I’ll show you how to make the Colgate Wisp Quick Draw Gadget so you too can be minty fresh without even having to reach into your pocket. I have two more ideas for the next gadget but I can’t decid…
SAN FRANCISCO — In the beginning, circa 2002, there was Gizmodo, a Web site with news and reviews of mobile phones, digital cameras other electronic toys that became the foundation of the Gawker network of Web sites.
In 2004, Gizmodo’s founder, Peter Rojas, left to start a rival gadget blog, Engadget, which was later acquired by AOL. Ever since, the two sites have slugged it out, profitably competing for scoops and a growing audience of obsessed gearheads. In the process, similar gadget sites have sprouted like weeds around the Web. (The New York Times has its own site, Gadgetwise.)
Now Mr. Rojas, and his former colleague at Engadget, Ryan Block, have defected from that world, where teams of reporters are paid to write the material, and created yet another new gadget site that will lean heavily on users to provide information and reviews.
Their new site, called GDGT, will open to visitors on Wednesday. It differs from Engadget or Gizmodo by aspiring to be a gadget-oriented social network. Users of the site can create profiles and specify which consumer electronics devices they have, had or want to buy. Then they can talk about those devices with other owners, discuss new trends and tips, and decide how and when to replace them.
Mr. Block, 27, says most gadget sites cater only to 5 percent of a gadget’s lifecycle — the “lust phase.” He said that for “the 95 percent of the time you own the product there is nowhere to go. We are building the place where you can live with your gadgets online in perpetuity.”
The GDGT founders, whose expertise in consumer electronics has earned them a considerable online following, will not themselves be reviewing gadgets. Rather, they will linking to news and reviews on other sites, and will invite GDGT users to evaluate their devices. All reviews must be over 200 words, to guard against pithily uninformative reviews, like “this phone rocks!”
GDGT will also have information to help users compare devices and links to online stores where they can make purchases. The site plans later to develop a marketplace for people to sell their devices once they are done. For its advertisers, GDGT will know what devices its users own and which ones they want. Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, has signed on as the exclusive advertiser for the first month. It will run banner ads made to look similar to other content on the site — inviting people to add a RIM phone to their wish list, for example. The ads are clearly labeled as a sponsorship.
“We view this as the final act,” Mr. Block said. “Gizmodo was the prototype. Engadget extended the idea. This could possibly be the last great gadget site.”
Source: nytimes.com
As the maker of the Firefox Web browser relies on volunteer developers, such for-profit companies as Google and LinkedIn strain to copy the Mozilla model
There’s a cool new video player in the Firefox Web browser that Mozilla released on June 30. But the onscreen buttons used to control it are too small for some visually impaired users to see. So Ken Saunders, a 41-year-old, legally blind volunteer for Mozilla, took it upon himself to create a tool that makes the player easier to use for people with vision problems.
Saunders is among hundreds of people who donate time and skills to Mozilla, the Mountain View (Calif.) company that releases Firefox and other open-source software. Even as Mozilla’s internal staff has grown to 250, from 15 in 2005, an army of volunteers still contributes about 40% of the company’s work, which ranges from tweaks to the programming code to designing the Firefox logo.
How Mozilla channels those efforts is a model for a growing number of companies trying to tap into the collective talents of large pools of software developers and other enthusiasts of a product, brand, or idea. “There’s structure in it,” says Mike Beltzner, who runs Firefox. “But at the same time you allow people to innovate and to explore and [give them] the freedom to do what they want along those edges—that’s where innovation tends to happen in startling and unexpected ways.”
At Firefox, Beltzer calls it “leading from behind.” His team makes only the highest, direction-setting decisions, such as the date each new version of Firefox has to ship. It’s up to Mozilla staff and volunteers to meet those deadlines through a process of identifying specific tasks that need to be done and accomplishing them. A system of recognition has formed among volunteers, who can be designated as “module owners” and given authority over certain areas, such as the layout.
LinkedIn Query Vexed a Lot of Users
Companies would like to follow the examples of Mozilla and online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which relies on unpaid contributors, as well as Linux, the open-source operating system developed by programmers who work for no pay. “There’s no easy way to copy Mozilla,” says Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. “But I do think that companies are increasingly going to look for ways to motivate their users to be participants.”
Not all of these efforts go smoothly. In June, business networking site LinkedIn polled 12,000 of its users who had identified themselves as translators to find out what would motivate them to help translate the site’s content into other languages. While 18% said they would do it “for fun” and about half of the respondents wanted some form of recognition, many took umbrage at the request. The American Translators Assn. even sent a letter to LinkedIn’s CEO calling the aim of the survey “misguided” and “troubling.” Company spokeswoman Kay Luo says LinkedIn wasn’t trying to solicit free labor. “Our intention was to survey our members to see what level of interest there was,” she says.
Google (GOOG) recently came under comparable criticism from artists after issuing an open call to use their work as decorative skins for the company’s Web browser. Google wasn’t willing to pay, but emphasized the opportunity for exposure. “We believe these projects provide a unique and exciting opportunity for artists to display their work in front of millions of people,” the company said in a statement.
Source: businessweek.com
MG Siegler
TechCrunch.com
Wednesday, July 1, 2009; 4:59 PM
It’s Twitter day at Microsoft, apparently. Not only did the software giant announce that it would start adding tweets to its Bing search results, the company actually started officially using Twitter today.
To be clear, Microsoft had a rather large presence on Twitter before through its various departments/products/services, but now it’s using the main /microsoft account to tweet. The account is being run by its corporate communications team, consisting of four people. So far there have been only 2 tweets and the account only has about 1,000 people following it. That should change, fast.
So what was its first tweet? “Anyone can make games now, Kodu is available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace http://bit.ly/3wlWKo #microsoft #xboxlive #kodu” Like any good Twitter user, Microsoft has self-promotion down cold. But that’s not nearly as slick as Google’s first tweet back in February.
There’s probably not much to read into Microsoft’s love-fest with Twitter today, but you never know. After all, rivals have been snooping around, flirting with the service.
Source: washingtonpost
Vodafone will significantly alter the mobile app store landscape with a new application bazaar offering platform-independent web apps reaching 289 million users under Vodafone’s global umbrella. The store will also carry widgets that will tap a one billion user base across the global partner network which includes Vodafone, Softbank, China Mobile and Verizon Wireless.
In a surprising announcement earlier today, global carrier Vodafone announced its own mobile application store. Unlike most of today’s rival stores that are tied to a specific mobile platform, Vodafone’s store will carry platform-independent software that will run across supported mobile phones regardless of their respective underlying software platform.
This will be accomplished by requiring developers to write applications using Internet technologies commonly supported on major smartphone platforms, rather than using platform-specific APIs that enable advanced features and native code execution but otherwise tie an app to a specific software platform. As a result, developers will only need to create web apps once in order to reach multiple mobile platforms.
The carrier said that developers will be able to charge customers directly through Vodafone’s billing system that takes care of micro-payments. The use of Vodafone’s billing system will enable customers to pay for apps wirelessly through their existing Vodafone pre- and post-paid accounts, as opposed to providing sensitive credit card data like with most app stores in existence today. As a result, Vodafone hopes this will encourage greater take up. Revenue from application sales will be shared between Vodafone and developers but the carrier didn’t provide any specifics in terms of actual revenue split.
Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao had to say the following about the carrier’s new initiative:
“Vodafone is making these changes to make it easier for third parties to develop attractive new services as well as bill and support our customers through our network capabilities in all markets. By giving them simple access to our global customer base and network assets, such as direct billing and location awareness, we will help them to make more money while providing our customers with the innovative services that they want.”
The company will also provide application creators with a controlled access to network capabilities through a set of network APIs that act as a link between the applications and network capabilities across the entire Vodafone footprint. These capabilities include location awareness, meaning programmers will be able to create apps that personalize content based on the user’s current location. Of course, users will be able to revoke access to location information on a per application basis since an accompanied framework provides users with “transparency and control over how their information is accessed and used.”
Vodafone said it will start offering access to selected network enablers through the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) initiative, designed to help developers create widgets such as weather reports, sports updates, and travel timetables. These widgets will also be platform-agnostic and will have the potential of reaching up to one billion customers across the four JIL partner networks that include Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, China Mobile and Softbank. JIL network spawns more than 70 countries across North America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Vodafone said that JIL will release a website and a SDK “in the summer.”
Source: geek.com
Nokia announced its latest mobile phone from E-series. It is Nokia E52. The phone is oriented on tourists.
Let’s look inside and see why E52 is an answer for tourists. The phone has a 3.2-megapixel camera. It provides colorful photos of a beautiful landscapes and interesting moments. Also E52 has a great endurance of the accumulator. It can work up to 8 hours in a conversation mode and up to 28 days in expectation mode. Also tourist will never lose their way with built-in GPS-receiver and compass.
With Nokia E52 users will never be alone. Connection to the world is provided by Bluetooth 2.0 and by Wi-Fi. Also the phone supports a virtual private network and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler.
Nokia E52 will appear in stores in silver and golden colors. The price will be 326 USD
Source: gadgets-reviews.com
The Wall Street Journal may have spoiled one of Microsoft’s big surprises at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Journal Tuesday posted an article sourcing “people familiar with the matter” as saying Microsoft “is developing a new video camera for its Xbox 360 video game console that will allow players to control games with the movement of their bodies.”
The brief piece went on to say that the add-on would not require any physical controller like the Wii, before speculating that it might–might–be shown at E3. After declining to answer the Journal’s queries, corporate reps would tell GameSpot only that “Microsoft isn’t commenting” on the report.
If the notion of a 360 motion-sensing camera sounds familiar, it should. So far, 2009 has seen an increasing number of reports that Microsoft is working on such a device. It all began in February, with reports that the Redmond, Washington-based software behemoth had bought 3DV Systems, a small Israeli company that produced the Z-Cam camera, which senses motion along the X, Y, and Z axes. Sources not only confirmed the deal to VentureBeat correspondent and Xbox expert Dean Takahashi, but also told him that the camera was “definitely” being used for a 360 add-on. The journalist said the camera’s “motion detection was accurate, much more so than with the Wii.”
After lying fallow for months, the 360 3D camera rumor resurfaced last week, when tech blog Engadet posted a photo of a motion-sensing camera peripheral hooked up to an Xbox 360. The controller’s capabilities sounded virtually identical to that of the Z-Cam, with “full body and hand gesture control of games [and] characters” including the ability to “kick, punch, duck, dive, [and] jump.”
The add-on will also apparently recognize “hand gestures like pinching, grabbing, and scrolling” and will also feature live video conferencing, among other features. According to reports on the tech site Ars Technica and the UK newspaper The Guardian, these abilities were the same as those displayed by the Z-Cam when it was at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show.
Check back the morning of June 1 for GameSpot’s live coverage of Microsoft’s press briefing from the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
This article was originally posted on GameSpot.
Taken from news.zdnet.com
Astronauts on the Atlantis approached the Hubble Space Telescope Tuesday, ready to grab the satellite with their spacecraft’s robotic arm and anchor it in the shuttle’s payload bay for a series of repairs. Fast-flying space debris is a serious concern for the mission. However, the crew did get some good news: NASA believes the 21-inch scrape the shuttle’s wing took during liftoff is not a serious problem.
Shuttle Atlantis and its crew moved toward the Hubble Space Telescope for a 350-mile-high grab Wednesday that will set the stage for five days of treacherous spacewalking repairs in an orbit littered with space junk.
Late Tuesday, the astronauts got comforting news: The ugly stretch of nicks on Atlantis’ thermal tiles were not considered serious, and no further inspections were needed. NASA 
is continuing to prep another shuttle, though, just in case a piece of space junk hits the shuttle during the mission.
Hubble’s unusually high orbit is strewn with smashed satellite pieces and other debris that could pierce the shuttle or suit of a spacewalking astronaut.
Major Tune-Up
Commander Scott Altman and his copilot fired the engines Wednesday morning and steered Atlantis into Hubble’s orbit. An hour later, Altman spotted Hubble, “that star approaching from the east.”
Mission Control reminded the astronauts that no one has seen the telescope up close since 2002. “We hope to get a lot closer,” Altman radioed from 268,000 feet away.
Early in the afternoon, robot arm operator Megan McArthur will use the 50-foot boom to grab the school bus-sized observatory and anchor it in Atlantis’ payload bay.
The capture is expected to occur over the Indian Ocean, just northeast of Madagascar.
Hubble scientists and managers warn that Hubble may look a little ragged; it hasn’t had a tuneup for seven years.
Beginning Thursday, two teams of spacewalking astronauts — two men per team — will take turns venturing outside to replace the 19-year-old Hubble’s batteries and gyroscopes, and an old camera and pointing mechanism. They also will install fresh thermal covers on the telescope and a new science data-control unit — the original conked out last September and, although revived, delayed the shuttle flight by seven months.
The space repair crew also will go into the guts of two broken science instruments and attempt to fix the fried electronics. Astronauts have never attempted anything like this before at Hubble.
Hoping for 10 More Years
This is the fifth and final flight to Hubble, costing NASA just over US$1 billion. The space agency hopes to get another five to 10 years of dazzling views of the cosmos, with all the planned upgrades, which should leave the observatory more powerful than ever.
The mission almost didn’t happen.
A year after the 2003 Columbia tragedy, NASA canceled the repair effort, saying it was too dangerous. The astronauts would not have anywhere to seek shelter because the international space station is in a different, inaccessible orbit.
However a new NASA regime reinstated the flight in 2006 after shuttle repair techniques were developed and tested in orbit. A plan also was put in place to have a rescue shuttle on the launch pad to blast off within days for a rescue.
That shuttle, the Endeavour, will remain on standby until Atlantis and its crew of seven head back to Earth late next week.
Damage Not Serious
As for the nicks on Atlantis, they stretch over 21 inches on the right wing, on the forward edge where it joins with the fuselage. The astronauts discovered the damage Tuesday while inspecting their ship.
The nicks are shallow and embedded in thick thermal tiles, in a location that is not particularly vulnerable during re-entry at flight’s end. Engineers believe those scrapes were caused by debris that came off the fuel tank 1 1/2 minutes after liftoff Monday.
Columbia’s damage at launch was considerably more severe — a plate-size hole in the most sensitive part of the left wing. NASA did not pursue the matter and was unaware of the extent of the damage until the shuttle was returning home. All seven astronauts were killed.
Source: technewsworld.com