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Ricoh’s New Rugged G700 Camera Looks Like A Disposable

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 08:00 PM PDT


Ricoh has a sort of aesthetic going on here. I only just realized what it is the recently-released CX4 reminds me of: one of those disposable cameras. This new G700, although it looks like a totally solid camera, definitely looks like you’d throw it away when you were done.

There’s not too much to say: 12 megapixels, 5x optical zoom, ISO 64-3200, 720p video. The main thing, though, is the ruggedness. It looks to be about as rugged as those in our roundup a few months back: 5m underwater, 2m drop, dust and chemical sealed.

Nice touch: you can use the regular rechargeable battery pack, but you can switch to AAAs if you find yourself away from an outlet. I like Ricoh. Not sure why, I just like those guys. The G700 doesn’t have a US price or date yet, but I think we’ll find that out soon.

Theater Revenue Reaches Record Levels, Despite Cries About P2P Piracy

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 07:30 PM PDT

Some things just amaze me. Despite the fact that people are paying more for theater tickets then ever, the MPAA and their ilk are crying about how they aren’t making as much money due to piracy. I suggest that the real pirates here are the theater owners, who are raising ticket prices at the highest year to year rate ever.

Of course, people keep going to the movies because it remains a cheaper form of entertainment (for now). However some analysts are suggesting that theaters have pretty much maxed out what people are willing to pay, and anticipate a backlash. Part of the reason for such record increases has been the latest 3D craze (rather the film should be in 3D or not). In fact, income from 3D films has accounted for 11% of box office income last year. The bad news? There’s nothing stopping the theater owners from continuing to squeeze us for every dime they can get.

[via Ars Technica]

Radeon HD 6870 Performance Numbers Leak

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 07:00 PM PDT

As the video card wars continue, the as of yet unreleased AMD Radeon HD 6870 looks to be a serious weapon. How do we know? Well, the Chinese website PCinLife.com managed to get a benchmark showing some very interesting information about the new card. A 3DMark score of 11,500 is about 2,500 more then the previous high end card, the Nvidia GTX 480 and the HD 5870. This reflects what appears to be a serious performance increase, placing the advantage in AMDs corner once again.

[via PC Perspective]

Asetek Shows Off Liquid Cooled Mac Pro

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 06:30 PM PDT

The Mac Pro isn’t exactly known for being a terribly loud computer, but I guess you can make it even quieter by adding liquid cooling. Of course, it’s not Apple approved so adding this type of technology will no doubt void your warranty, but it would give you the ability to overclock your machine. In fact, this is exactly what someone from Asetek did; added liquid cooling to an 8-Core Mac Pro, and then overclocked it from 2.8Ghz to 3.16Ghz. The end result? An extremely fast workstation that generates almost no noise. Check out the video (with a performance comparison) after the jump:

[via TUAW]

New Display Tech Could Have Eight Times The Pixel Density As Retina Display

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 05:30 PM PDT


While the following research definitely falls under the category of “wait and see,” it’s certainly interesting, if only because of a completely different way of going about creating color and pixels. A team at the University of Michigan has put together a new display tech that uses incredibly thin slits in a sheet of metal to permit only light of certain wavelengths through.

By combining many slits into a small grate, they create a red, green, or blue pixel (depending on the spacing of the slits) of a size only limited by the precision of their grate-cutting equipment. The prototype they’ve created has pixels about 10 microns across. For reference, the iPhone 4′s display has pixels (to my knowledge) around 80 microns across.

The team thinks that there are a number of benefits to the technology, but I think the most obvious one is the name: these things are called plasmonic nano-resonators. Is that catchy or what?

[via TG Daily and Electronista]

A Method For Encumbering Progress By Patenting Other People’s Ideas

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 04:58 PM PDT


Inventor: Paul Allen
Filed: August 27, 2010
Abstract: A method for preventing innovation, specifically in the tech sector, by way of a dangerous misconception of what is patentable and a sadly overtaxed intellectual property regulatory system.
Summary of the Invention: During a period of change and invention, ideas may occur to a person, and a few possible ways of manifesting those ideas. By instantly submitting a patent request, the person can secure as their own property not only the methods they have actually invented, but all possible derivatives and independent creations resembling said methods. After waiting a suitable period of time, during which the entire landscape of the industry may change, the patent holder then can exchange these patents for riches, while simultaneously nullifying the gains of a decentralized, idea-powered economy.

There are so many things wrong with Paul Allen’s reprehensible and baffling lawsuit that we might do better by trying to figure out what he’s doing right, and then condemn what remains.

Take a look at the patents:

6,263,507: Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data.

6,034,652 & 6,788,314: Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.

6,757,682: Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest.

Really, at least give them a good once-over. Because they certainly aren’t without merit. The 507 patent, filed for in 1999, is forward-thinking and acknowledges the need (then not particularly pressing) for obtaining samples or a summary of far more information than one could possibly review by simply browsing it. And the 682 patent, from 2000, is right on in suggesting the need for more or less real-time notifications showing items related the user’s interest.

The patents provide some specific implementations of these ideas — good ideas, too. And those implementations should be protected by law, since they are essentially machines invented part and whole by the filer. But the step taken by Allen today and similar steps taken by others in recent years indicate a deliberately overreaching interpretation of what exactly they have been granted rights to.

Here’s a revealing excerpt, from page 16 of patent 682:

It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.

Well, well! Apparently they are filing for several patents here. The invention itself, some “inventive embodiments” of that invention, and all possible embodiments of that invention, which they lay claim to simply by suggesting that such and such an embodiment could potentially exist.

Please permit me a slight digression.

A long, long time ago, humans lived in darkness because jealous Zeus had hidden the secret of fire from them. Prometheus felt bad for them, so he smuggled a spark to them in a fennel stalk. Zeus found out about this, and to this day (or so they say) Prometheus is chained to a rock, having his liver torn out daily by an eagle. I like to consider this the first intellectual property dispute.

Paul Allen has appointed himself Zeus in this situation, and is getting ready to chain Google, Facebook, Apple et al. to the rock of licensing agreement, with his crack team of eagles extracting damages from them day after day.

The trouble is, the tale is allegorical, and when you look at it this way, the trouble with Allen’s (and everyone else’s) disputes becomes plain. Prometheus (“forethought”) isn’t just some guy — he’s the embodiment of original thought and invention. Fire didn’t literally get smuggled to us in a straw. Human ingenuity produced that which the powers that be didn’t want us to have.

This is all just a monstrously roundabout way of saying that you can’t patent an idea (I never could resist a classical allusion). I mean, it’s elementary: even if you were to be the first to have it, there is nothing stopping another person from having the same idea occur to them independently. Consider perhaps the most famous example, in which Marconi patented a number of things related to radio transmission, despite Tesla and others having demonstrated it years earlier. The court said some years later, after a number of conflicts:

Marconi’s reputation as the man who first achieved successful radio transmission rests on his original patent, which became reissue No. 11,913, and which is not here in question. That reputation, however well-deserved, does not entitle him to a patent for every later improvement which he claims in the radio field.

Sounds a little bit like what would happen a century after that momentous invention. In the early 2000s, companies taking advantage of the internet were sprouting like weeds, and I guarantee that there was an enormous overlap in the ideas they had for how to display their information, navigate and parse large stores of data, and so on. How could there not be?

If patents granted exclusivity on the scope Allen and his firm think they do, then Marconi wouldn’t have applied for a patent for his method of radio transmission. He would have patented the idea of a box that can communicate with another box, and provided a few possible methods. Someone would have patented “an invention in which people are propelled by a mechanism with wheels.” And as long as we’re at it, why not patent a way of applying for and exploiting the patent process in the way I’ve suggested above? It’s like building something out of LEGO and then patenting LEGO.

“We recognize that innovation has a value, and patents are the way to protect that,” said one Mr. Postman, spokesman for Interval Research Corporation, Allen’s instrument in this drama. To be sure! Unfortunately, the patenting process, as we’ve suggested on this site before, is grossly inappropriate for the current generation of software (and software-like) innovations. Not that the process to blame, exactly: it was just made with a different time scale and invention category in mind. The USPTO says:

Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof

The idea of a process is not a process. The concept of a machine is not a machine. Patents are granted to protect real things — things which are in danger of being stolen. Algorithms, code, exact layouts, specific methods, these are things which deserve patent and should be protected, because they are the informational equivalent of actual manufactured machines and parts. But the underlying ideas for the machines and parts are not protected, first because it would prevent anyone from creating “useful improvements thereof,” and secondly because, as we have observed throughout history, it’s rare that you’re the only one with that idea.

If Allen were suing just Facebook, or just Google, for this or that specific infringement, one might be able to look at the allegations and say “yes, it seems that Google really did replicate this invention rather than creating something new.” But he’s suing all of these companies for the exact same thing, or (as would probably have to be proven in court) slight variations on the theme. He’s suing them for having the same idea as someone else.

It may be that I’m going off half-cocked here (in addition to simplifying things, the better to editorialize), and perhaps it will transpire that all these companies are in fact using some piece of Vulcan-owned property without permission. But I seriously doubt that; over ten years, even an exact replica of the methods described in these patents would have undergone such changes as to make it a totally different “machine.” Furthermore, while it may be legal to do so, strictly speaking, don’t you think it’s arbitrary and opportunistic for Allen et al. to pursue these now, having waited years since they were granted, letting innovations and products arise as fresh targets for litigation, thinking themselves safe from legal predation?

I also doubt this will be adequately handled by the courts, either. Imagine representatives from a dozen high profile tech companies all arguing on different levels against this or that implementation of something the judge has no idea about, and Allen’s team stolidly pointing at a patent clearly granted, yet just as clearly ridiculous to anyone with eyes to see. I’d rather eat glass than preside over such fruitless pageantry.

Could this be a blessing in disguise? I hope (against all odds) that this case gets swiftly and decisively struck down and becomes a useful precedent and bulwark against future patent trolling. That’s a practical deterrent, and as much as patent law needs serious reform, we have to work within the system for the time being. Plus, it’s far more likely that it will drag on and come to a meaningless resolution in a year or more, when the industry will have moved on yet again and the decision rendered doubly moot (if not moot ten times over by now).

This is an excellent way to cancel out the goodwill Allen may have generated by pledging to donate much of his fortune to charity. Everything about this lawsuit breathes greed and obstructionism — not that he’s acting alone, or the only guilty party, but this is certainly a very high-profile and characteristic demonstration of the troubled nature of intellectual property in this country. Luckily for us, the real innovators don’t let this kind of petty meddling get them down.

Japanese Company Perfecting 59 Second EV Charge

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 03:30 PM PDT

How do you recharge an electric vehicle in 59 seconds? Simple. You swap out the battery. Tokyo’s largest taxi company has been testing a rather surprising and innovative method of extending the range on their electric fleet: swapping out the battery. Makes sense really, if you think about it.

I should qualify that, it makes sense for fleet vehicles. Perhaps with a redesign and a giant socket in the trunk for the worlds largest AA battery, but the current technology certainly isn’t set up for a quick change. TreeHugger reported on all the gory details, and the end result is until battery technology matures to the point where we’re able to get better distance out of a cell, this may be what the future holds.


Gamepad Turns Your iPhone/iPod Into A Game Boy

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 02:00 PM PDT

It’s pretty much an accepted fact that the iPhone is a great mobile gaming platform. What is also accepted is that the controls are somewhat less then optimal for some kinds of games. Enter the iControlPad. Now, I’m not 100% behind this idea, mainly because it takes a mobile gaming device and makes it decidely less mobile. I guess you could carry the iControlPad with you, and just put your iPod in when you want to use it, but that doesn’t sound very convenient either. Of course, the kind of games that support the iControlPad require a jailbroken iPhone, and some additional downloads to use them. No word on pricing or availability yet, but you can check out their website for details or to sign up to be notified when it’s available.

[via Crave]

Weekend Giveaway: You Rock Guitar… Like a Hurricaine

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 01:30 PM PDT


Are any of you intending to rock? Well then I salute you and offer one of two You Rock Guitars from InspiredInstruments. This $199 git-fiddle is actually a MIDI guitar that connects with either the Wii or the PS3 and can be used to play games like Guitar Hero, Band Hero, Rock Band, Klezmer Hero, and Konami’s upcoming Big Band Hero featuring a 28 piece orchestra for you and your friends. You get to be Django Reinhardt!

It seems to do an amazing amount of stuff including:

Is a real MIDI guitar that plugs into an amp
• Acts as a cross-platform videogame controller for all Guitar Hero and Rock Band games
• Plugs into an iPhone/iPad, you can record music on it
• Can be uploaded to your computer and share with friends
• So much more.

So much more, indeed. But how do you win?

So this is a pretty cool piece of kit, right? Well, I can’t just give this away to some random commenter. I’d prefer it if you guys could email a photo of yourself playing air guitar with your best KISS/Keith Richards/John Mayer guitar face to contest@crunchgear.com with the subject line “ROCK ME.” We’ll pick two winners at random on Monday at noon Eastern. You should look something like this:

Enter only once, include a photograph of YOURSELF (not something from the Internet) and make it a smaller image – 300K or so – so you don’t destroy my mailbox.

Real Madrid, Digital Artists To Develop More Apps Than You Can Possibly Handle

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 01:00 PM PDT

As you all know, any chance I get to mix soccer and tech is a chance I will absolutely take, and with zero hesitation. On today's edition: Real Madrid! Yes, the 31-time Spanish champions, and nine-time European champions (a por la décima and all that) have something in the works that may interest those of you keen on Apps of all shapes and sizes. In the near future, you'll be able to bring los galácticos with you wherever you travels may take you.

Real Madrid hooked up with Los Angeles-based Digital Artists, the same folks who have been working with Cristiano Ronaldo for some of his tech stuff. (The man has more than a few Twitter followers these days.) The team—institution, really—is basically trying to make it easier (and more fun) to be a part of the Real Madrid family.

"[The partnership with Digital Artists] is the first agreement that we have closed that will allow us to create and distribute official games and apps worldwide, trying to offer the fans exclusive products that will be sold in the main digital stores worldwide," said Pedro Duarte González, Real Madrid Mobile Marketing Manager. "In addition, this deal would help us to communicate directly with the fans, offering official and new concept entertainment products of Real Madrid, without intermediates and with the experience and high level production of Digital Artists."

The feeling is mutual.

Digital Artist CEO Adam Shaw told me that they're "tremendously excited" to be working with Real Madrid, and plan to develop different Apps for different situations. (The first Apps should launch this fall.)

Since Real Madrid is a such a global force—it's pretty handy having a team full of superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká (when he's fit), and World Cup sensation Mesut Özil, not to mention the best coach on the planet in José Mourinho—Digital Artists will develop different Apps based on the different needs of each region.

You could have intricately detailed iOS games in the U.S. and Europe, but maybe you'd want to develop a simpler, Java-based game to reach Real Madrid fans in Asia.

Or, maybe you want to develop something that better shows off what the players are like off the pitch?

It's not just a case of pumping out Pro Evolution Soccer clones. It's about developing applications that get fans more involved in the club, and growing the team's mobile presence a little more than a single news App.

In any event, the wheels are in motion for Apps for all the major operating systems out there. Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Java, it's all en route.

Basically, big things coming from Real Madrid and Digital Artists in the coming weeks—not least is which is the new season, which begins this weekend. My iPod touch is ready and waiting.

Whither the Ubuntu Tablets?

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 12:00 PM PDT


The iPod revolutionized the portable media player market. The iPhone shook up the smart phone market. The iPad is setting the standard for the revived tablet market. What is it about Apple that makes these products so great? In part it’s Apple’s dedication to user experience; but I’d argue that the larger factor in their success is Apple’s end-to-end control of the product. They make the hardware and the operating systems, and build the two to work in near-perfect synchronicity. A lot of CrunchGear commenters say they’re really waiting for a Windows 7 tablet to compete with the iPad, but I say they’ll be waiting for a long, long time: Windows 7 on the multitude of tablet hardware options will be just like Windows 7 on desktop PCs: an appeal to the lowest common denominator, thereby hobbling both hardware and OS advances. (And I actually like Windows 7, so belay the Apple fanboy comments for a moment.) But what about an Ubuntu tablet? The svelt, modular Linux kernel has breathed new life into many aging PCs, and Canonical has been working on a netbook-specific interface for Ubuntu for some time. They have multitouch support, now, too, so couldn’t they pretty quickly roll out a wonderful Ubuntu-powered tablet?

The multitouch stuff in Ubuntu is interesting in its own right, since they’re developing a whole “touch language” that will allow for chaining touch sequences into sentences of complex actions. I’m actually quite excited to see how this develops, especially since the multitouch libraries are hosted on Launchpad for public consumption and participation. More on this below.

Before reading my thoughts on the matter, take a look at this opinion piece over at Shanzai.com: Could Ubuntu make the x86 tablet more attractive?. It’s an interesting, if somewhat myopic, look at the question.

My opinion: I don’t think Ubuntu is a good fit for tablets. I’m generally a big proponent of the “small pieces, loosely joined” mentality behind much of the Linux desktop; but I think it creates way too much complexity on a tablet form factor. The X window system alone, I think, is too much for a tablet, and then Ubuntu is going to heap on D-BUS messaging and the various GNOME pieces and parts, and before long the tablet is too complex for its own good. You don’t need a multiuser operating system running on a tablet.

I’m a huge Linux and Free Software advocate, and I do want to see it succeed in a general sense in the tablet market. I think that Android is the best bet to make that happen. People see “Apple iOS” marketed on iPhones and iPads, and most people have at least passing familiarity with an iPhone, so they think to themselves “Oh, the iPad is like a gigantic iPhone. I can handle that.” People see the word Ubuntu and either say “What’s that?” or they say “Oh yeah, I remember when Wal-Mart was pushing those crappy $200 desktop PCs with Ubuntu.” Either way, they have a strong negative reaction.

But say “Look at this Android tablet!” and people will say “Android? Like on those Motorola phones?” Their interest will be piqued. They’ll know that there are a plethora of apps available. In short, they’ll have a more positive reaction, and will see the tablet for what it can be.

As for the advancements of Canonical’s multitouch libraries, I don’t know that complex “touch sentences” make a lot of sense — yet — on a tablet. I can see such interactions having tremendous utility on a desktop or laptop, where you’re doing complex things with files. But since the entire metaphor of “file management” is so abstracted on tablets, by necessity, I don’t think there will be much real need for anything beyond the few “magic gestures” standardized by Apple. The range of things you can do on a tablet is a small subset of the range of things you can do on a desktop.

I’m eager to see Android mature, and for third-party application developers to really push the envelope of what the tablet form factor makes convenient. I’m hopeful that real competition can drive advancement, thereby making all consumers winners. I continue to advocate for Free Software solutions on all of the computing platforms I use. But just like I don’t use Ubuntu on a compute cluster for research purposes, I don’t expect to use Ubuntu on a tablet. Pick the right platform for the hardware and the job.

In-Depth Security Analysis of Portable Encrypted Hard Drive

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 11:00 AM PDT


Jeroen Domburg, aka “sprite”, has written an excellent step-by-step security analysis of the iStorage DiskGenie. The DiskGenie is a hardware encryption solution for portable hard drives that operates completely free of client-side software. The hard drive inside the DiskGenie is unlocked by way of a keypad built into the casing. I’m always a little skeptical of the real-world security of consumer encryption products like this: if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that physical access to a device means almost complete control over that device. Domburg delves into some nitty-gritty hardware attacks in his evaluation of the DiskGenie, further reinforcing that physical access is usually complete access.

Domburg’s plain-language description of his methodology is great. He succinctly explains the how and why of timing attacks. He looks for ways around the DiskGenie’s bruteforce-prevention mechanisms — even going so far as to create custom circuits to interrupt the internal communications of the device.

Domburg had only relative success with his attacks: he was never able to decrypt the hard drive, but he was able to glean an awful lot of information about the device and how it works. This is one dude, working on his own, with commodity equipment. Just think what a dedicated, professional team could do. As Dimburg summarizes:

So, is it safe? The answer to the question would be (as usual): It depends.

If you’re just a generic Joe Blow who wants to make sure your private pictures don’t get viewed by your collegues or kids, you’re golden. The fact that the there’s no way a software-only attack can get the pincode means that some hardware-experience is needed to start hacking the device, and that will deter casual onlookers enough to make the device completely safe for curious neighbours or collegues, even if they are smart enough to, for example, install a keylogger on your PC.

If you’re a business-person with actual info to hide, info that could financially benefit other parties… you can still use this, but make sure to pick a strong pincode. More than 11 digits should do, depending on how badly others want the data.

Even though I’ve given away the ending, I still highly recommending reading the whole analysis. It’s that good.

RSW Outland 3H Watch Hands-On

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 10:50 AM PDT

While at Basel I got to meet with RSW and check out these watches first-hand. You should know that the collection started life as the RSW Outland from a couple of years ago. You can see how the watches share the same case and strap. The Outland was a bit of a wild timepiece that was interesting all over and demanded attention. What it didn't demand was too much of the avant garde market share. People liked the case more than the dial (which was interesting but certainly demanded an acquired taste). They also may have not been thrilled with the price. So while the Outland wasn't a failure per se, it was more of a niche item. RSW had something special with the Outland case and wanted to have a more mainstream product. The disc based time-telling system has merged into a simple three-hand dial (why the watch is called the "3H" - for three hands), and it is being offered with a big variety of colors. I actually think there are too many color options to start. You can easily like so many of them that you won't known which to buy if you like the watch - this often leads to people not buying anything. A condition known a "choice paralysis." What RSW should do (and I told them), is release just a few colors at a time. Each 6 months to a year release some new colors to keep things fresh and lure potential buyers who have been hovering around the idea to buy. Again, I digress. RSW is really making my thoughts wander.


CrunchDeal: 1-Year Subscription To Wired For $3.99

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 10:00 AM PDT

If you like reading Wired, and odds are if you read this website you do, you’ll be interested to know that you can get a 1-year subscription for $3.99. Just hop over to Discount Mags, and enter the coupon code “WOOTDEALS” and you can pick up 12 issues of geeky goodness.

[via DealNews]

Despite Numerous Legal Choices, Music Industry Still Blames Piracy For Its Woes

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 09:30 AM PDT

Years ago, the music industry could have blamed falling album sales on piracy. "Nobody's buying the latest Chingy because they're just downloading a 128CBR rip from Suprnova~!" What's the excuse now when people have loads of legitimate digital options—iTunes, Zune, Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, etc.—at their fingertips? Oh, right: it's still piracy. Please update your act.

The numbers are pretty dire for the music industry.

Album sales this past week were a paltry 4.95m units sold. That's the lowest number on record.

Sales are down 12 percent for the year, too.

Digital album sales, while steadily increasing, haven't made up the difference.

Perhaps that's because: why should I buy an album when I can merely listen to the song I want, when I want with Spotify?

Of course, piracy is the boogie man here, with the IFPI claiming [PDF] that for every legal download there's 20 illegal downloads. Seeing as though it's nigh impossible to accurately track such numbers, well, I patently don't believe it.

No matter: enjoy your legal digital music choices in 2010 while the record labels continue to use 2002 rhetoric.


Video: Chilean Miners Trying To Keep Up Spirits By Making Videos, Playing Games

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 09:00 AM PDT

How crazy is this Chilean mine story? Guys have been trapped down there for three weeks! And despite that, they seem to be in pretty good spirits. I mean, they're far more cheery than anyone I know, that's for sure.

The guys were handed a camera—not exactly a hi-def wonder, but no biggie— and have made a video of themselves for global consumption.

And while it doesn't appear that they're passing the time playing the Cataclysm beta, or fragging each other in Quake Live, there is a handy set of dominoes. As we all know, playing dominoes is right next to godliness.

One less thing they have to worry about: Marcelo Bielsa will still be the Chile coach when Copa América rolls around next year.

That aside, it could be a little while before those guys get out of there. They've already had to stretch their three-day supply of rations to last around three weeks, and it's said that they may be down there for another four months.

Lastly: if all you have to worry about is whether or not someone tags you in Facebook without your permission, well, at least you're not trapped 700m below the surface of the earth.

PS3 Jailbreak Faces Injunction In Australia

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 08:30 AM PDT


Flickr’d

Anyone who thought Sony was simply going to sit back and allow that "jailbreak" dongle to be sold with impunity, ja! Sony, in Australia, has convinced the courts to place an injunction on the sale and importation of the dongle there. No homebrew and/or piracy for you, Australia.

It's only a temporary injunction, so Sony has until August 31 to makes its case.

And you already know what the case is: the sale of this device will encourage and abet piracy, and fire will rain down from the sky.

At the point, the courts can say, "Not impressed, sorry" and the device will be allowed to sold, or the courts can say, "Hmm, you have a point there. Let's see what's going on here."

Then there's a protracted legal battle, etc. etc.


There Will Be No iPad Killers This Year

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 07:55 AM PDT


Shanzai performed some decidedly sober analysis of the tablet market and came away with one simple conclusion: no matter how much LG boasts, no matter how much Samsung leaks, no matter how many Notion Inks ship, the tablet market is sewn up this year. Why? Because no one will have product in pipeline for the holidays and thus the only things selling in the slate form factor will be the Kindle, Nook, and iPad, in that order, and you’ll note that two of those items aren’t tablets.

First, here is Shanzai’s money shot:

For a single product to be a true iPad killer it would have to achieve at least one if not all of the following goals.

1. Sell more units than the iPad
2. Have better performance than the iPad
3. Create a bigger oooh, aaaah and buzz than the iPad

Time constraints alone will prevent any of these products from selling more units than the iPad in 2010 (even if they were purchasable tomorrow) and most of them won't even be available for purchase this year.

Shanzai is at the epicenter of the junk tablet world being based in Shenzhen where manufacturers are flogging all sorts of tablets. I trust them and I trust what I’m seeing in the market on this.

Contrary to popular belief, I’m not against competition in the tablet space. What I am against is Balkanization. The iPad is successful because it is a monolithic entity. It has a rich ecosystem of content and applications and it works well. My fear, then, is a plethora of tablets that run various and sundry versions of Android or a stripped-down Windows 7, that offer little in the way of productivity or entertainment benefits, and, in the end, will follow the trajectory of the much-vaunted netbook – rash exuberance followed by virulent justifications for purchase and then slow acceptance that the form-factor is a dud. I was bearish on netbooks for the same reason I’m bearish on tablets and cheap ereaders: companies have, for too long, rushed garbage to market and we’ve sucked it up.

Hardware companies are in the business of releasing hardware. To not release hardware is anathema to their business model. Therefore, they will release garbage until they potentially hit a winner and then copy that over and over again until the next thing comes along (see Motorola RAZR). In this way, most hardware companies are less about being creative than about aping their competitors.

I don’t trust most manufacturers to produce good products. I trust most manufacturers, including Apple, to produce “good enough” products.

That is not to say there are not good tablets out there or coming. The Dell Streak is really nice, which is kind of like saying it has a great personality. It’s good enough, and I don’t think that’s enough to propel sales and support to create a tablet ecosystem worth a damn.

The top it off, manufacturers are currently quite skittish. They’ve realized they can’t release garbage. Creating a good tablet is hard and they want Google and Android (and probably Chrome OS) to do most of the heavy lifting for them. Burned by years of failed, homebrew OSes (TouchWiz, anyone?) manufacturers want Google to take the blame when the OS is junk.

Why am I so down on the production of product? After all, the gadget hound in me should revel in more devices, right? Wrong. Of late manufacturers have been able to do little more than push product out the door and every product that isn’t used ends up in a landfill. We don’t need resources spent on “iPad killers.” We need resources spent on good devices for business and leisure. In many cases, these devices already exist – they’re called thin-and-light laptops and media players. There is room in the world for a good tablet, but no one tablet will be “good” this year. They will be acceptable at best. I’ll be the first to lead the parade if someone comes up with a good tablet idea, but to push good money and plastic after bad ideas is an affront to us as consumers of technology.

Solarve: Sanyo Shows World’s First Solar Cell-Equipped Bus

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 07:20 AM PDT

Sanyo in Japan today announced [JP] what it says is the world’s first solar-cell-equipped public bus, the Solarve (which stands for Solar Vehicle). The bus was unveiled to commemorate the 100th anniversary of a Japanese transportation and logistics company called Ryobi [JP]. The Solarve is essentially a city bus with solar cells on top that generate power for its interior LED lights.

Sanyo says the solar panels atop the diesel-electric hybrid bus are good for a total output of 798 watts (420W through crystalline silicon cells, and the rest through amorphous silicon cells). When the sun isn’t shining for an extended period of time, power will be supplied by storage batteries inside the bus for about nine hours.

The Solarve is expected to be first used as early as September 1 (in Okayama City in Southern Japan).

Will Brad Pitt Star In Red Dead Redemption Movie?

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 07:15 AM PDT

Apparently someone is thinking about creating a movie based on Red Dead Redemption, and they want Brad Pitt to play John Marston. Could be neat.

If you're going to make a movie based on a game, you might as well base it on one with an actual story, right? Considering Red Dead Redemption did, in fact, have a pretty good story—I actually enjoyed watching the story unfold more than I enjoyed running through the same playing mechanics over and over again—then yeah, this has the potential to not be trash.

But that depends on several things, including how closely Rockstar works with the screenwriters and the director.

As for Brad Pitt, ShowbizSpy—a real hit with techies, I'm sure—quotes a source (a source, people!) as saying, "The idea is to make this in the style of an epic Western movie but with a few modern touches*. Brad is perfect for the role and he is being given first refusal."

That basically means whoever is behind the movie wants Brad Pitt to star, and is giving him the role (if he wants it) without even talking to him. Nice gig he has.

You'll recall that Brad Pitt has already starred in a western in the movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (pictured above). Pitt was quite good in it, and the movie is worth going out of your way to see.

In other Red Dead Redemption news, Rockstar has announced another DLC pack, called Liars and Cheaters. It includes more multi-player shenanigans, and comes out on September 21..

*Instead of trying to find his family, Brad Pitt will be looking for his lost iPad
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