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Here’s an exciting thought: now that HP will be the driving force behind webOS, the world’s largest technology company will soon become one of the biggest and most innovative drivers in the Web space.  Palm, as you know, has been no slouch when it comes to driving the adoption of next-gen web technology, with the company pushing the edge of what’s possible with web technology by making it a keystone technology in the "prized possession" that is webOS.  Sure, the details of the buyout are still up in the air, but if HP brings Palm in as a semi-autonomous business unit and allows the existing engineering corps to do what they do best, then the future of mobile computing just got a whole lot brighter.

As @bgalbs wisely pointed out, HP’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm isn’t just an investment in the company’s smartphone efforts going forward; it’s a huge bet on the web itself.

[JURIST] Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, filed suit Thursday in Myanmar’s Supreme Court to stop the dissolution of her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) under a controversial election law. Suu Kyi is asking the court to annul the part of the election law that bars political prisoners from participating in elections, and also to establish a parliament of lawmakers who won in the 1990 elections. The NLD also filed a similar suit. If the NLD does not re-register by May 6, it may face dissolution.
Last month, the NLD announced that it would not take part in the nation’s first elections in 20 years after the Myanmar Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit brought by the NLD to repeal the election laws preventing Suu Kyi from participating. Myanmar also faced a bevy of criticism during the month of March, with the UN Human Rights Council adopting a resolution condemning the country for rights violations and urging the ruling junta to conduct fair and free elections. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Myanmar’s election laws do not meet international standards, and Human Rights Watch has said ” continues the sham political process that is aimed at creating the appearance of civilian rule with a military spine.”

Whoever is in charge of marketing Verizon’s Droid phones needs to get a raise. They’ve done it again. This commercial like the first commercial for the Droid doesn’t even have the Incredible in it and yet it makes you want it.

Sticking with the dark theme of the original, this commercial feels like it’s a preview to a horror movie. The Matrix like string of words is also eye catching. Given the fact that they are already sold out, this new commercial will surely aid another sell out of the new batch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via droidog]

GUANTANAMO BAY — We’ve just been informed that the recess ordered by Col. Patrick Parrish, the military judge, to ensure Omar Khadr will be advised of his fundamental rights in his military commission, has been extended to 2 p.m. But that doesn’t mean we’ll be out of the procedural thicket in another hour.

Uncomfortable with moving forward until Khadr knows his rights, Parrish told Khadr’s lawyers that either they can administer those rights by proxy at Camp Delta or he’ll order what’s called a “forced cell extraction” — having guards force Khadr into court. Khadr did not attend a pre-trial hearing this morning, and prosecutors and defense counsel sparred over whether that decision was actually voluntary.

But even if Parrish opts for the “forced cell extraction” (or FCE in military acronym-ese) that doesn’t necessarily mean Rear Adm. Thomas Copeman, the commander of the detention facility housing Khadr, will comply. “In the past Admiral Copeman has refused to do a FCE without a court order,” Navy Commander Brad Fagan, a spokesman for Copeman’s command, emailed reporters here. “As per Khadr and today’s events, we’d have to wait and see what the judge/court decides to do (i.e., if they decide to issue a court order or not).” Parrish, in other words, may have to issue a formal court order for the FCE — and see if Copeman complies.

On E2, Nike, eBay and others are asking Senators to “get stalled climate and energy legislation back on track.”

Reuters reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will start analyzing the comprehensive climate and clean energy bill. “The EPA analysis is an important step in the legislative process.” “We are sending the bill to be modeled now with Lindsey Graham’s consent,” Senator Kerry told reporters.

Green Inc. focuses on a new EPA report released yesterday called “Climate Change Indicators in the United States.” The report is full of interesting data points and graphics including:

• “The portion of North America covered by snow has generally decreased since 1972, although there has been much year-to-year variability. Snow covered an average of 3.18 million square miles of North America during the years 2000 to 2008, compared with 3.43 million square miles during the 1970s.”
• “In the United States, greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities increased by 14 percent from 1990 to 2008.”

Gernot Wagner, EDF economist notes:

“The EPA report is a terrific reminder of the fact that climate change is not some distant phenomenon our grand kids may or may not experience. We can already see some of the direct effects all around us. It's also good reminder of the certainties among the sea of uncertainties surrounding climate change. We don't know all the details, but the general direction has become increasingly clear. And the parts we don't know are even scarier."

Graph from EPA report Climate Change Indicators in the United States

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Etc., Europe, Videos, Porsche

Germany must be a magical place. Typically, if we were to tell you about a story that involved a 10 year-old boy, his 14 year-old brother and their father’s Porsches, it would end with some totaled sheetmetal at best. But that’s not the case in Der Vaterland. Instead, we give you the heartwarming tale of the Wörle family. Mr. Wörle owns a prominent Porsche dealership, and as such, his sons Steppi and Schorschi lend a hand around the family business. How does the guy reward them? By letting them compete at local auto club events with two 911 GT3 RS testers.

If you’ve never been jealous of a ten year-old, we highly suggest hopping the jump to see the full 11-minute video for yourself. The sight of the Steppi flinging that green monster through the cones is enough to make any Zen master start coveting the kid’s lot in life. Even more surprising, despite the apparent silver spoon, Schorschi even manages to do fairly well at the event.

Remember when 911s were known as widowmakers? We’ve come a long way, baby.

[Source: YouTube via Inside Line]

Continue reading Video: Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS is so easy a 10-year old kid can drive it

Video: Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS is so easy a 10-year old kid can drive it originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chess game for Android. Features: Fischer Random chess, 50 puzzles, 2000 practice positions, Set up the board, Use as a chess board, Save and edit games, Navigate through history, Uses opening database, Import and export via e-mail or clipboard, Touch-screen interface, No ads! Pro version supports: Four extra levels, 500 puzzles, Larger opening database, Unlimited saving of games, Import and export with PGN tool, Go to the developer website for support and questions.

Price: Free, €0.70

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros

• Play Chess on phone
• Many puzzle types and difficulty levels

Features:

Chess by jwtc Android Game allows you to enjoy the classic board game of Chess on your Android phone. There are various difficulty levels (like Bobby Fischer Random Chess) and play types involved in the game, you can even import and export games. Another cool feature allows you to step through (or play) the game movements back and forth.

Fun Factor & Addictive:

The same challenge and excitement of table top Chess, just ported to the small screen.

Lisa Hogarty, a seasoned administrator with experience in academia and the health care industry, has been named Vice President for Campus Services at Harvard University.

“This position demands an executive who can manage the daily operations of a large institution while pursuing a strategic vision that bolsters the University’s teaching and research mission,” said Executive Vice President Katherine N. Lapp, who announced Hogarty’s hiring today (April 29). “Lisa has the perfect mix of leadership skills for the job.”

Hogarty comes to Harvard after nearly eight years at Columbia University, where she served most recently as chief operating officer of the Columbia University Medical Center.

She assumes responsibility of a newly configured department with 1,600 employees and oversight of essential operations at the University’s Schools and central units, as well as its emergency management program.

“I am thrilled to join Katie Lapp’s team,” said Hogarty, who added that advancing efforts to integrate procurement and increasing coordination among the Campus Services units would be among her early priorities.

“The most impressive thing to me is that many of these departments really perform at the best-practices standard, if not the gold standard,” she said. “How do we leverage that exceptional service and take advantage of the real leadership talent in place so that we can take it to the next level?”

The Vice President for Campus Services reports to the Executive Vice President and oversees Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Services, Harvard Real Estate, and the University Operations Center. Hogarty also will have responsibility for the administrative and financial operations of Harvard Magazine.

As part of her duties, she will manage Environmental Health and Safety and lead the University’s Incident Support Team, a cross-departmental group of senior managers charged with coordinating activities in response to any campus crisis.

Hogarty joined Columbia in 2002 as executive vice president for student and administrative services, a role in which she oversaw the construction of a new campus teaching and learning center, redesigned many of the university’s business processes, and led the implementation of an electronic health record system.

She was named chief operating officer of the Medical Center in 2007 and played a key role in restructuring critical areas of university operations. During her tenure, she oversaw the creation of a combined help line for information technology, human resources, and facility support, and the inauguration of an online application process for student housing.

Prior to joining Columbia, Hogarty oversaw hospital operations, capital projects, procurement, and emergency preparedness for the Continuum Healthcare system in New York City and worked at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She holds a master of science degree from New York University and a bachelor of fine arts from Colby-Sawyer College.

Clench your left hand into a fist. What happened to your right hand when you did it?

If you’re like most people, the answer is nothing. But, surprisingly, not everyone can do this. Some people make “mirror movements”, where moving one side of the body, particularly the hands, causes the other to move unintentionally. Clench the left fist, and the right one closes too. Doing things like playing the piano or typing are very difficult. In 2002, a Chinese man with the disorder failed to get into the military because he couldn’t use the monkey bars.

Young children sometimes make mirror movements but they almost always grow out of it by the age of 10. The only exceptions tend to be people with rare genetic disorders of the nervous system, like Klippel-Feil and Kallmann syndromes. Now, Myriam Srour from the University of Montreal has found that a single faulty gene can cause the condition.

She studied a large French Canadian family with four generations of members who had been making mirror movements from birth. Not everyone was affected, and the pattern of the disorder strongly suggested that a single dominant genetic fault was responsible. Srour tracked it down by comparing the genomes of affected and normal family members, and her search led her to a short area on the 18^th chromosome, which contained three genes.

One of these genes is called DCC and it turned out to be the true culprit behind the disorder. In the Canadia family, those who make mirror movements have a version of DCC with a single altered DNA ‘letter’. This tiny fault means that the protein encoded by DCC is manufactured with a missing chunk. That chunk happens to include many of the most important segments of the DCC protein, which, in its abridged form, is completely useless.

Srour found this mutation in every case of mirror movements, and never in 760 unrelated people whose left and right sides are typically independent. To confirm DCC’s role, she turned to an Iranian family, many of who also demonstrated the quirk from birth. She sequenced their DCC genes and again, she found that those who make mirror movements had broken copies. In this case, the mutation was different but the result was the same – a shortened and ineffectual protein.

It’s not just humans who are affected in this way. If mice have mutated and shortened copies of DCC, they too show mirror movements and they move with a distinctive hopping gait. These strains are affectionately known as Kanga mice. If they lack any copies of the gene entirely, their problems are more severe. The gap between the brain’s hemispheres doesn’t develop properly and the fibres that connect the two halves– the corpus callosum – are fewer in number and misrouted.

These mutant mice hint at DCC’s role. The DCC protein is a docking bay (a receptor) for another protein called netrin-1, whose role is to guide the neurons of the developing nervous system across the midline of the body. Its name even comes from the Sanskrit word “netr”, meaning “one who guides”. But this neural shepherd can’t stick to broken DCC proteins and without its good work, the neuronal connections between the body’s two halves don’t form properly.

Reference: Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1186463

More on genetic disorders:

• Brain damage pops woman’s personal bubble
• How inbreeding killed off a line of kings
• Genome sequencing reverses a faulty diagnosis for a genetic disorder
• Pocket Science – geneticist hunts down the cause of his own genetic disorder
• Williams syndrome children show no racial stereotypes or social fear

Kevin bought some Breyers cookies and cream ice cream, and he writes that he was disappointed to find an almost total lack of cookies in the container. Noooo!

I don’t know what’s going on with this Ice Cream but we bought two tubs of it about a week ago and were severely disappointed with the quality. For example my family bought cookies and cream but what we got was vanilla ice cream with some black specks of cookie. I’ve attached pictures of the two tubs we bought both the pictures on the outside and then how the inside looks absolutely nothing like the exterior. Now I realize they will never match exactly but seriously my 7 year old was even disappointed since it literally had ZERO cookies. They have a “guarantee” on quality but you must mail it into an address with a UPC – and I’m not wasting my forever stamps for something like that…so I figured I’d get some satisfaction out of you guys busting them on their quality.

Now, it could be that this was mislabeled French vanilla…but unlikely. Aww, come on, Kevin, what’s 44 cents compared to the cost of two containers of ice cream?

It used to be a golden ticket to a high paying job, but nowadays you have to wonder if earning an MBA or law degree could be a liability that could leave you saddled with mountains of debt. 2009 was a tough year for graduate students, even ones from top schools, to land that perfect job.

For example the Graduate Management Council which tracks these matters says their research shows companies that hired 12 MBAs on average in 2008 only hired half that many in 2009. And the picture doesn’t look much better for law school graduates. Big firms aren’t hiring nearly as many students as they did in 2008 and for those they do hire, they are often delaying the start date… leaving grads hanging for months.

Still career counselors say, fear not for these educated young adults because the job market will improve. In the meantime, says Kip Harrell of MBA Career Services Council, offers this advice to those looking for work, “Hope is not a strategy, and you should always be on your A game.”

Harrell adds that graduating students should have their plan A, B and C… and be prepared to take action on plan C if they have to.

Hello, new readers! Many of you are probably here because of the lost Apple iPhone 4 saga. But Gizmodo is much more than the iPhone. Here’s a list of stories, big and small, that show who we are: More »

Get excited, Verizon Pixi Plus or Pre Plus owners! But not too excited. Just a little bit excited. Less “Holy crap, I’m getting a petting zoo for my birthday!” excited, more “Neat, it’s probably not going to rain on my birthday!” excited.

Verizon just pushed out a minor update for webOS, bumping things up to version 1.4.1.1. While there’s nothing in terms of new features, it’s jam-packed full of bug fixes. Check out the full list after the jump.

The full list:

• x Easier to use Bluetooth.® − Improved battery life when turning off Bluetooth without
  unpairing a device. x Displayed time feature is more accurate.
• Automatic updates for Daylight Saving Time. x Easier connection management.
• More consistent EV-DO connections when switching from Wi-Fi to CDMA.
• Better TouchstoneTM charger integration. − The screen will now turn off and display the lock icon and time after the Pre Plus is docked with the Touchstone charger.
• Newly taken photos and videos do not overwrite existing ones.
• Improved picture display when cropping a picture for a contact.

Improvements:

• Pinch to zoom now works in more applications.
• The onscreen volume slider now appears correctly.
• More accurate keyboard input.
• The forward gesture now works in the browser.
• The back gesture now returns to the file list screen in
  certain applications.
• The shutter sound is more responsive when taking a picture
• The LCD reset issue has been resolved.

Ready for the new tweaks? Go pound the update button a few times — failing that, look for it to be automagically rolled to your kit within the next 48 hours.

Apple’s recent scuff up in the media over banning a Putlitzer prize-winning cartoonist from the application store only served to once again highlight Apple’s inconsistent and seemingly arbitrary application store approval process. It also directed people’s attention to the fact that Mark Fiore certainly wasn’t the first person to have an application banned for strange things like “ridiculing public figures,” which violates Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. In fact, there have been 16 applications banned for this most grievous of offenses, and as is usually the case with Apple, the company spent most of their time ignoring questions about why content continues to be inconsistently blocked.

This latest scuff up about Apple gate-keeping also gave some people a platform to once again complain that Apple shouldn’t be blocking access to pornography. While Apple’s PR department can’t apparently answer a straight question about their app approval process, Steve Jobs did personally take time to respond to one user’s e-mailed porn concerns by telling him to go buy an Android phone:

"Fiore’s app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and (sic) Android phone."

Not that Google and the porn industry didn’t appreciate the shout out, but porn isn’t really as big of an issue as Apple’s inconsistent approval process (which Jobs once again really doesn’t explain). Apple already makes a very nice porn application called Safari for those interested. While Apple does ban porn, they’ve perhaps more annoyingly banned applications for being porn that weren’t (like a swimsuit sales application). Meanwhile, even though Jobs says he has a "moral responsibility" to keep porn off the iPhone, the Parents Television Council this week proclaimed he’s not doing a good enough job. The group personally, painstakingly cataloged everything they felt was filthy in the app store:

"Typical content has included items with names like
“Shawna Lee Private Dance,” which shows a porn starlet with her hand down the front of her bikini bottom fondling herself; “Love Positions Free,” with a drawing titled “doggystyle,” showing a couple having sex; “1001 Boobs Lite;” and “Tasty Pasties 18+ Amateurs” (at one point, the 11^th most popular “app” out of thousands on iTunes). All of these applications are free — and available to children."

Of course if the Parents Television Council’s findings show anything (aside from the fact the Council spent a lot of time looking at half-naked women) it highlights — once again — that nobody understands how Apple determines worthy content. Amusingly, the Council didn’t bother to complain about the Android Marketplace, where users can freely get porn of all kinds — not just the odd smattering of soft-core apps that passed Apple’s incoherent muster. Not that trying to censor porn apps really matters, given the existence of something some people call “a browser,” which provides people of all ages access to a universe of content of all kinds. Apparently, nobody can win in this strange equation, be it porn fans, porn opponents, developers, or Shawna Lee.

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AOL CEO Tim Armstrong had almost a year to understand AOL’s business and outlook prior to taking the company public. 

But he still made the worst mistake a newly-public CEO can make.

In the first quarter out of the box, Tim delivered a nasty surprise: He announced that AOL’s future performance would be worse than expected, screwing his first investors and hobbling hope that a new era had finally come to AOL.

AOL’s revenues are collapsing, and a turnaround will take years.  Tim did a good job of preparing Wall Street for that reality prior to the IPO.  What Tim did not do well was convey just how long and sustained the collapse of AOL’s core business was going to be.

This may have been because Tim and the rest of AOL’s managers were not prepared well by their underwriters and communications teams (who should have told them to set expectations so low that the company could fall over them).  Or it may be that Tim & Co. had no idea how bad this year was going to be.  Neither instills confidence. 

Wall Street likes to get the bad news now and the good news later.  What Wall Street hates, meanwhile, is to get bad news as a surprise.

One hopes that Tim and his team have now learned their lesson the hard way and that the lousy outlook the company provided is, finally, a worst-case scenario that sets the bar just above the floor.  If not–if the next quarter brings yet another nasty surprise–the remaining believers Tim won over on the IPO roadshow will dump the stock in the trash and head for the hills.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• AOL Says Ad Revenues Won’t Grow Till 2011
• Here’s The Most Distressing Part Of AOL’s Horrible Results: Cash Flow Collapsed
• AOL Misses On Earnings, Ad Revenues Tank Another 19%

There used to be a time when you could easily impress a date by pointing to the night sky and dreamily rattling off names of major stars, constellations, and the like. Now, instead of cramming your head full of names or making up stuff as you go along, you can use your trusty iPhone to guide you through your stargazing. There are a bunch of apps that you can download, depending on your interest level and degree of expertise. Most of the apps are based on augmented reality–so all you have to do is point your phone towards the sky and the app does the rest. If you’re a beginner, Pocket Universe ($3) and Star Walk ($3) are recommended by The New York Times for iPhone users; while Google Sky Map is great for Android users. With Pocket Universe, you can use the camera view to look at the evening or morning sky, and the app will overlay the labeled view over the real sky. (The iPhone’s camera isn’t good enough yet to pull off this feat with a dark night’s sky.) The app also plots the position of the sun, moon, and planets, displays 10,000 stars, and traces the shapes of the …

Google’s TV ambitions scrambled into view last month, when the NYT outlined the company’s plans. Today, we learn a little more: Google—with Sony—is making an announcement next month, around a version of Android called Dragonpoint. UPDATED More »

No doubt, mine-safety officials will be scratching their heads as to how the Dotiki Mine in Western Kentucky could have collapsed in the same month that regulators have vowed to crack down on safety violations following the deadly explosion at Upper Big Branch. But meanwhile, it’s worth noting the safety record at the non-union mine owned by Alliance Resource Partners, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And at a glance, it doesn’t look good.

Since the start of the year, the mine has tallied 214 citations for federal safety violations, according to data compiled by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.Sixty-five of those were deemed “significant and substantial,” indicating that they are “reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness.” Eleven of them are related to roof-support systems, the failure of which is the likely cause of last night’s collapse.

That’s not all. The Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward Jr. notes today that the company’s history of fatal accidents is nothing to write home about either.

We don’ t have any idea yet what caused the massive roof fall that has left two miners missing at Craft’s Dotiki Mine in Western Kentucky … But we do know that in recent years miners have died in Alliance’s non-union operations because the company violated mine safety laws.

Ward counts seven such incidents, leading to nine deaths, in the past five years.

A call to the office of Rep. Whitfield (R), who represents Kentucky’s first congressional district, where the collapse took place, hasn’t been returned.

In an on-going series of Verizon recommended Android Apps, we’ll showcase those deemed for the new DROID Incredible by HTC that just hit the shelves for consumers. Verizon Incredible apps for an Incredible phone:

• NFL Mobile – Exclusive to Verizon Wireless customers, NFL Mobile provides the latest news and information, including in-depth profiles of current players and draft prospects, team updates, mock drafts, expert analysis and more. NFL Mobile is free for a limited time.
• My Verizon – Customers can use this free app to access their Verizon Wireless accounts to get balances, usage numbers and payment information and to update features, services and Family SharePlan® lines.
• Breadcrumbz – This free app allows customers to create personalized picture routes, which can be shared with friends and the world to use at a later time. Using images, maps and voice markers, customers can build routes that go off road or inside buildings.
• Visual Voice Mail – Instead of dialing in to voice mail, customers can use Visual Voice Mail ($2.99 monthly subscription) to access and manage voice mail messages by scrolling through their inboxes to pick the messages they need to listen to, delete or reply to. Customers can choose to respond to their voice mails immediately via text message or callback.
• Skype mobile™ – Another app exclusive to Verizon Wireless, Skype mobile allows customers to make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls for free anywhere in the world. Skype mobile is always on, so customers remain connected anytime, anywhere in the United States.

Download and try the apps via the links and tell us what you think!

[Via Verizon Press Release]

Tesla Model S

Tesla Motors plans to announce in the next several weeks that it has chosen a new plant to produce its new Tesla Model S sedan, CEO Elon Musk said in an interview with Automotive News.

Musk said that Tesla is hitting 50 to 60 individuals a month with a focus on vehicle engineering and production specialists. It said that it has two finalists to supply 80 percent of the parts that will be used on the Model S, due out in 2012.

The new plant will be on the West Coast and will build the Model S sedan and the replacement for the Tesla Roadster.

Musk said that Tesla will convert an existing factory but declined to say whether the plant had been previously used by other automakers (we’re guessing he’s talking about NUMMI here).

“It hasn’t yet been finalized,” he said. “We’ve almost fully negotiated the deal, but it has not been signed yet.

Tesla Model S:

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

– By: Omar Rana