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Sony rolls out 3D-capable Cyber-shots with full HD video recording mode
The 3D Cyber-shots are the DSC-WX5 (pictured above) and the DSC-TX9 (pictured below). Both come with a 12MP Exmor R CMOS sensor, a BIONZ processor, Optical SteadyShot image stabilizer, full HD movie recording, an HDMI mini interface, a USB 2.0 port, and Background Defocus function. The WX5 has 5x optical zoom (TX9: 4x), a smaller LCD screen (2.8 vs. 3.5 inches), and comes with a Sony G instead of a Carl Zeiss lens.
Sony Europe’s press release states that these cameras will come out in September. In Japan, they’ll hit stores as early as August 7, with the DSC-WX5 costing $396, and the DSC-TX9 costing $509.
Sony today also introduced the DSC-T99 (pictured above), which doesn’t come with the 3D features of the Cyber-shots mentioned above. It will be equipped with a 14.1MP Super HAD CCD sensor, 4x optical zoom, a BIONZ processor, a Carl Zeiss lens, Optical SteadyShot image stabilizer, 720p video recording mode, and sweep panorama mode (but without the 3D element). Sony Japan’s press release states the T99 will feature TransferJet for close-proximity wireless transfer of pictures (camera->PC), too, but for some reason the European press release doesn’t. In Japan, this Cyber-shot will come out on August 7 (price: $305), whereas other markets are getting it in September.
Source: CrunchGear | 8 Jul 2010 | 4:20 am Visual tour: Firefox 4 and Chrome -- separated at birth? - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Jul 2010 | 4:05 am Viral Video: Worth Its "Salt" [BoomTown]Here’s the trailer for Angelina Jolie’s newest action movie, “Salt,” about a secret agent gone rogue. You know the drill–lots of chases, high-tech hijinks and twisty turns. It’s out later this month. Enjoy: Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:51 am Facebook deal creates virtual 'credits' (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:51 am Germany Takes Legal Steps Against Facebookcrimeandpunishment writes "Not only are Germany and Facebook not friends, they might end up opponents in a courtroom. Germany has begun legal action over privacy. A German data protection official accuses Facebook of illegally saving personal data of people who don't use the site and haven't given permission to access their private information. Germany, which has also launched an investigation into Google over its Street View mapping program, has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:37 am Newport Digital Technologies, Inc., Announces Appointment of Donald Danks as Chief Executive OfficerNEWPORT BEACH, Calif., July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: NPDT) (NPDT) announced today that it has appointed Don Danks as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mr. Danks brings to NPDT more than 25 years of public company senior management experience and has specific expertise in financing and developing the business model for early stage public companies. Previously, from January 2001 to November 2008, Mr. Danks was the CEO for iMergent, Inc., an ecommerce software and services company listed on the American Stock Exchange. During his tenure at iMergent, he oversaw annual revenue growth from $12 million to more that $150 million, improving the company's market capitalization from under $3 million to a high of approximately $400 million. Since 1985, Mr. Danks has been involved in the creation, funding and development of several early-stage companies. His efforts have included raising more than $100 million in early stage capital, assisting in the development of business plans, recruiting of senior management, building institutional ownership and overseeing ongoing corporate finance needs. "We are very excited to have Mr. Danks joining NPDT as our CEO," said NPDT Chairman Richard Damion. "We already have a stellar management team, and it will be strengthened by Mr. Danks' prior experience in guiding companies from emerging revenue stages into aggressive revenue growth stages. Mr. Danks has the ability to clearly set the strategic vision for our company, our clients and our shareholders. He has strong ties to institutional investors and the capital markets in general, which will provide the resources to grow the company, allowing our management team to execute its business strategy." "My focus will be to support a very talented group led by our President, Weiling Tsao," said Mr. Danks. "Weiling was instrumental in building graphic chip leader ATI into a world class organization that was ultimately acquired by AMD. My role here at NPDT will be to make sure he is focused on bringing NPDT's RFID and Digital Signage product solutions to market, maximizing the revenue and earnings potential of this very unique company. "In addition, my goal is to educate the investment community on NPDT's unique, risk-managed and highly leveragable business model," Danks continued. "While NPDT is early stage, it has sophisticated and fully developed RFID and wireless digital signage products and solutions that are currently being introduced and channeled through Ingram Micro, with the potential to bring substantial and profitable revenue growth in the near term. Because of our relationship with Taiwan's leading R&D institutes, III and ITRI, as well as our relationship with key engineering and manufacturing partners in Taiwan, NPDT has the potential to scale revenues quickly." The current NPDT CEO, Michael Lutton, will move up to the Vice Chairman position on the NPDT Board of Directors and will work closely with Mr. Danks. Said Mr. Lutton, "I have known Don for more than 20 years and recruited him to come into NPDT as an advisor over a year and half ago. With his knowledge and understanding of NPDT's business model, his skill set perfectly matches the needs and opportunities of the company. I look forward to working with him as a board member to maximize the potential of this business and am thrilled to have Don joining our team." Finally, NPDT President and COO, Weiling Tsao added, "Mr. Danks' addition to the team will be very valuable to our execution going forward. His expertise in the public markets will allow me to do what I do best in building and scaling revenues of our current and future products. The shareholders will benefit from Mr. Danks' involvement. I am very happy he is joining the NPDT family." Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. (NPDT) is a technology solutions driven company organized to focus on serving four of the fastest-emerging businesses in the technology space - RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), WiMax, eLearning, and Digital Signage. NPDT develops and delivers leading-edge technology solutions such as the N37B through its strategic collaborations with global partners, including Taiwan industry and Taiwan's premier technology R&D incubators - the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). NPDT will customize leading-edge technology solutions and market them through Fortune 1000 channel partners and systems integrators on a worldwide basis. Safe Harbor: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to NPDT and its business. Statements that are not historical facts are identified as "forward-looking statements". The words "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", and similar expressions, particularly when used in the "future tense", are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Information on potential risk factors that could affect the NPDT's business plans and financial results can be found in NPDT's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. NPDT assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. has its headquarters located in Newport Beach, California, and branch offices in Taiwan, Australia and Japan. If you would like more information about this press release, please contact Donald Danks at +1.949.230.8323 or email at ddanks@newportdt.com Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. 620 Newport Center Drive, Suite 570 Newport Beach, CA 92660 Tel: +1.949.219.0530 Fax: +1.949.219.0528 www.newportdt.com SOURCE Newport Digital Technologies, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:20 am Reach Messaging Holdings Now Publicly Traded on OTC BBSANTA MONICA, Calif., July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Reach Messaging Holdings Inc. (http://reachmessaging.com) (OTC Bulletin Board: RCMH), which recently became a fully reporting, public company, is a leader in social media technology and media distribution. The Company is now trading on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board as a fully reporting entity with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Reach Messaging extends company brands through its mobile applications and bots used on instant messaging (IM) platforms. Since 2007 Reach Messaging has been in the bot development business for America Online (AOL), which operates on the AOL Instant Messenger (AOLIM). These include four of its most popular Bots: GossipinGabby (celebrity news), SportsFanStan (sports news, scores), My TV Bud and ProfGilzot. Reach Messaging is transitioning to mobile applications, a market expected to reach $25 billion by 2014, according to Juniper Research. Applications are being developed for all of the major mobile devices including the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Digital Signage and Facebook platforms. Mobile development projects in Reach Messaging's pipeline include a professional franchise stadium app, a high school sports app, numerous lifestyle and retail apps, a teen rating app and a corporate social media game. The Company will announce apps in new verticals over the coming weeks. CEO Shane Gau, who spent 12 years with AOL and whose last role was as a director for AIM's Network Services, stated, "We gained invaluable experience developing and deploying our products on the AOL Instant Messaging Network that has transitioned nicely into the new core focus of our business: utilitarian and entertainment smartphone apps and social media gaming." Mr. Gau continued: "In the next couple of weeks we will be launching multiple products across a variety of verticals, as well as announcing some critical strategic partnerships." Contact: Paul Knopick E & E Communications 949.707.5365 pknopick@eandecommunications.com SOURCE Reach Messaging Holdings Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:12 am Solar-Powered Plane Flies for 26 Hours - New York Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:09 am BP says does not expect to halt oil spill until AugustLONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - BP does not expect to plug its leaking Gulf of Mexico well until August, a spokeswoman for the company told Reuters on Thursday, following press speculation that it could happen...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:03 am 2011 iPad Sales: 25 Million? 18 Million? Well, a Big Number, Anyway. [Digital Daily]
That’s difficult to say, given the limited sales data available. But Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi gave it a shot in a note to clients today, and the number he came up with is astonishing, though it’s quite a bit lower than the buy-side number that’s being bandied about these days. “An analysis based on extrapolating sales trajectories of [the iPhone, iPod touch and all netbooks] suggests that Apple could sell a staggering 25 million iPads or more in FY 11,” Sacconaghi says. “We believe that current buyside expectations for FY 11 for the iPad are now at 20-25 million+ units, largely based on such an extrapolation.” [Ed. note: More like 28 million, Toni ...]
Not that he’s totally confident Apple (AAPL) will hit that number. He thinks sales will end up a bit lower, though he’s wary of offering a definitive forecast. “While iPad’s fast start points to the potential for 25M iPads in FY11, we note that the range of outcomes is wide and uncertain, particularly since the product use-cases and competitive offerings are very nascent. We currently estimate 18M iPads for FY 11, but underscore that we do not have high conviction in our estimate.” Sacconaghi’s uneasiness here is due largely to fears that extrapolating the iPad’s growth trajectory from sales to early adopters might result in an unrealistic estimate. He also worries that expanded international distribution won’t juice iPad sales as much as the market hopes. Which is understandable. After all, the device is still quite new and its use-cases are still being established. [Image credit: Gizmodo commenter modestmouse and RBC Capital Markets] Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 3:00 am RPT-UPDATE 1-Inpex to raise $6.7 bln to fund Ichthys gas projectTOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) - Inpex Corp , Japan's top oil and gas explorer, said it plans to raise up to $6.7 billion through a global share offering to finance its giant Ichthys liquefied natural gas project...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 2:57 am Other World Notes: The Real Names Controversy Comes to World of Warcraft"Should Blizzard Require Real World Names From World of Warcraft Players?" That's what fans of the MMO are asking right now, in the wake of a recent policy announcement that WoW players will need to use...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 2:51 am It’s Time For Microsoft’s Second Inception
“An idea can transform the world and re-write all the rules. Which is why I have to steal it,” Cobb teases at one point in the trailer. For whatever reason, the film and that premise got me thinking about Microsoft. More specifically, about some of the recent stories about yet more internal struggles at the company and the complete and utter failure of the Kin. It seems to me that Microsoft created one of these inceptions once in the 1980s. And it led to the company’s greatest success: Microsoft Windows. Now I think it’s time for a second inception. Before I get into that, a bit of history. For nearly 25 years now, the story has lingered that Microsoft stole the idea of Windows from Apple while working to develop software for the Lisa and Macintosh operating systems. The stories you hear generally seem to be a mixture of truth, urban legend, and fanboy fabrications at this point — but the fact is that Apple did sue Microsoft in 1988 for copyright infringement on the matter. After four years worth of arguments, Apple lost. They also lost the subsequent appeal (and they even tried to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that was denied). But they didn’t lose because Windows wasn’t thought to be similar to Apple’s operating systems. They lost because the judge ruled that you couldn’t protect the concept of a graphical user interface or the desktop metaphor idea. And more specifically, Apple ran into problems because of a decision that then-CEO John Sculley made in 1985 to sign an agreement licensing certain parts of Apple’s GUI to Bill Gates for use in what would become Windows 1.0 (presumably without realizing exactly what he was doing). Yes, you could make a similar charge against Apple — that they stole several GUI components from Xerox’s PARC labs. (There was a subsequent lawsuit of Apple by Xerox on these grounds, but that was largely seen as a tactical maneuver just in case Apple won the lawsuit against Microsoft.) But the fact is that Microsoft was working closely with Apple as a software partner while they developed the Lisa and Macintosh OSes. Microsoft clearly saw an idea that they liked and they took it for their own and never looked back. A perfect inception. But now that idea is waning. Or rather, everyone is starting to recognize that the idea will be waning in the years to come. Make no mistake, Microsoft still makes a lot of money from Windows — and I do mean a lot. But Windows is not the future. By that I mean that the desktop metaphor GUI is slowly but surely being replaced by a rise of mobile and touchable devices. In other words, Microsoft needs a new idea. The problem is that Microsoft hasn’t proven themselves to be capable of coming up with or executing such an idea on their own. Dozens of failed projects ranging from the original tablet PCs to SPOT watches to the Kin have been left in their wake. The fact that tablet computers are now exploding in popularity thanks to Apple’s iPad suggests that Microsoft, for whatever reason, has a hard time launching new, successful ideas on their own. Windows Mobile is another example of this. They were there early, much earlier than their main rivals. And now they’re getting trounced. Instead, it may be time to piggyback off an idea again. To create a new inception, as it were. Lure someone in, take their idea — and take it to the next level. Microsoft has nothing if not a huge amount of resources. If they pick the right idea to take, they can once again transform the world — but they need that right idea.
Truth be told, Microsoft has been practicing this all along to varying degrees. Their two most recent successes, Xbox 360 and Bing, are ideas that Microsoft came late to. Yes, Microsoft had a search engine before Bing, but it was an afterthought. Same with Xbox; they were there far after other players had established the home gaming console field. Though I will concede that the work Microsoft has done with Xbox Live is pretty revolutionary. Of course, that concept is credited as being created outside the main Redmond chamber. Xbox is an interesting area for Microsoft right now. A report just yesterday indicated they may have made as much as a billion dollars in revenue off of Live in the past fiscal year. That’s impressive. But is that really going to be Microsoft’s next great project? Are they going to be a videogame and media portal company? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but they probably can’t expect to be a company that’s the same size that they are now if that’s going to be their focus. Maybe that next great idea hasn’t shown itself just yet to Microsoft. Or maybe that’s why we’re seeing a complete reboot of the Windows Mobile brand as Windows Phone? Mobile is the obvious choice for that next big idea. Hell, it already is a massively big idea (just ask Apple and Google). But it’s going to get even bigger. And mobile computing in particular is going to get more important to the fabric of society. Microsoft undoubtedly realizes this, and that’s why it’s okay that they’re re-entering the game so late. The big prize is still there for the taking. But unlike with Windows 25 years ago, Microsoft faces one very big challenge this time around if mobile is the next great idea they’re going to pursue: Google. Google’s Android platform is more or less taking the role that Windows took during the PC wars of the 1980s. They’re the more open variety of Apple’s popular but closed idea. They’re the ones going for massive market share while Apple continues to prefer tight controls over its system. Microsoft can’t get away with the licensing fees that they got PC vendors to pay for Windows this time around because the Android software is free. And again, Microsoft is already coming late to the game. So that leaves Microsoft with no clear outlet to make money in mobile since they’d neither be selling hardware nor selling software licenses (again, if they truly hope to compete with Android). What does that leave? Mobile search? Maybe — but again, that’s Google’s game plan and Microsoft is going to have a hard time playing catch up there.
The touchscreen tablet computing revolution is also a problematic area as Microsoft’s next idea. Again, there they’ll be facing both Apple and Google. The latter is starting to ramp up Android tablet ideas, and soon, Chrome OS too. Microsoft can offer a full-fledged OS (a flavor of Windows 7) to run on tablets — but will anyone want that? Or will native apps win out? It’s certainly possible that the next idea Microsoft needs hasn’t even been thought of yet. And with Windows and Office continuing to be cash cows, they have some time. But the cash cows are going to start moving towards the pasture soon enough. And where will that leave Microsoft 10 years from now? The idea Microsoft took 25 years ago is already starting to lose some of its luster. The company that got shafted in that maneuver, Apple, has since passed Microsoft in market cap. More importantly, they appear to be on the verge of passing them in quarterly revenues as well (though Microsoft will still undoubtedly have the edge in profits thanks to the huge margins on software). There’s a case to be made that Microsoft can continue to dominate far longer on the enterprise side of things, which are generally slower to move on new computing trends. But at least some folks inside Microsoft don’t believe that Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie cares about enterprise at all. CEO Steve Ballmer undoubtedly does, but he’s always been regarded more as a sales guy than a product visionary. Plus, he’s currently overseeing the entertainment division after their huge recent shakeup. It’s just not clear where Microsoft’s second inception is going to come from. Where that big idea that will steer the company for the next 25 years is going to pop up. The only thing that is certain is that Microsoft needs that second inception. As Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) says at one point in the Inception trailer, “The dream is collapsing.“
     
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Jul 2010 | 2:26 am UPDATE 3-Maersk lifts 2010 guidance on shipping rebound* Expects 2010 profit to exceed 2008 level after 2009 lossSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 2:13 am UPDATE 2-Alcon directors take new step to protect minorities* IDC repeats Novartis minorities bid is grossly inadequateSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 2:08 am Braun Announces Expansion of its World Recognised BraunPrizeLONDON, July 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- - New Competition to Return in 2012 Braun, a member of the P&G family of brands (NYSE:PG), is pleased to announce that its BraunPrize will undergo a significant expansion and, moving from its recent two year rotation to the former three year rhythm, will return in 2012. Even since its inception in 1968, the internationally recognised BraunPrize design competition has promoted industrial design and innovative product concepts that were developed with a focus on helping people in all aspects of their life. The new BraunPrize will bring that sensibility together with P&G's mission to touch and improve the lives of more consumers, in more parts of the world, more completely thereby multiplying the impact on young designers, design enthusiasts and the industry in general. The evolution of the BraunPrize is being jointly led by Prof. Oliver Grabes, Head of Braun Corporate Design, and Phil Duncan, P&G's Global Design Officer, and will encompass a new submissions process, an increased emphasis on greater accessibility for design interested consumers and a renewed focus to further extend into innovative, emerging markets. Prof. Oliver Grabes states, "We are tremendously excited about the prospect of a new BraunPrize in 2012. In making some significant changes to the awards process, we are further establishing our commitment to the accessibility of this competition and want to ensure that it not only provides a showcase to those who want to pursue a career in design, but that it also encourages engagement with design for those enthusiasts and professionals outside of an academic context." He continues "As ever, we want to support great ideas, clarity of vision and practical, beautiful and intuitive solutions to everyday concerns, the trademarks of Braun's influential design process." "The BraunPrize's heritage is diverse and illustrious and this new innovation will insure it continues to develop in the future," said Phil Duncan, P&G's Global Design Officer. "P&G is committed to further evolve this prestigious design event into the world's most exciting and inspiring design competition." The BraunPrize is one of the world's oldest and most renowned international design competitions and its next incarnation in 2012 will be the 18th competition to be held since Erwin Braun, son of Max Braun, the founder of the small domestic appliances manufacturer Braun, decided to hold the first BraunPrize event 44 years ago in 1968. From the outset, the BraunPrize was an international competition and over the years young designers from more and more countries around the world have entered, making it one of the world's leading design competitions. The BraunPrize 2009 attracted a record number of entries with 1,074 projects from 54 countries including the local franchises BraunPrize Mexico and BraunPrize China. The judging process entailed a BraunPrize Jury selection of the four finalists. The designers responsible for the chosen submissions were asked to present their projects at the BraunPrize Forum, a collection of industry experts, journalists, celebrated designers and renowned creative professionals, who were then tasked to select the overall winner through a popular vote. The eventual winner of the 17th BraunPrize 2009 was Johanna Schoemaker for her project "Clam I OLED Lamp" a visually daring and environmentally sustainable household light. For further information on the BraunPrize and receive further information on submissions for BraunPrize 2012 when it is released, please visit: http://www.braun/braunprize.com Notes to editors: About the BraunPrize Established in 1968, the BraunPrize was Germany's first international competition to promote the work of young designers, highlight the importance of industrial design and promote innovative product ideas across the world. Please visit http://www.braunprize.com for the latest news and in-depth information about the BraunPrize. About Braun Braun, a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble founded in Germany in 1921, manufactures a wide variety of small domestic appliances that marry innovation, reliability and creative design. These range from electric shavers and beauty products to household appliances. Braun products enjoy worldwide distribution. Please visit http://www.braun.com for the latest news and in-depth information about the Braun brand. About Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) Four billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers(R), Tide(R), Ariel(R), Always(R), Whisper(R), Pantene(R), Mach3(R), Bounty(R), Dawn(R), Gain(R), Pringles(R), Charmin(R), Downy(R), Lenor(R), Iams(R), Crest(R), Oral-B(R), Duracell(R), Olay(R), Head & Shoulders(R), Wella(R), Gillette(R), Braun(R) and Fusion(R). The P&G community includes approximately 135,000 employees working in about 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands. SOURCE BraunSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:59 am Braun Announces Expansion of its World Recognised BraunPrizeSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:59 am Activision Wants Consoles To Be Replaced By PCsthsoundman writes with this excerpt from thegamersblog: "We live in a world where we have multiple platforms for gaming: PC, PS3, 360, Wii, etc. Each platform has varying amounts of power when it comes to playing games. Activision, one of the leading cross-platform publishers, wishes to move away from the 'walled gardens' set by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. ... [Activision CEO Bobby] Kotick’s solution is to turn to the PC, where it can set its own model for pricing — not unlike what Blizzard has done with World of Warcraft and Battle.net. Kotick stated that Activision would 'very aggressively' support the likes of HP and Dell in any attempt at making an easy 'plug-and-play' PC that would hook up directly to the TV."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:56 am Cathay Pacific plans on-board web, phone service (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:49 am Egypt unveils discovery of 4,300-year-old tombsEgyptian archaeologists have unveiled their latest discovery _ two 4,300-year-old tombs carved out of stone and unearthed in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo. The tombs have...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:45 am UPDATE 1-UMC June sales hit near 3-year high* Stock flat before results, lagging TAIEX's 1 pct gain (Recasts with details, Quanta sales)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:45 am Is Yahoo Dead? I Don't Think So. Who Else With This Scale Can Be Neutral?I'm sure you've noticed, but there's a major battle underway for the hearts and minds of what we, in this industry, broadly call "developers." Often the term is used quite strictly, to mean actual coders...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:44 am UPDATE 1-LDK Solar signs 13 MW solar module deal with ABB* Says wider cooperation agreement is under negotiation (Adds detail)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:43 am UPDATE 2-Vivo talks get fresh life, golden share ruling due* EU expected to rule Portugal Telecom golden share illegalSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:41 am UPDATE 2-Philips taps restructuring expert as new CEO* To take COO position before replacing Kleisterlee in 2011Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:32 am iPad Gains in the Enterprise, But Security Still an IssueIt's clear that Apple's initial success with the iPad is spilling into the enterprise. Bloomberg Business Week reported today that Well Fargo took two years to support the iPhone. But this spring, the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:31 am Nova Announces Multiple Installations of its Stand-Alone Metrology ToolREHOVOT, Israel, July 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI) provider of leading edge stand-alone metrology and the market leader of integrated metrology solutions to the semiconductor process control market, today announced multiple installations of its Nova T500 stand-alone optical CD metrology tool which are expected to total seven different customers by the end of the third quarter of 2010. The company also noted that 5 of these are new stand-alone metrology customers. Noam Shintel, Director of Corporate Marketing, commented: "Since the introduction of the Nova T500, we have focused our penetration efforts on leading edge memory manufactures and foundries. The unique capabilities of the Nova T500 provide an excellent combination of ground breaking throughput and cost of ownership with cutting edge measurement capabilities. We are thrilled that this product has won a vote of confidence of as many as 7 leading edge customers, representing around 70% of the top-20 semiconductor manufacturers wafer fab equipment spending. We expect these new installations to lead us to continued growth in our stand-alone market share, as our customers continue to increase their capacity and deploy state-of-the-art metrology in advanced semiconductor manufacturing." The NOVA T500 is a high throughput high accuracy stand-alone optical CD platform. It addresses the toughest challenges the industry faces: increasing metrology sampling, improving metrology precision and reducing metrology cost of ownership (CoO). About Nova: Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. develops, produces and markets advanced integrated and stand alone metrology solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Nova is traded on the NASDAQ & TASE under the symbol NVMI. The Company's website is http://www.nova.co.il. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to future events or our future performance, such as statements regarding trends, demand for our products, expected deliveries, transaction, expected revenues, operating results, earnings and profitability. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward looking statements. These risks and other factors include but are not limited to: our dependency on two process control product lines; the highly cyclical nature of the markets we target; our inability to reduce spending during a slowdown in the semiconductor industry; our ability to respond effectively on a timely basis to rapid technological changes; our dependency on OEM suppliers; risks associated with our dependence on a single manufacturing facility; our ability to expand our manufacturing capacity or marketing efforts to support our future growth; our dependency on a small number of large customers and small number of suppliers; risks related to our intellectual property; changes in customer demands for our products; new product offerings from our competitors; changes in or an inability to execute our business strategy; unanticipated manufacturing or supply problems; changes in tax requirements; changes in customer demand for our products; risks related to currency fluctuations and risks related to our operations in Israel. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties summarized under the heading "Risk Factors" in Nova's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2009 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 26, 2010. These factors are updated from time to time through the filing of reports and registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release. Company Contact: Dror David, Chief Financial Officer Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. Tel: +972-8-938-7505 E-mail: info@nova.co.il http://www.nova.co.il Investor Relations Contacts: Ehud Helft / Kenny Green CCG Investor Relations Tel: +1-646-201-9246 E-mail: nova@ccgisrael.com SOURCE Nova Measuring Instruments LtdSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:21 am Repeat of SKorea, US cyberattacks does no damage (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:16 am Why Google Should Ban Its Own Help Pages–But Also Shouldn't [Voices]By Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief, Search Engine Land Google (GOOG) takes pride in showing how it will enforce its anti-spam rules even against itself, but apparently there’s a limit to how far it will go. Google is declining to ban many of its own help pages that were published in violation of its webmaster guidelines. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:05 am Building One Big Brain [Voices]By Robert Wright, editor-in-chief, Bloggingheads.tv For your own sake, focus on this column. Don’t think about your Facebook feed or your inbox. Don’t click on the ad above or the links to the right. Don’t even click on links within the column. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:04 am How Transparency Fails (And Works, Too) [Voices]By Clay Johnson, Blogger, InfoVegan.com Disclosure, proponents say, along with the miracle of the web will allow for ordinary Jane and Joe Watchdogs to scour public data and flush out corruption in Washington, D.C. “If we could just get members of Congress to list their financial holdings,” they say, “we could show the public that they’re benefiting financially from the decisions they make as legislators.” Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:03 am China lashes out at 'vulgar' online game ads (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:02 am Why Andy Grove Is Right [Voices]By Brooke Crothers, CNET Blog Network Author Former Intel (INTC) CEO Andy Grove is dead on about the dire need to come up with policies to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Look no further than the bustling economies in Asia if there is any doubt. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:02 am Outrage World [Voices]By Emily Gould, Author, “And The Heart Says Whatever” One of my friends posted a link to last week’s Jezebel post titled “The Daily Show’s Woman Problem” as her Gmail chat status, alongside the words “Every woman must read this.” Obediently, I clicked, and read a lengthy post that began with the assertion that The Daily Show is a “boys’ club where women’s contributions are often ignored and dismissed.” Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:01 am Timeless Heirloom Toys - Auditorium Toy Co. Designs Handcrafted Toys that are Made to Last (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Founded by Brad Denboer, Auditorium Toy Co. offers handcrafted, hierloom toys that draw from traditional craftmanship. The company's beautiful, limited edition toys are designed with...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:01 am Real Names Rile Online Warlocks and Wizards [Voices]By Nick Wingfield, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Players of online fantasy games like World of Warcraft love to anonymously inhabit shamans, mages and other characters. But they’d rather not reveal their real identities, as evidenced by an uproar this week over a plan by Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of World of Warcraft. On Tuesday, Blizzard announced that it will begin forcing participants in its game discussion forums–where players go to gab about World of Warcraft and other games–to post comments using their real first and last names. The change will go into effect mid-July on forums for Starcraft II, an upcoming online game, and follow after that for World of Warcraft discussion forums. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Jul 2010 | 1:00 am ElcomSoft Breaks Passwords Faster with NVIDIA Fermi Based AcceleratorsMOSCOW, July 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. announces the support of NVIDIA Fermi chips for accelerating password recovery even further. By using NVIDIA's newest high-end video accelerators for its password recovery tools, ElcomSoft has achieved benchmark speeds demonstrating 20-fold gain in recovery speed compared to Intel current top of the line quad-core CPUs. The new Fermi-based video boards exceed benchmark speeds of previous-generation NVIDIA Tesla by doubling the already impressive password recovery speed of enterprise-grade Tesla solutions based on the previous-generation chipsets. ElcomSoft is anticipating the release of Fermi-based Tesla to further accelerate password recovery in enterprise environments. Supported Products ElcomSoft has updated several products with the new acceleration technology, including Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery, Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor, and Elcomsoft iPhone Password Breaker. About Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery enables hardware-accelerated password recovery for a variety of applications, including Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDF, PGP, personal security certificates and exchange keys, MD5 hashes, Oracle passwords, Windows and UNIX login and domain passwords. ElcomSoft's patent-pending acceleration technologies and zero-overhead scalability to over 10,000 workstations make Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery a high-end solution offering the fastest recovery. By adding support for the latest NVIDIA chipset, ElcomSoft accelerates Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery with the widest range of hardware, including ATI Radeon 4000 and 5000 series boards, consumer NVIDIA cards, and enterprise-grade NVIDIA Tesla solutions. About ElcomSoft Co.Ltd. Founded in 1990, ElcomSoft Co.Ltd. develops state-of-the-art computer forensics tools, provides computer forensics training and computer evidence consulting services. Since 1997, ElcomSoft has been providing support to businesses, law enforcement, military, and intelligence agencies. ElcomSoft tools are used by most of the Fortune 500 corporations, multiple branches of the military all over the world, foreign governments, and all major accounting firms. ElcomSoft and its officers are members of the Russian Cryptology Association. ElcomSoft is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and an Intel Software Partner. More information at http://www.fermi.elcomsoft.com Elcomsoft products support Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and 2008, Windows Vista and Windows 7 with x32 and x64 architectures. Downloadable evaluation versions are available at http://www.elcomsoft.com/edpr.html These benchmarks are missing NVIDIA's latest boards based on the new Fermi chipset, NVIDIA's next generation GPU architecture. NVIDIA Tesla S2050/S2070 are claimed to surpass everything announced by NVIDIA's competitors, but will be available only in Q2/Q3'2010. ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. http://www.elcomsoft.com/ pr@elcomsoft.com Tel: +7(495)974-1162 SOURCE Elcomsoft Co.Ltd.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:59 am The definitive Barack Obama portraitDrew Carey offers a splendid presidential portrait, as seen in South Africa. [@DrewFromTV]Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:56 am The definitive Barack Obama portraitDrew Carey offers a splendid presidential portrait, as seen in South Africa. [@DrewFromTV] Source: Boing Boing | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:56 am UMC Reports Sales for June 2010TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 8 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TAIEX: 2303), (UMC) today reported unaudited net sales for the month of June 2010. Revenues for June 2010 Period 2010 2009 Y/Y Change Y/Y(%) M/M(%) June 10,335,635 8,235,925 2,099,710 +25.49% +2.43% Jan.-June 56,460,309 33,465,873 22,994,436 +68.71% N/A (*) All figures in thousands of New Taiwan Dollars (NT$), except for percentages. Additional information about UMC is available on the web at http://www.umc.com . Contacts: Richard Yu UMC, Investor Relations Tel: +886-2-2700-6999, ext. 6951 Email: richard_yu@umc.com SOURCE United Microelectronics CorporationSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:50 am Raising funds for a critically acclaimed small science fiction publisher to create a novella marketDario sez, "SF and Fantasy micro-press Panverse Publishing tested its engines last October with its acclaimed first title, Panverse One. Publisher Dario Ciriello's goal is to provide a permanent market...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:44 am Raising funds for a critically acclaimed small science fiction publisher to create a novella marketDario sez, "SF and Fantasy micro-press Panverse Publishing tested its engines last October with its acclaimed first title, Panverse One. Publisher Dario Ciriello's goal is to provide a permanent market for novella-length work, actively promote new writers, and restore the genre's core values of story and wonder. He believes Fantasy and SF are vitally important and essentially subversive literatures. With the help of Kickstarter, Dario wants to take Panverse into orbit and become a force for excellence in the field."
Wonder. Story. They're Back!
(Thanks, Dario!)
Memory-Restoring Beads - Sadhbh Doherty's 'Arcque' Will Restore Your Phone's Digital Memory (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Irish designer Sadhbh Doherty has designed a special and ingenious way to retain the digital memories held by disposed phones. According to designer, users will get back the digital...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:41 am Burger King Introduces A 'Musical Shower' Booth At Their New Restaurant In TokyoBy Andrew Liszewski Apparently the American fast food giants haven’t had the best of luck in Japan, but after withdrawing from the market a while ago, Burger King is back with a new ‘upscale’...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:37 am No iPhone Apps, Please — We're BritishGMGruman writes "The BBC has stirred up quite a row in Britain about a shocking use of taxpayer funds: creating iPhone apps to provide citizens services. As InfoWorld blogger Galen Gruman notes, it's apparently bad in Britain for the government to use modern technology during a recession, a mentality he likens as a shift from 'cool Britannia' to 'fool Britannia.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:35 am Report Backs Climate Data, Scolds Scientists - Wall Street Journal
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:30 am Change of Stock Exchange Ticker for IBS Group GDRs to "IBSG"MOSCOW, July 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBS Group Holding Limited (hereinafter the "Group" or "IBS Group") has resolved to change the ticker of its GDRs on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the XETRA trading platform and in other trading systems. Starting from July 5, 2010 IBS Group depositary receipts (ISIN US4509391037, WKN A0MJ2Z) will be assigned the following ticker: IBSG. The old ticker (ZY71) will no longer be used. All information on the company in public sources will be transferred to respective trading and information system profiles for the new ticker. Effecting those changes is a technical procedure and will under no circumstances require additional action by holders of IBS Group GDRs. We hope that the new stock exchange ticker will be easier to remember and simplify company information search for investors. For your convenience please be informed of the new ticker in Bloomberg - IBSG:GR, and in Reuters - IBSGq.DE. About IBS Group IBS Group is the leading Russian IT company. Through two principal subsidiaries, IBS IT Services and Luxoft, it provides a wide variety of information technology services, such as business and IT consulting, business applications implementation, IT outsourcing and software development. IBS Group is headquartered in Russia and has business operations in Russia, Canada, Germany, Romania, Switzerland, the UK, Ukraine, the USA, and Vietnam. IBS Group employs more than 6,000 people worldwide. In 2009 financial year, IBS Group reported preliminary US GAAP revenues of $505m. IBS Group's Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) are listed on the Open Market at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Bloomberg: IBSG:GR; Reuters: IBSGq.DE). IBS Group is majority-owned by management; institutional investors hold 35% of the Group's share capital. Gamid Kostoev Director, Corporate Communications Tel.+7(495)967-8080 Mobile+7(903)720-6078 Fax+7(495)967-8081 E-mailgkostoev@ibs.ru Dmitry Ivanov Director, Investor Relations Tel.+7(495)-967-8087 Mobile+7(916)618-4034 Fax+7(495)-967-8099 E-maildvivanov@ibs.ru SOURCE IBS Group Holding LtdSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:29 am Orkut About To Fall To Facebook In India
For all the grief Google gets for not understanding social networks, people often forget that it owns a pretty big one, Orkut. While Orkut is much smaller than Facebook worldwide, it does dominate in at least two large countries: Brazil and India. But that soon may change. India looks like it is about to fall to Facebook. In May, 2010, Facebook attracted 18 million unique visitors in India, compared to Orkut’s 19.7 million (comScore). In the past year, Facebook grew 177 percent from 6.5 million Indian visitors, compared to 35 percent growth for Orkut. When the June numbers come out, Facebook may very well surpass Orkut in that country. Indeed, Google’s own Trends for websites shows Facebook edging out Orkut in India last month.
Facebook has been pouring a lot of resources into India, and is currently hiring 500 people there. It is a major global priority for the company. Brazil, however, is still safe for Orkut, with 29 million visitors a months versus only 8 million for Facebook. But Google is no longer pinning its social networking hopes on Orkut. It has moved onto other things like cloning Facebook with its not-so-secret Google Me project. Well, it might not be a complete clone, if the ideas of one Google researcher are any indication.      
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:25 am Wired examines the neuroscience of Alcoholics AnonymousIn this month's Wired Magazine, Brendan Koerner takes a look at the neuroscience behind Alcoholics Anonymous— and the neuroscience of alcoholism. More than a million people belong to AA. The...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:21 am Wired examines the neuroscience of Alcoholics Anonymous
In this month's Wired Magazine, Brendan Koerner takes a look at the neuroscience behind Alcoholics Anonymous— and the neuroscience of alcoholism. More than a million people belong to AA. The "peer to peer" recovery system has been in existence for more than 75 years, founded during the Great Depression by a drunk stockbroker. How does it work? Nobody really knows. * As for the steps themselves, there is evidence that the act of public confession--enshrined in the fifth step--plays an especially crucial role in the recovery process. When AA members stand up and share their emotionally searing tales of lost weekends, ruined relationships, and other liquor-fueled low points, they develop new levels of self-awareness. And that process may help reinvigorate the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is gravely weakened by alcohol abuse.Secret of AA: After 75 Years, We Don't Know How It Works
* Just keep coming back, because it does work. Display Case Lights - The 'Favourite Things' Pendant Lamp by Chen Karlsson (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) 'Favourite Things' by Chen Karlsson is a unique concept that combines the need to display items with the need for illumination. This customizable lamp is made from polypropylene and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:10 am HTML5-juiced mobile YouTube refresh dates iPhone - Register
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Jul 2010 | 12:02 am America's "jobless recovery" Dismal news about the American "jobless recovery" in yesterday's NYT. I've always thought the phrase "jobless recovery" illustrates the perfectly idiotic cognitive dissonance at play in financial thinking. If the thing you use to measure the health of your economy has gone up, but no one has a job, then surely you are measuring the wrong thing to gauge the health of your nation. The outlook this time is not so clear. Starved for jobs at adequate pay, the millennials tend to seek refuge in college and in the military and to put off marriage and child-bearing. Those who are working often stay with the jobs they have rather than jump to better paying but less secure ones, as young people seeking advancement normally do. And they are increasingly willing to forgo raises, or to settle for small ones.American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation (via Jon Taplin) Source: Boing Boing | 7 Jul 2010 | 11:31 pm Glucosamine no better than placebo for lower back painA Norwegian study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that glucosamine has no effect on relieving lower back pain. Six million Americans take glucosamine supplements.Glucosamine No Remedy for Lower Back Pain, Says Study (via Consumerist) Source: Boing Boing | 7 Jul 2010 | 11:31 pm Security theater tees Big Brother Tees, sporting a variety of slogans relevant to airport security: "Nobody is safer when you take my water," "Cast Member of Airport Security Theater," "You can only detect and respond," "Technology can't solve security problems," "Franklin's Essential Liberty," "What airport security procedures miss." Someone will come along any moment in the comments to explain that if you get hassled for wearing one of these, it's your own fault for antagonizing them. But let's be clear: the TSA's job is to keep airplanes safe. Criticizing the TSA does not undermine the safety of airplanes. Hurting a screener's feelings does not endanger our skies. Refusing to believe in the pseudoscience of binary explosives made in airplanes from the contents of your toothpaste tube does not constitute noncompliance with the magic-anti-terror-baggie rule. Big Brother T-Shirts (Thanks, Bruce!)
Source: Boing Boing | 7 Jul 2010 | 11:31 pm Coveroo Raises $2.3 Million For Custom-Engraved Mobile Cases
Some people like to put tattoos on their body, others like to put Coveroos on their phones. Coveroo puts a custom engraving on the back of your mobile phone or case. The company just closed a Series B funding, led by Rembrandt Venture Partners. Consor Capital and CEO Karl Jacob also put in some money. About 18 months ago, Coveroo rose from the ashes of Wallop, a defunct social networking site where Jacob was also the CEO. Instead of giving up, he pivoted and created a business around personalizing the personal, but largely lookalike, tech we all carry around in our pockets. The company did a reboot with a new $1.5 million Series A in August, 2009. “Some companies do escape the deadpool,” says Jacob. Today, Coveroo offers more than 3,000 designs for all kinds of mobile phones from Androids, Blackberries and iPhone (cases) to Nokias, Motorolas, and Samsungs. You can etch your favorite band, sports team, TV show, movie, or character on the back of your phone, or submit your own design. “We are seeing a real boost in sales of custom phone covers around phones that are quickly and widely distributed. People don’t like to have the same phone as everyone else even if it is the new iPhone 4,” notes Jacob. The company also etches phones at live events such as concerts and movie premiers. (We’ve had them at some TechCrunch events, they are always a crowd-pleaser). It is also in trials with a Coveroo kiosk that could be placed at electronics retailers.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:22 pm Glucosamine Worthless For Back PainA new study finds that glucosamine supplements are ineffective in helping back pain.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:06 pm Review: Sumo Lounge Sway Couple
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Full Review: I never had a beanbag chair when I was a kid. My brother and I were quite active and my parents were always concerned that we’d puncture it, and end up creating a giant mess. As such, I really don’t have a basis of comparison to the “old school” bags that people used in the 70’s. I can tell you that I find the Sumo Lounge Sway to be extremely comfortable, and very relaxing. The nice thing about the Sway is that it’s not just a “bag”. It’s actually shaped into a chair like form, which makes it surprisingly supportive, and extremely comfortable. Some of you might have noticed that I was missing for most of May and June; this was due to needing some back surgery. After I came home from the hospital, I was miserable – I was tired of lying in bed all day, but I couldn’t sit in a normal chair, or couch. Luckily for me, Sumo had sent the Sway to the me for review shortly after I went in for surgery. Now to be fair, I didn’t originally plan on sitting in a bean bag chair after back surgery but to my happy surprise, it was the most comfortable place for me in the house. Getting up was a bit of a trick, but luckily my wife was home to take care of me so I didn’t have to get up very often. The Sumo Lounge Sway Couple is available in either microfiber or corduroy, and in a wide selection of colors. I keep referring to it as a “bean bag”, but the filling has absolutely no connection with the traditional bead filler used in the original versions – the Sway is filled with a poly fiber, which means that not only is there no risk of a messy disaster, I didn’t find it to have insulator properties like polystyrene does. You don’t heat up as you sit in the chair, so it doesn’t cause you to sweat. Sumo also guarantees that the polyester fiber will never go flat. As much use as my review unit has seen, I wouldn’t expect that to become an issue for many years Unfortunately, all is not perfect. First off, let’s be honest, it’s a bean bag chair. You’re not going to have one in your formal living room, no matter how tempting the idea is. It looks good, sure, but it’s not going to do well in your house unless you have a really understanding wife (which I do). The other problem is that it’s hard to get up out of. You’re essentially sitting on the floor, so you’re going to end up rolling out of the chair and then standing up. The final issue is the price. The Sway Couple is a great chair, it’s incredibly comfortable, but it also sells for $279. That’s quite a bit of cash for a chair for in your rec room. I’ll be honest though, it’s totally worth it. If your home decor allows for bean bags, you really can’t beat the Sway. It’s perfect for just sitting watching TV, playing video games, visiting with friends, it’s just.. comfortable. It also draws kids like a moth to a flame. My son absolutely loves it, and whenever we have family come over there’s always a spirited discussion about who gets “the good chair”. Conclusion: If you’re in the market for a big comfortable chair for chilling out in, and you’re not afraid of buying a bean bag chair, pick one of these up. It’s not cheap, but the price reflects the quality, and it’s worth it. I sat in the Sway when I was in pain from back surgery, and it was surprisingly comfortable and supportive, and is just great for gaming. I just wish it had a cup holder.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:04 pm Sony Adds 3D Shooting to New Cyber-shot Cameras - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:01 pm Motorola uploads Motorola Charm videoSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Online Music/Video Fresh off from announcing the Motorola Charm, Motorola wasted no time in uploading a video explaining the Motorola Charm to YouTube. The video is only 56 seconds long, but that is long enough to capture the several key points Motorola wishes to emphasize. It shows the BACKTRACK touch pad, MOTOBLUR, contact syncing, the front touch screen, widgets and apps, and its stylish form factor. The video is completely silent except for background music. Unfortunately, the video does not provide any information as to pricing or availability.
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm July 8, 1947: Roswell Incident Launches UFO ControversyThe Army Air Field at Roswell, New Mexico, finds something. But what?
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Comparison Shopping Site NexTag Acquires Product Review Engine Wize
Launched in 2006, Wize lets consumers search for reviews on electronics, home goods, video games, health products and more. It searches shopping sites with user reviews, such as Amazon and BestBuy, as well as expert reviews from traditional product review sites. Wize, which has raised close to $5 million, has aggregated more than six million reviews on over one million products. The startup just revamped the site last fall, tweaking its algorithm and adding additional recommendation features. Wize will continue to maintain its offices, employees and management team in Burlingame, CA. For NexTag, Wize adds additional reviews to its comparison engine. While NexTag already provides user reviews, Wize will now aggregate other reviews into NexTag’s platform. It’s smart of NexTag to continue to enhance its platform because it faces stiff competition from search giants who offer similar engines, such as Bing and Google. NexTag says this acquisition marks to the beginning of the site’s “encompassing acquisitions, global expansion and aggressive recruitment of top talent” to maintain a competitive advantage.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 9:46 pm Best Buy chooses not to fire hilarious film makerSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Online Music/Video The turn of events between Best Buy and Brian Maupin, the man behind the ingenious HTC EVO 4G and iPhone 4 videos, are almost as funny as his videos. After he created the two videos each poking fun at the other, he received word from Best Buy that he was in serious danger of losing his job. It turns out, Best Buy was really upset at the other videos in his account that depicted Best Buy in a negative way, but Maupin removed those videos immediately. While Best Buy continued to investigate the situation, it seemed Maupin would almost definitely lose his job as a mobile phone employee. Today, Best Buy said they do not plan on firing Maupin because he did remove the videos. Best Buy said he could return to work as early as this Friday, their full statement is below:
Understandably fed up with Best Buy’s behavior towards him, Maupin decided not to go back to right away or ever again. He cites the possible awkwardness and the hurtful words Best Buy has said to him as reasons for leaving his job at Best Buy. Here is his full statement:
We wish the best of luck to Brian Maupin, who is considering a career in graphic design, for providing a good five minutes of humor here at Gadgetell. The videos can be viewed below. Via [TechCrunch]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 9:30 pm Company Builds Fast Charging Station For Electric Carsthecarchik writes "Japanese based JFE Engineering has released its ultra-fast charge station. Designed to comply with the CHAdeMo standard developed by Tokyo Electric Power Company, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota, the system is capable of charging a 2011 Mitsubishi i-Miev from empty to 50% full in just three minutes. Even just three minutes plugged into the fast-charge station was enough to enable a standard 2011 Mitsubishi i-Miev to travel a further 50 miles before further charging was required."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Jul 2010 | 9:30 pm Can consoles help kill your cable bill?FROM GAMERTELL - Should you give up cable for console based TV and movie services? Perhaps you should. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 8:59 pm Oil-Spotting Blimp Arrives In the GulfGAMP writes "A Navy blimp to assist oil skimming operations will be arriving to the Gulf Coast Wednesday evening, according to the Unified Command Joint Information Center. 'The airship will operate relatively close to shore, primarily supporting skimmers to maximize their effectiveness,' said US Coast Guard Capt. Kevin Sareault."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Jul 2010 | 8:35 pm AT&T blames faulty software on capped upload speedsSection: Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile
Yesterday, we reported that many AT&T users with devices capable of accessing the newer 3G HSUPA network were experiencing capped upload speeds. In many different areas all over the United States, smartphone or Laptop Connect users were only uploading at 100kbps, when they should really be uploading at about 1Mbps. The difference is quite staggering and annoyed AT&T users because the Fourth of July weekend is a time when many users would be sending and receiving data. Today, AT&T came out with a statement claiming the significant drop in upload speeds is because of a software defect with Alcatel-Lucent’s equipment. In addition, AT&T says the drop in upload speed is only affecting less than 2% and they are currently working on a fix. The full statement from AT&T is below:
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 8:21 pm Breaking: Facebook To Enter Into Partnership With Friendster Buyer MOL Global
The press conference is being held in Kuala Lumpur and will begin shortly, we’re told. Update: Press release below: MOL and Facebook Bring Facebook Credits to Retail Stores for the First Time MOL Partners with Facebook to Become Payment Provider for Facebook Credits; KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – July 8, 2010 – MOL Global today announced a strategic partnership with Facebook that will make it significantly easier and more convenient for millions of people across Asia to purchase virtual goods in online games and applications on Facebook. Under the agreement, MOL Global’s wholly owned subsidiary MOL AccessPortal will become a payment provider for Facebook Credits. That will enable Facebook members to buy Credits using MOLPoints on Facebook and on MOL’s website, MOL.Com. In the coming months, Facebook users will be able to obtain Facebook Credits using MOL points purchased through MOL’s network of more than 500,000 outlets, which are mainly in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to outlets such as 7-Eleven stores and cybercafes, customers will be able to purchase Credits through MOL’s network of online banks in these countries. Facebook and MOL will also offer co-branded gift cards at outlets in Malaysia and Singapore that can be redeemed for Facebook Credits. The partnership makes purchasing Facebook Credits significantly more convenient in Asia, a region where consumers rely heavily on offline prepaid cards rather than credit cards to purchase digital goods and services. “The relationship with Facebook demonstrates MOL’s growing role as a leading payment provider for social networking sites in Asia, especially in our core countries of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, group chief executive officer for MOL Global. “Over the last few quarters, we have seen a double-digit increase in payment transactions and payment volume. This partnership continues MOL’s momentum to build the largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network in Asia.” “Working with MOL means we can offer the benefits of Facebook Credits to millions of people in Asia using a payment system that is already widely used and trusted,” said Vaughan Smith, director of business and corporate development at Facebook. “We’re investing in the long-term future of Facebook Credits and we view this agreement as a major opportunity to broaden the availability of a simple, unified currency that can be used in games and applications across Facebook.” Facebook Credits enable users to buy and spend virtual currency in more than 150 applications on Facebook from many leading developers, eliminating the frustration of having to enter payment details separately for each application. Every month, more than 70 percent of Facebook members engage with applications on Facebook Platform. ### About MOL Global MOL is a MSC Malaysia Status Company that operates and develops payment systems incorporated in 2000. MOL handles over 60 million transactions with an annual payment volume of USD200 million. MOL leverages on a network of more than 540,000 physical payment collection points across more than 75 countries. It is also linked online to 88 banks in 9 countries worldwide. MOL was recognized as one of Asia Pacific’s fastest growing technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Awards in 2005 and 2006, won a Merit Award for the Best of E-Commerce Applications in the MSC Asia Pacific ICT Awards and received the Member Excellence Award at the 2009 ICT Leadership Awards of the National ICT Association of Malaysia. Through its ownership of MOL and Friendster, MOL Global is Asia’s largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network, pairing MOL’s physical payment collection points and payment platform with Friendster’s large online footprint, social network and user community in Asia. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 8:13 pm Are the Oceans Rising?The oceans are indeed swelling, and faster than in the recent past. But the whole picture of sea level rise is highly variable.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:47 pm Sprint allows Samsung Intercept pre-orders, gears up for weekend launchSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
Even though a lucky customer happened to purchase the Samsung Intercept from Best Buy, the phone is officially not yet available. Today, however, Sprint is beginning the pre-order process for the mid-range Android device that is going to replace the Samsung Moment. Sprint is currently offering pre-orders through its Business website, EVP. If your company qualifies for Sprint’s discounts, then you can go ahead and pre-order a Samsung Intercept for $99. Even though EVP is supposed to offer discounted pricing, rumor has it that the Intercept will cost $99 for everyone when it launches this weekend on July 11. Some of the specs for the device include a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3.2MP camera, and a 3 inch touch screen. Check it out [EVP] Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:45 pm Sauerkraut factory collapses in Ohio Link.
Previously: Man dies, then his mom, then both get eaten by cats Android 2.2 beats iOS 4 in Javascript performanceSection: Communications, Cellphones
ArsTechnica has recently conducted a benchmark between iOS 4 and Android 2.2 in their ability to execute Javascript. As you can see from the chart above, Android 2.2 on the Nexus One absolutely destroys iOS4 on the iPhone 4. In a basic speed test, the iPhone took nearly twice as long to execute the same Javascript as Android. For a long time now, Safari was considered the fastest of the mobile web browsers, but now, it is seeing real competition from the Android browser in just about every aspect of the browser, not just Javascript. Time for Apple to get to work. Read [Ars Technica] Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:18 pm To do in Berkeley, CA: Meara O'Reilly's Chladni music with glass bottle orchestra, this Friday Former Boing Boing guestblogger and sound artist Meara O'Reilly says, This coming Friday July 9th I'm going to be debuting new Chladni Music (accompanied by a glass bottle orchestra!) at the Berkeley Art Museum. The show marks the opening of my friend David Wilson's installation and residency at BAM called "Gatherings", and I'm thrilled to be a part: the whole evening is designed as a "Sun Ceremony" involving an 8 foot handmade globe, light projections, singing, and drumming all over (and on) the museum, so come ready to make some beautiful noise! Doors are at 6pm, Sun Ceremony begins at 7:30.Tickets are $5. Source: Boing Boing | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:10 pm Google's New Scheme To Avoid Unlicensed MusicAn anonymous reader writes "Complaints about copyright infringement on YouTube keep Google busy. If you have any doubts, just look at the Viacom copyright suit. But the problems aren't just about uploaded videos, but sometimes the music accompanying the videos. A patent application shows that Google has worked on a system to automatically identify infringing music by comparing a digital signature of a soundtrack to signatures of existing music. Users who upload videos could opt to completely remove the video, swap the soundtrack for something approved, or to mute the video. Of course, there doesn't seem to be a provision if you're using existing music with permission."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:10 pm Cathay Pacific makes those other in-flight WiFi services look like dial-up
It’s a partnership with Panasonic Avionics — presumably the arm of Panasonic that deals with avionics — and they’re aiming to launch in early… 2012. Yeah, sorry to let you down there. I guess people like Virgin America will have caught up by then. Well, at least Cathay is stating their purpose. Here’s the press release with more details: Cathay Pacific and Panasonic Avionics Corporation Plan to Keep Passengers Connected As They Fly
LAKE FOREST, Calif., July 6 /PRNewswire/ — Cathay Pacific Airways and Panasonic Avionics Corporation today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the provision of full broadband connectivity on all Cathay Pacific and Dragonair passenger aircraft. While final terms are still being negotiated, the MOU allows the parties to immediately begin developing the plan to provide connectivity for passengers together with promotional, sponsorship and e-commerce opportunities for Cathay Pacific partner brands. Cathay Pacific is the first airline in Asia to announce its intention to deploy Panasonic Avionics’ Global Communications Suite broadband connectivity solution. It is also the first airline globally to announce an intention to provide the solution across its full fleet. Services will launch from early 2012, subject to regulatory approval. The Panasonic Avionics connectivity solution for Cathay Pacific will comprise the eXConnect broadband service, eXPhone GSM phone service, and a CX-branded free-of-charge entertainment portal – accessible through all passenger devices and seatback screens – that will include a range of content updated during the flight, access to airline and partner sites, e-commerce, airline-specific advertising, and live television with a unique pay-per-view capability for special events. * eXConnect provides two-way broadband connectivity supporting a wide range of passenger and crew applications, including Internet access, voice, data, and the ability to monitor and transmit airline operational data in real time at speeds of up to 50 Mbps to the aircraft. Alex McGowan, Head of Product for Cathay Pacific, said: “Connectivity will form an important part of our overall customer proposition. Having that connectivity integrated closely with our video on demand entertainment system is especially valuable as it means that all passengers will be able to use the service. We believe that being connected is now an expected part of everyday life – not just for business purposes but also to stay in touch with family and friends. This system will allow passengers to be as ‘in touch’ as they wish to be while enjoying the great Cathay Pacific and Dragonair service.” Charles Ogilvie, Executive Director of China for Panasonic Avionics Corporation, said: “We are very proud and thrilled to be working with Cathay Pacific. We are committed to serving the needs of the ever-growing markets in China and Asia. With Panasonic Avionics’ Global Communications Services, Cathay Pacific will be the first airline in Asia to offer passengers the most innovative inflight entertainment and communication options onboard commercial aircraft.” Cathay Pacific Airways and Panasonic Avionics Corporation have enjoyed a close relationship since 1994. [via Engadget]
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:09 pm TechCrunch TV: Keen On… Connectivity, with Clay Shirky and Charlene Li
If the Web 2.0 age of the first decade of the 21st century was about user-generated-content, the Social Media age of the second decade of the century is about the way in which technology is changing our lives. Yesterday’s Web 2.0 was all about data; today’s social media is all about people. An increasingly collaborative and social Internet appears – at least to those who believe in its efficacy – to be becoming the vehicle with both society and business can be radically transformed. Two important books published last month, Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age and Charlene Li’s Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead both make this point eloquently. In his Cognitive Surplus, Shirky – who teaches at New York University and is the author of the 2007 hit Here Comes Everybody – argues that the collapse of a centralized mass media ecosystem frees us up from watching television and allows us to become more creative and generous citizens. Li – the Founder of the Altimeter Group and the coauthor of the 2008 bestselling Groundswell – argues that social media technology is enabling business leaders to make their companies more effective, decisive and thus profitable. So is social media really revolutionizing the world? I invited both Li and Shirky onto the second episode of my show to learn more about these two new books and get each of their visions of about how, exactly, the Internet is radically transforming business, society and culture.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:06 pm Who to Believe on Climate Change?Vindicated researchers, the hottest decade -- and perhaps the hottest year -- on record. Still believe the climate change "skeptics"?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:06 pm New Laptop From Toshiba Is Lightweight and Speedy [Personal Technology]For all the excitement about tablet computers, the traditional clamshell laptop still rules. In fact, the computer industry is working hard to make it smaller, lighter and sleeker. [ See post to watch video ] There have been two broad approaches to this task. One, exemplified by netbooks, has been to shrink the footprint of the machine, so it’s lighter and cheaper. But this has meant cramped keyboards and screens, and generally wimpier processors and battery life. The other, pioneered by the MacBook Air and the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 series, has been to preserve a standard 13-inch screen, a roomy keyboard, and standard processors for decent performance, but to pare thickness and weight. But this has meant much higher prices. Now Toshiba, long known for making thin, light, laptops, has introduced a standard-footprint machine that is thin and light—and uses the latest Intel processors, with generous memory and storage, and strong battery life. Yet it costs much less than the MacBook Air and X300, with the tradeoff being a bit more bulk. I’ve been testing this model, which is called the Portege R705. Despite a few drawbacks, I like the R705 and can recommend it to consumers willing to pay higher-than-netbook prices for a speedy, standard-size, but easy-to-tote laptop with good battery life.  Toshiba’s Portege R705, which is just over an inch thick, has a roomy keyboard with generously sized keys. The R705 is the sole consumer model in a new R700 line mainly aimed at corporate customers. Toshiba sells it online for $890, while Best Buy’s site has it at $800. That is about double the price of a top-of-the line netbook, but the R705 is much more powerful than a netbook and is much cheaper than the MacBook Air, which currently starts at $1,500, or the ThinkPad X301 (the latest in the X300 series), which starts at over $2,000. This new Toshiba has a dark-blue cover and a solid construction, despite feeling very light in the hand. The bright, vivid screen is sturdy, and the roomy, well-spaced keyboard is firm, with a large space bar, delete key, tab, backspace, shift and arrow keys. The touchpad and buttons also are generously sized. The R705 is thicker than the MacBook Air, at just over an inch thick versus about three-quarters of an inch for the Apple. It’s also thicker than the ThinkPad in some places and thinner in others. At three pounds, it’s about the same weight as the Apple, though it’s slightly lighter than the ThinkPad. Unlike the Apple and like the ThinkPad, the new Toshiba has a built-in DVD drive. It has a much better selection of ports than the Apple, including three USB ports instead of one. It also has three ports missing entirely on the Apple: a built-in Ethernet port; an HDMI port for direct, high-definition connection to a TV; and a memory-card reader. (The ThinkPad has three USB ports and an Ethernet jack, but no memory reader or HDMI.) 
The new Toshiba sports a big 500 gigabyte hard disk and 4 gigabytes of memory to power its 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. The Apple and Lenovo have just 2 gigabytes of memory and a maximum storage capacity of 128 gigabytes, though both offer solid-state drives versus the standard mechanical hard disk on the Toshiba. The R705 also has better battery life than the MacBook Air or ThinkPad X300 series. In my tough battery test, where I disable all power-saving features, crank the screen to full brightness, leave on the Wi-Fi and play a continuous loop of music, the R705 got four hours and 29 minutes of battery life. The MacBook Air racked up three hours and 24 minutes in my test, and the X300 just three hours and five minutes. I estimate that in more-normal use, the R705 could last 5½ hours on a single charge—an impressive figure, though short of the company’s eight-hour claim. There is an Eco button, which switches the machine into a low-power mode to get more battery life. In my tests, the new Toshiba speedily handled common software, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Apple’s iTunes, and the Firefox and Chrome Web browsers. The Toshiba has some other benefits. It uses the latest Intel Core processor—albeit the lowest-end version—and incorporates an Intel technology called Wi-Di which wirelessly beams whatever is on its screen to a TV, via a $100 adapter. It also has a couple of nice Toshiba software utilities, including a handy Bulletin Board program for organizing files and another called ReelTime, which lets you quickly find recently used files by date. So what about the drawbacks? Well, for one, it has a relatively low-end integrated graphics chip. It stuttered repeatedly while streaming high-definition video from the Web, even on a very fast Internet connection. I found scrolling on the touchpad to be a bit jerky. And its start-up and restart times were relatively slow, approaching two minutes. Also, the R705 lacks Bluetooth connectivity. Finally, it includes an obnoxious, prominent “craplet” program from Best Buy that’s basically an ad. Still, overall, this is a very nice laptop whose light, thin body hides a pretty powerful computer. Find Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com. Source: All Things Digital | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:03 pm NeoMagic(R) Corporation Announces Design Win for MiMagic 6+ SOCSAN JOSE, Calif., July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NeoMagic Corporation (Pink Sheets: NMGC), a pioneer in developing mobile multimedia solutions, and ViV Systems Incorporated, a provider of home theater consumer electronics and networking products, today announced that NeoMagic's MiMagic 6+ has been selected for their multifunction M-Book wireless controller for use with their karaoke systems. Within the MiMagic 6+ small ball grid array package is an embedded processor with instruction and data cache, a tightly coupled memory, and hardware Java acceleration. The MiMagic 6+ also includes a powerful graphics and video engine, and a host of integrated peripherals including, NAND flash and Memory controllers, SD/MMC, UART, USB and GPIO interfaces. "We're extremely pleased with the selection of MiMagic 6+ for ViV Systems M-Book karaoke remote controller. We expect the selection of MiMagic 6+ by ViV Systems to open up new avenues for our MiMagic SOCs," said Syed Zaidi, NeoMagic Corporation's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to supporting ViV Systems to bring their M-Book karaoke remote controller to market." "We have selected NeoMagic's MiMagic 6+ SOC as it provides us with a low-power, highly scalable architecture and competitively priced solution that fulfills our current as well as future product requirements," said Tho Pham ViV Systems' Chief Executive Officer. About ViV Systems ViV Systems Incorporated is a leading home theater developer and manufacturer specializing in consumer electronics and networking products. ViV Systems designs and manufactures the M-Player series targeting the home theater market. The M-Player is a user-friendly HDD-based media player with a remote control that plays directly from TV and A/V system the digital media contents stored in its removable HDD (hard drive). For more information, please visit www.vivsys.com. About NeoMagic NeoMagic designs and delivers consumer electronic device solutions with semiconductors and software offering exciting new product functionality for Video, TV, Imaging, Graphics, and Audio. We provide low cost, innovative multimedia chip technology for tomorrow's entertainment and communication needs. Our capabilities give our partners and their customers' high quality answers to excite and enhance the consumer's lifestyle. For more information, please visit www.neomagic.com. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include statements about our future product development, strategic partnerships, marketing efforts and growth. These forward-looking statements reflect current expectations. However, actual events and results could vary significantly based on a variety of factors, including our need for additional funding for our operations, the ability to locate and hire qualified personnel, the inability to reach agreement with strategic partners on a timely basis and on acceptable terms, changes in competitive conditions and market acceptance of our new products and technologies. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in NeoMagic's most recent annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2010, filed on May 17, 2010, filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is available online at http://www.sec.gov. NeoMagic may, from time to time, make additional written or oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in filings with the SEC and reports to shareholders. NeoMagic does not undertake the obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be made by or on behalf of the Company, except as may be required by law. NeoMagic is a registered trademark of NeoMagic Corporation and MiMagic is trademarked. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. NeoMagic disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20091210/SF24618LOGO) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091210/SF24618LOGO) SOURCE NeoMagic CorporationSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:49 pm Heatwaves: They Don't Call it Global for NothingThe heatwave being felt across the eastern US is part of a pattern of unusually high summer temperatures extending from Asia to Europe.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:42 pm Leaked T-Mobile roadmap shows several Android phonesSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones  AndroidSpin managed to get a hold of an interesting image which shows the expected launch date of several new phones, many of which are unannounced. Remember this is simply a rumor, and the launch dates for these phones are subject to change, or they may not even launch at all. In July, we have the already announced and confirmed Samsung Vibrant for July 21. However, it seems the just announced Motorola Charm is also pegged for a July 21 launch date. I’m not sure how much sense it makes to launch two big Android phones on the same day. The Motorola CLIQ and CLIQ XT are slated to receive an update in August, which might be the elusive Android 2.1 update. Last we heard, the Android 2.1 update for the CLIQ was delayed again indefinitely, so an August update does make sense. In September, the Motorola Charm is slated to receive an update, which could be a simple firmware upgrade or Android 2.2. Hopefully it is the latter, but it is probably going to take a long time to make the enhanced MOTOBLUR on the Charm compatible with Android 2.2. On September 9, HTC should launch a device called the Vanguard with Android. On November 5, T-Mobile is set to launch their big Project Emerald phone, which is an HTC device. By squinting at the image, I see two Motorola phones - one named Jordan and the other I can’t make out. The last phone on the image is from HTC named Shubert, which will drop November 17. Since it doesn’t feature the green Android, I suspect it could be a Windows Phone 7. Hopefully the rumor pans out because T-Mobile has a lot of interesting phones right around the corner. Via [AndroidSpin] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:31 pm Willow Garage Robot Fetches Beer, Engineers Rejoicekkleiner writes "Willow Garage has pulled off the ultimate engineering feat: teaching a PR2 robot to fetch you a beer from the fridge. Not only can the PR2 select the correct brew from the fridge, it can deliver, and even open the beer as needed. That's right, all the humans have to do is drink and relax. Prepare yourself for some major robot-envy as you check out the PR2 delivering much-needed refreshment in the video."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:15 pm YouTube wants viewers to 'leanback,' stay longer (AP)AP - YouTube is trying to become as brainless and painless to watch as the boob tube. In the process, the Web's leading video site hopes to learn enough about its viewers to replace their remote control.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:11 pm Twitter takes one search, becoming the fastest growing search engineSection: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking  Bing as of last year was the world’s fastest growing search engine. But new competition has sprung from an unlikely Twitter. Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, who attended and spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival has claimed that Twitter now supports 800 million search queries daily. Now after some quick calculation that would be 24 billion searches per month, more than both Bing and Yahoo! combined. Twitter’s ability to display breaking news to the second is the primary reason why it is now becoming such an esteemed search engine and information source for people around the world. And they are definitely on the right track. Read [Fast Company] Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:07 pm Wired Wanted the Right Rescue Kit, So We Made OneWith Rickshaw Bagworks, Wired designs a survival satchel and fills it with everything from Advil, Imodium and OxyContin to Burn Jel and breathable dressing for a super-basic, spot-on first aid kit.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:00 pm Daniel Cheng to Lead Korn/Ferry's Global Technology Market in Asia PacificHONG KONG, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Korn/Ferry International (NYSE: KFY), a premier global provider of talent management solutions, today announced the addition of Daniel Cheng to the Firm as Senior Client Partner and Regional Market Leader, Global Technology in Asia Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Mr. Cheng has nearly two decades of global experience in the search profession, with a strong focus on the Greater China and Southeast Asia regions. Throughout his career, he has worked closely with C-suite executives while leading engagements for multinational corporations and Asian conglomerates. His specialty areas cover industry segments ranging from telecommunications, semiconductors and information technology to professional services, hardware and software products. Mr. Cheng joins Korn/Ferry from Heidrick & Struggles where he spent the last 10 years in various senior roles including Managing Partner, Singapore and Senior Partner in Asia for the Technology practice. He also helped develop the company's Emerging Markets practice in Asia Pacific and led the development of the higher education sector in Asia. "I am delighted that Daniel is bringing to Korn/Ferry an impeccable record of success and depth of experience while working with some of the most well-regarded global organizations," said Charles Tseng, president of Korn/Ferry Asia Pacific. "His wealth of knowledge and deep relationships in the industry will be a strong asset to Korn/Ferry as we further extend the depth and breadth of our capabilities to clients throughout the region." Mr. Cheng previously led the Asia Pacific Technology practices of two other executive search firms prior to Heidrick & Struggles. His earlier career was with a number of well-known technology companies, including Gilman Business Systems and Mentor Graphics Corporation where he was General Manager for Hong Kong and China. He also worked with Computervision Corporation in North Asia, including in Tokyo and Taiwan, holding leadership roles in the semiconductor divisions as well as in country manager roles in various key Asian markets. He was born in Hong Kong, and is a graduate of McMaster University in Canada. About Korn/Ferry International Asia Pacific Korn/Ferry International, with a presence throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is a premier global provider of talent management solutions. Korn/Ferry was the first major global executive search firm to operate in Asia Pacific when it opened its doors in Tokyo in 1973 and today has 19 offices in key business centers throughout the region, including: Auckland, Bangalore, Bangkok, Beijing, Brisbane, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo and Wellington. Based in Los Angeles, the Firm delivers an array of solutions that help clients to attract, develop, retain and sustain their talent. Visit www.kornferryasia.com for more information on the Korn/Ferry International family of companies, and www.kornferryinstitute.com for thought leadership, intellectual property and research. SOURCE Korn/Ferry InternationalSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:00 pm Out of the Darkness: Wiring a Desert VillageBefore and after photos show a small village in Ghana receiving electricity after a decade of empty promises.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:00 pm Motor: The Military's Incredible HulkA tank and a bulldozer met at a bar one night. The rest was history. They spawned the 64-ton, 42-foot-long Assault Breacher, and adopted it out to the U.S. Marine Corps.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:00 pm The Best Windows 7 Downloads (PC World)PC World - Not quite happy with the way Windows 7 works, or looking to get more out of the operating system?Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:00 pm Wired Wanted the Right Rescue Kit, So We Made OneWith Rickshaw Bagworks, Wired designs a survival satchel and fills it with everything from Advil, Imodium and OxyContin to Burn Jel and breathable dressing for a super-basic, spot-on first aid kit.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 6:00 pm IMAX cleaning up, 37% increase in earnings since last year
Writes Forbes:
Considering the only IMAX movies I ever watched before the resent spate of films was probably something about deep sea diving or the Arctic, those are amazing numbers for the company.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:59 pm You too can make a book-lamp out of a book and a lamp
Bonus points for using light-related book titles — Illuminatus Trilogy, The Light That Failed, The Sun Also Rises, etc.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:59 pm OMG/JK Episode 2: Next of KinThe wait is finally over: episode two of TechCrunch TV’s new show OMG/JK is here. What’s that? You have no idea what this nonsensical jumble of letters means? Can’t blame you — we didn’t do a proper introduction last week, though the first thrilling episode is still available in its entirety right here. For those of you who are just joining the party, OMG/JK features TechCrunch writer MG Siegler and myself discussing the latest hot technology news. The show’s title stems from our names (we’re very modest). Of course, MG and I come from different technology camps: he’s a longtime Apple aficionado *cough* fanboy *cough*, and I’ve jumped ship into Google’s open Android arms — and we have differing opinions on plenty of other topics. Let’s just say there’s going to be no shortage of debate. The latest episode covers a range of recent tech news, including the iPhone’s antenna woes, Microsoft’s shortlived Kin, and Foursquare’s latest funding news (as well as a privacy blunder). Let us know your thoughts in the comments.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:56 pm Borders Group's Entry in E-Books May Herald Discounts - Wall Street Journal
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:50 pm Sun Valley Update: Is the Internet TV Market Up for Grabs? [Voices]By Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Despite serious interest from Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), the market of Internet-connected televisions is still up for grabs, said former chief executive of Sling Media Blake Krikorian in an interview Wednesday. Speaking on the sidelines of the Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Mr. Krikorian said television manufacturers like Sony (SNE) and Samsung have an opportunity to band together to compete with companies that are developing ways to blend traditional cable programming with Internet content. Mr. Krikorian expressed deep skepticism that Google, in particular, could dominate the market of piping digital television and other Internet content into consumers’ living rooms. It is also an open question, he said, whether Apple, whose Apple TV software he praised, can take a lead in the space, or whether cable companies or even TV manufacturers have an opportunity to step in. Mr. Kirkorian was a central player in the first wave of attempts to connect the Internet and television, founding Sling Media, which makes it possible for users to watch content from their home TVs on mobile phones and computers. He sold Sling Media to EchoStar in 2007 but has continued to advise a number of small and large companies in the digital-media industry. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:45 pm Blizzard: 'We're Definitely Listening To Player Feedback' On Real ID - Gamasutra
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:45 pm ConvergEx Announces Paradice Investment Management is Live on the Eze OMSNEW YORK and SYDNEY, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- ConvergEx Group, a leading technology company, today announced that Paradice Investment Management is now live on its award-winning order management system (OMS), the Eze OMS(TM). Based in Sydney, Australia and managing close to AUD6 billion, Paradice turned to Eze to provide the flexible and robust technology platform and high-touch service that will assist Paradice as it expands both its Australian and international trading operations. The Eze OMS streamlines the workflow between Paradice's portfolio managers, traders and compliance officers, seamlessly running pre- and post-trade compliance checks in real-time throughout the trade lifecycle and sending alerts to notify users of trades or portfolios that are in violation of investor or regulatory requirements. "Paradice recently expanded its investment offerings to incorporate a global small mid-cap investment strategy and they wanted a scalable solution that could support this strategy as it grew," noted Rafael Manalac, director of Eze Castle Software's Asia-Pacific region. "With a dedicated support presence in Sydney, using the Eze OMS will be a tremendous advantage to Paradice as they increase their level of international trading. Additionally, the robust compliance functionalities built into the OMS will help ease investor concerns, allowing Paradice to continue to expand their business and investor base." "We were looking for a system that could handle our global trading and compliance needs through a single platform that links our front, middle and back-office functions together," said Tony Hammond, chief operating officer at Paradice Investment Management. "In addition, Eze has lived up to its reputation as a partner and not just a vendor. Their high-touch support model and expertise simplified the implementation process and helped us avoid the typical obstacles a new fund faces on launch day." This latest client win comes off of two years of strong growth for the Eze OMS in the Asia-Pacific region. Since launching full service Eze offices in Hong Kong in 2008 and Sydney earlier in 2010, ConvergEx has seen extensive demand in the region for Eze's products and services, including its trading, portfolio management, compliance and operations tools. "Our growing physical presence in the region enables us to work closely with local clients and offer more than just industry-leading technology solutions. We have been able to implement the high-touch support and partnership model that ConvergEx is known for," said Chris O'Connor, head of Australian Sales at ConvergEx's Eze Castle Software. "Our Asia-Pacific clients today include both hedge funds and traditional asset managers in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. We remain committed to continuing to expand our reach in the region through increased staffing and the opening of additional full service offices." The award-winning Eze OMS leverages a real-time open architecture to streamline the investment cycle for all asset classes - from idea generation through settlement. The Eze OMS provides functionality to support portfolio management, compliance, trade management and operations in a single platform. ConvergEx is a leading technology company providing products and services to asset managers and financial intermediaries globally. Its products and services span the investment life cycle and center on the development, marketing and servicing of technology-based solutions that enable clients to achieve improved investment results through operational and workflow efficiencies, execution and analytical tools and highly personalized service. The firm serves more than 6,000 institutional clients in 100 global markets. Formed in 2006, the firm has over 1,000 employees in 22 locations throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC is comprised of the following businesses: BNY ConvergEx Execution Solutions LLC (member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC), LiquidPoint, LLC (member CBOE/SIPC); Eze Castle Transaction Services LLC (member FINRA/SIPC); Westminster Research Associates LLC (member FINRA/SIPC); G-Trade Services LLC (member FINRA/SIPC); NorthPoint Trading Partners, LLC (member FINRA/SIPC); Eze Castle Software LLC, and ConvergEx Research Solutions LLC, of which Jaywalk and Cogent Consulting are divisions. Additional information is available at www.convergex.com. Contact: Elizabeth Anderson EAnderson@convergex.com 212.468.7713 SOURCE ConvergEx GroupSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:38 pm Hands On: Dell 'Streak' Tablet Feels Like Supersized PhoneHands on with the Dell 'Streak,' a tablet with a 5-inch touchscreen that feels like a turbocharged phone. The Streak runs Google's Android operating system.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:30 pm Hands On: Dell 'Streak' Tablet Feels Like Supersized PhoneHands on with the Dell 'Streak,' a tablet with a 5-inch touchscreen that feels like a turbocharged phone. The Streak runs Google's Android operating system.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:30 pm Independent review of climate science tells us nothing we didn't already know
I've been traveling the last couple of days, so this may be a bit old, but I wanted to do a quick update on "What's Up With Inaccuracies in the IPCC Report?" When we last left our intrepid international panel of scientists, they were fending off criticism over mistakes found in the 2007 Working Group II report, which summarizes the impacts of climate change. Specifically, the IPCC predicted Himalayan glaciers receding at a rate that glaciologists said was ridiculous. Worse, the faulty fact came from a World Wildlife Fund position paper, rather than peer-reviewed research. Things only got more fun when Rajendra K. Pachauri responded to the criticism in a manner more befitting a LiveJournal owner than an IPCC chairman. Short story: There was sketchiness. The Dutch government sent an independent commission to look into it. The results are back now, and what they found isn't terribly surprising.The science of climate change—in the big-picture, Earth-is-getting-warmer-and-humans-are-causing-it-and-that-is-bad sense—remains sound and reliable. There is, however, a lot of uncertainty over what a hotter planet means, in terms of detailed, localized impacts—and, thus, a big range of reasonable possibilities for what could go wrong, when and where. This is pretty much exactly what I've been told by every climate scientist I've ever talked to. Where the IPCC went wrong, according to the Dutch report, was in emphasizing the worst-case scenarios while not making the background uncertainty clear enough. Which sounds pretty damning, until you understand what that actually means. In this context, we aren't talking about inventing a disaster. We're talking about slightly overstating it. For example:
Here's the bottom line: In a massive, multinational report there were 35 errors found. Many of them typos. They don't change any of the fundamental, mainstream conclusions about climate change. Also, the IPCC could stand to do a better job of communicating the inherent uncertainties of climate science with the public. And all God's children said, "Well, duh." What's interesting to me, then, is how you get the BBC reporting it as Dutch Review Backs UN Climate Science Report, while the exact same story is headlined Dutch Review Raises Concerns About Climate Report in the Wall Street Journal. I wish I could say that most of the coverage I've seen went with the far more accurate BBC spin. Related side note: There have now been THREE independent reviews into the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit email scandal*. All three have exonerated the scientists involved of accusations that they were concealing data, fudging facts, intentionally misleading the public, undermining the IPCC, etc. The most recent one came out today. It did find that the scientists were too quick to circle the wagons and, in the process, didn't "display the proper degree of openness" with their data. Basically, they had nothing to hide, but kind of acted like they did. Like the IPCC kerfluffle, what we've learned here is that the science is sound, but the scientists (and, if we're honest, the press) aren't doing a very good job of explaining that science and countering skeptics. The excellent Erin Biba at Wired already tackled this problem (and its solution) a couple months ago:
*I refuse to call it "Climategate" because I am completely sick of the cutesy, nonsensical -gate suffix as an indicator of scandal and am trying to be the change I'd like to see in the world.
Image courtesy Andres Rueda via CCSource: Boing Boing | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:21 pm Techcrunch TV: Investor Jeff Clavier, CloudCrowd CEO Debate Apple’s China Strategy, Twitter’s EarlybirdOn today’s episode of TechCrunch NOW, investor Jeff Clavier and CloudCrowd founder, Alex Edelstein, joined us to discuss Apple’s ambitious plans for China, BuyWithMe’s new round of funding, and Twitter’s latest product, Earlybird. Aside from Steve Jobs’ world domination plans, we focused on the hyper active daily deal market. Jeff Clavier, who has invested in 81 consumer internet companies as of this Wednesday (he just wrapped up his another investment last week), is no stranger to this space. He recently invested in Townhog— a collective buying site launched in 2009 that also features local promotions. Despite the flood of investment dollars, Clavier says the daily deal market is still in it’s infancy. He predicts that ultimately, personalization will be the key to dominating this sector.
Meanwhile, CloudCrowd’s Edelstein is keeping an eye on Twitter’s Earlybird. Although there’s no clear evidence the new product will directly compete with the likes of Groupon, he says Twitter is a credible threat: “They’re arguably late to the party but they’ve got a lot of huge advantages in this space…I have a Twitter account but I don’t have a Groupon account and if Twitter can establish what locality I live in— which isn’t that hard to do if I think there’s something in it for me— than it’s very easy for them to start messaging deals to me.” For more on Apple, the daily deal market and how competition will affect those rich profit margins, see the video above, or check out previous episodes of TechCrunch Now here.      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:21 pm Get clean with Game Boy, PSP and iPhone soapsFROM GAMERTELL - If you need a gift for a handheld gaming or iPhone fan, you may want to check out Two Eggplants shop and pick up some soap. The custom soaps are available in a variety of scents and are shaped like iPhones, PSPs, Game Boys and PS2 and Wii controllers. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:21 pm 101 things to grillNOM. That is all.Source: Boing Boing | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:10 pm YouTube ‘Leanback’ Launches, Takes Aim At Your Television Set
Earlier today YouTube debuted a new mobile experience, using HTML5 to offer a mobile site that sports better video quality and (soon) more content than the native YouTube iPhone application (and it works on other smart phones as well). But they’re not done. Tonight, the video portal is also launching YouTube Leanback, a version of YouTube that’s optimized for watching content on your TV set, or when you’re sitting a few feet away from your desktop computer. In short, this is YouTube TV. Leanback was first shown off as a preview at Google I/O, and will be integrated into Google TV when it launches this fall. The product evolved from YouTube XL, which launched in June 2009. The XL interface was cleaner than the standard YouTube site and was easier to use from a distance, but it didn’t deliver an experience that felt natural to couch surfers. LeanBack changes that. Head to Youtube.com/leanback, and the site will immediately start playing videos from a feed of suggestions, based on other videos you’ve liked (if you’re not logged in it will start playing the videos that are currently most popular on the site). To skip to the next video in the playlist, you hit the right arrow on your keyboard. Want to navigate to a different genre of clips? Hit the down arrow, and you can scroll through other channels of content. Hitting the Up arrow will bring up a search option. In other words, the interface is really straightforward. Hand the keyboard to someone sitting on a couch and they’ll probably be able to figure out the basics in a few seconds. And once they’ve landed on a channel they want, they’ll be able to watch an endless stream of content — Leanback will keep playing recommended videos indefinitely, just as a cable channel would. This is all part of YouTube’s goal to boost engagement — the site obviously sees a huge volume of uploads and traffic, but it gets around 15 minutes of viewing time a day per user. That contrasts with the five hours of television that people watch on average each day. Of course, there’s the matter of whether people are going to start actually using Leanback — after all, most people aren’t using home theatre PC’s just yet, and Google TV is still a few months off. YouTube’s Julian Frumar, who led design for Leanback, says that the team wants to track how people are using the product so that it can tests its assumptions before the Google TV launch. The team also notes that Leanback isn’t just for TV viewing — the site works perfectly well from your desktop or laptop, and offers a great experience for those times when you just want to watch YouTube clips without making many choices. Rentals aren’t live for Leanback yet, but the YouTube team says that this is due to a technical issue, not a licensing one, and that it hopes to offer rentals in the next few weeks. And yes, ads will eventually make their way into Leanback as well.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:07 pm Solar-powered Swiss plane gets its day in the sun (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:06 pm Inside the Fake PC Recycling Marketsnydeq writes "OSNews' Howard Fosdick reports on the fake recycling market — one in which companies exploit cheap shipping, inexpensive labor, and a lack of safety and environmental law to export computers and other e-waste to China and Africa where it is 'recycled' with a complete lack of environmental and safety rules. 'This trade has become a thriving business. Companies called "fake recyclers" approach well-meaning organizations — charities, churches, and community organizations — and offer to hold a Recycling Day. The charity provides publicity, legitimacy, and a parking lot for the event. On the designated day, well-meaning residents drop off their old electronics for recycling. The fake recycler picks it up in their trucks, hauls it away for shipping, and makes money by exporting it to Chinese or African "recycling" centers. Nobody's the wiser,' Fosdick writes. Of course, the international community has, in fact, devised a set of rules to control e-waste disposal under the Basel Conventions, but the US — 'the international 'bad boy' of computer recycling — is one of four countries that have not ratified and do not adhere to these international agreements."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:02 pm Glaring Omission: Polarized Sunglasses Field-Tested, RatedWhen you want to really shield your peepers from the sun's harshness, there's no better choice than a polarized set of shades. We put four models to the test to find which combines eye protection with comfort and class.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:00 pm Glaring Omission: Polarized Sunglasses Field-Tested, RatedWhen you want to really shield your peepers from the sun's harshness, there's no better choice than a polarized set of shades. We put four models to the test to find which combines eye protection with comfort and class.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:00 pm Gaming the System: How Marketers Rig the Social Media MachineHey, kid, want to buy 10,000 Twitter followers? Reputation and taste are important forms of online currency, and hucksters are lining up to get rich from those who will pay for followers.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:00 pm Foursquare Extending The Physical Reach Of Offers And Hints At Hardware Integration
First, Foursquare is going to start rotating specials that users see in the “Special Nearby” tab. The service realizes that users are seeing the same ones over and over again in places they frequent, so they’re going to switch that up. Second, Foursquare is going to extend the physical reach of some of these offers. Currently, people within about 200 yards of a venue can see a special. And while that works fine in tightly-packed cities, it can be useless in wide open areas. So they’re going to increase that range in those less dense areas. No word yet on how much they’ll increase the range by, but they say it will be “variable” based on location. Third, Foursquare says it is going to make it more obvious as to why owners of venues will want to designate employees as “Staff” and make them ineligible for deals and mayorship. This is obvious enough, but apparently a lot of venues aren’t doing it and so it’s hard for regular users to get mayorships against people who work there. But the biggest news is buried all the way at the bottom of the post. Foursquare hints that in the future, the service will try to tie-in Foursquare with pieces of hardware to make it more seamless to use. For example, they mention barcode scanners as one possibility. A barcode scanner with Foursquare capabilities could be useful for both users and partners, as it would definitely reduce the friction for using the service, as Foursquare puts it. This type of system would be a bit like the Facebook Presence system that Facebook has been toying with for a while (notably with their keg). This system requires people to carry around a card with an RFID chip (such as on an employee badge) that a scanner can then read and automatically check a person in someplace. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:59 pm Hands On: Dell ‘Streak’ Tablet Feels Like Supersized Phone
Dell’s new tablet called the Streak is set to make its debut in the U.S. this summer. But while temperatures have been soaring, there’s still no sign of the device. The Streak, which was launched in Britain last month for 450 British pounds, is expected to be available on AT&T for $500. Dell now says it has been testing the device and hopes to have it in the hands of U.S. consumers soon. The company still won’t disclose the exact availability. Meanwhile, Gadget Lab got some hands-on time with the U.S. version of the Streak. Nearly 30 percent thinner than the iPhone 3G S, the Streak bills itself as a tablet but also offers the option of a SIM card in it, so you can make phone calls. The device includes 3G connectivity and a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Think of it as a turbocharged phone. “The 3.5-inch-to-4-inch screen devices are optimized primarily around the phone experience,” says Kevin Andrew, product manager for Dell.”The Streak is for those who want something bigger than a phone but not something so big they have to carry it separately.” The Streak fits the bill. It is ultrathin, lightweight (7.8 ounces) and extremely easy to use. Read on for our hands-on impression of the tablet.
The Streak’s 5-inch touchscreen display is just a little bigger than the latest crop of Android smartphones (HTC Evo and Droid X each sport a 4.3-inch touchscreen) but significantly smaller than the iPad’s 9.7-inch display. That puts the Streak in an awkward middle ground: too big to be a phone, too small to directly take on the iPad. But the Streak’s 5-inch display looks much better in real life than it sounds on paper. The screen is smooth, responsive and big enough to comfortably type on and access different widgets. The device itself is ultrathin, just 9.9 mm thick compared to the iPhone 3G’s 12.3 mm and almost on par with the iPhone 4. It slips easily into your jeans or jacket pocket and doesn’t feel awkward if you hold it up to your ear to make a phone call. The Streak has just one 30-pin connector and no USB port.
The Streak runs Android 1.6, which seems ancient considering that Google has released Android 2.2 Froyo. But Dell says it has created an enhanced version of Android 1.6 that puts it almost on par with Android 2.0 Eclair. “If you compare Android 1.6 on the Streak to Eclair, the only feature that is missing versus Eclair is the live wallpapers,” says Andrew. The Android experience on the Streak is very similar to what we have seen on the latest Android cellphones. The Streak supports up to six home screens. The main screen (shown above) has icons for phone, calendar, messaging, browser, maps and market, among other things. A small round dot at the top left corner of the screen acts as a shortcut to applications. Streak users can download apps from the Android market.
The Streak has a 5-megapixel camera on the back and 0.3-megapixel VGA videocam on the front. It can shoot videos up to 720p (1280 x 720 pixels resolution). Sharing photos is easy and should be familiar to most Android phone users; Click on the photo, choose the Share button from the virtual menu and pick Facebook, Twitter or Flickr to upload it to. Dell also offers an accessory dock, with an HDMI output that can be connected to a TV.
The Streak will have a user-replaceable battery, internal storage of 2 GB and additional storage up to 32 GB using a microSD card. Overall, the Streak is an exciting, well-engineered device that should appeal to consumers who want to supersize their phone. But that also means its unlikely to have Apple or iPad fans quaking. The Streak seems like a tablet for a very different audience than the iPad. See Also:
Photos: Dell Streak/Priya Ganapati 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:58 pm Report: Microsoft may cut jobs as early as todaySection: Business News, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Computers, Software / Applications  As the calendar rolls over to the next fiscal year, Microsoft will begin to re-evaluate their current status in terms of expenses and how many employees they have. Even while the Redmond based company showed some profit, it is always important to consider new strategies and direction for the company overall. Reports from TechFlash and the Wall Street Journal indicate that Microsoft will begin to make job cuts, but it won’t be as severe as last year’s thousands of job cuts. My guess would be some jobs would be lost in the Kin division, but jobs could be cut from every department. As usual, Microsoft will continue to hire during the job cutting process, but in the end, some people will unfortunately be losing their job. As of the end of June, Microsoft employed 88,596 personnel worldwide, and 39,824 of that number comes from people working in Seattle. Last July, the number of worldwide workers totaled 91,743, which just goes to show how many people Microsoft employs, and how they are trying to cut costs in whichever way possible. Maybe we will see some official numbers after the cuts are over, but hopefully only a small amount of people receive pink slips. Via [TechFlash] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:53 pm Gentlemen – the Adidas Han Solo SL-72
[via High Snobiety, Fashionably Geek, and The Awesomer]
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:42 pm No quick fixes likely for iPhone 'death grip' (Ben Patterson)Ben Patterson - If you were hoping that the software update promised by Apple last Friday would include some special secret sauce that would prevent the new iPhone's reception from dipping when it's held the wrong way, prepare for disappointment.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:34 pm Stone Age Europeans Get Older and ColderStone tools and animal remains found on England's coast suggest that humans arrived in northern Europe at least 150,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:32 pm Verizon’s HTC Droid Incredible suffers another supply shortage, new ship date is August 5th
At first the word was HTC was having issues getting a hold of AMOLED screens, pushing shipments back to the middle of July. That could still be true, but if you’re down, there could be a bit of conspiracy going on here. Tin foil hat time. Quick question: What phone launches next week? The Droid X. It could be entirely possible that Verizon themselves told HTC to take their time and wait until they can ship the phones with AMOLED screens like the original shipments for the side benefit of giving the Droid X a bit of breathing room for its launch. Either way it’s more bad news bears for those waiting for the Incredible. With HTC Sense, 1GHz processor, and HTC’s ever-so-sexy design, people wanna buy it. Too bad they can’t.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:31 pm Video: Solar Impulse Cleared for Night FlightAll systems are go. The flight is on.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:26 pm Lawsuits reportedly not deterring 'Hurt Locker' downloads (Christopher Null)Christopher Null - It certainly made a bold statement: Sue, en masse, thousands upon thousands of alleged illegal downloaders of your motion picture in an attempt to stem piracy.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:24 pm Predicting Relationship Breakups With A Word-Association TaskHere's a way to tell a romantic relationship is going to fall apart: find out what people really think about their partners. The researchers in a new study used a so-called implicit task, which shows how people automatically respond to words – in this case, whether they find it easier to link words referring to their partner to words with pleasant or unpleasant meanings.Most research on relationship success has focused on how the people in the relationship feel about each other. And this is usually done by the obvious route: asking them. "But the difficulty with that is, that assumes that they know themselves how happy they are, and that's not always the case," says Ronald D. Rogge, of the University of Rochester. "To make things worse, a lot of people don't want to tell you if they're starting to feel less happy in their relationship." So he and his colleagues Soonhee Lee and Harry T. Reis turned to a technique often used to assess racism and bias, other feelings people have trouble admitting to themselves and to researchers.The 222 volunteers in their study were all involved in a romantic relationship. Each volunteer supplied the partner's first name and two other words that related to the partner, like a pet name or a distinctive characteristic. Then they watched a monitor as three types of words were presented one at a time – good words (like peace, vacation, or sharing), bad words (such as death, tragedy, and criticizing), and partner-related words (names or traits). There were two different kinds of tests: one where the volunteer was supposed to press the space bar whenever they saw either good words or partner-related words, and one where the combination was bad words and partner words. The idea is to get at people's automatic reactions to the words – if they have generally good associations with their partners, they should be able to do the first task more easily than the second.The researchers found that volunteers who found it easy to associate their partner with bad things and difficult to associate the partner with good things were more likely to separate over the next year. The researchers also asked volunteers to report on the strength of their relationships at the start of the study – and found that the new test did a much better job of predicting breakup. "It really is giving us a unique glimpse into how people were feeling about their partners – giving us information that they were unable or unwilling to report," says Rogge. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.---On the Net:APSSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:24 pm Synchronoss' FusionOne Buy Puts Spotlight on Mobile Sync (PC World)PC World - Synchronoss plans to buy FusionOne in a deal that could allow phone users to sign up for a new phone and transfer data from their old phones at the same time.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:20 pm Racism Shapes African-American Women's Views On Depression CareStudy of African-American women living in Portland, Ore., reveals racism, expectation to be a 'strong black woman' are significant obstacles to depression careAfrican-American women's beliefs about depression and depression care are consistently and systematically influenced by racism, according to a new study conducted at Oregon Health & Science University. The results are published online in the American Journal of Public Health.To be eligible for the study, participants had to be 18 or older, consider themselves African-American, have a score of 15 or higher on Patient Health Questionnaire Depression scale and have experienced intimate partner violence at some time in their lives. Thirty women participated in four private focus groups facilitated by African-American female community members of the research team.Study participants were asked about their experiences and beliefs surrounding the relationship between violence and health in general, mental health, depression, and depression treatments. They also were asked to discuss their recommendations for improving depression care. The researchers found one issue dominated discussions about depression care — the participants' deep mistrust of what they perceived to be a "White" health care system."These women were extremely wary of most depression treatments and providers they associated with 'White' systems of care. Although they acknowledged that violence, depression and substance abuse adversely affected their health, discussions about health care revolved around their perceptions of racism," said Christina Nicolaidis, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator and an associate professor of medicine (general internal medicine and geriatrics), and public health and preventive medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine. "Based on our findings, we recommend health and mental health providers endeavor to better understand and acknowledge how racism informs the experiences and perceptions of their patients."The expectation of being a "strong Black woman" also was a significant barrier to recognizing depression and seeking care. Co-investigator S. Renee Mitchell has used this finding to launch a campaign asking: "Strong Black woman – what are you burying, your feelings or the myth?" The research team also has organized several community depression and violence awareness events titled "Redefining the Blues." An additional event is planned for the fall.Study participants expressed a desire for community-based depression programs that addressed violence and drug use and are staffed by African-Americans with "real-life experiences." In response to this request, the research team used their study data to create a community-based, culturally tailored depression-care program, which they currently are pilot-testing at Bradley-Angle House's Healing Roots Center, a drop-in center for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.The researchers make clear that their results aren't reflective of all African-American depressed women, especially those who live in places with larger African-American populations, those with higher incomes and those who have not experienced intimate partner violence."Future study is needed to test the generalizability of our findings, as well as the effectiveness of culturally specific interventions in reducing depressions severity and improving depression care among African-American women," the researchers concluded. ---On the Net:Oregon Health & Science UniversityAmerican Journal of Public HealthSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:15 pm Bluetooth 4.0 Spec Adoptedadeelarshad82 writes "The Bluetooth SIG announced the formal adoption of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0, which begins the qualification process for new, low-power devices. Bluetooth 4.0 [zipped PDF of the spec] was formally announced in April, and added a new, ultra-low-power aspect to the short-range personal-area-network technology. According to the SIG, the new 4.0 core specification should allow devices to run on coin-cell batteries for years with a new ultra-low-power duty mode."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:11 pm Top Gear ‘hints’ at record-breaking Bugatti Veyron Super Sport involvement
Now this is exciting. If you visit Top Gear’s Web site, you’ll notice a story about the record-breaking Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Look closer, though, and you’ll find a not-too-subtle hint that the guys from the best show on TV (well, that and Louie on FX) are somehow involved. And I quote:
Here’s my guess: after the Guinness World Records people officially put the car into the record book, one of the guys, hopefully Clarkson, then tried to beat that record. Or maybe it was The Stig, driving around listening to the vuvuzella.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:00 pm New 3-D Imaging Techniques For Improved Lung Cancer Drug DevelopmentOptics Express publishes special focus issue highlighting lung cancer imaging researchAdvanced imaging technologies that promise to improve the development of effective drugs to treat lung cancer are the focus of the current special issue of Optics Express (http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe), an open-access journal published by the Optical Society (OSA). Research featured in the special focus issue on Imaging in Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer (http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/virtual_issue.cfm?vid=105) outlines standardized approaches to measure and compare tumor size, as well as to validate the accuracy of such measurements under defined settings. The appropriate validation of these tools is a critical new area of research as important new applications for these tools are being explored in pharmaceutical drug development.Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death globally, according to the World Health Organization. Every year 1.3 million people die from the disease, and someone in the United States diagnosed with lung cancer today will typically have only a 15 percent chance of being alive five years from now.Many lives can be saved thanks to modern medicine, but one of the critical issues for effective treatment is the ability of doctors to accurately image tumors in the lung. Before, during, and after treatment, radiologists scan the lungs and, depending on what these scans show, they diagnose the cancer and shape the treatment accordingly. The four research papers in the current issue of Optics Express, which are highlighted below, address issues that relate to the development of this new field of quantitative imaging within the challenging clinical problem of lung cancer therapeutics.The use of precise quantitation tools may allow for more rapid evaluation of the success or failure of drug candidates in clinical trials. Regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) require consistent, objective performance for measurement tools. The open-source measurement tools described in Optics Express can be applied to analyze the growing number of new public data sets and develop computer algorithms that can automatically calculate the change in the 3-D volume of a tumor.The research takes advantage of Interactive Science Publishing (ISP, http://www.opticsinfobase.org/isp.cfm), a new paradigm for the publication of scientific images developed by OSA. This initiative, developed in partnership with the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and Kitware Inc., allows readers to view and interact with underlying 2-D and 3-D source data, such as CT scans. It expands upon traditional research by allowing scientists to objectively compare the performance of different technologies. To achieve this, ISP provides readers with a free 3-D visualization application that obtains images from a Web-based image archive called MIDAS (http://midas.osa.org).The Optics Express focus issue on lung cancer imaging is part of an ongoing collaboration between OSA and the Prevent Cancer Foundation that has convened a series of workshops to accelerate progress in this area. The issue editors are James L. Mulshine, vice president for research at Rush University; Thomas M. Baer, executive director at the Stanford Photonics Research Center; and Rick Avila, senior director of healthcare solutions at Kitware, Inc. The special issue builds on background information on the application of image processing approaches in lung cancer drug development published in a previous OSA monograph called Quantitative Imaging Tools for Lung Cancer Drug Assessment.RESEARCH PAPER HIGHLIGHTS:Volumetrics Detects Tiny Tumor Size DifferencesThe current procedure radiologists use to measure changes to tumor size, called Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), can reliably detect a change only in volume greater than approximately 70 percent. To track how a tumor responds to treatment, doctors compare CT scans taken months apart and look to see if the maximum diameter of its cross-section has shrunk.Recent studies have explored a more sensitive image measurement technique that could reduce this time by providing more detail: volumetric CT scanning, which images the tumor at high resolution in order to permit automated calculation of its 3-D volume. Emerging evidence suggests that "volumetric" measurements of lung nodule size could provide a better way to image a tumor by accounting for its shape and factoring out irregularities in its growth.Zachary Levine of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md., and his colleagues believe that 3-D volumetric approaches can detect smaller changes in tumor size, and they report the data to back up this claim in their Optics Express paper.Levine and his team fabricated, and then scanned, 314 round objects with systematic variations in size and shape, creating 3-D images built of "voxels" used to calculate its volume. Each object's surface was also measured mechanically on a Coordinate Measuring Machine in NIST's Precision Engineering Division. Their results suggest that the volumetric approach could reliably detect a 5 percent difference in volume—at least in this idealized setup."On simple objects, we're showing that there is about a factor of 10 less variability associated with the measurement process," says Levine. Though he has no clinical data, Levine suspects that size changes of 20 percent could be realistically detected in actual lung nodules in the body.This sensitivity, he hopes, could potentially speed up the drug trials on cancer treatments and the processes of patient diagnosis and treatment.Levine's paper is accompanied by interactive 3-D visualizations of the object scans made possible by OSA's ISP technology.The article, "RECIST versus volume measurement in medical CT using ellipsoids of known size" by Zachary Levine et al. can be accessed at: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-8-8151.New Image Processing Algorithms and Public Data SetsThe path to developing new approved imaging biomarkers for lung cancer will require greater cooperation between the research, regulatory, and pharmaceutical communities. That's the perspective of the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA), an initiative of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) to improve the practicality of imaging biomarkers by reducing the variability of measurements.New public data sets and algorithms that use this shared data are the subject of the Optics Express paper by Andrew Buckler of Buckler Biomedical LLC and a team of investigators from QIBA.From providing a common framework for researchers to compare their algorithms to giving researchers access to larger data sets, "the increasing existence of data from cooperative efforts that can be evaluated by multiple parties enables a new generation of developments that were not possible when individuals maintained their own data sets," says Buckler.The paper reviews early programs that collect and use these data sets, which range from scans of mock tumors in artificial torsos to clinical data from lung cancer patients. For example, QIBA serves as a steward for the NCI-funded Reference Image Database to Evaluate Response to Therapy (RIDER), a recently-developed library of clinical scans from patients with lung cancer. In one study, 32 patients were scanned twice within 15 minutes—allowing researchers to test the minimum detectable changes in tumor size. Other RIDER images show patient lesions scanned repeatedly after longer time periods. These clinical scans are available for viewing and analysis in the paper's accompanying ISP data sets.A series of research projects based on these and other clinical data have already shown that computer algorithms can reach conclusions similar to those of trained radiologists. They have also revealed that the thickness of CT scan slices used to piece together a 3-D lesion image can have a large impact on the accuracy of lesion volume calculations.Multiple studies—some planned, some underway, and some completed—have recruited both radiologists and software developers to analyze a series of thinly-sliced 3-D images and test the efficacy of new computer algorithms.The article, "Data sets for the qualification of volumetric CT as a quantitative imaging biomarker in lung cancer" by Andrew J. Buckler et al. can be accessed at: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-14-15267.Sharing Phantom DataResearchers at the FDA Center for Device and Radiological Health (CDRH) in Silver Spring, Md., have developed a publically available data set currently containing 480 CT scans (with a total of more than 5,400 scans expected in the next year) of synthetic lung nodules—small objects of various sizes of shapes embedded in a urethane and epoxy resin "phantom" containing mock human anatomy including lungs. The phantom and the synthetic nodules are built to have radiographic properties similar to tissues in the human body.This project is one effort to create public data sets to support the efforts of QIBA.Phantom setups like this one lack the true complexity of the actual human body, but they provide what the authors of the Optics Express paper call a "stepping stone" for testing image-processing computer algorithms."If an algorithm doesn't do well on this data set, it likely won't do well on clinical data," says CDRH scientist Marios Gavrielides.An advantage of phantom studies is that—unlike images of actual tumors in human bodies—researchers know the true sizes of the objects being scanned, allowing for the error of a given technique to be measured.The library of images provides a common ground for researchers to test the efficacy of different image processing approaches on an apples-to-apples basis. It can be viewed interactively as a series of 2-D scans or a 3-D composite using OSA's ISP technology.Gavrielides also hopes that the data will help scientists begin to tease out and compare all of the factors that can affect the accuracy and precision of volumetric CT scanning—from the reliability of the scanner to characteristics of the nodule itself.Since the data collection was made available in February, it has been downloaded hundreds of times and used for algorithm competitions sponsored by Cornell University and NIST.The article, "A resource for the development of methodologies for lung nodule size estimation: database of thoracic CT scans of an anthropomorphic phantom" by Marios Gavrielides et al. can be accessed at: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-14-15244.Going Open Source Against CancerRicardo Avila and colleagues at Kitware, Inc., in Clifton Park, N.Y., have created a software package for analyzing medical scans called the Lesion Sizing Toolkit and a new algorithm specifically for lung lesion sizing. This algorithm has been tested on the FDA phantom scans and RIDER clinical data sets.The volume-calculating algorithm dissects the biological features shown in CT scans, detecting lung walls, blood vessels, background tissue, and the edges of a lesion to measure tumor size.Avila's algorithm is meant to provide a reference standard for the community—a yardstick against which other groups can measure the effectiveness of their own approaches."If someone else comes along and says 'I've got an algorithm that gets a certain level of performance,' the person could compare it to an algorithm that everybody knows that is completely transparent," says Avila.The error rate of the algorithm—almost 35 percent when thick slice CT data is studied and down to 14 percent when thin slice CT is used—has already provided some lessons about the difficulties of dealing with CT data and the importance of using very thin CT scan slices.But the most important aspect of this project, the researchers emphasize, is that—unlike most algorithms, which are kept secret and proprietary—its code is open source."At a scientific conference, we often wind up just talking about the results, not the science," says Avila. "One solution to this is to work in a more open-source domain."Built on top of the National Library of Medicine's Insight Toolkit (http://www.itk.org/), a popular open-source platform for image processing, the Lesion Sizing Toolkit and the lung-specific algorithm are meant to be taken up by other groups, modified, and improved.The interactive ISP technology included with this research paper allows the reader to run the interactive 3-D lesion sizing algorithm and test its performance on provided data sets.The paper "An open-source toolkit for the volumetric measurement of CT lung lesions" by Karthik Krishnan et al. can be accessed at: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-14-15256.---On the Net:Optical Society of AmericaSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:59 pm Samsung makes the Android-powered Intercept for Sprint official
It’s got vanilla 2.1 on it, with no word on 2.2. Headed your way July 11th – more info here and an early video hands-on here. Can’t say I like the color scheme, though.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:46 pm Mobile Web Use Growing In U.S. - InformationWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:45 pm Thousands Of Undiscovered Plant Species Face ExtinctionFaced with threats such as habitat loss and climate change, thousands of rare flowering plant species worldwide may become extinct before scientists can even discover them, according to a paper published today by a trio of American and British researchers in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B."Scientists have estimated that, overall, there could be between 5 million and 50 million species, but fewer than 2 million of these species have been discovered to date," says lead author Lucas Joppa of Microsoft Research in Cambridge, U.K., who received his doctorate from Duke University earlier this year. "Using novel methods, we were able to refine the estimate of total species for flowering plants, and calculate how many of those remain undiscovered."Based on data from the online World Checklist of Selected Plant Families at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the scientists calculated that there are between 10 and 20 percent more undiscovered flowering plant species than previously estimated. This finding has "enormous conservation implications, as any as-yet-unknown species are likely to be overwhelmingly rare and threatened," Joppa says.The new, more accurate estimate can be used to infer the proportion of all threatened species, says coauthor David Roberts of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent. "If we take the number of species that are currently known to be threatened, and add to that those that are yet to be discovered, we can estimate that between 27 percent and 33 percent of all flowering plants will be threatened with extinction," he says."That percentage reflects the global impact of factors such as habitat loss. It may increase if you factor in other threats such as climate change," Joppa adds."The timing couldn't be more perfect," says co-author Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. "The year 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. We wrote the paper to help answer the obvious questions: How much biodiversity is out there, and how many species will we lose before they are even discovered?"---On the Net:Duke UniversityProceedings of the Royal Society BSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:42 pm New System Helps Locate Car Park SpacesA research group from the UAB Department of Telecommunications and Systems Engineering at the School of Engineering, led by José López Vicario and Antoni Morell, took part in the development of a new system which locates unoccupied car park spaces and guides users to the nearest one. The new network of sensors for the management of public car parks and locations, which researchers have named XALOC (Xarxes de sensors per a la gestió d'Aparcaments públics i LOCalització), was developed by a consortium formed by the firm WorldSensing (consortium leader) and the Centre for Telecommunications Technology of Catalonia (CTTC). The project was financed by Catalan Government's Agency for Administration of University and Research Grants (AGAUR).The project's consortium developed a platform based on a network of wireless sensors capable of detecting unoccupied spaces outdoors, and on an alternative positioning system with more precision in urban areas than GPS technology. This platform is capable of locating and guiding drivers to car park spaces available in the area.The network's sensors are located on the ground directly in the middle of the car park space. The sensors detect whether the space is occupied or not and send information via internet to a central station. The server processes this information and sends it to indication panels located in the street which display the information in real time. Advanced communication techniques are used to send guidance data to the network.The sensor platform at the same time locates users looking to park and thus offers a personalised service. UAB researchers have designed a specific portable navigator for users called ARID Navigator which makes use of communication signals belonging to the network of sensors to position users within their urban surroundings. Once the vehicle is located, the navigator communicates with XALOC's central server and reports to the user the number of available car park spaces in the area and where they are located.The positioning and location technology used to develop the system is totally new and offers many advantages in comparison to conventional GPS navigators, such as more precise urban location techniques, reduced positioning time and better coverage.The XALOC system will improve traffic management in urban areas and reduce what is known as "agitated traffic", traffic caused by drivers circulating and looking for a place to park. Reducing the volume of agitated traffic will allow for a substantial improvement in circulation fluidity in urban areas and thus contribute to effective reductions in pollution and an increase in citizen satisfaction. ---On the Net:Universitat Autonoma de BarcelonaSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:39 pm Pinpoint Precision: Delivering A Biochemical Payload To 1 CellImagine being able to drop a toothpick on the head of one particular person standing among 100,000 people in a stadium. It sounds impossible, yet this degree of precision at the cellular level has been demonstrated by researchers affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University Institute for NanoBioTechnology. Their study was published online in June in Nature Nanotechnology.The team used precise electrical fields as "tweezers" to guide and place gold nanowires, each about one-two hundredth the size of a cell, on predetermined spots, each on a single cell. Molecules coating the surfaces of the nanowires then triggered a biochemical cascade of actions only in the cell where the wire touched, without affecting other cells nearby. The researchers say this technique could lead to better ways of studying individual cells or even cell parts, and eventually could produce novel methods of delivering medication.Indeed, the techniques not relying on this new nanowire-based technology either are not very precise, leading to stimulation of multiple cells, or require complex biochemical alterations of the cells.With the new technique the researchers can, for instance, target cells that have cancer properties (higher cell division rate or abnormal morphology), while sparing their healthy neighbors."One of the biggest challenges in cell biology is the ability to manipulate the cell environment in as precise a way as possible," said principal investigator Andre Levchenko, an associate professor of biomedical engineering in Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering. In previous studies, Levchenko has used lab-on-a-chip or microfluidic devices to manipulate cell behavior. But, he said, lab-on-a-chip methods are not as precise as researchers would like them to be. "In microfluidic chips, if you alter the cell environment, it affects all the cells at the same time," he said.Such is not the case with the gold nanowires, which are metallic cylinders a few hundred nanometers or smaller in diameter. Just as the unsuspecting sports spectator would feel only a light touch from a toothpick being dropped on the head, the cell reacts only to the molecules released from the nanowire in one very precise place where the wire touches the cell's surface.With contributions from Chia-Ling Chien, a professor of physics and astronomy in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Robert Cammarata, a professor of materials science and engineering in the Whiting School, the team developed nanowires coated with a molecule called tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), a substance released by pathogen-gobbling macrophages, commonly called white blood cells. Under certain cellular conditions, the presence of TNF-alpha triggers cells to switch on genes that help fight infection, but TNF-alpha also is capable of blocking tumor growth and halting viral replication.Exposure to too much TNF-alpha, however, causes an organism to go into a potentially lethal state called septic shock, Levchenko said.Fortunately, TNF-alpha stays put once it is released from the wire to the cell surface, and because the effect of TNF-alpha is localized, the tiny bit delivered by the wire is enough to trigger the desired cellular response. Much the same thing happens when TNF-alpha is excreted by a white blood cell.Additionally, the coating of TNF-alpha gives the nanowire a negative charge, making the wire easier to maneuver via the two perpendicular electrical fields of the "tweezer" device, a technique developed by Donglei Fan as part of her Johns Hopkins doctoral research in materials science and engineering."The electric tweezers were initially developed to assemble, transport and rotate nanowires in solution," Cammarata said. "Donglei then showed how to use the tweezers to produce patterned nanowire arrays as well as construct nanomotors and nano-oscillators. This new work with Dr. Levchenko's group demonstrates just how extremely versatile a technique it is."To test the system, the team cultured cervical cancer cells in a dish. Then, using electrical fields perpendicular to one another, they were able to zap the nanowires into a pre-set spot and plop them down in a precise location. "In this way, we can predetermine the path that the wires will travel and deliver a molecular payload to a single cell among many, and even to a specific part of the cell," Levchenko said.During the course of this study, the team also established that the desired effect generated by the nanowire-delivered TNF-alpha was similar to that experienced by a cell in a living organism.The team members envision many possibilities for this method of subcellular molecule delivery."For example, there are many other ways to trigger the release of the molecule from the wires: photo release, chemical release, temperature release. Furthermore, one could attach many molecules to the nanowires at the same time," Levchenko said. He added that the nanowires can be made much smaller, but said that for this study the wires were made large enough to see with optical microscopy.Ultimately, Levchenko sees the nanowires becoming a useful tool for basic research."With these wires, we are trying to mimic the way that cells talk to each other," he said. "They could be a wonderful tool that could be used in fundamental or applied research." Drug delivery applications could be much further off. However,Levchenko said, "If the wires retain their negative charge, electrical fields could be used to manipulate and maneuver their position in the living tissue." ---On the Net:Johns Hopkins UniversityNature NanotechnologySource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:38 pm Nasa, with nothing better to do anymore, chimes in on the Jabulani debate
And now Nasa hates the Jabulani. Wonderful. I suppose Nasa has nothing better to do now that it has less money than your little sister has in her piggy bank. The former space agency says that the ball becomes “unpredictable” at speeds greater than 44 mph, and that the high altitude that many of the games were played only exacerbates the problem. Meanwhile, I’ve just read this thorough report on the ball that comes away with this:
I think it’s safe to say nobody has any idea what’s going on anymore. Adidas says this, Nike says that, Fifa says this, Nasa says that, Player A says this but Player B says that. My suggestion is that we go back in time and use the ball that they used in the very first World Cup. That, or whatever George Best used to kick around at Manchester United. Let’s see if we see the same complaints in two years’ time when the Euros kick off.
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:30 pm Magnetic Nanoparticles Can Remotely Control WormsUsing magnetic nanoparticles, scientists have found a way to remotely control neurons and affect animal behavior.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:30 pm VP8 and H.264 Codecs Compared In DetailAn anonymous reader writes "Moscow State University's Graphics and Media lab have released their sixth MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codecs comparison. Also of note is a recently added appendix to the report which compares VP8, x264, and Xvid. The reference VP8 encoder holds its own against x264 despite the source material offering x264 a slight advantage. The VP8 developers comment in the report: 'We've been following the MSU tests since they began and respect the group's work. One issue we noticed in the test is that most input sequences were previously compressed using other codecs. These sequences have an inherent bias against VP8 in recompression tests. As pointed out by other developers, H.264 and MPEG-like encoders have slight advantages in reproducing some of their own typical artifacts, which helps their objective measurement numbers but not necessarily visual quality. This is reflected by relatively better results for VP8 on the only uncompressed input sequence, "mobile calendar."'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:26 pm MB&F officially announce the Horological Machine 4
Just in time to make the HM3 I wore obsolete, MB&F has just announced the HM4 Thunderbolt, a unique “aviation-inspired” piece that is just about the coolest thing ever. Horological Machine No4 Thunderbolt
A traditional wristwatch has a relatively straightforward role: to tell the time. All that is needed is a hand for the hours, another for the minutes and perhaps a power reserve indicator to keep track of running time. Horological Machine No4 Thunderbolt has a hand for the hours, another for the minutes and a power reserve indicator. HM4 Thunderbolt tells the time. HM4 Thunderbolt is not a traditional wristwatch. The aviation-inspired case and engine of the Thunderbolt are one. Neither would, nor could, exist without the other, yet each is so transcendental as to be able to stand alone as a work of art in its own right. The Thunderbolt’s engine is the culmination of three long years of development. Each of the 300-plus components – including the regulator and even the screws – was developed specifically for this anarchistic calibre. Horizontally configured dual mainspring barrels drive two vertical gear trains, transferring power to the twin pods indicating hours/minutes and power reserve. But describing HM4’s engine through its mechanical functionality is like describing Renoir’s work through the chemical composition of his paint. Only careful contemplation enables full appreciation, and the sapphire case section and display panels top and bottom allow full access to the flawless fine finishing of HM4’s intricate and vibrant micro-mechanics. The sleek aerodynamic form of the Thunderbolt’s titanium and sapphire envelope has its roots in Maximilian Büsser’s childhood passion for assembling model plane kits, though none looked remotely as futuristic as this. The striking transparent sapphire section of the case requires over 100 hours of machining and polishing to transform an opaque solid block of crystal into a complex, exquisitely curved panel allowing the light to come in and the beauty of Thunderbolt’s engine to stand out. Every component and form has a technical purpose; nothing is superfluous and every line and curve is in poetic harmony. Articulated lugs ensure supreme comfort. Highly legible time is a fringe benefit. About MB&F After decades learning and conforming to the corporate rules of watchmaking, Maximilian Büsser broke the chains and started a rebellion – a rebellion called MB&F. MB&F is an artistic and micro-engineering concept laboratory in which collectives of independent horological professionals are assembled each year to design and craft radical Horological Machines. The ramifications of these audacious projects are profound. Respecting tradition but not shackled by it, MB&F fuses traditional, high-quality watchmaking with cutting-edge technology to create three-dimensional kinetic sculptures. In the 19th century, photography liberated art from realism: Monet painted “Impressionism, Sunrise” giving rise to a new artistic movement based on re-interpreting light. In the 21st century, electronics liberated watchmaking from timekeeping: MB&F created Horological Machines, giving rise to a new artistic movement based on re-interpreting horology. Horological Machine No4 Thunderbolt Inspiration and Realization: A long childhood passion for assembling model aircraft had Maximilian Büsser’s walls, cupboards and ceiling covered in small aircraft of every description. Planes were what he saw last thing at night and planes were what he saw first thing each morning. The boy became a man, but something of the child and his planes remained, quietly waiting until…HM4 Thunderbolt! Many boys sketch supercars and fast planes, but few have the drive and determination to make their dreams come true. Büsser created MB&F to do just that. The HM4 Thunderbolt is born of the child’s fantasy and the man’s tenacity. Engine: HM4’s engine was entirely designed and developed by MB&F over three years of intensive work with Laurent Besse and Beranger Reynard of Les Artisans Horlogers. Each of the 311 components were developed specifically for the Thunderbolt, no off-the-shelf mechanisms or parts were used at all due to the extreme nature of its architecture. Two mainspring barrels connected in parallel provide 72 hours of energy, and they transfer their power to the dual jet-turbine-like indication pods (one displaying the hours and minutes, the other the power reserve) via vertical gear trains. Visible through a shaped sapphire display panel on the top of the case, a distinctive streamlined cock supports the balance, its centre cut away to reveal as much of the oscillating wheel as possible and validating the “kinetic” in MB&F’s “kinetic art”. A work of art rewards when viewed from different angles and the Thunderbolt is no exception. Turning the machine over reveals a veritable panorama of meticulously finished micro-engineering through the sapphire sections. In a playful trompe d’oeil, what at first glance appears to be a micro-rotor in the form of MB&F’s iconic battle-axe is actually a bridge. Indications: For a timepiece not developed specifically to tell the time, HM4 performs that role superbly. In fact, with its highly legible dials perpendicular to the wearer’s wrist, Horological Machine No4 might be described as the perfect pilot’s or driver’s watch. On the left pod, the amount of fuel in the tanks – or power reserve – is clearly indicated by a skeletonised hand echoing MB&F’s battle-axe motif. On the right, hours and minutes are displayed by bold, arrow-tipped Super-LumiNova filled hands. Each of the two aviation instrument-styled dials is directly controlled by its own crown, one to wind and re-fuel the tanks, the other to set the time, which provides direct and instantaneous feedback of the action performed. Case: Inspired by aviation, more specifically the model aircraft kits of Maximilian Büsser’s childhood, the case of HM4 imparts speed, power, technology and refinement in equal measure. Visually, the case is composed of three parts: two streamlined jet-turbine-styled pods supported by a horizontal section housing the engine, which is clearly visible through transparent sapphire display panels and the central section of the case itself. Case (continued): Technically there are also three main sections, but these comprise a fore section in titanium, which includes the dials and articulated front lugs; a central section in sapphire offering unprecedented 360° access to the superbly finished engine; and an aft section tapering down to the dual crowns and framing the animated balance, which is supported by an aerodynamic cock. Methods borrowed from aeronautic engineering are visible in the externally mounted screws, which provide both rigidity and watch resistance to hold the case’s three sections solidly and elegantly together. Beginning with a solid piece of sapphire, more than 100 hours of intricate machining and meticulous polishing are required to turn an opaque block of crystal into the clear, light-filled atrium of the central case section, which reveals part of the Thunderbolt’s engine and engineering details. The metal case sections are milled from solid blocks of high-tech Grade 5 titanium, which undergoes hundreds of hours of machining before polishing, masking and finally satin-finishing of the surfaces. The results speak for themselves. The contrasts of matte with highly polished surfaces, titanium with sapphire, straight lines with seductive curves and rigid forms with articulated arms endows Horological Machine No4 with a life and vibrancy that sets it apart from anything that has ever gone before. HM4 Thunderbolt is the quintessential machine as three-dimensional kinetic art. Rupture in Art, Rupture in Watchmaking Impressionist paintings scared classicists and were greatly misunderstood. MB&F’s Horological Machines scare classicists and are greatly misunderstood. Horological Machine No4 is unlikely to change that, but the rupture with traditional watchmaking is so complete that it allows HM4 to be appreciated for what it is, i.e. raw, unfettered three-dimensional kinetic art. Until the 19th century, art was fairly straightforward: painters did their best to replicate what they saw and their skill was judged on how closely they copied reality, with little latitude allowed for a brush-stroke or two of emotion. With the introduction of photography, even the greatest traditional artists could not compete in terms of realism. But that liberated more adventurous artists like Monet, Cézanne and Renoir to break from realism and to paint, not just with a brush-stroke or two of emotion but with raw, unfettered emotion. In impressionist art, the fundamentals of the medium remain, i.e. paint on canvas, but the result was a rupture with the past. With MB&F’s Horological Machines, again the fundamentals of the (horological) medium remain, i.e. intricate mechanical movements, and again the result is a rupture with the past. Horological Machine No4 Thunderbolt – Technical Specifications Engine: Three-dimensional horological engine developed 100% by MB&F Manual winding with two mainspring barrels in parallel Power reserve: 72 hours Balance frequency: 21,600bph/3Hz Number of components: 311 Number of jewels: 50 Functions: Hours, minutes and power reserve indicator Hours and minutes on right dial, power reserve indicator on left dial Separate crowns for time setting and winding Case: Grade 5 titanium and sapphire Dimensions: 54mm wide x 52mm long x 24mm high Number of components: 65 Articulation of lugs: 3° Sapphire crystals: Five sapphire crystals: 2 x dials, 1 x central case section, 2 x display panels (top and bottom) Strap & Buckle: Black hand-stitched calfskin strap with titanium/white gold custom designed deployment buckle attached to articulated lugs ‘Friends’ responsible for Horological Machine No4 “Thunderbolt” Concept: Maximilian Büsser/MB&F Product Design: Eric Giroud – Eric Giroud Design Studio Technical and Production Management: Serge Kriknoff/MB&F Production logistics: David Lamy/MB&F Movement Development: Laurent Besse, Béranger Reynard and Patrick Lété of Les Artisans Horlogers Movement manufacturing: Daniel Uhlmann/Azuréa Technologies, Nicolas Broquet/Broquet Décolletage, Yann Ryser/Tital Hand-finishing of movement components: Jacques-Adrien Rochat and Denis Garcia of C-L Rochat Movement assemblage: Didier Dumas and Georges Veisy/MB&F Case and buckle construction and production: Jean-Pierre Kohler and Lionel Gavignet of Profusion Martin Stettler of Stettler Dominique Mainier and Bertrand Jeunet of G.F.Châtelain Dials: François Bernhard and Denis Parel of Nateber Hands: Pierre Chillier, Isabelle Chillier and Félix Celetta of Fiedler Strap: Olivier Purnot/Camille Fournet Presentation box: Olivier Berthon/Berthon & Co
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:20 pm Russian police hunt down rogue Nokia blogger
Will the Russians hunt Murtazin down like a dog? Will they send him to the Gulag? Probably not, but isn’t the cat pretty much out of the bag by now? Handset manufacturers are getting touchier and touchier these days.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:07 pm iPhone 4 plus monster lens equals… still an iPhone 4
Well, because doing stuff like this is fun. How cool is it to fiddle around with a big manual lens clamped to your freaking iPhone?! Actually, that probably doesn’t work at all. Lenses like that one are designed with a completely different focal system in mind, and the image comes out the interior end in a size and shape the iPhone wouldn’t know what to do with. Sure, you could get one of those OWLE systems, use a steadicam and monopod and all that, but at some point you’re going to wish you had a real camera with a real lens and real mechanical focus. It’s all fun and games, but when you get serious about shooting video, all you can see are the flaws in your system. Even operators of hundred-thousand-dollar rigs will tell you that they shoot around their setup’s limitations. The iPhone has many such limitations, not least of which would be image quality that can’t really be improved by putting a lens in front of it. Anyway, I’ve gone on far too long here. “Look, an iPhone with a lens on it!” would probably have sufficed. [via many places on the internet]
Source: CrunchGear | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:00 pm Genetically Reprogrammed HSV Given Systemically Shrinks Distant SarcomasScientists have used a genetically reprogrammed herpes virus and an anti-vascular drug to shrink spreading distant sarcomas designed to model metastatic disease in mice – still an elusive goal when treating humans with cancer, according to a study in the July 8 Gene Therapy.Less than 30 percent of patients with metastatic cancer survive beyond five years, despite the aggressive use of modern combination therapies, including chemotherapy. This creates a significant need for new sarcoma therapies to treat metastatic disease, said Timothy Cripe, M.D., Ph.D., a physician/researcher in the division of Hematology/Oncology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the study's senior investigator.The study results are even more significant because the oncolytic herpes virus, HSV-rRp450, was given to the mice systemically to attack tumors via the blood stream instead of being injected directly into tumors."Systemic bio-distribution has been a major stumbling block for using virus vectors in gene transfer and virotherapy to treat cancer, but we show that viruses can be used systemically by giving them intravenously to get an anti-tumor effect," Dr. Cripe said.Also important to results of the current study was using the virus in conjunction with a drug (bevacizumab) that blocks the growth of tumor feeding-blood vessels. In the current study, researchers focused on spreading Ewing sarcoma and Rhabdomyosarcoma – cancers that form in muscle, bone and connective tissue.Anti-angiogenic agents like bevacizumab are usually given first in combination cancer therapies because they help enlarge intercellular openings to tumor cells and ease the delivery of drugs, such as chemotherapies. In this study, however, the researchers discovered that bevacizumab has to be given after the virus to maximize the anti-tumor effect of the combined therapy. In fact, giving bevacizumab first lowered the virus's uptake in cancer cells.The rRp450 oncolytic virus used in the study was derived from herpes simplex type 1. The virus was genetically modified by scientists by removing a gene that makes the virus unable to replicate efficiently in dormant cells. This causes the virus to selectively target and replicate in rapidly growing cancer cells while leaving normally dormant healthy tissue cells alone.After removing the one gene from the virus, researchers replaced it with a gene that encodes an enzyme that activates a class of anti-tumor chemotherapies called oxazaphosphorines. The overall therapeutic approach is for the virus to infect and degrade the cancer cells and then activate chemotherapy agents as anti-angiogenic agents cut off vascular growth and blood supply to the tumors.In the current study, however, researchers treated the mice only with rRp450 and the anti-angiogenic drug bevacizumab. This allowed them to test whether the virus could be given systemically, how anti-angiogenic drugs affected virus tumor uptake and the impact this had on tumor growth.In mice receiving bevacizumab prior to the rRp450, overall tumor shrinkage averaged 40 percent. In mice receiving rRp450 before bevacizumab, tumor size was reduced by an average of 75 percent. The researchers also reported that mice treated with rRp450 before bevacizumab had longer survival rates.Results of the current study could be used immediately to help design subsequent research into treatment protocols for oncolytic viruses, particularly clinical trials involving combination therapeutic strategies, Dr. Cripe said. Clinical trials are underway in the United States and Europe using oncolytic herpes viruses similar to the one used in the current study.---On the Net:Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical CenterGene TherapySource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 2:52 pm Rice Program Takes On Protein PuzzleNew strategy boosts speed, accuracy in simulation of protein foldingAll proteins self-assemble in a fraction of the blink of an eye, but it can take a long time to mimic the process. And there has been no guarantee of success, even with the most powerful computers – until now.Rice University researchers have come up with a computer program to accurately simulate protein folding dramatically faster than previous methods. It will allow scientists to peer deeper into the roots of diseases caused by proteins that fold incorrectly.Authors Cheng Zhang and Jianpeng Ma describe their simulation of three short proteins with the new technique in the cover story of the current Journal of Chemical Physics. Ma is a professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine. Zhang is an applied physics graduate student at Rice."Protein folding is regarded as one of the biggest unsolved problems in biophysics," Ma said. "This is a technically challenging task, and many groups around the world have been competing for years to make the process faster and more accurate."Understanding the intricacies of protein folding is a crucial step in deciphering the genetic code that serves as the operating system of all living things. Correctly folded proteins perform many roles: as enzymes vital to metabolism; structural elements in bone, muscle and cell scaffolding; mechanisms in cell signaling and immune response and much more. But protein misfolding is a critical factor in many diseases, including Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, emphysema and various cancers.Proteins start as amino acid molecules floating in a cell. Following DNA blueprints, the molecules are strung together like beads on a necklace, called a polypeptide. Every polypeptide of a given sequence will fold precisely the same way into the shape, called the native state, that determines its function. Like a river finding the shortest route to the sea, proteins always find their way to their native states in an instant. How that happens is one of life's great mysteries. "The question is how nature finds this final folded state so quickly," Ma said.Zhang and Ma reached unprecedented accuracy and speed in simulating the folding of three relatively short but well-understood proteins -- trpzip2, trp-cage and the villin headpiece -- in the presence of water molecules, which Ma described as the best way to simulate physiological conditions. Though the proteins assemble themselves in nature almost instantly, the Rice team's algorithm took weeks to run the simulation. Still, that was far faster than others have achieved. "And for trpzip and villin, nobody has reached this level of accuracy in the native state under similar simulation conditions -- that is, in the presence of water, which is the most stringent condition," Ma said.The researchers employed two novel strategies, continuously variable temperature and single-copy simulation."In the process of simulation, called sampling, the computer has to search through many, many possible structures of the protein chain to find the lowest-energy solution," Ma said. "A polypeptide chain en route to its native state encounters many energy barriers, much like when one navigates through a rugged mountain landscape."Speeding up the process of crossing those barriers is the key to finding the true global minimum (energy state)," he said. "In our simulation, temperature is a variable that goes continuously up and down. When the temperature is higher, proteins can overcome energy barriers faster. It's equivalent to speeding up the motion of atoms."Ma said the previous state of the art was to run multiple copies of a simulation in parallel on many computers -- an intensive and expensive approach. "The single-copy approach uses only one simulation, essentially, to find the native state of the protein. This is a major plus, because anyone with reasonable computing power can run this method."Even so, it takes computational muscle to simulate a biological task that the body's cells accomplish as a matter of course. Zhang and Ma found it in Rice's supercomputer cluster, the Shared University Grid at Rice, aka SUG@R. "We can't overstate the significance of state-of-the-art computing facilities, as well as excellent service from Rice's Research Computing Support Group," Ma said. His group is continuing its work on Rice's newest supercomputer cluster, BlueBioU, for longer polypeptide sequences. "These supercomputer resources will continue to make Rice one of the leading institutions in the field of protein folding and computational biophysics," Ma said.The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation, the Welch Chemistry and Biology Collaborative Grant from the John S. Dunn Gulf Coast Consortium for Chemical Genomics and the Rice Faculty Initiatives Fund supported the research.---On the Net:RiceJournal of Chemical PhysicsSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 2:48 pm Researchers Demystifying Complex Cellular Communications Hubs Found In Sensory NeuronsJapanese team hopes new discovery will aid in creation of therapies for visual, hearing problemsIt's safe to say that cilia, the hairlike appendages jutting out from the smooth surfaces of most mammalian cells, have long been misunderstood – underestimated, even.Not to be confused with their whiplike cousins flagella, which propel sperm, one type of cilia has been known to serve as microscopic conveyor belts. (Picture cilia reaching up like concertgoers supporting a crowd-surfer.) But for decades another type of cilia, known as "primary" cilia, was believed to serve little to no purpose. Despite the fact that almost every cell found in vertebrates has at least one primary cilium, the organ was regarded as merely an evolutionary relic – the cellular equivalent to the human appendix.Of late, however, it has become increasingly clear that primary cilia serve as powerful communication hubs. (After all, they do sort of look like antennae.) Disruptions in the activity of cilia are now understood to lead to a whole class of diseases dubbed ciliopathies, and researchers are hustling to figure out what makes them tick.One group of scientists in Japan last month marked a milestone in the pursuit to reveal cilia's secrets. In study results that were fast-tracked for publication and deemed a "Paper of the Week" by the Journal of Biological Chemistry, they report that they have identified a long-elusive enzyme necessary for the proper regulation of cilia.The Hamamatsu University School of Medicine team is optimistic that the discovery may aid in the development of therapies for those with visual and hearing maladies caused by cilia dysfunction."Our finding might give insights into the sensory defects associated with problems in cilia function. For example, patients with some syndromes have genetic defects in cilia functions that result in retinal degeneration," explains Mitsutoshi Setou, who oversaw the team's work. "Also, age-dependent visual loss or hearing loss is known to be related to damage of the eye or ear sensory cilia. To enhance or suppress the activity of the newly found enzyme might alleviate the symptoms through the proper regulation of cilia."With the hopes of one day manipulating cilia's activities on the perimeter of cells and, thus, how those activities affect human health, the team traced cilia's molecular roots into the depths of cells themselves.If a cilium had a life story, it would begin with a gene. That gene encodes information during a cell's production of tubulin proteins so that they will link up into microtubules, or tiny tubes, and form the interior apparatus of a protruding cilium.Scientists have known for some time that a group of enzymes can indirectly affect what goes on inside cilia by adding unusually branched chains of amino acids, known as glutamates, onto certain spots of the tubulin proteins that make up the microtubules. Suspecting that the addition of the amino acid chains on the tubulin building blocks might influence how material is transported within cilia, Setou's team took a closer look at how and where the chains of amino acids are added to tubulin proteins and set out to figure out what, ultimately, removed those same chains.To do so, they analyzed cilia on cells of sensory neurons in a living model organism, the roundworm, and studied purified protein from cultured mouse cells. Ultimately, the enzyme that strips the amino acid chains was elusive no more."We found out which enzyme removes part of the glutamate chain, and we now have a better understanding of that lengthening and shortening of amino acids on tubulin that regulates the function of cilia in sensory nerves," he said.Setou is hopeful the finding will help develop therapies for a group of genetic diseases known as retinitis pigmentosa, which causes degeneration of the eye's retina and, thus, progressive loss of sight.The human photoreceptor is a sensory neuron composed of two segments that are connected by a cilium responsible for transporting proteins from one end to the other. If that protein movement slows down or stops due to cilium malfunction, the protein accumulates abnormally and induces retinal cell death."Retinitis pigmentosa is one of the leading causes of adult vision loss, and yet there is no cure for it," he said. "Recent studies have shown that at least 35 genes are involved. Importantly, some of them are related to cilia formation and maintenance. This important function of cilia could be regulated by the level of polyglutamylation, which is controlled by the level of newly found enzyme."While Setou's team focused exclusively on cilia found in sensory neurons for their experiments, the findings may prove useful in other types of cilia as well. Defective cilia lining the kidney, for example, can lead to polycystic kidney disease. Mammals rely on cilia lining reproductive organs: If there are too few functional cilia in the Fallopian tubes, which are tasked with moving a fertilized egg into proper position for growth, the ovum may hunker down too soon, causing a tubal pregnancy. Meanwhile, what are known as chemoreceptor cilia, found on olfactory neurons, detect odor.---On the Net:American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyJournal of Biological ChemistrySource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 2:45 pm Homicide And Suicide Rates Among Mentally Ill On The DeclinePeople with mental health problems are committing fewer homicides while the number of suicides by mental health patients has also fallen, latest figures reveal; a previous rise in homicides by mentally ill people may have been the result of drug misuse, says the report.The study, by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness at The University of Manchester, also found that in-patient suicides have fallen to their lowest recorded figure and that patient suicides have fallen most sharply in people in their early 20s.The researchers, led by Professor Louis Appleby, the government’s Health and Criminal Justice Tsar, reported that the number of homicides committed by people who were suffering from schizophrenia or who were psychotic at the time of offence had fallen in 2005 and 2006 – the most recent years for which figures are available.Although the report’s authors, based in the University’s Centre for Suicide Prevention, say it is too early to conclude whether this fall was the start of a new downward trend, they concluded that a previously reported rise in homicides by mentally ill people had not continued.“In our previous annual report, we reported that the number of people convicted of homicide who were psychotic at the time of the offence had shown an unexplained rise between 1997 and 2005,” said Professor Appleby.“In our latest report we have examined additional data for this period in an attempt to explain this rise in homicide, although we have also presented evidence that the increase has not continued.”The Inquiry team examined a number of factors that might explain the increase in homicide rates to 2005 by people – both patients and non-patients – with psychosis. These included: * an increase in the rate of psychosis among immigrant populations * an increase in homicide in urban populations where psychotic illness is more prevalent * an increase in drug or alcohol misuse.The report found that of these possible explanations, only the increase in drug and alcohol use could account for the rise.“We examined reported history of drug and alcohol misuse of perpetrators and found there was a significant increase in the number of homicides by people with psychosis who also had a history of drug and, to a lesser extent, alcohol misuse,” said Professor Appleby, citing cannabis, cocaine and crack cocaine, and amphetamines as the drugs most often used.“On the basis of our data, the likeliest explanation for the rise in homicide by people with psychosis up to 2005 is the use of drugs or alcohol or both, although we were not able to demonstrate cause and effect. Our findings reinforce the need for mental health services to tackle the drug misuse that is common in young people with mental illness.”The Inquiry also examined homicides by mental-health patients – defined as individuals who have had contact with mental-health services in the previous 12 months – between 1997 and 2006 and found that, of the two to three homicides per year by in-patients, most were suffering from schizophrenia and the homicide occurred after leaving the ward without staff agreement.The authors suggest that patient absconding could be reduced through better understanding of the factors on the ward that trigger patients to leave the ward without permission and through better ward design more generally.Suicide rates among mental-health patients between 1997 and 2007 have fallen overall, particularly among in-patients (from 219 deaths in 1997 to 118 in 2007), but there are marked differences between age groups.The number of suicide deaths among younger patients has fallen substantially and more than the drop in suicide rates for this age group in the general population. However, the report, funded by the National Patient Safety Agency, found that suicides among patients aged 45 to 64 are increasing in frequency.---On the Net:The University of ManchesterSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Jul 2010 | 2:31 pm Extinct 'Welded Beast' Found in Tennessee Swimming PoolFossils for a large probable Gomphotherium, aka "Welded Beast," were recently dug up at the site of a Tennessee swimming pool.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 2:00 pm Leaked T-Mobile roadmap names a bunch of mystery Android handsets
AndroidSpin just got their mitts on this supposed snapshot of T-Mobile’s end-of-the-year launch roadmap, and, after about 20 minutes of squinting, I think we’ve got most of it deciphered. Here’s what we’ve gleaned from it so far:
Alas, not much by way of new details — but at least we have tentative launch dates for all of these for whenever the rest of the details show up. Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments below
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 1:57 pm Apple bans developer from iTunes - BBC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Jul 2010 | 1:52 pm HTC: HDMI port to blame for EVO’s 30FPS cap
It’s really a bit weird to have that cap, which is very noticeable when dragging and zooming, apply to the whole OS whether there’s HDMI connected or not. Changing refresh rates is a trivial action; as AndroidGuys suggests, it would be reasonable to expect an update that makes the frame rate adjustable depending on whether a cable is connected or not. I concur.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 1:42 pm Early Humans Settled in Britain 800,000 Years AgoThe discovery shows for the first time that our hardy forebears, armed with a few stone tools or weapons, could survive in a challenging, frigid environment.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 1:25 pm Hacked Android 2.2 ROM for the Motorola Droid downloaded 40,000 times in a week
Lots of things describe the Android hacking community. Intense. Enthusiastic. Horrifyingly talented. Call them what you will — just don’t call them small. You see, we rarely get a glimpse into just how many people are modifying their Android handsets with custom ROMs; downloads are generally distributed across too many sites to track — and even if they’ve got an official home, the download numbers are rarely disclosed. As such, the only real marker of how many people are partaking in any given modification is how many people write in to thank the mod’s developer or otherwise comment on their results — which is usually, at most, a few hundred people. Turns out, the real number of people getting their hack on is a bit higher than a few hundred. Quite a bit higher, actually.
After Android hacker Peter Alfonso finished up his overclocked and highly modified build of Android 2.2 (which he has dubbed “BuglessBeast”) for the Motorola Droid, he ran the download link through bit.ly and then posted it on Twitter, where it spread like wildfire. Thanks to the link living on bit.ly and the fact that bit.ly offers up click statistics pages to anyone who knows the right way to tweak the URL (pro tip: add a + to the end), we’re offered a little glimpse into just how many people nabbed this thing for their own use. The grand total? 37,642 downloads after just one week. Now, in the bigger picture of the millions of Droids sold, ~38k downloads might not seem like a lot at first glance — but remember, this is one hacked and heavily modified build, spread around almost entirely by word of mouth. Interestingly, this isn’t all about getting Android 2.2 on the Droid earlier than one could through official means. People seem to be driven by the customization/hacks. A more standard, less modified (but still completely unofficial) build of Android 2.2 had been available for nearly a month prior to the release of BuglessBeast, so anyone who just wanted straight Android 2.2 on their Droid could have gotten it long before. Furthermore, Pete released a standard, unmodified build of Android 2.2 for the Droid on the same day he released BuglessBeast; this version only garnered about 1,000 downloads. Have you hacked your Android handset? What lead you to do it? Were you happy with the results?
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 1:12 pm Growing our appetite for geeky girl dinners(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog)We’re always looking for opportunities to partner up with organizations that promote diversity and encourage women to excel in technology. Girl Geek Dinners is a world-wide initiative that does exactly that—it helps build communities of women who have a passion and interest in science, technology and other traditionally male-dominated fields by hosting social events around the world. We recently sponsored the Amsterdam Girl Geek Dinner and I attended the event with my colleague Noha, who, like me, is a software engineer for Google in Zurich. At the dinner, we had the opportunity to meet and mingle with other women in the tech community and talk about what it’s like being a woman in the field of computer science. The keynote speaker at the event was renowned mathematician Ionica Smeets and I can’t imagine a woman more inspiring. Google shares a similar goal to Girl Geeks—we want to make it possible for everyone to pursue careers in technology, regardless of gender. And, in our presentation at the event, we outlined our numerous initiatives to promote and support diversity in technology. We have various scholarship programs to help students to pursue their interests, excel in their studies and become leaders. And to encourage more female computer scientists to attend and participate in research conferences around the world, we also offer travel and conference grants in the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. You can learn more about our diversity programs, here. Posted by Alexandra Alecu, Software Engineer    
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 7 Jul 2010 | 12:31 pm AT&T blames slow iPhone 4 uploads on Alcatel-Lucent - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 7 Jul 2010 | 12:23 pm AT&T blames recent slow upload speeds on Alcatel-Lucent
Conspiracy theorists, doff your caps! The root of the suddenly slower upload speeds reported by AT&T customers has been discovered, and it’s not just AT&T screwing with people.
According to the carrier, the slowdown plaguing the network does exist — but it’s only affecting two percent of their customers, and, well, it’s not their fault. AT&T is pinning the issue on a software fault found in the Alcatel-Lucent hardware that powers their network in some regions, promising that a fix is in the works. It’s a bit strange to see AT&T outright identify Alcatel-Lucent hardware as being part of the problem, rather than just going with some unnamed “hardware partner” or something along those lines. Of course, AT&T tends to be everyone’s punching bag 6 days out of the week; it must just be nice to name someone else as the one falling short for once.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 12:05 pm Origami Robot Makes Shapes on DemandMaterial inspired by the ancient art of origami folds on its own.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 11:36 am Fish Talk to One AnotherFish use noises including grunts, chirps and pops to get their point across.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 11:30 am Prototype Smartphone Uses Intel Chip and OS
For the last few months, Intel has been offering us tantalizing tidbits about its upcoming chips for smartphones. Now we have a sneak peek of the device from Europe. Steve Paine, who edits the Carrypad and UMPC portal got his hands on a prototype smartphone running Intel’s chips and MeeGo, a Linux-based operating system developed by Intel and Nokia. Intel’s smartphone chip codenamed “Moorestown,” is based a processor based on the company’s Atom platform. Moorestown for cellphones has been created to be extremely power efficient, yet pack enough computational muscle for multimedia features such as video conferencing and HD video, says Intel. Intel had hoped to have the first phones featuring its chips in hands of consumers later this year but last week, the company said the devices are expected to launch early next year. Though Intel’s chips power most desktops and notebooks, Intel chips are absent in smartphones. Almost all smartphones are today use chips based on Intel rival ARM’s architecture. There’s no word yet on performance and how Intel chips are handling multimedia content. Meanwhile, Intel has also been working with Nokia to bring the MeeGo OS to market. Last year Intel had been working on Moblin, a Linux-based operating system designed specifically for netbooks. Separately, Nokia had been working on a new Linux-based software platform called Maemo for smartphones and tablets. At the Mobile World Congress conference in February this year, Intel and Nokia announced they had combined efforts and spawned a new OS called MeeGo. MeeGo is hosted by the Linux Foundation and is designed to live on phones, netbooks and TVs. Paine says Intel and Nokia have now released version 1.1 of MeeGo that includes the the handset user experience or UX available to developers for review. MeeGo will have its first developers conference in Ireland in November. The protoype phone running MeeGo has an interesting user interface. MeeGo is still in pretty early stages so we will have to wait and see if other handsets manufacturers will take a shine to it and MeeGo it can become an alternative to Android. Meanwhile, check out Paine’s photos of the Intel prototype to get an early sense of what MeeGo looks like on the phone. See Also:
Photo: Intel prototype phone/Carrypad 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 11:27 am Mobspot Turns To Your Facebook Friends For App Recommendations
There’s not really any shortage of ways to find out what others think about an app before you shell out the cash, but none are really without their faults. Each major smartphone platform’s App Store has a review system built in — but with more and more tales of people trying to game the system coming out each day, it’s tough to trust a faceless stranger. App review social networks like Chorus call upon a network of people you know — but they require you (and your friends, for that matter) to sign up for a whole new network. After finding a small audience after launching back in March, social app discovery site Mobspot thinks they’ve found the answer: a Facebook application. No new social network to sign up for, no new site to go to, and all the results are from a group you know and (hopefully) trust. So is it faultless?
Not exactly. Before I dive into it, I’ve gotta give Mobspot credit for pulling off a pretty impressive feat. Most non-iTunes App Review sources all have one inherent problem: purchase verification, or the lack thereof. iTunes doesn’t offer up any official way for these sites to verify that any given reviewer has actually purchased the app, so reviews could be a bunch of non-sense from a developer pumping his own app or the competition railing it, no purchase necessary. The Mobspot Facebook app, however, manually scans your iTunes library for apps sitting on your computer — if you don’t have it, you can’t review it. Now, back to the question of faultlessness: this App isn’t without its own. It’s something that’s only truly useful once it’s massively successful (enough so that you’ll have friends using it right off the bat), which inherently limits it from being massively successful. It’s sort of a niche-within-a-niche-within-a-niche. It’s for Facebook users who carry smartphones — admittedly a pretty massive group. Within that group, it’s most useful amongst friends who carry the same smartphone — and within that, it’s for people interested in installing an application for sharing their opinion on apps. Even if you have a few hundred friends, it seems like only a handful would be left after all this criteria is met — at which point, you might as well have just posted something to your wall asking for App advice. With that said: if a user is willing to be vocal about the application and get their friends into it, the idea is sound. Turning to friends to get opinions is a great means of getting trustworthy reviews, as long as you can get said friends to pipe up. Check out the Mobspot Facebook app here. It’s currently for iPhone apps only, though they plan to support all the other major platforms (as the primary Mobspot site already does) in the future. And be sure to tell your friends.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 11:18 am Despite the Risks, Urban Cycling a Healthier OptionDon't worry about car exhaust. The benefits of urban cycling outweigh the risks.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:47 am Is Television Harmful for Children?Too much television at a young age can slow language development and promote obesity.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 7 Jul 2010 | 10:46 am The Pencil iPad Stand: Smart Enough to Impress a New Yorker
Six pencils and four rubber-bands make up this iPad stand; a stand so clever that it prompted Wired.com New York Bureau Chief John C Abell to utter these words when I sent the link over IM: “That is genius. Pure genius.” The stand comes from gadget blogger Julian Horsey of Geeky Gadgets, and is the successor to his own Pencil iPhone Stand of last year. The real genius behind this is the use of pencils with erasers, and my favorite part is the lone rubber tip that reaches up to support the iPad from the back. Of course, being a New Yorker, our own John C Abell is also a smart-ass, and has some improvements on the design. First, he thinks that “sharpening the pencils seems stupid” and also says that “real genius could do it with five pencils and three bands.” I have stared at the stand for several minutes now, and I can’t see how to remove any pencil and still get a stable, solid base. Maybe that’s because I’m not from fancy New York, or maybe its because Mr. Abell has lower standards when it comes to the level of support he will accept for his iPad. Perhaps, Mr. Clever-Clogs, you could enlighten us in the comments? The Pencil iPad Stand [Geeky Gadgets. Thanks, Julian!] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 8:50 am Motorola makes the Charm and its full QWERTY keyboard official
T-Mobile will be the exclusive US carrier with the release expected sometime this summer. The exact date and expected price wasn’t mentioned, though. Exclusively for T-Mobile USA, Motorola CHARM packs smartphone features and social graces into a pocketable design with Android(TM) 2.1 and MOTOBLUR(TM) enhancements
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today announced the upcoming availability of Motorola CHARM™, a touch screen smartphone that packs a social networking punch with Android™ 2.1, MOTOBLUR™ enhancements, a compact design and a BACKTRACK™ feature that makes screen navigation even more intuitive. Availability
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 8:33 am How To: Watch Any Video on iPad, No Conversion Required
Thanks to its support of a single video format – MP4 – getting movies onto the iPad is, to be generous, a real pain. You can buy movies and TV shows from iTunes, but for most of the world that’s not possible. So most of us find alternative sources, and then convert these AVI, DIVX and MKV files to MP4. This takes forever and pretty much puts your computer out of action as it gets red-hot and churns through the queue. It also lowers quality. What if there were a way to almost instantly convert these movies, without any loss in quality? It turns out there is. The software is called Avidemux 2, and it is free on OS X, BSD, Linux and Windows. AVI, DIVX and many other formats are no more than wrappers for the actual video content inside. Think of them as a book cover with a table-of-contents to help you find your way around. The covers may vary, but the wad of pages inside is the same. With almost all downloaded video, that “wad of pages” turns out to be in the iOS-compatible H.264 codec. What Avidemux does, essentially, is to swap out the covers, and make sure the new table-of-contents points to the right pages. The video inside remains untouched. Confused? Here’s an example. I open up a video file in Avidemux. Let’s use The Wire, season two, episode one, a 367.4 MB AVI file. It offers to “Rebuild Frames” for me, so I click yes. This takes less around ten seconds. In the drop-downs on the left, I pick the audio (AAC) and video (MP4) formats, leaving everything else alone. Then I hit save (Command-S on the Mac) and give the file a name along with the extension MP4. This needs to be done manually – the software doesn’t name files automatically.
But that’s not very elegant, right? Who wants a file called The.Wire.2×01.Ebb.Tide.MP4 sitting it their library, with no cover art, no plot synopsis and no polish? For this, you need something like iFlicks. iFlicks will convert video, but its main purpose is adding metadata. It parses the file name and then searches the internet, grabs the data and adds it to the file. This can then be sent to iTunes. Here it is in action (I have my Mac set up to automatically launch iFlicks when a new movie hits a certain folder):
If you’re lucky (ie. your file doesn’t have some really weird naming convention) then the metadata will be just right, down to the video kind being correctly set (in this case, TV Show instead of Movie). Then you add to iTunes. In this case, the fastest way is to pick “Flatten to QuickTime Movie” from the top-left pop-up, which effectively just sinks the metadata into the file and then iFlicks can send the result to iTunes. Sync with the iPad and you’re good to go. Now, it is possible, apparently, to automate Avidemux to process a folder full of images instead of opening them by hand, one at a time. I couldn’t make it work, but I am currently working on a combined shell-script and Automator workflow to take care of everything from download to conversion, triggered by an RSS feed. The instructions for batch processing can be found in this MacRumors forum post. Worth a quick mention here is one even simpler way to play AVI files on the iPad. Amazingly, Apple approved an app called YXPlayer which supports DIVX/XVID. WMV, H.264, WMV and others. It costs $5 and would seem to be a perfect app other than that most of the reviews says it sucks, running at a a maximum of 15 frames per second for video and rendering audio sometimes unlistenable. It costs $5. Avidemux doesn’t work with every file, but it works with most, and is way faster and easier than the alternatives. Try it out. Avidemux 2 is free. IFlicks costs $23, with a free trial download, and runs on Mac OS X only. Avidemux download [Avidemux.org] iFlicks [iFlicksapp] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:48 am Android 2.2 challenges the iPhone 4 to a JavaScript duel… and wins!
Of course, JavaScript isn’t the sole dish in your mobile browsing banquet, but the difference should present a notable boost when browsing to any site using it. The huge difference in scores is thanks to Froyo’s new JIT compiler, as well as some browsing optimisations done in the browser. Had enough of my preamble? Go check out the results yourself, and be marvelled by the graphs.
Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Jul 2010 | 7:07 am Back to the Future: Hacker Makes Self-Lacing SneakersOh man! If I had a pair of those great Nike Hyperdunk 2015 sneakers (aka. The Official Shoes of Gadget Lab, aka. Marty McFly’s self-lacing shoes from Back to the Future 2 and 3), then I’d be hacking them with this amazing lace-tying mod on Instructables. The project, by Blake Bevin, uses an Arduino-controlled sensor to detect when you put your foot into the sneaker. Then, it fires a motor which tensions the laces. That’s it, although because of time and money constraints Bevin only modified one shoe.
In practical terms, though, you’d probably want to stick with your fingers, as the whole array adds a startling amount of bulky circuitry to the heel. Also, if you’re planning a trip, either pack these in your hold baggage or just jump in the DeLorean. Power Laces- the Auto lacing shoe [Instructables via Gear Fuse] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:54 am Darwin Award Nominee: The Waterproof Power StripWet Circuits may sound like a porn-site for robots, but it is in fact a store dedicated to a waterproof power-strip. The $40 strip, seen doing its stuff in the video above, has a few tricks up its sopping-wet sleeve to prevent you from electrocuting yourself when plugging things in. The strips are sealed and the conductive parts are coated to stop them coming into contact with water. The power only flows to the plug when the pins are fully and correctly inserted. This has the pleasant side-effect of allowing your kids to poke paperclips into the socket in safety, and also cutting the risk of sparks. There is also a cut-out which cuts in at 100ºC (212ºF). All this ignores the fact that you probably shouldn’t actually be plugging anything into the strip anyway: Your TV isn’t going to be any safer when perched on the end of your bathtub if used with this adapter. In this regard it seems about as practical as a pair of bulletproof contact-lenses. So, a website with a “Dr” Jolin pouring water onto electrical outlets and conducting snuff-tests with deadly current, all on video? Maybe this is a porn-site for robots after all. Waterproof Power Strips [Wet Circuits via the Giz] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 5:15 am Camera ‘Security’ Locks from Gary Fong
Gary Fong, famous for selling a $60 plastic dome for your camera-flash, has come up with another “handy” set of accessories: the Gary Fong GearGuard. The security devices do for your camera gear what a Kensington lock does for your laptop. First is the Camera Body Lock, yet another accessory which screws into the tripod-mount. This one is a flat plastic plate with a loop on the back. Another covering plate slides over this to stop the first from being unscrewed, and a cable run through the loops both secures the camera and stops the cover from sliding off. This is really only good if you are leaving the camera unattended or are shooting handheld (in which case it is rather pointless). To use it on a tripod, the most common use-case, you’ll need to remove the cable and outer plate to access the integrated screw-mount. Thus, it cannot lock-down a camera when left on a tripod. $10. The second part of the range is the GearGuard Bag Lock, a combination-locking plastic sleeve which clips over the quick-release clips on a bag and stops them from being opened. Two for $10. Last is the cable and combination lock, which at $10 should prove to be as secure as your average Kensington lock. Available soon at the Gary Fong store. Gary Fong store page [Gary Fong. Thanks, Zach!] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 4:54 am Concept Case Adds Camera to iPad
The iPad clearly needs a camera. Maybe not the fancy 5-megapixel, hi-def-shooting camera in the iPhone 4 – after all, who wants to hold a big slab up to snap photos? – but something for grabbing basic images would make Apple’s tablet way more useful. Unless you want to wait for v2.0 next year, a case would be the only way to add a camera, and that’s just how Chet Rosales has managed it with his iPad Cam-Case. The concept case has an ugly fat strip up the side which has a camera at its top. This camera flips in its mount to fire forward or back, depending on whether you are videoconferencing or just snapping pictures. Just think for a moment how useful this would be. Apart from Skype (sometime the only time I still wake my MacBook at weekends is to chat to my parents) and the usual quick snapshots, the big-screen iPad is perfect for augmented-reality applications, scanning and organizing business receipts (I still didn’t do my expenses from this year’s CES. Maybe with this I would have) and general photocopy duties: Being able to snap pictures of, say, your mom’s best brownie recipe and read it back full sized would be great (and fattening). Chet’s cam-case is a concept, but we see no reason why such a thing couldn’t work: Apple lets add-on GPS units talk to apps as if they were built-in, so why not this? Clean up that design and I’d buy one right away. iPad Cam-Case Product Design & 3-D Renders [Coroflot via Yanko and Laorosa] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Jul 2010 | 3:45 am
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If you’ve watched television at all over the past two months, you’ve likely seen the trailer for Inception, the new film by Christopher Nolan. The trailer is great, and the film looks like it could be even better. In it, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a special agent whose job it is to construct dreams in order to lure people inside and take their ideas — a tactic they call “inception”.
For six months, he and his colleagues gave 250 adults with chronic lower back pain and degenerative osteoarthritis either 2,500 mg daily of glucosamine sulfate or a placebo. At the six-month and one-year marks, there weren't any significant differences among patients in the two groups. Both groups did seem to be helped by the placebo effect, which is common in pain patients, in which people apparently feel better simply because they are receiving treatment.
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I click “Save” and this box pops up. Yes, that counter is accurate. Two minutes later I have a file that I can drop into iTunes and watch on my iPad. The video quality is unchanged from the original.
In addition to the essential parts, Bevin also added some electronic “bells and whistles” in the form of redundant circuit-boards and LEDs. The project, which you can follow step-by-step, is rather complex, but if you are an experienced Arduino hacker, then probably the hardest part is finding sneakers with enough 1980s style-cues to be worthy of the job.
