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Baidu And Japan’s Rakuten To Invest $50 Million In Giant Online Shopping Mall
Under the terms of the agreement, Rakuten will become majority shareholder of the new, yet to be named joint venture (51%) with Baidu owning the remaining 49%. B2B2C refers to an online marketplace that links and provides value-added services to both business to business and business to consumer. The online mall, which is expected to go live in the second half of 2010, aims to provide customers with merchandise from well-known Chinese and foreign brands as well as small and medium sized enterprises at ‘competitive prices’. The mall is anticipated to quickly become the largest online B2B2C shopping mall in China. Rakuten sure has the experience of running such ventures: founded in 1997 as MDM Inc., the company operates Rakuten Ichiba, Japan’s leading Internet shopping mall with over 30,000 participating merchants and over 47 million items registered on its e-commerce platform. Baidu, meanwhile, has seen two top executives depart the company just this month (both CTO Yinan Li and COO Peng Ye bailed citing ‘personal reasons’), but that hasn’t stopped it from teaming up with other companies to strengthen its foothold in China. Earlier this month, word got out that Baidu was setting up a new independent online video company in partnership with Hulu investor Providence Equity Partners.
Source: TechCrunch | 27 Jan 2010 | 3:17 am Scientology Attacker Will Be Sentenced To JailOBG writes "A Nebraska native charged with taking part in a massive cyber-attack against the Scientology website will be spending the next year behind bars. 20-year-old Brian Thomas Mettenbrink will plead guilty to the charge of unauthorized access of a protected computer for his involvement in the denial of service attack, which was orchestrated by the online group 'Anonymous.' Mettenbrink's is the second successful prosecution connected to the 'Anonymous' attacks. Last year, Dmitriy Guzner of Verona, New Jersey, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for attacks on Scientology sites."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Jan 2010 | 3:15 am Google's "older sister" in China urges it to stay
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 The Age | Microsoft-shoe New York Post Here are the photos that show Microsoft computer-geek mogul Bill Gates partying like a rock star at the Sundance Film Festival, as he shook his booty with a bevy of beauties and flirted up a storm all over town. ... Bill Gates spotted table-dancing at Sundance party? Gates: Innovation In Health Care, Education Better Come Soon Bill Gates Warns Of Dystopian Future |
By Hutch Carpenter, Blogger, bhc3.wordpress.com
In a recent interview with EMC’s Stu Miniman about the future of the web, I predicted that in 20 years, we’ll all have online reputation scores. Little badges, numbers that communicate our level of authority, this sort of thing. And these reputations will have tangible impact.
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By Brian Raftery, Writer, Wired Magazine
Just how funny is a beer-drinking horse? Ben Huh is sitting in his downtown Seattle office asking himself this question. It’s an unseasonably warm afternoon in November, and Huh, the 32-year-old founder of the humor-blog startup Cheezburger Network, is deciding whether a picture of a boozy equine chugging a cold one should run on Daily Squee, a Web site devoted entirely to user-generated snapshots of twee creatures.
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By Maya Baratz, Product Manager, MTV Networks
In this past fall’s Web 2.0 Summit conference, Mark Pincus, CEO of social gaming startup Zynga, declared Web 3.0 the “app economy” – a web in which people use apps to consume and share things, the way we do using Facebook and the iPhone. Sure, it was an easy argument to make by someone working in an industry that lends itself to profiting off of standing on the shoulders of a giant (in this case, Facebook). But it’s also an insight that may hint at the solution to one of the bigger obstacles so-called “old” media – the newspaper industry in particular – is up against: If news media outlets want to thrive in this new environment, they need to start thinking of themselves as apps.
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By Ben Worthen, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Larry Ellison is setting a new course for Oracle Corp. (ORCL) that includes hiring 2,000 sales and engineering employees and developing a line of high-end computer systems.
The moves, which the Oracle chief executive disclosed in an interview Tuesday, come as the company prepares to close its long-delayed acquisition of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA). On Tuesday Sun delisted itself from the Nasdaq Stock Market, a sign that the takeover was nearly complete, though no formal announcement was made.
With the acquisition, Mr. Ellison, who built his fortune selling computer software and shunning hardware, says Oracle’s mission will change significantly. He said he plans to transform Oracle into a company that is as serious about server systems—the big back-office computers used for processing corporate data—as it is about business software.
Mr. Ellison said his planned 2,000 new hires will outnumber the cuts Oracle is making in Sun’s head count, which stood at 27,596 as of Sept. 30. Oracle, which had 83,366 employees at the end of November, was widely expected to slash Sun’s work force.
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Each year the World Economic Forum at Davos holds number of technology focused sessions. Last year I moderated a high profile discussion about the next digital experience. This year, Loic Le Meur is hosting a discussion on the growth of social networks.
Participants include Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn, Greylock), Owen Van Natta (MySpace), Gina Bianchini (Ning), Evan Williams (Twitter) and George Colony (Forrester Research) and Don Tapscott (nGenera). Randi Zuckerberg, Jeff Jarvis, Russian super-investor Yuri Milner and others also dropped by to participate.
The room is packed, standing room only, and bursting at the seams. These guys are popular in Silicon Valley. Bring them to Davos, Switzerland and everyone wants to hear what they have to say.
Each panelist is giving a short 3-4 minute talk on how they frame the interesting issues around social networking (Hoffman says, for example, that privacy is only an issue for old people, young people don’t care.). We have videos of most of these comments and will embed them below as we process them..
Seven of the 15 most traffic sites in the world are social sites, Colony says in his intro. Only 17% of online users will visit a social site each day, though, including mobile usage. This varies widely by age – 27% of those 25 and under will visit a social site each day.
Below are clips from Hoffman, Van Natta, Bianchini, Williams and Zuckerberg:
 VentureBeat | Scott McNealy signs off in style Register One of Silicon Valley's last true characters has signed off - Sun founder Scott McNealy has sent a final goodbye memo to his staff. In his own words McNealy is "a big mouth who is always ready with a clever ... Oracle to Keep Investing in Sun's Server Lines Sun's McNealy Has 'Few Regrets' as Oracle Takeover Nears Close Oracle plans to hire 2000 workers - WSJ |
By Robin Sloan, Contributor, Snark Market
Like Joanne, I noticed the big Google (GOOG) banners on NYTimes.com (NYT) and, er, totally clicked one. (Isn’t that funny? The one product in the universe that I absolutely don’t need to learn more about is the one that got my click-through.)
The ads lead you to Google’s new Search Stories videos, which are really shockingly clever and watchable.
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Jason Calacanis isn’t a a nobody. He’s a serial web entrepreneur, founder of Weblogs, Inc., co-founder of TechCrunch50 and CEO of search engine Mahalo (amongst others). And just a few minutes ago, via his Twitter account, he (possibly) dropped some major hints on the Apple tablet that’s going to be presented tomorrow. Calacanis claims he has been given a tablet by Apple ten days ago, adding “For background: apple asked me to do press tomorrow on cnbc, cnn, etc.”.
If he isn’t pulling a major PR stunt (I think he isn’t), Calacanis is stoked. Here’s the gist of what he says about the device. I know many of you are sick of hearing about it, and this may turn out to be totally false info tomorrow – but what he said seemed just too interesting.
Calacanis’ impressions:
Functions and features:
Availability and price:
Calacanis says he can’t reveal the name and can’t show pictures of the device (for two possible spy shots, see here). We know in a couple of hours if he was joking or not (he says he isn’t).
Update: Not for real. We had our doubts. Screen size and internal memory options with such a carefully manicured ecosystem? Not so much!
By Jonathan Stray, Contributor, Nieman Journalism Lab
It’s entirely possible that The New York Times (NYT) will net a profit from their newly announced paywall, set to debut in a year’s time. But it’s by no means guaranteed. Even (momentarily) setting aside the journalistic or civic-minded concerns about shutting some readers out of the news, the whole idea makes little sense if the basic math doesn’t work out.
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For those who don’t care one bit about the rollout of the Apple (AAPL) tablet later this morning by CEO and ringmaster Steve Jobs, here is an incredibly funny song spoof poking fun at the mysterious ABC television hit “Lost.”
“Lost” is premiering the first show of its final season next week and the Fine Brothers want some answers about the convoluted plot of the often-vexing program.
Using “Downtown” as the tune, it’s long but spot-on–the part about Jin is especially hysterical. And that’s coming from someone who gave up on “Lost” after the weird second season.
Here’s the video:
 Reuters | Gates backs China in Google censorship spat Register Lovable, huggable ex-monopolist Bill Gates has more often than not found himself batting for China in a recent publicity drive as head of the Gates Foundation. On his way to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the Microsoft-chief-turned ... US groups say "alarmed" by China's purchase rules Maybe Google Won't Quit China After All Google-style cyberattack found on Chinese government site |
Fair warning, this is probably a fake – we all know that people love to prank the night before an Apple event. Some suspected pictures of the iPad have shown up on the net, but it looks fishy to me.
I guess it is possible, maybe a prototype, or something bolted to a table, but I’m not buying it. Engadget also stated that they received a tip that the device will have a 10 inch screen, and a aluminum back like the MacBook. That sounds quite reasonable, but it also could be a good guess, it’s tough to tell. I guess we’re just going to have to wait until tomorrow morning to know the answer of what’s underneath the Apple tree.
The Federal Depository library Program (FDLP) is a geographically dispersed network of 1250 libraries around the US who for over 150 years have worked with the Government Printing Office (GPO) to insure that government information is deposited in local libraries and freely available to everyone. FDLP libraries have also assured the authenticity of government information through this distributed system. Documents librarians have long been advocates for government transparency, freedom of information, privacy and civil liberties (freedom to read etc).
FDLP librarians are now trying to apply that distributed concept to the digital world to figure out ways to give access to -- and more importantly to preserve -- digital government information. They're doing things like harvesting Web content (see for example web archiving @ Stanford, Archive-it.org & CA digital Library's web archiving service) preserving digital govt information in distributed archives (Government Documents Private LOCKSS Network ), working with government agencies like GPO and transparency activists to advocate for bulk data, "digital deposit" and open content standards.
While the concept of a distributed system can be applied perfectly to the digital world (think napster for govt information!), the FDLP network is being threatened by the very idea that the FDLP is a print concept only. With digital deposit, harvesting, bulk data, open standards etc, we can continue the FDLP to assure the distribution, access to and long-term preservation of government information. Contact your local FDLP librarian and tell them you support a distributed digital FDLP. Further reading:
Images from the completely great Best Titles Ever project.
 Boston Globe | China Says No Limits on Use of Google's Android ABC News AP In this photo taken on Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, workers clean and repair broken part of a marble... China said Wednesday its mobile phone carriers can use Google's Android operating system so long as it complies with ... China says no curb on Google mobile technology China Says No Limits on Google's Android If It Follows Laws Network Security Google Clash Highlights How China Does Business |
AP - China said Wednesday its mobile phone carriers can use Google's Android operating system so long as it complies with regulations, apparently trying to limit damage to Chinese industry from their dispute over Internet censorship.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
So here's what we can see in these photos, sent by a tipster to Engadget: A tablet in the general form of an iPhone, including the trademark home button, looking like it's encased in some kind of S&M leather case with snaps. It's running what seems to be a larger, scaled version of the iPhone's mobile Safari browser, possibly with tabs. In the upper left, it looks like it says "No Service," which would be referencing 3G (also a ha! moment for AT&T, if it uses AT&T) as well as a Wi-Fi logo. Very little else can be ascertained, including the most important pieces of the puzzle, the software and keyboard.
Is it real? It's the most likely suspect in my mind, not least because it only popped up the night before the event—Apple's security is so tight that this is the most leakable time. But it is, right now, unconfirmed.
Stay tuned until tomorrow, when we'll be liveblogging the Apple event from San Francisco. [Engadget]
Terms of (Ab)Use: US and UK Consumers Dance to Different iTunesFor example, as with many TOS agreements, the iTunes U.S. Terms purport to allow Apple to terminate any part of the service, including access to any music or other content available through iTunes, at any time without warning. The U.K. Terms step back from that extreme position. In particular, the U.K. Terms do not allow Apple to affect a user's access to content already purchased. Furthermore, before terminating a user's access to iTunes, the U.K. Terms require there at least be "strong grounds," rather than mere "suspicion," to believe the user has violated the agreement, and also obligates iTunes to provide notice of any planned modification, suspension, or termination to the extent possible. In other words, the U.K. Terms provide customers at least some guidance as to the grounds for termination, rather than leave them to worry their access to iTunes can be terminated at any moment for any reason.
Another area where the new U.K. Terms make progress is in placing restrictions on Apple's ability to modify terms for existing customers. Many TOS agreements, including the iTunes U.S. Terms, claim the right to modify terms unilaterally, at any time, and without notice to the customer. It is refreshing to see the U.K. Terms require notice of the new terms before they become effective, as well as an opportunity to reject the changes without affecting purchases already made. The UK approach makes much more sense than the U.S. Terms' insistence on allowing Apple to act unilaterally without notice. And the fact that Apple can do it for customers in the UK means they can and should do it for customers elsewhere.
Canadian Android Carrier Forcing Firmware (via /.)But Rogers is only doing something about it now -- namely, cutting data access of paying customers until they accept a mandatory firmware upgrade that not only fixes the 911 problem, but also contains 'extra' features that prevent users from ever gaining root access to their phones -- even non-subsidized ones. And some phones are also getting bricked by this 'official' update. The moral: we really need to open up the competition here up North."
That this House is deeply concerned by the secrecy surrounding international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA); notes that any agreement reached could affect the measures to protect copyright online currently being debated in the Digital Economy Bill; believes that if the companies affected by the agreement are party to the discussions and able to influence decisions, parliamentarians who represent the public and are responsible for legislation in these areas should also be kept up-to-date with developments and be able to contribute to the debate; seeks assurances from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that the provisions of the Digital Economy Bill will not be superseded by ACTA; and urges the Government to work to achieve release of details of the negotiations to hon. Members as soon as possible.PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT
It is kind of an interesting piece, though—SkyMall doesn't make, design, or even (to my surprise) ship products. They just pick and choose their favorites and assemble them into a magazine, and maybe provide some customer service. Mostly, the piece is a portrait of a company that could not be in a worse industry during a recession: Sharper Image and Circuit City have already bit the dust, and SkyMall's profits are way down. But there is a very cheerful-sounding guy working there, and I like their rationale for dismissing a USB-powered air-conditioned shirt:
"You have to unplug it to get up and go to the printer?" Downey said, vaguely incredulous. "I vote no."
"It's a geek shirt," said McCoy. "It wouldn't sell."
Good call, SkyMall. [WorldHum]
 The Guardian | Apple Tablet Is Latest Attempt by Steve Jobs to 'Shock and Awe' BusinessWeek Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs will try to persuade investors and customers today that tablet computers are as desirable as the company's iPhone and iPod music player. The chief executive officer ... Report: Apple seeks e-book pricing plan for tablet At last: Real photos of the Apple tablet Apple tablet buzz mounts as Steve Jobs plans unveiling |
Canadian MP Charlie Angus -- a successful musician, the former front-man for punk legends L'Etranger -- has stood up in Parliament to demand that Prime Minister Harper and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Peter Van Loan explain exactly what the hell they think they're doing negotiating a secret copyright treaty without Parliamentary oversight or input from Canadians. Remember, this is the government that is meant to be working to design a copyright law based on an unprecedented public commission on copyright, where thousands and thousands of Canadians told government what they wanted from their national copyright law.
The secret copyright treaty -- ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement -- contains provisions for border searches of laptops and personal media players, asks ISPs to spy on their users, and requires signatory nations' ISPs to disconnect the households of Internet users who are accused of copyright infringement.
It is presently being negotiated in Guadalajara, Mexico, in smoke-filled back rooms that are off-limits to the press, the public, public interest groups, independent copyright and trade experts, independent copyright creators -- just trade negotiators and representatives from big business are allowed to know what's going on.
1) First and foremost, why the secrecy? When the original WIPO treaties were being negotiated, the draft of texts were posted online and made available by Industry Canada. The federal government invited submissions on the process being undertaken.ANSWERS NEEDED ON SECRET ACTA TALKSACTA, on the other hand, is being negotiated entirely behind closed doors. Your government has gone along with this process by freezing out input from Parliament, public interest groups and key internet industries that could be adversely affected. This secrecy undermines the credibility of the Ministers of Industry and Heritage who have both made efforts to engage the public prior to the development of any new copyright framework for Canada.
Canadians deserve transparency on this issue. Therefore I am asking if you will produce for the House of Commons the latest draft held by your Department of the (a) civil enforcement, (b) border measures, (c) criminal enforcement and (d) intellectual property rights enforcement section of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement?
2) Will you produce the mandate letter given to Canada's negotiation team at ACTA? This will help provide the Canadian public with a sense of how far you've directed our representatives to go on key issues that affect our domestic laws and sovereignty.
3) What instructions have you given your negotiators regarding the issue of searching and seizing I-pods and laptops at international border crossings for potential non-commercial infringement of copyright? The ACLU reports that U.S. customs officials searched hundreds of devices last year. Is Canada prepared to authorize similar activities at our borders in an effort to ferret out alleged infringements by private citizens?
4) Is your government willing to impose a "Three Strikes and You're Out" approach to claims of copyright infringement?
AP - After a painful descent, things may finally be looking up for long-suffering Yahoo Inc.
If you're in the market for a new calculator, alarm clock, or FM radio, why wouldn't you want it to be made from corn and bamboo? Especially when it looks this handsome.
Not only are the devices made with sustainable materials, they're powered sustainably too: the clocks grab up energy from the sun and the radio has a fold-out crank to get its juice. From the looks of things, that radio doubles as a portable speaker for MP3 players and the like. Just don't bring it around any pandas. [Core77]
Good for GM. I don’t just congratulate them on a strict “buy American” level, but the decision to break off from the pack and both design and build the next generation of electric engines is a good one. Of course, there’s the question of whether they’ll be using Panasonic batteries and other Japanese parts. They’re still pretty much cornered in some of those areas. But hey, we’ll take what we can get.
The reasons for designing and manufacturing your own engine are pretty easy to see, and it’s a lot easier to do with an electric engine than an internal combustion one. Not nearly as many parts, and you aren’t managing hundreds of carefully controlled explosions every second. That’s not to say I could design one, but clearly GM thinks they can, and we should give them a slap on the back for it. How good it’ll be, we’ll just have to find out, but in the meantime just buy some flags and start waving.
Here we are, on the eve of the Tablet’s unveiling, with only hours to go before we find out just how ambitious Apple’s latest creation is. Countless articles have been written about how the forthcoming Tablet could be the savior of old media. Supposedly, people will finally start paying for this content because it will be readily available at their fingertips. But the promise of the tablet does not lie in immediate access to content; the Internet can already do that, as can the Kindle, to some extent. The true revolution lies in the new medium the tablet will give us. Three months ago Dan Lyons, writing as Fake Steve Jobs, totally nailed it:
New technology spawns new ways to tell stories. That’s the really exciting thing here. Not the tablet itself, but what it means for news, for entertainment, for literature. Gasp. Geddit? Is the f***ing light going off yet? This is what Anton Chekhov meant when he said that the medium is the message. This is why the Tablet is so profound.
There is no point in moving to digital readers if we’re just going to do what we did on paper. That’s why Kindle is such a piece of shit. All they did was pave the cowpath. And that’s why we’ve held back on our Tablet — not because the technology wasn’t ready, but because the content guys are such f***tards that they still can’t create anything that makes it worth putting the Tablet into the world.
You Say You Want A Revolution
Now, I don’t think the Kindle is a “piece of shit” by any means. The Kindle is to text what the iPod was to music. It lets you store and easily carry a vast amount of content with you at all times. That’s in no way a bad thing — the iPod has been adopted by a significant portion of Earth’s population because its appeal is so universal. But the Tablet can break new ground. It won’t just be a new way to conveniently access content. It will be a new way to consume it. Last September, Gizmodo reported that Apple was urging publishers to create so-called hybridized content that “draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. ”
When we hear talk of Steve Jobs saying this is the most important thing he’s done, I don’t think he’s excited about giving people a bigger screen to watch their movies on, or to play better games. I think he’s excited about changing the way we read and learn.
But it’s going to be tough. My concern is not that Apple will fail to deliver; I have little doubt that their product launch tomorrow will be stellar. My doubts lie with the content providers themselves. Yesterday, the LA Times ran a story that touched on this:
Although Apple has proved its deftness at creating trendy devices and a digital store in which publishers could sell their wares, Gartner Inc. analyst Allen Weiner said there will be plenty of trial and error before newspaper, magazine and book publishers figure out the “fine art” of creating digital editions that take advantage of the device’s graphics and video”… “Where’s the opportunity? It’s creating book experiences. It’s taking a cookbook and adding video and author updates. That’s an opportunity, because you can charge extra for that.”
The question, then, is how long it will take publishers to figure this out for themselves. Perhaps I’m a pessimist, but I think that this will be a long and frustrating process. Look at how long it has taken the large media companies to fully embrace rich, multimedia content on the web.
Old Media Is Still In Trouble
The online buying model for newspapers and magazines isn’t going to save the publishers, any more than iTunes Music and TV downloads have been saviors for their respective content owners. Will consumers benefit? Absolutely. But they won’t be willing to pay a premium for content they can access on the web for free. And if old media shifts to a pay-only model, consumers will just switch to free online alternatives. There will be exceptions — publishers with high quality, exclusive content (say, the New York Times) will likely benefit. But the majority of newspapers and magazines? Not so much.
But what about this promised land of revolutionary hybridized content — won’t people be willing to pay for that? Thing is, that’s going to be time consuming and expensive to make. A handful of very large publishers, like the NYT, may be able to scrap together some compelling content on a regular basis. But it’s going to be difficult to quickly integrate additional supplementary material in a way that doesn’t feel tacked on.
So Who Will Benefit?
Textbooks. Guides. Biographies. Novels. Pretty much anything that has previously been offered in book form, but has been handicapped because it was restricted to paper. Few of these have ever been ported to the web in a rich media form, because they’re lengthy and it just isn’t fun to read a book on your computer screen. And even when textbooks have been digitized (like for the Kindle DX), they didn’t bring anything new to the table. But there’s so much room for improvement.
Imagine a biography of Abraham Lincoln that allowed you to pull up photos of every person and place mentioned with a single finger swipe. Flicking the top of the screen would bring down an interactive timeline of Lincoln’s life, making it easy to get your bearings. The hybrid book could include comprehensive references for each person mentioned in the book. Not just a Wikipedia article, mind you, but information that is contextually relevant to the moment you’re currently reading about. The experience wouldn’t simply be one of jumping from hyperlink to hyperlink. All of this supplementary material would naturally flow into the reading experience, while you never left your place in the primary text.
There are plenty of other potential applications. Picture a chemistry textbook where you could freely rotate any molecule, tapping on a chemical bond to learn more about why it behaves the way it does. Or a Shakespeare play (in text form) where you could tap a piece of dialog to hear it spoken aloud, or perhaps even played in a video. Tapping a sidebar at any time would bring up a roster of characters and their allegiances, lest a love triangle leave you confused.
There are infinitely more possibilities ready to be unlocked. Many of these things could be done were this content converted to a rich webpage, but up until now there hasn’t been much benefit to doing so because there was no way to comfortably consume it.
My guess is that come Wednesday, Steve Jobs will hold up a Tablet with a piece of content that lives up to this dream. Instant lookup of relevant information. An experience that simply has never been seen before. It won’t just be a webpage with a touchscreen — it will be a living book. It will be the future. And then we’ll have to wait years until we start seeing books that really live up to that promise. Apple can build the tools, but someone will need to deliver the content.
I’m still excited for the Tablet, I’m just not expecting it to live up to its potential for quite a while. The big publishers will figure out this new medium eventually. Well, maybe they won’t. But someone will.
Fake tablet image via Gizmodo
 CBC.ca | Immobile and Aging, Rover to Study Mars From One Spot New York Times NASA via AP An image of Mars sent by the rover Spirit in 2004. Stuck in the sand, it will conduct studies in place if it survives the winter. Officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Tuesday that the ... NASA gives up effort to free Mars rover NASA Gives Up on Spirit Rescue, Preps Rover to Hibernate NASA's Spirit won't be roving Mars anymore |
Jimin-with-the-big-FLAC-collection and I met with one of the SteelSeries guys today. It’s funny: you think you understand where a company’s coming from, but then you sit down and actually talk to them and it’s like, “Wow, OK, you guys are pretty cool.” So to the people who will walk out of Sunday’s Grammy Awards with one of those fancy gift bags you always hear about, I can say this: you’ll probably enjoy the SteelSeries headphones you find in there.
Yup, SteelSeries’ Siberia V2 headphones will be part of the super-fancy gift bag that Grammy Awards presenters receive on their way out the door. (The gift bag for the average tech press party? A t-shirt and USB thumb drive. So there’s a bit of a discrepancy there.) I guess it’s a way to bring attention to the fact that SteelSeries headphones, while designed for crazy professional gamers (and I mean that in a good way, of course), they’re also not too shabby when it comes to listening to your music collection.
In other SteelSeries news, we got a sneak peak at some of their upcoming gear. Hot stuff all around.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 Geek WIth Laptop | Verizon Wireless-AT&T Competition Heats Up BusinessWeek Competition heated up in the fourth quarter between Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the largest US mobile-phone service providers, figures released Jan. 26 show. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications (VZ) and Vodafone ... Apple Blows Chance to Push AT&T on 3G Failings Apple's Cook embraces AT&T, defends App Store AT&T to improve wireless network, Apple says |
 The Star-Ledger - NJ.com | Rule Bans Texting for Truckers and Bus Drivers New York Times The Transportation Department announced a new rule Tuesday that prohibits interstate commercial truckers and bus drivers from sending text messages while they are operating moving vehicles. Truckers and bus drivers who violate the rule, ... U.S. bans truckers, bus drivers from texting while driving Ban slams the brakes on texting by truckers Legislative panel OKs texting ban for Ky. drivers |
Olympus is announcing.. something.. soon. We think. It kinda looks like a camera. But it might be fingernail clippers, or perhaps prosthetic hands. We’re not sure.
Ok, all kidding aside, it looks like Olympus is announcing another camera. Most likely, another micro 4/3 unit, since that seems to be their favorite product line as of late, and it’s been paying off for them. Of course, given the fact that the E-P2 came out just last December, it would be surprising to see another camera from them so soon. As always, once we know more, we’ll let you know.
[Via PhotoRumors]
Apparently officials at Wisconsin Waupun prison feel that D&D "promoted gang-related activity and was a threat to security." They originally banned the game back in 2004—after another inmate expressed "concern about Singer and three other inmates forming a "gang" focused around playing the game."
Singer has since then attempted to appeal that decision on the grounds that it "violated his free speech and due process rights." He lost his lawsuit in federal court and all of his D&D-related materials—including a 96-page scenario manuscript—were confiscated. [Oakland Tribune via Boing Boing]
Picture by Thomas Roche
Baker himself loves recounting stories. He tells of walking through Disneyland with "Walt" on the day before the park opened. He remembers birthday parties for the children of Old Hollywood: Danny Kaye, Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell. His puppetry was featured on "Star Trek," "A Star Is Born" and "G.I. Blues" with Elvis Presley. He sold his hand-crafted marionettes at stores including Bullocks Wilshire and FAO Schwarz. He says he can look at any of the 3,000 puppets in his catalog and tell which one it is just from looking at the controls.
Short version: Iomega has been making storage devices for years, and it shows. I’m a fan of NAS hardware and technology, and Iomega has created a product that not only stores data, but has enough value add to make it stand out from the dozens of other black boxes for storing your data.
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
A good NAS should be invisible. You should be able to set it up, start your schedule for your backups, plug the thing in, and forget about it. As such, reviewing a NAS is a very difficult thing to do.
So let’s talk about the basics. The ix4-200d supports dual gigabit ethernet, along with a laundry list of compatibility and features. Want to use it with Windows Backup? No problem. Time Machine user? It’s got you covered. Something more esoteric, like VMware, iSCSI, or BlueTooth picture transfer? It’ll do that too. The ix4 will even work with Axis network cameras to function as a DVR, and record from up to 5 different video sources.
The NAS in itself isn’t terribly impressive looking, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a power button, three status lights, a USB port, and an LCD display on the front. The LCD display shows you that status of the device, including if there are any jobs working, and how much space you have remaining. The back has two gigabit ethernet ports, and the power plug in point. Oddly, the cover to the case sits sideways, meaning that the drives are mounted sitting sideways as well, instead of facing out of the front of the case. Iomega puts four drives in the NAS for you, and you can select from the various RAID configurations to choose the one that works best for you. Drives are hot-swappable of course, based on the level of RAID selected.
The problems start when you install the software that comes with the device. I’m an experienced user, and consider myself to be quite knowledgeable, so it was a bit of a disappointment when I was unable to get the NAS set up at first. After reading the instructions further, I was able to determine that you must install the software first, before you plug the NAS into your network. That will allow your computer to talk to the NAS and set up the various network options and formatting, and allow the system to work. Once the software is installed and configured however, it works perfectly with any computer on your network. Back up processes happened as scheduled, and never missed a beat.
One extremely convenient function is the QuickTransfer. You can plug a USB device into the front of the NAS and press the transfer button, and the data on the device will automatically download into the storage device. This could be a USB drive, or flash drive, and I even used a memory card reader and downloaded photographs directly into the file server. It’s fast, efficient, and easy to control from the LCD screen.
Conclusion
Overall, I liked the ix4-200d. It did what it was supposed to do, without issues, and worked as intended. As far as the feature set goes, it’s almost too much. This makes the set up a little difficult, but once you get through the process it’s seamless. Additionally, as a photographer, I love the QuickTransfer feature. I’d come home from shooting, plug my card reader into the NAS, push the button, and it would automatically back up my images. This made backing up really easy.
The Iomega ix4-200d is currently available from your favorite electronics retailer, for a MSRP of $699.99 for the 2 TB version.
Warning: Clips are from Hulu, which means they're US-only. Sorry, foreigners, but, well: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Last night's The Daily Show featured Bill Gates as a guest; great choice, except for a little awkwardness early on when one of Jon Stewart's bits included a casual reference to iPods. On the plus side, Jon learned that "Zuuuuune" is a fun word to say. The setup: President Obama has been feeling "detached" from everyday Amurricans, but his attempts to ingratiate himself haven't gone that well:
Bill was good-humored about the whole thing though; after all, this is Jon's mistake. Evidently he doesn't read my reviews, that I work so hard on, because if he did he'd know that the Zune HD is great, a far cry from the punchline the Zune line once was. Thanks a lot, Jon. Way to make me feel small. My insecurities aside, Jon later asked Bill if his retirement opened him up to new opportunities, like, say, owning a certain extremely popular smartphone:
When will this Microsoft/Apple war end, Jon? It's like the Israelis and Palestinians, except in every way. [Hulu]
Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
After the poor success of the Nexus One, Google might be rethinking its marketing strategy. Previously, the Nexus One was only to be purchased directly through Google; but now, a webpage has surfaced on Walmart’s website that states that the Nexus One is “coming soon.”
Walmart responded with the following statement claiming its error:
Due to a technical error, this item erroneously was displayed on our site. We’re working with our partner Let’s Talk to have it removed as quickly as possible. We have no plans to carry Nexus One in Walmart stores or online at Walmart.com at this time.
But I’m calling them out on this one. The page was created on purpose. It’s not like they just accidentally typed in all the specs and added pictures for the Nexus One instead of another phone. So it seems to me that there are three different options of why this has happened.
1)Walmart will be selling the Nexus One.
2)A disgruntled employee at Let’s Talk is having a little fun.
3)The website has become self-aware and knows that the best option for mankind is to sell the Nexus One.
If we look past this statement and into some of the specs, we find some interesting things. If you scroll down to the “Network Technology” section, you will see a long list of of various number/letter combination’s. In this list, there are two sets of numbers and letters that interest us. Specifically, 1xEvDO and UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900. The first, is Sprint and Verizon 3G; and the second is AT&T 3G. So that means that we can look forward to seeing the Nexus One on the Sprint and AT&T networks too! Finally, something for us poor Sprint users…
Among some of the rumors about this webpage comes one from Phone Inferno that is claiming Walmart will be offering the Nexus One for $99 under a 2-year contract. So from $179 to $99… It seems not even Google is shielded from the giant price changes all recent phones go through these days.
Read [AndroidandMe]
From the source:
This is the coveted PS3 exploit, gives full memory access and therefore ring 0 access from OtherOS. Enjoy your hypervisor dumps. This is known to work with version 2.4.2 only, but I imagine it works on all current versions.
You can find it at his page for now—try it out, let us know how it works! [GeoHot via Kotaku—Thanks Richard!]
Our live coverage of the Apple Tablet launch event starts at 1pm ET/10am PT, Wednesday, January 27, 2010 and both our Twitter and Facebook pages will start updating as soon as news breaks.
Even though well be updating our Facebook and Twitter pages with the most breaking apple noes, the best way to follow our live coverage is still our liveblog. For more info on how to tune in please see our Apple Tablet Event Liveblog announcement or hit live.gizmodo.com tomorrow morning.
So very true. [Slate via Daring Fireball]
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Mobile, Web, Google
The FCC is really interested in why cellphone networks operate in the way they do. There was the probe into AT&T, Apple and Google for the Google Voice iPhone fiasco, and the recent probe into Verizon for doubling the Early Termination Fees on smartphones. The committee’s attention is still on ETFs, but now it has its eyes on more than Verizon.
The FCC today sent out letters to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Google asking questions about their respective ETFs. Google is being asked specifically why it applies an ETF to the Nexus One on top of T-Mobile’s own ETF. The reasoning for the questions is to make sure consumers are fully informed of all ETFs by the companies. The questions focus on what ETFs the companies impose, if there are different fees for different situations and the rationale behind the fees. There are also questions asking if there are ways to avoid ETFs, and if the fees change given the circumstances of the contract.
It is nice to know the FCC is looking into the state of ETFs before other carriers begin changing them around like Verizon did recently. The only problem is with the FCC always sending out questions, and not acting, it might not change anything. It will be nice to find out why Google is charging an ETF on the Nexus One, and the rationale the companies give for using ETFs, though it is doubtful the probing will do much else. Maybe we’ll see some sort of public backlash against the carriers, but given the recent inquiry letters, that will be about it.
Read [TechCrunch]
Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
To me, geo-tagging in photography hasn’t really held much interest. Sure, it’s helpful when you see someones work that you admire, but generally I’ve always felt that it was kind of silly. TeleNav is looking to change that, through the use of a device that will show you images to places in your area that have been tagged.
TeleNav’s patent appears to be for software that would allow you to see geo-tagged pictures from your immediate area, based on the current GPS co-ordinates. Details are sketchy to say the least, but it’s safe to assume this will be a mobile device application. No word on what platform, when it will be out, what it will cost or anything.
[via GoRumors]
Are we still expected, in the year 2010, to pay $20 plus $8 shipping for a Snuggie? And another $8 shipping for a second bonus Snuggie? NO! Show the fat cats at the Snuggie conglomerate that you’re onto their little ruse. Take a big piece of fabric – any fabric you want! — cut some arm holes, and sew some arms onto the arm holes.
That sounds far more complicated than the sewing I’m used to (which mostly involves a stapler or nail gun) but a pleasant-looking lady over at Instructables has finally cracked the Snuggie code. What’s more, she’s been kind enough to share the secret with the world.
Advantages to making your own Snuggie:
Make Your Own Snuggie [Instructables]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web Apps, Google
Google Voice is a great service, but its functionality becomes even better if you can use it on a phone. Google has created a web app using HTML5 web browser on both the iPhone and WebOS phones. HTML5 allows powerful web apps to work with more efficiency. As long as you have an iPhone running 3.0 software or a WebOS phone, then you can use Google Voice straight from your browser.
When going to the Mobile Google Voice website, you will be shown your Voice inbox, from which you can listen to voicemails and other messages. In addition, if you call from your Google Voice number on your phone, the recipient will see your Google Voice number instead of your actual phone number. This allows someone to call you back on your Google Voice number. Receiving and sending text messages is also free using your Google Voice number.
You will need a Google Voice account in order to use any of the above features. Check out the informative YouTube video below about the Voice webapp.
Read [Google Voice]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
I’m getting this for my dog. He’s soooo dramatic. He hears people screaming, he barks. He hears a gunshot, he barks. He hears explosions, well you get the idea.
Plenty of people have resorted to spray bottles or squirt guns to curtail canine barking, so this seems like a natural extension of that.
Oh wait. You can’t slide this $50 apparatus onto your dog’s existing collar and it uses special “unscented water-based solution” instead of plain old tap water.
And the battery only lasts four weeks? And the spray refill costs $10?? And a new battery costs $5??? And shipping costs $8???? I just talked myself right into a $1 squirt gun.
Still, though. Cool idea if you’ve got the money to spend on stuff like this.
The Bark Deterring Spray Collar [Hammacher Schlemmer]
Why does a glow-in-the-dark Frisbee glow green? Why does a spark from a light socket look blue? Two different questions, but one intertwined answer.
Hopefully, readers Inga Foster—who asked about electricity—and Stewart Haddock—the man with the glow-in-the-dark query—don't mind being lumped together. As it turned out, they were really asking about the same thing. Both these phenomena stem from the weird ways light interacts with atoms.
Yes, we're talking about physics today. But don't worry. If I can understand it, you can understand it.
In one corner, we have the atom. You know this guy. He's the basic building block of everything, everywhere. Tinier than tiny. But also very powerful.
Each atom has a nucleus—a ball of particles that carry positive and neutral electrical charges—and is circled by electrons, particles with a negative electrical charge.
In the other corner: Electromagnetic waves. What these waves do depends on their frequency—how fast they vibrate. High-frequency waves bring light to our eyes, and determine what colors we see. There's a range of frequencies that can produce visible light, and we perceive the different frequencies as different colors.
It goes on a gradient, like a rainbow. We see higher pitched waves as blue, lower pitched ones as red and the other colors fall somewhere in between. The waves can also be so high frequency or low frequency that our eyes can't see them at all, and that's where you get into things like ultraviolet and infrared light.
Now, say you're a little atom, just hanging out, minding your own business, when you're hit by some form of energy. You can absorb some of that energy, but not all of it.
"When the atom absorbs energy, the electrons become very energized, but electrons don't like to be over-stimulated. They like to be home, just like everybody likes to be where it's comfortable," said Andrew Glassner, Ph.D.
Glassner is a former research scientist who designed computer graphics algorithms to produce true-to-the-real-world simulations of lightning and glow-in-the-dark objects in the 1990s and 2000. To get the models to work correctly, he had to study the physics behind the phenomena and incorporate that into the algorithms.
"If you take an electron and make it very, very excited, it will try to shed that excitement and go home again. The energy has to go somewhere, though, and the way electrons get rid of energy is by spitting it out," he said.
The atom spits out electromagnetic waves of a specific frequency depending on its charge and mass—which means that different atomic elements have different characteristic colors.
"That's actually how we know what chemicals make up the sun. We can look at the sun and see what frequencies are coming off. We can say, 'Those colors come from helium. So, by golly, the sun must have some helium in it!,'" Glassner said.
Them's the basics. But how does this play out for electric sparks and Frisbees?
"With electric sparks, the color you're seeing is mostly nitrogen from the atmosphere," said Bill Beaty, a research engineer for the chemistry department at the University of Washington who's consulted on textbooks and museum science education programs for kids. "If the air was neon rather than nitrogen we'd think electricity was orange."
What we see as blue light from an electric spark is simply the result of nitrogen atoms absorbing electrical energy, and spitting some back out in the form of electromagnetic waves—waves which, to us, happen to appear blue.
In fact, electricity doesn't always appear blue. The center of a spark, and lightning, both appear white. That's because when you hit an atom with higher levels of energy it will release waves of several different frequencies. Our eyes perceive each frequency as a different color—and white is just the color we see when we see lots of colors merged together.
The Frisbee work much the same way. Zinc sulfide is a cheap, naturally occurring chemical compound. About a century ago, people realized that if you took zinc sulfide and exposed it to light energy it would absorb some of that light, but also, slowly, spit light back out over several hours.
The atoms that make up zinc sulfide happen to spit out their waves at an frequency that, to us, appears ghostly green.
There's lots of other natural and man-made chemicals—called phosphors—that will do this, and in different colors. Glow-in-the-dark can really be any color you want these days. But zinc sulfide was the one that was put on watch hands, exit signs and (yes) Frisbees for much of the 20th century. So, really, the reason we think of glow-in-the-dark as green is more of a cultural thing, than a fact of science.
Image courtesy Flickr user methticalman, via CC
 MTV.com (blog) | Review: Spin Your Own Space Opera in 'Mass Effect 2' Wired News The science fiction epic from Bioware, released Tuesday for PC and Xbox 360 (reviewed), is a glaring reminder that stats, loot and potions don't have to be the end-all, be-all of RPGs. Mass Effect 2 effectively pushes all the fiddly ... Mass Effect 2 serves up mass market RPG action Is Mass Effect 2 Already the Game of 2010? Mass Effect 2 Blowout |
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Transportation
In a move that does not seem too surprising, a law was passed banning texting while driving either a bus or truck across America. Back in December, a law was passed banning texting while driving a government vehicle, so it is no surprise that buses and trucks were the next vehicles. This law will be effective immediately and it carries a hefty fine of $2,750. If being safe is not a good enough reason to stop texting when driving, then perhaps the monetary costs will deter drivers.
While it may seem like common sense, a research study was conducted and it found drivers of buses and trucks who text when driving are putting themselves at higher risk for accidents during the time their eyes are focusing on the cell phone screen. In addition, the National Safety Council finds 200,000 of all car crashes are caused by someone texting.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a law was passed banning texting in any car, since it does pose a significant safety risk to not only you, but those around you.
Read [Reuters]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
That pay wall that Newsday put around its Web site last year? Crazily effective–at keeping people from buying an online subscription.
Last year, when executives from Cablevision (CVC) announced plans to turn their paper’s Web site into a pay-to-play proposition, I dreamed up a way it could work: Maybe Long Island residents who wanted to peruse the paper’s classifieds would pay up. Nope.
Since the wall went up three months ago, only 35 people–as in not quite three dozen–have paid the $5-a-week fee for Web access, the New York Observer reports.
The Observer’s John Koblin quotes a Cablevision PR person who says that the “modest” pickup isn’t a surprise, but that’s some very unconvincing spin. Putting up a pay wall isn’t cheap or easy: Why bother if it only generates an extra $9,000?
Here’s the full statement from Cablevision/Newsday:
Millions of Cablevision customers in the New York tri-state area and 75% of Long Island households, including all Newsday home delivery subscribers, now have exclusive access to newsday.com at no additional charge. Internal research shows that Newsday’s Web site is an extremely popular new benefit to hundreds of thousands of Long Island Cablevision households. Given the number of households in our market that have access to Newsday’s Web site as a result of other subscriptions, it is no surprise that a relatively modest number have chosen the pay option.
As PaidContent notes, Cablevision can also argue that the real idea behind the pay wall is that it’s supposed to make existing subscribers feel like they’re getting something of real value (advertisers too, supposedly). But it’s hard to argue that online access is a “value-add” if only 35 people value it.
It’s also hard to argue that Cablevision’s problems offer any clue about the prospects of the New York Times’s (NYT) coming pay wall. Because the Times is a different beast from any other paper in the country.
I would be interested, though, in learning how the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune did with “Access Vikings Premium,” a $20-a-year pay wall it put up around most stories about the home team last season.
I could see the thinking behind this one, which showed up around the same time Brett Favre joined the team. And this was the year to try it, since the Vikings had a great season until they blew the NFC Conference game, as is their wont.
But in my personal one-man focus group, the pay wall only served to keep me from visiting StarTribune.com at all. I see now that the paper seems to have dropped the wall around content it used to ask me to pay for, so perhaps I wasn’t the only one. I’ve asked the paper for more details.
Using statistics from Reliefweb, GOOD Magazine has created a neat interactive infographic that shows who has given aid (money and resources) to Haiti so far.*
Haitian Aid (GOOD)
*Data accurate as of Jan 19.
Source: Boing Boing | 26 Jan 2010 | 6:13 pm
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Communications, Smartphones, Mobile
Long Zheng over at istartedsomething discovered several very intriguing lines in the latest Zune driver update. The first three lines in the screenshot describe the three types of Zunes available today, however the next few lines are the ones worth more attention. If those lines are describing newer Zune models with higher capacities, it does not make sense to use the word “Phone”. Those lines could very well be describing upcoming unannounced Zune “phones”. While it’s still open for debate whether they will be actual Zune-based phones or merely Zune services incorporated into phones, this piece of news ties in with Microsoft’s rumored upcoming announcements of Windows Mobile 7 and new devices within the next few months. We’ll just have to wait for official confirmation by Microsoft at Mobile World Congress starting February 15th.
Via [istartedsomething]
Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
FROM GAMERTELL - If you live in Japan and own a PSP, you can take advantage of the free X-Radar Portable program. It’s a free map program that uses either wireless hotspots or the PSP GPS peripheral to help you find your way. A worldwide release hasn’t been announced.
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
By Sarmad Ali, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Don’t know what to say in your personals ad? A new multiple-choice service offers to help you write it.
The service, ProfileWiz, asks users questions such as “Which of these do you find most romantic?” or “What would you like to do but never have time for?” Users can then select one or more photos–for the former question, options include flowers and a couple dancing–that are the closest matches.
Based on the selections, the service writes a profile that best describes the user’s personality, dating preferences and desires. Users can also alter the text. The service is capable of composing many different versions of a user’s profile.
ProfileWiz shows a simple headline and the first paragraph of the ad–users must pay $4.75, via PayPal, to read the whole thing.
“It actually writes your profile description,” a spokesman for ProfileWiz, a unit of London-based Imagini, said. “Your final description can then be used wherever you want, on any dating site.”
Read the rest of this post on the original site
When Loopt released its iPhone app alongside the App Store launch in 2008, it seemed to have everything going for it. Founder Sam Altman was given time on stage at WWDC to show off the app. It was featured prominently in the App Store for a while. And it was really one of the first hot location-based services. But then it cooled off, partially because the app needed to be open to update your location. And since the iPhone didn’t allow for third-party applications to run in the background, it was severely hamstrung. Meanwhile, a series of check-in based location apps that didn’t need to be open all the time came along and stole the location buzz. More importantly, they brought to light new business opportunities for local venues with the idea of location-based deals. Loopt’s new goal is to make a strong push for that.
As you can see in the deck we’ve obtained below, Loopt is working on yet another new product that is all about location-based deals. This deck is apparently making the rounds with a bunch of agencies and advertisers, as Loopt hopes to get them on board when they launch they app in a few months. The new app is called LooptCard. Clearly, from the deck it will run on the iPhone, but it should also work across all the major mobile platforms, we’re told. And these advertisers are being told that Loopt already has several retailers and venues on board with deals for when they launch.
So why is it any different than what Foursquare, Gowalla, and most recently, Yelp, are doing with location-based deals? It would seem that Loopt is trying to convince venues to use their system by offering the most customizable deals to give away. For example, certain deals are only unlocked if you do certain tasks, such as check-in at a certain time of day. This could be enticing to venues because while something like a coffee shop may be busy in the morning, it may be dead in the afternoon, and may want a way to pull in more traffic at only that time. There are also incentives for users to check-in with friends, which obviously benefits the venues since it means more people in the store. There are also options to give customers real goods or virtual goods. Users will also have an easy way to see what specials they are close to unlocking.
Perhaps most significantly though, LooptCard will be built entirely on top of Facebook’s social graph, we hear. This means there is a low barrier to entry to gain new users who may be wary of signing up for yet another social network. This also means that it will be tightly integrated with Facebook Connect so that all of these deals and check-ins will pour back into users’ Facebook streams, upping the viral potential of both the app and the deal.
Loopt has tried to rebuild itself before. They’ve spun off their Loopt Mix feature into its own app and made Loopt itself more predicated around check-ins. But they’re still fighting an uphill battle since those other players either got to the check-in game first — or they happen to be Yelp, with millions of users. Loopt has also crossed into Yelp’s more immediate territory recently with a local review site.
The new application is apparently an offshoot of Loopt’s recent acquisition of the Y Combinator startup, GraffitiGEO.
Tomorrow is a big day. Apple will be revealing a brand new product to the masses. While we don't know what it will be called, we're quite certain Jobs will be unveiling the much-anticipated Apple Tablet. While the Apple Tablet may very well revolutionize the tablet industry--as their previous products have done many times before--it wouldn't be where it is without those that came before it. Below you will find a list of what we believe to be the top slates.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Like bad beer, cracker jacks, and drunken fans getting hammered in the parking lot, smack-talking and sports-betting are staples of American sports. And that’s why Bema Studios created Smackdaddy, a free iPhone app [iTunes link] that allows you to both bet on games (currently just NFL, NHL and NBA) and tell your friends they smell. I got a chance to play with Smackdaddy this Sunday and loved it – it is easy to use, intuitive, and addictive. Of course, you pretty much have to be a sports fan to like it, so I’ll assume you know something about sports (as you should, lest you burn in hell) going forward.
You can’t bet real money, and Bema Studios assures me that will always be the case (too bad). But you do bet “Smackers” – a fake in-game currency. You start with 10,000 and all of the best include the spread. That is one of Smackdaddy’s downfalls, which is that it is fairly limited at this point in terms of feature sets. Aside from only having one style of betting, it also only has 3 sports (that I can tell). Both of those will be improved upon in future releases, of course.
Aside from being a fake Vegas-in-your-pocket, Smackdaddy also has a wall-posting or micro-messaging feature that allows you to “Smack talk” your Facebook friends. This is a great use of Facebook Connect, because you can immediately see all your friends that are also using Smackdaddy with just your Facebook ID and password. The downside (at least for Bema Studios) is you can’t easily invite your friends into the app, which would be nice since I have tons of friends I know who would love this. The other knock on the smack talking feature is that it is not in real-time but rather asynchronous, and it is limited to 140 characters. I understand the penchant to be just like Twitter, but I don’t think its necessary in this context. If I’m just talking with my friends, longer messages seem like no problem. Plus, its hard to make the Niners look good in just 140 characters.
Smackdaddy joins a long list of sports-related iPhone apps. However, it is the first one I’ve seen that provides a viable social/viral component. I would love to see a large community of “Smackdaddies” playing next time I pop into the app – and will definitely keep this app on my iPhone. Of course, it could get lame fast: if you run out of Smackers (a real possibility for me; I went 1-4 this weekend), you have to pay for them via in-app purchase. Or you can win 1,000 via the “daily raffle.”
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Today, Yahoo posted its fourth quarter results, marking the end of CEO Carol Bartz’s first year with the company. Yahoo reports revenues of $1.732 billion for Q4 2009, decreasing 4% from Q4 2008 but up 10% since last quarter. Year over year, search is down 15% and display ads down 1%. However, the company has seen a rise in each of these metrics between Q3 and Q4 2009. Yahoo reported $119M in profit, and EPS of 15 cents per share.
YHOO Q409EarningsPresentation Final
Apple’s Wednesday press conference, where we’ll likely see an Apple tablet, is shaping up to be the Cupertino, California, company’s most-anticipated event ever.
The Jan. 27 event, titled “Come see our latest creation,” will likely be marked down in history as the sequel to Steve Jobs’ legendary keynote at Macworld Expo 2007, where the CEO introduced the iPhone. The iPhone, then touted by the CEO as “three revolutionary products,” has grown to encompass more than 100,000 apps, giving birth to a new digital frontier and, in many ways, reshaping the cellphone industry.
Now Apple must meet, and perhaps exceed, the wow factor of the mobile marvel with its bigger sibling — a touchscreen tablet that the company has been developing for several years.
Rumor has it that Jobs has even said the tablet “will be the most important thing I’ve ever done.”
He has his work cut out for him. For decades, sci-fi movies have dreamed of a slate-like computing device replacing traditional PCs. Many companies have tried, and failed, to live up to these visions. Thanks to clunky user interfaces, durability issues and limited utility, the tablet has been filed away as a niche device again and again. But Apple, the leader in industry and interface design and master of innovating content distribution, could be the company to finally nail the design.
Could it save the publishing industry, reboot education and maybe even change the way we treat medicine? After years of speculation, we’ll finally get some answers.
Yours truly will live-blog Wednesday’s event right here, so bookmark this page. Wired magazine editor Mark McClusky and GameLife editor Chris Kohler will contribute commentary on the event, with photography by Jon Snyder.
The keynote, which takes place at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center, kicks off 10 a.m. PDT. Stay tuned and look for updates to this post, or follow @bxchen and @gadgetlab for real-time news nuggets via Twitter.
Need to catch up on tablet news? Visit our full page including our major tablet stories from 2009.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
In addition to launching its tablet Wednesday, Apple will likely introduce a new programming solution for iPhone developers to easily tablet-enable their apps.
Developers polled by Wired said they expected additions to Apple’s software-development kit that would help make iPhone apps work at any resolution, for full-screen support on the rumored device.
But how will that work? The tablet will likely support all iPhone apps out of the box in their current 480-by-320 resolution. These apps will probably be able to run in the background, perhaps in separate windows. It’s unlikely they’re going to automatically maximize to fill up the tablet’s screen, which is rumored to be 10 inches diagonally, developers polled by Wired.com agreed, because that would result in a blurry, pixelated mess — not Apple’s style.
Therefore, it’s likely that Apple will offer a quick workaround for developers to rescale their apps for full-screen tablet support.
For people who buy the tablet, that means we’ll see a slightly bifurcated world of apps. We’ll be able to access all iPhone apps in small windows, and some of those apps will be resizable to fit the tablet’s larger screen.
“It’s easy to imagine how Apple might offer tools to make it easy for me to not have to make all my graphics from scratch,” said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, developer of the popular iPhone rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge. “That’s one of the things I’d be on the lookout for.”
“We’ve made a big investment,” he continued. “People have made huge investments in their games. I’d expect Apple to accelerate the process of having lots and lots of apps that feel native and migrate from a fixed-resolution world to resolution independent.”
Decrem said he could not comment on whether Tapulous would be appearing as a presenter at Apple’s Jan. 27 event in San Francisco, where the Cupertino, California, company is rumored to be launching a tablet. Tapulous appeared in the recent September iPod event to present a new game, Riddim Ribbon.
Multiple independent reports agree on the physical description of Apple’s tablet: a blown-up iPhone or iPod Touch with a 10-inch screen. But the software experience has remained a mystery. Offering a glimmer of insight, The New York Times just a day before Apple’s product event has published a bold report claiming the tablet would support all 100,000 iPhone and iPod Touch apps currently in the App Store.
“It will run all the applications of the iPhone and iPod touch, have a persistent wireless connection over 3G cellphone networks and Wi-Fi, and will be built with a 10-inch color display, allowing newspapers, magazines and book publishers to deliver their products with an eye to the design that had grabbed readers in print,” NY Times wrote.
Corroborating NY Times‘ report, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw said in a live TV interview that McGraw was developing e-book content for the Apple tablet. He explained that the tablet’s OS was based on the iPhone OS, meaning McGraw’s e-book iPhone apps will be easily portable to the tablet.
Other iPhone developers polled by Wired agreed that Decrem’s theory was solid. They said the SDK needed to be updated with new tools streamlining migration to the upcoming tablet. Jeff Meininger, iPhone developer of Snaptic, said Decrem’s proposed solution regarding resolution-independence would work.
“It would be the simplest and most effective way to be able to support all iPhone apps,” Meininger said. “It’s absolutely technically feasible.”
David Castelnuovo, developer of the immensely popular iPhone game Pocket God, said it was likely Apple would offer some new sizability code in the iPhone SDK with the tablet in mind. But he said it wouldn’t be a blanket solution for all 100,000 apps in the App Store.
Pocket God, for example, is game that involves torturing pygmies on an island, and it would have to be redesigned for a tablet with a bigger island and more pygmies, Castelnuovo said. So, some quick and easy sizability code will likely accelerate full-screen tablet support for form-based apps such as Facebook. For games or apps with more complex interfaces, it could take more thoughtful tweaking.
“Ideally we wouldn’t want to just scale [Pocket God],” Castelnuovo said. “We’d want to make the world bigger.”
Just how big a portion of the App Store will support full-screen tablet resolution will be up to the developers. Appcelerator, a company that helps developers build cross-platform mobile apps, polled 554 developers on their interest in coding for the tablet. 51 percent of respondents said it would be “very important” for them to port iPhone apps for the tablet “in a simple, easy fashion without too much cost or delay.” Thirty percent responded “Somewhat important” and 19 percent responded “Not important.”
It remains a question whether Apple will launch an entire section in its App Store for tablet apps. Decrem said he doubts that, because all iPhone apps will work with the tablet. He said it’s realistic that developers will state in their apps’ descriptions whether they feature full tablet support.
We’ll find out soon. Stay tuned on Gadget Lab for full, live coverage of Apple’s tablet event, which kicks off 10 a.m. PDT Wednesday.
See Also:
A mockup of an imaginary Apple tablet: Stephen Lewis Simmonds
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
News was actually committed during Yahoo’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call today when CEO Carol Bartz noted that the company would disable its irksome “hover interaction” on the homepage and that the Internet giant has restructured its international business.
Yahoo (YHOO) reported results earlier today that slightly exceeded expectations in the fourth quarter, but it was no blowout.
Said a Yahoo spokeswoman in an email to BoomTown about dumping the hover:
“We are in the process of making a change to the hover interaction and it should be live in all markets that have the new homepage by late tonight. To give people more control over their experience, we are adding the ability to select from either a ‘hover’ or ‘click’ interaction for activating previews of apps in the My Favorites section. The default setting will be a click interaction, but people can also use a hover interaction by selecting that option as their default preference. You should see this change on your own homepage very soon.”
The hover feature, while initially touted as giving users easy access to widgets on the homepage, has been widely decried by advertisers because it essentially covers other ads at the top of the page, which are Yahoo’s most lucrative inventory.
Also, simply put, the hover is super-annoying.
Back in July when Yahoo rolled out the new homepage design, though, the company was high on the hover. (You can see it in action below; click on the image to make it larger.)
This was the most striking change in the homepage overhaul, in fact, featuring a prominent My Favorites area on the left side with dozens of specially designed applications–email, stocks and third-party sites like Facebook, among others–that users could customize and view through quick hovering glimpses.
Advertising popped up when hovering over the apps, which was Yahoo’s solution to the alternative of sending users away from the site when they clicked the apps.
In addition, Bartz said in the call that Yahoo’s international operations would be rejiggered, after an ultimately fruitless search for a new head of the unit. Bartz said she had not been able to find a qualified exec to run international, so she decided to change the set-up.
International ops will be reduced from four regions to three–Americas; Europe, Middle East, Africa; and Asia Pacific–with Emerging Markets tucked into them.
They will report to Bartz directly–with current Emerging Markets head Keith Nilsson taking the job of Global Initiatives SVP, also reporting to her.
Wrote another Yahoo spokeswoman:
“Yahoo! has reorganized our regions to strengthen focus on emerging countries, and to align company-wide resources and expertise against the company’s vision to be the center of people’s online lives. Effective April 1, the structure will be made up of three regions: The Americas, EMEA and APAC. Our Emerging Markets region, formerly separate, will be absorbed into these new regions to better support our work in countries with large and growing Internet populations. Yahoo! is making a further commitment to its global customers with the creation of a Global Initiatives SVP, reporting directly to Carol Bartz, CEO, focused on supporting global relationships and alliances.”
Rose Tsou heads up APAC, Rich Riley runs EMEA and Hilary Schneider helms the Americas.
To say there are no shortage of Apple Tablet rumors leading up to tomorrow’s event is perhaps the king of all understatements right now. But here’s maybe the best one yet. Apparently, Fox is in the process of cutting a deal with Apple to get the tablet on an upcoming episode of 24 this season.
That news comes from Rodney Charters, who is the director of photography on the show. He’s been tweeting about it pretty much all day, first saying it might be in episode 20 (episode 5 just aired this week), but then saying it might actually be more like episode 22. At one point, Charters notes that he’s “getting giddy with excitement” about the possibility. He’s not the only one.
Charters also notes that Apple has done product placement with 24 since its first season. But this season (the show’s eighth), Apple computers have been particularly prevalent in the show’s main setting, the CTU office.
Charters calls the device the “iSlate,” but who knows if that’s what it will actually be called. He could simply be guessing like everyone else. Though the device is expected to be announced tomorrow, it likely won’t ship until a later date. Some have pegged this in March, some later. That episode of 24 would likely air in May but would shoot much earlier. So it’s possible that Jack Bauer (24’s main character) could get his hands on the device before anyone else.
With the events that took place in Iran last year, the Mumbai bombings and even the plane crash on the Hudson River, there’s no doubt of the power of citizen journalism in today’s media age. Whether it be through social media sites, such as Twitter or through news sites catered towards citizen journalism, the active voice of the eyewitness is now a significant part of any story taking place in the world. Citizen journalism platform AllVoices is seeing significant use traction and is giving its rivals ( many of which are similar sites started by traditional media companies, such as CNN’s iReport) a run for their money. AllVoices also recently closed a $3 million round of funding from VantagePoint Partners, bringing the startup’s total funding to $9 million.
AllVoices allows anyone to contribute blog posts, images, videos and other observations, on local and global news. The site’s proprietary technology (AllVoices has filed for three patents) will tag, rank and sort news based on a global, regional, country and city pages and will determine what is breaking news and popular (in terms of phases of a news cycle). The system will also filter for spam, police the site, fact check each user report for credibility and assign a credibility rating to each news report. The site also lets users file reports from their cell phone via MMS and SMS, which is helpful to users in countries where computer usage is low but mobile device usage is high. The end goal is to provide a 360 degree view of reported news that also has a multimedia view of what’s happening in the world.
The brainchild of Amra Tareen, AllVoices was launched by Tareen and her co-founders in 2008. A former VC at Sevin Rosen Funds, Tareen recognized the importance of the citizen voice in everyday news in 2005 when she was an aid worker in Pakistan following the catastrophic earthquakes that caused massive damage and deaths in the country.
Tareen may be onto to something with AllVoices. The site currently has a community of 275,000 citizen reporters and is seeing close to 5 million unique visitors per month, which is fast growth for a recently launched media startup. Half of AllVoices’ traffic and visitors are from outside the U.S. and U.K, with citizens reporting from over 160 different countries. Tareen emphasizes that the site is as much a community as a news platform. Contributors can collaborate on stories and discuss news with other users and readers on the site.
While AllVoices may be seeing steady growth, the citizen journalism platform may be close to overtaking CNN’s iReport, which seems to be the site’s main rival in terms of traffic. Tareen says that as of late 2008, iReport had 118,000 registered users and is “fully confident that AllVoices is the largest citizen reporting cite in the world.” Another competitor in the space, NowPublic was acquired by the Examiner.com last year for $25 million.
So what’s next for the site? Tareen says that she wants to focus on expanding the hyper-local coverage on the news site in the U.S. I can;t help but think that AllVoices may be a possible acquisition target for a media company that doesn’t have a popular citizen journalism portal. One things for sure; we’ll be hearing more from AllVoices in the future.
 New York Times (blog) | Google Voice Arrives on the iPhone PC World Google has released an entirely Web-based version of its service that works on the iPhone as well as Palm's Pre and Pixi handsets. Apple may still officially be “pondering” whether it should approve Google's Google Voice app for iPhone, ... Apple targets Google's mobile ads market with Quattro acquisition Google Uses Mobile Web to Bypass Apple's App Block Google's Voice speaks from iPhone |
Publisher McGraw-Hill was the first company to not only publicly acknowledge the existence of an Apple tablet, but also offer some insight into its software experience.
In an interview with CNBC, McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw probably said more than enough to get Steve Jobs slamming his fist on the table. When asked about the Apple tablet, rumored for an announcement Wednesday, McGraw said the following:
Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they’ll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now is we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.
Fun. Check out the interview in the video above, starting around 2 minutes and 50 seconds. A hat tip to MacRumors for being the first to spot this.
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
McGraw-Hill. Ever heard of them? If you've picked up any textbook written in the last hundred years or so, chances are they published it. Well, its CEO just spilled the beans on Apple's not-so-secret surprise on live TV.
Going beyond confirming that it’s the much-fabled Tablet, Terry McGraw confirms that they “have worked with Apple for quite a while” on this – so unless this guy has gone on a crazy binge, it’s pretty likely he knows what hes talking about. He goes on to matter-of-factly state that the tablet will be based on the “iPhone operating system”. The words, straight out of McGraw’s mouth:
Dan Woolley was all over the news last week as the tech geek who survived the Haiti earthquake with the help of a first-aid iPhone app, his digital SLR and, of course, a lot of luck.
The religious man credits his survival to God and all those praying for him. But in an interview with Wired.com, he reveals that he was even more technologically resourceful than initial reports suggested.
After the quake struck, burying the Hotel Montana in rubble, Woolley, a web programmer, came up with some clever techy ideas. In addition to consulting the iPhone app First Aid & CPR for advice on treating cuts, Woolley used his digital SLR’s focusing light to help illuminate his surroundings. He snapped photos of the wreckage, using the flash to help him search for refuge. His viewfinder revealed a crumbled elevator shaft, where he prayed, rested and bandaged his wounds. Then, Woolley set his alarm to go off every 20 minutes to stay awake, fearing that if he fell asleep, he could go into shock. A French rescue team dug him out of the shaft 65 hours later.
That was the gist of the story broadcast news outlets reported last week on Woolley, but there’s more.
While waiting for rescue, Woolley recorded voice memos for his family with his iPhone. And when he was feeling discouraged, he used the iPod app to listen to music.
How did his iPhone battery last an amazing 65 hours? Woolley had a Mophie “Juice Pack” battery extender that he plugged into his iPhone, giving it several hours more juice. He also stopped using the alarm after feeling reassured that he wouldn’t go into shock.
When the battery meter sank to 20 percent, Woolley shut off the iPhone to save the power. Before he did, he had stored some text messages calling for help, figuring he would have them ready to send in case he could get a miraculous cell connection.
“It really was an incredible tool in my pocket, and I was really glad to have it,” Woolley told Wired.com on the phone.
Woolley clarified that he was using the app not to learn to treat his cuts, but rather to ensure he was doing it properly.
“I don’t know if I would’ve necessarily done things differently if I didn’t have [the iPhone app],” Woolley admitted. “At a point of great inner turmoil it was great to have something that was definitive. It’s not like I read it and I learned and said, oh really I should tie the wound? It’s more like OK, this is what I do. All right, I’m doing the right thing.”
Woolley added that many on the web criticized him for not having a first-aid kit with him. He said critics were missing a major point about the importance of the iPhone, and other similar app-powered smartphones, such as Google’s Nexus One, being a general-purpose tool that you carry with you everywhere.
“For people who pointed out I should’ve had a pocket first aid kit, the reason they’re wrong is I wouldn’t have it in my pocket,” he said. “How many people have gone out of their way to add one more thing to their pocket? What was valuable about the iPhone is it was already in my pocket. And I thought, it would probably be a good way to have some first aid tips in here, so I downloaded that app. That’s the value of this utility.”
Woolley was one of reportedly 23 survivors rescued from the rubble that buried Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Haiti after the massive earthquake. He was shooting a video about poverty-stricken children in Haiti with his friend David Hames, a filmmaker, when the quake struck. Hames was not found.
“My iPhone did not save me, God and the prayers of tens of thousands of His people did,” Woolley said.
See Also:
Photo courtesy of Dan Woolley
FROM APPLETELL - It seems the clamor for an Apple tablet will finally be met with an official unveiling. Join our live blog at 9:00 a.m. PST for tablet, iPhone and other Apple announcements as they happen.
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Square, the startup that is making mobile payments for the iPhone, just announced it’s full list of angel investors. Kevin Rose announced his involvement in a video demo (embedded below) he did a few days ago, but until now it wasn’t known who else was involved.
The full list includes: Marissa Mayer from Google, Dennis Crowley from Foursquare, Kevin Rose from Digg, Ron Conway, Biz Stone of Twitter, Joshua Schachter, Shawn Fanning (who’s starting a new venture with Dave Morin), Zachary Bogue, Andrew Rasiej, Greg Yaitanes, Jean-David Blanc, David Lee, Esther Dyson, Robin Chan, First Round Capital and Fritz Lanman. Basically, it’s an extremely impressive list.
Most notable are Marissa Mayer and Dennis Crowley, making their first investments, and it seems like a great investment to get into.
Square has gotten off to a fast start these last few months. When it raised $10 million, it was rumored that the company was valued at $40 million. For a company whose product isn’t even available to the public, that’s not bad. Our own MG got a demo of Square, and saw its potential to democratize mobile payments.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FROM GAMERTELL - If you need a Valentines gift for a technology loving gamer, browse through 8BitMemory’s Etsy Shop, where old SNES, NES and GBA cartridges are turned into external hard drives and flash drives.
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When it comes to leaks in the gadget world, when it rains, it pours. In just shy of 20 days, the HTC Supersonic — an absolute beast of a phone — went from non-existent to deeply detailed and fully photographed.
Whether you’ve missed a screenshot or two or just had no idea the Supersonic existed, don’t sweat it – we’ve got your back.
The world got its first hint of of the Supersonic on January 8th, when a listing for the HTC A9292 WIMAX BAR showed up in Sprint’s inventory. The listing confirmed the bar form factor and that it would run on Sprint’s WiMax network, but that was all we knew.
Shortly thereafter, a tipster spilled the beans to Engadget. The details they shared:
WiMax? 4.3″ display? Android 2.1 on an HTC device? We’ll take 3, as long as it looks good – but as no shots had leaked yet, the looks were still in question.
And then…
Bam! The above shots leaked by way of AndroidMobileOs.com. They’re not exactly the most flattering shots in the history of leaks – but hey, the pretty much confirmed the previously leaked details: it looks like an HTC HD2, and has what looks like an Imagio-esque kickstand on the back.
Not satisfied by noisy, blurry pictures? Lucky you! Just hours later, our Russian friends over at YouHTC.RU managed to dig up a considerably clearer shot of the front:
Last but not least, a clear-as-day render showed up over at Androphones. No one seems know if it’s HTC-made or just the work of a dedicated and rather talented individual, but it sure looks legit to us:
So what do you think – could you see yourself toting an HTC Supersonic? If not, what’s holding you back? Lack of keyboard? Sprint as the carrier? Let us know in the comments below.
[Sources: Engadget Mobile, SlashGear, YouHTC.ru, Androphones]
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FROM GAMERTELL - Has one of your UMDs broken, to the point where you can no longer play it in your PSP? Check out Gamertell’s PSP UMD repair guide, which will help you place a UMD disc into a new casing, or fix a UMD with a missing metal disc.
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Google Nexus One customers could finally have a fix to at least one of their problems. Google says it will soon release a patch that will improve the spotty 3G coverage that has left many Nexus One customers frustrated.
“Our engineers have uncovered specific cases for which a software fix should improve connectivity to 3G for some users,” a Google employee commented on the company’s Nexus One forum.”We are testing this fix now and initial results are positive.”
Google hopes to offer the fix as a software update by wireless download to Nexus One users in “the next week or so.”
Nexus One is the first smartphone to be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The HTC-designed device runs the Android 2.1 operating system and is available for $180 with a two-year contract on T-Mobile. An unsubsidized version of the phone costs $530.
Though the Nexus One gained approval for its fast processor, vivid display and slim design, the device has also been plagued by consumer complaints. Unreliable 3G connectivity and Google’s poor customer service have been the biggest peeves. Customers have complained that the Nexus One does not latch on to 3G network and keeps switching to the slower EDGE network.
Google isn’t promising that all Nexus phones will be fixed with its update. “It may be, however, that users are experiencing problems as a result of being on the edge or outside of 3G coverage, which a product fix cannot address,” says the Google employee.
Still, at least for some, the 3G patch should put an end to those “Can you hear me now?” conversations.
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Photo: Nexus One/ (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)
Man, these HTC Bravos are floating around everywhere. A semi-decent shot of this oh-so-Nexus-One-esque Android handset leaked just yesterday, and today another (markedly better) shot has found its way to the interwebs.
Not only that, but it brought a friend!
According to the whisper train, HTC was showing off the Bravo at a gathering of some sort in Poland. Some time during the meeting, a second unannounced handset was pulled out; no shots of the second handset have made their way out yet, but a few details have.
Dubbed the HTC Legend, it’s purportedly a bit smaller than the Hero, comes encased in a full aluminum body, and packs an AMOLED screen and a 5 megapixel camera. It’s by no means official yet, but word from Poland indicates that the Legend is all set to replace the Hero in various regions when it launches in March.
[Source: Android.com.pl via Android Community]
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We knew Nokia was preppin’ something for launch today, thanks to some loose lipped execs – but what would it be? Announcing something just one day before a much hyped Apple announcement is always risky; either Nokia thought the product was a big enough deal to overshadow Apple’s goods, or it was small enough that they weren’t too worried about it.
Looks like it’s closer to the latter.
Nokia’s announcement for today? A 16 gigabyte version of the X6, previously only available in 32 gig form. Interestingly, Nokia has decided to strip their all-you-can-eat “Comes with Music” service from this model, but they make up for it with free turn-by-turn navigation.
No pricing is available yet, but we do know that it’ll hit the shelves sometime before the end of March in various finishes: all black, all white, white with pink highlights and white with yellow highlights.
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For several years, a leaky pipe on 33rd Street in New York beneath the Hell Gate Bridge viaduct approach has submerged more than a hundred square feet of heavily-trafficked sidewalk under a festering cesspool of standing water. Astoria Scum River, as it's called, stretches the entire width of the sidewalk, and as winter approaches, the river ices over and becomes particularly hazardous to cross. Astoria Scum River Bridge was constructed to offer Astorians an opportunity to safetly cross this hazard. The unauthorized bridge is a gift to the pedestrians of Astoria in the absence of successful municipal efforts to ameliorate the problem.The bridge was made at zero cost entirely from recycled materials: an old work bench found on the curb, rescued screws from a disassembled desk, and a metal plate from an expired electrical component. It was installed and dedicated on December 30th, 2009.
On January 25th, 2010, Astoria Scum River Bridge was the subject of a commendation from the office of NYC Council Member Peter F. Vallone, Jr., accompanied by a pledge to work with Amtrak to re-route Astoria Scum River off the sidewalk.
The bridge remains in place as this work progresses.
FROM APPLETELL - Apple is about to prove once and for all just how much they really don’t need Macworld, but what can you expect from Apple during their press event?
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Copyright, companies, individuals and news: the rules of the roadWe're trying to retrofit the rules that governed multi-stage rocket ships (huge publishing conglomerates) to cover the activity of pedestrians (people who post quotes from books on their personal blogs). And the pedestrians aren't buying it: they hear that they need a law degree to safely quote from their favourite TV show and they assume that the system is irredeemably broken and not worth attending to at all.
It's an impossible situation. As an author, I depend on there being some rules of the road when I negotiate with my publishers, and it's in every commercial creator's interest to try to find a moderate, coherent copyright rule that avoid dumb absolutes in favour of nuance and fairness. I don't pretend that I have all the answers, but here's some of the principles that I think a good copyright system must embrace if is to succeed. Many of these principles are already in various nations' copyright rules as part of "fair dealing" or "fair use," but these user-rights in copyright are complex and difficult to navigate and vary from country to country.
(Image: Breach of Copyright - The Independent, from PeteZab's photostream)
Pageonce has quietly built a solid business by aggregating its user’s various online accounts into one place. They’ve got over 1.3 million registered users and recently raised a $6.5 million Series B round. And though Pageonce hardly gets neither the fame nor the fortune of its competitor (Mint), it is still a very solid way to manage your online accounts. Unlike Mint, which focuses on personal finances, Pageonce’s goal is to provide you with a one-stop view of all of your online accounts, including financial, travel, e-mail and social networking.
Though a single web interface for all of those accounts may be unnecessary, it is a perfect service for mobile devices. Specifically, the Pageonce iPhone App – “Personal Assistant” – is done extremely well, and I still use it to this day. It blows Mint’s iPhone App out of the water.
Today, Pageonce launches TripTracker [iTunes Link]. This is a free iPhone App ($1 removes the ads) that enables you to keep track of all of our trip itineraries – hotels and flights specifically – on the go.
As a consultant for Accenture, I travel basically every week, so the value proposition of having a one-stop shop for all my trip updates is extremely compelling. But obviously, TripIt already does that – so what makes TripTracker different? For TripIt, you forward all of your itineraries to an e-mail address (plans@tripit.com) and it automatically parses your itinerary and populates your flight information. Instead, with TripTracker, you provide your frequent flyer and hotel rewards program ID and password, and it pulls all the information for you. They call it “automagically” updating your flight and hotel details.
Ultimately, the difference between TripIt and TripTracker is a matter of preference. For a frequent traveler like me, who has racked up over 60,000 miles in 4 months, it probably makes sense to go with TripTracker. I always use my frequent flyer ID when booking a reservation, and so why bother with forwarding my itineraries to TripIt (which is, though still easy, slightly more difficult). For someone who travels a bit less and doesn’t always bother with frequent flyer programs, TripIt is still the way to go.
TripIt also could not parse the data from the itineraries sent by my corporate travel program, whereas TripTracker goes around that issue by pulling the itinerary details from the airline websites. Furthermroe, the TripTracker iPhone app has weather reports and airport information whereas TripIt does a better job with push notifications and has a better user interface. Either way, now you never have to worry about losing your travel details while on the go.
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Apple’s press event, scheduled for Wednesday, is likely to include the introduction of the relentlessly rumored Apple Tablet.
We’ve taken a lot of time to track down the rumors, innuendo and even a few sparse facts about the device since the first whispers of its existence some two and a half years ago.
But now we’re going in a separate direction. Admittedly the five features below are are a little crazy — but their inclusion in the tablet would make it a whole lot more fun. Hey, a gadget journalist can dream, right?
1. Wireless Power Transfer
Power management will undoubtedly be a huge problem with a touch-enabled color screen device (it already is with the iPhone). But what if you never had to worry about charging it up? Imagine this: The tablet comes with a peripheral that looks a lot like an Airport Express. You plug it to an outlet and it pumps wireless electrical pulses that are gobbled up by the power-hungry device.
Why it’s a pipe dream: Wireless power is still in its infancy. Researchers have figured out how to wirelessly transmit electricity by converting it into magnetic waves, but with only enough wattage to power a light bulb. That, and people already freak out about living underneath power lines.
2. Flexible OLED Screen
What if you could roll up the tablet and put it in the back of your pocket like a magazine or a newspaper? It would certainly make the digital transition from the analog devices it’s poised to replace a lot easier. And it’s real, too. A widely viewed YouTube clip shows a bendable OLED prototype from Sony labs, and there’s an outside chance that a high-end version of the Apple tablet will include OLED technology.
Why it’s a pipe dream: Prohibitive cost and size. The largest OLED device on the market, Sony’s XEL-1, is 11 inches across and costs $2,500. That’s 227 bucks per inch and it’s not even flexible. In fact, there are no flexible OLEDs in commercial use at all.
3. Price: $0.00
Here’s the idea: Apple CEO Steve Jobs reads Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson’s book Free and has an epiphany. Jobs decides you can have the tablet for little or no upfront cost provided you sign up for a one- or two-year contract and pay a certain monthly fee for content to be beamed to the device. Just like a cellphone contract, the money you pay over the course of a contract makes up for the discount you receive on the hardware.
Why it’s a pipe dream: When was the last time Apple offered anything for free, besides truckloads of reality-distorting hype at its press conferences?
4. Salvation for the Struggling Print Industry
Newspapers have been on the business end of a nasty financial ass-kicking for the last few years. (And don’t make us talk about what’s happened to magazines — please.) A lusty piece of hardware coupled with an innovative, iTunes-based business strategy could make both daily rags and glossies profitable again.
Why it’s a pipe dream: With a rumored $1,000 price tag, we’re betting that even die-hard early adopters won’t be showing up en masse to buy the tablet. Financially, the print industry needs a new mass audience, not a small coterie of dedicated Mac lovers.
5. Conan O’Brien’s Next Show
Also in this pie-in-the sky universe Conan accepts a gig as executive producer of The Simpsons and makes it funny again.
Why it’s a pipe dream: Even Steve Jobs and Nick Denton combined can’t afford Conan’s eight-figure salary. Plus, there’s his hair.
Image courtesy of neon punch
Panasonic has added manual control and GPS to its popular Leica-lensed Lumix ZS3, and bumped the name and number up to ZS7.
The compact camera is a replacement for the top-of-the-range ZS3, and improves on it in almost every way, the biggest boost being in speed. For instance the new ZS7 has a tiny shutter lag of 0.006 second (that this figure is even included in a press release for a point and shoot is unusual), and faster focussing. This is very likely to be a trickle-down from the tech in the super quick GF1.
The 12x optical zoom is joined by “Intelligent Zoom”, which promises to add an extra 1.3x digital zoom without making the picture soft and awful (pro-tip: don’t bother. If you need a few more feet of zoom, do it back at the computer). You also get Panasonic’s large, clear 460,000 dot 3-inch LCD and AVCHD Lite video which captures 720p, and a stereo microphone.
While manual controls are very welcome, they are often awkward without dedicated switches and dials. The GPS, on the other hand, has some cool extras. Apart from stamping the location into the photos’ EXIF metadata, and auto-setting the camera’s clock, the ZS7 also carries a database of landmarks and their positions. If you are snapping, say, the Empire State Building (or one of half a million other spots), its name will be displayed on screen and tagged to the photo. Very slick indeed.
Panny hasn’t set a price yet, but as a guide, its predecessor sold for $250-$350, depending on where you bought it.
Product page [Panasonic]
Bigtrak was one of the awesomest toys of the 1980s (actually introduced in 1979), and, like other 80s icons, Knight Rider and the A-Team, it is staging a comeback.
Bigtrack Jr will be a half-sized replica of the original six-wheeled autonomous robot, an object of jealous desire for kids who couldn’t afford one. The rover could be programmed using a cryptic keypad on the load-bed, and sent off to “shoot” your little sister with a flashing light or deliver any manner of goods, somewhat inaccurately, from its trailer.
To get the machine where you wanted it, you’d need to specify up to 16 (the maximum) steps, with instructions to turn a certain amount of degrees, pause, or move forward a certain distance (measured in Bigtrak lengths). As the only sensors on the ‘bot counted wheel revolutions, it quickly strayed from the path, especially on slippery surfaces.
It was a magnificent triumph, despite requiring a knowledge of trigonometry to control it. And rather than mess with a winning formula, Dubreq - the company which resuscitated the Stylophone - has simply shrunken it, and doubled the available program steps to 32. Thus yesteryear’s must-have toy becomes today’s educational device.
Actually, there is one other extra. Dubreq has put a port on top that can accept peripherals, starting with a digital camera and - yes! - a rocket launcher. Little sisters beware.
Launches this year, with rocket launcher coming in 2011.
Bigtrack Jr [Dubreq]
Bigtrak makes a comeback [Pocket Lint]
Some crazy programmers have overclocked the Droid to 1.1GHz, making it faster than the Nexus one. The Droid usually runs at about 600MHz so bumping it up to 1.1 was fairly dangerous. However, with a little tweaking the boys at AllDroid were able to find a stable speed at about 800MHz.
How do you do it? Well, it requires you to root your Droid, a fairly simple process and then upload a new bit of firmware. The full instructions are here.
As someone who has tried to futz with firmware, this second step is pretty rough so get yourself a few bottles of beer before you start.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
These wonderful fake tablet photos come from user interface designer Dustin Curtis. They supposedly show the Jesus Moses Tablet atop a 15-inch MacBook Pro. Unlike many blurry spy-cam shots, Dustin had faith in his Photoshop abilities and these pictures are sharp and clear.
It’s a sweet-looking design, with dual dock ports for horizontal and vertical charging (and movie-watching). Even the bezel (although it looks thin on a large tablet) is wide enough for fingers to grip without obscuring the screen.
But the telltale signs are there. A bad, overly soft drop shadow (most obvious in the close-up), an off-looking reflection (the glowing Apple and the screen edge on the main shot) and the rather pale reflection of the MacBook keyboard in its own screen (again on the close-up). Still, it might be my favorite mockup so far, if only because the super-simple slab-like design fits with my idea of what the actual tablet will look like. For more debunking and analysis, head to Dustin’s blog, where these images were posted. Good try, Dustin!
Photos of the Apple Tablet [Dustin Curtis]
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A simple iPhone application aggregates tech rumors and lets you join the fun by picking which are the winners (iTablet: tomorrow) and which are the lame ducks (Zune phone: ever). Better still, the Prediction application was approved by Apple and appeared in the store today, just in time for the biggest rumor-fest of the year, Apple’s (probable) iSlate event tomorrow.
Prediction pulls in the rumors and pushes them to your iPhone. They are organized by event (the upcoming Mobile World Congress, for example) for easy browsing, and you can vote for the outcome of each, choosing Correct, Partially Correct or just plain Wrong. You can even add your own speculation and share them with other users.
Grab the app right now for $3, or play along with an old-fashioned PDF, available from the site of Prediction’s developer, David Weiss. Download, grab a beer and play along.
Prediction Score Card [Unweary via ★]
Prediction [iTunes]
Talk of the Apple Tablet is in full swing as the wide world of web is in a frenzy over the upcoming Apple event tomorrow. Most of the discussion has centered around features: how will it use multi-touch? will it have a camera? what kind of OS will it run? But one thing that matters perhaps more than features is what kind of apps the tablet will have and what developers think about the product. Appcelerator, a company that provides web developers with the tools to build native mobile and desktop applications, has released a report that might give us some insight into what developers are thinking about the device.
The results are clear: Appcelerator’s 550+ developer respondents are overwhelmingly positive about the Apple Tablet. 90% of them said they were “very interested in building at least one Apple Tablet app within a year.” Furthermore, when asked about developer interest in the Apple Tablet as compared with other mobile operating systems, 58% of developers were “very interested” in developing for the platform.
Considering only the iPhone and Android were prioritized above the Tablet, that is ridiculous. The damn thing hasn’t even been officially introduced yet.
It is important to note that Appcelerator’s survey suffers from some significant survey biases. Specifically, the survey was sent out to Appcelerator’s existing customers, who are primarily web developers interested in building applications in web languages (such as Javascript) for desktop and mobile devices. CEO Jeff Haynie informed me that 46% of the developers in the survey are independent developers and 54% work in businesses. Furthermore, he shared that 52% of their developers are based in North America and that they only provided survey respondents with 48 hours to take the survey, which only augments the self-selection bias inherent to surveys.
The survey revealed that developers are treating the Apple Tablet differently from the iPhone. When asked what types of applications they are most likely to build for the tablet versus the iPhone, developers had very different priorities. While they viewed games as the most appropriate for the iPhone, respondents ranked business/productivity as the most important on the upcoming Tablet.
Another interesting find was the feature set that surveyed developers were excited about. It seems that developers are excited about features that are tablet-specific such as new multitouch gestures and the native tablet user interface.
CEO Jeff Haynie had additional insights that he shared with me. His thoughts are particularly interesting, because he interacts with hundreds of developers as part of his day-to-day job, and has a solid grasp of what his customers want. Furthermore, he interacts with Apple regularly, and though he wouldn’t confirm or deny, it’s plausible that he has some inside information about the upcoming tablet.
Jeff mentioned that the excitement around the tablet has been as big (if not bigger) as the excitement around the first iPhone launch. Additionally, though developers are thinking about Android, their mindshare and attention is still firmly in Apple’s hands. The iPhone completely dominates the market and only 12% of developers polled were “not happy” with Apple’s approval process (however, 64% were only “somewhat happy”). Symbian and Windows Mobile, despite large install bases, don’t even matter to most developers.
Regarding the tablet specifically, Jeff says that video conferencing is a big opportunity that is exciting developers. They are also interested in the education sector, and are treating the Tablet as a product distinct from the iPhone. Still, the majority of the developers (51%) believed that porting their existing iPhone apps to the Tablet is “very important.”
The rest of the survey can be found at Appcelerator’s website.
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