LogMeIn Express is a free screen-sharing web app that allows you to immediately share your computer screen with up to 100 viewers without any registration hassles or sign up costs.

The app has has an extremely simple interface.  If you would like to share your screen, it prompts you to download and install a small app.  To view another shared screen, you simply type in a 12-digit code.

LogMeIn, which went public in July, has had successes recently with iPhone apps for remotely accessing and controlling computers, and it’s series of enterprise level remote access applications for workforce mobility, hardware management and customer service.

With the move to free apps, they are betting that increased customer familiarity with their software’s capabilities will lead to conversions down the road.

For users, it’s a very fast and easy way to access a remote computer and should come in really handy to help your parents and friends out with tech support without having to repeat the same instructions 100 times over the phone.

[via Download Squad]

Blippy.com may be the stupidest idea ever destined for greatness and potential world domination.  It’s a social network for spending habits.  According to founder Philip Kaplan, It answers the question “What are your friends buying?”

The screnshot below provides a glimpse at what the world of socially networked credit cards will look like (image via Techcrunch):

Central to the idea is that users will assign only one of their multiple credit cards to publish results on the system.  They will then use that card only for purchases that they wish to share with their friend group.

The question is… will they then start to make purchases on that card that they think will reflect positively on them in front of their social group?

If you’re anything like us, your first reaction to this idea was shock, then amusement, then a sickening realization set in that this is going to be insanely popular.

People seek to define themselves through the purchases they make.  Marketers have always known this.  You are what you buy.

Blippy was founded by Ashvin Kumar and Chris Estreich Philip Kaplan (of fuckedcompany.com and Adbrite fame)

via TechCrunch]

Skype announced today that they will be releasing a limited beta version of a native Skype client for Symbian OS, the operating system of most Nokia smartphones.

The app will allow free skype-to-skype calling internationally, as well as access to the popular Skype Out service.  It’s a 6 mb download.

Supported phones and download links:
* Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices
* Nokia E71
* Nokia E63
* Nokia E66
* Nokia N82
* Nokia E51
* Nokia N95
* Nokia N95 8GB
* Nokia N81
* Nokia N81 8GB
* Nokia E90

* Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 devices
* Nokia N96
* Nokia N85
* Nokia 5320
* Nokia 6210 Navigator
* Nokia 6210 Classic
* Nokia N78
* Nokia N79

Virtual bribery is now a reality.  Business Insider is reporting that insurance industry lobbying groups are offering Facebook gamers in-game currency to oppose Obama’s health care reforms.

The practice is already fairly common – companies like Netflix have long offered in-game currency for trying their products.

The anti-health care reform program, called “Get Health Reform Right” asks gamers to take a survey, which then automatically generates an email to the user’s Congressional Representative:

“I am concerned a new government plan could cause me to lose the employer coverage I have today. More government bureaucracy will only create more problems, not solve the ones we have.”

“Get Health Reform Right” is a lobbying organization supported by:

• Association of Health Insurance Advisors
• America’s Health Insurance Plans
• American Benefits Council
• BlueCross BlueShield Association
• Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers
• Healthcare Leadership Council
• Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers
• National Association of Health Underwriters
• National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors
• National Retail Association

[via Business Insider]

Dragon Dictation, the market leader in voice to text dictation software has just released an iPhone app, which integrates with the device’s messaging, email and clipboard functions.

All speech to text processing by the app is carried out in the cloud on the developer’s servers.

Functionality of the app is straightforward: you press the button and start talking.   After recording, you can edit the resulting text before sending or saving.

Since the processing is carried out remotely, speed depends on your data connection.  With a wifi connection, TUAW.com reported that the app returned results in under a second, but that went up to three seconds on a 3G network.

This is probably a good time to mention the reason why this app is so vitally important for the iPhone.  The iPhone on-screen keyboard is completely broken.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is so enamoured by the shape and feel of the device that they are not thinking clearly.  We get it, when you touch it, it scrolls – and you can make things bigger and smaller by going like this.  Outside of the fashion self-conscious and the Apple cultists, the scuttlebutt on the iPhone has always been that it is an incredibly cool toy.  Maybe the coolest toy ever.  But still a toy.

Additions like Dragon Dictate, however, might contribute to re-evaluating that statement.

The app is free for now.  No word on when it might move to a pay model or what it might cost in the future.

Apple is rumored to be close to completing the acquisition of three-year-old Palo Alto music start-up Lala.

There’s a lot of speculation on what this could mean in terms of the evolution of iTunes and the iPod, iPhone ecosystem.  Lala is a cloud-based music library and player— it allows users to store and stream their own music online and stream it without downloading.

This would allow Apple’s users access to their music libraries across multiple devices, reduce the need for large hard drives, and provide further lock-in to Apple products.

Most interesting to Apple, may be Lala’s innovative purchase credit model.  On Lala, users pay ten cents to listen to a stream, which then counts as a down payment on purchase of the song.  It also sells ’song credits’ in bulk, requiring fewer credit card transactions per user – ensuring a higher per user spend and lower transaction fees.

In addition, Apple could charge users an additional fee to transfer their existing iTunes libraries to the cloud.

Lala was most recently in the news regarding a deal it completed with Google, whereby its streams are now included in Google search results for songs.  Google now displays streaming options from either Lala or iLike, which allow the user listen to the entire track once for free.   Repeated listens will play only a 30-second sample.  Lala previously offered a similar service to major music sites like Pitchfork.com and Billboard.

Investors in Lala include Warner Music Group, Bain Capital and Ignition Partners.

[via Dealbook]

Google has just announced its  Google Public DNS service.  This service allows users to replace their standard DNS server configuration with its own option.

The argument here is that Google’s infrastructure will supply faster result times than an ISP’s own DNS server, and that Google will do a better job of keeping its domain database updated.

One of the most difficult aspects of launching a new operating system is making sure that it has all of the drivers necessary to work with the wide range of peripherals and hardware that users are likely to attach to their machines.

Standards have appeared lately for many of these devices (USB drives, mouses, keyboards, monitors, etc.).  Printers, however, remain frustratingly unstandardized.  Almost every printer requires a unique driver that allows it to communicate with the operating system.

Printer driver support was a major issue with Windows Vista when it was released.

Linus Upson, engineering director for the Chrome browser and Chrome OS, was quoted in CNet, saying that Google does not want to be in the “business of printer drivers. All the problems related to drivers we want to go away.”

So, what is Google’s “wonderful printing solution?”  It hasn’t been made public yet, but the consensus is that it will have very limited printer support.

Hopefully, by taking the high road and refusing to support non-standard drivers, Google will finally be able to make printer manufacturers fall in line and produce standard driver compliant devices in the future.

The Wonderfactory teamed up with Time, Inc. to produce the following example of how tablets will push the boundaries of the new media experience for publishers and advertisers.  This is clearly along the lines of what Apple has in mind for the iTablet, but it’s also a pretty convincing version of what the future of rich content browsing will look like for everyone.

(And yes, it’s just a demo, so those perfectly manicured disembodied hands in the demo aren’t real.  Are kind of creepy.  Aren’t real.)

Sports Illustrated Tablet Demo:

Square is a new credit card payment processing system for use on smartphone devices (currently only the iPhone) that is now in beta testing.

The physical unit, seen in the picture above, is a one-inch diameter slim plastic box that plugs into a device’s standard 3.5 mm audio jack.

The software allows for payment approval, records signatures and can email or sms a detailed receipt (as below)

The system can accept payments up to $60.  Square gets a percentage of every transaction charged through the system.

This could be an incredibly useful technology for small businesses, mobile vendors, temporary retail locations, outdoor cafe’s, etc.

[via Download Squad]

Financial blog Seeking Alpha announced that it has recently closed a Series B round of $7 million, led by Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital and DAG Ventures.

Seeking Alpha has over 4 million unique visitors per month, based on its own Google Analytics stats.

In May 2009, Seeking Alpha launched Instablogs, a blog platform for members to create their own finance related blogs, which are accessible through the Seeking Alpha site.  There are now over 2,000 of these publications.

Simultaneously, the site announced that it will be providing headlines and opinion commentary articles to Nasdaq.com.  They are already providing similar content to Yahoo Finance.

[via TechCrunch]

Beginning with the Acer A1 Liquid smartphone, which was announced last month, and which should ship before the end of the year, Acer has now announced that it will be releasing a total of 10 new Android phones in 2010.  The company is hoping to capture 6-7% of the world smartphone market next year.

The Liquid A1 will run Android 2.0, have a 1GHz processor, 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, aGPS, and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

via New Cell Phones

Facebook hit 350 million users last night, the site announced to its users in an open letter from founder Mark Zuckerberg.  Also announced was the removal of ‘regional networks’ (cities, countries, etc.), which were found to be a security and privacy hole that was not well understood by users.   Previously, all members of a regional network had complete access to each other’s information as a default choice.  Now, users will have the choice of making their information available to friends, friends of friends, or everyone

Now, Facebook will be using a three-level privacy system, where you can make your info visible to friends, friends of friends, or everyone. Privacy settings will also be simplified and consolidated, so there’s less chance of exposing information accidentally.

The letter from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg:

It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.

To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.

Facebook’s current privacy model revolves around “networks” — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.

However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.

Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.

Mark Zuckerberg

Japanese laptop maker Kohjinsha has released a dual-screen laptop in time for Christmas.

The Kohjinsha DZ has two 10.1” LCDs with 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40, 1GB of RAM (can upgrade to 4GB), ATI Radeon HD 3200, 160GB HDD, b/g/n wi-fi .

The unit has a 4.5h battery life and weighs 1.84 kg.

The starting price is about $900 (¥79,800), but to be the first on your block with one in America will cost closer to $1,100.

We are huge fans of the multi-screen laptop concept, and highly recommend external monitors for users of today’s netbooks and smaller laptops.

The immediate problem that comes to mind when looking at Kohjinsha’s dual screen setup is that the screens are offset to the left and right of the keyboard.  As a result, there is a border between the screens directly above the keyboard.

We haven’t tried one yet, so it remains to be seen if this is uncomfortable for working for long periods.  If it’s manageable, though, this certainly seems a small price to pay for double the amount of screen real estate of a similarly sized netbook.

[via The Examiner]

Hot Potato, a Brooklyn social networking startup that allows users to create instant online communities around specific events, raised $1.42 million in first-round funding from a who’s who of venture and angel investors.

RRE Ventures and First Round Capital were joined by start-up incubator Betaworks, Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer; Thrillist chief Ben Lerer; Jared Kushner, owner of The New York Observer; Strauss Zelnick of ZelnickMedia; Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon; About.com co-founder Scott Kurnit and Facebook exec Dave Morin; Boxee’s Zach Klein; online ads’ Allen Morgan; and Cyan creators Scott & Cyan Banister.

An iPhone app for the network has been completed, but is still awaiting approval from Apple.

Alarm:Clock offered the following analysis of the business model:

It sounds like a fairly straight-forward business. Hot Potato can kick-start roll-out by doing deals with an event promoter – say a baseball team or a music event – people start using it and then it snowballs from there. Sponsorships ensue. The clear challenge then is that the functionality is not terribly hard to replicate by others.

[via Alarm:Clock]

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/technology

Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP announced Internet Advertising Revenues for the third quarter yesterday.

Q3 Internet advertising revenues were approximately $5.5 billion, 5.5% less than the same period last year but 1.7% more than Q2 2009.

In the context of reduced overall ad spending, this means that digital media is capturing a larger piece of marketers’ total advertising spend.

In an effort to increase online revenues,  The New York Times is offering a offering a digital version of the newspaper formatted to look like the print version for an annual subscription price of $179.40

To sweeten this already questionable deal, (identical content is available on the site for free) the paper is offering digital subscribers a $100 discount on a Samsung Go netbook at J&R.  The price of the netbook after the discount is $279.99 (about what similarly powered netbooks cost at full price).  The Go has a 10.1-inch screen, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, and runs Windows XP on an Intel Atom N270 CPU.

I guess they are assuming that if you’re willing to subscribe to content that’s already available for free online, you’re probably not the biggest bargain hunter, so they’re offering you a discount on an overpriced netbook to go along with it.

We’re pretty sure this is the solution to the newspaper industry’s problems.

For what it’s worth, we still like the “buy everybody a Kindle for free” idea.

[via Slashgear]

King Jim Pomera DM20 is bizarre folding digital note-taker

SlashGear 25 Nov 2009, 3:27 pm CET

King Jim’s single-purpose Pomera “digital memo” DM10 electronic notebook may have been bizarre enough to warrant some gentle ribbing last year, but sales in Japan must’ve been good enough for the company to green-light a successor.  The Pomera DM20 keeps the same clamshell keyboard design and monochrome display, together with the singularity of purpose that baffled us last time around: all it’s meant to be used for is recording text notes.

Video demo after the cut

There’s no wireless connectivity, though you can tether it to your cellphone; however there are no wirelessly-enabled apps – browser, email, IM, etc – even if you do so.  Instead you get a simple word processor app (more like Notepad or TextEdit, really) and both 89MB of internal storage and a microSDHC card slot.  The latter will take up to 16GB cards, which is room for a whole lot of plain text.

The display is a 5-inch 640 x 480 monochrome LCD panel and the whole thing measures 145 x 100 x 33 mm with the keyboard folded away.  It’ll arrive in Japan come December 11th, priced at the equivalent of around $380; we’d say nobody would want one, but obviously we have no idea what Japanese consumers are actually looking for.

[via CrunchGear]

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Just In Time For #Thanksgiving, TurkeyTwitter Gathers All The #Thankful Tweets

TechCrunch 25 Nov 2009, 3:18 pm CET

Want to know what people are thankful for this Thanksgiving? You can be sure many will be Tweeting about it. Tomorrow if you search #thanksgiving or #thankful on Twitter search, you will get a good sense of what thanks people are sharing on Twitter.

Or you can go to TurkeyTwitter, a site thrown together by Joshua Premuda which gathers all Tweets with the hashtags #thanksgiving or #turkeytwitter. (I think he should add #thankful as well).

There is a lot of noise on the site with a lot of tweets about people preparing for thanksgiving or wishing everyone safe travels rather than just the Tweets about what they are thankful for specifically. That’s why a #thankful hashtag is necessary. But please, be creative. This is not just another social media marketing opportunity and it’s not the Oscars. (”I am thankful for all my followers” is an actual Tweet).

Me, I’m just thankful I’m not a turkey.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

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iBuyPower lets out five liquid-cooled gaming desktops

Engadget 25 Nov 2009, 3:14 pm CET

It’s never too early to start thinking about that desktop that you really, really need under the tree by the third week in December, and rather than waiting until the last moment and getting stuck with some random configuration and a lofty overnight shipping fee, iBuyPower is encouraging you to have a gander at the five new liquid-cooled rigs that it just unveiled at NewEgg. The low-end is propped up by the Gamer Extreme 922 SLC at just $989, while the specced-out Gamer Supreme 979SLC will set Santa back just under four large. At the top, you’ll find luxuries such as Intel’s Core i7 975, a Blu-ray drive, 128GB SSD and 1.5TB of HDD space, while lower-end systems snag the likes of a Core i7 860, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD. Peek the via link below for a more robust look at the specifications, and feel free to get your order in now if you like resting easy.

Gallery: iBuyPower lets out five liquid-cooled gaming desktops

Continue reading iBuyPower lets out five liquid-cooled gaming desktops

iBuyPower lets out five liquid-cooled gaming desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Camangi WebStation seemingly imminent; new Android app market launched

SlashGear 25 Nov 2009, 3:11 pm CET

Blimey, could Camangi actually be serious about selling their WebStation Android tablet?  We’ve scoffed a little at the hitherto-unknown company’s intentions of having the 7-inch WiFi tablet on the market by December 2009, but a new site and a freshly launched Camangi Market (for apps friendly to the slate’s hardware and screen resolution) seem to suggest that the joke’s on us.  For once, we’re happy to be in the wrong as if the pricing is right, the WebStation could prove highly appealing.

Technical specs have also been finalized.  The WebStation is based on a 624MHz Marvell PXA303 CPU with 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash NAND storage.  There’s also WiFi b/g, GPS, and support for a 3G USB modem via the regular USB 2.0 port; other ports include a mini-B USB connector, 3.5mm headphones jack and a microSD card slot (with an 8GB card in the box).  It has a 7-inch 16m color LCD resistive touchscreen running at 800 x 480, and a 4,000mAh battery good for up to 4 days standby (with GPS and WiFi shut off) or 4-5hrs active use.

OS is Android 1.5 with the usual apps, which means the WebStation works happily as an email terminal, web browser and mediaplayer.  Camangi also supply a stand for propping it up on a desk or end-table.  The whole thing measures 4.72 x 7.87 x 0.57 inches and weighs 13.75oz, and while it’ll only be available in white at first, the company plan black and pink models soon after.  The dual cameras originally vaunted seem conspicuous by their absence, however.

All of this sounds great, but it hinges on pricing.  If Camangi can bring the WebStation in at under $300 then they’ll have a real winner on their hands; under $500 and the whole thing will be a lot tougher to sell.

[via BestTabletReview]

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• Samsung may drop Windows Mobile for Android

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Chrome OS security will make Google’s ads inescapable

Download Squad 25 Nov 2009, 3:00 pm CET

Filed under: OS Updates, Google

We’ve all gotten a good look at the very, very early stages of Chrome OS. While there’s been plenty of “meh” going around, truth is that it’s really much, much too early to pass judgement. It’s going to be about a year until we see something finished, after all, and Google has already said things will change quite a bit by that time. One feature of Chrome OS that has been praised is its “totally new” approach to security. Chrome OS is going to self-heal, we’re told. If the OS detects something malicious, a reboot simply restores files to their previous state as if nothing ever happened. Now, this raises an interesting point. It’s Google’s OS, so obviously they’ll be making the call as to what is or isn’t malicious. Suppose they decide that includes anything which interferes with the delivery of Google-powered content. Things like the AdBlock or AdSweep extensions for the Chrome browser, for example.Continue reading Chrome OS security will make Google’s ads inescapable

Chrome OS security will make Google’s ads inescapable originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Google – Google Chrome – Operating system – Adblock – Searching

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Social Aggregator Sobees Adds LinkedIn Support

ReadWriteWeb 25 Nov 2009, 2:57 pm CET

One of the first social networking aggregators to take advantage of LinkedIn’s brand-new API is Sobees, whose two client applications both now offer LinkedIn integration in addition to the other supported networks. A challenger to similar services like TweetDeck, Seesmic, and PeopleBrowser, Sobees is a social networking aggregation tool originally launched as a desktop app back in 2008 with a web app version added earlier this year. Like its competitors, Sobees’ clients use a columnar interface to display real-time updates from sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

Sponsor

Sobees essentially functions as a social networking client for the sites it supports, each site with its own column and separate set of functions and tabs. For example, in the Twitter column, you can switch through tabs to see replies and direct messages and you can use buttons on the side to create groups or view your favorites. Meanwhile, the Facebook column offers Facebook-specific features like the ability to view photo albums and status updates or check out profiles, friend lists, and your inbox.

Sobees Adds LinkedIn

Similarly, the newly-launched LinkedIn functionality will include features specific to LinkedIn. At launch time, those are as follows:

• Update your status
• View connections
• View profiles
• Get updates (connections updates, status updates, application updates, jobs posted, groups joined, recommendations and profile changes)
• Search or search with advanced functionality

While the desktop version of the program is Windows-only, the web-based application is built using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology which works on any operating system, even Linux.

When you go to set up the web version for the first time, you’ll be presented with the four supported services and a button reading “connect.” At first, clicking the connect button seemed to have no effect but that was because the browser’s pop-up blocker was turned on and Sobees launches the authorization screens in a separate window. After navigating past this small obstacle, the rest of the set up process was completed in a matter of minutes.

At this point, you’re now presented with multiple columns containing the services you authorized during setup. You can also choose to add a real-time search column if desired and you can re-arrange the columns into a number of different layouts using the “change layout” button at the top.

FactFinder API Integration Lets You Know if a Link is Worth Clicking

Besides simply displaying the most recent updates from the various services, Sobees also offers a unique feature other social networking applications don’t have – Factery’s FactFinder API integration. (Read more about Factery’s API here). In short, this API allows the Sobees client to instantly and automatically parse the URLs posted in Twitter links to help you determine whether or not the link is worth clicking. Using the FactFinder toggle button to the left of the column, your Twitter stream is filtered to show only links with Factery data.

Once switched on, tweets with links are appended with the source URL and various “facts” snipped from the article being shared. Depending on the amount of info the API pulls, a “more…” link may appear at the bottom of the facts displayed. Click this link to see more facts – aka snippets – from the article in question and then click “less” to once again collapse the window. Anyone who has switched to Twitter as their primary source of news will love this sort of feature as you can get the gist of an article without ever leaving Twitter.

If you’re interested in trying the updated Sobees clients, you can download the desktop version here or load the web version at sobees.com/web.

Discuss

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Microsoft opens PC lounge in Saks Fifth Avenue for holiday season

Engadget 25 Nov 2009, 2:46 pm CET

We all know Microsoft’s feeling pretty smug — and with good reason — about Windows 7 right now. In an effort to drum up yet more hype for its latest OS, and perhaps to try and gauge customer interest in an East coast Store, Microsoft has decided to open up a cozy “PC lounge” inside Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship New York store — you know, the one that actually is on Fifth Avenue. As part of the agreement, Windows 7 will be used to drive Saks’ window displays, and opportunities will be provided for customers to interact with the new software throughout the building. The lounge itself will be populated by Windows 7 laptops and Microsoft experts, who’ll probably answer your questions in the sort of overly peppy, commercial way that makes us wonder why anyone goes to offline shops in the first place.Microsoft opens PC lounge in Saks Fifth Avenue for holiday season originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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California unveils draft cap-and-trade rules

CNET News.com 25 Nov 2009, 2:44 pm CET

The state is in the vanguard of addressing climate change, especially in light of slow national action and setbacks for global talks coming up in Copenhagen.

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Pixel Qi developing sub-10W $100 HDTV

SlashGear 25 Nov 2009, 2:41 pm CET

Pixel Qi have announced that not only are they beginning mass production of their innovative display technology this coming December, but that they’ve a new product category in their sights.  The company has apparently begun to design a new HDTV with power consumption so low that it can be run from a solar panel, hand-crank or simply a small rechargeable battery.  Pixel Qi’s target price for the ultra-frugal set is just $100.

The audience for such an HDTV would be the many millions of households which don’t have access to stable electrical power.  Current high-definition televisions generally require high wattages – certainly in excess of 100W – whereas the Pixel Qi set will be sub-10W.

No launch date for the HDTV project has been given, nor indication of what sort of panel size eventual owners can expect.  Pixel Qi’s screen technology works like epaper in bright, direct sunlight, proving three times as readable as a regular LCD panel, but still supports color and video.

[via Blogeee]

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Lenovo’s ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s

Engadget 25 Nov 2009, 2:18 pm CET

First thing’s first: the video beyond the break is certainly not up to our usually stellar standards. That said, the voice recording is clear enough, so you may consider it an audio presentation with the bonus of a shadowy figure making occasional hand gestures in time with what’s being said (lighting also improves as you go along). Arimasa Naitoh is the man behind the ThinkPad line, having joined the product engineering team at IBM during the 1970s and shifting with the ThinkPad brand on to Lenovo in 2005. Currently the VP for Notebook Development and the head of the Yamato Development Labs, Naitoh-san was kind enough to do a presentation in London yesterday, in which he touched on the history of the fabled laptop line and was also not shy about trumpeting the key advantages of the latest T400s flagship model. So click past the break, turn your speakers up, and get educated by one of the true founding fathers of mobile computing as we know it today.Continue reading Lenovo’s ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s

Lenovo’s ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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eBay opens auction app for BlackBerry

CNET News.com 25 Nov 2009, 2:00 pm CET

BlackBerry-maker RIM and eBay have joined forces to develop an official eBay application for BlackBerry auctioneers.

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Social media a smash hit on the Xbox — 2 million users in its first week!

Download Squad 25 Nov 2009, 2:00 pm CET

Filed under: Games, Internet, Social Software

It seems the recent addition of Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm to the Xbox Live experience is proving to be a hit! The jury’s still out on whether Twitter has been such a huge success on the PS3, but I’m sure Sony will release a statement soon to compete with Microsoft. According to a spokesman from Microsoft, over 2 million users logged into Facebook using their console… in just the first week! Not only did they log in and poke their cute prospective girlfriends and answer banal questions about each other, they also created half a million Last.fm accounts and streamed a total of 120 million minutes of music — again, in just the first week! These crazy numbers are shocking; it’s truly a case of build-it-and-they-will-come. The break-neck pace at which Microsoft and Sony update their consoles is a sure sign that competition between the PS3 and Xbox is still hotting up. The console war is not yet over! Poor Wii… there’s a new Zelda title coming soon, right? [via CNET]Social media a smash hit on the Xbox — 2 million users in its first week! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments Microsoft – Facebook – Sony – Xbox – Twitter

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Ustream Brings Its Viewer App To Android Market

TechCrunch 25 Nov 2009, 1:55 pm CET

Ustream has just launched a version of its Ustream Viewer for Android Market, giving users the ability to access any Ustream footage while they’re on the go, free of charge. You’ll be able to use the app for streaming video both over Wi-Fi and 3G.

This is actually Ustream’s second application for Android. The first is its Broadcaster app, which allows you to stream video footage live from your phone to the web. The app launching today is for viewing only, but it will let you watch any Ustream feed – be it a red carpet premiere or footage of someone’s puppies – while you’re on the go.

Ustream is timing the app’s launch with a live KISS concert in Los Angeles, which you’ll be able to stream straight to your Android device (you’ll also be able to watch it on the iPhone or the web as usual).

Ustream launched the iPhone version of the viewing app last January, when it was downloaded a whopping 113,000 times in 24 hours. It’s worth pointing out that the iPhone doesn’t have a Broadcaster app, because Apple won’t approve them (Qik and a handful of others have been kept off the iPhone because of this).

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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The New York Times offers discount on Samsung Go to Times Reader 2.0 subscribers

SlashGear 25 Nov 2009, 1:52 pm CET

Print publications are having a hard time getting people to subscribe and pay to read their news. Even long time established publications like the New York Times are finding it harder and harder to woo subscribers and are seeing their profits drop significantly. In an effort to save money, some print publications have gone entirely online and others are beefing up their online offerings. The New York Times is offering a deal for users to subscribe to its digital version.

The digital version is called Times Reader 2.0 and runs on notebooks and netbook computers. The app puts the times on the computer in a format that looks like the printed paper. A subscription to the service for a year is not cheap though at $179.40.

The NYT is offering those who sign up for the service at that price a $100 discount on a Samsung Go netbook at J&R. The catch is that the netbook is still expensive after the $100 discount at $279.99. You can find similar netbooks for less than that amount already and get your news for free online. The Go has a 10.1-inch screen, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, and an Intel Atom N270 CPU.

Business Q&A forum Bizmore, backed by Michael Milken and executive coaching firm Vistage International, has expanded its brand into the blogging/online-magazine space with the launch of eight new blogs focused on entrepreneurship, personal finance and small business management.

In further evidence of the vastly different trajectories of old media and new media, Editor in Chief Jeffrey Davis said “I’ll have 25 blogs before the end of the year.”

Bizmore’s concept is to have content on the sites created by experts rather than journalists.  This means that articles will be written by experienced business people who speak and consult professionally on their topic.

The new Bizmore blogs include:

• The Social Business by Steve Cunningham, president of digital marketing and innovation agency Polar Unlimited, focuses on social media strategies for SMBs.

• CEO Solutions by Paul Diamond, Web editor at Vistage International, offers practical advice to today’s challenged business leaders.

• Must Read by Eric Reyes, a veteran B2B journalist, brings together the best of the Web on news and management for SMBs.

• The Health Care Maze by Bruce Phillips, former senior fellow at the National Federation of Independent Business, helps SMBs make the tough decisions about providers, plans and costs.

• Creative Finance by Gary Honig, president of Creative Capital Associates, focuses on tactics for raising cash, credit and capital.

[via TechCrunch]

[via The Domains]