Author: Serkadis

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

Harry McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three years ago at this time that rumors were swirling around Apple getting into the phone market. All sorts of predictions had been made for years, dating back to a 2002 New York Times piece in which John Markoff said “Mr. Jobs means to take Apple back to the land of the handhelds, but this time with a device that would combine elements of a cellphone and a Palm -like personal digital assistant.” Of course, it took until 2007 for Apple to announce the iPhone and nearly six months longer for Apple to actually ship it.

The rumors of Apple doing a phone back then were at about the same fever pitch of the recent Apple tablet rumors. Like the iPhone, the tablet rumors aren’t at all new — in this case we can go back to 2003 for some of the earliest stories about this mythical device. Will Apple introduce a tablet in 2010, as some predict? Will there be in an introduction in January? What features might it have, and how could it be sold and positioned? I’m not going to speculate on those things for two reasons: first, if I don’t know, my guess is as good as yours — and second, if I do know, I probably couldn’t tell you anything, could I? Having said that, I find it remarkable that the latest tablet buzz so closely echoes the run-up to the iPhone. Call it déjà vu all over again.

Continue reading Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish?

Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Durham, U.K. | Amazing Automata

Mark Twain saw the Silver Swan in Paris in 1867 and noted in his journal that it “had a living grace about his movement and a living intelligence in his eyes”. Over 140 years later, this elegant mechanical toy still runs daily, operating on the original clockworks.

When its three clockwork mechanisms are wound, the life-sized swan appears to swim along on a pond of spun glass rods, tiny silver fish leaping from the surface. She preens her feathers and looks around before lowering her head and snatching up a fish to eat, all set to soft bell-like music.

The Silver Swan started its known life as the crowd puller in James Cox’s famous museum of automata in London between 1774 and 1782, and is believed to have been built, at least in part, by the brilliant clockmaker and inventor John Joseph Merlin. Merlin was a mechanical polymath who worked with Cox on a famous “perpetual motion” clock as well as several other automata, clocks, and contraptions. His museum was visited by a young Charles Babbage who was inspired by his machines (and later bought them for himself), however Merlin may be most famous for his design of the roller skate.

The collections of the Bowes Museum are the result of years of intentional collecting by an intrepid Victorian couple, Josephine and John Bowles, who traveled extensively and purchased objects of beauty for their dream museum. French-born Josephine had an eye for automata, and was responsible for acquiring the machines now on display, including the swan which they purchased in 1872 following the Paris International Exhibition. The museum building was started in 1862 with the first stone set by Josephine, with the expectation that the final stone would be placed by her husband. Sadly, both died before the building was complete, but their building and their collection of 15,000 unusual items were opened nonetheless in 1892.

The famous Silver Swan is the highlight of the collection, and was restored with a complete disassembly for cleaning, repair, and study in 2008. Experts Matthew Read and Ken Robinson led the extensive restoration project which was documented weekly on the Bowes Museum web site as well as on the BBC.

The swans intricate mechanical innards were carefully reassembled after confirming that the old clock springs were still in good enough shape. Funky old repairs and modifications made in years past were removed, and the 122 silver leaves, dozens of delicate glass rods, and 113 silver rings that make up the swans neck were cleaned and replaced when needed. During the restoration of the music box components, they discovered that it had the ability to play two more tunes, and the swan now plays all eight of the original musical ditties in her repertoire.

It appears that at one time there may have been even more to the swan. During restoration there were indications that there may have originally been more fish, or possibly silver reeds surrounding them. The first description from 1773 mentions a total height 18 feet and includes a description of a rising sun as part of the performance, so there may well have been other elements that have since been lost.

The Silver Swan is now back on view and runs daily at 2pm, for a performance of about 40 astonishing seconds.

Road Trip: 2009 Toyota Venza a few refinements short of a great ride

The Toyota Venza prides itself on its functionality and daily livability, so we take it on a road trip to see if this high-riding wagon can deliver comfort and utility on a long slog south.

Charting the Top 10 Best-Selling Cars and Trucks of 2009

With auto sales at two-decade low, we look back on the top ten best-selling vehicles of 2009. It’s more of the same, but with a few new twists.

VIDEO: 2011 Ford Mustang GT shown rollin’ with its 5.0

It’s officially 2011 Ford Mustang day, so in addition to the debut of the all-new 5.0 GT and it’s race-bred stablemate, Ford has released video of the updated pony car showing off its tweaked lines and uprated powerplant.

Also of interest:

• Stop-start tech saves fuel, so why can’t we get it in the States? Blame the EPA
• VIDEO: New Gran Turismo 5 trailer confirms new courses, general awesomeness
• Environmental group sues Honda for “Save The Earth” trademark infringement
• If Saab closes, will the new 9-5 live on wearing a Buick badge?
• VIDEO: Griffin Up! Saab supporter creates mash-up in support of brand

Browse our archive of Daily U-Turn posts or subscribe to the RSS feed

Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 12.28.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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	NASA / JPL / SSI
	The moon Rhea, at far right, is dwarfed by Saturn. The shadow of another moon, Tethys, dots the disk at far left. Click on the image for a larger version.

The Cassini orbiter has been working overtime during the holidays to deliver a cartload of gifts from Saturn and its moons. Highlights include fresh views of frost-spewing Enceladus and yam-shaped Prometheus, plus a “Nutcracker”-style ballet of Saturnian satellites.

The excitement began last week with the animated images of moons passing back and forth with the giant planet and its rings as a backdrop. In an image advisory, the folks who process Cassini’s pictures compared the interplay to the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet.

My favorite movie is “Moon Jumble,” which has Rhea in the starring role, joined by its siblings Janus, Mimas and Pandora. (That’s the real Pandora, not the fictional “Avatar” moon). Make sure you stretch your browser window wide enough to take in the whole picture.

File this one under “why?”. Vespa South Africa has launched a stretch scooter. Apparently, it’ll allow you to roll with three other people on a scooter. Or one prawn.

No word on price, which is probably good considering it doesn’t look exactly safe. Not only that, but it’s a one-off build that’ll be used as a marketing tool for Vespa South Africa.

[Via UberGizmo]

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I loves me some AMOLED screens. They’re easier on the battery, easier on the eyes, and the colors tend to be so damned strong that they just about jump off the screen and punch you in the face. I mean, what’s not to love? Oh, that’s right – they tend to fail miserably as soon as you step outside. Mix one part direct sunlight with one part AMOLED screen, and you’ll find yourself with a completely illegible screen.

At least, that used to be the case.. We’re not quite sure why they didn’t play this up with deafening fanfare, but it seems like Samsung has stealthily solved the direct sunlight dilemma.

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By Ting-I Tsai and Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

For two years, Prime View International Co. has overcome technological hurdles to dominate the burgeoning market for electronic-reader screens. Now this small company faces encroaching competitors and even-newer technologies.

Prime View’s screens are used by the three most-popular brands: Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN) Kindle, Barnes & Noble Inc.’s (BKS) Nook and Sony Corp.’s (SNE) Reader. That gives the company a near monopoly of a market where global sales are expected to surge to 12 million units in 2010 from five million this year, according to research firm iSuppli.

With e-reader sales booming, other companies, many of them far bigger than Prime View, want a piece of the action. Rivals in Taiwan, Japan and the U.S. are racing to roll out new technologies and features like color screens—on the top of users’ wish lists, and key to newspapers and magazines making the transition to e-readers.

At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, at least a half dozen companies will unveil new e-reading devices, including Plastic Logic Ltd., Hearst Corp.’s Skiff, Spring Design Inc. and Entourage Systems Inc.

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Filed under: Retail, Deals, iPhone

As Engadget is reporting, New York City residents can get back to buying their iPhones via AT&T’s website after the strange outage that seemed to start yesterday kept them from doing so. It’s been a rollercoaster of a story — first we heard that they weren’t being sold at all because of coverage issues, and then that was clarified to just online sales and only because of fraudulent online ordering. But as we predicted on the talkcast last night, AT&T didn’t hold off on sales for long, and everything should be now back to normal.

Unfortunately, we never actually heard what the fraud was, but that’s not too surprising — if there was a way to defraud AT&T’s ordering process, it’s unlikely they’d shout it from the rooftops anyway. And it’s also not likely that we’ll never know how many customers were actually affected. NYC is a big city, but there’s no way we’ll see official numbers on how many people couldn’t buy iPhones because of the steps taken the other night. Considering that iPhone sales are off the charts in most markets anyway, it’s doubtful that online sales in NYC missing for a day or two would make a dent in the numbers.

In other words, nothing to see here. But just in case you were in NYC and trying desperately to buy an iPhone via the AT&T site last night, you can now go to it.

TUAWOnline iPhone sales return to NYC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Bernard Moon works for the Lunsford Group.]

When I made my tech trend predictions for 2009, we were in the middle of an economic meltdown. This year, I’m less focused on the recession and — thanks to my one-year old twin girls — am wading my way through a flood of information on baby products, toys and books. My mind has wandered between thoughts of Bugaboos and Ooyalas, Leapfrog and Playfish, or Seuss and Seesmic. Still, here are my tech trends for 2010.

Online Shopping Clubs Will Mature

Online shopping clubs aren’t anything new, but these post-bubble incarnations are. Leaders in this segment tend to hold “flash” sales (limited-time sales) and restrict sales to members only. Luxury goods lead this space with France’s Vente-Privee hitting $966 million in revenues this year and U.S’s Gilt Groupe earning almost $150 million in revenues in 2009. By 2010, within four years since launching in the U.S., the companies in this space will have achieved over $2 billion in worldwide sales. Talk about hockey stick growth!

This same model has transferred to other categories, with many luxury players launching travel offerings under their banners. There are also more narrowly focused sites launching, such as Totsy for moms and One Kings Lane for home décor. Woot in the U.S. and One A Day in Korea are flash sale sites that sell only one item everyday. One A Day hit $13 million this year and projects $28 million in sales for 2010 under this simplified model.

Much of this tremendous growth has been driven by the steep discounts all these sites have provided through access to excess inventory. There are concerns this category might see some trouble once the economy picks up and retailers begin rightsizing their inventory. But I believe it is here to stay because — similar to how Zynga and Playfish brought lazy interactivity to the online casual gaming space — these new e-tailers are pushing products and brand relationships to the lazy shopper. It won’t be just about discounted goods, since players like Gilt are already pushing exclusive, in-season goods. So I predict that 2010 will be a breakout year for this ecommerce category and it will move far beyond discounted luxury goods.

Gaming Will Advance Beyond PCs and Consoles

2009 was a great year for online gaming, with Zynga, Playfish, and others leading the charge and showing the power of Facebook and the social networking ecosystem’s distribution power. The next stage of online gaming will be led by more powerful gaming platforms and engines for mobile and the browser.

Epic’s recent showing of the Unreal Engine 3 on the iPhone opens a whole new world for mobile gaming. The possible game titles with such engines on mobile platforms just increased at least fivefold. Imagine billion-dollar franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Rock Band and Guitar Hero on mobile devices. I believe this would not cannibalize game makers’ PC and console sales and gameplay time but would expand their consumer base and increase people’s playing time.

For browser-based games, existing engines, such as Unity, and new entrants in flash-based platforms and other browser engines will expand the leading online gaming genre of “lazy interactive” casual games (such as Farmville and Mobsters) to more robust casual games (Risk, Battle Tetris) and eventually hardcore games (such as MMO role-playing games and first-person shooters). This will allow more advanced gaming environments to move away from the traditional client-server architecture. I predict there will be some breakout titles by year end in mobile and browser based games to initiate a changing tide in the video game industry.

Real-Time Collaboration Coming to an Office Near You

I already covered this trend a couple of months ago on Mashable, but I really do believe 2010 will be a solid year of progress for real-time collaboration. SAP’s Gravity, a prototype of real-time collaborative business process modeling within Google Wave, is a good example of what’s coming ahead.

2010 Will Be Android’s Year

In the mobile space, 2010 will be a breakout year for Google’s Android platform (disclaimer: my wife works at Google but not on Android). Motorola’s Droid and glimpses of Google’s own Nexus One were just tasty appetizers this year. Next year there will be more than 50 Android phones shipping out to a market near you. Think about what this means. Android is spreading like the Borg from Star Trek.

Next year, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, HTC, Huawei, and others will be spreading the concept of apps, touch screens, and smarter phones to an audience beyond the techno-elite and hipster gadget lovers. Slowly Google’s open platform strategy might win out versus Apple’s closed approach.

2010 Will Have A Netscape Moment

I was initially going to call this prediction the “Kozmo Moment” after the DVD and small goods online delivery service that raised $250 million in 1999 and then spectacularly shut down in 2001 after a failed IPO, but there really are no capex heavy startups today minus the cleantech industry. I mean Twitter doesn’t need to buy 500 cars and vans to deliver potato chips and Q-tips to suburban homes in Portland or San Diego.

I do predict at least one of the hot startups that have an incredibly high valuation and a ton of capital will not live up to the hype. It might even go public, but soon afterwards go down a similar path that Netscape did and fade into the background due to competition from a tech giant or rapidly changing tides of the market. None will shut down in 2010 since they have so much cash, but chinks in the armor will be revealed during the year. Who will it be? Twitter? Slide? Zynga? Ning?

What are some of your predictions or trends for 2010? Be sure to share them in the comments section.

Bernard Moon is Managing Director of the Lunsford Group, which is a private holding company consisting of entities in technology, media, research & consulting, health care, and real estate. He blogs at Silicon Moon.

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Shoppers are doing more holiday gift-buying from their mobile phones, according to new numbers from eBay. The e-commerce giant says users purchased 1.5 million eBay items from either the eBay mobile website or the company’s iPhone application over the recent holiday season. That’s three times the amount sold during the same period last year.

Just as eye-catching as the overall numbers are some of the individual purchases that eBay describes. I’m used to thinking of my iPhone as a place where I might make cheap, impulse purchases, but eBay says there were some big deals made on mobile phones, including the purchase of a $75,000 1966 Chevrolet Corvette, a $19,000 boat, and a $10,000 Steinway grand piano. I imagine these are buyers who decide on an item while on their computer and just happened to make the final bid on their phone.

Overall, eBay says the site’s mobile transactions added up to half a billion dollars in 2009. The iPhone app has been downloaded nearly 6 million times, while the mobile site gets 750,000 unique visits per day.

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In the madness leading up to and following the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen two weeks ago, many have lost track of the climate change legislation working its way through Congress in the U.S. The last many heard of it, the controversial Kerry-Boxer bill was bound up in committee, poised for almost certain doom. Since then, two shiny, new proposals have been put on the table. But do they really have a better shot?

Before we take a closer look at the two fresh packages, called the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham bill (PDF) and Cantwell-Collins bill (PDF), respectively, let’s take a moment to ponder what all this activity will actually accomplish. When it comes to successfully pushing laws through Congress, strong backing, and cohesiveness are key. So these bills — pitched on consecutive days — are facing some steep odds. Not only has the urgency of emissions reductions been weakened by Copenhagen’s failure to produce a treaty, but now Senate’s attention is being divided between several different ideas.

Their saving grace?: Bipartisan and moderate Democrat sponsors that might make their approval more palatable to previously staunch opponents of climate change legislation. Then again, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) don’t necessarily have popularity and political capital on their side right now. So it will be interesting to watch.

First, let’s look at Kerry-Lieberman-Graham, since it debuted first. Like the Kerry-Boxer and Waxman-Markey bills before it, it would establish a fairly elaborate cap-and-trade system for carbon permits. It’s surprising that Kerry is still peddling this idea after its drawn such ire from his peers in the Senate. Republicans and moderate Democrats have done a good job arguing that cap-and-trade would further burden companies still struggling to rebound from the recession, and ultimately hurt consumers. Cap-and-trade also proved unpopular in Copenhagen, and the ranks of those against it continue to swell.

Kerry-Lieberman-Graham would also:

• Set a goal of a 17 percent reduction in carbon emissions (below 2005 levels) by 2020, and an 80 percent reduction by 2050.
• Create a global system for trading carbon offsets and carbon-based securities. (Offsets are tricky business because they are basically promises from organizations that they will prevent a certain amount of emissions from being released — there are no guarantees.)
• Distribute an initial round of carbon permits (85 percent of them at least) to utilities and other organizations, which could then sell them to bring in revenue. (Some are viewing this as an underhanded subsidy for utilities without many strings attached.)
• Earmark government support for nuclear energy, clean coal technology and more efficient oil and gas drilling. (This seems like a concession to opponents who say the bill will hurt the job market.)

The Cantwell-Collins bill, also proposed before the world got swept up in Copenhagen, slims the climate change issue down considerably (it’s about 50 pages instead of 1,500). Its sponsors, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), claim that, if implemented correctly, it could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 — actually exceeding the goals of Kerry-Lieberman-Graham.

Its real strength, however, is that it would refund 75 percent of all of the revenue it might bring in. Instead of using the typical language of cap-and-trade systems, the bill says it would sell “carbon shares” to fuel makers, and return the proceeds to American taxpayers in the form of a monthly rebate check. It’s estimated that this system could result in annual payments of $1,100 for an average family of four — amounting to $21,000 between 2012 (when it would go into effect) and 2030. Americans certainly do like to get paid — so this proposal is sounding easier to swallow already.

Here’s the rundown on Cantwell-Collins (also known as the CLEAR Act):

• It would cap fossil fuels both imported and produced domestically. They would have to buy emissions permits from the U.S. government at monthly auctions, that they could then trade on a secondary market.
• The regulations are targeted at the actual producers of fossil fuels — not anyone else along the supply chain. For example, the coal mining companies would be the ones to purchase the permits, not power plant operators or utilities.
• While 75 percent of the money generated by the government from the program would be distributed to regular citizens as rebate checks, the other 25 percent would be funneled into clean energy research.
• Early estimates say that the Cantwell-Collins program could raise between $10 to $32 billion every year to start, a figure that will go up as carbon prices inevitably rise.
• Just like Kerry-Lieberman-Graham builds in support for nuclear and clean coal interests, this bill also includes provisions to cut down on non-carbon greenhouse gases like sulfur dioxide and methane, and to encourage carbon sequestration.

The two proposals are impressively different (finally, options!), and Cantwell-Collins seems particularly progressive. Whether or not it will actually achieve reductions in emissions is up for debate. Many are arguing that it would take too long for its initiatives to make a difference in how fuel producers operate, and that the resulting investment in cleantech research would be minimal. But some money is better than nothing — and if not too many allowances to polluters dilute the permitting market, it seems like the bill should have some teeth.

Regardless of their various merits and drawbacks, one of these bills needs to win a majority on the Senate floor this year to make any difference at all. And the sooner the better. Former vice president Al Gore is calling for a deadline of Earth Day in April, and this seems like a fair timelines, considering how swiftly the health care measure moved once Obama gave it his full attention.

If had to make a prediction, I’d place my bets on Cantwell-Collins. Based on response to Kerry-Boxer and Waxman-Markey before that, the idea of carbon trading has about 40 solid supporters (all Democrats). What will push one of the bills over the top is how it communicates the nature of the trading system. Cantwell-Collins appears to be much simpler in its approach (making it easier to explain to constituents), and seems to give fewer perks to Wall Street and utility fat cats. It also distinguishes itself by emphasizing the importance of further research into sources of clean energy. At the same time, it takes the interests of the existing oil, gas and coal infrastructures into account with its auction-based pitch. And the clincher: it means money in regular people’s pockets. This will almost certainly sway the moderate Democrats and Republicans that have stymied earlier legislation.

While there’s a chance that neither bill will make it past the Senate, one thing is for certain: President Barack Obama will have to choose between them at some point. He was a big supporter of both Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer, and seems to be a proponent of cap-and-trade in general. That said, he needs to get something passed, and fast, to make it looking like he’s making good on his major campaign promises. He already missed his end of 2009 deadline. So if Cantwell-Collins seems to have a better shot, it’ll probably get his blessing.

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Paul Kedrosky points us to an absolutely ridiculous op-ed in the NY Times from a guy who runs a price comparison search engine that offered little of value and reasonably was punished by Google for it. But the guy tries to make a federal case out of his own poor ranking, suggesting that the government needs to regulate Google because the company was so bold as to recognize that people weren’t searching for his lame price-comparison site and probably would find others more appropriate. Kedrosky picks apart the piece brilliantly:

Gosh, what a shocker. Someone in search with no web traffic…. wants someone in search with a lot of web traffic, Google, to send his company buckets of visitors. Amazing.

The OpEd goes downhill from there. We get a litany of silly complaints, like the idea that Google doesn’t innovate, that it just buys stuff from others, and that Google’s Maps and other products have hurt other companies. Yeesh. I’ll say this really slowly: Consumers want products that work together, simplify our lives, and solve problems. For this nitwit to want to throw us back to a world where we need point products — maps here, directions there, product search there, email over there, etc. — as some sort of full-employment act for me-too companies that can’t get web traffic on their own merits is batshit nuts.

Furthermore, the guy’s claim in the article that Google went out of its way to make his company “disappear” simply isn’t supported by the evidence at all. Again, Kedrosky rips this argument to shreds:

Really? Google went out of its way to make a tiny product search company in the U.K. disappear? That would be a great story if true….

Trouble is, Google doesn’t “disappear” other much larger product search companies, as a quick search for “canon prices” will show you. Up pops shopper.cnet.com, pricegrabber.com, and so on, as well as, of course, Google’s own product search site.

If Google were really trying to “disappear” the competition, wouldn’t it focus on sites that actually matter?

Kedrosky points out the other big problem with this OpEd as well. Despite this being written by someone who has a clear conflict of interest, he notes that you don’t find this out until your well into the OpEd:

Of course, there is a second level of stupid to this piece, and that goes to the NYT itself. It took until the fourth paragraph of the piece until we find out that the OpEd author is, you know, conflicted in that he himself runs a search company (albeit one with negligible traffic). Not only that, he has an axe to grind, as he goes on in paragraph four to arm-wavingly allege that Google “disappeared” his site from its results.

It makes you wonder why the NY Times would allow such an OpEd to go forward. Kedrosky has his opinion: “apparently NY Times OpEds over the holidays are vetted by malnourished monkeys.”

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Filed under: Mini, Electric

Our friend Dr. Lyle Dennis of GM-Volt.com is one of 450 privateers in the regions of New York or Southern California who managed to get on the list of lessees for the battery-powered Mini E. Dennis has been driving his Mini E for the past six months, although it has not been ideal. This past week in particular has been trying as the northeastern part of the United States got slammed by heavy winter weather and cold temperatures.

As we learned recently from the guys at Consumer Reports with the Mitsubishi i MiEV, winter and battery cars are a less than perfect pair. All cars loose efficiency for a number of reasons when the mercury drops, but EVs are particularly problematic. When outside of their optimum temperature range, batteries become reluctant to release their electrons.

Dr. Dennis has a daily commute into Manhattan of about 27 miles each way, which we don’t consider an unusual distance in the U.S. As the thermometer read 23 degrees Fahrenheit last week, the battery level gauge was on 0 after a 55-mile round trip to the office that included two hours on the plug while there.

The temperature affects not only the battery directly but also adds load to the entire electrical system. The car’s heater is driven directly off the battery so staying warm cuts range as well. In warmer weather, Dennis has been getting about 75-80 miles out of the same car. Perhaps General Motors really is onto something with the extended-range Volt.

[Source: GM-Volt]

Mini E range plummets as winter hits the northeast originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even though the economy has battered the pickup segment for the past two years, the past 10 years is considered the Decade of the Pickup Truck, at least according to PickupTrucks.com. The publication teamed up with AutoPacific to compile a list of the Top 10 Significant Pickup Trucks of the Decade from all of the new trucks sold between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009.

What makes a pickup significant? According to their criteria, the trucks on the list introduced new innovations, pushed the segment to new limits and made the Ford F-Series sweat – even if only a little.

Check out PickupTrucks.com’s Top 10 Significant Pickup Trucks of the Decade here.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Now here is something I may just order right now. This straightforward adapter from Unitek will turn any hard drive with standard SATA and power connections into an external drive with no frills and no gimmicks. Plug in the one side, plug in the other, and boom, it’s there on your desktop.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a few raw hard drives laying around and the idea of them constantly spinning and heating up in my case doesn’t excite me. I mean, of course it doesn’t excite me, but it… let’s move on. This is handy for people who need lots of storage but don’t need to move or access it much. Backup for HD video, for instance — my friend, who shoots on a RED, needs tons of space to archive raw files, but likely will only access them once or twice the next year. So you buy some bulk 1TB OEM drives, load ‘em up, label with a Sharpie, and you’re laughing.

And the sweetest thing is that it supports USB 3.0. Not many of us are actually rocking that right now, but you better believe my next rig is going to. So this little doodad, which at $48 admittedly seems a bit expensive for a mere adapter, will last you for years. Don’t forget that SSDs use SATA as well.

Pick yours up at Brando.

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It seems that the TSA is slowly backing down rules that were implemented after the foiled Christmas Day bombing. According to a Reuters report flight crews will now be a sort of Judge Drudge enforcer. It will be up to the pilot and crew to determine if passengers need to stay seated or if they can have items in their lap. In-flight entertainment that shows the plane’s relative location will also be under their jurisdiction.

With this much power in their hands, you better be good for the sake of everyone else on board. A simple request for a glass of OJ might result in everyone having to put their heads down for the rest of the flight.

The TSA declined to comment on the Reuter’s story, but a JetBlue tweet seems to confirm it. [via Business Insider]

But Joel Johnson might be on to something here. The real solution is probably just to fire the TSA.

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Is Apple planning a special event for January? If so, what are the chances it will feature this mythical tablet/slate device everyone’s jawing about?

In a research note this morning, Piper Jaffray anlalyst Gene Munster hazards a guess, putting the odds of the company hosting a special event at 75 percent and the odds that Apple (AAPL) will use the event to debut a tablet-like device at 50 percent, with an eye toward a March release date.

“Based on new media reports of trademarks connected to Apple (iSlate, Magic Slate), and our own conversation last week with with a Taiwanese component supplier, we are reaffirming our expectation that Apple will likely ship a tablet device by the end March,” Munster writes. “We believe there is a 75% chance Apple will host a January event and a 50% chance it will be held to announce the tablet.”

And if Apple does announce such a device, what can we expect from it? Largely what we’ve been hearing recently, says Munster, who outlined his own expectations for an Apple tablet in another research note issued earlier this month. “We expect the tablet hardware to be similar to an iPod touch but larger (about 10″); we expect the key differentiator of the device to be its software,” Munster wrote.

“While there are several options ranging from a touch screen Mac OS X to an iPhone-like OS,” the analyst elaborated, “we expect the tablet to be driven by a new version of Apple’s iPhone OS that runs a new category of larger apps alongside all the current apps from the App Store. We believe Apple’s tablet would compete well in the netbook category even though it would not be a netbook. Rather it would focus more on apps, entertainment content (from the iTunes Store), and web surfing.”

That would make for a pretty compelling device at the right price point. Indeed, says Munster, “we believe Apple could sell about 1.4m units if the tablet shipped in March, adding 2 percent to revenue.”

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