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In a hilarious parody of the HBO drama Entourage, caricatures of Vince, Eric, Johnny Drama, Turtle, Ari, and Lloyd highlight the necessity of cell phones.

As we all know, social networking has become a huge part of many people’s lives, and with this they want to keep as up to date as possible. Boxcar, which currently is only available on the iPhone, allows you to do just this with its push notifications. Some of the big complaints about the Android platform is that no third-party applications really offer this push style support, where if someone mentions your Twitter name, or messages you on Facebook you get a rather instant notification of it without having to refresh the application. It appears as though Boxcar looks to have their Android application out within the next 90 days, so for all you iPhone converts that miss it, the wait is almost over. [via TechCrunch] 

Microsoft is promising that the camera on the Kin One and Two will be much better than we expect on a camera, with a powerful flash and good low-light performance.  Like the whole Kin the emphasis is on sharing photos and video, and on the Kin Two the photos are 8 megapixel and the video 720P HD.

Via Engadget.com

Each week GeekTonic covers the TV scene with a complete listing of premieres, finales and specials for the week.  This week brings us a few more premieres & returns as well as a few finales.

                         Glee returns to Fox Tuesday

NOTE: All Times are Listed for EST

Sunday, April 11

Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business (9pm on VH1) – new realityTV series

The Tudors (9pm on Showtime – Available in HD) – Season 4 premiere

Army Wives (10pm on Lifetime) – Season 4 premiere

Basketball Wives (10pm on VH1) – New series

Treme (10pm on HBO – Available in HD) – New Series

What Chilli Wants (10:30pm on VH1) – New Series

Monday, April 12

Life Unexpected (8pm on CW – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

Extreme Forensics (9pm on Investigation Discovery) – Season 2 premiere

VH1 Tough Love Couples (9pm on VH1) – Season 2 premiere

Tuesday, April 13

Deadliest Catch (9pm on Discovery – Available in HD) – Season 6 premiere

Melrose Place (9pm on CW – Available in HD) Season 1 finale

Glee (9:28pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Season 1 returns from hiatus with gues star Idina Menzel from Wicked.

Construction Intervention (10pm on Discovery – Available in HD) – Season 1 premiere

The Millionaire Matchmaker (10pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – Season 3 finale

9 by Design (11pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – New series

Wednesday, April 14

Human Target (8pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

Ugly Betty (10:01pm on ABC – Available in HD) – The end of the road for Betty as ABC airs the Series Finale

Thursday, April 15

Project Runway (10pm on Lifetime) – Season finale part 1

Saturday, April 17

Doctor Who (10pm on BBC America) – Season 5 premiere

If you follow GeekTonic for the TV Premieres and news, you’ll want to click here if you would like to get a regular e-mail for GeekTonic TV Premieres & News

Lawmakers will not pass a bill requiring seat belts on school buses this year. Instead, lawmakers intend to gather more information about the issue.  

Monday, the appropriations committee amended a bill that had called for all new school buses purchased after the start of 2012 to have lap-and-shoulder, or three-point belts. The bill would now require the state to study the pros and cons of having seat belts on buses.

Appropriations Committee Chairman John Geragosian, D-New Britain, offered the amendment, saying that discrepancies were evident in recent estimates made by the legislature’s budget office.

“It’s clear we need some better information,” Geragosian said.

The Office of Fiscal Analysis says that purchasing new buses with seat belts would cost local and regional school districts an additional $45.2 million to $103.4 million over a 12-year period. It would cost the state technical school system between $644,000 to $1.5 million.  

The estimates are for 12 years because that is how long it is expected to take to replace the state’s fleet of roughly 6,553 large buses. A new bus with belts is expected to cost, on average, between $80,000 and $116,000. On average, a new bus without seat belts cost between $75,000 and $100,000. 

In addition, the legislature’s budget office says school districts and the technical school system would have to pay an additional $500 per bus annually for maintenance. It adds that the districts may have to buy another bus or add bus routes because seat belts result in less capacity.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles would have to hire a new bus inspector, at an annual cost of $65,329, if seat belts are required on buses. To comply with a new law, the department would also have a one-time cost of $17,050.  

The transportation committee had passed the seat belt bill last month. It had been referred to the appropriations committee, which opted to amend it. 

The bill was proposed by transportation committee Chairman Antonio Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill, after a teenager from his hometown died in a bus crash in January.

Sixteen-year-old Vikas Parikh was riding a school bus to a robotics event Jan.9 when the bus and a car collided on I-84. The bus fell down an embankment, and Parikh died. Several other students and a teacher were injured.  

The final vote on the amended seat belt bill is not available at this time.   

A NASA engineer saw our image of the space shuttle Discovery’s engines and thought it wasn’t good enough. She sent us these exclusive pictures looking right inside the nozzle. Surprise: It looks exactly like a shower head. Zoom in! More »

Google Docs has gotten a major overhaul, with improvements that beef up collaboration across the board. That means real-time, character-by-character changes for up to 50 collaborators. And it’s not just for the document editor. More »

Probably the most interesting feature of the Kin devices is the Kin Spot, which allows users to easily share media with their friends and followers.

What is particularly interesting about this is the similarity in UI between this and Microsoft’s Courier demo videos, of course this time with an actual implementation which works well. To me it indicated that we the Courier may in fact be real and coming sooner than we expect.

Do our readers agree? Let us know below.

Via Engadget.com

Listen up, SATC stans: Warner Bros. Pictures has rolled out the red carpet for a second promotional poster for the buzzed Sex And The City sequel, stomping its way into theaters — in sparkly stilettos — next month.

Check out the all new Sex and the City 2 poster that was revealed on Monday.

In the poster, Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays the fashionable Carrie Bradshaw in the series, walks along the sand dunes of Abu Dhabi, sporting strappy sandles and a floor-length gown that shows off plenty of thigh. Though there have been few details released about the plot of the second film, the cast was spotted shooting in Morocco in October and we know that the film will feature cameo appearances by Liza Minnelli, Oscar winner Penelope Cruz, and teen queen Miley Cyrus — who pops up on the red carpet alongside Kim Cattrall’s Samantha wearing the same outfit.

The first SATC 2 poster was unveiled in December. The image was heavily-photoshopped and a bit on the cartoonish side — a fact that earned it plenty of criticism from Sex fans. What do you think of the new promo poster — Yay or Nay?

Sex and the City 2 hits theaters May 27. If you missed the premiere of the most recent trailer, here it is one more time:

The market rebound we’ve experienced is near an end, and we should have seen it coming, according to John Hussman of Hussman Funds.

Here’s a breakdown of why Hussman thinks that, even if you ignore questions about the banking system, this market is clearly in line for a correction.

• Investors have gone through two massive loss periods in the past 12 years, and only gained 2.4% if they tracked the S&P.
• Returns are going to be low over the next several years, and while there might have been a price low in March 2009, the valuation low has yet to be found. It may take another 6-8 years.
• This low return on the S&P is not the result of other potential crises looming in the system, including credit problems, but simple fundamentals.
• People are now buying into the market, relying on economic growth and the absence of another credit crisis, rather than on fundamentals.

As such, says Hussman:

This outcome is not dependent on whether or not we observe a second set of credit strains, but is instead baked into the cake as a predictable result of prevailing valuations. The risk of further credit strains simply adds an additional layer of concern here. Investors have chased risky securities over the past year to the point where the risk premium for default risk has eroded to the levels we saw at the peak of the credit bubble in 2007. My sense is that this is a mistake that will be painfully corrected. Investors now rely on a sustained economic recovery and the absence of any additional credit strains – and even then would be likely to achieve only tepid long-term returns from these levels.

Read John Hussman’s whole letter here >

Join the conversation about this story »

So you think you can Swype? Many of you remember the video of Swype on the Samsung Omnia II where the Guinness World Record for fastest text was broken, and this seems to have sparked some inspiration amongst many. There are quite a few videos, where many come close to breaking this record themselves, only to miss by a few seconds, or a minor spelling error to get in the way. One of the most impressive videos, is this speed deamon typing this rather intricate phrase on his Motorola Droid, and completing it 4 seconds faster then the previous record. Think you got what it takes to beat this record? We would love to see it, as would Samsung on their YouTube page, so be sure to check out the details of this contest here. For those unsure, the phrase for this contest is:

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.

Be sure to check out this sweet video after the jump.

read more

007 Transport
Brian Armstead, Canadian Auto Press

Hello, my name is Bond, Brian Bond. My mission requires me to have transportation that is stealthy, super luxurious, ultra powerful, and has accommodations for three Bond Girls.

2010 Aston Martin Rapide

Okay, I am back to reality, but my brief life as 007 continued during my test time behind the wheel of the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide.

If you’ve lived in a cave the past few decades, you may not know that the iconic British carmaker Aston Martin has had a long relationship with the James Bond movie franchise. The association began in 1964 with the film “Goldfinger” featuring a DB5, and has continued to the present, with the DBS making its first public appearance in “Casino Royale.” In 2008, the DBS made another appearance in “Quantum of Solace,” which took the marque’s total to 10 Bond film appearances.

So is the new Rapide worthy of the title Aston Martin? Would Bond drive one? You better believe it!

The Rapide breaks new ground for an Aston Martin, following the latest designer trend of being the four-door “coupe.” The front view features a signature wide mouth grille, two functional hood vents and sixteen LEDs that function as Daytime Running Lights. Overall styling is breathtakingly swoopy, yet not so extreme as to polarize the jaded Aston Martin masses. Think Porsche 911 and the new Panamera, and you can see the parallel I’m making, as Aston Martin, like Porsche, has made its name on building powerful coupes (the two-door variety!) over the years. The design is so sleek the Rapide was awarded the Best Production Car Design of 2009 as voted for by design peers in the industry magazine, Car Design News. According to Car Design News, the Rapide was chosen for “its elegant, sporting proportions combined with emotional surfaces and exquisite detailing.”

Open the four doors on the Rapide, and the car appears to take flight, as it features “Swan” doors that gently and gracefully open upward, allowing for easier access to the well-appointed cabin. Close those doors, and you are in for a treat. Start at the upper dash, and watch two tweeters rise when the audio system is turned on, part of the powerful 15 speaker, 1000 watt Bang & Olufsen “Beosound Rapide” audio system. This system is so precise and sophisticated that it has sensors mounted on the seatbelts to determine how many people are in the car and their location and will adjust the soundstage for the optimum sound experience. The centre stack features gorgeous blond wood, artfully carved to accommodate the navigation system.

Rear passengers are also ensconced in comfort, as the centre tunnel runs the full length of the interior, offering separate accommodations for rear passengers. The rear seats feature power recline, and can also fold flat at the touch of a button. This fold flat feature, combined with an already roomy storage area behind the rear seats (perfect for optional custom Aston Martin luggage!), and a unique folding partition in the trunk renders the Rapide as the first four-door Coupe/SUV!

Rear passengers can also enjoy the Aston Martin rear entertainment system with two LCD screens integrated into the back of the front seat headrests and a six DVD changer mounted in the trunk. As you recline, you can enjoy multiple media sources independently of your fellow rear companion via infra-red remote control and wireless headphones.

To put your Rapide in “rapid” forward motion, insert the crystal key fob into a slot on the centre stack, and listen to the not so subtle rumble of V12 power. Select your appropriate gear by pushing a centre stack mounted shift button. I loved this feature, as for me it harkened back to the Chryslers of years gone by with their dash-mounted, push-button trannies. The “Touchtronic 2” six speed transmission features drive by wire technology, and magnesium steering wheel mounted paddle shifters.

Behind the wheel, every control just seems to naturally fall into place. The thick, leather wrapped steering wheel tunnels your focus onto the two main gauge clusters. Select the appropriate suspension setting depending on your desire for full sport capability or maximum comfort. Choose D for Drive or manipulate the paddle shifters. Step on the accelerator pedal hard. Glance in the mirror to see the ever-widening smile on your face.

That smile comes from the brutal force the V12 puts forth. The 6.0-litre unit features 470 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque. Zero to 100 km/h comes up in a scant 5.3 seconds, and the Rapide tops out at 302 km/h (188 mph). Given these impressive performance numbers, the view that most will have of your Rapide is of the rear, which features taillamps that house 360 LEDs each.

Once in motion, ride quality and handling are excellent. Damping is well controlled, even when the Rapide is in its “sport” handling mode. Never does this car beat you up, as that would be very un-Bond-like.

For the first time in an Aston Martin, the Rapide features a “Dual Cast” brake system. The discs are made from cast iron and aluminum. The new technology provides dynamic advantages in the form of reduced unsprung mass with a brake that is 15-20% lighter than a standard cast iron brake. In addition, greater braking performance, reduced corrosion, and less wear are all benefits associated with the new system. The Rapide also features a new Hydraulic Brake Assist (HBA), which provides assistance in emergency braking situations. HBA identifies when the driver requires maximum braking performance, from the speed at which the brake pedal is depressed, and automatically boosts the brake pressure up to the ABS control threshold for as long as the driver keeps the brake pedal pressed down. The result under ideal conditions is substantially shorter braking distances.

Rapide pricing is set at $215,000, with only a few options like cooled seats and the aforementioned rear seat entertainment system available. This model is a very strong indication that Aston Martin is a player in the “affordable” supercar class.

Reaction to the Rapide from passersby was quite interesting. Several gave me the “thumbs up,” while several others looked at me with disdain as if I was too much of a snob to matter.

But that is the life as Agent 007, err, as a test car reviewer. Me and my Bond Girls (my daughter, mom and sis!) are off on another adventure, covering immense swaths of ground very quickly in the 2010 Aston Martin Rapide.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Today’s KIN phone launch should not be compared to iPhone. Anyone doing so should be whacked aside the head. Microsoft isn’t trying to directly compete with Apple’s smartphone but cater to a specific customer segment — Millennials and younger Gen Ys who use technology to socialize with friends or follow celebrities. Microsoft describes KIN as “an experience for the social generation.”

KIN “knits together a tight community of kindred spirits…who broadcast their lives all the time,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division. Bach introduced KIN during an event early afternoon East Coast time. So there would be no confusion, he made the distinction of Windows Phone 7 being “everything on the phone.” It’s more multipurpose. By comparison, KIN is customized for social media consumers and pulls data from cloud services. “We’re going to crank social up to 11,” Bach said.

The home screen is all about social sharing and bears slight similarities to the Motoblur skin found on some Motorola Android-based smartphones. From the home screen, KIN users track social connections and updates and also interact with others. One key feature is the KIN Spot, which lets users drag stuff from the screen onto contacts for easy sharing.

Besides the built-in social sharing functions, the main cloud service feature is KIN Studio online, which essentially records — backups, if you prefer — in a live stream. All activity records on a timeline that can later be reviewed. That feature resonates with how the social generation (e.g., Millennials and younger Gen Ys) socialize.

“We call it lifecasting,” Bach said. “It’s like publishing a magazine of their life.” From that perspective, KIN Studio promises much, because there is a clear record of the lifecasting via the timeline. “This social phone is about amplifying their lives,” Bach emphasized.

Three-quarters of US teens ages 12-17 have cell phones, according to Pew Internet. Twenty-seven percent of teens use a cell phone to go online — 55 percent for Americans age 18-29.

During the early presentation, Bach talked about what the social generation wants in a phone. It’s social, social, social. But Microsoft has talked social for more than five years. In 2005, before Windows Live launched, Microsoft product managers described their approach to online socializing — with friends, family and coworkers forming concentric circles of relationships. Facebook hadn’t publicly launched yet, and MySpace was the big social network. Zune represents Microsoft’s first effort bringing social features to a portable device. The concept was right then and even better as demonstrated today. Besides keeping friends close, many Millennials and younger Gen Ys monitor celebrities on services like Facebook and Twitter. KIN users will be able to track both group separately. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft lets marketing partners tap into celebrity relationships.

According to a February 2010 Pew Internet report:

Seventy-three percent of wired American teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys. Just over half of online teens (55 percent) used social networking sites in November 2006 and 65 percent did so in February 2008…

Young adults act much like teens in their tendency to use these sites. Fully 72 percent of online 18-29 year olds use social networking websites, nearly identical to the rate among teens, and significantly higher than the 39 percent of internet users ages 30 and up who use these sites.

Microsoft has got the right idea. “They have high demands of the technology, and they’re facile about using it,” Bach said of the social generation.

Based on Microsoft’s review of initial features and hardware, KIN, which will initially be available in two models, has huge potential. KIN ONE sports a 5-megapixel camera and the KIN TWO an 8-megapixel camera. KIN Two records video in 720p (See full specs here). Both social handsets also fully support Zune software and service — something too long coming but it’s the right device to start. Additionally, Zune Pass subscriptions will be available on the phone, which at $14.95 a month for unlimited downloads should appeal to teenagers.

Something else, super important: Microsoft finally, finally, finally has made the big plunge of selectively choosing partners. For years, Microsoft has treated partners as essentially equal. Back in my analyst days, circa 2004, I started recommending that Microsoft play favorites. Microsoft demonstrated some favoritism with Toshiba and first-generation Zune. Today’s announcement is another step forward, with Sharp producing KIN and Verizon acting as sole US distributor. Vodafone is Microsoft’s European distributor. Verizon will begin selling KIN next month, but pricing wasn’t released during Microsoft’s launch event.

Today’s event had a high brand marketing index. Phrases like “KIN, a phone to navigate your social life,” or describing KIN Studio as a “time machine” are very Apple marketing-like. There was plenty of aspirational, marketing-loaded language. For the target consumer segment, marketing will be as important as the social features. If Verizon advertises KIN anything like the Droid, the phone would launch with more than adequate marketing support. The KIN logo is exceptional, by the way.

If there is any comparison to Apple’s smartphone, it’s what KIN does differently that iPhone doesn’t — even with coming release of v4 OS. Microsoft has hit Apple’s weakest point: Social networking. Other than some social gaming features coming with iPhone OS 4, Apple has done little to aggressively embrace the social generation.

Today’s KIN announcement is much bigger than I expect many Apple-obsessed tech pundits will regard it. Microsoft didn’t invent the concept of social phones, just like Apple didn’t create the tablet concept with iPad. But KIN is as significant a launch as iPad for bursting open a stagnant category. KIN may be the sleeper phone of the year.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

It is by now conventional wisdom that the economy is going to cost Democrats big in the midterm elections . . . so it’s refreshing to see folks like James Surowiecki challenge that wisdom.  After all, the economy has started growing again, and, in what must be an astonishing coincidence, we’re just about to get a big river of stimulus money sluicing through voter pockets.

Possibly.  But conventional wisdom has a lot going for it.  I agree with Surowiecki that what matters is not the headline numbers on the newspaper page, but peoples’ actual felt experience with the economy, particularly real income growth.  That felt experience is maybe improving a tiny amount.  Consider the following, however:

• At this point, there is not enough time for employment
  to recover significantly.  We lost a lot of jobs, and if analysts are
  right that this represents mostly structural change in the economy
  (rather than a temporary collapse in aggregate demand), employment will
  rebound only slowly.  It took years under the Bush administration to
  work off the relatively modest collapse around 9/11.
• Most
  peoples’ major asset will still be worth a whole lot less than it used
  to be.  And people who are pinched will not have the housing piggybank
  to cushion their anxiety.
• Delinquencies are finally slacking
  of, but the backlog of foreclosures is eventually going to come on the
  market, further pushing down home values in many areas.
• We
  can’t really afford to expand the various forms of housing support much
  further . . . but if we stop them, housing markets will look even worse.
• Low
  inflation means the cost of living doesn’t go up . . . but people are
  now conditioned to expect nominal wage increases.  Money illusion is
  going to make people perceive the labor market, and income growth, as
  worse than they actually are.
• Health care costs are going up
  due to selection effects in individual and small business
  markets–healthy people are cutting the expense when they lose their
  jobs, landing companies with a smaller, sicker pool.  That’s going to
  further cut into any wage growth.
• Budget deficits are almost
  certainly going to keep going up in the short term.  People get
  especially touchy about deficits when they are personally strapped.
• Oil prices are still rising.

I’m
not saying the Democrats can’t pull it out.  Nothing is impossible, and
they have GDP growth on their side.  On the other hand, they’re facing
some pretty strong headwinds–much stiffer than Bill Clinton faced when
he lost the House to the Republicans in 1994.  And contra what I was
assured by many Democrats, health care reform has not gotten more popular since it passed; arguably, it’s gotten slightly less popular.

That base had better be very motivated.

Well folks, it’s the battle of the recent investigations! We took a look at Best Buy’s Geek Squad Optimization service and found that it was a big stupid annoying waste of money — and Cash4Gold… well….take a look for yourself.

Tell us, which company causes you to have the bigger meltdown?

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2010 series. The companies competing for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Print the bracket, here.

From Green Right Now Reports

Image: denmark.dk

About 175 nations will continue climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, later this year, but the United Nations’ top climate official predicts a full treaty won’t be completed in 2010.

Delegates at the April 9-11 talks in Bonn agreed to meet November 29-December 10 in Cancun as debate between rich and poor nations on the subject of global warming continued to produce little in the way of substantive agreement. The recent discussions came in the wake of last December’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which produced the Copenhagen Accord that stated objectives but largely left open the question of how they might be accomplished.

“We had an outcome that was pretty positive,” Johnathan Pershing, head of the U.S. delegation, said as the Bonn sessions came to a close. “That is a good augury for what comes next.”

Still, the U.N.’s Yvo de Boer suggested a focus on smaller steps in 2010, citing aid to poor nations to cope with the impacts of climate change, protection of tropical forests and new clean technologies.

“I don’t think Cancun will provide the final outcome,” de Boer told Reuters near the end of the Bonn meetings.

The fine folks over at TmoNews have gotten their hands on another picture of the forthcoming myTouch Slide.  This time around, we’re treated to a screen of the firmware.  As it appears, this will be the first Android 2.1 handset to arrive at T-Mobile.  Yes, there is that one device called a Nexus One but this will be the first you can pick up at a T-Mobile store.  Rumors have this phone pegged for next month with a May 17th release.  Be sure to check back as TmoNews tells us there are more pics coming later!

Might We Suggest…

• T-Mobile myTouch Slide Shows up in the Wild Wearing a Pretty Red Dress
  We were hoping that the myTouch Slide would have picked up a bit of sexiness since we last checked in.  It seems T-Mobile and HTC might be trying to do exactly that, putting a shiny gloss of red paint…

Microsoft seems to have a penchant for one-syllable product names these days. First there was Zune, then Bing and now Kin. The latter, which is the company’s latest mobile device (which was actually made by Sharp Electronics; Microsoft created the software), appears to be a hit with naming gurus, who point to Microsoft’s mixed track record in this area. Eli Altman, director of strategy for A Hundred Monkeys, dubbed Kin a "pretty good name," though he said it sounds a bit like "they were going for Kindle, but stopped halfway." Athol Foden, president of Brighter Naming, said it’s "short and sweet and—a change for Microsoft—has some human emotion going on." Foden wasn’t as big a fan of Bing, ("What’s a bing?" he asked), but was impressed that Microsoft nailed down a three-letter word, a coup in an age where all the short names seem to have been taken. John Hoeppner, president of NameQuest, agreed that the Kin name was short and easy to pronounce, but he was less enthralled than the others: "Kin doesn’t seem to differentiate the Microsoft product offering from existing telecom products." Does any of this matter, though? After all, lots of people snickered at the iPad’s obvious feminine product connotations, but no one was chuckling last week when the product launched. "The only name Apple really cares about is Apple," said Altman. "Everyone thinks [the iPod and the iPhone] are great names, but in these situations, a name really only serves to get you out of the starting gate."

—Posted by Todd Wasserman