Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Intel updated its processor list with new Core 2 chips for Macbook Air-class laptops and a crush of Xeon processors for workstations and servers.The number of new processor models is 20 in all.
Intel has introduced new power-sipping low-voltage (LV) and ultra-low-voltage (ULV) processor models for laptops such as the Apple MacBook Air and Dell Adamo.
The new LV and ULV processor models include the 17-watt SL9600 (2.13GHz, $316) and 10-watt SU9600 (1.6GHz, $289). More power-hungry Intel mainstream mobile processors are typically rated at 25 watts or 35 watts.
*~*~*
Two start-up companies are using new technology to resurrect old but crude strategies to combat hypertension, believing that they can achieve significant improvement in health without the side effects. The Wall Street Journal reports that the companies offered data at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology that indicated they were on to something big.
One of those companies, Ardian, developed an electrode that emits radio-frequency energy into the renal artery wall to kill nerves that play a role in hypertension, according to the Journal. And data from a 50-patient study indicated a significant improvement in average blood pressure rates. Minneapolis-based CVRx, meanwhile, created a device that is implanted and then emits electronic impulses that signal very high blood pressure, tricking the body to protect itself with all its natural abilities.
Both developers are now planning to mount larger studies to test the technologies.
*~*~*
Looking to scoop up a PlayStation 2? Starting tomorrow, April 1, Sony will cut the price of its gaming console to $100, down 25 percent from its current price of $130. Today's announcement is the third price cut for the PS2 since Sony's first discount in 2002.
Rumors had swirled in recent days that Sony was set to make a major PlayStation 3 announcement today. But that does not seem to be the truth and news updates are stating they have no ideas on lowering the PS3 price in the near future.
*~*~*
Ribbit, the VOIP platform that was bought by British Telecom last year, announced the winners of its $100,000 KillerApps challenge today. The contest was obviously meant to stimulate interest in Ribbit's APIs among developers, and judging from the line-up of winning applications, a lot of developers came up with highly creative ways of using Ribbit's platform in their apps.
Here are the winners of the five categories in Ribbit's KillerApps challenge:
Media, Advertising, Entertainment: Lucid Viewer
ribbit_lucid_small.pngLucitd Viewer is an authoring tool that allows developers to create interesting, immersive experiences. This demo here, for example, shows a 3D, Google StreetView-like view of a street in Rome, with the ability to call up stores directly from the Flash interface through Ribbit's service. Lucid Viewer also won the Grand Price in Ribbit's KillerApps contest.
Business: Sugared Frog
Similar to Ribbit's own integration with Salesforce, Sugared Frog integrates Ribbit with SugarCRM. With the help of Sugared Frog, users of SugarCRM's open source solution can use Sugared Frog to organize their voicemail, and dictate notes and memos right from their mobile phones.
Social Networking and Communication: Save A Life
Save a Life is an interesting Adobe AIR application that allows you to quickly reach a group of friends or community members by phone. Currently, the application focuses on blood donations (you can download the application here), though the program could be used for other donation campaigns or emergency services as well.
Breakthrough: CYHAA
CYHAA won Ribbit's free-form 'breakthrough' category. CYHAA, which stands for Control Your Home, Anytime, Anywhere allows users to control their smart home devices with their voice right from their phones.
*~*~*
Dell today introduced five new blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers based on the new Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors. Dell designed its 11th generation of servers with input from IT professionals worldwide to help companies do more with less by simplifying data center operations, improving performance and energy efficiency, and lowering total cost of ownership.
The new Dell PowerEdge servers are available today starting at $1,599.
*~*~*
Apple is expected to begin production on a low-end 3G iPhone and a high-end version with 32GB of NAND flash memory beginning this spring, according to a research report released Tuesday by an analyst for Lazard Capital Markets.
Production is anticipated to begin in April, ramp up in May and the new phones could be announced in June, Daniel Amir, a Lazard Capital Markets analyst, said in his report.
Labels: Apple, apps, Dell, intel, iPhone, medical technology, ps2, ps3, ribbit, server, sony, video game
Friday, March 27, 2009
For our young bloggers out there...
The Youth Bloggers Network is officially joining the Teens in Tech network. They have been communicating with CEO Daniel Brusilovsky of Teens in Tech over the past month or so, discussing the best course of actions for both of their endeavors to take. They decided that by joining forces, their projects could help each other vastly. They figured that YBN and TinT complement each other very nicely. TinT offers a place where teens can get set up with a free blog, while YBN offers a community for young bloggers to collaborate, communicate, and grow their blogs and projects.
*~*~*
What is WiMax?
WiMAX, is the cutting-edge network technology is the successor to Wi-Fi and is presently only open through Sprint to residents of Baltimore. However, that strictly limited availability should expand notably during 2009 and 2010 as communications giant Sprint extends its WiMAX reach to a number of major cities across the country.
"Sprint continues to lead the wireless industry by harnessing the power of WiMAX," enthused Spring 4G vice president Todd Rowley in an official statement.
"The availability of Sprint 4G in more places this year and our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G service demonstrates our commitment to provide 4G capabilities and devices nationwide for our business, consumer and government customers," he added. "These capabilities enable significantly enhanced performance and productivity for our customers."
Specifically, 2009 will see the technology rolled out in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle, while 2010 will introduce Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington D. C. into the 4G mix.
*~*~*
Looking for a BlackBerry Bold but don't want to pay the full price for one? Well, if you're willing to accept a refurbished unit, then AT&T certainly has a deal for you. The carrier is currently offering refurbished BlackBerry Bolds for free, as long as you're willing to commit yourself to a new 2-year contract. Considering that the price of a normal refurbished BlackBerry Bold is $199.99, it's quite a good deal. It seems that this promotion is only valid for a very limited time, so check it out as soon as you can.
*~*~*
Intel engineers are detailing the inner-workings of the company's first graphics chip in over a decade at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco--sending a signal to the game industry that the world's largest chipmaker intends to be a player.
During a conference call that served as a preview to the GDC sessions, Tom Forsyth, a software and hardware architect at Intel working on the Larrabee graphics chip project, discussed the design of Larrabee, a chip aimed squarely at Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit.
This is "Intel's first many-core architecture," Forsyth said. "The first product will be very much like a GPU. It will look like a GPU. You will plug it into a machine and it will display graphics," he said.
The centerpiece of the chip's core is the vector unit, used to process many operations simultaneously. "The interesting part of the programming model is the SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) vector unit and the instructions that go with it," he said. "We want to show off this big new vector unit and the instruction set," he added.
He described what the vector unit can do and how it works with the scalar unit. "(The vector unit) can do 16 floating point operations every single clock. That's a lot of horsepower. Even in just one of these cores--and we have a lot of these cores. So it's a very high-throughput unit. The good thing is that it's independent of the scalar unit. You can issue instructions on the scalar unit and vector unit at the same time. The scalar unit is extremely useful for calculating addresses, doing flow control, doing housekeeping--and keeps all those miscellaneous tasks off the real powerhouse, which is the vector unit."
*~*~*
It looks like Blizzard is stirring the pot again for some juicy developments behind the scenes. As some of us probably know, they're currently working on (or at least maybe still in the planning stages) five games. They are, in no particular order:
* StarCraft II
* Diablo III
* a new World of Warcraft expansion
* a next-gen MMO
* and a yet to be revealed game
This last item was first hinted in a statement from Blizzard's COO, Paul Sams, back in 2006. At that time he said, "I wouldn't be surprised to see a new franchise from us at some time in the future; there's certainly a desire to do so."
Now it seems that we're getting some developments on that new game that they've yet to be revealed. Two new job postings from Blizzard indicate that they're looking for software engineers (one for gameplay, another for client) to work on "an unannounced title."
rumor has it they are talking with Microsoft about being part of the next-gen Xbox 360, which they want to be more RTS-friendly.
The Youth Bloggers Network is officially joining the Teens in Tech network. They have been communicating with CEO Daniel Brusilovsky of Teens in Tech over the past month or so, discussing the best course of actions for both of their endeavors to take. They decided that by joining forces, their projects could help each other vastly. They figured that YBN and TinT complement each other very nicely. TinT offers a place where teens can get set up with a free blog, while YBN offers a community for young bloggers to collaborate, communicate, and grow their blogs and projects.
*~*~*
What is WiMax?
WiMAX, is the cutting-edge network technology is the successor to Wi-Fi and is presently only open through Sprint to residents of Baltimore. However, that strictly limited availability should expand notably during 2009 and 2010 as communications giant Sprint extends its WiMAX reach to a number of major cities across the country.
"Sprint continues to lead the wireless industry by harnessing the power of WiMAX," enthused Spring 4G vice president Todd Rowley in an official statement.
"The availability of Sprint 4G in more places this year and our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G service demonstrates our commitment to provide 4G capabilities and devices nationwide for our business, consumer and government customers," he added. "These capabilities enable significantly enhanced performance and productivity for our customers."
Specifically, 2009 will see the technology rolled out in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle, while 2010 will introduce Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington D. C. into the 4G mix.
*~*~*
Looking for a BlackBerry Bold but don't want to pay the full price for one? Well, if you're willing to accept a refurbished unit, then AT&T certainly has a deal for you. The carrier is currently offering refurbished BlackBerry Bolds for free, as long as you're willing to commit yourself to a new 2-year contract. Considering that the price of a normal refurbished BlackBerry Bold is $199.99, it's quite a good deal. It seems that this promotion is only valid for a very limited time, so check it out as soon as you can.*~*~*
Intel engineers are detailing the inner-workings of the company's first graphics chip in over a decade at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco--sending a signal to the game industry that the world's largest chipmaker intends to be a player.
During a conference call that served as a preview to the GDC sessions, Tom Forsyth, a software and hardware architect at Intel working on the Larrabee graphics chip project, discussed the design of Larrabee, a chip aimed squarely at Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit.
This is "Intel's first many-core architecture," Forsyth said. "The first product will be very much like a GPU. It will look like a GPU. You will plug it into a machine and it will display graphics," he said.
The centerpiece of the chip's core is the vector unit, used to process many operations simultaneously. "The interesting part of the programming model is the SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) vector unit and the instructions that go with it," he said. "We want to show off this big new vector unit and the instruction set," he added.
He described what the vector unit can do and how it works with the scalar unit. "(The vector unit) can do 16 floating point operations every single clock. That's a lot of horsepower. Even in just one of these cores--and we have a lot of these cores. So it's a very high-throughput unit. The good thing is that it's independent of the scalar unit. You can issue instructions on the scalar unit and vector unit at the same time. The scalar unit is extremely useful for calculating addresses, doing flow control, doing housekeeping--and keeps all those miscellaneous tasks off the real powerhouse, which is the vector unit."
*~*~*
It looks like Blizzard is stirring the pot again for some juicy developments behind the scenes. As some of us probably know, they're currently working on (or at least maybe still in the planning stages) five games. They are, in no particular order:
* StarCraft II
* Diablo III
* a new World of Warcraft expansion
* a next-gen MMO
* and a yet to be revealed game
This last item was first hinted in a statement from Blizzard's COO, Paul Sams, back in 2006. At that time he said, "I wouldn't be surprised to see a new franchise from us at some time in the future; there's certainly a desire to do so."
Now it seems that we're getting some developments on that new game that they've yet to be revealed. Two new job postings from Blizzard indicate that they're looking for software engineers (one for gameplay, another for client) to work on "an unannounced title."
rumor has it they are talking with Microsoft about being part of the next-gen Xbox 360, which they want to be more RTS-friendly.
Labels: ATT, blackberry, blizzard, blogging, graphic, intel, sprint, wimax, WoW
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The rumors were true. Canon has crammed the $1500 50D's sensor and 5D-Mark-II-like 1080p video capture into an $899 entry-level Rebel. We ran it through its paces for a few hours, and it's awesome.So what we have here is almost the exact sensor from the 50D-a 15.1 megapixel CMOS with sensitivities up to ISO 12,800 at its top-end H2 boost setting. And almost the exact same HD capture from the 5D Mark II-the only change is that 1080p video is captured at 20fps, down from the 5D Mark II's 30fps.
*~*~*
On Tuesday night, a Los Angeles Times blog post pointed to an soundbite that Facebook "gaming guru" Gareth Davis produced at the GamesBeat conference in San Francisco: that the company is "looking at" offering a virtual currency to developers. The virtual goods industry, the article notes, is a $1.5 billion behemoth.
This would mean that games and other apps with a presence on Facebook could use a universal "Facebook currency" that would not only be interoperable between apps, it could also line Facebook's pockets with some extra cash. But Davis' language ("looking at") is about as ambiguous as it gets, so my advice to potentially-excited developers would be "don't hold your breath."
Late last year, Facebook switched the payment system for Facebook Gifts from U.S. dollars to "credits," making it easier for the site to charge more or less than its previous standard $1 for the virtual items.
*~*~*
If you're planning on any outdoor parties, like camping out or just hanging around a bonfire, it's always nice to bring some music with you. This BoomCooler is easy to wheel around no matter where you go, although you might want to keep a tarp or something around to protect it just in case it rains. It has a built-in CD player or you can hook up your iPod to the cooler. They actually recommend for better sound using something plugged into the aux input or USB input as opposed to using the CD player.*~*~*
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's GDC keynote today has revealed that the Wii will not be on the receiving end of a new hard drive, but will instead support the SDHC memory card format. Owners of the Wii will be able to do so using the Wii Menu 4.0 by downloading content straight onto the SDHC card from the Wii Shop Channel, where up to 240 SD channels are supported. With the SDHC standard to hit 32GB in the near future anyways, it makes perfect sense to use this relatively diminutive card instead of a portable hard drive.
And a new Zelda in the works?
Nintendo's CEO Satoru Iwata took the keynote stage at GDC this morning to encourage the developer community, talk about the DSi handheld and unveil some new titles for the Wii and DS platforms including a new Zelda game called Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (working title).
Labels: boomcooler, camera, canon, digital, dsi, Facebook, nintendo, photography, video, wii, zelda
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Personal savings site BillShrink has a new feature: a gasoline pricing database that directs you to gas stations based on the route you take on your daily commute, not just how close you are to the stations.The Web app isn't just for finding prices. It actually helps you plan your refueling stops along the way. You start by telling it about your car and its mileage, and your home and work addresses. You get back a results page that shows you a Google Map of all the gas stations along your route. You can zoom in and out to expand or limit the search area.
Beneath the map is a listing of all the gas stations BillShrink was able to find, followed by their location, price, and amenities.
*~*~*
The PC Gaming Alliance has issued its state of the industry report for 2008 and it makes for interesting reading for those who think gaming is all about consoles like Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.
Here are the highlights:
The PC is the largest single platform for games with annual worldwide revenue of about $11 billion. This is more than any of the console and portable systems from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
In emerging markets such as Asia and Eastern Europe the PC has become the de facto platform of choice for games as console systems have not had major penetration in most countries.
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are the leading products for both revenue and profits. Several Asian MMOGs are generating over $100 million in annual revenue after 5+ years on the market. World of Warcraft is generating over $1 billion in annual revenue.
In 2008, two major new subscription MMOGs (Warhammer Online and Age of Conan) sold over 1 million units at retail.
*~*~*
Epson America has just released its new document camera known as the Epson DC-06 which is able to deliver flexibility, ease-of-use and affordability to today's K-12 classroom. This $399 device comes with an easy USB connection which enables educators and teachers alike to hook up to one of the new feature-rich Epson PowerLite 85, 825 and 826W projectors or alternatively, to a computer using included software for easy operation. The Epson DC-06 document camera will come with XGA resolution that allows you to show off detailed reproductions within a 10.7"x 14.3" capture area, making it a snap for educators to share information from text books, journals, models, and even 3D objects to keep students riveted.
*~*~*
A few years back, a company called Infinium Labs introduced a new game console, The Phantom. It was going to change the face of PC and video gaming by offering a downloadable catalog of titles available by subscription. It was an aptly named product: The Phantom never shipped.
Yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, a similar sounding service was announced: OnLive. The major differences between The Phantom and OnLive seem to be that first, OnLive doesn't deliver games to your house, it delivers output (more on that in a minute) and second, OnLine doesn't appear to be vaporware.
Game publishers could also frequently update their games on OnLive by changing the code running on the servers. If one part of a game is too hard, the publishers can simply patch that part and then everyone will play the new version the next time they log in. Publishers can also pull the plug on games that aren’t selling well without taking a big inventory hit.
You'd have no control over these changes, since the game doesn't exist in your house. So if you liked that challenging part of the game, you'd lose it (rather than opting not to patch, as you would now).
*~*~*
And here is a link to The Ultimate Guide for Everything You Need to Know About Twitter >>One of the guidelines is as follows:
Twitter will allow you to import e-mail lists, contacts from instant messaging services, and you can find your friends on their search engine. The best way to build a list of interesting people is to go to the Twitter search engine at search.twitter.com and plug in your interests. This will then spit tons of people back out at you that you can choose to follow. Twitter will also give you some suggestions for people to follow.
Labels: BillShrink, education, epson, finances, gaming, pc, twitter, WoW
Saturday, March 21, 2009
It's true, I have a Facebook profile much like everyone else online these days. I like it. I like the different things you can send to people and it's nice to be able to see what everyone is up to. I don't like the cheesy apps where people send me tupperware, but what can you do. I also hope they don't allow people to start modifying the look of their pages like on MySpace. I hated that! I know people like to be unique, but Facebook is a profile about you, how much more unique do you need to be? Anyway. PC World has an article up today titled, "10 Facebook tips worth reading".
One of the tips is about the gmail add-on. It shows everyone you email who also has a Facebook account. I admit I do know about that and I do have it plugged into my e-mail account. It has helped me to see which publicists and artists also have Facebook profiles and in some cases I do add them as a friend. That way they can see if I have written about them and I can keep up with their news.
*~*~*
A company profile that was just submitted: Middlespot, another startup taking a crack at making the web search experience more visual, joining the likes of SearchMe and Viewzi.
Like its counterparts, Middlespot aims to enhance searching for websites, images, news, Amazon and even Twitter by returning screenshots of results rather than just text links.
Their mission... "We believe searching is an iterative activity of evaluation and interpretation that doesn't end with the presentation of a linear list of text only results. It's why we're building the tools to make the activity of search more effective."
*~*~*
Song.ly
Share & Discover Music on Twitter!
Type in a song title or mp3 link to tweet. Your followers will get a short link to a page allowing them to play the song right in the browser without having to download it first!
They have a button widget you can add to you blog posts which will allow people to tweet an mp3 if you have one embedded. But as far as I can tell it takes some manual work for the blogger in each post because you have to add the mp3 url to the button. Optional fields include the artist and title which of course would be quite helpful to a listener so I know I'd add them even though they are only optional. So I don't know, maybe I'll try added the tweet song.ly button to some posts in the future, but I doubt I'll add them every time.
*~*~*
In the same week that Samsung Mobile launched its own online movie and television entertainment service to challenge the likes of iTunes, Netflix and Xbox Live, Apple Inc. has moved to up the ante by announcing the wider availability of high-definition (HD) films through its popular iTunes Store.
Offered up for either full purchase or rental, Apple's new selection of 720p content will continue to grow alongside future studio releases and already includes relatively new movies such as comic book adaptations Punisher: War Zone and The Spirit along with action titles Transporter 3 and Bangkok Dangerous.
Prices for high-definition movies available through iTunes – on both PCs and Mac systems – are positioned at $19.99 USD for a full purchase, while high-definition rentals cost markedly less at $4.99 USD and older HD titles are priced at $3.99 USD.
But as I have been complaining about in the past. There is not easy way to put the movies you buy on iTunes onto a DVD to watch at home. You can only ever watch them on a computer. Yes, you could hook your computer up to your TV but that is annoying. I'd rather buy the DVD and be able to watch it wherever I want.
Labels: Apple, Facebook, hd, itunes, middlespot, search, song.ly, twitter
Thursday, March 19, 2009
IBM developerWorks offers free e-Kits. E-Kits give you a collection of tutorials, articles, webcasts, podcasts, and demos about a particular product, task, or role.
They have a Web 2.0 e-kit which states, "Organizations want to take advantage of open, flexible Web 2.0 technologies. They want to use social software and mash-ups to add a new dimension of imagination and innovation. IBM's Web 2.0 solutions are already helping businesses apply Web 2.0 technologies across the globe to gain a competitive advantage."
Other e-kits include: IBM Rational Build Forge Demos, Software Developer e-Kit and IBM Business Analyst e-Kit to name a few. Definitely worth checking out for some good resources.
*~*~*
Remember the restaurant I wrote about which had touchscreen tables to order your food and also to play games while you wait?
Microsoft has a touchscreen coffee table concept which is very cool. Microsoft Surface is without a doubt one of the coolest coffee tables I've ever seen. But of course, this isn't your average coffee table, this is a multimedia hub that'll allow you to browse all kinds of multimedia through an incredibly responsive Natural User Interface.
Microsoft is only really looking at commercial sales just now with half an eye on integrating one of these things into a kitchen table or worksurface in a few year's time.
*~*~*
Time Warner's Time Inc. (TWX) invited the press to its midtown headquarters yesterday to show off the latest and greatest at the publishing group's digital portfolio. But while Time is happy to boast about its online audience, it is also acknowledging that Web advertising alone may not be enough these days. So it's going to start charging readers.
PaidContent's Staci Kramer got a Time Inc. official to provide an equally vague take: "There is nothing specific to point to now but you can expect some experiments within six to eight months. We're also looking closely at devices and applications and pricing and business models associated with those."
The upshot: You're going to see more and more publishers at least fiddle with the notion of getting readers to pay for something online. The New York Times (NYT), for instance, has been publicly musing about this for some time now.
*~*~*
The first generation of Chevy Volt extended-range electric cars, at the center of General Motors' financial viability plan, has yet to hit showrooms. But that (along with its financial troubles) hasn't kept GM from working on generations two and three, the company said in a call with reporters this morning. GM said that in fact the parallel projects were a sign of the automaker's long-term commitment to electric vehicles for the mass market.
To be sure, gen-one Volts will be on the expensive side for an average car buyer - in the neighborhood of $40,000, according to former Volt frontman Bob Lutz, or about twice the cost anticipated for the new Honda Insight hybrid. This makes government incentives for fuel-efficient vehicles especially important in GM's plan for the Volt. "First-generation technology is expensive," said Bob Kruse, GM's executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries. "Incentives help make it viable."
In short, GM is still counting on the government far too much. And $40,000 is definitely too expensive for the average car buyer. Especially considering the cost of maintenance on these gen-one Volts.
They have a Web 2.0 e-kit which states, "Organizations want to take advantage of open, flexible Web 2.0 technologies. They want to use social software and mash-ups to add a new dimension of imagination and innovation. IBM's Web 2.0 solutions are already helping businesses apply Web 2.0 technologies across the globe to gain a competitive advantage."
Other e-kits include: IBM Rational Build Forge Demos, Software Developer e-Kit and IBM Business Analyst e-Kit to name a few. Definitely worth checking out for some good resources.
*~*~*
Remember the restaurant I wrote about which had touchscreen tables to order your food and also to play games while you wait? Microsoft has a touchscreen coffee table concept which is very cool. Microsoft Surface is without a doubt one of the coolest coffee tables I've ever seen. But of course, this isn't your average coffee table, this is a multimedia hub that'll allow you to browse all kinds of multimedia through an incredibly responsive Natural User Interface.
Microsoft is only really looking at commercial sales just now with half an eye on integrating one of these things into a kitchen table or worksurface in a few year's time.
*~*~*
Time Warner's Time Inc. (TWX) invited the press to its midtown headquarters yesterday to show off the latest and greatest at the publishing group's digital portfolio. But while Time is happy to boast about its online audience, it is also acknowledging that Web advertising alone may not be enough these days. So it's going to start charging readers.
PaidContent's Staci Kramer got a Time Inc. official to provide an equally vague take: "There is nothing specific to point to now but you can expect some experiments within six to eight months. We're also looking closely at devices and applications and pricing and business models associated with those."
The upshot: You're going to see more and more publishers at least fiddle with the notion of getting readers to pay for something online. The New York Times (NYT), for instance, has been publicly musing about this for some time now.
*~*~*
The first generation of Chevy Volt extended-range electric cars, at the center of General Motors' financial viability plan, has yet to hit showrooms. But that (along with its financial troubles) hasn't kept GM from working on generations two and three, the company said in a call with reporters this morning. GM said that in fact the parallel projects were a sign of the automaker's long-term commitment to electric vehicles for the mass market.
To be sure, gen-one Volts will be on the expensive side for an average car buyer - in the neighborhood of $40,000, according to former Volt frontman Bob Lutz, or about twice the cost anticipated for the new Honda Insight hybrid. This makes government incentives for fuel-efficient vehicles especially important in GM's plan for the Volt. "First-generation technology is expensive," said Bob Kruse, GM's executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries. "Incentives help make it viable."
In short, GM is still counting on the government far too much. And $40,000 is definitely too expensive for the average car buyer. Especially considering the cost of maintenance on these gen-one Volts.
Labels: GM, IBM, Microsoft, time inc, touchscreen
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The parent company of the Discovery Channel (Discovery Communications) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, claiming that the Internet retailer's Kindle e-book reader infringes Discovery's U.S. patent 7,298,851, titled "Electronic book security and copyright protection system".
It was filed in 1999 as a "continuation in part" from patent applications dating back to 1992. Among the prior-art disclosures listed are 52 U.S. patents or applications, 34 foreign patents or applications, and 15 nonpatent publications. It has 171 claims, three of which are independent. Those are all signs of a strong patent.
*~*~*
The Startup 2009 conference, which will take place in New York in June. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider, New York University's Stern School of Business, General Catalyst, SoftBank, and Venrock. Startup 2009 will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $50,000 prize.
Startup 2009 will be a one-day conference featuring interviews with entrepreneurs, expert panels, networking, and a 10-company startup contest. Committed speakers include:
* Jason Calacanis, Founder/CEO Mahalo, founder Weblogs, former EIR at Sequoia.
* George Bell, partner General Catalyst; former CEO Excite, Excite@Home, and Upromise; board member Big Fish Games; Going; HubSpot; PhotoShelter; ShortTail Media and WonderHowTo.
* David Pakman, partner Venrock, former CEO eMusic.
* Kevin Ryan, CEO Alleycorp; former CEO Doubleclick; founder Gilt Groupe, Silicon Alley Insider, Shopwiki, Panther, 10gen.
*~*~*
Media regulator Ofcom will take over the regulation of video on demand services, but will delegate it to an industry-formulated co-regulator, the Government has said.
The Government has published details of how it will ensure that the UK complies with the European Union's Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which extends regulation to television-like programmes regardless of the medium used to show them.
*~*~*
New iPhone uses
A host of companies took the stage at Apple headquarters in Cupertino on Tuesday to explain what their new applications can do on the much-vaunted personal communications device.
NBC Bay Area tech reporter Scott Budman tweeted all the updates as they occured.
Developers will gain access to thousands of new application "API's" because of the updates. The API's will allow developers to create and change the applications they want, Budman reported.
Designers unveiled new audio file and texting features for the iPhone. There is also a new voice memo feature built into the phone's home screen, as well as a more synchable calendar, Budman reported.
More information is available here >>
It was filed in 1999 as a "continuation in part" from patent applications dating back to 1992. Among the prior-art disclosures listed are 52 U.S. patents or applications, 34 foreign patents or applications, and 15 nonpatent publications. It has 171 claims, three of which are independent. Those are all signs of a strong patent.
*~*~*
The Startup 2009 conference, which will take place in New York in June. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider, New York University's Stern School of Business, General Catalyst, SoftBank, and Venrock. Startup 2009 will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $50,000 prize.Startup 2009 will be a one-day conference featuring interviews with entrepreneurs, expert panels, networking, and a 10-company startup contest. Committed speakers include:
* Jason Calacanis, Founder/CEO Mahalo, founder Weblogs, former EIR at Sequoia.
* George Bell, partner General Catalyst; former CEO Excite, Excite@Home, and Upromise; board member Big Fish Games; Going; HubSpot; PhotoShelter; ShortTail Media and WonderHowTo.
* David Pakman, partner Venrock, former CEO eMusic.
* Kevin Ryan, CEO Alleycorp; former CEO Doubleclick; founder Gilt Groupe, Silicon Alley Insider, Shopwiki, Panther, 10gen.
*~*~*
Media regulator Ofcom will take over the regulation of video on demand services, but will delegate it to an industry-formulated co-regulator, the Government has said.
The Government has published details of how it will ensure that the UK complies with the European Union's Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which extends regulation to television-like programmes regardless of the medium used to show them.
*~*~*
New iPhone uses
A host of companies took the stage at Apple headquarters in Cupertino on Tuesday to explain what their new applications can do on the much-vaunted personal communications device.
NBC Bay Area tech reporter Scott Budman tweeted all the updates as they occured.
Developers will gain access to thousands of new application "API's" because of the updates. The API's will allow developers to create and change the applications they want, Budman reported.
Designers unveiled new audio file and texting features for the iPhone. There is also a new voice memo feature built into the phone's home screen, as well as a more synchable calendar, Budman reported.
More information is available here >>
Labels: amazon, Apple, discovery channel, iPhone, kindle, ofcom, startup 2009, video
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The company that operates World of Warcraft in China, The9, has told the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) that it will go bankrupt unless the game's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is approved by the regulator.
Reports last week claimed that The9 was having trouble getting the game past the regulators. A substantial sum was paid the the game's developers, Blizzard Entertainment, in April last year to secure the license, and without the sale of the expansion The9 will not be able to recover the cost. An article on JLM Pacific Epoch reports GAPP has said that the issue lies with the game's unhealthy content, which was the same problem faced by WoW's first expansion, The Burning Crusade. This resulted in a delay while the game had to be redesigned to remove some of the scarier aspects, namely covering exposed bones on skeletons and replacing corpses with graves.
*~*~*
There has been something of an outpouring of bile directed at NBC for its decision to change the name of the Sci-Fi channel to Syfy.
"Syf" is the Polish word for "total bloody mess." (It seems to have its roots in the lesions of syphilis.) And "Syfy" would be, well, the plural.
The Sci-Fi channel doesn't actually present all that much programming that might strictly be defined as science fiction.
However, I suspect that somewhere beyond the arguments for wanting a name the channel can trademark is an argument that the phrase "science fiction" has become a little old.
*~*~*
With DS sales continuing their astronomical climb and people still snagging Wii consoles off of shelves faster than you can say: "Your princess is in another castle," Nintendo's doing pretty well for itself in these difficult economic times. It's doing even better today on news that the lawsuit filed against it two years ago by Fenner Investments has been dismissed. The suit alleged that Nintendo inappropriately infringed on a 1998 patent relating to the monitoring of the position of analog joysticks in the Wii and GameCube.
*~*~*
After getting an earful from disgruntled testers of its revamped home page, Yahoo is working on a new incarnation that will dramatically speed up access to e-mail.
The new home page, code-named Metro and due to launch later this year, will let users customize what they see and install a range of applications. But upon beginning "bucket testing" last September, in which different subsets of Yahoo users are involuntarily presented with variations of the new home page, Yahoo found out it was making it too difficult for people to continue with their accustomed practice of dropping by the page to scan for changes, said Burke Calligan, senior director product management for Yahoo front doors, in an interview at Yahoo headquarters here.
In particular, people were incensed that it took too many mouse clicks to glance at their e-mail inbox. But changes are coming to fix that, Calligan said.
"We have moderately addressed it in this round and we're going to radically address it in upcoming testing," Calligan said. "We've rethought the flow and design based on feedback we've gotten from users. I think users will...feel much better about it."
Reports last week claimed that The9 was having trouble getting the game past the regulators. A substantial sum was paid the the game's developers, Blizzard Entertainment, in April last year to secure the license, and without the sale of the expansion The9 will not be able to recover the cost. An article on JLM Pacific Epoch reports GAPP has said that the issue lies with the game's unhealthy content, which was the same problem faced by WoW's first expansion, The Burning Crusade. This resulted in a delay while the game had to be redesigned to remove some of the scarier aspects, namely covering exposed bones on skeletons and replacing corpses with graves.
*~*~*
There has been something of an outpouring of bile directed at NBC for its decision to change the name of the Sci-Fi channel to Syfy."Syf" is the Polish word for "total bloody mess." (It seems to have its roots in the lesions of syphilis.) And "Syfy" would be, well, the plural.
The Sci-Fi channel doesn't actually present all that much programming that might strictly be defined as science fiction.
However, I suspect that somewhere beyond the arguments for wanting a name the channel can trademark is an argument that the phrase "science fiction" has become a little old.
*~*~*
With DS sales continuing their astronomical climb and people still snagging Wii consoles off of shelves faster than you can say: "Your princess is in another castle," Nintendo's doing pretty well for itself in these difficult economic times. It's doing even better today on news that the lawsuit filed against it two years ago by Fenner Investments has been dismissed. The suit alleged that Nintendo inappropriately infringed on a 1998 patent relating to the monitoring of the position of analog joysticks in the Wii and GameCube.
*~*~*
After getting an earful from disgruntled testers of its revamped home page, Yahoo is working on a new incarnation that will dramatically speed up access to e-mail.
The new home page, code-named Metro and due to launch later this year, will let users customize what they see and install a range of applications. But upon beginning "bucket testing" last September, in which different subsets of Yahoo users are involuntarily presented with variations of the new home page, Yahoo found out it was making it too difficult for people to continue with their accustomed practice of dropping by the page to scan for changes, said Burke Calligan, senior director product management for Yahoo front doors, in an interview at Yahoo headquarters here.
In particular, people were incensed that it took too many mouse clicks to glance at their e-mail inbox. But changes are coming to fix that, Calligan said.
"We have moderately addressed it in this round and we're going to radically address it in upcoming testing," Calligan said. "We've rethought the flow and design based on feedback we've gotten from users. I think users will...feel much better about it."
Labels: nintendo, sci fi, WoW, yahoo
Monday, March 16, 2009
Moontoast is building a global community of experts and enabling them to share their knowledge live, at a scheduled time, via moontoast.com's unique face-to-face video player. Out to disrupt the web and the world by democratizing knowledge and linking those who know with those who want to know, moontoast.com launches as a beta site and is currently enlisting early adopters.The Moontoast technology combines:
-- The Moontoast Session Player: A live video interface designed to
enable people to share their knowledge from anywhere in the world with
a Web browser and a Webcam. The Session Player supports multiple
cameras and microphones, as well as real time file transfer between
people while they are talking live.
-- The Moontoast Calendar: A Rich Internet Application which allows
Moontoast experts to present their availability to the world. Those
seeking knowledge can view a provider's calendar, and choose a
convenient time to request a Moontoast session.
-- The Moontoast Message Center: An email like system that facilitates
all communication and purchases between experts and buyers.
"The idea is both simple and huge. We are working to harness technology to simply connect people and allow them to share their unique brand of knowledge," said Moontoast Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Marcus Whitney.
"We start today. We want to attract experts of every kind, from a former CEO to a video game wizard. We need everybody, because together we know everything," added Moontoast Chief Content Officer, Michael Haje.
Labels: moontoast, press release
Friday, March 13, 2009
If carrying around regular old business cards seems really old-fashioned (or you've just run out), Contxts is your SMS alternative. Hand out a username, and anyone can text for your contact details.The concept is pretty simple, and requires only a cell phone capable of sending text messages. Sign up at Contxts with a username and phone number, then customize the information you want to be given out over SMS. You can write whatever you want within 140 basic characters, and add social network contacts for visitors to Contxt's web site who want more info.
*~*~*
The Studio One 19 PC allows users to choose between Intel's Celeron, Dual Core Celeron, Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Core processors for their machine.
It also allows users to choose between Nvidia's GeForce 9200 or 9400 graphics, up to 4GB of memory, 750 GB of hard disk drive, six USB ports, web camera and optional Blu-ray disc player. What is unique about this home PC is the use of fabric as a material in the design. The Studio One 19 comes with fabric frames in different colors including blue, black, red and pink. An amazingly stylish PC, this one is definitely awesome.
*~*~*
Alabama is set to receive more than $127 million from the Obama administration to fund weatherization and energy efficiency grants.
The $127.3 million initiative, announced today, is part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding includes $71.8 million in home weatherization funding for low-income families in Alabama. The state energy program will get another $55.5 million.
*~*~*
The MPAA is following in the footsteps of the RIAA -- who recently laid off a bunch of folks. Apparently the MPAA quickly followed suit and drastically scaled back after the studios cut the MPAA's funding by about 15 to 20%. Apparently some of the entertainment companies are finally realizing that the strategies employed by the RIAA and MPAA (lobbying for favorable laws and suing the crap out of anyone who dares to innovate) aren't actually helping them build a stronger business.
*~*~*
JPEGSnoop is a small and portable application that sleuths through images determine if the image has been altered or edited.
JPEGSnoop starts by reading a JPEG/JPG file's EXIF data to give you a wealth of information about the photo: time it was taken, what kind of camera, lens settings, and so forth. Then it compares the compression patterns in the image against the patterns of known image editing applications—the program has a feature where you can report new patterns to the app database, if you find ones it is unfamiliar with.
The tool reports an enormous amount of data, but if you're not interested in the fine details, you can scroll to the bottom of the report for a simple assessment, such as "Class 1 - Image is processed/edited" or "Class 3 - Image has high probability of being original". I took an original image straight off my camera and ran it through JPEGSnoop, and it returned all the EXIF data and an evaluation that it was highly probable that the image had been unaltered. I then threw the image in Photoshop and made a small alteration, taking a few seconds to add fake "steam" to the latte. JPEGSnoop changed the assessment to indicate the image had been processed and reported the fix was made in Adobe Photoshop.
*~*~*
Sirius XM is planning to launch an iPhone application by June, in a move to expand the market for the struggling satellite service provider, according to a Reuters report.
The iPhone application will not only be available to Apple's U.S. iPhone users and Sirius XM customers, but also iPod Touch Wi-Fi users, according to the report.
The application is designed to allow iPhone and iPod Touch users to stream Sirius XM stations over the devices, according to a report in AppleInsider.
Labels: Dell, iphone app, JPEGSnoop, mpaa, riaa, sirius xm, stimulus, Studio One 19, text message
Thursday, March 12, 2009
In World of Warcraft: The Undermine, you will be adventuring to the homeland of the Goblins. The future new expansion to be released in last quarter of 2010!
New continent: Kezan; New playable race: Goblins; New class: Barbarian; and much, much more!
"A popular possibility for the next expansion after Wrath of the Lich King is either The Undermine or an entire great sea expansion, with The Undermine being one area of the expansion. Undermine is the center of goblin civilization."
*~*~*
20 months after acquiring Internet phone services startup GrandCentral for around $50 million, Google's finally re-packaged its technology into a Google-branded product. It's called Google Voice and it launches today.
Google Voice is currently only available to GrandCentral subsribers. But when it opens to the general public in a few weeks, here's what Google Voice will do:
Will Google Voice make money? Charging for international calls, it already earns enough to pay for itself, GrandCentral cofounder and Google product manager Vincent Paquet told the New York Times.
Eventually the service could compete with Skype. But not yet, says RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.
"Skype is light years ahead in terms of video, simultaneous chat and voice, and the installed base is huge," Sandler told the Times. "I don't think they have anything to worry about."
*~*~*
A team of MIT scientists have invented a new battery technology that is able to recharge in mere seconds. Best of all, this breakthrough simply enhances traditional lithium batteries - the kind found throughout all manner of rechargeable tech, from mobile phones and MP3 players, up to electric cars - so there's a much better chance of it actually reaching our pockets in the near future.
The MIT boffins discovered that changes to the surface of the lithium iron phosphate electrode allowed it to absorb ions 100 times faster than normal. The upshot: ultra-fast charging.
The report of their findings was published in Nature. "The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," it concluded.
Finally, we'll be able to crack a shiny new mobile out of its box and play with it straight away without having to wait forever for the battery to charge up. Fantastic.
*~*~*
Dell today unveiled the company's first all-in-one PC to bear the Studio badge. The Studio One 19 is more consciously fashionable than the XPS One and has the same basic "hanging" design concept as the iMac. Like the Studio Hybrid, though, Dell lets users customize the Studio One's colors (here the outer frame and wireless input devices). It centers on an 18.5-inch display with a 16:9 ratio, 1366x768 resolution that optionally supports multi-touch input for media playback as well as image, music and video editing.
New continent: Kezan; New playable race: Goblins; New class: Barbarian; and much, much more!
"A popular possibility for the next expansion after Wrath of the Lich King is either The Undermine or an entire great sea expansion, with The Undermine being one area of the expansion. Undermine is the center of goblin civilization."
*~*~*
20 months after acquiring Internet phone services startup GrandCentral for around $50 million, Google's finally re-packaged its technology into a Google-branded product. It's called Google Voice and it launches today.
Google Voice is currently only available to GrandCentral subsribers. But when it opens to the general public in a few weeks, here's what Google Voice will do:
Will Google Voice make money? Charging for international calls, it already earns enough to pay for itself, GrandCentral cofounder and Google product manager Vincent Paquet told the New York Times.
Eventually the service could compete with Skype. But not yet, says RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.
"Skype is light years ahead in terms of video, simultaneous chat and voice, and the installed base is huge," Sandler told the Times. "I don't think they have anything to worry about."
*~*~*
A team of MIT scientists have invented a new battery technology that is able to recharge in mere seconds. Best of all, this breakthrough simply enhances traditional lithium batteries - the kind found throughout all manner of rechargeable tech, from mobile phones and MP3 players, up to electric cars - so there's a much better chance of it actually reaching our pockets in the near future.
The MIT boffins discovered that changes to the surface of the lithium iron phosphate electrode allowed it to absorb ions 100 times faster than normal. The upshot: ultra-fast charging.
The report of their findings was published in Nature. "The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," it concluded.
Finally, we'll be able to crack a shiny new mobile out of its box and play with it straight away without having to wait forever for the battery to charge up. Fantastic.
*~*~*
Dell today unveiled the company's first all-in-one PC to bear the Studio badge. The Studio One 19 is more consciously fashionable than the XPS One and has the same basic "hanging" design concept as the iMac. Like the Studio Hybrid, though, Dell lets users customize the Studio One's colors (here the outer frame and wireless input devices). It centers on an 18.5-inch display with a 16:9 ratio, 1366x768 resolution that optionally supports multi-touch input for media playback as well as image, music and video editing.
Labels: battery charger, Dell, google, skype, Studio One 19, WoW
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Technology and restaurants have combined at the Imano Restaurant in London, as every table is essentially a computer display. These tables are not like the Microsoft Surface, but they are just as good.As you can see, there are projectors above the tables to obtain the virtual display, and there is a circular touchpad to allow for navigation. From the moment a customer sits down, the user can then select their "placemat" like selecting a wallpaper for Windows.
From there, the customer/user can look at the menu, which includes pictures of the appetizers, main courses, even drinks. Ordering is as simple as pointing and clicking, and a wait-person will deliver your meal to you.
While the customer is waiting, he or she has the option of watching their meal prepared through a camera in the kitchen. The customer also has the option of playing a game with his or her dining partner.
*~*~*
Expedia (EXPE) today unveiled an aggressive new promotion, which it calls "Free Nights and No Fee Flights," offering to pick up the tab for one night in a hotel for stays of three, four or five days at a group of more than 700 participating hotels, and also waiving booking fees for flights booked before the end of May. The hotel promotion currently is for bookings made by April 9 for travel through May 15; the company said additional deals will be posted for bookings beginning April 9 for travel through the end of May.
*~*~*
Apple's new iPod shuffle is interesting in a number of ways. The most interesting is of course the new VoiceOver feature which communicates the name of songs and playlists through speech. But perhaps even more interesting is that there is a different voice you hear based on if you're syncing your iPod shuffle with a Mac or a PC. And, not surprisingly, the Mac voice is much better.
Apple's new iPod Shuffle now comes with 4GB of storage, enough to hold 1000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC Format, it is charged via USB and can be fully charged from flat in just 3 hours.
*~*~*
Photobucket, the most popular photo sharing site in the U.S., just announced a number of new features that will give its users easier ways to share their photos and videos across multiple web services like MySpace, Facebook, or Blogger. Photobucket also introduced a new version of its mobile site, which features a streamlined interface, as well as easier ways to access comments, ratings, and subscriptions.
The new sharing feature is powered by widget distribution network gigya.
*~*~*
A Canadian filmmaker named Rob Spence has figured out a way to remove that "I'm-on-camera" factor in his documentaries, as his prosthetic eye has a concealed camera.
Spence plans to film many people, and the eye will transmit the footage wirelessly to a storage device nearby. Of course, he is required by law to tell his interviewees that they are on camera. Oddly enough, the subject of his documentary is about whether people are "sleepwalking into an Orwellian society". I'm sure he realizes that his film could be one step into a surveillance society.
The special prosthetic eye was developed by OmniVision of Santa Clara. Spence got the idea for the camera eye by watching The Six Million Dollar Man and noticing that the tiny cameras in cellular phones could easily be put in a prosthetic eye.
So now Spence can film anything he wants without worrying about his subjects being distracted by the camera.
Labels: Apple, expedia, eyeborg, iPod, online tools, photobucket, photos, social network, touchscreen, video
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Shanghai-based online game company The9 reportedly has not won approval from the Chinese authority to operate Wrath of the Lich King in Mainland China.After the Spring Festival, The9 again filed an application for the operating right in the mainland. To reach its goal, the company intentionally deleted the game's new contents about death knights and Dalaran. However, the expansion pack still contains contents such as massacre, and the Chinese authority considers them as dangerous.
Then, rampant rumors arose saying that The9 would postpone the release of Wrath of the Lich King, annoying Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer, and that both sides broke up in their negotiations on the renewal of their contract relating to the further operation of World of Warcraft (WoW) in the mainland.
There were some reports that The9 President Chen Xiaowei privately met with top executives of Electronic Arts (EA and Nasdaq: ERTS), talking about operating games of EA. The Chinese company has denied the story, explaining that the localization of the new expansion pack is being sped up.
In other WoW related news...
In its first week, Dawn of War II managed to take the PC sales crown from the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. One would've expected Lich King to retake the top spot the following week now that the die-hard fans of Dawn have bought their copies but it seems that scrappy little real-time strategy game's got legs.
*~*~*
Microsoft is boldly entering a new category of accessories with the introduction of the USB-powered Notebook Cooling Base, which sports a built-in fan and cooling channel to prevent overheating. The whole thing is just 1.16 inches thick, and there's even a cable management clip if you find yourself in need. As for pricing, you can expect the breezy pad to land this July for $29.95.
Friday, March 6, 2009
A site devoted to providing iPhone software for those who object to the Apple monopoly has announced plans to start charging for applications, presenting the possibility of real competition in app provisioning.The Cydia website has been providing tools for unlocking, or "jailbreaking" iPhones, as well as non-Apple-approved applications to run on them, but from today users can pay for their software too in a development that threatens Apple's monopoly and long-term business model.
*~*~*
Text Art - the brainchild of artist Marius Watz – only requires a budding Dali to type a message of up to 40 characters into their phone, before the application translates the text into a "unique piece of MMS art".
Nokia didn't say precisely how this is achieved.
The picture can then be sent to your pals or set as your phone's wallpaper. Alternatively – if you're really vain – it could be uploaded to a printing website, slapped onto a huge canvas and stuck up on your living room wall.
The Text Art application is only available for the E71 and can be downloaded for free online.
*~*~*
TwitteReader puts the updates of those you're following on the micro-blog service in a familiar skin, turning favorites into stars, tracking read and unread tweets, and letting you quickly reply or link from one location.
You can log in to access your Twitter account at the project site below, which does, of course, require handing over your login credentials to a developer's site—the developer says, however, that TwitteReader "will never store your password." Got your own web space? Download the TwitteReader package and roll your own reader.
*~*~*
Barnes & Noble has acquired e-book seller Fictionwise.com for $15.7 million, as it makes another attempt at running an e-book store.
The cash deal, announced Thursday, is part of Barnes & Noble's plans to launch its own e-book store later this year, despite its lack of success with a previous attempt years ago.
*~*~*
Social timelines are going mainstream (see AOL/Bebo), but startups are pushing them to the next level. Today, Lifeblob, the Indian startup working on ways for you to visualize your life on the net, is introducing a refreshed version of its social timeline creation tool. With it, you can easily patch together a visual representation of your life's most memorable moments by timestamping certain events and enriching them with photos, text and videos. The end result can easily be shared on a variety of social services, or embedded into any blog or web page (example below).
It's an invite-only service for now, but we have an unlimited amount of invite codes for you. It's simply techcrunch and you can use it to sign up here.
Labels: barnes and nobles, google reader, iphone app, lifeblob, nokia, techcrunch, text message, twitter, twittereader
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
South Korea is proving yet again that its PMP designers are truly top notch with the FineDrive iQ500, which proudly sports an expansive 7-inch LCD (800 x 480 resolution), a 600MHz ARM processor, 4GB / 8GB of internal storage, an SDHC expansion slot, WinCE, GPS module, a DMB TV tuner and support for a smorgasbord of audio and video file formats.*~*~*
The latest sad episode of humanity's ugliness allegedly being played out on Facebook's pages has resulted in Facebook itself being sued for $3 million.
Denise Finkel, currently a student at the University of Albany, accused four of her ex-classmates at Oceanside High School of setting up a Facebook group "calculated to hold the plaintiff up to public hatred, ridicule, and disgrace."
The group, whose page was password-protected, allegedly said she had AIDS, was an intravenous drug user, and had "inappropriate conduct with animals."
How do you password protect a facebook page?
Facebook said it would vigorously fight the lawsuit.
*~*~*
Disney CEO Bob Iger told a conference audience yesterday that the company is "is considering creating a subscription-based online movie and TV rental service from the company's huge video library," reports Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke.
Nikki says the "an online Disney video club" the mails out DVDs and lets viewers download and stream them too.
Unless it's way cheap I doubt this will do any good. You can get those movies elsewhere.
*~*~*
Skype has added the ability for its users to get voicemail messages converted to text, and sent to a mobile phone via SMS (Short Message Service), the company's COO Scott Durchslag said at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, on Wednesday.
The service is based on text-to-speech technology from SpinVox, he said.
It can currently convert voice messages in English, Spanish, French and German to text. However, the SpinVox Voice Message Conversion System currently also supports Portuguese and Italian.
Labels: disney, Facebook, finedrive, skype, video
Monday, March 2, 2009
Apple is expected to unveil new Mac desktops soon. Rumors on World of Apple and My Apple Guide swirled over the weekend and continued Monday about updates to the Mac mini, the all-in-one iMac, and the Mac Pro.
Apple is expected to make the announcement of updates at a media event on March 24, similar to the event the Cupertino, Calif.-based company held last October to announce notebooks. Kodawarisan, a Japanese Web site, however, said the new Mac desktops will be announced Tuesday.
While updates for the Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro were expected at Macworld in January, Apple didn't deliver. An anticipated change for the Mac Pro features Intel Nehalem processors.
Along with new desktops and adding the latest Nvidia graphics cards, Apple is expected to pull a rabbit out of a hat with a "pleasant surprise," sources said.
*~*~*
This has to be the craziest PC we have seen here at geeky gadgets, built by the guys at Puget Systems in cost a massive $16,000 to build.
So what exactly does spending $16,000 on a custom PC get you? This crazy PC features four quad core Opteron processors, 32GB of RAM and eight hard drives in various RAID configurations.
As you can see from the photos, the $16,000 PC features a custom water cooling system, with a massive external radiator which features nine 120mm fans.
*~*~*
Pentax has just unveiled its newest camera, the X70 Megazoom. The camera has a 24x optical zoom which makes sense since it is called a "Megazoom." The camera looks like a DSLR but is supposed to be an in-between camera-not quite a DSLR and not quite a point and shoot. It has a SLR shape and shoots pics at 12 megapixels. The camera also has a 2.7-inch display.
The X70 has some advanced controls that you may not normally use on a point and shoot like aperture/shutter priority and "high speed continuous shooting at 11 FPS." The X70 also can shoot 720P video at 15 frames per second. That is a strange amount of frames per second for a video, so you won't be replacing your camcorder with this device.
*~*~*
Advanced Micro Devices has appointed a new chairman to replace former CEO and Chairman Hector Ruiz, as it closes the deal to spin off its manufacturing operations.
AMD on Monday announced that Bruce Claflin has been appointed chairman of its board of directors. Claflin replaces Ruiz, who retired from AMD's board. Ruiz is now chairman of the board of The Foundry Company--the chip manufacturing concern that was spun off officially on Monday.
Apple is expected to make the announcement of updates at a media event on March 24, similar to the event the Cupertino, Calif.-based company held last October to announce notebooks. Kodawarisan, a Japanese Web site, however, said the new Mac desktops will be announced Tuesday.
While updates for the Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro were expected at Macworld in January, Apple didn't deliver. An anticipated change for the Mac Pro features Intel Nehalem processors.
Along with new desktops and adding the latest Nvidia graphics cards, Apple is expected to pull a rabbit out of a hat with a "pleasant surprise," sources said.
*~*~*
This has to be the craziest PC we have seen here at geeky gadgets, built by the guys at Puget Systems in cost a massive $16,000 to build.So what exactly does spending $16,000 on a custom PC get you? This crazy PC features four quad core Opteron processors, 32GB of RAM and eight hard drives in various RAID configurations.
As you can see from the photos, the $16,000 PC features a custom water cooling system, with a massive external radiator which features nine 120mm fans.
*~*~*
Pentax has just unveiled its newest camera, the X70 Megazoom. The camera has a 24x optical zoom which makes sense since it is called a "Megazoom." The camera looks like a DSLR but is supposed to be an in-between camera-not quite a DSLR and not quite a point and shoot. It has a SLR shape and shoots pics at 12 megapixels. The camera also has a 2.7-inch display.
The X70 has some advanced controls that you may not normally use on a point and shoot like aperture/shutter priority and "high speed continuous shooting at 11 FPS." The X70 also can shoot 720P video at 15 frames per second. That is a strange amount of frames per second for a video, so you won't be replacing your camcorder with this device.
*~*~*
Advanced Micro Devices has appointed a new chairman to replace former CEO and Chairman Hector Ruiz, as it closes the deal to spin off its manufacturing operations.
AMD on Monday announced that Bruce Claflin has been appointed chairman of its board of directors. Claflin replaces Ruiz, who retired from AMD's board. Ruiz is now chairman of the board of The Foundry Company--the chip manufacturing concern that was spun off officially on Monday.
Labels: Apple, camera, pentax, puget
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