Archive for: March 10, 2008

Filed under: NetworkingIf you’ll recall, the IEEE gave the all urgent thumbs up to 100G as the next Ethernet speed, and while we’ve seen such a milestone met on the Internet2, Verizon’s looking to bring it to the masses in just twelve short months. According to Fred Briggs, Verizon Business’ executi…

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Gadgets

Filed under: Gaming
Remember that moment when we told you about Shredz64 and we were all excited and stuff? Well, friend, sometimes dreams do come true, and Toni ended up completing his Shredz64 project in style. In case you need a refresher, Shredz64 is all about bringing a Guitar Hero-style experi…

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Gadgets

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sure knows how to stay on-message. He's addressed the SXSW attendees twice, once in a quote-unquote disastrous Q&A session with reporter Sarah Lacy, and again today in a semi-impromptu "make-up" Q&A session where he took questions from the crowd. In neither gathering did he say much that was either quotable or particular interesting (which is why I haven't posted on it after attending both events).

Luckily, I bumped into Facebook Product Designer Soleio Cuervo in the crowd, and sat down with him for a brief chat about Facebook's UI, and how it's used by both Facebook users and Facebook developers (including third-party developers).

One of the first things that comes to mind when you think of Facebook design is actually the design constraints put on users. Do users like the clean look or are they frustrated by the constraints?

People will always want more control over their identity. For a lot of users, identity is directly tied with their style...the decision to use a black background with a particular font, for example. I sometimes wish I could establish a more stylistic page. But our mission is to communicate more efficiently, and individual expression can sometimes come at the cost of efficiency. So if we allow people to muddy up the style of their pages, the cost is ultimately incurred by their friends; it's difficult for them to find a piece of information. So we're always going to err on the side of making things as efficient as possible to spread information around the site. Self-expression is kind of secondary to that.

And what about third-party app developers? How hard is it to keep them aligned with ...

Filed under: Peripherals
Those crazies by at Art Lebedev are starting work on a new Optimus mini 3.0 device, which will likely include Bluetooth for wireless operation and possibly Tactus-esque touchscreen capability. The plan is to have one display divided into three or possibly more zones, but rig…

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Gadgets

Filed under: Desktops
It’s tough to know the real story here — we’d hate to think of a bunch of Mr. and Mrs. Nice Persons taking domestic a gPC just to find it can’t run that copy of Office or Half-Life 2 they were hoping to install — but for whatever reason Wal-Mart is dropping its Linux “experim…

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Gadgets

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Energy Sistem is making a play for your DAP dollar with the steel-crafted Inngenio 6000. The player runs a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen, with a built-in speaker, 2GB of storage and microSD expansion along for the ride. FM, voice recording, an e-book reader an…

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Gadgets

Filed under: Storage
LaCie’s been known to launch a few products under the cover of darkness before, and certain adequate, it’s decided to do just that with a trifecta of new externals. Starting from the top, we’ve got the 1TB Desktop tough Disk, which sports a USB 2.0 port (only) and an exceedingly…

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Gadgets

Filed under: Laptops
Sweet heavens, Dell hasn’t forgotten that there’s a 15-incher in within the Penryn-stocked M1330 and M1730! As we suspected it would, Dell really, truly went ahead and added options for a Core 2 Duo T8300, T9300 and T9500 to its XPS M1530 in short order after a mysterious messag…

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Gadgets

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Networking
isolated desktop clients are great for those one-in-a-million scenarios when your computer is working well ample to associate to the Net and run a isolated desktop app, but still requires technical assistance. In contrast, IOGEAR gives IT types full control…

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Gadgets

choose Lionsgate movies on DVD will soon come bundled with an iTunes digital copy, the company announced Monday. The additional, bundled copy will be just like movies purchased from the iTunes Store in that they can be transferred to iTunes and thereupon viewed on a PC or Mac, iPod with vide…

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Macintosh

As a gaming platform built on magical plumbers, talking sponges, and adorable ponies, the Nintendo DS is perhaps not the most obvious choice for a game that explores Nazi atrocities. But that's the back-story for a game currently in development by British gaming manufacturer Alten8.

The game, titled "Imagination Is the Only Escape," centers on a young French boy who uses his imagination to escape the horrors of the German occupation. Online reaction to the game's concept has been swift and largely polarizing. For its part, Nintendo hasn't exactly jumped at the opportunity to distribute the title, stating, "At this time, there are no plans for this game to be released for any Nintendo platforms in North America."

Alten8 is hoping to distribute the game in Europe by year's end. The game's designer, Luc Betrand said he hoped that young children would play the game, telling The New York Times, "There will be no on-screen violence in this product. I don't see war as a game. I don't find that amusing."

Alten8 is currently releasing another game by Betrand, "Eternity's Child." It revolves around a fantasy land destroyed by global warming.

appscout973:http://www.appscout.com/2008/03/nintendo_wont_release_nazi_gam.php

A combined AOL-Yahoo! might reinvigorate a network neutrality debate, according to an analyst report released Monday.

"Because of Time Warner's ownership of Time Warner Cable, any deal between AOL and Yahoo! carries some risk that it will reinvigorate a network neutrality debate, as network neutrality advocates will focus attention on the increased incentive Time Warner Cable would have to use its last-mile broadband pipe to discriminate in favor of Yahoo's service," according to a note from Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc.

Reports surfaced last week Yahoo! was looking to hold off Microsoft's effort to vote buyout friendly individuals to Yahoo's board by postponing its board meeting and reigniting merger talks with AOL in the meantime.

Stifel, Nicolaus remains "skeptical" that Yahoo! shareholders will view an AOL deal as more profitable than the Microsoft offer, but acknowledged that "speculation is of a sufficient level that we think it valuable to quickly consider the regulatory risk of a Yahoo!-AOL link-up."

appscout973:http://www.appscout.com/2008/03/analysts_yahoo-aol_could_have_net_neutrality_implications.php

Generally, the analysts put a combined Yahoo!-AOL in the same category as a merged Yahoo!-News Corp, which is to say, not particularly troublesome from a regulatory perspective.

Taking into consideration that Time Warner owners Time Warner Cable (TWC), and the cable industry's vocal opposition of mandated net neutrality, AOL-Yahoo! could face some hurdles, the report said.

That doesn't mean regulators would stop the deal because "antitrust authorities, at least to date, have been skeptical of the arguments put forth by the network neutrality advocates," Stifel, Nicolaus wrote.

But the issues remains volatile given the uproar over Comcast's network management, the report said. The FCC might impose new rules, "adding to the considerations that Time Warner would ...