Are you going to see Avatar this weekend?

Source: Gizmodo | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:40 pm

Game Boy hacked into a TI-83. That is all

It’s one of those mods just for modding’s sake, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome. Can you imagine rocking this thing in Math class? I mean, I got by with Drug War, Cave, and racing game that was pretty much Cave: Vertical Edition. If I’d had Link’s Awakening or Pokemon up in there… well, I would have played a lot less cards.

As a side note, I love that hackers like this guy are capable of complicated hardware transplants, but can’t seem to build a tripod.

[via The Daily What and Technabob]

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:30 pm

GOP Link Shortener Aims to Prank the Pranksters

Republicans caught up in a link battle with liberals may yet have the last laugh.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:30 pm

Psystar Not Closing Up Shop

Despite several sources reporting that post-indefinite-injunction Psystar was closing their doors for good, the company's lawyer is claiming Psystar plans on going forward with PC sales — they just won't be pre-loaded with Apple's OS X. Psystar plans on selling systems pre-loaded with "other operating systems," including Windows, as well as selling their "Rebel EFI software" that allows consumers to load OS X on generic PCs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Gizmodo | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:20 pm

Black Tattoo Art: Modern Expressions of the Tribal

Edition Reuss recently released Black Tattoo Art: Modern Expressions of the Tribal, a photographic homage to a particular genre of skin art. The book is curated by Marisa Kakoulas (lawyer, writer,...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:16 pm

Black Tattoo Art: Modern Expressions of the Tribal

Edition Reuss recently released Black Tattoo Art: Modern Expressions of the Tribal, a photographic homage to a particular genre of skin art. The book is curated by Marisa Kakoulas (lawyer, writer, circus lady, and blogger.) Above and after the jump, Boing Boing's exclusive peek at some of the hundreds of striking, full-page images you'll find inside.

The 536-page hardcover includes work by tattoo artists from Borneo, Argentina, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Europe and North America. The book weighs nearly ten pounds, and the binding is stitched with silver embossing. It's fat, heavy, and gorgeous.

"There has never before been a book on this style of tattooing in English," Marisa told Boing Boing over email. "The style is called 'blackwork,' where the artists are limited to one color and so they have to stretch their imagination in terms of design elements to create original works, rather than having a palette of colors and shading techniques to chose from as in other styles of tattooing."

Some of the photos we selected to share on Boing Boing also include the use of a single additional color.

Black Tattoo Art examines how indigenous tattooing has evolved over the years, beginning with a history section, then each of the styles that originate in tribal arts.

Lots more photos from the book after the jump. NSFW-ish warning: one of them is a human hiney.

I've seen a lot of black tats on friends' bodies in my time, but the 'Art Brut' chapter was new to me. "Popularized in France and Belgium, this style takes street art and harmonizes those aesthetics with the body -- a key element in tribal tattooing," explained Marisa. "It's a completely new tattoo style that has never been curated into any volume before until now."

Interviews in the book include Leo Zulueta, the "godfather of tribal tattooing," who popularized the NeoTribal tattoo movement. Another interesting profile in this book: Peter Schachner, who was imprisoned in Thailand in the early 1990s. There, he learned the hand-craft of Thai tattooing from fellow inmates during four years spent at Lard Yao prison.

The book also devotes an entire chapter to the use of stippling techniques, which resemble pointillism.

If you have tats like this, or know and love someone who does, I can think of no finer holiday gift. Except maybe more tats.

Amazon Link / Publisher's Link. Photographers include Sean Toussaint, Lars Krutak and Craig Burton.

Source: Gizmodo | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:08 pm

Google in talks to buy review site Yelp: reports (Reuters)

Reuters - Google Inc is in talks to buy Yelp Inc, the popular website for reviews of local businesses, in a deal that could help the Internet search leader tap a lucrative local ads market, media reports say.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:08 pm

Google in talks to buy review site Yelp: reports

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is in talks to buy Yelp Inc, the popular website for reviews of local businesses, in a deal that could help the Internet search leader tap a lucrative...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:08 pm

UPDATE 2-Google in talks to buy review site Yelp - reports

* Not the first time Google and Yelp have talked - source (Adds Yelp comment)
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:05 pm

Hard Questions for the Broadband Stimulus Program

The government is spending $7.2 billion to bring broadband to underserved and unserved Americans as part of the stimulus bill. However, the first grant allocations raise several questions about missing...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:05 pm

Online publishing of women's abortion records challenged in Oklahoma

A judge in Oklahoma has temporarily blocked on a new law that would post details online about every woman who gets an abortion in the state.
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:04 pm

Online publishing of women's abortion records challenged in Oklahoma

A judge in Oklahoma has temporarily blocked on a new law that would post details online about every woman who gets an abortion in the state.


Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:04 pm

Rummble Sends In Local Heroes Against Foursquare's Mayors

Rummble, the location-based social ratings mobile startup, has just released a new version of its iPhone app containing what is effectively its answer to Foursquare. The feature is called "Local Heroes"...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:02 pm

Rummble Sends In Local Heroes Against Foursquare’s Mayors

Rummble, the location-based social ratings mobile startup, has just released a new version of its iPhone app containing what is effectively its answer to Foursquare.

The feature is called “Local Heroes” and is billed as “the fun side of Rummbling” but it is quite obviously going to be Rumbble’s way of attacking the buzz surrounding the game of checking-in and becoming a “Mayor” of a location as propogated by the New York-based Foursquare. Local Heroes is a feature listed under “Empire” which suggests that there will be yet more gaming elements introduced.

Rummble has until now relied on its users to create content about places they visit and rate their friends’ ability to do so – what it calls the Rummble trust network. But clearly that’s not quite enough in the face of big players like Qype, dominant in Europe for local reviews, and Yelp in the U.S.

So Rummble is entering the social location gaming pushed by the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:02 pm

Microsoft Licenses Flight Simulator Technology To Flight1

On the heels of the whole Plurk fiasco, Microsoft has struck a deal to license its visual simulation technology to Flight1 Aviation Technologies, According to a release, Microsoft will be licensing its...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Microsoft Licenses Flight Simulator Technology To Flight1

On the heels of the whole Plurk fiasco, Microsoft has struck a deal to license its visual simulation technology to Flight1 Aviation Technologies, According to a release, Microsoft will be licensing its ESP v1.0 object code, which will let the flight technology company create detailed, customized flight safety, flight training and strategic solutions for its customers.

Microsoft’s ESP, which is a visual simulation software platform, lets users simulate being in various types of vehicles and modes of transport, letting users feel like they are operating the vehicles. Flight1 Tech will use the technology to create visual simulations to help train users to fly planes.

Microsoft also recently licensed its ESP technology to Lockheed Martin, to help train warfighters in battle. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that its Flight Simulator studio was being shut down but it was unclear what the future of the technology would be. It looks like Microsoft will continue to monetize by licensing the technology.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

DECAF, the anti-Microsoft COFEE, pulled. It was a stunt designed to rally y’all.

Ladies and gentlemen: we were worked. The other I mentioned DECAF, which was promoted as the anti Microsoft-COFEE. While I still don’t understand people’s fascination with the forensics tool, DECAF promised to protect users against whatever the hell COFEE does. Only it doesn’t: DECAF is a scam. Well, “scam” is a harsh word, more like “and let this be a lesson to you.” I believe those are called “teachable moments” in politics circles these days. (See: that beer summit from a few months back.)

Anyhow, here’s what’s up: the people behind DECAF created the software in order to raise awareness vis-a-vis security. The idea was to get DECAF out there, stir up some media hype (hi!), then WAM! you with the real deal.

Basically, the DECAF guys want you to help. They want want you to help bring awareness to the vast field of security and forensics.

DECAF was put together by two people, and yet the idea (an “anti-COFEE”) ricocheted around the Internet. If you can tap into the people who believed in DECAF and tun their energies into something constructive and positive, then all of this would have been worth it.

via Seattle P-I’s Mircosoft Blog

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm

Browser Pong

Browser Pong (via Laughing Squid).


Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:59 pm

Open House? Google Has Also Been Eying Trulia in Real Estate Search Play. [BoomTown]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia, the real estate search engine.

It is unclear what price Google (GOOG) would pay, but sources estimate that Trulia’s valuation ranges between $150 million and $200 million, although there could be a big premium on that.

Rumors about Google’s interest in the real estate search market–and specifically in Trulia–have been rebounding around Silicon Valley for the last year.

But Google has pulled the trigger on a number of acquisitions of innovative start-ups recently and, sources said, will continue to do so.

Trulia–which is based in San Francisco and allows people to search for a range of data about homes for sale in particular zip codes or cities nationwide–is one of the more obvious candidates for the search giant’s local and mobile efforts.

Its business and that of its competitors–which is largely based on advertising and lead-generation–has been growing quickly, despite the economic downturn in housing.

More interestingly, Trulia is deeply integrated into Google Maps, an arena the company recently targeted for growth with a series of announcements about new search features.

Trulia has raised about $33 million since 2005, with investors that include high-profile Silicon Valley venture firms Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Interestingly, Accel and Sequoia recently made bank when Google bought AdMob for $750 million.

Trulia’s clearest competitor is the larger Zillow, located in the Seattle area. But, sources said, Google is more interested in Trulia, given its location in the Bay area and lower valuation.

Zillow has raised about $87 million from Benchmark Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, PAR Capital Management and Legg Mason.

Redfin, another Seattle-based rival, has raised about $31 million from its own well-known collection of VCs.

This week, Google’s interest in Yelp, the local review site, also became public, in a deal that could cost upward of $600 million.

It is all part of a buying spree that Google has engaged in of late, with six acquisitions costing $1 billion so far.

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:51 pm

Report: Psystar closes up shop - CNET News

DailyTech

Report: Psystar closes up shop CNET News After being ordered by a federal judge on Tuesday to stop selling its Mac clones, Psystar's Web site is now inaccessible. Dow Jones Newswires is reporting that the company is going out of business. Psystar attorney Eugene Action told Dow ... Contrary to report, Psystar not shutting down, lawyer saysComputerworld Unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar throws in the towelApple Insider Psystar Officially Throws In The Towel, Shutting DownThe Mac Observer Register -TG Daily -InternetNews.com all 108 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:49 pm

Verizon defends its ETF hike - CNET News

TFTS (blog)

Verizon defends its ETF hike CNET News Verizon claims that the ETF allows the company to offer the phones at lower upfront prices and to reduce its losses if the customers do break their contracts early. Even with such a fee increase, Verizon claims it would still be losing ... Verizon: $350 Early Termination Fee Covers More Than PhonesPC World Verizon: ETF Policies Protect CustomersPC Magazine Verizon Cites Cost for New FeeWall Street Journal The Associated Press -BetaNews -The Money Times all 145 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:48 pm

Mario made with genetically engineered bacteria

A team of nanobiology students from the University of Osaka made this beautiful fluorescent image of Mario using genetically engineered bacteria. It's one among a whole series of cool microbial art they created in a petri dish by manipulating proteins and pigments.

Team Osaka [via New Scientist]


Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:38 pm

Dictionary.com’s iPhone App Agent X Word Helps You Solve Crossword Puzzles On The Go

If you enjoy crossword puzzles, you are going to love Dictionary.com’s new iPhone app, Agent X Word. The app, which is $2.99 in the App Store, is the ultimate crossword solver. The new app leverages Dictionary.com’s proprietary natural-language technology and semantic search capabilities to provide an actual answer (or up to three hints if you just need a little help).

Agent X Word will provide more than two million hints and answers for over 30,000 crossword puzzles updated daily and claims to understand pop culture and current events. The app will offer definitions and synonyms for answers as well as other features such as recent search history and the ability to email answers to yourself or others. If you aren’t sure you want the answer revealed, the app can provide up to three hints per clue, to help you solve the puzzle yourself.

Dictionary.com’s free iPhone app, which launched in April, has been downloaded more than four million times. The app lets you look up definitions and synonyms from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, reaching into a database of more than 275,000 definitions and 80,000 synonyms. The app also features audio pronunciations, similarly spelled words and Word of the Day. The company also recently launched a BlackBerry App and released its API to partners to incorporate into various applications, including e-books.

Dictionary.com was bought by IAC-run Ask.com in July of 2008 when the conglomerate bought Lexico, the operator of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:29 pm

Operation Chokehold Fails as it Succeeds (and Vice Versa) (PC World)

PC World - Operation Chokehold, the coordinated attack on AT&T's wireless network, was both a success and failure on Friday. The success was in further highlighting the complaints of iPhone users against the carrier; the failure was that it didn't appear to have much effect on the AT&T network.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:25 pm

Friday News Feedbag for December 18th, 2009

If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and chat ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:20 pm

Bank Card Hacker 'Will Never Commit Any Crime Again'

Friends and family of TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez say his turn as a Secret Service informant led him down a dark path of obsession that culminated in the largest identity-theft spree in history.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:13 pm

AT&T Investment Delivers Improved Wireless Network Experience in Hawaii

HONOLULU, Dec.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:07 pm

AT&T Investment Delivers Improved Wireless Network Experience in Spokane Area

Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:54 pm

Hackers Briefly Bring Down Twitter [Voices]

By Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Internet-messaging service Twitter Inc. was hit by a cyber attack Thursday night that temporarily steered visitors to a Web site with an anti-American message from a group calling itself the “Iranian Cyber Army.”

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a blog post Friday that the San Francisco company’s site was “hijacked” and 80 percent of traffic to Twitter.com was redirected between 9:46 p.m. PST and 11 p.m. PST Thursday. Twitter was operating normally Friday.

During the attack, Twitter’s home page was replaced with a Web site with a black background and a green flag, according to two people who saw it. The site’s headline read, “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:52 pm

Merkel: Mixed feelings about Copenhagen outcome

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she has "mixed feelings" about the outcome of the Copenhagen climate conference. President Barack Obama says the United States, China and several...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:48 pm

The five legal cases that defined the year in music (Reuters)

Reuters - Almost a decade after the major labels launched their legal assault on Napster, courts are still writing the rules of the road for the music business's digital future.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:41 pm

Canaan Makes A Deja Vu Investment In Indian Used Cars [Voices]

By Ty McMahan, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Emerging markets like India are still catching up to U.S. consumers’ comfort level with buying cars through online marketplaces like eBay (EBAY) and AutoTrader.

“I don’t think India is ready for that,” Canaan General Partner Deepak Kamra said.

But the firm believes it won’t be long before some of the Internet-bubble breakout businesses that found traction in the U.S. years ago, do the same in India. That bet has led Canaan to invest in MotorExchange, a New Delhi-based online dealer-to-dealer marketplace for used cars.

“We figure India is probably 10 years behind the U.S., but given its growth and a trend of upgrading from scooters to four wheels we believe there’s a lot of opportunity in used cars,” Kamra said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:40 pm

UPDATE 3-Kraft seeks OK for share sale in Cadbury deal

* Investors to vote on stock issue tied to Cadbury offer (Adds share price details, context on deal)
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:38 pm

Quicktime Vets Bring Mobile Video And Photo Sharing With Thwapr (Beta Launch)

Sharing videos on the Web is easy: Upload to YouTube or Facebook, send out a link. Sharing videos on mobile phones is still a pain. The iPhone tries to make it easier by letting you upload directly to YouTube, but what if you want to share a video privately? Sending videos between phones is cumbersome. A new service that just launched in beta called Thwapr seeks to solve this problem by letting you simply uploading videos from your phone to the Web and then texting or emailing a link to your friends.

Thwapr already works with 165 phones, from iPhones and Androids to Blackberries and Samsungs. After you sign up, you can email your photos or videos to Thwapr, and then share them from there to any mobile phone that supports links in text messages. As you add contacts to Thwapr, you can select them by name. The recipients get a text message with a link which opens up their mobile browser and takes them to Thwapr’s mobile website. They can see the shared photo or video and “Thwap” back a response, creating a conversation around the image. Each mobile video needs to be 20 MB or less for now.

Videos are delivered a variety of ways based on the type of phone the viewer is using. On the iPhone, they come as progressive downloads which open up in the Quicktime player. Other phones support streaming video. Older Blaackberries would get the video as a file download, and Thwapr can even deliver videos as rough animated gif images for phones which can’t handle anything else. Thwapr’s CTO Eric Hoffert worked on the original Quicktime team at Apple, as did COO Duncan Kennedy. Now they want to open up new video experiences on mobile phones.

Thwapr is meant for private sharing, but a public sharing option is in the works. And while Thwapr is launching via the mobile browser, the company is putting the finishing touches on an iPhone app, and has plans for Android, Blackberry, and other apps as well. the apps will remove the two-step process of having to send a video or photo via email and then open up the browser to manage to sharing options. The apps will also tie in directly to your phone’s address book, and take advantage of notifications.

Thwapr is really built for video. Hoffert considers it to be a type of image communications system which is an improvement on MMS. “With MMS,” he says, “the experience ends with the delivery of the picture. With Thwapr, we are trying to show that the experience begins with the delivery of the picture.” The picture or video is supposed to spark a conversation. Other startups, such as Tiny Pictures (which was acquired by Shutterfly), have followed this road before through dedicated apps. Perhaps Thwapr will have more luck taking an open Web approach.

The company was founded in 2007, and is funded with more than $2 million from angel investors. Thwapr plans to eventually charge for premium accounts (more storage, more Thwaps/month), geo-targeted mobile display or video ads, and possible sponsored Thwaps for movie trailers, music videos, and brand advertising.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:38 pm

Sales of music video games plummet in 2009

The music-game category raked in $1.4 billion in revenue last year, according to Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, driven largely by sales of "Rock Band 2" and "Guitar Hero
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:36 pm

Sales of music video games plummet in 2009 (Reuters)

Reuters - What a difference a year makes.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:36 pm

'Unprecedented' Deal Emerges from Climate Summit

The Obama administration claims to have reached a breakthrough in climate talks with world leaders.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:35 pm

Dark Liquor Makes for Worse Hangovers

Scientists find that bourbon drinkers have nastier hangovers than vodka drinkers.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:30 pm

Skype, Kazaa Founders Beta-Launch Rdio Streaming App

The guys who brought you Skype and Kazaa think they can convince music fans to spend a few dollars each month on an unlimited music-subscription service. The odds are stacked against them, but it would be unwise to bet against the guys who created the world's busiest phone-calling service.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:30 pm

Bugs and Fixes: Zero-Day Patch for Internet Explorer 6 or 7 (PC World)

PC World - A dangerous vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 became publicly known before a fix was available, raising the specter of a high-risk zero-day attack.The bug involves the way IE handles Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) objects, and could let an attacker run any command on a targeted Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, or Server 2008 PC.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:30 pm

MidemNet Lab Unveils 15 Innovative Digital Start-Ups

Awdio, Songkick, Streamjam), digital licensing of sheet music and lyrics (DigiClef, TuneWiki), artist management (BandCentral), managing key data for artists (Band Metrics), digital distribution (Pops Worldwide), web radio (Radionomy), remixing (Aviary, GoMix and Tracksandfields), musical discovery (Thesixtyone), artistic financing (Kickstarter) and on-line advertising (Silence Media
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:24 pm

Will the Mobile Web Kill Off the App Store? - Wired News

Pocket-lint.com

Will the Mobile Web Kill Off the App Store? Wired News The debate over the longevity of native software continues. Mozilla, creator of Firefox, claims that its new browser for smartphones will contribute to the death of smartphone app stores. Scheduled to begin appearing on devices at the ... Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 moves ahead, but more work to be doneBetaNews Mozilla Rolls out Latest Firefox BetaPC World 3 Reasons Mozilla's New Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 Is A WinnerChannelWeb Register -CNET News -GeekSmack all 106 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:23 pm

Mandatory Use of Open Standards In Hungary

qpeter writes "Hungarian Parliament has made the use of open standards mandatory by law in the intercommunication between public administration offices, public utility companies, citizens and voluntarily joining private companies, conducted via the central governmental system. The Open Standards Alliance initiating the amendment aims to promote the spread of monopoly-free markets that foster the development of interchangeable and interoperable products generated by open standards, and, consequently, broad competition markets, regardless of whether the IT systems of interconnecting organizations and individuals use open or closed source software. In the near future, in spite of EU tendencies the Alliance seeks to make its approach – interoperability based on publicly defined open standards – the EU norm under the Hungarian presidency of the European Union in 2011. To that end, it will promote public collaboration – possibly between every interested party, civil and political organization in the European Union. What do you think: what would be the best way to cooperate?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:20 pm

Confusing Interface Mars Samsung's Slick Android Phone

Another Android phone, another superfluous skin applied to an otherwise clean operating system. The perpetrator this time? Samsung's Behold II.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:13 pm

Confusing Interface Mars Samsung's Slick Android Phone

Another Android phone, another superfluous skin applied to an otherwise clean operating system. The perpetrator this time? Samsung's Behold II.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:13 pm

Yahoo’s 2010 Turn-Around Strategy Revealed: A Cycling Team

Oh, Yahoo.

Revenues are down. Search share is down. The social stuff has been outsourced to Facebook. The search stuff is about to be outsourced to Bing. Things are not exactly on the up and up. Not even just one “up.” But it would appear that Yahoo is not one to let grim news stand in the way of its latest ridiculous endeavor: Starting a cycling team.

Yes, in 2010, the company will officially launch the Yahoo! Cycling Team. CyclingNews.com has more details, including that they’ve hired a former professional rider, Kevin Klein, to not only run the team, but to deliver a “successful business model” out of the thing. But here’s the best part:

“The whole idea behind the Yahoo! Cycling Team is the recruitment of high tech professionals in the Silicon Valley and to provide a platform for partners to achieve more involvement at the community level. If you do it right, everyone should win and grow their business,” Klein tells CyclingNews.

Um, what? I cannot for the life of me figure out what he’s actually saying. This team is about recruiting high tech professionals? To ride bikes? It’s a platform? Community? I’m surprised he didn’t throw “geolocation” or “realtime” in there to meet a buzzword quota.

Actually, maybe even better is that Yahoo apparently went ahead with this idea based on a survey. “An online survey targeted at Silicon Valley Professionals revealed that an astonishing 50 percent are cycling enthusiasts and follow the local scene. The results were presented to the Yahoo! Management, the internet services company which operates the third most-visited website in the world, and prompted it to come onboard as the main partner to launch America’s newest team in 2010: Yahoo! Cycling Team,” CyclingNews reports.

Ahh, so this is all about pleasing that huge, but under-represented cycling contingent in Silicon Valley. It’s good to know that Yahoo’s management is weighing all their options to make 2010 the year that Yahoo storms back.

But what I most want to know is, if the team fails to deliver four races in, will Yahoo outsource the sponsorship to Facebook or Bing?

Here’s the website Yahoo will be launching for the team early next year. And they already have a Twitter page.

Why is Yahoo spending money on this again?

[image via]

[thanks Andreas]

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:10 pm

Nook Shipments Pushed Back Again? Nearly Impossible To Cancel Orders?

We just got a troubling tip from a concerned Nook buyer. I say buyer because he still hasn't received his Nook. He ordered the Barnes & Noble ebook reader on November 12 and the device was originally supposed to ship on November 30th. But you may recall that date was pushed back to December 11th Frustrated by the delay, he successfully completed the cancellation process on BN.com only to get an email several hours later that stated his order cannot be canceled because it "has entered the shipping process" even though according to B&N's own website, the Nook will not ship for another three days. Now that's some bull.

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:08 pm

Create a Custom Map of Your Favorite Locales

Creating custom maps is as easy as loading an online map and starting to plot away. In this example, Adam Duvander uses Google Maps to highlights all the coffee shops in a Portland, Oregon, neighborhood.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm

Video game watchdog shuts down, victim of economy (AP)

AP - David Walsh said when he was assembling his first report card on video game violence 13 years ago, children were attacking on-screen monsters or aliens with imaginary chain saws and guns.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:42 pm

Verizon Wireless to FCC: smart phones more costly (AP)

AP - Verizon Wireless said Friday that it doubled the fees for customers to break service contracts for smart phones because those devices cost much more.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:42 pm

Windows Mobile Losing Ground as Competitors Grow (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - Is the end in sight for Windows Mobile? A number of recent surveys show that market penetration for Microsoft's mobile platform is stagnant, even as support for Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's BlackBerry, and mobile devices based on Google's Android are growing by leaps and bounds.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:39 pm

Google's Android Invasion: Prepare For Phase 2 - PC World

guardian.co.uk (blog)

Google's Android Invasion: Prepare For Phase 2 PC World Google's Android operating system has plenty to celebrate this holiday season -- and now, a new trio of studies suggests the platform is poised for even more success in 2010. First up: consumer interest. A study released by ComScore this week finds ... The Fall of the iPhone?Benzinga iPhone bests Windows Mobile in US marketV3.co.uk iPod touch users slow to upgrade mobile OS - studyApple Insider Gamasutra (blog) -CIO Today -News Trends all 177 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:38 pm

First Look At Latest Ion-Infused Asus Eee PC

MojoKid writes "Atom-based netbooks have come a long way since they were first introduced. 7 and 8-inch netbooks are no longer the norm, and availability of 12-inch netbooks is on the rise. The newest member of the Asus Eee PC lineup is the Eee PC 1201N, and it really stands out in the crowd of netbook in terms of specifications. The machine features a 12.1" HD display, new dual-core Atom 330 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium, an HDMI output and NVIDIA's Ion chipset with integrated GPU. HotHardware was able to demo the system's ability to handle more advanced benchmarks, thanks in part to the Ion GPU. It's also the first netbook they tested that could actually play older 3D titles respectably. You won't get Crysis running but lighter duty titles can be played back nicely if you tone the details down and lower the resolution. The 1201N also played back 720p and 1080p content without stuttering, and the dual-core CPU allowed enough headroom to multitask while videos were playing."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:31 pm

Mobile Phone Cancellation Fees Help the Poor, Verizon Tells Feds

Verizon defends the hefty fees it charges customers to break their contracts, saying it helps the poor buy smartphones. But critics say the fees are out-of-line given the company's huge profit margins.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:24 pm

AT&T Investment Delivers Improved Wireless Network Experience in Salem Area

SALEM, Ore., Dec.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:20 pm

Rackspace Goes Down. Again. Takes The Internet With It. Again.

Another day, another Rackspace outage. The hosting company had a complete and total failure today that took down a number of big sites on the Internet, including ours. This has been happening all too often in recent months, including downtime just last month.

The failure apparently originated in the company’s Dallas-area server farm. But unlike previous times, this does not appear to be a power issue, the company says. Some other sites that are currently affected include: 37signals, Brizzly, Scoble’s blog, all of the sites hosted by Laughing Squid, Tumblr custom domains, and many others.

This is another black eye for the company, though they are generally responsive with other issues we’ve had throughout our time with them. But until they can prove to be more reliable, we’ve decided to get a backup version of TechCrunch up and running at another datacenter, for when someone inevitably trips over a power cord at the Dallas Rackspace center again.

Here’s a few updates from the company:

As of 3:45 PM CST, we are currently experiencing an issue within our Dallas / Fort Worth data center.  We are investigating the issue and will post an update momentarily.

UPDATE: As of 3:55 PM CST, to clarify: This is a networking issue affecting Cloud Sites in our DFW data center.

UPDATE: As of 4:05 PM CST, networking engineers are quickly working to address this issue.  We should have a resolution shortly.

UPDATE: As of 4:14 PM CST, another point of clarification: This is not a power issue in DFW, all power is confirmed up and has not been down.  This is a networking issue.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:17 pm

Darker Liquor Makes You Sicker

Before heading out to that holiday party this weekend, consider carefully how you pick your poison.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:15 pm

So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of December 13, 2009

Section:

Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week?  Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!

• There’s almost an app for that: Android hits 20,000 apps - does celebratory robot dance
  ” Apps are the hit of 2009.  Possessing the ability to turn your mobile device into anything from a gaming system to a GPS navigation device to a wine connoisseur, apps are everything to a phone OS. …” MORE »
• First picture “tweeted” of the Google Phone in the wild
  ” It was only a matter of time. It’s amazing how powerful the internet is. We went from only rumors of this phone yesterday, to knowing many details, a name, and now have pictures of it in the wild today. Who knows…” MORE »
• Google announces their very own URL shortener
  ” Google has now added a new feature to its arsenal of services. This time it’s their very own URL shortener, Goo.gl. However, for now, the service is not stand alone and will require you to use Feedburner and Google Toolbar in order…” MORE »
• The Google Phone has a name!
  ” The Google Phone that has surfaced on technology sites across the web, including our own, has been given a name. The name is confirmed to be the Nexus One, which makes me hope that this isn’t a one time deal.  Some…” MORE »
• Gadgetell Hands On: Palm Pixi
  “Recently, we got the chance to play with the Palm Pixi, Palm’s second webOS smartphone.  The phone is currently offered on the Sprint network, though recent FCC filings suggest a Verizon model is also in the works.  The phone sells for $99 with a two year contract…” MORE »
• Rumor: Google Nexus One to be available on January 5, 2010
  ” Honestly there is not much on this latest bit to surface in regards to the Nexus One, but Reuters is reporting that the Nexus One will be available for anyone and everyone to purchase “directly though the Google website as early as January 5.” Of course,…” MORE »
• Images (taken) with the Google Nexus One
  ” The online world can be a good thing and a bad thing, but its clear that being able to upload images and have them stay hidden is pretty difficult. Of course, that being good or bad…” MORE »
• The Nokia N900 will be coming to Vodafone UK “soon”
  ” Coming as a little bit of good news and frustrating news at the same time. Vodafone UK have announced their plans to carry the Nokia N900. That was the good news, so with that it looks like we now need to move onto the frustrating news—they…” MORE »
• More images surface of the Google Nexus One
  ” Some new images have now been posted online, and they are giving us the best look to date on the still mysterious Nexus One. Of course, these images, while clearing up some mysterious also leave…” MORE »
• The 18-button OpenOfficeMouse now looking stealthy in black gets dubbed the WarMouse
  ”  We first saw the 18-button monster of a mouse back in early November, and although it was initially christened the OpenOfficeMouse that name did not last very long.…” MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:00 pm

Even Without Its Own Google Phone, Android Gains Ground in the Smartphone Ad Market [MediaMemo]

As Google prepares to launch its own Android phone next year, a quick update on the progress of the Android handsets the search king doesn’t sell itself: They’re moving pretty quickly.

At least, if you’re looking at the market for smartphone ads and “in-app” smartphone ads–as defined by AdMob, the smartphone ad company Google is buying for $750 million.

Also those caveats aside, compare these two charts from AdMob’s November and October reports, respectively. First, here are the October data measuring advertising activity on AdMob’s network, by operating system:

And here are the November data:

So Google (GOOG) is still trailing Apple (AAPL) by a wide margin, but it’s moving quickly–20 percent to 27 percent in a month is awfully fast. And bear in mind that the search giant was at a mere seven percent not too long ago.

If you want, you can raise an eyebrow about AdMob’s potential bias, given its new owner-to-be, but for a long time the big knock on AdMob’s data was that it was too Apple-centric. In any case, there appears to be something happening here. Let’s see what happens in the January report.

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:57 pm

A Glucose Meter For the Modern World [Mossblog]

In his most recent appearance on FOX Business News, Walt talks about the Contour USB from Bayer, a new glucose meter for diabetics, but one with a modern touch. The tech-savvy Contour also serves as a USB drive, making it easier to track the user’s stats digitally [corrected from an earlier version of this post, which stated that the device automatically uploaded stats]. Bayer’s foray into the wired realm signals a broader move by the health industry to integrate better with the world of consumer electronics.

Walt’s full review of the device can be found here.

Watch the FOX Business video below.

Watch the latest business video at FOXBusiness.com

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:53 pm

Google In Talks To Buy Yelp

There have been many rumors floating around concerning a possible buyout of Yelp by Google, but it appears that at least a few details have escaped, painting this as a much more serious possibility. Pointing the needle to something north of $500 million, the acquisition would mean a substantial step into localized business for Google. "Google has been showing greater interest in the local business market in the United States. It has expanded its profile pages for local businesses, which include location and hours, maps and reviews from other Web sites. In June, Google gave local businesses the ability to manage what people see on their profile pages, similar to what Yelp does. Google has been reaching out to local businesses with simpler ways to advertise on the search engine. It is also distributing stickers that businesses post in their windows and passers-by can scan with cellphones to get coupons or information about the business. The deal between Google and Yelp could still unravel, one person said, particularly if another acquirer comes forward now that details have leaked."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:48 pm

Palm: Can Added Carriers Cure What Ails It? [Voices]

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

For Palm (PALM), the question today boils down to this: Can the company improve its fortunes by selling its wares through Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T)?

Palm shares are getting clobbered today after last night’s announcement of financial results for the fiscal second quarter ended November. While revenues were ahead of guidance, the company lost more money than expected in the quarter – and it warned that it would, beef up R&D and marketing spend going forward as it attempts to build up the brand. The company repeated its previous forecast of revenue for the May 2010 year of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion; but it also conceded that sales through Sprint (S) have disappointed. Sell-through in the quarter was down 29 percent sequentially.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:45 pm

Wind Farms Don't Affect Home Prices

You would think that a wind farm, with its soaring turbines and low humming noise, might have a bad effect on property values. An especially bad effect when you consider all the news last year regarding infrasound and wind-turbine syndrome. ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:39 pm

Who’s on Crack in Tech: 12.18.09

Section: Apple, Communications, Computers, Gadgets / Other, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack

The holidays are here, tech is weathering the storm, office party season has begun.  It’s been a tough year, this one and it looks like some folks are hitting the egg nog, if not the crack pipe early.  Here is what caught my eye this week:  Enjoy

• Our editor takes on office pr0n
• Palm makes you an app maker, and you, and you
• Google’s dev phone, er, T-Mobile free phone
• Fake Steve Jobs incites a riot

Mr. Nelson hit the nog a bit too hard.

OK, Robert, everyone knows the problem.  That guy in the corner has pr0n up most times you have to go and bug him.  Your solution?

“maybe the next best thing to do is sit them somewhere in the middle of the office, and also give them the biggest display possible.”

Your solution is to give him the biggest monitor, the one I’ve had my eye on for years now and give him the best spot in the office for gossip???  I am stupified.  In fact, I am so amazed I am going to start heading to pr0n sites just so I can get a big monitor and different seat, away from these mouth-breathers.  Maybe if I watch enough of it, I’ll even get to work from home!

Reward the troublemakers eh Nelson?

Palm has a plan for app store gold: sign everyone up

Have you a browser?  Well, then buddy, you are in luck!  You are a webOS developer!  Get the business cards at hand, drop that title at holiday parties and get ready to hear the cash register start ringing.  Is it that simple?

Our Greg Billetdeaux explains, “Probably the coolest thing, is that you don’t need to have massive amounts of coding knowledge to do this. A lot of it reminds me of Visual Basic. You can click and drag all of the different things such as buttons, text boxes, and check boxes onto the model of the Palm….I think I might give this a try for myself.”

Is this a good idea?  Do we really want every Tom, Dick and Harry designing web apps?  I mean how many of Apple’s 100,000 apps suck?  80%?  And these were the geniuses that could download the SDK, code something and get it back to Apple for review and access to the App Store.  By lowering the bar to just any fool with a browser, what is Palm opening up?

I’ll tell you what Palm is opening up: numbers.  Specifically getting to 100,000 or even 20,000 apps by any means possible.  Palm’s app catalog will soon be bursting at the seams filled with apps like: Find your phone (an app that uses your phone to find, uh, your phone), Pet rock (an app that turns your phone into a inanimate pet rock), and the Zero Times Tables (an app that gives you hint on (X*0) math equations). 

This isn’t about Greg, I am sure he’d design a handy app, but the folks I sit behind in traffic, or observe in the supermarket or the folks at my kids lacrosse games are morons.  Designing apps should be for an elite group that can build a fascinating fart app or weather app.  Leave the app stuff to those guys.

Google’s mighty Android super-phone

Ah, the Nexus One.  Genius in the making, the worlds most perfect Android phone ever created made to work with everything Googlistic.  If my count is right, this is actually the third phone Google has built and given to employees.  Are we really to get this excited about another one?

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to stick it to the man with a free phone and free service but this is America.  Last time I checked, T-Mobile isn’t giving anything away for free, despite their dubious ads talking about a BlackBerry plan for $29.99.  So what gives, will Google foot the bill?  Possible, but not probable. 

Most likely folks, this is just another test phone that looks kinda Android-y to me.

Fake Steve yells fire in a crowded theater

Oh Fake Steve, grow a pair huh?  When he incited a veritable riot by everyone using their phones at noon on Friday, what were you thinking?  Was it satire?  Was it a call to arms?

He intended to see how much power he’s got.  Fake Steve’s real identity, journalist Dan Lyons couldn’t get away with what his fake persona did.  He wanted the attention, the page views, the outcry to fall on his fake persona, but things got hot.  AT&T called his house and got all “up in his grill” to use the kids lingo of that day.  The real Dan Lyons backed off and muttered this retraction of sorts, you know - for a fake guy:

1. This was meant as a joke.
2. This may be cathartic, but it is pointless.
3. We’ve already won.
4. The media is all over this, and they’re on our side.
5. At this point, a demonstration outside an AT&T store is way more effective than O.C. itself.
6. We should be thinking about what comes next.
7. There is an even bigger goal.

Crack-less translation:
So, if I follow correctly: this was a joke.  A cathartic joke (better than most jokes but still dumb).  Our joke won a real objective.  The media forced the real objective, which kinda makes the joke look more like a real thing disguised as a joke.  Jokes are for kids, go protest in the mall.  I am staying home and thinking about what I’ve done, cause this got me in a heap of poo.

I am not buying anything from Fake Steve.  Not even the t-shirts or baby-doll for the Mrs.

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:25 pm

PayPal Rolls Out Send Money App For BlackBerry

PayPal is finally extending its money transfer system to the BlackBerry, with a new, free Send Money app for the Blackberry. The app will let you access your PayPal account and easily send money to a recipient. You can find on the BlackBerry App World here. The app will also tap into your contact list on the phone making it simple to choose a recipient to send money too. Users can also access their recent PayPal transactions and monitor their account balances directly from the app.

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:25 pm

PayPal Rolls Out Send Money App For BlackBerry

PayPal is finally extending its money transfer system to the BlackBerry, with a new, free Send Money app for the Blackberry. The app will let you access your PayPal account and easily send money to a recipient. You can find on the BlackBerry App World here.

The app will also tap into your contact list on the phone making it simple to choose a recipient to send money too. Users can also access their recent PayPal transactions and monitor their account balances directly from the app.

You can even send money in 23 different currencies, with the app available in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Portugal and Australia. The BlackBerry PayPal app joins its iPhone and Android app cousins.

While the new BlackBerry app is minor compared to some of the recent innovations PayPal has launched, it still represents the company’s greater strategy of becoming the next wave of payments technology. PayPal’s parent company eBay, has made a big push in the mobile space so its safe to assume that PayPal will continue to focus on mobile opportunities in the coming year.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:23 pm

This week in search 12/18/09

This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

For Google, the quality of search has always been about getting you the exact, most relevant answer you were looking for in the shortest amount of time -- what we call "time-to-result." These notions of relevance and speed have been baked into our product development and are always a top priority for us. Every day we work through design, observations, and analytics to make sure that the Google you use today is better than the Google you used yesterday. In fact, at any given time we're conducting between 50 and 200 search experiments, all of which are focused on getting you the exact result you're looking for -- faster. And, given that 20% of Google search queries are ones we haven't seen in the past 90 days, and there are well over 300 billion web pages to crawl, you can imagine the extent of that challenge!

With 2009 coming to a close (not to mention the first decade of the millennium), now is a good time to look back over the evolution of time-to-result with a nod towards what's to come in 2010 and beyond.

In the beginning of the decade, many of us were like student drivers: we used search to navigate the web feeling apprehensive and deliberate with navigation (the excruciating wait times with dial-up modems didn't make it easy either!) Since then, we've all learned how to search better and faster, especially as the web has developed and diversified over time. As more and different types of information came online, we searched for it -- news, video, books, and maps became part of our daily search diet. Today, the majority of Internet users have become experienced web warriors, armed with broadband access, faster computers, and blazing fast browsers, and the time it takes to get the perfect search result has increasingly become more and more important. As a result, Internet usage behavior across the web has shifted -- and not just on Google. Recently, for example, Akamai published a study which found that Internet users in 2009 expect web pages to load twice as fast as they did in 2006. This expectation of latency is not limited to web page load time. Research firm Tubemogul found that more than 81 percent of all online video viewers click away if they encounter a video that's rebuffering. Speed matters now more than ever -- we don't have the time or tolerance to wait.

Our own years of testing have conclusively shown that when speed of a feature or product improves, usage, quite simply, goes up. During the early development of Google Maps for mobile, we went with compressed tiles over uncompressed map tiles, a difference barely perceptible to the human eye. The compression resulted in two to three times the increase in speed, and ultimately doubled usage of maps. But it's not just about actual latency -- it's also about perceived latency. During the development of Google News, which is quite a dynamic and complicated page, we broke the results page into smaller blocks of HTML, appearing above and below the fold. This smart tabling dramatically improves the way you perceive the page's load time. Although Google News takes about 8 seconds to fully load due to the richness of the page, the results you first see above the fold are there nearly instantly, thus altering that perception of latency.

So, it's clear speed and latency enhancements are an important focus for us, especially since they make the experience you have with our products much more useful and enjoyable. Above all else, we care about getting you an answer as fast as possible, and we do this through not only improving our search results but also by working with the web community to speed up the entire web. 2009 brought some incredible advancements that are worth noting.

In 2009, our "under the hood" infrastructure focus became more pronounced, as we kicked off our Make the Web Faster campaign. Our goal has been simple, to make the web browsing experience as fast as turning the pages of a magazine. To help increase browsing speeds, we released projects such as Page Speed to help webmasters optimize their sites, and Google Public DNS, to help people obtain faster, safer, and more valid DNS results.​ Finally, we started work on SPDY, pronounced "SPeeDY" -- a new protocol designed to minimize latency. The notion of these "under the hood" improvements are vital to building a faster web. But what about the relevance and comprehensiveness of the actual "result" aspect of time-to-result?

Early this year, we saw a lot of evidence that people are getting much more sophisticated in their searching, asking Google to solve harder problems (for example, by making longer and more complex queries). For this reason, in 2009 alone we have released many improvements: nearly 500 ranking changes; well over 100 UI changes; tripled how much you see in local universal results; brought personalized search to all users; and tripled the frequency with which you see images when you enter a query. To better help you choose from the results we improved the way that we summarize the results by dynamically varying the length of the description, creating jump-to shortcuts that take you straight to the relevant section of a page, and displaying the site hierarchy to inform you of the context of the page within the website. To save time and keystrokes, we now show you universal search features in Suggest; try searching for for weather, currency conversions, or flight status. This dramatically improves your ability to benefit from previous queries, getting you answers more quickly and easily than ever before. And just last week, we brought speed to a whole new level with realtime search -- so that you can find information that is literally just seconds old.

As these "time-to-result" efforts continue to emerge in 2010, we'll keep pushing the envelope on indexing speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness. And that means you can expect the search experience to get more social, more personal, more interactive, and more ubiquitous -- getting you the information you're exactly looking for when and where you need it. Ultimately, the faster you get what you're looking for, the more enriched your life will be, and that makes us very happy. So what's the ultimate goal in the future? Allowing only a single barrier to instantly getting you the search result you're looking for -- the speed of light.

Here's to a great 2009, and an even greater 2010 in search!

Posted by Jack Menzel, Group Product Manager, Search
Source: The Official Google Blog | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:22 pm

On2 Announces Adjournment of Special Meeting of Stockholders Until Wednesday, December 23 2009

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On2 Technologies, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:16 pm

Will the Mobile Web Kill Off the App Store?

The debate over the longevity of native software continues. Mozilla, creator of Firefox, claims that its new browser for smartphones will contribute to the death of smartphone app stores.

Scheduled to begin appearing on devices at the end of this year, the Firefox mobile browser, code-named Fennec, will be packed with features to make it the closest thing yet to a real, desktop-class browser. (Wired.com’s Mike Calore has a detailed look at Fennec.) Mozilla claims it will have the fastest JavaScript engine of any mobile browser, allowing developers to produce HTML- and JavaScript-coded apps for Fennec rather than for multiple smartphone platforms, such as iPhone OS, Google Android or Windows Mobile.

“In the interim period, apps will be very successful,” said Jay Sullivan, vice president of Mozilla’s mobile division, in an interview with PC Pro. “Over time, the web will win because it always does.”

Web proponents such as Mozilla and Google dream that internet standards will enable any app to run on any device, just as Java proponents touted a “write once, run anywhere” vision in the 1990s. Similarly, Adobe’s Flash emerged as a cross-platform environment for creating animations, games and apps for the web. But many consumers and developers have complained that Java and Flash exhibit bugs, performance problems and security vulnerabilities, among other issues. And Java’s promises of universality didn’t quite work out, because different implementations of the Java virtual machine (not to mention wildly varying hardware capabilities) mean that, even today, Java coders need to rework their apps for each target device.

But web proponents maintain that the wide acceptance of next-generation internet standards, particularly HTML5, will win out where Java failed.

It’s a tempting vision. Currently, when deciding whether to buy a Mac or a PC, an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, or an iPhone or a Droid, you need to consider which applications you’ll be able to run on each one. If programmers head in the direction of the web, then ideally you’ll be able to gain access to any application regardless of the computer or smartphone you own.

Google is attempting to lead the web movement. The search giant is pushing its web-only regime with Chrome OS, its browser-based operating system for netbooks that will run only web applications. Also, in July, Google’s engineering vice president and developer evangelist Vic Gundotra said in a conference that mobile app stores have no future.

“Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser and what that does for our costs is stunning,” Gundotra was quoted in a Financial Times report. “We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing.”

But iPhone developers and analysts polled in July by Wired.com explained the problems with current web technologies, and some highlighted the merits of native-app architecture.

Interpet analyst Michael Gartenberg noted that many iPhone apps are a combination of native and web technologies, because many apps download or share data through the internet. He said it’s beneficial for the apps to be native, because they’re programmed to take full advantage of the iPhone’s hardware.

“It’s odd that Google feels the need to position as one versus the other,” Gartenberg said in July. “That’s last century thinking…. It’s not about web applications or desktop applications but integrating the cloud into these applications that are on both my phone and the PC. Ultimately, it’s about offering the best of both worlds to create the best experience for consumers — not forcing them to choose one or the other.”

With Firefox’s mobile browser rolling out soon, we have yet to see how consumers and developers react to Mozilla’s attempt to spark a web-only exodus. We’ll continue examining this topic in the months to come.

Meanwhile, what are your thoughts about the web-versus-native debate? Add your comments, or participate in the poll below.

See Also:

• Google Says Mobile App Stores Have No Future
• Google Chrome OS: Ditch Your Hard Drives, the Future Is the Web …
• New Firefox ‘Fennec’ Alpha Arrives as Mobile Browser Wars Heat Up …
• iPhone Opens to Some 3rd-Party Web Browsers, But Not Mobile …
• They Shrunk My Firefox! Mozilla Shows Off Touch-Sensitive Mobile …

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:14 pm

Will the Mobile Web Kill Off the App Store?

Mozilla thinks its Firefox mobile browser will help end the era of the app store.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:14 pm

Photos from "The Year Before the Flood"

I beg your pardon for missing my post yesterday. I was struggling to get the first Postmamboism T-shirt manufactured, celebrating the publication of "Principles of Postmamboism." Looks like I'll have 'em sometime between Monday and Wednesday. The graphic that accompanied that article -- "Abre kuta güiri mambo" (open up your ears and listen to the important matter") -- is going to be the T-shirt image, only printed in red on black instead of black on white. Damn, I haven't made a T-shirt since the last Muñequitos tour.

Today's post is pictures, specifically from New Orleans, and more specifically from my book The Year Before The Flood. To my delight and astonishment, my publisher (Lawrence Hill Books) gave me a 16-page color glossy insert for my photos, along with the black-and-whites sprinkled through the text. Most of them were taken during the almost-year we lived in New Orleans, which is the slice of time the book is about: from August 2004 to May 2005. Here are a few of the pix, though I do think they look better bigger, on paper:

Above, Aldo "Michael" Andrews, of the Bayou Steppers Social Aid and Pleasure Club, in front of the entrance to the Mother-in-Law Lounge in Tremé as their anniversary parade drew to a close on January 16, 2005. Moments after this picture was taken, the police turned on their sirens and ordered the area cleared.

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Outdoor opening pageant of the Pussyfooters' Ball, in front of the Country Club in the Bywater, October 30, 2004. (Velvia 50 ASA, bulb setting, if you're old enough to remember film.)

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Alfred Growe, trombonist of Stooges Brass Band, outside Juicey's Lounge in the Irish Channel, during a rest stop on the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club (established in 1928, the second oldest club still marching in New Orleans) anniversary parade, October 17, 2004.

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Three great New Orleans drummers: Earl Palmer, Zigaboo Modeliste, Smokey Johnson, assembled for a Tipitina's Foundation event, January 15, 2005.

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A texture of live oak branches.

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To subscribe to my e-mail list, send an e-mail with "subscribe" in the subject heading to ned dot sublette at gmail dot com.

Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:11 pm

iRewardChart Gets Your Kids To Shoot For The Stars… And Behave

If you’ve got young children, there’s a good chance you’ve worked out a system to convince them to behave themselves and do their chores. In the old days, they called this an allowance. But many families have moved on to systems that are a bit more complex, like progress charts they hang on their refrigerator. That’s where iRewardChart comes in. The new startup makes an iPhone app that looks to help parents keep track of the childrens’ good behavior, and reward them appropriately.

The startup, which is a a recent graduate of the Adeo Ressi’s Founder Institute, launched an iPhone application earlier this month that you can grab here (or you can try the free lite version). When you first fire up the app, you’ll be asked to enter your child’s name, photo, and a set of tasks they are charged with on a weekly basis. Example tasks include things like “Help Mom”, “Clean up toys”, and various behavior categories. When they complete one of these tasks, you reward them with virtual stars.

These stars are the app’s currency. The better your kids behave, the more stars they earn. All the while, they’re looking to get enough stars to ‘purchase’ whatever prizes you’ve made available. For example, you might tell your child that if they earn 30 stars, they can take a trip to the movies. Or you could offer to convert stars in exchange for cash. As with the tasks, these are all up to you to determine (though the app comes with some suggestions).

The premium version of the app (which costs $4.99) allows parents to monitor an unlimited number of children, tasks and rewards. The free version is limited to one child, with a maximum of three tasks. Founder Satyajit Sahu says that the company could also offer multiple versions for different use cases. For example, day care centers could use a version suited for large groups.

You could obviously do most of this with some markers and paper, but using iRewardChart has a couple of advantages. For one, it allows parents to track their child’s behavior over a long period of time, so they can look back and identify any trends. And while the app is pretty basic at this point, Sahu has some bigger plans. He wants to offer a web version of iRewardChart that would let kids monitor their performance, and he also says that the app will soon be able to sync between multiple phones (so two parents can share one account). iRewardChart could eventually offer parents and kids something akin to a ‘banking for kids’ service, allowing children to monitor their current star count as an analog for real money.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:10 pm

Valmont Board Declares Quarterly Dividend

OMAHA, Neb., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE: VMI) has declared a quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share payable on January 15, 2010 to shareholders of record on December 24, 2009.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:10 pm

Dark Matter Detected for First Time? - National Geographic

guardian.co.uk

Dark Matter Detected for First Time? National Geographic Dark matter may have been "felt" for the first time deep in a Minnesota mine, physicists say. Detectors in the mine, part of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment, were tripped recently by what might be weakly interacting massive particles, ... The first glimpse of dark matter?BBC News At a Mine's Bottom, Hints of Dark MatterNew York Times Two events hint at impact of dark matter particlesArs Technica TG Daily -Minneapolis Star Tribune -guardian.co.uk all 75 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:04 pm

$25,000 of Communications Gear In a $500 Car

In perhaps one of the finest displays of technological excess in automotive communications gear, one "enthusiast" has managed to cram over $25,000 worth of gear into a $500 car. The car is rigged for just about every conceivable communications band including FM, UHF, VHF, HF, and WTF. What other amazing displays of technological excess have others seen? "The equipment seems to cover an amazing array of technologies, many of which seem to be redundant. For instance, just how many handheld 144 MHz radios do you need? It seems like the owner of the Ham Car is capable of listening to every police/fire/ems/military channel in the world. Simultaneously. There's a laptop and we assume there's some form of cellular or satellite communication setup for that, too."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:01 pm

CGI files 2009 Annual Disclosure Reports

Stock Market Symbols GIB.A (TSX) GIB (NYSE) MONTREAL, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - CGI Group Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm

Exploring Pandora, Avatar's Lush World

Sigourney Weaver narrates this faux documentary on the flora and fauna of the planet Pandora in James Cameron's new film, Avatar. (Courtesy 20th Century Fox)

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm

Avatar Mirrors Emotions With Motion Capture

Go behind the scenes of Avatar with James Cameron, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana to see the new technology used to capture actors' facial expressions in striking detail.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm

Xenos Earns $0.12 in F09, Earns $0.07 in Q4

TORONTO, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Xenos Group Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm

Google Takes More Heat For Digital Library Plans

A coalition of U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:50 pm

Anxious Eyes Can Trip up Athletes

High pressure situations can guide athletes' eyes away their targets.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:45 pm

In defense of Twittering during a personal crisis

Matt Haughey, who recently live-tweeted a personal emergency of his own, writes in defense of a mother who tweeted the drowning death of her son, as it was happening.


Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:40 pm

AT&T Investment Delivers Improved Wireless Network Experience in Rochester

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:40 pm

Condé Nast, With Help From a Nearly Naked Rihanna, Takes Another Step Toward Digital Magazines [MediaMemo]

Condé Nast has taken another small step into the future of digital magazines: The publisher has put a second edition of its GQ magazine up for sale on Apple’s iTunes Store.

Plunk down $2.99 and you’ll  get you the January issue of the magazine, featuring a nearly naked Rhianna, for your iPhone or iPod touch.

Aside from the almost nude pop star on the cover, this one mimics GQ’s first digital issue, which it described as an experiment, in every way. Same price, same treatment of ads and content, etc. The publisher says it’s going to start putting out every issue of the magazine on iTunes going forward, though some stuff could get tweaked down the road.

Starting with the March 2010 issue, for instance, you’ll be able to buy new copies of the magazine “in app,” meaning that you won’t have to download a new app from iTunes every time a new issue comes out. GQ may also tweak pricing and/or offer a subscription instead of one-offs.

Condé says it is gearing up to put out another title in the same format, though it won’t say which one (Do you know? Drop me a line, please.) I should note that Hearst’s Esquire rolled out its first iTunes issue/app today as well. No coincidence that both publishers are starting with aspirational dude-centric titles.

This stuff doesn’t seem as sexy as the plans the publishers have for much heralded but little seen tablets that Apple (AAPL) and others are supposed to be cooking up. That’s probably in part because it’s always more fun to think about things that could exist, as opposed to ones that are already extant.

But I think this is as important, in its own way, as the tablet demos we’ve seen from Condé, Time Warner’s (TWX) Time Inc., Bonnier, etc. And as relevant as the “Hulu for Magazines” consortium the publishers have finally announced.

Because Condé’s iPhone app is a pretty good proxy for the stuff the magazine guys want to eventually produce. And if people are buying this one (Condé won’t release numbers yet, but says it will eventually), then that’s a hopeful sign for the more advanced stuff we’re supposed to see one day.

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:33 pm

3G Wireless: More Coverage in Duarte, California

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Los Angeles County residents, businesses and visitors are enjoying improved service thanks to a new Verizon Wireless cell site. The site expands 3G wireless coverage in the City of Duarte and Monrovia near the 210 Freeway.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:27 pm

So, Is Operation Chokehold Melting AT&T In Your Area?

It’s just after 12 o’clock here on the left coast, which means Operation Chokehold should now be in full effect. What that means (if anything at all) is still up in the air — which is why we’re turning to you for a status report.

For the uninitiated: Operation Chokehold is a sort of cyber-protest against AT&T, as conjured up by some dude playing a dude disguised as another dude. For one solid hour between 12 and 1 Pacific, angry iPhone owners are supposed to gobble up as much data as they can in an “attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees.”

The discussion on the merits of this bit of disobedience have already been done into the ground, so we won’t dive into that. The FCC and ATT have already condemned the whole thing, and Fake Steve has back-pedaled a bit to make it clear that the whole thing was intended as a joke. Joke or not, its taken off with a life of its own now – some people are taking this pretty dang seriously.

With all that said, we want to know: has Operation Chokehold affected the quality of your AT&T connectivity? Here in San Jose, CA things seem as good as ever — that is, they’re not all that great, but certainly don’t seem worse than normal. Let us know where you’re at and how the 3G network is acting in your area down in the comments.

[Image via Kakiseni]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:21 pm

Google Found Guilty of French Copyright Infringement

adeelarshad82 writes "A Paris court on Friday found Google guilty of violating copyright by digitizing books and putting extracts online, following a legal challenge by major French publishers. The court found against Google after the La Martiniere group, which controls the highbrow Editions du Seuil publishing house, argued that publishers and authors were losing out in the latest stage of the digital revolution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:12 pm

Disappointing Palm Sales Put Spotlight On Upcoming WebOS Update - ChannelWeb

DailyTech

Disappointing Palm Sales Put Spotlight On Upcoming WebOS Update ChannelWeb More questions are being raised about Palm's strength in the hotly competitive smart phone market after the company reported a $81.9-million loss for its second quarter and slower-than-expected sales of its Pre and Pixi ... 5 Questions About Palm's 2010 Phone PlansPC World Palm confirms webOS firmware updateAfterdawn.com Palm Promises WebOS Update, Lots More Apps at CESPC Magazine Wall Street Journal -DailyTech -Mobile Burn all 287 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 1:03 pm

Did NOAA See Fire Underwater?

Yesterday I posted the video below on the underwater eruptions captured by researchers last May. If you haven’t seen the video (click on the image to view) – I recommend you do. You’ll be among the first human beings in ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:45 pm

Samsung to follow up the ultra cheap Corby with the even cheaper Corby Pop

Samsung already managed to get the Samsung Corby down to a surprisingly dirt-cheap price tag, packing in a 2.8″ touchscreen, 2 MP camera, and FM radio for less than $200 bucks — unlocked, and without contract. It seems that wasn’t enough, however – according to the latest whispers from the rumor mill, they’re aiming even lower.

According to Unwired View, Samsung’s cracking away at a new uber-cheap handset called the Corby Pop. There aren’t any pictures of the Corby Pop yet – in its place, please accept this picture of a ham sandwich.

The new handset purportedly maintains the touchscreen display and FM radio, but bumps the camera down to 1.2 megapixels. It’s about as low on the totem pole as new phones come nowadays – but at a rumored unlocked price of around $150 bucks, we doubt the buyers will be complaining.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:41 pm

18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague

Exploring a new city is always fun. But if you can’t get there, a gorgeous, zoomable 360-degree view photo can be an acceptable substitute.

360 Cities, a Dutch company, has created a stunning panoramic photo of Prague in the Czech Republic.

“The creation of this image represents my previous five years’ obsession with all things panoramic,” says Jeffrey Martin, founder and CEO of 360 Cities. “If you’re stuck at home over Christmas, feeling humbuggy and don’t feel like hanging out with your family, you can explore Prague instead.”

What makes this panoramic photo interesting to viewers is that you can zoom in and out, move up or down or change your view–much like with Google Street View maps.

The photo has been assembled from 600 shots clicked by a 21-megapixel Canon 5D Mark II camera and a 70-200mm lens, set to 200mm. The camera was mounted on a special robotic device that turned it tiny increments every few hours. The resulting data from the camera was about 40-gigabytes.

The finished Photoshop file is 120 GB. Loading the raw files into a computer and stitching the photo took about a week. Martin used a four year-old Windows PC with two single-core 3 GHz Xeon processors and 8 GB of RAM. He also bought a solid state drive to speed up some tasks.

“The final image exists as a 120 Gigabyte Photoshop large (PSB) file,” says Martin on his blog. It cannot exist as a TIFF or JPEG file because of their size constraints.”

The photo measures 192,000 x 96,000 pixels, or 18.4 billion pixels altogether.

So start exploring Prague. If you zoom in enough, you can even see laundry hanging out to dry in some of the buildings.

Photo: 360 Cities

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:34 pm

18-Gigapixel Panoramic Photo Offers a Breathtaking View of Prague

A stunning, panoramic photo of Prague allows you to zoom in, zoom out and explore the city from your couch.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:34 pm

Microsoft Seeks Patent On Shaming Fat Gamers

theodp writes "A newly disclosed Microsoft patent application — Avatar Individualized by Physical Characteristic — takes aim at fat people, proposing to generate fat avatars in gaming environments for individuals whose health records indicate they're overweight, limiting their game play, and even banning them. From the patent application: 'An undesirable body weight could be reflected in an overweight or underweight appearance for the avatar. Only requisite health levels are allowed to compete in a certain competition level. A dedicated gamer could exercise for a period of time until his health indicator gadget shows a sufficiently high health/health credit in order to allow reentering the avatar environment.' Linking one's gaming avatar to one's physique, explains Microsoft, will produce healthy and virtuous behaviors in individuals. Microsoft also proposes shaping gaming experiences by using 'psychological and demographic information such as education level, geographic location, age, sex, intelligence quotient, socioeconomic class, occupation, marital/relationship status, religious belief, political affiliation, etc.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:32 pm

Free Wi-Fi at McDonald's

Will free wireless service finally stick?
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:28 pm

Talking Aloud Helps To Solve Mathematical Problems More Quickly, According To A Study

Those students who think aloud while solving a mathematical problem can solve it faster and have more possibilities of finding the right solution that those who do not do it.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:10 pm

Researchers Create New 'Smart' Nanocapsule Delivery System For Use In Protein Therapy

Shell of single-protein capsule degrades or remains intact based on environmentProtein therapy — the delivery of healthy proteins directly into human cells to replace malfunctioning proteins — is considered one of the most direct and safe approaches for treating diseases.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:05 pm

Sex In University May Be Better For Mature Audiences

New university students might be thinking about exploring another rite of passage when they get to campus: the joy of sex.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2009 | 12:02 pm

The How And Why Of Freezing The Common Fruit Fly

Using a microscope the size of a football field, researchers from The University of Western Ontario are studying why some insects can survive freezing, while others cannot.Why is this important? Because the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is one of the bugs that cannot survive freezing and the little creature just so happens to share much of the same genetic makeup as humans, therefore finding a way to freeze them for research purposes is a top priority for geneticists the world over (about 75 per cent of known human disease genes have a recognizable match in the genetic code of fruit flies). And why the large microscope?“It’s the only one in the world that’s set up for this kind of imaging on insects,” says lead researcher Brent Sinclair of his team’s use of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), located near Chicago, Illinois.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2009 | 11:58 am

Three UAB Researchers Elected AAAS Fellows

About AAASThe American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal Science. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more.About UAB
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2009 | 11:53 am

INRS Researchers Among Discover Magazine's 'Top 100 Stories For 2009'

Much cheaper fuel cell catalysts using iron instead of platinum—this major scientific breakthrough achieved by INRS researchers has earned a spot in Discover Magazine's "Top 100 Stories of 2009," in the January/February 2010 issue. The magazine has been published yesterday.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2009 | 11:49 am

DECAF Was Just a Stunt, Now Over

An anonymous reader writes to tell us of the de-activation of all copies of DECAF. The creators have announced that the DECAF project was nothing more than a "stunt to raise awareness for security and the need for better forensic tools." Originally DECAF was billed as a tool to stop Microsoft's forensic tool "COFEE" and was covered here earlier this week. In addition to their message of security the authors somehow manage to interject a discussion about religion, so who knows what the real goal was.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2009 | 11:49 am

Indie iPhone Game Doodle Jump Passes 1 Million Downloads

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve never played Doodle Jump. Why? Because if you had ever played Doodle Jump, you’d probably still be playing it. The game is addictive gaming at its finest; it’s drop dead simple, yet ridiculously tough to put down. If I had to babysit a kid, I’d just hand them Doodle Jump and then go off and do something else for a few hours. They wouldn’t even notice I left.

Being insanely catchy has paid off. This morning, Doodle Jump’s developers, Lima Sky, are announcing that they’ve smashed through the 1 million download mark – an especially impressive feat when you consider the circumstances.

You see, Lima Sky isn’t some huge development company – they don’t have a massive advertising budget, a team of artists, or PR flacks to do their bidding. Lima Sky is made up of two brothers, Igor and Marko Pusenjak, who do everything from writing the code to reaching out to the media. With each of the 1 million copies sold at 99c a pop, the two brothers are probably swimming around in about $690k after Apple took their cut – not too shabby for a two-man operation.

Lima Sky didn’t just rest on their laurels and ride their way to the top of the App Store. While they did put some of their revenue back towards small ad campaigns, a significant chunk of their downloads stems from the brother’s constant care. Doodle Jump has seen nearly constant updates since launch, with each update adding in a new layer to the game. One update gave the player the ability to shoot, drastically changing the entire mechanics of the game and giving people a reason to strive for a new high score. A more recent update which overhauled the graphics with a Christmas motif (if you named your character “Snow”) was surprisingly well-received, pushing it back into the Top Paid section in countries where it had gone unnoticed.

Of course, a mention on a popular TV show didn’t hurt either.

You can find Doodle Jump on the App Store here.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 11:18 am

Bring a Dead Pixel Back to Life

All is not lost if your LCD screen is missing a pixel. It's possible the liquid behind the pixel might need a little massaging to display again. Instead of ditching the display when a pixel goes foul, try our steps to repair it.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 18 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am

Facebook Touts Diversity of Its Members [Voices]

By Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

While Facebook is under fire for disclosing more data about its users to the public, Facebook is also touting that data about its users shows that they are increasingly diverse, with a racial and ethnic breakdown that nearly mirrors the overall diversity of the U.S. population, according to a blog entry posted on the social networking site on Wednesday.

While Facebook users in the U.S. were primarily white and Asian in the beginning of 2006, blacks and Latinos are increasingly joining the site, and now comprise 11 percent and 9 percent of Facebook users, respectively. And 6 percent of U.S. Facebook users are Asians, down from about 8 percent four years ago.

Facebook data team researchers Lars Backstrom, Jonathan Chang, Cameron Marlow and Itamar Rosenn wrote that they were interested in finding out more about the composition of race and ethnicity among Facebook users.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 10:58 am

Tips and tricks for deploying Google Apps

Has your company, school or organization decided to "go Google" — but not yet fully "gone?" Perhaps you'd like more guidance on the technical, marketing or training details? Or maybe you could use some resources to help you deploy? Making the decision to go Google can be the easiest part, but we realize that it sometimes takes a little boost to finish the process, which is where we come in.

Our Google Apps Deployment team has assisted hundreds of organizations — large and small — make the switch to Google Apps. To ensure that your implementation is a success, we've developed step-by-step tools to guide you through the process, and best practices to make your transition as smooth and easy as possible. Here are some of the resources you can explore when going Google:

Sign up for a Deployment Training Webinar. In this live session, a deployment specialist will walk you through the deployment planning steps and use cases.
Source: The Official Google Blog | 18 Dec 2009 | 10:51 am

Nerdiness Turns Women Off to Computer Science

Stereotypically nerdy, masculine environments can discourage women from entering the field.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 10:30 am

Happiest States in America Are Sunniest, Too

Find out where your state ranks on the list of the happiest states in America.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 9:35 am

Patrick Michaels: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus - Wall Street Journal

National Post (blog)

Patrick Michaels: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus Wall Street Journal Few people understand the real significance of Climategate, the now-famous hacking of emails from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU). Most see the contents as demonstrating some arbitrary manipulating of ... E-mail furor doesn't alter evidence for climate changeWashington Post Loving Electric Cars in Spite of the Climate Change DebateWired News Follow the money in global warming hoaxHenderson Gleaner The New American -Knoxville News Sentinel -Wilson County News all 113 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 9:34 am

Is your coworker looking an inappropriate websites at work? We may have a solution

Section: Web

Everyone looks at websites that they should not be while at work, of course most people visit sites like Facebook, Twitter, and hopefully lots of tech blogs including Gadgetell. But there are those few that cannot get enough at home and venture to some less than work friendly sites—pr0n. And while you can block sites, there are always ways to get around those blocks. Given that, maybe the next best thing to do is sit them somewhere in the middle of the office, and also give them the biggest display possible. That will hopefully keep them on the correct path at work, of course the eye strain from the larger than necessary display may also keep them from getting their real work done, but at least they will not be having any fun. In this case, we are unsure if this guy was given the monitor as a reward or punishment, nor can we say it was because he was looking at pr0n but from the story it seems he has a 42-inch display. Crazy, that is about about 6-inches bigger than the television in my bedroom which sits about 8 feet away, I could not imagine sitting about 8-inches away from something like that.

Image [Reddit] Via [Gizmodo]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2009 | 9:20 am

Presenting...The Tussock Moth Caterpillar

It's time for another Nature Walks with Mark Fraser species spotlight. Today he looks at the tussock moth caterpillar. "I think that tussock moth caterpillars are like jewels of the natural world," Mark said. "They have colors that are stunning ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Dec 2009 | 8:57 am

Amazon set to release Kindle app for BlackBerry

Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks

Amazon appears to be close to releasing their long awaited Kindle app for the BlackBerry smartphone. The Kindle page on their site now lists the app as “Coming Soon.” Kindle fans already have a PC app and the very popular iPhone/iPod Touch app to choose from, and a version for Macs is also coming soon.

As an owner of a Kindle and a BlackBerry, I am very much looking forward to the release of the app. I have the iPod Touch version and while I wouldn’t recommend it for extended reading sessions (too hard on the eyes) it’s great for getting a little reading in while on the road The one drawback the Kindle apps have is that you can only read your books with them. Blogs, magazines, and newspapers are confined to the Kindle device itself.

Allowing Kindle books to be read on more and more devices is a smart decision by Amazon and should help keep the Kindle on the top of the heap. There are a lot of new e-readers coming out in 2010 but so far, no Kindle killers.

Read [PCWorld]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2009 | 8:18 am

Stanza v2.0: The iPhone’s Best E-Reader Just Got Better

Stanza, the iPhone e-book reader so good that Amazon bought it, has just released v2.0, and it improves on 1.x in almost every way.

Stanza was the first good e-book reading application for the iPhone, and this release keeps it at the top of the bunch. At first glance, the new feature list looks short, but when you start to poke around you discover that the polish that has been applied to the app makes every part easier to use. First, the official list:

Tabbed navigation

This simply adds a row of buttons along the top of catalog and settings screens to help find you way around. It doesn’t apply when reading, nor should it.

Copy to Clipboard in Annotation View

This single line hides a revamped annotation engine. Sure, now you can copy chunks of text, but you can also zoom pictures, share your notes (or the copied text) via Twitter or e-mail (or Facebook, if you have to), and easily define words via online dictionary.

Sharing

You can also show off how far you are into a book via Twitter and Facebook. Lord knows why, but it is there if you want it.

Unified Setting Screen

This is partially true. Those of you who learned to navigate the labyrinthine sections of the old Stanza will not be wasting that practice. It seems that the settings are, far from being unified, still scattered all over the place.

More

Not mentioned in these notes is a new text-resizer, which actually resizes the whole page as you pinch until you are happy, and then only reformats the text when you click to confirm. If you were ever frustrated by the old way which would reformat after every pinch, and always seemed to get the size wrong, you will be very happy.

In fact, this kind of polish is what marks the 2.0 update. You can now assign custom categories to your books easily, as well as creating your own collections (think playlists for books). You can assign artwork, either by searching on the web (it is automatic) or by importing from your iPhone photo library.

Further, the online catalogs have been separated into official and unofficial, so if you have added any (ahem) third-party repositories, they are kept away from the legit stuff.

One pain, and something nobody seems to have worked out yet, is that you have to leave the application to buy anything, getting dumped into Safari to input credit card or login details. A minor point, we suppose, but it certainly stops the candy-store buying approach we’re used to with iPhone applications and music. It is probably inevitable with Stanza, though, as it supports so many different online stores.

Should you download it? If you are already a Stanza user, it’s likely you already did as soon as you heard about the update. If you’re not a Stanza user, go get it now. It’s free.

Stanza [Lexcycle]

Stanza in the App Store [iTunes]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 8:07 am

Conservative Concept Tablet Gets Almost Everything Right

Coming up with a concept design is pretty easy — after all, you can say it does anything and you never have to actually fit real components into a real box and program a real machine. By this measure, Timur Pinar’s concept tablet is rather conservative and, counter-intuitively, somewhat more attractive than more outlandish designs.

The “HTC evolve” (yes, it even has an imagined manufacturer) sports an Intel Atom processor, two USB 3.0 ports, 128GB of solid-state storage, 1.5GB RAM, an HDMI port and a camera and microphone on the screen-side. And of course there is a touch screen.

As a design, it is pretty sweet (apart from a second, vestigial screen that pops out of the side, ready to be snapped off), and would run Android or Chrome or whatever would give it a one or two second boot time. The lines are clean and the purpose is clear — this is a machine for consuming media, non creating it. And that is the big difference between the upcoming wave of tablet devices and the failed tablet PCs of yesteryear: these machines do one thing, and they do it well. I’d buy this, but then I am on a mission to rid my home of any analog media whatsoever.

One more oddity: it has a stylus for input (you can still use fingers). What is this? 2005?

Sweet Dreams Are Meant To Evolve [Yanko]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 7:05 am

Twitter hacked and temporarily knocked offline

Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking

Officials from the site said their DNS records had been tampered with but that everything had been fixed and an update would be coming soon. It’s not clear if the “Iranian Cyber Army” actually is from Iran, but Twitter does have a history with the country.

During Iran’s hotly disputed presidential election earlier this year, it was Twitter that carried the most coverage as Iranian citizens protesting the election tweeted about the conflicts and posted images of the violence. Traditional media had a much more difficult time reporting on the situation. In fact Twitter became so critical that the U.S. State Department actually asked the site to refrain from scheduled maintained that would have brought the site down temporarily.

An interesting note. While the site was being redirected to the hacker’s page, the following description appeared with Twitter’s search results on Google:

“In the name of God, As an Iranian this is a reaction to Twitter’s interference sly which was U.S. authorities ordered in the internal affairs of my country…”

Stay tuned to Gadgetell for more on this developing story.

Read [CNN]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2009 | 7:05 am

Aol Stock One Week Later: Flat Is the New Up [BoomTown]

If you had bought $1,000 worth of AOL stock back in 1992, your investment would have gained close to 15,000 percent–yes, 15,000 percent–just three years later.

That was not quite what happened this week for the iconic Internet company. It opened trading in its latest debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 10 at $23.67.

Yesterday, seven days after its execs rang the bell and spun off from Time Warner (TWX), Aol (AOL) shares closed at $23.36.

In other words, pretty much a wash so far!

That’s actually not such a bad thing, since many had expected Aol stock to fall more significantly after it went out.

Apparently, investors are still in that “Show Me” state CEO Tim Armstrong described last week in a video interview with BoomTown.

And, until he does show us, here’s that chat–along with a tour of the Aol HQ in New York:

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2009 | 7:00 am

Groups File Facebook Complaint - Wall Street Journal

CBC.ca

Groups File Facebook Complaint Wall Street Journal Ten privacy organizations filed a complaint against Facebook Inc. to the Federal Trade Commission Thursday, arguing that recent changes to the social-networking company's privacy policies and settings violate federal laws. ... Privacy changes open Facebook user profiles to many more peopleDailyTech Facebook Hit With FTC ComplaintInformationWeek Privacy Groups Take Facebook Quarrel to the FedsTechNewsWorld Red Herring -Digital Media Wire -The Associated Press all 780 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:50 am

Palm gives everyone the chance to make apps

Section: Communications, Smartphones, Gadgets / Other, Household, Web, Web Browsers

So if your the person who would love to make some gnarly iPhone apps but don’t have the knowledge to do so, well then its time to migrate to the Palm Pre/Pixi. Palm is now providing an in-browser SDK called the Ares pitch. Basically, you don’t need to download anything, just need to load the browser and you can build your whole app on the web.

Probably the coolest thing, is that you don’t need to have massive amounts of coding knowledge to do this. A lot of it reminds me of Visual Basic. You can click and drag all of the different things such as buttons, text boxes, and check boxes onto the model of the Palm. Then, you must do some coding to tell the buttons to do something when you click them but there are some tutorials on the Ares site to help you with that.

All-in-all, I think this will give many people the chance to develop apps when they usually couldn’t. Or for people like me, who don’t own a Mac so they can’t develop iPhone apps. I think I might give this a try for myself. If you try this too, leave some comments on how its going for you in terms of simplicity or what you are designing.

Read [Gizmodo]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2009 | 6:09 am

Airplane Seat-Back Valet Shows Your Valuables Off to the World

I have mixed thoughts about Hammacher Schlemmer’s Airplane Seat Back Valet. On the one hand, it looks completely perfect for a long haul flight, keeping everything to hand without taking away precious knee-space, and looks like it could be easily rigged to hold a media-player in front of your eyes for some non-censored in-flight entertainment.

On the other hand, it is monstrously dorky, and spreading out all of your belongings for your fellow travelers to see is akin to traveling with your pants off, a kind of physical TMI.

We like that it has slots for memory cards, iPods, cellphones, books, tickets and even a netbook, and while the inclusion of a hidden money-pocket with six credit card slots seems superfluous at first, when you learn that the $40 piece of nylon folds into a shoulder bag for use off the plane, it makes more sense. It should be on sale aboard every plane in the Sky Mall magazine.

I won’t be buying one, as I like to take the aisle seat, jerk the seat back as far as it will go and then load up the flip-down table in front with all my in-flight essentials. Then, when my row-mates need to get up, I first stare at them in irritation, then tut under my breath, clearing the empty whisky miniatures and electronics slowly away before letting them out.

The Airplane Seat Back Valet [Hammacher Schlemmer]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 5:07 am

Video: African Bike Repair With Home-Made Tools

Mohammed is a bicycle repair man in Nairobi, Kenya. His repair stand is the dirt floor, and his tools are home-made. His wheel-building and truing machine is… Amazing. Check it out:

That stand looks a lot better than the ones they use in my local bike shops — it seems like it would last forever. Even Mohammed’s spoke key looks home-made, to a superior design than any I have used — the slotted ring acts as a lever and makes it easy to locate the right sized slot for the nipple you are twisting. The price to have a wheel trued by Mohammed? 10 Kenyan Shillings, or around 13 cents US.

Then we see his freewheel cassette remover. Taking one of these off is near impossible without the right tool, so Mohammed built the right tool. The huge metal mitten grabs the cog-teeth an a screw locks the cassette so it unscrews instead of just spinning.

Innovative stuff, and a lesson to you next time you go to the bike shop just to have them change a tire. Quit being so lazy and do it yourself.

Video of home made bicycle repair tools and gadgets in Nairobi [AfriGadget]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 4:10 am

DIY X-Ray Camera Less Dangerous Than You Think

A small, often forgotten, but significant advantage of digital cameras is that they can be fed through countless airport X-ray machines and the pictures feel no ill effects. Try that with a film camera (or even the bag of film you plan to use on your vacation) and things quickly start to get cloudy. Literally.

That’s because X-rays expose film just like light does, although the X-rays don’t get blocked by the camera body quite so well as the visible spectrum does. This is the trick that PopSci’s Theodore Gray used to make a DIY X-ray camera.

In fact, you don’t even need a camera to try this. Take a sensitive piece of film — Gray used ISO 3000 Fuji instant film — and wrap it in something that will keep the light out (do this in the dark, of course), like tinfoil.

Next, Gray put and old butterfly-shaped earring on top of the package, and hung a radium button (saved from an old science kit) above that. After a day and a half, he developed the film in a Polaroid machine and there on the sheet was a photogram of the butterfly.

Amazingly, you don’t even need the radium button. Although glowing, radioactive watch hands would be even quicker, if you are patient (as in, several months patient), you can use ordinary sodium-free salt to beam particles from decaying potassium-40 at the film.

You could actually try this at the airport, packing up your wrapped film and trinket together in an envelope, say, and letting it run through the X-ray machine. Just be prepared to do some fast talking. And don’t tell them I sent you.

Gray Matter: DIY X-Ray Photos [PopSci. Thanks, Alexis!]

Photo: Mike Walker/PopSci

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:34 am

DIY X-Ray Camera Less Dangerous Than You Think

You can make X-ray exposures at home with nothing more than some fast film and a source of radiation — which can even be a packet of sodium-free salt.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:34 am

Samsung Bada screenshots hit the web, but what’s with the Series 60 font?

Hey, good on Samsung for trying to make their own OS. I’m sure it will be wonderful for them. It saves them from having to, I don’t know, use Android? But what’s with all the Nokia Series 60 font usage in the UI?

These screenshots, which are floating around right now, show some of the UI elements of the new OS, Bada. The font they’re using is approximately (or exactly, I’m not a font scientist (fontographer?)) the same font used on most Series 60 Symbian phones.

Considering Samsung used to use Symbian it’s not a far reach to think that their UI team just hung on to some bad habits but S60 brings up a lot of bad memories for people.

Or could the worst be happening and is Samsung building Bada on top of Symbian, which is now ostensibly open source? We’ll ask, but we probably won’t want to know the answer.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:18 am

OS X Surpasses Windows Market Share (On Phones)

A new survey from Comscore shows that the iPhone has jumped ahead of the ailing Windows Mobile in the US. Comscore measured actual ownership instead of sales figures (as in “What phone do you use?”). RIM’s Blackberry still comes out on top, but in October  Apple jumped ahead of Microsoft, with almost nine million users to Windows’ 7 million.

And remember, Apple has just the three generations of the iPhone and the iPod Touch, while Windows Mobile has been shipping on a whole range of devices for several years. Interestingly, although Palm comes in ahead of Symbian and Google (Android), these figures discount the Pre WebOS as there just aren’t enough Pres out there to show on the charts.

With manufacturers like HTC, traditionally a big WinMo handset maker, defecting to Android (HTC makes the Nexus phone for Google), Microsoft had better watch out. As the mobile market grows and slowly pushes out the desktop and laptop computer, Windows’ stranglehold on the computer industry will continue to slip.

What were the top smartphone operating systems in October? [Fierce Developer via Cult of Mac]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2009 | 3:12 am