Category: News

MICRO ECO BUSINESS: Besides the organic apple-a-day, The Center for the Micro Eco-Farming Movement is working on a report on quality and affordable health care insurance for small business farms — urban to rural.

We welcome legitimate information from real farmers or small business owners. We don’t welcome ads for insurance disguised as articles by real farmers or real small business owners.

Right now, here is an excellent PDF from the non-profit Center for Rural Affairs on how health care reform helps with small business and rural health care now and in the future. — www.MicroEcoFarming.com

Waaay back in April, a handset with strikingly similar specs to the beastly Samsung Galaxy S showed up in the Bluetooth certification database. The big difference here, though, was the model number: SGH-i897. Through good ol’ fashion science (and by that, I mean looking at the model number), we deduced that this guy was headed for AT&T — and we were right.

The titular guys over at AndroidGuys managed to unearth themselves some shots of the i897, and the branding couldn’t be any clearer.

Along with the shots came some new details:

• 5-megapixel camera
• Android 2.1
• Snapdragon CPU. The clock speed couldn’t be confirmed, but it’s presumably running at 1Ghz.

This, in addition to the specs we already knew (Bluetooth, a 4.0″ AMOLED display) are chalking this up into what could very well be AT&T’s first worthwhile foray into Android. (There’s a reason I didn’t review their first Android phone, the Motorola Backflip. My mom always told me: “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.)

Check out a few more shots at AndroidGuys.

Sweet Jupiter’s Loins! Look at this thing. It’s a quad rotor flyer with 20 independent cameras designed to blow through windows and sneak around tight spaces nary a whisper. I’m not sure what’s scarier – the device itself or the sounds it makes.

The folks at the GRASP Lab at Penn created this robot. You may remember them from such hits as “self assembling robot” and Little Ben, the self driving car.

The New York Times’ Ron Lieber has an excellent column on the severe hangover left by the cocktail of cheap credit and spiraling college tuitions: the tens of thousands of young people saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of what is, effectively, subprime student loan debt. In some cases, that student debt is more onerous than mortgage or credit-card debt, since it is difficult to get rid of via bankruptcy.

Lieber elucidates the point by telling the story of Cortney Munna, who lives in pricey San Francisco, makes $22 an hour and owes $97,000 to Citibank and Sallie Mae for her New York University diploma. She is a photographer’s assistant, and has no intention of going into a high-paying career in a field like finance. She is stuck, and her mother might end up selling off her bed and breakfast to rid her of debt.

Lieber’s story is particularly exceptional for making the argument others are loath to make: that Munna’s education was not worth it, and that she would have been better off dropping out and enrolling somewhere cheaper. Of course, on aggregate, people with college diplomas significantly out-earn those without them. And of course, it is impossible to calculate the value of time spent in school or of education for its own sake. But in Munna’s case, where a college diploma makes no difference in her earning potential in her chosen career, remaining in a pricey institution — New York University is the fourth most expensive out of the nation’s 1,800 private colleges — might not have been the right choice.

Canada’s Kiwi Choice has announced the release of a strangely familiar-looking portable solar charger for mobile devices. The three-panel photovoltaic fan design first used by Solio has found its way to Kiwi’s U-Powered charger. Featuring a powerful battery, LED flashlight and magnetic feet, the product also comes with multiple device connector tips for maximum compatibility…
Continue Reading Kiwi Choice portable solar charger borrows effective technology

Tags: Charger,
flashlight,
Photovoltaic,
Solar

Related Articles:

• The Solio portable solar charger – green, cool and very handy
• Energi To Go range promises portable power for almost any gadget
• Solio Magnesium Edition portable solar charger
• Powcell’s green smartphone-charging solution
• YoGen charger uses your energy for its power
• Brace yourself for power shortages with the Universal Gadget Wrist Charger

Speaking to a DC crowd at the Brookings Institution, Hillary Clinton made an off-the-cuff comment about raising taxes that might get some play in the political entertainment world:

“Brazil has the highest tax-to-G.D.P. rate in the Western hemisphere.
And guess what? It’s growing like crazy. The rich are getting richer,
but they are pulling people out of poverty. There is a certain formula
there that used to work for us until we abandoned it — to our regret,
in my opinion. My view is that you have to get many countries to
increase their public revenues.”

I imagine conservatives itching to point out that Brazil’s payroll tax amounts to 40% of employers’ compensation and 15% of employeess wages, and that Brazil boasts a pretty extravagant social welfare system, including universal health care, social security, and early retirement with full pay. This is our gold standard? they’ll ask.

Brazil is not a good model for the United States’ tax system. It has a wildly different template, with a patchwork of state and federal value-added taxes, marginal income taxes that don’t exceed 25 percent (ours will jump to 38 when the Bush cuts expire) and the aforementioned extravagant payroll contributions. I don’t know enough about Brazil’s tax system to know if it has good lessons for U.S. makers. But I do know that “highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western hemisphere” isn’t a trophy we should necessary seek for its own sake.

I don’t like the higher-tax-rates-are-like-Miracle-Grow argument, because our best revenue-raising taxes aren’t sin taxes designed to punish bad things; rather many of them discourage things we consider to be good, like consumption, and income, and profitable investments. We pay these taxes because they support the government we want.

There’s a better, simpler argument for higher taxes. Americans have collectively and repeatedly voted for federal programs like Medicare, Social Security, a strong national defense, a sturdy welfare net, nice roads and other things that cost more than we’re paying in taxes. The short-term result is a structural deficit. The long-term risk is a rickety debt burden that makes it more expensive to borrow money and harder to run the government programs we like.

It’s really great that a high-tax country is experiencing a consumer-driven boom. It’s not great that one of two political parties in the United States is against all tax increases, ever, no matter what. But these things don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other.

United States – Social Security – Brazil – Brookings Institution – Hillary Clinton

Onondaga CC will transition its trimmed and mowed lawns and landscape into a more appropriate state of natural flowers and grasses.  …

…   “implementation of the sustainable master landscape plan will reduce the College’s dependence on lawn-mowing and return portions of the campus landscape to a more natural state of grasses, meadows and wildflowers.  While some areas of the campus may look a bit unkempt initially, natural re-growth in these areas will occur over time.”   …

Via Onondaga Community College: Master landscape plan.

   

Sustainable landscape plan (PDF).

Nico Rosberg, the Mercedes F1 Driver, is one freak as he avoids staying at hotels in Turkey for the Istanbul GP edition by lodging in his motor home, but the F1 driver has decided it is his last stay at the motor home in Turkey.

Nico was noticeably frustrated by the Turkish traffic and the transporting charges which he thought were too high compared to the benefits he gained by brining in his personal commuter home to Turkey. Nico openly quipped that it is ‘definitely’ the last time he has endeavored to do it.

Considering his reasons, we believe he has taken the right decisions.

Week of May 24 – to – May 28, 2010

Eager to place a containment dome over a media cycle, that more and more was drawing uncomfortable parallels with the Bush White House’s botched Katrina response, yesterday President Obama held his first press conference in 10 months. During the hour-long media grilling the President defended his administration’s and the federal government’s handling of the 6-week old oil spill. He again vowed that BP would be held accountable for causing what — as of yesterday – is officially the worst oil spill in U.S. history and announced a six months moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling.  Shortly before the press conference, word came out that Elizabeth Birnbaum, the head of the embedded Mineral Management Service (MMS), was fired. Since the start of the spill MMS had been under fire for its cozy relationship with the oil and gas companies its regulates.

It was just a few weeks ago that the White House was toying with the idea of pushing through comprehensive immigration reform at the expense of climate change and energy. At the time Arizona had enacted a controversial immigration law that Obama said was “misguided.”  But the BP oil spill is turning out to be a big problem for Obama and his administration.  Upon learning about the extent of the spill, he is reported to have told aides to “plug the damn hole! Because of the events in the Gulf alternative energy and green policies in general have once again become top priorities. Earlier this week, in a speech at a solar module plant, Obama (finally) pushed for immediate action on the Kerry – Lieberman climate change legislation. He said: “We’ve got to have a long-term energy strategy in this country.” And added: “We’ve got to start cultivating solar and wind and biodiesel. And we’ve got to increase energy efficiency across our economy in our buildings and our automobiles.”

But despite renewed interest by the While House, the question remains: Does Kerry-Lieberman have the votes to pass? Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he won’t release the bill for a full floor debate if it doesn’t have 60 votes coming in. Besides the expected “nay” votes from entrenched climate change deniers, Senators Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Kerry (D-Mass.) a legislation that supports offshore oil and gas drilling. The provisions were included before the BP spill to sway Senators, with relatively little interest in actual climate change issues, to back their legislation. But given what’s happening in the Gulf, these could end-up torpedoing the legislation. Senators from key coastal states (New Jersey, Florida) have said they would vote against the legislation if it expanded offshore drilling. In a recent podcast Michael Levi at the Council on Foreign Relations, has a “hard time” believing Senators Kerry and Lieberman could line the 60 votes the bill needs to pass given what’s happening in the Gulf.

Reverberations from the global financial crisis, which has sent the euro south, is seriously testing China’s green aspirations.  This week photovoltaic panel maker Yingli Green Energy said it would shelve its North American expansion because of the global financial instability. The news is a blow for Phoenix and Austin, which had been lobbying for the plant and the jobs and tax revenues that came with it. Yingli’s decision underscores a more general concern with Chinese green energy companies which can produce cheap PV panels or wind turbines but do not have the deep IP knowledge-base that over the long-term can make their products competitive, in good or bad times.

After a record-breaking 2009, thanks to unprecedented stimulus funding, the U.S. wind sector is set to experience a soft-landing in 2010, according to a forecast released Wednesday by IHS Emerging Energy Research, which predicted a 40- to -60 percent drop in new wind installations in 2010, compared to last year. IHS blames the slowdown on the ongoing global financial crisis; record-low natural gas prices, and ongoing regulatory uncertainty. “2010 marks the first time since 2004 that the U.S. wind industry will not surpass the previous year’s growth level,” said IHS Senior Analyst Matthew Kaplan, one of the study’s authors.

VC and PE Watch

This week we learned that Energate, a Canadian developer of home energy management solutions, is looking to raise as much as  $14 million from current and new investors as part of a Series C that could happen in the next 12 months. On Thursday the company announced a $7.2 million Series B funding co-led by Montreal-based Cycle Capital’s Fund I and the Ontario Emerging Technology Fund (OETF).

Innova Dynamics, a developer of advanced materials that can be used in cleantech applications, raised $5.5 million in an inaugural financing led by Rho Ventures. MentorTech Ventures also participated in this Series A round.

Solar power plant developer SunEdison and energy-focused private equity fund First Reserve formed a venture to finance solar projects developed by SunEdison. The two companies will first invest an initial $165 million in the venture, which could eventually hold up to $1.5 billion in investment capital.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined cleantech-focused venture capital fund Khosla Ventures as a senior adviser.

Rambling

Could the tens – of – thousands of barrels spewing out every day out of the Deep Horizon well be a boon for cleantech? Yes, a controversial question but one worth posing. In the wake of the BP spill what’s for sure is that it will take a longer and it will be more expensive to develop offshore well. Analysts predict that the six months moratorium on deep water drilling announced yesterday could shave off 200,000 – to – 300,000 barrels per day from U.S. production by 2014.  This will help tighten oil supply and increase prices. The reality though is exports from Canada or even the Middle East will easily make up for any decline in U.S. production.  So, no the BP spill alone won’t be a game changer favoring cleantech. It is, however, one more rock-solid argument supporting renewable energies over hard-to – access fossil fuels.

Image: PicApp

The first Hurt Locker lawsuits are a-flyin’. Were you one of the lucky winners?

As you know, the movie’s producers hooked up with the U.S. Copyright Group, which, aside from the official-sounding name, is just another one of the many copyright infringement collection agencies out there. It’s about as federal as Federal Express, in other words.

Their gimmick is to send you a letter saying, “Hi. We have information from your ISP that says you downloaded The Hurt Locker using BitTorrent. You have two options: cut us a cheque right now for $1,500, or face the wrath of the U.S. court system.”

Five thousand such lawsuits have been sent so far.

I didn’t download the movie from BitTorrent, so I’m not expecting a letter.

Materials: Ikea kitchen wall panels

Description: I didn’t want to have bypassing sliding doors for my bedroom closet and thought one door would save space. My house is old but didn’t have much in the way of good salvageable architectural details. I bought some Ikea kitchen cover panels (look for them in the damaged area, they are expensive otherwise) They usually have a lot there which are only damaged on one side. Got some construction adhesive, clamps, and a nail gun. The sliding mechanism for the door is just stock iron pipes and casters from any home store.

~ Mike Izzo, South Jersey

Looks like we’ll finally be able to insure our iPhones through AT&T soon. Word is that the carrier will allow us to purchase the iPhone insurance service right through the Apple App Store for $13.99 per month. More »










App Store – IPhone – Handhelds – Smartphones – Apple

Course is scheduled for this June 23rd and 24th at Onondaga Community College through SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.  …

…   “The advanced course is geared toward PV installers and engineers who have experience with PV systems. It offers participants an overview of commercial PV systems in a two-day workshop. The course is recommended for those who have taken an introductory installer course or have previous installer experience.”   …

Via SUNY: PV Installer Course.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] on Friday refused to order a new evidentiary hearing [opinion, PDF] in the case of five Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives]. Instead, in a per curiam decision, the court reinstated its original opinion, which gives political branches exclusive power in determining the release of non-citizens being held by the federal government. In April, the Supreme Court ordered the circuit court to reconsider [JURIST report] Kiyemba v. Obama [docket; CCR backgrounder] in light of the fact that each of the remaining Uighurs has received an offer of resettlement by another country. In response, the circuit court denied the petitioners’ request to remand the case to the district court [JURIST report] for an evidentiary hearing on whether any of the resettlement offers were “appropriate,” holding that it was in the power of the political branches to determine whether a country is appropriate for resettlement. The court further explained that even if the detainees had good reason to reject the resettlement offers, they still possessed no right to be released into the US:

In seven separate enactments – five of which remain in force today – Congress has prohibited the expenditure of any funds to bring any Guantanamo detainee to the United States. Petitioners say these statutes, which clearly apply to them, violate the Suspension Clause of the Constitution. But the statutes suspend nothing: petitioners never had a constitutional right to be brought to this country and released. Petitioners also argue that the new statutes are unlawful bills of attainder. The statutory restrictions, which apply to all Guantanamo detainees, are not legislative punishments; they deprive petitioners of no right they already possessed.

The Constitution Project [advocacy website], a bipartisan think tank focusing on constitutional issues, immediately denounced the judgment [press release]. The group criticized the court’s ruling for being too broad on the issue of the judiciary’s role the release of detainees. Authoring a separate concurring opinion, Circuit Judge Judith Rogers, agreed with the Constitution Project’s assertion that the ruling was too broad, but held that there was no role for the judiciary in this case because the five Uighurs “hold the keys to their release from Guantanamo. All they must do is register their consent” to the proposed resettlement offers.

The DC circuit court’s ruling came in a case informally referred to as Kiyemba I, which is separate from a different suit filed by the Uighur detainees, known as Kiyemba II. In March, the Supreme Court declined to rule [JURIST report] in Kiyemba II, on certain issues surrounding the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees. Lawyers for four Uighurs detained at Guantanamo were appealing [JURIST report] an April 2009 ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] by the DC circuit court, which held that US courts cannot prevent the government from transferring Guantanamo detainees to foreign countries on the grounds that detainees may face prosecution or torture in the foreign country. Of the 22 Uighurs originally detained at Guantanamo Bay, 17 have accepted offers of relocation to other countries. Two Uighurs were transferred to Switzerland, six to Palau, four to Bermuda and five to Albania [JURIST reports].

It’s college graduation season in the United States.

Even in today’s weak economy, students from prestigious Ivy League universities like Harvard have an extra advantage on the road to financial success. However, not everyone in Harvard College’s Class of 2010 is striving for a lucrative career.

Career choices

Graduation is just days away, and Robin Mount is even busier than usual.

The director of Harvard’s Office of Career Services is matching her students with the right employers and career opportunities, often in the fields of education, international development and public service.

Read more here.

A Kia disponibilizou mais uma das várias versões especiais do Soul, em conjunto com a empresa customizadora alemã Irmscher. Seu mais novo modelo em serie especial se chamará Kia Soul Edition Irmscher 001.

Nessa versão, o modelo incorporá elementos mais esportivos e de maior requinte. Seu sistema de som foi levado mais a sério e ficou mais potente, seus bancos são revestidos em couro com suas laterais imitando fibra de carbono, com sua parte central disponível em couro vermelho. Outros detalhes internos como a capa de seu painel de instrumentos, volante e revestimento da manopla do câmbio, também receberam aplique de couro imitando fibra de carbono.

Por fora, o Kia Soul Edition Irmscher 001 também agradará aos mais jovens e que desejam um visual mais esportivo, oferecendo um pacote especial com novos detalhes em preto em sua carroceria, para-choques, capas dos espelhos retrovisores e na sua coluna, além de adesivos exclusivos da serie e de um jogo de rodas esportivas de 18 polegadas, calçadas com pneus nas medidas 225/45 R18.

A edição especial do Kia Soul Edition Irmscher 001será oferecido na Europa em todas as configurações existentes de motores do mercado local, incluindo a opção de escolher entre o cambio manual ou automáticom além de seus diversos níveis de acabamento.

Kia Soul Edition Irmscher 001

Fonte: CarScoop

In a joint statement from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission, investors have been warned today about the possibility of investment scams being operated by companies claiming to be involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Reads the statement: “While some of the companies touting their role in the cleanup may be legitimate, others could be bogus operations that are only looking to clean out unsuspecting investors.”

In its attempt to alert consumers to the warning signs of a possible scam, the SEC and FINRA has stated to watch out for companies claiming one or more of the following:

• Products or technologies effective in remediating oil spils or restoring the ecosystem;

• Contracts or expected contracts with BP

• Technical expertise provided to BP or government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency

• Quick, exponential sales growth.

Slick promotions: Don’t get conned by oil cleanup investment scams [Consumer Reports]

Obsessive-compulsive mice, which were once pulling their hair out from too much grooming, are now sitting pretty. Their cure? A bone marrow transplant. In a study published today in Cell, scientists show an unsuspected link between a psychological disorder and the immune system.

Here’s how they did it:

Step 1 – Finding the Problem

Since excessive cleaning is a behavior, scientists first thought to look for defects in the mouse brain. They noticed that mice with a mutant version of the gene Hoxb8 were the ones cleaning themselves bald. Hoxb8 is important for creating microglia–nervous system repair cells that search for damage in the brain.

Although some microglia start out in the brain, others are born in the bone marrow and move in. Overall, adult mice with faulty Hoxb8 harbored about 15% fewer microglia in the brain than normal. [ScienceNow]

Since many microglia move from bone marrow to brain, the scientists decided to give the compulsive mice, with the mutant Hoxb8 gene, a marrow transplant.

Step 2 — Treatment

They took marrow from mice with regular Hoxb8 and gave it to the compulsive mice mice. Within four weeks, the mice stopped their obsessive cleaning. Within about three months, they had a full coat of hair.

“A lot of people are going to find it amazing,” said Mario Capecchi at the University of Utah, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2007 for his work on mouse genetics [and was a co-author of the paper]. “That’s the surprise: bone marrow can correct a behavioral defect.” [Guardian]

Step 3 — Prognosis

Scientists aren’t sure why a gene controlling immune cells (the microglia) appears to cure a psychological disorder, but they have some suspicions.

“Why couple behavior such as grooming to the host’s immune system?” the researchers ask in [the paper’s] conclusion. “From an evolutionary perspective it may make perfect sense to couple a behavior such as grooming, whose purpose is to reduce pathogen count, with the cellular machinery–the innate and adaptive immune systems–used to eliminate pathogens.” [e! Science News]

Humans have a psychological disorder that mirrors this grooming and hair loss compulsion in mice–the obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder trichotillomania in which people pull out their own hair. But before jumping on this apparent marrow transplant cure, scientists would need to find the particular human gene responsible.

Capecchi warns that bone marrow transplants are too risky to be commonly used against, for example, OCD. Rather, a fuller understanding of the immune system-mental illness connection should produce new treatments. [Scientific American]

Related content:
80beats: Researchers Track the HIV Virus to a Hideout in the Bone Marrow
80beats: Obsessive Compulsive Sufferers May Find Relief With a “Brain Pacemaker”
Discoblog: Where Fat Makes Its Final Stand in the Anorexic Body: In the Bone Marrow
Discoblog: Want the Most Accurate OCD Diagnosis? Visit the Zoo
DISCOVER: Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD?

Image: flickr/Bascom Hogue

I haven’t done a “typical day” post in a long time and as I’ve been running all over the place today it seemed like a good idea. I’ve only had the EVO for a day, and it’s already become second nature to reach for it when I need to do something. The day is a little over half done and here’s how it’s been so far.

The alarm went off at 5:30 as usual and I stumbled out of bed to get some fresh, preprogrammed coffee. The coffee maker with a timer is the single best invention ever, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees with that. Cup of coffee in hand, I picked up the Sprint EVO 4G to get started. This is a first, I normally grab the iPad but without thinking I grabbed the EVO.

I went through the email that came in while I was snug in bed last night. I love the way Android handles my Gmail; it is like working with email on the desktop. The big screen of the EVO aids the feeling of no compromise doing this. Once caught up on the email I fired up Twitter to find out what was going on with those I follow. I really, really like the Twitter app on Android. It is even better than the Twitter page in the desktop browser, as it thoughtfully provides a home page with everything neatly organized. I like how tightly it is integrated with the browser on the EVO — hit a link for a web page or photo and the browser is opened almost instantly.

When my Twitter work was done, I went to the Google Reader page in the browser to spin through all the RSS feeds I follow. There are usually hundreds of items appearing overnight, and today is no exception. I spin through the item headlines, tapping on items to see a little more information and tagging those items of interest to spend more time with later. The big screen of the EVO helps me make short work of my feeds, all from the comfort of my easy chair.

After showering and getting ready for the day, I sat down in Mobile Tech Manor to get some quick work done. The EVO was sitting on the desk in front of me, and I found myself picking it up when it gave an audio signal that I had some new tweets to read from the people I follow. I like Friendstream, the social network aggregator that HTC includes as part of the Sense interface. The default notification sound is a soft, distinct tone that sounds when new tweets arrive. Checking them on the EVO as desired kept me from paying much attention to Tweetdeck on the Mac, and that led to better concentration to my real work. I was even able to respond to tweets on the EVO using the onscreen keyboard.

I like the keyboard on the EVO — that big screen makes for one that is wider than on other Android phones I’ve used. I make fewer typing errors on the EVO as a result. I usually just stay in portrait orientation to do this, where on other Android phones I always switch to landscape to get a bigger keyboard. Score one for the bigger screen.

After getting some writing done, including this week’s Mobile Tech Manor column, I needed to head out to FedEx and return the Nexus One to Adobe. I decided to go from there to the coffee shop to get some more work done before lunch, so I grabbed my backpack from the bag tree. I threw in the Ferrari One laptop and the iPad. I thought about grabbing the Sprint Overdrive modem as usual, then decided to use the mobile hotspot feature on the EVO instead. With the bag in hand and the EVO in my pocket I headed out the door.

Once I arrived at the coffee shop I pulled the Ferrari out of the bag to get it started, and used the HTC widgets on the EVO to turn on 4G and the mobile hotspot. These widgets are a convenient way to control battery consumption by turning off radios not in use. That’s why 4G was turned off — I don’t have coverage in my home office so I leave it turned off to keep the radio from attempting to find the network.

It takes almost a minute for the EVO to connect to the 4G network, which is as long as the Overdrive takes to do the same thing. I then hit turned on the Mobile Hotspot functionality and it took a little while for it to hit the Internet. I was beginning to think something was wrong when Windows 7 on the Ferrari told me I was good to go.

I also paired the iPad to the EVO hotspot, as I like to work with it alongside the computer. I use mind maps done on the iPad for writing projects, and it sits next to the computer. The 4G connectivity was nice and speedy, and both devices had good bandwidth for the duration of my writing session. I must admit it was darn convenient to have the EVO function as the hotspot, negating the need to bring the separate Overdrive.

Soon it was time for lunch, so I threw everything back in the bag and walked down the street to get a nice salad. I had a leisurely lunch break, reading a good e-book on the iPad while eating my salad. The waiter wanted to know if my reader was “one of those iPad things”, a question I get asked a lot. It was a nice lunch break that unfortunately was over too quickly.

That’s as far as I can go with this “typical day” look — I am back in the coffee shop writing this for your enjoyment. It’s a wonderful thing when technology works the way it’s intended, and it helps the work get done without incident. I have a feeling I’ll be buying one of these Sprint EVOs when they are available.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): Are You Empowering Your Mobile Work Force?

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