Source: Gizmodo | 30 Nov 2009 | 7:20 pm

Verizon will push software updates to the Samsung Intensity and Trance beginning tomorrow

If you’re one of the 600,000 people who bought a Samsung Intensity (SCH U-490) or Samsung Trance (SCH U-450): good news! You’ve got an over-the-air update coming your way. One of our sources just came through with the patch notes for both handset’s respective updates, which are scheduled to begin as early as tomorrow.

There’s nothing too major on the update list here, so don’t expect to wake up to find your phone magically jam-packed with new features. With that said, a few of the soon-to-be-fixed bugs sound pretty annoying – so at worst, consider it a bit of polish.

Find the change lists after the jump:

Samsung SCH u-450

1. Audio gain level tweaked for better performance
2. Scrolling in the web browser no longer generates beeps if the device is in silent or vibrate mobe
3. Mobile IM navigation tweaked so that d-pad input now works as expected in landscape mode
4. Alarm clock notification no longer suspends MMS uploads
5. No more device interrupts when device is in emergency mode
6. Applications opened via smart links will now close properly when asked to from the UI
7. Keypad backlight now lights up when coming out of power save mode, which helps the user be able to unlock the device
8. Spelling errors in UI fixed
9. Urgent voicemails now get a blinking icon
10. Windows Live icon updated
11. A bug seen in landscape mode when replying to a call with a text where the letter E was not working has been fixed

Samsung SCH u-490

1. MMS now properly supports Reply with Copy
2. Several UI software enhancements were made to the way the device handles interruptions when running applications
3. SVG images now supported
4. Bug with how SMSs are handled when out of service area fixed
5. Bug with improper handling of “-“ character in SMS has been fixed

[Thanks, Tipster!]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm

I, For One, Welcome Our New Space Butterfly Overlords

A painted lady butterfly emerges (National Space Biomedical Research Institute) For the first time in history, two butterflies have survived the chrysalis stage of development and spread their wings as fully grown Painted Lady butterflies in microgravity. Although many species ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 7:13 pm

Taking the Heat: Pitt Team Conquers Hurdle to Nano Devices With First Metallic Nanoparticles Resistant to Extreme Heat

Just as a gecko sheds its tail, metal-alloy particles endure 850 degrees Celsius by ditching weaker components, researchers report in Nature Materials
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Nov 2009 | 7:06 pm

Crunchpad comes to an end

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers

The cheap, lounge-around-the-house tablet we knew as the CrunchPad has been pronounced dead in a very anti-climactic way. Michael Arrington’s home-grown dream was intended to be debuted at the Real-Time Crunchup on November 20th. With the end so near in sight, the developers could practically taste the sweet release of their creation to the public.

However, according to Arrington, a shocking e-mail from one of the partners on the project tried to shut Arrington and his Crunchpad team out completely, stating that the shareholders backing the project wanted to release it without any involvement by Arrington. In his post following the incident Arrington made a very good point that releasing the Crunchpad without him is like, “This is the equivalent of Foxconn, who build the iPhone, notifiying Apple a couple of days before launch that they’d be moving ahead and selling the iPhone directly without any involvement from Apple.”

Despite the lack of statement from Fusion Garage (the team partnered with Arrington), things are definitely looking shady. Arrington did say that, “We will almost certainly be filing multiple lawsuits against Fusion Garage, and possibly Chandra and his shareholders as individuals, shortly.”

Read [TechCrunch]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 7:04 pm

Mad As Hell? New Discoveries About The Experience Of Anger

Younger people, those with children and less-educated individuals are more likely to experience anger, according to new UofT research that examines one of the most common negative emotions in society.Drawing upon national survey data of more than 1,000 Americans aged 18 and older, Professor Scott Schieman from the Sociology Department at the University of Toronto has published new findings about the experience of anger.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Nov 2009 | 7:02 pm

Scientists Gain New Understanding Of Disease-Causing Bacteria

For the first time, research elucidates the cellular structure of syphilis pathogenA team of scientists from The Forsyth Institute, the University of Connecticut Health Center, the CDC and the Wadsworth Center, have used state-of-the-art technology to elucidate the molecular architecture of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium which causes syphilis.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:52 pm

Deciding To Have A Baby Is An Easier Step For Public Sector Workers

The relative security of employment in the public sector, together with a more 'family friendly' ethos in the private sector, both the UK and Italy, is thought to foster fertility.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:50 pm

The Therapeutic Benefits of the Human-Animal Bond

A pet owner knows the enormous joy and comfort that an animal can provide, especially in troubled times. Most pets are considered important members of the family and irreplaceable companions.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:47 pm

Apple opens up iTunes LP to you and me

So I made a big deal about the supposed $10,000 premium Apple was charging to make an iTunes LP. As it turns out, that wasn’t the case, and Apple responded to the controversy by saying “Hey buddy, we’re going to be releasing all this stuff for free in a little bit anyway. Chill out.” Or something like that. Well, two months later, they’ve done it: you can now roll your own iTunes LP or Extras, and it costs no more than a click.

It looks remarkably straightforward and there’s no flimflam to be found on the iTunes LP for Developers page, so I think that it really is what it looks like. They’ve included some templates and design guidelines as well, and you better stick to them; Apple will be scrutinizing all submissions, and once it really opens up in Q1 2010, you better be ready for as long a wait as if it were an app.

[via Gizmodo]

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

Stardom announces Safe Capsule storage device for Time Capsule (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - Stardom Storage Solutions announced on Monday the new Safe Capsule, a two-drive RAID 1 solution designed to work with Time Capsule. Easily connected via USB, the Safe Capsule can act as a central storage hub on your network. Multiple users can share data through ethernet and wireless network connections thanks to Time Capsule’s networking capabilities. The Safe Capsule can also be used to provide more storage space for Time Capsule backups.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

Why the CrunchPad Mattered

There's already been quite a bit of ink spilled over the demise of the CrunchPad but I thought I'd add a few drops. My opinion is this: the CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it's fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it. Think about what happened: if we reduce this to its component parts you have some dudes in California who talked to some dudes in Singapore and who agreed to work together on a piece of hardware. I've seen the prototypes and the thing worked and worked well. Most hardware manufacturers can barely take each others meetings let alone coordinate a massive project while separated by a culture and an ocean.
Source: TechCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:26 pm

Black Friday a hit for online retailers

Section: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle

As people waited outside Walmart at three in the morning, there were others that stayed at home, slept in and ordered all of their Black Friday goods online. In fact, according to the data presented by marketing firm Coremetrics, average online sales jumped 35% from last year going from $126.04 for the average online order to $170.19. As a result, there was a 18% increase in the number of items purchased this year from 4.56 to 5.40 items.

Also from the data provided by Coremetrics, it seems people are being smarter about their purchases. With an increase of 40% in the bounce rate, (the number of people who left a site after viewing only one page) it is seen that people are shopping competitively online like they do at brick and mortar retail stores.

Essentially, this is showing us that our economic depression seems to be receding. Black Friday sales are often good representations of how the holiday shopping season is going to be. And with these results, it looks like we could be bouncing back.

Read [Mashable]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:23 pm

Why the CrunchPad mattered

There’s already been quite a bit of ink spilled over the demise of the CrunchPad but I thought I’d add a few drops. My opinion is this: the CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it’s fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it.

Think about what happened: if we reduce this to its component parts you have some dudes in California who talked to some dudes in Singapore and who agreed to work together on a piece of hardware. I’ve seen the prototypes and the thing worked and worked well. Most hardware manufacturers can barely take each others meetings let alone coordinate a massive project while separated by a culture and an ocean.

I won’t speak on the problems with Fusion Garage but up until a few hours ago the entire TC/CG team expected to see the CrunchPad at some point in our lives. This is a massive change in this industry. A few years ago a blogger couldn’t get a press pass to CES let alone enough attention to build out a massive and mass-market hardware project.

Other organizations should learn from this or ignore it at their peril. It would behoove the New York Times, for example, to build something like the CrunchPad for consumption of the newspaper. They won’t do it because it is seemingly off-mission. This is what separates new media from old – the acceptance of risk. You can inject that instinct into old media but, as Devin wrote, “old” media can’t make the same mistakes we can.

Trust me: I’m not patting TC on the back here. I had very little to do with the design of this thing and I was as excited – and incredulous – as you were in regards to this product. It was great being part of the organization that began it and it’s sad to see it go.

Michael wanted to make a CrunchPad. It very nearly happened. This marks a sea change in what our media can accomplish as well as a testament to the good will it has engendered in its readership. In the end, a harsh accident intruded. This is an important distinction because from where I sit this clearly wasn’t a case of harsh reality striking down this project but something far stranger.

So goodnight, sweet CrunchPad. Some day your time will come.

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm

IBM Offers Tivoli Monitoring for Amazon Cloud Deployments (PC World)

PC World - Companies running applications on Amazon Web Services can now monitor their environments using IBM's Tivoli Monitoring software.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:10 pm

Custom Band-Aid dispenser for those foot-long paper cuts

Although the concept here is good, I can’t help thinking that if you need a Band-Aid (elastic bandage, sorry) longer than an inch or so, you probably need something more than a Band-Aid. Except for things like grass and paper cuts, injuries more than an inch in any direction generally don’t just go in a straight line. And what about covering up hickies?

I appreciate the concept, but I don’t think this machine will… cut it. (da dun tssh)

[via Gizmodo]

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

Buying a Digital Camera? Here's What You Need to Know

So many cameras, so little time. Wired's guide to selecting a digital camera is perfect for anyone in the market for a digital camera, whether you're looking for a point-and-shoot or a full-bodied DSLR.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

Buying a Digital Camera? Here's What You Need to Know

So many cameras, so little time. Wired's guide to selecting a digital camera is perfect for anyone in the market for a digital camera, whether you're looking for a point-and-shoot or a full-bodied DSLR.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

Found: Amusement Park Ride From the Future

Thrill-ride-seekers today get high off mammoth loops, 97-degree drops and Dippin' Dots. Brave roller coaster riders of tomorrow will queue up for minitrips to the cosmos and back.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

Found Photoshop Contest: The Future of Over-the-Counter Medicine

This month's Found contest asks you to imagine the future of over-the-counter medicine. In 20 years, what incurable diseases or societal problems will be easily treated after a single trip to Rite Aid?

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

UK Pub Reportedly Fined For Illegal Wi-Fi Download

superglaze and several other readers noted a piece up on ZDNet.co.uk reporting that last summer a pub in the UK was fined £8,000 after a customer downloaded copyrighted material on its Wi-Fi connection. According to the article, whose source was the Wi-Fi hotspot provider, it was a civil action and the pub was not identified because its owner had not given permission to release the details. Techdirt is skeptical as to whether or not the reported fine happened, given the sketchiness surrounding the details. If true, the ruling seems baffling to UK legal experts, according to ZDNet: "Internet law professor Lilian Edwards, of Sheffield Law School, told ZDNet that companies that operate a public Wi-Fi hotspot should 'not be responsible in theory' for users' illegal downloads under 'existing substantive copyright law.'" In a follow-up article, Prof. Edwards cautions that such hotspot operators should "watch out for the pile of copyright infringement warnings coming your way."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:44 pm

A stoplight that could help us save gas?

Section: Gadgets / Other, Green, Miscellaneous, Transportation

We all are guilty of letting our foot off the brake in anticipation for a green light only for it to be a green arrow. Wouldn’t it be great if the stoplights told us how long we have to wait? I mean, they have signs that tell you how long you have to wait before you can cross the street on foot, why not in a car? Well a man named Damjan Stanković has a solution.

It is being proposed as an economic solution for stoplights. With a progress bar wrapping the light telling you how much time is left, Stanković claims this will lessen the amount of gas we waste or keep angry driving at bay. He backs up these arguments by saying that if you know how much longer you’re going to have to wait, you can shut off your engine and relax.

I see this idea as being quite valuable. My feet are always itching to go at stoplights and my eyes are always staring at the other stoplights waiting for them to turn yellow. I also happen to drive an old ’93 pickup that gets 12 mpg if I’m lucky so this might help in that aspect as well.

Read [Yanko]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm

UK’s Sun gooses Apple in this fun little ad

It’s just as Rob over at BoingBoing says: you don’t have to be mean, negative, or hip to make a good point. The Sun and its ilk are still worthwhile and will continue to be so for at least a few years. Don’t forget what years of experience, local contacts, and a nice big tabloid layout can do for you.

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:30 pm

Cyber Monday 2009 game sales roundup

FROM GAMERTELL - Here’s a bullet list of all the video game-related Cyber Monday 2009 sales we’ve spotted so far..
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:30 pm

Count the Power Hogs

Power engineers estimate that electronic devices make up 15-percent of household electric demand.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:29 pm

Nook shipments being delayed for pre-orders and stores?

Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks

Since introducing the Nook, Barnes & Noble has had quite the mixture of both good and bad press.  The device itself has proven to be quite popular, with pre-orders continually being pushed back.  Just earlier to today we found that the device won’t be in high-traffic stores until December 7.  Now, it appears those who pre-ordered it early will not receive their Nooks as planned, either.

According to Matthew Miller of ZDNet, he’s received an email from Barnes & Noble stating that his Nook will be delayed.  According to the email, his Nook should be expected by December 9.  To compensate, B&N has upgraded him to overnight shipping, and given him a $10 online gift certificate.  From personal experience, having put in an order for the Nook on October 20th, I can say I have not yet received such an email.  Although, my shipment still hasn’t shipped according to B&N, so its likely I, and other early buyers will be receiving emails soon.

Barnes & Noble hasn’t said just how many Nooks have been sold, though Sony and Amazon refuse to release numbers as well.  Presumably the number is fairly large, or the Nook’s production is slower or more troublesome than expected.  Hopefully the devices will be shipped before Christmas for those who have been promised such.  It is sad to have to wait any longer for the Nook, but it should hopefully be worth the wait.

Read [ZDNet] Read [Barnes & Noble]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:17 pm

ProResource Launches Toolkit to Help Small Business Owners Outsource Effectively to Virtual Assistants and Freelancers

FAIRFAX, Va., Nov.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:02 pm

Royal Society Releases Historic Science Papers

krou writes "To celebrate its 350th anniversary, the Royal Society has released a number of historic science papers and made them available online via its Trailblazing website. Among the papers are Benjamin Franklin's notes on his kite-flying experiment, a paper on black holes co-written by Professor Stephen Hawking, manuscripts from Sir Isaac Newton showing 'that white light is a mixture of other colours,' and a few other interesting details such as 'a gruesome account of a 17th century blood transfusion.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:56 pm

Cyber Monday 2009: eCost’s Secret Sale game deal

FROM GAMERTELL - There are not many game-specific deals but at least one might seem especially appealing (if you do not already own a PS3)...
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:51 pm

Motorola: Can It Sell One Million Droids This Quarter? [Voices]

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

So, just how many Droid smartphones can Motorola (MOT) sell in the December quarter?

RBC Capital analyst Mark Sue asserted in a research note dated Sunday that he thinks the company has already sold 700,000 to 800,000 Droids, which should make it possible for the company to hit his estimate of 1 million Droids for the quarter. Sue notes that consumers like the phone’s screen and fast processor, but think it could “lose some weight.” Sue also notes that sales of the Cliq and Dext phones are “okay,” but “not great.”

Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron is more conservative: he thinks Droid sales are running slightly behind plan, and that sales for the quarter will likely be 750,000 units. He also says T-Mobile seems to have become “disengaged” from the Cliq, and hasn’t sold many.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:50 pm

The Facebook Verified App Saga Ends Tomorrow

For the last six months, you may have noticed that some of your favorite apps on Facebook Platform carried a special badge deeming them to be “Facebook Verified”. These apps “passed Facebook’s review for trustworthy user experiences”, and were given both greater exposure in the App Directory and less restrictive limits on the number of messages they could send to users. And tomorrow, just over six months after the program launched, Facebook is killing off Verified Apps for good.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise: Facebook announced plans to end the program in late October, and has been Emailing developers about it for weeks. But now that Verified Apps are going away, it’s a good time to look back at the long, convoluted road Facebook took to a program that was ultimately very shortlived.

The Verified Apps program has been anything but a smooth ride for developers. It was first announced at the Facebook developer conference in July 2008, with the intention of helping users identify the most trustworthy apps on the platform. In return for meeting Facebook’s guidelines, apps would be rewarded with bonuses like advertising credits and relaxed rules on how many notifications and messages they could send to users.

More concrete details about the program were revealed the following November, when Facebook opened up the program to applications. Developers were charged a $375 fee to apply, which we likened to a protection racket. But after developers paid their money, Facebook went silent about the program for half a year. That understandably led to growing developer unrest. Finally, nearly a year after it was first announced, Verified Apps made its debut in May 2009.

But Verified Apps was only supposed to be a stepping stone to the site’s true cream of the crop. The most elite class of applications was to be called “Great Apps”, and launched with iLike and Causes as inaugural members. But that was another false start. Two months after the launch of Verified Apps, Facebook revealed that it was canceling its plans for its Great Apps program and demoting current members to regular Verified Apps. Or, as Facebook put it, they were getting rolled into the same thing, so Verified Apps were getting the benefits that would have been reserved for Great Apps.

Despite these logistical hurdles, developers certainly benefited from the program. For example, CampusBuddy, a verified app we covered in September, has grown from 60,000 to over 150,000 monthly active users. CEO Michael Moradian says that the company will especially miss the “extra boosts” that applications received as part of the program because they helped virality. But while CampusBuddy would have liked to see the program continue, Moradian acknowledges that times may be changing. You can see his blog about the news here.

So why is Facebook getting rid of Verified Apps? Facebook gives the following explanation:

We are standardizing the idea of verification to apply to all of the applications on Facebook Platform. We are evolving the program to improve the overall user experience and ensure that applications on Facebook Platform meet verification standards. We intend to make sure that the experience that our users have on Platform is of the same quality as they experience elsewhere on Facebook, which is something that we are constantly asked for by developers.

In other words, Facebook wants every app to be trustworthy. To do that, they’re planning “to expand [the] team responsible for policy enforcement on Platform so that they can support the upholding of the principles we’ve introduced as part of our roadmap.” It’s not really clear why they wouldn’t have done this from the start.

The timing is certainly interesting. Some of the companies we called out in our ScamVille posts for using scammy offers, like Zynga, have some of their apps Verified. Granted, Facebook announced the decision to end Verified Apps a few days before we first broke the Scamville story, but they’ve been aware of the infringing games, offers, and ads for a long time. In effect, they’ve been stamping their seal of approval on games using tactics that are the target of a class-action lawsuit.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:39 pm

Let’s blame Leno’s decline in ratings on the DVR rather than trying to acknowledge that media consumption is changing

I’m pretty sure I wrote the complete opposite story several days ago, but who cares, right? It’s cold and rainy and there’s not much else to talk about. So! As you’re probably well aware, Jay Leno’s new show isn’t doing too well. Why is that? Well, you can try to sit down and analyze if the show is any good or not (note: I haven’t seen the show), or if the show’s earlier time slot isn’t conducive to that type of show. You know, just try to examine what’s going on. That, or you can blame those damn DVRs for ruining everything. Let’s go with that one.

DVRs are now in one-third of Americans households. In the past year, according to Nielsen data, NBC has lost an average rating of 1.8. Simultaneously, DVRs use is up by a ratings point of 1.4.

Coincidence? Maybe, but that’s not how the powers that be are reacting.

Network executives are complaining that, yes, people can skip commercials when viewing shows via DVR. At the same time, they admit that they’d rather have DVR viewers than no viewers at all. That sounds like having their cake, and eating it, too.

Leno’s new show is an interesting one to study. It’s the first really big show to have launched in the DVR era, one that NBC put an awful lot of money behind. (Or don’t you remember all the ads for Leno when the show first debuted?) NBC wanted to make it a nightly show, as opposed to weekly like Saturday Night Live (which would have made it a lot easier to come up with material), so that it would be “DVR-proof.” Like, you can’t DVR the show because he’s talking about today’s news… today.

Only that didn’t happen at all.

If people know that a show is all about topical humor, why would they go back and watch Monday’s show on Thursday night (when they have two hours free)? Let’s assume that tonight Leno runs Tiger Woods jokes, but that on Wednesday, I don’t know, Rush Limbaugh slips on a banana peel while at a political rally. So, do you want to hear Tiger woods jokes or Rush Limbaugh banana peel jokes?

You know what I mean. Because the show is so tied to the day’s events, unless you watch it on the day of release it won’t be worth your while.

So, not DVR-proof but rather DVR cryptonite.

It’s one thing to watched a recorded sitcom a few days later, but a recorded, topical, variety show? That’s a hard sell.

This is before you even factor in that today’s 18-49 year-olds aren’t necessarily going to either A) sit down and watch some TV show live or B) a few days later on DVR delay. We live in an age of streaming Netflix movies, Spotify, iTunes, Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, Twitter, nook and Kindles, etc.

Believe it or not, people can entertain themselves these days without having to sit back and watch TV.

And here’s another idea: maybe Leno’s show just isn’t any good? Again, I haven’t seen it, but I can’t imagine it’s easy coming up with material five days a week, so maybe the product suffers? I never found Leno funny during his run on The Tonight Show, but I know he’s a funny guy. You have to play to your audience. He can’t exactly get away with comedy club-level content on NBC, now can he?

In conclusion, I’m not sure that DVRs, per se, have killed Leno’s show. That’s a gross oversimplification of what’s probably going on: people’s media consumption habits are changing, and NBC relied on people staying in tune with the old model.

But what do I know, I’m over here trying to figure out if I should go AMD or Intel with a gaming PC I’m very close to building.

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:30 pm

Business Software Company Rides In On China's Telecom Wave (Investor's Business Daily)

Investor's Business Daily - In the U.S., it seems like everyone you pass on the street has a cell phone. China isn't like that. But it aspires to be.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:28 pm

Cyber Monday 2009: Buy.com’s game sale items

FROM GAMERTELL - .com has also extended some of its sale items from the Thanksgiving weekend through to Cyber Monday and beyond…
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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:21 pm

India Hanging Up On 25 Million Cell Phones

jvillain writes "India is about to pull the plug on 25 million cell phones in the name of fighting terrorism and fraud. 'The ban by India's Department of Telecommunications has been unfolding gradually since Oct. 6, 2008, six weeks before the attacks in Mumbai killed 173 people and wounded 308. A memo then directed service providers to cut off cellphone users whose devices didn't have a real IMEI — or unique identity number — in the interests of 'national security.' Since then, the move has picked up steam as a way to circumvent terrorists using black market, unregistered cellphones. The Mumbai attackers kept in touch with each other via cellphones and used GPS to pinpoint their attacks, which started Nov. 26, 2008, and went on for three days. The telecommunications department has issued warnings and deadlines through 2009 but has announced this one is for real, telling operators to block cellphones without valid IMEI numbers. Previously, it warned companies to stop importing them and customers to stop buying them.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:12 pm

Is the 27-inch iMac all it's cracked up to be? (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - The quad-core iMac may among the fastest Mac models. But the 27-inch all-in-one desktop might be at risk for a feature that Mac users will not find as impressive—a cracked display.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:05 pm

Review: 2TB G-Drive External Hard Drive

The G-Drive external hard drive line has been out for a bit now. But the latest model is loaded with the Hitachi 2TB 7200RPM 3.5-inch hard drive, which means I had to check it out. Let’s just say, this boy is big, bad, and fast.

Features

• 2TB 7200RPM SATA II hard drive
• eSATA, FW800, FW400, USB 2.0 interfaces
• White LED strobe light
• MSRP of $349.99

Pros

• Fast
• Quiet
• Sexy

Cons

• Pricey

Design

Let’s get one thing out of the way first. This could be the best-looking external hard drive on the market. It looks amazing even if you don’t have a Mac Pro. It’s housed in an aluminum enclosure with a modestly-sized heat sink on the bottom and a very bright activity light that could double as a strobe on the front. At 2.6 lbs, it’s actually quite beefy, too. The backside houses the power rocker and all the ports: a Kensginton lock port, eSATA, twin FW800, USB2.0, and the power input. It’s just an external hard drive, folks. Really nothing fancy here.

Thankfully the drive is as solid as it looks. Each piece is milled from aluminum and held together with counter-sunk screws. It’s really quite beautiful and simple but you’ll void the warranty if you tear yours apart.

Performance

Speed and sound. That’s the name of this game. Who cares if it looks gorgeous but is as slow as a snail? So I ran a few files through each one of the interfaces and came away satisfied.

A 6.7GB file

• eSATA = 1:34 @ 71MB/s
• FW800 = 1:54 @ 59MB/s
• USB 2.0 = 4:27 @ 25MB/s

Those numbers are right on par with what a 7200RPM hard drive with a 32MB cache should do. Of course eSATA was the fastest but Firewire 800 isn’t a slouch either. For comparison, a USB 2.0 bus-powered drive transferred the same file in 4:48 @ 24MB/s.

Unlike a lot of other external hard drives, the G-Drive doesn’t make that much noise. I heard occasional clicks of the hard drive but it’s definitely one of the quieter drives I’ve heard. The solid aluminum enclosure and noise dampening feet are probably to thank for that.

Features

As the Mac-inspired design suggests, the drive is aimed at the OS X crowd, but it works just fine on PCs too. The hard drive comes HFS+ formatted and Time Machine ready, but the included software, or Windows’ Disk Management tool can easily reformat it to NTFS.

Surprisingly, given the $349 price tag, there isn’t any included backup software. I guess Hitachi feels most buyers are probably Mac users and therefore will stick with Time Machine. Still, some users might appreciate and use a basic backup software program.

Overall

The 2TB G-Drive delivers. It can hold a crap-ton of data and manages to keep its transfer speeds up with the best thanks to the fast Hitachi hard drive.  Plus, it looks great next to a Mac or a PC. Too bad the $349 MSRP sets it north of most other options and therefore out of sight for some potential buyers.

Product Page

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

EXFO Announces Positive Preliminary Results for First Quarter of FY 2010

- GAAP net earnings and sales to finish above guidance range - Book-to-bill ratio above 1 QUEBEC CITY, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

KLA-Tencor Launches ICOS(R) WI-2250 Wafer Inspector

CHIBA, Japan, Nov.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

What’s Behind That Short Link? Bit.ly Steps Up Its Efforts To Sniff Out Spam.

With the rise of Twitter, we’ve also seen the rise of link shorteners (standard URLS take up too many characters). The king of the link shorteners right now is bit.ly, which is the default shortener on Twitter and accounts for more than 75 percent of all short URLs on the service. Every month, bit.ly shortens about 1 billion links. For spammers, that’s one huge honey jar.

The flip side of a short link like this one—http://bit.ly/6PwhcP—is that you can’t tell by looking at it what website it redirects to. It could be a TechCrunch post, or it could be a spam site. There’s no way to immediately tell the difference when you see the link in a Tweet. (Don’t worry, it’s a TechCrunch post). You can find out more about any bit.ly link by cutting and pasting it into your address bar and adding a “+” at the end like this—http://bit.ly/6PwhcP+—that will take you to a bit.ly page with all the stats for that page.

The spam problem is getting worse, which is why bit.ly is taking more serious measures to sniff out spam behind its short links. Today it announced it is working with three new services to fight spam and malware: VeriSign’s iDefense, Websense Threatseeker Cloud, and Sophos. These efforts will be in addition to its current attempts to warn users when it suspects malicious sites behind its links.

It’s going to be a constant battle. The best protection from spam is to only click on links from people you trust, but even they can be fooled. And then friendships are lost, society crumbles, and the spammers win. Unless bit.ly can weed out most of those bad links before you even click on them.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:43 pm

Harrabin's Notes: Debating the IPCC - BBC News

Telegraph.co.uk

Harrabin's Notes: Debating the IPCC BBC News In his regular column, the bbc's environment analyst, Roger Harrabin, looks at how the affair of the stolen climate e-mails has sparked debate among some scientists about the body which peer reviews climate science. The content of stolen e-mails from ... Intrigue and Plot Twists in Global Climate TalksNew York Times Climate research e-mail controversy simmersUSA Today Climategate before CopenhagenBoston Globe U.S. News & World Report -Register -Telegraph.co.uk all 321 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:42 pm

Give while giving with GoodSearch.com this Cyber Monday

FROM APPLETELL - If you’re doing some online shopping this Cyber Monday and beyond, why not have some of your money go to charity at the same time?
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:41 pm

The Short, Strange Trip of Nathan Abbott: A Cautionary Tale

An EV enthusiast sets out to ride his Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle across the United States, from Portland to Atlanta. Unfortunately, he never makes it out of Oregon.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:32 pm

Gadgetell Contest: Enter to win an HP Envy 15 notebook

Section: Computers, Laptops, Features, Contests

Its time for another giveaway here on Gadgetell, and as you will see, this one is just a little different than our last. That said, we do have to thank HP. But with that out of the way, the contest is for a brand new HP Envy 15 notebook and will run from today (November 30) through December 13.

In terms of the notebook, again, it is an HP Envy 15 and here are some bullet points that should get you excited.

• This is HP’s fastest consumer notebook and the world’s thinnest, lightest quad-core notebook PC.
• It offers maximum speed and mobility with the upcoming Intel Core i7 Processor and up to 16GB of DDR3 1066 MHz system memory with four SODIMM memory slots. 
• Versatile storage options include the ability to add two solid-state drives in a RAID-0 configuration to improve the overall speed of the ENVY 15 while providing ultimate disk performance. 
• A choice of two 15.6” HP Brightview high-resolution LED backlit displays, including the Full High Definition LED HP Ultra BrightView Widescreen Display with up to 300 nit, provides the best display experience for a notebook in this class.
• But this beauty is also a beast. Envy features the new Intel Core i7 processor which delivers ultimate mobile performance for the most demanding tasks from video editing to intense games. A 15.6” diagonal Brightview widescreen display and ATI Mobility Radeon™ 4830 discrete graphics processor produce the clearest, brightest visuals for viewing Blu-Ray5 and 1080p content.

This contest is also a little more involved, and will require more than just a simple comment or tweet but at the same time it should also be lots more fun. In short, its time to create a video! Here is a list of the guidelines that you will need to keep in mind.

• Videos may be SD or HD, live-action, or animation, and must be under 100 MBs in size.
• Videos must clearly answer the question “What do you want the new HP Envy to do for you?”
• Videos must be posted to YouTube, and announced on Twitter with the hashtag #HPEnvy and @gadgetell
• Due to this video contest being run on multiple blogs, entries are limited to a single submission on one blog only.
• All content must be owned by entrant.
• Anything depicting violence, bodily harm (including cigarette smoking), profanity, nudity or explicit sexual content, or unlawful activity, including underage drinking, binge drinking, or gambling is not permitted in any video submission.

Finally, this one is only open to US residents.

Product [HP Envy 15] Images [HP Envy 15 on Flickr]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

Get PlayOn for only $20 through tonight

You only have a few hours left for this deal, but it’s totally worth it. PlayOn easily adds Hulu, Netflix, ESPN, YouTube, Adult Swim, and so many other Internet video sites to any DLNA-enabled home media device like the PS3 or many network-attached players. Normally it’s $40, but through tonight, it’s only $20. Just use coupon code HOLIDAY when checking out to drop the price.

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

Google Patent Reveals New Data Center Innovations

miller60 writes "'Google is seeking to patent a system that provides precision cooling inside racks of servers, automatically adjusting to temperature changes while reducing the energy required to run chillers.' The cooling design uses an adjustable piping system featuring 'air wands' that provide small amounts of cold air to components within a server tray. The cooling design, which could help Google reduce the power bill for its servers, reinforces Google's focus on data center innovation as a competitive advantage. Check out the patent application and a diagram of the system."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pm

7 Reasons Why ereaders Make Great Gifts This Year - PC Magazine

Times LIVE

7 Reasons Why ereaders Make Great Gifts This Year PC Magazine Some people think ereaders like the Kindle are nothing but a blip in the technology timeline. I beg to differ. by Lance Ulanoff I just read a column by a guy whom I know, respect, and, typically, agree with. However this time, I think Mike Elgan over ... Nook not shipping today as planned, 2 free offers to make up for delayZDNet (blog) Amazon Boasts Record Kindle SalesInformationWeek Amazon says Kindle sales hit monthly record in NovReuters Computerworld -Cherry Hill Courier Post -ChannelWeb all 275 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pm

Pandemic Studios ex-employees recreate scene from Office Space (with video)

FROM GAMERTELL - Former employees of Pandemic Studios recreate one of the most famous scenes from the movie Office Space…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:19 pm

There's No Such Thing as a 'Simple' Organism

Scientists take apart one of the simplest bacteria to produce a sort of beta code for life, and discover that even simple organisms are surprisingly complex.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:15 pm

Best Tip Of The Week: I am not good with computer edition

We get a lot of e-mail at the MobileCrunch tips line. Really, a whole friggin’ lot. About 2% of them are worthwhile tips. The remaining 98% is made up of other bloggers highlighting their stories for linkage (which we don’t mind a bit), Nigerian princes asking for our bank account details (which we do mind), and a surprising number of emails that say nothing but “Sent from my iPhone.”

Every once in a while, a real gem comes along. It’s not a gem in the “Oh wow, this is going to be great for traffic!” sense — no, no, nothing like that. It’s a gem in the “Why the hell did they send us this?” sense. It’s not spam, and it’s not gibberish. In fact, it makes perfect sense – just not in the context.

To give you a small taste of what it’s like to be a blogger on what is arguably the best mobile blog on the entire TechCrunch network, we present a new column: Best Tip Of The Week. Will this be a reoccurring column? If by “reoccurring column” we mean that this’ll probably be the only one before we either run out of good tips or forget about it, yes.

Today’s best tip comes from reader Karen:

Do you all have a phone number? I do not want to buy a computer from you without talking to you first.

Thanks, Karen

We’ll just go ahead and leave that right there.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:06 pm

Core Services Corporation Extends Robust Oracle Solutions with Business Intelligence Hosting and Consulting Services

UNION, N.J., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Core Services Corporation ("Core Services"), an Oracle Certified Partner, announced availability of its Oracle Business Intelligence ("BI") Hosting and Consulting Solutions.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:06 pm

Mac Cloner Psystar Sold Fewer Than 1,000 Hackintoshes

The story keeps getting worse for Psystar, a small Florida-based startup that was selling Mac clones. In its court battle with Apple, a judge recently found Psystar guilty of violating Apple’s copyrights. What’s more, the payoff for being a rebel was meager for Psystar: the startup sold only 768 systems, according to an economist Apple hired to analyze Psystar’s business records.

On top of that, Psystar told investors that it projected it would sell between 1.45 million and 12 million machines in 2011. The small company opened shop in April 2008; Apple sued three months later. 12 million units? Talk about absurdly optimistic.

768 shipments is a puny number, but I’m not all that surprised. Back when I worked as an editor at Macworld, I remember how difficult it was for us to order a Psystar desktop for lab testing. Only after numerous attempts did our order go through; the process felt shady from start to finish. Also, I would imagine that the people who are nerdy enough to desire — and put up with — a PC hacked to run Mac OS X would take it upon themselves to build a Hackintosh of their own (like Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel and I did with our netbooks).

Plus, I can’t imagine many would opt to throw money at a company that’s battling Apple’s legal sharks. That circumstance brought the longevity of Psystar, and its ability to provide customer support, into question. Psystar’s spin for investors is even more bizarre: Psystar argued that its legal battle with Apple would frighten off other potential competitors, thus insulating its success. However, plenty of businesses offering Hackintosh solutions have emerged throughout the course of Psystar’s fight with Apple.

ComputerWorld, the first to report this story, happened upon a slide presentation containing the shipment projections, which Psystar showed to venture capitalists in 2008. Get the full story there.

See Also:

• Psystar ‘Rebel EFI’ Patch Installs Snow Leopard on Any PC
• Psystar Marches Forward With Beefy Mac Clone
• Apple, Psystar File to Protect Secrets Before Battling in Court …
• Judge Dismisses Mac Cloner Psystar’s Bankruptcy
• Mac Copycat Psystar Gets Ammo to Countersue Apple
• Psystar: Blu-Ray Hackintosh for Sale; MacBook Clones on the Way …
• Psystar: Apple Is Paranoid for Alleging Conspiracy

Photo: Psystar

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:51 pm

Scientists Create Artificial Meat

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that scientists have created the first artificial meat by extracting cells from the muscle of a live pig and putting them in a broth of other animal products where the cells then multiplied to create muscle tissue. Described as soggy pork, researchers believe that it can be turned into something like steak if they can find a way to 'exercise' the muscle and while no one has yet tasted the artificial meat, researchers believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years time. '"What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there," says Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University. "You could take the meat from one animal and create the volume of meat previously provided by a million animals." Animal rights group Peta has welcomed the laboratory grown meat announcing that "as far as we're concerned, if meat is no longer a piece of a dead animal there's no ethical objection while the Vegetarian Society remained skeptical. "The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered. It would be very difficult to label and identify in a way that people would trust.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:46 pm

C & A Marketing Obtains Polaroid License

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., Nov.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm

Image Sharing Demonstration And Pilot Network Link To PHRs And Enable 'Meaningful Use'

What: The Image Sharing Demonstration at RSNA 2009 will encompass methods for sharing images, reports and related information for the improvement of patient care in radiology.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:26 pm

Twitter: 2009 Word of the Year

The word Twitter, the popular social networking service, tops all others in the past year.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm

Mel Karmazin's Wish List: More Satellite Radios, Fewer Journalists [MediaMemo]

Sales of new satellite radio players are doing just fine, Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin tells Reuters. That’s more important for the company than ever because car sales, which traditionally drove the company’s revenue, don’t seem likely to bounce back for quite some time.

Karmazin credits some of his sales success to a new ad campaign. I guess he has to say that inasmuch as he approved the campaign, but I have a hard time believing it. I’ve seen this ad several times, but until I read this interview, I had no idea it was for Sirius (SIRI):

Meanwhile, maybe it’s just self-interest/projection, but I was struck by the fact that Karmazin seemed to go out of his way to tell the Reuters staff how little he thought of it.

Or maybe he was talking about journalists in general: After being greeted by a dozen Reuters reporters at the company’s Global Media Summit,” Karmazin declared that if he was running the news service, only one of them would be employed.

Here’s Reuters media reporter Robert MacMillan’s account of the exchange, via Twitter:

Source: All Things Digital | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:23 pm

Twitter’s Downtime Also Downs Downforeveryoneorjustme

So this is funny. Yes, Twitter is having downtime issues right now. Yes, again. But that’s nothing new, obviously. What is new is that Twitter being down has also apparently borked the site many people use to check if Twitter is down, downforeveryoneorjustme.

While the site, made by Ryan King, is working for every other site on the web, the image below shows what is returned when you put in twitter.com now. Did I mention King is now a Twitter employee? Beyond meta.

And yes, I tried putting in downforeveryoneorjustme.com into downforeveryoneorjustme — and I somehow ended up inside John Malkovich’s head.

Update: Both are back up now, however the Twitter Lists feature appears to be disabled.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:22 pm

French Court Fines eBay €1.7 Million [Voices]

By Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton said Monday that a French court fined eBay €1.7 million ($2.6 million) over perfume listings, despite filtering technology that the online auctioneer said is screening out unlawful items.

The court accused eBay (EBAY) of “the unlawful marketing” of Christian Dior, Givenchy and other LMVH cosmetics.

EBay said in a statement Monday that it has taken steps to hide LMVH products from French shoppers and that the illegal listings LMVH submitted contain misspelled brand names or only pictures of products, which enabled them to slip through the cracks.

Alex von Schirmeister, eBay’s general manager in France, added that the fine is disproportionate given the company’s compliance, and that the decision enforces “anti-competitive” distribution practices.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:22 pm

Obstacles Speed Up Exiting Crowds

If you’ve been to a big concert, or a ball game, with a big crowd of other people, you know what happens when it’s time to leave. A people traffic jam. Bigger doorways don't help, but can you believe that obstacles do?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:16 pm

Dell Defect Turning 2.2GHz CPU Into 100MHz CPU?

jtavares2 writes "In what is being dubbed as Throttlegate, scores of users on many message boards have been complaining about inexplicably aggressive throttling policies on their Dell Latitude E6500 and E6400 laptops which cause its CPUs to be throttled to less than 5% of its theoretical maximum even while in room temperatures. In many cases, the issue can be triggered just by playing a video or performing some other trivial, but CPU intensive, task. After being banned [PDF] from the Dell Forums for revealing 'non-public information,' one user went so far as to write and publish a 59-page report [PDF] explaining and diagnosing the throttling problem in incredible detail. Dell seems to be silent on the issue, but many users are hoping for a formal recall."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm

Europe Fears U.S. Kowtowing to Industry in ACTA Talks

The European Union fears the Obama administration is caving to the entertainment industry as the United States negotiates a secret international copyright treaty.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm

Webcast Alert: Fourth Quarter 2009 Earnings Conference Call

BROKEN ARROW, Okla., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Xeta Technologies, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

OmniVision Reports Financial Results for Second Quarter of Fiscal 2010

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- OmniVision Technologies, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pm

Broadcom to Acquire Dune Networks

IRVINE, Calif., Nov.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

PFC Pharma Joins DATATRAK's CRO Connect Program

CLEVELAND, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DATATRAK International, Inc. (OTCQX: DATA), a technology and services company focused on global eClinical solutions for the clinical trials industry, today announced that PFC Pharma Focus AG (PFC) has joined its CRO Connect Program.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

How to Snap a Camera-Toss Picture

Ryan Gallagher, founder of Camera Toss, offers up a crash course on how to flip your shooter into the air and produce light-trail imagery.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm

Toshiba, GQ Auction off Celebrity Notebooks for Charity

Toshiba and GQ have teamed up to auction off limited-edition notebooks designed around celebrities’ lifestyles. The celebrities involved are Hines Ward, Joe Perry, Omar Epps and Rainn Wilson.

All bias for The Office’s Dwight shoved aside, my vote goes to Rainn Wilson. He was the only celeb in this event to design his own notebook (above), according to a Toshiba spokeswoman, and it looks ludicrously hysterical. The other three celebs’ notebooks were designed by Toshiba.

The notebooks are being auctioned off on eBay until Friday. Each celebrity lists his chosen charity on Toshiba’s website.

Photo: Toshiba

(Thanks, Kelly!)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm

Review: TomTom Car Kit for iPhone and iPod Touch

Short Version

$219.94. The price says it all. The TomTom Car Kit is great; it works perfectly, and I loved using it. In fact, I wish I could keep the review unit that TomTom sent me. That said, would I ever spend 2 bills and change on it? Mayyyybe, but it’s unlikely. A standalone TomTom GPS unit can be as cheap as $100, which is half the price of the TomTom Car Kit ($119.95) + TomTom GPS App ($99.99) for the iPhone. Furthermore, it’s hard to justify buying both the hardware and the software when there are cheaper options for both (more on that later).

Of course, the product does serve multiple purposes as an in-car iPhone charger, Bluetooth speakerphone and GPS unit. All in all, I was fairly impressed with the device and think those that aren’t turned off by the price might consider its purchase. The convenience of an all-in-one device is compelling.

Hit the jump to read on…

Slightly Less Short Version

The TomTom Car Kit (as previously mentioned) was a blast to use. Super easy to install: I simply stuck the kit onto the dash, plugged the car charger into the cigarette lighter and popped in my iPhone. The first time around you have to pair the TomTom’s Bluetooth signal with your iPhone, but after that it automatically connects whenever you plug the iPhone into the kit. Then, I fired up the TomTom GPS application on my iPhone and it was just like any other TomTom GPS. You type in your destination and it provides turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions.

The directions were extremely accurate, and the TomTom kit corrected any problems with the iPhone GPS. On the iPhone, if I’m on a road parallel to another (e.g. driving on a highway and there’s a side-road right next to it), the GPS will go all over the place: one second I’ll be on the highway, the next I’ll be on the side-road. That problem was completely eliminated once I started using the TomTom kit. Moreover, the TomTom kit was quick to determine what direction I was going, which was another problem with the iPhone’s GPS system. Finally, I didn’t ever drop the signal of the GPS – I was pleasantly surprised that even if I was in a dead zone the GPS signal was rock-solid. Overall, the TomTom kit served extremely well as a GPS.

On top of the GPS features of the TomTom Car Kit, it was great as an all-in-one car kit for your iPhone. It charges your phone at a decent rate, so you’ll never run out of battery. The Bluetooth speakerphone is very valuable – it’s not quite as loud as I would have liked, but it’s way better than the iPhone’s abysmal speakers and provides a great hands-free calling option. The Car Kit’s suction cup sticks to the windshield extremely well, which is nice because you probably don’t want your precious iPhone to come crashing down while you’re driving along the highway.

Why the TomTom Car Kit Probably Isn’t Worth It

Ultimately, though, the fact that the kit worked is only part of the puzzle. The other major decision point for me was if I thought it was an overall good buy – and if I was satisfied with its value proposition vis-a-vis other options for navigating with your iPhone. Here are three reasons why I’m fairly uncertain as to whether I’d ever buy the TomTom GPS Kit for the iPhone:

First, Google Maps Navigation. When Google announced that their maps product for Android OS 2.0 was going to be completely free, and provide turn-by-turn voice-provided navigation to all, it spelled the end of for-pay GPS applications. It is only a matter of time before this comes out for the iPhone – absolutely free – and when it does, there would be no reason to buy the TomTom GPS application, or any others for that matter.

Second, the current Google Maps software is sometimes a better option than a TomTom-augmented iPhone solution. I don’t understand why GPS companies are so dumb. Google Maps has been out for years, yet search on the GPS devices still sucks. In fact, it’s so bad that I am sometimes too lazy to use the TomTom device because of all the buttons I have to press to enter my final location. There are three simple reasons. First, TomTom’s search is awful. It doesn’t have nearly as many cached locations as Google (”In-N-Out Burger” in Fremont, CA yielded zero results). Searching for categories (”grocery” or “restaurant”) is unusable. And I can’t do specific searches such as “chinese food” or “movie theater.” Second, I have to type in the address part-by-part. Instead of “43349 Pacific Commons Blvd., Fremont, CA” I have to type in “CA” >> “Fremont” >> “Pacific Commons Blvd” >> “43349″. Last but not least, I can’t cut and paste in an address. So if I use Google’s far superior search, I can’t simply cut and paste the address from Google into TomTom. Instead, I have to memorize the address and plug it in. Hands-down, Google Maps is easier to use for finding locations and directions than TomTom.

The third reason I’m uncertain about the TomTom GPS Unit is that the price is way too high. If a GPS unit costs $80-$150 for both the hardware and the software bundled together, why the hell would I pay more than $200 for ONLY half the hardware and the software? Them’s crack prices. Seriously, it is ridiculous: my iPhone is far more powerful than any TomTom hardware is, and all I need on top of that is a speakerphone and an improved GPS signal.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve got cash to burn and like the convenience of the iPhone as a true all-in-one full-featured device, then go ahead and buy the TomTom Car Kit. It is great as a Bluetooth speakerphone and the GPS actually works (unlike the iPhone’s native GPS, which is shoddy). If you’re cash-conscious, however, I’d stay away. Be patient, wait until Google Maps Navigation comes out, and then buy a $30-50 speakerphone so you can talk in the car.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:04 pm

Angled Lens Means Comfier Grip on Samsung Camcorder

Samsung offsets some of the HMX-R10 camcorder's shortcomings (like poor low-light sensitivity) with pretty smart design. The angled lens promises comfier shooting, and the swiveling touchscreen makes a slick command center.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

Kiwi Rocket Scares Sheep, Reaches Space

A New Zealand startup successfully launches a small rocket into space from a private island off its northeast coast.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

Canada finally gets the MiFi via Bell Mobility

Damn it, Canada.

As an inhabitant of another country on the same continent, it is my duty to highlight all of the things we have that you don’t. I mean, who needs universal health care when you’ve got truck nuts? Every time someone would bring up the US’ lack of Poutine, I’d counter with the fact that Canada still didn’t have the MiFi hotspot. Alas, I can no longer do so. I’m running out of stuff.

Today, Bell Canada has announced the availability of the MiFi 2732, which connects to Bell’s network to provide 7.2 mbps WiFi to up to 5 users. It’ll set you back $249.95 sans contract – but if you’ll sign up for a 3-year contract, they’ll drop it down to $99 bucks.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 12:18 pm

Skip Commercials on Your DVR

We're in the middle of basketball and football season, which means it may feel like you're watching almost as many ads as free throws and passes. Forgo the TV time-out and learn how to skip commercial breaks on your DVR with a single button press.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 30 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pm

New iPhone in the Wild — Perhaps With Revamped Maps?

A device identifier indicates the fourth-generation iPhone is already being field-tested. Incidentally, a new Apple job listing reveals the company is planning a major upgrade for iPhone's Maps app.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 30 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

New iPhone in the Wild — Perhaps With Revamped Maps?

You’ve gotta love analytics. A developer has spotted a new iPhone model identifier in usage records of its iPhone app, which indicates Apple has begun field-testing prototypes of its next-generation handset.

IPhone developer Pandav told MacRumors that usage logs revealed “iPhone3,1″ — a device identifier that does not match up with any shipping iPhones. Apple’s current iPhone 3GS is distinguished by the identifier “iPhone2,1,” an internal device-identification number assigned by Apple.

Pandav’s analytics report was provided by PinchMedia, which in the past noted the device identifier for the iPhone 3GS prior to its release. PinchMedia in October 2008 spotted an unfamiliar device ID labeled “iPhone 2,1,” which turned out to be the string representing the iPhone 3GS that launched in June.

While it’s dead obvious that Apple is planning to release upgrades for its products, the timing offers insight into Apple’s workflow. If “iPhone3,1″ is indeed the next iPhone, the time between field testing and release is consistent with the iPhone 3GS (aka “iPhone2,1″)  — about eight months.

MacRumors also discovered over the weekend a new Apple job listing that hints at Apple’s plans to deliver a major upgrade to its Maps app for the iPhone. The job listing seeks an iPhone Software Engineer to help take the iPhone’s built-in Maps App to “the next level”:

We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We’ve only just started.

With that listing it becomes crystal clear why Apple purchased the mapping company Placebase earlier this year.

See Also:

• IPhone Boosts Google Maps Usage
• GPS Hackers Blaze Own Trails With Crowdsourced Maps
• Apple Buyout of Mapping Firm Hints at Future Breakup With Google …

Photo: SteveGarfield/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:57 am

Cyber Monday CrunchDeal: “Free” Droid Eris

It may not have seen as much hype as it’s big brother, the Moto Droid, but the Verizon Droid Eris is still one helluva handset. Generally coming in at around $99 bucks, it’s one of the cheapest ways to get in on all this Android-hullabaloo – and for one day, it’s even cheaper. And by “cheaper”, we mean free.

Celebrating good ol’ American consumerism, Dell Mobility is taking part in Cyber Monday by dropping the price tag on the Droid Eris down to nothin’.

Of course, it’s not really free. That is, it’s not free as in beer. It’s free as in something that costs you $0 dollars up front but around $2,000 after a 2-year contract. With that said, you’ll likely have the same 2-year contract regardless – so you might as well save a Benjamin on the initial costs.

Update: Looks like the deal is over – they’ve bumped the price back up to $49.99

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am

Tareq and Michaele Salahi: Epic Fibbers?

If now the infamous White House Dinner Party Crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi did in fact lie their way into the Obama receiving line, they must have been pretty convincing. This interview below may explain how they were able to ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:43 am

LG announces GW820 ‘eXpo’ smartphone w/ 1GHz processor and optional projector

LG has announced a new Windows Mobile 6.5-based smartphone, the eXpo. But unlike other 6.5 smarties on the market, the newest member of the LG family is packing just about everything but the kitchen sink including a 1GHz processor, a built-in fingerprint sensor, and an optional Pico Projector. Maybe they should have named it the LG SwissArmy Knife Phone.

That’s right. You can add a Pico Projector (sold separately) to this badboy that will “project images, video and Web pages up to a 40″ screen size onto any surface.” Unfortunately, LG has not offered any further details on the cost or availability of said add-on projector at this time.

But besides the optional projector, powerful Qualcomm (speculated to be Snapdragon) processor, and James Bond-like fingerprint scanner, the GW820 also features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3.2″ 800×480 touch screen display, 5MP camera w/flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, accelerometer, proximity sensor, and an FM radio among other things.

The device measures 4.5″ x 2.24″ x 0.65″ (sans projector), has a 1500mAh Li-polymer battery, and, according to Phone Scoop, will initially be made available to AT&T enterprise customers for $200 (after MIR and new contract) on December 7.

Here’s a complete list of the eXpo’s features (via the official datasheet – PDF link):

LG eXpo™ Specifications
Smartphone Features:
• Network: GPRS/EDGE Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz),
UMTS/HSDPA Tri-band (850/1900/2100 MHz)
• Camera: 5.0 MP autofocus, digital 3x zoom with built-in flash
• Dimensions: 4.45″ H x 2.16″ W x 6.3″ D
• Memory: 512 MB ROM + 256 MB RAM
(expandable 16 GB microSD™)
• Display: 3.2″ 16M color WVGA (800×480 pixels)
• Battery: 1500mAh Li-polymer
• OS: Windows Mobile® 6.5
• Bluetooth®: v2.1 with A2DP
• Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g with WPA2 security
• Email: Outlook®/Direct Push, POP, IMAP
• Messaging: Threaded SMS, MMS, Email, IM
• Keyboard: Side-sliding QWERTY
• Processor: Qualcomm 1 GHz
Highlighted Features:
• Integrated Pico Projector (sold separately): Allows users to project
images, videos and more on a screen up to 40″
• 5.0 MP AF camera with built-in flash
• Simultaneous voice and data with multi-tasking
• Touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.5 – the new Windows Phone
• Innovative 5-way navigation fingerprint sensor
• Turn-by-turn directions with AT&T NavigatorSM (sold separately) and
built-in GPS
• Access to your favorite AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots with built-in Wi-Fi
• Vivid display with 16M color high resolution display
• 3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps broadband data speeds
Email, Messaging, Productivity and Internet Solutions:
• Access work and personal email accounts
• SMS, MMS, IM (AOL®, Windows Live™ and Yahoo!®)
• Microsoft Office® Mobile including Word®, Excel®, PowerPoint®
and OneNote®
• Internet Explorer® Mobile
Multimedia Tools and Services:
• Windows® Media Player
• AT&T MEdia™ Mall, MusicID, XM Radio™, MobiTV® and Games

[via PCMag]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:35 am

Leaked Screenshots show HTC Hero running Android 2.1

HTC Hero owners, we feel your pain. Just months ago, you had the hottest Android device in existence. While it’s still one damned-slick piece of mobile on the hardware front, the software — now two builds behind — is beginning to show its age. You wouldn’t believe how many requests I get in the tips line asking if we’ve got any details on when the Hero’s getting the update treatment.

We still don’t know when, but it looks like we’ve now got a good idea of what the next Hero update will be: Android 2.1.

If these screenshots that BeGeek.FR managed to dig up are any indication, it looks like HTC might be skipping Android 1.6 and Android 2.0 all together, instead diving straight into the as-of-yet unannounced Android 2.1. As you can see, HTC’s custom “Sense” UI seems to be tickin’ away on the platform, which is good news; last we’d heard, that was the hurdle that was keeping HTC handsets from getting 2.0-ified.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:20 am

CrunchPad Tablet Dies Stillborn

After months of delays and radio silence, web 2.0 cheerleader and temperamental blogger Michael Arrington has declared his inexpensive web tablet project CrunchPad dead.

Arrington announced the end of the CrunchPad on Monday through a blog post that laid the blame on his development partner, Singapore-based company Fusion Garage.

“The entire project self destructed over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication,” he wrote on his blog.

Arrington says Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan “based on pressure from his shareholders had decided to move forward and sell the device directly through Fusion Garage, without our involvement.”

“I’m enraged, embarrassed, and just sad,” Arrington wrote. “The CrunchPad is now in the deadpool.”

Neither TechCrunch nor Fusion Garage own the intellectual property of the CrunchPad “outright,” claims Arrington. A team from both companies worked together on the project and they allegedly shared development expenses. Arrington says the two companies jointly own the CrunchPad product intellectual property, while TechCrunch solely owns the CrunchPad trademark.

Fusion Garage did not return an e-mail request for comment.

Arrington first floated the idea of a tablet in June last year. He talked of a touchscreen device that would run Firefox and Skype on top of a Linux kernel. The tablet would have low-end hardware — a power button, a headphone jack, speakers, a microphone and a built-in camera for video. It would come with Wi-Fi, 512 MB of memory, a 4-GB solid-state hard drive and no keyboard. All this for $200.

The idea seemed promising, especially because other major PC makers including Apple and Dell are reportedly working on tablets due for launch next year.

Critics, however, pointed out that for CrunchPad delivering those features at the promised price and within the scheduled time frame would be a challenge. Production costs and a challenging retail environment would eat into profit margins, they said.

CrunchPad never moved beyond the vaporware category. Even a prototype version of the device was not shown publicly. But that didn’t deter some industry watchers from hailing it as the next ‘it’ product. Last month, Popular Mechanics named the CrunchPad to its “ten most brilliant products of 2009″ list.

In his blog note, Arrington says the CrunchPad was ready for a public launch in two weeks. The “plan” was to show it at his Real-Time Crunchup event on November 20, he says.

“We even hoped to have devices hacked together with Google Chrome OS and Windows 7 to show people that you could hack this thing to run just about anything you want,” he wrote. “We’d put 1,000 of the devices on pre-sale and take orders immediately. Larger scale production would begin early in 2010.”

His team had reportedly been able to get the CrunchPad to around a $300 price point for larger distribution.

Arrington makes a few other eyebrow-raising claims. He says a “major multi-billion dollar retail partner has been patiently working with us for months, giving advice on manufacturing partners and offering to sell the CrunchPad at a zero margin to help us succeed in the early days.”

“They were even willing to fly the devices from China on their own planes to eliminate our shipping costs,” he wrote.

As for financing, if Arrington is to be believed, venture capitalists and angel investors have been beating down his door since spring to invest money in the project.

But take all of this with a big grain of salt. Arrington’s earlier promises regarding the CrunchPad never panned out, and his latest missive only points to his inability to walk the talk.

See Also:

• Calling CrunchPad: Is Anybody Home?
• CrunchPad Prototype Peeks Out Again
• Web 2.0 Mogul Michael Arrington Creates New Web Tablet

Photo: CrunchPad Tablet/Techcrunch

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am

CrunchPad Tablet Dies Stillborn

Web 2.0 cheerleader Michael Arrington's inexpensive tablet project CrunchPad is dead. Arrington blames his development partner, Singapore-based Fusion Garage.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am

Playmesh Tops the Charts with #1 Game on the iPhone: iFarm downloaded 1 million times in 10 days

You might find this suprising, but the top social gaming companies on the iPhone are not the same ones you know of from Facebook and MySpace. Zynga, despite $54.2M in funding, has hardly made a dent on the iPhone. Neither has Playfish, which was recently bought for $300M. Playdom hasn’t done squat, either. Although “the big three” of social gaming are great at online games, they aren’t doing too well on the iPhone. For example, Zynga’s Mafia Wars game hardly hit the top 25 throughout its time on the App Store.

One company that is cleaning up on the App Store is Playmesh, a small startup with only 5 employees (4 of which are founders). They’ve had 15 apps on the App Store, and just announced that their iFarm iPhone App [iTunes link] has been downloaded 1 million times in just 10 days. Though just a free app, 1 million downloads in such a short time span is extremely impressive. Other than ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro, I haven’t heard of an app that’s done better on the App Store.

But more impressive than iFarm’s success is the business that 23-year-old UCLA graduate and Playmesh CEO Charles Ju has managed to create. They’ve had 6 top 25 games since they started in January. Charles wouldn’t disclose revenue numbers, but he did say that Playmesh has 5 million users and 10 million downloads. They develop exclusively on the iPhone, and are able to generate between $0.50-$1 Average Revenue per User. That’s because they’ve mastered the two primary pain points of the App Store: distribution and monetization. They first launched a social gaming app in January, a game called iMafia [iTunes link], a clone of the popular Mafia Facebook games. Back then, says Charles, distribution was easy as long as you’re game was viral and encouraged organic growth. Slowly, over the next few months, they generated an install base that is extremely powerful. Now, anytime they launch a game, they simply promote it in their existing apps and immediately enter the Top 100. In this way, distribution is easy for them – Charles did note, however, that distribution for new app companies on the App Store is damn near impossible nowadays.

On to monetization. They earn money through two channels: advertising and virtual goods. Games such as Link4 Online [iTunes Link] are powered entirely on advertising, and they have managed to get CPM’s of $1 through Greystripe’s mobile ad network. This strategy seems to be achieving solid results; Link4 Online gets over 1 million plays a day and is #18 on the Top Free list. It’s important to note that they were considering using TapJoy’s platform until “the OfferPal shitstorm” hit, according to Charles. Since then they steered clear of any offer-based revenue.

Playmesh has quietly become one of the biggest social gaming companies on the App Store, despite the fact you may never have heard of them. One of the other major success stories, Storm8, was recently banned from the App Store by Apple due to a scandal regarding illegally-obtained cell phone numbers. Playmesh seems to be right up there with SGN and ngmoco – two of the other major gaming companies for the App Store – but because they’ve got no venture funding and no marketing or PR representatives, they aren’t in the spotlight quite as often. One thing to note is that Playmesh doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of creativity, unlike SGN and ngmoco. Their most successful games are just rip-offs of existing games – in fact, many of their games use the same back-end but are simply re-skinned and re-purposed under different names.

Regardless, Playmesh seems to be a great Silicon Valley success story; they’ve hit two hot trends at just the right time: social games and the iPhone App Store. They aren’t looking for funding (Charles says they don’t need it), and are currently open to merger and acquisition offers.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:02 am

And we’re back!

You may have noticed things have been a bit quiet on the MobileCrunch front for the past few days. After a few months of nose-to-the-grindstone, the siren call of over-packed plates and family good times stemming from the Thanksgiving holiday was too much; we locked up shop for a few days, headed home, and had a good ol’ vacation.

And with that out of the way, we’re back with bellies stuffed and typin’-fingers rested. Expect more stories and faster coverage over the next few weeks, now that my writin’ cells are all recharged. Oh, and be on the lookout for contests – we’ve got some awesome stuff lined up for December.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 30 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

Alleged Nazi Death Camp Guard Faces Trial

John Demjanjuk is charged with assisting in the murder of 27,900 people at a concentration camp.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 10:55 am

Scalloped Hammerhead and Bonnethead Sharks Have 360 Degree Vision

The old idiom "eyes in the back of your head" holds somewhat true for scalloped hammerhead and bonnethead sharks, according to new research that found these sharks possess a 360 degree field of vision. Virtually nothing can escape their view. ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 8:46 am

Baby Brown Dwarf Twins Spotted by Astronomers

The discovery of the young brown dwarfs could provide valuable insights into star formation.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 30 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am

A Bit Cross: Crucifix-Shaped Multi-Tool

There’s everything to love about this cross-shaped screwdriver/pendant from designer Michiel Cornelissen, not least the pun-tacular name: A Bit Cross. Here’s Michiel’s description:

With its combination of symbolical and practical strengths, it’s hard to think of a situation where this pendant would not have you covered.

We don’t know if this new Christian Utility niche will take off, or even if it’s really allowed — is it considered respectful to use a cross to put together IKEA furniture, for example (the tool is designed to fit IKEA’s standard flat-pack hex bolts)?

The cross-driver is made from “laser sintered stainless steel”, designed by Cornelissen and “printed” by online 3D printing service Shapeways. The steel isn’t hardened like a proper tool, but for light jobs, or just to wear as an awesome pendant, it will do fine. The tool costs €30 or $45, and ships without the red leather cord. If you were thinking of buying me a Christmas present, consider this at the top of my list.

Product page [Michiel Cornelissen via Make]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

3D Video-Conferencing With Cheap USB Webcams

The best hacks are often the simplest. FourEyes3D is one of these, and it takes a pair of standard webcams and uses them to make a stereo video, letting you beam your ugly mug in three glorious dimensions to anyone who can be convinced to watch.

Hook up the cams and the software (Mac-only) combines the two feeds into one stereoscopic image. The trickiest part is the actual positioning of the cameras, as the developer tells us: “The finicky part is mounting your matched pair of generic USB webcams 90 millimeters apart (the same distance apart as your own eyes).”

Best of all, you don’t need any fancy displays to view the 3D video. All you need is to send mom a pair of red/cyan specs and she can peek at your z-axis over your next iChat video call. This is because the stereo images from the cameras are converted to the old 1950s-style, headache-inducing anaglyph method. I think this would be a lot of fun, especially on my weekly family Skype calls. Just whether it would be $30 worth of fun is another matter, but there is a demo available.

FourEyes3D Product page [b-l-a-c-k-o-p]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 6:21 am

TTL ‘Poverty Wizard’ Flash Triggers

Flash photography with digital cameras is fantastic. Gone are the days of working out hard math in your head and then hoping that you’ll get your shots back from the lab with something near a correct exposure. And you could forget anything experimental unless you had time and money to burn. With an off camera flash and a digital camera, even if you are shooting fully manual all you need to do is look a the LCD and adjust. Easy, and fun.

And what’s even better is cordless, automatic flash. I long ago stopped using manual for anything but the weirdest of lighting, preferring aperture priority and quick tweaks to the exposure compensation dial. And with a modern DSLR, the camera will chirrup a few pre-flashes and communicate instructions to the remote strobe via further staccato IR blips. Exposure tweaks are done by you, from the camera itself, controlling an almost limitless number of speedlights.

The problem is line of site, and for the instructions to reach the flashes the camera needs to be able to “see” them. Enter the Pocket Wizard, a high-ticket set of RF remotes that can trigger your flashes via radio, increasing range and working around corners. The trouble is that even the Canon compatible versions have so far been both expensive and not worked so well with TTL auto.

Enter the Pixel remote, a sub-$200 (£100 or $165) set of triggers that beams the info from your Canon or Nikon camera to the flash over 2.4GHz radio (just like Wi-Fi) for up to 200 feet. One unit hooks up to the hot-shoe and to the camera’s PC socket, the other offers a shoe for the flash to slide into. Instead of taking the camera’s coded IR blips and converting them to RF and back again, the Pixel acts as a remote hot-shoe, with the flash and camera behaving as if they were actually joined together at the shoe.

The setup allows full i-TTL control for Nikon, and will be available for Canon in the New Year. The Chinese-made units have so far found a UK distributor (or rather, Ebayer), but should hopefully be coming to the US soon.

Pixel Product page [Pixel HK via Strobist]

See Also:

• Radipopper: Smart, Remote Control Flash Photography
• Twelve Strobe Rig Blots Out the Sun

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am

Tools: Is That a Piranha in Your Pocket?

Before we tell you any more about the Piranha from Pocket Tool X, take another look at the picture and try to guess what tools it mimics. We got box wrenches, screwdrivers (easy) and bottle opener (of course), but missed “nail puller, scraper and pry ends”.

The Piranha is named, we guess, because if you were to fall into a pond with a few hundred of them you would be stripped to the bone in seconds. Or it could be that it is just very strong for its size. Whatever the reason, the Piranha looks to be both useful and long-lasting, the S30V Stainless Steel blade is an alloy designed for knife-making and keeps a hard edge longer, useful for these flat blade tools that can wear on corners and quickly become useless. And with Allen wrenches instead of screwdriver bits, this would make a great carry-everywhere bike tool.

The Piranha will cost $50 and starts to ship in December.

Piranha product page [Pocket Tool X. Thanks, Justin!]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:22 am

Amazon Promises Kindle Update for Better Content Organization

The Amazon Kindle has many problems: inconsistent international support for both features and availability of titles, a rather too-dark gray screen, no touch and the inability to display any EPUB-format titles bought elsewhere.

Once you start reading, though, the Kindle manages to do what Amazon promises: It disappears in your hand. Apart from the odd bright light reflecting in the screen, you almost forget you’re not reading a paper book. But if you have more than a handful of titles, then good luck browsing them. Although there are separate sections for periodicals, books and the content you have added yourself, Amazon’s attempt at organizing seems to be just to leave everything there in one long list. Imagine trying to navigate a real bricks and mortar bookshop with all the titles arranged either alphabetically or by release date* and you’ll get an idea of the problem.

Now, through the popular social networking site Facebook, the Kindle team has promised to fix things:

We have heard from many of you that you would like to have a better way to organize your growing Kindle libraries. We are currently working on a solution that will allow you to organize your Kindle libraries. We will be releasing this functionality as an over-the-air software update as soon as it is ready, in the first half of next year.

That could, of course, be up to six months away. Amazon has tied its own hands by going for the computer-free model. PC and Mac owners can of course drag and drop content to and from the Kindle, but Amazon doesn’t require you to have a computer to own one (although you need web access to buy one). This means that all the functionality needs to be available on a clunky, slow-refreshing machine with a bad keyboard, instead of going the iTunes route and exploiting the strengths of both computer and mobile device. And this is starting to make the Barnes and Noble Nook, with it’s coverflow-style color LCD screen, look rather more attractive.

Kindle Facebook promise [Facebook]

*If you visited Foyles bookstore in London before the owner Christina Foyle’s death in 1999, you could have experienced this for real: The 30 miles of shelves were organized not by subject or even author but, inexplicably, by publisher.

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen 'Nook' E-Reader …
• Kindle Goes International — With a Little Help From AT&T
• Gadget Lab Guide: How to Un-Cripple Your International Kindle …
• Crippleware Alert! International Kindle Gets No Web Access Outside …

Kindle photo credit: Charlie Sorrel

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 4:03 am

OS Xbox Pro: The Ultimate Hackintosh?

When PC lover Will Urbina was finally forced to switch to a Mac by market forces (he’s a video editor, and most everyone these days wants you to use Final Cut Pro), he didn’t give up easily. In fact, he spent the next few months kicking and screaming his way through a rather painful process, a process which finally gave birth to a mutant: The OS Xbox Pro.

Faced with “the distasteful choice of either setting foot in an Apple store” or building his own, Urbina went the home-made route, building a PC into a first-gen Xbox Dev Kit he picked up for pennies, and then hackintoshing it. The case of the Dev Kit is taller than the retail box, which turned out to be helpful: Urbina wanted to match the specs of a $2,500 Mac Pro.

With some literal hacking and rebuilding, he managed to squeeze in four hard drives (a pair of 7200rpm, 500GB drives in RAID 0 configuration for Final Cut, plus slower 160GB drives for both OS X and Windows 7), external USB SATA, and Firewire ports and even a rather odd-looking Apple logo on the top. The hackintoshing aspect was taken care of by the amazing EFi-X dongle, a little plug-in widget that lets you install a retail copy of OS X onto any PC hardware.

Urbina made a few curious decisions, especially given that OS X 10.6 is moving towared moving much of its heavy lifting to the GPU, or graphics card. Because the case is so small (even an optical drive was left out), Urbina had to use a 300 Watt power supply, 100 Watts short of the juice needed for his chosen NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT card. Instead, he popped in a lesser card and beefed up the CPU to an Intel Core 2 Duo Q9550s. This reliance on the CPU to do the work clearly shows his PC bias. The specs:

Intel Core2 Q9550S @2.93GHz

Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3LR

Sparkle GeForce 9800http://www.willudesign.com/OSXboxPro/osxboxpro9.jpg GT

8GB Crucial Ballistix 1333MHzhttp://www.willudesign.com/OSXboxPro/osxboxprotopless1.jpg

Highpoint RocketRAID 2640×1

2x 160GB 5400rpm Seagate Momentus HDD

2x 500GB 7200rpm Seagate Momentus HDD

16GB 1.8” Super Talent MasterDrive KX SSD

EFiX USB V1

Not bad for $1,500. Urbina says that the equivalent Mac Pro would run to $4,500. We think it a little odd that a professional would go down such a route to build a work machine, though: If your wages rely on a working machine, a hackintosh is a little scary. Still, this thing looks awesome, and with all that hardware inside such a tiny case, we imagine that the fans will stay true to the noisy, leaf-blowing Xbox original.

OS Xbox Pro product page [Will U Design]

See Also:

• Psystar 'Rebel EFI' Patch Installs Snow Leopard on Any PC
• EFiX Dangles Hacking Dongle Before Apple’s Lawyers

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 30 Nov 2009 | 3:37 am