DIY Personal iPhone Movie Theater

Before we tell you more about the shoebox-sized personal iPhone Theater, let me ask a few questions to gauge your suitability for such a project. Do you live alone, or better, with your mother? Did you stop painting RPG miniatures in your teens, or are you still doing it? Would a perfect night out for you would be a night in, with your dolls-houses, a roll of duct tape and that cute girl from down the street, the one who always laughs at you but you know she loves you anyway?

Of course, we tease. We are totally nerdy enough to love this downloadable, DIY mini-theater. For $12, you get a bunch of printable JPEG sections which you glue onto cardboard and arrange inside a shoe-box. These cover every part of the gaudy cinema experience, from the glowing neon corner-tower outside to the vomit-patterned carpets and seedy red-velvet seats inside. The iPhone slots in behind the screen and, while it won’t mimic the shafts of projector light pushing through the smokey air of the theaters of our childhood, it’ll give you some of the real movie-house atmosphere.

The kit takes around two hours to build and comes with a variety of textures and colors for walls and floors, which seems to faithfully mimic the range of hideous decor found in your average downtown flea-pit. One word of advice: don’t tip up the “empty” paper cups.

Personal Movie Theater [Personal Movie Theater. Thanks, Gary!]

According to BGR, customers of both Rogers and Fido in Canada are now able to download paid-for Android apps, after Google's long-going battle with Canadian carrier support. Unfortunately if you're a Bell or TELUS customer you may have to wait a wee bit longer to get your hands on the likes of the Car Locator app. [BGR] More »

Source: Gizmodo | 16 Mar 2010 | 4:04 am

FCC says some broadcasters like US spectrum plan - Reuters

Boston Globe

FCC says some broadcasters like US spectrum plan Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some US TV broadcasters have indicated they support a proposal to give up their airwaves to help resolve a shortage of spectrum for advanced mobile phone services, the top communications regulator said. ... US plans to give high-speed broadband to every AmericanBBC News FCC plan would greatly expand broadband Internet connectionsWashington Post FCC wants more access to affordable high-speed InternetUSA Today BusinessWeek -Wired News -CNET all 1,161 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:53 am

China without Google: 'a lose-lose scenario' (AP)

AP - China without Google — a prospect that looks increasingly likely — could mean no more maps on mobile phones. A free music service that has helped to fight piracy might be in jeopardy. China's fledgling Web outfits would face less pressure to improve, eroding their ability to one day compete abroad.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:50 am

The Guardian: A Floating, Waterproof Case for Kindle

People seemed to like the Ziploc-bag idea from yesterday’s post on essential iPad accessories, and it drew some tips for other products. The best wasn’t for the iPad but for the Kindle: The M-Edge Guardian Case.

The case is a semi-rigid diving suit for the newest six-inch Kindle. The two halves of the polycarbonate shell snap shut like a book and four latches clamp down, compressing a gasket to keep it watertight. The sections over the buttons are made of a soft plastic, so you can page forward and back and even shop at the Kindle Store whilst floating in a pool.

Yes, it’s pretty ugly, but it’ll keep your e-reader safe when you read in the bath. In fact, the Kindle is starting to look better than a paper book for reading in the damp and wet. Sure, you could put a paperback in a Ziploc bag, but how would you turn the pages?

The Guardian Case has one more trick. Thanks to the weight distribution, and several internal, air-filled buoyancy chambers, it floats upright in the water. That means hands-free reading. $80, available Spring 2010.

Guardian Case for Amazon Kindle [M-Edge. Thanks, Caitlin!]

If the internet and indeed, the iPhone, wasn't invented for the sole purpose to test whether your two year old looks better with a chevron or a balbo, then I give up. [iTunes via SwissMiss] More »

Source: Gizmodo | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:39 am

Windows Phone 7 - what's in and what's out - Register

DailyTech

Windows Phone 7 - what's in and what's out Register Mix10 "In this release, our focus is on phones purchased by consumers," said Microsoft's Charlie Kindel, describing the Windows Phone 7 developer platform to attendees at the Mix conference in Las Vegas on Monday. "In this release" turns out to be a ... Three New Windows Phone 7 Prototypes SeenTechtree.com A look at Windows Phone development (images)CNET Microsoft Explains Windows Phone 7 Lack of CompatibilityeWeek TopNews United States -pocketnow.com -VentureBeat all 358 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Mar 2010 | 3:20 am

UK Internet Filtering Bill Watered Down

superapecommando writes in with news that in the UK, Liberal Democratic peers will soften their filtering amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, to allow those wrongfully accused of illegal filesharing to sue the rightsholders in court. The previous version of the Bill had drawn instant criticism from some of the world's largest technology companies, including eBay, Google, and Yahoo, who signed an open letter against the filtering proposal. Blogger Glyn Moody summed up opposition to the Bill, stating that in its previous form, it was "utterly one-sided, where the only winners are a music recording industry too lazy to change, and the losers are everyone else."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google sees mobile ad rates passing PC rates

Sony, Jackson estate inks $250 mln deal: reports (AFP)

AFP - Sony and the estate of late music legend Michael Jackson have signed a record-breaking 250-million-dollar deal for distribution rights through 2017, US media said Tuesday.

40% of Blackberry users willing to trade in for an iPhone

China again tells Google to obey the law (AFP)

AFP - China on Tuesday again warned Google not to stop filtering its web search engine results, as speculation mounted about the company's plans following its threat to leave over censorship and cyberattacks.

Paypal's updated iPhone app lets you split a bill

Sprint Rolls Out Virtual Kiosk That Lets Customers Test Drive Phones Before They Buy

Product Placement in Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video

Second Life 2.0's Shared Media Can Expose Real Life Identity Details - Lindens Post Protection Tips, Security Upgrade

Mixed Reality Press Conference of "Life 2.0" at SXSW

MySpace Employees Speak Their Mind. Lots Of Yelling Going On, Apparently.

We’ve had lots of emails from MySpace employees with their response to our most recent post about the crumbling mid level management structure. “If you’re a MySpace employee and feel differently, please contact us anonymously,” we said. And they did contact us. But they don’t feel differently. There was also a great discussion in the comments section to that post where a few MySpace employees chimed in both pro and against the company.

But the emails were most telling. One wasn’t anonymous and the writer asked to keep it off record, and we’ll respect that. But he wrote at length about high level execs “chewing out” the lower ranks, in public. And lots of exec level nepotism hires.

This is a theme brought up by another employee, writing anonymously. He or she confirmed that too many mid level managers are leaving the company, and talks about more yelling at employees in public (“Maple” refers to 407 North Maple Drive, the address of MySpace HQ, “Jason” refers to Co-president Jason “Hell Yeah” Hirschhorn):

Dear TechCrunch-

I always enjoy your article on the drama at my company – MySpace but I’ve never felt the urge to write until now. I guess I’m writing you because your article was ABSOLUTELY dead on. Because of that, my morale isn’t really high and I really don’t give much of a shit anymore.

Well, the hole goes deeper than that. Many departments are losing much of the middle layer of actual star performers, but people who can’t get anything done due to the crazy BS in Maple. For example, 2 directors in Jason’s product org are gone recently: (Director of Analytics – Joe Schantz who went to Yahoo), Director of Product Mahesh Angadi. Other senior middle managers like Sr Product Manager Charles Pham, who went to CitySearch and Sr. Online Marketing Manager, Laura Coltrin left and is now at EventBrite. What do these particular people have in common? Besides being huge losses for MySpace, they were all re-orged under his royal heighn-ass, Jason. People don’t want to work for that moron – he’s just consolidating power.

Today, Jeff Webber – Director of Engineering in Seattle – gave notice (no idea where he’s going.)

Oh, and Jason really doesn’t get along with Mike. Jason was witnessed ripping one of his VPs a new one when the VP was trying to explain why he was doing something that Mike requested (in front of 6 other people.) It’s a mess – but it should be fun watching one run the other out of town.

A bunch of other people have their foot out the door – spend some time around Maple, SF or Seattle near the front entrance and watch people disappear for hours at a time or for “long lunches”. Its almost comical. You see a lot of people going into empty conference room and talking on their cell phones or people “going to grab coffee” by themselves and chatting on the phone walking down the street. And yeah, I’m one of those people.

Anyway, this isn’t just due to the fact these idiots are running the company into the ground. The reason why people are leaving now is that MySpace gave out these big secret retention bonuses that had a 2 tier payout. Overall, the ENTIRE bonus was for anywhere from 20% to 100+% of a person’s base. The key is that they pay out in two segments – you had to be working in December so that you get 25% of the bonus amount). If you’re employed here until June, you get the remaining 75% of their bonus. As you can imagine, this is a LOT of money – especially at a place that gave tiny annual raises last year (<5% was the average), where we cancelled profit sharing last fiscal year (not sure you knew about that) and with no stock incentive.

It’s a huge sign of how bad things are that they are leaving 75% of the bonus on the table. However, since we all know that the ship is sinking, taking 25% in December was good enough. I don’t blame them. I’m out of here as soon as I get a new gig. I earned that bonus money but I’m sick of this place.

Oh – and the guy who thought of this bonus plan? Mike. These were given out after the review cycle (August.)

So yeah, you want to write about more defections? Wait until June and then everyone will get paid and bounce. I and others are counting the days. Its kinda funny – it was supposed to be a total secret from everyone in the ranks (yes, some people didn’t get bonuses, but those people kinda suck so who cares right?) but now everyone is joking about it privately.

-Disgruntled

And one last employee says it’s ok to paraphrase and quote parts of his/her email. This one still has some fight left in ‘em. Here are some of the better parts:

Until a recent reorg of the engineering group (did you cover it? I don’t recall seeing it.), the whole company was segmented into horizontal layers so there was an operations group, a database group, an api group, a front-end group, a search group, a datawarehouse group, etc. Anything but the most minor feature required an obnoxious amount of cross-group interaction and took huge effort just to get everyone on board and the work scheduled. Some of that layering is being done away with, at least that is the stated goal.

In addition to the extreme layering there was a group of people who sat in the middle of the process, able to accept or reject any project; people who didn’t have the business sense to be in bizdev or be product managers and didn’t have the technical ability to be developers. When they accepted a project for development they would (randomly?) select some developers to build it. There were no clear lines of responsibility, no reason for anyone to really care about what they were working on, no reward for success and no punishment for failure (except for layoffs which seem to happen more or less randomly so they don’t fall on either the reward or punishment side). This structure was called ‘the matrix’ and thankfully was a casualty of the reorg. Plus in the big layoffs last spring (before my time) the hardest hit groups were front-line employees, the developers and testers who do the actual work; you had these big design committees arguing back and forth for weeks or months about how and what to do and no one to do it at the end of the day.

A lot of the people who are leaving and have left recently were in charge of this dysfunctional process and are unable or unwilling or just plain sick of trying. Yes a lot of good (better anyway) technical people are leaving or have left and yes there is a lot of detailed knowledge about keeping the current code running going with them.

…

There are other problems besides all of that, God I’m getting sick of writing about this. The technology platform (.net) and development methodology (scrum) and general caliber of developer (although there are exceptions) is more reminiscent of a poorly run enterprise development shop than an Internet company, certainly far far far from what you would find at a startup or Facebook or even Microsoft.

…

Will Mike & Jason succeed at creating something functional out of this godawful mess? Too soon to tell, I think. The first all-hands meeting a couple of days after they took over felt like an old fashioned tent revival or something, I almost expected Zig Ziggler to show up. But I will say that there has been more communication from them in a few weeks than from Owen in several months and they are reaching out to meet with developers working on interesting or important new projects, in short they seem engaged in a way that Owen never did. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Intel's New Xeon 5600 Chips Outperform Predecessors - PC World

Legit Reviews

Intel's New Xeon 5600 Chips Outperform Predecessors PC World Intel introduced a line of Xeon server chips that operate up to 60 percent faster than previous server processors, the company said on Tuesday. The 15 new processors in the Xeon 5600 line include low-power chips and come in quad-core and six-core ... Intel unveils new server chips ahead of AMDReuters Intel pushes workhorse Xeons to six coresRegister Intel Ships More Than 100000 Units of Latest Xeon Server ChipBusinessWeek VentureBeat -PC Magazine -CNNMoney.com (press release) all 87 news articles »

Weekly Poll: What Companies Will Be at the Top of the Cloud in the Next 5 Years

Intel's New Xeon 5600 Chips Outperform Predecessors (PC World)

Tracking Electric Use Could Allow Utilities to Track You, Too [Voices]

By Steve Lohr, Technology Correspondent, New York Times

Smart electric grids are championed by the federal government, conservation groups and industry as good for the economy and the environment. The digital meters in homes enable measurement and two-way communication with utilities so consumers can trim electricity use.

But some technology policy organizations worry that smart meters pose a potential threat to privacy and could be exploited by online marketers, government agencies, criminals and others.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Why Wikipedia Should Be Trusted As A Breaking News Source [Voices]

By Mike Melanson, Writer, ReadWriteWeb

Most any journalism professor, upon mention of Wikipedia, will immediately launch into a rant about how the massively collaborative online encyclopedia can’t be trusted. It can, you see, be edited and altered by absolutely anyone at any moment.

But how much less trustworthy is the site for breaking news than the plethora of blogs and other online news sources?

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Bill Gross Talks eSolar

Bruni and Sarkozy: How Two Tweets Have Made Twits Out of Many British Journalists [Voices]

By Dominic Ponsford, Contributor, Press Gazette

It seems that two tweets can make a twit out of a great many journalists.

The Sunday Times reported yesterday that just two anonymous postings on the social media site Twitter were behind the extensively reported story that Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni might be having marital problems. The slender sourcing didn’t stop the paper devoting 1,600 words to the story.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Liveblogging SXSW: The Future of Context in Journalism [Voices]

By Steve Myers, Contributor, Poynter Online

One of the continuing conversations about how to improve journalism is how to cover ongoing stories. Specifically, how do journalists provide the context that shows people the big picture, not just the latest developments?

NPR’s Matt Thompson (a former Poynter staffer), has been interested in this idea for some time time, blogging about it at Newsless.org and researching it during a Reynolds fellowship.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Visual Asimov pun in a kids' room mural

Visual Asimov pun in a kids' room mural

Red Red Robot Murals (Thanks, Arian!)

Google Pays Web Pioneer to Bash Apple [Voices]

By Paul Boutin, Contributor, VentureBeat

Tim Bray isn’t as well-known as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, but the guy has had a leading role in defining the Internet. His name tops the list of editors on the official specs for the Internet’s XML language, the basic building block for all Web pages.

Bray can be entertainingly cranky, but it was off-putting today to read his blog post announcing his new job as an evangelist to software developers for Google’s (GOOG) Android platform.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Daily Crunch: Escape from the Red Planet Edition

Video: Meet scary baby robot Yotaro
CrunchGear Monday Giveaway: An Apple iPad #crunchgear
Aspiral Clock makes telling time a ball
Geekware: Crazy old gear gives up the ghost to become clocks
You’ll never ID this photo (unless you read Reddit)

PayPal Bumps iPhone Payments to New Level [Voices]

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

Next time you’re splitting the cost of a dinner with friends, PayPal wants you to pay with a fist bump–or, more precisely, an iPhone bump.

A new version of the online payments service’s iPhone app debuted on Monday, with a feature that allows you to pass money from one person to the next by bumping–or simultaneously shaking–two phones. (You need not worry about all your money accidentally pouring out of the phone in your pocket; both sides have to set up and confirm the transfer in the software before it goes through.)

For PayPal, the new app is part of a long-term effort to bring its online payments–which started out as a way to pay on eBay (EBAY)–into the mobile world. PayPal first launched mobile payments through SMS and a voice response system in 2006, and launched an initial version of its iPhone app in 2008, followed since by apps for Android and Blackberry.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Uh Oh. Not Another “Don’t Be Evil” Company

Long ago Google unofficially abandoned the Don’t Be Evil mantra and replaced it with, no kidding, an “evil scale.” Sometimes you have to chose between the lesser of two weevils, as Patrick O’Brian would say. And frankly, just staying this side of decent is enough for most companies.

So when Twitter CEO Evan Williams said earlier today that one of Twitter’s operating principles was to “be a force for good” I cringed a little.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in business, and am still learning, is to never trust anyone who says “you can trust me.” That’s a big red flag that they’re planning something really messed up in the near future. And likewise, a company shouldn’t be out there saying “don’t be evil” or “be a force for good.”

First because it’s basically impossible to balance a profit motive with a goodness motive. And in fact the nice thing about capitalism is that everyone acting in their own self interest tends to be good for everyone else, too, if appropriate government forces are put in place to stop monopolies, pollution, etc. Being a socialist is a great way to get laid in college but it’s no way to run a society.

And second because when people, or governments, or companies start talking about being a force for good, there’s a good chance that a serious amount of self righteousness is brewing behind the scenes. Everyone who fights a war thinks they have God on their side. And some of the most atrocious moments in history were done in the name of good.

What I’d like best is if Twitter just focuses on keeping the lights on, and adds competitive features that keep Google, Facebook and others on their toes. Let others use Twitter to do good things. Twitter should stay goodness-neutral and self righteous free.

Or alternatively try to be a force for good. But just do it, don’t talk about it.

Sawai Pharmaceutical -2009/10 div forecast

Microbes on keyboards can be used to identify typists

"The results demonstrate that bacterial DNA can be recovered from relatively small surfaces, that the composition of the keyboard-associated communities are distinct across the three keyboards, and that individuals leave unique bacterial 'fingerprints' on their keyboards," wrote Knight and his colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

"If humans are thought of as a composite of microbial and human cells, the human genetic landscape as an aggregate of the genes in the human genome and the microbiome, and human metabolic features as a blend of human and microbial traits, then the picture that emerges is one of a human 'supra-organism'," argued a 2007 Nature paper lead-authored by Peter Turnbaugh, a Harvard microbiologist.

Forensic identification using skin bacterial communities

(Image: Toshiba M30 keyboard cleaning -IMGP7931, a Creative Commons Attribution image from footloosiety's photostream)

London restaurant serves WWII rationing cuisine

Salt was the dominant flavour of 'Mrs Harwood's lentil and cheese pie'. It tasted floury and bland - my grandmother used to make the same dish. I couldn't fault it for authenticity. It came with a dollop of sludgy green pease pudding, just as it might have been in the war years.

The baked potato, though, was quite good, served with a fishy filling and a proper 1940s salad - English lettuce, rings of spring onion, no dressing.

Sweets include scones filled with 'mock cream' made from margarine beaten with caster sugar, tasting exactly as you'd imagine it to, ie nothing like cream at all... [B]e warned that for a more fortunate generation brought up on meat, sweets, fats and deftly used spices, the drabness of austerity cooking can come as a bit of a shock

Kitchen Front

Steampunk St Patrick's day video

Andrew from League of Steam sez, "A hilarious 3-minute web video in which the League of STEAM (steampunk ghostbusters/monster hunters) attempts to capture a mean little leprechaun. Slapstick humor, top-quality special effects, and cool steampunk gadgets and guns: the perfect geeky/sci-fi flick for St. Patrick's day! Enjoy!"

Lovely work, guys -- nice use of the Wilhelm Scream!

Adventures of the League of STEAM - "Fool's Gold"


Source: Boing Boing | 15 Mar 2010 | 11:33 pm

Golden Nanocages To Put the Heat On Cancer Cells

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Luxury watch made from dinosaur crap

The thing is, coprolites just aren't that valuable. Dinosaurs left behind a lot of crap. This site sells coprolite at $8 per pound (it makes a wicked gift!).

Swiss luxury watch made of fossilized dinosaur feces, toad skin costs $11,290 (Photo) (Thanks, Jonathan!)

Shootout at space facility in India

Barnstorming Mars in 3D

Música da Lagoa

Aside from Hermeto's infectiously liberated attitude, this performance is unique as an exploration of the physical edge of two sound mediums. He makes entirely underwater concerts seem tame by comparison.

Full disclosure: when I was in high school I used to spend a couple of hours a day in the bathtub listening to what water did to different sounds - now I can see what a flute and an explosion of yellow butterflies would have added...


Source: Boing Boing | 15 Mar 2010 | 10:47 pm

Twitter remains blocked in China, but company hopes to develop Chinese registration page

New Google Hire Takes On Apple - Wall Street Journal

The Money Times

New Google Hire Takes On Apple Wall Street Journal While Google Inc.'s budding rivalry with Apple Inc. has largely been a tight-lipped affair managed through legal and regulatory channels, one of the Internet giant's newest hires isn't being shy about airing grievances. ... Google Hires XML Co-InventorPC Magazine BlackBerry owners have eye for iPhone, Nexus OneCNET Google's Tim Bray Hates Apple's iPhoneInformationWeek ITProPortal -PC Pro -Apple Insider all 338 news articles »

Jonathan Zittrain is on the mend, thanks in part to the internet

Red Shirt protests in Thailand

Alex Ringis in Australia has been observing coverage of the "Red Shirt" protests in Thailand in recent days. Word on the street was that the anti-government protesters mixed up many tons of fish sauce (a stinky fermented condiment, like soy sauce only fishy-foul) and human feces as a sort of homemade non-lethal weapon. "Yep, fish sauce and SHIT. Anybody who gets in their way will have that lovely concoction hurled at them." Alex sends an update today:

Our friends in Bangkok have said they're staying indoors and out of the way, as moving around in the city at this stage is pretty pointless, and nobody wants to catch any stray bullets, heaven forbid. Local Bangkokers at this stage seem to just be pretty bloody annoyed that a bunch of country bumpkins have rolled in and stopped them from going about their daily business, at least at this stage.

Today the Red Shirts gathered outside the 11th Infantry Regiment's army base in Bangkok - said to be where PM Abhisit Vejajiva was holding up - he left via helicopter not long after they arrived. Interesting trivia is that the Military's way of dealing with them was playing them I'saan music over loudhailers, and it was also reported that they even addressed the crowd as "brothers and sisters", speaking in I'saan.

What's transpiring is very interesting - the Red Shirts clearly want some
kind of a confrontation, or violence, to prove that the "evil" government
intends to repress and harm them. But so far, the Military and the
government have been on their best behaviour.

The question remains, what will the extreme elements within the red shirts
(who were said to have started the violence in April 09's protests) do
when they realise that the Military is not going to fire the first shot?
Latest reports have the Red Shirts saying that Government Ministers will
have to "Walk across one thousand liters of blood" to get to work at
government house tomorrow - so it remains to be seen what they mean by
that.

Today news that four M-79 grenades were fired into a military batallion
outside the State TV headquarters, and STILL no military crackdown. This
is incredible and unprecedented - the army are quite obviously on their
best behaviour. The Bangkok Post reports that arrests have been made in
connection with the case.

So far, our direct sources in Bangkok seem to be the best source of
information. The Nation and The Bangkok Post (the two main English
Dailies) are respectively suspiciously quiet, and suspiciously biased, so
I'm thinking there's multiple gag orders in play, though I do get some
decent tidbids now and then from my favorite Bangkok blog - 2bangkok.com

The rumour at present is that Thaksin Shinawatra is in Montenegro - both
Germany and the UK have said that they would not accept him, and if he was
recognised in their country, he would be detained. The man is literally on
the run, as it were.

And finally, my personal feeling is that the "mainstream media"
organisation that seems to be offering the absolute best coverage on the
situation so far is - surprise surprise - Al Jazzeera's English service.
Im guessing their primary interest is based on the fact that Thaksin
Shinawatra was a resident of Dubai for the past twelve months or so - in
any case, they are covering the story closely, and it's been on the front
page for over 12 hours.

Also - I watched a video of a Red Shirt speaker ("Arisman") in an
upcountry pep rally ranting against the government last night. I won't
bother posting the link here - it's all in Thai and there's no subtitles,
but in a nutshell, the notable talking points were some bizarre conspiracy
theories about the government involving bio-weapons, and more
interestingly, he was inciting red shirters and saying that if the
government did not give into their demands, that they would "wipe off the
face of Thailand" all the governments "sensitive sites", including Siriraj
hospital. Siriraj hospital is where the ailing King Bhumipol Adulyadej is
and has been treated for many months. Yes, they are "peaceful" protesters,
apparently.

Let's hope that tomorrow is as peaceful as Sunday turned out to be.

An oldie, but relevant : this was me rather tipsily interviewing some people about the Red Vs Yellow situation in Thailand, back in May last year. FYI, this guy is a TYPICAL "Red Shirter" - lower class, menial laborer - lovely guy. I often joke with friends that if they just instituted a minimum wage in Bangkok, this entire political mess would go away overnight. But sadly, it's true.

And another video: First Civilian victim of a "Red Shirt" Protestor. FYI the cameraman is
shouting "POLICE! POLICE!", and when the Police enter they shout "STOP,
STOP NOW PLEASE, STOP!"

Video of Red Shirt operatives handing out money to protesters. It should be noted that a) The guy handing out the money has a literal WAD of 1000 Baht notes (1000 THB = roughly AU$33 - enough to eat in Bangkok for over a month) and b) The guy on the loudhailer appears to be shouting in either Lao, or Isan - two dialects not native to Bangkok - probably due to the large number of "up country" people who have been bussed in for the protests.

Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest

Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest

NVIDIA App Brings 3D Gaming to Your TV (PC World)

Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

March 16, 1802: Army Engineers Get New Foundation

How to Nail a Free Throw

Motor: Where Are Your Favorite Movie Cars Now?

TECH CHRONICLES - Facebook traffic tops Google - at least by one Web measure - San Francisco Chronicle

The Tech Herald

TECH CHRONICLES - Facebook traffic tops Google - at least by one Web measure San Francisco Chronicle Facebook nudged past search king Google in traffic last week to become the most visited Web site of the week in the United States, according to the online measurement service Hitwise. Heather Dougherty, research director at Hitwise, said in a blog post ... Facebook Manages to Beat Google in Terms of TrafficTopNews United States Facebook traffic surpasses Google'sInman.com Hitwise: Facebook Tops Weekly Ranking, Surpassing GoogleWall Street Journal VentureBeat -V3.co.uk -The Tech Herald all 48 news articles »

NSFW: ‘Tis Pity We Called Her A Whore – And Other Ineffectual Digital Apologies

Having now written two books about my failures in work, life and love, I think I’m qualified to say that the only difference between a memoirist and a prostitute is timing.

A prostitute sells sex for money – that money being payable either immediately before or immediately after the act. A memoirist also receives money for having sex – but our payment comes via a publisher, months or years later, once we’ve recounted the amusing or titillating details in print. In the final analysis, really, we’re all whores.

And yet, in terms of public perception, the distinction of payment and timing is vital. Actual prostitutes are – generally speaking – looked down on by society: labels like ‘whore’ and ‘hooker’ being, almost without exception, used pejoratively. Memoirists, on the other hand, tend to be reasonably well regarded, not least by themselves. For that reason, accidentally calling a hooker a memoirist is unlikely to cause offense, but accidentally call a memoirist a hooker and… hoo boy…

This time last week, my friend Zoe Margolis – who writes as the Girl With A One Track Mind – was asked by the UK’s Independent on Sunday (IoS) newspaper to write a column about how she went from being an anonymous sex blogger to a widely-recognised advice columnist and memoirist. Zoe, I should emphasise, does not have sex for money. I know this for a fact: we shared a house at SXSW a couple of years ago and she stubbornly refused to sleep with me, despite the fact that I paid for all of our groceries at Whole Foods.

And yet, thanks to an astonishing but – I hope – innocent piece of lazy subediting, when the IoS published her column they did so under the unambiguously libellous headline “I was a hooker who became an agony aunt“.

Hoo boy.

The IoS reaslised its mistake (for want of a better word for “misquoting one of our writers as calling herself a whore”) within an hour of the paper going to press and quickly changed the headline in print and online. But of course the damage was already done. Although, according to the paper, only a couple of thousand hard copies had been dispatched to news stands, the web version had already been syndicated to dozens of other sites – including Yahoo! – and such far-flung newspaper websites as the Times of India. Worse still, it took several more hours – and increasingly vocal complaints by Zoe – before the IoS changed the story’s URL which still contained the full wording of the original headline.

An embarrassing screw up for the Independent – but one that other papers can learn from, right?

Not so much.

A few days later, another UK paper – The Daily Mail – ran a story headlined “I posed as a girl of 14 on Facebook. What followed will sicken you …” The story was indeed sickening; written by a former police detective, it revealed how after signing up to Facebook as a young girl, he was immediately contacted by middle-aged men looking for sex. There was just one problem with the story: it wasn’t true.

For a start the story was ghost-written by a Mail journalist, loosely based on a phone interview with the detective. More importantly, the detective had made clear – repeatedly – that the social network in question wasn’t Facebook. In fact he’d actually praised Facebook for having put in place measures to protect young users against ‘grooming’ by adults. Unfortunately, the Mail seems to have a beef with Facebook – they previously accused the site of causing cancer – and so decided to name and shame it both in the article, and in the headline and – yup – in the URL. As with Zoe’s story, the headline was changed after a few hours (having already been widely syndicated) but the libellous URL remained uncorrected for more than a day.

In both cases, the result was the same – the Independent and the Mail each issued apologies and corrections in the next day’s paper and online but both Zoe and Facebook say they intend to take legal action both for the initial error but also for the further harm done by the time the papers took to correct their libellous URLs.

We’ll have to wait and see what comes of the proposed lawsuits, but in the meantime both cases illustrate a huge problem with the blurring of the line between old and new media. In the old days, editors understood how their papers worked. If a libellous story was printed, they would stop the presses (if it wasn’t already too late) and they would issue an apology the next day. Most readers would see the apology and all would be well. Yes, there might still be a libel action, but at least the publication could show that they’d halted the presses and issued the apology, thus mitigating some of the damage done.

Today, that’s no longer the case. The simple fact is that many editors have absolutely no idea how their papers work any more. According to the Guardian, when Charles Garside, assistant editor of the Daily Mail, was asked about the fact that the libellous URL was unchanged for more than 24 hours, he described it as “a technical matter”, adding: “We are removing elements of that”.

“A technical matter” – which of course is code for “I have absolutely no idea how the Internet works. We have geeks to do that kind of thing, and they were at home – probably masturbating or watching Battlestar Galactica – or both – when the story went up”

With those three words – “a technical matter” – Garside lays bare the problem newspapers face in moving online. Editors understand stories and they understand headlines, but today they also need to understand URLs and automatic syndication and all of the other “technical matters” that are just as much a part of the modern newspaper as standfirsts and pullquotes. This is a lesson I learned the hard way back in 2005 when I was hit with an enormous libel claim (and the possibility of imprisonment for contempt of court) when the publication I edited linked to a libellous story (published in France) about a certain English Premiership football player. Although we were careful not to name the player in our story, we were still held responsible for identifying him because the URL we published contained his surname. The fact that we’d used our in-house link-shortener to mask the true URL was no defence as the shortener was hosted on our own server and resolved to the correct address before the reader left our site. Since that day, I’ve understood that a URL can get you in just as much legal hot water as an ill-judged headline.

Unfortunately that seems to be a lesson that editors at certain major national newspapers are yet to learn. If I were the owner of the Independent, or the Mail, or any other newspaper I’d insist that my editors spend a few hours of their time learning how their papers work in the digital age. That means understanding not just how to stop presses and issue apologies but also how to get under the hood and change URLs; how automatic syndication works and how to ensure any subsequent apology is amended to every online version, and not just the one hosted on their main site.

Finally, the way that apologies and clarifications are published needs to be seriously re-thought. Publishing a correction in the next day’s paper, or as a separate item on the publication’s website, is a ridiculous anachronism. People no longer read the same paper every day: the fact that they stumbled across a story in the Independent or the Daily Mail once through Google News doesn’t mean they’ll ever read a story in that paper again. It certainly doesn’t mean they’ll see a correction published 24 hours later.

Whereas once a libel court could be satisfied that the publication of a printed apology would mitigate libel damages, that’s unlikely to hold much weight in any legal action concerning the stories about Zoe Margolis or Facebook. Both Zoe and Facebook made their reputation online and it’s online rather than in print that they have the most to lose.

As a Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian, a traditional correction can’t undo the ‘brand damage that has been done’. Perhaps, then, the Mail and the Independent should take a lesson in damage control from Zoe. Moments after the Independent published their apology, she tweeted out a link to it and asked her followers to ‘please retweet’. Many (including me) did, and still others republished it on their blogs. Not only did that spread the word that Zoe isn’t – and has never been – a hooker, but it also helped ensure that most of the Google results for “Zoe Margolis +hooker” point to the correction and not to the original libel.

Had the editors at the Mail and the Independent been quicker to update their libellous URLs, and had they used Twitter and other social networks to push out their apologies then perhaps they could have avoided what will quite possibly be some very costly legal action.

But then again that would require them to understand the first thing about the Internet and other “technical matters”. And if they’ve proved anything recently, it’s that they really – really – don’t.

PRESS DIGEST - Thai newspapers - March 16

ChinaEdu Corporation Signs Agreements with Two New University Partners

ChinaEdu Corporation Signs Agreements with Two New University Partners

AEV shares hit record on Philippine energy concerns

Twitter working on Chinese registration page (AP)

Apple iPad Continues to Draw App Developers, Says Flurry - eWeek

Stuff.co.nz

Apple iPad Continues to Draw App Developers, Says Flurry eWeek Apple's iPad tablet PC continued to prompt third party developer interest in the weeks leading up to its launch, according to analytics firm Flurry, which has noted a 185 percent increase in iPhone OS application starts since the iPad was originally ... Startup developers represent one in five on Apple's App StoreApple Insider Apple iPad Already Leading to Web Site RedesignFOXNews The iPad developer's challengeCNET PC World -NetworkWorld.com -BusinessWeek all 131 news articles »

Retro Mega Man 10 commercial – complete with V-Hold issues

The whole time I was watching this Mega Man 10 fauxmercial, I was thinking “something about this is wrong.” And yes, it’s all wrong, of course, but specifically… it’s 16:9. Man, there ain’t no NES commercials in 16:9!

[via Reddit]

Canon EOS 5D Mark II firmware udpate released (Macworld.com)

Kingston’s new “fastest memory ever” probably is, but won’t be next month

I haven’t been keeping up with the hardware. Last year I was all set because I’d recently built my PC, but all this dag-nabbed Macintosh-using has made me lazy. So when Kingston says their new HyperX 2400MHz DDR3 RAM is the fastest in the world and is timed at 9-11-9-27-2, all I can do is nod my head, open a new tab, and hit “New Post.” The result… is what you see.

The fact is that it’s a full-time job to keep up with enthusiast hardware. I skimmed this great roundup of processor features recently and it let me know how much I’d missed out on — and of course there’s memory and motherboards to think of as well.

I’m planning on putting together a new PC sometime in the next six months or so, at which time I’ll check in with all my favorite hardware sites and get a digest of what’s been happening, what’s a gyp, what’s on the horizon, and so on. But in the meantime, just check out the fins on these babies! This isn’t only the fastest RAM in the world, it’s also the first RAM you can simultaneously burn and stab yourself with!

[via Hot Hardware]

Ushahidi Crowd-Sources Crisis Response

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bunker buster robot will be like an underground missile

Well, there goes Zion. That rave-lovin’ excuse for a remnant of humanity would have been taken out in a trice by these Robotic Underground Munitions. And so it will be once the Robocalypse hits. Why are we doing the machines’ job for them? Here, I’ve got a better name for these bunker-busting subterranean missiles: Drill-based Earth-Asploding Terrifying Horrorbots.

I guess it’s worth nothing that pretty much every missile fired is at this point a robot, what with the GPS navigation, on-board cameras and all that. But somehow when they’re in the air they aren’t quite as scary. Under the ground, though — remember Tremors? And Screamers? And Gremlins? Well, that last one not so much, but still worth thinking about.

Note: the above illustration is not an accurate representation of this nightmare technology. It is Drill Man.

[via Ares and Gizmodo]

Next-gen GigaPan system sports new features, better frame

It’s no secret, we think that GigaPan’s products are pretty darn cool. The first generation only supported P&S cameras, the second generation worked with SLRs, but not the big boys. The Epic Pro however, not only supports a full size SLR with a heavy lens, it’s significantly more powerful then the ones that have come before.

So the GigaPan Epic Pro really expands on the capabilities of the Epic. First off, the Pro will support up to 10 pounds of camera (and lens), whereas the Epic 100 would only support up to 3 pounds of gear. This is because the Pro has a magnesium chassis. The Pro will also take up to 20 images per position, vs. the 10 supported by the Epic 100. This will allow you not only to produce the typical GigaPan images, but also HDR images within the GigaPan. The Pro also comes with a rechargeable battery pack, remote trigger port, and adjustments for exposure compensation, aspect ratio, and picture overlap.

Of course, there’s a cost for this level of performance, and the Epic Pro is going to set you back $895 when it’s released next month. Considering how awesome the pictures were from the first version, I’m thinking it’s worth it.

[via Gizmodo]

SXSW: MOG's Mobile Music Apps Go Beyond the Playlist - Wired News

Wired News

SXSW: MOG's Mobile Music Apps Go Beyond the Playlist Wired News MOG's iPhone app (Android too) lets subscribers download any of over 7 million songs over Wi-Fi, 3G, or Edge (screenshot courtesy of MOG). AUSTIN, Texas — Adding to the heat in on-demand music on the cellphone, the MOG music ... Mog's music service comes to iPhone, AndroidCNET MOG launches mobile apps with unlimited downloads to your phoneVentureBeat MOG releases mobile app, brings 7 million tracks to phonesAfterdawn.com Phandroid.com -Billboard Business News -BeatCrave.com all 48 news articles »

Aspiral Clock makes telling time a ball

Most concept clocks are high on art, and low on functionality. That’s not the case with the Aspiral Clock, designed by Will Aspinall and Neil Lambath. Instead of using the standard hands, this clock uses a small ball to tell the time.

As time progresses, the entire clock spins, which causes the ball to move along the spiral. The numbers on the face of the clock is labeled with your standard numbers, and as the spiral turns, the ball moves and indicates the proper time. Interesting concept, no? Best part, these are actually available for sale online and in assorted colors. Now, they aren’t cheap – you’re looking at $526 (plus shipping) to get one of these from the UK.

[via Sweet Station]

Play (rock paper scissors) with yourself

Self proclaimed glove hacker and electronics wiz Steve Hoefer just came out with his latest project, the Rock Paper Scissors glove. His project isn’t just random either, the glove actually learns how you play and will take advantage of your patterns in order to defeat you. Kind of creepy.

Steve explains how to build your own, including the AI and all the wiring on his website. He even tells you where to order the parts from, the part numbers, and a complete wiring diagram. Definitely cool stuff. But don’t take my word for it, check out the video.

XML Co-Founder Joins Google, Blasts iPhone

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HTC Desire, Legend coming to UK in April

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

When they were announced, the HTC Desire and Legend quickly became the Android phones to want.  The announcements at MWC, however, came with no release dates, and no talk of a US release.  Now we have no official US release for either phone, though there are now release dates for the UK.

Vodaphone UK is now taking update registrations for both the Desire and Legend.  Both phones are due out by next month.  No exact dates are given, though Amazon.co.uk is listing both phones are coming out on April 1.  The Desire and Legend are selling at the online retailer for £439.99 and £389.99 respectively, which translates to $662 and $587 for those who want to import the phones.

The latest rumors seem to point at the Desire coming to AT&T, and the Legend coming to Sprint, so importing could be the best option for those who want to use the phone on T-Mobile in the US.  It might be worth the price for those who really want the new version of HTC Sense UI.  There is always to option to root the Nexus One and flash a user-made ROM of the Sense UI, though that might have a number of bugs for quite some time.

Read [Electronista]

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

Broadband plan aims to boost speed, wireless (Reuters)

NVIDIA tries creating real hair

Ten years ago, Final Fantasy VII upped the ante on realistic portrayals of their human characters in their cinematics. It’s a good thing, too –those cinematics became a terrific reward for the hours spent acquiring EXP and levelling up to make one’s characters fortuitous enough to withstand the battles they laid in wait behind.

It wasn’t long before the other companies started to ‘level up’ their own cinematics, and less time still before gamers started to crave that sense of realism in the actual gameplay. To that end, NVIDIA (video above) has been working on real-time rendering — literally down to the last hair they can manage.

According to their demo at the GDC, they are now capable of, in-game, rendering up to 18,000 individual strands of hair at a time, completely interactive with light, wind, and, apparently, conditioning — just look at that bounce and shine!

Given that the average human head of hair has 100,000 strands, NVIDIA hasn’t hit Caprica levels of in-game realism yet — but for today’s technology, we figure we can settle for this remarkable leap forward.

Prison Mobile Phone Debate Jammed Up in the System

Magento Scores $22.5 Million For Open Source E-commerce Platform Play

According to a regulatory filing, LA-based Magento Commerce, which develops an open source e-commerce software suite, has recently received a $22.5 million capital injection in an equity funding round.

Magento was originally a product developed and marketed by Varien, a 9-year old company that also delivers e-commerce business consulting and other services, but has now effectively been incorporated as a stand-alone venture. It’s unclear whether the financing of Magento comes from Varien, or if the latter company’s existing and / or other investors have stepped in to provide funding. Either way, the company says it concerns ‘fresh’ cash.

If I were to venture a guess, I would say PayPal plays a part in this story – from what I can gather the least you can say is that the digital payment company has a deep partnership with Magento that spans both co-marketing of their respective services as well as a collaboration on a product development level.

I had a brief chat with Tim Schulz, the former MySpace product manager who recently became Magento’s Senior Product Manager, who told me they’re positioning the Magento Commerce solution right in the center of various growth areas in electronic commerce and that its goal is to become the provider of the single largest e-commerce platform in the world. Bonus points for showcasing some ambition.

Magento currently has over 60,000 merchants using its software, which was downloaded about 1.5 million times as of January 2010. The company also says they’ve registered over $15 billion in transactions to date. The roadmap for the future is apparently paved with additional products, with a number of “Mobile Commerce, Saas offering and other products/services” coming later this year.

Here’s a video of Varien / Magento CEO Roy Rubin outlining his vision on open source e-commerce:

Samsung’s WinPho7 handset peeped, specs set in stone at MIX

Hey, I told you MIX was going to be hot. A talk at the development conference has revealed a third flavor of Windows Phone 7 Series, though alas, it does not appear to be the third chassis style we heard exists — unless the extra-hot camera is the third style. This shiny new Samsung keeps the lozenge style but has a more rounded look than the “reference” design we saw at launch.

Some other news from the conference: as we expected, Microsoft is locking down the hardware requirements for WinPho7 devices, requiring them to meet or exceed certain qualifications.

Continue reading…

Samsung’s WinPho7 handset peeped, specs set in stone at MIX

Hey, I told you MIX was going to be hot. A talk at the development conference has revealed a third flavor of Windows Phone 7 Series, though alas, it does not appear to be the third chassis style we heard exists — unless the extra-hot camera is the third style. This shiny new Samsung keeps the lozenge style but has a more rounded look than the “reference” design we saw at launch.

Some other news from the conference: as we expected, Microsoft is locking down the hardware requirements for WinPho7 devices, requiring them to meet or exceed certain qualifications. And here they are:

• 800×480 screen (320×480 to follow)
• 256MB RAM, 8GB flash storage
• 4-point multi-touch
• ARMv7 Cortex/Scorpion or better
• DirectX9 support by GPU
• Codec acceleration (probably on GPU via DirectX)
• 5 megapixel camera with flash and separate camera button
• Three hard buttons: Start, Search, and Back
• GPS, accelerometer, compass, light and proximity sensors

The resolution restriction is a good move for maintaining a similar visual experience across handsets. Actually, locking stuff down like this is good across the board — it means people are free to choose whichever hardware they like without worrying about whether they run the OS well. That’s a major concern for Android buyers right now.

I’m pretty sure the Samsung is not the “third chassis” mainly because of the upcoming HVGA resolution. That suggests to me a candy bar chassis with a full QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry style. The effectively halved resolution makes perfect sense for that. Who knows when they’ll announce it, but I feel strongly that’s the case.

[via SlashGear]

China To Connect Its High-Speed Rail To Europe

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

PayPal Launches Revamped iPhone App, Teams With Bump For Phone-Tapping Money Transfers

PayPal has just launched an upgraded iPhone application that adds new features and includes a facelift that’s meant to help instill a greater sense of security. And it also brings with it big news for Bump Technologies, the startup that lets you exchange information simply by tapping smartphones together: Bump is now prominently featured in the PayPal iPhone application as a quick way to initiate transactions.  You can download the free app here.

PayPal has offered a free application for the iPhone ever since the App Store launched in mid-2008, and it has gradually been improving over time. Today’s release brings a handful of significant new features. First, it now allows you to send a money request to your contacts (it’s essentially a bill). Second, you can now withdraw money out of your PayPal account and deposit it into your bank account. And there’s the Bump integration, which allows you to exchange money simply by tapping two iPhones together and entering the amount of the transaction — finally, an easy way to collect money from those friends who always seem to be out of cash.

The PayPal app includes a few more minor new features. There’s now an integrated tip calculator and bill splitter, as well as a reminder function that alerts you when you need to send or withdraw money. And the application now integrates the ‘PayPal For Kids’ program, which allows kids and teenagers to access a PayPal sub-account that’s linked to their parent’s.

PayPal’s iPhone app is only one component of the company’s mobile strategy. Last spring it partnered with RIM for the launch of the BlackBerry App World store, and it has also integrated with eBay’s mobile application. iPhone developers can easily integrate PayPal functionality using a PayPal library. And aside from the iPhone app, it offers native PayPal applications for Android and RIM phones as well (the company plans to brings these apps up to speed with the new iPhone release over the next few months).

This is also obviously very big news for Bump, which is still a young startup (the company took part in Y Combinator and was funded by Sequoia last fall). Bump and PayPal declined to disclose the details of the partnership.

Google expects Android to 'flourish' in China: CFO (AFP)

AFP - Google expects its Android mobile operating system to "flourish" in China, Google's chief financial officer said Monday amid a two-month standoff with Beijing over Web censorship and cyberattacks.

Tim and Eric: Father and Son (from HBO's "Funny or Die Presents")

Like Gabe at Videogum, I haven't enjoyed the new HBO "Funny or Die Presents" series. At all. But this 16-minute (!) short film by Tim and Eric is amazing. It includes RC-controlled model helicopters, violence, creepy, angst, and pizza. I'm surprised and pleased that HBO is allowing this to be freely embedded. Also: If Mama Noodles is real, I am ordering a large pie tonight.

(via Eric Wareheim)

Like iPhone, Windows Phone 7 Won’t Fully Multitask

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series shares one trait in common with Apple’s iPhone: It doesn’t support full multitasking.

While the iPhone does allow some limited multitasking (the phone and iPod apps can run in the background) many critics have knocked the iPhone for its inability to run third-party apps in the background. If you want to write an e-mail while listening to music in the Pandora app, for example, you must first quit Pandora. The only way to enable full background processing on an iPhone is to jailbreak (i.e., hack) the device.

For Windows Phone 7 Series, the story is almost exactly the same: The OS can process Microsoft’s core integrated experiences, such as music and phone calls, in the background, but third-party apps cannot run in the background. And just like the iPhone, Windows Phone 7 Series supports push-notifications enabling third-party apps to send updates and status messages to a phone’s home screen even when the actual application is not running in the background.

That’s in marked contrast to Google’s Android and Palm’s WebOS, both of which support extensive multitasking, including allowing third-party apps to run in the background.

Microsoft’s reasons for not supporting full background processing should sound familiar: It drains batteries.

“We do not allow third-party applications running on the phone to execute in the background,” said Charlie Kindel, manager of Microsoft’s Windows Phone App Platform and Developer Experience program, in a phone interview with Wired.com. “We’re poised to support it eventually, but in order to support great battery life and great end-user experience, we’re focusing on the integrated experiences first.”

In the smartphone world, the definition of multitasking has been widely debated. Technically, the iPhone and, soon, Windows Phone 7 Series, do multitask because they process core integrated services in the background. When critics say the iPhone doesn’t support multitasking, they’re thinking of the traditional desktop metaphor that allows multiple apps to run in several windows simultaneously without pause.

Google’s Android OS and Palm’s WebOS both support multitasking in the traditional sense: They allow you to run multiple third-party apps in addition to core integrated services in the background. Though that allows more flexibility, some Palm Pre users have complained about the Pre’s battery life being greatly reduced because of full background processing capability. The same complaint has been made about Android. For both platforms, users must manually disable settings or apps that run in the background by default to maximize battery life.

Photo: Charlie Sorrel / Wired.com

Chinese Censorship of Google Issue Betrays Concerns [Voices]

By Loretta Chao and Sue Feng, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

Chinese authorities have been explicit and unwavering in their disapproval of Google’s (GOOG) threat to disobey their censorship regulations on its Chinese search site, Google.cn. The company will have to “bear the consequences” for making such an “irresponsible” move, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology said last week.

Behind the scenes, however, there are signs that officials realize that their view on Google may not be super popular. The Communist Party’s Propaganda Department issued requests to media outlets on Friday to halt their coverage of the possible closure of Google’s Chinese Web site, says a Chinese journalist familiar with the situation. Chinese news Web sites have also been told they will be required to use only official accounts of the situation if Google.cn is closed, another individual with knowledge of that order said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

RFIDify your iPhone

Just think of all the fun you could have if the iPhone could interact with RFID tags. But you don’t have to wait for Apple for iPhone version 7 for this feature. Nope. You can build your own iPhone compatible RFID reader right now.

Maybe not right now. First you probably have to get through your day at the office and make your way home only to spend a few mundane hours with the family. But maybe in the 35 minutes you have after your last kid goes to bed and the nightly news starts, you could assemble this project.

Send your RROD Xbox 360 out in style - in a coffin

FROM GAMERTELL - When your Xbox 360 dies, send it off in style with an RROD coffin from Alexis Vanamois. The coffin-shaped box has an RROD symbol on the lid and holds your defunct Xbox 360 and one controller.
MORE »

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

Yahoo Is Teed Up to Buy a Sports Site–BoomTown Is Betting on Citizen Sports for the Score! [BoomTown]

According to numerous sources inside and outside the company, Yahoo is poised to slam dunk–I apologize, but sports puns are so easy–an acquisition of an online sports site this week.

And, predicted several of those sources, it is most likely to be San Francisco-based Citizen Sports, a maker of popular apps and games that allow fans to interact on the Apple (AAPL) iPhone and Facebook.

Interestingly, Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz is the keynote speaker at the high-profile sports business conference IMG World Sports Congress Wednesday morning in Los Angeles.

There is a plethora of interesting Web sports sites for Yahoo to choose from, including Yardbarker, SB Nation and Rotowire.

With Yahoo’s strong sports content business, especially in fantasy sports and news, and Bartz’s recent statements about making smaller talent and tech acquisitions–as well as the company’s recent focus on social networking and mobile integration–Citizen Sports is a perfect choice.

Citizen Sports started off in 2005 as ProTrade, an “athlete stock market entertainment company,” with $10 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partners Kevin Compton and Doug Mackenzie through Radar Ventures.

Other investors included Kleiner Perkins partner Will Hearst, said the Citizen Sports Web site, “as well as major sports figures, including former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and three-time Super Bowl champ Troy Aikman; Arizona Diamondbacks General Partner Jeff Moorad; legendary NFL Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh; and Northgate Capital Venture founder Brent Jones, the former all-pro San Francisco 49ers tight end.”

But the site has morphed into an innovative digital enabler of interaction among fans of all kinds of sports, via its fantasy sports games and Sportacular iPhone app, as well as numerous apps on Facebook.

It also has tight relationships with Sports Illustrated magazine and other sports partners.

Most interesting is that one of its co-founders, Jeff Ma, was one of the members of the infamous MIT blackjack team, made famous in the book, “Bringing Down the House” and the film, “21.”

It is unclear how much Citizen Sports would sell for, but estimates put its price at about $40 to $50 million.

Both Citizen Sports and Yahoo declined to comment.

Twitter CEO Launches @Anywhere to Tepid Audience Reaction

Bethesda Unveils New Co-op Dungeon Crawler

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stainless steel iPhone case protects your precious

Still carrying your iPhone in your pants pocket eh? Well, I guess you can do that. Be careful if you sit down though, you might end up with a pocket full of broken dreams and unicorn tears. Well, unless you have this pretty sweet stainless steel iPhone case.

Hand made in Portland Oregon by a person who obviously knows industrial design, this seriously stout case is hand finished and made from high grade steel. The case is custom cut with a flip cover, including space to show the time and date, as well as allowing you to answer the phone without opening the case. The designer even thought to include vents for cooling, and to improve reception. Of course, this level of hand crafted goodness isn’t going to come cheap. The LTD Tools iPhone case sells for $95, but it seems like a small price to pay for the security of knowing your phone’s case will stop a bullet.

[via iPhone Savior]

Friday News Feedbag Info for March 12th, 2010

Globalbrain v5 Provides More Customizable and Flexible Search Functionality

Northern Virginia Technology Council Statement on New Law Restructuring Virginia Information Technologies Agency

SEC Filing Shows CoTweet Sold For At Least $8.1 Million

When CoTweet sold to ExactTarget a couple weeks ago, the acquisition price was not disclosed. But an SEC filing put out today suggests that ExactTweet paid at least $8.1 million in stock for CoTweet. That is the value of “securities offered . . . as partial consideration in connection with a merger,” meaning there was likely a cash portion as well. While this isn’t a huge sum, it’s not a terrible return for an initial investment of $1.1 million.

CoTweet helps businesses manage multiple Twitter accounts and use it more effectively as marketing channel. The CoTweet acquisition is now being pointed to as an example of how businesses can be built on top of Twitter. So now we know how much the stock portion of the deal was worth.

Will we see more $8 million to $10 million deals in the near future, or do exits have to become bigger to make it worth creating a startup around Twitter?

Google sees mobile ad rates passing PC rates (Reuters)

Texting From Beyond The Grave

Apple Quietly Fills in Some iPad Blanks - PC World

Sydney Morning Herald

Apple Quietly Fills in Some iPad Blanks PC World After Apple announced the iPad, a lot of details got passed over in the media frenzy that Apple had whipped up, details such as whether the iPad would support Microsoft Exchange -- a fact that Apple's Web site did not address and that the company did ... Apple iPad Free with Replacement BatteryCNM News Network Apple's iPad Will Change the Way User Perform FunctionsTopNews United States SJSU faculty, staff nibble on Apple's iPad in preview eventThe Spartan Daily InformationWeek -University of Pittsburgh The Pitt News -eWeek all 547 news articles »

Pirate Bay Legal Action Dropped In Norway

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

FCC to Release Ambitious, Pragmatic National Broadband Plan

Windows Phone 7 Series developer partners to include the AP, Pandora, Sling, Foursquare and more

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Web

MIX 10 has kicked off, and as you would have expected the press releases have begun to roll out. The first of which gives us some details about what we can expect in terms of the Windows Phone Marketplace. Unfortunately the announcement did not give any launch date for the Marketplace, but with the Windows Phone 7 Series phones not coming anytime soon, I guess we can wait for that as well. And as we have seen with the success of the iPhone and Android, and some of the slump with webOS—the market and the available apps are key. That said, it looks like Microsoft is going in with that in mind because they have announced a pretty decent list of launch partners, which include;

“The Associated Press, Archetype International Inc., AWS Convergence Technologies – WeatherBug, Citrix Systems Inc., Clarity Consulting Inc., Cypress Consulting, EA Mobile, Fandango Inc., Foursquare Labs Inc., frog design inc., Glu Mobile Inc., Graphic.ly, Hudson Entertainment Inc., IdentityMine Inc., IMDb.com Inc., Larva Labs, Match.com LLC, Matchbox Mobile Ltd., Microsoft Game Studios, Namco Networks America Inc., Oberon Media Inc., Pageonce Inc., Pandora Media Inc., Photobucket Inc., PopCap Games Inc., Seesmic, Shazam Entertainment Ltd., Sling Media, SPB Software Inc., stimulant, TeleCommunications Systems Inc., Touchality LLC and Vertigo Software Inc.”

Additional details about the market include the ability for one-time credit card purchases, carrier billing and free apps that are advertising supported. And as a plus, customers will be able to try before they buy.

Read [Microsoft] Via [Gizmodo]

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

Justin.TV Turns To Law Professor Eric Goldman As It Battles Live Video Piracy

Before livestreaming video networks like Justin.TV can become attractive to advertisers, they need to deal with their piracy issues. It’s the same thing YouTube had to go through, except with live video streams. Like YouTube, Justin.tv complies with DMCA takedown notices and is developing digital fingerprinting technology to identify copyrighted video on its network automatically. It also invites copyright owners to police the site directly.

Despite these measures, a casual perusal of the most popular streams on Justin.tv is filled with pirated streams of professional sports, TV shows, and movies. Right now, for instance, you can watch King of Queens or CNN International, taken straight from TV. The company finds itself increasingly under fire for copyright issues. To help it deal with these issues, Justin.tv now has a new adviser, Eric Goldman, the director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clare University and a highly-respected Internet law blogger. Unlike Justin.TV’s very-expensive lawyers at Wilson Sonsini, Goldman will be less constrained in speaking publicly on behalf of the company about these issues.

Goldman is an expert on how copyright law is applied to user-generated content. But in many ways live video on the Web is a new beast. It is hard for even a vigilant copyright holder to deliver a takedown notice if the video is only live on the Web for an hour. Competitor Livestream takes a “Zero Tolerance Policy” on piracy and challenges its competitors to do the same. Livestream does pretty much the same things Justin.tv does to fight piracy, with one major exception: it limits new channels to 50 concurrent viewers until the channel is authorized manually as a legitimate channel. Should Justin.tv do the same thing? Goldman dismisses Livestream’s zero tolerance policy as somewhat of a marketing pitch, but he thinks the concept of limiting a user’s “ability to put up content until they are proven trustworthy” is worth exploring.

CEO Michael Seibel notes that Livestream can do that because it is pursuing more of an enterprise strategy than a consumer-driven one. He also notes: “We work with the copyright owners. If copyright owners were not happy with us, they would be suing our pants off.” So far, Justin.TV has not been sued in the U.S., while competitor Ustream cannot say the same. Seibel sounds sincere when he tells me, “I don’t want that content on my site.” He really believes he can make money off the pure user-generated video, which costs him one third of a penny for every hour streamed, versus the half-a-penny per hour he can make just on remnant ads.

But if Justin.tv is really serious about cleaning up the pirated streams on it network, why not simply police itself and strip the most questionable content from at least the most popular channels to start? In the bizarro world of created by the DMCA, legally it can’t. Under the DMCA, the responsibility for finding copyright violations lies with the copyright holders. The second that a site starts to take on that responsibility itself, it risks losing the protection of the DMCA’s “safe harbor” provision. So Justin.TV can give copyright holders the tools to remove content from the site, but can’t do it themselves.

Where Are Twitter's Ads? You May Have to Wait a Month (Or More). [MediaMemo]

Twitter CEO Evan Williams did not announce the new ad platform the company is working on today.

So when will we see it? Think mid-April.

One good bet is at Chirp, the company’s developer conference four weeks from now. That would make sense because the search ad strategy Twitter is working on–a play on Google’s (GOOG) AdWords/AdSense model–is very much tethered to the third-party software and services that distribute the Twitterstream.

Another educated guess: Trade magazine Advertising Age is hosting its Digital Conference in New York on April 13 and 14–just before the Chirp conference. I’ve talked to two sources familiar with the company who expect the announcement to come during that event. It’s worth noting that Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief operating officer, and the man who has overseen the ad strategy, is a keynote speaker on April 13.

The required caveat: Twitter’s ad strategy also requires a lot of work–rounding up hundreds or thousands of advertisers to “seed” the system with their ads at launch, for instance–so no matter when the company announces the platform, it may take a while to roll out. The most definitive answer I’ve heard is, and remains, “the first half of 2010.” So be patient.

Meanwhile, the announcement that Twitter did make today won’t be of interest to those of you who aren’t publishers. For those who are: The company is making it easier to integrate Twitter with your pages. And there are some other bell and whistles. For instance, you’ll be able to “follow” particular Twitter users who write articles or are mentioned in them by hovering over their names on a page.

That sounds cool, and in a best-case scenario, it allows Twitter to turn publishers into distribution partners. That’s a good thing. But it’s not fundamental to Twitter’s future either.

You're Leaving a Bacterial Fingerprint on Your Keyboard

Verizon Statement on FCC's National Broadband Plan

25 Years of the .com gTLD

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Measuring Protein Movements with Nanosecond Resolution

Limb Regeneration Found in Single Gene Deletion

Computer Program Locates Genes in Milliseconds Instead of Years

Wait, Did Ev Williams Just Interview Umair Haque? Weird.

When SXSW sets up its festival, you have to assume they want the best and most engaging keynotes possible. If the public reaction to Umair Haque’s interview of Twitter co-founder Ev Williams is any indication, they failed. Badly.

I wish I could take credit for the title here, but it is all Mike Monteiro, appropriately, by way of Twitter. Below, find a sampling of some of the other best tweets about the keynote. As someone who was in the audience, all seem pretty accurate.

Williams had some news to announce during the talk too. Sadly, he got that out of the way in the first two minutes and then it was completely overshadowed by the mass exodus of the crowd and the humorous tweets as the interview went on.

Update: Ev Williams just tweeted out that he’s heard the talk about the interview and is willing to answer 10 questions over Twitter. Send away.

Yahoo Confirms U.S. Ad Head Bradford's Departure–In Tweet-Sized Terms [BoomTown]

Short and, well, not so sweet.

More like a tweet.

Yahoo (YHOO) confirmed a report earlier here today, in a statement so terse, it almost could have been sent on Twitter, that its head of North American revenue, Joanne Bradford, is leaving the company

The announcement did not mention that advertising sales veteran Bradford, who has also worked at Microsoft (MSFT), is going to social content start-up Demand Media as its new chief revenue officer.

Here it is, in its entirety (missing Twitter by only 22 characters):

“Joanne Bradford has decided to leave Yahoo! to pursue a new opportunity. Joanne will be working with the team over the coming weeks to enable a smooth transition.”

Sources told BoomTown that means within two weeks.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Demand Media also eventually put out a press release, which is quite a bit more enthusiastic:

Demand Media Appoints Joanne Bradford as Chief Revenue Officer

Former Yahoo and Microsoft Media Executive to Focus on Growing Branded Ad Sales and Platform Partnerships

SANTA MONICA, CA–March 15, 2010–Demand MediaTM, a leading content and social media company, today announced that Joanne Bradford joined the company as its Chief Revenue Officer. In this newly-created position, Bradford will oversee the growth of brand advertisers on the company’s top 20* owned and operated websites, as well as the adoption of the company’s professional content and social media platform by business partners. She will report to CEO and co-founder, Richard Rosenblatt.

“Joanne and I share a passion for listening to the consumer and using that information to give them exactly what they want. When content is produced with that perspective, it creates rewarding online experiences that visitors can easily discover and engage in,” said Rosenblatt. “This translates into unique opportunities for marketers, and with Joanne at the helm, we are well-equipped to provide expanded offerings to partners and advertisers.”

Bradford will drive the comprehensive sales strategy for the company’s category-leading O&O media properties, including eHowTM, LIVESTRONG.COMTM, Golflink.com, and Cracked® which combined grew its audience 102 percent year over year*. In addition, Bradford will oversee the company’s newly created Business Solutions Group, which delivers Demand Media’s professional content creation services and the award-winning Pluck social media suite. Leading publishers, marketers and retailers deploying Pluck include BF Goodrich, Kraft Foods, Lowes, NFL, Scott’s, USA Today and Whole Foods.

“Marketers are hungry for the ability to acquire new audiences with great content, opportunities to engage visitors with social media experiences and innovative ways to build long term connections to their brand.” said Bradford. “I’ve worked with hundreds of brand marketers over the years and am excited that Demand Media has created a platform that can deliver exactly what top marketers are seeking. This is a tremendous opportunity to reshape how online marketing works at scale.”

Most recently, Bradford served as Senior Vice President at Yahoo! where she was responsible for North American revenue generation activities and also struck innovative business partnerships. Previously, Bradford established herself as a new media trailblazer at Microsoft’s Internet Business unit where she helped grow online revenue to more than $2 billion and introduced innovative services such as in-game advertising and self-serve advertising platforms. Bradford has served on the IAB and Ad Council boards.

[Binder image courtesy of Zazzle.com]

Scientists Study Status Quo Bias in the Human Brain

Environment May Impact Apes’ Ability To Understand Declarative Communication

Study: Grass, Fungus Combination Affects Ecology

Tarpon Towers LLC Receives Equity Investment from Spire Capital Partners to Further the Company's Tower Acquisition and Development Strategy

Crimsonfox: Augmented reality-powered scavenger hunt in Tokyo (video)

Molecular Study Could Push Back Angiosperm Origins

Scientists: Level of Particular Gene Alters Risk of Alzheimer's Disease

New Med-Tech: 3-D Cell Culture

Scientists: 'Baby Steps' Important When Learning to Walk

Attack of the Killer Electrons

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gadgetell Hands On: Motorola Devour

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Reviews, Peep Shows, Features

Another smartphone has made its way into my home office, unfortunately, like the others this is also a review unit that will go back in a few weeks—but still fun to play with for a little while. The phone is the recently released Motorola Devour, which is available with Verizon Wireless. I have yet to really get super involved with the Devour, but first impressions that I can mention include that I like MOTOBLUR much more than expected and this phone is solid. Its a little bigger than I would prefer to carry everyday, but at the same time it feels comfortable in hand. I am working on putting a full review together, but in the meantime check out the gallery below. I have included several shots of the phone itself as well as a few with it sitting next to a Droid Eris, which is also available with Verizon.

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

Join Charlie Rose, Ron Conway, Jack Dorsey And Lots Of Others At TechCrunch Disrupt

We are just starting to announce the first speakers at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City on May 24 – 26.

TechCrunch Disrupt is a three-day, single-track conference and startup competition to immerse you in the debate about what’s changing in media and technology right now, what’s causing it and what we need to do about it to survive and thrive in real time. Join 2,000 or so of your closest friends to talk about what’s most important in the collision of technology and media.

Half of the event is a March Madness style startup competition. We’re sorting through hundreds of applications to find the most interesting startups launching this Spring. You’ll see live on stage demos, rapid fire Q&A sessions with expert judges from a variety of backgrounds (product, finance, team building, leadership and more) and highlights from behind the scenes mentoring sessions.

The other half of the event will put leading experts from around the world on stage to talk about the stuff that matters most in technology and media. A few of the speakers and experts are listed below. Keep an eye on the Disrupt Blog and Speaker list for more updates.

Get your ticket here.

Ron Conway
Angel Investor, SV Angel
Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. Ron was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top “deal-makers” in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ron is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation.

Jack Dorsey
Co-founder and CEO, Square
Software engineer Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder of Twitter, and was the CEO until October 2008. Dorsey had the original idea for Twitter while still at Odeo, a podcasting startup which was a project of Obvious Corp. He is now the chairman of Twitter. In May 2009, Dorsey announced his latest startup, Square. Square, originally code-named Squirrel, is a mobile payment startup with both an app and a piece of hardware that allows the iPhone to accept credit card payments.

Brad Garlinghouse
President, Consumer Applications, AOL
Brad Garlinghouse is President, Consumer Applications at AOL since September 2009. Until 2008 Brad served as SVP of Communications & Communities at Yahoo, which includes the world’s most popular webmail product, Yahoo Mail, Messenger and Groups. During his tenure, Brad has also overseen the primary starting points to the Yahoo network, including Yahoo.com and My Yahoo. Prior to joining Yahoo, Brad served as CEO of Dialpad Communications. Earlier in his career, Brad led VC investments in communications and Internet businesses at @Ventures. He also spent time in leadership roles at @Home Network and SBC Communications.

Katie Geminder
User Experience and Design Expert
Katie started her career in Seattle, working to produce and publish print and web content for clients including Microsoft, Intel, and Expedia. She joined Amazon as the managing editor of the e-Cards business and led large cross-functional and customer experience initiatives including the Amazon.com Kitchen Store, re-launch of Tab Navigation, Target.com, and the Amazon Services e-Commerce platform. In 2005 Katie moved to work on the Apple Online Store team as a Sr. Manager focused on content and customer experience, collaborating with engineering, marketing, and design teams to improve online shopping for Macs and iPods. Katie joined Facebook in early 2006 and led the product management, design and user experience teams. She played an integral part in launching the News Feed and Mini Feed products, making Facebook available to all users (beyond college and high school), opening up the Facebook Platform to application developers, and the Facebook redesign. In August of 2008 she set out on building a design and consulting business with her co-founder, designer, and husband. She then rejoined Owen Van Natta at Myspace in July of 2009, a job she would leave in February 2010 after Van Natta’s departure.

Charlie Rose
Host, Charlie Rose Show
Charlie Rose is an American television interviewer and journalist. He entered television journalism full-time in 1974, when he became the managing editor of the PBS series Bill Moyers’ International Report. He currently hosts the Charlie Rose Show, where he has developed a reputation as a skilled interviewer.

Brian Sugar, CEO & Publisher, Sugar Inc.
Brian Sugar is the CEO and Publisher of Sugar Inc., the company behind PopSugar. As CEO & Publisher, Brian Sugar sets the overall direction for Sugar Inc. Prior to founding Sugar Inc., Brian served first as Vice President of Marketing then as Vice President & General Manager of 2Wire, Inc.’s media business unit. Before joining 2Wire, Brian was founder and CEO of Sugar Media, a digital media software company, which was acquired by 2Wire in October 2003. Brian was Chief Web Officer at Kmart’s BlueLight.com, Vice President of eCommerce at J.Crew, and a founder of Neptune Interactive, a Washington, DC-based ISP.

Michael Wolf, Board of Directors for Entercom Communications and iAmplify
Michael Wolf currently serves on the boards of Entercom Communications Corporation (NYSE: ETM), the fourth-largest broadcasting company in the United States, and iAmplify.com, a Web-based content publisher and syndication network and the world’s largest selection of expert video and audio downloads. He was formerly the president and former COO of MTV Networks. Michael was a Director of McKinsey & Company and head of its Global Media and Entertainment Practice. Before joining McKinsey in 2001, Wolf was a senior partner with Booz & Company, where he spearheaded its media and entertainment group. Wolf is the author of publications on the subjects of entertainment, economics, non-fiction, e-business strategies and the development of global media. His bestselling book on entertainment economics, The Entertainment Economy: How Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives was published in the U.S. in 1999 and then globally. He is frequent contributor and op-ed columnist for newspapers, journals and business publications.

Microsoft Tells Windows Phone 7’s App Story

Microsoft on Monday announced details regarding Windows Phone 7 Series’ application store, software development kit and user interface.

As leaked documents hinted in February, the Silverlight and XNA programming environments will play major roles for third-party software developers. Microsoft previewed the software toolkits at its MIX developer conference this morning.

“I think we’ve been very clear since we first started talking about [Windows Phone 7 Series] that it represents a sea change for Microsoft,” said Charlie Kindel, manager of Microsoft’s Windows Phone App Platform and Developer Experience program, in a phone interview with Wired.com. “We’ve revamped just about every aspect of how we build phone software, ranging from how we think about customers to how we do the engineering for the product.”

Windows Phone 7 Series is Microsoft’s reboot of its mobile platform previously named Windows Mobile. Though Windows Mobile established an early lead as the smartphone operating system of choice, the platform last year suffered significant losses in market share in the mobile OS space, while Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform continued to see healthy growth.

With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft is attempting to regain its mobile groove by offering a brand new user interface that integrates applications and multimedia into “Hubs” (i.e., software experiences organized into main categories) as well as a tidier platform for third-party developers to create and serve apps.

For development, Windows Phone 7 Series will employ XNA, a set of programming tools that makes it easier for game designers to develop games for multiple Microsoft platforms, including Windows XP, Xbox 360, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Now that Windows Phone 7 Series supports XNA, customers will be able to download and play games sold through Microsoft’s online store, Xbox Live Marketplace, which currently serves about 300 titles.

Silverlight will serve as the coding toolkit for “rich internet applications.” As Microsoft’s alternative to Adobe Flash, this is not surprising, and potentially gives Windows Phone 7 an edge over phones that don’t support Flash or Silverlight — namely, the iPhone.

To make a long story short, that means most mobile apps will be made with Silverlight, while more graphics-intensive 3D games will most likely be developed with XNA.

“Our focus is on making the tools friction-free for developers to get in as easily as possible,” Kindel said.

Microsoft also detailed the experience of its application store, dubbed Windows Phone Marketplace. Developers will be required to provide trial versions of their applications so customers can try out apps before deciding to purchase them. And similar to what practically everyone is doing with app stores, developers will receive a 70 percent cut of each sale, while Microsoft will take 30 percent.

Microsoft disclosed a lengthy list of partners that have signed up to develop for Windows Phone 7 Series. Notable developers include Associated Press, EA, Foursquare, Namco, Sling, Shazam, Pandora, Netflix and Pageonce.

As for usability, Microsoft’s phones will support about the same touch gestures seen on the iPhone: pinch or double tap to zoom, and swipe in a certain direction to pan, for example. Also similar to the iPhone, Windows Phone 7 Series phones supports push-notification. Dubbed “Microsoft Notification Service,” the service enables third-party apps to send updates to a phone’s home screen and display status messages even when the actual application is not running in the background. Some core integrated features such as the phone and music player will be able to run in the background, but third-party apps cannot, according to Kindel.

Despite those similarities to the iPhone, the general hub-based UI is a major difference from any smartphones on the market. Microsoft will provide a basic framework of hubs on Windows Phone 7 Series’ start screen: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace and Office. Developers can inject their apps into Microsoft’s standard hubs, and they’ll also have the option to create their own hubs, according to Kindel.

The brand new hub UI should make Windows Phone 7 Series’ app story interesting, said Michael Gartenberg, partner of technology consulting firm Altimeter Group, who attended the MIX keynote this morning.

“We’ll see how the market reacts and how consumers react because it’s a very different user interface,” Gartenberg said. “They’re going to have to justify the differentiation for consumers and developers, and I think there’s going to be a longer story that needs to be told here.”

For hardware, each Windows Phone 7 Series phone will include seven standard physical buttons for controlling power, volume, screen, camera, back, start and search. (See diagram below.)

Microsoft today released the Windows Phone Developer Tools, available for a free download.

See Also:

• Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Series
• Microsoft’s Challenge With Windows Phone 7 Is Wooing Developers …
• Microsoft Blends Zune Media, Xbox Live Into New Phone OS
• Older Windows Phones Can’t Be Upgraded to 7 Series
• No Flash On Windows Mobile 7

Images: Microsoft

Salesforce.com Launches Salesforce Chatter Developer Preview, Unleashing the Opportunity for Force.com Developers to Build Enterprise Social Apps

Innovative Ideas Wanted: US Government to Host an Online Conversation: 'Global Pulse 2010'

Tigers Still In Danger, Despite International Efforts

San Jose, California, Customers Receive More 3G Coverage With New Verizon Wireless Cell Site

Microsoft Lifts the Curtain on Windows Phone 7 Apps

Microsoft Lifts the Curtain on Windows Phone 7 Apps

Neurochemical Vulnerability Found that Could Contribute to Psychopathic Behaviors

Droid 2.1 update coming in March, says random Motorola CS rep

Oh, customer service agents, how we love you. You’re an endless source of knowledge — even if about 80% of it tends to be taken from gadget blogs, pushed through the fact distorting ears of the rumor mill. That other 20%, though.. there are some real gems in there.

Like the launch window for the Android 2.1 update for the Motorola Droid, for example.

Android fan site Droid-Life started nagging at CS agents for information about when we might see 2.1 land on the Motorola Droid – and sure enough, they got a hit:

Marcelo M.: Hi, my name is Marcelo M.. How may I help you?
Kellen B: Hey Marcelo! Since the Spain Milestone has Android 2.1 and the Bulgarian one launches at the end of this week with 2.1, should Droid users expect it this week as well?
Marcelo M.: Within the next 2-3 weeks
Kellen B: Really? That’s awesome news. So by the end of March?
Marcelo M.: Yes
Kellen B: Very cool! Any details on what will be included in the update?
Marcelo M.: Not at this time Kellen, I am sorry
Kellen B: Ok, well thanks for providing me with a more defined timeline than just “soon”. Greatly appreciated.

So, one rep says it’s coming by the end of March. One rep’s word is never enough to go off of (because, like anyone else in the world, they tend to pass on what they’ve heard, rumor or otherwise, as fact), so Droid-Life asked another rep. This one wasn’t quite as specific, saying only that it was coming in “Q1″ – which, as it turns out, happens to end in March.

Take it with a grain of salt for the time being, but Droid owners just might be in for the upgrade treatment before the month is out. We hopped on Moto’s support chat ourselves to try and confirm and, out of pure coincidence, ended up talking to the same guy quoted above. He wasn’t willing to spill the beans for me, though, leaving us with “No sir, we’re still waiting on information.”

Nokia Claims Apple Does "Legal Alchemy" To Mask IP Theft

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nexus One headed to Verizon, available beginning as early as next month

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

According to reports in a Chinese newspaper, HTC has already begun shipping a CDMA version of the popular Android based Nexus One to Verizon and it should be on sale by early next month. This will come as good news to Android lovers, many who have been waiting anxiously. UK carrier Vodafone is also said to be getting the handset. It will be a pure CDMA phone (not a world phone) with all the same features as its GSM counterpart.

HTC is also set to launch its mini Windows Mobile based smartphone today in Taiwan and Wednesday in Hong Kong. There’s no word on when or if the U.S. will see this phone or on any pricing details for the CDMA Nexus One.

Read [Digitimes]

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

When a Volcano Kills Quietly

Gigapan Robotic Camera Rig Goes Pro

Gigapan’s robotic camera mounts are a favorite among hobbyists who want to create large panoramic pictures. Now the company is going after professionals whose powerful cameras need a sturdier rig.

Gigapan has released the Epic Pro, a mount that can handle DSLR camera and lens combination of up to 10 lbs. Earlier versions of the mount were created for lightweight and compact cameras. The Pro, designed with a magnesium chassis and aluminum arm, weighs about 8 lbs including the battery pack. It’s features include the ability to adjust time between exposure, motor speed, aspect ratio and picture overlap.

A year ago, Gigapan launched its first robotic camera mount called Epic that automates the process of taking different images to compose the ultimate shot. The mount allows photographers with almost any point-and-shoot digital camera to click photos without worrying about missing details that might ruin a picture when it is eventually stitched together. A software program called Stitch that comes with the device allows the photos to be blended together and uploaded to GigaPan.com where users can zoom into the detail, explore and share.

The Epic Pro mount will be available in April, says the company, and it will cost $895. The hobbyist focused Epic 100 costs $450 and the smallest rig Epic designed for compact digital cameras is $350.

See Also:

• Hands-On With the Gigapan Epic 100 Panorama Robot
• GigaPan Releases Camera Rig for Automated Panorama Photos
• First Look: Gigapan Epic 100, The Panorama Robot
• New Gigapan Shoots HDR Images, Works with Bigger Cameras
• 18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague
• Camera Add-On Brings You Billion Pixel Images

Photo: GigaPan Epic 100 (Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com)

Netflix with Watch Instantly support announced for Windows Phone

Gratuitous shot from Mortal Kombat used here because A) Mortal Kombat is available via Watch Instantly and B) Mortal Kombat is fantastic. You know, in it’s own way.

Just about every smartphone has some sort of Netflix support at this point. Movie browsing… queue management.. all the basics. What they don’t have, unfortunately, is the one feature that everyone is asking for: support for Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming service.

Well, someone’s finally stepping up to the plate with Watch Instantly support — and it’s not Apple or Google.

Fresh out of MIX 2010, Microsoft has announced that Windows Phone 7 will have a Netflix app, complete with Watch Instantly. This is one hell of a pleasant surprise, though in hindsight it makes perfect sense; Watch Instantly on the Mac/PC is powered by Silverlight (which just so happens to be the same thing fueling Windows Phone 7 applications), and Netflix established a pretty close bond with Microsoft when they added Netflix streaming to the 360.

Man, oh man – if you’re not excited about Windows Phone 7 yet, you might want to get your headbone checked out.

[Via EngadgetMobile]

Twitter’s New “At Anywhere” Platform Allows For Deeper Integration Into Third Party Sites

During his keynote at SXSW this afternoon (live blog here), Twitter CEO Evan Williams just announced a new “At Anywhere” platform, which allows websites to more deeply integrate the service into their sites. The idea is to offer a more seamless experience to Twitter users navigating third party sites like the Huffington Post and the New York Times, giving them Twitter content without forcing them to jump off the page they’re currently viewing. The details on the new platform are still scant, but this is Twitter’s answer to Facebook Connect, which we reported on back in January.

Among the features:

• When you browse a site that uses @anywhere, people and brands that have Twitter accounts will be highlighted with a hyperlink. Mousing over that hyperlink will show a small box (a “hovercard”) containing their Twitter information, including their most recent tweet (in effect it means you don’t have to click over to Twitter’s homepage to see their Twitter profile)
• Publishers will be able to more deeply integrate their own Twitter profiles, making them easier for their readers to ‘follow’ them
• Sites will be able to implement @anywhere with a few lines of Javascript.
• The new platform is launching with a number of major sites and services, including the New York Times, Huffington Post, Meebo, Amazon, Yahoo, Bing, and eBay.

It looks like the platform may eventually be hosted at Twitter.com/anywhere, which currently features a placeholder Twitter account that tweeted “Stay Tuned”. Update This may actually be a Twitter account related to the platform — it just tweeted “If you’re a javascript guru and want to help us build @anywhere and work with publishers @jointheflock”.

From the Twitter blog:

We’ve developed a new set of frameworks for adding this Twitter experience anywhere on the web. Soon, sites many of us visit every day will be able to recreate these open, engaging interactions providing a new layer of value for visitors without sending them to Twitter.com. Our open technology platform is well known and Twitter APIs are already widely implemented but this is a different approach because we’ve created something incredibly simple. Rather than implementing APIs, site owners need only drop in a few lines of javascript. This new set of frameworks is called @anywhere.

When we’re ready to launch, initial participating sites will include Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube. Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page—and that’s just the beginning. Twitter has proven to be compelling in a variety of ways. With @anywhere, web site owners and operators will be able to offer visitors more value with less heavy lifting.

Ocean Geoengineering Scheme May Prove Lethal

A broadband catapult for America

Palm launches a new slogan for webOS: Life moves fast. Don’t miss a thing.

We love webOS around these parts. What we don’t love — not one bit — is how they’ve been advertising it. They kicked things off with creepiness, and then followed it up with mis-aimed cheesiness. Fortunately, it looks like Palm has finally, finally figured this advertising thing out.

Just minutes ago, Palm used a new commercial to debut the brand new slogan for webOS: Life moves fast. Don’t miss a thing. Given that two of webOS’ biggest strengths are how it manages notifications and contacts, we’d say that’s pretty fitting.

Plus, the commercial itself isn’t half bad. It shows off multi-tasking and app switching while riding the fine line between too abstract and too tech-y. Plus, as Youtube user zeo2k so eloquently put it, “Chick is FLY! damn…”

Lets hope this is just the beginning for a pretty massive marketing overhaul from Palm.

Shrimp Dinner Found Beneath Antarctic Ice

Appletell reviews the Just Mobile Lounge cradle

FROM APPLETELL - JustMobile’s new Lounge iDevice car cradle doesn’t attach to your windshield like you’d expect it to. It sits on your dash, which might just make more sense anyway.
MORE »

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

The Sun Can't Save Us From Global Warming

SXSW: MOG's Mobile Music Apps Go Beyond the Playlist

Meat-Eating Amphibian Predated Dinos

Microsoft Employees Leave The Windows Phone 7 Team…To Make Windows Phone 7 Apps

All naysaying aside, people are pretty excited about Windows Phone 7. Our readers are excited for it. I’d be outright lying if I said I wasn’t excited about it, too. Know who else is excited? The Windows Phone 7 team — but perhaps not for the reasons you’d expect.

With a few years of work finally coming to a head, some of the folks on the Windows Phone 7 team are taking a step back, looking at the fruits of their labor… and leaving. Not because they’re ashamed, and not because they’re being poached by the competition — but because instead of making Windows Phone 7, they want to make things for Windows Phone 7.

Earlier today, we received an anonymous tip that Microsoft Program Manager Mel Sampat was leaving Microsoft to do just that. After being one of the main voices behind the Windows Mobile blog for 4 years and helping to build the Calendar interface in Windows Phone 7, Mel Sampat (or “MelSam”, as he’s more commonly known) said in a letter to the team (see below) that he was departing to found mist labs, a company focusing on “helping big brands port their iPhone investments over to WM7″ along with a few original apps of their own. The company’s placeholder page also shows iPhone and Android handsets, implying that WM7 might not necessarily be the sole focus for them.

According to the tipster, MelSam isn’t alone; at least 6 other employees (who went unnamed) have recently left the team now that the product is almost out the door, many of whom seem to be interested in their own gigs rather than making the standard move to the competition.

Sampat’s letter follows:

Hey guys
after 4 amazing years in this team, I’ve decided to shake things up a bit. I’m leaving Microsoft and my last day will be Mar 12. Wtf? Well, as some of you know, I was an ISV before coming to Microsoft, and made a decent living writing Pocket PC apps way back in the good old days when we were kicking ass with WM5. After seeing the great reception 7 has received, the dormant entrepreneur in me has resurrected with a huge urge to write apps again. I see an opportunity in a few original ideas I have, as well as helping big brands port their iPhone investments over to WM7. So I’m starting a new company and hope to have some cool WM7 stuff “ready in time for holiday 2010″.

It’s been a pleasure & honor to work alongside so many of you. I will support Microsoft from the outside, and wish nothing but the best for 7. Thanks again for your friendship, comradry and “teachable moments” since 2006. Stay in touch and feel free to drop me a line if you ever need the ISV perspective on something. I leave my features in the able hands of Steve May and the rest of the Time Management team, who deserve credit for the Calendar experience I helped build.

How to find me:

[Removed]

See you down the road.
-MelSam

Gene That Lets Snakes See Heat Helps You Taste Wasabi

AT&T gets cloud syncing - makes messaging phones smarter

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile

Today, in addition to the 4 new devices announced, AT&T offered up their plan to earn your quick messaging device dollars.  In all, three new services are designed to make your low-cost device behave more like an expensive smartphone at a fraction of the cost.  The services use the web in smart ways.

AT&T Address Book Sync

Today, and frankly much overdue, AT&T announced the addition of address book syncing via the internet.  The phones address book will sync with AT&T online site and allow you to access these contacts online as well.  That means no more phone-to-phone brain dumps, no more paying someone to off-load your contacts.  Even better, the service is free and the syncing is automatic.

Next Generation Messaging

Messaging on AT&T phones just got a bit smarter.  Adding the capability to text up to 10 numbers at once long with reply all, AT&T is encouraging users to make the most out of their messaging phones.  Additonally, messages are now threaded or grouped together by subject so you can see what everyone is saying, not just the author of the last text.  Getting everyone on the same page will be much easier with these new features.

AT&T Mobile Share

This $10 a month service might just be enough to help you avoid a smartphone data charge.  AT&T offers up 250MB of free storage online allowing users to upload videos and pictures at full resolution and then simple distribution to social networking sites like Facebook or allowing them to be sent via email.  Content in their online storage can be accessed anytime via online or from the handset.  The $10 monthly fee includes 50 transfers.  Ease of use is what AT&T is aiming for here as well as a way for messaging customers to edge closer to a full-time data connection.

Press release: [AT&T]

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

Microsoft starts rolling out free Windows Phone 7 development tools

Got an idea in the back of your noggin that could be perfect for Windows Phone 7? (Pro tip: tip calculators and flash light apps are probably already covered.) It’s time to get to building.

Today at 11 am, Microsoft will be releasing a bunch of free tools for Windows Phone developers to start chipping away at.

Here’s whats coming:

• Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
• Windows Phone 7 Series Add-in for Visual Studio, for developers already working with Visual Studio 2010
• Windows Phone 7 Series emulator
• XNA Game Studio 4.0

Some people were worried that the Silverlight/.NET programming environment of Windows Phone 7 might not grant developers much access to the hardware; fortunately, most of those worries have been taken out back and shot. Microsoft today confirmed that developers will have access to the camera, multi-touch, hardware accelerated video playback, Microsoft’s push service (allowing apps to send notifications to the screen when not running), location, and the accelerometer, amongst other things.

Once Microsoft pushes everything live in a few hours, you should be able to find it here.

So what do you think? Going to jump into the WP7 development game? Is this the next goldrush? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Best comment gets an invisible cookie.

The future of display advertising

AT&T reveals spring lineup.  New phones for quick messaging

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Mobile

AT&T announced two Samsung devices, the Strive and Sunburst as well as two Pantech devices, Link and Pursuit as part of the there new Spring line up.  AT&T also announced services to make their quick messaging phones behave more like costly smartphones at a much lower price.  The services are designed to mimic the sharing features of media created on the devices.

AT&T adds two touchscreen devices, the Samsung Sunburst and Pantech Pursuit.  The Samsung Sunburst has a 3.0” touchscreen, complete with a soft keyboard.  Apps like Facebook and MySpace as well as easy access to quick messaging are the focussed features of the devices.  The Pantech Pursuit, is a touchscreen phone but also features a vertical slide-out QWERTY keypad.  The Sunburst will be available on March 21 and cost $39.99 after rebates and contract.

The non-touchscreen phones are the Samsung Strive, a vertical slider and the Pantech Link, a QWERTY candybar-style phone.  The Strive follows the older Propel in styling while the Pantech Link is designed along similar lines to the Pantech Slate.  The Strive will be $19.99 after rebates and contract on March 21.  The Link is available at an undisclosed price “in the coming weeks.” 

Read: [AT&T release]

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

10 dotcoms that are dotgone - BBC News

Oneindia

10 dotcoms that are dotgone BBC News On the 25th anniversary of the .com domain, Elizabeth Diffin looks at 10 once great, now long forgotten, dotcoms. Twenty-five years ago Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company, added .com to its name. A trickle of other companies followed suit, ... Dot-Com Turns 25: A Look BackPC World 'Dot Com' Domain Celebrates 25th BirthdayPC Magazine Another 25 Years of Dot-ComBusinessWeek InformationWeek -msnbc.com -Wired News all 132 news articles »

Concentrated Solar Goes Small-Scale

Bell adds Internet tethering mention to smartphone plans

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Broadband Cards, Mobile

Tethering seems to getting more popular, maybe not enough so that everyone wants it, but at least at the point that non-geeky users seem to at least know what it is. And with that it seems more carriers are beginning to add options for tethering. Of course the most wanted, AT&T and the iPhone, is still not showing any sign of coming soon but others are.

This latest case is coming out of Canada, and the carrier is Bell. Anyway, it appears that they have added a mention of Internet tethering in with their smartphone plans. The plan details now read the amount of bandwidth allowed followed by “of data for personal email, Internet browsing, instant messaging, and tethering.”

The end is the key portion here, but unfortunately it looks like this tethering allowance is combined with the regular data usage. In other words, users will have to be careful and not go over the allowance. So maybe its not ideal but at least its available.

Read [Bell] Via [PreCentral]

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

Fandango Begins Rolling Out Mobile Tickets That Let Moviegoers Go Paperless

Five Essential iPad Accessories

You’ve pre-ordered your iPad, and you’re impatiently crossing off the days on the calendar until April 3. What can you do in the meantime, apart from obsessively refreshing your Google search to find articles like this one? What about some accessory shopping?

The iPad looks great, but it could also be improved with a few additions that will make it more useful, more often. Don’t worry, we don’t want you to spend much. Most of these picks are free, and all of them will improve your iPad. Here’s a list of what I’ll be buying (or making or downloading) for my iPad in the next few weeks.

A Ziploc Bag

When Jeff Bezos reads his Kindle in the bath, he seals it inside a one-gallon Ziploc bag. If you’re going to be using your iPad in the bath, or the slightly less hostile kitchen, you should do the same. You can see the screen, hear the (slightly muffled) music and generally relax. Amazingly, the multitouch will still work through the plastic. I tried it with my iPod touch a moment ago and it was like the plastic wasn’t there.

Price: around 35 cents

E-Book Software

Now that we know that the iPad will support the almost universal EPUB format, it’s time to prepare some books to load onto the device (as if you’ll be able to sit still enough to read a book for the first few days of your new toy). Many public domain titles can be downloaded in EPUB-form, notably from Project Gutenberg, but what you need is a piece of software to convert any and every text or PDF you can throw at it.

Calibre and Stanza are both E-Book conversion apps, and both work on OS X and Windows. Stanza partners our favorite iPhone e-reader of the same name, and does a good and simple job of conversions.

Calibre is a lot more powerful, and along with handling complex documents a lot better, it also stores your e-books in an iTunes-style library (although this will be moot when iTunes stores them for you). It will also download daily newspapers, free, along with many websites and any RSS feed you choose to add.

Price: Free

Calibre [Calibre]

Stanza [Lexcycle]

A Stylus

I have been ridiculing the poor Pogo Stylus for iPhone for a couple years now: Who wants a stylus on a phone designed not to need one? But with the iPad, the little hollow tube with a foamy metallic tip looks a lot more useful.

Combine the little pen with a big-screen iPad and some drawing or painting software and you have an amazing sketchbook. Most of us draw easier with a pen than with fingers (unless we are still in kindergarten), and the good-size screen, combined with an undo function, may even make the combo better than pencil and paper. The only downside is the lack of pressure sensitivity.

Price: $15

Pogo Stylus [Ten One Design]

A Case

This one might seem obvious, but I suspect many people are planning to buy the Wi-Fi iPad and leave it on the coffee-table or nightstand (or down the back of the couch). Don’t! This device begs to be thrown in a bag and taken with you, wherever you go. You can read, write, draw, paint, watch movies and all that stuff, all when you have a few minutes to spare. If you’re worried about scratching your precious iBaby, you’ll miss out.

Don’t, however, buy a laptop-style pouch, or anything that zips shut. You want easy, fast access or you’ll never take it out. At the very least, consider a slipcover. Better is a notepad or book-style cover, something that can be flipped open in a second, and preferably one that can double as a stand. Worried that it doesn’t offer protection from dust and spills? That’s what the Ziploc bag is for.

Price: Variable. Free if you use an old padded shipping envelope.

That Little iPad Camera Connection Dingus

If you have a camera and an iPad, you should buy the iPad Camera Connection Kit. Consisting of both an SD card-reader and a USB connection cable, the kit lets you load your photos onto the iPad without the computer middleman. Why would you care?

Think about what most of us do with our cameras. We take a lot of pictures of a day out, a family gathering or some other social event. Then we all crowd around the back to look at the tiny three-inch screen. Now think about the alternative: A 10-inch screen, pinch-to-zoom, a wide viewing angle, slideshows with transitions and music, plus an instant, in-the-field back up.

The iPad also supports RAW photos. That’s right. If you prefer to shoot your pictures now and ask your editing questions later, you’re not excluded from the iPad. Apple: “iPad supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW.” This alone will make every pro photographer reading this article go out and order one now (here’s the pre-order page if you want it). I expect that there will soon be a lot of RAW photo-editing applications in the App Store, too, but for now, the ability to quickly view and edit pictures on a slim, portable device with a long battery life while shooting will be worth the money on its own.

Price: TBA

iPad Camera Connection Kit [Apple]

That’s my list. What about yours? Do you have a favorite Bluetooth keyboard, an awesome idea for a homemade stand or some weird use-case that nobody else has thought of? Hit us up in the comments.

See Also:

• Stanza v2.0: The iPhone's Best E-Reader Just Got Better
• Pogo Stylus: The Most Useless iPhone Accessory. Ever
• Leather Cases Turn iPad into a Book

Ziploc photo: tamakisono/Flickr

5 Essential iPad Accessories

BlackBerry slider rumored to be heading to Sprint

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

More information regarding that mysterious BlackBerry slider seems to be coming out. The details are coming courtesy of the Boy Genius Report who claim to have received word from one of their “solid connects.” That said, this information does seem believable, but should still be placed in the rumor category.

Anyway, on with the rumored details. The recently pictured BlackBerry slider is going to become available with Sprint. But that seems like it will be just one model. In addition to the Sprint version it was also mentioned that their will be a GSM/HSPA version which will have support for the 850/1900MHz UMTS bands that are needed for AT&T and Rogers.

Other details include that the slider will launch with as the BlackBerry 9000 and BlackBerry 9300.

Nothing was mentioned in terms of a time frame for release, but they did say that the slider does not seem to be connected at all to the Bold name.

Read [BGR] Image via [BlackBerry Leaks]

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

Apple: Free iPad With Every Replacement Battery

Has HTC started shipping Nexus One phones to Verizon & Vodafone

We’ve been hearing a lot about VZW getting the Nexus One the last few weeks. The latest unverified report states that Nexus One shipments are currently en route to both Verizon and Vodafone and the phone should be available later this month or early April. That is all. Move along.

Magic Mouse Fixed with Soft Silicon Brick

I don’t use a mouse. I love my MacBook’s oversized trackpad and I have a Wacom tablet on the desk for more precise work (like pixel-perfect gun positioning in Desktop Tower Defense). But I hear from the kids in the office that Apple’s Magic Mouse is less magic and more tragic when it comes to comfort: hitting those multi-touch gestures can be hell on the wrists.

Enter the Fix. The Fix is a contoured block of soft silicone with a suction cup on the bottom. It sticks to the rear part of the mouse’s surface and does one simple thing: supports your palm as the fingers do their multi-touching magic. I admit I have been tempted by the Magic Mouse, but the price and the too-slim profile put me off. This $10 block, from Honda race-car part designer Will, fixes that right away. Will says he tested it in both his tiny hands and his wife’s giant mitts, and both fit fine.

Ingenious and cheap, the best part is that it kinda fits in with the sleek Apple aesthetic. I’ll stick to my Wacom tablet, though. If God had meant us to use mice, he wouldn’t have invented pens (or cats).

Magic Mouse, Fixed [MMFixed]

See Also:

• Magic Mouse
• Apple Unleashes New Macs, Multitouch Mouse
• Gallery: Evolution of the (Awful) Apple Mouse

Joby Gorillabike: Dangerous, Bendy, Awesome

This is the Joby GorillaBike, a prop which shows such dedication to tomfoolery that we had no choice but to show it to you. Also, it combines two of our favorite subjects: bikes and cameras.

The bike, constructed to both decorate Joby’s PMA 2010 show stand and to make people smile, replaces the stiff and sturdy tubes of the frame with Joby’s metal ball-and-socket tripod legs. And to show off the bendy flexibility of the material, it is also curved into a fetching drop-handlebar design. It’s jokey, but we guess that Joby was also making a point about the uncanny strength of the top-end flexi-pods. Still, there’s no way you’d convince me to take this freak-bike out for a spin.

The picture was snapped at PMA by Eric Reagan, a writer at one of out favorite photo-blogs, Photography Bay. We have just one note for Joby: tighten that chain. It’s just not safe!

Joby Gorillabike (and Some Useful Photo Stuff) [Photography Bay]

See Also:

• Hands-On With the Joby Gorilla Mobile
• Joby's New Tripod Gear: Magnets and Balls
• Joby Gorillapod, Now for iPod Touch
• Joby Gorrillatorch: Hands-Free, Go-Anywhere Flashlight

Clockwork Power-Strip Rations Juice

The only problem I can see with Dongwon Joo and Jieun Choi’s power-saving clockwork socket is that your cables could end up even more twisted than they started out. Otherwise the Wind-Up Socket is exactly the kind of invention I like: simple, ingenious, and involving power-strips.

In fact it’s so simple that a glance at the concept design is all you need to see immediately how it works. Plug your devices into one of the outlets and twist it. The sockets act like kitchen timers, ticking back from their starting position until they reach zero, only instead of ringing a bell they cut the current. The sockets all work independently and allow you to select a one-hour maximum.

Why I like it: You could set a light to switch off as you fall asleep reading a book, or leave something charging at home without having the charger pull juice all day long. The only problem is that of the cable-twisting motion, but as one hour is just 360-degrees, it’s not going to be too messy.

There are other plug-in timers out there, both analog and digital (all of which you can actually buy) but this is the simplest I have seen, and it is also a lot smaller than the big blocks you usually see.

Wind Up With Glee [Yanko]

See Also:

• Modular Power Strip with Ejector Slots
• Smart Plug Could Save You $150 in Electricity
• Plug-Watch: Cute Power Cube, The Best Adapter Yet?
• Foot-Operated Extension Cord, Not for the Twitchy
• Belkin Wall Wart Builds in Bus Power

Apple Details Super-Simple iPad 3G Data Sign-Up

The trickle of new iPad information continues with these details of the contract-free 3G data plan. It looks about as painless as it could possibly be: you don’t even have to deal with AT&T.

Once you have your iPad with 3G, you can sign up from within the iPad settings: fill out your credit card details, pick your plan and you’re off. If you choose the limited, 250MB-per-month plan, you’ll get handy warnings as you approach your data cap: “You’ll get three alerts — at 20 percent, 10 percent, and zero. With each alert, you can choose to add more data or wait and do it later.”

And that’s it. No speaking to call-center staff, no waiting on line in AT&T stores and better yet, no having to beg a customer service representative to change your plan. You can swap, stop and start whenever you like.

This is a very nice way to deal with cellular data, and I hope it crosses the Atlantic intact with the launch of the iPad in Europe. What we’ll probably see, though (at least in Spain, where the telcos are still old dinosaurs), is some annoying and confusing contract-based lock-in.

Sign up, monitor, and manage your 3G service — all from your iPad [Apple via ★]

See Also:

• AT&T Sees iPad as Wi-Fi Driven, Not a 3G Hog
• With iPad, Apple Still Has a Fatal Attraction for AT&T
• Austrian iPad Will Be Subsidized With Contract
• AT&T Allows VoIP Over 3G for iPhone