Author: Serkadis

China’s top legislature adopted Saturday an amendment to the renewable energy law to require electricity grid companies to buy all the power produced by renewable energy generators. The amendment says the State Council energy department and the state …

A weary hello from O’Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois – the world’s coldest and most inhospitable airport, right in the frozen heart of the world’s coldest and most inhospitable city. That a community organizer from this city would dream of becoming President is no surprise. Chicago is, after all, the only place in the world capable of making Washington DC look like a step up.

I’m trapped here in standby limbo: my original connecting flight to Nashville cancelled due to snow – the kind of freak weather condition that no one in Chicago could possibly have predicted for December.

Still, at least I’ve been awake since 4am GMT, and at least my flight left London an hour late because every single passenger had to be patted down by American Airlines staff at the gate, having already passed through the usual madness of security. And at least by “every single passenger” I mean there unfolded a preposterous pantomime where posh white dudes like me were given the most cursorily of rub-downs in order to keep the line moving while those poor saps who fit the terrorist profile – which is to say, anyone who looked a bit brown – were deep-tissue massaged half to death a gaggle of goons in latex gloves. And at least all of that nonsense was utterly pointless because, as any self-respecting terrorist apparently knows, they don’t dare go anywhere near your groin.

It would be very easy for me to write a reactionary column this week about how technology should have made travel delays like this a thing of the past. About how we have heated soccer pitches, and yet we’re told that heated runways don’t stack up economically. Or how there’s no point in having terrorist watch-lists if people on them are still able to get on flights with bombs sewn into their underwear. I mean, Jesus, we’re days away from the end of the first decade of The Future – 40 years after we put a man on the moon – and yet there are so many areas where technology still lets us down.

But what good would that do me? I’m already stressed – and they say when you’re in a stressful situation you should focus on the positives, not dwell on the negatives.

The fact is for every major way in which the technology of the last decade has failed to deliver – hoverboards, teleportation – there are half a dozen smaller advances so mindblowingly significant to our day-to-day lives that we already take them for granted.

For a start, the only thing making this six-hour extended layover in the frozen circle of hell even slightly bearable is the fact that I have my laptop, a power-outlet and decent quality wifi. How the hell did we manage before wifi? It was less than ten years ago that hotspots started to appear – considerably less in the case of airports – and yet already the idea of not being able to access the Internet anytime, anywhere is genuinely impossible to imagine. Like trying to recall how we made social plans before mobile phones, or how we identified prospective sexual partners before Bebo.

Whether it be airport wifi on our laptops or oh-just-connect-you-bastard flakiness on the iPhone, the fact that the Internet has become more ubiquitous than electricity in major cities in the past decade is – without any hyperbole whatsoever- a miracle. Sure, it’s destroyed lunch conversation and pub trivia but, in common with anyone who hit their 20s or 30s in the 2000s, I’d happily swap either of those for the ability to book a flight from the back of a cab, or to consult Wikipedia from the toilet.

And, oh, Wikipedia! Sure it’s unreliable as all hell (citation needed) and anything remotely controversial becomes a battleground of edits and bullshit, but there’s still something incredible about legions of unpaid volunteers, hunched in parental basements around the globe, collaborating to produce an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. Like most hacks, I consult Wikipedia at least half a dozen times a day, safe in the knowledge that I’ll be able to find a fact – accurate or not – to support just about any theory my fevered imagination can dream up. A theory that I can write about in a reputable publication and thus, by Wikipedia standards, launder into truth.

And how about Netflix? Or Hulu. Or Pandora. Or Last.fm. Or Spotify. To our kids it will seem as natural as water, but neither you nor I will forget the first time we clicked on the title of a song or a movie, only for it to instantly begin playing with crystal clarity. As I’ve written before, it’s the same feeling you experience when a magician turns water into wine in front of your eyes. With all of our talk of DRM and musicians and directors and – oh yeah – authors losing their livelihood it’s easy to forget how utterly bloody marvelous it is that all human creativity is just sitting in the air, all queued up and waiting for us to press play.

In fact, just sitting here, staring out of the window at the snow, I can think of a dozen more technological advances of the past decade that it would be impossible to imagine the world without. Google. The iPod. Facebook. Skype. YouTube. Online banking. ATM check processing. Celebrity sex tapes. Snopes. GPS mapping for all on cellphones. The Kindle. Trip Advisor.

As if to prove my point, as I finished writing that list, my iPhone started to vibrate in my pocket. It was a friend in San Francisco who had been following my snowbound breakdown on Twitter and had decided to call to cheer me up. At about the same time, another friend – this one in London – instant messaged me with a very inappropriate joke about bombs on planes which also brightened my evening no end. Ten years ago that simply wouldn’t have happened, nor would I be able to distract myself for another few minutes by sending them both a cameraphone photo of all the snow (above).

Indeed, the technology of the past decade may not have helped me escape from Chicago but it has at least given me a mental escape tunnel to prevent me going completely mad. And for that reason alone, I raise a frozen hand in salute the technology of the‘00s and look forward with excitement with what the ‘10s will bring.

I just hope they start with heated fucking runways. Seriously – how hard can it be?

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Filed under: Motorsports, Porsche

You might think now that Porsche is firmly ensconced in the Volkswagen Group family, challenging Audi for overall victory at Le Mans isn’t on the to-do list. Apparently, you would wrong. With 16 overall victories, Porsche has more wins at Le Mans than any other manufacturer. However, while Porsches have continued to do well in GT, the marque’s last overall victory came in 1998. Plans to build a prototype early this decade were abandoned, although the V10 engine developed for it eventually found its way into the Carrera GT.

New Porsche CEO Michael Macht evidently wants more overall victories, and while Volkswagen will soon control Porsche, family member Ferdinand Piech is chairman of VW’s supervisory board. With the resources of the group available, Porsche could develop a new car to go for number one. No timetable has been given, but this actually wouldn’t be the first time that there has been an internal battle at Le Mans. Earlier in the decade, Bentley also ran a prototype coupe based on the Audi R8.

With the interest in promoting alternatives like diesel at Le Mans and Porsche soon to debut a hybrid, a prototype with a similar system is not beyond the realm of possibility.

[Source: AutoCar]

Report: Porsche could again challenge for overall Le Mans victory originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Detroit Auto Show, Hybrid, Toyota

According to the The Detroit News, Toyota’s upcoming hybrid concept that will be debuted at the Detroit Auto Show on January 11th will be a subcompact machine that’s destined for production. Citing sources familiar with the project, DN says that the car will go into production in Japan in 2011 with U.S. sales slated for the beginning of 2012.

There’s some speculation that the new model might borrow the Prius name in an effort to capitalize on that car’s undisputed sales success. Toyota reportedly hopes to sell 150,000 subcompact hybrids per year.

Finally, DN reports that Toyota has sped up development of small cars and hybrids, including a premium compact hatchback for its Lexus division, as foreshadowed by the LF-Ch concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. No word on whether the subcompact hybrid will use nickel metal hydride or lithium ion batteries.

[Source: The Detroit News]

REPORT: Toyota Hybrid Concept to be subcompact, headed for U.S. sales in 2012 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from bristolabc, 20 December 2009: “Today 20 December 2009 marks 11 months on remand for EDO Decommissioner Elijah (James) Smith. That’s 11 months locked away in a shitty little cell, deprived of all his freedom, and without any opportunity to argue his case in court. 11 months in prison without actually being found guilty of anything.

Elijah and the other 5 Bristol anti-militarists face a major trial in May 2010. Whilst the other five face stringent bail conditions, they are at least not locked up in a cell. Elijah however faces another 5 months locked away before getting into court. Compare and contrast this treatment of a man accused only of property damage, with the treatment of the cop who assaulted Ian Tomlinson, moments before he died, at the G20 protests in London on 1 April 2009 – who remains uncharged, at liberty and on full pay…” more

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• Last week we made fun of the Wells Fargo 2010 calendar for showing black and female stagecoach drivers, chiding them that they looked like they were trying to be politically cool.  Naturally, we heard from several Wells Fargo-ites, and sure enough, a Delia Rawson carried the U.S. mail for Wells Fargo back in the 1880’s. And in an 1869 photograph, an unidentified African-American driver is seen guiding the Wells Fargo stagecoach out of Salt Lake City .
• Not that many of you are using private mortgage insurance, but here are the M.I. companies ranked by how much insurance they have in force. MGIC was the first private mortgage insurer, and without interruption for over 50 years, they’ve always been the biggest.

$220 billion	MGIC
$173 billion	PMI Group
$155 billion	Radian
$138 billion	Glenworth
$127billion	AIG (United Guarantee)
$106 billion	Republic
$ 57 billion	Triad

• The First Lady in Japan recently told people in a TV interview that she visited Venus in a UFO and that in a previous life she knew Tom Cruise, who was Japanese.  Her husband, the Prime Minister, seems unconcerned.  Can you imagine if Michelle Obama said something as weird as that?  Or Mamie Eisenhower? Footnote to History:  If Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich had been elected, we would have had a First Lady with a pierced tongue.  And probably a few tattoos.
• A client at an Idaho bank asked us about Scorecards for loan officers, and we suggested that the following be tracked:  (1) Volume, (2) gain-on-sale margin on all their loans, (3) delinquencies, (4) early payment defaults, (5) early payoffs, (6) percentage of business that is purchase v. refinance, and (7) pull- through.  This would allow you to compare each loan officer to the companywide average.  Maybe give them a point for each of those seven areas where they’re better than the company average and take away a point when they’re below.   That way, the higher the score, the better the loan officer, with a 7.0 being the best. For a bigger organization, maybe score them by what quartile they’re in.
• We should note that Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan’s term expires in the summer of 2010.  We don’t see you national bank CEO’s shedding many tears.
• On Christmas day in 1776 George Washington had one of his few early victories by crossing the Delaware River in the middle of the night and defeating the mercenary Hessians in Trenton .   It may have been his first victory.
  
  After you’ve read about every great American and every great President, you always come back to Washington as the greatest of them all, the greatest American and the greatest President.  Jefferson may have been the greatest American in defining what human rights really meant, but he never freed his slaves, even upon his death.  Washington did.  His will stipulated that his slaves should be freed when he died.
• Another historical event on or around Christmas was December 26, 1991 when the Supreme Soviet met and formally dissolved the USSR .  Karl Marx wrote of enslaved workers throwing off their chains, yet nothing enslaved more people and did so more cruelly than the Communism he spawned.  Although he didn’t murder millions like Stalin or Mao, he deserves a spot in Hell right next to them.
• We wrote last week about Franklin Resources paying a dividend continuously since 1981, and someone wrote us that “ Franklin’s dividend history is impressive but pales in comparison to Proctor and Gamble (PG).  PG has paid a dividend every year since 1891 and has raised its dividend every year for the past 52 years.   And IBM paid its first quarterly dividend in April 1913… and hasn’t missed a quarterly dividend since that time.”  Impressive.
• A certain number of our clients are starting to retain servicing, so we’d point out that the biggest sub-servicer is Cenlar with $92 billion, with Dovenmuehle #2 with $70 billion.  Both have very good reputations.
• “A Toyota ’s a Toyota .”  It cleverly reads the same forwards and backwards. By the way, if you’re a member of the Grammar Police, is it forward or forwards?  We can never remember how that works.
• We were reading a report on Colony Financial, a newly public REIT.  They just made a loan to giant homebuilder Wm. Lyon Homes, at, get this, 14% + an origination fee of 3%.   It’s a first lien five-year loan.  Sounds like Wm. Lyon was pretty desperate.
• There have always been lots of good reasons to live in Baltimore , and one of them used to be  watching the Baltimore Orioles.  Their manager for years was Earl Weaver, who holds the record for being tossed out of more games than anyone in baseball history. This is a hilarious video of his being tossed out of game once.  By the way, did you ever wonder what happened to the St. Louis Browns?  In the 1950’s they moved to Baltimore and changed their name to the Orioles.  You’ll really laugh out loud at this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl-4FSRYagc
• We have a thought on what capital levels should be, essentially just requiring more capital as you get bigger. Our theory is that with increased size comes increased complexity, and managing extraordinarily complex organizations such as $2 trillion banks becomes, at best, extremely difficult. We’d propose something like this:

Size of bank	Tier One Capital Risk-based
Under $100 million	6.00%
$100 – $500 million	6.25%
$500 million – $5 billion	6.50%
$5 billion – $50 billion	6.75%
$50 – $250 billion	7.00%
$250 – $500 billion	7.25%
$500 billion and up	7.50%

We’re making this up as we go, but we do think the general idea might have some merit.

• As for complexity as a function of size, think about a small community bank. They really only have 4-5 moving parts:  The vast majority of their earnings are a function of (1) the yield on their loans, (2) the cost of their deposits, (3) fee income, (4) overhead, and (5) credit quality.  Now think about Citigroup or Wells Fargo or any other mega-bank.  How many moving parts do they have?  Dozens?  Hundreds?  Do Vikram Pandit or Jamie Dimon really know what’s going on in every division and every nook and cranny of their banks?
• In a sign of tough times for families, the WSJ reported that 4.3 million families had their gas and electricity turned off this year.  We read years ago that people will pay their Cable TV bill even when they don’t pay the mortgage.

· We just read that a little over 20% of mortgage insurance claims are being denied these days. Moody’s says that the historical denial percentage has-been around 7%.

· We’ve noted here before that the most profitable mortgage banking operations close 8-10 units per salaried employee, and that the very best close 12 per employee.  Joe Cliver of DocuTech wrote that he was at a company in Massachusetts a couple weeks ago that funds 15 loan per FTE.

Even with about 140 bank failures this year, there have been less than 175 in the last three years.  That’s out of 8,000 banks for a total of 2.18%.  If you look at the last three years, what percentage of mortgage bankers folded up, 20%….30%…40%?  More?  Now look at some interesting stuff from the Banc Investment Daily, showing that the average bank in this country is 57 years old.  If you measure it on an average that’s weighted by asset size, the average bank is 90 years old.  Is there even one mortgage bank that’s 57 years old, let alone 90 years old?

Happy New Year, and have a great 2010!

Garrett, Watts & Co.

Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.

Joe Garrett         ([email protected])

Mike McAuley      ([email protected])

Corky Watts         ([email protected])

In what’s sure to be a shocker to most college football fans, Florida Coach Urban Meyer has announced that he will be stepping down for health reasons. He will coach the Gators through the Sugar Bowl, & he will remain in Gainesville, & also continue on working for the University, as well.

My first impression of this is:

1.) There have been some hints about Meyer’s health for a few years now. It seems that it was not just smoke.

2.) Truly unfortunate for the sport. Meyer proved that a “gimmick offense” could be applied at a BCS program & truly dominate. His contributions will be missed.

3.) This one might come off a tad harsh, but we’ll never really know if that offense can work as its intended without Tim Tebow there. Unless they bring on another Spread Option guru (Coach Mullen, Jeremy Foley is on Line 1…).

© fanblogs.com

View the original post or comment on Urban Meyer leaving Florida; Nick Saban responds, “I will not be the next coach at Florida.”…

We can’t say that we’ve ever heard of PaPaLaB, but all it takes to get on the consumer electronics radar is doing something that no one has ever done before. It’s one of those “easier said than done” things, we’re guessing. Anywho, the Japanese outfit has just rolled out a camera system that has been proven to see the same colors as the human eye, a feat that was previously only achievable via huge, impractical camera rigs. The YC-3300, however, is far smaller and manageable than prior systems, and it has already been dubbed a “full-visible-color-gamut camera” by the powers that be. The creators expect it to primarily be used for photographing digital archives and for use in the medical field, but we’re already anxious to see such technology miniaturized further and ushered into the consumer market. Surely someone can make that happen before the next PMA kicks off, right?

Continue reading PaPaLaB’s YC-3300 camera sees same colors as human eyes

PaPaLaB’s YC-3300 camera sees same colors as human eyes originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from notbored, 19 December 2009: “On Friday, the court annulled the majority of the obligations that the ten people in the so-called “Tarnac” group must respect. Arrested a year ago for “criminal association with respect to a terrorist enterprise,” the ten suspects in the investigation into the sabotage of the high-speed train lines saw the requirements of their release considerably lightened on Friday [18 December 2009]. The Court of Appeals in Paris made this decision against the advice of the Attorney General’s Office, which requested the maintenance of the totality of the measures…” more

Filed under: TUAW Business

Here’s a few of our recent app giveaways. There’s still time to enter!

	Holiday giveaways: NBA apps and prize pack This giveaway has got it going on: you could win both the League Pass and Game Time apps from the NBA, plus a swag bag full of gear and goodies…		Holiday giveaways: Cellar 2.0 for the wine lover This one is perfect for your New Year’s Eve party planning: Cellar 2.0, which can help you track the wines you love so much…
	Holiday giveaways: Eucalyptus ereader Can’t figure out what to put on the iPhone or iPod touch you got as a gift? We’ve got the prescription: holiday giveaways galore! Here’s an app giveaway that will help you catch up on the classics…	More app giveaways: Win a copy of Things for Mac and iPhone

TUAWApp giveaways roundup for December 26 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from email, 19 December 2009: “Jeff “Free” Luers, political prisoner and environmental activist, was released from the Columbia River Correctional Institution this morning (Dec 16, 2009) after serving nine and half years. Luers was originally sentenced in 2001 to twenty two years and eight months for the politically motivated arson of three SUV’s at a car dealership in Eugene, OR. This sentence was deemed grossly disproportionate to the damage sustained by the car dealership and was condemned by legal professionals, human rights groups and activists worldwide. At an appeal hearing in 2007 it was ruled that Luers’ original sentence was illegal, and was consequently reduced to ten years…” more

Criza afecteaza toate domeniile si aici putem include si brandurile celebre.
Numele uneia dintre victime este Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.Microsoft a inchis discret capitolul Encarta in prima parte a anului datorita materialelor online care au aparut si “eclipsat” odata populara enciclopedie.

Encarta a fost un produs revolutionar,aparut pentru prima data pe CD in 1993.Continea imagini,articole,harti si aplicatii multimedia.In 2008,editia completa in limba engleza continea
peste 62.000 de articole,numeroase imagini si ilustratii,clipuri audio si video,harti,atlase,etc.
Multe articole putea fi vizualizate gratuit online,un serviciu finantat de reclame.

Microsoft a publicat in Encarta in mai multe limbi,incluzand germana,franceza,spaniola,italiana,portugheza si japoneza.
In martie 2009,Microsoft a anuntat inchiderea unui capitol : Encarta.

Site-urile Encarta din toate tarile au fost inchise pe 31 Octombrie 2009,cu exceptia celui din Japonia.Acesta va fi inchis pe 31 Decembrie.
Dictionarul online Encarta de pe dictionary.msn.com va continua sa fie administrat de Microsoft.

Cauza “disparitiei” Encarta nu poate fi decat Wikipedia.
Cu toate ca a fost criticata ca fiind inexacta si necredibila,Wikipedia este gratis si este updatata in timp real. (fata de Encarta)

Un sfirsit trist al Microsoft Encarta.Trist dar previzibil.

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Filed under: Hybrid, Safety, Technology, Toyota

2009 has not been a good year for Toyota. After getting its first full-year loss in seven decades, it faced its biggest-ever safety recall over unintended acceleration caused by floor mats and/or throttle control software. Now, as the year draws to a close, a new potential problem has sprung up. This time around, the issue is related to the braking system on the latest Prius, which debuted early this year.

The problem, which has been reported to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by several dozen drivers, relates to a loss of deceleration when transitioning from regenerative braking to friction braking. At this time, NHTSA has not opened a full investigation but it is monitoring the situation.

This is actually quite a complicated issue, and it highlights one of the reasons why it takes automakers so long to bring cars to market. Read on after the jump for some discussion on what might be happening.

[Source: The Detroit Bureau]

Continue reading NHTSA reportedly eyes loss of braking power in 2010 Toyota Prius

NHTSA reportedly eyes loss of braking power in 2010 Toyota Prius originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A year ago Apple launched iWork.com in beta, which allowed users of their office suite of applications to publish documents online. It’s a light feature set compared to Google Docs and Office 10 – just viewing and commenting. But a job posting suggests Apple may be creating a true collaborative cloud based version of the iWork apps.

The job posting popped up on CrunchBoard on December 22. Apple is looking for a mid level engineer to “be part of the core development team” and “engage in an area from design to development” of a new javascript rich internet application for the iWork team:

The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.

Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:

• JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
• Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
• Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
• Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projects

BS or better in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering

Apple has job postings all the time. But what caught our eye on this one is the language around building an application, from design to development. That suggests something different than just joining the existing team. Apple is putting together a whole new team, for a new project, and they need outside expertise.

Want the job? Apply here.

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If you’re on the hunt for a new job, check out our CrunchBoard. We’ve added nearly 50 new jobs from leading internet businesses in the last two weeks, including three jobs here at TechCrunch. Here’s a quick sample:

• Conferences & Events Producer
  TechCrunch – Palo Alto, CA

• Director of Technology
  Dictionary.com – Oakland, CA

• Senior Product Manager
  Playdom – Mountain View, CA

• Senior Product Manager
  GetGlue.com – New York, NY

• Rockstar Senior PHP Developer
  KickApps – San Francisco, CA

As Mike just noted as well, Apple has also posted a job posting for their iWork team.

Also, don’t forget that we’re looking for a Conferences & Events Producer, Account Executive and CrunchBase interns here at TechCrunch!

For job hunters in Europe, check out our Europe CrunchBoard.

Click here to see all the jobs on CrunchBoard.

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L-am vazut de cateva ori.De fiecare data cand il vad,imi place mai mult.Nu are un subiect complex. Cu toate astea,simplitatea lui creaza tot farmecul.
“O cosmeticiana din America (Fran Drescher) este din greseala luata drept profesor academician, de reprezentantul unui dictator est european (Timothy Dalton). In urma confuziei, ea este rugata sa devina meditatorul particular al copiilor dictatorului. In timpul sederii sale, tanara incearca sa schimbe mentalitatea tuturor locuitorilor tarii.”

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Filed under: Peripherals, Features, Bluetooth, iPhone, iPod touch, Jailbreak/pwnage

A few days ago, the BTStack keyboard package was released to Cydia. This package, which we posted about recently, allows owners of jailbroken iPhones to use a Bluetooth keyboard with their iPhone 3G or 3GS, or 2nd generation or later iPod touch. The package is available for US$5.00 from Cydia.

Since the iPhone was first introduced, there have been efforts to bring support for external accessories. The iPhone 3.0 external accessory framework allowing accessories that connect to the universal dock connector or use Bluetooth has been closed, and only a few companies have developed accessories using the framework. The BTStack project by Matthias Ringwald offers a more complete and open Bluetooth stack for jailbroken iPhones. The stack has even been used with an iPhone and a Wii Remote over Bluetooth. To use a Bluetooth keyboard for quick and easy data entry into your iPhone, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone, which can be done with an application like blackra1n.

Read on to find how I set up my iPhone to use the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and how it works with the iPhone.

A few days ago, the BTStack keyboard package was released to Cydia. This package, which we posted about recently, allows owners of jailbroken iPhones to use a Bluetooth keyboard with their iPhone 3G or 3GS, or 2nd generation or later iPod touch. The package is available for US$5.00 from Cydia.

Since the iPhone was first introduced, there have been efforts to bring support for external accessories. The iPhone 3.0 external accessory framework allowing accessories that connect to the universal dock connector or use Bluetooth has been closed, and only a few companies have developed accessories using the framework. The BTStack project by Matthias Ringwald offers a more complete and open Bluetooth stack for jailbroken iPhones. The stack has even been used with an iPhone and a Wii Remote over Bluetooth. To use a Bluetooth keyboard for quick and easy data entry into your iPhone, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone, which can be done with an application like blackra1n.

Read on to find how I set up my iPhone to use the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and how it works with the iPhone.

TUAWUsing a Wireless Keyboard with an iPhone using BTstack Keyboard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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