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Remember when men were men and guitar riffs were boring and mindless? Moto does. The company has thrown together a little animated spot demonstrating its new Backflip handset. If you’re the sort of person who has trouble conceptualizing objects in 3D space — particularly objects that run Moto Blur and have an oddly oriented keyboard that flips backwards to face out from the back of the device — this video should work wonders for you. If you’re the sort of person who burned your Big Muff fuzzbox in effigy on New Year’s Eve, you might want to rip your computer speakers out right about now. Video is after the break, and don’t forget to check out our hands-on with the phone for a deeper, more staid look.

Continue reading Motorola Backflip promo spot reminds us what rock and roll is all about

Motorola Backflip promo spot reminds us what rock and roll is all about originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are a variety of reasons to not take Amtrak: expensive tickets, frequent delays, worn-down interiors, and even more delays. But, for gadget hounds, trains can make a compelling option thanks to the lack of cellphone bans, power outlets at nearly every seat, and fewer cavity checks than airline travel. Now, a very few of those lines are getting even more appealing with Amtrak announcing that Acela lines between Boston, New York, and Washington will be receiving WiFi upgrades in March. That the service will be free is great news — that the word “initially” is inserted before the word “free” isn’t so very great. What about those commuters who take the company’s slower, regional routes around the East Coast? WiFi is said to be coming there too, eventually, and might even make its way to the west some day — but, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is Amtrak we’re talking about here.

Amtrak adding free WiFi to some trains, still no charge for delayed arrivals originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The consultancy arm of the Porsche holding, Porsche Consulting GmbH, has won the Yellow Angel 2010 pioneering award today, for its contribution to reducing highway improvements’ development time. The distinction was awarded by the ADAC (Allgemeine Deutsche Automobil Club) and it is the number one German prize for mobility, environmental protection and road safety.

The German company implemented its know-how, significantly improving German highway construction efficiency, in terms of time, res… (read more)

For those who enjoy nothing more than a good clamping, this $14, 7-port USB hub clamps to your desk. (Shhh, technically it might actually “clip,” but that desk won’t ever pay up without fear of the clamps.) [Brando via CraziestGadgets]

As I was getting ready for work the other day, I heard a radio report that caught my attention: flying cars might become a reality in our lifetime. Yes, you read this correctly, the federal government is seriously considering several proposals to design a transportation vehicle capable of driving and flying. These flying vehicles have moved beyond the realm of science fiction. These unique vehicles could very well be produced during this new decade.

As I mentioned in one of my blog entries last summer, I’ve always been fascinated by the cartoon series, the Jetsons. When it first came out in the 1960s, the technological gadgets used in the Jetsons’ household seemed well ahead of their time. I had noted that of all the contraptions portrayed in the animated series, the only one that still was not widely used in the 21st century was the flying car. Obviously, technology could change everything in the near future.

While the federal government seems to be considering the military applications of this new transportation vehicle, I imagine that commercial applications will be considered as well. I guess it might be pricey in the beginning years, but it would be truly a step in the right direction to have a new vehicle that was completely green with zero emissions, great mileage, that could both fly and drive in the nation’s roadways. Now, I cringe at the thought of having to teach my youngest how to drive/fly this new vehicle. Yikes! She’s only eight now. Who knows what type of car she’ll be able to drive when she’s sixteen….that’s only eight years away.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

by Tom Philpott

When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web.

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Get ‘em while they’re hot.  • NPR delivers a blunt report on Monsanto’s dominant position in the seed industry, complete with farmers complaining about monopoly pricing. With this sort of straight talk in mainstream media, one wonders if the Justice Department might really pursue an antitrust case against the monopolistic giant.

• This Wall Street Journal infographic paints a devastating picture of the U.S. job market (the headline on the accompanying article says it all: “Even in a Recovery, Some Jobs Won’t Return.”) Look down at the bottom right corner along the margins, and you see one of the few growth areas in the U.S. growth landscape: “community food services.”

That’s sad news—with unemployment stubbornly high, a growing number of people are hurting and in need of assistance at food banks. But look whom the Journal is highlighting as an example of a worker in that field: Sharon Thornberry of the Oregon Food Bank. Thornberry is an innovator in seeing that community food relief isn’t just about delivering emergency food, but also about creating alternative food systems that work for low-income residents. And alternative food systems can themselves generate meaningful jobs—thus bringing not just short-term hunger relief, but also real economic growth that can lift people out of hunger.

• Speaking of jobs, check out this article on Yahoo Personal Finance, of all places (bear with me; food angle coming):

Job satisfaction in America hit a record low in 2009, according to a survey released this week by the Conference Board—with only 45 percent of workers reporting contentment with their jobs.

Clearly, the economic downturn is partly to blame. Workers have lost their jobs and taken less fulfilling, lower-paid positions. They’ve had to pick up the slack when colleagues were laid off, managing bigger workloads with no pay increase. They’ve had hours cut and benefits such as 401(k) matches dropped.

The unhappiness-at-work trend didn’t start with the Great Recession:

But job satisfaction among all age and income groups has been on a consistent downward trend since 1987, when the Conference Board began tracking the numbers.

“What we’ve seen over last 22 years is that irrespective of whether the economy is boom or bust, the overall level of satisfaction expressed by U.S. workers has been steadily declining across every single aspect of the job,” says Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center and author of the report.

So happiness at work peaked more than 20 years ago (if this survey is accurate). I would call that a pretty damning indictment of the post-‘70s neoliberal era in U.S. economic policy (still lurching along, embodied in the Geithner/Summers White House economic team). We’ve lived through an age of outsourcing, a massive shift from manufacturing to services,  and the rise of Wal Mart-led consumerism. And evidently, we’ve thought it sucked all along, at least from a work persperctive.

I’m wondering if emerging economies, based on the Jane Jacobs model of small, networked producers that I discussed here,  could provide an antidote to pervasive workplace gloom (and lack of work). Food is an everyday necessity that can be grown and processed damn near anywhere. Even in low-income areas, people spend $1000 per capita on food. Couldn’t food provide the fodder for such economies? The model seems to be working in Hardwick, Vermont.

(For another look at the failure of recent economic policy, see BusinessWeek economist Michael Mandel’s devastating presentation (summarized here by Matt Yglesias.)

• I love this trend.

• Speaking of amazing things to do with kimchi, check this out.

• Over on my new favorite site Zester Daily, Clifford Wright, one of our most rigorous (and unheralded) authorities on Mediterranean cuisine, has an interesting piece on what he calls “innovative Med-American” cooking that “ironically can’t exist in the Mediterranean.”  He approves of the trend, declaring that …

One of great attributes of American cooking is that Americans are less constrained by tradition than other cultures. There is an upside and a downside to that. The downside is often soulless international eclectic food ignorant of foundations inspired by extravagance, faux-dietetics, fads, gigantism, disrespect and foolishness. The upside is embryonic dishes laying a foundation for a new cuisine. Local American products and ingenuity tied to Mediterranean culinary sensibilities holds great promise.

I think this is a spot-on reading of the potential and pitfalls of our cooking, and it applies also to beer, wine, and even coffee. (For example, to my mind, roasters/cafes like Intelligentsia of Chicago/L.A. and Blue Bottle of San Francisco are doing things with coffee never dreamed of in old-school coffee capitals like Rome, Vienna, and Ethiopia.)

Related Links:

Raj Patel on Colbert

‘Water’ author Stephen Solomon talks resource intelligence

Economics as pathology, part two

I’d never heard of Mplayit before this morning, but they’re on my radar now. The company offers a mobile application recommendation service on Facebook and helps you find good software for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone handsets. I suspect there’s some “crowd-sourcing” of information going on, which I generally find useful. More interesting than the service itself might be the trends you can find from the data within it.

Mplayit today issued a press release stating that “[t]he iPhone’s massive lead in the total number of apps may no longer be translating into a similar advantage in the marketplace.” Put another way, it’s what I’ve been saying for some time — it’s not about the total quantity of titles in an any app store, it’s about having access to the tools that meet your needs the best. The chart below shows Mplayit data from over 42,000 individuals — it’s a breakdown of category titles for each platform.

In some cases, like Pandora and Evernote, the same apps are popular across all three platforms. I’d even go out on a limb and suggest that cross-platform support for mobile apps is a strategic advantage. It helps not only people owning multiple devices, but it removes barriers to switch platforms as well. This attribute is actually one that I look for in a mobile app — if there’s a good app that can be used on several of my devices, I’ll usually pick it over a great app that can only be used on one device.

How much does cross-platform support enter into your mobile application usage?

Related GigaOm Pro research: “Feature Phones: The Next Market for Mobile Apps?“

Todos aquellos clientes que deseen comprar el último modelo de Citroen en España ya pueden hacerlo pues la marca ha dado a conocer los precios y últimos detalles sobre el nuevo Citroen C3. El modelo más barato cuesta 11.100€ y cuenta con el parabrisas Zenith (aumenta el ángulo de visión superior hasta 108º) y un motor HDi 90.

Todos los modelos cuenta de serie con ABS, ayuda a la frenada de urgencia y repartidor electrónico de frenada, así como airbags de conductor y pasajero y laterales delanteros. En cuanto a las motorizaciones disponibles, aparte de la ya citada HDi 90, podemos elegir una opción diesel HDi 70 y cuatro gasolina, un 1.1i, 1.4i, VTi 95 y VTi 120.

A continuación os dejo con el listado de precios (todos los impuestos incluidos):

• Citroen C3 1.1i Airdream LX 11.100€.
• Citroen C3 1.4i Airdream LX 11.550€.
• Citroen C3 1.4i Airdream SX 13.350€.
• Citroen C3 VTi 95 Airdream SX 13.950€.
• Citroen C3 VTi 95 Airdream Exclusive 15.550€.
• Citroen C3 VTi 120 Airdream Exclusive 16.300€.
• Citroen C3 VTI 120 CAS Exclusive 17.900€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 70 Airdream LX 12.200€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 70 Airdream SX 14.000€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 70 Airdream Exclusive 15.600€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 90 Airdream SX 15.000€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 90 Airdream SX 99gr 15.450€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 90 Airdream Exclusive 16.600€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 110 FAP Airdream Exclusive 17.800€.
• Citroen C3 HDi 70 Airdream Business 13.600€.

Related posts:

1. Nuevo Citroën C4 VTN@v
2. Citroen C5 y C6 3.0 V6 HDi ya la venta
3. Citroen C5 recibe nuevos motores

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One Team have officially announced the date for the unveiling of their 2010 challenger. It will happen on January 29th, only two days before the official testing season kicks off in Valencia.

Unlike rivals Ferrari, the Woking-based organization have not changed the official designation of their 2010 car. Therefore, the McLaren MP4-25 will be unveiled before the media in the UK, with the location to be announced by the British team in the upcoming few days.
… (read more)

CT&T, a car manufacturer coming out of Korea, debut their four-passenger Multi Amphibious Vehicle(MAV) at the Detroit Auto Show. This car is suitable to traverse on both land and water, and what’s this???? It’s electric. Sounds about as safe as taking a bath with a toaster or hair dryer. However this six wheeled machine is powered by the electric motor when on the road and that same motor powers the propellers when in water. The electri  motor can get the MAV up to speeds of 40 mph on land and a reported top speed of 10 mph in water. The performance from this vehicle can not be considered out of this world, or even James Bondish, but for a family vacation this might be the type of enterainment we are all looking for. What this vehicle does not have is a roof, something usefull on a rainy day, or high sides/doors to keep the younger part of the family in the vehicle. There hasn’t been a price tag put on the MAV yet, but one of its sister vehicles that was introduced at the same time, the C Square, an electric sports car, was priced at $50,000. Expect a similar price for the Multi Amphibious Vehicle.

For several months now, part of the Mozilla Labs team has been working on developing a new add-on platform for Firefox which would make it easier for developers to create add-ons and for the regular users to install and manage them. Borrowing from Google Chrome’s implementation of an extensions system, Jetpack extensions make use… (read more)

The vast majority of Americans say they would not pay to read their favorite newspaper online, according to a new poll. This sounds like bad news, but when you look at the numbers, you learn that it’s actually just a bad poll. It really shows that 50 percent of Americans read newspapers, and about half that number would pay to read the news online. That’s not bad news, at all.

I was discussing this poll with Atlantic Biz colleague Dan Indiviglio. Rather than write up an officious analysis, I figured it would be easier (and more entertaining!) to simply publish our Gchat conversation, lightly edited. Enjoy.

Thursday morning. 10:05AM. Gchat.

Dan:  Hey… later I want to do a post on this article … http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10433893-93.html because the poll is [redacted word!].

Sony is readying a new PS3 accessory that will let owners turn the console into a digital video recorder. The kit, called “Torne”, is set to become available in Japan this March.

Mientras me preparaba para ir al trabajo los otros días, escuché un reportaje por radio que capturó mi atención: los aviones voladores podrían convertirse en una realidad durante nuestras vidas. Sí, ha leído correctamente, el gobierno federal está considerando seriamente varias propuestas para diseñar un vehículo de transporte capaz de guiar por tierra y de volar. Estos vehículos voladores se están moviendo del mundo de la ciencia ficción. Es muy probable que estos vehículos singulares serán elaborados durante esta nueva década.

Como mencioné en uno de mis blogs el verano pasado, me encantaba la serie animada de los Jetsons. Cuando la serie comenzó en los años 1960, los artefactos tecnológicos utilizados en el hogar de los Jetsons definitivamente tenían un aire futurístico. También destaqué que de todos estos enseres innovadores, el único que no era comúnmente usado en el siglo 21 era el vehículo volador. Obviamente, con los avances tecnológicos todo podría cambiar.

Mientras el gobierno federal está considerando aplicaciones militares para este nuevo vehículo de transporte, me imagino que se considerarán otras aplicaciones comerciales también. Aunque podría ser costoso al inicio, podría ser un paso en la dirección correcta para crear un nuevo vehículo completamente verde con cero emisiones, excelente rendimiento de millas por galón y con la habilidad de volar y transitar por nuestras carreteras nacionales. Eso sí, me aterra la idea de tener que enseñarle a mi hija menor cómo manejar/volar este nuevo vehículo. ¡Horror! Ella sólo tiene ocho añitos ahora. Quién sabe qué tipo de vehículo podrá conducir cuando tenga diez y seis años…sólo quedan ocho años más para descubrirlo.

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

Eastman Kodak Company (in short, Kodak) has filed lawsuits against Apple and Research In Motion, alleging that both have infringed digital imaging technology patented by the company.

The complaint, filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission, claims that Apple’s iPhone devices and all RIM’s camera-enabled BlackBerry phones infringe a patent that covers technology related to a method for previewing images.

Separately, Kodak filed two suits today against Apple that claim the infringement of patents related to digital cameras and certain computer processes.

In a statement, Kodak says it remains open to negotiating an agreement with both Apple and RIM, which it claims to have tried reaching for years.

Kodak says it has licensed digital imaging technology to some 30 companies, including major players like Nokia, Samsung, LG and Motorola, and that all those companies currently pay royalties to Kodak over use of its patented technology.

Said Laura G. Quatela, Chief Intellectual Property Officer, and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company:

“Kodak has a long history of digital imaging innovation and we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars creating our industry-leading patent portfolio. In the case of Apple and RIM, we’ve had discussions for years with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue amicably, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement. In light of that, we are taking this action to ensure that we protect the interests of our shareholders and the existing licensees of our technology.

Our primary interest is not to disrupt the availability of any product but to obtain fair compensation for the use of our technology. There’s a basic issue of fairness that needs to be addressed. Those devices use Kodak technology, and we are merely seeking compensation for the use of our technology in their products.”

On Dec. 17, in an action involving Samsung and Kodak, an ITC Administrative Law Judge issued a ruling declaring that the Kodak patent covering color image preview (No. 6,292,218) was valid and enforceable, and that Samsung’s camera-enabled mobile devices infringed upon that Kodak patent. Samsung and Kodak have since settled.

Kodak is now seeking from the ITC a limited exclusion order preventing the importation of infringing devices marketed by Apple and RIM.

In both U.S. District Court actions against Apple, Kodak is seeking to permanently enjoin Apple from further infringement as well as unspecified damages.

In the first suit against the Cupertino tech giant in District Court, Kodak alleges infringement of two patents generally covering image preview and the processing of images of different resolutions. In the second suit, Kodak alleges infringement of patents that describe a method by which a computer program can “ask for help” from another application to carry out certain computer-oriented functions.

The patent at issue in that suit, Kodak notes, was also the subject of litigation with Sun Microsystems, in which a federal jury in 2004 found Sun’s Java software infringed; that case was settled by Sun paying Kodak for a license for the patents.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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When you put $10 into your Skype account for those SkypeOut calls to regular phones, you expect that money to be there, . . . well, forever because Skype is so cheap you can call Japan for a few dimes. But Skype was being sneaky and basically taking all unused credits (and presumably recording them as revenues) if no SkypeOut calls were made after six months of inactivity. That’s right, they were taking your money without delivering any service.

Well, that got Skype sued for that in a class action which they just settled for all of $1.85 million. It only applies to U.S. Skype users who had to forfeit their credit and comes to $4 per user, which may not sound like a lot, but in Skype terms that could last you another six months easy.

Since the parties settled, the case never went to court, but the plaintiffs argued that what Skype was doing was no different than what numerous retailers and other businesses used to do with gift cards. Somebody would buy you a gift card and if you didn’t use it within six months or a year, it would “expire,” even though the money had already been paid and no goods were ever exchanged in return. States passed laws to crack down on the practice. The plaintiffs decided to bring their case under those laws and apply them to Skype Credits. From the notice sent out to Skype users who are potential class members:

Plaintiffs allege that Skype User Accounts and Skype Credit constitute “gift certificates” that cannot expire or be subject to inactivity fees under various states’ laws and that Defendants unlawfully applied the Skype Credit expiration policy against their Skype Credit balances after 180 days of inactivity in supposed violation of these various states’ laws, including applicable “gift certificate,” consumer protection and/or unfair and deceptive practices laws.

The settlement affects anyone who bought Skype Credit before December 31, 2009 and subsequently had it canceled after 180 days of inactivity. While the settlement is a piddling amount, the bigger winners are future Skype customers. Skype is discontinuing the practice.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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The market for initial public offerings has been dead for the last few years, but 2010 should be different.

There’s a slew of hot startups — from Facebook to TeleNav to ReachLocal — with big, rapidly growing businesses that are ready to test the public waters.

Take a look at 15 companies ready for IPOs →

What has held companies back until now?

Three things, says Chris Dixon, the angel investor, entrepenuer, and blogger:

• Sarbanes Oxley red tape adds millions of dollars in overhead for companies looking to go public.

• New cash from investors like DST for Facebook have eased the need to raise funds from the public market.

• The public got scorched by tech IPOs early this decade and that memory hasn’t quite been erased.

One big tech IPO could make a big difference, though. Investors get greedy just as fast as they crawl into the fetal position, and a successful IPO from Facebook or another hot company could open the spigots.  And there are plenty of companies ready and raring to go.

When should a company go public? When the market is there, and the company is ready.

How can a company tell if it’s ready? Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures gives us one take:

• Revenues greater than $100 million
• EBTIDA greater than $10 million
• Growing both faster than 25% per year
• You are *absolutely sure* you can make your numbers for at least three years out

If you can’t hit those targets, then “don’t do it,” says Fred.

Here’s 15 hot tech companies ready to IPO →

Here’s each company:

• Facebook
• Zynga
• LinkedIn
• Solyndra
• GoDaddy
• Gilt Groupe
• FriendFinder
• Demand Media
• MagicJack
• TheLadders
• Quin Street
• ReachLocal
• TeleNav
• NewEgg
• Tesla

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• 15 Things You Can Remote Control With Your iPhone
• Looking For Work? Here Is How Much Tech’s Top Companies Pay
• 10 Tech Deals That Will Reshape The Industry In 2010