In my humble opinion, conventional wisdom should dictate that any netbook that’s still sporting a 1024×600 resolution should be overlooked immediately. We make an exception today for Acer’s 10.1-inch 532h, which features Intel’s upcoming N450 “Pine Trail” chipset sporting a 1.66GHz Atom CPU (see previous info here).
The main draw of the Pine Trail platform, you’ll recall, is a move from a three-chip architecture to a two-chip architecture. The graphics and memory controller move in with the CPU while the I/O makes up the other chip. The end result is more efficiency, better battery life, and cooler running temperatures.
After all that, though, we’re still dealing with a small-resolution screen here. Other specs include 1GB of RAM, 160GB or 250GB hard drive configurations and, presumably, some flavor of Windows 7. None of this stuff is officially confirmed yet but I’d be willing to be it’ll be outed at CES next week. Pricing would probably fall somewhere in the $299 to $349 range, I’d guess.
Forget the iSlate, an unconfirmed rumor suggests that HTC may have multiple models of a new touchscreen tablet, a device that the Taiwanese handset manufacturer has been secretly working on for the last 18 months, ready for debut. One model of the rumored tablet will feature a Qualcomm processor (Snapdragon?), a touchscreen display (multi-touch?), new software from Adobe (Flash?) and will run Android. The tablet will reportedly be shown to a select group of HTC customers at a private showing next week during CES. HTC has been working closely with Google in the development of the tablet and is expected to roll out a second model of the touchscreen tablet with Google’s Chrome OS. Slap some wireless 3G connectivity onto these slates and HTC may win the prize as the manufacturer with the hottest portfolio in 2010.
Panettone is a traditional Italian sweet bread that is served during Christmas and New Year. It’s a fluffy sweet bread studded with candied fruit. And it makes for fabulous bread pudding and French toast this time of year.
My local Trader Joe’s sold out of the boxes of cylindrical panettone a couple of weeks ago. If you don’t already have one, fear not — Trader Joe’s also has loaves of panettone bread that look like raisin bread, sliced like regular sandwich bread. You can use this instead for either recipe. In fact, I prefer using the presliced panettone bread for French toast because it’s a bit firmer and easier to work. It won’t break apart as easily as traditional panettone when it gets wet.
I decided to up the holiday flavors in the bread pudding by using eggnog. Because both the panettone and eggnog are sweet, I opted not to add any other sugar in the bread pudding. But if your tooth is sweeter than mine, you could add a little sugar into the custard mixture.
And with these recipes, we officially close out 2009. Happy New year!
1. Cut panettone into 1-inch cubes. You should end up with about 12 cups of bread. 2. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add in eggnog and vanilla and blend well. Toss in bread cubes until all pieces are coated. 3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Let the bread pudding mixture sit to soak in liquids further. 4. Lightly grease 12 ramekins, a muffin tin, or a 9×13″ baking dish. Pour in bread pudding mixture. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the outer pan, being careful not to get water into the bread pudding. This is a water bath and will ensure that the bread pudding cooks evenly without drying out. 5. Bake for 25-30 minutes if making individual pieces, or 50-60 minutes if using a large pan. Cook until bread pudding puffs and top is lightly browned. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top, if desired. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Serves 12 Panettone French Toast Recipe
6 slices panettone bread 3 eggs 3/4 cup milk 1/2 tsp vanilla Pinch of salt Mascarpone cheese for topping (optional)
1. In a shallow bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, agave, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. 2.
In a cast-iron skillet or other non-stick skillet, heat a tsp or two of
oil over medium-high heat. Add an optional tab of butter for extra
flavor. Soak bread into the egg mixture, letting the bread soak in the liquid on each side. Place soakded break in the skillet. Add another piece or more if there’s
room. 3. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side until golden. For a traditional Italian flavor, serve topped with mascarpone cheese. Or serve with maple syrup, whipped cream, or fresh berries.
Words by: Jason Hortillas (Music Contributor), Paul Castillo (Editor), Gerald Flores (Contributor)
(Click on image for full review)
Jason Hortillas (Music Contributor)
Best Music of 2009 Pick: Maxwell ” BLACKsummers’night”
You can blame Maxwell as the catalyst of what music writers coined as Neo Soul in the late nineties. As this genre title faded, Maxwell remains standing. It seems he’s always popping in and out of obscurity just to bless us with another album. The first of his 3 part series of albums after his long absence, “BLACKsummers’night” (caps on the present installment) continued like he never left.
There are no complicated upgrades in his sound. There are no guest rappers, nor duets with any notable ingenues of song. The album speaks of love as obviously most do, some with more explicit detail. In other words, if you were searching for his signature baby making music, you won’t be disappointed. Recently the lead single “Pretty Wings” was nominated for a Grammy which gives all song writers hope that the voting committee actually honors artists for impeccable songwriting.
2010 Music Pick: Sade “Solider Of Love”
There’s a long list of music dropping in 2010, but the long awaited return of Sade dilutes the hype of anyone other release in the new year. The R&B vocals and “quiet storm” Jazz sound have never waned even after a decade since the band’s last studio album “Lover’s Rock.”
A few weeks ago a leak of the single, “Soldier Of Love” resulted in heavy internet buzz , proving that the British native’s fan base remains resilient. The lead single sounds like an updated version of their proven formula, adding to the curiosity of what the have in store for this album. The album, “Soldier Of Love” is set to be released on February 8th on Epic Records. I’ll be there with the rest of the fanboys in line for my copy.
Gerald Flores (Contributor)
2009 was a bittersweet year for music.
Bitter because of all of the great talent that was lost. 09 saw the passing of electric guitar innovator Les Paul, DJ AM and most notably, the death of the incomparable Michael Jackson. Not to say that everyone else who died this year wasn’t significant, but losing MJ was like losing the musical ambassador to the world; a loss that everyone around the globe mourned. A loss which motivated millions to dust off their copies of Thriller, doing level best to keep the King’s memory alive through his iconic music.
09 was also sweet because of the breakout musical acts that had masterstrokes this year. One of my favorite new R&B artists this year that you may haven’t heard of yet is Mayer Hawthorne. His album, A Strange Arrangement, is a varied mix that has inklings of Smokey Robinson and Eddie Kendricks Motown inspiration. If you’re a fan of classic soul and smooth R&B, I highly suggest you download Hawthorne’s debut album or check out his video for Green Eyed Love. Chester French is an under-the-radar breakout act this year whose music sounds like a clash between Outkast and The Beatles. If you haven’t already, definitely get your hands on their debut album Love the Future, which released in April. A new artist that you probably have heard of already, that carved out her own niche in the music industry this year, is Lady Gaga. Whether she’s dancing half naked on stage or just sitting behind a piano, Gaga definitely gave some of the best performances of the year. Gaga’s re-packaged first album, The Fame Monster, earned her five Graammy nods and solidified her as a bona fide artist, definitely someone to watch in 2010.
Paul Castillo (Editor)
2009 was another great year for music. Many artists let their creativity and pure genius shine through (Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – It’s Blitz), others decided to speak their mind for a cause (Thom Yorke crashing the UN climate talks), and others just decided to spaz out for no particular reason (Kanye West during the MTV awards). In between Jay-Z declaring auto-tune was dead, Lady Gaga’s gender ambiguity saga, and the emergence of the indie music scene into mainstream culture, there were moments of sadness and reflection. The abrupt and sudden death of the Michael Jackson, The King of Pop and one of the greatest performers in the history of entertainment, is easily the most poignant and memorable moment of the year in music. 2010 will surely bring us more memorable moments, highs and lows, fascinating talking points, and plenty of new music to keep us nodding our heads and stomping our feet. As far as new material goes, keep an eye out for the highly anticipated releases from Vampire Weekend, Dr. Dre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Strokes, and Big Boi to keep you busy through out the year.
To bid farewell to 09, I have compiled quick recap of my favorite albums of the year. The list consists of my top 10 plus 5 other albums that I had on heavy rotation. As always, comments and opinions are welcome…
1. Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – It’s Blitz
2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
3. Mos Def – The Ecstatic
4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus
5. Madlib – Beat Konducta Vol. 5 – 6
6. Raekwon – Only Built for Cuban Linx, Pt. 2
7. Bear in Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth
8. Japandroids – Post-Nothing
9. DOOM – Born Like This
10. John Mayer – Battle Studies
The great controversy of 2008 was the lack of hardware graphics drivers on HTC’s latest devices. At the end of 2009 we can very reliably say a device will have at the very least OpenGL drivers, allowing smooth user interfaces such as TouchFlo3D also SPB Mobile Shell to amaze us with transitions, flips and fades.
While we have not seen much other software taking advantage of this, it is only a question of time before many great games such as Xact and Experiment 13 become standard on Windows Mobile, elevating the whole field.
Now I know drivers are still controversial due to imperfect implementations, but if one look the huge ruckus 18 months ago, one can really appreciate how far we have come.
The offices of the Illinois Department of Employment Security will be closed on Friday, Jan. 1 2010, in observance of the New Year’s Day holiday.
However, all services will be available. People still will be able to file for first-time unemployment benefits, certify for benefits which is necessary to receive payment, and switch that method of payment to direct deposit.
Because Friday is a federal banking holiday, the availability of some benefit payments might be delayed. The IDES does not determine federal banking holidays.
The Department encourages direct deposit. Direct deposit is a simple, smart and secure way to receive benefits. Debit cards also are available.
There are no fees associated with a debit card when used inside more than 5,000 Illinois banks that accept Visa, or point-of-service counters across the country that accept Visa, such as grocery stores, drug stores and convenience stores.
Customers can request cash back after qualifying purchases. Fees likely will be assessed when using out-of-network ATM machines.
Career planning, training and job placement assistance are available at Illinois workNet centers.
The services encourage individuals to assess their current skills and identify the training or education needed to augment those skills so they are ready to re-enter the workforce when a national recovery brings job growth to Illinois.
The Department also administers tax credits and bonding programs that reward employers who hire specific workers, such as military veterans and the formerly incarcerated.
The Department hosts free workshops to help employers better understand how unemployment insurance claims are evaluated, what is required of a successful challenge, and other services to help businesses evaluate current and future growth potential.
The seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate for November is 10 percent. The same November rate for Illinois is 10.9 percent. The unemployment rate is not the same measurement as those collecting unemployment benefits.
The unemployment rate identifies those who are out of work and seeking employment, regardless if they are eligible for unemployment insurance. Workers collecting unemployment benefits are counted separately.
Therefore, a person who exhausts unemployment insurance benefits or is ineligible for unemployment insurance would still be reflected in the unemployment rate if they are seeking employment.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security supports economic stability by administering unemployment benefits, collecting business contributions to fund those benefits, connecting employers with qualified job seekers, and providing economic information to assist career planning and economic development.
It does so through nearly 60 offices across the state, including the Illinois workNet Centers.
Perhaps Google will still be able to surprise people with its news about the Android-based, Google-designed Nexus One cell phone that will be announced on Tuesday. But a considerable amount of information has already flooded the web, including videos of how the Nexus One operates.
One of the things you’ll immediately notice is this phone is fast. You click on something to make the screen change and it happens instantly. Whether it’s playing games or taking photos, the phone is very responsive. The phone uses a new Qualcomm chip, and so it may spark an arms race in performance gains in cell phones. That’s sorely needed because smart phones have been particularly slow at loading, and touchscreens, even on the iPhone, aren’t up to the highest standards yet.
The first video is a short one from a French blogger that shows off the game-playing abilities of the phone. The video shows a game playing at a fast speed and getting a Benchmark 3D Neocore score of 26.7 frames per second. That means the 3-D graphics capability of the phone is pretty good compared to other smart phones.
The second video is nearly 10 minutes and shows many more features of the phone. The touchscreen of the Nexus One is clearly more responsive than the original HTC G1 from T-Mobile, which debuted a year ago. As with the iPhone, you can effortlessly swipe sideways on the screen to make the user interface shift. You can tap on the buttons at the bottom of the phone, or tap on the lower corners of the screen itself to make things happen. The screen color is vibrant and the backgrounds, such as one where you are tapping into water, are cool.
The history of science is filled with lucky breaks, cases where researchers have stumbled across something unexpected that ended up leading to a major breakthrough—it was a scientist, after all, who said “chance favors the prepared mind.” But a perspective published today in Science brings the year of astronomy to a nice end by discussing just how often luck has played a role in the progress of that field.
One of the stories, of course is Galileo—it’s the anniversary of his first use of a telescope. But it’s easy to forget that the first instrument wasn’t actually intended to be a telescope at all; instead, it was a spyglass that was expected to find use as an instrument of war. Nor was Galileo especially intent on completely upsetting Europe’s view of its place in the Universe when he pointed the spyglass at the skies. That just happened to be a side effect of seeing comets and the moons of other worlds for the first time.
About this time every year, news outlets like ours wax nostalgic over the past year, compiling the highlights, lowlights, bloopers, and everything in between that happened in the last 365 days. Notes are compared, calendars dates are circled, lists are conjured. Understandably, other than leaving you with 100 of our greatest automotive photographs this year, we’d largely prefer to forget this year in automotive history altogether, soaked as it is with red ink and spattered with the blood of fallen brands.
So instead of rehashing the past, we’d like to hear what your automotive-themed New Year’s resolutions are for 2010. Do you plan on buying a new car? Finally taking up autocrossing? Mastering the art of the Scandanavian Flick? Take the fam on a road trip that follows the route in National Lampoon’s Vacation? Perhaps you have more modest goals – learning how change out your spark plugs, say, or finishing that Testors model kit gathering dust on that shelf in the basement. Maybe it’s just scraping out that crud that has mysteriously congealed in your cupholders or finally beating your nephew at Mario Kart. No matter how big or how small, we want to hear about your automotive plans for 2010. Drop us a line or two in Comments… and have a safe and happy New Year’s!
2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe – Click above for high-res image gallery
The North American International Auto Show is typically the big show for Detroit-based automakers and 2010 appears to be no different for General Motors. Chris Preuss, GM’s vice president of communications, has hit Twitter confirming that each of the General’s four brands will have at least one vehicle to display at the Detroit Auto Show next month. As expected, Cadillac will unveil the 2011 CTS-V coupe along with a concept version of its XTS sedan, a model slated to replace the aging DTS in the next year or two. GMC will unleash the Granite, which, according to earlier reports, will be based on the Delta platform and the forthcoming Chevrolet Orlando.
Chevrolet figures to have a somewhat quieter show, with its big reveal being the Aveo RS, which we hear is all-new and very little like the narrow and unattractive B-Segment hatch GM is selling now. Buick will be chasing the ghosts of Grand Nationals and T-Types past with a performance variant of the 2011 Regal that may share a lot of parts with the 325-horsepower Opel Insignia OPC. We can hardly wait for January 11.
The media’s coverage of mixed economic news led to a marginal rise in the Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) in December. The ESI rose to 38.7, up only minimally from 38.3 in November.
This slight rise is the ESI’s third weakest performance in a year and much less convincing than increases in October and November.
While the ESI ends the year significantly higher than the 22.4 level it registered in January at the start of the year, December’s weaker performance means the indicator failed to break back above the level it held before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator aims to predict the health of the U.S. economy by analyzing the broad coverage of 15 major daily newspapers in the U.S. During December, media coverage that included references to better-than-feared holiday retail sales was outweighed by articles referencing mixed or negative economic news including continuing double-digit unemployment and slower economic growth.
“The ESI’s significantly slower rate of improvement in December suggests the U.S.’s economic rebound could be starting to level off and that non-farm payrolls neither advanced nor declined by much during the month,” Dow Jones Newswires ‘Money Talks’ columnist Alen Mattich said.
The ESI represents one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching examinations of media coverage as an economic indicator.
The ESI’s back-testing to 1990 shows that the ESI clearly highlighted the risk that the U.S. economy was sliding into recession in 2001 and 2008 and suggests the indicator can help predict economic turning points as much as seven months in advance of other indicators.
Unlike some other indicators where 50 is a clear break-point between recession and recovery, the ESI needs to be read with reference to longer trends.
Based on the ESI’s performance since 1990, previous recoveries have been marked by substantial month-to-month gains, with a jump of three points seeming to be a sign of significant improvement. A drop below 50 marks the point at which there is a clear risk of a slowdown.
The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator is calculated using a proprietary algorithm through Dow Jones Insight, a media tracking and analysis tool. More information about the Economic Sentiment Indicator and its development is available at dowjones.com/esi.
Dow Jones Insight uses innovative text mining and analytic technologies to help organizations keep informed about relevant issues, news, conversations and trends emerging in mainstream, Web and social media.
Dow Jones Insight’s global content collection includes more than 25,000 news and information sources as well as blogs, message boards, and posts from YouTube and Twitter.
About Dow Jones
Dow Jones & Company is a News Corporation company. ( NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV; newscorp.com) Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Its Enterprise Media Group includes; Dow Jones Business & Relationship Intelligence, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services.
Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50 percent of SmartMoney and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.
The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator is provided for analysis purposes only and Dow Jones makes no representation that the indicator is a definitive predictor of sentiment or the health of the U.S. economy. This report does not in any way reflect an opinion of Dow Jones regarding the U.S. economy or the suitability of any investments.
Sometimes, it feels like terms we thought had some meaning really don’t apply as much anymore.
Take the term “social media,” as an example.
It’s like every SEO marketer decided that “social media,” was the ticket to a sweet consulting gig. Just look at Twitter. You find a lot of social media experts with tens of thousands of followers. Kind of feels like you are looking down a street filled with hucksters.
Sponsor
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!
Social media once served as a term to help people understand the concepts that have risen over the past several years. It helped people understand the tools that can be used to gain a web presence. But the term took too broad of a meaning.
At some point, a nervous rush ensued. Everyone needed a social media strategy. In the process, the term and the rush for “social media” adoption became ripe for satire:
A More Holistic Approach
But that’s only part of the story. The other, more accurate story, reflects a trend toward a more holistic approach in the enterprise. Social media may only represent the tools we use but social computing reflects a deeper view of how the enterprise will adopt this new generation of lightweight technologies. We disagree that executives will continue to shun the term “social.” If they continue to do so, they will be swept out by a generation of far more modern managers.
Still, companies lack the capabilities and the discipline to develop operations that integrate lightweight applications into the enterprise. They need help. They use the new tools available but lack the experience for implementation. There is a need for more community managers who can help with the overall approach. These people are not “social media” managers. They use social media tools to help join a culture that is fragmented in part due to the “data silo” approach that has become predominant in the enterprise.
We spoke with the people behind two consulting companies about their approach to social computing in the enterprise: Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 and the Dachis Group.
Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0
Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 is a new consulting company started by Dion Hinchcliffe and Michael Krigsman. The enterprise, in their view, is still wary of social computing. They are primarily concerned about risk, control and trust.
To succeed with social computing, the enterprise has to work toward three major goals:
Address key business concerns
Demonstrate business value
Acquire social computing competency
Both Krigsman and Hinchcliffe are respected members of the Enterprise 2.0 community. Hinchliffe is the founder of Hinchliffe and Associates. Krigsman leads Asuret, a company that focuses on project intelligence and risk navigation. They work exclusively with Socialtext, led by Ross Mayfield. Socialtext predates the Enterprise 2.0 movement.
Their approach is a combination of Hinchliffe’s 20 years of experience as an enterprise architect and Krigsman’s long time work examining IT failure. Socialtext is their de-facto technology environment, which they chose after a review of about 70 companies.
The company begins its project by gathering intelligence, followed by tool integration, community management development and a degree of project intelligence to define the risks involved.
“We gather strategic intelligence to avoid the downsides and reduce project waste,” Krigsman said in an interview. “We leverage best of breed social tools and build social computing competency.”
Dachis sees the enterprise going through an age-old transformation. Traditional software is essentially adapting to a new age. They call their approach: “Social Business Design.”
Social Business Design, as they view it, is the process of creating socially calibrated and dynamic business systems, process and culture. That’s a mouth full but it reflects the enterprise demand for measured systems that show people are being productive and getting the work done.
Unlike Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0, Dachis is technology agnostic, partnering with vendors when it makes sense.
The Dachis approach puts a large emphasis on the need to focus on process, culture and technology. This means creating a plan for systems architecture, helping companies adapt to the cultural changes involved and all the aspects of the enterprise that need to be taken into consideration. This means understanding issues about governance and having a pretty keyed in measurement strategy.
Here’s their slide deck. It’s a long one but it moves along. Pretty good, overall:
Social media is still a term we use. But it has become so cliche that it is somewhat of a turn off. It’s important to distinguish that the people who have championed the cause for social computing are often deeply involved with the “social media” community. They are important people in the enterprise who should be sought for leadership in bringing the world of social computing to the ways we conduct business.
Social media sounds too much like buzz hype. We need to get down to business. Social computing is a good thing. But even better is the proof that these practices work so we may use tools that help get the work done.
I can’t believe it is 2010 – things have certainly changed so much in the last year and 2010 seems to be the dawn of a new era in technology. Thank you to all of our readers, even those of you who are new and those of you who have been with us for a while – you make this website worth doing. The level of support we receive from our community and Sony is outstanding. I’m so excited for the stories that this new year will bring, but it is also important to reflect back on what made news in 2009. According to Google Analytics, here are some of the biggest stories to hit Sony Insider in the last year –
The free Media Go software, announced at E3 2009, made it easier than ever to take your media with you wherever you go. Transfer music, photos, and videos from your PC to your Sony (PSP) or Sony Ericsson portable device, or import from your device to your PC. File conversion is hassle-free: Media Go automatically converts your media to the appropriate format for your device while maintaining the best possible quality. The latest version of the software is 1.3.
Alarm clocks, digital photo frames, and iPod/iPhone docks are usually bland and simple. Only very recently have we seen style truly grace these products. However, when one of my contacts forwarded me information about the upcoming ICF-CL75iP, I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. This is probably the greatest looking fusion of all of the aforementioned devices that I’ve ever seen. This is the most advanced Dream Machine ever produced by Sony to date – it has a crisp 7 inch color WVGA (800 x 480) LCD, 1GB of built-in storage, SD/MS card slots, USB, and a retractable iPod/iPhone dock. It’s so keen I even got one for my Mother for Christmas.
Sony’s Contrast Flex OLED VAIO laptop is a super-thin laptop product concept. We were able to catch footage of its introduction video at Sony’s exhibit during CES 2009. We believe that Sony is assuming OLED will be the preferable choice of display for future laptop devices instead of what we currently use today. The Contrast Vaio laptop uses a foldable seamless OLED for the display and the keyboard, but as the videos show the keyboard can fade away and the whole thing can display something else. This concept has no restrictions on layout and size, and is extremely durable and shock resistant. Like the other Contrast product concepts, it is made of high performance flexible bioplastic. They also showed off flexible OLED Walkman and Reader concepts.
Content Transfer software provides an easy way to transfer music, video, photos, and podcasts to the Walkman player. Just drag & drop the files to the Content Transfer window and the Content Transfer software automatically sorts the files to the appropriate folders on the player. We covered the 1.1 update in this post, but in the last month the software was recently updated to 1.3.
Select Sony VAIO computer models that ship with Windows Vista Home Edition, Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate, purchased on or after June 26th 2009, and until January 31st 2010, qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7. Certain models that ship with Windows XP Professional and include a Windows Vista Business Certificate of Authenticity (“COA”) also qualify for a free upgrade. The upgrade order will ship after October 22, 2009 and may take 7-10 business days for delivery. Orders will be processed in the order received and the End User will be notified of their order’s status after this date.
Out of nowhere, aafuss on our forums pointed out service manuals for the PRS-300 and PRS-600 Sony Reader devices before they were revealed. What was interesting at the time is the PRS-700 was no longer on sale at SonyStyle, signaling these devices were coming very soon. The manuals are fresh from the oven, as the creation date was July 2009 – the same month as our post. The storyline was rather big for Sony Insider, and forced Sony to announce the Readers ahead of schedule.
Sony unveiled the latest update to the A-Series Walkman line with some serious features. The new NW-A840 series, available in black and brown, simply is the most brilliant Walkman offering from Sony to date – it has all of the features people have been asking for in previous Walkmans while shedding what it needed to. In my opinion, this is the most stylish appearance I’ve seen in a personal media player – and it has a jaw-dropping 2.8 inch WQVGA OLED screen. This is also the thinnest Walkman ever created at only 7.2mm. However, it has only been available for sale in Japan, and worldwide release seems hazy at best. We’re not even sure its coming to CES anymore.
Internet retailer J&R leaked the full specifications and pricing of the Sony Reader PRS-300 and PRS-600. J&R accidentally put up the product pages earlier today, but deleted them soon thereafter hoping no one would catch it. Well, folks over at hi-pda managed to grab the text and we cleaned it up and the rest is history.
Sony Ericsson’s phone announcements in 2009 were the strongest they have had in recent memory. The Satio at one point was their most powerful phone ever, and we put it head to head with the iPhone 3G S in a detailed specs comparison. The North American market has been dominated by the iPhone 3G, and it is now even more powerful than before with the updated S version. Both phones have rich application environments – the iPhone with App Store, and the Satio with presumeably PlayNow, as well as millions of Symbian apps.
Believe it or not, a post about Oprah’s Word a Day summer sweepstakes was the top Sony Insider story of 2009 – it gave us the most traffic this year by a signifigant margin. The post was so attractive because we updated it daily with the word of the day, usually before it would air on television. One of the primary reasons we posted about it was the great number of Sony products included in the contest.
If you’re interested in getting more from meetings than a gaping sinkhole in your schedule—and who isn’t?—these tips from how Google handles meetings can help. Of great importance is focusing on data, not politics and grievances.
The folks over at Business Week interviewed Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice-president of search products, who is known for running a tight and effective meeting. She shared six great guidelines for holding an effective meeting including one of her long standing rules: “Don’t politic, use data.”
This idea can and should apply to meetings in organizations in which people feel as though the boss will give the green light to a design created by the person he or she likes the best, showing favoritism for the individual instead of the idea.
Mayer believes this mindset can demoralize employees, so she goes out of her way to make the approval process a science. Google chooses designs on a clearly defined set of metrics and how well they perform against those metrics. Designs are chosen based on merit and evidence, not personal relationships.
Mayer discourages using the phrase “I like” in design meetings, such as “I like the way the screen looks.” Instead, she encourages such comments as “The experimentation on the site shows that his design performed 10% better.” This works for Google, because it builds a culture driven by customer feedback data, not the internal politics that pervade so many of today’s corporations.
It’s far more effective to look at what the data says than it is to let a meeting turn into a whine-fest where your whole team is taken away from productive work to hear the less-than-happy members complain. Check out the rest of the article at Business Week to see some more of Mayer’s techniques, including holding office hours—a carryover from her days as a professor.
Have a strategy you use in your workplace for increasing the effectiveness of meetings? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
For something I’m working on: we know that China is pursuing a mercantilist policy: keeping the renminbi weak through a combination of capital controls and intervention, leading to trade surpluses and capital exports in a country that might well be a natural capital importer. We also know, or should know, that this amounts to a beggar-thy-neighbor policy — or, more accurately, a beggar-everyone but yourself policy — when the world’s major economies are in a liquidity trap.
But how big is the impact? Here’s a quick back-of-the-envelope assessment.
As we wave goodbye to 2009 it is traditional to have a retrospective. Over the next few hours I will list 10 things which came to Windows Mobile users this year which made this year great.
Number 10 on the list is the death of proprietary ports, with 3.5 mm headphone jacks now becoming almost standard. We can have pretty high confidence most new handsets will come with standard ports now, meaning their use for media activities is much easier and more likely.
Unfortunately we do not have the music and media services built into our phones yet to take best advantage of this, but this is likely something else we will see coming to us in 2010, and in the mean time side-loading is still possible.
Do you appreciate the rise of standard headphone jacks? Let us know in the comments below.
It’s New Year’s Eve and you’re stuck in front of a computer. Sorry, bub. You might as well turn your speakers on and zen out to the American Museum of Natural History’s The Known Universe video put to Exogenesis by Muse.
The somewhat boring, but also high-def, original video is after the jump if you want to burn even more of your day.
This story is not nearly as interesting as I was led to believe. Some guy bought something in the online game Entropia Universe. He bought it with in-game currency—PED3.3 million, to be exact. It just so happens that that amount, PED3.3 million, can be converted at will to real life currency. At current conversion rates that equals approximately US$330,000. So if you want to say that the guy bought an in-game item for US$330,000, well, be my guest.
The item itself, the Crystal Palace Space Station, is some sort of ship or craft or something that other players can buy things from. So the buyer of the thingamajig can use it as an actual source of income.
You should know that the game isn’t merely a game, but a fully registered bank in Sweden, complete with all the protections afforded to other, “real” European Union-based banks.
Embedded is a video of Crystal Palace, which looks an awful lot like that spaceship from Phantasy Star Online.
A year-end thank-you note from Hulu CEO Jason Kilar offered some statistics to show us just how much the nearly three-year-old service has grown.
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Back in April, the service became one of the top three Internet video providers, alongside Google – which includes YouTube and Google Video – and Fox, according to comScore. Kilar includes a number of statistics in his note to show that the site has continued its climb in popularity during the rest of 2009.
“Monthly users of Hulu, as measured by comScore, grew to over 43 million, a 95 percent increase over this time last year.
Monthly streams, as measured by comScore, grew to 924 million, a 307 percent increase from this time last year.
Hulu’s content library doubled over the past year. We now offer over 14,000 hours of premium content, up from 5,600 hours at this time last year.”
The addition of Disney as a content partner last April surely provided a traffic boost, as the ABC owner brought television sensations like “Lost”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and other prime-time hits to the site.
A live video of Obama’s inauguration topped the list of embedded videos for 2009, while “Saturday Night Live”, “Family Guy”, “The Office”, “The Simpsons” and “Naruto Shippuden” were the most popular shows of the year.
But what was the overall winner for 2009 on Hulu, you might be wondering? A decidedly NSFW SNL short called “Motherlover”.
For those of you who still haven’t made the digital television switch but still want to watch, Hulu will be streaming the ball drop in Times Square tonight starting at 10 pm EST.
We know that EA and BioWare have a long-term plan for Dragon Age: Origins. Even at launch the developer stated that two years worth of of DLC are in the works, and we’ll be receiving our first major bit of it next week. But a rumor is circulating today that the plans may be even more ambitious than we realized, with a full packaged expansion planned for March.
Big Download Blog reports on a page from Eurogamer.cz, the Czech gaming site. According to the translated text, the expansion is titled “The Awakening,” and will come out on March 19. The suggested price is around 2/3 the price of the original game, which would probably translate to $30-40 U.S. dollars. It’s also said to be a full packaged product that would be found in stores, and while only the PC version is mentioned, we expect BioWare would similarly support the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. The original game is reported to be required, and it will raise the level cap while also creating an entirely new, shorter campaign with a new character. The report states that EA will make the announcement official in early January, so we may see it any day now.
We don’t usually see such specificity in a rumor, so it’s hard not to think Eurogamer is on to something. Origins was always meant to be the start of a lucrative RPG franchise — it’s even present in the title. Still, until we hear official word from EA, we’re going to categorize this strictly as a rumor. We’ll keep you posted when, and if, we get more details.
The offices of the Illinois Department of Employment Security will be closed on Friday, Jan. 1 2010, in observance of the New Year’s Day holiday.
Perhaps Google will still be able to surprise people with its news about the Android-based, Google-designed Nexus One cell phone that will be announced on Tuesday. But a considerable amount of information has already flooded the web, including videos of how the Nexus One operates.
The media’s coverage of mixed economic news led to a marginal rise in the Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) in December. The ESI rose to 38.7, up only minimally from 38.3 in November.
Sometimes, it feels like terms we thought had some meaning really don’t apply as much anymore.
If you’re interested in getting more from meetings than a gaping sinkhole in your schedule—and who isn’t?—these tips from how Google handles meetings can help. Of great importance is focusing on data, not politics and grievances.
As we wave goodbye to 2009 it is traditional to have a retrospective. Over the next few hours I will list 10 things which came to Windows Mobile users this year which made this year great.
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