BlackBerry Bold 9000 smartphone review

Research In Motion's first 3G internet-capable BlackBerry has landed in our sweaty little palms after months of previews and slobbering-sessions, allowing us to get all intimate on its Bold little case.With an all-new look to the operating system, it quite simply is a pleasure to use. The icons are now highly-stylised, and the extra processing power means it's super-fast to flick through the various applications. Internally, the GPS has better map rendering than some of the other models we've seen before, and it's a thrill to use with the super high-res screen, which measures 480 x 320. The screen has been placed very closely with the glass exterior, giving a very close picture and brighter, more luminous colours when watching video.YouTube videos work a treat, as the internet is super fast - in tests, it quite often eclipsed the iPhone 3G's loading times. The addition of stereo speakers means you can pester those around you with extremely loud sound, whether that's played from the MP3 player function, or video playback.RIM claims the arrangement of the qwerty keypad has been inspired by a guitar fret, with four slim silver lines separating each row of keys, which have been finely sculptured. The now-standard trackball and two buttons on either side finish off the keypad.

Storage-wise, the internal memory of 1GB could really be improved, however the microSD card slot means you can whack in an extra 16GB, perhaps to store some of the photos and video you can take with the 2.0-megapixel camera, another slight downfall.Still, the quality of the photos and video is acceptable, and the microphone seems able to pick up on a surprising amount of sound, listenable via the 3.5mm headphone jack or aforementioned stereo speakers.An absolutely stunning piece of machinery, RIM's new flagship title is bound to do well, with its ultra-premium good looks (did we mention the leatherette back? Phwroar!), and the operating system's slick new layer. This will make any heavy emailer, texter or internet browser very happy indeed.

Read rest of entry

New HP iPhone for photo printing wirelessly

HP has launched an application that allows iPhone users to print their photos and pictures wirelessly.iPrint Photo is available to download as an application through Apple's App Store and lets users print a photo simply by touching it on their screen. Once the image is pressed an instruction to print is sent over wireless to an inkjet printer."Wireless printing is a fun extension of the iPhone/iPod touch's easy photo capture and viewing experience," said HP."Images stored on your iPhone or iPod touch can print on most HP networked inkjet printers connected to a local Wi-Fi network. Pictures will print out at a standard photo size."HP iPrint photo uses Apple's Bonjour tools to search for and identify printers, and supports Wi-Fi networks including Apple Airport, Linksys, D-Link and Netgear.

Read rest of entry

OLO Computer iPhone-integrated netbook concept looks unlikely

One of the regular concepts we see over at iPhoneBuzz is Apple slotting the iPhone 3G into the palm-rest of a MacBook and making it serve double-duty as connectivity and multitouch trackpad. When it’s attributed to Apple it’s pretty laughable; when a third-party claims to be doing it, as is the case with OLO Computer, you fall off the scale into hilariously unlikely.olo_computer_iphone_netbook_1OLO Computer’s concept is a netbook (with strikingly MacBook Air-style design) into which you drop your iPhone 3G whereupon it grants internet access and control. It’s unclear whether OLO envisage the iPhone powering everything - which would make the OS X screenshot on the mock-up’s display a little confusing, as that’s not the OS the iPhone runs - or if it would be a standalone device with its own software.The inevitable comparisons are being made to the ill-fated Palm Foleo and the recently-price-scythed Celio RedFly; the former didn’t make it out of the prototype stage, while the latter has required a 60-percent price cut (to just $199) in order to sell. Of course, with specs, pricing, proof-of-concept (and just about everything else we’d like to see) missing from the OLO website, color us sceptical.Remember, Apple could launch their own low-cost MacBook at the special event tomorrow morning. Join SlashGear at 10am PST, October 14th, for the full live blog: http://Live.SlashGear.com/!

Read rest of entry

Product reviews: Home cinema systems

The latest systems have fewer, smaller speakers than previous kits. We immerse ourselves in the action on five of the best
BEST FOR: SURROUND SOUND

PIONEER LX01 £1,300.Despite having no centre speaker and just four tiny satellites plus the sub, the LX01 sounds impressive. Two drivers in each front speaker emulate the centre speaker, providing clear movie dialogue. The upscaling DVD drive gives a crisp image and records and plays almost all disc formats. There’s a 250GB hard-disk and a Freeview tuner, and HD audio is handled when you run a Blu-ray player through one of three HDMI sockets.Verdict:The very best all-in-one home cinema

BEST FOR: CLASSY DESIGN

SONY DAV-F200 £265

The F200’s glittery blue finish together with the flat speakers, wall-mountable DVD player and the sub’s slimline design make for a stylish system. In addition to USB and HDMI-in sockets, there’s a Digital Media Port that lets you connect via a cable to Sony mobile phones and MP3 players. Upscaled video is clear and detailed, and the sub adds excellent bass. Don’t expect surround sound, though, as this loud, proud system is purely 2.1.Verdict: As powerful as it is stylish
www.sony.co.ukBEST FOR: SAVING SPACE

SAMSUNG HT-X810 £360

Soundbars (long cabinets with multiple speakers), are good for minimalist home cinema, and with a wireless subwoofer and built-in DVD player the HT-X810 soundbar system mostly eliminates wiring. At 4ft long, the bar may be wider than your TV, so the wall-mounting kit is a blessing. The length helps create a 2.1 sound, and the audio, whether action soundtrack or subtle dialogue, is excellent, as is the upscaling DVD player.Verdict: A tidy system with few audio compromises.www.samsung.co.uk.BEST FOR: VIDEO iPODS

HARMAN-KARDON HS250 £650

The HS250 has a recharging iPod dock and can upscale video stored on the Apple player to 1080i as it feeds to a television via HDMI. DVD playback gives stable images with well-handled blacks and low-light detail. A big subwoofer and two small satellites produce a solid, cohesive soundscape (not full surround sound), but action movies are favoured as the powerful audio lacks refinement. Demerits are the complicated remote control and onscreen menus that are hard to navigate.Verdict: One for video downloaders.www.harman kardon.com


PHILIPS HTS6510 £250

This setup uses Philips Ambisound and claims to replicate 5.1 surround sound with just two satellite speakers and a subwoofer, emulating central and rear speakers by bouncing sound off walls. The HTS6510 works well – you feel as if you’re in a “cage” of sound, but subwoofer boom overpowers the speakers on loud soundtracks. The DVD player is a solid performer, upscaling standard video to high-definition 1080i.
Verdict: Great value for money, but not recommended for banging blockbusters
.www.philips.co.uk

JARGON BUSTER

SUBWOOFER A bass-only speaker unit, typically housing one or two large, downward-firing drivers. As subs require a large case, home-cinema systems often pack the audio amplifier into it, so keeping the DVD-playing unit slim. The bass is bounced off the floor and walls, so subwoofers are best placed in a corner.
2.1 SOUND SYSTEM A setup with a pair of satellite speakers to provide sound detail, and a subwoofer for bass. The result is usually stereo sound.5.1 SOUND SYSTEM True surround sound. For films, a central speaker relays much of the dialogue, a further four satellites circle the listener, and a subwoofer once again provides the guts. For lovers of wiring, the latest HD players now support 7.1 sound.What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision’s Ultimate Guide to Blu-ray is out next month.

Read rest of entry

Why you should buy an iPod touch

I generally try to keep this blog on topic with posts about science news. However, every now and then I like to take a little detour into the world of gadgets (and, as the traffic to my earlier post on where to find a Wii in Vancouver suggests, such posts are popular).Like many guys, I have a bit of a weakness for the latest tech toy. As a result, I often suffer buyer's remorse after spending my hard-earned money on something that I rarely ever use (I'm talking to you fold-out Palm keyboard!). So it's been a delightful surprise that, in the months since my wife bought me an iPod Touch for my birthday, I have only become more and more convinced that it is one of the best gadgets ever made.For those who don't know, the iPod Touch is essentially an iPhone without the phone. Which may sound a bit lame except that, if you already have a cellphone -- and don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a three-year Rogers contract -- you can get almost all the things that make the iPhone so neat at a fraction of the cost.Like other iPods, the Touch is great for listening to music and -- with its sharp, wide screen -- is simply fantastic for watching movies and video clips.But what really sets it apart from all other iPods is that it has built-in WiFi. That means you can surf the Net using a special version of Safari that makes reading web pages surprisingly easy (and way better than on a BlackBerry). The WiFi also allows you to use all sorts of neat Internet-powered applications from Apple's App Store, using the Touch to check your email or keep up with your friends on Facebook.In fact, every day it seems there's a new application on Apple's App Store -- many of them free -- that opens a whole new world of cool things you can do with the iPod Touch, from playing games to checking movie times. (I might list some of my favourite Apps in a future blog post.)
In a sense, its WiFi capability makes the iPod Touch almost like a mini-laptop that you can hold in your hand. In fact, I often find it easier to pick it up at home to check my email -- or the weather, or a stock price -- than it is to boot up my computer. As a new father, I've found the Touch particular effective when one hand is occupied holding a baby -- since you can check your e-mail one-handed.The Touch's lack of cellphone capability means that, when you're out of WiFi range, you can't get on the Internet. But that's less of a problem than you might think. First, most of us spend a lot of our time either at home or at work -- both of which, for many of us, have WiFi. And finding free WiFi is getting easier and easier. Plenty of people leave their home WiFi open without a password. But even if you find that practice ethically questionable, all sorts of coffeehouses and cafes offer free WiFi to their clients -- including, now, Starbucks (as long as you have a Starbucks card).And I've saved the best for last: Earlier this month, Apple announced that it was cutting the price of its iPod Touch lines. That means the 8 gigabyte version that a few months ago was $280 is now just $250. Plus, they've added a small external speaker and a volume control knob on the side (so you don't have to fiddle with the screen to change the volume)..

Read rest of entry

Google Transit Expands to New York

A number of public officials and the founders of Google assembled at Grand Central Terminal this morning to announce the start of New York’s version of Google Transit, an online feature that they said would transform the experience of navigating New York City’s transit system, the nation’s busiest.“It is a very complicated transit system, and it just got less complicated today with the advent of Google Maps for transit,” Gov. David A. Paterson said, noting that the subway system opened with 9.1 miles of lines in 1904, and that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority now serves a territory of 5,000 square miles.The array of public officials present reflected Google’s economic might, particularly at a time when Wall Street’s convulsions have left the city and state economy reeling. Not only did the governor and leaders of the M.T.A. attend the Grand Central news conference, but so did Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler, representing the Bloomberg administration, and officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and of New Jersey Transit.“It just gives me great personal pleasure to be able to help even in a tiny way this fantastic public transportation system,” Sergey Brin, one of Google’s founders, said at the news conference. The company’s other founder, Larry Page, said he even hoped the tool would “help congestion, help the economy over all.”
Google has already presented online maps for several transit systems around the world, and several New York companies have provided similar services, like Hopstop.com, but the new Google tool has support from public officials. (The M.T.A. even posted a link to Google Transit on its Web site, along with a Google training video. And the M.T.A. allowed Google to install 10 demonstration kiosks where users can try out the new tool, until 5 p.m. today.)The tool — which encompasses the M.T.A.’s subways, buses and two commuter railroads, along with the PATH and New Jersey Transit commuter lines — appears far more sophisticated than existing online trip planners like Trips123, a site that was built with public financing.
It also seems to offer a key distinction from other, prior services: Users do not need to search specifically for transit information. Instead, they are shown transit routes, stations and stops even if are merely searching for, say, a bagel store.H. Dale Hemmerdinger, chairman of the M.T.A., said that Google Transit Maps will “reflect online what is clear on the ground: the M.T.A. is critical to the region’s mobility, economy and environment.”Elliot G. Sander, chief executive and executive director of the M.T.A., said the partnership with Google “builds upon” other customer-oriented initiatives, including real-time text alerts informing riders of “planned and unplanned service disruptions” and cellphone service in the subways.Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president for search products and user experience, said that Google and the M.T.A. had some unexpected similarities.Both organizations are committed to “getting people where they need to be as efficiently as possible,” she said, even noting that Google has a free shuttle system that transports more than 1,000 employees on about 30 routes within 50 miles of its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area.John Hanke, the founder of Google Earth, said the New York project started with a small group of employees who wanted to “promote the use of public transit as an alternative to people driving cars.” Google employees are allowed to spend 20 percent of their time on self-directed projects, and these employees used that time to pursue their passion for public transit, he said.Mr. Hanke said that Google had already introduced the tool for transit systems in cities like Austin, Portland, and Los Angeles, but that the truer test of the feature was whether it could also serve the world’s largest transit systems, like London, Paris, Tokyo and New York. (Google Transit covers Tokyo, but not yet London or Paris.)Tom Sly, a Google business development manager who demonstrated the new tool using a mobile devices, showed how the transit feature worked with Google’s street view tool. Google Transit plans itineraries, using transit schedules supplied by the M.T.A. to provide estimates for how long a given subway or bus ride would take.Christopher P. Boylan, the M.T.A.’s vice president for external affairs, said that the authority had made its extensive data on route schedules available to Google — but that it was available to other software developers as well. .

Read rest of entry

Google phone to cost $179, will go on sale Oct. 22

Google likes to talk about organizing the world's information and making it accessible everywhere. On Tuesday, the Internet giant took a step toward fulfilling that mission with the long-awaited debut of the first mobile phone to use its software known as Android.The phone, which will go on sale at T-Mobile on Oct. 22 for $179 — $20 less than the iPhone — closely resembles a T-Mobile Sidekick, with a big screen and a keyboard that slides out from underneath and contains an extra key dedicated to Internet search. The device also has WiFi capability and GPS built in.
But what is special about the device is that it is designed to function as a full-fledged personal computer running any kind of application a developer can dream up."It's just very exciting for me as a computer geek to be able to have a phone that I can play with and modify and innovate upon just like I have with computers in the past," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said at a news conference Tuesday in New York. Brin joked that the first application he wrote took advantage of the phone's accelerometer and measured how long it took for him to catch the phone, or for it to hit the ground, after it was thrown up in the air.Andy Rubin, Google's senior director of mobile platforms, said the source code for the phone would be released on the Internet as soon as the phone goes on sale. Though the software is basically complete, Rubin said Google will continue Advertisement to add features and functionality and that third-party developers would also be able to contribute changes. "It is future-proof because it has openness built in," Rubin said.The G1 comes with maps, e-mail and instant messaging, a music player and a camera. Users can also download applications that measure their carbon footprint or scan barcodes in a store so they can comparison-shop on the Internet.
Ten years from now the end result will be powerful devices that are tailored to the personal preferences of their owners. "Your phone will be smart about your situation and alert you when something needs your attention," Rubin wrote in a blog post last week as he prepared for the launch."I think people will be happier with the G1 than they are with the iPhone," said John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer of Wind River, which is working with manufacturers to adapt Google's code to new phones and other devices."Plain and simple, I will be able to get more applications more easily from a broader set of options.''Apple has shown that ordinary people are eager to experiment with games and productivity applications that run on a mobile device. Since it launched its App Store in July, users have downloaded more than 100 million applications for the iPhone and the iPod touch.
There are more than 3,000 iPhone applications available — but that is a fraction of the 200,000 submitted to Apple. The Android Market will theoretically be more open to developers."If it can truly be that anyone can publish whatever they want, that's a paradigm change in itself," said Gerry Purdy, chief analyst for Frost & Sullivan. Purdy acknowledged that the new phone's security will be a major issue.
Tim Westergren, chief strategy officer of Pandora, a popular music discovery service, said he is "most definitely" considering developing an application for Android. Pandora is one of the top apps offered in the iPhone store.Cole Brodman, T-Mobile's chief technology officer, said the G1 will be advertised through "the biggest marketing campaign we've ever launched for a mobile device."Brodman said T-Mobile also announced two new plans: It will cost $25 a month for unlimited Web searching and $35 a month for unlimited Web searching and messaging. Using the phone to talk will cost extra. Similar to the iPhone, the G1 will not be able to be used as a modem for a personal computer.The phone will be able to run on T-Mobile's new 3G network, which is in the process of being installed throughout the country. Brodman said the new network, which is much faster, will be available in 22 markets by October.T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, Google and HTC, which manufactured the phone, are hoping the G1 will have the same mass appeal as the iPhone, but at a lower cost.Google intends for this to be the first of many so-called "gPhones," making its Android software as ubiquitous as Microsoft's operating system. The next gPhone is expected from Sprint Nextel.Still, it's not clear that Google will be successful. Jake Seid, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners, noted that the idea of a standard technology platform has been tried multiple times in the past. In 1998, mobile industry leaders tried to come together around the Symbian operating system, partly out of concern that Microsoft would come to dominate mobile devices the same way it dominated personal computers.Seid said such efforts face a common challenge in keeping a uniform code base."Being open doesn't matter," he said. "If you look at what has been successful, it has been end-to-end control."
.

Read rest of entry

Yahoo Should Have Sold Search To Microsoft

As Yahoo and Google get ready to finally launch their search partnership--and trigger a storm of legal and industry protest by doing so--it's worth revisiting Yahoo's decision to pursue this deal instead of one with Microsoft in the waning days of the Microsoft-Yahoo dance (boy, does that seem like a long time ago).

In the days when Google and Yahoo first announced their search partnership, Yahoo's stock was in the high $20s, and the Microsoft acquisition at $31 seemed inevitable. Then Jerry pulled the Google deal out of his hat, and this forced Microsoft to halfheartedly throw a couple more dollars a share at Yahoo. But the intransigence at Yahoo quickly killed that $33 bid, Microsoft walked, and now we're back below $20 again.

If the Google deal isn't quashed by regulators, it could be very successful. It could allow Yahoo to generate incremental revenue and cash flow and, ultimately, begin to reduce engineering spending on search--a war it has long since lost. But this still doesn't mean going with Google instead of with Microsoft's last offer to buy Yahoo's search business was the right decision. If Yahoo's query share continues to drop--which it did last month--it will become ever clearer that the company should have taken Microsoft's money and run.

As is clear in the chart below, Yahoo has lost almost 2 full points of search share since January and now holds under 20% of the overall search market. This is a continuation of the relentless share loss trend since Google burst on the scene seven or eight years ago.


If Yahoo continues to lose share--and there's no reason to expect it won't--the Google deal will rapidly become less and less relevant. It doesn't matter if you "improve monetization" of queries if your share of queries continues to shrink.

As you'll recall, in the waning days of the Microsoft-Yahoo dance (round one), Microsoft made two offers to buy Yahoo's search business to try to detail the Yahoo-Google search deal. The first one was weak, and Yahoo was right to reject it. The second one, however, was much closer to a reasonable deal. If Yahoo had engaged with Microsoft on that offer, it's possible they could have gotten to a deal that made sense.

A strong search deal with Microsoft would have allowed Yahoo to:

* Stop shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars a year down the Panama (search platform) rat hole
* Focus all its energy on what it's best at: content aggregation/production and display ads
* Continue to generate meaningful revenue from search while its query share lasted.

Yes, shutting down Panama would have closed the door on Yahoo's ability to bring search in-house again. But unless the company finds a way to turn around its eroding share, this just doesn't matter.

Yahoo's stock accomplished the near-impossible on Friday--declining almost 5% on a day when the market was up 400 points. Most likely this was because investors continue to realize that, Google deal or no, Yahoo's search business is headed down the tubes.

Read rest of entry

Microsoft, this is how you can deal with Google

Google has again gained a whole percentage point this month, at the expense of Microsoft (losing 0.9%). It seems that Microsoft is consistently losing ground — the ship is sinking, and it doesn’t appear they can do anything about it. So much for that $1 billion per year they are putting towards gaining market share over Google. What can they do to get on the right track?

Let me explain something to you, Microsoft. What you are doing isn’t working — it’s as simple as that. It’s easy for someone to say that you aren’t doing a good job, so that’s why I’m going to give you a solution. Take it for what it’s worth, but this suggestion will instantly start making your search division profitable — somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to $500 million per year (without spending a dime). Not only will you start making money, but you will also hopefully start seeing your market share begin rising rather than declining.

What is the plan? It’s going to be a tough pill for you to swallow, but it has to do with letting Google serve up search results and ads on your Microsoft Live search engine. Of course, I don’t know if Google will want to help you out, but it’s worth a shot if you serious about the future.

But wasn’t doing this what caused Yahoo to fall out of the lead? Using Google’s search technology was a mistake back then, because Yahoo already had the lead. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain — Microsoft is so far away from first place that using Google, in my opinion, will do nothing but help.

After signing a multi-year exclusive deal with Google, you can spend those hundreds of millions of dollars per year that Google is giving you on extremely talented engineers and creative marketing geniuses. These folks can take their time to rebuild your search engine behind closed doors (one that can hopefully be competitive). Why not leech off Google for once?

The likelihood of Microsoft going down this road is basically zero, and it may actually be looked at by Yahoo and Ask as a textbook case of antitrust, but it sure would be interesting, wouldn’t it?

Read rest of entry

What happened to the Big Bang machine?

Serious difficulties were encountered when boring an artificial cavern designed to house the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), one of the LHC's massive detectors - which are designed to monitor beam collisions for interesting events.

The cavern shaft had to be bored through a 50m layer of glacial deposits – including fast-flowing water – which threatened to flood the hole.

Engineers had to create a 3m-thick wall of ice around the circumference of the shaft as a barrier to the underground rivers.

In April 2007, part of a magnet ruptured suddenly during pressure testing. The incident prompted an evacuation of personnel behind the tunnel safety perimeter.

Later that year, a problem was uncovered with a handful of "plug-in modules", or PIMs, which link the beam tube of one superconducting magnet to another. Engineers found sliding parts inside the modules had buckled into the beam pipe.

Superconducting magnet (Cern/M. Brice)
Super-cooling the magnets to -271C allows them to conduct electrical current without resistance

The LHC was expected to be complete by 2006, so a further delay of two months is unlikely to faze particle physicists who are waiting to begin harvesting data once the machine begins colliding its two beams of protons together at high energies.

The machine has more than 1,200 "dipole" magnets arranged end-to-end in the underground ring. These magnets carry and steer the proton beams which will whizz around the machine at close to the speed of light.

Chilling them to -271C – where even helium gas is turned into a liquid - makes them "superconducting".

This allows the magnets to conduct electrical current without resistance, thereby generating the large magnetic fields required to steer the beams while at the same time consuming relatively little power.

A quench occurs when part of a superconducting magnet heats up and becomes resistant to electrical current; the magnet essentially starts to lose its superconducting properties.

Engineers have a system in place to deal with this issue, but in this case, the quench created a hot spot in the magnet which got out of control and damaged hardware. The current problem appears to have affected the "bus bar" – a cable that carries current between the two magnets.
The fault that has shut down the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be hugely disappointing for scientists and engineers following the successful "start-up" of the experiment.

It is now over a week since the first beams were fired around the accelerator's 27km (16.7 miles) underground ring. The crucial next step is to collide those beams head on.

But hopes that the first trial collisions would be carried out before the machine's official inauguration on 21 October now seem to have been dashed. It even looks uncertain whether this can be achieved before 2009.

The failure on 19 September - described as a "massive" magnet quench - certainly seems dramatic: it caused the temperatures in about 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to soar by as much as 100C.

The fire brigade had to be called after a tonne of liquid helium leaked out into the LHC tunnel.


If you keep an eye on the big picture, we've been building the machine for 20 years
James Gillies
Cern's director of communications

One of the LHC's eight sectors will now have to be warmed up to well above its operating temperature of 1.9 Kelvin (-271C; -456F) – which is colder than deep space – so that repairs can take place.

But the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), which operates the LHC, maintains the setback is a relatively minor one in the grand scheme of things and poses no longer-term threat to the LHC.

"If you keep an eye on the big picture, we've been building the machine for 20 years. The switch-on was always going to be a long process," James Gillies, Cern's director of communications, told BBC News.

"A year or two down the line, this moment will be a distant memory, and we'll be running smoothly."

This incident is the latest in a line of setbacks during the construction and testing of this impossibly complicated machine built 100m beneath the French-Swiss border.

Flood threat

'Helium leak'

"What appears to have happened... is that there was a faulty connection in the bus bar," Mr Gillies told BBC News. He described this connection as a hi-tech version of a soldering joint to link the two stretches of cable together.

"The bus bar quenched, and that connection seems to have melted. The melting appears to have caused the helium leak.

"It seems to be a badly made connection – but this all has to be confirmed once we have had the chance to take a look at it."

The incident occurred during the final test of the last of the LHC's electrical circuits to be commissioned.

Cern says such problems are par for the course considering the vast complexity of the project. However, since the official start-up on 10 September, the organisation, which is based in Geneva, has had to deal with a level of media scrutiny it has never encountered before.

The two-month halt means there will now be a much smaller window in which to try for the first low energy collisions before the LHC shuts down for the winter – which is done in part to save money on electricity.

But Mr Gillies refused to rule anything in or out, and said a more complete picture of both the impact on the schedule and the nature of the fault itself would emerge next week, after engineers have had time to carry out their analyses.

Read rest of entry

Microsoft Zune 16 GB

When PC World reviewed Microsoft's previous Zune flash player last fall, we questioned whether support for wireless and for video was overkill on a device that holds only 8GB of content. This fall, Microsoft addressed the storage limitations by adding a new 16GB model to its flash family.

But other than expanded storage and a glossy black case, the main changes involve the Zune 3.0 firmware--which is not preinstalled on the new Zunes (you must visit Zune.net to obtain it). What's more, the player's new features, though interesting, serve mostly as incentives to get you to buy from the Zune Marketplace.

The 16GB Zune retails for $200--the same price that the 8GB Zune carried when it debuted. Size (including the 1.8-inch screen), weight, and the device's battery life (according to the company's spec) remain the same for the $200 Zune 16GB. At 0.3 inch thick, the 16GB Zune is noticeably bulkier than the 0.24-inch third-generation iPod Nano; it also weighs a bit more, at 1.7 ounces versus 1.3 ounces for the Nano.

The Zune supports AAC, MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, and its own DRM format for Zune Pass subscriptions. In case you'd sometimes rather listen to radio, the Zune includes a built-in FM tuner.

In our lab tests, audio quality was good, but the player's 20-step digital volume control doesn't permit much fine-tuning. On certain tracks, sound would be too low at one step and too high at the next. The player's signal-to-noise ratio of 80dB is consistent with its predecessor's and comparable to that of some of our highest-ranked players.

The Zune can play back video and display photos on its 1.8-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen, too; with support for H.264, MPEG-4, and WMV encoding.

Video looked okay when played back on the device, but I wish that the screen had been expanded in the new models. Still, it's fine for watching TV shows or short clips, which is all that the Zune Marketplace offers anyway. Zune owners can preview and download shows from NBC, Fox, and cable networks such as MTV, Bravo, and Comedy Central from the Zune Marketplace.

The 16GB Zune retains the 8GB version's touch-sensitive control, which doubles as a clickable D-pad controller so you can scroll in four directions. When you select an artist and an album, scrolling up or down takes you through songs on that album Scrolling left or right switches to other albums by the same artist. Overall, the Zune has a very intuitive interface.

The most significant new features in the Zune 3.0 firmware are 'Buy from FM' and built-in wireless. Unlike Apple's 'Genius' feature, which applies only to newer iPods, Microsoft's free firmware upgrade is available for all generations of Zunes.

'Buy from FM' is a nice feature if you listen to music on the radio often. When you come across a song you like, you can tag it by clicking the center button--and if you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can download it immediately. If Wi-Fi isn't available, your device will form a queue of songs for download.

Since I rarely listen to the radio, I can't see myself using this feature. But Microsoft claims that 50 percent of Zune owners use their built-in radio regularly, and 'Buy from FM' is certainly a useful feature for them. The tagging capability comes in handy for identifying songs that you like but don't know the name of.

The wireless feature also allows you to find, buy (at $0.99 per song), and download content from Zune's Marketplace while on the go. If you have a Zune Pass ($15 per month), you can download or stream an unlimited number of songs directly to both your player and your computer.

Microsoft announced that it is partnering with McDonald's to provide free wireless for Zune customers at about 10,000 restaurants. We weren't able to test how well the players respond to ketchup spills.

As with the 8GB Zune, you can share playlists, songs, albums and podcasts with your Zune-owning friends within a wireless range. It's a great feature, but you can listen only three times to any song that you receive in this way; then you have to buy it from the Zune Marketplace if you want to keep listening to it.

Other updates include Audible.com audiobook support, a couple of free games (Texas Hold 'Em and a puzzle game), and a home-screen clock.

Overall, the Zune 16GB offers some nice features, but despite its new firmware and doubled capacity, there are better flash players on the market. If you're looking for maximum storage space, the SanDisk Sansa View offers a 32GB player; and the 16GB Creative Zen X-Fi, our top-ranked MP3 player, lets you expand your storage via SD Card. If you prefer something extremely lightweight that integrates with a lot of third-party speakers and accessories, the fourth-generation 16GB iPod Nanos may be a better choice. All of these devices are available for about the same price as the Zune, so unless you're a big fan of Zune's software and the Zune Marketplace, you can probably find a better value elsewhere.When PC World reviewed Microsoft's previous Zune flash player last fall, we questioned whether support for wireless and for video was overkill on a device that holds only 8GB of content. This fall, Microsoft addressed the storage limitations by adding a new 16GB model to its flash family.But other than expanded storage and a glossy black case, the main changes involve the Zune 3.0 firmware--which is not preinstalled on the new Zunes (you must visit Zune.net to obtain it). What's more, the player's new features, though interesting, serve mostly as incentives to get you to buy from the Zune Marketplace.The 16GB Zune retails for $200--the same price that the 8GB Zune carried when it debuted. Size (including the 1.8-inch screen), weight, and the device's battery life (according to the company's spec) remain the same for the $200 Zune 16GB. At 0.3 inch thick, the 16GB Zune is noticeably bulkier than the 0.24-inch third-generation iPod Nano; it also weighs a bit more, at 1.7 ounces versus 1.3 ounces for the Nano.The Zune supports AAC, MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, and its own DRM format for Zune Pass subscriptions. In case you'd sometimes rather listen to radio, the Zune includes a built-in FM tuner.

In our lab tests, audio quality was good, but the player's 20-step digital volume control doesn't permit much fine-tuning. On certain tracks, sound would be too low at one step and too high at the next. The player's signal-to-noise ratio of 80dB is consistent with its predecessor's and comparable to that of some of our highest-ranked players.The Zune can play back video and display photos on its 1.8-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen, too; with support for H.264, MPEG-4, and WMV encoding.Video looked okay when played back on the device, but I wish that the screen had been expanded in the new models. Still, it's fine for watching TV shows or short clips, which is all that the Zune Marketplace offers anyway. Zune owners can preview and download shows from NBC, Fox, and cable networks such as MTV, Bravo, and Comedy Central from the Zune Marketplace.

The 16GB Zune retains the 8GB version's touch-sensitive control, which doubles as a clickable D-pad controller so you can scroll in four directions. When you select an artist and an album, scrolling up or down takes you through songs on that album Scrolling left or right switches to other albums by the same artist. Overall, the Zune has a very intuitive interface.The most significant new features in the Zune 3.0 firmware are 'Buy from FM' and built-in wireless. Unlike Apple's 'Genius' feature, which applies only to newer iPods, Microsoft's free firmware upgrade is available for all generations of Zunes.'Buy from FM' is a nice feature if you listen to music on the radio often. When you come across a song you like, you can tag it by clicking the center button--and if you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can download it immediately. If Wi-Fi isn't available, your device will form a queue of songs for download.

Since I rarely listen to the radio, I can't see myself using this feature. But Microsoft claims that 50 percent of Zune owners use their built-in radio regularly, and 'Buy from FM' is certainly a useful feature for them. The tagging capability comes in handy for identifying songs that you like but don't know the name of.

The wireless feature also allows you to find, buy (at $0.99 per song), and download content from Zune's Marketplace while on the go. If you have a Zune Pass ($15 per month), you can download or stream an unlimited number of songs directly to both your player and your computer.Microsoft announced that it is partnering with McDonald's to provide free wireless for Zune customers at about 10,000 restaurants. We weren't able to test how well the players respond to ketchup spills.As with the 8GB Zune, you can share playlists, songs, albums and podcasts with your Zune-owning friends within a wireless range. It's a great feature, but you can listen only three times to any song that you receive in this way; then you have to buy it from the Zune Marketplace if you want to keep listening to it.Other updates include Audible.com audiobook support, a couple of free games (Texas Hold 'Em and a puzzle game), and a home-screen clock.

Overall, the Zune 16GB offers some nice features, but despite its new firmware and doubled capacity, there are better flash players on the market. If you're looking for maximum storage space, the SanDisk Sansa View offers a 32GB player; and the 16GB Creative Zen X-Fi, our top-ranked MP3 player, lets you expand your storage via SD Card. If you prefer something extremely lightweight that integrates with a lot of third-party speakers and accessories, the fourth-generation 16GB iPod Nanos may be a better choice. All of these devices are available for about the same price as the Zune, so unless you're a big fan of Zune's software and the Zune Marketplace, you can probably find a better value elsewhere.

Read rest of entry

Yahoo Is Counting on Apex

Slouched in a chair in the Holy Cannoli conference room at Yahoo!'s (YHOO) Silicon Valley headquarters one recent September day, a taciturn Jerry Yang looks every bit the embattled chief executive he is. With profits falling and sales growth slowing, the Internet portal's stock price has sunk below 19—a five-year low and 40% less than what Microsoft (MSFT) offered before walking away from its $47.5 billion buyout bid in May. Angry shareholders are still calling for his head. Then Yang starts talking about the imminent debut of an ambitious online advertising system. He leans forward, and the words pour out. "This is a big bet," he says, his voice rising. "It is truly the next generation of advertising."

It's also a do-or-die proposition. More than any other project, the ad system could be Yang's last chance to reverse the flagging fortunes of the company he co-founded in 1994 with Stanford University buddy David Filo. The culmination of a marathon effort by hundreds of engineers, the system—code-named Apex, for Advertiser Publisher Exchange—will be unveiled at the annual Advertising Week conference in New York, which opens on Sept. 22. Apex' goal is to make it far easier to buy and sell display ads, those pictorial and video banners that are the chief revenue source for most Web sites.The core of the system is a free online marketplace where publishers—Yahoo and its network of partners, including 784 newspapers—use a simple dashboard to post ad slots available on their Web pages. Advertisers, using anonymous data on visitors to the pages, can target ads to the most likely prospective buyers in particular geographic areas—say, ads for minivans to married women aged 31 to 40 in the Chicago metro area. In one transaction, they can reach potential buyers on Yahoo and on partner sites.

Yang's big hope is that improved targeting, greater reach, and less buying friction will make advertisers willing to pay higher rates. In particular, Yahoo aims to help more Web pages, especially "remnant" pages with little obvious commercial value, command something a bit closer to the rates Google (GOOG) gets on search-results pages. This way, Yahoo can start to close the widening gap between Google's expected $16.2 billion in revenue this year and Yahoo's $5.6 billion.

Under a previous ad deal, some newspapers already have generated ad rates on some Yahoo pages two to three times what Yahoo itself was getting. In Atlanta, Cox Newspapers grossed an additional $1 million this year selling ads on Yahoo, thanks to the ability to get broader reach among local consumers and thus lure bigger-spending advertisers. Apex will automate that process, allowing partners to sell ads on many more Yahoo pages. Leon Levitt, Cox's vice-president of digital media, says his company eventually plans to shift all its display ad placement business away from its current partner, Google's DoubleClick unit.

Yahoo's ambitious plan has gained urgency in recent days as a tentative $800 million-a-year search-advertising deal with Google faces intense scrutiny from antitrust officials. If that setup is nixed, Yang will be all the more dependent on display ads to convince shareholders he didn't mess up in resisting the Microsoft deal. Meantime, rivals are pursuing similar plans. Next year, Google is expected to expand DoubleClick's own ad exchange, which matches ad buyers and sellers. "We want to apply the science of search to what is today the art of display," says David Rosenblatt, a Google ad executive. Microsoft hopes to expand its display reach in the coming year or so, too.
"WEB 2.0 WORLD"

Yahoo has a lot to prove. Its last big software project, a search-ad system called Panama, was delayed repeatedly and has failed to slow Google.

Read rest of entry

Amazon Enters the File-Shipping Business

Amazon.com’s curious ambitions as a computing infrastructure provider continue to grow. The company this week revealed a new service that will help companies of all sizes ship files like MP3s and software packages to people scattered around the globe.The “content delivery service” joins Amazon’s existing storage, software and database services where customers can store their data and code at Amazon’s data centers. The idea behind this push is that Amazon has developed vast expertise at running a complex Web operation, so it can lend a helping hand to those customers who would prefer not to manage their own computing systems. In addition, Amazon charges on a per-use basis, so customers can pay for the amount of disk space consumed instead of purchasing an entire storage system.

Some major hardware makers like Sun Microsystems are working on similar technology, but a company that specializes in delivering things like books and jewelry may beat the infrastructure crowd to the punch.

With the new service, which is only in private trials at the moment, Amazon will distribute customers’ files across its data centers in the United States, Europe and Asia. Ideally, people will be able to download the files from computing systems located near them and get the information quicker.

Current Amazon customers can accomplish much the same via the existing Simple Storage Service or S3. The new service, Amazon says, will make it easier for customers to distribute their files to a diverse set of data centers, improving performance. “This makes sense for popular content that may be accessed many times,” said Adam Selipsky, a vice president with Amazon Web Services.

Presumably, customers will need to pay a premium to spread out the files, although Amazon is not commenting on pricing for the new service.

Amazon is looking for large media houses that distribute MP3s and photos to embrace the new service along with customers who ship large amounts of their software over the Internet.

Amazon plans to have the service ready by the end of this year.

Read rest of entry

Google Co-Founder Has Genetic Code Linked to Parkinson’s

Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder, said Thursday that he has a gene mutation that increases his likelihood of contracting Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that can impair speech, movement and other functions.Sergey Brin wrote that he was vulnerable to Parkinson’s.Mr. Brin, who made the announcement on a blog, says he does not have the disease and that the exact implications of the discovery are not clear. Studies show that his likelihood of contracting Parkinson’s disease in his lifetime may be 20 percent to 80 percent, Mr. Brin said.Mr. Brin, whose personal fortune was recently pegged at $15.9 billion by Forbes, ranking him as the 13th richest American, said that he may help provide more money for research into the disease.Through a Google spokesman, Mr. Brin declined to be interviewed for this article.Mr. Brin said he learned that he carries a mutation of the LRRK2 gene, known as G2019S. His mother, Eugenia Brin, also carries the gene mutation and has Parkinson’s.Medical experts said that those who carry that gene mutation are more likely than not to live disease-free.“Many people with this mutation never develop the disease,” said Dr. Susan B. Bressman, chairwoman of the neurology department at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. “He is more likely to have a normal life than a Parkinson’s disease life.”

Dr. Bressman, who specializes in movement disorders and genetics, said that about 30 percent of people with the gene mutation develop the disease.Mr. Brin said he discovered that he carried the gene mutation using a service from 23andMe, a biotechnology start-up co-founded by his wife, Anne Wojcicki. The company can map customers’ DNA and help them find information about their ancestry and their risk of getting certain diseases. Google, where Mr. Brin is president of technology, invested $3.9 million in 23andMe in May 2007.Parkinson’s disease is typically a late-onset disorder, in which people often first exhibit symptoms in their 50s or 60s. Mr. Brin is 35. Symptoms, which can include tremors, stiffness, slowness of movement and speech impairment, can sometimes be managed through medication and surgery. While many people with the disease continue to function at a high level for many years, the disease is not curable and highly variable. Symptoms tend to become progressively worse over time.“This leaves me in a rather unique position,” Mr. Brin wrote in his blog post. “I know early in my life something I am substantially predisposed to. I now have the opportunity to adjust my life to reduce those odds (e.g. there is evidence that exercise may be protective against Parkinson’s). I also have the opportunity to perform and support research into this disease long before it may affect me.”

Mr. Brin and his family have already endowed the Eugenia Brin Professorship in Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where his mother is being treated.Analysts said they did not believe that the news about Mr. Brin would have a negative impact on Google’s shares.

Read rest of entry

Companies can learn from hacking of Palin's e-mail

SEATTLE — A precocious hacker cracks into Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's private e-mail account, looking for dirt. In doing so, he opens a Pandora's box of tech security concerns for the presidential candidates — but perhaps even more so for Corporate America.That's the upshot of a fast-developing story playing out on tech websites Valleywag, Gawker, NetworkWorld and others. On Thursday, Kim Zetter, a veteran investigative reporter at Wired News, broke a story describing how a hacker, going by the nickname Rubico, easily changed Palin's Yahoo account password, rifled through her e-mail and posted the password on a popular tech discussion website, 4chan.org.Other 4chan participants subsequently boasted about accessing Palin's Yahoo account, posting family photos and samples of personal messages widely across the Internet.WIKILEAKS: VP contender Sarah Palin hackedA statement from John McCain's campaign condemned the hack as an "invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law.""It's a cautionary tale for all of us," says Owen Thomas, Valleywag's managing editor. "Passwords are easy to guess, and we don't use the extra protection sites like Yahoo offer us."The digital break-in underscores the risk corporations and government agencies take on when they give tacit approval to extensive workplace use of free, Web-based, applications such as e-mail, instant messaging and toolbars. A recent survey of 60 companies by Palo Alto found them all using a wide variety of different Web mail applications. The most popular: Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and AOL Mail.According to postings by Rubico on 4chan, it took just 45 minutes to reset Palin's password using the Alaska governor's birth date, ZIP code and information about where she met her spouse. The main tool for obtaining Palin's background details: Google searches.Yahoo declined comment on security features for its free e-mail service.

"We don't comment on the specifics of our security policies so that we don't give a roadmap to hackers and bad actors," says spokeswoman Kelley Benander.

Most corporations and government agencies have policies allowing "reasonable use" of free Web-based e-mail, says Palo Alto Network's product manager Chris King. Trouble is, he says, employees generally ignore "best practices around strong passwords, secure connections and access only from trusted systems."

Even before her selection as vice presidential candidate, Palin had come under criticism for using non-government e-mail accounts to conduct state business.

Valleywag reported Thursday that Palin's hacked account, and another Yahoo e-mail account she used, gov.sarah@yahoo.com, have been deleted.

Read rest of entry

Microsoft's new ads take a direct shot at Apple

Microsoft's (MSFT) big-budget effort to battle more than two years of Windows-bashing ads from rival Apple (AAPL)took a new turn Thursday.After two weeks of three teaser ads "about nothing" featuring Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and comic Jerry Seinfeld, the company launched a new TV ad that directly addresses the long-running Apple campaign that personifies its Mac as a young, hip guy and a Windows PC as a clueless geek.The commercial opens with a real Microsoft software designer who looks like the PC character — and is dressed to match: "Hello, I'm a PC," he says, "and I've been made into a stereotype."The ad then cuts to a series of upbeat "I'm a PC" testimonial clips of PC users doing what they do, including a shark-cage diver, a fishmonger, a fashion designer and celebrities such as actress Eva Longoria.Microsoft employees and founder Bill Gates also appear to declare themselves "a PC."
That ad and others to come will showcase the "diversity" of Windows users, says David Webster, Microsoft general manager of brand and marketing strategy."Our competition would have you think that PCs aren't interesting and interesting people don't use them," he says. Microsoft had "to take back the PC brand and tell the truth about it."Webster says he's not worried about reinforcing a negative image by mimicking a character and tagline created by its nemesis. "The overwhelming bulk of the ad" showcases a wide range of personalities, he says.

Other elements will include print, outdoor and online ads.

Microsoft also will tap "consumer-generated content." Starting Thursday night, PC fans could upload "I'm a PC" testimonials, including photos and videos, at Windows.com. Microsoft will use select images on a Times Square video billboard, feature them in online banner ads and post them on Windows.com.

The new ads come two weeks after Microsoft launched the offbeat teasers with the unlikely pairing of Gates with Seinfeld. The TV spots — which have no clear plotline or overt Windows branding — showed them living with a suburban family and shopping at a discount shoe store. Those ads were meant to be an "icebreaker," Webster says.

But mixed reviews from bloggers and ad pros stoked Web rumors Thursday that the new ads meant Seinfeld had been fired.

That speculation is completely off-base, says Webster. "We needed to move on and start to talk about Windows," he says. "We're ready for chapter two."

They "don't have any plans" now for more Seinfeld ads, but Webster wouldn't rule out it out. "Down the road, it wouldn't surprise me. … He really hit it off with Bill (Gates.)"

Read rest of entry

Tech o Bee

Read rest of entry