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For a girl who loves Super Mario, this is exciting. I mean Super Mario is one of the all-time classic games in my world. Granted I did grow up with Atari before Nintendo, but when Super Mario came out my brother and I were in awe and addicted.

This Nintendo purse is the dream of every girl who grew up mashing buttons on a Nintendo system. This cute accessory has a screen and a fully-functioning Nintendo inside. It's also got two controllers connected to it that allow a game of Super Mario Bros. 3 to be played by two people anywhere and everywhere!

Thank you Jeri Ellsworth for designing this awesomeness!

*~*~*

Western Digital has launched its My DVR Expander for the TiVo DVR, now with 1TB of hard drive storage capacity. Designed for storing HDTV shows beyond the stock storage, the upgraded DVR Expander uses a eSATA connection and can hold up to an additional 140 hours of HD television or a maximum of 600 hours standard definition, simply by attaching the device to any TiVo DVR, including those that normally restrict regular eSATA drives.

*~*~*

MySpace boss and co-founder Chris DeWolfe is stepping down from his job, but will stay on as a "strategic adviser" on the board.

The social networking site's owner News Corp announced the move yesterday.

DeWolfe's contract will not be renewed by "mutual agreement" said News Corp, adding that the firm was talking to MySpace president Tom Anderson about taking on a "new role in the organisation".

Reports say the new CEO of News Corp (NWS) social network MySpace will be former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta. Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis, who's close with News Corp digital boss Jonathan Miller, probably knows whether this is true or not, but he says he can't confirm or deny it till Friday.

*~*~*

LittleSnapper from Realmac Software has been available for OS X for quite some time (and was one of the apps available in this year's Macheist bundle), and a few days ago they released a trimmed-down version that runs on your iPhone. While it lacks the basic photo editing and annotation available on its desktop counterpart, LittleSnapper for iPhone is no slouch.

Labels: DVR, iphone app, myspace, nintendo, tivo, western digital

Written by: Christy"

| 9:23 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

You've probably seen the commercials comparing the Subaru Stella to the BMW Mini. The commercials are lame if you ask me, I don't see any comparisons to begin with so of course they can dish out tons of incomparable features.

Fuji Heavy Industries, parent company and maker of Subaru automobiles, has just announced its plans to begin testing prototypes of its Subaru plug-in Stella electric vehicle, which will be introduced in Japan this summer. Furthermore, the company has managed to boost power output from 40kW in the previous iteration to 47kW, and it also stripped away some unnecessary weight and fine-tuned the output management system. There's no mention of a price or expected launch date in North America.

*~*~*

Adobe is working to bring its Flash web animation and video viewer to the living room via a new run-time system for HD TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and other connected living room devices.

This is all part of bringing Internet content into the TV viewing experience.

Adobe has signed up a host of partners to support the technology, called the Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home. The new platform is available now to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), and the first devices and processors that will support it should be available in the second half of the year, Adobe said.

Partners that have signed on to support the new version of Flash are Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors and Sigma Designs.

*~*~*

Oracle will acquire Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and debt. The deals comes after IBM withdrew its offer to buy Sun earlier this month.

"The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in a statement. "Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up."

*~*~*

Today sees the public launch of Tweetie for Mac, the desktop-based big brother of what many consider to be the iPhone's best Twitter client. People have been playing around with a beta version of the app for the last few days since the initial preview last Thursday.

In other Twitter news...

Late last night, former Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block tweeted out that he had done some research to attempt to quantify the "Oprah Effect" - that is, the number of users who signed up for Twitter after Oprah featured the service on her show on Friday. The number he came to was about 1.2 million new users.

Labels: adobe, auto, flash, iphone app, online tv, oracle, subaru, sun microsystems, tweetie, twitter

Written by: Christy"

| 8:27 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

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

Written by: Christy"

| 10:27 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

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

Written by: Christy"

| 11:43 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

A recent study found that only 30 percent of people who purchased an iPhone app actually used it the next day; for the same group, only 5 percent were using it 20 days later! And those are for paid apps; the stats get worse for free apps.

Only about 10 percent of iPhone applications appear to retain an audience over time, and most of those are games, entertainment applications such as movie listings, and things like Facebook ("their user sessions must be off the charts," Pinch Media CEO Greg Yardley said).

*~*~*

Police to receive new helicopters

The new state-of-the-art helicopters will help police protect communities and tackle crime.

A total of nine police forces will have access to the new aircraft, under the latest round of funding for police air operations.

One of the helicopters will be used as part of a trial project to enable neighbouring police forces to work together by sending the nearest available aircraft to incidents across force borders.

Statement from the Policing Minister

Announcing the new aircraft funding, Home Office Policing Minister Vernon Coaker said, 'Air support units play a crucial role in helping police protect communities against crime.

'They help officers with a wide range of operations, from searching for offenders or missing people, to assisting other emergency services with transporting injured people.

'I am pleased to announce that we are building on the success of our existing fleet of police aircraft with these new helicopters, and that we are strengthening the way forces work together to make best use of the resources available to them.'
The police aircraft fleet

The police aircraft fleet comprises 29 light and medium twin-engine helicopters and three fixed-wing aircraft, operating from 29 units in England and Wales.

Police aircraft use hi-tech daylight and thermal imaging cameras to search for offenders who run off from crime scenes, assist in vehicle pursuits and look for vulnerable missing people.

The helicopters are also fitted with 'Nitesun' - a powerful searchlight to help find offenders in the dark and also to floodlight accident scenes.

The helicopters can be used to transport critically injured people to hospital at night, which air ambulances are not equipped to do. They are also fitted with 'Skyshout' - an airborne public address system used to pass critical messages to the public or emergency services.

*~*~*

Microsoft laid over close to 1,400 employees last month. A letter went out this week to some of those employees letting them know they were overpaid, and asking for them to give some of the money back.

Word on the street is that the overpayment issue effected a good number of those employees, and some employees might have also been underpaid their severance from the company, which also isn’t exactly exciting.

Microsoft informed affected employees via a letter that most received Friday. The letter didn't explain why the overpayment happened, just told previous employees how much money they owed Microsoft and how they could go about paying the company back. Pretty harsh.

The letters employees received did give them the number for Microsoft customer service to call if they had questions, although that number was closed for the weekend so they're SOL until Monday morning.

Labels: economy, helicopter, iPhone, iphone app, Microsoft

Written by: Christy"

| 9:33 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

In December 2008, an Iraqi reporter decided it would be a good idea to throw his shoes at George W. Bush.

Apparently Apple doesn't think the incident was nearly as funny. According to Mashable, a developer based in Pakistan submitted an application called MyShoe. MyShoe is a simple accelerometer based application that allows users to virtually throw a shoe at the former president. Apple denied the application placement at the App Store and responded to the developer stating:

"We cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains content that ridicules public figures."

The creator refuted and said this discriminates against popular public opinion. Hahahahaha.

*~*~*

Would you like to read a February 5, 2009 press briefing on the stimulus package?

With joblessness rising and the U.S. economic recession deepening, Democratic senators and a handful of moderate Republicans reached a compromise late Friday on a scaled-back $780-billion economic stimulus plan.

The deal, slashed by more than $100 billion from earlier estimates to win a few Republican votes.

"We are pleased the process is moving forward and we are closer to getting Americans a plan to create millions of jobs and get people back to work," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

"Americans across this country are struggling, and they are watching to see if we're equal to the task before us," the President says in this morning's Weekly Address. "Let's show them that we are."

With the United States in the grip of the worst economic crisis in more than 70 years -- a report on Friday showed nearly 600,000 jobs were lost in January -- Obama has demanded that a bill be put on his desk by February 16.

*~*~*

ESPN.com has launched many new college football widgets that offer scores, stats, and news.

Visit the ESPN Widget Center.

*~*~*

Google Latitude is a feature in Google Maps for mobile and iGoogle that allows you to share your location with your friends and family. While not pinpointing your exact location, it gives you a good idea of where your friends are at a given time.

Using your Google account, you can opt into the feature, and then invite friends and family to join Google Latitude. Once they accept, you will see their profile picture appear on a map through your mobile device or your desktop PC. Google will also give you directions to their location on the map.

Labels: Apple, economy, google, google latitude, iPhone, iphone app, president barack obama, stimulus, widgets

Written by: Christy"

| 10:04 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

Bleck. Double bleck. Just ew!

But as vile as the Nopopo (which stands for no pollution power) batteries sound, you don't just point and shoot/aim and go all over the batteries to recharge them. Instead, there is a pipette. Though, how you pee into it without getting it all over your hands, shoes and the floor is a mystery. But if you're not the peeing into pipettes type, you can also use beer, saliva, apple juice or coco-cola.

*~*~*

Rental chain Blockbuster has announced a plan to bring streaming films and videos to computers, set-top TV boxes, portable devices, and other unspecified screens. Pay-per-view at first, but unlimited plans may follow.

*~*~*

CastTV is a wide-reaching video aggregator that can save you some time when searching out a missed episode of your favorite show or looking for a copy of the latest must-see viral video.

CastTV searches dozens of sites including: YouTube, Hulu, MySpaceTV, Comedy Central, CNN, ESPN, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS and MTV.

*~*~*

Just under two years ago Google launched Google Apps for businesses, offering a set of of products that enable secure and cost-effective applications in the cloud. Fast-forward to today and our expanded Google Apps suite is used by more than 1 million businesses, with 3,000 new companies signing up each day.

They have adapted this program to complement resellers' current business models. Authorized Resellers have the flexibility to combine their existing services with Google Apps. With cloud-based Google Apps there is no new hardware or software to maintain. The Authorized Reseller program benefits include:

* owning the customer relationship and billing structure
* providing consulting, service management and end-user support
* receiving a recurring discount on the annual Google Apps licensing fee
* receiving marketing, sales and technical training from Google

*~*~*

In the weeks after the App Store submission process went live, a number of developers got a big smack in the face from Cupertino. After spending hundreds of hours developing their wares, they were turned away for offering features too similar to Apple’s own offerings, or “duplicate functionality”. The outcry was instantaneous and deafening; it’s one thing to have pride in your work, but to essentially ban competition is ridiculous.

Over the past 24 hours, it appears that a shift in this policy may have occurred. With Apple offering their own Mobile Safari browser on the iPhone, most expected that alternative browsers would never see the light of day. At the time of writing, at least 4 such browsers have suddenly been given the greenlight.

Ranging from free to $1.99, the now-approved browsers are: Edge Browser (Free), Incognito ($1.99), Webmate ($0.99), and Shaking Web .

Labels: Apple, apps, batteries, iphone app, streaming video. google, tv

Written by: Christy"

| 10:48 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

What is this iRiver business? Chances are you have seen a review of iRiver P35 on every techie website in the world lately. But really we don't know when it will be released or how much it will cost so all the features in the world are not quite enough to get me hopeful yet.

Features of the iRiver P35 include:

* 4.3" TFT LCD touchscreen display at 480 x 272 resolution
* Wi-Fi connectivity
* Integrated microphone
* TV Out
* Full movie codec support
* microSDHC memory card slot (up to 16GB)
* USB 2.0 connectivity
* Integrated FM radio
* Voice recording capability, audio and video playback, Flash support

*~*~*

Looking to bring in some extra money while cleaning house? Why not sell your old video games? Forbes.com suggests there are three approaches to take—easy but low-return chains like GameStop, the take-a-shot nature of auctions or Half.com/Amazon selling, and the higher prices one might fetch at sites with less mainstream recognition like Goozex.

*~*~*

Microsoft has introduced its second iPhone app after dipping its toe with the release of Seadragon Mobile last month. The name of the application is Microsoft Tag (still in BETA form), and it enables users to instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, etc. simply by pointing the device's camera to a custom tag.

*~*~*

Divx has announced the newest version of their video player. Divx 7 is based on the H.264 video compression standard and offers video at up to 1080p HD resolution.

The new version of Divx comes in two different formats. The free download Divx 7 for Windows for Divx video playback and Divx 7 Pro which allows for Divx video creation. Both versions contain the Divx 7 video player which offers support for H.264 files.

Labels: divx, goozex, iphone app, iRiver, Microsoft, video, video game

Written by: Christy"

| 11:49 AM | 0 comment(s)! |