Source: Gizmodo | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:40 pm

Cisco Showcases Big Bets on Collaboration (PC World)

PC World - Unveiling 61 new products and features for enterprise employees to communicate with each other and partners, Cisco Systems executives emphasized the importance of collaboration at an event in San Francisco on Monday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pm

AT&T Defends its Data Network from Verizon Ad attacks [Voices]

By Prince McLean, Blogger, Apple Insider

Verizon (VZ) began advertising its 3G coverage against AT&T’s (ATT) in a series of ads poking fun at Apple’s “there’s an app for that” iPhone commercials, presenting coverage maps of its own 3G CDMA/EVDO network in red against much more limited 3G service coverage maps for AT&T’s 3G network presented in blue.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:23 pm

Twice the storage for a quarter of the price

(Cross-posted from the Google Photos Blog)

People today have more personal data online than ever before. More and more people are starting to move the bulk of their data off the desktop and into servers "in the cloud," where it's accessible from any computer or mobile device and easily shareable with friends and family. At the same time, digital photo technology is making it easier and cheaper than ever to take a lot of pictures, and client software like Picasa 3.5 makes it easier than ever to move photos from your camera to the cloud. That's why we've always given you lots of free storage in products like Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, and why for the past two years we've offered additional storage you can purchase if you need even more space.

While the cost of hard drive storage has continued to drop in these two years, we've also been working hard to improve our infrastructure to reduce your costs even further. Today we're dramatically lowering our prices to make extra storage even more affordable. You can now buy 20 GB for only $5 a year — that's twice as much storage for a quarter of the old price, and enough space for more than 10,000 full resolution pictures taken with a five megapixel camera. Since most people have less than 10 GB of photos, chances are you can now save all your memories online for a year for the cost of a triple mocha. If you need more than 20 GB, plans range all the way up to 16 TB, which is enough room for 8 million full resolution photos! And Google paid storage offers an extra level of security, protection and accessibility that you can't get with an external drive — at a similar cost per gigabyte.

As always, extra storage acts as an overflow that you only start using when you reach the limit of your free storage, and people who have extra storage will be automatically upgraded. So if you need more space for thousands of photos of your toddler, or if you're running out of room in your overflowing inbox, visit www.google.com/accounts/PurchaseStorage to see all the plans and to buy more storage.

Posted by Elvin Lee, Software Engineer
Source: The Official Google Blog | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:17 pm

Do You Have What It Takes To Give A Realtime Pitch?

As we’ve been putting together our Realtime CrunchUp for November 20, one thing is becoming abundantly clear: there are dozens of startups out there all preparing to launch amazing new realtime products. We’d like to give them all a spot on stage to give the audience a demo, but we can’t because we also have to make room for a full agenda interviews, panels, and roundtables. We’ve lined up great speakers from Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Foursquare, Seesmic, Brizzly, Threadsy, Accel, Charles River Ventures, and more. We’ve even got the Hollywood agent behind Britney Spears’ digital strategy (see below).

So here’s what we are going to do. At the event, we will pick two entrepreneurs from the audience to give on-the-spot demos. If you think you’ve got what it takes to deliver a Realtime Pitch at the CrunchUp, when you buy your ticket opt in to the Realtime Pitch. Be prepared because you might be called onstage. That’s real audience participation.

We wouldn’t try this sort of thing with just any crowd, but judging from the caliber of the attendees last time, any one of them could have been on stage. Well, nearly any one of them (which is why we’ve set up the opt-in). If you’ve already bought a ticket and want to opt in, log into Eventbrite and change your preferences or email us and we’ll do it for you.

It’s always a good idea to keep everyone on their toes at these events. There will be plenty to discuss as we dig deep into specific real-time catalysts, such as mobility, geolocation, communications collaboration, stream filtering, media streams, and investment strategies. Please join us and members of our Realtime Board

Friday, November 20, 2009
Main Agenda: 9 am – 5:45 pm
After Party with StartUp Demo Tables: 5:45 – 7:30 pm

InterContinental Hotel
Grand Ballroom, 3rd floor
888 Howard Street, San Francisco CA

GET CRUNCHUP TICKETS NOW, courtesy of Eventbrite
$395 all-inclusive pass through midnight pst, Monday, November 16
$495 through November 20, subject to availability

SPONSORSHIPS
The CrunchUp also provides an amazing sponsorship platform for start-ups and brands to reach both conference and networking attendees. Please contact Heather Harde or Jeanne Logozzo to learn more about sponsorship packages and custom opportunities.

PRESS
Bloggers and journalists can request a press pass by contacting Daniel Brusilovsky.

CRUNCHUP AGENDA

9:00 – 9:30 AM From RSS To Realtime: A Conversation With Twitter COO Dick Costolo

9:30 – 11:00 AM Roundtable: Filtering The Stream. Getting Rid of the Noise.

Facebook, VP of Product Chris Cox
Google, Google Fellow, Amit Singhal
Seesmic, CEO Loic Le Meur
Futurity Ventures, investor/entrepreneur Edo Segal
CrowdEye, CEO Ken Moss
Microsoft, GM of FUSE Labs, Lili Cheng
Facebook, director of Platform Bret Taylor
Thing Labs/Brizzly, CEO Jason Shellen
Angel Investor Ron Conway

11:00 – 11:15 AM Break

11:15 – 11:45 AM The Social Enterprise: A Conversation With Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

11:45 – 12:30 PM Where Is The Stream Going? Tomorrow’s Killer Apps (Demos)

Hot Potato (event streams, launch)
Seesmic (a special surprise)
Rippol (video streams, public launch)
Stealth Startup (RT news streams)
Stealth Startup (RT image search)
Realtime Pitch From The Audience*

12:30 – 2:00 PM Lunch

2:00 – 2:45 PM Where Is The Stream Going? Tomorrow’s Killer Apps (Demos)

PlyMedia (new product launch)
StatusNet (DIY microblogging, launch)
Tweetmeme (new product launch)
Stealth Startup (live video streams)
Stealth Startup (RT social address book)
Realtime Pitch From the Audience*

2:45 – 3:30 PM Media Streams: Are These The Ultimate Marketing Vehicles?
DailyBooth, co-founder Ryan Amos
Ad.ly, CEO Sean Rad
Hollywood agent, Robin Bechtel (digital strategist for Britney Spears, Warner Bros. Records)
more (TBA)

3:30 – 3:45 Break

3:45 – 4:30 Geo Streams: We Know Where You Are, Right Now
Foursquare, CEO Dennis Crowley
Twitter, director of platform Ryan Sarver
Google, Steve Lee, Group Product Manager Google Maps for Mobile and Google Latitude
SimpleGeo, founder Matt Galligan
Hot Potato, founder Justin Shaffer
Mixer Labs, CEO Elad Gil

4:30 – 5:00 Can We Kill Email Already? All Aboard The Micro-Message Bus
A discussion with Paul Buchheit (Facebook/Friendfeed/Gmail) and Rob Goldman, CEO Threadsy

5:00 – 5:45 PM Where The Realtime Rubber Meets The Road: When Does The Serious Money Come In?

Angel investor, Ron Conway
Microsoft, corporate VP for Strategic and Emerging Business Development, Dan’l Lewin
Charles River Ventures, VC George Zachary
Accel Partners, VC Andrew Braccia
Facebook, VP of Platform, Bret Taylor

5:45 – 7:30 PM Realtime After Party

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

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:12 pm

Windows 7 may be secure, but are Windows users safe? - Computerworld

KIDK

Windows 7 may be secure, but are Windows users safe? Computerworld Anonymous says: Windows 7 had Sophos test their security, it failed 80% of the time, allowing malware to infect the operating system.... Microsoft Trust Me says: Have you heard, Microsoft stole open source code and then relabeled it ... Microsoft Patch Release Fixes Windows Kernel BugChannelWeb Microsoft Patches Critical Drive-by FlawPC World Microsoft Patch Brings Windows Kernel WarningInformationWeek PC Magazine -The Associated Press -eWeek all 176 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:04 pm

Motorola Milestone (Droid) Headed to Canada - eWeek

TG Daily

Motorola Milestone (Droid) Headed to Canada eWeek The Motorola Milestone — Verizon's slightly tweaked Droid — will be arriving on Canada's Telus network in early 2010, the carrier announced. The Milestone is Motorola's first Android smartphone for the Canadian market. A version of the Motorola Droid, ... Verizon sold 100000 Droids over first weekend, analyst saysComputerworld Initial Motorola Droid sales look goodCNET News My First Weekend With the Moto DroidPC World Wall Street Journal -ChannelWeb -Washington Post all 362 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:01 pm

Windows 7 May Be Secure, but Are Windows Users Safe?

Source: Gizmodo | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

Food Fight

The Good News: If you're in New Orleans on November 22, you can watch a mock battle between Jared the Subway guy and the inventor of the po' boy sandwich (both are reenactors as the po' boy inventor is dead and Jared is probably not allowed to participate in anti-fast food stage combat). The Bad News: The fact that such an event exists bodes poorly for the future of po' boy itself. The sandwich, which owes its name and origins to 1929 labor disputes, is losing ground to fast-food chains, a still under-populated city and cost-cutting measures. From The New York Times.

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:55 pm

Mouse and keyboard vs. Console controller: Let’s bury the hatchet

I suck at GoldenEye. There, I’ve said it. I get schooled every time I play, even if I’m Odd Job. And chances are, everyone who reads this is better than me at Halo, Killzone, and pretty much every other console FPS. That’s just an upfront disclosure in case you want to skip this post and get right to the flaming. After all, I’m just writing this because I’m bad at these games, right?

The thing is, I would probably ruin you in Counter-Strike or Team Fortress 2. In fact, it seems to me that every time I read about a PC team going up against a console team in the same game, the console team gets manhandled. Why is that? Well, probably because a mouse and keyboard is a better way of controlling a first-person shooter. You know it, I know it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.

Here’s the thing: the gaming world isn’t governed by players and their preferences. It’s a business, subject to market forces, development pressures, and all that sort of thing. Remember when Halo was going to be a Mac exclusive? That didn’t happen for a reason: because there was more money to be made in launching it with a new console. Was it a better or worse game for it? I don’t know, I’m not a freaking oracle. And that’s not the point of this post anyway.

Look, making a big game is a nightmare. A studio needs to get a return on a huge investment, and where are the sales? In the piracy-ridden, heterogenous PC market, where you have to cater to every possible hardware configuration? No, but the game will probably be at its best on a high-end PC, so you kind of want to hit that anyway. But the main thing is to get a game onto the PS3 and 360 in as playable a form as possible. That way you have a guaranteed base of 40 or 50 million units that will all run it perfectly and work together just the way they’re designed to. Maybe they won’t have a mouse, but so what?

So you get AAA FPS titles like Modern Warfare 2 on a console, where people can play the game just fine against each other and enjoy the full experience — with a dual shock. Is the PC version the “definitive” version of the game? With MW2 I would suggest not, but with others it may be the case (GTA4 for instance). To make a blanket statement on this would be to commit a pretty foolish error. At the same time, don’t take someone to task for saying that Borderlands is better on the PC. I mean, what? It is!

Besides, I don’t think it’s an insult against console gamers or their games to say that a mouse and keyboard is the better control method. It’s like saying a wheel controller with pedals is a better controller for racing games. It just is! It doesn’t mean that everyone sucks without one, or that games that don’t support wheels are garbage. It’s just presenting an ideal. Can there be great FPSes on consoles? Sure! But let’s be honest about it and qualify that by saying that there’s auto-aim, the enemies shoot slower, and they generally have a more horizontally-orientated environment. It just makes it a better game on the console. They switch it up for the PC version, if they make one; if I can get headshots 90% of the time in Gears on PC, versus 10% on console, they better damn sure make it so that doesn’t break the game.

The console versus PC debate, which is what the mouse vs. controller thing is really about, ends up being a kind of silly one. There are fantastic games on both platforms, and some just work better on one or the other. Platformers are best with a specific controller, joystick sensitivity, and button layout. Real-time strategy demands a level of versatility, precision, and resolution that’s only available on PCs. And if we’re honest, so do FPSes in their ideal format. But that’s not always possible; the convenience and standard hardware of consoles often means a better deal for developers, and sometimes a better game for the consumer.

I may never be good at GoldenEye, but I could never say that game sucked. So let’s stop being such prideful bastards about our games and just agree to say “whatever works for you.”

Source: CrunchGear | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:43 pm

Best Tool For Remembering Passwords?

StonyCreekBare writes "Lately I've been rethinking my personal security practices. Should my laptop be stolen, having Firefox 'fill in' passwords automatically for me when I go to my bank's site seems sub-optimal. Keeping passwords for all the varied sites on the computer in a plain-text file seems unwise as well. Keeping them in my brain is a prescription for disaster, as my brain is increasingly leaky. A paper notepad likewise has its disadvantages. I have looked at a number of password managers, password 'vaults' and so on. The number of tools out there is a bit overwhelming. Magic Password Generator add-in for Firefox seems competent, but it's tied to Firefox, and I have other places and applications where I want passwords. And I might be accessing my sites from other computers that don't have it installed. The ideal tool in my mind should be something that is independent of any application, browser, or computer; something that is easily carried, but which if lost poses no risk of compromise. What does the Slashdot crowd like in password tools?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

ViewSonic introduces MovieBook

Section: Gadgets / Other, Miscellaneous

You know the holiday shopping season is coming up when devices from strange companies start showing up.  Not strange in terms of questionable, but strange as in companies not usually associated with the device in question.  Usually it means a large number of personal media players or other small gadgets like e-book readers.  The latest of these devices comes from none other than ViewSonic.

ViewSonic, a company not usually known for personal devices, today has announced it’s new personal media player, the MovieBook.  ViewSonic claims the devcie will be perfect for music, HD video (up to 720p), photos, voice memos and “reading digital books.”  It sports a 4.3 inch 800x480 screen, and a battery that will provide 12 hours of audio playback and six hours of video.  It also includes a remote and can easily plug into a PC or TV for easy viewing of video of photos.

The MovieBook does support a wide range of formats, including lesser used ones such as MKV, RM/RMVB (for video) and FLAC (for audio), which is always welcome.  With a price of $129.99 for 8GB of storage (more with microSD), it might be good enough to sway a few people from buying an iPod this holiday.  However, the fact that it isn’t an iPod would be a big detriment to ViewSonic in selling much of the MovieBook.  It might do well among those who just want to watch video while traveling, but for normal usage, it doesn’t sound too great compared to an iPod touch, just cheaper.  There’s also the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, the iPod touch for the Android population.

Read [Lewis Wire]

Source: Gizmodo | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm

You Pay to Play With This Super Smart, Hot, Bright Samsung TV

Samsung's 46-inch 7000 television sets the bar for slim and bright, plus it draws less power because the usual fluorescent backlight has been subbed out for LEDs along the panel's edges. Almost as nice: Yahoo Widgets deliver sports scores, photos, and more.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

Verizon Turns a 3G Cellular Signal Into Wi-Fi

The tiny MiFi 2000 Portable Hot Spot sucks up 3G signals and creates a wireless bubble for up to five devices (yes, five!). Uploading and downloading like a champ, it makes multitasking look easy.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

Fall Gear 2009: Wired Rates the Year's Best Tech

This year, we look for gadgets that attempt to raise the bar. Some succeed, some fall flat on their LCDs. Here are the most innovative products, tested and rated, of 2009.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

ChinaTel Group's Infrastructure Growth Expanded by Chinese Government's Selection of CECT - Chinacomm Communications to Provide Surveillance Services Using the Wireless Broadband Network ChinaTel is Deploying for Chinacomm

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ChinaTel Group, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:56 pm

Microsoft releases Office 2004, 2008 updates (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - Microsoft on Tuesday issued updates for its venerable Office suite versions 2004 and 2008.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:49 pm

Google Latitude Now Tells You Where You’ve Been

Don’t you sometimes wish you had a map of every place you’ve ever been? Well, if the concept of such detailed self-tracking doesn’t creep you out, you can now do that with Google Latitude, the mobile app that lets you broadcast your location to your friends.

Google Latitude just turned on Location History as a new feature in Google Latitude. Whenever Google Latitude is on, it records your location, and you can go back to see where you’ve been. To mitigate some of the obvious privacy issues this brings up, only you can see your location history, not your friends. And you can delete any location from your history, like that Dunkin Donuts you tried to stick up last night when you had the munchies.

Another new feature is location alerts. You can now get an alert anytime a friend of yours who allows you to see their location on Google Latitude is nearby. To cut down on constant alerts every time you go to the office or home, it tries to learn where you go every day, and only gives you an alert when you are in a place it deems to be “unusual.” In order for the alerts to work, your location history needs to be enabled, so the two features go hand in hand.

Geo streams such as the ones produced by Google Latitude are becoming increasingly common. In fact, we are devoting an entire panel to Geo Stream sat eour Realtime CrunchUp on November 20. Steve Lee, the group product manager for Google Latitude, will be on that panel.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm

Yves Béhar's seven-hour vibrator

Yves Béhar (who is in an epic struggle with Marc Newson to claim the title of "sexiest industrial designer alive") designed this vibrator. It looks like a Miyazaki cartoon creature.

The Form 2 takes a two-pronged approach to the vibrator, giving its user what they're calling "Sensation in Stereo." The "ears" can be positioned independently like a Gumby action figure for maximum, um, range, and the entire thing is made from phthalate-free platinum silicone to be completely waterproof. There's even a cute iPod-esque docking station for charging and it can operate UP TO SEVEN HOURS on a single charge.

A New Vibrator by Yves Behar Arouses Our Interest

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:37 pm

Google puts free Wi-Fi in 47 airports for the holidays (plus they’re matching charitable donations)

Well, the spirit of giving arrived a little early this year! For my birthday last month, Google announced it was partnering to offer free Wi-Fi on all Virgin America flights until January 15th. Great, thanks Google, now I have to check the feeds even while flying at 500MPH. But I guess that wasn’t enough kindness to satisfy the Goog.

They’ve just announced that they’re going to be extending the free Wi-Fi to 47 entire airports. And not only that, but there’s a raft of giveaways, charity matching, and other nonsense in the bargain as well. I’m starting to think that it’s not “Don’t be evil” so much as “Give away enough stuff that people forget about the evil.” Maybe that’s disingenuous. In fact, I’m sure it is. Oh well, ’tis the season for moral ambiguity.

Here are the details, as briefly as I can state them.

• All airports on this list have Wi-Fi right now. Except Sea-Tac, which is getting it later (just my luck).
• Google will match any donation (up to $250K) made via the Wi-Fi in one of the airports. The airport that has the most donations on January 15 will get a $15,000 credit to donate to a local charity of their choice.
• The service is provided by “Boingo, Advanced Wireless Group, Time Warner Cable, Electronic Media Systems, Lilypad as well as numerous airports that provide wireless services themselves.” i.e. Google is just paying the bill, everything else is the same.
• No data is being collected besides the donation data (you’re not a guinea pig).
• At some point you’ll be able to submit a photo of yourself via the Wi-Fi in order to enter for a prize drawing. Okay…? That’s kind of weird. I guess “Don’t be creepy” isn’t in the Google charter.

Sounds good to me. If anyone finds a catch, let us know, but I think it’s pretty straightforward. More info at the Free Holiday WiFi page, if you’re interested or feeling FAQ-y.

Also, as commenter Harold points out, Yahoo! will be providing Times Square with Wi-Fi for a whole damn year, and Microsoft is partnering with JiWire to put Bing-sponsored free Wi-Fi in “hotels and airports.”

[via LA Times and Black Book, and The P-I for that last bit]

Source: CrunchGear | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:34 pm

Google Gives the Gift of Free Airport Wi-Fi

itwbennett writes "Google is giving you something to be thankful for as you travel this holiday season. The company announced today that it is offering free Wi-Fi at 47 airports across the US between now and January 15. If you haven't booked your flights yet, you want to factor this into your plans. Here's a list of the 47 airports, which cover about 35% of all US passengers, according to Google. The Burbank and Seattle airports will continue to offer the free Google Wi-Fi indefinitely." The HuffPo notes another altruistic note in Google's gesture: "As another way to pass on the spirit of the season, once they log on to networks in any of the participating airports, travelers will have the option [of making] a donation to Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation, or the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Google will match the donations made across all the networks up to $250,000, and the airport network that generates the highest amount per passenger by January 1, 2010 will receive $15,000 to donate to the local nonprofit of their choice."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:27 pm

Alt Text: Clever Murdoch Turns News Into Hip Underground Club

The wily News Corp. chief cooks up a plan to make money on the internet by keeping that horrible Google at bay. Genius alert!

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:15 pm

Antares: Friend of misleading singers, enemy of misleading apps

Here’s a bit of App Store drama for you: Antares Audio Tech, the company that built the underlying technology licensed for the popular “I am T-Pain” iPhone App, has unleashed their lawyers on Steamboat Mountain Designs, an indie developer and maker of the now-removed iPhone app, “AutoTuner.”

Why? Well, it turns out that the term “Auto-Tune” — which due to the recent spike in usage in pop music has come to be misused almost as often as the term “photoshop” — is trademarked by Antares. In a cease and desist letter, Antares claims that “Steamboat’s use of ‘AutoTuner’ is virtually identical to Antares’ AUTO-TUNE(R) mark, simply adding an ‘r’ at the end of the mark and removing a hyphen, and is used in connection with a software program that is directly competitive and functionally identical to Antares’ AUTO-TUNE(R) product.”

This all comes on the heels of the highly successful launch of the iPhone app sponsored by rap artist T-Pain. Though the app was produced by an iPhone app development company called Smule, it employed a technology called “Auto-Tune,” which Smule licensed from Antares. It is important to note that Smule has played no part in this whatsoever. The app changes your voice in real-time via the Auto-Tune technology, which is employed by tons of major artists to alter the pitch and provide a computer-like feel to their voice.

Just weeks after Antares-powered “I am T-Pain” app hit the App Store, a small indie development studio called Steamboat Mountain Designs released “Autotuner.” [UPDATE: The app has since been released as "Robotuner." You can find it here.] Interestingly, Antares heard about the upcoming release while Steamboat was conducting some pre-release marketing on — wait for it — Twitter. They immediately sent letters to Steamboat requesting removal of the app. Now, with only 9 employees, Antares is no big dog, but its got a bit more heft than the 1-man iPhone shop at Steamboat Mountain Designs. CEO of Steamboat, Jeff Mathews, claims that they could simply not afford to put up a legal battle over the trademark. Trademark disputes can be costly, and legal fees were mounting. He also added that “[Autotune] seems like common vernacular. For example, a Google search for “autotuner” returns 157,000 hits. A search for “autotuned” returns 283,000 and includes everything from “AutoTuned prank calls” to “The AutoTuned News”. The Wikipedia page for “Pitch Correction” returns the text “An audio processor for correcting pitch in vocal and instrumental performances is called an autotuner.”

Georganna Drayton, COO and Chief Counsel, at Antares, countered that most of the Google hits Jeff spoke about were actually talking about the specific Auto-Tune technology Antares developed. Furthermore, she said this has nothing to do with the size of Jeff’s shop – Antares “aggressively defends their trademark” in all situations. Regardless, clearly their small advantage in size has afforded Antares the ability to pursue legal action where Steamboat could not. Furthermore, as is common with such App Store copyright disputes, Apple has not played a major role, and did not pick sides in the conflict. The only involvement, to our knowledge, is that Apple forwarded Antares’s legal concerns on to Jeff at Steamboat.

UPDATE: Jeff has re-released Autotuner under a new name, Robotuner. It is available on the App Store.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:03 pm

How Dinosaurs Got Their Iconic Look

Think of a dinosaur and what may come to mind is a large, lumbering animal with four legs, a long neck, a tiny head and tail. Now a new species helps to explain how this iconic dino body shape evolved.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

Google goes forward with Go language (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - Google on Tuesday said it was putting into the open source realm an experimental programming language called Go, which attempts to combine the development speed of a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:59 pm

Shields Up!: The best software for malware protection

Section: Computers, Security

Malware is absolutely everywhere these days.  Even if you do all the right things like not clicking on links or opening attachments in emails, avoiding bittorents, porn sites and illegal download sites like Limewire (which is full of malware!), not clicking on pop up or banner ads, and being careful about what apps and notifications you open on sites like Facebook, malware can still sneak in.  This is especially true if you are on a network.  Last night while I was online I was suddenly redirected to a rogue anti-virus site.  I was shocked as I am super careful.  I disconnected my wireless card and started running scans-they found 5 Trojans and a rootkit on my system!  Further digging revealed that my husband’s computer had the same infections plus a few more.  I did some more research and asked a few questions and it seems the Trojans are the kind that search out networks and infect every computer on the ones it finds.  In other words my husband’s computer was contagious!  This doesn’t mean he was careless.  Malware is getting so sophisticated these days that many kinds don’t require the user to click on, run or open them. They do it all themselves! This means if you accidentally make a typo and wind up on an unfamiliar site, or accidentally click on a pop up when you try to close it, that site could quietly download malware onto your computer.  Many businesses buy up the misspelled versions of their domain names because they know if they don’t, scammers and cybersquatters will.

How do you protect yourself?  First of all make sure whatever OS you use (and yes there is Mac malware out there!) is kept up to date and all security patches are installed.  Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool is quite good and should be downloaded and run once a month.  Keep your anti-virus software updated at all times as well.  If you’re on a network, keep your firewall up and running at all times (My husband had accidentally turned ours off, which I believe led to the infections) and make sure your router is protected.  WPA-PSK security is recommended as most hackers can easily crack the old WEP protocol.  Choose a passkey that is a mix of letters and numbers and change it regularly.

There are several good anti-malware programs out there and you should be using at least one. I highly recommend the following:

Malwarebytes:

This is simple, fast and powerful software that detects all kinds of malware, spyware and adware.  It scans files, registry keys, boot sectors, and memory for infections.  The free version is adequate but if you want real-time protection and the ability to schedule regular scans, you can upgrade to the premium version for $24.95.

Spybot Search & Destroy:

This is another great tool for finding malware, spyware and adware on your computer.  It allows you to back up your registry, run scans and has a useful immunization feature that tweaks your browser to block drive by malware, tracking cookies, malicious websites and other bad stuff.  The TeaTimer feature quietly monitors system processes and terminates malicious or suspicious ones and alerts you.  It also alerts when a program tries to change a critical registry key.

AVG:

This is a top notch anti-virus program.  Unlike Norton and McAfee, it’s not bloatware and won’t hog system resources.  There’s a free version and a premium “security suite” for $54.99.  I find the free version to be more than adequate. The one caution I have is that it sometimes flags legit programs as viruses, This kind of false positive crippled iTunes for a short time over the summer. It was quickly fixed however.

Watch where you surf, what you click on and what you download/install, keep your network secure and your anti-virus software up to date and running at all times, and do regular scans with one of the anti-malware programs discussed above and you will spoil the fun for millions of hackers and scammers!

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:59 pm

The Judge Was Wrong: RealNetworks's RealDVD Appeal Document [BoomTown]

RealNetworks just lobbed its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the case revolving around its DVD-copying software, RealDVD.

A U.S. District judge issued a preliminary injunction against RealNetworks (RNWK) in August to stop sales, and renewed it in October.

In a typical Hollywood move, the Motion Picture Association of America said the software, which allows copying of DVDs, violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In the appeal, RealNetworks said the judge was using the wrong law, that the software was not causing damage to the studios and that the technology is in the public interest and constitutes fair use.

“The District Court committed multiple legal errors in granting Appellees’ motions for preliminary injuction,” reads the appeal.

But, check out the whole appeal and below it, a video interview with RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser that BoomTown did when RealDVD was launched a little over a year ago:

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:48 pm

Lexmark Platinum all-in-one printer named as CES Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award Honoree

LEXINGTON, Ky., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --Lexmark International, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:48 pm

Men Leave: Separation And Divorce Far More Common When The Wife Is The Patient

A woman is six times more likely to be separated or divorced soon after a diagnosis of cancer or multiple sclerosis than if a man in the relationship is the patient, according to a study that examined the role gender played in so-called "partner abandonment." The study also found that the longer the marriage the more likely it would remain intact.The study confirmed earlier research that put the overall divorce or separation rate among cancer patients at 11.6 percent, similar to the population as a whole.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:35 pm

A Pain In The Neck

Temple researcher studies the effects of too much texting on college studentsThe world record for fastest text message typing is held by a 21-year old college student from Utah, but his dexterous digits could mean serious injury later on.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:31 pm

New Nanocrystalline Diamond Probes Overcome Wear

Researchers at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University have developed, characterized, and modeled a new kind of probe used in atomic force microscopy (AFM), which images, measures, and manipulates matter at the nanoscale.Using diamond, researchers made a much more durable probe than the commercially available silicon nitride probes, which are typically used in AFM to gather information from a material, but can wear down after several uses.Horacio Espinosa, James and Nancy Farley Professor of Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship, and his graduate student Ravi Agrawal have shown that diamond atomic force microscopy probes are 10 times more durable than silicon nitride probes.Their results were recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics."It is well-known that diamond should perform much better than other probe materials," says Espinosa.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pm

Researchers Take Down a Spam Botnet

The Register is reporting on the takedown of a botnet once responsible for 1/3 of the world's spam. The deed was done by researchers from the security firm FireEye, who detailed the action a series of blog posts. PC World's coverage estimates that lately the botnet has accounted for 4% of spam. From the Register: "After carefully analyzing the machinations of the massive botnet, alternately known as Mega-D and Ozdok, the FireEye employees last week launched a coordinated blitz on dozens of its command and control channels. ... Almost immediately, the spam stopped, according to M86 Security blog. ... The body blow is good news to ISPs that are forced to choke on the torrent of spam sent out by the pesky botnet. But because many email servers already deployed blacklists that filtered emails sent from IP addresses known to be used by Ozdok, end users may not notice much of a change. ... With [the] head chopped off of Ozdok, more than 264,000 IP addresses were found reporting to sinkholes under FireEye's control..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:26 pm

More Verizon attack ads focus on iPhone and AT&T network

FROM APPLETELL - Verizon is certainly on a roll with their iPhone and AT&T network attack ads, and it doesn’t appear as if even a lawsuit is going to stop them.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:18 pm

A Downsized BlackBerry Bold With Oomph [The Mossberg Solution]

Almost exactly one year ago, Research In Motion introduced what I then called the Buick of BlackBerrys: the BlackBerry Bold. It was bulky, heavy and seemed made for the holster-wearing set. But what it lacked in style it made up for in comfort. It had a generously sized keyboard, bright screen and even a leatherette back to accent its luxurious side. The Bold was RIM’s first BlackBerry to run on the fast 3G network, and AT&T was asking $300 for it—$100 more than the least expensive Apple iPhone at the time.

Much has changed in a year, most notably the growing number of serious competitors vying to steal customers from RIM (RIMM) and Apple (AAPL), and the surge of applications (“apps” for short) available for these super smart phones.

This week, I tested RIM’s new BlackBerry Bold 9700 (na.blackberry.com), which will be available on Nov. 27 for $200 with a two-year T-Mobile contract. Like the original Bold, the Bold 9700 has a leatherette back. But that’s where the similarities end. This new version reminds me of the original Bold after a diet: smaller in every dimension—width, height, depth and weight—and, physically, it’s a lot like the newer BlackBerry Curve models. (I use the Curve 8900 every day, and after using the two together for a week I still mistook them for one another at a glance.)

RIM has long been proud of its diverse selection and the fact that it doesn’t force a “one size fits all” theory on its users. Instead, it offers BlackBerrys in all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Pearl Flip, a flip phone with a built-in BlackBerry, to the Storm 2, a touch-screen device without a physical keyboard, and several models in between.

Now, the Bold has dropped its distinguished characteristics. The Buick of BlackBerrys has become as common as the Toyota (TM) Camry. Is there nothing left for the user who likes a large, luxurious BlackBerry?

In a side-by-side comparison between this new Bold 9700, the Curve 8900 ($150 after a $100 mail-in rebate) and the Tour 9630 ($150 after Verizon’s $100 online discount), the physical differences are almost imperceptible. And these models don’t look all that different from the Curve 8520, which costs $50 with a two-year T-Mobile contract when bought at Wal-Mart (WMT).

The new Bold’s smaller size means its keyboard also is slightly smaller than its predecessor: It measures about 5.5 centimeters across rather than 5.9 centimeters. I still found it relatively comfortable to use. But this keyboard is almost exactly the same as the keyboard on the BlackBerry Tour, except the new Bold’s bottom row of keys is slightly shorter. Unlike the keyboard found on the Curve 8900 and other less-expensive Curves, the keys on the Bold 9700 are positioned side by side with no spaces between them, and horizontal rows are divided by chrome frets.

While the Bold 9700 looks rather undistinguished, it has a few less-obvious attributes that give it a little oomph. For starters, it uses a trackpad for scrolling the screen. Longtime Blackberry users will remember the original scroll wheel, which was on the right side of the device. In 2006, the scroll wheel was replaced with a trackball on the front of the device. This September, that trackball was replaced by a trackpad as first seen on the Curve 8520, and its appearance on this new Bold confirms RIM’s decision to use it as the navigational tool of choice.

This trackpad is a tiny, touch-sensitive square that works by sensing a finger’s directional movements. Pressing in on the trackpad, like pressing in on the trackball, selects something on the screen. At first, I missed the satisfying physical feel of scrolling with the trackball, and the trackpad felt fast and less controllable to my thumb. But I soon got used to the trackpad and appreciated that it does away with all moving parts that could possibly get stuck—a trackball hazard for many BlackBerry users. The trackpad also establishes a flat layer beneath the screen that looks sleek and smooth in line with the four navigational buttons.

Another advantage of the Bold 9700 is its battery life. If you take off this BlackBerry’s leatherette back, a battery that measures almost the size of the device itself lies beneath. This large battery supplies the Bold 9700 with enough juice to last up to 19 days in standby mode. By comparison, the BlackBerry Tour and Curve 8900 last for up to 14 days each in standby. The new Bold’s talk time is up to six hours, slightly better than the Curve 8900’s 5½ and an hour better than the Tour’s five-hour talk time.

This thinner, lighter, smaller Bold is more comfortable to use for phone calls than the original, which could make users feel like they were holding a small piece of toast up to their ear during calls. I made several calls with no problems. Emailing on this Bold 9700 was as simple as always, and I set up four email accounts for testing.

Despite its fancy new BlackBerrys, RIM needs to overhaul the way it handles apps. The Bold 9700 comes preloaded with a prominently positioned icon for RIM’s BlackBerry App World store. But apps downloaded from here still go right into the “Downloads” folder, sending users unfamiliar with this system into a frantic search for their newly downloaded app.

And not all apps go into that folder; the Facebook app goes straight to the “Apps” folder. Why not put every new app right on the home screen and let me put them into folders if I so choose?

Once apps are downloaded, RIM neglects to notify you when all apps need to be updated. On my personal Curve 8900, I recently dug into the settings of my TwitterBerry and Facebook apps and manually checked to see if updated versions were available for each. This was the case, and I downloaded the new versions, but most people would never think to check for this kind of thing. Instead, RIM should send notifications about available updates for all apps.

The Bold 9700 runs on T-Mobile’s 3G network, which isn’t nearly as established as the 3G networks that Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) offer. It also can connect to Wi-Fi and allows voice calls to be made over Wi-Fi. (The BlackBerry Tour connects to Verizon’s 3G network but doesn’t have Wi-Fi—a huge downside. The Curve 8900 connects to Wi-Fi but not to 3G.)

The other attributes of the Bold 9700 are like the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and Tour: They all have cameras with flashes that are capable of capturing 3.2-megapixel photographs, bright 480×360-pixel displays, built-in GPS and slots for microSD memory cards so as to expand their memory.

If you’re considering a BlackBerry upgrade, the Bold 9700 offers 3G and Wi-Fi, a combination not offered by another BlackBerry with a full physical keyboard—other than the original Bold. But since many of the Bold 9700’s features are about the same as less-expensive BlackBerrys, it’s worth considering the Tour and Curve 8900 before you spend $200 on a device that no longer lives up to its bold name.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:16 pm

Microsoft's monthly security fixes spare Windows 7 (AP)

AP - Microsoft's newest computer operating system has survived its first few weeks on the market without needing any security fixes.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:12 pm

Google's Free Airport Wi-Fi: Five Ways to Protect Yourself - PC World

Geeky gadgets

Google's Free Airport Wi-Fi: Five Ways to Protect Yourself PC World Free Wi-Fi while you're waiting for your flight? Sounds like a great way to save money, and kudos to Google for offering it at many US airports during the holidays. Unfortunately, Google's generosity may also lure identity thieves and nefarious hackers ... Google lures travelers with free Wi-Fi this hoilday seasonThe Money Times Wi-Fi for travelers becomes Web marketing lureThe Associated Press Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Ignite Free Public WiFi War -- And Holiday CheerMediapost.com CNET News -Computerworld -VentureBeat all 516 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

Scientists Call For Ban On Alcohol-Industry Sponsorship Of Sport

The alcohol industry's sponsorship of sport should be banned and replaced with a dedicated alcohol tax modeled on those employed by some countries for tobacco, say scientists.Writing in the latest issue of the international journal Addiction, the authors have called on governments to outlaw the practice, citing their highly publicized 2008 study that showed alcohol-industry sponsorship of elite and community sport was associated with hazardous drinking among sport participants.Dr Kypros Kypri, from Newcastle University in Australia, and Dr Kerry O'Brien, from The University of Manchester in Britain, claim alcohol industry representatives and sports administrators in the UK and Australia were dismissive of the 2008 research findings despite their publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.Both the Portman Group – a public relations body set up by the alcohol industry – and the European Sponsorship Association, whose members include leading alcohol producers, argued that there was no causal relationship between sponsorship and alcohol misuse, which the researchers suggest is reminiscent of arguments used by the tobacco industry's behavior in the 1990s.Dr Kypri said: "The latest moves by the major sporting codes in Australia to lobby against the regulation of alcohol sponsorship of sport show that these bodies remain in denial of alcohol-related problems in their sports."In addition, it is clear that these organizations have enormous vested interests in continuing to receive alcohol money and government should be careful to act in the public interest rather than to cave in to the sports and Big Booze."Co-author, Dr O'Brien added: "Sport administrators are sending mixed messages to participants and fans when, on the one hand, they embrace and peddle alcohol via their sport, while on the other they punish individual sport stars and fans when they display loutish behavior while intoxicated."In place of industry sponsorship, the researchers suggest in their Addiction editorial that governments use the proceeds of alcohol taxation to sponsor sports via independent bodies.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:07 pm

The Bizarre Lives Of Bone-Eating Worms

The females of the recently discovered Osedax marine worms feast on submerged bones via a complex relationship with symbiotic bacteria, and they are turning out to be far more diverse and widespread than scientists expected.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:03 pm

Geeky Podcasting Mike Avidly Absorbs Audio

The Yeti is a big but very adaptable USB microphone that combines features of many different mikes, making it a great general-purpose recording tool.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

Apple's 13-Inch Pro Now Every Bit as Impressive as Its Big Bros

Apple's 13-Inch MacBook Pro may be the smallest of the bunch, but that only makes its sturdy construction and dazzling performance that much more impressive.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

Health Researchers Call For Alcohol Industry To Prove No Harm In Funding Of Sports

Researchers from Australia and the UK are calling for a new approach to the debate over whether alcohol industry sponsorship of sports increases drinking among sports participants.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:59 pm

Dance Dance Revolution Game Pad Morphs Into a Purse

For a busted video game accessory, the trash can is not the only place. In the hands of a creative DIY-er, a broken Dance Dance Revolution game pad got a makeover that is likely to have many women gamers drooling.

When Liz McLean Knight’s DDR dance pad stopped being good enough to jump on, she cut it up to see what was inside. And the first layer turned out to be a piece of fabric so pretty, she decided to turn it into a purse.

With a standard purse pattern, some lining, foam and zipper, McLean Knight created a colorful tote that could be a fun DIY project for anyone to try. It’s simple, easy and there’s documentation with photos for those who may want to replicate it.  Too bad, though, McLean Knight didn’t use the internal circuitry of the dance pad in her purse. That would have made this the ultimate go-to bag for DDR fans.

Photo: DDR Purse (Liz McLean Knight)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:58 pm

Government Settles for $3 Million in Coffee Table Spying Suit

The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him, using a bugged coffee table.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

Storyboard: Demand Media's Google-Crunching, Profit-Posting Answer Factory

Employing a clever algorithm and a speedy production team, the company whips up dirt-cheap videos that capitalize on internet users' queries.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm

Eager fans greet "Call of Duty" video game launch (Reuters)

Reuters - Activision Blizzard Inc's hugely anticipated "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" video game went on sale on Tuesday, welcomed by eager fans who lined up hours in advance of the release.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:49 pm

Adobe Sacks Nine Percent of Workforce [Digital Daily]

Add Adobe to the fast-growing list of tech companies sacking employees in November. In an 8-K filing made today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it will cut nine percent of its workforce, approximately 680 jobs, to better cope with flaccid demand for its software.

Cuts at Adobe (ADBE) will occur worldwide and are intended to bring costs in line with its 2010 budget and “the realities of the business environment,” the company said in a statement. They follow a similar round of cuts made in 2008 that claimed the livelihoods of about 600 people.

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:42 pm

CrunchDeals: $20 off $100 BestBuy.com purchase with PayPal

Damn you, Best Buy and double damn you, PayPal. Why must you tempt me so?

If you have a PayPal account and you use it to make a purchase of $100 or more at BestBuy.com, you’ll get $20 loaded back into your PayPal account “2-3 weeks after the end of the promotion.” Think of it as a lazy man’s rebate. The promotion ends next Monday, November 16th.

So long, money. I hardly knew ye.

Use PayPal at BestBuy.com and get $20 cash back on a purchase of $100 or more [BestBuy.com]

Source: CrunchGear | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:39 pm

Powerful 'Modern Warfare 2' Plot Hits Close to Home

With military action and terrorist acts on foreign shores and the U.S. homeland, the violent new videogame brings the horrors of modern warfare to life in compelling ways.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pm

Razer’s new Abyssus mouse ain’t fancy, but you wouldn’t guess that from the price

Don’t get me wrong. I love Razer stuff. But this Abyssus mouse hearkens back to their earlier days when they were hocking two-button, ambidextrous ball mice for premium prices and only a few people took them really seriously. Now, obviously, for some, this super-basic mouse might be a good thing, but really, for $50 you can get a Death Adder (recently upgraded), G500, or any number of premium mice that are probably just as comfortable, and far more capable, than this one.
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-abyssus/
The real problem is that their sensitivities are in hardware switches on the bottom; that can be good, but one of the strengths of Razer mice is their on-the-fly sensitivity, which allows you to dynamically adjust the software sensitivity at any time, to a high degree of precision. That’s not present here. If you really need a stripped-down mouse, there are plenty out there, and I’m sure the Abyssus is great, but for your money, there are better options.

Source: CrunchGear | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

Intel's New E-Reader For the Visually Impaired

serverguy writes "Intel will be releasing a win for all visually impaired members of society, a new device called the Intel Reader. It allows visually impaired people to take a snapshot of a newspaper, book, or magazine and have it read back to them. It's estimated that in the US alone there are as many as 55 million people who could make use of such a device. It comes at hefty price though: the paperback-sized device costs $1,499. The device contains a 5-megapixel camera and is powered by a Linux OCR system that converts text into spoken words. The device can hold up to 2GB of data, which would equate to around 600 snapshots. In addition to reading text, the device can also play back audio books in a number of supported formats such as MP3 and WAV. The Intel Reader is expected to be released next Tuesday." The device won't be speedy: "Intel says it takes about 30 seconds to process each page of text... It took... about 30 minutes to scan in the pages of a 250-page book and then one hour to process them."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:26 pm

300-Pound Gorilla Voluntarily Monitors His Blood Pressure

Imagine trying to monitor the blood pressure of a 300-pound gorilla. A new device, described in the following release from Georgia Institute of Technology Research News, makes that job a lot easier: Zoo Atlanta recently became the first zoological institution ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:14 pm

LG Electronics Honored with 17 CES 2010 Innovations Awards

NEW YORK, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) recognized LG Electronics' excellence in design and technology with 17 prestigious 2010 International CES® Innovations Awards, including: "Best of" recognition in the Video Display category.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

Apple Didn’t Break ‘Support’ for Hackintoshes

Apple’s latest Snow Leopard update breaks compatibility with netbooks hacked to run the Mac operating system. But it’s unlikely that the move signifies the company’s future plans to clamp down on the “Hackintosh” community, observers say.

That’s because Apple’s Mac OS doesn’t support non-Apple products to begin with, so it would be misleading to say the latest update (10.6.2) “pulls” that support. In fact, Apple might not have even been aware that it was “breaking” support for hacked netbooks with this update at all.

“Apple doesn’t have any hardware that relies on the Atom processor, so making sure that OS X supports the CPU probably isn’t just low on the priority list; it’s probably not even in the same zip code as the priority list,” said Brad Linder, writer of Liliputing, a netbook enthusiast blog.

Still, Mac clones should be a touchy topic for Apple. For a brief period in the 1990s — when Steve Jobs was still exiled from Apple — Apple CEO Michael Spindler licensed the Mac operating system to several manufacturers. The move did not fare well for the company: Apple was near bankruptcy when Jobs retook the helm in 1997. One of the first items on Jobs’ agenda was to destroy the clone program, closing the gates to the Mac OS.

More recently, Apple has also been in a legal battle with Psystar, a startup selling computers hacked to run Mac OS X. But that legal pursuit is a move to protect Apple’s intellectual property against other companies that could threaten the Mac marketshare.

Thus, although the latest Snow Leopard update seems to disable “support” for netbooks, it’s likely Apple still doesn’t care enough to take action against consumers hacking away at their netbooks. A more simple, and probably true, explanation is likely that Apple is cleaning up Snow Leopard and optimizing code, said Michael Gartenberg, an Interpret technology analyst.

“People are always ascribing these nefarious Oliver Stone-like notions about Apple, but they’re often wrong,” Gartenberg said. “If Apple were really serious, there are a number of ways to make it impossible to run OS X on any system.”

Apple’s lack of a netbook offering doesn’t appear to affect the company. Last month, the company posted earnings results for its most profitable quarter ever. Apple also set a record for selling more Macs in a quarter than ever before, with 3.05 million units sold.

“The financial results show that Apple’s not feeling any hurt from not having a netbook,” said Jason Snell, editorial director of Macworld magazine. “It just keeps selling more laptops, and making more money on them.”

See Also:

• Hack of the Clones: Why Apple Can’t Stop the Copies
• Psystar Marches Forward With Beefy Mac Clone
• Genius Bar Clones and Other Crazy Apple Conspiracies

Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:39 pm

Artisteer Announces Support for Google's Blogger(TM)

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Extensoft today announced a new 2.3 version of its automated web design product, Artisteer, now with support for Google's Blogger(TM).
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:39 pm

2009 China Frost & Sullivan Award for Mobile Security Market Leadership of the Year

SHANGHAI, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2009 China Frost & Sullivan Award for Mobile Security Market Leadership of the year was presented to NetQin Tech. Co., Ltd.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pm

Samsung Stirs Up a New Mobile Platform

Mobile handset maker Samsung is not happy with just churning out new phones. The company is making a play for a bigger position in the mobile ecosystem with the launch of a new platform.

Called Samsung bada, the platform will allow developers to create applications for more commonly used feature phones, says the company. To that effect, Samsung will offer developers a Software Development Kit (SDK) to program apps for the platform.

“By opening Samsung’s mobile platform, we will be able to provide rich mobile experiences on an increasing number of accessible phones,” says Hosoo Lee,  executive vice president at Samsung Electronics.

Details about bada are sketchy and Samsung hasn’t made it clear if bada–which means ‘ocean’ in Korean– will be a new mobile operating system based on a Linux kernel or if it will just be an extension of the company’s proprietary OS.

Samsung, also, did not offer any details on how the bada platform will fit into its existing app store. In August, Samsung launched a mobile app store for Europe.

With more than 60 million phones sold worldwide in the third quarter, Samsung is the second largest mobile handsets maker. But most of the company’s sales come from less expensive handsets known as feature phones. Currently all app stores are focused on powerful smartphones.

For software developers, bada’s SDK could offer an easy way to tap into the installed base of Samsung phones through native apps instead of using Java (for GSM phones) or BREW (for CDMA devices). Bada is expected to make its debut on Samsung phones in 2010.

See Also:

• Samsung’s Flexible OLED Screen Goes Under the Hammer
• Review: Samsung NC20
• Samsung Blue Earth Phone Made From Old Plastic Bottles
• Samsung Fields Green, Ultra-Slim LCD TVs

Photo: (Cyrillicus/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

Level 3 Communications E-PoP Comes to Phoenix NAP Datacenter

PHOENIX, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Phoenix NAP, a next generation datacenter and network access point, announced today Level 3 Communications has completed a fiber build into the Phoenix NAP facility.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm

EC Formally Objects To Oracle's Purchase of Sun

eldavojohn writes "The EC has presented Oracle and Sun with a statement of objections. Despite the promotion of former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, the statement seems to focus entirely on what many have feared: MySQL vs. Oracle databases. From Sun's 8-K SEC filing: 'The Statement of Objections sets out the Commission's preliminary assessment regarding, and is limited to, the combination of Sun's open source MySQL database product with Oracle's enterprise database products and its potential negative effects on competition in the market for database products.' The EU and the EC are getting a rep for disagreeing with US counterparts." On Monday afternoon the DoJ reiterated its support for the deal. Matthew Aslett has a helpful timeline of the action from the EC.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:26 pm

Cave Study Links Climate Change To California Droughts

California experienced centuries-long droughts in the past 20,000 years that coincided with the thawing of ice caps in the Arctic, according to a new study by UC Davis doctoral student Jessica Oster and geology professor Isabel Montañez.The finding, which comes from analyzing stalagmites from Moaning Cavern in the central Sierra Nevada, was published online Nov.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 1:35 pm

Samsung ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) laptop gets Hands-On

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops, Netbooks, Wireless

The Samsung X120 with Intel’s new ULV chip got a hands-on and the result: there is lots to love.  It is small, not much bigger than a netbook, packs lots of computing power (it can handle Windows 7) and a multi-touch trackpad.

The hands-on demo came up with a battery life of just 2.5 hours, troubling as the official spec is 4 hours but a six cell battery is available for a suggested 9 hours of run time.  The notebook also boasts a 3-in-1 card reader as well as a HDMI input/output so you can connect to your high-def TV with ease.

Mobile Computer Mag is smitten with the device.  In the UK, it sells for £470.  Word is Samsung has not decided to ship this unit to the US yet.

Read: [MobileComputer]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 1:29 pm

Whistleblower Claims IEA Is Downplaying Peak Oil

Yesterday the Guardian ran a story based on two anonymous sources inside the International Energy Agency who claimed that the agency had distorted key figures on oil reserves. "The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the [IEA] who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying. The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves." Today the IEA released its annual energy outlook and rejected the whistleblowers' charges. The Guardian has an editorial claiming that the economic establishment is too fearful to come clean on the reality of oil suppplies, and makes an analogy with the (marginalized, demonized) economists who warned of a coming economic collapse in 2007.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm

Indian Official Finds No Link To Global Warming And Glacier Melt

Scientists were outraged on Tuesday over comments made by India’s environment minister, in which he denied a link between climate change and the melting Himalayan glaciers.On Monday, India Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said he questioned the theories put forth by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and found no "conclusive scientific evidence" for a link between the melting Himalayan glaciers and global warming.“None of our glaciers under monitoring are recording abnormal retreat,” Dr V K Raina, retired deputy director-general of the Geological Survey of India, said in a report released Monday.Ramesh referred to the report to state that most glaciers are retreating while some Himalayan glaciers, such as the Siachen glacier, are advancing, the Times of India reported.“The health of Himalayan glaciers is poor,” Ramesh said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pm

Lab Machine Will Study Glacial Sliding Related To Rising Sea Levels

Image Caption: Neal Iverson, an Iowa State professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, worked with a team of Ames Laboratory engineers to develop a machine that can simulate how glaciers slide across their beds. At the bottom of the machine is a hydraulic press that can create pressures equal to those beneath a glacier 1,300 feet thick. Photo by Bob Elbert.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

Flu Spray vs. Shot: Is One Better?

My four-year-old got her swine flu vaccination yesterday. At the time, I was relieved when the school nurse pulled out a spray rather than a syringe. There were no tears -- or at least fewer than if she had gotten ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

Controversial New Climate Change Results

New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now.This suggests that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 than had been previously expected.The results run contrary to a significant body of recent research which expects that the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting greenhouse gas levels skyrocket.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm

Droid Weekend Sales Top 100,000, Says Analyst

Motorola’s Droid phone may not be an iPhone-sized hit yet, but it is flying off the shelves.

More than 100,000 Droid phones were sold in the first weekend since the device’s launch, estimates Mark McKechnie, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech. That’s about half of the initial stock made available to Verizon and Best Buy stores nationwide.

“Demand seems brisk,” says McKechnie. “While we heard of no stores that were completely sold out, the majority reported that more than half of the initial stock was sold, and some said they had just a few remaining.”

By comparison, Apple sold more than 1 million of the latest iPhone model in its debut weekend, and also sold 1 million iPhone 3G units in that phone’s opening weekend.

Motorola Droid, available currently on Verizon Wireless, went on sale Nov. 6. The phone costs $200 with a $100 mail-in rebate (available instantly at Best Buy stores) and a two-year contract.

The Droid, which runs Google’s latest Android 2.0 operating system debuted to excellent reviews as experts appreciated the phone’s crisp screen, easy user interface and turn-by-turn navigation feature. But the device’s difficult-to-use physical keyboard and smaller app store are seen as drawbacks.

Still, the Droid could put Motorola back into the game though it has a long way to go before it can catch up with Apple. Motorola could sell 1.3 million Android phones in the fourth quarter, estimates Citigroup research analyst Jim Suva.  That compares to about 8 million iPhones that Apple will sell in the quarter.

See Also:

• Review: Motorola Droid
• Why I’m Not Getting a Droid Today
• Video: Hands-On With Motorola’s Droid
• Verizon Attacks the iPhone, Hints at Upcoming Droid
• Verizon to Offer Tethering for Motorola Droid

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm

New OLPC laptop with “double the speed” coming next month

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops, Netbooks

Despite not hearing much in terms of the OLPC project recently it seems that they are still seeing their fair share of success. According to Walter Bender they have topped one million downloads on Sugar Labs.

“I had been meaning to mention that already several weeks ago we exceeded one-million downloads from activities.sugarlabs.org. We are now over 1.1 million.”

Of course, it should be pointed out that the one million number does not really represent individual users, but total downloads. But still reaching, or in this case, topping one million downloads is still impressive.

With that, it does make you wonder just where the OLPC project is going, and thanks to a recent New York Times article we are being given a look at just that. It seems that we are going to see the release of the OLPC 1.5 sometime next month. Which, the OLPC 1.5 will be the follow up to the current XO1. According to the details, the OLPC 1.5 will offer “double the speed and four times more memory.”

It was also noted that a future model is currently in development that will come “with double screens to enable several kids to work on each one.”

And for those wondering, as of now nothing has been mentioned in regards to another round of the G1G1 program for 2009.

Read [New York Times] and [Walter Bender] Via [OLPC News]

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

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

Clearwire raises an additional $1.5B to continue building its nationwide WiMAX network

Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks (to name a few) continue to bet big on Clearwire’s WiMAX nationwide wireless network. The foursome have just pumped an additional $1.494 billion into Clearwire’s coffer, with another $50 million coming from Intel and $20 million from Eagle River Holdings. CHA-CHING.

More specifically, Sprint, which owns 51 percent of Clearwire, invested $1.176 billion, Comcast Corp. put in $196 million, Time Warner Cable Inc. dropped another $103 million, and Bright House Networks contributed a cool $19 million.

According to Christopher King, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, the new influx increased Clearwire’s cash stockpile to a whopping $1.8 billion and will help to mitigate the “funding gap” for its nationwide WiMAX network build-out to $3 billion. The new funds will purportedly allow Clearwire to hold off on raising more dough until at least the end of 2011.

[via Y! News]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 11:43 am

Google Offers Free Wi-Fi at Airports

I was just at Baltimore and Boston airports this past weekend and had a couple of hours to spare at each one. Had my laptop, too. But didn't log in because I didn't want to pay the $10 or $20 ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 11:20 am

Samsung implies Google is untrustworthy: builds Android competitor?

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile

If you don’t trust Google, you are not alone.  Why else would Samsung develop an open source operating system for mobile phones on their own instead of using the free Android?  Samsung’s new OS dubbed, Bada should be found on its first phone come mid-2010.

Bada, which according to Electronista, means “ocean” in Korean, but is more commonly seen with it’s back end “bing”, in Jersey at least.  The Bada OS is said to be open, so open in fact that developers will have access to core functions to manipulate and create new ways of accessing data and performing operations.  The OS will compete directly with Google’s Android and LiMo.

It is commonly said in the mobile phone industry that consumers don’t care what OS is on their phone, it is all about usability.  Samsung here is looking to insure it’s phones are not party to Google’s mobile advertising schemes in the future.  It is expected that Samsung will maintain it’s own app store as well for third party applications.

Very vague

Another report on the announcement says Samsung is keeping things very vague.  From Electricpig: “Samsung says that whole ‘ocean’ thing “alludes to [its] commitment to a variety of open platforms in the mobile industry.” While it’s keeping everything nicely vague at this early stage, it could mean a new UI which offers Samsung specific apps on top of Android Market, as well as a whole bada OS on other Samsung phones.”

So, Bada could be both a skin on top of Android as we’ve seen from HTC in Sense UI and from Motorola in Blur.  Or it could be it’s own OS on non-Android phones.  It works with everything is a bit confusing.

Bada will be on phones shipped to over 30 countries and include major markets in Europe.  There is no word on if the US will see such phones.  With so many sketchy details, only one thing is certain: you’ll find Bada only on Samsung phones.

Read: [Electronista]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 11:06 am

Rickroll'd By Your iPhone?

Say it ain't so! The first virus written for the iPhone is currently making the rounds in Australia. But here's the catch, according to The Security Fix over at WaPo: The contagion, dubbed "Ikee," spreads only among iPhones that have ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 10:41 am

A Whale of a Truce?

Yet another guest post from our friend Debbie Salamone of the Pew Environment Group's Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast: President Barack Obama will meet the new Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, on November 12-13 -- about the same ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 10:26 am

Marine Corps Celebrates 234 Years

Today is the 234th anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The USMC birthday comes on the eve of Veterans' Day, which was established to commemorate the signing of the armistice that ended World War I ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 10:24 am

Sesame Street Anniversary: Where Are the Realistic Animals?

Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary today. As The Guardian in London reports, the popular children's television show is responsible for the "misguided belief that certain areas of Brooklyn are populated by freakishly tall canaries and their severely depressed elephant ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 10:18 am

Puncturing an Ancient Supervolcano

You have to wonder about the wisdom of drilling an active volcano. But at Italy's Campi Flegrei, that's exactly what scientists are planning to do, in an effort to learn about an ancient volcanic monster that could one day blow ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 10:15 am

Finding flu vaccine information in one easy place

This year, it's especially important to have clear information on what you can do to prepare for the flu season. With this in mind, we are happy to share a new feature for the U.S. which allows you to more easily find locations near you for getting both the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccine. After expanding Google Flu Trends to a total of 20 countries and 38 languages, allowing more people to see near real-time estimates of flu activity, we began brainstorming with the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS), their flu.gov collaborators and the American Lung Association on the flu shot finder and other ways Google can be helpful to people this flu season.

You can check out the flu shot finder at www.google.com/flushot. The same tool will also be available shortly on www.flu.gov and the American Lung Association websites. It's important to note that this project is just beginning and we have not yet received information about flu shot clinics for many locations. In addition, many locations that are shown are currently out of stock. We launched this service now in order to help disseminate information about locations where vaccines are available, and also to make more vaccine providers aware of the project so that they can contribute.


Especially given slower than expected vaccine production, we think it's important to bring together flu shot information in a coherent manner. We've been working with HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local health agencies to gather information on flu vaccine locations across the country, particularly for the H1N1 flu vaccine (both the nasal-spray vaccine and the shot). At the moment we have data for locations of flu vaccine directly from 20 states and counting. We are also continuing to add information from chain pharmacies and other providers in all 50 states; today, you'll find results from chains such as Walgreens, CVS and PDX participants, such as Kmart, Duane Reade, WinnDixie and Giant Eagle.

Of course you should still call flu vaccine providers ahead of time to find out more about availability and eligibility for the two vaccines.

We hope to continue providing you with relevant information to help keep you and your loved ones healthy.

Posted by Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager and Jennifer Haroon, Product Marketing Manager
Source: The Official Google Blog | 10 Nov 2009 | 10:15 am

Fish Migrating Off Your Plate ...

... And you can't just stab it with a fork to make the slippery beast stay put. This is one of the many other ways climate change is making itself unmistakable: Fish are emigrating as their waters warm. Fishermen are ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am

Samsung announces its own ‘open’ mobile platform – bada

As Sesame Street is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary now seems like as good a time as any for us to practice our counting…of mobile operating systems/platforms. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Darn, my hand ran out of fingers! Well, no matter, Samsung thinks there is plenty of room for more and has taken the wraps off its own, new open mobile platform, bada.

Yup, another mobile OS is hitting the streets come December, and its name is bada (which means ‘ocean’ in Korean). In case you were wondering, the name was:

chosen to convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform. It also alludes to Samsung’s commitment to a variety of open platforms in the mobile industry.

But enough about its meaning…what is it? Well, according to the official announcement, bada will offer developers an easier way to create applications for “millions of new Samsung” phones while providing consumers with “a fun and diverse mobile experience.” Samsung says the new platform will be simple for developers to use, “particularly in the area of applications using Web services,” and will allow said developers to include more sophisticated and attractive UI” designs for their apps.

The platform is also being touted as carrier-friendly, by providing for “an easy-to-integrate platform…so that mobile operators can provide unique and differentiated services to their customers.” According to Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics, “bada will be Samsung’s landmark, iconic new platform that brings an unprecedented opportunity for operators, developers and Samsung mobile phone users around the world.”

The official website went live earlier today. Samsung will also be hosting an official launch event in London sometime next month where it will also take the wraps off its bada SDK.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am

Real calculators modeled after desktop calculators

The product designers over at MintPass have created these concept designs for real life calculators that look just like the calculators that pop up on a Windows or Mac OS screen.

via The Raw Feed

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 10 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

A WiFi wonderland in the sky... and on the ground!

The holiday season is always about connecting with friends, family... and the web. During the holidays in particular, the web brings us closer to others through the email we send, YouTube videos we share, gifts we buy, holiday music we listen to and charitable donations we make. That's why a few weeks ago, Google announced that we're working with Virgin America to give free WiFi to all passengers on Virgin flights this holiday season.

If you're one of the millions of people who will be flying during this busy travel period, chances are you may spend more time in the airport than on the plane itself. So, starting today and lasting through January 15th, we're happy to announce that we will be offering free WiFi in 47 airports across the country. You can see the full list of airports here. This is one of our holiday gifts to our users, and, when you connect, we also hope that you'll take the opportunity to try some of the latest Google products. Our hope is that being connected for a few extra minutes (or hours, if you're delayed!) will help make things a bit easier. Be sure to look for the Google signs in an airport near you.

Here's to the beginning of a happy, healthy holiday season!

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience
Source: The Official Google Blog | 10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

Nokia N900 Internet tablet shipping has begun

Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers, Wireless

The last we heard was that the Nokia N900 Internet tablet was being delayed until November. Well thankfully, at least for those waiting, November has arrived and with that the N900 has begun shipping. This news comes courtesy of Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, which means that those who pre-ordered should be expecting an update to their order status pretty shortly.

Or for those who have been holding out, the N900 is available with Amazon (among other places) and is selling for $559.99. That said, the N900 is still listed as not yet released, but I would imagine that will be changing shortly. After all, the news shipping news was just announced yesterday afternoon.

Finally just as a recap, the Nokia N900 Internet tablet features a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 5-megapixel camera and 32GB of internal storage. Additionally, the N900 is running Maemo 5 and can be used as an unlocked device (phone) here in the US with either T-Mobile or AT&T. Well, can be used with either of those carriers as long as you do not mind shelling out the $559 asking price, because this is not going to be offered as a subsidized price.

Read [Reuters]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 8:39 am

The original 40-button mouse

In the thread about Warmouse's unauthorized and many-buttoned OpenOffice mouse, Don Simpson points to ProHance's illustrious original. 40 buttons! It requires DOS 2.0. [AtariMagazines]

I have a 40-button mouse, the ProHance PowerMouse 100, from around 1990. ProHance Technologies in Sunnyvale, CA also made 3-, 12-, and 17-button mice. If you think "ProHance" is so silly a name that no-one else would have used it, just try Googling it by itself

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am

3 Reasons to upgrade to Exchange 2010

Section: Computers, Networking, Software / Applications

With the economy on the mend, Microsoft is upping the pressure on it’s sales team to sell Exchange 2010.  Microsoft’s new pitch?  Save money.  Save lots of freaking money.  In fact, if you upgrade now, you’ll be rolling in cash - enough to upgrade everything to Windows 7 (haha, small joke).

Microsoft is pitching Exchange 2010 as a way to save major money.  The company points out 3 main ways users can cut expenses by upgrading to the latest version of Exchange:

• Use less expensive storage with Exchange 2010: it can now be used with attached storage devices instead of SANs (storage area network)
Eliminate voicemail expenses: Exchange can convert voice to text
Save on email archiving: Exchange 2010 adds in this feature instead of needing separate software

According to PC Mag: “As part of its case to customers, Microsoft is citing a study it commissioned from research analyst Forrester. The study says that companies can expect to recoup their costs of deploying Exchange 2010 within six months through savings in other areas.”

Other benefits in upgrading to Exhange 2010 is conversation threading, the ability to ignore conversations users are CC’d on, and sensitive information blocking. 

Read: [PCMag]

 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:08 am

Taptu + OneRiot = realtime mobile search

Taptu, the mobile search engine, is announcing today that they’re using the OneRiot search API to provide realtime search results to mobile devices at their touch-friendly mobile web page. The realtime search results will eventually make their way into the Taptu iPhone app.

Realtime Search Now Comes to Mobile

Taptu and OneRiot Team Up to Offer First Realtime Search for Mobile

Cambridge, UK and Boulder, Colo. – November 10, 2009

Announcement Details:

• Taptu, the mobile search engine, and OneRiot, the realtime search engine, have launched the first ever realtime search for mobile. Available right now on Taptu.com, people can browse hot topics and discover the web’s most relevant new search results in realtime.
• Taptu makes use of OneRiot’s realtime search API, incorporating the web’s freshest, most buzzed about content into Taptu’s mobile-touch friendly interface. Mobile users can now search the realtime web or browse trending topics in a mobile-friendly format for touch screen devices, one of the most significant developments in mobile search to-date.
• This partnership fulfills a need for people to discover realtime, socially-influenced content on the go in a mobile-friendly format. The service is available on the major touch devices, including the iPhone, iPod touch, G1, Nokia N 97 and 5800, and the BlackBerry Storm 1.
• OneRiot’s realtime results will soon appear within Taptu’s iPhone app, providing even more functionality for realtime search on mobile devices.
• OneRiot’s API allows its partners to syndicate its realtime, socially-relevant results; Taptu is the first mobile search engine to leverage the company’s API.

Quotes:
Steve Ives, founder and CEO of Taptu: “Taptu introduced touch search to meet the specific needs of mobile users, and adding realtime search to this offering is a great feature. For the first time, mobile users will be able to find out what is going on right now in a mobile friendly format.”

Tobias Peggs, General Manager of OneRiot: “Increasingly, people want constant access to new information – a need that can be even more pressing when on the go. Mobile is an ideal platform for the discovery of realtime information and we are thrilled to partner with Taptu to start offering users the power of realtime search on their mobile devices.

Taptu Links:

• Go to Taptu’s Web site: www.taptu.com
• Read Taptu’s Blog: blog.taptu.com
• Follow Taptu on Twitter: twitter.com/taptu

OneRiot Links:

• Go to OneRiot’s Web site: www.oneriot.com
• Read OneRiot’s blog: http://blog.oneriot.com
• Follow OneRiot on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oneriot

About Taptu
Taptu is a super-fast award winning mobile search engine that has been championed by industry and consumers alike for providing mobile-optimized results in a mobile-friendly interface. The service is available in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German, and Taptu announced in June 2009 that it is generating in excess of 1 million searches a day and over 3.2 million users. Taptu is available via any mobile browser and the Taptu iPhone app is available for free download from the App Store. Founded in 2007, Taptu is privately held and capitalized by leading investors, Sofinnova and 3i DFJ Espirit

About OneRiot
OneRiot (www.oneriot.com) is a realtime search engine. Users search OneRiot to find the news, stories and videos that people are buzzing about right now for any topic. Uniquely, OneRiot orders its search results based on PulseRank, reflecting the realtime social buzz around each result. OneRiot launched in November 2008 and is a privately held company headquartered in Boulder, Colo. with offices in San Francisco. For more information, follow OneRiot at http://twitter.com/OneRiot or read the blog at http://blog.oneriot.com.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

Confirmed: Snow Leopard Update Kills Atom Hackintoshes

Just as we feared, the latest update to Snow Leopard, version 10.6.2, drops support for the Intel Atom processor. This means that anyone with a “hackintosh” who tries to update to the latest operating system version will see their computer die, going no further than the gray Apple logo on startup.

The reports are lighting up various hackintosh forums, and OSx86-co-author wizard Stellarolla sums it up thusly:

Well, looks like I was right, again. The netbook forums are now blowing up with problems of 10.6.2 instant rebooting their Atom-based netbooks. My sources tell me that every time a netbook user installs 10.6.2 an Apple employee gets their wings.

It shouldn’t be long before some clever hacker figures out a workaround and releases a patched kernel to the world, re-enabling the OS on Atom-based computers. But that’s not the story. The bigger message is that Apple has finally stopped ignoring the incessant buzz of the hobby-hacking, Mac netbook scene and instead pulled out a fly-swatter and dealt it a whack. The war is officially on.

And ironically, this will only hit the hobbyists and tinkerers. Psystar, that other flea in Apple’s ear, is unaffected, as the fake Macs it sells do not use the Atom chip.

Official: Atom not supported in 10.6.2 [Stell's Blog]

See Also:

• Snow Leopard Update Blocks Intel Atom, Kills Hackintoshes
• Snow Leopard Update Fixes Deletion Bug

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:41 am

Your flight is delayed but WiFi is free, thanks Google

Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Wireless, Gadgets / Other, Transportation

This holiday season, Google is stepping up and covering the WiFi fees in airports across the country as part of a marketing push.  Users will be greeted by Google offering classic marketing techniques such as an offer to change your homepage to Google, download Chrome browser or an offer to donate to three charities.

They advertise, we win

If you’ve traveled enough, you know free WiFi in airports is a rare occurrence.  It seems everywhere I’ve traveled as of late has been blockaded by Boingo or other scheme set to drain my pocket of loose change.  Recently, Google also cut a similar deal on Virgin Airlines where Google will cover the WiFi fees for its new in-flight WiFi service for the holidays.

But Google isn’t the only one jumping on the free WiFi train.  Recently Lexus covered the fees on American Airlines as a way to introduce their new 2010 LS line and eBay covered WiFi on Delta during the Thanksgiving holiday.  Yahoo is providing free WiFi in Times Square and Microsoft is covering the cost for WiFi at several different hotspots as way to get Bing out to more people.

This is a trend we’d like to see continue.

Read: [CNN] and [Search Engine Journal]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:25 am

Ricoh’s Inside-Out GXR Puts Its Sensors Inside the Lens

Ricoh has a habit of making weird cameras. Good, well-performing cameras, but odd nonetheless, like the GR III, a point-and-shoot with a fixed, 28mm ƒ1.9 lens. The newly announced GXR series takes that weirdness and turns it inside-out.

The GXR takes the sensor out of the body and puts it in the lens. When assembled, the camera is a compact type, along the lines of the Olympus Pen: a point-and-shoot with swappable lenses. The difference is that each lens comes with its own built-in, sealed sensor tailored specifically to the particular optic.

The body itself has a 3-inch, 920,000 pixel display, an optional electronic view finder, a pop-up flash and some buttons. And that’s about it. Two lenses will be available at launch. First, a 50mm ƒ2.5 with an APS-C (28.4mm diagonal) sized 12.3 MP sensor that can shoot at ISO 200-3200 at 3fps and also capture 720p video.

The other lens is a zoom, a 24-72mm ƒ2.5-4.4 with 10MP 1/1.75-inch sensor (about 9.5mm diagonal) with the same ISO range, 1.6fps burst and 640×480 video

It’s a very interesting idea, and one which has some advantages. A sealed unit means no dust on the sensor, a big problem with DSLRs. And tailoring the sensor to the lens itself sounds like a great idea to begin with, as you can put a smaller sensor into a long lens, effectively making it even longer. And as the lenses slide into place, changing out the units is a lot easier than the press-and-twist fitting of a bayonet mount.

But the downside is bigger. First is the cost. The body is $550, and the lenses are $830 for the 50mm and $440 for the zoom. You may be forgiven for thinking that you may as well just buy a few cameras with different lenses on them. Or even a couple of cheap DSLRs with fixed lenses. Putting the sensor in the lens also means that the lenses will become obsolete much faster, while the body will last a lot longer. The trouble is that, while most people have just one camera, they buy a lot of lenses, and lenses can last forever. I use old pre-digital lenses on my Nikon and they work just fine. This is going to get expensive, fast.

You may also have noticed that the video capabilities vary. With a Canon 5D MkII, you can pop any lens on there and shoot great, 1080p video. With the GXR, you can’t. So while we’re glad that Ricoh is experimenting with form, and that the GXR is the smallest interchangeable lens camera available (smaller than the Olympus Pen, even), we suspect that this particular whimsy will be short lived.

We’re sure that the quality will be just fine, but when “lens” specs start to include sensor sizes and ISO counts, they’re not lenses anymore. They’re standalone cameras which require a rather complicated battery pack to be clipped to the back.

Product page [Ricoh]

Press release [DP Review]

Common Image Sensor Sizes [DP Review]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:17 am

A Watertight Case: The Haglöfs Laptop Bag

The only time I leave my blogger’s lair with my laptop is to attend the annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. The sole dangers there come from the bad breath of hungover show exhibitors and viruses flown in from the corners of the globe to be transmitted by a million filthy handshakes.

None of these fazes my trusty MacBook, but if I ever took it into the real outdoor world it would be kept inside a Haglöfs laptop dry-bag, a waterproof, padded notebook nirvana, all wrapped up in an orange color that normally graces 1970s sci-fi movie spacesuits.

The Swedish bags, part of the pun-tastic “WATATAIT” range, are made from ripstop polyamide and have a double seal: one ziplock and one rolling closure. The computer cocoon comes in both 15 and 17-inch sizes, and even if you aren’t laptopping in extreme conditions, it’ll at least protect your machine when the high-fructose corn syrup beverage explodes inside your carry-on. £20 ($33).

Product page [Haglöfs]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 6:09 am

Coffee Tugo: Suitcase Mounted Cup-Holder

The Tugo is a cup holder for your roll-along suitcase. The rubber holder hangs from the two extending bars that comprise the slide-out handle, and keeps the cup upright, letting you cruise across smooth airport concourses without spilling a drop.

I gave up on rolling luggage after the Lady told me that it sapped me of my manliness (somebody else told me that my suitcase was the color of “a prosthetic limb”, which may also be a factor). If I was still toting a carry-on feminizer, though, instead of a testosterone-filled rucksack, I’d certainly grab one of these $10 holders. Heck, it would even be useful for holding rolled-up magazines or jackets, the kind of stuff you usually try to balance (in vain) on the top of the case.

Product page [Good Tugo via Noquedanblogs]

See Also:

• Kindle For PC Could Trigger E-Book Piracy
• Danger: Handlebar Mounted Cup-Holders
• Cup Holder Blows Hot and Cold
• Coffee-Cup Power Inverter for In-Car Charging

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:36 am

The OpenOfficeMouse is still a mouse, but is not quite OpenOffice

Section: Peripherals, Mice / Keyboards

It seems that ugly looking 18-button having OpenOfficeMouse is not quite backed by OpenOffice. According to the back story here, the OpenOfficeMouse was presented at the recent OOoConference in Italy and that is where the story should have ended, at least with the OpenOfficeMouse name anyway.

As I mentioned in the last post, the mouse is, now was, being called the OpenOfficeMouse, but is actually being made by a company called WarMouse.

Long story short, it seems that WarMouse did not have the proper authorization to use the OpenOffice name and logo. Of course, the WarMouse team claim just the opposite and have stated that they have written permission in the form of emails.

Maybe, maybe not, because WarMouse has also decided that they will change the name of the mouse and cease using the OpenOffice logo.

“Due to the massive confusion about OpenOffice.org producing the mouse and the numerous questions about the mouse working with programs other than OpenOffice.org, we have mutually agreed with Sun to change the name of the mouse and cease using the OpenOffice.org logo.”

I have not seen a new official name, but it seems to be just a shortened version—OOMouse. And with that somehow this story seems a little better knowing that the OpenOfficeMouse was never really an OpenOffice mouse. That said, the mouse is still ugly, but I still want to play around with it. Of course, remembering those 18-buttons is likely to be difficult.

Via [Engadget]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:08 am

NTT Docomo announces 19 new cell phones (photo gallery)

Following KDDI’s announcement three weeks ago, Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier NTT Docomo today unveiled [JP] its winter-line up of cell phones (SoftBank, the No.3, did the same). And here are all the new models announced by Docomo for the Japanese market today.

Fujitsu F-04B Separate Keitai
(world’s first “separate handset” (you can detach the keyboard from the display and let them communicate via Bluetoot), 3.8-inch touchscreen, 12.2MP camera/pictured at the top of this post, too)

Fujitsu F-01B
(3-inch LCD screen with 480×854 resolution, Blu-ray connectivity, 12.3MP CMOS camera, microSD support, waterproof)

NEC N02B
(12.2MP CMOS camera, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, Dragon Quest III pre-installed)

Panasonic P-01B
(3-inch VGA main VIERA screen, 2-inch sub-display, 8MP CMOS camera, GSM, Blu-ray recorder connectivity)

Sharp SH-01B
(3.4-inch WVGA display, 12.1MP CCD camera, GSM, Blu-ray recorder connectivity)

Samsung SC-01B
(smartphone running on Windows Mobile 6.5 Pro, 3.1MP CMOS camera, QWERTY keyboard)

Sharp SH-03B
(3.7-inch WVGA touch screen, QWERTY keyboard, 5.2MP CMOS camera)

Fujitsu F-02B
(waterproof phone with a mini snap-on perfume holder, 3-inch TFT display, 8MP camera)

LG L-01B
(3-inch WVGA touchscreen, 5.1MP CMOS camera, menus in English/Korean/Japanese, GSM)

LG L-02B
(3-inch WVGA screen, 3.1MP CMOS camera, designed specifically for women)

LG L-03B
(extra-simple and compact phone with 2.8-inch QVGA screen, 3.1MP CMOS camera)

NEC N-01B
(phone developed in collaboration with designer Samantha Thavasa, 3.2-inch WVGA screen, 8.1MP camera, GSM)

NEC N-03B
(waterproof phone, 3.2-inch WVGA display, 8.1MP CMOS camera)

Panasonic P-02B
(3.1-inch WVGA touch screen, 8.1MP CMOS camera, GSM)

Sharp SH-02B
(designer handset with 3.4 inch WVGA display, 8MP CCD camera, GSM)

Sharp SH-04B Q-pot
(phone designed like a chocolate bar, limited to 13,000 units, 3-inch display, 8MP CCD camera)

Sharp SH-05B
(phone designed for teenagers, 3-inch WVGA screen, 5.2MP CMOS camera, available in pink only)

Fujitsu F-03B
(waterproof phone with slim body, 3-inch WVGA display, 12.2MP CMOS camera, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, GSM)

Panasonic P-03B
(extra powerful battery that’s good for 720 hours of standby, 3-inch QVGA OLED display, 8.1 CMOS camera, GSM)

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am

Kindle for PC Ships, Hints at Future Color Kindle

Kindle fans now have one more place they can read their e-books: a PC. Kindle for PC joins the equally well-named Kindle for iPhone and, er, Kindle for Kindle in the list of ways to read Amazon’s digital-rights-managed content. A Mac version is “coming soon”.

The application does pretty much what the iPhone version does: Your place is synced with other devices by Whispersync, and there is support for your bookmarks and annotations. You can browse and buy from the Kindle Store, but you can’t access blogs, newspapers or magazines. This isn’t a problem, we guess, as you’re sitting at a computer with a web browser anyway.

But the thing that intrigues us is the screenshot above (along with more on the Amazon site) that shows a book with color illustrations. This may mean a color Kindle is on its way, or that Amazon is simply future-proofing its Kindle books. Either way, since when did Kindle books get color pictures? It would seem rather bandwidth-unfriendly to a company that restricts international downloads to save on the wireless bills.

On the other hand, you can now buy and read Kindle books without buying a Kindle. Amazon must be expecting its brand name to shift a lot of e-books direct to computers. Imagine, then, how it would answer the question “Why are the pictures on my $1000 computer in black and white?”

Product page [Amazon]

See Also:

• Kindle for PC Could Trigger E-Book Piracy

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Nov 2009 | 5:05 am

SoftBank’s complete 17 cell phone winter line-up (photo gallery)

KDDI did it as early as last month, and today it was NTT Docomo’s and SoftBank’s turn to unveil their line-ups of new cell phones for the Japanese market. Here are all of SoftBank’s 17 future models [JP], which will be sold in Japan from this fall through spring 2010.

Sharp AQUOS 940SH
(3.4-inch ASV screen with 480×854 resolution, Wi-Fi-enabled, 12MP CCD camera/pictured again at the top)

Sharp AQUOS 941SH
(4-inch screen with half XGA (480×1024) resolution, Wi-Fi-enabled, 8MP CCD camera, Blu-ray recorder connectivity)

Sharp AQUOS 943SH
(3.4-inch screen, Wi-Fi-enabled, double digital TV tuner, 8MP CCD camera, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, USB 2.0 port)

NEC 940N
(3.2-inch screen with 480×854 resolution, Wi-Fi-enabled, 8.1MP CMOS camera, extra-slim body)

Panasonic 941P
(3.3-inch VIERA screen, Wi-Fi-enabled, 81.MP camera, can be used as a touch pad for notebooks, Final Fantasy IV pre-installed)

Toshiba dynapocket X02T
(smartphone running on Windows Mobile 6.5, 4.1-inch screen with 480×800 resolution, Wi-Fi-enabled, 1GHz CPU)

Samsung X01SC
(smartphone running on Windows Mobile 6.5, 2.4-inch screen with 240×320 resolution, Wi-Fi-enabled, QWERTY keyboard)

Sharp 942SH
(3.4-inch screen with 480×854 resolution, 8MP camera, Wi-Fi-enabled, designed for highschool girls)

Sharp 942SH KT
(same as the 942SH above, just with Hello Kitty design)

Panasonic 940 P
(slider with 3.1-inch screen (480×854 resolution), 8.1MP camera)

Samsung 940SC
(smartphone with 3.5-inch OLED touch screen and WVGA resolution, Bang & Olufsen speakers)

Panasonic 840P
(extra-simple to use phone with 2.9-inch screen, available in 15 different colors)

Panasonic 840P for Biz
(same as the 840P but designed for use by businesses)

Sharp 840SH
(extra-simple to use phone with 2.9-inch screen, 2MP CMOS camera, available in 7 different colors)

Panasonic 841P
(simple phone with 3-inch QVGA screen, 3.2MP camera with auto focus, GSM)

NEC 741N
(children-compatible phone with 2-inch screen, no camera, waterproof)

NEC 740N
(basically the same model as the 741N, just with a different design)

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 10 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am