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Sony recalls Vaio power bricks - Inquirer
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Oct 2009 | 4:32 am TABLE-India's Bharat Petroleum Q2 net loss narrows(versus the same period a year earlier, in billion rupees unless stated)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 4:19 am Belkin SurgeMaster Recalled: Potential For Crispy Hair DayBy David Ponce And death as well, we suppose. See, if you’re one of about 68,700 Belkin Surgemaster owners (model numbers “F9G930-10, F9G930v10, F9G930-10-W and F9G930-10-SN, all manufactured...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 4:19 am Readings: Energy, Lego, Pig Farmers, etc.Can renewable energy save the world? Not without better batteries(voxeu) Breakthrough Inventions and Migrating Clusters of Innovation (NBER) Happy Anniversary Wall Street (Keen) Lego's business...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 4:13 am With Maps Navigation, Google Puts Dedicated GPS Makers on a Road to Nowhere [Digital Daily]
Google is moving into your market. For tech companies, few words are more frightening, and yesterday we saw why. The mere announcement of Google Maps Navigation sent shares of established GPS device makers like Garmin (GRMN) and TomTom into an ugly downward spiral. Shares of Garmin lost 16 percent of their value and shares of TomTom plummeted more than 20 percent to a new 52-week low. This, despite the fact that Google’s (GOOG) new turn-by-turn mapping service is currently only available for Android 2.0 smart phones like the Droid from Motorola (MOT). Clearly, investors already see where this is headed. Who will pay for a Garmin or TomTom unit when they’ve got an Internet-connected smart phone that offers turn-by-turn voice guidance for free? It might be a bit slow coming out of the gate given the current paucity of Android-based smart phones, but once more handsets arrive at market, Google Maps Navigation will undoubtedly have a significant impact on sales of dedicated GPS units. And if Google brings the service to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, as the company hopes to, it’s going to be even worse. “With this product, Google injects itself into a new market and has the potential to cause serious pain for the existing players, like Garmin and TomTom, while giving potential customers one more solid reason to switch to a Google-powered phone,” said Gabriel Consulting Group analyst Dan Olds. “It’s a lot easier to justify the switch to a new device if it takes the place of two devices, like a phone and a navigation device, and if it does the job better.” Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am Android 2.0: The iPhone killer at last? (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - In its three years, the iPhone has redefined the mobile device. But despite the iPhone's popularity, it is by no means certain to become the mobile equivalent of Windows, the dominant platform that defines our experience of a particular technology, as well as the business choices that surround it.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am Mario. Naked. Your Childhood Memories Tainted Forever.By David Ponce What else can be said about this, other than I’ve enjoyed ruining your childhood now that mine has been. Remember: it cannot be unseen! VIA [ Geekologie ]Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:57 am UPDATE 1-CIC invests $700mln in Hopu-backed mining firm* Iron Mining backed by Hopu, Temasek, Credit Suisse (Adds details, background)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:57 am Net Neutrality: What It Could MeanBy David Ponce We’ve all been hearing a lot about Net Neutrality lately, but a Reddit reader created the above graphic to really try and hit the point home. This is what the Internet could look...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:52 am Riversdale stops SAfrica anthracite ops after blastJOHANNESBURG, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Riversdale Mining Ltd. suspended all of the operations at its Zululand Anthracite Colliery in South Africa after an underground methane explosion at the mine, a senior...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:48 am Google opens OneBox music service - BBC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:38 am UPDATE 1-Smith International Q3 profit fallsOct 29 (Reuters) - Oilfield services company Smith International Inc posted a lower quarterly profit on Thursday as U.S. natural gas drilling remained subdued due to weak demand and prices.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:31 am With Open Graph, Facebook Sets Out To Make The Entire Web Its Tributary System
Today, amid the hoopla that Facebook was once again making changes to its site which may or may not make things more difficult for developers, something big was largely overlooked. To me, the more interesting thing was the new API Facebook briefly unveiled: The Open Graph API. To say details are vague at this point is being overly generous. But, the key idea is in place, and was presented today. Basically, the Open Graph API is a way for Facebook to allow other companies, sites, services, etc to interact with Facebook without having to create a dedicated Facebook Page. Big deal, you might think — isn’t that what Connect is? Yes, to an extent, but it would seem that the idea here is to go way past that. With the Open Graph API, Facebook wants to allow anyone to take their own site and essentially wrap it in a Facebook blanket. This doesn’t necessarily mean in a visual way, but rather that these sites which use the APIs will be able to replicate many of the core Facebook functionality on their own sites. Facebook isn’t being more specific at this time about what elements would be included in this, and when I spoke briefly to new Director of Product Management for Platform, Bret Taylor (fresh from the FriendFeed acquisition), about it afterwards, he made it very clear that many of the details are still being ironed out and thought up. Still, it’s not hard to imagine what this will be. During his presentation, Facebook’s Head of Platform, Ethan Beard, laid out the Open Graph as essentially a Facebook Fan Page for any site on the web. So you can imagine that you might be able to create a Facebook-style Wall to include on your site, but able to update your statuses from your site, leave comments, like items, etc. Again, it’s like a Facebook Page, but it would be on your site. And you can only include elements you want, and leave out others. The idea is to keep expanding Facebook’s social graph, and more importantly, it’s social reach. As I’ve described it so far, this API doesn’t sound like much of a tributary. But it is. Using the APIs, the data will also flow back from these sites to Facebook. Even if the site/brand doesn’t have a Facebook Fan Page, elements created on this page by other visitors will be sent back to Facebook and placed on their Walls or in their Streams, etc. This is a very smart play by Facebook (assuming they can pull it off, of course). Connect is already massively successful. It’s becoming more and more rare to go to a popular site on the web that doesn’t implement it in some way (even if it’s just for commenting). But in many ways, Connect doesn’t go far enough. If Facebook truly wants to be the main hub of social data on the web, it needs more data coming in from more sites, and Open Graph can provide that. With it, they don’t need to convince every site to make a Facebook Fan Page, those sites themselves can be their own Facebook Fan Page. And the data still flows. There’s another reason why this is a brilliant maneuver: Facebook has no shortage of critics who say it’s too closed-off, or “sandboxed.” By extending Facebook functionality outside of Facebook proper (something the team really played up today at the event), it would seem that Facebook is taking a step in the right direction. And it is, to a certain extent. But again, let’s be clear, the end goal for this is still to make Facebook the social center of the web. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong or nefarious about that. But rival companies, like Google, undoubtedly will not like this. They may say the right bland things in public after PR combs out any hostility in comments, but Facebook and Google remain very much at odds when it comes to the social web — and naturally, control of it. Google would undoubtedly prefer sites use Open Social, but giving users the options to do things with a social entity (social is the keyword there) that is well known to them, Facebook, will be a very enticing proposition for a lot of sites. And another announcement from today my further propel Facebook blanketing the web with its socialness. Now that Facebook has decided it will share user email addresses with developers, Connect could become even bigger. As Yammer founder David Sacks tweeted tonight, “Now that Facebook is willing to share user emails, Facebook Connect will become default signup for most websites.” That’s an interesting thought. One stream to rule them all? [photo: flickr/three slow] Information provided by CrunchBase
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Source: TechCrunch | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:30 am With Open Graph, Facebook Sets Out To Make The Entire Web Its Tributary SystemFrom Wikipedia: A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a main stem (or parent) river. Facebook wants every site on the web to be a tributary. And it wants to be the main river. Today, amid...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:30 am DSi LL hits Japan Nov. 21, DS sales top 113 million - GameSpot
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:30 am UPDATE 2-National Express ends merger talks with Stagecoach(Adds analyst's comment, share price, further details)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:26 am VASCO Empowers Its Channel With New aXsGUARD GatekeeperOAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. and ZURICH, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VASCO Data Security Inc. (Nasdaq: VDSI; www.vasco.com), a leading software security company specializing in authentication products today announced the availability of its upgraded aXsGUARD® Gatekeeper.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:24 am Sun CEO's pay package cut by a third in '09 (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:22 am Cheerful Conditioning Caps - The Happiness Hat Will Make You Smile or Else (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Happiness Hat designed by Lauren McCarthy might not be the best selling piece of headwear on the market, and definitely isn't the most pleasant for the user. The comfortable looking...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:20 am UPDATE 2-Record customer spend boosts Virgin MediaLONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - British cable operator Virgin Media Inc added 8,100 net users in the third quarter and pushed its customer's average spend to a record high, boosting its operating cash flow...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:14 am Trippy Technicolor Art - Rachell Sumpter Art is Freaky (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Art that can draw you in and hold your attention span for a long time is probably the best kind of art. Rachell Sumpter art is bright, colorful, and envelopes your imagination. This...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:10 am CNOOC pegs losses from damage at Huizhou at 2.34 mln BOEHONG KONG, Oct 29 (Reuters) - CNOOC , China's top offshore oil and gas producer, said on Thursday that net production losses due to damage at its Huizhou oilfield earlier this year totalled 2.34 million...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:09 am UPDATE 1-Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitionsOct 29 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 0900 GMT on Thursday.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:07 am Kara Visits TEDMED (Featuring Synthetic Skin and Heart-Scanning iPhones!) [BoomTown]
Can your cell phone check your blood sugar? What does a wireless bandaid do? Is my pill networked? Can a videogame cure cancer? Will a robot care for my mom? Can an Apple (AAPL) iPhone save my life? And, of course, does synthetic skin feel gross? The answer to the last question is yes, but it is also pretty astonishing to touch as part of one of the many tech-heavy talks at TEDMED, the medical and health care conference which has returned after a five-year hiatus to Hotel Coronado near San Diego. The four-day gathering is being helmed by RIchard Saul Wurman, the legendary creator of the original Techonology, Entertainment and Design conference. After he sold it, he struck a deal to license the name for this independent event from TED. Speakers include: Famed inventor Dean Kamen, pioneering genomic scientist J. Craig Venter, 23andMe Co-founder Anne Wojcicki, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta and Qualcomm (QCOM) CEO Paul Jacobs. Here’s a video I did, which include interviews with Wurman, as well as his new conference partner Marc Hodosh, and clips from presentations by Intel (INTC) Fellow Eric Dishman comparing mainframe computers to hospitals and actress Goldie Hawn, who talked about the benefits of a happier classroom: [ See post to watch video ] Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:05 am UPDATE 1-CNOOC Q3 rev down 23 pct, says projects on track* Shares end down 4.5 pct before results, up 8.4 pct in Q3Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:02 am PC's Purchased From Microsoft Stores To be Bloatware-FreeBy Chris Scott Barr Whenever you purchase a new PC, one tends to notice all of the extra software that comes with it. If you ask the manufacturer, they’ll tell you that they’ve done you a favor...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 3:01 am DSi LL: Nintendo confirms, shows new big-screen DSi
So the rumors about Nintendo releasing a new DSi with a bigger screen (we reported Monday and Tuesday) were true. Big N officially announced a new DSi in Tokyo today, the so-called DSi LL [JP]. It has a 4.2-inch screen, will be released on November 21 in Japan and is priced at $220. Buyers will initially be able to choose between brown, red and white versions. You’ll get two pens with the handheld. One is thicker and 129.33mm long, the thinner model is 96mm long. There’ll also be three DSiWare games pre-installed (two brain-training games and a dictionary).
The DSi that’s currently on the market has a 3.25-inch screen (the DS Lite only had a 3-inch screen). Nintendo says the DSi LL is especially designed for a better Internet surfing experience. It’s 21.2mm thin, but it’s thicker than the current DSi (18.9mm) and way heavier (314g vs. 214g). At least Nintendo boosted battery life from 2.5 to 3 hours.
Nintendo Japan’s web site is in Japanese (obviously), but this page visualizes the difference in screen size between the “old” DSi and the LL (just hover your mouse across the screen). Nintendo has yet to announce international sales plans.
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:58 am Nintendo profits sink on Wii woes (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:56 am Xerox Claims Printable Electronics Breakthroughadeelarshad82 writes "Xerox announced a new silver ink that it's calling a breakthrough in printable electronics, a leading-edge concept that's generated a lot of discussion but few actual products to date. Why? Precisely because of the issues that Xerox claims to have addressed. In concept, printable electronics is just what it sounds like: using a printer, basically an inkjet, to print electronic circuits. If this can be done reliably, electronic devices can be printed for far less than current methods cost. One can also print the devices on a variety of new materials. The possibilities range from printing on flexible plastic, to paper and cardboard, to fabric."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:56 am Meet Zong+, A Mobile Payments Platform On Steroids And Potential PayPal KillerZong has seen tremendous growth over the past year from when the company debuted its mobile payments service from the TechCrunch50 demo pit. Zong's model of billing micropayments to your cell phone bill...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:53 am Meet Zong+, A Mobile Payments Platform On Steroids And Potential PayPal Killer
Zong has seen tremendous growth over the past year from when the company debuted its mobile payments service from the TechCrunch50 demo pit. Zong’s model of billing micropayments to your cell phone bill caught our eye and sure enough, less than one year later, the startup is picking up serious traction, including a partnership with Facebook to power the purchase of the social network’s new currency. And in 2009 alone, Zong has processed mobile payments for over 10 million unique users worldwide. Today, Zong is launching a new feature that not only expands its payment services, but could make a lasting impact on the micropayments field. Zong is launching Zong+, a extension of the mobile payment startup which lets users bill microtransactions to credit, debit and prepaid cards. We have an exclusive demo of Zong+ by the startup’s founder and CEO, David Marcus, below. So in addition to making online purchases through their cell phone bill, Zong customers will also be able to link any type of payment card to their Zong account through a one-time entry process and continue to purchase goods by simply entering their mobile number and confirming the security transaction code sent to their phone. So if I wanted to buy credits on Facebook via Zong’s payment service, I would now have the option to enroll and pay via Zong+. Once I create and account with all of my credit card info, Zong will automatically bill my card. But each time I want to make a purchase via Zong+, I will only need to enter my mobile number. Zong will then send me a transaction code via SMS, and I will need to enter that code to complete the transaction. Zong is also incentivizing the use of Zong+ by offering users merchant credits (a cost which Zong swallows) if they purchase a certain amount. In fact, Zong will double whatever amount of credits your buy, if you sign up for Zong+. And there are benefits to using Zong+ (besides the incentives). Zong allows you to make larger transactions, in the range of $9.99 or higher, via Zong+. Zong’s other method of payments, via your mobile phone carrier account, works in a similar fashion. You enter your mobile phone number to pay for a virtual good and then you get a text message on your phone with a pin number. Once you enter that pin number, the charge will be reflected in your cell phone bill. But this cell phone carrier model has proven to have some complications, which may be why Zong is looking to expand its offerings to different models. Zong and other mobile payments platforms, such as rival Boku, face high fees that mobile carriers charge to the payment systems (which are inadvertently passed on to the consumer via the merchant), creating a potential obstacle in the business model. Zong recently launched a subscription feature to mitigate this issue and potentially produce lower fees for the end users. Marcus told me in September that many U.S. and European carriers that Zong works with are contemplating reducing these fees by building large-scale models to process payments that would in turn lessen the pressure on the mobile payments startups as well as the applications and social networks using the systems. But this new system will undoubtedly open new channels for Zong and perhaps even attract additional merchants to adopt its payment systems. Merchants who may have previously been frustrated with the high fees from carrier rates, will now find themselves able to enjoy greater transaction completion at the typical card rates. And as Zong+ is able to increase the amount of the tendered transaction, the startup could even give PayPal a run for its money. One of the first merchants that will be utilizing Zong+ is social network hi5. The social network’s director of business development, Rajat Kongovi, says that because of Zong+’s flexibility and frictionless model, hi5 will be able to offer a wider variety of virtual goods at more varied price points and give users more freedom of choice. Of course, it’s important to point out that the mobile payments method via cell phone carrier has gained serious traction internationally, where many virtual goods buyers don’t have a credit or debit card but do have a cell phone. So Zong+ may not be take off in some regions, but the service will undoubtedly offer users a more varied and dead, simple way of using your credit card for purchases. So when will Zong and Zong+ hit Facebook more extensively? Marcus told us that while Zong is currently being used on a limited number of apps to buy currency at the moment, the mobile payments system will be rolled out to a greater user base “soon.” I think that Zong+ only enhances the service and definitely gives it a leg up over competitors on the mobile payments space as well as competitors in the micropayments space such as PlaySpan and Live Gamer. Zong has become a powerful hybrd with the launch of Zong+. Watch your back, PayPal. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:53 am UPDATE 2-Investment bank drives Deutsche Bank, provisions up* Investment bk pretax profit 1.18 bln EUR of group 1.3 blnSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:46 am Ethiopia. Testing carbon offset with mobile phonesSmall farmers near Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, are testing a carbon offset market facilitated by mobile phones. Green.Inc reports. Mr. Pohjonens son Matti, a Fellow in Digital Culture at the University of University...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:45 am SMIC and Cadence Announce the Availability of 65-Nanometer Low Power Reference Flow 4.0SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Cadence Design Systems, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:30 am Physics Rebel Aims To Shake Up the Video Game Worldwaderoush writes "Physicist Shahriar Afshar is famous as the designer of the 'Afshar Experiment,' a study first described in 2004 that called into question Neils Bohr's observation that it's impossible to observe light's wave-like properties and its particle-like properties at the same time. Not surprisingly, the idea met with widespread resistance in the physics community. While he waits for the controversy to settle down, Afshar himself is taking a detour into the video game world. He's now the president and CTO of Immerz, a Cambridge, MA-based startup building an 'acousto-haptic' interface that drapes over a gamer's shoulders and turns video game sound into (literally) chest-pounding vibrations. Xconomy was allowed to test the device, and has the full story behind Afshar's unusual journey and the company's hopes for enhancing PC and console gamers' experience of action/adventure/first-person-shooter titles."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:17 am Esquire Flirts With Digital Reality [Voices]By Shira Ovide, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Hollywood stars are going virtual, in the latest effort to jazz up the printed word—and wake up consumers who have become inured to traditional ads. Hearst Corp.’s Esquire magazine will pepper its December issue with markers that trigger interactive video segments featuring cover subject Robert Downey Jr. and other actors, as well as an ad for Lexus. In doing so, Esquire is taking advantage of an emerging technology called augmented reality, which mixes real-life images with graphics or other effects. TV networks use AR to make the yellow first-down lines on football fields. The cover and several pages of the Esquire issue include square stickers with black-and-white designs. People can hold the magazine up to a Web camera to trigger the video segments, which are similar to some video-conferencing technologies in their lifelike quality. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:00 am With, Not Without U2, YouTube Saw 10 Million Streams Sunday Night
That’s massive, and it’s obviously the biggest live streaming event YouTube has ever done. But even more impressive is just how smoothly it went. I watched about half of the two and a half hour show, and if there were any interruptions, I didn’t see any. I didn’t even see any hiccups, it was that good. I had the show running full screen on my desktop computer, and it was pretty great picture quality for live streaming video. Though YouTube hasn’t officially commented on it, it’s widely believed that Akamai [update below], and not Google, were the ones actually handling the streaming capabilities. They’re the group that also handled it for YouTube Live, this past summer. That event saw some 700,000 concurrent views during its peak, undoubtedly, this had way more. Of course, even 10 million is nothing compared to some of the most popular television shows, but we’re starting to see audience of comprable sizes (though on a worldwide level whereas TV ratings are generally cited for the U.S.). The recorded version of the full 2 and a half hour concert is now officially being served up by YouTube and it already has over a million views in 3 days. Update: As Stephen Donner points out in the comments, he was able to trace the stream as it was happening, sure enough, back to Akamai.
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Source: TechCrunch | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:48 am Want 50Mbps Internet in Your Town? Threaten to Roll Out Your Own [Voices]By Nate Anderson, Senior Editor, Ars Technica Regional telco TDS Telecommunications last week issued a press release announcing a major milestone for the company: 50Mbps service over fiber optic cable to residents of Monticello, Minnesota. The Minneapolis suburb became one of the few non-FiOS communities in the country to experience full fiber-to-the-home deployment, and subscribers will all receive a free upgrade from 25Mbps service to the new 50Mbps tier. Even better is the price, which starts at $49.95 a month for 50Mbps fiber service without the need to buy other services. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:05 am Introducing FIVEsquare [Voices]By Andy Swan, Blogger, AndySwan.com By now you’ve probably heard of foursquare, the mobile internet sensation that has everyone talking, and VC’s opening their checkbooks. But just like 7 minute abs and 6 hour power crushed their competition, we are here today to bring an even more effective product to the world. Introducing, FIVEsquare…. the “mobile meets local” web pi app of the future. It is to local-mobile-apps what dippin’ dots is to ice cream, if you catch my drift. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:04 am Apple's 2009 ad budget: Half a billion [Voices]By Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Senior Editor, Fortune Apple (AAPL) shells out a ton of money for advertising. In fiscal 2009 it spent $501 million, according to the 10-K form filed Tuesday. That’s up from $486 million in 2008 and $467 million in 2007. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:03 am Google gets its groove on with music search (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:03 am In Industry First, Voting Machine Company to Publish Source Code [Voices]By Kim Zetter, Contributor, Threat Level, Wired Sequoia Voting Systems plans to publicly release the source code for its new optical scan voting system, the company announced Tuesday — a remarkable reversal for a voting machine maker long criticized for resisting public examination of its proprietary systems. The company’s new public source optical-scan voting system, called Frontier Election System, will be submitted for federal certification and testing in the first quarter of next year. The code will be released for public review in November, the company said, on its web site. Sequoia’s proprietary, closed systems are currently used in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:02 am Venture Capital’s Q3 Temperature
But University of San Francisco associate professor of entrepreneurship Mark Cannice puts a bit more stock in what VCs say. And to be fair, he’s got some data to prove it. While there are tons of studies that track what VCs did in a quarter, for the last six years Cannice has polled nearly 40 local VCs to ask how confident they feel about the high growth industry in the next six to 18 months. And interestingly, the results almost always presage an upturn or a downturn in exits by a quarter. For instance, the fourth quarter of 2007 was a banner 90 days for IPOs, but the confidence index plunged. Sure enough, the market plunged in early 2008. Similarly, in the first quarter of 2009, returns sucked, but confidence ticked back up. And in the second quarter we got five venture-backed IPOs. USF just released the third quarter numbers and for the first time since Cannice started the survey the measure of confidence was exactly the same as the previous quarter—down to the hundredth decimal place. Confidence was pegged at 3.37 on a scale of zero to five. So what does that mean? In short, they’re still confident, but waiting for that confidence to be backed up by reality. Here’s the good: VCs still feel there’s a lot of good new companies out there, and they know that to make returns ten years from now, they have to keep the dollars flowing now, according to the survey. What’s more: There are more private tech companies with more than $50 million in annual revenues that haven’t yet exited than ever before. It’s a combo of some dot com survivors whose markets finally caught up with their original hype and some surging newer companies. Both are either having a hard time going public in stock market that ignores mid-cap companies or are run by CEOs that just don’t want to go public in a short-term, Sarbanes Oxley world. Here’s the bad: VCs essentially have two “customers” and both are cautious buyers of what VCs are selling right now. One are the LPs, who despite the recovering public markets are way over-allocated in illiquid venture capital funds and—whether they believe in the asset class long term or not—they’re being forced to sell stakes or at a minimum curtail investing in the next cycle of funds. And then there are the markets. There are a backlog of IPO candidates, but they’re largely not big multi-billion offerings that can go anytime. And like we’ve seen with OpenTable, with small deals the floats are modest enough that even if a company gets out, VCs being able to sell their shares without tanking the stock is another matter. As one VC said in the survey comments, “The IPO market is like Hotel California. You can check it but you can’t check out.” Let’s remember: The point of an IPO is to make illiquid shares liquid. If you can’t sell, the corks stay in the champagne. Sure there’s a lot of optimism about acquisition markets heating up. But– while a positive– those deals aren’t likely to be outsized without the threat that the private companies could go public instead. A lot of people criticize VCs for tailoring their investing mood based on what the broader markets are doing. Should you really be taking cues from the public markets when you’re supposed to be focused on funding startups? But as Cannice correctly points out, it’s a circle-of-life thing. If VCs can’t spin mature companies off to buyers or public market investors, they have to keep more reserves for them that can’t go to new deals. And without those exits—some firms may not be able to raise their next funds, which also hurts their ability to do new deals. That means a lot is hinging on the next few quarters and whether this coming IPO boom materializes. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:01 am A Front-Row Seat for Media's Meltdown [Voices]By Greg Sandoval, Blogger, NewsBlog, CNET During a visit to Hollywood last week, I wanted to talk to people who knew a thing or two about the film industry’s burgeoning meltdown. One of the people I sought out was Eric Garland, CEO and co-founder of Big Champagne. Read the rest of this post at the original site Source: All Things Digital | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:01 am Daily Crunch: Science Fair Edition
Unboxing: The Verizon Droid by Motorola
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:00 am Chartis RiskTech100(TM) Report Reveals Major Gaps in Financial Institutions' Risk Management Strategies, and Increases in 2010 Technology ExpenditureWhile most financial institutions do not have a comprehensive or well-formulated strategy, most will increase risk technology expenditures in 2010, according to the latest findings from Chartis Research.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:00 am TSMC Reports Third Quarter EPS of NT$1.18HSIN-CHU, Taiwan, Oct.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Oct 2009 | 1:00 am Google’s Eric Schmidt On Magical Potential Of Mobile + CloudI was sorting through my notes and video footage of the Google press event around the launch of Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 and saw this gem. It’s a minute or so of footage of Google CEO Eric Schmidt talking about the potential of today’s mobile platforms when combined with the cloud.
His words echo Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Schmidt says that today’s mobile platforms are so powerful that when combined with a robust cloud service they can do “magical things.” And he encourages people not to limit their imaginations when thinking of new applications to serve people. Inspiring stuff for people out there thinking up the future. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: MobileCrunch | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:31 am Astak lauches the Mole social networking webcam
I’m curious however, exactly who will be using this product, and for what. It can be controlled remotely (even pan and tilt) via a web interface, has 15 LEDs for night time recording, and a two way microphone so the person being filmed can have a conversation with the viewer. The internet feed to the camera comes via either an ethernet port, or an internal wifi card. Recording quality is pretty standard, with the high quality mode set at 640×480. The camera can also be set to a motion sensitivity mode, and capture movement as it happens, and record it for later. The obvious usage is for home or small business security, this sounds like something that Biggs would be into given his quest for a home monitoring solution. The website suggests that it would also make a good baby monitor, which certainly sounds reasonable. The Mole cam will ship early this November for $299. [via Electronista]
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:30 am Bull: 2009 EBIT Objective Confirmed in Excess of EUR25 millionPARIS, October 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- - Core Business Activities[1] Grew by 0.6% Over the First Nine Months of the Year - Third-quarter Revenues Down by 8% (7% at Constant Currency) Reflecting Greater Seasonal Variation Than in Previous Years Key figures for third quarter of 2009 (unaudited): - Consolidated revenues of EUR221.2 million; in line with expectations, revenues decreased by 7.3% at constant exchange rates compared with Q3 2008 - Revenues for the first 9 months of 2009 stood at EUR779.8 million, representing a slight decline (-1.5%) compared with the same period in 2008; at constant exchange rates, revenues were down by 0.3% - Refocusing on the Group's core offerings1 continues: these offerings which represented 93% of Group revenue over the first 9 months of the year, recorded growth of 0.6% for the period Outlook: Bull confirms its target EBIT (see glossary) for the year; this was revised in July 2009 to a level "in excess of EUR25 million". Bull (Euronext Paris: BULL) - expert in open, flexible and secure information systems and one of Europe's leading players in the IT industry - today announces that its revenues for the third quarter of 2009 were EUR221.2 million, representing a decrease of 8.1% compared with the same period in 2008.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:30 am Google’s Eric Schmidt On Magical Potential Of Mobile + CloudI was sorting through my notes and video footage of the Google press event around the launch of Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 and saw this gem. It’s a minute or so of footage of Google CEO Eric Schmidt talking about the potential of today’s mobile platforms when combined with the cloud.
His words echo Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Schmidt says that today’s mobile platforms are so powerful that when combined with a robust cloud service they can do “magical things.” And he encourages people not to limit their imaginations when thinking of new applications to serve people. Inspiring stuff for people out there thinking up the future. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: Gizmodo | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:20 am The Monrovian Analog BloggerAn anonymous reader writes "Motherboard.TV reports, 'In Monrovia, Liberia, there’s a guy taking the matter of a lopsided, state-run media and reshaping it into a free-of-charge, independent news-aggregator—all accomplished with dry-erase board and couple markers. (Sorry, internet!) Each morning, at 10:45 AM, Alfred Sirleaf wakes up and heads down to his bulletin board to post the day’s news, culling together a slate of stories his countrymen might otherwise never see. Grateful readers line up in droves, on foot and in cars, to read these updates, in what has been described as the country's — and probably the world's — only analog blog.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:20 am Google Wave as an RPG environment Ars Technica reports on the nascent Google Wave RPG scene, in which wavesters are amusing themselves by using Google's collaboration tool s a surprisingly effective (for some games) means of keeping track of the action in game: The few games I'm following typically have at least three waves: one for recruiting and general discussion, another for out-of-character interactions ("table talk"), and the main wave where the actual in-character gaming takes place. Individual players are also encouraged to start waves between themselves for any conversations that the GM shouldn't be privy to. Character sheets can be posted in a private wave between a player and the GM, and character biographies can go anywhere where the other players can get access to them.Google Wave: we came, we saw, we played D&D (via Futurismic)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:09 am Video: How wood chips or tires are converted into Ethanol fuel
Source: CrunchGear | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:05 am Baby Star Trek Classic uniform onesies ThinkGeek's Star Trek onesies are a great change from the boring old Bob the Builder and Disney Princess junk you'll get heaped on you the second your kid emerges. I love that they have a redshirt version (for expendable babies!).
USS Warehouse Captain in Training
(via Wonderland) Celebrating obsolete library card-catalogsUSC's "It's All in the Cards" feature is a Flash widget that celebrates a different card-catalog card every day. I remember the first time I was exposed to my school library's subject index and practically falling over at the thought that there was a way to find all the books in the school (which I assumed were all the books in the world) on any subject that mattered to me. I could look at these things all day. Maybe I should find a surplus mountain of these things and tile a room with them.
It's All in the Cards
(via Resource Shelf) Qualcomm Innovation Center Joins the Symbian FoundationSAN DIEGO and LONDON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am Verizon: Who Needs the iphone? - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 28 Oct 2009 | 11:51 pm Google launches music search with Lala and iLike (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 28 Oct 2009 | 11:51 pm Google Music Onebox: Video Interviews With Just About Everyone Involved
Key takeaways – Google will integrate new partners as it makes sense. And while MySpace knew about the negotiations between iLike and Google prior to announcing their acquisition of iLike in August, the deal was far from certain. More on that in a subsequent post. All are below: Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: Gizmodo | 28 Oct 2009 | 11:40 pm DIY: CD-ROM for your Toyota Camry
Ok, so it’s DIY, but maybe not a DIY you’d really want to do. This little project is certainly a choice, but if you are so inclined and find you have the need, but not the budget, you can probably whip this one up yourself. I’m not sure how well this would work though, there’s not much buffering on a drive like this so the slightest bump will probably cause your CD to skip. You’ll also need a IDE drive, since the power connections are different for a SATA. For more of these, shall we say, creative projects, click on over to “There I fixed it“.
Source: CrunchGear | 28 Oct 2009 | 11:30 pm Why Verizon's Droid Isn't an iPhone Killer
|
 The Age | Google Nav System Shakes up GPS PC World Well, Google's done it again: Tossed a monkey wrench inside a well-oiled, profitable machine, and gummed it up good. Of course, I'm talking out the company's foray into the turn-by-turn GPS navigation market, a bold move that's bound to cause more than ... Google Maps Navigation beta uncorked Google Builds Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation Into Android Google Should Make Apple Beg For Maps Navigation |
Netvibes, original widget homepage, is morphing into something much more interesting. The next version of the service, dubbed Wasabi, is a potent stream reader which consolidates news feeds, blogs, Twitter and Facebook streams, email, and much more in an extremely manageable interface. Wasabi will become available early next week in a private beta, but you can start signing up for it now.
CEO Freddy Mini demonstrated parts of Wasabi at our first Realtime CrunchUp in July. In addition to the traditional widget view, which breaks up your feeds and applications into a grid of boxes on your Netvibes homepage, Wasabi now also has a “smart reader” view. The smart reader borrows from traditional RSS readers in that all the feeds and widgets you subscribe to are presented together in one column, updated in reverse chronological order.
You can see just a list of headlines, or an expanded view with the full feed. It looks similar to Google Reader, except that Netvibes supports more than just RSS feeds. You can import your Twitter and Facebook streams (read-only right now), as well as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Flickr photos, weather widgets, stock widgets, and more. “Any service that has a stream we can display it,” says Mini.
Rather than scan across 20 boxes, Netvibes users will now have the option to mash everything together and filter simply by what’s been posted most recently. Wasabi has infinite scroll, so you can keep going down until you’ve had enough. There is also a new mosaic view, which shows each item as a visual tile. When you click on a tile, you get an expanded view that allows you to read the item, while keeping a strip of navigational tiles up top (see screenshots below).
On the backend, Netvibes is speeding things up to make the stream as realtime as possible. It is caching content from the most popular feeds and pushing that down to users as soon as there are any updates, and it will also be supporting both the Pubsubhubbub (PuSH), which also launched at the Realtime CrunchUp, and RSSCloud standards aimed at eliminating the lag time inherent in RSS and Atom feeds.
So Wasabi is not only a potent stream reader, it is faster too. I won’t miss the widget view one bit.
Photo credit: YouTube/FatoosVanRobin.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Everyone knows that we here at CrunchGear love Logitech’s Harmory remotes. Normally though, they are really expensive and perhaps out of the reach of the casual buyer. Good news though, Tiger Direct has one hell of a deal on the 670, a IR remote designed to work with pretty much everything out there.
You’ve got to admit, $39.95 is a pretty good deal. The remote is refurbished, so be aware, however Logitech does warranty the remote for 90 days parts and labor, so you should be pretty safe. Plus, buying one non-refurbished will set you back about $100. You’d be buying it through Ebay, and shipping is free to the continental US. Here’s a list from Logitech of what devices are supported by the H670.
[via Dealnews]
In an ironic twist, it’s coming to light that computers purchased from the Microsoft retail stores will not contain the ‘trialware’ that was typically included in new PC’s. This answers one of the criticisms that Apple users typically had about new PC’s.
This has been confirmed by both employees and witnesses. Microsoft has stated that the machines sold in their stores will be considered to be part of their signature line, and therefore will not include any unnecessary third party software. They will come preloaded with the optional Windows Live Essentials pack, Bing 3D Maps, Security Essentials, and the Zune client. Previously, the only PC manufacturer that has promised ‘craplet’ free systems has been Toshiba, however Sony and Dell have made such configurations available as an option.
[via electronista]
Our own John Biggs already gave the Verizon Droid a quick hands-on earlier today – but in the endless rush of things, he didn’t get a chance to walk it through a proper unboxing ceremony. Somewhat magically (albeit a bit later than we would have hoped), a Droid also happened to show up on my doorstep this morning, so I went ahead and captured the whole undressing for all to see. Enjoy!
Check out the video at MobileCrunch >>
Our own John Biggs already gave the Verizon Droid a quick hands-on earlier today – but in the endless rush of things, he didn’t get a chance to walk it through a proper unboxing ceremony. Somewhat magically (albeit a bit later than we would have hoped), a Droid also happened to show up on my doorstep this morning, so I went ahead and captured the whole undressing for all to see. Enjoy!
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
In what should come as a shock to almost no one, the detailed negotiations to complete the Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) search and online advertising final agreement is more complicated that its authors anticipated and is taking longer than expected to complete.
Relax, folks–it’ll get done.
But here’s a more important thing that should wrap up sooner than later: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s seemingly never-ending jibes about former CEO and Co-founder Jerry Yang’s tenure.
First, let’s deal with the issues around the agreement, which is a monster document.
That’s why MicroHoo has missed the deadline yesterday to execute its definitive agreement on the transaction struck in July.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Yahoo said:
“The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute definitive agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized.”
Added Microsoft in a long statement:
“Microsoft and Yahoo! are committed to this agreement and believe this is a highly competitive deal that is good for consumers, advertisers and publishers. We have made good progress in finalizing the definitive agreements. Given the complex nature of this transaction there remain some issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details. So, the teams at Yahoo! and Microsoft are continuing to work on the remaining details, and we have mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute the agreement. We plan to do this as expeditiously as possible. Both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010.”
Thus, the deadline has been pushed indefinitely, which is very common in such larger and complicated deals.
Yahoo and Microsoft already had done a pretty hefty binding letter agreement (here is a picture of Yahoo’s Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer holding it, in fact).
Getting approval from regulators is also part of the deal, and it is likely to happen in the U.S. just after the new year.
International regulatory approval is another story, especially in Europe, which could further delay the implementation of the partnership, since it is unlikely the pair would move forward without clearance globally.
But perhaps most of all, what seems more like that it will never end and probably should is the proclivity of Yahoo’s Bartz to use sharp-tongued analogies to talk about just how bad Yahoo had been doing and how it is now poised to make a comeback.
In her very first press conference when she got the job, in fact, she noted, “frankly, could use a little management.”
Bartz was right then and even more correct to say it out loud, but she has not stopped the criticism.
And, like clockwork, at an analyst day at Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale, Calif. today, Bartz trotted out a yet another in a long series of backhanded insults to former CEO Jerry Yang and his crew.
Said Bartz at the event about the Silicon Valley icon :
“We have fallen and we really want to get back up. If you haven’t had good times and bad times, you don’t know what you’re doing. We prefer the good times. We have passion to get back there. Today is the start of that.”
Today is the start? Didn’t Yahoo declare a version of the same theme when the MicroHoo deal was announced in July? Or at the the launch of the new homepage in September? Or the more recent rollout of its massive marketing campaign?
It seems to me that since she has been there almost a year, much like the Obama administration, Bartz should not be looking backward anymore and keep announcing that it is time to get back on track.
Because she is most definitely in charge now at Yahoo and should be the one to get all praise and all blame from here on out.
So, as someone who has definitely been very tough on Yang while CEO, it’s time to stop knocking him over now, because it is starting to feel like a very cheap shot.
When it was revealed that Mike Pinkerton, the lead developer for the Mozilla’s Mac-based Camino web browser was moving over to Google to take charge of building Chrome for Mac, there was some concern that Camino would be neglected. Pinkerton assured development on Camino would continue, and sure enough it has. Today brings the first release candidate for Camino 2, the new version of the browser.
Camino, though much less prevalent than its Mozilla sibling, Firefox, has a solid following among Mac users who appreciate its speed. It has long been my browser of choice as it’s relatively lightweight and very fast compared to Firefox. And compatibility with various sites seems better than Apple’s own Safari.
We’ve been beta testing Camino 2 for several months now, and it’s solid. It offers several improvements over the first iterations of Camino, notably in speed and the way it looks. Mozilla notes that this Release Candidate 1 could become the final, first official build of Camino 2 if there are no critical issue found.
So it looks like despite Pinkerton’s Chrome time commitments, Camino 2 will beat Chrome for Mac even reaching beta status.
The anticipation for Chrome for Mac continues to build. Even Google co-founder Sergey Brin admits that he’s disappointed with how long it has taken to develop. But, as we noted the other day, Chrome for Mac — not Chromium, the open source browser on which Chrome is based — looks like it’s getting closer to a beta release.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 Brisbane Times | Leaked video game footage shows terrorist attack The Associated Press NEW YORK — Footage leaked from "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" reveals that players of the upcoming video game can shoot innocent civilians in an airport in a realistic rendering of a terrorist attack. The game, which has an "M" rating for mature ... Modern Warfare 2 to have optional playable terrorism Modern Warfare 2 - A game too far? Leaked footage of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” shows terrorist attack |
It’s been years since I let my subscription to Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery lapse. I could barely afford it and, as those Shriners soon found out, I am not actually a surgeon. However, I do enjoy pouring a glass of Old Granddad, sitting down in my favorite chair, and reading up on Snapping Scapula Syndrome or the Three-Dimensional Kinematics of the Rheumatoid Wrist After Partial Arthrodesis. It does a body – and a soul – good.
Thanks to a new online market, DeepDyve, I’m never further than a click away from those relaxing and enlightening scientific papers. The site, launched today, offers full-text search of scientific articles along with 99 cent downloads and a subscription service that allows fans of Clinical Chemistry to read as many stories as they’d like.
Why is this important to me? you ask. What do I look like? A rocket surgeon? Well, there is an untapped market for scientific research. Doctors, for example, may have access to these journals at school but they rarely can afford them in their own private practices. Scientists, amateur or professional, may want to look up something important to their work and the ill and infirm may want to look up their treatment options. Because most journals are kept offline, most readers thus far have resorted to piracy either by asking for a photocopy from a friend or downloading the journals from pirate research sites. Yes, pirate research sites exist.
DeepDyve launched last year as a search company. Their specific expertise was in large string searching, allowing you to look for multiple topics in one search string. This led to work in the research space and, ultimately, the company changed into a article rental service. Articles cost 99 cents for 24 hours and an unlimited plan for $19.99 a month. A $9.99 plan allows you to access 20 articles per month for up to seven days each.
The site currently holds 30 million articles and each article is indexed and available in a free preview. You can create email and RSS alerts on specific topics and a “More Like This” feature allows you to dig deeper into a topic.
The company is based in Menlo Park and received $9 million in angel funding.
Are you a big fan of research? Leave a comment and we’ll be giving away free subscriptions to DeepDyve to 10 random readers. Now back to Spinal Injuries and the Sacral Arch and another snoot of whiskey.
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FROM GAMERTELL - New Wii bundle packs for your favorite games, and It’s available right in time for X-mas.
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Worst and weirdest Beatles cover ever. A choir of ventriloquistic monstrosity, from Hungary. Nabbed from Robert Popper's newfangled webble-site.
Source: Boing Boing | 28 Oct 2009 | 5:37 pm
Section: Communications, Smartphones
On what could possibly be the worst day to be a non-Android, non-Droid phone, Nokia has decided to release an update to one of its smartphones. The update, dubbed software update 2.0 comes to the N97 today via PC download. In addition to the update, Nokia has announced that the N97 mini will be launching this week in Europe.
The new update is meant to make the phone better for users, though will most likely not add much for American users to get excited about. New features include “flip scrolling,” which seems like a nicer way to say kinetic scrolling and should improve scrolling across the entire device; shortcuts to personalized homescreen, Ovi Maps 3.1 with 3D maps (still not as exciting as Google Navigation), and Nokia email.
The new update will be packed into the new N97 mini as well. The N97 mini is just that, a smaller version of the Nokia N97. The main difference is that the mini is aimed at “style-conscious people who are active with social networks.” The emphasis on social networking and the new design brings the N97 mini to €450, which would make importing it more expensive than just buying the original N97 through Nokia USA.
Unfortunately for Nokia, the software update and N97 mini can’t escape Symbian. The OS just doesn’t seem to work well with American consumers. While it is fairly popular in Europe, it is still losing ground. With the N900 coming next month, there is still some hope for an exciting Nokia phone that everyone can like. However, with Android 2.0 and Google Navigation coming up, the N900 running Maemo 5 will have a harder battle. It will certainly be a tough decision for many fans of open source phones.
Read [PR Newswire]
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Like humans, dead gadgets get autopsies, too — only we call such hardware dissection “teardowns.” But why do we rip our beloved gadgets to pieces? To learn more about the nature of technology, engineering and industrial design, of course.
It’s kind of a beautiful thing, actually: staring at a gadget’s ugliest internal parts to learn its secrets.
To celebrate teardown culture, we hosted a contest in collaboration with teardown company iFixit, and 19 people participated (20, if you include a hilariously failed attempt). The rules were simple: Disassemble a Sony gadget, take photos of each step, and post the results.
Why Sony? Because the company makes some of the most elegantly designed hardware out there, and we were curious to see what lurked beneath the products’ sleek exteriors. Also because Sony told iFixit that it doesn’t like its products being torn apart publicly like this, and we couldn’t resist a challenge like that.
IFixit is handing out two awards to the winners: a PS3 Slim for “Best Overall Teardown,” and a PSP Go for “Most Creative Teardown,” Check out photos of the two winners, as well as eight other teardowns we found thoughtful, clever and impressive.
Thanks to all 20 who participated!
The winner of “Most Creative Teardown” goes to iFixit author Bac, who disassembled a vintage Sony TR-63 transistor radio. Not only were we shocked at the author’s ballsiness for ripping up this valuable antique; we were wowed by the old-school circuit board, which looks like an array of colorful beetles and worms.
Photo: Bac/iFixit
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This is, I kid you not, the actual title of a paper published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. I love it, because it sounds like it could just as easily be the fan-encyclopedia description of some minor creature from a Lovecraft story. The bees in question are workers from three species, Lisotrigona cacciae, L. furva and Pariotrigona klossi, and were studied--going about their tear-drinking business--in Thailand. From the paper...
...workers drank lachrymation (tears) from human eyes in more than 262 naturally-occurred cases at 10 sites in N and S Thailand during all months of the year. A few visits were also seen to eyes of zebu and dog, indicating a probable broad mammalian host range. On man the bees were relatively gentle visitors, mostly landing on the lower eyelashes from where they imbibed tears for 0.5-2.5 min, often singly but occasionally in congregations of 5-7 specimens per eye.
The authors think the bees have adapted to drink tears as a way to get some protein in their diet and may, possibly, drink tears in lieu of feeding on pollen at all. That's pretty nifty, if a bit creep-tastic.
Image shows a Thai bee, though I'm not sure if it's actually one of the species studied in this paper. From Flickr user travlinman43, via CC.
You are lost in a maze of twisty house patches, all alike.
Akai's Miniak virtual analog synth is a blast, especially its combo of old-school vocoder, 37-key semi-weighted velocity-sensitive keyboard, and a goose-necked microphone. Capable and hefty, it could fit into a sports bag despite a full complement of features: 8 voices with three oscillators, hundreds of preset patches, and a (laborious) built-in sequencer and arpeggiator. I'll admit right now I fiddled with the editor for 10 minutes, broke down in frustration at the one-line display, then went to sit in a corner, sobbing and hugging Reason 4. Three 1/4" inputs slurp up external audio sources, to which the Miniak's filters and effects can also be applied.
It's made in partnership with Alesis, whose mic-less and cheaper Micron is similar stuff. Note that there's no USB, meaning you'll need to get busy with MIDI hardware (cheap, good) if you want to hook it up to a computer. At $500, it's also a bit pricey for those just wanting an occasional bang on the ivory. If you are a one-man digital band, however, the only conceivable improvement would be ... a keytar edition.
More info [Akai] — Product Page
Seagate's FreeAgent Theater+ is perfect for the media library you already own. Eschewing elaborate home theater features, baked-in storage or the need for a LAN, you just plug a hard drive or thumbdrive full of stuff into it and hit play. 1080p output over HDMI fixes the flaws of the last model, and an ethernet port's now included if you already have your media networked. Codecs supported include MPEG4 (Divx/xVid), WMV9 and raw DVD rips. It's $150, or $300 with a 500GB drive that slides into its dock.
Product Page [Seagate]
Casio's Exilim EX-FC100 puts fancy features from the high-end EX-F1 into a pocket-friendly format.
Able to record 1000 fps at 224x64, 420 fps at 224x168 and 210 fps at 480x360, it slows time at low resoltuion and with much noise in dim light. The 720p video is fantastic, however, and short 30fps bursts at even higher resolutions make it easy to capture the moment.
The best thing is pricing, now it's been out a few months: at $250, it's hard to find a better deal that covers so many bases. Cherry on top: 5x optical zoom.
Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100
Ableplanet's Clear Harmony LINX audio headphones claim top-shelf noise reduction at an affordable price: $100. They worked great with the dull ambient hum of home, but not so much so out in the streets. Audio quality is decent, but if you're going to spend this much, why not get something even better?
Product Page [Ableplanet]
Source: Boing Boing | 28 Oct 2009 | 4:18 pm
FROM GAMERTELL - Collectorz’s Game Collector application can come in rather handy if you amassed an impressive collection of games so large your friends and significant other complain about not being able to find that one game they always like to play…
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 Brisbane Times | Microsoft Exec Warns On Windows 7 Upgrade Hack ChannelWeb By Kevin mclaughlin, channelweb Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean it's legal. That's the message Eric Ligman, global partner experience lead in Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Group, is sending this week to bloggers who claim to ... Microsoft counters Windows 7 upgrade hack advice Mossberg's Mailbox What tech vendors really think: The customer is a cow |
![Screen shot 2009-10-28 at [ October 28 ] 3.05.44 PM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-28-at-October-28-3.05.44-PM-173x300.png "Screen shot 2009-10-28 at [ October 28 ] 3.05.44 PM")
A few weeks back, we shared a video by Swedish Design agency Ocean Observations which demonstrated a rather clever (but arguably useless) concept: Exposé for the iPhone homescreen.
We shared that video on a whim, and the resulting conversation and comments were outstanding. As a result, the same design firm has since churned out two more iPhone-related concept videos: Coverflow Multitasking, and Dashboard Widgets. Just like the last time, we’re left wondering: would you use these?
Coverflow Multitasking:
Multitasking on the iPhone; it’s unlikely to happen on the current hardware due to battery limitations, but that hasn’t stopped the users from clamoring on about it every chance they get. Ocean Observation’s solution is very webOS-meets-Coverflow. You swipe back and forth between apps to switch between them, and then “throw” them out of the line to close them. I’m not sure if they’re implying that this Coverflow drawer should be visible at all times on the homescreen, or if it’s a slideout drawer – but if it’s the latter, I think I’m in love. Sure, it’s a bit unoriginal when you’ve got webOS’ Cards system in mind, but what is Cards except for a fancy version of ALT-TAB?
Dashboard Widgets:
The newest video of the bunch, just released about an hour ago. It’s an almost direct rip of the Dashboard system in OS X, all the way down to the edit button used to bring in/dispose of widgets. The most original part of this video is the concept of a three-finger pinch gesture which, too my knowledge, hasn’t been used anywhere. Alas, I’d imagine it would cause system conflicts – once you introduce system-wide gestures, you have to deal with false positives firing off the dashboard when you’re just trying to zoom into a map.
Still, I’d welcome a constant widget layer with open arms, especially if big-boy multitasking never becomes a reality. Give widgets a limited API – just enough for pulling down certain data (weather, server status, stocks) from the web every 10-15 minutes, keeping track of lists, and other basic functionality that won’t destroy battery life, and you’ve just made a whole lot of people happy. Plus, you could easily sell single purpose widgets for 25 cents a pop.
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile
Verizon, today, made Droid official. They’ve been teasing us with the “Droid does” and “idon’t” ads that poked good fun at the iPhone. Now that it’s here, priced, and dated, we’ve got three surprises they’ve been holding back on. Each one is a potential game changer.
Say what? I’ve been saying Google Navigation was logical for eons now, but Google finally made it happen and it could be an instant changer. Available as a free part of Google Maps on Android 2.0 phones, Google Navigation will provide turn-by-turn directions. By leveraging their simple search engine (just type in or say just about anything and Google will go find it) along with their satellite imagery to make navigating an unknown area feel almost downright home-like, Google nailed this. While it still remains unclear if there is voice-guided directions, Google is clearly serious about this.
Google has made a point about saying this is only for Android phones and it is free. The free part is debatable as there is no free lunch - don’t kid yourself you are trading privacy for the chance to have location-based ads served. Only for Android I am willing to bet is a temporary deal. Google is an advertisement company first and foremost. This will trickle down to other OS at some point, you can bank on it.
Typically, you can sync your phone with one and only one profile. For example, if your corporate email uses Exchange, you can set up your iPhone to sync with them while your GMail will be accessed through IMAP or POP, not through the Exchange server as you can only chose one.
Droid, ala Android 2.0 seems to allow multiple profiles. Sync to this AND that. Hot diggity dog.
I really didn’t think this would happen but yes, the Droid is slated to have a full Flash 10 which means Hulu will be in the house. Interesting but it gets better, Flash games anyone?
To say that the Droid is going to be a big player is easy. While the form factor doesn’t do much for me, I’ll be extremely interested in the next two Droid phones that are coming down the pipe not to mention the 20 phones Motorola has coming in 2010. And it should be said, well done to Moto. It looks like they are back in the game.
Read: [Motorola]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 BBC News | DJ Hero Celebrates Malleability of Music Wired News Guitar Hero has always displayed a certain reverence toward music. Players can fail if they don't re-create guitar gods' every hammer-on and power chord with complete accuracy. DJ Hero , the new music game from Activision for the Xbox ... DJ game aims to buck predictions Wicka-wicka-wicked: DJ Hero new, fresh, triumphant Quick spin: DJ Hero |
[R]ather than spending tons of money and time on diesel-powered machines, filing the proper permits, and administering dangerous herbicides, the Seattle-based Rent-a-Ruminant organization will loan your a team of 100 goats for all your brush-clearing needs--all at a very modest rates. As Serious Eats explains, the benefits of goats are numerous: they eat just about anything, they can work on uneven ground, you don't need permits to use them, and they can clear a quarter-acre in about three days.Rental Goats Clear Brush Better, Beat Cosmonauts in Space Race
 Times Online | Ares IX rocket chalks up successful test flight CNET News KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--Running a day late, NASA launched its 33-story Ares IX rocket on a $445 million unmanned test flight Wednesday, a spectacular six-minute sub-orbital mission to collect data needed for the design of nasa's ... 'We stand today on the shoulders of giants,' rocket manager says Ares test launch helps NASA 'avoid potential political damage' nasa's new moon rocket makes first test flight |
A college couple in Nevada miraculously survived with minor injuries when a drunk driver drove a car right through the wall of their house and onto their bed last week. They lay pinned to their mattress for about an hour until emergency workers showed up with chainsaws and released them. The accused, Eric Cross, had mistaken their house for one belonging to his ex-girlfriend and her new mate. An excerpt from CNN:
Initially, Woods struggled to comprehend what had happened to him after being abruptly torn from his slumber. "I thought the roof caved in from an earthquake because it's an old house," Woods said. Then, his girlfriend began screaming and parts of the car came into focus, helping Woods to groggily piece the scene together, "I could see the tire to the right side and I was like, there's a car on top of me right now," he said. "That was really hard to get through my head."Couple alive after car pins them to bed for almost an hour Image: Sparks Fire Department
You are lost in a maze of twisty house patches, all alike.
Akai's Miniak virtual analog synth is a blast, especially its combo of old-school vocoder, 37-key semi-weighted velocity-sensitive keyboard, and a goose-necked microphone. Capable and hefty, it could fit into a sports bag despite a full complement of features: 8 voices with three oscillators, hundreds of preset patches, and a (laborious) built-in sequencer and arpeggiator. I'll admit right now I fiddled with the editor for 10 minutes, broke down in frustration at the one-line display, then went to sit in a corner, sobbing and hugging Reason 4. Three 1/4" inputs slurp up external audio sources, to which the Miniak's filters and effects can also be applied.
It's made in partnership with Alesis, whose mic-less and cheaper Micron is similar stuff. Note that there's no USB, meaning you'll need to get busy with MIDI hardware (cheap, good) if you want to hook it up to a computer. At $500, it's also a bit pricey for those just wanting an occasional bang on the ivory. If you are a one-man digital band, however, the only conceivable improvement would be ... a keytar edition.
More info [Akai] — Product Page
Seagate's FreeAgent Theater+ is perfect for the media library you already own. Eschewing elaborate home theater features, baked-in storage or the need for a LAN, you just plug a hard drive or thumbdrive full of stuff into it and hit play. 1080p output over HDMI fixes the flaws of the last model, and an ethernet port's now included if you already have your media networked. Codecs supported include MPEG4 (Divx/xVid), WMV9 and raw DVD rips. It's $150, or $300 with a 500GB drive that slides into its dock.
Product Page [Seagate]
Casio's Exilim EX-FC100 puts fancy features from the high-end EX-F1 into a pocket-friendly format.
Able to record 1000 fps at 224x64, 420 fps at 224x168 and 210 fps at 480x360, it slows time at low resoltuion and with much noise in dim light. The 720p video is fantastic, however, and short 30fps bursts at even higher resolutions make it easy to capture the moment.
The best thing is pricing, now it's been out a few months: at $250, it's hard to find a better deal that covers so many bases. Cherry on top: 5x optical zoom.
Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100
Ableplanet's Clear Harmony LINX audio headphones claim top-shelf noise reduction at an affordable price: $100. They worked great with the dull ambient hum of home, but not so much so out in the streets. Audio quality is decent, but if you're going to spend this much, why not get something even better?
Product Page [Ableplanet]
Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Oct 2009 | 2:35 pm
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FROM GAMERTELL - They have the technology. They can rebuild it and make it better, cuter and, yes, smaller than before.
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Like it or not, Motorola’s new Google-powered Droid smartphone will be compared to the iPhone.
The good news is that this feature-rich handset, running version 2.0 of Google’s Android OS, compares very favorably to the Goliath of the smartphone world as a utility mobile-computing device — and, oh yeah, a phone.
The bad news is that there may be too many good things going on to make using this device the quick, intuitive, out-of-the-box experience it should be. That’s a problem, given that the iPhone has set the usability bar so high.
An embarrassment of riches shouldn’t be a negative, and it really isn’t overall on the Droid, which goes on sale Nov. 6 to Verizon customers only. The tight integration of all things Google — maps overlaid on GPS, voice input all over the place, search that does not ask you to decide whether you are looking for something locally or on the net — are now more fully realized in this major upgrade to the mobile operating system that the search giant first released on a single handset, the T-Mobile G1.
This is very good thing for those who have become Google citizens and are already used to entrusting their contacts, documents and discovery needs to that cloud.
If you have a Gmail, Facebook or Microsoft Exchange account, it integrates seamlessly with the e-mail app. You can also configure the Droid to work with standard POP3 or IMAP internet mail accounts.
On the down side, there is no provision for syncing to an address book (or calendar) on your desktop. Nearly everything is in the Google cloud, which — given the recent Sidekick data-loss debacle — may not be the greatest selling point just now.
Like the iPhone and many other handsets this is a primarily a touchscreen device whose face is almost 100 percent screen — and a bright, crisp screen it is. Rather than take sides in the virtual-vs.-hardware keyboard debate, the Droid provides both. The hardware keyboard slides out in a familiar landscape mechanism, and it includes a 5-way directional pad, the better to allow you to keep your hands on the keyboard once you have them there.
The virtual keyboard appears when appropriate, landscape or portrait. And while the software keys appear to be narrower than those on the iPhone, they seem at least as easy to use. Another familiar feature is the “reality check” of a small pop-up displaying the key being pressed. And there is a type-ahead function which displays possible words, potentially saving you keystrokes.
On-board music purchase is from Amazon (at least), but when the Droid is connected to a computer, it’s read as an SD card, and dragging any tracks onto it makes them playable within the music app. The Droid also sports a 5-MP camera with autofocus, on-demand flash and video.
The Droid goes beyond the iPhone in two key areas: Like the Palm Pre, applications can run in the background, and switching among them is a smooth process. And as a robust GPS device it accepts and gives turn-by-turn verbal instructions, making it the closest approximation yet to a total GPS solution that obviates the need for a dedicated vehicle device. One caveat: It’s necessary to be connected to the 3G data service for course correction and other dynamic route features to work (and to even plot a course), so this is not a replacement for a GPS device in locales where Verizon 3G coverage is nonexistent or spotty.
Available apps? Android only offers about a tenth of the nearly 100,000 Apple has available, but that should change as Android handsets become more common. The first app I downloaded was Google Voice which, strangely, is not preinstalled — but then again, it isn’t available at all on the iPhone. On the Droid, you can set your Google Voice number to be the one that everyone sees when you call or text them, so you can switch to Verizon without worrying about giving everyone a new number or waiting for your old number to port over. That’s assuming you’re already using the phone-number-for-life that Google provides.
Navigation is not a touch-screen experience: Unlike the left-right/swipe metaphor there’s a hard “undo” button that takes you back step by step. In fact there are four hardware buttons to the iPhone’s one: Back, Menu (which does not activate from any given screen), Home and Search (which does).
The customizable screens can contain dozens of shortcuts — to contacts, bookmarks, anything — but there are only three of these screens: the “home” screen plus one to the left and one to the right, accessible by swiping. Think of these as a speed dial, with your entire collection of app icons in a sliding drawer. But these icons can be moved anywhere using touch/hold, and there is the gentlest of vibrating feedback to confirm your gesture. (This “haptic feedback” is the default and activates in too many contexts, including for every number you hit when manually entering a phone number. Fortunately, it can be turned off in the settings).
There’s one “feature” that is is sure to draw fire. On certain events (including when you connect to a power source), a computerized voice announces: “Droid.”
On version 2.1 please remove that, Google.
Check out Wired’s feature comparison chart below, and continue reading for more photos of the Droid.
CORRECTION: The Droid does work with POP3 and IMAP email accounts, so a Gmail, Facebook or Microsoft Exchange account is not required as we stated in an earlier version.
The edge of the Droid features a headphone jack.
5 megapixels! Take that, Cupertino!
It's black. It's rectangular. It's the bad-ass–looking Droid.
Choose your weapon: Use the touchscreen, or use the keyboard and D-pad.
Photos: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com
 BBC News | Star explosion is most distant space object seen msnbc.com Light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago has been detected, becoming the most distant object in the universe ever observed. The light from the distant explosion, called a gamma-ray burst, first reached Earth on April 23 ... Most Distant Object Found; Light Pierced "Dark Age" Fog Stellar blast is record-breaker Astronomers Detect Distant, Ancient Star Explosion |
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones
A new study may prove worrisome to RIM. It revealed that the iPhone has now captured 30% of the market share for smartphones, a mere 10% less than RIM’s leading 40%. Palm, which was once the industry leader, has seen its market share slip to just 6%.
What does this mean if you are in the market for a smartphone? Not much. While the iPhone is wildly popular, it’s still stuck with AT&T’s stranglehold and resulting network issues and it lacks the security features many businesses need. The BlackBerry, although it has lost some of its market share to the iPhone, is still a wildly popular device in its own right. (There’s a very good reason they are dubbed CrackBerries!) Businesses still rely on it as a valuable tool and the company has begun to successfully enter the consumer market as well.
For consumers it still comes down to individual needs and overall value. An iPhone isn’t much good to someone who lives in an area without good AT&T coverage, and the touchscreen and lack of a physical keyboard are a turn off to some. A BlackBerry may not be a good fit for someone who doesn’t get a lot of emails or who is big into mobile web surfing or gaming. Both the iPhone and the various BlackBerry devices are available for $200 or so with a 2 year contract, so do some research and let your needs and budget decide which is right for you.
Read [CNet]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
FROM APPLETELL - Today, Google released their free GPS guidance app for Android 2.0, called Navigation. Rumor has it that the app will make its way to iPhone at some point in the future.
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Apple recently told the media that its “holiday lineup is set,” meaning there will be no new Apple products for the rest of the year. That means for the next few months, Apple fanatics have nothing better to do but speculate, trade rumors and argue among themselves while they wait for the Cupertino, California, company to deliver a touchscreen tablet, rumored for an early 2010 release.
Why not pass the time with some creative fun? A few impressive mock-up illustrations of the fabled Apple tablet have surfaced on the web (like the one above), and we’d love to see even better ones. That’s why we’re hosting a contest inviting Wired.com readers to produce their own illustrations of the highly anticipated Apple tablet.
We’re handing out swanky JAYS V-Jays headphones ($100 value) to the winners of either one of two categories: Most Realistic Mock-Up, for anyone who can create the most realistic, convincing illustration of an Apple tablet based on the consensus of various rumor reports; and Most Creative Mock-Up, for anyone who can dream up the Apple tablet that we all really want.
A few notes: Even though many anonymous sources have described Apple’s tablet as a “larger iPhone,” you’re unlikely to win if all you do is re-size a photo of an iPhone. That would be yawn-inducing. Challenge yourselves artistically, have some fun and make a compelling device worthy of all the hype.
The image must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. In the Reddit widget below, please submit images that are relatively large (ideal size: 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side).
We don’t host the photos, so you’ll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you’re using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it’s displayed. Using an online photo service that requires a login will not work. If your photo doesn’t show up, it’s because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).
If all else fails, send your submissions to itabletcontest [at] gmail [dot] com and be sure to include a description; we’ll do what we can to get your mailed submissions into the form below.
You have until 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on Monday, Nov. 2. The Gadget Lab team will judge the images and our choices will determine the two winners, although the top popular vote-getter will get bragging rights and, perhaps, a consolation prize from the stacks of swag here at Wired HQ. Photoshop your hearts out!
Illustration of an Apple tablet: Photo Giddy/Flickr
To enter the contest, submit your iTablet mock-ups in the form below. Then vote on your favorites!
Submit your mock-up
While you can submit as many illustrations as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. Images must be your own. No HTML allowed.
One of my favorite games of all time, Catan, is now available as a $5 download for the iPhone and iPod touch. As board games go, The Settlers of Catan is a psycho-erotic thriller capable of hooking even the most un-hookable of gamers.
You know the words, folks – sing it with me:
♫ Lets all go to the lobby, lets all go to the lobby, lets all go to the lobby, and get ourselves a discount on concession stand goods via our cellular telephones. ♫
Sure, those aren’t the words to the jingle as we know it – but they might take over, eventually. This morning, turn-key mobile coupon service bCode announced a partnership with Sprint and in-theater advertising group Screenvision to bring bCode’s mobile coupon kiosks to over 500 theaters nationwide.
The premise is fairly simple: during Screenvision’s pre-roll ads and through physical ads (signage, machine branding) located around the theaters, Sprint customers will be offered various discounts that they can request via SMS. Once they’ve received a confirmation text, they leave said text open on screen and then scan their handset’s face at a bCode kiosk. No Bluetooth connection or crazy RFID system required; just good ol’ fashion text recognition, ensuring that just about every handset with a screen (that is, every Sprint handset) is ready to go on day 1. Once scanned, the kiosk prints out their redemption ticket and the customer gets their discount.
bCode’s coupons are encrypted and uniquely tagged for each phone number, which helps to ensure that user’s cant easily fake-out the system. This also allows for bCode to roll out a “loyalty points” system at some point in the future, allowing customers to accumulate points for bigger discounts
As mentioned, the discounts are only given to Sprint customers. Now, this may seem a bit brash; no one’s going to go “Oh hells yes – 50% off my popcorn? I’m switching to Sprint as soon as this movies over!” With that said, a bit of feigned exclusivity (”Psst, hey you, Sprint customer. Sprint loves you more than other carriers love their customers – here, have a discount that no one else can use, cause you’re awesome.”) goes a long way for brand building. Considering that Sprint is bleeding customers each and every quarter, it goes without saying that brand building is something that Sprint could use right now.
bCode’s kiosks come in various forms, from on-counter to in-wall. Check out a demo of the system in the video below:
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Tapjoy, the small development shop that brought us the incredible TapDefense for the iPhone [iTunes link], has quietly built out an extremely strong toolset to provide monetization options for app developers. Through two strong offerings, they claim to increase ad revenue for free apps by more than 250%. I first met them at the TechCrunch50 DemoPit, and was thoroughly impressed by the Tapjoy platform.
First, they aggregate ads from all the major mobile ad networks and serve the highest-paying ad for an app. This method leaves the developer with nigh an unfilled ad; Tapjoy boasts a 99.9% fill rate. Second, they enable developers to sell virtual goods within their apps (such as extra points in Mobster or extra towers in TapDefense) for real money. They do this by providing the user with the option to download an app in exchange for the virtual good. Be sure to read about this later on in the article, because it is truly the most innovative 3rd party platform I’ve seen on the iPhone all year.
First, the ad aggregation. Similar to AdWhirl (recently acquired by AdMob) and Mobclix, Tapjoy has a platform that combines ads from 10 mobile ad networks and provides your app with the one that has the highest PPC. And this platform is completely free for developers. In the nacent mobile advertising market, fill rate is crucial to developers, since the major ad networks are struggling to independently keep up with demand for advertising. Tapjoy, like AdWhirl and TechCrunch50 startup Mobclix, scours the networks for the highest paying ad and fills your ad with that advertisement. Meanwhile, they are collecting a gold mine of data about the habits of the users of the roughly 1,000 applications running the Tapjoy SDK. Co-Founder Lee Linden told me that ad networks like Tapjoy because they provide the networks with a large amount of data and increased fill rates. Furthermore, they work hard to build relationships with the networks – something that will serve them well in the long haul.
The second, and more unique, offering of Tapjoy is its virtual goods platform. Essentially, if you have an Android or iPhone app and want to add an in-app revenue stream, this is the way to go. You create extra level packs or upgrades to your app (such as additional characters or special skins) and provide them to your users for free. The users can only get these upgrades if they download another free or paid app as well. Publishers of free apps pay $0.25 per download, and Tapjoy takes 50% of the price of any paid app sale. They track the sale using the device owner’s Unique Device Identifier (UDID) so there is no confusion on whether the app is downloaded or not. This is a win-win-win scenario for all three parties. Of course, the developer at the point of sale earns revenue he never would have gotten otherwise via the in-app virtual good sale. Tapjoy says apps with the virtual goods system see between $75 and $150 per day per 1000 daily-active-users. The publisher gets to buy downloads at $0.25, which is far cheaper than the $0.70-$1.00 cost of buying a download via traditional mobile advertising. Publishers are getting more than 10,000 new installations per day via this method. Finally, Tapjoy may just be the big winner – they’ve created a cash cow of an ad business. In fact, Tapjoy has more demand from the publishers to pay for downloads than they do developers selling in-app virtual goods.
Clients such as Playdom and Papaya have taken the most advantage of the virtual goods platform, and Tapjoy is expanding its rapidly expanding its client base: Digital Chocolate, Gogii, imeem and ngmoco are all on board, along with hundreds of smaller publishers. They have worked extremely hard to build relationships with these clients as well; both co-founders Lee Linden and Ben Lewis provide all of their customers with their cell phone numbers. Lee joked about how they’ve had a few late-night wake-up calls from their clients.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
![Screen shot 2009-10-28 at [ October 28 ] 10.13.08 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-28-at-October-28-10.13.08-AM-173x300.png "Screen shot 2009-10-28 at [ October 28 ] 10.13.08 AM")
When we heard the news that the BlackBerry Storm2 would be launching on Verizon on the same day as their much heralded Droid, we got a gut feeling that the Storm2 would fly pretty much under the radar all day. And sure enough, it has.
So, let this serve as a reminder for anyone who’s itchin’ for Waterloo’s latest who wasn’t camped out this morning: the BlackBerry Storm2 is now available for $180 bucks on a 2-year contract in both the online and meatspace stores – even if it seems like Verizon doesn’t really want you to notice.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Here you are, friends and Romans, the Motorola Droid from Verizon, the phone you've been salivating over for the past few months. It's now sitting quietly on the desk next to me, wondering where you are. The Droid wants you.
Section: Video, Accessories
With the new demand for 3D movies, RealD has decided to offer a line of premium of 3D glasses for retail sale. Instead of using the goofy version offered by a movie theater, you can use a pair of your own that reflects your personal style. The glasses are available as part of a licensing agreement between RealD and Look3D.
The glasses will be fitted as well as styled in a design that you like. The eyewear collection will be completely RealD compatible and be available for men, women and children. Look3D glasses feature interchangeable lenses to work with all 3D formats. The glasses will also be available in movie themes in expectation of some major 3D movie releases, such as Avatar, Toy Story 3 and A Christmas Carol. The glasses will be available for sale at movie theaters as well as online stores.
Retail pricing has yet to be released on the glasses and they are expected to be ready for purchase in December.
Site: [Look3D]
Image Source: Inside SoCal
Full Story » | Written by Heather Wood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
![Screen shot 2009-10-28 at [ October 28 ] 9.47.52 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-28-at-October-28-9.47.52-AM-144x300.png "Screen shot 2009-10-28 at [ October 28 ] 9.47.52 AM")
Hurray! Not only is today “Droid Day”, but it also just so happens to be “New Sony Ericsson phone with a name no one can pronounce” day! Happy NSEPWNNCP Day, everyone!
Sony Ericsson’s present for today is the Aino, an 8.1-megapixel’d, WiFi’d, tri-band HSPA’d (so it should work with certain US GSM carriers – that is, AT&T), with a lowly 1000mAh battery and a 432×340 display.
Because $600 sheckles is a lot of dough to drop on a phone — even an unlocked one — by today’s standards, SE isn’t sending you home with just a phone and a smile. They’ve also packed in an 8GB MicroSD card, a stereo bluetooth headset, a dock, and a pony.
We’re lying about the pony.
You can find it in the SonyStyle store here, albeit currently backordered.
[Via EngadgetMobile]
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Today is the International Day of the DROID. Well, not really, but Verizon did follow through and officially announced its new flagship Motorola Android device – DROID.
Along with the official presser, Motorola was also kind enough to provide some glistening press shots of the DROID, “A no-compromise supergenius” as they like to call it, along with an official DROID by Motorola Fact Sheet (all after the jump).
Hopefully these images and info will tide your DROID appetite over until we get our hands on posted later today.
DROID by Motorola Fact Sheet
A no-compromise supergenius
Introducing DROID by Motorola, a Smartphone powered by Android 2.0 developed in partnership with Google and Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest 3G network. DROID delivers high-speed Web, voice-activated search, a super large touch screen and thousands of customizable apps and widgets from Android Market™. With the thinnest full QWERTY slider available on the market, it’s a no-compromise supergenius in your pocket, multitasking at break-neck pace to get things done.
High-Speed Mobile Browsing
* See the Web at break-neck speed on the largest high-resolution display with a Flash 10 ready HTML browser.
* Look up favorite sites, video and music fast with a high-speed, cortex A8 processor and lightning-fast connection.
* View it all on the 3.7” display with more than 400,000 total pixels, which is twice that of the leading competitor.
* Work faster on the Web with double tap to zoom in and out.Google Searches Beyond the Web
* Type your search to deliver results such as contacts and music offering a complete search experience on a mobile device.
* Use voice-activated search to serve up both your contacts and Google search results, based on your location.
* Find your way with free spoken turn-by-turn directions with Google MapsTM Navigation (Beta), with Street View and LatitudeTM. View geographic information, such as My Maps, Wikipedia entries and transit lines, right on the map.Customize Your DROID
* Access thousands of applications and hundreds of widgets from Android MarketTM.
* Customize your home screen with preloads like Facebook™ and Google MapsTM or download1 applications for music, news, sports and games.2
* Toggle back and forth between up to six applications at a time.Multitask Messaging
* Integrate work (Exchange) and personal (GmailTM) e-mails into one inbox with emails pushed directly to you. Plus, undo common operations in GmailTM for fast corrections.
* Find your contacts using a universal list that pulls in work, personal and Facebook™ contacts
* Slide out the full QWERTY keyboard to comfortably text, IM and e-mail1
* Have your work calendar right at your fingertips at all timesAdditional Bells and Whistles
* DVD quality video recorder features quick and easy playback plus optimized YouTubeTM uploading for sharing with friends.2
* 5 megapixel camera loaded with the works like dual-LED flash, AutoFocus, and image stabilization
* Features 16GB of storage space (or upgrade to 32).
* Stereo Bluetooth® gives you the option of wireless connectivity3. Or if you prefer traditional, headphones utilize the 3.5mm headset jack.
* Easily copy text and URLs to simply paste them into an e-mail, text or status update1 or copy images off the Web directly to your gallery.Optional Accessories
* Use the multimedia station5 to transform DROID into an alarm clock, movie player or digital picture frame.
* Place DROID in the car mount5 to instantly launch a full-blown GPS navigation device.DROID by Motorola with Google™
Talk and Standby Time4 – TT: 385 mins/6.4 hours | SB: 270 hours/11.25 days
Form Factor – Capacitive Touch; Full Qwerty Side Slider
Band/Modes1 – 800/1900, CDMA EVDO rev A
OS – Android 2.0
Weight – 169 g / 6 oz
Dimensions – 60.00 (x) x 115.80 (y) x 13.70 (z) mm | 2.4 (x) x 4.6 (y) x 0.5 (z) inches
Browser1 – Webkit HTML5 based browser; Flash 10 ready
Email Support1 – GmailTM, Exchange, IMAP, POP, Macmail, GmailTM, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL®
Battery – 1400 mAh
Connectivity1 – Bluetooth® v2.1+EDR, 3.5mm Headset jack, USB 2.0 HS
Display – 3.7”, 480×854 WVGA
Display Resolution – WVGA display houses 400,000 pixels
Messaging1 – SMS/MMS, Full HTML5 Browser
Audio – AMR-NB/WB, MP3, WAV, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA
Video – Advanced Video record/playback at D1 resolution (720×480) with up to 24fps capture and 30fps playback, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
Camera – 5.0 megapixel, AutoFocus, dual LED Flash and image stablization
Memory – 16GB card included in phone, Up to 32GB microSD expandable
Location Services1 – aGPS, sGPS
Extras – 802.11b/g, 3-axis accelerometer
DROID by Motorola with Google™ will be available in Q4 2009. For more information regarding pricing and product availability in your region, please contact your local Motorola representative. To experience DROID, please click here.
DROID is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license.
MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. Facebook is a trademark of Facebook, Inc. Google, YouTube, Picasa, Gmail, Google Earth, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Android, and Android Market are trademarks of Google, Inc. All other trademark and product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © 2009 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved.
1Certain features, services and applications are network dependent and may not be available in all areas; additional terms, conditions and/or charges may apply. Contact your service provider for details
2 The unauthorized copying of copyrighted materials is contrary to the provisions of the Copyright Laws of the United States and other countries. This device is intended solely for copying non-copyrighted materials, materials in which you own the copyright, or materials which you are authorized or legally permitted to copy. If you are uncertain about your right to copy any material, please contact your legal advisor.
3 This device supports Bluetooth A2DP, AVRCP, HSP, HFP, PBAP, OPP profiles. In order for Bluetooth devices to communicate with one another, they must utilize the same Bluetooth profile. To determine the profiles supported by other Motorola devices, visit www.motorola.com/bluetooth. For other devices, contact their respective manufacturer.
Certain Bluetooth features including those listed may not be supported by all compatible Bluetooth-enabled devices, and/or the functionality of such features may be limited in certain devices, or by certain wireless carriers. Contact your wireless carrier about feature availability and functionality.
4 All talk and standby times are quoted in Digital Mode, and are approximate. Battery performance depends on network configuration, signal strength, operating temperature, features selected, and voice, data and other application usage patterns.
5 Accessory sold separately
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
If Howard Hughes hadn’t shuffled off this Earth in a pair of tissue-box shoes 33 years ago, this is doubtless the keyboard the notorious OCD sufferer would be using.
It is, according to the maker Vioguard, the world’s first self-sanitizing keyboard. Rather than wait for you filthy shaved monkeys to get around to cleaning it, the keyboard automatically retracts into its own motorized home and is therein bathed in glorious, cleansing UV light, which will kill a satisfying 99% of germs (although it will do nothing for the cookie-crumbs languishing inside).
How much is this wonderful, sanitary machine? A mere $900, which will pay itself back in un-bought hand-sanitizer in just a few thousand years.
Product page [Vioguard via SlipperyBrick]
You bought one of Amazon’s International Kindles and now you regret it. Not only can you not access the web (apart from Wikipedia) but you can’t even buy from Amazon’s full range of Kindle books. Worse, your local newspaper probably isn’t listed, and if it is, it comes without pictures. And if you want to read your favorite blogs, you’re completely out of luck: Not even the for-pay option is available to you.
Fear not, poor non-U.S. buyer, because we’re here to help. Here’s how you can un-cripple your International Kindle.
First, you’ll need sources for your books and other content. Thankfully, there is an internet, and while nobody but Amazon will sell you DRMed content that works on a Kindle, plenty of alternatives exist. Google books and the Gutenberg Project you know already — these are great if you like Jane Austen and they’re free.
But if you want newer titles, things are more troublesome. E-books are currently mired in the same foolish protection schemes as music was a few years back. The answer is, sadly, piracy, and while we don’t recommend it, Google or the ancient but still very active usenet is all you need to track down almost any title.
And then there is free content. Many newspapers publish everything online, and there are some great long-form blogs suited to e-books. There is also Instapaper, the beloved “read-later” service that clips and reformats web pages for, well, reading later. Instapaper has a little-known beta service that will mail clipped articles to your Kindle, stripped of junk and nicely formatted, once a week. You’ll have to pay Amazon’s data charges, but as these are text files they’re rather small, so it won’t cost much. It is also the best way to make your own, custom newspaper.
So, you have a lot of legally acquired but poorly formatted books, along with the addresses of your favorite blogs and newspapers. How do you get all that onto the Kindle?
Calibre is a clunky piece of software with looks only a mother could love. It is also very powerful, kind of like an iTunes for e-books, and runs on OS X, Windows and Linux.
The first trick is file-conversion. Amazon’s own service works well enough, but you have to mail in the files and wait to get them back. It also has trouble with complex documents.
Calibre can crunch pretty much everything into a format your Kindle can read. It’ll rescue hideously formatted text files, adding paragraph and page breaks where none could be seen before, and it will even squish pictures down to a smaller size. For most people, the presets will be enough, but you can dig in and get your hands dirty with regular expressions and advanced options.
And once you’re done, you can retrieve cover art and metadata from the internet and add keywords for easy sorting. Is this starting to sound familiar?
From there, you can send books direct to the Kindle (or other reading device — most are supported) and even delete old ones. It really is like iTunes for books.
Calibre’s best trick, though, is its Fetch News feature. This works just like podcasting, only it’s for text (and pictures). Choose from a built-in list of newspapers and magazines (Wired.com is in there) and it will scrape the site at scheduled intervals and crunch the articles into an e-reader-friendly form. When you plug your Kindle into the computer, Calibre sees it and automagically sends the new issues across. They’re formatted just like the newspapers you might buy from Amazon.
Dig a little further and you can add custom sources. Plug in the URL of a newsfeed, choose persistence and schedules and you’re good to go. Calibre will grab any new items and package them up into an e-newspaper for you. It can even grab your feeds from Google Reader or Instapaper (and it does a better job that Instapaper’s own solution).
It’s far from polished, and under the hood the Python scripts which go out and do the dirty work sometimes cause your computer’s fans to spin up like leaf-blowers, but it works, and it is almost ridiculously powerful. It is also free and open source, and exactly the kind of thing we will likely never see from the likes of Amazon, Sony or Apple because of licensing restrictions.
For the small inconvenience of plugging your e-reader in every morning, you can turn it into what it should have been all along: The all-media reading device found in a million sci-fi novels.
Product page [Calibre]
Product page [Instapaper]
Instapaper on Kindle [Instapaper Blog]
See Also:
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
Motorola and Verizon Wireless have officially unveiled the pricing and availability details for the Droid. In short, the Verizon Droid will be available in Verizon Wireless stores as well as online as of November 6, 2009. In terms of price, the handset is $199.99, but that does come after a $100 mail in rebate. Additionally, as you would expect—a two-year contract is also required to get that price.
Otherwise most of the specs and other details are what we have seen already leaked. However for those that may not have been following as closely, the Droid will feature a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display with an 854 x 480 resolution, 5.0-megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and EVDO Rev.A support. Additionally, the Droid will also come bundled with a 16GB microSD card.
In terms of apps, of course you have access to the Android Market, however the Droid will also come pre-installed with Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube, Google Maps, Calendar, Contacts, Facebook, the Amazon MP3 Store and Visual Voicemail by Verizon Wireless.
It is also worth noting that the Verizon Droid marks the first Android handset to come installed and running Android 2.0.
Product [Verizon Droid] Read [Motorola]
Keep reading to check out the full press release:
Hello Humans: DROID by Motorola Arrives Next Week
Verizon Wireless DROID By Motorola: World’s First Smartphone with Android™ 2.0October 28, 2009
BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – High-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, customizable large screen, access to thousands of Android applications and hundreds of widgets and the best 3G mobile network in the country: DROID by Motorola arrives on Nov. 6.
Verizon Wireless, the company with the nation’s largest wireless 3G broadband network, and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a pioneer in the mobile industry, today unveiled DROID by Motorola, the first smartphone powered by Android™ 2.0. DROID by Motorola features the brainpower and breakneck speed of a modern smartphone, designed to outperform where other smartphones fall short.
“We’re proud to work with Verizon Wireless and Google™ on the first smartphone to feature Android 2.0,” said Sanjay Jha, co-chief executive officer of Motorola and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobile Devices. “DROID by Motorola delivers a rich consumer experience with warp-speed Web browsing, a mammoth screen, and Motorola’s expertise in design and voice quality. Combined with Android’s open, flexible graphical user interface and the power of Verizon Wireless’ 3G network, DROID is a smartphone that simply doesn’t compromise.”
“This is an exciting announcement for Verizon Wireless, as the DROID by Motorola is the first device that we are bringing to market under our ground-breaking strategic partnership with Google,” said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. “DROID by Motorola gives customers a lifestyle device with access to more than 12,000 applications that will help them stay in touch, up to date and entertained, using the best 3G network in the country.”
DROID by Motorola has a solid exterior, intelligent interior and is one of the thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available. It is a no-fuss, high-tech, location-aware, voice-recognizing, over-the-air updating, multi-tasking machine – and it is available just in time for holiday wish lists.
With DROID by Motorola, you can:
- Zip through the Web: Access the Internet at 3G speeds via the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network or from any Wi-Fi hotspot. The multi-window HTML browser with a massive processor delivers the Web the way you expect.
- See it all in cinema-style: View the Web, e-mail, Google Maps™, videos and more in widescreen on a brilliant 3.7” high-resolution screen. Boasting a width of 854 pixels to reduce the need for side-to-side panning and more than 400,000 pixels total, DROID has more than twice that of the leading competitor.
- Run multiple applications at once: Customize your DROID with thousands of applications and hundreds of widgets available on Android Market™. Toggle back and forth between up to six applications at a time to juggle the universe and your apps.
- Perform Google Search™ at the speed of sound: Simply tell DROID what you’re looking for using voice-activated search, and it will serve up Google search results based on your location. If you want more, simply type what you’re looking for into the search bar on the home screen and DROID will also search content on your phone, such as apps and contacts, and the Web.
- Capture moments: Snap digital camera-quality photos with a 5 megapixel camera loaded with the works, such as a dual-LED flash, AutoFocus and image stabilization, or capture your friend’s antics in 16 million colors with DVD-quality video capture and playback. Store it all on the included 16 GB memory card, so you always have it on hand.
- Multi-task like a master: Keep tabs on all your messages with integrated Gmail™ and Exchange e-mail pushed directly to you, but don’t let them get in your way. With the handy Android notification panel, go straight to the message or simply ignore it, and get back to the task at hand. And, a smart dictionary learns as you type and automatically includes your contacts.
- Get where you need to go with Google Maps Navigation (Beta): DROID is the first device with Google Maps Navigation, providing turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps. It’s powered by Google and connected to the Internet. Use voice shortcuts and simply say “Navigate to [your destination],” and you’ll be on your way. See live traffic, use Street View or satellite imagery to view your route, and get access to the most recent maps and business information from Google Maps without ever needing to update your device.
Pre-loaded Applications and Enhancements to Google Mobile Services:
- Google Maps: With layers in Google Maps, view geographic information, such as My Maps, Wikipedia, and transit lines, right on the map.
- Gmail: Multiple accounts support and undo for common operations.
- YouTube™: One-touch recording and playback from homescreen widget or app, one-touch sharing with friends, and the ability to view your own uploaded videos and high-resolution videos.
- Google Talk™: Easily switch between chats, search your chat history, and preview pictures and videos sent by links.
- Android Market: Browse and download applications created by third-party developers.
- Calendar: Ability to see who has R.S.V.P.’d to your meeting invitations.
- Facebook: Syncs Facebook contacts to your address book, and a live widget gives the ability to update status and view latest updates from friends.
- Amazon MP3 Store: Download the latest tracks over the air.
- Verizon Wireless Visual Voice Mail: Delete, reply and forward voice mail messages without having to listen to prior messages or voice instructions.
Pricing and Availability:
- DROID by Motorola will be available in the United States exclusively at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online on Friday, Nov. 6, for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
- Experience the all-new DROID by Motorola at www.droiddoes.com.
- To get the most from DROID by Motorola smartphone, customers will need to subscribe to a Nationwide voice plan and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan. Nationwide voice plans begin at $39.99 for monthly access for 450 minutes and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan is $29.99 for monthly access.
- For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
The LightScoop is a $35 plastic gizmo which sits over the built-in flash of a DSLR and reflects the light up at the ceiling. This, in one neat and simple stroke, turns an almost unusable, on-axis light source into a big, soft, flattering sheet of light.
As our strobist readers will know, the bigger a light, the softer it is. This counts for apparent size, too, so a small light pushed close-up to the subject may well be a lot softer than a huge light far away. For instance, the mid-day sun is both huge and hard.
Reflecting the crappy lamp on the top of your camera makes it both bigger and moves it off the lens axis, giving more interesting (and flattering) results. The LightScoop does this by putting a shiny mirror-like reflector in front of the flash. It slides into the hotshoe mount, keeping it in place, and you can buy it in both neutral or a slightly warm color.
As ever, these simple accessories are easy to make yourself, but you need to weigh up the convenience of just buying something you know will work. I’m hoping to test one out, but until then you can check out the LightScoop Flickr Group to see what it can do.
Product page [LightScoop. Thanks, Betsy!]
Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Hardware, Laptops
Yesterday, Dell announced that its new Latitude XT2 XFR tablet laptop is shipping. Claiming to be world’s thinnest for a 12.1” screen at a narrow 1.5”, the laptop/tablet comes ruggedized and ready for battle. Designed for the rigors of first responders in the field, the price tag is a sharp $3599 for the base model.
Here we are just a week after the Windows 7 launch and Dell’s new tablet says it runs Vista with XP Tablet installed in the buy information, but the Tech Specs say Windows 7. Trying to customize the device in Dell’s packages only lead to Windows Vista options. Windows 7 doesn’t seem to have propagated to this release. Odd for a new release huh?
The 12.1” LED screen is impact resistant, capacitive, sunlight viewable, and is mulit-touch enabled. A resistive screen is an option as well. Dell will have accessories that are hot-swappable such as GPS and webcam in the coming weeks.
“The Latitude XT2 XFR is more than a laptop, it’s a key part of our mobile command and data-center solutions for field service, defense and first-responder customers,” said Paul Bell, president, Dell Global Public-Sector Business. “These unique solutions, coupled with our service model, make those communities more effective, enabling them to focus on their core missions instead of managing technology.”
The announcement does not include a shipping date as it uses future-tense for its verbs. Know a good lawyer?
Product Page: [Dell] Press release: [Dell]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Switch on your new Canon EOS 7D and pick a fast shutter speed - say 1/500 sec or more. Set it to the maximum burst rate and find a scene with a flat background and perhaps some distinctive, moving shapes in front. A bird against a blue sky would be perfect.
Now let rip. Press the shutter and hold it there, grabbing a bunch of shots. Congratulations. You have just given yourself the best chance of reproducing a weird imaging problem with the new DSLR, which can cause ghost images from previous frames to persist in the machine only to reappear on subsequent pictures. Think of it as an unwanted, and rather selective, multiple-exposure. Canon:
In images captured by continuous shooting, and under certain conditions, barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame may be visible. This phenomenon is not noticeable in an image with optimal exposure. The phenomenon may become more noticeable if a retouching process such as level compensation is applied to emphasize the image.
Did somebody say “quality control”? If it’s not “lubricant in the mirror box” (1D Mk III and 1DS MkIII) it’s $4,500 flagship cameras that can’t focus (1D Mark III). And Nikon isn’t innocent, either: remember the batch of D5000s that wouldn’t even switch on?
Canon hasn’t worked out a fix for this latest foul-up yet, but we have a suggestion. Let’s just ask: “Who ya gonna call?”
Service Notice: EOS 7D: Residual Image in Picture [Canon]
Photo illustration: Charlie Sorrel
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Viper Rush is not the name for hallucinations experienced after a snake-bite. Instead, it is a bag that could truly be called a mobile office.
The shoulder bag, from Booq, offers a plain but good-looking, semi-rigid foam face to the world: an exterior that should cope with bumps and splashes well enough. Open it up and it is something like the TARDIS, incorporating enough nooks and crannies for all the electronic gubbins that is essential to daily life.
However, when you open it up still further, it becomes a desk. The laptop section turns into a lap-top workspace, with “bumpers” to raise the computer’s hot bottom into the air and a pair of restraining straps to keep the lid from opening all the way.
It might be a little bulky for those used to just tossing their notebook, unprotected, into a rucksack, but for serious business travelers, or for anyone who wants to grab a few minutes of work/Twitter when they’re out on the road, this looks to be a very nice bag. Better, it costs a very reasonable $130, in both medium (15-inch computer) and large (17-inch) sizes.
Product page [Booq. Thanks, Brad!]
Take a peek at the new TwitterPeek, an always-on, always connected Twitter machine. It comes from the folks that make the Peek and Peek Pronto, two bare-bones email-only handsets that can be bought and used without monthly contracts.
The TwitterPeek stays with the simple approach, and does nothing but send, receive and search Twitter posts. It doesn’t do SMS, and it doesn’t even do email. At first we thought this was a joke, but the Amazon listing looks real enough and a quick visit to the Peek discussion forums shows this request from the company: “As usual we have a couple things cooking in the Peek oven. We’re looking for Peeksters that use Twitter a lot.”
The package will cost $200, and that includes a lifetime of Tweeting — you’ll never pay for your connectivity. We expect that we’ll start to see more and more devices with “free” internet connections over cell networks, where the seller does a deal with the telcos to provide low-bandwidth hook-ups. It has worked for the Kindle, so maybe we’ll get the long promised internet-connected Toaster after all. One which burns a Tweet into your breakfast slice.
The picture, by the way, is from Peter Hu’s (of Time and CrunchGear) Twitter feed. We’re running this instead of the regular product shot because a) it is ironically appropriate and b) there’s a huge WIRED logo on the front of the box.
Product page [Amazon via Peter Hu’s Twitter]
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From 
Initial 
After a decade in Silicon Valley, I’ve learned there’s a difference between what some VCs say and what they do. For instance, there’s the well-worn phrase that nearly every venture firm utters: “We believe downturns are the best time to invest.” And yet, somehow, the investment numbers always go down in recessions.
Designed to work without a dedicated PC, the new Astak Mole was announced today. The Mole is a wireless webcam that can upload video directly to such sites as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. It can also record directly to an SD card in the camera.
TechCrunch writer 
Toshiba just announced their latest advancement in CMOS technology, the BSI (back-side illumination) sensor. The BSI sensor is designed to improve high ISO (or low light) photography by decreasing the amount of noise that appears on images taken under these conditions.
Last March I wrote a 
