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Shuttle's mission is over - Gary Post Tribune
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 30 May 2010 | 3:18 am BP Says "Top Kill" Operation Has FailedMrShaggy sends a quote from a CBC story: "BP has scuttled the 'top kill' procedure of shooting heavy drilling mud into its blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico after it failed to plug the leak. BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles told reporters on Saturday that over the last three days, the company has pumped in more than 30,000 barrels of mud and other materials down the well but has not been able to stop the flow. 'These repeated pumping[s], we don't believe will likely achieve success so at this point it's time to move to the next option,' Suttles said."
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Source: Slashdot | 30 May 2010 | 3:06 am Bangladesh blocks Facebook over prophet drawings (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2010 | 2:46 am Report: Orascom-MTN talks to end in a week (AP)AP - The chairman of Egyptian mobile phone giant Orascom Telecom says he expects talks with South Africa's MTN Group over the purchase of some of Orascom's units will be wrapped up within a week.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2010 | 2:45 am Text messages save pregnant Rwandan womenRwanda's new Rapid SMS service, a joint initiative between three U.N. organizations -- is being tested in the Musanze District where 432 health workers have received mobile phones. Reuters reports. ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 2:44 am Terror Sculptures - Damien Canderle Makes Jaw-Dropping Models Using Zbrush 3 (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) If you hate your siblings and want to scare them on their next birthday party, how about getting them a model by Damien Canderle? These ultra-freaky models will surely make your sibling...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 2:35 am Georgia State pilots texting programGeorgia State University wants students to text in class. AJC reports. While many professors find texting distracting and even confiscate students' phones, some business professors at Georgia State are...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 2:29 am One on One: Brian Lam of Gizmodo.comIn an interview with In an interview with In an interview with The New York Times, the technology blog's editorial director discusses his boxing gym background, "spy shots" of gadgets, and the iPhone...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 2:20 am Perforated Patterns - Alexandra Verschueren Wins Hyeres With Her Texturized Basics (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Alexandra Verschueren won the highly sought-after Hyres prize for her collection of classic basics with a pierced twist. Many of her garments are anchored by perforated patterns that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 2:15 am Bangladesh blocks Facebook over caricaturesDHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh has blocked the Facebook social networking site because of "objectionable" materials it contained about the Prophet Mohammad and the country's political...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 May 2010 | 2:10 am Disgusting Defense Mechanisms - Matthew Clemmens' "Vomit Assault" on Police Captain is Gross (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Matthew Clemmens' vomit assault on a police captain is what I call a disgusting mode of defense. Clemmens and police captain Michael Vangelo and his 11-year-old daughter were at a Phillies...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 1:55 am GeeksOnAPlane at the GMIC And CHINICT Tech Conferences In Beijing: Learnings From China
After exploring the mobile and Internet landscapes in Shanghai and Beijing, the GeeksOnAPlane (GOAP) group (30+ techies mostly from the Silicon Valley) continued their Asian field trip to Korea today. In Beijing, the GOAP attended two of China’s largest tech conferences: CHINICT, “the largest conference on China tech innovation” (which was livestreamed on TechCrunch), and the “Global Mobile Internet Conference” (GMIC), both of which are held in the city every year. The GOAP got in touch with and gained unfiltered insight from dozens and dozens of local entrepreneurs, VCs and industry observers during the conferences and the events that took place around them. What follows are just a few learnings and impressions the GOAP group picked up during their China web crash course in Beijing (the size of the tech landscape is summarized in my previous post). Innovation & Adoption of Business Models: The Chinese wayBefore CHINICT and GMIC took place, Benjamin Joffe from Asia-based digital strategy consultancy +8* | Plus Eight Star delivered a primer during the Startup2Startup Beijing event on how innovation in China works, and how local companies adjust proven business models from abroad to meet the peculiarities of the Chinese market. There’s a ton of valuable information on these and other topics in Joffe’s presentation (embedded below): A lot has been written about how quickly China’s web entrepreneurs rip off successful concepts from the US and elsewhere, with one local VC half-jokingly at some point telling the GOAP group: “Every site that gets on TechCrunch is sure to have at least one Chinese clone a week later!”. But there are some startups that don’t just churn out 1:1 copies. Instead, a few clever entrepreneurs find twists to make concepts working abroad more China-friendly or mash up existing, successful ones to create original offerings. One case in point is a startup called Lashou whose eponymous service marries Groupon with Foursquare-like mobile mechanics. I had the chance to talk to Lashou CEO Bo Wu during the Startup2Startup Beijing event, and according to Wu, user numbers are currently exploding. This presentation provides more insight on how Lashou works: China’s mobile web: The three finalists of the GMIC startup competitionCHINICT and GMIC were held at the same time in Beijing (Thursday and Friday), forcing the GOAP to choose between the two conferences and me to decide about which event I should report back (I attended both). I have a personal penchant for covering yet unknown startups (and CHINICT was livestreamed on TechCrunch), so I decided to cover the launch pad that took place at the GMIC. Find short profiles of the three finalists below. The selection highlights three mega trends that can currently be observed in China’s mobile scene: the fragmentation in hardware and software, the rise of mobile gaming, and the low number of people who are ready to make payments over the cell phone. Multi-platform solution by Crossmo For end users, Crossmo intends to solve the fragmentation problem in the mobile space by offering an online data management and synchronization tool for cell phones that’s completely hardware agnostic. Just connect your phone to your PC, and the service backs up, synchronizes and pushes all mobile data (music files, ringtones, wallpapers, and other content) into your own personal online “Crossmo Space”. Cross platform engine by Softgames 2C2P Mobile by 2C2P Find a larger cross section of local mobile startups in my previous article on the 3G Industry Summit in China from last year. Many thanks to the CHINICT and GMIC organizers for the special treatment the GOAP group received. Challenges for China’s web and mobile companiesChina’s high-speed Internet industry is already huge, still offers plenty of room for even more growth, produces one startup after the other, is eager to globalize quickly, and has – unlike its counterparts in many other Asian countries – an iron grip on the domestic market. But Silicon Valley and the planet’s other technology hotbeds still have a bit of time to breathe before the dragon takes over, as even in China’s web market all’s not well. The GOAP heard local mobile and web entrepreneurs and VCs deploring the
After gaining a 10,000 foot overview of China’s tech scene, it’s now time to explore what’s currently hot in Korea, the next stop of the GOAP Asia tour. The GOAP will be attending a Korean startup pitch event and the Startup Weekend Seoul (the country’s first ever), before moving on to echelon 2010 in Singapore. For information in real-time, follow the adventures of the GOAP via the #goap hash tag (the official Twitter account is here). GOAP pictures are being uploaded regularly over on Flickr. Photo credit: Craig Fisk      
Source: TechCrunch | 30 May 2010 | 1:54 am Stacked Residential Compounds - 1105dwell by Dwell Development is Perfect for Growing Families (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) If you have a big family, I suggest you keep the 1105dwell by Dwell Development in mind, which is specifically designed with four family units. The 1105dwell by Dwell Development house...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 1:15 am Weekend Machinima: "Avatar Days" Mixes World of Warcraft Characters With Their Owners' Real LivesAvatar Days from Piranha Bar on Vimeo Here's a brilliant mixed reality machinima documentary that merges World of Warcraft avatars with audio interviews of the Dublin gamers behind them, and real footage...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 12:58 am Powerlifting Boomers - "Old Man Lifts Fridge" Video Proves Age is Just a Number (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The amazing man in the "Old Man Lifts Fridge" video is in the same physical shape as a bodybuilder in his 20s. What's the big deal? Well, this man is over 50--51, to be exact. With...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 12:55 am Voyeuristic Exhibitions - The Tate Modern 'Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera' (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Tate Modern 'Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera' exhibition is a collection of over 250 pieces with the theme rooted deep in the idea of 'photographer-as-voyeur.' ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 May 2010 | 12:34 am AP: Spill grew, BP's credibility faded (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 May 2010 | 12:15 am How To Take a Big Vendor To Small Claims and Winsnydeq writes "Gripe Line's Christina Tynan-Wood offers good news for those harboring grievances about faulty software or unfair licensing practices: it is in fact possible to take a big vendor to small claims court and win. But, as one woman's fight against Adobe demonstrates, detailed evidence and a deep understanding of the laws in question are essential to obtaining justice against big vendor lawyers. 'Evidence is the key factor,' explains one legal expert. 'Often the evidence people present does not show what they think it does. And they fail to make themselves aware of the rules of evidence so they can introduce any evidence they do have in court. These companies will have attorneys and those attorneys will use the rules of civil procedure to take advantage of your lack of knowledge.' Moreover, they will spare little expense no matter the magnitude of claims brought against them. 'The lawyer for Adobe tried an "end-user is stupid" argument,' explains the woman who took on Adobe over a software license she never had the privilege of agreeing to. 'But he gave that up when he learned I wasn't a lame-brain home computer user. I have a software engineering background and worked for Sun Microsystems and Fidelity Investments tech group.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 30 May 2010 | 12:07 am Skype Over 3G Comes to the iPhone. It's Not All Good News - Wired News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 May 2010 | 11:46 pm Weekend Update 5.29.10- The Countdown to D8 Edition [Digital Daily]
As promised, Kara began Boom Town this week with another Steve Jobs blast from the past, this time at D5. It’s all been a big countdown to Steve’s upcoming interview live on stage at D8, this coming Tuesday. Its not just Jobs though. Head on over to the D8 site to see the full roster of tech execs in line for Kara and Walt’s hot seat. Midweek, Kara got a little video time with Keith Lee, CEO of Booyah! games, makers of My Town, the checkin-based social game that dwarfs foursquare with 2 million users. They just completed a healthy round of funding and, apparently used the money to buy a giant Princess Leia doll… watch the video. Kara ended the week on one of her favorite subjects: who is leaving Yahoo (YHOO) this week? Looks like Tapan Bhat, head of the front page, has left the building. Kara got the exclusive skinny. John was at the Digital Daily ticker machine the moment the big story hit. Let us mark this down in our calenders as the week Apple (AAPL) became worth more than Microsoft. How do you top a story like that? Well, John does it by following the saga of the social network editor that everyone is loving to hate right now. John gave a blow-by-blow of the privacy changes that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg laid out for his staff. Verdict? Less bad, maybe. To end the week, John covered some of the expectations around the international release of the iPad. Everyone will be watching to see if it outsells Macs, and then will proceed to stump about what that means for Apple. Twitter came in for a landing all over Media Memo on Monday. Peter opened with a post trying to make sense of their new “ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” profit model. The media shuffle is always in Peter’s cross-hairs, and this week’s installment was about Forbes buying up True/Slant. Wait… was that a media company acquiring something? Not selling it off? Peter ended his week with a cautionary tale to all this season’s commencement speakers. Don’t plagiarize your speech. Or, if you do, don’t do it from YouTube. Nothing is more humiliating than being exposed virally. Walt stepped out of the writer’s chair for Personal Technology this week and gave Geoffrey Fowler a shot at the keyboard. He turned in an insightful piece on the complicated world of e-bookstores, and some useful advice on how to navigate their ins and outs. The whole AllThingsD crew is feverishly preparing for D8 this weekend, and even the lowly Weekend Update crew will be getting on a plane bound for LA. We’re packing plenty of sunscreen and no-doze. Those shouldn’t interact badly… right? Source: All Things Digital | 29 May 2010 | 9:06 pm Reproducing an Ancient New World BeerThe Edible Geography blog has an amusing piece about Patrick McGovern, the "Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages," and his role in the production of a 3400-year-old Mesoamerican beer recreated from a chemical analysis of pottery fragments. "McGovern describes his collaboration with Dogfish Head craft brewers... to create a beer based on the core ingredients of early New World alcohol: chocolate beans (in nib form, as the cacao pods are too perishable to transport from Honduras to Delaware), honey, corn, ancho chillis, and annatto. ... The result? Cloudy and quite strong (9% A.B.V.), but more refreshing than you would think: the chocolate is savoury rather than sweet, and the chilli is just a very subtle, almost herbal, aftertaste. There is almost no head..."
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Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 9:06 pm Highlights from Maker Faire 2010Highlights from Maker Faire 2010, filmed and produced by Kent Weakley. Music courtesy of Andy Graham. Bulgarian mobile phone company suspends allegedly cursed numberSection: Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile
Perhaps, but then again the second man who died was a Mafia operative and the third, a drug trafficker. Perhaps the bad luck belongs to the company rather than the number itself. Ironically, the Chinese consider the number 8 to hold extreme luck and symbolize success and prosperity. Read [CNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 8:04 pm Gary as I knew him: Richard Rushfield
(Image: whatchutalkinbout, a Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user bbaltimore)"Even in death, as we can see on Twitter today, the joke of being Gary Coleman is what the world sees first." Blogger and author Richard Rushfield has posted a thoughtful—neither maudlin nor mocking—remembrance of child star Gary Coleman, who died yesterday. Rushfield attended a Los Angeles area school with Coleman in the mid-1980s. Of all the bad hands people have been dealt in life, of the people who I have known up close, compared to the starving in Mongolia, Gary had as about a rotten combination as anything I'd seen. I won't give the details, but there was very much a horrifying tragedy about his life, a desperation that I think at age 16, was too big for us his classmates to comprehend or take in.Gary as I knew him (Rushfield Babylon)  Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2010 | 7:40 pm Skype Over 3G Comes to the iPhone. It's Not All Good NewsSkype on Saturday releasesd an upgrade to its iPhone app that allows calls to be made and received under AT&T’s 3G network, but there’s a catch — they won’t be free for very long, even for Skype-to-Skype calls or for people who have all-you-can-eat calling plans with the internet telephony company.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2010 | 6:47 pm Congressman Steps Up Pressure On Google, Facebookcrimeandpunishment and other readers noted the US government's increasing pressure on Facebook and Google. On Friday the head of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, sent the two companies a letter asking them to cooperate with any government inquiries. It's not clear exactly what purpose the letter served, other than to make Google's and Facebook's lawyers squirm a bit more than they already were, with Germany and courts and the FTC looking hard in their direction; Conyers did not say his committee will be holding hearings. The FTC just asked Google to hold onto the Wi-Fi data that it says it accidentally collected while snapping Street View photos. And in response to the growing outcry since its F8 conference last month, Facebook offered some simplified privacy controls — though opinions vary on how much the new controls simplify things for users.
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Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 6:43 pm Skype for iPhone now runs over 3G
This extra fee sounds a little rough if you ask me. It’s not like Skype is doing anything special with the bits it’s transferring, right?
Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2010 | 6:06 pm The creator of Super Mario Brothers Crossover is a crazy manMan alive. I don’t mind SMB Crossover, but the creator, Jay Pavlina reminds me of Vince Veneziani on a little too much Red Bull. Watch as the creator of the game plays the game, a meta picture-in-picture experience that’s like watching a hand draw itself.
Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2010 | 5:56 pm Time Warner and Universal thumb noses at the iPadSection: Apple
Read [CNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 5:44 pm 'Top Kill' Fails to Stop Gulf Oil LeakBP called off its most recent attempt to stop the oil leaking into the Gulf, though it had said "Top Kill" was its best option.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 May 2010 | 5:31 pm Guy Who Copied Digg Slams Digg For Copying Twitter
Yesterday we discovered a video showing some of the features of the upcoming relaunch of Digg. In a nutshell, Digg has been trying to find a way to leverage social sharing to make the site more relevant, and users will soon see links to interesting things based on the what people and entities they choose to follow are voting on. That goal isn’t anything new, founder Kevin Rose has been talking openly about it for more than a year now. Will it help save Digg, which has been stuck in a no-growth cycle for years now as services like Twitter and Facebook have surged? I have no idea. I do know that Digg will now become much more personally relevant to me, and TechCrunch will certainly be auto-publishing to Digg and adding a Digg button to posts. I love nothing more than shouting my opinion on things, and I’ve been particularly harsh on Rose and Digg over the last several months. But opinions are one thing. Rewriting history is another. Hypocrisy AlertReddit, a site for discovering and sharing new things, was launched in mid-2005, more than six months after Digg. There were very few differences between Reddit and Digg then, and they haven’t diverged all that much since then, either. Both sites allow users to vote on submitted stories/links, and the most popular stories are on the home page. Reddit ripped off the core Digg idea when it launched. Which is totally fine in my opinion, since the Internet has evolved in this way from the beginning. You take someone else’s ideas and you try to improve on them. But Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says Digg needs new ideas. From his post:
Is it reasonable criticism? Absolutely (although I disagree with it). And when it’s being said by someone who cloned the site that he is now complaining is copying features from others, it becomes absurd. But hold on just one minute – Ohanian says he never even knew about Digg when he decided to build Reddit half a year after Digg launched:
Is that possible? Did they really invent the Digg idea completely independently from Digg six months after Digg launched? And no one at Y Combinator pointed out that there were similarities? Paul Carr put this best when we were discussing this post internally on Yammer: “So at best they did zero research before they launched Reddit into a space that kinda relies on the founders knowing where to find cool new stuff online.” At worst of course he’s simply lying. Everyone knows that Digg needs to do something to find relevance again. This new version looks as good to me as anything else I’ve heard suggested, and it certainly doesn’t smell like something the venture capitalists forced down their throat. Kevin returned to a full time role at Digg earlier this year and clearly wants to prove that he can bring this company back to life. He’s excited about Digg, clearly. He may succeed. He may fail. But at least he’s in the arena and fighting valiantly.      
Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2010 | 4:37 pm A slimmer Kindle coming in August? - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 May 2010 | 4:34 pm When Mistakes Improve Performancejd and other readers pointed out BBC coverage of research into "stochastic" CPUs that allow communication errors in order to reap benefits in performance and power usage. "Professor Rakesh Kumar at the University of Illinois has produced research showing that allowing communication errors between microprocessor components and then making the software more robust will actually result in chips that are faster and yet require less power. His argument is that at the current scale, errors in transmission occur anyway and that the efforts of chip manufacturers to hide these to create the illusion of perfect reliability simply introduces a lot of unnecessary expense, demands excessive power, and deoptimises the design. He favors a new architecture, that he calls the 'stochastic processor,' which is designed to handle data corruption and error recovery gracefully. He believes he has shown such a design would work and that it would permit Moore's Law to continue to operate into the foreseeable future. However, this is not the first time someone has tried to fundamentally revolutionize the CPU. The Transputer, the AMULET, the FM8501, the iWARP, and the Crusoe were all supposed to be game-changers but died cold, lonely deaths instead — and those were far closer to design philosophies programmers are currently familiar with. Modern software simply isn't written with the level of reliability the Stochastic Processor requires (and many software packages are too big and too complex to port), and the volume of available software frequently makes or breaks new designs. Will this be 'interesting but dead-end' research, or will Professor Kumar pull off a CPU architectural revolution really not seen since the microprocessor was designed?"
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Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 4:21 pm An iPhone Lover’s Take On The HTC EVO 4G
Back in January, I wrote a post entitled An iPhone Lover’s Take On The Nexus One. At the time, the Nexus One was soon to be released as the latest and greatest Android phone, and a number of iPhone users were wondering whether it was worth it to switch for the benefits of Android (and perhaps more importantly, another network besides AT&T). My take: it was the best Android phone yet, but it wasn’t better than the iPhone. Now I’m going to do the same type of review for the new HTC EVO 4G phone, which Sprint is launching next week. At Google I/O, the search giant gave the phone away to every attendee complete with one month of service to try it out. Just as with the Nexus One, I’ve decided to use it as my primary phone for the past week or so to get a real sense of the pluses and minuses of the device. Just as with my Nexus One review, this isn’t meant to be an all-encompassing review or roundup (for that, see here or here or here). Instead, this is just my reaction to the device as an iPhone user. So, I’ll start off with what you really want to know: is the EVO 4G an “iPhone Killer“? No way. Not even close. Does it have some advantages over the iPhone? Of course. But it has more disadvantages. And, in fact, this isn’t even the best Android phone I’ve tried. Both the Nexus One and the Droid Incredible are better. If you want details about some of that, read on.
4G Let me lead with a big caveat: I haven’t been using this thing on an actual 4G network. Sadly, neither San Francisco or New York City (the two cities I’ve used the device in) have Sprint 4G yet (both should get it later this year). That said, as just about every other reviewer has pointed out, the 4G is almost more of a detriment to the device because while it does offer faster download speeds, they’re not that much faster than 3G — and 4G usage destroys the battery life of the device worse than even 3G does. Also, I have used Sprint’s 4G network before, in Austin, Texas, and I can confirm that it is faster but not that much faster that I would consider it a killer feature at this point. Hopefully that will change as the network matures. Battery And let’s start with the battery. Simply put: it sucks. Again, I’m not using the 4G network (and yes, I have the 4G radio turned off), and it absolutely blows. My iPhone 3GS is about a year old now, so its battery isn’t at the peak condition that it once was. Still, it almost always lasts me for at least a full day doing what I would consider to be moderate usage of the web, texting, taking pictures, etc. The EVO? Good luck getting more than 4 hours of moderate usage out of this bad boy. It’s almost unfathomable how bad the battery is in this thing. Why? Well you might assume it’s the massive 4.3 inch LCD screen. But according to the Battery usage area in the Setting menu on Android, the display is only eating up 5% of my battery on average. Instead, it’s “Cell standby” (again, I have 4G off), “Phone idle,” and “Android system” that eat up over 75% of the life. Am I doing anything odd that makes it drain faster than an average user would? I don’t think so, and talking with others who have the device, all report the same awful battery performance. I have no doubt that “regular” users are going to bitch about this as well. I’m terrified to think what this thing would be like if I were using 4G. A mobile phone that lasts for 2-3 hours? Ugh.
Screen Speaking of the massive screen, there’s no denying that it’s beautiful. Rather than using the same OLED screen that the Nexus One uses (which you can barely see in daylight), this uses a standard TFT display, so it’s easy to see at all times. The 480×800 resolution is great, and everything looks crisp. That said, this (and the HTC HD2 — the WinMo phone with the same size screen) proves that bigger isn’t always better. The screen is too big. Or maybe a better way of saying it is that the screen makes the device too big. Mat Buchanan of Gizmodo has called this the “Escalade of smartphones,” and it’s a perfect moniker. For people with huge hands, and huge pockets, this thing will be great. For everyone else, I have little doubt they’ll find this too big. There’s a reason many smartphones tend to hover around the same 3.5 inch screen (iPhone, Nexus One, etc): it works. Camera The camera on the EVO is great. And there are actually two of them. The one in the back is 8 megapixels and destroys the iPhone’s 3 megapixel camera. The front one is a lower resolution (1.3 megapixels), but is convenient for vanity pictures and video chatting if that’s your thing. The back camera also can take 720p HD video, which again destroys the iPhone (there’s some debate as to just how good the “HD” bit-rate quality is — to me, a novice, it looked very nice). Of course, the new iPhone is expected to be unveiled in just about a week. And it too is likely to have two cameras (one front and one back). I doubt the back one will be 8 megapixels, but it should get a boost to 5 megapixels. And the front one will undoubtedly be fine-tuned for video chatting as well. And the rumor is that it will take HD quality video as well. Meanwhile, the photo-taking software on Android continues to lag behind the iPhone’s. And I do mean lag — often times it would take up to a minute for the controls to show up onscreen. And oddly, they can only be oriented to take pictures in landscape mode. And it’s far too many clicks to switch between the front and rear cameras (this is buried in the camera settings area). But all of that is somewhat excusable – what’s not is that more than half the time while trying to take a picture, I would get the message “Unable to save file to SD card due to insufficient file permissions.” I have no idea what that means, nor did I care enough to figure it out. Nor will most users when they get the same message. It worked sometimes, and sometimes it didn’t. I’ve never had this problem with the iPhone — nor is it possible since there is no SD card slot. The photo browsing element of the EVO, meanwhile, is better than other Android phones I’ve used. But it’s still not nearly as good as the iPhone. The EVO has a pretty good flash — something the current iPhone doesn’t (but again, the next one likely will). But it’s pretty poor compared to a regular camera flash. Point is, if you’re buying this thing to get a good camera, you should probably just invest in a good camera.
Exterior The exterior of the EVO is pretty nice. As I said, I prefer the size of the Nexus One (and iPhone), but the EVO feels just as solid (unlike many other Android phones). Taking off the back to access the battery is a bit wonky. The entire back faceplate is removable, but each time I did it, I was sure I was going to snap off one of the clips that holds it in place. I was also sure I was going to snap off my fingernail at one point (which they suggest you use to open it up — brilliant). There’s also this rather odd kick-stand on the back of the EVO. Presumably, it’s to make watching media on the huge screen more appealing (so you don’t have to hold the big, heavy thing). It’s also probably good for video chatting. But it’s a gimmick at best. And my colleague Jason Kincaid actually almost broke it off when he thought that was the way you get to the battery. Unlike the Nexus One, the EVO has no trackball. I think that’s a good thing. Some people seem to like it (I assume ex-BlackBerry users), but I never understood the point of having it on a touchscreen device. Good riddance. My biggest gripe about the exterior though has to be the top on/off button. It lays way too flush against the actual top of the device itself, making it very hard to click. I endured much frustration when I would pull the thing out of my pocket and would try to turn it on quickly. Sometimes I was hitting the button, sometimes I was hitting nothing — and it was hard to tell. Software All the other problems aside, the software may be what really kills the device — for now, at least. The EVO out-of-the-box runs Android 2.1 with the HTC Sense UI. Android 2.1 is far too slow. Even running on these devices with 1 GHz chips, there’s noticeable lag when doing things such as simply scrolling through your apps. It’s unacceptable. The good news is that Android 2.2 mostly fixes this. I have been using 2.2 running on the Nexus One, and it’s much, much better. The bad news is that it’s not yet clear when 2.2 will come to the EVO because HTC has to update Sense to work with it. Speaking of Sense, some people love it. I do not. While I find Android’s standard UI to be a bit bland, Sense is almost too much of the opposite — it’s garish. It also takes up way too much screen real estate with things such as the default time/weather widget. Do I really need the time taking up half of the main screen? No. I want apps there. Luckily, it’s easy enough to delete those default widgets. The EVO does come with some pretty nice ways to integrate your Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr accounts when you set it up. And then you can easily see friends’ activity from the nice Friend Stream widget they provide. Sadly, this widget loads way too slowly. I also like the Twitter widget they give you. It’s a very simple way to update your Twitter status without even launching a client.
HTC also has a brilliant pinch-to-zoom mechanism to access each of your 7 main Android screens. In fact, it’s exactly like the Expose feature in OS X. You pinch on the EVO (or if you’re on the main screen, hit the home button) and the screen you’re on zooms out to reveal thumbnails of all of the screen you have, and shows what’s on each of them. Apple should consider copying this for the iPhone because it’s much better than the current scroll from page to page method. The worst part of the software though is the keyboard. It’s laughably cluttered. The soft keyboard built into Android is bad enough — mainly because it lags (which again, Android 2.2 fixes). This Sense one is much, much worse. It’s set up in a way so that you can access things such as numbers on the top row of keys, but you have to hold them down to do so. And actually, numbers are also found if you hit the “12#” button at the bottom of the keyboard. It’s redundant and confusing. And the cursor movement keys at the very button of the keyboard are one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Again, this is a touchscreen device, why do I need touchscreen soft keys to move around whatever I’m writing? Just touch where you want to go. WiFi Hotspots Okay, I’ve been fairly hard on the device so far. But there is one thing that despite all its problems, would make me consider it: the WiFi hot spot feature. It’s hard to explain how awesome this is. But there are a few big catches. I’ve tested out a Sprint Overdrive (mobile hotspot creator) before, and it’s great. But it’s also yet another device you have to carry around, and it’s somewhat of a pain to boot up, get connected to the service, etc. The EVO is like an Overdrive that you’re going to have on you at all times. And turning it on is one touch of a widget on the screen. This creates a new WiFi hotspot that up to 8 people can connect to. You can set the password right from the included software. The other day, I was in a cafe in New York City but only had one hour of free Internet access. When I ran out, I turned on the EVO Hotspot and was up and running again in seconds. And it was fast (again, even without 4G).
Mobile hotspot creation is being built-in to Android 2.2, but it will be up to the carriers to decide how they use it (meaning, they decide whether or not to turn it on, and how much to charge for it, if so). This Sprint version is different (it’s not the built-in Android version) — and right, now entirely free. But that is expected to change following the actual launch. Reports indicate that Sprint will offer the Hotspot feature for free through July, but only to those on 4G networks. After that (and for other users) it will cost an extra $30 or so a month, apparently. That’s a buzzkill. Of course, next to the iPhone, which still doesn’t have any tethering option in the U.S. thanks to AT&T’s inability to maintain their network, this is still a great feature. Overall So, that a lot of words about what, as an iPhone user, I like and don’t like about the EVO 4G. Would I give up my iPhone for this? Not a chance. Hell, I wouldn’t give up a Nexus One or Droid Incredible for this, even with 4G. The battery life is simply too poor, and the whole device is too large. The Android software continues to make steady improvements, but Sense, in my opinion, doesn’t help it at all. Instead, Android 2.2 is the thing to get, and that won’t be available on the EVO at launch. The EVO has many of the strengths of the Nexus One — mainly, the way Google services interact with the phone (Google Voice, Gmail, Maps, etc), but it adds a bunch of weaknesses. If you’re a fed-up iPhone user looking to switch to an Android device, there are better options. If you’re a happy iPhone user that is interested in Android devices, you probably won’t like this one much at all. And no matter what camp you’re in, if you do buy this thing now, you’ll probably be kicking yourself in a couple of months as better 4G devices hit. Or you’ll be kicking yourself in a couple of months when better Android devices hit. Or you’ll be kicking yourself in a few weeks when the new iPhone HD (or whatever it will be called) hits. Forgive me, but: this is probably not the Android device you’re looking for.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2010 | 4:17 pm New Digg gets a videoSection: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking
Well thanks to some snooping from TechCrunch, Digg has released a video to introduce “influencers” to some of the new features of Digg. Check it out: Some of the new features to take note of:
For more information read the full breakdown at TechCrunch. Read [TechCrunch] Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 3:26 pm Talking copyright, For the Win and iPads with ABC News
Last week I did a quick, fun interview with ABC News in New York, outside one of the bigger Apple Stores. We talked For the Win, the iPad, and copyright reform. The ABC folks were good enough to put the video online and make an embed available, too. A New Neutral, Long-Haul Fiber Networktechclicker sends word on the ambitious plans of Allied Fiber to disrupt the long-haul business in the US. The company is embarking on the first phase of a planned 6-phase build-out of dark fiber, towers, and co-lo facilities ringing the US. The first three phases are budgeted at $670M; the last three are not yet laid out in detail (announcement, PDF). Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in 2010. Allied's business model of selling wholesale bandwidth to all comers is in sharp contrast to that of incumbents such as AT&T, who won't sell backhaul to potential competitors. "Allied is deploying a 432-count, long haul cable coupled with the 216-count, short-haul cable that will be a composite of Single-Mode and Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted fibers. Allied Fiber has implemented a new, multi-duct design for intermediate access to the long-haul fiber duct through a parallel short-haul fiber duct all along the route. This enables all points between the major cities, including wireless towers and rural networks, to gain access to the dark fiber. In addition, the Allied Fiber neutral colocation facilities, located approximately every 60 miles along the route, accommodate and encourage a multi-tenant interconnection environment integrated with fiber that does not yet exist in the United States on this scale."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 3:03 pm It starts: Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas complains about Adidas Jabulani ball ahead of World Cup
Right on cue, then. ‘Twas only a few days ago that I had mentioned the grand tradition of World Cup goalkeepers complaining about the ball used in the tournament, and we now have our very first complaints (at least I think it’s the first). Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who’s probably the best goalkeeper going into the tournament (it’s either him or Júlio César, of Brazil), said after Spain’s 3-2 win over Saudi Arabia in a pre-tournament friendly about an hour ago: “It’s a little sad that in a competition as big as the World Cup to have such a poor ball [the Jabulani]. It’s not just the goalkeepers complaining, but the outfield players as well.” Here we go~! Casillas, pictured here in an earlier training session, readily admitted that, yeah, goalkeepers tend to complain about the ball being used in big tournaments (the World Cup, the Euro, the Copa América, etc.) because “it’s new” and unfamiliar to them. During the domestic season, leagues around the world use different balls than the ones used in big tournaments. For example, in England, Italy, and Spain this past year the leagues used a Nike ball. So, asking goalkeepers to get used to a new ball in a very short amount of time—most teams will play one or two friendly matches before a big tournament begins, and that’s the only time goalkeepers have to get used to how a ball moves in the air, spins, feels, etc.—that there’s a bit of a shock period that has to be gone through. San Iker then added that, while it’s usually only goalkeepers who complain, “luckily” this time the outfield players (i.e., the non-goalkeepers on a team) are complaining, too. He didn’t name names, though. Was Casillas just upset that he let a dodgy goal in against relatively weak Saudi Arabia, or is MIGHTY SPAIN seriously having issues with the ball? All I know is, Team USA just beat Turkey, who are approximately 8 million times better than us. You don’t see Jozy Altidore complaining about the ball, do you? MORE A little extra looking around has found more complaints, including Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo (who called it a “beach ball“) and, in fact, Brazil goalkeeper Júlio César (who said it looks like it comes from “a supermarket“).
Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2010 | 2:47 pm Hardcore gamers play 48 hours a week, says NPDFROM GAMERTELL - Yikes! Forty-eight hours a week!? NPD’s report also suggests gamers are getting older (no duh), people are playing more games (wee!) and “Extreme Gamers” don’t have kids or jobs (w-w-w-whu!?)... Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 2:00 pm What Scientists Really Think About ReligionHugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post has a book review of Science and Religion: What Scientists Really Think by Rice University sociologist Elaine Ecklund, who spent 4 years doing a detailed survey of 1,646 scientists at elite American research universities. The study reveals that scientists often practice a closeted faith, worrying about how their peers would react to learning about their religious views. 'After four years of research, at least one thing became clear: Much of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. The '"insurmountable hostility" between science and religion is a caricature, a thought-cliche, perhaps useful as a satire on groupthink, but hardly representative of reality,' writes Ecklund. Unsurprisingly, Ecklund found that 64 percent of scientists are either atheists (34%) or agnostic (30%). But only five of the 275 in-depth interviewees actively oppose religion; and even among the third who are atheists, many consider themselves 'spiritual.' 'According to the scientists I interviewed, the academy seems to have a "strong culture" that suppresses discussion about religion in many areas,' says Ecklund. 'To remove the perceived stigma, we would need to have more scientists talking openly about issues of religion, where such issues are particularly relevant to their discipline.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 1:47 pm Lenovo U1 ditching Skylight for AndroidSection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Netbooks  At CES this year, we covered the Lenovo U1 Hybrid computer. It made quite a splash at CES because of its ability to transform from a Windows 7 laptop to a tablet running Lenovo’s own Skylight OS. But it has been a while since we have heard any news about this odd device, but now we know why. It seems that Lenovo realized that their own Linux-based Skylight OS wasn’t quite up to snuff. At least compared to the OS’s that they could use (i.e. Android). In a formal statement, Lenovo has declared the Skylight dead (“shelved”) and the U1 simply a concept and will be focusing on releasing Android devices later in Q4 of this year:
I really hope that the U1 will live on in some way. It was one of the few things at CES that I personally was looking forward to seeing on the market. Via [Engadget]
Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 1:08 pm Fisker raises equity, says to launch car soon* Closed $529 million loan with U.S. Energy Dept in AprilSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 12:57 pm US Treasury: haven't considered any other AIA dealNEW YORK/LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - The future of Prudential's deal to buy AIG's Asian life insurance arm remained uncertain on Saturday, with the U.S. Treasury saying it has not considered any other...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 12:39 pm Intel Sucks Up Water Amid Drought In ChinaAn anonymous reader sends along a Bloomberg piece on Intel and the coming water wars. "Intel is going head-to-head with businesses like Coca-Cola to swallow up scarce water resources in the developing world. According a 2009 report..., 2.4 billion of the world's population lives in 'water-stressed' countries such as China and India. Chip fabrication plants in those countries, as well factories such as the soft drink giant's bottling plants, are swallowing up scarce resources needed by the 1.6 billion people who rely on water for farming. ... Li Haifeng, vice president of sewage treatment company Beijing Enterprises Water Group, told Bloomberg, 'Wars may start over the scarcity of water.' China's 1.33 billion citizens each have 2,117 cubic meters of water available to them per year... In the US, consumers can count on as much as 9,943 cubic meters."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 12:30 pm Malaysian activists protest over Tiger abuse videoWildlife activists on Saturday protested at a Malaysian wildlife park over a video posted on YouTube showing a tiger being manhandled for the amusement of visitors. The two-minute clip...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 12:19 pm Facebook's Privacy Reboot: Is That all You've Got for Us? - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 May 2010 | 12:06 pm BeThere Deals Brings (More) Time-Sensitive, Local Deals To SF
While it’s focused primarily on time sensitive, local deals, BeThere Deals isn’t really in the same vein as GroupOn and LivingSocial — it doesn’t have a ‘group buying’ mechanic, and it features many deals in an area, rather than one or two. Instead, it’s more competitive with apps like Yowza!!, Mobile Coupons, and Mobiqpons. The service is pretty straightforward: you download the free iPhone app, then open it up when you’re in a supported city to find some regional deals. At this point the service is only available in San Francisco, but it will be expanding to Los Angeles and New York City in the near future. So how is BeThere going to survive when there are already some bigger players in this space? The company says it has a few key differentiators. First, it says that it’s primarily targeting local, independent businesses, rather than chains (they say that one goal is to make the application useful for discovering interesting new mom-and-pop stores and restaurants). Second, the application is exclusively for time-specific deals that are deployed in real-time by merchants — BeThere could be used by a local bakery, for example, that’s looking to sell excess pastries at a discount before the end of the day. The service will make money by charging merchants on a per-conversion basis. The app still has a ways to go. For one, it badly needs push notifications — right now users have to manually open the app to see new deals, which isn’t much help when some of the deals are only available for a few hours (the startup says the feature is on the way). And the service obviously needs to get traction with users before it will be very appealing to many businesses (it’s the classic chicken-and-egg problem). The app is also going to see plenty of competition. Aside from the services mentioned above, location-based services like Foursquare have already started to enter this space. One thing to note — the iPhone application currently has a pretty low average rating (though most of the written reviews are positive). The company says this is because users outside of San Francisco are downloading it, only to find that they can’t access any deals.      
Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2010 | 12:05 pm Symantec discovers 44 million stolen gaming accountsFROM GAMERTELL - If you play WoW or Aion on a Chinese server, you may want to change your password. Even if you don’t, you should probably do it anyway… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 12:00 pm Amazon Kindle: Rumors suggest a slimmed down Kindle coming in AugustSection: Gadgets / Other, ebooks
Other details suggest that the new Kindle will be thinner and offer a screen that is more responsive and offering a sharper display. Still, that does not mean the sharper looking display will be in color. In fact, the source was quick to point out that the Kindle is not going color or touchscreen. Read [Bloomberg] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 11:58 am At Pass a Loutre, oil seeps deep into Louisiana marshlandsThick black oil hung in the water and stained the bases of the roseau cane at Pass a Loutre, a shrinking patch of Louisiana's fragile wetlands where crude from the BP spill first hit land...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 11:28 am Dennis Hopper, 1936-2010
Dennis Hopper, star of Easy Rider, Blue Velvet and Super Mario Bros., is dead at 74. [Reuters. Photo from Giant, via Flatland] Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2010 | 11:24 am The Sun's Odd Behaviorgyrogeerloose writes "Most of us know about the sun's eleven-year activity cycle. However, relatively few other than scientists (and amateur radio operators) are aware that the current solar minimum has lasted much longer than expected. The last solar cycle, Cycle 24, bottomed out in 2008, and Cycle 25 should be well on its way towards maximum by now, but the sun has remained unusually quiescent with very few sunspots. While solar physicists agree that this is odd, the explanation remains elusive."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 11:12 am This Week in GeekTech: Hoverboards, Gaming, and Jailbreaking Fun! (PC World)PC World - Another week has passed and your team of resident geeks have brought you yet another plethora of interesting and expectantly geeky stories. This week's update includes tips on how to jailbreak your iPad, how you can dance your way through Mortal Kombat, and how Sony plan to get rollable display on the roll. All this and more in your weekly geek fill:Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 May 2010 | 11:00 am Texas Rangers lenders sue to force bankruptcyCHICAGO, May 29 (Reuters) - A group of lenders to the Texas Rangers sued on Friday to put the baseball team's equity owners, controlled by private equity investor Thomas Hicks, into bankruptcy.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 10:48 am Texas Rangers lenders sue to force bankruptcyCHICAGO, May 29 (Reuters) - A group of lenders to the Texas Rangers sued on Friday to put the baseball team's equity owners, controlled by private equity investor Thomas Hicks, into bankruptcy.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 10:48 am Verizon to ditch unlimited data plans when 4G network is completeSection: Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile
Read [PCWorld] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 10:43 am Earthquake Simulator Helps Bridge DesignersWith a series of computer-controlled earthquakes, simulating some of the most devastating in recent memory, Berkeley engineers Wednesday showed off new technology designed to keep bridges not just from collapsing in a catastrophic temblor but open to traffic.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2010 | 10:35 am At NYC sci fest, asking 'What if we're holograms?'In Brian Greene's world, scientific reasoning rules all _ and imagination leads to the most unlikely truths. Physicist Greene and other "string theorists" are exploring a mindbending...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 10:25 am Dennis Crowley Says Foursquare Is Only “10 Percent Of What It Needs To Be” [Video]
Watch live streaming video from disrupt at livestream.com
After speaking on a panel Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt with Facebook’s Chris Cox and Google’s Vic Gundotra, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley sat down with our own Evelyn Rusli for a backstage video interview. It is clear that he feels Foursquare is still in its infancy and still has a long way to go. “The products is 10% of what it needs to be,” he says. “Look at the stuff we are doing with game mechanics, it is 1.0 game mechanics.” Where does he see it going? The badges, points, and Mayorships that people acquire by using Foursquare increasingly will be used to “unlock free goods” in real places like restaurants and stores. “The game mechanics are there to grab a user’s hand and bring them through the experience,” says Crowley, “but it is not the meat of the service. The meat of the service is the social utility that we are building. A lot of that going forward is taking the user’s history, like all of the check-in information we get from them, and then recycling that data by giving it back to them in the form of recommendations and tips on what they should be doing next.” The idea of getting real-world recommendations based on the places you and your friends visit is akin to taking Amazon book recommendations or Netflix movie recommendations and applying that kind of collaborative filtering to the real world. Crowley believes Foursquare’s competitive advantage is that it has been working on the problem for so long, and that it is built for New York City, which is a “really hard city to design for.” Another advantage is Foursquare’ check-in model. As he told Beet.TV in another video interview at Disrupt, the entire service is built around the check-in as opposed to throwing it in as an afterthought. But the check-ins and the badges are the means to an end, not the end itself. Explains Crowley: “We have a very specific roadmap about changing the way people interact with physical space. It is not just about the check-in. It is what happens after that.”      
Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2010 | 10:05 am Facebook Learns Not To Step on Toes in Privacy Dance (NewsFactor)NewsFactor - In what may go down in Internet history as the Facebook Privacy Scandal, the leading social-networking site over the past week took the covers off a simplified privacy policy. But some privacy advocates say it's not enough. And some analysts expect more privacy changes to come.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 May 2010 | 10:03 am Apple's iPad goes global - Reuters
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 29 May 2010 | 10:02 am Free apps roundup for May 28th, 2010FROM APPLETELL - Apple’s iBook app gets competition from Barnes and Noble’s eReader, Mozilla spilled the beans on a coming Firefox app, and Rockstar lets you steal cars and beat up…well… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 10:00 am Intelligence Density and the Creative ClassDoofus writes "The Atlantic has an interesting review of some open-sourced work by Rob Pitingolo about the comparative educational attainment levels of various metropolitan areas. While people are now capable of being far more mobile than in generations past, many people remain within 100 miles or so of where they were born. For the technology-partition of the creative class, this is less likely to be the case, in my personal experience. Do we technical people put interesting work and the concentration of human educational capital ahead of other considerations when deciding on a move? Or is it more complicated? Is it more about the fact that the creative jobs are where the creative people are?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 29 May 2010 | 9:57 am Apple's iPad goes globalLONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Fans mobbed Apple Inc stores in Europe and Asia as the iPad went on sale outside the United States on Friday, with some shoppers having queued all night to buy one...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 9:54 am Pandigital Novel ereader makes its required FCC appearanceSection: Gadgets / Other, ebooks  Yet another ebook reader is about to make its debut, however, this one is the more-than-slightly-interesting Pandigital Novel and in a little bit of good news it has recently made its FCC appearance. Unfortunately, the FCC listing did not offer much in terms of any new details, but still we already know that it will feature a 7 inch color touchscreen LCD with an 800 x 600 pixel resolution and be running Android. Honestly this seems almost more like a tablet than a standard ereader. One interesting detail here is that the device shown in the FCC image is black, which goes against the white one that was shown in the images when it was officially announced a few days back. Also, the Novel is expected to come priced at $199.99 with availability in June. Oh, and it will also have 1GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi, an SD card slot and come touting support for the Barnes & Noble eBookstore.
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 29 May 2010 | 9:33 am Canada mulls plan to cull seals to save codCanada is studying a plan to either kill 220,000 gray seals off its Atlantic coast or sterilize 16,000 female seals to save declining cod and other fish stocks, according to government...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 29 May 2010 | 9:24 am What if the Analysis: Facebook (Un)Privacy Revolution Is a Good Thing?Analysis: Facebook runs headlong into the privacy saw every 18 months, but that's the plan. And it's a good thing for the net.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 29 May 2010 | 9:00 am South Korea to Allow Frozen Embryo ResearchSouth Korea's Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that leftover human embryos from fertility treatments are not life forms, and can therefore be destroyed or used for research purposes, the AFP reported."The ruling means that human embryos that are in their early stage and are not implantedSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2010 | 8:47 am Three Men Indicted for Scareware SchemeOfficials said Thursday that three men have been indicted in connection with a Ukraine-based fraud scheme which tricked Internet users into believing their computers were infected, scamming the victims out of roughly $100 million.The Justice Department said in a statement that Internet users in over 60 countries purchased more than one million bogus software products from the three defendants from America and Sweden.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2010 | 8:46 am Video Games May Improve Vision and Brain FunctionAccording to research presented Thursday at a New York University conference on games as a learning tool, playing video games might help improve vision and other brain functions.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2010 | 8:35 am The Age of the Mobile Mash-Up
By Lars Erik Holmquist of the Mobile Life Centre, Kista, Sweden The rate of innovation in mobile services is just about to take a quantum leap. We are going from a divergent and messy ecosystem, where every new concept has to be made into a specialized ”app” that works only on a small sub-set of mobile handsets (even the mighty iPhone only has around 3% of the global mobile phone market), to an environment much more like the web. Today, new services can easily be composed out of existing components and run on a common platform – the browser. We are entering an age where the creation of a new mobile service – taking advantage of such features as the user’s location, social network, personal data, and even phone-specific functions such as the camera and accelerometer – can be mashed-up and put on-line just as easily as Web 2.0 services have been for several years already. At the Mobile Life research centre in Kista, Sweden, partners from academia and industry are working together to imagine this future of abundant mobile services. Fortunately, we are not working in the dark – we can build on a foundation of several decades of research. Some 20 years ago, Mark Weiser, a research scientist at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, had a vision of the future: he called it ubiquitous computing. He imagined that dozens, even hundred of small computers would be available everywhere, and seamlessly support us in our everyday tasks. Unlike the personal computers at the time, these devices would be un-tethered, user-friendly, aware of their surroundings, and conducive to communication and collaboration in the real world rather than through a screen. To explore this vision, he and his team built a number of computing devices in different sizes – they called them Tabs, Pads, and Boards. Each was connected to a wireless network and aware of its location and other factors in the environment, the so-called context. But while the devices are more or less the same, today we have something that the researchers at PARC did not: Infrastructure. In 1990, to build an always-on, network-connected, context-aware device, you would have to start from scratch – not just by putting together the device itself, but also with laboriously setting up radio and infrared base stations in every single room. Today, you buy a phone or laptop and hop on the 3G network or find the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot. That today’s devices are hundreds of times more powerful when it comes to processing power and memory is really not so important in terms of the software you can now create for them – many of the application concepts that are now popular on phones and pads have been around in the research world for decades. What is different, and what is truly a gamechanger, is that every device is connected, not just to other devices, but to rapidly growing resources of software resources, social networks, and data. So what does this mean? Well, first of all that every ubiquitous computing service dreamed up by researchers in the last 20 years can not only be implemented on a consumer device, but also reach critical mass very quickly. For instance, a decade ago, I thought about the problem of sharing data between devices that had no obvious user interface for connection, but shared the same radio network. My idea was to create a shared context for the devices by holding them together and shaking them. A type of sensor called an accelerometer (now available in most phones) could pick up the direction and speed of the movement. Since the chances were slim that any to devices in the same place would be having exactly the same motion characteristics, unless they were indeed held together, they could securely open a connection between them and send over data, for instance a business card. Today, an app called Bump does exactly this but cleverly adapted to a new infrastructure. Rather than relying on the devices being in the vicinity of each other through radio connection, it uses the phone’s location information to determine if two devices that have the same motion characteristics are also in the same place – and thus being bumped or shaken together. We published the sharing technique in 2001 (as Smart-Its Friends), but while we only ever built a few devices to demonstrate the concept, Bump is available through various app stores and numbers millions of users. Furthermore, with the accelerating capabilities of HTML 5 and mobile browsers, soon we will not even have to go through the process of installing apps on the phone – everything will be on the web. Let me take one other example. Over ten years ago, I was thinking about how one of the PARC projects – the Active Badge – could be made truly mobile. This was a device that was worn like a badge, but it contained some clever electronics, including a transmitter of infrared (invisible) light. Corresponding infrared receivers were located in every room of the office and wired to the local network, so that whenever somebody entered a room, the sensor would pick it up and transmit the position of the badge wearer. Using this information it was possible to deduce not only where a person was but also high-level information like for instance if a meeting was going on (several people at the same time in one location), to log a person in automatically to a workstation when he or she entered a room, and even route fixed-line phone calls to the phone nearest the recipient rather than their personal phone. The Active Badge performed a useful service, in that it kept track of the location of every badge wearer in the office. But it not only required the custom built ”smart” badges, it also required a very laborious infrastructure, with an infrared receiver located in every room of the building. What if it could be re-fitted so that it did not require a permanent installation of beacons and networks? Our solution was the Hummingbird, a device which tells you which of your other friends are in the vicinity – provided, of course, that they also have the device. In stead of relying of fixed receivers, it did this by listening to the radio transmissions of other Hummingbird devices, and since each was tied to a specific person, it was easy to deduce that the wearer was close (as in a couple of hundred meters) if the signal was picked up. A small display on the device showed the name of nearby users and a soft ”hum” was heard whenever someone was close. The downside was that the wearer’s absolute location was never known, but the upside was that it provided the really useful bit of information – who is near me? – without the need to install any additional hardware. Location-aware ”friend finder” technology like the Hummingbird is now available in hundreds of services, including major ones like Foursquare and Gowalla, and some of them have a millions users or more. But they still require the installation of an app, and this will always be a hurdle for reaching users. Instead of working for a specific platform, through the location feature of HTML 5, it is now possible to take advantage of location features in the browser. Thus, a location-based service can now often be implemented in a matter of days on the server side, and be available instantaneously in all phones with compliant browsers – which soon will be pretty much all of them. For instance, my lab just implemented a mobile web version of the Hummingbird, whereby visiting a web page you get a list of the users close to you in order of distance. No installation is required, and it works just fine on mobiles as well as iPads and PCs (we decided to skip the ”hum” this time!) While the native app explosion has already been phenomenal, I believe this takes mobile services much closer to the innovation pace and critical mass potential that has been prevalent on the web for the last decade. But in my view this new infrastructure is not just radio waves and wires – there is also the abundance of software components and social networks. Years before the iPhone and Zune, my group worked on social mobile music applications. We came up with Push!Music, where songs would move between devices all by themselves using ad-hoc radio connections, to find the environment where they would be most appreciated. Say you listen to a lot of Johnny Cash and country, but happened to download some Metallica by mistake. One day you share a bus ride or sit in a café next to a heavy metal fan – and those unloved Metallica songs may decide to jump ship from your player to one where they have a chance of being more appreciated! To test this concept, we had to buy expensive handheld computers with Wi-Fi and loan them to test subjects, who used them in lieu of their ordinary MP3 players. Because of this, we could only ever have 10 or so users at a time, and achieving ”critical mass” was never possible. Today, of course, we could have done the same as an app and reached many more users. But the opportunities even richer if we consider social networks and existing music services as part of the infrastructure. Using a little bit of clever coding it is possible to glue them together to create entirely new concepts in no time. To prove the point, two of my colleagues returned from an extended weekend of coding with SpotiSquare – a mash-up of Foursquare and Spotify. It allows you to do a very simple but powerful connection: tie a Spotify playlist to a Foursquare location. Thus any café, office or venue can have their own dedicated playlist, available to listen to and modify when you check in. And since it is again a web page, it is compatible with almost any device. This is not just a re-hash of something researchers could have thought of in the last century – it is something new, because it builds on an ecology of practices and services that never existed before. This is where I believe the most exciting opportunities lie right now in mobile applications: picking and mixing from hundreds of mobile web services and social networks, moving the grunt work from the handsets to the cloud, and adding a dash of location and context-awareness. Of course, it does not mean you will also automatically have a viable a business plan – as we know, a great technical idea is only a small part of what it takes to build a business – but it means that the step from thought to users is shorter than ever. We are finally entering the age of the mobile mash-up, and it will all be happening at even greater speed than the Web 2.0 revolution. 20 years after Weiser’s vision we are ready to take the next step, beyond ubiquitous computing, and it is up to researchers and entrepreneurs to invent the future once again.
Source: CrunchGear | 29 May 2010 | 8:26 am Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Should Rule Business Smartphones (PC World)PC World - Microsoft shook things up this week with some high-profile departures, and a reorganization of the Entertainment and Devices division that has CEO Steve Ballmer directly controlling the future of Microsoft's consumer technologies. When it comes to smartphones, Windows Phone 7 should arguably be the de facto platform for business professionals, but Microsoft may be delivering too little, too late.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 May 2010 | 8:18 am Why Policy Makers Should Review the Facts Before Marching to the Drumbeat of the Xenophobes
This new study was completed by University of Maryland professors Hank Lucas and Sunil Mithas, using data from a survey of 50,000 I.T. professionals that InformationWeek and Hewitt Associates conducted from 2000 to 2005. After adjusting for educational qualifications, work experience, and other individual characteristics, the researchers found that I.T. professionals without U.S. citizenship earned 8.9% more than U.S. citizens. Tech workers on temporary visas were paid 6.8% more than those with U.S. citizenship; green-card holders took home 12.9% more than their American-born counterparts. In years when Congress increased the numbers of visas available, salaries of foreign workers fell. The salary premium for H-1B holders was 10.6% in 2000; 8.1% in 2001; 17.5% in 2004; and 4.7% in 2005. This corresponds to a visa cap of 115,000 in 2000; 195,000 in 2001; 65,000 in 2004; and 85,000 in 2005 When the number of visas rose, the corresponding salaries shrank. To explain why firms pay more to foreign I.T. professionals, the researchers speculate that such foreign workers supply intangible human capital: knowledge of markets and cultures outside the U.S.; social relationships with colleagues at firms located in their home countries; access to networks in home countries and the ability to spot, circulate, and mix ideas and skills from different parts of the world. Foreign-born I.T. professionals are also usually willing to travel for extended periods. The researchers say that because the proportion of the sales and revenue that companies receive from abroad is increasing, they need to hire more I.T. professionals who are familiar with foreign culture; language; and business practice. UC-Berkeley dean and professor AnnaLee Saxenian refers to the foreign-born professionals in Silicon Valley as the “new Argonauts”. She says that over the past three decades, the region’s immigrant professionals have helped open foreign markets; identified overseas sources of talent and innovation; and pioneered long-distance partnerships. Far from being zero-sum, this process continues to expand economic opportunities for both Silicon Valley and its collaborators. She says that foreign nationals are clearly a complement to the native workforce, their diverse perspectives and global networks being catalysts for local innovation. The data Lucas and Mithas analyzed did not include all tech professionals: Information Week readers are typically I.T. workers in large and midsized American corporations. The researchers say that they compared their sample with that of other studies and believe that this is more representative of the tech industry than any other research. And unlike other studies, this compares apples with apples (previous research has looked only at aggregate data, not at individual education and skills). The Lucas/Mithas study clearly did not account for the shoddy body shops that break the law and underpay their workers. But it is likely to be representative not only of the Information Week readership, but also of foreign-born I.T. workers in Silicon Valley. (Silicon Valley tech workers usually have the same advanced educational background and receive the same competitive salaries as their brethren in the I.T. world.) These are the skilled immigrants that American industry needs—to remain globally competitive. The study also highlighted an issue that I have written about: these workers are earning less than they should. Because of a flawed immigration system, the U.S. has admitted large numbers of workers on temporary visas, but has never increased the number of permanent resident visas (also called green cards) to enable these workers to make America their home. Waiting times for green cards can be longer than a decade, and while workers wait in queue, they can’t easily change jobs. Employers often take advantage of the situation. Indeed, Lucas and Mithas found that H-1B visa holders earned 6.1% less than equivalent green-card holders. There is a far more serious problem brewing: we’re not letting the foreign-born workers start companies and boost the economy, so they are leaving. Consider that 52% of Silicon Valley companies started in 1995–2005 were founded by immigrants. There are now hundreds of thousands of highly educated and skilled workers who also could be starting companies that are stuck in “immigration limbo”. Many are getting frustrated and returning to their home countries. Others languish in the same jobs they had when they stated their green-card–application process; just as they can’t change companies, they can’t receive a promotion, so if they started as a computer programmer, they can’t become an architect or manager.
Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa      
Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2010 | 8:00 am NASA Using Satellites to Track TicksFinding a tick usually involves a squeamish self-examination -- carefully rubbing fingertips through the scalp, meticulously scanning the body, and groaning "eyeww" if a little bloodsucker is discovered.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 May 2010 | 6:45 am Design for America winners remix open government feedsThe Sunlight Foundation has announced the winners in its Design for America contest, where the public were invited find cool things to do with the US government's open data feeds. They had 72 entries, all extremely clever and provocative. The transformation of complex process into great imagery was also something we hoped for here at Sunlight. The "How A Bill Becomes a Law" category didn't disappoint. Every entry in this category was amazing. The one that won in the end was the one that combined beauty with complexity. It's beautiful, and too big to embed on this blog. But check out the whole thing. It's amazing.The Design for America Winners (Thanks, Nicko!)
Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2010 | 6:07 am The Best Of The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon
Last week on the final day of TechCrunch Disrupt, the TechCrunch Hack Day winners got to present onstage just before the Startup Battlefield finalists went into Round Three. It was an opportunity for the Disrupt audience to meet a few of the best and brightest from the past weekend’s event. When Daniel Raffel, Chad Dickerson and myself imagined the event we saw it as a chance to open a backdoor into the conference for some great devs—every presenter received a free pass to the conference. With over 60 teams presenting, judging was a challenge. Since not all of the teams got to present onstage Wednesday, we wanted to highlight some of the projects that stood out for us and the judges. The WinnersWorst Phone Ever Future Mario Twitter Demographics The Runners UpMr. StabbyPhone iPad Supine Safety Strap The Honorable MentionsAPI for the world PlanTwee ClassIO – Distributed Open Classifieds Platform Greenest Loser Welcome Mat City Tracks Groop.ly Likealytics Disrupt Me StereoScan APPSiGOT Bounty hackMatch WebHD Dogshare iPhone from Scratch      
Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2010 | 6:00 am FCC Inaction on Free Broadband Proposal Delaying Cook, Will and Kenosha Counties' Plan for Bridging the Persistent Broadband GapCHICAGO, MAY 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Coalition for Free Broadband Now revealed an online petition drive allowing Americans to inform President Obama and their congressmen and senators that inaction by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may prevent American's from having access to free nationwide broadband.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2010 | 6:00 am Computer mouse made from biological mouse's ribcage
I know nothing about this (do you? Add a comment) -- it doesn't look functional, but it sure is a fascinating object.
mouse (Thanks, Dana!) Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2010 | 5:57 am Librarians do GagaIn this smashing video, students and faculty from the University of Washington's Information School perform a Lady Gaga remix ("Catalog") with enormous humor, verve, and grace. Librarians are so goddamned awesome. Seriously. Librarians Do Gaga (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Source: Boing Boing | 29 May 2010 | 5:53 am Apple iPad Offers Freedom For Porn, At Least In One Berlin Ad Apple's Steve Jobs famously offered us “freedom from porn” in his ongoing war with Adobe Flash on the iPhone and iPad. But notoriously liberal Berlin has a different take on the matter, perhaps offering us freedom from being told what to do by Apple...
Billboards announcing the arrival of the iPad on Friday have been going up all over Berlin, but one of them in the subway station of Rosenthaler Platz is quite different to the rest. As you can see from the images below (NSFW but then it's Saturday, right?), the iPad appears to be about to offer an entirely new experience of porn.
Source: TechCrunch | 29 May 2010 | 5:07 am Qsan F300Q FC-SAS High Availability System is Now VMware CertifiedTAIPEI, Taiwan, May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtualization is the most efficient way to simplify IT complexity for both hardware and software management and installations.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 29 May 2010 | 4:18 am SOFIA Sees Jupiter's Ancient HeatThe aircraft-based telescope has opened its infrared eyes for the first time, peering into the guts of a galaxy and peeking through Jupiter's clouds.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 May 2010 | 3:38 am
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We’re in the final countdown for the D8 conference, which will kick of this Tuesday with Steve Jobs, live on stage and unscripted. The pillows are being fluffed, the furniture arranged, and the festive D8 crew bowling shirts distributed. You do not want to miss this. But before we can bring you all the D8 awesomeness, we should, as always, do a little wrap up what was a fairly wild week in tech news, Weekend Update style. 
It sounds like something out of a horror movie. Everyone who gets a certain cell phone numbers dies an ugly death. Total fiction, right? Not according to Bulgarian cell provider Mobitel. The company’s CEO chose 0888-888-888 as his cell phone number and died not long after of cancer. The next person who got the number met a grisly end when he was murdered.The third person to get the number was also murdered. After the third death the company has suspended the number and refuses to give it out again, feeling it would be too risky.
Both Time Warner and Universal are refusing to give into iPad craze, saying they have no plans to make their substantial but Flash based TV and movie libraries compatible with the red hot tablet. The studios said they simply don’t feel its worth the time or expense. This may give the upcoming tablets that are Flash friendly at least a small edge over the iPad, although with the increasing popularity of HTML5 Time Warner and Universal may end up having little choice but to convert their libraries in the future. For now though, iPad users will have to be content with the offerings from Disney, CBS, CNN, and Fox News, all which offer some iPad friendly content What do you think of the studios’ decision? Will it come back to haunt them?
One of the founders of 
Yes, the battery issue remains — this thing may work for a couple of hours as a hotspot, maybe less — but there is no disputing the ease-of-use.
We have all been wanting to know the inside scoop of the new Digg, a project that Kevin Rose and the team at Digg have been working on for months.
It’s no secret that mobile, hyperlocal advertising is poised to grow into a massive market in the next few years, spurred by the proliferation of GPS-equipped smartphones. Earlier this week we saw the launch of another competitor called 
Rounding out a nice selection of ebook reader information today we have news rumors of a new version of the Kindle. According to the details, which are coming courtesy of Bloombgerg;
Welcome to the past. At New York City conference Verizon’s CEO revealed that the company hopes to get rid of unlimited data plans when its 4G network debuts and instead offer customers buckets of megs like the data plans of old. It’s not known why the company wants to take a step back, but some speculate it’s either because of concern over bandwidth constraints or it could just be plain old greed. Verizon as you may recall, recently jacked up its EFT to a whopping $350 saying it has a right to demand the steep fee to make up for lost revenue when a customer leaves. AT&T has followed suit, jacking theirs up to $325. So far neither T-Mobile nor Sprint seem to have any plans to do the same. 
The H-1B visa has become the beachhead in the battle against the legal immigration of skilled workers. This is because it allows highly educated, skilled workers from abroad to take employment in the U.S. and eventually become citizens. Anti-immigrant groups believe that they can close the door to foreigners by restricting or abolishing the visa. So they have been trying to convince lawmakers that H-1Bs depress wages and take jobs away from American workers. To prove their point, they highlight examples of unscrupulous body shops that underpay their workers, and they cite questionable research published by other anti-immigrants. But a 
