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Paul from MoDaCo promised root for the HTC Desire, and today, he delivered. Root for the HTC Legend is close, too, he says, and it likely won’t take too terribly long to get inside the Verizon Droid Incredible (we hope). Well played, Paul. [MoDaCo]

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has set the date for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference from June 7 through June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West.

For the past two years, the company has unveiled its latest iPhone hardware, including the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, among other features such as video-recording, Mobile Me, and OS 3.0. So, the big question is: Will Apple announce any new hardware this year?

The leaked prototype to Gizmodo of an iPhone 4G with a forward-facing camera does not guarantee it. And, one thing to watch out for is Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs appearance the week before: He will be the opening night speaker at The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference on June 1 in Los Angeles.

[JURIST] The Chinese government announced Tuesday that it has lifted a ban on entry into that country for individuals with HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. The ban was originally implemented under the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law and the Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens, both passed in 1987. The ban had temporarily been lifted for international events, such as the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, but the inconvenience that resulted, as well as the increased knowledge of how HIV/AIDS is spread, were reasons cited by the government as factors for changing the law. China’s action drew praise from the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, which urged the 51 countries and areas that still bar entry to individuals with HIV/AIDS to follow China’s lead in overturning their bans. The lifting of the ban does not enjoy widespread support from Chinese civilians, however, with 84 percent supporting keeping the ban in place.
Until recently, the US was one of the nations with an entry ban for individuals with HIV/AIDS. That ban was lifted in January when the Centers for Disease Control removed HIV/AIDS from its list of communicable diseases of public significance. It was first reported in late November that China was considering lifting the entry ban, ahead of the Shanghai Expo scheduled for May of this year. China had previously relaxed its restrictions on entry in 2007, ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.

At the advice of many medical experts, I’m leaving the following article, in which I’ll discuss my personal probabilities of disease based upon my genetics, unsigned. More »

If it isn’t enough that HTC currently has a pending fight on its hands over accused patent infringement by Apple, now Microsoft has decided to jump on the bandwagon and accuse HTC (mostly Android) of a similar offense.  Unlike the lawsuit wielded by Apple, however, Microsoft appears to have handled the matter in a more gentlemanly fashion, by negotiating a licensing agreement with HTC entitling themselves to certain undisclosed royalties.

A press release (below) was sent out late last night discussing the patent agreement made between the two companies, confusing many journalists at first.  The initial thought was that the purpose of the agreement was to help HTC in its fight against Apple by allowing them access to Microsoft’s comprehensive portfolio of patents.  This seemed to make some sense due to HTC’s history of providing hardware for Windows Mobile devices as well as Microsoft’s long-time rivalry with Apple.  However, as CNET points out:

Microsoft has taken the position, according to those close to the company, that Android infringes on the company’s patented technology and that the infringement applies broadly in areas ranging from the user interface to the underlying operating system.

So, while in the end HTC may benefit from the licensing agreement in terms of its approach to handling the Apple lawsuit, it wasn’t the primary reasoning for the arrangement with Microsoft.  It is comforting to know, however, that Microsoft’s approach to this sort of thing isn’t quite as belligerent as others’.  Horacio Gutierrez, deputy general counsel for Microsoft, said “We have also consistently taken a proactive approach to licensing to resolve IP infringement by other companies and have been talking with several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform.”

That’s about it for now.  I’m sure more details will unravel as time presses on, but it’s definitely interesting to say the least.  Comments and insights are welcome below!

Via TechCrunch, CNET

REDMOND, Wash. — April 27, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. and HTC Corp. have signed a patent agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for HTC’s mobile phones running the Android mobile platform. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will receive royalties from HTC.

The agreement expands HTC’s long-standing business relationship with Microsoft.

“HTC and Microsoft have a long history of technical and commercial collaboration, and today’s agreement is an example of how industry leaders can reach commercial arrangements that address intellectual property,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft. “We are pleased to continue our collaboration with HTC.”

Microsoft’s Commitment to Licensing Intellectual Property

The licensing agreement is another example of the important role intellectual property (IP) plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant IT ecosystem. Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 600 licensing agreements and continues to develop programs that make it possible for customers, partners and competitors to access its IP portfolio. The program was developed to open access to Microsoft’s significant research and development investments and its growing, broad patent and IP portfolio. More information about Microsoft’s licensing programs is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed athttp://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

Last year, we had written about how the CCIA had taken the same methodology used by entertainment industry lobbyists to claim how “big” the “copyright industry” was and applied it to the “fair use” industry, to show that it was actually much bigger than the copyright industry. Both numbers are clearly bogus — which is effectively the point that CCIA was making. The point that is clear, however, is that if you accept the methodology that claims that “copyright” brings $1.52 trillion into the economy, then weaker copyright/exceptions to copyright (such as fair use) bring in $2.2 trillion. Lots of folks have been submitting the news that the CCIA just recently updated the report to show that we’re now talking about $4.7 trillion contributed by the “fair use industries.” Again, this number is bogus — but it’s main point is to show just how silly the copyright lobbyist’s argument that copyright contributes $1.52 trillion to the economy is, because it uses the same methodology — a point recently confirmed by the GAO.

So I have to admit that it’s absolutely hilarious to see Patrick Ross, the head of “The Copyright Alliance” (one of a bunch of lobbying/marketing groups representing the entertainment industry) lash out at this new report, making arguments that apply equally to the $1.52 trillion number he’s famous for touting every chance he gets:

“It is not helpful to policymakers or the public to pronounce sweeping arguments that defy logic,” said Alliance Executive Director Patrick Ross. “In its report, CCIA identifies broad industries, suggests some entities in those industries occasionally engage in what some might call fair use, and then lumps all revenues and jobs in those industries into a newly coined “fair use” industry…”

But, as we’ve noted, that’s exactly the same methodology that was used by the copyright industry to defend the $1.52 trillion number. The methodology is a joke. It identifies broad industries (including things like furniture!), suggests some entities in those industries occasionally engage in what some might call copyright, and then lumps all revenues and jobs in those industries into a newly coined ‘copyright’ industry…

And guess who one of the biggest abusers of this bogus $1.52 trillion number is? You guessed it! It’s Patrick Ross! He tosses the number around like it’s going out of style and is regularly quoted in the press using that number as well.

Apparently, he’s so wrapped up in this issue, he doesn’t quite realize that the whole point of the CCIA report is to use the same methodology to show that if he and those who fund him are going to keep throwing around that $1.52 trillion number, they need to also note that the exceptions to copyright creates an industry that’s even bigger. So I’m curious, Patrick, why is it “not helpful to policymakers” to use this number, when the number you throw out to policymakers all the time uses the same methodology?

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Decimos dejará de venderse porque aun quedan algunas unidades en distintos conecionarios de España pero el Volkswagen Touareg R50 ya esta oficialmente descatalogado y todo ello para dar paso a la nueva generación de este SUV.

Este todoterreno hace uso de un paquete exterior que le otorga un aspecto deportivo además de tener 351 CV de potencia. Gracias a esta potencia, puede acelerar de 0 a 100 km/h en 6,7 segundos y tiene una velocidad máxima de 235 km/h.

Por otra parte, su consumo homologado esta situado en los 11,9 litros de combustible.

Related posts:

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3. Volkswagen Golf R confirmado

It’s Saturday night. The $12-an-hour babysitter has arrived and she might actually wash the dishes and not spend all evening on the Internet. The minivan has at least a half tank of gas. A dress has been picked out. A husband has been told to change his shirt with food stains on it.

Date night!

Time for the parents to dine in a restaurant. Drink a bottle of wine. Order a $23 fish entree. Share a chocolate dessert. Spend, oh, $175 for an evening that involves only sitting, eating and conversation as normal. But this time it will be  — not that we don’t love them — without kids.

The AJC’s Momania blogger Theresa Walsh Giarrusso set this conversation in motion when she asked me and restaurant reviewer Meridith Ford Goldman about our favorite no-fail, always-reliable, babysitter-worthy restaurants. Theresa was concerned with finding places that offered good value for the money, and where the staff would make minivan-driving suburbanites feel welcome rather than not cool …

People sometimes ask, “Is the universe a black hole?” Or worse, they claim: “The universe is a black hole!” No, it’s not, and it’s worth getting this one straight.

If there’s any quantitative reasoning behind the question (or claim), it comes from comparing the amount of matter within the observable universe to the radius of the observable universe, and noticing that it looks a lot like the relationship between the mass of a black hole and its Schwarzschild radius. That is: if you imagine taking all the stuff in the universe and putting it into one place, it would make a black hole the size of the universe. Slightly more formally, it looks like the the universe satisfies the hoop conjecture, so shouldn’t it form a black hole?

But a black hole is not “a place where a lot of mass has been squeezed inside its own Schwarzschild radius.” It is, as Wikipedia is happy to tell you, “a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape.” The implication being that there is a region outside the black hole from which things could at least imagine escaping to. For the universe, there is no such outside region. So at a pretty trivial level, the universe is not a black hole.

You might say that this is picking nits, and the existence of an outside region is beside the point if the inside of our universe resembles a black hole. That’s fine, except: it doesn’t. You may have noticed that the universe is actually expanding, rather than contracting as you might expect the interior of a black hole to be. That’s because, if anything, our universe bears a passing resemblance to a white hole. Our universe (according to conventional general relativity) has a singularity in the past, out of which everything emerged, not a singularity in the future into which everything is crashing. We call that singularity the Big Bang, but it’s very similar to what we would expect from a white hole, which is just a time-reversed version of a black hole.

That insight, plus four dollars or so, will get you a grande latte at Starbucks. The spacetime solution to Einstein’s equation that describes a universe expanding from the Big Bang is very similar to the time-reversal of a black hole, but you don’t really learn much from making that statement, especially because there is no outside; everything you wanted to know was already there in the original cosmological language. Our universe is not going to collapse to a future singularity, even though the mass is enough to allow that to happen, simply because it’s expanding; the singularity you’re anticipating already happened.

Still, some folks will stubbornly insist, there has to be something deep and interesting about the fact that the radius of the observable universe is comparable to the Schwarzschild radius of an equally-sized black hole. And there is! It means the universe is spatially flat.

You can figure this out by looking at the Friedmann equation, which relates the Hubble parameter to the energy density and the spatial curvature of the universe. The radius of our observable universe is basically the Hubble length, which is the speed of light divided by the Hubble parameter. It’s a straightforward exercise to calculate the amount of mass inside a sphere whose radius is the Hubble length (M = 4π c³H^-3/3), and then calculate the corresponding Schwarzschild radius (R = 2GM/c²). You will find that the radius equals the Hubble length, if the universe is spatially flat. Voila!

Note that a spatially flat universe remains spatially flat forever, so this isn’t telling us anything about the universe now; it always has been true, and will remain always true. It’s a nice fact, but it doesn’t reveal anything about the universe that we didn’t already know by thinking about cosmology. Who wants to live inside a black hole, anyway?

Last Thursday was the 40th annual Earth Day, and Reform Jewish communities from coast to coast are celebrating!



At Temple Emeth in Teaneck, New Jersey, congregants gathered for an Environment Day focused on e-cycling (recycling electronic equipment), cleaning a local park, and bringing together generations of synagogue members around the common goal of environmental stewardship.



Across the country in Walla Walla, Washington congregations came together for a Green Days of Worship program that included exploring low-carbon transportation options, environmentally-themed worship services, and a community-wide Earth Fair. Reform Congregation Beth Israel, as part of the Walla Walla Valley Faith Communities for Sustainability, has participated in Green Days of Worship since the program began several years ago.

[JURIST] The Japanese Diet on Tuesday approved a bill abolishing the statute of limitations for murder. The new law abolishes the statute of limitations for serious capital crimes, which was previously 25 years, and extends the limitation period for sexual assault and other crimes resulting in death from 15 to 30 years. The law also doubles prison terms for other crimes resulting in death. Japanese Justice Minister Keiko Chiba utilized the new law Tuesday to keep open an unsolved case from 1995 that was set to expire at midnight. While criminal procedure laws are normally not enacted for at least a week while they are reviewed by the emperor prior to publication, this law was enforced immediately to keep unsolved cases open.
Japan has recently taken steps to reform its criminal procedure system. Last year, Japan held its first jury trial since the end of World War II, with the Tokyo District Court convicting Katsuyoshi Fujii of murder. In 2004, the National Diet enacted the Lay Assessor Act, which impanels professional and lay judges to decide and sentence capital cases and cases involving an intentional death. Panels can be made up of three professional judges and six lay judges or one professional judge and four lay judges. For their verdicts to stand, lay judges need the concurrence of at least one professional judge.

The Renault Kangoo Van Z.E will be released in the first half of 2011 and with an operational range of 160km. The electric version of Kangoo Van features the same practical functions as the internal combustion-engined version, i.e. the same carrying capacity (from 3 to 3.5m3), the same payload (650kg) and the same high standard of comfort. On top of that, it delivers a silent ride and responsive performance, immediate availability of torque as soon as its starts, no gear changes, low running costs and, of course, the satisfaction of owning a zero-emissions* vehicle.

The length of Renault Kangoo Van Z.E. stands at 4.21 metres, while carrying capacity ranges from 3 to 3.5m3. The battery is located in a central position beneath the floor, enabling the electric version of Kangoo to boast the same carrying capacity as the internal combustion-engined version. The asymmetric hinged rear doors and sliding side door provide easy access to the cargo area.

Renault Kangoo Van Z.E. is an all-electric vehicle. Renault Kangoo Van Z.E. is powered by a 44kW electric motor which boasts energy efficiency of 90 per cent, a figure that is far superior to the 25 per cent associated with internal combustion engines which suffer from energy losses. For example, when an electric vehicle consumes 10kWh of energy, 9kWh is actually transmitted to the wheels, compared with just 2.5kWh in the case of an internal combustion engine.

This motor revs to 10,500rpm and instantly delivers peak torque, which is a constant 226Nm. Acceleration from low speed is particularly responsive. The electric motor is very quiet, too. The 22kWh battery is located beneath the boot floor and does not affect Kangoo Van Z.E.’s load capacity.

Renault Kangoo Van Z.E. is charged via a socket located behind a flap alongside the right-hand headlamp. A conventional charge via a household mains supply (16A 220V) will charge the vehicle in between six and eight hours. This method is perfectly suited to vehicles that are parked up overnight or during the day at the workplace.

Renault Kangoo Van Z.E. will go on sale in the first half of 2011 with an operational range of 160km.

Source: Lincah.Com – New Car and Used Car Pictures

German officials were “horrified” to find out last week that Google was using Street View cars to collect Wi-Fi data. Why it took them so much to find out a publicly known fact, they didn’t say, but they were clear that Google’s actions were out of bounds. The claims were a bit hypocritical, since plenty of other companie… (read more)

The PlayStation Network is turning into a bullet-filled warzone thanks to a collaboration between Sony Online Entertainment and indie game studio Rockin’ Android. The two have announced that some of the latter’s bullet-hell titles will be launching

Bentley’s gracefully aging Azure convertible will reportedly retain its name when a Mulsanne-based replacement debuts in the not-too-distant future. Sources indicate that it will debut in 2011 as a 2012 model.

The range-topping convertible, which sits above the Continental GT, will, like the Mulsanne, be designed to appeal more to Bentley’s traditional customers. Look for the automaker’s classic-yet-updated 6.75-liter, twin-turbo V8 from the Mulsanne to carry over into the third-generation Azure.

Despite middling sales for the current Azure, which was never intended to be a volume model like the Continental GT, Bentley has been careful to ensure that there is enough production capacity for a flagship convertible at its Crewe, England, assembly plant.

The existing Azure has been on sale since 2006, although it was updated last year to become the Azure T. Based on the now-discontinued Arnage, its future has been the subject of much speculation.

As more details on the next-generation Azure become available, we’ll make sure to update this space.

References
1.’Bentley unveils high…’ view

   

Source: Leftlane

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Move over Apple, Nokia isn’t ready to give up its market share leading position just yet. After two failed flagship smartphone attempts — the N97 and N900 — Nokia has cued up the drool-worthy N8 for third quarter release. I’m suddenly excited about a Nokia handset again, and you should be, too. The N8 might also be the Nokia handset to crack the US market.

Nokia is leaning on its strengths in hardware innovation, while improving software and services. The handset manufacturer has long excelled at hardware, whereas Apple does much better with software. For example, Nokia shipped cell phones with great cameras years before Apple sold one iPhone. But Nokia has struggled to extend steller photo and video capabilities into the capacitive touchscreen era.

The N8 may change all that. Apple watchers might want to watch this Nokia smartphone, which should be available around the same time as or soon after the next iPhone. Now for those reasons:

1. Symbian^3. American bloggers may pine for iPhone OS 4, but Symbian is a maturer mobile operating system. Symbian^3 is all about social connections and capable widgets running in the background (not makeshift multitasking like the iPhone).

2. 12-megapixel camera. Nokia N-Series cameraphones are legendary for quality optics and sensor size. Nokia Conversations posted the first sample photos yesterday, and they are simply stunning and unedited straight from the handset. Click through the pics to the full-size images to see the detail captured and surprising low amount of distortion for a camerphone — or many compact digital cameras. (My daughter has the same bike, but in red.)

Sample image from Nokia N8 smartphone. Click thru for full size.

3. Xenon flash. Nokia aficionados have debated N-Series flash since release of the N82, which packed Xenon rather than the typical single- or dual-LED. Old as the N82 is, Nokia fan sites continue to do flash and image quality comparisons between the cameraphone and newer N-Series smartphones. The N82 remains the gold standard for Nokia image quality, although the N8 promises much more.

4. 720p video. Now that YouTube supports HD, 640×480 simply isn’t good enough. Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone is rumored to have 720p, too. But will Apple’s smartphone have Carl Zeiss optics and big sensor (for a handset)? The sample video below simply stunned me. It’s simply the best quality I’ve seen produced by any cameraphone and most compact digital cameras.

Another sample image from Nokia N8. Click thru to see amazing facial detail.

5. Support for AT&T and T-Mobile. Nokia has shortchanged American users for way too long. Most handsets support AT&T 3G frequencies, while there is limited support for T-Mobile (Nuron and N900). The N8 adds support for the 1700MHz band, which along with 2100MHz, would allow the smartphone to use T-Mobile 3G. Could this be the Nokia smartphone that either US carrier carries at a reasonably affordable subsidized price?

6. Five colors. Kodak pioneered the five-color gadget concept during the late 1920s among several series of compact film cameras. Apple brought the five-color concept to new millennium gadgets with the iPod mini and later the iPod nano. Nokia will apply the concept to smartphones, with the N8, which will be available in black, silver, green, orange and blue. What’s not to like about that?

7. Capacitive display. Apple popularized smartphone capacitive touchscreens (which respond to electrical impulses in the fingers), while Nokia largely stuck with resistive touchscreens (which require physical touch). Too few Nokia handsets ship with capacitive displays today. Nokia is a latecomer, and it’s about time that one of the company’s flagship phones used capacitive instead of resistive touchsreen.

Nokia N8 first HD video sample from Nokia Conversations on Vimeo.

8. HDMI. Given the 12-megapixel camera and 720p video capture capabilities, HDMI output is a sensible necessity.

9. Unified social networking. Already, Nokia’s newer smartphones offer some of the best social networking features available on any handset. Apple is behind in this area in part because of its applications focus and iPhone’s stunted multitasking. HTC also offers great out-of-the-box social with its Sense UI. Motorola’s MotoBlur is another social-networking skin, and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 also offers social connections. N8 promises to be the social ladder climber of the summer (at least until the next, great smartphone announcement comes from somewhere else). As for iPhone, third party developers will have to do what Apple hasn’t.

10. Price. Nokia has priced the N8 at €370, unsubsidized. At today’s exchange rate, that’s about US $486. The N8 looks to be Nokia’s lowest-cost flagship smartphone ever. Unsubsidized, the 16GB N8 would cost about $110 less than what Apple charges carriers for the 16GB iPhone 3GS. However, to be truly competitive with iPhone 3GS or Android-based smartphones, Nokia needs subsidized US carrier distribution.

Regardless, photo and video capture quality promise to make the N8 a reasonable replacement for digital camera and pocket videocam. From that perspective, there is plenty of potential value in the one device to replace others. Oh, yeah, the N8 makes phone calls, too. 🙂

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

In my opinion, it makes the most sense to start out by electrifying government and public transit vehicles prior to private corporations entering the electric car market. First off, the government should at least try to be efficient. Also, the way bus routes are set up, the limited range of electric vehicles wouldn’t be much of a problem as charging points could be set up along the way.

In this vein, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the parent company of Mitsubishi Motors, is in the planning stages of an experiment with swappable battery electric buses in Japan. Makes sense to me!

(more…)

Durante um trecho do Rally da Turquia, o piloto Aleksandr Saluk e seu Mitsubishi Lancer fizeram uma coisa que chamou muito a atenção de quem estava no local assistindo.

Saluk ao saltar uma rampa, literalmente saiu “voando” com seu carro a uma altura considerável, o que assustou até mesmo o co-piloto que não se conteve e falou uma palavra “feia” para seu colega.

Ao ver a câmera interna do carro, imaginei a sensação que deve ser quando se dá um salto desses. Deve ser algo muito doido mesmo! Vejam o vídeo para maiores informações.

Good news: the large, fuzzy creature that an Ohio woman found nestled on the top of her can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs was not a rodent hoping to star in a “Ratatouille” sequel. It was just a fluffy, cuddly clump of mold.

ConAgra, the company that makes Chef Boyardee, released a statement last week about the pasta’s rodent-free status. Despite the family’s claims in their YouTube video that they saw tiny feet, they were mistaken.

“It’s not an animal of any kind, that it is most likely mold,” said Dave Jackson, spokesperson for ConAgra Foods. “We will confirm this with a series of tests we’ll be doing over the next two days.”

Those tests are expected to be concluded by Thursday.

Jackson says they believe the can was damaged on the way to the store.
“Sometimes a very small piece of damage to a can that would be very difficult for a customer to see, but we have the ability to test and determine, could lead to something like this,” said Jackson.

The company’s advice to consumers: Don’t buy dented cans.

Solid advice.

We contacted ConAgra for the final test results, and will update this post when we get them.

Can Mystery Solved, ConAgra Says It’s Mold [KY Post]

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