Author: Serkadis

And now D-Link is in the home security business. The company, of whose router I bought several months ago and fight to use on a daily basis (seriously, the Internet just cuts out at times… what are you gonna do?), has just announced a series of home monitoring devices, including the Home Monitoring Starter Kit ($149). One device plugs into your router, and then you place a series of wireless motion sensors around the house in strategic areas (doors, windows, etc.). The sensors then send alert the device, which can then text message you, send you an e-mail, etc. something like, “Hey, the kids are home.”

Of course, all of the data is remotely accessible via a special Web site D-Link has set up at mydlink.com.

There’s also Home Energy Monitoring Starter Kit ($99). Once all set up, you can remotely control the various devices in your home. Left the TV on? The PC? You get the idea.

I save he best for last. There’s the 3G Door Phone ($199). It’s a doorbell, right, but inside is a built-in 0.1 megapixel camera that can send photos and video to your 3G cellphone. This is helpful if you, say, are a very rich man in the year 1212 and are afraid that the serfs will revolt. But until I see otherwise, this is clearly the best thing I’ve heard/read/ about it at this year’s CES if only because it’s 100 percent. Who the heck needs a doorbell spy? How bad is your neighborhood?

All three of these guys will be available in the second quarter of this year.

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Just like clockwork more companies are announcing its plans for a 3D TV stations. ESPN’s plans were just announced and now we hear that Discovery, IMAX, and Sony have form a joint venture to develop a 3D station.

Discovery will launch the station sometime in 2011 under its name and will be a sort of showcase for 3D. It will likely be a lot like what Discovery HD Theater was to high definition a few years back. While ESPN 3D will only be up during live events, this station will be running 24/7. Now all we need is more affordable 3D HDTVs. Hopefully some will be announced at CES this week.

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Gartner has acquired the Burton Group for $56 million.

The purchase is another example of how the analyst community is becoming increasingly homogeneous, dominated by a handful of firms such as Forrester and IDC. And it points to a growing debate about the value that companies can receive from analyst firms when there is little diversification in the market.

But it also points to the importance of independent firms and individuals that engaging in dialogue through blogs and other mediums.

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The Burton Group is based out of Midvale, Utah. Its speciality lies in providing in-depth advice to front-line IT professionals. The firm has 41 research analysts and 40 sales and client service associates, and self-projected 2009 revenue of $30 million.

This is Gartner’s second acquisition in the past few months. Gartner purchased AMR Research late last year.

The Future: A Hybrid Model

Analyst firms do not have the sway in the market that they once did. Bloggers are often considered analysts as they often specialize in particular fields, providing in-depth analysis for particular markets.

This is not to take anything away from the individual analysts who populate Gartner, Forrester and other groups. We depend on many of them for the insight they give on topics ranging from APIs to web-oriented architecture.

But the future of the analyst community looks more like a hybrid animal – a cross between a traditional analyst firm and an online community.

RedMonk and the Altimeter Group represent this new hybrid. Both are small, independent firms.

RedMonk, for instance, provides in-depth research into markets but they also invest heavily in their blogs, podcasts and other outlets such as the real-time, microblogging world.

The Altimeter Group also invests heavily in its community. Technobabble 2.0 recently took a look at a survey done by Jeremiah Owyang to determine the influence of his blog on the overall market. Owyang is a partner with Altimeter.

Technobabble’s Jonny Bentwood made this conclusion:

“The fact that there is any link between the blog and procurement is a massive validation point. Obviously we are taking people’s words for this and it would be excellent to have credible evidence to back this up, but this in itself is a huge factoid.”

SageCircle is a third-party service that provides clients with analysis of analyst firms. SageCircle concludes that the Gartner acquisition does provide a silver lining for independent firms:

“The implication for the analyst ecosystem is “not good.” Anytime a well-regarded mid-sized advisory firm is swallowed up by another firm it eliminates a valued second voice and opinion about the vendors and markets it covers, and decreases clients’ purchasing and negotiating options. However, for competitors like Ovum this does provide a great opportunity to establish themselves as the second – if not the first – source of advice and opinions to IT managers and other technology buyers not comfortable with having only a single source for this type of service.”

Discuss

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Fitting, no? Dell (briefly) launched its Inspiron Mini 10 at a press event last year at CES, and this year’s show is ushering in the next major iteration. ‘Course, it’s not like we didn’t know it was on the way, but if it’s details you crave, you’ll leave this post duly satisfied. Starting today, the revised Inspiron Mini 10 is up for order at Dell’s US website, and the options list is fairly impressive (particularly for a netbook). The device sports a 92 percent full-size keyboard, the same “hinge-forward” design seen on the company’s ultrathin Adamo and a bevy of extras including a 9.5 hour battery, Broadcom’s Crystal HD media accelerator, built-in GPS and an integrated HDTV receiver. There’s also a good chance a version will be made available with a Mobile DTV tuner within, though that’s just speculation based on the fact that this machine is currently being used in a trial program in the nation’s capital. Hit the source link to start customizing your own — the base price is pegged at just $299.

Dell’s Atom N450-based Inspiron Mini 10 now up for order, starts at $299 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know, you’re so surprised. Google’s finally confirmed the Nexus One. We’ve naturally heard all about the phone already from dubious sources, and even reviewed the purported device, but now that they’ve got one in hand up on a stage, we suppose we’ll have to set aside all of our doubts. So, the nitty gritty: 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, compass, GPS, accelerometer, light and proximity sensor, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a multicolored LED under the trackball. There are also two mics onboard, one on the bottom and one on the back, for the purpose of noise cancellation à la Motorola’s CrystalTalk, and the phone is naturally running the brand new Android 2.1. The phone is actually HTC branded, unlike the pre-release versions we’ve seen, and can be custom engraved with two lines of text at the time of order, for that extra personal touch (there’s a picture of the phone’s back after the break). The phone is available today off contract with a T-Mobile compatible radio for $529 unlocked, shipping to the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong, or with a two year T-Mobile US contract for $179 (both with free overnight shipping in the US). Most surprisingly, the phone is also headed to Verizon this Spring, and Vodafone will score the device eventually as well.

Update: Tony couldn’t resist, and he managed to capture each step of the checkout process while ordering an unlocked Nexus One today. Hit up the gallery below if you’re into that whole “living vicariously” thing. Thanks, Tony!

Continue reading Google’s Nexus One is official

Google’s Nexus One is official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Cool tools

I’m not a keyboard-only guy; I know when a mouse makes more sense. That being said, if I can do it from my keyboard, I do. So, as a followup to my post on the handy BetterTouchTool, I’d like to point out another free utility, KeyRemap4MacBook. It’s an awkward moniker, and it’s not pretty, either, but it’s stable, works with any Mac (not just MacBooks, as the name would indicate) and offers drool-worthy functionality.

So, what does it do? Out of the box, it offers you dozens and dozens of options for remapping keys and key combinations to potentially more useful actions. Turn your space bar into a shift key when it’s pressed in combination with another letter. Turn your trackball into the world’s biggest Mighty Mouse scroll ball when you’re holding control and command.

My favorite right now is remapping control-i,j,k and l to arrow keys, meaning I no longer have to move my right hand for basic cursor functions when Emacs mode isn’t supported or applicable. I’ve also got the right option key on my aluminum Apple keyboard set up to turn my arrow keys into page up, page down, home and end when used in combination. In short, the usability of my keyboard has skyrocketed. I shudder to think what will happen the next time I jump on someone else’s computer and my muscle memory has to re-adjust.

KeyRemap4MacBook can be used to improve accessibility, or to offer familiar shortcuts to switchers. You can even have it remap keys only in certain applications, meaning I can have Command-R remap to Control-R in VMWare or Fusion … that will save me a lot of fumbles when testing multiple browsers! There’s also the capability to add your own mappings, with sample definitions included. It’s not exactly a breeze to customize, but it could be worse. I recall it being much more difficult to pull off this kind of extensive remapping in the past, even with tools like ControllerMate in the game.

KeyRemap4MacBook is free, and you can grab a copy at the pqrs.org website. There’s even source code available, if you’re savvy with C++ and wondering how it works. There’s a fully-functional uninstall feature in the preference panel, so you can try it worry-free!

TUAWKeyRemap4MacBook: the utility keyboard lovers have dreamed of originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A changing of the guard at mobile browsing powerhouse Opera Software—as co-founder and CEO Jon von Tetzchner is stepping down—with long-time vet Lars Boilesen taking his place. Von Tetzchner ran Opera for 15 years; he’ll stay on full-time in a “strategic” capacity, though no word on his official title.

Boilesen (pictured) had been serving as Opera’s chief commercial officer since January 2009; he joined the company in 2000 and spent five years as EVP of sales, before leaving to head up Alcatel-Lucent as CEO of the Nordics and Baltics.

Both Boilesen and von Tetzchner were instrumental in helping Opera grow into a multi-platform (with an emphasis on mobile) browser software provider, as opposed to just a bit player in the desktop browser market. And though the company maintains that the change in leadership won’t derail the execution of its current strategy, Boilesen is taking the reins in the midst of a mobile browsing boom that Opera is primed to capitalize on.

The company has been giving both Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) serious competition in the fight for mobile browser supremacy: AT&T picked Opera as its preferred mobile browser for a “refreshed” experience on its feature phones late last year, and last May, Opera edged out Safari as the most-used mobile browser in the world. Release.

Related

• Opera, Motricity Help To Roll Out AT&T’s New Mobile Web Experience
• Opera’s Mobile Browser Takes Slim Lead Over iPhone’s Safari

Just when Iceland was about to take responsibility for foreign debts related to the collapse of its Icesave bank, the president vetoed repayment.

Fitch Ratings immediately downgraded Iceland’s long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer default ratings by one notch to BB+ and BBB+.

This comes only two weeks after Fitch said things were looking up in Iceland.

WSJ: Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson on Tuesday cited massive public opposition in his decision to reject the bill. The presidential veto is only the second to happen since Iceland gained its independence from Denmark in 1944. Iceland’s parliament in December voted 33-30 to approve the payback.

“Today’s decision by Iceland’s president to refer the Icesave agreement to a referendum creates a renewed wave of domestic political, economic and financial uncertainty,” said Paul Rawkins, senior director of Fitch’s sovereigns team in London. “It also represents a significant setback to Iceland’s efforts to restore normal financial relations with the rest of the world.”

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Our Tricia Duryee is grabbing live Q&A’s and tweeting from the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Nexus One press event … so in the meantime, here’s a rundown of the confirmed details (as opposed to the bits and pieces of rumors that had trickled out in the days before).

—Hardware by HTC
—Purchase the phone unlocked through Google’s new “web store” and plug it with any GSM-supporting SIM card for whichever carrier your heart desires
—11.5mm thin; weighs 130 grams; 5 megapixel video and still photo camera
—Android 2.1 lets you use multiple Gmail accounts, aggregate multiple phone books, and even use a voice-enabled keyboard for everything from texts, to IMs, to Facebook updates
—Voice-powered actions, too (meaning you can “tell your phone” who to call, where to map, or what keywords to search for)
—Get it with a two-year contract from T-Mobile first—with the option for Verizon and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) coming later this year.
—Available in the U.S., the U.K., Singapore and Hong Kong initially Release.

LAKEWOOD – Eleven grants totaling $500,000 have been awarded through the state Department of Agriculture’s Advancing Colorado’s Renewable Energy program, including $75,000 to assist in the implementation of a waste-to-energy plant in LaSalle and $50 …

People’s Revolution founder, fashion marketing maven, and PR spitfire Kelly Cutrone has landed a chance to chew out spoiled socialites and aspiring designers on her own reality soap. Kell on Earth will debut next month on Bravo, The New York Daily News’ Gatecrasher Column reported on Tuesday. The show will reportedly give viewers a look at Kelly’s life as single mom.

The former Hills pundit has appeared on the last two seasons of MTV’s The City.

With just you and your buddy taking on an army much larger than two, there’s gonna be a lot of working together if you have plans on getting far. Army of Two has always been about the

The release of a memoir from South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford has been pushed up to next month, Ballantine Books said Tuesday.

The 240-page Staying True — Sanford’s story of surviving her estranged husband’s infidelity –goes on sale Feb. 5 after originally being tapped for publication in May. In June, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted to a yearlong extramarital affair after returning from a secret trip to Argentina to visit his lover. He told staffers he was hiking the Appalachian Trial.

Jenny’s tell-all will “recall her shock and anguish upon discovering that her husband was having an affair with a woman in Argentina, and the further pain when she learned — just a day ahead of most Americans — that he had not ended the affair when she believed he had,” according to promotional material from the book’s publishers. “She reveals the source of her determination to be honest and forthright instead of the victim in the tabloid passion play that gripped the nation in June 2009.”

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Dodge

This is a depressing way to start the new year. According to a “source close to the project” speaking with Automobile, plans to produce the Devon GTX have been cancelled due to the Dodge Viper discontinuation.

As a refresher, the 650-hp, Viper-based coupe was unveiled last year in Pebble Beach and was due to go into limited production this year in Southern California. We even had the chance to go for a spin the GTX late last year after one of the prototypes set a lap record at Laguna Seca. Devon hoped to thrust America back on the main supercar stage with the bespoke coupe, but without a source for the chassis and 8.4-liter engine, those plans have apparently been dashed. We’re hoping to get more details directly from Devon, so stay tuned for an update.

UPDATE: We’ve just heard back from company founder, Scott Devon, and the rumors are unfortunately true – the Devon GTX is dead. However, Devon Motorworks will live on, focusing instead on apparel and an upcoming motorcycle project. So what will happen to the one-time Laguna Seca lap-record-holding Devon GTX? One of the two prototypes will be put on display at the company’s flagship store opening in Beverly Hills this April. The other might see track duty in the hands of development driver Justin Bell. Here’s the official response from Devon:

The Viper platform being discontinued and the inability to amortize tooling costs are the key reasons. But we have two beautiful prototypes and might still race the Laguna Seca car with Justin Bell in GT2. However, our Devon brand plans have expanded to include jeans, leather jackets, watches, scents, and eyewear. Our Beverly Hills flagship store will open this April. We also have a line of motorcycles being made by legendary builder Shinya Kimura. And the black and chrome GTX will be in the store as a display piece of automotive art. I wish we could have gone into production but have no regrets and feel we achieved a significant contribution in auto design along with the Laguna Seca record.

[Source: Automobile]

Rumormill: Devon GTX shelved due to Dodge Viper’s demise *UPDATE originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wade Roush wrote:

NoblePeak Vision of Wakefield, MA, has collected $2 million out of an intended $6.8 million round of equity funding, according to a December 30 regulatory filing. Founded in 2002 by Bell Labs veterans and formerly known as Noble Device Technologies, the company makes shortwave infrared imaging sensors used in night-vision security cameras for surveillance at airports, seaports, border zones, and other settings.

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Uma nova versão do WordPress está disponível corrigindo alguns erros de menor significância como o agendamento de posts e pingbacks que falhava em alguns servidores devido a incompatibilidades.

O WordPress 2.9.1 pode ser actualizado automaticamente através do painel de controlo em Tools > Upgrade.

Pode ver aqui o anúncio oficial do lançamento desta versão do blogging system.

WebTuga – WordPress 2.9.1

Remember back when all your friends were buying apartment or houses and kidding themselves that it was an “investment?”

During the boom, it wasn’t infrequent for people to buy places smaller than the apartment they had been renting. Worse, they often wound up paying more in mortgage payments than they had in rent. Why pay more for less? The answer always was something about how owning your a place of your own was an “investment.”

Well, for many Americans it turned out to be a pretty damned lousy investment. Now Karen Pence, who runs the household and real estate finance research group, has been explaining to the meeting of the American Economic Association that this wasn’t just a fluke of the housing boom and bust. Buying a home is usually a lousy investment.

Here are her five reasons:

1. It is an indivisible asset. If you own stocks and bonds and suddenly need a little cash, you can sell some of your stocks or bonds but not all. With a home, on the other hand, “you can’t just slice off your bathroom and sell it on the market.”

2. It is undiversified. You can buy stocks or bonds in industries or countries all over the world. A home is a bet on one single neighborhood.

3. Transaction costs are very high when you buy or sell a home because of real estate agent fees, mortgage fees and moving costs.

4. It is asymmetrically liquid, meaning it’s easy to get money out when home prices are going up. (You just take out a bigger mortgage.) But it’s hard to take money out when prices are going down because refinancing becomes more difficult. Put another way, the leverage that you have in your house with a large mortgage means your investment does well in good times but could be lousy in bad times.

5. It is highly correlated to the job market, meaning that home prices in a neighborhood tend to rise when the job market is improving in the area and fall when the job market is worsening. This means that your main financial asset provides the smallest cushion to you when you might need it most.

That doesn’t mean you should never buy. Under the right circumstances, buying a home can make perfect sense. But don’t count on it as an “investment,” especially if you might need to access the money you locked up in the house at any particular point in time. On the short term, that money might not be readily available when you need it. And in the long term, for instance upon retirement, you might also find a bear market for homes.

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See Also:

• Why Pending Home Sales Are A Bigger Disaster Than You Realize
• Home Sweet Rental: The American Dream Is A Bunch Of Baloney
• At Least 8 Government Programs Are Distorting Home Prices