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Too many discounts: Apple Japan bullies online retailers
Japan loves Apple, there’s no doubt about it. The brand is one of the most popular tech brands in the country. iPods, Macs and even the iPhone are selling like hot cakes. But apparently, big A, or at least its Japanese subsidiary, is getting a bit arrogant in the process. According to The Nikkei (“Japan’s Wall Street Journal”), Apple Japan today ordered a number of major online retailers to stop offering all of their products online. And Apple seems to have so much clout in Japan that their products vanished from almost every retailer’s website in the last few hours (reportedly, Apple told them to take down its products without delay). The resellers in question include the “Best Buys of Japan”, for example Yodobashi Camera, Joshin Denki, BicCamera, or Kojima. What reportedly bothered Apple were the discounts these retailers gave to their customers. The background is that Japanese buyers usually expect discounts of at least 5% whenever they buy consumer electronics or computers – online or offline (some devices can even drop up to 20% and more in price). In most cases, the discounts are being granted in the form of “points” that can be redeemed when it’s time for the next purchase. I just tried and could still put the iPod touch 32GB into my shopping cart on the Yodobashi site, for example. But as you can see on the screengrab on top of this post, Yodobashi says I have to go pick up the device [JP] in one of their brick and mortar shops and call a number for more information. The 5% discount (as bonus points) is still being displayed.
The only online store I could find that seemed to have received special treatment was Amazon (see screengrab of my shopping cart above).
Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2010 | 4:21 am Senators see privacy problem in Facebook expansion - Helena Independent Record
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 27 Apr 2010 | 4:13 am Visualizing U.S. Tax BracketsEye-opening visual of how U.S. tax brackets have changed over time. Click for a larger version: [WeatherSealed via Flowing Data]Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 4:02 am TokyoFlash Broke Watch: telling time with shattered, animated stained glassThe TokyoFlash folks have a new crazy-ass watch out, the Broke, which tells time by displaying an animation of a shattered piece of stained glass. The bright screen must be pretty battery-intensive because they've added USB recharging, which is pretty nifty.Kisai Broke USB charging LED watch
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:58 am @sternshow: penisesI finally get into Howard Stern’s studio for the first time and what do we talk about? What else? Small penises. How appropriate. I was headed in this morning to talk about Lotus Notes vs. Google...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:52 am Foreign Oil Dependency by U.S. Presidential ExhortationMike Milken had a slide up Monday at his conference showing the U.S.'s increasing reliance on foreign oil. It mapped that reliance across a series of U.S. presidents who all said oil reliance would decrease...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:46 am Quants: The Alchemists of Wall StreetWorth-watching new documentary about quants on Wall Street:Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:36 am Sony Announces The End Of Floppy Disk Production Wait, They Still Make Floppy Disks?By Chris Scott Barr How long has it been since you’ve purchased a floppy disk? I think I recall getting a 10-pack of them on clearance five or six years ago. The last thing I can recall using one...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:26 am AMD Phenom II X6 1090T: Six Cores on a Shoestring Budget - Washington Post
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:22 am Super Street Fighter IV - Computerandvideogames.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:21 am New Russian Weapon Hides In Shipping ContainershmG writes "A Russian company is marketing a devastating new cruise missile system that can be hidden inside a shipping container, giving any merchant vessel the capability to wipe out an aircraft carrier. Potential customers for the formidable 'Club-K' system include Kremlin allies Iran and Venezuela, say defense experts. They worry that countries could pass on the satellite-guided missiles, which are very hard to detect, to terrorist groups. This is a scary new development in the global arms race that allows for the proliferation of cruise missiles to anyone who will pay for them — even terrorists. This could be the next big thing in strategic weapons, as they can appear anywhere there is a container ship. The company even made a commercial and posted it onto the Internet." The article notes that a Russian defense expert said that "as far as he understood, the Club-K was still at the concept stage."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:20 am The Big Technical Mistakes of HistoryAn anonymous reader tips a PC Authority review of some of the biggest technical goofs of all time. "As any computer programmer will tell you, some of the most confusing and complex issues can stem from the simplest of errors. This article looking back at history's big technical mistakes includes some interesting trivia, such as NASA's failure to convert measurements to metric, resulting in the Mars Climate Orbiter being torn apart by the Martian atmosphere. Then there is the infamous Intel Pentium floating point fiasco, which cost the company $450m in direct costs, a battering on the world's stock exchanges, and a huge black mark on its reputation. Also on the list is Iridium, the global satellite phone network that promised to make phones work anywhere on the planet, but required 77 satellites to be launched into space."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:19 am Credit Ratings Agencies and Fake IDsI have criticized debt ratings agencies for years, so forgive me if I don't mention them much anymore. But this Paul McCulley quote from John Mauldin's weekend conference in La Jolla is too good to lose:...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:18 am Ted Turner and Boone Pickens Talk Energy at MilkenOne of the more entertaining panels at the Milken Conference here in LA yesterday: Ted Turner and Boone Pickens talking energy and ... stuff.Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:06 am Zong Emerges: Facebook Deal And $15 Million In Funding
See our post Mobile Payments Getting Traction On Social Networks, But Fees Are Sky High from last year for a deeper dive on their business. Early this year the company was spun off from its European parent, Echovox, and Echovox founder David Marcus moved to the U.S. to run the fast growing Zong. The company has now closed a new round of financing, its first as an independent company. Matrix Partners led the $15 million round, and partner Dana Stadler joined Zong’s board of directors. Stadler is a big win for Zong. He’s the former Chief Technology Officer of PayPal and will, says Marcus, be extremely helpful as the company scales the volume of payments. Last year Zong also started expanding beyond mobile payments by allowing users to bill goods to credit, debit and prepaid cards. As that expansion progresses, the company will need resources to do that intelligently. Stadler, who initiated projects at PayPal including PayPal Mobile and the PayPal Developer Platform, will certainly guide them in the right direction.      
Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2010 | 3:00 am Top Second Life Twitterers (Least According to Mr. Tweet)I'm not a huge fan of Mr. Tweet, a Twitter API that discovers communities of users on Twitter (a bit too aggressively viral for my taste), but it does have a useful list of Second Life's top Twitterati...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 2:52 am Senators see privacy problem in Facebook expansion (AP)AP - Four U.S. senators want Facebook to make it easier for its more than 400 million users to protect their privacy as the website develops new outlets to share personal information.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2010 | 2:49 am John Mayer Predicts Deadpool For Twitter
That was musician John Mayer during an onstage interview in Hollywood recently. Mayer has had an interesting history on Twitter. A year ago, there were reports that Mayer and his girlfriend, actress Jennifer Aniston, broke up because he was more interested in tweeting than hanging out with her. Then, this past December, Mayer decided that he needed a break from Twitter (and other social networking services) with his one week “Digital Cleanse.” But he came back, and has since then gained some 500,000 new followers, pushing him past 3.2 million, and making him one of the most followed people on the service (he’s only about 500,000 followers behind President Obama). His personal Tumblr blog is also called One Forty Plus, clearly in reference to Twitter’s character limitation. Now, apparently, he’s done. His account shows that he hasn’t tweeted in a week, and he apparently said on stage, “Within in the last couple weeks, every night I think about canceling my Twitter account because I think it’s pretty much done,” reports omg! News. That’s fine, celebrities cancel their accounts, or at least say they’re going to cancel their accounts, all the time. But Mayer is taking it a step further by ripping into Twitter as a service. “I would rather see Twitter be a cork board of links to other more important things, because it’s really sort of flawed from the beginning. I can’t tell you how many times I meet people or I’m having dinner with people who write stuff and they get upset they have haters now, like, ‘Why do I want to invent more reasons to have haters?’,” Mayer continued in his onstage interview. Oh yes, the old “haters” argument. “I might as well spend that time making a sandwich or building a model ship or something,” he went on. Kidding aside, Mayer’s point is that Twitter (at least for him — and probably many other celebrities) has too much incoming hatred mixed with outgoing over-sharing. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor terminated his account after sharing similar thoughts about the service last year (but has since brought it back in a more limited form). Kanye West also had similar complaints, or something, it’s hard to know what he was saying here. Anyway, go make that sandwich, John, we’ll put Twitter on Deadpool watch. Just don’t tell Hugo it’s over. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2010 | 2:39 am Panoramic view of a 19th century Belgian reservoirThis is an eerie and cool panorama of a 19th century Belgian reservoir, temporarily drained for maintenance: "The tank is normally filled with water and therefore inaccessible. Built in 1877, it collects...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 2:34 am Panoramic view of a 19th century Belgian reservoirThis is an eerie and cool panorama of a 19th century Belgian reservoir, temporarily drained for maintenance: "The tank is normally filled with water and therefore inaccessible. Built in 1877, it collects the water collected by galleries "draining" of the Bois de la Cambre and the Foret de Soignes. Its storage capacity reached 18,000 m³." The water tank of Etterbeek / Le Reservoire d'eau d'Etterbeek (Thanks, Jeffrey!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 27 Apr 2010 | 2:34 am Goldman: Lloyd Blankfein’s Testimony TranscriptIt's all deconstructed fairly ferociously here, but Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman's testimony for Tuesday is as follows. And keep in mind that the whole thing will be live Tuesday at 10am EST on C-Span3 here...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 2:31 am Opinion: America Offline [Voices]By Justin D. Martin, Contributor, Global Post I can watch Al-Jazeera live on my iPod Touch anywhere on earth with an internet signal, but I can’t watch CNN. I can view EuroNews in real time from my office computer in Cairo, but not Fox News. I can watch BBC’s Arabic network live in my lap on a Wi-Fi-enabled jet 30,000 feet above the Atlantic, but not NBC. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:56 am Facebook Privacy Hole 'Lets You See Where Strangers Plan To Go' [Voices]By Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, Guardian Facebook’s new system for connecting together the web seems to have a serious privacy hole, a web developer has discovered. Some people report that they are able to see the public “events” that Facebook users have said they will attend – even if they person is not a “friend” on the social network. The discovery was made by Ka-Ping Yee, a software engineer for the charitable arm of Google (GOOG), who was trying out the search query system known as the “Graph API” released by Facebook last Friday. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:50 am Most young Chinese use mobiles to get online: survey (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:49 am Inner Workings of Global Encyclopedia 'Better than a Soap Opera' [Voices]By Mathieu von Rohr, Contributor, Spiegel Online It was only one word that Wladyslaw Sojka changed on Wikipedia. But by doing so, he set off a running battle that lasted two and a half months and took on a tone so hateful that it even surprised Sojka — even if he himself was partly to blame for it. It started one night when Sojka modified the first sentence of the German-language Wikipedia article on the Danube Tower in Vienna. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:46 am The Editor and the Curator (Or the Context Analyst and the Media Synesthete) [Voices]By Joanne McNeil, Blogger, Tomorrow Museum Oh, curation. What was once the dusty practice of elites at cultural heritage institutions is now something Robert Scoble is apparently an expert in. Who says there are no jobs for art school students? Poynter is hiring! Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:40 am Modernizing the ‘Kodak Moment’ as Social Sharing [Voices]By Stuart Elliott, Writer, New York Times Despite the predictions of naysayers, the concept of the “Kodak moment” has endured into the 21st century, even if Kodachrome film is going the way of the Brownie Starmite camera. Now, Eastman Kodak (EK), eager to sustain some recent momentum, is seeking to redefine the phrase for a new generation of picture-takers. A campaign that is scheduled to begin on Monday will carry the theme “The real Kodak moment happens when you share.” Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:35 am This is Rubber Duck, it looks like we got ourselves a Woot Off
Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:18 am Violent video game ban for kids to get hearing - San Francisco Chronicle
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:09 am Viral Video: Betty White's Cougar-icious SNL Promo [BoomTown]
Well–as Betty White puts it in this promo for her debut appearance on the NBC late-night comedy show–”Thanks to the Internet, I’m hosting ‘Saturday Night Live.’” It is indeed so–after a lot of Facebook fan page grassroots agitation, the veteran television star will appear on SNL on May 8 for the first time ever. As I wrote in a post titled, “Dear SNL, Facebook Will Force You to Friend Betty White,” I wrote: “Of all the whacked-out Internet schemes that get cooked up to promote some such thing or another–like crowning actor Ashton Kutcher as King Twit–BoomTown has finally picked one that seems to make a whole lot of sense.” The page on the social networking giant, called Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!, garnered many hundreds of thousands more fans that SNL’s official fan page on Facebook. It now numbers over 500,000 fans. Apparently, it turned out to be a very effective “Like” button. And, as expected, here’s video of the charming promo from the self-described “cougar”:
Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:05 am Septeni Holdings -6-month group forecastCONSOLIDATED EARNINGS ESTIMATES (in billions of yen unless specified)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:01 am Technology Is Central To CIA's Strategic Plan [Voices]By Siobhan Gorman, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal The CIA announced a five-year strategic plan that would invest heavily in new technologies to combat non-traditional threats like cyber attacks from overseas and gain better intelligence on rogue states like Iran. The plan announced Monday also provides for quickly “surging” large numbers of CIA officers to hot spots around the globe such as the tribal areas of Pakistan or East Africa. Past agency plans haven’t provided for such war-time demands. The moves reflect an effort to bolster agency operations and analysis without causing too much disruption, CIA veterans said. Although historically there has been tension between the CIA and the Pentagon, this plan aligns the two agencies’ priorities, the veterans said. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Daily Crunch: Bowl-O-Rama Edition
Enclose your tub in a fire truck so your kids don’t drown
Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am India Adds Record 20 Million Mobile Subscribers in March (PC World)PC World - India added a record 20 million new mobile subscribers in March, as new operators cut tariffs to attract subscribers, according to data released Monday by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Transmit 4 gets new interface, faster performance (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - It may have been five years since the team at Panic released the last major version of their popular Transmit FTP client, but theyâÂÂve hardly been sitting around twiddling their thumbs.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:59 am On Little Cat's Feet: VISTA Captures the Cat's Paw NebulaThe Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) has done it again, this time imaging the Cat's Paw Nebula with stunning clarity.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:51 am Ghana Think Talk: the world majority solves the first world's problems Christopher sez, The Ghana ThinkTank is solving the First World's problems, one by one.The Ghana ThinkTank (Thanks, Christopher!) Source: Boing Boing | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:47 am PS3 Slim now ever more slimmer (and more efficient)
The new GPU is now on a 40nm form factor, reducing the weight, improving heat dissipation and reducing power consumption. While the PS3 still consumes 9w of energy in it’s standby state, the smaller GPU has reduced the amount of power it consumes by a whopping 15%. For the complete tear-down and all the details check out PocketNews, but be aware the translation has some issues. [via Toms Hardware]
Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:45 am Pakistan's PPL says Q3 net profit at 6.98 bln rupeesKARACHI, April 27 (Reuters) - Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. (PPL) reported on Tuesday a third-quarter profit of 6.98 billion rupees ($83.16 million), which beat market expectations.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:32 am LUCIFER to Reveal Fiery StarbirthThe Large Binocular Telescope is a seriously big piece of kit being readied for use in Arizona and an instrument called LUCIFER will use it to probe deep into the cauldron of stellar nurseries.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:30 am Cleaner Air Could Speed Global WarmingHugh Pickens writes "Scientists estimate that the US Clean Air Act has cut a major air pollutant, sulfate aerosols, by 30% to 50% since the 1980s, helping greatly reduce cases of asthma and other respiratory problems. But NPR reports that this good news may have a surprising downside: cleaner air might actually intensify global warming. One benefit of sulfates is that they've been helpfully blocking sunlight from striking the Earth for many decades, by brightening clouds and expanding their coverage. Researchers believe greenhouse gases such as CO2 have committed the Earth to an eventual warming of roughly 4 degrees Fahrenheit, a quarter of which the planet has already experienced. But thanks to cooling by aerosols starting in the 1940s, the planet has felt only a portion of that warming. And unlike CO2, which persists in the atmosphere for centuries, aerosols last in the air for a week at most, so cutting them would probably rapidly accelerate global warming. The author of 'Hack the Planet' says: 'As we take away that unexpectedly helpful cooling mask, we're going to be facing more global warming than we expected.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:28 am HSBC not bidding for KEB stake - CEOHONG KONG, April 27 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings , Europe's biggest bank, on Tuesday denied market talk that the bank may renew its bid for a $3.9 billion stake in Korea Exchange Bank .Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:23 am BRIEF-Novo Nordisk ups 2010 sales, profit guidanceCOPENHAGEN, April 27 (Reuters) - Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk said on Tuesday:Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:17 am UPDATE 1-BP Q1 profits up 135 pct on higher oil price* Q1 Replacement Cost profit up 135 percent at $5.6 billionSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:16 am Blood sugar testing game and accessory coming for the Nintendo DS
In order to help involve kids in their testing, the device will come bundled with the new game Knock Em Downs: World Fair. The theme of the game is two characters are running their own fair, and trying to defeat the evil henchmen trying to stop them. There doesn’t appear to be anything in the game that relates specifically to diabetes, but there are unlock achievements that can only be accessed by testing regularly. One thing to note, the meter plugs into the GBA slot though, so it won’t be compatible with the DSi and DSi XL. The accessory, called a Didget, is currently available at Walgreens,CVS/pharmacy, and drugstore.com as well as the Bayer website. MSRP is $74.99, but the Didget also includes testing supplies and lancets. [via TG Daily]
Source: CrunchGear | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:15 am Van de Velde gets majority of Intimacy for $14 mlnBRUSSELS, April 27 (Reuters) - Belgian luxury underwear maker Van de Velde has taken majority control of U.S. lingerie chain Intimacy from its founder for $13.5 million.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:14 am TABLE-Legs -1qtr group results3 months ended 3 months ended 6 months to Year toSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:12 am UPDATE 1-Enagas Q1 net profit rises 19 pct* to invest 700 million euros/year over next two years.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:12 am TABLE-San-ai Oil -2009/10 group forecastCONSOLIDATED EARNINGS ESTIMATES (in billions of yen unless specified)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:08 am TABLE-San-ai Oil -2009/10 parent forecastPARENT-ONLY EARNINGS ESTIMATES (in billions of yen unless specified)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:08 am Blinkx Starts Targeting Video Ads At Yoga Moms And Infonauts (Video Interview)
Behavioral targeting is all the rage with online display advertising right now, and video search engine blinkx is bringing it to video. For the past few years, blinkx has offered contextual video advertising through its Ad Hoc program, which matches ad keywords against a speech-to-text translation of the video, as well as all the tags and titles associated with that video. “We are extending targeting in Ad Hoc from contextual to behavioral,” says CEO Suranga Chandratillake. He explains the new targeted advertising product in the video below (I caught up with him last week as he was passing through New York City). Overall, blinkx powers 17.5 million video searches a day across its network, which reaches more than 60 million people a month. But for now, the behavioral targeting will work only on blinkx.com, which is a small part of its overall reach. Using cookies, blinkx will assign psychographic profiles to people base don what they watch. It will start with nine profiles, including Yoga Moms, Digital Dads, Gossip Girls, Adventurers, and Infonauts. Brands will be able to target specific segments by showing their ads only to Yoga Moms or Digital Dads. People are classified in the different buckets depending on what they watch. Binkx trains the system by extracting different concepts from each video and matching them to a profile. For instance, videos about children, crafts, soccer, or terrible twos are the types of things Yoga Moms supposedly watch. Advertisers can see the keywords associated with each psychographic profile to determine who they want to go after. By blending contextual and behavioral targeting, Chandratillake thinks he can get the best of both worlds. But true behavioral targeting would probably require data inputs from beyond blinkx.com, and even beyond any group’s video viewing habits. True behavioral targeting would take into account what websites you visited recently, and not just what videos you’ve watched. But blinkx is starting with what it can control. Down the line, it might have to incorporate data from broader behavioral targeting ad networks. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 27 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Considering cities as "dense meshes of active, communicating public objects"Here's ubiquitous computing dude and smart guy Adam Greenfield talking about treating cities as "software under development." It's a provocative and exciting essay:Provided that, we can treat the things we encounter in urban environments as system resources, rather than a mute collection of disarticulated buildings, vehicles, sewers and sidewalks. One prospect that seems fairly straightforward is letting these resources report on their own status. Information about failures would propagate not merely to other objects on the network but reach you and me as well, in terms we can relate to, via the provisions we've made for issue-tracking.Frameworks for citizen responsiveness, enhanced: Toward a read/write urbanism (via Beyond the Beyond)
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Source: Boing Boing | 26 Apr 2010 | 11:57 pm Another Science Fiction: space race ads on tour Rick Prelinger sez, "My spouse Megan Prelinger is about to take to the road with her show of paleofuturistic ads from the early, go-go years of the space race. While the images are fascinating in print, they're even more provocative when projected, revealing the gap (and sometimes uncanny resemblance) between the fanciful and actual futures of space exploration. I can't wait to see them on the big screen at DC's National Air & Space Museum, LA's Griffith Observatory and a host of other venues in Portland, Seattle and NYC. Her tour kicks off at San Francisco's Booksmith this coming Tuesday, May 4 with a slide show, reading and release party for her new book Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962." I have a copy of this on my desk and it is spectacular. Megan and Rick stopped by my office a couple months ago and I got to hear Megan talk about the subject matter and was totally mindblown. This tour is highly recommended. Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957 - 1962
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 26 Apr 2010 | 11:52 pm Chocolate Factory eats crow on Googlephone - Register
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Apr 2010 | 11:50 pm Reading from FOR THE WIN - YA science fiction novel about gold farming
My next young adult novel, For the Win, is out on May 11 in the US, UK and Canada. It's a kind of novel-length version of my story Anda's Game, about the drive to unionize gold-farmers who toil in video-games.
I've just read an excerpt from the book in my podcast -- a scene in which a wildcat strike breaks out in an Internet Cafe in Guangzhou.
Podcast feed
China's Alibaba teams up with US PayPal (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Apr 2010 | 11:45 pm Peter Watts won't go to jailThe absurd and awful saga of sf writer Dr Peter Watts's adventures with the US border are finally at a close, and the news is moderately good. For those of you who missed it the first time around: Peter is a Canadian marine biologist and sf writer. He helped a friend relocate to the US, and, while driving back, found that US customs officers had opened his trunk and begun to search his car while he was in it, without saying anything. Peter had never encountered a US search on his way out of America, let alone a completely unannounced one. So he got out of his car and said something like, "Hey, what's going on?" The customs officers ordered him to get back into his car and he said something like, "But what's going on?"That's when they beat him to the slushy ground, gassed him with pepper spray and charged him with a felony ("obstruction"). He was held in wet clothes in an unheated cell overnight during a snowstorm, then released and told to come back for his trial, where he would face up to two years in prison for his crime. At the trial, the guards gave ridiculous, self-contradictory testimony (they said Peter had fought them), and the videos showed that Peter's side of the story was the correct one. He got out of his car, asked a simple question, then failed to instantly obey the barked order of the customs officer. This failure to be instantly obedient is apparently all the statute required, and Peter was found guilty. His jurors subsequently found their way onto his blog and apologized, but said that the judge instructed them that they had to find guilty if Peter had been anything less than instantaneously and wholeheartedly cooperative. Then came the sentencing recommendation. The prosecutor, after making noises about a suspended sentence, came back with a recommended six-month sentence. That was where things stood yesterday, when Peter drove to Port Huron for his sentencing. But the judge saw some reason and suspended Peter's sentence. Whew. Peter Watts is free (Thanks to everyone who sent in this great news)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 26 Apr 2010 | 11:37 pm Police poised to expand iPhone prototype probe - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Apr 2010 | 11:10 pm HP Moves High-end Superdome to Blade Platform (PC World)PC World - Hewlett-Packard has unveiled some major updates to its Integrity line of Itanium-based servers, including a new edition of its top-end Superdome system based on HP's blade server architecture.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Apr 2010 | 11:00 pm Mobile Blogger "Boy Genius" Unmasked, Acquired [MediaMemo]
Among those paying attention: Mail.com owner Jay Penske, who has just purchased Geller’s three-and-a-half year-old site, which averages around a million visitors per month. Geller will be added to Penske’s growing stable of Web site operators, which includes high-profile gets like Hollywood power blogger Nikki Finke and celebrity editrix Bonnie Fuller. Geller wouldn’t tell me what the terms were, but said the deal for his company — he’s the sole owner, and employs three writers — is worth “multiple millions”. If that sounds familiar, it’s because we heard similar numbers batted around when Penske bought Finke’s one-woman site last summer. I assume the terms include an upfront payment, equity in Penske’s company and payouts triggered by traffic and/or revenue goals, so there’s likely a good deal of wiggle room in the deal. In any case, it’s a nice bit of validation for a 23-year-old who never made it to college. Geller dropped out of Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Conn., presumably because he was too busy contributing posts to tech kingpin Engadget. He started his own site in October 2006. Geller says he’s kept his name off of his posts, and off his site because it seemed like a good idea, “for marketing reasons.” He will still keep his name off the site, but will be making a few changes under Penske’s ownership. Geller is changing the url to an easier-to-find bgr.com, for instance. And Penske will be bringing his own people to replace Federated Media, which has been handing sales for the site. The content should remain the same, though: Plenty of stat-heavy posts about everything from Apple’s (AAPL)’s new iPhone (duh) to Research in Motion’s (RIMM) annual BlackBerry convention. Source: All Things Digital | 26 Apr 2010 | 10:32 pm Redefining Tornado Alleys"Tornado Alley" is really four alleys -- sections of the southeastern US where tornadoes tend have a high probability of forming.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 10:11 pm Verizon Business Adds Riverbed Application Acceleration Technology, New Consulting Services to Boost Performance of Key Business ApplicationsBASKING RIDGE, N.J., April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Businesses worldwide will be able to more effectively share video, Web and other key business applications across multiple locations, with new application performance capabilities and professional consulting services from Verizon Business.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 10:01 pm April 27, 1791: S.F.B. Morse, 'American Leonardo,' BornThe man invents the telegraph (with a little help from his patent plaintiffs), has a checkered career in the arts, and is a complete flop as a right-wing politico.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Germanium 'Tissue Paper' Could Stop Bullets, Harness Solar EnergyWho wouldn't want a shirt that could stop a bullet and power your iPod? A new fabric can do just that.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Spotify Adds Social Features And Connects To Facebook (But Still No U.S. Launch Date)
Music streaming startup Spotify is going social. Today it unveils new features under the unpronouncable title of ‘Spotify Music Pro@ile’. Essentially it's creating a true social network inside the Spotify service, but at the same time integrating Facebook Connect features. It is wil also now synchonise your existing music collection with your Spotify account. The update will roll out to Free and Premium users from 9am GMT today.
This update from Facebook is a major one. The trouble is what we really want to know is, having launched in several European markets and talked for the last five or six months about launching in the US... when will it launch in the US? No news on that front yet.
Meanwhile, the main new feature is the ability to share playlists and musical tastes outside Facebook. This will be good news for Spotify users, but for the startups which have been building out services around sharing playlists it's going to be a potential new problem.
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 9:50 pm Paper Manufacturer Launches "Print More" Campaigninnocent_white_lamb writes "Domtar, a major North American paper manufacturer, has launched an advertising campaign to encourage people to print more documents on paper. Domtar CEO John Williams opposes campaigns by other companies asking employees to be responsible with what they print. 'Young people really are not printers. When was the last time your children demanded a printer?' Mr. Williams said ... 'We've got to do some work about having them believe and feel that printing isn't a sort of environmental negative.' The industry expects that, absent this campaign, paper demand will decrease by 4% annually. Williams's comments did not go down well in some environmental circles."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2010 | 9:36 pm Roundtable Concepts Inc., the Company that has Officially Licensed Marvel Comic TVs and Officially Licensed Collegiate TVs, has just Launched their Own Line of HDTVs Named RTC ViewLAKE MARY, Fla., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Roundtable Concepts has launched RTC View their own line of high definition TVs. RTC View are of the highest quality components and specifications.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 9:07 pm Snaptu’s ‘App Store For Any Phone’ Adds Support For AT&T
The company, which recently raised a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, was founded in 2007. Its Java-based application platform has been installed by over 6 million users, with strong distribution internationally, including Asia and Europe. However, up until recently users in the United States were having issues using the application platform on AT&T. Snaptu worked with the carrier to get it working, and it’s now available through Snaptu’s homepage and AT&T’s Apps Beta site. Snaptu has previously worked with O2 in the United Kingdom to ensure compatibility for their users. To get started on Snaptu, users first install a standalone Java application. From there, they’re able to choose from over 20 different sub-applications that have been built by Snaptu to run on their platform. These applications include everything from Facebook and LinkedIn to a generic RSS reader and a trivia app. While some of the applications offered are a bit redundant (Facebook already has a mobile site), Snaptu says that its applications are optimized to be lightweight and fast. For the time being all applications are developed by Snaptu itself, but the company may open up the platform to contributions from other developers in the future. Snaptu is free and monetizes with advertising. The applications are designed to be fairly light on bandwidth usage, but the official site notes that you “may still want to consider an unlimited data plan”. In other words, while the platform will run on most mobile phones, its market will be limited to users signed up for data service, which isn’t ubiquitous yet. Update:: This post previously said Snaptu had 1.6 million users; they actually have 6 million with the app installed. Here’s a video of CEO Ran Makavy showing off the platform:
     
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 8:50 pm BlackBerry App World 2.0: The next generation - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Apr 2010 | 8:46 pm Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation: Announcement of 2009 Annual ResultsSHANGHAI, April 27 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- SUMMARY Financial -- The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the audited results of the Company for the year ended December 31, 2009. Highlights include: -- Sales decreased by 20.9% from US$1,353.7 million for 2008 to US$1,070.4 million for 2009, primarily due to a decrease in overall wafer shipments.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 8:40 pm MyLikes Brings Pay-Per-Video Advertising To YouTube
It was inevitable. First we had pay-per-post, then pay-per-tweet, and now we have pay-per-video. As personalities on YouTube start attracting larger, and more loyal audiences, they are increasingly seen by marketers as an effective advertising channel. MyLikes, a social marketing network that already matches influential bloggers and Twitterers with advertisers, is now moving to YouTube. For instance, blogger Chris Pirillo, who has 120,000 subscribers to his Lockergnome YouTube channel, produced a sponsored video for the iPhone app Siri which shows him doing a demo of the virtual personal assistant. Sponsored YouTube videos are nothing new. Brands have been having success with hand-crafted campaigns (in fact, earlier today I wrote about sponsored video ads backed by GE and Howcast which collectively have been viewed more than 8 million times). But MyLikes takes a more automated approach. After all, it was founded by ex-Googlers including the former top engineer on AdSense. Youtubers need to apply to get into the program. It helps if you have more than 10,000 subscribers to your YouTube channel. Each YouTube video creator creates a profile on MyLikes, which i slinked to the categories associated with his or her channel. They set their price per video and get an influence score based on factors such as how many subscribers they have, and the average number of views and comments per video. Then advertisers are matched to video creators, who then choose if they want to endorse the advertiser’s product in their own words. The videos are supposed to be identified as sponsored messages. As more and more people spend time in social media, marketers will gravitate there. Already we are seeing new business models such as OpenSky which tries to turn bloggers into direct marketers. YouTube is next. MyLikes just recently raised a seed round from other former Google employees. And it is announcing that it just hired another former Googler, David Scacco, to become chief revenue officer. Scacco was the first ad sales executive at Google.      
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 8:21 pm Sony announces the end of an era - pulls plug on floppy disc productionSection: Business News, Computers, Hardware, Peripherals, Storage  I still remember the days of using a floppy disc to save my word documents and whatever else I needed to save. For a computer that could barely store more than a few megabytes, a 1.44MB floppy disc seemed to do just the trick. However, as soon as CDs became efficient and popular, I hardly ever used those floppy discs again. Only a few days ago, Sony announced it will cut production of the 3.5mm disc in Japan by the end of March 2011. Having introduced the world’s first floppy disc in 1981, Sony owns 70% of domestic production of the disc and peak sales occurred in 2002 when they sold 47 million units. A year ago, however, only 12 million were sold due to the vast majority switching to USB drives and CDs for portable storage. Some major manufacturer’s used to provide firmware updates on floppy discs, but many PCs and notebooks don’t even have a floppy drive anymore. You may want to hold onto your old floppy discs - who knows - maybe one day it will become a collector’s item. Via [Mainichi Daily News] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2010 | 8:16 pm BlackBerry OS 6.0: What we know so far - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Apr 2010 | 8:15 pm Ashton. Britney. Hugo. Chavez Aims To Be The Most Followed Twitter User.
Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, has announced his intention to join Twitter. Considering that Chavez reguarly writes a newspaper column, and has his own radio show, the fact that he would use this newer mass communication medium isn’t that surprising. But what is surprising is his apparent goal. “I’m sure he’ll break records for numbers of followers,” Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s head of communications told Bloomberg today. I’m not so sure. From 0 to 5 million — that’s going to be one hell of a task for someone who is not exactly a pop icon. I’ve never seen anyone gain followers as fast as Conan O’Brien, and even he has “only” 888,000 followers almost exactly two months after he joined the service. Bill Gates, another shooting star, has only 775,000 followers. Since the destruction of the Suggested User List, it’s pretty hard to gain the number of people it would take to get anywhere near Kutcher and Spears (who were both on the SUL previously). As the Bloomberg article notes, Chavez will join other world leaders such as the U.S. President Barack Obama (who has 3.8 million followers), Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (who has 88,000 followers), and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who has 3,500 followers). Meanwhile, Chavez’s mentor, Fidel Castro, also has a little-known Twitter account of his own — sort of. The account, found here is apparently run by a newspaper and tweets every time Castro has a new article. This is quite a turn of events for Chavez as it was just February when it was reported that he was trying to silence his critics that were using Facebook and Twitter to call for his resignation (he denied the charge). According to this site, the hashtag #freevenezuela was the third most common terms used on the Twitter at the time. [photo: flickr/blatantnews.com] Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 8:01 pm Effectology: Horns and DrumsWant to blow some horns and play the timpani on your guitar? Bill Ruppert posted a how-to using only EHX pedals and his own, specific obsession with making his crazy sounds come out of his electric guitars.
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2010 | 7:45 pm Bing Loses More Money As Microsoft Chases Googleangry tapir writes "Microsoft posted strong results for the third quarter of its 2010 fiscal year, largely thanks to sales of Windows 7. But the company continues to suffer heavy losses in its Online Services Division [warning: obnoxious interstitial] as it tries to match Google in the online search and advertising market. ... The division's quarterly loss grew by 73 percent to $713 million, compared to a loss of $411 million during the same period last year."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2010 | 7:45 pm M.I.A.: "Born Free"
Watch video on Vimeo (not worksafe, and not for kids: nudity/sex/violence). Directed by Romain Gavras, full credits here. A live version is here. You can listen to the track here. The song is a thrilling, aggressive, hardcore electric anthem and heavily samples "Ghost Rider" by Suicide (ca. 1977, buy MP3 here). As my friend Clayton wonders aloud, perhaps the lyrics "America America is killing its youth" in the Suicide song influenced the visuals in the M.I.A. video. At the risk of spoiling the video for first-timers (and making too much light of the themes of racism and militarism it addresses), I will say only three words: global ginger jihad.
(Via M.I.A. on Twitter; also spotted on Dangerous Minds & LA Times on Friday, and everywhere else by this morning). Modern dance inspired by scienceThere's a couple of very cool things going on with this dance routine. First off, it's based on the principles of fluid dynamics—physical laws that predict the movement of liquids and gases.* Second, the dance you're watching was recorded live. That means all the nifty "70s Sesame Street"-style tracer effects on dancer Hope Goldman's body, and the visual elements tracked to her movements, weren't added in later. Instead, Goldman and visual artist/programmer Andrew Moffat used "infrared lighting and a custom-modded, $40 webcam along with custom software running on the GPU." This dance was Goldman's master's thesis for her program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Great work! *Awesome fact that I always forget isn't necessarily common knowledge: The gases that make up Earth's atmosphere and the air you breathe are fluids (Via Ferris Jabr) Source: Boing Boing | 26 Apr 2010 | 7:22 pm Top court to rule on California video game law (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Apr 2010 | 7:09 pm Yammer Doubling Revenue Every Quarter, No Fear Of Salesforce
Yammer CEO David Sacks dropped by TechCrunch today to talk about corporate and sales milestones. The “Twitter for enterprise” startup, which won TechCrunch50 in 2008, continues to grow nicely. Yammer now has 70,000 corporate clients, and 800,000+ total seats (users). At least 1,000 of those companies are paying for the product, and Sacks says 10%-15% of seats are converting to paid. 70% of Fortune 500 companies are using Yammer, says Sacks. Paying customers include Cisco, Nationwide, AstraZeneca, Alcatel-Lucent, Sungard and Molson Coors.
So what about Salesforce’s Chatter product, which directly competes with Yammer? Sacks says he’s not worried. Chatter is still in beta, but will likely cost at least $50/month/user. Yammer, which only charges $3-$5/month/user, can compete on price alone very well, he says. Yammer has raised $15 million in two rounds of financing.      
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 7:03 pm Steam for Mac building st… momentum; users compile feature list in anticipation
The news is mostly good:
For a full list, including a couple chipsets that will not work, head over to the Steam forums. [via MacRumors]
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2010 | 7:00 pm Japan Import: Prepare for the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd bundle and accessoriesFROM GAMERTELL - Sega has announced that there will be a special Hatsune Miku: Project Diva PSP bundle, as well as two different accessory sets. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:59 pm Old school hack: rope a lawnmower (or goat) to a stakeAccording to some commenters, this hack has been around since the ’40s. It’s older than that, in fact — I imagine since the dawn of domesticated grass-eating animals, the old stake-and-rope trick has worked wonders. Goats never did it quite so neatly, though. It looks like a UFO landed there. Bonus: no goat poop. [via Hack a Day]
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:30 pm Mobile Marketing Association Releases New Version of U.S. Consumer Best Practices for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content ServicesNEW YORK, LONDON, SINGAPORE and SAO PAULO, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) (www.mmaglobal.com) today released the latest version of its U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:29 pm Arizona's "papers please" law inspires frijoles-swastikas
ARIZONA, ÜBER ALLES: A recently-passed law in Arizona that requires brown people to present papers when asked by gestapo officers inspired a group of vandals/protesters to "smear refried beans in the shape of swastikas on the state Capitol's windows." Watch video here. (jpeg via Towleroad) iPhone Leak Investigation Pauses As DA Ponders Gizmodo Shield Law Defense
I just spoke to Stephen Wagstaffe, Chief Deputy at San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, who told me that nobody has yet been charged in the case, and at this point it is “just an investigation”. He says the investigation is “looking at any hand that touched or had something to do with this phone” but that the investigation is not currently targeting either Gawker or the person who originally found the phone — rather, police are collecting every fact they can to present to the DA, who will then make a decision. With respect to the removal of Chen’s property, Wagstaffe says that the prosecutor on the case felt that the shield protection laws did not apply, so the raid was executed. However, after Gizmodo’s attorneys suggested some reasons why they believe Chen should be protected, the investigation has come to a bit of a pause. The DA will now reevaluate whether those shield laws do apply, and will not begin going through Chen’s possessions until they’ve reached a decision in the next few days (he says they’re in no hurry). When I asked if it was typical for the DA to evaluate the relevance of these shield laws after removing evidence, Wagstaffe did concede that it was unusual. Which makes the situation extremely odd— it should have been readily apparent that Gawker would defend its actions using this shield law defense, why put the brakes on after the fact? California’s shield laws protect journalists from having to turn over their sources and unpublished information they’ve collected as part of their reporting. However, Gizmodo could be found to have committed a crime when they paid the phone’s finder for the device. Earlier today Yahoo News pointed out that Apple serves on the steering committee of REACT, a special task force involved with the investigation. Wagstaffe said that Apple played no part in REACT’s inclusion and that he wasn’t even aware that Apple was part of the committee.      
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:19 pm Kindle Lover Oprah Fawns Over the iPad [Voices]By Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Is Oprah Winfrey shifting gadget loyalties? The question comes to mind following some comments by Winfrey–-a prominent past booster of Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle–-during a short segment of her influential TV show last week that featured tech analyst Omar Wasow and the Apple (AAPL) iPad. Winfrey gushed about the “amazing” new device, which she said she got the day of its launch. One reason is that “books move,” she said, as she demoed how the iBooks app (featuring the Oprah Book Club) keeps e-books on a virtual shelf and how some books can feature interactive elements. “It’s going to change the way kids learn,” she said. She also said that she loved the iPad because it is back-lit, which makes the screen good for sharing digital photos and playing games like Scrabble. “Gosh, those Apple folks,” she said. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:06 pm Plant face mask takes cutting down on your carbon footprint to the extreme
Mr. Ortega created a mask that is infused with seeds that uses the CO2 and moisture in your breath to sprout, reducing your carbon footprint and making you look like some kind of freak with moss on your face. Of course, when you are done you could always just compost the mask, or plant it somewhere. I do think that if this product ever comes to market, they are totally missing out on the name though. [via Treehugger]
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm Climate Change Starts to Shake Up Wine IndustryThere is much more to the question of wine and climate change than the character of pinot noir. Because wine grapes are extraordinarily sensitive to temperature, the industry amounts to an early-warning system for problems that all food crops — and all industries — will confront as global warming intensifies.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm TSA-Compliant Laptop Bag Takes (Some) Shame Out of Airport SecurityTake advantage of new TSA rules for laptops, with the Empire: a bag you don't have to remove your laptop from while going through airport x-rays.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm Clive Thompson: Why We Should Learn the Language of DataOur inability to grasp statistics -- whether we're talking politics, science or gambling -- makes us believe stupid things, Wired's Clive Thompson warns.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm TSA-Compliant Laptop Bag Takes (Some) Shame Out of Airport SecurityTake advantage of new TSA rules for laptops, with the Empire: a bag you don't have to remove your laptop from while going through airport x-rays.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm US Students Suffering From Internet AddictiongoG sends in a piece from IBTimes on the latest study to confirm what is becoming pretty obvious. The article mentions the Internet addiction rehab center we discussed last year. "American college students are hooked on cellphones, social media and the Internet and showing symptoms similar to drug and alcohol addictions, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Maryland who asked 200 students to give up all media for one full day found that after 24 hours many showed signs of withdrawal, craving and anxiety along with an inability to function well without their media and social links. ... 'Texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,' wrote one of the students, who blogged about their reactions. 'When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:52 pm Patriot Scientific Corporation Files Complaint against The TPL GroupCARLSBAD, Calif., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Patriot Scientific Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: PTSC) today reported that on April 22, 2010 it filed an action in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara against Technology Properties Limited, LLC (TPL), the Company's joint venture partner in the management of the MMP(TM) portfolio of microprocessor patents, and Alliacense, LLC, the licensing division of TPL.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:48 pm Manage your blood sugar with your DS and DidgetFROM GAMERTELL - Bayer has created the Didget, a blood glucose meter for kids. It can plug into a DS or DS lite and work with Knock ‘Em Downs: World’s Fair to reward kids who test themselves regularly with new game content. It’s only available in the UK and Ireland. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:47 pm DMX files NYC lawsuit claiming stolen royalties (AP)AP - Rapper DMX says he's been ripped off for years by a company hired to collect his song royalties, but he's been behind bars so much that he only recently realized the problem.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:43 pm Enclose your tub in a fire truck so your kids don’t drown
This $2,200 “tub extender” was part of a bathroom fixture trade show, a show that I believe CG should definitely cover next year. Basically it helps you by bringing the wee ones a big higher out of the tub but why not just wash them in the sink if you’re having that big a problem? I could see this as being valuable if you have back problems, for example. These are, incidentally, the same guys who make the walk-in tub for the old and infirm. If you’re interested, you can check out the styles at Safety Tubs. I’d personally love one shaped like a T-Rex mouth.
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:30 pm Latest MacBook Pro CPU runs so hot it can boil water (Christopher Null)Christopher Null - Buy a Mac and you know you're getting the state of the art when it comes to components (except for a Blu-ray optical drive — Steve Jobs hates Blu-ray). And that's a good thing, since you're probably paying a fortune for the privilege.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:08 pm Pope Rails Against the Internet and Transparencytcd004 writes "At a conference on digital media at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI attacked the idea of transparency in the Internet age, warning that digital transparency exacerbates tensions between nations and within nations themselves and increases the 'dangers of ... intellectual and moral relativism,' which can lead to 'multiple forms of degradation and humiliation' of the essence of a person, and to the 'pollution of the spirit.' All in all, it seemed a pretty grim view of the wide-open communication environment being demanded by the Internet age."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:07 pm Verizon Says FCC Open Internet Proceeding Reveals Emerging Agreement on Key GoalsWASHINGTON, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon told the Federal Communications Commission on Monday (April 26) that the public record of comments and testimony amassed by the agency during its Open Internet regulatory proceeding reveals an "emerging agreement on key goals for ensuring the continued success of the Internet." But no evidence emerged of a failure in the marketplace that would justify sweeping Internet regulations. The key goals include keeping the Internet "an open platform" for consumers and entrepreneurs, maintaining investment and innovation, encouraging transparency across the Internet ecosystem, and continuing to govern the Internet to the extent possible through the development of technical standards and best practices by the Internet community. Areas of emerging agreement also include the need for flexibility in network management and the sense that a broad prohibition on all discrimination is inappropriate and would harm consumers. "Virtually all parties agree that the public Internet should continue to be an open platform over which consumers can access whatever lawful content and applications they choose," Verizon said in its FCC filing. "In addition to allowing consumers to decide what practices, services, or devices best suit their needs, transparency will allow them to identify practices to which they object and thereby permit policing of anti-competitive or anti-consumer practices through public scrutiny, the possibility of reputational harm, and the risk of governmental sanction." The need for transparency applies across the Internet, including to application and content providers, Verizon said. "The Internet has historically been governed largely through the efforts of the Internet community in the form of technical standards bodies and other self-regulatory measures such as the development of industry best practices," Verizon told the commission.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:05 pm 1889 Pandemic Didn't Need Planes to Circle Globe in 4 MonthsWithout planes or automobiles, people traveling on steam-powered transport spread the flu across the globe in just four months, according to a comprehensive new look at epidemiological data from 19th century Europe.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:00 pm Police Raid Reporter's Home Over iPhone LeakPolice raided the home of a Gizmodo reporter on Friday and seized his computer equipment in an investigation of how the site obtained the iPhone prototype for a recent scoop.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 5:00 pm Gizmodo editor's computers seized in iPhone probe (Ben Patterson)Ben Patterson - Looks like the cops are turning up the heat in their investigation of how Apple's top-secret iPhone prototype ended up in the hands of Gizmodo, with San Mateo police — armed with a search warrant — breaking into the house of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen on Friday night to seize four of his computers, among other items.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:54 pm Appletell reviews Bento for iPadFROM APPLETELL - Bento for iPad, quite honestly, made me nervous. I liked the idea of syncing Bento between my Mac and iPhone. Wouldn’t the iPad just get in the way? Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:32 pm WSJ-vs.-NYT Print War Is Really About DigitalClash of the Titans: The Wall Street Journal launches a local news section in a direct assault on The New York Times. It's been called the opening salvo of the last great newspaper war, but it's really first battle of the post-newspaper era: a war for digital hearts, minds and subscription fees. Game on.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:30 pm How I Would Have Handled The Stolen iPhone Story
A number of sites have compared this to the Twitter document scandal that we were in the middle of last year. And we’ve received a number of inquiries about whether or not we would have handled this iPhone situation the same way as Gizmodo did. I’m not going to go into the legal issues around this because I’m just not qualified. I will say that having the police raid my house would very likely be a net positive event – it would place us firmly in the middle of the story, and all eyes would be on us. So don’t think Gawker is trembling in their boots just yet. I would hope that any legal pressure would be on me though, not one of our writers. But putting that aside, how would I have handled the story? The Twitter documents were emailed to us without us requesting them in any way. We contacted Twitter and their lawyers immediately, before publishing any documents. There were lots of behind the scenes discussions, but Twitter made it very clear from the first conversation that they would not take legal action against us for publishing the documents. They just wanted to make sure that they weren’t all published. Twitter certainly tried to stop us from publishing any of the documents, but they put moral and ethical pressure on us, not legal pressure. And we never came to full agreement on what the ethically correct thing to do was – I wrote my thoughts on that here. In some ways the Twitter story was more of a problem than the iPhone story. The Twitter documents were clearly stolen from Twitter by a hacker who broke into their email accounts. Here’s a full description of how that happened. Ultimately we decided that it was reasonable for us to publish the documents because the value of the news was substantial. And the hacker also made it clear that he intended for the documents to be published. We spent a great deal of time convincing him not to do that, because most of the documents were simply too personally sensitive and embarrassing. In the Gizmodo/iPhone case things are less clear. The phone was left behind by an engineer and was found by another individual. Should that individual have returned it to Apple? You can argue that, but you can’t argue that Apple wasn’t negligent in letting it be found in the first place. Where Gizmodo made a mistake in my opinion is when they purchased the phone. This is something we would never do. We’ve been asked if we wanted to purchase information in the past that would have made for some great stories and we have always declined. Our policy is to never pay for information. That isn’t common, and even the big media outlets will occasionally pay for a story. But it just isn’t something we’re comfortable with. Does the legal case against Gizmodo rely on the fact that they purchased the iPhone? I don’t know, but it sure does make them look bad. Apple’s complaint will be that information about the phone leaked early, giving competitors a head start on copying the features. That’s a reasonable complaint, but it seems to me they can make the same case against Engadget, which also posted leaked photos of the device. The same damage was done there, and they posted before Gizmodo. The bottom line is this. If someone walked the new iPhone into our offices and offered to let us take pictures of it, we’d do that in a second. If Apple or the police came after us, we’d lawyer up and make it as big of a circus as possible. The only thing we wouldn’t do is pay for the device. At the end of the day that may be the thing that they can get Gizmodo on.      
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:23 pm The Truth About Net Neutrality Job Losssnydeq writes "Robert X. Cringely investigates recent claims that passing net neutrality regulations will result in nearly 1.5 million lost jobs by 2020, finding the report at the center of these claims suspect. The report, put forward by The Brattle Group, conjectures that net neutrality adoption would curtail broadband growth by 16 percent, costing 342,065 jobs in that sector alone. The 'total economy-wide impact,' however, of such a policy would result in five times as many job losses by 2020, they say. The study is the latest of several weighing the economic impact of net neutrality, including those by law schools (PDF) and free-market think tanks alike. The Brattle Group report (PDF), however, should be met with skepticism, Cringely argues, in large part because the lobbying firm who paid for the report, Mobile Future, is anchored most notably by AT&T. Moreover, the report is 'based entirely on a single assumption: Regulating US telecoms in the late 1990s and early 2000s hurt them to the tune of about 15 percent per quarter, relative to the cable companies.' Yet, as he points out, regulation was not alone in causing this sector shrinkage. In fact, the Baby Bells' own bureaucratic intransigence was much to blame."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:22 pm Supreme Court Takes On Videogame SalesThe Supreme Court weighs in on videogame sales, agreeing to decide whether states and local governments may ban selling or renting violent games to minors. Lower courts have stricken several bans, saying they violate the First Amendment.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:18 pm Burst.com Changes Name to Democrasoft, Inc.SANTA ROSA, Calif., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Burst.com today announced that it has changed its corporate name to Democrasoft, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:18 pm Gizmodo's Next Exclusive: A Peek Inside the CA Legal System [Digital Daily]
Deputies from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s department raided the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen last Friday as part of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the sale of the prototype to the gadget site. And they came armed with a search warrant citing probable cause to search Chen’s home for property that “was used as the means of committing a felony.” Among the items seized in the raid:
Gizmodo parent Gawker Media is disputing the validity of the warrant, claiming it violates California’s Shield Law, which protects journalists seeking to maintain the confidentiality of their sources. “Jason is a journalist who works full time for our company,” Gawker COO Gaby Darbyshire wrote in a letter to the detective handling the case. “Abundant examples of his work are available on the Web. He works from home, which is his de facto newsroom, and all equipment used by him there is used for the purposes of his employment with us. Perhaps you are not aware of section 1524(g) of the CA Penal Code.” Section 1524(g) of the CA Penal Code is the California Shield law to which I referred earlier. Darbyshire argues it is “abundantly clear” that the search warrant used to raid Chen’s home violates it. This, of course, assumes that authorities don’t suspect Chen and Gizmodo of committing a felony (buying stolen property), which isn’t yet certain. It also assumes the court will view Chen as a journalist, which isn’t certain either. As Gawker CEO Nick Denton said in a statement to his employees: “Do bloggers count as journalists? I guess we’ll find out.” I’m sure we will, though it’s worth noting that Denton seems to have answered that question for himself last year. “We may inadvertently commit journalism,” he told The Washington Post. “That is not the institutional intention.” [Image credit: TopherChris] Source: All Things Digital | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:16 pm BlackBerry Maker Overhauls Phone Operating System
In a long overdue move, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is set for a major rehaul of the phone’s operating system. RIM will launch OS 6.0, a snazzier version of its operating system that will include a better web browser, a customizable home screen, widgets and an overall perkier user interface. OS 6.0 is expected to be available next quarter but it won’t be compatible with all BlackBerry devices, says RIM. RIM is playing coy with the details about OS 6.0 but the company says the system has been optimized for both trackpads and toushcreen devices. An earlier leak of the OS 6.0 prototype showed a user interface similar to that of the BlackBerry Storm. The OS 6.0 home screen has a has a digital clock, wall paper and large icons to access services such as music, web and e-mail. The browser, for long a sore point for RIM users, also has gotten an overhaul. Instead of displaying links and text in a reformatted version for the mobile phone, the OS 6.0 browser is closer to what iPhone and Android users get on their devices, throwing up web pages that look as good on the phone as they do on the PC. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis showed a sneak preview of the browser in February. OS 6.0 will include a revamped music player with an interface that displays album art. It’s nice to see RIM take a step to modernize the BlackBerrys user interface. But when rivals such as Motorola, HTC and even Microsoft with the Kin smartphones are integrating features such as social networking, video and cloud syncing into their devices, RIM’s efforts seem too little too late. See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Apr 2010 | 4:00 pm BC Hydro CPO Details Procure-to-Pay Success through Significant Capital InvestmentBMO Financial Group Helped Utility Leader Instill Spend Controls During $6.5 Billion Infrastructure Upgrade ISM's 95th Annual International Supply Management Conference - SAN DIEGO, April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - BC Hydro's acting chief procurement officer (CPO) will discuss his team's procure-to-pay strategy that is successfully supporting significant capital investments at ISM's Annual Supply Management Conference today. Three years ago, BC Hydro, one of Canada's largest electric utilities, faced a major challenge: it had outsourced procurement and realized it needed to support major infrastructure upgrades, which would more than double its annual non-energy spend.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:55 pm W3C Press Briefing to be Held at 19th International World Wide Web Conference in Raleigh, NC - Wednesday, April 28, 2010RALEIGH, N.C., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, organizers of the 19th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2010) together with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), announce a press briefing on Wednesday evening, April 28 at 5:30pm ET.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:45 pm Police Seize Computers From Gizmodo Editorsecretcurse writes "California police have served a search warrant and seized computers from Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor who unveiled the 4th-generation iPhone to the world. Gawker Media's COO has replied claiming that the warrant was served illegally due to Mr. Chen's status as a journalist. The plot thickens..."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:40 pm Is the Earth's core solid?Even if you breezed through a few geology classes in your day, it's easy to think of the Earth's interior like a Cadbury Egg: solid on the outside and molten in the center. Yet we've known for more than 60 ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:20 pm Barnes & Noble Nook outsells Amazon Kindle in MarchSection: Gadgets / Other, ebooks
Digitimes reports that:
There are multiple reasons as to why this would happen. Of course the Kindle has been out for a while now, which menas demand is dwindling for the hardware but soaring for the digital books themselves. With the Nook relatively new, its not surprising that people are buying more of them. Read [Digitimes] Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:20 pm Decades-Old Soviet Reflector Spotted On the Mooncremeglace writes "No one had seen a laser reflector that Soviet scientists had left on the moon almost 40 years ago, despite years of searching. Turns out searchers had been looking kilometers in the wrong direction. On 22 April, a team of physicists finally saw an incredibly faint flash from the reflector, which was ferried across the lunar surface by the Lunokhod 1 rover. The find comes thanks to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which last month imaged a large area where the rover was reported to have been left. Then the researchers, led by Tom Murphy of the University of California, San Diego, could search one football-field-size area at a time until they got a reflection."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:16 pm United Community Bank Receives Regulatory Approval To Purchase Three Indiana Branches of Integra Bank National AssociationLAWRENCEBURG, Ind., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United Community Bancorp, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm Mice Make Their Own MorphineScientists find that mice can synthesize morphine internally from scratch.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm Music Video Captures 105 Faces Flapping at 1,000 Frames per SecondJets of air and water blast unsuspecting models, with the resulting facial craziness captured using super-slow-motion cameras. The ultimate goal: an intriguing video for New Zealand band Shihad. Filmmaker Sam Peacocke tells how he did it.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 2:53 pm Do Aliens Exist? If So, Will They Kill Us?In a new Discovery Channel documentary "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking", the world-famous physicist goes on the record about his concern for attracting the wrong kind of attention in our cosmic neighborhood.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 2:50 pm Rhapsody for iPhone gets offline playlists - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm Boost for Better Place's Electric CarsElectric car company, Better Place, announced today that it is launching an electric car trial in Japan, starting with city taxis. Three cars began a 90-day trial in Tokyo that could eventually lead to the city's entire fleet going electric. ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 26 Apr 2010 | 2:16 pm Appletell reviews StealthArmor for iPhoneFROM APPLETELL - I’ve become a fan of iPhone skins, preferring them over standard cases. The latest I’ve tries is Fusion of Ideas’ StealthArmor, and I have to say it’s one of the more unique entries I’ve used. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2010 | 2:15 pm Earthly pleasures come to MapsEarth Day may have just passed, but the Google Earth team loves it too much to let it go. So we’ve found our own special way to celebrate Earth Day (a little late) by making an announcement that we’ve been working toward for a long time: Earth view in Google Maps. When we first launched Google Earth back in 2005, it revolutionized the world of digital mapping. In the years since, Earth has been getting faster and lighter while adding large amounts of imagery, more ambitious features and an ever-expanding roster of platforms, including support for Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android and even the 2011 Audi A8! Web browsers haven’t exactly been standing still either. As their capacity to handle richer applications has steadily grown, our ability to bring Google Earth online has grown along with it. In 2008, we released the Google Earth Plugin to developers, and since then thousands of sites have used it to create many cool applications and even games. Now the time has come to take off the plugin’s online training wheels and roll it out on the main stage: Google Maps. So if you’re one of the hundreds of millions of people who use Maps worldwide, you can now explore the world in luxuriantly-detailed, data-rich 3D imagery and terrain from Google Earth. If you’ve already downloaded the Google Earth Plugin, you should be able to see Earth view in Maps right away. Otherwise, you can just install the Plugin to enjoy a Maps experience that includes angled Earth views, 3D buildings, smooth panning and zooming and a great introductory showcase of places to visit and things to see. Current Google Earth users, of course, will continue to enjoy the full power of the standalone application: KML editing, historical imagery, GPS tracks, tour-creation, Mars, Sky, flight simulator and so on. But for quick online access, the power of 3D will also be available at the click of a[n Earth] button. We’re thrilled to be able to bring this functionality to the web and we invite you to come share the moment with us. Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Geo    
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 26 Apr 2010 | 2:00 pm Jawbone Icon to get A2DP as a free update tomorrow
Tiny wireless headsets getting new features, for free, by way of a software update? We’re living in the future, you know. We just got word from Aliph that their $99 Jawbone Icon headset will be gaining support for the A2DP (music streaming) protocol tomorrow, by way of a free update made available through their AppStore-esque headset customization portal, MyTalk A2DP is a Bluetooth profile built for streaming 2-channel audio, so it’s generally reserved for stereo Bluetooth headsets. The Icon obviously isn’t a stereo headset (being that it’s a one-ear headset) but Aliph says they got a good number of requests from people who wanted to be able to stream their tunes regardless.
Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:58 pm Do Make Room on Your Desk for M-Audio's Rock-Solid BoxesM-Audio’s Studiophile AV 40 speakers do what the big guys can but take up a lot less space. So what if they weigh 14 pounds? They're crisp and distortion-free, so you won't be moving them anytime soon.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:45 pm Dilbert prods at the lost iPhone 4G prototype
Scott Adams, everybody. If he’s not one of your heros, you probably just need to read up on him a bit more. Adams wanted Dilbert to touch in on the lost iPhone prototype — but unfortunately, there wasn’t an open slot in his publishing queue until June 18th. Rather than pushing the comic out many weeks after it’d be relevant, Adams decided to push not one, but two comic drafts straight to his fans via his personal blog. Neither of the comics will ever reach the newspapers. Be sure to check out the second (equally great) comic on Adams’ site.
Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:40 pm Social Networking Helps Hermit Crabs Find HomesPreviously unknown group behaviors lead to better housing for allEveryone wants to live in the nicest possible house, ideally with regular upgrades.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:35 pm How Do Chimps Deal With Death?Two studies in the April 27th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offer rare glimpses into the ways that chimpanzees deal with the deaths of those closest to them.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:32 pm Helping you find your way through the final frontierThough our rocket program to help commuters to our Moon office is still a long way off, we’ve always jumped at the chance to bring the wonders of outer space a little closer to Earth. On Saturday, our Hubble telescope doodle celebrated 20 years of one of the most productive and celebrated science instruments since Galileo first made a telescopic survey of the heavens 400 years ago.Hubble's razor-sharp vision has revealed previously hidden aspects of the cosmos with unparalleled intimacy and clarity, and you can see some of the best examples for yourself on our Hubble 20th birthday page. You can also download our new Hubble tour to explore further in Google Earth. And Google Sky Map now includes a Hubble Gallery for you to see Hubble discoveries by pointing your phone to the night sky. So far, we’ve also announced a Moon office, a Moon race, an expedition to Mars, Sky in Google Earth (also available as a handy, hand-held guide), Moon in Google Earth, Mars in Google Earth, NASA images in Google Earth and more than a few extra-orbital doodles. Occasionally somebody will ask us, “Just what does space have to do with the Internet?” Plenty, if you ask Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf. But space, like the Internet, is also a fascinating place to spend time, especially for engineers, technologists and explorers. So we usually answer, “Well, who hasn’t thought about blasting off and seeing the stars up close?” It’s incredibly important to encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers to (quite literally) reach for the stars. We’ve made these tools available to help these explorers and astronauts-in-training get their bearings, as well as to showcase the incredible achievements we’ve already seen from generations of brave, dedicated people working to challenge the limits of human capability and knowledge. And, depending on who you ask, space might be closer than you think. In the meantime, for everybody who’s taken a wistful look at the night sky — we’re looking up with you. Posted by Anita Barci, Product Marketing Manager, Geo team   
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:31 pm Sirius XM radio coming to Android “soon”
Hey, Android handset owners! Tired of your iPhone-toting friends bragging about how they can tune into SiriusXM radio on the go, while you can’t? Me too. (Don’t have any friends who happen to have both SiriusXM accounts and an iPhone? Me neither. We’re pretending, okay?) Fret no longer! Your time in the shadows of inadequacy is nearing its end, friend: SiriusXM is officially coming to Android. And before you Stern fans get too excited about listening to ol’ Curly on the go: just like with the iPhone app, Howard Stern (along with MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio) won’t be making an appearance here due to “contractual rights things“.
Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:26 pm Stephen Hawking: Alien Contact Could Be Risky - ABC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Apr 2010 | 1:18 pm 5 Lessons for Google From Nexus One’s Sluggish Start
Barely four months after the launch of its first smartphone, the HTC-built Nexus One, Google’s commitment to the device seems to be on the wane. Google is now pointing customers interested in buying a Verizon version of the Nexus One to the newly launched HTC Droid Incredible phone. The Incredible, which has garnered rave reviews, is on par with the Nexus One in terms of processing power and its vivid OLED display, but packs a more powerful camera. Google has also said that it is no longer working on “further engineering improvements” to the 3G reception on its Nexus. Some people are taking that as a sign that the search company might not be in the handset business for the long haul. In Silicon Valley, Nexus Ones are remarkably easy to get hold of, thanks to a generous developer program, liberal press review program and other handouts. Google is literally giving them away, which is never a sign of a hot product. Indeed, Nexus One sales are barely a blip on the market-share charts. Google sold only 135,000 units in its first 74 days, compared to 1 million iPhones and 1.05 million Droids in those phones’ first 74 days. But that doesn’t mean the Nexus One is a failure: Far from it. In fact, it’s a sort of inspired experiment, a laboratory for Google to get a taste of the mobile-handset business, up close and personal. For instance, who could have realized the extent to which the lack of a telephone support line would make Google-loving customers unhappy? The Nexus One gives Google direct-sales experience and customer contact that they don’t get as the developer of the Android OS, which is used on many phones from other manufacturers. Indeed, competing with those manufacturers may be the last thing Google wants. “It wasn’t about Google becoming a phone company,” wrote telecom analyst Jack Gold in a recent e-mail newsletter. “It was about Google getting a significant number of devices out there to form a big ‘reference platform’ testing/pilot environment where they could model, test and tune their ecosystem based on the real-life use of the early adopters who would buy NexusOne.” When we asked Google for a comment, a company spokesperson said, “We’ve said from the beginning that Nexus One is the first of many Google-branded Android handsets. Today’s announcement (steering Nexus One customers to the HTC Incredible on Verizon) doesn’t mean any change on that front.” Google may not be saying much, but here’s our takeaway on the lessons Google has learned — or should have learned — from the Nexus One.
1) You can’t sell phones like computers.At first, Google’s strategy to offer a phone just through its website, bypassing traditional wireless-carrier stores, may have seemed innovative and clever. After all, consumers buy almost all their major electronics products online, including computers, storage devices, digital media players and even TVs. But when it comes to cellphones, users want to touch and play with the product. And they want in-store customer support for these devices. “Fundamentally, Google’s contention that mobile phones will increasingly be purchased more like other consumer electronics — online and without subsidy — has so far been proven wrong, or at least premature,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Very few U.S. consumers will spend $500 for a phone, and even fewer will do so without at least the opportunity to paw the hardware, even if they eventually buy online,” said Colvin. Even those who purchased the device through Google’s online store faced problems. Nexus One was plagued by consumer complaints, including spotty 3G connectivity, a high early termination fee and poor customer support from Google. Weeks after the device’s launch, Google finally introduced a phone support line. Until then, customers with problems could only e-mail Google and had to wait for hours for a response. “Google’s technical support for the device has been derided both online and in the media, deservedly,” said Golvin.” In the intensely competitive world of mobile handsets, that just doesn’t cut it. 2) Marketing matters.All those iPhone and Droid commercials on TV may seem like ego trips for the Apple and Motorola. But marketing plays a big role in phone sales. Smartphones are not just for gadget-heads, so if handset makers want to reach an audience beyond the early adopters, they have to advertise and sell their product through traditional media channels. Google didn’t capitalize on the initial buzz around the first “Googlephone.” The company never ran a focused marketing campaign that would try to impress on potential customers why the Nexus One was worth considering. The result has been that few potential customers have had a chance to hear why the phone may be special. Google also limited itself by offering the device only on T-Mobile. Last month, it extended it to AT&T, but AT&T customers will not get a subsidy on the device and will have to pay the full price — $530 — for the unlocked version of the phone. 3) In mobile phones, Google is a startup.
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