Category: News

So let’s say you’re “on the go” and you’re notebook dies. What do you do? I mean, you’re “on the go.” Well, you sure as hell don’t take it to Best Buy. Hopefully you have the Lexar Media Echo system in place. This little flash drive continuously backs up your files while you’re “on the go.” How clever.

These flash drives are designed to stay in a USB port so that they can always back up you files. The included software takes care of all the dirty work.

The difference between the two models is that the tiny ZE models are only available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB, while the slightly larger SE models are available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB flavors. Prices have yet to be released, but the backup solutions should be available in February here in the States, while Europe will need to wait a bit longer.

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Sony’s new Walkman A845 is as slim as four SD cards. That’s slim, indeed. But even at 7.2mm, it’s still beat by the anorexic iPod nano at 6.2mm. Sorry, Sony. That’s all we care about these days. We’re that shallow.

It doesn’t matter that the A845 has a slightly bigger 2.8-inch OLED screen or comes with noise cancelling headphones. It also doesn’t matter that this Walkman works with iTunes via included software or that it can output standard-def video. All the tech world cares is about is that Apple has a thinner iPod than your Walkman, Sony. This makes you the loser once again. Oh, and let’s not forget that the iPod nano can record video too. But that’s a moo point in this argument.

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IMS, the RIM partner that developed iLane is ready to pop the cork on a slick productivity app in the new year. We got our hands on an anonymous Power Point file showing details of a soon to be released app they’re calling XTopMobile. It’s designed to make life a little easier for BlackBerry users who frequently find themselves toggling between handheld and PC.

I know what you’re asking yourself. Can a productivity app really be that interesting? Well, if you spent your Holidays stranded in a snow-bank in Colorado after blindly following your GPS into oblivion, you’d probably appreciate mobile applications that don’t try to tell you where to go.

(more…)

The Sony Walkman A845 is a scant 7.2mm thick and gets a reported 29 hours of audio playback on one charge. It’s perfect for the next time you want to listen to Wagner’s Ring Cycle in one sitting. Twice.

The A845 also touts an impressive nine hours of video playback on its 2.8-inch OLED display, offers 16GB of storage, and supports WMA, WMV, MP3 files. It can be hooked up to your TV with an optional A/V out cable for SD playback. There’s no word yet on pricing, but it will be available at least in Europe next month.

Slimmest ever WALKMAN® is big on sound and picture quality
05 January 2010

High-spec WALKMAN® A845 is just 7.2mm thin

· Ultra-slim (only 7.2mm) and easy to carry
· Big, bright 7.1cm (2.8″) wide OLED display
· High quality listening with S-Master Digital Amplifier and Digital Clear Audio technologies
· Digital Noise cancelling with supplied NC headphones cancels 98.0% (approx.) of ambient noise*1
· Enjoy SD video playback on connected Televisions*2
· Long audio playback time up to 29 hours*3
· New Battery Care mode for extended battery lifespan

Just 7.2mm slim and weighing only 62g (without headphones), the WALKMAN® A845 Video MP3 Player by Sony proves that less really is more. Slipping easily into a back pocket or bag, it’s a great way to keep your favourite music tracks, podcasts and videos with you to enjoy any time.

Despite its chic, slender lines, the thinnest WALKMAN® yet is a true heavyweight when it comes to legendary sound and video quality by Sony.

The player’s front panel is dominated by a big, bright 7.1cm (2.8″) OLED screen. Delivering superb colours, high contrast ratio, wide viewing angle and super-fast response time, it’s a great way to enjoy online movie store downloads, clips from sharing sites, album artwork and digital photos. A new Scene Scroll view lets you browse quickly through longer videos that are displayed as a series of thumbnail images. Find the scene you want, press play and the action picks up at the moment you’re looking for. You can also scroll through cover art images to effortlessly track down the album you want to hear.

Want an even bigger picture? Connect the WALKMAN® A845 to your television via the optional A/V output cable (WMC-NWV10) and enjoy videos on the big screen. Pictures are delivered to your TV set in SD format (720 x 480) at a silk-smooth 30fps frame rate (excludes some DRM content).

As you’d expect from Sony, it’s sheer audio quality that sets the WALKMAN® A845 apart from other MP3 players. S-Master Digital Amplifier technology assures rich, lifelike ultra-low distortion sound. Already featured on Sony hi-fi and home theatre products, S-Master amplification puts you centre-stage in the studio or concert hall while maintaining crisp, clear sound.

Listening is further enhanced with unique Clear Audio technologies from Sony for a dynamic, detail-packed soundstage. Clear Stereo reduces leakage between left and right channels, while Clear Bass delivers powerful, controlled low-end frequencies without distortion. In addition, DSEE Sound Enhancement Technology ensures smooth, detailed reproduction of high-frequency information that’s typically lost when the original CD-quality music source is compressed as an MP3 file.

Plug in the high-quality 13.5mm EX vertical in-ear headphones and immerse yourself in a blissful world of beautiful WALKMAN® sound without intrusions. Digital Noise Cancelling cuts approximately 98.0%*1 of ambient sound, using advanced processing to detect and filter external noise without impairing audio quality. Three different profile settings let you enjoy optimised noise reduction, whether you’re onboard a plane, bus/train or in the office. With the supplied adaptor, air travellers can connect WALKMAN® directly to the plane’s AV system and enjoy their in-flight entertainment with digital noise cancelling provided by WALKMAN®.

Importing music, video, photos and playlists is quick and fuss-free, with simple drag-and-drop transfer from your PC’s media folder or via iTunes 9.0 using supplied Content Transfer software. Certain MPEG1 and other downloaded files can be played back on WALKMAN® when converted via Content Transfer. A wide range of major music and video formats are supported, including rights-managed WMA and WMV files.

The WALKMAN® A845 lets you listen for longer, with a generous 29 hours*3 listening time from a single charge. Battery life with video playback is 9 hours*4 – more than enough to keep you entertained on those long journeys. There’s also a new optional Battery Care function that optimises overall battery lifespan by limiting charging levels to 90% of maximum. The home menu can be personalised with a choice of pre-installed wallpaper designs. Alternatively, add an individual touch by choosing your own favourite photo as wallpaper.

The WALKMAN® NWZ-A845 Video MP3 Player with 16GB storage capacity is available from February 2010.

A recently released patent by Apple shows that they are one of several companies dabbling with the idea of a 3D mulitouch interface. In this case, a “touch screen device, method and graphical user interface for manipulating three-dimensional virtual objects.”

Will we see this sort of technology on upcoming Apple products like the tablet? Probably not, but it is interesting to point out that Apple went to some lengths to “disguise” the patent under the names of three obscure French employees. That might be business as usual for Apple, but it could also mean that they are serious about moving beyond standard pinching and zooming. [Baltimore Sun]

As Google outlines a smartphone strategy that puts the search giant in direct competition with Apple, the iPhone maker has struck a deal that may tread on Google’s turf. Apple has acquired Quattro Wireless, according to a blog posting on Quattro’s web site Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal’s D:All Things Digital blog valued the acquisition at $275 million. The move positions Apple as another hurdle in Google’s moves to become the dominant player in mobile advertising.

Quattro Wireless is a global mobile-advertising company with a proprietary technology called Q Elevation. Built by a team of mobile and behavioral experts, the technology works to optimize every impression. This ad-serving, tracking and analytics platform has attracted a Fortune 500 client list that includes Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, Viacom, BP and Disney.

Apple’s Motive

Indeed, Quattro shows plenty of promise, raising nearly $30 million in venture capital from Highland Capital Partners and Globespace Capital Partners. The company’s CEO, Andrew Miller, was named the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year 2009 in the emerging-company category in New England. In Tuesday’s blog posting, Miller identified himself as a vice president of mobile advertising for Apple.

Miller reported that 2009 was a breakout year for the mobile-ad space and for Quattro. The company surpassed the four billion-impressions-per-month mark and revenue grew more than three times from 2008 as the publisher base swelled to thousands of mobile web sites and applications.

“With the forthcoming tablet and the iPhone becoming a larger part of Apple’s business and the growing app ecosystem, the company may feel it needs to have some advertising apparatus to help support its developer network,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. “Apple may want to provide a monetization option for developers who provide apps for the iPhone or the tablet.”

Will Apple Compete with Google?

Apple’s acquisition comes about…

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MSNBC announced this morning that it is buying the BreakingNews.com URL. This follows November’s purchase of @breakingnews and its 1.4 million followers.

BNO has made waves since it first appeared, often breaking news before its mainstream competitors. When we profiled BNO and its 19-year-old founder Michael van Poppel in July, the company was just about to release its iPhone app and had over 800,000 followers on Twitter.

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“Not everyone wants news surrounded by commentary or features,” said Charlie Tillinghast, president of the MSNBC Digital Network in the company’s press release about the purchase.

We can only hope, however, that MSNBC can do the job that BNO was doing before. When we looked at the purchase of @breakingnews, MSNBC’s own twitter was dwarfed by the alternative news outlet.

MSNBC Spokesperson Gina Stikes told us in an email that “Msnbc has acquired the URL only,” so what will happen with the BNO staff remains to be seen. She did not disclose any further details, such as the purchase price.

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Later today, Google plans to unveil its own smartphone, the Nexus One. According to new data from research firm Forrerster’s new U.S. Omnibus Survey, Google is launching this phone at just the right time. Today, 17% of U.S. adult who subscribe to a cell phone plan use smartphones. This number is up from 11% in 2008 and 7% in 2007. Thanks to the growing importance of Android, Forrester thinks that 2010 will be “the year of the smartphone.”

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Forrester’s Charles S. Golvin also notes that quick messaging devices with closed operating systems like the LG Xenon are still growing at a rapid pace as well. Currently, about 15% of adult subscribers own one of these devices. While the growth of this category slowed down somewhat over 2009, it still eclipsed that of the smartphone segment. As prices for smartphones continue to come down and as developers manage to overcome some of the usability issues of current devices, more and more users will opt for full-blown smartphones instead of quick messaging devices in the coming years.

While Android and Apple’s iPhone are clearly driving the adoption of smartphones – and the Nexus One will surely play its part in this in 2010 – it’s important to note that BlackBerry still maintains its two-to-one advantage of the iPhone.

The Google Phone

It’ll be interesting to see how Google will market the Nexus One. Thanks to numerous early reviews, there is very little that we don’t know about the phone itself at this point. Chances are that Google has a few surprises up its sleeve for today’s announcement. After all, the company must have known that today’s press briefing would come long after all the details about the actual hardware of the phone had leaked already.

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon is king of the mobile hill right now, but you just knew that wouldn’t last long, right? Marvell is now after its throne, announcing the Armada 610. It’s a “gigahertz class” mobile CPU that can not only do 1080p decoding but can handle encoding too, even able to pump pixels to four high-res (2,000 x 2,000) displays at once — you know, just in case you have a pocket full of pico projectors. Open GL ES 2.0 is on tap, so 3D gaming should be a cinch, and while there’s no specific specs given, the chip is said to need “extremely low power.” It certainly sounds like a good combo to us, and that the chip is now shipping in limited samples to OEMs is even better news.

Marvell goes Snapdragon hunting, announces Armada 610 mobile processor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following up on last evening’s rumor, Apple has pulled the trigger and made its acquisition of mobile ad network Quattro Wireless official. A sale price wasn’t disclosed — $275 million is the popular number being thrown around — but the company’s CEO Andy Miller has been immediately elevated to Apple’s newly-minted VP of Mobile Advertising position. In a news post on Quattro’s site, Miller says that its products and services won’t change “for now” — but considering that it offers tailored advertising across a huge bounty of devices and platforms, we have to imagine Apple’s long-term strategy is going to involve making this framework more of an App Store value-add for developers. Time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: this is good news if (and only if) it either makes life easier on devs that want to offer awesome free apps or finally ushers in the era of free, non-carrier-subsidized, ad-supported smartphones that don’t suck.

Apple makes it official, acquires Quattro Wireless originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Carole and Dick Kleis live together on their eastern Iowa farm. This year for her birthday, Dick used three hours and more than 120,000 pounds of manure to spell out a birthday greeting for his wife.

“It’s not hard…..Any manure will work but the good, soft, gushy, warm stuff works the best. It kind of melts the snow.”

Dick’s birthday is in May and Carole is already dreaming up ways to outdo him. I’m afraid to ask!

If, like a kid after summer vacation, you’ve forgotten everything you learned before the holiday break, allow us to suggest a quick re-entry to the health-care debate.

It’s time for the House and Senate to hash out the (substantial) differences between the bills they’ve passed. And while it’s pretty clear that the House is going to have to do most of the giving in order to get a final bill through the Senate. The new, government-backed plan that’s included in the House bill, for example, will be DOA in the Senate.

There might be a little more wiggle room on how to pay for expanded health coverage; for example, Politico says, the House might lean on the Senate to raise the threshold for the tax on high-end health insurance plans, which unions don’t like. Differences over how the bills restrict funding for abortions may be particularly tough to resonve, the WSJ has said.

If you really want to know what’s what, it’s worth taking a closer look at the differences between the bills. This WSJ story is a good jumping off point; if you want to go deeper, take a look at this table compiled by House staffers and posted by Politico, or this 24-page takeout from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Bonus Process: A couple other wonky details: The House and Senate are going to try to work out a final bill without using a formal conference committee. Here’s why. Also, C-Span wants to broadcast the House-Senate negotiations, which are expected to take place largely in private.

Photo: Associated Press

Looking to make sure they’re not entirely overshadowed by Google’s much hyped Nexus One announcement later today, Rogers Canada has squeaked out a last minute Android-related press release — fortunately for them, it’s a handset we’re still pretty excited about.

Rogers has announced that they’ll be carrying the Android-powered, custom-interfaced Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 by the second quarter of 2010. Not only will they be the first carrier in Canada to offer up the device, but they’re claiming that they’ll be the first in all of North America with it – bad news for us Statesfolk that were hoping to pick one up before April.

No word yet on pricing.

You can find all of our coverage on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 here.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that BreakingNews.com was opperated by the same people who started the @breakingnews Twitter account.

MSNBC announced this morning that it is buying the BreakingNews.com URL from a company called PV Media Group. This follows November’s purchase of @breakingnews and its 1.4 million followers. The two companies were not connected before MSNBC’s acquisitions of their various projects.

When we profiled @breakingnews founder Michael van Poppel in July, the company was just about to release its iPhone app and had over 800,000 followers on Twitter. That number is now over 1.5 million.

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“Not everyone wants news surrounded by commentary or features,” said Charlie Tillinghast, president of the MSNBC Digital Network in the company’s press release about today’s purchase.

MSNBC Spokesperson Gina Stikes told us in an email that “Msnbc has acquired the URL only.” She did not disclose any further details, such as the purchase price.

For more background about BreakingNews.com, see today’s coverage at DomainNameWire.

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Adapted from “How Short-term Focus Contributes to Future Disasters,” by the Editors, first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

In the midst of the recent financial crisis, accusations of greed on Wall Street have sounded across the globe. Greed may be a significant factor in the collapse of credit markets, but it’s not the only one. Overlooked in cries to punish the “bad apples” is the role of a mistake that virtually all negotiators make: ignoring how our short-term decisions will affect us and others in the future.

In their book Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming and How to Prevent Them (Harvard Business School Press, 2004), Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins describe the financial scandals of 2001 and 2002 that led to the fall of Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, and other companies. They label such crises “predictable surprises”—disasters that shock those involved even though they had the information needed to anticipate them.

The Enron-era crisis, Bazerman and Watkins argue, was rooted in a conflict of interest that could cause auditors to make compromised judgments. Looking at today’s credit crisis, an unprecedented demand for affordable mortgages prompted banks, unhindered by significant regulations, to make risky lending decisions and equally risky investments. Defaults and foreclosures by overextended homeowners led to a credit crunch that brought down financial institutions and triggered a $700 billion taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout package.

The two crises share a common thread: the desire to maximize short-term returns blinded decision makers to predictable surprises lurking down the road. In both cases, warning signs went unheeded. Here are some suggestions for injecting more forward thinking into your negotiations.

1. Weigh long-term matters. As you prepare for your next negotiation, take time to think about how the issues at stake could play out down the road, advises professor Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni of Duke University. Bring up these concerns when you meet with your counterpart, and remind her of the value of reaching an agreement that will stand up over time. At any point in the negotiating process, you might also make a decision tree that charts the likely long-term results of various options.
2. Challenge broken systems. Simply talking about future concerns isn’t enough to ward off predictable surprises. You’ll also need to evaluate whether certain groups and structures in your organization are promoting short-term thinking at the expense of the future. Perhaps your company’s board of directors focuses myopically on short-term earnings reports. Maybe your company spends too much on lavish retreats. Brainstorm ways to fix the system and then lobby influential others to support your ideas.
3. Negotiate in stages. Negotiators often get into trouble when they implement long-term contracts for complicated, risky ventures. That was the case in 1998 when the U.S. spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), awarded Boeing a $5 billion, five-year contract to build two different complex satellite systems. Six years later and billions of dollars over budget, NRO fired Boeing for failing to deliver. The lesson: Negotiate one project at a time, and insist on incremental progress before awarding additional work.

Yesterday we mentioned that Rasmussen was going into the field with a poll in the Massachusetts Senate race, and that it could show a shockingly close race.

It did.

A pre-release of the poll, which has the GOP challenger just 9% behind, is being described as an “earthquake.”

9% may seem like a lot, but non in deep blue Massachusetts. And in a low-turnout off-schedule election with so much riding on it — namely, the 60th vote on healthcare —  anything can happen.

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See Also:

• New Poll Shows Healthcare-Killing Upset Potential In Massachusetts Senate Race

If you want to see the ultimate in the “entitlement” mentality of the old record labels, check out this report of a Finnish indie label posted an angry rant to its website threatening that it won’t sign any new artists until the government somehow stops piracy. Good luck with that plan. Let’s see if anyone actually cares. You basically have a business, that refuses to adapt, insisting that it will now go out of business unless the government somehow does the impossible and stops market forces from doing what they do. The proper response is to just let the label go out of business. If it can’t adapt, then it should die. Simple as that.

What’s really unfortunate, of course, is that I just got back from Norway a couple months ago, and was so impressed with the optimism and enthusiasm from various folks in the music industry around the Nordic countries (including quite a few from Finland). Apparently, the folks from Lion Music didn’t attend that event.

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What’s the connection between Steve Wozniak, the Pope, and Henry Kissinger? That’s right, it’s hacking.

Ciena shares (CIEN) are tearing higher on vague trader rumors that Nokia (NOK) could buy them. Classy.

The Street: The speculation, which was not attributed to any particular source, started circulating among traders around 10:30 a.m. EST Tuesday.

Shares are up 5.2% right now. Anyone care to add their insight?

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See Also:

• Nokia Strikes Back: ‘Virtually All’ Apple Gadgets And Computers Infringe Patents
• Is There Any Way To Save Nokia Or Is The Place Just Toast?
• Apple Sues Nokia Back, Claims Patent Infringement

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David’s 2008 Startup School talk
Another trip to the archives. This time we listen to one of David’s most popular talks. At a conference largely dedicated to talk of venture capitalism, he discusses how you can grow a company without looking for funding. Along the way, he explains the story of Basecamp and how 37signals has grown as a company. (We’ll be back with brand new content on the next episode.)

See related links for this episode. Previous episodes available at 37signals.com/podcast. Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS.