Slashdot Mirror

BTW, I'm referring to shady link-baiting stories like these:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=32470
http://gizmodo.com/5505682/how-adobe-and-google-are-making-sure-flash-will-never-die
http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2010/03/30/is-this-googles-sneak-attack-on-apple.aspx
http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/chrome-os-flash/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/30/google_integrates_flash_with_chrome/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20001429-264.html

For the iPhone 3GAss.

How did she meet Bill?

She was Unit Manager for Microsoft Bob...

Bill: Well hello there, how'd you like to manage my unit? *strikes pose*

But not from here:
http://gizmodo.com/5502148/drunk-history-nikola-tesla-the-electric-jesus?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+(Gizmodo)

Because your information about cancer and insurance sounds 30 years out of date, possible responses include:

-If you get cancer you're fucked no matter what.
-If you get cancer you'll just extend you painful life trying to fight the symptoms.
-It doesn't matter cos cancer is nearly cured.

If right to life meant right to artificial extension of life, free doctor care would have been set up by the founding fathers. I'm not saying whether it's valid, since I elected my representatives to decide those things for me, but you're arguing that their words applied to doctoring and there's little evidence of that. Right to life certainly covers not being shot, or not being poisoned by wastewater, or lead in childrens' toys, or things like asbestos.

Being poor doesn't mean you die decades earlier, unless you're talking about a small percentage of cancers and a small percentage of the population which will gain benefit from expensive medicines and treatments. Some of the treatments are worse than just taking large amounts of over-the-counter pain relievers and waiting it out. In the most expensive (common) treatments, prognosis is usually measured in months, so left untreated you're not close to a single decade, let alone multiple.

So in short, you have a marginal point, but specious support at best.

Best Buy is the worst of all the computer/tv/tech stores I've purchased from. They charge for ridiculous 'products' and 'services' that are little more than outright scams. They have been indicted for some of them. Their prices are terrible, and they outright lie about matching others prices. This IS NOT your usual non-techy "I bought the wrong part" or techy "I know better than you" complaint. The complaints against Best Buy have to do with their criminal behavior.

http://consumerist.com/2007/05/best-buy-employee-confesses-to-scams-similar-to-ones-outlined-in-racketeering-lawsuit.html

http://bestbuyscam.blogspot.com/

http://digg.com/tech_news/Yet_just_another_Best_Buy_scam

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/11/04/best-buy-scams-hdtv.html

http://gizmodo.com/241220/best-buy-admits-they-scam-in+store-customers-with-secret-website

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bar-tender/2009/10/lawsuit-best-buy-lies.html

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/03/buyer_beware_best_buy_caught_t.php

Seriously, Best Buy is evil. Do not shop at Best Buy.

Gizmodo says "The Japanese publication Asahi is claiming it'll use one of Sharp's parallax barrier LCDs."

Parallax barrier have been used in cell phones before, although recently people have been getting excited about the 3M system that uses frame-sequential alternating directional light emission (such as in the viewfinder of the Fuji FinePix Real 3D).

I think the key thing is that if you are going to take away flexibility, i.e, the general-purpose nature of a computer, you have to make it compelling in some other way. I think a good touch interface does this. There's nothing more frustrating than having to wade through menus with a stylus when, if the interface were designed correctly, you could just tap the right thing to begin with. Menus imply lots of functionality; lots of hidden functionality. Tablets should not work this way.

I agree, I think the iPad really is going to be a game-changer. Of course, I'm not getting one. I need a little more flexibility, but also, I hate being pointed at an Apple-proprietary solution. Instead, I've been following the Notion Ink Adam with some interest, particularly because it uses a low-power screen that can be read in direct sunlight. I'm thinking of it as a color e-book reader, and for that purpose, I suspect that it will be very handy. I'm sick to death of having to carry textbooks around with me, and I am thrilled at the idea of being able to carry around my entire book collection like I do with my music collection.

Check out Pixel Qi on youtube. Better sunlight readability than e-ink, cheaper, larger displays, and with the backlight on, you can watch video in color. With backlight off (e-ink mode), you battery can last days, not hours. Still, not weeks like some e-ink products, but getting there. So, I 100% agree with you. I don't want an iPad. I want something like the Notion Ink Adam.

Hmm... not sure how true that is.

Here's the article discussing it.

Surprise!

Plus, even if it does take off, there are too many standards (or lack thereof) right now to allow for 3D to work for the home consumer.

Really?

http://gizmodo.com/5443165/im-sold-on-3d-tvsand-i-kind-of-hate-myself-for-it

But you CAN get it at home, and probably easier than you can get it at the theater.

Best Buy is really pushing 3D TV.

Much of this stuff is not yet ready for mass appeal. But that fact is changing daily.

In a few years 3D source media will be much more prevalent.

This will lead to more demand for 3D programming, and probably more horrid 2D to 3D conversions.

I would be willing to bet that 2D-3D conversion could be done by in-set software on the fly from visual cues as actors and objects move on the screen relative to each other on consecutive frames.

Even today, TV can provide made for 3D content EASIER than theaters, because you can always add another channel to a TV broadcast to carry the other "eye". Right eye image could be carried on normal TV, and left eye could be broadcast on a companion channel and only used on 3D capable sets.

But Movie theaters have to have a special 3D separated film, and colored or polarized glasses, and occasionally special projectors. And the damned throw-away Glasses for every patron.

An RFID reader on an iPhone, and RFID credit cards being hacked since 2008, wonder if someone will make a jailbroken only app for getting the information? Not like people think twice when they see someone playing with a iPhone in public. (while the video shows that the card pretty much needs to touch the card, the tech is getting better last I heard so the distance is getting further away and still getting the information. Plus set the program up, put your phone in your pocket and ride the bus/trains during rush hour, that would get some even with those short distances since your pretty much side by side.)

Also guys, "News for nerds, stuff that matters"? I think this is two of those words at best. But here I am commenting. Oh sigh...

No one.

Apart from everyone listed here.

A dedicated GPS from a company like Garmin is much better at what it does than a smartphone. Try using your iPhone's GPS to map your location when you're in an area with no cell coverage.

Try? There is no Try. There is only Do.

As in I DO download maps into the device before going into the back country.

Battery life? It was fine for a three day hike, without needing the battery back I brought (or the Solio solar charger I have which is good since it no longer works). Granted I used it somewhat sparingly, but I had it whenever I wanted a location check.

When I traveled to Australia a couple years ago I took a dedicated GPS with me and it worked great. If I'd relied on my smartphone I would have had to have paid for a local data plan and prayed that there was coverage everywhere I was going.

When I travel to England shortly and am driving around the countryside, I'll simply download one of many European navigation apps. I could use Waze, that is free - but frankly the professional applications like Telenav or Navigon or TomTom are far, far better at directing you when traffic is complex - and none of them require a data plan (Well, Waze would actually but it's nice otherwise).

And you see, there is the real point to why the iPhone (or other devices like it) beats out the Garmin - because I don't have to use just the Garmin software. I can use any number of specialized applications, each tailored to the purpose to which they are built for. And if I really don't like how any of them work, I can build my own. People complain about how closed the iPhone is for development but it rather handily beats out the Garmin for an open platform to develop for!

I'd like one too and while not quite as minimal as you've outlined and pricing is not available yet, This seems pretty close to what I want.

See the Adam device from Notion Ink. It will ship with a Pixel Qi screen that works in reflective mode (like the e-ink screen on a Kindle) in sunlight. However, unlike e-ink, it can also run in full color with normal video-friendly refresh rates, just by turning on the backlight. You get the best of both worlds, including very low power usage when running in reflective mode. On most Pixel Qi devices this switching on and off of the backlight can be done manually or automatically with an ambient light sensor. The Adam device runs Android, rather than a direct Linux OS.

As opposed to the previous MS-OS for phones, which could play 3D games? Yeah, this is "Windows Phone 7", which is apparently what happens when you turn the Zune version of WinCE into a cellphone OS, rather than the old PalmPC version of WinCE (eg, the basis for Windows Mobile). They completely changed the GUI, so it looks, well, just like the ZuneHD... probably better for consumers, and definitely better for finger-touch interfaces, than the old WinMo.

Of course, one might also view this in a negative light. This is Microsoft once again copying Apple, turning their MP3 player into a phone. And it's also kind of a "Hail Mary" pass... the old WinMo has been steadily losing market share. So they introduce this new version of Windows for phones, which requires a totally new API. Old code won't work in the new OS, period.. as Gizmodo put it, "Windows Mobile isn't just dead, the body's been dumped, buried and paved over by a rainbow brick road." You have to write you apps using Silverlight or some other Microsoft nonsense... none of the old WinMo stuff is carried over. Check it out here. MS at least understands that WinMo was so far behind, the only way to catch up with iPhone and Android was a clean, new, Zune-shaped slate.

No, see, they just redefine malware. Even if it looks like malware, walks like malware, and quacks like malware, if Apple allows it, it's clearly not malware.

There will be equivalents that meet or exceed the same specifications, but aren't locked down. I personally would really like an iPad. I'm just waiting for one that's not made by Apple. It wont be long.

Though I don't know I'd call it 'equivalent', I have high hopes for Courier.

http://gizmodo.com/5369493/leaked-courier-video-shows-how-well-actually-use-it

Apple is becoming more evil lately...

Someone should come up with an equivalent of Godwin's Law when it comes to branding some companies "Evil"

What does it mean? It's a non-argument that stifles debate. Why is X suing Y? Because they are EVIL! It's an infantile attack that does very little to explore the nuances of the complicated patent law landscape and goes for the intellectually lazy answer.

I guess all these companies on the chart are Evil and we should all invest in Lemote Yeelong and gaze at our navels out of principle.

If Apple wanted to shut down the competition they'd sue Android producing OEM's from day 1. Truth of the matter is, HTC is going out of its way along with help from Google to ape every feature of iPhone instead of actually coming up with novel ways of doing things. It's like ripping off the act of a successful comedian and calling it competition. Come up with your own damn material.

The article linked in the summary goes to wrong link (the same we discussed about in September)

Correct article with info. Picture gallery is here.

I must admit it does look awesome though. It's just perfect for use on sofa, as booklet is held like, well, a book. Laptop nor tablet aren't as nice and comfortable. There's no way I'll be buying the locked down tablet-like iPad when this is coming up.

You will need a reasonably sized HD, like this one where ones and zeros occupy a space of about postage stamp size.

I saw one of those once (actually a bigger model, _physically_ bigger I mean), in a university IT garbage room.
The thing suffered a head crash, deep enough you could easily feel it with your fingers. I wonder how horribly it sounded when that happened.
Those were the days...

You will need a reasonably sized HD, like this one where ones and zeros occupy a space of about postage stamp size.

Obligatory link: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.gif

TV-B-gone can get you kicked out of sports bars and beaten senseless.

Or banned from CES.

Oh, geeks do want an Internet tablet. But they don't want a crappy, over-priced one. I though almost every OS could handle multitasking after DOS age, and most did before that too (yeah yeah, it can multi-task, but doesn't allow you to - still the same thing for me in usability point of view). I also don't want to buy everything from their store, where everything costs and is controlled. How do you think open source software would work on this thing?

I would love to have a nice internet tablet while I'm on sofa. But iPad isn't such. Personally I'm waiting to see how Courier turns out to be. Maybe it is such, maybe not, but iPad definitely isn't.

This 7 ft tall automatic dice roller reads the rolls with a camera and laptop and serves them for game play. http://gizmodo.com/5270195/automatic-dice-machine-records-13-million-rolls-a-day

Seems to present IE completely equitably with the other browsers. They show in random order with similar sized logos and all. In the Gizmodo screen shot, Google Chrome is first, followed by Firefox, then Safari, IE, and Opera. http://gizmodo.com/5475490/microsofts-impartial-antitrust+friendly-browser-ballot-screen. Doesn't seem like a slam dunk at all that people would choose IE from this.

Nowhere in The Fine Article (or the fine PDF) does it mention that these machines are Mac's. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy, rather simply bad journalism but I would think this little tidbit of information would be of interest to the Slashdot Crowd. Gizmodo at least pointed out that the Machines were Apple. Surely being able to remotely activate a camera is a pretty bad thing, even Windows requires third party software for this "feature".

It has already happened, kind of. Esquire has done covershoots on a video camera, then selected individual frames to pull out for photos and the cover.

Of course, what the article is talking about is changing how high-speed photography happens in order to get high-speed video on the same chip... essentially, dividing each CCD into 16 subsequent regions, and firing off those sequentially to form 16 frames of video or 1 image. There is some image degradation inherent in what they're talking about doing, of course. Each frame of video is going to be 1/16th the otherwise resolution, and the overall image exposure time will be longer than it would have been if they had fired all at once. But it is a nifty trick to better utilize these CCD beasts we've made.

Sounds like this development would greatly improve a 2008 Casio camera a friend told me about a couple weeks ago. 6MP, with full res shots going into the buffer @ 60fps before you fully press the shutter button. Up to 1200 fps (tiny) video.
Hate to sound like a shill, but "high-resolution still image alongside very high-speed video" describes this pretty well, depending on your definition of "high" at least.

http://www.exilim.com/intl/ex_f1/features1.html
http://www.casio.com/products/Cameras/EXILIM_High-Speed/EX-F1/
http://gizmodo.com/383843/casio-exilim-ex+f1-slow+mo-super-cam-full-review-verdict-totally-unique-shockingly-powerful

According to Notion Ink, there will be different versions (probably based on 3G capabilities, internal storage like the iPad) ranging from $327 to $800. I don't really know how they could be making a profit @ $327 with everything they crammed in there, but I'm pretty damn hopeful.

I tend to disagree. I'd say something Microsoft did dream up is actually sexier than the iPad. The obvious problem of course is that it's still just a dream and not an actual product.

I'm sorry, but I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro, the new unibody one with the "7 hour battery". and I get a 4 1/2 hour usable battery life. Granted, that's with WiFi, but the point is that an iPad is unlikely to have an actual 10 hour usable battery life.

Well then there's something wrong with your battery.

Independent tests showed light document production, iTunes, and web browsing lasting over eight hours. 6.5 browsing Flash-intensive sites. The tests showed five hours with continuous downloading and movie playback, along with web browsing.

The AnandTech numbers have been seen by other users and reproduced by other tests. In short, your argument is that a device that consumes a tiny fraction of what a MBP does will last a lesser amount of time for the purposes of reading documents.

but the point is that an iPad is unlikely to have an actual 10 hour usable battery life.

Based on what, exactly?

Let's review:
1. You claim five hours of usable battery life on the iPad for use as an e-reader. This is based on an assumption that the battery life claim was overstated by 100%.

2. Independent testing showing a more power consuming set of tasks (active web browsing, not just document reading) yielded results that suggest Apple UNDERSTATED battery life by about 15% on a substantially more power-hungry device made by the same company.

3. Even your anecdotal claim of a 4.5 hour battery life in what you consider "normal usage" for a laptop results in 65% of the advertised battery life. Normal usage for a laptop, again, is substantially more demanding on power than use as a simple e-reader.

4. Testing of iPhone battery life consistently shows 5-6 hours of talk time--continuous active use of the cellular radio. Gizmodo compares multiple reviews: http://gizmodo.com/5025309/round-up-nine-iphone-3g-battery-life-test-results.

5. Testing of the iPhone for movie playback, a more demanding use than a simple e-reader, shows results in the 8-9 hour range. The iPad has a 10" display, which is indeed netbook-sized, but it also has a battery that is proportionally larger than the iPhone's, and battery life by volume scales substantially faster than power consumption by screen size. iLounge compiled results: .

So your claim that the iPad's value as a simple e-reader would be constrained by a "5 hour" battery life suggests a worse battery life than a full-blown MacBook Pro with a display nearly twice the surface area of the iPad 10", doing more intensive tasks than scrolling a text document. Your claim is unsupported even by your anecdotal experience, which would insist that the iPad would last a minimum of 7 hours, even based on your highly unrealistic experience.

Your claim would also contend that the iPhone and iPod touch, which can play video continuously for 8-9 hours and have a proportionally smaller battery, outlasts by nearly double the use of an iPad for the display of an .epub file.

The idea is patently absurd. The iPad will last at least 10 hours for simple e-reader functions.

Until the Notion Ink Adam comes out in June/July. Then everything else will be last year's technology. Tegra 2, Color and Daylight-readable B&W LCD, running your choice of Android, ChromeOS or Ubuntu, camera, expandable storage, 3G, HDMI-out. Sure, some of you may say it's a tablet, not an e-reader, but if it makes e-readers obsolete does it matter?

• A first generation Sony Librie (bought used in Tokyo)
• An iPod Touch with Stanza
• Various portable and not-so portable computers

Depending on what I do all three can be said to be the "best device". If I'm reading technical documentation, such as a PDF manual a computer screen with easy access to search and online services is clearly the best choice. Reading fiction outdoors when the sun is shining the Sony would be best. On the subway or on the bus the iPod is easily portable and lets me block out inane chatter.

No device is currently the best one for all possible uses, and there might be a while before a single "best solution" will be available. (Some kind of A4 foldable organic led display, with a touch screen and really fast searching would do.) In the mean time I plan to buy an Android phone with 800x480 resolution (or more) for reading fiction. I would consider buying a Notion Ink Adam though, but it wouldn't be quite as portable.

The software side is of course really important - On the server / computer side I use Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com) for converting content, pulling text from websites. You can also use it as a "content server", which is really neat.

It won't be out until June. However the specs are amazing and might be worth waiting for.

http://gizmodo.com/5471559/notion-ink-adam-tablet-caught-on-video-specs-finalized

160 hours of battery life. Screen can be switched to B&W mode. HDMI out for 1080p video playback. Open source friendly. etc. etc.

Yeah, they never brought us anything useful ever.

When you think of NASA as just a space agency, well - as things stand now there are people who will probably be doing it better in 10 years (if they aren't doing it now). But if you look at NASA as both a space agency and a R&D project, then their contributions to the world have been massive.

Putting aside the obvious contributions that they've made to space travel, NASA is largely (if not wholly) responsible for a whole bunch of stuff.

Already being done: http://gizmodo.com/5139211/3d-porn-is-coming-three-guesses-as-to-what-will-be-sticking-straight-off-the-screen http://www.switched.com/2009/01/21/porn-star-belladonna-picks-top-sex-tech-3d-adult-films/ I'm personally waiting for smellovision to make a comeback.

direct energy shots down a mosquito. "The idea behind the "Death Star" laser is that it could be used to control mosquito populations in developing countries in hopes of reducing the number of deaths due to malaria, a disease frequently carried by the flying insects. The device was shown off during the TED 2010 conference and does in fact appear to be capable of tracking and killing mosquitoes. Oh, and it was built out of parts found on eBay." http://gizmodo.com/5470148/this-is-a-mosquito-getting-killed-by-a-laser?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+(Gizmodo)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

My money is on railguns being the most practical weapon first:

http://gizmodo.com/351467/navy-rail-gun-test-destroys-everything-it-touches-at-5640-mph

Besides, lasers are a bit girly, they're just like overpowered flashlights ;) There's something more manly about accurately launching a solid lump of metal 200 miles at just short of mach 8!

http://gizmodo.com/5469042/warner-music-doesnt-much-care-for-this-free-internet-music

Edgar Bronfman's comment on the Warner conference call was addressing free on-demand services such as Spotify that are directly licensed. Pandora operates under a different licensing structure and won't be impacted by Warner's apparent decision with respect to free, on-demand services.

The mobile version of Buzz is more interesting than the Gmail version. Check out the Gizmodo review.

Guess you missed the news.

The product that might be for you: Microsoft Courier

Well one that I could think of from recently is Microsoft Courier. It seems quite innovative and the tablet I would like to have (iPad.. just meh). I really hope it becomes reality and the things TFA mentions don't happen to it. Then I could actually say MS innovates.

I can't find anything yet that actually gives N900 or Maemo sales figures. Your link does not - I am all ears if you have something. Something tells me that Nokia isn't anywhere remotely near selling 21 million devices truly comparable to iphone or android in Q4. "Converged mobile device volumes" is very carefully worded and my guess, careful weasel wording is the only way the can come up with a number so impressive-sounding.

Apple has only shipped 75 million iphone and ipod touch devices combined worldwide, and something like 8.7 million iphones in Q4. So if Nokia "true" smartphones were outselling Apple smartphones by such a margin, in any way shape or form, I think that would be bigger news, no?

I think this confusion comes from Nokia labelling any $50 gadet of theirs with a dime-store web browser and a music player as a "converged mobile device." But even in this case I should have qualified my remarks as referring to smartphones, rather than just "mobile."

ARM and other non-intel (i.e. TI's OMAP4

OMAP is ARM. ARM does not sell silicon, they sell designs which TI, Qualcomm etc. implement.