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By Jacqueline Emigh, Betanews

In New York City today, Verizon Wireless rolled out new additions to its expanding Android and LG Chocolate phone families, while also delivering sneak previews of a new, consumer-friendly ruggedized phone called the Casio G’zOne Brigade (shown above).

Like its previously announced top-of-the-line Android phone, known simply as the Droid, the less expensive Droid Eris will be available for the first time in Verizon stores tomorrow — which is also when pricing will be revealed.

Verizon hasn’t yet set pricing or an availability date for the Brigade, but sales of the Push to Talk phone from Casio will start some time over the next few weeks, said Kris Dunlap, Verizon’s Push to Talk product manager, during a demo at a press event in Manhattan.

In keeping with its lower price point, the Droid Eris has a lower resolution HVGA display in comparison to the Droid’s WVGA screen, and a slower processor running at 528 MHz.

More significantly, the Eris currently runs Android 1.5, in comparison to the higher-end phone’s GPS-enabled Android 2.0. That means it won’t be able to handle Google’s turn-by-turn voice navigation until a 2.0 upgrade becomes available for the phone, officials said at the event.

Both Verizon Android phones, though, will come with the same Google applications suite and Verizon’s Visual Voicemail, and both will allow downloads from the 10,000+ applications in Google’s online App store.

Unlike the Droid, which is made by Motorola, the Droid Eris is manufactured by HTC. The Eris is similar in form factor to HTC’s Hero, a phone offered by Sprint, but it’s slightly thinner.

In another demo at the event, Lauren Southwick, a Verizon marketing manager, showed an app called Join the Band running on the Chocolate Touch. Verizon’s new touch-enabled Chocolate phone is strongly focused on music playback, with features that include an FM tuner, the ability to sync music from the phone to a PC, and a music player for MP3, WMA, and unprotected AAC and AAC+, for example. You can use a special button on the phone to upload photos taken with a built-in 3.2 megapixel camera to social networking sites like Facebook.

In Join the Band, you can play along with any song you choose on a virtual drum set or piano keyboard. I thought the piano did a fine job when I banged out “Chopsticks” on it.

The Chocolate Touch’s video-capable camera can take four types of shots: Normal, Panorama, Intelligent, and Facial Makeover. Southwick sent a Panorama shot she took at the event to one of my e-mail addresses.

Verizon’s upcoming Brigade, on the other hand, is the third in a series of ruggedized and water-resistant phones targeted not just at people who work out-of-doors, but at those who like to bike, camp out, fish, and do other outdoor hobbies in their spare time. Like the other two recent tough phones, it meets 810F military specifications for conditions such as vibration, humidity, fog, and low and high temperature storage, Dunlap said.

Verizon hasn’t readied a spec sheet yet on the Brigade. But the new horizontal clamshell device — which will be available to all Verizon Wireless users, not just Push to Talk customers — will be the first ruggedized phone from Verizon to come with a hard QWERTY keyboard.

Dunlap also pointed to its large display, estimating that the Brigade’s screen is about the same size as that of Verizon’s Voyager. The Brigade will come with a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, video capture, and LED light.

The Chocolate Touch and Brigade phones also support Verizon’s V Cast video and music services and VZ Navigator turn-by-turn navigation, while the two Droid phones from Verizon do not. Chocolate Touch will be available from VZW starting tomorrow for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009

Thinking of buying a Logitech keyboard or mouse? Now would be a good time. You can get the opulent G19 keyboard for $150 (technically, big savings), a G9x for $75, a G500 for $45, or a Performance MX for $75. And everything’s got free shipping!

Seriously, Logitech makes some of the best mice in the world, and these are great deals. For gaming, either of the G series mice will do, but for regular tasks, multiple CG writers swear by the Performance MX (or at least its MX revolution cousin). The deals are all at LogicBuy, which must have hijacked a truckload of these things.

G19 Keyboard
G9x Gaming Mouse
G500 Gaming Mouse
Performance MX Mouse

Found all these over at Tom’s Hardware, where they’ve got a few more deals of this sort today.

Just a few weeks ago, in writing about the pointlessness of “derivative rights” in copyright law, I questioned the “example” of an answer key for a textbook, noting that there was no reason to have it covered by copyright:

But, to me, this seems ridiculous on a basic common sense reading. I can’t fathom how anyone can (at least honestly) claim that copyright really has an idea/expression dichotomy and then say that Section 106(2) makes any sense at all. What’s wrong if someone else wants to produce an answer guide to an original textbook? Why would it ever make policy sense to deny such a right? In most cases, you would assume that the original creator of the textbook would have a better understanding of the topics and the answers, so an “unauthorized” answer key is unlikely to be as valuable. But why should it be prevented? On top of that, if the answer key is just answering questions, then how could it be infringement? Those answers are accurate “facts” responding to questions. If an answer key is infringing, then wouldn’t that make student answers infringing as well?

Apparently, though, others don’t agree — and they’re the folks who make the rules. Michael Scott points us to the news that a court has ruled that answers to a textbook questions are a derivative work, and someone who was selling such answers online was infringing on the copyright of the textbook publisher. This still makes no sense to me. First, there’s no “copying.” Second, isn’t answering a question a “factual” statement? How can answering a question be copyright infringement? From a policy and common sense perspective it makes no sense. But, that’s what you get with the way copyright law is these days. It’s not about the incentive to create, but about stifling competition and free speech. In the meantime, I can’t wait to see the next student sued for copyright infringement for answering his homework questions.

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What does it mean to Destress Yourself? Excellent question!

Destress Yourself means managing stress at a very advanced level. It means to discover your stressful habits and turn them into successful practices.

Whether you have stress at work, stress at home, stress in your relationship, stress with your finances, or just difficulties coping with stress, you can destress yourself. You can discover stressful habits and turn them into successful practices.

What are stressful habits? Oh my gosh, there are millions of stressful habits and yet everyone has their own unique ways of causing their own stress. Yes, we cause our own stress.

How do we cause our own stress? Well, the first method to our madness of causing stress is denial. We deny that anything is wrong. We deny that we are in the constant state of going no where and we say that everything is fine and that “someday” things will be different. We deny our stress by playing the victim. “Oh poor me, I have such a terrible life.”

Sounds cruel, does it not? Guess what? You can have, be, do, whatever your heart desires. How do you have, be, do? Well, you decide what you want and find out how to get there. How do you get there? Google it! Read about it or ask someone who can show you it.

How do you decide what you want? Well, we have a destress yourself class that can help you and show you a step by step process on how to destress yourself. This class will help with your discovery and evolution from a stressed life to a destressed life.

When you destress yourself you change your thoughts, feelings, actions, and attitude. You change your thoughts, feelings, and actions of stressful habits to successful practices.

If you are unhappy something must be done.

If you are not living life with happiness, joy, energy, and vitality then you must do something about it.

You can learn to be happy by destressing yourself and I can show you how, for free.

Subscribe to this blog for the updated posts, visit my website, sign up for our free weekly newsletters, visit our store and download the free stress management audios.

If you would like to live the life you dream of, let me help you.

Learn to destress yourself, for free, by me, and learn what permanent stress relief really is.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Hope this is helpful.

Until next post… Don’t forget to have fun and be playful!

Elizabeth

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Google has quietly gotten rid of PageRank in Webmaster Tools. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable points to a thread featuring an explanation from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa.

"We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true," says Moskwa. "We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it."

Search marketers are wondering why Google tells people not to focus on PageRank and removes it from Webmaster Tools, but still keeps it in the Google Toolbar. "Back in 2007, Google wanted feedback on removing PageRank from the Toolbar," says Schwartz. "I felt it was a good idea but the idea died out. Google cannot remove PageRank from the Toolbar, it is too much of their branding. No matter how much Matt Cutts and the Google search quality and webmaster trends team want it removed, I cannot see Google’s executives allowing it."

Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim says the role of PageRank has been reduced to nothing more than a "comfort blanket for SEO Noobs." He adds, "I say this, with a high degree of confidence that most experienced SEOs pour over the data in Google Webmaster Tools, whereas those new to the industry likely let the toolbar be their only guiding light."

He also notes, however, that PageRank data can still be useful. For example, it can be a good indicator of a site’s behavior in Google’s index. "Any green means ‘go.’ No green, means there’s something to investigate," says Beal.

Despite this usefulness though, Moskwa pretty much closes the case on Google’s position on it. In fact, she even points to a FAQ page about crawling, indexing, and ranking, which says that webmasters shouldn’t even bother thinking about it. It also says that PageRank is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed, and ranked.

What are your thoughts on PageRank? Discuss below.

This morning, when the President gave his opening remarks at the Tribal Nations Conference, the day looked very different.  By 5:02 EST when he was scheduled to give closing remarks, it was clear that all Americans were rightly concerned with the tragedy in Texas, and the President took his time to give his thoughts and prayers:

Now, I have to say, though, that beyond that, I plan to make some broader remarks about the challenges that lay ahead for Native Americans, as well as collaboration with our administration, but as some of you might have heard, there has been a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.  We don’t yet know all the details at this moment; we will share them as we get them.  What we do know is that a number of American soldiers have been killed, and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence.

My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of the fallen, and with those who live and serve at Fort Hood.  These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk and at times give their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis.  It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas.  It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.

I’ve spoken to Secretary Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and I will continue to receive a constant stream of updates as new information comes in.  We are working with the Pentagon, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, all to ensure that Fort Hood is secure, and we will continue to support the community with the full resources of the federal government.

In the meantime, I would ask all Americans to keep the men and women of Fort Hood in your thoughts and prayers.  We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident.  And I want all of you to know that as Commander-in-Chief, there’s no greater honor but also no greater responsibility for me than to make sure that the extraordinary men and women in uniform are properly cared for and that their safety and security when they are at home is provided for.

So we are going to stay on this.  But I hope in the meantime that all of you recognize the scope of this tragedy, and keep everybody in their thoughts and prayers.

Happy post-Halloween! Thanks for sending in your costumes and thanks, most of you, for following the rules. That said, I’m proud to show you the 11 best costumes in this line-up, as judged by all of us at CG. I added one extra because we just couldn’t bear to choose between the various Iron Men we saw.

Here’s how to vote:

The pendulum on the entertainment industry’s push to have countries force ISPs to kick accused (not convicted) file sharers offline via a “three strikes” policy keeps swinging back and forth. While there was some capitulation recently, with the EU Parliament group that was negotiating with the EU Commission agreeing to remove the clause claiming that internet access was a human right, Hephaestus was the first of a few of you to send in word that negotiations have moved back a bit in the other direction. The new agreed upon text says that internet access is a human right, and that anyone should have the right to defend themselves against being kicked off the internet. But… (and it’s a big one) if internet access is such a human right, why should anyone ever need to defend themselves? That’s because the new text doesn’t really mean what it says. It will still allow countries to force ISPs to kick people off the internet without judicial review. The only thing it adds is that people will be able to appeal after the fact. That’s really not that helpful.

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Google has branched out (or more accurately, built up) yet again.  Simon Hampton, Director of European Policy and Public Affairs, announced today that the search giant’s established a Googleplex in Brussels, Belgium.

Hampton explained on the European Public Policy Blog, "Until now, our small policy team in Brussels worked from temporary abodes.  From now on, you can find us at Chausse d’Etterbeek 180 1040 Bruxelles, right in the heart of the European quarter."

A satellite view of the address makes it look like a very nice, green spot – exactly the sort of place you might expect Google to set up camp.  Unfortunately, Street View’s not available in the area to allow for a closer inspection.

Details about price, square footage, and other relevant stuff are also lacking (although Hampton promised that bright, Google-y furniture is on hand, along with a number of game consoles).

Anyway, it would appear that this move signals a real intent on Google’s part to become and stay involved in European politics.  Hampton wrote, "We hope to make our new Brussels Googleplex a periscope for policymakers peering into the future of the Internet."

Related Articles:

> Google Maps Takes Another Crack At Real Estate

> Plan For Impressive "Yahooplex" In Motion

> Twitter Lines Up New Office Space

Rumors are flying around the intertubes that Best Buy Mobile and Walmart are willing and ready to sell you your new Motorola DROID a day early. Grab your keys, hop in your mom’s 1986 Honda Civic, and go get em’ tiger. If you manage to commandeer a DROID today be sure to stop back here and let us know where you’ve had success, and you can always link to some pictures of your new toy in the comments. Otherwise, if you’re in the market for a DROID, are you going to be hitting a Verizon Wireless store tomorrow instead of DROID-chasing today?

Thanks, Brezy!

Read

Best Buy Mobile said today it will install Google mobile applications in the smartphones it sells at its retail outlets.

Best Buy Mobile employees will install Google Mobile App on all compatible smartphones through its "Walk Out Working" program which is a free in-store smartphone setup.

Google will announce this additional method of getting Google Mobile App on its Mobile Blog and provide more information on a new Google and Best Buy Mobile website scheduled to launch on November 9.

Users can already download Google Mobile App from m.google.com but the partnership with Best Buy will likely lead to more adoption of the applications.

Key features of Google Mobile App include:

•     One-click access to Google – search Google without having to navigate to the internet
•     Search by voice – speak your query in plain English
•     My Location – search for local businesses without having to type your current location
•     Google Suggest – search for suggested queries and businesses that appear as you type
•     Links to other Google apps including Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube

   

 "We know that consumers want smartphones and, increasingly, they want to use applications," said Scott Moore, VP of Marketing for Best Buy Mobile. "The challenge is that people still need help understanding what is available to them and how they can bring it to life on their device."

"This partnership between Best Buy and Google serves that role and will go a long way in bringing applications to more consumers regardless of what device, carrier or platform they use."

Related Articles:

> Google Launches Analytics For Mobile Apps

> Bing Gets More Mobile Features In The US

>Apple App Store Hits 100,000

Microsoft has two new Windows 7 ads and, well, they are just like the first batch. A random regular person thinks that they designed Windows 7 when we all really know it was us nerds that posted every little Vista flaw on message boards and blogs. But we shouldn’t take all the credit. Regular people hate Vista too. One more video is after the jump.

K-8 science education in California (as in many other parts of the country) is in a state of crisis. K-8 students in California spend too little time studying science, many of their teachers are not well prepared in the subject, and the support system for science instruction has deteriorated. A proliferation of overly detailed standards and poorly conceived assessments has trivialized science education. And all these problems are likely to intensify: an ongoing fiscal crisis in the state threatens further cutbacks, teacher and administrator layoffs, and less money for professional development.

A convocation held on April 29-30, 2009, sought to confront the crisis in California science education, particularly at the kindergarten through eighth grade level. The convocation, summarized in this volume, brought together key stakeholders in the science education system to enable and facilitate an exploration of ways to more effectively, efficiently, and collectively support, sustain, and communicate across the state concerning promising research and practices in K-8 science education and how such programs can be nurtured by communities of stakeholders.

Earlier today, we wrote about how even the MPAA’s own members have shown they don’t need to break your TV and DVR with selectable output control in order to release video-on-demand movies prior to DVD releases. Yet, if you hadn’t noticed, the MPAA has been on a big rampage lately insisting that they need to do this to add yet another window to its release schedule. That’s because the way Hollywood thinks is that they only way to make money is to take away what consumers want and, instead, add more annoying “windows.” This is faulty thinking. However, it’s even more faulty to claim that they need to break your TV and DVR to release this content. The MPAA’s basic argument is that without this, there will be piracy — but even the MPAA admits that every movie is pirated by the time it’s in the theaters (i.e., before it would need this window).

Want to know why the MPAA got 60 Minutes to run its propaganda piece on movie piracy this week? Because it knew this fight was close to a deciding point, and a little moral panic might help tip it over the edge into Hollywood’s favor.

For a while, the FCC has pushed back and refused to grant the movie studios an exemption in order to break your TV, but word is coming down that, despite promises to make decisions based on “evidence,” the FCC is ready to give in and let the MPAA break your TV and DVR in order to stop you from recording the movies it releases. Why? There’s no good reason at all, other than the administration’s cozy relationship with Hollywood these days. The industry’s own actions show that this will do nothing to make it easier for it to release movies earlier. The industry’s own claims show that it will do nothing to decrease piracy.

The only thing it will do is harm millions of consumers who believe their TV and DVR should work the way they were intended to work.

Public Knowledge is asking people to send a letter to the FCC, protesting this decision. I’m not a fan of “form letters,” but I would suggest reading over the suggested letter and then crafting your own (polite, well argued) version, and sending it to the FCC. Hopefully the FCC realizes that breaking your TV and DVR for the sake of protecting Hollywood’s billions (which still continue to go up) is not progress. It’s a blatant attempt to take away consumer rights.

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The LHC is recovering from a serious overheating problem, caused by a piece of stale bread dropped by a bird onto an apparently unprotected thermal vent. Impossible, you say?

Not impossible. I used to bulls-eye whomp rats in my T-16 back home.

While it’s not about to be mistaken for a moon any time soon, the Large Hadron Collider probably is the closest thing we’ve got to the Death Star. With miles of passages, the capability to destroy a planet, and a bunch of people dressed in white scooting around inside, it’s actually a pretty good fit. So it’s no surprise that it has the same weakness. Concerned only with interference from cosmic radiation and nearby townspeople, the structure was built underground — but they didn’t count on the possibility of a small one-man fighter armed with the Force a clumsy bird with a bit of baguette making the trench run and hitting it where the least expected it.

The absurdity of this failure (though it apparently won’t affect the re-activation) makes me think that maybe the LHC really is so abhorrent to nature that the universe is contriving to snuff it out.

[via PopSci]

Just because Demon’s Souls is a veritable test of skill, doesn’t mean you should be taking on those evil nasties without your trusty strategy guide….

Click here to see the video.

With the House having put forth their actual legislation, organizations that have withheld final judgment now have something solid to evaluate. And the floodgates have opened. 

Today the President made surprise stop by the daily press briefing to commend two particular endorsements, from the AARP and the AMA. Ask yourself who you trust to tell the truth on reform and on your health – these massive organizations of doctors and seniors throwing their support behind it, or the health insurance industry, their lobbyists, and their handmaidens coming out against it.

THE PRESIDENT:  Hey!  Hello, everybody.  Please sit down.  Good afternoon, everybody.  I wanted to come down and just talk a little bit about health care before Robert gives his regular briefing.

I am extraordinarily pleased and grateful to learn that the AARP and the American Medical Association are both supporting the health insurance reform bill that will soon come up to a vote in the House of Representatives. 

When it comes to the AARP, this is no small endorsement.  For more than 50 years, they have been a leader in the fight to reduce the cost of health care and expand coverage for our senior citizens.  They are a non-partisan organization, and their board made their decision to endorse only after a careful, intensive, objective scrutiny of this bill.  They’re endorsing this bill because they know it will strengthen Medicare, not jeopardize it.  They know it will protect the benefits our seniors receive, not cut them.  So I want everybody to remember that the next time you hear the same tired arguments to the contrary from the insurance companies and their lobbyists.  And remember this endorsement the next time you see a bunch of misleading ads on television.

The AARP knows this bill will make health care more affordable.  They know it will make coverage more secure.  They know it’s a good deal for our seniors.  And that’s why we’re thrilled that they’re standing up for this effort.

The same is true for the doctors and medical professionals who are supporting this bill today.  These are men and women who know our health care system best and have been watching this debate closely.  They would not be supporting it if they really believed that it would lead to government bureaucrats making decisions that are best left to doctors.  They would not be with us if they believed that reform would in any way damage the critical and sacred doctor-patient relationship.

Instead, they’re supporting reform because they’ve seen firsthand what’s broken about our health care system.  They’ve seen what happens when patients can’t get the care they need because some insurance company has decided to drop their coverage or water it down.  They’ve seen what happens when a patient is forced to pay out-of-pocket costs of thousands of dollars that she doesn’t have to get the treatment she desperately needs.  They’ve seen what happens when patients don’t come in for regular check-ups or screenings because either their insurance company doesn’t cover them or they can’t afford health insurance in the first place.  And they’ve seen far, far too much of their time spent filling out forms and haggling with insurance company bureaucrats. 

So the doctors of America know what needs to be fixed about our health care system.  They know that health insurance reform would go a long way toward doing that. 

We are closer to passing this reform than ever before.  And now that the doctors and medical professionals of America are standing with us; now that the organizations charged with looking out for the interests of seniors are standing with us, we are even closer. 

I want to thank both organizations again for their support, and I urge Congress to listen to AARP, listen to the AMA, and pass this reform for hundreds of millions of Americans who will benefit from it.  Thank you.