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Get Ready For The Google Branded Chrome OS Netbook Most of the tech world now considers it a given that Google will be selling its own unlocked phone, called the Nexus One, to customers directly early in 2010. A few stragglers are still debating the finer points of the difference between Google working with handset manufacturers and carriers on a good Android experience v. them dictating the hardware specs and selling it directly to users. While they work that out for themselves we're off to the next story - the Google Chrome OS Netbook (although we think Google has a few surprises left around the Nexus One, too).
Google has said from the beginning that they plan on working with select manufacturers to ensure a good Chrome OS experience for users when devices first hit the market next year. From an early FAQ: "The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba."
Most people assume that "working with" around Chrome OS means the same thing as "working with" around Android - lots of meetings to make sure the devices and software work together as well as possible. But sometimes those pesky hardware guys just don't do things quite right. And when you're competing against Apple, everything most definitely needs to be quite right.
That may explain why Google has, according to multiple sources, been talking to at least one hardware manufacturer about building a netbook for Google directly. As in Google gave the company a RFP with quite detailed technical specifications and has begun discussions on building it.
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Dec 2009 | 3:20 am "There was a boat" -- Beautiful Memorial to a Lost Community Site in Second Life"There was a boat" is a gorgeous and melancholy machinima shot during the closing of a community space in Second Life -- specifically, a large boat in the China sim [SLURL], which had become a hangout...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 3:06 am Samsung sees infotainment/lifecare as new businessSEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's new chief executive Choi Geesung said the South Korean technology giant would cultivate new revenue sources in the infotainment and lifecare...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:54 am CrunchBase Product Update: Follow Products and Companies, Top 10 List and Twitter FeedsSince the official launch of our integration between CrunchBase and Facebook Connect in November, we've seen 19% (5,087 out of 26,850) of our edits come from newly registered, non-anonymous users. Even...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:40 am CrunchBase Product Update: Follow Products and Companies, Top 10 List and Twitter FeedsSince the official launch of our integration between CrunchBase and Facebook Connect in November, we’ve seen 19% (5,087 out of 26,850) of our edits come from newly registered, non-anonymous users. Even after the predictable spike around the announcement, we’ve seen a sustained and growing percentage of our edits coming from these users. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, so we thought it would be fun to give some credit to those users most actively involved in keeping CrunchBase up-to-date and accurate (apart from our internal team of course – it just wouldn’t be a contest). The top ten startup gurus are now highlighted in the right-hand column on the CrunchBase home page, and you can also view the full list to find out where you stack up. We’re planning to completely open up registration (without requiring Facebook Connect) in the near future as well to further broaden the field. We’re also excited to announce a few new ways for you to keep up to date with the latest CrunchBase data. First, there are now two Twitter feeds that are updated with funding rounds and acquisitions as they are added to CrunchBase; just follow @CB_fundings and @CB_acquisitions on Twitter. We’ll be adding more feeds in the future – suggestions about which ones you would find most useful are welcome. If you’d like to keep visitors to your site advised of the most recent happenings in the startup world, we suggest that you embed the Twitter widget by pasting the following code in the location of your choice: Acquisitions; Funding Rounds. If RSS is more your style, you now have the ability to create a custom RSS feed based on pages on CrunchBase that interest you – maybe the Nexus One, for example. Every page in CrunchBase has a “Follow” button that will add all major milestones for that person, product, or company to your custom RSS feed. The feed will appear on your account page (you’ll need to create an account) and you can import it to the reader of your choice as well. Just don’t tell Steve Gillmor. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:40 am Are U.S. Drones Really Being Watched With a Simple "Satellite Internet Downloader?"Either the WSJ hasn't taken their anti-crazy pills or there is something severely wrong with the military industrial complex. I'm betting on both. The story says, essentially, that insurgents in Iraq...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:26 am Are U.S. Drones Really Being Watched With a Simple “Satellite Internet Downloader?” Either the WSJ hasn't taken their anti-crazy pills or there is something severely wrong with the military industrial complex. I'm betting on both.
The story says, essentially, that insurgents in Iraq are "taking control" of our pilotless drones with a $25 piece of software called SkyGrabber. By "take control" the WSJ means "download video feeds from" and by "software" I mean essentially a satellite network snooper.
Now I'm not rocket scientist, but it looks like what is happening here is that Iraqis are pointing their satellite dishes into the air and watching for downloads. This would be approximately equivalent to packet or token sniffing that, if I'm not mistaken, is popular with teen l33t haX0rz.
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:26 am Are U.S. Drones Really Being Watched With a Simple “Satellite Internet Downloader?”
Either the WSJ hasn’t taken their anti-crazy pills or there is something severely wrong with the military industrial complex. I’m betting on both. The story says, essentially, that insurgents in Iraq are “taking control” of our pilotless drones with a $25 piece of software called SkyGrabber. By “take control” the WSJ means “download video feeds from” and by “software” I mean essentially a satellite network snooper. Now I’m not rocket scientist, but it looks like what is happening here is that Iraqis are pointing their satellite dishes into the air and watching for downloads. This would be approximately equivalent to packet or token sniffing that, if I’m not mistaken, is popular with teen l33t haX0rz. Declan McCullagh notes that:
This suggests that the final link between the drone and the operator is between a satellite flying around in space and that that final link is unencrypted for reasons unfathomable to anyone with even cursory knowledge of network communications. Maybe they wanted to save on bandwidth costs? We’ll follow this but I’m kind of flabbergasted.
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:25 am Shaimus finally releases a music video for “Like a Fool”
Look. It’s 1 AM, I’ve had a few too many White Russians, and something out on the street outside of my apartment keeps making a horrible buzzing noise. Don’t bother me with that “WHY IS THIS ON A GADGET BLOG?” nonsense. If you’ve ever played Rock Band 2, you’ve heard Shaimus’ Like A Fool – at least, you should have. It’s the best song on the damned game. Anyway, they released a music video for it earlier today, roughly 19 years after they should have. It’s after the jump. If you’re up at 1 AM for no sensible reason like yours truly, grab some headphones and rock the hell out.
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:04 am Report: Sharp and Philips agree on LCD TV deal
The consolidation process in the TV business continues and now even becomes international. Just last month, Sharp inked a “historical” joint venture deal with former rival Sony, agreeing to supply LED backlights to Sony for their LCD TVs (which happened this month). And now Japan’s biggest business publication, the Nikkei, has learned that Sharp now plans to deliver LCD TV panels to Dutch electronics giant Philips. Starting as early as next year, the panels will be shipped from Sharp’s plant in Sakai, Osaka, to Philips factories in South America and Poland. The Sakai plant began operating just in October this year. Sharp’s factory in Poland will first turn the panels into semi-finished products and then deliver them to Philips’ plant in the same country. In South America, Sharp panels will be shipped to Philips factories in Brazil. According to the Nikkei, Sharp aims at optimizing use of their new plant through the cooperation, while Philips tries to cut production costs for their TVs and wants to reach break even in that segment next year. Research company Display Search says Sharp is currently the world’s fifth biggest LCD maker, while Philips is the number six. Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:02 am New Final Fantasy video game hits shelves in Japan (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:00 am An Old-School Board Game Goes Viral Among Silicon Valley's Techie Crowd [Voices]By Pui-Wing Tam, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal At an invitation-only executive retreat earlier this year in Sundance, Utah, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs including LinkedIn Corp. founder Reid Hoffman and Mozilla Corp. Chief Executive John Lilly discussed the latest tech trends. Then, as the night wound down, they began trading bricks, sheep and wood. Over a German board game called Settlers of Catan, Messrs. Hoffman and Lilly and two other players garnered points by using cards representing bricks and other resources to build cities and roads. Mr. Lilly, playing Settlers for the first time, won the game. It didn’t stop there. “We played a couple more times at the retreat,” says Mr. Lilly, 38 years old. Since then, he has played Settlers at other tech conferences and at social occasions in Silicon Valley. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 17 Dec 2009 | 2:00 am Get Ready For The Google Branded Chrome OS NetbookMost of the tech world now considers it a given that Google will be selling its own unlocked phone, called the Nexus One, to customers directly early in 2010. A few stragglers are still debating the finer...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:57 am Get Ready For The Google Branded Chrome OS Netbook
Google has said from the beginning that they plan on working with select manufacturers to ensure a good Chrome OS experience for users when devices first hit the market next year. From an early FAQ: “The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.” Most people assume that “working with” around Chrome OS means the same thing as “working with” around Android – lots of meetings to make sure the devices and software work together as well as possible. But sometimes those pesky hardware guys just don’t do things quite right. And when you’re competing against Apple, everything most definitely needs to be quite right. That may explain why Google has, according to multiple sources, been talking to at least one hardware manufacturer about building a netbook for Google directly. As in Google gave the company a RFP with quite detailed technical specifications and has begun discussions on building it. They’re not in any particular hurry and seem to be aiming for the 2010 holiday season, a full year from now. Our understanding is that Google intends to have the devices built, branded with Google, and then sell them directly to consumers. The only firm tech spec we’ve heard is that they’ll be mobile enabled, and likely tied to one or more carriers with a subsidy. I’m dying to get my hands on that RFP and have been feverishly calling our contacts in Taiwan and China to see if we can get someone to quietly hand it over to us. In particular I want to know whether Google is going with an Intel Atom processor, the current leader in netbooks, or may be considering an ARM CPU. I’d be willing to bet one of our writers’ right hands that it’s ARM. And I’d even go out on a limb and suggest that they may very well be targeting Nvidia’s Tegra line. Those chips are outperforming Atom in every way, say some of the hardware guys we know. HD Flash video no problem (something the Atom can’t do), and at a fraction of the power usage. What does that mean? It means next Christmas you may be getting a high performance Google branded netbook running Chrome OS for next to nothing. And if it’s running ARM, Intel is going to be freaking the hell out about it. As an aside, if you need a netbook now, I’d recommend the Nokia Booklet 3G. It’s amazing, and you can get it for $300 with a 2 year AT&T data plan. Nokia may not be able to make phones anyone gets excited about any more, but that netbook is cool. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:57 am New Zealand Reintroduces 3 Strikes LawAn anonymous reader writes "The New Zealand government has reintroduced a newly rewritten addition to the Copyright Act which will allow rights' holders to send copyright notices to ISPs, and force them to pass them on to account holders. Section 92A of the Copyright Act will allow rights holders to take people who have been identified as infringers more than three times in front of a Copyright Tribunal. This law will allow the Copyright Tribunal to hand down either a $15,000 fine or six months internet disconnection. The law specifies that the account holder himself is responsible for what is downloaded via the account, and doesn't make allowances for identifying the actual copyright infringer if there are multiple computers tied to an account."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:56 am We Can't See the Forest for the T-Mobiles [Voices]By Adrian Higgins, Reporter, Washington Post You know you have crossed the river into Cyberland when the guy coming your way has his head buried in the hand-held screen. He will knock into you unless you get out of his way, and don’t expect an apology. It’s as if you aren’t there. Maybe you’re not. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:05 am A Question of Character [Voices]By The Economist Sending a text message is often the most time-consuming and expensive way to transfer data. Yet it remains popular not only in countries that use Latin-based languages, such as America, Britain and most of Europe, but also in China, Japan and most of Asia, where written languages often have much larger alphabets. Letting people send messages in these languages involves transliterating the text or, in some cases, developing new ways of reading what has been written. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:04 am The iPhone Goes to War [Voices]By Roy Furchgott, Contributor, Bits Blog, New York Times Is the iPhone going to war? On Wednesday at the 2009 Intelligence Warfighting Summit in Tucson, Raytheon (RTN), the military contractor, announced an iPhone application that tracks friends and foes, shows their positions on live, real time maps and provides secure communications. Called the One Force Tracker, the Raytheon iPhone software can also be used by first responders like police, firemen, and emergency medical technicians. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:03 am AT&T Tells FCC it Loves the Idea, Not Rules, of Net Neutrality [Voices]By Ryan Singel, Staff Writer, Wired AT&T (T) tried to convince federal regulators Tuesday that it’s part of a broad coalition supporting an open and free internet, but cautioned that new government rules currently being crafted would stifle innovation. The letter attempts to position AT&T as a champion of user rights, and make it seems that its position on the volatile issue of ‘net neutrality’ is not far from its nemesis Google (GOOG), which champions openness as a way to increase its profits. The jockeying from the nation’s largest telecom comes as the FCC comes close to finalizing the details of its new net neutrality rules, which it outlined in an October proposal. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:02 am A Google Phone Could Be the Death of Android [Voices]By Michael Gartenberg, Entelligence Blogger, engadget.com Without a doubt, the big buzz since the weekend has been over the “Google Phone,” an HTC-built device called the Nexus One handed out to Google (GOOG) employees last week in what Google describes as a “mobile lab.” Confirmed to be running Android 2.1, the Nexus One has once again raised the idea of Google selling unlocked devices directly to consumers. (Google has been selling unlocked HTC Android phones for some time, but only to developers.) Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:01 am Daily Crunch: Mouth to Mouth Edition
Here’s the latest Alice In Wonderland trailer in HD
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am Why Gravity, a New Startup Can't Defy GravityGravity, a Los Angeles-based start-up co-founded by three former MySpace executives launched a beta version of its service that tries to re-invent the concept of conversations. Looking at it purely from...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:58 am Latin America biodiversity 'faces climate threat'Up to 40 percent of the biodiversity of some Latin American nations could be wiped out by 2100 if climate talks in Copenhagen fail to seal a global warming deal, a UN body warned. A grimSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:51 am Heavy Rain Previews Show PromiseAs the February release date for Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain nears, several publications have gotten a chance for some hands-on time with the game and seem to be intrigued by what they saw. Quoting the Opposable Thumbs blog: "The game grabs you during the quiet moments where nothing 'happens.' When you look at a picture your child drew. When you're questioning someone about a crime. When you're trying to figure out how to react to a violent situation. The preview we were sent put me in different situations as I played a small handful of characters, and each one provided a few tiny moments that were surprising in terms of storytelling or subtlety." Eurogamer's previewer had a similar reaction: "To my great delight as well — Heavy Rain isn't a mature game because it has unhappy families and moody lighting, it's a mature game because it anticipates an adult response from the player and is prepared to receive it."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:39 am Killer whales 'body-slam' dolphins in Australia attackAustralian surfers told of their horror as they watched a pod of killer whales attack a large group of dolphins, throwing them into the air and leaping to catch them. Jamie Kidney said...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:20 am UPDATE 1-Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digestBANGALORE, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media on Thursday:Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:05 am UPDATE 1-Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digestBANGALORE, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media on Thursday:Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:05 am Facebook Scientists Dissect Facebook, Say "It's Alive!"Facebook used to be dominated by White and Asian users, but tonight the company announced results of a demographic study of its users concluding that the percentages of Black and Hispanic users of the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Dec 2009 | 12:02 am Death and TwitterA very poingnant read from Lori Culwell on The Huffington Post on the intersection of death and technology. Two days ago I stumbled onto the Twitter account of a friend of a friend, and was surprised...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:52 pm Rare Czech-bred rhinos heading to Kenya 'on mission'A Czech zoo will fly four of its rare Northern White rhinos -- of only eight left worldwide -- to Kenya this weekend in what is billed as a last-ditch attempt to ensure survival of this...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:47 pm UPDATE 1-Roche-licensed diabetes drug meets two study goalsZURICH, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG said on Thursday its weekly diabetes treatment taspoglutide met goals in two late-stage trials, part of a series of studies on the way to filing...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:42 pm San Francisco mayor backs mandatory cell phone radiation labelsSan Francisco would become the first city in the country to require that cell phone retailers label the devices with the level of radiation they emit under a controversial proposal being discussed at the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:38 pm UK Wants to Phase Out Checks by 2018The board of the UK Payments Council has set a date to phase out checks in a bid to encourage the advance of other forms of payment. They added, however, that the target of Oct. 2018 would only be realized if adequate alternatives are developed. "The goal is to ensure that by 2018 there is no scenario where customers, individuals or businesses, still need to use a cheque. The board will be especially concerned that the needs of elderly and vulnerable people are met," the Payments Council said in a statement.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:37 pm Leaked secret EU-Canada copyright agreement - EU screws CanadaLeaks have emerged from another secret copyright treaty, this one between the EU and Canada. The EU is really screwing Canada with this one, demanding longer copyright terms, more liability for ISPs (which...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:35 pm Leaked secret EU-Canada copyright agreement - EU screws Canada
Leaks have emerged from another secret copyright treaty, this one between the EU and Canada. The EU is really screwing Canada with this one, demanding longer copyright terms, more liability for ISPs (which means that it gets harder and more expensive to host anything from a message board to a video), laws against breaking copyright protection (even for a legal purpose, like getting your own files back), and a royalty on the sale of used copyrighted goods (so you'd have to track down and pay the rightsholder when you resold a painting or other copyrighted work).
And all this while Minister Tony Clement has been conducting a consultation with Canadians on what they think Canada's copyright laws should be -- at the same time, Canada's government has been sneakily negotiating two secret copyright treaties that would tie Parliament's hands and throw away Canadians' own Made-in-Canada copyright rules. While the leaked document may only represent the European position, there is little doubt that there will enormous pressure on Canadian negotiators to cave on the IP provision in return for "gains" in other areas. The net result is that when combined with the ACTA requirements, Canadian copyright law reform may cease to become Canadian. Instead, the rules will be dictated by secretive agreements as the U.S. and Europe tag team to pressure Canada into dramatic changes far beyond those even proposed in Bills C-60 or C-61.Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU - Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks
Previously:
 Source: Boing Boing | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:35 pm Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitionsDec 17 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 0600 GMT on Thursday.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:25 pm Steampunk menorah
My pal Roger Wood, the mad clock sculptor of Klockwerks.com, really puts the "Ch" back in "Channukah" with this steampunk menorah.
(via Cribcandy)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:20 pm Steampunk menorahMy pal Roger Wood, the mad clock sculptor of Klockwerks.com, really puts the "Ch" back in "Channukah" with this steampunk menorah. (via Cribcandy) Previously:LED Menorah for Hanukkah - Boing Boing...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:20 pm Rapist ex-lawmaker claims copyright on his name, threatens legal action against anyone who uses it without permissionFormer South Dakota State Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt -- presently serving time for raping his two foster daughters -- is sending bizarre "copyright notices" from prison to news agencies and outlets that use his name in print or online, claiming a "common law copyright" on his name and demanding $500,000 for any unauthorized use.Proving, at least, that knowing the law is no prerequisite for serving in high office. A letter and an accompanying document labeled ''Common Law Copyright Notice'' said former state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is reserving a common-law copyright of a trade name or trademark for his name. It said no one can use his name without his consent, and anyone who does would owe him $500,000...Ex-Lawmaker Convicted of Rape: Name Is Copyrighted (via /.)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:16 pm Hardcore hip-hop XmasdjBC writes, "As you probably know from the steady stream of Holiday mashup albums I've been compiling over the past 5 years, I dig Christmas music, and I keep remixing it. In this case I took the Big D and The Kids Table Christmas paean to Red Sox, victory, drinking, heavy Boston accents and holiday merriment in general, cut it into a hip-hop beat and enlisted rapper Black Element to bust rhymes. Anyway- I finally did it! I made a Christmas single! AND video! Woo! I hope people get a kick out of it and it ends up on some holiday mixes right next to 'White Christmas.' Or something. Directed by Craig Shannon of Imagavision Films. The original Big D and The Kids Table video for 'Wicked Hardcore Christmas' (2004) (Thanks, djBC!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:09 pm Exxon can exit XTO deal if drilling technique restricted(Repeats to additional subscribers with no change to text)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:09 pm Japan mines toxic e-waste for precious materialsSeeking to turn an environmental problem into an economic opportunity, high-tech companies in resource-poor Japan are mining mountains of toxic e-waste for precious materials. One model...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:08 pm Fundraiser to help Jeanne and Spider Robinson beat cancer
Tony from the StarShipSofa sf podcast sez, "In the spirit of 'paying it forward', StarShipSofa is rallying the SF/F community around Spider and Jeanne Robinson. Throughout the month of December, the online audio magazine will be releasing an original series written by Lawrence Santoro. While listeners can hear 'Lord Dickens' Declaration' for free on StarShipSofa, one can elect to purchase the ebook with art by Skeet Scienski. All proceeds will be donated to Spider and Jeanne in an effort to support her as she battles cancer. Diagnosed with a rare biliary cancer, the treatments have eaten away at the Robinson's finances as doctors aggressively fight the disease from spreading.
This ebook will only be available for purchase through December 31st and is priced at 2.99 GBP, with an option to donate more (in increments of 10, 20, 50, & 100 GPB). Any fan of the Robinson's can attest to their strength, but we hope that through this time of strife, the SF/F community can help them survive through the worst. Thank you for standing with the Robinson's in their time of need."
Aural Delights No 113 Lawrence Santoro Pt 3
(Thanks, Tony!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:05 pm WTFComcast: Best Blog Ever?
A few weeks back, for the first time in the history of mankind, someone actually paid attention to the description snippets that accompany Comcast’s On Demand videos. Within seconds, it was clear: whoever was writing the descriptions was bat shit insane. And with that, WTFComcast, a blog which highlights the oddest of Comcast’s oddities, was born. Go ahead, delete your RSS feed. WTFComcast is the only blog you need to read. Oh, and CrunchGear. And MobileCrunch. [Via this Reddit thread]
Source: CrunchGear | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:03 pm Photos from Copenhagen protests Treehugger photographer Matt McDermott happened to be in the right place when the massive climate demonstrations in Copenhagen broke out, and the site has a great gallery of shots of the action. Whose Summit? Our Summit! Bella Center Erupts in Protest
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 16 Dec 2009 | 11:00 pm China jails 11 over online games scam: state media
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 ABC News | AT&T Faces Potential 'Operation Chokehold' Traffic Flood ChannelWeb AT&T iPhone subscribers are planning to flood the carrier's data network with data traffic this Friday, but solution providers don't expect the effort to have much impact beyond annoying legitimate users. ... Fake Steve Jobs Rallies iPhone Users to Cripple AT&T Network AT&T lashes out at Fake Steve Jobs' network knock-out threat Fake Steve Jobs and AT&T square off over iPhone service |
 The Age | AltaVista Irrelevant? Not to Other Search Engines PC World A long time ago, in the mid-to-late 1990s, AltaVista was a major search engine, but with the rise of Google its popularity slid, eventually becoming irrelevant to most users. Back then, I never missed "Seinfeld" or "Friends" and was a faithful ... Drop In Yahoo Search Share May Trim Microsoft Deal's Benefits Microsoft, Google Gain Search Share in November Bing Hits 10 Percent in Search Share |
Most of us take them for granted, but web designers have to deal with a myriad of frustrating problems on a daily basis. From browsers that ignore standards to different screen resolutions, there’s a lot for them to grapple with. Today, Google has launched a new addition to its collection of Labs tools called Browser Size that’s meant to help alleivate one of these headaches.
One issue web designers face is ensuring that they keep their important content “above the fold” — you don’t want users to have to scroll down to see the hottest story or a call to action. Browser Size helps with this, by visualizing just what percentage of the Internet-browsing population can see a certain part of your page. This is related not only to screen resolution, but also how large people keep their browser windows.
Using the tool is simple: type a URL in at the top of the screen, and the site will load your webpage in the background. It will then overlay a semi-transparent graphic depicting how much of the web’s population can view each section of your page without scrolling. The results aren’t particularly exciting — the further down or to the side you go, the fewer people can see it. But this will certainly be helpful for web designers.
The data is generated based on the browser size of users who visit Google.com. Google says that it found that the install rate for Google Earth increased by a whopping 10% simply by moving it 100 pixels higher on the page.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 NEWS.com.au | Watery "Super Earth" spotted 40 light years from us Ars Technica The latest exoplanet find is hot and heavy, but probably has liquid water, and resides close enough to Earth that we're likely to be able to characterize its atmosphere using existing observatories. By John Timmer | Last updated December 16, ... A Sultry World Is Found Orbiting a Distant Star Most Earth-Like Extrasolar Planet Found Right Next Door Nearby "Super Earth" May Have Oceans, Thick Atmosphere |
 DailyTech | McDonald's to Offer Free Wi-Fi, Starbucks Beware? eWeek McDonald's will offer customers free Wi-Fi come January, according to reports. Coupling Wi-Fi with its new coffee offerings, will the Golden Arches steal some green from Starbucks? Verizon says it is also now offering free Wi-Fi to some subscribers. ... McDonald's to Offer Free Wi-Fi Internet Access McDonald's: Have Some Free Wi-Fi With that Big Mac McDonalds to Offer Free Wi-Fi in 2010 |
Oh my. This can't be what Redmond had planned. But I guess they should have spent more time revising their platform during the years and years they dominated the smartphone field. Now, with the triple threat of consumer-accessible Blackberry devices, cheap iPhones, and legions of Android handsets, it seems that even WinMo 7 may be too little, too late. iPhone users now outnumber WinMo users, according to a recent ComScore survey.
Oh my. This can’t be what Redmond had planned. But I guess they should have spent more time revising their platform during the years and years they dominated the smartphone field. Now, with the triple threat of consumer-accessible Blackberry devices, cheap iPhones, and legions of Android handsets, it seems that even WinMo 7 may be too little, too late. iPhone users now outnumber WinMo users, according to a recent ComScore survey.
The growth of the iPhone and, more importantly, the stagnation of WinMo sales and devices, had to lead here eventually. It was just a matter of when, and apparently “when” was sometime before October, when the data from the survey was collected.
What’s next? Well, Blackberry and Apple will have to fend off Android, which will be arming the vast featurephone population with cheap, capable devices. That’s still a ways off, but Google has momentum on its side. Should be an interesting year.
Wait a second, what’s with the Symbian population going up?! Gross!
[via Electronista]
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
A while ago we’ve heard that Verizon is planning on getting the Palm Pre in early 2010. On Monday we saw a Palm Pixi moving through the FCC with Verizon specs. Now we’re seeing even more signs that Verizon will soon be seeing some sort of WebOS phone sometime in the coming month or two.
The new evidence comes from a Verizon training course. The course will teach Verizon employees about Palm and its WebOS. Not sure what the course entails, though it apparently takes about 20 minutes. There can’t be that much information about Palm and WebOS, but when do these sorts of courses take as long as they say they will? Still, any new developments on Verizon getting the Pre of Pixi is always good news.
The only question now is how well will the Pixi and Pre stand up against phones like the Droid and Droid Eris. Unless Verizon offers the phones at lower prices than Sprint does now, at least the Eris seems like the way to go for a Verizon smartphone. That is, of course, assuming you don’t just want PalmOS over Android. Maybe Palm will have some sort of new feature to tout on the Verizon versions, or it could just be a bit slow given how fast Android has risen up in the past year.
Read [Phone Arena]
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AFP - US defense contractor Raytheon on Wednesday unveiled the first of what it said will be a series of software applications to make iPhones or iPod touch devices into battlefield tools.
It may seem arbitrary lumping the indies and the iPhone together for the second half of this feature on the best games of 2009 (which previously ran down the best retail console and handheld games of 2009), but this year more than ever the lines between the two blurred, as the App Store continued to evolve into a marketplace second only to the web where a one-person team has as equal a chance for success as the biggest publishers in the business.
Granted, that chance still continues to be "slim", and most recently the tides have been turning slightly to top-seller lists reading more like those you'd find on the DS and PSP, but nearly all the iPhone games on this list earned critical praise and top slots in the charts with marketing staff and budgets approaching zero.
Still, I wish this list could be longer. Even moreso than the first half of this feature, where the best games left off the list were the ones that were called out as the year's finest nearly everywhere else, the selections that didn't make the cut here were still at the top of their game.
Releases like the Bit.Trip games, LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, Bonsai Barber, Words With Friends and reams of other iPhone games (as I've been continuing to cover weekly), and especially Spelunky (which technically is a late 2008 release, though it didn't progress to truly sublime until a few months later) all deserve their high praise.
So then below, the best web, PC, Mac, and iPhone games -- freeware, commercial, and uniquely otherwise -- that sprang from the best of the indie community this year.
Canabalt [AdamAtomic, web/iPhone, App Store link]
Canabalt will probably be the least obscure name on this list, not least for its repeat coverage here in recent months, and in the frequent high-score updates you'll have no doubt spotted in your friends' twitter feeds.
Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman's one-button game was one of the truest "sensations" this year: launched in late August as a knocked-out five-day experiment which took instant storm, leading to fast lessons in social add-on integration and an equally fast but even more compulsive iPhone port, culminating in this week's release of a newly enhanced version, adding more obstacles and more of composer Danny Baranowsky's music, and formalizing an official leaderboard for the game.
And the success of Canabalt simply as a well-designed game was just part of the story: just as interesting was how in that span of time the community truly made the game its own, spawning not one but two fan-made Twitter-scraping leaderboards. Also worth note was Saltsman's decision to not succumb to the 99 cent pressures of the App Store, a move he expounded on at length here, and hopefully one that helps inspire other iPhone developers to move the device toward a more sustainable economy.
Captain Forever/Successor [Farbs, web]
You'll be forgiven if Captain Forever's willfully obscure homepage layout led to some blank stares, but it's all in the name of maintaining the underlying 80s-star-pilot narrative that literally binds you (via your webcam) to the seat of your ship.
It's this retro aesthetic and anachronistic faux-command-line inconvenience that helped make Forever a year-topper for many indie devs themselves, but even moreso the way developer Farbs has given his players a window into a so-far limitless universe and asked only that they create something beautiful and deadly.
And its clear that he has no intention of letting Forever slip quietly off the edge of that universe: taking smart cues from the MMO sphere and other online successes like Valve's ever-evolving Team Fortress 2, Farbs is building up his Captain as a brand, charging a project wide 'supporter fee' (which gets you early access to new versions of the game, like the recently upgraded Successor) rather than a per-copy asking price, allowing him to monetize development as he steers the ship in newer and more complex directions.
It's an incredibly strong indie-career starter from someone who less than nine months ago made the leap from full time gainful employment (announcing the departure to his employer, you'll recall, via a version of Super Mario Bros), and one of the projects I'm most anxious to see where it's headed next.
Drop7 [area/code, iPhone, App Store link]
You've either never played Drop7 or the mere mention of its name sends nic-fit twinges through your spine. There is, I've found, no middle ground. One of the year's first best games, Drop7's lethal addictiveness spread throughout the year, aided by late Spring Facebook integration, and since that time I haven't met a single person who didn't follow up "yeah, I've played it," with lengthy praise/condemnation for how much they've played it.
Many games lay claim over the 'minutes to learn/lifetime to master' claim, but Drop7 actually deserves it -- its balance of strategy and randomness is what gives it its compulsive charm, even after a daunting first few minutes struggling with its wholly original numerical premise.
If you haven't played it yet (and if you lack an iPhone, its original incarnation as a web-based TV series tie-in is still available), by all means go, but go warned.
Eliss [Steph Thirion, iPhone, App Store link]
Eliss, like Drop7 and Canabalt, is another name I've been tirelessly repeating throughout the year, and it's rightfully earned its place as one of the App Store's best for perfectly encompassing what it means to be an iPhone game.
It did that as one of the device's first true multi-touch games, and by seemingly effortlessly giving us a sense of style -- in its entirely original graphical/musical aesthetic -- that, especially at the time, was leagues above the App Store's standard fare of pastel-shaded and casual-focused design.
For as much as the iPhone has earned a reputation as a present from the future dropped in our hands (a feeling I know I still get navigating any foreign city with it constantly at my side), Eliss should be its ubiquitous Minesweeper: a curious concoction of accessible play and alien origin, unlike any other game and baffling precisely because of its uniqueness, and destined to be the standard of tomorrow.
Glum Buster [CosMind, PC]
Developer Justin 'CosMind' Leingang's labor of love (slaved on for years during off hours while creating similarly overlooked and forward thinking games like the DS's wifi-signal-collector Treasure World) still hasn't quite earned the reputation it deserves but stands as one of the year's best surrealist short stories.
As I've said before, part of that could be in its staunch refusal to speak in the language that game players have grown accustom to: entering its world means learning how to communicate all over again, even if its goals and navigation feel like standard platforming fare.
But that's precisely what gives it its magic, and a thrill of exploration that comes not just from the sights you'll see, but the way you'll interact with its inhabitants. It's an adventure into weird worlds, and its an experience that still begs for more careful attention.
Machinarium [Amanita, PC/Mac]
Long-time followers of Amanita's work wouldn't have been surprised that Machinarium ended up as one of the year's best: studio founder Jakub Dvorský has proved and re-proved himself as a creator that sees -- and constructs -- realities unlike any other, via his original cult hit Samorost, its commercial sequel, and a set of other short-form commissioned side projects.
What was surprising is in how much more rich its interactions were: gone were the simple pixel-hunt-and-click-to-move-on tasks of his earlier games, Machinarium dove even deeper into adventure gaming history and came back up with an even more complex and rewarding set of puzzles that took us into the bizarre order of its rusted steam-bot world.
One of the few developers left keeping the point and click torch lit, Amanita -- in an ideal world -- gave a new generation a taste of what it was that lends warm nostalgia to our own pasts.
Rolando 2 [Hand Circus, iPhone, App Store link]
Hand Circus's followup to its landmark original -- one of the first iPhone games that caused the wider industry to sit up and take notice of the device as a true competitor -- stands a bit at odds with the rest of the games on this list, if only for how blindingly polished it feels next to the scrappy, experimental set aside it.
And that's certainly not without good reason: publisher ngmoco was surely dead set on giving the indie dev the time and resources it needed to deliver a game that looked and felt like it could stand next to those on handheld gaming's more established hardware, and on all counts it did.
For every part that felt slightly safer than its prequel, that formula felt doubly refined. It was smarter, flashier, and hit all the right notes that should have made it the iPhone's signature mascot platformer franchise, its Mario or Sonic -- should the studio continue to go down that natural path.
Saira [Nifflas, PC]
And then, from nowhere, came Saira. Making a surprise touchdown on PC just days ago (after originally being teased as a potential WiiWare game from the same team that are working on the console's gorgeously serene bedtime-story platformer NightSky), it didn't take long to recognize that it was going to leave a mark on the year longer than the year's last few weeks would otherwise allow it.
Part of that was simply the developer's legacy: Sweden's Nicklas 'Nifflas' Nygren is among the highest regarded indie dev within the community for his work on the Knytt series, a freeware franchise of tiny (by pixel count) worlds that are as stunningly expressive and atmospheric as they are austere (think: the lonely landscapes of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus creator Fumito Ueda).
And unlike the more physics-based puzzling of NightSky (Knytt's true chronological successor, but still maddeningly yet unavailable), Saira stays very close to Knytt's formula of exploiting the basic joys of exploration, and ups the ante considerably by connecting all those worlds via starships (with, wonderfully and unexpectedly, an onboard-playable pinball machine) and by introducing a photo mechanic that sees you hunting for clues in the landscape itself that are later used to unlock planetary defense mechanisms and allow you deeper into its twisting caverns.
With everyone still caught off guard and dazed by its sudden appearance, it's a game you should be hearing much more about in the coming weeks, as the holidays settle and everyone returns with reports on how it was the best way they spent their 2009 Christmas vacation.
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [Tiger Style, iPhone, App Store link]
Like Eliss, Spider is the perfect example of the type of game that should be dominating the App Store: a brilliantly crafted mix of arcade overtones tooled specifically for the device (its flick-jump alone remains one of the year's best character control schemes), a beautifully vintage children's book style that instantly set it apart, and, at its core, a mature story that reclined quietly and let players ask all the questions of it rather than imposing itself on you.
Happily, it did enjoy the chart-topping success it deserved for a time, lending a sliver of hope that iPhone development does reward more than the lowest common denominator, and is always patiently waiting for something smarter to come along -- a sentiment that hopefully will be stirred again when the Tiger Style team release their upcoming 'Director's Cut' update and move on to whatever love letters they've got squirreled away in the dark corners of their future.
Windosill [Vectorpark, PC/Mac/web]
And finally, Windosill shares an important trait with a number of other entries on this list: it let us explore the make-up of a world entirely unlike our own and entirely representative of its sole creator, here multimedia/interactive artist Patrick 'Vectorpark' Smith.
Unlike those other surrealities, though, Windosill is made up of some manner of mathematical magic that lends a truly remarkable tangibility to its unearthly toy-box components. Even its most bizarre creations move as they "should", react believably to our prods and pokes, and, at their best, seem so alive and driven by a spirit of their own that it feels unfathomable that they're the product of code alone.
All of these are, of course, Vectorpark hallmarks, and have earned him his reputation over the past several years, but Windosill was important for promoting his work beyond the usual interactive/Flash appreciators and into the wider gaming sphere -- so much so that the game landed Smith his debut on no less a mass-market service than Valve's Steam, momentum that we can only hope will be carried through into the new year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The last of the “FIGS” has been completed. Twitter has rolled out a German version of the site today. The microblogging platform previously launched Italian, French, and Spanish versions of the site.
As we’ve said in the past, Twitter is crowd-sourcing much of the work for these translations and the speed at which they’ve added the translations is impressive. Twitter was previously available in English and Japanese. As usual, Twitter has written the latest blog post on the matter in the native tongue, so we’ll (roughly) translate it below.
German is one of the most widespread languages of the EU and is the last language we introduced in 2009 on Twitter.com.
With the indispensable help of our many fantastic translators and translators, we have five new languages in less than two months introduced – a huge achievement for our international group. The faster we can make available to Twitter for people all over the world, influencing the faster the different cultures of the world, the global conversation on Twitter.
Here are a few German-speaking users who are already actively engaging on Twitter and might interest you:
@ SPIEGEL_Eil-German magazine
@ Paulvandyk Grammy-nominated DJ of Berlin
@ Silenttiffy-German writer
@ Dieternuhr-comedian and presenter
@ Calmund – longtime Bundesliga Manager
To set your language preferences, visit your preferences page and select German in the drop-down menu “Language”. The whole web interface is now translated! As a next step, visit and follow the official “Twitter in German” profile @ Twitter_De. Thus, our German users can stay informed about news at Twitter up to date. Last, tell your friends know and go ahead and twittering!
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
I put up a hand-on of these two bags a few months ago, but I have to repost it. Not only in the spirit of Bag Week, mainly because I’ve found after using both bags over the last few months, my initial conclusion was dead on: These bags are rad.
Features:
Pros
Cons
So what makes these bags so good? Well, for one, they are extremely well made with quality material. The Cordura fabric seems like it will last forever. The straps are lightweight, but also wide enough that they shouldn’t dig into your shoulder even when loaded down.
What I like the best about both of them is that they are lined with a rubber material which should keep the bag’s contents safe from weather. Now, the bags aren’t sealed up as the top is held on with just two straps, but I wouldn’t expect rain or snow to seep through this layer.
Neither bag is very large. Don’t expect to put more than two text books in either. The Vega is really more of a man purse than anything else. It could probably hold your Franklin Covey planner, Kindle DX, and a magazine alright, but don’t expect anything else to fit comfortable. The Corsair is a tad larger, but not much.
Chrome markets these as utility bags and not notebook bags. That’s doesn’t mean you could use them as such. Just be careful. The bags do not have any type of padding. I found that a 13-inch iBook fit in the Vega and the Corsair held a 15.6-inch Asus just fine. I would recommend some sort of notebook sleeve though.
As with any quality item, these come with a price – a high one. But if you need a solid, weather-resistant utility bag, you probably will not mind spending $80 on the Corsair or Vega. I wouldn’t.
Read more Bag Week reviews here.
Startup RepairPal, an auto repair and maintenance information site, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Tugboat Ventures, with Rick Keister, David Strohm, Mark Goines, and Michael Torres participating. The startup previously raised $3 million in seed and angel funding.
The site, which we reviewed last year, is similar to a Google Health for cars. You get price estimates for different parts and repair jobs for your car. You enter your car year, model, and mileage, and it spits out price ranges for your zip code. There is also a directory of hundreds of thousands of local mechanics, with each shop placed onto a Google Map. Members can rate each mechanic and once a repair is completed, you can keep an online service record at RepairPal. It’s like a one-stop shop to maintain and record the health of your car.
RepairPal also launched a free, handy iPhone app which will help users find reasonable prices for car repairs and provided them with locations of reputable repair shops in their areas on the go. The app also includes Google Maps integration, user reviews for each shop and a list of towing and roadside assistance services based on your location.
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FROM APPLETELL - Kensington’s iPhone Car Mount is a great compromise between price and features, though I do hate using the word “compromise.”
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New ways to monitor your home energy usage over the Internet are springing up. Google offers Powermeter and Microsoft has Hohm. Just last week we wrote about Wattvision. Now you can add Earth Aid to the list.
But Earth Aid doesn’t just show you charts of how much energy and water your household goes through. It offers a rewards program to encourage you to save energy. Earth Aid monitors how much electricity, water, and natural gas you use and how much you spend on these utilities. It grabs the data directly from the utilities (with your permission), and compares how much energy and water you consume to the same month a year ago. As you consume less energy and water, you get reward points which are redeemable at local businesses.
These are just like travel rewards, except for saving energy. You get to feel good and shop at the same time. The company also sells equipment to help make your house more energy efficient. And really, the only way you are really going to be able to keep racking up points is to change some equipment in your house. There is only so much you can turn the heat down or change your behavior to save water. Once you do those things, you are down to swapping out equipment and insulating your house better.
If it takes rewards points to make people realize they should do that anyway, I guess that’s better (for the environment) than flying around the world to rack up points.
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Just before news broke that Zynga had closed a whopping $180 million funding round, CEO Mark Pincus went on NBC Bay Area’s Press:Here to talk up the company. The format of the show is for tech reporters to grill CEOs, so he no doubt knew he’d face some hard Scamville questions and he did.
Among the hardest: Playing that YouTube video for him at the very top of the show and asking him exactly what he was thinking. He answers in the clip below. The whole show can be found here.
Update: We’ve apparently crashed their servers, but NBC Bay Area is working on fixing them. If the video below doesn’t work, try again a bit later — the video is well worth watching.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
By Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Waze, the navigation and traffic-information app, offers something for the driver as well as the gamer, encouraging them to help it map new streets with a Pac Man-style simulation that awards points for taking uncharted routes.
On Thursday, the start-up plans to announce new incentives tied to Foursquare, another mobile-social app. Users of both services will be able to check in to locations through Waze, and after the third check-in, they’ll unlock a new “Road Warrior” badge.
The two apps, both of which use social games to build crowdsourced information, have similar goals, said Di-Ann Eisnor, community geographer at Waze. This is the first time Foursquare has created a badge–one of the ways that the service rewards frequent users–that’s tied to another app, said Dennis Crowley, a co-founder of the New York start-up.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
A number of tech companies are rejoicing over the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint against Intel today, none more so than Nvidia.
A top player in the market for graphics processing units, Nvidia stands to gain quite a bit from the FTC lawsuit, which will obviously undermine Intel’s (INTC) efforts to extend its monopoly into the GPU market. In an all-hands memo to employees, Nvidia CEO Jen Hsun Huang explained just how important the FTC’s action is to Nvidia (NVDA) and the GPU market.
Huang’s memo, in full, below:
The U.S. government announced today that it has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel. This is an action the industry needs and one that consumers deserve. And it’s one that can completely transform the computer industry.
The facts are clear. The FTC has charged that Intel has used its monopoly illegally to stifle innovation, to keep prices for their products inflated, and to unfairly block competitors. The FTC believes that millions of consumers have paid more and received less quality in return–and that companies and their employees have been forced out of markets where Intel has been threatened.
Intel is fully aware that great graphics have become one of the most important features for consumer PCs, the fastest-growing segment of the PC market. Even more alarming to Intel is the revolutionary parallel computing technology in our GPUs that is being adopted by software developers across the world. The more successful we became, the bigger threat we were to Intel’s monopoly. Instead of creating competitive GPU solutions and competing on the merits of their products, Intel has resorted to unlawful acts to stop us. The FTC announced today that this isn’t acceptable.
Nothing this complicated gets decided quickly. It will take months for the FTC case to be heard by an administrative judge who will then recommend a ruling back to the FTC. And it’s possible that this decision could be appealed. But today is a huge step forward for all of us that will begin to re-level the playing field.
Today’s FTC announcement highlights the industry-changing impact of the GPU and the importance of our work. Our innovation is making the PC magical and amazing again. I can now imagine the day when Intel can no longer block consumers from enjoying our creation and experience computing in a way we know is possible.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Steorn, developers of free-energy gadget called Orbo, have managed to survive for six years without having successfully demonstrated the technology in public. It must be some kind of record. But yesterday, an Orbo was installed at the Waterways Ireland Visitor Centre, and you can see a live video stream of the Orbo chugging away.
According to Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy, the Orbo is able to "gain energy from magnets with no apparent source."
Here's more about it, from Steorn's "What is Orbo Technology" page:
Orbo is a technology that creates energy from magnetic interactions. Orbo provides free, clean and constant energy at the point of use.Three cheers for "Victorian Science," but I don't believe the Orbo can make more energy than it uses. It sure is fun following Steorn's attempts to achieve the impossible, though. If any Boing Boing readers in Dublin have witness the live demo, please share your thoughts in the comments.Orbo is a platform technology that can be engineered to power anything from a phone, to a fridge to a car.
Orbo technology is controversial - science tells us that energy can not be created - yet Orbo does this. Orbo is an over unity technology - it provides more energy out than is put in.
Orbo is a result of many man years of technological development using a "Victorian Science" approach. It is a technology that has been derived phenomologically, through test, implementation and retest.
UPDATE: the blog called Steorn's Orbo has a good post about why this demo is useless:
Orbo 2009 is similar in its basic design, but the outer ring of magnets are now electromagnets rather than permanent magnets, and these electromagnets are fed by a battery. That battery, it is claimed, is constantly recharged by a small electrical generator attached to the spinning Orbo. The net result, says Sean McCarthy, is that the Orbo produces some three times the energy it uses. The energy that isn't cycled back to the battery is dissipated as heat. Sean's claim may be true — the Orbo may be generating three times the energy it is using, right in front of our eyes. Or, it may not be; there's no way to tell without being an experienced engineer and hooking the rig up to a lot of complex testing equipment. Because there's a battery in the loop, there's just no telling how much energy, if any, Orbo is actually generating. So Steorn may have what they claim. Or they may be lying about it as part of a scam. Or they may honestly believe they have it, but be wrong. There's still no way to tell.In other words, this Orbo sounds like it's a plain old motor.
 dBTechno | TomTom slashes iPhone GPS app to $49.99 CNET News It's already getting cutthroat in the young world of iPhone navigation apps. Facing increased pressure from the likes of ALK, which recently dropped its CoPilot Live North America app to $19.99, TomTom just slashed the price of its ... Microsoft's Bing Now Available in IPhone App Form Microsoft brings Bing to iPhone, RedLaser tops $1M in revenue Bing on iPhone Moves Apple Away from Google |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Here’s the problem with running the world’s biggest video site: It exposes you to legal fights all over the world.
And Google (GOOG) appears to have lost a tussle in Italian court today.
Mediaset, a commercial broadcaster controlled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has won a copyright-infringement ruling, and a Rome court has ordered YouTube to remove all of Mediaset’s content from the site.
The broadcaster began legal action in July 2008 following a trawl through the YouTube site revealed 4,643 clips and 325 hours of unauthorized Mediaset material, the company claimed.
In his written report, judge Tommaso Marvasi referred in particular to the prevalence on YouTube of Mediaset’s Italo version of “Big Brother,” which he described as the most important reality show on Italian television. It is also the Mediaset program most viewed on the Internet.
In a statement, Mediaset said that the ruling was historic because for the first time the rights of the broadcasters and program editors to their exclusive products had been fully recognized.
Mediaset is reportedly looking for more than $730 million in damages, but no word on how that phase of the trial will proceed.
YouTube’s response, via a spokesman:
We are considering our next steps, including a possible appeal. Under European and Italian law, service providers such as YouTube are not responsible for screening the content people upload. But we actually go beyond the law by offering copyright holders effective tools which allow them to manage how and whether their content is made available. It’s a programme called Content ID. More than 1,000 broadcast partners including Rai and Fox Channels Italy have chosen to use it. Mediaset could simply join these other partners and use the tools as well. Alternatively, it would be enough for them to provide us the URLs of the videos and we would remove them.
Win some, lose some. Earlier this year, YouTube–along with most other Web companies that rely on user-generated and/or uploaded content–was celebrating Veoh’s U.S. court victory against Universal Music.
If that ruling stands, it appears to put almost all of the onus on content owners to keep their stuff off of video sites. Which could pose a problem for Viacom (VIA) and its billion-dollar lawsuit against Google.
Listening to music as you read a book is just perfect. Now picture doing that on your Barnes & Noble Nook e-book reader.
A few Nook device owners have hacked it to run the Pandora music application in the background. The move opens the door to adding more apps to the e-reader — something that Barnes & Noble does not support officially.
“It wasn’t that hard,” says Robbie Trencheny, a 18-year-old student who is also the team leader at nookDevs, a wiki and an online forum for Nook enthusiasts. “Once we had rooted the Nook (on Sunday), it was only a matter of time until we could put an app on it.”
“Rooting” the Nook involves hacking its system files to get full access to the device’s Android operating system. But unlike jailbreaking the iPhone, rooting the Nook isn’t just about tinkering with the software. Instead, Nook customers have to take a screwdriver to get to the device’s innards. Nook’s Android OS is on a microSD card that needs to be connected to a computer to change a file on it. Once that’s done, the power of Nook’s Android OS is available to its users.
To run Pandora, Trencheny first searched for the .apk file associated with the app. “It’s a file extension that Android uses and every app has it,” he says. Once that file is wirelessly downloaded onto the 3G-enabled Nook, users have to run a command in the terminal shell of the device. With a few more steps described on the nookDevs wiki, they can get Pandora installed on the Nook.
There are a few more steps to get it operational. The Nook’s touchscreen won’t cooperate with the Pandora app so users have to use a VNC remote control software to get past the app’s initial login screen. Once that’s done, Pandora works perfectly with the Nook touchscreen and can run in the background as you browse books, says Trencheny.
If all that sounds a little rough for someone who just likes to pick up an e-reader and read, then there’s a fix in the works, assures Trencheny. NookDevs is working on creating a software unlock so users won’t have to open up the Nook. They are also trying to open a marketplace just for Nook apps.
And while Pandora is the first to make it to the Nook, adding other apps should be easy, says Trencheny. “We can run multiple apps if we want to,” he says.
NookDevs members haven’t heard any complaint, so far, from Barnes & Noble. “We have looked through the end user license agreement and, as far we can tell, there is nothing in there to get us into trouble,” says Trencheny. “We are not abusing the 3G or breaking the DRM rights on the books.”
See Also:
Photo: Inside the Nook/ nookDevs
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing this year, designer Martin Mostböck made this area rug inspired by the moon's surface.
Artist's web site [via Dezeen]
Source: Boing Boing | 16 Dec 2009 | 2:42 pm
The Wall Street Journal goes square-dancing.
When you’re running on a hot streak of smash hits, it’s not too tough to find investors. Such is the case for Smule, the developers behind I Am T-Pain, Ocarina, Leaf Trombone, and a handful of other App Store success stories.
Today, Smule is announcing that they’ve secured an $8 million dollar round of Series C funding. That’s an absolutely massive pot for a development house focused solely on the iPhone, and it more than doubles Smule’s total funding thus far.
This latest round of funding was lead by Shasta Ventures, and backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and Granite Ventures. Both of the latter companies had invested in Smule before; Bessemer fueled Smule’s $1.6 million seed round, and joined Granite Ventures and Maple Investments for their $3.9 million Series B. All in all, Smule’s total funding to date is coming in at around $13.5 million.
All the fledgling entrepreneurs out there fighting for funding might want to plug their ears at this point; turns out, Smule wasn’t exactly looking to vie for backing right now. Jeff Smith, CEO and co-founder of Smule, on the topic:
“Candidly we were not planning on raising capital at this stage of our business plan. Yet as we got to know the partnership at Shasta, we found they had a similar perspective on the importance of innovation, and a robust understanding of the new consumer market realities. We are therefore excited to have them join us on our mission to redefine the mobile social experience.”
So, what is Smule planning to do with the new-found cash? Make more iPhone apps, of course. It’ll also go toward expanding the “Smule Sonic Network” which serves as the backbone for their applications.
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![Screen shot 2009-12-16 at [ December 16 ] 11.50.30 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-16-at-December-16-11.50.30-AM-207x300.png "Screen shot 2009-12-16 at [ December 16 ] 11.50.30 AM")
Just a few days ago, the voice recognition connoisseurs over at Nuance released Dragon Dictation, an iPhone app which would automatically transcribe your voice into text messages and emails.
All was well and good at first; the response to the app was generally quite positive, and the app itself seemed to work pretty dang well. Soon after release, however, controversy was abound; someone stumbled across a section of the End User License Agreement which stipulated that the application would upload a list of your contacts to their server. Just like that, the paranoia train barreled out of the station.
Word of the application’s seemingly loose lips hit the blogosphere, and it’s App Store ratings took the brunt of the hit. Of 6212 ratings, 2777 were one star (out of five). Of those who took the time to write why they gave it such a low rating, the very vast majority were complaining of privacy concerns.
Nuance moved to address the concerns, putting up a blog post which clearly stated why they were uploading user contacts, and what they were doing with them:
We do this for a pretty simple reason: we found that people are often dictating names from their address book and expect the names to be recognized. We take this information and create an anonymous user profile for your device that understands what names are likely to dictate into a document. It’s important to note that we only upload the names, not the e-mail addresses, phone numbers or any other personally identifying information from your contacts.
In the end, they weren’t snagging your contacts for the sake of harassing your friends or informing the government of your corrupt cohorts. They were trying to improve the accuracy of the application on a user-by-user basis by checking your contacts for names it should know. No harm there.
The harm, however, was in the fact that they were doing it without user consent. You and I might not have anything to hide in the list of people we keep at an arms reach – but that doesn’t mean others don’t, nor does it mean we want that information silently passed on to third parties. We’ll gladly make such information available on Facebook, but we do it knowingly.
Today, Nuance has released an update which does away with the woes once and for all. Upon first launching the application, users are now given the choice as to whether or not their contacts are uploaded. Additionally, users still feeling burned by the automatic upload can delete all previously uploaded contacts from the server.
At this rate, I’d imagine Apple is considering making user consent a mandatory prompt before contacts can be accessed at all, similar to the mandatory GPS prompt.
You can find the new release of Dragon Dictation on the App Store here (Note: As of around noon this morning, some users are reporting that they’re still getting version 1.0 when they download.)
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![Screen shot 2009-12-16 at [ December 16 ] 10.32.18 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-16-at-December-16-10.32.18-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-12-16 at [ December 16 ] 10.32.18 AM")
Nothing kills the productivity amongst myself and my roommates like accidentally stumbling across an episode of the Discovery Channel’s Cash Cab. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, the premise is pretty simple: a snarky bald dude drives around New York in a cab, surprising passengers with the opportunity to win some cash by answering trivia questions.
There’s just something about the wise-crackin’ cab driver — not to mention the opportunity to make yourself feel smart compared to a bunch of grumpy New Yorkers — that keeps our eyes glued. Unfortunately for our hopes of ever getting anything done, the Cash Cab is now cruising the streets of Pocketville.
Just released this morning by Capcom, the iPhone version of Cash Cab is a wee bit less brain-racking than the show that inspired it; where as contestants have to pull most of their answers out of thin air, the iPhone app gives you the benefit of multiple choice. Outside of that, however, the familiar mechanics, such as Red Light Challenges and Video Bonuses, are all there.
Coming in at $5 bucks, it’s a bit pricey – but considering how unlikely it is to find yourself in the Cash Cab amongst NYC’s endless sea of taxis, this might be the closest any of us get to the real thing. You can find it on the App Store here.
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Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile
UPS has introduced a new app for BlackBerry devices. UPS Mobile allows users of the popular smartphones to track packages, arrange shipments, find UPS shipping locations and directions, and get instant quotes and transit times. They can even create shipping labels, which are sent via email as PDFs. Users can log in with their MyUPS info to get tracking histories and assign nicknames to shipments or they can do simple tracking with no log on necessary. Tracking info automatically refreshes when the app is opened.
UPS Mobile is free and can be downloaded from BlackBerry App World. It’s compatible with devices running OS 4.6 and higher such as the Tour, Storm, Bold, and Curve 8900.
Read [UPS.com]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Telegraph.co.uk | Google's Nexus One: World-Changer or Just a Bad Idea? PC World Google's Nexus One smartphone is a shot across the bow of many entrenched competitors, enough to make us wonder whether Google has some master plan for world domination or has merely gone loopy. If you combine all the speculation, ... Nexus: Did Google Dream of Electric Lawsuits? Google's Foray Into Mobile Phones Is Risky How Google became Microsoft - a decade of hits, misses, and gaffes |
![Screen shot 2009-12-16 at [ December 16 ] 9.58.26 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-16-at-December-16-9.58.26-AM.png)
If you’re a BlackBerry owner who’s looking for something small to get themselves this holiday season, this might help. Earlier this morning, Beejive released version 2.0 of their BlackBerry IM application – and just in time for the season of getting.. awkward family dinners.. giving, they’ve lopped 50% off the price tag.
The new features:
* Facebook chat: Chat with your Facebook friends while on the go, and see a record of your chats on facebook.com.
* Clickable Twitter usernames: Click on a Twitter username in a chat to launch Twitter.
* Refined and responsive UI: Take advantage of BeejiveIM’s custom-written user interface, offering speedy and responsive controls and a modern look-and-feel.
* Voice notes: Instantly record and send voice messages to your IM contacts. Voice notes are perfect for on-the-go chatting, such as when you are walking down the street or need to get information to someone quickly and don’t have time to type.
* GPS location: Send your current GPS location with a link to Google Maps, taking advantage of your BlackBerry’s location features and adding a new location-aware element to your chats.
* More chat styles: Customize your chat styles and colors and set different backgrounds and wallpapers.
* File transfers with all IM services: Easily send, receive, and review file attachments, and see previews of images right inside your chat.
* Push notifications: Whether running in the foreground or the background, BeejiveIM will always notify you of new instant messages.
* Improved Battery Life: Staying in touch with all your friends is now far gentler on your battery.
* Support for the 5.0 OS and Storm: BeejiveIM supports all BlackBerrys running 4.2.1+ and 5.X operating systems, including the Storm and Storm 2.
From today until January 1st, a one-device license will set you back $9.95 (usually $19.95), while a swappable license will come in at $14.95 (usually $30). If you’re not ready to jump in just yet, there’s always the 30-day trial.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Apple on Tuesday afternoon won a permanent injunction against Psystar, a Florida-based Mac cloner. The ruling prohibits the startup from selling hardware hacked to run Mac OS X.
US. District Judge William Alsup issued the ruling, banning Psystar from the following:
In short, that means Psystar can no longer ship generic hardware that’s running Mac OS X. And the cloner can’t sell goods that assist consumers in creating Hackintoshes. Psystar must comply no later than Dec. 31, 2009.
However, it doesn’t spell a complete end to Psystar’s Rebel EFI software, a $50 downloadable utility that enables consumers to create Hackintoshes of their own — even though the ruling about circumvention applies to DIY solutions. Psystar argued Rebel EFI was not explicitly covered in this case and thus should not be included in the injunction. Alsup said Rebel EFI was not covered in the injunction, but the startup could continue to sell its software “at its own peril.”
“What is certain, however, is that until such a motion is brought, Psystar will be selling Rebel EFI at its peril, and risks finding itself held in contempt if its new venture falls within the scope of the injunction,” the final judgment states.
Long story short, even though Rebel EFI was not explicitly mentioned in the case, its functionality is banned by this injunction. So although technically Rebel EFI can be sold, it would be a very, very bad idea.
Psystar opened its business selling Mac clones in April 2008. Apple filed a lawsuit three months later against Psystar, alleging copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap licensing infringements.
Final Judgment [pdf] via AppleInsider via Macworld
Updated 11 a.m. PDT with clarifications regarding the ruling’s effects on Rebel EFI.
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Photo: Psystar
Section: Computers, Netbooks, Gadgets / Other, ebooks, Lifestyle
Publishing giant Hearst is set to enter the e-reader market in 2010 and will team up with Sprint to offer an e-reading service platform for mobile devices, smartphones and netbooks.
The platform, called Skiff, will provide magazine and newspaper content with “high resolution graphics, rich typography and dynamic updates.” Sprint will offer Skiff powered products at its stores and Hearst said it has also teamed up with several top consumer electronic manufacturers and with chip maker Marvell.
“Skiff signifies a new era in live content distribution-anywhere, anytime, even any size delivery of high quality text, images and graphics, all tailored to the always on demands of today’s consumers,” said Weili Dai, Marvell’s co-founder.
Skiff’s management team includes former executives from Sony, AT&T, Apple, Palm, Intel and Microsoft. No release date has been set for the devices.
A Kindle killer? Probably not. While the Skiff platform is definitely something to look forward too, it appears it will focus on digital media like magazines and newspapers rather than e-books. Hearst publishes Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, O, The Oprah Magazine, Esquire, and other popular magazines and 15 daily newspapers including the Houston Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Connecticut Post and San Francisco Chronicle. The devices will no doubt come with subscription models for each publication, and since they claim their new technology preserves layouts, it’s quite possible we’ll see ads as well.
If this new platform is a success it could inject new life into the struggling newspaper and magazine industries as it moves readers from paper to screen. 2010 should be an exciting year for digital media!
Read [PC Magazine]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Google
Just in case you have not yet had your fill of information regarding the Google Nexus One, it seems there have recently been a few more user videos offering a tease of what everyone can expect. The videos are coming courtesy of the newly created The Nexus One blog and are short, and sort of sweet. I say sort of sweet only because the first features the boot animation (something we have already seen) and they are both slightly blurry. Of course, blurry is in when dealing with videos and images of this sort. Anyway, the video also gives us a partial view of the packaging. But more importantly is the promise that there are more videos to come, not to mention the animation on the display in the second video is actually pretty neat. I am not sure what the point would really be, but it does look cool. In the meantime, while we are waiting for more, check out the videos below.
Via [The Nexus One]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
There is little doubt that electronic books have gone mainstream. The question now is, in just which direction will the market go? It’s possible that the Kindle will do what Apple and the iPod did for music, essentially owning the market. Or things could split open, with many sellers competing on an open platform. Kobo is betting on the latter.
Kobo is a rebranded Shortcovers, which sells e-books that can be read on almost any device, from Macs and PCs to the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm Pre and any e-reader that can work with EPUB-format books, such as the Barnes & Noble Nook or the Sony Reader. Notably, the Kindle is absent from the list.
Shortcovers has been selling e-books for a while, but the rebranding to Kobo marks the first serious alternative to the Kindle as a platform. Kobo has teamed up with Borders, REDgroup Retail and Instant Fame, which to you and me means that the books are available almost worldwide, in the United States, Canada, the EU, the U.K., Australia and the Asia Pacific region. In fact, Borders will be incorporating Kobo into its store later next year. Kobo is also adding 1.8 million public-domain books from the Internet Archive.
To accompany the launch, there are a slew of new applications. I tried out the new iPhone app, which is, like the Shortcovers app before it, free. You log in with your existing Shortcovers ID and from there you can browse, sample and buy books.
Apart from a name change, Kobo has some new features. Now you can browse by category, choose from a new Top-50 e-books list, New York Times bestsellers, Oprah’s book-club picks and more. The app also has recommended reading lists (right now there is a “Season’s Readings” section, and a splendid “Canadian, eh” list) and a better search function.
It’s very easy to browse, and the Kobo app puts Amazon’s rushed-out Kindle for iPhone application to shame. It’s all done with full artwork for covers, and usually you can read the first chapter of a book (although a lot of the time, you only get to read the end-matter and not any actual content). Reading books is equally elegant, and greatly cleaned-up since the original Shortcovers app. Page turning is animated and actually looks like paper pages flipping.
But when you come to make a purchase, things go slightly awry. By now, most of us are used to in-app purchases on the iPhone, so getting bounced out of Kobo and tossed into a credit card form in Safari is an annoying shock. Once you have laboriously input your details, you are sent back to the Kobo app where your book is waiting for you. It would be more convenient if Kobo took advantage of the iTunes App Store’s ability to complete purchases within the app, with billing handled by Apple.
Subsequent transactions go smoother, and you only need to input your password to buy (it still requires a round-trip to Safari, though).
This reliance on Safari is, we assume, both a way to get around Apple’s 30 percent cut and also to make the experience the same across platforms. And speaking of platforms, only the iPhone and Blackberry have the updated applications so far, with the rest “coming soon.”
Kobo is so far the best and most comprehensive service we have used to buy and read books, especially for non-U.S. residents. It is still flawed, and it is a royal pain that Kindle won’t support EPUB books. But with its platform-agnostic approach, huge catalog and new heavyweight partners, we expect to see Kobo grow fast.
In fact, I’m pretty certain that my next e-book reader will not be a Kindle.
World, Meet Kobo! [Kobo blog]
Kobo Product page [Kobo]
Kobo for iPhone [iTunes]
Section: Computers, Wireless, Gadgets / Other, Web
McDonalds and AT&T have just announced a new partnership that will soon give those choosing to dine-in free Wi-Fi. Yup, that means the days of having to pay $2.95 for two hours of access are gone. The free access is expected to take effect sometime in mid-January and will be available at roughly 11,000 of the 14,000 McDonalds locations across the US. And sadly this will most likely just encourage more people to sit and eat and leach on free Wi-Fi, and also grease up their laptops or portable devices. Not that I ever lend my laptop out, but I think I will have to add a new policy just in case the situation ever comes up, a friend can borrow it if needed but they are never allowed to eat greasy fast food at the same time they are surfing.
Read [WSJ]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
3 Things Bing Does On the iPhone ChannelWeb Microsoft's Bing search engine is now available as an iPhone app. Yes, really, the PC Guy and the Mac Guy have buried the hatchet, at least when they are mobile. Here are three cool things you can do with Bing on iPhone ... |
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Google
We have sure seen plenty of Nexus One information over the past few days, and one of the latest bits comes in the form of a trademark filing. The intent was originally filed on December 10, which ironically was just before all of the “Nexus One” hype hit the online world.
The surprising part here is that this is being filed by Google and not HTC, despite the handset being manufactured by HTC. Of course, this just further adds to my belief that we are going to see the Nexus One be released in a manner similar to the original G1 with T-Mobile and Android Developer handset that was available as an unlocked handset.
My guess is that we will see the Google Nexus One and we will also see the same handset released with T-Mobile, possibly under a different name. Either way, at least we have confirmation of a “Google Phone.” Still I am not sure that really means anything exciting, especially considering from what we have seen the Nexus One is limited to T-Mobile in terms of 3G support, and that means unlocked or not, I am not going to be popping my AT&T SIM in just to enjoy EDGE speeds.
Via [AndroidOS.in]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Isa Dick Hackett, daughter of the paranoid science fiction genius Philip K Dick, isn’t happy about the new Googlephone. The still unofficial handset may or may not be called the Nexus One, but Isa is already “shocked and dismayed” about intellectual property infringement, according to the New York Times: Roy Baty and his replicant cohorts in Dock’s novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep were all Nexus-6 models.
This is utter nonsense, of course, but the fact that PKD’s daughter is taking legal counsel about the naming of a still non-existent product certainly has a fitting irony. The word “nexus” existed before the Voight-Kampff test was even imagined. Here is the definition from the New Oxford American dictionary: “a connection or series of connections linking two or more things.” The origin of the word the 17th century. It is also a Dark Horse comic book.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Hackett did actually manage to make a case, though, and further leech money from her father’s legacy. Motorola licensed the name “droid” from Lucasfilm to avoid legal troubles, although in that case the shortening of the word “android” could actually originate in Star Wars. Hackett is rather more sure of things than her father ever was. “In my mind, there is a very obvious connection to my father’s novel” she told the New York Times.
What can we take away from this? First, clearly, that copyright lengths should be reduced (PKD died in 1982, 27 years ago). And second, that the Googlephone will almost certainly be called the Nexus One. The name has been used by Google in a United States Patent and Trademark Office filing, and by the handset’s manufacturer, HTC, in an FCC filing.
For those seeking some Dickian fun, go back to our original post about the Google Nexus and spot the PKD reference we dropped in.
Is the Google Phone an Unauthorized Replicant? [NYT]
Electric Sheep photo: zymil/Flickr
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Section: Communications, Cellular Providers
No one likes hearing AT&T, infamous for poor service in business/tech hubs like New York and San Francisco, suggest that they might put data caps on its users. That’s why it’s no surprise that some angered AT&T subscribers are organizing a revolt to bring down the network.
Fake Steve Jobs and a group of Facebook users are promoting “Operation Chokehold,” an effort to have AT&T subscribers use their data connection Friday, December 18, at noon PST. The group believes that mass downloading could disrupt AT&T’s data network and remind the carrier to focus on improving its network rather than try to charge customers more for data usage.
Subject: Operation Chokehold
On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!
Sounds ambitious, but I doubt this will actually work. The Chokeholders will need some serious numbers to overwhelm the network, especially considering that a beefed up AT&T withstood the massive increase in data usage during President Obama’s inauguration. It’s unlikely that a few upset Facebook members will really manage to make AT&T’s data network any more vulnerable than it typically is during lunch time on a Friday afternoon.
Read [FakeSteve.net] via Facebook Group
Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Americans love gadgets and hate housework. Not surprisingly, Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, has become a hit among consumers.
Now, a new home robot promises to offer some competition to iRobot’s Roomba.
Meet Neato, a vacuum cleaner that at the push of a button sucks up dirt and dust from floors and carpets quickly and efficiently. Neato has a “Room Positioning System” that lets the robot use laser vision to map your entire floor space and avoid most obstacles that systems like Roomba can only detect by impact.
Though millions of vacuum cleaners are sold in the United States every year, a very small percentage of them are robotic vacuums. IRobot has been the only company to offer a robotic cleaner that can pick up dirt without requiring someone to push it around.
IRobot introduced the first Roomba automated vacuum cleaner in 2002. Since then, the company has sold more than 3 million Roombas and the gadget has become a big hit among technophiles looking for a quick fix to daily chores. In 2005, iRobot launched a robotic floor mop called Scooba.
Despite a passionate community of users, Roomba has faced a few criticisms. The gadget uses a randomized algorithm to clean a room, which has led to complaints that it doesn’t always cover an area completely. Roomba has also suffered from a small bin that limits how much it can clean on a single battery charge. That also limits its ability to clean multiple rooms.
Neato can solve some of those problems, says the company, because it is smarter. The device has a mapping technology that allows it to get a 360-degree view of a room. When first powered up, Neato maps the details of the room such as the walls, furniture and doorways within a 4-meter range.
So instead of the zigzag pattern that the Roomba uses, the Neato cleans in a precise back-and-forth movement.
But like the Roomba, the Neato can work with both hardwood floors and carpets. Users can also schedule Neato to clean. The robot will automatically return to its docking station once it completes a cleaning cycle or if it needs to recharge its batteries.
The D-shaped Neato also has a low profile — it is about 4 inches high — so it can slide under beds, couches and other crevices easily.
But unlike the Roomba, the Neato comes in only one flavor and a single price tag. The Neato costs $400, while the cheapest version of the Roomba is $130. The Neato will start shipping in February.
See Also:
Photo: Neato Robotics
Google is expected to sell the Nexus One Googlephone direct from its site in “early January”. If a semi-secret countdown displayed in huge letters on the Google.com homepage is any kind of hint, then “early January” could mean January 1st 2010.
To see the mystery countdown, go to Google.com and, without entering a query, hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button (see, it is still good for something). Up will pop a countdown, currently at around 1,335,200. It appears to be ticking away the seconds, and it will hit zero in just under 15.5 days, which is January 1st, 2010.
Of course, it could just be a countdown to the New Year, but as Google has a habit of advertising some of its biggest products (the G1 handset, for example) on the front page of Google.com, it could also be the Nexus One. It would also continue Google’s annoying habit of making big product announcements on weekends and holidays, the times that tech bloggers traditionally are too drunk to write.
Mystery page [Google]
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What do you do if you are an aging (but still awesome) psychedelic rocker and you’re having trouble reading the small type on your iPhone’s address book? If you are Lou Reed, you design and release your very own text-zooming app on the iTunes App Store.
The app is called “Lou Zoom” and the tagline is “Lou Reed brings style and clarity to your contacts”. It costs $2, and of course I bought it immediately.
Lou Zoom doesn’t just make things easier to read, although it does do that — each name is blown-up to use the full width of the screen. When you tap a contact (found by scrolling or by typing any part of a name into the search bar) you flip to a new screen which shows three sections: name, number and e-mail address. If there is more than one of any of these you can scroll that section, and only that section, sideways to read the others. You can even edit contacts from within the application.
I already love Lou Zoom, and not just because it has Lou Reed behind it. It’s actually a lot nicer to use than Apple’s contacts application. We should get one thing straight, though. Lou Reed didn’t do the actual programming for Lou Zoom. That part was done by Chicago-based tinkerer Ben Syverson, who is also responsible for the excellent Catchlight application which allows you to use your iPhone as a color-matched light-source for photography. But Lou and Ben did work together on the design. Amazing, and Reed’s best collaboration since Songs for Drella.
Lou Zoom [iTunes]
Lou Zoom product page [Lou Reed]
A new design wants to give your bike the abilities of a hybrid car, a frequent-flyer program, a gym and a networked navigation device, all by simply swapping out the back wheel.
The Copenhagen Wheel bolts on to any bike and adds a slew of new functions. First is the energy regenerator, which stores energy normally lost when braking and keeps it ready for when you need a power boost. Inside the same sleek hub you’ll find a torque meter, a Bluetooth radio, a three-speed hub-gear, a GPRS connection and pollution sensors.
What on earth is all this for? The answer appears when you take out your iPhone. The phone acts as a controller for all the electronics, and working in concert they will tell you the traffic and air conditions, act as a cyclocomputer by counting calories burned and miles traveled. And the frequent-flyer scheme? Instead of air-miles, you’ll earn bike-kilometers (or green miles, as they are smugly referred to on the video). We assume these will be redeemable for wholegrain organic foods and the like.
The Copenhagen Wheel was designed by a team at MIT and is not yet available to buy. When it is, we doubt that such a visually and literally heavy device will be seen on the fixed-gear bike in the video — with hub-gears it is much more suited to the Dutch city bike. And one more thing about that video. Just who thought it was a good idea to ride cobbled streets on a fixed? Don’t you want to have children?
The Copenhagen Wheel [Senseable/MIT]
As a connoisseur (read: obsessive collector) of bags, I have discovered the ingredients of the perfect design. The problem is, I have no idea of the recipe with which they should be mixed together. Taken on their rather strong product releases over the past few months, it seems the folks at Booq have been taste-testing bag designs and have come up with some pretty scrumptious results.
The perfect bag should be comfortable to carry (and lightweight), have pockets, nooks and crannies which organize your gear and give easy, fast access, and it should be big enough to squeeze in more than you thought you could. And of course, it should look hot.
The Mamba Shift reminds me more than a little of the Kata 3N1 line, a camera bag that is almost perfect. Like the Kata, the Mamba Shift is a backpack with a combination of cavernous interior and many, many pockets in which to squirrel away your various devices. The Booq bag also has a padded laptop sleeve, a pair of pop-open pockets on the shoulder-straps which hold phones and MP3 players and a removable wallet for, well, anything. And lest you worry about a sweaty back, the Mamba has a breathable mesh layer to let the air in and the perspiration out.
The spec-sheet isn’t the only top-end feature, either. The bag costs a hefty but not over-the-top $150. Available now.
Mamba Shift product page [Booq. Thanks, Brad!]
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![Screen shot 2009-12-17 at [ December 17 ] 1.00.35 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-17-at-December-17-1.00.35-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-12-17 at [ December 17 ] 1.00.35 AM")
Most of the tech world now considers it a given that Google will be selling its own unlocked phone, called the 
Back in March 2009 a trio of MySpace execs -COO 
Gravity allows people to create conversations around topics. The service will be available on the Gravity website as well as via widgets and an API (we’re talking to them about adding a Gravity conversation to each record on 
And they’re thinking about the decay rate of interests, too. You may be very interested in cars right now, but next month after you buy the new Honda you may not have the same level of interest. They’re able to see how engaged you are on certain topics, and how that maps statistically to what others are doing. That helps them build out a very interesting profile of who you are, and who you may be in the future.
Two weeks ago we wrote about the 
Specs: