There are already loud sound weapons which are turned on rioters which can cause people to throw up or get blasting headaches. but on this particular weapon, the patent points out that the sound waves used to incapacitate someone are not very powerful, so while protestors might pass out from oxygen deprivation, their eardrums will remain unfazed.

They further report that the shields can be networked together acoustically so that they can increase their range and effectiveness.  This could have major ramifications for the future of crowd control, with protestors being dispersed quickly and quietly without being able to effectively challenge the technology at all.  The use of sound, so far, can be countered by wearing earplugs or at least slightly mitigated by covering your ears.

Future Crowd Control Shields Will Suffocate People With Sound is a post from: The Inquisitr

Nor do they probably really get the joke when someone wears an NES cartridge shirt with the words “blow me.”

Look at This Picture and Feel Old is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is like every single computer conversation I have with my cousins.

[via]

Kids These Days, Technology Edition is a post from: The Inquisitr

Public-supported news, or as the news industry would have us believe – state run propaganda machines, is a hotly contested sore point in the US. Of course not all countries look at this way as evidenced by the BBC in England or the CBC in Canada. Even within the US there is the often looked down upon NPR which as an organization has to continually defend itself from attacks not just from their peers in the industry but also the government.

The argument used against these types of publicly-supported news agencies is that no matter how hard they try they will always have to kowtow to the government of the day. You will also hear the argument that publicly-supported news agencies don’t have to compete on the same ground that other non-public (big business) run news businesses and that gives them an unfair advantage.

If this is the case then one has to wonder why the BBC of England has been able to continually grow in this new media environment while big business run news agencies are floundering. Not only is the BBC growing but it is seeing its ad revenues triple in the last year an are expecting to double in the next year. In fact business is so good because of foreign visitors to their news site that they will be launching a US site at BBC.com to meet the need.

Even the US’s own NPR is continually striving forward always finding ways to use new media and new technologies to provide a better service while at the same time you have the big names in the news industry talking paywalls and subscriptions.

Given all this it was interesting to read an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University and First Amendment scholar, where he questions this idea that publicly-supported news agencies are inherently biased and dangerous to journalism.

Interestingly, Bollinger contends that our largest threat to journalism isn’t from government abuse but the corporate sector. “To take a very current example, we trust our great newspapers to collect millions of dollars in advertising from BP while reporting without fear or favor on the company’s environmental record only because of a professional culture that insulates revenue from news judgment,” he argues. “This reinforces the point that all media systems, whether advertiser-based or governmental, come with potential editorial risks.”

He concludes, “In today’s rapidly globalizing and interconnected world, other countries are developing a strong media presence. In addition to the BBC, there is China’s CCTV and Xinhua news, as well as Qatar’s Al Jazeera. [Our] system needs to be revised and its resources consolidated and augmented with those of NPR and PBS to create an American World Service that can compete with the BBC and other global broadcasters.”

Source: Fast Company

It is an interesting argument and one that I believe have a lot of merit. After all one just has to look at the polarization that is happening in the United States and how news organizations align themselves, whether they admit it or not, with those different sides. News has become more and more about the rating, about the mega-dollar advertising deals that sponsor many of these “news” shows that feed into this polarization.

I also find it very interesting to watch the rise, and profitability, of publicly-supported news agencies like the NPR, BBC and other similar “state” news organizations while at the same time the name brand news businesses we grew up with are struggling.

I have never believed that traditional media at its heart was in any danger of vanishing into the sunset. Rather I totally expect it to morph, to grow, to learn from new media, even to blend with it and in the end we will have a stronger and more ethical provider of the news.

The BBC could very well be that model.

Is public-supported news the real evil that the news industry portrays it as? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Muir Russell report says scientists did not fudge data, but they should have been more open about their work

This article was written by David Adam, environment correspondent, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 8th July 2010 01.13 UTC

The climate scientists at the centre of a media storm over leaked emails were yesterday cleared of accusations that they fudged their results and silenced critics, but a review found they had failed to be open enough about their work.

Sir Muir Russell, the senior civil servant who led a six-month inquiry into the affair, said the “rigour and honesty” of the scientists at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) were not in doubt. His investigation concluded they did not subvert the peer review process to censor criticism and that key data was freely available and could be used by any “competent” researcher.

But the panel said the scientists’ responses to “reasonable requests for information” had been “unhelpful and defensive”. The inquiry found “emails might have been deleted in order to make them unavailable should a subsequent request be made for them” and that there had been “a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness”. Scientists also failed to appreciate the risk their lack of transparency posed to the university and “indeed to the credibility of UK climate science”.

The controversy began when 13 years of emails from CRU scientists were released online last year. Climate change sceptics claimed they showed scientists manipulating and suppressing data to back up a theory of manmade climate change. Critics also alleged the scientists abused their positions to cover up flaws and distort the peer review process that determines which studies are published in journals, and so enter the scientific record. Some alleged the emails cast doubt on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Announcing the findings, Russell said: “Ultimately this has to be about what they did, not what they said. The honesty and rigour of CRU as scientists are not in doubt … We have not found any evidence of behaviour that might undermine the conclusions of the IPCC assessments.”

The review is the third and final inquiry into the email affair, and effectively clears Professor Phil Jones, head of the CRU, and his colleagues of the most serious charges. Questions remain over the way they responded to requests for information from people outside the conventional scientific arena, some of whom were critics of Jones. “We do find that there has been a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness, both on the part of CRU scientists and on the part of the UEA,” said the report, commissioned by UEA at a cost of £200,000.

It also criticised the CRU scientists for failing to include proper labels on a 1999 graph prepared for the World Meteorological Organisation, which was the subject of an infamous email about Jones using a “trick” to “hide the decline”. The panel said the result was misleading, though they accepted this was not deliberate as the necessary caveats had been included in the report text.

Acknowledging that the digital age brought a greater demand for openness and access to data, it concluded “like it or not, this indicates a transformation in the way science has to be conducted in this century.” Edward Acton, vice-chancellor of UEA, said the university accepted the report’s conclusion that it should have been more open. “The need to develop a culture of greater openness and transparency in CRU is something we faced up to internally some months ago and we are already working to put right.”

He hoped the review would “finally lay to rest conspiracy theories, untruths and misunderstandings” that had been circulating, and that the “wilder assertions” about the climate science community would now stop.

Jones issued a statement which said: “I am, of course, extremely relieved that this review has now been completed. We have maintained all along that our science is honest and sound and this has been vindicated now by three different independent external bodies. There are lessons to be learned and I need time to reflect on them.” Jones is to be director of research at CRU. Acton said this was “not a demotion but a shift in emphasis of role”.

Ed Miliband, the former climate change secretary, said: “Muir Russell has given the world a clear message: we should not believe those who tell us that one string of emails undermines years of climate science. We should also learn lessons because maximum openness and transparency is the best weapon against those who want us to stick our heads in the sand as if climate change isn’t happening. Now the world needs to step up the momentum again and get the deal that eluded us at Copenhagen.”

Writing on Comment is Free, Dr Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, who testified to the inquiry, said: “The Russell review has rejected all claims of serious scientific misconduct. But he does identify failures, evasions, misleading actions, unjustifiable delays, and pervasive unhelpfulness – all of which amounts to severely sub-optimal academic practice. Climate science will never be the same again.”

Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: “It is clear that greater transparency is required in climate research because of the intense public interest in it, and its profound implications for society. However, it is also now very apparent that many so-called sceptics owe a huge apology to the public for having presented the email messages as evidence that climate change is a hoax carried out by a conspiracy of dishonest scientists.”

Acton said: “CRU will be more closely integrated in the bigger school of environmental sciences and a key difference is to place some of the administrative burden that Phil had before this incident on the head of the school.”

Bob Watson, chief scientific advisor to the department of environment, food and rural affairs, said that while it was clear scientists needed to be more transparent, he hoped the report would “draw a line under this episode so that the scientific

community can begin to regain the trust of the public and continue to

do its vital work on climate change, which remains one of the biggest

challenges we face as a planet.”

Myles Allen, head of the climate dynamics group at the University of Oxford, said: “What everyone has lost sight of is the spectacular failure of mainstream journalism to keep the whole affair in perspective. Again and again, stories are sexed up with arch hints that these “revelations” might somehow impact on the evidence for human impact on climate. Yet the only error in actual data used for climate change detection to have emerged from this whole affair amounted to a few hundredths of a degree in the estimated global temperature of a couple of years in the 1870s.”

Additional reporting by Christine Ottery

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Climategate scientists cleared of manipulating data on global warming is a post from: The Inquisitr

Looking for a gamer-friendly alternative to the iPhone? The competition is certainly hotting up, and here are five powerful possibilities…

This article was written by Keith Stuart, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 2nd July 2010 12.45 UTC

Sure, the App Store may have two billion titles (perhaps a slight exaggeration), and the iPhone remains the tech poseur’s handset of choice, but quietly and determinedly, the competition to provide a smartphone with true next-gen gaming potential is hotting up. Google’s Android platform is now attracting some serious attention from both indie developers and major games publishers, and fascinating alternatives like Samsung’s Bada and the Linux-based MeeGo are pulling in plenty of formative interest.

So which of these new devices should you consider if you’re after an iPhone alternative? I put the question to several game makers as well as mobile industry veteran Julian Jones, who now advises iPhone developers on transferring their titles to emerging smartphone platforms. Here’s what we all came up with…

Samsung Wave 8500S
This quirky, leftfield handset, sporting Samsung’s own Bada OS, has proved popular with all the developers I spoke to, thanks to its rich, vibrant ‘super AMOLED’ screen, responsive touch controls and powerful 1GHz processor. Although not as heavily populated as the Google and Apple offerings, the Samsung Apps store has plenty to offer gamers, including a decent version of EA’s Need for Speed: Shift, Gameloft’s Real Football and some interesting exclusives. The ethereal woodland puzzler, Glo, from UK developer Mere Mortals, looks lovely (there’s a video here). “Having spoken to Samsung they are promising more titles and a growing list of publishers supporting the platform,” says Julian Jones. “Playing Need for Speed is a joy – it’s full screen, fast and full of action. The graphics are on par with, if not slightly better than, the iPhone.”

Nexus One
Built by HTC but branded as Google this has been billed as the flagship Android smartphone. It’s another one with a big 480×800 display, as well as good touch screen (now that multi touch is supported), accelerometer and a powerful Qualcomm QSD 8250 1Ghz processor. Despite packing plenty of oomph, it’s extremely svelte at just over 11mm thick. And of course, it provides access to the 30,000 or so apps on the Google Android store, including the engrossing RPG Zenonia, I-Play’s frantic Diner Dash style title, Turbo Subs and the addictive ‘tower defense’-style strategy romp, Robo Defense.

Motorola Milestone
With its harsh, angular design and slide out QWERTY keyboard, Milestone (or Droid as it’s preferably named in the US) is something of a design iconoclast amid a range of super slim, curvaceous contenders. But it’s another strong Android handset with a large screen, ARM Cortex A8 550-Mhz processor and 5-megapixel camera. “Like the Samsung’s Wave, the Motorola Droid features a stunning screen, fast CPU and GPU, along with a GPS, Compass and Accelerometer,” says Jones. “All these have to be present if your going to enjoy the cooler mashed up, 3D and augmented reality apps that make these platforms hum.” You might want to hold off on this one though. Not only has it been arguably outpaced by the Nexus One, but Google has just officially unveiled its successor, the Droid X, which features a 4.3-inch display and 8-megapixel camera. No word on a UK release date though.

SonyEricsson Xperia X10
I took one of these to E3 and it’s a very solid, feature-packed smartphone, with a lovely 480×853 screen, 1Ghz processor and impressive 8-megapixel camera. I downloaded the Twidroid app and found it dead easy to take snaps on the show floor and get them up online, while the Timescape and Mediascape apps, which manage your social networking and audio-visual activities, are an interesting addition. As for games, it’s another strong performer, especially with that enormous four-inch screen. For those who find it a little too cumbersome, though, there’s the smaller, cuter Xperia X10 mini, complete with a teeny slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Windows Phone 7
Okay, so Microsoft has just ditched its Kin series of phones, but the forthcoming handsets built around the corporation’s new Windows Phone 7 technology should be more interesting. “At a recent Microsoft developer day I got play with the new WinMo 7 and it pleasantly surprised me,” says Jones. “It looks to be a complete reboot in terms of philosophy. Microsoft are driving the user experience hard – this is not ‘Windows on a phone’ in any sense…” Most importantly, the OS features a games hub, which allows users to access their Xbox Live account, checking up on achievements, game invites, downloads, etc. The handsets will also support Microsoft’s XNA development kit, which means many Xbox Live Indie games (and a few commercial Xbox Live Arcade titles) will be easily transferable to the platform. It’s the most interesting interplay between phone and console since Sony’s Aino handset, which offered (very complicated) access to your PS3 content. Could this finally be Microsoft’s victorious entry into the previously troublesome smartphone arena? We’ll find out when the first compatible handsets are released this autumn…

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

The five best iPhone alternatives for gaming is a post from: The Inquisitr

This article was written by Jemima Kiss, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 5th July 2010 10.14 UTC

Virtual worlds might have been an entertaining diversion for big media a couple of years back, but for a massive swathe of web users these are a powerful and important part of their online lives.

Far from being a flash in the pan, sites like Habbo Hotel can claim both longevity and profitability – both often elusive qualities for social web institutions.


Photo by pixelsebi on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Habbo Hotel has just joined the exclusive club of websites that can claim ten years online. The public beta of the first incarnation, Hotelli Kultakala, rolling out on 28 August 2000, followed by the English-language beta on 16 January 2001. The combined platform now claims 170 million users in 11 countries.

Some Habbo stats, as of last month:

• 172m avatars created
• 3m new characters created each month
• 120m user-created rooms
• 15m monthly unique users
• Average user session is 42 minutes
 
In this video interview, co-founder Sampo Karjalainen describes creating the first incarnation of Habbo, the ‘Mobile Disco’ chat site with the familiar Habbo blocky pixel look. After extending the concept into a snowball fight for an ad campaign in early 2000, the pair launched the Finnish Hotelli Kultakala a few months later. The official bio says this was built with the micropayments business model in the plan from the start, though chief executive Timo Soininen admits in this video interview that in the early days Habbo was more  ‘hunch and creativity driven’ than the multi-million dollar, metrics-driven organisation it is today.

However early on those micropayments were written in to the business plan, Habbo can claim some success. Parent company Sulake reported $20m revenues for the first quarter of 2010, up 25% year on year. The site has a not insignificant 150 payment channels set up across 31 countries, maximising their chances of encouraging players to upgrade their avatar and Habbo spaces by making it as easy as possible for them to pay in multiple ways. Soininen adds that a significant amount of transactions take place between users in the form of gifts and so on – to the value of $600m per year.

Success, says Habbo, is down to “keep the service fresh and relevant by frequently introducing new features and gaming elements, arranging engaging campaigns, enriching the virtual economy and payment models and nurturing the community“. So no secrets given away there, exactly. But the combination of a distinctive style and an environment where users feel more committed to a service they have invested in is an important factor.

An overview provided by Nielsen gives a glimpse of user behaviour. In the virtual worlds category, Habbo notches up and average 2 hours 16 minutes each month per user and, though Nielsen estimates Second Life has less than half as many users, the average time spent is more like 9 and a half hours each month.

No surprise that web addicts’ favourite World of Warcraft scores an astonishing 29 hours 42 minutes. Step away from the screen, gentlemen!

Actually that’s not a sweeping generalisation about WoW, because Nielsen estimates that 72% of players are male. That contrasts sharply with habbo, which has a female userbase of 63%. Second Life is 55% male.

WoW’s users are also older, with 41% between 18 and 34 while Habbo is 42% under 17. Second Life is older still, with 47% aged 35 to 49.

Habbo’s own annual survey of 49,000 teenage users confirmed some more user behaviour. 32% said they never pay for content online, though that varies by country with 21% of UK teens saying they never pay compared to 48% in Spain and Italy.

55% said newspapers will die out soon, compared to 18% who think they will continue to exist in some form. One fifth said they often feel unsafe in online environments and nearly a third learn the most about online safety at school.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Ten years of virtual worlds: Habbo hits a decade is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ever wonder what our descendants far in the future might one day discover in the fossil remains of our technological future. A future where we experiment with cyborgs, robots, and other wondrous inventions yet to be made.

Well ThrowingChicken at DeviantArt has and to boot he has created some of those future fossils for us today, or as he calls them – Creatures of the Mechazoic Age.

Mycteria americana

Felis catus

Chelonia mydas

Loligo Duvauceli

Belle Marie

5 Awesome examples of future archeological discoveries is a post from: The Inquisitr

Would you feel comfortable knowing a range of auto dealership employees had remote access to determine whether you could get to work on time or at all, transport your partner to the hospital in an emergency or bring your children to school?

Technology used to disable vehicles when consumers are late with payments saw many vehicles in Texas disturbed in such a way recently, when police say former Texas Auto Center employee, 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, interfered with the vehicles of over 100 customers of the four dealership chain. Ramos-Lopez was reportedly angered over having been laid off last month, and in retaliation the former employee set horns to honk uncontrollably or rendered the vehicles themselves useless. Although dealership management initially dismissed the incidents as a “mechanical failure,” Ramos-Lopez’s interference was soon discovered and he was arrested Tuesday on “computer interference” charges..

The incidents in Texas raise serious questions about the practice, as merely disabling Ramos-Lopez’s login was not enough to keep him from logging on remotely and causing problems:

Ramos-Lopez’s account had been closed when he was terminated from Texas Auto Center in a workforce reduction last month, but he allegedly got in through another employee’s account, Garcia says. At first, the intruder targeted vehicles by searching on the names of specific customers. Then he discovered he could pull up a database of all 1,100 Auto Center customers whose cars were equipped with the device. He started going down the list in alphabetical order, vandalizing the records, disabling the cars and setting off the horns.

How do you feel about dealerships having access to your vehicle in such a manner? Should good old repossession be good enough, or should a shady car salesman have the ability to set your horn off honking while you’re at a job interview when you’ve fallen behind on payments due to unemployment?

Disgruntled employee disables more than 100 cars remotely is a post from: The Inquisitr

Isn’t technology amazing?

[Spotted on Digg]

Compelling reasons to upgrade your hardware is a post from: The Inquisitr

If there is one thing we don’t have enough of these days is file formats of which video counts for more than .. well more than I can count on two hands. It seems that the entertainment bosses in Hollywood have been worrying about this as well to the point that 48 movie studios and tech companies have gotten together to give us yet another video file format.

The organization that they have all joined is called The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) and they have come up with a single standard format that will allow consumers to download movies, or any video content really, and play it on any device.

Except for one company that is which happens to be .. are you ready … Apple. Apparently Apple declined to be a part of this new consortium. Unsurprising one other company that won’t be tagging along is Disney. This means that companies like: Paramount, Warner Bros, Fox, Sony, Comcast, Intel, Panasonic, Toshiba and a whole bunch more media and tech companies are all on board with the new format.

So what is the format?

Well all we really know is that they are calling it a ‘common file format’ that is based on ‘existing technology’.

Wow. I’m all kinds of excited over this aren’t you?

Here’s the full announcement courtesy of The Wrap

Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) Announces Key Milestones

21 New Members Join Cross-Industry Coalition to

Make “Buy Once, Play Anywhere” a Reality for Consumers

LOS ANGELES, CA (January 4, 2010) – Today the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem LLC (DECE LLC), www.decellc.com,  a coalition with support from every industry involved in digital entertainment, announced it has reached key milestones toward establishing the first open market for digital content distribution. In addition, DECE announced that 21 companies have joined the group which now includes 48 members across entertainment, software, hardware, retail, infrastructure and delivery.

The milestones announced today include:

·         Agreement on a Common File Format, an open specification for digital entertainment, that will be used by all participating content providers, services and device manufacturers

·         Vendor selection for and role of the Digital Rights Locker, a cloud-based authentication service and account management hub that allows consumers rights access to their digital entertainment

·         Approval of five Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions that will be DECE-compatible

Full technical specifications will be available in the first half of 2010.

Common File Format

DECE has agreed on a Common File Format, an industry first in digital distribution. An open specification for digital entertainment, like DVD or Blu-ray, the Common File Format may be licensed by any company to create a DECE consumer offering. Since this format will play on any service or device built to DECE specifications – whether via Internet, Mobile, Cable or IPTV, etc. – it will make “Buy Once, Play Anywhere” a reality.

The Common File Format optimizes the digital entertainment supply chain, benefiting content providers, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and retailers. Content providers only need to encode and encrypt one file type in portable, standard definition and high definition for multiple vendors. CDNs will not have to store different file types to accommodate retailers’ varying needs. Retailers can efficiently deliver content to devices from different manufacturers.

Digital Rights Locker

DECE has selected Neustar, Inc. (NYSE:NSR) as the vendor for the Digital Rights Locker, a cloud-based authentication service and account management hub that allows consumers rights access to their digital entertainment. It will authenticate rights to view content from multiple services, with multiple devices as well as manage content and registration of devices in consumer accounts. DECE will provide an open Application Programming Interface (API) that allows any Web-enabled storefront, service or device to integrate access to the Digital Rights Locker into its own consumer offering.

Approved DRMs

DECE has approved five DRMs that will be compatible with the Common File Format – Adobe® Flash® Access, CMLA-OMA V2, The Marlin DRM Open Standard, Microsoft PlayReady® and Widevine®. Compatibility with multiple DRMs will ensure that content can be played back via streaming or download on a wide variety of services and devices.

New Members

In 2009, 21 companies joined DECE, including: Adobe, Ascent Media Group, CableLabs®, Catch Media, Cox Communications, DivX, DTS, ExtendMedia, Irdeto, Liberty Global, Motorola, Nagravision, Netflix, Neustar, Nokia, Rovi, Secure Path, SwitchNAP, Tesco, Thomson and Zoran. These companies join DECE’s original members which include world leaders across a wide range of industries.

“The digital entertainment marketplace is on the cusp of a new era of rapid growth,” said Mitch Singer, President of DECE.

“The key to unlocking this potential is giving consumers the ‘Buy Once, Play Anywhere’ experience they want. That’s the goal of DECE and one we’re making rapid progress toward today.”

About Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) LLC

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) LLC is a cross-industry initiative developing the next generation digital media experience based on open, licensable specifications and designed to create a viable, global digital marketplace. The DECE is currently made up of Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, Ascent Media Group, Best Buy, Blueprint Digital, CableLabs, Catch Media, Cisco, Comcast, Cox Communications, Deluxe Digital, DivX, Dolby Laboratories, DTS, ExtendMedia, Fox Entertainment Group, HP, Intel, Irdeto, Liberty Global, Lionsgate, Microsoft, MOD Systems, Motorola, Movie Labs, Nagravision, NBC Universal, Netflix, Neustar, Nokia, Panasonic, Paramount Pictures, Philips, RIAA, Rovi, Roxio CinemaNow, Samsung Electronics, Secure Path, Sony, SwitchNAP, Tesco, Thomson, Toshiba, Verimatrix, VeriSign, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Widevine Technologies Inc. and Zoran. This new digital media specification and logo program will enable consumers to purchase digital video content from a choice of online retailers and play it on a variety of devices and platforms from different manufacturers

Is anyone surprised that DRM is a major part of this new format?

Hollywood sneaks in a new video format is a post from: The Inquisitr

CES 2010 is coming to Las Vegas this January 7th through January 10th and Inquisitr.com be on the scene covering the hottest, most interesting and just plain odd bits of technology and gadgets.

The Consumer Electronics Show is the largest industry only conference worldwide and is often the breaking ground for new types of technology and gadgets from major companies, many of which will be released for sale over the coming new year.

This year I expect to see a lot of hype and gadgets surrounding the world of 3D, including new 3D enabled televisions from Sony and possibly even some new Acer 3D notebook technology which was rumored in late 2009, although still not confirmed in any real manner.

CES 2010 also promises to deliver an entire new level of Mobile Apps with the conference devoting a section of the show to mobile applications, mobile devices and other areas of mobile technology.

Apple, having moved their MacWorld Expo to early February this year (it’s usually the same week as CES) should also have a bigger presence at the show with the iLounge area featuring everything Apple.

CES will also feature more exhibitors than ever before, taking up, as they have in the past, the entire Las Vegas Convention Center and much of the Sands Expo Center (once again being shared with the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo).

Whether you want to check out weird and wacky gadgets or find out about the newest in technological advancements, be sure to stay tuned for all the major releases as they arrive.

We’ll get started one day early with a keynote address from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer on Wednesday night, stay tuned…

CES 2010 Begins This Thursday, We Get Started On Wednesday is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wow. Talk about what was old is new again.

In this day an age where everyone and their brother it seems is snuggling up on things like Facebook and playing all kinds of social games it seems that there is a new kind of social going on. It has nothing to do with computers, coding or poking people and you manically respond to friend and follower requests.

No, this kind of social is all about a close knit group of people getting together by invitation only and sharing a few beers or a bottle or two of wine and play Settlers of Catan. Not the computer game by that name but rather the original board game that was launched in 1995 by Germanboard-game maker Klaus Teuber. Within companies like StumbleUpon and Facebook there are regular planned get together’s with Settler competitions.

It is a deceptively simple game that consists of a board with 19 hexagonal cardboard tiles that you arrange to form an island. The people who are playing the game then take turns rolling real dice in order to gather real resource cards from the island. These resource cards consist of ones for sheep, brick, ore, wheat and wood and are used to build settlements. The first one to 10 wins the game.

So who’s playing this game that is taking Silicon Valley by storm?

Well there’s Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), John Lilly (Mozilla), Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf), Mark Pncus (Zynga Games) and that is only a start as many more have been brought into the game by these Web 2.0 leaders. The game has also become a regular event that is planned for at companies like StumbleUpon and Facebook.

It has become the new meetings on the golf course where introductions are made and deals start to develop just ask Glenn Kelman the CEO of Refin where even the mention of Settlers of Catan to Greylock Partners’ Mr Hoffman provided some instant bonding. Two months later Redfin raised $10 million in funding with Greylock being the main investor.

The new meeting ground is becoming so persuasive that high tech executives who don’t play are beginning to feel left out.

Ben Elowitz, a co-founder of online jewelry store Blue Nile Inc. and now CEO of Web start-up WetPaint.com Inc. in Seattle, says he recently heard about the board game from several Internet CEOs. Interested to learn more, he tried to get the group to teach him how to play but has repeatedly been denied because he’s a newbie.

“I feel like I have to pledge to see if I can be accepted into playing Settlers,” says Mr. Elowitz, 37. “I’m definitely on the outside looking in.”

To learn the game in a hurry, some Silicon Valley executives have fallen back on their usual crutch: technology. After start-up investor Aydin Senkut was trounced at his first Settlers match last year, he was so upset that he resorted to playing an online version of the game for practice.

“I didn’t have a base to play the game well, so I told myself I was going to get there in a week,” says Mr. Senkut, 40, a former Google Inc. executive. Jousting with other Settlers fans online, “I ended up playing 200 online games in three nights.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

You know for all our love of technology and the hype that surrounds Social media and social networks when it comes right down to there is nothing better that real people getting together  and having real fun with friends. Beats the electronic version anytime.

Techies chill out playing an old school game is a post from: The Inquisitr

The “bleeding-edge” segment of the Internet has gone full-on crazy, so it’s time to give them their medicine… and fast.

First of all, let’s make some definitions:

• “technology” does not include only the Internet
• “the Internet” does not include only so-called “social networking” sites
• “groundbreaking” does not include every minor change or release from X’s favorite site Y
  

With me so far?  Good.

If you’re one of the people that goes insane and hyper-joyous over things like Twitter Lists, you need to seek medical help – these “features”, used in the loosest sense of the software term, are not something to get overly excited about.  Facebook Chat opening to external clients is not “groundbreaking” or a “gamechanger”, because that IM process is used for an extremely different purpose than, say, regular instant messaging – in fact, the only real operational difference is that I can be connected to some people I don’t want to talk to via Pidgin.  Twitter Lists, small changes to Google’s algorithms, and the like are included in this “excited about nonsense” category.

Furthermore, if you’re someone who claims to “love technology”, but what you really mean is that you’re a Facebook addict, a Twitter whore, and an iPhone fanboy, I have some news for you:  you don’t love technology.  If you really loved technology, you’d be more interested in real technological items like working space elevator prototypes, the multiple industry revolutions that are fast approaching, or even just software that has real and useful purposes.  Reading a few blogs about the Internet and going to Twitter conferences do not make you a technogeek – try PhysOrg.com, almost-science-journals like New Scientist, or even some self-education on the things that make your favorite software or gadgets work.

So when you’re retweeting your favorite self-proclaimed geek pundit’s semi-legible statement about a “groundbreaking” release from “the Internet” using brand new “technology”, stop for a moment to think about what you’re saying – how often do you think Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs cry tears of joy over the latest incremental update from FarmVille?

That’s right – never.

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction.  He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

Let’s Stop The Nonsense, OK? is a post from: The Inquisitr

I have felt for some time that Canada has slowly been relinquishing the leading role it held for as long as I can remember. Granted in the medical field my home country still is well known and respected but when it comes to technology we have been heading downhill.

Some might argue the point but it only takes looking at the country’s position as a broadband provider to see that decline. It was this point that both a Canadian ISP commissioned report and a comprehensive study by researchers at Harvard University that was commissioned by the FCC (pdf report).

The FCC study led by Professor Yochai Benkler reviewed international rankings with differing policy approaches and in Canada’s case it was noteworthy because it tries to link Canadian policy with its falling rankings. The specific rankings as noted by Professor Michael Geist on his blog

On the issue of rankings, the study uses several reports to conclude yet again that Canada trails much of the developed world on broadband.  The specific rankings are:

• Overall – 22nd
• Access – 16th
• Speed – 20th (using the same Speedtest.net source that Rogers relied upon in its ad campaign that led to a lawsuit by Bell)
• Price – 25th

The FCC report points out that Canada was once a broadband leader

It was a very early broadband adopter, relying primarily on facilities-based competition between cable and incumbent telephone companies. As early as 2000, broadband subscriptions were already 31% of all Internet subscriptions.  As of December of 2003, Canada had the second highest level of Internet penetration per 100 inhabitants in the OECD, second only to South Korea, and third highest, after South Korea and Japan, by the per-household measure. At that time, there were 1.29 cable broadband subscribers for every DSL subscriber.

The report suggests its reasoning behind why Canada is suffering on the competitive front this way

Canada has the highest monthly charge for access to an unbundled local loop of any OECD country. Combined with the presence of strong incumbents and the Canadian regulator’s practice of promising to sunset the requirement of opening access to core facilities – originally copper loops, now fiber – it is possible that the investment environment is too expensive and too uncertain for non-incumbent entrants.

The final conclusion by the FCC when it comes to Canada and it’s place in the broadband world:

Canada has the highest monthly charge for access to an unbundled local loop of any OECD country. Combined with the presence of strong incumbents and the Canadian regulator’s practice of promising to sunset the requirement of opening access to core facilities – originally copper loops, now fiber – it is possible that the investment environment is too expensive and too uncertain for non-incumbent entrants.

So much for the idea of a ubiquitous real time web.

It takes an FCC study to show Canada’s falling broadband position is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well color me surprised but not all of the record companies are happy with UK ISP Virgin Media’s planned subscription service for downloading music.

The UK company believes that consumers want to be able to download as much music as they want and without it being loaded down with DRM restrictions. It’s newly announced subscription service is built around this idea that will allow their subscribers to download as much music as they want for an additional monthly fee and allow them to keep it permanently. The fee for the service hasn’t been announced but people in the know are suggesting it will be around the £15 mark.

At this point only Universal and some smaller indie labels have signed up with the ISP’s service. The other record companies, like Warner Bros, EMI, and Sony Music aren’t too happy with the service as they believe that it will cannibalize their existing digital sales. They also don’t believe that it will do anything to convert persistent file-sharers.

A Virgin Media spokeswoman said it’s committed to launching a “comprehensive” service this year. “We’re making good progress in developing the service and are on track to launch before Christmas,” she said. “We’re in talks with both major and independent labels and are committed to launching a comprehensive service.”

However, while record labels are keen to work with Virgin because of the reach it offers via its 3.7m broadband subscribers, they argue the music download service needs to make commercial sense.

A label executive involved in the negotiations said the labels support Virgin Media’s music plans in theory, but any service must deliver both feasibility and scale.

“We want to work with Virgin Media as a partner but any deal has to sit comfortably with how we value our assets against how it values its customers,” he said. “We have to evaluate each deal as it comes in and make sure we’re happy with the overall value of the proposition.”

Source: New Media Age – Record labels cast doubt on Virgin Media’s music model

Somehow I don’t hold out much hope that the Virgin Media subscription idea will end up seeing the light of day.

Virgin’s solution to piracy not sitting well with all record companies is a post from: The Inquisitr

The days when the “tech savvy” employee had to show their less tech friendly co-worker how to use their smartphones, computers, pagers and other technology are quickly disintegrating around us. According to a recently release study reported by the WSJ, “Early Adopters” are quickly becoming the norm in our society.

The study surveyed 53,668 households in the U.S. and Canada and found that almost 50% of respondents played video games, while over 60% had a broadband connection and almost 75% owned cellphones and computers. The survey also points to nearly 10 million households with HDTV’s, a jump of 27 percent in only the last year and a half.

The study also estimates that by 2014 almost 39 million homes will be with HDTV’s, a market penetration of almost 70 percent.

Researchers also found that despite the recession online spending is still bringing in over $500 on average per spender, with many households still bringing in over $1000 in online sales.

According to the WSJ:

The study also suggests a growing reliance on the Internet for commerce, communication, entertainment and social lives, said Charles S. Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research, and a co-author on the study.

The study also goes into further depth about increasing cell phone consumption, increased MP3 player use by varying age levels and other early adoption of electronics by various demographics. [via WSJ]

Keeping Up With The Joneses. Early Tech Adopters Now The “Norm” is a post from: The Inquisitr

There is no denying the fact that we all love our tech toys. Apple’s iPhone continues to sell, smart phones in general grow in popularity, GPS-based apps are just handy to have. Things like electronic swipe cards for subways, toll booths and quick payment at stores make life easier – and quicker. God knows I wouldn’t know what to do without my debit card – I hardly ever carry cash anymore.

The dark side to this though is that every time we use those ‘conveniences’ that data is collected and kept somewhere. Under the guise of aggregated data used for everything from profit projections to traffic flows this data is amassed painting a picture of where you have been and what you have done.

This collection of data has many privacy experts concerned as we are seeing cases of this type of data turning up in courtrooms. Whether it be the police using cell phone records to track people to things like E-ZPasses to show people’s travel routes at the times when crimes have occurred. Google searches have shown up in more than a few high profile murder trials.

As Adam Cohen notes in an editorial post at The New York Times this isn’t just the prevue of the police and lawyers.

Corporations and the government can keep track of what political meetings people attend, what bars and clubs they go to, whose homes they visit. It is the fact that people’s locations are being recorded “pervasively, silently, and cheaply that we’re worried about,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a recent report.

Sure we might realize empirically that we are probably being watched by an increasing number of CCTV cameras as we move around but in general people don’t realize the extent to which their everyday activity is recorded. People aren’t told that using that transportation card will also allow the transportation authority to track them (or that police have used those records in criminal investigations). Cell phone users aren’t told that even though they aren’t using the phone that if it is turned the companies can track their movements.

Not all of this information is being broadcasted and collected without our knowledge as the popularity of social media services like BrightKite which is a web service that let’s you broadcast your current location and the willingness of people to tell the world where and what they are doing. Sure the typical argument that advocates of these types of services, knowing or otherwise, is that if we have nothing to hide we shouldn’t be concerned about all this data collected.

Sorry but that’s a mug’s argument in my opinion. I can understand how some of this data can be helpful but in no way does it need any type of personal information attached to it. As Cohen points out in his editorial

As much as possible, location-specific information should not be collected in the first place, or not in personally identifiable form. There are many ways, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, to use cryptography and anonymization to protect locational privacy. To tell you about nearby coffee shops, a cellphone application needs to know where you are. It does not need to know who you are.

When locational information is collected, people should be given advance notice and a chance to opt out. Data should be erased as soon as its main purpose is met. After you pay your E-ZPass bill, there is no reason for the government to keep records of your travel.

While the lure of convenience is making this kind of data collection palatable that doesn’t mean that it is a good thing or that it should be being done.

Lure of technological convenience hides a nasty side is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple is an anomaly in today’s tech world.

Long the mainstay of small segment of computer users it had a loyal following who would probably leap off of cliffs if Steve Jobs asked them to, especially if asked during one of his famous keynote speeches. There is no denying that all that faith and admiration in both the man and the products isn’t well placed. The iPhone has transformed the whole smart phone industry, the iPod/iTunes has revolutionized the music industry and could have the same effect on video, and the Mac in all its variations is a beautiful and excellent computer.

When it comes to the man the loyal followers have him to thank for first bringing the company back from the brink of disaster and then making it more popular than it ever has been before. In return for this ‘fandom’ Apple and Steve Jobs continue to challenge the established ideas of how we perceive our electronic devices and provide us with some of the best designed gadgets to fill our days with – and in the process Apple is making money hand over fist. With over $25 billion cash in their war chest Apple is set to do basically whatever it wants.

All this goodness and light however isn’t without its spots of tarnish – spots that are increasing both in number and size.

As hard as Apple tries to clean up those spots they aren’t going away. No longer will people blindly sign NDA’s over their iPhone exploding, no longer will they be silent about Apple’s heavy-handedness. Now even the little things like Apple breaking developer reference links or the silence about the removal of something like the ZFS file system are getting attention.

Attention that Apple continually ignores as it sits behind its wall at Cupertino. However this is  the age of the social web and the empowerment of the consumer where even the most loyal Apple consumer has a voice – and aren’t afraid to use it. After all it’s pretty easy – set up a blog, join Twitter, add friends on Facebook. The avenues for expression of dissatisfaction are all there and people are using them with increasing frequency.

Except Apple for the most part isn’t listening, or at least even if they are they are not responding. They chose to ignore the very people who have dedicated much of their computing life to advocating the Apple way of life. They have believed enough in Steve Jobs and the company to add their portion to that $25 billion war chest.

In a world where, especially the tech part of it, where social media is becoming the powerhouse of consumer interaction Apple’s silence is excruciatingly loud. As Tom Foremski writes

This is strange. This means Apple must have a company policy to not engage in social media at all. There can be no other explanation.

This company directive must come from the top. Steve Jobs has a reputation as a micro-manager and control freak.

And on the social web there is no control over your message. It will be “annotated” by thousands, potentially millions of people. It takes balls to put yourself in front of people on the social web.

Apple seems to be lacking the balls.

For all the life long fans have given to Apple there will be a breaking point as dissatisfaction with this silent treatment from the company that many of them love reaches a breaking point. It might not be a breaking that will turn that fan base away from the company but it is one that may seriously discourage any new people from taking up the Apple mantra.

People in this new social media world have the power to change things a lot more than they may realize but definitely more than companies realize. Apple may have once benefited from its autocratic, elitist, “we know best” attitude but as we are finding with every other business that holds that same attitude that world is gone. Once again Tom phrases it well when he says

The other thing people will remember is when you show you aren’t listening, you aren’t interested, you come across as arrogant. You have $26 billion in cash earned from your customers and you don’t care about your customers, what they are saying about you, what problems they are having. That’s memorable.

Very memorable.

Apple’s love/hate relationship with its users is a post from: The Inquisitr

Our bedrooms are our sanctuary, a place to relax and chill and perchance to sleep. With the ever rising adoption of laptops they have also become just another extension of our workspace and entertainment center albeit with a lot more comfort.

Yoo-Pod Ltd wants to take that idea and expand on it just a little bit with their Somnus-Neu project. A project that is bound to make every geek out there drool just a little bit. The project aims to bring us all the bed of the future, which with the high tech features they have included in this creation it is easy to see why. Combining a really cool design and some pretty nice technology the Somnus-Neu bed is intended to let you relax and connect from one place or at least that’s what their promo blurb says – I’ll leave it to you to decide.

The list of goodies that comes with the bed goes something like this

• An internet connection, either through wifi or ethernet
• An entire audio-visual system with an HD video projector and 5-point audio system that includes drivers mounted beneath the mattress—hook up an iPod, watch cable TV or DVDs or stream media online.
• Mechanized curtains and a drop-down screen that can be used to completely enclose the mattress.
• LED lighting under, above and around the bed

hat tip to Freshome.com

High tech bed heaven is a post from: The Inquisitr