Source: Gizmodo | 13 Oct 2009 | 12:20 am

Visualizing RFID

jamie found a video on Warren Ellis's blog introducing a new way to visualize RFID fields. The film is by Timo Arnall and Jack Schulze. The subject is introduced in words on the BERG site (a design consultancy); the tech behind it is explored at Touch, a project that experiments with near-field communications. "This image is a photographic mapping of the readable volume of a radio field from an RFID reader. The black component in the image is an RFID reader... The camera has been fixed in its position and the reader photographed. Using a tag connected to an LED we paint in the edges of the readable volume with a long exposure and animate them to show the form."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2009 | 12:08 am

New Yorker art editor Francoise Mouly talks about cover illustration for Money issue

Here's The New Yorker's art director Francoise Mouly explaining how she worked with three different illustrators (including Daniel Clowes, who has become the go-to guy for New Yorker covers as of late) to create a clever triple cover for the latest issue.

Source: Gizmodo | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:40 pm

Lonely Planet Names New U.S. Head, as Its Digital Strategy Escalates [BoomTown]

Lonely Planet, best known as a traditional travel guidebook publisher, is announcing a new U.S. head tomorrow, as it increasingly moves to reposition the company as much more of a “cross-media” platform.

John Boris–set to take over today as new managing director of Lonely Planet Americas, based at its Oakland, Ca. office–comes to the company from Zagat Survey, where he was the SVP of marketing and interactive.

Previous to that, Boris worked at 1-800 Flowers and Fresh Direct.

“I’m thrilled to be joining one of the world’s best-loved travel brands at such an exciting time, with Lonely Planet rapidly evolving as a cross-media travel player,” he said in a press release.

As the paid versus free content online debate gets louder over the next year, how well known brands like Lonely Planet–which has a strong reputation among consumers–handle the fallout of it will be more and more interesting to watch.

Indeed, in recent months, Lonely Planet has been escalating its digital content efforts, which was the initial promise when BBC Worldwide bought 75 percent of the Melbourne, Australia-based company for about $200 million in late 2007.

But the digitization of Lonely Planet’s business, as with many traditional media publishers like it, has been slow going, with 75 percent of its revenues still in print.

While that business remains profitable still, that breakdown between print and digital will be changing sooner than later, since digital is where much of the growth is coming from, said CEO Matt Goldberg to me over a recent dinner in San Francisco.

Goldberg–who came to Lonely Planet early this year from Dow Jones, where he was SVP of digital strategy and operations, including for WSJ.com–noted that Lonely Planet’s digital businesses have doubled their revenues to $20 million this year via premium pricing and advertising.

Besides the obvious use of Twitter and Facebook, Goldberg flagged a number of the more promising and innovative digital initiatives now at work at Lonely Planet, especially in its key U.S. market.

They include:

* Leveraging the 700,000 registered members of Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree community,

* The announcement this week of putting all or part of 600 of its travel guides on the international release of the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle e-reader.

* Work on collaborative trip planning for its “Trippy” gadget, as part of the Google Wave beta launched last week.

* A compass application for Google (GOOG) Android handsets that make use of augmented reality technology to highlight points of interest in cities. As Goldberg described it in an email, travelers will be able to “pan a city destination using the video on their handset and see Lonely Planet recommendations (points of interest from our City Guides) as virtual sticky notes above real live points of interest.”

* Over 500,000 downloads from around 70 premium-priced apps on the iPhone from Apple (AAPL), as well as various location-based guide apps for Nokia (NOK) and BlackBerry from Research in Motion (RIMM).

* Travel music collections featured on Spotify and other online music services.

Goldberg highlighted other interesting ideas, such as online travel video contest and even a “hack” day in Australia recently, which will be followed by one in the U.S. in the late winter.

While not all of it is going to work, that kind of endless experimentation at Lonely Planet is probably the right way to keep figuring out how to deal with the seismic media shifts that show no sign of abating.

Source: All Things Digital | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:33 pm

Transformer-and-crossbones tees

These unauthorized Transformers skull-and-crossbones shirts are better than any of the licensed shirts I've seen from the franchise. Get 'em before they get sued!

Piratron

(via Geekologie)


Source: Boing Boing | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:28 pm

Super Mario cupcakes

Flick user and master retrogame cupcake maker Ana Fuji has a gorgeous set of delicious-looking Super Mario sweets online, made from chocolate and fondant.

trufinhas: super mario!

(via Geekologie)

Source: Boing Boing | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:28 pm

What's wrong with Search Engine Optimization

From Derek Powazek, a scorching indictment of the Search Engine Optimization industry, who offer a mix of obvious advice and sleazy tricks that break the web. Derek's SEO advice? "Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again."

Look under the hood of any SEO plan and you'll find advice like this: make sure to use keywords in the headline, use proper formatting, provide summaries of the content, include links to relevant information. All of this is a good idea, and none of it is a secret. It's so obvious, anyone who pays for it is a fool.

Occasionally a darkside SEO master may find some loophole in the Google algorithm to exploit, which might actually lead to an increase in traffic. But that ill-gotten traffic gain won't last long. Google changes the way it ranks its index monthly (if not more), so even if some SEO technique worked, and usually they don't, it'll last for a couple weeks, tops.

And when they do reindex, if they determine that you've been acting in bad faith (like hiding links or keywords or other deceptive practices) they'll drop you like a hot rock. So a temporary gain may result in a lifetime ban.

In the end, you're sacrificing your brand integrity in a Faustian bargain for an increase in traffic that won't last the month. And how valuable was that increase, anyway? If you're tricking people into visiting your site, those visits are going to be bad experiences.

Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists

Source: Gizmodo | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:20 pm

Media centers: the exciting, the boring; the solved, the unsolved

Kodak asked me to write them a short essay on home media servers for a campaign they're running with Boing Boing. I decided to look at what excites me about media players (what we could build if every senior entertainment exec dropped dead tomorrow) and what seems to be easy and solved (hooking up a monster hard-drive to a PC with some A/V outputs).

It's been years since I've been excited about home media servers. Partly that's because 80 percent of the problem is *so* easy to solve: a commodity PC, a couple terabytes of storage, and a free, easy OS like Ubuntu Linux with a full set of free drive encryption tools solves almost all my needs. With that box, you've got household backup (using *any* backup software you want, since the server just shares its drives to the LAN), you've got somewhere to rip and store all your music and videos (use any music player you want on whatever PC is handy, again, mounting those huge drives over the LAN), and somewhere to put your photos and ripped ISOs for your game CDs and so on and so on. Attach a DVD drive and a copy of Handbrake and you've got an easy DVD-ripping station (if your script-fu is strong, you can even set things up so that every disk you rip is automagically transcoded to thumbnail-sized versions for your portable player -- the free ffmpeg is good for this).

Add DynDNS and some firewall rules, get an ISP that doesn't suckily throttle your inbound connections, and you can access the whole thing from the road. The problem of making a giant, secure archive of files available to four or five people is solved. You may need to find a clever 15-year-old to work out the details, but it's the 21st century, there's a massive glut of 15-year-old geeks. A "media" server is just a server attached to a box like the Neuros which feeds your TV an on-screen menu of stored files.

What's Easy, What's Hard


Source: Boing Boing | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:18 pm

Hand Washing Detectors Could Save Lives

When hospital workers fail to wash their hands, a new technology notices -- and sounds an alert.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:15 pm

Europeans! Call your MEP today to block net surveillance proposal!

Jérémie Zimmermann sez, "The Conciliation committee delegation of the European Parliament on the 'Telecoms Package' will meet on October 13th, 11AM. In this informal meeting, they will be presented an outrageous analysis by the legal team of the Parliament aimed at making them accept an extremely dangerous 'compromise' text replacing amendment 138, essential safeguard for citizen's freedoms adopted twice by 88% of the votes. EU citizens must help to convince members of the delegation to start the negotiations with the original amendment 138, adapt its wording if necessary, but reject this 'compromise'. We must refuse an Orwellian vision for freedoms in EU, where the right to a due process could be restricted for 'prevention or detection of criminal offenses'!"

La Quadrature du Net has instructions for contacting your MEP by phone and a sample script to follow with her or him.

If this seems like a familiar request, that's because the people who want to establish universal surveillance over the European net are betting that you'll tire out before they will, and if they keep on trying to sneak it in, you'll eventually run out of steam and stop calling your MEP to demand due process and privacy.

Call your MEP.

URGENT action save am138 against horrible compromise

Source: Boing Boing | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:13 pm

Gag order blocks Guardian from reporting on Parliament

In a violation of British free speech rights dating back to the 1688 Bill of Rights, The Guardian newspaper has been forbidden by court order from reporting on a question in Parliament. We don't know who raised the question, what it was about, or where you can find it.

Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented - for the first time in memory - from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations...

The right to report parliament was the subject of many struggles in the 18th century, with the MP and journalist John Wilkes fighting every authority - up to the king - over the right to keep the public informed. After Wilkes's battle, wrote the historian Robert Hargreaves, "it gradually became accepted that the public had a constitutional right to know what their elected representatives were up to".

Guardian gagged from reporting parliament

(Thanks to Andy and everyone else who suggested this!)


Source: Boing Boing | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:09 pm

Copyright vs. folk music

Doron sez, "Folk musician Steven Arntson wanted to write a song that riffed on a Woody Guthrie's 'I Ain't Got No Home'. Guthrie's song was based on the Carter Family's 'This World Is Not My Home' which was in turn based on an old spirtual... Unfortunately Arnston is finding out that current copyright law does not allow for the creative give and take that was once a vital and basic part of music composition."

Sixty-eight years later, in 2008, I heard "Can't Feel and Home" and "I Ain't Got No Home," and felt the latter lyric connected well with some lyrics I was writing for what would become The Emerald Arms suite. I decided to arrange "I Ain't Got No Home" as the second movement. After creating the recording and sheet music of the entire work, I set out to discover whose permission I should ask before giving the suite away online as free recordings and a score.

Because the melody dates back to 1909, it's in the public domain (the current cutoff for which is 1923). Guthrie's lyric, on the other hand, is not. Two companies own different rights to it. The Richmond Organization (TRO) owns the rights to reproducing the song's sheet music and the Harry Fox Agency (HFA) owns the rights to reproducing sound recordings of the piece.

I approached TRO first, sending them the score I'd written for concertina and voice, which contains many annotations specific to my purpose as well as modifications to the tune's melody and chords. A few weeks later I received a letter from TRO. "We are enclosing our music copy of I AIN'T GOT NO HOME," they wrote, "and request that you use the "words and music" from the enclosed copy in your book." The following page contained a photocopy of the melody line of Woody's lyric from what looked like a children's book, accompanied by a cartoon of a guy's butt protruding from the front door of a house.

The Absent Second: An Explanation

(Image: Woody Guthrie, half-length portrait, seated, facing front, playing a guitar that has a sticker attached reading: This Machine Kills Fascists, Wikimedia Commons/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Source: Gizmodo | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm

xkcd: volume 0

Breadpig Publishing were kind enough to send me a review copy of xkcd: volume 0, the first-ever collection of strips from Randall Munroe's fantastic, unrepentantly geeky webcomic XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

I've been a fan of XKCD since I happened upon his Help! I'm Trapped in a Universe Factory strip, and Randall was kind enough to write a fictionalized version of me into later toons. We got to meet last summer at a science fiction convention in Springfield, Mass, and hit it off like a house on fire.

So I was delighted to find myself holding an actual book -- cover price $18, portion of profits goes to building schools in Laos through the Room to Read charity -- and turning the pages. Randall once told me that he'd rejected earlier book offers because his older strips were only available at a very low resolution, and it seems like many of these were included on the basis that they're funny and interesting enough to overlook the lower-quality reproductions. The tool-tips -- hidden punchlines that show up if you hover your mouse over the XKCD strips -- are included as small-caps print tucked among the frames, and this is nearly as good as the screen experience.

The book is full of eastereggs; the pages appear to be numbered in ternary. There is a cryptographic puzzle hidden in the margins, along with many small, Sergio-Argones-like doodles and gags. More than anything, xkcd: volume 0 feels like it is a part of the XKCD continuum, a mix of blog, webcomic, doodle and tweet, handsomely presented and long overdue.

xkcd: volume 0

Source: Boing Boing | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:37 pm

Pedal power in the desert: OLPC in Afghanistan

One of the issues with the OLPC project has always been power. There’s just not electricity in all the parts of the world where the OLPC is intended to be used. There is a solution available, however, and it’s being tested in Afghanistan. We have just seen pictures of the first pedal power conversion for the OLPC.

It’s still a prototype, but it’s looking promising. The builders have created a pedal power alternative to the hand cranks used on the standard OLPC, and it definitely makes sense to do so. The human body can certainly pedal easier then it can a crank, and the creators of the modification have stated that it’s easy enough to use that a 3rd or 4th grader can power it. Might be hard to type while you’re doing that, but at least you’ll have a full charge.

Source: CrunchGear | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:30 pm

Software in HP Laptops Aims to Help Cut Power Costs - PC World

Earthtimes (press release)

Software in HP Laptops Aims to Help Cut Power Costs PC World Hewlett-Packard is bringing new power management features to laptops that can help companies measure and cut energy costs, the company said on Tuesday. The PC maker announced new business laptops -- the ProBook 6445b and ProBook 6545b -- that include ... HP rolls out notebooks: Hails Windows 7TG Daily HP's Newest Business Laptops Offer Pre-Boot ...PC Magazine HP's announces newest business laptops – ProBook 6445b and ProBook 6545bTopNews United States Chip Chick -ZDNet (blog) -LAPTOP Magazine all 37 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:21 pm

Software in HP Laptops Aims to Help Cut Power Costs (PC World)

PC World - Hewlett-Packard is bringing new power management features to laptops that can help companies measure and cut energy costs, the company said on Tuesday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:20 pm

NYT: Apple inspiring new Disney retail strategy (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - Steve Jobs isn’t just the CEO of our favorite computer company, he’s also a very large shareholder of a little company called Disney. The New York Times is reporting that Mr. Jobs is helping Disney bring a little Apple magic to Disney's retail stores in the way of fragrance-spewing fake trees and mobile checkouts.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:04 pm

Intel Caught Cheating In 3DMark Benchmark

EconolineCrush writes "3DMark Vantage developer Futuremark has clear guidelines for what sort of driver optimizations are permitted with its graphics benchmark. Intel's current Windows 7 drivers appear to be in direct violation, offloading the graphics workload onto the CPU to artificially inflate scores for the company's integrated graphics chipsets. The Tech Report lays out the evidence, along with Intel's response, and illustrates that 3DMark scores don't necessarily track with game performance, anyway."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Gizmodo | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

HP launches two new ProBooks, the 6445b and the 6545b

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

HP is looking to give IT employees powerful laptops, yet portable and easy to bring around.  To do so, they have launched two new notebooks within their ProBook lineup each powerful enough to act like a desktop machine, yet are compact enough to bring around the office or to travel with.  No information on pricing or availability have been released at this time for either the 6445b or 6545b. 

The HP ProBook 6445b

The 5.3lb 14-inch 6445b notebook operates on the Windows Vista platform as well as the Windows 7 platform and can be upgraded to Windows 7 when Microsoft releases the OS later this month.  It can run on a powerful 2.4GHz AMD processor or a 2.0GHz AMD processor.  In terms of RAM, it allows for as little as 1GB or it can expand to fit 8GB of RAM, allowing it to be a simple machine or a very powerful one.  Remember 8GB of RAM is only powerful if the OS is the 64-bit version.  In terms of hard disk space, it can go from 160GB to a large 500GB.  The screen comes with an LED backlight, anti-glare technology, and a resolution of 1366 x 768.  For security, it comes with a fingerprint sensor among other measures, comes with a 2MP webcam for video conferencing, and a full-sized QWERTY keyboard.

The HP ProBook 6545b

One of the main differences between this model and the previous notebook is its larger screen, measuring in at 15.6-inches.  Since it has a larger screen, it weighs slightly more - 5.9 pounds.  Both models allow for the optional HP Mobile Gobi powered broadband access, but feature WLAN, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth for connectivity; it also uses HP’s native Connection Manager.  Again, it has the same support for operating systems (both variants of Windows 7 and Windows Vista) as well as support for the same AMD processors.  The dual channel DDR2 SDRAM RAM remains the same, it can go from 1GB to 8GB.  Hard drive storage is still 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, or 500GB at 7200RPM.  If the 1366 x 768 resolution 15.6-inch screen does not fit your needs, you can purchase the notebook with 1600 x 900 resolution, allowing for more screen real estate.  Furthermore, the machine houses a 2MP webcam and a full QWERTY keyboard. 

Unfortunately, there is no word on pricing or availability at this time.  Expect the HP ProBook 6545b to cost more than the ProBook 6445b. 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

HP’s giant 42-inch multi-touch LCD, the LD4200tm

Section: Video, HDTV, Peripherals, Displays/Projectors

HP just announced its new LD4200tm, a 42-inch LCD that can handle multi-touch inputs.  HP has positioned this device for businesses, so you may see this in a hotel near you soon.  This display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and uses “an array of infrared (IR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs), along with photo sensors, to determine touch by pairing to create a grid of light beams across the display. When an object (such as a finger, pen or any other pointing device) touches the screen, the light beam within the grid is interrupted and thus, touch is recognized.”  In other words, this display won’t be using your usual capacitive or resistive technologies for its touch screen.  There’s no information as to the pricing of this thing, but since it’s for businesses, don’t expect to be adding this to your home any time soon.  The LD4200tm is also designed to run 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.

Company Site: [HP.com]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

HP and Compaq’s brand new desktops

Section: Computers, Desktops

HP Elite 7000

The HP Elite 7000 starts at $799, but it has a lot of options so that price could get inflated easily.  Inside, you can get either an Intel Core i5 or an Intel Core i7.  There is a maximum of 8GB of RAM.  For your OS, you’ll get your choice of Windows Home Basic 32, Home Premium 32, or Professional in either 32 or 64-bit editions.  There’s even a XP option, a Vista Business 32 option, FreeDOS, and Novel SUSE Linux.  There are two hard-drive bays, three PCIe x1 full-height slots, and one PCIe x16 slot.  The Elite 7000 even has a virtual browser with Firefox running in a virtual machine preinstalled. 

Compaq’s 500B and 505B

These are low cost machines that could are positioned for small businesses.  The 500B starts at $359, the 505B starts at $409.  The major difference between the two machines is the processor.  The 505B comes with AMD Athlon II Quad, Triple, or Dual Core processors.  The 500B has either an Intel Celeron or an Intel Pentium-dual core.  They both have the same amount of expansion slots with two full-height PCIe x1 slots, one full-height PCIe x16 slot, and one full-height PCI 2.3 slot.  They also have 8 USB 2.0 ports and 10/100 Ethernet; 802.11b/g/n wireless is an optional component. 

Compaq Presario CQ4010

Compaq’s got one more low cost desktop PC.  This Presario CQ4010 starts at $309.99 and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, a 2.30GHz AMD Sempron LE-1300 processor, 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM (with a maximum of 4GB), and a DVD burner with LightScribe.  This computer is not as expandable as the others with only one available PCI Express x16 slot.  There is another PCI Express x1 slot, but that is already occupied.  On the plus side, the desktop is glossy black and does not look like a super-budget desktop. 

Company Sites: [HP] [Compaq]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

HP announces new TouchSmarts to coincide with Windows 7

Section: Computers, Desktops, Hardware

With the release of Windows 7 looming, HP is certainly bringing out everything it has both for the new OS update and holiday shopping.  First, there was the new Envy laptops, and now HP is bringing out new TouchSmarts.  However, these new machines take advantage of much more than just the Windows 7 release.

For those unaware, HP’s TouchSmart line is its collection of multitouch enabled desktops.  With the new multitouch-friendly Windows 7, new TouchSmarts were imminent.  HP promises the new computers will take full advantage of those capabilities, in addition to its slew of new partnerships.  For those who used the TouchSmart line before, the software in HPs TouchSmart experience was a bit lacking, it had media control, but only for the media stored on the computer, or local network. 

The new HP TouchSmart 300 and 600 computers will ship with software from HP’s newest partners: Pandora, Rhapsody, WildTangent, Hulu and Netflix.  Pandora will provide the music streaming that has grown so popular.  Rhapsody will provide its music library to the TouchSmart experience (subscription will still be required).  WildTangent will provide games for users.  The big announcement here, though is both Hulu and Netflix.  Hulu Desktop will ship on HP TouchSmarts (and HP is saying it’s the only place you’ll find it packaged in).  Netflix will be available through Netflix on HP, which will provide the streaming, though no mention of whether it will allow for HD or not.

As for the specs of the new machines, there’s the TouchSmart 300 which comes with and AMD Athlon II Processor (clocked at different speeds for the two models), and a 20-inch HD display.  The TouchSmart 600 ships with Intel Core 2 Duo Processors (again, different versions and speeds for the two models), with a 23-inch HD display.  Both come equipped with Blu-ray burners that can read and burn all three major optical media discs.  The computers even come with TV tuners built in and the option to connect video game consoles, so it can act as an HDTV as well as a PC.

HP TouchSmarts have always been a bit drool-worthy and these new updates makes them even more so.  There are some problems with constantly using touch on a desktop PC, but for minimal use, it should be fine.  Even so, the TouchSmart 300 and 600 look to be great options to get the most out of Windows 7 in a desktop.

Company Site: [HP.com]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

HP’s new TouchSmart tx2 tablet PC is here with multi-touch goodness

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

HP is taking advantage of Windows 7’s built-in multi-touch support with its new TouchSmart tx2-1377nr tablet PC.  Here’s the rundown: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, fingerprint reader, it has a capacitive 12.1-inch touch screen that can take inputs from fingers and the included stylus and the screen can turn up to 180 degrees or be folded flat.  Inside, you’ll find an AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-75, 320GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card and 4GB of RAM.  Like many new HP machines, the TouchSmart tx2 comes with a fancy pattern that HP calls the “HP Reaction Imprint finish.”  It weighs 4.65 pounds and starts at $799.99.

Company Site: [HP.com]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

WikiReader packs all of Wikipedia in a power-sipping portable

The new WikiReader is a $99 portable device from the Openmoko group that stuffs every Wikipedia article into a pocket-friendly traveling companion. While those of us entrenched in technology day in and day out may scoff at the idea of having Wikipedia at the ready (we all have smartphones, remember?), this is something that might be able to make some waves with baby boomers and/or the technically petrified.

I’ll have a hands-on/review this week but the basic gist is that the unit uses two AAA batteries, a low-power CPU and monochrome touchscreen, and standard microSD cards to house all the articles. It’s not a connected device, either. Everything’s completely offline.

Updated microSD cards can be sent out via snail mail every few months for a yearly fee of $29 or the entire multi-gigabyte file (specially compressed for the WikiReader) can be downloaded and installed manually for the more technically-inclined.

Photos aren’t shown on the device, unfortunately, but the easy-to-use interface, months-long battery life, and straightforward updating process ought to entice certain consumers interested in all the information that Wikipedia provides without the hassle of full-fledged computers or complicated mobile devices.

The WikiReader will be available shortly on Amazon.com or directly from theWikiReader.com — the official company site.

Source: CrunchGear | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

Compaq’s low-cost Windows 7 notebook, the CQ61, announced

Section: Computers, Laptops

Compaq’s got a new Windows 7 laptop called the CQ61-310US.  It’s got a big 15.6-inch screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution, 2GB of RAM, 802.11b/g, an AMD Sempron Processor, ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics card, and, of course, Windows 7 in the Home Premium 64-bit flavor.  While a major new trend in notebooks has been thin, light, and cheap - the CQ61 is a bit bulky at 5.9 pounds, but starts at only $399.99.  Its styling is a bit on the conservative side with a black and silver look, but is far from ugly. 

Company Site: [Compaq]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

HP’s business-oriented TouchSmart 9100

Section: Computers, Desktops

Today, HP introduced a third TouchSmart, the 9100, and is calling it a “business PC.”  It comes in either Windows 7 Professional 32 or 64-bit editions.  Unlike the two other TouchSmart computers announced today, there won’t be any integrated web video here.  However, there is a TV tuner and an optional Blu-ray drive to show off video on its 23-inch HD display.  For the CPU, there is a choice of either 2.26GHz or 2.10GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors.  This TouchSmart has the option of a 64GB SSD or regular hard drives with 250GB or 500GB capacities.  No word on the pricing yet. 

Company Site: [HP.com]

Source: Gizmodo | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

Phillip Roebuck: One Man Band Banjo Ninja

My pal Mike Liebhold writes:

Phillip Roebuck plays a gritty hard edge Appalachian claw-hammer and Scruggs style banjo with punk rock intensity. The bridge between old and new musical styles is completely seamless. Roebuck's sound is completely fresh and original, with a deep Appalachian resonance.

According to my IFTF colleague, Anthony Townsend, a friend of Phil's, he has had a couple of shots at fame but was ultimately disappointed. I hope this time around, the world notices this amazing talent. You can hear a great selection of Phil's stuff on his own site and can see a number of electrifying clips of him playing on YouTube.

Source: Boing Boing | 12 Oct 2009 | 9:53 pm

The global warming consensus cools - San Francisco Chronicle

The global warming consensus cools San Francisco Chronicle "What happened to global warming?" read the headline - on BBC News on Oct. 9, no less. Consider it a cataclysmic event: Mainstream news organizations have begun reporting on scientific research that suggests that global warming may not be caused by man ... What happened to global warming?AZ Central.com Matter of Opinion: Tougher sell on global warmingLincoln Journal Star BBC: Global Warming Stopped in 1998Wall Street Journal (blog) Telegraph.co.uk -Atlanta Journal Constitution -Hot Air (blog) all 33 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Oct 2009 | 9:11 pm

Google Hops On A New Satellite To Watch Us From Space

Last year, there was a lot of coverage of Google striking a deal with satellite imagery company GeoEye to be able to use the high resolution images from its new GeoEye-1 satellite for their Google Earth and Maps products. The exclusive deal saw Google shift away from its partnership with rival DigitalGlobe, which provides many of Google’s rivals with imagery. Now, it looks like Google is back on board with a new DigitalGlobe satellite.

In a post today on its Lat Long Blog, Google reveals that DigitalGlobe has just launched their next-generation satellite dubbed WorldView-2 (no idea if this is to one-up GeoEye-1), and that the company will be getting new imagery from it. In the post, Google notes that it works “directly with several commercial satellite imaging providers.” Presumably, that means the deal with GeoEye is still in place, and now Google has found itself on yet another state-of-the-art satellite that peers down on all of us, gathering data.

Now, the government has regulations on just how closely Google and these companies can look (mostly because the government itself wants to be the only ones that can see really, really close up on us). But still, this is starting to get mildly creepy. I’d love to know how many satellites they are using up there to get their imagery.

It was recently revealed that Google was breaking away from TeleAtlas as the provider of its mapping data in the U.S. (though it is supposedly still using it for some other parts of the world). One reason they can do that is because they now have so much data from this satellite imagery (as well as their Street View imagery).

Is it tin hat time yet?

Watch the WorldView-2 launch below.

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Source: TechCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:55 pm

Meet The New hi5: It’s Game Time

If there’s been one shining star on social network applications platforms, it’s been casual gaming: Zynga is rumored to be making an absolute killing with their games, and Mochi Media’s unified Flash payment platform has shown some very impressive early results. Now hi5, one of the world’s most popular social networks, is looking to capitalize on the trend. On Wednesday, the social network will be launching a totally revamped site that places a much stronger emphasis on games and virtual currency, along with a new avatar system. The site won’t go live for everyone for a few days, but you can check it out now at http://new.hi5.com.

The new hi5 still retains many of the same key features you’ll find on any social network — your profile consists of a photo or avatar, you can browse through your friends, and so on. But there’s clearly a much bigger emphasis on the site’s games and virtual currency (called ‘Coins’) than there was in the past. In the old design, the Games link was buried in the header, which also included links to Photos, Messages, Applications, and more. Now Games and Coins are both featured just as prominently as the link to your Profile and Friends. If it isn’t the first thing people will click on, it’s probably the second.

Alongside the new emphasis on gaming, hi5 is launching an avatar system called hi5 Stars, which features Flash-based animated 3D avatars (no download required). You’ll be able to change the appearance and movements of these to fit your current status, which anyone will see when they visit you profile. There really isn’t much you can do with them at this point, but down the line hi5 will be using these as part of its social entertainment experience, in much the same way Nintendo has done with the Wii’s Mii system, we’re told. This means that you will likely be able to use your avatar in some games, which is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Hi5 is not especially popular in the United States compared to Facebook, but it’s quite popular abroad, with over 60 million monthly unique visitors (only 10% of which come from the US). This would normally pose a challenge to developers who would have to figure out how to engage in transactions with users around the world, but hi5 has that taken care of. The social network has set up 60 different payment systems for users worldwide, all of which convert to hi5 Coins. And aside from the benefits of making international payments relatively painless, virtual currencies tend to lead to more impulse buying (it’s much easier to toss away a few Coins than a few dollars). hi5 takes a 50/50 rev share of any money spent in a game.

Even before the redesign hi5 games section has been doing very well. It only launched in February and already accounts for around 1/3 of the site ’s traffic, and direct user payments through the game already account for 15% of hi5’s revenue. Expect to see that number jump substantially over the next few months.

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Source: TechCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:47 pm

Dictionary.com Launches Free BlackBerry App, Unveils API

Earlier this year, we wrote about Dictionary.com’s nifty iPhone app. Since April, the app has seen 3 million downloads and is steadily growing in popularity. Today, Dictionary.com (which as part of the Ask.com network that also includes Thesaurus.com) is launching a similar application for BlackBerry smartphones, which has a few key differentiating factors from its sister iPhone app.

In addition to providing users with more than 500,000 words, definitions and synonyms, the app also features audio pronunciations, spelling suggestions, a “Word of the Day” for both English and Spanish and the ability to view a recently searched terms list. One of the features that is exclusively available on the Blackberry app is the ability to access a definition or synonym while reading or drafting an email. The app lets you highlight the word and you’ll be given an option to find a synonym or definition. The app also has a native feature that lets you email or SMS text any word and its definition to yourself or a contact.

Doug Leeds, president of Dictionary.com, says that the features included in the Dictionary.com app were designed to meet the specific professional needs of BlackBerry users. For example, definitions have been condensed to be more functional on a Blackberry screen. Leeds also tells us that they are releasing their API to partners to incorporate into various applications. While Dictionary.com is still finalizing partners, Leeds says that the API will be incorporated on e-books, letting users (but wouldn’t say which one).

While Dictionary.com’s BlackBerry app is free, the Oxford American Dictionary is $19.99 on Blackberry’s App world. Dictionary.com was bought by IAC-run Ask.com in July of 2008 when the conglomerate bought Lexico, the operator of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:15 pm

Gadget surgery: hack a 32GB SSD into your old Zune body

Worried that your venerable Zune 80 is going to kick the bucket some day? That spinning hard drive can only take so much abuse, after all. Well, if you’ve got the stomach to tear it apart and feel like dropping a bill on a little 32GB SSD, you might just be able to keep on Zunin’ until the sun blows up.

There’s a detailed guide here where an individual, angry at the prices of new MP3 players, decides to make his own frankenplayer. One used Zune and one refurbished SSD later (okay, and some serious modification) and he’s got a Zune 32.

[via Anything but iPod]

Source: CrunchGear | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:10 pm

Someecards Launches Invites For Parties I Would Actually Want To Go To

Every so often I think to myself, “what ever happened to Evite?” Then I get an email invitation and realize that it’s still alive. While some of the early adopters and tech elitists may have switched to services like MyPunchbowl, Socializr, Pingg, Cocodot, and even MySpace and Facebook, Evite lives on in the minds of many of those outside of the tech sphere. And that’s why Someecards now wants to kill it with a new Invites section of their site.

Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh. “The thing is, there’s really nothing wrong with Evite. It’s just not fun, which is really our big point of differentiation. Our site will be fun. And if you’re planing a party, shouldn’t it start off from the point of sending out the invites being fun rather than lame?,” Someecards co-founder Duncan Mitchell explains.

We agree.

I, for one, am much more likely to show up at a BBQ if I get an invitation that reads, “I’d appreciate it if you could bring meat, beer, condiments, paper goods, and all the guests to a BBQ I’m throwing,” than if I get one that says something like, “BBQ Time!”

While Someecards has a bunch of cards pre-populated in the Invites section based on the type of party, you can actually make any card on the site into an invitation. Simply find a card you like and click on the Invite tab below it, then enter in the data such as the title of the party, the details, the time and date, and where it will be. Once it’s sent, invitees can comment on the “Party Wall” and attach other Someecards there to express what they are feeling about the event.

The plan is also to attach the invitation functionality to all user-generated cards within the next few weeks, we’re told. And eventually Someecards will add Facebook Connect to extend these invites to your Facebook account as well.

The monetization plan is the same with the rest of the service. Aside from ads on the site, certain Someecards are sponsored by brands.

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Source: TechCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:02 pm

EPA To Reuse Toxic Sites For Renewable Energy

Hugh Pickens writes:"The Daily Climate reports that President Obama and Congress are pushing to identify thousands of contaminated landfills and abandoned mines — 'brownfields' that could be repurposed to house wind farms, solar arrays, and geothermal power plants. Using already disturbed lands would help avoid conflicts between renewable energy developers and environmental groups concerned about impacts to wildlife habitat. 'In the next decade there's going to be a lot of renewable energy built, and all that has to go somewhere,' said Jessica Goad, an energy and climate change policy fellow for The Wilderness Society. 'We don't want to see these industrial facilities placed on land that's pristine. We love the idea of brownfields for renewable energy development because it relieves the (development) pressure on undisturbed places. The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have identified nearly 4,100 contaminated sites deemed economically suitable for wind and solar power development, as well as biomass. Included are 5 million acres suitable for photovoltaic or concentrated solar power development, and 500,000 acres for wind power. These sites, if fully developed, have the potential to produce 950,000 megawatts — more than the country's total power needs in 2007, according to EPA data."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:02 pm

Vinaphone Launches Viet Nam's First 3G Service with Motorola Technology

HANOI, Viet Nam, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:00 pm

Data and contacts vanish from Sidekick phones (AP)

AP - Owners of Sidekick phones may have lost all the personal information they put on the device, including contact numbers, because of a failure of servers that remotely stored the data.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:37 pm

Disney "Transitioning" Ideal Bite, Its $20 Million "Green" Lifestyle Newsletter [MediaMemo]

Ideal Bite, the green-flavored lifestyle newsletter Disney bought in June 2008, faces an uncertain fate: Its parent company is shuttling the unit from one corporate silo to another and says it’s not sure what will become of it once that happens.

For the record: Disney (DIS) says it always intended to move the company, which offers “bite-sized ideas for green living” via email and a Web site, from its corporate strategy group to its interactive division, which will happen later this year. At that point, “it will still continue in some form,” says spokesman Michelle Bergman.

That doesn’t sound good. Disney says it plans to conduct a review of the unit, so it’s not ready to answer some basic questions about the email newsletter company. Like: Are co-founders Heather Stephenson (who lives and works in San Francisco) and Jennifer Boulden (who until this summer lived and worked in Bozeman, Mont.; she’s now in Los Angeles, I’m told) staying on? Will Disney have to take a write-down on the property? Will there be layoffs? “It’s too early to say. I can’t tell you,” Bergman says.

Okay. But If I had to bet, I’d say at least some of the dozen-plus employees will be hitting the job market.

Disney paid a reported $20 million for the property a year and a half ago, and the plan was to create a big green-centered business around it, but that hasn’t panned out, sources said. The company, founded in 2005, is one of the many lifestyle newsletter businesses backed by Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group.

Comcast (CMCSA) bought DailyCandy, the best known of Pittman’s stable, for $125 million a little more than a year ago. That was surely one of the last “pre-Lehman” Web 2.0 M&A deals, but grunts and murmurs out of Philadelphia and Pilot indicate the business has held up during the recession. And Thrillist, a “DailyCandy for dudes” effort that has yet to sell, seems to be booming.

Source: All Things Digital | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:27 pm

Another Wiimote for the PS3? You’re kidding me

Sony may be coming out with a motion controller of its own, but that’s apparently not soon enough for accessory maker Blaze, which will be putting one out before that. And this one is so familiar to the Wiimote that I’m wondering how long the knockoff is going to stay on the market.

It “thrusts the PS3 gamer into the very heart of the action,” which sounds a bit like it’s thrusting into your heart — let that be a lesson for PR people who write in violent metaphor. And it’s also “ergonomically designed from the ground up,” by which they apparently mean “ergonomically designed from a picture of a Wiimote.” I’d prefer not to see what kind of tacked-on functionality this thing can possibly provide.

At any rate, I wish them the best of luck. Actually, no… no, I don’t.

[via Engadget]

Source: CrunchGear | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:24 pm

NPR's Honchos Talk Digital at "Think In" in San Francisco (Also, Scoble!) [BoomTown]

Last Friday, National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller and Digital Media SVP and GM Kinsey WiIson came to San Francisco for a “Digital Think In” to pick the brains of some Silicon Valley types about where the public radio icon should go, digitally speaking.

While NPR actually has been pretty fast-forward with podcasts and a robust Web site, it still has to think about what social networking means to it and whether a day is coming when broadcasting online will be bigger than offline.

Also, what’s up with Twitter?

These and other questions were discussed at frog design Friday with a passel of Web types like investor Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners, Toni Schneider of Automattic, craigslist founder Craig Newmark and LinkedIn founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman.

Also, ubiquitous blogger Robert Scoble, who wants NPR to open itself up like a can of beans.

The Think In participants were charged with making suggestions related to five main topics: Social media and connection to the audience, NPR’s national network of more than 800 stations, the potential of its open API, expansion of platforms and how to diversify its revenue model.

BoomTown always likes crowdsourcing innovation, even among the digital elite.

While at the event in the morning, I talked to Schiller, who came to NPR last year after a stint as general manager of the New York Times online unit, and also to Wilson, who previously worked as executive editor for USA Today and ran its digital efforts before that.

Along with my video interview with them, below, you can check out some more detailed information from the event here.

Here’s my video:

Source: All Things Digital | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:14 pm

RentCycle Wants To Be An OpenTable For Local Rental Businesses

One of the big trends we’ve seen over the last few years is the push to bring local businesses online. No longer are online reservations and purchases solely available through major brands — it’s now quite easy for a local business to set up a storefront online, and plenty of them are doing it. Now a new site called RentCycle is looking to tap into a slightly different market: the rental industry, which encompasses everything from power tools at Home Depot to scuba gear at a local shop in Hawaii.

The company launched in a limited alpha last week, and has since signed on over 20 local rental businesses. The first 100 Techcrunch readers to sign up here with the promo code “techcrunch” will be able to sign up for free.

Founder Tim Hyer ackowledges that there are plenty of other sites looking to cater to local businesses, like this year’s TC50 winner RedBeacon. But he says that RentCycle is unique in that it is focused on rentals alone (RedBeacon has a much broader range of businesses). He also says that most of the services that are focused on rentals tend to cater to peer-to-peer rentals, not to established businesses.

Hyer says that the company’s goal is to serve as a sort of OpenTable for the rental industry, offering a full inventory and reservation management software solution that lets customers book their rentals and pay for them online. The service’s backend is straightforward, perhaps to the point of being a little too basic. There’s a calendar management area where you can see every upcoming rental by date, as well as an inventory screen where you can see the number of items you have available, as well as their current price. Finally there’s an area for analytics where you’ll be able to see analytics, with reports on pricing variability, seasonal changes and more, but these aren’t yet available.

Initially RentCycle will be focused on the hardware industry, which Hyer says is larger and less fragmented than other rental industries. In the longer term, he anticipates supporting rentals for parties and events, sporting goods, electronics, leisure and tourism (snow skis, surf boards, etc.), luxury goods (yachts, jets), and baby goods.

RentCycle is free for businesses renting out five or fewer items. Businesses renting out up to 25 items pay $40 a month, or $60 for up to 50 items. For $100 they can rent an unlimited number of items. RecentCycle is a graduate of TheFunded Founder Institute, a startup camp for new startups that has some similarties with incubator programs like Y Combinator, though the structure is different (TheFunded has ‘warrants’ to purchase equity from companies at market value rather than taking a stake outright).

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

Source: TechCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:01 pm

Woopra Opens Its Doors For Live Web Analytics

Woopra, the impressive live tracking and analytics service, today announced that they are opening their doors for all new signups. Until today, new users had to be approved if they didn’t have an invite code.

Sure, there are a lot of analytics alternatives, so what makes Woopra so special? Real Time. It’s the big trend this year, and Woopra certainly delivers. Woopra is similar to Google Analytics but provides real time stats and a number of additional features, such as the ability to chat real time with visitors to the site. (See also, Chartbeat and our coverage).

Woopra first became public when Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.TV spoke with John Pozadzides, CEO of iFusion Labs, the parent company of Woopra at WordCamp Dallas in September 2008.

With today’s public launch of Woopra, one of the biggest changes is the pricing. Until now, Woopra has been free for all users. Coming with the public launch is paid accounts. All current users are getting moved to the free account (pageviews limit: 250,000), with an option to upgrade to a premium account. Also, Woopra is supporting SSL, making SSL available to all paying clients. One of the big requests that users have requested is that Woopra support subdomains as well, and this is also being announced. You can find the full list of plans for Woopra here.

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Source: TechCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:00 pm

Linux Foundation announces new membership perks

Great news, Linux users! The Linux Foundation is rolling out new individual membership benefits, including employee purchase pricing on Dell, Lenovo and HP devices. This translates to up to 40% off of store prices. Plus, you can get an @linux.com email address, and the peace of mind knowing that some portion of your membership dues will be going to directly support the continued work of Linus Torvalds!

The Linux Foundation Announces New, Exclusive Perks for Individual Members

Members support the organization that promotes and protects Linux while getting new employee purchase pricing from major PC makers

SAN FRANCISCO, October 13, 2009 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced new, exclusive benefits for individual members, including employee purchase pricing from Dell, HP and Lenovo, and the opportunity to secure a Linux.com email address for life.

Beginning today, Linux Foundation individual members can get up to 40 percent off of Lenovo devices and standard employee purchase pricing from Dell and HP. Dell also offers a best price guarantee to Linux Foundation members. These benefits can translate into hundreds or thousands of dollars for those who purchase their devices as part of this program.

Existing members that would like to ensure their Linux.com email address is permanent and not dependent on Linux Foundation membership renewal can elect to secure it with a one-time $150 fee. New members who want the same benefit will pay a total of $249 for the first year’s membership and the lifetime benefit. Linux.com email addresses allow members to publicly represent their support for Linux and to demonstrate their community participation.

Students can also now become members with a student-class membership for $25 annually. Students find value in Linux Foundation events and online resources and help to drive the adoption of Linux among up-and-coming developers and IT managers. The Linux Foundation wants to encourage participation in the Linux community among this important group of future developers.

“Our individual members are the heartbeat of the Linux Foundation and we will continue to find ways to extend special benefits to them,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation. “Perks like the employee purchase discounts from Dell, HP and Lenovo and lifetime Linux.com email addresses are unique things we can offer to sustain support for Linux.”

By becoming a member of the Linux Foundation, developers and users are helping the organization that employs Linus Torvalds and supporting programs that promote and protect Linux. Individual membership helps connect developers, IT administrators, and business executives with unique information, tools and events that help to advance their careers and stay current with the Linux platform.

The annual membership fee for individuals is $99, which pays for itself quickly with just one of the discounts offered exclusively to Linux Foundation members.

Other discounts and benefits available to individual members include:

§      30% discount on the Linux Foundation’s LinuxCon and Japan Linux Symposium events;

§      20% discount on registration fees for Linux Foundation training courses;

§      35% off O’Reilly books and e-Books;

§      35% off No Starch Press Publications;

§      15% off subscriptions to Linux Journal;

§      $10 off every $40 order on ThinkGeek.com;

§      a free Linux Foundation t-shirt for proclaiming support for Linux; and

§      a weekly “Linux Briefing Book” in the form of an exclusive email with highlighted news and analysis to keep users well informed.

To join the Linux Foundation and to see a full list of benefits and discounts, please visit our membership page: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/join/individual

.

About the Linux Foundation.

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by hosting important workgroups, events and online resources such as Linux.com. For more information, please visit the Linux Foundation website.

Source: CrunchGear | 12 Oct 2009 | 6:45 pm

CrunchDeals: Razer Mamba for $85 shipped

My major issue with the Mamba (once the other issues were sorted out) was the price. $130 MSRP was just too much to give it a solid “buy” rating. But for a limited time, you can get one for $55 off the cover price, which makes it a much better deal.

What you need to do (and thanks to Dealnews for hooking this one up) is go over to ZipZoomFly and put one in your cart. Then apply the coupon code “ZZF82197″ to get $10 off, and then when you get it in the mail, send in that rebate for another $15. Boom, $85 Mamba. It’s a beautiful thing. Although I’ve been liking this Logitech G500 I’m reviewing, and it’s even cheaper… well, wait for the review.

Source: CrunchGear | 12 Oct 2009 | 6:27 pm

Fate of some Sun technologies still up in the air (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has been fawning all over Sun Microsystems technologies lately, such as Java, the Solaris OS, the MySQL database, and the SPARC CPU platform. But it still remains to be seen how Oracle will deal with redundancies in the Java enterprise application server and IDE spaces once Sun becomes part of Oracle.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Oct 2009 | 6:20 pm

Major Snow Leopard Bug Said To Delete User Data

inglishmayjer was one of several readers to send in the news of a major bug in Apple's new OS, 10.6 Snow Leopard, that can wipe out all user data for the administrator account. It is said to be triggered — not every time — by logging in to the Guest account and then back in to the admin account. Some users are reporting that all settings have been reset and most data is gone. The article links to a number of Apple forum threads up to a month old bemoaning the problem. MacFixIt suggests disabling login on the Guest account and, if you need that functionality, creating a non-administrative account named something like Visitor. (The Guest account is special in that its settings are wiped clean after logout.) CNet reports that Apple has acknowledged the bug and is working on a fix.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:59 pm

Overstock.com Announces Day Eight and Nine Winners of 10th Anniversary 'Daily Dig' and 'Twitter Like it's 1999' Sweepstakes

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overstock.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK) today announced winners of day eight and nine in its 10th Anniversary 'Daily Dig' contest. Kevin Moore of Freeport, Illinois won a $5,000 jewelry package.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:57 pm

First Look: Dyson’s Blade-Free Wonder Fan Blows Our Minds

James Dyson has a fetish for making unusual products: everything from vacuums that suck (in a good way) to hand dryers that blow (also in a good way), each use a clever combo of eye-catching design along with innovate methods of compressing and dispensing air. But even we in the Lab weren’t prepared the WTF moment when we pulled Dyson’s blade-less Air Multiplier fan from its packaging.

The thing should not work. A gust of air should not be coming form this giant blue Froot Loop. But upon closer inspection, all that’s at work here is some clever engineering tricks. The unit is essentially one of Dyson’s vacuum cleaners working in reverse. The gray base station sucks up air and forces it through the circular blue thing that sits atop the rig. When the air jets through the front of the circle, it creates a suction behind and to the sides that draws more air through the loop and makes the fan more powerful. Dyson claims the Multiplier increases pressure15-fold and spews 118 gallons of air every minute. To get a better idea of how it works, checkout this bullshit artist rendering:

The fan’s operation is really quite amazing. Not only is it eye catching — everyone at the Wired office today was slack jawed by its striking build and apparent miraculous tempest — but the thing runs quiet too. There’s virtually no operating noise aside from the light hum of the engine and whoosh of the blowing gas. And it’s especially safe for worrisome parents who fret about junior getting his precious digits mangled by a high RPM spinning plastic blade.

The only thing we don’t like about the fan? (Aside from the ridiculously high price tag.)  There’s no emulating Darth Vader’s voice with this thing. I mean, how would it work in a Tommy Boy remake?

The Air Multiplier will go on sale on this fall and will cost $300 - $330.

See Also:

• Dyson Perfects the Clothesline
• Dyson DC-24 Vacuum Sucks Like No Other
• Mechanized Floor Lamp Puts on a Brilliant Light Show

Photo by Jim Merithew for Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:48 pm

BFG announces new Deimos X-10 gaming notebook

BFG is well-known for their video cards and other gaming peripherals, but did you know they make systems too? It’s true. BFG announced their first desktop system earlier this year, and now they are jumping into the performance notebook arena with the new Deimos system.

The Deimos does look promising. BFG has three levels of hardware available, the “Performance”, the “Advanced”, and the “Elite”. The Elite is the top of the range, with an Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.53GHz, and 8GB of RAM with a GeForce 280M. The Advanced has a Core 2 Quad 2GHz CPU and 8GB of RAM and a GeForce 280M, and the Performance uses a Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz CPUT and just 4GB of RAM and a GeForce 260M. All three models have an 18.4-inch screen, which is slightly larger then the competition’s.

This brings us to price. BFG lists the starting price of the Performance at $2299, the Advanced at $3699, and the Elite at $4499. And the price goes up from there based on your custom build. They are announcing the Deimos today, however it won’t actually ship until October 30th. BFG is offering a 10% discount on pre-orders until the end of the month, but it still seems like quite a bit for a gaming notebook machine considering the competition.

Source: CrunchGear | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:45 pm

Danger Will Robinson! Do Not Approach the Sidekick! [Digital Daily]

A quick update on the Microsoft/Danger Sidekick fiasco.

T-Mobile has pulled its Sidekick handsets off the market following a back-end server failure that resulted in many users losing their personal data. Surf over to the carrier’s Web site and you’ll find that it now lists the entire Sidekick line of devices as “temporarily out of stock.” Evidently, T-Mobile would prefer to resolve the current service issues before it resumes selling the Sidekick–not that anyone would buy one right now anyway.

Microsoft (MSFT) and T-Mobile still haven’t explained why the server failure occurred and more importantly, why they don’t have a backup of lost user data. Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that the failure was caused by an attempted storage area network transition without contingency plans.

Source: All Things Digital | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:23 pm

Google Docs adds better sharing, uploading

Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking, Web Apps, Google

Still depressed that you don’t have a Google Wave invite?  Still confused about what, exactly, Google Wave allows you to do?  Well, there’s always Google’s other useful for collaboration tool and cloud word processor, Google Docs.  Google today decided to make the whole service easier for those who use it to store multiple files that are also on local computers, or who share a number of documents with others.

The new Google Docs features will allow users to finally share files with one another.  Just as in single documents, there’s a link to share whole folders now.  The folders will be shared just as you see them, so just add a new file when you need to, or take another out when you don’t want it shared any more.  It would make it much easier if there’s a lot of documents you share with the same people, so you won’t have to share them individually.  Of course, you won’t be able to share everything that isn’t in a folder.  The other new feature, which is more of a “why didn’t it do that before?” is batch uploading, so you no longer have to upload new files one by one into Google Docs.

With Google trying to get a companies and schools to “Go Google,” the updates make a lot of sense.  These are features that would be obvious for using Google Docs with a large batch of previous files and sharing a number of related files with groups of people.  It might not make people look away from Google Wave for too long, but it is certainly a welcome addition to me, as someone who’s been using Google Docs as a collaborative tool for some time.  Even if it is older and not in real-tie, Google Docs is still arguably better for collaboration than Google Wave, at least until someone builds a spreadsheet extension, and more people learn how to use Wave.  Even still, Docs will still be of greater use to those who don’t need to collaborate.

Read [Google Docs Blog]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:17 pm

Facebook User Arrested For a Poke

nk497 writes "A woman in Tennessee has been arrested for poking someone over Facebook. Sharon Jackson had been banned by courts from 'telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating' with the apparent poke recipient, but just couldn't hold back from clicking the 'poke' button. She now faces a sentence of up to a year in prison."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:11 pm

Is Working For the Gambling Industry a Black Mark?

An anonymous reader writes 'I'm a recent university graduate and I have been offered a software developer position in a company that supplies software to the gambling and betting industry. At first I was very excited about the opportunity, however, a few of my friends have told me that working for the gambling industry will put a permanent black mark on my career as a software developer. I don't know that many people in the industry with experience in hiring. Google has not helped, and everybody else I ask doesn't know. So I'm asking Slashdot. In your experience is this true? When you hire developers, is the fact that they worked for a gambling company a big turn off? Also, I'm currently in the UK, but would like the freedom of working in US or somewhere else later on in life. So experience from anywhere in the world is welcome.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Oct 2009 | 4:19 pm

Save the date: Google I/O 2010

Source: The Official Google Blog | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:50 pm

Dell teases with new Adamo shots - CNET News

eCoustics.com (press release)

Dell teases with new Adamo shots CNET News We've mentioned a couple of times how the new, revamped version of Dell's high-end Adamo laptop has a pretty interesting design twist. After offering a few tantalizing teases (including a brief appearance at a press conference last ... Dell plays coy with anorexic notebookTG Daily Dell shows off Adamo XPS, thinner than 'Air'Afterdawn.com Dell Adamo XPS gets more teaser images: 9.9mm thick notebookSlashGear Reuters -Blast -Computer Shopper all 41 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:48 pm

Hunting Arctic Asteroid Impact With Hovercraft

To investigate a mysterious anomaly on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, two researchers have turned to what they see as the only sensible scientific vessel for the project: a specially modded polar hovercraft.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:43 pm

Latest Rumors Point to New Macs on the Horizon

Product rumors have been fairly quiet on the Apple front recently, but the tech community has begun exchanging whispers about new Macs due in stores soon.

While the world waits for Apple to deliver its highly anticipated touchscreen tablet in early 2010, the nearer future most likely holds upgraded iMacs, Mac Minis, MacBooks and perhaps a new multitouch mouse.

Here, we round up all the Mac-related rumors that have surfaced in the past month and rate their probability. Eager to buy a new Mac? Wait a little longer: Any Tuesday now (Apple traditionally rolls out product upgrades on Tuesdays), you’ll most likely see a slew of brand new Macs in the Apple Store.

Thinner, groovier iMacs
On average, Apple refreshes its iMacs every seven months, and the last batch of iMacs were released in March. History suggests that new iMacs should arrive any day now.

What’s new about them? Financial publication Barron’s cites research firm Wedge Partners, who claims the new iMacs will sport a “thinner, organic design, likely with smoothed or rounded edges.” That’s reasonable to believe: The current aluminum form factor hasn’t been changed for about two years. The previous white iMac lasted two years before receiving the aluminum makeover. So a new design for the next iMac would make sense. Also, a thinner, rounder design upgrade would be consistent with the look of the new aluminum MacBook Pros.

Corroborating the claim of thinner iMacs, a purported foreign Apple advertisement for a new iMac emerged on Google.nl, stating “iMac: Ultra Thin 20 & 24 inch models. From only €1099. Apple Store.”

As for the new iMac’s innards, there have been conflicting reports claiming the iMacs will feature a quad-core processor, an upgrade from their current dual-core brains, while other publications claim the iMac will continue using dual-cores. We’re undecided on who’s right, but what’s obvious is the new iMacs should be speedier in performance. French blog Mac4Ever claims the new iMacs will include SD card readers, just like those featured in the MacBook Pros. Apple does enjoy consistency across its product lines, so that sounds plausible.

Multitouch mouse
The iMac is rumored to be shipping with an extra bonus: a new multitouch mouse, which will presumably sport a touch-sensitive housing to do away with the roller ball on the current Mighty Mouse. Sources told AppleInsider that the new mouse would apply the multipoint touch detection technology seen in the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

A new iMac is the perfect opportunity for Apple to roll out a new mouse. Wired.com believes a multitouch mouse should function similarly to the unibody MacBook trackpads, which detect multitouch gestures. On new MacBooks, tapping the trackpad with two fingers triggers a right-click function, for example; this rumored multitouch mouse might copy this behavior. Also, for a mouse, we would expect a multitouch gesture to replace scrolling in different directions, and perhaps there will be special gestures that trigger Exposé commands as well.

New White MacBooks
Remember the MacBook? You know, that lone white notebook in the Mac family. Rumors say the MacBook will soon receive a design overhaul and be joined by additional models. Not much is known, other than that the new MacBooks will reportedly be thinner and lighter, and the internal architecture will be reworked. Financial blog Barron’s cites research firm Wedge Partners, who claims the MacBook redesign “is likely to be limited.” That’s vague, but we think many of us would consider thinner and lighter to be a “limited” redesign (i.e., not mindblowingly exciting).

Several reports say the new MacBook will be released simultaneously with the new iMac. The MacBook was also alluded to in the purported Apple advertisement that may have been accidentally leaked: “MacBook: Thinner, lighter and faster! Free delivery. Order today.”

Of course we believe new MacBooks are imminent: Apple would not neglect its most affordable notebook, which has been a hot seller, especially among students.

Mac Mini
Last and definitely least, there have been scarce rumors about a new Mac Mini also launching with the iMac and MacBook. Apple’s treatment toward the Mac Mini has been inconsistent with its other products: The company waited 600 days before releasing the current Mac Mini, and the upgrade was only minor; it introduced no changes to form factor. Mac Mini customer feedback suggests the device is being used for niche applications including cheap server setups, digital music servers for audiophiles and replacements for Windows PCs.

We’d guess Apple will deliver another mini upgrade for the Mac Mini, perhaps increasing its storage and adding a slight bump to performance. The purported Apple ad also includes the Mac Mini, suggesting it will drop in price: “Faster and more affordable than ever. From only €499. Order immediately.” A price drop is believable: It suggests the Mac Mini isn’t a big seller, which we would expect, and if that’s the case, we wouldn’t expect a significant upgrade.

See Also:

• White MacBook Outperforms Pricier Unibody Model
• Rumor: Apple Preparing Design Refresh for MacBook
• Rumor: Apple to Ship Multitouch Mice With New iMacs Soon
• The Mac Mini: Apple’s Red-Headed Stepchild
• How Do You Love the Mac Mini? Let Us Count the Ways

Photo: Crouching Donkey/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:42 pm

New Superconductor World Record Surpasses 250K

myrrdyn writes to tell us that a new superconductivity record high of 254 Kelvin (-19C, -2F) has been recorded. According to the article this is the first time a superconductive state has been observed at a temperature comparable to a household freezer. "This achievement was accomplished by combining two previously successful structure types: the upper part of a 9212/2212C and the lower part of a 1223. The chemical elements remain the same as those used in the 242K material announced in May 2009. The host compound has the formula (Tl4Ba)Ba2Ca2Cu7Oy and is believed to attain 254K superconductivity when a 9223 structure forms"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:37 pm

Sprint Steps Up to the Plate, in an Analysis by C4 Business Development Group

NAMPA, Idaho, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- While new features and technology continue to flood the mobile playing field, true business model innovation in the mobile market is rare.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pm

T-Mobile yanks Sidekicks from stores and site following technical woes

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

T-Mobile has yanked the Sidekick off its site and ordered stores to stop selling it following the latest in a series of technical woes affecting the popular device.  Just over a week ago users found themselves unable to browse the web, connect to social networking sites, IM or even access their address books.  That outage lasted nearly a week, angering many, and just when things seemed to be back to normal, another outage hit, and this time the now red faced company announced that as a result thousands of Sidekick users had lost their personal data (photos, contacts, calendar entries, etc).  This has infuriated users and given both the device and the company a black eye.

T-Mobile is pointing the finger at Microsoft, which is putting the blame on Danger, whose technology is behind the Sidekick.  The company said a main database and its backup server both failed.  Microsoft acquired the company last year.  It’s not clear when this latest glitch will be fixed, but the lost data is gone for good.  T-Mobile issued an urgent warning to Sidekick users not to remove their batteries or let them drain fully or they may lose data as well.

Halting sales of the Sidekick may have seemed like a smart move for T-Mobile - it’s likely they decided adding new devices to the now fragile Sidekick network would have been another disaster in the making, but given the black eye the device now has, it wouldn’t be surprising to see sales plummet once it’s put back on sale.

As far as current Sidekick users are concerned, T-Mobile is offering a month of free service to make up for all the problems.

Read [CNet]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pm

BIAS Corporation Wins Oracle Technology Momentum Titan Award

ATLANTA, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- BIAS is a firm believer that the quality of Oracle's technology products helps clients streamline processes and solve challenges in business in a manner superior to the competition.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pm

Rumor: Verizon to extend their Buy One, Get One Free deal to the BlackBerry Storm2?

We’ll be blunt, here: after its predecessor’s bumpy start, the BlackBerry Storm 2 needs a really, really smooth launch. The BlackBerry Storm launched with handful of nasty bugs and software shortcomings, nearly all of which were fixed within the first few weeks; yet to this day, most people respond to the BlackBerry Storm with “Ack! Isn’t that thing super buggy?”. It looks like Verizon’s fully aware that they need to shine a positive light on the upcoming sequel – and what better way to do so than giving them away for free?

While we can’t speak for its validity, BlackBerry Rocks! just put up a shot of promo flyer reportedly leaked from Big Red themselves. It continues Verizon’s recent trend of Buy-One-Get-One BlackBerry deals (which, by the way, still requires two contracts – it’s the second device thats free), with one notable change: it includes the BlackBerry Storm 2 (shown here, and in most recent leaks, as Storm2). The original Storm came around 5 months before Verizon kicked off the BOGO deal, so it wasn’t too crazy to see them pairing up the sales; but the same deal on launch day? We’ll take two. For the price of one.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:08 pm

FCC Filing Brings Asus Eee PC-in-a-Keyboard Closer to Reality

Computer keyboards are not a hotbed of innovation. That’s why Asus’ attempt to add some pizzaz to the keyboard by stuffing an internet-enabled computer inside it is interesting.

In the last few months, Asus has shown a prototype device that crams a computer and a small touchscreen display into a keyboard. The display allows for quick access to widgets such as weather and email.

Now an FCC filing by the company has revealed the details of this device. The Asus Eee keyboard, model EK 1542, has a 5-inch 800-by-400-pixel touch panel with a stylus. It will run Windows XP Home edition on an Intel Atom N270 CPU and a Broadcom video processor. The keyboard will have 1GB of on-board memory, a 16 GB or 32 GB solid state drive, Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth connectivity.

The keyboard claims up to to four hours of battery life and includes one HDMI port, three USB ports and two audio jacks. The Ultra Wide Band antenna and receiver setup means a wireless connection to devices within a five- to 10-meter range and includes the ability to send 720p videos to your TV.

Asus hasn’t indicated when the keyboard will be launched or what it will be priced at. But the FCC filing is an indication that Asus is serious about bringing this device to the market soon, and it could be on retail shelves in time for this holiday season.

Check out the FCC filing for specifications and photos of the Asus Eee keyboard.

See Also:

• Video: Asus Crams Eee PC Into a Keyboard
• Eee PC-in-a-Keyboard Coming Soon
• Asus Unveils Dual-Panel Touchscreen PC
• Asus Shows a Tablet-Style Eee PC

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

BLOG: Alien Invaders or Bizarre Cloud?

This unusual cloud has trigged speculation of visitors from outer space.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

SLIDE SHOW: 'Small World' Blends Science and Art

Explore our favorite photos from Nikon's Small World Photomicrography Competition.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

IBM and ACM-ICPC Announce Global 'Battle of the Brains' Software Competition

SAN ANTONIO, Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Ad-Aware Offers Behavioral Detection

With the latest release of the popular anti-malware tool Ad-Aware, Lavasoft has added what is being referring to as "Genotype," a heuristic-based behavioral detection engine. In addition to a new (and what appears to be faster) method of detection and elimination, there are a few incremental updates like the simple/advanced toggle and a potentially always-on "gaming mode," which attempts to do real-time filtering while you are playing games, watching videos, or just browsing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 12 Oct 2009 | 2:45 pm

SANS Instructor, Bit9 and MANDIANT Conduct Proactive Cyber Security Seminar in Houston

WALTHAM, Mass., Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 2:34 pm

CenturyLink Announces Final Results of Debt Tender Offers

MONROE, La., Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 2:32 pm

First American CoreLogic Announces Free ePropertyWatch(TM) Monitoring Service for Homeowners

SANTA ANA, Calif., Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 2:19 pm

Shared folders and multiple file upload in Google Docs

Today, we are happy to launch one of the most requested Google Docs features — the ability to share folders. Shared folders make it easy for a team of people to collaborate on projects that require multiple documents, spreadsheets or presentations. If you have a group of items you want to share, all that you have to do is put them into one folder and share it.


Once you've shared a folder, all of the items in the folder will be accessible to the group. You can also add someone to an existing shared folder to give them access to all of the folder's content. Likewise, each item you add to the folder will be automatically shared. Just like with sharing documents, you can specify edit and view-only access for a folder.

In addition to sharing folders, you can now upload multiple files to Google Docs at the same time, simplifying the process of transferring documents from your desktop to the cloud. Once your documents are in the cloud, you can access them from any device connected to the Internet or share them with people you choose.

These features are currently rolling out and will be available to everyone by the end of the day. If you're interested in learning more, check out our post on the Google Docs blog.

Posted by Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager, Google Docs
Source: The Official Google Blog | 12 Oct 2009 | 2:13 pm

Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff to Speak at Oracle OpenWorld

Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell to join Benioff as special guest during executive sponsor session Salesforce.com to showcase how customers are generating business success with Oracle and Salesforce CRM - the best of both worlds SAN FRANCISCO, Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 2:05 pm

Willie Nelson's Got a New Broadband Plan

Willie Nelson has tossed the satellite dish off his corn-powered tour bus, choosing instead a new technology that bundles many wireless data cards into a single connection. And if it's good enough for Willie, it's good enough for your band or construction site or video shoot.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 2:00 pm

Judge Refuses to Punish Lawyer for Anti-RIAA Blogging

A federal judge refuses to sanction Ray Beckerman, a lawyer-blogger whom the Recording Industry Association has decried as a "vexatious" litigator in his defense of a New York woman the RIAA has accused of illegal file sharing. The industry said he breached ethics by writing frivolous motions that he posted on his blog to "embarrass" the industry.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 1:53 pm

Apple "No Refunds" Policy For Better & Worse - PC World

Times Online

Apple "No Refunds" Policy For Better & Worse PC World Apple's "no refunds" policy for iPhone App Store purchase is both not as bad--and worse--than it sounds. Readers say Apple occasionally gives refunds, but also complain that Apple's own updates break apps for which no refunds are given. ... How the iPhone's App Store Could Stimulate the Flash EconomyWired News Sexist? Pepsi Has an App for ThatPC Magazine Caveat Emptor: No Returns At The Apple App StoreChannelWeb New York Times -Washington Post -CIO Today all 98 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Oct 2009 | 1:47 pm

Nissan Scrambles to Create EV Charging Stations

Electric cars are coming. So to is the charging infrastructure, with a little help from Uncle Sam.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 1:30 pm

Residents of Southwest Jefferson County, Missouri, to Benefit From Verizon Wireless Network Enhancement

DE SOTO, Mo., Oct.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 12 Oct 2009 | 1:28 pm

From Cocteau Twins to 'Carousel,' Guitarist Robin Guthrie Mesmerizes

A self-professed former "gear slut," the six-string whiz with the influential sound reflects on digital obscenities and stretches his artistry to soundtracks, animation and other ethereal efforts.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 1:22 pm

Android gets more useful, adds Quick Search Box

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Computers, Software / Applications

Google’s Android OS added in a Quick Search Box (“QSB”) that searches everything on your Android phone as well as the web.  When you type in a search item, results populate so you can just select the matching result.  Additionally, if every time you type in “Ga” you are looking for your Gadgetell.com bookmark, Google’s QSB will learn your behavior and will make it a top result. 

If you’re thinking, “Hey, this is 2009.  I don’t want to do any typing!” - well, Google’s got you covered with voice search as long as you search in English.  Other applications (outside of official Google apps) will be able to add their suggestions to QSB.  The QSB is located on the home screen for easy access or you can use the Search button on your keyboard (if you Android phone has one).  This feature is available on Android 1.6.

Read: [Google Mobile Blog]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 12 Oct 2009 | 1:05 pm

2012 Doomsday Not Likely, Mayans Insist

Mayans emphatically deny that 2012 marks the end of the world.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 12:30 pm

‘Vegetarian’ Spider Discovered In Central America

Image 1: Adult female Bagheera kiplingi eats Beltian body harvested from ant-acacia. Credit: R. L. CurryImage 2: Adult female Bagheera kiplingi defends her nest against acacia-ant worker. Credit: R. L. Curry
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Oct 2009 | 12:05 pm

Kinder, Gentler Spider Eats Veggies, Cares for Kids

The world's first vegetarian spider has been discovered in Central America.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm

Deadly Earthquakes Have Experts Questioning Scientific Thought

Image Caption: This map shows the earthquakes near the island nation of Vanuatu that occurred on October 7 and 8, 2009. Credit: Nasa Earth Observatory
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:35 am

Apple Customers Mourn Over Dearly Departed Time Capsules

Disgruntled Apple customers who own defective Time Capsule devices have cooked up a snarky way to make a statement: a memorial page devoted to dead Time Capsules.

In several Apple-related forums, many customers complained their Time Capsule — Apple’s back-up hard drive with built-in Wi-Fi — suddenly powered off and failed to power back on. In an effort to push Apple to acknowledge a problem, TimeCapsuleDead invites owners of broken Time Capsules to enter their units’ serial numbers, times of death and other information.

As of this writing, “119 fallen Time Capsules” have been reported to the site. The average lifespan of the Time Capsule is 17 months, 19 days, according to the site.

Dorky idea, but we find it pretty clever. Besides, of anyone, we’re the type to mourn over our dead gadgets, too.

Via TUAW

See Also:

• Apple Time Capsule 1TB
• Review: Apple’s Terabyte Time Capsule Makes Data Simple To Share
• Apple Doubles Time Capsule Capacity

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:27 am

The Microsoft Windows Phone commercial: Small, puffy men will follow you around

Not only does the term “Windows Phone” just sound wrong, now they’re trying to equate all your Windows apps with puffy little men who love you but don’t want you to leave.

The story is simple: the icons are your Windows apps. They miss you. You can take ether with you on your Windows Phone. Sadly, they don’t show how you have to cripple them as they leave the house, reducing them to a shell of their former selves. Perhaps a scene of hobbling, like in Misery?

via Eng

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:15 am

Making mobile search complete, easy and local

As part of our "Go Mobile" week of tips and tricks, we're recapping some of our latest Google Search for mobile features. All of these new features either make mobile search more complete, easier to use or more local.

Complete
When you enter a query on Google.com on your phone, you access the same comprehensive index of the web as when you use Google.com on your computer — including universal search results such as images, local listings, news, blogs, videos, products and more. You get the same search experience you're familiar with, presented in an optimized format for your phone.

• Product Search: In April, we launched Product Search for Android and iPhone, and made a version available for all other phones in July. Product Search lets you read product ratings and reviews and check prices while you're shopping.
• iGoogle: In June, we launched a new version of iGoogle for Android and iPhone devices, making more of your desktop iGoogle gadgets available on mobile.
• Image Search: In August we brought our Image Search results optimizations to feature phones. This lets you see more images on the screen while browsing and selected images in full screen, and makes navigating between images much easier.
• Fast Flip: In September, we launched the mobile version of Fast Flip for Android and iPhone devices, letting you scan news articles quickly.
• Search Options: Earlier this month, we launched Search Options for Android, iPhone and Palm WebOS phones, enabling you to further refine search results to get the information you're looking for.

Completeness also means making our products available in languages and regions throughout the world. In July we launched optimized search results for 38 languages in 60 countries, and in August, we added Arabic and Hebrew to reach our 40 language goal.

Easy
Let's face it: typing a query into a mobile phone can be painful. Here are some recent features we've launched to make it easier to enter queries and get to the results you're interested in.

• Barcode scanning: In May, we introduced barcode scanning to Product Search for Android devices to make entering specific product queries easier.
• Desktop-to-mobile query suggestions: Sometimes your mobile search is actually one that you've already done on your computer. In September, we synchronized your desktop and mobile search history so that you can easily repeat past searches.
• Search by voice: We're constantly improving our speech recognition technology for searching by voice on BlackBerry, Android and iPhone devices.
• Quick Search Box: And just last week, we announced an integrated search capability for Android devices that lets you search your contacts and applications in addition to the web — all at the same time.

Local
As you're out on the go, your mobile phone can be a great tool for finding information about what's nearby, whether you need to find the nearest gas station or ATM, or want to check if the local hardware store is still open before driving there. Here are some recent things we've launched to make Google mobile search an even more powerful way to find local information.

• Search with My Location: In July, we brought automatic location detection to Google.com for the iPhone Safari browser, so you don't need to specify where you are when you are searching for businesses near you. In September, we launched Search with My Location on Google Mobile App for Windows Mobile phones.
• Category browsing: Also in September, we released a completely redesigned local search experience for most phones. With the new local tab, you can search for businesses around you by simply browsing a categorized list of businesses.
• Starring and history: The new local tab also lets you star local listings on Google Maps on your computer and have them automatically appear on your phone. It also remembers listings you've viewed on either your phone or Google Maps on your computer, to let you easily find them again. Watch the video below to see a demo of the new local search.

If you haven't tried Google Search on your phone in a while (or ever!) go ahead and give it a try now by going to Google.com in your mobile browser. Hopefully some of these new features will make mobile search more useful for you. And as part of "Go Mobile" week, if you have any questions for the Google mobile team you can ask them here until 11:59 PDT on Tuesday. Then, we'll answer a few on Wednesday on the Google Mobile Blog. Otherwise, you can leave comments on our Help Forum as always.



Posted by Scott Huffman, Engineering Director
Source: The Official Google Blog | 12 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am

BLOG: Power Mat to Cords: This Is It!

Power mats let you lose the spaghetti dinner-like mess of cords under your desk.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:40 am

iPhone Homescreen Exposé Concept: Would you use this?

We get the strangest e-mails in the MobileCrunch tips line. Sometimes people will write in to tell us about their day, using us as an archaic, vacuum-esque livejournal. Other times (and quite often), internet newbies fail to realize this isn’t a store, and ask us when we’ll have such and such item in stock. Less often, we’ll get random little gems of self-created goodness that I’m never quite sure what to do with; they’re not news, per se, but they’re still rather interesting.

Such is the case with this concept video (after the jump) from Swedish design house Ocean Observations. It looks rather flashy and neat, but I’m left wondering: would anyone use it?

It’s like OS X’s Expose feature, tweaked for iPhone app screens. Tap the home button, and up to 9 pages of homescreen are shown in a grid. Tapping any of the displayed pages will jump you directly to that page, allowing you to skip from page 1 to page 8 without swiping 7 times. If Apple provided this as one of the home button behavior alternatives, would you use this? It seems to me like the primary use would be launching a specific app; if that’s the case, why not just use search – which can already be tied to the home button?

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:39 am

Climate Action May Shift Warming Odds

Aggressive action to cut emissions may help to curb the catastrophic effects of warming.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am

Darker Side of Columbus Emerges in Classrooms

Students are coming away with a more nuanced picture of Christopher Columbus.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 9:40 am

Is AT&T targeting Google Voice to stop "traffic pumping"? - Ars Technica

Ars Technica

Is AT&T targeting Google Voice to stop "traffic pumping"? Ars Technica Google is grumpy about an AT&T-prompted FCC letter asking the company to explain the feature's call-restricting policies. But it may be that AT&T really just wants action on a dubious business technique called "traffic pumping. ... Google Voice shows need to update telecom lawsZDNet FCC Eyes Google VoicePC World AT&T vs. Google: Updating the Status of Call BlockingBusinessWeek TopNews United States -USA Today -eWeek all 104 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Oct 2009 | 9:17 am

How the iPhone’s App Store Could Stimulate the Flash Economy

Thanks to new tools provided by Adobe, the iPhone has the potential to transform the Flash programmer community from an experimental playground into a lucrative industry.

Adobe last week announced that its new version of the Flash Professional CS5 developer kit will include tools to convert software written in Flash into standalone iPhone apps. That creates the opportunity for Flash developers to submit Flash-ported iPhone apps to Apple; if Apple approves those apps, they can then be sold through the iTunes App Store.

The community of Flash programmers is 1 million strong, according to Adobe, but very few of them make any decent money since the platform lacks a clear and consistent business model. Thus, the prospect of selling software through the App Store, which has served over 2 billion downloads and earned some developers hundreds of thousands of dollars, could be enticing to many Flash developers.

The result could be a large flood of new Flash-ported iPhone apps, as well as heightened interest in developing for the Flash platform.

“Whether the iPhone can bolster a good enough performance to do intensive mobile Flash games we are unsure of,” said John Cooney, head of game development at Flash game company Armor Games. “But if it can it’s going to open up doors for several Flash game developers, including myself personally, to become iPhone developers.”

Why aren’t many Flash programmers making a living off their code? It’s just not very easy to do. If you’re in the Flash industry and you’re not a big studio-affiliated website like Hulu — or if you’re not employed to develop Flash for larger companies — you’re most likely an independent developer coding games. For creators of Flash games, there are three primary sources of revenue: 1.) Up-front sponsorship deals with larger websites (such as Kongregate.com or AddictingGames.com), in which developers agree to brand their games with the website’s company name; 2.) Selling licenses of their games to other web portals, allowing visitors to play the game for free; 3.) Embedding advertising into their games.

The major hurdle for independent Flash programmers is the difficulty of getting people to pay for website-based games, said Greg McClanahan, game sponsorship director of Kongregate. And that’s where the App Store might help.

“Flash developers can already get a few million views of their game and it wouldn’t be a huge deal, nor would they necessarily make significant money from it,” McClanahan said. “They’re coming from an industry where it’s very difficult to charge people for their games, though I imagine it would be a lot easier on the iPhone than on the web, due to the different mentalities of the potential customers.”

Because Flash programming isn’t a highly lucrative business, many of the game developers in the Flash community are teenagers or college students making games for the sake of learning and experimentation; money is a side goal, McClanahan said. Also, Flash development is popular in third-world countries. Thanks to currency exchange rates, that means a little bit of revenue can still add up to a lot of money for an overseas programmer. If, for example, a programmer receives sponsorship from U.S.-based Kongregate, he’ll receive U.S. dollars no matter where he’s coding — even a third-world country where the dollar is strong.

“A guy in Indonesia made enough off his Flash game and bought a house,” McClanahan said. However, he added, “[those] results [are] not typical.”

Whether bigger entrepreneurs are going to step into Flash programming because of the iPhone will depend on the results for Flash-ported iPhone apps in the App Store.

There have, in fact, already been a few big App Store hits from Flash developers who manually recoded their games using the iPhone SDK. In June, Armor Games’ $1 puzzle game Shift reached no. 6 in Apple’s list of top paid apps for over 40 days, according to iPhone app review site 148Apps. That translated into $30,000 in revenue, and the game is continuing to sell 1,000 copies per month, according to Shift developer Daniel McNeely.

Another popular Flash-ported iPhone game was Bloons, which reached as high as no. 2 in the App Store in May and spent over 100 days in the top 100 paid apps list, according to 148Apps.

“I think I’d call that a success,” said Jeff Scott, editor of 148Apps.

Whether the iPhone will dramatically stimulate the Flash economy is up for debate. Adobe’s new conversion tools won’t be available until the end of the year, so concrete data won’t be available until early 2010. Also, Flash developers might be turned off by horror stories uttered by iPhone programmers who have failed to make money, largely due to Apple’s inconsistent and unclear App Store approval policies.

However, what is clear is what Adobe has in mind with this new Flash-to-iPhone conversion tool: Evangelizing more developers and getting them to join the Flash community, said James McQuivey, a Forrester analyst.

“From Adobe’s side what they’re hoping for is that people who are currently developing using Apple’s tools might be able to do future versions of their product with Flash,” McQuivey said. “From a developer’s perspective you’d rather write once and port to one common application on several devices. It’s not going to be Apple’s development language that ports to the connected TVs and netbook computers and so on. It’s more likely it’s going to be Flash.”

Regardless of whether or not Adobe’s Flash-convertion tool will produce an impact, the Flash programmers will definitely benefit from having the option to port their software into iPhone apps, Cooney said.

“If I can make a game, stick it on a web page, stick it on my iPhone, and then stick it wherever else Flash decides to go, then I am most certainly going to find it much more lucrative,” Cooney said.

Updated 12 p.m. PDT to draw a clearer comparison between independent iPhone app developers and independent Flash developers.

See Also:

• Coder’s Half-Million-Dollar Baby Proves iPhone Gold Rush Is Still …
• Rejected By Apple, iPhone Developers Go Underground
• iPhone Developers Go From Rags to Riches
• With 2 Billionth iPhone App Download, Apple Gets Blasé
• Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone
• Flash Lands on iPhone — One App at a Time

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:59 am

How the iPhone's App Store Could Stimulate the Flash Economy

With more than a million Flash developers worldwide, according to Adobe this segment of the industry is hardly lucrative. Now a tool for developers to convert Flash coding into standalone iPhone apps has some programmers thinking the iPhone's App Store will stimulate the Flash economy.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:59 am

Gravity-Mapping Satellite to Help Predict Climate

A satellite will measure Earth's uneven gravity in an effort to understand climate.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am

Growing Geodesic Carbon Nanodomes

Tiny carbon islands bubble up at the center to form nanoscopic geodesic domesResearchers analyzing the assembly of graphene (sheets of carbon only one atom thick) on a surface of iridium have found that the sheets grow by first forming tiny carbon domes. The discovery offers new insight into the growth of graphene layers and points the way to possible methods for assembling components of graphene-based computer circuits.Paolo Lacovig, Monica Pozzo, Dario Alfè, Paolo Vilmercati, Alessandro Baraldi, and Silvano Lizzit at institutions in Italy, the UK and USA report their discovery in a paper appearing October 12 in the journal Physical Review Letters. The researchers' spectroscopic study suggests that graphene grows in the form of tiny islands built of concentric rings of carbon atoms. The islands are strongly bonded to the iridium surface at their perimeters, but are not bonded to the iridium at their centers, which causes them to bulge upward in the middle to form minuscule geodesic domes. By adjusting the conditions as the carbon is deposited on the iridium, the researchers could vary the size of the carbon domes from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers across.Investigating the formation of graphene nanodomes helps physicists to understand and control the production of graphene sheets. In combination with methods for adjusting the conductivity of graphene and related materials, physicists hope to replace electronics made of silicon and metal with tiny, efficient carbon-based chips.Jorge Sofo and Renee Diehl (Penn State University) highlight the graphene nanodome research in a Viewpoint in the October 12 issue of Physics (physics.aps.org).---Image Caption: Carbon atoms form dome structures on iridium substrates, en route to forming larger scale graphene sheets. Credit: Image courtesy of Alan Stonebraker.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Oct 2009 | 8:17 am

Japanese Pop-Up Slippers Are Ingeniously Simple

Granted, the winter is coming upon us (in the populous northern part of the planet at least), so your thoughts may be turning more to toasty woolen slippers and scarves than open, flip-flop style footwear, but these Japanese slippers are both ingenious and probably easy to make yourself. Pair with thick socks for winter warmth, but please don’t go out wearing such a combination unless you are a genuine Embarrassing Dad.

The Pop-Up Slippers are simply two ovals of foam, cut to allow the edges to be folded over the foot and secured with a hole and a metal stud. Ingenious, and as easy to make as a trip to the hardware store to buy the foam and a craft knife.

In fact, would this work with old car tires, or are they too heavy to bend (and we know how hard they are to cut, having hacked a few from wheel rims in our younger days)?

Or save yourself the trouble of making this fold-flat, suitcase-friendly flip-flop by buying one for $25 ($35), made in Japan.

Product page [Curiosite via Book of Joe]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:24 am

Inside Out Umbrella Bags Itself

The umbrella is, like the chair, something designers can’t seem to stay away from. The portable, ribbed rain-protector has been modified to do all kinds of double-duty, from melon and head smashing weaponry through death-dealing, spy-killing poison delivery device to the hands-free numbrella.

Now there is an umbrella which actually enhances the core purpose of the brolly — keeping the rain off. The Inside Out Umbrella folds down after a shower like any other brolly, but it has a double skin, the inside layer of which can be pulled out and wrapped around the outside. This keeps the brolly drip free for quick trips inside.

The Inside Out Umbrella is a concept design, but the Brit in me has his miserable, rain-wrinkled fingers crossed for a production model.

Wet Umbrellas No More [Yanko]

See Also:

• Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella Splits Watermelons, Defends …
• Nubrella Offers Dorky Hands-Free Umbrella
• Crazy Fighting Umbrella with Knuckle-Duster Handle

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

Raw Fish Spread Liver Cancer

Eating the wrong fish could give you a parasite that promotes liver cancer.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

International Kindle Crippled at Launch: No Web Access Outside U.S.

Amazon's newest Kindle e-book reader won't allow non-U.S. customers to surf the web or read blogs. That takes away one of the Kindle's major selling points — always-on, free and ubiquitous internet access.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 12 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

World Will Miss 2010 Target To Stem Biodiversity Loss

Growing water needs, mismanagement leading to 'catastrophic decline' in freshwater biodiversityThe world will miss its agreed target to stem biodiversity loss by next year, according to experts convening in Cape Town for a landmark conference devoted to biodiversity science.The goal was agreed at the 6th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in April 2003.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Oct 2009 | 6:56 am

Banded Rocks Reveal Early Earth Conditions, Changes

Image Caption: Pictured in 2008, a banded iron formation about 2.5 billion years old near Soudan Underground Mine State Park in Minnesota shows alternating layers of silica-rich (red) and iron-rich (gray) minerals. This type of ancient rock formation dominated the global ocean floors for more than two billion years, but abruptly disappeared 1.7 billion years ago. A study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and elsewhere describes a new model of how these ancient rocks formed and what they reveal about the geology, oceans and atmosphere of the Earth's early environment. Photo by: Huifang Xu/UW-Madison
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Oct 2009 | 6:45 am

‘Joke’ Tauntaun Sleeping Bag Approved By Lucasfilm

ThinkGeek’s amazingly cute/icky Tauntaun sleeping bag began life like many of ThinkGeek’s products — as an April Fool gag. Popular demand and now the (probably smiling) approval of George Lucas will make your kids’ night-on-Hoth-inside-dead-biped’s-carcass sleepover parties a reality.

In fact, the polyester, machine-washable sleeping bags also fit adults (just like a real dead Tauntaun), making it the perfect, and surely most appropriate, attire for those marathon winter-time Star Wars-watching sessions. It even keeps the lightsaber zipper-pull from the original design, and intestines printed on the lining.

Pre-order for November delivery. $100, and worth every penny.

Product page [ThinkGeek via the Giz]

See Also:

• Tauntaun Sleeping Bag - Will it Become Real?
• Star Wars Tauntaun Plush
• Taun Taun Sleeping Bag: An April Fool Worth Buying

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 6:26 am

Scientists Look At Ancient CO2 Levels

Scientists say that a new historical record of carbon dioxide levels is showing that current political targets on climate may be "playing with fire."The researchers used ocean sediments to map CO2 levels dating back to 20 million years ago.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 12 Oct 2009 | 6:05 am

LG’s Solar-Powered E-Book Reader

There will always be paper books for die-hard romantics like my friend Jimmy, who actually smells a volume before he reads it and then, when done, can sit for hours in almost-darkness, stroking his calloused poet’s fingers across the smooth wood-pulp and dreaming of the good-old days of cotton paper and cow-skin covers.

But for more normal people, the technology that we use to read books in the near future will be based on silicon, not cellulose, and the e-book market is heating up. One of the big benefits of e-paper is that it sips electricity allowing devices to work for days rather than hours. LG’s foray into the e-book world extends this with a solar panel, helpfully placed on the front inside cover of the reader itself, and at just ten grams and less than a millimeter thick, it will be almost unnoticeable.

If exposed to the sun for five hours, the TFT solar panel will give enough charge for a day of use. LG plans to up the efficiency and we can see a time when e-books will never need to be charged. Remember the first solar-powered calculators? They were a novelty which is now ubiquitous. And e-books are especially well suited to solar power, as they need to be read in a bright place and few of us want to recharge our books.

When, or even if, this prototype will go on sale is unknown. But it doesn’t matter. Somebody, somewhere, will make one soon enough.

Solar Cell e-Book from LG Display [OLED Display]

See Also:

• Kindle Goes International — With a Little Help From AT&T
  
• World's First Color E-Book Reader Goes on Sale
• Sony's E-Book Reader Adds Touchscreen, Wireless Downloads
• Buying Guide: How to Choose an E-Book Reader

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:45 am

Crippleware Alert! International Kindle Gets No Web Access Outside U.S.

Due in stores next week, the international version of the Kindle will open Amazon’s e-book store to overseas customers. But it comes at a cost: For anyone using a Kindle outside the United States, the device will be severely hobbled. Amazon is closing off a wireless feature that allows access to the reader’s web browser.

The newest Kindle won’t allow anyone outside the United States to surf the web or read blogs using the reader’s experimental web browser. That takes away one of the device’s major selling points — always-on, free and ubiquitous internet access:

Blogs and the experimental web browser are currently not available for your country.

Is it because of coverage? Nope. Take a look at the 3G coverage map and you’ll see that 3G is almost ubiquitous in Europe, and even the huge region of the former USSR is blanketed with EDGE. We suspect that it has more to do with the cost to Amazon.

Hidden in the features section of the product page is this line: “Amazon pays for Kindle’s wireless connectivity so you won’t see a monthly wireless bill.” We suspect that AT&T is passing on some hefty roaming charges to Amazon, even for those people who will be living and using their Kindles in the same country they buy them in. It’s possible that Amazon will, once the Kindle is actually on sale internationally, start to negotiate with local cell providers, but that’s just a (wishful) guess.

Also, the “international” tag starts to look even less convincing when you look at shipping. All Kindles are being shipped from the United States — with a U.S. power-plug, requiring an adapter to charge it with overseas outlets — rather than from local depots across the world. This brings two problems. First, shipping costs. I ordered the $280 international version and, after adding shipping to Spain and piling on the import taxes (an estimate that could actually get bigger), the price is $350. And yes, we’re aware that these charges apply to all overseas orders, but then again, the usual things us Europeans buy from the U.S. are not being pitched to us as international devices tailored to our own countries.

In the end, I don’t care about the prices so much as the crippled internet service. We have awesome 3G coverage over most of Europe. When will there be a way to use it without getting ripped off? But hey, I’m among the lucky ones. Some countries — Monaco, for example — won’t have any wireless access at all.

Product page [Amazon]

See Also:

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

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 12 Oct 2009 | 5:21 am