Monthly Archives: August 2009
Samsung Mpower 699 Is The First CDMA Phone With OMH
The Samsung Mpower 699, manufactured in collaboration with Qualcomm has become the first CDMA phone to use OMH (Open Market Handset) technology.
“This technology will help migration between operators in all our CMDA (Code Division Multiple Access) phones,” stated Samsung India country head Sunil Dutt.
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.
The Mpower 699 itself can be used on mobile operators Reliance, Tata, Indicom, MTS, and networks in other countries.
MSI Wind U210-008US Now On Pre-Order At Amazon
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.
Categories MSI, MSI Wind U210-008US
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Drew The Robotics Guy Makes Wiimote Work With Spider Robot
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.
Categories Nintendo Wiimote
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Screenshots Of Possible Google Chrome OS User Interface Emerge
TechCrunch has gotten their hands on what may potentially be what the user interface looks like on the Google Chrome OS. The operating system was announced early last month.
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.
S4ve.as, A URL Shortening Service For File-Sharing
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 Hires Ricardo Reyes For VP Of Communications
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.”
Earlier this month, Tesla announced that they were profitable and they raised $465 million from the Department of Energy in late June. Daimler owns about 10% of Tesla.
Categories Elon Musk, Ricardo Reyes, Tesla Motors, YouTube
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Music Video Website Vevo Seeking Funding At $300 Million Valuation
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.
Netvibes Launches Theme Publishing Service
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.
Categories NetVibes
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Vidly Raises $500,000 From Ron Conway, Other Investors
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.”
Categories Chrys Bader, Ron Conway, Twitter, TwitVid, TwitVid.io, Vidly
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FOX TV Series’ Glee and Fringe To Have Live Tweet Commentary
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:
http://www.twitter.com/FRINGEonFOX and http://www.twitter.com/GLEEonFOX.
And also don’t forget to subscribe to the Pulse2 Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/Pulse2DotCom.