and the minimum subscription is $9. That’s not bad (less than a Peek), but of course, like regular TV you’ll have to pay for the good stuff. More info, as always, at their website.

Source: Gizmodo | 6 Oct 2009 | 8:20 pm

Albatross-mounted cameras? Yes, we have arrived at the future

This is interesting. A study done by Japanese and UK universities outfitted several albatrosses with cameras in order to study their feeding strategies. While animal-mounted cameras are far from rare these days, I think it’s indicative of how far we’ve come that a scientific team can snatch a couple birds, tape cameras on their backs, and just let ‘em ride. With the miniaturization we’re seeing, a high-definition still camera, battery, and storage system might be concealed in a package the size of your pinky, and weigh only a few ounces.

Talk about a bird’s-eye-view. While these bird-mounted surveillance systems haven’t been deployed in cities yet, you can bet the Pentagon is taking notice.

An interesting result of the study, which you can find in its entirety here, was that albatross, strong as they are, don’t simply fly around forever looking for random fish. They sometimes watch for whales and pick up the scraps left behind (an orca isn’t exactly a dainty eater). Smart birds, those albatrosses.

You can see the whale in the bottom left, there, if you hadn’t spotted it already. Not that it’s inconspicuous. Plus there’s an arrow. Never mind.

So how long before we get our own little life recorders? A tiny, wide-angle lens and sensor uploading a picture every five minutes via a 3G connection? Can’t be that hard. Get on it, Microsoft/Apple/Google/Everyone!

[via Wired News]

Source: Gizmodo | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:40 pm

Where's the next boom? Maybe in `cleantech' (AP)

AP - Our economy sure could use the Next Big Thing. Something on the scale of railroads, automobiles or the Internet — the kind of breakthrough that emerges every so often and builds industries, generates jobs and mints fortunes.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:34 pm

Grizzly bear bean bag, for when you just need to hibernate

It isn’t really a gadget, but I’d say this bear-shaped bean bag qualifies as gear. Maybe you bring it to your LAN party. Maybe it’s seating for your Windows 7 launch party. Either way, it’s a giant bear you can sleep on without fear of being mauled. When was the last time you had that luxury? [via GearFuse]

Source: Gizmodo | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:20 pm

Coinstar: Piper Bullish On Redbox; Launches With Overweight Rating [Voices]

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

Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson today launched coverage of Coinstar (CSTR) with an Overweight rating and $38 price target. The parent of the Redbox video kiosk chain closed yesterday at $31.96.

Olson sees several trends working in the company’s favor:

• DVD rental kiosk market is gaining share from traditional retailers like Blockbuster.
• Internet delivery likely still 3-5 years from going mainstream.
• Consumers shifting to DVD rentals from purchases due to low fees from Redbox – $1-a-day.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:02 pm

Captain Bligh's Logbooks To Yield Climate Bounty

Pickens writes "The BBC reports that researchers are digitizing the captains' logs from the voyages of Charles Darwin on HMS Beagle, Captain Cook from HMS Discovery, Captain Bligh from The Bounty, and 300 other 18th and 19th century ships' logbooks to provide historical climate records for modern-day climate researchers who will use the meteorological data to build up a picture of weather patterns in the world at the beginning of the industrial era. The researchers are cross-referencing the data with historical records for crop failures, droughts and storms and will compare it with data for the modern era in order to predict similar events in the future. 'The observations from the logbooks on wind force and weather are astonishingly good and often better than modern logbooks,' says Climatologist Dr. Dennis Wheeler from the University of Sunderland. 'Of course the sailors had to be conscientious. The thought that you could hit a reef was a great incentive to get your observations absolutely right!' The logbooks will be online next year at the UK's National Archives."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:02 pm

Rumor: Nikon is releasing a clone of the Leica X1

We still don’t know for certain what Nikon is up to on the 15th, but that whole Leica clone rumor from the 2nd is looking better and better. It’s not a huge surprise really, since the new Leica models have really been in the news lately.

Nikon Rumors has heard that the new Leica X1 is actually made by Nikon, so it make sense that the manufacturing and technology is already in place for building a clone – particularly when you see how popular the new Leicas have been. The new camera will reportedly use the same sensor as the D300, which would be a very good thing.

The source also told the NR folks that the new camera may end up modeled after the old Coolpix, with the swivel display. I certainly hope not.

Source: CrunchGear | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:00 pm

Flash Apps We'd Like to See on the iPhone - Wired News

TrustedReviews

Flash Apps We'd Like to See on the iPhone Wired News Adobe is finally bringing Flash to the iPhone. Now's your chance to tell us what you think programmers should use this awesome power for. Adobe has been working long and hard to finagle Apple into imbuing the iPhone with a full Flash ... Adobe iphone Fix Still Has Flaws, Say Developers>ADBEWall Street Journal HTML5 assault on Adobe Flash heats up with ClickToFlashApple Insider Adobe does 'end-around' Apple with Flash dev tool, says analystComputerworld PC World -DVICE -Mobile Burn all 775 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:41 pm

Huge data breach hits Google, Hotmail, and Yahoo

Section: Computers, Security, Web, Websites, Google

According to a report by CNET UK, thousands of login credentials for Hotmail, Yahoo, and Google accounts have been stolen and posted online.  Since Google accounts also allow access to Blogger, YouTube, Google Docs and Google Talk accounts, the potential data breach is huge as are the possible repercussions.  Google is blaming a large scale phishing attack for the breach.

“We recently became aware of an industry-wide phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for Web-based mail accounts including Gmail accounts,” a Google spokesperson told CNET UK. “As soon as we learned of the attack, we forced password resets on the affected accounts. We will continue to force password resets on additional accounts when we become aware of them.”

Microsoft is also aware of the breach and says it is doing everything it can to mitigate any damage.  It is blocking accounts it knows to have been compromised and then helping the legit owners reclaim them.  It’s not yet known exactly how many accounts have been compromised, exactly how it happened or who is responsible.  It’s believed the accounts are probably being collected to send spam, malware, or further phishing accounts.

If you have a Yahoo, Hotmail and/or Google account, change your passwords ASAP.  If you find yourself locked out of your account, contact the provider for assistance and be prepared to prove you are the actual account holder.  Stay tuned to Gadgetell for more on this developing story.

Read: [CNET UK]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:35 pm

Motor your boat with a cordless drill

Two questions: first, do you have a boat? Second, do you have a cordless drill? If you answered “yes” to both questions, you may be interested in the above video, which showcases a cordless drill being used to propel a boat.

You’re not going to get awesome run-time or an insane top speed out of this little project but if you have the desire to cobble something like this together, then perhaps you’ll be able to add some sort of extended battery to the mix. Either way, the total cost for the extra materials (minus the drill and the boat, of course) should settle in at under $50.

[via Instructables]

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

Exclusive: Dell’s Android Phone Is Coming To the U.S.

Remember the Dell Mini 3i, Dell's China-only Android phone? Well it's not China-only anymore. Rumor has it that Dell will bring the Mini 3i to the U.S. in the next few months to compete with other Android phones coming down the pike from HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. The phone, presumably still in its Chinese trade dress, felt "cheap and plasticky, like the Pre," according our tipster. He believes it will be upgraded for the American market.

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:24 pm

Exclusive: Dell’s Android phone is coming to the U.S.

Remember the Dell Mini 3i, Dell's China-only Android phone? Well it's not China-only anymore. Rumor has it that Dell will bring the Mini 3i to the U.S. in the next few months to compete with other Android phones coming down the pike from HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. The phone, presumably still in its Chinese trade dress, felt "cheap and plasticky, like the Pre," according our tipster. He believes it will be upgraded for the American market.

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:23 pm

Exclusive: Dell’s Android phone is coming to the U.S.

Remember the Dell Mini 3i, Dell’s China-only Android phone? Well it’s not China-only anymore.

Rumor has it that Dell will bring the Mini 3i to the U.S. in the next few months to compete with other Android phones coming down the pike from HTC, Samsung, and Motorola.

The phone, presumably still in its Chinese trade dress, felt “cheap and plasticky, like the Pre,” according our tipster. He believes it will be upgraded for the American market.

The phone has better hardware than the Chinese version and a slightly better camera – probably 5-megapixel over the Chinese 3-megapixel. It is slimmer than the iPhone and the interface mimics, as seen from this photo, the iPhone’s icon-based launcher UI.

Interestingly, Dell is splintering the Android stack and shipping the phone with modified or missing Android libraries, making it a bit harder to program. The tipster reported that some apps won’t work on this version.

Dell hasn’t sold a smartphone since the Axim X51, an ill-fated WinMo PDA-alike last sold in 2007. This return to the smartphone market seems to be a direct attack on the WinMo architecture as Dell could have easily gone with something like Windows Mobile 6.5.

We’ll have photos of the new phone this week but we’ll add this to our Palm Pre and Pixi announcements as interesting new phones from ostensibly U.S.-based companies.

Source: CrunchGear | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:23 pm

Analysis: How Sony’s new motion controller will promote teamwork (with videos)

FROM GAMERTELL - Sony’s next foray into motion-controlled gaming will help foster team-style gameplay with games including Resident Evil 5 and LittleBigPlanet…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:09 pm

doubleTwist Unveils An Alternative To The iTunes Music Store, Powered By Amazon MP3

Last week doubleTwist, the media management software company with DVD Jon as its CTO, released a remake of Apple’s classic 1984 commercial featuring none other than Steve Jobs as a malevolent dictator. The commercial closed with a promise. “On October 6th, doubleTwist brings you Choice“.

Today, doubleTwist has revealed what it means by that: doubleTwist now includes an integrated Music Store, powered by Amazon’s MP3 Store. But unlike iTunes, this app will let you transfer your files to non-Apple devices. The store includes Amazon’s catalog of over 5 million songs, allowing users to purchase songs either as albums or individual tracks (there’s also plenty of free songs available). From a design standpoint, it’s clear that iTunes served as a big inspiration — if you’ve ever used the iTunes Store before, it will take you all of thirty seconds to figure out how to use this one.

In fact, it’s probably safe to say that the new doubleTwist music store is actually easier to use to download music than iTunes is, simply because there’s so much less going on. Upon launching the store you’ll see a handful of top albums and songs, along with a prominent search box at the top of the screen. Click on an album and you’ll see a list of the disc’s tracks, which you can click for a 30 second preview. To buy something simply enter your Amazon ID.

Of course, the store is easier to navigate than iTunes for a reason: there are no movie or TV downloads, no playlists or mixes, and obviously no App Store. But for music, it works like a charm. And there are more features in the pipeline, including recommendations, artist bios, and song ratings.

Once you’ve downloaded your music, you can drag and drop it into whatever device you’ve connected to your computer. Unlike iTunes, doubleTwist supports hundreds of devices, including the Pre, BlackBerry, PSP, Android, and others. The application also lets you manage your photos and movie files, though the company says it doesn’t currently have plans to offer video downloads.

All in all, this is a very impressive effort. Before now Amazon’s MP3 store has been primarily browser based (there are some mobile devices that support it but doubleTwist believes this is the first desktop based application to integrate the store). And there’s no doubt that the doubleTwist download experience is far better than navigating Amazon in your browser. doubleTwist is going to have a hard time convincing the throngs of iPod and iPhone users on iTunes to make the switch, but for anyone else using a device that’s not supported by Apple, it’s quickly turning into a very appealing solution.

doubleTwist’s Music Store is currently available in the Mac version of the app, with the PC version coming soon. The store is currently US-only, but doubleTwist says that UK, German, and French versions are on the way.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:02 pm

Bird Cam Captures Albatross, Killer Whale Rendezvous

Tiny digital cameras attached to four Antarctic albatrosses uncover an unusual pattern of bird behavior: Albatrosses appear to follow killer whales across the open ocean, scavenging for fish scraps left behind by the mammalian predators.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:02 pm

Burning Question: Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?

We started asking around, and everyone gave us the same answer: "I don't have any data for that," said Amanda Sabia, principal analyst for Internet demand at Gartner Group. "Good question," said Comcast's Mary Nell Westbrook. "We're giving it a look." She got back to us the next day: "We just don't have anything." Apparently it's not something companies study.

Some engineers at Cisco surmised that temperature would affect the conductivity of the copper—and thus the average download velocity of a YouTube video. After all, the Wiedemann-Franz law states that the electrical conductivity of a metal falls as the temperature rises. Since the vast majority of the world's cable is in the northern hemisphere, the warm summertime months above the equator should see a drop in Internet speeds.

"No way," said Doug Webster, a senior director at Cisco. "The infrastructure is engineered to counter those effects." Oh, snap.

Fortunately, his company had the data to end this feud. The networking juggernaut regularly surveys 15 to 20 of the world's largest ISPs. And though Cisco had never crunched the numbers to account for seasonal variation until we asked, its data shows that the bits move most swiftly in June, July, and August.

How could the Internet thumb its binary nose at the laws of physics? Webster has a theory: The Internet runs faster in the summer because people are outside enjoying the nice weather. It turns out that he's right. Traffic has a far greater effect on speed than the weather does. Download- friendly July has the least Web traffic. In 2008, 56 percent fewer bits moved through the Intertubes in July than in September.

Using Webster's logic, you'd think that January and February—when everyone's inside ducking the cold—would have the slowest data-transfer rates. But again, the numbers beg to differ. The Net is most sluggish in September.

Webster didn't have an explanation for this. Sure, schools are in session, but the same goes for February. So we called Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, who pointed out that this spike corresponds with a well-known phenomenon: "Economic productivity is highest in the autumn."

It makes sense, according to Joe Robinson, who coaches massive corporations like IBM on work-life balance. "I can cite eight studies indicating that performance and productivity go up after vacation," he said. When you return from a long stint at the beach, you're not just recharged, you're more efficient. Even reaction times go up by 30 to 40 percent. It's not surprising then that Internet speeds lag when we're all back from vacay, hustling online, grabbing at that brass ring.

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

Fetish: Key-Plus-Ring (Why Didn't We Think of That?)

Scott Amron makes a living turning far-out concepts into workable prototypes. His combination key-plus-ring — or keybrid — is pure Hudsucker-ish inspiration.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:00 pm

Ask a Flowchart: Should I Delete My Tweet?

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

Burning Question: Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?

We started asking around, and everyone gave us the same answer: "I don't have any data for that," said Amanda Sabia, principal analyst for Internet demand at Gartner Group. "Good question," said Comcast's Mary Nell Westbrook. "We're giving it a look." She got back to us the next day: "We just don't have anything." Apparently it's not something companies study.

Some engineers at Cisco surmised that temperature would affect the conductivity of the copper—and thus the average download velocity of a YouTube video. After all, the Wiedemann-Franz law states that the electrical conductivity of a metal falls as the temperature rises. Since the vast majority of the world's cable is in the northern hemisphere, the warm summertime months above the equator should see a drop in Internet speeds.

"No way," said Doug Webster, a senior director at Cisco. "The infrastructure is engineered to counter those effects." Oh, snap.

Fortunately, his company had the data to end this feud. The networking juggernaut regularly surveys 15 to 20 of the world's largest ISPs. And though Cisco had never crunched the numbers to account for seasonal variation until we asked, its data shows that the bits move most swiftly in June, July, and August.

How could the Internet thumb its binary nose at the laws of physics? Webster has a theory: The Internet runs faster in the summer because people are outside enjoying the nice weather. It turns out that he's right. Traffic has a far greater effect on speed than the weather does. Download- friendly July has the least Web traffic. In 2008, 56 percent fewer bits moved through the Intertubes in July than in September.

Using Webster's logic, you'd think that January and February—when everyone's inside ducking the cold—would have the slowest data-transfer rates. But again, the numbers beg to differ. The Net is most sluggish in September.

Webster didn't have an explanation for this. Sure, schools are in session, but the same goes for February. So we called Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, who pointed out that this spike corresponds with a well-known phenomenon: "Economic productivity is highest in the autumn."

It makes sense, according to Joe Robinson, who coaches massive corporations like IBM on work-life balance. "I can cite eight studies indicating that performance and productivity go up after vacation," he said. When you return from a long stint at the beach, you're not just recharged, you're more efficient. Even reaction times go up by 30 to 40 percent. It's not surprising then that Internet speeds lag when we're all back from vacay, hustling online, grabbing at that brass ring.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:00 pm

Fetish: Key-Plus-Ring (Why Didn't We Think of That?)

Scott Amron makes a living turning far-out concepts into workable prototypes. His combination key-plus-ring — or keybrid — is pure Hudsucker-ish inspiration.

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

List of official WinMo 6.5 sufferers released

While we don’t particularly care for the update to WinMo, there’s sure to be some people out there who do like it. For those folks, we have a list of the phones from Microsoft that will be upgrading to the new OS. Poor suckers.

Here we go, direct from Microsoft:
HTC Dash 3G
HTC Ozone
HTC Snap
HTC Touch Pro 2
Samsung Jack
Samsung Epix
Samsung Omnia Pro
Pharos Traveler 137

We have also heard that LG is going to be supporting 6.5 as well, but our source at Microsoft didn’t know for certain which model.

So there you have it. If you are looking to upgrade to the latest version of WinMo, those are the phones to watch for.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:41 pm

AT&T allows VoIP on the iPhone, still no Google Voice allowed

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, VoIP

AT&T has finally announced that it will now allow Voice over IP on the 3G network for all of its phones.  Essentially, this means VoIP apps, like the recent Vonage app, can be used on the iPhone and not just over W-Fi.  Now you can finally use Skype over the 3G network (when the update is released) and hopefully have fewer dropped calls than when you call people normally.

What this won’t fix, however, is Google Voice on the iPhone.  Verizon today announced it will be supporting Google Voice, apps for the service are available on the Android Marketplace and can be used on T-Mobile (and presumably Spring with the upcoming Hero), and Palm Pre has multiple unofficial Google Voice apps.  This leaves AT&T as the only carrier that doesn’t seem to support the service.  To be fair, Google Voice doesn’t require the iPhone app, but it is helpful.  Also, AT&T stated it had nothing to do with blocking the Google Voice iPhone app.  That whole issue is itself very confusing, with each company claiming something different, but it still stands that Google Voice isn’t VoIP, and most likely won’t be affected by this.

Allowing VoIP for every smartphone on the network is a good move by AT&T.  Verizon Wireless looks to be taking every shot it can at the company, so AT&T needs some good publicity at the moment. It would be better if the network wasn’t so overloaded with iPhones, and the company worked on the infrastructure, but at least that gives more people a reason to skip the iPhone for an Android or WebOS device, or even the newly released Windows Phone.

Read [TechCrunch]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:40 pm

Photo dialing, solar cellphones, and newspapers on TV: only in Japan

Sharp has on display a number of fun new gadgets at CEATEC. As is all too often the case, these things are for Japanese release only (at least for now). Maybe we’ll see them in a couple years.

First up is this digital photo display which integrates a telephone and fax. You can see a visual address book, which allows you to dial recipients by picture. It can also display received faxes on screen, if you’re the faxing kind of person!

Sharp is working to integrate Internet content into some of its AQUOS televisions, and is currently testing digital newspaper delivery. Rather than read a physical newspaper, some Japanese can read the day’s edition right on their AQUOS TV:

At first I thought this was a pretty clever idea; but the more I thought about it the less impressed I was. I don’t know anyone who would actually use their television — no matter how big or how wonderful — to read a newspaper. I think folks I know are much more likely to use a Kindle or similar e-reader. Japan can keep the newspapers-on-TV idea!

And finally, solar powered cell phones. Not entirely solar powered, of course, but chargable through solar energy. Five minutes of sunlight provides one minute of talk time. That’s twelve minutes of talk time for an hour of solar charging. Not great, but not really terrible, either, if you’re the kind of person who consistently forgets to charge your phone.

And as a bonus, I got to play with the Sharp Netwalker PC-Z1!

This thing is nigh-unusable for me. But I still think it’s cool!

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

TA Associates Shells Out $200 Million For Minority Stake In AVG Technologies

Private equity firm TA Associates has acquired a 25 percent stake in security software company AVG Technologies for $200 million. According to reports, the ownership was purchased from AVG’s shareholders and investors, including Intel Capital, and Benson Oak Capital, and Enterprise Investors, which remains the largest shareholder of AVG with 34 percent of shares.

Founded in 1991, AVG provides free antivirus and anti-spyware security software that is distributed through resellers and through the Web and supports all major operating systems and platforms. AVG currently has over 80 million users in 167 countries. AVG reported over $140 million in sales in 2008.

TA Associates says that the investment will be used to fund global expansion and potential add-on deals. The private equity firm also will be distributing cash to shareholders and some investors, which were rumored to want liquidity.

AVG’s technology was actually part of Microsoft Vista’s security essentials but the business is at threat now because Microsoft released the new security essentials which has their own free anti-virus engine, which was acquired from GeCAD in 2003 and Komoku in 2008.

In 2005, Intel Capital and Enterprise Investors invested $52 million into AVG. At that time, the company had 25 million users.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:28 pm

Flash Apps We’d Like to See on the iPhone

Adobe is finally bringing Flash to the iPhone. Now’s your chance to tell us what you think programmers should use this awesome power for.

Adobe has been working long and hard to finagle Apple into imbuing the iPhone with a full Flash experience. The solution unveiled Monday was a compromise at best: Adobe announced its new development kit would convert software written in Flash into standalone iPhone apps. Though this is a lesser Flash experience, Adobe claims there are over 1 million Flash developers worldwide, so expect a flood of new Flash iPhone apps and games to land in the App Store in the near future. Compare that to the 100,000 iPhone developers that Apple says are already out there, and you’ll get an idea of how this might start to change the landscape for iPhone apps.

That gets us in the mood for wishing. There are plenty of Flash-based games, apps and streaming-video sites we’d love to see turned into iPhone apps. Some examples include the Hulu TV-streaming service, the Straw Hat Samurai fighting game, or maybe even a mobile version of the Aviary multimedia suite.

Read on for our wish list of iPhone-ported Flash apps we’d like to see in the App Store. And after you’re done, feel more than welcome to suggest the Flash apps you want to see, in the Reddit-powered list below. If Flash developers see enough demand for their apps and games, they might feel compelled to deliver their wares to the iPhone.

One note: Before submitting your suggestions, make sure to check out Adobe’s limitations for converting Flash into iPhone apps. But keeping that in mind, let your imagination run wild. Ours have already.

Hulu

We have a feeling consumers wouldn’t have created such a fuss over the lack of Flash on the iPhone if a Hulu app were available. Imagine how great that would be. Missed the first episode of Flash Forward? On your bus ride home, launch the Hulu app, punch Flash Forward into a search and stream the episode over a 3G connection — all free, with the brief interruption of a few ads. We estimate this will make commuters’ lives 40 times less miserable. (If a Hulu app ever appears, AT&T and Apple might cripple it to work Wi-Fi only, but hey — this is a wishlist, so we can dream.)

Straw Hat Samurai

Samurai warriors are rad (almost as awesome as ninjas). Imagine how fun this game Straw Hat Samurai would be on an iPhone. The game involves using your mouse to draw lines onto the areas you’d like to slash your enemies to death. It’s charmingly simple, and with an iPhone it would be even better, using our fingers to swipe across the touchscreen to swing the sword. We think kids with an iPod Touch would especially love this game. Try it out at Kongregate if you haven’t already.

Dolphin Olympics 2

Yeah, that’s right — we like this dolphin game. Got a problem with that? It’s fun. You take on the role of a dolphin, and the goal is to do as many tricks as you can in two minutes. Sounds like a stupid time waster, we know, but that’s what all games are, right? See if you can make the dolphin fly into space, and then tell us this game isn’t entertaining.

Aviary

Aviary is a pretty impressive multimedia suite coded in Flash. In your desktop browser you can apply effects and make basic edits to images, and there’s even a vector-editing tool. We wouldn’t expect this to translate smoothly into an iPhone app, but it’d be great to see a lighter version modified for iPhone owners. We’re a pretty multimedia-savvy bunch, aren’t we?

We’re just getting this conversation started. Your ideas are probably even better. Add your wishlist items for Flash-ported iPhone apps in the Reddit widget below. And don’t forget to vote!

What Flash software would you like to see as a standalone iPhone app? Submit and vote on wishlist items below.

What Flash software would you like to see as a standalone iPhone app? Submit and vote on wishlist items below.

Submit your wishlist item

While you can submit as many items as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.

Back to top

See Also:

• Flash Lands on iPhone — One App at a Time
• Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone
• False Hopes: Adobe Desperate to Install Flash on the iPhone …

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:24 pm

Flash Apps We'd Like to See on the iPhone

Apple has not given Adobe the green light to integrate Flash into the iPhone. But Adobe has announced a way to convert Flash-coded software into standalone iPhone apps: Flash Professional CS5, due out by end of 2010. While we wait, here's a wishlist of Flash software we would love to see in the iPhone's App Store.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:24 pm

Flash Apps We'd Like to See on the iPhone

Apple has not given Adobe the green light to integrate Flash into the iPhone. But Adobe has announced a way to convert Flash-coded software into standalone iPhone apps: Flash Professional CS5, due out by end of 2010. While we wait, here's a wishlist of Flash software we would love to see in the iPhone's App Store.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:24 pm

London Calling: Foursquare Hopping Across The Pond This Week

One major complaint about the location-based social network Foursquare is that it’s not in enough cities, and that almost all of those cities are in the U.S. That’s due to change in a small, but meaningful way as Foursquare is planning to launch in London by the end of the week.

Currently, London and Amsterdam (which was previously launched) are specifically the only European cities on Foursquare’s roadmap, but if the London roll out goes well, there will be others in relatively short order, co-founder Dennis Crowley tells us. Not surprisingly, at least one of those is Paris, judging from a tweet sent from the Foursquare Twitter account earlier.

Every time we write about Foursquare, we get a lot of comments and emails wondering when it is coming to your city. Other services such as Gowalla, rely on crowd-sourcing much of the venue population so that they can be available in more cities. But while Foursquare has talked about using that approach more in the past, the company still feels most comfortable pre-populating cities as it wants to make sure it can scale as it grows. When pre-populating a city, Foursquare says that it tries to hit 80% of the places that people are most likely to go — obviously, that takes a lot of work out of the users hands, and instead they can simply “play” the game.

So will London users take to Foursquare? Obviously, that remains to be seen, but it does tend to do well in large metropolitan cities with a good amount of nightlife, as we’ve seen in the U.S. with New York and San Francisco.

Foursquare also looks poised to continue expanding its city base in the U.S. shortly. It would seem that places like Chapel Hill, NC are on the list. Chapel Hill is of course the home to the University of North Carolina, and college towns seem like a natural fit for Foursquare. Get ‘em hooked early, as they say.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:04 pm

Null-Prefix SSL Certificate For PayPal Released

An anonymous reader writes "Nine weeks after Moxie Marlinspike presented at Defcon 17, null-prefix certificates that exploit the SSL certificate vulnerability are beginning to appear. Yesterday, someone posted a null-prefix certificate for www.paypal.com on the full-disclosure mailing list. In conjunction with sslsniff, this certificate can be used to intercept communication to PayPal from all clients using the Windows Crypto API, for which a patch is still not available. This includes IE, Chrome, and Safari on Windows. What's worse, because of the OCSP attack that Moxie also presented at Defcon, this certificate cannot be revoked." Update: 10/06 23:19 GMT by KD: Now it seems that PayPal has suspended Marlinspike's account.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:45 pm

Digital Cameras With Room for New Views [The Mossberg Solution]

At a glance, the most obvious physical improvements on today’s digital cameras compared with those bought five years ago are slimmer size and larger LCD viewing screens. Other than that, they don’t look a whole lot different.

But this week, I tested two physical features that I’ve never seen on digital cameras.

[ See post to watch video ]

I used the $430 Nikon Coolpix S1000pj (nikonusa.com), which has a mini projector built right into the camera itself. This extra characteristic lets you take pictures and, by pressing a button on the camera, project them onto any nearby surface, in old-school slideshow style. The projected image can measure up to 40 inches, growing or shrinking as you walk away from or toward the surface onto which the images are projected.

I also tried the $350 Samsung DualView TL225, which had two LCD viewing screens—including one on the front side. This front screen lets the subjects of the photograph see how they look as the photo is being captured, raising the concept of instant gratification to a new level. The outward-facing LCD can also display a smiley face or cartoon animations to encourage children to smile. It also can be used to display a timer’s countdown clock so you know exactly when the photo will be taken.

Technical Advances

These two compact cameras also feature less obvious technical advances that aren’t quite as eye-catching as a built-in projector or dual LCD screens.

Each camera can capture photographs with over 12-megapixel resolutions, and the Nikon and Samsung have 5x and 4.6x wide-angle zoom lenses, respectively.

Both cameras have built-in automatic scene-detecting capability, meaning they can analyze a scene to determine which shooting mode would work best. And they allow the user to edit images directly on the camera like brightening an image or rotating a photo.

The Nikon sticks to one traditional 2.7-inch LCD screen with separate buttons that control functions like menu, timer, deleting and playback. And, like many digicams, it accepts a SecureDigital (SD) memory card.

Getting your good side: Samsung’s DualView TL225’s front LCD shows people how they’ll look in photos.

In somewhat unusual fashion, the Samsung requires a tiny microSD memory card. The viewing screen on the back of the Samsung is a generous 3.5-inch touch LCD that covers close to an entire side of the camera; the front-side LCD is 1.5 inches.

I focused my testing on the unique physical features of each camera: the Nikon’s built-in projector and the Samsung’s two LCD screens. I tried them out over the course of a week and used them in real-life situations including at a birthday party and at the Army 10-Miler, an annual run in Washington, D.C.

When the Nikon’s projector isn’t in use, it functions like a regular camera—albeit an expensive one at $430. Nikon says this price is largely due to the cost of its built-in projector. Until now, most people who wanted portable, mini projectors bought them as standalone products; for example, the Pico Pocket Projector from Optoma Technology Inc. is listed for $230 online at Best Buy (BBY).

Subway Show

I took the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj along to the Army 10-Miler, capturing photos of runners as they ran near the National Mall. Later on, while I waited with hundreds of people to get on the D.C. Metro subway system, a friend and I looked through photos from the day by projecting the camera’s images onto a concrete wall.

At first, passersby thought the slideshow images were put there by the race organizers, and they commented about how neat it was that the race images already were posted for everyone to see.

The D.C. Metro was an ideal spot to use the Nikon’s projector because of its low light and white concrete walls. Outdoors, the projected images weren’t quite as easy to see.

I also used the projector in a house and in my office, setting it on a table and turning off the lights for the best view. A tiny remote comes with the camera if you want to sit back and give your friends and family a slideshow. Videos taken with the camera also will play in video format.

To start the projector, I pressed a button on the top ledge of the camera, which immediately covered the lens and turned on the projector’s bright light. A slider button adjusts focus. The image size can be as small as five inches and as large as 40 inches, and it will project from about six feet away. Nikon says the camera’s projector will work for an hour before its battery runs out.

Nikon’s S1000pj displays images and videos with its brightly lit projector—just right for a subway slideshow.

Surprise, Surprise

The $350 Samsung DualView TL225 is black with an accent color that comes in purple or orange. Its front-side LCD screen isn’t visible when the camera is turned off, making for a surprising experience when you take pictures of friends who can suddenly see themselves.

A similar but slightly lower-quality and less-expensive version of this camera is available in the $300 Samsung DualView TL220. This camera’s back LCD screen is a half-inch smaller than the TL225’s and not nearly as bright. Other notable differences include the TL220’s plastic casing compared with the TL225’s aluminum.

Clowns in Action

This front LCD performs various functions in addition to showing people what they look like. A scene called Children puts animated cartoon clowns on the outer LCD in hopes of making a child smile for the camera. Another setting puts a large, yellow smiley face on this LCD when the shutter button is pressed down halfway. And when the camera’s timer is set, the outer display counts down, showing “3, 2, 1″ until the image is captured.

I used this Samsung camera with two LCD screens to take pictures of friends who were all surprised and delighted when they saw themselves on the camera before the photo was taken. At a birthday party, the clown animations made even a group of people in their 20s laugh.

Some Downsides

The downside to this display screen is that it’s to the left of the camera’s lens, so if you’re taking a close-up shot of someone, they will appear in the photo like they’re glancing away slightly.

Another negative of this display is that it blacks out a split second before the photo is taken, so as long as you can hold the pose you saw of yourself on the screen, you’ll look fine.

It’s too early to know whether the innovations in these cameras will catch on, or be viewed over time as expensive gimmicks.

If these features become more common, hopefully the prices will come down and more consumers will be able to enjoy them.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Source: All Things Digital | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:36 pm

AT&T Relents, Opens iPhone to Skype, VoIP

Under pressure from the feds, AT&T opens up the iPhone to internet calling applications, including Skype. Score another win for wireless openess.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:30 pm

AT&T Relents, Opens iPhone to Skype, VoIP

Under pressure from the feds, AT&T opens up the iPhone to internet calling applications, including Skype. Score another win for wireless openess.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:30 pm

Wired Explains: How 3-D Television Works

“Larger than life” takes on a whole new meaning when you watch Beowulf swing from a dragon and hack branches that seem to just pop out of the TV.

TV manufacturers want to bring that experience to your living room with 3-D displays that work much like the ones in the theaters. Major consumer-electronics companies, including Panasonic, Mitsubishi and Sony, are betting on 3-D, with compatible TV sets planned for the market in 2010.

Sneak Peek:
3-D TV Menu Systems Are Surprisingly Complicated
If three-dimensional television becomes the next HD — the way much of the industry hopes it will — how are viewers going to navigate those channels?
Read more on Epicenter.

To understand why, here’s a short primer on how our vision works.  Our eyes are about 3 inches apart, which means each eye sees a slightly different perspective of the same scene. The brain takes images from both eyes, fuses them together and uses the difference between the images to calculate distance, creating a sense of depth.

Getting the 3-D effect at home involves tricking the brain into doing something similar with the images that it gets from a TV set. But that’s not a trivial problem: TV makers have to figure out a way to precisely show a set of slightly different images to each of your eyes.

So how do they do that? Here are the key technologies that are making their way into 3-D TVs.

Color Filter Glasses

Remember the old red-and-blue glasses at movie theaters that came to define 3-D in the 1950s? The tinting acts as color filters, so the image specific to that particular eye is seen by it. With both eyes seeing slightly different perspectives of the same image, a 3-D effect is created.

But the red and blue glasses can make you sick — literally. And the color filtering limits the colors that can be used to create content, so 3-D content using this technique is not very vivid. That’s why most movie theaters don’t use the tech any more, and neither do TV manufacturers.

Pros: Inexpensive, quick and easy way to watch and create 3-D movies or shows.

Cons: Since the image input to the eye is not controlled, it can cause headaches, nausea and just that icky feeling that kills the thrill of 3-D. It’s not worth the trouble, because the 3-D picture is not much to look at either.

Shutter Glasses

In this method, the left and right images are alternated rapidly on the HDTV. A single sequential imager switches very rapidly between the left and right images when projecting the information on a display.

For the eye to view the right set of images, viewers have to wear a pair of battery-powered glasses with shutters that can open and close rapidly. Each shutter is synchronized to transmit the wanted image and block out the unwanted one.

The two sides open and close in alternation while the screen displays left- and right-eye images in sync with the glasses. The shutter glasses are in sync with the screen’s refresh rate of 120 Hz. The result is that the left eye sees only the intended left view of the image, and the right eye sees the intended right view, and it happens so fast that your brain blends it together into a single, stereoscopic image.

The technique is called active-shutter technology. Active-shutter glasses contain liquid crystal, a receiver-transmitter combination that uses infrared, Bluetooth or radio technology. The HDTV sends a signal to the glasses to synchronize them to the images on the screen. Meanwhile, alternating electrical signals activate the LCD screen in the lens, blocking or transmitting the view.

The active-shutter glass idea has become popular among big TV makers such as Panasonic and Sony. Both  have committed to having at least one model of 3-D ready TVs in stores by the end of 2010.

Pros: Glasses are relatively inexpensive, no ghosting effect or delayed images that results when tinted glasses are used. Reduced viewer fatigue. Most likely to be available next year.

Cons: It’s like watching television with your sunglasses on. There can be up to a 50 percent loss of picture brightness. Add to that the timing lag and 3-D can get a bit rocky. In case of fast-moving sequences like a NASCAR race, the flicker can be noticeable.

Polarized Glasses

An alternative to active shutter glasses are polarized glasses that have lenses similar to those on sunglasses. The lenses have polarization that is adjusted to be orthogonal — set perpendicularly at 90-degree angles — to one another.

The 3-D material is projected by two projectors, which each have polarizing lenses in front of them. The surface on which the images are projected is coated with special chemicals so it does not affect the polarization.

Because each filter passes only the light that is similarly polarized and blocks the orthogonally polarized light, each eye sees only the image intended for it. The brain then puts these images together to create a three-dimensional effect.

Though the big boys of consumer electronics are not yet betting on this, the method offers the best viewing experience we have seen so far. Take the technology from HDI Labs, a startup that can take two separate full-resolution imagers and integrate it as one projector.  For viewers, this means no reduction in image quality, and brightness that is almost as good as what you can get from a traditional LCD TV. Increasingly, movie theaters are offering polarized glasses for 3-D movies.

Meanwhile, LG has said it is working on having a 3-D ready TV next year based with polarized glasses.

Pros: Light weight; pictures with amazing level of detail and color.

Cons: The big TV makers have to still buy into the technology.

No Glasses

If putting on a pair of glasses all day to watch TV sounds annoying, there’s a way to do it without glasses called autostereoscopy. There are two ways to get this right: lenticular lenses or the parallax barrier.

Take LG’s 3D TV intriguingly codenamed M4200D. The idea uses cylindrical plastic lenses known as lenticules. The lenticules are placed on a transparent sheet which is fixed on the LCD screen.

The lenticules must be perfectly aligned with the image underneath. Each lenticule then acts as a magnifying glass to enlarge and display the portion of the image below it.

The viewer’s eye directly perpendicular to the screen sees the portion of the LCD that is directly under each lens. The other eye, observing the screen from a slightly different angle, sees a portion of the LCD that is off-center under each lens. The brain then combines the two views to create the perception of depth.

The idea comes with some real fine print. It requires an optimum viewing distance of 13 feet (or 4 meters), and there’s no messing around with that. Sit outside that zone and you are likely to see a set of muddled images.

The parallax barrier works on a similar principle.  It has a layer of material with some precise slits placed in front of a regular LCD screen. These allow each eye to see a different set of pixels creating the 3-D effect.

For instance, Sharp, which has shown 3-D TVs that don’t require glasses, has developed electrically switchable liquid crystals that are aligned with the columns of pixels in the display. When switched on, the parallax barrier controls the direction at which the light leaves the display and the way it hits your eyes. Even better, the parallax barrier can be switched off for 2-D content.

Both LG and Sharp TVs are still in the prototype stage. Sharp’s 3-D TV technology is unlikely to hit the production line anytime soon. Philips, which has also shown a concept 3-D TV in the past, has said it is not working on bringing the TVs to market.

Pros: No glasses required. It’s like watching TV the old fashioned way.

Cons: You need to sit in one of the “sweet spots” to get the image right. Also sitting in the lotus position may be preferred. Okay, we made the last part up — but this technology definitely requires you to sit in exactly the right spot. No lying down on the floor!

See Also:

• Video: How IMAX Wizards Convert Harry Potter to 3-D
• Fujifilm’s 3-D Digicam Almost Ready for Stores
• Five Failed 3-D Technologies
• For TV Networks, Election Is an Orgy of Gee-Whiz 3-D Tech

Top Photo: (dryxe/Flickr); Red-Blue Glasses (Gecko Photo/Flickr); Polarized Glasses (Adrian Gonsalves/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:05 pm

Wired Explains: How 3-D Television Works

3-D television is poised to take off this year, with Sony, Panasonic and Mitsubishi jumping on the bandwagon. We’ll explain how various versions of the technology work, and when you’ll be able to get them in your living room.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:00 pm

Wired Explains: How 3-D Television Works

3-D television is poised to take off this year, with Sony, Panasonic and Mitsubishi jumping on the bandwagon. We’ll explain how various versions of the technology work, and when you’ll be able to get them in your living room.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:00 pm

Another Ad Exchange Boss Leaves: Jeff Green Out at Microsoft's AdECN [MediaMemo]

Ad exchanges–giant, automated markets for online advertising buyers and sellers–are supposed to be a huge deal. So why doesn’t anyone want to run them anymore?

Last month, Google (GOOG) lost Michael Rubenstein, the head of its ad exchange, shortly before the ad giant formally rolled out the service to the public. Now Jeff Green, the top guy at Microsoft’s AdECN exchange, is out as well.

In an email memo, Green says today is his last day working for Microsoft (MSFT), which bought his company a little more than two years ago; he doesn’t mention what he’s doing next. Green’s old boss, former AdECN CEO William Urschel, left Microsoft earlier this summer.

One big difference between Green’s departure and Rubenstein’s move, which saw him land at AppNexus, a quasi-stealth ad exchange: Rubenstein left a few weeks before his ad exchange launched, to much hoopla. But Microsoft hasn’t said much about its exchange product for quite some time, and ad industry insiders believe the product is stalled in Redmond.

I’ve reached out to Green for more info and will update if I hear back. Here’s the text of his goodbye message:

From: Jeff Green
Date: October 6, 2009 9:52:24 AM PDT
To:
Subject: Thank you

Dear Friends & Colleagues –
As you may know, today is my last day with MSFT/AdECN.
I can’t believe how far we have come in such a short time. Though nearly 5 years ago, it seems like yesterday we started AdECN as pioneers in the exchange space. Using an auction for every impression, we debated whether to build an ad network or an exchange. We opted to build an exchange because there were hundreds of ad networks but there were zero exchanges.  We launched in London with our mantra of neutrality and with great partners despite some of the ad network objections:
“The world doesn’t need an ad exchange. It needs our network.”
“If you succeed, you threaten our business. We hope you fail.”
“You’ll make online advertising a bloody complicated mess and then go bask in the f*&$in sun while I’m still doing this ad sh^$.”
It was quite a testament to the model that momentum grew so quickly.  It is amazing to look at the exchange landscape now and see so many companies built on or around the exchange model. It has been great to see how much things have moved even in the short time that we’ve been preparing for our federated pilot this fall. Microsoft continues to make the exchange a central part of its strategy. Similarly, Google’s Eric Schmidt recently declared the exchange was Google’s top priority. Growing transparency and buyer/seller control is great for the industry. The market has evolved so far so fast.
The true exchanges will always be more of a referee than a player–since they are in the business of creating a fair market. As I look across the playing field, I see massive amounts of opportunity and I look forward to playing in the ad game in the next chapter.
Anyway, I primarily write this email because I want to say thank you. This chapter has been one of the most exciting of my life. AdECN never could have grown like it has without great employees, great partners, great clients, and a great parent company–Microsoft. I sincerely thank you for your partnership—and in many cases, friendship.
For Microsoft’s AdECN/TPAN/reseller matters going forward. Please contact the following:
Jed Nahum (EMAIL REDACTED) The manager of the TPAN team going forward and is very acquainted with the exchange.
David Coburn (EMAIL REDACTED) The manager of the AdECN product team and the AdECN Biz Dev team for at least the interim.
Ben Mottau (EMAIL REDACTED) manages all ad broker/buy-side partnerships for AdECN.
Jason Shue (EMAIL REDACTED) manages all pub broker/sell-side partnerships for AdECN.

I would very much like to keep in touch. Linked in and my cell phone is the best way going forward: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefftgreen and XXX.XXX.XXXX.

Best wishes.

Until next time,

Jeff Green

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090915/here-comes-the-google-ad-exchange/

Source: All Things Digital | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:58 pm

Watch Out, Tesla, Audi's e-Tron Is Coming

We could see an electric car with tank-like torque and R8 looks in as little as two years.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:58 pm

Google, Openness Triumph as Verizon Adds Android Phones

Verizon announces Tuesday that it will soon sell Google-powered smartphones. But the announcement really means that openness -- even if only Google-style -- triumphs over the insular business models of wireless companies.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:58 pm

Google, Openness Triumph as Verizon Adds Android Phones

Verizon announces Tuesday that it will soon sell Google-powered smartphones. But the announcement really means that openness -- even if only Google-style -- triumphs over the insular business models of wireless companies.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:58 pm

Eolas To Sue Apple, Google, and 21 Others

vinodis and several other readers sent along the news that Eolas is suing 23 companies including Apple and Google for patent infringement. The company won $585M from Microsoft in a drawn-out, 9-year battle that the companies settled in 2007; in the course of it the USPTO upheld the "906" patent several times. Now, Eolas is also in possession of a newly-issued patent that they claim covers the use of any browser plugin with AJAX. Let's see how far this lawsuit gets before the Supreme Court plays its wildcard in the Bilski case, which we have been discussing for a while now.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:56 pm

Dino Footprints Set New Record

The world's largest dinosaur tracks have been excavated by French researchers.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:45 pm

AT&T Greenlights VoIP For the iPhone. Too Bad Google Voice Isn’t VoIP.

Yesterday, we saw a Vonage app hit the App Store, which seemed to go against Apple and AT&T's previous stance that VoIP apps that work over the 3G (and 2G) network would not be allowed in the App Store. Turns out there's been a policy change. AT&T has just announced that it will no longer restrict VoIP apps that use its network on the iPhone, a move which is long overdue considering that it was already allowing these on other phones. But don't be fooled. A rumor earlier today about the move suggested that AT&T was thinking about letting Google Voice on the iPhone alongside Skype, Vonage, and other VoIP apps. There's two problems here. First, Google Voice isn't actually a VoIP app. Second, AT&T did not have anything to do with the Google Voice rejection (or non-approval, whatever), that was all Apple.

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:19 pm

New Graphical Representation of the Periodic Table

KentuckyFC writes "The great power of Mendeleev's periodic table was that it allowed him to predict the properties of undiscovered elements. But can this arrangement be improved? Two new envisionings of the periodic table attempt to do just that. The first uses a new graphical representation that shows the relative sizes of atoms as well as their groups and periods. The other uses the same kind of group theoretical approach that particle physicists developed to classify particles by their symmetries (abstract). That helped particle physicists predict the existence of new particles, but may have limited utility for chemists who seem to have discovered (or predicted) all of the elements they need already."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:10 pm

Shields Up!: Your privacy isn’t Facebook’s concern?

Section: Computers, Security, Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking, Features, Originals, Columns

Facebook’s messaging system is widely used and very convenient, but it’s also got some serious security flaws as far as privacy is concerned.  Let’s take a look:

Even non friends can message you.

The site’s default is to allow anyone, even those not on your friends list, to message you.  This means a spammer or scammer can simply open an account, harvest some names from the Facebook directory (which again the default is to include everyone) and then send a message to them all containing spam, a phishing attempt or even malware.

To block anyone not on your friends list from sending you messages, click on Settings, then scroll down to privacy and click manage, and then click on Search.  You’ll be presented with a check list of things people who search for you can see.  This includes your photo, friends list, a link to add you as a friend, and a link to send you a message.  Uncheck that one and any other items you don’t want non friends to see when you are searched for in the directory.

After you’ve been added to a thread it’s impossible to remove yourself from it or block it.

 
Whether you just want to excuse yourself from a chat thread or find yourself on a spammers mailing list, you’re stuck.  Facebook offers absolutely no way to remove yourself or block a thread, other than the overly drastic step of deleting your FB account, which few of us would ever consider doing.

Blocking people doesn’t stop them from messaging you.

It’s true!  Say you decide to block a spammer or even a friend you’ve had a falling out with.  Since they’ve already messaged you, as long as they have access to that message (or a past message from you) they can still contact you.  This is particularly grievous to anyone who has blocked someone due to harassment as the nasty messages will still keep coming.  Again, the only solution Facebook offers is to delete your account.  Shameful. 

While Facebook does offer a report system it seldom does much good.  It’s far better to let users be proactive and decide for themselves who they do and do not want to receive messages from.  Are you listening, Facebook?

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 3:04 pm

IEA Says Recession To Help Reduce Carbon Emissions

The sluggish global economy could actually have benefits for reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions by 3 percent this year, according to a report from the International Energy Agency on Tuesday.IEA economist Fatih Birol told reporters that the 3 percent drop from the previous year would represent the largest in 40 years.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 2:40 pm

Rumor: HTC working on new flagship Android device – the Dragon

What do you get when you mix HTC, Android, and Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon mobile processor together? No, it’s not the amazing (recycled from an old Snapdragon post) image above…but it’s close. According to the rumor mill, this mythical combination will yield…the HTC Dragon.

Based on the tip / leaked screenshots (below) over at DroidDog, all we know so far about this fantasy device is that it’s ‘model number’ is HTC Dragon. Supposedly, this work-in-progress could include a mighty 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, run Android 2.0 with HTC Sense, have a 480×800 capacitive touch screen display, and is expected to be a “GAME CHANGER” for HTC (and presumably Android as well).

Just imagine an incredibly thin device with a giant 4.3″ capacitive touch screen display (like the HD2) and all of the benefits of Android 2.0 and a powerful 1Ghz processor. Throw in solid battery life and multiple carrier options, and there is no question that the Dragon would be a force to reckon with. You got this, HTC. Bring the Dragon to life!

[via PhoneArena and Phandroid]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 2:35 pm

Sidekicks fail en masse – but they’re on their way back up

Looks like there’s a serious outage going on for Sidekick users. Starting in the last few days, data services have been broken off and even address books have been inaccessible. Apparently the problem is with Danger and Microsoft, not with T-Mobile. My G1 is on T-Mo and I’ve had no data troubles — and it’s Microsoft that’s scrambling to fix the issue. Around the clock, even!

Apparently they’ve gotten many “critical applications” back online, which seems to include everything you’d want to use: “address book and calendar, social media applications, IM, web browsing, media player and camera.” What else can a phone do?!

At any rate, they say they’ll have everything back to 100% by Thursday. anybody out there still having issues?

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 2:30 pm

London Stock Exchange Rejects .NET For Open Source

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "This summer, the London Stock Exchange decided to move away from its Microsoft .Net-based trading platform, TradElect. Instead, they'll be using the GNU/Linux-based MillenniumIT system. The switch is a pretty savage indictment of the costs of a complex .Net system. The GNU/Linux-based software is also faster, and offers several other major benefits. The details provide some fascinating insights into the world of very high performance — and very expensive — enterprise systems. ... [R]ather than being just any old deal that Microsoft happened to lose, this really is something of a total rout, and in an extremely demanding and high-profile sector. Enterprise wins for GNU/Linux don't come much better than this."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 2:24 pm

Could AT&T have supported an SDK-less iPhone?

FROM APPLETELL - Originally, apps on the iPhone were a no-no; the iPhone’s killer apps were to be accessed via Safari. This was an interesting, and obviously ill-fated strategy, but several events lately set me to thinking…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 2:15 pm

Peering Inside Living Cells

Electron flowElectron microscopes use a particle beam of electrons, instead of light, to image specimens. Resolution of electron microscope images ranges from 0.2 to 10 nanometers — 10 to 1,000 times greater than a traditional light microscope. Electron microscopes can also magnify samples up to two million times, while light microscopes are limited to 2,000 times.However, biologists have been unable to unleash the high power of electron microscopes on living specimens, because of the destructive power of the electrons.The radiation dose received by a specimen during electron microscope imaging is comparable to the irradiation from a 10-megaton hydrogen bomb exploded about 30 meters away. When exposed to such energetic electron beams, biological specimens experience rapid breakdown, modification of chemical bonds, or other structural damages.Although there exist special chambers to keep biological samples in a watery environment within the high vacuum required for electron microscopes, chemical preservation or freezing, which kill cells, is still required before biological samples can be viewed with existing electron microscopes.In the proposed quantum mechanical setup, electrons would not directly strike the object being imaged. Instead, an electron would flow around one of two rings, arranged one above the other. The rings would be close enough together that the electron could hop easily between them. However, if an object (such as a cell) were placed between the rings, it would prevent the electron from hopping, and the electron would be trapped in one ring.This setup would scan one "pixel" of the specimen at a time, putting them all together to create the full image. Whenever the electron was trapped, the system would know that there was a dark pixel in that spot.Though technical challenges would need to be overcome (such as preventing the imaging electron from interacting with electrons of the metals in the microscope), Yanik believes that eventually such a microscope could achieve a few nanometers of resolution. That level of resolution would allow scientists to view molecules such as enzymes in action inside living cells, and even single nucleic acids — the building blocks of DNA.Yanik, the Robert J. Shillman Career Development Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, says he expects the work will launch experimental efforts that could lead to a prototype within the next five years.Charles Lieber, professor of chemistry at Harvard and an expert in nanoscale technology, describes Yanik's proposal as a "highly original and exciting concept for 'noninvasive' high-resolution imaging" using an electron microscope."From my perspective, it has the potential to be a breakthrough for those working with sensitive samples, such as biological imaging," Lieber says. "Also, in general terms I find his work intellectually exciting because it is not incremental but takes a quantum (excuse the pun) jump forward through creative thinking."By Anne Trafton, MIT News Office---Image Caption: An electron microscope image of a butterfly's wings. Graphic: Christine Daniloff; electron micrograph image courtesy of the NSF.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:55 pm

Fans Come Together To Complete Star Wars Uncut

eldavojohn writes "Star Wars Uncut has taken a novel approach to remaking Star Wars IV: A New Hope. You merely sign up for a 15 second clip, film it and submit it. The trailer is now complete and I will suspect you might enjoy the high quality (and low quality) of some of the already accepted scenes. 251 scenes remain in need of claiming with 688 claimed and 291 finished. Do your part to remake one of the greatest movies by filming fifteen seconds of yourself and your friends!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:35 pm

Google Voice to ride with Verizon

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

One big piece of info coming out of the Google/Verizon announcement today is that Google Voice will be a big part of the Google phones Verizon will carry, starting with two this year.  Verizon and Google have been working together for over a year on this and they expect the multi-year partnership will produce more phones every year.

Google Voice made the headlines when it was denied from the Apple App Store for the iPhone and prompted government questioning from the FCC.  The service from Google allows you to have one phone number that can ring other numbers along with a host of advanced digital services.  The service has the potential to shift costs from a mobile line to a landline but Verizon doesn’t seem to pay that any mind.  Instead, Verizon is using it as a differentiator to keep AT&T at bay.

“Verizon plans to support Google Voice. You either have an open device or not. This will be open.” Lowell McAdam, CEO Verizon Wireless.

Also noted in the talk, Google will have input on the hardware.  Google is not getting into the hardware game but will advise which form factors might work best with their OS.  Interesting huh?

Read [Silicon Valley Insider]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:27 pm

Arctic Sea Ice Recovers Slightly In 2009

Remains On Downward TrendDespite a slight recovery in summer Arctic sea ice in 2009 from record-setting low years in 2007 and 2008, the sea ice extent remains significantly below previous years and remains on a trend leading toward ice-free Arctic summers, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center.According to the CU-Boulder center, the 2009 minimum sea ice extent was the third lowest since satellite record-keeping began in 1979. The past five years have seen the five lowest Arctic sea ice extents ever recorded."It's nice to see a little recovery over the past couple of years, but there's no reason to think that we're headed back to conditions seen in the 1970s," said NSIDC Director Mark Serreze, also a professor in CU-Boulder's geography department. "We still expect to see ice-free summers sometime in the next few decades."The average ice extent during September, a standard measurement for climate studies, was 2.07 million square miles (5.36 million square kilometers). This was 409,000 square miles (1.06 million square kilometers) greater than the record low for the month in 2007, and 266,000 square miles (690,000 square kilometers) greater than the second-lowest extent recorded in September 2008.The 2009 Arctic sea ice extent was still 649,000 square miles (1.68 square kilometers) below the 1979-2000 September average, according to the report. Arctic sea ice in September is now declining at a rate of 11.2 percent per decade and in the winter months by about 3 percent per decade. The consensus of scientists is that the shrinking Arctic sea ice is tied to warming temperatures caused by an increase in human-produced greenhouse gases being pumped into Earth's atmosphere, as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Sea surface temperatures in the Arctic this season remained higher than normal, but slightly lower than the past two years, according to data from University of Washington Senior Oceanographer Mike Steele. The cooler conditions, which resulted largely from cloudy skies during late summer, slowed ice loss compared to the past two years. In addition, atmospheric patterns in August and September helped to spread out the ice pack, keeping extent higher.The September 2009 ice cover remained thin, leaving it vulnerable to melt in coming summers, according to the CU-Boulder report. At the end of the summer, younger, thinner ice less than one year in age accounted for 49 percent of the ice cover. Second- year ice made up 32 percent of the ice cover, compared to 21 percent in 2007 and 9 percent in 2008.Only 19 percent of the ice cover was over two years old -- the least ever recorded in the satellite record and far below the 1981-2000 summer average of 48 percent, according to the CU-Boulder report. Measurements of sea ice thickness by satellites are used to determine the age of the ice.Earlier this summer, NASA researcher Ron Kwok and colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle published satellite data showing that ice thickness declined by 2.2 feet between 2004 and 2008."We've preserved a fair amount of first-year ice and second-year ice after this summer compared to the past couple of years," said NSIDC scientist Walt Meier of CU-Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. "If this ice remains in the Arctic thorough the winter, it will thicken, which gives some hope of stabilizing the ice cover over the next few years. However, the ice is still much younger and thinner than it was in the 1980s, leaving it vulnerable to melt during the summer."Arctic sea ice follows an annual cycle of melting through the warm summer months and refreezing in the winter. Sea ice reflects sunlight, keeping the Arctic region cool and moderating global climate temperatures.While Arctic sea ice extent varies from year to year because of changing atmospheric conditions, ice extent has shown a dramatic overall decline over the past 30 years."A lot of people are going to look at the graph of ice extent and think that we've turned the corner on climate change," said NSIDC Lead Scientist Ted Scambos of CU-Boulder's CIRES. "But the underlying conditions are still very worrisome."NSIDC is part of CIRES and is funded primarily by NASA.---Image Caption: This graphics show multi-year Arctic sea ice changes. Credit: Courtesy C. Fowler and J. Maslanik, University of Colorado at Boulder
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pm

Motorola: No WinMo 6.5 for us, thanks.

Ouch. I knew I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t too fond of Windows Mobile 6.5, but I’m just a lowly blogger; when your hardware partners start bailing, its gotta sting a little.

At their Android ecosystem event this morning, Motorola’s VP of Software and Ecosystem Christy Wyatt disclosed that Moto’s relationship with Windows Mobile was temporarily going on hold. While the company will be focusing on “two strategic platforms” when it comes to smartphones (Android is one, obviously – beyond that, your guess is as good as ours), they’ll be waiting for Microsoft’s next platform release before sparking things up again.

While that means we definitely shouldn’t expect any WinMo 6.5 phones from Motorola, it’s also sounding like any Moto handsets currently running WinMo 6.1 aren’t going to see any upgrades.

[Via Phonescoop]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:15 pm

Man-Made Activities Affect Blue Haze

“Blue haze,” a common occurrence that appears over heavily forested areas around the world, is formed by natural emissions of chemicals, but human activities can worsen it to the point of affecting the world’s weather and even cause potential climate problems, according to a study led by a Texas A&M University researcher.Renyi Zhang, professor of atmospheric sciences who has studied air chemistry for more than 20 years, says blue haze (tiny particles or aerosols suspended in the air) can be negatively affected by human activities such as power plants or fossil-fuel burning.Team members included researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, the Molina Center for Energy and Environment in La Jolla, Calif., and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:14 pm

Do Dust Particles Curb Climate Change?

Image Caption: Every cloud is different from the next. It is therefore important to study the types of cloud systems in which aerosols have the greatest influence. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Meteorology / Stevens
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:07 pm

Sprint announces the Windows Mobile 6.5-based Samsung Intrepid

And Windows Mobile 6.5 Day keeps on rollin’! Further proving that the mobile phone industry is complete out of names to use, Sprint and Samsung have just announced a device they’ve decided to dub the “Intrepid”.

While we wouldn’t have guessed it at first glance, that 2.5″ screen is actually a touchscreen. They’ve got a full QWERTY keyboard down below that, with a 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and microSD slot tucked inside.

As a test, we asked four people what they thought “Intrepid” mean, without allowing them to look it up. One said “Clever”. Two others thought it meant “gross”, or “evil”. One person got it right, with “fearless”. 1/4 people having any clue what the hell you’re going for with the name of your product isn’t too bad, right? Anyone?

Look for the device to hit the shelves this Sunday for $150 bucks after mail-in rebate.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 1:03 pm

Google Finds DRAM Errors More Common Than Believed

An anonymous reader writes "A Google study of DRAM errors in their data centers found that they are hundreds to thousands of times more common than has been previously believed. Hard errors may be the most common failure type. The DIMMs themselves appear to be of good quality, and bad mobo design may be the biggest problem." Here is the study (PDF), which Google engineers published with a researcher from the University of Toronto.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Oct 2009 | 12:57 pm

Making intranets more like the Internet with enterprise search

Employees at big companies often have mountains of information available to do their jobs — information that lives (and hides!) in various areas within the organization. The information can lie buried deep within an enterprise content management system or a company intranet. Unlike the Internet, however, this info isn't necessarily well organized — there isn't always a searchable index to sift through and get good results. Lots of companies want to make searching their intranet more like searching the Internet — bringing Google.com-type search to their internal information stores.

Mercer, the global professional services company, has been dealing with this issue for a while. Their intranet, Mercer Link, has more than 350,000 webpages, and over 1.5 million docs in a content management system— lots of information for employees to search through as they work on projects for clients. They're now using the Google Search Appliance to give employees a more searchable intranet experience, so the docs and pages that were hidden or hard to find are now easier to track down fast. Mercer's enterprise search architect Haroon Suleman, along with AMR Research's Jim Murphy, will be sharing the company's search story in a special webinar aimed at enterprises, "Search: A Vital Element to a Content Strategy," this Thursday, October 8 at 11 a.m. PDT. You can register and learn more about the conversation here — hope you can join.

Posted by Vijay Koduri, Google Enterprise Search team

Source: The Official Google Blog | 6 Oct 2009 | 12:50 pm

World's Historic Monuments at Risk

A number of cultural heritage sites are threatened by neglect or overdevelopment.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 12:30 pm

Verizon Promises Two New Android Phones This Year

Verizon has promised to offer two new mobile phones based on Google's Android operating system. We look at the likely candidates.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Oct 2009 | 12:29 pm

Verizon Promises Two New Android Phones This Year

One year after the first Android phone debuted, the open-source mobile operating system is finally picking up some steam.

Verizon has partnered with Google to offer two new mobile devices based on Android. The additions may add some excitement to the carrier’s otherwise lackluster smartphone lineup.

Verizon announced that it will have two Android-based phones in the “coming weeks.” It hasn’t said which Android phones will be on its network but there are two likely candidates: Motorola Sholes and the HTC Hero.

In June, HTC introduced the Hero, a phone with a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, GPS, a digital compass, a 5-megapixel auto focus camera and expandable microSD memory. The device features an anti-fingerprint coating on the screen for smudge resistance and a Teflon coating on the exterior. The phone has a specially designed user interface that lets users organize create different customized content profiles around specific functions or times. Users can also add widgets such as Twitter, Facebook, weather and e-mail to the phone.  Verizon rival Sprint has already said it will offer the HTC Hero on its network.

The Motorola Sholes is still under wraps. Motorola hasn’t announced the device yet but leaks online suggest that it is strong candidate for Verizon. The Sholes is expected to have a 3.7-inch touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Motorola said it will have a new Android phone ready for consumers later this year. In September, Motorola announced the Cliq, a phone that focuses on social networking. The Cliq will be available on T-Mobile.

Verizon also took a jab at AT&T and the iPhone in its announcement today. Verizon said its new phones will support Google Voice on its network, something that Apple reportedly rejected for the iPhone.

Photo: Google CEO Eric Schmidt (left) and Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, show the two new Android devices they have planned for the year.
Verizon

See Also:

• Why You Can’t Get a Good Phone With Verizon
• Verizon Mifi: Personal Wi-Fi Coming this Month
• Verizon Leads, AT&T Runs Last in Wired.com’s 3G Speed Test
  

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Oct 2009 | 12:29 pm

HTC HD2! United States! Q1 2010!

Bam! There we were complaining that it would likely be a long time before the mind-blowingly gorgeous HTC HD2 showed its face stateside, and SlashGear managed to get a date out of them. According to HTC CEO Peter Chou, we should see this hit the shores sometime in Q1 of 2010.

Sure, it’ll still be a few months before that vague 3-month window even begins — and the damn thing is running WinMo 6.5 — but you know what? We’ll forgive it. Just let us touch it.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 12:05 pm

HTC announces the HD2 (aka Leo)…for Europe

You win some, you lose some. In this case, the European mobile market is the winner of HTC’s newest handset, the HD2 (previously known as Leo), while the US is s#^% out of luck…for the time being.

This beautiful device is sure to make many a jaw drop with its glorious 4.3″ 480×800 WVGA capacitive touch screen display (i.e. “the world’s first capacitive touch technology on a Windows phone”) and 11mm thick thin body. But the fun doesn’t stop here, kids.

The HD2 is HTC’s first WinMo (6.5, in this case) device to sport the company’s attractive Sense UI. For those of you who are unfamiliar (er, live under a rock), HTC Sense offers:

a holistic experience that focuses on making phones work in the most intuitive way. HTC Sense is based on three core principles – make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected.

Along with all the eye candy, the HD2 is packing some serious processing power with the inclusion of a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 512MB ROM. Other notable features include a 5MP auto-focus camera with dual LED flash, microSD expansion slot, 1230 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 3.5mm stereo audio jack, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, and a whole lot more.

Look for this stunning device to become available “later this month with selected operators across Europe, before rolling out to other regions in the coming months.”

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 11:46 am

2009 Nobel Physics Prize Awarded To Three Americans

The 2009 Nobel Prize was awarded to three physicists on Tuesday for work on fiber optics and light sensing that helped unleash the Information Technology revolution, AFP reported.The Nobel jury hailed Charles Kao, Willard Boyle and George Smith as "the masters of light" for transforming communications from copper-wire telephony and postal mail to the era of the Internet, email and instant messaging.It said the men created many practical innovations for everyday life and provided new tools for scientific exploration.The Nobel jury recognized fiber-optic cable, which enables transmission of data at the speed of light, and the digital sensor that is the digital camera's “electronic eye”.Kao was awarded half of the prize for groundbreaking achievements in the use of glass fibers for optical communication.The jury noted that if it were to unravel all of the glass fibers that wind around the globe, it would get a single thread over one 600 million miles long -- which is enough to encircle the globe more than 25,000 times.Kao’s 1966 discovery means that text, music, images and video can be transferred around the globe in a split second, it said.Richard Epworth, who worked with Kao at Standard Telecommunications Laboratories in Harlow, England in the 1960s, said what the wheel did for transport, the optical fiber did for telecommunications.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 11:40 am

Oops! Verizon’s two Android phones get caught on camera

Duhwaaaah? Verizon was workin’ all hard this morning to ensure that no one slipped up and mentioned any names when it came to the devices that would emerge from the VZW/Google partnership. Then, not even an hour later, they put a picture of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam holding two separate devices in their own press release. Bloops!

Say hello to the Verizon Hero variant and what looks a whole-damn-lot like the top of the Motorola Sholes, everyone.

[Via EngadgetMobile]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Oct 2009 | 11:33 am

The FTC’s crackdown on bloggers

Section: Computers, Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a new set of rules for bloggers, which will require them to reveal any paid endorsements that they receive.  For instance, if you receive money from a company to review their product and post the review online, you will have to disclose this information in your post.  Any free products will need to be revealed as well, since the FTC counts these “gifts” as compensation.

Bloggers will not be the only ones covered under this new regulation.  Prominent users of social network sites, like Twitter and Facebook will also be forced to follow these new rules.  For instance, if a famous band refers their Twitter followers to a resort that they stayed at for free, they must disclose this information on their Twitter page.  Corporate affiliations must also be revealed in the new rules.  If you are raving about Mac OS, you better let your readers know that you work for Apple.

The bottom line?  Keep your ethics in line by admitting to any money or products you may receive when publishing online.

Read: [PC World]
Image Credit: Call Fire

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 11:33 am

iPhone Rhythm Game Tap Tap Revenge 3 Strutting Into App Store Soon

A major update for the hugely popular iPhone rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge is awaiting approval from Apple and should be launching any minute now (or day, depending on Apple’s mood) in the App Store, according to its developer Tapulous. What’s new? Mainly, in-app purchases.

Digital music enthusiasts should already be familiar with the idea after playing the hit console game Rock Band, which features a store selling songs for $2 a track. Tap Tap Revenge 3 will be selling songs for 50 cents each and will also distribute free tracks from indie artists.

Artists selling songs through Tap Tap Revenge 3 include Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, The Killers and No Doubt. Each paid track will also come with its own theme to match the artist’s music.

As for overall gameplay, not much has changed, but in social mode you can play online against friends. Playing in social mode you can grab goodies such as bombs and other weapons to mess with your opponent. You can also create your own profile and participate in a chat room.

Tap Tap Revenge 3 will cost $1 in the App Store when it launches. Have a favorite artist whose music you’d like to see in the game? Make a suggestion in the comments section below, and just maybe your wish will come true. See more screenshots below the jump.

Product Document [pdf]

See Also:

• Tap Tap Revenge 2 for iPhone Launches Tonight
• Nine Inch Nails-Branded Tap Tap Revenge Coming to iPhone …
• Nine Inch Nails’ iPhone App Lets You Tap Along to 13 Songs …
• Digitally Unlimited: Rushmore Star Embraces iPhone, Web to Sell …
• Gadgets, Games Help Musicians Offset Declining Sales

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Oct 2009 | 11:07 am

BLOG: McDonalds Plugs for Pluto

McDonalds' Happy Meal boxes claim NINE planets orbit our sun (including Pluto).
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 10:45 am

What is a browser?

I've been trying to explain to my mom for months what a web browser is, with little luck. After a few rounds of failed attempts, I grew curious about people's general understanding of web browsers. So I decided to conduct a highly-scientific (read: not scientific at all) survey of my friends and got the following results:


As it turns out, my mom's not the only one who is confused about web browsers — even though the browser is one of the most-used programs on computers.

For my mom, my friends and everyone else who may be wondering about web browsers, I created a one minute video to help explain what they're all about about:



I've also created a simple site, WhatBrowser.org, that gives even more information about browsers. On this site, you can see which web browser you're using, explore links to browser diagnostic tests and read some useful tips for getting the most out of your browser.

Lots of our time each day is spent online, and every page on the web is experienced through the browser. Unfortunately, most people don't realize that there are many browsers out there, which differ on features like speed, security and extensibility.

So, the next time you find yourself as the informal tech support for your family and friends, make sure to explain why their browser matters — and of course, what it is!

Posted by Jason Toff, Associate Product Marketing Manager and son of Alla Toff

Source: The Official Google Blog | 6 Oct 2009 | 10:29 am

Fiber Optics Pioneers Win Nobel Prize

Three scientists who developed fiber optics tech win the Nobel Prize in physics.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am

WATCH: How Green Can a Building Be?

This office building is about as green as it gets. Find out what makes it so Earth-friendly.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am

Brain Waves Surge Moments Before Death

Surges in brain activity just before death were seen in a study of seven patients.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 9:45 am

Google begins testing new minimalist homepage, complete with fading text

Section: Web, Websites, Google

I love when things are neat and orderly, in fact I would go as far as saying that I hate clutter.  Given that I am hoping Google continues to roll-out their latest test search page.

According to recent reports, some users who are visiting Google.com are seeing a page that has the text fading out, which in turn leaves only the Google logo and search box below it.  The text reportedly fades in and out depending on how and where you move your mouse.

Of course this new look is really not all that surprising to see, after all Google has long been fans of the minimalist look.  That said, I can already understand how some may think they are taking it a little far this time.  Unfortunately for me, I am not yet seeing this fading page, but even being a fan of any no-clutter look I am really not seeing the point here.

Maybe, just maybe if Google is looking to clear some clutter they can remove that silly “I’m feeling Lucky” button.  All things considered, this page would be nice to see with an option, let the users decide.  But in the end this page is still being tested and may never make it past this initial stage anyway.

Read [TechCrunch]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 9:03 am

BLOG: Coin Stashes Suggest Declining Rome

Buried coins suggest the Roman republic was in serious decline during 1st century B.C.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am

Polymer Solar Cells Get Boost From Silver Nanoparticles

Small bits of metal may play a new role in solar power.Researchers at Ohio State University are experimenting with polymer semiconductors that absorb the sun’s energy and generate electricity.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:38 am

Little Bit Of Lithium May Do Hydrogen A Lot Of Good

Study suggests strategies for converting hydrogen to metal at significantly lower pressuresScientists have a long and unsuccessful history of attempting to convert hydrogen to a metal by squeezing it under incredibly high and steady pressures.Metallic hydrogen is predicted to be a high-temperature superconductor. A superconductor is a state of matter where electrons, and thus electricity, can flow indefinitely and without resistance.In a paper published this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists from Cornell University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook announce a theoretical study that predicts the metallization of hydrogen-rich mixtures at significantly lower pressures.By adding small amounts of lithium to hydrogen, the study calculates that the resulting system may be metalized at around one-fourth the pressure required to metalize pure hydrogen. Funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF).Hydrogen and lithium are the first and third lightest elements in the universe, respectively. Under the temperature and pressures found on Earth, hydrogen is a gas and lithium is a metal. In hydrogen gas, the atoms are robustly bonded together in pairs and each hydrogen atom contributes one electron to the bonding. In chemistry shorthand, hydrogen is called H2.Hydrogen and lithium normally react with each other to form a stable compound. This lithium-hydrogen compound, or LiH, is not metallic.Metallic hydrogen is thought to be present in the interiors of planets like Jupiter and Saturn because of the intense gravitational forces and pressures that are found there.On Earth, researchers have tried to pry loose hydrogen's electron by squeezing it between the facets of a diamond anvil cell under pressures up to 3.4 million atmospheres. The pressure at sea level is one atmosphere. The pressure at the center of the Earth is around 3.5 million atmospheres. Scientists have not been successful with this method of steady pressures. They have been, however, with shock-wave methods.To get around hydrogen's decidedly fixed stance of not becoming a metal under currently accessible laboratory pressures, the research team used sophisticated computer programs.The programs theoretically calculate if hydrogen can be metalized by combining a lithium atom with varying numbers of hydrogen atoms. The programs also compute if metallic hydrogen can be made under pressures achievable in a laboratory.The lithium and hydrogen combinations predicted by the study currently do not exist on Earth.One of the combinations predicted by the team contains one lithium atom for every six hydrogen atoms or LiH6 (see top right image). The complex calculations predict that in the hypothetical compound the Li atom is triggered to release its lone outer electron, which is then distributed over the three H2 molecules.Under pressure, the hypothetical reaction forms a stable and metallic hydrogen compound. The calculations also predict that LiH6 could be a metal at normal pressures. However, under these conditions it is not stable and would decompose to form LiH and H2."The stable and metallic LiH6 compound is predicted to form around 1 million atmospheres, which is around 25 percent of the pressure required to metalize hydrogen by itself," said Eva Zurek, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor of chemistry at The State University of New York, Buffalo."Interestingly, between approximately 1 and 1.6 million atmospheres, all the LiH combinations studied were stable or metastable and all were metallic," said Roald Hoffmann, co-author, recipient of the 1981 Nobel Prize in chemistry and Cornell's Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters, Emeritus.Another one of the hypothetical compounds studied by the team was composed of one lithium atom and two hydrogen atoms or LiH2 (see bottom right image)."The theoretical study opens the exciting possibility that non-traditional combinations of light elements under high pressure can produce metallic hydrogen under experimentally accessible pressures and lead to the discovery of new materials and new states of matter," said Daryl Hess, a program director in the NSF Division of Materials Research."Once again, these researchers have taken chemistry to a new frontier," said Carol Bessel, a program director in the NSF Division of Chemistry. "They have described, through their theories and calculations, molecules that test our fundamental assumptions about atoms, molecules and structures. In doing so, they challenge the experimentalists to make what they have imagined in their minds a reality to be held in the hand."The team members believe the information gleaned from the study suggests that one may combine large amounts of hydrogen with other elements. The information may also some day assist with the design of a metallic hydrogen-based superconductor."We have already been in touch with laboratory experimentalists about how LiH6 might be fabricated, starting perhaps with very finely divided forms of the common LiH compound along with  extra hydrogen," said Neil W. Ashcroft, co-author, and Cornell's Horace White Professor of Physics, Emeritus.Additional authors include Artem R. Oganov, an associate professor, and Andriy O. Lyakhov, a post doctoral research associate, of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Department of GeoSciences. Zurek was a postdoctoral associate in Hoffmann's research group when the studies were completed.Funding for the study was provided by the NSF Divisions of Chemistry and Materials Research. The research was also supported in part by NSF through TeraGrid resources provided by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.---Image 1: Ball-and-stick image of hypothetical metallic crystal cells composed of one lithium, or Li, atom and six hydrogen, or H, atoms. The lithium-hydrogen compound is predicted to form under approximately 1 million atmospheres, which is one-fourth the amount of pressure required to metalize pure hydrogen. The pressure at sea level is one atmosphere and the pressure at the center of the Earth is around 3.5 million atmospheres. Li atoms are green and H atoms are white. Credit: Eva Zurek, Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at BuffaloImage 2: all-and-stick image of predicted metallic lithium-hydrogen crystal cells made of one lithium, or Li, atom and two hydrogen, or H, atoms. Li atoms are green, hydrogen pairs are white, and negatively charged H atoms are mauve. Credit: Eva Zurek, Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Buffalo
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:14 am

Termites Answer 150-Year-Old Evolution Question

Evolution of sterility potentially explained among social insectsStaying at home may have given the very first termite youngsters the best opportunity to rule the colony when their parents were killed by their neighbors. This is according to new research supported by the National Science Foundation and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Researchers say the incentive to remain home with siblings and inherit the parents' estate could be the missing link to a question posed nearly 150 years ago by evolution theorist Charles Darwin. He wondered how natural selection could favor traits that reduce reproductive success among worker offspring in highly social insects.This is especially curious because Darwin argued for small biological changes that result in greater chances of survival and successful reproduction over time. But social insects, ants, bees, wasps and termites colonies in particular can have over a million sterile and/or non-reproductive workers and soldiers, which seemed counterintuitive.Research conducted by biologists at the University of Maryland, College Park shows that when two neighboring termite families meet within the same log, one or both families' kings and queens are killed and a new, merged, cooperative colony results. Replacement "junior" kings and queens then develop from either or both colonies' non-reproducing, worker offspring, and termites from the two families may even interbreed.Pheromones produced by healthy kings and queens that normally suppress gonad development in worker or "helper" classes are absent or reduced when kings and queens are killed. As a result, suppression is lifted and nonrelated, "sterile," helper offspring from both colonies are able to become new "reproductives" and assume the throne."Assassination of founding kings and queens may have driven young termite offspring to remain as non-reproducing workers in their birth colonies," says lead researcher and University of Maryland professor Barbara L. Thorne. Rather than risking dangerous attempts at independent colony initiation outside the nest, remaining at home may have given these first termites a better opportunity to become reproducers by inheriting their parents' throne.---Image Caption: When two clans of termites wage battle, scientists have shown that succession to royalty is achieved by offspring that have stayed home as helpers. This metaphorical chessboard situation shows the dark Queen termite deposed, and the King in grave danger of check mate. At the same time, the white team's pawn of the eyeless worker caste ascends to royal (reproductive) status with crown hovering overhead. Menacing soldier "rooks" patrol the sidelines. Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:10 am

CTIA update: it’s raining junk phones?  Can Google/Verizon turn this around?

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

If you are a mobile phone fan like me, so far CTIA has been a bit disappointing.  Two phones that I have been looking forward to fondling are reportedly major duds and have each earned a “don’t touch with a 10 foot pole” warning.  It is up to Google and Verizon to cheer me up.

Garmin Nuvi phone

I barely recall that New York evening where Garmin announced they were working on the Nuviphone.  Back then, the idea was fresh and exciting but then development slowed and they took on Asustek as a partner to finally get it to market.  The phone is finally stateside on AT&T and is priced at $299 (though, it looks like Amazon will sell it to you for $149).  The reviews haven’t been kind:

From Gizmodo:  “the first Nuvifone should have been euthanized, not put on AT&T shelves”
PC Mag says: “...it’s a one-trick pony that falls short in nearly every other way”
Business Week “The problem is, the phone part of the nüvifone is mediocre at best. It’s a basic handset with a minimal e-mail program and Web browser and a camera that’s merely O.K.”

Windows 6.5

Microsoft launched their latest update: Windows 6.5 this morning and despite our high hopes, things don’t look rosy for the mobile OS.  The review phone everyone’s got their hands on is the HTC Pure.  Here’s what’s being said:

ZD Net: “...(I) would never recommend anyone actually purchase a new device just to get this update on their smartphone.”
Slashgear says, “Enterprise users will likely find this latest version a decent mixture of the familiar and the new, but Windows Mobile 6.5 still falls short of a knock-out blow against webOS, Android and the iPhone.”
From Engadget: “...it’s very much a stopgap, complete with duct tape, bubble gum, and Bondo.”

Verizon’s Google Phone

There is hope for us phone gadget freaks.  Late yesterday, Google and Verizon said they would have a surprise announcement this morning.  This should be the announcement of the Google-powered Android phone from Motorola.  This phone should make a splash on the Verizon network and has a chance to become to the best selling Android phone yet, based on just how big the Verizon network is and the lack of smartphone options in the Verizon stable.  Check back later today to have my suspicions confirmed (or debunked).

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

Green Roofs Shown to Offset Warming

Green roofs not only reduce heating and AC costs, they can also sop up greenhouse gases.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

Fall update on Google Health

We're still hard at work improving Google Health, our online Personal Health Record (PHR). We've gotten valuable feedback from many of you who are importing data into Google Health from connected providers. We often hear that you want to import data from your health insurance plans, so we're working on just that.

Today, at the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, we're announcing the addition of two new health insurance companies to the Google Health platform: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the American Postal Workers Union Health Plan (APWU Health Plan).

The APWU Health Plan, the not-for-profit department of the American Postal Workers Union, now offers Google Health through their High Option PPO plan. Members get 18 months of data copied into their Google Health Account upon linking their member portal with Google Health and then automatic updates from that point on. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care serves more than one million members across Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and beyond and roughly 777,000 of their members who use the HMO, POS and PPO products can securely import their Harvard Pilgrim health history into Google Health. This includes prescription data used in the last year and any records on illnesses, conditions, procedures and immunizations dating back to 2006. Once a member links his health plan portal account with Google Health, his data will be automatically updated when a new claim is generated by a physician.

With these new additions and Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, which joined in December of 2008, we now have three health insurance plans connected to Google Health and actively promoting it as a PHR option to their members. We'll be studying how useful this data is to our users, as we've learned that some data is not as useful as others.

We're also working with companies that offer unique "convenience" services, such as secure email and video consultations with doctors. One example is a company called MDLiveCare, a telehealth provider now available in the Google Health online services directory. MDLiveCare is helping to empower patients by sending the complete doctor's clinical note to Google Health from any consultation a patient has with their network of oncall board certified doctors and licensed mental health therapists. Hello Health is another example of a company that facilitates connecting with a doctor online and is launching with Google Health today.

Also, in case you missed our updates, here are some improvements we worked on over the summer:

• File Upload: Still dealing with paper files at home? You can now upload files you have scanned or have on your computer, such as test results you previously received in the mail. Each file you upload can be anywhere from 4MB to 100MB. Start by completing and uploading an advance directive.
• Insurance Information: You can now store all of your health insurance information in your Google Health profile, including your plan name, plan ID, group number, subscriber and policy ID and member phone number.
• Graphing: Keep track of your test results visually to see how key numbers progress over time. If you have more then one cholesterol lab result saved in your profile, you can view these results over time in a graph and track your progress.

Keep tuning in to find out what's in store for Google Health in 2010. And keep the feedback coming. We're still learning a lot from all of you.

Posted by Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager

Source: The Official Google Blog | 6 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

Buried Coins Key To Roman Mystery?

University of Connecticut professor explains how coin hoards signal population sizeUniversity of Connecticut theoretical biologist Peter Turchin and Stanford University ancient historian Walter Scheidel recently developed a new method to estimate population trends in ancient Rome and waded into an intense, ongoing debate about whether the state's population increased or declined after the first century B.C.Using the region's abundance of coin hoards, bundles of buried Roman coins that citizens hid to protect their savings during times of violence and political strife, the researchers determined that Rome's population declined after 100 B.C. and suggested that the alternative scenario of robust population growth was highly implausible.Turchin and Scheidel applied a unique blend of quantitative modeling and empirical testing normally found in the natural sciences to reach their conclusion. They reasoned that in times of violence people tend to hide their valuables, which are later recovered unless the owners are killed or driven away. As a result, clumps of unrecovered coin hoards are an excellent indicator of intense internal warfare, which has direct impacts on population size.Debates concerning the population of ancient Rome during the first century B.C. are important because if the minority of adherents, who hold to population growth scenarios are correct, then much of current Roman history would need to be rewritten and it would have enormous impacts on views of the economic potential and social structure of ancient Rome.The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports the research in this week's issue. The National Science Foundation supports the work.---Image Caption: Researchers applied a unique blend of quantitative modeling and empirical testing normally found in the natural sciences to determine the population size of ancient Rome nearly 2,000 years ago. Just as tree rings help climatologists determine past environmental conditions, University of Connecticut theoretical biologist Peter Turchin and Stanford University ancient historian Walter Scheidel used coin hoards to determine the size of the Roman Republic's population after 100 B.C. Coin hoards are bundles of buried Roman coins that citizens hid to protect their savings during times of violence and political strife and the researchers say they are as an excellent indicator of intense internal warfare, which has direct impacts on population size. Credit: Credit: © 2009 Jupiter Images Corporation
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:58 am

How-To (Theoretically) Graft an In-Line Remote into Any Headphones

Question: Is it possible to graft the cables and electronics of a set of iPod inline-remote earbuds onto a pair of regular headphones, and still retain full functionality? Answer: Kinda.

Yesterday, I broke yet another set of headphones, this time yet another pair of my long-time favorite, the Koss Porta-Pro. These foldable headphones are lightweight, they sound great and they’re don’t cost much more than a pair of earbuds. They are also very delicate and I break them all the time. This time the cable wrapped itself around something and yanked. Result: dead cans.

Instead of tossing them, I thought I’d try to marry them up with the cable and remote from a pair of cheap but terrible earbuds. The goal was to make a pair of frankenphones with the great sound of the Koss’s, and the convenience of the remote. I had partial success, and made an interesting discovery along the way.

The first step was to chop off the useless parts of both. I popped open the Porta-Pros with a tiny screwdriver. There is an access panel glued over the solder joints and it is easy to pry open. Then I snipped and stripped the wires on the fully functional donor-phones (I have a broken set of Apple earbuds, but I wanted to make sure that I was working with fresh cables to eliminate one source of doubt).

Here came the first problem. Many headphone cables come stranded with filaments of nylon or some other thin cord. These are mixed in with the copper strands to add strength and stop stretching, but they also make these wires almost impossible to solder. The other hitch is that the two wires are pretty much intermingled in there, rather than in their own separate sheaths.

Before soldering (or rather, before searching the apartment for a soldering iron) I twisted the strands to make a test connection. To finish, you should take the cables right into the terminals on the earpieces, but this turned out to be unnecessary.

Why? Because no sound came through. Twisting the strands doubtless shorted something, but I have tried in vain to solder these kinds of cable before and it was beyond me. The soldering iron can stay under the sink or wherever it is for now.

But what was surprising was that the inline remote actually works. In fact, you don’t even need the earpieces connected. Plug in the jack and, like a decapitated chicken, things keep working even without a head. Play/pause and skip both worked great.

Which leads us to the real discovery of this otherwise failed experiment. Instead of buying a purpose made remote adapter, you could instead just use a splitter to plug both your headphones and a broken donor cable into the iPod. Listen through one, and control through the other. You can even run the remote section to an inside pocket or down your sleeve, something impossible when the remote is inline. And perhaps this would work with Bluetooth connected headphones, too. Conclusion: Partial success.

Photos: Charlie Sorrel

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:09 am

Volcanoes Defrosted Ice Age

Volcanic eruptions may have brought Earth out of the last ice age.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am

Verizon’s new “There’s A Map For That” campaign aimed squarely at AT&T

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Mobile

The latest ad campaign from Verizon seems to be aimed directly at AT&T and is quite entertaining.  Personally, I am over the whole coverage side of the argument, but that is just because your level of coverage really depends on where you live and even more so where you go.  I have an account with AT&T (iPhone) and Sprint (MiFi) and experience only the random issue where I live—that is despite hearing numerous times everyday how much both of those carriers suck.

Getting back to the ad, it is entitled “Want 5 times more 3G coverage? There’s a map for that.” and just as you could have guessed it shows off a map comparing the coverage of AT&T side by side with Verizon Wireless.

Furthermore it goes on to suggest that “before you pick a phone, pick a network” which seems only fitting when many people complain about the lack of smartphone selection with Verizon.  Of course, that is just a matter of personal opinion.

What it comes down to is that every carrier has their issues.  People hit AT&T for dropped calls, Sprint for their less-than-stellar customer service, T-Mobile for their lack of 3G and again, Verizon for their lack of smartphones.

That said, regardless of where you stand on US based cellular carriers, the ad is still funny to watch.

Via [Digital Daily]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 6 Oct 2009 | 5:22 am

Bikesuit Turns Cyclists Into Waterproof Teletubbies

This is Bikesuit Guy, standing in his waterproof Bikesuit. And he’s going to need it: That fixed-gear which he is so nonchalantly straddling has no fenders.

The bike suit, like so many sensible things, looks like a joke at first. Or at least, it looks like something you’d never actually consider wearing. The waterproof, breathable all-in-one covers you from the hood to the overshoes. It’s almost like a baby’s romper-suit, only it is breathable, has air intakes to keep you cool, reflective stripes to keep you visible and lacks any kind of rabbit-ear decoration on top. In short, you could ride this in a rainstorm and only your hands and face would get wet.

Designed by the The Smart Products Company in (where else) the Netherlands, the Bikesuit has already won a Eurobike Award, despite not yet being in production. It’s certainly not the only waterproof suit, but it looks like one of the easiest to use: You put it on like a jacket and then zip everything else down into place (the zippers are watertight, too). The price will no doubt be decided by the time this comes to stores, and if I lived in a country where it rained (cough, England, cough) instead of providing a succession of bright, crisp, cold winter days, I’d get one. It might look a little dorky, but it’s not like anyone will be outside to see you anyway.

Product page [Bikesuit]

Award page [EuroBike]

Designer page [WIT]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Oct 2009 | 4:53 am

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