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From: Infinite Loop
"iPad hoopla" has passed, according to a survey by electronics shopping site Retrevo, and consumers have lost interest after the product's unveiling less than two weeks ago. More than twice as many respondents said they were uninterested after the iPad was announced compared to a week prior. Of course, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics—three times as many said they were confident they would buy one after finding out the product's details.
Retrevo did similar surveys to gauge interest in Apple's new portable touchscreen device both before it was announced and after. The week prior to Apple's big media event, 26 percent of those surveyed said they knew about the device but weren't interested. After the announcement, that number jumped to 52 percent. However, 3 percent said they would buy an iPad sight unseen. The number that would buy an iPad after Steve Jobs showed it off went up to 9 percent.
The next major release of Firefox will not be compatible with Macs running Mac OS X 10.4, also known as Tiger. This comes from a mozilla.dev.planing discussion on Google Groups started by Josh Aas, a Mozilla-employed developer working on the project. The change will go into effect later this year when the browser's Gecko rendering engine makes the jump from 1.9.2 to 1.9.3.
The Mozilla Foundation estimates that there are currently about 1.4 million Tiger users using Firefox 3.5 every day and approximately 36,000 using version 3.6. Those numbers total a little under 24 percent of daily Mac Firefox use.
According to the discussion, Mozilla stopped supporting Tiger on mozilla-central, the most "cutting edge" repository, in September of 2009. Much of the old code was left, however, in case Mozilla had a change in heart. The decision means that the code specific to the old operating system will be removed soon, along with any hope of future 10.4 support.
Users of the open source Web browser who are still using Tiger will be able to continue to use Firefox 3.6 for as long as they want, but the browser will stop receiving updates "several months" after the release of the next major update. This means that any security issues found in the browser after that date would be unlikely to be addressed by the team, and, in turn, left unpatched.
Unsurprisingly, there is a vocal minority speaking out against the move. Individuals with older hardware are no doubt concerned that their old hardware will become even more obsolete and less usable as the rest of the world soldiers on. Mozilla isn't concerned however, citing past data that shows no significant market share loss occurs after support for an older version of the Mac OS has been dropped. The company also claims that it usually supports older versions of Mac OS X longer than most companies.
Jailbreakers can now update to iPhone OS 3.1.3 if they so choose, as a jailbreak update is available from the iPhone dev team. As usual, there are heavy warnings for some users.
Read More: Dev-Team Blog
Benchmark results for a Core i7-powered "MacBookPro6,1" has popped up in Geekbench's database. It may be sign that improved MacBook Pros are nearing release.
Read More: MacRumors
As developers dug into the iPad SDK and unearthed previously unknown gems, there was more discussion about 27" iMac issues, Flash support in iPhone OS, and why the Apple TV remains a hobby in Apple's eyes. Oh, and did you know that the 2010 Macworld Expo is next week?
Tablet makers rethinking things in wake of iPad's $499 price: Rumor has it that MSI, ASUS, and other companies that will put out competing tablets this year have been knocked back on their heels by the iPad's low launch price. The $499 model's apparently thin profit margin is also a massive change for Apple, so it's worth thinking about how and why the company did it.
Three years later, Apple TV remains a hobby: Apple largely focused on the iPad in its most recent employee Town Hall, but one employee ventured a question about the Apple TV. Yep, it's still a hobby, and we believe it will be stuck that way until the content offerings are more interesting.
The Apple press has been all about iPads since January 27—and how can you blame them? There's a lot to talk about before the device gets into our grubby little hands. But there are other things going on in the Apple space in the meantime. One such thing is the new, improved, and Apple-free 2010 Macworld Expo which is taking place next week.
Did you forget about Macworld? Some did, while others (largely on Twitter) have been ramping up the chatter about what to expect without Apple there. You may remember that, in late 2008, Apple announced that it would no longer be attending the Expo after 2009, throwing the conference world into an uproar and eventually leading to the 2010 Expo's dates being moved from January to February of this year. And now, it's only a few days away: the conference begins next Tuesday, February 9 and runs through Saturday, the 13th.
In a recent post to its iPhone Developers news site, Apple warned developers not to use location data to serve location-specific ads in their apps. The move comes shortly after Apple acquired its own mobile advertising firm, Quattro Wireless.
Apple wants developers to use CoreLocation, the API that allows developers to find your location based on GPS coordinates and other data, to give users "beneficial information." This concept is at work when Yelp shows you nearby restaurants, or when RunKeeper tracks your jogging progress on a map.
However, the company warns, "[i]f your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store."
Apple doesn't appear to be opposed to location-based targeted advertising in principle. It has filed patents for location-based targeted advertising, especially in relation to offering currently playing songs or videos at a particular location for purchase via iTunes.
It may be that Apple merely wants to avoid giving out iPhone user's location data to third parties, especially without permission, with no guarantee about how the data is used. But it also stands to reason that Apple may be planning its own location-based advertising service based on its recent acquisition of Quattro Wireless. It would be unfair of Apple to keep that data all to itself, however. The company did not respond to our request for comment this morning.
Amazon's $9.99 e-book price point may be a rarity as more book publishers declare that they'll set their own prices for books, with the seller taking a standard 30 percent cut. Another major publisher has decided to move to what's referred to as the "agency model" while others are hinting that they, too, are about to force the new model on Amazon.
Hachette has become the latest publisher to announce that it was done with what it calls the artificially depressed e-book prices imposed by Amazon. In an e-mail to its employees, CEO David Young extolled the virtues of the agency model, noting that it "allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors' works," according to an excerpt posted by Media Bistro. "Without this investment in our authors, the diversity of books available to consumers will contract, as will the diversity of retailers, and our literary culture will suffer."
AT&T made headlines Thursday by announcing that it had decided to allow SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to stream video from a Slingbox over its 3G network. AT&T's CEO claimed in the announcement that Sling Media modified the app to be more efficient on its network, but Sling has responded, saying it didn't have to change much of anything.
"Sling Media was willing to work with us to revise the app to make it more bandwidth sensitive," AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said in a statement early on Thursday morning. "They made important changes to more efficiently use 3G network bandwidth and conserve wireless spectrum so that we were able to support the app on our 3G mobile broadband network."
AT&T said that it plans to "provide developers with wireless network optimization requirements for video and other applications by the end of the first quarter." AT&T wouldn't comment on what those requirements were, but a spokesperson for Sling Media contacted Ars this afternoon to clarify what the company had changed in the software.
Sling Media's John Santoro told Ars that no fundamental changes were required. "AT&T never discussed any specific requirements with us."
Santoro explained that SlingPlayer Mobile has always contained code to adapt the stream quality to the given network conditions. AT&T has been in discussions with Sling since the app was first released last year, but AT&T never asked the company to make any specific modifications. However, the code has been continually improved, and Sling was able to successfully demonstrate that SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone would not have a negative impact on other wireless customers.
AT&T may have merely been concerned that if SlingPlayer Mobile became popular that it could tax its network—already a problem that customers often complain about. de la Vega recently blamed the problem on a very small percentage of "heavy" users, mostly iPhone users with an appetite for video, audio, and other media. But that hasn't stopped the company from adding numerous data hungry devices, like e-book readers, Android-based smartphones, and even the iPad. Nor has it stopped other apps that stream video over 3G, such as Ustream, from being rejected. The company has announced a number of network upgrades intended to increase overall capacity, so it may have less concerns about SlingPlayer Mobile specifically.
"Whatever the reason, we're just glad AT&T has approved it," Santoro told Ars. "We're just waiting for Apple's OK, now." The revised app has been submitted, but has not yet been approved for the App Store.
UPDATE: Sling Media general manager John Gilmore contacted Ars to clarify the working relationship between Sling and AT&T.
"We actually have been working very intensively with AT&T to get the 3G streaming approved," Gilmore told Ars. "Over the course of the last couple of months, they have been testing the app in their labs."
Gilmore said that AT&T was able to determine that SlingPlayer Mobile wouldn't significantly impact network performance after extensive testing. "We always felt comfortable that that wasn't the case," he told Ars. "As we built our relationship with AT&T, we were able to prove to them that our app wouldn't cause a negative customer impact. We always felt that our app was a 'good network citizen.'"
When asked what code changes AT&T wanted, if any, Gilmore verified that no specific changes were made at AT&T's request. He did say, however, that the 3G streaming code has had some improvements over the course of the last several months due to general code optimization. "We want to make sure that we constantly improve how our app uses network resources."
Apple is reportedly offering UK iMac owners full refunds plus 15 percent of the original purchase price for 27" iMacs suffering any of the maladies that have plagued the model since its release in October of 2009. According to an Apple Authorized shop speaking to Gizmodo, Apple has already completed the transaction with two of the shop's customers. Apple seems to be brokering the deals due to a shortage in parts needed to repair the units, as well as a repair backlog of over 200 machines.
The 27" iMacs have had problems from the get-go with some users reporting issues with discolored displays and others reporting flickering screens. Most recently, there were reports of an internal support document telling technicians to explain that slight screen variations are normal, but if the customer continued to complain, to say that the machine could be repaired in "approximately three weeks." If that wasn't enough, they were told to offer a refund, but not a replacement.
When Ars called an official Apple Store in the US to inquire about refunds, they were of little help and recommended we make an appointment with a "Genius" or call the AppleCare support number. Likewise, when we called two Apple Certified dealers, we received very similar responses. One tech did direct us to the recently released firmware update, but was unable to tell us anything regarding refunds or part lead times.
The reports are based on a small number of cases, but Gizmodo's source seemed quite confident that these were not isolated results. Nonetheless, we remain skeptical of Apple offering refunds—let alone refunds plus 15 percent—until more reports come in. That being said, if you are at your wit's end with your iMac, it can't hurt to ask. Maybe with the extra cash you can upgrade to a Mac Pro.
From: MacNN | The Macintosh News Network
ZoomMediaPlus has introduced the ZoomIt memory card reader for the iPhone and iPod touch. The new dock-connecting accessory works with the companyís ZoomIt application that provides access to content stored on SD cards. Support is offered for all file types recognized by iPhone OS 3.0, ranging from photos and videos to PowerPoint documents. The accessory allows users to upload all stored media for use at a later time, or share files with other users via e-mail, Facebook or Flickr....
Google tonight confirmed talk of a significant product update by sending an invitation to a special event on Tuesday at the company's Mountain View, California campus. The company is short on details but promises "some new product innovations" at the gathering....
Apple is reportedly distributing a survey to iPhone developers, with a variety of questions covering the App Store program. Respondents are asked to rate their level of satisfaction in different areas such as enrollment, feedback, app submission, the review process, and the length of time it takes to get updates onto the App Store....
(Updated with Netflix commentary) Netflix will try to claim an edge in its media service by offering streaming full HD, a rumor maintains this afternoon. The company will supposedly roll out 1080p streams with 5.1-channel surround sound at some point later this year. It currently offers 720p to just a handful of devices, most notably the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 but also Roku's Internet Player....
AT&T has released an update to its iPhone navigation app, AT&T Navigator. Version 1.5i offers an improved interface which now includes a speed limit display, with visual and audio alerts to notify the user when the limit is exceeded. A new option in the Recent Places menu allows users to easily navigate back to the origin of their last trip, while a "Shake-to-Go" feature automatically sets the route to go home when the iPhone is shaken....From: Wired Top Stories
The Macworld trade show goes on without Steve Jobs. But will it live another year?
Ultrahigh-speed video reveals six lightning strokes in startling slo-mo.
Saving up for a rainy day? Consider using some of that cash on an umbrella from Blunt. This reinforced dome will hold up to gusts short of hurricane force.
Advances in product design and prototyping signal the start of a new industrial revolution, Wired's top editor argues in his latest cover story. Anderson and Wired Executive Editor Thomas Goetz discuss the implications of these radical changes in this week's Storyboard podcast.
The world's first jumbo jet, Boeing's 747, shows that it's ready for service.
A backyard radio astronomer and artist in New Mexico has captured sound recordings of the newly noisy sun showering the Earth with particles.
Apple's iPad could sound the death knell for JooJoo, a tablet from an an unknown Singapore-based startup that was once the talk of gadget blogs.
The federal judiciary is being told to instruct jurors not to tweet, Facebook or perform online research for cases they are involved in. The developments follow a rash of twittering, facebooking and internet researching by federal jurors — some of which have led to mistrials.
Google is set to turn Gmail into a communications dashboard with rolling status updates. It's a bid to keep up with Facebook and make Gmail the place users turn to when they want to send messages, no matter what the medium.
The Boeing 747-8 made it's inaugural flight, more than a year behind schedule.
From: MacInTouch
Amazon has the best price on MacBook Air: just $1699. Or save $55-$105 off Apple's latest iMacs, or $150-$380 off the Mac Pro Quad and new Quad-Core models. Amazon discounts iPods and a huge selection of digital cameras and HDTV's, too. Save on AppleCare, ".Mac", "Leopard", iLife, iWork, Aperture 2, VMware, Photoshop Elements 6 and Office 2008, as well. And the Kindle wireless book/reader is now in stock at $359. While you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through our links to purchase!
[Updated 14:30] a 10.5.3 problem affects web browsers; other 10.5.3 issues, compatibility notes and more
From: CNET News.com
Cell phone provider Metro PCS' new campaign, featuring two supposed Indian tech experts, is proving a little controversial. The company admits it has received complaints.
It seems odd that Apple execs would even hint at the possibility of an early price cut lest they give folks already on the fence about buying the first iteration of the device more reason to stay there.
Twins logging on to Facebook to read birthday wishes instead discover that people have left RIP posts about their 17-year-old brother. Police hadn't notified the family.
Researchers at UC Davis say that silicon, the most common metalloid and a known booster of bone-mineral density, is highly "bioavailable" when consumed in beer.
Security analyst at University of Georgia tasked with catching copyright violators allegedly uses his position to shakedown students.
The latest version of TweetDeck is out, and although it's a minor update it also introduces some useful changes worth noting.
The 747-8 Freighter, whose passenger version is slated to come a year later, is getting tested alongside the 787 Dreamliner in Washington state.
A former Intel executive pleads guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud by providing confidential information in the Galleon Group insider-trading case.
On Monday, Boeing's 747-8 Freighter took off from Paine Field in Everett, Wash., its first flight, and the first for the new 747 program.
A start-up employee in Indiana telecommutes to work in California by using a robot body stationed at his office. Meet the Texas Robot from Willow Garage.
The software maker says that an error message warning users that their batteries may need replacing appears to be working as intended, despite some complaints.
On the podcast: Blackberry vulnerabilities, Verizon blocks 4chan sites, the space station gets a new bay window, and more.
From: Gear & Gadgets
Last week, Microsoft said it was investigating issues in Windows 7 that affect batteries on certain notebooks after hundreds of users reported they thought the OS was to blame. Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division, has posted a lengthy response on the Engineering Windows 7 blog. "At this time we have no reason to believe there is any issue related to Windows 7 in this context," Sinofsky writes. Here's his explanation:
Several press articles this past week have drawn attention to blog and forum postings by users claiming Windows 7 is warning them to "consider replacing your battery" in systems which appeared to be operating satisfactorily before upgrading to Windows 7. These articles described posts in the support forums indicating that Windows 7 is not just warning users of failing batteries - as we designed Windows 7 to do this - but also implying Windows 7 is falsely reporting this situation or even worse, causing these batteries to fail. 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.
Sinofsky goes on to explain that PC batteries inherently degrade in their ability to hold a charge and provide power, and ultimately batteries must be replaced to restore an acceptable battery life (batteries usually have a warranty of 12 months). Windows 7 taps into a feature of modern laptop batteries which have circuitry and firmware that can report the overall health of the battery in Watt-hours power capacity. Windows 7 then calculates the percentage of degradation from the original design capacity; the threshold is set at 60 percent degradation, so if the battery is performing at 40 percent of its designed capacity then users will see Windows 7 report that it might be time to change the battery.
Further, he notes that Windows 7's new "Consider replacing your battery" message does not exist in Windows XP and Windows Vista, so many users would probably not have been aware of their batteries degrading. This would also explain why some users were seeing the battery indicator in Windows 7 builds prior to the RTM release while others only saw it in the RTM.
Finally, Sinofsky asks users who believe they are receiving this error because their battery is new or in great shape to contact Microsoft via the TechNet forum, the Microsoft Answers forum, or to visit support.microsoft.com to find how to contact Microsoft assisted support in their region.
Google has reduced the "equipment recovery fee" for the Nexus One to $150, down from $350.
Read More: Google
Netflix subscribers will be getting 1080p video streams with 5.1 surround sound by year end.
Read More: CNET
SAN FRANCISCO—The "Llano" processor that AMD described today in an ISSCC session is not a CPU, and it's not a GPU—instead, it's a hybrid design that the chipmaker is calling an "application processor unit," or APU. Whatever you call it, it could well give Intel a run for its money in the laptop market, by combining a full DX11-compatible GPU with four out-of-order CPU cores on a single, 32nm processor die.
Details on the highly parallel vector hardware—the "GPU" part of the device—have yet to be disclosed, but AMD is focusing today's revelations on the CPU part of the design. In a nutshell, AMD has taken the "STARS" core that's used in their current 45nm offerings, shrunk it to a new 32nm SOI high-K process, and added new power gating and dynamic power optimization capabilities to it. Each out-of-order core has a bit under 35 million transistors, and a 1MB L2 cache that's not included in that number. AMD is targeting sub-3GHz operation, and a power consumption range of 2.5 to 25 watts.
If you're dying to get your hands on a Nook, they're available online from Barnes & Noble and will be in stores "beginning mid-week."
Read More: Barnes & Noble
Just as it looked like Amazon was about to achieve an iTunes-style lock on the e-book marketplace, the impending arrival of Apple's iPad seems to have emboldened book publishers. After a pricing dispute caused all Macmillan titles to disappear off Amazon's virtual shelves, other publishers joined the pricing revolt, demanding greater flexibility in setting prices on their wares. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has apparently settled the first of these disputes by capitulating.
According to the Journal's report, Amazon will give up on its $9.99 pricing target for e-books, and allow Macmillan greater flexibility to set the rates for its content. The new prices may be as much as $5.00 higher. Although Amazon had announced that it had no choice but to concede given what it termed Macmillan's "monopoly" over its content, the publisher's books were slow to reappear in the retailer's site. That apparently changed over the weekend following a full settlement of the dispute on Friday.
Unfortunately for Amazon, it appears that Macmillan will be the first of many publishers that seek to renegotiate terms, as at least two others (Harper Collins and Hachette) have voiced their intention of doing so. The trigger for the sudden uprising, according to nearly every report on the matter, is the impending arrival of Apple's iPad, as Apple has negotiated deals that allow publishers to retain significant control over e-book prices. As we noted in our earlier coverage, this is a complete role reversal compared to the dispute over downloadable music pricing.
For Amazon, it all has to be a major disappointment. After remaining relatively circumspect about Kindle sales, the company allowed itself a bit of back-patting after both hardware and e-book sales boomed over the holidays. Its primary competitor, Sony, appeared to be struggling in comparison, and newcomers to the e-book reader market appeared to have a bad case of first-generation hardware blues, something that Amazon had already put in its past. But the mere threat of Apple releasing a competing product seems to have encouraged Amazon's key suppliers (the publishers) to think different.
Acer says that sales of Liquid, its Android smartphone, have exceeded expectations, leading to shortages.
Read More: BusinessWeek
According to a post on the Zune Forums, owners of the Zune Pass are having a bit of trouble accessing the music they're paying for with their subscription, as first reported by Engadget. In less than two weeks, the thread in question has passed 50 replies as users complain and list what they can no longer access: specific songs, entire albums, or even everything produced by an artist.
The sixth reply in the thread is thankfully one from a Microsoft representative. "Hey all—we're hearing you! We are investigating your reported missing albums indicated in this post—and will come back to you as soon as we understand why they're missing," Michelle A. of the Zune Product Team writes. "It is extremely helpful that you advise the album title and artist names to us, so that we can include them into our investigation." As a result, the rest of the thread is filled with lists of missing tracks. Apart from the initial response, Microsoft has not posted an explanation of what has gone wrong or how it plans to fix the issue. Customers affected are confused and annoyed as they are constantly seeing errors when trying to play parts of their music collection.
The only way users can still access missing songs is if they previously saved them (Zune Pass subscribers get to choose 10 songs each month to keep). Microsoft's customer service is pointing to record labels pulling music, but the reports from users suggests there's no pattern in the content that is being pulled. We will let you know when Microsoft has an explanation and/or a solution to this issue.
Like 'em or not, Superbowl halftime performers definitely get a post-game album sales bump—to the tune of 555 percent, on average.
Read More: Nielsen Blog
Popular find-a-restaurant app Urbanspoon has arrived on the Android platform.
Read More: Mashable
From: Wired Top Stories
The Macworld trade show goes on without Steve Jobs. But will it live another year?
Ultrahigh-speed video reveals six lightning strokes in startling slo-mo.
Saving up for a rainy day? Consider using some of that cash on an umbrella from Blunt. This reinforced dome will hold up to gusts short of hurricane force.
Advances in product design and prototyping signal the start of a new industrial revolution, Wired's top editor argues in his latest cover story. Anderson and Wired Executive Editor Thomas Goetz discuss the implications of these radical changes in this week's Storyboard podcast.
The world's first jumbo jet, Boeing's 747, shows that it's ready for service.
A backyard radio astronomer and artist in New Mexico has captured sound recordings of the newly noisy sun showering the Earth with particles.
Apple's iPad could sound the death knell for JooJoo, a tablet from an an unknown Singapore-based startup that was once the talk of gadget blogs.
The federal judiciary is being told to instruct jurors not to tweet, Facebook or perform online research for cases they are involved in. The developments follow a rash of twittering, facebooking and internet researching by federal jurors — some of which have led to mistrials.
Google is set to turn Gmail into a communications dashboard with rolling status updates. It's a bid to keep up with Facebook and make Gmail the place users turn to when they want to send messages, no matter what the medium.
The Boeing 747-8 made it's inaugural flight, more than a year behind schedule.
From: Gizmodo
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'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]
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]
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]
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]
From: Wash Post Technology
With most other companies, this would have looked like a sloppy oversight: Two weeks ago, a presenter showing off a new computer allowed the audience to see that it couldn't display a Web page's Adobe Flash content.
Poker lobbyists are ramping up an aggressive push backed by millions of dollars to legalize Internet gambling in the United States this year, hoping to overcome passionate objections from social conservatives, sports leagues and other longtime opponents.
It's always seemed to me that there's been something missing in the digital music revolution.
Q: I'm changing Internet providers and will have to switch my e-mail address. To avoid this problem in the future, I'm thinking of switching to a Web-mail service. Should I go with Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo?
I worked at a real estate law firm as a student in high school. It was very stressful but it piqued my interest in law and, when I went to college in the District, I used the city as my university. I did internships with companies that lobbied on the Hill, researched papers at the Library of...
From: Ars Technica
"This is 'Magic' and this is 'Jack'," the little girl says in the video ad, holding her two cute puppy dogs up to the camera. The girl's father, magicJack inventor Dan Borislow, then asks her, "Kylie, did you know that your dad is going to let everybody try a magicJack in the whole country for free?"
Free for 30 days, that is. magicJack is a popular service comparable to VoIP, except that after you hook its app into a USB port on your broadband connected computer, you plug the USB gadget to the RJ11 slot in your telephone. The cost: $39.95 for the initial year and $19.95 for subsequent years to make local and long distance phone calls.
"iPad hoopla" has passed, according to a survey by electronics shopping site Retrevo, and consumers have lost interest after the product's unveiling less than two weeks ago. More than twice as many respondents said they were uninterested after the iPad was announced compared to a week prior. Of course, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics—three times as many said they were confident they would buy one after finding out the product's details.
Retrevo did similar surveys to gauge interest in Apple's new portable touchscreen device both before it was announced and after. The week prior to Apple's big media event, 26 percent of those surveyed said they knew about the device but weren't interested. After the announcement, that number jumped to 52 percent. However, 3 percent said they would buy an iPad sight unseen. The number that would buy an iPad after Steve Jobs showed it off went up to 9 percent.
Biofuel production in the US has met with fairly mixed success, as the cost and fossil fuel use of corn-based ethanol has severely cut into the benefits provided by avoiding the use of fossil fuels. It's been a somewhat different story in Brazil, which has embraced ethanol derived from sugarcane and seen more promising results. The government has set aggressive targets for both ethanol and biodiesel production, but a study that will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science later this week urges caution: unless the goals are met through an integrated agricultural strategy, they'll drive deforestation that will offset most of the benefits.
The study looked at the expansion of the two crops that are expected to drive biofuels growth in Brazil: sugarcane for ethanol, and soy beans for biodiesel. To reach the country's 2020 goals, there will have to be a major increase in the production of both of those crops. Even assuming major increases in the efficiency of their production (the authors assume an increase at double the rate of the past 20 years), there's simply no way to get there without expanding the amount of land devoted to farming them, and there's no way to do that without secondary consequences.
The next major release of Firefox will not be compatible with Macs running Mac OS X 10.4, also known as Tiger. This comes from a mozilla.dev.planing discussion on Google Groups started by Josh Aas, a Mozilla-employed developer working on the project. The change will go into effect later this year when the browser's Gecko rendering engine makes the jump from 1.9.2 to 1.9.3.
The Mozilla Foundation estimates that there are currently about 1.4 million Tiger users using Firefox 3.5 every day and approximately 36,000 using version 3.6. Those numbers total a little under 24 percent of daily Mac Firefox use.
According to the discussion, Mozilla stopped supporting Tiger on mozilla-central, the most "cutting edge" repository, in September of 2009. Much of the old code was left, however, in case Mozilla had a change in heart. The decision means that the code specific to the old operating system will be removed soon, along with any hope of future 10.4 support.
Users of the open source Web browser who are still using Tiger will be able to continue to use Firefox 3.6 for as long as they want, but the browser will stop receiving updates "several months" after the release of the next major update. This means that any security issues found in the browser after that date would be unlikely to be addressed by the team, and, in turn, left unpatched.
Unsurprisingly, there is a vocal minority speaking out against the move. Individuals with older hardware are no doubt concerned that their old hardware will become even more obsolete and less usable as the rest of the world soldiers on. Mozilla isn't concerned however, citing past data that shows no significant market share loss occurs after support for an older version of the Mac OS has been dropped. The company also claims that it usually supports older versions of Mac OS X longer than most companies.
Last week, Microsoft said it was investigating issues in Windows 7 that affect batteries on certain notebooks after hundreds of users reported they thought the OS was to blame. Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division, has posted a lengthy response on the Engineering Windows 7 blog. "At this time we have no reason to believe there is any issue related to Windows 7 in this context," Sinofsky writes. Here's his explanation:
Several press articles this past week have drawn attention to blog and forum postings by users claiming Windows 7 is warning them to "consider replacing your battery" in systems which appeared to be operating satisfactorily before upgrading to Windows 7. These articles described posts in the support forums indicating that Windows 7 is not just warning users of failing batteries - as we designed Windows 7 to do this - but also implying Windows 7 is falsely reporting this situation or even worse, causing these batteries to fail. 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.
Sinofsky goes on to explain that PC batteries inherently degrade in their ability to hold a charge and provide power, and ultimately batteries must be replaced to restore an acceptable battery life (batteries usually have a warranty of 12 months). Windows 7 taps into a feature of modern laptop batteries which have circuitry and firmware that can report the overall health of the battery in Watt-hours power capacity. Windows 7 then calculates the percentage of degradation from the original design capacity; the threshold is set at 60 percent degradation, so if the battery is performing at 40 percent of its designed capacity then users will see Windows 7 report that it might be time to change the battery.
Further, he notes that Windows 7's new "Consider replacing your battery" message does not exist in Windows XP and Windows Vista, so many users would probably not have been aware of their batteries degrading. This would also explain why some users were seeing the battery indicator in Windows 7 builds prior to the RTM release while others only saw it in the RTM.
Finally, Sinofsky asks users who believe they are receiving this error because their battery is new or in great shape to contact Microsoft via the TechNet forum, the Microsoft Answers forum, or to visit support.microsoft.com to find how to contact Microsoft assisted support in their region.
From: NYT > Technology
From: Autoblog
Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Toyota
Southeast Toyota, which is the largest franchised distributor of Toyota vehicles in the world with 173 dealers in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina & South Carolina, has reportedly pulled all of its advertising from local ABC stations. Why? Apparently, the group decided that the television stations were airing "excessive stories on the Toyota issues" by ABC News and its chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross.
So, where is all that latent advertising money going now? According to one unnamed ABC station manager, Southeast Toyota's commercials were shifted to non-ABC stations "as punishment for the reporting." We have to wonder if those non-ABC stations aren't covering the Toyota recall issue with as much fervor?
Marcia Owens-Reder, senior vice president at Atlanta-based 22Squared, the advertising agency that handles the account for the dealers, said in an email to the ABC stations, "We have counseled the client on the pros and cons of this, and ultimately it was their decision to make." Thanks for the tip, Rene!
Tired of Toyota recall news? Try out the recall-free version of Autoblog.
[Source: AFP via Yahoo | Image: David McNew/Getty]
Report: Southeast Toyota dealers pull ads from local ABC stations citing "excessive stories" on recall originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsFiled under: Aftermarket, Sedan, Performance, Videos, Cadillac
When we were fortunate enough to have a Cadillac CTS-V for a week to review, we said it was "one of the finest cars on the road today and one of the best vehicles ever built by General Motors." Of course, there's always room for improvement. At least Hennessey Performance thinks so, and they have come up with the V700 upgrade package that boosts the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 to more than 700 horsepower.
What does it take to squeeze more than 150 more horsepower out of the LSA V8? Hennessey adds a cold air induction system, a smaller supercharger pulley, a new engine management system, long tube headers, three-inch exhaust system with high-flow cats, an upgraded intercooler, more aggressive cam, and high-flow heads.
The result? Horsepower is up to 707 at 6300 rpm, and torque is rated at 701 lb-ft. That all adds up to some impressive performance on-track, including a 0-60 mph time of just 3.3 seconds and a top speed of of 211 mph. Fortunately, Hennessey had the cameras rolling during test, and you can watch the Hennessey CTS-V tear up the drag strip in the video after the jump.
[Source: Hennessey Performance]
Continue reading Hennessey's Cadillac CTS-V ready for prime time [w/video]
Hennessey's Cadillac CTS-V ready for prime time [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsFiled under: Videos
One day we're going to finally get our hands on Gran Turismo 5. And when we sample Polyphony Digital's long-awaited sequel we'd be amazed (and delighted) if the game lives up to its constantly growing hype. While we still have absolutely no idea when GT5 will hit the shelves, when it does arrive it will come strong with a raft of new features gamers have been clamoring for.
Beyond damage rendering and a cornucopia of racing styles, GT5 will reportedly also come with Data Logger Visualization. DLV will enable gamers to go to a track in the real world and shoot in-car video, upload that clip to the PlayStation 3 and then compare that footage side by side against a virtual run in GT5. The folks at Polyphony Digital tested the functionality for themselves, and the resulting video after the jump is pretty impressive. Amazingly, the only difference between the live and game footage is that the real-world camera was shaky and uncrisp while the GT5 video is expectantly perfect. Very cool. Now if we can only get a copy for ourselves before Forza 4 arrives for the XBOX 360...
[Source: GranTurismo via Cold Track Days]
Continue reading Gran Turismo 5 gets Data Logger Visualization, imports track day video [w/VIDEO]
Gran Turismo 5 gets Data Logger Visualization, imports track day video [w/VIDEO] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
2011 Ford Shelby GT500 finally gets aluminum engine, loses 120 pounds
The all-new GT500 is here, and not only does the super snake pack more horsepower and torque, it's gone on a much needed diet. Bow down.
Poll: What was the best Super Bowl car commercial of 2010?
Some people watch the Super Bowl for the game, others watch it for the ads. If you stepped out for a beer during one of the breaks, we've got the best of the best automotive spots for your perusal and a poll to determine the top ad from the game.
Porsche 911 Turbo S unveiled with 530 HP of goodness
The 997 Turbo has yet to benefit from an S variant, but that changes today with the arrival of the 204 mph 911 Turbo S.
Also of interest:
- Dodge celebrates 40 years of performance with Furious Fuchsia Challengers
- Leakage: Citroen DS3-R heading to Geneva?
- GM to engineer RWD hybrid powertrain for future Cadillacs?
- Report: Toyota to extend recall run to Prius and Lexus HS over braking issue
- Danica Patrick impresses in stock car debut, confirms NASCAR debut in Daytona
Browse our archive of Daily U-Turn posts or subscribe to the RSS feed
Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 2.8.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsFiled under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, Ford
You've no doubt read by now everything we've had to say about the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 with its new aluminum engine. But what does it sound like? Glad you asked. We've got two clips of B-roll after the jump showing both the GT500 coupe and convertible out running on what appears to be a frigid Michigan afternoon (feel sorry for the guy driving the drop top). Fortunately, lots of time is spent mashing both their throttles so we can hear that new 5.4-liter supercharged aluminum engine howl. Question: Can a car look lighter? If so, the GT500 definitely does, especially at WOT as the car transfers its weight to the rear wheels with haste and boogies off. Follow the jump and twist the dial to 11 before you hit play.
[Source: Ford]
Continue reading Video: 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 plays its new aluminum soundtrack
Video: 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 plays its new aluminum soundtrack originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsFrom: WSJ.com: Today's Free Features
If McCain wins the election, it may be thanks to Michigan -- a prize the Republicans think they can claim for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Millions of voters have moved out of the political party system. The decline of loyalty has made politics less stable and predictable -- and has resulted in close elections, writes Alan Brinkley.
A group of young economists are using statistical techniques to examine how television affects society, and their research shows it's not all bad.
The biggest project that Palin undertook as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was an indoor sports complex. But what was to be her legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.
A graphical look at how different investments, from REIT shares to crude oil, fared last week.
Indian dazzler "Slumdog Millionaire" and French film "I Loved You So Long" were highlights at this year's Telluride Film Festival.
Researchers have found tantalizing hints that our voting practices can be traced to a political psyche shaped by genetic traits.
For the past two years, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has run the most powerful sports league in the world. As new season opens, he discusses discipline issues, labor strife, overseas expansion and boosting revenue.
The chronic disease epidemic is upon us. The biggest challenge in primary-care medicine is dealing with the complications of obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
From: WSJ.com: What's News US
Most Afghan generals and colonels in the new Afghan National Army were U.S. enemies in the Soviet-built military of the 1980s.
Some activists and investors have formed a loose coalition, aiming to cut amounts owed by borrowers whose loans exceed the values of their homes.
A 28-year-old man was pulled from the rubble of a market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and has been admitted to the University of Miami's field hospital in the capital.
From: WSJ.com: What's News Technology
Electronic Arts posted a smaller loss in the holiday quarter, despite a 25% drop in sales, but the company issued a weak outlook for the current quarter. Shares tumbled.
Electronic Arts posted a smaller loss in the holiday quarter, despite a 25% drop in sales, but the company issued a weak outlook for the current quarter. Shares tumbled.
Google is taking a swipe at Facebook and Twitter with a new feature that makes it easier for users of Gmail to view media and status updates shared online by their friends.
From: WSJ.com: Personal Technology
Walt Mossberg reviews Dell's M11x and Sony's Vaio X, two diminutive laptops aimed at radically different customers.
As the home base for a Web search, Flit.com makes online shopping feel more like a day at the mall.
From:
From: National Geographic News
On Groundhog Day 2010, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow?and six more weeks of winter, according to tradition. Get surprising facts behind the wacky weather prediction.
Although NASA will get a budget increase for 2011, plans to return humans to the moon by 2020 would be officially scrapped, because the program is "over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation," according to the White House.
The ancestors of ostriches and other flightless birds once flew, a new study says. They apparently grounded themselves in earnest, though, after dinosaurs were wiped out.
Scientists have finally solved the mystery of how one tiny creature has flourished for up to 50 million years without sex: it dries up.
From: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition
The Cassini probe returns yet more data to back up the idea of a sub-surface sea on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
A quantum physics trick is set to give smartphones and hand-held devices pressure-sensitive switches and touchscreens.
The US space agency (Nasa) has launched its shuttle Endeavour on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Scientists film the giant serpent-like oarfish in its natural deep-sea habitat for the first time, as well as the rare manefish.
Scientists say they have pinpointed gene variants that might show how fast people's bodies are ageing.
From: New Scientist - Latest Headlines
While other uncrewed planes fly high to stay safe, this autonomous chopper can plan its way around obstacles close to the ground
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Researchers have used evolution to create immune cells able to destroy HIV far more effectively than the regular cells our body produces
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Lots of expecting mums now say they avoid even light drinking, but the latest study indicates that this may be an unnecessary precaution (full text available to subscribers)
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Racial barriers have toppled as two anonymous men have become the first non-white, non-celebrities to have their full genomes sequenced
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The amount of land available for future animal and plant sanctuaries may be less than thought because the scale of existing models is too large
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From: New Scientist - Online News
Traces of cigarette smoke that accumulate on carpets and furniture could turn carcinogenic when they react with air
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Today's stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: how your gadgets could become truly wireless, a secret hidden in the big bang's echoes, and a tour of the UK's most secret science sites
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A new optical clock based on the oscillation of a trapped aluminium-27 atom keeps time to 1 second in 3.7 billion years
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It's time for neuroscience to catch up with other professions and pledge not to support aggressive war and torture, says Curtis Bell
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A "lab-on-a-chip" could determine male fertility in a matter of seconds, raising ethical issues about self-diagnosis
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From: Discovery News - Top Stories
Everybody dies, but even after celebrities shuffle off this mortal coil their deaths get the Hollywood gloss. The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, didn?t die of a drug overdose; he was killed. This morning, one of Jackson?s physicians, Dr. Conrad ...
A hacking specialist reveals a weakness that can force heavily secured computers to spill their secrets.
Earth can do strange things to continents. Like eat them, for example. Previously, the planet's hot interior was only known to have an appetite for ocean crust, consuming it in subduction zones around the world. Continental crust was thought to ...
The Super Bowl is over, the Saints won, but most importantly, were the commercials any good? (Is it me, or is Danica Patrick wearing less and less clothing every year?) On Friday I gave a brief rundown of some of ...
If smokers needed yet another reason to take it outside, here it is.
From: SPACE.com
The space shuttle Endeavour lit up the predawn sky above Florida when it launched Feb. 8 on its STS-130 mission.
Are small private firms better suited to reducing the cost of space? Maybe, if we're willing to trade uncertainty for opportunity. Commercial Spaceflight Federation's Brett Alexander and Astronaut Leroy Chiao explore the issues.
Orion is the richest constellation of the winter sky, a perfect place to begin exploring the night sky.
Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour will scan their spacecraft overnight to search for any signs of heat shield damage from their early Monday launch.
From: Wired: Culture
February 8 marks the centennial of Boy Scouts in America. At a time when shows like 'Man Vs Wild' and 'Survivorman' are experiencing immense popularity, wouldn?t it make sense that they'd see a surge in enrollment? But Boy Scouts, in many ways, are a struggling organization with membership plummeting annually.
If you?re a geeky guy looking to romance a geeky girl, it doesn?t matter if you?ve been with her forever or if she?s a new interest; realize that conventional romantic overtures won?t always work. Think outside the box. Here's some help.
Take a gander at these 10 works by sci-fi surrealist H.R. Giger.
With Apple's tablet finally unveiled, a select few types of individuals look forward to the release date with undeniable anticipation. A quick rundown of the likely early adopters.
Genre-tweaking genius Jonathon Keats screens European travel movies for New York City's housebound flora in Strange Skies, his latest oddball installation. Will he really infuriate vegetables?
From: Reuters: Top News
TOKYO/DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it would recall its flagship Prius hybrid in Japan for braking problems and that it had halted shipments of two other hybrid models to check for similar problems.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's call for a bipartisan healthcare summit sets the stage for a final push to get the stalled legislation through Congress, but skeptical Republicans said on Monday the only solution is to start over.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Representative John Murtha, chairman of the House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee who exercised enormous influence on defense issues, died on Monday.
BOSTON (Reuters) - All workers at the Connecticut power plant construction site rocked by a massive explosion on Sunday have been accounted for, leaving the death toll at five, the town's mayor said on Monday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal government agencies in the capital region will remain closed for a second day on Tuesday as residents brace for another blizzard while trying to clean up from a weekend storm that paralyzed the area with two feet of snow.
From: SCI FI Wire
The big frakkin' robots appear to have won out over the woolly mammoths after all. Updated studio estimates released today show that Paramount's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was No. 1 in the photo-finish race for box-office supremacy this weekend, topping the domestic pack with $42.4 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
We reported yesterday that Transformers and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs were tied for the top spot when preliminary box-office estimates for the July 4 weekend were released.
The cast and crew of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will wear white ribbons on their wrists at the film's world premiere in Leicester Square Tuesday as a mark of respect to murdered actor Rob Knox, BBC News reported.
Knox, 18, who portrays Marcus Belby in the film, was stabbed in southeast London last May while defending his brother from an attack by Karl Bishop, who received four life terms in March.
Somewhere between watching the first half-hour of the new Star Trek film and, five days later, the season finale of Lost, something happened.
You know how it is when you have that second piece of dessert? It tastes great at the time. The sensory delights linger through the after-dinner drinks and through the evening ... right up to the moment when you step on the scale the next morning.
It can happen with stories, too. There are themes and high concepts you love, then you have one more than the standard adult requirement.
Matrix producer Joel Silver changed the rules of the game and made Hollywood stunt history when he traveled to China to beg reluctant action director Yuen Wo-Ping to choreograph the fighting for the film, according to an informal poll by author Kevin Conley.
Megan Fox, the hottest thing in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is even hotter as the demon-possessed high school cheerleader of Jennifer's Body—especially when she sticks her tongue in the flame of a cigarette lighter in the new "red-band trailer" released earlier today at ShockTillYouDrop.com. (Red-band trailers can be screened in theaters only when they accompany R-rated films, since the trailers themselves may contain strong language or sexual situations.)
The teen horror flick, written by Diablo Cody, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Juno, won't hit theaters until Sept. 18, 2009, but you can view the new trailer after the jump.
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