Author: Serkadis

When we received an e-mail from a very agitated reader detailing that the wireless card and the screen on his HP tx2000 stopped working just a convenient few days after his warranty expired we felt bad, though didn’t think much of it. But then we started doing a bit of research, and it turns out these issues go all the way back to the tx1000 and that there are thousands — if you can trust the petition numbers — that have been encountering these problems. The cause? Most likely the overheating NVIDIA graphics card and chipset that was used in both models, and which was actually the reason for Sony, Dell and other HP laptop recalls last year. So, what gives, especially after the warranty of these tablets has gone up? Not much, unless you are handy with a motherboard, some thermal compound and tinfoil like the guy in the video after the break (spoiler: he fixes his tx1000!) We wish we had better news, but if you’re an unfortunate owner of one of these txs your best bet is to hit one of the links and sound off. The more noise, the more likely HP will be to finally recall these puppies.

[Thanks, Artur T.]

Continue reading HP tx2000 suffering from dead screens and wireless, NVIDIA to blame?

Filed under: Laptops

HP tx2000 suffering from dead screens and wireless, NVIDIA to blame? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP last night posted a (rather boring) five-minute video (even the interviewer seems to forget where she is at some points) giving further details about the HP Slate that Steve Ballmer showed off during his keynote at CES 2010. It was first posted on the hpcomputers YouTube channel with the heading “SPECIAL REPORT! The HP Slate.” The interviewee is CTO Phil McKinney, who we’ve seen showing prototypes of HP touch devices before. We’ve watched the video so that you don’t have to (despite its lacking presentation, the details are interesting), but in case you’re interested, we’ve also embedded it below:

The project started five years ago at HP Labs in the UK, germinated by the concept of an e-reader device. HP took its prototypes and put it in the hands of users to get feedback from them. The biggest feedback users gave was that reading was great but they wanted it to do media as well, according to McKinney. As such, HP now believes that consumers are looking for a device that can be used as their “ultimate content consumption experience,” McKinney says. It has to be thin and light, somewhere between 4 to 10 inches, and essentially invade the market that is currently dominated by e-readers from Sony and Amazon. Those devices don’t have color though, nor can you play back videos, or browse the Internet on them, but McKinney says users want all that in addition to being able to read magazines and books, and that’s the problem the slate platform will solve.

When asked, “why now?,” McKinney answers that 2010 is “the optimal year for the slate platforms” because now there’s “the perfect storm of innovation.” There’s a convergence of low-cost and low-power processors as well as the touch-aware Windows 7, and that’s what will let HP push the slate platform.

“In reality we could have built this device two years ago. We had it ready; we put it on the shelf,” McKinney boasts. “[At] that time for us to deliver the device it would have been $1,500, and [it] would have been outrageously expensive. Our target was to get it down to be a mainstream price point, mainstream product, not a niche offering.”

So to sum up: you’ll be able to get it some time in 2010, it will cost you less than $1,500, and it will run Windows 7.

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Meet Morgan. He’s a special little guy, born with bilateral cataracts and juvenile diabetes. But he’s a lucky guy, too, because his mom Donna is crafty and creative! She’s the one behind the Etsy shop Morgan’s Beds where she sells comfy handmade cat beds to help pay for Morgan’s medical expenses.

The beds are made with quality fabrics and poly fill. They are machine washable and can even go in the dryer. Here are some satisfied customers enjoying their beds:

Donna is offering this fun bed in a mod spotted design to one lucky Moderncat reader! To enter, please leave a comment on this post. The winner will be chosen in a random drawing on February 2 and notified via email. One entry per person. This giveaway includes shipping to addresses in the US. Readers outside the US may enter if they are willing to pay the extra shipping ($21 to Canada, $29 to the UK).

So very true. [Slate via Daring Fireball]

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To me, geo-tagging in photography hasn’t really held much interest. Sure, it’s helpful when you see someones work that you admire, but generally I’ve always felt that it was kind of silly. TeleNav is looking to change that, through the use of a device that will show you images to places in your area that have been tagged.

TeleNav’s patent appears to be for software that would allow you to see geo-tagged pictures from your immediate area, based on the current GPS co-ordinates. Details are sketchy to say the least, but it’s safe to assume this will be a mobile device application. No word on what platform, when it will be out, what it will cost or anything.

[via GoRumors]

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Are we still expected, in the year 2010, to pay $20 plus $8 shipping for a Snuggie? And another $8 shipping for a second bonus Snuggie? NO! Show the fat cats at the Snuggie conglomerate that you’re onto their little ruse. Take a big piece of fabric – any fabric you want! — cut some arm holes, and sew some arms onto the arm holes.

That sounds far more complicated than the sewing I’m used to (which mostly involves a stapler or nail gun) but a pleasant-looking lady over at Instructables has finally cracked the Snuggie code. What’s more, she’s been kind enough to share the secret with the world.

Advantages to making your own Snuggie:

• It’s cheaper (unless you use really high-quality fabric, in which case…)
• It’s higher-quality. The Snuggie I reviewed (and haven’t used since the review) seems highly flammable and definitely attracts a lot of static.
• You can size it to fit you exactly.
• More fabric pattern choices.
• You can make your own pockets. I’d have one for my laptop, one for my Kindle, one for my glasses, one for my contacts, one for my phone, one for my camera, one for my keys, one for my inhaler, and one for my wallet. And a cup holder somehow.

Make Your Own Snuggie [Instructables]

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Legalize Competing Currencies

by Ron Paul

Much has been made recently about the supposed economic recovery. A few blips in a few statistics and many believe our troubles are all over. Of course, they have to redefine recovery as “jobless” to account for the lack of improvement on Main Street. But the banks have money, Wall Street is chugging along, and the administration would like to get on with other agendae.

They have even set up a commission to investigate the crisis as if it were all in the past.

The truth is that Americans are still losing jobs, the Fed is still inflating, and more regulations are in the works that will prevent jobs and productivity from coming back. We are on this trajectory for the long haul. The claim has been made many times that this administration has only had a year to clean up the mess of the last administration. I wish they would at least get started!Instead of reversing course, they are maintaining Bush’s policies full speed ahead. They are even keeping the Bush-appointee in charge of the Federal Reserve!They are not even making token efforts at change in economic policy. And for all the talk of transparency, we hear that some powerful senators will do all they can to block a simple audit of the powerful and secretive Federal Reserve.

We have been on a disastrous course for a long time. The money supply has doubled in the last year, our debt is unsustainable, the value of the dollar is going to continue its drop, and those Americans who understand where we are headed feel helpless and held hostage by foolish policy makers in Washington. When the bills finally come due and the dollar stops working we are in for some real social, economic and political chaos. That is, unless we take some major steps now to allow for a peaceful transition in the future. These steps are laid out in my legislation to legalize competing currencies.

First of all, no one should be compelled by law to operate in Federal Reserve notes if they prefer an alternative. We should repeal legal tender laws and allow Americans to conduct transactions in constitutional money. Only gold and silver can constitutionally be legal tender, not paper money. Instead, it is illegal to conduct business using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes. Simply legalizing the Constitution should be a no-brainer to anyone who took an oath of office. Consequently, private mints should be allowed to mint gold and silver coins. They would be subject to fraud and counterfeit laws, of course, and people would be free to use their coins or stay with Federal Reserve notes, as they see fit. Finally, we should abolish taxes on gold and silver, which puts precious metals at a competitive disadvantage to paper money.

The Federal Reserve is a government-sanctioned banking cartel that has held far too much power for far too long and is in the end stages of running the dollar into the ground, and our economy along with it. The very least Congress can do, if they are not willing to abolish the Fed, and perhaps not even conduct a serious audit of it, is to allow citizens the freedom to defend themselves from being completely wiped out by their monopoly power.

Related posts:

1. Ron Paul on the Gold Standard and Competing Currencies Channel: Fox News Date: 10/5/2009 News Anchor: Not too…
2. Ron Paul on Afghanistan Troop Surge, Audit the Fed Bill and Competing Currencies Channel: RT Date of Interview: 12/9/2009 Transcript Dina Gusovsky:…
3. Break the Monopoly! Ron Paul Introduces HR 4248, the Free Competition in Currency Act Statement of Congressman Ron Paul United States House of Representatives…

On Jan. 26, 1905, the largest diamond known to man was found in Pretoria, South Africa. Called the "Cullinan," the stone weighed an amazing 3,106 carats. Even Elizabeth Taylor couldn’t have worn it around her neck.

Joseph Asscher, a legendary diamond cutter in Amsterdam, was chosen to split the giant stone. He studied the diamond for six months before trying to divide it. On the appointed day, he asked to have a doctor standing by, in case he made a blunder.

After nearly shattering the diamond on his first hit, he succeeded on his second blow. The diamond fell neatly into two pieces. Asscher was so relieved he promptly fainted.

The Cullinan was ultimately cut into 106 separate diamonds. The largest is the 530-carat "Star of Africa," which is reputed to be the largest fine quality colorless diamond in the world. The gem was presented to King Edward VII by Transvaal Province, South Africa, and now rests in the Tower of London, along with the other Crown Jewels.

—Chip Wood

Homebrew coder AngelWire has released the first versuion of HighWay Run, an arcade-style homebrew racing game for the Nintendo DS in which you assume the role of a driver trying to avoid other vehicles while retrieving gas

This looks so much like Mars I can almost see the Rover in the background. But it’s not another planet—it’s one of a series of incredible small-scale models by artist Matthew Albanese. Wait until you see the volcano.

Albanese calls the series “Strange Worlds,” although the strangest thing about them is the materials they’re made from: paprika, nutmeg, cotton— even a stream made from an outdoor patio table.

To achieve such life-like images, he leans heavily on the photographic technique and viewing angle:

Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials.

Amazingly pretty, and pretty amazing. Even more shots can be seen here. [Strange Worlds via The Awesomer]

Filed under: Hardware, Software, Odds and ends, Apple

Expectations and excitement are at a fever pitch for the hoped-for tablet announcement, but that hasn’t stopped Apple’s lawyers from earning their keep. Just in the past few days, they’ve nailed down two more patents, one of which has to do with tablet-style technology. That’s a “proximity detector,” which is supposed to track when an object is near but not touching a tablet’s screen. Unfortunately, the legalese is a little shadowy, so I’m not quite sure what a setup would be used for, but it appears that they’re talking about controlling something on screen when you move your fingers close to it — i.e., a keyboard that pops up when you are about to put your hands on the tablet itself. I’m sure there are other uses for that as well, though, and of course just because Apple is pursuing a patent doesn’t mean we’ll see that technology in the announcement.

The other patent has to do with video conferencing, and automatically determining bandwidth available in a connection and then making adjustments based on the range of that bandwidth. That simply sounds like a more reliable way of adjusting video quality in an application like iChat, and again, just because Apple has applied for a patent doesn’t mean we’ll see it running in the next version or at all. But even so soon before a big announcement like this one, we’re still seeing Apple go after some of their more original ideas.

TUAWApple wins two new patents including tablet proximity detector originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arrayent is a new Internet of Things company being billed as the "Cisco of small things." It is basically middleware for companies wanting to connect their products to the Internet. In particular it’s targeting smartphones, which is a trend we’re closely tracking too. Arrayent made its first public appearance earlier this month at CES.

Arrayent offers a "turnkey communication system" called the Internet-Connect System, which enables product companies to connect their products to smartphones and computers via the Internet. It counts toy company Mattel and audio/video components supplier Monster Cable among its early customers.

Sponsor

"There was a lot more interest in connecting products to the Internet this CES over 2009," according to Arrayent Vice President of Sales and Marketing Bob Dahlberg. He told ReadWriteWeb that there were two segments in particular that were interested in Arrayent’s system.

The first was "greener home / home automation suppliers in the z-wave / zigbee camp," who are looking for ways to connect their customers’ home LANs to remote diagnosis and repair suppliers.

The second use case Arrayent saw at CES was companies in the home health monitoring space, who were looking for a way to "connect their products to web based applications such as Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault or [their] health provider’s system."

A big part of Arrayent’s marketing pitch is that it is a lower cost alternative to connecting products to the Internet. According to the company, it is "1/3 to 1/10 the cost of alternative (piece part) solutions."

Arrayent hangs its marketing hat on the emerging trend of Internet-connected consumer appliances. As other examples of this trend, Arrayent notes Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s iTouch, Nordic Track’s iFit and Schlage’s home automation product LiNK (mentioned in this August 2009 post).

The company has identified the following applications as potential markets for it to pursue:

• Energy and water monitoring and control from a smartphone or web browser.
• Home control (door locks, home security, window shades, smoke alarms, pipe freeze alarm, flood alarms, power strips, thermostats, appliances.)
• Toys and entertainment devices such as e-book readers, personalized radio, and connected physical toys.
• Home health and presence monitoring that connect patients to doctors and family members.
• Automobile location services, remote control access, and engine monitoring.

Arrayent is an interesting company, because it has correctly identified a gap in the massive consumer products market. According to the company, most consumer product companies "lack Internet-connect expertise." I agree with that assessment and think that Arrayent is positioning itself well to provide that expertise.

Given the potential of Internet of Things to revolutionize consumer products – because a great many more products will become Internet-connected in the coming years – we’re picking Arrayent as one to watch.

Discuss

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If any celebrity stalkers hiding out in The City That Never Sleeps feel like venturing out to the suburban mosh pit known as Long Island, you’ll be elated to know that Jersey Shore’s Jenni “J-Woww” Farley will be hosting a midday press conference at Westbury, NY hotspot Glo tomorrow afternoon. The homegrown guidette will be back on her old stomping ground to discuss security for a “homecoming celebration” she’ll be hosting on The Island this weekend, as well as to answer any questions fans may have about the Jersey Shore cast meet & greet that nearly caused a riot outside Newark’s 1501 Lounge last weekend.

Basically, the MTV reality hellraiser is holding a press conference to announce that she’s hired a bunch of bodyguards. Okay…couldn’t you have just told us that in a press release? Take note, Tila Tequila: This is famewhoring at its finest.

According to a press statement issued Tuesday: “MTV mega star J-Woww will be available for media commentary on Long Island reguarding [sic] security issues based on her last appearance which almost resulted in a riot. She will be talking about the over 200 security officers that will be working with the local police department to ensure eager fans safety at her upcoming homecoming celebration taking place this week on Long Island…Last week J-Woww, at a appearance in New Jersey, was flooded by over 5,000 people at a local nightclub causing police dressed in riot gear to take charge for the health, safety, and well being of fans….”

We can only hope that the men and women of the Armed Forces speed up the war on terror so they can get back to the things that really matter to Americans — like protecting heavily-tanned bimbos and their polyester accessories.

Ironically, Jenni’s press junket comes right on the heels of rumors claiming the reality star has been offered $200,000 to appear in a nude photo spread for Playboy Magazine. No word on whether or not she’s accepted the offer, but she better act fast — word is someone from the aspiring designer’s past is shopping around nude photos of her to various media outlets…..

The event goes down Wednesday, Jan. 27 at Glo nightclub; 37 Merrick Ave, Westbury, NY. Doors open at 2 PM.

Who’s going? Have we got any takers? Show yourselves!

Twitter just rolled out local trending topics for all users today, giving people a peek into the most buzzed-about issues in their local communities.

Spokesperson Jenna Sampson wrote:

“The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation, but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama’s election victory, versus those São Paulo, Brazil?”

The company offers about two dozen locations so far and says it will keep expanding regions over time. So how do these conversations differ so far?

Twitter should probably actually tweak its algorithms a bit since identical topics dominate the lists for multiple English-speaking cities. Perhaps they should adjust them to filter for keywords that active and unique to each city.

There are a few terms that are distinct for each city though. Washington D.C. seems to be talking more about athletics with hockey player Alexander Semin helping the Capitals reach victory over the Phoenix Coyotes. San Francisco is understandably fixated on the tablet while London is abuzz about actor Danny Dyer.

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Distimo, a company that sells tools for app store analytics, released today its December Report, a State of the Union of application development, with a number of interesting findings about who’s developing apps and what they’re selling them for.

Much of what Distimo focused on was the geography of application developers. They found some surprising numbers. A full 65% of application developers in the Android Market are in the United States. Distimo thinks the number might be explained by the fact that paid applications have been available longer in the US.

The rest of the world seems to be trying to make up for that, though. Distimo found that among the four major developer areas (the Euro Zone, Japan, UK and US), the United States had the second-cheapest average application price in the Android Market. Applications developed in the Euro Zone cost an average of $4.42, fifty percent more than the American average of $2.96.

When Distimo expanded its search to compare the price of applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia platforms in addition to Android, a huge spread emerged. BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones, the two platforms most commonly used in business settings, crushed all competitors with average application prices of $8.26 for BlackBerries and $6.99 for Windows Mobile (though Blackberry’s number might be explained by their requirement that all apps either cost at least $2.99 or are free, so all the $.99 applications don’t bring the average down like for other platforms).

iPhone, Android, and Nokia applications were close in price, and priced much lower, at $3.62, $3.27, and $3.47 respectively. Android may be headed on the upswing, though, if they can work out their issues with Google Checkout.

Who’s buying all those $7 apps for Windows Mobile? Mostly Americans. There are a total of 812 applications available for Windows Mobile (compared to more than 100,000 for iPhones), 639 of which are available in the US. The next most app-rich country, the United Kingdom, only has 264 applications available.

There’s also a list of the most-purchased applications on each platform, with a few notable trends: messaging is big everywhere, and so is Pandora Radio. Smartphone owners love their games, and judging by the number of times solitaire and Facebook appear on the top 10 lists, don’t work nearly as hard as they seem when they’re tapping on their phones.

Distimo’s monthly reports, which are frequently full of telling information about the app world, shows that there’s a global, growing market for smartphones and applications, and that people are paying good money for applications to use on their phones. For Distimo, which helps companies understand and take advantage of the mobile application ecosystem, that bodes pretty well.

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wow – Bank Failures Should Destroy CEOs, Buffett Tells Fox – By Jamie McGee – President Barack Obama’s proposal to regulate banks should include a requirement that chief executive officers and their spouses forfeit their assets when companies fail, billionaire Warren Buffett said on Fox Business Network.  “There ought to be a huge downside,” said Buffett … – hattip John Cervarich – Bloomberg

————

New Bank Rules Unlikely to Hurt Big Institutions – By STEVENSON JACOBS and DANIEL WAGNER AP – … Obama’s plan to limit banks’ size and risky trading has spooked investors, but analysts say it would have only marginal effect on institutions like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup — and would be hard to enforce. And it’s not clear the rules would reduce taxpayers’ risk of having to bail out another big bank. … – ABC News Money

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Alistair Darling warns Barack Obama over banking reforms – David Smith and Iain Dey – … Darling’s big worry is that Obama’s bombshell proposals, … will shatter the consensus within the G20 nations on banking reform.  “If everyone does their own thing it will achieve absolutely nothing. The banks are global — they are quite capable of organising themselves in such a way that if the regime is difficult in one country they will go to another one, and that doesn’t do anyone any good.” … – Times.co.uk

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Next Fed Chairman? The Case for Robert Shiller – Jacob Wolinsky – Seeking Alpha

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Paul Krugman for Fed Chair: “Crazy” – By James Kwak – Paul Krugman says that Simon’s idea that he should be chair of the Fed is “crazy.”  Krugman’s point is either that he wouldn’t be confirmed or that he wouldn’t be able to bring the Open Market Committee along. Maybe he’s right about the former; a Republican filibuster does seem reasonably likely. – The Baseline Scenario
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Bernanke: Flogging the Financial Firefighter – Wade Slome – … to his credit Obama realizes the instability of mass proportion that would occur if the reappointment of Bernanke were to come to fruition. If the head of the globe’s largest financial system is going to be kicked to the curb after saving our economy at the edge of an abyss, then heaven please help us. … – Investing Caffeine

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On Incident Patterns Of Fed MBS Purchases And OpEx Expirations – Submitted by Tyler Durden – … The implication is clear: provide liquidity around the time most needed to “sustain” the market each month. … – Zero Hedge

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Timothy Geithner warns of Ben Bernanke fallout – By MIKE ALLEN – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that the financial markets would view a Senate rejection of Ben Bernanke’s renomination as “very troubling” but said he’s sure the embattled Federal Reserve chairman will prevail. – both text and video – Politico

We’ve seen plenty of ways for board games to be revitalized with large touchscreens, but a new concept from the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University in Ontario puts the screens and interactivity onto the gaming pieces themselves. The idea would be to use slim, networked touchscreen hexagonal tiles with edge-to-edge OLED displays. The proximity of the tiles to one another, along with gestures performed with the tiles, provides the interactivity, and the occasional branching touchscreen menu selection keeps play humming. Unfortunately, that enabling tech isn’t all there yet (at least in university-affordable forms), but the video demo after the break is pretty convincing in its presentation of these ideas in a top-down-projection simulation. Certainly promising, but we’re sure not expecting to see this sort of gaming priced within reach of your average Sorry! board anytime soon.

Continue reading Hexagonal interactive OLED gaming tiles likely to cost a bundle, would sure spice up our Wednesday nights

Hexagonal interactive OLED gaming tiles likely to cost a bundle, would sure spice up our Wednesday nights originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a little price snippet on Apple’s e-book plans, care of an eleventh hour Wall Street Journal piece. According to the article, the gang in Cupertino is asking book publishers (HarperCollins was specifically cited) to set the price point for digital versions of hardcover bestsellers at either $12.99 or $14.00, “with fewer titles offered at $9.99.” The publisher apparently has the option to set its own price, but at any rate, Apple’s taking the usual 30% cut from each sale — a $14.99 novel would thus leave about $10.49 for the publisher. Nothing else to glean from this other than a rather strongly-phrased assertion that tomorrow’s tablet has a 10-inch touchscreen, but no indication on where that’s coming from. These prices would put Apple’s selection at a premium compared with Amazon and its Kindle store, but perhaps it’ll also be bypassing any rumored digital delay on new works — question is, if Apple really is entering the e-book business and bringing with it higher prices, will it let us import our digital books purchased from other stores? What say you, Mr. McGraw?

WSJ: Apple wants e-books to be $12.99 or $14.99 for hardcover best sellers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Other Great AndroidGuys Posts

• January 26, 2010 — Walmart to Offer Nexus One (11)
• January 26, 2010 — Expansys Offering Nexus One for Under a Dollar? (7)
• January 26, 2010 — Nexus One, Other Android Phones to T-Mobile UK? (5)
• January 25, 2010 — Conspiracy Theory: Is Apple Orchestrating a Media Attack on Google? (27)
• January 25, 2010 — What the #####! Nexus One Censoring Swear Words (11)