Author: Serkadis

We saw a flurry of activity from PS3 exclusives this week. There were plenty of new assets from God of War III, DLC for Uncharted 2, and word on a Heavy Rain demo. Perhaps the biggest news

Other Great AndroidGuys Posts

• January 25, 2010 — HTC Supersonic in the Wild (3)
• January 26, 2010 — Walmart to Offer Nexus One (0)
• January 25, 2010 — Conspiracy Theory: Is Apple Orchestrating a Media Attack on Google? (19)
• January 18, 2010 — Sprint’s HTC ‘Supersonic’ to be WiMAX-Enabled Android (14)
• January 12, 2010 — Who to Ask for Support for Nexus One… (11)

Breathing new life into a tried and true recipe is a simple way of adding variety to your diet. Take deviled eggs, for example. They’ve been around as long as any of us can probably remember, although you don’t see them at parties as often as you once did. It’s not because deviled eggs aren’t good, it’s just that they’re not that exciting anymore. You might, however,  start seeing them served more often again if enough people see the recipe for Fat Guacamole Devils Tamara Baysinger entered in our Primal Blueprint Cookbook Challenge.

Her take on deviled eggs eliminates the mayonnaise and uses avocado instead. This loads the eggs with even more healthy fat and gives the filling a creamy, rich texture. A teaspoon or so of lime juice and hot sauce liven things up and just like that you’ve got a flavorful, interesting new take on a classic recipe.

While these deviled eggs aren’t quite bite-sized (they’re not called Fat Guacamole Devils for nothing) they’re definitely the type of finger food we love to snack on. We can imagine eating these eggs pretty much any time of day that hunger strikes. You can serve them as snack food at everything from dinner parties to Super Bowl parties. If you want to dress the little devils up for a party (or just add more flavor and fat) follow Tamara’s suggestion of garnishing the eggs with chopped olives or crumbled bacon. Other garnishes to consider are cilantro, a fresh herb that always goes well with avocado, and paprika, a spice typically used to top deviled eggs.

Fat Guacamole Devils

Ingredients:

• 2 hard boiled eggs
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce (or more to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

Peel and halve the eggs and spoon their yolks into a small bowl.

Mash the yolks with the avocado, hot sauce and lime juice; add salt and pepper to taste.

Refill egg white halves with yolk mixture, and enjoy!

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Related posts:

1. Fabulous Fish and Excellent Egg Recipes
2. Halibut, Snapper and Shrimp Ceviche
3. Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho with Hardboiled Eggs and Avocado

What do you mean, show more emotion?

We all know by now that HPis the largest PC seller out there. Good for HP. But when you’re shopping for your next system, it helps to know how Brand A compares to Brand X. Our friends at Laptop Magazine have done just that, and put together a series showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of this brand versus that brand. Best part: regular users—like you!—are invited to give your thoughts, which will be compiled into a sort of go-to glossary. Good idea.

Being a Laptop Magazine production, the first round of ratings cover netbooks and notebooks. Let’s quickly look at Toshiba to get an idea of what’s going on. Also, I’ve never owned a Toshiba, um, anything, so it’ll be helpful for me, too. Yay.

• Only one out of the 14 machines reviewed by Laptop, one received a 5-Star rating (the Mini NB205)

• 43 percent of Toshibas received a 4-Star rating; 21 percent received a 3.5-Star rating; 29 percent received a 3-Star rating

• Picking a needle out of a stack of needles, it looks like Toshibas excel when it comes to multimedia playback, what with dedicated buttons and whatnot

• On the bad side, Toshibas apparently have rubbish trackpads and mouse buttons

And so on. There’s several of these ratings already online, including Apple notebooks, so if you’re either looking to kill a few minutes, or, gasp, actually learn a thing or two before whipping out your credit card, well, there you go. I use a lot of commas, yes. It’s how I talk in real life, too.

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Filed under: Hacks, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends, iPhone

So, like me, you’ve been doing a lot of driving around with your iPhone lately, and you’ve come to the conclusion that just having it sit next to you on the seat isn’t the best way to do things. You need an in-car mounted dock, but you’re not ready to shell out a bunch of money for something with “premium” in the title. Solution? Follow these directions and make your own. For just a couple of bucks in materials, you can build what looks like a pretty worthwhile way to mount your iPhone in the car.

It’s basically a little PVC pipe with some foam to hold it in place on whatever extra ridges or slots you might have free in your dashboard, and some plastic coated wire at the top to hold your phone for you. Hey, you get what you pay for — it won’t pair with your iPhone, and any charging it provides will have to come from an external charging cable that you buy. But if you just want something to keep your iPhone handy and up off of the seat next to you — or out of the cupholder, I do that one a lot, too — this weekend project might just do the trick.

[via Lifehacker]

TUAWA DIY iPhone car mount for just $2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Infiniti’s North American division recently revealed details of its latest marketing campaign, which is designed to provide college basketball enthusiasts with a "360-degree look" at the inspired stories behind the run up to the 2010 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship. The carmaker signed agreements with ESPN, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the SEC (Southeastern Conference) and Big Ten Conferences.

"Infiniti is working with ESPN to bring the in… (read more)

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 replaced the existing alternative fuel tax deduction with a tax credit but it’s been quite some time since we’ve taken a look at this incentive. After the excitement of the “Cash for Clunkers” program, some people may have taken advantage of this incentive by putting a hybrid vehicle into service.

How the credit works: Taxpayers can claim the full tax credit until the manufacturer has sold over 60,000 eligible vehicles. Once it hits that figure, the tax credit is slowly phased out. For the current quarter, in which the 60,000th vehicle is sold, and the next quarter, taxpayers can claim the full tax credit. For the two subsequent quarters, taxpayers can claim 50% of the full tax credit. Then for two quarters they can claim 25% of the full tax credit. Then the tax credit expires.

Here’s how each of the manufacturers are doing:
– Chrysler – full tax credit available
– Ford – 25% credit until March 31st, 2010
– GM – full tax credit available
– Honda – tax credit expired December 2008
– Mazda – full tax credit available
– Mercedes – full tax credit available
– Nissan – full tax credit available
– Toyota – tax credit expired August 2007

For a full list of eligible hybrid vehicles and the tax credits for buying them, which is a function of the vehicle’s price, I recommend Fueleconomy.gov for specifics.

Jim writes about personal finance at Bargaineering.com.

Who has the time to read anymore? You do, if you make the time. It’s easier than you might think, with these tools and tips that find, recommend, and format good reading anywhere you want to dive into it.

Photo by Let Ideas Compete.

10. Make your reading bookmarks stand out

If read-later services aren’t your thing, your browser’s bookmark bar can be a convenient place to stash articles and posts you plan to getting around to. You can do what Lifehacker reader leftymcrighty does, though, for better placement: reduce your permanent bookmarks (email, search sites, banking, etc.) down to icons by removing the names, and let your other bookmarks, with titles, serve as a reading list. Simple, no software required, and bound to get you reading more, lest your bookmark bar clutter up too much.

9. Read while working out

If the cold weather or convenience put you on an exercise bike, elliptical, or other machine where you’ve got little to do but stare ahead, it’s not that hard to get more self-improvement done by reading at the same time. This Instructables post on a handlebar-mounted book holder shows that nearly any model can be fitted with a cheap, easy-to-affix book stand. (Original post)

8. Speed up your reading

You should savor clever fiction. Your average memo, however, can and should be hacked through at a faster pace. Speed reading guide Kris Madden explains in the video above how voicing out “A-E-I-O-U” or “one, two, three, four” as you read actually cancels out your subconscious tendency to read with your larynx, just below the audible level. This not only moves you quickly through the text, but provides a more visual, memorable read. There are plenty of apps on the web, too, that can help you speed through a particular text and learn to do it on any text: Spreeder, WordFlashReader, and ZAP Reader are just a few. (Original post)

7. Read Better on iPhones with Stanza

The Kindle’s great, we’re sure the Nook is a proper reader, and, sure, Sony’s device is good at what it does. But when it comes to beautiful presentation of digital reading on a small screen, Stanza’s got it all over those clients, at least on the iPhone or iPod touch. It has its own book store, offering copies of popular contemporary works, along with quite a few sources to grab free historical works, like Shakespeare’s complete works, Edgar Allan Poe, and whatever else you’re looking to get educated on. (Original post)

6. Find your next read

Not all of us have a local book shop staffed by the most knowledgeable and well-read workers on Earth. For recommendations on what you’d like, based on what you’ve just finished, we can turn to many spots on the net. What Should I Read Next? is a straight-up recommendation service, fed by the reading list you provide. WhichBook is a bit more subjective, asking you to move sliders to indicate how much of any element (monsters, dystopia, romance—oh my!) you want in your reading. For the social take on what your friends have read, are reading, and recommend, try BookArmy or the veritable GoodReads. (Original posts: What Should I Read Next?, WhichBook, BookArmy).

5. Convert any audio file to an audiobook

If you’ve got a spoken word MP3, or an audiobook you ripped yourself, you’d probably want your MP3 player to save your place as you make your way through the narrative. Starting with iTunes 8, it’s easy to convert files to audiobook format, complete with variable speed listening and place marking.

4. Find instructional and how-to PDFs

Some how-to projects and tasks only require a single web page of instructions. Other times, you’d really like a deeper read. Search PDF is a custom Google search that brings back only PDF files, opens them in Scribd’s no-software-required viewer, and hones the search in on tutorials, instructions, and manuals. For alternative PDF finders, there’s the ebook search at PDF Search Engine and simply using filetype:pdf in a Google search. (Original post)

3. Collect articles with Instapaper & Read It Later

Which mark-for-later, read-anytime app reigns supreme? Depends on how you like to use them. Read It Later tightly integrates with Firefox through its extension, which also hosts your want-to-read articles offline, but also offers bookmarklets for every browser, including the iPhone. Instapaper seems to have the more focused iPhone app, but offers the same multi-browser bookmarklets. Come to think of it, they’re both pretty great in their own way at making lengthy web reading accessible anywhere.

2. Get new books for old ones

Unless you only read leather-bound first editions, there are probably a few books laying around your shelves that could find a better life in a book swap. The internet abounds with places to do it: Zunafish, currently offline but offering $1-per-book trades, PaperBackSwap, and the free BookMooch are just a few. If getting a new book isn’t necessary, you could simply tag your book with a BookCrossing tag and watch it travel the world. (Original posts: Zunafish, PaperBackSwap, BookMooch, BookCrossing)

1. Make web text more eye-friendly

Instapaper and Read It Later, mentioned above, do a decent job of converting news articles and blog posts to a stripped-down, text-forward format. With customizable browser bookmarklets, though, you get your reading exactly how you want it. Readability is an early and popular entrant in the category, while Clippable and Readable App aim for even more minimalism and customization. If you’re an RSS fan, Readefine Desktop, an Adobe Air app and web project, can lay out your daily feed reading in newspaper-style columns with minimal interruption. (Original posts: Readability, Readability 2/Clippable, Readable App, Readefine)

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What web, computer, or other tools do you use to make time for reading, make reading easier, or just find new things to read? Tell us all about your own little library tweaks in the comments.

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Filed under: New York Auto Show, Convertible, Coupe, Performance, BMW

Well, you all knew it was coming, so Bimmer made it official: Yes, there is a 2011 BMW 335is, and it’ll make its formal debut at the New York Auto Show in late March. The 335is will be available in either coupe (base MSRP $50,525) or convertible (base MSRP $59,075 – ouch!) body styles.

Power is boosted to 320 horses and 332 lb-ft of torque (versus 300 hp/300 lb-ft in the regular 335i) for the reprogrammed N54 twin-turbo I-6, which also benefits from an upgraded cooling system and exhales via a sport exhaust for added audible snarl. BMW also says that the 335is torque number can be temporarily overboosted to 370 lb-ft under certain conditions. A six-speed manual is standard, with the seven-speed DCT available as the optional transmission.

Visually, the BMW 335is is distinguishable by its altered front fascia, which features larger intake openings, and an integrated rear diffuser. On top of that, the car is sprinkled with goodies from BMW’s M Sport catalog inside and out. If the standard 335i isn’t enough for you, and the M3 is too much (as if there is such a thing), perhaps the 335is is just the right fix for your performance jones. We’re looking forward to finding out ourselves once the car arrives in showrooms this spring.

Check out the high-res images of the car on-track at Estoril below, and follow the jump for video of it in action (plus BMW’s customarily lengthy press release).

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading Officially Official: 2011 BMW 335is [w/video]

Officially Official: 2011 BMW 335is [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Students protested teacher cuts in Maine Township High School District 207 on Friday.

They suggested ways to increase revenue, including dipping into the district’s $86 million reserve funds and attracting advertising money.

Dozens of students turned out on a day off Friday to fight for teachers slated to lose their jobs at a Park Ridge-based school district.

“It’s our education at stake,” said Anna Rangos, a junior at Maine South. “We’ve made very close connections with these teachers.”

Rangos and about 60 other students from three high schools protested outside Maine Township High School District 207 offices, holding handwritten signs with the names of each student’s favorite teacher.

“Save our teachers,” they shouted in unison.

Facing its worst financial challenge in 80 years, the district plans $15 million in cuts that could result in the layoffs of about 135 employees. The cuts include 75 full-time teachers.

The students came with suggestions to raise revenue and stop the cuts. These included dipping into the district’s estimated $86 million reserve funds, allowing a Nike swoosh to be painted on the school’s roof for advertising revenue and allowing local businesses to advertise on in-school televisions that usually play CNN.

“We want them to try anything to save these jobs,” said Maine South sophomore Patrick Wohl.

District spokesman Dave Beery said district leaders appreciate the students’ passion and willingness to offer solutions, but said the proposals fall short.

The reserve funds, which may look flush, are not, he said.

“Our five-year projections show that those reserves will be depleted to unacceptably low levels within two to four years,” he said.

As for advertising revenue, he said that the board recently changed its policy to allow more advertising on school grounds. But the additional money — the district plans to bring in about $2 million next year, partly from the ads — doesn’t come close to compensating for the expected $5 million in savings the teacher cuts will bring, he said.

Class size in the district is smaller than average, he said, and increases will be manageable. For example, the average social science class will go from 21.7 students to 24.3 next school year, he said.

The high school district has about 6,800 students in three schools — East, South and West.

The school board is expected to approve the plan or a similar one at its Feb. 1 meeting.

Parent Bogumil Bortnowski, whose son Michael is a sophomore at Maine West, said making the cuts during a difficult economic time is all wrong.

“Our economy won’t improve if we don’t take care of educating our kids,” he said. “It’s the wrong message.”

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced that it would introduce “torne” for PlayStation 3 (PS3) computer entertainment system, a set of digital terrestrial tuner and application in Blu-ray Disc (BD) for viewing and recording digital terrestrial broadcasting on the PS3 system. “torne” will become available in Japan in March, 2010, at a recommended retail price (RRP) of 9,980 yen (including tax). Users can enjoy watching digital terrestrial broadcasting and record them on the hard disk drive (HDD) of the PS3 system by simply connecting the digital terrestrial tuner to the PS3 system using the attached USB cable and installing the application from the BD.

This product is the Japanese version of the European PlayTV, but with enhanced functionality – of course, we will probably never see something like this in the USA.

UPDATE: Here is a great video of Torne I found:

To accommodate those users who wish to record TV programs in high-definition on PS3 and store many high quality entertainment content already available on PlayStation Store including games, anime, movies, TV dramas, music videos and many other various content and services, SCEJ will also introduce a “PlayStation 3 Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Recorder Pack,” that comprises the PS3 system with 250GB HDD, the largest HDD capacity of the existing model, and “torne.” The special bundle pack will become available in March, 2010, concurrently with the release of “torne,” and will be a limited offer at a RRP of 42,800 yen (including tax).

Features of “torne”:

Easy to use interface
Applying the expertise acquired from game development, “torne” offers user friendly interface, allowing users to swiftly and intuitively operate the application using DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller. Users will be able to search through the electronic TV program guides or play back recorded content comfortably as if they were playing games.

The colorfully designed 24 hour TV program guide can be zoomed in or out by pressing L1/R1 buttons, allowing users to easily find and select their favorite TV programs by a simple touch of a button.

Recording and playing back
TV program search function on “torne” application can sort the TV programs by genre or by keywords and will instantly list up the corresponding TV programs for users to simply select and record out of the list. Additionally, “torne” will automatically start recording pre-programmed content even when the PS3 system is in Stand-by mode or when users are playing games or using the application on the XMB (XrossMediaBar) such as the Blu-ray/DVD player. Users can also connect external HDD via USB cable to record TV programs directly on to the external storage instead of on the HDD of the PS3 system.

Additional useful features include quick playback and scene search for viewing recorded TV programs.

Connectivity with PSP
Seamless connectivity with PSP (PlayStation Portable) allows users to transfer recorded TV programs to its Memory Stick PRO Duo (Mark2)/Memory Stick Micro for high quality viewing on the go.

By using the Remote Play feature of the PS3 system, users at home can connect on to their PS3 system using their PSP and remotely access the application to view or record TV programs.

Various Online features
“torne” also offers online functionalities, such as the Internet browser which can be used simultaneously with the application, and unique “Toru-Miru feature” which can display the number of users who have pre-programmed the TV programs through “torne” as well as the user trend of which program is being most watched.

Here’s the latest from Venturebeat’s Entrepreneur Corner:

Ask the attorney: Should I be a C-Corp? (And other formation issues) – Deciding what sort of entity your start-up will be can be tricky – and that’s just the start of the legal mysteries. Where should you form your business? What issues do you face regarding previous employers? In the first of a two-part series, attorney Scott Walker looks at the hurdles entrepreneurs face when the decide to launch a business.

Why do entrepreneurs flock to loudmouths as mentors? – Granted there is a lack of mentors for budding start-up owners, but entrepreneur Will Herman wonders why people who are so meticulous about their businesses’ details tend to be much less so when it comes to who they take advice from.

China’s VC market may be hitting its stride – Despite a setback due to the recession, China is once again heating up as a possible investment target for U.S. VCs. Attorney Mark Williams, who has worked on numerous transactions in the area, looks at the hot sectors.

Why do VCs blog (and Tweet)? – For decades, VCs intentionally kept their methods secret – but in the past year there has been an explosion of investors giving a peak behind the curtain online. Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital Partners, looks at how many of today’s VCs are writing about their job – and what the appeal is to do so.

How to be a better negotiator – If you can’t negotiate, odds are your start-up isn’t going to last too long. Deepak Malhotra, associate professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, offers several tips to hone your skills.

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Motorola Inc. has filed a complaint against BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd. with the U.S. International Trade Commission, intensifying a nearly two-year legal dispute over patent infringement.

The Schaumburg-based company alleges that RIM is importing and selling products that infringe on five of Motorola’s patents for such technology as Wi-Fi access, user interface and power management.

Motorola is asking the commission to begin an inquiry into the matter and prohibit Canada-based RIM from importing and selling these goods.

“We believe that most or all of RIM’s current products infringe one or more of the five patents in the ITC complaint,” said Jonathan Meyer, Motorola’s senior vice president of intellectual property law.

Motorola and RIM sued each other for patent infringement in February 2008 after failing to reach a new agreement on cross-licensing technology.

That litigation is going through federal court in Dallas.

RIM declined to comment.

[email protected]

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store

Cogs is a brilliant game that’s had an award-winning run on the PC, and it’s due out on the iPhone any day now, say developers Lazy 8. If you like puzzle games, you’ll probably see in the trailer above why this one is so fascinating: it takes the old idea of slide puzzles (moving a grid of pieces around one by one) to form actual machines of all kinds, from pipes that blow up balloons to actual gears that run simple engines and even more complex mechanical designs. The core gameplay is simple – just move those pieces around by switching them — but you’re always building towards an overall picture that pays off with a nice mechanical reward.

Good stuff. The game is apparently up for approval right now and will be out very soon. There’s no word on price yet — the PC version of the game sells for about $10 as a digital download, but we’ve contacted Chillingo to see how much they’ll be charging on the iPhone. We’ll keep our eyes out for it and try to get you a hands-on review when it releases.

TUAWCogs for iPhone, a mechanical puzzle game originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Could IBM be prepping more of its own location-aware technology and devices? According to a recent patent filing, it looks like it. On Thursday, Big Blue filed for a patent for a “method and system for location-aware authorization.” The inventors appear to be IBM engineers based in Rome, Italy.

According to the filing, the technology would provide a method and technology to control access to a device based on the location of that device. IBM gave the example of a company that only wanted employees to use a particular device in the office or their home and believe that their technology would allow the employer to control where the particular device can be accessed.

Here’s an excerpt from the filing:

The invention provides a method and system for location-aware authorization such as for electronic devices (e.g., mobile electronic devices). One embodiment involves authorizing access to a standalone system such as a mobile device, by collecting user credentials on the device for authentication, obtaining location information (e.g., geographical position) for the device from a locating module such as a satellite navigation module attached to the device, accessing profile authorization information for authenticating the user based on the user credentials and device location information (localization), authorizing access to the device by the user if the profiled authorization settings match the credentials and the position of the device.

Talk about GPS-lockdown.  In an age of mobile workers and telecommuters, such a product might be more of a hindrance than a help for most organizations.  But I could see putting something like that on servers or machines with super-sensitive data that are not supposed to leave the premises.  The big question looms: what will Big Blue, which reported strong earnings for 2009 this past week, do with this technology?

Thanks for the tip Anand S.

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As companies mature from fledgling startups into small and medium-sized businesses, it becomes harder to capture and analyze ideas coming from within an organization. Email and spreadsheets are the usual tools used to deal with internal collaboration, but these modes have no way of bringing the best ideas to the top: many times they are lost in the shuffle. Spigit, creators of an enterprise collaboration platform, has come out with a new SaaS product, WE by Spigit, aimed at addressing the collaboration problems small businesses face.

Often times when an enterprise software company moves downstream, they simply strip down many core functions of their enterprise product in order to make it affordable for SMB’s. WE by Spigit has additional features in their enterprise model, such as prediction and idea trading markets, but the main functions at the heart of their service remain unchanged.

When a company purchases WE by Spigit, they are able to create an “innovation community” where their employees (up to 500), are able to contribute and collaborate on projects immediately. Spigit employs constantly evolving algorithms in their system, which, when added to a thumbs up/down feedback system, creates a reputation value for a user. These values are useful because administrators will see topics and ideas which have the highest reputation rise to the top. Each community is hosted on Spigit’s servers.

Another feature is the inclusion of incentives and rewards in order to increase contribution from the communities. Users gain both points and virtual currency for the parts they play in the community; which can then be redeemed for real goods. Spigit hopes that by providing rewards, users will collaborate more, and thus more ideas from within companies can come to fruition.

BrightIdea offers services which are similar to those of Spigit, but they, like most other collaboration platforms, cater to larger enterprises.

WE by Spigit is pay-as-you-go. The product starts at $500 per month for 50 users, and reaches $2500 a month for 500 users. Spigit received $10M in funding from Warburg Pincus in October of 2009, bringing their total funding amount to $14M since their launch in 2007. They have been cash-flow positive for the past 10 months.

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