Category: News

It feels like CES is starting a bit early this year, as Ars will be going on-site to the Google HQ in Mountain View to cover the launch of Google’s Nexus One phone. Beginning at 9:30am PT, we’ll be reporting live with specs, photos, and blow-by-blow coverage as the event unfolds. Sign up via the form below to be notified when the coverage starts.

If you miss the liveblog, you’ll be able to replay it after the event is over. Also, check out our post-event summary for more context and analysis.

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In 1983, U2 frontman Bono was a scrappy upstart on the world music scene, and he sang about how “nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” But the 2010 version of Irish rocker is a world-traveling, President-meeting, New York Times op-ed-penning factotum—and he’s demanding some New Year’s changes, especially from ISPs. Forget acting like “dumb pipes” or even the Post Office; ISPs must now take a lesson from China and start proactively filtering copyrighted content.

Bono’s NYT column offers up ten big ideas for the next decade. It’s an entertaining read, especially when he suggests that the US government use its current investment in car companies like GM to bring in designers like “Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive from Apple” to make cars “sexual objects” once again. (We’d love to see Ive’s take on that quintessential non-sexy suburban vehicle, the minivan, for instance.)

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A towering German Chocolate Cake is definitely a dessert to look forward to, but there isn’t always time – nor do I always have the desire – to construct a multi-layered cake. The solution to this little problem is a batch of German Chocolate Cake Brownies. These brownies have all the flavor of the cake, including a coconut-pecan topping that is very much like the gooey frosting that usually finished off a traditional German chocolate cake.

This recipe comes from the Taste of Home Baking Book, a favorite of mine because it has so many classic American baking recipes in it, including cakes, cookies, pies, breads and, of course, brownies. These brownies are very rich and chocolatey with a slightly unusual melt-in-your-mouth texture that makes them seem almost like a very tender cake. They are neither fudgy nor cakey, but are a great balance somewhere in between that should appeal to all brownie fans. The brownies are also not too sweet, so they balance well with the sweet, sticky topping.

The topping is a mixture of coconut, chopped pecans, brown sugar and butter. It is spread onto the brownies after they bake and then broiled to melt it and caramelize the top. Be careful with this step because it is easy to burn both the coconut and the pecans. Either set your oven rack a little ways away from your broiler (a middle rack instead of a top rack) or keep a very sharp eye on it, rather than setting a timer and walking away.

These brownies keep very well and, in an airtight container, will still taste great after several days.

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Whoever decides this thing made another great choice when they selected Katherine Paterson to replace Jon Scieszka as the National Ambassador to Young People’s Literature. I admire Paterson very much as an author, and her Bridge to Terabithia is definitely one of those “now this here is what I’m trying to do” type books. I love this decision because she is also quite different from the first ambassador, except that she’s also perfect, and someone who will connect with kids and inspire adults. I also think this really cements this position as one bestowed on the highest achievers and most respected men and women of letters who write for young people.

Huge news on the prepaid front this evening, as BGR reports that Boost Mobile will be receiving the BlackBerry Curve 8330 later in the month.

The Curve 8330 will join the Boost line, along with the Sanyo Incognito and Mirro, on January 13th.  Pricing will be $249, $149, and $99, respectively.  Boost Mobile plans will offer unlimited calling, text messaging, and web browsing, and will be $70/monthly for Curve users.  The standard $50/month charge will apply to the Incognito and Mirro.

I’m not a fan of Boost Mobile’s iDEN offerings due to past (and present) issues with text messaging and slow data connectivity, but with the BlackBerry Curve 8330 being a CDMA device, I would be more than willing to pick up one myself.  Unlimited (reliable) calling, text messaging, and web sounds like a good deal to me.  Why spend $99 monthly on a Sprint Curve 8330 when you can spend $70 monthly on a Boost Mobile Curve 8330?

We’ve seen prepaid BlackBerry devices appear on T-Mobile and MetroPCS in the past, but a third prepaid carrier being added to the mix shows a continued push by RIM into the consumer market.  With pricing like $70 per month, it also throws the theory that “prepaid is more expensive than postpaid” on its head.  Yes, the price of the device is costly upfront, but the value of no contract and $240 in yearly savings is worth it to me.  What say you?

Amidst a major re-imaging, GM is pushing dealers to remodel their showrooms, and they are even offering to foot part of the bill. In order to be reimbursed for the work however, dealers must follow guidelines set forth by GM which includes brand-isolation. That is, GM brands must be sold separate from non-GM brands, an point sure to cause a hurdle for many auto malls. Dealers have three-years to complete the remodeling, and can expect to be paid back in five to 10 years. Also, repayment will be based on sales figures and not the cost of renovation.

Dubbed the Essential Brand Elements program by GM, the plan also requires that dealers accepting assistance follow a common web site design, and submit their staff’s to GM training and hand over their sales and service customer lists so that the company may coordinate marketing mailings.

The amount of assistance received by each dealer will be based on a seasonally adjusted formula that take snit account the prices of vehicles sold.

The new design campaign is targeted specifically towards younger buyers, as the company wants the in-person experiences of these individuals to match the media market image being built by GM.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

The following is a statement from CUB Executive Director David Kolata on the appointment of Ald. Flores to chair ICC:

Gov. Pat Quinn’s appointment of Chicago Ald. Manuel Flores to chair the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) is good news for Land of Lincoln consumers.

Ald. Flores has proven to be a strong, independent, and fair voice for consumers during a career of public service.

He has made consumer issues a top priority, and has been a strong supporter of renewable energy and energy-efficiency initiatives that are key to controlling turbulent energy prices.

CUB looks forward to working with Ald. Flores to promote consumer-friendly telecommunications and energy policy in Illinois.

CUB is Illinois’ leading nonprofit utility watchdog organization. Created by the Illinois Legislature, CUB opened its doors in 1984 to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers.

CUB has saved consumers more than $10 billion by helping to block rate hikes and secure refunds over the years. For more information, call CUB’s Consumer Hotline at 1-800-669-5556 or visit CUB’s award-winning website, CitizensUtilityBoard.org.

Traumas the ioSafe Solo solid-state external drive can survive: Building collapse, 1550-degree fire, 30-foot submersion in salt water, and a 5,000-pound “crush force.” So you might say it’s durable.

It’s pretty much the most disaster-proof external drive I’ve ever seen. It also has eSATA in addition to USB and a “no questions asked” policy with regards to data recovery (which is good—what kind of horrors are you subjecting this thing to if you need data recovery?). It’ll be available in February in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities for, as expected, the very high prices of $500, $750 and $1250, respectively. [ioSafe]

His shoots are: danger+sex+fun=art.

(via @Allanhyde on Twitter)

For those of you who love CDMA and fear contracts, we have some good news for you. A new connect has come through with some details on three new handsets to be offered by U.S. prepaid provider Boost Mobile. Our source indicates that starting January 13, Boost will be offering the BlackBerry 8330 for $249 and will pair it with an unlimited talk, text and web plan for $70/month. The Sanyo Incognito will be offered for $149 and the Sanyo Mirro for $99, both with unlimited talk, text and web for $50/month. We’ve got the additional screen captures queued up for you after the break. So the only question left is, any Boost Mobile fans out there and anyone itching to grab a BlackBerry 8330?

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Kittie lives in a 170 square foot studio, so you can imagine how small her kitchen must be. The original Pullman kitchen dated from the 1920’s and was like a narrow closet behind french doors.

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If you’re not quite ready to move or you have given up on selling your home for a few years until the market recovers, why not try one of these small home improvement projects to make you feel happier about the house you have? A little project can make a room look a lot nicer and you can always do another little project in the same room a few months later. Repeat the process long enough and you’ll eventually have a new room. (And you won’t have a $20,000 loan out on the project, either.)

• Replace your shabby old hall carpet with laminate flooring. Unless you have a mini mansion, your hall will be small enough that you can keep your costs on this project nice and low.
• Take advantage of rebates and government incentives to replace a dented and worn kitchen or laundry room appliance. Cash for Appliances, which was supposed to start at the end of 2009, is now slated to start in March 2010 for many states.
• Paint a wall. If you have a room that needs some color, you can try painting just one wall to make a focal point and leave the rest white or beige. Even with top quality paint and a great brush, you can do this project for under $100.
• Add some nice moulding to a room. Chair rail can add a lot of interest very cheaply. Just be sure you make your miter cuts in the right direction. (Yes, I’m telling you this from sad, sad experience.)
• Switch out hardware on kitchen cupboard doors or the doors throughout your house. Changing out exterior door hardware has the added bonus of increasing safety and security if you upgrade to better locks and add deadbolts.

Photo: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Five Little Home Improvement Projects for 2010

A young American lady, Katie Spotz, has just started to row across the Atlantic Ocean on her own. Why? Katie, 22 years old, hopes to raise $30,000 for Blue Planet Run and give clean water to 1,000 people by doing this!

Katie just pushed off from Senegal yesterday and is on her way. She hopes to make the 2,500-mile journey in just over 100 days. The map above shows her progress up until now (updated every 20 minutes on her twitter page by Google Earth).

Apparently, she really will not see another human being for the entire trip (although she is sure to have bird visitors — her first one photographed in the picture below). She has not been rowing for long, but apparently she is not new to such adventures.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is on the fence about circumcision for newborn boys: The group says there’s not enough evidence to recommend routine circumcision, and parents should weigh the risks and benefits of the procedure.

But a group of doctors from Johns Hopkins and the NIH argue this week in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine that the AAP should update its recommendation because recent studies showed circumcision reduces the risk of catching certain sexually transmitted diseases. Some key recent data come from African men who were circumcised as adults, but the authors argue that observational evidence shows the procedure also lowers risks for U.S. men who are circumcised as infants.

Parents should still be allowed to decide what’s best for their baby, the paper argues. But a stronger stance by the AAP might lead to broader coverage of the procedure by state Medicaid programs, the health-insurance program for the poor. That could drive up circumcision rates among the poor and, ultimately, drive down the rate of sexually transmitted infections.

An accompanying editorial argues that the data on health benefits are “not yet clear enough” to recommend routine circumcision — but agrees that there’s enough evidence to merit Medicaid coverage for those parents who choose circumcision.

There are 16 states where Medicaid doesn’t cover the procedure, according to the Hopkins and NIH docs.

We wanted to hear what the AAP had to say about the subject. The group’s press office directed us to a doc who serves on the group’s circumcision task force, but we haven’t heard back from him yet. We’ll update this post when we do.

For further reading on the risks and benefits of the procedure, check out this patient information page that Archives published along with today’s papers.

Update: The AAP’s task force has been reviewing the evidence on circumcision for more than a year, according to Doug Diekema, a Seattle doc who is part of the group. The task force expects to publish an updated policy later this year; they’re unlikely to recommend that all newborn boys be circumcised, Diekema said.

“I think probably … we are going to say something similar to what we said the last time which is, ‘There are potential benefits. There are also some risks. And parents ought to be informed of those things and given the choice.’ ”

Image: iStockphoto

Datacolor has been in the HDTV and computer monitor calibrating scene for some time now. Its latest model, the Spyder3HDMI, is just the latest calibration tool in a long line. This model, however, has a clever new trick: it doesn’t need a computer or DVD player. Nope, the Spyder3HDMI feeds all the necessary color targets and dialogs directly into the HDTV. Hopefully it works as well as it sounds.

The older models required you to hook a sensor to the front of the HDTV or project screen and then connect it to a computer. A DVD player then provides the HDTV a series of color patterns and while the user adjusts the TV’s display settings step-by-step. I have one. It works well, but it’s definitely not a system that an above-average Luddite could handle. The whole process takes about 25 minutes, but the results are worth it.

The new system at least sounds like it takes a lot of the guess work out. The process probably isn’t automatic and users will likely still need to adjust the TV’s settings manually, but at least a computer isn’t involved anymore. Stay tuned for more details. (bad pun courtesy of Datacolor’s PR flack)

Datacolor® and Portrait Displays Demonstrate New Generation TV Calibration System – Spyder3HDMI®

New System Automatically Calibrates TVs Using Integrated Software

2010 International CES
January 04, 2010 08:00 AM Eastern Time
LAS VEGAS–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Datacolor®, a global leader in digital color management technology, along with its product development partner, Portrait Displays, Inc., announced they will demonstrate an incredible breakthrough in TV calibration with their new Spyder3HDMI® calibration system. The companies will display the new TV color calibration technology at their booth located inside the HDMI TechZone in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the Consumer Electronics Show (South Hall, Booth #20309)

“Consumers are making significant investments in their home theater systems but often lack the knowledge or proper tools to get their big screen TVs to perform at optimum levels”

Spyder3HDMI automatically calibrates any digital TV using an HDMI connection, eliminating the need for a computer or cumbersome third party solution that requires OSD adjustments. The software, including all dialogs and color targets, is embedded directly into the TV for easy calibration. With Spyder3HDMI, professional color adjustments are no longer proprietary to only sophisticated users or installation technicians but available to everyone. Anyone can now benefit from properly calibrated color to maximize their viewing experience. The built-in, step-by-step process calibrates the color of each TV to its specific environment.

“Consumers are making significant investments in their home theater systems but often lack the knowledge or proper tools to get their big screen TVs to perform at optimum levels,” says Christoph Gamper, Vice President, Consumer Business Unit, Datacolor. “Spyder3HDMI takes the frustration and guesswork out of calibrating your TV and simplifies the process by embedding the software and step-by-step instructions directly into the TVs operating environment. Once calibrated, consumers will see an amazing difference in the viewing experience, as well as a reduction in their energy consumption because a calibrated TV is more energy efficient,” Mr. Gamper added.

TV manufacturers, Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are invited to visit Datacolor and Portrait Displays at the HDMI TechZone to learn how easy it is incorporate the color calibration software into their TV product line. Calibration set-up instructions can be designed to match each manufacturer’s On-Screen Display (OSD) for a seamless, customized look.

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This is an interesting development. The latest Vaios leaked out a little while ago, and for the most part they were what one would expect: improved performance, better battery life, that sort of thing. But there’s an interesting feature that wasn’t on the leaked spec list (and isn’t confirmed to be, either): a “quad” SSD composed of four SSD drives working together in RAID 0. If the chipset and other hardware are designed with something like this in mind, it really could be extremely fast.

Of course it’d be fast whether they designed for it or not, but if they made sure to have the right motherboard, fast RAM, special storage controllers and so on, it could blow away the competition. Laptop had drives are traditionally low-power 5400RPM HDDs, though SSDs are becoming more common, and this multiple SSD setup could be the next step in luxury mobile computing.

It’s unclear whether the “64GB/128GB x 4″ quoted is, for instance, four 32GB drives making up 128GB or four 128GB drives making up 512GB. I’d lean towards the former, since the latter would be incredibly expensive. Sure, SSDs are already expensive, but four high-capacity drives would put the raw storage cost at over $1500.

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I’m sure this is a very grand advance in miniaturization, but I’m afraid the results may be questionable. Omnivision has announced a new sensor for mobile phone cameras that will take 14MP photos and do 1080p video at 60FPS. As far as I’m concerned, this is bad news. Cameraphone lenses are slow and of very low quality, and the tiny sensor size means both bad low light performance and bad clarity due to insanely small pixel pitch.

And the video will have to be low bitrate to accommodate the lack of storage on most phones. 1080p video at 1Mbps? It’ll be like watching an HDTV smeared with vaseline.

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