Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

First, if you have any questions for the Windows Phone 7 Series team, I'd be more than happy to ask on your behalf (as I do live around the corner from Redmond's campus and will be meeting with the team again at some point in the future). Post a comment and/or video response.

I was invited to a behind the scenes look at elements of the Windows Phone 7 Series developer platform. At Mobile World Congress (covered earlier in this channel), Microsoft provided a first look at Windows Phone 7 Series and I'm pleased to offer you the opportunity to see a live demonstration up close.

Yes, I got to play with the phone, too. It works as advertised even as a prototype. Unfortunately, we could not adjust the brightness settings in this particular device. The Metro interface is a bucket of win in my book.

Charlie Kindel partner group program manager, Windows Phone App Platform & Developer Experience was hosting an intimate reception this evening in San Francisco. I wasn't able to make it, but Microsoft arranged a somewhat more private meeting with Greg Sullivan from the Windows Phone team a little closer to home.

I met Greg a few years ago through the Longhorn Labs project (back when Microsoft Windows team leads worked actively with their most vocal community supporters). I'm not sure if I can reveal any more device details at this point, but suffice it to say

I want one.

• <a rel='nofollow' href='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000HCVR5S/lockergnome Word 2007 Version Upgrade</a></li></ul></p><p>Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or <a href="http://blip.tv/file/get/L0ckergn0me-MicrosoftWindowsPhone7ScreenshotsAndLiveDemoVideoWalkth188.mp4">download the video</a>:</p><p><textarea style="width: 460px; height:60px;"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j9F4QJK1wFs"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/j9F4QJK1wFs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a></textarea></p><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/helping-ponzi-with-her-macbook-pro/" title="Helping Ponzi with her MacBook Pro">Helping Ponzi with her MacBook Pro</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/img0823131736375jpg/" title="IMG0823131736375">IMG0823131736375</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/fixing-computers-for-a-living/" title="Fixing Computers for a Living">Fixing Computers for a Living</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/pay-off-student-loans/" title="Pay Off Student Loans">Pay Off Student Loans</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/hidden-microsoft-security-gem/" title="Hidden Microsoft Security Gem">Hidden Microsoft Security Gem</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/newspaper-industry-problems/" title="Newspaper Industry Problems">Newspaper Industry Problems</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-take-live-skype-calls/" title="How to Take Live Skype Calls">How to Take Live Skype Calls</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/texas-redbud/" title="Texas Redbud">Texas Redbud</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/lids-com-coupons/" title="Lids.com Coupons">Lids.com Coupons</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/geotag-your-photos-with-freeware/" title="Geotag Your Photos with Freeware">Geotag Your Photos with Freeware</a></li></ul> <p><iframe src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~ah/f/lpj2a0s0b83fm727ahojoknhc4/300/250?ca=1&fh=280#http%3A%2F%2Fchris.pirillo.com%2Fwindows-phone-7%2F" width="100%" height="280" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"></iframe></p>

Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It's crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything's been programmed to use Yahoo.

It is not unusual for carriers to work deals for specific software on its handsets. They take money wherever they can get it. But this deal is sure to confuse the customer, as Android phones are commonly called Google phones by many. Let's face it, Google makes Android, and one of its strengths is the tight integration with the company's online services. And search is certainly one of Google's big services, but not on the AT&T Backflip.

This is the equivalent of a Windows PC hitting the market that has Internet Explorer removed and Safari as the only browser. Some customers might be happy by that but most would be confused. Then to make matter worse, imagine that Internet Explorer couldn't be installed by the user to get around this major change. That seems to be the case with the AT&T Backflip, as early testers are reporting the inability to get Google search working in any of the Android programs.

There has been enough complaining about fragmentation in the Android space, so I won't rehash that topic. But there is something so fundamentally wrong when an Android phone has Google search removed. And replaced by Yahoo search? I guess this makes the Backflip the Yahoo Phone.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):

As Windows Mobile Stumbles, Which Smartphone OS Will Seize the Lead?

Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It's crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything's been programmed to use Yahoo.

It is not unusual for carriers to work deals for specific software on its handsets. They take money wherever they can get it. But this deal is sure to confuse the customer, as Android phones are commonly called Google phones by many. Let's face it, Google makes Android, and one of its strengths is the tight integration with the company's online services. And search is certainly one of Google's big services, but not on the AT&T Backflip.

This is the equivalent of a Windows PC hitting the market that has Internet Explorer removed and Safari as the only browser. Some customers might be happy by that but most would be confused. Then to make matter worse, imagine that Internet Explorer couldn't be installed by the user to get around this major change. That seems to be the case with the AT&T Backflip, as early testers are reporting the inability to get Google search working in any of the Android programs.

There has been enough complaining about fragmentation in the Android space, so I won't rehash that topic. But there is something so fundamentally wrong when an Android phone has Google search removed. And replaced by Yahoo search? I guess this makes the Backflip the Yahoo Phone.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):

As Windows Mobile Stumbles, Which Smartphone OS Will Seize the Lead?

It's been well over a year since Asus first showed off its Eee Keyboard concept, which packs a complete Windows computer into a keyboard that you can connect to a TV over a wireless HDMI connection. The idea is that you can surf the web, stream video over a home network, or do just about anything you can do with a PC on your TV. The keyboard also has a built in touchscreen panel for interacting with certain elements of the computer while you're watching a video or doing something else with the TV display.

Now, after a major redesign and a lot of waiting, Asus says it will finally get around to launching the Eee Keyboard in April. The question is more than a year later, are you still at all interested in this device?

Asus has also officially introduced the DR-900 eBook reader. It has a 9 inch display, WiFi, and optional 3G. Its battery is supposed to be good for up to 10,000 page turns.

While Asus hasn't made all the specs official yet, earlier this year specs were released for a mighty similar looking machine called the DR-950, which has a 1024 x 768 pixel display., 4GB of storage, headphone jack, and support for MP3, ePUB, PDF and TXT formats.

No word on a launch date or price yet.

Post from: Liliputing

Asus Eee Keyboard due out in April, eBook Reader coming soon

Scientists have created a flat surface patterned after the body hair of spiders that refuses to get wet.

The surface also has the added benefit of being self-cleaning, since water does a pretty good job of picking up and carrying off dirt as it is being repelled.

This makes the material ideal for some food packaging, windows, or solar cellsthat must stay clean to gather sunlight, scientists say. Boat designers might someday coat hulls with it, making boats faster and more efficient.

But what makes the new surface really unique is that unlike other similar products out there, such as shoe wax and car windshield treatments, the new material doesn't rely on chemicals with water-repellent properties to stay dry. Instead, its surface blocks out water by mimicking the shape and patterns of a spider's body hair. In other words, physics, not chemistry, is what keeps it dry.

Spiders "have short hairs and longer hairs, and they vary a lot. And that is what we mimic, said Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Florida.

It's been long known that spiders use their water-repelling hairs to stay dry or avoid drowning. Water spiders use their hairs to capture air bubbles and tote them underwater to breathe. But it was only five years ago that Sigmund began experimenting with microscopic fibers, turning to spiders for inspiration.

At first, Sigmund's natural tendency was to make all his fibers the same size and distance apart. But he later learned that the pattern of hairs on a spider's body consists of both long and short hairs that are both curved and straight. So he decided to mimic Nature and replicate this random pattern using plastic hairs varying in size but averaging about 600 microns, or millionths of a meter.

Most people that publish in this field always go for these perfect structures, and we are the first to show that the bad ones are the better ones, Sigmund said.

The technique, detailed in the science journal Langmuir, can be applied to keep even absorbent materials like sponges from getting wet. It may also be safer than other forms of water-proofing since the method doesn't involve the use of chemicals.

Sigmund says that he has even developed a variation of the surface that repels oil. However, he noted that the process is not reliable enough to continually create good working surfaces, and different techniques need to be developed to produce such surfaces in commercially available quantities and size.

We are at the very beginning, Sigmund said. But there is a lot of interest from industry, because our surface is the first one that relies only on surface features and can repel hot water, cold water, and if we change the chemistry both oil and water.

• 10 Profound Innovations Ahead
• Top 10 Disruptive Technologies
• New Spider-Man Device Could Let Humans Walk on Walls

As expected, HTC has unleashed a slew of Android smartphones here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and I have to admit they're looking really good.

While not exactly groundbreaking, HTC Desire is the top-notch phone that competes primarily with Google's Nexus One (also made by HTC), as it has similar looks and pretty much the same specifications.

Here's a quick overview: It's an Android 2.1 phone with a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB or ROM and 576 MB of RAM memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus), GPS, and the usual connectivity options: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G. It also has a beautiful AMOLED 3.7 inch screen (multi-touch is supported) with 480800 pixel resolution.

What makes it different from the Nexus One is the lack of trackball, and HTC's Sense UI, so the choice between the two will be strictly a matter of personal preference. I will update this post with some hands-on experiences as soon as I lay my hands on it.

*Update: After trying out the HTC Desire, I'm definitely a bit disappointed with the speed of the device. It's fast, but it's not exactly flying. This is not due to the hardware, though; HTC's Sense UI is faster and more fluid on the new HTC HD Mini, which is based on 600 MHz CPU and Windows Mobile 6.5. However, as far as Androids go, HTC Desire is still on top of the food chain, partly due to HTC's Sense UI, which is getting better and more flexible with each new iteration.

Tags: android, Desire, htc, Mobile 2.0, trending

Earlier, I posted a video asking which format you prefer our YouTube videos to be recorded in. Going a step further, I can't help but wonder what it is that will make the community one big happy bundle of joy. What do you want to see? What directions do envision our community taking?

For instance, if I post an article or video related to Apple, the Windows fans go ballistic. Likewise, whenever I posted something Windows-related, the Mac fanboys blow a gasket. It's like there's no happy medium these days. I cannot possibly make everyone happy all at once. I'm not even going to try!

However, I DO strongly believe that what we're doing is about the community, not just for the community. So I want to know what YOU think. What do you want to see more of in the coming months? What things can you live without? Leave a follow-up comment here, or drop me an email with your thoughts.

• What is Homeland Security monitoring now?
• Is it difficult for a printed book to keep your attention?
• Could a mobile phone series based around Windows 7 be a big hit for Microsoft?
• Hawaii has said YES to Google!
• What, exactly, is the appeal of so-called reality shows?
• Very soon, Apple will have sold their ten millionth song.
• Redwood trees are being threatened by a lack of fog.
• We definitely need a tax cut!
• Could Intel and Nokia be entering into the mobile phone fray?
• Where can you go online to listen to music, and read the lyrics at the same time?
• What 97 things should every programmer know?
• What will you look like with a 4G network?
• What could possibly be better than Google.
• New research reveals that burglers have changed their shopping lists dramatically.
• Even Barbie is a Geek!

Don't forget to stop by our software center to see what new deals we have for you today!

• <a rel='nofollow' href='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1921573309/lockergnome Top Success Secrets and Best Practices: Twitter Experts Share The World's Greatest Tips</a></li></ul><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/how-do-you-defeat-jet-lag/" title="How Do You Defeat Jet Lag?">How Do You Defeat Jet Lag?</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/edit-photos-online-for-free/" title="Edit Photos Online for Free">Edit Photos Online for Free</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/stop-the-facebook-chain-message-madness/" title="Stop the Facebook Chain Message Madness!">Stop the Facebook Chain Message Madness!</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/do-you-remember-your-first-tweetup/" title="Do You Remember Your First Tweetup?">Do You Remember Your First Tweetup?</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/all-search-terms-should-be-treated-equally/" title="All Search Terms Should be Treated Equally">All Search Terms Should be Treated Equally</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/see-ya-2009-hello-2010/" title="See Ya, 2009! Hello, 2010!">See Ya, 2009! Hello, 2010!</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/twitter-bans-more-than-370-passwords/" title="Twitter Bans More Than 370 Passwords">Twitter Bans More Than 370 Passwords</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/new-years-resolutions-with-a-twist/" title="New Year's Resolutions with a Twist">New Year's Resolutions with a Twist</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/should-twitter-be-banned-at-conferences/" title="Should Twitter be Banned at Conferences?">Should Twitter be Banned at Conferences?</a></li><li><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/living-life-to-the-fullest/" title="Living Life to the Fullest">Living Life to the Fullest</a></li></ul> <p><iframe src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~ah/f/lpj2a0s0b83fm727ahojoknhc4/300/250?ca=1&fh=280#http%3A%2F%2Fchris.pirillo.com%2Fwhat-tech-do-you-want%2F" width="100%" height="280" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"></iframe></p>

As expected, HTC has unleashed a slew of Android smartphones here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and I have to admit they're looking really good.

While not exactly groundbreaking, HTC Desire is the top notch phone that competes primarily with Google's Nexus One (also made by HTC), as it has similar looks and pretty much the same specifications.

Here's a quick overview: it's an Android 2.1 phone with a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB or ROM and 576 MB of RAM memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus), GPS, and the usual connectivity options: WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G. It also has a beautiful AMOLED 3.7 inch screen (multitouch is supported) with 480800 pixel resolution.

What makes it different from the Nexus One is the lack of trackball, and HTC's Sense UI, so the choice between the two will be strictly matter of personal preference. I will update this post with some hands-on experiences as soon as I lay my hands on it.

*Update: after trying out the HTC Desire I'm definitely a bit disappointed with the speed of the device. It's fast, but it's not exactly flying. This is not due to hardware, though; HTC's Sense UI is faster and more fluid on the new HTC HD Mini, which is based on 600 MHz CPU and Windows Mobile 6.5. However, as far as Androids go, HTC Desire is still on top of the food chain, partly due to HTC's Sense UI, which is getting better and more flexible with each new iteration.

Tags: android, Desire, htc, Mobile 2.0, trending

• Windows Phone 7: First Videos
  Closer look at what you can expect from a Windows Phone 7 experience. [Gizmodo]
• Apple to wrap digital books in FairPlay copy protection [Clarified]
  Remember FairPlay, the DRM scheme Apple mostly dropped after years of locking users into a crappy DRM scheme? Well it's staging a comeback in e-books. [LA Times]
• Malware Peddlers Look to Exploit Olympic Luge Tragedy
  Same old trick. Find what users are searching for, then fake 'em out! [Mashable]
• My 2009 Annual Report
  Math teacher Dan Meyer puts a year's worth of personal metrics into the incredible video below. [dy/dan]
• 
  
• The Smarter You Are, The Less You Click
  But then you probably already knew that, didn't you smartypants. [RWW]
• Sciencefeed
  It's like Friendfeed for Science! [via TechCrunch]
• Wi-Fi Turns Rowdy Bus Into Rolling Study Hall
  Internet on a school bus means students stop all that noisy horseplay! [NYT]
• Adobe AIR for Smartphones Wants to Be One Platform to Rule Them All
  Adobe's cross-platform desktop runtime AIR is on its way to mobile devices, starting with Android. [Gizmodo]
• Apple drops the ban hammer on iPhone hackers
  If you develop for the iPhone and App Store proper, Apple's not going to reward your spare-time hacking. [Boy Genius Report]

When the folks at Netbook Navigator first asked me to write about the company's new 9 inch tablet PC I had a hard time getting past the high price tag of nearly $1200. But that price was for an early model that packed 3G capabilities and was intended for early adopters. Now Netbook Navigator has updated the pricing for the Nav 9 tablet and the base model costs just $799. Yeah, that's still enough money to pick up 2-3 netbooks, but here's what you get for the money:

• Display: 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel multitouch display
• CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU
• Graphics: Intel GMA 950
• Storage: 16GB SSD
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
• Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, LAN, optional 3G HSDPA or CDMA
• I/O: 3 USB ports, MiniSD card slot, SIM card slot, port replicator w/VGA/LAN adapter, 1.3MP webcam
• Battery: 3 cell, 1700mAh (2.5 hours max)
• Dimensions: 10 x 6.6 x 0.8
• Weight: 2 pounds
• Other: car charger

The 3G module will cost you extra, as will a higher capacity battery which is good for up to 4 hours of run time. You can also get the Nav 9 with a 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB SSD. The most expensive unit will run you $1399, but the $799 starting price is certainly much more appealing than the $1200 the company was charging earlier.

Netbook Navigator has also put together a handy chart comparing the Nav 9 tablet to the upcoming Apple iPad and the already-on-the-market Archos 9 tablet. The long and short of it is that the Nav 9 supports multitasking, supports USB peripherals and SD card expansion, and comes in more varieties. Oh yeah, it can also run most Windows applications. On the other hand, it's thicker and heavier than the other tablets.

Post from: Liliputing

Netbook Navigator's Nav 9 slate PC gets affordable, guns for the iPad

By being more powerful we mean that the Eee PC 1005PE features 2GB of RAM, and 320GB of HDD. The screen remains at 10.1-inch of course with 1024x600 resolution. It's battery pack is still 6-cell 4400mAh with 11 hours of battery life and of course it is powered by Intel Atom N450 CPU running Windows 7.

Since it is not officially announced yet, no official pictures are available, even its price and release data are uncertain at this moment. But we will sure bring these information to you once they became available, so stick around.

via Blogeee

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Eee PC 1005PE-H Spotted, More Powerful than the One without an H

If the acquisition of Touchco wasn't enough of an indication that Amazon is preparing for a skirmish with the Apple iPad, this should make it perfectly clear. Mike Nash, a man who has quite a history of accomplishments at Microsoft for the past two decades, is leaving the company to work on the Kindle business for Amazon.

Before leaving Microsoft, Mike was the Corporate Vice President of Windows Platform Strategy and was responsible for pieces of Windows business strategy, ecosystem engagement, consumer security, Internet Explorer, and emerging markets, according to his bio on Microsoft's Web site.

In addition to his most recent role, Nash has had a string of historic positions at Big M including a role as the first product manager on the original Windows NT marketing team; the Corporate Vice President of the Security Technology Unit; and a driver of a number of Microsoft acquisitions in the security space.

There's been no official announcement yet from Amazon so we're unsure of Nash's focus within the Amazon team.

[Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet] [Amazon Kindle]

Disclosure of Material Connection: http://dsclszr.us/5

Related articles by Zemanta

• Amazon acquires Touchco and a Microsoft exec (macworld.com)
• Another Windows exec Mike Nash is leaving Microsoft (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Amazon Hires Mike Nash from Microsoft to Work on Kindle is a post from: Magical Tablet

There's the Atom N270 processor, running at 1.6Ghz, for example. And then there's the 2GB of memory and solid state 32GB drive. Lastly, the replaceable battery on this 8.9-in. multitouch tablet is clocked at a mere four hours, which doesn't seem that great (saving grace being that is replaceable).

Pricing is set at $599 when it launches in March. Impatient types can buy a non-multitouch prototype for $780 right now. [ExoPC via Engadget]

UPDATE: We've been anxiously following Mobile Firefox for a long time. The mobile version of the web browser has also been known as Fennec for most of that time. While this mobile version of Firefox has already hit some platforms as both early alpha versions and release candidates, Android owners were understandably excited when Mozilla confirmed a version for their platform was under construction. Now it is being reported that there may not be very long to wait, as Mobile Firefox for Android may appear as soon as next month.

Mozilla is keeping mum on when the Android version may be released, but let's hope this rumor pans out. Mobile Firefox should bring some welcome features to Android including bookmark syncing with the main Firefox and screen panning.

Mobile Firefox already has some cool features that should make mobile browsing a great experience. Take a look at this from Mozilla:

• The Awesome Bar searches your history, bookmarks and tags to go to your favorite sites instantly
• Share your Firefox preferences, history, and bookmarks between your desktop and mobile
• Add-ons to make your browser your own
• Tabs that let you browse multiple sites at once
• One-touch bookmarking to quickly organize websites

There are other mobile browsers for the different phone platforms that have some of these features, that's not new. But hey, this is Firefox.

UPDATE: Our friends at Android Central were a bit surprised by this rumor of a February launch as we were. They asked Mozilla if this was accurate and got the kibosh put on it directly:

Android is on our mobile road map, but the German reports were a bit exaggerated. The Android version of Fennec is not yet in alpha so on the way is premature.

It's a tribute to how badly folks want to get Mobile Firefox up and running when rumors like these get bandied about.

We've been anxiously following Mobile Firefox for a long time. The mobile version of the web browser has also been known as Fennec for most of that time. While this mobile version of Firefox has already hit some platforms as both early alpha versions and release candidates, Android owners were understandably excited when Mozilla confirmed a version for their platform was under construction. Now it is being reported that there may not be very long to wait, as Mobile Firefox for Android may appear as soon as next month.

Mozilla is keeping mum on when the Android version may be released, but let's hope this rumor pans out. Mobile Firefox should bring some welcome features to Android including bookmark syncing with the main Firefox and screen panning.

Mobile Firefox already has some cool features that should make mobile browsing a great experience. Take a look at this from Mozilla:

• The Awesome Bar searches your history, bookmarks and tags to go to your favorite sites instantly
• Share your Firefox preferences, history, and bookmarks between your desktop and mobile
• Add-ons to make your browser your own
• Tabs that let you browse multiple sites at once
• One-touch bookmarking to quickly organize websites

There are other mobile browsers for the different phone platforms that have some of these features, that's not new. But hey, this is Firefox.

Chinese computer maker Coship wasn't turning heads with its netbook specs at CES.

However, with a sexy body like the beauty on the left, they're moving in the right direction to delight in the future. Other low cost netbook manufacturers like MSI and Asus should keep an eye on this competitor.

The Coship ZCULV30 is a shining example of taking the gloves off and following a design vision. In a world filled with bland silicon and plastic slices this netbook is a delightful departure.

The body is slick plastic that gave it a unique feel, it is light weight and is way hotter than the Monster Ferrari.

Limited specs below.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Asus Eee Keyboard PC Refined Computing (techstartups.com)
• Asus Multi-Touch Tablets T91MT and T101MT #CES (techstartups.com)
• Nokia Booklet 3G (reghardware.co.uk)
• Netbook vendors go all-out to stand out in 2010 (arstechnica.com)

Coship Netbook #CES Sexy MF ZCULV30 is a post from: TechStartups.com

In Flickr's App Garden it must be mating season as they are crushing hard on mobile apps today in their blog.

Mobile's now arrived, I guess. And it is so hot that Flickr is okay with public displays of affection now.

That, my friends, is awesome.

Flickr sits on mountains of EXIF meta data from images and right now the most important set is the rise of mobile devices shuttering away and uploading to the photo service.

For years if you were shooting mobile images and wanted to get them on Flickr the easiest way was to send them as an email attachment. Rudementary, but a very effective way of getting it done with low overhead . . . like apps.

The mobile apps come in handy to access phone features and override them. For instance if you are on a Windows Mobile phone and send an image it will be capped at a certain file size even if you have an unlimited data plan and most apps allow you to send full size images.

Another nice feature of the mobile apps is that many come with an ability to do some post work on the photos. It might be blur reduction, lighting, exposure, b&w conversion, etc. That was never going to happen with Treo 650 back in the day.

What might help Flickr more in these PDA moments with mobile would be to organize a tour of the App Garden. Because right now it is like a monsoon of slightly curated applications that are desktop and mobile commingled together. Not that cross pollination should be a concern but being able to find a certain variety of app without having to sift all the species could help out on the uptake.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Prose, poetry, and photography (flickr.net)
• FlickrImport adds your Flickr pics to iPhoto (downloadsquad.com)
• Flickr Sprouts App Garden: Five Cool Apps We Discovered (readwriteweb.com)
• Flickroom Enables Desktop Browsing of Flickr [Download] (lifehacker.com)

Flickr PDA for Mobile is a post from: TechStartups.com

Fring is an Israel based startup that has been offering its signature VoIP application for mobile devices is now available for Android phones in the Android Market. Fring is an app that allows users to connect via popular chast and VoIP tools like Skype and Google Talk.

It was first introduced a little over three years ago in beta for handsets that were running Symbian OS. Since that time it has spread across the other popular platforms to gain a foothold in the instant messaging space on mobiles. Not to mention cornering VoIP though API development with some of the most popular internet based messaging software.

Fring allows users to aggregate their connections across networks and easily send text, photos, files and now video. And yes, like anything else being released today, Fring will allow you to tweet. Happy?

The two most robust platforms for using Fring are on Symbian 9 or higher and Windows Mobile phones. The newest, Android, has a few features for now like text chat, mobile calling and personalization settings.

Using the application is fairly straight forward as you need to download and install for your phone, register and then wait for Fring to connect the together your networks and contacts. Once this step is done you can begin getting in touch with your posse(s) via your mobile.

I've had good luck with Fring when I needed to get in touch with a contact that I didn't have handy in my phone contacts and for Skype text based chats. Now that it is ready for the new kid, Android, I would suspect that more features like those for the iPhone will make their way into the app.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Android Market VoIP by Fring is a post from: TechStartups.com

This can be distilled down to a handful of features that are the foundation for an awesome phone. The iPhone, Droid, Pre and Imagio, to mention a few are great phones. But not a single one of them is awesome.

With the exception of the iPhone, if you pick up a phone today in any carrier store it will magically transport you back to the innovations of 2005 for mobile phones. If the device doesn't fall into that category it will surely fall into one of the other two: your nana's phone or an iPhone knockoff.

I would settle for an iPhone knockoff if it had additional features that would bring it toward the peak of awesomeness. They are either crippled by carrier software modifications or suffer from form factors that leave the user scratching their heads and hating the phone.

With all of that said, I wanted to take this opportunity to just say that I want an awesome phone. What means awesome to me may be not so awesome in your world. So be it. Below is what a phone in 2009 heading into 2010 needs in my book.

1. Connectivity 4g capable, 3g legacy, wifi, bluetooth, IR
2. Camera 8 MP min, flash, top side trigger, HD video
3. Keyboard onscreen, external QWERTY (centered on the device), bluetooth full-size keyboard
4. Software Android or Windows Mobile
5. Size 12.7 MM larger on all sides than the iPhone

There is not one device on the market with all more thank 3 of these 5 items available. As a user of many a smartphone it seems strange that a device with the capabilities hasn't been made yet. I would settle for an awesome camera that had 3g and keyboard capabilities but those don't exist either.

I want to see some awesome people! Where are the game changing products of 2009 and 2010? They seem to be missing in action.

What would you put into a phone to make it awesome, not just great?

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

I Want An Awesome Phone is a post from: TechStartups.com

I'm hesitant to use the term brand' since it is overused right now and a bit nebulous, especially when it comes to humans. I guess if your name was a brand then it would fit . . . but there thousands of brands with the same name, so maybe not.

Over the last few years with the rise of social everything online many people have arrived without the experience of the growing pains that made the market ready for these sites. With that, the newbies have arrived at the front gate to deliver gems on Facebook like, In hell right now, that would be work! Way to go genius. Don't get run over by the forklift you rode in on.

It has been my desire for years that there were be some licensing that has to happen before people could hop online and make the same mistakes that people were making a decade ago. An education center would be fitting like community annex night courses. Even cabbies gotta go to school.

I thought that since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and you might engage face to face with some people that aren't so savvy, that you could share some words of internet wisdom with them. It. Is. Your. Job. To save them. From. Themselves. Share these of course after you have helped them remove 30 GB of kitty photos from the desktop of their Windows Me eMachine. Okay?

1. Don't use Facebook or MySpace or Twitter at work
2. Don't talk about your boss on the computer
3. Don't ever upload pictures of yourself or Mom drunk
4. Don't put pictures of grandma drunk on the internet
5. Don't take photos of anything naked and upload it
6. Don't threaten the bully from your 8th grade class on Facebook. We know he didn't deserve to succeed in life but he did. Let it go.
7. Don't contact anyone that you hooked up back in the day that Mom knows. That goes for you too Mom. Forget they exist and use your memories remember their sweet smell and freak moves.
8. Don't tell your neighbor that his spouse is cheating on Facebook. Just don't.
9. Don't type anything into your computer that would cause Santa to leave you a lump of coal
10. Don't evah, evah, evah upload a photo of your cat to the internet and caption it. You will never get hired for a job again especially if I am the head of HR

That's it. Now you can spend your Thanksgiving in peace after you lay down the law to your in-laws about Managing Yourself Online'. Cuz the internet is a job.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Managing Yourself Online: A Thanksgiving Guide is a post from: TechStartups.com

Black Friday may be just around the corner, but you don't have to wait to find some excellent bargains on netbooks, nettops, and accessories.

Netbooks and Notebooks

• ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Atom 1.66GHz 10 Netbook for $260 after rebate + free shipping ZipZoomfly
• Acer Aspire One AOD250-1165 10.1 Netbook w/3 cell battery for $285.95 + free shipping Amazon
• Refurbished Acer AOD250-1165 Netbook w/Win XP, 3 cell battery for $239.99 Buy.com
  
• Refurbished ASUS Eee PC 1005HA Atom 1.6GHz 10 Netbook w/3 cell batteryfor $215 + free shipping Mwave (coupon: BLKFRSAVE)
• Gateway LT2032u Atom 1.6GHz 10.1 Netbook with Windows 7 for $280 + $12 s&h Best Buy

Nettops

• Acer AspireRevo AR1600-U910H w/NVIDIA ION LE graphics, Windows XP Buy.com via Amazon

Accessories

• Set of Chargers for ASUS EEE PC 900 and 1000 Netbooks for $14 + free shipping - PCMicroStore (coupon: DealnewsASUSNet)
• Belkin N150 802.11n Enhanced 4-Port Wireless Router for $35 + free shipping - J&R
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Operating System for $171 + free shipping SuperBiiz (coupon: BLACKFRIDAY)

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

Post from: Liliputing

Deals of the Day

This is a blind faith endorsement of the June Fabrics PdaNet for the Motorola Droid on the Verizon network.

PdaNet isn't just for Droid, it will work for most Android phones, but it sure felt good to type since the Verizon Droid has only been out for a couple of days.

I have used PdaNet for over three years on three different devices to tether my phone with laptops and desktop computers. The first phone that I used PdaNet with was a Palm Treo 650 on Verizon's network back in 2006. It was able to connect to my laptop via BlueTooth and USB.

It delivered excellent speeds across their EVDO network as I sat in coffee shops or was speeding down the highway. Yes, I was in the passenger's seat. If you met my wife you would understand my co-pilot lifestyle.

Next was a Treo 700, as the 650 wouldn't stop freezing and rebooting itself. I had even better performance with PdaNet on the 700 but chalk that up to better hardware. I most often chose to the use the USB over BlueTooth for better speeds on the 700.

Most recently, the PdaNet I've been using is on an iPhone. It has worked flawlessly via ad-hoc network with my Mac Book Pro. PdaNet will also work on the iPhone with a Windows computer but only via USB. PdaNet also is available for Windows Mobile and Blackberry phones.

If I had an Android phone in my current stable of mobiles, especially the Verizon Droid, I would be downloading and putting up the 29 bucks to continue the great experience of using a tethering application that is easy to use and reliable. I guess I'm saying that I would stick with the horse that helped me become and even geek while on the go.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Motorola Droid Tethering on Verizon is a post from: TechStartups.com

About the author: Matt is a software developer and author living in Chicago. He is the author of five programming books, most recently Drupal 6 Javascript and jQuery and an Open Source project called QueryPath for PHP that allows developers to easily build applications from XML data with jQuery like functionality.

Matt's personal blog is at TechnoSophos.com

I saw into the future. At 10:00 AM PDT on October 25th, in a conference room seating 16 people at the Googleplex in Santa Clara, I saw into the future of the web. And it was good.

What I saw was the demise of Web 2.0, a technology grown to capacity. And it is not Web 3.0 (whatever that is) that will take its place. No, tomorrow's web is about user interfaces.

The weekend of October 24th was the annual Google Summer of Code (GSOC) Mentor Summit at Google's headquarters. Ostensibly, this is the opportunity for all of the Open Source organizations who participated in GSOC to get together and perform a collective postmortem on the summer's successes and failures. But anytime such a menagerie of geeks is assembled under one roof, much more is bound to happen.

Unsurprisingly, many of the unconference's sessions were focused on the GSOC program itself. But a healthy dose of technology centered sessions made their way onto the schedule as well, and the hallway may very well have seen more code than the conference rooms.

Beyond the physical conference space, much was happening in the virtual sphere as well. As a gesture of thanks to the GSOC participants and mentors for a summer of work, Google gave everyone Wave accounts.

Wave's utility lies in numbers. Signing in without a friend is like throwing a party but inviting nobody. Bring a friend or two into the Wave, and it feels like hosting tea in a room with too much furniture. But once the numbers start to rise, Wave's strengths surface. It is a cocktail party that comes complete with a birds-eye view of all of the chit-chat. Conversations swirl around, splintering into smaller threads of conversation only to merge back into the main discussion later. Images, maps, polls, and an API for building extensions make Wave a promising tool except for one thing.

The user interface stinks.

Yes, Wave's merits surface only when many people are in a discussion. Unfortunately, that's also where the big shortcomings surface. As one conversation forks into many smaller discussions, the wave quickly becomes visually unmanageable. The Quickest Scrollwheel in the West will still have a hard time traversing the continuously growing vertical pane that wraps the conversation. The entire advantage gained by the birds eye view of the conversation is lost to clumsy scrolling.

But this failing is indicative of something greater. Once again, Google has achieved an engineering masterpiece. And for all technical purposes, Wave is a marvel. It certainly pushes AJAX and asynchronous web interaction to its very limits, and I have no doubt that the source code for the server component would make my head swim. But the user interface, for all its visual business, simply doesn't work. Wave is an attempt to cram the internals of a Hummer into the body of a circa 1996 Honda Civic.

This is where the Mentor Summit offered a revelation.

On the second day of the summit, the PyMT team hosted an hour-long session on multi-touch input. PyMT is a set of Python application bindings for various multi-touch libraries. Linux, Windows, and OS X all support multi-touch input technologies. Last week, Apple's new Magic Mouse made its debut featuring a multi-touch surface atop a traditional laser-based mouse. Dell offers a laptop with a multi-touch screen. Wacom offers a multi-touch tablet. Microsoft's Surface technology boasts table-sized multi-touch surfaces.

Multi-touch is arriving in a big way. But what's the hubub about? What's the big feature that suddenly makes these technologies attractive? It is the extension of point and click to touch, tap, pinch, swipe, expand, drag, rotate, throw. The simple mouse model that has driven graphical interaction for decades is mid-way through an extreme makeover. And with deflection- and pressure-sensing surfaces rapidly advancing, mice and fingers are just the tip of the input iceberg.

The PyMT team took an hour-long trip to Google's hands-on room and came back with an impressive demonstration. Beginning with some Lego pieces, a flat sheet of metal, and a PlayStation 3 camera, the pair of programmers from PyMT built a gaming surface and a couple of paddles. The camera tracked the motion of the paddles on the surface, transforming the physical paddles into virtual ones in a game of Pong projected onto the wall. In an hour!

When we can build new input devices with an Open Source library and $35 worth of corner-drug-store toys, a whole new universe of possibilities appears.

And that's where Wave returns to mind. As I walked out of the room with UX Design guru Steve Fisher, he turned to me an remarked, When I watch a demo like this, it makes me wonder What is the Web going to look like in a few years. Yeah, it makes me wonder, too.

Wave is a fantastic architecture. But the architectural gems are obscured behind yesterday's user interface limitations. In that way, Wave is a milestone that marks the death of Web 2.0. And it is more than that. It's a fingerpost pointing not to the technologies touted as Web 3.0, but toward a new mode of human-computer interaction. What is going to make tomorrow's web compelling? Not metadata. Not cleaner layout. Not even native support for videos. Better user interfaces. Interfaces tuned to convey information more effectively. Reactive interfaces. That's where tomorrow's success stories are waiting.

HTML 5 and RDFa are good and all, but the real sea-change is coming from your fingertips. All ten of them.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/4

The Demise of Web 2.0 is a post from: TechStartups.com

While there are plenty of web polling services around where can you create online polls and surveys for free, there are couple of reasons why the form builder in Google Docs rules them all.

Reason 1. You can create any number of polls and surveys using Google Docs for free and virtually unlimited number of people can participate in such surveys via the web browser.

Reason 2. The forms created with Google Docs are mobile friendly and people can therefore send in their responses from mobile phone browsers as well (perfect for conducting polls in a conference).

Reason 3. All the votes and responses are automatically collected in an Excel spreadsheet and that makes it easier for you to analyze large sets of data using charts and other complex spreadsheet functions.

Reason 4. You can chose to get email notifications as soon as people fill in a Google Docs form with their responses.

Reason 5. Forms in Google Docs support a wide range of question types including scale and grid that are generally not available in other web polling services (at least the free ones).

Reason 6. With Google Docs, you can pre-populate form fields via URL parameters. This is pretty handy in case you want to pre-fill some fields of the form with default choices or if you are planning to integrated a Google Docs form with another system like the comment section of your site if someone has filled their name and email in the comment section, they need not fill that data again in Google Docs form.

Reason 7. Google Docs is probably the only free polling software that supports logic branching. This is like serving a different set of questions to a user based on their previous responses.

Let me explain that with an example. Say you have created a survey for your site visitors that asks whether they have upgraded to the latest OS or not.

Since there's little point in asking Mac related questions to a Windows User (and vice-versa), you can create different sets of questions for Mac and Windows related questions and redirect visitors to the right set based on what OS they use. Here's how you do that inside Google Docs forms.

Reason 8. Google Docs forms are great for conducting internal surveys as well if you are using Google Apps in the organization. That's because Google Docs can automatically record* the email addresses of people (your employees) who fill out the form.

Also see: The Google Docs Guide

[*] You can also have anonymous surveys inside Google Apps.

Why Forms in Google Docs are Perfect for Creating Online Surveys

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I dance the Macarena whenever I come across an article that argues against healthy living. I cautioned you against too much positive thinking a few days ago. I laughed while reading research about dark chocolate firing up the happy brain. And I high fived the doctors who warn folks against too much sunscreen because it blocks the vitamin D that all of us need. I hate that stuff and was looking long and hard for an excuse not to look like a clown this summer. Thank you!

I've even performed the opposite of an intervention with one of my friends last week who was foolishly trying to give up alcohol and nicotine at the same time.

No, no, no, I told her. You can't do both of these together and expect to keep friends. Now I suggest you go pour yourself a glass of Merlot or light up the lung rocket pronto, and do us all a favor.

Alas, I bring you one more doctor you will like: Dr. Erika Schwartz, Medical Director of Cinergy Health. She's here to tell us not to get too carried away with our healthy habits. Thanks, Erika!

As a society, we are constantly striving to lead healthier, happier lives. But with these efforts, we sometimes run the risk of going too far. As a rule of thumb, any extreme is unhealthy, but rarely are we made aware of the cons of healthy habits, instead led to think any good thing is better if done as often as possible. Not so fast

Here are some examples of healthy habits that can backfire when done in excess:

1. Over-Exercising: Your body and mind do not need more than 3-4 days a week of 30-45 minutes of cardio activity. Cardio/aerobic exercises should be done every other day alternating with Yoga, Pilates, walking, and weight training on the off days. Hiking, swimming, tennis, golf, team sports and a simple variation in exercise over the course of the week, month and season is the best way to stay lean, toned and energized.

2. Staying Out of the Sun: Our bodies need Vitamin D to stay strong by making healthy bones and ward off illness by boosting our immune system. The only way to get Vitamin D into our system is via sun exposure. Don't make yourself overly neurotic about sunscreen. If you are going to the pool or beach or participating in outdoor sports that involve more than 20 minutes of sun exposure, slather on the SPF 30, but if you are simply doing your daily errands outdoors, enjoy the feeling the sun on your skin. The only part of your body that should always be protected is the face.

3. Antibacterial Soaps and Gels: Antibacterial soaps and gels are good to carry in your purse or car but becoming obsessed with the sanitization they promise could weaken your body's ability to fight off good bacteria. Using them is okay, but use regular soap as well.

4. Sleeping: The average person needs 8 full hours of undisturbed sleep at night. If you are regularly getting fewer or more than nine hours sleep, you are not doing yourself much good. Human beings are not built to think, process or function optimally on more or less than 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. Not to mention too little or too much sleep is bad for our skin and causes bloating, overeating, confusion and depression.

5. Air Conditioning: While air conditioning feels great on a hot, humid summer day, don't sit and breathe in cold recycled air all day and night long. The air may contain bacteria and germs and certainly all kinds of particles of dust. Every few hours, turn the air off, open the windows, go for a walk outside and breathe in the fresh air don't forget to wash your air conditioning filters with warm water and soap and let them air-dry every month you're using them. And if you work in an office building where windows never open, bring a sweater to keep your core temperature warm and get out of the office at least for lunch and a mid-afternoon break

6. Organic Food: While organic foods - such as fruits, vegetables and packaged goods - tend to be expensive, the real problem is that unless you eat them directly from the farm, they to can contain pesticides or be processed. Make sure to read the labels of the food you are purchasing carefully even if you are buying them from the health food store. Foods don't need to be organic to be healthy. Stick with labels that have simple and few ingredients, and a low amount of natural sugars (like honey, turbinado sugar, cane sugar), sodium and processed carbohydrates.

While many people stereotype geeks as only being interested in using the computer all day, the truth is that a geek is actually a person who often contemplates many of the deeper questions of the universe while busy installing the coolest new add-ons to Firefox or tweaking their mobile phone so that they can control it from their desktop. One of the universal debates many geeks have centers around an important question that involves neurobiology and the science of artificial intelligence, and that question is Does a human think faster than a computer?

What a question. Just think of the necessary evidence that one would need to produce in order to prove, or disprove, that statement. In fact, what is the question about really? Is it whether a human brain or a computer is faster, or is it which form of information processing is better? Is it even a fair comparison? Today, I'd like to engage MakeUseOf readers into a debate on this subject by first providing my own take and then asking for yours.

The Question: Does a Human Think Faster Than a Computer?

The question itself represents the fallacy of how people think about computers. When a person uses a computer, if it's slow then it's junk. But there are certainly other factors to consider when examining intelligence what about image recognition, language recognition, multi-tasking capabilities or self-learning and self-healing features?

First, to partially answer the speed question we need to examine data transmission. In the Hartford Examiner, writer Joy Casad answers the question, How fast is a thought by describing the chemical/biological propagation of thinking neurons before getting to the point in the final paragraph these neurons transmit signals at 0.5 milliseconds. That's pretty fast!

In 2006, the fastest reported fiber optic transmission rate was 2.56 terabits a second. Okay, but a bit is nothing more than a zero and a one. Well the current state of the art is the cutting edge subatomic technology created by Stanford researchers representing one bit with 35 electrons, or 35,000,000,000 electrons a millisecond. Due to the fact that axon/neuron electrical transmission depends on the chemical and biological environment it is in, data transmission of one neuron is actually millions of times slower than the fastest electrical transmission rates over copper electrical wire, and even slower compared to fiber optics. Score one for computers.

What About Processing Power?

The question of processing is a tricky one. According to the Top500 list of super computers, the fastest one as of 2009 is the RoadRunner BladeCenter at 12.8 GFlops (floating point operations per second).

A GFlop represents a billion operations per second. Now, you're thinking of that Monday morning in class when your professor asked you to perform a simple calculation and your mind went blank. You're ready to chalk up another point to computers, right? Wrong.

While the transmission of electrical impulses may be slower in the brain than over wire, the processing power of the brain is represented by not one, but thousands of processors backed into one major super computer. One example is the retina, which is sort of like your computer web cam, in that it transmits light (images) to the brain for processing. Except the retina itself has its own processing power, sort of like a subprocessor 100 million neurons packed into a one centimeter by one millimeter space.

This stunning little processor is capable of processing ten images, each of about a million light points, every single second. Not only that, the data isn't transmitted over a single fiber of nerve cells, but over a cable to the brain made up of a million of these fibers, all transmitting bits of data at the same time in parallel. If you multiply the processing power of this volume of neurons by the overall size of the average 1,500 cubic cm human brain, the overall processing power of the brain is about 100 million, million operations per second. For those of you who are trying to do the math with your super computer brain that's over 100,000 times more processing power than today's cutting-edge super computer.

Image and Language Recognition, Learning and Common Sense

If our brains are such super computers, then why do we feel so dense and so slow sometimes? I don't know about you, but I'm horrible at doing calculations in my head. The problem is that people think of computers only in terms of how many calculations it can do per second. The truth is, when it comes to intelligence there's so much more to process than calculations alone. How do you calculate what the tone of someone's voice implies they are really saying? How do you calculate the irony of a joke that, when taken literally, makes no sense at all? This is where the true power of the human brain makes itself known.

Have you ever had a friend who was such a genius that they could perform the most astounding calculations in their head, or they could fathom the most complex equations or problems imaginable yet when faced with the simplest common-sense joke, they just didn't get it? This is the major difference between a human brain and a computer.

Author Gary Marcus writes, in his book on the human mind that, The fundamental difference between computers and the human mind is in the basic organization of memory.

What he means is that a computer organizes information in a logical way. To retrieve data, the computer uses logical storage locations. A human brain, on the other hand, remembers where information is stored based on cues. Those cues are other pieces of information or memories connected to the information you need to retrieve. This means that the human mind can connect an almost unlimited number of concepts in a variety of ways, and then sometimes disconnect or recreate connections based on new information. This allows the human to step outside the boundaries of what has already been learned leading to new art and new inventions that are the trademark of the human race.

There are a lot of other ways the human mind blows computers away it can self repair itself, it can produce chemical reactions within its host body to induce instinctive reactions and protect itself from danger, it can handle every last function required to operate the machine of the human body while simultaneously processing information from outside that body, and most importantly it can continue learning and building new connections within that contextual storage array in ways that seem infinite.

In short, the answer to the question Does a human think faster than a computer? is yes. And it can also do a whole lot more than that.

Geeks out there weigh in with your opinion in the comments section below!

Image Credits: cbowns

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top 8 Websites To Find The Latest UFO Sightings (11)
• Top 10 Conspiracy Web Sites (44)
• The Seven Wonders of The World (Wide Web) (44)
• The 13 Sites to Understand and Analyze Your Dreams (15)
• Mr.Breakfast All about Breakfast Cereals! Top 100 Cereals, History & more (5)

The Booklet 3G's key specs include an Atom Z530 processor, 120GB hard disk, 1GB RAM, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and HDMI. It's pretty thin (just 0.78-inches), and will have a hot-swappable SIM card slot and integrated Ovi maps. [YouTube via Engadget]

If you're one of the many enterprise (and increasingly, small business) users of Socialtext, you'll be excited about today's Socialtext Mobile beta launch news. If you're in the market for an Enterprise 2.0 solution for your business, there's even more reason to get Socialtext on your roadmap.

In addition to a mobile web-based application rolling out free to all customers, there are also three new dashboard widgets launching in the Socialtext web app that bring activity streams to the fore as a primary focus. The new widgets display not only what's most recent but also which content and people are most active, as well as offering a set of other powerful attention filters to help surface the most important activity happening in your workspaces and teams.

Starting out as primarily a wiki company back in 2002, Socialtext has grown to include a buffet of collaboration tools for the enterprise including blogging, microblogging, social spreadsheets, people profiles, activity streams, and a dashboard that pulls everything together in one view.

The Socialtext Desktop is an Adobe AIR client application for interfacing with Socialtext think of it like Tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop for Twitter. The newly launching Socialtext Mobile app has a similar interface so will feel familiar to users of the desktop app, as well as sharing many of its features.

Although the mobile app has only been tested thoroughly for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms, since it is a browser application and not a platform-specific client it should work well in most full-featured browsers for other platforms including Windows Mobile and Symbian. That's one of the reasons the app will officially be considered in beta, so there will be more time to test the remaining platforms with a larger user base.

When asked why Socialtext decided to go the web app route instead of the platform-specific route, President and Chairman Ross Mayfield indicated in an interview that quicker time to market and lower overall cost were the driving factors. It's a lower development and support cost not just for us, but for our customers as well, who at the enterprise level would otherwise need to support multiple platforms instead of a single web app.

To access the app, all current Socialtext customers need to do is log into Socialtext from a mobile device, and the system will detect and direct you to Socialtext Mobile. For teams and businesses interested in giving Socialtext's approach to collaboration a try, the hosted service is free for up to 50 users with some restrictions. The goal with both the web and mobile applications is essentially to go beyond the push mechanism of the email inbox and use activity streams to connect with colleagues in real-time, from anywhere.

Let us know if you have a chance to try out Socialtext Mobile, and give us your thoughts on the beta version.

Tags: activity streams, android, blackberry, Enterprise 2.0, iphone, Mobile 2.0, real-time, socialtext, wikis

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When you think of a hard-core gamer, do you picture a teenage boy battling his friends in World of Warcraft?

Also on wired.com:

• Gaming Gets a Level Up On Age
• Recession Proof' Gaming Industry Ignores the Stock Market
• SXSW: LoudCrowd Turns Music into Social Video Arcade
• Big Game Publishers Muscle In On iPhone Upstarts

The update promises several improvements beyond what we saw when Mozilla released Thunderbird 3 Beta 2, both for developers and users. Specifically:

• Tabbed Email Messages

  Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.

• New Message Summary View

  Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.

• Column Headings

  The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.

• Smart Folders

  The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes (e.g. Inbox) from multiple accounts together.

• Improved Gmail Integration

  Better recognition and integration of Gmail's special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.

For more, check out the release notes. Before you upgrade, you may also want to take a look at the known issues to make sure that a little beta bugginess doesn't disrupt your email flow.

Thunderbird is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. If you're a Thunderbird die-hard and you've tried out the Thunderbird 3 betas, let's hear how it's been working for you in the comments.

Its taken a bit longer than we all might have hoped, but it seems that Android is really starting to pick up the steam it deserves. Be it Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson.. if they're a big gun in the mobile manufacturing world (Well, outside of certain obvious exclusions), they're probably working on an Android handset or two. The first off the bat and the most dedicated so far has been HTC - and if the latest rumors hold true, they might be looking to throw even more weight behind it.

According to the Digitimes, HTC may be looking to put the Droid onto as much as fifty percent of their handsets. Now, HTC doesn't push'em out as fast as some other manufacturers (by the way, Samsung, we're totally talking about you), but they still pump out a good number of'em each year. And of their lineup, almost the entirety is Windows Mobile. Digitimes also adds that HTC is aiming for around 30% of their handsets this year to be Android-based. We can think of about 5 or 6 we're expecting to see by years end (including those that have launched already) -f it that's 30% and HTC continues to make around as many total devices next year, we can probably expect at least 9 or 10 Droidphones from them next year. Fuzzy math? Absolutely. But we can hope, can't we?

[Via EngadgetMobile]

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it's time for you to find a new Job2.0

Stanford-Clark has set up various systems for real-time monitoring of the Internet of Things, many of them using Twitter (he calls the resulting tweets "tweetjects"). One example got a bit of mainstream media coverage lately: a house that uses Twitter to monitor its energy consumption.

Sponsor

As Rory Cellan-Jones from the BBC reported recently, Stanford-Clark has installed sensors on a number of household objects - such as electricity meters and windows. From this he can monitor lighting, heating, temperature, phone and water usage. Stanford-Clark is able to turn his fountain, lights and heaters on and off by flicking switches on a web page or from a live dashboard application on his mobile phone.

He's also now hooked up his house sensors to a Twitter account: andy_house (it's a private account, so requires Andy's approval before you can follow it). Here's a BBC tv report about the house and other similar projects involving sensors and Twitter:

As well as his own house, Stanford-Clark has also set up Twitter accounts for his local ferry and bus - for example so they can tweet their real-time locations.

What Use is a Tweeting House?

Stanford-Clark told me that as well as providing useful data about what his house is doing - for example how warm is the lounge, or has he left a door open - the system can also apply intelligence to his house. For example it can cross-reference house data against AMEE (an open platform for measuring energy consumption), in order to infer the real-time carbon footprint for his house.

These experiments are just the start of what's possible by hooking sensors up to real-time messaging systems like Twitter. However there's a lot of infrastructure work that needs to be done first. Stanford-Clark told me that to get at this type of data for many everyday things, governments, city councils and companies will need to instrument public things with sensors - e.g. gas pipelines, buses, trains, ferries.

The problem for most organizations, including government, is that they aren't necessarily sure what uses there are right now for sensors. For example power companies may not see the economic value of replacing meter readers with automatic sensors. Stanford-Clark's response is that "a lot of other apps will spring out of the woodwork," when sensors are added and hooked into messaging software.

Stanford-Clark and IBM have identified 3 main things that are required for this trend to play out fully, conveniently summed up as "the three 'I's": Instrumented, Interconnected, and Intelligent. In my next post, I'll explore this more - plus some of IBM's other projects in this area.

To view a list of all the items that you liked, simply navigate to this URL in your browser to see the list of your liked itemsno doubt the link will eventually be added somewhere in Reader, but for now you can see the list this way.

http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/like

What we'd really like to see is a list of all the items that everybody else liked, sorted by the amount of people that liked them, but so far there doesn't appear to be a way to do that. Thanks, Michel!

For more, use the Google Reader Notifier for Windows, or the Google Reader Watcher for Firefox to keep an eye on your feeds, or check out how Google Reader Gadget brings feeds to the desktop.

As a media theorist who's written about some of the most influential ideas of the digital age, Rushkoff is second to none. In Life Inc., he describes not just corporations, but how we all can change to an "open source economy" that favors decentralized value creation over banking and central currency. We spoke with to ask more about what this new economy would look like and how the Web is involved.

Sponsor

How The Web Broke The Economy

ReadWriteWeb: I was particularly struck by how you position the Web as a way for individuals to create things of value for each other, as the door to an open source economy. Can you describe what exactly an open source economy would look like, and what role software and the Web have to play in that?

Douglas Rushkoff: This program written central banking and corporatist monopolies was created to favor people who had money and wanted to make money without creating value. Technology broke the monopoly centralized banking had on centralized value creation by allowing people to develop things at low cost. The gift economy that really the real Internet was built on is anathema to the GNP.

RWW: Will enterprise software the same trend? What role is there for business-to-business transactions in the decentralized economy you've laid out?

R: When I'm at the supermarket, every once in a while the cash register crashes and they restart it and they see Windows. I get the feeling that the manager and the cashier and everyone in there thinks that this shouldn't be running Windows. They're thinking, oh my god, they're using amateur-level software. You want to think that these are proprietary perfect registers.

My feeling is that businesses and the IT of business are going to want a higher order of quality. They are going to proprietary super-pro enterprise OS's. I feel business is going to want something like the business-only IBM computer, and I think that's not a bad thing.

Localized Currencies & Technology

R: I certainly hope so. The great thing about software is that you don't need a bank because that's where all kind of bizarreness and corruption happen. But you do see every transaction; software is just really really good for that. You can see how money if flowing, how transactions are flowing. The problem with our economy is that when speculators ore extracting currency, money comes first. In a distributed system money is the result of transactions.

The main thing standing in the way of it is that people don't believe its possible. It's not they cant do it its that they can;t see it. It's like when you show someone Linux for the first time.

A New, Collaborative Mindset

R: Renaissances tend to reverse whatever the last one created. This one is towards decent partner collaboration and the sharing of value. So for sure, and we're going to get different kinds of discoveries. I think that the computer may be the most central thing to making all of this happen.

A Word for Developers & Entrepreneurs

Rushkoff: My biggest message to them is this...There's this prevalent notion is that the reason you get involved is that you create a business that you then sell. I would argue that is not the path to greatest fulfillment, I would contend that it's not the path to the great technology. The less you borrow, the less you will be required to grow, and the closer you can stay you can stay to those growth metrics that are more appropriately scaled.

Life, Inc. is in bookstores now. If you're seeking a primer on the book and Rushkoff's conception of what corporatism means, be sure to watch the short Life, Inc. The Movie below

Once you've installed the extension, you'll need to take a trip to the add-on options panel to enter your Google account information, where you can also filter by label, force a secure connection, or choose whether or not to open Google Reader in a new tab. Hovering your mouse over the status bar will show a tooltip with the updated feeds, but right-clicking on the icon will bring up a menu that you can use to drill down directly into that feed in Readervery useful for those of us with a massive number of feed items.

Google Reader Watcher is a free download, works anywhere Firefox does, and is a good replacement for the previously mentioned Google Reader Notifier for Firefox, which has since been turned into malware by a greedy extension developer. If you'd rather have your RSS notifications outside of your browser, you can check out the Google Reader Notifier for Windows.