GPS-led travel goes amiss; 3 Ore. parties rescued

Source: Gizmodo | 1 Jan 2010 | 6:52 pm

Six New Years Resolutions For Apple And The iPhone In 2010

Six New Years Resolutions For Apple And The iPhone In 2010

Last night, as we waited for Carson Daily to tell us that it was time to make a lot of noise, I found myself laying on my buddy’s lawn with glass number one-too-many of something toxic in my hand. As I stared up at the stars, I pondered something I’d imagine most of the country was pondering as well:

Does Steve Jobs make New Years Resolutions?

I mean, really; outside of continuing to kick cancer’s ass and perhaps expanding his wardrobe, there’s probably not much that needs resolving in El Jobso’s personal life. His number one pet project (outside of that other one), however, could probably use a bit of work right now.

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UPDATE 2-Fox, Time Warner Cable reach deal to avoid blackout

Six New Years Resolutions For Apple And The iPhone In 2010

Last night, as we waited for Carson Daily to tell us that it was time to make a lot of noise, I found myself laying on my buddy’s lawn with glass number one-too-many of something toxic in my hand. As I stared up at the stars, I pondered something I’d imagine most of the country was pondering as well:

Does Steve Jobs make New Years Resolutions?

I mean, really; outside of continuing to kick cancer’s ass and perhaps expanding his wardrobe, there’s probably not much that needs resolving in El Jobso’s personal life. His number one pet project (outside of that other one), however, could probably use a bit of work right now.

Now, now, Apple fans, cover those teeth back up. The iPhone is doing just fine by most counts, but it has its flaws — and, as Motorola’s “iDont” campaign proved, competitors will be more than happy to play on them. It’s been 6 months since the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, and things are just starting to get stale; with the mobile space heating up and Android finally finding its feet, that’s the last thing Apple wants.

And with that, we present: Six New Years Resolutions For Apple And The iPhone In 2010, a completely theoretical (and highly hopeful) to-do list for the folks in Cupertino going into the New Year.

1. Stop hogging background processing:

   Apple’s own apps can continue to run in the background after they’re closed, but the other 100,000 applications available for the platform can’t.

   Apple cites battery efficiency as the primary reason why they’ve kept backgrounding to themselves. Jailbreakers have long had an application available to them called backgrounder, which lets them run any application in the background – and you know what? The battery does just fine.

   It’s long past time to open this up. Certain apps will surely be more battery hungry than others – but, as with anything that uses a battery, it’s really up to the user to learn how to make the most of it.

2. Stop going home so often:

   This one goes hand-in-hand with number one. If Apple ever gets around to allowing background processing on a larger scale, they’ll need a quicker way to hop between running apps. The homescreen is great and all, but do we really need to see it every time we want to switch applications?

   The jailbreak community recently launched an app called “Proswitcher”. With this, users can switch between any apps running behind the scenes, calling up the switcher using any one of 10 or so options from holding the home button to double tapping the top bar. It’s essentially a direct rip of the cards system found on Palm’s webOS, but it’s incredibly smooth and has entirely changed the way I use my iPhone.



3. Stop with the crappy cameras:

   The first two iPhones rocked a 2 megapixel camera, and the 3GS bumped it all the way up to.. 3. Really? 3 megapixels? The megapixel count isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to image quality, but 3 megapixels is down-right itty bitty by high-end smartphone standards these days.

   As augmented reality, image processing, and video sharing become more commonplace, the quality of the camera is getting more and more important. Lets hope the next iPhone brings a bigger upgrade to the camera than another one megapixel bump.



4. Embrace the stack:

   The iPhone uses Qualcomm’s BlueMagic 3.0 for all of its Bluetooth needs, yet makes no use of a significant chunk of the features it supports. A number of these, such as OBEX (for wireless file transferring) and HID (for Bluetooth keyboard support) are profiles that are pretty much standard on other smartphones.

   Oh, and hey Apple – feel free to add support for Wii remotes while you’re at it.

5. Learn to sideload:

   

   Apple seems to be loosening their death-grip, but there are still a million-and-one applications that they’ll never allow on the App Store – and that’s just fine. What’s not fine, however, is that there’s no other way — sans hacking — to get said apps onto the phone at all.

   If only Apple allowed people to add whatever they wanted by way of sideloading, everyone would be happy. Power users get whatever apps they please, and Apple keeps the App Store clean to their specifications.

   And why wouldn’t they do it? The only semi-decent argument against it is that it (potentially) makes piracy easier by opening another gateway to the device that Apple has to protect. Considering how easy it is to get pirated apps on the iPhone already (read: it’s really, really easy) — and how unlikely it is that Apple will ever be able to block it — I’d say the benefits outweigh the risks.

6. Make Background Notifications suck less:
   
   Whether or not Apple decides to support background processing, they’re going to need to fix the background notification system. Before changing their focus from web apps to native applications, Apple never really intended to have to deal with such things. As a result, the notification system is a bit tacked on – and it shows.

   Notifications blast onto the screen, interrupting whatever you’re doing. Only one notification is supported at a time. If a second alert comes in, the first just disappears into the ether. It’s a nasty solution that just barely gets the job done, especially when compared to the notification systems of webOS or Android.

There are plenty of other things that we’d like to see Apple do with the iPhone in 2010 — breaking up with AT&T (or at least setting their status to “Open Relationship”), for example — but now we want to hear from you. If you could change one thing about the iPhone going into 2010, what would it be? Let us know down in the comments.

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Top 20 Trends of the Day (Jan 1) - From 2010 Trend Reports + Pro to Puzzled Seating (COUNTDOWN)

SpamAssassin 2010 Bug

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google executive running for Vermont governor post

Source: Gizmodo | 1 Jan 2010 | 5:44 pm

Ireland's Blasphemy Law Goes Into Effect

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

GPS-led travel goes amiss; 3 Ore. parties rescued

Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010

Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010

Now that the aughts are behind us, we can start the new decade with a bang. So many new technologies are ready to make a big impact this year. Some of them will be brand new, but many have been gestating and are now ready to hatch. If there is any theme here it is the mobile Web. As I think through the top ten technologies that will rock 2010, more than half of them are mobile. But those technologies are tied to advances in the overall Web as well.

Below is my list of the ten technologies that will leave the biggest marks on 2010:

1. The Tablet: It’s the most anticipated product of the year.  The mythical tablet computer (which everyone seems to be working on).  There are beautiful Android tablets, concept tablets, and, of course, the one tablet which could define the category, the Apple Tablet.  Or iSlate or whatever it’s called.  If Steve Jobs is not working on a tablet, he’d better come up with one because  anything else will be a huge disappointment.Why do we need yet another computer in between a laptop and an iPhone?  We won’t really know until we have it.  But the answer lies in the fact that increasingly the Web is all you need.  As all of our apps and data and social lives move to the Web, the Tablet is the incarnation of the Web in device form, stripped down to its essentials.  It will also be a superior e-reader for digital books, newspapers, and magazines, and a portable Web TV.
2. Geo: The combination of GPS chips in mobile phones, social networks, and increasingly innovative mobile apps means that geolocation is increasingly becoming a necessary feature for any killer app.  I’m not just talking about social broadcasting apps like Foursquare and Gowalla.  The advent of Geo APIs from Twitter , SimpleGeo, and hopefully Facebook will change the game by adding rich layers of geo-related data to all sorts of apps.  Twitter just recently launched its own Geo API for Twitter apps and acquired Mixer Labs, which created the GeoAPI.
3. Realtime Search: After licensing realtime data streams from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and others, Google and Bing are quickly ramping up their realtime search.  But realtime search is still treated as a silo, and is not regularly surfaced in the main search results page.  In 2010, I expect that to change as the search engines learn for what types of searches it makes sense to show Tweets and other realtime updates.  In the meantime, a gaggle of realtime search startups such as Collecta, OneRiot, and Topsy will continue to push the ball forward on the realtime search experience.  Realtime search will also become a form of navigation, especially on Twitter and Facebook.  The key will be to combine realtime search with realtime filters so that people are delivered not only the most recent information but the most relevant and authoritative as well.
4. Chrome OS: In November, Google gave the world a sneak peek at its Chrome operating system, which is expected to be released later this year.  The Chrome OS is Google’s most direct attack on Windows with an OS built from the ground up to run Web apps fast and furious.  Already a Google is rumored to be working on a Chrome Netbook which will show the world what is possible with it a “Web OS.” It sounds like it would be perfect for Tablet computers also (see above).  Chrome is a risky bet for Google, but it is also potentially disruptive.
5. HTML5: The Web is built on HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and the next version which has been taking form for a while is HTML5.  Already browsers such as Firefox and Google’s Chrome (the browser, not the OS) are HTML5-friendly.  Once HTML5 becomes more widespread across the Web, it will reduce the need for Flash or Silverlight plug-ins to view videos, animations, or other rich applications.  They will all just be Web-native.  HTML5 also supports offline data storage, drag-and-drop, and other features which can make Web apps act more like desktop apps.  A lot of Websites will be putting HTML5 under the hood in 2010.
6. Mobile Video: With video cameras integrated into the latest iPhone 3GS and other Web phones, live video streaming apps are becoming more commonplace—both streaming from phones and to them.  As mobile data networks beef up their 3G bandwidth and even start to tiptoe into true broadband with 4G (which Verizon is heading towards with its next-gen LTE network), mobile video usage will take off.
7. Augmented Reality: One of the coolest ways to use the camera lens on a mobile phone is with the increasing array of augmented reality apps.  They add a layer of data to reality by placing everything from photos to Tweets to business listings directly on top of the live live image captured by the camera.  Tonchidot’s Sekai Camera, Layar, GraffitiGeo and even Yelp are examples of augmented reality apps.
8. Mobile Transactions: As mobile phones become full-fledged computers, they can be used for mobile commerce also.  One area poised to take off in 2010 are mobile payments and transactions.  Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s latest startup Square turns the iPhone into a credit card reader.  Verifone has its competing product, as does Mophie.  The idea is that any mobile phone can become a point of sale, and those mobile transactions can tie into back-end accounting, CRM, and other enterprise systems.
9. Android: Last year saw the launch of nearly two dozen Android-powered phones, including the Verizon Droid.  In a few days, Google’s Nexus One will launch as the first Android phone which can be unlocked from any given carrier (it is launching with T-Mobile). Android is Google’s answer to the iPhone, and as it reaches critical mass across multiple carriers and handsets it is becoming increasingly attractive to developers.  There are already more than 10,000 apps on Android, next year there will be even more.  And other devices running on the mobile OS are launching as well.
10. Social CRM: We’ve seen the rise of Twitter and Facebook as social communication tools.  This year, those modes of realtime communication will find their way deeper into the enterprise.  Salesforce.com is set to launch Chatter, it’s realtime stream of enterprise data which interfaces with Twitter and Facebook and turn them into business tools. Startups like Yammer and Bantam Live are also making business more social.

Chrome OS

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59 New Year's Resolution Aids - From Fitness Tracking Gadgets to Anti-Smoking Balls (CLUSTER)

Hotel WiFi Should Be a Right, Not a Luxury

I’m in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee for Christmas and on a drive between Memphis and Nashville I noticed that every $30/night hotel offered free wireless Internet access. Further, when we got to Nashville and checked into the relatively low-frills Holiday Inn Express we had better wireless Internet access than I’ve had in hotels around the US and the world—some of which I paid double to stay in.

What gives with hotel WiFi?

This is a ten-year-old technology that has improved in speed and quality nearly everywhere—in homes, in offices, in public spaces, in coffee shops, in airports—even on planes. You can even get free WiFi at Krystal, a fast food chain that’s on par with White Castle and sells hamburgers for less than $1 each. Over the past two years I’ve stayed at more than two-dozen hotels around the United States and the emerging world. I’ve noticed a trend that seems to fly in the face of basic economics and technology adoption: The pricier and fancier hotel, generally the worse quality the WiFi, if it exists at all.

On a trip to Boston two years ago my fancy downtown, five-star hotel had no wireless access. The brand new W in Santiago, Chile has no wireless access. In India, Rwanda and Argentina I’ve had to buy expensive 24-hour WiFi passes, which can add up to hundreds of dollars per stay, for a connection that was just OK. But I knew better than to complain: The quality of the connection is almost always better in emerging markets than Western Europe.

London is hands-down the worst: I’ve stayed at the Sanderson in London twice and always had a hard time getting online, and I’ve also stayed at the Malmaison where even the wired connection didn’t work. I had to go down to the lobby to get a signal. Even then it was like the early days of wireless where you wandered around holding your laptop looking for bars like you were panning for gold.

Arrington may have his silly germaphobe, fist-bump movement. MG may be determined to hold AT&T accountable for its embarrassingly bad iPhone service. Here’s my outrage: Why in 2010 do so many hotels have zero, unreliable or outrageously expensive wireless Internet access?

This is clearly not a cost issue when economy hotels like Holiday Inn and Days Inn have no problem offering free wireless access from the middle of nowhere in the South. (Not to mention Krystal.) This is an issue of greed or tech ignorance on the part of luxury hotels and consumers and business travelers need to start showing some outrage.

On the greed point, Paul Carr—whose parents are hoteliers and lives in hotels now—says the sky-high prices are largely the result of hotels losing fees from business travelers making phone calls, now that we all have mobile phones. The only way to make up the cost was to start charging for Internet access. I wouldn’t have a huge problem with that if the access was good. But I get angry when you charge me $20 a day for a connection that barely works when I can get a better connection at a coffee shop next door for free.

Why not do what the Royal Orchid in Bangalore does? They offer a basic connection for free, and offer a paid rate if you want a faster speed. That still allows a way for the hotel to make money off business travelers with expense accounts, gives guests who need a high-speed connection an in-room option and offers price-conscious guests a way to do the basics like checking email for free.

The other issue is technology. A lot of hotels—deeming themselves too tech-ignorant to install and manage wifi networks themselves—entered into pricey service relationships with third party providers. Hotels say it’s those providers who saddle us with the high fees, and in my experience, not very good connectivity.

If hotels feel they absolutely can’t manage these networks themselves, there have to be better options. What about big Web portals and search engines like Yahoo and Google, or for other countries the local equivalents? Google was ready to wire up all of San Francisco for free access in exchange for ad placement and a Google start page, why not do that for, say, a chain of boutique luxury hotels instead? Or at a minimum, outsource to a service like Boingo that is pretty consistent in service and that many travelers already have a subscription for anyway. It makes the fees hurt less when you can buy an annual pass that’s also good at coffee shops, airports and other public spaces.

These are just a few ideas, and no doubt those of you with more experience setting up networks for big spaces have more. The Internet is fully woven into our lives now. It is the primary way people stay in touch, work and entertain themselves. There is no reason we shouldn’t expect a decent—and preferably free—connection when we pay upwards of $150/night for a hotel if a $30/night hotel can offer it. I, for one, would forgo the pillow mints, free HBO and mini-shampoos if that helps with the margins.

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Source: Gizmodo | 1 Jan 2010 | 4:30 pm

Apple Fails To Deliver On Windows 7 Boot Camp Promise

SkydiverFL writes "For those fans of Apple's Boot Camp package, it looks like you might be waiting on the next 'end of year' to use Windows 7 on your shiny silver boxes. Back in October of this year, Apple published a rather short, but affirmative promise stating quite simply that, 'Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp.' The support page has no updates regarding the new version. Maybe they're waiting for iSlate?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2010 | 4:22 pm

Frank Gruber Leaves Aol To Pursue His Own Ventures

Frank Gruber, Aol’s Principal Product Manager of Lifestream Platform, has just announced that today will be his last day with the company. Gruber’s official role at Aol included planning and building products like its lifestream, but he was also one of the company’s few public faces, making regular appearances at tech events. He’s also known for regularly writing about the tech industry on his blog Somewhat Frank (he has contributed to TechCrunch as well).

Gruber has been at Aol for over three years now, working in a variety of roles. Here’s a recap from his post:

It has been just over 3 years since I joined Aol to help bring some “Web 2.0 & social media” perspective and expertise to the Aol team. In Internet years that is about 10 years. My first task was to join the product development team responsible for the myAOL triple threat including a personalized homepage, a feed reader with bookmarking and an innovate recommendation engine. We then went on to launch it in 28+ countries before it turned one. More recently with the launch of AIM Lifestream I saw about 18 months of planning and strategy come to fruition which included work on AIM buddyupdates and the acquisition of SocialThing.

Gruber tells us that his decision wasn’t affected by the new direction that Aol is taking (he says he likes it). Rather, he wants to pursue his own ventures. In his post, Gruber writes that some of his attention will now be spent on further expanding TECH Cocktail, which holds events across the country to help connect local startup communities.

He’ll also be working on Shiny Heart Ventures, his startup that’s “focused on building products that remind us of the joys of life”. In September the company launched a site called ThankfulFor, a microblogging service for sharing the things you’re most thankful for. And last week it launched Shiny Maine Lobster, a site for a family-owned lobster business that ships lobsters direct by mail to its customers.

Other recent Aol departures include Chief Lifestreamer David Liu, who left the company in October.

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Frank Gruber

AOL

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Source: Gizmodo | 1 Jan 2010 | 3:50 pm

Myths About Code Comments

theodp writes "Jason Baker gives his take on the biggest misconceptions about code comments: 1) Comments are free ('When you update the code that the comment references, you usually have to update the comment as well'). 2) Comments make code more readable ('by far the most pervasive myth that I've encountered'). 3) You should comment every function, method, class, and module ('documenting something that needs no documentation is universally a bad idea'). 4) Code must always be 'self documenting' ('would you rather use a one-liner that requires a 3-line comment, or a 10-liner that requires no comments?')."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2010 | 3:29 pm

Paper art: 100 extraordinary examples.

Above, the work of Jen Stark. And 99 more lovely examples of paper art in this post at Web Designer Depot (via Chris Watson)


Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jan 2010 | 3:04 pm

So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of December 27, 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!

• A Scam 155,000 Strong
  ” Facebook is great for many things: finding your old high school friends, talking to them, and then realizing how little time they spend doing other things. But it is also great for building groups of people with the same interests. Sometimes, those interests…” MORE »
• G1 To Get 2.0 Update
  ” A recent article from our friends over at Engadget claims that the G1 (you remember? the first Android device) will be getting an over-the-air update with the rest of the latest Android devices to the new 2.0, or possibly, the Nexus One’s 2.1…” MORE »
• Firefox 3.6 delayed, 4.0 in 2011
  ”  The most popular open source web browser, Firefox, looks to have a bit of a change of plans.  Mozilla had originally intended to release the next major update, Firefox 3.6 before the end of 2009, and now it looks like…” MORE »
• Gadgetell Hands-on: The Nokia N900
  ” I was recently given the opportunity to play with a Nokia N900 for a few weeks and have to say that it is quite the powerful device. In fact I was much happier using it than I could…” MORE »
• LG Android phone coming to Sprint?
  ”  Android seems to be popping up everywhere lately, from a number of different carriers and manufacturers.  The latest leak pointing to Android looks to bring the open source OS to Sprint for the third time.  This time the phone…” MORE »
• Avatar spoof: The making of the Bootleg
  ” Avatar has no doubt become a phenomena around the world. The hype surrounding the movie that James took 15 years to create, has taken theaters by storm. But it has also created its fair share of spoofs. This one pokes fun at…” MORE »
• Gateway EC18T convertible tablet style PC makes the FCC appearance
  ” The FCC has revealed yet another device, and this time its the Gateway EC18T convertible tablet. Unfortunately, like all FCC listings we are still not sure when this will be available for purchase,…” MORE »
• Nexus One bits: FCC listing confirms Bluetooth dock, real world images of a car clip
  ” While the rumor mill surrounding the Nexus One has calmed down quite a bit, we still have a few…” MORE »
• webOS 1.3.5 for the Palm Pre coming today, according to Sprint
  ” Though we still have not yet heard anything official come from Palm, according to the Sprint support website, Palm Pre owners will be getting a holiday gift at some point today. Yup, it looks like webOS version 1.3.5 is going to be rolled out later today.…” MORE »
• Analysts predict eReaders to be the next big gadget
  ” The Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and the Sony Reader all had impressive showings during the holiday rush.  Many devices were purchased and a lot of revenue was…” MORE »

Source: Gizmodo | 1 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm

FDA notice: LSG SkyChefs, the guys who make plane food, have vermin in Denver

Flying home via Denver? Watch what you eat on the plane, folks! (lifted from Esther Dyson)


Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jan 2010 | 2:59 pm

Turmoil in Tehran: a recap

Cyrus Farivar: "In case you've been hiding out in a post/continuing holiday stupor, Iran is going nuts." Related: Moussavi speaks.


Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jan 2010 | 2:57 pm

Screening problem makes plane return to St. Louis

A company official says a United Airlines Express flight headed to Chicago had to return to St. Louis because of computer trouble in screening passengers. Spokesman Fred Oxley said GoJet
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jan 2010 | 2:49 pm

Criminal Record Inc. Announces Fastest and Most In-Depth Criminal Records System Available

Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jan 2010 | 2:40 pm

TSA Nominee's Snooping Raises Privacy Concerns

Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that Erroll Southers, President Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws. Southers accepted full responsibility for a 'grave error in judgment' when he accessed confidential criminal records twenty years ago about his then-estranged wife's new boyfriend. Southers's admission that he was involved in a questionable use of law enforcement background data has been a source of concern among civil libertarians, who believe the TSA performs a delicate balancing act in tapping into passenger information to find terrorists while also protecting citizens' privacy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2010 | 2:36 pm

China Vows Tougher Crackdown On Web Offenders In 2010 - RedOrbit

CTV.ca

China Vows Tougher Crackdown On Web Offenders In 2010 RedOrbit In 2009, Chinese authorities arrested over 5000 of its citizens for violations of Internet pornography laws — a number that could be much higher in 2010 as the government promises to come down even harder on Web offenders as part of its beefed-up ... China: Reaffirms Plans to “Purify” the InternetZeropaid China Uses Porn To Control The WebKatonda China's Internet Porn Crackdown Leads to 5394 ArrestsTopNews United States Wall Street Journal -Telegraph.co.uk -Scotsman all 164 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Jan 2010 | 2:35 pm

Copenhagen Report: Obama Fails to "Seal the Deal" - The New American

Irish Times

Copenhagen Report: Obama Fails to "Seal the Deal" The New American It had been billed and hyped as the "Seal the Deal" summit, a conference that would produce a binding global agreement on greenhouse gases to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The United States had remained the only major nation that refused to ratify ... Global Warming: Why Branson Wants to Step InTIME BASIC Four to meet in Jan to firm up climate standTimes of India Outrun Global Warming By Moving 5 Miles North in the 2010sio9 Homer Tribune -and weather -Augusta Chronicle all 111 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Jan 2010 | 1:50 pm

Criminal Record Inc. Announces Fastest and Most In-Depth Criminal Records System Available

BROCTON, N.Y., Jan.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jan 2010 | 1:40 pm

NASA Mars Rover Spirit May Move Forward By Spinning Its Wheels

coondoggie writes "As NASA celebrates its Mars rover Spirit's sixth anniversary exploring the red planet, it is hunting for a way to keep the machine, which is mired in a sand trap, alive to see a seventh year. On its Web site, the space agency this week noted there may indeed be such an option. That option would be spinning the wheels on the north side of Spirit, letting it dig in deeper in the Martian sand but at the same time improving the tilt of the rover's solar panels toward the Sun."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 1 Jan 2010 | 1:40 pm

Contest: Win a prize pack of Energizer ‘Energi to Go’ chargers worth over $450

See the photo there? That’s just ONE of the items in the $450+ prize pack that Energizer will be giving to one of our lucky readers. The rules are simple, here’s how to win:

1. Become a fan of Energi to Go on Facebook: Facebook – Energi To Go

2. Leave a message on Energi To Go’s wall with the word “CrunchGear” in it.

That’s it. Also check out Energi to Go on Twitter. This offer is open to U.S. residents only.

Here’s what’s in the prize pack:

• The AP1500 – charging case for iPhone 3G/3Gs (retails for $79.99)
• The SP2000 – a solar charger for cell and smart phones, iPod and mp3 players, gaming devices, digital cameras and more (retail at $99.99)
• The XP2000 – a charger for cell and smart phones, iPod and mp3 players, gaming devices and Bluetooth devices (retail at $39.99)
• The XP4001 – charges up to two devices at once, including cell and smart phones, iPod and mp3 players, gaming devices, Bluetooth devices, digital cameras and camcorders (retail at $69.99)
• The XP18000 – charges netbooks and laptops (retail at $179.99)

Happy New Year and Good Luck! The winner will be notified by Energizer directly.

Energi to Go [Energizer]

Source: Gizmodo | 1 Jan 2010 | 1:30 pm

China Vows Tougher Crackdown On Web Offenders In 2010

In 2009, Chinese authorities arrested over 5,000 of its citizens for violations of Internet pornography laws — a number that could be much higher in 2010 as the government promises to come down even harder on Web offenders as part of its beefed-up “state security” plan.The Chinese government is already infamous for its heavy-handed monitoring and restriction of Internet activity — a phenomenon that critical observers have dubbed the “Great Firewall of China.”According to official figures, China’s ministry of public security arrested nearly 5,400 people and shut down some 9,000 pornography-related websites last year, though it did not disclose how many of those arrests resulted in prosecutions.And this may just be a taste of what the country’s Communist party leaders have in store for 2010.In December 2009, authorities announced that they would be offering rewards of up to 10,000 yuan (1,464 U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jan 2010 | 1:27 pm

iPhone apps for your New Year’s resolutions: Shed Pounds

FROM APPLETELL - If your New Year’s resolution this year involves getting in better shape, these iPhone apps can help you to reach your goal.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm

TSA Withdraws Subpoenas Against Bloggers

wwphx writes "In the wake of public outcry against the Transportation Security Administration for serving civil subpoenas on two bloggers, the government agency has canceled the legal action and apologized for the strong-arm tactics agents used."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Gizmodo | 1 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

Solar showdown in Calif. tortoises' desert home

Environmentalists want a proposed solar-energy complex in the California desert relocated because they say it will destroy prime habitat for the desert tortoise and rare plants. The...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jan 2010 | 11:48 am

Google exec in race for Vt. governor promising 'flat, fast and innovative' state government

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. - Internet search giant Google is based in Silicon Valley, yet it runs its community affairs operation out of a former bread factory in an old New England...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jan 2010 | 11:27 am

So what were the ‘Happy 2010!’ glasses like?

Happy 2010, people who count from Anno Domini using the Gregorian calendar! I greeted the new year by saying, sometime well after midnight, “Oh, it’s 2010 already.” I was playing the PC version of Call of Duty 4, which is demonstrably better than the Xbox 360 version I played two years ago. But that’s not the point of this here post. No, for I have one question to ask of the people who did go outside and celebrate: what were the “Happy 2010!” glasses like?

You’ll recall that a few weeks ago, based on a segment from the Opie and Anthony show, we wondered aloud what kind of “Happy 2010!” glasses were going to make the rounds come December 31. The problem is that, because of the nature of the Arabic numerals, the glasses would either be tilted to one side, or there’d be no way to see effectively. (We were spoiled by the easy-to-wear 2008 and 2009 models.) Being that I didn’t leave the house, nor did I watch the TV to see the ball drop in Times Square—I had effectively rung in the new year by watching Dream/Sengoku’s Dynamite!! show from Tokyo on HDNet the night before—I have no idea how people responded.

So if anyone has any “Happy 2010!” glasses stories they’d like to share, I’m all ears.

And if you thought “Happy 2010!” was difficult, just wait to “Happy 2011!” rolls around.

Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

University Recommends Terms That Should Be Banned

To those of you who are tweeting, sexting, or just chillaxin this holiday weekend, get ready: Fifteen popular overused and misused words and phrases are being targeted by a U.S. university’s annual list of terms that deserve to be banned.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jan 2010 | 10:35 am

Ex-Googler Lee sees Apple tablet debut in January - CNET News

CNET News

Ex-Googler Lee sees Apple tablet debut in January CNET News Sure, every blogger worth his salt has weighed in on the long-rumored Apple tablet that may or may not be--its possible size, shape, specs, debut date, and on and on. Now offering up a perspective on the matter is a high-profile ... Apple competitors betting tablets will take offSan Francisco Chronicle Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? Sound FishyPC World Apple May Ship 10 Million Tablet PCs a Year, Lee SaysBusinessWeek Ars Technica -Tech Jackal -ITProPortal all 69 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 1 Jan 2010 | 10:26 am

Washington DC Residents To Pay For Plastic Shopping Bags

Washington DC residents will now be forced to pay a five-cent levy on each plastic bag issued at the checkout line, AFP reported.The tax, which starts today, is the first such initiative in the United States.It seeks to make consumers bear the brunt of clean up costs for the bags, which currently are dispensed for free with a customer's purchases.The city says that plastic bags often end up clinging to tree branches, getting tangled in power lines, polluting rivers and clogging up storm drains.Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the law in July to cut down on the disposable bags that foul the waterways.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jan 2010 | 10:25 am

Survey: Technology Not As Advanced

Nearly thirty-three percent of Americans believed there would be more technological advances by the year 2010 then there actually have been. Even with inventions like GPS, BlackBerry, the Web, and Twitter, many Americans are disappointed about how far we have come.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jan 2010 | 10:05 am

22 Ways to Save Money on Your Home Energy Bill

Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 1 Jan 2010 | 10:01 am

Staff Mashup: Our favorite games of 2009

FROM GAMERTELL - Here’s a look back at a few of the Gamertell staff’s favorite games released during the last year of the first decade of this century (aka 2009)...
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

Fox Gives Time Warner Brief Extension

Fox and Time Warner Cable tried on Friday to resolve a disagreement over fees after the contract was extended for a few hours, avoiding a threatened blackout of several stations from the cable provider, The Associated Press reported.The announcement was made after midnight on Thursday on the East Coast.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

China nabs 5,400 people for online porn in 2009 (AP)

AP - Chinese authorities caught nearly 5,400 suspects last year in a crackdown on online pornography and have vowed to strengthen Internet policing.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:54 am

MMX

This lovely New Year's illustration comes to us from reader Fergus Stewart, in Manchester, UK.


Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:42 am

Researchers Catch Evolution In The Act

US-German team measures how quickly genomes changeMutations are the raw material of evolution. Charles Darwin already recognized that evolution depends on heritable differences between individuals: those who are better adapted to the environment have better chances to pass on their genes to the next generation. A species can only evolve if the genome changes through new mutations, with the best new variants surviving the sieve of selection. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and Indiana University in Bloomington have now been able to measure for the first time directly the speed with which new mutations occur in plants. Their findings shed new light on a fundamental evolutionary process. They explain, for example, why resistance to herbicides can appear within just a few years. (Science, January 1, 2010)"While the long term effects of genome mutations are quite well understood, we did not know how often new mutations arise in the first place," said Detlef Weigel, director at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. It is routine today to compare the genomes of related animal or plant species. Such comparisons, however, ignore mutations that have been lost in the millions of years since two species separated. The teams of Weigel and his colleague Michael Lynch at Indiana University therefore wanted to scrutinize the signature of evolution before selection occurs. To this end, they followed all genetic changes in five lines of the mustard relative Arabidopsis thaliana that occurred during 30 generations. In the genome of the final generation they then searched for differences to the genome of the original ancestor.The painstakingly detailed comparison of the entire genome revealed that in over the course of only a few years some 20 DNA building blocks, so called base pairs, had been mutated in each of the five lines. "The probability that any letter of the genome changes in a single generation is thus about one in 140 million," explains Michael Lynch. To put it differently, each seedling has on average one new mutation in each of the two copies of its genome that it inherits from mum and dad. To find these tiny alterations in the 120 million base pair genome of Arabidopsis was akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, says Weigel: "To ferret out where the genome had changed was only possibly because of new methods that allowed us to screen the entire genome with high precision and in very short time." Still, the effort was daunting: To distinguish true new mutations from detection errors, each letter in each genome had to be checked 30 times.The number of new mutations in each individual plant might appear very small. But if one starts to consider that they occur in the genomes of every member of a species, it becomes clear how fluid the genome is: In a collection of only 60 million Arabidopsis plants, each letter in the genome is changed, on average, once. For an organism that produces thousands of seeds in each generation, 60 million is not such a big number at all.Apart from the speed of new mutations, the study revealed that not every part of the genome is equally affected. With four different DNA letters, there are six possible changes—but only one of these is responsible for half of all the mutations found. In addition, scientists can now calculate more precisely when species split up. Arabidopsis thaliana and its closest relative, Arabidopsis lyrata, differ in a large number of traits including size and smell of flowers or longevity: Arabidopsis lyrata plants often live for years, while Arabidopsis thaliana plants normally survive only for a few months. Colleagues had previously assumed that only five million years had passed by since the two species went their separate ways. The new data suggest instead that the split occurred already 20 million years ago. Similar arguments might affect estimates of when in prehistory animals and plants were first domesticated.On a rather positive note, the results of the US-German team show that in sufficiently large populations, every possible mutation in the genome should be present. Thus, breeders should be able to find any simple mutation that has the potential to increase yield or make plants tolerate drought in a better manner. Finding these among all the unchanged siblings remains nevertheless a challenging task. On the other hand, the new findings easily explain why weeds become quickly resistant to herbicides. In a large weed population, a few individuals might have a mutation in just the right place in their genome to help them withstand the herbicide. "This is in particular a problem because herbicides often affect only the function of individual genes or gene products," says Weigel. A solution would be provided by herbicides that simultaneously interfere with the activity of several genes.Turning to the larger picture, Weigel suggests that changes in the human genome are at least as rapid as in Arabidopsis: "If you apply our findings to humans, then each of us will have on the order of 60 new mutations that were not present in our parents." With more than six billion people on our planet, this implies that on average each letter of the human genome is altered in dozens of fellow citizens. "Everything that is genetically possible is being tested in a very short period," adds Lynch, emphasizing a very different view than perhaps the one we are all most familiar with: that evolution reveals itself only after thousands, if not millions of years.Original work: Stephan Ossowski, Korbinian Schneeberger, José Ingnacio Lucas-Lledó, Norman Warthmann, Richard M. Clark, Ruth G. Shaw, Detlef Weigel and Michael Lynch. The rate and molecular spectrum of spontaneous mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana. Science, January 1, 2010---Image Caption: Different mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana. Credit: Detlef Weigel
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:38 am

Hackers steal iPhoneUnlockUK mailing list, demand that users ask for their money back

Pity the morons at iPhoneUnlockUK. They sold an iPhone unlock based on the Dev Team’s work and now are paying the price . Hackers broke into iPhoneUnlockUK’s servers, stole their customer lists, and sent the lists to the Dev Team who have decided to enact a little frontier justice. They just sent emails to the service’s 21,000 customers encouraging them to wise up and ask for their money back.

iPhoneUnlockUK claims that they’re offering a value-add by selling the Dev Team’s software, which is BS. The free software is so simple it’s criminal to try to sell it. Luckily the company keeps their credit card rolls on a different server or they’d be singing a different tune right now.

Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:15 am

synthesis - policy vs. attitude - mind the gap & entropic policy

SEATTLE, Jan.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:01 am

Acer ends the year by announcing a new netbook

Section: Computers, Netbooks

With only a few hours left of 2009, Acer has decided to drop the details on its newest Aspire One netbook.  Not a huge surprise given the recent Pine Trail Atom updates, and as a whole the netbook isn’t entirely exciting.  It does have a few new features for Acer, however.

The new netbook is the Acer Aspire One 532h.  It features the Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz, and the old standby netbook specs, 160 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM, etc.  The 532h, however, replaces Windows XP with Windows 7 Starter.  It has a 10-inch LED-lit screen which, paired with the Pine Trail Atom, should give even greater battery life, anywhere from 8 to 10 hours based on the quality of the 6-cell battery it seems.  The keyboard is a decent 93 percent size, and the touchpad has been enlarged to better handle multitouch functions.  The Aspire One 532h, despite the new Atom processor and Windows 7 Starter will cost $300.

While it doesn’t have the specs that some of the other Pine Trail netbooks have, the 532h looks to be a good deal.  It won’t start shipping until late January, so there might some announcements between now and then that may overshadow it before it does see the light of day.  Those possible CES or Apple announcements don’t make it any less of good netbook, it just won’t seem as shiny, new or exciting.  That is assuming you find LED backlighting and a Pine Trail processor can make something new, shiny and exciting.

Read [Electronista]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am

Twitter and Me! Why It’s The Only Social Media Tool I Use.

With all the excitement about the Crunchies awards, I thought I should cast my ballot: Twitter. No, not because it’s the best product (I think Android is), but because it has impacted me the most. To young TechCrunch readers, this post will seem pretty lame. An old professor trying to seem hip by writing about social networking. Yawn. But I’ve never been a fan of social media. I have more than 500 connections on LinkedIn, but have never invited anyone to network with me. I’ve never used LinkedIn to ask anyone for an introduction. I never had a blog (I find it much more effective to write for BusinessWeek and TechCrunch). I never had a Myspace account (does anyone still use Myspace?). Even when I signed up for Facebook, I did it reluctantly because I kept getting friend requests and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

But Twitter is a different. I get a stream of concise notes from people who want to bring things to my attention and from news outlets. I can follow anyone who seems extraordinarily interesting (and doesn’t tweet about brushing their teeth every morning). I can read up about people I’m not following any time I want. And I get immediate feedback to my ideas.

I didn’t feel this way a few months ago. To me, Twitter seemed like another silly tool for kids to tell each other how much alcohol they had just consumed. But a respected professor of journalism at Columbia University, Sree Sreenivasan (@sreenet) kept sending me emails suggesting I sign up for his webcasts on Twitter for journalists. And he kept telling me I would “be a natural” on Twitter.  Why would I send streams of short messages to people I don’t know, I wondered? Sree insisted I try it. So I did. And he became my first follower.

It was pretty lonely at first, tweeting to myself, and I was rapidly losing interest. Having six followers (two of which wanted me to check out their sexy pictures) seemed pretty embarrassing. Then BusinessWeek’s former community editor, Shirley Brady (@shirleybrady) came to my rescue and tweeted to ask her followers to follow me. Soon I had over a hundred people to talk to and it didn’t seem so bad. But my tweeting quickly went beyond conversations and into new and better ways of accomplishing tasks.

Last July, my research team published a paper about the backgrounds and motivations of entrepreneurs. I created a slide show on this for BusinessWeek. One reader asked me a question which haunted me: what is the difference between a small business owner and an entrepreneur? I had assumed that everyone who starts a business was an entrepreneur. But the more I researched this topic, the more obvious it became that there was no clear answer.

So I went to my new friend: Twitter.  I asked my followers if they could help me solve this puzzle. Before I knew it, I had received several insightful responses. I ended up writing this BusinessWeek piece which featured Sue Drakeford, Miss Nebraska 2001 (yes, she does tweet). Since then, I’ve had my Twitter followers help me with most of the articles I’ve written. They provide a sounding board, valuable feedback and examples. I’ve quoted several followers who offered themselves up as sources (see my last post on stealth companies – Preetam Mukherjee(@_marcellus) was one of my followers as was Alex Kosorukoff(@alexko3), who I highlighted in a post about the Founders Visa).

More recently, I’ve been getting demands from my Twitter followers for articles. My post on selling and why everyone in a tech company should have sales training came about after a series of Twitter requests. I’m writing a piece on women in engineering which is inspired by Women 2.0 founder Shaherose Charania (@shaherose) and Cisco CTO, Padmasree Warrior (@padmasree). And I’m writing a follow-up to the post on stealth because twitter followers have been bombarding me with questions about protecting intellectual property. I’ve joked that my Twitter followers seem to be setting my research and writing agenda these days and it’s not that far from the truth.

So, Twitter has become a very useful tool. I hope I never become like Sarah Lacy (@saracuda), though. On our recent trip to Jaipur, India, she tweeted while sitting on an elephant. I kid you not. She wanted to let Twitter founder Evan Williams (@ev) know she was the first to do this.

At present I have 3600 followers and they keep coming out of the woodwork. Many are amazing people. I follow only a few because I can’t keep up with all the conversations. If a follower looks very interesting I do try to at least read some of their tweetstream. I click on their names on Tweetdeck and read their last 20 posts. I have a few people I like to read closely for different purposes and topics. In that way, too, Twitter is amazing as its the most efficient mechanism I have ever seen to allow me to peruse the thoughtstreams of others who live all over the world.

I firmly believe that of all forms of social media, Twitter (or more accurately, microblogging) is the only one that could have achieved this sort of effect. Writing a full blog post is time consuming and comments can be lengthy. Who wants to read or police all of them? IM is essentially a one-to-one communications tool. Facebook has elements of microblogging but it’s not really the kind of place where I want to share thoughts about immigration reform, if you know what I mean. With Twitter, I learned it in an hour, became proficient in a few more, and spend no more than 20 minutes per day on this. Because the message size is so concise, I find people say important things (or silly things, but at least they are short silly things). So Evan and Biz, you have my vote for the Crunchies, guaranteed.

Editor’s note:  It should go without saying that Vivek doesn’t get any special votes for the Crunchies other than what any TechCrunch reader gets.  You can vote for your favorite startups for the Crunchies here. And you can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am

Taste Test: Ginkgo nuts

I love ginkgo nuts. They have a nutty, ever-so-slightly bittersweet flavor and a punchy-soft texture reminiscent of jelly beans that is, in my experience, quite unmatched by other nuts. They're also beautiful to look at — tiny egg-shaped beads that are a pale yellow when raw and take on a translucent, golden-green glow when cooked.

When I was in elementary school in Tokyo, my friends and I used to walk past a really stinky ginkgo biloba tree. The stink is one of the reasons why the trees aren't seen near busy streets in the US, even though it's the oldest tree specie in the world.

When you buy ginkgo nuts, they usually come shelled, with a light brown casing. The easiest way to prepare them is to fill a frying pan with oil, just enough to cover the nuts, and cook for about three minutes until they're shiny and translucent, and the brown casing starts to fall off. Make sure you pat away excess oil with a paper towel before serving, and sprinkle some good coarse salt on them.

My aunt prepared the ginkgo nuts in this picture for dinner last night. My brother and I both love them, so we immediately started popping them in our mouths. Then my mom and aunt both told us that we shouldn't eat more than 10 at once. My mom said it was bad for digestion; my aunt said it would give us nosebleeds and make us stupid. I wasn't sure if this was just folklore if there's some scientific truth to it, but my brother and I both counted back, stopped at 10, and saved the rest for later.*

As a supplement, ginkgo biloba extract is thought to improve blood flow and memory. Ginkgo contains antioxidants, which gets rid of free radicals in the body that can contribute to heart disease and cancer.

*Later, I found that my mom and aunt's warnings were in sync with side effect warnings that accompany ginkgo biloba extract. I'm sure the chances are low, but as with everything else in life, moderation is the key to staying healthy.

Every installment of Taste Test will explore recipes, the science, and some history behind a specific food item.

Previously:

• Taste Test: watermelon daikon
• Taste Test: raw eggs
• Taste Test: togarashi
• Taste Test: persimmon
• Taste Test: red kuri squash

Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am

Carbon Nanotubes For Genetic Sequencing

Image Caption: In the current issue of Science, Stuart Lindsay, director of Arizona State University’s Center for Single Molecule Biophysics at the Biodesign Institute, along with his colleagues, demonstrates the potential of a new DNA sequencing method in which a single-stranded ribbon of DNA is threaded through a carbon nanotube. Credit: The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jan 2010 | 8:50 am

Alternative solar power: Weird roof orbs provide lighting (video)

Nani Kore (”What’s This?”) is the name of a Japanese TV show that digs up bizarre things and phenomena observed around the world and explains how they work. In the latest show, they presented a house in central Tokyo that proves solar power can be used in a residential setting without those expensive solar panels and cells.

Just take a set of orbs that look like giant light bulbs, install them on your roof and watch them reflecting the light of the sun into your house. This obviously just works during the day, but if you have buildings around your house that block the sunlight, the orbs might help to light up dark rooms and save electricity costs. And they look kind of cool, too.

Watch this video (clip in Japanese) to see how the roof orbs work:

Via Japan Probe

Source: CrunchGear | 1 Jan 2010 | 8:20 am

Mosquitoes Harmonize To Find A Mate

Researchers have new insight into the sex lives of the much-maligned mosquitoes that are responsible for the vast majority of malaria deaths, according to a report published online on December 31st in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jan 2010 | 6:35 am

Studying Ancient Humans Using Modern Sequencing Techniques

DNA that is left in the remains of long-dead plants, animals, or humans allows a direct look into the history of evolution.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 1 Jan 2010 | 6:26 am

522 Sums Up A Successful '09

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The past year was one many people would like to forget, but for the creative minds behind Old Town's 522 Productions, LLC, it was a year to celebrate.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 1 Jan 2010 | 2:22 am

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