The Open Market Handset initiative enables operators and subscribers to be moved from the CDMA handset onboard memory restrictions to a next-gen Removable User Identity Module (R-UIM) capability. The R-UIM capabilities are made available through a certain smartcard. By enabling R-UIM capabilities, the handset becomes generic and can be sold on the open market, thus making it available to multiple network operators.
One of MSI’s latest netbooks the U210-008US is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. The netbook screen size is 12.1″ and features an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 1.6GHz processor. The netbook comes with 2GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon X1250 graphics card. The hard drive size is 250GB. And it comes with a multi-in-one card reader. WiFi is supported and there is a 5 hour battery life. Price is $429.99.
Drew the robotics guy decided to hack up a little experiment that makes a spider robot work with Nintendo Wiimotes. The Wiimotes can even make the spider flip upside down. It took Drew about $1,000 to put the whole thing together.
To put together the experiment, Drew used steel plates, copper, aluminum tubing, a 7.4 1100 mAh lithium-polymer battery, a pair of XBee radio modules to communicate with the robot, a Pololu micro SSC board and eight HX12K servos.
“Created for entertainment purposes. It is made to dance and entertain people at conventions and parties,” stated Drew.
It is tough to say whether these are real pictures of the operating system or not, but it is interesting nonetheless. You will notice a Chrome logo with a search panel at the bottom. And on the right there is a massive taskbar with massive logo sizes for the applications. Based on the fact that the Google Android user interface uses massive logo sizes, it would not surprise me if this user interface picture actually applies to the final product.
However the images above aren’t really consistent with what Linus Upson wrote on the Google Blog last month. Upson said that the user interface was “minimal” and was intended to stay out of your way. And those massive application logo sizes aren’t exactly “minimal.”
Google Chrome is expected to arrive in the second half of 2010. Until then, we’ll just keep dreaming about what the operating system will look like.
Amit Chowdhry | August 31, 2009 | 164 views | Comments Categorized under S4ve.as
Let’s say that you made a song on MP3 and want to share it, but don’t want to IM long links to your friend S4ve.as is a service that allows users to upload any file. S4ve.as hosts the file and provides a valid short URL for 24 hours.
Yeah, the 24 hour link isn’t enough time to share the file for an extended period of time, but at least it saves you the hassle of having to upload a file to your own server and send out larger links. The service was made more for quick sharing.
The best part is that there is no restriction on the file size. The files are deleted after 24 hours which is why S4ve.as can afford to serve unrestricted file sizes.
What are your thoughts?
Do you believe that this service is actually useful and foresee yourself using it? Personally I use e-mail for file sending and generally don’t need to send large files. But there may be some of you out there that need to send massive files and e-mail won’t quite cut it. Leave a comment if you see yourself using it.
Tesla Motors has a new VP of Communications and he comes from Google subsidiary YouTube. Reyes was the Director of Communications at the video website service before joining Tesla. Reyes will be starting in mid-September.
Before working at YouTube, Reyes worked in D.C. for projects involving public policy and communications. Reyes also spent two years working at Bracewell and Giullani LLC.
“Ricardo has deep expertise in both the public and private sectors in managing complex communication issues. He has a well earned reputation for being forthright, possessing a nuanced understanding of the facts and adapting quickly to a rapidly changing landscape, making Ricardo the perfect person for a fast-paced, high-profile company like ours,” stated Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a press release. “This is further evidence that Tesla is aggressively recruiting from both Silicon Valley and the traditional automotive industry to build the best possible team.”
Vevo is a music video website that is a joint venture between Universal Music, Sony Music and YouTube. According to sources with paidContent, the company is out seeking funding based on a $300 milion valuation. Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff has been travelling across the country to meet with potential investors in order to get the project off the ground.
Vevo will be based on of New York City and Los Angeles. The company has been hiring engineers over the last several months. As of right now, it is unclear whether EMI and Warner will join the venture. As for Warner Music, CEO Edgar Bronfman has spoken against the idea publicly.
I would not be surprised if other labels jump on the opportunity to work with Vevo in the near future. Hulu has proven to the world that web video could replace television just like it could do with music television. Vevo can be followed on Twitter.com/Vevo.
Amit Chowdhry | August 31, 2009 | 184 views | Comments Categorized under NetVibes
Netvibes is a service that allows users to create widgets using RSS feeds and other content. Now Netvibes has rolled out a new service called Theme Publishing. The Theme Publishing service will be a free feature for users, but the company also plans to charge brands and other agencies for custom homepages.
One of the services that Netvibes is syndicating their platform to is T-Online, the biggest German portal and ISP. T-Online started a new service called Meine Seite. T-Online is a subsidiary of Deutch Telekom, the German telecom company that also owns T-Mobile. T-Online receives about 3.8 billion pageviews per month.
Since launching in 2005, Netvibes has about $16 million in funding from Index Ventures, Accel Paratners, and several other angels.
Vidly is a service that makes it simple to share videos through Twitter. Recently the company announced that they have raised $500,000 from several investors, including Ron Conway. Initially Vidly launched under the name TwitVid.io. The service started this past May.
For the website to work, users visit the Vidly homepage. On the Vidly homepage, users can login with their Twitter account and upload a video. Users can e-mail a video clip to Vidly from their mobile phones too.
Chrys Bader, the CEO of Vidly said that the funding will be used to hire and pay for various costs. Some of the costs will include domain names and legal fees. The reason why Vidly changed their name from TwitVid.io is so that they can distinguish themselves from TwitVid.
Leo Laporte, who runs a show called TWiT.tv (This Week in Tech) also sent TwitVid.io a cease and desist letter. “We wanted to open up our horizons and not get locked into Twitter,” said Bader. “We see a major opportunity to make video sharing easy for mobile.”
FOX TV show Fringe is adding a new feature to their repeat shows. The new feature utilizes Twitter commentary to add some flavor to the show. In each repeated show (”tweet-peats”), there will be an on-screen scrolling of Twitter messages from the cast and the producers.
The first time they will be doing this will be at Thursday at 9PM on FOX. Josh Jackson (cast), John Noble (cast), Jeff Pinker (producer), and J.H. Wyman (producer) will have their Twitter accounts connected to the show.
On the same day, there will also be a pilot of the show Glee which will also have Twitter commentary from cast and other staff. To become involved in the “tweet-peats,” check out the Twitter accounts of both shows:
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has made an agreement to buy out Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:MVL) today. The transaction will take place in cash and stock.
As part of the agreement, the transaction will be based on the closing price of Disney stock as of August 28, 2009. Marvel shareholders would receive $30 per share in cash and 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share that they own.
“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” stated The Walt Disney Company CEO and President Robert A. Iger in a press release. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney.”
Disney will acquire the ownership of Marvel and 5,000 of the characters belonging to the franchise. Perlmutter will continue to oversee the Marvel properties.
The transaction is subject to the clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, non-U.S. merger control regulations, etc. Marvel was advised by BofA Merrill Lynch.
Seeo is a battery manufacturing company that is based in Berkeley, California. According to a regulatory filing, the company has recently raised over $8.6 million. The homepage of Seeno just has a logo and the statement “Seeo is developing advanced materials to revolutionize electricity storage and delivery.”
The investors were mostly undisclosed, but peHUB reports that Khosla Ventures is a return investor. Mohit Singh founded Seeo and serves as a director. He started the company about two years ago and plans to make lithium ion batteries for consumer electronics less flammable and more stable.
The company has already created a bettery that is based on a nano-structured solid-state structure. The batteries that Seeno develops also has a higher energy density that lithium ion batteries currently on the market.
Sina.com is the largest Chinese portal on the web. The company was founded by SINA Corporation in 1999 and started in mainland China. Their headquarters are in Shanghai, China. Now the company has decided to take Twitter head-on in China.
Sina launched a new service called Sina Microblogging earlier this month. Sina Microblogging allows Sina users to post 140 Chinese characters or less. Sina allows users to follow “fans.” Fans are the equivalent of users that you follow or follow you on Twitter. Topics are also supported by hashtags (#) on Sina Microblogging too. Sina Microblogging users have the ability to update their status message using MMS or SMS too.
Several other Chinese companies have launched Twitter clones too. Taotao.com launched a Twitter clone and supposedly already has 40 million users. Jiwai launched a Twitter clone but has been knocked offline for a while now. Digu and Zuosa have also been taken offline about one week after the Urumqi riots.
Given that the government heavily regulates Internet services in China, it is rather difficult for a micro-blogging service to really take off in the most populated country in the world. Anyone that is able to by-pass government security usually only publishes angry content thus making the service less appealing to use.
Surely China is ahead of the U.S. in many aspects, but when it comes to innovation on the web they still have a long way to go.
Andy Roddick wrote on Twitter that he thinks its “lame the US Open is trying to regulate our tweeting.. I understand the on-court issue but not sure they can tell us if we can’t do it on our own time … we’ll see.”
“i definitely respect the rule about inside info and on court, but u would seriously have to be a moron to send “inside info” through a tweet,” added Roddick.
Why Roddick is upset is because the U.S. Open has warned players and their associates to watch what they post on Twitter. There have been signs placed in locker rooms and player lounges that warns players against using Twitter.
The U.S. Open isn’t the only sports league that has decided to restrict the use of Twitter. Earlier this month, the National Football League warned players to avoid using Twitter during game times, especially during coaching sessions.
NFL player Chad Ochocinco decided to still tweet during games, but would have fans do it for him by using hand signals. Ochocinco would fly that fan out during the games.
Jeff Rees was hired in August 2008 to head the Tennis Integrity Unit for the U.S. Open. The four governing bodies in tennis which include the ATP, the WTA, the Grand Slam Committee, and the International Tennis Federation adopted anti-corruption rules. These rules were referred to when posting the warning about Twitter.
Sun Microsystems Inc. has reported a $147 million loss for the April-June quarter. This is likely the last quarter that the company will have before being absorbed by Oracle. Oracle agreed to buy out Sun for $7.4 billion back in April, but the deal is pending approval from European antitrust regulators.
The numbers were reported on a regulatory filing but there wasn’t a news release or conference call. Sun Microsystems invented the JAVA programming language which is a key component for the web, PC applications, and mobile applications.
About a year ago during the same quarter, Sun had a profit of $88 million. Revenues for this past quarter was $2.63 billion. The year before, sales were $3.78 billion. Thomson Reuters analysts expected revenues to be $2.37 billion for the quarter.
