Gizmodo

Home Theater Under the Stairs Makes Perfect Sense [Home Theater]

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:40:00 EST

There's nothing fancy about this idea for a home theater, but it's a very clever way to save space in a small house, using the dead space under the stairs to store a ton of tech gear.

The setup was built by Jason Swell, who thought that this was the best way to place his 50-inch Samsung HLR5078W DLP projection television, along with a Dual-Core Mac Mini, Series 2 Tivo, and Comcast HD STB. And rightly so, because it not only saves space, but places the screen at a good distance to watch from the sofas.

The stair hides even more high tech stuff behind that screen: A 1-terabyte hard drive array, an audio amplifier, the 30Mb/s FIOS connection, an EyeTV 500 HD tuner, and a UPS unit. In fact, he uses five tuners and he is able to record three shows concurrently while watching a fourth. [Flickr via Unplggd]

Google Finally Provides Limited Nexus One Phone Support [Google]

Brian Barrett — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:36:16 EST

Google has finally stepped up to the plate to offer a support phone line for Nexus One owners. It's a necessary move, given the volume of customer complaints, but it's also turned out to be a lackluster one.

Nexus One owners can call (888) 48NEXUS between 4am and 7pm PST to speak with a real live person. Unfortunately, though, they'll only be able to get information on the status/shipping information on your existing order. For technical support or repairs and returns, you'll still need to contact HTC customer care (1-888-216-4736). For billing/service support, you'll still need to contact T-Mobile (1-877-453-1304).

Google doesn't have to be its partners' keeper, and if I were a Nexus One owner I'd rather have Google support than not. But it's still got to be terribly frustrating to have three distinct places to turn when you've got a Nexus One issue. [Google via CNET]

Panasonic's First 3DTV (Viera TH-P54VT) Priced at $5,900 [3dTv]

Mark Wilson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:04:00 EST

At CES, we determined that if you insist on buying a 3DTV this year, Panasonic should be on the very short list. Now, the company has priced a 3DTV for the first time—$5,900 when converted from yen.

Though Panasonic announced that they'd be selling 3D plasmas in the US starting this year, they'd never spoken of price until a recent press conference in Japan where they stated that their 54-inch, 3D-capable Viera TH-P54VT will run the equivalent of $5,900.

That's a lot of money. However, the TH-P54VT won't be the cheapest model available from Panasonic this year, as Panasonic promised 3D models as small as 50-inches.

CrunchGear notes that Panasonic seems to be pricing 3D as an $800 upsell over their premium 2D plasmas, though from piecing together prices, even that estimate may have been a bit conservative.

In truth, there's no way 99% of the population will drop $5k on any TV when you can finally score a decent quality, 46-inch LCD or plasma for well under a grand. If Panasonic wants glasses-based 3D to take off, they need to price the tech to sell. [Panasonic via CrunchGear]

When Gadgets and Dating Don't Mix [Badvalentine]

Rosa Golijan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

Gadget lust can get in the way of romance—like when your dinner date checks her email over dessert or live-tweets the entire encounter. We've got our share of these stories, but we really want to hear yours.

Maybe your spouse's reaction to your 18 TB video collection of bendy redheads wasn't all that positive. Maybe you drunk dialed your ex on Skype. Maybe you learned that power cords aren't the best idea when it comes to kinky restraints. Maybe your date rudely checked her email in the middle of dessert and proceeded to pull out a second phone to continue reading after you teasingly confiscated her first. (I'm sorry! Won't do it again. Call me?)

Whatever the details, I want to hear about how gadgets or technology interfered with your love life. So send your stories to me with the subject of "Bad Valentine Tales" and we can share the horror.

Picture by sunshinecity

Atlona AT-HDVieW Scaler Transforms VGA With Audio to Handy HDMI [Peripherals]

Mark Wilson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:35:24 EST

Say you've got an aging laptop that would be perfect for playing WoW or Star Trek Online on your television...if only it had HDMI out—that's where the Atlona AT-HDVieW comes into play.

Running off mere USB power, the Atlona AT-HDVieW takes VGA and 3.5mm audio, combines the signal and outputs it all at 1080P through HDMI. Plus, the scaler/converter communicates with your TV, ensuring the proper output resolution in case 1080P isn't just right.

The Atlona AT-HDVieW will be available later this month for $120. In the meantime, those Klingons will need pay for what they've done on a 13-inch screen. [Atlona via SlashGear]

This Is a Lunar Rainbow [Image Cache]

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:20:00 EST

This is not a rainbow. It's a moonbow, an extremely rare atmospheric phenomenon caused by the near-full moon that it's extremely hard to catch. So hard, in fact, that you can only see its colors thanks to long-exposure photography.

It was captured by Wally Pacholka last January 20, at the Haleakala Crater on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. The moonbow—or lunar rainbow—is caused when the near-full moon at less than 42 degrees in a dark sky. The colors are so faint that the human eye color receptors can't be excited enough for the brain to identify them. Therefore, they appear as white arcs to the naked eye. Only by using long-exposure photography you can reveal the diffraction of the moonlight through the microscopic water droplets suspended in the air.

By the way, that red thing shining on the sky? It's Mars rising. Check out the rest of Wally's amazing images at [Astropics]

Nvidia Optimus Switches Seamlessly Between Amped Up and Power-Sipping Graphics [Nvidia]

Brian Barrett — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST

We've seen a ton of Core i5 notebooks recently, all loaded with Intel's impotent integrated graphics, which are part of the chip. Now, Nvidia's Optimus enables PCs to switch automatically between Intel's crappy integrated graphics and Nvidia's beefier graphics cards.

Optimus is a new technology that allows Intel's integrated GPU to coexist with a discrete Nvidia GPU in a new way, seamlessly alternating between the two depending on the task at hand. It works with GeForce 200M series, GeForce 300M series, next-gen GeForce M, and next-gen Ion GPUs, as well as Intel's Core 2 Duo, Core i3/i5/i7, and Atom N450 processors.

At the most basic level, Optimus is similar to the switchable graphics that Nvidia pioneered a few years ago. But switchable graphics as currently conceived are a pain in the neck: You have to switch manually, there's generally a 5-10 second delay, your screen flickers, you have to shut down certain applications. Optimus still includes a manual option, but otherwise automatically decides what can run on integrated graphics (regular web browsing) and what needs an extra boost (games, Flash video, etc), making the switch for you behind the scenes. It makes the change so quickly by letting the Nvidia GPU handle the processing duties while still employing Intel's IGP as a display controller, as in the diagram above.

One drawback is that Optimus relies on the software to tell it which graphics to employ. That'll be done through an Nvidia verification process and accessed through automatic online updates, but there may be instances where your PC doesn't recognize a software and won't know whether to use the IGP or the Nvidia GPU. You can still switch manually in those cases, but it's an unfortunate extra step.

Performance hasn't been confirmed yet by a third party, but Nvidia posits that Optimus is up to an 8x improvement across apps and games than Intel's integrated solution. And because it only kicks in when needed, there's purportedly not much of a battery drain, depending on how often you use intensive graphics.

Nvidia says there will be more than 50 notebooks packing Optimus by this summer, although today it's launching only on a few Asus notebooks like the UL50Vf, an ultraportable which houses both a Core2Duo SU7300 and a GeForce G210M.

What we don't know—but what we strongly suspect—is if Optimus is the solution Apple has been waiting for before refreshing its Macbook line. The hiccup: currently, Nvidia says that Optimus is only compatible with Windows 7. But with the Macworld just around the corner, we may be seeing Optimus Macbook Pros sooner than later. [Nvidia]

EcoModo - The Best of Treehugger [Roundups]

Jaymi Heimbuch — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:47:15 EST

This week on TreeHugger, new sea toys for the super rich; is the liquid terminator becoming reality?; printers that don't use ink or paper; pictures of Earth get Tweeted from space, and more!

New "Underwater Plane" Plane From Virgin Offers Deep Sea Rides for the Super Rich
Virgin Limited Edition has come up with a new exclusive submarine built to "fly" in an airplane-like manner down to depths as far as 40 meters. It's the the Necker Nymph, a three-person "aero-submarine" and it's the latest toy for the super rich. And of course, it makes an eco-claim.

Using Mobile Phone Towers to Reduce Sewer Overflow... What?
Cell phone towers may be used to measure rainfall in real-time; the rain interferes with the radio signals, and this interference can be measured with "greater spatial resolution than traditional point measurements provided by rain gauges." How is this green? Well, in general it could provide better data about our planet and changing rain patterns, but on the more practical level, it could help reduce the dumping of polluted water in lakes and rivers.

Feeding the Grid By Bike: Electricity Generating Gyms (Video)
There's something very charming about Dan and Denise Rojas of Green Power Science. Not every energy project they pursue is the most practical in the world, but from huge DIY solar collectors to solar flash cooking an egg in ten seconds, you certainly couldn't blame these guys for a lack of experimentation. And now they are tackling one of those perennial questions that keeps popping up in our comments box-couldn't gyms be tied up to the grid to create power?

New Pictures of Earth Tweeted From Space
In what is perhaps the final frontier for Internet access, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared photos he had taken of Earth from the International Space Station viahis Twitter page. In addition to scenic locations and sprawling urban centers, Noguchi's photos provide some of the first looks of Haiti's capital, Port-Au-Prince, justweeks after it was devastated by the recent earthquake.

Move Over OLEDs: Scientists Create Cheap, Fully Recyclable Lighting Material
Swedish and American researchers have just developed a fully recyclable lighting component with what Science Daily is terms a "new super material": graphene.

Greener Gadgets 2010: What's the Greenest Gadget of The Year?
The Greener Gadgets competition has begun. Gearing up for the Greener Gadgets conference in New York City on February 25, the Consumer Electronics Association has kicked off a competition to see what is the greenest gadget idea of the year. Will it be the Orange Solar Tent, which charges up your camp site? Or AUG, a barcode system that helps you find locally produced goods? Or will it be Corky, a computer mouse made of cork that is charged by the movement of your hand? You get to decide! Check out the 18 entrants and find out how to vote.

Highgear Solarpod, A Snappy Little Solar Charger
Ski magazine included this in their January list of "Stuff We Like", and it does seem kinda nifty. The SolarPod is a small, lightweight solar charger, than can fill its 3.7V 650 mAh Lithium-Ion battery in eight hours of direct sunlight... But the aspect most appealing to me is the karabiner style clip, that allows it to be readily latched on to stuff.

LED Flashlight Combines Solar and Pull Power So You're Never In The Dark
Solar powered flashlights are great, but you have to wait for a charge. Pull-cord flashlights are great but you have to work for a charge. But what about one that combines both so if you're short on light or short on energy, you still get a charge? The ECOPower Solar Pull Light combines two sources of reliable alternative energy to make sure you've always got a light in a pinch.

Waste-Less Desktop Printer Uses Plastic Paper and Heat for Erasable Document Printing
Going paperless is always on the top of mind when it comes to greening an office. But it's tough to ditch paper in all cases. There could be a solution to this bind. A new printer called the "PrePeat" uses sheets made of heat-sensitive PET and can print, then erase and reprint on the same page over and over, eliminating the need for ink cartridges and plastic. Sound like a dream come true for a green office? Maybe - but it has quite a price attached to it. Check out how it works in a video.

Is Liquid Terminator Robot One Step Closer to Reality?
Hydrogels are not new. Contact lenses and replacement skin are just two examples of uses of these high-water content gels. But hydrogels currently suffer from problems like being too brittle or quite soft. This week in Nature, scientists announce the invention of a new type of hydrogel, one that could replace plastics and... it is self-healing. Imaginative souls will immediately speculate on the amazing applications materials engineers might dream up. Visionaries have gone so far as to compare this new hydrogel to the liquid robot from Terminator 2. What is the trick?

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Apple Aperture 3 Brings a Little Bit of iPhoto to Pro Photos With Faces and Places [Apple]

matt buchanan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:30:45 EST

It's been a long time coming, but Apple's latest pro photo software, Aperture 3, is here. Apple's claiming over 200 new features, pulling in iPhoto stalwarts like Faces and Places, and new slideshows with HD video.

Faces and Places work just like iPhoto, using face detection and tagging, so you can organize photos by people or by where you took them, though now it uses thumbnails of photos that you can actually drag-and-drop photos onto a map. It's the same Faces engine, but you can restrict face recognition to particular projects, instead of having it scour your whole library. With Places, it works with GPS trackers in a pretty neat way: When you import your tracklog, all you have to do is tell it where the first photo was taken, and then using timestamps, it'll automatically plot the rest.

Also like iPhoto, you can now upload directly to Facebook and Flickr. Since they're heavily targeting the hardcore iPhoto user who now wields a DSLR, not only have they streamlined the interface to make it a more natural transition, when you import your iPhoto library, it preserves all of your image adjustments, events, places and faces.

Brushes brings non-destructive painting effects to Aperture, with 15 Quick Brushes for effects like dodge and burn. You can actually apply or remove any adjustment—like contrast or saturation or curves—using brushes. With its new edge detection tech, you can, for example, boost contrast over the whole image, and then use the brush + edge detection to cleanly wipe the effect off of the sky. Adjustment presets are radically improved too—you can save combos of adjustments, like boosted sharpness and saturation with a cooler white balance, and they can be imported and exported.

One of the new things for pros is that they've rewritten the way the database works, so you can now sync and merge libraries. Which means you can take a self-contained library out on the road, do a bunch of imaging work, and then merge it back to your master library, and it'll sync just the changes you made while you were out.

Perhaps the most interesting bit from the creator standpoint are slideshows that integrate photos, audio, text and HD video that can be exported to iTunes and work with the iPhone and iPod touch, though we'll have to see how powerful it really is.

Apple doesn't mention it, but the thing I'm really hoping they added a lot of? Speed. Speed. Speed. Speed. Especially after using Adobe's Lightroom 3 Beta. Since Aperture 3's fully 64-bit on Snow Leopard, I'm pretty hopeful, actually. The bad news is that's restricted to Intel Macs only, it looks like. It's available today for $200 for the full version, or $100 to upgrade, with a 30-day free trial here.

Apple Releases Aperture 3

New Features Include Faces, Places & Brushes

CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto® '09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.

"Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets."

"Aperture 3 gets it right," said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. "The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they're so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible."

"I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it's now an unbelievable imaging tool as well," said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. "I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3."

Aperture 3 allows you to organize large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organize your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organization process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven't yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone® photos.

The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.

Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes® to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch®. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.

Pricing & Availability

Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $99 (US). A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS® X Snow Leopard® on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

© 2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Aperture, iPhoto, iPhone, iTunes, iPod touch, Apple Store and Snow Leopard are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

[Aperture]

Seagate Savvio 10K.4 Drive Puts 600GB Into 2.5-Inch Form [Seagate]

Brian Barrett — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST

The Seagate Savvio 10K.4 is an enterprise storage HDD, which means you're likely not going to just go out and buy one. But it's notable for just how much information it can fit into one tiny disk drive.

Its 600GB capacity is twice what's currently available on the market, and Seagate's asserting that it's 25% more reliable than any other drive, with an annualized failure rate of just .44%. And while it'd be nice to have one of my very own, at least I know that it's about to make some IT manager out there very happy.

SEAGATE® SHIPS WORLD'S HIGHEST-CAPACITY, MOST RELIABLE

SMALL FORM FACTOR ENTERPRISE DRIVE: THE SAVVIOÒ 10K.4 HARD DRIVE

Enterprise storage systems can now move to 600GB capacity, 2 million hour MTBF solution

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. - February 9, 2010 - Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) today announced worldwide shipments of its Savvio® 10K.4 hard disk drive (HDD), the world's highest-capacity and most reliable 2.5-inch enterprise-class drive. Built for the demands of enterprise servers and to enable new levels of data density in external storage arrays, Savvio 10K.4 doubles the capacity of its nearest competitor to 600GB. It is also the first HDD to achieve an unprecedented 2 million hours Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) reliability rating.

As the industry's only fourth generation, field-proven, 2.5-inch HDD designed for the enterprise,
Savvio 10K.4 also features Protection Information for enhanced protection of data-in-flight, a self-encrypting drive (SED) option for the ultimate protection of sensitive data-at-rest and PowerChoice™, which allows the Savvio 10K.4 hard drive to deliver improved power savings during idle.

"Our customers face challenging storage needs requiring the most efficient use of space and power while maintaining the highest performance possible," said Howard Shoobe, senior manager, Dell Storage Product Management. "The new 2.5-inch 10K-rpm 600GB capacity point allows a doubling of capacity within the same rack space of current 3.5-inch 15K 600GB drives while increasing overall system-level performance and decreasing power usage."

The combined features of Savvio 10K.4 deliver greater overall value and can reduce the total cost of ownership to IT organizations and administrators eager to optimize their data center's power and performance efficiency. Leveraging the enterprise 2.5-inch small form factor as its platform, Savvio 10K.4 serves as a powerful storage building block when compared to 3.5-inch based systems.

"A transition to 2.5-inch enterprise-class HDDs by server and storage system OEMs is building momentum," said John Rydning, IDC's research director for hard disk drives. "There continues to be nearly insatiable demand for digital content accessed via numerous applications and devices, content that is increasingly delivered from storage systems equipped with high capacity enterprise-class HDDs such as Seagate's Savvio® 10K.4."

Trexa Electric Car Platform Will Cost Upwards Of $15,999 [Cars]

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:06:18 EST

No longer do you need to fantasize about buying a Tesla, now that Trexa has released pricing details of its "scalable lithium-drive platform," (aka the base for building your own electric car).

$15,999 is a fair price to pay for the starting block of your new car, when other electric cars can set you back more than $100,000 (for a Tesla, anyway—Nissan's Leaf costs around $30,000.) Still, who hasn't dreamed of building their very own car? And as it's electric, you'll be saving the planet, and your wallet.

The starting price is for the base model, which has a top speed of 100mph, an acceleration of 0-60mph in 8 seconds, charge time of four hours and a 105 mile range. [Trexa]

Apple Store Down—Time For Twitter To Crash With Speculation [Apple]

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:45:49 EST

Gasp! Whatever could it be? I'm hoping for new MacBook Pros, what about you? [Apple - Thanks assorted tipsters!]

Samsung Monte S5620 Phone Gets Early Reveal Prior To MWC [Phones]

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:44:24 EST

A few leaks here and there, and voila—Samsung's Monte S5620 is revealed ahead of MWC. Running the TouchWiz 2.0 Plus OS, it has full HTML browsing and the usual array of social networking tricks.

A 3.0-inch capacitive WQVGA TFT touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and Google Maps 3.0 seems to be the crux of it, with memory listed as 200MB, expandable via the microSD card slot. Yes, it's a budgetphone, but it's the first that we've seen using TouchWiz 2.0 Plus, (with the Jet, Omnia II and Tocca Ultra being some of the phones using TouchWiz 2.0), so hopefully we'll see a few new UI features when we catch a glimpse of it next week at MWC. [Samsung]

Navigon Updates MobileNavigator iPhone App With Facebook and Twitter Connectivity, Panorama View 3D Mapping [IPhone Apps]

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:30:58 EST

Not only has Navigon added a bunch of new features to its iPhone app, the price is $20 cheaper—although if you want Traffic Live and 3D maps, it still adds up to $100. Nonetheless, it sounds worth it.

The update has a few nifty angles—there's the connection to your Facebook or Twitter accounts for updating friends on your current position, destination and time you're due to arrive; the aforementioned Panorama View 3D views (which use NASA height and terrain data) and personalized route delivery, called MyRoutes.

The addition of NASA's data is a nice touch, meaning you'll be able to find out more about the location you're in, such as elevations and shadows. Discover a hill before you reach it—and maneuver around it if you're not keen on heights.

MyRoutes, on the other hand, collects data on your preferences and habits, giving you customized routes along side the fastest/easiest ways to reach your destination.

Here we come to the price. I mentioned before that it'll cost $100 if you want the full service for your iPhone or iPod Touch, with the actual price of the MobileNavigator app being lowered by $20 to $69.99. The Traffic Live has also been discounted slightly, from $24.99 to $19.99 (only available until the 15th of February), and the Panorama View 3D will cost $9.99. Those who bought the app before will get the update for free, according to Navigon.

Yes, it's pricey. Yes, it's not far off what you'd spend on a stand-along satnav. But as our iPhone navigation battlemodo deduced last August, the MobileNavigator is the best money can buy. And that was before all these new updates.

Notion Ink's Adam Tablet Will Have Flash, Output At 1080p and Have Battery Life 2x Longer Than iPad [Tablets]

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:23:17 EST

Flash, a longer battery life, outputting video at 1080p, a $1m app competition—these are just some of the ways Notion Ink is hoping its Android-powered Adam tablet will be able to win customers over.

The tablet has gone through several different guises since renders were unveiled in December. From the slick silver-edged device, to the roll-topped plastic prototype at CES, the latest renders suggest the final design will be more in keeping with that cheaper-looking prototype, although much slimmer. They're reportedly considering launching two different models, with the key difference being how thin they are—either 12.9mm or 11.6mm, which suggests different displays being used.

Pitting it against the iPad, CEO Rohan Shravan told SlashGear that due to the Nvidia chip and Pixel Qi screen, the Adam will have a battery life at least two times longer. Plus, it'll be able to output 1080p video whereas Apple's tablet can only manage up to 576p, AND they're exploring the use of Flash, which will apparently be shown off next week.

Recognizing that despite offering more spec than the iPad they still have a battle on their hands, they're encouraging development for the Adam with a $1m bounty being put up for creating apps. They haven't officially announced the competition yet, but as soon as we hear we'll let you know how you can put your creative genius to work. [SlashGear]

LG Mini GD880 Phone Has 16:9 Ratio And Looks Hot To Trot [Phones]

Kat Hannaford — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:36:24 EST

This LG Mini GD880 is so good-looking it makes my brain hurt at the injustice of it (presumably) running LG's S-Class OS, and not Android. Still, there's some nice spec to back up this slim 16:9 phone.

Just like the Chocolate phone before it, the display has a 16:9 aspect ratio, in this case at 3.2-inches. LG hasn't released many details about the internals just yet, but we do know it has a 5.0-megapixel camera with face detection, Wi-Fi, and HSDPA 7.2Mbps connectivity.

The lack of buttons, metal finishings and square corners make it look like it'll be part of their more "premium" range of handsets, so expect to pay a pretty penny if you want it PAYG, otherwise it'll most likely go for the usual month contract fees when it goes on sale in March in Europe—with worldwide availability expected shortly. I'm going to harass LG for confirmation of the OS, but with Mobile World Congress starting this weekend, I'm sure we'll find out a whole load more then. [LG]

Software Bug Causes Toyota Recall of Almost Half a Million New Hybrid Cars [Cars]

Brian Lam — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:16:22 EST

Toyota just announced a recall of its 2010 hybrid cars. Four hundred thousand worth. The reason? A change in "brake feeling" caused by faulty antilock braking software. There is no fix for cars on the road yet.

This problem, unrelated to the sticky gas pedal issue that other drivers complained about. But I'm still wondering what exactly is bothering our Prius-loving friend Woz, who claims he has a faulty cruise control issue that is software related, not mechanical.

Remember that old joke about if cars were as crash prone as computers? Yeah, not funny in 2010. [CNN]

Some Good News, and Some Bad News, About Adobe Flash 10.1 [Flash]

matt buchanan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:00:45 EST

The good news first: Adobe's promising Flash 10.1 is going to hit smartphones—Android, WebOS, Windows Mobile—and desktops in the "first half" of this year, a slightly less squishy date. And it'll come over the air. The bad part?

Well it's bad for Android, anyway: You're gonna need Android 2.1. At least. Because it provides some access Adobe needs to make the Flash magic happen. So, sorry everything but the Droid and Nexus One, at least for the moment. The "over the air" thing is also kind of "up in the air" as to what that means: It could come from your carrier, it could come from your phonemaker, or failing all else, it could come from Adobe. Which means, Flash isn't necessarily going to hit your phone at the same time as everybody else's. Depends on your phone. But, they're betting that over half of smartphones—53 percent—will have Flash Player by 2012. Not surprisingly, Adobe says Flash 10.1 is going to be all over some tablets, too, with accelerated performance on Nvidia's Tegra 2, Qualcomm's Snapdragon (like what's in the Nexus One), and Freescale's i.MX515.

Lastly, Adobe would like you to know that this whole Adobe vs. HTML5 thing is silly, since they totally support HTML5, like all web standards. They love them some web standards, they say. But! They would also like you to note that HTML5 standardization is years away, and Flash works right now. And the reason you notice crappier performance on the Mac is sorta the Mac's fault, they say, because they need more access to APIs and they get half-assed crash reports. Plus, Adobe claims, apps tend to run faster in Windows than OS X generally, because performance is about 20 percent worse using OS X's GCC compiler, not to mention performance varies even within an OS, since Flash runs 20 percent faster in IE8 than Firefox, for instance. Either way, performance will be better on Mac with Flash 10.1, since it's shifting over to using CoreAnimation.

Okay, you can resume your "death to Flash!" chants now (even though it's not going anywhere for a while, people!). [Adobe]

Publishers Tell Google and Their Ebook Plans to Get Bent [Rumor]

matt buchanan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:13:05 EST

The vision of ebooks Google has presented to publishers: allowing people to print copies, cut and paste portions, and paying publishers 63 percent of the revenue. The vision the publishers presented in return: Go eff yourself.

That's right, Google's finally getting around to opening an ebook store too—called Google Editions, and it's been in the works for a while—the idea being that people will be able to read the books on any internet-connected device.

What's incredible is how the Times says negotiations are now proceeding. Now that Apple and Amazon are fighting over publishers and their books—imagine how oh-so-hotly desired they must suddenly feel—publishers have real power to negotiate, and it comes with wondrous effects, like getting an information monolith like Google to actually back down. There will be no printing, no cutting and pasting. And 70 percent, like what Apple and Amazon are now offering, is apparently starting to sound dandier to Google. Another point Google gave in on, surprisingly, is search. Previously, they planned to make up to 20 percent of every book they sold through the store searchable, but that wasn't kosher with some of the publishing execs, so now they can choose to opt out of search.

Google finally jumping into selling ebooks, with the idea of being the ebook seller to everyone—or at least, everyone not toting a special reading device, just your average thing with a screen and internet access—could definitely shake things up even more than they already are. And you know, a Chrome OS tablet with an ebook store would be slightly more interesting as a cheaper iPad rival.

Publishers should enjoy the attention, and power, while it lasts. Because it won't. [NYT]

Parisian Oops: A More Realistic Google Ad [Google]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:00:00 EST

Sure, Google's Superbowl ad was cute and left us giggling, but how would a French romance powered by Google really go? [UCB—Thanks, Mackenzie!]

An HD Video Tour of the International Space Station [Space]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:20:00 EST

If you're a huge space buff, you might not be surprised by anything in this video tour of the International Space Station. But it's still great to just get a simple walkthrough of this incredible project and all its corners.

Anyone else get a bit bit light-headed watching all those twists and turns? [CrunchGear]

Apple Job Posting Suggests Cameras in Future iPads [Rumors]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:05:01 EST

Apple's hiring again and this time they're looking for "Performance QA Engineers" in their "iPad Media" department. Based on the description for the job, we might be seeing an increase in iPad camera rumors:

The Media Systems team is looking for a software quality engineer with a strong technical background to test still, video and audio capture and playback frameworks. Build on your QA experience and knowledge of digital camera technology (still and video) to develop and maintain testing frameworks for both capture and playback pipelines.

Based on the demand for someone to work on video capture frameworks for a device which can't even capture video we could presume that Apple's exploring some future options. As if we didn't already think that. [Apple via MacRumors]

It May Be Creepy, But This Case's Ad Is Popcorn-Worthy [Wtf]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:40:00 EST

I hate spiders, I hate horror movies, and I hate gimmicky computer cases. But I love the commercial for the Lian Li Mini-atx case. Maybe it's just because it reminded me of Steve Irwin.

There aren't details on availability and pricing for this case, but who cares when the promo video alone is fun. [CrunchGear]

Prepaid Cellphone Users Less Likely to Return Calls [Data]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST

Some folks decided to study the calling habits of 5.3 million people over an 18-month period. 350 million phone calls later, they came to an almost obvious conclusion: Prepaid cellphone users make and return fewer calls than their postpaid counterparts.

You can click on the image to take a closer look at the graphs.

Initially the study done at the Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Finland, was intended to analyze reciprocity—the likelihood of an individual receiving as many calls in return as he or she makes. But during the course of the research, a clear difference was discovered in the calling habits of prepaid and postpaid users:

Postpaid users tend to be more prolific, having on average 5.41 people they call. Prepaid users, by contrast, have only 3.41 contacts on average (although the notion of "average" is a little strange here since there is a very long tail on these distributions).

Postpaid users also made about 10 times as many calls as prepaid users while 25 percent of prepaid users had odd relationships in which "one participant makes more than 80 percent of all calls."

Technology Review suggests that the differences in calling habits could be explained by the fact that prepaid users are more likely to be younger individuals, but I'd go as far as considering that the unlimited mobile-to-mobile or weekend benefits of postpaid plans may play a role as well. [Technology Review via NY Times Bits]

Best Buy's MacBook Pro SKUs Go Missing, Might Mean Core i5 Refresh Soon [Rumor]

Jason Chen — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:46:06 EST

The upcoming i5 MacBook Pro refresh might be closer than we thought, with TUAW discovering that Best Buy emptied their systems of the current version. Since they're not likely to go MacBook-less for long, that points to soon. [TUAW]

The Scale That Thinks It's a Rug [Concepts]

Brian Barrett — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:20:00 EST

This concept scale that doubles as a decorative rug might—might—be the thing to finally get me taking better care of myself.

Designer Kwan Sunman's Rug With Scale project does away with the cold, judgmental form factors of your average bathroom scale, ensconcing it instead in a warm and inviting rug. The readout from the scale shows up on a small red tag that illuminates its user's current weight, previous weight, and goal weight to help chart progress.

The rug portion is also removable (for washing) and interchangeable (for personal style preference). That is, it will be, if this ever becomes an actual, buyable product. Fill in your own "worth the weight" pun here, if so inclined. [Red Dot via Yanko]

Google Wants To Control All Communication [Google]

Jason Chen — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:47:24 EST

Google's two new announcements: integrating a Twitter-like service into Gmail and a goal of a real-time speech translation service shows what direction they're taking the company: Into the space between you and every other human being on the planet.

To be fair, these two developments are really far apart in their delivery dates. The Gmail status update could come as soon as tomorrow, whereas the the speech-to-text-to-speech translation system is still a ways out. You can definitely see just how much work Google needs to do by trying to read your Google Voice voicemail transcriptions. (Voice search works better on Android 2.1 because you're talking slower and enunciating.) But both these features point in the same direction many of the company's other products have been hinting at. Here's a list of Google's major products, in case you forgot, and which sector of communication they want to dominate.

• Google Voice: This is a big one, and it'll be the most natural interface for Google to slot in the voice-translation into. If you're using it the way Google wants you to use it, you're already piping all your voice calls and SMS through Google's tubes. And refining speech to text gives them a good idea of your interests and what you're talking about, allowing them to better serve up the relevant ads to you during calls.

• Gmail: Having access to at least one end of everyone's email conversations, outside of business emails, gives Google the ability to be a gateway for most of your written communications. But that's not enough for Google, which is why they developed...

• Google Wave: It's email, message boards, chat rooms and collaboration software all in one, except every participant needs a Google account. This closes that "openness" loophole that email has, and forces everyone into Google's biosphere. So this, and Gmail, should make sure that every medium-length communique passes through Google's maw for analysis. But what about shorter and longer forms? Update: Thanks commenters, for reminding me that Google made Wave open, so people can create their own Wave servers to talk to each other with the Wave protocol. The point still remains, that if you were going to use a service, wouldn't you rather use the service from the company that created the protocol, for performance and feature reasons?

• Google Docs: For longer documents.

• Google Talk: For short blasts of instant messaging, video chats and some audio chatting.

• Picasa and YouTube: Communication doesn't have to be all text-based, you putting your photos and videos online count too.

• Android and Chrome OS: By getting you down at the operating system level, Google can theoretically know every kind of communication you perform. It knows who you talk to, how you do it and when you do it. It can even shape the how by delivering the experience themselves.

• Everything else. There's Checkout, Finance, Maps, Reader, News and other apps, which fill in the other forms of communication or expression that aren't quite covered by the major products above. One major missing piece is social networking, where Google basically failed before with its Orkut service (except for Brazil), so this new Twitter/Gmail hybrid might be their next entrance into the space.

But why do they want these things? Why would Google want to be the middleman between you and the world? To sell you ads, of course. And don't think Google is going to stop at just helping you talk over the internet or over the phone, they're going to reach into meatspace as well. How? One step is making that speech-to-speech translation portable, so you can do a sort of near-field communication with someone else with the same device while at the same time being able to look them in the face. Then, blast you two with the appropriate ads on the billboard next to you.

Why Paint Your Room When You Can Get a Color-Changing Wall Instead [Concept]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:40:00 EST

See this wall of colorful squares? It's actually a concept design consisting of a bunch of small triangular panels which can be spun 'round on whim to change the way your room looks. Or to spell out naughty things.

Ok, so the concept photos only spell out "S-E-X" which won't make too many people giggle and blush, but just imagine the potential ways you could satisfy your inner decorating perv. And even without that silliness, it's still a pretty neat thought that you could completely change the look of a room without having to reach for the paint buckets. [Yanko Design]

Microsoft Blames Your Laptop—Not Windows 7—For Battery Issues [Microsoft]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST

After upgrading to Windows 7, some users saw a new warning message suggesting that they need to replace their laptops' batteries. Some screamed "bug," some shouted "conspiracy,' but Microsoft denies that anything's wrong.

In an entry on Microsoft's MSDN blog, Windows division President Steven Sinofsky explains that the warning message is a new feature in Windows 7 and that's why some users are seeing it for the first time on laptops which appeared to run just fine under a different OS:

To the very best of the collective ecosystem knowledge, Windows 7 is correctly warning batteries that are in fact failing and Windows 7 is neither incorrectly reporting on battery status nor in any way whatsoever causing batteries to reach this state. In every case we have been able to identify the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement.

He continues to say that this has all the "appearance of Windows 7 'causing' the change in performance, but in reality all Windows 7 did was report what was already the case."

It's not their OS, it's your laptop's lousy battery. Or at least that's the story we're sticking with for now. [MSDN Blog via CNET]

Our Price of TV Loyalty: 20% Off the Top [Cable]

Mark Wilson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:20:00 EST

For a 20% savings, more than 50% cable and satellite subscribers are likely to jump ship to save money. But Telco TV (services like AT&T U-verse) have a much, much more loyal following. Anecdotally, would you agree? [Multiplayblog via engadgetHD]

China Brings Down 180,000-Member Hacker Training Site [China]

Mark Wilson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:17:29 EST

Black Hawk Safety Net, an online hacker training resource with 12,000 paying members and another 170,000 free members, was brought down recently by Chinese authorities.

Only three operators of the site were arrested, while the official site itself, 3800hk.com, was put out of commission when the company's 9 servers were seized. The site provided resources on hacking techniques and trojan software.

Black Hawk Safety net had been attributed with a 2007 attack on—wait for it—an internet cafe that put dozens—dozens—of poor souls out of internet access for 60 hours. [Yahoo via PopSci] [Image]

Remainders - The Things We Didn't Post: Tricky Tricky Edition [Remainders]

Kyle VanHemert — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST

In today's Remainders: tricks of all sorts. Wisair cuts some cords with their wireless display adapters; Netflix warns the FCC of potential loopholes in the Comcast/NBC merger; the inimitable BrussPup plays with our heads (and ping pong balls); and more.

Air Ball
I'm all for eliminating cords and wires whenever possible, so I was excited to hear that Wisair's wireless display adapters were coming to Macs by the end of March in products from at least four OEMs. My excitement evaporated when I looked at InFocus's Wisair setup, which incorporates a display, speakers, mouse and keyboard into one unsightly package. If you're looking to get rid of wires for aesthetic reasons, like me, you'll share my hope that some of the other Wisair-based systems will be a little sleeker and a little more flexible. Because making me use your keyboard, mouse, display, and speakers isn't removing clutter from my desk, it's adding it. [Engadget]

Tech TV
It seems that with each passing year the Super Bowl's commercials get a little less exciting. Or maybe it's me getting a little more cynical. Either way—Parisian Love aside—seeing high profile, memorable tech commercials during football's big game is increasingly uncommon. Thankfully, Computer World offers a trip down memory lane, collecting the ten most memorable Super Bowl tech ads of all time, starting all the way back with Xerox's "Monks" spot from 1976 and continuing up through today. There's no sudsy Megan Fox, but maybe that's a good thing. [Computer World]

To Xfinity and Beyond
Netflix is understandably worried about the impending Comcast / NBC merger. In a recent FCC filing, they warned that if net neutrality policies aren't strengthened and enforced, Comcast could effectively use a loophole to promote NBC content on its own streaming services and keep that content off of others. And they have good reason to worry: as physical disc-dealing loses ground to streaming services, Netflix will have to keep up with companies who own the content and the means of providing it to stay in the game. [Washington Post]

Pup Pong
BrussPup, not content simply to blow our minds with his painters tape anamorphic illusions, posted "iBall" last night, a tech-trick of a slightly different variety. With some very careful timing, he plays a video of a ping pong ball back across four different displays, making look like he's dumping the ball from device to device. Pretty neat. Also, keep an eye out for pieces of the glowing Nintendo controller illusion that are still up in his hallway. That's dedication. Or maybe laziness. [BrussPup on YouTube]

BirdBox Wakes You Up With the Sound of Hungry Birds In Your iPhone [IPhone]

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:46:45 EST

I love little birds. They are so cute. And they taste delicious and crunchy fried in beer batter. If you want them to wake you up, however, try BirdBox.

BirdBox is a $12.75 bedside bird home with a matching free application that turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a cuckoo alarm clock. You know, because nothing says good morning like "the sound and sight of nesting birds" eating regurgitated bugs and worms. [Luckybite via Boing Boing]

The RFID Record Player Is a Real World Cover Flow [DIY]

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:40:00 EST

I like this idea by Matt Brown: He tags 45rpm vinyl records with RFID stickers to play songs in a turntable that doesn't turn at all.

Inside the fake player he placed an RFID reader, which gets the information from the RFID-tagged record. Once it detects it—and the user moves the tonearm into position—the record player starts reproducing a playlists. Matt wanted to be able to touch the songs, like people used to do back in the day, when people wore funny shirts and pants and watched Three Is Company in analog TV. If you want all the inconvenience of physical records combined all the inconveniences of cold digital music, you absolutely need this. I know I do. [Real Tomato]

AMD's Plan to Take Back Laptops: The Llano "APU" [Processors]

John Herrman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:32:52 EST

If you want a laptop with graphics and battery performance that isn't totally embarrassing, you're basically stuck with some combination of Intel and Nvidia gear. Now, finally, AMD's Llano, a CPU/GPU combo, or "APU", could give us a serious alternative.

AMD running with the "Application Processor Unit" name for the guts of their Fusion processors isn't as gimmicky as it sounds, because the Llano is genuinely unique: It's four processing cores and a DX11-capable GPU on a single processor die. In simpler terms, this means that AMD has created a tidy little system on a chip, aimed at a few portable markets. In the simplest terms, they've shrunk laptop graphics and processing into a single chip, which saves power and space.

So! Not much is known about the Llano right now, but we can pick out some broad themes. The chip's power regulation is novel, monitoring specific chip functions to gauge power draw rather than sensors. The graphics capabilities, though still generally a mystery, wouldn't have to be very good at all to trump Intel's lame integrated graphics. In other words, as Ars notes, this could be the first real baby of the still torrid AMD/ATI marriage, and the start of an ATI comeback, at least in laptops.

Or, given that we're not expected to see these processors in products until 2011, when everything could be completely different, it could be none of these things. [Ars Technica]

Android 2.1 Update for Droid Will Begin Rolling Out This Week [Android]

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:28:22 EST

We knew that the Droid's Android 2.1 update is on its way, but apparently we won't be waiting long: According to Motorola's official Facebook page, it's "happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to Droid will start to roll out this week." [Engadget]

Falling Down the Guggenheim Museum Hall [Architecture]

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST

JDS Architects thought that this trampoline net spiral—which would allow people to bounce from the top floor to the bottom of the Guggenheim Museum rotunda—could be the funniest thing ever. I completely agree. And so do ambulance-chasing lawyers.

Unfortunately—or fortunately for the people who may have broken their necks—it is just a concept, part of the "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum" exhibition. The exhibition explores different formulas to fill the open space inside the famous Frank Lloyd Wright's building. [DesignBoom]

Google Knocks $200 Off Nexus One "Equipment Recovery Fee" [Google]

Brian Barrett — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:59:00 EST

It will no longer cost you more to cancel a Nexus One contract than it does to buy a Nexus One. But Google's still imposing a $150 "equipment recovery fee" on top of T-Mobile's $200 ETF.

The change comes on the heels of an FCC inquiry into out-of-control termination fees. Up until now, Nexus One owners were expected to pay $350 in the event of canceling or downgrading their T-Mobile contracts within 120 days. With the new Terms of Sale, however:

"You agree to pay Google an equipment subsidy recovery fee (the "Equipment Recovery Fee") in the event you cancel or downgrade your wireless plan within 120 days of activation of wireless service. If you activate a new line of service with T-Mobile, your Equipment Recovery Fee will be $150 USD if you cancel or downgrade your service plan within 120 days of activation."

Obviously, Google doesn't want folks selling phones under contract for profit, and they claim not to make any money off of equipment recovery. But while $150 extra is better than $350 extra, it's still a huge fine to impose on someone for changing their mind. [Google Terms of Sale via WSJ]

Netflix Streaming Getting a 1080p Upgrade (Update: Or Not?) [NetFlix]

John Herrman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:29:38 EST

Hey there, mixed messaging! As Netflix makes the case to Wii owners that they really aren't missing anything by not streaming HD, word from CNET is that Netflix instant streaming is making the jump to 1080p, with 5.1 audio. UPDATED

CNET doesn't have any info on which devices will support the upgrade, how much of their video library will be encoded in 1080p (only about six percent of their current catalog stream at 720p), or when exactly the new content will be available, though they can offer a vague "later this year." What we do know is that Xbox already streams 1080p over Silverlight, the same tech that Netflix uses, though its Zune store, and that it looks pretty great.

One can only assume new content will work with the Xbox 360 and PS3, though it's not clear if some Blu-ray players and set-top boxes have the power to decode 1080p video. 1080p streaming on the Wii, and through many computers browsers, is completely out of the question. Netflix, by the way, is totally fine with that—as long as people are streaming something, Netflix is happy.

UPDATE: Says CNET:

Netflix now claims that it incorrectly acknowledged 1080p streaming in the company's 2010 development road map. A Netflix representative has clarified that the company plans to bring 5.1 surround and closed captioning to its streaming HD videos later this year, though 1080p Watch Instantly is not on the books for this year.

So, 5.1 audio is coming this year, and 1080p video probably isn't—at least, that's the official line. [CNET Web Crawler]

Beautiful Planet Posters Are Space Geek Catnip [Space]

Adam Frucci — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:20:00 EST

Ross Berens' gorgeous planetary posters feature incredible artwork and real-deal factoids on all eight of our planets, plus our old friend Pluto. Space aficionados, you'll want to check these out. [Cargo Collective via Kottke]