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BlackBerry 6 Changes App Development Too - Softpedia
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 31 Jul 2010 | 3:22 am Microsoft To Issue Emergency Fix For WindowsTrailrunner7 writes "Microsoft will issue an out-of-band patch on Monday for a critical vulnerability in all of the current versions of Windows. The company didn't identify which flaw it will be patching, but the description of the vulnerability is a close match to the LNK flaw that attackers have been exploiting for several weeks now, most notably with the Stuxnet malware. The advance notification from Microsoft on Friday said that the company is patching a critical vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild and affects all supported Windows platforms. The LNK flaw in the Windows shell was first identified earlier this month when researchers discovered the Stuxnet worm spreading from infected USB drives to PCs. Stuxnet has turned out to be a rather interesting piece of malware as it not only uses the LNK zero day vulnerability to spread, but it had components that were signed using a legitimate digital certificate belonging to Realtek, a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer." |
 Financial Times | HTC releases Froyo update for Desire mobile phone Telegraph.co.uk Mobile phone company HTC is to release an Android 2.2 update this weekend for its flagship Desire handset. The update named Froyo by Google will bring additional functionality to the Desire including 720p video and an ability to ... Froyo coming to Evo 4G on Tuesday, Sprint confirms How Froyo Will Boost Business Verizon: Android 2.2 Coming to Motorola Droid Next Week |
Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2010 | 12:46 am
AFP - Hackers at an infamous DefCon gathering are proving that old-fashioned smooth talk rivals slick software skills when it comes to pulling off attacks on computer networks.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 TopNews New Zealand | New Kindle Spells Doom for Other E-Readers PC World If the e-reader price war between Amazon and Barnes & Noble didn't cause panic for other companies, certainly will. When equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity for $139, the third-generation Kindle is the cheapest mainstream e-reader around, and the $189 3G ... Could Kindle EBook Gifting Become a Reality This Year? Barnes & Noble Planning Big Push to Increase Nook Sales Barnes & Noble's Nook gets its own boutique |
 BigPond News | YouTube now supports 15 minutes of fame San Francisco Chronicle For a lot of YouTube video creators, 10 minutes was just not enough time. So YouTube has increased that maximum video length to 15 minutes. "Without question, the No. 1 requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes," ... YouTube Now Supports 15 Minutes of Fame YouTube ups video time limit YouTube Increases Video Upload Length to 15 Minutes |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
On Friday, we got a chance to talk to Graham after his morning panel with SV Angel’s Ron Conway. He discussed how his strategy has evolved over the past five years and why the balance of power is shifting in Silicon Valley. See videos ahead.
We're thrilled that everyone seems to be digging our new Submitterator! (More about the launch here.) Every day, folks are submitting a slew of wonderful links. Thank you! In fact, I browse it as if it's a group blog edited by a bunch of my most interesting friends that I haven't yet met. For those of you who missed the announcement earlier this week, the Submitterator is essentially a public submissions form. Every link you submit is shared with everyone else visiting the page. Vote 'em up or vote 'em down. We're keeping a keen eye on the Submitterator for front door posts and also getting a kick out of the stuff that doesn't end up here on the blog. We hope you are too! Got a link to share? Please submit to the Submitterator!
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 8:50 pm
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 Ghacks Technology News | Microsoft To Release Emergency Patch For Windows InformationWeek The "out of band" emergency update addresses a Windows vulnerability that is being exploited by attackers using a "highly virulent strain" of malware. By Antone Gonsalves Microsoft plans to release on Monday an emergency fix for a Windows vulnerability ... Microsoft rushes fix for Windows shortcut hole Microsoft to Patch Critical LNK Flaw in Two Days MS preps emergency patch for Windows shortcut peril |
Grammy award winning artist Chamillionaire (a.k.a Hakeem Seriki) has become a regular at tech conferences, perhaps because the hustle and flow culture of the rap business and the hustle and flow culture of the tech business are surprisingly similar. His stories of struggles between artists and music labels are resonant to anyone who’s experienced the relationship intricacies of startups and VCs.
Chamillionare got his first taste of the magic of the Internet in 2004, with the launch of his first website Chamillionaire.com. The community around the site’s message boards exploded unexpectedly, “at the time it was really creative and really cool,” he told Mike Arrington at today’s Social Currency CrunchUp.
Other highlights from the interview include Mike Arrington calling the hip hop artist’s entourage “goofy,” asking, “What kind of rims are cool now?” and ending with the memorable,”You guys know how to manipulate the tech industry to get what you want, but you have the lamest phones …”
In retort, Chamillionaire insisted that he carries around his 3 phones, a Blackberry Curve 8700, an iPhone 3Gs, and a Sidekick XL, for “simplicity” and joked that he checks in as “Mike Arrington” when he stays at hotels. On why he attends tech conferences, “I just want to get a business card from each of you.”
Curious, we caught up with the artist after the panel and asked him what exactly he thought the tech community had to offer?
“Everything. Access to people through social networks. We don’t build these social networks, we don’t blog on TechCrunch. People here are like what would a rapper care about TechCrunch for? It’s crazy, it’s about distribution of information. It’s just getting information to people, that’s just what major labels are. They’ve got companies that distribute for us now so it’s like cutting the record labels out – I’m doing you a favor, you’re doing me a favor and I’m getting to where I need to get to. “
On his future plans? “I just want to innovate.” He said, insisting that he couldn’t reveal any more information.
Video of his onstage interview, below:
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
It may be that not everyone finds old test patterns as entertaining as I do. I just love everything about them! I don’t know why! And yet — they wouldn’t really work with the aesthetic I’ve got going on my desk right now (black and metal (not black metal)), so it’s up to you guys to enjoy these for me. I wish the black and white one had the Indian — the color bars are just the way I like ‘em, though.
This is just a heads-up for any ATI folks out there looking to add a little anti-aliasing to your StarCraft II-ing. ATI has released an updated driver, version 10.7a, that includes a hotfix that enables forced AA for the game. You have to activate AA inside the Catalyst Control Thingamajig outside of the game.
End transmission.
 TG Daily | Windows 7 Tablets: Just Say No, Microsoft PC World Microsoft is busy at work on a new tablet computer design, a product that may arrive from one or more of its hardware partners in "not a heck of a long time," CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts on Thursday. ... Analyst's View: Microsoft's Tablet is Coming! Well, Not Really Ballmer (and Microsoft) still doesn't get the iPad Steve Ballmer on the iPad: The transcript |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
If you spend a lot of time in a web publishing environment, it pays to be aware of all the little things that make writing and layouts work — and not work. The wrong line height or kerning/font combination can be disastrous to readability. You can, of course, read books on the subject, but a ready reference tool can be had in this Typography Manual app, which looks about as to-the-point as such things can get.
It does in fact comprise a short book, along with some handy tools for the printer or publisher like conversion tables and a font ruler. It doesn’t have an iPad form yet, unfortunately. $4 in the App Store.
[via NotCot]
Short version: NOX’s first entry into the crowded gaming headset market sets itself apart with its portability, comfort, and ease of use.
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Full review:
We first encountered this headset at E3, where it made its debut alongside the in-ear Scout (not yet released) and the Negotiator, an adaptor which allows you to use either headset with a PS3 or Xbox 360. I found one in my possession shortly after, and have been using it on and off for a couple weeks as my primary headset.
The Specialist is designed as a portable headset — that design goal manifests itself in a couple ways. First, the headset is foldable. I mean, it’s not like you can fold them down to nothing, but flipping the earcups up does reduce the headset’s footprint by quite a bit. You can fit them into a smaller pocket, they’re not as awkward as a normal pair of headphones, and of course it lets them go into the nice carrying case they come with.
The other way you see the portability thing is in the retractable microphone. A few other headsets have this (SteelSeries comes to mind) and the Specialist doesn’t do it in any special way, but they do it right. The cord coils up inside the left earcup, obviously, and the outside of the earcup spins in order to reel it back in. It seems to be torqued pretty heavily, and sounds crazy if you do it when you have the headset on. The mic itself feels a little short but it sounds great.
On the other earcup you have a differently-cut plate that also spins — this is the volume knob. It turns 180 degrees and adjusts the volume very smoothly; I found it convenient in-game, better than having a little puck weighing down the cord at least.
For $80 you should expect a pretty good sound out of a headset, and the Specialist doesn’t disappoint there. They’re definitely skewed towards the warm and bass-y end, but that’s great for games, and I got plenty of clarity once I adjusted my EQ. I couldn’t make them clip or pop, though the bass did tend to take over and spread out toward higher volumes. I was surprised at the amount of isolation they provided, as well. At medium volume, I believe that most normal voices would be difficult to discern, though higher-frequency noises like key clicks and snapping fingers were audible.
The fit was (for me) very comfortable, which is what you’re really concerned about when it comes to gaming headphones. Multiple-hour sessions are common, of course, and if I wore something like the G35 for that long, my neck would probably break. It’s hard to say whether the Specialist will fit everyone as well as it fits me, but it if it does, kudos to NOX. While the earcups don’t rotate to accommodate your preferred headband angle, I found they sat perfectly on my ears and didn’t push hard at all on them. The lightness of the headset also helps make marathon sessions bearable. At a petite 0.3 pounds, it’s easy to forget you’re wearing it.
The look of the headphones, I should mention, is pretty nice. They come in a few colors — I think green is the best of them — and they’re quite nicely designed, though they won’t blow anyone away. I prefer in-ears for my day-to-day public headphones, but you could do worse than the Specialist if you have to take it to the street.
One thing the headset could improve, though, is the cord and plugs. Gamers plug and unplug their headsets a lot, and this satin-finish rubber provides almost no grip at all to a sweaty-palmed gamer. The rubber does help keep loops and snags to a minimum, but braided cords with L-plugs on the end would be a definite improvement. It could be longer, too: 6 feet really should be the minimum allowed.
As for Xbox 360 and PS3 compatibility: you’ll be paying extra for it. If you think you’re going to use the headset with more than just your PC, get the Negotiator bundle; it’s an extra $20 rather than the $60 you’ll pay if you buy the adapter separately. I only tested the Specialist on my PC, but the Negotiator looked simple enough to operate when I tried it out at CES and it could save you some clutter by letting you use one headset between your consoles and PC. Other headsets do this as well, of course, the AX Pro for instance, though that’s a much more involved affair.
Conclusion:
This headset is easy to recommend, though of course $80 is more than a lot of people are willing to pay. You can get a Razer Carcharias for less, or a G35 for a little more, so there are definitely options out there. But your money would be as well spent on the Specialist, especially so if you like your headphones compact and portable. Adding the Negotiator into the package brings it to a round $100, but if the alternative is to buy a separate headset for your 360, it’s not so bad. If you’re in the market for a comfortable, portable, and attractive headset, the Specialist is definitely worth your time.
Product page: NOX Audio Specialist
Disclaimer: You brick your phone doing this, don’t blame me. I’m just letting you know you can do this, not telling you that you should.
That being said, if you’re feeling saucy and want to download the latest version of Android for the EVO now instead of waiting until it rolls out naturally, you can do it. You just have to download the update directly from HTC, and do some magic with recovery mode and your SD card. You can get the full instructions from here.
[Via Gizmodo]
Perhaps you’ve heard: social games maker Playdom was acquired by Disney a few days ago for a deal potentially worth north of $750 million. Playdom CEO John Pleasants took the stage today at our Social Currency CrunchUp in Palo Alto, to talk a bit about the deal and the future.
Pleasants says that he’s not exactly sure what his title at Disney will be yet, but he thinks he’ll be the General Manager of Playdom. He’s also not sure if Tapulous (another gaming company just acquired by Disney) will be under his department, but he doesn’t think so. And he made sure to clarify that the deal was for $563.2 million plus an earn-out of up to $200 million — so he’s not super super super rich, he’s just super super rich.
But the most interesting thing Pleasants noted was that he recently heard (from his own source, apparently) that half of all users on Facebook now play social games. More impressively, 40% of total usage time on the service is spent on these games. That’s meaningful, of course, because “a huge amount the Internet is on Facebook,” Pleasants stated.
When moderator Michael Arrington asked about changes Facebook has made recently to slow the viral spread of these types of games, Pleasants acknowledged they’ve all taken a hit. But he says they’re working with Facbeook on new ways to drive growth. But he made sure to say they had to do it without spamming.
When talking about what’s next, Pleasants notes that they’ve released two new games in the past week alone. When Mike suggested that most of the games are just a combination of blindly pushing buttons, Pleasants noted that things were evolving, and that games were about to get more social.
The biggest issue going forward though? “The lack of credit cards with children,” Pleasants half-joked.
Section: Business News, Gadgets / Other
It looks like Amazon is getting a little greener with their most recent delivery announcement. Amazon is going to be offering deliveries using recyclable tote bags. Yes, tote bags as opposed to boxes. Of course, like most programs of this nature, the delivery area is limited. At least as of this posting, it includes only the Seattle area. But the nice part is that the tote deliveries mean free two-day shipping and also give you the option to keep or return the tote after delivery.
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Smart window startup Soladigm announced today its plans to build a factory in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The Khosla Ventures and Sigma Partners backed company makes dynamic glass windows that can be tinted on demand to block excess light and heat.
Founded in 2007, Soladigm had been operating in “stealth mode.” The company employs about 50 people in its Milpitas, California headquarters, and plans to hire about 300 employees over the next few years for the Mississippi plant.
A $40 million loan and another $4 million in incentives from the state influenced Soladigm’s decision to locate operations in Mississippi. Soladigm pledged to invest $130 million by 2016 in its business there in order to receive the state’s full incentive package.
The new Soladigm plant’s proximity to Memphis transportation connections will also help the company quickly ship its glass panels.
According to the company, its tinted windows can eliminate the need for blinds and reduce building heating and cooling costs by up to 25%.
Criticising Valleywag in 2010 is something of a pointless exercise, like offering diplomatic counsel to the Ottoman Empire ten years after the Treaty of Lausanne. More pointless still, attacking the site’s titular editor Ryan Tate is like appealing to the guy responsible for writing parking tickets in Constantinople.
I mean, I get that.
And yet despite the irrelevance of Gawker’s saddest sub-domain and the tragic impotence of its editor, the influence of its parent means that when a Valleywag story oozes its way on to the front page of Gawker.com, it’s important to take notice. And to mop it up so that no-one slips.
Here goes then.
Background:
Some time on Tuesday afternoon, Ryan Tate woke up and padded over to his laptop to check his email. Amidst the tips from disgruntled Friendster employees and pep-talk advice mails from Owen Thomas, there was an email from Nick Stern, a photographer who had spent a few days stalking Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The images were so entirely un-newsworthy – photos of Zuckerberg’s modest house, photos of his “unremarkable” tennis shoes, photos of Zuckerberg’s entirely unfamous girlfriend – that no other news organisation wanted them. Could Gawker spare any change?
Pausing just long enough to wipe the resulting sticky goo from his keyboard, Tate hit reply. “Oh God, YES! We’d love them. It’ll be a Gawker exclusive!”
Of course, much of the above is bullshit speculation, but the result is the same: on Wednesday, under a “Gawker Exclusive” banner, and the headline, “Mark Zuckerberg’s Age of Privacy Is Over” Tate published twenty candid photos, clearly identifying Zuckerberg’s home, his girlfriend, his friends and his regular haunts. In “justification”, Tate wrote…
“If it feels a little naughty to take such a close look into Zuckerberg’s life, remember that this is the executive who pushed the private information of Facebook’s hundreds of millions of users progressively further into the public sphere.”
Hmmm, Ryan.
No, not “hmmm”. That other thing.
GO FUCK YOURSELF. I mean, seriously, Ryan, how did you even write those words without slitting your wrists and bleeding out pure shame onto your copy of Pageviews For Dummies? Even if you accept that Facebook’s handling of user privacy was a misstep (which I don’t entirely), to argue that it’s analogous to following someone around with a camera all week and publicising his home address on the Internet just defies belief. Especially when that person is a billionaire who is more of a target than most for the assorted freaks and lunatics who slosh about online.
But of course Tate had no choice but to cling to his “tit for tat” public interest justification. After all, the photos had no inherent news value (“the most interesting thing about Zuckerberg’s life may well be how ordinary it is,” says Tate in his post) and nor is there an obvious “public figure” justification. Facebook is a private company, Zuckerberg (especially compared to other billionaire CEOs) doesn’t court personal publicity outside of the business press – and his girlfriend certainly doesn’t. All the publication of these pictures achieves is a hundred thousand or so page views, at a cost that includes the personal safety of a 26 year old who, despite his modest home and shoes, is worth, let’s not forget, some $4 billion. If I were his girlfriend, or anyone else close to him, I’d be terrified right now.
What Happened Next:
After reading the story, I tweeted to Tate…
More than anything, I wanted to know if he was proud of his work; whether reading it back he thought to himself “yes, I have done a good thing today.” But at worst I wanted him to defend it. In fact he did neither, instead he replied…
Then, as if to underline his point – that the justification for posting the photos was that he’d done it before – he emailed me the links, with the heading “BREAKING! Valleywag runs unauthorized pictures of people’s homes and girlfriends!!!11!”
After some back and forth over the irrelevant question of whether Tate commissioned the photos himself or whether they landed on his desk as a fait accompli, I got back to the point…
From: Paul Carr
To: Ryan TateYou’re neatly dodging the question though: do you stand by the posting of the photos as news? Are you suggesting a public interest justification for publicizing where a billionaire lives? “We’ve done it before” is not a justification; as any serial killer will tell you.
His answer? An email containing nothing but the contact details of Editor-in-Chief Remy Stern and Founder Nick Denton. The subtext: “I can’t justify my own work; you’ll have to talk to My Two Dads.”
And so I did. I particularly wanted to understand Denton’s take on the misadventures of his underling. For a start, it’s generally accepted that there is only one period in Valleywag’s history that the site was any good, and that was when Denton was running it himself. Also, for all of Valleywag’s prying into the lives of Silicon Valley “celebrities”, Denton held on to at least one basic principle: decreeing that the lives of their non-famous girlfriends, boyfriends, wives and husbands – “civillians” as he called them – should remain off-limits.
So what gives? Has Denton changed his policy or, like in so many other situations, did Tate simply not get the memo?
His reply deserves to be published in full (with his permission, for which I’m grateful).
Hey, Paul –
Thanks for your note.
Facebook is anything but a private company; it has 500m stakeholders. And as Silicon Valley has grown in importance, tech executives have become celebrities. Mark Zuckerberg generates more interest among our readers than most Hollywood stars.
Now you can argue that he doesn’t trade on his celebrity in the same way. But that’s not entirely true. He poses for photos for magazine covers and shows up at conferences. It’s not like he’s a complete recluse.
As for the address… Well, first of all, no, we didn’t publish it. But you can deduce it. And? With online databases such as Nexis Public Records, most people’s addresses are now easily available. You can find all mine there, for instance.
Or here.
I think you’re trapped in a previous era — one in which journalists had special access to information and dispensed it sparingly and “responsibly.” Now there’s much less distinction to the profession: everybody has access to formerly privileged information and anybody can publish it. We’d all better adjust.
Your final point: that even if Zuckerberg was fair game, the girlfriend wasn’t. I have most sympathy for this. But, again, apply the Hollywood model. If an unknown was having an affair with Angelina Jolie, they would no longer be an unknown.
Zuckerberg is the Angelina Jolie of the internet. The media interest in him is undeniable. His lovers, friends and acquaintances — like those of any other celebrity — are caught up in the vortex. He has to make a choice; and they have to make a choice. And none of the choices — retreat from the public eye, abandonment of friendship — are palatable.
Feel free to publish any of this reply.
Regards
Nick
Conclusion:
Reading that note, two things screamed out from the page. One: how conflicted Denton sounds in writing it – speaking of his “sympathy” for my point about Zuckerberg’s girlfriend and acknowledging that the choices that his kind of reporting forces those close to tech “celebrities” to make are “unpalatable”. It can’t be easy to know your editors are doing bad things, but that those bad things are the only way they’ll ever attract page views.
And two: the fact that it was only Denton, and not Tate, who had the wit and intelligence to attempt to justify Gawker’s decision to publish. (In fact, while Denton was accounting for the behaviour of his boy, Tate was publishing a follow up story containing photos of Zuckerberg at an employee’s wedding in India, desperately arguing that his interest in them “underlines Zuckerberg’s growing global celebrity”. Just stop digging, Ryan.)
And it’s for that second reason – his inability to stand by his grubby work – that Ryan Tate, if he has an ounce of pride left in his body, needs to resign. And if he won’t do that – which he won’t, because he hasn’t, and because he knows that the position of village idiot has already been filled – then it’s for that reason that Denton needs to fire him and either go back to running Valleywag himself, or close it down once and for all.
In the meantime, to anyone with a cameraphone or a Flipcam who spots Ryan Tate out and about in the Bay Area: you know what to do. Follow him. Follow him everywhere. Take hundreds of photos. Bug the living shit out of him. Make him understand how unpleasant it is to be followed to your front door by a stranger with a camera.
And once you’re done stalking? Again: you know what to do. Delete the footage. Don’t even think about uploading it anywhere. Yes, there’d be a delicious irony in “Ending Ryan Tate’s Age Of Privacy” because he’s done it to someone else. But, as much as he’d love to feel that his life passes a public interest test, it doesn’t. And just because Ryan Tate has done something hideous and unjustified to someone else, doesn’t mean you should do it to him.
You’re better than that.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 CBC.ca | Google not sure if China behind service disruption AFP WASHINGTON — Google does not know if the Chinese authorities were behind a disruption in the company's services on Thursday, chief executive Eric Schmidt said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Schmidt said that although the Chinese ... Google Says Its Web Search Service In China Operating Normally Google says it may have overestimated blockage of services in China Google overestimated China blockage |
Best Buy is reducing the price on old-model Xbox 360 bundles Theyl need to be cleared out to make space for the new slim design. Packaged with the console will be either Final Fantasy XIII or Splinter Cell Conviction, depending on your choice. No custom art on the console, though.
Both consoles will come with the 250GB hard drive, two wireless controllers and the game. Price is expected to be $299, a savings of $50 off MSRP.
[via Joystiq]
In the world of design, urban mobility is much more than how you get from point A to point B. Urban mobility operates at the intersection of myriad innovation freeways, from architecture to infrastructure, technology to transportation, city planning to style. It's about feet, fashion, bikes, busses, automobiles, and yes, even cars that fly. Just ask Jens Martin Skibsted, co-designer of Terrafugia's new Transition Roadable Aircraft, aka flying car.
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 5:11 pm
FROM GAMERTELL - Sega brings back a new group of old time classics, available for download on the PC
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam. The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong. But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain --unnecessarily -- and that is not right.Perhaps the Anti-Defamation League could produce some helpful maps to delineate the areas in our cities where Muslims may live, work and pray without causing more pain. The original statement was linked to here by others, but it's not currently available. Via CNN. Discussion: Tablet, Wonkette, and TPM.
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 5:09 pm
Online monetization platform gWallet, which offers social gaming developers a variety of ways to monetize their apps and boost engagement, is looking to put its money where its mouth is: the company is launching a $20,000 cash guarantee to any social gaming publishers that don’t generate more revenue when they switch from their current monetization platform to gWallet.
To participate, publishers are being asked to implement a simultaneous, head-to-head test over the span of thirty days (you can sign up starting today, with the 30 day window beginning August 1). At the end of that time period, if your revenues from gWallet aren’t higher than they are on you original implementation, then the service will pay out the guarantee. But you’ll have to be a pretty sizable game to participate: to qualify, gWallet says that publishers need to be new to the platform, and need to have at least 250,000 daily active users. That said, it sounds like the the company is willing to discuss a guarantee to apps with a smaller user base if you email their partner@gwallet.com address.
gWallet launched late last year, positioning itself as a more trusted alternative to other ‘Offers’ companies in the wake of Scamville. One of the company’s more popular products is the video offer, which can reward an app user virtual currency in return for watching a video ad (they also have more traditional offers).
This is a highly competitive and tough space; major Offers company OfferPal recently had to downsize in the wake of Facebook deciding that TrialPay would be its preferred Offers provider. Still, there’s plenty of room to innovate (and give developers a bigger slice of the revenue) — if gWallet can prove that it earns devs more money than its competitors, it will likely do just fine regardless.
Tomorrow night, July 31, Twitter has announced they are having some planned downtime. Beginning at 11 PM PT, Twitter will likely be down on and off for up to 5 hours, Twitter warns.
The reason for the downtime? NTT America, Twitter’s hosting provider is upgrading a part of the internal network. This is interesting because Twitter is in the process of opening their own data center in Utah later this year. Despite the new tweet digs, they’ve said they’ll keep working with NTT America, so this maintenance is clearly necessary.
If you see the picture above tomorrow night, you’ll know what’s up. There will be a link on it to the Status Blog where you can get status updates on the work.
It’s takes a certain type of person to get excited about a work productivity tool. Mark Nielsen and Patrick Carmitchel, unsatisfied with 37Signals‘ Basecamp, have decided to disrupt the productivity software industry (see their incredibly twee video above).
Says Nielsen “We decided we’d rather not see the light of day for awhile than have to live with knowing that with just a little bit of creative, a pinch of logic and a dash of sexy, we could revive the productivity software world with a tool that would even make Apple cry.”
Previously unknown to the blogosphere, Nielsen and Carmitchel emailed us at 2am last night and emphasized that they were out for 37Signals’ blood (we’ll get more into why we actually listened in a later post). When reminded that the formidable former Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz was also in the collaboration tool space, joining the likes of Salesforce, Zoho, and Atlassian with his stealth startup Asana, they replied “We’d like to see how [Dustin Moskovitz's] deep pockets stand up against moxie and energy.”
The RULE.fm product itself looks like what would happen if Apple got serious about productivity software, with much emphasis on design aesthetics. Right now its basic function is a ramped up contact list manager with real time updates from your contacts pushed to you, a Yammer-like discussion area, a place for tasks, and a communal file sharing functionality. Nielsen describes it as “a place to know and understand everything that’s going on with in your organization” and hopes the company will eventually expand into wikis, customer retention management and accounting tools.
For those curious, the tour is live on the RULE.fm site right now, and the platform itself will go live on Tuesday August 3rd, making the productivity software industry just a little bit more badass.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Broadband Cards, Mobile
With AT&T, and soon it seems, Verizon, dumping their unlimited data plans for tiered pricing plans, does the mean the end of unlimited mobile data? Sprint and T-Mobile still offer it, but for how long? One thing unlimited data usage has shown us is that bandwidth is not so unlimited. AT&T has faced sharp criticism over it’s poor data network, which is frequently overwhelmed by users of the data hogging iPhone. Apple themselves have even criticized it (yet then turned around and gave the company the exclusive rights to provide data service to the iPad. Go figure!) Their response was to switched to tiered pricing data plans. Data cards used to come with unlimited data, but every carrier has since slapped a 5GB cap on them, blaming bandwidth issues. These days cell phones have gone from simply being phones to being all in one communications and internet devices. It used to be that you’d hear the kids yapping away on their phones. Then Nextel phones and Direct Connect became all the rage and they screamed into them instead. Now you see most of them typing rather than talking. I’d be willing to bet most people text, email, and surf the web on their phones more than they talk on them!
I think it’s clear that if we want unlimited data to stay, there are going to have to be some serious commitments to improving network infrastructure and increasing bandwidth. What do you think? Are you okay with tiered pricing? Do you use a lot of data each month? Let us know what you think about the future of mobile data.
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Today at our Social Currency CrunchUp in Palo Alto, CA, James Lamberti, VP of Global Research and Marketing for InMobi, sat down with our Michael Arrington to tell us a bit about mobile advertising.
InMobi is the largest independent mobile ad network in the world. Overall, they’re number two behind Google’s AdMob. That earned them an $8 million investment from Kleiner Perkins and Sherpalo Ventures a couple weeks ago. But what’s particularly interesting about InMobi is how well they’re doing outside the U.S.
Out of inMobi’s 16.9 billion mobile ad impressions globally, 2.6 billion are in Africa, more than the US’s 2 billion. 10 billion are in Asia, no surprise considering inMobi was founded in India and had more time to develop reach, while Europe follows Africa with 1.6 billion and the Middle East .5 billion. InMobi’s mobile eCPM development is highest in Europe at 29%, with North American coming in a close second at 24%.
When inMobi’s development rankings, are stack ranked by country, Australia comes in first due to its high adoption of the iPhone and Malaysia performs at number two. Not surprisingly the iPhone platform dominates inMobi’s marketshare the US, being responsible for 38.2% of all mobile ad impressions. Globally Nokia trumps other platforms serving inMobi ads, at 22.2% of the market.
Lamberti says that InMobi’s biggest growth markets are in the US, Japan, and South America and the US, partially because of the benefits from Google Ad Mob changes on the iPhone. While 60% of all mobile iPhone impressions are still in the US, inMobi is now poised to to monetize the 40% that aren’t.
Video and slides from their presentation below.
In its most recent fiscal year, Microsoft made more money divesting old acquisitions than making new ones. According to the company’s annual 10-K, Microsoft spent $267 million to purchase five companies in fiscal 2010 and made $600 million by selling off three others.
Section: Apple, Communications, Smartphones
A consulting firm says they’ve conducted tests that prove that the iPhone 4’s “death grip” problem is real and unique to the phone. PA Consulting Group says they compared the iPhone to other smartphones and it performed just as well until it was held in the “death grip.” when performance plummeted. Mr. Jobs, are you listening? Here’s a video showing the results of the tests. Watch and let us know what you think!
Read [ReadWriteWeb]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Samsung has a real chance of being a player in the tablet game. From what we’ve heard so far, their offering will be basically a larger version of the Galaxy S cell phone, called the Galaxy Tab. It will run Android, presumable 2.2, on a 7-inch screen. There might even be a phone function, something the iPad lacks.
A Reuters report published today echoes pretty much all of that but notes that Samsung is shooting for a Q3 release. Interestingly enough, shortly after that report hit, I got a fancy invite to some big Samsung event scheduled for August 11. Imagine that.
Notice that Tim Baxter, President of Samsung America is speaking and there will be an opportunity to “see new products.” It’s not that much of a stretch to think that the Samsung tablet will be announced at this event. That will give the press a couple of months to build-up the device before it launches at the beginning of the Christmas spending spree. It will also give developers some time to jump on the Android tablet bandwagon and tweak their apps for the device.
Or I could be totally wrong and Samsung will show off some random 3D TV or clock radio. We’ll find out on the 11th.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Get your funny hats and noise makers ready, Droid owners: it’s party time! As long as the note that Verizon just sent over to our buddies over at Engadget holds true, the Droid should be seeing Android 2.2 grace its screen as early as next week.
It won’t be the first Android handset getting the update treatment, but you’ve gotta commend Verizon for staying on top of these updates even as they prepare to make the handset obsolete.
On my trip to Seattle this week to attend Microsoft’s Financial Analyst Meeting, the fine folks at the most excellent tech news site TechFlash dragooned me into a ping-pong tournament they were holding.
The Second Annual TechFlash Summer BBQ and Ping-Pong Tournament, held at the Showbox SoDo, is really a big schmoozefest for techies in the Pacific Northwest.
While a little more laid back–well, less frantic, at least–than the relentless glad-handing of Silicon Valley, it’s still the same promising start-ups, enthusiastic entrepreneurs, aggressive venture capitalists and a dousing of big company types from locals Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and RealNetworks (RNWK).
Except they have better coffee.
I made it through one round in the tourney, which is not that bad since I have not played ping pong for any length of time since I had braids.
(Yes, braids–and also matching ribbons. I try to erase the nightmare of it all every day.)
Here’s a video I did of the event, to which I am going back next year after some rigorous training.
I also added TechFlash’s video of the event, in which I convince the gullible editors that Walt Mossberg plays polo rather than ping pong.
Enjoy:
By John Murrell
Seeking to deepen user engagement, Twitter has been looking for ways to give its members, especially the newer ones, more guidance when it comes to navigating the sea of chatter and finding interesting streams. Today, it’s rolling out “Suggestions for You,” personalized recommendations for interesting folks to follow, generated by an algorithm that takes into account the people you already follow and the people they follow (although no one should be surprised if Twitter eventually makes it possible for well-heeled users to buy their way into the recommendations).
By Beth Callaghan
Something for a slow, geeky Friday afternoon: Artist David Choe — some may remember him as the one who famously graffiti-fied the offices of Facebook back in 2007 — will be signing copies of his new book, and figures from his new edition of vinyl toys, at Giant Robot tonight in San Francisco. If you’re not in SF, or just hate crowds, you could watch this cool video instead.
AFP - Twitter wants to help you build your network.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Computers, Security, Features
Researchers have discovered that a Russian gang is conducting a check counterfeiting operation using money mules and the Zeus botnet. The botnet was used to pump out spam advertising lucrative sounding ads advertising “payment processor” jobs, harvest email addresses from job search sites like Monster and Careerbuilder, steal check images from sites that store them digitally using SQL injection attacks, crack CAPTCHAs and even conduct a little spear phishing campaign on the side. It’s raked in over $9 million so far.
If you’re looking for work you’ve probably seen one of their ads. They describe a job as a “payment processor” and the story usually goes that they are a company wanting to do business overseas but needing help processing payments from customers who pay via check. Their usual excuse is something like it’s too expensive for them to do it in their country or there are tax issues. They promise a big salary for 1-3hrs of work a day and all you have to do is agree to receive checks from their “customers” , take them to your bank, cash them, keep your percentage and send the rest of the cash to them via Western Union. Needless to say it’s all a scam. The checks they send you are fake, made from the images they stole, and when they eventually bounce, they criminals will be long gone and the “payment processor” will be left holding the bag.
The researchers haven’t yet been able to pinpoint the individuals responsible for the operation but they are working on it.
Read [CNet]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Reuters - Two security experts said on Friday they released a tool for attacking smartphones that use Google Inc's Android operating system to persuade manufacturers to fix a bug that lets hackers read a victim's email and text messages.
Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking
Facebook says the alleged contract web designer Paul Ceglia says he has that entitles him to an 84% ownership stake in the company is most likely a forgery. They point out that Ceglia has so far refused to produce an original copy of it for anyone, including the court, and that at the time the contract was supposedly signed by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook didn’t exist in any form and there for it would have been impossible for him to give Ceglia an ownership claim in a non-existent company and that further more, the statue of limitations has expired.
Zuckerberg hired Ceglia back in 2003 to create a site called “The Face Book” which eventually evolved into today’s 500 million user strong social networking site. It’s not known why he waited so long to produce his claim and he has had no comment about Facebook’s statement.
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Here’s something you might have missed if you’re not in the UK. Top Gear is one of the most popular television programs in the world. With over 350 million viewers, it’s actually fairly surprising that there aren’t more licensed products out there. I guess James May could have his own line of “Captain Slow” sweaters, Hammond could sell hair products, and Clarkson.. Well, Clarkson could sell the Prius or something. At any rate, The Stig is one of the most popular (and enigmatic) cast members, and he’s finally got his own product.
Meet the Stig-Copter. Mini-helicopters are quite fun, and this product looks to be a pretty high tech version of the breed. The heli is based around an aluminum frame, it’s rechargeable, and it gives you about 8-15 minutes of flight time per charge. The body is based on the design of The Stig’s helmet, giving the helicopter almost supernatural cornering, and the ability to translate Morse code. Now for the bad news; you’ll have to order from the UK, and it’ll cost you about $60, before shipping.
Zynga, the fast-growing social gaming site, said it had hired Allen & Co. investment banker David Wehner (pictured here) as its new CFO.
He replaces Mark Vranesh, who becomes Chief Accounting Officer, reporting to Wehner.
The move is yet another indication that the San Francisco-based start-up is prepping for an initial public offering, rounding out its executive team, which is headed by founder and CEO Mark Pincus.
Pincus and Zynga have been quite busy of late, landing hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding, striking deals with Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG) and international partners such as SoftBank, as the company seeks to expand its distribution from Facebook, the social networking platform where it first took off.
Zynga also recently signed a five-year agreement with Facebook.
Zynga said it made the hire because of its longstanding relationship with Wehner, who has been a managing director at the New York-based Allen & Co. for nine years.
One thing is most clear: Zynga is filling out its executive team to take the business to the next level.
Which is, of course, an IPO.
Here is Wehner’s official bio:
Dave Wehner is joining Zynga from Allen & Company LLC, an investment bank focused on media and technology, where he has worked since 2001. As a Managing Director at Allen, Dave led corporate finance teams responsible for capital raises and M&A transactions with a focus on the firm’s Silicon Valley clients. Dave was also involved extensively with Allen’s principal investing activity, and sponsored the firm’s investments in a number of technology companies including Pandora, Quantcast and StubHub. Prior to joining Allen & Company, Dave worked as the VP Corporate Development for an e-commerce start up and at the technology-focused investment banking firm Hambrecht & Quist (now part of JP Morgan), where he was involved in numerous M&A and financing transactions. Earlier in his career, Dave worked as a strategy consultant with the global consulting firm Monitor Company where he worked extensively throughout Asia.
Dave earned a BS in Chemistry from Georgetown University and an MS in Applied Physics from Stanford University where he was a National Science Foundation fellow.
Supersized panoramic photos of cities are the flavor of the season. After Prague and Dubai, it’s the turn of Budapest to get a detailed online photo that you can zoom in and out of and play around with–almost like Google Earth.
The photo shot over four days has 70-gigapixels. If the finished picture is ever printed, it would make a a poster 156 meters (511 feet) long and 31 meters (101 feet) tall. The amount of paper it would take would cover two apartment blocks at least 10 floors tall.
To shoot the photo, two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras were fitted with a 400mm Minolta lens and 1.4 X teleconverters and placed on a robotic camera mount. 20,000 test images later, the file was processed to create a single interactive photo.
Check out the Budapest photo here. It’s a tad blurry and sometimes pixelated if you zoom in too much but still fun to play around with.
See Also:
Photo: 70 Billion Pixels Budapest
[via Engadget]
You’ll soon be able to use your phone in the New York City subway system.
It’s part of a $200 million renovation of the system, which, well, not to say that it’s falling apart, but it’s seen better days. There used to be a W train, for example. Memories.
The plan to wire the subway, at least parts of it, is at least several years old.
Several 14th Street stations were supposed to have been wired for Wi-Fi and cellphone service two years ago, but the company that was to do the wiring ran out of financing.
An Australian company has now stepped in with the necessary dollars.
Subway systems all over the world, including those in Berlin and Hong Kong, already have such communications capabilities.
But again, I don’t think it’s too crazy to say that you’d rather see a fully functional subway system rather than a patchy one that just so happens to let you check into FourSquare as you stand on the platform.
Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking, Web Apps
You can now connect their Amazon account to their Facebook account. Once you do, you’ll get a list of your friends’ birthdays along with gift suggestions and you’ll also see recommendations based on what your friends like. You and your friends will have a profile on the site listing your favorite books, movies, and TV shows. Amazon was quick to make it clear that they won’t share your purchase history, post on you wall without your permission, share any of your info, or contact your friends. It appears they take user privacy seriously.
Have you connected your accounts yet? If so please leave a comment and tell us what you think!
Read [ZDNet]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Sorry, BlackBerry fanboys, the BlackPad — or whatever it will be called — is going to flop in a monumental way. Remember how RIM’s last iDevice clone, the Storm, failed in such a public way? Yep, it’s going to happen all over again. RIM has no business making a consumer tablet.
We all need to give major props to Research In Motion. They were really the first major player to make smartphones relevant by offering a nearly-bulletproof mobile emailing system to business. Eventually RIM started making consumer-orientated email devices that worked with personal email accounts. RIM really showed the world that you need email while you were away from your desk.
But that’s where their claim to fame stops. Don’t misunderstand the Canadian company’s importance in consumer electronics’ history. RIM ranks up there with the best of them, but unless the so-called BlackPad is targeted solely at businesses and enterprise users — and all signs suggest otherwise — the BlackPad will fail.
I lived with a BlackBerry Storm for a year and a half. In fact, I just got rid of it for the Droid X. Before the Storm, I had a 7130e for two and a half years — my favorite phone of all time. BlackBerrys do a lot of things, but only one thing well: email. It’s still the best email device I’ve used partly because it’s clear that the OS was designed around that function and everything else was added later.
That’s where the BlackPad is going to have trouble. All the extra add-ons and capabilities take second seat to email and that’s not going to fly in a consumer-originated tablet. People are going to expect the BlackPad to be an iPad and they’re going to be disappointed. RIM’s touchscreen OS is a sorry clone of iOS.
iOS and its huge library of apps consumers were already familiar with is the iPad’s secret sauce. The BlackPad doesn’t have that. Oh, sure, there are BlackBerry apps available via RIM’s App World, but you can’t take any of those seriously. There are more fart machine apps in Apple’s App Store than there are applications in App World.
There is one way I could be wrong. If RIM totally forgoes the consumer market and instead goes after the Cisco Cius and the HP Slate, the BlackPad might be here to stay. This would require RIM to go back to its roots and target business before consumers. The thought is that because emailing — and in some industries, video conferencing — is such a big part of everyday corporate life, a large tablet kind of makes sense. This way RIM could get by without any fancy apps and rather focus on just a few areas like emailing.
Emailing on the iPad is fantastic. The form factor works well and in many ways, it’s better than using a smartphone. But many consumers can’t justify purchasing even the iPad just for one application. Its appeal is the vast range of tasks it can perform because of all the apps.
Businesses are different. They are used to spending extra cash on silly one-task devices. RIM has a fantastic opportunity to develop with just them in mind.
But that’s not how it’s going to go down.
Just like the Storm before it, RIM is developing a clone of an Apple device. It will likely target the same consumer group with a similar, but far less appealing, feature set. The screen size will probably be around 10 inches, it will probably have limited connectivity options although USB and SD card slots are likely, and Verizon will probably have a competitively priced data plan. All this is a recipe for public humiliation rather than a financial flop.
Remember back to before the Storm launched? It was the first device that was supposed to kill the iPhone. Verizon even had long lines reminiscent of iPhone launches. Then consumers tried the phone and found early versions to be buggy, slow, and overall gimmicky. The phone then went through a lot of criticism. It was the phone to hate and nearly everyone include myself took shots at it whenever possible. It was really that bad. But RIM kept on developing and supporting the phone. Apparently it wasn’t that big of a flop in RIM’s book, because the Storm 2 launched a few months back.
The same thing will probably happen to the BlackPad. RIM’s touchsceen OS still hasn’t evolved into something better than iOS even though it can effectively multi-task. It’s still the same core OS that puts email before everything and it simply will not translate well into tablet form. Moreover, if it isn’t the same but rather a totally different UI, then the BlackPad is in for even more hurt.
It’s not that I want RIM to crash and burn. I truly enjoy most of their products. I even came to appreciate the Storm although longed for a proper touchscreen phone with quality apps. It’s just I hate seeing consumers duped into buying clones of other products. They are rarely as good as the original. We’ll talk again after the launch, but I guarantee the BlackPad isn’t going to offer one legitimate feature over the iPad.
Section: Apple, Gadgets / Other
Three people from Northern California have filed a lawsuit against Apple, irate over the device’s habit of overheating quickly when exposed to sunlight. User reports suggest it overheats and shuts down after only a mere 10 minutes in the sun, something the plaintiffs say is unacceptable:
“The iPad does not live up to the reasonable consumer’s expectations created by Apple insofar as the iPad overheats so quickly under common weather conditions that it does not function for prolonged use outdoors, or in many other warm conditions,” the filing reads.
Amazon must be quite amused. As you may recall, the iPad was hailed as a “Kindle Killer” when it was first announced. Some may still believe that it is, but hey, the Kindle doesn’t overheat as soon as it’s exposed to the sun and the screen doesn’t become completely useless because of glare either. Take that Apple!
iPad owners, let’s hear from you. Have you experienced the overheating issue?
Read [PCWorld]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
So guess what Microsoft thinks of Yahoo Japan’s decision to swap it out for Google as main search partner?
Yeah, not too happy about it. And it’s going to do all that it can to thwart the deal. “We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google’s deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal,” the company said in a statement issued Friday afternoon.
Not all that surprising given the situation and Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith’s lambasting of the deal last week. “This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google’s deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal,” he said. “The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid. It means there will be no search competition in Japan and that Google will end up controlling all personal search information for all Japanese consumers and businesses.”
Perhaps, but does that even matter since the Japan Fair Trade Commission has already publicly blessed the deal? Hard to imagine the JFTC backing away from that endorsement without losing face.
According to an FCC filing, the folks at Keuring (they basically make a single serving coffee machine) could be adding RFID tags to their pods in order to allow the machine to sense the type of coffee being placed into the device. This would, in turn, allow the machine to change temperature, milk type, and whatever else the coffee requires.
It’s all very pie-in-the-sky right now with little information as to how the RFID tags will be used. However, it is an interesting move in the SSC world. For example, employees could get certain coffee types out of the machine with an RFID tag or the pods themselves could communicate with certain machines. You could also automate the pod process, creating an all-knowing coffee robot. It could happen.
Not a headline I was expecting to write today. A program at the University Of Central Florida is putting together a video game aimed at promoting abstinence among middle-school-age girls. It utilizes a full-body motion-capture studio to put girls in situations where they need to reject their pawing suitors. Right. Well. Couple things.
I’m not going to object to using public money to promote abstinence — it’s useless, I feel, but a variety of approaches is surely justified in efforts to keep teen pregnancy rates down. My problem is that they’re spending so much — $434,000! — on a program that will not work, because A: the game looks really weird and B: middle school girls aren’t going to go for it.
I mean really, a full-body motion capture studio? Who approved this budget? Did they not consider working with an existing studio to produce a game for the Kinect?
As Conrad points out at Destructoid, that kind of money would hire a couple extra teachers, maybe people with counseling credentials, people who could do an entire class on issues like this or be available every day to help kids deal with their problems.
Anyway, if they really want an abstinence simulator, they could just put a camera helmet on me and have kids watch the 24-hour feed. Instruction and warning all in one!
Section: Communications, Computers, Gadgets / Other, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack
What’s the most common phrase heard around the Gadgetell newsroom? Is it “I love Apple?”, “that’s cool!” or “sweet!” ? Answer: none of them, it’s “they are on crack”. This week we take a look back at the things that made us chuckle in the tech world. Let’s get to the suspects:
“Just a few days ago, RIM acquired the domain name blackpad.com, but hasn’t filled the site with anything.” Our Natesh Sood reported on the domain name and possible product that could come from it. Sood laid out his reason why the Blackpad could be an “iPad killer”: “the iPad is extremely popular today mainly because there aren’t many strong competitors.”
For a company that still hasn’t mustered an iPhone killer, should Apple be shaking in their boots at the idea of a BlackPad? Don’t get me wrong, OS 6 looks like a huge step forward for RIM, but they were two steps back to start with. Do we really believe the company can whip out something that will attract developers to begin an app building frenzy?
And I’ll disagree with Mr. Sood on why the iPad is “extremely popular.” The industry has been throwing tablets around for a while, (HP anyone?) and they’ve gone no where. Rather than just be a sideshow stunt, the iPad isn’t succeeding because we’ve not been inundated with $100 Android tablets. I think there is something more than a lack of competitors or even a surplus of fanbois. Without an app army pointing to the flock of developers hoping to make some iMoney.
So, a clunky OS combined with a small app store - is this something you’d pour resources into to build? Count on BlackBerry to keep mum about a tablet for fear of looking like Palm and the Foleo.
Here at Gadgetell, Sue Walsh is our e-reader expert. She’s a Kindle aficionado and keeps us grounded in our iPad lust. Sue posted this week on the effect of lowering e-reader prices and for possibly the first time in history, we completely agree. Sue says,
That leads me to wonder, what good are falling e-reader prices when the publishers are determined to jack up the price of ebooks? I will never understand why they hate ebooks so much. Everyone I know who has an e-reader says they actually read MORE books since getting it. Sales of Kindle books outdid sales of hardcovers on Amazon. Overall sales of ebooks have skyrocketed while sales of traditional books have shown much less growth.
So, with prices of books on the increase, it seems logical that e-readers pricing will reduce. Only, the reduction has been limited. Amazon dropped a $139 WiFi Kindle this week and it raised some eyebrows. However, we’re still way above a $99 excitement pricepoint and still miles away from a free e-reader.
If Sue’s data is correct, we’ll consume more books if given an ebook reader (we’ll avoid the discussion on the effect buying more books to justify the expense of the e-reader for now, OK?). Would a price increase on books, say $2, help cover the costs of the give-a-way and keep Amazon and others in the red?
What I see, is the need for a lending library, Netflix like app for books. When I can download books from my local library, share books with friends and family, then ebooks will become a must have for me. If Amazon or B&N won’t offer this, chances are we’re just a cool app away from it. Whoops, the iPad lust is showing through again.
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Someday humans and computers will meld to create cyborgs. But instead of waiting for it, Martin Magnusson, a Swedish researcher and entrepreneur, has taken the first step and created a wearable computer that can be slung across the body.
Magnusson has hacked a pair of head-mounted display glasses and combined it with a homebrewed machine based on an open source Beagleboard single computer. Packed into a CD case and slung across the shoulder messenger-bag style, he is ready to roll.
A computer is a window to the virtual world, says Magnusson.
“But as soon as I get up and about, that window closes and I’m stuck within the limits of physical reality,” he says. “Wearable computers make it possible to keep the window open. All the time.”
Magnusson’s idea is interesting though one step short of integrating a machine inside the body. In 2008, a Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence decided to embed a tiny video camera into his prosthetic left eye. Spence, who is still working on the project, hopes to someday record everything around him as he sees it and lifecast it.
For his wearable computer, Magnusson is using a pair of Myvu glasses that slide on like a pair of sunglasses but have a tiny video screen built into the lens.
A Beagleboard running Angstrom Linux and a Plexgear mini USB hub that drives the Bluetooth adapter and display forms the rest of this rather simple machine. Four 2700 mAh AA batteries are used to power the USB hub. Magnusson has used a foldable Nokia keyboard for input and is piping internet connectivity through Bluetooth tethering to an iPhone in his pocket.
Magnusson says he wants to use the wearable computer to “augment” his memory.
“By having my to-do list in the corner of my eye, I always remember the details of my schedule,” he says.
Check out photos of his gear:
The innards of the homebrewed machine are glued to a CD case. The CD case is slung across the shoulder by attaching it to a strap using velcro.
Here’s what the homebrewed computer looks like.
See Also:
Photos: Susanna Nilsson
"empty home on Bloomington Ave S, Minneapolis" by Andrew Ciscel via CC
OK, so I'm not an economist. But as a venture investor in early-stage medical and technology companies I read the usual financial articles that come across my screen and I see the same statistics everybody is seeing. I listen to Obama and I watch the TV shows where pundits argue with Congressmen about the wisdom of this or that particular tax or stimulus measure to restart our sick economy. I have nothing to say about this, no statistics of my own and no fancy theory, so instead of taking sides in this particular debate I keep looking for the things that are missing.
What is missing is this: Over two million American families have now lost their homes; foreclosure figures are at an all-time high. Several million new families will be thrown into the street over the next year, no matter what happens to taxes or the stimulus. This is a given. Yet, among Washington and Wall Street experts this disaster is only reflected in the form of statistical figures they mix up and datamine alongside many other figures, where the numbers lose their special, tragic character.
It's not a very newsworthy disaster, either, so after a while it even fades from TV news: no dramatic shots of oil gushing up from a broken well or birds coated with black tar. No sense of urgency here, just a big spreading tragedy. The experts only know that the banks are off the hook: they have been given tons of new money to help with mortgages. The fact that this money sits unused and that many banks have not even appointed managers to deal with desperate homeowners does not come to their attention. My Bank of America branch won't even talk to you about mortgages - they send you to a faceless office downtown where nobody knows you.
In such complex situations, it is healthy for somebody to just state the obvious before trying to develop cute, complicated theories. You don't look smart by stating the obvious: Duh! Everybody knows that. You won't get invited on the CNBC morning show. You knew what I'm going to say all along but perhaps you hadn't thought it through.
So here is an obvious statement: if you have just lost your house you are not likely to go buy a new TV set for a while. If you just moved your family into a cheap motel, you probably don't think about ordering new drapes for the living room; and if you also lost your job (as thousands of people continue to do every day) and now live in your car in some urban park, you won't be shopping for refrigerators, sofas and camcorders for a long, long time to come.
Since nobody can find you because you don't have an address any more, the statisticians won't be asking for your opinion about the economy, which may explain the puzzling discrepancies in the mysterious tables called "consumer sentiment," a figure that is now at a five-month low. This "obvious" fact may also account for the lack of any serious recovery; or the probability that the economy will not be very robust for a while, no matter how "stimulating" the climate gets in Washington around election time; it may explain the chill over the Chinese industry, which makes all the refrigerators, the sofas, the TVs, the drapes and the camcorders you used to buy when you had a house to put them in; and the uncertainty in Europe, which makes the machines China needs to make TVs, camcorders, drapes and sofas. So that uncertainty travels around the planet in opposite direction to the Earth's rotation and comes back to hit us from the east, because we used to supply lots of goods and services to Europe to make the machines, etc.
No wonder Mr. Bernanke finds that things are "unusually uncertain." At least he still has his sofa.
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 12:56 pm
Fortune magazine launched during the Great Depression, and it’s still with us today.* But The Big Money, a business site launched by Slate during the dark days of September 2008, is going away.
The Slate Group, the Washington Post Co.’s (WPO) online unit, is shutting down the site, the company announced today. The Big Money was a smart but modest site with a smart but modest staff of five people, so this isn’t earth-shaking news.
And two of the site’s employees–publisher Brendan Monaghan and editor Jim Ledbetter–will stay with Slate in new roles. So it’s hard to argue that this is reflective of larger issues at Slate or its parent company.
The memo announcing the move, signed by Slate Group Chairman Jacob Weisberg and General Manager John Alderman, is straightforward: The Big Money is getting shuttered because it didn’t make enough money:
The problem, in a nutshell, is that the site is not pointed toward profitability on a fast enough timetable….Part of being a quasi start-up means being unsentimental about sites we like that aren’t working as businesses and quickly evolving our model in response to a fast-moving marketplace. We are experimenters. This was a great experiment, but not every experiment results in a breakthrough.
Fair enough. The Big Money did some good work, and it did have an audience–comScore (SCOR) says it was getting between 300,000 and 400,000 unique visitors a month, which isn’t terrible. But it’s hard to sell advertisers on any individual site with less than a million uniques these days, so you can see why Slate would pull the plug after less than two years.
I do have one question, though. See the chart above (click to enlarge), and you’ll note that Slate’s main site is humming along quite well, with a mix of New Republic-style highbrow commentary and some clicky-clicky click here! now! slideshows. Why didn’t that success boost The Big Money?
My outsider’s perception is that the main site gave its business spin off very little editorial real estate. And that it seldom pointed a traffic firehose toward its little brother. And folks who know about this stuff tell me that people inside the company had the same perception.
I wouldn’t expect Slate to prop up The Big Money with money and links indefinitely. Ultimately, if the thing didn’t work on its own, it didn’t work on its own. But I’m a pretty regular Slate reader, and I frequently found that I learned about something The Big Money was running from someplace other than Slate.
I ran that theory by Weisberg, who says I’m wrong. TBM got as much promotion and help from Slate as its other sub-brands, Foreign Policy and The Root, he says. And he’s says he’s surprised to hear that anyone feels otherwise: “All of the small sites always want all the placement they can get on Slate, and there’s always competition for the finite resource of home page promotion. But I think that in general people think it’s been fair.”
And Weisberg spends a lot more time looking at these sites than I do, so I’ll defer to him here. One other quick question–since Fortune famously thrived after starting in a miserable economy, why couldn’t TBM do the same?
Because we’re not living in 1933, Weisberg says. “Our model is that you can enter into these things more easily. It’s not as big an upfront investment. But it also means you don’t have as long a time frame to prove these things out,” he says. Ultimately, TBM’s business wasn’t growing fast enough because its traffic wasn’t growing fast enough. Time to try something else.
*Hey! Another new iPad app from Time Warner’s (TWX) Time Inc. . No subscriptions, via Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes, though.
Does RIM really have a tablet in the works? “Two people familiar with the company’s plans” tell Bloomberg that it does and plans to launch it in November just in time for the annual holiday spending binge. The device will likely be called “Blackpad”, which is better than Flatberry, I suppose–but not much. And it will be about the same size as Apple’s iPad. It will support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but not 3G, and is rumored to be outfitted with cameras for videoconferencing. Pricing will be competitive with that of the iPad. Which is wise, if the same thing can be said of the device itself.
And that’s a big if, as I’ve noted here before: “With the iPad, Apple (AAPL) has shown us that success in the burgeoning tablet market requires good design, a robust OS and a vibrant app platform. And at this point, RIM (RIMM) doesn’t really have these things. The BlackBerry OS might be great for email-focused handsets, but will it translate well to a larger slate form factor? That doesn’t seem likely, though one never knows.”
By Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Two pilot programs by start-ups in Silicon Valley are testing ways to bring to market a long-promised innovation of the Internet era: the digital wallet.
In one, eBay’s (EBAY) PayPal online payments business is equipping some 2,000 of its own employees in San Jose with stickers from a company called Bling Nation that turn any phone into an instant payment device just by tapping it on a sensor. (The sticker tags have small chips in them that can be read by a machine that looks like a normal credit-card swiper.)
Bling Nation is outfitting all of the cafeterias on PayPal’s campus, as well as about 35 other merchants in the area, with readers for its system. PayPal doesn’t have a financial interest in Bling Nation, but the company is using PayPal accounts and technology to fund purchases made through its system.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
 Telegraph.co.uk | Amazon Updates Kindle App With Inline Dictionary, More PC World Amazon on Thursday released significant upgrades to its Kindle app for iPhone and iPad. Just days after the company announced the new Kindle 3, Amazon's made the iOS version of its e-reader even more competitive with its ... The OpenAppMkt Is Here To Break Down Apple's Walled Garden (AAPL) Kindle for iOS Brings iPad Search, Dictionary, Fast-Switching Fortune lands on the iPad |
 NEWS.com.au | Did we pronounce privacy dead this week? CNET PHILADELPHIA--Does privacy exist anymore? Do we even know what it is? A conversation between digital academics Jeff Jarvis and Danah Boyd on Friday morning at the Supernova conference capped off a week in which many peoples' ... Privacy issues hit Facebook again Facebook data hoarder speaks out First Wikileaks, now Facebook. Is this the death of privacy? |
In greek mythology, Cetus was a term for massive, serpentine sea monsters. In Samsung rumor-ology, Cetus is a term for an unannounced Windows Phone 7 handset.
Thanks to the good ol’ Bluetooth SIG, we’ve got a few details on what exactly will make up the Samsung Cetus’ not-so-mythical innards (including a bit of a surprise. A front-facing surprise.)
What we can glean from the SIG posting:
aaaaand.. *drum roll*
While front-facing cameras aren’t exactly groundbreaking tech in the world of mobile phones, this is the first Windows Phone 7 handset to be confirmed as having one. More interestingly is that it’s specifically listed as a “video call” camera (as opposed to just a self-portrait camera). Microsoft has never confirmed official Video Calling support for WP7 — they’ve either got a trick up their sleeve, or Samsung built up some video-calling tech of their own for the handset. Or everyone’s hoping Skype will reverse their anti-Windows Phone 7 stance.
Also worth noting is the handset’s model number: SGH-i917. As long as Samsung is keeping with their traditional model numbering, anything that starts with SGH and ends with 7 is AT&T-bound.
[ Watch video: view at YouTube or Download MP4. ]
Boing Boing Video proudly presents Markets of Britain, discovered by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz from the archives of a great and underappreciated documentary filmmaker named Lee Titt, who also never existed.
Earlier this week, we presented this Boing Boing Video interview with Popper and Serafinowicz about their "Look Around You" DVD, just been released in the USA. This film was presented at a recent launch event in Los Angeles, blogged previously on Boing Boing.
Mini emus!
Buy the DVD. Below, a trailer for the DVD produced by BBC America. The actual show is a lot weirder.
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 11:53 am
This Saturday in San Francisco, the largest bicycle-powered music festival in the world takes place in Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow and throughout the city. Bike powered? Think Gilligan's Island. In Golden Gate Park, more than a dozen bands will play through a 2000 watt pedal-powered audio system and a variety of crazy party caravans will travel through the streets during the day and night. All of the infrastructure for the event is haulable via bicycle and no cars or trucks will be involved in staging the festival. My family will be attending, and we're especially excited to see our favorite San Francisco singer/songwriter Diana Gameros. We first heard Diana perform solo at Roosevelt Tamale Parlor, a very old and excellent tiny restaurant in San Francisco's Mission District. At Roosevelt's, Diana mostly performs traditional Latin music but in her own modern, soulful, and passionate style. Diana's original music is enchanting indie pop infused with her strong Latin heritage. Check out Diana and her band at noon on Saturday or on her MySpace page. Diana's tune "Para Papa," listenable in her MySpace player, is one of my favorites.
Diana Gameros (MySpace)
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 11:42 am
Remember the CrunchGear Geek Weekend series, where we attempted to show some fun stuff to do in various cities across the U.S.? Yeah, we kind of let that peter out, didn’t we? Also, there are lots of great non-geek things to do in and around cities. This is especially important for families: the kids might be more interested in Tecumseh! than the early television museum. With the A Day’s Outing website, and now its new iPhone app, you can quickly find all sorts of interesting things to do.
This is a super simple app, and provides a nice front end to the website. You plug in what kind of activities you want to see, a date range (today, this weekend, next 7 days), and define a range (5 miles, 30 miles, 60 miles, etc). The app will query the A Day’s Outing site and return a list of things going on. You can toggle between list view and map view, and you can get driving directions to any destination you select.
If you don’t have an iPhone, you can simply use your smartphone’s browser to access the website to get the same functionality: it’ll just involve a bit more scrolling around on the page.
I like the presentation of this app. I find it calming. It’s simple and uncluttered. My only gripe is that the back button is a little too small for my meaty fingers.
If you’re making a cross-country road trip with your family, or just visiting in-laws for the weekend, A Day’s Outing ought to let you find something interesting to do. It’s only $3.
Opening Saturday July 31 (tomorrow night): The Sea No Evil art show benefitting the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Above, a piece by Gary Baseman from the show. The donating artist list is pretty incredible.
The opening night event features Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and focus of Animal Planet TV series "Whale Wars," who will give an update on the state of affairs in the world's oceans.
The Crystal Method and artist-DJ Shepard Fairey will both perform sets.
(thanks, Gary Baseman)
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 11:15 am
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 11:11 am
HTC’s Evo 4G phone will become the first device (after Google’s Nexus One) to get an upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo, the latest version of the Android operating system.
Sprint will begin pushing out the upgrade to Evo users starting Tuesday, August 3. All Evo users will have Android 2.2 by the middle of the month, says the wireless carrier.
The upgrade will offer features such as voice dialing over Bluetooth, the ability to store apps on the external memory card and browser improvements including a faster JavaScript engine and Flash support.
Sprint launched the Evo in June with version 2.1 of the Android OS. The phone has become a best seller for Sprint and HTC.
Sprint’s move is also likely to put pressure on Motorola and Verizon to get the Droid upgraded to Android 2.2 as soon as possible. Earlier reports have suggested that the Droid’s 2.2 upgrade is expected in “late summer.”
For Evo users, the upgrade will be pushed over-the-air to the device and automatically installed. Those who can’t wait will have the option to manually download it. Customers can access the update through their phone under the Settings Menu > System Updates > HTC Software Update.
Sprint says the change to the firmware will not wipe personal data such as contacts, apps, settings and photos — but it’s always a good idea to back up your device before performing a firmware upgrade, just in case.
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Photo: (Mike Saechang/Flickr)
![Blogs Intelligenttravel Translocation Elephant-Crossing[3]](http://www.boingboing.net/images/_blogs_intelligenttravel_Translocation_Elephant-Crossing%5B3%5D.jpg)
Logan, a gold medal winner at the Association of Photographers Awards, traveled to such locations as South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, and Botswana to photograph his subjects in their natural habitats before combining them with shots of his native Scotland, including the Isle of Skye. The idea for the book was inspired by Logan's own childhood fantasies of exotic animals being part of his familiar surroundings.The Elephants of Scotland
Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2010 | 10:44 am
By Wayne Ma, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone 4 went on sale in Singapore Friday, and its debut in this city state may have been more over-the-top than its U.S. debut last month.
Singapore Telecommunications, known as SingTel, Southeast Asia’s biggest phone company by revenue, held its midnight launch party at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Center. The venue, with its almost concert-like atmosphere, was blasting with loud music, colored lights, fog and even a VIP lounge, where waitresses served hors d’oeuvres such as sea scallops with green olive tapenade.
At the stroke of midnight, SingTel revealed a giant rotating model of the iPhone on stage, along with a flashy pyrotechnics display.
Jacky Heng, 18 years old, was one of the first customers to collect his phone on stage. Heng had been waiting in line since 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
“I already sold off my Nexus One, which had reception problems,” he said. “I’m very determined to get this phone.”
Read the rest of this post on the original site
The FridgePad is billed as the “ultimate fridge magnet”. I’d say it’s probably the ultimate anything. Think about it. Even with my obviously awesome “Waterproof, Kitchen-Proof iPad Case” (a ziploc bag), your iPad still gets in harms way in the kitchen. The FridgePad fixes this by mounting the iPad up where nature intended: on the front of the refrigerator.
Made of aluminum with a big old magnet on the back to keep it firmly stuck to the fridge, the FridgePad holds the iPad with four plastic corner clips. Once secured to the door of the smallest and coldest room in the house, you can use the iPad to play music, podcasts or audiobooks, show you recipes or, well, anything the iPad can do. The more I think about it, the more it is clear how perfect the iPad is as a kitchen computer. And if you’re really messy when you cook, you could even slip the whole rig, magnet and all, into the ziploc bag and just slap that onto the refrigerator.
The stand will cost £50 ($78) when it ships, and will be available through Amazon. There’s no word yet on a launch date, but you can sign up for email alerts on the product site. In the meantime, I have a feeling that a trip to the hardware store is in order.
FridgePad [Woodford Design via CrunchGear]
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Our buddy Wille in Sweden sent us some thrilling video of the International Dia Del iPhone in Sweden where Swede, blonde, ruddy, and beautiful to a one, lined up to get them some Facetime-capable phones.
UPDATE – Hold the phone: China gave out McDonald’s!
According to these photos China totally knows how to party down with Mickey Ds and mineral water. Send us your international iPhone launch photos if you’ve got them.
You will not be surprised that the porn industry is all over the iPhone 4 like a bad case of the clap. The latest business opportunity is, almost inevitably, FaceTime, although it probably won’t actually be called Face Time.
In the U.K., the ever-accurate Daily Mail reports that “video-sex chat services [...] are hiring workers through internet adverts.” These services would connect you one-on-one with the sex worker of your choice.
It’s a great idea. Because FaceTime is Wi-Fi only, you won’t be surprised at the end of the month by huge and scary charges on your phone-bill. Another advantage is that, because it won’t work over 3G, it’s unlikely that the person on the plane next to you will be indulging. A phone would also seem to be the perfect place for this most personal kind of entertainment. As Quentin Boyer of adult production company Pink Visual told the Mail: “A phone is such an intimate thing, you usually don’t lend it out or have someone else use it.” At least not without cleaning it first, we hope.
It’s often said that the porn industry drives technical innovation, but it might be more accurate to say that it is the ultimate early adopter. People scoffed at the idea of smut on cellphones until the iPhone made it easy to browse the web and the number of mobile porn sites took off. And the iPad, a device ridiculed for its lack of Adobe’s Flash plug-in, has seen adult video sites rushing to re-encode their catalogs in the iPad-friendly Quicktime format. Pushing sex over video chat has been pointless until now but, as the number of customers with easy video-calling explodes, so will the business opportunities.
Being the sensationalist rag that it is, the Mail veers off into talk of the dangers to kids (“children and sexual predators are often ahead of parents when comes to technology”) and tries to make a case that Apple somehow doesn’t like adult material on its devices (ridiculous, as Safari on the iPad is probably the best porn browser on the planet). But the best point in the article is made by adult actress Teagan Presley, who highlights a technical shortcoming of the face-to-face nature of video calls.
“You can have the phone on your face, or other body parts,” says Presley, “but not both at the same time.”
Now Apple iPhone 4 users can make video calls to X-rated stars with Face Time [Daily Mail]
Photo: Joe Loong/Flickr
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Somebody needs to make an iPhone game-pad already. The iPhone is great for games and all, but for old-school platformers and beat-’em-ups like Streetfighter IV, nothing beats having some real buttons to mash. Enter the gPod, a be-buttoned case into which you slide the iPhone. It has a d-pad, four control buttons along with select, start and a pair of shoulder-buttons. It is the perfect thing for playing old Super Nintendo games.
But we doubt you’ll ever be able to buy one. It could be easily made, we’re sure, even though the current prototype is compatible with the first-gen iPhone only, but games would have to be written to use buttons. As only a small percentage of iPhone and iPod Touch owners would have this add-on, that would be a tiny market.
I’d buy one, though, even if it only worked with jailbroken iPhones: what would be better than spending an afternoon with this and a SNES emulator full of old game ROMs? Nothing, I tell you. Nothing at all. It even makes a pretty cool-looking case.
iPhone Game Pad [CP Design via Dr. Crypt]
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Despite earlier reports to the contrary, Android Market watcher AndroLib says there aren't 100,000 applications available in the store - yet. There have, however, 100,000 apps been submitted to Android Market since its public debut, the site wagered this morning, up from approximately 5,000 in June 2009.
The Androlib directory covers multiple markets, including international ones, so not all apps and games are available in the United States, necessarily. Not all markets are counted, even, so AndroLib claims it may potentially undercount the number of apps, although it's safe to say there's somewhat of an error margin either way as with every data aggregation.
The BottleBob Bottle Cap Punch is a gimmick, a gee-gaw, a single-purpose uni-tasking tchotchke. But despite this, what it does is pretty awesome. It cuts holes in the metal caps of soda-bottles so, when you insert a regular plastic straw, it looks like you somehow punched that thing right through it, you old tough-guy you.
The plastic and metal punch also falls firmly into the category of “tat”. For those unfamiliar with this word, it comes from British English (aka “quaint” English) and has the following meaning in the New Oxford American Dictionary: “tasteless or shoddy clothes, jewelry, or ornaments”.
Still, imagine what this little widget could do for your reputation. If you can pierce a metal cap with a flimsy plastic tube, you could probably also… Well, I’ll leave that up to your imagination. $27, available now.
BottleBob Bottle Cap Punch [Epaulet Shop]
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On Monday we took a look at computational rephotography, a technique for making a new photo exactly match the point-of-view of an old photo. Today we take a look at a gallery of photos showing rephotography in action.
The pictures have been put together by Russian whizz Sergey Larenkov and posted on his Livejournal (yes, Livejournal is still around). Larenkov’s trick is to place old wartime pictures into modern settings, feathering the images to make them sit in the middle of modern life. Thus we see troops moving through a modern Vienna street, past stores and cars an tanks on the streets of Prague.
Some of Larenkov’s works are fascinating. The picture above shows Russian Red Army Marshall Georgy Zhukov on the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin. Zhukov conquered the city in the second World War, and now he stands amongst tourists. It’s pretty spooky.
Go grab a coffee and click the link. Not all of the pictures are as well executed as this one, but they are all interesting, and show that war is something that happens on our own streets, and not just in far-away places.
Sergey Larenkov’s rephotography [Livejournal via the Giz]
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Just days after updating the hardware Kindle with a smaller, cheaper model, Amazon has updated the Kindle app for iOS devices and it remains the same size and the same price (free). This release brings something for everyone in the form of iOS4 compatibility and general improvements.
There are a few dull but worthy additions: fast app-switching on the iPhone 4, improved search on the iPhone and iPod Touch and something has been done to the line-spacing on the iPad to “improve” it. But that’s boring. Much meatier are Google and Wikipedia lookup for words, along with a 250,000-word dictionary. Interestingly, this dictionary isn’t included in the download itself, but is pulled down the first time you highlight a word. Google and Wikipedia lookups whisk you off to Safari. An in-app browser would be nice, but I guess with the fast app-switching, it wouldn’t save much time.
The best news for iPad users is that there is now searching inside books, so buying cook-books from the Kindle store now makes sense. And that’s it. Like the new Kindle, none of the new features is huge in itself, but together they make an already good product better.
Kindle for iPhone and iPad [iTunes]
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One thing you can say about the Flickr team – there’s some fight in ‘em. They apparently were not super pleased with 
