LONDON (Reuters) - Google is offering news publishers a way to attract paying subscribers without having to remove their content from Google News search results, after some media companies... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Dec 2009 | 3:22 am
Reuters - Google is offering news publishers a way to attract paying subscribers without having to remove their content from Google News search results, after some media companies accused it of profiting from their online news.
You know how, if you want to read a paywalled newspaper article, you can just paste its title into Google News and get a free pass? Those days may be coming to an end. Reader Captian Spazzz writes: "It looks like Google may be bowing to pressure from folks like News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch. What I don't understand is what prevents the websites themselves from enforcing some limit. Why make Google do it?" (Danny Sullivan explains how they could do that.) "Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google, the company has announced. The concession follows claims from some media companies that the search engine is profiting from online news pages. Publishers will join a First Click Free programme that will prevent web surfers from having unrestricted access. Users who click on more than five articles in a day may be routed to payment or registration pages."
Javier "Barrapunto" Candeira writes, "Last Monday the Spanish Government sent the parliament the latest draft for the Ley de Economia Sostenible (Sustainable Economy Act), which contained riders modifying the current laws on copyright and interactive services. These amendments give the Spanish Ministy of Culture the administrative power to take down websites (or order ISPs to block those hosted overseas), all without a court order and in the name of 'safeguarding Intellectual Property Laws against Internet Piracy'. For this reason some of us have written a manifesto that is being published today all over Spanish weblogs and media."
A group of journalists, bloggers, professionals and creators want to express their firm opposition to the inclusion in a Draft Law of some changes to Spanish laws restricting the freedoms of expression, information and access to culture on the Internet. They also declare that:
1 .- Copyright should not be placed above citizens' fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.
2 .- Suspension of fundamental rights is and must remain an exclusive competence of judges. This blueprint, contrary to the provisions of Article 20.5 of the Spanish Constitution, places in the hands of the executive the power to keep Spanish citizens from accessing certain websites.
3 .- The proposed laws would create legal uncertainty across Spanish IT companies, damaging one of the few areas of development and future of our economy, hindering the creation of startups, introducing barriers to competition and slowing down its international projection.
4 .- The proposed laws threaten creativity and hinder cultural development. The Internet and new technologies have democratized the creation and publication of all types of content, which no longer depends on an old small industry but on multiple and different sources.
5 .- Authors, like all workers, are entitled to live out of their creative ideas, business models and activities linked to their creations. Trying to hold an obsolete industry with legislative changes is neither fair nor realistic. If their business model was based on controlling copies of any creation and this is not possible any more on the Internet, they should look for a new business model.
6 .- We believe that cultural industries need modern, effective, credible and affordable alternatives to survive. They also need to adapt to new social practices.
7 .- The Internet should be free and not have any interference from groups that seek to perpetuate obsolete business models and stop the free flow of human knowledge.
8 .- We ask the Government to guarantee net neutrality in Spain, as it will act as a framework in which a sustainable economy may develop.
9 .- We propose a real reform of intellectual property rights in order to ensure a society of knowledge, promote the public domain and limit abuses from copyright organizations.
10 .- In a democracy, laws and their amendments should only be adopted after a timely public debate and consultation with all involved parties. Legislative changes affecting fundamental rights can only be made in a Constitutional law.
Javier "Barrapunto" Candiera writes, "Last Monday the Spanish Government sent the parliament the latest draft for the Ley de Economia Sostenible (Sustainable Economy Act), which contained riders modifying... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Dec 2009 | 2:33 am
By Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
As popular as link-shortening services are, security experts have been warning users that they put themselves at risk of malware infection by using them, since a suspicious-looking Web address just becomes another Bit.ly or TinyURL link once it’s shortened.
On Monday, Bit.ly announced partnership with several security firms, including Websense, Sophos and VeriSign, that it said helps to address that.
The three of them will provide malware and spam-detecting services designed to keep fraudulent links from making their way into Bit.ly URLs, which in turn are used extensively on Twitter, email and social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
eldavojohn writes "Early last month a visually impaired gamer sued Sony under the Americans with Disabilities Act (and if you think that people with disabilities don't play games, think again). The AbleGamers Foundation has decided to step forward and provide a rating system for games that blends together a number of factors to determine a score with regard to accessibility. Visual, hearing, motion, closed captioning, speed settings, difficulty settings and even colorblindness options are all taken into account when compiling these scores and reviewing these games."
We’ll have a nice, old timey meet-up in Hong Kong this Friday, December 4 at 6pm at the California Bar 30 D’Aguilar Street Hong Kong. I’ve set up a Plancast event for us so watch that for any changes. If anything changes at the last minute, check my Twitter feed.
Hope to see you dudes and ladies there. Should be fun.
COPENHAGEN, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Danish shipping and oil conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk sees its retail business as part of a focus area for further investment, the Financial Times said on Wednesday. Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Dec 2009 | 1:38 am
Dec 2 (Reuters) - British public relations firm Huntsworth Plc said it was acquiring U.S.-based Dutko Worldwide Holdings Inc for an initial consideration of $33.6 million, or 20.4 million pounds, to expand... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Dec 2009 | 1:22 am
I’ve been following with interest the AT&T (ATT) and Verizon (VZ) map wars. From my own personal experience, it’s a fascinating exercise in disingenuous marketing. For AT&T, possibly more so, as I believe its map commercials are egregiously misleading.
First some background: Both large U.S. mobile operators advertise maps of their coverage. Verizon has been running a series of successful ads showing that it has better coverage.
By Dan Gillmor, Director, Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, Arizona State University
As everyone knows, the nation’s scam artists, monopolists and market-riggers have all gone into hibernation during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. This has given the Federal Trade Commission the breathing room it needs to intercede in an arena where its role is, at best, unclear.
This week, the commission is holding a two-day workshop entitled How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age? — the purpose of which is “to explore how the Internet has affected journalism.”
A Harvard Medical School study that looked at some of the nation’s “most wired” hospital facilities found that computerization of those facilities hasn’t saved them any money or improved administrative efficiency.
The recently released study evaluated data on 4,000 hospitals in the U.S over a four-year period and found that the immense cost of installing and running hospital IT systems is greater than any expected cost savings.
PRAGUE, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Orco Property Group's talks with U.S. investment group Colony Capital on a capital hike have ended after the real estate group failed to meet debt restructuring conditions... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Dec 2009 | 1:03 am
Don’t expect the FTC’s new guidelines on product endorsements to put a damper on social-media efforts.
Since the guidelines became official two months ago, marketers and agencies alike have been educating themselves on the guidelines, modifying spokesperson agreements and implementing new social-media policies. The marketers and agencies that spoke with Ad Age all said the new rules would not deter them from any social-media or celebrity-endorsement efforts.
The company is going gangbusters. They offer users deep discounts on local deals – spas, sky diving lessons, hotels, restaurants, golf, whtaever. Discounts range from 40%-90% of the normal price. If enough people buy into the offer, everyone gets the deal. If there aren’t enough people, no one gets the deal. Groupon collects payment and passes it on, minus their fee, to the business.
Example – 1,600 people in one day bought skydiving lessons in Chicago, says the company, getting a 44% discount on the $229 price. And the company making the offer normally sells just 6,000 lessons per year. They sacrificed some profit, but gos lots of new customers.
What makes the service so compelling is that people have an incentive to get their friends involved to make sure the minimum is hit. And Groupon makes it easy to spread the word about offers via Facebook and Twitter. Their user acquisition costs? zero.
Groupon generally takes 30% – 50% of the total price paid for the service, and they are on track, they say, to do $100 million in gross merchandise sales in 2010. They reached profitability in June 2009, just six months after launching the service.
Chicago launched first but the site now covers 26 cities and is adding a new one every week. They have 126 employees, more than half of which are sales staff finding new deals for users. The company has now raised about $35 million in aggregate, including an early angel round.
For nearly two years, I have been critical of Nokia (NOK) for a diverse set of reasons including its denial of competition from Apple’s iPhone, its hardware, and a botched launch of its Ovi app store.
So last week when Tero Ojanperä, Nokia’s EVP of Services, decided to stop by to give me an update on the company’s Ovi service (and the app store), he knew it wasn’t going to be an easy meeting. It wasn’t, but it was a candid conversation during which Ojanperä made a compelling case for Nokia.
Dana Hanna updates his Facebook and Twitter, at the altar. Without his bride Tracy knowing he was going to do it. I'm sure she was thrilled: I surprised not only my guests, but also Tracy by pulling out... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am
Dana Hanna updates his Facebook and Twitter, at the altar. Without his bride Tracy knowing he was going to do it. I’m sure she was thrilled:
I surprised not only my guests, but also Tracy by pulling out my phone and posting on Facebook and Twitter from the altar during out wedding. I had her phone ready in my pocket, so when she asked for it I could hand it to her. No one knew about this except the minister, and myself.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Chicago based Groupon, which was formerly known as ThePoint, has raised a hefty Series B financing - $30 million - from new investor Accel Partners and existing investor New Enterprise Associates. Accel's... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am
Groupon, a group-buying social e-commerce service, has nabbed $30 million in its second round of funding, led by Accel Partners.
The innovative Chicago-based service, which launched only a year ago, had previously gotten $4.8 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates, as well as $1 million from an angel investor. NEA participated in this round too.
Groupon features a daily deal with a huge discount on a wide range of things–from spas to skydiving–in 26 U.S. cities, including Chicago, Boston, New York and San Francisco, to a large group of potential buyers on the Web, through email or via social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Using social tools, Groupon–which is a mash-up terms for “group” and “coupon”–tries to use collective buying power to get low prices and also push customers to local businesses.
If it reaches the number of buyers it needs, which can be in the thousands, Groupon sells coupons to the consumers and collects a hefty fee for the sale from the businesses it sends customers to.
Even at a discount and paying off Groupon, the small businesses get a crack at a lot of new customers–think of it as social networking lead generation or, perhaps, the “Social Shopping Network.”
Yesterday’s deal in San Francisco, for example, was a “restorative massage” at Teashi, cut from $100 to $45. It sold out by 10:47 pm with 1,000 buyers.
Groupon is profitable and has about 125 employees.
The start-up plans to use the money it has raised for increased customer acquisition, as well as expansion to more cities and improvement of its technology.
As part of its funding, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Accel’s Kevin Efrusy has joined Groupon’s board of directors.
Groupon grew out of a project of The Point, an online community launched in 2007 for organizing group action.
This kind of thing has been tried before, of course, centering on consumers who group together to get discounts on items by purchasing them in bulk.
In Web 1.0, there were many group-buying sites, most of which failed badly. One of the more high-profile ones–Mercata–got $90 million in funding from investors, including Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures.
Here is the official press release:
Groupon Raises $30 Million Round Led by Accel Partners with NEA
to Support Rapid Growth of Social Commerce
CHICAGO–Groupon, the social commerce service that has saved consumers in cities across America more than $36 million since its launch 12 months ago, has raised a $30 million round of capital led by Accel Partners with participation from Groupon’s initial investor, New Enterprise Associates. The financing will be used to accelerate Groupon’s customer acquisition, expand into new geographies and further develop its technology.
Groupon leverages group buying and social media to provide its millions of customers big discounts on the best local businesses in major cities such as Chicago, Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. To date, customers have purchased over 800,000 Groupons on deals ranging from spa treatments and golf outings to fine dining and skydiving.
“We’re proud of the positive impact Groupon is having on consumers and business owners,” said Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason. “Groupon is pioneering a new category, and we believe adding Accel’s experience partnering with digital and social media companies together with NEA’s depth in the area will help us reach our full potential.”
“The social graph is laying the foundation for a new generation of industry-defining Internet companies, and Groupon has effectively invented social commerce,” said Kevin Efrusy, Partner at Accel Partners. “Andrew and the Groupon team are executing with incredible focus at a breakneck pace and are delighting both their merchants and customers.”
About Groupon
Groupon, launched in November 2008 in Chicago, features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, eat, see, and buy in 26 major cities across the United States, including Chicago, Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Groupon uses collective buying power to offer unbeatable prices and provide a win-win for businesses and consumers. The social commerce service is a project of The Point (http://www.thepoint.com), an online community launched in 2007 for organizing group action. Groupon plans to be in 30 cities by the end of 2009.
For more information, visit http://www.groupon.com.
To get Groupon’s daily free email for the best in your city, subscribe at http://www.groupon.com.
To learn more on how to become a featured business on Groupon, visit http://www.grouponworks.com.
BoomTown gets guff about a lot of stuff, but none are more passionate than those who wanted us to make our comment system better.
And they were right.
So, while we never move fast enough, even for ourselves, tonight we have launched a new comments tool to improve the user experience on AllThingsD.com.
It lets you do cool things, such as log in using Facebook Connect, comment easily from a mobile phone and comment via email.
The tool we chose is called Disqus, and it’s used pretty widely on the Web (see Fred Wilson’s site A VC for a good example).
In fact, you might already have a Disqus profile that you use on other sites.
But, because we know how annoying change can be, we were able to port over all of the old comments from our site to the new system, although there might be a glitch or two (which we will fix!).
In addition, those have already signed up as a commenter on ATD can continue to comment as they have always done without any further sign-ups.
We hope the change makes it more fun (and interesting) for you to comment and interact with us and with each other.
Please let us know if you have any problems at all and we will get to them asap!
APC Magazine details how Optus, an Australian mobile phone operator, has for months been deliberately blocking access to Android paid apps. "Optus is the exclusive Australian mobile carrier for the HTC Dream and Samsung Galaxy Android phones, and yet people who signed a long-term contract for these phones have to date been blocked from buying paid Android apps and getting the full Android experience. ... APC found many angry and frustrated comments on the Whirlpool community forums by Optus & Virgin Mobile customers." The article speculates, reading between the lines of the opaque comments offered by both Optus and Google, that the carrier is "demanding a cut of the sales revenue from Android apps if it is to remove its restriction on accessing them."
The latest thing of beauty to emerge from the Ukrainian cave of wonders operated by Bob Basset, a collective of steampunk leatherworkers, is this "Flapping Push Toy": a leather steampunk airship with... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Dec 2009 | 11:37 pm
The latest thing of beauty to emerge from the Ukrainian cave of wonders operated by Bob Basset, a collective of steampunk leatherworkers, is this "Flapping Push Toy": a leather steampunk airship with flapping... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Dec 2009 | 11:37 pm
The latest thing of beauty to emerge from the Ukrainian cave of wonders operated by Bob Basset, a collective of steampunk leatherworkers, is this "Flapping Push Toy": a leather steampunk airship with flapping bat-wings, brass portholes, and intricate gears within. Bravo!
Here in the UK, the Business Software Alliance is running its annual paid informant "Nail Your Boss" program, in which they give big cash rewards to people who fink out their employers for running pirate... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Dec 2009 | 11:32 pm
Here in the UK, the Business Software Alliance is running its annual paid informant "Nail Your Boss" program, in which they give big cash rewards to people who fink out their employers for running pirate software. This happens every year, but it reminded me of one of the funniest incidents in my life as a copyfighter:
I was guest-lecturing for a week at a master class on issues related to international copyright to grad students at Budapest's Central European University. The speaker following me was the lawyer who ran the Hungarian division of the Business Software Alliance. He described the many means by which the BSA tried to combat piracy, and then he mentioned this paid informant program.
There was an audible intake of breath, emanating primarily from the Eastern Europeans in the room. They'd lived through the Soviet era. They knew how corrosive it is to pay people to snitch on their neighbors. They know that it leads to score-settling, axe-grinding, and blackmail.
The BSA man instantly recognized his mistake and held his hands up placatingly.
"Oh, we don't use paid informants in Eastern Europe! That would be culturally inappropriate.
"No, we use paid informants in England."
I get the funniest looks when I tell that story here in London.
Here in the UK, the Business Software Alliance is running its annual paid informant "Nail Your Boss" program, in which they give big cash rewards to people who fink out their employers for running pirate... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Dec 2009 | 11:32 pm
In Denmark, it's legal to make copies of commercial videos for backup or other private purposes. It's also illegal to break the DRM that restricts copying of DVDs. Deciding to find out which law mattered, Henrik Anderson reported himself for 100 violations of the DRM-breaking law (he ripped his DVD collection to his computer) and demanded that the Danish anti-piracy Antipiratgruppen do something about. They promised him a response, then didn't respond. So now he's reporting himself to the police. He wants a trial, so that the legality of the DRM-breaking law can be tested in court.
However, in the period up to today, Henrik heard nothing from Antipiratgruppen, although their lawyer Thomas Schlüter did speak to the Danish press, saying that it was a political matter but had nevertheless reported the issue to the Association of Danish Videodistributors for consideration. In response, their chairman, Poul Dylov, said they would have a meeting to decide whether to report the matter to the police.
Antipiratgruppen said it would reply to Henrik by they date he requested. It seems they have broken their promise and strangely are insisting that they never received the email that Henrik sent them on the issue...
Henrik told us: "But who should I follow? Those that determine the laws in this country? Or those who are lawyers for the companies that i'm committing a crime against?"
But Henrik has a solution to their inaction.
"I decided to try to see if I can report myself directly to the police, for the case must be resolved," he told us.
In Denmark, it's legal to make copies of commercial videos for backup or other private purposes. It's also illegal to break the DRM that restricts copying of DVDs. Deciding to find out which law mattered,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 1 Dec 2009 | 11:21 pm
A Coast to Coast listener named Alan sent in this amazing photo of a creepy giant spectral eye staring down at he and his wife in their bedroom. Alan says the eye turned out to be "a bedside light reflecting off a stack of CDs." Too bad. "Creepy eye on ceiling"
Recent research suggests that spending time in nature actually makes people "more caring." The studies, by University of Rochester psychologists Netta Weinstein, Andrew Przybylski, and Richard Ryan, showed that people exposed to nature (well, mostly slideshows of nature) put a higher value on intrinsic aspirations, such as doing good in the world or having meaningful relationships, and lower value on extrinsic aspirations, like making a lot of cash or admired by many people. Now as I mentioned, the participants didn't actually live outdoors for a while or anything as part of the study. Rather, in three of the studies, they looked at images of either the built environment or landscapes and such. And in the fourth, some participants were assigned to work in a laboratory either with or without plants around them. Then they answered a series of questions or were given tests of generosity. "The result? People who were in contact with nature were more willing to open their wallets and share. As with aspirations, the higher the immersion in nature, the more likely subjects were to be generous with their winnings."
More info and a video interview with one of the researchers after the jump.
From the University of Rochester:
Why should nature make us more charitable and concerned about others? One answer, says coauthor Andrew Przybylski, is that nature helps to connect people to their authentic selves. For example, study participants who focused on landscapes and plants reported a greater sense of personal autonomy ("Right now, I feel like I can be myself"). For humans, says Przybylski, our authentic selves are inherently communal because humans evolved in hunter and gatherer societies that depended on mutuality for survival.
In addition, write the authors, the richness and complexity of natural environments may encourage introspection and the lack of man-made structures provide a safe haven from the man-made pressures of society. "Nature in a way strips away the artifices of society that alienate us from one another," says Przybylski.
coondoggie writes "Soldiers may go into battle better prepared to handle equipment and with a greater knowledge of their surroundings after an intellectual property licensing deal Monday between Microsoft and Lockheed Martin that will deepen the defense giant's access to visual simulation technology. The intellectual property agreement between the two focuses on Microsoft ESP, a games-based visual simulation software platform for the PC."
Somali nautical pirates have established a stock-market where guns and cash are invested in upcoming hijackings, with shares of the proceeds returned to investors:
It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers from the Somali diaspora and other nations -- and now the gangs in Haradheere have set up an exchange to manage their investments...
"Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 'maritime companies' and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking," Mohammed said.
"The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials ... we've made piracy a community activity."
Ted sez, "This website allows you to create posters of WoW characters. The company allows you to use a variety of backgrounds and designs, as well as inserting a character (in their currently loaded) armor into the poster, with pets and all (this is a big deal to hunters). Paper is high quality stuff."
PeaceLove sez, "Cory's recent post mentioning the 'books as objects' phenomenon compels me to mention the extremely delectable new Taschen book, Magic, 1400s-1950s. It's gargantuan, classy, profusely illustrated and expensive but if you are a magician or magic fan, you've just found the perfect holiday gift (hint, hint). Authors Mike Caveney and Jim Steinmeyer, along with contributor Ricky Jay, are all professional magicians, scholars and historians of the first rank. This is a serious work, as well as a gigantic love letter to the 500+ 'golden years' of magic. It's available on deep discount right now at Amazon."
PC World - Although cell-phone cameras are improving in quality, offering higher pixel counts and better lenses, they still lack the photographic punch of a more advanced camera or DSLR. However, if you want to get more from your current cell phone camera without splashing out, you can by adding a macro magnifying lens to your device. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Dec 2009 | 10:53 pm
Developers take note: if you’ve got a mashup built off of Craigslist’s data, don’t even think about showing it to anyone who works there. At least, that’s the lesson learned by developer Romy Maxwell, who says that Craigslist has blocked both his mashup and every single project built on Yahoo Pipes a few days after a friendly Email exchange he had with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.
Maxwell is one of the developers behind a new mashup called Flippity, which lets you plot Craigslist listings on a map. In a blog post, Maxwell writes that he had been having an Email exchange with Newmark over the last few weeks, during which Maxwell asked if the techniques employed by his project would be acceptable under Craigslist’s restrictive Terms of Use.
Newmark replied that “as a rule of thumb, [it's] okay to use RSS feeds for noncommercial purposes.” Since the project used RSS feeds and was non-commercial, that seemed to indicate that the project would be OK. Maxwell followed up by asking if he was allowed to ask for donations on the site, which Newmark said he would look into. A couple weeks later, Maxwell sent Newmark a link to a working alpha version of Flippity. Newmark went silent, Craigslist pulled the plug on Flippity and every other Yahoo Pipes project soon thereafter. From Maxwell’s blog:
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what Craigslist had done. They literally added a check for “pipes.yahoo.com” in the referrer header of any HTTP request, which was then redirected to the home page. In essence, they blocked them. Really, Craig ? This is your response ?
To be clear, Maxwell says that his post isn’t meant to be an attack on Newmark himself. Newmark actually CC’d a customer service representative on a couple of messages during the exchange, so it’s possible that they were the ones who ultimately decided to shut down Flippity and all of Yahoo Pipes.
Maxwell writes in his blog that he and another developer have been building the mashup for 2 months. The goal was to build something that would plot Craigslist listings on a map, offering an easy way to see what goods are being sold in your proximity. There’s already a great mashup called PadMapper that does this for housing, but Flippity was supposed to work for any Craigslist listing. For details on how the mashup worked, check out this post.
Of course, this isn’t really anything new for Craigslist. The site has previouslyshutdown mashups using its data many times before. But they have permitted some sites, like Housingmaps, to tap into Craigslist data for years. And it seems strange that they would ban all Yahoo Pipes apps in response to this.
Maxwell says that this doesn’t mark the end of Flippity: the site will adapt to use another source of data, like eBay or Oodle.
We’ve reached out to Craigslist for comment and will update if we hear back.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
What’s that you say? You want your hands to be warm and cosy while texting this winter? Don’t want to buy sniper gloves with the removable trigger finger? Why do I know about sniper gloves?
Anyway, we’ve got three pairs of MittenBerry gloves for your texting pleasure. To win, read on.
First, here’s what these things are:
A modern spin on the mitten, the Mittenberry keeps your hands warm and your relationships warmer. Its supersoft wool will have your hands thanking you, even on the coldest winter days. And a quick flip of the thumb flap lets your thumbs do the talking. A winter must-have, the Mittenberry is the perfect complement to the iPhone, BlackBerry, or your device du jour. We guarantee it will be love at first sight. You’ll be smitten with our mittens.
Next, comment below. We’ll pick three winners at random to own these gloves. I don’t think you HAVE to get pink, but you can if you want to.
It's as though He came down and said to MobileCrunch: "Ask and you shall receive." We asked for this device just under a month ago and whoopee — ThinkFlood has delivered. Specifically, we wanted a universal remote because why the hell should we be using regular remotes anymore? ThinkFlood's RedEye remote system fits the bill, works well, and is loaded with features, but it comes with a price tag of $188.
It’s as though He came down and said to MobileCrunch: “Ask and you shall receive.” We asked for this device just under a month ago and whoopee — ThinkFlood has delivered. Specifically, we wanted a universal remote because why the hell should we be using regular remotes anymore? ThinkFlood’s RedEye remote system fits the bill, works well, and is loaded with features, but it comes with a price tag of $188.
The average universal remote is $150 so the price isn’t too bad, but at the same time, it does utilize the iPhone’s touchscreen and hardware to power the remote (read: shouldn’t it be cheaper?). The RedEye remote may be a solid option for those who are already looking for a universal remote and don’t already have one. At the same time, at a lower price point, I could see this going from a nice-to-have for iPhone owners to a must-have, given the quality of the device.
I’m still putting the RedEye through a variety of well-thought-out (not) and rigorous (not) tests, so we’ll hold off for a full review. For now, hit the jump for more pictures and impressions.
RedEye was previously in private beta for testing purposes only, but is available for purchase as of today at their website.
The RedEye device itself has great design, and I was impressed with the quality of the hardware. It probably shouldn’t be stuck in the middle of a living room wrestling match, but it could probably handle an accidental ass-squishing or two. Unless of course your 300 lb. Aunt Edna decides to take a seat on it.
First impressions: I’m happy to say the device works – which is, well, fairly important. It connects to your iPhone via Wi-Fi and doesn’t seem to have any significant latency from pressing the button on your iPhone to firing a signal off to your TV/DVR/Blu-Ray player. That said, I’ve only tried it on Dish Network’s awful set-top box thus far, which already has a ridiculous lag time. Setup was a bit difficult, but that’s to be expected given that it’s a universal remote. The RedEye definitely has great potential, and as long as it delivers on some core universal remote features, it may just be worth the hefty price tag. Check out the pics and promo video below.
reginaldo writes to clue us that pirates in Somalia have opened up a cooperative in Haradheere, where investors can pay money or guns to help their favorite pirate crew for a share of the piracy profits. "'Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 "maritime companies" and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,' Mohammed [a wealthy former pirate who took a Reuters reporter to the facility] said. ... Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel. 'I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,' she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony. 'I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the "company."'"
Venture capitalists like to hire well known entrepreneurs and executives as “entrepreneurs in residence.” These are short term jobs, a place for someone to park themselves for up to a year or so after they’ve sold their company or otherwise have moved on. They sit in on pitch meetings, advise partners and portfolio companies, and plan their next move. And the VC generally, but not contractually, gets first dibs to invest in their next gig.
Jason will work with Bessemer’s portfolio companies to help them build “simple, intuitive and engaging web sites,” said Bessemer partner David Cowan.
Some of the Bessemer startups that will now have access to Jason include Yelp, Hunch, Yodle, LinkedIn, Smule and Wix. For some startups, this may be a reason to go with Bessmer in a competitive funding round.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Xirrus, a provider of enterprise Wi-Fi, has recieved $20 million in a funding round led by InterWest Partners, bringing the total investment in the company to $80 million. Xirrus is also backed by August Capital, US Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and QuestMark Partners.
The company aims to replace ethernet in the enterprise, resulting in reduced setup and usage costs for corporate networks. Xirrus has been especially active gaining traction in the university market in the last year. Xirrus constructs Wi-Fi Arrays that improve coverage and performance. The Arrays integrate up to 16 Wi-Fi radios in circular configuration to maximize effect. They also provide a platform for managing their Wi-Fi Arrays and security as well.
Xirrus CEO Dirk Gates previously founded and led Xircom. Xircom specialized in providing ethernet connectivity to mobile computers and was sold to Intel in 2001 for $748 million.
You’ll recall that there was a bit of a buzz a few years ago about a fat-fighting robot named Autom designed to sit on your counter and convince you not to eat that last slice of pizza. Well, the old girl is almost ready for production and should be arriving next Fall.
Autom, in her first incarnation, looked a bit weird and was basically a fancy computer case. Now, however, this thing is like a fat-fighting Furby with expressive eyes and a cute little mouth that definitely wouldn’t ever eat the last slice of pie, unlike me.
The device works fairly well – I saw a prototype as well as some mechanical improvements – and apparently people become so attached to little robot friends that they forget that they’re actually on a diet. The retention for the average diet, for example, is three weeks. When Cory Kidd, the CEO of Intuitive Automata and creator of Autom gave the robot to dieters he found that they didn’t want to give her up and survived on a diet for eight weeks or more. Clearly we love little robots.
No pricing yet but Kidd explained that there will be a base price for the robot and a subscription price for back end services including monitoring and medical advice. You interact with the robot with a touchscreen but voice activated controls will soon be implemented.
No pricing yet, but look for a beta roll out later next year.
Reuters - After much speculation following the release of a song titled "Acapella" on the Internet last week, singer-songwriter Kelis has announced that she has signed to Interscope Records through Will.i.am Music Group.
Well Windows 7 is out, the reviews are in, the service packs are starting to be worked on – that’s the end of it right? Wrong. Microsoft is already looking forward to the next generation of its OS, Windows 8.
Microsoft hasn’t officially announced any of this, but if you look at the paper trail we’re starting to see all the signs. In particular, Microsoft has posted some pretty heavy job listings for things like developers, localization testers, and program managers to start a big new project in July 2010. What is that new big project? Well, it’s all but confirmed that it’s going to be Windows 8. In fact, when you compare the job postings coming out now, and the postings that came out after Vista was launched, you’ll see an interesting comparison.
Aravo, a SAAS supplier chain management tool just raised a whopping $27 million in Series D funding led by Cisco, with other investors participating. In addition, Cisco’s web meeting and collaboration platform, WebEx, will be integrated with Aravo’s Supplier Information Management (SIM) to facilitate real-time collaboration between buyers and suppliers.
This latest investment brings Aravo’s total funding to $50 million. Investors that participated in the latest round include Big Sky Partners, Stephen Friedman and William Harrison. Aravo says the new funding will be used to develop new products and to expand sales, marketing, and delivery channels. As part of the agreement, Aravo will work closely with Cisco to power and enhance Cisco WebEx. Aravo’s software includes options to track ISO certifications, sustainability initiatives, and risk analysis.
While this isn’t an acquisition, this latest news continues Cisco’s strategic investments and shopping spree. With deep pockets, Cisco has acquired a number of enterprise-focused companies, including ScanSafe,Starent Networks, and Tandberg. While Cisco doesn’t seem to be sniffing around for an acquisition of Aravo yet, it wouldn’t surprise me considering its recent shopping spree.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
AP - The Greenspun Media Group has reorganized most of its operations under one roof in a cost-cutting move, laying off an unspecified number of workers Tuesday while merging the editorial units of eight news outlets into a single team. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Dec 2009 | 7:49 pm
One of the benefits working at Google is the ability to spend 20% of your time on projects you are passionate about. Recently I was lucky enough to attend the Australian Conservation Foundation's Climate Project Summit, where I met Al Gore, and was trained as a Climate Project Presenter. This led me to devote my 20% time to develop Show Your Vote. Built as an open-source platform, Show Your Vote enables people around the world to tell the world's leaders to seal a fair and effective deal for climate change.
Some major environmental campaigns (including Earth Hour) as well as UNFCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, are now using Show Your Vote to help visualize public support of next week's COP 15, the Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen.
No matter where you are in the world, see all the ways in which you can engage in the COP15 on this Virtual participation in COP15 page.
One of the big challenges in activating people on the issue of climate change is that there are a myriad of campaigns - big ones, small and local ones - taking place all over the world. I really wanted to provide a single platform that all campaigns and websites can use to collectively show the vote. So I developed a "web element" similar in function to Google Web Elements, which anyone can insert into a site so that people can vote and see the collective vote. They can also get educational tools on their own website by simply filling out the publisher form, and copying and pasting a single line of HTML code.
Google App Engine provides the hosting solution that makes this all possible. And I'd like to thank fellow Googlers Pamela Fox, Bob Aman, Rupert Breheny and Benjamin Kott for volunteering their time to make Show Your Vote possible.
Show Your Vote has three tabs: Vote, Explore, and Learn. The Vote tab allows individuals and organizations to show their vote.
The Explore tab displays individual votes aggregated by post code, and organizations by their own custom icons. The voting map is powered by the Google Maps API. Additionally, social networking tools powered by Google Friend Connect help people within the global community to share their messages of support. Individual votes are aggregated into postal codes, and organizations can upload their own icon to the map.
Finally, the Learn tab contains rich educational pieces, narrated by some of the top names in science, NGOs and the political world. These tours were created by the Google Earth Outreach team using Google Earth's new touring capabilities.
In the countdown to COP15, I'm hoping that we can collect enough of a global public show of support to amplify the need to change climate change, drive collective action, and reinforce the need for our world leaders to act now. Please join me in helping to show the vote!
Posted by Justin Baird, Innovationist, Google Australia
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has just written an open letter to Facebook users regarding a privacy overhaul that is due to hit the site in the next few weeks. Soon, users will be able to selectively choose, on a per-post basis, who can see the content they post to the site. Facebook is also going to remove regional networks entirely, largely because some of those networks (like China) consist of millions of users, which makes them useless from a privacy standpoint. If these changes sound familiar, it’s because Facebook actually announced them way back in July. Zuckerberg also notes that Facebook now has 350 million users — it has added a whopping 50 million of them in the last two and a half months.
Alongside the regional network change, privacy controls will be simplified. As Facebook rolls out the new privacy settings, users will be presented with a page designed to walk them through the new options. Depending on your current privacy level, Facebook will make recommendations, though you’ll be able to change them as usual.
The way Facebook makes its recommendations will have a huge impact on the site’s future. Right now, most people don’t share their content using the ‘everyone‘ option that Facebook introduced last summer. If Facebook pushes users to start using that, it could have a better stream of content to go against Twitter in the real-time search race. But Facebook has something to lose by promoting ‘everyone’ updates: given the long-standing private nature of Facebook, they could lead to a massive privacy fiasco as users inadvertently share more than they mean to.
Back when Facebook first announced the changes last July, it sounded like the site might go in that direction. But it may have had a change of heart, which could have been the cause of the delay. Facebook has started to backpedal from the Twitter-like redesign it launched in March by working an old-style News Feed back into the homepage. Perhaps the site has decided to favor privacy over real-time. We’ll find out in the next few weeks.
From Zuckerberg’s letter:
We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.
Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.
We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Romy Maxwell posted a blog piece on Craigslist apparently shutting off access to Yahoo Pipes. Maxwell was working on a project, one of 2,111 using Craigslist as a data source, for a (non-commercial) Pipes-based mashup. He sent Craig Newmark an invitation to the alpha test, after a few rounds of friendly communication — "...as a rule of thumb, okay to use RSS feeds for noncommercial purposes." The apparent response, 4 days later, was for Craigslist to redirect any request with an HTTP referrer of pipes.yahoo.com to the Craigslist home page. Maxwell writes: "It's a sad day for me. I'm not too upset about my own project, as Flippity was already removing Craigslist as a data source. With the likes of eBay and Oodle not only providing open APIs but encouraging and rewarding developers, spending my time wrestling with Craigslist is just plain stupid and exhausting. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have come to that conclusion, and I wish it were different. ... If Craigslist wants to keep its doors shut to the world, so be it."
If you've been waiting for some way to put your low- to middling-resolution videos onto a big TV, your prayers have been answered. Flip, through their mouthpiece Walt Mossberg, just dumped out a big bucket of howsyerfather and announced the Flipshare for all to enjoy.
Not much has changed since we spotted this device in October. It's not even live on the Flip site yet so it's abundantly clear that the WSJ servers jumped the gun on posting.
If you’ve been waiting for some way to put your low- to middling-resolution videos onto a big TV, your prayers have been answered. Flip, through their mouthpiece Walt Mossberg, just dumped out a big bucket of howsyerfather and announced the Flipshare for all to enjoy.
The device will cost $150 and plugs into an HDMI or component video input. It streams videos wirelessly thanks to a white wireless dongle and includes a remote. The device can share Flip video files with ease, other files not so much.
Does the world need another specialized streaming device? With Roku boxen working so well and especially with channels enabled, the Flipshare makes sense if you’re totally into your Flip. Our original hope was that this thing would stream everything to everyone. It won’t.
Oh well, at least we can still use their cameras to film the moments of our lives.
If you’re worried about the amount of energy your monitor is drawing, you’re probably nuts, since your PC draws ten times that, but if you must indulge your inner environmentalist, this line of displays from NEC should suffice. They’re LED-backlit, which I suspect accounts for all the savings. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the case.
The LED backlighting reduces heat on this 22″ LCD and it consumes considerably less power as well. LEDs will do that, NEC; I don’t think you get to claim it as some sort of accomplishment of your own.
LED backlighting technology enables the NEC MultiSync EA222WMe to provide the same amount of brightness as other panel types while using 20% less power. Compared to previous generation NEC LCDs, the EA222WMe consumes up to 52% less power, radiates up to 61% less heat, weighs up to 25% less and uses up to 15% less packaging.
Is it 20% less power or 52% less power? Make up your mind, NEC!
I would recommend the monitor except for the fact that its resolution is only 1680×1050. Add one more inch and you can get full HD on there. Of course, those ones aren’t LED-lit. Well, you can’t have everything.
Short Version: Equal parts backup battery and iPhone dock, Dexim’s $55 P-Flip Foldable Power Dock serves as a nice daily desk accessory and then easily pulls double duty as a portable travelling companion.
Review:
Guess what? There are a million iPhone accessories. And it’s not easy to stand out in the crowd if you’re a company that makes iPhone accessories. But sometimes the best course is to offer a simple solution that addresses more than one need for the common iPhone owner and to offer your product at a decent price.
In this case, Dexim has merged a small, unobtrusive iPhone dock with a portable backup battery. Exciting? Not really, but it doesn’t have to be because, at $55, you’re getting two accessories in one for close to the price of most competing backup battery offerings.
The dock is compatible with the iPhone 3G and 3GS and all generations of the iPod touch. The battery pack is 2000mAh, which is about 1.5 times the capacity of the iPhone’s internal battery. So you get about a charge and a half out of the dock. A full recharge of my iPhone 3GS took about an hour and a half.
Dexim rates the product as capable of 8 hours talk time, 15 hours of video, 15 hours of gaming, or 60 hours of music. I can confirm the 60 hours of music claim. I set my phone into airplane mode (turns off all data connections) and let it play music nonstop starting Friday night after work and noticed it had finally petered out on Monday morning. Side note: going without a phone for an entire weekend is weird for most of Saturday morning but becomes pretty nice after a while.
The dock folds down to a very manageable travel size and can itself be recharged with a mini-USB cable. If you dock your phone into it while it’s charging, you’re able to synch with iTunes and all that good stuff.
The main downside is that if you use any sort of protective case, you’ll have to remove it in order to charge up your battery on the go. That’s the tradeoff for having a backup battery that doubles as a dock, though. Also, the $55 price tag may seem a bit high at first glance but considering that a fair amount of competing backup batteries go for around $50, the added bonus of the docking feature makes for a pretty decent purchase.
PC World - When Keith Bond bought a computerized cash register system for his Broussard, Louisiana, restaurant, he thought he was modernizing his restaurant. Today, he believes he was unwittingly opening a back door for Romanian hackers who have now cost him more than US$50,000. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Dec 2009 | 6:50 pm
Scientists have good reasons to contemplate climate in global terms, but this planetary way of looking at seemingly minor changes in worldwide average temperatures leads the rest of us down a slippery slope. People live in one place or another ... Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Dec 2009 | 6:48 pm
There should be a contest. If you can go to a bar wearing this shirt (or, say, that one Wi-Fi detecting one) and successfully pick up a member of the opposite sex, you get… I don’t know, a better shirt.
This does seem like a good idea, though — not the shirt, the idea of a Han/Luke game where both guys are playable. Luke would be the close-up damage dealer, Han would have his blaster… like Mercs or Commando. Or Cookie and Cream! That would be amazing.
Today, the FTC held a hearing on the crisis in the (print) news publishing industry, which gave Rupert Murdoch yet another opportunity to publicly call out Google about its supposedly thieving ways. Google’s response: Hey, we send out 4 billion clicks a month to news sites. If you don’t now what to do with all that traffic, it’s not our fault. (I’m paraphrasing).
But Google also gave a concession to news publishers who have been complaining loudly about the backdoor to subscription-protected sites that is Google News. For instance, you can read WSJ.com stories for free if you search for them on Google News and then click through. News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, knows this, but allows it because otherwise Google won’t index its site and then it will lose 25 percent of its traffic.
Now Google is allowing publishers to opt into a First Click Free program, which should actually be called the First Five Clicks Are Free. A news site now can limit the number of free clicks from Google News for any individual to five a day. After that, anyone coming to their site from Google News will see a pay wall asking them to subscribe to read more. They can set the limit higher if they want or not have any limit at all. It’s up to them.
While this change in policy answers one of the main criticisms of Google News from publishers who want to grow their online subscription revenues, in reality it will do little to change the economics of the online news industry or the behavior of online news readers. Very few people call up a search of every article from the Wall Street Journal on a given day and click back and forth between Google News and the WSJ.com to read the entire paper for free. The vast majority of people find one or two WSJ.com stories on Google News, click through, and then continue surfing elsewhere across the Web.
The days of sitting down and reading an entire paper from front to back is over. On the Web, reading is more scattered as you flit from one link to the next and from site to site. Five free clicks per day is all most anyone really needs.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
One of the biggest features of many of Google’s web apps has been their ability to work offline. Through Google Gears we’ve been able to use Gmail and Google Docs among others without having an Internet connection. The offline feature isn’t going away any time soon, but it looks like Gears will be.
Sometime this month, Google will release the beta version of Chrome for Mac, and unlike its Windows counterpart, Chrome for Mac will not feature Google Gears built in. Part of this is technical, Snow Leopard won’t run Gears properly, but that’s not the main reason. Google is slowly turning away from Gears, and turning its focus to HTML 5. HTML 5 has the ability to work offline, and will work with any browser that supports it (which is everyone but IE). This doesn’t mean that Google will stop supporting Gears. The company will continue to support it as long as people use it. If HTML 5 can do everything Gears does, however, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to continue using the old system.
With offline access support, HTML 5 looks to be the wonder child that Google claims it is. Its doubtful that it will supplant all browser plugins, but the ability to use services offline, and have embedded video without relying on the resource-heavy Flash sound really nice. Of course Internet Explorer might be holding it back from being adopted more quickly, but hopefully that issue can be fixed soon.
PC World - Nokia has filed a lawsuit against eight LCD manufacturers accused of collusion and price-fixing. Nokia is hoping to win damages to recover money it overpaid to the various companies for LCD displays for its mobile handsets. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Dec 2009 | 6:12 pm
Prosthetic legs have gotten an image boost recently, thanks to the high-performance carbon-fiber springs worn by the likes of Oscar Pistorius and Aimee Mullins. But prosthetic arms still call to mind stiff, heavy chunks of plastic — barely one step up from Captain Hook’s creepy iron claw.
“Prosthetic legs are in the 21st century,” Dean Kamen recently told the trade publication IEEE Spectrum. “With prosthetic arms, we’re in the Flintstones.” Kamen, who invented the Segway, has been working on creating an advanced artificial limb.
The human hand is difficult to replicate. It’s an instrument that can squeeze a lime as effectively as it can hold a delicate lightbulb. The hand is not just about mechanical movement: Its sense of touch offers important feedback to the brain about the texture and nature of the object.
Conventional prosthetic arms are little more than sophisticated hooks that offer very little freedom of movement. They offer just three degrees of freedom: opening and closing the hand, rotating the hand inwards and outwards, and bending and extending the elbow. And going through those motions requires concentration and a level of skill that can be rather exhausting.
Advanced prosthetic arms promise a lot more. While not a perfect replacement for a human limb, the idea is to offer almost the same level of flexibility, dexterity and feedback that the hand can.
An extraordinary project from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency promises to make it happen. Darpa’s $100 million Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 Program aims to create a thought-controlled functional arm within this decade. The project is a collaborative effort with more than 30 organizations including labs, universities and private companies.
The Darpa program has created two kinds of prototypes. The first is a sophisticated prosthetic arm that can be controlled naturally, provide sensory feedback and allow for eight degrees of freedom. The second, more ambitious, venture aims to offer natural movement and a range of motion similar to a real arm.
With its strength, sensitivity and dexterity, a human hand is difficult to replicate. That's why major research, backed by Darpa, is trying to create prototypes of a bionic arm that will be almost as good as the human limb.
With its strength, sensitivity and dexterity, a human hand is difficult to replicate. That's why major research, backed by Darpa, is trying to create prototypes of a bionic arm that will be almost as good as the human limb.
Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, has unveiled the company website for Square. Square is a mobile phone payment service which essentially means that you attach this thing to your phone via the headphone and microphone jacks, and you can make or receive credit card payments over the phone. The jacks provide the power the device needs to read the data from the credit card which is sent through the microphone jack. Square pretty much lets you buy things wherever you want to with your credit card.
According to the website, Square will also act like a store credit card offering tangible rewards. They claim that Square will contact the company if you are a frequent visitor and you might be able to receive rewards such as getting a free sub after purchasing five.
This idea will only boost sales for major retailers but on the other side, companies like PayPal might suffer from it. Though there has always been the ability to use your credit card over the internet, PayPal managed to make this process much more painless. But now, with the ability to just pull your card out and swipe it just like at a store, the need for PayPal diminishes.
Square is obviously being advertised as for the iPhone right now; but delving deeper into the website, they are looking for client engineers for Android and Blackberry so we can be sure that Square will be compatible with all three.
Under the terms of the agreement, Psystar will pay Apple (AAPL) damages totaling $1,337,550 for all the copyright, DMCA, and breach of contract claims against it and another $1,337,500 in attorney fees and additional damages. In return, Apple will drop all its trademark, trade dress and unfair competition claims against Psystar. Cupertino has also agreed not to “seek to execute on the money judgments…until any and all appeals in this matter are concluded or the time for filing any such appeal has lapsed.”
Not that Apple is likely to collect that money, anyway. As I’ve noted here before, Psystar’s total assets, according to its bankruptcy filing, are no more than $50,000.
I love when I get images back in my Google search results. There's no better way to quickly understand the difference between an ocelot and a clouded leopard. But sometimes I want to see more images to really make sure I've identified the right jungle cat.
Over the next twenty-four hours we're rolling out a new format for image universal results. When we're confident that we have great image results, we'll now show a larger image and additional smaller images alongside. With this new layout we're able to show you more pictures than before, so you have more to choose from. As always, you can click on an image to see it full size in the original webpage.
We hope this new layout makes finding the images that you're searching for even easier.
saddleupsancho writes "Today's NY Times reports that Cormac McCarthy is auctioning the 45-year-old Olivetti manual typewriter on which all his novels, screenplays, plays, short stories, and much of his correspondence were written, to benefit the Sante Fe Institute where he is a Research Fellow. What would happen decades from now if, say, Richard Powers or Neal Stephenson attempted to auction their desktops or laptops? Setting aside completely any comparison among the three authors, is there something more intrinsically interesting and valuable, less ephemeral and interchangeable, about a typewriter vs. a computer as an instrument of literary creation? Or is the current generation just as sentimental about their computer-based devices as McCarthy's generation is about his Olivetti? Would you offer as much for McCarthy's input device if it were a generic PC, Mac, or Linux box as you would for his Olivetti?"
Yesterday, we reported on the growth statistics of Black Friday provided by Coremetrics. Today, Coremetrics released the same statistics for Cyber Monday that had similar results.
Last year, the average sale amount was $130.24 while this year the average sale was $180.03; an increase of 38.2%. Similar results for online purchases were found for Black Friday this year as well with an average sale increase of 35%. Overall sales were up 13.7% as well.
The biggest difference between Black Friday this year and Cyber Monday this year was the amount of items sold per order. Cyber Monday had 10% more items per order than Black Friday and 30% more than Cyber Monday last year. Apparel and jewelry retailers made out with the biggest increase in sales on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year.
Just as with Black Friday, these results are comforting. They show a positive growth trend in the economy which is further proof that we are getting out of this economic depression. It also shows how much the internet is changing our lives. More and more people are relying on it for making their purchases. And more and more retailers are finding it a suitable place to make a substantial amount of sales.
AP - Shanda Online Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Chinese online gaming company Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., said Tuesday that it named Jing Zhu as its chief technology officer. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Dec 2009 | 5:15 pm
Experian Hitwise just released its Cyber Monday stats, with Amazon reportedly topping the list as the most visited retail website yesterday, seeing a 44% increase in visits compared to 2008. Amazon received 15.53% of the visits among the top 500 online retail sites. Hitwise says Amazon has been the top visited site on Cyber Monday since 2006.
Hitwise reports that among the top 500 retail websites, the percentage of U.S. online visits were down 9%o n Cyber Monday in 2009 compared to Cyber Monday 2008. Wal-Mart was the second most visited with 9.54% of visits followed by Target with 5.16%. BestBuy was the fourth most visited with 3.56% followed by JC Penney with 2.58 %. Walmart took the top spot for the most visited online site on Thanksgiving Day this year, according to Hitwise but Amazon edged out Walmart on Black Friday. This is the fifth year in a row that Wal-Mart was the top visited site on Thanksgiving Day.
Among the top 20 sites visited on Cyber Monday 2009, Staples saw the largest increase in visits compared to 2008 with a 61% increase, Barnes & Noble saw a 46% increase.The Apple Store, which didn’t make Hitwise’s top 20 sites, saw a 71% increase in visits on Cyber Monday 2009 versus 2008. Online stores who dropped in traffic from last year included Overstock.com (down 25%) and Home Depot (down 29%).
Most signs point to a positive trend when it comes to online sales and traffic this year. Coremetrics reported that online retailers saw a 13.7 percent increase in sales compared to last year, and 24.1 percent more than on Black Friday 2009. According to Hitwise, traffic to retail sites on Black Friday was up 9%. Of course, Hitwsie is just one metric used to measure traffic for these sites; comScore also provides an accurate measure for statistics but has not released its data yet for Cyber Monday.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Macworld.com - TouchMatter has released ezMoviePick, an iPhone and iPod touch app aimed at Netflix users. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Dec 2009 | 4:58 pm
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said he wants to overhaul a $7 billion federal phone-subsidy program and reallocate more airwaves to wireless carriers as part of a strategy to improve U.S. broadband Internet availability.
Mr. Genachowski’s comments Tuesday at a conference here are the latest in an increasingly strong series of signals that the FCC chairman is determined to shake up the status quo in the telecommunications industry to make fast Internet service cheaper and more widely available.
The Universal Service Fund is a federal subsidy program funded by consumers through a charge on their phone bills. The fund subsidizes phone service in rural areas and for low-income households. FCC officials want to change the plan so it funds new broadband Internet lines in rural areas. Proposals to revamp the fund have in the past provoked resistance from rural phone companies and their congressional allies. Smaller rural phone companies depend on the fund for operating revenues.
Court documents are public records, but the Justice Department spends $4 million a year to read them. The open government activist who obtained the contract says he knows how the government could save a billion dollars.
trianglecat writes "The not-for-profit agency Canadian Blood Services has a section of their website based on the Japanese cultural belief of ketsueki-gata, which claims that a person's blood group determines or predicts their personality type. Disappointing for a self-proclaimed 'science-based' organization. The Ottawa Skeptics, based in the nation's capital, appear to be taking some action."
FROM APPLETELL - I took MIMO’s 720-S for a spin to see how well the Mobile Slider line of USB monitors performs and compares to other available USB monitors. MORE »
Law enforcement agents obtained GPS location data on Sprint customers more than 8 million times in the last year, according to statements made by a company employee at a closed conference.
AP - Media companies need to deliver compelling information on a variety of electronic devices and overcome readers' resistance to paying for material online, news executives said Tuesday at a government-sponsored journalism conference.
CWmike writes "Microsoft's Windows ran to stay in place last month as Window 7's market share gains made up for the largest-ever declines in Windows XP and Vista, data released today by Web metrics firm Net Applications showed. By these numbers, Windows 7's gains were primarily at the expense of Windows XP. For each copy of Vista replaced by Windows 7 during November, more than six copies of XP were swapped out. Meanwhile, Apple's Mac OS X lost share during November... betcha Ballmer is having an extra giddy time with that news. Linux came up a winner last month, returning to the 1% share mark for the first time since July. Linux's all-time high in Net Applications' rankings was May 2009, when it nearly reached 1.2%."
The best in tech for hard to please recipients
YONKERS, N.Y., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Last-minute shoppers who aren't sure what gifts to buy finicky friends and family members need to look no further than the January issue of Consumer Reports. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Dec 2009 | 3:58 pm
Macworld.com - Brace yourselves, I have some bad news. The reports are in, and well, it doesnât look good for you, AT&T. Seems while consumers are flocking to your service, theyâre not exactly thrilled about it. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Dec 2009 | 3:54 pm
MojoKid sends in a piece that takes a step back from Google's much-analyzed OS to look at what it is trying to accomplish. "Last week, Google open-sourced its Chromium OS project, more than a year before the operating system is scheduled for release. In doing so, Google hopes a variety of developers and companies will become involved in the project, and has pledged to release regular updates as well as a comprehensive log of bug reports and fixes. This article takes a look at Google's design vision for Chromium, the unique benefits it offers, and a bit of why Google is throwing its hat into this particular ring in the first place. Chromium, after all, is a Linux-based OS entering the smartbook/netbook market at a time when the product segment is already being well served by a variety of Linux distros, XP, and Windows 7. In the midst of all these options, do we need another operating system? We just might."
From Star Trek to The Prisoner, creative types are busy raiding the past in a never-ending quest for the next successful remake. Sometimes they score; other times they fail miserably. These science fiction shows deserve to be spun into the futuristic mix.
Drawing a simple picture on your phone might seem like an easy task. But try drawing a picture in under 2 minutes with enough detail that other people can guess that it’s a tarantula.
If you’re a Pictionary fan, you’re in luck. A modern rendition of the classic group game is available in the Android Market. What The Doodle?! is the first touch-screen drawing app that utilizes mobile internet connectivity and social gaming.
When you play, you have the option of going up against players around the world. There are plenty of options for game styles and skill levels: easy, medium and hard; team modes; freestyle; and “private rooms” to play games with your invited friends. There’s also a “simulate strokes” feature that makes up for a lapse in a stroke caused by slower data connections.
The social side of the app is even more extensive; emphasizing the multi-player fun of Pictionary. There are friend lists, chatrooms, data connectivity stats for each user, an overall ranking score, the option to accuse someone of cheating and even a mini-democracy to boot someone out of a game by a majority ruling.
There are a few minor issues. The database of words seem to be limited in some of the game modes. I was doled the same topic twice in 10 minutes. Watch out for avid players who remember these frequent topics because they can (and will) correctly guess “watering can” from a desolate square, just 3 seconds into a round. If you’re a myTouch or Hero owner, you might have trouble with the soft keyboard covering the picture-in-progress as you type in your guess, but there’s an integrated voice recognition alternative to help you out.
While games on the Android haven’t exactly created the same aesthetic experience on the iPhone, What The Doodle?! encompasses the very essence of Android — functionality — in gaming form. It’s challenging, it’s fun and you might make a couple of new friends.
There are currently 233 people playing live games compared to the 17 people when I first downloaded the game during the second round of judging for the Android Developer Challenge 2.
Every now and then tech companies will launch a product that’ll make you think, “Wait, why weren’t we doing this all along?” Universal Studio’s new “Flipper” disc is one of those: a two-in-one disc that’s Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other.
Universal is rolling out the dual-format disc beginning with the Bourne trilogy (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum). Each Flipper disc will cost about $30 — about the same as most Blu-ray titles cost brand new.
Why is this a good idea? Well, say you want to bring a movie over to a friend’s house, but it happens to be a Blu-ray disc — and alas, your friend doesn’t own a Blu-ray player. Or, say you have more than one television set, but one of them only has a DVD player plugged into it. Third, say you own a DVD player and are waiting to purchase a Blu-ray player in the not-too-distant future. Buying a Flipper would future proof your movie.
CNET notes that the now-discontinued HD DVD format tried the two-in-one format back in 2007, so this is hardly a new idea. Still, even if overdue, the Flipper is a welcome option with the rising popularity of Blu-ray players and high-definition TVs.
Fring, the first to offer an iPhone app that allowed users to make calls using the internet, rolls out another iPhone first: a video-calling feature, in one sense anyway.
Adobe has released a public beta of Lightroom 3, the company’s tool for processing and organizing cameras’ RAW images. While still an early release, Lightroom 3 looks to be a worthy upgrade thanks to impressive speed improvements and baked-in image sharing tools.
For Lightroom 3, Adobe completely rewrote much of the underlying code. The result still looks like Lightroom, but it’s considerably faster than previous releases.
Large image libraries in Lightroom 2 frequently meant blurry, pixelated previews that took a few seconds to resolve into sharp thumbnails. At times Lightroom could feel like a web-based editor for how much trouble it had rendering thumbnails.
Thankfully, pixelated previews are a thing of the past with Lightroom 3. We loaded up an 8,000+ image library into the new beta and not only were the thumbnail previews sharp no matter how many images we scrolled through, common tasks like switching from Library view to Develop view and exporting images to Photoshop were noticeably faster.
Speed isn’t the only thing new in this beta. Lightroom 3 will also bring integrated support for publishing your photos to the web. In the beta, that means built-in syncing with Flickr.
To use the Flickr syncing tool simply authorize Lightroom to access your Flickr account. Once that’s done, publishing your images is a drag-and-drop task. Even better, the syncing is two-way: Lightroom 3 will pull down and update your metadata with any changes made on Flickr and will also grab any comments on the image.
Lightroom 3 now imports comments on your photos from Flickr.
For those with Flickr Pro accounts, it’s even possible to edit and update images that you’ve already posted on Flickr.
The new publish tool also allows you to export images to folders on your desktop or an external drive. It’s a nice backup feature, but it also means that you can now use Lightroom to manage your iPhone photos — just publish your Lightroom images to a folder and tell iTunes to sync photos from that folder.
While on the surface most of Lightroom 3 looks just like Lightroom 2, the import dialog has been radically revamped. Not only is the import tool much faster, it now offers full-resolution image previews and the ability to define import templates.
Lightroom 3's import dialog is faster.
The other standout feature in the Lightroom 3 beta is the new set of sharpening and noise reduction tools, which makes it a snap to get rid of noise in high ISO images.
The new algorithm managed to get rid of a significant amount of color noise without overly softening the images we tested it with. Although the results weren’t perfect, Lightroom 3 did a much better job than its predecessor. The noise reduction tools will be particularly useful for those who’ve upgraded to some of the new, extremely high ISO cameras from Nikon and Canon.
Addicted to high ISO levels? Lightroom 3 can help reduce the noise.
On the flip side of the noise spectrum, Lightroom 3 sports a new “film grain” tool that allows you to simulate the look high-ISO film grain without using an external editor. So if graininess is your thing, you can put it back in as easily as you can take it out.
So far Adobe has not set a release date for the final version of Lightroom 3. If you’d like to test Lightroom 3 you can grab a copy from the Adobe Labs website. Be careful though, this is a true beta with known bugs. We definitely don’t recommend using it for production work and highly recommend making a backup copy of any images you plan to import.
The beta version of Adobe's image-processing program is promising, with speed improvements, built-in support for image sharing services like Flickr, and other new features.
FROM GAMERTELL - Sony Europe has announced that anyone in Europe who purchases a PSPgo between December 1, 2009 and January 10, 2010, will get one full, free game to go with it. MORE »
FROM GAMERTELL - The True Fidelity PS500MM stereo headset claims to offer boosted sound that will not harm your ears. But is it worth the $100 price tag? Find out now… MORE »
For those of you that can’t afford this glamorous iPhone, Samsung has something in mind for you. They are calling it the Diva Collection. This collection is specifically targeted towards the girly girl type; and lucky for you, they plan to update it every year so you can always have a glam phone no matter how fast technology grows.
Currently, the Diva Collection consists of two phones. The first is the S5150 Olivia which is more then just your basic flip phone. It sports a, quote “glittering LED” that will flash in various ways when you receive calls.
The second is another iPhone look-a-like called the S7070. The S7070 features a 3-inch display with a large, diamond shaped button at the bottom. Other features include a 3.2 megapixel camera, a microSD slot, Bluetooth, and a quilted-style back cover.
Unfortunately, these won’t be released until sometime in the first half of 2010, so no hopes to find this under your tree. Also, there is no price range yet so theirs no telling how much of a diva you really have to be.
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed a blueprint for a wind farm that borrows techniques from schools of fish.Robert Whittlesey and John Dabiri came up with the concept that could make wind farms more efficient by maximizing power without increasing land usage.Whittlesey and Dabiri said the concept was inspired by the patterns of schooling fish, which they use to conserve energy."When fish swim, they shed tiny vortices in their wake," said Dabiri. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm
Smartphones or GPS navigators that can be rolled up and stuffed into the back pocket of your Diesel jeans are inching closer to reality.
Advancements in display technology have created flexible displays that could be available commercially in about two years. Now, a new breakthrough suggests another critical component for most gadgets — antennas — are set to get more twisty than a pretzel.
Using a new combination of alloys, researchers have created shape-shifting antennas that could be embedded into materials such as textiles, bandages and bendable displays to bring in a new generation of flexible devices.
“The antennas can be bent, stretched, cut and twisted and [yet] will return to its original shape,” says Michael Dickey, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University and co-author of the research.
Antennas are a part of most major consumer electronic devices from cellphones to GPS systems. Traditionally they are made from copper by milling or etching rigid sheets of copper into a shape that can be used for a single purpose. While copper makes for efficient antennas, it is not well suited for flexible electronics because it fatigues when bent repeatedly and can even break completely.
That’s why the researchers started looking at alternatives to copper. They decided to make new antennas by injecting an alloy of the metals gallium and indium into very small channels — the width of a human hair. Both metals remain in liquid form at room temperature.
The microchannels that they are injected into are straw-like but could be any shape, say the researchers. Once the alloy has filled the channel, the surface of it oxidizes, creating a skin that holds the alloy in place while allowing it to retain its flexibility.
“This is particularly attractive for antennas, because the frequency of an antenna is determined by its shape,” says Dickey. “So you can tune these antennas by stretching them.”
The antennas radiate with 90 percent efficiency, but they are likely to be more expensive than current copper-based products. That’s why the technology could find its first application in military equipment, says Dickey.
Another application could be in construction. For instance, the antenna in a flexible silicone shell could be attached to a bridge. As the bridge expands and contracts, it would stretch the antenna and change its frequency. This could provide engineers information about the condition of the bridge.
What is there to say about this, outside of the headline? We loved the Mophie Juice Pack at first, only to have it almost literally fall apart in our hands. Mophie said the problem we had definitely shouldn’t have happened, and shouldn’t happen again.
Whether or not the problem was isolated and/or fixed, I’ve got no idea. But I do know one thing: now it comes in red! Earlier this morning, Mophie announced that they’re now shipping the Juice Pack Air in Soft Touch Red, in addition to the black/silver/purple options they’ve had for a while now. You can nab one at the Apple store or Mophie’s online store for 5 cents shy of $80 bucks.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
New research shows that the cost of installing and owning solar panels will fall even faster than expected, BBC News reported.Some 90 percent of existing solar panels last for 30 years, instead of the predicted 20 years -- which brings down the lifetime cost, according to the independent EU Energy Institute.In fact, the panels are such a good long-term investment that banks should offer mortgages on them like they do on homes, the institute said.The institute forecasts that solar panels would be cost-competitive with energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe by 2020 - without a subsidy. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 12:52 pm
A major scientific report released on Tuesday showed that rapid ice loss in West Antarctica will likely contribute heavily to a projected sea level rise of up to 4.5 feet by 2100, AFP reported.For years scientists believed that most of Antarctica's continent-sized ice sheet was highly resistant to global warming, and that the more vulnerable West Antarctic ice block would remain intact for thousands of years to come.But according to the review by more than 100 experts on the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, studies now show a huge loss of ice mass, mainly as a result of warmer ocean temperatures.The report claims that this new evidence suggests West Antarctica in particular will add "tens of centimeters" to the global ocean watermark, which is predicted to go up two to nine times higher than the IPCC forecast.Based on past studies, even the relatively modest IPCC projection of a 7-23 inch increase by 2100 would render several island nations unlivable and wreak havoc in low-lying deltas home to hundreds of millions.Meanwhile, global warming’s impact on the region is set to intensify over the next century due to the successful effort to repair depletion of the ozone layer.The report found that a hole in the ozone layer caused by the release of CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) gases has cooled temperatures and shielded most of Antarctica from global warming.John Turner, head of climate research for the British Antarctic Survey and lead editor of the review, said the most astonishing evidence is the way that one man-made environmental impact -- the ozone hole -- has shielded most of Antarctica from another, global warming.But some climate skeptics contend that the stable temperatures -- and in some areas additional cooling -- over much of the vast Antarctic continent during the last 30 years is evidence that global warming trends were exaggerated or simply false.But by century's end, experts say measures to control the CFC gases should "heal" the hole in around 50 to 60 years, leading to additional warming of about 5.4 Fahrenheit.Over the last few decades, 90 percent of the Antarctic Peninsula's glaciers have retreated, though the bulk of the continent's ice sheet has so far shown little change.* Earth's most powerful ocean current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, has warmed faster than the global ocean as a whole, which could likely disrupt the region's ecosystems, including the rise of alien species that compete with and replace native Antarctic inhabitants.This rapid warming has resulted in the expansion of plant, animal and microbial communities -- many of them introduced by humans -- on newly thawed land in the Antarctic Peninsula.* Sea ice loss and ocean acidification are directly affecting wildlife, and could reduce Antarctica's rich biodiversity, from the bottom to the top of the food chain.Tiny krill have declined significantly, and in some areas Adelie penguin populations have dropped due to reduced sea ice and prey. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 12:48 pm
Powerful westerly winds in the south Pacific have steered a flotilla of icebergs initially headed toward New Zealand to the east, away from the nation, according to an oceanographer at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.A shipping alert was distributed last week while maritime authorities monitored the icebergs as they drifted from Antarctica toward New Zealand's South Island."It looks like they've all disappeared east of New Zealand," oceanographer Mike Williams of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 12:43 pm
Upset that your Motorola Cliq is still running Android v1.5? Think the battery life stinks? Motorola’s get a patch for one of those problems, but not the other.
Early this morning, Moto began pushing an over-the-air update to Cliq owners. Alas, it doesn’t look like they’ve managed to port the BLUR user interface over to Android 2.0 yet – even after updating, the Cliq is still running v1.5. On the upside, they did manage to fix a good number of nasty nitpicks. Touch screen accuracy, battery life, and Bluetooth support have all been boosted, and they’ve added in TTY functionality for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Check out the full change list after the jump.
Introduction
From time-to-time, Motorola releases updates to enhance the overall performance of its phones. The 1.1.31 software update for Motorola CLIQ provides improvements to its battery, touch, and Bluetooth functionality.
For optimal performance, we encourage you to download and install this latest software update.
For more information on Motorola updates and repairs, visit us at Motorola Support.
Who Can Use This Release
All Motorola CLIQ users.
Highlights
After downloading and installing the 1.1.31 software release, you will notice:
Longer Battery Life
Improved battery life while phone is idle or running applications.
New Battery Management Feature
A new “Battery Management” feature lets you customize battery settings, such as turning data off when phone is idle for 30 minutes. And with the 1.1.31 release installed on your phone, you now have the option to select battery consumption modes that optimize data performance while minimizing battery consumption. To enable Battery Manager, go to Settings, Battery Manager, Battery Profile.
Better Bluetooth
Improved pairings, audio and call connections with Bluetooth headsets, including: rewind/fast forward feature with S9 and HT820 headsets. For more information on available Bluetooth devices for your phone, visit us at Mobile Phone Accessories.
Touch Screen Accuracy
Improved touch screen accuracy and protection against inadvertent key presses and unintended phone calls.
TTY Option
Text Telephone option for the hearing/speech-impaired lets you converse with callers via “real time” text messaging instead of relying on the caller’s audio.
Better Business Connections
Improved connections to corporate email accounts.
Improved Caller Connectivity
1.1.31 repairs issues with lingering connections after hang-up.
Quick Office 2
Quick Office 2 supports additional file types and enhanced capabilities.
Accelerometer Enhancements
Improves overall accelerometer responsiveness and accuracy.
Model is expected to help researchers better understand social bonding and impairments to such behaviorResearchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have successfully generated the first transgenic prairie voles, an important step toward unlocking the genetic secrets of pair bonding. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 12:31 pm
Changes to current practices would be needed to satisfy global food demandThe oceans could become the source of more of humanity's food if steps are taken to expand and improve marine aquaculture, according to a study published in the December 2009 issue of BioScience.As the world's population continues to grow, lack of fresh water and space mean that terrestrial agriculture is unlikely to be able to meet food demand, according to Carlos M. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 12:23 pm
Windows 7 users are now being plagued by an error that was supposedly released in the latest security update by Microsoft. Victims find their computers freezing up and display a black screen, or in rare cases showing only “My Computer” Explorer window.
The security company Prevx has already been working on the problem and has a released a software fix for it. Prevx believes that this flaw in the programming of the Windows 7 software could be a huge problem and could affect millions of PC owners.
Microsoft, however, has gone on the record saying that, “Microsoft is investigating reports that its latest release of security updates is resulting in system issues for some customers. Once we complete our investigation, we will provide detailed guidance on how to prevent or address these issues.”
Until then, it seems as though the new BSOD lives on.
Broadly speaking, ants have two different feeding strategies. A large proportion of all species are "carnivorous," meaning that they are generalist predators feeding on other small animals or scavenging on their remains. Some, however, are "herbivorous". Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 12:19 pm
Have you ever noticed that a lot of the bigger cities in Google Earth have photo-realistic 3D buildings in them? (See Valencia, for example.) Have you ever wondered when someone's going to get around to modeling the world's smaller towns and villages? Today, we're giving you the chance to add your own town to the map.
We're pleased to announce the first-ever, international Google Model Your Town Competition. You're invited to use our free tools — SketchUp and Building Maker — to make sure your community is represented on the world's biggest 3D stage. Every town that participates has the chance to be included in Google Earth's 3D Buildings layer where millions of people can see it. The winning town (as decided by a popular vote) will win money for its schools, a Google-sponsored party for its modelers and plenty more.
Check out this video; it highlights some of the 3D towns and cities already in Google Earth:
Visit the competition website for more information about prizes, judging and rules. You'll also find a helpful FAQ and a list of steps that should help you get started. The deadline for submission is three months away — it's not too early to form a team, take pictures and start building. Good luck!
Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager and Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist
Exhibition Next is novel new way of presenting information to customers, tracking interests without wasteSantanu Majumdar spent his years as a graphic design graduate student developing a project that might sound counterintuitive for a student of fine arts – a software program made to simplify information gathering at conferences and exhibitions. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 12:03 pm
FROM APPLETELL - iSing is an application that aims to bring American Idol to the mobile platform, allowing users to vote on the talent of others and to submit their own performances. MORE »
Hit-and-run attacks by sharks can be solved with a new technique that identifies the culprits by the unique chomp they put on their victims, according to a University of Florida researcher and shark expert.In a method analogous to analyzing human fingerprints, scientists can make identifications by precisely comparing shark bites to the jaws and teeth of the powerful predators, said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, which is housed at UF’s Florida Museum of Natural History.“Every time we investigate a shark attack one of the pieces of information that we want to have is what species was involved and what size it was,” he said. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 11:58 am
This is a test of the Crunch Network Public Service Announcement System. Before exiting a cab/taxi/limo/bus, be sure to account for all of your gadgets. This is only a test…
While maybe obvious, this is very sound advice, especially during the holiday season where many of us find ourselves traveling in distant lands, taking countless cabs here and there. Take London, for example. According to a new survey, Londoners lose an average of 10,000 mobile phones in the back of taxis every single month.
On top of the 10K mobiles being left behind, the same blokes folks lose roughly 1000 other portable gadgets (such as laptops, iPods, etc) every month as well. Not surprisingly, the number of lost cell phones and other gizmos increases during the winter holiday season. Thus, the need for this PSA.
Repeat: This is a test of the Crunch Network Public Service Announcement System. Before exiting a cab/taxi/limo/bus, be sure to account for all of your gadgets. This is only a test…
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Universite de Montreal professor refutes demonization of pornographyA Université de Montréal researcher, funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Family Violence and Violence Against Women, has launched a new study to examine the effects of pornography on men. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Dec 2009 | 11:51 am
Mac cloner Psystar claims it has entered a partial settlement with Apple, which will prevent Psystar from selling PCs preinstalled with the Mac operating system. However, Psystar isn’t completely surrendering.
As part of the settlement, the Mac cloner said it will pay Apple an amount of damages that has yet to be specified. In the Monday filing, Psystar argued to exclude Rebel EFI, a $50 piece of software that the company started selling in October, from any potential injunction. Rebel EFI is a program that enables owners of some Intel PCs to install Mac OS X onto their systems.
An excerpt from the court document [pdf] filed Monday by Psystar follows:
Psystar and Apple today entered into a partial settlement that is embodied in a stipulation that will be filed with the Court tomorrow. Psystar has agreed on certain amounts to be awarded as statutory damages on Apple’s copyright claims in exchange for Apple’s agreement not to execute on these awards until all appeals in this matter have been concluded. Moreover, Apple has agreed to voluntarily dismiss all its trademark, trade-dress, and state-law claims. This partial settlement eliminates the need for a trial and reduces the issues before this Court to the scope of any permanent injunction on Apple’s copyright claims.
….
The summary judgment in this case turned on the manner in which Psystar assembled its Open Computers. It turned on such things as the use of the Psystar imaging station and what this Court found to be the creation of multiple copies and derivative works of Mac OS X along the way…. None of these same facts is involved in Rebel EFI. Rebel EFI is entirely a software product. It does not involve the assembly by Psystar of any computers…. Nor does Rebel EFI contain or include Mac OS X. A Mac OS X DVD does not even accompany sales of Rebel EFI. Rebel EFI consists solely of Psystar software available for sale and download through Psystar’s website. In particular, whether sales of Rebel EFI are lawful or not depends on whether Psystar’s end users have a defense under 17 U.S.C. § 117. This issue has not been litigated in this case at all. Psystar’s end users do not engage in commercial use of Mac OS X and their use would qualify as use for “internal purposes” even under the standards articulated by Apple in its summary-judgment briefing. If Psystar’s end users are protected by § 117, then Psystar cannot be violating the DMCA by selling Rebel EFI because Rebel EFI, as used by the end users, does not facilitate infringement.
In short, Psystar wishes to continue providing a DIY solution for owners to make their own Mac clones, thereby shifting the responsibility (i.e., breaking Apple’s End User License Agreement) onto the consumer.
However, it’s unlikely this workaround will pan out for Psytar. In 2008, Wired.com reported on a company called Open Tech, which said it would sell PCs bundled with instruction kits for consumers to install Mac OS X themselves. However, Carole Handler, an intellectual property lawyer with Wildman Harrold, told Wired.com that Open Tech would be subjecting itself to contributory infringement of Apple’s end-user agreement.
“Making the user instead of the company the perpetrator of any violation will not avoid the issue of a new company’s contributory infringement and/or vicarious liability for what it facilitates and enables the user to undertake,” Handler said in an e-mail interview. “This kind of workaround is not a bar to Apple bringing contributory infringement or vicarious liability claims.”
Though slightly different, Psystar’s solution could also be considering aiding the consumer to break Apple’s EULA, which reads, “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.”
Psystar, a company based in Florida, opened its Mac clone business in April 2008. Three months later, Apple filed a lawsuit alleging Psystar was committing copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement. Judge William Alsup in November ruled that by selling PCs hacked to run Mac OS X, Psystar had violated Apple’s copyrights.
Additional details regarding the settlement will be filed today, according to Psystar.
If you’re the owner of an HTC Hero, you’re probably pretty tired of waiting for the update treatment. While other handsets have been bumped up to Android v1.6 and others have hit the shelves with v2.0, you’re still stuck way back at v1.5. Well, the time to upgrade has come – as long as you’re down to do some hackery, that is.
The always incredible guys over at XDADevelopers have managed to get their hands on the 2.1 ROM, work out the kinks, and now have it up and running on all Hero’s that come looking for an upgrade. The process is a bit intense (Step 2 tells you to flash the radio, for example – know how to do that off the top of your head? Cause I sure don’t), but most of the steps can be worked out by spending a few minutes looking around XDADev. Don’t dive in until you’re ready – but once you are, it’s probably worth the jump.
[Thanks Dave!]
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Been wanting to check out and run Chromium OS and felt left out because you did not have a spare 4GB USB flash drive or SD card laying around. Well, you can worry just a little less now because Chromium has been slimmed down and now requires little more than a 1GB drive.
And the nice part here is that not only has Chromium OS gone on a diet, but there has been extra hardware support added and nothing has been cut. The extra support comes in the form of much welcomed improved Wi-Fi support.
Anyway, for those interested, hit the download link below and choose the “Download Chrome OS Diet USB” link from the developers page. In addition to the OS downloads, you will also be able to find instructions for making that flash drive on Windows, Mac or Linux based computers.
With that it seems the major hurdle of checking out Chromium OS is not that you do not have a spare 4GB flash drive handy, but simple laziness or lack of interest.
For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is closing in. And for fans of extreme snow sports -- backcountry skiing and snowboarding -- you'll be glad to know that researchers are thinking about your safety. A team ... Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Dec 2009 | 10:42 am
During the planning of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Wide Angle, Discovery News Editor-in-Chief Lori Cuthbert discussed some questions about LHC physics with Space Producer Ian O'Neill. Here are the best bits... Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Dec 2009 | 10:41 am
Look. I’m all for the D.I.Y-spirit. I go to the Maker Faire, I randomly add LEDs to things that have no reason to have them, and I’ve voided more warranties than I can count. But this is just cheating.
When we got a tip today from reader Roland with a subject line of just “NES Cartridge iPhone dock”, I got a little bit tingly inside.
I expected a perfectly shaped dock made of disassembled NES cartridges, carefully cradling an iPhone through its syncing woes. I expected a store-bought dock, hand painted to match the stylings of an NES cartridge. You know what I didn’t expect? An NES cartridge with an iPhone cable glued through a hastily dremeled hole on top.
I’m just not feelin’ it. Maybe its because I’m crazy; maybe it’s because there appears to be nothing actually supporting the iPhone except for the pins of the cable. Think Apple would approve it for “Made for iPhone” status?
Last week, Fring took their first step into the video calling space by bringing Fring/Skype video support to a handful of Nokias. Not looking to let the momentum fizzle, Fring has already released their next video-enabled app — this time for the iPhone.
Alas, the iPhone lacks a front facing camera. Two-way video conferencing would be a bit awkward with one person having to rotate the handset every time they wanted to talk. As a result, video chat support on the iPhone Fring app has been watered down a bit, allowing for incoming video only. It’s not quite as fancy – but there’s not much that could be done with the current hardware set up. (Psst, Apple – time to add a front facing camera.)
You can check out the new video-enabled iPhone app here: iTunes Link
You’d buy a solar powered charger for your MacBook, right? Save money, save the planet, and all that other hippy stuff the Mac user cares about. How much would you pay for such a thing? $100? $200? Sure, it might be the cost of a couple spare batteries, but you’ll make it back in the end, won’t you?
How about $1,200, or $200 more than the MacBook itself? That’s what Quickertek wants for its new 55 Watt Apple Juicz (ho ho) charger, which can refill a tired Mac’s battery in as little as six hours. You can opt for the less powerful 27 Watt model which will take from eight to 12 hours to complete a recharge, and consequently “only” costs $700.
The solar panels are pretty huge when folded out, measuring around 12 times the size of the computer they are supplying (imagine a 4 x 3 grid of 13” MacBook Pros and you’ll get the idea). If you’re the kind of person who likes to camp for days on end, but can’t go without a computer, we guess this might be for you. On the other hand, $1,200 will buy an awful lot of extension cord.
Looking for the right gift for the audiophiles and stargazers on your list? The Neuhaus Laboratories T-2 amp lets you sidestep a computer's sound card and pump jams directly through a vacuum-tube amplifier. Set the tunes, then gaze at the stars with the Explore Scientific Apochromatic Telescope.
For two days I have been trying to come up with something to like about the Kradle, an oversized, utilitarian stand for the Kindle. At first it seems impossible: Why on earth would you need a stand in the first place? One of the Kindle’s big advantages is that it has no pages and so can be lain down on the table while eating, say, and you don’t have to hold the thing open with one hand while shoveling caviar and foie gras (my usual breakfast) into your mouth with the other.
But I tried. I investigated every one of my normal reading positions and after that I went through yet more in my head. First, though, the Kradle itself.
The Kradle is fashioned from ABS plastic, either in an anonymous dark gray or a beige the color of a prosthetic limb. It weighs almost nothing, and feels like it should last forever. It is also one of the ugliest accessories I have ever seen, more like the molded interior of a gadget’s box rather than the gadget itself. The Kradle is all angles, every one of which is perfectly designed to hold both the Kindle and to offend your eyes. In short, the Kradle will probably never leave the house.
Once you get it out of the box (and finish reading the model number, the company URL and the proud “patent pending” boast so prominently molded into the top) you see three slots, and a collection of stick-on feet. These pads come in two types, felt or silicone rubber. After pushing the Kradle across the kitchen table and hearing the screeching scrawk of plastic on wood, I put the felt feet in right away and enjoyed sliding-silence — a blessed relief. Thus neutralized, the Kradle was ready for action. You have a choice of three slots, two of which are right next to each other and confusingly offer the same angle of 75º, or “15º from vertical” (it turns out that one is to hold you Kindle’s cover) and one that holds the e-reader almost flat (15º from horizontal). By cleverly propping the Kindle cover in it’s slot, you can also lean the Kindle against that for a 45º angle, too.
Silicone pads inside the slots hold the Kindle steady. When you press the page-turn buttons, though, you’ll want to squeeze them — a single-finger push flexes the Kindle’s body alarmingly, as it is held only by the base. This is worse in the almost-flat position as it is tricky to get your fingers between Kindle and stand.
All in all, though, it works just fine, holding your Kindle at a jaunty angle. But the problem remains: Why? I actually managed to come up with a few uses, although none that cannot be replicated by things already lying around. First, it could be a useful prop for hands-free reading when cooking. The trouble here is that the Kindle will go to sleep and you’ll have to touch it with greasy fingers to re-display the recipe. Also, a Kindle next to a cooking pot is probably a bad idea.
Next, reading at the table. Again, it does this fine, but no better than just laying it flat on the same table. On your lap? Nope. Not stable. Cafe? Bar? C’mon. It’s dorky enough reading an e-book in public without adding to the embarrassment, plus this takes up the room of a couple more Kindles in your bag.
Actually, there is one place that it could be handy: The stand has a hole where you can thread the USB cable. The problem is that it is extremely fiddly to get the cable through. It’s a shame. The device is well made and does its job just fine. It’s just that it’s a job that doesn’t need doing, especially not if it’s this ugly while it does it. $20.
Sugru is a brand new modeling clay that has me absurdly excited. Why? Because it is something I have wanted since forever, only I didn’t even know it.
Sugru is a self curing, hand-moldable material like clay or Play-Doh. The difference is that it cures by itself and you end up with a silicon lump that is dishwashers safe (and if it can survive a dishwasher, it can survive anything). Better, it is sticky. Sticky enough to adhere to metal, wood, ceramic and plastic, whereupon it can become a handle, a protective coating or just a new, custom part.
The gunk is designed for hacking and repair, and came from an idea that product designer Jane had in university at the RCA London. Five years of collaboration with two materials scientists (Ian and Steve) later, and the result is Sugru. To show why we are excited, here are a few suggested uses: adding proper handles to kitchen objects; making cases for, well, anything; waterproofing bags, fixing things to other things; making a hammer softer; adding non-slip earpieces to spectacles and repairing textiles, cables, or shoes.
The silicon material gives you a half hour of working time before it hardens and than needs a full day to cure fully, whereupon it will still flex and absorb heat and cold (-60°C to 180°C, or -76ºF to 356ºF) without flinching. It’s cheap, too, at £7 ($12) for “The Multi-Hack Pack which contains “five 10g sachets and five 5g sachets, which is totally a lot.”
Contrary to what you might have heard, our power grid isn't dumber than a bag of hammers. Smart grid isn't just a few new meters and intelligent appliances. And squirrels will probably remain just as much of a threat to ... Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 Dec 2009 | 6:19 am
Curiosity — it's why we search the web. Whether searching for the latest news, a popular holiday gift, a website you've heard about, the latest singing sensation, or the trailer to a blockbuster film, you come to Google with something on your mind. And since 2001, we've been releasing our annual Zeitgeist — our view into the spirit of the times — which includes the fastest-rising Google searches (those that had the greatest surge in the past year) and most popular (those that are consistently searched in large volume, like [weather]). By exploring 2009's popular and fastest rising search terms, we're able to share a glimpse into what's been on the mind of the global community this year.
So what has captivated the minds of searchers around the world this year? As millions of fans said goodbye to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson led the list of our top 10 fastest rising queries across the globe. And a new star was born, too — quirky pop singer Lady Gaga became a search sensation the world over. In addition to appearing on many regional fastest-rising search term lists, from the Czech Republic to Switzerland and Kenya to the United Kingdom, Lady Gaga also landed in the #9 spot on the global fastest rising list.
This year's Zeitgeist also confirms that the social web is alive and well. In a sweeping confirmation of the web's ability to connect us, both Facebook and the Spanish social-networking site Tuenti appeared on the fastest rising searches at #2 and #3 respectively. Twitter also made our global list for the first time at #5 — undoubtedly propelled by celebrity tweeters from Ashton Kutcher to Miley Cyrus.
With the global community closely watching the swine flu epidemic, [schweinegrippe], [gripe porcina], [豬流感], [h1n1], [świńskiej grypy] and [sikainfluenssa] were heavily queried the world over. In fact, in the U.S., swine flu was searched even more than another major event of the year: the inauguration of President Obama.
In the U.S., 2009 also saw many people express their thrifty consciousness in response to the sour economy. The most popular made by hand searches including everything from baby food (#2) to laundry detergent (#6). And as more and more turned to comfort foods and recipes to make at home, [chili] became the most popular recipe searched for across the country.
It's because of curious searchers like you and the billions of searches you do throughout the year, that our annual Zeitgeist has become an insightful look into a global mindset. So please check out our Zeitgeist site, which showcases many of these interesting trends across various categories and countries, and more about how we create the lists. We're already anticipating what trends we will see in 2010!
Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience
Woho makes a range of small bike bags which are most likely to be used for tool kits, but could also be great for carrying cellphones, iPods and cash. The lineup consists of handlebar and saddlebags, but here we’re looking at the Classic Roll, partly because it sounds so tasty, and partly because you can hang it just about anywhere.
The classic roll is made from a translucent vinyl-like material which keeps the water out (the zipper is also weatherproof) and because it is see-through, you can throw a light inside and have the whole sack glow. Fixing is done by two straps and buckles, but there is a version (which I can’t find on the site) that has a single Velcro strap across the top that can be threaded through the rails under the saddle.
The loop’n’buckle version is still rather versatile, sitting under the seat, hanging from the handlebar or just dangling from the top-tube. According to Jeff at Urban Velo, the bags are very well made and come with a webbing strap inside to help organize tools.
Right now I’m in winter mode, and so everything goes into a new mini Timbuk2 messenger bag, the tools stuffed inside a pencil case. This Woho Classic Roll is rather tempting, though, as it solves one big problem of using a saddle-bag: it blocks out the light from the hipster-cyst I have on the seat-post. $21.
Chicago based 
The latest thing of beauty to emerge from the Ukrainian cave of wonders operated by Bob Basset, a collective of steampunk leatherworkers, is this "Flapping Push Toy": a leather steampunk airship with flapping bat-wings, brass portholes, and intricate gears within. Bravo!
Here in the UK, the Business Software Alliance is running its annual paid informant "Nail Your Boss" program, in which they give big cash rewards to people who fink out their employers for running pirate software. This happens every year, but it reminded me of one of the funniest incidents in my life as a copyfighter:
However, in the period up to today, Henrik heard nothing from Antipiratgruppen, although their lawyer Thomas Schlüter did speak to the Danish press, saying that it was a political matter but had nevertheless reported the issue to the Association of Danish Videodistributors for consideration. In response, their chairman, Poul Dylov, said they would have a meeting to decide whether to report the matter to the police.
Antipiratgruppen said it would reply to Henrik by they date he requested. It seems they have broken their promise and strangely are insisting that they never received the email that Henrik sent them on the issue...
Developers take note: if you’ve got a mashup built off of Craigslist’s data, don’t even think about showing it to anyone who works there. At least, that’s the lesson learned by developer Romy Maxwell, who says that Craigslist has blocked both his mashup and every single project built on 
It's as though He came down and said to MobileCrunch: "Ask and you shall receive." We 
Venture capitalists like to hire well known entrepreneurs and executives as “entrepreneurs in residence.” These are short term jobs, a place for someone to park themselves for up to a year or so after they’ve sold their company or otherwise have moved on. They sit in on pitch meetings, advise partners and portfolio companies, and plan their next move. And the VC generally, but not contractually, gets first dibs to invest in their next gig.
Well 
Facebook CEO 
If you've been waiting for some way to put your low- to middling-resolution videos onto a big TV, your prayers have been answered. Flip, through their mouthpiece Walt Mossberg, just dumped out a big bucket of howsyerfather and announced the 
One of the biggest features of many of Google’s web apps has been their ability to work offline. Through Google Gears we’ve been able to use Gmail and Google Docs among others without having an Internet connection. The offline feature isn’t going away any time soon, but it looks like Gears will be.
Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, has unveiled the company 
If this isn’t the end of the line for Psystar, it’s damn near close to it. According to court papers filed Tuesday, 
Drawing a simple picture on your phone might seem like an easy task. But try drawing a picture in under 2 minutes with enough detail that other people can guess that it’s a tarantula.
![Screen shot 2009-12-01 at [ December 1 ] 10.40.24 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-01-at-December-1-10.40.24-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-12-01 at [ December 1 ] 10.40.24 AM")
Windows 7 users are now being plagued by an error that was supposedly released in the latest security update by Microsoft. Victims find their computers freezing up and display a black screen, or in rare cases showing only “My Computer” Explorer window.
This is a test of the Crunch Network Public Service Announcement System. Before exiting a cab/taxi/limo/bus, be sure to account for all of your gadgets. This is only a test… 
