I have been seeing an interesting trend with video podcasting networks considering making their video episodes available to regular video download-to-own distribution sites that don't use RSS as the basis for the distribution to these sites. I am not going to be specific, but it is an interesting trend away from RSS distribution of these shows. This makes me wonder if RSS is just not going to cut it in the long-run for digital media distribution. I am seeing so much confusion and lack industry wide consistancy of RSS implementation, thus causing all sorts of ingestion issues. Everyone has its own RSS tags that create duplicate entries and proprietary tag needs in feeds.

Is this the first sign that podcasting is starting to dissappear into just "Video" and "Audio" again?

A Macncell.com reader let me know of an online petition...

Sascha at PCMag writes a charming little piece on the death of Usenet as a method of discourse and its eventual rebirth as a repository for porn, spam, and pirated warez. He recalls the days of “serious conversations” on 8-bit Atari architecture and net.manners.

In a way inconceivable in today’s Web-fragmented marketplace, Usenet was where you went to talk. Conceived back in the idealistic, non-profit days of the Internet, it was?well, it is, but it mostly was?a series of bulletin boards called “newsgroups” shared by thousands of computers, which traded new messages several times a day.

Sascha brings us back to 1993, the year when most of the current blogger kings were just entering college. Their discussions were precursors to the open, sad eyed moping of JenniCam and her ilk, the snark of the Gawker empire, and the basis for just about every social network on Earth. After all, if emo nerds could create a complex network of interconnected forums, think of what Ning can do with VC funding!

I personally never got into newsgroups as a communications medium although I now use the network for another form of data transmission. Is Usenet dead, as Sascha posits? I don’t think so. As long as there are folks who thing a command line is better than a mouse, the original text-only social network will live on. Sure, ISPs will shut down access out of mislaid kiddie porn fears but the real pros know where to go to get their agnst-filled, nit-picking, obsessive fix.

Section: Computers, Software / Applications

You’d think that with all the viruses, malware, spyware and what not on Windows, Microsoft would offer some sort of protection.  Well, actually it does, currently the service costs $49.95 per year and is called Microsoft Live OneCare.  It’s one of the many things Microsoft has that’s easy to forget about.  That’s not a bad thing, though, as it will be leaving on June 30, 2009.

To replace OneCare, Microsoft is working on “Morro.“  Morro is the project-name for its new, free virus protection program.  According to the Reuters article, Morro is being designed to work on “smaller, less powerful computers.“  That probably means it is being made to work with netbooks. 

There’s no word on what Windows platforms will be supported by Morro, though given that it will be released “the second half of next year,“ it seems natural to include Windows 7, though it will most likely work on XP and Vista as well.  At least that’s what I would assume.

Rueters claims this is a direct shot at McAfee, which it could be.  Although, I don’t know anyone who actually pays for virus protection anymore.  Most everyone I know has Avast, or maybe AVG.  This might be more of a shot at those programs more than McAfee.  It seems a bit ridiculous to have to pay every year for a new version of virus protection for a computer, though it is needed.  This gives Microsoft more of a chance to either control more aspects of computers, or manage to screw them up somehow (which is unlikely).  It is more competition for free personal virus protection, and that can only lead to good things for the average user in the long run.

Read [Reuters]

Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Whenever the G1 vs iPhone debate gets underway, iPhone purists are quick to flag the G1’s lack of multi-touch input support. Turns out, it might just be able to handle it after all -on the hardware end, at least. Whilst tearing his G1’s workings apart line-by-line, a crafty coder going by RyeBrye came across an interesting artifact. It seems the driver for the Synaptics touchscreen has some code commented out; after recompiling the kernel with said code back in, he was able to track two finger presses at once.

So if the hardware supports it, why no multi-touch on the G1? Patents, presumably. While this in no way actually enables to you to do any kind of multi-touch funnin’ immediately (nothing made for the G1 is currently coded for use with multi-touch, afterall), it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Though we probably won’t see any official support for multi-touch on the G1 any time soon, someone with a bit of spare time to tinker will probably figure out a way to make use of it before too long.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

I’m having some network cache and transition error due to a heavy load of people looking me up for my sites for economic issues and of Barrack Obama winning the Presidential Election.

Network load is currently ULTRA HIGH so I will be toggling the redundancy servers as soon as the modules allow me to backend them. Thanks for your continued support.

The iPhone is more than a smart phone for some users -- it's a portable entertainment system. It's also become a gold mine for entrepreneurs like Steve Demeter, developer of the popular puzzle game "Trism," which earned him $250,000 in two months.

FROM GAMERTELL - It’s almost officially time to stop drooling and start throwing down folks.  Capcom and Microsoft are double teaming fighting game fans with tomorrow’s official launch of the New Xbox Experience and the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Okay maybe itâ??ll take 60 seconds. The process for getting NewsGator Go! on your mobile device used to be somewhat cumbersome. You had to create an account using NewsGator Online, request a download link in NewsGator Online, wait for an email with instructions, and the proceed.

Well, thatâ??s old news. Now the entire process can be done from your device in just 2 steps (it is in beta, so keep that in mind).

Got to http://mbeta.newsgator.com/d (donâ??t forget the /d for download) and grab the installer. Once the process is flushed out completely, weâ??ll drop â??betaâ?? from the url:

Fire up the client. If you already have an account youâ??re done and off to the races. If not, just enter a username and password and youâ??re done (weâ??ll create an account for you on the fly):

If you just created a new account, youâ??ll be teed up with a mobile starter pack.

At this point, you are good to Go! with mobile RSS! That was easy, yeh? You can always add more feeds or tweak your settings from Go!, NewsGator Online, or one of our awesome and FREE clients (FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, or Inbox).  Thanks TD for helping with the html and artwork.
Enjoy!

A

Nicholas Carlson / Alley Insider:
PC Magazine Goes Out Of Print  —  Founded in 1982 and at times so rich with ads its issues reached as many as 600 pages, Ziff Davis's PC Magazine will issue its last print edition this January, thereafter becoming an online-only publication.  Ziff Davis, which recently exited bankruptcy will lay off seven print production employees.

Asus is laying claim to the title for the fastest smartphone in the world, and there's little reason to doubt them. The news, though, is hollow: P565 with its 800MHz Marvell processor is objectively impressive, but underneath the oppressive, unflattering veil of Windows Mobile 6.1 it's not likely to blow anyone away. Carrying a dense 480x640 touchscreen to complement a solid range of specs — HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and 24fps video recording to name a few — the P565 is nonetheless fighting a software war with hardware improvements. On the other hand, if you're one of those odd folks for whom any superlative is an automatic selling point, then this may be your ultimate handset. [Reg Hardware]

The Nokia E63 is the cheaper brother to the more elegant E71. Slightly thicker with more playful colors of blue and “Space Marine” red, the E63 boasts a similar form factor sans the secondary camera, HSDPA. It also comes with a lower resolution 2MP camera as compared to the E71’s 3.2MP camera. Truthfully, this is not a bad deal if you’ve always wanted to own an E71 but could not spare the extra cash. The phone is obviously targeted to compete with the Palm Centro which caters to a more young and hip market that desires much for a QWERTY keyboard.

One thing that the E63 has that the E71 doesn’t — a 3.5mm audio output! The E71 only has a 2.5mm which means you’d have to find a third party adapter to plug in your regular headphones.

* S60 3rd Edition FP1
* WiFi, 3G (no HSDPA?)
* Quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
* Dual band WCDMA, 3 models: E63-1 900/2100 MHz, E63-2 850/1900 MHz, E63-3 850/2100 MHz
* Dimensions: 113 x 59 x 13 mm Weight: 126 g Volume: 87 cc
* 2 megapixel camera
* 2.36″ QVGA (240×320 pixel) display
* 3.5mm stereo AV socket
* Micro-USB connector
* 110 MB internal memory plus microSD socket (up to 8GB)
* FM radio with RDS
* 1500mAh battery

[photo from PhilMUG]

Tags: E63, E71, keyboard, Nokia, QWERTY, WiFi

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As you might now Apple is hosting a big event today where they will present some new products. We will do an update about this tonight but if you want to follow the event ‘live’ here’s a couple of sources:

Engadget
Gizmodo
Macworld

National Geographic, publisher of the iconic magazine of the same name, announced a new division Tuesday. National Geographic Games will publish and develop games for consoles, handheld systems, mobile systems and online platforms. The games will be developed and published with partners Namco Bandai Games America and Sony Computer Entertainment. "I was very excited to read about National Geographic's game efforts this morning. Using games to communicate and educate while also entertain is an area that is vastly underexplored," said video game consultant Mark DeLoura.

Many successful efforts are currently addressing the critical shortage of a diverse, well-prepared high-performance computing (HPC) workforce. The guest editors' goal, with this issue, is to stimulate large-scale international discourse to accelerate the adoption of the educational tools, curriculum, and pedagogy that reflect the increasing role of computational methods in science and engineering. Such approaches are necessary to educate a larger and more diverse population of well-skilled, knowledgeable, and innovative people who will significantly advance scientific discovery in all fields of study, now and well into the future.

Instead of going head-to-head against the world's leading digital music distributor, RealNetworks' Rhapsody has taken the more subtle approach in competing against Apple's iTunes - by embracing the iPod's MP3 format.

Rhapsody advertises itself under the slogan "Music Without Limits". This current strategy ties in with its different partners - iLike, Yahoo!, MTV Networks, and Verizon Wireless - to help connect consumers with digital music wherever they are and however they want it.

Boasting a selection of over 5 million songs from major music labels, such as Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI, the Rhapsody MP3 Store offers tracks for US 0.99 a pop and most albums for US 9.99. Since music purchased off the MP3 store is unshackled by any Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, any tracks and albums bought from it can be seamlessly downloaded into Rhapsody, RealPlayer or iTunes.

It has yet to be seen whether this strategy will indeed reflect a pointed growth for the company. Analyst David Card of Jupiter Research described Rhapsody's new tact into the digital music distribution business quite appropriately by saying: "I think we'll see retailers begin to compete the way they usually compete with pricing, merchandising and promotions, rather than due to some arbitrary technology".

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The solar system may not be a nice round shape, but rather a bit squashed and oblong, according to data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft exploring the solar system's outer limits, scientists said on Wednesday.

An iPhone sales training workbook for AT&T store employees was leaked to the Internet over the weekend. From it, we can see some deals were struck between Apple and AT&T.

Joel at BBG discovered this delightfully simple bidet system, called the GoBidet. You simply move the handle into place when needed and shoot a little water up there. Dead simple.

I’ve been waiting for GoBidet (HA!) ever since my aborted attempt at installing my own butt-washing toilet, the SpaLoo in my own home. I think this is the year when I’ll finally be able to wash my nethers sans hands.

Many of you probably remember BountyQuest, the company set up by Tim O'Reilly and Jeff Bezos as an attempt to bust bogus patents by reaching out to the "wisdom of the crowd" to dig up prior art. The initiative got plenty of attention, thanks to Bezos' and O'Reilly's involvement, but the project faded out and eventually just shut down after it failed in its high profile attempt to invalidate Bezos' own infamous "one-click patent" (which has since run into troubles on prior art found by others).

Apparently, though, there's a new startup that's attempting to do pretty much the same thing. The Associated Press has an article about Article One Partners, whose business plan sounds like a photocopy of BountyQuest's original plan. Apparently the AP reporters weren't aware of BountyQuest, because it's not mentioned in the article. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but considering the striking similarities between the two operations, you'd think it would at least merit a mention. Hopefully Article One can survive where BountyQuest flopped, but I'm not that hopeful, honestly. It could potentially work for a few high profile patents, but on average, it's tough to get random people to get excited about digging up prior art on patents.

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It was just revealed that gamers in UK who pre-ordered Electronic Arts' Spore (PC, Nintendo Wii, DS, Mac, and Mobile) from either GAME of Zawi will be getting a disc which contains the full creature creator. This means that gamers who do decide to pre-order the game will be able to start designing their creatures early.

Now, those in the know are probably wondering why would they do this since Electronic Arts will be releasing a downloadable version of the creature creator by next week. Well, the downloadable version will only allow users access to 25 of the items in the creature creator. This means that you won't be getting the full experience.

So if you plan on picking up the game when it comes out anyway, why not spring for the deposit fee and pre-order Spore? That way, you'll be getting the creature creator to play around with while waiting for the game to come out.

If there was ever a phone worth cutting down to size with a completely shoddy but not actually completely unattractive fake edition, it's the Motorola Aura. What we have here is the Wingtech D20, which shares the swivel form factor of the Aura, mocks the round LCD with a perfectly boring square one in a round hole, and boasts a surprisingly weak complement of features, even for a "fake" phone. Oh how you suffer for fashion, Motorola.

[Thanks, Chris]

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin' it real fake, part CLXVIII: Motorola Aura clone is everything we ever wanted in a knockoff originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Deals

Last year, the Give Good Food to Your Mac promo offered discounts on apps exclusively from Indie developers in Europe. This year the promo is back, and they've opened the doors to developers from around the world. There are some 60 apps available, and the deal is this: buy 3 apps and get a 20% discount on the total price, buy more apps and the discount increases up to 50% for 5 apps or more. Last year you could get a 70% discount at 10 apps or more, but that doesn't look like it's on the cutting board any more. The application lineup, however, is impressive. All of those Indie apps you were interested in but knew they would be part of a bundle sooner or later ... you'll probably find them here.

The lineup includes apps from Aquafadas, Houdah Software, Devon Technologies and many more. Some of my favorite software is included, such as Reinvented Software's Together (recently mentioned) and ShareTool (a recent Friday Favorite). The Hydra Aperture plugin, which we've also covered before, Cheetah 3D, Voice Candy ... it's quite a list. Stop by the Give Good Food to your Mac page and see if there's not something there to whet your appetite. The promo is running now and goes until December 1st.

TUAWGive Good Food to your Mac, now with international cuisine originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new voice-actived Google Mobile app for iPhone is now available. For those who missed the news stories that -- somewhat prematurely -- predicted its arrival last Friday, it basically lets you say any search term or phrase into your iPhone and get search results within seconds -- even GPS-aware localized responses. So ... is it any good? Wow. That's right, wow. I mean, yeah, it's that good. I've been an iPhone owner since day one, upgraded to the 3G model, and this is the first application that's inspired me to remove one of the four core bottom applications on my home screen.

¡Café portátil! Los precios de la Netbook pone límite al precios de los smartphone. Con los incrementos de precio en Venezuela, mas de un consumidor se pregunta si vale la pena pagar casi 2.700 bolìvares un BlackBerry Bold o 2.500 bolìvares por un iPhone 3G, ¿No serà mejor comprarse una NetBook?

El término Netbook fue re-introducido por el fabriccante de procesadores Intel en Febrero de 2008 para referirse a un subportátil, es decir una categoría de ordenador de bajo coste y reducidas dimensiones, utilizadas principalmente para navegar por Internet y realizar funciones básicas, como, por ejemplo, proceso de texto y de hojas de cálculo.

Acer Aspire One. Su precio ronda los dos mil bolìvares. Me la obsequiaron en Computodo. Aparte la suya por el +58 246 871 54 23 oel + 58 414 468 74 23.

Originalmente, el término había sido introducido por la empresa Psion para utilizarlo en una gama de computadoras portátiles similares a una handheld, lanzada en 1999. Psion obtuvo el registro de la marca en los Estados Unidos en noviembre del año 2000.

Cuando algunos sitios wen usan Nettop, para identificar a las computadoras que tienen características similares de tamaño, prestaciones y precio, pero no son portátiles, sino de escritorio.

HP 2133 MiniNotes otra netbook. La tienen en MCTIME en dos versiones.

El Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC), o PC Ultra Móvil en español, previamente conocido por su nombre código Project Origami (Proyecto Origami), es un Tablet PC de factor de forma pequeño.

Este acaso fue un ejercicio de desarrollo conjunto entre Microsoft, Intel, y Samsung, entre otros. Ofrece el sistema operativo Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 o Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, o Linux y tiene un microprocesador Intel Pentium de voltaje ultra bajo, corriendo en el rango de 1 GHz. La portabilidad de la PC Ultra Móvil puede ser atractivo a los viajeros internacionales de negocios y a los “viajeros con mochila” (backpackers) globales.

HP 2133 MiniNotes ahora abierta.

Volviendo a las Netbook, estas son subportátil, del inglés subnotebook, es una computadora portátil más pequeña y liviana, con la mayoría de las características normales de las laptops que bien conocemos.

La denominación suele aplicarse a equipos que corren versiones completas de sistemas operativos de escritorio como Windows o Linux, en vez de sistemas específicos como Windows CE o Palm OS.

La propuesta NetBook de Toshiba la NB105. Esta disponible en México.

Intel ha re-introducido el término netbook para referirse a este tipo de computadoras, dado que se utilizan casi exclusivamente para navegar por Internet; sin embargo, “Netbook” fue registrado como marca por la empresa Psion en los Estados Unidos para comercializar computadoras portátiles.

Diferenciando

Algunos lectores podrìan confundir esta definición con las sigla UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC o PC Ultra Móvil) ya esxplicadas anteriormente, la diferencia estiba en que estás abarcan a las computadoras de menor tamaño como handhelds o también llamados PDA (Personal Digital Assistants). Estos ya los conoce usted ami@s lectores, son los llamados computadoras de la palma de la mano y fueron diseñados originalmente como organizadores personales, y ellos hacen esto realmente bien y que no necesariamente ejecutan software de escritorio. Ej.: Palm Treo, BlackBerry, iPhone.

Las subportátiles son más pequeñas que las portátiles tradicionales pero más grandes que las handhelds. Generalmente poseen pantallas de menor tamaño, de entre 7 y 13,3 pulgadas, y un peso que varía desde menos de uno hasta dos kilogramos. El ahorro en peso y tamaño generalmente se obtiene omitiendo algunos puertos o unidades ópticas, además de utilizar chipsets de menor potencia.

Este tipo de computadora nunca ha gozado de un gran éxito hasta la introducción en el año 2007 de la ASUS Eee PC. Se afirma también que han tomado la idea de la iniciativa de Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop Per Child (una laptop por niño).

Se estima que para 2011 más de 50 millones de subportátiles estarán en circulación.

Ofimayor ofrece la posibilidad de comprar en líne la Síragon ML 1010.

NetBook Protagónicas

Mi amigo Adolfo Manaure me comento sobre la propuesta de Lenovo D10. Tengo en estos momentos en las manos, de hecho estoy escribiendo de una Acer AspireOne, mi amigo Luis Alfredo Toro Febres Cordero se compro una DELL Inspiron Mini, Toshiba tiene su NB105, HP tiene la 2133 Mininote.

¿Funciona el concepto?

Como usuario puedo decir que si. Pero pongamonos en los zápatos de la industria. “La Sìragon ML 1010 es el fenómeno del momento en el mercado venezolano y estamos buscando responde a la confianza del público venezolano” dijo por celular a con-cafe.com el Sr.  Jhonathan Hernández del Departamento de Publicidad y Medios de Siragon en Valencia.

¿Exagera el Sr. Hernández? No creo. Uno de nuestros reporteros en Maracay, Jesús Màrquez atestigua que en American Computer en una hora vendieron 100 unidades de ML 1010.

Con tan buenos precios en estas NetBook en Venezuela,: ¿Qué será mejor ? Pagar casi 2.700 bolívares por un BlackBerry Bold, unos  2.500 bolìvares por un iPhone 3G, ó comrparse una NetBook?

Taking a page out of the Nintendo Wii?s playbook, the iFun app turns your iPhone/iPod Touch into a wireless controller used for game play. It?s specifically designed to work with iFun games and there are a reported four games available ? baseball, basketball, bowling and golf - however, only golf was accessible when I visited thee site.

The game itself is hosted on the internet and the app for the iPhone only enables it to become a wireless controller. Registration is required before you can play, but there is no need to worry about paying fees since both the iFun app and registration are free of charge.

I?ve tried it out myself and there’s a considerable delay when performing an action and seeing it replicated on the screen. This is understandable considering that all the data is fed through the internet. It should also be noted that the iPhone?s sleek form factor isn?t the most easy to handle especially if you’re swinging the device around like a golf club. Extra care should be exercised so as not to accidentally hit someone with a flying iPhone.

Nevertheless, this latest gaming app does show a lot of potential. If the developer could find a way to resolve the lag and come out with more games to support such an interface, I have no doubt that this will be a future best seller.

[source]

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We look at a range of versatile UMPCs and mobile Internet devices (MIDs) from ASUS, Gigabyte, and Samsung, Amtek, OQO, Roan Digital, Vye, and WiBrain.