YouTube Outage Speculation Fiercely Denied by Google - TopNews United States

Inquirer

YouTube Outage Speculation Fiercely Denied by Google TopNews United States YouTube owner, Google Inc., has stressed that an outage of the popular video-sharing website that happened on Thursday was all technical and not caused by some outside tampering. "YouTube is up again following a technical issue which has now been ... YouTube Goes Down on Thursday MorningPC Magazine Yes, YouTube is down (but you can still watch videos)Washington Post YouTube does a Lindsay and takes a tumbleRegister CNN International -Inquirer -UPI.com all 81 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Mar 2010 | 3:38 am

Dog eats police car

From Chatanoogan.com's YouTube feed: "A Chattanooga Police officer, while running radar at 1410 Workman Road on Sunday night, had his patrol car attacked by a ferocious bulldog. Officer Clayton Holmes said he had stopped to work on a report when he felt his car shaking. He got out to investigate and what he found was a bulldog chewing on his patrol car. The dog chewed two tires and the entire front bumper off of the car."

Winston the Bulldog vs Patrol Car (Thanks, Mary!)

Previously:

• Police in Mississippi find profit in peanut truck searching Boing ...
• Woman bites dog
• Dogs get freaked out by "Law and Order" theme?

Vertu to sell 4 golden cell phones in Japan (price: $215,000 each)

Vertu to sell 4 golden cell phones in Japan (price: $215,000 each)

Nokia pulled out of Japan, one of the world’s biggest mobile markets, as early as November 2008. But because this country is quite wealthy, the Finnish company decided to conquer Japan with their luxury brand Vertu [JP], starting operations in September 2009. Initially the plan was to market handsets priced between $16,000 and $50,000.

But today Vertu Japan announced a “golden” handset with a price tag of 20 million yen (it’s made-in-Japan gold lacquerwork, to be more exact). That’s $215,000, with the price including free domestic calls. Buyers will be able to choose between four equally priced models: Kinko (pictured above), Kikusui, Nanten and Daigo (pictured below). The different designs stand for the different seasons of the year.

The occasion for these super-limited editions is the first anniversary of Vertu’s flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo next month. Vertu plans to sell just four of these handsets worldwide (more pictures over at Keitai Watch).

Via Keitai Watch [JP]

Chinese Reactions To Google Leaving China

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

TV Poltergeist Helps With Your April Fool's Pranks

Congress On China: Google Gets A Big Wet Kiss. Microsoft Is “Enabling Tyranny”

This is why I have a strong dislike of government and our system of lobbyists. Many people in the tech community are becoming increasingly skeptical of Google’s motives in partially pulling out of the Chinese markets and starting to suggest a certain level of hypocrisy.

Google gets hacked over the Christmas holidays when most people aren’t watching the ship, and all of their source code for all of their products is, embarrassingly, downloaded to a Chinese hacker. Their response? Pull out of a search market that they are already failing in. But leave other assets that have more promise.

And suddenly the U.S. Congress is praising Google and slamming, well, Microsoft. Because doing business in China was just fine in December 2009. But today it’s very, very wrong. Says Chris Smith, R-N.J.:

They [Microsoft] need to get on the right side of human rights rather than enabling tyranny, which they’re doing right now.

And GoDaddy, a domain registrar that markets itself by suggesting to users that buying domain names can get them laid, gets in on the action, too. Representative Smith “praised Internet domain host site GoDaddy.com which said it will no longer offer new Chinese Web domains.”

Also in on the feeding frenzy was Senator Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who applauded Google’s actions by bravely leaving the Chinese market.

Let’s put aside the fact that Google has given $8,500 and GoDaddy has given $19,500 to Senator Dorgan. Because politicians never do favors to people who donate to their campaign funds, of course.

But let’s not put aside the fact that Go Daddy has registered a mere 27,000 .CN domain names over the years, constituting approximately 0.08% of their 35 million domains under management.

Really, GoDaddy? Explain again how this isn’t a publicity stunt?

GoDaddy most certainly did pull a publicity stunt, and the publicity was provided by our government. And Google, who had nothing bad to say about China in 2009, is now suggesting Microsoft is only doing business in China to irk Google. Said Google’s Sergey Brin of Microsoft:

“I’m very disappointed for them in particular,” Brin said. “As I understand, they have effectively no market share – so they essentially spoke against freedom of speech and human rights simply in order to contradict Google.”

Brin’s hypocrisy is astounding. GoDaddy’s brashness is…funny. But our government’s willingness to play this game, and trash Microsoft for not deciding that China is evil at exactly the same moment that Google did, is sad and irresponsible.

We all buy China’s stuff every day. Our government is financed by Chinese credit. Whatever China is or isn’t, we are all very much in business with them. Even Google, who retains sales and R&D staff in China and is certainly going to sell a ton of Android handsets there.

I can hold my nose at all the BS that Google spouts as they extricate themselves from a sticky situation. I can put up with GoDaddy purchasing publicity from a U.S. Senator. But what I can’t sit and watch is Microsoft being raked over the coals by a government that does nothing to fight the evil that they say exists in China, just to give a little bit back to a couple of companies that have thrown some money their way.

Viral Video: Apple Versus Predator [BoomTown]

This video on Kelvington’s Parody Channel on YouTube just cracks me up.

It uses one simple line from Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs: “Take my finger and slide it across.”

The video maker notes that Molly Wood of CNET’s “Buzz Out Loud” podcast “issued a challenge today to make an Apple vs. Predator video.”

Mission accomplished, but with litigation to come apparently.

News Corp to charge for UK Times online from June (Reuters)

NanoCarrier -2009/10 parent forecast

News Corp to charge for UK Times online from June

UPDATE 1-Siemens sees Q2 oper profit up year-on-year - CFO

Vodafone to sell Apple iPhone 3GS in India

Could UK Tax Breaks Pave the Way For GTA London?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hungary's Richter proposes HUF 770 div vs 590

How the American phone companies used to feel about privacy

Warrantless wiretaps, redux (Thanks, David!)

How the American phone companies used to feel about privacy

BRIEF-Exxon Mobil drills dry North Sea well -directorate

JESS3 Is Fusing The Garbage Pail Kids With Silicon Valley, With Awesome Results

Silicon Valley — long home to an array of eccentric personalities and world-changing companies — is finally getting the irreverent caricatures it deserves. JESS3, the popular design firm run by Jesse Thomas, is putting together a set of collectable cards showcasing (and poking fun at) the tech industry, and the early results look great.  We’ve embedded a handful of the first sketches Thomas has released below.

If the drawing style looks familiar, you’re either a child of the 80’s or a fan of Mad Magazine — all sketches are by artist Tom Bunk, who is responsible for the look of the Garbage Pail Kids and has contributed to Mad since 1993.

Thomas has been posting Bunk’s sketches to his Facebook profile for the last few weeks, which so far include companies like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. There’s also an awesome one of my boss, who has been given the moniker Mike Crushington. All in all, these look seriously awesome — I can’t wait until they’re available for purchase.

Twitter

LinkedIn

Telcoms expert on Verizon's fiber maintenance procedures

Telcoms expert on Verizon's fiber maintenance procedures

Brian put a little red laser light on the end of my fiber that points back into the network and went about 750 m down the road to the splitter box. At the splitter box he literally tried to see the light at the other end of the fiber.

Only about 10-15% of the ports in the splitter box were occupied -- this is not a sustainable take rate under anybody's business model. FIOS has been in our neighborhood since 2005. You'd think they'd have signed up a few more FIOS customers.

Brian the technician explained the different ways that technicians map drops to splitters. There's standard company practice, then there's a variation on that (offset by one), then there's the possibility that a repair or a mistake screws up the whole system. He tried all the logical alternatives and did not see the light. Then he proposed to unplug every fiber to rule out the (very real) possibility that my service had been mapped onto a random port. This, of course, would interrupt every FIOS phone call and Internet stream. I egged him on, saying that the whole neighborhood has been getting service glitches since the Big Storm. We unplugged every fiber momentarily, but we never saw the light.

(Image: 2008_04_biketrail_infrastructure_063 infrastructure, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike image from dsearls' photostream)

Russian markets -- Factors to Watch on March 26

How Adam Carolla Became a Podcast Superstar [Voices]

By Ellen McGirt, Writer, Fast Company

Adam Carolla has done the math. The comedian, actor, and multimedia ranter is studying what appears to be a trap door in the ceiling of the garage he personally helped build for his West Hollywood home. He’s scowling.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

How Big is a Nugget-of-News? [Voices]

By Dave Winer, Blogger, scripting.com

I finally did a little project I’ve had on my to-do list for a long time.

The question is this. If Twitter is a news-delivery service, and I believe it is, what are the real dimensions of a nugget of news?

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Is the U.S. Government Spying on a Tiny Secret-Sharing Website? [Voices]

By Adrian Chen, Blogger, Gawker

Wikileaks.org is a website legendary in certain circles for posting documents people want hidden from the world. The Pentagon is not a fan.

Now, Wikileaks is accusing the U.S. of spying on its editors.

Is Facebook Chametz? [Voices]

By Rabbi Jason Miller, Rabbi blogger, RabbiJason.com

Is Facebook kosher? If so, is it kosher for Passover? I’m not posing the question of whether it is acceptable to log on to Facebook on the first and last days of Passover, when observant Jews refrain from using computers or the Web.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Confirmed: Intellectual Ventures Owns Smart Phone Motion Control Patent [Digital Daily]

Patent #7,679,604 — “Method and apparatus for controlling a computer system” — the broad motion-control patent I’ve been writing about all week, has passed through a number of hands over the years. First assigned to ArrayComm in 2006, it was subsequently handed over to Durham Logistics, a limited liability company which is itself managed by another obscure Las Vegas LLC called Memscom. But there’s one more company at the end of that oblique line of ownership: Intellectual Ventures, an “invention capital firm” or patent troll, depending on your views on innovation and intellectual property.

Over the past few days multiple sources with knowledge of the patent have told me it’s owned by Intellectual Ventures. And now Intellectual Ventures has confirmed to me that this is indeed the case. It operates Memscom LLC which operates Durham Logistics LLC and through them owns patent #7,679,604.

According to intellectual property consulting firm Avancept, Intellectual Ventures is linked to some 1,110 shell companies and affiliated entities. Evidently, Memscom and Durham Logistics are two of them.

And patent #7,679,604 is just one of many that Intellectual Ventures owns through that pair of LLCs. The USPTO lists 29 patents and patent applications assigned to Durham Logistics, all of them first developed by ArrayComm. Among them, # 6,834,249, a motion control patent nearly identical to #7,679,604 that was granted in 2004 after a 2001 application and would seem to predate many of the motion-sensing smartphones currently on the market.

What does Intellectual Ventures intend to do with these patents? Seek licensing deals for them, of course. Said an Intellectual Ventures spokesperson: “We don’t currently have specific plans to announce regarding any asset(s) in particular, but we are actively talking with customers about licensing our invention portfolio on fair and reasonable terms.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• New Motion Control Patent Could Shake Up Smartphone Industry
• Smartphone Motion Patent’s Authors Are Google, Apple Engineers

Bad Things Happen When Politicians Think They Understand Technology [Voices]

By Mike Masnick, Editor, Techdirt

With health care reform out of the way, lots of politicians are pushing out new legislative ideas, hoping that Congress can now focus on other issues — so we’re seeing lots of bad legislation proposed. Let’s do a two for one post, highlighting two questionable bills that many of you have been submitting. The first, proposed by Senators Schumer and Graham, is technically about immigration reform, which is needed, but what’s scary is that the plan includes yet another plan for a national ID card.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

CW to Double Ads in Web Shows [Voices]

By Sam Schechner, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Seeking to mine a growing audience for TV shows online, The CW Network is taking a route that other broadcasters have avoided: putting as many ads in Web versions of its shows as it airs on TV.

The U.S. network, a joint venture of CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc., plans next TV season to double the commercials in Web versions of its shows, including “Gossip Girl.” That’s a steep increase from the one or two ads per online commercial break that have become more standard as media companies jockey to keep Web video from undermining the traditional TV business.

Television networks are being forced to rethink their Web strategies as more viewers turn to Web video and ad revenue there remains paltry. The wide availability of TV shows online could lead younger viewers to ditch pay-TV subscriptions, from which TV companies reap tens of billions of dollars a year.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

UPDATE 1-Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest

UPDATE 1-Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest

Japan's Idemitsu to invest $128 mln in Ensham mine

Disney's Human Element

Disney's Human Element


Source: Boing Boing | 26 Mar 2010 | 12:16 am

Disney's Human Element

Chants Mongols Et Bouriates

"In Mongolian tradition, neither music nor singing can strictly-speaking be described as specialist activities. In the past, everyone was expected to be capable of singing and playing the fiddle at festivals..."

Imitation Of The Flute (with the nose)

From the liner notes again: "The player flutes with his nose. Some air really does pass through the nose. The player's lips are slightly parted but do not move: only the corners of the mouth tremble sightly and the cheeks are tensed. This tension brings him out in a sweat. The melody comes from the movements of the tongue. Anyone who possesses this technique is able to reproduce any melody"

Both of these tracks just blow me away with how much the singers sound like birds:

Song To The Glory Of A Horse

Nostalgic Love Song

For you die-hard record sifters, the info is Vogue Records LDM 30138 (recorded in 1973). Here's a full track-listing. You might be able to download it somewhere if you peek around the internet. ;-) I call for a re-issue!

This post is part of a series about music that disorients the senses. I've found that some of the most amazing and jarring auditory illusions are not the usual scientifically distilled or synthesized ones, they're often found in folk music and made by people's voices. Of course, in a way, it makes perfect sense - the vocal chords are some of the most complex and advanced musical instruments in existence. They are ubiquitously available, and we've been experimenting with them for longer than any other sound-making implement.


Source: Boing Boing | 26 Mar 2010 | 12:06 am

Chants Mongols Et Bouriates

Polaris Acquires IndigoTX, a SaaS Software Company Providing an Enterprise Brokerage Platform Used by Half a Million Customers

Facebook Goes After Greasemonkey Script Developer

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zombie Evil Eye ring

Rot Ring Green Zombie evil eye (via Super Punch)

Zombie Evil Eye ring

Scott Pilgrim trailer

w00t! The first Scott Pilgrim movie trailer is online! I loved Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic (and can't wait for the final installments!), about a slacker who has to fight his new girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends. All the action is set in Toronto, my hometown, and they shot there too. The movie looks pretty faithful to the original material -- really looking forward to this.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World (via Warren Ellis)

Scott Pilgrim trailer

Profit-sharing arrangements among Somali pirates

Profit-sharing arrangements among Somali pirates

To be eligible for employment as a pirate, a volunteer should already possess a firearm for use in the operation. For this 'contribution', he receives a 'class A' share of any profit. Pirates who provide a skiff or a heavier firearm, like an RPG or a general purpose machine gun, may be entitled to an additional A-share. The first pirate to board a vessel may also be entitled to an extra A-share.

At least 12 other volunteers are recruited as militiamen to provide protection on land of a ship is hijacked, In addition, each member of the pirate team may bring a partner or relative to be part of this land-based force. Militiamen must possess their own weapon, and receive a 'class B' share -- usually a fixed amount equivalent to approximately US$15,000...

When ransom is received, fixed costs are the first to be paid out. These are typically:

• Reimbursement of supplier(s)

• Financier(s) and/or investor(s): 30% of the ransom

• Local elders: 5 to 10 %of the ransom (anchoring rights)

• Class B shares (approx. $15,000 each): militiamen, interpreters etc.

The remaining sum -- the profit -- is divided between class-A shareholders

(Image: Somali Pirates, Wikimedia Commons/US Navy, Public Domain)

11 year old girl kicking ass on the bass

11 year old girl kicking ass on the bass

Here's 11-year-old bass guitar prodigy Mohini Dey hammering, slapping and walking a wide and impressive set of groovy sounds from a curious, headless instrument. Sometimes she's accompanied by a seemingly younger child on a guitar. Scroll forward to around 8 minutes for the hot slapping craziness. Tina Weymouth, look out!

11 YEAR OLD MOHINI DEY ON BASS (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

UCLA students re-create the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893

Real-time visual simulation technology has the potential to radically alter our understanding of historic urban environments. Unlike fixed computer animations, real-time technology allows interactive exploration of the modeled site, thereby creating unprecedented opportunities for experiential interpretation and innovative pedagogy. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 is a perfect test case for the educational applications of interactive computer models. The exposition was a milestone for American architecture and urban planning. As Director of Works, Daniel Burnham coordinated a team of the most notable architects in the country, each designing one of the fair's major buildings. As a group, these architects created a classical city that would have lasting repercussions on American design ideals and spark the American Renaissance and City Beautiful movements. Our understanding of this important complex has heretofore been based solely on static images and written descriptions. This is no longer the case. Real-time visual simulation technology allows us to reclaim the lost experience of navigating through the White City. Just as in 1893, the completed model will allow users to stroll along the virtual Court of Honor, tour the Wooded Island, and marvel at the fair's classical structures from a gondola.

Check.in Is A Potentially Brilliant Remedy For Check-In Fatigue

Last week, I wrote about check-in fatigue. While there is a lot of excitement right now surrounding location-based apps, and particularly the ones where you “check-in” places, trying to use all of them can be exhausting, as I found out at SXSW. So what’s the solution? Do you just pick one and stick with it? You could, but there’s no guarantee that all of your friends will pick the same one as you. So the guys behind Brightkite have a better solution.

Check.in is an application that lets you check-in with multiple services at the same time. Or, as they put it, it’s “on check-in to rule them all.” While the team showed it to me briefly at SXSW (and CrunchGear got some video of it in action), they’ve actually given me access to it now to play around with. And I’m happy to report that it works great.

So how does it work? Well, for the time being it’s actually a mobile web app. Eventually, the plan is to release a native app version for the different platforms, but in order to get it out there relatively quickly, they made a web version that works on mobile browser that offer HTML5 support for location (currently the iPhone and Android phones). When you load it up, the browser asks for permission to pull your coordinates, and a few seconds later it pulls up a list of venues it believes you’re near. When you click on one, the app does some “magical matching” to find the venue across the various services. (If it’s unsure it asks you to confirm the venue for each different service — a bit tedious, but it goes fast as it’s just one click.) You’re then taken to the final check-in page where you can leave an optional message (which will also get sent to each of the services) and if you’re good to go, you simply hit the check-in button, and you’re done.

Currently, Check.in works with three services: Brightkite (of course), Foursquare, and Gowalla. But it’s important to note that the team is likely going to have to pull Gowalla support because that service doesn’t yet technically support writing to their API (only reading from it). Check.in found a work-around through an undocumented API. Still, the Check.in team hopes to add other services quickly as check-in APIs become available.

So how much time does Check.in save? At least a few minutes just for the three aforementioned services that it currently works with. Remember, checking-in with all of these apps requires not only that you open each one, but that you wait to pull friend data and location data before you can check-in. Check.in cuts out most of that load time by removing the friend element, and doing the location loads all at once.

If they’re able to get all the services playing nicely with their check-in APIs, Check.in is going to be the perfect solution for check-in fatigue. But don’t be surprised if one of the bigger players, like Facebook, are thinking about this as well.

Check.in will be launching in beta very shortly.

Playlist: Enigmatic Artiste 9000, Doctor Who, Poisoner's Handbook

New Type of Human Discovered via Single Pinky Finger - National Geographic

Globe and Mail

New Type of Human Discovered via Single Pinky Finger National Geographic A new type of prehistoric human has been discovered via DNA from a child's pinky finger found in a central Asian cave, a new study says. "We had no inkling that this thing existed, and suddenly it's there. That in itself is a remarkable discovery," ... A possible new link in human lineage -- all from a little fingerLos Angeles Times Fossil DNA analysis may have revealed new human speciesUSA Today DNA identifies 'new ancient human'BBC News TG Daily -The Guardian -Daily Mail all 521 news articles »

Perelman Urged To Accept $1m Prize

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft Ignored the Long Tail in Search, Bing Boss Says - eWeek

TG Daily

Microsoft Ignored the Long Tail in Search, Bing Boss Says eWeek Microsoft lags so far behind Google in the search engine market because it didn't acknowledge the long tail, said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Group for Microsoft Bing, at Search Engine Strategies NYC March 25. ... Bing Rolls Out New Features for Spring RevampPC World Microsoft Integrates Foursquare Into Bing Maps; Turns Attention To SignalsMediaPost Publications Microsoft hopes Bing users pick up the tabCNET PC Magazine -VentureBeat -Register all 83 news articles »

Rocket candy: DO NOT EAT

So this is candy made of sugar, spice, and stump remover. Click through to see a Furby eating it. Also, Jeri Ellsworth is the coolest geek girl in the whole wide world.

Apple patent watch: sun-lit displays

Apple has submitted a rather mysterious patent application, which appears to be a set of methods for lighting a display with external light sources — among which the sun seems to have the most… prominence. We all know how little patent illustrations actually resemble the devices which proceed from them, so I wouldn’t take these weird-looking line drawings as accurate representations of future apple products. Instead, try to wrap your mind around what they’re supposed to do.

It seems that Apple is looking at ways of leveraging existing light sources to make its displays visible. Not by internal reflectance, which is how e-ink is visible in sunlight, but by piping and reflecting the light to the edges or back of the display.

The applications of the technology are enumerated in the patent:

…these electronic devices may not be used effectively in certain physical settings, such as, for example, where the external or ambient light is brighter than the illumination of the display screen. As a result, a user may not be able to view the information on the display screen sufficiently. For example, a user may have difficulty viewing the information presented on a display screen of a laptop computer while outdoors on a sunny day.

Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide apparatus and methods for collecting external light to help illuminate a display screen of an electronic device.

As for the actual device, they give a few options. One would have a reflector that shines light toward the back of the screen, another would have a “light harness” which I suspect would be a way of gathering light in one area and releasing it in another, and the third method I can’t seem to figure out.

Would it work? Who knows? Chances are someone thought of something cool and their manager at Apple said “patent that sucker.” At least Apple admits that their stupid glossy screens suck in the daylight.

[via The Register - "Apple display patent enslaves sun," lol]

“Text 2.0″ Eye-Tracking Reading Companion: Crazy Or Crazy Awesome?

It’s an interesting time to be in the e-book business. E-readers in their many varieties are sussing out the perfect user experience, and the race to the bottom might end up with students packing a Kobo into their bag instead of 20 pounds of expensive textbooks. When it comes down to it, though, you’re selling a mostly static experience — as indeed books have been for a long time. Interaction in books is the realm of children: pop-ups and coloring books. But the move to new and interesting devices has some people excited about the future of text — and this Text 2.0 idea may just change how you think about interacting with books.

The idea is that it tracks where you’re looking, and based on a number of factors, triggers one of several context-sensitive actions. An eye-tracking interface is an entirely new beastie, however, and somehow I’m not convinced that real life usage will be quite as easy to collate and react to as this video seems to suggest.

Continue reading…

Petrobras, BM&FBovespa, Cielo, Eucatex and Metalfrio Adopt Online General Meetings

Time Warner Offers New York Subscribers Free Wi-Fi (NewsFactor)

PWN2OWN Hackers Take Down Browsers and iPhone

Now that Ikea is offering the Patrull baby monitoring system, all those trendy, geeky parents can finally completely deck out a nursery with minimalist Swedish-designed goods. They monitors are available for $25 per set. [OhDeeDoh via Unplggd] More »

Wireless carriers don't just like Google's Android phones because they're the next best thing to Apple's iPhone: They also like Android because Google is paying them to like it. More »

Source: Gizmodo | 25 Mar 2010 | 7:49 pm

UT-Battelle Contract Extension at Oak Ridge National Lab Accelerates Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley Momentum

Four VC Firms Battle For Foursquare, Valuation Goes Stratospheric

What do Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Redpoint Ventures have in common? Besides being tier one venture capitalists, at least one thing: They are all fighting furiously to be the lead investor in Foursquare’s next venture round.

All that competition is driving the valuation massively upwards, too. A couple of weeks ago we’d heard that the deal would likely be closed at around a $50 million valuation. Today we’ve confirmed that the final price will likely be $60 million – $70 million. They’re raising around $10 million, which means when it’s all over Foursquare will be worth up to $80 million on paper.

The front runner in the deal is Gideon Yu from Khosla, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Yu is tight with both Jack Dorsey (he’s an investor in Dorsey’s Square) and Chris Dixon (likewise, he’s an investor in Dixon’s Hunch). And Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley is relying heavily on the advice of his close friends for the deal. And those close friends include Jack Dorsey, who’s an investor in Foursquare, and Dixon.

What a choice, though. Most entrepreneurs would sacrifice a kitten to get anywhere near any of these investors, and Crowley has his choice of any of them. A final decision is expected in the next few days, say our sources.

“Text 2.0″ eye-tracking reading companion: crazy or crazy awesome?

It’s an interesting time to be in the e-book business. E-readers in their many varieties are sussing out the perfect user experience, and the race to the bottom might end up with students packing a Kobo into their bag instead of 20 pounds of expensive textbooks. When it comes down to it, though, you’re selling a mostly static experience — as indeed books have been for a long time. Interaction in books is the realm of children: pop-ups and coloring books. But the move to new and interesting devices has some people excited about the future of text — and this Text 2.0 idea may just change how you think about interacting with books.

The idea is that it tracks where you’re looking, and based on a number of factors, triggers one of several context-sensitive actions. An eye-tracking interface is an entirely new beastie, however, and somehow I’m not convinced that real life usage will be quite as easy to collate and react to as this video seems to suggest.

Now, there’s a whole world of UI implications that follow from the ability of a device to track where you’re looking. A whole system of navigation and file management controlled by gaze and blinks — the possibilities are endless. Remember the EyeWriter, a project allowing a quadriplegic artist to sketch things with only his eyes? But I digress. What’s on the table now is this Text 2.0 implementation of eye-tracking.

While I appreciate what’s on offer, I have to wonder whether it’s something human beings would really appreciate. The simple fact is this: we don’t interact with things using our eyes. That’s what our hands are for. And that’s why the next generation of books and magazines is going to be both rich and tactile. While certainly you could train yourself to “click” with your eyes, I’m skeptical of the preferability of that over a simple touch-based interface. When the eye is the only or best input (as with the EyeWriter) then it’s a go, but for all others, any action that might be taken with the eye (getting a word definition or something) could be done just as easily with a quick gesture — and there’s much less room for error.

Speaking of error, I’m also concerned about the level of precision necessary. This thing has to be able to tell whether I’m looking at the last letter of a sentence or the asterisk above it; that’s probably more than you can ask of a pair of tiny bezel cameras with fixed-focus lenses. The technology they’re using to develop Text 2.0 costs upwards of $10,000 — of course, that could come down or the software be ported to more cost-effective hardware, but can it really do what it says it can do and still be affordable?

Well, I can see I’m coming off as a sort of tech pedant here. This isn’t a ready-for-market product, it’s a cool concept being worked on by some very smart people, and I can think of quite a few applications for this right off the top of my head. Kids learning to read would be a perfect example — a couple of these in a remedial reading class would probably raise scores significantly. But they clearly have some hurdles ahead of them if this is to be anything other than an academic project.

In the end, though, I think these guys are a little too far ahead of the curve, if anything. If gaze detection is to play a part in any future UIs, I get the feeling that the meta-text interface will follow from established user behavior patterns in a broader UI scheme, rather than being specific to a single purpose, as they are in Text 2.0. That all will be seen, however — as soon as we get our eye-tracking Chrome OS iPad XPs.

[via Wired and H+]

SpikeTV And UFC Embrace The Internet At Last: Streaming Episodes, Twitter And Facebook Integration

All that talk of UFCnot “getting” the Internet? Yeah, it’s time to put that idea to rest. The company’s longtime TV partner, SpikeTV, launched ultimatefighter.com earlier today, a place where mixed martial arts fans can watch the entire Ultimate Fighter library online. For free. Let that sink in—still think Dana White hates the Internet? In addition to serving up all 231 fights in the show’s history, fans can also interact with each other on social networking services like Twitterand Facebook. Not a bad job, really.

Continue reading at CrunchGear…

Apple's iBooks Pricing May Match Amazon's - PC World

TG Daily

Apple's iBooks Pricing May Match Amazon's PC World Speculation that publishers would have the final word on eBook pricing may have been inaccurate judging from a leaked screenshot of the iBook store that shows Apple assuming Amazon's current $9.99 price model. The picture, grabbed by App Advice's ... Apple pre-loading iBook Store with 30000 free eBooksApple Insider Consumers Need Apple's iPad for Mobile WorkingTopNews United States Five lessons Apple can learn from AmazonZDNet InformationWeek -Ars Technica -BusinessWeek all 197 news articles »

We've made changes to Macworld.com

The TrendyDigital WaterGuard waterproof case for the Apple iPad is the only iPad case that will let you control your tablet with your tongue or any other wet appendix. Which is kind of useless, since there are no smut apps. More »

Source: Gizmodo | 25 Mar 2010 | 6:40 pm

UFC (along with SpikeTV) embraces the Internet, launches Ultimate Fighter Web site: Full streaming episodes, Twitter & Facebook integration

All that talk of UFC not “getting” the Internet? Yeah, it’s time to put that idea to rest. The company’s longtime TV partner, SpikeTV, launched ultimatefighter.com earlier today, a place where mixed martial arts fans can watch the entire Ultimate Fighter library online. For free. Let that sink in—still think Dana White hates the Internet? In addition to serving up all 231 fights in the show’s history, fans can also interact with each other on social networking services like Twitter and Facebook. Not a bad job, really.

The site mirrors MTV Networks other “verticals,” like those associated with The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. Full episodes can be streamed, or fight fans can pick out individual fights from the 11-season library. Perhaps you fancy seeing Kimbo Slice’s first fight again? Or maybe you’re a newcomer to the sport, and want to see how Forrest Griffin made his name? It’s all there for you, free of charge.

Oh, and the videos are fully embeddable. Handy.

The site serves advertisements à la Hulu, so be prepared for the occasional U.S. Marines commercial. Gotta pay the bills somehow, folks. Web sites don’t build themselves.

One thing to note: season 11, which begins next week on SpikeTV, won’t be available on the Web site for a little while. The current rough plan is to make the episodes available after the season’s conclusion, to sorta bridge the gap between season 11 and 12. In the meantime, though, fans can check out the Web site after every new episode that airs on TV to watch exclusive coverage of said episode. Terribly constructed sentence, yes. You know, things like post-show analysis (Dana White chips in after the first episode), unseen footage, etc.

And not just “meh, lame” bonus footage, either. We’re talking full fights that, for whatever reason (time constraints, I’d imagine) never made SpikeTV in their entirety.

Twitter, darling of the Internet, has been integrated into the site pretty visibly. On the right-hand side is a small box that monitors UFC-related hash tags, including #UFC, #TUF, #DanaWhite, etc. This might not seem to exciting on a random Thursday afternoon, but during UFC events—pay-per-views, The Ultimate Fighter, SpikeTV Fight Nights, and so on—the trash talking should really fly.

Just as easily accessible is the show’s Facebook page, where you can view photos and post comments about, I don’t know, how amazing GSP is, or whether or not you think Frank Mir is a jerk. (He is, but he’s the greatest jerk in history.)

The very idea of UFC giving away fights is pretty much unthinkable, when you consider that three-quarters of the company’s revenue comes from pay-per-view buys. In the kick-off meeting this morning, SpikeTV explained that it took “many meetings” to convince UFC brass to go along with the idea of putting fights—any fights!—online for free. We all know that UFC actively pursues people who go offer illegal streams of their events—the company just recently sued the owners of two Web sites that were offering illegal UFC 111 streams —so finally making at least some of its content available online is a move that should be applauded. Remember, this is a company that lived and died (well, mostly lived these days!) on its pay-per-view buys, so giving away fights for free may felt a little strange at first for Dana White & Co.

And now we wait for Frank Mir to choke out Shane Carwin, setting up Lesnar v. Mir II. That has pay-per-view buys written all over it.

UOL Announces 4Q09 and 2009 Results

Netflix Streaming Via Wii Coming Really Soon - PC World

TopNews United States

Netflix Streaming Via Wii Coming Really Soon PC World It's no secret that Netflix has been gearing up to stream movies and TV shows via the Nintendo Wii console, but now it appears the launch is near. Netflix today announced that it has shipped instant-streaming discs to some of members for testing. ... Wii Netflix goes into testing phaseTG Daily Netflix's Wii rollout beginsCNET Netflix Starts Instant-Streaming Discs to Nintendo Wii OwnersTopNews United States Computerandvideogames.com -Home Media Magazine -VentureBeat all 53 news articles »

Facebook To Release A “Like” Button For the Whole Darn Internet

There will be lots of news leaking about Facebook’s product announcements at their upcoming F8 Developer Conference in April. That’s because they’re already starting to test out a lot of the new stuff with third party developers, and once two people know a secret, it isn’t really a secret any more.

One of the new features we’ve been hearing about is the extension of Facebook Connect and the Facebook API to allow publishers to add a “Like” button to any piece of content on their site.

Sound trivial? It isn’t. This is likely part of Facebook’s Open Graph API project that will incentivize third party sites to interact deeply with Facebook by sharing content and associated metadata.

Today you can “share” content with Facebook via a simple button (you can see our implementation at the top of this post). The new Like feature goes way beyond the Share button, we’ve heard.

Good for publishers? Yes. But it’s also very, very good for Facebook as hundreds of thousands of websites will rush to format their content to exactly Facebook’s preference and send over all their data without a second thought.

One way to think of this, says a source with knowledge of the product, is this. Google spends billions of dollars indexing the web for their search engine. Facebook will get the web to index itself, exclusively for Facebook.

Yes, it’s a big idea. Or, as MG put it, the entire Internet will be turned into a tributary system for Facebook. And it all flows from a simple Like gesture, and a few other features we’ll be writing about shortly.

Can Ubuntu Save Online Banking?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dog high chair

Grabble grabble grabble! GORF GRABBLE!

Satisfying a mutual desire for companionship, this high chair permits your dog or cat to accompany you at the dinner table. The high chair clips securely to tables up to 2″ thick and its height adjusts without tools to elevate your pet to near eye level.

Grabble grabble! Product Page! Strange woman who lives alone! Ford to City: Drop Dead! Grabble!

via RedFerret

Ergonomic Goggles Peer Through Murk With a Revealing Glow

Alt Text: How Will Nintendo 3DS Work? 5 Eye-Popping 3-D Theories

Ergonomic Goggles Peer Through Murk With a Revealing Glow

US hacker jailed 20 years for huge credit card theft (AFP)

AFP - A 28-year-old Florida man who stole millions of credit card numbers in one of the biggest computer hacking operations in US history was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday.

What Did The Location War Look Like At SXSW? Like This.

Right before the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas a couple weeks ago, some of you may have read about SimpleGeo’s awesome location data visualization tool called Vicarious.ly. The site showed location information coming in to SimpleGeo from Austin in realtime, and included elements such as Foursquare check-ins, Gowalla check-ins, geotagged pictures from Flickr, and geotagged tweets from Twitter. It was really interesting to watch in realtime, but it may be even more interesting in hindsight. Luckily, SimpleGeo has released a video to show the data over the span of just about a week (March 11 to March 17).

As you can see, Foursquare and Gowalla clearly dominate the data. This is in line with what we heard in the midst of the so-called “location war” between the two. It’s also kind of fun to watch the early hours of the morning when everyone is clearly asleep, and then watch as the data comes roaring back to life around 8 AM as festival-goers undoubtedly nursed hangovers to head to the convention center.

Netflix Streaming Via Wii Coming Really Soon (PC World)

Wall Street Beat: Enterprise Software Sales Look Strong (PC World)

Oracle sees software sales up (Reuters)

Reuters - Oracle Corp issued its strongest sales forecast in more than a year as a rebound in corporate technology spending boosted demand for its computer programs.

DIY Segway skateboard. Yeah, you read that right: DIY

I know of only one person who would be able to build this thing – my buddy Paul – but I would totally grab a beer and watch him solder everything together and then ride around on this thing like a little freak. Heck, if you try to build this, tell me and we’ll come by and film you riding it. Seriously.

The instructions are pretty complex and you need quite a few parts, including a powerful motor and a go kart wheel.

It uses an Arduino board and an motor controller to handle the self-righting systems and requires a pretty heavy motor and battery. The self balancing circuit is right here

OmniVision Technologies, Inc. Completes Acquisition of Aurora Systems, Inc.

Customized E-Signing Technology Available to REALTORS(R) Nationwide

Crave the glory of tech blogging? Experience it virtually with Walt Mossberg’s Embargo Blaster!

Yeah, it’s pretty much a meta-blogging joke about some recent unpleasantness regarding non-disclosure agreements. But if you think you might run into Walt, Josh, or Blam some time soon, you will impress them favorably if you have a game sporting their likeness. It’s actually on a game-making platform called Sketch Nation Shooter, which will be 99 cents on the ol’ iPhone come April 6. You can download WMEB and feel the power then.

Exclusive! Behind the scenes – check out the concept art.

(thanks, Ed. Very nice.)

Venezuela's Last Opposition TV Owner Arrested

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Netflix Streaming Comes to the Wii

Nintendo Wii users don’t have to feel left out anymore. Netflix has started shipping instant streaming discs to Wii owners who have signed up for it.

The move makes Wii the last console among its peers to get the service.

About a year-and-a-half ago, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 became the first console to offer direct access to Netflix for gamers. Sony’s PlayStation 3 users gained access to Netflix’s instant streaming service late last year.

Finally, in January this year, Netflix said it will offer streaming for Wii users starting Spring. Wii users with a broadband connection and a subscription to Netflix can access Netflix’s library.

The movie rental service sent out e-mail alerts to customers Thursday and has said discs for the Wii could be in the hands of consumers before the weekend.

The Wii can’t play high-definition streaming shows or movies but we are hoping an innovative interface for using Netflix through the Wii’s controller makes up a little for that.

Photo: (ginnerobot/Flickr)

How Do You Extend Your Wireless Connection?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Flasks disguised as electronics let you get your drink on like a blogger

Yeah, should be a good match, they’re on a streak right now. Okay, let’s see: row 122…123…124. Here’s me, and you’re Q, right? All right. Not bad seats, huh? Friend of mine usually goes with his wife, but they had to go down east for some reason this time around. Oh, there’s the peanut guy. HEY GUY! Yeah – whoop, nice throw – AND A BEER! There we go, okay… what’s he saying? Ten bucks? Are you kidding me? Man, give me a break! Fine. God, they really chisel you here, don’t they? Hey, aren’t you going to get one? No? What – are you going to take my picture with that knockoff Casio you’ve been swinging around? Wait a second, is that – MY GOD, IT’S FILLED WITH WHISKEY!

I hope you’ll excuse that little flight of narration. It just seemed like that’s how it would play out.

I mean, I’m not some big drinker, but I am very poor. I can’t afford six-dollar beers, or eight-dollar shots of my favorite middle-shelf liquor! These faux-electronics flasks are pure genius, if you ask me. Yeah, they’ve probably been around for a while at joke shops, but hey, why not order a couple online? The Bevburry is only $11. I would consider these things to be a very practical move. Economical.

And also, you can get tore up.

[via DVice and Geekologie]

Magazines Use the iPad as Their New Barker [Voices]

By Shira Ovide and Suzanne Vranica, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

A laundry list of open questions about Apple’s (AAPL) iPad isn’t keeping magazine publishers and advertisers from lining up for the launch of the tablet computer next week. Time magazine has signed up Unilever (UN), Toyota Motor (TM), Fidelity Investments and at least three others for marketing agreements priced at about $200,000 apiece for a single ad spot in each of the first eight issues of the magazine’s iPad edition, according to people familiar with the matter.

At Condé Nast Publications, Wired magazine is offering different levels of ad functionality depending on how many pages of ads a marketer buys, according to a person familiar with the matter. Advertisers that agree to buy eight pages of ads in a single issue of Wired magazine will be able to lace video and other extra features through the iPad version, say people familiar with the matter.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Trend Micro CEO Named One of Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal's 'Top 100 Women of Influence' in 2010

'Amistad' Replica Sails into Havana Bay

Protecting Sensitive Business Data on the iPad (PC World)

Samsung to expand NX series with more compact NX5?

The internet was abuzz with Samsung NX10 rumors for quite a while last year, due to it simply being displayed at a trade show behind glass, with no specs or information at all. I don’t know why more companies don’t do mysterious stuff like that, it starts the equivalent of a wildfire on the internet. At any rate, the NX10 came out and is apparently only the first in a whole line of NX-mount cameras, the next of which will be the NX5, if this slip-up on a Samsung flash compatibility notice is to be believed.

The NX5 is rumored to be a competitor with the Olympus E-PL1 (which we just reviewed), just as its big brother competes with the likes of the Panasonic G2 and GH1. Note these are all digital shutter cameras, not to be confused with DSLRs, though they share some similarities, most important of which is interchangeable lenses. Here are the rumored specs for the NX5:

• 14MPx CMOS sensor
• ISO 100-3200
• 3FPS burst shooting
• Built-in flash and obviously a shoe for the flash shown
• 3″ LCD (640×360 likely)
• 720p/30 H.264 video
• Mono audio :(
• HDMI/AV/MicroUSB connection
• SD storage

So you’re looking at less megapixels, no EVF, and a much smaller LCD, all likely results of a smaller body. The NX mount will be the same, though, so lenses are inter-compatible.

And the rumored pricing:

NX5 + 30mm = $599
NX5 + 18-55mm non-OIS = $549
NX5 + 20-50mm non-OIS = $499 (late 2010)

Could be interesting. Can’t wait to get the official word on all this.

[via 4/3 Rumors]

Oracle profit slips, but software revenue rises (AP)

AP - Oracle Corp.'s profit fell 10.5 percent in the latest quarter as the business software maker absorbed Sun Microsystems and its expenses for building and supporting computer servers.

IE8, Safari, iPhone All Fall At Pwn2Own Contest

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses

A handheld cube-shaped display promises to offer all the thrills of 3-D without the annoyance of the glasses. The device called pCubee arranges five LCD screens into a box-like shape so viewers can pick it up, watch content or play with virtual objects inside.

Weighing in at about three pounds, pCubee gives users a chance to poke and prod objects virtually using a stylus. You can shake the cube, tilt it or interact with a touchscreen, all while retaining the 3-D experience.

“Most people think 3-D is all about stereo and having alternating frames to help the brain perceive depth,” says Sidney Fels, who leads the Human Communication Technologies Lab at the University of British Columbia, where the project was designed. “What we wanted to offer is a fish-tank-like experience in a handheld device.”

A wave of successful 3-D movies such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have spurred interest in bringing the 3-D viewing experience closer to consumers. Major consumer electronics companies such as Samsung, LG and Panasonic have started selling 3-D TVs that are fundamentally based on the principle of stereoscopy. Stereoscopy involves presenting a slightly different image to each eye of the same scene so when the brain fuses those images, it perceives depth. That also means viewers have to wear glasses for the 3-D effect.

A different principle called motion parallax is at work in the pCubee. Motion parallax is the apparent change in position of an object, depending on the distance from which you view it. It’s a very effective cue for 3-D, says Fels.

“Our brains are wired to perceive motion parallax and interpret it as 3-D,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons why even if you have just one eye, you can do reasonably well with depth in the real world.”

The pCubee’s design helps the brain interpret this better.

“The fact that it is handheld greatly increases motion parallax,” says Ian Stavness, one of the researchers who worked on the project. “If it were fixed to the desk, you would have to move your head around and it would not be so comfortable.”

And as the video shows, pCubee is fun and easy to use.

The pCubee has three graphics pipelines that drive the screens on the sides of the box. A motion tracker watches the pCubee and the user’s head. The software that powers the device ensures that the user’s view of the box and the rendered perspective on each screen are in sync.

Fels says his team is looking to commercialize pCubee so it can be in the hands of consumers. The team is looking to improve the design and refine it by experimenting with OLED screens to replace the LCD panels that are being used currently.

“The pCubee can be used as a game platform, a CAD-CAM platform and in museums,” says Fels. “We imagine this as something that would be on everybody’s coffee table.”

[via Technabob]

See Also:

• Samsung’s Impossibly Thin 3D TV Tempts Hollywood Producer
• Wired Explains: How 3-D Movie Projection Works
• 4 Things That Could Keep 3-D TV Out of Your Living Room
• Robotic Spider Melds Legos and 3-D Printing
• Toshiba Crams Supercomputer Guts Into 3-D, Web TV
• 3-D Printers Make Manufacturing Accessible

Photo: pCubee

3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses

3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses

Build a better mousetrap

So the saying goes, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat down your door”. If that is true, Mark Fuller is about to be a really busy guy. Check out the mousetrap that Mark created using CAD, and a 3D printer.

Mark created this gravity powered humane version of a mouse trap as part of a prototyping class at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. As you can see in the video, the mouse climbs into the trap after the bait, and then tips the device over, closing the magnetically sealed door. What’s even cooler about this demonstration is that Mark designed the piece, and then printed it out in about six hours on a 3D printer. Very cool stuff. Be careful watching the video though, because that music will get stuck in your head.

[via Make]

Republicans Question Parts of FCC's Broadband Plan - PC World

Washington Post

Republicans Question Parts of FCC's Broadband Plan PC World Republican members of a US House of Representatives committee objected Thursday to parts of the US Federal Communications Commission's new national broadband plan, saying it leaves broadband carriers open to new ... Key lawmaker backs FCC's spectrum planReuters A conversation with FCC Chairman Julius GenachowskiCNET Telecom giant challenges FCC role in broadbandWashington Post FierceWireless -Computerworld -BusinessWeek all 553 news articles »

International Longest Tweet Contest Seeks Entries

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It Was a Bright, Cold Day in Beijing, and the Clocks Were Striking Thirteen… [Digital Daily]

Google co-founder Sergey Brin says China’s efforts to censor speech and suppress dissidents smack of the “totalitarianism” of his youth in the Soviet Union. Here’s a prime example: A Beijing directive describing how Google’s (GOOG) defiance of China’s censorship laws is to be portrayed in the country’s media. Thanks to the China Digital Times and Berkeley China Internet Project, which first obtained and translated it.

All chief editors and managers:

Google has officially announced its withdrawal from the China market. This is a high-impact incident. It has triggered netizens’ discussions which are not limited to a commercial level. Therefore please pay strict attention to the following content requirements during this period:

A. News section:

1. Only use Central Government main media (website) content; do not use content from other sources.
2. Reposting must not change title.
3. News recommendations should refer to Central government main media websites.
4. Do not produce relevant topic pages; do not set discussion sessions; do not conduct related investigative reporting.
5. Online programs with experts and scholars on this matter must apply for permission ahead of time. This type of self-initiated program production is strictly forbidden.
6. Carefully manage the commentary posts under news items.

B. Forums, blogs and other interactive media sections:

1. It is not permitted to hold discussions or investigations on the Google topic.
2. Interactive sections do not recommend this topic, do not place this topic and related comments at the top.
3. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which attack the Party, State, government agencies, Internet policies with the excuse of this event.
4. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others have a different tune from government policy.
5. On topics related to Google, carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions.
6. Chief managers in different regions please assign specific manpower to monitor Google-related information; if there is information about mass incidents, please report it in a timely manner.
We ask the Monitoring and Control Group to immediately follow up monitoring and control actions along the above directions; once any problems are discovered, please communicate with respected sessions in a timely manner.

Additional guidelines:

– Do not participate in and report Google’s information/press releases.
– Do not report about Google exerting pressure on our country via people or events.
– Related reports need to put [our story/perspective/information] in the center, do not provide materials for Google to attack relevant policies of our country.
– Use talking points about Google withdrawing from China published by relevant departments.

[Image credit: Rich Anderson/Flickr]

Just a Hunch: TechCrunch’s Twitter Followers Are Entrepreneurial, Gadget-Loving Optimists

The problem with having more than a million followers on Twitter, or even more than 1,000, is that you don’t really know who they are. But Hunch thinks it knows a lot about the followers of at least popular Twitter users. It is now pulling together detailed psychographic profiles of those followers with a new Twitter Followers tool.

For instance, Hunch suggests that if you follow TechCrunch on Twitter—as close to 1.4 million of you do—you are more likely to be entrepreneurial, very experienced in your career, and talk about computers “like a gear head talking about a four-barrel V8 engine.”

It also predicts that you are more likely to have bought someone flowers in the past 6 months, get birthday cakes from expensive bakeries, and are an optimist (if you drop a piece of toast you believe it will land butter-side up). I’ve met some of you, and I’m not so sure you’d buy anyone an expensive cake. But some of the other characterizations seem spot on.

Hunch is using this Twitter follower analyzer as a clever way to get more people to check out its taste recommendation engine. Any question-answer pair can be Tweeted out with a link back to the full analysis. It only works right now for Twitter accounts with more than 1,000 followers (to keep everything anonymous). Hunch looks at the overlap between those followers and its own users, who have already answered dozens of taste-related questions, and extrapolates from there. This is slightly different from the Twitter Predictor game it released last week which predicts how you will answer a set of questions based on your Twitter profile and who you follow.

Breaking down the psychographics and predilections of someone’s Twitter followers could be useful one day if anyone ever figures out how to advertise to those followers in a way that doesn’t make them want to unfollow you. But for now it is just a fun exercise.

How accurate is it? Let’s put it to the test. My personal followers for @erickschonfeld on Twitter, according to Hunch, tend to be early adopters of of technology (check), use an iPhone (probably), don’t wait for the crosswalk sign to change before they cross the street (I’m pretty sure that’s true), prefer fluid and flexible jobs (check), and consider a “reasonable number of hours to work” to be “whatever it takes” (yup, that’s how my posse rolls).

Looking at some other media accounts, followers of the HuffingtonPost tend to be liberals (I am as shocked), think Bill Maher is funny (which might be their real problem), and don’t realize Elton John can be cheesy . Gawker followers tend to be more “conceptual” than “factual” (draw your own conclusions). Lance Armstrong’s followers are “extremely” competitive and “don’t like kittens” (no idea). While Jimmy Fallon’s followers are more likely to have been in a car accident. I couldn’t make these up if I tried.

Hunch plans to follow up with another Twitter tool where it will try to tell you what kinds of things, people, or products you might like or dislike, as opposed to your followers. It will only be visible to you after you sign in via your Twitter account. To learn more about Hunch’s approach to creating a “taste graph” of its users, check out this recent video interview with co-founder Caterina Fake.

Astea Reports Full Year 2009 and Profitable Fourth Quarter Results

WhiteyBoard: An Instant Whiteboard For Your Instant Office

Dell To Leave China For India

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

EMC Named Official Physical Security Solutions Provider of Digital Surveillance for 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games

Cyber Risk & Privacy Liability Forum Set for June, HB Announces

Video: Adobe’s ‘Content-Aware Fill’ Is Photoshop Magic

Adobe this week demonstrated a new trick called “Content-Aware Fill” in a future version of Photoshop, an effect that uses a complex mathematical algorithm to automagically fill in areas when users remove undesired content. In short: Mindblowing. Check it out yourself in the video above. If you’re short on time, skip to the 2:50 mark for the most impressive stuff.

Sneak peek of Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop [Adobe]

See Also:

• First Look: New Adobe Lightroom Beta Kicks Noise's Butt
• Adobe Plays the Porn Card in Flash Campaign Against iPad
• Adobe Adds Speed, Flickr Integration to Lightroom 3
• Flash Lands on iPhone — One App at a Time
• Adobe Responds to Accusations of Being Lazy

Scientists Create Rainbow Of Fluorescent Probes

Kitchen Chemistry Course Makes Science Palatable

11 Questions For The Next Decade Of Geographical Sciences

Go Daddy Says China Refusal Is No PR Stunt

Imani Reaches Cyclone Status 'By The Tail'

Study: 1 in 4 Consumers Considering a Plug-In Car

Eye-Tracking Tablets and the Promise of Text 2.0

Tyrannosaurs Roamed Southern Hemisphere, Too

Protection For Porbeagle Sharks Denied

Why 'Flutter' Is a 4-Letter Word for Pilots

Robots Do the Work of Multiple Solar Labs

Storyboard: Why It's Time to Break Up the NSA

TJX Hacker Gets 20 Years in Prison

First Look: Digg for iPhone Launches in App Store

Social news aggregator Digg.com has released its free iPhone app in the App Store. Packed with a slick, feature-rich interface, the app is a strong start for the popular website, though there’s plenty of room for it to grow.

Launching the app, you’ll be able to immediately browse popular stories on Digg. You can also view popular stories by topic (e.g., technology, business, science, etc.) or upcoming articles that are about to go popular. You can search through stories by typing a keyword in a search field.

The best part of the app is it makes it really easy to Digg or bury a submission. Tapping a link launches the story inside an in-app browser, and a bar below contains thumbs up and thumbs down buttons to cast your vote. There’s also a button to save a story for reading later. The entire interface is snappy; from my testing on an iPhone 3GS, stories loaded quickly inside Digg’s browser.

With that said, there are some features missing that I’d like to see in version 2. One major minus is you can’t comment on stories like you would on Digg.com. You can view comments, but you can’t actually write any. According to Tap Tap Tap, which developed the app with Digg, the public Digg API doesn’t support adding comments yet. So hopefully we can expect this feature in a later version.

Also, there’s limited interaction between the Digg app and other apps. For example, if you’re browsing your Twitter feed in Tweetie and you tap a Digg link, it doesn’t launch the Digg app. Instead, you’re stuck with viewing the Digg link in the Safari browser. To be fair, you can hit a button to share Digg links through Twitter, Facebook or e-mail, but the inability to use the app to view others’ shared Digg links is stifling.

The free Digg app is downloadable now in the App Store. A video demo of the app is below.

News release [Digg]

See Also:

• SXSW: Digg’s Big Redesign Taps Into Social Web
• Digg This URL Grey: Tea Is the New Coffee
• Digg Traffic Has Questionable Monetary Value

Pwn2Own Hackers Take Down IE8, iPhone, Safari - ChannelWeb

Moby1 (blog)

Pwn2Own Hackers Take Down IE8, iPhone, Safari ChannelWeb The annual Pwn2Own contest held at the CanSecWest hacker conference in Vancouver, BC has already claimed its first round of victims. Included in the wave of fallen Web browsers hacked by security buffs were Internet ... Pwn2Own winner tells Apple, Microsoft to find their own bugsComputerworld Apple's iPhone, Safari exploited at annual hacking contestApple Insider PWN2OWNContent Violated by Hackers at the CanSecWest MeetingTopNews United States V3.co.uk -TechNewsWorld -Afterdawn.com all 171 news articles »

Urban Roverbot Goes Where the Roomba Can’t

All-terrain robots can cost thousands of dollars but Dino Segovis, a DIY enthusiast, transformed a busted Roomba into a robot called the Urban Roverbot that can crawl on rocks as well as it does on polished floors.

“Lots of people build bots that they can drive on flat surfaces,” says Segovis.”I wanted to drive one on rocks and was inspired by the Mars Rovers.”

The Urban Roverbot is about 12 inches long, weighs less than 8 lbs and took just about eight hours to build from parts that were harvested from the Roomba.

iRobot introduced the Roomba in 2002 as an automated vacuum cleaner. But the Roomba has also become a hit in the do-it-yourself community. eBay is teeming with used and busted Roomba that are available with or without batteries.

The main reason Roombas are discarded are drained batteries, dirty wheel sensors that don’t allow the device to move around easily, problems with the cleaning brush motor and an occasional broken drive belt. Most of these aren’t of concern to hardware hackers, says Segovis

Instead the Roomba’s innards such as the sensors, motors and hardware can be valuable and used to build other roving robots, he says.

Segovis who calls himself a “tinkerer with a very, very curious mind” got a few broken down Roombas from a friend and dissected them on his workbench. It was the first time he had seen a Roomba up close. “I thought the motors in it are very versatile and it got me thinking about what I could do with it.”

For the Roverbot, Sergovis says he opted for the Rocker-Bogie suspension arrangement that’s been used in the Mars Rovers. The arrangement has no axles or springs yet it allows the robot to climb over small obstacles and not topple over.

“The way the suspension works is that each side is independent, while a link that goes across the middle,” he says. “This allows the weight of the robot to be distributed over both sides of the vehicle and all the wheels always stay in contact with the ground.”

A Ping ultrasonic sensor to measure distance is at the front of the chassis for navigation. An Arduino micro controller helped Segovis complete the framework for his robot. He used four of the Roomba’s motor assemblies on the suspension arms.

And so far tests show the Roverbot is good to go on rocky surfaces. Here’s a video of the Roverbot in action:

Segovis says he’s fine-tuning the Urban Roverbot and hopes to have it ready in time for Maker Faire in May. The Roverbot will get a new chassis and suspension assembly made of aluminum, he says. Better wheels and the integration of edge sensors are also on the project plan.

“My long term goal is to build a bigger robot with larger wheels,” he says.

Check out the photos for a closer look at how the Roverbot was built

The connections from the Arduino microcontroller to the Roomba

The bottom of the Roverbot

See Also:

• Long Exposure Shows Web-Like Roomba Light-Trail
• Roomba-Maker Unveils Kill-Bot
• Scarab: A Roomba For The Mean City Streets
• Researchers Tweak Roomba to Respond to Emotions

Photo/Video: Dean Segovis

[via Hack a Day]

More Economical Process For Making Ethanol From Nonfood Sources

Discovery Could Lead To Higher Corn Yields For Food, Feed And Fuel

T-Mobile MyTouch to get wire-free charging

PureEnergy is selling their WildCharge wireless charging solution at select T-Mobile stores and will be offering a special charging pad for the MyTouch, T-Mo’s popular Android phone.

This is one of the first wireless charging solutions out there and, in addition to the Palm line, one of the first carrier-approved wireless charging solutions. Click through for the presser.

WildCharge Technology to be Available to T-Mobile USA Customers

BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PureEnergy Solutions, Inc., the leader in wire-free power with its WildCharge™ technology, is planning to bring its wire-free charging solutions to customers of T-Mobile USA, Inc. through the introduction of the new myTouch Drop and Go Charging Pad, which is planned for distribution in select T-Mobile stores in the coming weeks.

The new myTouch Drop and Go™ Charging Pad provides a charging pad and an elegant replacement back that allows for wire-free charging for the T-Mobile® myTouch™ 3G. The charging accessory comes with three versatile PowerDiscs which allow a wide variety of mobile phones and Bluetooth® headsets to be charged in addition to the customized replacement back designed specifically for charging the myTouch 3G.

“Consumers are demanding a simple, reliable, and elegant wire-free charging system that works across the board, with multiple devices. We’re moving towards that goal by making it easy and cost effective for today’s leading consumer product companies, such as T-Mobile, to license, embed and brand the WildCharge technology, and get it on store shelves quickly,” said Dennis Grant, chairman and CEO of PureEnergy Solutions. “We have significantly more product on the market, through us and our partners, than any other player in this space and continue to roll out new wire-free charging solutions at a rapid pace.”

PureEnergy and its licensees expect to have products available from various market-leading brands in retail channels by the end of 2010. Many of these companies are also taking advantage of PureEnergy’s licensing flexibility to create their own unique product designs featuring the patented wire-free power technology.

PureEnergy Solutions was the first company to have a wire-free charging solution commercially available, two years ahead of any other company in the space. Today, the company has an entire line of wire-free charging solutions for hundreds of mobile devices including BlackBerry smartphones, Apple iPhone and iPod touch, electronic readers, gaming devices, and more.

Victorinox launches the Secure Pro USB flash drive, available today

Section: Peripherals, Storage

I have been using a USB flash drive from Victorinox off and on for years now, and over time they have only gotten nicer. Most recently I have been using a Presentation Master drive that I was fortunate enough to pick up at CES.

Anyway, as of today Victorinox has released another USB flash drive, the Secure Pro, which will be available in the UK. The Secure Pro has the same fingerprint recognition that is found in the Presentation Master and claims to be an “un-penetrable” device, which can be accessed only by “recognition of the users own fingerprint.”

The drive itself will be available with storage of up to 32GB and will use AES256 bit technology to ensure that you data remains safe. Additionally, the drive is noted as being comprised of “integrated Single Chip Technology” which is what is both exclusive to Victorinox and also capable or adding extra security.

Finally, the drive will be available at Victorinox’s flagship store in London today and that launch is coinciding with a contest that challenges anyone to access the data on the drive. The contest will be taking place over two days and offers a £100,000 prize to anyone who is successful in cracking the drive. It should be noted that Victorinox ran a similar contest during CES and no one was able to crack the drive.

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

Yar! There be hackers in your iPhone, stealin’ your texts.

EVERYBODY PANIC! A new exploit has been found in Safari, allowing hackers to rip the entire catalog of text messages (received and sent, deleted or not) from your iPhone for their perusal and personal privacy perversions. You load the malicious website, and it goes to work, no user interaction required. In theory, this same exploit could extend to picture messages, contacts, and all sorts of other data that most people would probably rather wasn’t uploaded to some hacker’s server.

NOBODY PANIC! Fortunately for us, it was discovered by two gents (Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann) who were duking it out for $15,000 smackers at the Pwn2Own hacking competition in Vancouver. By the very nature of the competition, all of the details of the exploit are being sent straight to Apple and Apple alone. Thank God for the good guys.

While it’s still worrisome that such a bug exists, this seems like something that Apple will make a top priority. Lets just hope that someone with lesser intentions doesn’t go digging the bug up before Apple puts the clamp on it.

Via Engadget

JooJoo Tablets Start Shipping

After a few false starts and some controversy over refunds, JooJoo–the tablet formerly known as CrunchPad–has finally started shipping.

Fusion Garage, the Singapore-based company behind JooJoo, says its tablets are now on their way to U.S. customers who pre-ordered them. JooJoo fans who pre-ordered the device should get it by Monday, March 29.

That’s interesting timing for JooJoo. Apple’s iPad will be available to consumers starting April 3. The $500 JooJoo is similar to the iPad in terms of looks. But it has a 12.1-inch touchscreen display, compared to the iPad’s 9.7 inch touchscreen. The JooJoo is Wi-Fi capable but offers no 3G connectivity option. It does, however, support full Flash. The tablets can be bought only from JooJoo’s website.

Earlier this month, JooJoo revamped its user interface and changed its home screen to display a polished grid of icons. It now includes features such as different sized virtual keyboards, one of which is designed for one-handed operation.

Still, it is unlikely that the JooJoo can beat Apple’s marketing machine for the iPad or ink the kind of deals that Apple has with book publishers and content providers to make the iPad more than just a web browsing device.

See Also:

• Hands On With the JooJoo, Formerly Known as CrunchPad
• JooJoo Tablet Faces Uphill Battle Against iPad
• JooJoo Tablet Gets a Makeover Before Launch
• Startup Disses Arrington, Relaunches CrunchPad Tablet as JooJoo
• iPad Could See 50 Tablet Rivals This Year

Photo: JooJoo (Jim Merithew/Wired.com)

Scientists: Talk To Your Babies

China Now Greenest Country In The World

Radical Change Needed for Global Agriculture

Wider Smile, Longer Life?

The Planet That Ate My Super-Earth!

Confirmed: HTC Desire coming to T-Mobile UK stores on March 29

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

By way of the T-Mobile UK discussion forums, we have confirmed that the HTC Desire will be available in store as of March 29.

“We can confirm that the HTC Desire is now available to order from our website, with a delivery time of around 7 days, and will be available in stores from Monday 29th March”

Of course, that in store availability is in addition to the Desire currently being available online and through telephone sales. But hey, some people prefer to get a little hands on before plunking down their hard earned cash. That said, with a 7 day delivery time frame for online orders it may be quicker to just wait for March 29 and pick one up in person.

Read [T-Mobile UK] Via [Engadget]

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

Toys ‘R Us holding an Easter sale March 26 - 27, 2010

FROM GAMERTELL - Toys ‘R Us is holding an Easter sale March 26-27, 2010. You can get gift cards when you buy a DS, DSi or Xbox 360 Elite. There are also going to be two buy one, get one at a slight discount sales in effect on games, and HP netbooks on sale.
MORE »

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

Quick Look: The HTC HD2 on T-Mobile

Here’s a quick look at the first US version of the HTC HD2, a really nice Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. We’ve have plenty of coverage of this phone over the past few months but now it’s available on T-Mobile for $200 with contract. It’s a really beautiful phone – and I don’t say that much – but will it take off with WinPho waiting in the wings?

Nexus One Vs. iPhone Info-Graphic: Googlephone Wins

If you ever doubted that our friends at iFixit were the kings of the nerdy tear-down, you can stop it right now. With one simple (and rather big) info-graphic, Kyle Wiens and his minions have managed to detail almost every difference between the flagging Nexus One Googlephone and Apple’s iPhone 3GS. And despite a huge defeat in the first month’s sales (almost three million versus almost 100,000), the Nexus wins in just about every category.

In fact, if the cellphone market were instead a game of Top Trumps, Google would be killing it. From its bigger, higher resolution screen through its processor and the RAM available to it to its easy-to-replace battery (two steps vs. the iPhone’s whopping 16 steps), it has the iPhone beat. Why, then, is nobody buying them?

We’d say software. From one end, the iPhone has roughly a zillion apps available, against the tens of thousands in the Android marketplace. And from the other end, it seems that the real, normal cellphone buyer could care less about multitasking, preferring something that is just easy to use.

We have seen this before, remember, in the MP3-player market. Everyone tried to compete with added features, from FM radios to voice recording, but people kept buying the iPod because it was easy, it worked with iTunes and it was what all their friends had. If Google or anyone else is going to beat the iPhone, it had better come up with something that isn’t just an old desktop style OS made for the small screen.

Nexus One vs iPhone Infographic [iFixit. Thanks, Kyle!]

See Also:

• Gallery: iPhone 3GS Teardowns Reveal Underclocked CPU, More …
• IFixit
• What's Inside? MacBook Pro Stripped Bare by iFixit
• iFixit disassemble new iPod Shuffle
• Teardown Reveals iPhone Camera Could Fit the iPod Touch — Barely …

UC Irvine's Francisco Ayala wins Templeton Prize - Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

UC Irvine's Francisco Ayala wins Templeton Prize Los Angeles Times The biologist and ordained priest espouses the idea that the theory of evolution is consistent with Christianity. The prize honors achievements in affirming spirituality. Francisco Ayala during a press briefing at the National Academy of Sciences. ... Former priest wins £1m Templeton prizeThe Guardian Biologist Wins Templeton PrizeNew York Times US geneticist wins $1.5 million religion prizeThe Associated Press Philadelphia Inquirer -Times Online -Inside Higher Ed all 196 news articles »

Slacker Radio now available for Windows Mobile

Section: Audio, Portable Audio

Slacker has officially launched for Windows Mobile, which is not only good news for Windows Mobile users, but also good news for Slacker because that means they now have apps available on all of the major mobile operating systems. In other words you can now listen to Slacker Radio using an iPhone, Android phone, webOS phone, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile phone.

Overall in terms of features, this app is Slacker Radio on your Windows Mobile phone. Users can listen to pre-built stations, their own customized stations, check artist bios, skip, heart, ban tracks and more. One feature that is found on the Android and BlackBerry apps is the ability to cache music for offline use, unfortunately that was left off the Windows Mobile version. As for what the experience is like, Mobile Crunch described as being “glorious.” Of course, that was using an HTC HD2 with its LARGE display.

Those interested can grab the app by visiting http://m.slacker.com from your mobile browser. Additionally, Slacker has already begin working on a Windows Phone 7 version.

Via [Mobile Crunch]

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

iFixit pits the iPhone 3GS against the Nexus One infograph style

iFixit is known for its gadget teardowns and self-help repair services. Now we can add large infographs to the mix as well with this large iPhone 3GS vs Nexus One graph comparing everything from the hardware to the manufacturing cost to sales. Our favorite part, however, is in the middle where the steps required to replace each phone’s battery is compared. Well played, iFixit, well played. Click through to embiggen.

Make It: iPhone Guitar Connection Kit

Soon after yesterday’s post on the PRS Guitarbud, an apparently noisy, badly made cable for connecting your guitar to your iPhone, I got a mail from Gadget Lab reader Paul Stidworthy. Paul makes RiotFX, a $5 “multi-effects processor app” for the iPhone, and is concerned that people using his application get the best sound possible. To this end, he has posted a guide to making your own cable. It may not be cheaper than the PRS cable, but it should be a lot better, and you may find you have almost everything you need lying around the house.

First, you need a cable that splits a jack to three RCA phono plugs. It needs to have the ground on the right ring of the jack, so the easiest thing to do is buy a good-quality iPod AV cable. Then you put on an RCA-to-mono jack adapter (for the guitar) and an RCA-to-female-minijack adapter for the headphones. If you like, you can stop there, and you’ll have something that will work great for around $10 to $15. Or you can fancy things up a little more with an impedance matcher. Paul explains:

Using an impedance matcher with your cable has a number of benefits. It presents the guitar with a higher impedance load than the iPhone does, which improves the sound and makes the tone and volume pots behave better (for example, you might notice that if you don’t use an impedance matcher, adjusting the tone pot has little effect).

It also isolates the guitar circuit from the iPhone input – the iPhone is sensitive to changes in the DC resistance of the circuit, and using an impedance matcher eliminates these problems.

In this case, you’ll be out around £25 ($37) for parts, but you’ll have the best setup you could get. Assembly is dead simple, involving daisy-chaining the pieces together (Paul has a full guide up on the RiotFX site). Paul recommends doing things this way as it “will give you a much better experience than the Guitarbud” He gives a few pointers to good brands to use, and you can pick up the RiotFX software to test your cable out for $5.

Building a Guitar Cable for your iPhone and iPod Touch [Riotmode. Thanks, Paul!]

RiotFX [Riotmode]

RiotFX [iTunes]

$150 Kobo eReader: The Real Kindle Killer?

Asian Pollution Rides the Monsoon

Taurus Concept Is Like Hot Segway Bike From the Future

Is Sprint Too Early With The HTC EVO 4G Phone? - ChannelWeb

CNET

Is Sprint Too Early With The HTC EVO 4G Phone? ChannelWeb The arrival of the HTC EVO 4G, Sprint's first 4G phone, means that Sprint has a big lead over rival carriers in releasing 4G-ready devices. But the HTC EVO 4G is also a big gamble for Sprint: The phone will lose traction ... Don't Buy '4G' Phones for 4G Features - YetPC Magazine Sprint's HTC EVO 4G: 5 Killer FeaturesPC World Sprint, HTC Unveil First 4G Android PhoneWired News BusinessWeek -Wall Street Journal -The Archway all 741 news articles »

Public Bikes: Fixed-Gear Style with Granny-Bike Ride

Public Bikes is just about to launch a range of stylish granny-bikes. The cool-looking machines combine the sleek, pared-down look of a fixed-gear bike with the comfort and practicality of the Dutch City Bike.

There are two kinds of frame: a step-through (sometimes wrongly called a girls’ frame) and a classic double-triangle, both made from steel. The bikes all use internal hubs, with a choice of one, three or eight gears, and all come with front and rear caliper brakes, fenders and chain-guards. After that you can get fancy with leather seats, carrying racks and baskets. The prices will run from $650 to $1,200 when the bikes go on sale this April.

Public Bikes may be on to something here. These are the same kind of bikes you see all over the place in many Northern European cities. They’re cheap, strong and comfortable, all of which encourages you to ride more. The store is already open in San Francisco’s South Park (at number 123), so you can drop in for a test ride. South Park is a few minutes away from the Wired offices, so hopefully somebody will drop in and take a look (I’m looking at you, Dylan Tweney).

Public Bikes [Public Bikes via Bike Hugger]

CS5 release coming in April

Section: Computers, Software / Applications

Adobe Creative Suite 4 has been out for a while now, and has come to dominate all creative computer programs on the market. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks are all examples of programs that you will see in CS4 and what you will see on just about every computer that a web designer, artist, and photographer’s computer. Adobe now feels like it is about time for an upgrade, having posted a new page with a countdown to the release of CS5. The date? April 12th.

Now that all of you designers have stopped jumping up and down you should check out this sneak preview of the brand new Photoshop. A video that will blow your mind, as the engineers at Adobe have managed to take projects that would normally take hours, into a couple of minutes.

Note that the April 12th date will only be the launch date. The shipping date of CS5 is rumored to be about a month later.

Read [The Next Web]

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

Motorola DEVOUR now on sale at Verizon for $149.99

We knew it was coming soon, but Verizon Wireless and Motorola just announced that Motorola DEVOUR is now available online and in stores today for $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year customer agreement.

DEVOUR is the second Android-powered smartphone from Motorola to run on Verizon Wireless’ 3G Network after the Droid. The phone comes with MOTOBLUR, Motorola’s content delivery service.

The 3.1-inch capacitive screen, 8GB microSD card, full QWERTY keyboard, and the social networking-centric MOTOBLUR all combine to make a great device. The phone also comes rocking a 3 MP camera, 802.11 b/g WiFi, GPS, and a 3.5mm headset jack.

Check out our earlier review here.

Birds Fuel Up on Super Foods Before Migrating

Taurus Concept Is Like Hot Segway Bike From the Future

There’s a guy in my neighborhood who rides two-wheeled, Segway-style wheelchair. It puts him at almost normal standing height, and takes up a lot less floorspace than a regular electric wheelchair. But while he looks pretty cool cruising the barrio, his chair doesn’t come close to this hot concept vehicle, the Taurus.

The Taurus, designed by Erik Lanuza, is pretty much a Segway with a seat (you even control it by leaning forward and back). This alone puts it way closer to a Tron light-cycle than the stand-on dork-mobile. Lanuza sees it as space-efficient, zero-emission vehicle for cities.

We applaud his ambition, but there are two obvious problems.

There is already a space-efficient, zero-emission vehicle for cities (or anywhere else). It’s a bike.

Second, as soon as Steve Wozniak gets his hands on one of these, it’ll be pressed into service for polo.

Sure, Taurus Polo sounds way cooler than Segway Polo, but the sight of Woz riding around in a skintight orange jumpsuit will scare many, many people away.

Taurus – Safe and zero emission urban transportation concept [At Crux via Oh Gizmo!]

See Also:

• Toyota Announces Segway Killer: The Winglet Personal Transporter
• Video Shadenfreude: Segway Face-Plant
• The Chinese Segway Division Seemed Unstoppable… Until Criminals Started Using Staircases
• Wozniak: My Way Is the Segway

London clinic now treating computer addicts

FROM GAMERTELL - A London clinic has opened the UK’s first gaming rehab clinic, bringing the debate about whether games are addictive to the forefront.
MORE »

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

Taking Showers Could Contaminate Drinking Water

Mother of Pearls Mass-Produced