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Saudi Zain in credit talks after missing commitments (Reuters)Reuters - Zain Saudi Arabia (7030.SE), the kingdom's newest mobile phone operator, said on Saturday it is in talks with lenders after missing some commitments last year on a two-year $2.5-billion Islamic loan.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Jan 2010 | 3:13 am Individual sends $10 Haiti SMS donation using live phones in AT&T storeAccording to PhoneArena, an individual made a gesture to help Haiti by donating $10 not from his own phone, but one of the demo phones in a carrier store.Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 2:47 am China Slams Clinton's Call For Internet FreedomCWmike writes "China on Friday slammed remarks made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promoting Internet freedom worldwide, saying her words harmed US-China relations. Clinton's speech and China's response both come after Google last week said it planned to reverse its long-standing position in China by ending censorship of its Chinese search engine. Google cited increasingly tough censorship and recent cyberattacks on the Gmail accounts of human rights activists for its decision, which it said might force it to close its offices in China altogether. On Thursday in Washington, DC, Clinton unveiled US initiatives to help people living under repressive governments access the Internet for purposes such as reporting corruption. The US will support circumvention tools for dissidents whose Internet connections are blocked, she said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu called for the US 'to respect the facts and stop using the issue of so-called Internet freedom to unreasonably criticize China.' China's laws forbid hacking attacks and violations of citizens' privacy, the statement said, apparently referring to the issues raised by Google."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 23 Jan 2010 | 2:41 am Facebook Snatches User’s Vanity URL And Sells It To Harman International
Facebook then apparently did a sales deal around the vanity URL with Harman International. The notice from Facebook (also in image at bottom of post):
There’s just one problem. “Harman” as a vanity URL is perfectly appropriate as a username for someone named Harman Bajwa. Facebook’s VP Global Sales Mike Murphy has /mike, for example, much to my personal annoyance. And while we’re on the topic of Mike Murphy, he may actually be the guy behind all of this. It turns out that the reason Facebook wants to take back that /Harman vanity URL may be more about money and less (much less) about policy violations. That’s because Harman also received an email yesterday from a representative of Harman International, which is apparently “working with Facebook” to take the /Harman username for a initiative they’re doing around the Grammy Awards. They’re offering “promotional items” to Harman to hand the name over willingly:
We’ve reached out to Facebook PR for comment, although the evidence, unless fake, sort of speaks for itself. This is actually one of those times that I’m hoping that we’re being duped somehow, because telling users they’ve done something wrong when really all you’re doing is pursuing a sales quota is really, really distasteful. We’ll update with any comment. Harman, to his credit, isn’t all that angry. “It would be great if I get my User name back,” he said in an email to me, adding that he’s working on a startup that will launch next summer. Rest assured, Harman, we’ll be covering it.
Source: TechCrunch | 23 Jan 2010 | 2:22 am Minimal Comfort Furniture - The Abachus Table Welcomes Jovial Company (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Although I've named this outdoor furniture 'minimal comfort,' after the designers own words, that doesn't mean the Abachus Table isn't comfortable at all. Actually, from the looks of...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 2:20 am Indian Lake Palaces - The Taj Lake Palace is a Luxury Hotel on Its Own Island (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The Taj Lake Palace is a white marble and mosaic structure located in the middle of Lake Pichola Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. The 83-room palace has 17 suites and was built in 1746 by...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 2:10 am Nanotech Tees - Stanford Studies Are First Step Towards Gadgets Becoming Our Clothes(TrendHunter.com) We all know the important place nanotechnology will have in the future. All of the gadgets we have now are incredible smaller, faster and smarter than their predecessors. Now researchers...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 2:00 am Moody Superstar Campaigns - The G-Star Spring 2010 Ads Feature Liv Tyler(TrendHunter.com) Although I don't know much about the G-Star brand, clearly it's gearing up for a huge push as evident by the latest G-Star Spring 2010 campaign. Enlisting the ever-enchanting Liv Tyler...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:50 am 18 Curious Chips - From Eyeball Computer Chips to Chocolate-Covered Tortilla Chips (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) Chips are that classic treat that everyone love to munch on, whether it's socializing at parties or relaxing in front of the tube. The chip has evolved from that darling deep fried...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:40 am Google Voice Extension For Chrome Adds Click To Call And Other Killer FeaturesI've just changed my default browser from Safari to Chrome. The reason - the official Chrome Google Voice extension, which was updated on Friday. If you're a Google Voice user (I'm possibly the most rabid...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:38 am Google Voice Extension For Chrome Adds Click To Call And Other Killer Features
The extension adds click to call functionality to web pages. So if there is a phone number on a web page, like a Yelp page or your online address book, it will now have a hyperlink. Click it and Google will throw you a pop up window asking which phone you want to use (home, mobile, work, etc.). It then calls that phone, and puts you through to the number. I’m always cutting and pasting phone numbers from websites into Google Voice to make calls. And I’ve asked for web based click to call from the Google Voice team for months. Now we have it, all you have to do is use Chrome. The extension also adds a small box in the upper right of the browser. You can type in a name or phone number and call or sms it from the browser, and read recent text messages and transcribed voicemails (Google automatically transcribes voicemails, usually horribly, but it’s fun). The extension is buggy on Macs, and you need to use the most recent Chromium build, not the launched Chrome for Mac to use it. Download one of the recent builds here (most recent at the bottom). The extension should work fine for Windows Chrome users. Google Voice doesn’t have an API, so third party applications need to harvest your user credentials to do anything useful with it. This Firefox add-on, for example, has nice click to call functionality but it requires that you give it your username and password. No thanks. One last thing – it likely won’t be too long before Google is adding soft phone functionality to the browser directly via their Gizmo5 acquisition. At that point you won’t even need a phone any more. You’ll just be able to initiate and receive calls directly to your computer as you can with Skype and other services today. Thanks to Amin Lakhani for the tip.
Source: TechCrunch | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:38 am Augmented Reality T-Shirts - T-Post 'Rock, Paper Scissors' Shirt Rocks (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) This T-Post 'rock, paper, scissors' t-shirt is pretty bananas. If you haven't heard of T-Post before, Trend Hunter actually wrote a little something about it a few months ago. The...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:30 am Airing Dirty Laundry - The Steve Nichols Convoy Redefines Laundry Baskets (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Steve Nichols Convoy is a revolution in laundry baskets. There have been baskets with rubber gripping, ergonomically shaped to fit the hips and with outrageous colors. Aside from...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:20 am 75 Contemporary Finds - From Model Panel Doors to Vintage Badvertising (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) I've just dropped 75 bits of knowledge on you all with 75 Contemporary Finds. These are the most ragin Cajun contemporary things ever to grace Trend Hunter. 75 Contemporary Finds covers...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:10 am Space Photos Taken From Shed Stun Astronomerskrou writes "Amateur astronomer Peter Shah has stunned astronomers around the world with amazing photos of the universe taken from his garden shed. Shah spent £20,000 on the equipment, hooking up a telescope in his shed to his home computer, and the results are being compared to images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. 'Most men like to putter about in their garden shed,' said Shah, 'but mine is a bit more high tech than most. I have fitted it with a sliding roof so I can sit in comfort and look at the heavens. I have a very modest set up, but it just goes to show that a window to the universe is there for all of us – even with the smallest budgets. I had to be patient and take the images over a period of several months because the skies in Britain are often clouded over and you need clear conditions.' His images include the Monkey's head nebula, M33 Pinwheel Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy and the Flaming Star Nebula, and are being put together for a book."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:03 am Gracenote Partners With Top Four Music Labels to Receive Pre-Release Song DataSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Jan 2010 | 1:01 am Londoners: Mass photography event in Trafalgar Square today! I'm a photographer, not a terrorist
A reminder for Londoners: there's a mass photo shoot-in at midday today in Trafalgar Square, to protest English cops' continuing harassment of photographers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act. I'll be there with the family, shooting away merrily -- hope to see you, too.
Mass Gathering in defence of street photography
Previously:
 Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jan 2010 | 12:50 am Activist ejected from "public" meeting on secret copyright treaty for tweeting The latest round of negotiations over the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA -- a secret treaty that contains provisions requiring nations to wiretap the Internet, force ISPs to spy on users, search laptops at the border, and disconnect whole households from the net on the basis of mere accusation of copyright infringement) is just kicking off in Mexico, and activists from around Mexico and the world have converged on the meeting to demand transparent, public negotiations of this critical treaty. True to the secretive, crony-capitalist nature of this treaty, the organizers have done everything they can to harass and intimidate observers. Attendees at the so-called "public meeting" were booed by representatives from big business, and they ejected an activist for using Twitter to post updates on what was being said in the room. There was even an effort to force members of the public who attended the meeting to sign non-disclosure agreements, though outrage forced them to reconsider. This is not how the world makes its copyright laws. In years gone by, copyright treaties were made by the UN, in full sight of NGOs, the public and the press. Now that copyright touches everything we do on the Internet -- from political organizing to health care to basic education and communication -- we need more transparency and due process, not a retreat to smoke-filled rooms where lobbyists from privileged industry groups do an end-run around democratic process. REPTILIA: crónica de la reunión en el IMPI por Geraldine Juárez ACTA - consulta del IMPI en México (Thanks, Geraldine and Paolo!) (Image: 2propuestas para el #TwitterShowcase 24 #ACTA #openACTA, a Creative Commons Attribution image from N3T1O™'s photostream)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jan 2010 | 12:46 am Remembering the golden age of pulps with Robert SilverbergA reader writes, "An original interview with Robert Silverberg on the subject of his early work as a pulp writer and editor for Amazing magazine. Posted yesterday, for Poulpe Pulps: A Silly Website, which features pictures of the octopus in pulp art. Silverberg: what an elegant and gracious writer!"You'd be hard pressed to find a nicer guy with a drier, kinder sense of humor in science fiction; getting a chance to chat with Silverberg is always a highlight of my trips to WorldCon. Not to mention that the guy's a writing machine and a living legend. SFWA GRAND MASTER ROBERT SILVERBERG TALKS PULPS
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jan 2010 | 12:33 am O'Reilly drops ebook DRM, sees 104% increase in salesIt's been 18 months since O'Reilly, the world's largest publisher of tech books, stopped using DRM on its ebooks. In the intervening time, O'Reilly's ebook sales have increased by 104 percent. Now, when you talk about ebooks and DRM, there's always someone who'll say, "But what about [textbooks|technical books|RPG manuals]? Their target audience is so wired and online, why wouldn't they just copy the books without paying? They've all got the technical know-how."So much for that theory. Instead, expect to hear DRM apologists (either DRM vendors or technologically naive people in publishing who believe what DRM vendors tell them) now saying, "Oh sure, it works for O'Reilly, but those are tech books. Regular trade books can't possibly work the same way!" 2009 O'Reilly Ebook Revenue up 104% (Thanks, Andrew!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jan 2010 | 12:28 am Anti-Twilight/pro-scary vampire tees
Deviant Art's FernandoLucas has knocked together a set of anti-Twilight t-shirts calling for a return to vampire fundamentals: biting, rending, tearing, and terrorizing, not snogging and crying.
(via Super Punch)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jan 2010 | 12:20 am EFF won't give up the fight over NSA warrantless wiretappingThe Electronic Frontier Foundation's had a setback in its fight to get to the bottom of the NSA's wholesale, illegal warrantless wiretapping program: "A federal judge has dismissed Jewel v. NSA, a case from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of AT&T customers challenging the National Security Agency's mass surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and emails."But they're not giving up: EFF Plans Appeal of Jewel v. NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Case (Thanks, Hugh!) Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jan 2010 | 12:20 am Defective by Design anti-DRM picket at Apple tablet launchJohn from the Free Software Foundation sez,Support DbD at Apple's Jan. 27 "Come see our latest restriction" event in SF (Thanks, John!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jan 2010 | 12:20 am China says it needs no Internet lessons from U.S.BEIJING (Reuters) - China needs no lessons about its Internet from the United States, the head of an online media association said through official media on Saturday after the United StatesSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Jan 2010 | 11:34 pm China says it needs no Internet lessons from U.S. (Reuters)Reuters - China needs no lessons about its Internet from the United States, the head of an online media association said through official media on Saturday after the United States rapped Beijing over information freedom.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Jan 2010 | 11:34 pm Radio Hams Fired Upon In HaitiBruce Perens writes "A team of radio ham volunteers from the Dominican Republic visited Port-au-Prince to install VHF repeaters, only to be fired upon as they left the Dominican embassy. Two non-ham members of the party were hit, one severely. ARRL is sending equipment, and there is confusion as unfamiliar operators in government agencies join in on ham frequencies."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
• ShellMenuNew cleans up that "new" menu in Windows (About time) • Circle dock gives you shortcuts centered around your mouse • The world's most boring video teaches you how to tie your shoes correctly Source: Gizmodo | 22 Jan 2010 | 10:00 pm Hanmi says it made no comments about potential suitorNEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Hanmi Financial Corp the parent of Hanmi Bank, on Friday said its chairman has spoken to Woori Finance Holdings , but added it would not comment on rumours that it was a potential...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Jan 2010 | 9:51 pm Fighting With Your Fingers — A Canceled Indie Game Concept For NatalChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "Though Microsoft's Project Natal won't be released until later this year, indie studio Arkedo has already revealed a canceled project for the peripheral. Called 2 Finger Heroes, it was to be a beat 'em up where your fingers do the fighting. 'Characters would be controlled by moving your fingers, while special moves could be done by incorporating your whole hand. The environment could even be affected by moving your arms folded at your chest.' On why it was canceled, one of the developers said, 'One of the design flaws of this, apart from the fact that it demanded some very precise pattern recognition from the Natal system, is that it would have been HELL to localize. Yup, what can be understood as the victory sign in France could be a terrible insult in the UK, for instance. And we are not even talking about Italian. Oh, the possibilities...'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 Jan 2010 | 9:51 pm Timothy Leary and William Gibson promoting a Neuromancer filmOver at at the Internet Archive's Timothy Leary collection, my pal Chris Arkenberg spotted this cyberpunk flashback: a promotional video featuring Leary, William Gibson, and others promoting a film adaptation of Neuromancer that, obviously, never happened. The film was also teased on the box for the Neuromancer computer game released in 1988, dating the above video to that same period. Gibson: "To my mind at least, (Neuromancer) is really the world that we live in, just pushed a little bit."
Previously:
I wish every gadget teardown were done like this. Sound effects and all. [Engadget] You can read more about Snyder in the NY Times article and I recommend that you do, because the man sounds even more fantastic than his poem:
Between this poem and the old-school gadgets, I'm getting lost in a nostalgic daze today. And absolutely loving it. [NY Times] Picture by blakespot Down old mangrove way in Florida, our new favorite criminal allegedly stole a 1998 Dodge Durango (for reasons that escape us—a '98 Durango? Really?), which was then found outside a house, miles away. Inside, the suspect was sitting on his couch, playing Grand Theft Auto. He was then, appropriately, charged with grand theft auto (and a few other things, to be fair). You are now encouraged to chuckle. [CNET] Source: Gizmodo | 22 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm All Your Twitter Bot Needs Is Love
Thorton is the creation of developer Ryan Merket, who built him as a side project in around three hours. Merket has just posted the code that powers him, and has also divulged how he made Thorton seem somewhat realistic: the bot looks for tweets with the word “love” in them and tweets them as its own. From Merket’s blog:
Merket then goes on to detail why the ease with which he could build the bot should be cause for concern:
Can social networks really vet every single user that joins? That would likely be incredibly difficult to scale, but there’s certainly room for the algorithms to improve. In any case, here are some of Jason’s most recent tweets:
And here are some of the people who fell for them: 
The JakPak will be available this March for $250 and seeks to eliminate homelessness as we know it. [JakPak] Source: Gizmodo | 22 Jan 2010 | 8:40 pm Litigious Rambus Wins AgainAfter Rambus's settlement deal with Samsung earlier this week, an anonymous reader writes with this snippet: "Memory technology company Rambus rounded out the week with another legal dispute ending in its favor as it fights to defend its patent portfolio. On Friday [the] US International Trade Commission ruled that graphics chip maker Nvidia infringed upon Rambus patents, according to statements released by the two companies on Friday. Rambus has been filing lawsuits against various technology companies for the past decade, claiming they violate patents held by the memory chip designer."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 Jan 2010 | 8:20 pm VTI Receives 2009 Global Product Differentiation Excellence AwardIRVINE, Calif., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- VTI Instruments Corporation is pleased to announce that it has received the prestigious Frost & Sullivan 2009 Global Data Acquisition Hardware and Software Product Differentiation Excellence Award.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Jan 2010 | 8:12 pm Judge cuts $2M penalty in MN song-sharing case
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 Telegraph.co.uk | With Kindle, the Best Sellers Don't Need to Sell New York Times Maureen Johnson, a writer whose free e-book, “Suite Scarlett,” went as high as No. 3 on Amazon's Kindle best-seller list. By MOTOKO RICH Here's a riddle: How do you make your book a best seller on the Kindle? Two novels by Ms. Johnson. ... Read all 'color Kindle' posts in Crave Kindle Users Aren't Looking for a Tablet PC Seven Apps We'd Like to See on the Amazon Kindle |
Unfortunately for those that prefer an old school form of data entry, the design is only a concept. [Laura Balboa via This Isn't Happiness via Technabob]
Snip from a piece by John Markoff in the New York Times about a 79-year-old Beat Poet's ruminations on Apple. Technology journalists and Mac fanpersons breathlessly await whatever-it-is-they're-gonna-unveil next Wednesday. Gary Snyder does not, but he wrote this beautiful poem about Macs anyway:
Why I Take Good Care of My MacintoshRead the entire work here.
By Gary SnyderBecause it broods under its hood like a perched falcon,
Because it jumps like a skittish horse and sometimes throws me,
Because it is poky when cold,
Because plastic is a sad, strong material that is charming to rodents (...)
Gary Snyder lives in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, without electricity, cellphones, or Twitter. More about him here.
(Image: "a window to nature," a CC-licensed photograph by Flickr user jimmyroq)
If you want to view this post as a single page, click here
Voice Band: Hey, this doesn't seem like it should be possible! Sing, hum, or "DUURR" into your iPhone, and Voice Band will approximate your tones into a variety of instrument sounds, and if you have the time, a full track. $3.
This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!
Going to try something a bit different today, and talk about some retro technology. Here’s a rather simple gadget called a Bloc-Alarm. Intended for the cheapskate who doesn’t want to actually pay for an alarm service, or for someone that is staying in a hotel, the Bloc-Alarm is basically a wedge shaped door block that triggers if someone tries to open a door.
Now the lovely copper one pictured is the vintage version, but this product is still available online if you need one. Simple and inexpensive, this is a great example of old school tech that never gets old. Sure, you can get a robot and train it to watch the door and sound an alert if someone enters, or set up your own laser grid to warn you of intruders, but this little gizmo will cost you $9.00 (plus shipping) from Amazon.
[via Retro Thing]
P.S. If you like the concept of us talking about retro gadgets and their modern equivalents, let me know in the comments.
Ion Audio’s latest creation in a rather unique take on the pocket camcorder. The Twin Video has two cameras in it, allowing you to record not just what you are seeing, but what your reaction is to what you are seeing. I don’t really see the point behind having two cameras built in the device, other than for the “2 girls one cup” style reaction shots.
We saw this camera at CES, and if you were watching our coverage, you saw that they were showing the camera to someone else when we stopped by their booth. They told us all about it, including the expected retail price of $249.
Hopefully you’ll have better ideas on how to use this thing then I do. It’s reportedly going to arrive sometime during 2Q2010, and while the MSRP isn’t official, the company rep told us at CES they expected it to be priced at $249.
Frog Design, the company who created these prototypes along with some for an Apple phone on Steve Jobs' request back in the 1980s, has shared a few images to give us a peek of what could've been an Apple tablet—attachable keyboard, floppy drive, stylus and all:
Despite only being 27 years old, this gadget almost feels like an archeological find in comparison to what we think we might see in the upcoming tablet. Yet for some reason I still can't stop smiling over this look into the past. [Frog Design]
As successful as some may be, single-purpose apps (like fart machines, flashlights, and tip calculators) tend to be the butt of a lot of jokes – but here’s one with a pretty righteous purpose.
With a bit of elbow grease and a downright impressive amount of haste, the folks over at Mediafly have thrown together an application specifically built to let people tune into tonight’s Hope For Haiti Now telethon. The event itself was just announced on January 15th – that means this app went from concept, through creation, and right on past Palm’s moderation process in less than a week. Consider us impressed.
Palm’s got the free application featured in the App Catalog at the moment, so go enjoy the show – and if you feel the urge to donate, you can do so right within the app. Enjoy!
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
LittleBigPlanet Is Also Playable... In 3D!!!
A cute game, but I don't play it much in 2D.
Borderlands Level Cap Raise Confirmed by Gearbox
And with that one, solitary headline, weeks of my life are sacrificed to the gaming gods.
Link has Trouble Staying on Task (Comic)
It's funny because it's true.
A Closer Look At NieR
This game looks gross. So you have to see it.
Get A Little Depressed With The Heavy Rain Demo
Once again, if you have a PS3, Heavy Rain should be on your must-play list.
Frankenreview: Dark Void
Every new year comes with a new gimmick that comes with a mediocre shooter attached. Looks like Dark Void fills that role...but that jetpack looks so fun!
How Cover Shaped Gaming's Last Decade
An excellent retrospective on the gaming industry's new jump button.
2009 Game of the Year Finalist Debate: Demon's Souls
Quite simply, this is my favorite Kotaku post in some time. Check it out.
FROM APPLETELL - We hit up DigitTrends creator and technology expert Scott Steinberg with 10 questions on the rumored Apple tablet. Scott feels we have plenty to look forward to.
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Wow, this is one of the most egregious consumer electronics scams I’ve ever heard of. Lexicon put out a player called the BD-30, which they said was an enhanced Oppo BDP-83. The Oppo costs $500, the Lexicon $3500. Well, when the testers at Audioholics got their hands on the Lexicon, they cracked it open to check out the guts and found “it was in fact AN OPPO BDP-83 PLAYER, CHASSIS AND ALL, SHOVED INSIDE AN ALUMINUM LEXICON WRAPPER.”
It’s literally an entire player, put inside another player, with buttons over the buttons and everything. I can’t believe any company would be so callous as to do this in the first place, and then so stupid as to think reviewers wouldn’t notice.
Of course, it’s still a perfectly good player — they tested it against its Oppo twin and found absolutely no difference, and the Oppo BDP-83 is one of their favorite players. In a last little joke, the Lexicon is THX-certified while the Oppo isn’t, despite their being the exact same device.
Now, if they had put it in a nicer case, even the way they’ve done it here, and charged an extra hundred bucks, I don’t think anyone would have batted an eye. But three thousand dollars more! Jesus Christ! So remember the name, people: LEXICON. Stay far, far away from these swindlers.
[via Wired]
Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks
While the BeBook Neo eReader can’t be placed in the same league as Kindle and the likes, it does have its own attraction. It lacks 3G connectivity, but it has WiFi that BeBook claims to be the “world’s first Wi-Fi e-reader with access to eBook stores worldwide”. Running on a 532MHz Freescale processor and a 1600mAh Li-ion battery, the BeBook Neo offers browsing and operating speeds of up to 2.5 times faster than other eReaders on the market, and up to 7000 page turns per 3-hour charge. It weighs at just 298g including the battery. It comes with 512MB of internal flash memory (about 1000 ebooks) and it’s expandable up to 16GB with an SD card slot. It will support most of the popular formats such as ePUB, PDF, HTML, and etc. What differentiates the BeBook Neo from the rest is the 6” touchscreen with WACOM capability; you can scribble annotations, sketches and text markups onto your ebook pages. BeBook claims that they will give feature upgrades in the future via a software update. While this eReader seems pretty decent, I’m not sure if I’m ready to fork out $299 on a pre-order. Shipments for pre-orders come in February.
Product [BeBook Neo eReader] Via [HotHardware]
Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
This is interesting. I’m sure you and your friends have joked about how this or that device borked itself within a week of the warranty expiring, or right after a newer version was introduced. Planned obsolescence and all that. But I doubt you gave serious credence to the idea that there was actually a timer inside your laptop, ticking down to its destruction. Of course not, right? Well, if this article is to be believed, that’s actually a semi-serious concern in Japan, and Sony is trying hard to combat the resultant negative PR.
It seems that in 2006, several million Sony-branded batteries in Dell laptops all failed at the same time, and rumors began circulating that it was, in fact, a Sony “kill switch” that had malfunctioned and prematurely executed the laptops. Sounds silly to us, but apparently it’s really affecting sales over there, mainly of Vaio laptops and some other stuff.
I guess we have our own consumer myths, not just Pop Rocks and Coke but ideas like the Apple Tax, or that Compaq PCs are garbage, that kind of thing. But this Sony kill switch conspiracy theory was just too fun not to share.
 CNET | Ballmer desecrates MacBook Pro CNET I thought this Steve Ballmer autograph on a Macbook Pro was fake, but according to the following video of the big man scribbling it on a student's computer at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, it's not. Somewhere in a dark place, ... Steve Ballmer defaces fanboi MacBook Ballmer signs off on Apple macBookPro Offbeat: Steve Ballmer signs MacBook Pro - running Windows, of course |
Over the last year or so we’ve seen quite a few throwbacks to the old school NES-style game in the form of Mega Man 9 & 10, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, and most recently Dark Void Zero. Meanwhile, the “real” games these have been intended as mere adjuncts to have been almost universally panned. Seems a bit weird, doesn’t it?
I mean, the “modern” Mega Man franchise, for instance, is stagnating in weird semi-RPGs for the DS. And then some developers throw down the mega-retro Mega Man 9, and it’s freaking amazing, as well as shockingly difficult.
Bionic Commando: Rearmed was a great remake of one of my favorite NES games, mimicking level layout to the last detail but improving graphics and adding extra features. But they managed not to mess that up, which is more than one can say about the game it was ostensibly a teaser for. I was excited about that one, too.
And now we have Dark Void Zero, apparently a totally awesome prequel to Dark Void, which just received a 5.0 from IGN. Come on, people!
It’s not that it’s just easier to make a good game of the NES type — god knows there were plenty of terrible ones back in the day. I think that developers are losing track of what makes a game good, instead focusing on realistic physics, or meaningless new features, or of course the ever-escalating graphical arms race. But when a team gets really knocked down to the basics, which is to say two dimensions and a bunch of sprites and tiles, they remember why it is they make games in the first place. Fun.
I say, bring ‘em on. Excitebike World Rally is out there, and of course New Super Mario Bros Wii is around as well — unabashed, straightforward fun. When did we start losing track of that?
At last year’s TechCrunch50 conference, Socialwok made a big splash, winning the award for best demopit startup and launching its enterprise-friendly, FriendFeed-like layer for Google Apps. The web-based application was praised for launching a social network that wrapped around the very unsocial Google Apps. Today, the startup is launching a gadget to allow users access all the features of Socialwok without leaving Gmail.
Previously, you could access Gmail, YouTube, Google Calendar and even conversations in Wave from Socialwok’s Friendfeed-like interface. You can even sign in with your Google Docs credentials. But with the new gadget, Socialwok’s interface will appear within Gmail’s main canvas. Users can view, post and comment on updates; access feeds, files and Google Docs and search for posts, people, feeds, and files.
Socialwok, which employs a freemium model, has steadily been adding features and improvements to its application, including releasing a new version of its HTML 5 mobile version for Android and iPhone browsers. And the startup has managed caught Google’s eye. Socialwok was chosen as one of the showcase companies for AppEngine technology at this year’s Google IO Developer Sandbox (Socialwok is powered by Google App Engine). And the startup wrote a blog post on Google’s Enterprise Blog about Socialwok. Over 4,000 domains and thousands of users are using Socialwok.
As we wrote on our initial review of Socialwok, if Google doesn’t buy the startup, they should at least heavily promoting what they’re doing. And it appears that Google has taken the latter route. For now. There’s no doubt that Socialwok could face the same fate as Google Docs killer and collaboration platform Etherpad, which was acquired by Google last year.
FROM GAMERTELL - Sonly Online understands the need for more women to get into the gaming field so it is offering a scholarship to one lucky student who promises to improve the gaming world for women…
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Why did they do it? Just because they can. And because it’s totally annoying.
via GearDiary
 The Hindu | Report: Apple tablet could earn $3 billion in a year CNET There has been a lot of speculation as to what Apple's rumored tablet will look like and how it will work. One analyst is now speculating on how much potential revenue the device, expected to be announced next week, could bring the Mac ... The Tablet Computer Goes Beyond Apple, You Know Apple Faces Big Week With Earnings, New Product >AAPL Apple Tablet Launch Big week for Apple |
Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking
Well, Twitter can officially say now that it is not just restricted to Planet Earth. Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer used the new upgrade to the space station to directly update his Twitter status on the International Space Station. Their had been tweets before that had been emailed down to Earth and then tweeted but nothing directly from space.
Crew Support LAN is the technology behind this galactic tweet. Just added to the ISS today, it allows astronauts to browse the internet while through a laptop on the ISS wirelessly connected to a desktop on the ground. The exact wording is as such:
During periods when the station is actively communicating with the ground using high-speed Ku-band communications, the crew will have remote access to the Internet via a ground computer. The crew will view the desktop of the ground computer using an onboard laptop and interact remotely with their keyboard touchpad.
Read [TechCrunch]
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Here’s a blast from the past: In the early 1980s, an industrial design firm helped create some early prototypes of tablets for a young Steve Jobs.
The tablet was called “Bashful,” in reference to the dwarf in the fairy tale Snow White. Bashful was created alongside the Apple IIe as an extension of the Snow White industrial-design language that Apple used from 1984 to 1990.
Now Frog Design, the firm that created those mock-ups, has unearthed some photos from its archives that show what the tablet might have looked like more than 25 years ago. With Apple expected to unveil its long-awaited tablet device on Wednesday, it seems like a good time to bring these photos out of the archives, Frog Design’s people thought.
There are none of the sleek contours that characterize Apple’s products today. But you can still see the emphasis on ease-of-use and a slim profile (relatively speaking, anyway). And it shows how long Jobs has been mulling the idea of bringing a tablet to market.
Variations of the Bashful tablet included one with an attached keyboard and one with a floppy-disk drive and a handle for portability. Some of the tablet prototypes included a stylus. And one concept even had an attached phone.
Frog Design also helped create the Apple IIc, the fourth in the wildly popular Apple II line of personal computers.
The Bashfuls never made it to market, and the prototypes are probably still in the hidden, underground storage vaults of Apple or Frog Design.
Take a look at more photos of the prototype tablets below.
Photos: Frog Design
See Also:
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Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plan to steadily sell off up to 10 million shares of stock over the next five years, according to an SEC filing. At today’s closing price of $550, those shares would be worth $5.5 billion if sold immediately. Although the two co-founders hold Class B shares with super-voting rights, if they sell all 5 million shares, their voting control will drop from 59 percent today to 48 percent. From the filing:
Larry and Sergey currently hold approximately 57.7 million shares of Class B common stock, which represents approximately 18% of Google’s outstanding capital stock and approximately 59% of the voting power of Google’s outstanding capital stock. Under the terms of these Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, and as a part of a five year diversification plan, Larry and Sergey each intend to sell approximately 5 million shares. If Larry and Sergey complete all the planned sales under these Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, they would continue to collectively own approximately 47.7 million shares, which would represent approximately 15% of Google’s outstanding capital stock and approximately 48% of the voting power of Google’s outstanding capital stock (assuming no other sales and conversions of Google capital stock occur).
They would continue to be the largest shareholders, but would not be able to control the outcome of any shareholder vote as they do today. They, of course, could decide to stop selling just short of losing control. They also could probably find the other 2 percent of votes if they ever need it from CEO Eric Schmidt or a collection of other Google employees and loyal investors.
The two have not yet started selling shares under the plan, but it is common for tech founders to diversify their holdings in this manner. Bill Gates and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, for instance, sold stock of the companies they founded under similar plans. By selling at regular intervals, they get to cash out and diversify their holdings without spooking investors with sudden sales.
 PC World | AT&T Disputes Network Criticism PC World AT&T is disputing a financial analyst's criticism of its wireless capital spending, saying there is more to its mobility investments than was represented in the report. On a conference call Tuesday, Gerard Hallaren ... Analyst: AT&T Needs $5 Billion Investment To Keep Up Apple tablet courted by AT&T and Verizon Focus On Profit Margins As Verizon, AT&T Set To Report 4Q Results |
Since the crisis in Haiti began, Twitter has played a big part in helping raise awareness of the tragedy. It’s also helped charities and celebrities reach out to the community to encourage donations toward the Red Cross and the other organizations working hard to help the situation. Today, Twitter is launching a portal at Hope140.org for people looking to help Haiti, but who don’t necessarily know where to start.
The site features a collection of recommended tweeters and Lists, including charities and people who are actually reporting from the field. A stream of recent tweets about the crisis is scrolling by in real time. And a large part of the page is dedicated to helping non-profits connect with the Twitter community, as a sort of best practices guide. It also calls out tonight’s Hope For Haiti Now Telethon, which begins at 8 PM EST and is being hosted by George Clooney, Wyclef Jean, and Anderson Cooper.
Twitter’s Biz Stone has also written a blog post about the efforts being made to help alleviate the crisis.
Here’s a list of different ways to text to help Haiti. You can also do it through the iTunes Store.
Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross
Text QUAKE to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
Text HABITAT to 25383 to donate $10 to Habitat For Humanity
Text OXFAM to 25383 to donate $10 to Oxfam A
Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee
Text HAITI to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada
Text YELE to 501501 to donation $5 to Yele
Text RELIEF to 30644 to get automatically connected to Catholic Relief Services and donate money with your credit card
Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to The United Way
Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to The United Nations Foundation
Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion International
Finally, you can donate to International Fund For Animal Welfare Haiti Emergency Relief Response here.
FROM GAMERTELL - A recent study has demonstrated a relation between the size of a certain area of the brain and a person’s performance at video games…
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Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are unloading some of their shares in the company. According to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the two plan to sell off about 17 percent of their Google stock, a total of 10 million shares, over the next five years.
With Google (GOOG) shares priced as they are, we’re obviously talking about quite a bit of money here, roughly $5.5 billion. What Page and Brin plan to do with that sum is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they can buy the Presidential Palace in China.
Anyway…
Interestingly, the co-founders’ sales will lower their joint stake in Google to 47.7 million shares from 57.7 million shares and their voting power to 48 percent from 59 percent.
Which means that in five years, Page and Brin will give up majority control of the company. Not that that means all that much. Shareholders who taking them to the mat five years from now would face a daunting task–48 percent voting power isn’t easily overruled.
By Yukari Iwatani Kane, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Amid the continuing brouhaha over Tiger Woods and his personal life, videogame maker Electronic Arts (ERTS) signaled its commitment to the professional golf player in two ways this week. EA took the next step in the development of its Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online golf game by opening up the beta version to the public and it announced a June launch for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, its next console game starring the athlete.
“Our relationship is very clear with Tiger,” said Peter Moore, head of EA Sports. “We felt we needed to put to rest some of the swirling that was going on and get out in front of this.”
Mr. Moore says that unlike the marketing relationships that Mr. Woods has with other companies, he is a crucial part of EA’s video games because the company’s intent is to create a world-class golf experience.
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 New York Times (blog) | The First Tweet From Space and Other Twitter Firsts PC World A NASA astronaut made Twitter history on Friday by sending the first tweet from outer space. Flight Engineer TJ Creamer broadcast the following message directly from the International Space Station: "Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the ... First Tweet From Space: 'Hello Twitterverse!' Astronaut Sends the First Live Tweet from Space NASA: Astronauts start Twittering from space station |
This is it. Tonight’s edition of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien will be the last one starring Coco. Come March 1, Mr. Bland himself, Jay Leno, re-takes the show, placating NBC’s affiliates and his elderly fans. We’re all Team Conan here, till the bitter end, so you’d better not miss it tonight. Watch it live, DVR it, watch it on Hulu, grab it off some torrent site… just watch it. Conan shall rise again~!
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The mobile handset market is quite the hotbed for litigation these days, isn’t it? Nokia sues Apple, accusing the company of hitching a “free-ride” on its intellectual property; Apple (AAPL) countersues Nokia (NOK), claiming it essentially copied the iPhone; and now Motorola is joining in the fun.
On Friday, Motorola filed a complaint against Research In Motion with the U.S. International Trade Commission, claiming the BlackBerry maker has infringed five of its patents related to Wi-Fi access, user interface and power and application management.
“These patented technologies are important to Motorola as they allow for more comprehensive connectivity, a better user experience and lower product costs,” Motorola (MOT) said in its complaint that requests an exclusion order to stop RIM (RIMM) from importing any BlackBerry device found to infringe its patents and from selling or marketing such devices if they have already been imported.
“Through its early-stage development of the cellular industry and billions of dollars spent on research and development, Motorola has created an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio that is respected by the entire telecommunications industry,” Jonathan Meyer, senior VP of intellectual property law at Motorola said in a statement.
“In light of RIM’s continued unlicensed use of Motorola’s patents, RIM’s use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation, and RIM’s refusal to design out Motorola’s proprietary technology,” Meyer added, “Motorola had no choice but to file a complaint with the ITC to halt RIM’s continued infringement.”
RIM has not yet commented on Motorola’s charges.
Motricity, a Washington-based company that develops a software platform for mobile phones, has filed for an IPO of up to $250 million.
Motricity’s core product is the ‘mCore Platform’, which offers a mobile search engine, storefront, and channels that allow carriers to deliver content to their customers. The company often acts as “the brand behind the brand” as it builds mobile software. Motricity’s carrier clients include AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile. Enterprise clients include TBS, Showtime, Vogue, and Yahoo.
The company generated $88M in revenue in the first 9 months of 2009, but has not reached profitability. On its S-1 filed today, the company says its growth strategies include:
- Focus our efforts on expanding the breadth of our solutions with industry leading participants, leveraging our strong relationships with the top five wireless carriers in the U.S.;
- Expand our business into developed and emerging international markets, such as those in Southeast Asia, India and Latin America, by applying our expertise gained from the U.S. market and fully leveraging the capabilities and scale of the mCore platform;
- Advance our technological leadership through the enhancement of the mCore platform, and the introduction of new solutions that increase the total value we provide to our carrier and enterprise customers;
- Leverage our core competencies, technologies, and existing market position to broaden our offerings and customer base and advance into new market segments;
- Gain additional scale and technology through opportunistic acquisitions that expand our total market opportunity, provide complementary technologies and solutions, and aid our international expansion efforts; and
- Enhance our smartphone solutions to fully capitalize on the extensive capabilities of these devices and their significant market adoption.
CrunchGear is, as you know, the internet's primary nexus for trade secrets, corporation-breaking revelations, and the latest salacious home videos of tech CEOs (yes, Jen-Hsun Hwang, we have that one). Our power to elevate or crush giants in the industry is kept in check only by our unerring discretion — and by a set of laws, carved into amber slabs and venerated constantly in a hidden shrine deep beneath Mountain View.
But now and then our vast intelligence network brings in news of such inestimable importance that we must share it with our readers regardless what empires it may topple. Apple's event on the 27th is whipping the internet into a foaming frenzy, but I think you'll agree that the rumors so far have been pretty tame. 3G? Front-facing camera? Aluminum casing? You people underestimate Apple's dedication to bucking expectations. We've heard things that will curl your toes, and now, after much deliberation (and fortification of the shrine against the agents of Apple) we've decided to share some — not all — of these mind-blowing rumor-nuggets.
For instance, did you know that the Apple Tablet will not be constructed from aluminum, but from ostrich ivory?
By Jennifer Valentino, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Twitter is changing the way it recommends accounts for users to follow on the microblogging service–doing away with a contentious feature that drove thousands of users to a select list of Twitterers.
Instead of having a single list of suggested users, Twitter is now dividing suggestions into categories such as music, politics and “editors’ picks.” The service says it is using “a number of algorithms to identify users across a variety of clusters who tweet actively and are engaged with their audiences.”
Twitter started its suggested user list about a year ago. The L.A. Times explained then that the company “added the feature because many users fall off from the service quickly after singing up, likely because they’re not sure what to do next.”
The list proved to be a boon for some: The New York Times (NYT) wrote over the summer that Twitterers could “gain more than 500,000 followers” after being added.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
CrunchGear is, as you know, the internet’s primary nexus for trade secrets, corporation-breaking revelations, and the latest salacious home videos of tech CEOs (yes, Jen-Hsun Hwang, we have that one). Our power to elevate or crush giants in the industry is kept in check only by our unerring discretion — and by a set of laws, carved into amber slabs and venerated constantly in a hidden shrine deep beneath Mountain View.
But now and then our vast intelligence network brings in news of such inestimable importance that we must share it with our readers, no matter what empires it may topple. Apple’s event on the 27th is whipping the internet into a foaming frenzy, but I think you’ll agree that the rumors so far have been pretty tame. 3G? Front-facing camera? Aluminum casing? You people underestimate Apple’s dedication to bucking expectations. We’ve heard things that will curl your toes, and now, after much deliberation (and fortification of the shrine against the agents of Apple) we’ve decided to share some — not all — of these mind-blowing rumor-nuggets.
For instance, did you know that the Apple Tablet will not be constructed from aluminum, but from ostrich ivory?
Our sources, who are in a position close to the company (to be precise, in its air ducts), have confirmed this. And what’s more:
All of this is told to you, reader, in strictest confidence. Tell no one.
And of course we’ll be liveblogging the event. We’ll be sure let you know first thing about the Slap Chop.
[Update: added unicorn]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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 USA Today | Oracle/Sun Microsystems deal clears hurdles; are layoffs next? USA Today Now that European officials have rubber-stamped Oracle's $7.4 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems -- the last major hurdle for the deal -- could thousands of layoffs be far behind? The next big date in the acquisition's history is Jan. ... Oracle Sun Deal Observers On MySQL Fate Schwartz puts comforting arm around stricken Sun Sun and Oracle's impact on open source acquisitions |
As you can see in the picture, Twitter has started to roll out its new Local Trends feature which takes the standard Trending Topics data and uses Twitter’s geolocation functionality to make it based on location. Twitter team members Ryan Sarver and Raffi Krikorian have confirmed it is starting to roll out. We noted this feature back in November when Twitter said there would be an API for it, but unlike actual geolocation, they’re clearly going to be featuring on the main website as well. This is a big part of Twitter’s effort to clean up the Trending Topics area which has become overrun with spam.
While only a limited number of users can see it right now, user LisaBarone was able to capture it in action. As you can see, she only captured the ability to switch your city or country to find trends based on the location. Look for more screenshots soon.
Update: And here’s another from Barone.
Update 2: Twitter Platform Director Ryan Sarver has tweeted us a bit more information about the feature. Apparently, “Coachella” is a term only trending in LA and San Francisco, which makes sense since it’s a concert based in California. As you can see in the screenshot below, “LAFD” is also trending in LA.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
As you probably heard, yesterday, Twitter rolled out its revamped suggested users list (SUL). The list was a source of much controversy because those on it (including the @TechCrunch account) were assured to gain thousands of followers a day. And many of the accounts on it long enough had over a million followers. Obviously, many users not on it didn’t consider this to be fair — while plenty of those on it also thought it was kind of BS. After all, if you’re on it, and followed by a million people, any link you send out is likely to get many, many more clicks then by someone followed by a few hundred people. Even Twitter co-founder Evan Williams didn’t like it. So Twitter made a change. And guess what? It worked.
While the numbers coming in are still very early (only based on one day), it appears that across the board, those who were on the SUL before and after the change are seeing dramatic drops in the numbers of users following them each day. In some cases, SUL users are even losing Twitter followers now following the change.
While plenty were quick to note that the new SUL is more or less the same as the old SUL, just broken into categories, there is one vital difference: there is no way to add all the users on the lists with one click. This means that you now have to go through each user on the list one-by-one to add them, which most people apparently don’t feel the need to do.
I pulled these interesting new numbers are pulled from the site TwitterCounter. For example, the TechCrunch account (which again was on the SUL before and also is currently) went from gaining 2,979 followers a day on average, all the way down to gaining just 286 yesterday (and it’s actually a bigger drop because the 286 number pulled down the 3,112 average that stood yesterday when I checked expecting there to be a huge drop). Another SUL mainstay, Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, went from gaining 2,184 followers a day to losing 162 yesterday. Same with Twitter angel investor Chris Sacca who went from gaining 2,892 a day to losing 68 yesterday. The main Google Twitter account went from gaining 4,908 followers a day on average to 893 yesterday. I could go on, but you get the point.
To be clear, the new SUL is still helping those that weren’t on it previously gain more followers. For example, Scott Beale’s LaughingSquid account wasn’t on the old SUL but is on the new one, and went from gaining about 51 users a day to gaining 151 users a day. But that’s a far cry from gaining 2,000 – 3,000 new followers every day.
Everyone will probably agree this new method is a much more fair and balanced way to help users find interesting people on Twitter. That said, those who were on the SUL before are now likely out of reach of anyone not on it previously. Well, unless you’re @billgates, who apparently doesn’t need the SUL to attract the masses.
Update: Twitter’s Doug Bowman has responded to this post in a tweet saying, “Exactly, and it was completely intentional.”
[photo: flickr/hape gera]
This is just a friendly heads up for all the gamers in the audience. Good Old Games, a video game download service (think Steam, but less intrusive) created by the people who developed The Witcher, has a sale this weekend on games developed by Cyan, Inc. Oh, shiny~!
Most notably, that includes Myst and Riven. That means the games cost only $5.99 each. If you’re never heard of these, let alone played them, please hand in your gamer card. Devin will collect them on your way out. Thank you.
The iPhone is indisputably on top of the mobile gaming heap, and even relative small fries like Palm are getting serious about it, but Google’s plan for this year’s Game Developers Conference marks one of their first steps towards making Android the next big platform for games on the go. Sure, they’ve committed to offering a number of sessions on Android game development, and members of the Android team will be on hand to answer questions, but we both know that’s not why you’re reading this. You just want to get the skinny on those Android phones.
Well, fine. Have it your way.
As you could probably tell by that header image up there, Google’s prepared to give qualified GDC attendees a free Motorola Droid or Nexus One to spark some interest in their little operating system that could. Getting yourself qualified isn’t the biggest deal in the world, either: register for either an All-Access or Summits and Tutorials pass by the early bird deadline (a.k.a. February 12), and you’re in the running. Now, while we don’t recommend registering and flying out to San Francisco to get your hands on a shiny new phone (though we’re sure some of you would actually do it), this is a great (if expensive) move by Google to build some good Android karma – after all, there’s no better way to turn normal people into devotees than showing them what they’ve been missing.
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It’s the case of the missing money. Or, less dumb, it’s a case of nobody knowing what’s going on. Several Windows Mobile developers have complained loudly that they’re owed monies by Microsoft. Microsoft is all, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll get it sorted out,” but then doesn’t, in fact, sort it.
The deal is that several developers are owed, or at least feel that they’re owed, money for applications they’ve sold on the Windows Marketplace of Mobile store. The store launched last October. (You don’t remember everyone dancing in the streets, celebrating its launch?) The rules are such that, once you’ve sold more than $200 worth of applications, calculated after Microsoft takes its cut, then Redmond sends you an electronic transfer payment. Nothing too fancy for a gigantic corporation like Microsoft.
Unless… Well, a number of developers have claimed that, despite crossing the dollar amount threshold, they still haven’t received payment. And yes, these developers have already read Microsoft’s explanation as to what’s going on, and they’re still asking questions. Mainly, “where’s my money? Food doesn’t grow on trees.” Oh, wait: it does. Imagine that.
To its credit, Microsoft does appear to be trying to rectify the issue, and is posting on the relevant message board that it’s looking into the situation, but “try” probably isn’t a word you want to hear when there’s money at stake.
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After Tiger Woods’ personal indiscretions became public, the championship golfer found himself suddenly devoid of most major sponsorship deals. One of the last big holdouts has been Electronic Arts, makers of the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of golf games. It’s now been revealed that the company will definitely be standing by Woods, with the next version of the console game to be called “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11.”
Said EA Sports President Peter Moore:
“We didn’t form a relationship with him so that he could act as an arm’s length endorser. Regardless of what’s happening in his personal life … Tiger Woods is still one of the greatest athletes in history.”
Woods still retains a sponsor relationship with Nike, as well.
EA tees off on Tiger Woods console game in June [Reuters]
 Coolest Gadget Reviews | Hack Brings Multitouch to Nexus One Browser Wired News Google's Nexus One phone has gained kudos for its vivid OLED screen and slim design. But the lack of multitouch support for its gorgeous display has left some users frustrated. Now there's a hack for it. A developer has modified the ... Hacker Enables Multitouch on Nexus One Browser Cyanogen releases Nexus One rom with multi-touch Top 10 Google Android Apps for Work and Play |
By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily
Apple (APPL) shares today have extended their pull-back ahead of the company’s earnings report, which is due after the close Monday, and the product announcement (the tablet, presumably) coming on Wednesday.
Adding to the pressure: Deutsche Bank (DB) this morning removed the stock from its short-term Buy list. (Though at this point I am lacking the details; if any one has them, please feel free to send them along.)
A number of other firms weighed in on the stock this morning as well:
Read the rest of this post on the original site
 The Guardian (blog) | Weak Passwords Pervasive, Despite Security Risks InformationWeek Data from a breach affecting 32 million online accounts reveals the persistent popularity of weak passwords, despite obvious risks. By Thomas Claburn Five years ago, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates predicted the end of passwords because they failed to ... Creating Secure Passwords You Can Remember The Byzantine Art of Password Protection User Passwords Make Hackers' Job Easy: Report |
Over the past day or so, reports have been pouring in from around the Internet that Motorola Droid users were suddenly seeing a surprise over-the-air update hit their handsets. “Better battery life!” they said, “And Facebook bugs have been fixed!”
This wasn’t an isolated reported, by any means. Dozens upon dozens of forumgoers proclaimed that they’d received it, and a few other blogs confirmed it. And yet.. Motorola has just decried talks of such an update on Twitter, claiming that they “have not released a new [OTA update] since December.”
So whats going on? Was an update released either on accident or with little communication from the techs? Are people just imagining things, like some sort of geeky version of the Dancing Plague of 1518? It’s like the most boring and awkwardly niche episode of the Twilight Zone ever.
I haven’t seen any updates hit my Droid handset, nor have I personally heard any tales from anyone I know not to be crazy. We’ll update you if that changes.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Section: Audio, Car Audio, Portable Audio, Satellite / HD Radio, Web, Web Apps
Is Apple getting into the streaming music game? According to rumors regarding next week’s Apple event, yes. According to the rumors, Apple has spoken to the top four music labels about music streaming as a way to add value to the sales iTunes currently garners.
The rumors play off Apple’s purchase of Lala, a streaming music service. The idea is Lala would be the backbone of the iTunes streaming plan where users could stream their music (with an option to store music on iTunes servers) and listen to preset stations for free. This move has many of us asking, how would this affect Pandora?
Pandora, perhaps the most popular music streaming service, just recorded their first profitable quarter. It has been a long road for the 10-year-old company to profitability, but if CES showed us anything, it is that Pandora is now ensconced in the tech world. From new Ford cards, to Pioneer radios to Panasonic TVs, among lots others. Pandora is the cool app to have for your ecosystem.
How could Apple make iTunes streaming beat out Pandora, one of it’s most popular Apps? It is extremely likely that Apple will add iTunes streaming to it’s core applications that can be run in the background. One of the issues with Pandora on the iPhone is the inability to multitask while streaming music through the app. Apple could keep Pandora at bay by granting multitasking to its program.
Is it too late for iTunes or does Apple’s walled garden, that is the iPhone OS, present a captured market that need only one benefit (perhaps the ability to run in the background) to convert users? Or is Pandora’s head start combined with tech’s embrace of the app enough to compete? Time will tell.
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FROM APPLETELL - With the Beats line, Monster has created an amazing product that is not only an example of how good consumer audio can be, but continues to influence fashion and popular culture.
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Oh no! The fundraiser is in 2 hours, and you’re not even dressed yet! What are you going to do? Sure, you want to look sharp; that’s why you rented the suit. But you still want people to know that you’re a geek, man. You’ve spent too many years fixing other peoples computers and being asked to build their websites to give it all up for one night of looking suave.
BAM! A volley of smoke fills the air as the walls around you shake. On the table before you lay two, shining..
BlackBerry cufflinks. Thank you, geek fairy!
Yeah, I’m not really sure why anyone (outside of maybe the folks who work at RIM who REALLY, REALLY love their job) would buy these, but BlackBerry cufflinks now exist. They’ll set you back $50 a pair and a fair chunk of dignity – but hey, you never know when you’ll meet that special someone who’s just really into guys who like BlackBerry.
[Via IntoMobile]
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
QOTD: Insert “One Small Tweet for Man” Joke Here [Digital Daily] 
“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station–the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s”
Google’s Nexus One phone has gained kudos for its vivid OLED screen and slim design. But the lack of multitouch support for its gorgeous display has left some users frustrated.
Now there’s a hack for it. A developer has modified the Android 2.1 operating system running on the Nexus One to enable multitouch for the device. Though it enables the feature for the Nexus One browser, for now, it is likely to soon become a part of other applications, such as maps.
Earlier this month, Google launched Nexus One as the first smartphone that would be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The Nexus One is designed by HTC and is currently available on T-Mobile’s network for $180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile. An unsubsidized version of the phone costs $530.
But the lack of multitouch on the Nexus One has left many users puzzled. Nexus One has a touchscreen but users can only tap on it with one finger. So none of the two-finger pinch-and-zoom gestures that are popular among iPhone users are available. Google has said it will consider adding the feature in future updates.
The Android community, though, isn’t holding its breath. Steve Kondik, a developer who goes under the nickname Cyanogen, has offered a few files and instructions on code to add multitouch to the device.
“You will initially lose your bookmarks and browser settings by doing this,” he warns. Hacking the phone could also void its warranty.
But as this video shows, getting multitouch in the Nexus One browser could just be worth it.
Photo: pittaya/Flickr
[via PC World]
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Not too long ago, HTC announced — much to our excitement — that they would be putting 3.5mm jacks in all of their handsets. In non-geek speak, that means that you wouldn’t need some annoying little one inch, easy-to-lose cable adapter just to be able to use your own headphones.
One of the last phones to sneak out with a non-3.5mm jack was the HTC T-Mobile myTouch. It was actually a pretty decent handset — but that useless jack really killed our buzz when we reviewed it. Fortunately, it looks like HTC and T-Mobile are going back to fix the error in their ways.
When the just-released Fender edition of the myTouch came down the pipes with a 3.5mm jack, folks got their hopes up that the original might see a revision. Sure enough – pictured above is the myTouch “v1.2″, an upcoming re-release of the myTouch complete with 3.5mm jack. The Fender edition also purportedly packs a RAM upgrade – no word yet if the new standard myTouch is getting that as well.
Don’t expect much fanfare when T-Mo releases the revised handset, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be too much longer before it happens.
Source: T-Mo News
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Section: Web, Websites, Online Music/Video
Rumors are swirling around the web about Hulu’s possible two new business models. Both of them charging money for our shows.
The first business model is a bit of a no-brainer. Hulu would begin charging for shows based on their popularity. So, if you love the show, and so does everyone else, you’re going to have to start paying for your love. Lesson here? Don’t follow the majority; be the minority in terms of show choices.
The second business model is a tiny bit more confusing and unorthodox in my opinion. How it would work is that the 5 most recent shows in a series would be free; but any episode after the 5th you would have to pay a $5 monthly fee for. So, if you tend to play catch-up with your shows, you might want to change your habits. Though this model will only take affect after the series has at least 20 episodes.
These models, though troublesome for us, could potentially save Hulu and the studios a lot of money in court. If they continued to not charge for viewing their shows, I could see Hulu going down the same road as Napster did back in 2000.
Read [Electronista]
Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
With today's improvements, the answer —1250 ft, or 381 m — is highlighted right in the search result:
This kind of quick answer only makes sense for certain kinds of searches. For example, the answer to [history of france] can't readily fit in a search snippet. However, for the kinds of information you can easily put in a table, we've been able to take what we've learned from Google Squared to make search better for a wide range of queries. Answer highlighting is rolling out during the next couple days on google.com in English.
Venture capitalists calling for smaller funds and for more of an old-school approach to investing, your calls have been answered. VC investments last year were the lowest since 1997, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association released on Friday.
In 2009, venture capitalists invested $17.7 billion–37 percent less than in 2008 (see chart below; click to enlarge). And they funneled that money into just 2,795 start-ups–37 percent fewer than the year prior. The sectors where these declines hit hardest: Software, clean tech and biotech.
“The venture capital industry had no choice but to slow the investment pace in 2009,” NVCA president Mark Heesen said in a statement. “The weak exit environment resulting from an unstable public market combined with a challenged limited partner base sent a strong message to the venture community to pull back the reins–and the VC’s listened.”
While the market for VC investments in 2010 is likely to remain tight, the situation is improving. Said Heesen: “Now that the economy has begun to show signs of improvement, we expect to see dollars flow more freely back into those sectors that offered the most promise before the recession began–clean technology, life sciences and IT. The seed and early stage pipeline needs replenishing across all industries and the health of the startup community in the next decade will be dependent upon more robust first-time financings. 2010 should be the year to begin that process in earnest.”
By Nitrozac and Snaggy
Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking
Social networking game Foursquare has released an app for BlackBerry smartphones. The object of the game is to get out and explore your city, “checking in with certain landmarks along the way. The more you do the more points you get, and you also start unlocking badges and have a chance to become “mayor” of a location you check in to frequently. Check ins are sent to your Twitter feed so that your friends also playing the game can see where you’ve been. It gets people out and about and helps them really discover everything their city has to offer.
The app works with the BlackBerry’s built in GPS, offer a search tool to help you find places, and allows you to tweet from its dashboard. It’s still in beta but available to all. You can download it OTA here.
Read [Foursquare] Via [BerryReporter]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 BBC News | Government Doing Little About Asteroids: Report ABC News WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is doing little to defend the planet against potentially devastating asteroids and is not doing the basic searches that Congress has ordered, according to a report ... How will NASA defend Earth against killer asteroids and comets? Earth Not Properly Protected from Asteroids The First of Many Asteroid Finds for WISE |
Assuming that Washington cooperates, GE (GE) will be able to hand off NBC Universal to Comcast (CMCSA) in a year or so. Until then, though, it must briefly acknowledge NBCU in every earnings report, even though investors have no interest in it.
Especially with numbers like these: GE says NBCU’s Q4 revenue dropped four percent, to $4.3 billion, and operating profit declined 30 percent, to $602 million.
Were Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien’s ratings really that bad? Of course not.
NBC’s broadcast revenue was down 1.5 percent, but that was balanced by growth in the company’s cable properties, which were up eight percent. And not that I’m a Jeff Zucker apologist, but when pundits are castigating him for his late-night debacle, they really ought to point out that some parts of the company–the parts that Comcast wants, not coincidentally–have grown considerably during Zucker’s tenure.
In any case, GE blames this quarter’s decline on Hollywood: Its movie division has been low on box office hits, and its DVD group, like most other studios, has been sucking wind.
Here’s GE’s brief description of its business in charticle form (click to enlarge). Note the line about slow recovery in Web ads:
And here’s the best “screw you, NBC” clip I’ve seen from Conan this week. Which, as many Web commenters have noted, is not available on NBC’s Web site or via Hulu. But given that NBC has been fairly vigilant about pulling down unauthorized clips it doesn’t want on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube, the network can’t be that upset about this one, which you can find all over the site:
“Ten of the 13 root name servers in the world are located in the US. They are the top hierarchy of the Internet, which means by controlling them, the US can define the freedom of the Internet. How can Clinton guarantee you a freedom if her country has the power to unplug you?”
– Yu Wanli, an expert on international studies at Peking University
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet censorship Thursday and her call for an investigation into charges that Chinese-backed hackers attacked Google have met with a bristling and indignant response from Beijing.
In a statement posted to China’s foreign ministry Web site, Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the United States should “cease using so-called Internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China. The US has criticised China’s policies to administer the internet, and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom. This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations. We urge the United States to respect the facts….China’s Internet is open.”
Well, that’s an interesting perspective on the country’s legendary Internet filtering system. Evidently, the vast infrastructure of technology that has made online dissent an impossibility doesn’t exist!
Ma’s criticism of Clinton was echoed in the China’s state-run media, which refers to the current debacle as “the Google farce.” An editorial in the Global Times today denounced Clinton’s call for free access to the Internet to be a foreign policy matter as a form of “information imperialism.”
“The U.S. campaign for uncensored and free flow of information on an unrestricted Internet is a disguised attempt to impose its values on other cultures in the name of democracy,” the editorial reads. “The U.S. government’s ideological imposition is unacceptable and, for that reason, will not be allowed to succeed.”
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With the Apple Tablet likely to change the world as we know it in less than a week, you may be wondering (still) about the merits of a soft, on-screen keyboard. Phil Gyford was wondering the same thing, only instead of just sitting around and lazily pondering (like you) he did something about it.
Phil dug out an old Newton MessagePad, a Palm Vx, a Palm Treo 650 and an iPhone 3G, and typed out a pre-memorized 221-word passage of text on each one, timing each try twice. To balance the test, Phil also typed the text once on his most familiar keyboard (a MacBook) and wrote it out by hand. With a pen. And paper.
The results are only unexpected if you have not actually used the iPhone for any length of time. The MacBook came in first. The iPhone’s soft keyboard came a very near second, with the Treo’s tiny hardware keyboard close behind. Next was pen and paper, followed by the Newton’s handwriting recognition and finally, in deserved last place, the Palm Vx with its frustrating Graffiti input.
None of this explains just how Apple plans to put a soft keyboard on a big ol’ tablet screen, but it does show us exactly why Apple will never ship a dedicated hardware keyboard for either the Tablet or the iPhone: Unless you are a professional writer, you just don’t need one.
Pen v keyboard v Newton v Graffiti v Treo v iPhone [Phil Gyford via ★]
Photo: Phil Gyford
The Auto-Lift iron from Italian appliance-monger Ariete will stop you burning that tell-tale mark into your dress-shirt yet again. As soon as you let go of the handle, the steam-iron will lift up and away from the delicate clothing beneath to prevent charring. When you grab it again, micro-capacitive sensors in the handle will detect your clammy digits and lower the iron for continued pressing.
As the wonderfully good-looking members of the Wired.com team can attest after my recent visit to the San Francisco nerve-center, I never iron anything, preferring a lazy, rumpled understatement instead of any actual pride in my appearance. The last time I used an iron was to toast a cheese sandwich after the gas ran out in my student home many years ago (yes, the steam-holes do leave an un-browned pattern). But even I can see the good sense behind this 2400W auto-lifter. After all, putting a piece of hot metal onto a delicate, flammable piece of fabric is clearly dangerous madness. Thank you, Ariete, for making this weird social ritual a little bit safer. €65 ($92).
Auto-Lift Iron [Ariete via Appliancist and Core77]
Instapaper, the incredibly useful “read later” service for the web, the iPhone and pretty much any e-reader, has just updated its Kindle support to make it even better.
Instapaper lets you click a bookmarklet to save whole articles, recipes or anything in your browser for reading later. Using an iPhone app or e-reader, you can then read long articles offline, and at your leisure.
Previously, as we have detailed, you could download a .mobi file from the Instapaper site for use with the Kindle, or opt to have it send direct over the air (Amazon will charge for the latter method). Instapaper supremo Marco Arment has tweaked the format so the bundles of goodness now show up as proper newspapers on the Kindle.
As you can see in the picture above, you can now browse a table of contents in the standard Kindle form. Selecting one takes you to the article, and hitting the Back button takes you back to this page. If you opt for wireless delivery, Instapaper will also archive old files in the “Periodicals: Back Issues” folder, just like it should, keeping the main screen clutter-free.
It’s a small touch, but I have been using it for the past few days and it makes a big difference to usability: no more scrolling through long lists of links, for example. Best of all, this remains completely free. You’ll have to buy a Kindle, of course, and we recommend upgrading to the paid, pro version of Instapaper for the iPhone.
Kindle feature dramatically improved [Instapaper Blog]
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com
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Map 2 is a folding paper map of Greater London, with a twist (or rather, with a fold): You can zoom in.
Electronic maps, like those from Google, are better than paper in many ways. You can search, zoom, get directions and carry a whole planet’s worth of cartography in your pocket. However, you still need a battery and an internet connection.
Map 2 incorporates one new feature from its electronic successor: zooming. It unfolds from a little square into a bigger, four-sectioned overview of the city-center. Any of these four quarters can then be folded out using a “patented folding” system to reveal a larger, zoomed version of the plan. It’s as ingenious as it is low-tech, and probably well worth the £8 ($13) asking price.
There is one other advantage to using a cellphone for your maps, especially in a foreign city: You don’t look like a tourist. In London, though, this isn’t the case. The city is so big, and the roads so complex that every Londoner has an A to Z, a book which indexes and maps the city streets. In this city, pulling out a book of maps will make you look more like a local, not less. It’s also a sure-fire way to get a normally grumpy, rushed local to stop and talk to you. Londoners are even happier to help you find your way around than they are to grumble about the weather.
Map2 [The Zoomable Map via Oh Gizmo!]
Above you see two Blu-ray players. On the bottom is the Oppo BDP-83, a $500 machine. On top is the Lexicon BD-30, which will set you back $3,500. Can you spot the difference, apart from the price?
It’s a trick question. There is no difference, at least not on the inside. In a daring matryoshka-like move, it appears that Lexicon simply bought a batch of Oppos and put them in new cases. Lest you think we are being picky here, or that Lexicon somehow took the guts of the Oppo and redesigned the surrounding circuitry, let us clarify. If you open up the $3,500 Lexicon, you will find an entire Oppo Blu-ray player inside, intact, with its original chassis.
These were the findings of Audioholics, the “Online A/V Magazine”. Suspicions were raised after spotting the Lexicon at the 2009 CEDIA Expo in Atlanta: “Looking at the player, its button layout and, most importantly, it’s [sic] rear panel, showed us that this product had the exact same layout as the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player” writes Audioholics’ Clint DeBoer. Clint called one in for review, and here’s what he found:
When we received the player the first thing we did was open it up to get a look at the inside. Imagine my surprise when I found that not only did the Lexicon share the same boards and transport as the Oppo - it was in fact AN OPPO BDP-83 PLAYER, CHASSIS AND ALL, SHOVED INSIDE AN ALUMINUM LEXICON WRAPPER.
Oops. Audioholics didn’t bother to actually review the machine, as the Oppo had already been tested. The reviewers did, however, run some audio analyses to check out the one real difference between the two players: the more expensive Lexicon has THX certification.
The test shed more light on the THX certification process than on the players themselves. The units tested almost identically, no different than had they been two examples of the same model (which, really, they are). So that’s what an extra $3,000 buys you: a THX label and a new, aluminum faceplate. Audioholics has the whole scandal detailed, along with comparison pictures of the two Blu-ray players.
Update: THX’s Graham McKenna wrote to point out that there was actually some modification of the Oppo hardware:
THX worked directly with Oppo to improve video performance during the testing of the Lexicon player and the benefits made their way to the Oppo platform as well. It’s also important to note that THX is solely focused on quality and performance. Product pricing is never a driving factor for receiving THX certification.
Oppo on the Inside, Lexicon on the Outside [Audioholics]
The BookBook is a MacBook book-case. Designed to look like a heavy, ancient leather-bound tome, the BookBook notebook sleeve is in fact a zip-open, padded leather-bound tome, a vintage hardback disguise for the MacBook.
As I have mentioned/complained before, it doesn’t take long before a perfectly good homegrown solution becomes an overpriced, over-thought commercial product. Think bike polo mallet shafts (vs. cheap second hand ski-poles), for instance. Now, instead of merely hollowing out a musty volume gotten from the thrift store, you can buy this case for $80 from TwelveSouth, the maker of usually innovative Mac accessories.
Still, at least the case is done properly. The distressed cover is real leather (so vegan Steve Jobs won’t be using one, we’ll bet) and the zipper-pulls resemble, to the uninterested eye at least, bookmark tails. The inside is padded and the tough hardback and spine offer some protection. I’ll stick with my re-used Tyvek bubble-velope, the nice ones that Fed-Ex sends me free with each and every delivery. $80, in 15 and 13-inch sizes, red and black covers.
BookBook [Twelve South via TUAW]
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This looks really, really bad. An avid Facebook user named Harman Bajwa says that his 
I’ve just changed my default browser from Safari to Chrome. The reason – the official Chrome 
RS: Back in my pulp-mag days I worked from about 8:30 to noon, took an hour off for lunch, and worked again from one to three, for a work day of five and a half hours or so. I wrote 20 to 30 pages of copy in that time, doing it all first draft, so that I was able to produce a short story of 5000-7500 words in a single day. If I had 3000-worders to do, I usually wrote one before lunch and one after lunch. At three o'clock I poured myself a shot of rum or mixed a martini, put a record on, and sat down to relax until dinnertime, reading and perhaps sketching out the next day's work on a scrap of paper. This was the Tuesday-to-Friday routine. I never worked on Saturday or Sunday.
During the past 18 months we've seen a dramatic shift in customer preference from print to digital when looking at sales from oreilly.com, which is a substantial sales channel for us. And looking across all of our sales channels for individual ebooks -- including mobile apps -- 2009 ebook revenue was up a staggering 104% on 2008 (which was more than 50% above 2007).
"The alarming upshot of the court's decision is that so long as the government spies on all Americans, the courts have no power to review or halt such mass surveillance even when it is flatly illegal and unconstitutional," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "With new revelations of illegal spying being reported practically every other week -- just this week, we learned that the FBI has been unlawfully obtaining Americans' phone records using Post-It notes rather than proper legal process -- the need for judicial oversight when it comes to government surveillance has never been clearer."
Apple has invited the media to "come see our latest creation" at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater this Wednesday, but given their recent track record with the iPhone's DRM and App Store policies, it's more likely to be "come see our latest restriction."
Anyone who has been on Twitter for more than a few days knows that it’s rife with bots — accounts that are run by a computer, rather than a human. But while bots may be pretty easy to come by, it isn’t often that you get the chance to read through the code that makes one tick. Tonight, you’ve got your chance. The bot’s name? 
In an article published by the Washington Post, former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff