|
|
|
|
Surprise: McCain Biggest Beneficiary of Telco/ISP Money - Reuters
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 24 Oct 2009 | 3:45 am Matt Drudge vs. the DollarIn case you hadn't noticed, Matt Drudge has become fascinated with the U.S. dollar. Admittedly, he's not the only one, what with the dollar swan-diving in the last few weeks, but it feels like Drudge has...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 3:28 am Sacred Winds Communications Wins Shine a Light Prize! (SPONSORED)(TrendHunter.com) SPONSORED - Your votes have been counted, and the winner of the Shine A Light program is Sacred Winds Communications, a telecommunications company bringing phone and internet service...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 3:20 am App Store Developer Speaks Out On Game Piracytheguythatwrotethisthing sends in a write-up of his experience releasing a iPhone game on the App Store. By using a software flag to distinguish between high scores submitted by pirates and those submitted by users who purchased the game, the piracy rate is estimated at around 80% during the first week after release. Since a common excuse for piracy is "try before you buy," they also looked at the related iPhone DeviceIDs to see how many of the pirates went on to purchase the game. None of them did.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Oct 2009 | 3:14 am Textacular Board Games - The 'Clue: Secrets and Spies' Game Incorporates Text Messaging (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Although virtual elements are often included in new games these days, it's not often that you see an old classic board game be modernized with virtual aspects. The 'Clue: Secrets and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 3:10 am Spectator throws out public safety, embraces sensationalism and AIDS denialismA film that denies the link between HIV and AIDS is being screened in the UK by the Spectator, in the name of "spurring debate." The Spectator's editor, Fraser Nelson, describes his motivation: "It's one of these hugely emotive subjects, with a fairly strong and vociferous lobby saying that any open discussion is deplorable and tantamount to Aids denialism. Whenever any debate hits this level, I get deeply suspicious."And here comes our Ben Goldacre, explaining why "deeply suspicious" (which, to my ears, is a foreshortened phrase whose entirety is "deeply suspicious that I might sell a crapload of newspapers through a reckless disregard for public safety and the truth") is deeply stupid and deeply dangerous: Of course people will have some concerns. Despite international outcry, from 2000 to 2005 South Africa implemented policies based on the belief that HIV does not cause Aids, and declined to roll out adequate antiretroviral therapy. It has been estimated in two separate studies that around 350,000 people died unnecessarily in South African during this period. We should also remember that "teach the controversy" is a technique beloved of American creationists, and of antivaccination campaigners (with whom Fraser Nelson has also, oddly, flirted). These groups know that in our modern media, where truth is halfway between the two most extreme views, to insert doubt is to win.Aids denialism at the Spectator  Source: Boing Boing | 24 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am Spectator throws out public safety, embraces sensationalism and AIDS denialismA film that denies the link between HIV and AIDS is being screened in the UK by the Spectator, in the name of "spurring debate." The Spectator's editor, Fraser Nelson, describes his motivation: "It's one...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am From the 3G Industry Summit in Kunshan, China: 16 demos from Chinese mobile startups
Earlier this week, I was in Kunshan, China, to attend the 3G Industry Summit [CN], a four-day event that has attracted a few dozen speakers and an audience of over 200 people, making it one of the biggest of its kind in this country. The annual event is organized by the Kunshan government and Mobile 2.0 Forum, a communication platform with more than 1,500 members, almost single-handedly run by industry veteran Leo Wang.
The summit reassured me of one thing: The Chinese market for mobile hardware, software and contents is big already and it's bound to become huge in the very near future.
Information and stats on China's mobile web sector and profiles of 16 Chinese mobile startups after the jump.
Source: MobileCrunch | 24 Oct 2009 | 2:55 am Lenovo expects big PC sales boost from Windows 7 (Reuters)Reuters - Lenovo (0992.HK), the world's fourth-biggest personal computer maker, expects a boost in its PC sales from the launch of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, its chairman said on Saturday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Oct 2009 | 2:41 am Lenovo expects big PC sales boost from Windows 7SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Lenovo , the world's fourth-biggest personal computer maker, expects a boost in its PC sales from the launch of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, its...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 2:41 am Taunton groom's cakeBonnie sez, "Star Wars artist Chris Trevas got hitched and had this glorious dead Tauntaun cake (complete with Luke Skywalker stuffed inside) made for the groom's cake at his wedding! The cake was made...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 2:35 am Taunton groom's cake Bonnie sez, "Star Wars artist Chris Trevas got hitched and had this glorious dead Tauntaun cake (complete with Luke Skywalker stuffed inside) made for the groom's cake at his wedding! The cake was made by Courtney Clark from Cake Nouveau of Food Network Challenge (and TLC Ultimate Cake-Off) fame!" Dead Tauntaun Wedding Cake! (Thanks, Bonnie!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 24 Oct 2009 | 2:35 am From The 3G Industry Summit In Kunshan, China: 16 Demos From Chinese Mobile StartupsEarlier this week, I was in Kunshan, China, to attend the 3G Industry Summit [CN], a four-day event that has attracted a few dozen speakers and an audience of over 200 people, making it one of the biggest...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 2:22 am From The 3G Industry Summit In Kunshan, China: 16 Demos From Chinese Mobile Startups
Just a few stats about China’s online landscape:
The smartphone market and 3G are still in their infancy though. Research firm BDA China says just 17.4 million smartphones were sold in China in 2008 (Nokia commands a 67% market share in this segment), with the total likely to hit 36 million units this year before growing to 56 million in 2010. The iPhone will be released in China next week. The number of China Mobile’s 3G subscribers (who use the company’s homegrown 3G standard) currently stands at just 1.33 million, but the country’s three biggest cell phone carriers (China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom) say they’re ready to invest $66 billion in China’s 3G networks over the next two years. So the 3G Industry Summit in Kunshan probably couldn’t take place at a better time. The program also included a launch pad, which gave a total of 14 companies from China (two were from Japan) the chance to pitch their services onstage to over 200 top-level executives, VCs and entrepreneurs in the country’s mobile tech world. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of all of these companies. The list is by no means representative of China’s mobile startup scene but should serve as a reasonably large and up-to-date cross section of the industry.
CEO Lei Jia said 70% Chinese of consumers download contents from the web to their phone, not over the air. CrossMo looks like a very powerful tool and reminds me of DoubleTwist (concept-wise), so too bad it’s China-only.
Shanghai-based SocoGame itself is a major player in China’s mobile gaming sector. The company produced more than 100 mobile games for a number of different markets so far, i.e. Monkey King (specifically designed for Asia) or Jewel Quest Deluxe (specifically designed for markets in North America and Europe).
Note: MTrend is China Mobile’s main brand for data monitoring so these data points aren’t representative for all of China. Demo 13:
Demo 14:
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. 
Source: TechCrunch | 24 Oct 2009 | 2:22 am DodgeDot - fun iPhone game
My daughters and I have been fighting over my iPhone all night because we want to play DodgeDot, a new iPhone game that currently costs 99 cents. My friend and old school bOING bOING contributor Jim Leftwich co-created DodgeDot with his partner Steve Doss. He told me, "When I first thought the game up I was trying to come up with something that was a mix of the best qualities of classic and timeless games. Part skill, part strategy, part randomness, and something that was also calming and pleasant to look at."
The object is to drag colored dots of various sizes to matching colored rectangles around the perimeter of the screen. When dragging a dot you aren't allowed to bump into a dot or rectangle of a different color, or you will lose health or lives. There's more to it, of course, and the game becomes more challenging each level. The nice thing is that you can learn the rules pretty quickly by just playing it. My six-year-old caught on to the object of the game and its rules faster than I did. DodgeDot works with the Jampaq Network (free, and accessible in the app), which gives players the ability to Follow and be Followed. Most importantly, it gives the game a new round each Sunday at midnight before Monday. All of the levels get new starting patterns (dot sizes, positions, and speeds), which really makes a huge difference in keeping the game fresh, and then we have new rankings for each Round," says Jim. Now that my kids are in bed, I have it all to myself until morning. DodgeDot | Follow on Twitter here DodgeDot - fun iPhone gameMy daughters and I have been fighting over my iPhone all night because we want to play DodgeDot, a new iPhone game that currently costs 99 cents. My friend and old school bOING bOING contributor Jim Leftwich...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Oct 2009 | 12:53 am Symbian Microkernel Finally Goes Open Sourceruphus13 writes "Symbian announced over a year ago that they were going to Open Source their code, and the industry has been patiently waiting for that to happen. Well, it finally has. According to news on Wednesday, 'Symbian has released its platform microkernel and software development kit as open source under the Eclipse Public License. The Symbian Foundation claims that it is moving quickly toward an open source model, which is questionable, but the release of the EKA2 kernel is a signal that Symbian still means business about adopting an open source model. Accenture, ARM, Nokia and Texas Instruments contributed software to the microkernel, Symbian officials said.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 24 Oct 2009 | 12:06 am Hong Kong air pollution equals record highHong Kong air pollution has equalled a record high registered in 2000, triggering a warning for people with heart or respiratory illnesses, according to the Environmental Protection...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Oct 2009 | 11:20 pm Orchestral movements by LCD light Viral videos are, well, everywhere these days. You hire a media company, they come up with a clever idea, upload it, and hope that it gets tagged on YouTube. Which is exactly what Vodaphone NZ did.
Source: MobileCrunch | 23 Oct 2009 | 11:15 pm Orchestral movements by LCD light
Of course, Vodaphone isn’t here in the US, but internet video in universal, and this is pretty damn cool. So sit back, turn up the speakers, click play, and see what happens when some very clever people get 1000 cellphones together in one place and decide to make a viral video. Here’s the making of video too, it’s definitely worth a viewing: [via Mashable]
Source: CrunchGear | 23 Oct 2009 | 11:15 pm MySpace Trying To Regain Lost Ground With Games and MusicOver the past several years, MySpace has lost a significant amount of the social networking market to competitors like Facebook. Now, MySpace is trying to recapture lost interest by increasing the site's focus on games and music, as well as keeping an eye out for new technologies that would directly benefit their users. "[News Corp.'s Jonathan Miller] said he is 'obsessed' with real-time technology, such as the one Twitter has exploited in its social networking and microblogging service, and he wants to see MySpace incorporate it. He also said MySpace is lagging by having a platform that has been 'too closed' to external developers, something that he wants to see changed, especially for the sake of MySpace's gaming offerings. In addition, he wants to see MySpace push ahead in mobile."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 23 Oct 2009 | 11:10 pm Why Challenging Apple's iPhone is Possible For Verizon Motorola Droid - eWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 23 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: John McCain vs. the InternetEternally excellent Rachel Maddow allowed me to join her tonight (pretty much the only reason I own a TV now is to watch her show) for a discussion about John McCain's "Internet Freedom Act," also known...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Oct 2009 | 10:29 pm Xeni on Rachel Maddow Show: John McCain vs. the InternetEternally excellent Rachel Maddow allowed me to join her tonight (pretty much the only reason I own a TV now is to watch her show) for a discussion about John McCain's "Internet Freedom Act," also known as "The Great Telecom Reacharound of 2009." Why is the former presidential candidate who once described himself as technologically "illiterate" suddenly so worried about the nerdy details of internet architecture? Follow the money. A Sunlight Foundation Report released yesterday says McCain received more telecom lobbying money than any other senator, over the past two years. We ought to stop calling him the senator from Arizona and start calling him the senator from AT&T.
Video: McCain Pushes Agenda Against Web Freedom (The Rachel Maddow Show)
Source: Gizmodo | 23 Oct 2009 | 10:20 pm Hulu May Begin Charging For Content Next YearDJLuc1d tips news that Chase Carey, president and COO of News Corp., has said that Hulu may begin charging for its streamed video content as early as next year. He said at a recent conference that the free-to-air model is not sustainable in the long-term. The Atlantic takes a look at several business models Hulu could employ and wonders how their current advertising system would be involved.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 23 Oct 2009 | 10:02 pm Mamiya announces two new DSLR cameras
Don’t expect to get this level of megapixel madness for cheap. The DM22 has an estimated street price of $9995, and the DM28 will sell for $14,990. This is one of those cases where it’s the only camera for the job, and you need one, no other camera will do. For all the details, hit up Mamiya’s site.
Source: Gizmodo | 23 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm Icahn resigns from Yahoo! board (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Oct 2009 | 8:38 pm Friday Frivolity: Label the TSA PictureThis photo is too good not to mess with a little, so let's have some Friday frivolity by competing to come up with the best label. Winner gets huzzahs, etc, and the contest closes tomorrow mid-day. Be...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Oct 2009 | 8:36 pm IREX e-reader listed at Best Buy for $449
Now please remember that Best Buy’s system has been known to have incorrect pricing, and this might be the case with the IREX. For their sake I hope that is the case here, because pricing yourself above the Kindle DX and the nook is pretty much suicide at this point. So, $499. Gonna rush right out and buy that anybody? [via Engadget]
Source: Gizmodo | 23 Oct 2009 | 8:24 pm 555 California security guards in San Fran threaten to punch sidewalk photographer, break his f*cking camera Troy had heard the reputation that the 555 California Building's security guards had for hassling photographers, so he tried out the experiment of photographing (legally) the building, and was met by potty-mouth security guards who threatened to break his "fucking camera" and punch him in the face. A rep from property managers Voranado Realty later apologized and said that this wasn't "typical of our security team." No photography, they stated clearly. Why, we responded. Safety, they said. If you're in San Francisco and want to go by 555 this weekend to get a photo, do drop by the comments on this post to let us know whether this is "typical" or not. "I Will Break Your Fucking Camera"
Previously:
Source: Gizmodo | 23 Oct 2009 | 8:20 pm Kfetch
Huffington Post offers a selection of racist Halloween pet costumes. [via The Awl]Source: Boing Boing | 23 Oct 2009 | 8:12 pm Open Source Voting Software Concept Releasedfilesiteguy writes "Wired is reporting that the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation has announced the first release of Linux- and Ruby-based election management software. This software should compete in the same realm as Election Systems & Software, as well as Diebold/Premiere for use by County registrars. Mitch Kapor — founder of Lotus 1-2-3 — and Dean Logan, Registrar for Los Angeles County, and Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State, all took part in a formal announcement ceremony. The OSDV is working with multiple jurisdictions, activists, developers and other organizations to bring together 'the best and brightest in technology and policy' to create 'guidelines and specifications for high assurance digital voting services.' The announcement was made as part of the OSDV Trust the Vote project, where open source tools are to be used to create a certifiable and sustainable open source voting system."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 23 Oct 2009 | 7:40 pm Facebook revamps home page feed
|
 WNCT | Weekend Opinionator: Are Americans Cooling on Global Warming? New York Times Democrats begin a push on cap-and-trade laws just as a new poll shows a sharp decline in fears of rising temperatures. Need more proof? Take it from the very top — President Obama, Friday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: ... Global warming scepticism rising faster than temperatures Data Analysis Poll: Americans' belief in global warming cools |
It’s almost like someone got their Top Gear in my Mythbusters lately. First the duct tape holding up a car, and now the ‘golf ball’ effect on mileage. So what exactly does happen when you cover a car with clay, and then dimple it like a golf ball?
You can watch the video and find out, or just scroll past the picture of the lovely Kari Byron. The car part is about 40 minutes in.
Yes. Apparently, covering your car in clay and dimpling it like a golf ball will result in a significant increase in gas mileage. Who would of thunk it? The real trick it to make sure the dimples are scaled up to the proper size. I could get into the science, but it’s easier to let Jamie and Adam tell you all about it.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AP - Activist investor Carl Icahn has decided his work is done at Yahoo Inc. after muscling his way on to the slumping Internet company's board nearly 15 months ago.
Watch Senator Al "Kick-Ass" Franken wipe up the floor with this health-care-lobby shill from the Hudson Institute who claimed that universal healthcare would increase medical bankruptcies. This is the perfect mix of being sensible and being devastatingly sarcastic, and I love him for it. Go Al!
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies
When I got there we sat down with a bank employee who asked me for my cash card. He stuck it into a PINsentry and asked me to type my PIN. On that evidence alone, we proceeded to transfer enough money to fund a small country. I find this a little scary. Anyway, when I reviewed the documentation, which I had to sign, it had a little box about ID verification, into which he'd typed "PIN xxxx + SRS" - "xxxx" was (part of?) the code from the PINsentry. I asked him what "SRS" meant and he explained it meant he'd checked my signature. In fact, he hadn't, but he proceeded to do so at that point, commenting that he already knew what my signature looked like, presumably to explain away why he hadn't done the check before..."We Used To Be More Secure"Anyway, at this point my wife mentioned that we were rather expecting them to check ID and stuff, to which he responded in a way I feel sure was not authorised by the bank: "well, we used to be more secure but now the bank believes that PINs are the highest level of verification". I explained to him why I disagreed with the bank. He didn't argue with me.
Oh yes, the signature check? He wasn't even in the room when I signed. For all he knew I carefully copied it from a crib sheet. So, all that's standing between me and complete emptying of my bank account is my PIN. But hey, the only way anyone other than me could know that is if I told them, isn't it? So it would serve me right, obviously.
Obviously all these new boiler room high pressure sales groups that used to be pushing sub-prime refinancings are now trying to convince the unsophisticated listeners of right wing talk that they better buy gold before the dollar becomes worthless because of Obama's reckless spending. But how do firms like Goldline make money? Well it's all there in the fine print of their sales agreement.The Gold Scam Fear MerchantsGoldline's "bid" is the price it pays to clients for a product. Goldline's "ask" is the price it charges clients for a product. Goldline has a price differential or "spread" between its bid (buy-back) and ask (selling) prices for precious metals, rare coins and rare currency...
The price of Goldline's semi-numisimatic and numismatic coins and currency include the bid/ask spread that ranges between 30% and 35%.
OMG! An average stock broker commission is 2% and these scammers are getting 35% off the top. Where is the FTC and the CFTC in investigating this fraud? Why are Limbaugh and Beck propagating this scam?
Brutal MarioThis is obviously a labor of love, as the developer knows her stuff. This game is highly allusive and drops constant references to other works like its Gaiman's Sandman. Super Mario World is its core, but set pieces, backgrounds, and enemies from assorted titles and other Mario games all make appearances. These additions are far from being a cut-and-paste hodgepodge though, as they're carefully woven together to create an enthralling experience. The nod to Tarantino and Shinichiro Watanabe is duly earned. Instead of being a pure homage, though, the game throws constant curveballs at you. I played one level where the On/Off switch actually changed the enemies in the level, and another one that was fully destructible via Mario's fireballs. These subversive quirks are made all the more apparent because they're within the Super Mario World engine, something that is so well-known and played.
The boss battles are what this hack is best known for, and they're reason enough for a download. Bosses are typically the one shortcoming in the Mario franchise, but not here. There are dozens of encounters and they're all throwbacks to various 16-bit games. Oh, and they are a lot of fun too. There is the occasional level that drags a bit, but other than that Super Nintendo fans shouldn't pass this up.
 Telegraph.co.uk | NASA's prototype rocket set for Tuesday launch msnbc.com John Raoux / AP By Clara Moskowitz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A prototype version of NASA's newest rocket is ready for its planned Tuesday launch, mission managers said Friday. NASA is set to test the design of its next-generation rocket, Ares I, ... NASA's Ares team now on weather watch Ares I rocket close, yet so far NASA: Ares Test Won't Endanger Space Shuttle |
Last week Apple surprised the iPhone’s developer community with the annoucement that it was finally allowing free apps to offer in-app purchases. The move will likely lead to a fundamental shift in the way developers conduct businesss on the App Store (we’ve already begun to see some changes). I sat down with SGN CEO Shervin Pishevar to talk about the annoucement’s effect on SGN’s upcoming games, as well as its impact on the market in general.
Pishevar says that he was estactic when he heard the news — he almost immediately recorded a video sharing his elation that he sent to all of SGN’s 100+ employees worldwide. He explains that this is really the announcement that he’s been waiting for, but that he had no expectation that Apple might do it so soon. Now the company is working at a brisk pace to take advantage of the change: it will soon be releasing a new free version of its smash hit game F.A.S.T., which has done over $1.8 million in sales before Apple’s cut. The new version of F.A.S.T. will feature an extensive array of virtual goods, which users will be able to purchase once they’ve downloaded the core game, which will be free. I also suspect that many (if not all) of SGN’s games will be released for free from here on out.
After discussing the impact on SGN’s apps, the conversation turned toward how this will impact developers in general. The App Store is going to see some major changes, and some of those won’t necessarily be for the better. For one, it will become even harder for premium applications to get noticed — before now they only had to compete against other ‘paid’ apps for a chance to appear on the Top Apps list. Now many of them will be migrating to the much more crowded ‘free’ section, which means they’ll be facing off with the vast array of ‘fun’ apps that are so enticing for impulse downloads. There’s also the possibility that the store will become flooded with applications that you can download for free, but really offer nothing of value until you start paying for features, despite what users may have been led to believe (a so-called ‘bait and switch’).
Pishevar agrees that the new market may pose a challenge to new developers, who may have trouble getting noticed and establishing trust with users. But he says that the development houses that can establish a relationship with users will be able to rise to the top, even more so than before. That scenario would obviously put SGN, which has millions of installs across all of its games, in a good position.
But Pishevar emphasized that SGN isn’t going to be content to simply rest on its laurels and exploit its large audience by rehashing games that have already been successful (he notes that the the highly derivative nature of many games on Facebook was one of the reasons SGN decided to shift over to the iPhone). Instead, he says he wants to push the limits of the iPhone, and eventually other mobile platforms. And to prove that wasn’t just marketing talk, he gave me a sneak peek at some of the projects that SGN has in the works. I’m sworn to secrecy on those for now, but suffice to say, SGN has some seriously cool things in the pipeline right now that really will take mobile gaming to the next level.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Reuters - Dropped calls may be annoying to a mobile phone user but network equipment makers and operators are eyeing a big payday from congested cellphone networks.
Looks like Verizon might not be the only one getting the Moto Droid. A few days ago, we wrote a post highlighting the fact that a GSM version of the oh-so-hypetastic Motorola Droid (otherwise known as "Sholes" or "Tao") had cleared the FCC runway. At first, we got a bit excited and misread the details, reading them as if that GSM version of the Sholes had AT&T-friendly 3G bands built in. It didn't (it was the European GSM version) - but this one does!
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is resigning from Yahoo’s board of directors. According to MarketWatch, he said “there was not a need at this time for an activist investor” at Yahoo anymore and that he’d rather focus on other companies. The subtext there being that either A) he feels that his work is done and he can move on now that the search deal with Microsoft is moving towards government approval, or B) he can make more money by trying to control some other company.
Icahn wrestled his way onto Yahoo’s board last year when Jerry Yang was still CEO. Initially, he wanted to try to revive Microsoft’s interest in acquiring Yahoo outright, but when it became clear Microsoft didn’t want to do that deal anymore, he supported the search deal as the best way to move forward.
It’s hard to determine whether Icahn is throwing in the towel on Bartz or this is actually a vote of confidence. If he really believes in where Bartz can take the company after the search deal is done, then you’d think he’d keep his board seat to have a stronger influence on the company’s direction. But Icahn has always been a transaction-oriented investor. He tries to push companies to do things that will move the stock in a big way, and then he takes his profits and he leaves.
More likely than not, Icahn doesn’t see another big shift he can push the company to take that will affect the stock in any major way. And with the stock price moving in the right direction, he probably doesn’t see the need to keep shaking the boat. It is much easier for him to just keep selling his shares (he sold almost $180 million worth in August alone) and move on. With the stock trading at $17, some of Icahn’s shares are still underwater, but he also bought a bunch at $10 last November. At this point, he’ll probably be happy just to get all of his initial investment back, which he is still far from doing.
(Photo by Sam Lustgarten)
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Carl Icahn, the activist billionaire investor who made such a noisy fuss in his quest to force management and other changes at Yahoo, is taking a much quieter leave from the Internet giant’s board.
He apparently has told the Yahoo (YHOO) board that “there was not a need at this time for an activist investor” and that he has a lot of other companies he invests in to focus on.
That’s true, of course, given a spate of troubled investments that Icahn is dealing with.
But here’s BoomTown’s quickie analysis: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz completely ignores him.
In fact, Bartz often has gone out of her way to take little gibes at Icahn since she got the top job in January, whether it’s to say he called her too much or that he could try to fire her if he did not like the job she was doing.
For example, she just dissed him publicly in a piece in Forbes, tossing off a saucy insult:
“Icahn is just another shareholder. What’s he going to do, fire me?”
But Yahoo was cordial to Icahn as he departed, even if a lot of people at the company who had battled him were likely thinking: “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”
“Carl has been an important member of our Board and has helped us through some significant transitions,” said the Yahoo statement. We are all grateful for his active role shaping the future of Yahoo! and wish him well in all his endeavors.”
Icahn in the second board member to leave under Bartz’s tenure.
Frontier Communications (FTR) CEO Maggie Wilderotter announced in late September that she was stepping down from the board by year’s end.
It will be interesting to see who–if anyone–will comes on board as a director and, of course, if there are more departures. After the departures of Wilderotter and Icahn, there will be 10 directors.
(Here is BoomTown’s No. 1 pick still in that regard.)
In taking his leave, Icahn praised the recent search and online advertising deal Bartz struck with Microsoft (MSFT), noting that it will “provide great long-term benefits, the potential of which many still do not understand.”
Nice final toss to try to spike the stock, Carl! But the MicroHoo deal, which has yet to be approved by regulators, was likely cold comfort for him.
Icahn sank large sums of money in Yahoo with hopes of a big score via the hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft at a price upward of $30 a share.
After that deal tanked, Icahn has seen his stake decline in value.
He sold 16 percent of his Yahoo shares in late August, leaving him with a 4.5 percent stake, or about 63 million shares.
It is also not clear today if Icahn intends to unload more of the stock.
In 2008, he couldn’t buy enough, scooping up the stock at much higher prices.
After mounting a proxy fight–including the lobbing of a series of poison-pen letters–against former CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang and his management team, Icahn got board seats for himself and two others (John Chapple and Frank Biondi) in July of 2008.
As Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski put it perfectly then:
“Having so persuasively argued that Carl Icahn is a doddering Luddite with no articulated plan for Yahoo other than the company’s sale to Microsoft, Yahoo has taken the logical next step and appointed the activist shareholder to its board of directors.”
At the time of the fighting, Yahoo used a quote from Icahn to insult him: “It’s hard to understand these technology companies.”
In a way, that is a pretty accurate description of Icahn’s long wrangle with the Silicon Valley icon.
And, this is the way the Yahoo world ends for Icahn: Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
$118.49. That’s the price at which Amazon shares closed Friday, a day after the company reported a 69 percent jump in third-quarter profit and a 28 percent gain in revenue. It was a new 52-week high and the stock’s best since December 1999, when it hit $106.68.
Which is saying something. Because as you might recall, in 1999, Nasdaq was soaring on the back of the dot-com bubble to levels never before seen.
And here we are amid the worst recession since the 1930s. Haven’t even entered that “all important holiday shopping season” yet, either.
Things are looking pretty good for Amazon (AMZN) right now. Sure, there’s renewed competition from retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT). There are potential sales tax issues and income tax liabilities and a raft of Kindle-killers headed to market. But Amazon’s stock is up 131 percent this year, brokerage firms are upgrading their ratings on the company, and analysts are saying it’s only going to go higher.
Said Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney: “Near-term outlook very positive as AMZN heads into holiday season fully armed against shrinking/de-stocking offline retailers, with one of the must-have gadgets of the season (Kindle), a significantly strengthening International presence, and soon-to-be closed Zappos acquisition.”
Yeah. Things are looking pretty good right now. But we said that back in ‘99 too–when Amazon had a similar P/E.
 The Next Web | 5 Ways I'd Pay for Hulu PC World It looks like video-streaming site Hulu may start charging its viewers next year. The dire news arrived via News Corp. executive Chase Carey, who made the suggestion this week at Broadcast & Cable's OnScreen Media Summit in New York. As we all know, ... Will Hulu Charge For Content? More signs Hulu subscription service is coming Paying For Hulu |
By Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
A U.S. District Judge dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook by Power.com Thursday, the latest move in a back-and-forth legal battle between the two social-media services.
In December, Facebook blocked Power.com, a site that links members’ social-networking accounts, from accessing Facebook profiles. It also sued the company, accusing it of trademark and copyright violations.
Power.com countersued Facebook in July. Its founder, Steve Vachani, has noted that sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Google’s (GOOG) Orkut enable access from Power.com and said at the time that his suit was “about users’ control of their data.” It brought on as legal counsel Scott Bursor, who fought Verizon Wireless (VZ) and Sprint (S) in early-termination-fee disputes.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
It’s inevitable: With Facebook change, comes Facebook backlash.
Today’s introduction of the new-style News Feed on Facebook has been garnering quite a bit of positive buzz. But this is Facebook we’re talking about. Anytime they change anything, the backlash starts quickly. Sometime’s it’s justified, but quite often it’s users overreacting from the natural human feeling to dislike change.
Not surprisingly, there are already plenty of Facebook groups against new changes. But hands down the best is “I AUTOMATICALLY HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK HOME PAGE,” which of course, pokes fun at what I’m talking about. But the best part? Facebook employees like Ivan Kirigin and Ari Steinberg have already joined it. More notable, so has Mark Zuckerberg.
Here’s the group’s description:
I HATE CHANGE AND EVERYTHING ASSOCIATED WITH IT
I WANT EVERYTHING TO REMAIN STATIC THROUGHOUT MY ENTIRE LIFE
I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I WANT FROM THINGS I CANNOT CONTROL
BY LOGICAL DEDUCTION I AUTOMATICALLY OPPOSE THE NEW FACEBOOK STREAMING HOME PAGE
IF I HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS GROUP IT IS NO LONGER FUNNY
It would seem that the group is hardly new, one news post is from March of this year. But newly acquired employee Paul Buchheit shared a nice little screenshot on FriendFeed (his service which Facebook bought) today revealing Zuckerberg and company joining it.
The group has some 3,000+ members. Some don’t seem to understand that it’s a joke. Brilliant.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Looks like Verizon might not be the only one getting the Moto Droid. A few days ago, we wrote a post highlighting the fact that a GSM version of the oh-so-hypetastic Motorola Droid (otherwise known as “Sholes” or “Tao”) had cleared the FCC runway. At first, we got a bit excited and misread the details, reading them as if that GSM version of the Sholes had AT&T-friendly 3G bands built in. It didn’t (it was the European GSM version) – but this one does!
Like the last time around, there is just one single reference to the device’s identity as the Sholes, tucked deep within the documents. Unlike that last one, however, this one features good ol’ WCDMA 850/1900/2100 — the bands AT&T uses for their UMTS 3G — alongside GSM 850/900/1800/1900, making it the perfect adoption candidate for both AT&T and Rogers.
[You rock, Rob]
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
I’m leaving this image of kittens here for those who don’t want to see the images after the jump. However, this is a $44 Fleshlight (for putting your penis into) with vampire teeth. That’s right – you can recreate all your favorite scenes from your Twilight slashfic in the comfort of your own home, car, or place of worship.
The device is just a Fleshlight with teeth but what a profile this thing has. It looks like a nerdy lamprey. Here’s what the website has to say:
Introducing Succu Dry Sex in a Can from Fleshlight, the world’s first vampire inspired sex toy for men. Take a walk on the dark side and get familiar with this pale brew. But be careful! Though this may feel like love at first bite, make sure you have wood poised to penetrate before you get completely drained! Enjoy to excess to ensure encounters with Succu Dry are A-Positive experience.
Sex in a can: what America is having for dinner.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
By Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily
Beleaguered software vendor Novell (NOVL), which has been fighting a lawsuit by bankrupt SCO Group for the last several years, could see a silver lining, writes Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Aaron Schwartz in a note this morning. He says SCO may settle with Novell in its claim of infringement of intellectual property SCO holds with respect to the Unix operating system, rather than proceed to a jury trial against Novell.
Schwartz notes that the incoming court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for SCO Group fired Darl McBride, the CEO, on Monday. McBride had made himself a vilain in the world of Linux and open source software by suing numerous parties reselling or distributing the Linux operating system, including IBM (IBM), but also Daimler (DAI), claiming Linux infringes on Unix operating system rights that SCO acquired several years back.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
Just so you don’t, you know, leave your place of work today without this bit of news: Kindle is making an app for Macs and Blackberries. This news follows the announcement for a yet-unreleased PC version announced yesterday.
No expected release date. It’s just being worked on. And now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
Remember, earlier this month when we wrote about the upskirt app that Apple deemed kosher, while at the same time banning a satirical Someecards app from the App Store? Yeah, we may have found an even better example of Apple’s hilarious hypocrisy.
Truth is, it wasn’t hard to find. The app called “Asian Boobs” is a top seller right now in the App Store. So what is it? Well, the title says it all: It’s an app that features the breasts of Asian women. Lots of them. Over 2,500 of them. And actually you can double that, for each breast in each picture. That’s a lot of boobs.
The description of the $0.99 app is also classy:
Photos of sexy asian girls with BIG BOOBS, 100+ galleries and 2500+ photos, updated regularly. Japanese girls, Korean girls, Chinese girls, Taiwanese girls, models, stewardesses, nurses, school girls, teachers, bikini girls, sexy girls and more.
Glad they squeezed the all-important “sexy girls” in there.
Again, to be clear: I’m all for Apple allowing apps like this in the App Store assuming they’re appropriately labels as 17+ (which this one is). The girls aren’t nude (Apple still doesn’t allow those except when it accidentally does), but the boobage is everywhere — as are the ass shots and crotch shots. Pure iPhone fun.
The problem is that Apple is rejecting apps, like Someecards, which are also labeled 17+ — for satire. Apple didn’t seem to like that the app poked fun at public figures like Roman Polanski and yes, Hitler.
It’s just beyond ridiculous that upskirt apps and apps dedicated to boobs are fine, but satire is not. Maybe the majority of app testers are grumpy but creepy old men, I don’t know.
Find Asian Boobs here for $0.99. Find Someecards app nowhere. Because Apple is ridiculous with these rules.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
AP - Low prices, solid customer service and an increasing willingness by consumers to spend on discretionary items contributed to Amazon.com Inc.'s solid third quarter, and the growth should continue despite weakness elsewhere in retail.
![Screen shot 2009-10-23 at [ October 23 ] 1.23.00 PM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-23-at-October-23-1.23.00-PM.png)
Much like everyone thinks they’re the best driver in the world, everyone thinks they’re great in the sack. Maybe you’ve got the Kama Sutra down like the back of your partner’s… hand; maybe you’ve used that internet connection to amass a few external drives full of “training material”. Whatever arts you’re trained in, the question has almost undoubtedly popped into your head during the heat of the moment: “Am I good at this the best lover in the world?”
Well, friends, to fall back on an almost-stale cliche that I promise we’ll use only a few dozen more times: there’s an app for that.
Read the rest of this post on MobileCrunch >>
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
The beauty of the Drudge Report right now is that Mr. Drudge is working against his very interests. He’s got some ridiculous headline right now, JULIUS AT FCC WANTS TO ‘REGULATE’ INTERNET, that’s meant to wile up his easily excitable readership. What’s going on is that the FCC has moved one step closer to bringin Net Neutrality to fruition, and has invited the public to weigh in until January 14.
Here’s my problem with the Drudge presentation: he’s using the word “regulation” to scare up opposition to Net Neutrality. Here’s a quick scenario that I pulled out of thin air the site would do well to consider:
My name is Mr Smith. I run a really big ISP in the United States. You know who I don’t like? That damn Drudge Report guy. He’s always talking smack about my company. So what I’m going to do is, now that there’s no Net Neutrality to get in the way, I’m go to either block access to his Web site, or just slow it down so that it’s practically unusable. Now Drudge gets no traffic from my subscribers, and his business suffers. Meanwhile, I’ve gone ahead and partnered with TechCrunch, and have rigged it in such a way that all of my subscribers can access the site REALLY CRAZY FAST, and there’s no ads. My subscribers now go to TechCrunch all the time. It’s a free market, right: I hate Drudge, so I’m gonna block his site. Now, of course, my subscribers are free to go somewhere else if they want to visit Drudge, but considering how little competition there is in broadband, have fun paying for a dial-up connection in 2010; I own all the fiber optic cable in this city!
That’s a gigantic oversimplification, yes, but it illustrates my basic point: Drudge here is so off the mark that he’s putting his own business at risk.
Not smart, sir.
Much like everyone thinks they’re the best driver in the world, everyone thinks they’re great in the sack. Maybe you’ve got the Kama Sutra down like the back of your partner’s… hand; maybe you’ve used that internet connection to amass a few external drives full of “training material”. Whatever arts you’re trained in, the question has almost undoubtedly popped into your head during the heat of the moment: “Am I good at this the best lover in the world?”
Well, friends, to fall back on an almost-stale cliche that I promise we’ll use only a few dozen more times: there’s an app for that.
Now, we have absolutely no idea if this works as promised (though we’re working on getting someone on staff to give in and do a Hands/Feet/Various-Other-Body-Parts On with the app as soon as possible), but here’s the premise: by measuring the vibrations of your bed during the Wild Rumpus and comparing it to that of “thousands of surveyed couples”, Love Vibes gives you a 1-10 ranking.
However, this is science we’re talking about folks – it’s not as simple as just pressing the “Begin love making” button and doing the dirty. There are all sorts of variables that have to be set first to ensure absolute accuracy, such as “Mattress Firmness” and.. oh, thats it.
Admittedly, it all sounds like a bunch of non-sense to us. There’s no universal metric for charting out sexual savviness – especially not one that works by playing ear-to-the-ground with your mattress. If nothing else, we’re just impressed that the app’s developers, SparkTooth, managed to pitch this in such a way that Apple didn’t try to lop it off at the knees. Is Apple loosening up the reigns a bit, or did SparkTooth just ensure that the reviewers were ranked 10/10 everytime?
You can find Love Vibes for $1.99 in the App Store here. [iTunes Link]
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 guardian.co.uk | Judge Throws out Craigslist Lawsuit PC World An Illinois judge this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Cook County Sheriff's department charging Craigslist with facilitating prostitution. The sheriff's office announced that it filed the suit in March at a press conference describing the many ... Judge: Craigslist not liable for prostitution ads Illinois: Craigslist Suit Is Thrown Out Judge shoots down challenge to Craigslist erotic services |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FROM GAMERTELL - Important Importables looks at some of the absolute cutest gadgets from Japan that really have no other practical application other than to be incredibly adorable. Among the items featured are the USB robot owl and the endless bubblewrap keychain.
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
I know everybody is excited to start their weekend but the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I dismiss you. So before you go, I’m gonna tell you about this new 3.5-pound Acer Timeline ultraportable that just came out yesterday.
First, the keyboard is gorgeous. It’s like looking at a pretty girl but not the kind of girl that’s too good for you, but more the girl who shows up at your party, does a keg stand, and then asks “Who wants to play Madden?” Pretty but accessible, is what I’m saying. It looks nice, but perhaps more importantly it’s easy to type on.
Second, it’s a good deal (I bought it on Amazon for $600). You get a 3.5-pound frame, a 1.3GHz Intel SU4100 CPU, 3GB of DDR3 RAM, 320GB SATA hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a six-cell battery which Acer claims is good for up to 8 hours.
Thirdly, thusly, and finally, please check out the above video for a quick hands on. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to review this computer because it’s a gift for my mother-in-law’s 60th birthday. I’d like to make it clear that I didn’t spend all $600 of my own money on the computer. I don’t want to get any aspiring bloggers’ hopes up about making enough money to throw down $600 on a birthday present for your mother-in-law. You’ll need to split $600 presents multiple ways for your entire life. But you do get to play with toys a lot.
Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4925 [Amazon]
In a stealthy yet significant move, Amazon has dropped Sprint as its wireless partner for the latest versions of the Kindle 2 e-book reader. From now on, new Kindle 2s, in the U.S. and worldwide, will be powered exclusively by AT&T’s 3G network.
“Due to strong customer demand for the new Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6-inch Kindles,” says Drew Herdener, spokesperson for Amazon.
The move was announced in a quiet update to Amazon’s product page for the Kindle rather than through a press announcement.
The move is a big blow to Sprint, which was the first U.S. telecom carrier to experiment with supporting mobile devices beyond cellphones and netbooks. It also means AT&T has all but cornered the wireless-connectivity market for e-readers. In addition to the Kindle 2, AT&T’s network forms the backbone of the new Sony touchscreen reader and Barnes & Noble’s recently introduced Nook e-reader. All that’s left for Sprint? Providing service for Amazon’s XL-sized Kindle DX, and supporting all the existing Sprint-connected Kindles.
When Amazon introduced the Kindle in 2007, the company highlighted wireless downloads of books as the device’s unique feature. The move helped the Kindle gain an edge over Sony, which had introduced its e-reader earlier but without wireless connectivity.
Earlier this year, Amazon offered a second-generation Kindle called Kindle 2 and a big-screen reader called the Kindle DX. Kindle 2 has a basic browser and lets users check text-heavy sites such as Wikipedia. But the devices were restricted to the United States.
Finally, this month, Amazon debuted an international version of the Kindle 2. It was the first Kindle to use AT&T’s network instead of Sprint’s. Kindle DX is still not available outside the states.
“Now that they are selling a Kindle overseas, it makes sense for them to have just one product that they can sell in all markets,” says Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “And, since, in most of the world GSM is what is used, having a single product helps drive down costs for Amazon.” Sprint’s network is based on the CDMA standard.
That doesn’t mean Kindle buyers who bought their device before October will be switching to AT&T.
“Existing Kindle users, owners of the first- and second-generation Kindles and Kindle DX, will not notice any change to their experience. They will continue to utilize the Sprint network in the U.S.,” says Herdener.
And at least until Amazon introduces an international version of Kindle DX, Sprint will continue to be in business with Amazon.
“Sprint still powers the Kindle DX,” a Sprint spokesperson told Wired.com. “So it is not accurate to say that our relationship with Amazon is over.”
Meanwhile, for Kindle users, the switch from Sprint to AT&T raises questions about reliability of service. Weighed down by heavy data use from the iPhone, AT&T’s U.S. network has become congested, leading to slow connectivity and dropped calls.
And with about 3 million e-readers expected to be sold next year, could AT&T’s network face additional strain? Not really, says Golvin. “The type of connection that the Kindle needs is different from that of a phone, since there is no voice component, only a data component,” he says. “The actual capacity consumed by all Kindles now and those coming on to the network is very, very small compared to the rest of the network.”
Kindle users are also less likely to notice small delays or disturbances in the network, says Forrester’s Golvin. Unlike a web page, downloading a book does not require near–real-time display of different components.
“On an e-book reader, the congestion is invisible,” says Golvin. “The downloaded book arrives when it arrives, and a few seconds’ wait does not change much.”
See Also:
Top photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
Homepage photo: Gubatron/Flickr
According to a new report put out by DFC Intelligence entitled “The Market for iPhone and iPod Touch Games and Applications,” the iPhone (/ iPod touch) platform has the potential to take the lead in the lucrative portable gaming market over its chief competition, Nintendo and Sony, by as early as 2014.
DFC Intelligence believes that growth for both Nintendo’s DSi and Sony’s PSP Go portable gaming devices has already “peaked” thereby leaving the future of the portable gaming market wide open for Apple’s surging iPhone platform. The firm bases its predictions primarily on the fact that because the iPhone platform has more overall utility (phone, media, Internet, AND gaming) than either Nintendo’s or Sony’s products, which focus primarily on gaming (with Internet and media taking a backseat), Apple’s darling is better situated for future dominance.
Down the road, the analysts predict that games will make up some 23 percent of all iPhone / iPod touch apps, and will thus remain an important segment for Apple to focus on.
[via Electronista]
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Section: Audio, Home Audio, Video, Accessories, Portable Video, Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, ebooks, Web, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack
I see stuff in the tech world that drives me crazy. From products that should never have left the bar napkin to marketing schemes that should have stayed in the men’s room, here is what caught my eye this week:
This is the response I got when I told my Editor, Iyaz, about my 3D revelation: “Oh, so you’re on crack this week. Good.” I don’t deny this thinking is pretty far out there.
Look at it this way: if we are no closer today to generating 3D image without glasses then we’ll have to accept glasses in the house. If we are committing to wearing ridiculous glasses in the house, then why not put high quality screens in them and forget about viewing angle and the like. The two concepts just seem to mesh together. Yes, you’ll have to buy glasses for everyone but how much different in cost will that be vs. a $3,000 LCD TV plus 3D player?
Question: how do you make Roku box the hottest little black box again? Answer: Make it do Hulu. Done and done.
However, as Robert Nelson relates, Roku isn’t doing that. “Feature wise the Roku XR will see some improvements though, according to the rumors it will see the addition of a USB port as well as Wi-Fi 802.11n. Additionally, the power input was also upped from 1.5A to 2.5A.” No Flash?
With all the talk about Hulu going the paid route, this would is the missing link. Hulu needs to buy Roku or get them to build a Hulu player, which probably has enough of a brand name now to sell them. The missing link would bring Hulu paid subscriptions not just OK, but would sell like gangbusters enabling customers to ditch cable and satellite service and watch what they want, when they want without time shifting (TiVo) technology.
Seems almost everyday we are teased with another ebook reader, this week saw the Barnes and Noble Nook which manages to bring some sexy to readers int he form of a second color screen. Awesome right? Well not so fast because it the content you really want, not the gadget and publishers are totally messing with ebook versions.
It is like getting your iPod only to find out you’ve got to wait 2 months before you can get the latest Kate Perry album (OMG!!!). The Independent reported Steven King’s latest book would be release over a month after release in hardcover. A big “up yours” to ebook readers hoping to get a fair shake by publishers.
This leaves us consumers two choices: buy the hardcover or buy an ereader and wait. Gadget lovers hate waiting. This is a huge snub aimed to make bookstores money that might end up lowering book sales as publishers will have a more difficult time getting excitement up for the ebook release after the big hardcover release. It would be like advertising a movie but stopping one month before it opens. We just don’t have the attention span.
So this week, big MS finally got around to launching Windows 7, their biggest product in a decade. Yeah for them! Apple was all over them like ice cream stains on a hot, sweaty summer day
The Windows 7 threat was deemed large enough that Apple used the good ol’ three pronged response:
1. Release financials a day earlier than normal and brags about it’s most profitable quarter ever and a gajillion iPhone sales kicking everyone’s butts. Recession? What recession?
2. Release a shiny new Mac line the day before. These quite possibly could be the shiniest computers ever built.
3. Release a slew of witty, pithy “I am a Mac” ads that really make us giggle about John Hodgeman’s Miami Vice look.
Does Apple feel bad about Ballmer’s whole “we are on 9 out of 10 PCs” or is Apple telling us that Windows 7 is that good as the blogosphere seems to agree with? I am not sure what it is but I suspect if you got on the PA system at Apple and shouted, “cops” the building would be empty in 15 seconds flat. Just saying.
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Halloween is coming up and if there's one thing I know it's that geeks love Halloween. The opportunity to hide behind a mask, to subvert the status quo, and to dress up like sexy nurse/sexy witch/sexy balloon boy is a cause for celebration. That said, we're offering one Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Console to the winner of our First Annual CrunchGear Halloween Costume Contest.
Here's how to enter.
Since its inception, Google Maps has always rolling out little tweaks and new features that are useful. But today comes the first large-scale overhaul of the look and feel of the service in quite a while. But you may not even notice it.
The reason is that almost all of the changes are very subtle. And unless you spend hours looking at Google Maps everyday, you probably aren’t going to realize when a road outline has been toned down, for example. But looking at the side-by-side images, it’s clear to see that the new look is much nice. Gone is much of the clutter cause by darkened street outlines.
In Google’s own words, from their post:
Today’s changes are intended to keep the same information-rich map while making it easier to pick out the information that is most useful. The changes affect both the ‘Map’ and ‘Hybrid’ styles, and include numerous refinements to color, density, typography, and road styling worldwide. For example, in map view, local and arterial roads have been narrowed at medium zooms to improve legibility, and the overall colours have been optimized to be easier on the eye and conflict less with other things (such as traffic, transit lines and search results) that we overlay onto the map. Hybrid roads have gained a crisp outline to make them easier to follow, and the overall look is now closer to an augmented satellite view instead of a simple overlay.
Again, subtle, but much better. (Click on the images below to see more clearly.)
And just for the hell of it, I’ll embed one of the best music videos ever made.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
It’s almost depressing to see how far out of their way Verizon is going — knowingly or not — to tone down the launch of the BlackBerry Storm2 on their network. The normal pre-launch fanfare (Mailers and posters and contests, oh my!) is non-existent. At this point, they’re not even giving the device its own launch day.
EngadgetMobile just got this hot bit of info in their inbox, and it appears to verify the recent rumors that the Storm2 would be launching on October 28th. As any good MobileCrunch reader should know, Verizon’s already pushing mounds of attention toward something else that’s happening on October 28th: the official announcement of the Motorola Droid.
The same tip also shines some light on the pricing set-up: $179.99 on a 2 year contract (after $100 mail-in rebate), $279 on a 1 year contract (with the same rebate deal), or $539.99 sans contract.
Expect the halls of the blogosphere to be thundering with Droid coverage come the 28th, with a couple of “Oh yeah, and the Storm2 launched” posts here and there – which, it seems, is exactly what Verizon wants.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 Straits Times | Facebook Revamps Homepage, News Feed PC Magazine Facebook on Friday again revamped its homepage, getting rid of its "Highlights" section and instead creating separate tabs for the news feed and real-time events. When users sign into their accounts, they can select to view either ... Facebook rolls out restructured homepage Facebook Merges 'Highlights' Back Into Your News Feed Facebook revamps homepage with “News Feed” and “Live Feed” tabs |
FROM GAMERTELL - Xbox Live’s Director of Programming weighs in on the public corporate discussion concernign Blu-ray for the Xbox 360…
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 CNET News | Get an early taste of Dragon Age CNET News One of the holiday season games we're most bullish on is Dragon Age: Origins. While this nerd-tastic tale of dragons and elves and guys wearing chainmail armor isn't for everyone (or even usually our cup of tea), the large chunks of the ... Dragon Age: Origins trailers highlight dwarf warrior and PC toolkit PS3 Dragon Age dawning Nov. 3 Flash Game Gives You Free Dragon Age Loot |
Here’s a good way to get your hands on scarce venture capital money: Create a start-up geared around “real-time” sharing and conversations.
That’s the core of Twitter’s pitch, of course, and it has helped the microblogging service raise $155 million, a $1 billion valuation, and forge partnerships with Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT). Not surprisingly, investors are looking to place money on related bets, from search engines that parse real-time data to location-based social networks with real-time updates, and even real-time photo-sharing sites.
The newest entrant: Hot Potato, a buzzy start-up that’s supposed to let users converse about a particular event, whether they’re attending it in person or watching from afar. When it’s up and running, that is. The five-man crew doesn’t have users or a product just yet.
But that hasn’t prevented the Brooklyn, N.Y-based company from raising about $1 million, sources say, in a round led by First Round Capital and RRE Ventures. A group of smaller investors, including Betaworks, the incubator that specializes in real-time companies, and Ron Conway, the angel investor best known for his Google bet, are also backing the company.
Hot Potato is led by Justin Shaffer, an eight-year veteran of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, pro baseball’s well-regarded Web unit. Shaffer has recruited three other MLB.com employees (one of whom subsequently left to get an MBA at MIT) to join him.
Shaffer wouldn’t comment about his funding round, but was willing to discuss his start-up’s general plans. They are finishing an iPhone app and plan to submit it to Apple (AAPL) in the next few weeks, he said, and will open their doors once that’s approved.
The big idea is an interesting one. People are already using Facebook and Twitter to converse about events in real time–think about Barack Obama’s inauguration, or Balloon Boy, or last night’s Yankees-Angels game.
Shaffer’s critique of those platforms, though is that “they break at scale–there’s no good way to filter the chatter so that you, your friends, and a group of strangers with something relevant to say can all connect. Hot Potato, he says, will offer a “curated stream” in real time of all the data coming out of the event in real time. What we’re really focused on doing is bringing together the entire audience of an event, whether they’re at the event or watching at home.”
Business model? TBD, of course. But there are a couple of obvious ways to go. For instance, Shaffer thinks people who opt-in to a particular conversation–say, about an NFL game or a U2 concert–would be okay with seeing “in-stream” ads, as long as they were relevant.
But that’s a problem that’s best tackled once the service is up and running. We’ll check back then.
Oh man, yet another “élite” phone for us to look over and never be able to afford. It’s the Mobiado 350 Pioneer. It looks sort of like an Indiana Jones relic (note: I’ve never seen an Indiana Jones movie), and is part of Mobiado’s Grand Line.
What does it do? Beats me; I doubt it’s any more functional that your average Android phone. It does, however, have 24-karat gold plated screws (wow!), sapphire crystals all over the place, a “ruby infrared screen,” and an aluminum frame.
Only 37 are being made, and it’s available with an English, Arabic, or Cyrillic alphabets. That means it’s designed for the Roman Abramovichs or Sheikh Mansours of the world.
It’s a GSM phone, so I hope you’re not on Verizon or Sprint and trying to buy one of these!
No idea how much is costs. Let’s assume 80 billion dollars and get on with our lives.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
If you’re on the hunt for a new job, check out our CrunchBoard. We’ve added nearly 50 new jobs from leading internet businesses in the last two weeks, including two jobs here at TechCrunch. Here’s a quick sample:
Also, don’t forget that we’re looking for an Account Executive and CrunchBase interns here at TechCrunch!
For job hunters in Europe, check out our Europe CrunchBoard.
Click here to see all the jobs on CrunchBoard.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
A judge in the Northern California District Court has thrown out the countersuit Power.com levied against Facebook over the summer. Power.com filed its countersuit in July, alledging that, among other things, Facebook is unlawfully withholding the data that users own (as stated in Facebook’s own ToS) and is stifling competition by refusing to allow third party services.
Power.com is a service that allows users to aggregate all of their social network activity into a central hub, and has done so through methods that Facebook says violate its terms of use. Facebook filed suit against the company at the beginning of this year for scraping data and storing user credentials. A week later there were reports that the two parties were near a settlement, but that clearly didn’t happen.
The judge attributes the dismissal to a lack of concrete complaints and factual allegations in Power.com’s countersuit. We’ve embedded the full document below.
Update:
Power.com has given us the following statement, saying that they will continue the case after fine tuning their arguments:
Earlier in the case Judge Fogel granted Power’s motion to require Facebook to provide a more detailed pleading of its claims. Yesterday’s order essentially does the same thing with respect to Power’s counterclaims and affirmative defenses. The Court determined that Power’s pleading did not provide enough detail with respect to the fair use defense and other affirmative defenses, and also with respect to the counterclaims under the unfair competition laws. The Court gave Power 30 days, until November 21, 2009, to re-plead their defenses and counterclaims with more detail. Power intends to do so.
This is a routine type of order that often occurs in the early stages of litigation, where the parties dispute the sufficiency of the pleadings in terms of the level of factual detail that is provided. Power is confident that it will be able to amend its pleading within 30 days to satisfy the Court’s concerns.
Power’s Answer and Counter-Complaint contains a seven and a half page “Introduction and Background” narrative untethered to any specific claim. The claims themselves each consist of a conclusory recitation of the applicable legal standard and a general “reference [to] all allegations of all prior paragraphs as though fully set forth herein.” Facebook argues persuasively that this form of pleading does not enable the Court to surmise which facts in the introductory narrative support which claims, if in fact they do. Moreover, antitrust claims require a “higher degree of particularity in the pleadings.”
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
By Sam Schechner, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Time Warner’s (TWX) CNN unveiled its new Web site Thursday evening in a presentation that was part Hollywood and part Apple (AAPL).
All week long, the network had been touting the event, dubbed “The Unveiling.” Top CNN executives and invited reporters packed a corporate screening room on the 10th floor of the Time Warner Center as KC Estenson, CNN.com’s general manager, took the stage. He looked like somewhat like Steve Jobs in a dark sweater, jeans and wireless microphone.
“It is a revolution for us,” Mr. Estenson said, as he flashed the first glimpse of the new CNN.com, which goes live on Monday. “This is a really special event.”
Read the rest of this post on the original site
FROM GAMERTELL - Microsoft, which had sided with HD-DVD and then HD digital downloads in the late, great high-def format war of 2008, has basically flipped a corporate assertion that Blu-ray would never be playable on the console.
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Boing Boing guestblogger Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.
Meet the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray. This hunk o' plastic with a fancy name must be A) brilliant in its simplicity, or B) hopelessly dumb. But I can't quite decide which. Either way, the grab bag of serious sarcastic/ambiguous product reviews is enjoyable. One customer writes, "This has been a total lifesaver. It allows me to prop my sheet music against the wheel, allowing me to play the guitar with both hands while driving." Deadpan humor? Perhaps... or it might just be this guy.
(via Random Good Stuff)
The ability to keep tabs on mobile visitors is becoming increasingly important as more and more users surf the web via mobile browsers. With that said, there are a variety of website tracking / analytic reporting tools available across the Net that include mobile reporting.
However, one of the more popular (and free) apps, Google Analytics, has essentially been asleep at the mobile analytics wheel…until now. Google has announced the addition of new mobile tracking and reporting features (among other new features) to its analytics suite.
The new mobile features allow website admins to track visitors to their sites who are viewing the content via a mobile browser. The new mobile tracking tools work with both “high-end, Javascript enabled phones” as well as older, non-Javascript equipped devices, thereby providing invaluable data on all mobile visits. How does Google accomplish this latter feat? According to the official Google Analytics Blog:
This is made possible by adding a server side code snippet to your mobile website which will become available to all accounts in the coming weeks. We will be supporting PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX sites in this release.
Along with the new, general mobile analytics tools, big G has also added iPhone / Android app-specific features to “track how users engage with apps, just as with tracking engagement on a website.” But the new Android fun doesn’t stop here. For apps accessed on Android devices, “usage can be tied back to ad campaigns: from ad to marketplace to download to engagement.”
And finally, Google says it will be adding the ability to see “breakout data on mobile devices and carriers in the new Mobile reports in the Visitors section” in the near future. While maybe a little late to the mobile tracking game, the new additions to Google Analytics are certainly welcome and should prove to be incredibly useful as more and more visitors access the web via their mobile toys devices.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Let’s be honest for a second here: unless we’re talking about the Motorola Droid, which should be on Verizon Wireless within a few weeks, we might as well not be talking about Motorola. It’d be like talking about Real Madrid and only mentioning Granero or Drenthe and not Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaká. (Good, making references that all of 11 people will understand.) But we’re going to that such a thing right now in talking about the Motorola Aura Diamond Edition. It’s £3,500, which converts to, roughly, $5,700. Yeah…
Why is this thing so darn expensive? For whatever reason Motorolla has sprinkled it with some 30+ diamonds, and coated it in 18 carat gold. Now the question becomes why Motorola would ever do such a thing? Does Motorola makes phones exclusively for Goldman Sachs these days? Maybe, I don’t know.
It goes on sale on October 26, at least in the UK. But then again, if you’re the type of person who can afford this, you’ve probably already got it on pre-order.
Man, it’s cold. Let’s burn some £100 notes to keep warm.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Is Hulu putting up a pay wall around its Web TV site? Nope.
Does Hulu want to charge people to watch Web TV? Yes.
Confused? Don’t be.
It’s pretty straightforward: Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, GE’s (GE) NBC Universal and Disney’s (DIS) ABC, doesn’t plan on charging people to watch the stuff it’s currently airing on the site–a mix of first-run shows from broadcast TV, a limited number of cable TV shows and a smattering of movies. But Hulu is trying to figure out how to create some kind of premium offering where you’ll pay for stuff that isn’t on the site right now.
That’s what Hulu’s backers have been saying for months, so it’s a little puzzling that News Corp. COO Chase Carey’s comments got folks worked up yesterday. Meanwhile, multiple sources familiar with Hulu’s plans tell me that…Hulu doesn’t actually have a plan yet, but it is trying to piece one together.
There are some pretty obvious ways to go here. Hulu could sell movies or TV shows on a pay-per-view basis, or it could sell subscriptions to shows it doesn’t offer now or to a deeper offering of shows it already has. You could call it “Hulu Plus” (no charge for that one, guys).
If you’re a fan of Fox’s “Family Guy,” for instance, Hulu is only of limited help: The site only has the most recent five episodes. So how much would you pay to watch the rest of them?
If you don’t have an answer for that, don’t worry–Team Hulu doesn’t know, either. Nor can they tell you if airing free shows on Hulu has cut into other revenue streams like broadcast TV advertising or DVD sales, even though “we’ve done a thousand regression analyses on this,” says an industry executive involved in the site.
Do bear in mind that this was a problem Hulu’s backers didn’t really envision when they were dreaming up the site; at the time, they were most concerned with building a video site that would allow them to barter with Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL).
Now they own one of the biggest video sites on the Web, one they say is performing ahead of plan. And Hulu is selling enough advertising that it’s coming close to reaching break-even, according to executives I spoke to this week.
But at the very least, adding a pay component to Hulu helps mollify those who fear the site is cannibalizing their existing businesses. Or who simply want another revenue stream. And a pay element dovetails with Hulu’s interest in joining up with the “authentication” movement pushed by cable guys like Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner (TWX).
Meanwhile, here’s the use case for Hulu that its backers originally envisioned–“catch up viewing.” I was on a plane when last night’s episode of the “The Office” aired, but I can watch the whole thing–with ads I can’t skip–on my laptop today. And so can you:
Analysts mulling over Nokia’s IP infringment suit against Apple seem to be of two minds about how the action will play out. There are those, like Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics and Ben Wood at CCS Insight, who warn that Apple (AAPL) is on dangerous ground here at best. It’s almost impossible to build a cellphone without using Nokia’s (NOK) intellectual property, they claim. And if that’s the case with the iPhone, then Apple could end up paying Nokia hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing fees if Cupertino ends up on the losing side of this suit. (Click on text image below to see list of patents at issue.)
Some analysts, like Maynard Um of UBS, see Nokia’s action as a preemptory move against a possible infringement suit from Apple aimed at Nokia’s own multitouch handsets.
“We believe Nokia’s suit could be a pre-emptive move ahead of its new handsets launching soon that may have multi-touch capabilities for which Apple has IP,” Um wrote in a note to clients this morning. “We would not be surprised if Apple eventually files an infringement suit if Nokia’s handsets are deemed to infringe its IP and we believe Nokia would prefer any court action to be combined as prior cases have been. We expect the legal process to be drawn out & could involve US Patent Office reviews.”
The endgame here? Most likely an out-of-court settlement and cross-licensing agreements–assuming Apple’s willing. After all, Nokia is on record admitting its fondness for Apple’s technology.
Asked once about the striking similarities between a touchscreen device it was designing and Apple’s iconic handset, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s head of multimedia devices replied, “If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.”
Check out the video:
Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks
When Barnes & Noble unveiled the Nook the other day, one of the exciting features that was announced was the “LendMe technology” that it will offer.
According to the Barnes & Noble website, the Lend Me feature will allow users to “Lend eBooks to friends.” It was further described as;
“Share favorite eBooks with your friends, family, or book club. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time. Just choose the book you want to share, then send it to your friend’s reader, cell phone, or computer.”
Of course, with just about anything there is always the fine print and in this case the fine print is kind of a buzz kill.
To begin with, the obvious, if you lend a book it will not be available for you to read while it is out on loan. Sure this sounds a little strange considering it is a digital product, but in reality this makes it more like loaning an actual (non-digital) book. This is the expected part, but moving on is where it gets not so nice.
It seems that not every book will be available for lending, instead this will be up to the individual publishers. Yup, publishers can choose to allow you to lend, or restrict you from lending. Honestly, that part is not all that bad, although it frightens me a little to think that many will simply not allow it.
Moving on we have the real buzz kill, and that comes in the form of not being able to lend a book past the 14 day period. You can only lend each book one time, which means that the person you lend to better be ready to commit to finishing that book within the 14 day lend period or else they will end up having to purchase the book on their own just to read the conclusion.
That said, one nice part is that when you are lending, you will have the option to lend the book to any number of the Barnes & Noble reading devices. In other words, just because you have purchased and downloaded a book on the nook does not mean the person you share with also needs a nook.
Via [MobileRead]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
By Aaron Back, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Microsoft’s (MSFT) big launch of the new Windows 7 operating system on Friday in Beijing was much like its launches around the world: a huge, boisterous demonstration of new features such as being able to share music across multiple computers in one home. With one big difference: the emphasis that executives put on the benefits of “genuine” Windows 7 over pirated versions, showing that piracy remains a huge concern in China, the world’s second largest market for personal computers.
“It’s very important to make sure that people are understanding the benefits of running genuine Windows over pirated copies,” Microsoft Vice President of Windows Platform Strategy Mike Nash told an audience of mostly Chinese reporters. “I look at all of you as great witnesses to explain that to all of China.”
Read the rest of this post on the original site
The cellphone business is patented up to its eyeballs. Dumped at ground zero in the wasteland of owned ideas, newcomers typically have to pay as much as ten percent of sales to the old guard. Apple declined Nokia's invitations to give it money, and as a result is now the target of a lawsuit filed by the Finnish manufacturer.
From Reuters:
Apple, a latecomer to the cellphone industry, has won a considerable share of the higher end of the market, but it has limited intellectual property assets compared with rivals, when all vendors work under cross-licensing agreements.
Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics said Apple could have to pay Nokia anything between $200 million and $1 billion for patents used in 34 million iPhones shipped so far.
The funny part, I suppose, is the implied conceit that if it weren't for Apple's illegal appropriation of its technology, Nokia's own chrome-trimmed touchscreen iClones might have existed (or even, heaven forbid, been released) within years of the iPhone's debut. It's weird to compare the ostensible purpose of patents with the fact that Apple devised a product Nokia would never have cooked up in a hundred years.
Reuters quotes an analyst as saying "It is almost inconceivable that someone can produce a mobile phone without using Nokia patented technologies." Doesn't this sound like a casual, almost unconscious acceptance of the idea that intellectual property exists to prevent competitive innovation?
Nokia could seek up to $1 billion for iPhones: analysts
Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Oct 2009 | 10:21 am
Microsoft (MSFT) announced much better than expected results for its first quarter of fiscal 2010–led by strong Windows and Xbox demand and cost discipline.
While revenue and net income were down, the results were a major surprise given more lackluster estimates.
Here are the software giant’s slides on the financial results, which you can enjoy all weekend long, as well as BoomTown’s liveblog of the Q1 earnings conference call.
Thanks, Bill Koefoed!–but who are those smiley folks on the front slide?
Here are the slides:
FROM GAMERTELL - Haven’t had enough of Balloon Boy’s media exploits? Well now you can play the Game!
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile
We have, in the recent past seen the GSM Palm Pre get announced with O2 over in the UK, Ireland and Germany, but until now that was not doing anything for potential users here in the US.
Thankfully, online retailer Expansys has changed that up by making that same GSM Palm Pre available for shipping to the States. That said, your handset will come with some O2 branding and a few catches.
To begin with, the Pre will set you back a whopping $714.99, which although expensive it also a pretty normal sounding price for an unlocked and contract free handset.
Moving on though, the Pre is GSM and will be able to be used on both AT&T and T-Mobile, however it will not be able to take advantage of 3G speeds. And finally, the last, and also the strangest catch is that the QWERTY keyboard is a little different.
According to the Expansys website, and just to make sure nobody things this is a strange typo on my part;
“The QWERTZ keypad is the same as a QWERTY keypad, the only difference is the Z and Y locations are swapped around.”
Bottom line, if you can deal with no 3G, a high price and switched around Z and Y then this could be the GSM Palm Pre you have been waiting for. Otherwise, it looks like it will be back to waiting.
Product [Expansys]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Like a too-trusting doggy who keeps running, tail wagging, back to its abusive owner, only to get booted in the muzzle once again, hackintosh-monger Psystar has rolled over and asked Apple for another whack.
This time the lawyer bait is the Rebel EFI, a boot loader which allows the installation of OS X Snow Leopard onto pretty much any commodity Intel PC. The Darwin Universal Boot Loader, or DUBL, allows the system to start up from a Snow Leopard install disc and to boot into the Mac OS when you’ve done installing.
All you need to do is download a small file (7.6 MB) and use it to make a bootable CD. You then start the computer from this disk and wait until it tells you to swap in your Snow Leopard DVD. That’s it.
Or, that’s kinda it. The list of caveats, warnings and workarounds that follows the short instructions shows just why Apple will never bother supporting its OS on third-party hardware: There are just too many unknowns in the various machines to consider them all. Take this example, which is the description of the Psystar Labs Approval program.
To alleviate some the incompatibility issues some devices will experience, Psystar has begun their home certification program. Once authenticated, users will be given the opportunity to send in hardware components that are not working correctly and have our engineers build a profile for the device.
Nice. You might have to send in, say, your wireless card and hope Psystar can get it back to you along with a working driver. Not bad enough? How about this?
If when booting OS X your computer hangs at a screen with the Apple logo and a “no smoking” sign, you may have an issue with a BIOS Setting. To rectify this, follow these procedures.
Uh oh! “These procedures” turn out to be a lot of rummaging in the advanced BIOS settings of the machine. But the most confidence-inspiring part of all is this one, which gets its own FAQ entry entitled “‘Installation failed’ message.”
You may receive this message upon the completion of the OS X installation. Please know that this may not necessarily be the case and that it may have correctly been installed.
With all the trouble involved for the end-user, Psystar is surely giving this away just to needle Apple, right? Wrong. The asking price is a hilarious $90, currently reduced to $50 as an introductory offer. But at least there’s a trial version, right? Again, kinda. The free trial will let you install OS X but will only let you run it for a couple hours at a time, and then with the rather ominous-sounding warning, “limited hardware functionality as compared with the full version.” That means you can’t be sure that all the hardware drivers work on your machine without paying up first. Seriously, why not just run Windows?
The final irony is that the Rebel EFI is activated by an “authentication code,” which means that it will doubtless be all over the internet the minute a hacker gets hold of it. And in this case, “hacker” means every single customer.
Product page [Psystar]
Press release [PR Web]
Photo illustration : Charlie Sorrel
 BBCIndonesia.com | Nokia Lawsuit Seeks a Piece of the iPhone Pie PC World Nokia is taking Apple to court, alleging that the iPhone infringes on 10 different technology patents owned by Nokia. Nokia is entitled to protect its investments in research and development and its intellectual property, but there is reason to be ... Nokia, Apple suit reeks of desperation Nokia sues Apple over patents In Lawsuit, Nokia Says iPhone Infringes Its Patents |
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile
Verizon’s running ads everywhere (even on our site) for their first Android phone dubbed Droid (they actually had to license using that name from Lucasfilm, how cool is that?) in anticipation for a launch next month. In today’s have-it-now world, why wait? Gadgetell has your back and can point you to eBay where you circumvent all the hype and just get the biggest phone to hit Verizon in recent memory.
Over on eBay, one can bid on the Droid auction, currently at $899 with one bid. The auction is set to end on October 29 at 15:42 (PDT) and the phone ships from Glendale, CA. Of interest, the phones specs are listed and among them are a surprising 8GB SD card that comes with the phone, nice touch.
It isn’t clear if the auction-er actually has the phone or is going off an expected launch date of October 29th at this point. The ads I’ve seen say November and that correlates to a promotional mailing to press citing 11.09. It seems likely the image was taken from Verizon’s website and the auction says the phone has never been opened. If the phone is available on the 29th, the auction winner will have it more than a week ahead of the general public, is that worth a premium to you? If so, bid it up as it might be a fair bet that a large number of Verizon subscribers will be looking for this phone.
Questions to the Ebayer were not immediately answered.
Product page [eBay] via [MobilitySite]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Computers, Hardware, Peripherals, Storage
Plenty of people halted their purchase of a new PC in anticipation of Windows 7. Microsoft officially launched Windows 7 yesterday, but there may be another reason to hold off on that purchase. USB 3.0 is just around the corner. With a theoretical speed of 5Gbps, USB 3.0 will be able to handle incredibly fast data transfers.
Dane-Elec has several new USB 3.0 hard drives that will launch on December 11, 2009. There are three different models: a 2.5-inch, bus-powered hard drive with capacities of 500GB and 640GB for $179.99 and $199.99, respectively. Desktop models with 3.5-inch hard drives will come in 500GB at $149.99 and 1TB for $199.99. Additionally, there will be SSD versions available if retailers desire. These will be more expensive with the 80GB model at a whopping $399 and 160GB for $799.
The hard disk based drives are capable of write speeds at about 75-88MBps which is about 600Mbps. While this is lower than the theoretical maximum of USB 3.0, it still about twice as fast as USB 2.0 speeds. The SSDs were capable of 250MBps which translates to 1.56Gbps—in other words, some seriously fast transfers.
Dane-Elec also plans to launch a pair of adapters for older computers: a PCIe card for the desktop and an ExpressCard/34 USB 3.0 capable card. Unfortunately, neither adapter will be able to bring you the maximum speeds of USB 3.0, but you still get very fast transfers. The ExpressCard/34 maxes out at 1Gbps.
Company Site: [Dane-Elec]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Perhaps to avoid consumer confusion, or to grab back a few headlines from Barnes and Noble’s sweet looking Nook e-reader, Amazon has dropped the Sprint-powered U.S. Kindle and now sells just the international version along with the super-sized DX. And the price has also been dropped to $260, the same as the old Kindle 2 and the same as the Nook. It looks like this fight is on.
Those of you who already bought the International Kindle for $280 upon launch, you’ll get a $20 refund from Amazon. Here’s the e-mail I got:
Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6” Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don’t need to do anything to get the lower price—we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.
Good news indeed. Now, Amazon, perhaps you could start selling all titles in the U.S. store to overseas customers, and maybe switch on my damn web browser. Just saying, is all.
Product page [Amazon]
See Also:
Photo credit: Charlie Sorrel
The E-HUB claims to speed up your cycling using springs. Brilliance or bunk? You decide.
You’re familiar with the problem: As the pedals reach the vertical, you lose power as the legs are not really pushing or pulling anything. This is most obvious on hills and the folks at E-HUB call this +/-15-degree section the “dead-spot”. A coiled spring inside the E-HUB coils up during the most powerful part of your stroke and then releases the stored energy in the dead-spot.
It sounds good, but the mountain of graphs and tables on the website make me skeptical. You’d think, too, that something that allows a spring to be twisted would also feel mushy in use, but none of the testimonials from riders mentions this. The manufacturer claims a 7-10% power gain over a regular hub.
So what do you think? The E-HUB is clearly not adding anything, but simply redistributing the power for a more efficient pedal stroke. Would this work? My feeling is that this is expensive snake-oil, but as I can’t find a price, or even a retailer, we can’t be sure of that, either.
And one more thing. Say goodbye to DIY:
Servicing and maintaining E-HUB may only be undertaken by trained and authorized bicycle technicians. A special toolset is required to open the casing and preform maintenance operations.
Product page [E-HUB via Bicycle Design]
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
It looks like the Motorola Droid, which is the Android phone that is expected to be announced by Verizon on October 28 has been unveiled a little earlier than expected. And unveiled by way of the official Motorola website. Of course, that fact that it came from Motorola.com just means we can trust that the leaked images and specs are the real deal.
According to the website, the Motorola Droid will be running the yet to be released Android 2.0, which is also known as Eclair. In terms of features, here is what we can expect;
Of course, as you would expect, this page has already been removed, which means it looks like we are back to waiting until October 28 for another official look. In the meantime, hit the gallery below for a few images of the Droid handset.
Via [Phandroid]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Why not celebrate the launch of Windows 7 with the Windows Blue Screen of Death belt to remind you of the bad old days? The belt is fashioned from 44-inches of cotton and acrylic and can be cut to length, whilst the buckle is a tiny Windows tablet computer in its natural state.
Kidding! It’s a chrome buckle with the graphic protected under a glossy coating, and the perfect gift for the geek in your life (unless you happen to be Melinda Gates). $22.
Product page [Geek Gone Chic via Geekologie]
See Also:
Etre Touchy gloves are designed to let you operate a modern touch screen device with your gloves on. However, instead of the high-tech approach of weaving some capacitive fibers into the fingertips, Touchy just lops them off. That’s right: they’re a fingered/fingerless glove hybrid - a mitten-mongrel, if you will, which leaves forefinger and thumb naked and proud.
Yesterday I was reminded of the impending winter doom as Barcelona suffered one of its two rainy days of the year, the gray sky so low over the city that it felt like we had been boxed in Tupperware. And winter means gloves. But I’m not sure that Etre’s comparison chart is quite honest, claiming as it does that the Touchies “Keep your fingers warm and dry” whilst fingerless gloves do not. Perhaps the claim should be “keeps some fingers warm and dry”?
If you do want to freeze off the most valuable appendages of your hands, then go ahead. The gloves can be had for £20, or around $33 a pair. Or, of course, pick up some regular gloves from the dime-store and dust off the scissors.
Product page [Etre Touchy. Thanks, Dan!]
Lensbaby is turning its range of selective focus blurry-cam lenses into a full-on budget FX system for SLRs. Today the company announced a new fisheye and a soft-focus plugin for the Lensbaby Composer or Muse, which both work by replacing the optical part with a new one.
One slotted in, the Fisheye gives a 12mm bulge-o-rama with a 160º field of view (yes, your toes will be in every shot). The Soft-Focus Optic works by simply putting a metal plate with holes in it in front of a 50mm lens, and both new lenses work with Lensbaby’s aperture disks, which let you change the opening size by swapping in different sized disks.
Neither lens twists to give the movable clear spot and blurred outline that is the Lensbaby trademark, but then, just how much destruction can a single image take? Available now: Fisheye $150, Soft-Focus $90.
Product page [Lensbaby]
See Also:
| World : News Archives | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Technology | Science | Marketplace Audio |
| India : News | Business | Entertainment | Sports | Telugu | |
| Blogs : Humor pages | Norkay's Blog | Kids Stories | Indian Recipes | Database Tech Blog |
| Sundries : World Video Clips | Songs Clips | Indian Video Clips | |
Mamiya announced two new DSLR cameras today, the DM22 and DM28. Pushing the megapixel wall again, DM22 is 22 megapixel, and the DM28 is, you guessed it, a 28 megapixel. Both cameras use the stock Mamiya lenses so if you are already a Mamiya shooter, you’re set.
With all the talk about 
Yesterday at the 
Chalk this one up as a rumor, but it’s looking like