Gaming With GPS On Your Smartphone

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Planning M.O.R.O.N.: Architectural award for planning errors

Planning M.O.R.O.N.: Architectural award for planning errors

"Now it looks like the developers may be going ahead with their plan, which will include running ten-tonne trucks up a cobbled street (which won't stay authentic Georgian for very long, then). This is a street which is so narrow even taxi drivers refuse to drive up it. Anyway, the residents (led by my good friend Nick Goodall) have launched a new category of architectural award, the MORONS (Many Obvious Reasons Overcome Nothing) to celebrate their own and others' planning stupidities.

"The whole site is well worth a read, with stupidity piled on idiocy heaped on lunacy; for example it turns out the developers don't actually own part of the site where they're planning to build; the Council themselves refused permission for the building trucks to pass through their estate at the rear of the development because it would be 'too dangerous' but the same trucks can pass up a narrower (much narrower) street lined with listed buildings; and so on."

The Planning Moron™ Awards 2009 (Thanks, Chris!)

The Day My Kid Went Punk, ABC After-School Special

The Day My Kid Went PUNK

The Day My Kid Went Punk, ABC After-School Special

Jason at Epcot, 1989-2005, hero's journey to sysadminhood

Jason at Epcot, 1989-2005, hero's journey to sysadminhood

Jason at The Living Seas (Thanks, Jason!)

Kohl critical of NBC online Olympic coverage (AP)

webOS 1.4 now available for the Palm Pre, Pixi on Sprint

Good news, Palm fans! If you’ve taken a break from jamming on the “Update” button, it’s time to go tap it one last time: the rollout of webOS 1.4 has just begun. The catch: it seems that it’s only for Sprint handsets right now, with the Verizon Pre Plus and Pixi Plus still reporting that 1.3 is the latest release.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

webOS 1.4 update now available for the Palm Pre and Pixi on Sprint

Good news, Palm fans! If you’ve taken a break from jamming on the “Update” button, it’s time to go tap it one last time: the rollout of webOS 1.4 has just begun. The catch: it seems that it’s only for Sprint handsets right now, with the Verizon Pre Plus and Pixi Plus still reporting that 1.3 is the latest release.

We knew it was coming in February thanks to Palm’s announcement at CES — and thanks to the rumor mill, we were all lead to believe it was coming a few weeks ago. All false starts and false hopes aside, it’s available now. We’re seeing reports (thanks Twitter!) that it just has gone live on Sprint handsets.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

webOS 1.4 now available for the Palm Pre and Pixi on Sprint, O2, Movistar, but not Verizon

Good news, Palm fans! If you’ve taken a break from jamming on the “Update” button, it’s time to go tap it one last time: the rollout of webOS 1.4 has just begun. The catch: it seems that it’s only for Sprint handsets right now (Update: In the US, that is – it’s also available on O2 UK, O2 Germany, O2 Ireland, and Movistar in Europe), with the Verizon Pre Plus and Pixi Plus still reporting that 1.3 is the latest release.

We knew it was coming in February thanks to Palm’s announcement at CES — and thanks to the rumor mill, we were all lead to believe it was coming a few weeks ago. All false starts and false hopes aside, it’s available now. We’re seeing reports (thanks Twitter!) that it has gone live on Sprint handsets.

Curiously absent, however, are any reports of the update hitting Verizon Pre/Pixi Pluses. With the update going out this late in the evening (a bit after 10:30 pm PST), I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were some last-minute snags; might the Verizon update have been held at the last minute?

The biggest new feature in webOS 1.4 — at least, of those available right this second — is its new found ability to record and edit video. webOS also lays all the necessary foundation for Adobe Flash support, though that bit will come as a download from the App Catalog at a later time. There are other smaller features and bug fixes throughout — for those, check out the full change log below. (Update: Palm has just released an even bigger, more in-depth change log here)

Changelog:
Enhancements:
- Updated SMS and chat features.
− Tap and hold on an email address to send an email or add
to contacts.
− Forward SMS messages to email.
− Dial a number from chat view without opening a contact card.
− Press and hold a phone number (identified via smart text) to get
more options for calls and SMS.
- New camera support for video capture.
− Record and edit videos right on your device.
− Upload videos to YouTube® and Facebook®, or send them to friends via email or MMS.
- Expanded calendar and task functions.
− Set custom alert sounds for calendar events.
-View times with added AM/PM and Now indicators. − Dial phone numbers shown in the appointment subject.
- More email options
− Customize your email alerts by specifying a distinct ringtone or
selecting mute or vibrate.
− Tap and hold on a phone number or email address to either dial or
send an email or add to contacts.
− Once emails are sent, you’re taken back to the inbox view.
− More sort options for messages, including by date, sender,
and subject.
- Mobile Hotspot application is now preloaded on the device.
– Enhanced universal search now includes Global Address Lookup, i.e.,
corporate address book.
- The light bar in the gesture area now blinks whenever there are
pending notifications.

Improvements:
- Better MMS functions and support.
− Support for sending an MMS message when connected to Wi-Fi
now included.
− MMS messages with multiple audio and picture attachments now
allow you to open all attachments correctly.
− MMS display updated so messages no longer appear to overlap
each other.
- Faster performance in several areas of the phone and calendar applications-

Alice in Wonderland movie from 1933 with Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, WC Fields, which Alice herself endorsed

But only one can boast the endorsement of the original Alice: the 1933 Paramount "Alice in Wonderland," being released to DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment ($19.98, not rated), the current rights holder. In a Jan. 7, 1934, article in The New York Times, Alice Liddell, quoted under her married name, Mrs. Reginald Hargreaves, expressed admiration for the film that Hollywood had wrought from the story Carroll had invented for her some seven decades before.

"I am delighted with the film and am now convinced that only through the medium of the talking picture art could this delicious fantasy be faithfully interpreted," she declared, her words possibly burnished by a Paramount publicist. " 'Alice' is a picture which represents a revolution in cinema history!"

Alice in Wonderland (1933)

(Thanks, Steve!)

Alice in Wonderland movie from 1933 with Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, WC Fields, which Alice herself endorsed

Pirates of the Caribbean IV will be based on Tim Powers's "On Stranger Tides"

Pirates of the Caribbean IV will be based on Tim Powers's "On Stranger Tides"

Project M Could Send Every Scientist To the Moon, By Proxy

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Los Angeles: play about government/corporate conspiracy

Los Angeles: play about government/corporate conspiracy

A few weeks ago, the Pasadena Playhouse, a historic theater just outside of Los Angeles, announced that it's totally out of cash and shutting its doors. The news was a blow to the L.A. theater world, as the Playhouse has nearly a 100-year history of great performances and arts education. It was especially bad news for the Furious Theatre Company, the Pasadena Playhouse's current company-in-residence, known for its challenging, intense, controversial, and critically-acclaimed productions. It was also bad news personally, as my brother Robert Pescovitz had been deep in rehearsals with the rest of the Furious ensemble for their latest production, a contemporary black comedy about government/corporate conspiracy titled Men of Tortuga, by Jason Wells. The show was supposed to open last weekend, and suddenly Furious found itself scrambling for a new space. At the eleventh hour though, Furious managed to secure the Pasadena Playhouse for one more month to stage this play. The rescheduled opening night is tomorrow, Saturday, February 26. I haven't seen Men of Tortuga yet, but it sounds like a terrific piss take on corporate politics and shady power brokers. The show runs until March 28.

Three power-brokers scheme with a weapons specialist to assassinate a despised opponent... Too bad they’re all such incompetents. The bungling only gets worse as Maxwell, the senior power-broker, takes a young idealist under his wing. Suddenly his long-dormant conscience begins to reawaken. This comedic thriller discloses a sharp parable that takes a crack at the nastiness of covert governmental and corporate operations.

If you don't like the gallery view, you can click here.

We're proud of our comment system and commenter community. A great display of the sheer insanity and brilliance of the gals and boys who make it so wonderful is our open forum, #whitenoise. From Whitenoise is a regular feature to show the best of the best and the weirdest of the weird.

It's the weekend, so Jux and some pals are getting an early start on #drunkmodo. In their defense though, they're being responsible and keeping track of their BACs.

Oh, Nathan Obbards! Always ready with a new game thread or a Batman-themed photoshop challenge.

jeevesofRKdia wants you to stick a caption on his strange creation.

So far my favorites are WolfCobra13's

I'm the Twitter whale's depressed cousin!

and otko's

I'm blue da ba dee ba da bi

Ok, maybe I'm fibbing about being all that fond of Otko's line—I really hated that song—but I'm just happy he's rejoined us in #whitenoise.

Modest Mouse is giving everyone—including himself—in #whitenoise a pat on the back:

You guys are especially hilarious today, bringing your A-game and whatnot. Good work, you've entertained me... now get back to it.

MagicalTrev is getting serious and needs some advice:

Ok, I could use some advice, or at least some educated opinions. I'll settle for what I can get here, though.

Jabs aside, I have relied on a PDA in some sort or another for the last 10 years. I do not want to spend a monthly fee for the privilege of using a smartphone when I'm not interested in the data features. I need something to keep track of appointments, can store simple notes quickly, and I wouldn't mind if it stored an address book or could play music. Displaying pictures would also be a strong plus, as would syncing with either outlook or google calendar. If I could get these features in a phone without needing to sign up for a data package, that would be ideal as I'm tired of carrying around multiple devices. Thoughts or suggestions?

Picture by Jiri Brozovsky

SmokeyRivers missed most of it, but there was a grand war. The troops of #whitenoisers went off into battle against Lifehacker and Kotaku. Thankfully, General Bill Can't Fart helped keep things organized:

OK, troops. In about 1 hour, we will begin war against Kotaku. This battle will be more challanging. There's a good chance the enemy could retaliate and attack our base. There will be lives lost.

So, battle plans. We'll be attacking Kotaku's #speakup at 11am EST. Let's gather all our contest ideas and games and post them there. If you don't understand what's going on, take a look at what's left of Lifehacker's #openthread ([lifehacker.com]) and the #greatgizwar tag.

Remember guys, we're going over there to have fun. Some of the editors have reminded us to not let things get too out of control. So don't get too crazy, obnoxious, stupid, etc. We're not trolls, we're #whitenoisers. Our goal is to spread our ways to the other Gawker blogs.

REMEMBER! Wear the #greatgizwar hashtag in all of our comments there, this needs to be organized.

Ok, Ok. I'll be honest. I do have a favorite comment thread right now. It was started by a fellow named BobotheTeddy and is a tribute to most of the Gizmodo editors (though I think that Brownski still wants to know what makes me so darn special that I get to hold the great banhammer).

Wednesday is supposed to be #wednesdaybookclub in #whitenoise, and Fractal the Meek and jeevesofRKdia made sure to get some discussions started.

Picture by Ian Wilson

I'm not sure what Kotaku commenter deanbmmv was thinking when he posted this picture in #whitenoise, but it certainly kicked off one heck of a thread.

This week's Fake Rumor Thursday and the fantastic Damage, Splash brought us this silliness:

7. This rumor is sponsored by Windows 7.

7. Further spurred by the current Thread Raids, rumor has it other Giz commenting team is forming plans for counter attack. For instance, lifehacker will either use automated comment attack or use outside third party to handle that, as using actual manpower would really cramp their productivity. io9 is rumored to use cyborgs from outer space, while Japolik will employ bunches of degenerate car lovers.

All sign points to the LEGION invading Gizmodo. Thanks guys, like we really need that.

7. Apple's Mighty/Magic/Hyper Mega Mouse will be replaced by the super sleek G-Spot Mouse. Lines forming as we speak, developing.

7. Kingston, outraged by reports of not so nice memory cards entering their supply chain, purchased several Chinese factories in Shenzen, and introduced new lines, such as Samdisk, SanSunk, and Rexar. Developing.

7. Sony will completely abandon Memory Stick and adopt XD as their primary memory format. Then the XD will be immediately supplemented by XD-HS-PRO-XG-PS3++ and XD-DUO-PRO-PS4+++.

7. Jay Leno will introduce a new sidekick: Conan O'Brien. Andy Richter will be their personal slave for the rest of the term.

It seems that jmcm's friend was really bored while decorating his or her room, but it still looks neat.

Conspiracies! Zmx15 wants to play a game:

This one is called Conspiracy. You just keep relating things to other things and end up with a whole huge conspiracy theory.

ExamplePersonA: January is a Month
ExamplePersonB: January Starts with J
ExamplePersonC: Jesus also starts with J
ExamplePersonQ: Jesus works for Gizmodo

Jason Chen also works for Gizmodo.
Jason just got a bunny.
Bunnies are evil...

The iPhone’s Peephole

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber wrote what I thought was a good response to my post about Apple’s App Store sexy app policy. While I noted that one of the reasons Apple’s policy was silly was because each iPhone contains two apps, iTunes and Safari (both made by Apple), that grant users access to content much worse than the kind of stuff now being banned from the App Store, he comes back to say that maybe the idea isn’t to remove this content from the iPhone itself, but rather just from the actual App Store.

My first reaction to this was the humorous thought that both iTunes and Safari would be banned from the App Store had they not been included by default on every iPhone. But that actually lead to a more interesting thought that a few other posts around the web back up today: Safari is the iPhone’s peephole.

What I mean is that Apple very tightly controls nearly every aspect of the iPhone (and really, all products). While they undoubtedly have both selfish (app revenues) and unselfish (protection) reasons for doing this, this type of suffocating control should be enough to make users walk away. But it’s not. And a big reason may be Safari.

Think about it: you can’t have porn on your iPhone — but actually, you can. You just have to go through Safari. You can’t have Google Voice on your iPhone — but actually, you can. You just have to go through Safari. Other Google Apps? Same thing.

Sure, it’s not as easy or as nice as if there were a native app experience, but it’s doable. And as HTML5 continues to mature, it will be more and more doable. In fact, over the past few months I’ve encountered a number of web apps on the iPhone that are increasingly impressive. One is the Google Buzz app, which is better than Google Buzz on the desktop because it uses HTML5 to access your location through your phone.

Remember, when the iPhone first launched in 2007, no native third-party apps were allowed. All Apple said at the time was that if you wanted to make an app, it had to be a web app. The problem was that the HTML5 was basically non-existant at the time, and the older HTML/JavaScript/CSS combination simply wasn’t ideal for developers or users. So Apple shuffled (though native apps may have been the plan all along, who knows), and made third-party native apps the norm with the launch of the iPhone SDK.

Unfortunately, as we’ve all become well aware, there’s a price for this native development: you have to play by Apple’s rules. But, at the same time, Apple never said you still couldn’t work outside the App Store ecosystem and make any sort of web app you desired. Again, essentially, they made Safari a loophole — or, as I’ve been calling it, a peephole.

Today, Gruber elaborated on this a bit buried in his post about Adobe Flash. Here’s the key part:

The best counter-argument is perhaps that, given Apple’s desire for control, they’re always going to prefer their wholly owned proprietary platforms — native iPhone and Mac apps — over the web, and will eventually come to see the web as a threat. I don’t think Apple sees it that way, though. There is always going to be a lowest common denominator platform. That used to be Windows. Now it’s the web. Apple doesn’t build lowest common denominator platforms. Before, when Windows was the LCD, Apple was in a hard place because they were locked out of that platform: their platform was at odds with it. Now, with the web as the LCD, Apple has it both ways: their platforms gracefully coexist with it. Apple isn’t a web company, but the web might be the best thing that ever happened to them.

So with the web, Apple is giving both developers and users a way to still operate outside the system. And again, that method will keep improving as HTML5 does.

In fact, I’m surprised that Apple doesn’t play this up more in response to the criticisms of the App Store. If I were them, I’d simply say something like, “We made the App Store to provide our customers with the best guaranteed experience on their device. If you’d like an app that we don’t allow, that’s fine, you’ll just have to access it through the web on the device.”

The first part essentially is their line, but the second part they probably won’t say because then they’ll worry customers will start associating the web apps with Apple itself. But again, that was the initial idea behind the first iPhone, so if they thought it was going to work at one time, they should be comfortable with it now.

Another post today on Silicon Alley Insider notes that Apple is stacking the deck against its rivals like Amazon for digital goods because you can’t buy them within native iPhone (and soon iPad) apps. For example, with the Amazon Kindle app, you have to go to the web to purchase a new e-book.

But again, it’s not that you flat out cannot buy the book, you just have to go to the web to do it. And you can do that on the iPhone, through Safari. It’s a little more complicated, but it’s manageable.

Ideally, would Apple like to all the most popular web apps ported over to native apps available in the App Store? Provided they adhere to their guidelines, of course. At the same time, are they ever going to remove Safari from the iPhone and make all developers do native apps? No way. It would be suicide to do so. And Apple must know that.

You cannot remove the safety net just because you think not falling is better than falling.

Instead, Apple will focus on making a platform for developers that allows them to create a better tailored experience for users, provided they follow their rules. We see this with apps like Facebook, Pandora, and a number of Twitter apps. Each is better than their respective web app (well, except that you can’t run Pandora in the background, but that may change — soon). And each are among the most popular apps on the device.

Meanwhile, I’m using Google Voice, Buzz, and Gmail on my phone — I’m just using them through Safari. I thought it would bug me, but it really doesn’t because HTML5 is getting so good.

Is Apple still hypocritical in not allowing some sexy apps but allowing others? Yes. And it’s particularly bad because they initially didn’t allow them, then they did, now they’ve taken them away again. And it’s sad that this is destroying some businesses (no matter what you think of the content). But you still could get this content through the web using Safari. It sucks for the developers that they can’t as easily charge for it, but end users obviously won’t care about that. And those are the people buying iPhones.

The iPhone may be a closed door, but there is a peephole, Safari. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for on the device, you might want to look through it.

[photo: flickr/wfyurasko]

US military lets soldiers Tweet, blog and Facebook

Wonder what happens if that clock ever gets better at playing the game though. Will time freeze? [Adafruit]

Source: Gizmodo | 26 Feb 2010 | 10:40 pm

TigerText app removes embarrassing text messages

The technology described in the patent, dug up by the diligent folks at Patently Apple, would allow an iPhone user to fast forward and rewind through voicemails, navigate web pages, or scroll through contact lists and iTunes simply by swiping one finger against the iPhone's camera.

The proposed controls would also be tap sensitive, meaning that you can access different phone or UI functions simply by tapping the camera with your forefinger. Theoretically, all of these controls would also apply to the iPad... should it ever, you know, get a camera.

The patent was originally filed in Q3 of 2008, which may have left just enough time for Apple to have implemented the tech by this summer. Let's hope so... this is one of those patents that actually seems as functional as it does cool. [Patently Apple]

Source: Gizmodo | 26 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

Performers see tiny returns from streaming music

All of this according to a recent profile in PCMag, one that frankly raises more questions than it answers. In the piece, Celsius co-founder Alejandro Ricart offers a vague picture of his team's ambition, citing high-end Swiss watches as the inspiration for his company's ultra-luxury, mechanical mobile phone.

"We want to take the useful functions of the cell phone and try to re-think them, and re-create them in a mechanical way," he explained. One such suggested mechanism is a kinetic hinge that powers the phone when it's flipped open and closed shut.

Sascha Segan, PCMag's reporter, seems pretty enthralled by the whole business, describing the device as a "hand-made art-watch with more than 600 mechanical components, many of which are visible to the naked eye."

Papillon is French for "butterfly," an insect that apparently inspired the design of the phone and, when you come to think of it, is sort of a strange little creature in its own right. As you can see, a butterfly floats fleetingly through the teaser clip for the phone.

All of this is quite bizarre and potentially very dumb, like something out of a Dan Brown novel*, and it certainly feels like it could all blow away in a cloud of vapor. The x-ray shown above is the only image of the phone available. But in a genre of gadget that is almost categorically uninteresting to us, this ultra high-end device has piqued our curiosity. [Celsius X VI II via PCMag]

*If Celsius's shadowy forces silence me for making all of this public, or for ripping the weird promo video from their site without permission, just FOLLOW THE SIGNS.

V-MODA PRESENTS REMIX REMOTE HEADPHONES: SOPHISTICATED SOUND AND DESIGN OPTIMIZED FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE, ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Series Offers Music Enthusiasts Unparalleled Audio, Style and Reinforced Durability

HOLLYWOOD (Feb. 22, 2010) – V-MODA, the music lifestyle brand and manufacturer of award-winning headphones, today announced Remix Remote, the latest fashion-forward in-ear headphone featuring unrivaled audio performance partnered with an integrated three-button remote. Created by V-MODA's meticulous acoustics and engineering team, Remix Remote is a completely redesigned version of the company's original in-ear headphones, created to enhance the listening experience and dynamics of today's music while capitalizing on the capabilities of the iPhone, iPod and Mac notebooks.

Designed for ultimate durability, unparalleled audio clarity and absolute affordability, Remix Remote is a testament to V-MODA's passionate dedication to the development of sound and precise construction for even the most discerning listener. From the remastered driver to the redesigned soft silicone fittings developed to enhance ergonomic and audio performance, consumers will enjoy a unique and distinct listening experience with the perfect balance of punchy bass and high-definition audio clarity. The remote and high fidelity microphone allows hands-free access for users to answer calls and control their music library. The all-metal construction, Kevlar®-reinforced cables and commitment to quality is backed by a two-year premium warranty and V-MODA's "No Questions Asked" 50 percent off lifetime headphone replacement guarantee.

"Great in-ear headphones are a result of a fanatical passion for the skill, art and love of music. We've spent years researching and fine-tuning our headphones alongside world-renowned musicians and DJs, and Remix Remote is our best product yet in terms of pure sound, rock solid durability improvements, ergonomics, and value," said Val Kolton, V-MODA CEO and founder, independent DJ and producer. "In our modern lifestyle we listen to our music on headphones more than at home, in the car or at clubs. It is my goal to recreate the sound and sensations of an epic sound system anywhere and anytime, fused with the fashionable design V-MODA is known for."

The V-MODA Remix Remote features:

UNPARALLELED CONTROL AND SOUND
A discreet, in-line three-button remote allows the user to control the music playback, volume, VoiceOver or Voice Control functions with ease. A newly tuned 9mm V-MASQUE neodymium dynamic driver creates the absolute in clarity and the perfect balance in sound, while the BEAT-PORT air flow system delivers a high-definition soundstage, invoking the sense of a live music experience. V-MODA's revered BLISS (Bass Level Isolating Soft Silicone) noise-isolating technology further reduces outside noise and enables deep punchy bass for the ultimate audio experience.

ERGONOMIC STYLE AND DESIGN
Featuring a minimalist and ergonomic design, Remix Remote's solid yet lightweight all-metal construction makes a powerful statement. Its durable features are developed for fashion-conscious, on-the-go lifestyles. The earbuds feature newly designed medical-grade soft silicone fittings with a new shape offering a more comfortable and secure fit while also further enhancing V-MODA's signature soundscape with improved clarity. The detachable sport earhooks feature patent-pending Active Flex technology, allowing the headphones to adjust independently to each ear regardless of the earhook's position.

ROCK SOLID DURABILITY
After years of diligent engineering, Remix Remote is stronger than many headphones sold within the same price range. Each component was dissected and analyzed to create a high-quality headphone that could withstand the extended use by V-MODA's dedicated listeners. With the added function and dual functionality of today's headphones as headsets, it is paramount that the cable and plug are as precisely engineered as the ear buds. Special attention was given to a custom cable construction comprised of a strong Kevlar core to relieve tension and a uniquely braided copper material that is specially designed to flex during use. The durable, PVC-free and tactically pleasing cable is designed to reduce microphonics. The gold-plated plug and stainless steel core feature a 45-degree extended strain relief to withstand stress.

COMPATIBILITY
Remix Remote provides an easy-to-use integrated three-button remote control that works with iPhone 3GS, the second generation iPod touch, fourth and fifth generation iPod nano, third generation iPod shuffle, the 120GB and 160GB iPod classic, MacBook (unibody) and MacBook Pro (unibody).

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Starting today, the Remix Remote will be available through Apple's retail stores as well as at Shop.v-moda.com for a retail price of $99.99. In early March, Remix Remote headphones will be available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) and later in the year at additional retail channels. To see more information and videos on how V-MODA is dedicated to quality and durability, visit v-moda.com/quality.

ABOUT V-MODA
V-MODA is the music lifestyle brand distinguished by its fashion-forward design, superior sound, and unparalleled quality. Since the debut of its world-renowned product collection, V-MODA has created a world that defines an authentic music culture.

V-MODA is the result of fusing professional DJ and CEO Val Kolton's passion for high fidelity and progressive design. Together with the world's most influential DJs and musicians, V-MODA is defining the remix revolution.

Source: Gizmodo | 26 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

Top 50 Art and Design Trends in February 2010 - From Soccerific Skin Art to Fairytale Seating (COUNTDOWN)

(TrendHunter.com) For the month of February 2010, these are the Top 50 art and design trends, which include Soccerific Skin Art, Tacky Tourist Artwork and Freak Show Photography. The rankings are based...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:59 pm

Qype, The Yelp Of Europe, Gets A Look From Google & Nokia

Hamburg, Germany based Qype, a Yelp-like site that’s focused on European markets, has recently had long acquisition looks from both Google and Nokia, we’ve heard from multiple sources. A deal with Nokia in particular was looking extremely likely until recently.

The site was first launched in 2005 and today attracts 9 million monthly worldwide visitors, according to Comscore, just a little less than Yelp’s 11 million. Both likely have far more actual visitors, but Comscore is good for comparision – in December, for example, Qype told us they had 17.7 million unique visitors. A year ago the company brought in a new CEO and have been expanding rapidly across Europe.

Google supposedly took a look at the company and passed, opting instead to just import Qype’s content. Nokia made a run for the company after Google, with one source saying that a term sheet had been signed in the $50 million range.

But another source says that a term sheet was never signed and the deal negotiations broke down over both price and other contract terms.

Qype isn’t helping much with the story, sticking to their no comments. But founder Stephan Uhrenbacher did email to tell us that the site has 500,000 registered users who’ve left over 1 million reviews. They are available in seven languages and have sites in UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Ireland.

So for now at least Qype may remain independent. But like Yelp, which had its own acquisition drama late last year, Qype is in the local advertising sweet spot, where billions of advertising dollars (and euros) will be flowing over the next few years.

Qype has raised around £8 million in venture capital.

CrunchBase Information

Qype

Information provided by CrunchBase

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:53 pm

Competition! Mad Lib your favourite site’s sign up page for fame, shampoo and other prizes

Yesterday, Luke Wroblewski – Chief design architect at Yahoo! – wrote a blog post singing the praises of audiosharing site Huffduffer. But it wasn’t Huffduffer’s service that got Luke W animated, so much as their sign-up page.

While most sites use a standard form with text-boxes and radio buttons for new sign-ups, Huffduffer presents its questions as a ‘Mad Lib’ style statement…

“I would like to use Huffduffer. I want my username to be _____________ and I want my password to be _____________. My email address is _________. By the way, my name is ______________ and my website is ___________.”

…which is kinda neat.

But Luke, being a ‘chief design architect’ (one of the world’s more tautological job titles), wanted to find out more. Specifically, he wanted to know if this style of form actually encourages more people to sign up than the usual Name: ___________ / Email address: __________ format. So he persuaded Ron Kurti at Vast.com to do some A/B testing and, whaddya know?, it turns out the conversational fill-in-the-blanks form increased conversion by 25-40%.

Given those impressive numbers it’s a cast iron certainty that in the next few months dozens of sites, starting probably with Yahoo!, will consider upgrading their sign-up pages to this new, friendlier format. The trick, of course, will be to get the wording just right – to customize each sign-up page for the site’s particular audience.

…which has given me an idea for a ‘fun’ weekend contest! Hurrah!

Your challenge is this: suggest some Mad Lib-style wording for the sign up page of your favourite web 2.0 site. The funnier the better. Post your entry in the comments and his time next week I’ll pick the funniest (say) three and award some excellent prizes.

Prizes that will include (but are not limited to): fame, recognition of your brilliance and whatever crap I can find in my hotel room – a signed copy of my eBay-auction-winning book, a TechCrunch tshirt and maybe one of those little bottles of shampoo you get.

Here are some examples off the top of my head to inspire you. Yours should be better…

Twitter:

“I do everything Oprah tells me to do so I’d like to use Twitter for three days. I’d like my username to be __________ and my password to be ‘password123′, or the name of my dog which is ______________. Please autofollow me to Oprah, Ellen Degeneres and Taylor Swift.”

Google:

“My name is ___________ and I would like to sign up to use Gmail/Google Buzz. The name of the person I am secretly having an affair with is ___________ and my social security number is _______________. Please display this information on my public profile.”

YouTube:

“LOL!!!! My n@me is ____________ & I wanna join yutube becos this video sukkkssss!! I think _____________ is GAAY!!! LOLLZ”

Livejournal:

“My name is ______________ and joining Livejournal is my only hope of getting anyone to read my poetry. My birthstone is ____________ and my current mood is _____________ and lonely. No one understands me. I hate my life.”

MySpace:

“My name is ____________ and due to some kind of administrative error I would like to join MySpace.”

Go, submit!

The site is one component of a telerobotic art installation that includes twenty spotlights scattered along both sides of Vancouver's English Bay. After you position them in any configuration you please, you can view your handiwork from the feeds of four webcams located at various points nearby.

As the internet is comprised largely of nerds who seek this same illusion, you might have to wait in the queue for a while to take control. But it's worth it: the spotlights are visible for nearly ten miles, so if you're stuck at home tonight it could be your best bet for human interaction. Interaction that doesn't involve chatroulette or your level 60 paladin, anyway. [Vectorial Vancouver via BoingBong]

Join me in cursing that day. [AllAboutSteveJobs—Thanks, Gonzalo!]

Source: Gizmodo | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:20 pm

Video: Taris lives on in Star Wars The Old Republic

Good news, Taris isn’t gone. It might have been obliterated in The Knights of the Old Republic, but not to the point of no return. The upcoming MMORPG Star Wars The Old Republic will feature a Taris coming back to life 300 years after its destruction and will allow players to impact its future. Clever indeed.

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:18 pm

Microsoft Wins Windows XP Downgrade Lawsuit

CWmike writes "A federal judge has dismissed a year-old lawsuit against Microsoft over alleged antitrust violations for the 'downgrade' rules it set for Windows Vista and XP. The order put an end to the lawsuit filed by Emma Alvarado in February 2009. In her original complaint, she accused Microsoft of coercing computer makers into forcing consumers who wanted to run Windows XP to first buy Windows Vista, or later, Windows 7, before they were allowed to downgrade to XP. The judge rejected Alvarado's accusations, saying that the plaintiff had not proved Microsoft benefited from the downgrade practices that it created and that OEMs implemented."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Yes, designer Jihun Yeom has put laser lights in a watch, with red indicating minutes and blue indicating hours. The sad news is, it's only a concept for now. Presumably they need to perfect a fail-safe to keep from singeing wrist-hairs. But there's no question that Future Me will be sporting one of these at each and every light cycle derby. [Yanko Design]

Source: Gizmodo | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:00 pm

The 1-Second Linux Boot

An anonymous reader writes "Less than one second Linux boot! This video shows an OMAP3530 capturing video data from a camera and rendering it to an LCD display — the video appears on the LCD display in less than a second from reset."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:53 pm

Facebook Patents Social Network Feeds, Raising Innovation Worries - Wired News

The Guardian

Facebook Patents Social Network Feeds, Raising Innovation Worries Wired News Facebook has won a patent on displaying a news feed of users' actions in a social network, raising a ruckus in the blogosphere over the possibility that the world's largest social network could keep competitors at bay through patent ... Facebook awarded patent for news feedsSan Francisco Chronicle Facebook awarded patent for its News FeedTopNews United States Could Facebook feed patent hurt social media?msnbc.com Register -Reuters -InformationWeek all 173 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:49 pm

Acer launching ultra-thin Calpella notebooks soon

Acer announced today that they are working on a new generation of ultra-thin notebook systems sometime during 2Q2010. The new notebooks will be using the often delayed Intel Calpella chipset, which was released in October 2009.

The new systems will be available in 13-inch, 14-inch, and 15-inch models, and are expected to be less then one-inch thick at their thickest point. Acer has had problems selling the previous generation, that uses Intel’s CULV processors. The Calpella notebooks however, are expected to be significantly more popular and sell better then the current generation. Expected to see some deals on the current machines in the coming months, as Acer chairman JT Wang recently said that the new Calpella based systems will be their major product line in the future.

Source: Gizmodo | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:20 pm

Almost Famous: Pat Hanrahan of Tableau [Voices]

By Drake Martinet, Intern, All Things Digital

A feature wherein All Things Digital looks at up-and-coming and innovative start-ups you should know about.

This week: We dropped by the Gates Computer Science building at Stanford University for an interview with Pat Hanrahan, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, as well as chief technology officer at Tableau, a business intelligence start-up with Ph.D level chops in data visualization.

Who: Pat Hanrahan

What: Chief Technology Officer

Why: Last Thursday, Tableau launched a public version of the data visualization product it sells to the likes of Microsoft (MSFT), eBay (EBAY) and Google (GOOG). Tableau Public is a free service aimed at journalists, bloggers and academics who want to create original, data-driven graphics, similar to those from major news outlets.

Where: tableausoftware.com (Web site); @tableau (Twitter); Seattle and San Francisco (analog places)

Who else: Tableau competes directly with huge enterprise software companies like Oracle (ORCL), IBM (IBM) and SAP (SAP). Tableau Public, on the other hand, signals its entrance into a new market where the field is wide open.

---

Five Stats You Won’t Find in His Facebook Profile

Worst Job Ever: I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve had mostly good jobs. I guess the worst was when I worked in a paper mill in college. I’d be on fire duty, which meant standing around with a hose and doing nothing. That said, if you go a week in a paper mill without a fire, you are doing well. All that dust accumulates and practically becomes explosive.

Geek Crush: Francis Crick, the molecular biologist. I got my Ph.D in biophysics, and he was one of the only physicists ever to be successful in biology. He also brought theory to biology at a time when it was unheard of, and I thought that was a really big thing. This was back in the late 1970s when it was basically impossible to be a theoretical biologist. I’m a big fan of the mixing of theory and practice. He kind of brought the two of those together.

Gadget of the Moment: You know, I’m a little but of a gadget guy, but I’m more of a maker type. I like electronics, mechanics, chemistry–lots of things. My favorite recent project was building a cat wheel. It’s like a hamster wheel, but giant; four feet in diameter. I’ve got a Bengal cat. He’s very energetic.

Secret Fame: Pat has two technical Oscars for his founding work on the RenderMan software at Pixar.

Secret Shame: He can’t sing or dance to save his life.

---

Bio in 140 Characters

Pat grew up in Green Bay. Wisconsin made him a Ph.D chess champion. A self-taught programmer, now he’s a CS professor and entrepreneur.

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The Five Questions

You say Tableau is in business intelligence, but what do you really do?

Well, Tableau’s center is really about answering questions with data. A lot of data visualization research is really about making pretty pictures, but we worked with psychologists and graphic designers to understand how people deal with visual data and process it. Let’s say you could answer a question by making a picture that shows the answer. If you want to know what the maximum selling product is, you make a picture where maximum stands out. If you want to know spatial distribution, you make a map. We create pictures that answer questions, but we do it for businesses that want to know things about their own metrics. It has been termed visual analysis–sort of doing a Q&A with data and images.

Who is using it well?

I’ve been really surprised by how many businesses use the sorts of metrics that work well with Tableau. We sell to category managers at eBay, for instance. Google uses us a lot for managing its data centers. We are not really vertical at all. Tableau is useful for anyone who has data.

A really interesting example is our relationship with Xbox. They record all the game play and then offer data, through us, to their game developers, so that the developers can see what the actual game play experience is like. When are people dying? Are players spending time where the developers think they should? Stuff like that.

It is really everything. Some churches use us to keep track of who is donating what on Sundays. Most of our users are the Excel user; maybe they have data but not a way to visualize it. It’s amazing to me how quantitative so many people are.

So how does Tableau Public differ from your enterprise product?

Well, the market we’re going after right now is individual content producers who might want to put data online. The New York Times (NYT) is often held up as an example of these good graphics, but an individual blogger doesn’t have a huge graphics department.

We offer the service for free, with some limits on number of views, and if the graphics take off then maybe we’ve earned a paying customer. Also, on the free version, the data is public. It’s good for us because we get exposure, and it’s good for others because they get free access to the technology.

We aren’t immediately concerned about making money with Tableau Public. We already have a robust business selling to other businesses, so we sort of came to the freemium model backwards of most start-ups.

Can you guys really compete with the likes of IBM, SAP and Oracle?

Well, one big reason we get our customers is the whole visual analysis thing that is at the core of what we do. It’s unique to us. We’re also really well known for being easy to use and easy to deploy. A lot of times, what happens in enterprise software, you get these monolithic, giant systems that can be clunky and painful to add new features to. This can be true, especially in the analysis arena.

The Dallas Cowboys are a good example. The sales manager there would go to his data guy and say, “I want to know how many jerseys I sold yesterday.” And they’d start giving all these technical answers about the data cube not being connected to the servers and so on. He was sold on us, because he could plug in a complex spreadsheet, and we could tell him that answer in a very concrete way in a reasonable amount of time. It all goes back to having that Q&A with your data.

You are a professor of computer science and electrical engineering; you must have a pretty amazing early technology memory that turned you on to the sciences.

For me, it was just science in general; just being a nerd and a scientist. I remember when I bought my first chemistry set from a company now called Elemental Scientific. I remember that I was about eight or so, and most of the research I did was just so I would know what to buy. I saved up all my money and went to the store with my grandmother and came out with this giant box of retorts and flasks and all kinds of stuff. I had a great time the rest of the summer just doing reactions.

The other big thing with me and science was chess. I was the Wisconsin state chess champion in high school, and that is what taught me to really study things. I’ve always been more interested in ideas than technology I guess.

---

The In Living Color Interview

[ See post to watch video ]

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:16 pm

Vast Antarctic iceberg 'threat to marine life' - BBC News

Reuters

Vast Antarctic iceberg 'threat to marine life' BBC News A vast iceberg that broke off eastern Antarctic earlier this month could disrupt marine life in the region, scientists have warned. They say the iceberg, which is 78km long and up to 39km wide, could make it harder for the area's colonies of Emperor ... Iceberg Breaks in Antarctica Not Where ExpectedABC News Huge Antarctic iceberg broke off as scientists focused elsewhereDallas Morning News Iceberg breaks off from Mertz Glacier, could be a threat to marine lifeThe Money Times Seattle Times -Reuters -ABH News all 579 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:05 pm

Podcast: 3G Wireless Speed Tests and PMA Camera Trends (PC World)

PC World - This week on the podcast, PCWorld editors Mark Sullivan, Tim Moynihan, and Robert Strohmeyer dig into our second annual 3G wireless performance tests as AT&T makes a major leap over its competitors to take the top spot in performance and reliability.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:36 pm

Brightkite: 2 Million Users And A Lot Of Local Promo Interest

Yesterday, I wrote that location was going to be this year’s Twitter at SXSW. Today, my inbox exploded.

It seems that just about every company, advertiser, and even plenty of users associated with the location space emailed me with pitches, ideas, thoughts, etc. To say that space is red-hot right now, is putting it mildly. One of the companies that reached out to me was Brightkite, one of the earliest hot location players.

CMO and co-founder Rob Lawson admits that the network has been “pretty quiet for a while,” but hints at some exciting stuff coming up for March (yes, around the time of SXSW). But he also wanted to share some things they’re working on right now, and a few interesting bits of data.

Notably, Brightkite has over 2 million active users currently around the world. While that might seem small compared to the bigger social networks like Facebook and Twitter, that’s actually four times the size of the newer rival Foursquare, that is getting much of the hype these days. Another interesting tidbit: Brightkite has had localized promotions in place for some time now, and they’re seeing strong usage.

What users of Foursquare may know as check-in or mayor special, Brightkite calls Local Promotions. And they have a page on the site where local businesses can sign up for free. On that page, they note:

We would love to help your bar, cafe, coffee shop, or business reach out to the local community through local promotions. We’ll let nearby Brightkite folk know your business gives them preferential treatment, and that they should stop in for a visit. Fill out the form below to get started.

Brightkite says these promotions are seeing a lot of interest from all types of brands. And usage is strong with over 100 brands including big ones like Gap, Ben & Jerry’s and Time Warner Cable, seeing over two percent response rates when these notifications are inserted into users stream. And the best ones are seeing five to ten percent. When compared to more traditional ads, those numbers are very solid.

Like Foursquare check-in and mayor specials, the Brightkite deals offer things like free (or heavily discounted) drinks and meals, but also extend to things like discounted hotel rooms, car rentals, and even dry cleaning.

So is Brightkite making any money off of these? Yes. While many of the smaller local businesses use the service for free or close to free (to both prove the model and drive growth), Lawson notes that some of the big national brands are spending some big time money to advertise locally. These campaigns range from $10,000 to $200,000, Lawson says.

Something else that interests me about Brightkite is their unique approach to social relationships. When it started, Brightkite had a symmetrical model, much like Facebook and Foursquare, which requires users to accept each other as friends. But late last year, the company switched the model to be an asymmetrical one, like Twitter, where one party can follow another without permission.

This may seem like a horrible idea for a location-based service given the privacy implications, but Brightkite’s is a bit different of an asymmetrical model. “Our model is asymmetrical (like Twitter), but reversed. With Twitter, you decide who to follow but anyone can see your content.  With Brightkite, you decide who to share your content with, but you can only see others if they decide to share with you,” Lawson notes. He continues, “We are convinced this is the right model for location based services – people want to be in control of who knows where they are. We turned away from the handshake model (Facebook, Foursquare) because we found users didn’t like the social pressure of having to accept a friend request. Just because you are happy to share your location with me, doesn’t mean I want to share mine with you, even though we want to maintain a relationship.“

As someone who has dealt with this many times before, I see his point. Lawson says that generally Brightkite users have been receptive to the changes, but says that some older users liked some of the more advanced features of the old model better — and Brightkite is working to get some best-of-both-worlds options for them.

Brightkite merged with another location-based network, Limbo, last year and raised some new funding. They face a battle in warding off the fast-charging hot location networks like Foursquare and Gowalla (not to mention Yelp and the new Google Buzz), but all of them appear to be benefiting from brand interest in the local advertising space.

CrunchBase Information

Brightkite

Information provided by CrunchBase

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:33 pm

Thank You TechCrunch Readers and Sponsors!

We wanted to take a minute to thank all of our readers and sponsors. Because of you, we have been able to grow explosively in the past year, now getting over 30 million pageviews and reaching more than 9 million unique visitors per month across our network!

Thanks for keeping our lights on!

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MediaTemple Hosts websites, big and small. Designed to be powerful, affordable and relevant.

AskYourTargetMarket.com Use the online survey creator to build your survey, define the criteria of your target market, and watch the results begin to pour in immediately.

Ooyala Publish, manage and monetize your videos online.

StrataScale The world’s first physical cloud. Providing hosting services without the limitations.

Loopt Find and stay connected with friends while you’re mobile. Join the TechCrunch community on Loopt.

Cotendo Offering website performance acceleration, real time content control, and integrated CDN services.

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:27 pm

Military allows Twitter, other social media - Reuters

BBC News

Military allows Twitter, other social media Reuters Inside a walled city in South China and amid intense security, employees are provided with dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, even banks, post offices and bakeries. The goal? Keep Apple's secrets. Full Article WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The ... Pentagon Will Allow Troops Broad Access to Social-Media SitesBusinessWeek DoD Loosens Social Media RestrictionsInformationWeek DOD Authorizes Soldiers to Tweet, Access FacebookPC Magazine Washington Post -BBC News -TopNews United States all 192 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:16 pm

Military allows Twitter, other social media

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon announced on Friday it has authorized the use Twitter, Facebook and other so-called "Web 2.0" sites across the U.S. military, saying the benefits of...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:14 pm

REFILE-FACTBOX-Major U.S. financial regulators face shake-up

(Removes reference in second paragraph to changes the regulators may face)
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:11 pm

Sublime Stitching's Sexy Librarians embroidery patterns

Sexy Librarians is just one of several fantastic embroidery patterns made by Sublime ♥ Stitching and for sale in the Boing Boing Bazaar. There's also Meaty Treats, Vital Organs, and Lucha Libre. Check them all out here. And check out the rest of the Makers Market for more maker-made marvelousness.

Sublime ♥ Stitching

Previously:

• Get a P8TCH at the Boing Boing Bazaar Boing Boing
• Hine's felt camera cases in the Boing Boing Bazaar Boing Boing
• Hollow spy coins for all your micro-smuggling needs Boing Boing

Source: Boing Boing | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:00 pm

Ad Powerhouse FedEx Woos Small Biz With Web Parodies

FedEx is famous for memorable television commercials, but like many big companies, it is following customers as they navigate from the television to the computer. So FedEx is shipping much of its marketing to the Web.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:00 pm

Secret Service Runs At "Six Sixes" Availability

PCM2 writes "ABC News is reporting that the US Secret Service is in dire need of server upgrades. 'Currently, 42 mission-oriented applications run on a 1980s IBM mainframe with a 68 percent performance reliability rating,' says one leaked memo. That finding was the result of an NSA study commissioned by the Secret Service to evaluate the severity of their computer problems. Curiously, upgrades to the Service's computers are being championed by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who says he's had 'concern for a while' about the issue."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:56 pm

Grooveshark app now available for the iPhone … if it’s a jailbroken one

When Jason Kincaid tried out the iPhone app online music streaming startup Grooveshark built and showed off in July 2009, he wrote that it was great but that he "wouldn’t expect this to pop up in the App Store any time soon". He was right on both counts. Grooveshark now says it has given up on its ambitions to get approved for the official App Store, claiming that Apple has been "ritually rejecting" the app for "primary selfish reasons". We've heard that song before.

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:51 pm

Rejected By Apple, Grooveshark Releases App For Jailbroken iPhones On Cydia

When Jason Kincaid tried out the iPhone app online music streaming startup Grooveshark built and showed off in July 2009, he wrote that it was great but that he “wouldn’t expect this to pop up in the App Store any time soon”. He was right on both counts.

Grooveshark now says it has given up on its ambitions to get approved for the official App Store, claiming that Apple has been “ritually rejecting” the app for “primary selfish reasons”. We’ve heard that song before.

The startup says it spent many months developing the iPhone application, and on occasion went months without a hearing a peep out of Cupertino.

Denied access to the App Store, Grooveshark decided to head underground and is today releasing the app on Cydia, enabling people who have jailbroken their iPhone and iPod touch devices to enjoy it – and it is actually pretty cool.

Much like Spotify – who, for the record, has seen its iPhone app approved by Apple – premium aka VIP users of Grooveshark can use the app to search for tracks within a gigantic catalog of music at lightning speed and instantly stream them from the device. Playlists, favorites and whatnot are completely synced, so the experience for paying Grooveshark users who happen to have a jailbroken device are now able to basically get the exact same experience on their iPhone or iPod touch than using the recently revamped Web application.

The app also enables you to make tracks and entire playlists available offline, so you can enjoy the music even without the need to be connected.

All in all, it’s simply a great application that many would love to have to their iPhones, I’m sure.

At the very least, for those people there now exists an option to get it installed on there, despite Apple. Or they can just go out and buy any rival device that runs Android, or go get a Blackberry, or purchase a recent Palm phone …

CrunchBase Information

Grooveshark

iPhone

App Store

Information provided by CrunchBase

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:50 pm

Lawmakers Punt Patriot Act to Obama

The House and Senate vote to extend three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act for another year, despite calls for privacy reforms.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:45 pm

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

I'll be attending a screening of the much-tweeted horrorschlock instaclassic Birdemic tomorrow night in LA, hosted by Tim & Eric ("Season Cinco" of their show debuts Sunday night, and also promises to be great).

Directed by James Nguyen, Birdemic is sort of The Birds meets The Room. Richard Metzger has a comprehensive post about Birdemic over at the LA Times "Brand X" blog. LA folks: The Saturday night Cinefamily screening of Birdemic is sold out, but they've added a second one for March 5. And LOL and behold: Birdemic's on Twitter.


Source: Boing Boing | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:32 pm

Microsoft says Google acts raise antitrust issues - Reuters

The Guardian

Microsoft says Google acts raise antitrust issues Reuters SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp made its most vehement and public attack on Google Inc on Friday, calling its internet rival's actions potentially anti-competitive, and urging victims to file complaints to regulators. The broadside comes days after ... Microsoft Blogs on Google InquiriesWall Street Journal Microsoft takes off gloves against GoogleCNET Microsoft Says Google Shouldn't Be So Quick to Point FingersPC World Washington Post -PC Magazine -Wired News all 910 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:28 pm

Microsoft Tells Google To Face The Antitrust Music

Earlier this week, news broke that the EU was opening an antitrust investigation into Google — and Microsoft’s fingerprints were all over it. One of the three companies filing complaints about Google is owned by Microsoft, while another is a member of a group that’s partially funded by them. Google promptly responded to the inquiry with a blog post called “Committed to competing fairly” that gave a brief overview of how its search rankings work.

Today, Microsoft has written a blog post that admits that it played a part in instigating the inquiry, stating that “complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors.” And it’s also accusing Google of “telling reporters that antitrust concerns about search are not real because some of the complaints come from one of its last remaining search competitors.”

Microsoft’s post, which was written by VP and Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner, details some of the company’s recent discussions with the European Commission and US DOJ, which have revolved around the Microsoft/Yahoo search deal (which, in turn, led to talk about Google’s allegedly anticompetitive practices). Heiner also notes that Microsoft has been directing other “concerned companies” to competition law agencies.

Here are some of the more interesting passages:

As Google’s power has grown in recent years, we’ve increasingly heard complaints from a range of firms—large and small—about a wide variety of Google business practices. Some of the complaints just reflect aggressive business stances taken by Google. Some reflect the secrecy with which Google operates in many areas. Some appear to raise serious antitrust issues. As you might expect, many concerned companies have come to us and asked us for our reaction and even for advice. When their antitrust concerns appear to be substantial, we suggest that firms talk to the competition law agencies. (Complaining to Microsoft won’t do much good.)

Both search and online advertising are increasingly controlled by a single firm, Google. That can be a problem because Google’s business is helped along by significant network effects (just like the PC operating system business). Search engine algorithms “learn” by observing how users interact with search results. Google’s algorithms learn less common search terms better than others because many more people are conducting searches on these terms on Google.

These and other network effects make it hard for competing search engines to catch up. Microsoft’s well-received Bing search engine is addressing this challenge by offering innovations in areas that are less dependent on volume. But Bing needs to gain volume too, in order to increase the relevance of search results for less common search terms. That is why Microsoft and Yahoo! are combining their search volumes. And that is why we are concerned about Google business practices that tend to lock in publishers and advertisers and make it harder for Microsoft to gain search volume.

CrunchBase Information

Google

Microsoft

Information provided by CrunchBase

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:28 pm

Microsoft says Google acts raise antitrust issues

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp made its most vehement and public attack on Google Inc on Friday, calling its internet rival's actions potentially anti-competitive, and urging victims to
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:27 pm

CLIQ update causes more problems than it fixes

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

It looks like the new update to the Motorola Cliq this week has users seeing more problems than before.  The new update, 1.3.18, has a number of users going to the T-Mobile forums to complain of various issues that their phones are now having. 

Problems users seem to be experiencing include the inability to log into MOTOBLUR, Bluetooth connectivity issues, SMS lagging and crashing, problems with the virtual keyboard, dimmed displays and reseting the clock to Linux “0” (7 p.m. December 31, 1969).  A moderator on the T-Mobile forums has stated that the issues are being passed along to those who can fix them.  In the mean time, the mod advises against master resetting your phone if your OTA didn’t download or caused problems.

Hopefully the issues can be fix relatively soon, having a bricked, or near bricked phone can not be fun.  The issue seems like it would lie with Motorola, though like the Danger problems, it’ll likely come back to T-Mobile.  It is sad to see the carrier see so many issues that really can’t be fixed without relying on other companies.  At least this time there’s an option to not experience the issues, at least assuming you didn’t download the update yet.

Read [Boy Genius Report]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:23 pm

What Has Your Phone Survived?

NotAnIndividual writes "On an ice fishing trip two months ago, I lost my iPhone somewhere in the snow. I searched and searched, but to no avail. But just this weekend when moving the ice hut, lo and behold there it was. I quickly threw it into a bag of rice and placed it under a lamp to defrost. Three hours later I plugged it in. I wasn't expecting much. I mean, really, it had been frozen in snow for the last two months! To my surprise, the Apple logo popped up. I put in the SIM card and voila, my iPhone was back. My apps, my contacts, my music and more importantly my life were back. And this is the same iPhone that I dropped in a cup of coffee a few months ago! This got me wondering how much damage a cell phone can actually take. How have other Slashdot users punished their phones without actually killing them completely?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:11 pm

Adult Swim Skins Make Your Phone #1 In The Hood, G

Check check it. Here’s the toughest thing you’ll ever slap on your phone (or computer). Ever.

MusicSkins is a Brooklyn based company that makes vinyl coverings (aka fancy stickers) for iPods, iPhones, laptops, and a glut of other consumer electronics. And now they’ve gotten all sexy with Cartoon Network and commissioned some incredibly cool designs inspired by shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, Venture Brothers, Space Ghost, and God love him, Brak.

Our faves? The awesome abstract Venture Brothers skull and the Todd McFarlane-esque Aqua Teen Hunger Force illustrations you see above.

You can get ‘em through Adult Swim’s website or direct from from MusicSkins starting at $10.

And if you’re not familiar with Adult Swim (shame on you!) here’s the intro of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie where heavy metal band Mastodon eloquently explains the theater rules. Enjoy!

Photo by Jon Snyder for Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:02 pm

Tofu wrestling in Brooklyn

Tofu Wrestling. Feel free to be outraged, disgusted, or turned on. (NSFW, via Brooklyn Vegan.)


Source: Boing Boing | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:01 pm

Microsoft to Google: Quit Whining Ya Big Baby [Digital Daily]

Microsoft may be quietly chuckling over the European Commission’s decision to look into antitrust complaints against Google, but it’s not going to take credit for it. In a post to the company Web site, Dave Heiner, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel, took issue with Google’s suggestion last week that two companies with ties to Microsoft are driving this thing.

“This week came news that the European Commission is investigating various aspects of Google’s conduct, including claims of retaliation, exclusivity and manipulation of search results to disadvantage rivals,” Heiner wrote. “Google’s public response to this growing regulatory concern has been to point elsewhere–at Microsoft. Google is telling reporters that antitrust concerns about search are not real because some of the complaints come from one of its last remaining search competitors….[But] ultimately what’s important is not who is complaining, but whether or not the challenged practices are anticompetitive.”

A great point, and one that makes Google’s inflammatory out-of-the-gate finger-pointing earlier this week seem a bit hysterical. And if Microsoft’s European properties did spur the EC’s preliminary investigation into Google, so what? As Heiner wryly notes, “Complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors”–“dumbass” here is, presumably, implied.

So does Microsoft (MSFT) feel Google (GOOG) is worthy of antitrust scrutiny? Well, what do you think?

“Both search and online advertising are increasingly controlled by a single firm, Google,” Heiner wrote. “…Microsoft would obviously be among the first to say that leading firms should not be punished for their success. Nor should firms be punished just because a particular business practice may harm a rival–competition on the merits can do that, too. That is a position that Microsoft has long espoused, and we’re sticking to it. Our concerns relate only to Google practices that tend to lock in business partners and content (like Google Books) and exclude competitors, thereby undermining competition more broadly. Ultimately the competition law agencies will have to decide whether or not Google’s practices should be seen as illegal.”

Well, there you go. Obviously, the gloves are coming off here. Too bad for Google that it doesn’t take a punch very well.

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:00 pm

Twitter Plans Search Ads Like Google's

Twitter is reportedly set to introduce tiny text ads that come with search results. They learned it from watching you, Google.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:00 pm

Mid-70s Giorgio Moroder synth video: awesomest thing of all time

Holy crap, this video truly is the most awesome thing ever!!11one!11. I know nothing about this, other than what's on the YouTube description: "Promo for Giorgio Moroder taken from a Casablanca Records promo tape." I was talking with Joel Johnson about how creepy Moroder seemed in this video, with the pervo-stache and the cocaine shades. "But he mades the trains boogie on time," says Joel. Mr. Moroder is still very much with us, btw: he is 69 years old, and actively composing. Here's his website.

When you're done watching, go listen to this (or buy it). I think it's my favorite Moroder track.

(via Q-Burns Abstract Message via DailySwarm via Mixhell)


Source: Boing Boing | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:59 pm

No Lie! Your Facebook Profile Is the Real You

A study of American and German college students suggests that people portray their personalities accurately on Facebook, rather than inflating themselves.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:45 pm

Twitter wants users to update their personal info (AP)

AP - Twitter is prodding its users to update their personal settings to create more ways for people to connect on its communications service.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:31 pm

Nintendo Entering E-Books Market With DSi XL - Wired News

Reuters

Nintendo Entering E-Books Market With DSi XL Wired News Nintendo announced that its latest gadget, the DSi XL, will be useful for more than just chasing around in a Mario Kart. You'll also be able to read books on it. Bloomberg reports that the first DSi XL e-book offering will be a cartridge ... Nintendo DSi XL: Gaming Device and E-ReaderPC World Nintendo narrows Euro launches for Mario and MetroidGameSpot Nintendo shows off new DSi, digital games push at summitArs Technica Christian Science Monitor -G4 TV -X-bit Labs all 765 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:31 pm

U.S. senators urge tough derivatives bill -letter

* Lawmakers want derivatives cleared, unless CFTC exempts
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:30 pm

Flash-Freezing Technique May Boost Egg Survival Rates

A new method of ultrafast cooling helps living cells, such as eggs, survive frozen storage better.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:30 pm

Nintendo Entering E-Books Market With DSi XL

Nintendo announced that its latest gadget, the DSi XL, will be useful for more than just chasing around in a Mario Kart. You’ll also be able to read books on it.

Bloomberg reports that the first DSi XL e-book offering will be a cartridge containing 100 public domain books, including classics such as Twain and Shakespeare. This means Nintendo is opting for its traditional, cartridge-oriented approach versus launching an online bookstore.

The $190 device, which is basically a blown-up version of its predecessor, DSi, features two 4.2-inch screens, folds like a book, and is about the size of a paperback. All of which could make it an attractive platform for reading (though it’s not the only e-reading device to feature two screens).

Nintendo has sold roughly 130 million DS consoles so far (including DSi and DS Lite), and the global popularity of the DS platform might make Nintendo a serious e-book competitor. But Cammie Dunaway, the executive vice president of sales for North America told Bloomberg that’s not the immediate goal. “It’s just one more way to enjoy your device.”

The DSi XL, which has been available in Japan for months now, will launch in the U.S. on March 28.

Wired’s Chris Kohler reviewed the Nintendo DSi XL recently and concluded it’s not just about it being bigger: “The larger screen isn’t just some frivolous purchase — it’s completely awesome.”

Nintendo’s move most likely doesn’t represent an aggressive move into the e-book market. Rather, it shows the company is trying to make its gadgets more useful in new ways before a tidal wave of tablets and smartphones chips away at the audience for mobile games.

Photo by Jim Merithew for Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:25 pm

Charter to Hold Conference Call to Discuss 2009 Results

Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:24 pm

LG Launches Watch Phone In India

roh2cool writes "If you are a watch freak and also happen to be a fan of ultra rare (and expensive) gadgets, this might just interest you. The LG GD910 watch phone looks like a normal watch – except for the fact that it can double up as your mobile phone when needed. 'It is quite thin at just 13.9mm and packs in 3G and Video Calling capabilities as well. The phone is quite stylish and the front fascia is covered by scratch-proof tempered glass. It comes with a Bluetooth headset so you don’t have to keep talking like David Hasselhoff talked to his super-car KITT in the “Knight Rider” series.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:15 pm

Pentagon issues new policy on social networking

Everyone from troops in the field to the highest brass and civilian leaders will be allowed to Twitter, blog and use Facebook and other social networking sites on the military's...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:12 pm

Apple admits to yellow-tint iMac issues (Macworld.com)

Macworld.com - For all of you who bought a brand new iMac only to have something sickly and yellow-tinted show up, it looks like you may finally get some answers—or at least, a public admission of the problem.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm

Verizon Wireless Customers Most Loyal in the Industry

Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:54 pm

Katie Boehret on the Martha Stewart Show–It's a Good Thing. [Mossblog]

Martha Stewart invited our own Katie Boehret back to her show for a second time this week to share some of her favorite things from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The following is a link to Martha’s site for the video, which isn’t embeddable at this point, but we promise it’s worth the click. Katie kicks things off with Google Goggles.

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:50 pm

Twitter wants users to update their personal info

Twitter is prodding its users to update their personal settings to create more ways for people to connect on its communications service. The request will pop up when Twitter users log...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:50 pm

Motorola Devour Is Hard to Stomach

Motrola's latest Android phone (and Sidekick wannabe) leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:50 pm

Motorola Devour Is Hard to Stomach

Motrola's latest Android phone (and Sidekick wannabe) leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:50 pm

Blackstone's CEO takes no bonus-filing

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Blackstone Group's chief executive Stephen Schwarzman was paid a salary of $350,000 for 2009, but did not take a bonus for the year, according to a regulatory filing.
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:46 pm

Friday News Feedbag for Feb. 26, 2010!

If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and chat ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:44 pm

After 10 Billion Songs, What's iTunes' Encore? - PC World

Telegraph.co.uk

After 10 Billion Songs, What's iTunes' Encore? PC World Apple's iTunes Store reached a major milestone this week when it delivered its 10 billionth song, an event that highlights the great success of Cupertino's digital-download service. But as successful as the iTunes Store has been in its nearly seven ... Johnny Cash song iTunes' 10 billionth downloadCNET 10000000000th Song! Apple iTunes Hits MilestoneAtlantic Online 10 Billionth Song Sold by Apple's iTunesABC News Techtree.com -CBS News -ChannelWeb all 635 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:41 pm

JooJoo Tablet Set to Ship Around Same Time as iPad

Around the same time Apple’s iPad will land in stores, we’ll also see one of its first competitors: the JooJoo (formerly known as the CrunchPad).

Scheduled to launch March 25, the JooJoo tablet sports a 12.1-inch touchscreen display and weighs 2.4 pounds. The tablet will ship with a custom operating system developed by Singapore-based company Fusion Garage.

The JooJoo was originally set to launch late February, but a manufacturing issue has caused a delay, according to Fusion Garage. The obscure tablet was more well known when it was called CrunchPad, a project that TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington touted as his brainchild. Fusion Garage, the company manufacturing the tablet, said it decided to move forward without TechCrunch after feeling pressure from shareholders. The startup rebranded the tablet JooJoo.

Wired.com had some hands-on time with the JooJoo back in December, and though we described it as a delight to use, I can’t imagine how it will succeed. The fact the tablet runs a custom operating system means Fusion Garage must convince third-party software developers to create apps for the JooJoo OS. It’s unrealistic to expect software developers will choose to make apps for a small, obscure company whose tablet audience will likely be diminutive upon launch.

Plus, from a consumer perspective, there’s no compelling reason to buy the JooJoo. It costs $500 — the same as Apple’s iPad, which will be compatible with all 140,000 apps in the App Store out of the box. So unless Fusion Garage miraculously recruits thousands of developers in the next month, all you’ll have for a while on the JooJoo is a pretty touchscreen that runs an off-brand web browser.

However, one area where the JooJoo beats the iPad is awkward naming. iPad we can get used to, but JooJoo? JooKiddingMe?

See Also:

• Hands On With the JooJoo, Formerly Known as CrunchPad
• JooJoo Tablet Faces Uphill Battle Against iPad
• Startup Disses Arrington, Relaunches CrunchPad Tablet as JooJoo …

Product page via Forbes

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:36 pm

What Is Time? One Researcher Shares His Exploration

Physicist Sean Carroll has built up a bit of a name for himself by tackling one of the age old questions that no one has been able to fully explain: What is time? Earlier this month he gave an interview with Wired where he tried to explain his theories in layman's terms. "I’m trying to understand how time works. And that’s a huge question that has lots of different aspects to it. A lot of them go back to Einstein and spacetime and how we measure time using clocks. But the particular aspect of time that I’m interested in is the arrow of time: the fact that the past is different from the future. We remember the past but we don’t remember the future. There are irreversible processes. There are things that happen, like you turn an egg into an omelet, but you can’t turn an omelet into an egg."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:31 pm

Review: Razer Vespula double-sided mousepad (and giveaway)

Short version: A very slick, but rather small mousepad well-suited to those of you who like hard, slidey surfaces to mouse on. If that sounds good, maybe you should try winning it! Woo!

Features:

• Two mousing surfaces in one!
• One side is low traction, the other is… lower traction
• Grippy corners keep mousepad in place
• Removable gel wrist rest
• MSRP: $34.99

Pros:

• Very slippery if you’re into that
• Compact, if you like that
• Gel wrist rest is useful, again, if you like that

Cons:

• The cons are pretty much the same as the pros

Full review:

This mousepad has a lot of “matters of taste” about it. I hesitate to pass judgment in any way on it, but rather I’ll just let you know how it performs. So this is probably the most complicated mouse pad out there. Generally when you think “mouse pad,” you think “a pad you put your mouse on.” Well, this pad has two sides with different textures and a removable wrist rest. That’s really only a couple extra features to think about, but it’s more than just a pad.

To get a sense of the frictionless nature of the pad and its flippability, check out this little video:

I know, vastly entertaining, wasn’t it, watching my hands move around like that? Hey. How else am I supposed to do it? Let’s move on.

Essentially you’re looking at a personal choice. My mousepad of choice is actually another Razer one, the Goliathus, which is a thick cloth pad. No wrist rest — though I suppose I could “install” the one that comes with the Vespula. So, this mousepad is pretty much the opposite of what I like. That doesn’t stop me from recognizing that it does its job well. The intention was low friction and a removable wrist rest, and I’d be lying if I said the Vespula didn’t have that. Having now returned to my trusty Goliathus, I can really tell the difference in how much force I have to exert on the mouse.

So, sorry to disappoint you guys with an exceedingly short review, but what can I say? It’s a slick little mouse pad, and if it sounds like it’s up your alley, it probably is. Just be aware that it is a bit small. And $35 is a lot of money for a mouse pad.

Product page: Razer Vespula

Giveaway! I don’t need this thing sitting around in a drawer here, and someone would probably love to have it, so I’m just going to give my review unit away to someone. In the comments, tell us briefly what mouse you use and why, and I’ll pick a winner semi-randomly at the end of the weekend.

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:30 pm

Charter to Hold Conference Call to Discuss 2009 Results

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Charter Communications, Inc. (along with its subsidiaries, the "Company" or "Charter") will host a conference call on Tuesday, March 2, 2010, at 9:00 a.m.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:24 pm

AP takes aim at consumers with new digital unit (AP)

AP - The Associated Press is setting up a division to help the news cooperative, newspapers and broadcasters sell digital products directly to readers on the next wave of Internet-connected devices such as Apple's iPad.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:09 pm

So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of February 21, 2010

Section:

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

• AT&T or iPhone: who’s to blame for network woes?
  “Ask any iPhone owner in NYC or San Francisco and you’ll hear some negative feelings for AT&T, the iPhone exclusive carrier.  In these two cities and other events that draw iPhone users together, such as CES…” MORE »
• Princeton’s Kindle experiement generates mixed results
  ” Amazon’s Kindle DX has been undergoing testing by several universities as a possible replacement for printed course materials. Last year, University of Washington students reported that it didn’t quite make the cut due to complaints about it’s navigation, folder, and note…” MORE »
• Socialscope, the best (or worst) BlackBerry app ever
  ” If you have a BlackBerry chances are you’ve heard of SocialScope. The app, which offers access to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, has caused quite a buzz but not for the reasons you may expect. In the BlackBerry world it appears you…” MORE »
• Free All Music frees your music
  ” A month or so ago, I caught wind of a little project called Free All Music. At the time I thought it was a cool concept. Remove DRM? Sure. Free downloads of songs I actually listen to?…” MORE »
• Hackers put Sense, Flash on Nexus One
  ” Last week at Mobile World Congress HTC showed off their improvements to the Nexus One.  An upgraded trackpad, and the newest version of it’s Sense UI.  It only makes sense that as soon as the ROM for the new Sense…” MORE »
• HTC Desire and Legend hitting AT&T and Sprint?
  ”  Perhaps the most interesting phones shown off at Mobile World Congress this month were the HTC Legend and Desire.  The depressing part about those phones is the fact that there was no announcement as to when the phones would be available…” MORE »
• Internet Explorer gets partial HTML5 support using a new plugin
  ” Internet Explorer is notorious for not having features or rendering systems that are in line with today’s trends. Even the latest version of Internet Explorer pales in comparison with other browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Many video…” MORE »
• Google Buzz’s profile hijack not appreciated
  ” If you have a Google Profile but have no interest in linking it to Buzz, the company’s new social networking service, you may find yourself caught between a rock and a hard place. The problem is this: Google has taken over user’s…” MORE »
• Walmart expands into movie streaming by buying Vudu
  ” Streaming or downloading is quickly becoming to way many people view movies, rather than buying DVDs or even Blu-ray discs.  This must terrify brick-and-mortar retailers, so it makes sense that some would attempt to snatch whatever video service they can.  Netflix is…” MORE »
• Google Italy Execs convicted for hosting offensive video
  ” This news came to me as a surprise. We know that internet hosting service providers such as YouTube or Google Video do not create content themselves. We also know that they occasionally police user-generated content for offensive materials, but holding them responsible…” MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:01 pm

Pricey massage chair folds into a cube

The Venn diagram that drills down to the target buyer of this $800 chair must be a weird mix of people with lots of money, a tiny apartment, and sore legs. In cube form, the product “serves as an ideal footrest or stores unobtrusively in a closet.”

If I had an $800 chair in my house, I wouldn’t keep it in the closet. I’d try to steer every conversation towards the chair. “Yeah, we were thinking of buying a gigantic TV but decided on the Foldaway Massage Chair instead. I won’t tell you how much we paid for it, but let’s just say we were thinking of buying a gigantic TV. For $800. We bought the chair instead.”

According to the product description:

This chair provides an invigorating leg and foot massage and folds to the size of a small ottoman. The air cells along the sides of the footwells inflate and deflate to deliver a kneading and compression massage that relieves sore, tight muscles in the calves and ankles. Finger-like nodes provide a deep-penetrating acupressure massage on the toes, arches, and soles of the feet. Air cells in the seat expand and contract to soothe pressure points in the lower back and buttocks and provide gentle stretching of the hips and waist.

I’d be interested to see how comfortable this thing would be to sit in for long periods of time.

The Foldaway Massage Chair [Hammacher Schlemmer]

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

QOTD: Oh, You're Steve Jobs Are You? Listen, Punk… [Digital Daily]

QOTD: Oh, You’re Steve Jobs Are You? Listen, Punk… [Digital Daily]

“He called me and said, ‘This is Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I said, ‘Yeah right.’ I have a son that loves to play tricks and he does that every now and then–calls me and imitates somebody.”

– Louie Sulcer, who won a $10,000 iTunes card by purchasing the 10 billionth song from iTunes–Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way”

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

U.S. Dataworks to Appeal the Delisting Determination by the NYSE Amex LLC

HOUSTON, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- U.S. Dataworks, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

Verizon Wireless Customers Most Loyal in the Industry

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, provider of the nation's largest and most reliable 3G network, is also the leader in customer loyalty, reporting the lowest churn (turnover) rate among the nation's largest wireless carriers in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:54 pm

Exploring Advanced Format Hard Drive Technology

MojoKid writes "Hard drive capacities are sometimes broken down by the number of platters and the size of each. The first 1TB drives, for example, used five 200GB platters; current-generation 1TB drives use two 500GB platters. These values, however, only refer to the accessible storage capacity, not the total size of the platter itself. Invisible to the end-user, additional capacity is used to store positional information and for ECC. The latest Advanced Format hard drive technology changes a hard drive's sector size from 512 bytes to 4096 bytes. This allows the ECC data to be stored more efficiently. Advanced Format drives emulate a 512 byte sector size, to keep backwards compatibility intact, by mapping eight logical 512 byte sectors to a single physical sector. Unfortunately, this creates a problem for Windows XP users. The good news is, Western Digital has already solved the problem and HotHardware offers some insight into the technology and how it performs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:49 pm

Let’s Talk: Ztail Scores Deal With A Top Mobile Phone Retailer

One of the more frustrating things about shopping for electronics is the fact that many devices don’t hold their value for very long — you can’t typically buy a cell phone and expect to sell it for $200 a year later. At least, that’s how it used to be. Now Palo Alto-based startup Ztail is teaming with online mobile phone retailer LetsTalk to do exactly that for mobile phones: buy a phone through LetsTalk, and Ztail will tell you on the spot exactly how much money they’ll give you 18 months down the line if you want to sell it back.

Here’s how it works. LetsTalk now features a ‘ValueLock’ banner for the vast majority of its phones, including popular devices like the Motorola Droid (ValueLock is essentially a branded version of Ztail’s service). Each phone has a ValueLock Price, which is the amount Ztail will pay if you decide to send in your phone up to 18 months later (this price is the same no matter when you send in your phone, up to the 18 month cutoff). The catch is that in order to redeem your ValueLock deal, you have to purchase your next phone through LetsTalk too. The site appears to have competitive prices, so this shouldn’t be a huge deal.

From what I can tell, Ztail is offering up some good prices for the used phones. The ValueLock price for a Droid is set at $196, which is nearly $150 more than you pay for the phone up front with a 2-year Verizon contract (and remember, you’re going to get that after using the phone for 18 months). After sending in your device, Ztail sends you your money either through check or PayPal. And CEO Bill Hudak says that trade-in phones don’t have to be in mint condition either — it just can’t have obvious flaws like water damage, cracks, and missing buttons. And, in the event that Ztail goes under some time after you buy your phones, LetsTalk will still back these pricing guarantees.

So how does Ztail make money from this? First, they receive a commission for every user that buys a phone and then decides to sign up for the ValueLock service, which only requires an Email address and takes a few seconds to do. Hudak says that during a trial run 30% of customers who were eligible for ValueLock signed up for it (they’re prompted to both by an Email from LetsTalk and a card sent alongside each device). Ztail also gets a substantially larger second commission down the line if the customer sends in their device through ValueLock and purchases their next phone through LetsTalk.

This is big news for Ztail — LetsTalk is one of the web’s largest phone retailers, with over $100 million a year in revenue and hundreds of thousands of activated phones sold each year. Ztail has been working on this pseudo-insurance model for nearly a year, and it also has more large partnerships in the works (it’s also worth pointing out that LetsTalk powers the mobile device store on WalMart.com, so it’s possible that their partnership may extend there) . Prior to launching this business model, Ztail had previously focused on streamlining eBay listings and also launched a ‘Kelley Blue Book For Everything” in 2008.

If you’d like to try out the system for yourself, Ztail is going to offer a $230 ValueLock price on the new Motorola Devour to TechCrunch readers (use the code ‘TCDEVOUR’ when you sign up for the service). The normal ValueLock price for the phone is $168. You can read our review of the Devour here.

CrunchBase Information

Ztail

Information provided by CrunchBase

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:47 pm

Global Electronic Technology, Inc. (GET) Founder/CEO, Steven H. Bryson, Challenges Businesses to Give Back

CYPRESS, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Steven H. Bryson, founder and CEO of Global Electronic Technology, Inc. (GET) and OrbitalPay, LLC, was honored by XBIZ with its first-ever Humanitarian Award at the organization's annual awards ceremony on February 10th in Hollywood, CA.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:45 pm

Drummer Hero for the Wii is powered by Arduino

So many cool things you can do with Arduino. The possibilities are endless now that we have the technology! Jazari has constructed this very elaborate solenoid/Arduino rig to play a myriad of instruments, all with two Wiimotes. Sure beats playing percussion in band back in high school.

[BoingBoing]

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:30 pm

MedCAREERS GROUP, Inc. Reaches Agreement to Acquire MedCAREERS.com

ATLANTA, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MedCAREERS GROUP, Inc. (the "Company") (OTC Bulletin Board: MCGI) today announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to acquire the business operations and assets associated with the website MedCAREERS.com including the domain name.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:13 pm

SPX to Present at International Strategy & Investment Group's Industrials Conference

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:05 pm

Sirius: Mixed Reviews From The Street [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s

Street analysts have a mixed view on yesterday’s Q4 earnings report from Sirius XM (SIRI). While all agree that the company has pulled back from the brink and is showing better financial and operating performance, there is some nervousness about valuation.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pm

Intel expected to announce Atom N470 on Monday

Oh boy, Monday can’t come soon enough. That’s when Intel’s expected to announce its N470 Atom CPU, according to CNET.

The N470 will be based on Intel’s new two-chip Pinetrail architecture and will have a clock speed of 1.83GHz. The currently-available N450 is clocked at 1.66GHz, so that speed bump ought to help some.

The N470 will be the second in Intel’s N400 series, joining the N450 which has 512K of cache, a 5.5 watt maximum TDP (thermal design power), Hyper Threading, and a price of $64 per thousand units. It’s unclear whether the N470 will offer much different aside from the speed boost.

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pm

Win a Free Ticket to Google I/O 2010

Webmonkey is giving away two free passes to Google's upcoming I/O developer event. Read the full details and enter to win on our blog.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pm

Verizon to launch 4G in up to 60 markets by mid-2012

Everything moves at a lightning pace in the mobile world – everything, that is, except network rollouts. Where as handsets can go from announced to old news in the blink of an eye, network upgrades.. can’t.

Take Verizon’s upgrade to 4G technology, for example: they announced the move to LTE in February 2009, and began testing in one small market nearly half a year later. They’ll be firing it up for commercial use for the first time later this year, with plans to launch in 30 markets before the year is out.

Fortunately, things seem to be speeding up. Verizon has just disclosed plans to double their LTE footprint, just a bit over 1 year after launch.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:45 pm

Man or Astro-man? Reboots for 21st Century

The sci-fi surf band returns from deep-space hibernation to play its geeky anthems once again. An interview with Electronic Monkey Wizard.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:41 pm

Nexus One for Verizon takes one big step closer to reality, clears the FCC

Google has made it absolutely no secret that the Nexus One is heading to Verizon. They announced it the very same day they announced the T-Mobile version that’s already floating around, and have had it listed as “Coming Soon” ever since.

Alas, neither Google or Verizon is willing to spill the beans on when it’s coming. “Spring 2010!” they say, as if that satiates our desire for mundane details. But wait! There’s good news: the VZW Nexus One just took a huge step toward hitting retail.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:40 pm

The F-35 Lightning II could land in your front yard

The video above shows off the fancy-pants landing system in the new F-35 Lightning II. Notice the massive hatch just behind the cockpit that helps slow the aircraft down for shorter runways. Of course if that doesn’t work, there’s always the vertical-landing mode on some models where it really could land in your front yard assuming you don’t mind your grass getting burned to hell from the hot gases and whatnot.

Source: CrunchGear | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:32 pm

Wyndham Hotels Hacked Again (PC World)

PC World - Hackers broke into computer systems at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts recently, stealing sensitive customer data.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:30 pm

Smart-Tek Solutions, Inc. Projects Gross Revenues of $10 Million for January & February 2010

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Smart-Tek Solutions, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: STTN) has announced today that its gross revenues for January and February 2010 consolidated will be approximately $10 million.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:26 pm

Verizon to launch 4G in up to 60 markets by mid-2012

Everything moves at a lightning pace in the mobile world – everything, that is, except network rollouts. Where as handsets can go from announced to old news in the blink of an eye, network upgrades.. can’t.

Take Verizon’s upgrade to 4G technology, for example: they announced the move to LTE in February 2009, and began testing in one small market nearly half a year later. They’ll be firing it up for commercial use for the first time later this year, with plans to launch in 30 markets before the year is out.

Fortunately, things seem to be speeding up. Verizon has just disclosed plans to double their LTE footprint, just a bit over 1 year after launch.

In an interview with Network World (as first noted by the guys at FierceWireless), Verizon CTO Tony Melone says that their LTE network should be up and running in 60 markets 15 months after the initial launch. As we mentioned above, the initial launch should go down sometime in late 2010 – and by our count, “15 months after” that means some time around mid-2012.

Alas, they’re not specifying exactly which markets they’re talking about here, though it’s probably safe to assume that major cities are pretty close to the top of the list.

Interestingly, some areas that currently lack 3G will get bumped directly from the super-slow and pretty dang old 1XRTT network up to LTE. That’s like going from not having fire to being able to shoot magma out of your hands.

[Photo Credit: Jschumacher on Flickr]

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:25 pm

LDK Solar Acquires Best Solar's Crystalline Module Manufacturing Plant

XINYU CITY, China and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LDK Solar Co., Ltd.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:17 pm

PGP Corporation to Showcase Trusted Data Protection Solutions at RSA Conference 2010

MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:15 pm

Sony tells you what free game you’ll get during PSPgo promotion

FROM GAMERTELL - The free games in Sony’s PSPgo sales promotion are doled out depending on age, and people don’t get to choose whether they get Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines or LittleBigPlanet. Adults get Assassin’s Creed, and teenagers and kids get LittleBigPlanet.
MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:08 pm

Who’s on Crack in Tech 2.26.10

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video, Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack

Welcome back to this week’s Who’s on Crack, the Interwebs only column brave enough to suggest illegal narcotics fuel many of the moves in the tech world.  It’s either that or Gadgetell is nuts for giving me a platform to spout off about stuff that bugs me or is just outright dumb.  How dumb?  Well take a week at this weeks nominees:

• Comcast = Dunder Mifflin
• E-readers killing the college bookstore?
• Walmart snatches up Vudu
• Nelson considers a Palm buy

Comcast taking cues from Dunder Mifflin

Weeks ago, Comcast decided they needed to shake things up and get some of that new-fangled branding everyone’s been talking about.  The solution?  They’ve introduced a new brand for their high-tech offering: Xfinity.  Flippin’ genius!

Hot right?  To me, someone in Comcastland has been watching way too much of The Office TV show as they’ve subconsciously swiped the name of Dunder Mifflin’s website initiative called Infinity.  I say subconsciously because it would take a tweaked stoner to think that was a good idea.  On the show, the website led to the site being overrun by perverts in the forums and eventually to the incarnation of the employee responsible for it.  I can’t be the only one watching way too much of The Office right? 

It’s too close not to be a coincidence, right?  Will Comcast find jailtime too?  $5 it won’t be on fraud, it will be charges the DEA will be interested in. I mean, if you are going to copy something, make sure you’ve got perverts and jail time as your milestones so you know when you find success.

E-readers better than used textbooks?

On the surface, the idea is fantastic: forget dropping thousands of dollars on books only to get $.25 on the dollar for them when June rolls around.  Instead, buy a $10 (or $15) ebook for an e-reader like the Kindle and carry all your books in your purse, or murse as the case may be.

The response from two trial horses Princeton and University of Washington who tried out the Kindle DX isn’t as you’d expect or hope.  In fact, students said, “yo, the Kindle is whack,” or something like that.  As reported by our Sue Walsh, “students reported that it didn’t quite make the cut due to complaints about it’s navigation, folder, and note taking systems.”

Walmart gets into video in a big way

This week Walmart, famous for low prices, bought video on-demand service provider Vudu.  On-demand movies are big business and it looks as though Walmart will be going after Netflix and Blockbuster.  What the heck is Walmart smoking?  Walmart gets two strikes for this one

Strike one:
Walmart has “low prices” plastered all over their images.  I didn’t buy a Vudu box because it was too expensive.  The Roku box was much cheaper and then plays Netflix on-demand movies for free.  Contrast that with Vudu is after you swallow the $149 to buy the box, then you pay to watch each movie.  No freebies.  So big expense upfront and then pay again when you watch something.  Um, buying Redbox might have been smarter if you plan on sticking to that whole low price thingy.

Strike two:
Where you find drugs, often you find sex.  The two seem to go together like PB&J.  Our Sue Walsh (she picked some good topics this past week) tells us, “In what really isn’t a surprising move given their much publicized store policies, just days after buying streaming video provider Vudu, Walmart has announced it is shutting down it’s After Dark service, which discreetly provided hundreds of adult films to its subscribers. The service was the only major service with such a large and up to date library.”

So Walmart buys an expensive service that has a following thanks to the loads of porn available and then kills the porn.  In other news, Walmart has bid on faltering auto brand Hummer while working a deal to include censored Playboy magazines to buyers.  Cavity search, aisle 5.

Our Editor, Robert Nelson considers the Palm Pre

Admitted recovering iPhone addict and recent Android purchaser Robert spent some time with the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus for the past few weeks and wrote up a piece “2000 apps are enough” or something like that.  I didn’t take the time to read it.

OK, I did read it, mostly because I disagree.  When Apple says, “we’ve got 150,000 awesome-tastic apps” and when the funny little Android does a robot dance and chimes, “I am rocking 20,000 apps” and Palm’s creepy girl says, “I’ve only got 2,000” I feel bad for her (and creeped out, but mostly bad).  As consumers we compare: we don’t stop to check quality vs quantity.  But it isn’t just big numbers.

Apps of the moment come in iPhone flavors and maybe Android if there is time.  Case in point: I am a big America’s Cup fan and downloaded the Alinghi app to keep tabs on the defender; no Android app.  Or I have Comcast phone and TV service and love their iPhone app; but again no Android app.  These are two apps I adore with no options on other mobile OS.

Dealbreaker?  Maybe not but it’s something to consider.  These devices are largely entertaining and a lot of that entertainment value (of the iPhone anyway) is sitting there and sifting through apps to find some gems.  The best app ever is just “20 more” away.  Now that Verizon has both webOS devices, hopefully that will drive webOS into firming ground but until then, size matters.

Unfortunately, Robert didn’t make enough of a declarative statement about the lack of apps being OK for me to quote it and ridicule him for it here.  I will say, Robert owns a Zune; and leave it at that.

 

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:07 pm

Sirit Shareholders Approve Acquisition by Federal Signal

TORONTO, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Sirit Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:07 pm

Packing With Shrooms, Not Styrofoam

Recycled cardboard is a decent replacement for styrofoam packaging, but what about heavy items that stronger protection? A company called Ecovative Design is banking on mushroom roots. "We should make products that fit into nature's recycling system," Ecovative Design cofounder ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:58 pm

Apple to Give Next-Generation iPhone the Finger? [Digital Daily]

Now that rumors of an Apple tablet have manifested themselves in the iPad, speculation about the next iteration of the iPhone can begin in earnest. In a research note published today, Morgan Stanley (MS) analyst Katy Huberty offers a few thoughts on what a successor to the iPhone 3GS might look like.

“We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology,” she wrote in a note to clients today. “As we’ve highlighted in the past, the cost of device + service plan is currently the biggest barrier to incremental demand in both mature markets like the US and emerging markets like China.”

Now, when Apple (AAPL) introduced the 3GS in 2009, it dropped the price of the iPhone 3G to $99, so it seems reasonable to expect the company to follow a similar pattern when it introduces a new iPhone. Might the price of the new device itself also be lower than expected? Perhaps. Certainly the fact that Apple was able to bring the iPad to market at $499 suggests it’s possible.

More intriguing than these ruminations on price, however, is Huberty’s mention of new “gesture-based technology.” The analyst doesn’t offer any details on what this might be, but presumably she’s referring to advances disclosed in some recent Apple patent filings.

Among the possibilities here: A touch-sensitive bezel that would turn the outer edges of the device into intelligent “sense lines” that give users quick and easy access to their favorite applications, and some camera-based swipe controls that offer one-handed control over a variety of iPhone functions.

Here’s a description of the latter from Patently Apple, which does a far better job explaining these things than I ever could.

[This] patent reveals yet another innovative concept that is designed to help users control their incoming calls and voicemail by simply swiping their finger over the external camera lens. It will control rewinding and fast forwarding voicemail. In addition, the new methodology will also enhance one handed navigation of Web pages, documents, a contact list or your iTunes library by simply swiping the camera lens in different swiping motion combinations. In the future, the iPad may be able to take advantage of this feature if the camera is positioned correctly. This would theoretically allow a user to simply flick a finger over the camera lens to turn the page of a book or scroll a webpage without ever having to move your hand.

Sounds pretty slick, yeah? Certainly, a feature like this would take smartphone navigation to a new level. Were it to be included in a next-generation iPhone along with a five-megapixel camera, LED flash and video chat support that’s rumored–well, Apple might not need the lower price point as Huberty suggests to juice demand for the device.

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:55 pm

Killer Whale Show to Go On; Tilikum Is 'An Important Part of Our Team'

Jim Atchison, president and CEO of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, led a press conference today concerning the death of killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau. He spoke in front of a see-through tank wall, so inquisitive killer whales viewed the proceedings ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:48 pm

Magnum Launches Fund to Support Haiti Coverage

The legendary photo agency goes deep, with a commitment to keep its photographers on the scene.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:45 pm

Facebook Patents Social Network Feeds, Raising Innovation Worries

Facebook's new patent on publishing streams of user activities has many worried for online innovation. But it could be worse.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:40 pm

Prince's Palace Found in Volcanic Crater

The residence of Sextus Tarquinius, the prince who sparked the revolt that led to the foundation of the Roman Republic, may have been found.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:25 pm

Entourage E-Reader/Netbook Hybrid to Start Shipping

The world’s first e-reader and netbook hybrid is set to start shipping next week. The dual-screen eDGe, made by Entourage, comes with a 9.7-inch E Ink screen on the left half, and a touchscreen LCD on the right, meaning you can use it as an e-reader, a notepad, or a regular netbook — at the same time.

“Pre-orders received by January 12 will start shipping at the end of this week. New orders will ship in March,” says Doug Atkinson, Entourage’s VP of Marketing and Business Development, in an interview with E-Reader.info.

The other big news is that Entourage launched its own e-book store to compete with the bigger boys, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the upcoming Apple iBooks store. Why not simply partner with someone already in the book business?

“Having our own e-bookstore allows us to offer books and documents based on our customer demand,” says Atkinson in the interview. Entourage is mostly aiming at public domain books - about a million of them in a partnership with Google - but have also managed to sign up publishers like Oxford Press, Ingram Digital and LibreDigital.

As reported by Gadget lab in January, the device will come with 4 GB storage, 2 USB ports and a SD card slot, weighing roughly 2.5 pounds. Which, when you consider Macbook Air’s 3 pounds, isn’t that light.

The $490 device runs on Google’s Android OS and will be able to handle Microsoft Office documents.

There seem to be some pretty cool features, though, especially when it comes to playing around between the two screens. You can drag a grayscale image from the E-Ink screen and view it in full color on the LCD one, or attach video (on the right screen) to a passage from an e-book (on the left screen).

When using two screens, or primarly the LCD screen, the battery life is 6 hours. When only using the E-Ink part, you can squeeze out about 16 hours out of your eDGe, the company claims.

Note: In case you were wondering why the weird capitalized letters, Entourage people say the “DG” in eDGe stands for “Digital Generation”. Edgy.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:21 pm

Travel to Mars in 39 Days?

Reaching the Red Planet could take dramatically less time than once thought using the high-tech VASIMR rocket, according to one scientist.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:18 pm

Apple Files for ‘Magic Trackpad’ Trademark

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Friday published a trademark application for the term “Magic Trackpad,” which was filed earlier this week by Apple. The filing might allude to a rumored product we first heard about last year.

As is often the case with trademark filings, the item described by the application is too broad to draw any solid inferences on just what exactly a Magic Trackpad would be:

Computers; computer software; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer hardware; computer peripherals; scanners; touchscreens; keyboards; computer mice; trackballs; trackpads; touchpads; light pens; joysticks; game controllers; graphics tablets; digitizers; cables and connectors; flash memory drives; USB drives; solid state storage devices; barcode readers.

However, the name of Apple’s new mouse is Magic Mouse, which has multitouch, so it’s likely this trademark is referring to a multitouch trackpad that will ship as a peripheral. Apple’s MacBooks already ship with multitouch glass trackpads, and we’d see no reason for Apple to file for a unique trademark unless it’s planning to sell it as a standalone product.

Most interesting about this particular trademark filing is we heard whispers about a multitouch trackpad gadget last year. Blogger John Gruber, who’s known for occasionally leaking details on Apple gadgets immediately before their release, alluded to a multitouch trackpad for desktops among a pile of other Macs he leaked accurately in October 2009. He labeled the trackpad as a “wild card,” acknowledging he was unsure of that particular item, and no such product was released in October.

Via Patently Apple

Photo of a MacBook Pro’s multitouch trackpad: huskermania/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:14 pm

Nexus One for Verizon takes one big step closer to reality, clears the FCC

Google has made it absolutely no secret that the Nexus One is heading to Verizon. They announced it the very same day they announced the T-Mobile version that’s already floating around, and have had it listed as “Coming Soon” ever since.

Alas, neither Google or Verizon is willing to spill the beans on when it’s coming. “Spring 2010!” they say, as if that satiates our desire for mundane details. But wait! There’s good news: the VZW Nexus One just took a huge step toward hitting retail.

Earlier today, a CDMA-friendly Nexus One (model PB99300, where the GSM version is PB99100) successfully fought its way through the FCC’s testing labs. Somewhere out there, there exists a fully functional, Verizon-compatible Nexus One, just waiting to be stuffed in a box and thrown on the shelves. FCC clearance isn’t a surefire indication that a launch is near, but we rarely ever see it more than a month or so before sales begin.

If the CDMA Nexus One launches any time soon, it ought to be Verizon’s first Android phone powered by a 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor. Excited? You should be.

FCC Clearance Doc:

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:05 pm

Palm Agonistes [Digital Daily]

[ See post to watch video ]

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

Symbian^4 shown off on video, seems.. uninspired

All around the world, the Symbian-loving chunk of the population is waiting on the edge of their seats for Symbian^4 (pronounced “Symbian Four”). Intended as a complete overhaul from Symbian past, it could very well slingshot the visibly aged Operating System into modern times.

The first videos of Symbian^4 have just been released for public consumption, and we can’t help but notice that they seem very.. uninspired. Actually, perhaps that’s inaccurate. They’re very inspired. Directly inspired. By the competition.

I’m never one to shout that such-and-such handset is a clone of another, but the influences here are undeniable. The widget screen/mechanism is similar to that of Symbian^3, but nearly identical to Android’s. The photo screen looks damn close to the iPhone’s, though they did come up with a fairly slick way of switching from photo to photo.

It’s certainly a big step up for Symbian — it’s just less revolution, and more emulation. Hopefully they’ve got some tricks up their sleeves planned for the next year of development.

Via FierceWireless

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 11:34 am

Video: Old Apple Notebooks Modded Into a Snowboard

Reduce, reuse, and, if all else fails, recycle, the old mantra goes. But how exactly can you use reuse a dead laptop? In the video above, two German geeks drilled apart their old Mac notebooks and combined them into a snowboard to take to the slopes. As The Unofficial Apple Weblog notes, this is probably just a viral video to plug some Asus notebooks. But we have to admit it’s mighty entertaining to observe just how awful an “Apple snowboard” would be. It’s a heck of a lot easier to watch than dudes catching MSI notebooks with their butts.

See Also:

• MSI: Our Notebooks Are So Thin You Can Shove Them up Your Derriere …
• 8 Outrageously Annoying Tech Videos

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 11:32 am

Enormous Icebergs Could Affect Ocean Currents

A mammoth iceberg that struck a glacier off Antarctica, dislodged a newer chunk of ice that could affect ocean currents and also lower the levels of oxygen in the world’s oceans, according to Australian and French scientists.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Feb 2010 | 10:55 am

Free apps roundup for February 26th, 2010

FROM APPLETELL - Wow, what a list this week. We saw quite a few quality apps drop on the App Store (and I’m not referring to Apple’s removal of risqué apps).
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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 10:40 am

Citibank's Snafu Over Gay Site Looks Familiar [Voices]

By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Citibank apologized Thursday evening to a gay social-networking service that claimed bank employees had blocked its account for “objectionable content” on the site.

In a statement, the bank said it “sincerely apologizes to [Jason] Goldberg for this misunderstanding. This situation had nothing to do with the content of his web site and any comments by our staff to the contrary were incorrect; we are reviewing what happened.” But questions remain about the bank’s policies; Deal Journal reported last week that a business selling underwear online was denied a Citi account because of the bank’s concerns about content.

Mr. Goldberg, whose site fabulis recently received $625,000 in funding from investors led by The Washington Post Co. (WPO), said in an interview that he opened a business account with Citi and deposited that seed money into the account last month. Earlier this week, he said, he found himself unable to access the funds. He blogged about his experience, describing repeated conversations with Citibank staff in which he says they told him about a review process that found the content of his site was not in compliance with the bank’s policies.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 10:40 am

Refine your searches by location

Location has become an important part of the way we search. If you're a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer's market, location can be vital to helping you find the right information. Starting today, we've added the ability to refine your searches with the "Nearby" tool in the Search Options panel. One of the really helpful things about this tool is that it works geographically — not just with keywords — so you don't have to worry about adding "Minneapolis" to your query and missing webpages that only say "St. Paul" or "Twin Cities." Check it out by doing a search, clicking on "show options" and selecting "Nearby."


You can choose to see results nearby either your default location or a custom location, and you can narrow down to results at the city, region or state level. Try these examples:

[things to do on st. patrick's day] - In the Minneapolis region
[food blogs] - Near you
[farmers market] - Near the city of Ithaca
[dmv] - In the same state as Tucson

The new "Nearby" search option is available now on the google.com domain in English.

Posted by Jackie Bavaro, Product Manager

Source: The Official Google Blog | 26 Feb 2010 | 10:09 am

Twitter's Ad Plan: Copy Google [MediaMemo]

What will Twitter’s long-awaited ad platform look like? Something like Google’s.

That’s the general description of Twitter’s plan, according to people who have been briefed by the company.

Here are the very broad strokes:

• Ads will be tied to Twitter searches, in the same way that Google’s (GOOG) original ads were. So a search for, say, “laptop,” may generate an ad for Dell (DELL). The ads will only show up in search results, which means users who don’t search for something won’t see them in their regular Twitterstreams.
• The ads will use the Twitter format–140 or fewer characters–and will be distributed via the third-party software and services that use Twitter’s API. The services will have the option of displaying the ads, and Twitter will share revenue with those that do.
• Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers to seed the program, but plans on moving to a self-serve model like Google’s, down the road.

The caveats: Everyone I’ve talked to cautions that the plans are evolving and that there are plenty of details to work out. Including a launch date, though it seems as if the first half of this year is a very safe bet.

But at first blush, this seems like a relatively straightforward way for Twitter to get into advertising, without upsetting its growing user base: You won’t see the ads unless you use Twitter to search for something, and Twitter’s advertisers will have at least a vague idea of what you’re interested in.

There are lots of gritty details that Twitter either hasn’t worked out or hasn’t disclosed to the people I’ve talked to. For instance:

• How will advertisers buy and price the ads? Will they use a Google-like cost-per-click model or something else?
• Twitter searches are popular, but very crude. Can Twitter refine them to make them more useful to users?
• Google’s ads work because Google has reasonably good idea of both users’ intent and identity. Twitter knows much less about its users. How can it gather enough data to make its targeting more meaningful?

Twitter has been careful not to position its ad plan as the core of its business. And the company has made a point of stressing that its initial ad rollout, like other initiatives it’s launching this year, are merely “tests.”

That’s one of the of ideas behind the $100 million funding round Twitter closed last summer–it gives the company the time to play around with different business models. But this one seems to have plenty of potential.

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 10:04 am

webOS drops 1.4 today with Flash 10

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

According to Boy Genius, Sprint has confirmed the intended release of webOS 1.4 for the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi.  Unfortunately, the source referenced on his post has been pulled from the Sprint site.  Where does that leave webOS users?

The upgrade looks sizable, besides numerous bug fixes, the update includes eventual support for Flash 10 on the Palm Pre.  Sprint hedges the inclusion a bit by saying it will be a plug in down the road.  Here is the list:

• Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
• Adds Video Capture capability & edit Calendar Enhancements
• Messaging Enhancements
• Improved Performance (Phone & CAL)
• Email Enhancements
• Notification Enhancements
• Adds Adobe Flash 10.0 (Pre Only)
• NOTE: The 1.4 software adds the ability to use the Flash 10.0 Adobe plug-in which will be available shortly from the Palm App Catalogue

It will be interesting to see if only Sprint webOS devices get this upgrade to day or if Verizon puts it off for a bit.  More as it happens.

Read: [BoyGeniusReports]

 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am

Perfect Insulator Could Eliminate Heating Bills

With this insulator, the body heat produced by one person would be enough to warm an entire home.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 9:30 am

And if Palm's Project JumpStart Doesn't Work Out, There's Always "Project Defibrillator" [Digital Daily]

Will lousy brand awareness be Palm’s Waterloo? With weaker than expected launches of the Pre and Pixi at new carrier partner Verizon, it’s beginning to look like it.

Certainly, Palm’s leadership appears to believe that insufficient carrier support is largely to blame for its current woes. In an all-hands memo to employees yesterday (full text below), Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said the company is taking some extraordinary measures to address unexpectedly weak sales for its handset lineup. To drive demand at Verizon and raise its customers’ apparently limited awareness of webOS, Palm (PALM) has initiated Project JumpStart, a sort of product evangelism outreach program.

“To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon (VZ) sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations–all getting the word out about Palm.”

A wise move, particularly given reports that Verizon sales reps unfamiliar with Palm’s smartphones often opt to pitch more familiar devices like Motorola’s (MOT) Droid and RIM’s Blackberry to new customers. Additional in-store training should help drive sales volume, assuming Palm’s offerings are compelling and differentiated enough to withstand comparison with rival devices.

The question, of course: Are they? And while initial reviews of the Pre and webOS operating system suggested they were, it’s hard not to look at Palm’s current situation and conclude that they really might not be–particularly with new and impressive Android and Windows Phone 7 devices headed to market and Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM) both presumably working on refreshes of their iconic devices.

“Given the sizable discounts now prevalent on the Pixi, it now suggests that the real problems for the Pixi and the Pre go beyond insufficient carrier support and unfocused TV advertising campaigns,” CL King analyst Lawrence Harris observed in a research note to clients this morning. “Rather, consumers are not finding the Pixi a compelling product in an increasingly competitive smartphone market.”

If that’s truly the case, these Palm Brand Ambassadors the company is sending to Verizon (VZ) have their work cut out for them, at least at the moment. Sources close to Palm tell me the company plans to introduce at least one new smartphone this year. Perhaps that will be the device that drives demand and pushes the company back to profitability.

Team,

This morning we announced preliminary results for our 2010 third quarter. Since the quarter has not yet closed, it is too soon to offer exact numbers, but we stated that we expect to report revenues for Q3 between $300 and $320 million. We also announced that we expect our revenue for this fiscal year to fall below the guidance we gave to Wall Street, which ranged from $1.6 to $1.8 billion. As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being. On a positive note, we expect to exit the quarter with over $500 million in cash on our balance sheet. We’re scheduled to announce our full financial results in March.

I realize this news is difficult to swallow. We made this announcement today to prevent a surprise for Wall Street when we announce quarterly earnings in March. In the meantime, the entire executive team has been working extremely hard to improve product performance, and have implemented a number of initiatives to increase awareness and drive sales.

Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations–all getting the word out about Palm.

All of these efforts are examples of how we are working to accelerate adoption and grow distribution of webOS. In the next few weeks, your management will work with you to make sure your priorities are laser-focused, primarily on helping to increase sales, improve product quality and differentiate the Palm product experience.

Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve, but I am still confident that our talented team has what it takes to get the job done.

We’ll schedule an all-hands meeting after our earnings announcement in March, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Go team!!!

jon

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Feb 2010 | 9:05 am

Researchers Going After Regional Climate Patterns Of Global Warming

Image Caption: This diagram shows global warming pattern formation in sea surface temperature and rainfall. Credit: Original publication: Xie, S.-P., C. Deser, G.A. Vecchi, J. Ma, H. Teng, and A.T. Wittenberg, 2010.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:45 am

About 2000 apps available for webOS users and why that low number can be ok

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

We see lots of criticism in terms of webOS and the low number of available apps. Actually, in the past I have been a voice of that criticism, but after having my hands on a Pre Plus and Pixi Plus for a few weeks I am having a slight change of heart. Of course, this could still be the high that comes from playing with a new gadget, but I think there is more to that. You see I am a recovering iPhone addict, or more specifically a recovering iPhone app addict. Given that when I first heard these numbers on the amount of available apps for webOS users I almost said “only 2,000.” 

Anyway, before I go any further in my rant, according to a recent post on PreCentral the current app totals and breakdowns are as follows;

“as of this writing, the official on-device App Catalog has 1623 apps (counting all apps in all regions), Web Distribution has 145 apps, Beta distributionhas 61 apps, and the homebrew gallery has 443.”

Which in the end adds up to 2,272 available apps. Compared to other places that is not a high number, but should we be comparing? I am saying we don’t need to compare.

You see, I once knocked webOS because of the lack of apps that were available in the App Catalog. Of course we all know that there are plenty of reasons for the low number and I am not going to suggest that I don’t feel like there should be more at this point. But after looking at what webOS and the App Catalog is by itself, I now think that 2,000 is actually an ok number.

I will say that it is ok for a few reasons, but mainly because the apps that are available are seemingly all nicely done. In fact, short of having to do a few things in the browser that I had an app for on the iPhone I have found everything that I need (and yes I realize everyones needs are different).

Bottom line here is that it is easy to poke fun at what is a low number compared to the iPhone App Store or the Android Market. But what is important to remember is that few people need more than a handful of apps and many will likely find what they need if they were to just give it a chance. Plus there is a Facebook app, as well as several Twitter apps and for lots of people that is where the need for apps truly ends.

As far as what I have installed outside of the default apps, in no particular order, here is the list. The Weather Channel, Slacker Radio, Mediafly, Evernote, TweeFree, Facebook, Foursquare and The New York Times.

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:34 am

EU cautions Google over Street View photos - CNET

Telegraph.co.uk

EU cautions Google over Street View photos CNET In a letter sent to the search giant this week, the European Union's privacy watchdog told Google that it should warn towns and cities before it snaps photos for its online Street View maps. The EU also told the company that it should ... Google Street View Raises Privacy Concerns...AgainPC World EU Asks Google for More Privacy in Street ViewPC Magazine EU privacy body wants changes to Google Street ViewReuters New York Times -Inquirer -Wall Street Journal all 488 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:30 am

Gallery: A Tour Inside the Brooks Saddle Factory

Have you ever wondered how a bike saddle is made? It just plops out of a replicator or something, right? If that seat is a hand-crafted Brooks saddle, then the answer is “no”. Gadget Lab reader Graham Glen was lucky enough to get a tour of the Brooks factory in Smethwick (in the West Midlands in England), and he snapped some photos of the goings on there, which he has very generously allowed us to use here.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:22 am

Ibis Reader for iPhone: A Web App That Thinks It’s a Native App

Sick of the iron fist of censorship Apple wields over its App Store? Feel it’s unfair that there’s no way to get applications onto a non-hacked iPhone without submitting them to Apple fickle fiefdom? We have good news, in the shape of web-apps. What?

Ibis reader is an e-book reading application that does everything that you’d expect an iPhone e-reader to do, with one big difference: It doesn’t come from the App Store. The app runs on any iPhone or iPod Touch and offers full offline access to your library of books, and is as fast and responsive as a native iPhone application. It manages this through the magic of HTML5, which is supported by Mobile Safari and - crucially - offers offline storage for web-sites.

To install Ibis you navigate to the page in Safari. You will be asked if you will grant the site 50MB of storage space. After agreeing, you hit the “+” button and add the app to the home-screen. Now, when you hit that button, you are launched directly into Ibis, not just a tab in Safari, and because it stores both itself and your downloaded books locally, it’ll even work with an iPod Touch out of Wi-Fi range.

The controls are similar to Stanza or Kindle for iPhone: tap either side of the screen to flip pages and touch the center to access more settings. You can browse for public domain books from Feedbooks from within the app, and even add books from the URL of your choice. Anything downloaded is stored for you in a local library, and if you opt to sign up for an Ibis account, you can read, fully synced, across multiple platforms.

Like Stanza and Apple’s upcoming iPad app, iBooks, Ibis uses the ePub standard format, and you can even upload these files to your account from your desktop web browser, from where they will automatically appear on your mobile device. And because Android uses Webkit for its browser, it too can install and use the app offline.

I have been playing around with Ibis for a little while and it really does behave like a local application, although sometimes it is not quite as fast when flipping between different sections. In fact, there’s only one thing that really gives it away: scrolling is a lot slower. Whereas in a native app you can “throw” a page and it speedily scrolls up or down, the “elastic” holding the pages of web apps is a lot stronger. It’s not just Ibis. This is a problem with all non-native applications on the iPhone.

As a full-featured e-reader, Ibis is surprisingly good. As a proof-of-concept for non-approved, non-App Store applications, it is straight-up amazing.

Ibis Reader [Ibis]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:15 am

Fish Use Secret Communications

In a remarkable new finding scientists from The Vision Centre have reported that certain coral reef fish use ultraviolet (UV) vision to tell the difference between their own and other similar species.Indeed, the otherwise rather plain-looking Ambon damselfish may even be able to recognize individuals by their faces, in much the same way as humans do, the researchers say in a paper in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology.The UV vision may act as a secret channel of communication because it is invisible to the fishes’ predators, the researchers speculate.“We observed that certain fish had very distinctive ultraviolet markings on their faces – and we wondered what they were using them for,” says lead author, Dr Ulrike Siebeck of The Vision Centre and The University of Queensland (UQ).In a series of carefully controlled experiments, the team exposed male Ambon damselfish to males of the same and a different species (with similar overall body coloration but different UV facial patterns) in conditions in which the UV markings could and could not be seen.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:13 am

Sprint Pre and Pixi owners: Expect Palm webOS 1.4 today with video recording and Flash 10 in tow

Sometime today, Feburary 26, 2010, Sprint Pre and Pixi owners should get a nice little surprise on their handsets. It seems like Sprint and Palm are ready to deliver the latest webOS update, which should bring the aforementioned updates along with a bunch of other enhancements conveniently listed for your perusal after the jump.

Fixes:
* Time Zone bug fixed
* Network time sync bug fixed to reflect accurate Network time
* Bluetooth car-kit transition to device corrected
* No EV icon bug fixed (random)
* Random browser formatting bugs fixed
* Fixed bug that incorrectly displayed Sprint when actually was Digital Roaming
* Missing Contact issue specifically with swap down to 1.2.9.1 or less
Feature Updates:
* Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
* Adds Video Capture capability & edit
* Calendar Enhancements
* Messaging Enhancements
* Improved Performance (Phone & CAL)
* Email Enhancements
* Notification Enhancements
* Adds Adobe Flash 10.0 (Pre Only)
* NOTE: The 1.4 software adds the ability to use the Flash 10.0 Adobe plug-in which will be available shortly from the Palm Appl Catalogue.

Sprint via BGR via Giz

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

Rubber Wallets Made From Old Inner-Tubes

Apart from their tendency to burst when stabbed with glass whilst inflated to 120psi (over 8-atmospheres), bicycle inner-tubes are otherwise almost indestructible. At the same time, they’re very easy to cut and so and otherwise shape to your favorite design.

Wikkerink Design has taken a stack of old tubes and fashioned them into billfolds and wallets of various shapes, along with belts and credit-card holders. Combined with felt and fabric sections, these look like they would last you forever, and as the rubber is a natural material they should age gracefully, like leather or Sean Connery.

Worried about that old-rubber smell? Don’t be. I have made a lot of things from old inner-tubes and while they do smell at first, the rubber aroma wears off surprisingly fast. Wikkerink’s wallets start at $21, and are apparently treated so they feel like velvet.

Wikkerink Wallets [Wikkerink via Pedal Consumption]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:45 am

FUmanoids Prepare for RoboCup 2010

If you're a soccer fan, you can almost taste the excitement, right? I mean, the World Cup is coming up in just a few months time in South Africa. Ah....but it you're robotic soccer fan (and let's face it, who ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:43 am

Boxee Beta, Now On Apple TV

Boxee Beta, the free media-center software that pulls in TV shows, movies photos and music to your computer through a custom, remote-control-on-the-sofa friendly interface, has come to the Apple TV. This software alone justifies buying the little video-box.

The original, private-beta version of Boxee has been available for a long time on the Apple TV as well as OS X, Linux and Windows, but was left behind in January when Boxee went public with its updated, slicker public beta. Now there is an installer for the Apple TV which makes it dead easy to get the software on your box.

Just download the ATVUSB-Creator and run it on your computer. Plug in a bootable USB drive (or stick) and run the program. You’ll be left with a drive that can be plugged into the USB port of the Apple TV and which adds a new “Boxee” option to the main menu. Select this and sit back. Boxee will be installed and, after a reboot, you will now have a proper media computer instead of the crippled, Apple-dependent box you had before. Cancel that cable subscription now!

Get a bite of this – Boxee Beta on AppleTV [Boxee Blog]

Image credit: Boxee blog

See Also:

• Hands-On With the Boxee Set-Top Box and Remote
• Boxee Unveils Public Beta, 'Boxee Box' Hardware
• Boxee Beta Is a Web Video Streamer's Dream
• Boxee Plans to Offer Paid Content
• Boxee Gets a Box, Made By D-Link

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:25 am

Dell now offering a “Performance Plus” package for the Inspiron Mini 10 netbook

Section: Computers, Netbooks

Those looking for a little more video watching oomph on a netbook, you may want to check out the latest offering from Dell. Its the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, and it is now being offered with a Performance Plus Package. As far as what you will get over and above the regular version; SRS audio, a Broadcom Crystal HD card and a 10.1-inch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution. Other standard features of the Performance Plus package include Windows 7 Starter, a 250GB hard drive and a 56WHr 6-cell battery. All in all this should make watching playback of HD content much nicer. Price wise, the Dell Mini 10 with the Performance Plus Package starts at $409.

Product [Dell Mini 10] Read [Dell Blog] Via [Netbooked]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:22 am

Stickleback Genomes And Evolution

University of Oregon labs combine emerging technologies to identify gene regions underlying adaptationTwenty billion pieces of DNA in 100 small fish have opened the eyes of biologists studying evolution.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am

Massive Iceberg Collision Could Alter Ocean Currents

A 60-mile-long iceberg roughly the size of Luxembourg shaved off a new iceberg after crashing into a glacier.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:40 am

Self-Righting Dominoes in Infinite Circular Chase

It’s time for a glance into the distant past. Here is Ouroborus, a lazy-man’s domino toppling game from artist Karl Lautman. Lautman’s self-righting domino circle won a second prize at the International Kinetic Art Competition in 2004, but is certainly still worth a look today.

When you press a button on the front, one domino is tipped over, causing the familiar cascade. But when the ripple of falling tiles reaches half way around the circle, the dominoes at the beginning stand up again. The head and tail of the ring pursue each other in what could be an infinite chase, had Lautman not decided to halt the race after five circuits. This head-swallows-tail action is what gives the piece its name: Ouroborus was the mythical serpent which swallowed its own tail.

But how does it work? It’s actually dead simple. Inside the base are solenoids hooked up to polyester threads which run through holes and are joined to the bottoms of the dominoes. These solenoids fire in a timed sequence and yank to dominoes back into an upright position. The effect is, as you can see, hypnotic, even after all these years.

For more of Lautman’s spooky, autonomous gadget-art, head to his site. We especially like the head-banging Art Makes an Impact.

Project page [Karl Lautman via Oh Gizmo]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:28 am

Palm CEO talks about disappointing sales

Poor Jon Rubinstein. After a strong, early push, Palm’s sales have slowed and revenue has dried up with $300-$320 million in Q3. Their “guidance” to Wall Street AKA how much they expected to make? $1.6-1.8 billion. Bloops.

The letter is over at WSJ but here’s an excerpt.

This morning we announced preliminary results for our 2010 third quarter. Since the quarter has not yet closed, it is too soon to offer exact numbers, but we stated that we expect to report revenues for Q3 between $300 and $320 million. We also announced that we expect our revenue for this fiscal year to fall below the guidance we gave to Wall Street, which ranged from $1.6 to $1.8 billion. As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being. On a positive note, we expect to exit the quarter with over $500 million in cash on our balance sheet. We’re scheduled to announce our full financial results in March.

I realize this news is difficult to swallow. We made this announcement today to prevent a surprise for Wall Street when we announce quarterly earnings in March. In the meantime, the entire executive team has been working extremely hard to improve product performance, and have implemented a number of initiatives to increase awareness and drive sales.

Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations—all getting the word out about Palm.

What’s holding things up? Three things: Android, Android, and Android. Palm used to be the alternative to monolithic mobile phone manufacturers like RIM and Microsoft. With the iPhone grabbing the hipster market and Android grabbing the nerds – and RIM still runs the business roost – Palm has no home in this world anymore.

My prediction? The next company to face these problems is, in fact, RIM. If Windows Mobile 7 figures things out, they’ll have both the casual and business markets buttoned up. Smartphones can now do everything RIM does and better.

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Feb 2010 | 6:27 am

Forest Tree Diversity Depends On Individual Variation

Thinking flawed that all species react the same to the environmentIt's a paradox that's puzzled scientists for a half-century.Models clearly show that the coexistence of competing species depends on those species responding differently to the availability of resources. Then why do studies comparing competing tree species draw a blank?Competitors like black gums and red maples have coexisted for millennia in the shaded understories of eastern U.S. forests, yet species-level data offer scant proof that they respond differently to environmental fluctuations that limit access to light, soil moisture and other essential resources.These are the very differences required for their long-term coexistence. Are the models and theory flawed? Or is it the data?A paper in this week's issue of the journal Science offers new insights that may resolve the puzzle."Species differences do exist, consistent with theory, but species-level data don't show them," says forest ecologist James Clark of Duke University, the paper's author. In order to see them, he says, you have to go to the individual level."Scientists working to address pressing ecological issues, such as the spread of invasive species, will benefit from this finding," says Todd Crowl, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.Species-level studies--the preferred approach in nearly all past research on forest tree diversity--rely on average responses from sample populations to infer information such as average growth, reproduction and survival rates for entire species over time.They're useful for many purposes, Clark says, but because they assess species' responses in only the handful of environmental dimensions that can be measured, they miss most of the subtle ways in which species differ."The environment varies in thousands of ways," he says. "Species can differ in how they respond in all these dimensions, and we can only measure a few of them."Failure to find tradeoffs in how species respond in the few measurable dimensions, such as the ability to survive in a shaded understory versus growing fast in full sunlight, has promoted a false view, according to Clark."Looking at only a handful of averaged responses in a few dimensions may lead to the conclusion that all species react more or less the same," Clark says.He analyzed more than 226,000 "tree years" of data from more than 22,000 individual trees of 33 species. The trees are in 11 forests in three regions of the U.S. Southeast, including NSF's Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site.Coweeta, in the eastern deciduous forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains, is one of 26 such NSF LTER sites.In his study, Clark estimated annual rates of growth, fecundity and survival risk for every tree in the 11 stands from observations of tree diameter, canopy spread and height, reproductive status, survival, and seed dispersal.He quantified variations between individuals within populations over time spans ranging from six to 18 years.His painstaking analysis revealed none of the tradeoffs postulated for trees in species-level averages."Individuals are responding in many dimensions in different ways, but with more similarity to other individuals of the same species than to individuals of different species," Clark says.That's important, he explains, "because as the individuals in a population react to the environment, the similarity they share with others of their own species tends to concentrate competitive pressure within species. The tendency to compete within species allows multiple species to share the landscape."These findings, he notes, are consistent with the ecological theory that coexistence of competitors requires stronger competition within than between species.The change in perspective yields new insights into a variety of pressing ecological issues."We've always wondered, for instance, how introduced species could invade existing communities where competition is already intense," says Clark. "The assumption was: since existing species are competing for limited resources, it must be especially difficult for invaders to come in, establish and compete successfully."But these results suggest that competitive exclusion doesn't work as well as we thought. Knowing that diversity is likely controlled by variations in many dimensions makes it easier to understand why invasions are so common--and suggests new ways of thinking about why they are so successful."---Image 1: The environment--and the individual trees within it--look alike but vary in thousands of ways. Credit: James ClarkImage 2: Low-altitude remote sensing is used to determine light captured by neighboring trees. Credit: James ClarkImage 3: Elevation contours outline tree heights, allowing for research on effects of light on the forest. Credit: James Clark
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:44 am

Students Take Aim At Bear Spray Canisters

Visitors to national parks and forests are encouraged to use bear spray when they encounter grizzlies, but disposing of the bear spray canisters is a problem that three Montana State University engineering students addressed for their senior capstone project, sponsored by the Gallatin National Forest.Ashley Olsen, a Butte native who graduated from MSU in December, returned to campus Wednesday to demonstrate a bear spray recycling machine she developed over the past year with Seth Mott of Helena and Kyle Hertenstein of Great Falls.As private and government partners watched the outdoor demonstration behind the Engineering and Physical Sciences Building, the recycler machine removed the chemical that burns the eyes and mucus membranes of bears.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:05 am

Crowdsourcing game Photocity aids in development of awesome 3D photo tech

FROM GAMERTELL - University researchers use social game to help test new photo technology that constructs a 3D model of an object in the pictures…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 26 Feb 2010 | 5:02 am

Ancient Bible Manuscript Fragments Reunited

Only a handful of Hebrew biblical manuscripts have survived the era in which they were written.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 4:22 am

Whales, Like Trees, Slow Warming

Whales are the largest animals on the planet, and when it comes to storing carbon, they act like trees in a forest.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Feb 2010 | 1:39 am

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