Blog

Over the weekend, I caught wind of a new Android application from Verizon. The free app is in the Android Market and allows remote access to a FiOS TV box, local listings and more. Since I’ve been known to leave home without scheduling the DVR, I had to grab the free download. Activation was pretty straightforward on my FiOS box. I simply had to enter the phone number of my handset, although I vaguely recall some wording about using a Verizon phone. I registered my Google Nexus One on T-Mobile’s network with no issues, however. One slight caveat — I couldn’t register with my Google Voice number. I had to use the number provided by T-Mobile for my phone.

Seconds after the activation steps, I had full remote access to my FiOS box. Although I don’t watch much Video on Demand, I was able to browse through the offerings and bookmark content of interest. The DVR functions include the creation of new recordings, list the currently recorded programs, view the upcoming recording schedule and see how much disk space is used or free on the DVR. TV listings are also available, with full details of the programs, plus a one-touch button for recording. Although Verizon has offered a web-based solution with similar functionality for nearly a year, the Android app is far more elegant and snappy.

Although most of us will never see the Tiger Woods sex tape, Ian Halperin claims he already has. The went on celebrity snitch went on “The Opie and Anthony Radio Show” last Friday to give us an oral play by play of the sex acts, drug use and role-playing featured in the footage.

Microsoft has agreed only to hold your personal information (read: darkest secrets] for six months, while Google and Yahoo will continue to keep them much longer to “improve search quality.” By which, of course, they mean “ad revenue.”

Granted, the Bing move comes after pressure from the European Union, who’s fined Microsoft so many billions of dollars in the past that the latter is understandably twitchy. It’s still a policy that should be applauded, though, to the same extent that Yahoo and Google’s lack of improvement should be roundly booed. Google stores cookies for a year and a half, far longer than they should need it for any purpose other than sending you the perfectly targeted Bowflex ad.

If Google and Yahoo continue not to comply with the EU’s wishes, the outcome could be fun to watch: more comically large fines for them, a less invasive search experience for you. Here’s hoping. [WSJ]

Previsto para ser apresentado oficialmente no Salão de Genebra, a versão definitiva do conceito Concept-cX já tem algumas imagens apresentadas oficialmente pela Mitsubishi. A versão definitiva do novo crossover compacto se chamará de ASX no mercado europeu, porém terá um irmão gêmeo chamado de RVR previsto para ser lançado no mês que vem no Japão.

O modelo, assim como o RVR, será equipado com um novo motor 1.8 de quatro cilindros, mais diferente da versão japonesa esse propulsor será um turbodiesel com injeção direta de combustível, sistema star-stop denominado pela marca de “Automatic Stop & Go” e será acoplado a uma nova caixa de transmissão manual de seis marchas desenvolvido pela Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) e a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

A Mistubishi não divulgou detalhes de performance do modelo e nem suas dimensões, mais espera-se algo parecido com seus principais concorrentes naquele mercado. O Salão de Genebra abre suas portas no mês de março e o modelo começa a ser comercializado no mercado europeu logo em seguida.

Fonte: Auto Hoje

Is China pulling Avatar from theaters because it’s too popular? Moviegoers in the Asian nation who haven’t already seen James Cameron’s Golden Globe-winning sci-fi epic will find it more difficult to see the film, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The box office smash is already the highest-grossing movie of all time in the communist nation, earning $76 million, but the government has decided to remove Avatar from 1,628 2D screens this week. China’s state-run movie distributor China Film Group is replacing the box office hit with a biography about Confucius starring Chow-Yun Fat, according to The Times.

Chinese fans will still be able to view Avatar on almost 900 3D screens.

Meanwhile, a 42-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure died while watching the blockbuster in a Chinese theater last week. Doctors believe his fatally stroke was likely triggered by “over-excitement” from seeing the movie.

Atlus has announced that the third entry in their hardcore dungeon crawling Etrian Odyssey series won’t be meeting its March release date in Japan.

A few weeks ago, I was flying with my wife somewhere, and as we passed through security, a TSA agency took my wife’s shoes and asked if he could run a separate test on them. A little while later, he came back and asked if she had another pair of shoes, saying that hers had “failed the test.” It was around 5am, and neither of us were completely awake and we were both really confused, and trying to figure out how her shoes could have failed any sort of test (could she have stepped in some sort of mud that set off a test?!?) or if she had packed another pair of shoes, when the TSA guy started laughing, saying he was just joking and “you were supposed to protest!” Apparently, it was all a big joke. It wasn’t that funny. And, of course, we’ve been told over and over again that this kind of joking is only allowed to go in one direction.

Krubuntu points us to the news of a guy in the UK who found himself arrested and banned for life from an airport after posting a message on Twitter that read: “Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” This was in response to the airport closing due to snow, and the guy realizing he was supposed to fly from there a week later. Now, clearly, this was an ill-advised Twitter message. And, at the very least, I don’t begrudge police from at least doing a quick check to make sure that it wasn’t serious, but to then arrest him under the Terror Act, interrogate him for seven hours, threaten him with further charges and ban him for life from the airport? At some point you have to think that the response has gone too far as well. Yes, the post was in poor taste, but at some point law enforcement people should recognize when it was just a frustrated person making an ill-advised joke and move on.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Google’s (GOOG) newfound morality in China may cost it dearly and not just in the search market, but in the mobile services sector as well. This morning the company said that it is delaying the release of two Android superphones that were to debut on China Unicom this week. And it cancelled a ceremony planned for tomorrow at which it was launch a brace of Android-based devices – one from Motorola (MOT) and another from Samsung.

“The launch we have been working on with China Unicom has been postponed,” a Google spokesperson explained.

The company offered no reason for the postponement, though it’s obviously related to the current uncertainties around its presence in China. Sources close to Google say the company simply felt it would be “irresponsible” to launch the phones in China at this time.

Google says it plans to hold meetings with Chinese authorities in “coming days,” though they’re not likley to be easy going given the recent messaging from Beijing. This morning a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman again stressed that foreign companies doing business in China must respect Chinese laws and regulations, adding, “Google is of course no exception.”

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Filed under: Sedan, Europe, Ford

Ford is reportedly preparing to launch a subtle facelift for its European-market Mondeo sedan, but according to reports, this will be the last Mondeo revision before the new model – Ford’s third new global product – hits the streets in 2014.

The interim Mondeo, pictured in the leaked photo on the right, will receive some minor adjustments to its appearance and specifications in an effort to keep it fresh, like the new Galaxy and S-Max minivans, until the new model arrives.

The next-gen Mondeo, however, will join the Fiesta and the new Focus as Ford’s third new global car, replacing the Mondeo overseas and the Fusion in the North American market. According to reports, the new Mondeo/Fusion is being developed in the United States for expected simultaneous manufacturing – with few adjustments to local tastes – in the U.S., Europe and China.

[Sources: Autocar, BurlappCars.com]

Ford to launch facelifted Mondeo until global Mondeo/Fusion replacement arrives originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the January 2010 issue of Technology Transfer Tactics monthly newsletter. If you are already a current subscriber click here to log in and access your issue. Not a subscriber already? Subscribe now and get access to this issue as well as access to our online archive of back issues, industry research reports, sample MTAs, legal opinions, sample forms and contracts, government documents and more!

Technology Transfer Tactics,
Vol. 4, No. 1 (pp 1-16) January 2010

• Don’t panic, but take steps to prepare for Bilski decision. The U.S. Supreme Court’s much-anticipated ruling in the  Bilski case will likely alter the landscape for business method patents and send shockwaves through the tech transfer community. Though no one can predict for certain the outcome, many observers believe the days of business method patents are numbered
• UNC introduces standardized ‘express’ start-up license. Forming a start-up at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may become easier following the introduction of a standard licensing arrangement that the university is promoting as its “best deal”
• In bold stroke, U of Kentucky brings clinicians into commercialization pipeline. In 2008, only one disclosure came out of the University of Kentucky’s Medical Center in Lexington, and it didn’t go anywhere. But in just the last quarter of 2009, there were 16 disclosures, including two that already have working prototypes
• TTOs face new reality when seeking venture funding. TTOs say they are facing a hard truth when it comes to early-stage financing: Projects that would have been considered “venture ready” a few short years ago are having a much tougher time attracting VC funding today
• Do poster presentations jeopardize your TTO’s commercialization efforts? Go to virtually any innovation showcase or industry meeting and you’re bound to see a collection of poster presentations. They look harmless enough; summaries of ongoing research often created by graduate students. But beneath their innocuous façade, some say, lies a potential threat to the commercialization of the technologies in question
• UMich creates ‘one-stop-shop’ center for start-ups. Having a wide range of services and resources available to faculty entrepreneurs and investors has always been seen as an important goal by the TTO at The University of Michigan, but recently its leadership decided that those services could be provided more effectively and efficiently by creating a central contact point for all interested parties

Amelot Holdings Inc. Announces the Formation of a New Subsidiary in Trinidad …CNNMoney.com (press release)In order to set up a fully automated large scale biodiesel production facility in Trinidad and Tobago an upcoming trip to Europe to meet with a …