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Perhaps they could be making GPGPU that with a translation layer for x86 instructions, like the Transmeta Crusoe did in VLIW, or maybe they are enhancing a Via Nano CPU design with on die GPU (rather like they did with the Tergra ARM11 chip). Either way this won't be a desktop CPU, and it won't be serious competition for Intel, but could be targeted at the growing netbook market.

Intel could step in and try to block them, but they have lost against Via and Transmeta in the past, and they would also put themselves in a difficult situation, since they are being watched in the US, EU and Asia for antitrust violations. This would look quite bad for them.

Forced as in... Palm releases a phone with multi-touch? Steve Jobs said in reference to multi-touch at the initial iPhone unveiling "And boy have we patented it!", which sounds a lot like, "Don't expect to see this on anyone else's phone" to me.

Besides, I fail to see how their patent can stifle innovation.

No one else can create a multi-touch phone, so Apple doesn't have to keep up its pace of innovation. The Palm Pre received so much press, because it could potentially push past what the iPhone is capable of. If it isn't released a stagnant current version of the iPhone could remain king.

They were awarded the pantent for doing something innovative in the first place.

Actually they just bought the company, FingerWorks, that Wayne Westerman and cohorts founded.

I like Apple. I hate the US patent system. Let's do something.

Engadget wrote a surprisingly well thought out analysis of the patent situation between Apple and Palm:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-the-in-depth-analysis/

It's interesting that the motivations behind their patents aren't as obvious as they may seem. For example, Apple has several patents in the pipeline simply so they can tweak them later to specifically target Palm's Pre.

Long-range wifi with consumer stuff can work.
I built one for giggles (USB wifi key on old sat dish) and picked up my home signal from miles away... Wife promptly banned me from surfing web during family picnic :(

Many sites with 'how tos', for example here:
See here, for ex: http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/

People have claimed for than 125 mi LOS with bigger stuff.

All you need is a friend in line of sight with broadband. (OK, a big 'if' in hilly country, but you can always hide a passve repeater in a tree on top of a hill. Again, see instructions on web)

I'm not so sure about the tech on RealID, but, if they use the same stuff they are using on Passports, and I'd guess that would be a realistic thought...then you can be scanned at distance. This guy made a rig where he could go wardriving and gather RFID found on passports.

>>>the whitespace devices use only UNUSED spectrum, following methods already shown to be effective.

We must have different definitions of effective: "Yet another Microsoft white space device fails FCC testing" - "white space wireless fails second round of fcc testing" - "white space wireless fails second round of fcc testing" - and on and on.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/30/yet-another-microsoft-white-space-device-fails-fcc-testing/
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12900.cfm
http://spectrummatters.blogspot.com/2007/08/white-space-prototypes-fail-fcc-test.html
MORE: http://www.google.com/search?q=FCC+whitespace+fails&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

>>>Enough astroturfing

I'm not sure what that means. I'm just a laid-off engineer trying to keep myself busy until the next job arrives. And I'm concerned that my Free TV is going to disappear under a rain of interfering gadgets that will block signals.

Mono has been 'expanding its presence into exciting and unexpected new niches.'

Yes, just recently there have been several more!

Here at the Mono bar, we play every kind of music - country *and* western!

At what point do these stripped-down netbooks begin competing directly with large screen, wi-fi/wan-enabled cell phones that can be used as a 'browser in a box' with office document reading/editing, games, email, IM, plus being a cell phone?

Reaching the levels of $200 and below are right at subsidized smartphone levels. With new chips like Qualcomm's 1Ghz snapdragon now in use in a phone with a 4.1", 480x800 touchscreen, what makes a netbook at these levels competitive? Would screen size alone win out over features?

Oh, I just noticed that Pandora is on engadget now.

[quote] If developed countries did not have good protection of intellectual properties they would not be able to produce quality music, movies or even software. [/quote]

Not able to create quality music without copyright? I wouldn't say that's true.
Bands have started to adapt away from the RIAA.
They do things like give away MP3s of their songs and make their money through events, back stage passes, fan clubs, and merchandise.
More bands embrace the option of giving away music

Not able to make quality software without copyright? In the case of software, it's usually patents rather than copyright 'protecting' the software.

Many open source projects use variations of licenses that have nothing to do with restricting distribution to protect them. Their licenses are mostly in place to protect the author from being sued for someone else using their software and suing them as if the original author was infringing on someone's copyright/patent. These licenses explicitly allow distribution and editing.

Linux distributions follow this kind of model.
If you need more examples, surf around projects at SourceForge.

Often patents/copyright actually cause a slow down in software level innovation.
For example, why doesn't the TMobile G1 phone use mulitouch features? The screen can handle it and the code has been implemented in a hack already.
Perhaps it's to avoid being sued by Apple for it.
They hold patents on multitouch heuristics
Apple vs Palm -- Article on their various technology patents

As to movies, box office sales are within the first couple weeks of hitting theaters. DVD sales stack on top of that quite nicely with a full 50% of each DVD sale being pure profit.
Box office sales and dvd sales are roughly correlated.
"...the positive correlation between box office
performance and subsequent video sales is still in evidence..."

There is a decline in that correlation but it isn't due to piracy.
"...this decline is due to the dramatic increase of sales of TV series on video..."
New research from Screen Digest looks at the link
between box office and subsequent video sales
Warning: PDF

No, copyright and patents are not causing the creation of quality software, music, or movies. Innovation and creativity are creating quality software, music, and movies.

"Intel's X25-E Extreme SSD is easily the fastest flash drive on the market,

Actually, according to pretty much every review I can find, FusionIO's IoDrive spanks the pants off of the Intel Extreme, even in raid-0 eight drive combinations. It can saturate PCIe x4.

It'd be great if citations were required for broad claims like this.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/fusion-ios-iodrive-tested-worlds-fastest-storage-confirmed/ , etc. We do HPC stuff at work, the Fusion IO guys are cool. Their products also run 3000-15000$ so it's not exactly a fair comparison.

Already on sale in Australia, at about US$250.

What, you think an Apple II can't use USB?

And is owned by Apple.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/22/some-iphone-touchscreen-roots-splained-by-fingerworks-inventors/

Yes, Apple bought the actual prior art, then patented it.

I don't agree with the patent system, but Apple did play within the rules.

Hype and marketing.

Real world benchmarks are gradually creeping out and guess what?

"any illusions about Windows 7 somehow being leaner or more efficient than Vista can now be thrown out the window."

Via Engadget

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/20/1624253

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/21/1543234

It was also on Wired: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/encryption-stil.html

Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/21/cold-boot-disk-encryption-attack-is-shockingly-effective/

Schneier's blog: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/cold_boot_attac.html

Information week: http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801184

The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/21/cold_boot_utilities/

Cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10003167-83.html

PC World http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,762-page,1-bid,0/video.html

Boing Boing http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/19/cold-boot-encryption.html

It was even on reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS163325+27-Feb-2008+PRN20080227

It's not an obscure thing, you are just ignorant of major technology news. Perhaps the summary should define "CPU" and "linux" for you as well, just in case you don't what they are either.

Monster Cable's stuff isn't actually any better than the generic stuff!

I am assuming by "generic stuff" you mean coat hangers: http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/

It's just the same as QR Code, but a little bit smaller (they claim it at their own description.

It is no new staff as it was announced two years ago . The current hype is the movement towards mobile scanning via embedded camera and, therefore, going mainstream.

The main disadventage is the optical range on light reflecting surfaces. Surrounding light colour (even colour temperature) could affect the accuracy. If you have ever yield upon a barcode scanner because of the reading failures, just prepare to get angry far much often.

It's just the same as QR Code, but a little bit smaller (they claim it at their own description.

It is no new staff as it was announced two years ago . The current hype is the movement towards mobile scanning via embedded camera and, therefore, going mainstream.

The main disadventage is the optical range on light reflecting surfaces. Surrounding light colour (even colour temperature) could affect the accuracy. If you have ever yield upon a barcode scanner because of the reading failures, just prepare to get angry far much often.

Oh so you haven't seen the "Zii" unveilin and learned how "stem cell computing" from Creative is going to change "everything you know" and "better lives beyond our imagination".

Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/02/creative-sheds-some-hype-on-zii-stem-cell-computing/
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/creative-unveils-zii/

Oh so you haven't seen the "Zii" unveilin and learned how "stem cell computing" from Creative is going to change "everything you know" and "better lives beyond our imagination".

Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/02/creative-sheds-some-hype-on-zii-stem-cell-computing/
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/creative-unveils-zii/

its already here. its called micro-usb. and its a standard. and new phones have it already.
just use micro usb.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/21/omtp-agrees-on-micro-usb-standard-for-mobiles/

They are. Well, not extend but revise. Sata rev 3.0 should support supplying enough power to run a 2.5" hard drive.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/faster-sata-standard-coming-in-second-quarter-of-this-year-says/

But there's no telling when it'll actually hit market given they've been officially talking about for a year.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/sata-io-cranks-up-power-over-esata-initiative-not-a-moment-too/

Until I actually see it I'll think of it as vaporware and pretty much half-assed and almost useless until it can run a 3.5" drive.

They are. Well, not extend but revise. Sata rev 3.0 should support supplying enough power to run a 2.5" hard drive.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/faster-sata-standard-coming-in-second-quarter-of-this-year-says/

But there's no telling when it'll actually hit market given they've been officially talking about for a year.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/sata-io-cranks-up-power-over-esata-initiative-not-a-moment-too/

Until I actually see it I'll think of it as vaporware and pretty much half-assed and almost useless until it can run a 3.5" drive.

Yes, they're mysteriously changing the solder they use with G92's and G94's which happens to be the same as that they use for mobile chips. I wonder why.

nVidia and their partners are understandably not particularly interested in sharing what failure rates they're seeing, but things like this certainly match my experience; I've never had a graphics card go bad, and when I hear of others with failures it's typically the result of overclocking, or something like a fan failing.

Now my 8800GTS 512 goes bad after 7 months, a friend with a different make 8800GTS 512 fails after 6 months, and forums are kicking up a fuss with similar failures. Not exactly rock solid evidence, but enough for me to avoid nVidia for the time being.

Like the Eee D200, a nearly "all singin' all dancin'" new kind of multi-functional device:

ASUS' Eee D200 with touchscreen display sneaks out in Taiwan ... up to 2TB of RAID storage, 5-channel HD audio out, and slot loading DVD writer targeting the home network. The inclusion of an 802.11n access point...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/asus-eee-d200-with-touchscreen-display-sneaks-out-in-taiwan/

The Eee D200 might be presented at CeBIT in the first week of March, see the following article in german language:

Eee PC D200: Multifunktions-Nettop mit Touchscreen
http://www.einfach-eee.de/eee-pc-d200/eee-pc-d200-multifunktions-nettop-mit-touchscreen/

Why don't the fuckin commie pirates just plunder some where else, like to hell from where they came!!

Unfortunately, the US Congress keeps passing legislation that enables these fuckin commie pirates to continue to plunder out culture and destroy anyone who threatens their outdated business model.

The OS is the only real potential gamechanger here, and I'm not so sure about it. Engadget( http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/palm-announces-web-os-platform/ ) claims that WebOS is designed to be simple for programmers and is based on HTML, XML, and CSS. Don't know about you, but I just can't wait for another feature limited mobile OS. Also, the prospect of a data breach on an OS designed around a write-up language and online functionality ruins my day.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/05/macbook-wheel-revealed-by-the-onion-news-network/ This will definitely solve the keyboard problem!

Not even when it exploded?

A non-removable battery would have completely destroyed my MBP.

About 'Instant Queue', it's a security feature. They want you to queue your movies by logging into your account, because they assume you might attach your neighbor's TiVo to the service, but not share your NetFlix account details with them.

This makes me think of security in general (not just this example of how NetFlix protects their own interests) and how it will apply to this arrangement.

This is the second paragraph of the fine article:

In a partnership to be announced Monday, LG Electronics will start selling high-definition TV sets that stream Netflix videos directly from the Internet, without an additional device. The deal marks the first time Netflix's streaming service will be embedded in a television.

A TV that has a network connection and can use TCP/IP to stream video from NetFlix can also be attacked over the network. The article is extremely light on any sort of technical details. That makes me wonder how "smart" these TVs will be, how much processing power they have, whether they will make use of an embedded general-purpose OS like Windows CE that could be made to do many things (like participating in a botnet) once a compromise has occurred.

Maybe right now that's not a likely scenario, but wait until this becomes cheaper and more widespread. When everyone or nearly everyone has network-connected appliances we're going to start seeing attacks against them. Those attacks will be largely successful, enough to ensure that malware actively thrives "in the wild", if security is an afterthought. Virus scanners and other removal tools are after-the-compromise damage control only and so they cannot decisively prevent this scenario, no matter how well implemented. This is a chance to learn from the mistakes made with both the culture and implementation of Windows security (I was going to say "PC security" and reconsidered) and avoid the endless "malware vs. antimalware" arms race and the cottage industry that perpetuates it. The only way to do that is to start thinking about this now, from the beginning, and design it that way from the start. That's why it bothers me a bit that I'm not hearing anything about this from the vendors. Anyone who thinks this is absurd or unlikely needs only to look at how quickly digital picture frames were compromised and used to attack other systems.

I'm not saying that the goal is to have perfectly secure systems. I'm aware that this is a fantasy. What I believe is attainable, though, is to make compromise difficult enough that automated malware cannot thrive in the wild. Building a real security model from the ground up, not as an afterthought now that something's happened, is a good way to do this. Avoiding a monoculture where a single exploit can target tens of millions of machines is another. I think it really would be inexcusable to repeat the mistakes of the past and cause that much grief for that many people when these are no longer new problems that we are facing.

Actually..I think the Tivo has been opened for a LONG time...

Do some reading on this forum, best one out for tivo hack stuff.

Just googling a bit..found this too: a related article for DRM off the tivo

• The Lexus LS460 parallel parks on its own.
• Mercedes introduced a radar Cruise Control system on its S-Class to automatically slow the car or stop it completely if the car in front is braking. (Adaptive CC is now on several German cars.)
• The new VW Passat CC has "Lane Assist" to correct the car if it senses that it's drifting out of a lane.

So where does that leave us? We now have cars that will follow other cars to the point of stopping entirely, can park themselves, will stay in the lane on their own (to a point)...the obvious goal here is to remove more & more of human input from driving.

So can we just skip all of this crap and go right to the computer-driven car, so we never have to worry about insurance premiums, speeding tickets, drink-driving, falling asleep at the wheel, and all of the rest of the nonsense that goes along with cars?

On the flip side, if you're a sports-car enthusiast, this is likely to be the last generation where one can purchase a raw, loud, driver's car. We're going to wind up like the character in Rush's Red Barchetta before we know it.

Are you sure you aren't thinking about the iPod?

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/20155
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/12/exploding-ipod-dies-gruesome-death

that's doubtful. all three of those solutions are about half the price of the cheapest Atom netbook. perhaps an Atom 330 w/ a generic mini-ITX motherboard would be cheaper than the C7 + EPIA, but a VIA C3 CPU/motherboard combo starts at around $60. and general-purpose processing power isn't what VIA processors aim towards. if you buy a VIA processor, it's going to be for:

• its ridiculously fast encryption capabilities due to VIA's Padlock Security Engine. in AES benchmarks the VIA CoreFusion Luke (based off of the 1 GHz Nehemiah C3 core) performs 13x faster than a 2.4 GHz P4--while using almost 1/7th the amount of power (TDP of 10W versus 67.6W). meanwhile, the 1.2 GHz C3 performs 6x faster than the 3 GHz P4.
• low power consumption->low heat output->longer battery life and less noise. using a 16 stage fully-pipelined superscalar architecture w/ a specialized 128-bit vector FPU (2 in the VIA Nano), SWAR/SIMD instruction sets, out-of-order execution & advanced branch prediction, and on-die encryption & twin RNGs, VIA processors achieve the highest per-Watt performance of just about any processor on the market.
• their multimedia-specific design. VIA embedded processors are exceptionally well suited to multimedia applications when paired with VIA's robust digital media IGP chipsets. not only do they possess on-die Floating Point "media" units, but by offloading processor-intensive tasks like video encoding/decoding and audio processing to off-die coprocessors, VIA embedded systems handle multimedia applications extremely efficiently. because of hardware-accelerated video processing, VIA systems can often match the performance of systems with twice their clock speed.
• hacker-friendly open hardware. features like LVDS connectors, LPC interface, pico-ITX form-factor, Linux support, etc. make VIA embedded solutions perfect for building set-top boxes, embedded devices, and personal hacking projects.

it's simply silly to try to compare Intel Atom netbooks with VIA embedded systems that are designed specifically for embedded multimedia applications. a netbook doesn't come with dual monitor support, TV out, S/PDIF, MPEG-2/4 hardware acceleration, a video capture interface, HDTV encoding, video de-blocking, etc. if you build a VIA set-top box, you're obviously not going to use it for gaming or to run Windows Vista. but as a set-top box, VIA solutions are more than adequate. so any additional processing power is just meaningless dicksizing with no real world benefits.

besides, the C7's successor--the VIA Nano--wipes the floor with the Intel Atom in multimedia encoding (LAME mp3 audio encoding, Windows Media Encoder video encoding, DivX movie encoding, Vista Movie Maker, TMPG VOB to WMV, etc.), HD video playback (1080p), and even in general-purpose computing performance.

that's doubtful. all three of those solutions are about half the price of the cheapest Atom netbook. perhaps an Atom 330 w/ a generic mini-ITX motherboard would be cheaper than the C7 + EPIA, but a VIA C3 CPU/motherboard combo starts at around $60. and general-purpose processing power isn't what VIA processors aim towards. if you buy a VIA processor, it's going to be for:

• its ridiculously fast encryption capabilities due to VIA's Padlock Security Engine. in AES benchmarks the VIA CoreFusion Luke (based off of the 1 GHz Nehemiah C3 core) performs 13x faster than a 2.4 GHz P4--while using almost 1/7th the amount of power (TDP of 10W versus 67.6W). meanwhile, the 1.2 GHz C3 performs 6x faster than the 3 GHz P4.
• low power consumption->low heat output->longer battery life and less noise. using a 16 stage fully-pipelined superscalar architecture w/ a specialized 128-bit vector FPU (2 in the VIA Nano), SWAR/SIMD instruction sets, out-of-order execution & advanced branch prediction, and on-die encryption & twin RNGs, VIA processors achieve the highest per-Watt performance of just about any processor on the market.
• their multimedia-specific design. VIA embedded processors are exceptionally well suited to multimedia applications when paired with VIA's robust digital media IGP chipsets. not only do they possess on-die Floating Point "media" units, but by offloading processor-intensive tasks like video encoding/decoding and audio processing to off-die coprocessors, VIA embedded systems handle multimedia applications extremely efficiently. because of hardware-accelerated video processing, VIA systems can often match the performance of systems with twice their clock speed.
• hacker-friendly open hardware. features like LVDS connectors, LPC interface, pico-ITX form-factor, Linux support, etc. make VIA embedded solutions perfect for building set-top boxes, embedded devices, and personal hacking projects.

it's simply silly to try to compare Intel Atom netbooks with VIA embedded systems that are designed specifically for embedded multimedia applications. a netbook doesn't come with dual monitor support, TV out, S/PDIF, MPEG-2/4 hardware acceleration, a video capture interface, HDTV encoding, video de-blocking, etc. if you build a VIA set-top box, you're obviously not going to use it for gaming or to run Windows Vista. but as a set-top box, VIA solutions are more than adequate. so any additional processing power is just meaningless dicksizing with no real world benefits.

besides, the C7's successor--the VIA Nano--wipes the floor with the Intel Atom in multimedia encoding (LAME mp3 audio encoding, Windows Media Encoder video encoding, DivX movie encoding, Vista Movie Maker, TMPG VOB to WMV, etc.), HD video playback (1080p), and even in general-purpose computing performance.

More keyboards for your one handed (or no handed) typing consideration:

http://www.maltron.com/maltron-keyboards.html
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/19/actbrises-touchless-keyboard-for-your-laziness-handicap/

and here's a neat one for CTS, or if you just get tired of constantly moving your hand to the mouse and back:
http://www.alphagrips.com/ it has a wicked tough learning curve though (prolly about the same as frogpad) and if you are like me with twisted fingers that don't quite fit a gaming controller, forget it. Also, the alphagrips is kind of gimmicky and microsoft's curvy, split keyboard is actually pretty good for CTS.

if you just don't like to move your hands off the keyboard to grab the mouse, or if you have a one-hand keyboard for the obvious reason, try a foot-mouse:
http://www.footmouse.com/nohands.php
though I'm sure there are other manufacturers, this one seems kind of expensive. Or if you are handy (heh heh, a pun) you could probably rig one up with the spare mice you have lying around

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/03/asus-eee-box-b204-b206-grows-an-hdmi-port-handles-high-def-ma/

Like that?

Considering that we're talking about a tiny little handheld device without a video-out port, it's a bit ridiculous to expect proper HDMI screen resolutions. It'll definitely be interesting, however, to see how well this works on the B204/B206 series of HDMI-enabled, Radeon-powered Eees.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/07/japans-space-agency-planning-space-based-solar-power-arrays/

An ARM would choke emulating an x86 anyway. In fact even if you recompiled the x86 binaries to run on Arm it would still suck because desktop class x86s like Core2 have a higher clock rate, are out of order, have big caches and fast SDRAM.

An iPhone apparently has a ARM1176JZF running at ~400Mhz. The fastest ARM a QCT Snapdragon ARM at 1Ghz will most likely be slower than the slowest netbook class x86, an Intel Atom at 1.6Ghz.

Of course ARM uses much less power, but for single thread integer performance ARM is in a completely different class from x86.

and substituted an unlocked Google Android cell phone, retail price $180.

Everywhere I have seen Google's unlocked Android phone it was for $399. Not $180 which is the price of one that is locked to T-Mobile's network and a 2 year contract. http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/05/sim-hardware-unlocked-android-dev-phone-1-surfaces-for-399/ http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Releases-SIMunlocked-Android-Phone-For-399/ http://code.google.com/android/dev-devices.html all give the $399 price point.

As I understand it, tires in the near future will have RFID implanted. So technically one will soon be able to id a car based on the RFID tires without the DMV modifying the license plate...who needs a license plate these days? http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/27/this-weeks-overblown-privacy-scare-courtesy-of-rfid-tires/ Although, it won't, yet, be a penalty for modifying the RFID in the tires as it is for modifying one's license plate...not yet.

No, that was Sony.

By the way, I *have* had an SD card fail. It was in my digital camera the whole time, worked fine for a couple years, then quit. The camera itself showed no sign of damage, so I don't think it was abused. It was a Kingston, too, which I consider reputable.

I think $30 per GB is why nobody mentions them.
With a starting price of $2400 per card, I don't extect to find them on desktops any time soon.

Ok, those figures are a year old - they may have dropped a bit since, I don't know.
This is where I got them (the numbers, not the iodrive ;):
http://www.gadgettastic.com/2007/10/05/fusion-io-launches-the-iodrive-640gb-pcie-hard-drive/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/28/more-info-on-fusions-iodrive-the-pcie-card-with-massive-flash/

You go with that:

Obligatory link to story.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/14/vista-gets-wrangled-onto-the-eee-pc/

Tons of articles already published: http://blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/2008/08/12/robot_builder_profile_aiko.html http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/19/aiko-worlds-first-sexually-harassed-disabled-fembot/ And if you want to talk with the builder, here you go: http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=1335.0

oy. Seriously...if I were a developer that was considering writing an app that could be construed as "killer", the #1 turnoff would be Apple's ability to cannibalize my work.

What recourse, if any, would there be if Apple decided to yank my $XX app off the store, only to have the same functionality trumpeted in a new firmware release? (like they already have done)

Futhermore, Apple chooses when and where to enforce their store rules. Google is allowed to break rules. Would a small development firm be so lucky?

There just isn't enough incentive or security to develop something much more useful than a game, ringtone, or eggtimer.