Blog

Pardon us while we offer up our calm and practiced reaction to the "better hardware" chant: duh. The next flagship webOS device is looming large in the minds of all geek-oriented webOS users (after all, it’s been over a year since the Pre was unveiled), and up there with the calls for a larger screen and better battery life is the hope for a beefier processor. Perhaps something like Nvidia’s Tegra or Tegra 2 chip?

Asked about webOS, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told Laptop Magazine that he thinks “the world will want webOS” to be supported in the next iteration of his company’s processor technology, much like they first wanted Windows Mobile and then Android.

And when prompted about the mythical webOS tablet that we all want to believe HP is working on (despite the fact that they have yet to officially absorb Palm), Huang dropped the usual “I can’t comment on that line.” Except that he really wanted to comment on it, “But it sure would be an honor to work on webOS. It’s a great operating system. If you look at the first generation of webOS phones, the Palm Pre, the UI is just brilliant. It’s just too slow. So it needs a faster processor. Otherwise, it’s a great operating system.”

We’re not going to try and read between the lines here, except that Mr. Huang is clearly a man with discerning tastes when it comes to mobile operating systems. Could an Nvidia chip power the next webOS device, be it a new phone or a tablet or a toaster? Sure, there’s the possibility. And yes, HP has worked with Nvidia in the past, but there isn’t a single major computer builder that hasn’t put Nvidia graphics chips in their machines at some point in the last decade.

Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

• Video Share Calling for live streaming over the ultra-fast AT&T 3G network
• 3G for accelerated data speeds and simultaneous voice and data capabilities
• Audience® Voice Processor
• Dimensions: 4.01 x 2.05 x 0.86 inches
• Weight: 3.52 ounces
• Battery details: 1300 mAh
• Technology: GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA*
• Frequency: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (GSM/GPRS/EDGE); 850/1900/2100 MHz (UMTS/HSDPA)*
• Display: Internal: 2.2-inch TFT; External: 1.3-inch CSTN
• TTY Compatible

It may not be a smartphone, but it should survive your kids!  Any takers?

Via AT&T

AT&T and Samsung Mobile Announce Upcoming Availabilty of the Samsung Rugby(R) II

Next Generation Rugged Phone Runs on AT&T’s Push to Talk Network

Dallas, Texas, May 25, 2010

AT&T* and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the  No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.**, today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Rugby® II, the next generation Push to Talk device with a durable, military-grade design that can stand up to the harshest of elements.  Available exclusively for AT&T customers, the Rugby II will be compatible with AT&T’s High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology, which provides a considerable speed boost to the nation’s fastest 3G network when paired with expanded backhaul.

The Rugby II, available in a grey, rugged clamshell design, features improved noise suppression and an external speaker making it easier to communicate regardless of the environment. In addition, the Rugby II is also certified to military standard MIL-STD-810G to withstand dust, shock, vibration, rain, humidity, solar radiation, altitude and temperature extremes, ideal for use even in the toughest of environments.

“The Samsung Rugby II offers our customers a sturdy phone that can withstand some of the roughest environments,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “This is a no-nonsense, durable device with easy-to-use features like Push-to-Talk and a one-touch button to keep you in touch with your contacts while backed by the nation’s fastest 3G network.”

With advanced aGPS capabilities, users can stay on the right track. The Rugby II features AT&T Navigator, which offers voice-guided and visual turn-by-turn GPS driving directions with automatic reroute, full-color maps, and real-time traffic alerts, as well as AT&T Family Map, which gives families the ability to track a child’s location from a PC or cell phone and request location updates at any time. The Rugby II also includes access to aGPS applications, including Loopt, Trimble Outdoors, AllSport GPS and Where.

The Rugby II enables AT&T’s Mobile Resource Management applications, TeleNav Track™ and Xora GPS Timetrack from AT&T, and is great for transportation, distribution, construction, field service, maintenance, landscaping, and other businesses and government agencies looking to increase visibility of their field operations, monitor track location and activities of their employees, and improve responsiveness and productivity. 

In addition to a robust design, the Rugby II includes large external speakers, which allow for ease of use with AT&T’s Push to Talk service , which covers 97% of the U.S. population.  Push to Talk gives customers the ability to pull an entire work group into a wireless call from a PTT session and the ability to set one’s own status to available, unavailable, do not disturb and more.  Push to Talk is available to AT&T customers for just $5 per month on Nation Plan lines.

“Following the success of the Rugby, Samsung is introducing the Rugby II, a rugged and durable device with an enhanced external speaker and new aGPS applications,” said Omar Khan, chief strategy officer, Samsung Mobile. “This device allows a workforce to stay in touch with the push of a button and its design can withstand everyday wear and tear.”

Rugby II is equipped with one of the world’s most intelligent voice processor from Audience to enhance voice and suppress noise for clear communications nearly anywhere.  Like the human ear, the chip isolates your voice, and filters out all the unwanted background noise, for unsurpassed mobile call clarity without the noise from a busy street, loud public places, nearby conversations or even sirens going by. 

The Samsung Rugby II also includes AT&T Video Share, Mobile Video and AT&T Mobile Music to keep you entertained on and off the job. Additional features of the Rugby II included a 2.0 megapixel camera with video recording, Bluetooth® technology and a microSD™ memory card slot. The Rugby II also includes dual-band 3G connectivity and quad-band GSM technology, which allows AT&T customers to make calls in more than 220 countries and download data in more than 195.

Pricing and Availability

The Samsung Rugby II will be available on June 6 at AT&T retail locations nationwide or at http://www.att.com/wireless for $129.99 after $50 mail-in rebate.  (Pay $179.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $50 AT&T Promotion Card.  Two-year agreement required.)

For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.  For more information on the Samsung Rugby II, visit www.att.com/SamsungRugbyII.

Like the camera sitting on the face of every single leaked iPhone HD hasn’t been proof enough, or like the references to video chat in the beta SDKs didn’t mean anything, now we have even more proof that there will be video chat capabilities in the upcoming iPhone HD (or whatever it will be called).

Right now, filming is underway for the new iPhone commercials (directed by Sam Mendes, of American Beauty fame), and Engadget have it on good authority that one scene will feature a mother and daughter video-chatting to each other using their next-gen iPhones. Aw, how sweet.

Of course, don’t expect any official confirmation before June 7th, but I think this one’s a pretty safe bet.

Volkswagen CEO, Martin Winterkorn with the founder of Italdesign Giugiaro, Giorgetto Giugiaro

Volkswagen Group announced today that it will take a 90.1 percent controlling stake in Italdesign Giugiaro SpA, leaving the Giugiaro family with 10 percent of the shares.

“With this shareholding in Italdesign, we are participating in one of the most renowned design and development companies with one of the richest traditions in the automobile industry,” said Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn. “Italdesign is the flagship for creative Italian automobile design and has been instrumental in shaping the face of the automobile industry worldwide. As the creator of the Golf I, Giorgetto Giugiaro laid a new foundation for Volkswagen design in the 1970s.”

Italdesign Giugiaro also helped with concepts for important models including the first Volkswagen Passat, Scirocco and the Audi 80.

Volkswagen Golf Gen 1

Winterkorn said that with Italdesign becoming a permanent member of the Volkswagen family, the company will play an important role in the German automaker’s 2018 global growth strategy.

On a personal note for Volkswagen Group Chairman Ferdinand Piech, the executive goes from a student who spent a summer working at Italdesign Giugiaro almost 40 years ago to the owner. At the age of 37, Piech learned about design and engineering from founder Giorgetto Giugiaro (Source: Automotive News)

– By: Omar Rana

If you’re a market-watcher, then you know the Dow fell below 10,000 at its open, down 200 points as of around 10:15am. What’s driving the drop? Europe’s instability? Korea’s conflict? General fear of a double dip? Probably all of the above, and more.

As Megan McArdle explained last week, it’s always tempting to try to make a big deal out of the stock market dropping a few percent, and explain it away with a chief cause. But it’s also generally hack journalism. The stock market is hopelessly complicated, and its moving parts change direction for a variety of reasons. As a result, while single reasons for aggregate changes in a major index may be appealing due to their simplicity, they’re also generally incorrect.

The truth is that the Dow could close up a hundred points today. We’ve entered another period of instability. It’s starting to look a lot like mid-2008. If you followed the market back then, you remember the insane volatility that gripped stocks. They could be down 400 early only to end up 300 by day’s end. The next day, they’d be down 200 again.

Uncertainty drives volatility, because stock trading becomes a psychological exercise instead of a technically one. If you can’t trust the numbers you’re using to value equities, then you have to rely on how the back-and-forth swings of the headlines instead. And right now, the euro zone has created an incredible amount of instability, very reminiscent of the U.S. leading up to the financial crisis. Will Greece collapse? How about Spain? Italy? Portugal? Today, there was even a New York Times article that said Britain’s debt problems are really the greatest. Will North Korea nuke South Korea? And that doesn’t even get into the mixed signals we’re getting for the U.S. economy’s recovery.

When people ask what they should do with their stocks at a time like this, all you can really do is shrug. Uncertainty, instability, and volatility are the enemies of market, because they make it impossible to even try to understand. If the worst-case scenario happens, and a contagion strikes the entire euro zone, coupled with a war in the Koreas and a double-dip in the U.S., then the Dow will likely touch 8,000 again or worse. If everything turns out to be okay, then it will head towards 11,000 again. The problem is that no one knows. And that’s why anyone who wades into the stock market needs to be able to stomach the possibility of a big short-term loss.

North Korea – Korea – Stock market – Business – Stocks and Bonds

“Gobs of cornmeal are fed into an extruder , which rubs the meal between two metal plates. The friction melts the starch in the corn and causes the moisture to heat up… More »










Business – Food and Related Products – Additives – Corn – Starches

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 480M is the steroidal notebook graphics card you’ve been waiting for (if you’re a huge nerd): The world’s fastest notebook GPU according to Nvidia, it’s the first mobile chip using Nvidia’s ridiculous Fermi architecture. More »










Nvidia – GeForce – Video card – GPU – Hardware

If you went to the midnight launch (qjnet/news/gamestop-will-have-midnight-launch-for-ufc-undisputed-2010.html), you’re probably bleeding through your eyelids by now and desperately needing sleep. Or you’re already asleep and not reading this babble. Anyway, UFC Undisputed 2010 packs a create-a-fighter

The netbook has made a bigger impact on the notebook segment than anyone thought it would. It came seemingly out of nowhere and proceeded to grab market share with abandon. Consumers liked the smaller, cheaper notebook and snapped them up in great numbers. The netbook is a great mobile computer, but that cheap price is not without an impact on the performance of the device. The Intel Atom processor is a great fit for the netbook, but it is no screamer at performance. With the appearance of “tweener” notebooks that are almost as cheap as netbooks yet have more capable hardware, is the future of the netbook in jeopardy?

I have used a lot of netbooks, and have always liked the devices. You can’t get more mobility in a fully configured notebook form than on a netbook. They are light, have great battery life and will do just about anything you want to do on a notebook. All of this capability is cheap, with some netbooks going for as little as $200. There are more capable models like my favorite HP Mini 5102, but those generally cost quite a bit more. Like all electronic devices, the more you pack in one the more it costs.

Netbooks have the Atom processor in common for the most part, a good processor for the genre. They also tend to have low resolution displays (1024×600) which keeps things cheap. This combination is fine for getting work done, but it’s getting long in the tooth for me. I find myself getting frustrated at the lag that is common on netbooks, and I want to see more on the screen at once than those displays show me.

Sure there are many netbooks with higher resolution options, but that generally drives the cost up. I also find the Atom processor lags get worse when the netbook is driving more pixels on the screen. I’m not the only one who gets frustrated at waiting for something to happen on a netbook, I have observed others complaining at the wait for an action to execute.

My disappointment at the performance of the netbook is driven by using low cost notebooks that are becoming more commonly available. These notebooks are only slightly bigger than the 10-inch netbooks, yet pack a “real” processor and higher resolution display into the case. The difference in battery life provided by these “tweener” notebooks and netbooks is getting smaller in my experience, too. Throw in the fact that you can often find these notebooks at reasonable prices ($500 or less), and the purchase decision gets even tougher.

I do think the netbook is here to stay, they are always going to be cheap enough that consumers will pick them up, lag or no. I am hoping that the technology is going to advance to address my concerns, and we’ll see some cool netbooks coming along that makes things better. I’m hoping that Kevin Tofel will come back from the Netbook Summit with some great information about new netbook technology that is coming to speed these babies up.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Better Battery Life Motivates Mobile Chipmakers

Former American Idol judge Paula Abdul finds a new home in CBS in its upcoming reality competition ‘Got to Dance,’ reveals Reality TV World. CBS programming executive Jennifer Bresnan describes Abdul as a “perfect fit” for the program, her being a seasoned dancer and choreographer. She will act as coach, mentor, judge, executive producer, and creative partner of the said program.

Abdul is thrilled to be part of a show close to her heart. “I am thrilled to be creative partners with Reveille, Shine, and CBS and to present the best new dance talent to American audiences. Each and every week we’ll showcase the challenges and successes of a fantastic group of dancers, as they perform and compete…”

Reveille managing director Howard T. Owens thinks Abdul has the energy, and her presence will bring aspiration, mentorship, and compassion to the show.

‘Got to Dance’ premiered this year in the U.K., created by Princess Productions and Shine TV, and produced by Reveille. It features competing amateur dancers of any age and style.

Related posts:

1. Paula Abdul Will Be a Lead Judge in the New CBS Show: Got to Dance
2. Adam Shankman to judge TV’s `SYTYCD’
3. Ellen DeGeneres Could Not Fit into the Shoes of Paula Abdul!

Today, the S&P/Case Shiller Housing Index shows some worrying, if unsurprising, statistics about the housing market.

The good news is that the year-on-year index, the most-watched metric, gained, as from from March 2009 to March 2010 housing prices rose 2.35 percent. Economists had expected a gain of 2.5 percent. The bad news is housing prices declined 3.2 percent between the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. And the non-seasonally adjusted housing index declined from February to March, the sixth straight decline in home prices. Las Vegas and Detroit continue to be the worst, and still-worsening, housing markets. From the press release:

“The housing market may be in better shape than this time last year; but, when you look at recent trends there are signs of some renewed weakening in home prices,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “In the past several months we have seen some relatively weak reports across many of the markets we cover. Thirteen MSAs and the two Composites saw their prices drop in March over February. Boston was flat. The National Composite fell by 3.2% compared to the previous quarter and the two Composites are down for the sixth consecutive month.

“While year-over-year results for the National Composite, 18 of the 20 MSAs and the two Composites improved, the most recent monthly data are not as encouraging. It is especially disappointing that the improvement we saw in sales and starts in March did not find its way to home prices. Now that the tax incentive ended on April 30th, we don’t expect to see a boost in relative demand.”

The question is now whether housing prices are stabilizing, or whether they will continue to fall — particularly given how enormous the shadow inventory of homes is. You can see the worrying sign of a housing double-dip or stabilization on the solid line on the right side of the chart here.

Computex Taipei 2010 is the biggest IT show in Asia and one of the most important such shows in the world and we’ll be there next week to report on the hundreds of new products. One Computex new release certain to cause a stir is ASROCK’s AIWI, an Apple app which turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a Nintendo Wii-type motion controller for computer games, and maybe more importantly, using the touch screen as a touch pad for controlling the cursor and keyboard functions of a computer. It’s not just very clever and very cool – it might just have some serious implications for the future of the Computer (and TV) Human Interface. Our esteemed colleagues at Tweaktown.com have released a sneak peak video demonstration which is well worth a look…
Continue Reading AIWI turns your iPhone into a wii-like motion controller … and more

Tags: AIWI,
Apple,
ASROCK,
iPhone,
iPod touch,
Motion Controller,
Nintendo,
Touch Screen

Related Articles:

• The Falcon Game Controller – with realistic force feedback
• NewCon prototype touch Smartphone with flip QWERTY keyboard
• Neural input device hints at gaming revolution
• New Haptic Interface Device Adds Sense of Touch to PCs
• GameBone Pro game controller for iPhone
• Skinput turns your hand into a touchscreen and your fingers into a keypad

First Gizmodo acquired an iPhone that was “left” in a bar. Now, Gizmodo decides to post a picture of the Verizon branded Motorola Shadow, or whatever they’re gonna end up calling it, which was apparently, “left” in a gym. Since when do prototypes get lost and found so frequenty? And more importantly, when did smartphones start going to bars and working out? Maybe these phones are so “super” that they’ve learned to sprout legs and flee their masters. Or, perhaps lost phones are just becoming the new blurry-cam leak.

Either way, this phone is a beast. I was surprised that there doesn’t seem to be a hardware keyboard. Motorola really seems to be pushing into HTC territory with this bad boy. Here’s what we’ve now confirmed about it:

• 4.3″ screen
• 8MP camera capable of 720p video
• Probably running Froyo 2.2 at release with new MotoBlur (much sleeker than old UI)
• 16GB internal storage
• 1GHz Snapdragon processor
• HDMI out port

I ‘m gonna go out on a limb and assume that the screen will not be of AMOLED origin. The picture seen above makes it seem a bit washed out and back-lit (but this could just be due to the lighting or camera). We’ve also yet to see a 4.3″ AMOLED screen put on a phone, leading me to assume there’s a technical reason behind it that we’re just not aware of. For now, everyone seems to be sticking with LCDs for these super-sized phones (aside from the 4″ Super AMOLED found on the Samsung Galaxy S). However, in this case, I’d love to be wrong.

Verizon customers can expect this device to launch around June or July time. Anyone interested?

Might We Suggest…

• Is This the Droid Heir Apparent?
  
  Hi there!  We noticed you staring at that picture up above.  You like?  Yeah, that is presumably the follow up to the Motorola Droid from Verizon.  It looks great, doesn’t it?  Would you like to hea…

Heavy metal band, Slipknot, announced the sad departure of its member, Paul Gray, after he was found dead in a hotel. The loud voiced band, with somewhat aggressive lyrics and masked outfits would go silent after Gray left their family. Body of the singer was found in an Iowa hotel room by an employee at the TownPlace suites in Urbandale. No reports of torture or foul play has been reported but an autopsy has been scheduled later in the day.

It is reported that Paul Gray had been staying at the hotel for several days. The hotel is only a few miles away from his childhood home. Gray, famous amongst the fans for wearing the black faceplate with dark sockets, rocked the crowd like anything.

Previous reports and investigations lead to his addiction to a few drugs. Back in 2003, he was arrested for possessing marijuana, cocaine and power syringes after he crashed his red Porsche. His original identity or I may say his face was revealed for the first time when Police unveiled his picture in public. Never before had anyone seen him.

The band spent a moment of silence and changing the front page of the site with Paul’s picture.

The band was nominated for Grammy’s on seven occasions while winning one in 2006 in the best metal performance category for “Before I Forget”.

Cause of Death could also not be determined till the filing of the report.

Related posts:

1. Slipknot Bassist Paul Gray – Found Dead in a Hotel Room
2. Paul Gray Dead- No More Slipknot Bass Player: Farewell Slipknot Bassist!
3. Paul Gray of Slipknot Found Dead

Although you can frequently find strawberries in the off season at supermarkets, it isn’t until berry season hits full swing in late spring that you start to see fresh strawberries just about everywhere. They’re hard to resist when they look like bright red jewels in their little baskets, waiting to be purchased – and there […]

Want to meet other people who’ve read REWORK? Want to talk with other business owners (or potential business owners) who believe ASAP is poison, meetings are toxic, planning is guessing, and inspiration is perishable? Or maybe you’re just curious about how these ideas can apply to your own business. Sound interesting to you?

Then check out a REWORK Meetup. They’re happening this June in nearly 100 cities across the world. These are face-to-face meetups in bookstores, cafes, restaurants, pubs, libraries, or anywhere else people agree to meet up and discuss REWORK and the ideas within.

I’ll be at the Chicago Meetup on June 3rd. Which one will you be at? Check out the REWORK Meetups, pick your city, sign up, and meet your fellow readers, thinkers, and doers.

Apple is once again throwing its annual free-iPod-with-a-Mac, starting from today and running through until September 7th. Anyone who buys a new Mac on their education-discount scheme gets a free 8GB iPod Touch model. [Apple] More »










Apple – iPod – IPhone – Peripherals – Hardware

Weeks after BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Politico reported that during the last 20 years, the company and its employees gave more money to President Obama than any other federal political candidate.

On Fox News Sunday, Sarah Palin tried to make it into a wider narrative. “I don’t know why the question isn’t asked by the mainstream media and by others if there’s any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration,” she said.  Think Progress has the story on this inane charge in this repost (which is followed by a Media Matters excerpt).

Palin wondered if there is “any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to … grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico.”  Mainstream media outlet the Wall Street Journal did ask and it appears the answer doesn’t give cover to Palin’s charges:

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Republicans receive far more campaign money from the oil and gas industry than do Democrats.

So far in 2010, the oil and gas industries have contributed $12.8 million to all candidates, with 71% of that money going to Republicans. During the 2008 election cycle, 77% of the industry’s $35.6 million in contributions went to Republicans, and in the 2008 presidential contest, Republican candidate Sen. John McCain received more than twice as much money from the oil and gas industries as Obama: McCain collected $2.4 million; Obama, $898,000.

Moreover, as Time’s Michael Scherer noted, the Politico article on BP’s donations “fails to provide the context readers need” considering Obama ran for president, and the numbers aren’t adjusted for “campaign inflation.” Even right-wing blogger Ed Morrissey warned the GOP not to “overpay their hand on this issue.”

This was a Think Progress repost.  Media Matters further notes:

Like clockwork, media outlets seized on Palin’s accusation and cited Center for Responsive Politics’ calculation that Obama had received $71,051 in BP-linked contributions for his presidential campaign. Only problem is, contrary to Palin’s and the media’s suggestions, all of that money came from BP employees, not BP the company. A spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics confirmed Monday that “the $71,051 that Obama received during the 2008 election cycle was entirely from BP employees.” The CRP spokesman also stated that “Obama did not accept contributions from political action committees, so none of this money is from BP’s PAC. And corporations themselves are prohibited from donating directly to candidates from their corporate treasuries.”

Why is this an important distinction? Because Obama raised far more money than any other candidate ever has, therefore, it is completely unsurprising that Obama also received the most amount of money from BP employees. Moreover, BP-linked contributions to Obama’s campaign are a drop in the bucket when compared to Obama’s total campaign haul. In addition to the $71,051 Obama received from BP-linked contributors in 2008, Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign raised $6,000 from BP-linked sources, bringing Obama’s total BP-related campaign contributions to 77,051. This represents less than .01 percent of the nearly $800 million that Obama raised for his campaigns.

Related Post:

• Gingrich says Sarah “Four Pinocchios” Palin is a conservative leader on energy issues
• Palin urges America to stay addicted to oil