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Cellphone satnav use surging in EuropeEuropeans are increasingly using their cellphones for satellite navigation in cars, directly threatening the personal navigation industry, research firm comScore said Friday, reports Reuters. In February...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 4:14 am HTC Droid Incredible Arrives on Verizon April 29 - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Apr 2010 | 4:02 am Mark Fiore Can Win a Pulitzer Prize, But He Can't Get His iPhone Cartoon App Past Apple's Satire Police [Voices]By Laura McGann, Contributor, Nieman Journalism Lab This week cartoonist Mark Fiore made Internet and journalism history as the first online-only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize. Fiore took home the editorial cartooning prize for animations he created for SFGate, the website for the San Francisco Chronicle. I spoke with Fiore about his big win and plans for his business. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:52 am Grooveshark Revamps TinySong: Easy Music Sharing Made Even Easier
If the old TinySong was already drop dead easy to discover and share music on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, the new TinySong is even more so. Operated by Grooveshark, TinySong lets you search for songs in the startup’s extensive music catalog, and lets you instantly stream previews on the same page. Click the ‘Share’ button next to songs and you’ll get a dedicated URL you can spread (it plays the entire song on the Grooveshark website). Example: http://tinysong.com/two5 You can also opt to send the link straight to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, StumbleUpon or an email contact with one click, or use the appropriate link to copy it to your clipboard. Simple, useful, and nicely designed. What’s not to love?      
Source: TechCrunch | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:50 am Will Android Be the Cialis Of Tablets? [Voices]By Christopher Dawson, Technology Director for the Athol-Royalston School District You don’t hear many Cialis jokes, do you? Late night TV remains peppered with Viagra jokes, though, and they’re a staple of physical comedy in B-movies, even 12 years after its introduction. Viagra just happened to be first to market and has dominated the ED market even though Cialis (and Levitra, for that matter) may have significant benefits over Viagra depending on the users, er, umm, needs. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:46 am Twitter StatsmocoNews has gleamed some official and hard to come by Twitter stats from the horse's mouth. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone finally made public some numbers at its Chirp conference Wednesday. He says...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:43 am 10 Things the Internet Has Killed Or Ruined (and Five Things It Hasn't) [Voices]By Dan Tynan, Contributor, PC World For some people, the Internet is the killer app–literally. From newspapers and the yellow pages to personal privacy and personal contact, the Net has been accused of murdering, eviscerating, ruining, and obliterating more things than the Amazing Hulk. Some claims are more true than others, but the Net certainly has claimed its share of scalps. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:36 am Will the iPad Usher In a "Post-Scroll Era"? Gawker's a Convert. [Voices]By Meghan Keane, Econsultancy Digital Marketers United Publications large and small are looking to the iPad as a way to revolutionize digital content consumption. But one potential flaw in their iPad strategy is the issue of price. Many publishers are charging for their newly revamped mobile products, sometimes prohibitively. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:30 am Porn Virus Blackmails Victims Over "Copyright Violation"FishRep writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user's net history on a public website before demanding a fee for its removal. The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winni, used by up to 200m people. It targets those downloading illegal copies of games in the Hentai genre, an explicit form of anime. Website Yomiuri claims that 5500 people have so far admitted to being infected. The virus, known as Kenzero, is being monitored by web security firm Trend Micro in Japan. Masquerading as a game installation screen, it requests the PC owner's personal details. It then takes screengrabs of the user's web history and publishes it online in their name, before sending an e-mail or pop-up screen demanding a credit card payment of 1500 yen (£10) to 'settle your violation of copyright law' and remove the webpage."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:29 am Israeli Startups, Let’s Meet Up At Techonomy 2010
I’m traveling to Israel for Techonomy 2010, a must-attend event for anyone professionally involved with the Web and technology in general. This is the second time the event is being held, and it’s being pitched as follows:
You can find more information about the event here if you’re not convinced. As for me, I love innovation, and I love practicality, so count me in! There will be a launchpad for 7 hot new yet-to-be-announced startups, who will present their business to the entire audience and a panel of expert judges such as Robert Scoble, Jeff Pulver, Yaron Samid and Eyal Shahar (full list can be found on the main website). You can register here – the venue is YES Planet (Kanyon Ayalon, Ramat Gan). Kudos to Orli Yakuel and Eddy Resnick for setting up the event and inviting TechCrunch (read: me) over – we’re proud to be a media partner. Really looking forward to it! See you there?      
Source: TechCrunch | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:27 am Pentagon Networks Targeted By 'Hundreds of Thousands' Of Probes (Whatever That Means) [Voices]By Nathan Hodge, Contributor, Danger Room, Wired.com U.S. military networks are seeing “hundreds of thousands of probes a day,” according to alarming new statistics revealed this morning by the Army general nominated to head the U.S. military’s new Cyber Command. But beyond that scary headline, it’s not clear if the threat is what it’s cracked up to be. In a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing today, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander said the Pentagon was “alarmed by the increase, especially this year,” in the number of attempts by outsiders to scan military networks for potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:27 am Call of Duty creators go to war over bestselling game - Times Online
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:26 am Meteor treats viewers to spectacular light show - Appleton Post Crescent
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:26 am Croatian girl wakes up from coma speaking fluent GermanA 13-year old Croatian girl woke up from a coma speaking no Croatian and perfect German. The girl, who had been studying basic German in school, is communicating with her parents via an interpreter. Experts are investigating the cause.Source: Boing Boing | 16 Apr 2010 | 3:17 am 20yo woman banned from drinking 20-year old Laura Hall of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire is thought to be the first person to be banned from all pubs, bars, and clubs across England and Wales. She is also not allowed to buy alcohol or drink in public.I wonder what this girl did wrong that makes her so exceptional among other belligerent drunk people, or this is supposed to set an example for other drunken youngsters.
Link [via Metro UK] Apple App Store Banned Satire app of now Pulitzer-Winning SatiristEditorial cartoonist Mark Fiore won a Pulitzer Prize Monday for animations he made for the SFGate, the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle. But Fiore, who is a freelancer who runs a syndication...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 2:48 am NSA Director Says Cyber Command Not Trying to Militarize Cyberspace - eWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 16 Apr 2010 | 2:36 am Glee iPhone app could be Smules next big hitSmule's new iPhone app Glee is getting a lot of great press. Smule was behind the hugely successful Ocarina app, which transforms the iPhones into a musical instrument. According to Mobile Beat, for...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 2:23 am The Modigliani Test: The Semantic Web's Tipping PointIn our recent posts about Structured Data, we've emphasized that most of the current initiatives have been around uploading new data to the Web - whatever the format. The U.S. and U.K. governments have...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 2:06 am Cellphone satnav use surging in Europe - survey (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Apr 2010 | 2:04 am Rolling Stone's archive going online - for a price (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:57 am Not everything written up as new is actually newIn the last couple of weeks, three stories have made headlines news in blogs as though they were breaking news. Does it come from young and eager new writers, press releases taken at face value? It only...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:51 am KirstenLee Cinquetti Talks About Third Party Viewers, Meeting M Linden, Other Topics on Metaverse TVMBC News: Kirstenlee Interview from Metaverse TV on Vimeo This is Metaverse TV's interview with KirstenLee Cinquetti, the open source coder who created the widely loved and admired Kirsten's Viewer for...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:44 am Buzzword Alert to All Geeks: Please Replace "Real-Time" Web With "Right-Time" Web STAT! [BoomTown]
Earlier this week at Twitter’s Chirp conference, Venrock’s David Pakman seemed to strike a chord by coining a new buzzword that deserves to gain some level of acceptance. On a panel BoomTown moderated, in answer to my question about what kinds of investments and trends he was looking at in the social networking space, Pakman said: “The ‘right-time’ Web is more valuable in some cases than the real-time web. Real-time data is only interesting when I’m actually looking for that information. There’s no service today that’s giving information when it’s really needed. If your company is doing that…I brought my checkbook.” While the checkbook was a nice touch, Pakman is actually making a good point, as much as I hate the proclivity of techies to coin new and often silly terms to wow the general public. But one of the key issues being raised of late about making all these status update data streams helpful is that they are super useless 98 percent of the time, resembling more a raging flooded river than a way to navigate to any place that is actually useful. Someone does have to significantly drop the signal-to-noise ratio on all this blather, cutting through to find the really valuable information that we all know has to be there. Until someone does, please enjoy the Mighty Diamonds, singing their classic song, “Right Time”: Source: All Things Digital | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:38 am Sony Refuses To Sanction PS3 "Other OS" RefundsStoobalou writes "Sony says that it has no intention of reimbursing retailers if they offer users partial refunds for fat PS3s. Last week, the first PS3 user successfully secured a partial refund from Amazon UK as compensation for the removal of the ability to run Linux on the console. The user quoted European law in order to persuade the online retailer that the goods he had bought in good faith were no longer fit for his purposes because of the enforcement of firmware update 3.21, which meant that users who chose to keep the Other OS functionality would lose the ability to play the latest games or connect to the PlayStation Network."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:34 am India Employs Text Messaging to Fight Government CorruptionText messaging has become a crime-fighting tool for Indias Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). TMCnet.com reports. The CBI has launched a campaign through which it is urging Indias populace to report,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:33 am European Street Fashion - The Garcon Garcia 2010 Fall Line Makes it Easy to Look Stylishly Comfy (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) For some odd reason, it seems fashion and warmth never want to mix when it comes to men's coats. Either you're looking stylish and freezing your ass off, or you're frumpy but toasty...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:29 am Astronauts put cargo carrier back on space shuttleA cargo carrier is back aboard space shuttle Discovery. The astronauts began their work day Friday by installing the carrier in Discovery's payload bay. The job was supposed to be...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:27 am Sony Ericsson makes surprise 1st quarter profit (Reuters)Reuters - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson swung to a surprise first-quarter pretax profit on Friday as its push into the growing smartphone market and hefty cost cuts boosted margins.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:23 am Speedy scanner re-writes book on publishing technology (Reuters)Reuters - Simply flipping through a book may not seem like the best to way to scan it, but a Japanese research group at Tokyo University has created new software that allows hundreds of pages to be scanned within minutes.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:13 am Tech Sector in Hiring Drive [Voices]By Cari Tuna, Jessica E. Vascellaro and Pui-Wing Tam, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal The technology industry, an engine of innovation and U.S. prosperity for more than half a century, is accelerating its recovery from the recession with surging earnings that have spurred companies to sharply ramp up their hiring. The latest evidence for the rebound came Thursday, when Internet giant Google Inc. (GOOG) posted a 37 percent profit jump for the first quarter and chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) reported a 34 percent revenue increase to record levels. The results follow the strong showing of bellwether Intel Corp., (INTC) which Tuesday announced quarterly profit that nearly quadrupled on a 44 percent jump in sales. The trio of results kicks off what is likely to be a strong earnings streak as tech spending by companies and consumers picks up. Next week, Apple Inc. (AAPL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), among others, are slated to report quarterly results. Tech-research firm ISI Group projects that overall revenues from such companies will rise more than 10 percent for the first quarter, compared with a 16 percent decline a year earlier. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s forecasts a 79 percent increase in tech earnings for the quarter from year-ago levels. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:06 am Safely Watch Porn Anywhere With The TV HatBy Chris Scott Barr Have you ever been listening to music outside, only to find that other people are leeching off of your speakers by listening from afar? You can easily thwart these audio thieves with...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:01 am Daily Crunch: Rooftop Observatory Edition
Hyper Telescope: Bandai’s new “science toy” for kids
Source: CrunchGear | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Netbook Roundup, Microsoft Kin, HTC Incredible, and iPad Checkup on PCWorld Podcast 73 (PC World)PC World - Join PCWorld editors Mark Sullivan, Robert Strohmeyer, Ginny Mies, and Jason Cross as they dive into the hottest topics on the Web this week.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am China Reports Millions of Conficker Worm Infections (PC World)PC World - China last year hosted more than one in four of the world's computers infected with a major variant of the Conficker worm, according to an official report, highlighting the wide reach of malware inside the country.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Apr 2010 | 12:30 am Microbial Life Found In Trinidadian Hydrocarbon LakeKentuckyFC writes "Pitch Lake is a poisonous, foul smelling, hell hole on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago. It is filled with hot asphalt and bubbling with noxious hydrocarbon gases and carbon dioxide. Various scientists have suggested that it is the closest thing on Earth to the kind of hydrocarbon lakes that they can see on Saturn's moon Titan. Now a group of researchers have discovered that the lake is teeming with microbial life which is thriving in the oxygen-free environment with very little water, eating hydrocarbons and respiring with metals. Gene sequence analysis indicates that these bugs are single-celled organisms such as archea and bacteria. The researchers say the discovery has exciting implications for the possibility of life on Titan. There is a growing sense that Titan has all the ingredients for life: thermodynamic disequilibrium, abundant carbon-containing molecules and a fluid environment. There is also evidence that liquid water may not be as important for life as everybody has assumed since some microorganisms can make their own water by chewing on various hydrocarbons. That may make Titan an even better place to look for life than previously thought."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 16 Apr 2010 | 12:22 am A-1 Self Storage, California Signs Up for Self Storage ManagerSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 12:05 am VimpelCom Ltd. Announces Results of U.S. Exchange OfferSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Motorola Shows TD-LTE Commercial Readiness with End-to-end Demonstration Based on World's First TD-LTE USB DongleSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Home entertainment Q1 sales off 8 percent: report (Reuters)Reuters - Consumer spending on home entertainment products, including DVDs, Blu-ray discs and digitally distributed content, in North America fell 8 percent to $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2010, said the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) on Wednesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Apr 2010 | 11:45 pm No Time Dilation for Distant Quasars?Distant quasars are acting very strange: they're not acting strange. Usually the massive black holes powering these active galactic cores should exhibit some time dilation, but the most distant quasars don't.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 15 Apr 2010 | 11:39 pm Printing from the iPadThe secret to printing from the iPad has been revealed. [PC World] Thanks, Arkizzle!Source: Boing Boing | 15 Apr 2010 | 11:08 pm Glympse Brings Real-Time Location Sharing To Facebook
Glympse, which we first checked out last May, is a bit like Google Latitude in that it allows you to passively share your location with friends (as opposed to the check-in model popularized by Foursquare). But unlike Latitude, Glympse is for granting people temporary access to your location. Say you’re going to be late for a meeting because you hit traffic — instead of giving your coworkers a ballpark estimate of when you might possible get to the office, you can send them a Glympse, which lets them track your position and ETA for a limited amount of time (you might set the expiration to, say, an hour). Once that Glympse expires, your coworkers can’t see your location any more. This way, Glympse avoids many of the issues with always-on location services (namely, the fear that you might accidentally share your location when you didn’t want to). Glympse has offered this functionality for a while, but the integration with Facebook looks quite well done. Previously when you shared a Glympse link with someone it would just redirect to the Glympse site (this is what happens when you share to Twitter). On Facebook, the service will now embed an interactive map that continuously updates. And you can use Facebook’s Friend List feature to specify who can see the map. Glympse got some other good news recently, when Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone will get multitasking with its next OS upgrade. That’s a big deal, because up until now the iPhone version of Glympse has been crippled — if you closed the app, you’d no longer be able to update your location. The upgrade should remedy this issue for Glympse and many other location-based services.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:41 pm This train don’t stop for nobodyThat’s a good idea. I get the feeling it would all end in tragedy, though. At least the end would be quick… about 217MPH to be exact. [via Reddit]
Source: CrunchGear | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:39 pm On to Mars: Obama Declares, 'I Expect to See It' - ABC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:28 pm Rolling Stone's archive going online - for a priceFor the first time Rolling Stone is inviting its readers on the long, strange trip though its 43-year archive. It's putting complete digital replicas online along with the latest editions...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:16 pm Rolling Stone's archive going online _ for a priceFor the first time Rolling Stone is inviting its readers on the long, strange trip though its 43-year archive. It's putting complete digital replicas online along with the latest editions...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:15 pm Google 1Q growth accelerates while stock reverses (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:06 pm Google 1Q growth accelerates while stock reversesComing off a stellar first quarter, Google Inc. seems to have regained the momentum that it lost shortly after the U.S. recession started in December 2007. But it looks like it's going...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:06 pm IBM Helps City of Stockholm Predict Better Commuting OptionsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:02 pm April 16, 1943: Setting the Stage for World's First Acid TripApril 16, 1943: The hallucinogenic properties of LSD are discovered, quite by accident.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Sony PlayStation 3 Sales in US Jump on 'God of War' in March - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Apr 2010 | 9:41 pm Android App Video Review: CallTrack (Appolicious)Appolicious - Store a log of all your calls in a place where you'll actually have them handy, in your calendar. This app will keep a detailed account of both incoming and outbound calls and immediately sync them your your Google Calendar. There has never been an easier way to track your discussions.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Apr 2010 | 9:37 pm Obama Outlines Bold Space PolicyThe Bad Astronomer writes "In front of a mostly enthusiastic audience at NASA's Kennedy Space Center today, President Obama outlined a bold, new space policy. It's a change from his previous policy; the Constellation rockets are still dead, but a new heavy-lift rocket system is funded. He also specifically talked of manned asteroid and Mars missions, but also stated there would be no return to the Moon. This is a major step in the right direction, but still needs some tweaking." |
 Ars Technica | Microsoft's Chinese Factory Inspection Could Prove Ineffective eWeek Microsoft has promised to dispatch an investigative team to a Chinese factory allegedly engaged in workplace violations, with a full audit to be conducted the week of April 19. However, the National Labor Committee report that sparked Microsoft's ... Microsoft to Probe Conditions in China Microsoft to investigate conditions in China plant Report: Microsoft gear made under harsh conditions |
New Nikon DSLRs… that wouldn’t be much of a rumor — of course they’re coming. But this rumor has specs! Things! Being! Rumored! It’s exciting! So what have we here… three new cameras coming? So exciting.
The first rumor is an entry-level camera, perhaps a successor to the D3000. Probably a megapixel bump, better AF system, and generally bringing it up to line with competitors. The next rumor is more interesting: a 16-megapixel, 39-AF point, 1080p/24-shootin’ mid-range monster, possibly a new D90-style camera with a bigger sensor. That’d be a big seller for sure. The third rumor, well, is that there is another camera in the pipeline. Nobody knows anything more.
There are a few more Nikon rumors over at Nikon Rumors (predictably) so get your butt over there and join in the speculation.
 Telegraph.co.uk | Boxee iPhone/iPad App Coming Your Way? PC World It appears that Boxee, the social media software designed to bring Internet video content to user's televisions, is no longer content with just one screen. A recent job posting on the Boxee website indicates that the New York company is looking for an ... The iPad is the future for home computing Review: iPad Has Bright Future, But the Present Is So-So Boxee app headed to iPhone, iPad, Android |
First, a trivia question: how many of you remember Super Force? Because that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this picture. Even more, this Starcrafty Korean concept soldiers. Moving on, though… remember that wrist-mounted device HP showed off in its “let’s do amazing” ads a little while back? Turns out they were showing an old model: the plan now is to have nice big e-ink displays strapped to the wrists of soldiers — space marines to be precise, if the illustration is any indication.
Current wrist displays, inflexible and powered by heavy batteries, are really no good for today’s soldier, overburdened as he is with packbots, newfangled rifles, and portable bunkers. So HP wants to make theirs light, solar-powered, and printable.
What, that LG thing wasn’t cool enough for them?
Section: Communications, Cellphones
The Android phone, the Incredible, that we have been following for a while now has finally emerged from secrecy under the Verizon Wireles Website. As you can tell from the image above, the full list of specs have been leaked to the public. What I find more interesting, however, is that the information concerning the next in-line for the Droid name was kept under wraps better than the phone itself.
Read[Engadget]
Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Yesterday we learned that Intel tore it up during the first quarter of 2010. Good for them, but what about longtime rival AMD? Turns out they’re doing nicely as well, with record quarter revenue and signs of general recovery for the semiconductor business. I won’t get into the details (check the Register) but it looks like the daring footwork done over the last couple years is paying off for the underdog semiconductor company.
Google’s Chrome OS is due to come out some time this year, and there are still plenty of questions about how people are going to use a computer that’s based entirely in the browser. One question that came up when the OS was first announced: how are people going to print from this thing? Google has just spelled out its solution on the Chromium Blog: The Cloud.
Google has announced a new project called Google Cloud Print which is setting out to “build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world.” In short, your computer or device will tell Cloud Print what it wants printed, and Cloud Print will then send the appropriate instructions to your printer. No printer drivers necessary.
Google is providing some initial documentation on the project here. The site says that any application, be it native or web based, will be able to use Cloud Print through APIs (which will allow you to submit print jobs and also check job status). There’s going to be a standard ‘web UI’ print dialog for interacting with the service from an application.
Of course, there’s still one big problem: getting Google Cloud Print to actually talk to your printer. Google has two solutions to this. In the long term, it is proposing that the industry adopt new open standards around cloud printing, and that manufacturers build new printer models to be ‘cloud aware’. In other words, the printer is connected to the web and includes software that knows how to communicate with Google’s servers.
The second solution is for ‘legacy printers’ (which include all printers at this point—even printers with an ethernet or Wifi connection). For these, Google plans to offer software that you install on the PC that the printer is connected to. Google is currently building this proxy software for Windows and intends to support Mac and Linux down the line. You won’t actually install the software on your own, either — it will come with Google Chrome (though it will be off by default). Google also hopes that some router manufacturers will start including the proxy software in their devices, so that users don’t have to leave their computers on.
A few key things to note: Google is going to offer its own Cloud Print service, but it wants the standard to be open and expects other alternative services to spring up as well. And this isn’t just for computers — it could potentially be used for phones, tablets, and any other web-enabled device. Wouldn’t that be nice.
I'm talking to Gleick at the Forum tomorrow to find out exactly how.
Source: Boing Boing | 15 Apr 2010 | 7:04 pm
So fair warning, there’s not a whole lot of detail on this one. Fujitsu just showed off their latest e-book reader prototype at a trade show in Japan. It probably won’t hit the US, but expect to see it in Japan later this year. We’ll keep you informed when we get more information.
[via Akihabara News]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
By David Crawford and Dionne Searcey, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. has joined German and Russian authorities in investigating whether Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) executives paid millions of dollars in bribes to Russian officials to win a contract in Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department are investigating whether H-P committed any violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, these people said, as part of a widening probe into the company’s activities. The SEC investigates civil violations of the FCPA, while the Justice Department has jurisdiction over criminal components of the U.S. law. The law bars American companies from bribing foreign government officials anywhere in the world.
A spokeswoman for H-P said the company had discussions Thursday with the SEC regarding the German investigation “and is fully cooperating with U.S. and German authorities on this matter.”
German prosecutors have centered their investigation of the suspected bribes on one current and two former senior executives of the U.S. computer maker, according to German court records and people familiar with the probe.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
Google is bringing the goats back this year to keep the grass cut and to provide an excellent opportunity to show that they care about the environment. We made fun of them last year, and even tried to get PETA all riled up about goat’s rights. Mostly because it seems the transportation and feeding of the goats sort of offsets the carbon savings from mowing the lawn, making this all a big PR stunt. But MG managed to get three posts out of it, including video with the goats. Sadly he’s currently on vacation in Japan, so this will likely conclude our breaking Google goat coverage until next year. Our only hope is that Google eventually genetically engineers the goats to be all black in honor of Earth Day.
For some strange reason, the contrast race seems to be on. TV’s seem to getting higher and high contrast ratio, but LG was claiming a 1,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and now BenQ is claiming a 12,000,000:1.
For whatever reason, BenQ’s new line up includes the 18.5-inch GL9320, the 19-inch GL931, the 21.5-inch GL2230, and the 22-inch GL2231. BenQ claims to have the highest contrast ratio in the industry, but I suspect they might have forgot about LG. Or maybe they are calculating hte contrast using a different method. No pricing as of yet, but expect to see the latest from BenQ at your local retailer sometime in July.
[via Electronista]
Here’s a little DIY project for you Nikon shooters out there. Certain models of the Nikon DSLR support IR remotes, but to buy an actual “Nikon” brand remote from your local camera shoppe will set you back around $40. Why not build one yourself instead?
This project requires a little more skill then most; you have to be able to manufacture a PCB and program a microcontroller. This could be problematic if you don’t already have the necessary gear, so that $40 might not seem such a bad idea. The person who created this project on Instructables did a far better job explaining it then I can, so head on over there and check it out. I’d do one myself, but my camera doesn’t support IR.
 myce.com | Apple App Store Bans Pulitzer-Winning Satirist for Satire Wired News Editorial cartoonist Mark Fiore may be good enough to win this year's Pulitzer Prize, but he's evidently too biting to get past the auditors who run Apple's iPhone app store, who ruled that lampooning public figures violated its terms of ... Pulitzer-Winning Cartoonist Wins No Prizes from Apple Apple bans Pultizer Prize political cartoons from iPhone Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist finds home in Fairfax |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Funny story. Back when the Oblivion horse armor DLC hit, people couldn’t make enough fun of it. No in-game value, pure vanity, who’s got an extra $5 to spend on a game they already bought, and so on. And then Blizzard releases this magic space-horse, which 1up states with some authority as being “the fanciest [magic space-]horse ever born,” and people are buying it at a rate of 20,000 per hour.
I guess WoW players just love them some Pegasi.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This afternoon Google released its earnings for Q1 2010.
The company beat analyst expectations, though the stock has fallen nearly 5% in after-hours trading as some investors were hoping for more. Revenue was up 23% for $6.77 billion, with net revenue at $5.06 billion (estimate was $4.93 billion). Net income rose 37% to $1.96 billion, or $6.06 EPS; non-GAAP EPS was $6.76, beating estimates of $6.60.
66% of total revenue, or $4.44 billion, came from Google-owned properties, with 30% ($2.04 billion) from partner sites through AdSense. Paid clicks were up 15% Y/Y and cost-per-click was up 7% Y/Y.
Google has $26.5 billion in cash, and has grown to 20,621 employees up from 19,835 at the close of 2009 — in other words, they’re hiring.
Below are my notes from Google’s conference call, which included responses from:
CFO Patrick Pichette
SVP, Engineering Jeff Huber
VP of Product Management Susan Wojcicki
Note that CEO Eric Schmidt was not on the call, and likely won’t be in the future (though the company says this was merely a matter of streamlining and that there’s nothing to read into it).
High level thoughts – As we enter 2010, it’s clear that the digital economy is continuing to grow rapidly. We are continuing to invest heavily in people, product, and acquisitions. We’ve already stepped up hiring. We have a strong pipeline of candidate, primarily in Engineer and sales. On Product we continue to push the envelope on two fronts: User experience and Ad Business. Acquisitions: we’ve been very active this year and have a strong M&A pipeline in place.
Wojcicki: Starting about a year about we asked ourselves why search ads had to be text links. In many cases it may be more interesting if we show a video/product in the ad. Search the movie Losers and you may see a video ad. Search Toys R Us and you get promoted site links. CTR on site links up 30-40%. Launched search funnel earlier this year. In display business, on platform side we launched new version of DoubleClick. Our new ad exchange has real-time bidding. As users transition to smartphones with mobile browsers, want to make it easier to extend campaign to those devices.
Huber: We believe in open platforms.. Our efforts in mobile are a great example of this at work. Schmidt said Goog is taking mobile first approach. Your smartphone knows where you are, so this location launched near-me-now. Turns your location into the search query. New stars in search feature, you click star next to result to save it. Makes it easier to find later (from mobile device). Android and Chrome gaining lots of momentum. Android powering 34 devices from 12 OEMs. Over 60,000 Android devices sold/activated a day. Our mantra w/ Android is “open”. The platform and Market. 38,000 Apps, up 70% quarter over quarter. I/O coming up.
Q&A:
Q: About stock buyback. Also, why is international growing
When we bought On2, it was a shared transaction. Seeing strong brands coming back . Internationally as rev didn’t take as material a dip relative to US.
Q: What percentage of rev comes from mobile display and enterprise combined? Is Nexus One profitable?
A: First one we don’t divulge. Nexus One, it is a profitable business for us. We are driving the business to be a profitable business from the get go.
Why isn’t Eric on the call? He’s everywhere. The fact that he isn’t on earnings doesn’t mean he isn’t available. It’s an issue of streamlining, shouldn’t read into it.
We hiring back in sales and engineering. The bar at Google has not changed. It is incredibly high.
We can’t speculate on relationship around search w/ Apple. We have historically had a strong relationship with them and look forward to continuing it in the future.
We’ve been very happy with growth in paid clicks. It’s a result of advertisers coming back, new ad formats.
Marketing spend. It’s clear that we have opportunities. Lots of opportunities to on-board customers. Most of marketing is ROI spend to get advertisers and customers on product.
On Nexus one being online only and how many sold. And comments on China.
We’re not disclosing number of Nexus Ones sold, we’re very happy with device uptake and impact it has had raising the bar showing what a smartphone can do. Can’t comment on stores. Bottom line on China where it was a tough situation, we believe we made the right decision. That said, our engineer force remains in China, sales force still in place. And we’ve moved back to HK for search.
Update on dist deal with News Corp. Is there a plan B if AdMob doesn’t go through?
AdMob: The case for AdMob is there is overwhelming evidence that mobile advertising industry is nascent, incredibly competitive. Apple announced they are starting their own. We’re positive about making it happen. Plan B if AdMob doesn’t work: Google does have AdSense for mobile applications, we’re investing in it. Want to reiterate we see this as new market with lots of competition. Apps vs. web: Google is investing, believes that HTML5 has possibility to enrich the web. News Corp: Google wants partners, we’re in negotiations of deal going to be renewed…There are different dynamics, we’re looking for a win-win.
Paid Click is up, combination of lots of factors. Advertisers come back, start spending. Google and ads team bringing new products to market.
Investing a lot in Android and Chrome.
Thoughts on shipping the tablet:
We’re really delighted by Chrome pickup rate. In terms of Tablets. Last year with Chrome OS we said we are working to have a netbook in the fall.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Having reviewed several laptops in the last year, there is one thing that I have learned I can always count on: the trackpad on PC laptops is going to be a disaster. Every time. At least, a relative disaster, when you consider the quality of the trackpad that comes with every MacBook and MacBook Pro.
Now, this isn’t the venue for discussing the other relative merits of Macs and PCs — cost, OS, Apple Tax, and so on. This is strictly about the trackpad. I rose a similar question when I asked how Apple has had the best touchscreen on the market for three years running, despite years of R&D by their competitors. It’s the same with trackpads. Why don’t laptop makers seem to get it?
Having reviewed several laptops in the last year, there is one thing that I have learned I can always count on: the trackpad on PC laptops is going to be a disaster. Every time. At least, a relative disaster, when you consider the quality of the trackpad that comes with every MacBook and MacBook Pro.
Now, this isn’t the venue for discussing the other relative merits of Macs and PCs — cost, OS, Apple Tax, and so on. This is strictly about the trackpad. I rose a similar question when I asked how Apple has had the best touchscreen on the market for three years running, despite years of R&D by their competitors. It’s the same with trackpads. Why don’t laptop makers seem to get it?
It seems obvious. The trackpad is, after the keyboard, the object you interact with the most on any laptop. Wouldn’t laptop makers want this object to be largest, most responsive, most versatile thing they can make it? Yet on every PC laptop I review or test out, the trackpad is small, poorly placed, unresponsive, or all three. And the buttons, which should easy and satisfying to click, are often stubborn, squishy, or small. What the hell are they thinking?
I bet Apple’s trackpads cost a bundle. They’re luxury trackpads, with lots of capacitive fibers in them, a complicated interpolation algorithm, and they’re really big to boot. I’m guessing they cost at least twice as much, perhaps more, than the usual bulk trackpads one finds installed in something like a mid-range Dell or HP laptop. But the return on Apple’s investment in an expensive component is that everyone who touches an Apple trackpad falls in love with it immediately.
(As a quick aside, it seems the difference between Apple and other trackpads has reached deeper than I thought: throughout this article (until I just now corrected it) I’ve been writing “touchpad” when referring to Apple’s, and “trackpad” when referring to others. A subtle difference, but significant, I think.)
Personally, I can’t stand using a mouse in OS X because the trackpad is too good to give up. Conversely, for PC laptops, I keep the driverless SteelSeries Xai around so that I won’t have to use their rubbish trackpads any more than I have to. It’s basically a deal-breaker: I would never buy a PC laptop for any serious use, and I suspect it’s one of the major reasons why Apple has such a high retention rate when it comes to laptops, despite their high price. A lot of people say they prefer to use a mouse with their laptop — yeah, and you prefer to use an external hard drive, too, because what the laptop provides is inadequate. If Dells had a giant, beautiful, fun-to-use trackpad, I suspect many would change their minds about laptop mousing.
Sure, with a little netbook you can’t expect it. But the question is not a netbook question (though to be fair, the reviews linked above are in the low-mid range). This is on otherwise-excellent laptops costing $1000-$2000 that we are finding tiny, low-quality trackpads. There are exceptions here and there, but a huge majority of the laptops out there are, in my opinion, shorting the buyer. When someone is buying a laptop that they are going to use as a primary computer, the savvy laptop-maker would do well to assure the consumer that the laptop is of the highest quality, and not cobbled together from whatever parts fit the bill. The trackpad is the first thing that most consumers will touch, and if they fall in love with one, their budget suddenly expands to allow that love to be requited.
Furthermore, with PC laptops sharing so many components, you’d think Lenovo, Acer, HP, and everyone else would be itching for a chance to set themselves apart, and not just via a fingerprint sensor or custom shell. “We have the biggest and most responsive trackpad in the industry.” Doesn’t that attract you more than “Case designed by Vivenne Tam“?
So come on, laptop makers, nut up and throw down for for some high quality hardware — and watch your brand improve. Until multi-touch eclipses trackpads and mice as the primary input for portable computing (some ways off, I suspect), you guys should be dedicating yourself to provide the best possible experience for your users. The trackpad is one of the most important parts of the laptop experience, and you’re all blowing it.
I had myself a bit of a field trip yesterday, going over to Reebok's fancy gym on Columbus Avenue in New York to try out their new ZigTech shoes. The name alone implies, well, tech, which would explain my presence there. Bonus: I got to interview former UFC light heavyweight Chuck Liddell. Truly an awesome day.
Google reported strong earnings this afternoon, with revenue coming in at $5.06 billion for the quarter, up 19 percent from last year. Net income for the quarter also increased to $1.96 billion, up from $1.4 billion last year. Of course, we heard a few interesting tidbits during the earnings call, specifically relating to Google’s mobile business.
The Android Market now includes 38,000 apps, up 8,000 apps from a month ago. The application store for Android devices supposedly hit the 10,000 apps milestone in September 2009 and grew to some 16,000 apps in Android Market in December 2009.
Additionally, Google revealed that Nexus One, Google’s recently launched Android phone, is a profitable business for the search giant. The fact that’s its already profitable is surprising, if you take into account this report from Flurry, which reported low Nexus One sales. In fact, there’s been a lot of talk today about how the Nexus One’s initial roll-out has been a flop.
But Google maintained today that they are “driving the business to be a profitable business from the get go.” When asked if the phone will be offered in retail stores, Google couldn’t comment, but “is happy with device uptake and impact it has had raising the bar showing what a smartphone can do.”
On Tuesday we reported on a massive new financing round for Groupon. We’ve been gathering more details on the yet-to-be-announced round and other financial details about the company, and the picture is now nearly complete.
Groupon raised (or is raising) around $130 million, says a new source, and the valuation is $1.35 billion. Russian holding company and investment firm Digital Sky Technologies is leading the round, and there’s participation from Battery Ventures as well. All or nearly all of the round is being used to purchase stock from insiders to give them an early cash out in advance of an IPO.
We’ve also heard that the Accel round last December, $30 million, was also used to cash out insiders. Meaning the founders, employees and other insiders will be taking a whopping $160 million in secondary stock sales.
Why isn’t Groupon raising the money for operations? Because it’s making money hand over fist, say our sources. The company is generating $1 million or more per week in pure profit from the resale of steeply discounted local business products and services. Estimated 2010 revenue is $350 million.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
BoomTown liveblogged Google’s earnings call this afternoon.
Earlier today, Google (GOOG) beat Wall Street’s expectations in its first-quarter earnings, signaling that online advertising spending is back on track.
Here we go:
1:30 pm PT: Investor lady went over investor stuff. Zzzz.
1:33 pm: First up: Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google, whose delightful French accent livened up what was an almost entirely newsless event.
In fact, it turned out that the biggest news was changes in how Google presents its earnings calls going forward: No more CEO Eric Schmidt!
Instead, it will be Pichette from here on out, along with sidekick and head products dude Jonathan Rosenberg. Who was not around today, so top Google execs Susan Wojcicki and Jeff Huber filled in.
Also making an appearance, Nikesh Arora, president of Global Sales Operations and Business Development.
Thus, a parade of Google execs replaced Schmidt–all of whom said as little as he used to!
Pichette went through the numbers–lots and lots of them.
“Very strong performance, across the board, in terms of revenue,” he concluded.
1:44 pm: Next up, Wojcicki–fun fact about the VP of Product Management: Google was started in her garage–talking about improvements to ad search results.
They are going to get fat and detailed, apparently, with all kinds of stuff attached to them.
“The idea is for them to be more useful and therefore more high performing,” she said.
In display, Wojcicki said there was “very strong momentum.” More DoubleClick integration, more analytics.
Mobile: “Doing very well.” (I look forward to the first analyst question about its regulatory approval problem with Google’s $750 million AdMob acquisition.)
There will be an ability to “call through” on ads in smartphones, which sounds kind of cool.
1:51 pm: Next, it was Huber’s turn. He is SVP of Engineering.
He started with mobile and geolocation features Google is working on, some of which sounded a bit stalkerish. To the all-seeing eye of Google, they are fabulous, of course.
Its Android and Chrome operating systems are growing, Huber said, noting that there are now 34 Android devices.
Take that, Apple!–which has but one (which is doing pretty well on its own, Huber declined to add).
1:55 pm: Arora joined the call with the others for Q&A.
Questions about international advertising. All was well, said both Pichette and Arora.
Next question was about the percentage of revenue from enterprise and mobile. Also what up with Nexus One?
Pichette was not saying, of course, as that information would be useful.
Also no data on the profits of Nexus one, which Pichette noted was indeed profitable. But Google wasn’t saying how much! More non-news.
Finally, a good question about whether Google will remain on Apple (AAPL) products–given growing corporate rivalry between the two–and why the heck Schmidt is not on the call anymore and whether there is more to it.
Pichette became slightly agitated about the CEO question.
Eric has been everywhere! Abu Dhabi! Washington, D.C.! Jetting around on the GooglePlane like it was nobody’s business!
“It does not mean that Eric is not available,” said Pichette, explaining that the move is simply a question of “streamlining.”
Huber declined to comment about Apple, of course!
But, blood in the water: What’s up with Facebook competition?
This is a true oucher for Google internally, with execs quite concerned about the social networking site’s growth, even if Huber did not admit it and called it “not a significant issue.”
Translation: It’s significant.
2:04 pm Back to the sleepy questions on marketing and how the company feels about upcoming quarters compared with previous ones.
Hey, the colorful letters of Google and Googley goodness are just not cutting it anymore! You need some pretty ads! You have to promote! After all, Google has actual products now, like the Nexus One.
The next questions were on the number of Nexus One phones sold and, finally, on China.
Huber was not disclosing! If there were a badillion devices sold, you know he would, of course.
Pichette took the China question.
“This was a tough situation, but we really think we made the right decision,” he said, noting that the company is kind of still in China from Hong Kong.
Well, not really, but it was the right decision.
2:10 pm: Another good question on the News Corp. (NWS) deal and the AdMob situation.
Pichette pointed out the the mobile ad market is “nascent,” naturally noting that Apple announced its recently announced iAd network.
In other words, let’s keep pointing to what Apple is up to to save our bacon with the government.
“Google wants every partner,” said Pichette about renewing the deal over MySpace, but added that economics have changed since the first one was done with the then-hot-and-now-not social networking site.
Translation: Don’t expect a big check, Rupert Murdoch!
More in-the-weeds questions, which provided some insight, but not much.
2:28 pm: Another China question about whether serving its results from Hong Kong is sustainable.
Yes, said Pichette.
More about search advertising innovations and targeting. Google is all over it, said Wojcicki in many, many, many more words.
This line of questioning continued until someone asked whether the reported tensions between Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin over China are behind his absence.
Juicy, but completely ridonkulous.
“Non,” laughed Pichette, answering in a jaunty way.
The lack of Schmidt, he added, was not a negative, but part of a review of stuff Google could do better. In fact, it was an innovation!
Mais oui or mais non, it was the most interesting news of the day.
By Nick Wingfield, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said it is investigating allegations of worker abuse at a factory in China that makes computer mice, cameras and other devices for the technology giant.
The move was prompted by a report published this week by a Pittsburgh-based non-profit, the National Labor Committee, which alleges a factory in Dongguan, China, operated by KYE Systems Corp. overworks young employees and houses them in harsh conditions. Microsoft devices represent a significant portion of the products made at the factory, though KYE makes products for other companies there as well, according to the report.
“The factory was really run like a minimum security prison,” Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, said in an interview.
Representatives of KYE Systems at their Taiwan headquarters couldn’t be reached for comment.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Like every other tech blogger, I’ve been flooded with press releases about apps that are now available for the iPad. I’ve been underwhelmed, on the whole, with “news” of app updates for iPad compatibility but word came to me recently that BugMe had been approved for the iPad. That got me thinking about my review of BugMe for the iPhone.
My chief complaint in my review was that trying to write on the iPhone screen was too limited. That complaint vanishes completely with the iPad’s ample screen space. Also, the latest version of Bug Me includes an on-screen keyboard for both iPhone and iPad, so that you can type notes rather than handwrite them. Progress! This might be a useful little app for families sharing an iPad in the living room: no longer do you need to put a sticky note on the fridge, instead just jot down your note on the iPad and leave it out!
BugMe! for iPad is in the app store.
BugMe is also available for Android and Blackberry.
UPDATE: word just came in that the next version of BugMe for the iPad will include push notifications of the sort enjoyed by the iPhone.
Dwarf Fortress, an intimidating old-school city-building game, is famous for its vast scope and difficulty. Technically a roguelike, it allows players to construct elaborate underground civilizations -- and even the entire world they are set in -- then crushes them with goblin invasions, lava flows and micromanagement. Players often show off their labyrinthine creations using 3D visualization apps, but Jong89's creation is especially worthy of your attention: his dwarf fortress is a vast turing machine.
The Dwarven Computer is finally complete! I've tested it and it functions as expected, though its performance is really lousy. ... Yellow gears represent gears that are disengaged by default. Grey gears are not linked to any pressure plates. Blue gears are engages by default. Unfortunately I didn't have enough cobaltite to make all the blue gears on the upper deck so I used orthoclase instead. This monumental build contains 672 pumps, 2000 logs, 8500 mechanisms and thousands of other assort bits and knobs like doors and rock blocks. I believe this is the first programmable digital computer that anyone has built in DF. I believe it is turing complete, for anyone who cares.When examining the map, be sure to note it has multiple levels--and that the computer intersects with an underground river! Razorlength [Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] Thanks, Joel!
We’ve seen the supposed front of the iPhone 4 (which, according to the ol’ mill of rumors, will be called the “iPhone HD”). In fact, we’ve seen it twice. Now we’ve got the other half of the supposed-sandwich: the totally unconfirmed back of the device.
The 3-image series, which first popped up on MacRumors, is… questionable, at best. It appears that this back is made of all aluminum – a serious no-no, when you’re messing with radio waves that you actually want to get anywhere. We’ve heard shaky whispers amongst our own circles that the next iPhone will be aluminum and aesthetically similar to the iPad — but it’ll almost certainly need the same black plastic section at the top of the device as found on the iPad 3G.
More points of curiosity: the Apple logo is suspiciously small and, as MacRumors points out, the meta data within the image indicates that this has been passed through Photoshop at least once. In our own snooping, it certainly appears that the FCC ID at the bottom has been manually blurred; whether that’s because it’s a sham or to keep the leaker’s identity safe is a mystery.
What do you think? Real? Fake? Rake? Feal? Let us know in the comments below.
Faster data transfer between gadgets has been on top of consumers’ wish list. Light Peak, a new high-speed optical cable technology to connect electronic devices with each other, could be the answer, says Intel.
Light Peak can be at least twice as fast as USB 3.0, also known as Super-speed USB, and can deliver bandwidth starting at 10 Gigabits per second, with the potential to extend to 100 Gb/s. At its lowest speed, it means you could transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less than 30 seconds.
The technology which could start shipping in devices next year could succeed USB 3.0, Kevin Kahn, an Intel senior fellow said reportedly at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.
The USB Implementers Forum, an industry group that sets standards for USB, was not available for comment.
If Intel can pull it off, it would mean a big change for consumers. The ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus, or USB, has changed the way we interact with our computers. USB has allowed almost every consumer electronics product from keyboards, and printers to digital cameras and personal media players to be connected to a host PC using a single standardized socket.
USB has also made it possible for devices to be connected and disconnected without having to reboot the host computer and allowed for other devices to be charged off the port without the need for individual device drivers to be installed first.
This year, major PC and accessories makers are introducing products that use USB 3.0, whose data transfer rates of 4 Gb/s is up to ten times faster than USB 2.0.
But optical technology that drives Light Peak can do better, says Intel.
Unlike existing cables, optics transfers data using light instead of electricity. That makes its faster, allows for smaller connectors, and thinner, more flexible cables than what’s currently possible, says Intel.
Light Peak uses a controller chip and an optical module that would be included in devices that support the technology. The optical module, which performs the conversion from electricity to light using miniature lasers and photo detectors, will be manufactured by Intel’s partners, while the chip maker will produce the controller.
For now, Intel says that Light Peak can co-exist with USB 3.0 as Light Peak cables could be plugged in through the USB port.
“We see Light Peak and USB 3.0 as being complementary,” says an Intel spokesperson. “Light Peak enables USB and other protocols to run together on a single, longer cable and we expect both to exist together in the market and on the same platform at the same time. ”
But because of its potential, could Light Peak end up replacing USB 3.0?
See Also:
Photo: Light Peak module close-up with laser light added for illustration/ Intel
I posted a followup last night, after Xeni emailed me with a tip that the Cornucopia study had been funded by an agriculture think-tank/lobbying group called the Weston A Price Foundation. Based on that tip, I believed that I'd been had -- just another example of a corporate subsidized "science" that concludes that the company's products are just dandy (or that its competitors' wares are bad for you).
But I was wrong. I've just spoken to Kiera Butler from Mother Jones, who has followed up with Cornucopia. Cornucopia promises that the Price Foundation did not fund its research (and further, that none of its research is ever substantially funded by any concern or individual), and the principal researcher repeated her concern that there is no evidence that the hexane boils off before consumption, and that in any event, "health food" companies have no business emitting terrible toxic waste into the atmosphere (here's her update).
And I agree. And we were wrong. Xeni and I offer our sincerest apologies to both Cornucopia and the Price Foundation for publishing inaccurate information.
Source: Boing Boing | 15 Apr 2010 | 12:47 pm
"Granite State of Mind" is a rap about the wonders of New Hampshire. As a lifelong Midwesterner, I think I'm missing a lot of the jokes. What I do get, though—and LOVE—is the sequence that starts around 2:33.
(Thanks, Shea Gunther!)
Special Granite State of Mind shout-out to Nathan C. and Sarah K.—two awesome people who just moved to New Hampshire—and to Max and Clay W., who've been rocking upper New England for a while now. Miss you all
FROM APPLETELL - We got to try out the Breo de Janeiro headphones will at this years Gadget Show Live event in the UK, and we have to say - they’re certainly up to the task, even against the likes of Bose and Sennheiser.
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If there was even an smidgen of lingering doubt in your mind that Verizon was picking up the HTC Incredible, you really ought to read this site more often. We saw photos of this thing decked out in its Verizon garb months ago, and then again just weeks later. Leak, after leak, after monstrous, undeniable-confirmation leak, all signs were pointing to Verizon.
Well, now Verizon has gone ahead and fessed up.
Beginning April 29th, the Verizon Droid Incredible will be available for $199.99 on a 2-year contract. If you’ve been holding out for the Verizon version of the Nexus One, go ahead and jump ship for this one now: it’s essentially the same phone, albeit with a boxier shape, a beefier camera (8 megapixel vs. 5), and HTC’s custom Sense user interface overhaul running on top of Android 2.1
Check out the full spec sheet below:
- Android 2.1 with HTC Sense experience
- 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor for maximum responsiveness
- Friend Stream for unified Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates
- “Leap” view for quick access to all seven home screen panels
- 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash for crisp, detailed images
- Razor-sharp 3.7 inch WVGA (480×800) AMOLED capacitive touch display
- Optical joystick for smooth navigation
- Dedicated, touch-sensitive Home, Menu, Back and Search keys
- Proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass
- Integrated GPS
- Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
- 3.5 mm headset jack
 The Guardian | Israel Bans iPad Imports Over Wi-Fi Issue PC Magazine Planning a trip to Israel? Might want to leave that iPad at home. The Israeli Communications Ministry has ordered customs agents in the country to confiscate all Apple iPads from overseas passengers, The Christian Science Monitor reports. ... Israel bans imports of Apple iPad Israeli Customs Will Take That iPad Now, Please Apple delays global rollout of iPad |
The Android factory that is HTC has cranked out yet another phone. HTC’s latest device is called Droid Incredible and it will hit Verizon Wireless this month.
The Incredible has some snazzy specs. The phone features a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, 3.7-inch OLED display, Wi-Fi and GPS. And it will run the latest version of the Android operating system, Android 2.1.
But the launch of HTC Incredible could take a toll on another device: Google’s Nexus One phone. The Nexus One, also designed by HTC, debuted in January on T-Mobile. But Google has indicated it wants to offer the device on other carriers, especially Verizon.
The HTC Incredible could challenge that plan. The Incredible is on par with the Nexus one in terms of processing power and the vivid OLED display. Where it scores over the Nexus One is in its more powerful camera.
The question now is whether consumers will want to buy the Nexus One, if it ever comes to Verizon, especially when they can get a better device for just a few more bucks.
The HTC Incredible will cost $200, after a $100 mail-in rebate, and with a two-year contract. The phone will be available on Verizon starting April 29.
See Also:
If you own a TV, you’ve probably heard of Glee. It’s Fox’s new big thing, starring a surprisingly pretty lot of “geeks” who not only happen to be able to belt out just about any pop tune you throw at them, but can find ways to squeeze those songs into situations where no one would generally be singing (like a guy telling a girl’s parents that he got their daughter pregnant), without anyone raising an eyebrow.
If you own an iPhone, you’ve probably heard of Smule. They’ve had more top iPhone apps (most of which have been music-oriented) than just about anyone else, with apps like Ocarina, Leaf Trombone, and I Am T-Pain in their roster.
Now, bring these things together – what do you get? You get beautiful, beautiful music — and one of the best uses of a content license I’ve ever seen.
Today Smule is launching the official Glee app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
The premise of the $3 app is pretty fitting, given the subject at hand: you sing. The app comes preloaded with three songs from the show (“Rehab”, “Somebody to Love”, and “You Keep Me Hanging On”), and you can expand your catalog with new songs through In-App purchase for a buck each. The app will scroll the lyrics on your iDevice much in the same way that you’d see on a Karaoke machine, with a pitch chart at the bottom hinting at how well you’re doing.
Okay, great. Singing. Anyone can make a singing/recording app, right? Sure — but things start to get magical when Smule brings in stuff from the armory they’ve built up over past projects.
Lets say I can’t sing worth a damn — because I can’t. Smule has leveraged some of the pitch tweaking/correcting technology they built for I Am T-Pain here, enabling the app to turn the works of folks like yours truly (which sound like a cat fighting a chalk board) into something listenable in real time, on-the-fly.
Smule brings the whole thing together with their “Sonic Network” technology. See that globe over there? Each one of those glowing dots is a performance by someone else with the Glee app. You can share your recordings (on the globe, or via Twitter/Facebook/E-mail) in an effort to acquire fans, known here as “Gleeks” (“Glee Geeks”); the more “Gleeks” your performance has, the more likely it is that you’ll show up on the globe when people search for “Top Performances”.
Cooler yet, you can “join” people in their pre-recorded performances, creating new performances with your vocals harmonized together. Find someone whose voice just clicks with yours? You can start a Glee club of your own, automatically sending your fellow glee club members recordings for them to add their harmonies to.
Smule and Fox went all out here, taking the boring standard affair themed app to something actually worth opening more than once. Is it for everybody? Not at all – but given that Glee is up to just under 14 million viewers right now, I’d say there’s a pretty big market here.
You can find Glee for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad for $3 right here in the App Store – but in the mean time, check out the demonstration of the App by one of Smule’s own below.
Section: Audio, Web, Online Music/Video, Features, Contests
The fine folks at Slacker Radio have come back to Gadgetell with a few more Radio Plus subscriptions to giveaway to you—the readers. This time around we are giving away a total of five (5) Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions. We have;
Entering to win is simple, just leave a comment and five people will be picked at random. That is it, just leave a comment to win.
The contest is open as of this posting and will run through 11:59 AM EST on Sunday April 18, 2010.
Good luck, and if you have not already I would suggest checking out Slacker because its a great service. And no I am not just saying that because they are allowing us to giveaway some subscriptions. I can honestly say that I use Slacker on a daily basis—and I love it. It is what gets me though my day, every day. I listen to Slacker on the web and on my phone. I am also a happy Radio Plus subscriber, though I had to pay for my subscription. You can get yours for free. Remember, comment to win.
And now for the fine print…
[We are giving away 5 Slacker Radio Plus subscription] Rules
1. Description of Offer. [Gadgetell Giveaway: We are giving away 5 Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions, comment to win] is sponsored by Gadgetell LLC, 1500 Spring Garden Street, 12th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19130 USA. Sponsor will award [two 1-year subscriptions and three 3-month subscriptions] in a random drawing of all eligible entries received during the Survey Period.
2. Survey Period. The survey begins [as of this posting], and ends [11:59 AM EST on Sunday April 18, 2010]. All responses must be received during the Survey Period. [Five (5) winners] will be drawn within 10 days after the end of the survey period.
3. How to Enter. [Leave a comment on this post] By leaving a comment you are agreeing to be notified by e-mail if you are the winner. Entries become the property of Sponsor. In the unlikely event the Sponsor encounters technical or equipment failures such as telephone network lines failing, computer online systems failing, servers and/or provider services go down, or human error in connection with the survey, etc., the Sponsor and promoters will not be held responsible. Collection and handling of personally identifiable information will be in accordance to the Privacy Policy as posted at http://www.napco.com/privacypolicy.
4. Eligibility. NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO WIN. Employees of Sponsor, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers or their immediate families are not eligible. The total number of eligible entries received during the Promotion Period determines the odds of winning. By entering, entrant agrees to abide by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding.
5. Description of Prize. [Five (5) Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions] will be awarded to the qualified winners. No substitution, assignment or transfer of prize is permitted, except by Sponsor, who reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. Maximum cash value for all creative representations shall be [$47.88].
6. Drawing and Awarding of Prize. A random drawing will be made of all eligible and correctly completed entries received during the Survey Period. Winner will be notified by e-mail and this posting, within ten (10) days of the drawing. By accepting the prize, winner agrees that Sponsor, its affiliates, distributors, advertising and promotional agencies and suppliers and all of their respective officers, directors, employees, representatives and agents shall have no liability for, and shall hold all such parties harmless against damage, loss or injury that may arise in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of prizes or participation in this Sweepstakes. Offer void where prohibited.
7. Miscellaneous. [Gadgetell Giveaway: We are giving away 5 Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions, comment to win] is subject to all applicable laws in the United States and Canada. Void where prohibited and in any country except the United States and Canada. Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or suspend [Gadgetell Giveaway: We are giving away 5 Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions, comment to win] should virus, bugs, unauthorized human intervention, or other causes beyond the control of the Sponsor or Promoters, corrupt the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper operation of [Gadgetell Giveaway: We are giving away 5 Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions, comment to win]. All decisions are final. Sponsor makes no warranty, representation or guarantee, express or implied, in fact or in law, relative to the use of the any prizes including, but not limited to, quality, merchantability or fitness for a particular prize. All federal, state, provincial and local laws and regulations apply.
8. Winner’s List. To see the winner of [Gadgetell Giveaway: We are giving away 5 Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions, comment to win], please contact [robert (at) gadgetell (dot) com].
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Most consumers appreciate the way gadgets keep getting thinner and lighter. But soldiers who use gadgets in the midst of extreme combat situations demand even more. That’s why Hewlett-Packard says it is working on a prototype of a solar-powered, lightweight computer display that can be wrapped around a soldier’s wrist.
The flexible display, just about 200 microns thick, could show data such as maps or directions. It will be powered by solar cells.
“Soldiers in the infantry carry enormous amounts of batteries and gadgets that can weigh up to 70 pounds,” says Carl Taussig, director of HP’s Information Surfaces lab, which is working on the project. “We could make it easier for them.”
The first prototypes will be offered to the military starting early next year, says Taussig.
The displays would be use E Ink’s display technology. But they will be manufactured using a roll-to-roll process, similar to the way ink is printed on paper.
Flexible displays are paper-like computer displays made almost entirely of plastic. The Army has funded research at Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center that could bring in screens that are light and flexible enough to be rolled up and put into your backpack.
Flexibility isn’t just an advantage for the users. It also has the potential to simplify the process of display manufacturing. HP, and other companies, such as Ntera, are trying to create a manufacturing process that would allow the fabrication of thin-film transistor arrays on flexible materials such as plastic. The idea is to create displays that can be produced continuously, like newspapers rolling off a printing press, instead of the batch production that traditional displays use, which is more like the way cookies are cut. Roll-to-roll manufacturing would result in displays that are not just bendable but also relatively inexpensive to produce.
To create that for a real-world device, HP says it will have to re-engineer how the displays are made and powered. The company plans to use a black-and-white, low-power display technology from E Ink — the same technology that’s inside popular e-book readers such as the Kindle.
A thin layer of electronics will drive the E Ink screen. Optical and electronic components will be stamped onto the plastic. HP says it will work with a company called Phicot that it spun out recently to produce these displays.
Solar-powered cells that that are integrated into a piece of fabric will be connected to the flexible wrist displays.
The flexible wrist displays will be fairly small to begin with — around the size of an index card — but HP hopes that if they prove to be reliable enough, they can scale up production to slightly bigger versions.
“In the future, we think all displays will be made of plastic and our version of the Dick Tracy watch will be the first step towards it,” says Taussig.
See Also:
Top photo: Flexible solar cells printed on fabric/ HP
This is a heads up for anyone running Windows Mobile 6.5:
A little over a month ago, an xda-developers member reported that his phone was waking up on its own and attempting to dial out international numbers. Soon after, other users started reporting the same thing, and after some investigation, it turned out that a virus was to blame. The virus is particularly alarming because it has the potential to cost the phone owner a lot of money.
The virus comes in the form of the game “3D Anti-Terrorist”. DO NOT INSTALL THIS GAME.
If you have installed the game, or if you have noticed any funky international numbers appearing in your call history, there are instructions to remove the virus available here.
The original thread containing all the investigative work that lead to the discovery, can be found here.
[Image by xda member emcn84 and via xda-developers]
Last week, we reported on the looming deadline facing customers of Mexican telcos, where they were made to register their personal details or else face disconnection. At the time of that post, there were still tens of millions of customers that needed to register.
One week later, the deadline has come and gone, and while 1.49 million mobile phones were registered at the last minute, around 30% of mobile phone users have still failed to do so. Cofetel, the Mexican regulator, has come out and said that rather than disconnecting the unregistered accounts immediately, additional time will be granted to process all the last-minute registrations. Cofetel will continue to register all applications “that enter the system on time and in the correct manner”.
This is a small victory for the telcos, as they will continue to receive revenue from the unregistered phones during this grace period. However, details are unclear on how long this grace period will last, but it seems likely that it will only be long enough to allow that backlog of 1.49 million registrations to be cleared.
It still remains to be seen how many users will have their phones disconnected after this grace period ends, but given that 30% of users missed the first deadline, I’m betting that it will be a lot.
[via IntoMobile]
Section: Computers, Netbooks, Software / Applications
Intel has begun to offer some real details on MeeGo during the Intel Developer Forum which is taking place this week. And one of the goodies to come out of IDF is a short video (1 minute and 43 seconds) showing MeeGo 1.0 running on a Pinetrail based netbook. More specifically though, the netbook in the video is an Acer Aspire One. In short, its a decent looking OS designed for a small display in mind and should offer a nice alternative for netbook users.
Via [Twitter @chippy]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Love trashy, low-contrast photographs taken through a plastic lens, but find them a little flat? What you need is the Holga 120 3D Stereo Camera, Lomo’s medium format stereo-shooter that grabs two shots side-by-side for some photographic 3D action.
The plastic-bodied Holga makes you think you’re looking at it cross-eyed, or that somebody has mashed together two regular Holgas. The camera takes standard 120 roll-film, and captures two slides simultaneously when you trip the shutter. And you’ll want to use slides, as they’re the easiest to view, just by slotting them both into the viewer that comes with the kit.
And those flash-like rectangles up top? Yup, they’re flashes, and the camera comes with colored gels so you can splash differently-tinted light around from each of them. This is definitely a novelty camera, but then, it’s not too expensive, either, at $100 for the camera alone, or $150 for the camera, viewer, a film and a set of slide mounts. Available now.
Holga 120 3D Stereo Camera [Lomo]
Section: Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Web Apps
It looks like Evernote Premium member now have two additional features—Note History and the ability to upload files up to 50MB in size. Both sound like they will be welcomed, and are pretty self explanatory.
In regards to the Note History, well, those premium members will be able to click the “View note history” link that is located in the Note attributes section and then have the option to either view the older version of the note or export the note so you can create a new note with the version from the history. This feature does come with some limitations though, and perhaps the most important is that Evernote is not capturing EVERY change that you make.
As for that second new feature, premium members can now upload notes that are up to 50MB in size. And for those that may not have realized, that size was doubled from the original 25MB limit.
Additionally, the Evernote Blog also mentioned that they were making progress on allowing premium users to upload more than 500MB of new notes per month. As of now, a date as to when that will happen was not mentioned. Still, these two new features along with the promise of more makes me glad to be a premium Evernote user.
Read [Evernote Blog]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
This strap is called Chairless and is supposedly the most minimal chair possible. Designed by Alejandro Aravena for furniture company Vitra, the Chairless was inspired by an “Ayoreo Indian sitting on the ground with a tight strap around his knees and back.” That’s all the Chairless is: a strap that you cinch around your back and knees to support you in a sitting position wherever you may feel the need to stop standing or lying down.
Now, I could mention that the most minimal chair in the world is the floor, and we all have one of those already, and I think I will. But in the interests of science, I made my own Chairless from a yoga strap I, erm, found in my apartment. The strap is almost exactly the same as the Chairless, and undoubtedly cheaper (although Vitra is keeping quiet on the price until the June launch).
Is it comfortable? Well, if you define comfort as feeling as if you are tipping backwards while you legs have their blood cut off, then yes, it is one of the most comfortable chairs I have used. Here’s a tip from yoga: sit cross legged. If you get used to it, and do it properly, you back will be straight, your legs will remain un-cramped and with full blood-flow and you can stay in the same position for hours. Better, you don’t need to buy a branded designer strap to do it.
Chairless [Vitra. Warning: Flash via Fast Company and ]
Section: Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Google
During the Google Atmosphere event, Eric Schmidt took some time to explain why you should be looking forward to Chrome OS. Well, why he is looking forward to Chrome OS anyway. Fair warning though, the video is on the long side coming in at almost 42 minutes. Buy if you are interested in Google, Chrome, Eric Schmidt or any combination of the above then it may be worth watching.
Via [Google Operating System Blog]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Drift Innovation’s X170 sports-camera, or “Action Camera”, is a great looking, lightweight camcorder with a lot of very clever features. It is let down by just one thing: a mere hour of battery life.
The X170 is a solid-state camcorder that records straight to SD (a half-hour will eat 1GB) and has a tiny 1.5-inch screen for playback (or more usefully, a quick check to see you got the shot). Video is shot through a wide-angle lens with a 170-degree field-of-view, and is recorded in 720 x 480 pixels at 30fps. Stills can be grabbed at 5 megapixels.
The camera comes boxed with a huge array of mounts: A helmet-grip, head-strap, goggle and handlebar mounts and a plain ol’ Velcro fastener for anything else. It also comes with an RF remote control with a five meter (16-foot) range. If you’re into any kind of sport and want to film it, you’re covered.
Which makes that battery life all the more annoying. We guess, though, that putting in a longer-life li-ion in there would mean that once the battery died, you’d be stranded. The X170 instead uses regular AAs, so you can just keep swapping them out until you land/crash/collapse of exhaustion. $200.
X170 Action Camera [Drift Innovation]
FROM APPLETELL - Within the first 24 hours of the Opera Mini browser being on the iTunes App Store, it has rocketed to the number one most downloaded free application in all 22 stores.
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Carriers Vodafone, Orange and O2 have all made spookily similar statements regarding iPad tariffs. All three companies have said that they will offer dedicated price-plans for Apple’s tablet when it launches internationally in May, although none has named a price.
The UK is best served, with all three telcos set to offer an iPad package. Orange is planning to also offer tariffs in France, Spain and Switzerland. This is especially good news for Spain, which is forced to buy the iPhone from the horrible Telefónica.
We don’t yet know if these plans will be as forward thinking as those in the US, but hopefully there will be contract-free options like AT&T is offering. What we do know is that pretty much all European carriers use the GSM standard, which should make for some competition and low prices. It also means that US travelers will be able to avoid roaming charges by popping in a foreign SIM, just like you can do with most anything that isn’t an iPhone.
Orange announces it will offer dedicated iPad price plans [Orange via Engadget]
O2 announcement [Twitter]
Vodafone announcement [Twitter]
See Also:
Illustration: Colorware
Shapeways, the mail-order 3D printing shop, will now print your objects in glass. That’s right: no longer will you need to walk to a tacky strip-mall store to buy a hideous butterfly-shaped trinket for grandma’s birthday. Now you can make your own.
Shapeways works like this: You design an object using a web-based tool and upload it to Shapeways, where it will be printed in their factory in your choice of material (stainless steel, ABS, acrylic, trippy colored sandstone, and others). The cost depends on how much material you use, and the object is mailed direct to you.
The new glass material won’t let you print a new window for your car – it is white, not see-through – but for small sculptures it is ideal. Recycled glass powder is laid down a layer at a time by a printer and mixed with a binder where the object will be. It is then baked to harden up the binder and the rest of the powder is carefully removed. Then the object goes into the kiln, just like a clay pot, and is fired at 750º Celsius, whereupon the binder evaporates and the glass fuses into, well, glass.
The resulting objects are brittle, and slightly rougher than the glass you’re used to, but the results can be beautiful, as you see at the end of the video. Prices start at $6 per cubic centimeter, which is a small price to spend on your loving grandma.
You Can Now 3D Print in Glass With Shapeways [Shapeways. Thanks, Stephanie!]
See Also:
Amazon’s contempt for anyone other than English-speakers may be the Kindle’s undoing. By ignoring the majority of the world, it has left a huge gap in the e-book market. Now Spanish speakers are being given their own e-reader and store in the shape of Spring Design’s Alex.
The Alex will be re-branded as the Papyre 6.S Alex and join other Papyre readers sold by Grammata, a Spanish-language e-book provider. The dual-screen, Android-powered reader will launch with a mere 1,000 titles (still around 1,000 more Spanish titles than Amazon offers), rising to 15,000 to 45,000 when its publishing deals are signed.
The Alex, you will remember, is similar to the Barnes & Noble Nook, with an e-ink screen up top and a colored touch-screen below. The launch model will have Wi-Fi, with 3G to follow. Good news, then, for Spanish speakers the world over. Or almost. The Alex will cost a ridiculous €450 at launch in July. That’s $615, or the price of another Spanish-speaking e-reader with Wi-Fi and 3G: Apple’s iPad. Good luck, Grammata.
Papyre 6.S Alex [Grammata. Thanks, Pat!]
See Also:
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Israeli entrepreneurs and VCs, I’ll be happy to meet as many of you as humanly possible in the span of 3-4 days while I’m spending some time in Tel Aviv in a few weeks. I’ll be heading down there – first time ever – on the 3rd of May and stick around until the 6th of May around noon.
Over the last few months there have been non-stop 
