Author: Serkadis

Square Enix London Studios has revealed that the PlayStation 3 version of Just Cause 2 will ship with a built-in video capture feature that will allow players to record their craziest in-game clips and upload them directly

Filed under: Motorsports, Classics, Auctions

You might recognize this unique vehicle from when we spotted it at Cars and Coffee a few months back. It’s the Bonneville Boss transporter and Proud American land speed rocket car, and it’s undoubtedly the most unique vehicle up for sale at Barrett-Jackson this weekend. We don’t know what’s cooler – the one-off, 32 foot, 5-axle hauler or the death wish of a rocket that sits on top.

The transporter and rocket car were part of SPEED TV’s fantasy bidder contest, and even after trying to come up with a number, we had absolutely no idea what it would go for. We could see it easily getting into the six figure range, but as it turns out only a bid of $42,000 was needed to win, making the final price of the car $46,200. Follow the jump for a full description from Barrett-Jackson.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Barrett-Jackson 2010: Bonneville Boss Transporter and LSR Rocket Car

Barrett-Jackson 2010: Bonneville Boss Transporter and LSR Rocket Car originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your groggy mornings aren’t over yet. A few months ago we wrote about WakeMate, a Y Combinator-funded startup that makes a small gadget designed to help you sleep better. Last time we talked to them, the WakeMate team had a planned ship date of January 25. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Yesterday, the WakeMate team sent an Email to the thousands of customers who had pre-ordered the device (which included a $5 down payment) to inform them that they wouldn’t be getting their WakeMates on schedule.  Now the first batch of orders will ship “as early as next month”.  But when I asked if the WakeMate team had an idea when the majority of customers would be receiving their devices, they said they were reluctant to give an estimate since they want to avoid disappointing people again. In other words, it may be a while.

The WakeMate device, which costs $50, consists of a small wristband that you wear during the night. It tracks your movements throughout the night, which you can analyze from your computer, and can also work in tandem with your phone alarm to wake you up in the lightest phase of sleep (which is supposed to help eliminate grogginess). There are competitors in this space, like the Zeo Sleep Coach, but WakeMake is about $200 cheaper.

Dru Wynings has posted the Email in its entirety. The reason for the delay? WakeMate says it wanted to make more improvements:

We’ve experienced numerous breakthroughs over these short months. We’ve improved our hardware by leaps and bounds, making it sleeker, smarter and more efficient by taking advantage of the latest technological developments. We’ve also researched new and better algorithms to power our sleep analytics software which will further increase the accuracy and usefulness of your WakeMate. Unfortunately, these improvements have taken time. While this means we will not be shipping the first batch of WakeMates on the 25th as planned, when we do you’ll be getting a much better product!

WakeMate’s letter stirred up quite a bit of unrest among users who had preordered, in part because WakeMate offered access to premium analytics features as compensation for the delay. That would be all well and good, but users who ordered before now were not informed that they would have to pay for premium subscriptions to unlock the full potential of the device.

WakeMate says that the premium features referred to are actually in addition to the features they had previously announced, so customers aren’t dealing with a bait and switch. But in light of the confusion caused, today they’re sending users a follow up Email to announce that all pre-order customers will have access to all premium software features free of charge.

Here’s the second Email, which will be going out this afternoon, in its entirety:

Sorry guys!

In our our previous email we warned about a delay in shipping
WakeMates to our pre-order customers. To compensate customers for
the delay we proposed to give them some future premium features for
free. Unfortunately we weren’t clear enough about this, and some
customers thought it was an attempt to charge them more.

So let’s try this again:

1. The current delay is due entirely to changes in our hardware and
software, and manufacturing issues caused by the volume of orders
we’ve received; it is in no way related to the development of premium
features.

2. Regardless of future premium add-ons, customers who have pre-ordered
WakeMates will never have to pay to use online analytics, nor will
any customer receive an inferior product for not doing so. We
apologize for giving the impression that anyone might.

3. We hope we will be able to start shipping the first units next
month, but since we’re still learning the ropes of large-volume
manufacturing, we don’t want to make any promises we’re not sure
we can keep. We appreciate your patience and we’ll keep you updated.

4. To make up for the frustration and confusion, we’re going to
give all pre-order customers all future premium software features
free of charge.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to email
[email protected] directly.

Sincere apologies for the confusion,

The WakeMate Team

Delays are nothing new when it comes to startups that are building hardware. Fitbit, a startup that makes a exercise-tracking gadget, took a year to launch after its debut at TechCrunch50, and new customers still face lengthy waits to receive their devices.

Image by HilaryAQ.

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Consumer Guide named six General Motors its annual Best Buy and Recommended Award list. The list included the 2010 GMC Acadia and Yukon, which were awarded top honors as “Best Buys” in the midsize and large SUV class, and the 2010 Terrain and Sierra were named as “Recommended Buys” in the midsize SUV and large pick up class.

The 2010 Buick LaCrosse and Enclave were named a “Best Buy” and the “Recommended Award.”

“These awards are great recognition for the LaCrosse and Enclave,” said Brian Sweeney, general manager of Buick GMC. “Our goal with these vehicles has been to bring new buyers to Buick, and customers are getting that message, because the Enclave and new LaCrosse are selling quickly off dealer lots. This award is proof that our efforts are paying off. “Consumer Guide editors select these vehicles based on factors such as performance, reliability, handling and affordability, which are the same factors that our customers rate as key reasons they chose a GMC vehicle.”

– By: Kap Shah

By Nasseem Ackburally PORT-LOUIS, Jan 23 (IPS) She cannot swim, but Marie-Claite Hector is not afraid of the ocean. The 53-year-old pushes her small boat with all her strength towards the blue lagoon, starts the engine, and sets out to sea.

Fishing in Mauritius is a male pursuit, but Hector is one of eight women in the coastal village of Bambous Virieux who have been cage-fishing in the waters off southwestern coast of the island for years.

"It's almost 25 years since I started fishing. I learned how from my husband, François. I have since taught my sister-in-law and my two daughters how to earn a living from the sea," says Hector.

She goes out to sea to check on the family's traps: bamboo and wire cages beneath the surface, two metres long, and a metre high, into which fish swim and find themselves trapped. She began fishing out of necessity, to improve earnings for a family of six that included four girls.

"Life was difficult for the family with only one person earning. We had to feed and educate the girls and build a house. Money was very tight," the fisherwoman recalls.

Hector never wanted to work in a factory from dawn to dusk, like thousands of others who have joined the textile and manufacturing industries.

"In the 1980s, this new industry recruited every unemployed woman who wanted to work. Many of my friends went in, but not me because this is not for my cup of tea. I love the sea and my freedom. I finish early so I get plenty of time to do many other things for the family and the community," she said.

Concerns over aquaculture The livelihoods of artisanal fishers like Marie-Claite Hector of Bambous Virieux and Jacky Alexandre from Trou-aux-Biches are threatened by several factors. Particularly in the north of the island, increased tourism has upset the ecological balance; a new threat is posed by plans to set up extensive aquaculture operation just off the coast. Proponents say farming fish in cages in the island's lagoons will boost output and create jobs; fishing communities and environmentalists fear it will further compromise coastal ecosystems. Click to listen to an audio report.

Hector speaks knowledgably of catches and environmental degradation. Ten years ago, she observes, fish was abundant in the lagoon.

"Now, it has somewhat decreased because of industrial pollution. But we earn more money because the price of fresh fish has gone up by more than 100 percent."

Fresh fish used to sell for 50 or 60 rupees (about 2 U.S. dollars) a kilo and fishers needed to sell five kilos to make ends meet. Today a kilo of fresh fish can be sold to locals or tourists for 125-130 rupees a kilo.

Hector is proud of her work "because it brings me my daily food and I am not unemployed."

Floating cage offshore. Credit: Nasseem Ackburally/IPS

She is a rarity in more ways than one. Only about thirty of the island's 2,500 fishers are women. And amongst fisherwomen, her pride in her profession is also unusual.

In Trou-aux-Biches, on the northern coast of the island, the few fisherwomen who would speak to IPS did so on condition that their names be changed.

"It was very difficult for me to enter this profession that is dominated exclusively by men," Ginette* told IPS.

Many of the men in the village regard her as an intruder in the profession and make unpleasant remarks about her. Teaching women the tricks of the trade is out of the question.

But what is harder to face, Ginette says, are the mocking remarks of other women who mock them for doing "a man's job".

Hector's entry into the fishing profession was supported both by her husband and an NGO called Movement For Food Security that encourages women to join the fishing and agricultural trade.

Ginette shrugs. "We love the sea, that's why we didn't take work in a factory or one of the hotels around here."

She and her friend Alberta* have persevered and today they work together, placing about ten cages daily, returning to check them three days later.

On their own, they have overcome prejudice and any fear of the sea. Ginette relates how one day, she was heading back to land when she found herself in a fog she could not see more than two metres through.

"I kept calm, stopped the engine, and waited for it to go away. It was an hour or more before I could start my way again. I was very scared. Now, we have learned to better understand the sea and tame it," she said.

But Ginette and Alberta are worried by declining catches and would not encourage young women to follow in their footsteps. Sedimentation and algae blooms due to fertiliser washing into the ocean from inland plantations has been linked with dead or dying coral and reduced numbers of large fish.

As the textile and sugar cane industries wane, Mauritius has ambitiously expanded its tourism industry, creating new problems. Hotel waste water, careless anchoring of pleasure boats, and the activities of snorkelers and divers, combined with the removal of seagrass beds has harmed fish nurseries and further damaged the reefs where valuable fish live.

The most recent government initiative, the granting of licences for large-scale aquaculture just offshore alarms fishing communities and environmentalists alike, fearing it will do further harm to marine life.

But the country's principal fisheries officer, Daroomalingum Mauree, is quick to reassure. "Pollution is our concern as well. We’ll monitor the water and biological parameters around the cages from scratch to finish.

"There will never be any negative impact on the marine environment. Many people are against the project without really understanding the essence of it. We want fishers to manage one such floating cage."

Ginette is pessimistic. Gesturing to the sea beyond the Trou-aux-Biches Village Hotel, one of the many luxurious tourist resorts in found on the island, she says, "There is no future out there."

By Nasseem Ackburally PORT-LOUIS, Jan 23 (IPS) She cannot swim, but Marie-Claite Hector is not afraid of the ocean. The 53-year-old pushes her small boat with all her strength towards the blue lagoon, starts the engine, and sets out to sea.

Fishing in Mauritius is a male pursuit, but Hector is one of eight women in the coastal village of Bambous Virieux who have been cage-fishing in the waters off southwestern coast of the island for years.

"It's almost 25 years since I started fishing. I learned how from my husband, François. I have since taught my sister-in-law and my two daughters how to earn a living from the sea," says Hector.

She goes out to sea to check on the family's traps: bamboo and wire cages beneath the surface, two metres long, and a metre high, into which fish swim and find themselves trapped. She began fishing out of necessity, to improve earnings for a family of six that included four girls.

"Life was difficult for the family with only one person earning. We had to feed and educate the girls and build a house. Money was very tight," the fisherwoman recalls.

Hector never wanted to work in a factory from dawn to dusk, like thousands of others who have joined the textile and manufacturing industries.

"In the 1980s, this new industry recruited every unemployed woman who wanted to work. Many of my friends went in, but not me because this is not for my cup of tea. I love the sea and my freedom. I finish early so I get plenty of time to do many other things for the family and the community," she said.

Hector speaks knowledgably of catches and environmental degradation. Ten years ago, she observes, fish was abundant in the lagoon.

"Now, it has somewhat decreased because of industrial pollution. But we earn more money because the price of fresh fish has gone up by more than 100 percent."

Fresh fish used to sell for 50 or 60 rupees (about 2 U.S. dollars) a kilo and fishers needed to sell five kilos to make ends meet. Today a kilo of fresh fish can be sold to locals or tourists for 125-130 rupees a kilo.

Hector is proud of her work "because it brings me my daily food and I am not unemployed."

She is a rarity in more ways than one. Only about thirty of the island's 2,500 fishers are women. And amongst fisherwomen, her pride in her profession is also unusual.

In Trou-aux-Biches, on the northern coast of the island, the few fisherwomen who would speak to IPS did so on condition that their names be changed.

"It was very difficult for me to enter this profession that is dominated exclusively by men," Ginette* told IPS.

Many of the men in the village regard her as an intruder in the profession and make unpleasant remarks about her. Teaching women the tricks of the trade is out of the question.

But what is harder to face, Ginette says, are the mocking remarks of other women who mock them for doing "a man's job".

Hector's entry into the fishing profession was supported both by her husband and an NGO called Movement For Food Security that encourages women to join the fishing and agricultural trade.

Ginette shrugs. "We love the sea, that's why we didn't take work in a factory or one of the hotels around here."

She and her friend Alberta* have persevered and today they work together, placing about ten cages daily, returning to check them three days later.

On their own, they have overcome prejudice and any fear of the sea. Ginette relates how one day, she was heading back to land when she found herself in a fog she could not see more than two metres through.

"I kept calm, stopped the engine, and waited for it to go away. It was an hour or more before I could start my way again. I was very scared. Now, we have learned to better understand the sea and tame it," she said.

But Ginette and Alberta are worried by declining catches and would not encourage young women to follow in their footsteps. Sedimentation and algae blooms due to fertiliser washing into the ocean from inland plantations has been linked with dead or dying coral and reduced numbers of large fish.

As the textile and sugar cane industries wane, Mauritius has ambitiously expanded its tourism industry, creating new problems. Hotel waste water, careless anchoring of pleasure boats, and the activities of snorkelers and divers, combined with the removal of seagrass beds has harmed fish nurseries and further damaged the reefs where valuable fish live.

The most recent government initiative, the granting of licences for large-scale aquaculture just offshore alarms fishing communities and environmentalists alike, fearing it will do further harm to marine life.

But the country's principal fisheries officer, Daroomalingum Mauree, is quick to reassure. "Pollution is our concern as well. We’ll monitor the water and biological parameters around the cages from scratch to finish.

"There will never be any negative impact on the marine environment. Many people are against the project without really understanding the essence of it. We want fishers to manage one such floating cage."

Ginette is pessimistic. Gesturing to the sea beyond the Trou-aux-Biches Village Hotel, one of the many luxurious tourist resorts in found on the island, she says, "There is no future out there."

Article Tags: Cartoon, Headline Story, You could not make it up

THE United Nations climate science panel faces new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change minister, has suggested British and overseas floods — such as those in Bangladesh in 2007 — could be linked to global warming. Barack Obama, the US president, said last autumn: “More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent.”

Click source to read FULL report

Source: timesonline.co.uk

Read in full with comments »   

Here’s the latest action:

China fires back against Clinton — In response to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s call for China to investigate Google’s claims that human rights activist email accounts were hacked, the country’s Foreign Ministry posted a messaging saying the Obama administration was making “groundless charges.”

Dow Jones VentureSource shows uptick in venture investing – VentureSource found that after a crummy year for startups raising money, VC funding actually went up during the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. You can compare VentureSource’s data with the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

Astronaut tweets from space — Previous “tweets from space” have involved email messages sent by astronauts to people back on the ground who actually post the message on Twitter. In this case, astronaut T.J. Creamer posted the tweet himself, via the International Space Station’s LAN connection. His message: “Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station–the 1st live tweet from Space! More soon, send your ?s”

Google vs. Microsoft vs. Apple vs. Yahoo — To help understand how these four tech giants compete, The New York Times’ Nick Bilton created a chart showing the different markets where each company has a product. Among his conclusions: “Microsoft competes with everybody” and “Apple is the only one of the four that charges for online services.”

Science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin petitions against Google Books settlement – Le Guin (who is among my favorite living writers) previously resigned from the Authors Guild to protest the settlement. Now she has created a petition asking that the United States be exempted, and that petition has been signed by nearly 300 authors.

Digg to go real-time … eventually — Kevin Rose, founder of the popular news aggregator, has been talking about overhauling the site and making it more “real time” for almost a year. Now he’s telling the Telegraph that the redesign will go live in a few months, and it will be the biggest change in the site’s history.

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Maemo’s already pretty open as open platforms go, but what’s better than a single open platform on your open phone? Two open platforms, of course, creating a vortex of pure, unadulterated openness the likes of which the world has never seen. Hacking is par for the course with Nokia’s N900, so it comes as no surprise to see that a motivated individual has managed to get his unit set up in a trick dual-boot configuration with Maemo on internal storage and Android on a separate partition loaded from the microSD card. He says it’s “proof of concept” for the moment — but to steal his words, “its [sic] real and it could be spectacular.” We couldn’t agree more, and as much as Nokia loves its own code, we can’t help but think this precisely the sort of tinkering the N900 was made for. Check video of the magical boot after the break.

Continue reading Android dual-boot could make Nokia N900 jack of two trades

Android dual-boot could make Nokia N900 jack of two trades originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officials confirmed yesterday that the electrical fire that broke out above the Audi stand resulted in no injuries and no damages to any vehicles at the stand. The fire forced the evacuation of thousands of visitors to the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.

“There’s minor damage to the stand,” Audi spokesman Christian Bokich said. He said that all the vehicles at the stand were covered quickly when the fire broke out.

As of 3:15 p.m., the floor opened up to visitors.

Both the Audi e-tron concept and the 2011 A8 are in perfect condition.

2010 Detroit: 2011 Audi A8:

All Photos Copyright © 2009 Omar Rana – egmCarTech.

2010 Detroit: Audi e-tron 2-seater:

– By: Omar Rana

An appellate court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that a central Illinois school district can’t be held responsible for the behavior of a former teacher who was convicted of sexually abusing students.

On Friday, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld U.S. District Court Judge Michael McCuskey’s June ruling on Jon White’s case.

White pleaded guilty last year to sexually abusing eight girls at an Urbana elementary school and two at a school in Normal.

He is serving a 60-year prison sentence.

The appellate court said Normal-based Unit 5 school district could not be held liable for White’s behavior, including the injury of one of the students.

White was arrested in 2007. He taught at Colene Hoose Elementary School in Normal but was forced to resign in April 2005.

– Associated Press

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Gov. Pat Quinn joined with Rev. Jesse Jackson today as he continues to push back against opponent Dan Hynes’ campaign ad featuring decades-old footage of the late Mayor Harold Washington ripping Quinn.

The governor urged voters to reject “divisiveness” during an appearance at Operation PUSH with Jackson and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. It echoed remarks Quinn made Friday night, when he accused Hynes of trying to “sow the seeds of racial divide.”

More from John Byrne in Clout Street on chicagotribune.com.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Police are investigating a hit-and-run collision in Naperville that put a man in a hospital early this morning, authorities said.

A 21-year-old man was in a crosswalk just before 2 a.m. today at Chicago Avenue and Washington Street in downtown Naperville, police said.

A vehicle, believed to be a silver or dark-colored older model compact car, was traveling south on Washington when it struck the victim and left the scene, witnesses told police.

The man was taken to Edward Hospital. His injuries were not considered life-threatening, police said.

No one has been arrested in connection with the incident. If anyone has information about the collision, they are asked to call 630-420-6173.

– Serena Maria Daniels

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Traffic will be diverted away from Water Tower Place Sunday morning as a helicopter removes and then replaces a rooftop heating and cooling system, officials said.

Between about 7:30 a.m. and noon, streets surrounding the shopping center, including Chicago Avenue, Pearson Street, Chestnut Street and parts of Dewitt Place, will be closed to traffic, said Katie Lindsay, a marketing manager at Water Tower Place.

Chicago police will direct traffic and the city will post message boards on Lakeshore Drive alerting motorists of detours, said a dispatcher for the city’s 311 service.

The event was scheduled for the same time Saturday morning but the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the delay because of morning fog, Lindsay said.

– Serena Maria Daniels

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Have  you heard about the BlogEngage Weekly Word Challenge? If you haven’t yet, you should check it out. The idea is that everybody who joins the challenge writes a post every week with the voted word in the title. What is great about this weekly word challenge is that it forces you to be creative around a specific topic. It forces you to write. Besides this, it helps you receive extra links and extra traffic, and extra social activity too!

So I hear you thinking, what would be this weeks word(s)? You guessed it right, my favourite blogs

So, here it is, some of my favourite blogs:

Problogger.net

blogussion.com

freebloghelp.com

dailyblogtips.com

shirleyszone.com

source-blogger.com

theinfopreneur.net

famousbloggers.net

blogengage.com

themoneycult.com

This is just a small collection of blogs that I regularly read, and enjoy. I haven’t written any descriptions next to it, since I would like you to explore each one of them, and see the value they have, without me steering it in any particular direction. I suggest you no only visit and read these blogs, but also comment on them, and check back on your comments (or check follow up via email). Many of these bloggers don’t just write great blogs, they’re also great people, and can be become great friends to you too!

Cheers, and I hope to see alot of extra great blogs in the comments!

(Oh, and my appologies to all that I forgot to mention, I’ll probably update this list in the coming days )

Related posts:

1. We DoFollow! What does DoFollow mean? On most blogs, when someone comments…

Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple

New York Times columnist John Markoff recently interviewed Beat-era poet Gary Snyder, who usually writes about the American wilderness. Markoff found that the 79 year-old Snyder, who confesses to writing his poetry on “whatever was at hand,” is an avid and devoted Mac user.

According to Markoff, Snyder wasn’t aware of the upcoming announcement of an Apple book replacement, as he lives in the California back country and apparently doesn’t have the interruption of broadband noise to bother him. Snyder rarely uses a mobile phone and is quoted by Markoff as considering texting “abhorrent.” But he waxes poetic when he uses his Mac.

Snyder noted about his Mac, “I like the storage space it has,” he said, “and I like the ability to have back files accessible to me wherever I go.” Those weren’t the only words he had to say about the Mac. In a short, previously unpublished poem titled “Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh,” the “poet laureate of Deep Ecology” describes why he says that personal computers feel like sentient beings.

Fans of poetry and Macs can read the poem by visiting the title link in the previous paragraph. It’s crazy, daddy-o!

TUAWBeat poet digs Macs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve all seen it, that spiro-graphed, color-splotched invitation to Apple’s (AAPL) Jan. 27 event at the Yerba Buena Center. Weekend Update isn’t on the inside, but we hear rumors that Jobs will storm the stage dressed as Moses, carrying the new tablet, which will be made of stone, under his robes. Apparently, that’s where it’s been hiding all along. Either that, or Weekend Update is going a little nuts from “tablet fatigue.”

Before we got to rumors, plans and all important educated guesses, AllThingsD spent the week doing reporting about real companies with products you can actually buy.

Walt’s column wasn’t exactly its normal, gadgety self this week. Maybe he’s saving his strength. Instead of the newest thing that won’t be leaving your pocket, he covered a service that claims to help you remember everything. Evernote, with its adorable little elephant logo, aims to be a sort of digital filing cabinet in the cloud, allowing you to save information, images, notes and just about anything else that can be digitized. Walt had good things to say all around, even if the available apps didn’t give every device the same functionality. Weekend Update liked the auto text-recognition feature that makes pictures of text searchable. We’ll never carry a business card home again. Neither rain nor snow nor tablet rumors can keep Walt from his appointed rounds to the mailbox, and this week he grabbed a couple questions about e-readers, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer 8 and the right laptop for the young and litigious. He cleared up the myth that e-books can’t highlight text (even if they don’t do it in color yet), and then moved on to a question about what IE8 refers to as accelerators. Before tying up the mailbag strings for anther week, Walt also gave counsel to a future counselor. He recommended a moderately priced Windows 7 laptop or a Macbook for the incoming law student but added that checking with the school and current students for specific needs would be a good idea. Weekend Update thinks that last bit is extra good advice. Katie was busy this week testing out the latest bluetooth earpiece from Aliph’s Jawbone line. The Jawbone Icon is the first earpiece to run with a software package that allows the addition of apps just for the earpiece. Overall Katie thought the Icon represented a step forward for bluetooth earpieces but hopes for upgrades to the app suite will bring more robust features. Oh yeah, and she was glad that they finally got rid of those tricky hidden control buttons.

Peter gave us the continued saga of e-magazines and the world’s slowest moving electronic construction project. It looks like’s Time’s e-mag concepts won’t be part of Wednesday’s Apple event, even though there was much hullabaloo made over their Sports Illustrated concept. Condé Nast, on the other hand has declared it’s GQ mag-as-app tests a success. No word yet on who will be three-quarters naked on the first 10-inch screen edition. Completing the out-with-the-print, in-with-the-electronic trifecta was Peter’s post about The New York Times (NYT) paywall announcement. They claim they will erect a metered wall in 2011, which seems like an awfully long time in the shifting sands of the Web. Outside partners may be playing a factor, and some speculate that the 2011 date is just a declaration that they will be waiting-and-seeing. Peter doesn’t see what that would accomplish and cites some experts that assert that a year isn’t an unreasonable amount of time to build a complex paywall with necessary features.

Digital Daily was on the ball this week with John’s signature, hard-hitting hilarity. John’s early report proved correct when sources suggested that the EU’s approval of the pending Oracle (ORCL)-Sun (JAVA) acquisition was nigh. Not to leave the tablet news out in the cold, John asked some important questions about a future tablet’s data consumption habits and thinks it might end up in a class of its own. A big, beautiful screen means big, beautiful images and video, which mean gloriously huge file sizes. Hooray for wifi. To round out the week, John coverd a story about Google’s (GOOG) Larry and Sergey planning to sell about $5.5 billion in stock over five years. We’re not sure whether the proper term is “cashing out” or “cashing in,” but they are going to be doing a lot of one or the other. The move will remove them as a two-man majority voting block, but their remaining 47 percent will assure their velvety duet will still ring clearly at board meetings.

Boomtown led off with some viral video for the ages. Jimmy Fallon one-upped the “pants on the ground” video by performing the sarcastic ballad as Neil Young. We’re not sure the audience caught that it was Jimmy right way, partially because Young was making the TV rounds about that time and partially becuase Fallon does a decent Neal impression. Kara asked her readers to vote on what they expect the new tablet’s name will be, making the iPad her own prediction. Kara has an eerie way of getting this stuff right, so Weekend Update is gonna go ahead and get that tattoo this weekend. Kara finished us off with a quick post about her trip to Sundance and all the geektastic happenings there. Kara’s Winnebago, which we call “Operation Rolling Thunder” was crammed full of wife, kids, mom, dog, and maybe a few stowaway Bay Area indie filmmakers who tied themselves to the undercarriage. Read the post; there’s never a dull moment on a Swisher expedition.

AllTingsD is back on Monday with some great new stuff to fee that techie habit. And don’t forget to set your homepages here on Tuesday night (as if they weren’t already) to see live photos and blogging from Apple’s big unveiling. We’ll see you there, and will be sure to let you know if Jobs does in fact part the bay in his walk from Marin to San Francisco that morning.

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