Previously:

• NY Times editorial on laptop seizures by Homeland Security - Boing ...
• Tech politics roundup: blog license, laptop search, goatse ban ...
• HOWTO keep your laptop from being searched at the border (it's ...
• US Customs TSA confiscating laptops - Boing Boing
• Appeals court reverses ruling: now border agents can search ...

Previously:

• Haiti Quake: Ned Sublette update, open thread
• Haiti's real deal with the devil

Previously:

• EFF lawsuit reveals US improperly collected data on citizens Boing ...
• EFF's fundraising video Boing Boing
• EFF/XKCD shirt Boing Boing
• EFF lawyers grin like holy fools, surrounded by a fan of formerly ...
• EFF sets sights on abusive EULAs - Boing Boing
• EFF analyzes the legal creepiness of ACTA, the secret copyright ...
• EFF launches Hall of Shame for copyright abusers - Boing Boing

Source: Gizmodo | 13 Jan 2010 | 8:00 pm

Microsoft Prepares For Its Mobile Super Bowl - ChannelWeb

Reuters

Microsoft Prepares For Its Mobile Super Bowl ChannelWeb Just over a week after the NFL Super Bowl next month, Microsoft will take part in its own "Super Bowl" at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain. That's where Microsoft is expected to talk in some level of ... LG Bets on Android Despite Windows Mobile DealPC World Microsoft predicts Linux will fail mobile 'quality' testRegister 10 Reasons Why Windows Mobile 7 Must Launch in 2010, or ElseeWeek CNET -V3.co.uk -Apple Insider all 403 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:53 pm

YouTube Revamp Imminent?

An anonymous reader writes "YouTube's latest blog post indicated that some changes are on the way. Google has opened up a call to submit and vote on ideas. HTML 5 open video with Free formats has dominated the vote, maintaining over twice as many votes as the next-highest item almost since the vote opened up. You may vote here (Google login required). Perhaps we don't even need to since their blog post comes suspiciously soon after their revised merger with On2. Could these improvements be a completely overhauled YouTube 2.0?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:49 pm

MoVoxx Launches ‘GeoSense’ Location-Based Ads For SMS And Mobile Apps

When it comes to mobile advertising, smartphone ads seem to be getting the most attention (see our coverage earlier today for a good example). But there’s also a huge amount of advertising going on through SMS messages. MoVoxx is one company that’s tapping into both channels, and now it’s leveraging its inventory of 700 million monthly impressions to tackle the holy grail of advertising: real-time, location based ads.

To do that, the company recently launched a new pilot with Citysearch, which it’s using in combination with MoVoxx’s directory of phone numbers and associated user details to target their GeoSense ads. MoVoxx CEO Alec Andronikov says that plenty of other companies have tried to perfect location based, real time advertising, but that they’re usually lacking one of three elements he says are required for success: a wide reach, a way to determine where the user is to serve the local ad, and a way to monetize. Andronikov says that MoVoxx has each of these covered.

For the scale side of things, he says that the company has a core SMS network that yields 300 million impressions a month, and another 400 million impressions through in-app advertising on smartphones. He says that the company has also built out tools behind the scenes to optimize which users receive which ads.  It does this by building profiles of user information for each phone number in its system (things like gender and interests), gathering this data from its other products that publishers have implemented.  To determine the user’s location, MoVoxx can use CellID from in-app ads; for SMS messages, it relies on Useful Networks, which works with the carriers to gather location information, even on phones that don’t have a GPS.

Finally, there’s the revenue side of things. One of the problems with making a location based ad platform is getting local merchants on board — you can’t exactly go door to door to sign people up.  That’s where Citysearch comes in. Citysearch has built out a database of 70,000 local merchants who have opted into mobile-based advertising. MoVoxx has access to these companies through a local merchant API, and can automatically build out WAP pages for each using data from Citysearch. Andronikov says that MoVoxx is also working with other local merchant aggregators besides CitySearch, like iPromote and Marchex, to build out its database, and does direct deals with larger brands like McDonalds and Warner Bros.

The flow for the user is straightforward (you can see an example in the image below). First, they receive an location-based ad promoting a local merchant. This could come, for example, at the bottom of an SMS message sent by ChaCha Answers. This text-based SMS ad would then link to a WAP page featuring the company’s address, phone number, and other information.  MoVoxx makes money both from the initial ad unit (on a CPC basis) and from secondary actions on the WAP site.  Users can also opt-in to receive proximity alerts, which allows users to specify if they’d like to receive SMS-based offers from nearby merchants (you can specify certain categories you’re interested and how often you’d like to receive alerts). The ads come alongside SMS content the user has already elected to receive, like ChaCha Answers or Reuters Business News.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:43 pm

Law firm suing China says hit by Google-style cyber-attacks

Source: Gizmodo | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:20 pm

And he spake as a dragon

Pravda reports that a sheep in Turkey gave birth to a stillborn lamb with a human-like face. Warning: it's not a pleasant sight.


Source: Boing Boing | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:19 pm

Google v. Baidu: It’s Not Just about China

Most publications, including us, noted yesterday that if Google has to lose its $600 million in revenues from China by pulling out of the country, then at the very least it’s won a lot in brand and integrity points by the public, English-language and scorched-earth way they did it. Google’s halo is so bright that even now Valley thought leaders are aghast at the idea that a publicly-traded, for-profit company could have had more than just an ethical motive at play.

Today, as the story has unfolded, Chinese residents have openly “mourned” the loss of Google by putting flowers and candles out at the company’s Beijing headquarters. (Picture above was taken by Junyu Wang.) That’s striking for two reasons. First, it shows the Chinese government’s grasp on censorship has already measurably slipped. And second, it shows that Google’s moral-high ground stance was even effective within some parts of China.

But there’s a third—and potentially more impactful—way this move could play into Google’s market position long term. Take a look at this December 14 eMarketer release on worldwide search numbers. It not only shows Baidu walloping Google in China with double the market share, but it shows that this battle is quickly becoming more a global one. Forget China, Baidu is now the third largest search site in the world and it’s nipping at Yahoo’s heels to become number two. Yahoo had 8.9 billion searches in July of 2009; Baidu had 8 billion. That’s more than double the number four player, Microsoft, which had just 3.3 billion searches worldwide. For the record, Google is still light-years ahead of everyone with 76.7 billion searches. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t view Baidu as a global threat.

We tend to have the view that China is some copycat Internet backwater, and that’s just not true. China has formidable engineering talent, plenty of venture capital, the world’s largest Internet audience, and in many cases better methods of monetization, especially when it comes to games and social media.

Several people argued today that Google’s pull out would damage the Chinese Internet by leaving only one search player, or suggested it could be opportunity for one of Google’s US rivals. Such pundits don’t get how scrappy and fast-moving China’s own entrepreneur scene is. If there’s a void, it’ll be filled locally. I have no doubt VCs in China are already in talks with savvy entrepreneurs.

But as growth in search and the Internet-at-large goes global, Google’s biggest competitors will increasingly come from China. With it’s announcement this week, it just communicated a powerful message to the world’s democracies or other anti-Chinese factions: Baidu is in the Chinese Government’s pocket; we’re not.

As I pointed out yesterday, this could loom large when it comes to future acquisitions. A number of Chinese Internet companies are building hoards of cash and valuable stock currencies. It’s possible those companies will start competing with Google for acquisitions both in the Valley and the rest of the world. Google, after all, has announced that its shopping spree is heating up, and given the woeful state of its competitors in the US (Yahoo and AOL are too damaged to out-bid Google; Facebook doesn’t yet have a stock currency) Chinese Internet companies could emerge as its chief competitors for hot properties and talented staffs of engineers.

I’m not suggesting that this is why Google made the move, nor do I know if the senior executives even view this as a potential threat. But should a Chinese Internet company make a bid for a US Internet gem, this week’s events will no doubt be brought up as a reason the US government should block it—something we’ve already seen when Arab companies have bid for ownership of US port controllers and financial institutions. That could prove a pretty savvy side-benefit for the search giant as the Internet battles of the next decade start to heat up.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:11 pm

Sony's E-Reader Opens New Chapter in Kindle Rivalry [Personal Technology]

Sony, the Japanese electronics giant, was a pioneer in the current wave of electronic book readers, introducing its first Sony Reader model back in 2006. But, it has been overtaken by Amazon.com, whose Kindle e-book reader, introduced in 2007, has become almost synonymous with the category. Now, Sony (SNE) is out with a much-improved model that could make it more competitive.

Unlike the Kindle, Sony’s readers weren’t wireless and their owners couldn’t download books or newspapers directly to the device, instead of via a computer. Now, that problem has finally been solved with Sony’s new Reader Daily Edition, a handsome $400 wireless model that I’ve been testing.

The Daily Edition can be bought at Sony’s stores; at its Web site, sonystyle.com; and at Best Buy’s (BBY) site, bestbuy.com. It was sold out for the holidays, but Sony says it expects new stock soon.

The Daily Edition isn’t a mere clone of the Kindle. It has a different design philosophy and is stronger in some areas, weaker in others. In general, I enjoyed using it, once I mastered its user interface, which took several days. I especially liked the fact that it packs a larger screen into a comfortably small device, and mostly uses touch navigation instead of all physical controls. For instance, while the Sony does have a small page-turning button, you can more easily turn pages by just swiping your finger across the screen. It’s also better at navigating digital newspapers, something I’ve never found very satisfying on the Kindle.

(Full disclosure: Sony has struck a special deal with Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal and this Web site. Under the deal, a special late-day edition of the Journal, containing updated news, will be available on the Daily Edition for an extra charge starting later in January.)

On the downside, the Daily Edition has three main flaws when compared with the Kindle. First, it’s much more expensive—$400 versus just $259. Second, it has only about half of the commercial, copyrighted digital books that Amazon (AMZN) does—around 200,000 versus the Kindle’s roughly 400,000. Sony also throws in a million out-of-copyright, old books, for a total of 1.2 million.

But many of these added million titles are obscure and of little interest to mainstream consumers. The Reader also has just eight newspapers, versus 92 for the Kindle, though Sony says 10 more are coming soon.

Third, the technology that makes the screen touch sensitive also dims it a bit, so the Daily Edition’s screen is darker than the Kindle’s. (Both are unlit monochrome screens with gray-scale graphics.) I found the Sony screen adequate, but it’s tougher to read in lower light.

The Daily Edition is a slender device with a black metal body that contrasts sharply with the wider, white plastic body of the Kindle. While both products use the same basic screen technology, and the same screen width, the Daily Edition’s screen is longer; it measures 7 inches versus 6 inches for the Kindle. In my tests, I found this a big advantage, because, when both devices were set for roughly comparable text sizes, the Sony could hold more text on a page, cutting down on the need for page turns, which interrupt reading.

In addition, the Daily Edition is narrower than the Kindle, because the borders around the screen are thinner, since they don’t have to accommodate the Kindle’s various large buttons or physical keyboard. (You can enter text for notes or searches on the Daily Edition using a stylus for handwriting or a virtual onscreen keyboard.) This longer, narrower shape gives the new Sony a nice feel in the hand.

I also preferred the Sony’s method for presenting newspapers, which allowed more headlines to be viewed at once and required fewer steps to navigate through the paper.

The Sony also claims more battery life with wireless turned off, comes with a cover included—an extra-cost item on the Kindle—and can handle more book formats, including the free digital books offered by public libraries. Built-in memory is the same, but the Daily Edition’s can be expanded while the Kindle’s can’t.

Like the Kindle, the new Sony also allows you to drag songs, pictures and some personal documents onto the device from your computer. I did this with no problems.

The Daily Edition has companion software for buying, reading and storing books on both PCs and Macs. But it has no app for a smart phone, and doesn’t synchronize your last-read place in your book among the reader and the computer.

Also, I found the Daily Edition required a harder learning process than the Kindle. First, it takes awhile to get the hang of the touch gestures, partly because they require much more pressure than on, say, an iPhone. Second, using touch to bring up features and menus can be a mystery until you consult the manual. For instance, it took days to discover that you could set a bookmark by double-tapping on the upper right corner.

But, all in all, despite its higher price, the Daily Edition is a big leap for Sony and adds another good choice for consumers.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email mossberg@wsj.com.

Source: All Things Digital | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:03 pm

Microsoft halts online sales of MS Office to comply with court order

Section: Computers, Software / Applications

On Monday, Microsoft yanked almost every version of Office from its online store in order to comply with a court order. In August the company lost a patent infringement lawsuit brought against it by Canadian software company i4i Inc and was ordered to stop selling the popular office suite until the custom XML that constituted a violation of i4i’s patent and pay them almost $300 million in damages.

align=“right”“We’ve taken steps to comply with the court’s ruling and we’re introducing the revised software into the U.S. market,” said Michael Croan, a senior marketing manager, in an e-mail. He also downplayed the move. “This process will be imperceptible to the vast majority of customers, who will find both trial and purchase options readily available,” he added.

The only version of MS Office left for sale is Office Ultimate 2007, which sells for $670, meaning it may very well cost more than some of the computers that it gets installed on. Microsoft says updated versions of the other Office products with the offending code removed will soon be returned to their store. Meanwhile Office 2007 and Office 2008 for Mac are still available in retail stores, and the beta of Office 2010 is available for download. Microsoft has also made updates available for MS Office 2003 and 2007 but says they only need to be installed if you have been previously contacted by them and told you need to do so.

I use Office 2003 and haven’t been contacted by Microsoft, so I guess I’m in the clear. Have you been contacted and told you need to install the updates?

Read [PCWorld]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:02 pm

The Chumby One tear-down

It so sad when they expose the guts of devices like the Chumby One. The Chumby has personality, you know? You kind of feel for it? Oh well. iFixIt tore the Chumby into little bits, splaying the processor, screen, and even the speaker for all to see. There’s not much to see here but the motherboard features:

64 MB Hynix HY5DU121622BTP CMOS Double DataRate (DDR) Synchronous DRAM
GL8520G USB 2.0 Hub
MMA7455 3-axis accelerometer
QN8005B FM radio
Blank space for NAND flash (not used due to booting from MicroSD)
MicroSD socket complete with a 2GB Kingston MicroSD firmware card
Unpopulated passives for composite (NTSC/PAL) video output

This means there is plenty of room in here as well as a potential for adding your own firmware to this little fellow, thereby breaking him free of the Chumby chains forever. You can read the whole thing right here, but it will just make you sad.

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:00 pm

iPhone Doubles Up Android On Mobile Ad Click Rates; Both Destroyed By Symbian

When you think about mobile advertising, you might think the iPhone or Android are the hot platforms (thanks to ads like this). But you’d be wrong.

Some new December data from the mobile advertising company Smaato suggests that it’s actually Symbian that kills both the iPhone and Android. Now, I know what you’re thinking: that’s because Nokia, despite the buzz surrounding the sexier smartphone devices, remains the biggest mobile player in the world. But actually, the numbers are for the all-important click-through rates on the various platforms.

As you can see in the chart below, with the average CTR on ads for all mobile platforms set to 100, Symbian led the way by far with a 161 score. This was followed by the iPhone (and iPod touch) with 119. Android? They’re way down the list with a 65. Only Palm and BlackBerry fared worse.

So why is Symbian doing so well with click-through rates? Smaato suspects is may have to do with the high saturation of Nokia devices in emerging markets. But they also note that the CTR in the U.S. are higher for Symbian, though on a much smaller scale since Nokia isn’t nearly as popular here.

In terms of overall usage, Symbian makes of some 46.2% of the phones that Smaato tracks. RIM (BlackBerry) is in second place with 20.6%, but the iPhone is quickly catching up, with 17.8% after experiencing huge growth this year. But Smaato expects Android to the the big mover in 2010, likely going from just 3.5% now to over 10% by the end of the year.

Something else interesting from the report: Quattro Wireless tied Millennial Media as the top-performing mobile ad network in the U.S. That’s significant since Apple just acquired Quattro after Google stole AdMob away from them. Smaato didn’t specify AdMob data in its report.

[photo: flickr/jm3]

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:54 pm

Precision Polling Is A Survey Monkey For The Phone

Precision Polling has launched to provide an easy way to create and launch phone surveys, taking a page from the model that simple online survey sites, like SurveyMonkey, have pioneered. Precision Polling is self-service website that lets you design and run phone surveys start to finish.

You simply create a questionnaire through a web interface, call the site’s hotline to record your voice, and then give the site a list of phone numbers to call. Once those steps have been completed, Precision Polling will start making calls You can also choose between dialing out to a list of people, or letting people call in. It costs the surveyor just 10 cents per call. Users can see data and results in real time via a customized Web-based dashboard. On the backend, the site is using services like Twilio to power its service.

Seattle-based Precision Polling was founded by Gaurav Oberoi and Chuck Groom, who formerly started and sold social money management tool BillMonk.com to mobile payments startup Obopay. The pair also recently worked at Xmarks and Amazon.

The startup should be able to gain traction in the space, especially for government and non-profit initiatives. Phone polling is an expensive endeavor and Precision Polling sees to simplify this process.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:50 pm

Linux Foundation launches jobs board (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - The Linux Foundation is launching Thursday an online jobs board for employers looking for Linux talent and job seekers looking to provide it.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:44 pm

The Escapist reviews Torchlight

“More clicks than a school for dolphin telegraph operators.”

Source: CrunchGear | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:30 pm

Hooray For Pizza Doodles!

When I was working with Ralph Bakshi, I would regularly prowl the hallways after hours digging through the trash for discarded doodles. One night I was in Ralph's office rummaging through his can when he furiously burst through the door. "Hey! What the @&$% are you doin'?!" Ralph hollered. "I'm looking for doodles." I replied. Ralph's whole demeanor changed. "OOooo! Have ya found any good ones?" "Yeah! Lookit this..." In a flash Ralph had upended his wastebasket on his desk and we were digging through his discarded sketches like schoolboys trading bubble gum cards. The next night, I found a particularly nice doodle perched on the edge of Ralph's trash can. It was inscribed, "To Steve, my best friend".

The best drawings in an animation studio don't always end up on the screen. Animators' pencils never stop, and since the beginning of time, cartoon studios have been wallpapered with hilarious caricatures and gag drawings making fun of co-workers. My pal John K is the King of doodlers. I can't think of a time when we've gone out for a pizza or a hot dog when he didn't have his yellow pad with him, scribbling out cartoons to illustrate what he was talking about. To heck with Bill Gates and his DaVinci sketchbook. I like this stuff better!

John is now shoveling his doodles out to the internet by way of his story blog, John K Cartoon Stories. His price is way too cheap if you ask me, but he never asked me- so it's your lucky day. Here's a link to his store page where you can pick up an authentic autographed John K pizza doodle of your very own!

John K Doodle Store

Source: Boing Boing | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:13 pm

Why Is Haiti So Poor?

A market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, appears in the above photo, which was taken between 1909 and 1920. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, which makes the devastation caused by yesterday’s earthquake that much harder on an already ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:08 pm

Jargon Watch: Vook, Gigavision, Shootout, Hopping Rotochute

Nowadays, a shootout is something you want to be caught in: a drive-thru flu-vaccination clinic.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:00 pm

How to Access Blocked Sites

So what if your employer blocks non-work-related websites like Facebook -- Wired has a work-around.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:00 pm

Soul Searching: Google’s position on China might be many things, but moral it is not

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” – John F. Kennedy

How exciting! Google has issued a statement saying it’s un-censoring its search results in China! And it’s threatening to pull out of the country completely, in retaliation for an alleged (and, we’re led to infer, government-backed) attempt to hack the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents!

As a tech story, it has all the makings of a classic diplomacy thriller; a modern-day Cuban Missile Crisis with Google as Adlai Stevenson, waving photos of hacked emails at China’s Valerian Zorin. “Don’t wait for the translation! Just answer yes or no!” Meanwhile, Google slowly provocatively moves photos of Tiananmen tanks back onto it’s Chinese image search.

Unsurprisingly for such a bold move, Google’s statement – that it would no longer be bowing to Chinese censorship, having spent four years doing precisely that – has sparked debate amongst my esteemed friends and colleagues in the blogosphere.

On one side, Robert Scoble has congratulated Google, almost unconditionally. “Google has EVERY INCENTIVE to kiss Chinese ass,” he says, “that’s why this move today impressed me so much.” And to those who say that Google’s behavior to date has been overly sympathetic to the Chinese government? Um, he’s sorry…

“Um, I’m sorry, but when I visited China I heard from many people that of the American companies Google didn’t play the game as well as, say, Yahoo or Microsoft. Remember Yahoo? Remember what they turned over to the Chinese government? When I worked at Microsoft I saw them play footsie with the Chinese government too. Heck, the Chinese president visited Microsoft’s campus when I worked there and got a red-carpet welcome. Why? Because China is a HUGE market and a HUGE supplier of labor that builds Microsoft’s products. It doesn’t matter to me that Google played footsie up until today, either. They were the first to stop playing footsie and THAT deserves a HUGE round of applause.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the debate is TechCrunch’s own Sarah Lacy whose take is pretty well summed up by the title of her post “Google’s China Stance: More about Business than Thwarting Evil“. She asks…

“Does anyone really think Google would be doing this if it had top market share in the country? For one thing, I’d guess that would open them up to shareholder lawsuits. Google is a for-profit, publicly-held company at the end of the day. When I met with Google’s former head of China Kai-fu Lee in Beijing last October, he noted that one reason he left Google was that it was clear the company was never going to substantially increase its market share or beat Baidu. Google has clearly decided doing business in China isn’t worth it, and are turning what would be a negative into a marketing positive for its business in the rest of the world.”

So who is right? The Economist seems to be siding with Sarah, quoting her in a piece bearing the punderfully British title ‘Google errs‘. Meantime Robert has support from search expert Danny Sullivan and a Google Spokesperson who writes “This is not about market share. While our revenues from China are really immaterial, we did just have our best ever quarter [in China].”

The truth is I don’t know who precisely why Google made its decision. I wasn’t in the room when it was discussed. But here’s one thing I do know: anyone who is applauding Google for taking a stand against censorship needs – ironically – to sit the hell down and shut the hell up.

For four years, Google complied with the Chinese government’s demands that they censor search results. It did this in the hope of becoming the number one search engine in China, a goal it failed to achieve. You can argue – reasonably – that there’s nothing wrong with Google operating under the laws of a country, much as eBay is banned from listing Nazi memorabilia in Germany. Self-censorship is the cost of doing business in China, and it’s a price that Google decided was worth paying. Or you can take completely the opposite view: calling Google evil for ever setting foot in Beijing.

But whatever your view, you have to accept that Google spent four years, and earned vast sums of money, operating under China’s censorship laws. And now only when they suffer an attack that threatens to damage their business worldwide – “What? The communists can hack my Gmail?” – have they suddenly found a conscience.

This may be a case of scorched-earth diplomacy on the part of Google, it may just be pure retaliation against a government which tried to hack their servers or it may be a shrewd business move dressed up as “taking a stand”. But what it’s absolutely not is a “moral position”, nor one that they should be particularly applauded for, any more than a man who has spend four years beating his wife should be applauded when he decides to stop. If anyone should be applauded it’s the man who didn’t beat his wife in the first place: companies like Twitter and Facebook whose refusal to work with the Chinese government lead to them being blocked last July.

Taking a moral position four years too late – whether you’re the first or the last to do so – is like suddenly declaring that you oppose the Iraq war now you’re no longer standing for the Senate or renouncing your own steroid abuse once you’ve retired from professional sports. Which is to say, it’s taking no moral position at all.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 5:56 pm

Macworld 2010 Best of Show: Call for Submissions (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - The Macworld Best of Show Awards, presented each year at Macworld Conference & Expo to the best products making their debut at the annual trade show, are back for 2010 with a few twists.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Jan 2010 | 5:45 pm

Nanowires Inject Molecules Into Living Cells

TechRev_AL writes "A scientist at Harvard University has developed a clever trick for manipulating the insides of living cells. Hongkun Park grows cells on top of nanowires so that the wires poke into them like needles, which allows molecules to be delivered inside them. To use the nanowires to deliver molecules, Park's team first treats them with a chemical that would allow molecules to bind relatively weakly to the surface of the nanowires. Then they coat the wires with a molecule or combination of molecules of interest. When cells are impaled on the nanowires, the molecules are released into the cells' interior. This gallery of images shows the cells growing on top of the nanowires."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Jan 2010 | 5:33 pm

My Totally Self Indulgent Puppy Video

I apologize for this self indulgent moment. I just got these two and couldn't resist posting.

Source: Boing Boing | 13 Jan 2010 | 5:22 pm

Brace for More Strong Quakes in Haiti Region

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti last night could be just the beginning. According to geologists monitoring the region, the quake could have primed faults crisscrossing the island of Hispaniola to unleash additional destructive temblors. Situated ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 5:08 pm

Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes

artemis67 writes "A man studying in London has taken a mathematical equation that predicts the possibility of alien life in the universe to explain why he can't find a girlfriend. Peter Backus, a native of Seattle and PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, near London, in his paper, 'Why I don't have a girlfriend: An application of the Drake Equation to love in the UK,' used math to estimate the number of potential girlfriends in the UK. In describing the paper on the university Web site he wrote 'the results are not encouraging. The probability of finding love in the UK is only about 100 times better than the probability of finding intelligent life in our galaxy.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Jan 2010 | 4:57 pm

Google's China Threat Carries Long-Term Risks To Company - Wall Street Journal

Boston Globe

Google's China Threat Carries Long-Term Risks To Company Wall Street Journal SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Google Inc.'s (GOOG) threat to pull out of China over security and censorship issues risks little in the short term, but the online search giant could find itself at a long-term ... Nexus One returners may need to pay up to $550 feesReuters Google's Nexus One Hit by Slow SalesPC Magazine Google Nexus One's First Week Sales WeakTechtree.com Boston Globe -San Francisco Chronicle -pocketnow.com all 210 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Jan 2010 | 4:44 pm

Facebook-McAfee Deal: A Great Start - PC World

Siliconrepublic.com

Facebook-McAfee Deal: A Great Start PC World McAfee and Facebook have joined forces to keep 350 million Facebook users safe from malware. But if you think this is a silver bullet to keep you safe on Facebook, think again. There is no doubt Facebook is taking an innovative and positive step toward ... Facebook Partners With McAfee For SecurityInformationWeek Facebook working to keep network, users free of malwareArs Technica Infected PCs Won't Be Allowed on FacebookPC Magazine ChannelWeb -TechNewsWorld -Register all 286 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Jan 2010 | 4:25 pm

Rambus Chip Trial Promises to Draw In CEOs [Voices]

By Don Clark, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

A high-stakes trial pitting Rambus Inc. (RMBS) against three chip makers–which could bring chief executives of some giant technology companies to the witness stand–is scheduled to begin opening maneuvers Wednesday.

The case in San Francisco County Superior Court centers on allegations by Rambus that Micron Technology Inc. (MU), Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. illegally conspired to boycott technology developed by Rambus and took other actions to block its acceptance. It is hoping to win billions of dollars in damages from the case. The three companies deny the allegations.

Rambus, of Los Altos, Calif., licenses patented technology that is used to accelerate the performance of memory chips, including products known as dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, that are a mainstay of personal computers. The company’s history has been marked by litigation, including patent battles with numerous chip makers and an antitrust case against the company by the Federal Trade Commission that was rejected by an appeals court.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 13 Jan 2010 | 4:20 pm

US DOJ Says Kindle In Classroom Hurts Blind Students

angry tapir writes "Three US universities will stop promoting the use of Amazon.com's Kindle DX e-book reader in classrooms after complaints that the device doesn't give blind students equal access to information. Settlements with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City and Reed College in Portland, Oregon, were announced Wednesday by the US Department of Justice. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind had complained that use of the Kindle devices discriminates against students with vision problems."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Jan 2010 | 4:20 pm

Facebook employee claims they record everything you do and can read your messages

Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking

An interview with an anonymous Facebook employee is flying around the web and burning up Twitter, but is the info discussed really anything surprising? The employee revealed that the company records everything their users post, upload and view, and that their data is kept even if they delete it. That’s not exactly a secret-Facebook uses the information for the Suggestions area, to serve relevant ads, and to provide such services as letting you know when your friends have birthdays coming up.

The other revelations in the interview might be a bit more unsettling to some. The employee said that until recently a master password existed that allowed employees to log into any account. That practice was done away with in what they called a “crack down” and now any employee who logs into a user account must explain why it was necessary. The employee, who was not identified for fear of losing her job, also said all messages sent on the site are easily accessed by employees.

Now judging from the sheer volume of messages sent on the site each day it’s pretty doubtful Facebook employees are sitting back and reading them all. It’s more likely inbox messages are saved and archived for e-discovery and compliance reasons-that is, if Facebook is ever subpoenaed on behalf of one of it’s users, it will be able to produce what is requested.

Still, it’s a good reminder that for privacy and other reasons, you shouldn’t post anything on Facebook or online in general that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times!

Read [PCWorld]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jan 2010 | 4:09 pm

Supernova Winds Shape Galaxies

The explosions of massive stars may be responsible for the formation of galaxies.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 4:09 pm

More on the Nexus One [Mossberg's Mailbox]

In reviewing Google’s new Nexus One phone, you said its memory is expandable to 32 gigabytes, but that the portion of memory used for storing apps is just 190 megabytes. Is the expandable memory unusable for apps? Is memory for apps expandable?

A: On the Nexus One, the Motorola Droid and other Android phones, there are two main types of memory: one internal, which is fixed, and the other external, in the form of removable memory cards, which the user can increase in capacity. In general, apps can be stored only in a small, restricted portion of internal memory, which on the Nexus One is a meager 190 megabytes. Although there are exceptions, apps can’t generally be stored on the roomier removable memory cards, though some files they rely upon, like graphics, can be offloaded onto the cards.

Google acknowledges this is a limitation, but says it designed the system to protect apps from being copied by merely removing the memory card and inserting it into a PC which could duplicate its contents. The company says it is working on ways to secure the memory cards to the satisfaction of the app developers, so that apps could be stored on them. Meanwhile, Android phones can’t hold nearly as many apps, especially sophisticated large apps, as some users might like.

AT&T and Verizon are each saying that they have wide areas of coverage. Can you tell me who really has the widest area of coverage for cellphone signals?

If you are comparing basic cellphone signal availability, each of the two leaders has a very wide footprint. However, Verizon claims a larger geographic footprint when it comes to 3G networks, which are currently the fastest widely deployed cellular data networks. AT&T claims its 3G is the fastest. But, partly because AT&T has the iPhone, which is both popular and makes heavy data usage very easy, its network too often seems overwhelmed in large cities, in my experience. Verizon so far lacks a specific phone with similar popularity which users employ to consume as much data, and thus network capacity, as iPhone users typically do. However, iPhone-class phones like the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One, if they sell well, will test the Verizon network’s robustness.

Any idea how well or badly the new Google Nexus One syncs with Macs for things like Calendars, Notes, Address Books etc.?

The Nexus One doesn’t come with software for syncing with computers, whether Macs or PCs. It is primarily intended to sync with online calendars and address books, not those stored locally on computers. It also lacks software for syncing even larger files, like music, photos and videos. Its method for transferring those files from Macs and PCs is to connect the phone via a USB cable, causing the phone to appear to the computer as an external hard disk. You then must manually drag and drop files onto the Nexus One’s icon. In other words, Google doesn’t supply any equivalent to Apple’s iTunes or the BlackBerry media-syncing software. However, the third-party program doubleTwist, available at doubletwist.com, is designed to function as a sort of iTunes for syncing Android, Palm and BlackBerry devices. It runs on Macs and PCs and even looks a bit like iTunes. But it only syncs media files, not calendars or address books.

Without getting into detail about the inaccuracies of the Gawker story, the source was obviously very unfamiliar with today’s changes. We have had tremendous success with our projects including SocialPlan, which today is being acquired by MySpace – which includes not only the site but also its core team. Most of the remaining team from Slingshot will be focused on a venture for which there is tremendous excitement.

In other words, some of the people affected by today’s changes aren’t being laid off — they’re being shifted over to MySpace along with the SocialPlan project. SocialPlan was built by Slingshot as a replacement to MySpace’s underperforming events feature, and first launched in March 2009. It quickly gained steam, overtaking Evite in the number of invites sent by July 2009. Since then, it’s apparently done very well — Berdakin sent along a graph showing its growth, which we’ve included below. Doing the math, it looks like SocialPlan is now used to send around 4.3 million invitations a day (Evite reports 600,000 invitations sent per day).  Given its success, it’s pretty obvious why MySpace would want to take over the project.

Berdakin wouldn’t comment on the project Slingshot is currently working on, but it seems likely that it’s the mysterious WSJ Connect “LinkedIn Killer” we first reported on last July.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:59 pm

YouTube Helps Vevo Overtake MySpace Music In The U.S. (Plus, Top Ten Music Properties)

The biggest U.S. music service on the Web in December was Vevo, a new entrant which is a joint venture between Google, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music. Dubbed the “Hulu of music videos,” Vevo attracted 35.4 million unique visitors in December, 2009, putting it above the 33.1 million visitors who went to MySpace Music, according to estimates put out today by comScore. Considering that Vevo only launched on December 8, that is a pretty good showing.

A closer look at the numbers shows, that nearly all of that audience came from YouTube, which hosts a Vevo channel. Of the 35.4 million visitors which comScore counts for Vevo, 32.6 million (or 92 percent) are attributed to YouTube. In one fell blow, YouTube has helped to push MySpace Music from the No. 1 spot.

Not only does this illustrate the distribution might of YouTube, but it also shows how professional content is still hard to beat, even on YouTube. The Vevo channel is already the most viewed channel on YouTube, with nearly 13 billion views across all Vevo and all of Vevo’s sub-sites, which include the individual artist channels for Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon, Timbaland, and many others.

Here are the top ten music services as measured by comScore in unique U.S. visitors for December, 2009. The only real startup is Jango (No.7), with 9.6 million, but the comScore numbers include some lyric sites it also owns. ToneFuse Music, No. 8, is almost entirely a collection of lyric sites. Rhapsody rounds out No. 10 with 6.5 million (Last.fm would be No. 11 with 6 million).

Top U.S. Music Services On The Web (in unique visitors, December, 2009)

1. Vevo: 35.4 million
2. MySpace Music: 33.1 million
3. AOL Music: 29.0 million
4. Warner Music: 23.3 million
5. MTV Networks Music: 17.6 million
6. Yahoo! Music: 16.4 million
7. Jango Music Network: 9.6 million
8. ToneFuse Music Network: 8.3 million
9. MSN Music: 6.6 million
10. Rhapsody: 6.5 million

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Source: TechCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:36 pm

Gmail Moves To HTTPS By Default

clone53421 writes "Although Gmail has long supported HTTPS as an option, Gmail announced their decision yesterday to switch everyone to HTTPS by default: 'We initially left the choice of using it up to you because there's a downside: https can make your mail slower since encrypted data doesn't travel across the web as quickly as unencrypted data. Over the last few months, we've been researching the security/latency tradeoff and decided that turning https on for everyone was the right thing to do.' I wonder if this has anything to do with the reports of Chinese users having their accounts hacked? 'Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves,' said David Drummond in that blog update. That does sound like it perhaps could be a result of insecure HTTP traffic being intercepted in transit between the users and Gmail's servers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:34 pm

Small Cars Are Big at Detroit Auto Show

Small, hybrid and electric cars took center stage at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:33 pm

Led by Bat Boy, 'Weekly World News' Deranges Comics

The former supermarket tabloid finds a natural second life as a comic book. Recurring characters like Ed Anger, Ph.D. Ape and the defunct weekly newspaper's half-bat, half-human cover creature take center stage in a new series that's crammed with pop-culture ephemera.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:24 pm

Creating Hospitals From Thin Air

After a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the capital of Haiti yesterday, I watched the aftermath unfold in the news with horror. Yet something mentioned in passing during a Doctors Without Borders press conference gave me hope for the survivors. "We're ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:23 pm

Customer Service Will Be Nexus One's Achilles Heel - PC World

Customer Service Will Be Nexus One's Achilles Heel PC World Google simply doesn't have the kind of customer support that mobile-phone users are accustomed to. Google's comeuppance is at hand, as two of the most innovative Silicon Valley companies face off. I'm betting the veteran Apple iPhone clobbers newcomer ... and more »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:12 pm

Supernova Wind Solves Galaxy Formation Mystery

Scientists have finally figured out what gives shape to galaxies, by simulating the effects of supernova winds.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm

Porn Industry Tiptoes Into 3D Video

itwbennett writes "The 3D porn experience is coming (eventually) to a home theater near you. Most adult filmmakers are moving slowly toward 3D video because of higher production cost, the small number of 3D TVs in the home, and, of course, the glasses. Rob Smith, director of operations at Hustler Video Group says he hopes that market penetration of 3D TVs in the home is high enough that 'by the fourth quarter of this year it will be at the point where we can justify doing a 3D product.' The average adult movie costs around $25,000 to $40,000 to make, and 3D movies cost about 30% more, says Ali Joone, founder of Digital Playground. But Joone thinks the biggest hurdle for 3D isn't so much the cost as the glasses: people don't want to be encumbered by eyewear when viewing a film, says Joone."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Jan 2010 | 2:43 pm

First Direct Measurement of Exoplanet Light Spectrum

The light spectrum from a glowing Jupiter-like planet, which contains clues about the composition of the planet's atmosphere, has been directly measured for the first time in what could be a dress rehearsal for future attempts at understanding Earth-like exoplanets.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 2:40 pm

Warning: This Site May Be Sharing Your Data

The social web is in dire need of an easy-to-understand visual system for outlining site privacy policies, which differ greatly and change often. One designer has a possible solution that uses ideas borrowed from the Creative Commons and from Firefox's phishing protection system.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 2:30 pm

Rhett & Link Turn 'Local Commercials' Into Internet Love

The DIY comedic filmmakers hook up with small-town businesses, crafting clever advertising spots that ape the low-budget charm of local television's penny-ante pitchmen. The resulting videos go viral in a big way.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 2:15 pm

Are Men More Evolved Than Women?

Men might not be so primitive after all.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 2:10 pm

What Will Apple Do With Swedish Eye-Tracking Technology?

andylim writes "An article on recombu.com explores the possibility that Apple is gearing up to launch eye-tracking technology soon. Citing a patent filed in 2008 that mentions 'gaze vectors' and a recent purchase of units from a Swedish eye-tracking company, the author suggests that the inclusion of eye-tracking tech in the company’s forthcoming tablet would be Job’s magnum opus. 'What better flourish to a career that began with the popularisation of windows, icons, mouse and pointer than to usurp them all?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Jan 2010 | 1:51 pm

Male Chromosome May Evolve Fastest - New York Times

PhysOrg.com

Male Chromosome May Evolve Fastest New York Times A new look at the human Y chromosome has overturned longstanding ideas about its evolutionary history. Far from being in a state of decay, the Y chromosome is the fastest-changing part of the human genome and is constantly renewing ... Males' Y Chromosome <i>Not</i> in DeclineBusinessWeek Study: Y chromosome is the fastest-evolving component of human genomeTopNews United States Y chromosomes evolving rapidlyMIT News Telegraph.co.uk -Biomed Middle East -USA Today (blog) all 271 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Jan 2010 | 1:32 pm

'Asteroid' 2010 AL30 Might Be Venus Express Rocket

Artist impression of the Venus Express spacecraft separating from the Soyuz Fregat upper stage rocket after launch (ESA) The cosmos threw a curve ball at us, but a near-Earth object (NEO) called 2010 AL30 missed by over 80,000 miles. Although ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 1:09 pm

Samsung announces 64GB flash moviNAND, 32GB microSD

Section: Peripherals, Storage

Samsung recently announced 2 new memory products, the 64GB flash moviNAND and a 32GB microSD card. These high capacity storage may be among the first few to be released to the market! Apple is known to utilize Samsung products for its memory solutions, such as the built-in flash NAND memory. With this new advancement from Samsung, we may very well expect much bigger capacities in the iPhone, as well as in other mobile devices. Devices using microSD, such as the Nexus One, can expect a memory upgrade of up to 32GB using Samsung’s 32GB microSD.  The 64GB flash moviNAND has been in production since December 2009, therefore it is reasonable to expect it to be released in the first half of 2010, or with a little luck, in the first quarter!

Press Release [EON] Via [Gizmodo]

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jan 2010 | 1:04 pm

Obsessed With the Internet: A Tale From China

In China's rigid, hypercompetitive society, the internet explosion represents more than a disciplinary annoyance; it is seen as an existential threat. But when Deng Senshan's parents checked him into an internet-addiction camp in rural China, they expected a cure — not a tragedy.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm

Most Motorola handsets will have multitouch from here on out

Deploying multitouch on handsets in the US is.. well.. touchy. Patents and licensing issues scare a number of hardware manufacturers away from deploying it, even when the hardware itself supports it. Take the Motorola Droid for example; the European variant, the Milestone, packed multitouch support out of the box, whilst the US Droid was limited to one finger’s worth of input at a time.

Some hardware makers — Palm and HTC, to name a few — have the chutzpah to look at these patents and scoff them off as the nonsense they are, either rolling out their own multi-touch technology or just daring someone to pull them into court for it. It looks like Motorola might be about to do the same.

In an interview with Laptop Magazine, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha had this to say:

I think you will see us deliver multitouch in the majority of our devices going forward. There’s a complex set of factors, not all of them technical. But I think you’ll see us being proactive on multitouch because the user feedback on multitouch is very good.

So there you have it – Motorola will support multitouch on the “majority” of their devices from here on out. Sure, this could very well mean “the majority of our devices [outside of the US]“, but considering that Sanjay specifically mentions the non-technical factors — that is, the aforementioned licensing holdups, which really only apply in the US — we’ve got hope.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 12:52 pm

Google Turns on Gmail Encryption to Protect Wi-Fi Users

Google makes all Gmail default to encrypted HTTPS connections. Reading your e-mail in a café just got a bit safer.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 12:30 pm

Google Nexus One Sales Off to Slow Start

Google’s Nexus One Android phone could end up being a miss for the search company with the golden touch.

About 20,000 Nexus Ones were sold in the first week, compared to 250,000 for the Motorola Droid and 1.6 million for Apple’s iPhone 3G S, estimates Flurry, an analytics company that tracks the usage of developer applications on iPhone and Android platform.

The shockingly low number, if true, means the Motorola Droid outsold the Nexus One more than 12 times and the iPhone 3G S had 80 times the sales of the Nexus One in its first week.

“As a product, the Nexus One boasts the most advanced Android OS to date as well as unique features,” says Peter Farago, vice-president of marketing in a blog post on Flurry. “However, potentially due to the heightened promise created by early buzz, the handset has ultimately fallen short on sales expectations.”

Google declined to comment. “We are not disclosing sales data for Nexus One phones,” says a company spokesperson.

Google introduced the Nexus One on January 5 as the first Android device that would be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The Nexus One, which runs Android 2.1, has been designed by HTC and works with T-Mobile’s network in the United States.

The device retails for $180 with a 2-year T-Mobile contract, while an unsubsidized version is available for $530. But you can only get the Nexus On through Google’s online store, and only if you’re in the United States, for now. The iPhone 3G S was available in eight countries at launch.

The move has sparked complaints from users unhappy with the poor customer support from Google, which offers no phone or in-store help. Nexus One has also faced device-related issues, such as its inability to effectively connect to T-Mobile’s 3G network and complaints about the touchscreen.

All that may have taken a toll on the Nexus One’s popularity among consumers. Google’s phone also lacks the “‘wow’ factor that is now expected with each new challenger to the iPhone,” says Farago.

The Nexus One has a vivid, crisp OLED display and a 1-GHZ Snapdragon processor that makes it the fastest on the market. It includes voice recognition, turn-by-turn navigation from Google Maps and improvements to the user interface in the form of the latest version of the Android operating system.

Still, most of it is seen by analysts as an “evolutionary” improvement and one that’s not enough to compel customers to overwhelm Google’s online store.

Google’s online launch of the Nexus One could also be blamed for the slow sales.

“It’s a very different go-to-market strategy compared to Verizon’s launch of Droid, on which it spent a record-breaking $100 million on marketing, including aggressive TV advertising spends,” says Farago.

See Also:

• Google Nexus One Leaves Customers Sour
• Google Debuts Android-Powered Nexus One ‘Superphone’
• Wired Reveiw: Google Nexus One
• Everything You Wanted to Know About the Google Nexus One

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Jan 2010 | 12:17 pm

Google Nexus One Sales Off to Slow Start

Google's Nexus One phone has sluggish sales in its first week on the market -- just about 20,000 devices sold, says a mobile analytics company.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Jan 2010 | 12:17 pm

Sprint lops another $10 bucks off their WiMax service

Currently only supported in around 30 cities in the US, Sprint’s WiMax service (as powered by Clear) isn’t exactly widespread. It’s a great service (in theory) and likely to pick up some fans as it rolls out to another 50+ markets by the end of this year – but for the time being, it’s probably a pretty hard thing to sell.

Looking to make it a little more enticing — or as a Sprint spokesperson put it, “a no brainer” — Sprint has just lopped $10 off the price tag, bringing it down to $60 a month. This marks the second time Sprint has dropped the price; back in August, they shaved it down from $79.99 to $69.99.

[Via FierceWireless]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 11:22 am

MacBook Pros With New Intel Chips Could Arrive Soon

Along with its much anticipated tablet (still in the rumor stage), Apple could announce an upgrade for its MacBook Pro notebooks featuring new Intel chips in a late January event.

Intel has sent e-mails members of its Intel Retail Edge program, promoting a chance to win two MacBook Pros equipped with Intel’s new Core i5 processors during January, according to a report by MacRumors.

Multiple independent reports say these promotional e-mails have been sent to members in the United States, United Kingdom and Spain.

Intel offers its Retail Edge program to employees at retail stores where Intel-based products are for sale. It’s a training program to educate employees on Intel products. The program also offers promotions and discounts.

The MacBook Pros still feature Intel’s older Core 2 Duo processors. It’s reasonable to expect Apple to upgrade its MacBook Pro family with Core i5 chips soon. Intel’s newer chips have significantly outperformed its older Core 2 Duo processors in early benchmark testing. Also, several manufacturers at CES showcased notebooks with Intel’s latest chips, including the Core i7 processor found in the 27-inch iMac. That means Apple needs to catch up soon.

Apple will host a special event on Jan. 27, according to The Wall Street Journal, where the company is expected to launch a touchscreen tablet. Apple could use the event to promote new MacBook Pros, as well. The company has done similarly in the past: At 2009’s Worldwide Developers Conference, for example, Apple announced new MacBooks prior to the major announcement of the iPhone 3GS.

See Also:

• MacBook Price Cuts Highlight Tough Choices for Apple as Growth …
• Apple Debuts Aggressively Priced iPhone 3GS, MacBooks

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Jan 2010 | 11:10 am

MacBook Pros With New Intel Chips Could Arrive Soon

Evidence surfaces suggesting MacBook Pros will soon include the new Intel Core i5 processor.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Jan 2010 | 11:10 am

Wii gets Netflix in spring 2010

FROM GAMERTELL - Nintendo and Netflix have announced that Netflix will be available on the Wii this spring. Wii owners can sign up now to receive a free Netflix instant-streaming disc for their Wii when they are available.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 13 Jan 2010 | 11:01 am

Nintendo Wii Gains Netflix Streaming

Joining the Xbox and PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii console has gained access to Netflix’s video-streaming service.

Netflix, a popular movie rental website, announced on Wednesday its agreement with Nintendo. Wii owners with basic Netflix accounts ($9 per month) can watch Netflix’s streaming movies and TV shows at no additional charge.

All Wii owners need is a disc containing the Netflix streaming software, which they can request for free at Netflix.com/Wii.

Console makers are embracing the opportunity to treat their systems as platforms. An internet connection and a software platform enables manufacturers and third-party developers to keep adding to the capabilities of a device, without having to rush major hardware upgrades to market each year. In addition to supporting Netflix, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have each opened online stories to sell downloadable games and other multimedia.

With these moves, the videogame industry is also defensively reacting to the rise of cheap smartphone games. For example, many popular iPhone games can be downloaded for as little as $1 — and sometimes even for free — through the iTunes App Store.

See Also:

• Nintendo: Next Wii Zelda Will Use MotionPlus
• Nintendo Wii
• Netflix Streaming to PlayStation 3 in November
• Netflix Streaming Exclusive to Xbox 360, For Now

Photo: pickledshark/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Jan 2010 | 10:21 am

Is this the next Jawbone headset?

If you’ll pardon my terrible photoshopping skills for a second (Hey! I was using a trackpad! Also, my hands were tied behind my back, my eyes were closed, and, uh, my house was on fire), you might be looking at a fairly close representation of Aliph’s next Jawbone headset.

You see, the gents over at HTCPedia spotted a listing for this never before seen, as-of-yet unannounced Bluetooth headset on.. wait for it.. Craigslist. Weird, right? It happens more often than you’d probably imagine.

According to the original poster of the contraband headset, this guy is called the Jawbone Icon – and according to the few pictures they’ve released, it looks like a weird mash-up of the short-and-stout Jawbone 1 and the sleek-and-textured Jawbone 2. If the pictures are representative of the real deal (that is, if this isn’t just some really, really intense bootleg), it looks like Aliph’s sticking with the same packaging design they’ve used for the past few generations.

One interesting twist: it looks like they might be switching toward using a microUSB port on the headset, instead of Aliph’s proprietary magnetic-grappler-thing. That’s good news for the travelin’ folk, as that generally means one less cable to carry (and subsequently lose.)

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 10:05 am

Real-Time Mobile Savings: Scoutmob Brings Local Deals to Your iPhone

Some mobile startups do something that can’t be done online. Others copy an online business and bring it to mobile. And then there are companies like Scoutmob [iTunes link]. They take a great online business and make it ten times better by allowing you to take advantage of the service on-the-go.

Scoutmob is Woot on mobile, done on a local scale. Scoutmob provides location-aware coupons directly to your mobile device. They launch in Atlanta, and their first offer is for 50% off at Murphy’s, which is a 4-star restaurant according to Yelp. The offers, according to CEO Dave Payne, have a rapid expiration time (in this example, 24 hours), so you need to use the coupon within one day. They’ll have a different offer every day, so don’t weep if you can’t fly into Atlanta by midnight – you’ll be able to hit up Octane Coffee Bar and Lounge tomorrow.

For those of you who caught it, one obvious downside is “they launch in Atlanta.” That’s not to say Atlanta isn’t a cool place (hey, they brought us Coca-Cola and the Dirty Bird), but just that I doubt there are as many iPhone owners there as in San Francisco or New York City. That said, Dave’s existing business, SkyBlox, is a company that provides WiFi to 2,500 local businesses in Atlanta, so they’ve got an incumbent customer base to draw on for their offers.

Scoutmob seems to be entering an interesting business at a great time. Real-time and location-based mobile apps are hot as balls right now, and the virtual coupon business is making headlines too. Of course, it’s also super crowded – as there are many location-aware coupon apps on the iPhone, including Yowza!, which has made headlines because its founder is Heroes star, Greg Grunberg.

An interesting side-story (and a knock against Scoutmob) is that Dave has no technical expertise himself and does not have a technical team to make or maintain the application. Instead, he outsourced the technology to a web developer friend from college who didn’t know Objective-C. How the hell did he make an iPhone app with Push, a native UI and geolocation with a web developer? He used Appcelerator’s Titanium product, which enables web developers to create iPhone and Android applications. I’ve sat down with CEO Jeff Haynie, and Titanium, which is free, seems to be a cool way for web developers to create native-looking iPhone apps without having to code in Objective-C.

Scoutmob is available on the iTunes store and their first promotion is today.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 13 Jan 2010 | 9:20 am

"Dinosaur-Sized Shark" Kills Tourist

A tourist enjoying a swim yesterday off of Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town, South Africa, was suddenly pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea by what onlookers have called a "dinosaur-sized shark," according to several media reports. ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 9:01 am

Distant Planet's 'Fingerprint' Detected

The first direct capture of a spectrum of light from a planet outside the solar system has been obtained, in what is a landmark discovery in the search for extra-terrestrial life.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 13 Jan 2010 | 7:00 am

To Scroll, Take a Deep Breath and Blow

New user interfaces such as touch and voice recognition are trying to change how we interact with computers.

But how about controlling devices with just your breath? To scroll, pucker up your mouth and blow steadily. To click, blow a forceful puff like you are trying to put out a candle.

“We blow at stuff all the time — blow candles, blow bubbles, blow at dust,” says Pierre Bonnat, CEO of Zyxio, a company that is creating “breath-enabled interfaces.” Zyxio showed its idea at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Wacky as the idea may be, Zyxio promises to have it in products this year.

The popularity of touchscreens has led human computer interaction beyond the traditional mouse and keyboard. Researchers are trying to find “natural” ways of interacting with computers so devices can move beyond the home and office. Voice recognition, for instance, lets users dictate commands to their devices rather than click buttons.

Zyxio’s system has a single MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) chip that senses pressure levels in the open space, at a distance of up to 7.8 inches (20 centimeters) from the mouth.

“The MEMS is small, unobtrusive and capable of recognizing a few Pascals (a unit of pressure),” says Bonnat, citing a common unit of pressure. “If you cough or shake it, it doesn’t react.”

The breath-analyzing sensor can be integrated into any hardware, including headsets, mobile phones and laptops. The sensor can detect kinetic energy and movement caused by the expulsion of human breath can generate an electrical, optical or magnetic signal. This signal is communicated to a processing module, which — with the help of the company’s algorithm — translates it into a command that can be recognized by the computer.

The algorithm picks up gusts intentionally generated by the user and discards surrounding breeze.

“70 percent of the technology is in the software,” says Bonnat. “The MEMS is just the enabler.”

Blowing puffs of air with enough precision to get the cursor on a laptop screen to exactly where you want is easier and more intuitive than you think. But there is definitely a learning curve.

That shouldn’t hold up the idea, says Bonnat. The mind can direct the mouth to blow in the direction it wants, he says. For proof, watch a 5-year old blow out just a few candles out on a cake. A Zyxio video shows how the breath interface can control a laptop.

Importantly, the breath-enabled interface isn’t designed for detailed interactions, says Bonnat, who imagines that you’ll use it instead to quickly scroll pages of information at an information kiosk, or to answer a call or turn off the radio in a car without doing anything more difficult than blowing a quick puff of air.

The Zyxio MEMS system will start shipping in the second quarter of the year, says Bonnat. Among the first products to use it will be a gaming headset.

Photo: Pierre Bonnat, Zyxio CEO, controls a laptop using his breath. Photo by Priya Ganapati/Wired.com.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am

To Scroll, Take a Deep Breath and Blow

A startup promises to change the way you interact with your computers and phones. Instead of using a keyboard and mouse, you could just blow at the screen to move the cursor around.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am

Former Seagate CEO Bill Watkins Turns to the Light Side

After getting booted from his CEO position at Seagate, Bill Watkins has turned to the light industry in hopes of striking it rich.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 13 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am