Source: Gizmodo | 15 Dec 2009 | 12:00 am

Papercraft Theo Jansen walker

This papercraft walker, inspired by the genius kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, uses nothing but paper and a single bamboo crank-shaft to accomplish its magic.

Papercraft Theo Jansen (via Make)

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Dec 2009 | 11:48 pm

Unplugged: the best sf published on the Web in 2008

Just released: Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy - 2008 Download, edited by Rich Horton and published by Wyrm Publishing, who also bring you the excellent Clarkesworld sf magazine.

Unplugged is a collection of short stories that were originally published on the Web, a kind of yearly best-of-the-Internet-sf. The first edition is all stories published in 2008, including work by Nancy Kress, Peter S Beagle, Catherynne M. Valente, and me!

I love the model of adding value to free material by curating and packaging it -- this has been the model of the O'Reilly tech books ever since Tim O'Reilly wrote the first user manual for Unix -- and this certainly is a handsome package.

Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy - 2008 Download (via Futurismic)

Source: Gizmodo | 14 Dec 2009 | 11:40 pm

Hidden sensory apparatus discovered in human skin

A transatlantic team of scientists have discovered a secondary sensory system, independent of the well-understood nervous system, hidden in the skin. These may be at the root of inexplicable chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia.

"It's almost like hearing the subtle sound of a single instrument in the midst of a symphony," said senior author Frank Rice, PhD, a Neuroscience Professor at Albany Medical College (AMC), who is a leading authority on the nerve supply to the skin. "It is only when we shift focus away from the nerve endings associated with normal skin sensation that we can appreciate the sensation hidden in the background."

The research team discovered this hidden sensory system by studying two unique patients who were diagnosed with a previously unknown abnormality by lead author David Bowsher, M.D., Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool's Pain Research Institute. These patients had an extremely rare condition called congenital insensitivity to pain, meaning that they were born with very little ability to feel pain. Other rare individuals with this condition have excessively dry skin, often mutilate themselves accidentally and usually have severe mental handicaps...

The answer appeared to be in the presence of sensory nerve endings on the small blood vessels and sweat glands embedded in the skin. "For many years, my colleagues and I have detected different types of nerve endings on tiny blood vessels and sweat glands, which we assumed were simply regulating blood flow and sweating. We didn't think they could contribute to conscious sensation. However, while all the other sensory endings were missing in this unusual skin, the blood vessels and sweat glands still had the normal types of nerve endings. Apparently, these unique individuals are able to 'feel things' through these remaining nerve endings," said Dr. Rice. "What we learned from these unusual individuals is that there's another level of sensory feedback that can give us conscious tactile information. Problems with these nerve endings may contribute to mysterious pain conditions such as migraine headaches and fibromyalgia, the sources of which are still unknown, making them very difficult to treat."

Hidden Sensory System Discovered in the Skin

(Image: Nothing But Skin, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from kevindooley's photostream)

Source: Gizmodo | 14 Dec 2009 | 11:20 pm

IO9's best sf of the noughties

IO9 has picked its 20 Best Science Fiction Books Of The Decade. It's a good an eclectic list (and I'm honored to be on it for my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom). (Thanks, William!)

Source: Gizmodo | 14 Dec 2009 | 11:10 pm

How to Buy an E-Book Reader - PC Magazine

TG Daily

How to Buy an E-Book Reader PC Magazine Kindle? Nook? Sony Reader? E-book readers are hot this holiday season, and we'll help you figure out which one is the best read. by Dan Costa As improbable as it seemed just a few years ago, e-book readers are at the top of many a gift list this ... Nook E-Book Reader Torn Open, Hacked, RootedWired News Barnes and Noble Nook e-Book Reader RootedWashington Post How to loan ebooks on the nook with LendMe serviceZDNet (blog) PC World -Computerworld -TG Daily all 41 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 14 Dec 2009 | 11:00 pm

Myopia Appears To Have Become More Common

Myopia (nearsightedness) may have been more common in Americans from 1999 to 2004 than it was 30 years ago, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals."Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a common condition in which the image of an object seen in the distance is focused anterior to the retina and is consequently out of focus when it reaches the retina," according to background information in the article.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 10:45 pm

Tool Use Discovered in Octopuses - Wired News

National Geographic

Tool Use Discovered in Octopuses Wired News After years of surprising scientists with their cleverness and smarts, some octopuses appear to also use tools. Veined octopuses observed off the coast of Indonesia carried coconut shell halves under their bodies, and assembled them as ... Aussie scientists find coconut-carrying octopusThe Associated Press Octopus snatches coconut and runsBBC News Coconut-carrying octopus stuns scientistsAFP WGME -National Geographic -Reuters UK all 199 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 14 Dec 2009 | 10:45 pm

EU regulators softening stance on Oracle-Sun (AP)

AP - European Union regulators appear to be softening their opposition to Oracle Corp.'s proposed $7.4 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc., a shift that has resurrected some investors' hopes that one of the year's biggest technology deals will go ahead as planned.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 10:10 pm

Dec. 15, 1827: Boston Schools Require Vaccination

Vaccination against smallpox was relatively new, but cities and states were already making it mandatory. Objections to mandatory immunization took nearly a century to reach the Supreme Court. Another century later, objections remain, with or without reason.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 10:00 pm

A New Kind Of Micro-Mobility

Method of moving tiny particles using magnetic fields could find uses in microchips and in medicineA new microscopic system devised by researchers in MIT's department of materials science and engineering could provide a novel method for moving tiny objects inside a microchip, and could also provide new insights into how cells and other objects are propelled around within the body.Inside organs such as the trachea and the intestines, tiny hair-like filaments called cilia are constantly in motion, beating in unison to create currents that sweep along cells, nutrients, or other tiny particles.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:54 pm

Australia Could Finally Get R18+ Games

angry tapir writes "Australia may finally get an adults only, R18+ classification for computer games, with the federal government releasing a discussion paper summarizing the key arguments for and against an R18+ classification. Submissions are currently being sought from the community on whether the Australian National Classification Scheme should include an R18+ category for computer and video games. In the past the board responsible for classifying games and movies has banned some titles outright because of the lack of an adults only classification — Aliens Vs. Predator is just the most recent in a long line. The Attorney-General's report on the issue is available online."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:52 pm

MercadoLibre and Why South America Shouldn’t Settle for Quick and Easy

Back before Brazil was the darling economy of Latin America, all eyes were on Argentina—or at least the dot com “eyeballs” were. In the late 1990s, when VCs, private equity houses and wealthy individuals where throwing Internet money around the globe, Argentina got more than its fair share. The relatively small country was home to the fifth-largest number of registered Internet domain names in the world, and in early 2000 the now-defunct Industry Standard estimated that some 50% of the Latin America’s Web startups were concentrated in Argentina.

Of course, when the Nasdaq crashed, most of those global investments did as well. Just like in India, investors bailed on funding commitments happy to write off their far-flung bets and move on. Left in a lurch, most of these Latin American companies went out of business, many others sold, and one—just one—went public on the Nasdaq.

That was MercadoLibre, the so-called eBay of Latin America. And it took until 2003 to take off in a big way and until August 2007 to go public. The company did just $1.7 million in revenues in 2002—that jumped to $135 million in 2008. MercadoLibre’s stock has done well too. Although it’s down from its pre-recession high of $78.81 per share, it’s up some 175% so far this year, giving the company a healthy $2.18 billion market capitalization.

The trends are all going in the right direction for the company. More Latin Americans are adopting the Net, and its PayPal-like product MercadoPago is taking off as ecommerce expands more broadly in the region. There are 600 million people in Latin America, 150 million on the Internet and 40 million of those are MercadoLibre users. Not content to be the eBay and the PayPal of the Latin world, the company has recently launched free classifieds, throwing down a gauntlet to OLX, an up-and-coming Argentine company that set out to be the world’s Craigslist. OLX has a more global focus, operating in 80 countries and in 40 different languages.

[Gossipy side note: OLX was founded by Alec Oxenford—the same guy who started DeRemate, one of MercadoLibre’s chief rivals back in the day. DeRemate eventually sold to MercadoLibre in 2005, so Oxenford and his partner started OLX. And now MercadoLibre is competing with them again by going after the classifieds market. And if that’s not enough insidery coincidence, OXL is backed by Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder who made his money from selling to—you guessed it!—eBay, part-owner of MercadoLibre. Confused? You won’t be after this episode of Soap.]

MercadoLibre isn’t exactly a cutting-edge company, but here’s why it’s important. I met a lot of young, hopeful Web entrepreneurs during my trip to Argentina last week. Unfortunately, most of them said they consider success to be selling for a few million to a U.S. company. While they may be big believers in the talent in Buenos Aires, the entrepreneurial resilience found there and the strong creative class, they complain there’s not a large enough local market and tapping into inward-looking Brazil is almost as hard for them as tapping into China. One of the few local venture investors I spoke with described his model saying, “Copy cats and early exits. That’s what I’m looking for.”

I get the practicality of using any level of wins to build a venture ecosystem, but aiming small is dangerous thinking. That’s about building an ecosystem of mercenaries, not innovators. To state that as the ultimate goal is like admitting to the world that Argentines don’t think they can innovate on the Web. And if they don’t believe in it, why should anyone else? Also, who said the business of startups was supposed to be practical? You want practical? Work for a multinational and invest in mutual funds.

So the fact MercadoLibre was able to go public on the Nasdaq, create a big market in Brazil and continue to thrive makes it an important role model, even though, yes, OK, it’s “just a copycat.” (Regular readers know I hate that word as a negative description of International startups, as much as I keep finding myself using it.)

I spent some time in Buenos Aires with Ignacio Vidaguren (pictured above), one of MercadoLibre’s early executives, to get some advice for this much-too-pragmatic Argentine entrepreneur class. What had MercadoLibre done right that even all those other frothy 1999 Argentine startups hadn’t?

Vidaguren fully admitted the company benefited from a lot of lucky timing, but it was scrappy enough to take advantage of it. The company first got its start in 1999 when Marcos Galperin—then at Stanford Graduate School of Business—offered to give John Muse of private equity firm Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst (now called HM Capital Partners) a ride back to his private plane after a guest lecture and pitched him on an eBay-of-Latin-America business on the way. Muse invested. The company burned through some of that cash with some ill-advised TV ads, but learned quickly and was lucky enough to raise another $45 million round in May 2000, just as the market was crashing.

MercadoLibre pulled the handbrake on spending hard. No more expensive branding, no more business class flights, no more perks of any kind. In 2001 it got another boost when eBay picked MercadoLibre to be its Latin American partner, over larger competitors. eBay treated the young company like part of the family bringing MercadoLibre executives into company meetings and giving it advice on what had worked for eBay and what hadn’t.

So a lot of Vidaguren’s advice for Latin American startups may sound obvious. Hoard your money. Get to profitability. Don’t give up on a market that’s growing more slowly than people expected as long as it is still growing. And watch your competitors closely: Copy what worked for them, avoid what didn’t.

But MercadoLibre did make one notably gutsy move that flew in the face of advice from US investors: Focusing on the Latin American market, not the Spanish speaking US market. While many younger companies talk up the idea of “being global from day one” ten years later, MercadoLibre still focuses on its home continent. “A lot of people are aiming for the world market, but for us, Latin America is still a challenge,” Vidaguren says. “You have to be able to convey a pretty compelling story before you can be global.”

You can argue that MercadoLibre would have never made it, had it not been able to exploit the froth of the late 1990s and then used all that cash wisely. You can argue MercadoLibre would never have made it if it had not been such a copycat that eBay—one of the few dot coms doing well after the crash—took a financial interest in the business.

But all that aside, it’s an important role model for a country that suffers extreme vicissitudes in economic and political fortunes and is frequently treated like the less-sexy Brazil in today’s global economy: You don’t have to sell just because you’re from Argentina. You can go public. MercadoLibre did.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:51 pm

Are Most Consumers Planners When It Comes To Time And Money? New Study Shows Some Benefits

Planning—regarding money or time—can bring tangible benefits to consumers. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research discovered what makes planners tick.The authors developed a six-item scale that measures how likely individuals are to plan in a given domain.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:34 pm

How Categories And Environment Create Satisfied And Well-Informed Consumers

Expert consumers like to be surprised by unusual product formats, while novices crave familiarity, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research."How can retailers help consumers become more informed about the products they use while also making them happy?" write authors Cait Poynor (University of Pittsburgh) and Stacy Wood (University of South Carolina).
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:31 pm

Browse For A Cause Supports Charities Through Firefox Plugin

I think we can agree that helping charities is a great thing. Browse For A Cause is extending the giving through the web browser. Browse For A Cause is a browser add-on that collects affiliate revenue (usually 3-5%) from sites like Amazon to help charities. For example, if you buy a $20 DVD, the affiliate revenue equates to about $1 which is donated to the charity of your choice. You can support as many charities as you’d like, and revenue will be split between them.

Currently, Browse For A Cause is only a Firefox plugin, with a Chrome extension in the works as well. The group also currently has a white label solution for charities to create a branded add-on, so they can feature a custom version of Browse For A Cause to people on their own site.

For example, college students spend a lot of money on textbooks per year. Browse For A Cause Founder Eric Kerr spent $400 on textbooks last quarter alone – all through Amazon. If Browse For A Cause existed when he was buying those textbooks, he would have generated $20 for charity, just like that. The average student spends $900 per year on textbooks, according to reports, and if they bought these books on Amazon through Browse For A Cause, each student would generate $45 for their favorite charity.

One charity, Malaria No More (Ashton Kutcher promoted this awhile ago) provides bed nets to people in Africa to help end Malaria. Each net costs a mere $10, so each person in the above textbook scenario would generate 4 bed nets.

These are all great examples of how Browse For A Cause can be helpful in the real world, and how you can help as well.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:30 pm

Particles Make Beautiful Music

Buzz, buzz buzz.... The Interwebs are buzzing still about rumors that the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, or CDMS, experiment is on the verge of announcing the very first detection of dark matter particles. That would be big news, indeed, but ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:29 pm

Microsoft Has No Answer To China Plurk Debacle

Early this morning we wrote about what appears to be a blatant rip off of Plurk by Microsoft China. Microsoft’s Juku product looks almost exactly like Plurk, and the code appears to almost identical.

Now, more than twelve hours later, Microsoft still has no real response to the situation. It was the middle of the night in China when the story broke, and Microsoft says that they are just now working with their team there to “track down the information.” In the meantime, Juku is being taken down:

Earlier today, questions arose over a feature developed by a third-party vendor for our MSN China joint venture. We are working with our MSN China joint venture to investigate the situation.

Unfortunately, when these questions first arose, it was the middle of the night in China. Now that the day has begun in China, our teams are working hard to track down the information.

Here’s what we know at this point. Our MSN China joint venture contracted with an independent vendor to create a feature called MSN Juku that allowed MSN users to find friends via microblogging and online games. This MSN Juku feature was made available to MSN China users in November and is still in beta.

Because questions have been raised about the code base comprising the service, MSN China will be suspending access to the Juku beta feature temporarily while we investigate the matter fully.

We will provide additional information as we learn more.

Only two things are really clear right now. First, Microsoft is standing around with their pants around their ankles looking pretty ridiculous right now. And second, this is the best thing to happen to Plurk, ever.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:27 pm

Veiling In Style: How Does A Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?

Why are an increasing number of Turkish women wearing veils in a secular country where the practice is banned in public buildings? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says one factor is fashion.Authors Özlem Sandıkcı and Güliz Ger (both Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey) report that much like the first people who began wearing blue jeans or getting tattoos, adopting this "stigmatized" fashion signifies independence from the social norms of the secular country.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:27 pm

Somewhat Surprised Kitten is just kind of like, meh

Not to be confused with Surprised Kitten, or Surprised Kitten Guy, or Surprised Kitten Girl, or Two Girls One Surprised Kitten.

Somewhat Surprised Kitten (created by some dude named Mark Day with a "pretend Scottish accent")


Source: Boing Boing | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:17 pm

USGS monitoring Twitter for earthquake details (AP)

AP - OMG! Earthquake!
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:16 pm

Microsoft pulls China blog site amid code-theft charges - CNET News

TopNews United States

Microsoft pulls China blog site amid code-theft charges CNET News Microsoft said late Monday that is suspending access to an MSN China microblogging site amid allegations the service is based on code swiped from a rival. Canadian start-up Plurk lashed out at Microsoft earlier on Monday, saying that 80 ... Microsoft China accused of pilfering webcodeRegister Microsoft Has No Answer To China Plurk DebacleWashington Post Microsoft Caught With Hand in Plurk's Cookie Jar?ReadWriteWeb (blog) Slashdot -Geek.com -GeekSmack all 57 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:14 pm

Governors side with Ohio over satellite TV tax (AP)

AP - The National Governors Association is getting behind Ohio's effort to maintain a tax on the satellite television industry.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:14 pm

Killer Cookies: To Resist Temptation, Exaggerate The Threat

Your ability to resist that tempting cookie depends on how a big a threat you perceive it to be, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.Authors Ying Zhang, Szu-Chi Huang and Susan M.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:13 pm

How Facebook Is Making Friending Obsolete - Wall Street Journal

BBC News

How Facebook Is Making Friending Obsolete Wall Street Journal Friending wasn't used as a verb until about five years ago, when social networks such as Friendster, MySpace and Facebook burst onto the scene. Suddenly, our friends were something even better - an audience. If blogging felt like shouting into the void ... Facebook Privacy Updates Open Security Holes, Experts SayChannelWeb Facebook Privacy: Zuckerberg's Profile UnzippedPC World Facebook founder denies privacy faux pasPC Pro San Francisco Chronicle -Washington Post -TopNews United States all 121 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:10 pm

Ancestry.com Proves That President Obama and Warren Buffett Are Related

German Roots - Earlier this year, Ancestry.com confirmed that Pres. Obama has German roots through his 6th great-grandfather Johann Conrad Wolfley from Besigheim, Wuerttemberg, Germany. Pres. O'Bama? - In 2007, Ancestry.com uncovered the President's family history connection to Moneygall, Ireland. Pres. Obama's 3rd great-grandfather Falmouth Kearney left his hometown of Moneygall for the New World, landing in New York harbor in 1850.Celebrity Connection
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:01 pm

The Source Renews Agreement with DemandTec

SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DemandTec, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:01 pm

Toyota plug-ins to arrive in limited fashion within a year

Want a plug-in car, but the Leaf and Volt aren’t doing it for you? Well, Toyota will be entering the market soon, though you should only count on it if you’re feeling lucky. First half of 2010 will only see 150 of these new plug-in Priuses (Prii?) on our shores, though they’re planning a full-size rollout for 2011. Now hang on a second… apparently these things only get 15 miles per battery charge. Are you kidding me?

Sorry, but unless I’m mistaken, these things aren’t going to sell very well with that kind of range. The competition gets three or four times that, right? So it’s a more efficient hybrid, but… is there going to be a place for extra-efficient hybrids in a few years? Seems like buying into a transitional form.

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm

Solarfun Appoints Andreas Liebheit as Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA

This report on Form 6-K is hereby incorporated by reference into the Company's Registration Statement on Form F-3 (Registration No. 333-152005) filed on July 14, 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm

Does Scent Enhance Consumer Product Memories?

It may seem odd to add scent to products like sewing thread, automobile tires, and tennis balls, as some companies have done.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 8:15 pm

Do Consumers Always Approach Pleasure And Avoid Pain? New Study Suggests An Alternative

Whether it's doing sit-ups or eating steamed veggies instead of fries, it's often difficult to get ourselves to do something we know is beneficial.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 8:12 pm

New Enermax keyboards: very thin, otherwise unremarkable

Remember that Enermax Caesar I reviewed? Decent keyboard. A friend of mine is still using it and she likes it just fine. It was a more fancy keyboard than this, what with the cool mesh styling and media keys, but it wasn’t nearly as slim. The new Acrylux keyboard, available in wired and wireless versions, has made thin its top priority.

There’s not too much else to say; it’s a keyboard. This one isn’t a Euro layout, however, so you won’t be getting that fabulous “Alt Gr” button. Check out the rest of the specs and order yourself one of these things over at Enermax’s site.

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 8:00 pm

Amazon Introduces Bidding For EC2 Compute Time

ryanvm alerts us to Amazon's beta announcement this morning for what it is calling Spot Instances, which represent a name-your-own-price way of using the elastic compute service. Here is Amazon's documentation on the feature. "For customers with flexibility in when their applications can run, Spot Instances can significantly lower their Amazon EC2 costs. Additionally, Spot Instances can provide access to large amounts of additional capacity for applications with urgent needs." Customers can use the EC2 API to see recent spot prices.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:55 pm

Toshiba Launches Highest Density(1) Embedded NAND Flash Memory Devices

IRVINE, Calif., and TOKYO, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba) and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:50 pm

The Wall Opens A Bit More: Facebook To Publish User Updates To Twitter This Week

Yes, at some point this week, Facebook will roll out the ability to send your status updates to its rival, Twitter, we’ve confirmed. This will be built-in directly to its UI and not through some separate app you have to install, we’re told. It will be similar to the functionality it rolled out for its Pages feature in August, but this will be available on all profiles.

And you can see in the screenshots below, some Facebook employees are already testing it out. The status messages are sent to Twitter using the new fb.me URL shortener that Facebook launched today. Now the launch of fb.me makes a little more sense, Facebook is clearly getting on board with using Twitter as a platform to drive more traffic back to Facebook. Or having users simply use Facebook as their preferred third-party Twitter updater. But unlike MySpace, which also recently linked up with Twitter, this data exchange won’t be two-way. If you want to publish your tweets to your Facebook status, you’re still going to have to use a third-party app, like the Twitter one.

Is this a brave new world for Facebook, or a trap for their rival? Again, this feature will hit later this week.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:32 pm

Bit.ly Goes Pro, Tells Goo.gl To Suck.it

The short gloves are off. Earlier today, both Google and Facebook got into the URL shortening game with goo.gl and fb.me. Google’s move in particular is a direct challenge to bit.ly, the rising independent standard among link shortening services. Bit.ly’s response is in effect to ask publishers and consumers who they trust with all their data: Google or the rest of the Web?

To that effect, it is rolling out a new service called bit.ly Pro, which allows Web publishers to bit.ly to send out short links with their own branded (short) domain names such as nyti.ms, 4sq.com, mee.bo, or tcrn.ch. Publishers in the beta include AOL, Bing, foursquare, Hot Potato, the Huffington Post, Meebo, MSN, the New York Times, the Onion, TechCrunch, and the Wall Street Journal. What bit.ly is offering these publishers (us included) is a way to use a branded, trusted short URL which is powered by bit.ly. Publishers also get an analytics dashboard which shows realtime stats like the total number of clicks, and their distribution by geography and referring sites. Pro accounts is where all the money is, although bit.ly is not yet charging.

We’ve used our branded short domain tcrn.ch before with awe.sm for our story links we push out to Twitter, but switched to bit.ly because it was fast becoming the standard. In November, the bit.ly service shortened 2.1 billion links, up from 11.8 million the year before, and it currently accounts for about three quarters of all short links on Twitter.

As realtime streams increasingly become the communications bus of the Internet, the need for short links and their popularity will increase. The data surrounding those links—who passed them, which are the most popular, which are rising, which are falling—is potentially very valuable. To the extent that publishers and consumers don’t mind all of their data flowing through Google, they might just go with goo.gl and not worry about it. Bit.ly is betting they would rather control their own short links.

The appeal for publishers to use their own branded short URLs is that it acts like a verified link. Consumers who are familiar with the brand can learn to trust those links. In contrast, anything can be behind the generic short URLs, although bit.ly is taking steps to fight spam and malware abuse. Facebook with fb.me appears to be doing no more than just creating its own trusted short link for Facebook pages. Google, on the other hand, could easily expand goo.gl into a generic URL shortening service. Goo.gl launched only for Feedburner and Google Toolbar, but it is being used to shorten links from any and all domains.

Google was rumored to be sniffing around bit.ly earlier this year, but no acquisition ever materialized. Maybe it was just doing its homework.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:15 pm

When Shepard Fairey sours on "HOPE," you know we're screwed

"I'm disappointed in Obama, but even more so in Americans." —Shepard Fairey.


Source: Boing Boing | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:13 pm

Apple cites strong iMac demand amid shipping delays (Reuters)

Reuters - Apple Inc on Monday said strong demand for its new iMac personal computer had it working hard to keep up, and the company apologized for any delays in deliveries to customers.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:07 pm

Missing Bush administration emails (22 million of 'em) found

"The dog apparently mislabeled my homework." That's the bogus excuse I'll be using next, now that we know some 22 million emails which vanished during the George W. Bush administration were just "apparently mislabeled." Don't expect to eyeball their contents until 2014. More: Wired News, AP, Wonkette.


Source: Boing Boing | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:06 pm

Google announces their very own URL shortener

Section: Web, Google

Google has now added a new feature to its arsenal of services. This time it’s their very own URL shortener, Goo.gl. However, for now, the service is not stand alone and will require you to use Feedburner and Google Toolbar in order to access it.

Google has three main selling points for people wondering why they should switch over to Goo.gl.

Stability: Google’s scalable, multi-datacenter infrastructure provides great uptime and a reliable service to our users.
Security: As we do with web search, shortened URLs are automatically checked to detect sites that may be malicious and warn users when the short URL resolves to such sites.
Speed: At Google we like fast products and we’ve worked hard to ensure this service is quick. We’ll continue to iterate and improve the speed of Google Url Shortener.

Let us all now watch bit.ly and su.pr cringe at their new competition.

You can try out the new service now for the Toolbar and Feedburner.

Read [The Official Google Blog]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:01 pm

Hacknooks!

We knew the nook had some Android blood in it, but it’s been kept well-hidden, merely an underpinning for its custom UI. We expected some special apps or minor compatibility with existing stuff to be pushed out later on, but of course some people can’t wait until “later on.”

nookDevs is a growing wiki for this stuff, and currently includes a teardown and some how-tos on getting the nook (the bottom half at least) to run vanilla Android 1.5. It’s still in the development stage and you will have to crack open your nook if you want to give it extra storage, but if you have the device this would be a good page to bookmark.

Even if some people think it’s a non-starter, I think the nook is a great-looking device that has the right idea with a versatile, easily-hackable dual-screen setup. But yeah, I might just wait for the nook DX or whatever they’re going to call the inevitable upgrade.

[via Electronista]

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:00 pm

IBM Slapped With Suit Alleging Unfair Mainframe Competition (PC World)

PC World - IBM has been disparaging products made by a smaller rival in order to protect its lucrative mainframe business, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:50 pm

Adobe Warns of Reader, Acrobat Attack in the Wild (PC World)

PC World - Adobe is investigating new reports that hackers are attacking a previously unknown bug in the latest version of the company's Reader and Acrobat software.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:50 pm

One Of The 32 Million With A RockYou Account? You May Want To Change All Your Passwords. Like Now.

It’s no secret that most people use the same password over and over again for most of the services they sign up for. While it’s obviously convenient, this becomes a major problem if one of those services is compromised. And that looks to be the case with RockYou, the social network app maker.

Over the weekend, the security firm Imperva issued a warning to RockYou that there was a serious SQL Injection flaw in their database. Such a flaw could grant hackers access to the the service’s entire list of user names and passwords in the database, they warned. Imperva said that after it notified RockYou about the flaw, it was apparently fixed over the weekend. But that’s not before at least one hacker gained access to what they claim is all of the 32 million accounts. 32,603,388 to be exact. The best part? The database included a full list of unprotected plain text passwords. And email addresses. Wow.

The hacker has posted a sample of what they found. They have blanked out the passwords for now, but warns, “Don’t lie to your customers, or i will publish everything.” As far as we can tell, RockYou hasn’t issued a warning about this to its users yet. We’ve reached out to the company, but have yet to hear back.

RockYou has a history of stupidity. See here, here, and here. This may take the cake.

Update: Here’s the statement we were given by RockYou on the situation:

“On December 4, RockYou’s IT team was alerted that the user database on RockYou.com had been compromised, potentially revealing some personal identification data for approximately 30M registered users on RockYou.com. RockYou immediately brought down the site and kept it down until a security patch was in place. RockYou confirms that no application accounts on Facebook were impacted by this hack and that most of the accounts affected were for earlier applications (including slideshow, glitter text, fun notes) that are no longer formally supported by the company. RockYou has secured the site and is in the process of informing all registered users that the hack took place.”

They also say that they plan to issue the following email to users in the next 24 hours:

Dear RockYou user,

As you know, RockYou takes our users privacy very seriously.  We take

a lot of effort to protect user data from security breaches and attacks.

Unfortunately, RockYou has very recently learned that it encountered a security breach.  As part of this breach, it is possible that someone may have accessed at least your email address and password for the RockYou system.  We felt it was important to notify you of this immediately so that you could take any action you feel necessary to protect your privacy.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact security@rockyou.com.  We are sorry for any problems this has caused you.

The RockYou team

Hmm “we felt it was important to notify you immediately” … 10 days later? And what’s the excuse for the plain-text passwords? FAIL.

[thanks ES]

[photo: flickr/naughty architect]

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

Source: TechCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:45 pm

GM, wtf is this Chevy Volt video?

Do not watch the video above. It will burn your eyes out and cut a few years off your life. Hopefully someone lost their job at GM over it because this is not how you sell the Chevy Volt. [GM-Volt via AutoblogGreen]

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:42 pm

First LTE network launches, but not here

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Broadband Cards, Mobile

With all of the talk about the Nexus One recently, surely we’re not all tired of cell phones news.  Amidst all the flurry of news regarding Google’s probable upcoming smartphone, there is potentially more exciting mobile news.  The first LTE network has finally launched!

The only problem with the world’s first LTE network is that it exists only in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway.  The network comes from TeliaSonera, who now has the title of first LTE network.  The title comes largely because Verizon has only been testing its LTE network as of yet, though it plans on launching the service sometime next year in several markets.  The network right now is meant mainly for laptops with Samsung modems capable of using the frequency.  The network is said to have speeds between 20 MBps and 80 Mbps with the modems.

TeliaSonera’s LTE network, though small, should provide an interesting test of the network that’s available to anyone.  Right now it reaches less than half a million people, but Verizon and other providers must be looking at the network to see how well it holds up.  Even if the network that US carriers launch gets an average of half the minimum of TeliaSonera’s, that’s still 10 Mbps which is the same or better than what many people have in their home broadband connections.  Now all we need is some phones that can use LTE to be released, or even announced.  Perhaps we’ll begin to see them at next month’s CES.

Read [InformationWeek]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:26 pm

High volume of Mac sales may account for iMac delay - CNET News

Reuters

High volume of Mac sales may account for iMac delay CNET News Apple's delay in shipping the 27-inch iMac may have more to do with the sheer volume of sales than any problems with the graphics chips, according to numbers from market research firm NPD. Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of ... Apple cites strong imac demand amid shipping delaysReuters Apple Faces Delay on imac ShipmentsWall Street Journal Consumers Reporting imac Display Problems On The IncreaseChannelWeb InformationWeek -White Hat News -Macworld all 147 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:19 pm

MySpace and News Corp. Eye Flixster (But for What?) [BoomTown]

[UPDATED]

Now that the digital equivalent of a super-vac, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, has sucked up some decent music start-ups–Imeem and iLike–for a song, to bolster the social networking site’s efforts to expand into an entertainment portal, what’s next?

According to several sources, the News Corp. (NWS) unit has turned its omnivorous attentions to Flixster, the popular social networking site for movies.

Whether this is an acquisition or more of a larger partnership deal with News Corp. digital entertainment sites is unclear. Several sources said a purchase was a possibility, while others talked about a more complex deal that did not necessarily mean a purchase.

Sources said any such deal is not imminent, but that News Corp. itself has been conducting extensive due diligence on the San Francisco-based Flixster, part of a plan to combine it with Rotten Tomatoes, another News Corp.-owned site run by its IGN Entertainment division.

Rotten Tomatoes features mostly premium content, including professional reviews, trailer videos and news. It has community feature that is just in beta, so it would be a nice fit with Flixster.

A MySpace spokeswoman declined to comment at the moment.

In 2007, the start-up was close to being acquired by IAC/InteractiveCorp (IACI) for $100 million, several sources said. But the deal went south when CEO Barry Diller changed his mind at the last minute.

Founded in 2006 by CEO Joe Greenstein and CTO Saran Chari, Flixster has raised $7 million in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pinnacle Ventures, as well as garnering an angel investment from Silicon Valley entrepreneur and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.

Flixster has attracted a huge audience–upward of 50 million–who trade all kinds of recommendations, ratings, news and even post user-generated movie reviews on its Web site and via widgets on social networking sites, mostly on Facebook.

While Amazon (AMZN) unit IMDb (Internet Movie Database) is still larger in terms of traffic, the more innovative Flixster has been growing much faster and is more social, which makes it attractive to MySpace, sources said.

More important is the mobile growth. Flixster is the No. 1 movie app on Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and leads on other smartphones too.

(Full disclosure: News Corp. owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

Source: All Things Digital | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:12 pm

Eolas Sues World + Dog For AJAX Patent

helfrich9000 writes "Eolas has filed suit against 23 companies (guess where), including Adobe, Amazon.com, Apple, eBay, Google, Yahoo!, JPMorgan, and Playboy. At issue are a pair of patents (US 7,599,985 and US 5,838,906), one of which (the '906) was successfully used in litigation against Microsoft Corp for a $565 million judgement. Says Dr. Michael D. Doyle, chairman of Eolas, 'We developed these technologies over 15 years ago and demonstrated them widely, years before the marketplace had heard of interactive applications embedded in Web pages tapping into powerful remote resources. Profiting from someone else's innovation without payment is fundamentally unfair. All we want is what's fair.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:02 pm

Video: Black Carbon Travels the Globe

Black-soot emissions from burning fuels, such as diesel and coal, are potentially more harmful in some areas than warming from greenhouse gases. A video shows how black carbon spreads through the atmosphere. New research suggests the warming effect of black carbon may accelerate glacial melt in the Himalayas.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Photo Gallery: On Tour — First Wave of the Beijing Rock Invasion

Take a ride along with three influential Beijing rock bands as they tour the United States for the first time.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Enter the LOL Blog Matrix

The lolcat movement, with recurring-theme-as-joke website, has gems and duds. Wired lays out those in the genre worth checking out (Must Share Hair) and some (Photoshop Disasters) that you can forget about.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Kids Bug Out Over Nanoscale Monsters

Monsters are invading! Nanoscale monsters, that is. Armed with the handheld Nanoscope, kids can interact with the creepy-crawly bugs, which in this ARG have wormed their way inside every computing device.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Gallery: Scenes From the Beijing Rock Underground

Stunning photos from China's underground rock clubs show the country in a cultural transition. Documentary photographer Matthew Niederhauser sounds off on his photos and the Beijing music scene.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Some Film Reviews Get Written Before Cameras Roll

Forget spoilers. The no-frills Hollywood blog Scriptshadow reveals all you need to know about upcoming movies, when all that exists is the screenplay. These precaps, Wired's Scott Brown explains, reflect our growing impatience with the delivery of entertainment.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

The Nokia N900 will be coming to Vodafone UK “soon”

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

Coming as a little bit of good news and frustrating news at the same time. Vodafone UK have announced their plans to carry the Nokia N900. That was the good news, so with that it looks like we now need to move onto the frustrating news—they are planning to offer it “soon.” Unfortunately that was all they mentioned in terms of a release date. But on the positive side, at least those who are Vodafone customers and happen to be waiting for the N900 can sleep a little better tonight knowing they are not waiting for nothing.

NOKIA N900 COMING SOON TO VODAFONE UK

Vodafone has today announced the Nokia N900 is coming soon to its UK customers. The highly-anticipated Smartphone delivers a computer-grade experience in a sleek device, with the embedded Maemo software enabling powerful multi-tasking.

The Nokia N900 enables you to customise your homescreen with four personalisable views for easy access to all your favourites, whether that’s email, music, web browsing or your most-used apps. View all this on the impressive 3.5 inch high-resolution touch-screen with 3D accelerated graphics, virtual on-screen keyboard and full side-slide QWERTY keyboard.

The Smartphone boasts a solid 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optic lens. The 32 GB expandable memory allows users to store all their favourite snaps, music and files.

For more information on the Nokia N900 handset today, visit http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/nokia-n900

Via [MobileCrunch]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:58 pm

Bag Week: Booq Boa Squeeze

Short version: Like lots of pockets in a laptop backpack? I count 27 on the Booq Boa Squeeze and wouldn’t be surprised if there are some hiding.

Info:

• Water resistant
• Holds up to a 15-inch notebook
• Has at least 27 pockets
• Terralinq serial number
• $99 MSRP

Pros

• Crapton of pockets
• Comfortable to wear
• Feels durable

Cons

• The small, rounded bag looks funny on this guy

This bag can be summed up in the amount of pockets it has: 27. That’s a lot, friends. But don’t expect to use all them at the same time. Most of the pockets are laid on top of each other, limiting their use. You could probably use all of them if all you wanted to carry was pocket-sized Moleskins, but each one won’t hold anything with significant volume.

That’s fine with me though. The small bag is perfect for a netbook, ultra-portable, or 15-inch Mac. The main flap unzips in a somewhat strange manner, but it allows full access to the computer compartment and reveals even more pockets on the backside of the flap.

The bag is attractive. Its outside shell is made out of black, water-repellent ballistic nylon, while the inside is lined with a soft, fleece-like material. Needless to say your gear is probably safe in this bag. But if you happen to lose it, Booq has you covered there too.

The Booq Terraling serial number is engraved on a metal plaque attached to the inside of the main flap. This plaque has a website URL on it that will help good sameritains return your bag. Of course a GPS sensor and a remotely-activated ink pack would be more effective, but you can’t really expect that for under a hundred bucks.

The only thing I don’t dig about the bag is how it looks on me. I’m not a big guy, but I think the small bag looks somewhat funny on my back. It’s almost too small. Maybe I’m just vain.

I can find no real fault in this bag besides my little fashion thing. It’s solid, can hold a surprising amount of crap, and only costs $99. Recommended.

Read other Bag Week reviews here.

Product Page

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:57 pm

A Taste of Googfood. [Voices]

By Nitrozac and Snaggy

Source: All Things Digital | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:54 pm

Priming The Revenue Pump, Twitter Tests Multi-Account Support

Thanks largely to its search deals with Bing and Google, Twitter is already making revenue. But that income is not the where Twitter expects its true business model to lie. Instead, it believes that will come from premium features given to businesses that wish to use Twitter. Thus far, Twitter has yet to enable such features. But starting today, it’s beginning to test what is likely to be one of them.

As it notes on its blog, Twitter is testing a new feature it calls “Contributors.” Basically, this allows business accounts to be controlled by multiple Twitter users. Yes, it’s a form of multi-account support. For example, if any of us who work for TechCrunch were given the proper permission by the account owner, we could control this account from our own individual Twitter accounts. This includes the ability to DM people, follow new users, and most importantly, tweet from it. And if you were to tweet from it using your own account, your Twitter name would be appended onto the bottom of that tweet (see image).

Many companies, such as TechCrunch, already allow multiple people to handle their main account, but it is a pain having to log out and log back into the different accounts. Many third-party services offer multi-account support, but those don’t offer a way to see which team member is actually in control of the account at the time of a tweet, this will. And there is an API for all of this as well.

Twitter is quick to note that this is “not ready for prime-time” and that this is only being tested with a limited subset of people so they can figure out how to best implement it. More importantly, that means that this feature is not yet a way for Twitter to make money. But again, it seems logical that this will eventually be one of the premium features the service offers down the road.

Back in July, Twitter launched step one of it’s business plan, with the Twitter 101 guide. Consider this step two.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:52 pm

Move to National ID Cards Delayed

The government's move to create a national identification registry through the states' motor vehicle bureaus is being delayed for the second year. None of the states are in full compliance with the $24 billion Real ID program.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:40 pm

Marrying High-Tech Innovation and Midwest Manufacturing [Voices]

By Timothy Hay, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Most venture capital firms shy away from the Midwest manufacturing and automotive industries, instead favoring high-technology regions like Silicon Valley.

Not RPM Ventures. Located less than a mile from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the firm aims to bridge the divide between high-tech start-ups and major manufacturers in the Midwest.

Last week RPM, whose name comes from the unit of mechanical measurement, revolutions per minute, announced it raised $60 million for a second fund that it has already used to back 10 companies. “The biggest thing we have going for us is our strategy,” said co-founder and Managing Director Eric Weiser when asked how his firm raised a second fund in such lean times. “We have a unique strategy. We have to, we’re in the Midwest.”

RPM will invest in a start-up regardless of where it is headquartered. But the company must have a roadmap that includes selling its wares to some of the iconic corporations that have manufacturing plants in Illinois or Michigan.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:38 pm

22 Million E-Mails Missing From Bush White House Found

White House contractors have uncovered 22 million e-mails from the Bush Administration that were believed to have been lost.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:30 pm

Stargate Universe gets a second season

Well my day just got better. SGU is currently on a mid-season break but at least the news broke that the show got picked up for another season. Now if I can only wait until April to see how Dr. Rush gets back on board the Destiny.

I had my doubts about the show when it first started, but I’m really starting to get into it. It has the depth and mystery of Lost, but still maintains the Stargate charm and wit. Hopefully it beats-out Stargate Atlantis’s five year run although I doubt it will surpass SG-1’s epic ten seasons. One can hope, though.

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:15 pm

Cuba Jails US Worker Handing Out Laptops, Cellphones

eldavojohn writes "An American citizen working as a contractor for the United States Agency for International Development has been arrested for giving away laptops and cellphones in Cuba. The intent was to enable activists to connect with each other and spread information of what's happening inside Cuba. From the article: 'Cellphones and laptops are legal in Cuba, though they are new and coveted commodities in a country where the average worker's wage is $15 a month. The Cuban government granted ordinary citizens the right to buy cellphones just last year; they are used mostly for texting, because a 15-minute phone conversation would eat up a day's wages.' A Representative on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the arrest was 'no surprise' while a human rights watch group cited a report outlining the Cuban Criminal Code offense of 'dangerousness,' which is most likely the one for which this individual was detained. There is at present no way to contact the individual nor official word on why he was detained." The article quotes an actvist with Human Rights Watch who said that "any solution to the contractor's case would probably be political" and that "the Cuban government often provokes a negative reaction in the United States just as [the two] countries begin to move toward more dialogue."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:15 pm

Seesmic for BlackBerry gets updated, pushed to the App World

While Seesmic has been available for BlackBerry handsets since right around the end of November, it has thus far required you to manually download the application by visiting http://m.seesmic.com/. That’s like what, a million letters to type? Typing is for chumps.

Fortunately for all of us lazy-thumbed folks, RIM has just given Seesmic the greenlight for distribution in the BlackBerry App World – no typing required. Seesmic is celebrating their newfound availability with an update to the client, adding a handful of new features to the mix.

So what’s new in the latest build? Here’s the big list:

Support for BlackBerry OS 4.5
We now have versions for our older models that support OS 4.5. With most of our

Keyboard shortcuts
Now you can use standardized set for keyboard shortcuts to easily navigate and manage your messages. Here are just the small examples of keystrokes to navigate through your messages:

* T (for top) – brings you to the top of the messages
* B (for bottom) – brings you to the bottom of the messages
* R (reply) – reply to your message
* L (reply To all) – reply to all the usernames in the message

More keyboard shortcuts can be found here:
http://help.seesmic.com/forums/29256/entries/88794

Auto-correction and Spellcheck
We’ve incorporated the BlackBerry standard

Notifications improvements
Due to your feedback, we’ve made some modifications for our notification system. Icons will now only show up on new replies and messages and will include the total amount.

Favorite Tweets
We’ve added the ability to favorite a tweet within your timeline. We’ll work to have a Favorites view in a future release.

Font Size Selections
Choose different sizes to your liking of small, medium, and larger in our settings menu to best read your tweets.

Added Send in Menu
Action button to Send in when composing a message

Choosing different type selections (Advanced Users)

* Checkbox to – Use WiFi if Available (Seesmic will search for Wifi first with )
* WAP – Wireless Application Protocol (Activated by the Operator)
* Device Default
* Direct TCP – If you have TCP/IP settings
* MDS – Mobile Data Service (Only if you have BES setup)

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:09 pm

Google tests new phone to profit from mobile Web (AP)

AP - Google Inc. is determined to gain more influence over how the Web is used on mobile phones, even if the next step in the quest tramples some of the relationships forged during its two-year expansion into the wireless industry.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:59 pm

Clink-Clink lets you clink your “drink”

Even if you're staying away from the sauce this holiday season, it'd still be nice to be able to clink your glass with everyone else when the toasts go down. Sure, you could just have glass of water - but why do something practical and not absurd when there's an iPhone app?

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:50 pm

Clink-Clink lets you clink your “drink”

Even if you’re staying away from the sauce this holiday season, it’d still be nice to be able to clink your glass with everyone else when the toasts go down. Sure, you could just have glass of water – but why do something practical and not absurd when there’s an iPhone app?

Throwin’ down some good ol’ brand building, Waterford Crystal has just launched a free application that lets you “clink” your virtual iPhone glass with others kinda-sorta as you would with a real glass. Useful? Not really – but to make things a bit more practical, they’ve cloned the features of Bump; by picking the “Make a friend” option before you touch glass tips, you’ll swap contact info once you’ve clinked. Alas, I don’t expect that this app will be stealing much of Bump’s marketshare anytime soon.

iTunes App Store Page

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:49 pm

The sweet-looking 50’s styled Philco PC, but sadly it is only a concept

Section: Computers, Desktops, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle

I am a sucker for retro-styled products, and this 50’s looking Philco PC that was designed after the Philco Predicta is no exception. I would say that I am ready to pull out my debit card, but unfortunately the Philco PC is just a concept at the moment. Honestly what more can you really say or do, other than to sit back and marvel at the beauty. Well, that is unless you are not a fan of 50’s looking computers. That said, I am thinking that maybe, just maybe I could run this as a living room or kitchen style PC and use it touchscreen because I am not sure how comfortable it would be to type on that typewriter looking keyboard. Otherwise that sure is sweet looking.

Read [Yanko Design] Via [ubergizmo]

Philco PC from Dave Schultze on Vimeo.

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:40 pm

"Loud Commercial" Legislation Proposed In US Congress

Hackajar writes "Have you ever caught yourself running for the volume control when a TV commercial comes on? Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) has, and is submitting legislation that would require TV commercials in the US to stay at volume levels similar to the programming they are associated with. From the article: 'Right now, the government doesn't have much say in the volume of TV ads. It's been getting complaints ever since televisions began proliferating in the 1950s. But the FCC concluded in 1984 there was no fair way to write regulations controlling the "apparent loudness" of commercials.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:32 pm

Lord of the Rings Blu-ray trilogy on track for April release, but don’t buy it

Too bad the upcoming $99 Blu-ray release is just the theatrical edition and not the extended-cut version. It’s not even worth the $69 price Amazon has it set at for pre-order as you know the other version will come out eventually anyway. New Line just wants fans to double dip. Fail.

Amazon via High-Def Digest

Source: CrunchGear | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:30 pm

Femke Hiemstra art at Roq La Rue

Amsterdam-based painter Femke Hiemstra has a new show of paintings at Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery. Seen above, "Death Of A Ghost." The show, titled "Bonjour, Dachshund!," is hanging alongside work by Junko Mizuno. From Roq La Rue:

Femke Hiemstra’s meticulously tight, jewel like mixed media paintings and exquisitely rendered black and white drawings are homes to a dark fairytale land where inanimate objects come to life and frolic with animal neighbors. Lollipops become ship captains, strawberries become giant wrestlers, and vegetables become Halloween gods with lantern eyes. Femke occasionally uses typography in her work, using words from various languages and letters in her paintings to further enhance the narrative while still retaining a playful sense of mystery, or as a visual device to frame in the scenery, as if you were looking at her world through a secret window. She also uses found objects to paint on, such as boxes and wrappers, to create imaginary products with magical properties.

Femke Hiemstra and Junko Mizuno at Roq La Rue




Source: Boing Boing | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:21 pm

The top ten ways to get your business ready for the holidays

A few weeks ago, we jump-started the holiday shopping season with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Like us, you probably browsed the shops and sites for the coolest products and best shopping deals for your holiday purchases. But if you're a business or an advertiser, you probably know that some of the biggest shopping weekends of the year are approaching — and you need to get your business ready for the rush!

If you're as geeky as we are, you're probably doing everything you can to figure out how to best use the tools available on the web to find the right customers and effectively measure the results from the money you spent on marketing.

At T-minus ten days before Christmas, its not too late to look over your holiday campaigns and we’d like to share with you our top 10 holiday tips — a quick checklist to help you make use of important data now and improve your holiday campaigns.

Consider it a gift from one geeky data whiz to another!

1. Update your wishlist:
Use the Search-based Keyword Tool to find keywords that you never thought of incorporating into your campaign for the holidays. (Here is a how-to guide for how best to use the tool: Monetize The Long Tail of Search).

2. Know what's hot this season:
Research on Insights for Search to see what the “Rising Searches” are and understand how people are searching for your brand (and your competitors!).

3. Read the wish lists:
Who could be looking for you? Type your website URL into Google Ad Planner to see who is looking for your site, broken down by demographic categories like age and gender.

4. Follow the reindeer:
Where else are they going? Use Ad Planner to find other websites that share the same demographics as yours. Putting display ads on that site might be a great way for you to target that audience!

5. Build new toys:
Create new AdWords campaigns for your holiday lines and products. Incorporate new keywords and keep in mind the trends you found on Insights for Search.

6. Train the elves:
Test your AdWords campaigns by introducing new holiday promotions. Then, test your promotions — a promotion for "30% off" might resonate better with your customers than "Buy One Get One Free."

7. Check your list twice:
Use Google Analytics to better understand where your traffic is coming from during the holiday season. Find out who's coming to your website, when they're coming and where they're coming from.

8. Map out the route:
How long are people staying on your website? Use Google Analytics to understand your purchasing cycle. Which pages have the highest bounce rate? And which pages are people leaving the quickest?

9. Test run on the sleigh:
Run experiments using Website Optimizer on the landing pages you have linked from your ads. Make sure the images are in the right place and that they're not a distraction for your customer. Play around with the size of the image and the image type.

10. Does the chimney work?:
Test different versions of your purchase page to find out what works best. Change the "purchase" button on your webpage. Pick different colors — bright versus dark colors — and vary the button sizes. Try out different text on your button. See which of these variations lead to the most clicks to conversions.

We wish you a happy, data driven holiday season.

Posted by Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist
Source: The Official Google Blog | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:20 pm

Rewriting "fear" memories

We've posted previously about new drugs on the horizon that could enable bad memories to be selectively "erased." Now, researchers at New York University have developed a non-invasive method to take the pain out of fearful memories. The scientists determined that fear memories can be reactivated and updated with "safe" information. Later, those memories can be recalled without a fear response. The team reported their results in the new issue of the journal Nature. From NYU:

The experiment was conducted over three days: the memory was formed in the first day, rewritten on the second day, and tested for fear on the third day. However, to examine how enduring this effect is, a portion of the participants was tested again about a year later. Even after this period of time, the fear memory did not return in those subjects who had extinction during the reconsolidation window. These results suggest that the old fear memory was changed from its original form and that this change persists over time...

"Our research suggests that during the lifetime of a memory there are windows of opportunity where it becomes susceptible to be permanently changed," said (post-doctoral fellow Daniela) Schiller. "By understanding the dynamics of memory we might, in the long run, open new avenues of treatment for disorders that involve abnormal emotional memories."

"NYU Researchers Develop Non-Invasive Technique to Rewrite Fear Memories"




Source: Boing Boing | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:03 pm

Spreadtrum's TD-SCDMA Chip Adopted in the World's First 3G OPhone Lenovo O1

BEIJING, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Lenovo Mobile Communication Technology Co., Ltd.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm

Argyle Security, Inc. Secures $10.45 Million in New Financing and Amends Senior and Subordinated Credit Facilities

This press release is not an offer to purchase nor is it a solicitation of an offer to sell securities of Argyle Security, Inc., and it is not a substitute for any other filings that may be made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should the Company proceed with a rights offering or any other future equity offering.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:58 pm

France Returns Ancient Treasures to Egypt

France has handed over to Egypt five fragments of an ancient wall painting that were kept in storage at the Louvre museum in Paris. President Nicolas Sarkozy presented today one of the slabs to his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak, ending ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:54 pm

Supreme Court Takes Texting Privacy Case

TaggartAleslayer writes with this excerpt from the NYTimes: "The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a police department violated the constitutional privacy rights of an employee when it inspected personal text messages sent and received on a government pager. The case opens 'a new frontier in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence,' according to a three-judge panel of an appeals court that ruled in favor of the employee, a police sergeant on the Ontario, Calif., SWAT team. ... Members of the department's SWAT team were given pagers and told they were responsible for charges in excess of 25,000 characters a month. Under an informal policy adopted by a police lieutenant, those who paid the excess charges themselves would not have their messages inspected. The lieutenant eventually changed his mind and ordered transcripts of messages sent and received by Sgt. Jeff Quon. In one month in 2002, only 57 of more than 456 of those messages were related to official business. According to the trial judge, many of the messages 'were, to say the least, sexually explicit in nature.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:51 pm

Tool Use Discovered in Octopuses

Octopuses continue to wow us with their smarts, and now they have been seen using shells to build shelters.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:45 pm

The 18-button OpenOfficeMouse now looking stealthy in black gets dubbed the WarMouse

Section: Peripherals, Mice / Keyboards

We first saw the 18-button monster of a mouse back in early November, and although it was initially christened the OpenOfficeMouse that name did not last very long. In fact, it was just a few days later that we saw the OpenOfficeMouse was not actually using the name with the proper authorization. Given that, what else to do but try and keep the product and simply change the name.

Then the OpenOfficeMouse became known as the WarMouse and since then has remained absent. That is, until now. It seems the WarMouse is back with a new press release and a new exterior color. And in addition to the new coloring, the WarMouse has also gotten “freakier” with the addition of a “high-res laser.” Yup, the WarMouse now has the original 18 buttons and analog joystick as well as a 5600-cpi laser sense.

But perhaps the best part about the WarMouse was in the press release itself;

“We were frankly shocked by the overwhelming response to our original announcement of the mouse,” said Theodore Beale, Lead Designer at WarMouse. “We sent out three emails and ended up getting three million hits on our website that weekend; no one seemed to believe that an 18-button mouse with a joystick could be anything but a joke. But it’s real, it’s brutal, and it’s going to fundamentally change what people expect of their input devices.”

I cannot say anymore, because “it’s real” and “it’s brutal.” War that is, war is brutal and with my best guess, so would be using an 18-button mouse.

Via [Engadget]

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

WarMouse Meta: “18-button Freak” Gets Freakier With High-res Laser

Oxford, England, December 15, 2009 – WarMouse today announced that its revolutionary 18-button joystick mouse, rechristened the Meta, will ship with a high-resolution laser sensor instead of an optical sensor. With a patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and a 5600-cpi laser sensor, the Meta provides a radically efficient user interface that has been shown to increase mouse input speeds by an average of 30 percent in comparison with conventional two-button mice utilizing toolbar icons and pull-down menus. Formerly known as the OpenOfficeMouse, the WarMouse Meta will be black with dark gray buttons.

“We were frankly shocked by the overwhelming response to our original announcement of the mouse,” said Theodore Beale, Lead Designer at WarMouse. “We sent out three emails and ended up getting three million hits on our website that weekend; no one seemed to believe that an 18-button mouse with a joystick could be anything but a joke. But it’s real, it’s brutal, and it’s going to fundamentally change what people expect of their input devices. There are some who are of the opinion that the Meta is insane, but we believe there are many gamers and power users who want to be able to do more than stroke their mouse with two fingers.”

The Meta is one of the first computer mice to incorporate an analog joystick and is the first mouse to permit the use of the joystick as a digital keyboard interface. In the three digital joystick modes, the user can assign up to sixteen different keys or macros to the joystick, which provides faster user input regardless of whether the user is flying through the cells of a large spreadsheet in Calc or on the back of an epic flying mount in World of Warcraft. In analog joystick mode, the player can select between having up to seven joystick buttons available or using all 18 buttons as keyboard and mouse commands instead.

The features of the WarMouse Meta include:

  * 18 programmable mouse buttons with double-click functionality
  * High-resolution laser sensor with adjustable resolution from 100 to 5,600 DPI/CPI.
  * Five assignable button modes: Key, Keypress, Macro, Mouse, and Mouse-Key Combo
  * Analog Xbox 360-style joystick with five analog and digital modes
  * Clickable scroll wheel
  * 512k of flash memory
  * 63 on-mouse application modes with hardware, software, and autoswitching capability
  * 1024-character macro support.
  * Meta Modeware for creating, managing, and customizing game and application modes
  * Import and export of custom modes in XML format
  * Taskbar notification of active application mode
  * Optional audio notification of mode switching with customizable wave files
  * PDF export of application mode button assignments
  * Graphical pop-up map of application mode button assignments
  * 25 default modes for popular games and applications, including Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, OpenOffice.org Writer, Calc, and Impress, 3D Studio Max, Autodesk AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.

Chris Park, the lead designer of the popular independent strategy game AI War: Fleet Command, remarked: “I’ve been using a 5-button mouse for many years now, and there was once a time when I thought I’d never need more than two buttons—I shudder at the thought, now. So I’m interested to see how the Meta handles in practice when I actually get my hands on one. The thing that most interests me is the analog stick on the side of it. For AI War, I imagine that this would make panning much simpler, and it could be really handy for panning in other applications, as well. It is a feature that seems to fit tidily on the side of the mouse and which I could see eventually becoming as indispensable as the fourth and fifth buttons on my current mouse.”

The Meta has been alternately described as “the most insane mouse ever”, “a Photoshop gag”, and “too much of a good thing”. For more detailed information about the WarMouse Meta, visit http://www.warmouse.com/about.html. The Meta is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems and will retail for $74.99 in the first quarter of 2010.

Contacts:
Marc Soskin (UTC -05h00)
Media Specialist
m-soskin@excite.com
+1 (612) 284-7344

Theodore Beale (UTC +01h00)
Lead Designer
theo@warmouse.com
+44 1865 600 440

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:36 pm

Huffington Post Adds Paid Tweets [Voices]

By Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Huffington Post is selling advertising space to marketers who weigh in on articles via comments and tweets.

The Web site said in AdAge that no advertisers have signed on yet and that it would help them figure out how to best inject their messages into relevant parts of the site. Greg Coleman, HuffPo’s president and a former Yahoo (YHOO) and AOL (AOL) exec, said a company seeking advertising around the World Series might tweet about baseball, for example.

“You cannot use the social engagement for the purposes of really hawking your products,” he told AdAge. “The advertiser is really put in a position where they need to add value to the conversation that’s taking place.”

The initiative is already generating discussion, not surprisingly, on Twitter, where some users wondered if the extra revenue would go toward compensating the site’s unpaid bloggers. “Losing respect for them, min by min,” Casey Rentz tweeted. Others were more sympathetic: “I have decided that sponsored tweets (a la the HuffPo) are okay, as long as they are clearly marked. I may be a brand tweeter one day,” Jill Elswick wrote.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:33 pm

Users Cite iMac Woes as Booming Sales Slow Delivery (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - With Mac sales expected to reach as high as 2.9 million this quarter, the last thing Apple needs is bad publicity about its new iMac with 27-inch screen. But YouTube clips of flickering screens on the new units, which went on sale Oct. 20, can't be good news. As of Monday morning there were 45 such clips on the site, with links on Apple user forums. The forums also had links to clips on other video-sharing sites, like gallery.me.com.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:33 pm

SFLC Sues 14 Companies For BusyBox GPL Violations

eldavojohn writes "The Software Freedom Law Center has filed a lawsuit accusing fourteen companies, including Best Buy, Samsung and Westinghouse, of violating the GPL in nearly 20 separate products. This is similar to earlier BusyBox GPL suits. The commercial uses of BusyBox must be much more prolific than anyone could have imagined. Having dealt with hundreds of compliance problems and finding an average of one violation per day, the SFLC recommends one thing: be responsive to their requests (they try to settle things in private first) lest you find one of these (PDF) in your inbox."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:11 pm

CrunchDeals: TomTom U.S. iPhone Apps now 30% off

Either TomTom’s startin’ to feel the burn of the incredibly competitive (and arguably crumbling) navigation app market, or they’re just feeling generous for the holidays. Either way, now’s the time to buy if you were considering snatching up any of TomTom’s U.S. apps.

Earlier today, they dropped the price of the TomTom U.S.A application down to $49.99, after launching it at $69.99 just days ago. Simultaneously, they lopped the TomTom U.S & Canada app down to $69.99, down from the somewhat-crazy normal price of $99.99.

You can find the discounted U.S. & Canada app on the App Store here, and the cheaper sans-Canada version here.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:01 pm

Stewart Information Services Corporation Declares Annual Cash Dividend

HOUSTON, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of Stewart Information Services Corp. (NYSE: STC) today declared a regular annual cash dividend of $.05 per share, payable December 31, 2009, to Common stockholders of record on December 24, 2009.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:01 pm

Landrieu Commends Funding of Program to Boost Competition

Appropriations Bill funds FAST program for first time since 2004 WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair and Appropriations Committee member, Mary L.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:59 pm

Integrated Electrical Services Reports Fiscal 2009 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results

HOUSTON, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: IESC) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter and year ended September 30, 2009.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:57 pm

Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star

likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:52 pm

A deep dive on display advertising

2009 has been a busy year for Google in the area of display advertising — that is, the image, video and interactive ad formats that run across the web.

Our goal is to improve display advertising on the web for everyone. We're working to help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns, enable publishers to make more money from their ad space and deliver better, more relevant ads (and, ultimately, more ad-funded web content) to users.

To achieve these goals, in 2009 we released a host of new features for display advertisers on the Google Content Network and on YouTube, launched the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange and made significant enhancements to our ad serving products.

On Tuesday December 15 at 10am PT, we're hosting an educational webcast for analysts, investors and press about our display advertising business. This is our second educational webcast — the first, on search advertising, was held in September.

The webcast will be available at investor.google.com, and a replay will be available on the same website. If you're interested in hearing about our efforts in this space, please feel free to tune in.

Posted by Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management
Source: The Official Google Blog | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:47 pm

Frost & Sullivan to Present the 2009 Customer Value Enhancement Awards

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, is pleased to announce that the consulting firm will be naming the recipients of its 2009 Customer Value Enhancement Awards.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:44 pm

Older iPhones Gain Video Recording

The first- and second-generation iPhones are now capable of video recording, and you won’t even need to do any hacking.

Last week, Wired.com reported that Apple released its restrictions on a private API for video capturing. As a result, Apple approved Ustream, a live video streaming app that’s free in the App Store. The extra bonus? In addition to streaming-video capability, the app has a video recorder, too — and that also works with older iPhones.

Permitting the video API in third-party apps should open doors to a host of apps offering video recording for older iPhones. Today, The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s Erica Sadun pointed out a $1 app called Camcorder for shooting video with older iPhones. Its interface is straight to the point: You launch the app, and there’s a Record button to start capturing. However, Sadun noted the frame rate is slow on an iPhone 3G, and you can’t do much with the recorded video except watch it on your iPhone. She added that the GUI is flimsy.

Based on those comments, we’d say “pass.” But look forward to some slick video-recording apps optimized for older iPhones. It’s inevitable developers will capitalize on this opportunity.

This should come as good news for many owners of the previous-generation iPhones. Previously, video recording was exclusive to the new iPhone 3GS. Owners of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G could only gain access to video recording by jailbreaking the iPhone, but that’s no longer the case.

Camcorder Download Link [iTunes]

Ustream Download Link [iTunes]

See Also:

• 6 Reasons to Jailbreak Your iPhone
• Why the IPhone Doesn’t Record Video
• Apple Hints at Video Conferencing for Future iPhones
• Apple’s Next Media Frontier Will Be Streaming Video

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:32 pm

Qik adds live streaming video option with new desktop program

Section: Web, Downloads, Web Apps, Online Music/Video

Qik is already a recognized name for streaming live video from mobile phones to the web, but Qik is adding to its list of services with Qik-in-Touch, a desktop application that runs through Adobe AIR. With Qik-in-Touch, people can instantly watch live video shared by friends the moment that the stream goes live.

Qik-in-Touch is about sharing video with others, but people can already do that on the Qik.com website. However Qik-in-Touch features notifications for when people you follow start Qikking. When minimized, the program will automatically surface whenever someone you follow begins streaming. Likewise, if you invite friends and family to use Qik, they will be notified when you start broadcasting. In-Touch also includes support for watching video favorites, chatting during live broadcasts, and seeing personally-created Qiks.

Anyone interested in using Qik-in-Touch will have to sign up for the beta program (the application says “Alpha” but the website and confirmation email both say beta). You must have both a Qik.com registered account and Adobe AIR installed on your computer in order to use Qik-in-Touch.

Read [Qik] Via [TechCrunch]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:25 pm

Dazzboard Rolls Out Android Handset Support

Each time we write about Dazzboard, a browser-based syncing solution for getting photos, videos, and music onto your mobile handset, it’s pretty much a given that someone will comment that it doesn’t support their handset of choice yet. Everyone’s a critic, right?

While it still doesn’t support the much clamored-for iPhone or iPod Touch (nor does it seem likely that it will anytime soon, due to software restrictions – thanks Apple!), they’ve just added support for a different hot-ticket item: Android phones.

This is a great time for Dazzboard to strike; with the Droid having just launched last month, there is potential to snatch up the massive group of Android-newcomers who have found themselves looking for an iTunes-esque syncing solution. Out-of-the box, Android requires users to drag and drop media onto their handset’s SD card; while that should be no problem for anyone who can tie their own shoes, it’s still not the silverspoon user-friendly experience that we’ve all come to expect. Are they the only ones working on the Android syncing problem? Not at all – but Dazzboard free and easy, which certainly helps it stand out.

At launch, Dazzboard for Android supports photo, video, and music syncing. A little birdie tells us that Dazzboard is cracking away at adding application syncing/management to that list, though their are a few hurdles to overcome before that happens. While it’s trivial to add applications to Android as is (be it through the Market or the browser), getting them off requires a few too many clicks to be considered simple.

Now, if only Google would pretty things up on their end.

Dazzboard Demo Video:

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:23 pm

Tropical Storm Laurence Set For Second Australian Landfall

Image Caption: NASA's Terra satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Laurence on Dec. 14 at 1343 UTC (8:43 a.m. EST), when it was west-northwest of Darwin, Australia. Satellite imagery showed a disorganized storm. Credit: NASA/JTWC
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:11 pm

TRMM Sees 05B Winding Down Off Sri Lanka Coast

Image Caption: Cyclone 05B was producing heavy rainfall over areas of the southwestern Bay of Bengal and eastern Sri Lanka when the TRMM satellite passed over on Dec. 14, 2009 at 0509 UTC. Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Dec 2009 | 2:08 pm

Dog Ball Launcher Solves Sensor Dilemma

What's going on in the mountains? Is there snow or what? A dog-ball launcher and some sensors could give us a better idea. Jessica Lundquist, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, came up ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 1:59 pm

Camera With 158 Lenses Sets a World Record

Along with the world’s longest dreadlock (8 feet and 6 inches) and the tallest cellphone (15 feet), a camera with 158-lenses has found a place in the Guinness World Records.

A professor at Japan’s Nagoya Institute of Technology developed the camera to capture images of a flickering flame from different angles.

Ishino Yojiro, an associate professor at the Nagoya Institute, along with his students, took about six months to put together the project that won the record for having the largest number of lenses in a camera.

Each of the lenses cost just $2.25 (200 yen).  The lenses were assembled in four rows on the camera’s body and mounted on a semicircular arc-like aluminum frame. Though the team reportedly bought 800 lenses for the camera, only 158 made it to the final version.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to create 3D images from the photographs to better understand the efficiency of burning fuel–the area that Yojiro specializes in.

Though all the lenses are operational–a requirement for the Guinness certification–no images taken from the camera have yet been released.

[Sankei News via CrunchGear]

Photo: The 158-lens camera/Nagoya Institute of Technology

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 1:33 pm

Making URLs shorter for Google Toolbar and FeedBurner

This morning, we launched updated versions of the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner that offer a new URL shortening service from Google called the Google URL Shortener. We mentioned our URL shortener as a feature in both announcements, so we wanted to say a little more about how this product works and why we're offering it.

People share a lot of links online. This is particularly true as microblogging services such as Twitter have grown in popularity. If you're not familiar with them, URL shorteners basically squeeze a long URL into fewer characters to make it easier to share with others. With character limits in tweets, status updates and other modes of short form publishing, a shorter URL leaves more room to say what's on your mind — and that's why people use them.

First, we think people who use the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner will benefit from a shortener that is easily accessible — making it faster and easier to share, post and email links. Second, we've built this on Google's global infrastructure to offer the following benefits:

• Stability: Google's scalable, multi-datacenter infrastructure provides great uptime and a reliable service to our users.
• Security: As we do with web search, shortened URLs are automatically checked to detect sites that may be malicious and warn users when the short URL resolves to such sites.
• Speed: At Google we like fast products and we've worked hard to ensure this service is quick. We'll continue to iterate and improve the speed of Google Url Shortener.

Google URL shortener is not a stand-alone service; you can't use it to shorten links directly. Currently, Google URL Shortener is only available from the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. If the service proves useful, we may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future.

We're excited about enabling this functionality — try it for Toolbar and FeedBurner!

Posted by Muthu Muthusrinivasan, Ben D'Angelo and Devin Mullins, Software Engineers
Source: The Official Google Blog | 14 Dec 2009 | 1:31 pm

NASA Launches Infrared Mapper

It's been 26 years since scientists have made a survey of infrared-radiating objects in the universe and a lot has changed since then. "The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist paintings -- now, we'll have images that look like ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 1:30 pm

Share any web page from your Toolbar (and more)

Hello from the Google Toolbar team! Before we head off for the holidays, we wanted to give you some new features to play with.

We've been busy working on even more ways to make web browsing easier and more fun. First off is our new Share feature in Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. This makes it easy for you to share any page on the web with your friends over various social networks, blogs or email.


For example, I love Top Chef and have been following it all season. Last week was the season finale and I wanted to share head judge Tom Colicchio's great write-up with my friends. Using Toolbar, I just clicked on the Share button and selected Twitter. Toolbar created a new window with the page's title, space for my comments and a link to the page (automatically shortened by Google's new URL shortener, goo.gl).


You can just as easily share to Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Gmail or other services. For those you use frequently, you can save a step by adding them as buttons in the settings option in the Share menu. We've also integrated with more local social networks — for example, if you're in Japan, you can share with your friends on Hatena.

With this new release, we've also "graduated" the My Location feature from Toolbar Labs. It's now available in Toolbar for Internet Explorer (Firefox already has a similar feature built in to the browser). After you authorize Toolbar to detect your location, you can simply search [coffee] and Toolbar will return search results targeted to your location. This is done without associating location information with your Google Account. Thanks to everyone who helped us test it!

Here's a video demo of these features.

Last but certainly not least, Google Sidewiki is now available in nearly all Toolbar languages, and as a Chrome extension.
Source: The Official Google Blog | 14 Dec 2009 | 1:27 pm

Rumor: Google Nexus One to be available on January 5, 2010

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

Honestly there is not much on this latest bit to surface in regards to the Nexus One, but Reuters is reporting that the Nexus One will be available for anyone and everyone to purchase “directly though the Google website as early as January 5.” Of course, this is being credited to a “source” with nothing else to really give us a clue as to how reliable that source may or may not be. Anyway, to further add to that it was also noted that the Nexus One will also be sold for a “reduced price” to T-Mobile customers here in the US.  That said, neither the regular or reduced price has been hinted at just yet. My guess, would be $199 and $399 for the reduced and regular price respectively. But that is just offering a comparison of the original G1 launch as compared to the developers handset that Google offered to developers. Thankfully January 5 is just a few weeks away.

Read [Reuters] Image Via [Engadget]

 

 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 1:19 pm

Encrypt Your USB Thumb Drive

It's cool that those tiny thumb drives can hold all your precious files and back up so much data. But if you lose that stick, those files are available to anyone who finds it, if you haven't encrypted your thumb drive. Learn how.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 14 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm

Super-Earths Orbit Neighboring Stars

The discovery of up to six planets breaks new ground in the search for worlds like our own.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 12:35 pm

Xperia Pureness now available for those with too much money, not enough sense

Do you ever find yourself firing caviar cannonballs from your yacht, thinking “Man. I want to buy a really, really basic phone, but only if it costs me an absurd amount so that everyone knows how much money I have.”? Sony Ericsson and Saks Fifth Avenue have you covered.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is about as basic as can be – hence the “Pureness” name. It’s jam packed full of features you’d find on any free-after-contract flip phone, with its one noteworthy point being the transparent LCD (Check out the video below if you’re curious.) And just how much will that trivial bit of uniqueness set you back, you ask?

Nine hundred and ninety dollars. Yep. For a tenner shy of a grand, you get a phone that is in every way unremarkable outside of its difficult to use screen. You also get access to some unnamed concierge-by-phone service -but we’re pretty sure that for the same price, you could get a decent smartphone and use the rest to hire some kid to Google crap whenever you call.

Product Page: Saks Fifth Avenue

[Via EngadgetMobile]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 12:31 pm

Quadriplegic Hunter Shoots Gun with Mouth

For more than two years, 46-year-old Jamie Cap, a resident of New Jersey and quadriplegic since 1979, fought a legal battle to fire his shotgun. He finally won. Now he can legally aim and fire his 12-gauge gun. Cap operates ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 12:03 pm

Squeeze, Grip and Tilt to Control Synaptics’ Concept Phone

Touchscreens have become a big hit among cellphone users. But what’s next after tap to click and the two-finger pinch and zoom?

Synaptics’ Fuse experimental phone shows a device that you can interact with by squeezing, gripping, flexing and tilting the phone. The device melds multiple technologies such as multi-touch capacitive sensing, haptic feedback, 3-D graphics and proximity sensing.

“It’s not a product but a prototype that showcases a lot of key input technologies,” says Robyn Palmer, marketing specialist for Synaptics. “Our focus was on how to make mobile phones mobile again.”

Fuse tackles the difficulty of single-handed usage and the need to constantly look at the screen, two big challenges that users face today with current generation touchscreen devices, says Synaptics.

With Fuse, touch sensors at the back of the phone means users can poke it to receive or initiate calls. Force and capacitive touch sensors on the sides of the phone also allow you to squeeze the phone to select icons from the phone’s menu. Incorporating the accelerometers into the user interface also means you can tilt the phone to scroll and grip the phone tight to stop.

Synaptics’ silent video demos some of these ideas.

Fuse uses Synaptics multi-touch touchscreen, capacitive scroll strips, a Texas Instruments OMAP 3630 processor, three accelerometers, force sensors on the sides of the phone, a 480 x 800 high-resolution AMOLED display and a 3.7-inch screen.

The phone–which was created in partnership with Texas Instruments, Immersion and U.K. design firm The Alloy, among others–won’t make it to market as a product. But Synaptics plans to license parts of it to handset makers that are looking to take user interface on mobile phones to the next level.

The Fuse concept phone will be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show  in Las Vegas next month.

Photo: Fuse/Synaptics

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 12:02 pm

Vodafone confirms they’ll carry the Nokia N900 “soon”

Good news, everyone! Well, everyone in the UK. Er, everyone in the UK who wants an N900.

Vodafone has just officially confirmed by way of press release that they will be carrying the Nokia N900 “soon”. They didn’t throw in any specific dates, nor did they think to mention pricing – but one way or another, it’s coming.

NOKIA N900 COMING SOON TO VODAFONE UK

Vodafone has today announced the Nokia N900 is coming soon to its UK customers. The highly-anticipated Smartphone delivers a computer-grade experience in a sleek device, with the embedded Maemo software enabling powerful multi-tasking.

The Nokia N900 enables you to customise your homescreen with four personalisable views for easy access to all your favourites, whether that’s email, music, web browsing or your most-used apps. View all this on the impressive 3.5 inch high-resolution touch-screen with 3D accelerated graphics, virtual on-screen keyboard and full side-slide QWERTY keyboard.

The Smartphone boasts a solid 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optic lens. The 32 GB expandable memory allows users to store all their favourite snaps, music and files.

For more information on the Nokia N900 handset today, visit http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/nokia-n900

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 11:53 am

iPhone’s App Store Gets Less Spammy in iTunes

Over the weekend Apple rolled out a visual makeover for its App Store page in iTunes, placing emphasis on photos previewing the apps and allowing less space for textual descriptions.

The redesign increased the size of the photos and trimmed down on the amount of words that appear in the “Description” field that developers used to pitch their apps; the descriptions are now limited to two lines. Before, app descriptions could display several lines, and many developers used the opportunity to fill the space with line after line of buzz words, capitalized letters with asterisks and so on to help the app gain attention.

There’s a “…More” button to view the full description of the app, but we doubt most consumers are going to click on it. We’re willing to bet most people just lightly scan the description and spend more time looking at the images anyway when determining whether they want the app.

Long story short, the iTunes App Store got less spammy, which most consumers will likely enjoy. Will some developers complain? Probably. But that’s nothing new.

Via ZDNet

See Also:

• Apple Unveils Flip-Killing iPod Nano, Revamped iTunes, No Beatles …
• Apple’s App Store Hits Six Digits; How Many Apps Do You Need …
• For the iPhone’s App Store, Quantity Really Does Matter

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 11:35 am

10 Android Apps for the Tech-Savvy Student

If you’re a student, an Android phone could be one of your most valuable tools. From looking up a word in the dictionary to recording a lecture while browsing the web, Android has it mostly covered.

The tools available for students also provide a compelling answer to the question, “Is multitasking really necessary?” Unlike the iPhone, Android’s background processing capability allows apps from independent developers to keep their current state when you switch to another app. That means you can switch through multiple non-native apps without losing information.

Wired.com’s Brian Chen recently wrote about the successful results seen at Abilene Christian University, where the school provided 1,000 students with the choice of an iPod Touch or iPhone, encouraging the students to integrate the gadgets into their curriculum. But even if your school doesn’t give you a free iPhone, you can still use a smartphone to make yourself a smarter student.

Here are 10 Android apps that have made my bag significantly lighter and helped me get the most from my classes.

Students: Any other must-have Android apps that you use? Post your suggestions in the comments.

1. StudyDroid (free)

This app will help you free a few dollars for your ramen fund by allowing you to create unlimited packs of flash cards on your phone, instead of index cards. Simply create a pack, add a card, fill out the front and back, and keep adding cards as you need them. When you’re done filling out the cards, swipe left or right to move to each card and tap on the screen if you need to see the back. You can also mark a card as “known” and StudyDroid will keep track of your pack knowledge by displaying a percentage of known vs. unknown.

2. Droid Scan (free)

If you’ve ever taken a picture of a white board with a regular camera, it probably hasn’t turned out quite right: Unless you’re directly in front of the board, it won’t look square. Droid Scan uses perspective correction to convert images into high-quality scans instead of distorted messes. After snapping a picture, set up four points to crop around your content. From there, you can share your shot via email, Picasa, or SMS.

3.  3banana Notes by Snaptic (free)

3banana Notes makes it easy to store your notes in a cloud and access them anywhere. Any information you throw into 3banana will sync to a free web account at Snaptic.com. You can also create notes on the web and see them appear on your phone which provides a seamless connection between your notes and devices. There are also a lot of options to share your notes so if someone missed a class and wants to borrow your notes, put ‘em in 3banana.

4. HandyCalc (free)

Less stuff to carry, more money in your pocket; it’s a scientific calculator!

5. Wapedia (free)

While Wikipedia.org has a mobile-friendly site, Wapedia is a lot faster. First of all, you don’t have to open the browser and type in Wikipedia’s URL, which saves precious time during fast-paced classes. Second, it offers access to a lot of alternative wikis: You can search for a keyword and it will display a list of other wikis that mention your search term.

6. SciencePal ($1)

SciencePal is a great bundle for referencing a lot of your science needs. It includes elements, constants, polyatomic ions, the solar system and nuclides. Each tool is detailed and quick to access.

7. CoursePro (free demo, $3 for full)

With CoursePro you can track your classes, assignments and grades. Create a class, insert assignments and enter information like meeting times, the percentage each assignment counts toward your overall grade, alerts for due dates and any other additional notes you need to keep yourself focused and on track.

8. Elements (free)

A periodic table of the elements is a handy app for your science courses. Just click on an element to look up its melting point, appearance, atomic radius and more.

9. ColorDict (free)

ColorDict is hands-down the best dictionary app on Android. It’s hampered by slightly confusing installation: You need to install the software first, then download the data that goes into the dictionary (the actual words). There are many options for different kinds of data as well (such as a thesaurus plug-in). Once you’ve downloaded each of these plug-ins to your phone’s SD card, the dictionary is ready to go. I have a dictionary, thesaurus and spelling data in my ColorDict and they all appear under any search term, color coded.

10. Voice Recorder (free)

This app does exactly what it says. After you finish your recording you can save the audio file and e-mail it to yourself. If you want to keep the recorder on while using other apps, press Menu, go to Preferences and enable background recording.

Photo by Sam Rayner via Flickr Creative Commons

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 10:37 am

ViewSonic unveils the VNB102 ViewBook, available December 18 for $399

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Netbooks

ViewSonic has just unveiled their first entry into the netbook market with their ViewBook VNB102. Feature wise, the VNB102 will be sporting a 10.1 inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and will be running Windows 7 Starter. Additionally the ViewBook will feature Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, a 3-in-1 card reader, VGA out and three USB ports. As far as the battery, that will come in the form of a 6-cell battery that is said to offer “up to 6 hours of computing per charge.” Finally, and perhaps the most important part is the pricing and availability which is $399 and December 18.

Read [LEWIS Wire]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 10:09 am

Apple Apologizes for iMac Delays Amid Complaints

Apple on Sunday apologized to customers for shipping delays of its new high-end iMac. Incidentally, many consumers have reported issues with Apple’s latest iMac, which some have speculated to be the cause of the delay.

Apple’s online store lists estimated shipping times of two weeks for both 27-inch iMac models. Delivery time for the two 21-inch iMacs is within 24 hours.

“The new iMac has been a huge hit and we are working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible,” an Apple spokesperson told CNET. “We apologize for any inconvenience or delay this may cause our customers.”

CNET’s Jim Dalrymple points out that customers have started a thread in Apple’s support forums which has surpassed 81 pages worth of comments and complaints about issues with the iMac’s display. Many report that their screens appear to be flickering.

Consumer reports of problems with the 27-inch iMac surfaced in late October. Dozens reported performance issues ranging from sluggish Flash playback to erratic hard-drive behavior.

Apple has not acknowledged issues with its latest iMac.

Have a problem with your iMac? Computerworld started a new website to track the 27-inch iMac’s problems. Report them there.

See Also:

• Review: Apple’s 27-inch iMac and Magic Mouse Make an Excellent …
• The 27-Inch iMac Is the New Apple TV
• Customers Complain New iMacs Plagued With Performance Problems …
• New iMacs Outperform Mac Pros in Benchmark Tests

Photo: Mike Calore/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:53 am

Airline Passengers May Face Radiation Risk

Add lightning-produced radiation to the list of potential concerns for holiday travelers.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 9:45 am

Palm Pixi re-enters FCC with Wi-Fi and Verizon-friendly details

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

By now, I hope you’ve read Gadgetell’s hands-on review of the Palm Pixi. If you’re impressed by the second webOS phone but not so fond of the Sprint Network, you’ll be happy to hear that the Palm Pixi may be heading to Verizon. An FCC filing reveals that a new CDMA/1x EVDO phone that matches Verizon’s frequencies has been approved, meaning we could see the Pixi on Verizon some time next year.

The model number P121EWW differs from the P120EWW Pixi currently offered by Sprint. The model number also closely matches a previously leaked codename associated with Palm and Verizon. This naturally opens up an internal debate for anyone attracted to the Pixi: do I go with Sprint or Verizon? Both companies have a strong network and a couple of questionable fees that have upset customers. The decision will probably come down to who offers the better deal, recommendations from friends, and the fact that the Verizon version features Wi-Fi, something that the Sprint Palm Pixi does not. Looks like the decision has already been made.

Read [Engadget]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 8:59 am

LED Christmas Lights are Magical

This weekend I did a little Christmas shopping and decided to pick up some LED Christmas lights. LED lights offer several benefits over incandescent and even compact fluorescent bulbs. Long-lasting. My box of Philips blue icicle lights claims that these ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 8:03 am

Gadgetell Hands On: Palm Pixi

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile, Features, Originals

Recently, we got the chance to play with the Palm Pixi, Palm’s second webOS smartphone.  The phone is currently offered on the Sprint network, though recent FCC filings suggest a Verizon model is also in the works.  The phone sells for $99 with a two year contract from Sprint but a quick look on the web shows the phone can be found for $24.99.

Size Matters

Those looking at the Palm Pixi almost certainly are concerned about the phone’s size.  The Pixi is slender, fits well in the hand and is light.  Sized to be an almost perfect front pocket phone everything about the hardware on this phone is optimized to be small.  From the small QWERTY keypad to the screen, everything has been shrunken down to become almost dainty.  That is all good news for phone those seeking to avoid carrying around a brick.

Small Screen

The down side is you get to live with smaller things.  The smaller screen worked well as I used the Pixi for basic functions.  I found during set up, many of the menu choices were hidden below the fold which was odd.  It became clear that the set up and things like it, were designed for the longer Palm Pre screen.  Again this wasn’t a problem for things like surfing the web or checking email.  Though, it did make GPS navigation on the phone almost unusable for me.

Small QWERTY

The keyboard is interesting.  The bubble like chiclet keys are tacky and have a very positive click when pressed.  I found typing on the Pixi to be much better than the Pre.  On the Pre I was always negotiating around the slider lip, but with the Pixi, I was free to roam the keys.  I almost enjoyed clicking away, as much as I can on physical buttons anyway.  My fingers are the size of hotdogs, but I had no real issues with the small QWERTY keypad.

webOS

While the webOS continues to gain new followers (and the Verizon Pixi will be an important milestone in getting more developers interested in designing for the OS), its applications is notoriously sparse.  Many others have belabored this point, so I’ll not.  What I did find in the App Catalog was pleasant and worked well.

I am a big fan of the webOS.  It’s use of notification is second to none in my book.  Simple, unobtrusive makes the iPhone notification system look downright childish.  Notifications on the Pixi simpling alert you at the bottom of the screen allowing you to ignore, touch for a little bit more information or switch to that notification.  And thanks to webOS multi-tasking, your original program will sit by patiently waiting until you are ready.

Like the Palm Pre, the Pixi makes use of gestures.  I find this to be another breakthrough aspect of the devices running webOS.  Swiping in the gesture area and pulling up will bring up the quick launch menu in a fun ribbon.  A long swipe through the gesture area switches open applications.  It is extremely elegant and brings a lot of fun to the device.

Touchstone

Another perk to the Pixi is the Touchstone, a charging accessory.  By changing the back plastic case, the Touchstone allows the unit to be magnetically held on the little toadstool for inductive charging.  All wireless and all effortless for users, the Touchstone will have you saying, “all phones should be this easy.”

Overall
Overall, this is a great device.  Miles ahead of the old Palm Centro, the Pixi shines in it’s small size but big performance.  Those looking for a small sized phone will find the Pixi near perfect.  It handles web, email, and loads of other tasks with ease and seldom makes you feel like you are on a much smaller screen.

Those used to larger screens will have to spend some time looking at the screen to see if the downsize will work for them.  Overall, the Pixi is a great offering from Sprint.

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:43 am

Palm Pixi hits FCC with EVDO and Wi-Fi

It looks like a Wi-Fi-enabled version of the Pixi is hitting Verizon next year, at least according to this FCC filing. The filing shows CDMA/1x EVDO and Wi-Fi support along with Bluetooth and matches with the expected P121EWW model number (Sprint’s is P120EWW).

So if you’re on Verizon, love you some Wi-Fi, and would consider the Pixi, rejoice. Otherwise, don’t.

via Eng

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:17 am

World's Oldest Santa Figurine Believed Found

Archaeologists working in Akron, Ohio, claim to have found the world's oldest three-dimensional representation of Santa Claus. Known as the "Blue Santa," the object was made circa 1884 by The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company, which burned to the ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 7:15 am

Nook E-Book Reader Torn Open, Hacked, Rooted

Mere weeks after its launch, hackers expose and unlock the internals of the Android-based Barnes & Noble Nook.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:40 am

Nook Torn Open, Hacked, Rooted

Barely weeks after its launch, Barnes & Noble’s Android-based Nook e-reader has been hacked and ‘rooted’ (root, or full system access, has been obtained). A loose team of hackers reported the work on their wiki, Nook Devs.

If you tear open a Nook (which the team has done) you’ll find that the Android operating system is contained on a microSD card (separate from the microSD expansion slot). From here, it’s a simple matter of using a card reader to mount this card on your computer and changing a single word in the init.rc file (the file that’s in charge of which services are begun at startup, similar to a Linux boot).

This single hack will let you plug the Nook into your computer (once you have reassembled it) and access the OS, using the freely available Google Android developers kit. Right now you’ll have to be a hardcore nerd to make much use of this, but as we saw with the iPhone, these things progress to user-friendly applications fairly fast, especially when the hard work has already been done.

Before you tut, toss your head and mutter ’so what?’ like some petulant teenager, think about the uses. The Nook is now a computer running a full Android operating system, with a built-in, free cellular connection to the internet. It also has a battery that lasts days, not hours. Now are you getting excited? This could turn into the Roomba of e-readers, only it won’t suck.

How to root the Nook [Nook Devs]

Photo: Nook Devs/Creative Commons

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:39 am

Snowflakes' Shape Changed by Pollution

Every snowflake may be unique, but the shape it takes is not random.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:33 am

Cloud apps, big city: LA goes Google

This fall we've seen lots of government agencies decide to make the switch to cloud computing, joining the many businesses already using Google Apps for email and collaboration at work. Today we'd like to officially welcome another customer to the mix: the City of Los Angeles. Starting today, Los Angeles will be equipping 34,000 city employees with Google Apps for email and collaboration in the cloud.

The story of Los Angeles moving to Google Apps started early this year, when the city's Chief Technology Officer, Randi Levin, and her team at the Information Technology Agency (ITA) looked to replace their aging, on-premise system with more secure, productivity-focused technology. After calling for proposals and carefully evaluating over 14 different ones, Randi and the ITA decided to revamp the city government's email technology by adopting Google Apps. Los Angeles' going Google will help the city on a number of fronts. The cloud computing system will improve the security and reliability of city email, transitioning from servers in the City Hall basement to hosted, secure data centers. Employees will also have a new avenue for collaboration with Google Apps in the cloud: sharing docs, sites and videos and editing them together in realtime as they work on making the city run more smoothly and efficiently and thus better serving Angelenos city-wide. Furthermore, Randi and her team realized that moving to Apps would mean less taxpayer money spent on IT — valuable budget that can be rededicated to other city efforts over the next few years.

Check out this video to hear more from Randi on Los Angeles and Apps.




Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the U.S., and the latest in a string of cities, like Washington D.C. and Orlando, FL, to go Google. With this switch to the cloud, Los Angeles joins the group of leaders on the innovation front — not only with regard to budget but technology as well. Bringing in cloud applications will make city work more efficient, which is great for Los Angeles residents too. Read more from Randi on the Google Enterprise blog, and stay tuned to follow Los Angeles' Google Apps story, and to learn about other governments moving to the cloud.

Posted by Matt Glotzbach, Product Management Director, Google Enterprise
Source: The Official Google Blog | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:30 am

Gallery of Giant, Ancient Computers

Old computers didn’t look like the computers of today. We don’t just mean the retro, curvy plastic designs of older PCs, Macs or even Sinclair Spectrums and Amigas. We’re talking about the origins of computing, when “computer-room” meant a room filled with one computer, and terminals looked more like furniture than hardware. Giant, messy furniture with cables trailing everywhere.

Royal Pingdom has put together a peek into the past with a gallery entitled “Retro delight: Gallery of early computers (1940s – 1960s)”. The names alone are romantic and evocative, sounding more like Chinese bicycles than the foundations of the modern world: Whirlwind, Colossus and Pegasus join the more familiar ENIAC (and the above-pictured WITCH).

The pictures are wonderful, and show a world of shrinking machines, where sizes are measured in tons, memory came in non-prefixed bytes and storage was done on paper tapes. Take a look and consider that the laptop you are viewing them on is probably more powerful than all of these machines put together, and certainly a lot smaller.

Retro delight: Gallery of early computers (1940s – 1960s) [Pingdom. Thanks, Peter!]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 6:15 am

Personalized, Engraved Bike Chainrings

Speaking of fixed-gear bikes, one of the most fun (and expensive) parts of riding one is customization. That can be as simple as keeping your alleycat road-race spoke-cards in the wheels, or as expensive as buying imported vintage Japanese frames.

Now your customization can go to the absurd lengths of chainring engraving. Session Sprockets will sell you an aluminum chainring engraved with the message or artwork of your choice. The site even has an easy-to-use Flash-based tool to help you design it. Here’s my awesome effort. I decided to use the supplied high-quality clip-art to represent a giant chick attacking a car:

Session Sprockets was founded by MIT mechanical engineering student, and the chainrings are milled and engraved in-house. You can choose from two sized rings, standard (130 mm BCD, 48 tooth) or track (144 mm BCD, 49 tooth) for $100 and $110 respectively.

Session Sprockets [Session Sprockets via Bike Snob]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 5:33 am

Create Bikes v2.0: The Cheap Fixed-Gear Grows Up

Create is a UK company that sells candy-colored fixed-gear bikes. You may be more familiar with the incarnation sold at Urban Outfitters, or the US brand, Republic Bikes. Whichever one you choose, they all have one thing in common: They were utter junk.

A fixed-gear should be cheap. It has almost no parts: no gears, no fenders, and not even brakes in some (suicidal) cases. Browse the stores though, and you’ll find that these now-fashionable rides have equally fashionable price-tags. I bought one of the original Create bikes before the summer, for €300 (around $440). I loved the ride — the Creates mimic track geometry with a steep seat-tube and a rather short top tube. This makes for snappy, fun riding. The paint-jobs are also rather sweet, and you’ll turn a lot of heads.

But the bike is heavy (25 pounds) due to a hi-ten steel frame, and the components were pretty junky (plastic brake-levers). Now, with its second incarnation, the bikes are cheaper (€220 or $320) and a lot better.

I took a look at one in a local bike shop and, while the frames still weigh a ton, the components have been beefed up. They’re still no-name brands, but they look to be a lot better. More important, the old 24-spoke wheels have been replaced by proper 32-spokers (and the spokes actually cross this time). This is pretty essential in a fixed-gear, as the rear spokes takes a lot of force when you brake from the hub, not the rim.

The Bike Radar blog took one out to test and enjoyed the ride. The candy colored paint is still there, but remains as susceptible to scratches as always. Still, it now looks like there is a solid entry level fixed-gear (and single-speed — the Create ships with a flip-flop hub) that is cheap. At these prices, and with that twitchy handling, front and rear brakes and riser-handlebars, this could make a pretty good bike-polo bike.

Create Bikes [Create]

Photo of Create v1.0: Charlie Sorrel

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 14 Dec 2009 | 4:57 am

Google Confirms Existence of Its Own Smartphone

After years of denying that it's planning to release its own smartphone, Google confirms some details of the phone it plans to issue next year: the unlocked, thinner-than-an-iPhone Nexus One.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 14 Dec 2009 | 3:20 am