Exhausting the entire problem space of animated teddy-bears, cars, people and pigeons

Animator/composer Cyriak just posted this surreal video featuring infinite giant teddy bears climbing out of the sea at the Worthing shore and crossing the road. You'd think that this would be thin gruel for three minutes' worth of animation, but you'd be wrong: it turns out that the number of variations on the themes of pigeons, people, teddies, cars and shore is a lot greater (and weirder and funnier) than instinct would suggest.

Cycles (Thanks, Arthur!)

Previously:

• Fiorina's latest political video featuring furries!
• Giant space-chicken movie progressing nicely
• Alma: Animated short is "equal parts Pixar and The Twilight Zone ...
• Jack Chick, animated: "Somebody Goofed," by Syd and Rodney - Boing ...
• Chris Ware: This American Life animation

Source: Boing Boing | 11 Mar 2010 | 3:05 am

Magic trick reverso: putting the tablecloth back on the table!

Magician Mat Ricardo writes in regarding this morning's post showing a motorcycle (seemingly) pulling the tablecloth out from beneath a very long table's-worth of place settings: "Here's what I do - for 20 years-ish I've been finishing nmy cabaret act by putting the tablecloth back on the table, underneath all the stuff. Took me years to invent, and I'm the only person in the world performing this trick. Maybe I need to get out more, but what can I say - it's a living!"

You can see the gag around 2:15 in the video, but it's well worth watching the whole thing. I was gutted to learn that I missed Mat last weekend when I took the kid down to Covent Garden in London to see the performers, but I'm looking forward to catching his act next time we head down.

Mat Ricardo showreel (Thanks, Mat!)

Previously:

• Magic and Showmanship: Classic book about conjuring has many ...
• Magic teaches us about human cognition -- UPDATED
• Nature Neuroscience article on neurological basis for magic, co ...
• Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread: lost comedy magic special ...

Court ruling will not affect Italy ops: Google - Moneycontrol.com

Times Online

Court ruling will not affect Italy ops: Google Moneycontrol.com A senior Google Inc. executive dismissed any impact on the company's Italian business from a court ruling on a cyber-bullying case, as the company unveiled a deal with the Italian government to digitise books. A Milan court last month gave six-month ... Google to digitise ancient Italian booksBBC News Google's book project may change copyright lawSan Jose Mercury News Google, Italian Culture Ministry sign book digitization pactNetworkWorld.com Wall Street Journal -Digital Media Wire -ABC Online all 231 news articles »

Historic IEEE 802 Group Looks Back and Forward

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

'Console killer' OnLive to launch in June - BBC News

Reuters

'Console killer' OnLive to launch in June BBC News A gaming service that aims to kill off the traditional gaming console will begin streaming popular games over the internet in June this year. OnLive, which launched to much fanfare in 2009, announced details of its service at the ... GDC 2010: OnLive Game Service due on June 17Techtree.com OnLive Cloud Gaming Service to Launch in JunePC World Cloud video game service OnLive to launch in JuneReuters The Tech Herald -Bloomberg -The Associated Press all 351 news articles »

GDC 2010: PlayStation Move vs. Project Natal, we go hands-on with both - CNET

The Age

GDC 2010: PlayStation Move vs. Project Natal, we go hands-on with both CNET As we predicted before the start of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sony used its press conference to formally announce the PS3 motion controller. Officially called the PlayStation Move, this wand-and-cam system, ... Sony Names Motion Controller: 'Pla ...PC Magazine Sony unveils new motion contoller to slow NintendoThe Associated Press Meet PlayStation Move, Sony's PS3 Motion ControllerPC World USA Today -Daily Mail -Ars Technica all 614 news articles »

Microsoft Shows Full 3D XNA Games On Windows Phone

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Veil Lifts Slightly on Apple’s Secret Plan to Control the Universe [Voices]

By Eliot Van Buskirk, Contributor, Epicenter, Wired.com

The recently unveiled secret agreement that Apple (AAPL) makes iPhone developers sign supports what many have suspected all along: Apple is trying to control the universe.

Much has been written anecdotally about the Apple app-approval process, with the words “arcane” and “Kafkaesque” coming up a lot. But the letter (and crimping spirit) of the agreement was a matter of pure speculation until the Electronic Frontier Foundation had the clever idea of making one developer an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Watermelons, Washington, and What We Call News Today [Voices]

By Dan Rather, Host, Dan Rather Reports

I must confess that until recently I had no idea what Twitter was. Even now, I’m not completely sure how it’s best used. When I want to post something, the younger, more tech-savvy people in my office help me out.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Can You Text Me Now? [Voices]

By Farhad Manjoo, Technology Columnist, Slate.com

Imagine you’ve just sat down to dinner with your spouse. Let’s say it’s a weeknight and there’s nothing particularly special about this meal—you’re at your own dining room table, neither one of you has slaved in the kitchen all day, and you don’t have anything especially important to discuss. Halfway through dinner, your phone buzzes with a text message.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Opera rolls out mobile browser for Android (Reuters)

Verizon officially launches the rugged, text-friendly Casio G’zOne Brigade

Just yesterday we were saying that Casio’s built-to-be-beaten G’zOne Brigade would be launching today — and sure enough, it just went live on Verizon’s web site.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Google maps your way to the bicycle path - San Jose Mercury News

Telegraph.co.uk

Google maps your way to the bicycle path San Jose Mercury News Adding an often-requested feature to Google Maps, the Mountain View Internet giant is offering directions customized for bicyclists. Google already provided directions for driving, walking or riding public transit, but pointing ... Hands On with Google Maps' Biking DirectionsPC Magazine Google Maps for Biking: Where's the Mobile App?PC World Google Maps now generates bike routesBetaNews Atlantic Online -TechNewsWorld -Bicycle Retailer all 479 news articles »

Target Targets Your Cellphone [Voices]

By Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Your iPhone can now save you $1 on cheese.

Giant discount retailer Target announced on Wednesday that it was rolling out a program to beam coupons directly to customers’ smartphones. The mobile coupons work just like their old-fashioned paper cousins: the checkout clerk scans them right from a barcode on your cellphone screen.

You get the coupons by signing up to receive SMS from Target, either at http://m.target.com or by texting COUPONS to 827438 (TARGET). After doing so, you’ll get text messages about once per month with a link to a mobile Web page that contains multiple special offers for super-techie shoppers. It would work on any cellphone that includes a Web browser.

Target is hardly the first brand to experiment with mobile coupons – there are apps aplenty that proffer deals at local stores, and J.C. Penney has tested a similar effort in some of its stores. But Target may be just about the largest retailer to roll out this sort of effort in all of its stores.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Daily Crunch: Pixeled Edition

Video: Pixel-bots to the rescue!
Even as tiny blocks, you’ll recognize Super Mario Bros. in this Arduino project
Aw, iPhone app fridge magnets
Move over Humping USB Dogs. Here comes the Dodobongo USB Dog.
NES game harmonicas let you blow on your cartridges for fun and profit

The Life Graph: You Are Your Location [Voices]

By Sam Altman, Co-Founder and CEO, Loopt

There’s a lot of attention being focused on location-based services and mobile social networks right now, and for good reason. These applications represent the future of social media. They’re expanding our circle of friends online and offline. They’re changing how we meet people. They’re affecting where we go and why. They’re forging important connections between our online networks and real life.

In short, while most technology isolates us behind computer screens and virtual worlds, location-based applications help us discover more, experience more and connect with others in the real world. It’s technology to save us from our technology. But in all the recent conversations about location-based services, there has been very little discussion so far about what we at Loopt think is the most interesting future of these services.

I call the set of all places that you go (and information about when you go, for how long, who with, etc.) the Life Graph. This data set is unique to everyone, and it’s incredibly rich. For example, it’d be easy to learn about me from the neighborhood I live in, the block that I work on, the kinds of restaurants I eat lunch at, and where I usually spend my Saturday afternoons.

The Life Graph creates a powerful model of who you are. As a publisher, when deciding what places and events to present you with, or what nearby users might be interesting for you to meet, we are far better off looking at your Life Graph data than at traditional demographic data. Instead of guessing what you should like based on your age and gender, we can make an incredibly informed guess about what you will like based on what you have liked in the past, and also based on what people you know like.

I hear great new ideas about what to do with this data all the time. For example, a service could learn the time and route you drive to work everyday and alert you if there’s traffic on your normal routes. Or, a service could suggest restaurants rated highly by people who also liked restaurants you like. Or, a service could tell you about “specials” being offered at locations you visit and enjoy frequently. More than just broadcasting your location and helping find nearby friends, these apps can deliver personal and contextually-relevant information that can help us discover and experience more of what’s around us. Certainly we think this kind of service will play into the future of mobile advertising.

Privacy is obviously a huge concern when dealing with an individual’s location history. We know that it’s critical to give users complete control over what data is stored and how it’s used, and to minimize retention of unnecessary data. (See a more in-depth account of Loopt’s privacy policies here. https://app.loopt.com/loopt/privacyNotice.aspx)

Our mobile devices are always with us, and they have a lot of sensors. We’re quickly reaching a time where everyone will create massive amounts of data about who they are and what they like just by walking through their worlds. I’m very excited about how this will revolutionize the personalization of mobile services.

Verizon officially launches the rugged, text-friendly Casio G’zOne Brigade

Just yesterday we were saying that Casio’s built-to-be-beaten G’zOne Brigade would be launching today — and sure enough, it just went live on Verizon’s web site.

As a rugged phone, it’s flagship feature is that it’s.. well, a rugged phone. These things usually don’t pack much functionality beyond that. This one, however, sneaks a full QWERTY keyboard into its clamshell body, along with push to talk, visual voice mail, and a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash.

Alas, durability doesn’t come cheap; the G’zOne will set you back $299 on a 2-year contract, though they’ll knock that down to $249 if you buy it online.

Lucid Imagination Raises $10 Million For Apache Search Technology

Lucid Imagination, the startup that commercially distributes the open source Apache Lucene and Apache Solr search technology, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from Shasta Ventures with Granite Ventures and Walden International participating in the round. This brings the company’s total funding to $16 million.

Lucid powers enterprise search technologies using the open source Lucene/Solr search. Customers include Zappos, Nike and Netflix. The new funding will be used to accelerate the adoption of Lucene/Solr search technology.

Launched in 2009, Lucid is seeing revenue in the “millions,” and counts Google’s enterprise search product as a direct competitor.

Sony unveils new motion contoller to slow Nintendo (AP)

The Future of Wind Power May Be Underground

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Opera Mini 5 Beta Now Available For Android

Sure, Opera Mini may (or may not) already be the most popular mobile browser in the world — but why stop there? Following up on the Android release of Opera Mobile 4 just over a year ago, Opera has just launched Opera Mini 5 for Android into public beta.

The jump from version 4 to version 5 is pretty huge, introducing a handful of features that Opera says “makes your mobile browsing experience as close as it can be to your desktop experience.”

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Opera Mini 5 Beta Now Available For Android

Sure, Opera Mini may (or may not) already be the most popular mobile browser in the world — but why stop there? Following up on the Android release of Opera Mobile 4 just over a year ago, Opera has just launched Opera Mini 5 for Android into public beta.

The jump from version 4 to version 5 is pretty huge, introducing a handful of features that Opera says “makes your mobile browsing experience as close as it can be to your desktop experience.”

The biggest change here is probably the introduction of tabbed browsing — a must, given that just about every default smartphone browser supports it out of the box at this point.

Some of the other big new features:

• Speed Dial: Gives you one-touch access to 9 of your favorite sites.
• Password Manager
• Opera Link: Syncs your bookmarks (and Speed Dial) between your handset and your desktop (be it that you’re running Opera on your desktop, that is)

Is Opera Mini 5 a worthy contender to the default Android browser? I’d say so. Opera Mini’s primary selling point is that they pipe everything through a data compression proxy before sending it to your handset. For those days when 3G just isn’t as fast as it should be, it’ll save you time; for those of us not on unlimited data plans, it’ll save some money. Alas, the current Beta doesn’t support multi-touch, which may very well be a deal-killer for some

Still: throw in Opera Mini 5’s seemingly rock solid build quality and its pretty dang decent UI, and I’d say it’s worth giving it a serious test session at the very least. Look for it in the Android App Market.

UPDATE 1-Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest

UPDATE 1-Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest

Fat is a flavor?

Fat is a flavor?

I believe that this is true -- and that fat can offset bitterness the same way that sweet can. For example, raw cacao nibs mixed with cashew nuts taste sweet and chocolatey.

"We know that the human tongue can detect five tastes -- sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (a savoury, protein-rich taste contained in foods such as soy sauce and chicken stock)," Russell Keast, from Deakin University, said Monday.

"Through our study we can conclude that humans have a sixth taste -- fat."

Researchers tested 30 people's ability to taste a range of fatty acids in otherwise plain solutions and found that all were able to determine the taste -- though some required higher concentrations than others.

(Image: Beale's Open Kettle Rendered Pure Lard, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Steve Snodgrass' photostream)

TSA analyst indicted for tampering with terrorist watchlists

TSA analyst indicted for tampering with terrorist watchlists

Douglas James Duchak, 46, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday with two counts of damaging protected computers. According to a federal indictment, Duchak tried to compromise computers at the TSA's Colorado Springs Operations Center (CSOC) on Oct. 22, 2009, seven days after he'd being given two weeks notice that he was being dismissed. He was also charged with tampering with a TSA server that contained data from the U.S. Marshal's Service Warrant Information Network.

He "knowingly transmitted code into the CSOC server that contained the Terrorist Screening Database, and thereby attempted intentionally to cause damage to the CSOC computer and database," prosecutors said Wednesday in a press release.

Hackers on Planet Earth NYC conference is looking for tech-art

Hackers on Planet Earth NYC conference is looking for tech-art

Fun-loving hackers and improbable tech-art: what a match made in heaven! HOPE is probably my top conference that I've never been to (I almost made it in 1999 but the flight was cancelled!). I continue to miss it every year, despite my best efforts (it usually overlaps my birthday, which is family time, for obvious reasons!), but I vow to go someday.

I mean, just have a look at that call for proposals: games to be played by thousands of hackers over three floors of a massive hotel; midnight to 9AM sessions; hardware hacking village... Talk about nerdvana.

Call for Projects and Tech Art (Thanks, aestetix!)

Pulling the tablecloth out from under the place-settings with a performance motorcycle

Pulling the tablecloth out from under the place-settings with a performance motorcycle

This is a very clever way to promote your performance motorcycle: BMW chains a very, very long tablecloth with a very, very elaborate cluster of place-settings to a S 1000 RR "superbike" and has a driver roar off, taking the cloth away and leaving the dinner setup intact. Impressive acceleration!

Video: BMW S 1000 RR pulls off the old tablecloth trick (Thanks, Alan!)

Dell stumbles, almost drops to #3 in the top PC manufacturers

Bad news for Dell. Despite the fact that it’s looking like IT spending is increasing, Dell is still suffering from lackluster sales. iSuppli, the company that tracks worldwide PC shipping, reports that in the ongoing battle for dominance in the PC marketshare, Dell has staggered, and almost slipped down to number three.

The news isn’t all bad though, because as one company falls, another will rise. Surprisingly, the company that’s rising to the top happens to be Acer. In 4Q2009, Acer almost managed to top Dell in units shipped for the first time ever, with a impressive 11.86 million PCs sold. HP of course is still king of the hill, but for Acer to come that close could spell bad news for Dell in 1Q2010.

Art of film title sequences

The sequence was designed by Saul Bass, who tossed aside a more mechanical approach that had largely prevailed in Hollywood to create story-telling openings for films like "Psycho," "North by Northwest" and, later, "Goodfellas" and "The Age of Innocence."

(Among the entries at South by Southwest, "Cigarette Girl," an independent film about a world in which smoking restrictions have murderous consequences, is one that recalls the Bass oeuvre: guns, cigarettes and people flicker between the real and the abstract, over a cool-toned soundtrack.)

Before his death in 1996, Bass had been nominated for Oscars three times, winning once, for his short films. But his work on the titles fell through the cracks of a film industry awards system that has given far more recognition to directors

The Clash, Blondie, and Cobain sneakers from Converse

UPDATE 1-Fate of AIG Taiwan unit's sale may be decided in H1

MySpace upping ante in online social games (AFP)

AFP - MySpace began courting videogame developers as it moved to capitalize on the booming popularity of playing games online at social networks.

New Phone Allows Bosses To Snoop On Staff

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

How to Build An Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition PC - PC Magazine

ComputerShopper.com

How to Build An Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition PC PC Magazine Intel has just rolled out its fastest chip, the Intel Core i7-980X (codenamed "Gulftown"). We build a desktop PC worthy of its crazy-fast performance. by Daniel S. Evans DIY PC builders, rejoice! If you always need to have the most cutting-edge ... When Four Cores Aren't Enough: Intel's Core i7-980X Extreme EditionPC World Intel debuts six-core gaming chipCNET Intel Core i7-980X Performance Preview: 6-Core Processing ArrivesFiringSquad Apple Insider -ComputerShopper.com -The Tech Herald all 76 news articles »

MySpace Revamps for Revival - PC World

Sydney Morning Herald

MySpace Revamps for Revival PC World Co-Presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones announced their plans to revamp the former social media giant -- plans that include a brand-new version of the site that will be implemented over the next few months. According to Reuters , Hirschhorn wants ... MySpace readies site overhaul to rekindle growthReuters Once-fading MySpace focuses on youthful reincarnationUSA Today Microsoft Outlook makes friends with MySpaceCNET San Francisco Chronicle -ChannelWeb -ABC News all 378 news articles »

US bailout watchdog criticizes Treasury over GMAC

Shining Cuckoo Clock

Razer announces drivers for the Mac

Razer announced today that they are going to be releasing Mac drivers for all of their future products. This comes on the heels of the announcement that Steam is coming to the Macintosh as well.

Razer specifically mentioned the upcoming line of StarCraft II peripherals, which makes sense in light of the fact that Blizzard has always released a Mac version of their games at the same time as their PC versions. From the press release:

RAZER™ REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO SUPPORT MAC® USERS

Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, Calif. – March 10, 2010 – Today at the Game Developers Conference, Razer, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, announced an effort to increase support for Mac users by issuing driver support for all upcoming Razer products, including the Razer StarCraft® II peripheral suite.

“I’m very proud to say that at Razer, we are committed to supporting both Mac and PC gamers,” said Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff, president, Razer USA. “We are constantly working to increase driver support for Mac with our existing Razer products and have plans to release all of our new products with dedicated Mac and PC drivers. This is a really exciting opportunity to expand the gaming industry and make it more inclusive for Mac users by providing the same level of support that we give to our PC users.”

In April of 2008, the Razer DeathAdder™ for Mac was revealed, crafted specifically to provide Max OS X users with the same legendary ergonomic form factor and precision enjoyed by the PC gaming community. Complete with lunar white accents to accentuate the crisp, clean lines customary to Apple® products, the Razer DeathAdder for Mac is loaded with 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ technology and five independently programmable Razer Hyperesponse™ buttons.

Today, Razer is proud to offer several options for the Mac gaming community, providing full Mac support for the Razer Naga™, the world’s best selling MMO gaming mouse, as well as the Razer DeathAdder, a cult favorite among the right-handed gaming community. Razer is completely committed to supporting Mac users and will be releasing drivers to equip existing products with Mac compatibility. Basic Mac support is already available for the Razer Orochi™, Razer Mamba™ and Razer Imperator™, with further updates scheduled for later this year.

Minister of Truth: Meet Britain's Top Data Cop

March 11, 1985: ConnNet Lets the Public Jack In, X.25 Style

Taiwan hopes to decide on AIG's Taiwan sale in H1

Motorola: Microsoft To Provide Search,Map Functions On Its New Phones - Wall Street Journal

PC World

Motorola: Microsoft To Provide Search,Map Functions On Its New Phones Wall Street Journal Motorola Inc. (MOT) said Tuesday it entered a deal with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in which the US software maker will provide search and map capabilities on Motorola's new smart phones, with the new offering to be launched in China in the current quarter. ... Motorola, Microsoft in deal to put Bing on phonesReuters Motorola Cliq XT - silver (T-Mobile)CNET Android Dominates, Windows Mobile Plummets, iPhone StagnantPC World TheStreet.com -Phandroid.com -BetaNews all 167 news articles »

New racing videogames set to rev up sales

New racing videogames set to rev up sales (Reuters)

Reuters - Blatant disregard for oncoming traffic and speed limits will get you into serious trouble on the road, but drivers seeking similar thrills can indulge in a fleet of new racing video games due out soon.

Census campaign targets tech-savvy Hispanic youth (AP)

AP - Groups pushing for robust Hispanic participation in the 2010 census announced a new campaign Thursday that aims to reach the hard-to-count demographic through its smart-phone-toting youngsters.

MySpace Revamps for Revival (PC World)

Thursday Signal - Repeat After Me: Apps Are (Currently) Myopic (Or...We've Seen This Movie Before...)

The Pokemon return: HeartGold and SoulSilver

So I got a random delivery today, and I was quite surprised to see it was from Nintendo. Even more surprising was when I opened the box and saw they had sent me the two latest Pokemon games, HeartGold and SoulSilver. What was even more interesting was when I started to read the enclosed literature that explained exactly what’s new about these two games.

One of the criticisms leveled at video games is that they encourage children to sit on the couch instead of going outside. Nintendo has of course bucked this trend with the Wii Fit and other games that have been coming out recently that encourage getting up and moving around. Imagine my surprise when I saw that HeartGold and SoulSilver include something called a “Pokewalker”.

What is a Pokewalker? Well, apparently you can download your favorite Pokemon into a small pedometer that you clip to your clothing, and then you take your Pokemon for a walk. Walking your Pokemon will increase it’s happiness, help it to gain experience points, and even help you to catch other species of Pokemon. Kids (and let’s be honest, adults too) can connect two Pokewalkers to gain special gifts. I love it!

Gameplay is the same as the other Pokemon games, but feels closest to the most recent release, Pokemon Diamond. This is actually a great thing, since Pokemon Diamond is considered to be one of the best games of the franchise. I haven’t had a chance to try the Pokewalker yet, but I’ll update this story after I reach the level where I can use it.

CORRECTED-Black & Decker CEO may have very big payday - WSJ

Bill Gates’ hurricane-busting tubeships are real, people

Last year, I wrote that Bill had this (let’s be honest) evil-genius style plan to weaken hurricanes before they make landfall. Sounded a bit fantastical at the time, but as it turns out, there are real scientists ready to rock and roll with these things. They’re so serious they even put together a video.

The idea is really pretty simple: by pumping warm surface water to the cool depths of the ocean, the temperature at the surface can be reduced by a few degrees, which is apparently all it takes to weaken a hurricane.

[via Gizmodo]

Apple iPod Shuffle 4 GB (PC World)

Apple’s Magic Mouse: fixed at last

I handle a lot of mice in this job (right now I’m using the Mionix Naos 5000) and I have to say that if a mouse were, like the Magic Mouse, shaped completely wrong for human hands, I would throw it away and never speak of it again. Others, while perhaps more crafty, are far less principled, and will go so far as to fabricate a silicone crutch to rest their hand on. There, I fixed it!

Now, if you can’t live without the few multi-touch gestures you can do on the Magic Mouse, this thing is probably a good idea, and it’ll set you back $10 plus $3 shipping. But if the idea of using a device that was clearly not designed with ergonomic principles seems silly to you, as it does to me, then pick up one of the many great mice that are supported or semi-supported on OS X. I understand the Logitech MX Revolution is excellent, and many of Razer’s mice are supported as well.

Video Chat on the Plane? Illegal? OK? Legal Gray Area?

Whrrl 3 Wants To Kill Farmville. Not Foursquare. Not Gowalla. Farmville.

Pelago knows that just about every location-based app in the world is seeking coverage right now just prior to SXSW where they will all battle Highlander-style. So they approached me with a pretty smart pitch: curing the “social rut.” What they mean by that is these days, despite the prevalence of social networks, people are actually less social than ever because they’re being roped into playing games like Farmville and Mafia Wars for hours on end. Sitting in their rooms. Alone.

While that may be a part of social networking (a rather large, hugely profitably part), it’s not really social. That’s why location-based networks excite me: they have the potential to bridge social networking with actual social activity. And that’s exactly how Pelago is positioning the latest version of its location-based app, Whrrl 3.

The core idea behind the new iPhone app (which launched in the store today) is that people inspire others to do things. So when you see a friend is out doing something fun, you may want to join them. Or it may entice you to go out and do something else, and hope others see it on Whrrl and join in. It’s the grouping of people with similar interests into “Societies” that is a key to Whrrl 3. For example, a basic society is that each venue in the application has its own set of “regulars.” If you visit the place enough times, you unlock the badge making you a regular, and giving you access to member-level activities, such as recommendations and specials nearby.

One of these societies, launching alongside the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas this week is the Austin Underground which “will provide members with at-your-fingertips access to the hottest parties, events, and other fun things to do at the conference,” according to Whrrl. Over 50 merchants in Austin are participating to provide exclusive offers, apparently. To unlock the membership, you have to check-in at some of the following places: Four Seasons Hotel Austin, Outback Steakhouse, Cool River Cafe, Chuggin’ Monkey, J Black’s, Red Fez and Third Base, and others.

Other key features of Whrrl 3 include Recommendations — you create these (with photos, if you choose), to let others in your social graph (or your society) know fun things to do in an area. Ideas, are recommendations served up to you from societies you’re a part of, your friends, or Whrrl’s algorithms. Fun Facts are shown each time you check-in to a venue, with information about it. And of course, there is a point system (Influence Points) that turn the whole thing into one big game. What’s interesting about Whrrl’s game is that you can get point by inspiring others to do things with the app. Points also allow you to level up in your societies for more special deals.

All of this is an extension of the “footstreams” idea that Whrrl launched last December. That’s where they also first introduced the society idea as well. The key to both of those is about real people doing real things in the real world.  That, in turn, shows what you’re interested in, and allows Whrrl to clump you into these groups with out like-minded people.

So that all sounds great, but will anyone use the app? After all, adoption has been a problem in the past and this isn’t the first time Whrrl is pivoting its product. In fact, they actually did exactly a year ago with Whrrl 2 just before SXSW.

Their main problem is convincing people to use Whrrl instead of the current location-based darlings, Foursquare and Gowalla. That’s going to be difficult because those networks are quickly building up social graphs and once those are established, users are less likely to leave. So Whrrl needs something to differentiate itself, and while their pitch to me is good, it’s an entirely different matter convincing users. And the things that would seem to help differentiate networks like Whrrl actually hurt them sometimes. For example, since location-based services are still new to so many people, it’s best to keep things as simple as possible. But Whrrl is piling on features that, while maybe cool, are likely to confuse new users.

Still, if Whrrl is able to secure some solid deals around Austin to get people using the app and checking-in, that could certainly get people using it. Of course, Foursquare and Gowalla have their own deals too. Then the problem becomes one I’ve had this past week while testing out all these location apps: fatigue. I can’t possibly check-in with each of these apps each time I move from place to place. The people I’m with have started rolling their eyes at me while I take my 10 minutes to check-in to all the different apps.

I’m not saying there can be only one. But one would sure be nice.

Find Whrrl 3 in the App Store here.

ARM guy: 50 tablet computers coming out in 2010

Man oh man. This is going to be like the netbooksplosion that happened after the EeePC hit. Roy Chen, a big man at ARM, said at a press meeting that they expect perhaps 50 tablet computers to be made available worldwide in 2010. Of course, in the US, we’ll only see a fraction of them — maybe 15 or 20. Some of these will be knockoffs, some Android devices, some this or that or the other thing, and of course all of them are going up against the iPad and will likely measure their specs against it and not each other.

You’ll also see a lot of fragmentation at the size level before one size gets established as the “standard.” Five inches? Seven inches? Nine? Ten? How about dual screens?

It’ll be interesting to be sure, but I get the feeling that, like netbooks, the first year is going to be ugly, iPad included.

[via Wired]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9168418/ARM_sees_over_50_new_iPad_like_devices_out_this_year

Taiwan to seek more info from AIG Nan Shan buyer

Former TSA Analyst Charged With Computer Tampering

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Prototype $200 Tablet Runs Android, Chromium OS, Linux (PC World)

Michelle Obama launches Apps for Healthy Kids

Verizon sees opportunity in iPad

Section: Apple, Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers

Although the iPad’s 3G version is targeted for AT&T users only, Verizon is seeing a golden opportunity in the device’s upcoming release. Sales documents leaked to Engadget show Verizon is prepping it’s staff to encourage customers to buy the WiFi only version instead and then pick up a MiFi and data plan It’s a savings of $130 for the customer and a sweet deal for Verizon. There’s one hitch though-Verizon’s data plan costs a hefty $60, $30 more than AT&T’s unlimited iPad only plan.

Of course that $30 AT&T data plan may not do much good in areas such as New York and San Francisco where the company’s data network is already overwhelmed by iPhone users. Adding equally data hungry iPads to the mix may end up being a recipe for disaster. If it were me, I’d go for the WiFi only version.

Read [Engadget]

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

Another Hourtime Episode for your pleasure

In this episode the boys talk about the upcoming Basel show and offer some tips on collecting.

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Quote of the day: 7-year-old boy, calling 911 when armed men attacked home

Quote of the day: 7-year-old boy, calling 911 when armed men attacked home

Questions about research slow efforts to tackle climate change - USA Today

Globe and Mail

Questions about research slow efforts to tackle climate change USA Today By Brian Winter By Brian Winter, USA TODAY STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The violent threats are not what bother Michael Mann the most. He's used to them. Instead, it's the fact that his life's work — the effort to stop global warming — has been under siege ... Review of UN panel's report on climate change won't reexamine errorsWashington Post Panel Will Review UN Climate WorkNew York Times After Climate-Gate, UN Submits to Independent ReviewFOXNews BusinessWeek -The Associated Press -Voice of America all 552 news articles »

Huge 'botnet' amputated, but criminals reconnect (AP)

3*TYPE text leaps out at you

Ring of Honor figures out the Internet, launches video download store to discourage BitTorrent piracy

Credit to Ring of Honor, the professional wrestling promotion, for embracing the Internet era. The promotion has launched a new download store that makes its extensive video library only a $10 download away. A legal download, mind you. It’s all a fan could ever ask for.

The process is pretty easy. You visit the Web site, add the video of your choice—I selected Joe vs. Punk II, from October, 2004 (which received a 5-star rating from The Wrestling Observer newsletter)—then buy via PayPal. A link then appears in the Account area of the Web site. In there is a link to a plain ol’ ISO that you then download at your leisure. The servers don’t seem to be too beefy since the download is running only at around 300 KB/s right now (6:30pm). Still, it’s quite a bit faster than waiting for a plastic disc to arrive in the mail.

It should also be noted that Ring of Honor regularly hosts Internet pay-per-view events, including one on April 3. So, “figures out the Internet” may be a bit harsh.

Companies like Ring of Honor have been fighting piracy for quite some time. There’s a couple fairly high profile BitTorrent sites that specialize in professional wrestling, and their DVDs are often ripped and posted and as soon as they’re released. It’s one thing to download a WWE DVD rip, where the company makes millions of dollars every year, but smaller guys like Ring of Honor truly do get hurt every time you fire up uTorrent. (Not to justify downloading WWE DVDs, of course.) But giving people an easy-to-use, inexpensive, and legal method to access their video library is to be commend, and it probably should have happened sooner.

I’d much rather be given the option of paying $10 for an ISO than having to sift my way through this or that torrent site, worrying about whether or not there’s a seeder in the swarm.

Motorola, Microsoft in deal to put Bing on phones (Reuters)

doubleTwist’s iTunes Alternative (That Works With Android) Adds Podcast Support

Over the last six months, doubleTwist, the iTunes alternative that lets you manage your music, videos, and photos, has really been stepping up its game. In October the company integrated an Amazon-powered MP3 store, allowing users to download and sync their music directly with any of hundreds of compatible devices, much as they would with the iTunes/iPod combo. And today it’s adding a new feature that makes it an even more viable iTunes competitor: support for podcasts.

Co-founder Monique Farantzos says that doubleTwist has built and integrated a podcast search engine with 20 times as many podcasts as iTunes offers. Rankings are based on popularity (as opposed to a simple listing that would grow unmanageable with that much content). The new feature is launching on Windows now, with Mac support for podcasts coming next month.  Later this year, doubleTwist will offer an API allowing other applications to tap into the podcast search engine.  The company is also planning to launch a client for Android (which would presumably allow users to stream content) over the summer.

Farantzos says that doubleTwist is also going to start offering more cloud-based services. In May, users will be able to store the podcasts they’re subscribed to server-side, so they’ll be able to use the same subscriptions on their desktop and mobile clients without having to dock them together.

While it supports many devices, doubleTwist is becoming increasingly popular as an ‘iTunes for Android’. In January, it forged a partnership with T-Mobile, which promotes doubleTwist and has pre-installed it on some devices. Now, 53% of doubleTwist users are using it to sync with Android phones. The application also supports syncing with many other devices, including WebOS, BlackBerry, Sony PSP, and digital cameras.

doubleTwist is still missing some of the functionality that iTunes has, like the ability to download TV shows and movies. But the podcast functionality will add some video content, and 1 in 5 users are using it to manage video content they already have.  And some people may even appreciate the added simplicity if they’re just interested in music. In any case, it probably isn’t worth holding your breath for doubleTwist to add movies and TV downloads any time soon — content owners are still set on wrapping that content in DRM.

Also see Songbird, another iTunes alternative (you can see our past coverage here).

Irex's E-Reader Poses No Threat to the Kindle [Personal Technology]

The tech industry and media are focused on Apple’s (AAPL) forthcoming iPad tablet computer, a multifunction device that includes an e-book reader. Meanwhile, with much less fanfare, other companies are pressing ahead with conventional, dedicated e-readers aimed at the leader in the category: Amazon’s Kindle.

These more focused, monochrome devices aren’t as flashy or as versatile as the iPad, which handles everything from email to games. But they cost less and are aimed wholly at people who seek to read books and periodicals in digital form.

I’ve been testing one such new e-reader from a company that has been in the business for years, but is mainly known in Europe. It is called the Irex DR800SG and costs $400 at bestbuy.com (BBY)—about $140 more than the Kindle. While the DR800SG uses the same electronic ink screen technology as the Kindle, it has some major differences: in screen size, in user interface, and in the way it wirelessly downloads books and newspapers.

The Irex is shorter but wider than the Kindle, and has an 8.1-inch screen, versus the Kindle’s 6-inch screen. It’s slightly thicker than the Kindle, but about 25% heavier. It has a single, thin page-turning and menu button on the left side, while the Kindle has larger, multiple buttons on both sides. Both devices claim to hold about 1,500 books.

Irex, a Los Angeles-based company whose products are engineered in the Netherlands, produced its first e-reader in 2004, but this new model is its first aimed specifically at the American market and its first to use the cellular 3G network for downloading content.

The Irex DR800SG

The new Irex has some advantages over the Kindle. Its larger screen makes for a better reading experience, allowing many more words to show on the page, at similar font sizes. The screen also seems slightly sharper.

The Irex looks sleeker than the Kindle, because it has a much thinner bezel around the screen, due mainly to the lack of a physical keyboard. It also does a better job of organizing your reading material, grouping items into separate folders for books, newspapers, and personal documents.

And, instead of being linked to a single online store, like Amazon (AMZN), it uses a “mall” concept, designed to allow users to choose from many different online stores, though only two are available now. The principal merchant in the mall so far is the Barnes & Noble e-book store—the same one used on the Barnes & Noble (BKS) Nook e-reader—which claims about a million titles. The other store is called NewspaperDirect, which claims over 1,000 newspapers.

However, in my tests, I found the Irex much clumsier to use than the Kindle and, because of that, I still prefer the Amazon device. For instance, the Irex requires a stylus—an ancient and fading navigation device—for some operations. Yet it lacks a holder for this pointer except in the leather cover, so the stylus is easy to lose. The Irex also lacks a Home button, a note-taking function, any way to highlight text and a built-in dictionary.

More important, I found the mall concept for downloading books to be frustrating. Because the Irex isn’t seamlessly linked to its own online store, I had to establish, or sign into, four different accounts to test the device fully. Even after that, each Barnes & Noble download required multiple steps. On the Kindle, ordering books is a breeze, and they appear almost instantly after you click a single “Buy” button.

This last issue is a trade-off between greater choice and simpler, quicker functionality. Some readers will be willing to make that trade-off, especially if Irex is able to add specialized stores in the future that offer, say, a large selection of non-English-language books. But, for most Americans with typical book needs, I find the current trade-off unacceptable.

For example, books I bought from Barnes & Noble appeared slowly on the Irex. The device seemed to have to turn on its radio and establish a new connection each time. Also, until I opened each book, they appeared on the screen identified only by a geeky file name. And, after I opened each, there was a long delay while the device did something called “counting pages.”

The company says that some of these shortcomings will be fixed in a software update due as soon as next month. It promises there will be a note-taking function, speedier wireless connections and the elimination of the counting-pages delay. It also says it is working on a universal log-in system for its mall of stores. But highlighting and a dictionary are only being “considered” for a future revision.

On the bright side, I was able to easily plug the Irex into a PC and Mac, and manually drag onto it personal PDF files, pictures and even a free book I bought at a Web site.

Irex says it is working on a color model for next year. I hope it works more smoothly than the DR800SG.

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

Google Apps Marketplace brings cloud computing to businesses

Section: Web, Google

Google has been always the household name for anything internet-related. It became even better when it released its own email hosting service – Gmail.com, which proceeded to Gtalk – an online instant messenger.  The next leap was the purchase of YouTube, the largest video sharing network.  The world was in shock and awe.

We all thought that’s the end of the road for the Internet Mogul.  Then, Google Inc. starts Google Apps, a combination of Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites, which gained about more than 2 million businesses hooked to it in 3 years.  With that huge desire for more, Google now introduces Google Apps Marketplace that sells integrated business software which is hosted as a service on the cloud.

Google Apps Marketplace is now the home for software from more than 50 companies. Among the software available are Intuit Online Payroll, Manymoon (a project management app), Professional Services Connect (selects relevant information on people, projects, customers and transactions from a user’s domain and surfaces it directly inside a Gmail message), and JIRA studio (a software development suite that integrates Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and other existing apps) . With cloud computing, it has swept away all the burdens of network planning, server and software setups, system maintenance etc. into the dumpster.  That is one huge saving, and this creates more capital to be invested and bring businesses to greater heights.

Through time, there will be always a newer and better version.  Current businesses would tend to procure newer computers and obtain new software licenses.  Fortunately, with Cloud, businesses can now maintain their current computers and just continue subscribing to the services, as software providers will patch the given software accordingly.  No more harassment from newer software versions or patches.

Besides the end users, software providers can achieve a much bigger and wider market than ever before thought possible.  Huge savings on software manufacturing and distribution costs.  This is really a win-win situation for all.  Who says you got to spend a lot of money to make a lot of money?

Conventional software providers watch out!  Be prepared to be up in the “Cloud” or be left behind.

Read [Official Google Blog]

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

Indiagames Partners With IPL And Facebook To Launch Social Cricket Games

Earlier this year, Google landed a “landmark” deal with Global Cricket Ventures, the licensing partner to the Indian Premier League (IPL), which would give them the so rights to live stream cricket matches from the IPL on YouTube. This is a huge deal because the streaming of the 2010 IPL season (which starts on Friday and lasts for 45 days) is the first time a large-scale global sporting event will be streamed; with the reach expected to be at least a half-a-billion viewers. Now of of India’s largest gaming companies, Indiagames, has bought the official gaming rights to the IPL tournament to deliver games around the Indian cricket tournament.

Indiagames will be launching a series of web and mobile apps throughout the next 45 days. The first app, called IPL Indiagames T20 Fever, is an online game that uses Facebook Connect to allow users to create cricket teams consisting of both Facebook friends and IPL professional cricketers. The game will also include micro-transaction support, allowing users to users to virtually buy IPL players to improve their chances of becoming the IPL Champion.

A second, not yet released online game, called ‘IPL Indiagames 140Cricket’ will be based on a “Cricket Manager” concept and will target Twitter and Facebook users to construct and manage teams. The gaming company will also be rolling out a Facebook game as well. Indiagames partnered with Facebook to develop all three of the games.

While the IPL tournament will be streaming on YouTube, the fact that the official game will have a presence on Facebook will certainly draw Indian cricket fans to the social network. This should help give Facebook an edge over rival social network Orkut in India.

Brizzly’s Been Busy — Buying Apps, Creating Guides, And Going On Picnics.

Since it launched last July at our Realtime Stream CrunchUp, Brizzly has been one of the best web-based Twitter apps. It offers support for viewing pictures inline, shortened link expansion, multiple Twitter accounts, and even some Facebook support. But they’ve been quiet in recent months. Now we know why.

The Brizzly team went into hibernation because they made a couple of acquisitions, and have been working on a new feature. First, they bought one of my favorite Twitter iPhone apps, Birdfeed. One of the earliest apps to gain Twitter geolocation support, I had been worrying that Birdfeed would go extinct because developer Buzz Andersen recently joined Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment startup, Square. But since the acquisition (which actually occurred in the November/December timeframe), Andersen has been working closely with the Brizzly team to wrap the app in its new skin.

And it’s more than just a new skin, as Brizzly for the iPhone, the app gained support for posting pictures to the service (or using Flickr), Twitter Lists, and tab editing to better customize the app. Also, if you are on a tweet page that has a photo link attached, you’ll be able to see a preview of that photo. It’s a robust client that stands among the best for the iPhone. And it has a bonus feature: News.

The News tab on the iPhone app actually ties in to the big new feature for Brizzly itself: Brizzly Guide. Previously, Brizzly’s website had an area on the side where users could explain the current trending topics on Twitter. Now, that area is a larger site, Brizzly Guide, which gives you more detail about the trending topics. This is actually quite useful as a source of news information because it can tell you both quickly and rather throughly why something is trending. For example, this page for Chuck Norris shows his name is trending because today is his 70th birthday. The page includes images (in this case, of Norris), and links to other relevant information about him. It also has an except from Wikipedia to tell you more.

These Brizzly Guides are all community-built, like Wikipedia. Anyone (with a Brizzly account) can edit them at anytime. Top contributors are displayed at the bottom of the Guide site, as are top trends this week. You can also search these guides, to look up previously hot topics.

The other acquisition Brizzly made could potentially be very interesting in the long run: Wikirank. Though the service was shut down a little while ago so that the team behind Small Batch Inc. (its parent) could focus on their new project, Typekit (which aims to better fonts to the web), it remained an interesting one. As a visualization and analytics tool for Wikipedia, Wikirank showed data in interesting ways that offered insight not seen on the face of Wikipedia itself. Though Brizzly co-founder Jason Shellen isn’t yet sure what they’re going to do with Wikirank, the idea will probably be along the lines of visualization and analytics of this Brizzly Guide information.

Shellen also notes that Brizzly signed an enterprise agreement for Typekit so that they can use it on Brizzly Guide.

Something else Brizzly has been working on: a new idea called “Picnics” (here’s an example). Basically, this allows someone to pick out tweets from the public Twitter stream and respond to them in a different, but still public, environment. Brizzly tested out the idea the other night during the hit Fox show House (frequent House director Greg Yaitanes is an investor in Brizzly parent Thing Labs), and Fox even promoted it. Actor Jesse Spencer (who plays Dr. Robert Chase on the show) responded to tweets directed at him as they came in.

While Picnic isn’t ready for a full-scale roll-out just yet, Shellen notes that it “should prove to really transformative for us in the near future – expect to see more picnics in the future.”

And if all that wasn’t enough, something else Brizzly has been working on recently: a new round of funding. Stay tuned.

Find the free Brizzly iPhone app in the App Store here.

St. Bede's College Replaces Wired Connections with High Performance Wi-Fi from Xirrus

"Mythical Man-Month" Supposedly Busted By MIT Startup

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The X-Change Corporation Announces Appointment of Board of Directors and Officers

The X-Change Corporation Announces Dismissal of Members of Board of Directors and Officers

Classic Videogames Mutate in 'Game Over' Art Show

Gamertell Review: Polk Audio’s HitMaster gaming stage monitor

FROM GAMERTELL - Polk Audio wants to help add even more realism to your grand at-home jam illusion with its HitMaster stage monitor. And if you try to smash it The Who style, it may win. Check out Gamertell’s review of the HitMaster…
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Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Sonos To Take Investment From Index Ventures, Add Mike Volpi To Board Of Directors

Sonos, the Santa Barbara, California based startup that develops of wireless multi-room music systems, is taking a new round of financing from London-based Index Ventures, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Partner Mike Volpi, a forcer Cisco exec who found himself in the middle of a huge drama last year around eBay’s Skype spinoff, will join the board of directors of Sonos.

Volpi will bring real expertise to the Sonos board. As recently as 2007 he ran an $11 billion routing and access products busines for Cisco. He clearly knows how to sell products at scale.

Sonos has been around since 2003 and has raised some $40 million from private angel investors and BV Capital. Until last year the company sold very high end music products that users loved passionately, but the mutli-thousand dollar price point for a complete system made mainstream penetration difficult.

But in 2009 Sonos began selling a new product, the S5 music system, that users control via their iPhone. The S5 is just $400 and has driven “massive growth” says the company.

Like Flip last year, Sonos likely had a choice between selling now or raising new money for major expansion. Flip sold to Cisco. Sonos, it seems, is taking more money, but adding an ex-Cisco exec as well. Perhaps they’ll get their cake and eat it, too.

Sonos wouldn’t comment on this story. But we believe the deal will close and be announced in the next week or two.

Next Conversation: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski - CNET

Reuters

Next Conversation: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski CNET FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has a pretty busy Outlook calendar. The government's recently announced National Broadband Plan promises 100-megabit service to 100 million people by 2020. The plan may propose offering free broadband ... FCC Plan May Seek Free BroadbandInformationWeek Former FCC Chair Says More Fiber Will Help Wireless CrunchPC World Free wireless broadband plan is déjà vu all over againArs Technica MediaPost Publications -Hot Hardware -TMCnet all 185 news articles »

PROTEUS Winner of Prestigious Nunn-Perry Award

With Its New Release, Gowalla Expands The Check-In Game (Video)

Regular readers will know my love for all things location. In particular, these check-in location-based services fascinate me, mainly because I see them as a bridge between social networks as we’ve known it, and actual social interaction in the real world. Foursquare has been my app of choice over the past year (it launched almost exactly a year ago at SXSW). But the latest version of Gowalla has me thinking about switching sides. At the very least, I’ll be using both at all times now.

Gowalla version 2.0 for the iPhone just hit the App Store today. With it, you’ll notice a few different things. First and foremost, the overall look has been updated from a sort of Army green, to a more subtle light green that is much easier on the eyes. More significantly, the toolbar has been reworked so that now social activity is front and center when you load the app, while your own activity is the last tab. Both of these changes are things I’ve complained about since day one with Gowalla, so they’re certainly welcome. But that’s not why I’m excited for the app. I’m excited because it takes the idea of the check-in and extends it.

Specifically, you can now add pictures and comments to check-ins in Gowalla. This makes for a much richer social experience both using the app and the website (the data goes over there as well). As founder and CEO Josh Williams describes in the video below, there were a lot of people who wanted to talk about the social activity on Gowalla, but previously they had to text message or email their friends to say something like “hey I saw you check-in at the restaurant, want some company?” Now, that type of dialogue can take place all within the app.

Now, others have tried to add additional layers to check-ins in the past. Why I think it works with Gowalla 2.0 is because they keep it simple. The application is extremely handsome (since the beginning, everyone is quick to note how good the designers are working for the team) and intuitive. There are only a few basic things you can do, and all are obvious from the main screen. You can either check-in at a venue, comment on your friends’ check-ins (with the new chat bubble in the stream), look at the spots around you, see trips (pre-planned venue excursions), or look at your own activity.

Previously, with Gowalla, I thought the focus was too much on their virtual items. Those are now tucked away in your Passport (your profile). They’re still important, and will be increasingly so for Gowalla’s revenue model (trading virtual goods for real-world items), but they’re not in your face, confusing users.

All that said, there are two downsides still to the service. First, the social activity stream includes everybody that your friends with. With Foursquare, the people currently in the same city as you are highlighted; Gowalla doesn’t do that. I suspect that will be very annoying to my friends not going to Austin this week for SXSW. Their stream will be a constant reminder that they’re not there — and they likely could care less about my check-ins, since they can’t possibly come and meet me.

The second downside is that Gowalla’s API remains read-only. That means while other services can pull out Gowalla’s data, they can’t put anything back in. That means there will be no Gowalla apps besides the ones they make (at least for now). Williams explained the rationale behind this as Gowalla wants to stay in control of the user experience (a rather Apple-like argument). That makes some sense, since there are all these virtual goods that will be flying around, and it will be hard to make sure every third-party app is implementing them correctly. Also, Gowalla is much more strict about its location-based check-ins then say, Foursquare. They’re so strict, in fact, that it’s been an issue in the past (and in some cases, still is), with people not being able to check-in places they’re actually at because the GPS is wonky. At the same time, this helps a lot with gaming the system, and that will be increasingly important as Gowalla strikes deals with partners based around check-ins.

Listen to Williams talk more about the new app, as well as his thoughts on AT&T’s network, some SXSW specials, rivals, and yes, even the news that Facebook is apparently looking at federating some of Gowalla’s (and Foursquare’s) data for its own location offering. He also notes that with the new release, Gowalla is expanding the idea of checking-in to be more of a bucket of elements now, including images and comments. Interesting. (Sorry in advance that I shot the video vertically on my iPhone — gotta stop doing that.)

You can find Gowalla 2.0 in the App Store here. It’s a free download.

Google Gains Traction in Display-Ad Push [Voices]

By Jessica E. Vascellaro and Emily Steel, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

Google Inc. (GOOG) is signing up marketers to use its latest display-advertising technology, pressuring rival Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and advancing the search giant’s effort to change the way ads are sold across the Internet.

Display ads, the eye-catching banner ads that appear atop and alongside most Web sites, have been under pressure as marketers question their effectiveness. Spending on banner ads fell 2.3 percent last year to $4.77 billion, according to eMarketer.

Google is championing a new stock market-like system for buying display ads. Using its exchange, ad buyers and sellers are matched to ad spaces in a real-time auction, allowing ad buyers to tailor where their ad appears based on the type of viewer they want to reach–and how much to pay for the space–on the fly.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Your smartphone: future air-quality data point

You know the good feeling you get when you think about how your computer is running Folding@home all the time, or that you’ve been careful to clip six-pack rings all your life? Well, soon you might have one more warm fuzzy feeling, if this project underway at Intel Labs Berkeley comes through. They’re designing portable air-quality sensors that monitor and sample the air around you throughout the day and allow it to be shared and analyzed later.

The current sensors are a little bigger than a phone, but one “long-term” plan is to use mobiles as sampling points; just write an app, add a sensor to the phone (could be an accessory), and let people do their thing. It could upload quality, temperature, and GPS location in real-time. Sounds good to me, I just hope it doesn’t kill my battery.

Motorola Announces Alliance with Microsoft for Search and Maps Services; Launching on New Smart Phones in China

Zeus Botnet Dealt a Blow As ISPs Troyak, Group 3 Knocked Out

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Why AOL May Just Abandon Bebo Rather Than Sell It

Newly independent Aol is still struggling with the fate of Bebo, the social network they acquired for $850 million in 2008.

No one argues that Aol underpaid for Bebo. And the social network has fallen from 22 million monthly unique visitors when it was acquired to just 14.6 million today (Comscore worldwide). But even so, Bebo clearly has some value on the open market.

Despite that value, Aol’s best financial option for Bebo will likely be to abandon it rather than sell it, say corporate tax experts we’ve spoken with.

Here’s why – complicated corporate tax rules will let Aol write off the full purchase price of Bebo if they declare it worthless and abandon the asset. With Aol’s effective tax rate of around 45%, that’s $380 million and change in their pocket in taxes that they’d be able to avoid.

A sale of Bebo would almost certainly be less attractive. If someone were to pay them $100 million for the service, which is optimistic, Aol could still offset the remaining $750 million as a tax loss. But it could only apply against long term capital gains, and Aol doesn’t have any to offset against. They’d have to carry that loss forward and hope for future gains to offset it against.

One corporate tax attorney we spoke with wouldn’t discuss Aol specifically, but did confirm the logic of the approach. Bryan Smith, a partner at Perkins Coie, says “Without getting into any specific facts or companies, it will often be more attractive for a U.S. corporation to simply shut down a subsidiary and claim a deduction for the worthlessness of the stock against ordinary income instead of selling the stock at a distressed price and taking a capital loss, which may only offset capital gains.”

If Aol were to abandon Bebo they couldn’t pull any of the assets of the company back into Aol, say the experts we’ve spoken with. Otherwise it becomes a non-taxable liquidation. If Aol had debt or preferred stock on the books with Bebo, though, they could pull out assets to offset that liability.

How The iPad, And The Slate Computer, Will Evolve In The Next Two Years

Best Buy bets on 3D TV, but no quick payoffs seen - Reuters

Reuters

Best Buy bets on 3D TV, but no quick payoffs seen Reuters A man watches a 3D movie at the Panasonic booth during the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada January 7, 2010 file photo. NEW YORK (Reuters) - While James Cameron's 3D sci-fi epic "Avatar" took the box office by ... Best Buy Seeks First-Mover Advantage With 3D TVWall Street Journal Networks Next Up on 3D TV Exper ...PC Magazine Panasonic Sets the 3D HDTV Bar At Best BuyPC World CNET -The Associated Press -Wall Street Journal all 1,522 news articles »

Classmates.com's Facebook Mimicking Prompts Privacy Suit

OnLive Remote Gaming Service Launches In June

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Aw, iPhone app fridge magnets

Take a break from reading our hard-hitting news coverage and take a look at these cute little things. Perfect stocking stuffer (I know, a little early) for your favorite app developer and/or iPhone fanatic. What with these things, those Android pillows, and all the other tech knickknacks I’ve been seeing, it seems that pretty soon they’re going to need a whole online store just to hold all of them.

They are quite cute, though.

[via Chip Chick]

Voltaix to Construct Manufacturing Facility in Pennsylvania

360 Systems' HD Servers Now Compatible With GVG Infinity Camera and Edius NLE

Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side' Eclipses Concept Album Classics

The Next Big Thing in Tech: BoomTown Sporting Giant Headphones on WSJ.com's "Digits" [BoomTown]

Today, I appeared on WSJ.com’s daily online show, “Digits,” talking about the “next big thing” in tech, on the 10th anniversary of the tech stock bubble high.

Those were the days, my friend, I thought they’d always end.

In the video, I am wearing a pair of honking big headphones that work well on Skype, to give it that year 2000, nonmobile feel.

So what do I talk about? The importance of mobile, of course!

Here’s the video:

Google Opens Apps Marketplace

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Now playing: Apps Script for Google Docs

As Location-Sharing Services Grow, Privacy Concerns Do Too [Voices]

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

As the list of programs that collect users’ location information grows, concern about privacy risks is increasing along with it.

Facebook is set to add location-sharing to its popular site next month. Meanwhile, services such as Foursquare and Loopt have been adding users, and a plethora of smaller tools have sprung up as well. But a study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University showed that the majority of the more than 80 location services it surveyed either don’t have privacy policies or collect and save all data for an indefinite amount of time.

The Carnegie Mellon study found that people value the ability to find others in an emergency and get information based on their location. Lorrie Cranor, an associate professor of computer science and one of the authors of the study, said people also value location-based advertising in some circumstances–a good thing for the companies that are building a business around precisely that. But she said many people just don’t realize what a database of all the locations they’ve been at over time could mean.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

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Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Can You Make a Living From Viral Videos? The OK Go Gives It a Shot. [MediaMemo]

Difficult week for EMI, at least in the business press. Yesterday, Pink Floyd sued the music label. This morning, the company’s chief executive left after an 18-month stint. Newest story: The OK Go, a digitally savvy act best known for its viral videos, is breaking up with the company.

My colleagues are lapping the last one up, with good reason: The OK Go are fun to write about, because they make cool videos and because lead singer Damian Kulash is very quotable when he talks about the state of the music business and his band’s relationship with EMI.

For instance, here’s a stinging part of his exit interview with New York Magazine today:

Q: What other problems were you having with EMI?
A: 
The issue is that they just don’t have any money. The reason a band signs with a label is because they can provide start-up capital, and their business model has sort of collapsed. There was lots of little bones of contention, like when there were chances for us to promote things and they just didn’t have the money to do so. It was a lot easier to be generating the budget ourselves or through corporate partners.

EMI has issued a boilerplate quote wishing the band success–it’s going to create its own label–and leaving it at that.

And EMI does have real money problems. In part because everyone who sells music right now has money problems and in part because private equity fund Terra Firma paid too much and took on too much debt when it bought the label three years ago.

But here’s the thing. If EMI’s executives allowed themselves to speak candidly, they would likely point out that while the OK Go made great videos, it didn’t seem to make music that many people wanted to buy.

Soundscan says the band has sold all of 500,000 albums in the U.S., both in physical and digital form, in its three-album tenure at EMI. That’s 488,608, to be exact. Plus another 25,000 single tracks.

That’s not awful. But it’s not the kind of sales that would inspire a big label to spend big money promoting an act. Even when the industry’s business model was still intact.

But the band really does make nice videos that people like watching on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube. If it can figure out how to turn these into dollars, it’s all set.

OK Go–This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

What is the LHC Trying to Accomplish?

Finding awesome stuff online with Google Reader Play

Two new gestures coming to iPhone OS: long press and three finger tap

Tired of all that boring ol’ two finger pinching-and-zooming and swiping on the iPhone? Ready for some fancy new gestures to be thrown into the mix? Wish granted. Soon. Maybe.

Last night, Apple released a new beta of iPhone OS 3.2 to developers. As is par for the course at this point, people almost instantly began tearing through the OS looking for secrets hidden within – and it looks like they just found one.

Tucked deep within the file system is a set of gesture recognizers, defining which fancy finger tricks that iPhone OS can recognize. In this latest build, it seems that two new gestures have made the list: “3tap” and “LongPress”. While no one has nailed out any way to make use of either just yet, we’re pretty sure we can deduce what they are from the names: three finger tapping, and long-hold presses.

Neither of these are really brand new; long-hold presses are already used by Apple to rearrange apps on the homescreen, and developers could have been detecting three-finger taps manually from the beginning. Their presence as official gestures, however, indicates that Apple might be looking to make them more easily accessible to developers and more widely used throughout the OS.

I’m having a hard time thinking of ways that a three-finger press could be used in an intuitive way where alternatives wouldn’t work just as well. Any ideas? Let us know in the comments below.

Update: As Mike points out in the comments, “3tap” could also mean 3 taps in quick succession. For example, 2 quick taps on a map could be zoom, while 3 quick taps could be super zoom. What say you?

[Via 9to5mac]

European Parliament Rips Global IP Accord

Surprise! HTC Legend pre-orders delivered a bit early

Handset manufacturers are usually pretty good about holding their tongue about specific release dates until the launch date is a sure thing, so it’s not too often that we see delays in the mobile world. What’s even more rare than a delay, however, is something shipping way earlier than expected.

And yet, that seems to be exactly the case with the HTC Legend.

No one was expecting this thing to launch until April, but a handful of forumgoers over at Dutch gadget blog Tweakers.net are reporting that their lovely new aluminum uni-bodied handsets arrived fresh from the factory early this morning. Alas, there’s still no official word as to whether or not this thing is ever coming stateside (though unofficial word points to “Yes.”)
[Via Engadget]

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Bravo to Epic Games for porting Unreal Engine 3 to the iPhone

Don’t get mad at me—I wanted to go to GDC, but The Man said no. So now we’re relying on CNET to bring us word of Epic Games’ efforts to bring the Unreal Engine to the iPhone. You may not have even played Unreal for several years, but plenty of big games are based on the engine. Mass Effect and BioShock are based on versions of the engine, as is EA’s upcoming Medal of Honor. Just think: playing Unreal on your iPhone. It’s almost… unreal.

The engine is written entirely for the PC, and it goes from PC to Mac to iPhone. It’s quite a bit of work to port over, yes. Just think: on the PC, the engine can count on multi-core processors to drive the whole show. One core for this, one core for that. The iPhone 3GS, fast as it is (by smartphone standards), cannot compare with the likes of the Intel Core i7. Breaking news, I know.

It does seem that the hardest part is getting all those high-resolution textures down to iPhone size. Epic uses something called DXT to compress the textures, a technology that Apple doesn’t support on the iPhone. So Epic has to both shrink the textures beforehand and then drop the quality by quite a bit. Will you really care when you’re playing the latest FPS on your iPhone at a steady 30 frames per second? I doubt it.

This is the Unreal Engine 3.0 we’re talking about, remember, not some 1999 technology nonsense.

Multitasking Earbuds Stress Great Design, Not Sound

Casio’s ultra-tough G’zOne Brigade going on sale tomorrow?

WAAAAY back in November, Casio and Verizon showed off the G’zOne Brigade, an ultra-durable clamshell phone with a surprise QWERTY keyboard packed inside. “Push to talk!” they said. “It’s weatherproof!” they said. And then the radio went silent; nearly four months later, not so much as a release date had been mentioned.

Well, it looks like the release might sneak up on us, with a shelf date as early as tomorrow. We just got a flurry of tips indicating as much, all of which came in within a few minutes of each other. When the tips avalanche like that, it usually indicates that the store employees themselves just found out and felt like spreading the news.

We’ll work on digging up a bit more confirmation as to whether or not this thing is shipping tomorrow (drop us a line at tips@mobilecrunch.com if you know), so don’t go breaking your current, non-rugged phone in the mean time.

Minority Births Set to Eclipse Whites in U.S.

Android killer app: Decals of the lovable little green robot

Section: Communications, Accessories, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Websites

Could it be the reason Android is doing so well is simply better marketing?  Will Steve Jobs introduce a warm and fuzzy character that will become synonymous with the iPhone OS?  One thing is certain: we can’t seem to get enough of the the little green droid.

Androidstickers.com is poised to cash in on the robot love.  The site offers decals featuring the lovable mascot doing all kinds of things: posing with the family, strapping on the old jetpack, riding a motorcycle, doing skateboard tricks and more.  Customers can pick different colors of the decals to personalize the robot just a little bit more, just like the OS.

There are decals for your Nexus One charger, laptops, car windows, anywhere you want to show your love of the mobile OS or just robots in general.

Prices are reasonable, ranging from $2.35 to $9.99.  Shipping is currently free for a limited time.  Who knows, maybe this uprising will inspire the iPhone/Hello Kitty marketing partnership we’ve been hearing about.

Company site: [Stickandroid]

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

iPad Could See 50 Tablet Rivals This Year

We’d be naive to think manufacturers were twiddling their thumbs while Apple pimps out its iPad. Sure enough, there could be as many as 50 tablet devices from competing manufacturers worldwide this year, according to mobile microprocessor company ARM.

In anticipation of the upcoming tablet invasion, ARM has rented out more space at the Computex electronics trade show in Taipei to accommodate the new devices, according to ComputerWorld.

“The first tablet devices will launch in the second quarter by [mobile network] carriers,” said Roy Chen, ARM’s worldwide mobile computing ODM manager, during a press meeting in Taipei. “You’ll see a lot more in the third quarter.”

ARM licenses its microprocessor technologies to many manufacturers for their mobile devices, so we can trust that Chen has some inside knowledge about upcoming tablets. (The iPhone’s processor is ARM-based, for example.)

Chen noted the majority of the tablets will launch in China, but that “companies everywhere” are delivering tablets as well. He didn’t name specific companies. However, in the United States we’re aware of upcoming tablets from HP and Dell. And before the iPad even lands, startup Fusion Garage plans to release its JooJoo tablet.

Wired.com last year predicted that 2010 would be the year of the tablet after hearing from industry sources that several major manufacturers, including Dell and HTC, were planning to launch tablets.

See Also:

• Dell Names Secret ‘Slate’ After Non-Existent Apple Product …
• Would You Buy an iPad? Wired Readers Weigh In
• HP’s Windows 7 Slate Strikes at the iPad
• Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
• The Wired Tablet App: A Video Demonstration

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

iPad Could See 50 Tablet Rivals This Year

Sony Ericsson unboxes the Xperia X10, stomps on toes

You know what weirds me right the hell out? Companies doing their own unboxing videos. That’s our job. I realize they’re probably proud of their work and are just itching to show it off, but a new handset getting its first video unboxing by the company that made it is like a dad taking his own daughter to prom. Wrong? Not technically. Kind of awkward? Absolutely.

Oh well. Sony Ericsson decided to debox their ultra-pretty Android phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, themselves. Go ahead and watch it after the jump — I won’t be too hurt.

[Via AndroidCommunity]

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YPABU: Your Parents Are Behind You!  Facebook to add location status

Section: Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation, Lifestyle, Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking

According to a tip, Facebook will unveil new location services in late April at f8, the companies developer conference.  Based on other tips, there is expected to be two branches of location: one Facebook will use to allow users to share location with friends and the other branch would be an API for developers to add in farming games based on location.  OK, I am kidding about the farming but it might actually be real.  I expect games based on location plus the possible birth to a service similar to foursquare.

According to the company’s privacy policy, Facebook will be launching location in a manner that won’t cause the kind of uproar we see with most Facebook additions.  The policy reads, “If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.”  Facebook goes on to state it will tread location like any other piece of content you share.

Location status would be fantastic for meeting up with friends, showing off your travels or tipping you off when your parents (who are on Facebook, right?) are in close proximity while your chillaxin’ at the mall.  That’s what kids do these days.

As more and more of us carry devices capable of reporting location, services that share and utilize this data for good, not evil, will fuel new opportunities.  Facebook looks ready to cash in on it with their strong user base and hungry developers chasing them.

Read: [NY Times]

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

Crocodile Ate Our Human Ancestors

The Internet in America: A YouTube Interview with the FCC

• Access and Affordability
• Mobile and Wireless
• Security and Privacy
• Digital Economy
• Internet in Schools
• Open Internet/Network Neutrality
• Others (learn more at Broadband.gov)

Samsung E6 ebook reader headed to Barnes & Noble, to be available “this spring”

Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks

Samsung has recently announced that the E6 ebook reader will become available with Barnes & Noble sometime “this spring.” And while that is still a pretty generic time for a launch, it does seem to be a step up from the “early 2010” timeframe that we heard during CES. As for pricing, the Samsung E6 is expected to come in at $299.

Feature wise the E6 will come sporting a 6-inch e-ink (600 x800 resolution) display, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, 2GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, built-in front speakers, Bluetooth 2.0 and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Additionally the E6 will have support for e-pub, PDF/a, TXT, BMP, JPG and MP3 file formats.

Read [Business Wire] Via [Engadget]

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

International Space Station in New Light

Real-Life 'Hurt Locker' Bomb Suit

Video: Walking Lego Mecha

This amazing Lego mecha is, according to the authoritative Brothers Brick, the first walking Lego mecha that “also boosts aesthetics”. We take that to mean that it actually walks by picking up its feet rather than shuffling along like a burned-out meth-addict.

Either way, the IR-remote controlled bot, named Element Commune, is a fantastic build by Flickr user Legohaulic. Here it is in herky-jerky action:

V2.0 will actually be steerable (this one just stops and starts, “walking” in a straight line), and we particularly like the tiny t-rex arms at the front. We wouldn’t want to climb inside the full-sized versions, though. As Brothers Brothers commenter Kunert says, “That thing would go down like ED-209 in a stairwell.”

Element Commune: LP-11 [FLickr]

Legohaulic’s walking biped revolutionizes mecha building [Brothers Brick]

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YouTube calling: Now serving ads on the YouTube mobile site

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Palm releases the webOS PDK public beta

Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile

In what can only be seen as a good move for future game development on the webOS platform, Palm has recently released the public beta of the webOS PDK. The news was announced during the Game Developers Conference and promises to let “developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK and mix them seamlessly within a single app.”

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

Read [Palm Developer Center] Via [Business Wire]

Palm webOS PDK Public Beta Now Available

Palm Demonstrates New Games at Game Developers Conference

Game Developers Conference 2010
SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Game Developers Conference (GDC) – Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today announced that a public beta version of the Palm® webOS™ Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is now available at the Palm Developer Center (developer.palm.com). Palm is demonstrating new games from early PDK developers in its booth at GDC (No. 2016).

“It’s quite difficult to make a great phone that’s also an outstanding gaming platform; Palm has been successful delivering both.”
The PDK complements the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK), letting developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK and mix them seamlessly within a single app. The PDK enables new functionality, including immersive 3D graphics, and gives developers who have built games for other platforms an easy way to bring their titles to the webOS platform. Developers can download the beta PDK and start developing today, but distribution of games built with the beta PDK will require functionality provided in an upcoming Palm webOS update.

“Palm webOS is the go-to platform for great games on two of the three leading carrier networks,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “We have both the developer tools and the hardware necessary for a world-class gaming experience, and an impressive portfolio of webOS game titles from top-notch developers to show for it.”

At CES in January, Palm introduced 12 games built by four leading developers with early access to the PDK:

“Asphalt 5” (Gameloft)
“Brain Challenge®” (Gameloft)
“Glyder 2” (Glu Mobile)
“Let’s Golf!” (Gameloft)
“MONOPOLY” (EA Mobile™)
“Need for Speed™ Undercover” (EA Mobile)
“SCRABBLE” (EA Mobile)
“Sudoku” (EA Mobile)
“Tetris®” (EA Mobile)
“The Oregon Trail” (Gameloft)
“The Sims™ 3” (EA Mobile)
“X-Plane” (Laminar Research)

Since then, more than 20 exciting webOS titles have been launched by these early-access developers:

“Apollo” (Laminar Research)
“Assassin’s Creed™ – Altair’s Chronicles” (Gameloft)
“Brothers In Arms®: Hour of Heroes” (Gameloft)
“Castle of Magic” (Gameloft)
“Deer Hunter 3D” (Glu Mobile)
“Dungeon Hunter” (Gameloft)
“Earthworm Jim” (Gameloft)
“Gangstar: West Coast Hustle” (Gameloft)
“Giant Fighting Robots” (Laminar Research)
“Guitar Hero 5 Mobile” (Glu Mobile)
“Hero of Sparta” (Gameloft)
“Real Soccer 2010” (Gameloft)
“Real Tennis” (Gameloft)
“World Series of Poker: Hold’em Legend” (Glu Mobile)
“X-Plane Airliner” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Carrier” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Extreme” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Glider” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Helicopter” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Racing” (Laminar Research)
“X-Plane Space Shuttle” (Laminar Research)

“The Palm webOS PDK is extremely powerful and far-reaching, as evidenced by the number of titles we’ve been able to bring to the webOS platform in a very short time,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing, Americas, Gameloft. “It’s quite difficult to make a great phone that’s also an outstanding gaming platform; Palm has been successful delivering both.”

More information about the beta PDK is available at the Palm Developer Center (developer.palm.com). More information about games for Palm webOS is available at www.palm.com/applications.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. creates intuitive and powerful mobile experiences that enable consumers and businesses to connect to their information in more useful and usable ways. The company’s groundbreaking Palm® webOS™ platform, designed exclusively for mobile application, introduces true multitasking and Palm Synergy™, which brings your information from the many places it resides into a single, more comprehensive view of your life.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels, and at the Palm online store (www.palm.com/store).

More information about Palm, Inc. is available at www.palm.com.

Palm, Synergy, and webOS are trademarks of Palm, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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

Seatbelt Cutter and Window Smasher for Paranoid Drivers

If you have watched too many episodes of Criminal Minds, you probably already have a panic room in your home, ready for when golf-club and baseball-bat wielding psychopaths invade your house. But what of the other place where you spend so much of your time? What if you car plunges down a steep ravine into the rushing waters below, or you flip your ride on its roof and hang, dangling helplessly from the seatbelt while the gasoline drips ever closer to the broken mirror focusing burning sunlight onto the hot asphalt? What then?

You will need the ExiTool, billed as a “seat belt cutter, window breaker, LED flashlight tool”. The ExiTool clips onto your seatbelt and there it stays, holding its steel blade, tungsten window-smashing nubbin and button-cell powered flashlight just where you’ll need it in case of hugely unlikely emergency. Not convinced? This awful video certainly won’t help, but it will make you laugh. It appears almost as a parody, as if a real informercial had been “sweded“:

The ExiTool will be available “soon” for “just” $27.

ExiTool [CRKT]

Pentax 645D: 40 Megapixels, $10,000

Pentax has gone large with the new 645D medium-format DSLR. The 40MP monster has a 33×44mm sensor to fit all those pixels comfortably, and round the back has the DSLR standard-sized screen, a three-inch, 921,000 dot LCD. For a camera of this type the 645D is cheap, at ¥850,000, or $9,400.

Pentax has traditionally offered good cameras at low prices, and the original Pentax 645 film cameras were good entry level bodies for medium-format shooters (although second-hand TLRs were the cheapest way to go). The new 645D looks a lot like the old film body, a cube-shaped box with the protruding handle. In fact, all your old 645 lenses should work.

This camera is about studio work, and you won’t find fancy face-recognition gimmicks. There are still some unusual features, though. The choice of SD cards (dual slots) over Compact Flash and an in-camera HDR mode which will combine three images into one.

A size comparison of the 645D sensor next to a full-frame 35mm sensor

The exposure modes are great, and I want them in my camera. Alongside the usual shutter and aperture-priority modes, you get sensitivity-priority mode, which lets you set the ISO and the camera picks shutter speed and aperture. Also included is a shutter/aperture-priority mode, which lets you pick the shutter and aperture settings and tweaks the ISO to fit. Pentax is finally treating ISO as the third exposure variable, something impossible with film but obvious in digital. A gold star for Pentax.

Otherwise, things are conservative but smart. Both the top and rear screens have a tempered glass cover, the viewfinder is big enough to use (and covers 89% o the image), and the body has dust reduction. Sure, $10,000 will buy you an entire DSLR system, complete with multiple bodies, lenses and strobes. Compared to the competition, like Mamiya’s new $20,000 studio camera, it starts to look cheap. Available in Japan in May.

Pentax unveils 40MP 645D medium format DSLR [DP Review]

Press release [Pentax Japan]

MSI Wind12 U230 notebook now shipping

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops, Netbooks

MSI has recently introduced yet another notebook/netbook, it is the Wind12 U230 and is powered by an AMD processor and available in two versions—the U230-033 and U230-040. To begin with, this gets that notebook/netbook description because it falls right in the middle with a 12.1-inch WXGA (1,366 x 768) display.

But whether or not this is technically a netbook is not the issue because the U230 seems to be a capable little device.

Feature wise you can expect 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 8022.11 b/g/n, a 6-cell battery, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, built-in card reader and an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card. Additionally, the U230 comes sporting Windows 7 Home Premium.

In terms of the different models, they U230-033US comes with an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor with a 250GB hard drive, and the U230-040US comes with an Athlon X2 L335 processor and a 320GB hard drive.

In terms of pricing, the U230-033US is up for $429.99 while the U230-040US is priced $50 higher at $479.99. Finally, both models of the MSI Wind12 U230 can be found with Newegg.

Read [MSI] Product (via Newegg) [Wind U230-033US] and [Wind U230-040US]

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

Google Maps Adds Bike Directions

Great news for bikers: the nerds at Google have added bicycling directions to Google Maps. It appears right alongside the other options, walking, car or public transit. It doesn’t work everywhere yet - I tried to find a way from my apartment to the local bike-polo court and Google Maps just told me it couldn’t calculate a route.

In San Francisco, though, everything is fine. I plugged in Wired HQ and the nearby Moscone center and got a straight three-block route. Too easy? Fine, what about Wired to Pier 39, tourist central (and home of a surprisingly good crab restaurant)? This, too, shows the same route for bikes and cars, but the alternative routes presented below are different. I guess that you get the most efficient route first, which is usually the same as you’d take in a car, with slightly more pleasant alternatives.

The service is, of course, in beta, and Google is soliciting feedback on the suitability of roads for biking. You can of course still do it the old-fashioned (and somewhat quicker) way: use the walking directions, which ignore road-rules and one-way streets.

Google Maps [Google]

Biking directions added to Google Maps

• Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
• Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
• Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes

Gowalla now available on Palm Pre and Pixi devices

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Trade Shows, SxSW

The annual South by Southwest Festival is kicking off this weekend, and Gowalla has taken that as an opportunity to debut its service on multiple smartphone operating systems. The location check-in service released an Android application last week and followed suit today with a new webOS app for Palm Pre and Pixi users.

Gowalla is a location-based social network/game. Members visit locations like parks, restaurants, and entertainment venues, then “check-in” to announce their location or activity. It’s a way to share activities with friends and discover new locations to visit through the game. Gowalla members using a Palm Pre or Pixi were previously unable to use the Gowalla web app because webOS phones don’t support its location-awareness feature in the browser. The new app addresses that problem, allowing Gowalla members to finally check-in from their phone.

The design of the Gowalla app is beautiful, but will that be enough to attract users away from popular rival Foursquare? Only time will tell, but SXSW will be a good testing ground for this Check-in Competition.

Read [Gowalla Palm App Catalog Entry] Via [Download Squad]

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

Warpia Wireless Notebook Dock Cuts Cable Clutter

Warpia’s new Easy Dock could do with a new name and a prettier box, but the promise of the product is an enticing one: rid yourself of (almost) all cable-clutter. The wireless-USB kit consists of a USB stick that plugs into your notebook and a base station that plugs into everything else: your monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. Apart from hooking your laptop up to the mains once in a while, you never need to snake cables across your clean desk again.

The Easy Dock will be $150 when it ships in a few weeks (we will be testing one out). I’m pretty excited as I have been looking for something like this for a while. Once the drivers are installed (for OS X and Windows), the OS should just see the peripherals as USB devices. But how well does the display work? The specs say that it supports monitors of up to 1400×1050 and will display HD video up to 720p, at a color depth of 32-bits.

We wonder if hard drives can be hooked up, (we’ll test that one out) and just how the display copes with movies and fast-moving games. If it all works as promised, the dock could be great for keeping your desk clear, or it could let you stream movies direct from your laptop to the big screen and speakers. One day, we hope, this tech will just come standard inside every USB device.

Easy Dock [Warpia. thanks, Natalia!]

See Also:

• Imation Ships First Wireless USB Hard Drive
• WiGig Tempts With High-Speed Wireless Data Transfer
• Iogear Announces Wireless Kit for Monitors and Projectors
• WUSB
• Cheap, Home Made Wi-Fi Tether
• Review: Kensington Docking Station Makes Mobile Computing Almost …

A digital renaissance: partnering with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage

Quirky’s iPad Case With Two-Way Kick-Stand

Quirky’s new crowd-sourced widget, the Cloak, is a rather clever and good-looking iPad case. The rubber and plastic construction goes with the already established book-cover metaphor, and adds a few twists.

We predict a huge market for iPad cases. That may seem obvious, given the amount of protective sheathes out there for iPods and iPhones, but the iPad seem to need a little more coddling than these smaller machines. I’m a strictly commando kind of guy: I slip my gadgets bareback into my pocket, but even I will be buying or making an iPad case. First, it’s bigger, and you can’t reserve a key-free jeans pocket for it. Second, this device begs to be propped up, either for watching movies, typing or just listening to podcasts in the kitchen.

The Cloak’s front cover flips around to the back to prop the iPad up in landscape mode, and when upright, the inside of the same front-cover has a u-shaped plastic kick stand that flips out. The main hinge actually has click-stops, controlled by a button on the spine, which lets you set an angle without the iPad slipping and falling flat.

That’s quite a lot to pack into one case, and the price isn’t bad, either, at $36. As always, you commit to order, the productions lines spin-up when the minimum order is reached and you are charged when the product ships. Hopefully you’ll have yours in time for the April 3rd iPad release.

Cloak [Quirky. Thanks, Tiffany!]

See Also:

• First iPad Stand Steps into View
• Kickster Adds Stand, Handle and Case to iPod Nano
• Powercurl Cord-Winder Makes Magsafe Heatsafe