Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-347254.html
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
U.S. willing to let go of Icann
The United States government will on Wednesday announce it is relinquishing most of the control it currently exerts over Icann, says the BBC The United States government will on Wednesday announce it is relinquishing most of the control it currently exerts over Icann, the organization that runs the Internet's...
Microsoft makes business case for Windows 7
Microsoft trotted out some of its biggest customers on Tuesday to make its case that it still makes sense to spend money on software in a tough economy. SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft trotted out some of its biggest customers on Tuesday to make its case that it still makes sense to...
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-347266.html
Video: Hands-On With the Slick-Sliding PSPgo
Got an unscratchable itch to lay your hands on Sony’s new PSPgo? Before you drop two hundred and fifty smackers on this pretty piece of hardware, you should know a few things. First off, forget about playing UMD discs. If you want to enjoy a game, you’ll have to download it at the Playstation website first. Own accessories for your old PSP? Might as well hawk them on eBay. None of them are compatible with the Go.
There’s more you should know. Scope out the video above for our full disclosure on the differences between the PSPgo and its predecessor, the PSP 3000.
See Also:
- PSPgo Porn: Sexy Pics of Sony’s Tiny Gaming Console
- Warranty-Voiding Teardown Reveals PSPgo’s Internals
- Sony’s PSPgo Stokes Gadget Lust But Disappoints Seasoned Gamers
This video was produced by Annaliza Savage with camerawork and editing by Michael Lennon.
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/WaEpqJjTZk4/
iPhone App ?Scarab? Reinvents the Literary Journal
Scarab is a literary magazine reader that does more than load works of fiction, poetry and non-fiction on your iPhone screen. Each literary piece is accompanied with an audio reading, dictated sometimes by the author (if he or she opted to provide it), whose mugshot appears next to the title. So you get the words, the voice and even the face behind each work.
“The best part about poetry or any literature really is going to a reading and getting to hear the author’s voice,” said Brian Wilkins, editor and co-creator of Scarab, in a phone interview. “It’s almost as much fun when those two come together in one place. The iPhone really made it possible for us.”
We had some hands-on time with the app, and we absolutely love the clean interface and the idea as a whole. Once you tap a literary piece, the app immediately downloads the audio recording, and soon enough you can hit play to hear the author’s reading. Each “issue” contains a collection of literary works submitted by various authors. (The October 2009 issue features 11 pieces, including a poem from the famous Charles Simic.) The app also includes transcripts of author interviews.
Wilkins, who has a master of fine arts in poetry, developed the app with his former college roommate Ian Terrell. They’re inviting creative writers of all calibers to submit their works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry for consideration. Starving artists even have an opportunity to earn a buck, too: Each issue of Scarab costs $3 as an in-app purchase; 20 percent of every issue sale is divided among the authors. Wilkins promises the submission guidelines are open-ended, although he prefers that works stay under 2,500 words.
Here’s what bugged us: You must buy the Scarab app for $1 and then pay $3 for an issue. That means when you first buy the app, you have no content. That doesn’t seem quite right. (Update: Terrell points out in the comments below that Apple requires apps to be paid apps if they incorporate in-app purchasing.) We think it’d be a wiser idea for the creators to include at least one free promotional issue with a purchase of Scarab to entice users to purchase future issues for $3 each. That way, iPhone owners would be able to try the app before committing to spending more on content.
Still, we’re not complaining about paying for additional content. We appreciate these artists, and we know literary journals aren’t exactly moneymaking machines. We’re interested in seeing how in-app purchasing works out for Scarab, because thus far it’s not raking in much dough for some iPhone developers. But with some smart execution, we think Scarab has an opportunity to become tremendously popular among creative writers and literature enthusiasts.
Product Page [Scarab]
Download Link [iTunes]
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/q1yFgoBNaww/
Education network to consolidate datacentres
Tom Young, Computing, Tuesday 29 September 2009 at 17:30:00
Janet has issued a request for information from suppliers with a view to
cutting costs
The UK education network Janet is considering consolidating datacentres Janet has issued a request for information from suppliers with a view to All further- and higher-education organisations and Research Councils in the But a number of factors are pressuring Janet to review this strategy, "The education and research sectors already benefit from the Janet network to Janet is currently carrying out a survey of institutions to get a better idea A strategy will be developed over the next three months and Janet is actively
across the higher education sector.
taking action over the next two years.
UK are connected to Janet, but until now computing power has resided in
respective institutions.
according to Dan Perry, head of strategic business at Janet.
provide a high capacity, reliable, resilient enabling solution," he said "Now,
in collaboration with stakeholders and sector and industry representatives, the
need for a sector-wide shared datacentre strategy is clear."
of what users might need from such a solution.
seeking the views of stakeholders and suppliers.
Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2250331/education-network-share
Top 10 antics in outer space
Full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33060783/ns/technology_and_science-space/
Clown rides rocket to greatest show off Earth
Full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33072413/ns/technology_and_science-space/
Senate Unveils Plan To Reduce Emissions
California Senator Barbara Boxer unveils a bill to reduce green house gas emissions by 20% to help slow climate change. The plan uses a cap and trade system and would rework the entire energy economy of the country.
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Full story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113314604&ft=1&f=1001
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
GeoEye spots Iranian nuclear site
Satellite imagery company GeoEye has released a photo of what it says is the controversial and underground Iranian uranium enrichment site that came to light last week. Satellite imagery company GeoEye has released a photo of what it says is the controversial and underground Iranian uranium enrichment site that...
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-346873.html
From Tweet to deal: The art of listening
There's a wealth of information and opinions being shared via social media that can directly impact your business and enable you to identify prospective customers and their concerns, says Genius.com's David Thompson. Commentary - Here's a twist on an old adage: If a prospect Tweets in the forest and...
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-346981.html
Gallery: Tablet Computing From 1888 to 2010
The word “tablet” used to refer to a flat slab for bearing an inscription. Leave it to the tech industry to make it into something far more complicated and confusing.
Scores of products marketed as “tablets” have come and gone, and now — with rumors of imminent tablet computers from Apple, Dell, Microsoft and others — the category seems ripe for a rebound.
“If people can figure out a new device category that consumers will want to buy that isn’t a laptop or a phone, that opens a whole new possibility in markets to conquer,” explains Michael Gartenberg, a tech strategist with Interpret. “That’s why companies continue to invest in this space, and we have a large number of bodies that are littered in this space.”
Let’s take a look at tablets past, present and future. If the upcoming tablets are to succeed, they’ll need to learn from hideous mistakes like the Apple Newton and the Tablet PC.
Origins
Gray’s concept wasn’t merely a flat slab. His patent depicts two instruments: a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is a pen-like device connected to two electric circuits acting as interruptors. Current interruptions are used to translate the transmitter pen’s movements into signals transmitted to the receiver pen to mimic the movements, thereby reproducing the message on a piece of paper.
This description hardly sounds anything like a tablet, but later electronic-handwriting-recognition patents built from the idea of transmitting and receiving instruments, eventually combining them into one slab-shaped device like the tablets we see today.
The Apple Newton
The Newton MessagePad (above) was the first attempt by a major computer company at producing a commercial tablet-type computer for the mass market. Weighing in at about two pounds, Apple’s 1993 foray into tablet computing sported a powerful-for-its-time 20 MHz processor and a pen-centric interface. Writing recognition in the first version was so bad that it was famously mocked in a Doonesbury cartoon, and though it subsequently improved, the Newton never recovered from the initial PR blow. In 1998, Apple discontinued the Newton when Steve Jobs retook the helm as CEO, leaving a small coterie of true believers to keep the product’s memory alive.
PDAs and Smartphones
While no one refers to their iPhone as a “pocket tablet,” these devices are an important stage in the development of tablet computers.
Palm founder Jeff Hawkins learned from Apple’s mistakes and set out to build a pocket-sized computer that was smaller, cheaper, more modest in its ambitions and ultimately more useful than the Newton. He succeeded wildly with the 1996 launch of the Palm Pilot, spawning a long line of pen-based personal digital assistants from Palm, HP, Dell and others.
When Apple returned to the touchscreen world with the iPhone in 2007, it showed that it had paid close attention during the decade since the Newton flopped. The iPhone was simple, small, elegant and did a handful of things — make calls, browse the web, handle e-mail — very well. The fact that it wasn’t an all-purpose portable computer didn’t seem to matter so much compared to its usability and design.
Graphics tablets
Given their specialty, graphics tablets fill a niche for digital artists. Some consumer applications include writing Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters, working with handwriting recognition software to transfer them onto the computer. The stylus can also be used as a mouse.
However, for other languages, including English, the majority of consumers prefer typing on a keyboard for speedier writing, according to Gartenberg. Thus, the graphics tablet fills a niche in the design industry, but it is not a major product category in the consumer market. Wacom is the most prominent manufacturer producing graphics tablets today. (Example above: Wacom Bamboo Fun)
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/V0YKjDUaDEI/
Meet Dell?s New $2,000 Laptop
About as slim as the Adamo and just half a pound heavier, Dell’s new slim laptop is a PC intended for business users who crave beauty and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get it.
At the basic level, the Dell Latitude Z is a notebook with a 16-inch HD display that runs Intel Core 2 Duo processor and offers a choice of up to two 256 GB solid state drives. It comes with multi-touch trackpad that supports gestures such as pinch and zoom.
But the device goes beyond that to offer some smooth features–a new kind of touchscreen, wireless charging and some solid security features.
Lets start with the touchscreen. Instead of a touchscreen display, the Latitude Z has touch functionality built along the frame of the notebook display.� Sliding your fingers vertically along the frame pops up a tool bar that lets you choose common applications like email, photos, and camera.
The Latitude Z has a two megapixel camera that goes significantly beyond the traditional webcam function. Hold your business card in front of the camera and it scans the card and saves the information to Microsoft Outlook contacts.� If you have a sheet of paper, you hold it in front of the camera and can choose to save it as a PDF.
The camera also has face-recognition capability. So, if turned on, it can detect when you step away from the computer and automatically lock the machine then.
Other security features include a fingerprint reader and contact less smart card reader so you can lock the computer by just waving your office badge over it.
Another interesting addition to the laptop is new hardware that supports a ‘Latitude On’ mode. The mode promises instant start up and offers always on connection to email, internet, contacts and calendar.
The idea is to bring the functionality of a BlackBerry that promises always synced email and calendar to a PC, says Steve Belt, vice president of business client engineering at Dell.
“We wanted to create something that would be the best of both worlds,” says Belt. “The Latitude On mode is fast and gives users gobs of battery life.”
In the ‘Latitude On’ mode, users don’t have access to all of Windows applications such as word processing and PowerPoint. Instead they can access email and browse the internet with boot up times of less than a second. The trade off also brings with it extended battery life of up to 12 hours, says Dell.
Compare that to the idle mode of the laptop where boot up time can be a few seconds and emails are checked every few minutes. But then the battery life can extend up to two days. To switch back to Windows, users have to press a special power button on the laptop.
These are nifty features but the question is does it deserve the $2000 price tag–more than the Adamo? And if that’s not enough for a sticker shock, accessories such as wireless docking and an inductive charging stand will cost extra.
More photos of the Latitude Z
Two power buttons allow users to toggle between the ‘Latitude On’ mode and the regular Windows mode.
See Also:
- Dell Adamo Review
- Dell Goes in for Plastic Surgery
- Dell Looks to Turn Netbooks into Navigation Devices
Photo: Latitude Z/Dell
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/5Sq2zRRKhXs/
Labour must use web to campaign, says Brown
Parliamentary Reporter, Computing, Monday 28 September 2009 at 15:16:00
Brown wants Obama-style web tactics for general election campaign
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged Labour Party activists to embrace Speaking during a question and answer session at Brighton ahead of his main Obama raised $500m online during his 21-month presidential campaign and built "We have to use email, Twitter and other social networking. We have to use "There are more people online talking to each other than there are readers
modern
communications media in the battle to win support in time for a general election
late next spring.
conference address, Brown said overseas development secretary Douglas Alexander,
who also heads Labour's campaign team, is briefing delegates behind the scenes
on how to adapt some of the techniques developed during Barak Obama's US
presidential election battle to the Labour cause.
a groundswell of support through emails, social network groups and text
messages.
all these new media to get through, because sometimes we don't get fair
treatment from some newspapers in this country," said Brown.
of some of our newspapers and we have to use that new media to our best
advantage."
Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2250223/labour-web-campaign-brown
Facebook poll on Obama ?assassination? probed
Full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33060855/ns/technology_and_science-security/
Cosmic Log: Lights, camera ... Hubble!
Full story at http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/09/28/2082228.aspx
Carbon Offset Kiosks Help Air Travelers Ditch Guilt
At self-serve kiosks at San Francisco International Airport, travelers can now pay a fee to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of their trip. The idea is that the money goes to stop emissions somewhere else or even to a forest that can absorb the carbon. But will patrons get what they pay for?
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Full story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113280463&ft=1&f=1001
Monday, September 28, 2009
Global home broadband booming
Gartner says that this year the number of households with fixed broadband connections will run past the 400 million mark - with no signs of a slowdown ahead. By year-end, one in five households worldwide will be wired up to the Internet, according to new estimates from Gartner. ...
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-346380.html
Top 5 launches at DemoFall 2009
Now that the show is over and I've spent time with almost all the products introduced there, I've picked out my top winning products, companies, and concepts. Before the DemoFall start-up conference kicked off, I wrote a "What to watch" story covering what I thought would be the hot...
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-346410.html
PSPgo Porn: Sexy Pics of Sony?s Tiny Gaming Console
Sony delivered unto the Gadget Lab a new PSPgo. And while we promised Sony we wouldn’t tell you our opinion of the device just yet, we can show you these pics — almost a dozen of them — of the newest PlayStation portable as it looks coming out of the box.
Sony won’t let us publish a review until Monday. But until then, scope out these delightful naked PSPgo images by Wired.com’s jolly photo editor Jim Merithew.
What time is it? Time to upgrade your PSP. In this m�nage � trois, the original Sony PSP is on top and the PSP Slim is on the bottom, with the PSPgo in the middle.
Just like a parking meter, the PSPgo is big on change.
A side view.
Close up of the controls on the right hand side.
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/fLuj-FNyzsg/
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