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Can Someone At Google Please Turn The Gmail Spam Filter Down A Notch?
Warning: this is sort of a personal pet peeve of late, so if you only care about reading general tech news, you might wanna skip this one. I’ve been a happy Gmail user for years, and never had any complaints about its ability to separate legitimate emails from spam. Nevertheless, I’ve made a habit out of regularly checking my spam folder out of fear of missing important emails, even though I used to have to recover only one or maybe two messages per month. Now I’m glad I made a habit out of doing that. Since about a week and a half ago, I’ve noticed that legitimate emails are being marked as spam at increasing rates, to the degree where I have to check my spam folder as often as my regular inbox in order not to miss breaking news from sources or via our contact page, or even emails from TechCrunch colleagues. As you can tell from the screenshot above (click through for a bigger version of that image), most of the emails in my spam folder this morning are messages I want to read or scan at least. Most of them do not contain more links than emails that hit my inbox, some come from people who I’ve been receiving emails from for years, and one was event sent by my new TC colleague Evelyn Rusli … from her Gmail account. I’ll save you the trouble of trying to count: 6 out of 31 emails in that screenshot were actually spam, the rest were legitimate messages. Needless to say, if you work for a blog like the one you’re reading now, this is really bad. I’ve asked my Twitter followers if they are Gmail users and have also noticed this trend, and from what I can gather I’m far from alone in this (see responses here, here and here), although some say this started occurring for them months and not weeks ago – and some haven’t noticed anything strange whatsoever. Either way, I contacted Google about the problem too, and a company spokesperson said:
From what I understand, Google’s internal statistics do not suggest that there’s an increase in legitimate emails being filtered out, nor is there any indication of an increase in false positives (which I don’t have a problem with). Basically, they seem to suggest it’s not a general issue and that some emails are simply falling through the cracks in my case. Frankly, I doubt it, based on my conversations about this on Twitter and the fact that the issue simply occurred one day and hasn’t gone away since. The main problem is that there’s no way for me to manipulate the automated filter – Google simply suggests to create filters per message / contact or constantly add people to my Contacts list, which is virtually impossible at this scale. So I guess I’m stuck with checking two folders instead of one until Google makes another adjustment in my favor. Has the spam filter being overactive for your Gmail account as well of late? Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:14 am Solar-Powered Plane Makes Successful Maiden Flight - KIRO Seattle
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:11 am BioLite: Ultra-Efficient Camping Stove Generates Electricity
Not only does the BioLite stove burn almost anything, and burn it with such ruthless efficiency that it makes Darth Vader look like a dilly-dallying softy, it could also use the leftover heat to generate power for your gadgets. It is, in short, the ultimate nerd camping accessory. Designed for the developing world, the BioLite is all about getting things done. Not only does it burn hotter and faster than a petroleum stove or a regular wood fire, it burns cleaner. It works like this: Load the chamber with small sticks and light. Once the fire gets going, a thermoelectric generator kicks in, running off excess heat and spinning an electric fan. This fan separates the wood gas from the burning wood itself and mixes it with oxygen. This makes for a fire fierce enough to bring a one liter (2.1-pint) pan of water to the boil in just four minutes. This kind of stove is also called a rocket-stove, and it is the efficiency that makes it so clean and hot. And because it will burn anything, it is also great for hikers: 1lb 10oz and no fuel to carry means a light load. The solid state thermoelectric generator actually has power to spare after forcing air into the mix, and could be used to power an LED lamp or even juice a USB port for gadget charging. Future versions are in the works that will do this, and the model seen here will be available in Spring this year (any time now). Of course, burning wood for hours at a time isn’t so good for the environment, even with a low-smoke fire like this, but for juicing a cellphone in an emergency, its a great idea. Price and precise launch date still to be announced. BioLite [BioLite Stove via Oh Gizmo] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:08 am South Park Takes on Facebook (and Jim Cramer) [MediaMemo]How is it possible that it’s 2010 and South Park, which specializes in up-to-the-minute satire, just ran its first Facebook-themed episode? Unlike 30 Rock’s stab at social networking, the South Park guys don’t mess around with pretend names like “YouFace” — Stan, Kyle and pals are most definitely on Facebook in this one. Though for whatever reason, they do replace CNBC’s Jim Cramer with Cartman in this clip. Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2010 | 4:01 am Nokia eyes China boost for struggling music service (Reuters)Reuters - Nokia will offer free music with its mobile phones in China, as it looks to emerging markets to boost the download service that is struggling to compete with Apple Inc's popular iTunes.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:55 am Nokia brings mobile music service to China (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:51 am UPDATE 1-Sanofi signs $335 mln exclusive diabetes dealPARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - Sanofi-Aventis has signed an exclusive agreement on a possible new diabetes treatment with U.S biotech CureDM as part of the French drugmaker's aim to become a leader in the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:41 am UPDATE 2-RMG, Teck court Chinese in Australian deposit sale* Around 4.4 mln T copper, 6 mln oz gold, 225 mln lbs uraniumSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:39 am Net Neutrality Rivals Invest In DC Influence - Wall Street Journal
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:35 am UPDATE 1-Sanofi signs $335 mln exclusive diabetes dealPARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - Sanofi-Aventis has signed an exclusive agreement on a possible new diabetes treatment with U.S biotech CureDM as part of the French drugmaker's aim to become a leader in the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:23 am Joule: An Elegant, Minimalist iPad Stand
Element Case, purveyor of extremely tacky, logo-laden cases for the iPhone, has been to finishing school and come away with a sense of aesthetic taste. The Joule stand for the iPad manages to be minimalist, functional and desirable. The stand is simple. A CNC-machined cylinder has a velvet lined slot in its polished aluminum to hold the iPad by its bottom edge. A metal rod juts from the back to stop the cylinder from rolling back, and provides enough resistance to let you actually use the touch-screen without tipping it over. You can yank this rod from the hole and replace it in either of two more for angle adjustment, whereupon it snaps magnetically into place. The stand also has a cutout to let you get at the home button, and a hole to channel the speaker’s sound to the front. There’s a lot to like. Everything, in fact, except the price. The Joule will cost you $130, available now. Joule [Element Case] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:18 am UPDATE 2-FACTBOX-How combined BA, Iberia will look(Adds holding company name, shareholder structure upon completion of deal, board structure)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:16 am PE firm Centerbridge joins bidding war for Zale -NY PostApril 8 (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Centerbridge Partners has jumped into the fray to buy the struggling North American jewelry chain Zale Corp , the New York Post said, citing sources.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:13 am PE firm Centerbridge joins bidding war for Zale -NY PostApril 8 (Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Centerbridge Partners has jumped into the fray to buy the struggling North American jewelry chain Zale Corp , the New York Post said, citing sources.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:13 am UPDATE 1-Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions(Adds British Airways, SAIL, Woori, Ahli United Bank and MphasiSSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:02 am UPDATE 1-Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions(Adds British Airways, SAIL, Woori, Ahli United Bank and MphasiSSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:02 am BlueSwarm Announces Groundbreaking Facebook Application for Social FundraisingBOSTON, April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- As profiled in Politico.com last Monday, BlueSwarm has secured its place as the new #1 Political "Social Fundraising" platform. BlueSwarm just announced the release of a pioneering social fundraising application that fully integrates with Facebook.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:00 am Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. to Exhibit at InfoComm 2010 - June 5th - 11th at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NevadaNEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: NPDT) (NPDT) announced today the company will exhibit at InfoComm 2010 conference and exhibition, on June 5th - 11th at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2010 | 3:00 am UPDATE 2-BA seals long-awaited Iberia deal* Tie-up will make world's third largest airline by revenueSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:58 am UPDATE 2-TNT mulls mail business IPO, partnerships* Investors have said mail, express split may create valueSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:53 am AU Optronics Corp. Reports March 2010 Consolidated RevenueHSINCHU, Taiwan, April 8 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- AU Optronics Corp. ("AUO" or the "Company") (TAIEX: 2409; NYSE: AUO) today announced its preliminary consolidated March 2010 revenue of NT$40,666 million, up by 24.5% from February and 83.9% year-over-year. In the first quarter of 2010, AUO's unaudited consolidated revenues totaled NT$111,556 million, down by a slight 2.9% quarter-over-quarter but an impressive growth of 119.9% year-over-year. Large-sized panel (a) shipments for March 2010, with applications on desktop monitor, notebook PC, LCD TV and other applications, hit a record high, amounting to approximately 9.77 million units, an increase of 22.0% from the previous month.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:52 am Doublethink – The Digital Economy Bill Against The UK’s Digital Economy In 1938 Winston Churchill made a radio speech which was broadcast to America, describing what was happening as Nazi forces spread across Europe.
"The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together."Perhaps if he'd been around today and au fait with the Internet he might have used the same phrase to describe what is going on in legislatures across Europe. Tonight the UK Labour governement, together with the Conservative arty, forced through the controversial Digital Economy Bill. The Bill now gets a 'third reading' in the House of Lords, which means it is almost certain to become law. The government did a deal with the Conservative leadership, which got a number of provisions it didn't like removed. In other words, it was, to use an old British phrase, a "stitch up." 
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:40 am Apple iPhone Ad - ShopperAmazing what you can do with an iPhone. [via TUAW]Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:24 am What Chernobyl Looks Like In 2010An anonymous reader writes "The editor of Phoronix.com has toured Chernobyl's Zone of Alienation (the 30km zone surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) to see what the area looks like 24 years after the world's largest nuclear disaster. Many photographs from Chernobyl in 2010 have now been published, showing off the power plant and its RBMK reactors, the town of Pripyat, the town of Chernobyl, and the Red Forest. The 24th anniversary of this deadly nuclear disaster will be on April 26."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:24 am 'Mind-reading' brain-scan software showcased in NY (AP)AP - Mind reading may no longer be the domain of psychics and fortune tellers — now some computers can do it, too.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:15 am Cell Phones: The 7th Mass MediaWhile mobile phones will not be the death of print, television or the Internet, it has proven to be a huge and unique new platform for delivering content, for some, it's the 7th Mass Media. [via cellphones...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:03 am Will Columbia-Trained, Code-Savvy Journalists Bridge the Media/Tech Divide? [Voices]By Eliot Van Buskirk, Contributor, Epicenter, Wired.com Columbia University will soon offer a combined engineering and journalism degree. It’s a unique program the Ivy League institution hopes will produce cross-disciplinary ninjas prepared to develop the newsrooms of the future. The new Master of Science Program in Computer Science and Journalism is the first of its kind, according to Shree Nayar, who chairs the computer science department at Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, which offers the program with the Columbia School of Journalism. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2010 | 2:02 am Astronauts hoist cargo carrier onto space station - The Associated Press
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:57 am The Apple Two [Voices]By Tim Wu, Professor, Columbia Law School In 2006, professor Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School predicted that over the next decade there would be a determined effort to replace the personal computer with a new generation of “information appliances.” He was, it turned out, exactly right. But the one thing he couldn’t forecast was who would be leading the charge. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:56 am Bringing You a Signal You’re Already Paying For [Voices]By Matt Richtel, Reporter, New York Times Faced with withering criticism for its spotty iPhone service, AT&T (T) blames in part a shortage of cellphone towers near homes and businesses. But it has a solution: put a miniature cell tower in your living room. There’s a catch, though. You have to pay for it. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:51 am Foursquare – I Wish It Was Better For Me… [Voices]By John Battelle, Blogger, Searchblog I’ve been using Foursquare for a few months now, and I’m impressed with the service on many levels. But I have to be frank – the most impressive thing about it – at least in this test group of one – is what it *could* be, not what it is. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:47 am Why the Foursquare Acquisition Story Makes No Sense [Voices]By Charlie O’Donnell, Blogger, This is Going to be Big So midway through their rocket ship ride to a million users and beyond, the Foursquare team is going to jump off for $100 million and a chance to work at Yahoo! (YHOO) for the next couple of years? Riiiight. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:43 am BioLite Camp Stove Burns Clean, Charges GadgetsBy Evan Ackerman Over 3 billion people use solid fuel (like wood) for cooking. This is not ideal, since the toxic smoke from indoor cooking fires kills 1.6 million people per year while wafting up into...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:43 am Ron Conway And The Technology Ecosystem
Why is that? Part of it is because Ron is the most prolific angel investor in the business. And also one of the most successful. The sheer volume of deals he’s done over the last 20-30 years, investing in 3-4 startups per month, is staggering. And his hit rate is so high, particularly for the massive win startups, that very few investors can come close to the success rate he’s had. But a more important reason why he’s the center of startup life in Silicon Valley is the fact that he works so long and so hard at what he does. Ron could have retired long, long ago. But he works harder than most people I know. And most of the time he’s not working for himself. He’s simply helping out other people. Andreessen Horowitz partner Ben Horowitz wrote a blog post earlier today talking about why Ron Conway is so crucial to our community and ecosystem. Make sure to read the whole post. Horowitz gives specific examples of how Ron operates, and says these are the key factors to how Ron does business:
I’ve seen Ron “doing business” in this way too many times to count. Just one example: One time he managed to sell a startup to an anxious buyer before his angel investment in the startup closed. Ron got nothing in the deal, and was happy to do it. I once asked him why he wasn’t upset that the company didn’t figure out a way to close his investment before selling. His answer: “The timing didn’t make sense, and it’ll come back to me eventually in goodwill and future deals.” The truth is I have no idea why Ron continues to work so hard and give so much back to the tech community. But we’re lucky he does, and I hope he keeps on doing it for a long, long time. If you’re a startup just getting off the ground and you want a serious competitive advantage, you pitch Ron and his team. If he invests you’ve got a force of nature on your side and a real advantage over the startups that he passed on. The real test will come a few years later, once you’ve made it big and your startup is a success. When Ron calls asking for a favor, make sure to take that call. Because it’s the least you can do.      
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:29 am Over 1 million PayPal iPhone apps downloaded in three weeksPayPals iPhone app has now reached more than 1 million downloads only three weeks after being made available in App Store (on March 15). Unwired reports. The PayPal iPhone app is free and lets users...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:07 am With New Service, Xmarks Seeks a Revenue BoostXmarks, a browser bookmarks-oriented plugin maker today announced SearchBoost, a paid service that overlays search results with reviews and ratings of various websites. It apparently gives the pay-per-click...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:01 am Golf, Now With Three-Dimensional Azaleas [Voices]By John Paul Newport, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal This year’s Masters tournament will be the first golf event to broadcast live in high-definition 3D. Few people have three-dimension televisions yet, so to some extent this year’s broadcasts will be like the proverbial tree falling in the forest that nobody hears. But reporters got a preview of the technology Wednesday afternoon during ESPN’s 3D broadcast of the par-three contest, and it was a thrill. You have to wear special 3D glasses, of course, and the dedicated technophile might find minor issues to quibble about. Some of the graphics had odd shadows. Quick camera pans blurred fractionally. But it took me only about 30 seconds to begin coveting a 3D television for my home. The images were razor sharp, thanks to the HD part of the equation, and the 3D effect was continual. In other words, it wasn’t just that the crowd in the foreground appeared to be on a different plane from the players on the tee, but that the woman at the ropes appeared to be in a different space than the man standing right behind her, and that golfer A seemed to be in a different dimension than golfer B. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Internet of Things: Opportunities For EntrepreneursLast month the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab ran an event at the Stanford Business School, called The Internet of Things: Sensors Everywhere. The video of the event was recently put up on YouTube. We've embedded...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:58 am Xmarks Begins Monetizing Bookmarks With Advertising And Analytics Platform SearchBoost
So Xmarks aggregates and analyzes over a billion bookmarks to create web site ratings and reviews via on its platform. Reviews are added by Xmarks users, at a rate of 200,000 web site reviews per month. Currently, if the service is installed on a user’s computer, Xmarks will show a ranking and starred review curated from Xmarks’ database of reviewed URLs and sites next to the search result on any Google or Bing search. With SearchBoost, Xmarks will add the ranking and starred review next to ads within these search results. This feature is live in Xmarks for Firefox, and is coming soon to Xmarks for IE and Xmarks for Chrome. Unfortunately, the feature’s technology doesn’t work with Safari. So does SearchBoost promise higher click through rates? James Joaquin, CEO of Xmarks, says yes. In a study of over 200,000 users, Xmarks found that SearchBoost increased pay-per-click performance by 15%. Joaquin says that these ads are more trusted because of the ratings and starred reviews, so consumers tend to click on these ads vs. normal search ads that appear in Google or Bing searches. Along with SearchBoost, advertisers will get an advanced analytics platform that gives them insight into the click through behavior and performance of both paid and organic search results. Using anonymous data from Xmarks’ community of four million plus users, Xmarks will show advertisers how many people have bookmarked their site, how many bookmarks competitors have, how may impressions, clicks their advertisements and URLs receive within the bookmarking community. Additionally, the analytics platform will show advertisers which search terms are delivering the most clicks across both paid and organic search results and more metrics. And Xmarks is now seeing an average of 15 million daily searches and 450 million searches per month. SearchBoost, which includes the search ad offering and the analytics, has four levels of pricing. Level 1 will see you back $29 per month and allows for a maximum of 250 clicks on your ad, and a maximum of 25 different reports (each URL or search term is one report). Level 3 is $99 per month, offers 10,000 monthly clicks and 1000 reports. And Xmarks will also be offering a customized enterprise plan as well. The product is appealing for advertisers, especially if it improves click through rates on ads within Google and Bing. And the price seems affordable for small businesses. But the caveat is that you’ll only be gaining data from Xmarks’ 4 million plus users.
Founded by Mitch Kapor and Todd Agulnick, Xmarks competes with other popular social bookmarking applications like Delicious and StumbleUpon, which also offers a paid advertising service. Xmarks has raised a total of $8 million in funding. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:55 am UMC Reports Sales for March 2010TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 8 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TAIEX: 2303), (UMC) today reported unaudited net sales for the month of March 2010. Revenues for March 2010 Period 2010 2009 Y/Y Change Y/Y (%) M/M (%) March 9,479,926 4,541,317 4,938,609 +108.75% +9.79% Jan.-Mar.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:50 am Japanese Guts Are Made For Sushicremeglace writes "Americans don't have the guts for sushi. At least that's the implication of a new study, which finds that Japanese people harbor enzymes in their intestinal bacteria that help them digest seaweed, enzymes that North Americans lack. What's more, Japanese may have first acquired these enzymes by eating bacteria that thrive on seaweed in the open ocean."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:11 am BenQ Chooses E-reader Path Over IPad (PC World)PC World - Taiwanese electronics maker BenQ plans to continue to focus on e-readers instead of developing a tablet device similar to Apple's iPad, and believes a color version of its nReader due out later this year will be one of the keys to winning the market.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:10 am Every Young Jedi Needs A Lightsaber NightlightBy Chris Scott Barr How long has it been since you slept with a nightlight? I think I stopped somewhere around first grade, and now prefer my bedroom to be pitch black. Then again, if I’d had one...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Apr 2010 | 12:09 am Cellcom Israel Announces Results of Annual General Meeting of ShareholdersNETANYA, Israel, April 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cellcom Israel Ltd.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:52 pm Murmurs of the Heart, Plate 2Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:44 pm Hublot's Confrrie Horlogre Designs A Bullet-Shaped Pocket WatchBy Andrew Liszewski The latest pocket watch design from Hublot’s special Confrrie Horlogre division seems to take its inspiration from the NRA, with a bullet-shaped body made from titanium (for the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:33 pm Minimum Wage MachineBy Andrew Liszewski On one hand it looks like it’s considerably more monotonous than working at a greasy spoon or even McD’s, but at least this Minimum Wage Machine, designed by Blake Fall-Conroy,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:29 pm Analysis: What Apple has in store for iPhone event - Macworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:28 pm Analysis: What Apple has in store for iPhone event (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - So hereâs what we know about Thursdayâs press-only event at Appleâs Cupertino headquarters: The event starts at 10 a.m. PT and will focus on the forthcoming iPhone 4.0 update. The invitation was pretty clear about that.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:07 pm Apple's IPhone Software May Deliver Multitasking, Mobile Ads - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:47 pm Draconian UK Digital Economy Bill passes: huge blow for digital privacy, security, freedomThe Digital Economy bill, known on Twitter as #debill, passed today. The short version is that this thing makes the DMCA look like a warmup act. Cory's traveling, but you can expect his thoughts here soon. For now, Mike Butcher sums up the danger eloquently:During the 1960s Chairman Mao told farmers to kill crop-eating sparrows, an edict which produced a plague of the insects which the sparrows normally ate. Likewise, the Digital Economy Bill, in trying to support artists' copyright and tackle illegal file-sharing, is about to produce a new culture - in which ISPs and bewildered householders are deluged with threatening legal letters from the entertainment industry.This matters for America and other countries, too. There is now a precedent of a partner nation disconnecting users for alleged copyright infringement. This is a terrible moment for internet privacy and freedom. Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:16 pm Google sued by photographers - Afterdawn.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:04 pm Market Research Firm Ranks Verizon Business as a 'Leader' in the Global Telecommunications MarketBASKING RIDGE, N.J., April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Analyst firm IDC has named Verizon Business a leading provider of communications services for multinational corporations, citing the strength of the company's solutions and security portfolio. In its March 2010 report, "IDC MarketScape: Worldwide MNC Telecommunications Services 2010 Vendor Analysis, Doc #222429," IDC notes that Verizon's "leadership positioning results from numerous distinctions, such as a well-developed services portfolio that includes a range of complementary offerings.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:01 pm April 8, 1879: The Milkman Cometh ... With Glass BottlesGot milk? What you got it in? The first glass bottles were literally a clear improvement over the previous system of dispensing milk.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Hacking a Pendulum to Make Remote-Control ArtMultimedia pioneer Tom Shannon finds inspiration from a physicist, a Dadaist, a Renaissance master and LSD for his latest artwork.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Take a Punch Like a HunkIf your idea of fun is getting socked in the gut, there's a, ahem, smart way to do it. Start by training for strength and speed (and breathe!).
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Rupert Murdoch Hates Google, Loves the iPadHugh Pickens writes "The Register reports that News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, reiterated his disgust at how search engines handle news and called on old media to rethink how their stories are distributed on the web. 'It's produced a river of gold, but those words are being taken mostly from the newspapers,' said Rupert. 'I think they ought to stop it, that the newspapers ought to stand up and let them do their own reporting.' Murdoch added that the iPad was a 'wonderful tool' for listening to music, watching videos and reading newspapers. 'It may well be the saving of the newspaper industry,' by making it cheaper to distribute content to a broader audience, Murdoch said. 'I'm old, I like the tactile experience of the newspaper,' Murdoch said. '(But) if you have less newspapers and more of these, that's OK. It doesn't destroy the traditional newspaper, it just comes in a different form.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:25 pm Yoyn is interactive board game, yahFROM GAMERTELL - The Yoyn game system includes a game board that connects via a USB cable so that on-board moves trigger computer events… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:10 pm Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen
I generally agree with Leonard Maltin's movie reviews. He's a fan of ukuleles and old cartoons, too, which makes him A-OK in my book.
So I am going to add every one of his picks from 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen to my Netflix queue, even the ones I've already seen. Fussy sourpusses will complain about the title, but I have only seen a handful of the movies Maltin recommends: Better Than Sex, Disney's Teacher's Pet, Idiocracy, and Zathura. And I liked those four movies a lot. That leaves 147 titles I have yet to see. If you are familiar with Maltin's writing, you'll know his writing is accessible and informative. The reviews in 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen are like that. They're one to two pages long, and provide just enough of the plot to get you interested without spoiling anything. (I can't believe I never saw The Lookout, or even heard about it until I got this book.)
Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen FCC: Comcast Decision Casts a Shadow On Broadband Plan
The FCC acknowledged on their official blog today that the court’s decision on the Comcast deal could hamper their national broadband plan. General Counsel of the FCC, Austin Schlick says that the court’s ruling that the FCC does not have the authority to enforce net neutrality was an “important ruling.” “It undermines the legal approach the FCC adopted in 2005 to fulfill its statutory duty of being the cop-on-the-beat for 21st Century communications networks.” This week, a panel of judges ruled unanimously that the regulatory body did not have the power to order Comcast to stop interfering with consumers’ access to BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer services. Schlick says the ruling will have no effect “on most” of the FCC’s national broadband plan, which includes some 200 recommendations— but the decision could impact critical components. “Yesterday’s decision may affect a significant number of important Plan recommendations. Among them are recommendations aimed at accelerating broadband access and adoption in rural America; connecting low-income Americans, Native American communities, and Americans with disabilities; supporting robust use of broadband by small businesses to drive productivity, growth and ongoing innovation; lowering barriers that hinder broadband deployment; strengthening public safety communications; cybersecurity; consumer protection, including transparency and disclosure; and consumer privacy. The Commission must have a sound legal basis for implementing each of these recommendations. We are assessing the implications of yesterday’s decision for each one, to ensure that the Commission has adequate authority to execute the mission laid out in the Plan.” The FCC unveiled it’s broadband plan in March, announcing the goal of connecting 100 million homes to broadband by 2020.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:06 pm Upcoming Live Blogs: Apple’s iPhone OS 4 tomorrow, Microsoft’s Project Pink on 4/12
Start the countdown, folks. Tomorrow at 10 A.M. sharp, Apple will finally be dropping the curtain on iPhone OS 4.0 – and we’ll be there, reporting live. We’ll get to the ol’ Infinite Loop bright and early, armed to the teeth with laptops, cameras, an array of 3G USB dongles, and all the other gear necessary to bring you the best liveblog around. The event starts at 10 A.M Pacific, though we’ll probably fire up the live blog a bit early to bring you commentary and images from the front line. Can’t get enough of the live blog goodness? Be sure to tune in on Monday, April 12th at 10 A.M, when Microsoft is expected to announce whatever it is they’ve been working on with Project Pink. It’s gonna be a fun few days – be sure to tune it for all of it!
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:00 pm Plastic Logic Que to ship around June 24th
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:00 pm Answers to Your iPad Questions - Wall Street Journal
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:41 pm Surprise, surprise: Modern Warfare 2 map pack breaks records
Now, it was no big secret that it would sell like gangbusters (in spite of that $15 price tag), but the real figures probably have Activision execs seeing stars. According to a recent press release, sales have shattered Xbox Live records for downloadable content: 1 million people downloaded it within 24 hours, and more than 2.5 million copies were sold within the first week of its release. We here at CrunchGear would like to offer our most sincere congratulations to all parties involved, but seriously, can we get more than 5 maps next time?
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:30 pm Data Breaches Cost Australian Companies AUS$1.97 MillionSYDNEY and TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Australian organisations experience costly data breaches with the average organisational cost of a data breach, including activities intended to prevent a loss of customer or consumer trust, at AUS$1.97 million and the average cost per compromised record at AUS$123.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:30 pm Kodak Zi8 Digital Camcorder (PC World)PC World - Buy.com has the Kodak Zi8 pocket HD camcorder, refurbished, for $159 (a new model would cost $200). This diminutive camcorder packs a lot of punch, offering the ability to record 1080p footage, a range of connection options, and a built-in microphone jack. But the stellar image quality is really the Zi8's biggest selling point.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:24 pm Two new pirate jokes relating to Apple
Why yes, I did just make those up! Thank you, you’re so kind.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:00 pm Nintendo DSi (PC World)PC World - Dell has the Nintendo DSi for $129, a nice drop from the handheld's retail price of $170. We found much to love (and hate) about the third-generation Nintendo gaming gadget, with the most notable features being the slimmer design, the music player, the DSi Shop, and the two cameras.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:55 pm HP Reports Memory Resistor Breakthroughandy1307 writes "Hewlett-Packard scientists on Thursday will report advances demonstrating significant progress in the design of memristors, or memory resistors. The researchers previously reported in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they had devised a new method for storing and retrieving information from a vast three-dimensional array of memristors. The scheme could potentially free designers to stack thousands of switches on top of one another in a high-rise fashion, permitting a new class of ultra-dense computing devices even after two-dimensional scaling reaches fundamental limits."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:44 pm Samsung’s new webcam sensors are “high performance, high definition” – kind of
I don’t know, guys. It just seems silly to be pushing “definition” when the product really has none. I don’t speak merely of the Samsungs, which of course I haven’t seen yet, but pretty much every cheap HD product out there. What’s the point of resolution if you lose out on smooth motion, good color, and clear edges? But alas, “HD” sells. Expect even the lowest-end laptops to be sporting HD webcams soon. At least you can probably choose VGA in the settings.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:30 pm Mixpanel Lands Chinese Social Game Developer Five Minutes, Continues Strong Growth
The biggest news: Mixpanel recently signed major Chinese social game company Five Minutes, which is behind the hit cross-platform game Happy Farm and has 23 million daily users across all of its games. But Mixpanel doesn’t just do games — other customers include Slide, Justin.tv, and Posterous. Doshi says the amount of data flowing through Mixpanel is rapidly increasing, with “hundreds of millions” of datapoints a month (he declined to give exact figures, but did provide the graph below). Doshi says that much of Mixpanel’s success stems from its funnel analytics, which allow developers to determine where in their application’s flow users are dropping off, so they can optomize accordingly. Doshi explains that some other services offer funnel analytics as well, but that Mixpanel visualizes it in a way that has struck a chord with developers. Mixpanel launched out of the Y Combinator program last summer, and got another major vote of confidence in February, when it received seed funding from PayPal and Slide founder Max Levchin and Bebo and Birthday Alarm founder Michael Birch — both of whom have extensive experience in analytics.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:15 pm Earliest known Led Zeppelin recordingBehold, the earliest known Led Zeppelin recording. Part of a December 1968 show that took place three weeks before the band's Led Zeppelin album came out, this version of "Dazed and Confused" is part of a full-show bootleg that's been available to fans for awhile. This is just its first time on YouTube. Apparently, when this was recorded, Led Zeppelin was so obscure that they were listed as "Len Zefflin" on ads for the show. Enjoy! (Thanks, Ms. Paige Worthy!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:07 pm The Answers to Your Questions About the iPad [Personal Technology]Since my review of the new Apple iPad tablet last week, I have been bombarded with questions. This is natural. The iPad is a real computer that overlaps many functions of a laptop, but works very differently from one. So here are answers to some of the most common questions I’ve received, in hopes they may help clear up any confusion. One caveat: Apple is offering a “sneak preview” on Thursday of a forthcoming revision to the iPhone operating system, which powers the iPad, so some changes might be revealed. [ See post to watch video ] Can you print from an iPad? Apple (AAPL) didn’t build in a printing function, so you can’t just tap a menu button to print an email, photo or Web page. But a few third-party apps allow printing of some items from an iPad to a networked printer. One is Print Online. It costs $5 and I tested it successfully. But these apps are complicated and limited workarounds—inadequate substitutes for built-in printing. The iPad lacks a USB port, so how do you get files into it? Like the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad has the familiar Apple connector port and comes with a cable that links this port to a USB port on a PC or Mac. Then, using iTunes on the PC or Mac, you can sync over to the device your songs, photos, videos, contacts, apps and more. New to the latest version of iTunes is a function that will also transfer to the iPad files like Microsoft Office documents. But this feature only works if you’ve installed on your iPad certain programs that can edit these documents, such as Apple’s optional $10 word-processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs. Documents can be moved in the other direction, too. You also can get some types of documents into the iPad wirelessly, if you receive them as email attachments or as downloads from the Web. For example, if you receive a Word-document attachment, and you have Apple’s Pages word processor installed, you can send it to Pages, where it can be stored and edited. Pages can then send back the edited version. Is there a way to type on the iPad without laying it flat and using the virtual keyboard? There are several. Apple sells a $39 case that bends to angle the device in a more convenient typing position (and allows for hands-free video watching). The company also sells a $69 accessory physical keyboard that features a dock at the rear to hold the iPad upright. In addition, you can type on the iPad using Apple’s $69 wireless keyboard for the Mac, which can be held on your lap. Can I run Windows or Mac programs on the iPad? Not unless their makers produce iPad versions of these programs. The iPad doesn’t run the Macintosh or Windows operating systems, so it can’t run programs designed for them. It runs the iPhone operating system, which is only compatible with iPhone and iPad apps, of which there are more than 150,000. There are some iPad and iPhone apps that let you remotely control Windows and Mac computers, so you could indirectly run Windows and Mac programs via the screen of an iPad, but that isn’t like running the programs locally. 
I hear the iPad lacks multitasking. What are the downsides of this? First, let me clarify that the iPad (and iPhone) can technically perform multitasking, or running more than one program at once. But Apple has chosen to limit this ability to some of its own built-in apps, and deny it to third-party apps. For instance, the built-in email program will continue to receive messages while you are watching a movie on the built-in video player. The downsides of denying multitasking to all apps are considerable. For example, you can’t listen to streaming music from the Pandora music app while checking email. And you can’t view fresh Twitter posts while on other apps. You have to close the app you’re in, then re-launch a Twitter app and wait for it to fetch the new posts. And, you can’t, say, check email or surf the Web while waiting for a complex game to load in the background, because the game stops once you change to another app. Since the iPad’s battery is sealed in, how do I replace it? The battery isn’t designed to be replaceable by the user. Apple will replace your iPad with one containing a fresh battery for $107, including shipping. The process takes up to a week. Most important, you will lose all your personal data unless you back it up regularly to your computer and restore it on the replacement iPad. Details are at: apple.com/support/ipad/service/battery/. Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free of charge, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com Source: All Things Digital | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:05 pm Apple iPad Will Leave HP Slate in the Dust - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:02 pm Streaming Video to a TV [Mossberg's Mailbox]Q: Is there a device that would enable me to watch streaming movies from Netflix directly on my TV, without using a computer? A: Yes, there are many. A small portion of Netflix’s huge catalog is available for streaming, as opposed to viewing on DVD, and the company has struck deals with various makers of set-top boxes and other TV-connected hardware that allow these movies to be played directly on a TV. Among these are the Roku digital video player, TiVo digital video recorders, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles. The simplest and least expensive is the Roku, which starts at around $80. A complete list is at netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices. Q: I’m going to graduate school, and need a PC mostly for word processing. I am not interested in gaming, movies, etc. I am looking at the Asus UL20A. Is that a good idea? A: I haven’t reviewed this model, but, if you’re comfortable with its keyboard and screen, you should be fine using it mainly for word processing (though it’s capable of many other tasks). However, there are many competitors in this size and price range, and, unless you have already done so, I’d suggest shopping around to make sure the Asus is the best choice for you. Q: Which version of Windows (XP, Vista or 7) runs best using Apple’s Boot Camp? A: I have run all three just fine on an iMac using Boot Camp, Apple’s built-in feature for booting Mac hardware into Windows when you like instead of into Apple’s (AAPL) own operating system. However, I would suggest Windows 7. It’s much better than Vista and much more modern than XP. You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns, free of charge, at walt.allthingsd.com. Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com Source: All Things Digital | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:01 pm Another pico projector, this one from Sapphire
That said, competition is good, and this thing doesn’t look any worse — although it does cost a bundle and a half. Over $500 and it doesn’t have any internal storage? I don’t know. I’ll have some of the newer generation to review soon, so we’ll see if this thing is outclassed or merely overpriced. [via Expert Reviews]
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:00 pm Groupon CEO On Attack Of The Clones [Video]
Groupon’s Andrew Mason is well aware of all the Groupon-esque sites but he says he’s picking his battles: “At first it was definitely really weird, just because my motivation as an entrepreneur, internet person, is so different from the type of person that would go and copy something exactly… The first couple of times we saw these sites it would be just people copying our exact design…to a tee everything that we were doing. When we made changes, a couple of days later they would make those changes. Like even stupid things we were doing, like we could have run a deal on porn and there probably would have been 80 other sites that would have run a deal on porn the next day. It was strange. After awhile you just shut it out and go on doing what you do. Mason says he’s focused on growing the company with plans to be in 100 cities by the end of this year. Groupon will also break up larger cities into subareas. For example, the suburbs surrounding Chicago or the smaller cities in the Bay area will soon each have their own daily deal. He did not explain how Groupon will continue to leverage and work with social media tools, but he did mention that he’s very “excited about some of the stuff that Facebook’s announcing later this month.” Information provided by CrunchBase Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 6:59 pm Gamertell Review: Energizer’s Power & Play 4x flat panel induction WiiMote chargerFROM GAMERTELL - A game controller charger is a controller charger is a controller charger, correct? Wrong. Very wrong. Find out why you should - or should not - purchase this fancy looking WiiMote induction charger… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 6:51 pm A multicellular organism that lives without oxygen
You're looking at the first multi-cellular, anaerobic organism known to humans. Anaerobic, of course, means this little critter lives entirely without oxygen. We've long known that single-celled organisms could live this way, but this discovery comes as a bit of surprise. Even more fascinating (to me, at least) is the fact that this organism, part of a species called Loricifera, has no mitochondria. I didn't realize this, but anaerobic organisms have an entirely different organelle, called hydrogenosomes, that power their cells. I'm not sure whether hydrogenosomes have the same sort of origin story as mitochondria—i.e., separate organisms that took up residence in a host cell and became part of its machinery—but that's the first thing I'm researching tonight when I get a chance. Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 6:49 pm Hacker says he’s got Linux on the PS3 again
It follows the pattern we always see, illustrated above. It probably won’t be long before a more thorough hack is released that allows updated PS3s to run Linux. Thanks to Geohot for his hard work, and no thanks to Sony for trying to tell its loyal customers what they can and can’t do with their console. [via Kotaku]
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 6:30 pm Microsoft Previews Exchange 2010 SP1 (PC World)PC World - In a blog entry posted Wednesday, Microsoft offered a glimpse of what will be in the first major update of Exchange Server 2010, due later this year.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Apr 2010 | 6:30 pm Glam Media Brings iPad-Friendly Publishing Platform GlamMobile To The U.S.
For advertisers, Glam is offering engaging ad formats on a variety of devices, including formats customized for the iPad without the use of Flash. For publishers, Glam is helping provide additional waysto connect with audiences on the go. Specifically, Glam sees the iPad as an opportunity to bring magazine-like glossy content to the device (a strategy that many online sites and magazines are taking). The GlamMobile Publisher Platform includes specially formatted mobile sites for content partners, mobile apps for devices like the iPad and iPhone and GlamMobile Display Ads that are optimized for mobile devices and socials adds, using Glam’s Tinker to target social conversions via Facebook and Twitter. It’s wise for Glam to try to make its publisher network cross platform with a mobile offering. It’s sure to draw even more traffic to Glam’s sites. Today, the Glam Vertical Network has more than 500,000 articles and posts, more than 100,000 videos and upwards of 20 million micro-blog posts. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:59 pm CORRECTION: SuccessFactors Announces Timing of Its First Quarter Fiscal 2010 Financial Results Conference CallSAN MATEO, Calif., April 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today SuccessFactors, Inc. (Nasdaq: SFSF) announced that its first quarter fiscal year 2010 financial results will be released on Monday, May 3, 2010, after the close of the market.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:56 pm The Dell Latitude E6410 ATG has attitude
What do you get when you combine the new Dell Latitude E6410 with a semi-rugged frame? Obviously this ATG model. Yeah, I know, lame joke but I don’t have time to to think of a more clever intro so deal with it. The Latitude E6410 ATG is basically that. It has the same Core i5 and Core i7 options, the same available hard drives, RAM, webcam and WXGA screen as the non-G.I. Joe model. The only options it doesn’t seem to have is the discrete NVIDIA graphics and optional WXGA+ screen. This model even comes with Dell’s Latitude ON instant on OS. So yeah, this model is just like the standard version. But this tough guy has been certified to the military standard 810G for shock, vibration, temperature, humidity, and altitude — it looks the part, too. Inside is Dell’s Tri-Metal case, fast-response free-fall-sensor on the hard drive and reinforced display for additional insurance. The base Core i5, 1GB of RAM model runs $2,114. However, if you happen to have a company credit card handy, you can easily spec one out that includes a Core i7, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, mobile broadband, and a Blu-ray drive for just under $5k. You’ll have to wait a bit for this one even though Dell is now accepting orders. The product page says it won’t ship until 4/23 so you’ll have a good amount of time coming up with an excuse why you spent your boss’s slush fund on a semi-rugged notebook.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:36 pm Wisconsin DA Threatens Arrests Over Sex EdWrongSizeGlass writes "USA Today is reporting that the DA of Juneau County, Wisconsin is threatening teachers that they could face arrest over the new sex-ed curriculum. District Attorney Scott Southworth said a new state law that requires students learn to use condoms and other contraceptives 'promotes the sexualization — and sexual assault — of our children.' Southworth also said 'I'm not looking to charge any teachers, I've got enough work to do.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:36 pm Reuters: FTC Lawyers To Recommend Blocking Google-AdMob Deal
According to a Wall Street Journal report yesterday, the FTC started assembling a legal team to prepare to block the deal. And the FTC is soliciting statements from the same competitors that Google is lobbying, in an effort to get these companies to testify on the regulatory ramifications of the AdMob acquisition. Of course, Google claims that AdMob is only one of the many ad networks are competing in the arena and the mobile advertising market is still so young that it’s still unclear who the leader is in the space right now. And of course, Google is quick to point to Apple’s recent acquisition of mobile ad network Quattro Wireless. It appeared that Google had high ambitions for AdMob, which was one of Google’s largest acquisitions since it bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2008. The rise of mobile advertising attracted Google to this space and with the acquisition of AdMob, the search giant could gain a valuable revenue channel. AdMob, which some say is approaching a $100 million business within the next three years, could be an extremely profitable source, especially when the platform is plugged into AdWords and DoubleClick.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:26 pm Loopt Updates Mobile Apps, Brings LooptPulse To BlackBerry
LooptPulse, which was first announced last fall, is Loopt’s discovery feature. If there are a lot of Loopt users checking in at a nearby event or restaurant, the service will recommend it to you, even if your friends aren’t necessarily there. Loopt generates some of these recommendations using data from its partners like Zagat, CitySearch, Bing, and Tastingtable (recently added partners include SonicLiving, Zvents, and Metromix). Loopt has been around for much longer than hot location startups like Foursquare and Gowalla, and has more registered users than either of them. But in some senses it’s playing catchup — for years Loopt was a passive service that constantly tracked your location as opposed to the check-in services that have recently caught on. Loopt has now shifted its model to compete more directly with these services, and its Pulse discovery features go beyond what Foursquare currently offers. Disclosure: Loopt offers a branded TC version of the service here</a.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:25 pm MicroStrategy Introduces New High Performance Standards for Business IntelligenceMCLEAN, Va., April 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced a multi-year initiative to further improve the performance of its business intelligence platform.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:25 pm Saving Turtles With Better GearThe latest news about sea turtles makes me want to cry. Too many endangered turtles are still getting caught accidentally in fishing gear. Can environmental activists, engineers, the government, and fishermen work together to turn this around? A nascent fishing ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:20 pm The Dell Latitude E6410 and E6510 bring Core i5, Core i7, and discrete graphics
Gone are the Core 2 Duo CPUs. They have been replaced with Core i5 and Core i7 options. The graphics are now taken care of by either an Nvidia NVS 3100M 512MB DDR3 or Intel HD GPU. Hard drives options vary from a 500GB 7200RPM, a few 5400RPM drives, or 256MB SSD. Really the only thing that seems to be used from the current generation is the 14.1 WXGA or WXGA+ LED LCD and 15.6 HD options — even the chassis got recevied some upgrade love. Dell is now using its Tri-Metal casing for the E6410 and E6510. That brings not only a aluminum, magnesium allow, and steel chassis, but also reinforced hinges and beefed-up latches to the mix as well. It’s available in three colors, as well. The notebooks are available now with prices starting out at $1,014 for a stripped-down Core i5 package, but can climb with the base Core i7 model starting at $1,750.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:19 pm SCORE Forms Public/Private Consortium to Increase Small Business Success Through Broadband TechnologiesWASHINGTON, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" is pleased to announce the formation of a public/private partnership to accelerate small business growth through access to broadband.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:03 pm AT&T Says Its 3G Network Ready For iPad Traffic - ChannelWeb
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:02 pm This is the best fan-made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare live action movie you’ll see todayActually, it might be the best fan-made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare live action movie you’ll ever see, and it only cost $209.42 to make says the YouTube description. Here’s hoping that part 2 comes real soon.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:51 pm Predicting earthquakes with radon gasRadon gas may leak out of fault lines in greater quantities prior to an earthquake. In 2009, an Italian man claimed to have used radon monitors to predict a quake near his hometown of L'Aquila. Success with the radon approach has been—like all attempts at predicting quakes—rather hit and miss. But a physics Nobel laureate hopes to change that with a new, improved radon detector that easier to use in the field. Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:47 pm Waxman to Wolff: Unhand My Content! [MediaMemo]
Waxman’s volley comes via a cease-and-desist note her site sent to Newser today, embedded below. It comes after a series of back and forths between the two sites, which you can follow here, here and here. Very short version: Waxman says Wolff’s site steals her stuff without attribution; Wolff says his company does attribute the stuff, in some form. The bigger picture is that the debate about “content creation” and “aggregation,” both of which are pretty ugly and imprecise terms, is just getting started. Even though we’re either 15 years or 40 years into the Internet era, depending on how you want to count. (Probably best to go with 15). This isn’t the first time Wolff has gotten legal notes from publishers. In February 2009, the New York Times (NYT) complained about Newser’s use of the Times’s iconic “T,” as well as the use of its photos. Waxman’s argument with Wolff is that Newser either doesn’t link to her site or does it in a way that makes it unlikely that a reader will end up on one of her pages. She’s fine with aggregation in practice, she says, noting that her site repurposes other people’s stories. And it’s worth noting that she’s not firing off an angry letter at the Huffington Post, an aggregator that also uses her stuff extensively. “There’s a principle here,” she says. “And if everybody who aggregated aggregated the way they do it, we’d all be in a bunch of trouble.” So what does she expect Wolff and company to do now? “I don’t know,” she says. But “we’re serious… I hope they take it seriously.” Wolff’s response, via email: “This is a joke letter about a joke allegation based on a joke premise from a joke law firm (in Cleveland at that). Waxman is just looking for press to help her raise a new round of financing. Nothing here is serious.” Cease and Desist letter from TheWrap to Newser [Image credit: barnabus] Source: All Things Digital | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:41 pm Rumor: Free Windows PC games getting Microsoft Live supportFROM GAMERTELL - If an interesting Microsoft-related rumor is true, you could start racking up Xbox achievements for playing Minesweeper. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:38 pm Action, Attitude Might Help 'Prince of Persia' Break Game-Movie CurseMany have failed, but hope remains. Leading man Jake Gyllenhaal, director Mike Newell, videogame creator Jordan Mechner and producer Jerry Bruckheimer discuss the risky venture of bringing a popular game to the silver screen.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:25 pm Ubuntu Claims 12 Million Users — Before Luciddarthcamaro writes "It's always a challenge to try and figure out how many users a particular Linux distro has — but Canonical is now providing a new figure for Ubuntu that is 50 percent more than what they were claiming just 18 months ago. 'We have no phone home or registration process, so it's always a guesstimate. But based on the same methodology that we came up with for the 2008 number, our present belief is that it's somewhere north of 12 million users at the moment," Chris Kenyon, vice president for OEM at Canonical, told InternetNews.com.' Just in case you were wondering, Fedora still claims more — actually almost double, at 24 million."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:12 pm Gasp! AT&T’s “Unlimited” data plan for the iPad 3G to actually be unlimited
I’m trying to keep the iPad-related posts here on MobileCrunch down to a minimum, because I figure you’re getting enough of it shoved in your face by other blogs, Twitter, and your mother after she saw it mentioned on the news and wanted to bond with you. With that said, this one gets a pass for being as much AT&T-related as it is iPad-related. You see, most of the major carriers (including AT&T) like to pitch their data plans as being “Unlimited”. It just sounds awesome, you know? Thing is, it’s not actually “Unlimited” as in “without limits”. Once you dig into the fine print, you find all sorts of phrasing like “Unlimited.. within reason”, with the “reasonable” level generally coming in somewhere around 5 gigabytes. Go past this a few times, they’ll call and shout at you; go way past it regularly, they might nix your data plan (though I’ve never heard of that actually happening.) With the iPad 3G, AT&T’s throwing this practice out the window.
The folks over at Gearlog spoke to AT&T’s Mark Siegel, who said, straight up: “unlimited is unlimited.” Not bad for $30 a month. It’s kind of an odd device to make the switch with; given the iPad’s higher resolution and larger screen, it seems like more people are going to be using more data more often — but you know what? We’re not complaining.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:07 pm IPhone update might address multitasking complaint (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:02 pm Samsung Spinpoint MP4: A 2.5-inch 640GB 7200 RPM drive meant for us
The Spinpoint MP4 is now available in 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, and 640GB capacility. It offers the standard 16MB of onboard cache and SATA 3Gbit/s interface. The company expects it to build upon the success of its 640GB 5400 RPM drive that it release last year. That’s great, but all we care about is getting faster drives in our notebooks. There’s even talk about offering it in external form later this year as well.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:52 pm Evolutionary Psychology Bingo
It's time for Evolutionary Psychology Bingo! (Via Annalee Newitz) World's Rarest Animals IdentifiedThe Wildlife Conservation Society has just released a list of critically endangered species dubbed the “Rarest of the Rare” – a group of animals most in danger of extinction, from primates to horses. (Images: WCS, Julie Larsen Maher) The list ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:47 pm Mystery Object Defies Astronomical ClassificationAn object spotted near a brown dwarf doesn't seem to fit any traditional astronomical categories.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:45 pm Skyfire puts BlackBerry development on pause, focuses on Android
You might want to take a seat, BlackBerry fans. Remember all those pictures and details about the BlackBerry port of the Skyfire browser that leaked way back in April of last year? Those are all you’re going to get for a while. Skyfire CEO Jeff Glueck has just stepped out to announce that development of the BlackBerry port has been put on an indefinite hiatus, with the Android port becoming their primary focus for now.
“Why?! Why?!”, cry BlackBerry users everywhere. Here’s why: Skyfire feels like they can develop more efficiently on Android than they can on BlackBerry OS (gently calling the latter “not as favorable for cutting-edge application development”), and that Android is simply a more viable platform at the given time. Given the fact that Android is exploding onto more and more handsets each week and RIM is already working on their own browser that touts many of the same data-optimizing features that Skyfire would (save, presumably, the Flash/Silverlight/etc. support that really define Skyfire) have, we can’t say we disagree. All hope is not lost, however; Glueck says they’ll be keeping a watchful eye on the upcoming release BlackBerry OS 6.0 later this year, with hopes of continue developing on the platform at a later date.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:27 pm The iPad: A tool, or just a toy? (Ben Patterson)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:26 pm Photographers Want Their Cut From Google's E-booksIt's not just the writers anymore: carluva writes "The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and several other visual artist groups are suing Google over its digitization of of millions of books, claiming copyright infringement related to images within the books. The photographers initially wanted to be included in the authors' and publishers' class action suit, but filed their own suit after that request was denied. Google and others assert that images are only included in the digital copies when permission has been obtained from the copyright holder."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:26 pm According to Amazon, the Kindle is “easy to read, even in bright sunlight”Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks  I visit the Amazon website often, but have never noticed this Kindle sales tactic before. Apparently, and in a move that seems to be offering a hidden jab in regards to some of the issues with using the iPad in direct sunlight, Amazon has taken it upon themselves to let everyone know that the Kindle is “easy to read, even in bright sunlight.” Which coincidentally the only reason that I will most likely not be able to fully ditch my Kindle in favor of the Kindle app on the iPad—I often read outside. Either way though, the Kindle works well in sunlight and Amazon wanted to let you know. Via [Amazon]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:24 pm First Animals Found That Live Without OxygenScientists have discovered the first multicellular organisms that survive completely without oxygen.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:15 pm Vodafone targets developing markets with mobile web and Opera Mini
Now that most of us are essentially swimming in 3G signals on a daily basis, it’s easy to forget that a solid percentage of the world still has to make do with GPRS. Telecom giant Vodafone hasn’t forgotten though, and they’re taking a novel approach to making sure the developing world gets their mobile internet fix: they’ll pre-load Opera Mini on 20 low-end phone models. Just a quick recap on how Opera Mini works: it uses server-side compression to strip out the unnecessary bloat from websites users visit, and in turn reduces the amount of bandwidth necessary to display a page. That means, among other things, lower incurred data costs and faster page loads. This particular flavor of Opera Mini will also feature a number of tweaks to make it more accessible to those who either can’t read, or can’t read very well. Vodafone obviously isn’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts; the developing world represents a huge untapped market for data penetration. Revenue will be generated from the string of “highly affordable data tariffs” they have in the works, which (if it turns out to be as popular as they hope) could result in some serious cash flows. Still, it’s always nice to see an intersection between corporate interests and providing people with a valuable service. The initiative will go live in India, South Africa, Turkey, Tanzania and Egypt first, with other markets to follow. [via mocoNews]
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:59 pm Artists' Lawsuit Demands Piece of Google Books PieIllustrators and photographers are suing Google in a bid to get compensated in the search giant's quest to digitize the world's books. A proposed $125 million settlement with writers and publishers does not include artists, the lawsuit says.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:53 pm Pigeon Flocks Let the Best Bird LeadWhen flocks of pigeons take to the air, the bird with the best navigation skills usually takes the lead position.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:45 pm Pigeons Wear GPS Backpacks for ScienceNot much is known about flocking behavior in birds. Why does a group of birds moving in one direction suddenly veer, dive and swoop all together without missing a wing beat? To find out, scientists from Britain and Hungary strapped ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:45 pm Wall St. Trading Servers To Power Off-Hour Clouds?miller60 writes "As cloud computing gains traction, some Wall Street firms running armadas of servers to power high-frequency trading operations are contemplating leasing out their excess computing capacity after the trading day ends at 4 p.m. 'Once 4:30 rolls around, we don't need those machines,' said one CTO of a market data firm. 'There may be an opportunity there.' A similar revelation led to the creation of the cloud computing operation at Amazon.com, which built its infrastructure to handle peak Christmas-season loads that lasted just a few weeks each year."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:38 pm View iPad Web Apps on Your Desktop Using FirefoxWhy not use the iPad versions of Twitter, Google Reader or your favorite web app on a full-sized screen? With a little tech trickery, you can fool any website you visit into thinking you're surfing with an iPad, even though you're using a desktop browser.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm View iPad Web Apps on Your Desktop Using FirefoxWhy not use the iPad versions of Twitter, Google Reader or your favorite web app on a full-sized screen? With a little tech trickery, you can fool any website you visit into thinking you're surfing with an iPad, even though you're using a desktop browser.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm Of coal mines and methane
Yesterday, an explosion in the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, killed 25 miners. Four others are still missing. It's the largest mining disaster the U.S. has seen in decades. The explosion was massive. "Rails used to move heavy equipment inside the mine were left 'twisted like pretzels' by the force and heat of the blast," according to the Washington Post. Right now, nobody knows what caused the blast, but one likely candidate is a build-up of methane—natural gas—in the mine. I called Christopher Bise, Ph.D., chair of West Virginia University's Mining Engineering department, to find out how methane gets into the mines, why the weather matters for mine safety and how one of the best ways to protect miners from methane can actually improve the mine's bottom line. Maggie Koerth-Baker: How does methane get into the mines to begin with?
MKB: Why is it only dangerous in that narrow range?
MKB: What about the ignition source? Where does that come from? I'm sure they're pretty careful about open flames down there.
MKB: Are there characteristics that make a methane explosion more likely?
MKB: Is there any reliable way to remove methane from coal mines, or is it a fact of life that you can mitigate, but not really control?
For more information on yesterday's disaster, check out this live-chat interview with Jeff Goodell, author of Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future. He's got a lot of insight into the politics side of mine safety. Vintage postcard image of coal miners comes from the Flickr stream of j3net. Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:27 pm One huge market in which the iPad could lose to an Android tabletFROM APPLETELL - What really makes the iPad a great product is the software available for it. However, I believe there is a huge market the iPad may miss out on by being such a closed system. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:10 pm Rogue Brown Dwarf Lurks in Our Cosmic NeighborhoodAstronomers have discovered the coolest brown dwarf to date with some peculiar characteristics. Has a new class of brown dwarf been discovered right on our interstellar doorstep?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:02 pm Google Code Jam 2010 registration now openLet’s say that you have x different stocks, and the plots of their prices over time. You want to print them in newspaper, printing multiple plots on the same chart to save space. But here’s the catch: no two plots on the same chart can overlap, lest the readers be confused. Look at the plots and figure out the smallest number of charts required.Looking for a challenge like the riddle above? And I mean an exciting brain-twisting and turning kind of challenge. I mean competing with fellow coders from around the world for top bragging rights kind of challenge. Since 2003, we’ve brought you our annual Google Code Jam — a competition in which professional and student programmers from all around the world solve tough algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. Last year’s 23,000 contestants vied for the title of Google Code Jam champion. After five rounds and some furious typing, China’s Lou Tiancheng (code-named ACRush) was named champion. Sound like the challenge for you? Well registration is now open. And you can try your hand at problems from previous competitions and get up to speed with the rules. We recommend that you practice hard — Code Jam is not for the weak of heart! And, this year we’ve decided to take the show on the road — for the very first time, the final competition will take place in Google’s Dublin office. The qualification round starts on May 7, 2010 and after four rounds of online competition, the top 25 competitors will be flown to Dublin to match wits for the $5,000 first prize — and, of course, the title of Code Jam champion! P.S. Have you solved our “Stock Charts” problem yet? Test your solution on the Code Jam website. Posted by Igor Naverniouk, Code Jam Team   
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 7 Apr 2010 | 2:00 pm Kooky's Return: Machinarium, Samorost designer turns to film
For the past seven years, Czech creator Jakub 'Amanita' Dvorský has been behind some of indie/adventure gaming's most striking designs, most recently and notably with his rust-washed pen-and-ink point & click Machinarium (featured here on Boing Boing several months back).
There's typically a too-long pregnant pause after each of his games is completed where we wait to hear where he's going to take us next, but his latest answer comes sooner than later and is a surprising one, as he announces that he's turning his attention instead to film.
Directed by the BAFTA nominated Jan Sverák and due for release later this year, Kooky's Return sees Dvorský handling character and puppet design for the "real life experience" of the movie's eponymous teddy bear protagonist. While it might seem an unexpected turn for the designer, watching the trailer above -- newly translated into English -- shows off exactly the same sensibilities he made his signature with his debut Samorost adventures: twisted, dirty, but basically adorable characters in a broke-down, rusted and gnarled woodland world. Alongside the trailer update, the film's official English site has just opened, where you'll find more information, making-of photos, and some of Dvorský's hand drawn character art -- all we need now is a date for an eventual stateside festival debut.
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:54 pm Man-Made Atomic Clocks the Best In the UniverseAn anonymous reader writes "The widespread belief by astrophysicists that pulsars and white dwarfs are the best clocks in the universe is wrong, say two Australian physicists. John Hartnett and Andre Luiten from the University of Western Australia have recently shown that man-made terrestrial atomic clocks take the crown, contrary to numerous claims in astrophysical literature that the natural timing provided by pulsars and white dwarfs is the most precise. The preprint of their paper, available on the arXiv, shows that terrestrial clocks exceed the accuracy and stability of the astrophysical 'clocks' by all sensible measures, in some cases by several orders of magnitude."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:48 pm An Animal That Lives Without OxygenJulie188 writes "Scientists have found the first multicellular animals that apparently live entirely without oxygen. The creatures reside deep in one of the harshest environments on earth: the Mediterranean Ocean's L'Atalante basin, which contains salt brine so dense that it doesn't mix with the oxygen-containing waters above."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:25 pm Glacier National Park Loses Two More GlaciersClimate change has claimed two more of the moving icefields at this national park, reducing their numbers to 25.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:25 pm HTC Incredible coming April 29th? Looks like it
For all of you folks who were left disappointed after Verizon’s deafening silence regarded the HTC Incredible at CTIA : start smiling. Earlier today, the above image from an internal Verizon e-mail started circulating. “New devices coming really soon!”, it promised. Now, it would have probably been safe to assume that included the Incredible – but assumptions are for chumps. Fortunately, something a bit more concrete has just leaked out.
Unearthed by those crazy chaps over at AndroidAndMe, the slide down below is purported to be ripped straight from a Best Buy Mobile presentation. Smack dab in the middle of the page, right under “New Device Launches”, it reads “HTC Incredible: 4/29″. Also mentioned are the Samsung Reality on 4/22 and the LG Cosmos on 4/25, both of which are QWERTY messaging featurephones. Also mentioned for the 25th is the “LG 5600PP”, but we don’t have a dang clue what that is. So, what say you, VZW fans: excited yet?
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:19 pm Mission Blue: filling in the blanks...Last year, we launched Ocean in Google Earth, expanding the scope of Earth to include 3D maps of the world’s oceans and videos, photos and narrative from the world’s leading scientists and media sources to bring them to life. We worked with more than 100 partners to begin to fill in the “blue” part of the planet, adding hundreds of placemarks in more than 20 ocean layers. Since then, we’ve added hundreds of new posts to the Ocean layer with the help of Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue Foundation and dozens of committed individuals around the world. The posts come from a diverse range of partners including National Geographic, independent videographers and dive enthusiasts, government organizations like the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and international organizations like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Today, the layer will become part of the default set of annotations seen by all Earth users. Although a humble step given the dearth of information available about these vast expanses of geography, we are happy to take one more step to make the oceans a first-class part of Google Earth and to give them at least a starter portion of the thick soup of photos and places that describe the land part of the planet. One of the greatest things about Earth is that it allows everyone to see and experience the fullness of their planet, from revisiting places they know well to venturing out to formerly unknown mountain peaks, desert vistas, and increasingly, the blue heart of life on Earth. As Sylvia has said of the Ocean on many occasions, “With knowing comes caring, and with caring there’s hope.” Soon after last year’s launch, Sylvia asked attendees at the TED conference to help her realize a wish: to create a series of marine protected areas she calls Hope Spots. Sylvia and a group of influential thinkers are now on a Mission Blue Voyage to the Galapagos Islands to brainstorm how they might best achieve better ocean protection. You can follow them on their journey by visiting the the Mission Blue Foundation website and on Twitter at @MissionBlue. There you can learn more about the launch of their Hope Spots initiative and visit all 18 of these spots using the Google Earth plugin.  We’ve also created a narrated tour featured in the Ocean Showcase to introduce you to eight of the regions proposed for protection: the Eastern Pacific Seascape including the Galapagos Islands, the Gulf of California, the Mesoamerican Reef in the Caribbean including Belize, the Sargasso Sea in the mid-Atlantic, the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the Coral Triangle, the Ross Sea in the Antarctic and Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic. We’d also like to take a moment to thank the partners who have helped us improve our 3D canvas of the world’s oceans in the past year: NOAA (global coverage), MBARI (Monterey Bay Canyon), The California State University at Monterey Bay (California Coast), The Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping - Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire (Arctic) and The Living Oceans Society (British Columbia and Canada). As Earth Day approaches, we hope you’ll take a little time to explore the planet, including the blue part. Posted by John Hanke, Vice President of Product Management, Google Geo  
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:10 pm 'Metroid' Creator Recalls 8-Bit Days at NintendoAfter spending almost three decades with the Japanese videogame company, Yoshio Sakamoto shares a little bit of institutional memory.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:09 pm NSF Releases Open Government Plan"Roadmap" for future efforts reflects public inputIn response to President Obama's Open Government Directive, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is finding ways to make its work more accessible to the general public.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:07 pm NASA Topography Shows Baja Quake Site's Complex GeologyImage Caption: The site of an April 4, 2010, magnitude 7.2 earthquake, the Laguna Salada fault in Baja, California, is clearly shown in this image from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Image credit: NASA/JPL/NGASource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:06 pm Redbox $3.95 all-you-can-stream movies?Section: Video, Content, DVD/DVR/Blu-ray, HDTV, Video Providers
The survey was sent to users to track customers opinions on how valuable streaming is to them. The survey detailed the $3.95 unlimited streaming plus four kiosk rentals per month. When asked about the survey, the company suggests it is merely probing the waters and believes in the physical kiosk as a viable distribution route. We believe Redbox would be a welcome competitor in movie streaming. I personally stream Netflix movies regularly and believe more competition would light a fire under the providers to offer more movies to stream. While it’s been great showing my kids the gems of the 80s, new releases are where the service is headed and it can’t get there fast enough in my book. Redbox couldn’t just show up though, there are some barriers to entry. Netflix has done an excellent job in getting onto just about every device out there. From PCs and Macs to Wii and Xbox, to Blu-ray players and now right into the TVs and iPads. Redbox certainly has their work cut out for them. The Redbox streaming plan essentially is pay for four rentals and get streaming free. Netflix does offer streaming for less, $4.99 a month, but the streaming is only allowed on a PC or Mac, not other devices. Let’s hope the response to Redbox’s survey encourages them to jump in the game. Read: [NewTeeVee] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 1:04 pm Controls For Animal Color Designs RevealedThe vivid colors and designs animals use to interact with their environments have awed and inspired since before people learned to draw on the cave wall.But how different creatures in the animal kingdom — from colorful birds and reef fish to butterflies and snakes — make and deploy their artful designs is one of nature's deepest secrets.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 12:44 pm Scientists Discover New Principle In Material ScienceImage Caption: A material science team led by Brown University engineers has found that the deformation of nanotwinned metals is characterized by the motion of highly ordered, necklace-like patterns of crystal defects called dislocations. Credit: Huajian Gao and Xiaoyan Li, Brown UniversitySource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 12:25 pm Dead man denied seat on planeGitta Jarant and Anke Anusic were arrested after attempting to check in Curt Willi Jarant, 91, on a flight from Liverpool to Berlin. Turns out, Jarant was dead. Gitta Jarant, the man's widow, and Anusic, his stepdaughter, claim that they thought he was alive but sleeping. The two are suspected of "failing to give notification of death" and are out on bail. I am unsure if the photo, accompanying a BBC News article, depicts Jarant before or after he died. From the BBC News:"Women try to take body on plane at Liverpool airport" Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 12:22 pm Insect-feeding Animals Have A Role In Plant GrowthStudy shows how birds, bats and lizards play their roles in preserving plant species in face of global climate changeAdd insect-feeding birds, bats and lizards to the front lines of the battle against global climate change.Summarizing the results of more than 100 experiments conducted on four continents, UC Irvine ecologist Kailen A. Mooney and colleagues found that these insect-gobbling animals increase plant growth by reducing the abundance of plant-feeding insects and the damage they do to the plant life that helps mitigate global warming.Our efforts solidify the importance of birds, bats, lizards and other similar animals to ecosystem health, and underscores the importance of conserving these species in the face of global change,” said Mooney, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology.The results come at a time when the importance of birds and other insectivores as plant protectors has come into doubt, Mooney added. Studies on bird, bat and lizard diets show they devour both plant-feeding insects and the spiders and other insect predators that eat plant feeders. Recognizing these complex feeding relationships, Mooney said it had become unclear whether animals like birds reduce plant-feeding insect populations, or whether they might in fact be protecting them from spiders and the like. “It has long been hypothesized that birds and other insect-feeding animals may protect plants by keeping plant-feeding insects in check in accordance with the adage, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ ” Mooney said. “Our study provides the most comprehensive support of this hypothesis to date. It shows that despite feeding on predatory insects, birds, bats and lizards still act as plant protectors by having net negative effects on plant-feeding insects.”Study results appear in early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of April 5.Daniel S. Gruner of the University of Maryland; Nicholas A Barber of the University of Missouri, St. Louis; Sunshine A. Van Bael of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; Stacy M. Philpott of the University of Toledo; and Russell Greenberg of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington, D.C., contributed to this study.---Image Caption: An Eastern Bluebird consumes a meal of leaf-eating caterpillar. Photo by Mike OnyonSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 12:17 pm Why Do Whales Beach Themselves?A young humpback whale is clinging to life on an East Hampton beach. Rescuers are debating whether or not to sedate and euthanize it, but bystanders are frustrated that more isn't being done to save the whale, or to end ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 12:16 pm Nearby Star Has Shady CompanionAstronomers may have finally explained a mysterious eclipse first observed in the 19th century.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 12:10 pm Technology Frees You Up to Be Distracted by TechnologyThe other day, I was driving down the freeway and I noticed that more and more billboards are going digital. They're like giant LCD televisions in the sky, promoting this or that with video, animated graphics and even switching from ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 12:08 pm Palm stock sky rockets thanks to Lenovo buyout rumor
The graph above pretty much says it all, but to throw in a bit of context: at around 10:30 EDT this morning, a rumor ripped through Wall Street indicating that Lenovo (who you probably remember as the Chinese tech company who bought IBM’s PC division in 2005) was considering snatching up Palm. In the roughly 3 hours or so that have passed, Palm stock has surged by just over 70 cents, or roughly 18%. If you crossed your fingers and dumped a few grand into Palm last night, you woke up this morning a happier person – or at least an equally happy person with a heavier wallet. We’ll keep our ear to the ground for more info on this potential Lenovo/Palm takeover.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:53 am Sandisk reveals its Xbox 360 usb flash drivesFROM GAMERTELL - Sandisk has revealed its 8gb and 16gb Xbox 360 usb flash drives. Each will come with a one month Xbox LIVE Gold membership and work with Xbox 360s without users having to configure them. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:52 am James Taylor & Carole King "intimate" arena shows
I admit it. Hell, I'm proud of it. I have a thing for the best singer/songwriters to come out of the 1960s and 1970s -- Dylan, Baez, Leonard Cohen, Cat Stevens, and of course James Taylor and Carole King. In 1970, the year I was born, Taylor and King performed a series of what are now recognized as groundbreaking concerts at The Troubadour club in Los Angeles. King, mostly known for tunes she wrote for other artists, was Taylor's opening act. During a soundcheck at the Troubadour, Taylor heard King play "You've Got A Friend" on the piano, and asked her to perform it with him that night. Those Troubadour shows became legendary gigs in the history of rock. When celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Troubadour in 2007, Taylor said, "I played here a number of times in the 70s, allegedly..." This year, King and Taylor are taking a Troubadour reunion show on the road. Sadly, they won't be playing in small clubs this time around, but for 120 folks with a lot of extra cash (A LOT), it'll feel a bit like they were. Above is the stage design for the concerts. VIP ticket holders will sit at cocktail tables surrounding the center stage. Of course, if you turn around you'll see tens of thousands of other fans behind you. But it shouldn't be that hard to suspend your disbelief for a couple hours. Proceeds from the VIP ticket packages, which include soundcheck, a reception, and various souvenirs, will go to charities like Natural Resources Defense Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and dozens of others you can pick from when you pay. Taylor and King expect to raise more than $1 million from sales of just those cocktail table seats, which are going for between $800 and $1200, depending on the city. I hope to be at one of the shows. If you are too, and happen to be in one of the VIP seats, please be sure to say hi. Just turn around and wave. James Taylor & Carole King Troubadour Reunion Tour VIP Packages James Taylor Carole King Source: Boing Boing | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:36 am Verizon to Apple: We Want the iPhone
After airing numerous ads bashing the iPhone for its shortcomings, Verizon has made clear its desire for the iPhone. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg on Tuesday said the telecom company has told Apple that it wants to carry the iPhone, in remarks made before the Council on Foreign Affairs, according to the Associated Press. However, the CEO did not say when or if a Verizon iPhone would become a reality. Seidenberg’s statement follows recent rumors that Apple is preparing a CDMA-compatible iPhone to go into production September. Verizon’s phones adhere to the CDMA standard, so many have drawn the conclusion that a Verizon iPhone will be launched in the fall. AT&T has been the sole U.S. carrier for the iPhone since the handset debuted in 2007. Numerous reports have said the exclusivity contract expires in 2010, but the details of the confidential agreement between Apple and AT&T have not been confirmed. Verizon has given the iPhone mixed signals in the past few years. Seidenberg in October 2009 said Verizon would serve the iPhone if Apple were interested in bringing Verizon on board. That same month, Verizon aired commercials advertising the Droid, which dissed the iPhone for features it doesn’t have. It’s also worth noting that Verizon said it originally rejected the iPhone in 2007, not the other way around. See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:36 am AdLib: Apple’s Secret Weapon For Making Better Web Apps For The iPad
Did you give in and buy yourself an iPad? Go grab it. If you don’t own one, just reach your arms out, conjure up a temporary air of smugness, and play along. Now take your iPad (or your imaginaryPad, or what have you) and pop into Safari. Hit the bookmarks button, and then tap “iPad User Guide”. Explore a bit. Notice the dual-pane view with independent scrolling; notice the elasticity of the views. Notice that, outside of the URL bar up at the top, it looks and feels just like a native application. Half of the hacky-type people reading this article have probably already bailed to go tear apart the source code at this point. Why? Because Web Apps don’t really work like this; HTML, CSS, and the standard javascript libraries really just don’t provide any of this functionality. It looks like Apple has something up their sleeves to make iPad Web Apps a bit more.. app-like.
It’s always been one of the primary complaints about Web Apps: no matter how much time developers dump into them, they just can’t make them feel like the stuff that comes out of the App Store. Maybe the tool bar would float out of view, or clicks just wouldn’t register naturally, or scrolling would seem “off”. It would take hours of scripting work just to get something that mostly emulated the feel of a basic native application. Back in December of last year, John Gruber noticed that the on-handset iPhone user guide exhibited a bunch of behaviors that web apps normally couldn’t. Tool bars locked in place, clicks felt natural, and scrolling elements seem to emulate those found in native apps. He did a bit of tinkering, discovering that this was all made possible by a custom Javascript framework built by Apple called “PastryKit”. This iPad sorcery appears to be an extension of that. The guys who brought it to our attention, Done21, are tentatively referring to this unannounced, not-quite-public framework as “AdLib”, after the file that contained it all: AdLib-ug-ipad.js. This name is by no means official – it’s just the best thing we’ve got, so far. Coming in at just shy of 4,500 lines of code, the entire purpose of AdLib appears to be to bring native app-esque functionality to Web Apps, often counteracting the default behaviors that make Safari play nice with the rest of the web. Alas, it’s entirely unclear if Apple ever plans to make this available to developers for their own use. Given the transparent nature of Javascript, it’s entirely possible that developers could just rip the framework from Apple’s guide and start stabbing away — but they’d be doing it without documentation of any sort. Working with someone else’s code without documentation — especially code that’s been optimized down to the bare minimums, as this has — is a bit like manning a plane’s cockpit sans instruction. Blindfolded.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:33 am Habitat Of Northern Squid DocumentedHabitat information important to track as ocean waters warmNew research is shedding light on the preferred habitat of the northern squid, Gonatus fabricii - a key but often overlooked species in Arctic marine food webs.Squid, along with octopus and bobtail squid (Rossia spp.), play an important role as prey in Arctic waters for species such as narwhal, beluga, seals, cod and Greenland halibut.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:32 am 'Where Da Higgs At?': Fermilab's Particle RapSo not to feel left out, scientists at Fermilab have released their own rap video, but will it top the famous European nerdcore "LHC Rap"?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:26 am It takes one to show one: Getting a business off the ground with AdWordsThis is the first in a series of posts about entrepreneurship and the resources that can help small businesses succeed. In the coming weeks, we’ll share the inspirational stories of real people — just like you — who’ve used various Google tools to start up, maintain and grow their businesses. To kick off the series, we’re starting with a post about a small business owner’s experience with Google AdWords — the program that helped level the marketing field for companies of all sizes. -Ed.Small businesses are especially close to my heart. When he retired from teaching, my father ran a small art company in Maine, and I saw firsthand how fulfilling — and how difficult — it was for him to realize his dream of running his own business. Unfortunately, his business closed its doors after just a few years. His key challenge: attracting qualified customers. Many new businesses face similar challenges, but the power of technology can help business owners find the customers they need. Whether you’re a fledgling entrepreneur trying to turn your passion into a profit or an established enterprise trying to get to the next level, Internet tools like Google AdWords are the key to being there when customers come looking for you online. To show what's possible, we invited 53-year-old Jay Berkowitz to share his experience creating a business and using AdWords to help it flourish. Here's what Jay has to say: Like most first-time parents, my life completely changed when my daughter Hillary was born in 1993. My wife Janet and I decided that one of us should stay at home to care for her while the other continued working full time. Janet kept her engineering job, and I ended up quitting my job as a Wall Street bond analyst to become Mr. Mom.  Jay, Hillary and Janet  
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:26 am Cosmopolitan EelsNasty CustomersOne advantage of studying moray eels is that you’re unlikely to be scooped by another doctoral student—not if it means diving on reefs to collect eels.Eels have many traits that suggest a lively intelligence. They are known, for example, for going on hunger strikes in captivity, and they hunt cooperatively with groupers in the wild.On the other hand, they’re also famous for sudden and egregious acts of aggression. Taped to Reece’s office door is a meat-red photograph of a spectacular eel injury, a flayed forearm. He says he keeps it to remind himself to be careful around these fish.“Morays have two sets of jaws,” Reece explains: “Oral jaws and a set of jaws in their throat called pharyngeal jaws. Set into both pairs of jaws are big rear-facing fangs. When the eels attack prey, they actually bite them twice. They skewer prey with their oral jaws and then they launch the pharyngeal jaws into their mouths to drag it down their throats.What’s more, says Reece, once they bite, they often won’t let go. You have to crush their skulls to get them off of you.How do you collect an animal that served as the inspiration for the movie Alien?Reece initially tried poking holes in a steel can, stuffing it full of fish and hanging it in a trap he threw into about four feet of water. “Within about 10 minutes,” he says, “a four-foot moray swam up, nosed the trap, and swam into its opening. ‘Oh, I thought, this is going to be easy.’”“But then the moray bit the can in half in one bite. ‘Whoa, I thought.’ And then the moray turned around and bit through the mesh trap and swam away, taking its DNA with it.“ Not so easy after all.In the end the team used two collection methods. Some eels were caught in hook-festooned funnel traps. “I’ve caught as many as 100 between four traps in a night.” Reece says. Others were darted underwater. The biopsy dart, mounted on a seven-foot spear, takes a piece of tissue about the size of a pencil eraser, Reece says, and as a bonus dissuades the moray from molesting the diver.His team collected 289 eels with only two injuries: a bite on a hand and one on a foot (of a documentary filmmaker who was tagging along with the scientists).Ocean swimmersLess than one percent of the ocean consists of appropriate reef habitat, and adult reef fishes prefer to hang out at home, hiding from predators in the coral. How does it happen then, that the same species of fish can be found on widely separated barrier reefs or coral atolls?The answer is that most reef fish have a juvenile stage called a pelagic (oceanic) larva that lets them disperse over open ocean.The larvae either swim or drift in surface currents, sometimes modifying their buoyancy to use both surface and deep currents, writes Reece in the Journal of Heredity.So important is this wandering phase that some biologists have proposed as a rule of thumb that the longer-lived the larvae (the longer the “pelagic duration”) the more genetically homogeneous the species is likely to be.Moray eels provide an ideal test of this idea. They are poor swimmers as juveniles, and adults stick to a few square meters of reef. On the other hand, they have an extremely long-lived pelagic form.Whereas another fish’s pelagic larvae might live for a month or two, moray eel larvae can persist for several months or even years.The slender, elongate larva, called a leptocephalus, is one of the simplest self-sustaining vertebrate forms, says Reece. Its body wall is only one cell thick and it has no digestive tract to speak of.“Most reef-fish larvae feed on plankton in the water column,” Reece says. “Moray larvae are so simple, they can’t digest plankton, so they feed on the shed exoskeleton of plankton and on plankton excrement.”“It’s ironic these vicious predators start out too delicate to eat even plankton — they have to eat plankton poop and work their way up,“ he says laughing.Barriers in the ocean?In biology textbooks the go-to mechanism for speciation (or the splitting of a population into two groups that no longer interbreed) is geographic isolation. One group gets separated from the other, by for example, the formation of a mountain, and then over time natural selection and genetic drift gradually remodel the two similar groups into two dissimilar ones.The question is whether there are barriers in the ocean that play the same role in speciation as the mountain ranges do on land.Two suspects are the Eastern Pacific Barrier and the Sunda Shelf. The Eastern Pacific Barrier is a stretch of open ocean 3000 to 5000 kilometers wide that separates the Hawaiian archipelago and the Central Pacific Islands from the Americas. “That’s just too much open ocean for larvae to cross,” says Reece.The Sunda Shelf, on the other hand, is an area of relatively shallow water between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean that has been repeatedly exposed when sea levels fell during periods of extensive glaciation.Were the undulated and yellow-edged morays on either side of these barriers distinguishable genetically?To find out the biologists looked at selected mitochondrial and nuclear genes and asked whether there were unique alleles (variants) of these genes and whether the degree of variance was correlated with geographic separation.They found lots of variation among the eel genes they examined, but virtually none of it had any geographic structure. In other words where the eel was living didn’t predict its genetic makeup.“Some of the sampling sites are about 22,000 kilometers apart, so essentially two-thirds of the globe,” says Reece. “Yet you find the same alleles in South Africa as you do in Panama.”“The only way to get shared genetic material across these distances,” says Reece, “is through gene flow.“ The leptocephali, in other words, are efficiently ferrying genes from one population to the next, keeping the gene pool well stirred.Several other reef fishes are also known to have highly dispersive pelagic stages. However, even these species show genetic partitions at major biogeographic barriers. The moray eels are in a class unto themselves, the champion dispersers.Unsolved mysteryAlthough the phylogeographic survey answered some questions, it raised others.If both species of eel are able to maintain genetic connectivity across the entire ocean basin, how did the species arise in the first place?And not just these two species. Altogether there are 150 species of moray eel in the Indo-Pacific, including the giant, ribbon, snowflake, zebra, dragon, pink-lipped and freckled morays, the slenderjaw, hookjaw, viper, vagrant, lipspot and enigmatic eels . . . and many more.When and how did they form separate species if their larvae make them nearly impervious to geographic isolation?To further complicate things, says Reece, many of eel species share habitat, share distributions and share prey items. In most groups, he says, when that happens one species outcompetes the other and the loser disappears. The same rules don’t seem to apply in the morays and nobody knows why.In other words, he may have found his postdoctoral as well as his doctoral research lurking under that ledge.By Diana Lutz, Washington University in St. Louis---Image 1: Gymnothorax flavimarginatus, the yellow-edged moray, is one of two eel species whose genetic homogeneity was examined in a phylogeographic survey of the Indo-Pacific. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsImage 2: Gymnothorax undulatus, the undulated moray, is the second species examined during the survey. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 11:10 am Russia, Poland Honor Soviet Massacre VictimsThe Soviets had long laid the blame for the 22,000 murders on Nazi Germany -- a lie told for decades to the Russian people.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:50 am Asus Eee PC T101MT now available from Amazon, selling for $498.50Section: Computers, Laptops, Netbooks  As we had expected, the Eee PC T101MT has come available here in the US. Getting the pricing out of the way, you can expect to pay somewhere in the ballpark of $500 depending on the retailer. Or to be a little more specific, you can pay $498.50 if you choose to make that purchase by way of Amazon. In terms of specs, to begin with the T101MT is a convertible style netbook and it comes sporting a 10.1-inch touchscreen display with a 1024 x 600 resolution. Other specs include a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. Of course, when referring to a netbook you may have already guessed those specs. But to round them out, the T101MT will also have Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, three USB ports, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, Windows 7 Starter and a battery that is said to be able to offer up to 6.5 hours of run time. Product [Amazon] Via [Netbook Reviews]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 10:46 am Deadly Fungus Threatens 9 Bat Species in GA, KY, NC, SC and TNA leading bat expert with the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station today identified nine bat species in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee that she believes are most threatened by white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungus that kills bats and appears to be rapidly spreading south from the northeastern United States.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:57 am Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 Now Available for iPhones Everywhere
The $10 iPhone app includes levels, game modes, and characters from the original version, so it should be pretty sweet. The on-screen controls even mimic the original gamepad layout. This is your best opportunity to play the game on the go, short of wearing a PlayStation around your neck, Flavor Flav style. Yeah boy! Be sure to head on over to Macworld for more screenshots and info.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:40 am The Emerging Science Of Molecular GastronomyImage Caption: Novel food textures and flavor combinations are among the promises of a new science called molecular gastronomy, which may revolutionize the dining experience at restaurants and homes. Credit: iStockSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:37 am Meet Gemini, the iPad’s best competitorFROM GAMERTELL - The ICD Gemini may give the iPad a run for its money. Find out what we think. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:33 am Female Hummingbirds Prefer Males With Well-defended TerritoriesWhen it comes to attracting a mate, flowers and sweets often do the trick—even for one of the world's smallest birds—the purple throated carib, a hummingbird species native to the mountainous islands of the Eastern Caribbean.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Apr 2010 | 9:09 am Stuart Hughes’ Privé Phone Proves Money Can’t Buy Taste
Do not be fooled by the exterior: while clearly based on the Motorola DynaTAC8000X of yore, the 22ct gold, diamond-encrusted exterior houses all the modern marvels you would expect from a phone released in 2010. That’s right, according to the website, it supports not only WAP and Text SMS, but also a COLOR SCREEN. My how the last 27 years of progress have just flown by! Only 10 of these “Privé” phones will be created by designer Stuart Hughes, and at £139,995 ($212,400), I guess that kinda makes sense. [Via Gizmodo]
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:53 am Apple IPad's Components May Cost $260, ISuppli Says - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:26 am Flip Slide HD pocket camcorder spotted at Best BuySection: Imaging, Camcorders  Wow, you would think that taking a picture of an item in a Best Buy would come as a better image. Thankfully it is not super blurry, but at the same time the angle is a little odd. That said, whether straight or off balance the picture is showing off something that we are interested in seeing. And by interested in seeing I mean because this gadget has seemingly slipped past everyone and went directly into retail. Unfortunately, now much is known other than the “Introducing slide HD” phrase on the signage, and that it is a Flip which is going by the name of Slide HD. Hey, Cisco, care to elaborate on this one? Via [Engadget] Then, after a little rotating that makes you wonder why no one else has already, we get an image that is a little less dizzying.  Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:23 am Hands-On With the SpiderPro Camera Holster
The Spider Camera holster system is a belt-mounted holder for sharp-shooters. Designed as a quick-release hook to stow your camera when you’re not shooting, the obvious use is the studio, a place where a photographer is constantly having to let go of the camera to tinker with lights. I have been trying the Spider out for the last month or so, and it turns out that it is way more than a studio prop. Once you get used to it, you might not ever need a strap again. The system consists of two main parts, with some extras. First, there is a plate which screws on to the body of your camera via the tripod socket. This is a sturdy and light aluminum plate, and is big enough for any DSLR. I paired it with a D700, and there is capacity to spare. The plate comes with a hex-key tucked into a slot so you can really tighten it down, and there is an extra tripod socket built-in so you can still put on a tripod quick-release plate.
Into this plate goes the Spider Pin, part of the $110 kit which comes with everything mentioned here. Depending on your handedness and whether you are shooting with or without a vertical grip, the pin position can be changed. Get it in tight, though, as the weight of your entire camera and lens will hang from this steel pin. Next is the SpiderPro, a metal buckle which hooks onto your belt, or the included holster-belt. This has a slot into which the pin slides, supporting the camera. There is also a lock which will stop the camera from coming out unless you slide a switch. So that’s the gear. How does it do? Very well, especially with the dedicated belt, a webbing and Velcro setup with a locking buckle-release (early versions are being replaced due to two buckle failures. My sample was rock solid, however). While your own belt can do the job fine, the weight of the camera can pull your pants down. The wide holster-belt can sit up on your hips and it also has a padded guard so the camera doesn’t poke into your thigh.
After a you get accustomed and stop trying to walk through too-small gaps, the holster disappears. Sure, you can feel the weight, but there is none of the clutter of a strap, and you don’t end up with an aching neck or shoulder. Better, when the camera is stowed it stays in one place and doesn’t dangle and swing. At first, it is a little scary to trust $3,000-worth of camera and glass to this little widget, but you soon learn to let go, and the parts feel so solid that you stop worrying. Does the camera hop out of the slot? No. Well, not unless you are doing some extreme dancing. The slot is long, and the camera actually hangs below it. If you are really paranoid, or have a particularly weird gait, there is a lock which lets you slide the camera in but not back out. To disengage you need to push a knurled switch. Would I buy one? Sure. It’s $110, but it feels like it would last forever. I also hate straps (although a hand-strap would make a good companion here), so maybe I am a little biased. The build-quality and ease-of use is way up there, so the only things to consider are whether you need it, and whether your camera is big enough. A smaller version is planned for the future, and although this one will fit fine onto a smaller body, it will look a little awkward. Stick it on a compact and it looks so absurd you’ll laugh out loud. I did. Available now, in a $110 kit or separately. Spider Pro [Spider Holster. Thanks, Zach!] See Also:
Photos: Charlie Sorrel 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2010 | 8:04 am HP Slate Details Leaked: $550 Keyboard-less NetbookAn internal HP memo which compares the upcoming Slate to Apple’s iPad has been leaked The tablet will purportedly come in two sizes: a 32GB model for $550 and a $600, 64GB version. It is said to also have an SD card reader, a USB port, HDMI-out, a VGA webcam, a 3MP camera, and a 'conventional' SIM-card tray.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Apr 2010 | 7:06 am Video: Driving a Real Car Like a Video-Game CarDriving a real car and driving a video-game car are two different skills. But until the science-types at Rooster Teeth actually combined the two, we had no idea just how different they would be. By rigging up a Canon 5D MkII with a 17mm lens on a bar sticking out the back of a Ford truck, the guys could pipe video onto a screen in the blacked-out cab. The wide view, from above and behind, is the same as the third-party perspective you get in many driving games (the gangsters with baseball bats mark this one out as Grand Theft Auto). Then comes the test: is it possible to drive a real car like a video-game car? The answer is a resounding “Kinda.” In the first run, the driver knocks down all cones and pedestrians (mostly blow-up dolls that have thankfully been dressed). The second run, with a different driver, shows that you can make it around an obstacle course clean, albeit slowly. If I took this rig out for a drive I’d be worried that I’d start gunning the thing and throwing it around corners the way I do in Super Mario Kart (the only driving game in which I can stay on the road). A great experiment, settling one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of man’s history. Watch the whole video. If you don’t like the F-word, turn down the sound. Immersion (Pilot) [Rooster Teeth via Kotaku] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:53 am Flip-Open Clamshell Camera Protects Itself
This practical and sleek camera concept from designers Sun Ho Sin and Jeong Eun Park takes inspiration from laptop design to protect both LCD screen and lens when not in use. There have been folding cameras around almost forever, but this was usually to protect just the lens, or to make a bulky box more portable. This flip around design, called the Zero Angle, fixes a very modern problem: both the front and the back of a digicam have easy-to-scratch parts. The camera opens up like a clamshell and the hard front cover swings 360-degrees to become the screen at the back. This makes it pretty much pocket-proof. The hinge also acts as a chunky hand-grip, especially useful on such a small camera. What I like most is that this is effectively a case and a camera in one: you don’t have to spend time taking the camera out, or finding somewhere to stow a padded pouch while you shoot. The render of the design is a little odd, though. The redundant lens-cover makes us think that the flap was digitally added to a photo of an existing model. Still, the idea is great, if not completely original. Canon: add this to your already wonderful S90 compact and you probably wouldn’t be able to make enough of them. Never Get A Scratch On The LCD or Lens [Yanko] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2010 | 5:11 am Over-Designed Petal-Like Bike-Rack
Call me a Luddite, but there are a few things in the world that probably don’t need to be redesigned. One of those is the bike-rack: The current inverted-U works just fine. It takes up minimal space, is instantly recognizable and yet blends in to the street, it is secure and easy to use. And perhaps even more importantly, it is familiar. Those of you who have been faced with a fancy new rack design know what I mean: your usual streamlined, practiced and almost unconscious locking routine is interrupted and you need to spend quite a while changing it. With this in mind, consider Yoann Henry Yvon’s Marguerite Bike Rack, a row of petal-shaped blades which swing down for use. Mistake number one: moving parts add complexity, cost and reduce reliability. The blades are also way too close together. It looks nice, but you’d never squeeze more than a few bikes in there. Also, why try to disguise the bike rack? Even ugly galvanized steel staples look better than a row of parking meters or a cracked parking-lot. Or am I wrong? Should we be looking for better ways to park our bikes and pretty-up the streets at the same time? If anyone has ideas or links to amazing rack designs, leave them in the comments. Marguerite Bike Rack [Coroflot via Core77] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:35 am HP Slate Details Leaked: $550 Netbook, Minus Keyboard
An internal HP memo which compares the upcoming Slate to Apple’s iPad has been leaked, and it shows not just the specifications of the Hewlett Packard tablet, but also the price. The comparison table even highlights “advantages” and “threats” in green and red. The Slate will come in two sizes: a 32-GB model for $550 and a $600, 64-GB version. This compares favorably to the iPad, which costs $600 for 32 GB. On the “advantages” side, the HP lists an SD card reader, a USB port, HDMI-out, a VGA webcam, a 3-megapixel camera and a “conventional” SIM-card tray (the iPad uses the new micro-SIM). Inexplicably, the 1.6-GHz Atom Z530 is also counted as an “advantage,” presumably due to the familiarity of the name rather than its actual performance. The Slate will also contain 1 GB RAM, weigh the same 1.5 pounds as the iPad and sport a widescreen 1024 x 600 display. This is, despite the name and capacitive touchscreen, a netbook with the keyboard removed. So, what are the “threats” listed by HP? The iPad’s 10-hour battery life (the Slate claims just five, and will surely be shorter), 802.11n Wi-Fi (the Slate has just g), the bigger screen and the entry-level price of just $550. And that’s it. If there is any proof that HP doesn’t get the whole tablet PC shtick, it is this focus on hardware. The whole point of the iPad is its software, the fact that it is conceived to work as a touch device. HP’s Slate may well be a nice piece of hardware, and it certainly has all the marketing checkboxes filled, but it runs Windows 7. And last time we looked, even a skinned version of Windows 7 is not designed for touch. Nice try, though, HP. Better luck next time. HP Slate to cost $549, have 1.6GHz Atom Z530, 5 hour battery? [Engadget] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2010 | 4:01 am Video: Super Mario Kart on Non-Jailbroken iPadSweet, sweet Lord. *Super Mario Kart* on the iPad could mean that I never, ever leave the house again. What you see here is the best racing game ever made, running on a stock, non-jailbroken iPad. It is not a copy of the Super Nintendo classic: SMK is running in SNES emulator. You won’t see the SNES emulator in the App Store anytime soon: not only does it break Apple’s rules on running interpreted code, but we’re sure that Nintendo wouldn’t be too happy, either. The app is from ZodTTD, the developer who brought us the VLC video application for the (jailbroken) iPhone, along with iPhone SNES and N64 emulators. ZodTTD ported his existing SNES emulator to the new hardware. While he does have access to the iPhone Dev Team’s iPad jailbreak, he also has the iPhone and iPad developer tools. Using these, he compiled the app and signed it, and has it up and running on a stock iPad. If you have ever participated in a beta testing for an iPhone app and had the developer send you both the app and a provisioning file, you will be familiar with the process. So how do you get your hands on this? You’ll have to wait for the iPad jailbreak, and then you’ll need to buy the app from ZodTTD, just like you can now for the iPhone. It’s certainly not as convenient as buying from the App Store, but then, it is Mario Kart. Apple iPad running SNES (snes4iphone) [YouTube] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Apr 2010 | 3:16 am
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In the 
Following a 
Here’s another one to file in the “Duh” cabinet. Although at least 
The FTC is reportedly gearing up to challenge the Google-AdMob deal, due to anti-trust regulations The search giant acquired the popular mobile advertising network for 
Location-based social network 
According to a Redbox survey, the company is considering a move into streaming movies Netflix-style for a mere $3.95 per month. Netflix currently offers streaming free, as long as you have a minimum $8.99 plan. Redbox currently operates kiosks that distribute movies for $1 a night across the nation.
"He was released from hospital. He was fine. If he was not fine the hospital wouldn't release him," she said.
Is your StarTAC looking run down? Does it not draw the attention that it once did? Clearly, it’s time for an upgrade. Don’t let the technology of recent decades cloud your judgement when choosing your new phone. Think–and I mean seriously think–about the time when talking on a mobile phone was at its most impressive. That’s right, I mean all the way back to 1983. What better way to truly impress your board-room buddies than with a literal homage to the golden era of telecommunication?
