G-Wiz debuts lithium-ion model
James Murray,
Ontario targets signal end to coal power
Danny Bradbury,
Four short links: 6 Jan 2009
Four thought-provoking links from the worlds of disaster tech, multicore, bioengineering, and 17th century French nobility.
- Techies: Volunteering to Save the World - article on NGO work being the new black for technology. In particular, this caught my eye: "Earlier this year, IBM launched a program called Corporate Service Corps to send 100 employees to Romania, Turkey, Vietnam, the Philippines, Ghana and Tanzania to work on projects that combine economic development and IT. And the response was impressive: More than 5,000 employees applied to participate."
- Laurence Livermore Lab releases Stack Trace Analysis Tool - debugging tool for code running over 20k processors. We need new tools like this to handle the complexity thrown up by a multicore world.
- Spinning Silkworm Cocoons into Biosensors - interesting article in MIT Technology Review about bioengineer Fiorenzo Omenetto who is using silk to build optical devices that can be used as sensors in the body. "In the devices that Omenetto and Kaplan are developing, proteins embedded in the optical material efficiently bind to a target such as oxygen or a bacterial protein; when they do, the light transmitted by the sensor changes color."
- La Rochefoucauld Quotes - lots of thought-provoking quotes. For example, on the freemium business model: "What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one." On Twitter: "As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing." On social network sites: "However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship." On Google/Microsoft/Apple/[insert big company here]: "There are heroes in evil as well as in good."
Skype 2.8 for Mac: Your Online Demo Is Calling
Here at ReadWriteWeb, we're not usually in the "report it before you've tried it" camp, but a couple of trusted sources - Dan York and Rafe Needleman - are reporting that the latest version of Skype for Mac - Skype 2.8 - will include the ability to share your screen during a Skype call. And that's a feature that is sure to change the way many of us engage in Web-based demos. Sponsor
Given that we're big Skype users around here and we see more than our fair share of Web-based demos, we're excited to see Skype finally offering the the ability to combine the two. No more setting up WebEx or LiveMeeting. Just share your screen via Skype during your next briefing call.
Skype 2.8 for Mac to launch Tuesday
Mac users will be first to see new features such as screen sharing and an integrated Wi-Fi hot spot connector.
AMD unveils Athlon Neo for ultra-thin laptops
Daniel Robinson,
New HP ultraportable first to use AMD Neo chip
Hewlett-Packard is launching an ultraportable notebook using AMD's new Neo silicon.
Omnivorous Fuel Cells
A prototype fuel cell runs on a wide range of fuels without turning up the heat.
A New Web of Trust
A protocol that could make the Internet more secure is finally being implemented.
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone announced
Sling Media declares a deadline for its upcoming SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, and reveals a new trick in the app's retinue.
Meg Whitman, governor of California? Maybe
Speculation about the former eBay chief executive running for California governor is growing, with the latest hint being that she has resigned from four corporate boards.
A Look Back At Kurzweil's Predictions For 2009
marciot writes "It's interesting to look back at Ray Kurzweil's predictions for 2009 from a decade ago. He was dead on in predicting the ubiquity of portable computers, wireless, the emergency of digital objects, and the rise of privacy concerns. He was a little optimistic in certain areas, predicting the demise of rotating storage and the ubiquity of digital paper a bit earlier than it appears it will actually happen. On the topic of human-computer speech interfaces, though, he seems to be way off." And of course Kurzweil missed 9/11 and the fallout from that. His predictions might have been nearer the mark absent the war on terror.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nextar To Unveil Micro Projector and Car Bluetooth Speakers at CES
The biggest names usually take the headlines at CES, but finding an up-and-coming gadget maker with interesting new products is what makes the show worthwhile. By unveiling their own version of the Pico projector this week, Nextar is trying to...
The Brave New World: More Digital, Less Physical
Yesterday, I was with my wife in the L'Occitane store. The shelves were filled with fragrances, soaps, lotions: all sorts of handcrafted beauty products. It occured to me while looking at the labels that I have no idea how these products were made. I am reasonably versed in chemistry, but the process of manufacturing perfume is not something I know anything about. In general, I am just not good with physical things, because I am a software person. I've always been fascinated by people who can easily make sense of physical objects, because for me it takes a lot of effort even to put together children's toys. My brain is wired differently, to see patterns in software, not in hardware. But most people are the other way around. Sponsor
Yet, while looking at the bottles in the L'Occitane store, I wondered: could it be that the world is shifting from physical to digital? At first glance it is impossible, because we live in a physical world. But increasingly, we are surrounded by all sorts of software that fundamentally works differently from hardware. In this post, we'll look at the interplay between physical and digital and argue that we are, in fact, heading towards a world dominated by digital.
A Brief History of Making Physical Things
Before we dive into the realm of software, let's look briefly at how we got here. Clearly, the history of humanity is the history of hardware. Since the Stone Age, when we invented the hammer, the world around us has been, so to speak, a nail. For the past several thousand years, we figured out how to use physics and chemistry to make physical objects. For a long time, we were craftsmen, until the industrial revolution brought scale and systematic manufacturing. The main thing we learned is patterns in physical objects. We know that we can bend them under certain conditions. We know that there is friction. We know that things react differently to heat. The millions of facts that occupy our lives have to do with how we interact with the physical world and make physical things. These patterns get wired into our brains and help us live our daily lives.Software 1.0: Why Computer-Phobia Happened to The Mainstream
Computers have software inside that does not behave like physical objects do. The key thing about software is that it is soft and that the conventional laws of physics do not apply to it. As a result, it's hard for people to picture what is going inside. It is hard for people with brains trained to deal with physical things to understand how software works. Because there are no physical laws we are used to, what are we to expect? I constantly meet really smart non-technical people -- doctors, lawyers, teachers -- who have no clue how computers work. They treat them as magic black boxes that randomly break and never make sense. Why? Because software is a fundamentally different kind of system. It does not behave like the other things around us that we are used to. On top of being different, software was really hard to use as recently as 5 years ago. PCs and Windows are to blame for the computer-phobia that still dominates the mainstream. My wife works for a large pharmaceutical company, and her Dell with its Windows 2000 is a monster. I do not blame her for being confused. In addition to being unbearably slow, the computer just makes no sense with its crazy administration scripts, incompatible drivers, annoying popups, endless choices, and daily crashes. There is nothing in the physical world as complicated or confusing as her computer. All of the systems in our home work with the push of a button; all her daily routines are much simpler than figuring out how to turn off auto-spellcheck in Microsoft Word. Like most people, my wife is perplexed by the complexity of her work computer. But thankfully, things are turning around.Software 2.0: Apple, Ajax, Video Games, and the New Laws of Physics
We changed our household computer to an Apple in 2004 and later on got one of the first iPhones when they came out. Obviously, my wife has no trouble using Apple products, because they are simple. More important, they, like physical things, behave as expected. Every user action results in a reaction that makes sense. There are way fewer choices, and things do not pop up out of nowhere. Even better, this new kind of software proves to the user that the digital world can be superior to the physical one. There is no friction; things move around effortlessly; and they do work. This is not happening just with Apple products; it is happening all over the web. With the advent of AJAX, a new breed of web applications is teaching users that software can indeed work better than hardware. And that it can be way more fun. It's the fun element that is likely going to be the tipping point, because it involves kids, our future. The latest video games are simply stunning. Like Apple software, they feature a lot of physical realism and behave as users expect. But in addition, they add a lot of special behavior only possible in the digital world. And it's not just about flying or instantly transporting from one place to another. Video games are creating a whole new reality that is an intricate blend of physical and digital. Our kids are growing up native to this new digital world. To them, the new rules of digital physics are what the rules of physical physics are to us. They take these new rules for granted, because that is just how all our brains work.Techies + Mainstream + Kids = Software Revolution
I never had trouble grasping software. To me, its inner workings and abstractions always made more sense than the physical things around me. But this is not so for many other people. Yet, the shift is on its way. Good software is becoming an integral part of our lives. Apple is one of the first and most visible examples of how software is taking over the hearts and minds of mainstream consumers. Its software is beautiful, simple, it works the way we expect it to, and people are starting to love it. And this love is the first step to truly getting it, to understanding how something works. Because this new software is simple and fun, people are becoming attached to it and are willing to spend more time with it and, ultimately, to understand it well. This new software has a shot at making people get it, just like they get hardware. And kids, of course, are already there. For them, all of this novelty is effortless and natural. It's a ton of fun, and they do not think twice about which buttons to press; they just know. So, with techies, the mainstream, and kids on board, we are poised to enter this brave new world dominated by software. The impact of this new world is going to be huge because, whether we like it or not, we will no longer be the same. Our brains, while never forgetting the laws of physics, will increasingly adapt to the laws of this new, digital physics. DiscussMilky Way Heavier Than Thought, and Spinning Faster
An anonymous reader writes "The Milky Way is spinning much faster and has 50 per cent more mass than previously believed. This means the Milky Way is equivalent in size to our neighbor Andromeda — instead of being the little sister in the local galaxy group, as had been believed. One implication of this new finding is that we may collide with Andromeda sooner than we had thought, in 2 or 3 billion years instead of 5."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
HP Says Its Netbook Is Business Class
HP is marketing its latest netbook as ideal for business users -- a rather peculiar move for a device in this category. They're called netbooks because they're streamlined for surfing the internet and basic computing tasks -- in other words,...
HP's Subnotebook Is Uglier, Fatter ? But Cheaper Than Air
HP's competitor to the MacBook Air isn't lighter, thinner or more attractive than Apple's subnotebook. But it's significantly cheaper. Dubbed the Pavilion DV2, HP's 12.1-inch subnotebook weighs 3.8 pounds and measures 1.3 inches thick. It's powered by a 1.6GHz AMD...
Lenovo rolls out new models
Shaun Nichols in San Francisco,
Celebrity accounts fall prey to Twitter hack
Shaun Nichols in San Francisco,
2008 salary survey makes grim reading for IT staff
Iain Thomson in San Francisco,
Online video viewing jumps 34 percent
U.S. Internet users watched 12.7 billion online videos in November, an increase of 34 percent versus a year ago, according to ComScore data.
Canon upgrades standard def cameras too
There will be many more exciting gadgets launched this week, but few that sell as widely (or as well priced, we guess) as Canon's new standard definition camcorders.Four Flash memory shooters to warm up with. All four have Canon's unique Video Snapshot function to automatically grab short movie clips at the touch of a button.These clips are the supposedly the perfect size for playing back in sequence, in-camera or uploading to YouTube later on.They also have a new Pre REC function where, as soon as the record button is pushed, the preceding three seconds of action are also captured. Plus, they have a dedicated Playback button to aid viewing.Huge lensAll have zooms over 40x (!) and a quick charge function that gives up to one hour's shooting from just a 20 minute charge. From fully charged, they can manage a very healthy 3.5 hours' shooting.The Legria FS22 has 32GB of memory, the Legria FS21, 16GB, and the Legria FS20, 8GB built in. The Legria FS200 records direct to SD/SDHC cards.The other two camcorders released today don't have a fancy, schmany new brand name. The DC420 has 45x zoom, the DC410 41x, record video to DVD and stills to an SD card slot.Prices and pics to follow!
Tooth Regeneration Coming Soon
Ponca City, We love you writes "For thousands of years, losing teeth has been a routine part of human aging. Now the Washington Post reports that researchers are close to growing important parts of teeth from stem cells, including creating a living root from scratch, perhaps within one year. According to Pamela Robey of the NIH. 'Dentists say, "Give me a root and I can put a crown on it."' In a few years dentists will treat periodontal disease with regeneration by using stem cells to create hard and soft tissue; they will take out a tooth that is about to fall, and reconnect it firmly to the regenerated tissue. Although nobody is predicting when it will be possible to grow teeth on demand, in adults, to replace missing ones, a common guess is five to ten years. Baby and wisdom teeth are sources of stem cells that could be 'banked' for future health needs, says Robey. 'When you think about it, the teeth children put under their pillows may end up being worth much more than the tooth fairy's going rate. Plus, if you still have your wisdom teeth, it's nice to know you're walking around with your own source of stem cells.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sources: Apple to expand DRM-free music, new pricing
Moving further away from its one-price-fits-all model, the company will allow top four music labels more price flexibility.
Canon launches tiny new Legria HD camcorders
Canon ups the stakes by dialling down the size for its new High Definition flash camcorders, under a new Legria brand.The new Legria 20 and Legria 200 both offer Full HD 1920x1080-pixel recording to flash memory, weighing just 340g and promising 'pocket friendly' dimensions.Both have user-friendly shooting features like Face Detection, Pre REC and Video Snapshot, all powered by a new 3.3MP Full HD CMOS sensor and next generation processor, DIGIC DV III.In front, you'll find a 15x lens with optical image stabilisation, using Canon's much-vaunted Instant AF system.The HF20 stores video and stills to 32GB of internal memory or SDHC card, while the HF200 relies on the SDHC card alone.Flagship Flash camsAlso pre-announced today were the Legria HF S10 and HF S100. These Full HD cameras share the above features, but add a new 8MP Full HD CMOS chip, in front of a 10x stablised zoom lens. You also get a Control Dial, colour key and HDMI port.Prices and extra spec (such as screen sizes and dimensions) as we get them...The Legria brand include Canon's new hard drive and Flash camcorders - and also the HV40, a new Full HD tape camcorder.The HV40 has a 2.96MP CMOS sensor, 10x zoom, 25p progressive shooting, a new Custom Key for improved manual control, 2.7-inch screen, flash and LED video light.
Early returns show strong holiday video game console sales
Microsoft said its Xbox 360 had the strongest holiday season of its lifetime, while Sony and Nintendo both tout their own sales success.
Spirit-Bashing Trailer Spearheads 'Worst Movie' Campaign
Critically reviled box office bomb The Spirit gets the switcheroo treatment in a faux "For Your Consideration" trailer championing the movie as 2008's worst film. Compiling actual blurbs from the usual reviewers, the clip pushes director Frank Miller's flop for...
Soonr Lets You View All Your Documents on the iPhone
We are still hoping to see a full office suite on the iPhone, but while there are already some apps that allow you to edit documents on the phone, the device's size currently makes it more useful for reading documents than actually creating them. Today, Soonr launched an application in the App Store (iTunes link) that allows you to sync files from your desktop to Soonr's online storage and then view them on your iPhone. Soonr can handle over 40 different file types and provides you with 500 megabytes of free online storage. Sponsor
UI and Features
While you currently have to complete the registration on your iPhone, the central hub for getting started is really Soonr's desktop client, which is basic, but gets the job done. The client, which is available for Mac and Windows, lets you choose which files to sync to Soonr's servers and gives you an overview of how much online storage you have been using and the latest status updates. Soonr also provides a web interface that lets you manage all your documents. The iPhone interface was clearly designed with the user in mind. A dashboard provides you with all the latest updates like newly added files and folders, or printed documents. You can also browse through your files and view them with a more traditional file browser. One feature we would like to see here is the ability to bookmark folders that you often use, so that you don't have to navigate the directory tree every time you want to access a new file.Finding and Sharing Files
While the file browser is useful, those of us with a large number of files on their computers will surely welcome Soonr's search function, which allows you to search inside your files. Soonr also makes it incredibly easy to share files. You can share files directly with other Soonr users, or send an email or SMS with an invitation. You can also forward files as attachments to any email address. One feature we would like to see here is integration with the iPhone contacts application. It would also be great if you could upload files to Soonr by forwarding an email to the service. That way, whenever you get a document that isn't natively supported by the iPhone mail client, you could access it through Soonr.Remote Printing
Another useful feature of Soonr is the ability to print files remotely. The desktop client automatically discovers the default printer on your computers and the print job completes without any further interaction.Verdict
Soonr is one of the most useful productivity apps we have seen for the iPhone. Some web apps like Syncplicity also let you access your cloud storage, but they can't provide the ease of use and compatibility with a large number of file types in the same way a native application like Soonr can. In the long run, it would be great if Soonr would also let you edit files on the iPhone, but even without this feature, it's already incredibly useful.Soonr company profile provided by TradeVibes
Discuss
Amazon S3 Adds Option To Make Data Accessors Pay
CWmike writes "Amazon.com has rolled out a new option for its Simple Storage Service (S3) that lets data owners shift the cost of accessing their information to users. Until now, individuals or businesses with information stored on S3 had to pay data-transfer costs to Amazon when others made use of the information. Amazon said the new Requester Pays option relieves data providers of that burden, leaving them to pay only the basic storage fees for the cloud computing service. The bigger question with the cloud is, who really pays? Mark Everett Hall argues that IT workers do."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Peter Molyneux talks sense (mostly)
Just one more New Year post ? promise ? but veteran game designer Peter Molyneux's thoughts on 2008/9 make interesting reading. Perhaps the biggest discussion point raised concerned game difficulty.
On the gaming front, GTA IV was a real moment for the industry. Rockstar nailed how you characterise a game and their engine and cut sequences are state of the art. However, only a few people actually saw all the cut sequences because the game was so tough to play. Are we making games too difficult? That's a question the industry has been asking itself of late.
Anyone who has played the very forgiving Fable 2 ? my game of the year ? will know what conclusion Molyneux and his team came to.
Xbox 360 developer Molyneux also talks about the PS3 ? "disappointing to say the least" ? but has kinder words for Sony title LittleBigPlanet.
One of my personal favourites was Little Big Planet; superb artistry and a fantastic marketing job by Sony - yet it didn't make the numbers. I wonder if Christmas is really the right time to release a new title.
He has a point here but I'm not sure LBP would have fared better if released earlier in the year. The core PS3 audience was always going to be more excited by Resistance 2, Call of Duty and the rest. And the casual audience likely to be attracted by Sackboy and co just isn't there - in sufficient numbers - on PS3 yet. But unlike Resistance 2 and forthcoming shooter Killzone 2 - which will likely chart high as the fans buy but then quickly disappear from the sales rankings - you can imagine LBP will still be shifting steady numbers in a year's time, especially to new PS3 owners.
Molyneux is pessimistic about 2009 though.
Next year, well, it's all looking a bit dry. All the triple A titles came out this Christmas and while there is stuff in 2010 we can look forward to, off the top of my head I cannot think of anything next year that really excites me.
Games too difficult? LittleBigPlanet not appealing to the masses? 2009 looking dull? So, do you agree with Molyneux?guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
China cracks down on 'vulgar' online searches
Chinese officials yesterday launched a crackdown on "vulgar" websites including Google and the country's leading search engine, Baidu.In a highly unusual move, they named 19 leading internet companies they said failed to censor inappropriate content despite warnings, or did not do so swiftly enough. The ministry of public security and other government bodies announced the campaign at a meeting, state television reported, showing officials seizing equipment from an office.The China internet illegal information reporting centre, part of the Internet Society of China, said searches on Google and Baidu produced too many links to obscene or pornographic websites and that the sites failed to take "efficient" measures to remove the material. Baidu has captured about two-thirds of the world's largest net population - over 250m and growing - with Google in second place.A Google spokeswoman in China, Cui Jin, said the site was a search engine and did not generate any pornographic content. The company obeyed Chinese law. "If we find any violation, we will take action. So far, I haven't seen any examples of violations," she told the Associated Press news agency.Public relations representatives for Baidu declined to comment, telling Reuters it was unaware of the announcement. Others on the list included some of China's most popular portals and sites, such as Sina, Sohu, Netease and Tianya. Several were accused of carrying tawdry photographs or inappropriate comments on discussion forums or blogs.The Chinese government frequently launches censorship drives against pornography and web scams as well as political criticism. Pornography is illegal but widely available in China.It is unusual for officials to name such prominent targets; the last crackdown singled out much smaller sites. They also threatened "stern punishment" for offenders this time, with the state news agency, Xinhua, reporting that those who refuse to change after receiving warnings could face closure."Some websites have exploited loopholes in laws and regulations," said Cai Mingzhao, a deputy chief at the state council information office. "They have used all kinds of ways to distribute content that is low-class, crude and even vulgar, gravely damaging mores on the internet."Last month, Shanghai police detained a woman who sought to profit after her involvement in a sex video that became an online sensation. She had set up a blog advertising her availability for appearances and modelling assignments to make use of her new-found notoriety.The foreign ministry argues that other countries also block web content deemed illegal. The issue is particularly sensitive in China because of the heavy censorship of political and social discussion.Wang Junxiu, a blog pioneer and critic of censorship, said the new campaign might have more to do with taming online opinion than stamping out pornography."I'd guess that this is in response to all the sensitive dates in 2009. They want to tighten up," Wang told Reuters. "We've had crackdowns on pornography since the start and they've never worked, so there must be more than that. It's a warning."This year sees the anniversaries of the 1959 uprising which sparked the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet, the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests in 1989, and the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Pakistan terror accused acted in self-defence, court hears
Two London-based men accused of inciting terrorist attacks in Pakistan were acting in self-defence, a court heard yesterday. Faiz Baluch, 27, from Wembley, north London, and Hyrbyair Marri, 40, from Ealing, west London, have both pleaded not guilty to assisting terrorism and incitement to murder abroad. Defending Baluch, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC told Woolwich crown court he was a "casualty of geopolitics" and the US-led war on terror. It is alleged that the two men encouraged acts of violence against Pakistan via website Baloch Warna (Baluch Youth)."This case is not about jihad or al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden," said Kennedy. "These men abhor the distortion of Islam by Osama bin Laden." She said the people of Baluchistan were "suffering a slow death" at the hands of the Pakistan government. Their land had been used for nuclear weapons tests in 1998, which had caused cancer and leukaemia. Those who protested against the behaviour of the Pakistani authorities, she said, faced prison, torture and death. "This case is about classic self-defence, not regime change." If the case was not so serious, she said, "it would be laughable."After 9/11, said Kennedy, "a lot of nations called their dissidents terrorists" and the former Pakistani dictator, Pervez Musharraf, had used this excuse to label the Baluchis as such. "In law, people are entitled to defend themselves," she said. "If the Germans had marched into Britain, we would have been entitled to resist."Giving evidence, Baluch said he had been born in the part of Baluchistan now in Iran but had been educated in Quetta, which was under the control of Pakistan. He came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2002, and worked as a kitchen porter in Coventry before meeting fellow exile Marri and moving to London. Baluch said the website, which was set up in 2004, was "to report what is happening, the human rights violations and to bring the plight of the Baluch people to international attention." He denied he ever used the site to incite people to kill. He told the court about the shelling of the Baluch village of Dera Bugti in 2005 in which around 30 people died after protests that a woman doctor had been raped by members of the Pakistani military.The case, which started last month, continues.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Twittering on: How internet 'micro-blogging' went global
Wars have always been waged on all sorts of fronts. They have also, of course, always been about words: who asserts what; what different people mean when they say, "That's mine." The internet has vastly increased the ways in which people can have these arguments, and how directly they can have them, but even so it is huge step up to hold, as the Israeli consulate in New York did last week, a public, government-backed "citizens' conference" on the social site Twitter - and then to keep replying to comments from all over the globe. It has proved massively popular: the consulate's Twitter site (twitter.com/israelconsulate) yesterday afternoon had 3,739 followers, and at one point was posting a new comment, or answer to a comment, nearly every second. You can see why it has caught on. Twitter allows notes of only 140 characters, so everything is admirably short and to the point. No space here for waffle; just a surgical strike. Many of the notes on the Israeli consulate site are quick links to other sites: videos from the BBC, pieces in the Wall Street Journal, clips on YouTube (the Israeli Defence Force has also, during the current invasion, become the first national army to broadcast an offensive directly to interested users of the web, in real time). But a lot of it is also direct answers to direct questions, squashed into text-speak to fit the space available. "We R pro nego ... we talk only w/ ppl who accept R rt 2 live", for example. Or "Isr. left Gaza in 2005 to send message of peace. Ans. more rockets." Or "if hamas's goal were 2 btr the lives of its cit. they wouldn't target IL. they would invest in edu/hlth not in bombs."The consulate is, in effect, firefighting. The answers come from its PR office (no doubt somewhat harried, given the number of questions it has had to answer), and from its chief PR officer David Saranga, who has described his job as justifying the Israeli strikes, and making sure that there is detailed official information available to counteract the swirls of allegation and counter-allegation available elsewhere on the web. Israeli military spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovich has been even clearer. "The blogosphere and new media are another war zone and we have to be relevant there."Twitter is only two years old, and, in essence, very simple: like the status update function in Facebook, it asks the question "What are you doing?", and then gives you a very small space in which to answer. And that's all it does: no faffing about with profiles, photos, poking or sheep. Just what you're doing this minute, which immediately appears on your page, and on the pages of people who have signed up to track you. Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, has compared it to "flocks of birds, the way they are able to move around an object in flight. It looks so choreographed, it looks like it's planned out ahead of time but it's not, it's just rudimentary, simple communication among individuals. It's just feedback that produces beautifully elegant, choreographed real-time movement."It's a gift to celebrities, of course, for whom the size of their publicity footprint depends on how much the public know about their everyday doings - and, by extension, a recipe for unrelieved banality. John Cleese recently told the world that, as far as he was concerned, it was a big "yes to Marmite. But an even bigger yes to mustard, particularly German mustard, of which I possess an epicureal collection." Last week, former rugby player Will Carling announced he was making a cup of tea to welcome in the new year. A year ago Scott Karp, formerly director of digital strategy at the Atlantic magazine, now CEO of Publish2, Inc, a web-based newswire, wrote a heartfelt blog on his website about why he stopped using Twitter - "Twitter is a massive waste of time ... Twitter has turned distraction into an art form" - which, predictably, triggered a tsunami of comment from Twitterers everywhere. His answering update was reasonable, but firm: "Twitter may be the first step on an evolutionary path to something indispensable, but for me, it's just not there yet." That was in December 2007. By the time terrorists struck Mumbai in November Twitterers were, at times, uploading information faster than the TV networks and newspaper websites. Not all of it was true - but some of it usefully gainsaid official errors, noting, for example, that shooting had not ceased even though Indian reporters were saying it had. Vivid eyewitness reports appeared in real time: "at home so no idea wats happening in colaba side 4:55PM but v did hear some loud noise a few mins bk 4:57PM ok v just heard a few nore [sic] loud thuds.. 5:02 PM I have just heard 2 more loud blasts around my house in colaba ... 5:09PM."Has everything changed? Has Twitter come of age? The answer, as so often, is both yes and no. Certainly experts predict that, having begun as something used by the techno-literate, it will have become much more a part of our multimedia consciousness by this time next year. Whether or not the average person in the street will be using it is another question. "I think if you look at the majority of people using it, there's an extremely high if not direct overlap with people who blog," says Karp, meaning the self-selecting group of people who like to broadcast their thoughts to the public, as opposed to simply share updates with friends on Facebook. "It's used very much the way blogging is used, but as a short quick lowest-threshold way to say something or share something. It's like public instant messaging." He thinks the Israeli consulate's use of it was basically "an interesting way to hold a press conference with a bunch of media types", while at the same time giving the valuable impression of transparency and immediacy - and relevance, to people who might think, "OK, the Israeli consulate is using Twitter - therefore they must be pretty smart and hip about communication. It brings a certain credibility." As for your average concerned citizen, "I'm sure there were some people from the general public in there but I would guess a much smaller group." But others are concerned that their Twitter experiment is also something of an own goal. Dropping in on Twitter, says Chris Lake, editor-in-chief of econsultancy, a leading internet marketing research group, is a great way to keep your ear to the ground, to find out what people are talking about; anyone in the public domain, whether company or celebrity or government, would do well to monitor their reputation in that way. (Neither Karp nor Lake is very convinced by its usefulness in breaking news, however: "It's not really a news source, just an echo chamber," says Lake. "If you follow the right people in any given area you'll hear news very early on. Occasionally people are breaking news, but not often.") But using its capacity for two-way conversations, as Israel has done, is quite another thing. "You have to wonder whether Twitter, with its 140 character limit, is the right forum," says Lake. "I just think it's crass to abbreviate in that manner, writing in text-speak like some 15-year-old going out on a Friday night. It seems a little bit crass given the graveness of the situation."He thinks it's a great sign that they're listening to people's questions - "but maybe they should have given the answers via their website or a blog, or YouTube", where slightly more length, and therefore more subtlety, are possible. Or, as one respondent to the consulate's efforts put it, on the consulate's website: "Israel's PR is terrible. While this is a good step in the right direction, it is not enough to illuminate your message. Your Sec of State, her name escapes me, is a passionate defender of Israel's action in Gaza. I recommend that she hit the road as they say and get her a..s in front of the cameras."guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Letter: Online regulation can protect children
Letter: We need to have a more sophisticated discussion about the internet and how children and families interact with it
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are forecast to collide in fewer than four billion years
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are forecast to collide in fewer than four billion years
Steve Jobs' health now a public matter
In choosing to go public with CEO Steve Jobs' ailments to deflect damaging rumors, Apple may be forced to give regular updates on the health of its founder.
Online game attacked for raising student drop-out rates
World of Warcraft, the online game, is under attack for causing students to drop out. The game, in which you create your own character - an orc, a troll, a dwarf or a human - and join others to defeat enemies in the mythical land of Azeroth, is topping sales charts in the US, but its makers are receiving publicity they could do without, thanks to Deborah Taylor Tate at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Tate says: "You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the US is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide," she said in a speech. Tate, one of five commissioners who oversee and regulate TV, radio and all communications related to the US, made the claim shortly after a student adviser at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Vince Repesh, told his local paper that he had seen students with severe academic and personal problems. "I accused one of them of coming in loaded from smoking dope, he looked so bad," Repesh told the Duluth News-Tribune. Repesh says the game can be more pernicious than other addictions. "If somebody has a chemical problem, you usually see side-effects from it," he explains, "but you can't tell for a long time if someone is just sitting in front of a computer. I have seen straight-A students who go to Fs because they think World of Warcraft is more important."At least five students have come to Repesh over the last academic year with serious addictions that were causing academic problems, he says. Three others admitted they were seeking professional help from a psychologist or counsellor about their need to play. "I accused one student of being on drugs and he got very upset," says Repesh. I told him he looked like hell, and he admitted that he had been playing for 28 hours straight."Gamers are dismayed. "I'm not going to say it's not addictive," says one student at New York University who did not want to be named, "but you can't compare it to drinking or drugs or say it's a major cause of flunking out. It's ridiculous." He did, however, admit that he plays for several hours a day, and that he has missed classes as a result.Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the game, did not return calls or emails seeking comment. Repesh thinks that universities will have to start taking action. While an on-campus ban would cause outcry among gamers, it might serve them well when they graduate. A recruiter for media companies was quoted last week saying that employers ask him specifically to avoid World of Warcraft players because they "cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere [and] their sleeping patterns are often not great".? Has addiction to the land of Azeroth taken hold on UK campuses yet? Add your comments below.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Editorial: In praise of ... braille
Editorial: The digital revolution is celebrating its bicentenary - on 4 January 1809 Louis Braille was born
Microsoft elevates server unit, promotes Muglia
Longtime Server and Tools unit head Bob Muglia is now president of the company's server unit.
Liveblog: Macworld Expo 2009
Apple will announce new products during a Tuesday morning keynote at San Francisco's Macworld Expo. Wired.com will be liveblogging the event on site. Apple's vice president of marketing Phil Schiller (no, not Steve Jobs) will be delivering the keynote starting...
How to downsize your social network portfolio
Using a slew of social networking services is great, but as Don Reisinger explains, that practice doesn't deliver the most rewarding Web experience. To fix that, Don has compiled a list of services you should use exclusively.
Google up, Microsoft down in November Web searches
Web searches rise again for Google in November and drop again for Microsoft as U.S. searches overall increase, Nielsen says.
RWW Live: Running a Startup in a Down Economy
In In the podcast, we'll discuss the lessons our guests have learned over the last year and how they plan to continue growing in 2009. The show will be broadcast LIVE at 3.30pm PST Monday (6.30pm EST). We invite you to tune into the show, and interact with us via the chat, by clicking here. You can also use the Calliflower Facebook app to tune in and participate. We will post the audio from the show at the end, but we hope you join us LIVE on Calliflower or Facebook. Here are the details of our guests in this show:
- Sridhar Vembu, CEO, Zoho
- Raju Vegesna, Evangelist, Zoho
- Martin May, co-founder, BrightKite
- Brady Becker, co-founder, BrightKite
Download MP3 Discuss
MSI to Showcase Low-Powered All-in-One Desktop, Netbooks at CES
Micro-Star International (MSI) will be showing off its all-in-one desktop, along with several other nifty looking gadgets, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Dubbed the MSI NetOn, the all-in-one desktop will come in three different screen...
Carefully Timed Jerks Could Power Space Elevator
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC has an interesting article on the long-standing issue of how to power the 'climber' that would ascend a space elevator into space. Previous ideas have included delivering microwave or laser power to the climber beamed from the Earth's surface, but now European Space Agency ground station engineer Age-Raymond Riise has demonstrated a device that could provide a "lift into space" for cheaper space missions along a 100,000-km long tether anchored to the Earth. Riise demonstrated sending power mechanically by providing carefully timed jerks of the cable at its base with a broomstick to represent the cable held in tension, an electric sander to provide a rhythmic vibration to the bottom of the stick, and three brushes representing the climber with their bristles pointing downwards allowing the climber assembly to slide upward along the broomstick as it moved slightly downward, but grip it as it moved slightly upward. 'It would be possible to make a suspension system that completely decouples the cabin where the passengers are,' says Riise. 'For them it would be a linear movement with very little disturbance.' Riise says that he has been approached by commercial elevator companies, who are researching new ideas for elevators in superscrapers where the simplicity of the approach makes it attractive when compared to other ideas for powering lifts, such as compressed air."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
RIAA dumps sleuthing firm
Shaun Nichols in San Francisco,
Two big reasons Dell should buy Red Hat
Dell needs a software business to grow, and it could hardly do better than to buy into open source through Red Hat.
Google works on Android for the blind
Iain Thomson in San Francisco,
'60 Minutes' video: Tech that reads your mind
This segment investigates breakthroughs researchers have made in identifying what people are thinking by conducting brain scans, and why the Supreme Court might one day get involved.
Toshiba muscles into solar-energy business
Company creates unit dedicated to building large-scale power plants using solar-photovoltaic panels.
MSI X-Slim vs. the MacBook Air
MSI is bound to turn a few heads at CES this year with its answer to Apple's MacBook Air. But how does the X-Slim X320 super portable stack up?First things first, when MSI calls the X320 a 'super portable', what it really means is 'netbook'. Rumours suggest that any hardware that breaks cover at CES will be running on an Intel Atom Z530 processor rather than a full-blown Core 2 Duo CPU.Thinner than a Macbook Air?Other than that, the X-Slim X320 is shaping up nicely. According to the scant information on the MSI website, the X320 features a 13.4-inch widescreen display (making it a shade bigger than the MacBook Air's 13.3-inch screen) and weighs 1.3Kg (much like the MacBook Air's 1.36Kg frame).Like the MacBook Air, the X320's chassis tapers slightly. It measures 1.98cm at its thickest point (the Macbook Air is a mere 1.94cm), slimming down to a skinny 6mm at its thinnest point (compared to 4mm for the MacBook Air).A netbook with extra muscleEngadget throws in some extra details on the proposed spec ? 802.11n, 3.5G mobile broadband, three USB ports (the MacBook Air has only one), an Ethernet port, VGA out, and a card reader. There's also some wilder speculation that the X320 might also be equipped with NVIDIA's Ion platform, which would slave in the GPU to enhance multimedia processing power.Crucially, if MSI isn't fibbing about a battery life that supposedly "lasts up to 10 hours", the X320 could make a big impact with netbook-obsessed Westerners. The MacBook Air can barely muster 4.5 hours. The MSI X-Slim X320 will be available later this year. You'll be able to take your pick from 'champagne gold', 'pearl white' or 'stylish black' models.
Employees the Next (Continuing) Big Security Risk?
surely_you_cant_be_serious writes "A nationwide survey finds that most companies consider their systems vulnerable to attack. Historically, crime rates increase during recessions — and some believe that cybercrime may well follow suit, especially given massive layoffs and the dim prospects many laid-off employees face in finding a new job. 'One thing companies can start doing is monitoring their networks on an ongoing basis so that they understand the normal pattern of data flow and usage, Brill said. In many cases, companies may not have the internal capability to do this, but outsourcing options are available. Kroll Ontrack, for instance, will be rolling out a 24/7 monitoring service for its global clients manned from a US location by professionals in early 2009.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Update: Twitter blames celebrity hack on 'individual'
After a number of most popular accounts were compromised, Twitter has come out and said that it was a hacker, not the phishing scam making the rounds recently.
Teenage Podcaster Camps Out for Jobs-less Apple Keynote
You would think the news of a Steve-less Macworld would take the wind out of the event's sails. But that wasn't enough to prevent a teenager from camping out in the rain since 6:30 a.m. Monday. "I was a little...
Twitter: 33 accounts hacked, including Barack Obama's
Twitter is discovering that popularity brings attention from the sort of people you don't want attention from: hackers.That's the clear message from the fact that 33 accounts were hacked, using the company's own internal support tools.Yes, that's certainly Monday morning madness. Among those affected: Rick Sanchez of CNN and Barack Obama of, um, the President-Elect's office - though the latter hasn't used his account since winning the election in November.
These accounts were compromised by an individual who hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can't remember or get stuck. We considered this a very serious breach of security and immediately took the support tools offline. We'll put them back only when they're safe and secure.The effect is that Twitter has now realised that encouraging - or at least, not actively dissuading - people from using third-party services such as Twply that ask them just to hand over their usernames and passwords, which are the only authentication you have with Twitter at the moment. (Twply is pretty much the poster-child for taking advantage of Twitter users' lack of care: it grabbed passwords and was rapidly put up for sale by auction. Quite a valuable database you have there..)Which has driven Twitter towards something that I was going to predict they would do this year: implement something like OpenID (in this case, OAuth), to let people log in to such sites without actually handing over your details.
We plan to release a closed beta of the open authentication protocol, OAuth this month but it's important to note that this would not have prevented a Phishing scam nor would it have prevented these accounts from being compromised. OAuth is something we can provide so that folks who use third party applications built on the Twitter API can access to their data while protecting their account credentials.True, it wouldn't have stopped either hack; but it will stop services like Twply etc from trying to spread themselves virally on the service.However it's not a good thing overall that Twitter seems to have had a "security last" approach. Maybe 2009 will see everyone actually reaching a proper Web 2.1, where authentication, and not just providing the facility, matters.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Save electricity - plant a tree
To anyone suffering the misery of a Northern Hemisphere winter, a baking hot summer seems a lifetime away.But a new study from the US Forest Service's Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station in Oregon has shown that planting a tree to the south or west of a house can cut electricity bills by $25 (£17.50) a year.The shade from a leafy tree cuts the heat absorbed by windows and walls, reducing the need for air conditioning when the sun puts his hat on.Shady businessThe study, carried out in the sunny city of Sacremento, California, found that positioning the tree was crucial.For best results, trees should be planted within 40 feet of the south side or within 60 feet of the west side of the house (because of the way shadows fall at different times of the day). Tree cover on the east side of a house has no effect on electricity use.In total, the study calculates that a tree planted on the west side of a house can reduce net carbon emissions from summertime electricity use by 30 percent over a 100-year period.Of course, you'll have to site your solar panels a little more carefully...
Site Launcher turns bookmarks into shortcuts
Bring up a list of your bookmarks without the real estate-hogging bookmarks toolbar using Site Launcher--a simple and pretty Firefox add-on.
Hands-on with Picasa for the Mac
Picasa is a credible competitor to iPhoto--especially for those who have recently switched to the Mac.
CNET's live coverage of Macworld 2009 kicks off Tuesday
We'll be live inside the Moscone Center Tuesday morning as Apple's Phil Schiller delivers the keynote address for Macworld 2009.
Sacred cow slaying at Sony Japan
Sony Japan is set to make fundamental changes to its business, closing factories and 'major divisions' according to latest reports.The Times reports this week that Sony is planning to close factories in Japan with a number of "sacred cow-slaying" moves set to be made by one of the world's leading consumer technology brands in the coming months.The Times report suggests that Sony will make fundamental changes to its manufacturing processes and to senior management at board level. All divisions warningSony Electronics, Sony Pictures International, Sony Computer Entertainment, music label Sony BMG and insurance and banking arm Sony Financial Holdings are all set to face key changes in the coming months.Sony needs to move to the content business and away from manufacturing according to Koya Tabata, an analyst at Credit Suisse."The most important thing is that, to improve organisational strength in the areas of development, purchasing and marketing, it will be necessary to further concentrate power in the hands of [Sir Howard] and unless this is achieved we believe [Sony] will be unable to close the gap with competitors such as Apple and Nintendo," said the analyst.
Google to release Picasa beta for Mac
A long-awaited version of Google's software for editing, cataloging, and uploading photos is set to arrive in beta form.
MySpace teens get up to risky business
Sex, drugs, violence... but only a little bit of rock and roll.That's what researchers found when they read 500 randomly chosen MySpace profiles of 18-year-olds from the United State.The Seattle Children's Research Institute examined the extent to which high-risk behaviours were reported in the profiles, as well as anything that suggested certain behaviors may be influenced by other items, interests or activities. Teen tearaways?Researcher discovered that over half (54 per cent) of MySpace profiles contained high-risk behaviour information, with 41 per cent mentioning substance abuse, 24 per cent referencing sexual behavior and 14 percent talking about violence.Females were less likely to display violent information than males, and teens who reported a sexual orientation other than 'straight' showed increased displays of references to sexual behaviors.It appears that the devil does indeed make work for idle hands, as religious teens and those engaging in sports or hobbies were less likely to mention risky behaviours.A linked study found that teens approached via email by a 'doctor' advising them on the dangers associated with posting personal information online found that around half changed their profiles to reduce mentions of sex and drugs.Dimitri Christakis, Director of the Center for Child Health at Children's RI says: "In the 90's we talked about a digital divide that separated rich from poor. That divide is quickly narrowing, but a new one is emerging rapidly: the 21st century digital divide separates too many clueless parents from their Internet-savvy children."
China Goes After Baidu, Google in Web Porn Crackdown
The Chinese government is starting 2009 with a crusade to make the Internet safe for its young population to surf without encountering pornography. While Beijing has previously tried to crack down on obscenity, this time government officials are using some of their harshest language yet, threatening actions against 19 Internet companies -- including China's most popular search engine, Baidu, and Google.
A Hacker's Audacious Plan To Rule the Underground
An anonymous reader writes "Wired has the inside story of Max Butler, a former white hat hacker who joined the underground following a jail stint for hacking the Pentagon. His most ambitious hack was a hostile takeover of the major underground carding boards where stolen credit card and identity data are bought and sold. The attack made his own site, CardersMarket, the largest crime forum in the world, with 6,000 users. But it also made the feds determined to catch him, since one of the sites he hacked, DarkMarket.ws, was secretly a sting operation run by the FBI."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Freescale Eyes Cheap Linux Netbooks With New Chip Design
Freescale Semiconductor has launched a new low-cost processor, the i.MX515, that's designed to power what Freescale hopes will be new lines of Linux-based netbooks retailing for less than $200. There are lots of interesting angles to Freescale's efforts -- the lower price point, the technology behind the i.MX515, and a new path for Linux into the minds of everyday consumers.
Are you logging into the right Twitter?
Identity fraudsters have been targeting Web 2.0 darling Twitter according to an article on Computerworld. "The Twitteratti are all atwitter about a phishing scam that hit over the weekend," writes Dan Tynan. "The phishing tweets came in the form of direct messages - essentially private texts only Twitter friends can send and only you can see. Typically the message says something like "Hey, check out this funny blog about you" with a URL attached. The link takes you to a site that looks exactly like the Twitter log in, only the address is twitter.access-logins.com/login/."Twitter-jackingWhy would anyone want to hijack a Twitter account? CNN news anchor Rick Sanchez recently had his Twitter password stolen. He discovered that somebody had tweeted "i am high on crack right now might not be coming into work today". Britney Spears and Barack Obama have also suffered Twitter-jackings.As Pete Cashmore on Mashable points out: "Ironically, this may be a coming-of-age for Twitter: nobody phishes where there are no phish to catch. In other words: while stealing passwords is a vile activity, the fact that such attacks are being embarked upon would indicate that Twitter is now large enough to be a viable target."Twitter users are advised not to sign into Twitter via a direct message or email notification and to look closely at the URL when doing so. The Twitter login page is http://twitter.com/login.
Distributed "Nuclear Batteries" the New Infrastructure Answer?
thepacketmaster writes "The Star reports about a new power generation model using smaller distributed power generators located closer to the consumer. This saves money on power generation lines and creates an infrastructure that can be more easily expanded with smaller incremental steps, compared to bigger centralized power generation projects. The generators in line for this are green sources, but Hyperion Power Generation, NuScale, Adams Atomic Engines (and some other companies) are offering small nuclear reactors to plug into this type of infrastructure. The generator from Hyperion is about the size of a garden shed, and uses older technology that is not capable of creating nuclear warheads, and supposedly self-regulating so it won't go critical. They envision burying reactors near the consumers for 5-10 years, digging them back up and recycling them. Since they are so low maintenance and self-contained, they are calling them nuclear batteries."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hype Machine Zeitgeist: Listen in Full to the 50 Most Blogged Albums of 2008, For Free
Music mashup site shows how User Experience is done. MP3 blog aggregator Hype Machine launched a new microsite today called the Music Blog Zeitgeist. There you can listen, for free, to entire albums from the most blogged-about musicians of 2008. Bringing together a whole host of different technologies to create one experience, the site is beautiful and a lot of fun to navigate. Sponsor
- Immeem Flash players that let you listen to entire albums for free. Not thrown haphazardly on the site, either, they are displayed beautifully.
- Creative Commons photos of the bands are used to illustrate each entry. The effect is really nice. Reminiscent of what we've see at travel social network Dopplr but actually inspired, they say, by this similar city guide to Berlin.
- Blog Fresh Radio has produced embeddable "shows" about all the music, including interviews with the artists.
- Musebin has been used to automatically create 1 line album reviews, parsed from all the blog coverage discovered via Hype Machine. Visitors can click through multiple reviews without leaving the page.
The end result is an awesome site that we'll be visiting all week and beyond. When it comes to data driven media mashups, we can't sing Hype Machine's praises loud enough. With this new site they've really outdone themselves. Check it out at hypem.com/zeitgeist.
China vows to clean up the internet
Iain Thomson in San Francisco,
Samsung and Yahoo! unleash Internet Widgets
At last, some good news for Yahoo! The beleaguered web giant has inked a deal to supply its Widget Engine technology to Samsung's new internet-connected HDTVs.Repackaged as 'Internet@TV ? Content Service', Yahoo!'s technology will enable Samsung's 2009 line-up of HDTVs to access selected web content via onscreen Javascript- and XML-based apps. What it's not doing is adding a web browser. The appeal of a widget, rather than a full-blown browser, is that a widget can deliver internet content in a format that's optimised for viewing on a TV. Widgets are also designed to be controlled using the TV's remote. So you don't have to sit on the sofa trying to balance a keyboard on your knees, while squinting to read a URL in a teeny-tiny font. Content choice is limited, but usability is vastly improved.Bringing web Widgets to TVSo if you buy a compatible Samsung HDTV this year, you'll be able to call up a local weather forecast using data from Yahoo! Weather or track stocks and shares via Yahoo! Finance. A Yahoo! News feed will give the rolling news channels some competition, while a Flickr Widget will let you browse photos on a big screen. And if existing Widgets are anything to go by, they'll sit on top of whatever you're watching. Other popular internet services will also get 'widgetised'. The conversion of USA Today, YouTube and Showtime is already well under way. While a peek at the current Yahoo! Widgets website suggests that RSS feeds, Internet TV guides and far too many clock applications will ultimately follow. Would-be Widget developers will have access to a Widget Development Kit, so there's the possibility of an iPhone-esque 'Widget Store' to look forward to.Usefully, the Internet@TV ? Content Service isn't just another US-only affair. Samsung says that its new HDTVs featuring the Yahoo! Widget Engine will be available in another 12 countries in 2009 including: Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The future of TV?Internet-enabled TVs could well be one of the year's more interesting product categories, especially as more advanced devices ? Digital Media Players, Media Center PCs and Apple TVs ? have failed to break out of geekdom and into the mainstream. "Samsung has been a proven innovator in Internet-enabled TV technology for some time now," said Boo-Keun Yoon, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Division at Samsung Electronics. "There's no denying that the easy-to-use, one-touch of the remote control service successfully provides information simply and effectively. The collaboration with Yahoo! lets viewers go one step further. "This new interface allows them to interact and connect with many of their favourite Web services on a personal level. It's frankly way beyond just passively watching broadcasts and is no doubt the future of TV."Samsung's new HDTVs, equipped with the Internet@TV service will be on show at CES.
If Jobs' health is no longer a private matter, now what?
Why did Steve Jobs decide to offer an explanation-however brief-on the state of his health? Take a listen to find out.
Report: Intranets Increased Collaboration Support in 2008
Every year old-school web design guru Jakob Nielsen releases a survey of the world's top Intranets. First some context. Jakob Nielsen has produced a number of highly influential books about web design. When I started out as a webmaster back in the 90s, Nielsen's books were a constant companion. But as the years have gone by, Nielsen has turned into something of a 'grumpy uncle' of the web design community. He rails against web 2.0 design theories, calls most Internet users "bozos", and he steadfastly refuses to update the design of his own website - despite it looking like something from 1995. However despite his eccentricities, Nielsen's reports are usually thoroughly researched and unearth some useful nuggets. Last year Nielsen noted that enterprises "took a pragmatic approach to many hyped "Web 2.0" techniques". This year he wrote that this year's Intranet winners "showed a substantial increase in both collaboration support and social networking features". He can't of course resist his standard potshot at the social web:
"Although inspired by the open Internet's "Web 2.0" sites, these features often have a much stronger business model within the enterprise, simply because they're more useful and less subject to noise and information pollution by bozos."Some of the top features that Nielsen identified in the winning intranets:
- Teams adding "Facebook-like features" to employee directories to enrich the profiles.
- CEO blogs featuring in the vast majority of the winning intranets.
- Employees adding their own videos to the corporate TV network.
- Interactive forums achieving mission-critical status in some cases - e.g. "allowing consultants to post urgent requests for advice from their colleagues around the world."
First Lady of Star Trek Memorialized in L.A.
Majel Barrett Roddenberry, spouse of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, was buried Sunday inside the Hall of Liberty at famed Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills. The exuberant actress, who played nurse Christine Chapel (pictured above, right) in the...
New Azur receiver from Cambridge Audio
Cambridge Audio must have got its time differences mixed up for CES, as it's announcing its spanking new 7.1 audio receiver two days before the show kicks off.The Azur 640R V2 7.1 will pack HDMI v1.3 reception and uses 32-bit chipsets to support the full range of high-def audio formats, including Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution, the new Lossless Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio.It can transcode analogue video to HDMI with just one cable to the TV screen and features Cambridge Audio Mic Controlled Auto Set-up (CAMCAS) for quick and easy room installation.Everything but the kitchen sync A handy LipSync audio delay feature means the user can simply adjust for processing delays in the source or TV, or in fact dial it up to freak out visitors.The new AV receiver has triple HDMI inputs and no less than seven 100W amplifiers for some of the cleanest surround sound around, including post-processing of 2.0, 5.1 and 6.1 signals into the full 7.1 experience.The Azur 640R V2 7.1 will sell in the US for $1800 (£1250) before tax - expect a slightly higher UK RRP when it's announced.
Vuzix launches Wrap 902AV VR goggles
Affordable augmented reality may have got one step closer with the announcement by Vuzix of a new bit of video eyewear kit - the Wrap 902AV.These functional sunglasses offer a 'see-through' virtual 60-inch display and claim to support 3D video for the first time.The virtual reality specs use 'quantum optics' (warning! possible marketing nonsense!) to power two 'high resolution' (warning! dangerously vague specification!) LCD display, with 'up to six hours' (warning! 'up to' clearly includes 'one') life from a pair of AA batteries.Specs for specciesThere are some interesting accessories though. Vuzix will be offering 'low cost' (warning! Oh, you know what I'm going to say by now) optional prescription lens inserts to provide a solution for short- and long-sighted users.Also, there is an optional Bluetooth six-degree of freedom head tracking system to enable true augmented reality, and an optional USB-power stereo camera pair for 3D viewing.We should get more info (and maybe a go) on these at CES shortly...
ESA Embraces Open Source With New SAR Toolbox
phyr writes "The European Space Agency (ESA) has released its Next ESA SAR Toolbox (NEST) freely as GPL for Linux and Windows. It provides an integrated viewer for reading, calibrating, post-processing and analysis of ESA (ERS 1&2, ENVISAT) and 3rd party (Radarsat2, TerraSarX, Alos Palsar, JERS) SAR level 1 data and higher. ESA has chosen to distribute the software as fully open source to allow the remote sensing community to easily develop new readers/writers and post-processors for SAR data with their NEST Java API. The software provides both a command line interface and GUI for all features including data conversion, graph processing, coregistration, multilooking, filtering, and band arithmetic."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Lenovo Unveils Giant Two-Headed Laptop
As gadget makers gear up to show their wares at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Shows in Las Vegas, Chinese hardware maker Lenovo debuted a host of new laptop PCs, the most striking of which offers users a dual-screen configuration. The ThinkPad W700ds features a 17-inch primary screen with a 10.6-inch slide-out secondary screen.
In Depth: 7 cool things to look forward to at CES 2009
CES, the world's biggest Consumer Electronics Show kicks off on Wednesday, with over 2,700 exhibitors flashing the gadgets you'll want to be seen with over the next 12 months.TechRadar will be there in force to bring you blow-by-blow coverage. But here's a taster for the kind of stuff you can expect to see emerge at the show.If you see anyone from the TechRadar team on the show floor, come and say hello!1. Ultra-thin TVs get realWe've seen these before, but TV makers from Samsung to Sony are now turning the concepts they've shown off previously into real products you can actually buy. LG's take is the LH95, a LED-backed HDTV measuring 24.8mm thin and boasting a contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. LG has also teamed up with US online movie provider NetFlix for the launch of a range of broadband-enabled TVs at CES 2009. This will enable you watch movies provided by NetFlix directly on the TV ? no external devices required. Other TV firsts making their debut at CES 2009 will be a 7mm thin TV from JVC and an even skinnier 6.5mm one from Samsung. Rumours suggest that Sony will also radically expand the number and range of OLED TVs it sells.2. Laptops galoreNo CES is complete without a flurry of laptop announcements from PC makers, and Lenovo is leading the charge. It has already three new Y-series laptops touting 14-inch (Y450), 15-inch (Y550) and 16-inch (Y650) displays and armed with a variety of Intel Centrino 2 processors, Nvidia graphics and optional Blu-ray drives, according to CNET.3. More beef for Blu-rayIt's proving to be an uphill struggle for the world's HD optical disc format of choice, which is why consumer electronics makers are pulling out all the stops to get the players out of the shops and into your hands. LG's take is to add broadband connectivity and team up with NetFlix again to enable you to download movies over the internet, while Sharp is posting Blu-ray players inside its latest-gen Aquos LCD TVs. ezGear is also aiming to make Blu-ray much more affordable at CES 2009, launching the bluCobra EZ3000 in spring for just $400 (£275) or less.4. Palm's Nova and other mobilesTwo years on and few mobile makers have been able to mount a credible challenge to the iPhone phenomenon. Palm may be hoping to change all that with the launch of the Nova ? which sports an 'amazing' new OS, QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen. LG is also expected to launch the LG-GD910 ? a 3G phone supporting HSPDA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, that you wear on your wrist.5. Windows 7 and other Microsoft announcements
As ever, one of the highlights of this year's CES will be Microsoft's keynote on Wednesday ? CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to reveal further details about Windows 7, while Entertainment and Devices Division supreme Robbie Bach will wax on about Xbox 360 and Zune. Will there be a Zune phone? Current rumours says not.6. Intel, Adobe and the state of solid stateCES 2009 will also be the perfect showcase for the announcement made by Intel and Adobe today about bringing rich web content to TVs and other devices. We can also expect see a wider range of solid-state drives for notebooks and other devices ? Toshiba's 512GB SSD being just one great example.7. Stuff you don't need, but just want anywayWith 2,700 exhibitors taking up 1.7 million square feet of floor space, you can expect to see a heck of lot of stuff at CES 2009 that isn't a sexy Size Zero TV or phenomenal new phone. Expect to see a lot of gadgets like the chumby, which makes the web more accessible, more user-friendly and, erm, cuddly for everyone.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------More CES coverage on TechRadarSign up for the free weekly TechRadar newsletter
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Rumor Roundup: What to Expect at Macworld Expo 2009
Apple's charismatic CEO won't be showing up to deliver his famous keynote speech at Macworld Expo on Tuesday, but the show must go on. Wired.com has been following the rumors and analyst reports on what to expect at the show....
Analyst claims Vista Capable made Microsoft over $1.5bn
Iain Thomson in San Francisco,
Satnav maps to famous UK movie scenes
If you're bored of playing traditional in-car games such as 'I Spy' in an effort to keep the kids (and yourself) amused on long car journeys, then software developers RoadTour have an interesting new travel game.The developer has released a new SatNav guide to over 6,000+ British film scenes we all know and fondly remember and is pitching it as a "new form of in-car entertainment... for all the family."Famous Locations mappedThe 6,000+ scenes in the SatNav guide have been built up over eight years of research by the team at Famouslocations.com You can check out the British movie scenes map over on the company's web-site along with the rest of their huge database covering all of Europe and the US. "We're always looking for ways to improve people's journeys and this product does just that", claims Daniel Taylor, managing director of RoadTour who developed the software. "This is a simply huge amount of movie content, and with this product, people can enjoy it on the move. It's truly fascinating to turn it on and realise that just a few hundred metres away a movie scene was shot. Not only does this connect us with our surroundings but also with our movie heritage."The guide works with a range of leading Garmin SatNav devices or Windows Mobile PDAs so you can quickly pinpoint your nearest movie location and ? if you are REALLY bored ? take the kids to go and see it.
Will More iPhone Apps go Open Source?
Ever since Apple finally lifted the NDA covering the iPhone SDK, a small number of developers have started to open source their native iPhone apps. Today, Freshbooks, a popular online time-tracking and invoicing service, joined this group by open sourcing its native iPhone application. Other open source iPhone apps include Wordpress, the applications from Apps Amuck's 31 Days of iPhone Apps, and a collection of source code for handling the iPhone's touch controls. Sponsor
Building a Community
As Freshbook's Sunir Shah rightly points out, an open source ecosystem can only thrive when enough developers decide to join the community. Right now, the open source iPhone apps that are available are quite good, but there are also very few of them. Apple itself puts too many road blocks in front of potential developers, which, as Shah argues, will lead most of these collaborative projects to develop web apps instead of native apps. However, given the limitations of the web apps platform compared to the native iPhone platform, these applications won't be able to really harness the power of these devices.Android
For open source advocates, Apple's closed operating system is clearly no match for Google's Android, however. After all, Android not only makes open source collaboration easier by making the SDK available for free (Ubuntu Kung Fu
Lorin Ricker writes "Back in the dark ages of windows-based GUIs, corresponding to my own wandering VMS evangelical days, I became enamored of a series of books jauntily entitled Xxx Annoyances (from O'Reilly & Assocs.), where "Xxx" could be anything from "Windows 95", "Word", "Excel" or nearly piece of software which Microsoft produced. These were, if not the first, certainly among the most successful of the "tips & tricks" books that have become popular and useful to scads of hobbyists, ordinary users, hackers and, yes, even professionals in various IT pursuits. I was attracted, even a bit addicted, to these if only because they offered to try to make some useful sense out of the bewildering design choices, deficiencies and bugs that I'd find rampant in Windows and its application repertory. Then I found Keir Thomas, who has been writing about Linux for more than a decade. His new "tips" book entitled, Ubuntu Kung Fu — Tips & Tools for Exploring Using, and Tuning Linux, and published by Pragmatic Bookshelf, is wonderful. Having only recently wandered into the light of Linux, open source software, and Ubuntu in particular, this book comes as a welcome infusion to my addiction." Read below for the rest of Lorin's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
125 Million Free 3-D Specs for Monsters Super Bowl Blitz
DreamWorks Animation plans to give away more than 125 million pairs of 3-D glasses so Super Bowl viewers can catch a sneak preview of animated film Monsters vs. Aliens. DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said the company will spend "tens of...
Liquid Image's HD Video Underwater Camera Mask
Liquid Image plans to show off technology at this year's CES that will help budding oceanographers embrace their inner Steve Zissou: a snorkeling mask with a built-in video camera for shooting decent-looking videos. The Liquid Image Scuba Series HD320, a...
Minoru 3D Webcam Comes To Life
Remember the cute Wall-E robot-esque 3D webcam that was just a prototype two months ago? It is ready to have its first public showing at the Consumer Electronics Association show later this week and start retailing on Amazon.com. The attractive...
Amazon's Best-Selling Album Download of 2008 Was Available for Free
In March 2008, Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails released the first part of Ghosts I-IV via BitTorrent, and released all four albums under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. Even though fans could easily get free versions of the album, Ghosts actually went on to become the best-selling album of 2008 on Amazon's MP3 store. Sponsor
Radiohead's In Rainbows, another high-profile album which was available for free for a limited time in late 2007, ended the year just outside of Amazon's Top 10 for 2008.
Why Pay for Free Music?
Trent Reznor himself questioned the viability of the 'free' music model earlier this year, but clearly, his own band has been able to make it work. While overall album sales were down last year (even when accounting for digital downloads), bands like the Nine Inch Nails have been able to leverage their fanbase and bypass the traditional music industry channels, while still making a profit. On the Creative Commons blog, Fred Benenson asks why people chose to pay for the NIN album even though they could have had it for free. While, as he points out, ease of use is surely one reason, most fans probably simply want to support their favorite musicians by actually paying them directly for their music. DiscussMeet Denon's luxury AH-D7000 headphones
The new reference over-ear headphones from Denon will set you back a cool £800. But the state-of-the-art AH-D7000 is arguably worth every penny.Why? Because these classy cans have earcups that have been carved from real mahogany blocks, beautifully finished with a soft satin piano gloss and a gold Denon logo.Because the 50mm (1.97-inch) free edge microfibre diaphragms are designed to provide extended frequency response all the way up to 45 kHz and the cables are 99.99999% Oxygen Free Copper.Because the AD-H7000 headphones come with their own suitably luxurious (and leather-covered) storage case.The Bentley of headphones?Shamelessly targeted at the cash-rich Hi-Fi buff, the AH-D7000 slots right into the top of Denon's headphone line-up above the previous flagship product, the AH-D5000. Other headphones in the range include the AH-D2000, AH-D1001, AH-D501 and AH-D301 models.The full specifications of the AH-D7000 are listed below:Type: Dynamic type
Drive units: ų 50 mm, Neodymium magnet
Input impedance: 25 ohms
Sensitivity: 108 dB/mW
Maximum input: 1,800 mW
Frequency response: 5 - 45,000 Hz
Weight: 370g (not including cable)
Cable length: 3.0m, 7N-OFC cable
Plug: ų 6.3mm gold-plated stereo plug
New Method To Revolutionize DNA Sequencing
Anonymous Coward writes "A new method of DNA sequencing published this week in science identifies incorporation of single bases by fluorescence. This has been shown to increase read lengths from 20 bases (454 sequencing) to >4000 bases, with a 99.3% accuracy. Single molecule reading can reduce costs and increase the rate at which reads can be performed. 'So far, the team has built a chip housing 3000 ZMWs [waveguides], which the company hopes will hit the market in 2010. By 2013, it aims to squeeze a million ZMWs [waveguides] onto a single chip and observe DNA being assembled in each simultaneously. Company founder Stephen Turner estimates that such a chip would be able to sequence an entire human genome in under half an hour to 99.999 per cent accuracy for under $1000.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
LG Launches Netflix-Ready HDTVs
Trying to decide which streaming video player to get? Soon you won't have to says LG. LG has partnered with Netflix to launch broadband-enabled HDTVs with Netflix streaming software directly embedded in the TV. The new range of LCD and...
Holes give edge to new MoD armour
Scientists from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) have devised ultra-hard vehicle armour to protect military personnel.
CA to acquire Orchestria
Rosalie Marshall,
Police 'encouraged' to hack more
The Home Office has signed up to an EU suggestion allowing police to remotely access computers without a search warrant.
Roku Moves Beyond Netflix, Says Hello To Amazon
Roku digital video player is expanding its horizons. The company is moving beyond Netfix and has added Amazon.com as a new partner to its streaming movie service. Amazon.com said Monday its users will be able to rent and watch movies...
Seagate first to demo USB 3.0
Seagate has announced that it will showing off "the world's first consumer product application of USB 3.0" at this year's CES.The USB 3.0 demo itself will feature a Seagate FreeAgent external HDD kitted out with a Symwave-built USB 3.0 storage controller. "Symwave is honoured to be working with Seagate in this show of the first USB 3.0 solution in a real world application of data backup, storage and media streaming," said Yossi Cohen, president and CEO of Symwave. 10 times faster than USB 2.0It's a big leap forward for USB 3.0, which was only rubber-stamped last November at the SuperSpeed USB Developer's Conference. The new specification promises to be 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 standard, which has a maximum transfer speed of 480 Mbits/sec. In comparison, USB 3.0 can reach the dizzy heights of 5 Gbit/sec, making it ideal for large file transfers.Symwave also suggests that USB 3.0 will use less power than its forebear and will remain backwards compatible with the 10 billion (give or take) USB 2.0 devices that have been sold to date.A connectivity revolution"SuperSpeed USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology," said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). "Today's consumers are using rich media and large digital files that need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice-versa."SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone from the tech-savvy executive to the average home user."USB 3.0 devices are expected to become commercially available in the latter half of 2009 and widely available in 2010.
Wii Sports is biggest selling game ever
According to latest figures Nintendo's Wii Sports is the biggest selling game ever, even beating former favourite Super Mario Bros. as the top selling game of all-time.VG Chartz has published its top ten best-selling games of all time this week, claiming to offer the most "accurate, up to date and comprehensive videogame charts in the world." Super Mario Bros. is now second to Wii Sports, which has sold an incredible 40.52 million units since it has been bundled with the Wii back at the console's launch in 2006.Bundled with WiiOf course, Mario fanboys are sure to be quick to point out that this is not a 'proper' game, as it was bundled in with the Wii. Whatever your take on it, here's the list of VG Chartz's top ten best-selling videogames of all time.
For more, check out VG Chartz
New JVC HDTV is only 7mm thick
JVC is making an early play for the world's thinnest television headlines by announcing a 32-inch HDTV prototype that's 7mm thick and weighs barely 5Kg, but Samsung already looks set to steal its thunder at CES. Compare that to the average 32-incher you might have in your living room. The Panasonic TX-32LZD81, for example, is 22.5mm-thick and tips the scales at 18Kg.LED backlightingThe superbly slim 1080p TV also uses 50 per cent less material resources to manufacture, says JVC. While a new LED-based optical system means that there's absolutely no compromise on optical clarity or vibrancy.The benefits of a 5Kg HDTV can be seen in the photos released by JVC. This lightweight TV could literally be hung up like a picture using metal cables or mounted on the wispiest of TV stands. Will it be the thinnest TV at CES? Unfortunately for JVC, no. Samsung will be exhibiting an LED-backlit TV that measures 6.5mm at its narrowest point. That's thinner than the iPhone 3G...
LG High-Def TVs To Stream Netflix Videos
DJAdapt writes to tell us that LG has launched a new line of high definition TVs that will be capable of streaming Netflix videos with no additional hardware. This is just another in a long line of expansions from the once DVD rental service, which has expanded to the Roku set top box, Xbox 360, PC, Mac, and Linux platforms recently. "Piping movies directly to TV sets is the natural evolution of the video streaming service, said Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix. "The TV symbolizes the ultimate destination," he said. That idea -- shared by Sony Corp., which already streams feature films and TV shows directly to its Bravia televisions -- is still in its early stages. Netflix's streaming service taps a library of