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Google Alert - hot trends

2012-02-10T11:27:00.001-08:00

News

9 new results for hot trends

Kodak Exits Digital Business, IEA Cuts Oil Forecast: Hot Trends
TheStreet.com
By Brittany Umar 02/10/12 - 08:39 AM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include Eastman Kodak as the inventor of the digital camera is leaving the very business it created. Kodak plans to exit its digital camera business ...
See all stories on this topic »

Kodak Exits Digital Business, IEA Cuts Forecast: Hot Trends
TheStreetTV
Kodak Exits Digital Business, IEA Cuts Forecast: Hot Trends.
See all stories on this topic »

Hot Boot Trends for 2012
Stirling Observer
Dynamic ankle boots, chic booties and sexy knee-high boots are all super hot for 2012. No matter what your heel preference is, there are plenty to choose from. There are some fabulous new designs around, from boots for wearing with your best jeans to ...
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Research and Markets: Future of the Hot Drinks Market in the US to 2016: which ...
Business Wire (press release)
The report presents detailed analysis on the hot drinks consumption trends in the US, covering historic and forecast hot drinks consumption volume and value at market and category level, brand share, and distribution channel data.
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US HOT STOCKS: XL Group, Pitney Bowes, CareFusion
Wall Street Journal
But Chief Executive Steven Leer said the company will reduce its planned production volumes "to better align with weak generation and coal demand trends." Brooks Automation Inc.'s (BRKS, $12.17, +$0.88, +7.79%) fiscal first-quarter earnings sank 87% as ...
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Fashion trends this winter
Independent Online
Radowsky says the forthcoming season features trends that are "hot off the high street overseas". But, Queenspark have also incorporated a "South Africanism" that is interpreted in their ranges through a focus on fits and culture.
See all stories on this topic »

Independent Online

Free Colour Guide from House of Colour
Response Source (press release)
We hope this free guide will encourage people to be brave and embrace the hot trend for colour this season. Expert Colour Analysts House of Colour, have this week launched a free downloadable Guide to all the Spring /Summer seasons colours as featured ...
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The Healing Power of Dezhong Hot Spring in Tibet
CRIENGLISH.com
Dezhong hot spring is located about 120 kilometers from Lhasa and is frequently sought after by tourists and locals alike. [Photo: trends.com.cn] It is often said that the pristine scenery and magnificent landscapes of China's Tibet Autonomous Region ...
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CRIENGLISH.com

US HOT STOCKS: Nuance, LinkedIn, Pitney Bowe's Active In Late Trading
Wall Street Journal
s (CINF, $34.29, +$0.84, +2.51%) fourth-quarter results surpassed analysts' expectations, due to positive impacts from lower catastrophe loss estimates, improving pricing trends for commercial insurance and higher securities valuations in the company's ...
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Web

3 new results for hot trends

18 Undervalued Dividend Stocks With Positive ... - Hot Trends
We ran a screen on stocks paying dividend yields above 1% and sustainable payout ratios below 50% for those with encouraging trends in inventory relative to ...
hottrends.mobi/18-undervalued-dividend-stocks-with-positive...

Hot trends 2012 : Eco lazy | Carrotmob Melbourne
Hot trends 2012 : Eco lazy. Posted on February 8, 2012 | Leave a comment. Savvy environmentalists have never had it easier. From washing less to shopping ...
carrotmobmelbourne.wordpress.com/.../hot-trends-2012-eco-l...

Ricky Williams Says | US Hot Trends
Ricky Williams has retired from the NFL.Once again.This time, however, it seems to be for good.
ushottrends.com/2012/02/08/ricky-williams-says/

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Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

2012-02-10T07:22:00.001-08:00

Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

Tonight on the Tube: Nikita, Fringe, Blue Bloods & More

Posted: 10 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST

News & Notes

On cable tonight, Animal Planet has the third season finale of Confessions: Animal Hoarding, CMT has a Last Dates Before I Do special, Food Network has a Good Eats: Turn on the Dark special, IFC has the second season finale of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, and Showtime has a LAFFMOB Presents Red Grant: Caught Red Handed comedy special.

CSI: NY goes on hiatus for a bit after tonight and starting next week will be replaced on the schedule by A Gifted Man, which will move back an hour to finish its run. Undercover Boss will be moving into A Gifted Man‘s timeslot to lead off the night. CSI: NY will return in mid/late March.

Prime Picks

Nikita (The CW): New. Percy goes after the woman that got Nikita clean in an attempt to get back Division. Amanda wants Alex to takeover Zetrov.

Fringe (FOX): New. Olivia, Peter and Walter get stuck in a small town where there seems to be no escape in the middle of a deadly fringe event. This is another great episode. Except that you know exactly what is going on long before the trapped trio does. I am less than enthused when you have brilliantly smart TV characters that seem to take forever to even posit a theory that you have long since figured out having come into it with the exact same information. It takes me out of the moment, but that is a small complaint of an otherwise fantastic hour of TV that ends quite well.

Blue Bloods (CBS): New. A woman believes her mother didn’t die of a heart attack, but was murdered. Frank is looking into a rumor about a priest.

Solid Selections

A Gifted Man (CBS): New. Michael testifies in a trial. A woman takes hostages at the clinic and is looking for Michael. This show moves back an hour starting next week, as CSI: NY goes on hiatus, and Undercover Boss will be moving into this time period to lead of Friday nights.

Grimm (NBC): New. Nick and Hank are going after a dangerous heartbreaker. Nick and Juliette’s safety is being threatened by his growing recognition in the creature community.

Spartacus: Vengeance (Starz): New. Spartacus is dealing with division amongst the gladiators. Lucretia lets out a secret. Plays twice.

Other Options

Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives (Food Network): Repeats. Four episodes repeat tonight. All four play again later.
Merlin (Syfy): New. Morgana sets out to use ancient magic to turn Merlin into an assassin and send him after Arthur. Plays again later.
Supernatural (The CW): New. Sam faces a childhood fear when the duo head to Kansas to investigate a pizza place that hosts parties for kids.

Sports Notes

ESPN has doubleheader NBA action.
NHLTV has a game tonight.

Late Night

Being Human (Syfy): Repeat. This past Monday’s episode, “(I Loathe You) For Sentimental Reasons,” replays.
Lost Girl (Syfy): Repeat. This past Monday’s episode, “Faetal Attraction,” replays.

TV Marathons

ABC Family is playing A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, A Cinderella Story, and Another Cinderella Story tonight.
ION has six episodes of Cold Case tonight.
Oxygen has 10 episodes of Roseanne today and later six episodes of House tonight.
TNT has five episodes of Law & Order tonight.
USA Network has six episodes of House today.

Printable TV Schedule Downloads:

Printable Winter 2012 TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011 - Added return dates for CBS shows.
Printable Winter 2012 Cable TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011.

CrunchGear

2012-02-10T05:13:00.001-08:00

CrunchGear

Daily Crunch: Circuit
Microsoft Explains Windows On ARM, The Latest Addition To The OS Family
Is Google Hard At Work On New Home Entertainment System?
You Can Buy Me Love, But Please Don’t Buy Me Gadgets
Kodak Shutters Digital Camera Business In Favor Of Licensing, Photo Printing
Protesters March Toward Apple Stores On The Heels Of A Foxconn Hack
Report: Apple To Announce The iPad 3 The First Week Of March
Amazon Plays The Price Card In The Battle Against iPads
German Court Upholds Previous Ruling, Says The Reworked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N Can Be Sold
Daily Crunch: Chip

Daily Crunch: Circuit

Posted: 10 Feb 2012 01:00 AM PST

Here are some recent stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:

Is Google Hard At Work On New Home Entertainment System?

Microsoft Explains Windows On ARM, The Latest Addition To The OS Family

Kodak Shutters Digital Camera Business In Favor Of Licensing, Photo Printing

You Can Buy Me Love, But Please Don't Buy Me Gadgets

Microsoft Explains Windows On ARM, The Latest Addition To The OS Family

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 04:13 PM PST

Ever since Steve Ballmer made that surprise announcement at CES 2011, there has been a lot of speculation about just how Microsoft would be bringing Windows to the ARM architecture. Would it be a whole separate line? Would it be compatible with old applications? Would it be cheaper?

Many of these questions have been answered in a long and technical post on the Building Windows 8 blog today, as Steven Sinofsky explains how they developed (re-developed, really) Windows On ARM, or WOA, and why they made the choices they made.

Some major points, for those unwilling to read: WOA will be totally incompatible with x86/x64-based applications; it will include a desktop only for Office apps and file management; it will be focused on portability, battery life, and “integrated quality,” by which they mean it ships with, in a way, everything you need. On that note, it won’t be available separately as a software purchase; it will only be available pre-installed on devices.

The process of transferring Windows to ARM was not an easy or short one. They’ve been working on it for years; for an indicator of how long, consider that when they started, there was no such thing as an ARM-based tablet. They had to run the OS on ARM phones like the one pictured here from Asus.

As ARM systems are built on a completely different principle from the Intel, AMD, and IBM-led PC-compatible spec, some serious changes had to be made. Device and hardware management would have to be completely rethought. Back compatibility was a fairy tale. And there was no way to stress-test builds on debug rigs the way they’d been doing for 20 years on racks of x86 PCs. At least, there was no way until they built a way, and by next month they plan to have 3200 machines running WOA in stacks (also pictured) to troubleshoot, stress test, and so on.

Yet some things had to stay the same, as well: every ARM device would have to be outfitted with UEFI, ACPI, and the Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer in order to create a basic platform on which Windows would be comfortable. After that, things like DirectX, discrete device inclusion (printers, GPS units, and the like) could be added. And higher-level apps were a piece of cake, apparently, Microsoft having built them in a forward-looking way with allowances for multiple architectures.

The restrictions imposed by this new environment, and some design decisions made along the way, have produced something of a different product from the Windows we all know and some of us love.

For one thing, back-compatibility has been essentially abandoned. A clean break sounds good on the face of it, but consider that part of Microsoft’s success has been its ability to accommodate legacy hardware and software from ridiculously far back. Remember that video about installing every version of Windows on top of the last?

Doom II, installed on Windows 1.0, still ran without problems in Windows 7. That’s amazing. WOA breaks from this tradition with a purpose, though.

Sinofsky describes WOA as “a new member of the Windows family, much like Windows Server, Windows Embedded, or Windows Phone.” It’s not meant to play games installed on operating systems from a quarter of a century ago. It’s meant to be a point of access for the current, and only the current, Windows ecosystem. It is similar to the “full” version of Windows 8 only in those parts that have been developed specifically for Windows 8.

Think of it this way. Windows 8 for x86/x64, in a way, includes Windows 7, Vista, XP, 98, 95, and so on. It is built with compatibility in mind, as part of a venerable line of operating systems. Windows On ARM includes only Windows 8. It’s as if the last ten versions of the OS never happened — though there are echoes.

This breaks the OS for some people — me, for example — but it could be a breath of fresh air for many. This OS is at once bare-bones and all-inclusive: it comes with a familiar version of Office, it will almost certainly be cheap and easy to deploy by the hundred or thousand, and it’s absolutely a known quantity.

Apps for WOA will all come from the Windows Store, and will all be Metro — except for Office (and a few other trusted programs), which will be able to run in the traditional desktop environment for productivity purposes. It’s a bit puzzling, this admission (in a way) that the traditional desktop is superior for productivity, but it’s also the truth: an all-Metro productivity suite would be unfamiliar to Microsoft’s base. They’ll make it optional for now, and drop the other shoe later.

The focus on tablets is made plain: “you don't turn off a WOA PC.” You don’t have sleep and hibernate modes. Like a phone or tablet, you just hit the button and it goes into a newly-developed low-power mode in which the battery will reportedly last weeks. These tablets, while they won’t run the “real” Windows 8, will be totally functional (it runs “super well”) access points to the Windows ecosystem. And with the increasing focus on cloud storage, web-based apps, and mobility, that limited access may start looking less like a bug and more like feature as time goes on.

There’s still lots to be done, says Sinofsky, but they hope to launch Windows On ARM at the same time as the commercial launch of Windows 8. It’s a real change for Microsoft, which is heartening to those of us who have been disappointed with their willingness to honestly self-evaluate lately. Devices are being tested from NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments; whether a worthy product will be available at launch time is still a mystery, but it’s obvious that everyone involved is deeply invested.

And lastly, here’s the video that accompanies the blog post. It explains some things but generally just shows that WOA will act more or less like x86/x64 Windows 8:

Is Google Hard At Work On New Home Entertainment System?

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 02:43 PM PST

It was just a few days ago that news of a mysterious home-oriented Google device was being prepped for testing in the homes of 252 company employees, but the associated FCC filing left most of the specifics up in the air. Now, if a new report from the Wall Street Journal holds true, Google's next foray into the hardware space could be all about pumping up those jams.

According to WSJ's sources, the device in development is a "home entertainment system" that can wirelessly stream music throughout users’ homes. Google has attempted to make inroads into the living room before with initiatives like Google TV, but this would mark the first time the search giant would be developing and selling products under their own name rather than relying on external hardware vendors.

The pieces we have at this point certainly seem to line up. In their FCC application, Google representatives noted that the at-home beta test was meant to accomplishing the following:

Testing throughput and stability of home WiFi networks using an entertainment device. Testing will include functional testing of all subsystems, including WiFi and Bluetooth radio. Users will connect their device to home WiFi networks and use Bluetooth to connect to other home electronics equipment.

WiFi support seems like a no-brainer when it comes to streaming content, but the inclusion of a Bluetooth radio (commonly seen on phones of all stripes) hints at the possibility of a close connection between the box in question and mobile devices.

The mysterious entertainment device is reportedly the result of years of work from Google's Android team, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise. With movies and more recently music being introduced into the Android Market, it was only natural that the device in question would be able to capitalize on all that content. WSJ’s sources acknowledge that notion, as they note that the Google Mystery Box may be able to stream content other than just music.

Still, media/hardware ventures like Google TV haven't been as strong a performer in the marketplace as Google would have hoped, so it's a bit surprising to see that another media-oriented device seems so close to fruition. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise though — Google chairman Eric Schmidt reaffirmed himself as being a proponent of a highly-connected home life while at this year's CES.

One of the bigger questions that this whole situation raises is whether or not the entertainment box will ever actually see the light of day. At first glance, the answer seems obvious — why put a petition for testing that much new hardware outside of the lab in front of a federal body if it’ll never see the light of day? WSJ’s sources seem to confirm that the device isn’t just vaporware and that it will launch later this year, but a lot could happen between now and then.

If it is real though, and Google can churn out reliable — and preferably cheap — units, they stand a chance at yanking the rug out from under a major competitor: Apple and its $99 Apple TV.

You Can Buy Me Love, But Please Don’t Buy Me Gadgets

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 11:52 AM PST

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and the majority of us are likely scrambling to find that special gift. (The rest of us, meanwhile, are cursing couples.) A Valentine’s Day gift is usually more important than others because it’s a one-on-one situation, unlike Christmas or birthdays. Just one gift, to just one person — and it better be good.

With that in mind, I’d like to address an article out of AllThingsD this morning that sourced information from PriceGrabber’s Valentine’s Day Dashboard Report. The report took information from February 4 through February 5, finding that various tablets, TVs and phones are hot items for gift-crazed Valentines.

The information itself isn’t that intriguing, but it did get me thinking about handing out gadgetry as a gift.

What makes gift-giving so special to us — and such a huge part of our culture — is the fact that it’s proof of one person’s thought for another person. We’re naturally very self-centered, all of us. But by going out and thinking of, finding, buying, and wrapping a gift, we give that special someone proof that we’ve been thinking about them — proof that they’re important to us.

Of course, expensive gifts are often seen as better gifts, but that’s just a product of our consumer-driven lifestyles. To spend more on someone is nice, if thought is also a large part of the equation, but without thought the gift becomes empty. For example, last year I bought my girlfriend a pretty expensive necklace from her favorite jewelry store. I figured that since the store was her favorite, and that particular necklace was one of their most expensive, I’d be good to go.

Wrong.

She said the necklace wasn’t her style, which made a lot of sense after we went through her jewelry box and found that she only owned silver jewelry. The necklace I bought was gold.

Unfortunately, most gadgetry falls into this category. Just because it’s expensive and flashy and has an Apple on it doesn’t mean that it’s the most meaningful gift. Especially considering the fact that our gadgetry is so very personal.

The type of phone you own and enjoy using says a lot about you, and it is inevitably a part of your daily life for about two years. For some of us, it’s a more steadfast, stable relationship than the one we have with our Valentine. Why would anyone ever want someone else to pick it out for them?

The same is true for tablets and PCs. Just think of how many configurations your laptop could have come in. But you thought about it, knew your needs, knew your price range, and configured your notebook accordingly. Chances are, no one else could’ve done that for you.

Of course, there are exceptions to both of the points I’ve made — that expensive gifts are empty and that gadgets need to be chosen by the owner.

Ever since I was 16, Christmas changed at my house. There were no longer a dozen small gifts under the tree. Instead, my dad asked me in October if there was anything that I really, really wanted, and that one gift is what I’d get on Christmas. This is how I got my first car, help with the down payment on my apartment, and almost every piece of gadgetry I’ve ever owned, including the iPhone 4S.

So, according to my earlier logic, my dad would be an awful gift-giver. But that’s not necessarily the case. See, in the instance of my family Christmas, my dad always asked me what I wanted, and in turn I was as specific as possible. I was getting the end-all, be-all of potential Christmas gifts because it’s exactly what I had chosen.

Plus, we’re talking about my dad and Christmas, not your lover and Valentine’s Day.

So do your Valentine a favor this year: Unless he or she has asked very specifically for this or that gadget, take an extra minute to think what would truly make this person happy, and do your very best to make it happen for them.

Tablets and phones are great, but knowing that someone has spent time thinking about you… that’s priceless.

[Img credit: Lasse Kristensen, ShutterStock]

Kodak Shutters Digital Camera Business In Favor Of Licensing, Photo Printing

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:47 AM PST

Consider today the end of an era for one of the most iconic brands in the imaging industry. While their bankruptcy protection filing from last month signaled the need for some drastic action, it's still a bit of a shock to see Kodak announce that they are putting all of their digital cameras, camcorders, and picture frames out to pasture.

When all is said and done, Kodak expects annual operating savings of around $100 million, but the bigger loss is going to be that of a cultural icon. Kodak will still exist, sure, but primarily as a purveyor of desktop printers as well as online and retail photo printing services.

The company is also looking to expand its brand licensing program in order to bring in some much-needed revenue, but their consumer imaging division is shaping up to be a shell of its former self.

The phase out process is set to begin during the first half of this year, and Kodak has reached out to their retail partners in order to make sure their last remaining customers aren't left in the lurch when it comes to support and warranties.

Kodak CMO Pradeep Jotwani notes that the company has been scaling back their efforts in the digital imaging space in order to focus on more lucrative aspects of their business. It's a understandable move for Kodak to make — the company has been on the ropes for quite some time now, with slumping camera sales and some high profile departures only adding fuel to the fire. Even so, the loss of a once-dominant player in the industry stands as a reminder to competitors that staying nimble and innovative is the key to survival.

Consider the blurring lines between cell phones and cameras. Kodak dipped their toes into the water by lending their name and optics to the Motorola MOTOZINE, but never really pursued the space further. Now, a study from the NPD Group points at smartphone camera use supplanting the need for a standalone camera, and a timely gamble back then could have made for smoother seas these past few years.

Protesters March Toward Apple Stores On The Heels Of A Foxconn Hack

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:09 AM PST

It would seem that representatives from Change.org and SumOfUs.org have organized a global protest against Apple’s use of Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturing plants to build the iPhone and iPad.

This comes on the heels of a New York Times series exposing harsh working conditions in said plants. 250,000 people have signed petitions calling for a “worker protection strategy”, which will today be delivered to Apple stores in a number of major cities, including New York.

We’ve known about the harsh conditions at Foxconn since well before the NYT series. The media reported on suicides during 2007, and the plant got extensive coverage after the number of jumpers went up drastically between March and May of 2010.

Despite the fact that the story’s well documented, this NYT series has really fired people up. Along with today’s planned protest, we’re hearing reports that a group called Swagg Security has hacked Foxconn, retrieving usernames and passwords and uploading the materials onto The Pirate Bay.

You can check out Swagg Security’s “press release” here, but be prepared for misspellings and this unsettling feeling that the world only gets worse and worse.

An excerpt:

We believe there is no reality in hacktivism, even with good intentions. We know those who claim to be “hacktivists” that inside of you, a suppressed part of you, enjoys playing a part in the anarchist event of hacking of an infrastructure. One which at the same time presents a challenge, upon completing reveals an almost unknown feeling of a menacing satisfaction. We encourage not to continue quelling such a natural emotion but to embrace it. Only when embracing what society has taught you to hinder, is when you realize your own identity.

Report: Apple To Announce The iPad 3 The First Week Of March

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 06:08 AM PST

Shocking news of the day: Apple is preparing to announce the iPad 3. Crazy news, I know. That announcement, if AllThingsD is to be believed, should come in the first week of March. The next-gen tablet itself is reportedly an upgraded version of the iPad 2, featuring a dual-core CPU and a higher-resolution display. But then again, that’s to be expected. Of course the iPad 3 will have better specs than the year-old iPad 2.

Apple announced the iPad 2 in the same timeframe last year. Steve Jobs made a surprise return from medical leave to deliver the announcement. It was sadly the last Jobsnote. There’s no word who will take the stage and announce the iPad 3, though.

If this rumor doesn’t pan out, it’s still a safe bet that the iPad 3 announcement is right around the corner. Apple generally sends invites out two weeks in advance so the announcement could still happen this month.

Amazon Plays The Price Card In The Battle Against iPads

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 05:59 AM PST

Amazon used to be able to sell the Kindle based on its readability in sunlight. That’s a fair comparison to make and the old advertising featured little more than people being happy reading. To wit:

But the commercial above takes a different tack. The old “it works in the sun” line is still is still in there, but I assure you that Amazon is most interested in getting the more expensive and potentially more lucrative Kindle Fires out the door. What do they do? They suggest that the kids can hang out in the shade with their Fires while mom schools an old fool and his iPad. And all three of those devices still cost less than an iPad (or similarly outfitted tablet). Sneaky, sneaky, Amazon.

In fairness, two Fires and a standard Kindle are still cheaper than an iPad, but I suspect the kiddos in that Daiquiri-stained sloth tent would still rather watch videos and play games on a more capable device. But this is Amazon’s version of price-conscious Club Med, and who are we to judge?

German Court Upholds Previous Ruling, Says The Reworked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N Can Be Sold

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 05:36 AM PST

Mark one up for Samsung. After months of legal and PR battles, the South Korean company is finally able to sell and market their iPad clone in Germany. Just don’t call it an iPad clone anymore. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N (pictured left) is slightly different from the iPad — but that’s all that matters.

Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 10.1N late last year. This version features a silver boarder around the screen’s black bezel. The speakers were also relocated in a stereo configuration and now flank the screen. The original GalTab 10.1 was a blatant iPad ripoff. This version at least looks slightly different.

The Dusseldorf Regional Court said there are “clear differences” between the 10.1N and Apple’s iPad, essentially clearing it for retail sale. This ruling shoots down Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction. No doubt Apple’s all-star legal team will fight the decision, but they’re quickly losing support. The reworked 10.1N at least appears to be significantly different from the iPad — at least to the point that any 10.1 slate can look different from another one.

Daily Crunch: Chip

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 01:00 AM PST

Here are some recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets:

Google Offers To Pay People To Have Their Web Use Tracked Minutely

LG Takes A Chance With The Oddly-Proportioned Optimus Vu

Lytro Teardown Shows Potential Wireless Capability, Smallish Sensor

Sprint Lost A Lot Of Money Selling Lots Of iPhones

Google Alert - hot trends

2012-02-09T11:27:00.001-08:00

News

9 new results for hot trends

Credit Suisse Surprise Loss, Pepsi Cuts Jobs: Hot Trends
TheStreet.com
By Brittany Umar 02/09/12 - 09:37 AM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet Thursday include Credit Suisse(CS) as the Swiss bank reported a surprise fourth-quarter loss after recording 1 billion Swiss francs in charges.
See all stories on this topic »

Hot trends for spring home improvement projects
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Today's hottest entry door trends revolve around styles, materials and performance. "The Craftsman style remains a popular choice for entry doors," says Steve Brenizer, product marketing manager for Pella Windows and Doors. "Rustic door styles with ...
See all stories on this topic »

Credit Suisse's Surprise Loss, Pepsi Cuts Jobs: Hot Trends
TheStreetTV
Credit Suisse's Surprise Loss, Pepsi Cuts Jobs: Hot Trends.
See all stories on this topic »

Style trend: The best hot halternecks
gulfnews.com
Better still, a halterneck with an interesting back guarantees you look as fab leaving as arriving - what an exit plan! For more on the latest fashion trends, pick up this week's copy of Scene on newsstands now for just Dh7 or subscribe now!
See all stories on this topic »

gulfnews.com

Wedding planning at Newport Bridal Show
Providence Eyewitness News
By knowing the hot trends this year, brides-to-be will have a better idea of what to look for. When choosing a wedding dress, there are two trends to look for: lace sleeves and one shoulder dresses. Whatever the dress, just make sure it fits with the ...
See all stories on this topic »

Current trends in South Sound dining and drinking
Weekly Volcano
Two trends that have surely increased in the last few years is the return of home cooked meals and special occasion restaurant dining. Coupon clipping and deal hunting are trends that have become the norm both for dining out and stocking the home ...
See all stories on this topic »

US HOT STOCKS: Akamai Tech, Teradata, TripAdvisor, Taleo
Wall Street Journal
The Hanover Insurance Group Inc.'s (THG, $39.73, +$1.97, +5.22%) fourth-quarter results beat analysts' expectations as pricing trends continued to improve and retentions increased. Thoratec Corp. (THOR, $35.20, +$4.39, +14.25%) topped fourth-quarter ...
See all stories on this topic »

The Next Big Thing in Footwear Trends
PR Web (press release)
Footwear designer Stefanie Dominique weighs in on the hottest footwear styles off the Paris runways. Colorblocking is right on trend, pairing unexpected color combinations together for scene-stealing looks. Nothing is better than sporting shoes in bold ...
See all stories on this topic »

PR Web (press release)

Apple Working on Hot 3D Eye-Tracking Interface for Gaming & iPhone!
Patently Apple
Apple's 3D GUI patent trend is really picking up momentum and you have to wonder when they'll release this beast into the wild! It's no secret that video games now use various properties of motion and position collected from, eg, compasses, ...
See all stories on this topic »

Web

4 new results for hot trends

Super Bowl XLVI, Citigroup: Hot Trends - TheStreet
The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots to win Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday.
www.thestreet.com/.../super-bowl-xlvi-citigroup-hot-trends.ht...

hot trends Breaking News and Gossip | PerezHilton.com
Here were the top 10 Google Hot Trends from Super Bowl Sunday: ... Madonna had HALF of the top ten hot trends on Google…and almost all of the other ones ...
perezhilton.com/tag/hot_trends/

Hot Trends at Winter CHA! | FaveCraftsBlog
As some of you may already be aware, a group of our editors went to the CHA convention last week and I was lucky enough to be part of that group! We were ...
www.favecraftsblog.com/hot-trends-at-winter-cha/

MIA bracelet finds its way home » Local News » The ... - Hot Trends
HotTrends.mobi · Unlimited Mobile Downloads · Home · Hot Trends Videos · Archive · Sitemap · Contact. You are here: Home / m i a / MIA bracelet finds its way ...
hottrends.mobi/mia-bracelet-finds-its-way-home-local-news-th...

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Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

2012-02-09T07:18:00.001-08:00

Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

Tonight on the Tube: Vampire Diaries, Person of Interest, Mentalist & More

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 06:49 AM PST

News & Notes

On cable tonight, Discovery Channel has a U.S. Drug Wars special, History has the third season premiere of Swamp People and the series premiere of Mudcats, and Showtime has the documentary premiere of On the Shoulders of Giants.

NBC has moved The Firm to Saturday nights starting this week. They will be playing repeats of The Voice or Grimm until March 1st when Awake will premiere.

Prime Picks

The Vampire Diaries (The CW): New. Elena is invited to a ball at Klaus’ and Stefan and Damon won’t let her go alone. Caroline finds out more about Klaus.

Person of Interest (CBS): New. A teenager whose brother was recently murdered is the next number the machine spits out. Finch is worried that his former partner’s son is getting close to learning about the machine.

The Mentalist (CBS): New. Jane thinks a woman on trial for murder is innocent and sets out to prove so. Cho gets some help from Summer with a case.

Solid Selections

The Big Bang Theory (CBS): New. Sheldon is forced by the university to take a vacation, so he goes to work with Amy at her lab. Runs 31 minutes.

The Secret Circle (The CW): New. The girls decide to spend Valentine’s Day night with a sleepover. Diana takes some Devil’s Spirit. Some vengeful witch spirits visits Cassie.

Private Practice (ABC): New. Sam learns his sister is in jail. Erica doesn’t want Cooper and Charlotte to tell Mason about her cancer. Starts two minutes after the hour and runs 58 minutes.

Other Options

30 Rock (NBC): New. Two episodes play tonight. Criss and Liz are searching for a table for their Valentine’s Day dinner. Jack is hanging out with his mother-in-law.
Grey’s Anatomy (CBS): New. Lexie baby-sits for Derek and Meredith, so they can have a Valentine’s Day date. Ben is trying to show how much he knows about Bailey. Runs 62 minutes.
The Office (NBC): New. Pam is back from maternity leave. Dwight gets sent on a special assignment to Tallahassee.

Sports Notes

ESPN has doubleheader college basketball action with Wisconsin at Minnesota followed by Colorado at Arizona.
ESPN2 has tripleheader college basketball action with Mississippi at Mississippi State, Virginia Tech at Miami and St. Mary’s at Gonzaga.
NHL TV has a game tonight.
TNT has doubleheader NBA action.

Late Night

Lost Girl (Syfy): Repeats. Last Monday’s episode, “Oh Kappa, My Kappa,” and this past Monday’s episode, “Faetal Attraction,” both replay.
Smash (USA Network): Repeat. This past Monday’s series premiere episode, “Pilot,” of the NBC show replays. You will find it playing on Bravo, E!, G4, Oxygen, style, and Universal HD as well.

TV Marathons

Oxygen has 10 episodes of Roseanne.
Syfy has 16 episodes of The Twilight Zone early.
USA Network has seven episodes of Burn Notice followed by five episodes of NCIS.

Printable TV Schedule Downloads:

Printable Winter 2012 TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011 - Added return dates for CBS shows.
Printable Winter 2012 Cable TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011.

CrunchGear

2012-02-09T05:13:00.001-08:00

CrunchGear

Lytro Teardown Shows Potential Wireless Capability, Smallish Sensor
Nokia Cuts 4000 Jobs; Last European Phone Assembly Work Goes To Asia
Nest Labs Responds To Honeywell Lawsuit, Says It Has The Resources To Defend Itself
Google Offers To Pay People To Have Their Web Use Tracked Minutely
Study: iPhone Resale Value 63% After One Year, Android 46%
Sprint Lost A Lot Of Money Selling Lots Of iPhones
Microsoft To Launch Windows 8 Consumer Preview At MWC On February 29
LG Takes A Chance With The Oddly-Proportioned Optimus Vu

Lytro Teardown Shows Potential Wireless Capability, Smallish Sensor

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 04:51 PM PST

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Lytro (other than nearly grabbing a Crunchie (I voted for them)), the camera where you shoot now and focus later. And the latest news comes not from the company itself, but from the FCC, which just today published the internal photos from its investigation of the device.

There’s nothing fabulously surprising, but Wireless Goodness points out that the chip pictured, a Marvell Avastar 88W8787, has Bluetooth and wi-fi capabilities. Companies don’t generally include capabilities in hardware they don’t expect to use; it drives up the cost of the device and feeds speculation like this article. Lytro hasn’t announced wireless syncing or updating, and the user manual makes no mention of it, so there’s no way to be sure. Lytro has not returned an email on the subject.

(Update: Lytro says: “The initial Lytro camera is not Wi-Fi enabled. Connectivity is important to us, and we’re working on it.” Could mean anything.)

Also pictured is the sensor, which is rather small; I estimate it to be about 6.5×4.5 millimeters. That’s a little larger than an iPhone sensor (1/3.2″) and a little smaller than most point and shoots (1/2.3″). Here’s a little diagram I whipped up to give you an idea:

So: small, but in good company. Note that sensor size isn’t everything, and at any rate the Lytro isn’t a traditional sensor at all. Traditional spatial resolution, all-important in a normal camera, apparently isn’t quite as necessary here. The assembly is orientated around capturing megarays, not megapixels. And the size and true dimensions of the final image are still not quite clear, so we’ll leave that alone for now.

Lastly, worth noting is the interesting style of construction; the non-traditional form factor of the Lytro makes for a fun engineering challenge, no doubt: the compact square prism shape prevents anything but the tiniest of PCBs and makes wiring difficult. Kudos to their hardware engineering team for taking on the challenge and (presumably) making it work.

You can read the rest of the Lytro FCC inspection info here (the internal photos are the only new information since November).

Nokia Cuts 4000 Jobs; Last European Phone Assembly Work Goes To Asia

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 02:35 PM PST

It’s a sign of the times, though not a particularly surprising one: Nokia has finally eliminated its European phone assembly infrastructure and will be moving those 4000 jobs to Asia, according to a Reuters report. The factories are not being shuttered altogether, and localizing and finishing work will still be done there, but the primary assembly work is being relocated.

The news and layoffs were expected, as the company has slashed many more thousands of jobs over the last year, but this particular cut is symbolic: the intensely European company has been battered into submission, and will join the others in the now-standard configuration of “design here, build there.”

The job losses are 2300 in Hungary, 1000 in Finland, and 700 in Mexico. They don’t represent all of Nokia’s employees in those countries, just those involved with basic assembly. Nokia did not say where or to what contractor the jobs would be sent, but considering their need to cut costs, the majors in China, Taiwan, Thailand, and others in the area are the natural choice.

Naturally, the countries losing the jobs expressed disappointment, but Nokia’s got to do what Nokia’s got to do, and these job losses have been telegraphed for some time. It’s likely that they were announced today only after extensive negotiations with unions and local contractors.

Whether this approach will prove effective at lowering costs without damaging the company or brand is yet to be seen; it may be that saving money on manufacturing might not be enough to counter the enormous drop in sales Nokia has seen over the last two years.

Nest Labs Responds To Honeywell Lawsuit, Says It Has The Resources To Defend Itself

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 01:55 PM PST

Nest is ready to fight. The Palo Alto company just issued a followup statement regarding Honeywell’s recent patent infringement suit.

In short they’re not going to roll over. They’re going to stand tall. The plan is to “vigorously defend itself” from what they call an attempt to stifle “thoughtful competition.” Nice. Go get ‘em, boys.

From Nest Labs:
We at Nest are proud of creating products that bring true innovation to home efficiency and we are continuing to innovate and bring products to market. The Nest Learning Thermostat is already making a difference, saving customers energy and money. Nest will vigorously defend itself against Honeywell's patent-attack strategy to stifle thoughtful competition and we have the resources, support and conviction to do so.

Nest Labs might have a tough fight ahead. Honeywell alleges that the Nest Learning Thermostat infringes on seven of Honeywell’s patents. From my view on the outside it seems that Honeywell might have a case but Nest likely (hopefully) saw this coming and already has a litigation strategy prepped to argue that these patents are invalid. But it’s up to the courts now.

Google Offers To Pay People To Have Their Web Use Tracked Minutely

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 01:05 PM PST

Some people might say that there’s no way Google could be more aware of your browsing habits. Not true! There is much they don’t know. But it’s not because they don’t want to know.

Last night Google rolled out two programs aimed at increasing their awareness of how people use their browsers — what sites they visit, for how long, for what purpose, etc. They’ll pay you for the privilege, a bit like being a Nielsen family. They even give you a little box!

The “lightweight” option (first noted at Search Engine Land) is simply a Chrome browser extension that “will share with Google the sites you visit and how you use them.” You’ll be given a $5 Amazon gift card when you sign up, and then another one every three months. Not exactly frontier gold but some people will no doubt find it enticing. There’s a maximum of $25 stated, but they’ll evaluate later how to compensate people in the program for more than a year.

The other option, not publicly accessible, was pointed out by a tipster to Ars Technica. Knowledge Networks, with whom Google is partnering in this endeavor, is a company that organizes surveys and such for companies that want to know about their visitors or customers. “Fill out this quick survey and you’ll be entered to win an iPad!” — that sort of thing. Some Knowledge Networks users have received offers to be part of the first 2500 households in the study, which would pay $100 up front and $20 per month.

Interestingly, the latter study involves sending out a “high-end router” from Cisco that will need to be installed. It presumably has firmware on it that records relevant data traffic from the household’s “web access,” though that term is not defined. Does it include Netflix? Torrents? Game traffic? Most likely it just means data you would normally send and receive via the browser, though for many that is still maddeningly vague. Obviously they are not likely to volunteer for this service.

All data will be recorded, including what goes on in those Incognito mode tabs, though that data “will not be tied to or associated with any personally identifiable information”. Reassuring to some, terrifying to others. And anonymized individual data will be shared with “academic institutions, advertisers, publishers, and programming networks.”

It’s fairly standard data-collection stuff, but it’s fun to see them taking the route of in-home hardware to monitor on a bit level. While many would consider this level of recording a monumental invasion of privacy, just as many (likely far more) don’t see much of a difference between this and how much they’re tracked already. The extra cash would certainly be welcome in many homes.

Naturally the habits observed among the “people who don’t care too much about privacy and are willing to sell their browsing habits for not a lot of money” group will be different from those at large, but it’s still valuable.

Right now there isn’t much more info than this on the programs, but you can sign up for updates and registration at Google’s Screenwise page.

Study: iPhone Resale Value 63% After One Year, Android 46%

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 12:50 PM PST

All smartphones do not depreciate equally. 18 months after purchase, iPhones can be sold for 53% of their original price, while Androids can only be sold for 42% and BlackBerries for 41% on average according to a study by Y Combinator second-hand price guide startup Priceonomics.

That frown on Android fanboy faces gets even larger the quicker they try to resell. 12 months after purchase, iPhones can pull in 63% of their day 1 manufacturer suggested retail price, compared to 46% for Android. Early adopters who must have the latest model would do well to stick with Apple. 6 months after purchase iPhones claim 89% of their original MSRP, while Androids fall to just 66%.

Priceonomics says “We examined all iPhone models and the 70 most popular Androids and 30 most popular BlackBerry models. iPhone is wiping the floor with Android and BlackBerry in terms of resale value.” This study doesn’t take into account the high, off-contract price of iPhones or the economical options for Android buyers. It’s based on hardware alone, doesn’t compare carrier charges, and may be skewed towards American resale values due to the location of Pricenomics’ user base.

The numbers indicate enduring confidence in Apple hardware, and that a liquid iPhone resale market could make the device a wiser purchase. Carriers, on the other hand, aren’t doing so well selling the iPhone. Verizon, AT&T, and especially Sprint are seeing profits shaved down by subsidizing iPhone purchases, CNN Money repots.

Some other interesting findings include that paying for extra memory hardly enhances resale value, breaking your contract and paying the termination fee is cheaper than buying off-contract, and pre-paid Android phones are cheap and hold their value quite well compared to contracted Androids. The lower resale value may make some Android models more expensive to own per month.

Finally, Priceonomics composed some fanboy location indices showing where the highest volume of certain phones were being resold on its site. Long Island, New York, Miami, and New Jersey have the most BlackBerry resales , while Santa Barbara, Anchorage, Orange County, Boulder, and San Francisco see the most iPhones changing hands. Looks like the adages are true. Smug cities full of supposed cool kids love their Apple products, while bro’ed out popped collar-types are propping up RIM.

Sprint Lost A Lot Of Money Selling Lots Of iPhones

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 10:53 AM PST

Call it a sort of a bear hug: Sprint, the also-ranniest of the also-rans in the carrier world, lost money selling phones that, on the aggregate gained them subscribers. It’s also Catch-22, a blindside, and a mess.

According to Sprint, the company reported a net loss last quarter while still selling 1.8 million iPhones and increasing their subscriber base by 1.6 million. How? The costs associated with provisioning and supporting these new phones drove operating losses to $438 million, up from $139 million in Q4 last year.

The company reported increased subscriber numbers – 55 million this year. Forty percent of Sprint iPhone buyers were new customers. They nearly doubled capital expenditures this year.

Sprint is in a strange place. Like T-Mobile, the company has always been overshadowed by the bigger guys and never gained traction after acquisition. While using ostensibly the same hardware, Verizon has roundly trounced Sprint by advertising improved coverage and reception.

However, unlike T-Mobile, Sprint has the iPhone. This move – beyond any network improvements or handset acquisitions – is what’s keeping the company afloat. The net loss shown this year happened because Sprint was supporting the iPhone, a wild situation in which a company’s best-seller is actually dragging it down.

If the iPhone taught consumes anything it’s that mobile broadband is a right, not a privilege. The right to Instagram, Yelp, and browse all day and night is seemingly god-given and that same god knows that the iPhone hasn’t been useful for making calls these last few years. In short, we’re looking at a product that would upend any carrier’s view of the world, not just Sprint’s.

For decades, carriers worried about getting calls from point A to point B. Now they have to worry about tethering, massive data downloads to small devices, and always-on connectivity. They have to worry about angry Tweets, upset Facebook posts, and maintain gear that is cutting edge and prone to failure. So, in the end, it didn’t make financial sense to go the popular route, but hopefully it will buoy Sprint’s prospects in the long term.

The iPhone taught carriers that it wasn’t enough to dump out a feature phone or two and keep the power on in the switch room. Sprint’s troubles – masquerading as opportunity – is the finest example of the change that is currently rolling over the operator landscape.

photo credit: ucumari via photopin cc

Microsoft To Launch Windows 8 Consumer Preview At MWC On February 29

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 10:29 AM PST

While Samsung’s new low-key approach to MWC may have some gadget fans feeling blue, Microsoft’s plans for MWC just made things much more interesting. The company has begun to send out press invitations to an event at this year’s Mobile World Congress where they will officially launch the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

The invitation is understandably light on details, but the event is slated to take place between 3 and 5PM CET.

Though members of the tech press have managed to get some hands-on time with early builds of Windows 8 in the past, the consumer preview is a considerable milestone for Microsoft in that the general public will finally get their chance take the new OS for a spin. The new Metro UI, seen above, is one of the most striking new additions to Windows, but other changes run much deeper than that. Compatibility with ARM processors is a first for Windows 8, and a renewed focus on getting the OS onto devices with different form factors means that Windows 8 isn’t just a rehash of the same old Microsoft philosophy.

Not that the general public would even notice that. They’ll be much to busy poking around with the build’s preloaded apps and games to bother checking under the hood.

That Microsoft would choose to put their latest OS in the hands of the public at a wireless conference is a bit of head-scratcher when you consider their very public exit from keynoting at CES. Recent reports point to deep connection between Windows 8 and the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 mobile platform though, and what better way to make that connection concrete than at Mobile World Congress?

Developing…

LG Takes A Chance With The Oddly-Proportioned Optimus Vu

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 07:46 AM PST

After spending the past few quarters in the red, LG recently turned things around with a bit of growth in their once-ailing smartphone division. By focusing half of their 2012 capital expenditures budget on developing smartphones, LG wanted people to know that some big mobile plays were on the horizon.

As it turns out, their plans for the year include the newly-leaked Optimus Vu, which isn’t exactly the sort of big we were hoping for.

The first thing you notice about the Optimus Vu is its large 5-inch display, followed shortly by the realization that it’s awfully square. LG opted to run with a 4:3 screen aspect ratio this time around for some reason, which has led to a handset design that’s more squat than I’m accustomed to seeing.

Now LG isn’t the first to toy with this sort of form factor. Fellow Korean manufacturer Pantech introduced the blocky-looking Pocket late last year, but to see a major player run with it is a surprise.

Meanwhile, someone has reportedly managed snap a shot of Optimus Vu in the wild (above) and with it comes a solid spec sheet. If true, the OV sports a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm chipset, 1GB RAM, NFC support, and an 8-megapixel camera. Sadly, there’s no Ice Cream Sandwich to be found here — the Optimus Vu is all about Gingerbread.

It’s easy to take potshots at the Optimus Vu — comment reels across the web (or at least the part of the web that cares about phones) are full of people decrying the device as a Galaxy Note knockoff. The comparison may be harsh, but in fairness, LG could do worse than to try to follow Samsung’s example here. The Galaxy Note enjoys substantial popularity in the international market, and if the rumors of the Optimus Vu having a stylus pan out, the phablet market may soon grow a bit more crowded.

Potential stylus inclusion aside, LG’s decision to go with a 4:3 display could come back to bite them when it comes time for people to decide on a new phone. Smartphones have historically grown taller instead of just wider, and while LG certainly has the novelty factor going with the Optimus Vu, whether or not that will translate into unit sales is still up in the air.

Google Alert - hot trends

2012-02-08T11:27:00.001-08:00

News

6 new results for hot trends

Airbus A380 Cracks, Nokia Cuts Jobs: Hot Trends
TheStreet.com
By Brittany Umar 02/08/12 - 07:51 AM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet Wednesday include Airbus A380 as checks for wing cracks are set to be extended for the entire fleet. European air safety officials are reportedly ...
See all stories on this topic »

Airbus A380 Cracks, Nokia Cuts Jobs: Hot Trends
TheStreetTV
Airbus A380 Cracks, Nokia Cuts Jobs: Hot Trends.
See all stories on this topic »

Madonna Reigns…On Google!!!
PerezHilton.com
Here were the top 10 Google Hot Trends from Super Bowl Sunday: 1. super bowl score 2. madonna halftime show 3. josh powell 4. madonna half time show 5. madonna half time 6. madonna 7. what time is the super bowl 2012 8. kickoff time super bowl 2012 9.
See all stories on this topic »

PerezHilton.com

3 hot home trends
Metro.us
We scanned the New York International Gift Fair held last week at the Javits Center and found three emerging trends to keep in mind the next time you want to spruce up your place. Royal weddings, diamond jubilees and the hit television series "Downton ...
See all stories on this topic »

Current trends in the US snack industry
Potato Business
In honor of National Snack Food Month, Euromonitor analyses the current trends in the US snack industry. Within sweet and savoury snacks, manufacturers are introducing new products aimed at consumers' increasing affinity for hot/spicy flavours.
See all stories on this topic »

Tourism Trends
The Salem News
CVB offerings included sessions at the summit to help members recognize and capitalize on new trends in tourism. Speakers at a presentation on "What's Hot and What's Not" discussed strategies for attracting travelers. These included David Zimmerman, ...
See all stories on this topic »

Web

1 new result for hot trends

Man Adopts Girl Girlfriend adults picture | US Hot Trends
A business owner with ties to Florida Houston adopted its 42-year girlfriend, it emerged Tuesday in a civil case where a judge said the court took in a legal ...
ushottrends.com/2012/02/.../man-adopts-girl-girlfriend-adults/

Tip: Use a minus sign (-) in front of terms in your query that you want to exclude. Learn more.

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Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

2012-02-08T07:33:00.001-08:00

Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

Tonight on the Tube: Suburgatory, Happy Endings, Revenge & More

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 06:51 AM PST

News & Notes

Tonight, CBS has a Person to Person news special, FOX has a Mobbed special, NBC has Rock Center With Brian Williams moving to its new night and time.

Over on cable, BBC America has the third season finale of Mistresses, Discovery Channel has a Close Calls special, E! has an A-List Listings special, Food Network has the third season premiere of Restaurant: Impossible, truTV has the ninth winter season premiere of Operation Repo, Showtime has the 33rd season finale of Inside the NFL, and Travel Channel has the series premiere of Vegas Stripped.

Prime Picks

The Middle (ABC): New. Mike ticks Frankie off on Valentine’s Day. Brick is trying to write a report on love.
Suburgatory (ABC): New. Tessa enjoys showing off her relationship with Scott. George worries about Tessa and Scott being alone.

Modern Family (ABC): New. Claire doesn’t like Phil’s new business partner. Cam and Mitchell stay with Jay and Gloria while their place is being fumigated. Runs 31 minutes.
Happy Endings (ABC): New. Penny wants to dump the guy she is with. Dave is worried that he is about to get dumped. Runs 29 minutes.

Revenge (ABC): New. Things begin to unravel for everyone at the engagement party for Emily and Daniel. Victoria uses Conrad’s father against him.

Solid Selections

One Tree Hill (The CW): New. Haley is looking for Nathan while Quinn keeps Jamie distracted. Clay finds out about what is wrong with him.

Criminal Minds (CBS): New. The team is investigating a case in New Jersey. Garcia gets in a fight with her boyfriend.

Royal Pains (USA Network): New. A Hollywood star is looking to revive their career in the Hamptons. Divya finds that Raj is going to move on from her. Plays again later. Last week’s episode, “My Back to the Future,” replays earlier this morning.

Other Option

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS): New. The team is investigating after a woman with a 1970s hairdo and clothing is found dead.

Sports Notes

ESPN has doubleheader college basketball action with Georgetown at Syracuse followed by Duke at North Carolina.
ESPN2 has doubleheader college basketball action with Kansas at Baylor followed by Seton Hall at Rutgers.
NBA TV has doubleheader action with the New York Knicks at the Washington Wizards followed by the Houston Rockets at the Portland Trail Blazers.
NBC Sports has doubleheader NHL action.

Late Night

Lost Girl (Syfy): Repeat. Last night’s episode, “Faetal Attraction,” replays.
Southland (USA Network): Repeat. Last night’s episode, “Identity,” replays.

TV Marathons

Oxygen has 10 episodes of Roseanne.
Spike TV has six episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
TNT has seven episodes of Law & Order tonight.
USA Network has eight episodes of NCIS.

Printable TV Schedule Downloads:

Printable Winter 2012 TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011 - Added return dates for CBS shows.
Printable Winter 2012 Cable TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011.

CrunchGear

2012-02-08T05:22:00.001-08:00

CrunchGear

Daily Crunch: Rev
Olympus Brings Retro To Micro Four Thirds With The OM-D E-M5
Ignite Takes $5 Million Series C To Build World Of Warcraft For Car Racing
Thousands Of Webcams Made Publicly Accessible By Software Bug
Pretty\Vacant: The New New Gadget Marketing
Honeywell vs Nest: When The Establishment Sues Silicon Valley
VooMote Zapper Turns Your iThing Into A Universal A/V Remote
$199 Motorola Droid 4 To Grace Verizon Shelves On February 10
Pledge Your Android Allegiance With The Andru MicroUSB Charger
Acer Comes After Former CEO Gianfranco Lanci For Breach Of Non-Compete

Daily Crunch: Rev

Posted: 08 Feb 2012 01:00 AM PST

Here are some recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets:

Honeywell vs Nest: When The Establishment Sues Silicon Valley

Thousands Of Webcams Made Publicly Accessible By Software Bug

VooMote Zapper Turns Your iThing Into A Universal A/V Remote

Pledge Your Android Allegiance With The Andru MicroUSB Charger

Ignite Takes $5 Million Series C To Build World Of Warcraft For Car Racing

Olympus Brings Retro To Micro Four Thirds With The OM-D E-M5

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 06:00 PM PST

Olympus is building on its significant micro four-thirds IP (i.e. mirrorless cameras with the M4/3 sensor size) with a premium offering with a stylized, retro look. The OM-D EM-5, digital successor to the long-running OM series of film cameras, has a look straight out of the 70s but specs that should satisfy enthusiast photographers looking for a compact but powerful system.

Their PEN series of M4/3 cameras is popular and well-reviewed, and the EM-5 builds on that tech. The difference is in some pro-like features Olympus has added in: a weather-resistant magnesium body, high-FPS EVF, and high-speed autofocus and shooting.

Here are the basic specs:

New 16-megapixel Live MOS sensor
ISO up to 25600
Tilting 3″ OLED touch screen (~610k dots, I can’t determine the resolution)
120Hz 800×600 electronic viewfinder
Magnesium alloy body, as “dustproof and splashproof” as the E-5
New fast autofocus system
9fps burst shooting

I’m thinking that people who bought into Olympus’s M/43 line early and were thinking about upgrading are going to have a lot of trouble picking between these and the next PEN series.

It also comes in a handsome black finish. I really can’t say which I prefer.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t use the old OM mount, which would have been pretty cool but ultimately alienating to modern shooters. But it is looking like a solid camera. At $999 for the body only or a bit more with kit lenses, it’s right at the top of the line for M4/3 cameras, though — more than the capable GX1 I reviewed last week and many similar and very good cameras. Will the EM-5 be able to prove itself?

Only real hands-on testing will be able to show one way or the other. It’s a new sensor, a new form factor, and there’s a lot to be evaluated. It ships in April, so expect a review around then. Until that time rolls around, entertain yourself by hanging around the official Olympus page. There are some accessories and a couple new lenses worth checking out as well.

Update: there are hands-ons appearing around the web. Here’s DPReview’s thorough-as-usual take. Worth taking a stroll through the pages to see some of the size comparisons (the camera is quite small).

Ignite Takes $5 Million Series C To Build World Of Warcraft For Car Racing

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 01:52 PM PST

If you want to slay orcs and elves, there’s plenty of options, but the millions of car racing gamers out there have few places to chase the checkered flag. That’s going to change because today, Ignite Game Technologies closed a $5 million Series C round from private investors bringing it to $17.5 million in funding. It will use the cash to speed up development of its recently launched Simraceway freemium game, as well as its skill matching technology.

Ignite plans to hook users with high-profile licensed content, accurate physics, and addictive gameplay to get users paying to race or buy cars.

Simraceway is a free to play, downloadable PC client-based head-to-head racing game. It sits in the realistic driving game space, less hardcore than true simulations, but deeper than arcade racers. Most realistic racing competitors like Gran Turismo and Forza are disc-based where you pay up front. Simraceway is looking to fill the average revenue per user gap between casual, social racing games and these competitors with a high-end freemium model.

Racing games present a particular development challenge not found in massively multiplayer online role-playing games or first-person shooters. To be fun, gamers have to be extremely well-matched in terms of skill level, otherwise one person spends the entire race far behind and doesn’t want to play again.

Ignite is solving this problem with its proprietary skill quantification technology that eliminates mismatches. Ignite will use the new funding to refine the system, and CEO Jonathan Haswell tells me it might license the tech to other developers. Ignite has also found a way to let players race each other asynchronously. Its ghost lap system that could keep players engaged even when their favorite opponents are offline.

To attract auto enthusiasts, Ignite has secured licenses from 600 brands. These include the full car catalogs of manufacturers such as Bentley, McLaren, and Mitsubishi, with each car featuring simulation-grade driving physics. Four-time IndyCar Series winner Dario Franchitti is working with Ignite’s physics development team to do R&D at the Simraceway Performance Driving Center, a real-world racing facility based at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.

Users can play Simraceway with their keyboard, a full wheel and pedal set, or Ignite’s own S1 motion-controlled steering wheel that’s affordably priced to draw users into Simraceway. There they spend real cash to buy better cars and enter big online races where they can win real prizes such as driving lesson vacations to Infineon.

Auto racing is one of the most popular forms of sport, and its one where fans are accustomed to spending big money to attend races, trick out their own cars, and buy gaming controllers. If Simraceway can grow to host more match-ups than any other racing platform, network effect will kick in and keep in-game purchases flowing. One day, Ignite could become a gaming revenue powerhouse like Activision-Blizzard, whose World of Warcraft helped bring in $754 million in net revenues during Q3 2011.

Thousands Of Webcams Made Publicly Accessible By Software Bug

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 01:43 PM PST

26 models of Trendnet webcams have been identified as vulnerable to a bug that lets anyone tap into the video stream with just an IP address. The flaw was noted a month ago and the company has been working to alert people and patch the devices. Unfortunately, the company has no way of contacting non-registered webcam owners, and so the devices may remain accessible if the users never suspect anything.

It’s a bit scary, but certainly not unprecedented. Although it’s not quite the same thing, two years ago a school was accused of spying on its students via the webcams in school-owned laptops (the district later settled). This time, it’s hackers who found their way in, and randoms on the internet who spent long hours watching the feeds.

The security flaw was posted by Console Cowboys on January 10th; the susceptible devices were easily found, as they identify themselves in such a way that their IP can simply be scraped for. The result: hundreds of feeds being watched, some mundane things like cameras watching the front door, but others were trained on, say, a young mother in some state of undress watching over her baby.

Screenshots were taken and video recorded, naturally, and while some of the people on message boards, Reddit, 4chan, and other communities may have thought it creepy and inappropriate, many more must have considered it the opportunity of a creepy lifetime. Of the hundreds of devices known to have been watched, and perhaps thousands more worldwide (Trendnet estimates the total vulnerable, not to say breached, at “most likely less than 50,000″), how many had kids playing, or someone walking out of the shower, or anything you can imagine.

And the worst part is that many of these devices will never be updated. The users can’t be alerted directly, as the webcam runs independently as a networked device on some normal webcam broadcast software. Even a “call home” automatic check for updates, if it’s enabled, would probably be dismissed by most users. “The camera is working fine, why bother? Probably just have to configure it again.”

The company that created the webcams will likely be sued, and rightly so. They are absolutely liable for software they marketed as secure and private, and which appears to have been breached by one guy, who did it on his own for kicks. A security researcher would probably conclude that the protections on the cameras were totally inadequate. After all, the breach was done after updating the camera to the most recent firmware (from 2010, as it turns out). And while they issued an update on January 30th and knew about the flaw weeks before, there was no real announcement until yesterday.

And with all this comes the question of whether in a case like this a company should be able to force-update a device. It’s the “light side” version of Amazon sucking books off your Kindle, but it’s essentially the same action.

One also begins to wonder how many cameras are being accessed by people who don’t publicize their results or share on web communities. I’ve tipped my own webcam up in what I feel is justified paranoia, and things like hard disconnects or shutters will likely become popular features once the security risks (always extant) become more well-known.

The company has put up a warning and list of affected models here. Worth checking and perhaps sharing.

[additional info from BBC and The Verge]

Pretty\Vacant: The New New Gadget Marketing

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 12:02 PM PST

An interesting thing is happening in hardware marketing these days and I think Devin noticed it yesterday when he pointed out that Samsung, in their marketing of the Samsung Galaxy Note, is changing the script when it comes to gadget advertising, a tendency that is becoming more and more apparent in newer ads from many big players.

First, let’s look at the history of CE advertising. For most of the 1980s, computer marketing didn’t really exist. Take a look at this gem from a 1984 issue of Analog:

This is a true classic: an advertisement that tells nearly everything about the product in 10 point type. Similarly, you had games advertisements like this:

Here the “renders” (really acrylic on cardboard) take center stage while the actual game screens appear amazingly small in the lower left corner. The sale was about the sizzle because the customers knew that they weren’t getting much steak.

This continued for most of the 1980s and then into the 1990s. Let’s call this “nerd-to-nerd” advertising. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, but if you were reading Analog in 1984, you probably were hurting for a prom date.

Suddenly, in 1996, however, Sony created a parallel message to their standard advertising by featuring futuristic scenes of models walking into cyberspace while holding Vaio computers. This was, to the best of my recollection, the first time that CE marketing was aspirational (I could be wrong, but this is the first time in my memory that a CE manufacturer didn’t talk at a demographic and instead suggested you could attain a demographic through their products.) Nerds, it seemed, were suddenly cool.

Thus was born a dual marketing message. The first message appeared in the trade press – in PC Magazine and Laptop and the like – the advertisements were a step removed from the two ads above: for geeks, by geeks. I remember, for example, the Laptop magazine ad sales team marketing the magazine as the one title that will ensure an advertiser that the reader will come out of the issue ready to buy a laptop or accessory. Interestingly, this sort of advertising has actually been supplanted by the gadget blogs who, in fact, do a lot of the nerd-to-nerd dialogue in their reviews. Who needs to buy ad space when someone will write a 2,000 word article about your product and you can expect thousands of people to read it in a famished frenzy?

The second message appeared in the glossy magazines and on TV. This was a lifestyle message, a message that swept much of the technology under the rug and instead focused on how the technology would fit in your home. For example:

Nintendo was selling “fun” and not hardware. Or take a look at this oddly prescient Lisa ad:

Or this downright embarrassing iPod ad:

The message here was one of utility. It said “You will have fun/work better/be able to rip music” with this product. In short it was “You can do X very well and we know you absolutely love doing X.”

For years you had two synchronous marketing plants. The script was simple in most cases: speeds, feeds, an image of the product. Aside from a few odd examples like the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates commercials, most nerd-to-nerd CE advertising focused on hard claims. This sort of marketing appeared in magazines and newspapers and was focused on a crowd that, upon seeing a specific item, would immediately grasp its utility. The other side of the coin was the more esoteric lifestyle ad focused on non-adopters who knew they probably needed a computer but didn’t want to get bogged down. Thus was born an amalgam of the two, the “speeds and feeds” ad, allowing manufacturers to compete on nebulous claims of speed and memory sizes. For example, check out:

What do you notice? Numbers, numbers, numbers. You have prices, you have screen sizes, you have (in the Macs’ case) a clock speed. More is better, right? In fact, this style of advertising offered a false sense of safety for confused buyers. The Speed and Megapixel Wars drove manufacturers to crow mostly meaningless numbers until recently when the chip industry essentially flatlined. In the days when 800MHz vs. 1GHz meant something, it was fine to share those numbers. Now, when many more aspects of a PC are considerably more important, they don’t mean much at all.

In terms of television ads the focus was on “Us vs. Them:” Mac vs. PC, PC Hunters, iPhone vs. Everyone else. For example, you could argue that the recent Samsung ads maintained this nerds-to-nerds messaging but with a soupçon of ridiculousness, culminating in Superbowl Sunday’s wildly aspirational street party ad:

Additionally, marketers have gone in a very weird direction when trying to differentiate multiple Android products. When everything is a tablet, how do you stand out? Last spring there was a short push to grab the “early adopter” with tactics familiar with the speeds and feeds consumer yet with a bit of tongue in cheek. The best example of this? A nice little Verizon fantasy made for the Xoom last May.

As markets converge, there is less need to worry that the audience won’t understand a particular product. The fact that Verizon used the words “Tegra processor” on national TV points to the assumption that the watcher a) knows what a processor is at all and b) is aware that there is something called a Tegra. Intel pull off brand awareness with a cute jingle. Nvidia has a long way to go before “Tegra Inside” is a household name.

So where does that leave us? Well, it leaves us in the enviable position of being talked to like intelligent consumers and it leaves marketers grasping at how to market their products to a less sophisticated consumer. One solution is luxury branding. Take, for example, the above photo of Edward Norton and some woman holding a Prada phone by LG. Now, to be clear, the only people I know who own Prada phones are my niece and sister-in-law who bought them because they were on sale. LG knows that the hard-core geek wouldn’t look twice at a Prada phone in the wild. Therefore, they need to add a bit of glamor. In fact, Norton(‘s PR representative) writes in the press release:

Mr Norton also added: “It was a pleasure collaborating with PRADA and LG, both Global brands with impeccable reputations for being the most innovative and respected in their fields.”

Amen, guy who played a skinhead in American History X and a schizophrenic sociopath in Fight Club! See also: Lady Gaga working as creative director of Polaroid (a position that didn’t last past the duration of CES 2011, but at least she got benefits), Ashton Kutcher:

And so on.

I also saw a move towards luxury branding at CES when Tumi (the luxury bag brand) show some iPad cases and other junk behind a red velvet rope. Tumi gear, to be clear, is actually made by Jasco, the same guys that license the GE brand to sell cut-rate electronic components. Rather than just show their wares, they kept things behind a roped off door, suggesting an exclusivity that is, in truth, quite alien at CES. Their booth was more similar to one of the booths I visit expensive wristwatch events than anything at CES I’ve ever seen. This sense of exclusivity is quite disheartening, especially in an industry that revels in open dialogue.

CE marketing is constantly in flux but recently it has been trending towards the vacuous. While I don’t long for the days of full page ads featuring reams of techspeak, I think that, as Devin noted, these marketers are trying too hard. Our generation has been raised on marketing and intense pressure rarely works anymore. Just because you can hire Ashton or Ed doesn’t mean you should and just because The Darkness wasn’t doing much this year doesn’t mean they should represent a product that is, at its heart, a very complex piece of machinery. Respect us, CE manufacturers, and we’ll respect you.

Honeywell vs Nest: When The Establishment Sues Silicon Valley

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 08:34 AM PST

Honeywell filed a multi-patent infringement lawsuit against Nest Labs and Best Buy yesterday. The suit alleges that Nest Labs is infringing on seven Honeywell patents. Honeywell is not seeking licensing fees. The consumer electronic conglomerate wants Nest Labs to cease using the technology and is actually looking to collect damages caused by the infringement. Damages? Bullshit. This is about killing the competition.

This lawsuit hit Silicon Valley and the tech world hard when it broke Monday morning. Nest Labs is the Valley’s star child right now. The company, founded by the godfather of the iPod, started in a Palo Alto garage just over two years ago and successfully disrupted a stale industry so hard that it seems to have resulted in a major lawsuit. The company won a Best of Innovations Award at CES 2012 and, just last week, a Crunchie for Best New Device. People love Nest. And now most of those same people hate Honeywell.

Honeywell has every right to protect their intellectual property. In their defensive, Nest Labs is clearly riffing off of Honeywell’s iconic round thermostat design. Honeywell’s T87 thermostat is undeniably, instantly recognizable as a thermostat. But so is a Kleenex box. And a Frisbee. Shame on Nest Labs if the Nest Learning Thermostat was intentionally developed from Honeywell’s intellectual property. But from where I sit Nest Labs is simply trying to advance the thermostat using novel features in a familiar design.

The suit alleges Nest Labs infringes on several of Honeywell’s patents involving thermostats. Several, like 7159789 and 7159790, involve the round hardware mechanism, rotating dial and center screen placement. Others, namely 7142948 and 7634504, covers the user interface. Natural language installer setup for controller (7634504) allows for a graphical user interface that sets up the device through a series of simple questions like, “On weekdays, is someone home all day?” and “What is a comfortable sleeping temperature in the summer?” You see, the Nest also has a friendly user interface. Apparently Honeywell is the only one allowed to have a round, rotating idiot-proof thermostat.

Honeywell has been selling thermostats for years but none, including the company’s very pricey Prestige line, match the Nest’s build quality or user interface. I spent a considerable amount of time shopping for a thermostat last year. Out of the six or so Honeywell models I tried, all were cheaply made and featured piss-poor UIs. I literally punched my wall after becoming so frustrated with one of the Prestige models.

The difference between a Honeywell thermostat and the Nest is striking. One is a cheap, clearly mass-produced hunk of plastic and the other is something you would be proud to own. This feeling is exactly why this lawsuit reeks of greed. Honeywell is embarrassed, perhaps even slightly frightened, by an upstart that is managing to get people excited about thermostats.

Honeywell clearly knows what they’re doing. While it’s easy to throw up your hands in disgust, Honeywell is operating within their rights. A quick run-through of the patents revels that the Nest Learning Thermostat is seemingly infringing on all seven. Some are trivial like the four aforementioned patents but the others are a bit more substantial and detailed. Patent 7476988 Power Stealing Control Devices lists the process required to leech the thermostat’s power from another source and store it in a battery, capacitor or the like. But it’s not my job to decide which claim has merit. It’s the hands of the courts now.

I spoke with Matthew Mitchell, Esq. of Mitchell Law PLLC regarding Honeywell’s claims. He pointed out that Nest could have simply overlooked the patents listed here. Or, as he assumes is more likely, the company was aware of these and already have a litigation strategy ready to argue that the patents are invalid.

Patents are intended to protect non-obvious ideas while advancing general innovation. Mitchell later pointed out, “Patents are the great equalizer. Patents enable garage inventors and small startups (some of which are referred to derogatorily as: non-practicing entities or 'trolls') to compete with the big boys like Honeywell.” If the case was reversed, if Nest was suing Honeywell, the tech press’ knee-jerk reaction would have been different, but still likely siding with the little guy.

It will be up to the courts whether Honeywell’s claims have merit and the company is due damages, but unfortunately the only winner in this case will be the legal teams. Nest Labs will likely spend money earmarked for R&D/marketing on a defense. Honeywell’s image is tarnished.

But worse yet, the consumer will lose the most if a novel startup like Nest Labs is sued out of existence.

VooMote Zapper Turns Your iThing Into A Universal A/V Remote

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 07:46 AM PST

Did your parents ever tell you how they switched television channels back in the day? You know, before the remote?

They had to get up, and walk the twelve feet to the television set, turn some knob, and repeat this process until they found something worth viewing (most likely a commercial celebrating our addiction to nicotine and alcohol). But things have changed quite a bit since then.

In fact, we are at the point of throwing away our remotes for something a bit more integrated. Enter the VooMote Zapper, by Zero1.tv.

There are plenty of universal remote offerings out there in the world, and the VooMote Zapper joins the ranks as an iDevice add-on. Simply plug the Zapper into the 30-pin port at the bottom of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, and download the free app. After the initial setup, you’ll be in complete control of your entire home entertainment system right from your iDevice.

The dongle comes in a bevy of color flavors and costs $70. However, a cover for the iPhone will cost an extra $10, while an iPad cover will force you to cough up an extra $20.

The VooMote Zapper is available now at Apple.com, and you can download the VooMote Zapper app from the Apple App Store.

$199 Motorola Droid 4 To Grace Verizon Shelves On February 10

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 07:05 AM PST

It’s been nearly a month since Verizon officially spilled the beans on the QWERTY-packing, LTE-sporting Motorola Droid 4, and now we finally have a release date to go with it. According to the nation’s largest wireless provider, the oft-delayed Droid 4 is due to hit sales channels on February 10 complete with a $199 price tag.

Though its slimmer brethren have enjoyed most of the limelight lately, the Droid 4 is still a welcome addition to the Verizon lineup as their second LTE device with a full physical keyboard.

While it doesn’t yet run Ice Cream Sandwich, the rest of its feature list — 1.2 GHZ dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8-megapixel rear camera, and 4-inch qHD display — make for an attractive little package. Additional features like government-grade encryption, a sprinkling of enterprise-friendly apps, and support for Motorola’s Lapdock 500 only sweeten the deal, especially if you’re looking to dump that work BlackBerry for something a bit more robust.

To celebrate the release of the Droid 4 (and a buy-one-get-one promotion on the Droid RAZR family), Verizon is also reviving their double-data promotion, so penny-pinching phone shoppers may want to jump on the deal before it disappears again. Of course, if Verizon keeps doing what they’re doing, there’s a real chance we’ll see that double data promo rear its head once another noteworthy LTE smartphone comes down the pipeline.

Pledge Your Android Allegiance With The Andru MicroUSB Charger

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 06:20 AM PST

There’s no shortage of Android swag floating around out there — Android-themed watch anyone? — but this thing is probably one of the more useful gifts for the Android devotee in your life. Take it from me: of all the AC adapters floating around TechCrunch's New Jersey headquarters (a.k.a my home), none are quite as charming as Andru here.

Aside from being able to charge your gadgets with aplomb (at which point his beady eyes light up), relentless fidgeters like me can also spin his little arms around. And when Andru isn't in use, feel free to give him a pair of legs by slipping on that bright green prong cover.

Really, what better way to pledge your allegiance to Google than by making sure the power that runs into your Android device first runs though a small green robot?

Alright, so Andru isn’t exactly the first Android-themed charger we’ve seen, but it certainly seems to be a nicer option than some of the alternatives. Those of you who feel the compulsive urge to fill your home or workspace with geeky tchotchkes can pick up an Andru from Gen for $25, which is still probably less than a bog-standard microUSB charger at your local big box store.

Acer Comes After Former CEO Gianfranco Lanci For Breach Of Non-Compete

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 05:33 AM PST

Good morning, and welcome to our Tuesday edition of People Suing Each Other. In the far corner, we have the number four PC maker in the world, Acer, based out of Taiwan; and in the other corner we have Acer former CEO Gianfranco Lanci, based out of Italy, who resigned in February of 2011 after being with the company since 2007.

The beef? Well, according to the Financial Times, Mr. Lanci signed a non-compete contract with Acer that was meant to last a full year after his resignation. However, Lanci instead hopped on the Lenovo train in September (about seven months after leaving Acer) as a consultant. Shortly after, he was appointed the head of Lenovo’s Europe, Middle East and Africa businesses last month.

Between Lanci’s rise to the top at Acer and his transition to Lenovo, Acer was the number two PC maker in the world. Now? That spot would be filled with Lenovo, as Acer has dropped to number four.

Before leaving Acer, Lanci had a clear vision for the company that he believes would’ve worked. The focus should have been on building up engineering at the firm by acquiring talent in both the hardware and software departments. At the same time, he saw the transition to mobile as an imminent one and knew the firm would have to build on that level. That inevitably means that Acer would’ve had to not only push the brand out to other parts of the world, but it would, in fact, have to source talent from those other parts too.

To Acer investors, this sounded like a “de-Taiwanization” of the company, reports AllThingsD. But Lanci contends that if his vision had come to fruition over at Acer, the company would’ve grown to be a $30 billion company, bringing in over a third of its sales from smartphones and tablets by 2015.

Instead Acer spent 2010 missing on its quarterly earnings, and paying $150 million for unsold inventory in Europe. Now the company is saying “We believe Mr. Lanci has clearly breached the terms of the non-compete agreement he entered into willingly… We believe we have a very robust case.”

SSTL-OHB System Consortium to Build Eight More Galileo FOC Satellites

2012-02-07T14:00:00.001-08:00

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SSTL-OHB System Consortium to Build Eight More Galileo FOC Satellites
European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani announced in London that the consortium led by OHB System AG and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) will build a further eight satellites for the European Union's Galileo satellite navigation program under the supervision of the European Space Agency.
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Ariane 5 to Launch Galileo Constellation
Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace, and Didier Faivre, director of the Galileo Program and Navigation-related Activities at the European Space Agency (ESA), signed an agreement February 2 in London to launch satellites in Europe's Galileo satellite positioning system by Ariane 5 launchers. This agreement provides for the possibility of using Ariane 5 launchers in 2014 and 2015 to complete the deployment of the Galileo constellation.
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Ohio University Team Wins Second ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition
An Ohio University team won the Institute of Navigation (ION) Satellite Division's second annual ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition. The competition was held January 26-29, at Rice Park in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, in conjunction with the 126th Saint Paul Winter Carnival.
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TomTom GPS Devices Now Available at Chevrolet Dealerships across U.S.
TomTom announces an agreement with General Motors where the company will offer TomTom navigation to Chevrolet vehicle buyers. Chevrolet dealerships are offering TomTom portable navigation devices (PNDs) to customers who purchase a 2009 or newer Camaro, Colorado, Cobalt, Express, Impala or HHR. Customers who purchase one of these vehicles will have the option to choose from the TomTom VIA 1405 or VIA 1505.
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ION 2012 Fellow Memberships Announced
The Institute of Navigation (ION) announced the recipients of the 2012 fellow memberships during the ION International Technical Meeting (ITM) 2012 in Newport Beach, California, January 30-February 1. Election to Fellow membership recognizes the distinguished contributions of The Institute of Navigation members to the advancement of the technology, management, practice and teaching the arts and science of navigation, and/or lifetime contributions to the Institute.
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Navcen Issues Correction to SVN-49 NANU
Navcen has issued a correction to its announcement that accompanied NANU 2012003 on SVN-49, which was issued on January 30. "In an effort to improve constellation sustainment, on or about 01FEB2012, SVN-49 will resume transmitting an L-band signal using PRN-24 as a test asset. Upon completion of the test event, SVN-49 will once again be decommissioned from active service. PRN-24 will then once again be available for future satellite service," reports Rick Hamilton, executive secretariat of the Civil Global Positioning System Service Interface Committee (CGSIC).
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FROM GPS WORLD MAGAZINE

Shadow Matching
by Paul D. Groves, Lei Wang, Marek Ziebart
GNSS positioning in dense urban areas is unreliable, with accuracy particularly poor in the cross-street direction. One solution is shadow matching, a new positioning technique that uses 3D building models to predict which satellites are visible from different locations and compares this with the measured satellite visibility to determine position. This article presents test results of a preliminary shadow-matching algorithm in a London urban canyon and discusses the practical implementation of the technique.
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BLOG MARKS THE SPOT

Inside the Head of the Body Politic
by Alan Cameron
In the exciting run-up to Election '12, we conducted a straw poll of selected voters, giving everyone a chance to see what the electorate thinks about the state of things, and its outlook on the future. This is y'all talking, now: a barely scientific subset of the GPS/GNSS community, the audience at last week's webinar, "The Challenges of Global Navigation." The poll results are hardly surprising, but illuminating nonetheless.
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App stores are cluttered with tons of stuff - but are they driving the awareness of and market growth of LBS?
What are the big market drivers in 2012? The usual suspects include check-ins, coupons,vouchers, social network apps, and others. Let's separate the wheee! from the case.
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University of Nottingham's Sir Colin Campbell Building, Jubilee Campus | Nottingham | United Kingdom (UK)  ICT Knowledge Transfer Network (ICT KTN), the GNSS Research Applications Centre of Excellence (GRACE), and the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) are sponsoring a free one-day seminar on self-driving vehicles on March 1, 2012, at the University of Nottingham's Sir Colin Campbell Building, Jubilee Campus. Space is limited.

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Google Alert - hot trends

2012-02-07T11:27:00.001-08:00

News

9 new results for hot trends

Glencore Buys Xstrata, Frontier Offers Wi-Fi: Hot Trends
TheStreetTV
Glencore Buys Xstrata, Frontier Offers Wi-Fi: Hot Trends.
See all stories on this topic »

Glencore Buys Xstrata, Frontier Offers Wi-Fi: Hot Trends
TheStreet.com
Wal-Mart (WMT) is another hot topic as the retail chain unveils its "Great for You" icon Tuesday at an event in Washington. The retailer has said it's making some of its private-label foods healthier and will market those foods under its Marketside and ...
See all stories on this topic »

Hot Hollywood hair trends: colors and crops
USA TODAY
USA TODAY's Olivia Barker checks out the twin tress trends. Katy Perry only looks like she's in a post-Russell Brand blue period. Quite the contrary: The pop star was all smiles under her cyan bob at the Super Bowl pregame show on Sunday in ...
See all stories on this topic »

PILOTS SEASON TALENT: Which Actors Are Hot This Year And Other Casting Trends
Deadline.com
It caps a trend of those pacts slowly coming back over the past several years after drying up almost completely in the mid-2000s, with both the networks and the studios stepping up to lock in talent early. The actors signed in network deals this season ...
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Deadline.com

The Only Fall Trends a Man Should Wear
San Francisco Chronicle
To celebrate all that fall means to men, we didn't head to some hot new restaurant, but to one of the most comforting local spots - Brooklyn's charming, barnhouse-like Vinegar Hill House. There, we gathered with one of our favorite new-old bands, ...
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HOT TAMALES® 3 ALARM Report on "What's HOT with College Students?"
Sacramento Bee
Our HOT TAMALES® 3 ALARM Report surveyed students between 18 and 24 years old for which 59% were females. The report represents a fresh and fascinating look at some fun, lifestyle trends." The HOT TAMALES® Brand is the #1 chewy cinnamon candy in the US ...
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Fashion: For Valentine's Day, think red and hot pink
Tulsa World
This red and hot pink dress from Belk is a great look for Valentine's Day. Courtesy By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer Some high fashion trends never make it past fashion week - others linger on for eternity. Since last year, some daring fashionistas ...
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The 11 Hottest Industries For Start-Ups
Forbes
The market research firm cited Kauffman statistics indicating entrepreneurial activity in 2010 and 2011 was at an all-time high, a trend it predicts will continue over the next five years, forecasting the number of businesses with one or more employees ...
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US HOT STOCKS: NCR, Coinstar, Anadarko Active In Late Trading
Wall Street Journal
Upside to 2012 and 2013 same-store sales for Cracker Barrel, which sells country-style foods and rustic bric-a-brac, "is unlikely without a sustained turnaround in urban miles driven trends," the firm says. Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR, $19.20, +$0.52, ...
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Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

2012-02-07T07:25:00.001-08:00

Here's the Latest from TVaholic.com

Tonight on the Tube: The River Series Premiere, White Collar, Justified & More

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 06:07 AM PST

News & Notes

Tonight, ABC has the series premiere of The River.

Over on cable, A&E has the first season finale of Shipping Wars, BBC America has the first season finale of Jamie’s American Road Trip, Bravo has the seventh season premiere of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Cartoon Network has the first season finale of The Looney Tunes Show, E! has a Growing Up Hollywood special, and Oxygen has the second season premiere of Jersey Couture.

Prime Picks

NCIS (CBS): New. A man at a diner pulls a gun on Gibbs and he ends up questioning some of his life choices. This is the 200th episode of the show.

New Girl (FOX): New. Jess makes it her goal to make friends with the landlord, even though Nick wants her to leave things status quo. Runs 31 minutes.
Raising Hope (FOX): New. Burt upsets Virginia when he makes a comment about her career. Jimmy is wondering if Sabrina will move with her boyfriend. Starts a minute after the half hour and runs 29 minutes.

Justified (FX): New. Raylan is searching for a couple of his old adversaries after a prison break. Runs 61 minutes. Plays twice and again later. Last week’s episode, “Harlan Roulette,” replays in late night as well.

Solid Selections

Switched at Birth (ABC Family): New. Kathryn’s mother comes for a visit. Bay and Regina try to find out more about Angelo. Plays again later. Last week’s episode, “Expulsion From the Garden of Eden,” replays right before.

The River (ABC): Series Premiere. Dr. Emmett Cole, an adventurer that has done a TV show about his exploits for years, goes missing and six months later his emergency beacon is activated and his family wants to go search for him. The whole trip will be funded if a film crew can record the journey to look for Cole. Two episodes play tonight. The first episode is really good at what it is trying to do and that is coming from someone that doesn’t really go for the horror thriller type of shows or movies. The creepiness/scary factor is high for a TV show and I am actually interested in seeing more, which is only six more episodes past tonight for the first season. If you go for this type of fair, you should definitely check this out tonight. The second episode tonight is very effective as well, even if one thing that was meant to be creepy actually made me laugh out loud.

Other Options

Jane by Design (ABC Family): New. Jane is trying to find out what her fellow students are interested in fashion-wise. Billy tries a new look. Plays again later. Last week’s episode, “The Lookbook,” replays earlier this evening.
Last Man Standing (ABC): New. Two episodes play tonight. In the first, Mike and the family learn that someone once died in the home they live in. In the second, Mandy meets Kim Kardashian.
NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS): New. The team must figure out what was stolen from a diplomatic transport and figure out who was behind the left.
Parenthood (NBC): New. Sarah and Mark are talking about the possibility of having children. Amber questions her promotion.
Ringer (The CW): New. Juliet’s mother comes for a visit and wreaks havoc on the family. Bridget thinks she may have figured out how to learn more about her sister.
Southland (TNT): New. Tang works to help a homeless vet. Ben and Lydia have to face some changes. Plays again later.
White Collar (USA Network): New. Neal works on a case with Sarah to find a missing Stradivarius. Runs 61 minutes. Plays again later. Last week’s episode, “Neighborhood Watch,” replays earlier in the morning.

Sports Notes

ESPN has doubleheader college basketball action with Florida at Kentucky followed by Purdue at Ohio State.
ESPN2 has college basketball action with Iowa State at Oklahoma State.
NBA TV has doubleheader action.
NBC Sports has NHL action.

Late Night

Royal Pains (USA Network): Repeat. Last Wednesday’s episode, “My Back to the Future,” replays.

TV Marathons

Oxygen has 12 episodes of Roseanne.
Spike TV has six episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
USA Network has 14 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Printable TV Schedule Downloads:

Printable Winter 2012 TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011 - Added return dates for CBS shows.
Printable Winter 2012 Cable TV Schedule v1.01 (PDF) - Updated: 12.18.2011.

CrunchGear

2012-02-07T05:07:00.001-08:00

CrunchGear

Daily Crunch: Myopic
The Samsung Doth Advertise Too Much, Methinks
Real Augmented Reality Google Goggles In Prototype Stage?
Lip Reading, 3D Desktops, And NUI: Microsoft Plans To Reinvent User Interaction
Circuit Playground App Helps Makers Build Electronics
Amazon Incarnate: Bezos The Book Giant Is Planning A Store In Seattle
LL Cool G: Ladies Love Cool Gadgets Too, Says Study
Brinno Peephole Viewer Is A Viewer For Peepholes
Report: Samsung Planning A Full Line Of Galaxy S3 Phones, First Model To Hit This May

Daily Crunch: Myopic

Posted: 07 Feb 2012 01:00 AM PST

Here’s a selection of recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets:

Brinno Peephole Viewer Is A Viewer For Peepholes

LL Cool G: Ladies Love Cool Gadgets Too, Says Study

Real Augmented Reality Google Goggles In Prototype Stage?

Report: Samsung Planning A Full Line Of Galaxy S3 Phones, First Model To Hit This May

The Samsung Doth Advertise Too Much, Methinks

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:57 PM PST

At CES, the AOL booth where we worked, did interviews, and ate lunch was just a few short feet from Samsung’s huge Galaxy Note booth, where they were giving out free shirts printed with your caricature, drawn, of course, on a Galaxy Note. There was a line around this thing the entire time we were there, scores of people waiting for hours for their free t-shirt.

Outside CES there were enormous banners in the most prominent and expensive ad spots on the convention center. Phone? Tablet? It’s Galaxy Note™!

And just yesterday, in a grandiose ad rather out of keeping with their well-done “next big thing” campaign, the Note was made out to be the end of all our troubles, ending the tyranny of using our fingers and letting us circle and cross out and all those things you wish you could do on your obviously-now-obsolete iPhone.

But I saw the Note at CES and formed my opinion in about five or six seconds: it’s weak. And that’s why this advertising blitz makes so much sense.

First, let me just justify my judgment. At CES, I was handed a Note at some trade event. I felt it, hefted it: weird size, not big enough to make shows and movies and games pop, not small enough to be considered compact in any way. I was handed the pen, and made a few squiggles and letters. It was, like almost all active stylus LCDs, slightly laggy, accurate up to a point, and generally unsatisfying. And I’m in favor of using a stylus. The rest of the details will be in our full review when we get one for that purpose (I won’t be writing it), but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a pointless device. But that’s not what this article is about.

The thing is all this advertising. It reminded me very much of movies recently where they don’t allow advance reviews, gag people who go to screenings, and saturate the airwaves with promotional material. In the case of the movie, it’s so people will form a resolution to see the movie before the critics start beating on it. And even then, that earlier drive to see it will often overcome bad reviews. Who among us hasn’t gone to a blockbuster regardless of reviews?

Samsung is doing the same thing with the Galaxy Note. Although of course the European version has already been reviewed, consumers at large are not aware of that and likely think it’s a different product. Samsung is carpet bombing the world with Galaxy Note advertising so that people will decide they want it before they find out that it’s not, in fact, a killer product. Sure, it might be great for a few people who were looking for this kind of thing. But like the Flyer, HTC’s stylus-enabled tablet of old, it fails to deliver on its own promise. The screen and stylus aren’t new or interesting technology, nor is the OS. And as for the size, well, Dell tried it. But again, the point is not the device itself, which I obviously don’t like, it’s the launch strategy.

Sure, other companies have big launches all the time. But this is the biggest delta that I’ve seen, I think, between the effort to promote and the real confidence in the device. I think they put all this weight behind the Note because if they didn’t, the thing would sink without a trace. This way they might sell a few. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But treating the consumer electronics world like the movie world and selling on hype alone isn’t likely going to be a winning proposition. Devices can’t succeed on spectacle, and the economics are totally different.

Samsung makes a lot of great things, but the Note is not one of those things. It’s an awkward experiment that they felt could only break even on if they promoted it so relentlessly that people would have to believe it was a big-deal device. It’s a troubling trend and marks another point on the trend of CE companies competing awkwardly on either personality or spec. Few CE companies have any personality, unfortunately, and spec-sells are at best misleading and at worst a pack of lies. Samsung has no personality, and the Galaxy Note’s specs aren’t really salable. So they’re in the awkward position of selling by sheer visibility.

Real Augmented Reality Google Goggles In Prototype Stage?

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:28 PM PST

There have been whispers in the past of augmented reality goggles or glasses, but generally we have been able to dismiss them as exaggerations or concepts. The technology, while it isn’t unrealistic, simply isn’t quite there yet.

Apparently that hasn’t stopped Google: a new report is appearing corroborating earlier ones that they are working on a pair of augmented reality glasses. They’d piggyback on your phone’s connection and overlay information like directions, news, and so on.

Whether you think it’s a good idea or not, this kind of thing is going to come eventually, so it’s natural that Google would want to start girding itself for the approaching augmented glasses wars of 20XX.

The 9 to 5 Google report says they look something like a pair of athletic glasses, with a forward-facing camera and flash. The augmented reality bit is actually not a transparent display over one or both eyes, but a single opaque display on the side of one eyepiece (which eyepiece, and which side, were not specified). You operate it with voice or by moving your head around to navigate or select menu options.

Yes, not exactly the future we were expecting. I guarantee these things don’t look cool, either. But like I said, the technology isn’t there yet: cameras and processors aren’t small or fast enough, batteries can’t provide enough power, displays aren’t built for them, and computer vision isn’t good enough. Some of these things Google can work on, some they can’t. But the best way to have a product ready when the tech is there is to try to build one when the tech isn’t.

The glasses are apparently nowhere near done, unsurprisingly, and Google isn’t sure how to make anything out of them. A pilot program could be in the works, or it could continue to be an underground project, metamorphosing again and again until the market is ready. As it is, these things would be weird, expensive, and not particularly useful. In a couple years, though, who knows?

Lip Reading, 3D Desktops, And NUI: Microsoft Plans To Reinvent User Interaction

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:25 PM PST

Deep in the skunk works of its Research and Labs divisions, secreted around the Seattle area, Microsoft is working on totally reinventing the way people interact with their computers. Very little is out in the open or in more than a prototype form, but the work is unquestionably being done.

Last week it transpired that Microsoft is working on building Kinect into the bezels of laptops, and after that, presumably, tablets and eventually mobile phones. But it’s not just about building out the install base for Dance Central 3. It’s enabling the next generation of awareness in our electronics. The iPhone ushered in an era where our devices know when we touch them. Microsoft is working on the next one, in which our devices will simply know us.

How do you, as a person, experience the world around you? You mostly see and hear, and to a lesser extent you touch, taste, smell. Our devices, however, are largely restricted to an extremely limited sense of touch. Why shouldn’t they be more like us?

There’s a good reason, actually: computers don’t need to be like people because computers aren’t people. For years this has held true: the computer’s primary purpose for decades was to sit still and perform calculations humans couldn’t do. Interaction with a computer was strictly input, output. You didn’t interact so much as instruct, and wait for the result.

But mobile phones and touchscreens and laptops began changing the idea of a computer into something more personal, more interactive, more two-way. And technology exists to let our devices become more human. Why not let them?

Microsoft wants to. Despite their reputation among tech enthusiasts as a sort of stodgy blue-chip still coasting on the PC explosion of the late 90s and early 2000s, their R&D sections are world-class and put out actually innovative ideas and devices all the time. The trouble, briefly stated, is that implementing these ideas as products that fit into the Microsoft ecosystem isn’t easy, and even if it were, Microsoft has no talent for it.

But this work on “Natural User Interaction,” or NUI, is more promising. People have embraced the idea in gaming: the Wii led the way and the Kinect brought the future into your living room, though the future is a little laggy and the voice controls spotty. People are simply interested in new ways of interacting with their content and devices. For years the promise of a different kind of interaction has been dangling, in the form of sci-fi shows and movies usually, and people have always been intrigued by it.

So people want it — and Microsoft wants to make it — and they have the technology. Purchasing the IP behind the Kinect was an extremely smart move, maybe smarter than they know. What started out as a way to cash in on the market the Wii had created has snowballed into an entirely new form of interacting with computers, and a way for Microsoft to differentiate itself meaningfully for years to come.

It was reported to me that one of the things the new Kinect/depth/IR sensors will do is read lips. At first it sounds silly. Why? Maybe so it can better interpret your words from across the room, or in a loud environment. You won’t have to turn the music down to search and navigate the web on your TV or tablet.

And then it becomes clear that it’s just part of a larger suite of “senses” the device would have. The new devices are to have face recognition and voice recognition, so your password will be you saying your password in your own voice, not someone else, and not a print-out of you. They’ll be able to pick you out of a crowd, say a small party, and will be able to tell when you’re giving it a command — because you make eye contact and move your lips. Again, it sounds perfectly ridiculous until it starts sounding perfectly natural.

Another feature described was a sort of 3D desktop on which you could actually grab files and place them here and there. This has been tried before, of course, and Windows 8 is looking decided two-dimensional, so it’s probably more of a research project than anything. But it’s still interesting. Think of the basic gestures you might be able to make. One was described as pulling out a drawer. In the surprisingly resilient desktop metaphor of files and folders, what could be more natural? Or perhaps raising your hand palm up to show the task bar or dock? Trace your finger in a counter-clockwise circle to undo, clockwise to redo?

User experience reflects both the needs of the user and the capabilities of the device. For a few years now we’ve been satisfied with running our fingers along a slab of glass, producing an electrical signal interpreted as a point or blob — mainly because capacitive screens got good and cheap, and nobody wants to plug a mouse into their phone. But there are many other ways of interacting with our new mobile objects and information. Soon the glass touchscreen will seem as quaint as the command-line interface.

And yet, some are no doubt thinking, we still have some command-line interfaces in use. Sure. And mice and keyboards are still better for productivity, and a pen and paper is better for sketching out ideas, and headphones are better for listening to music in public. There are countless use cases and potential applications of technology, but it’s good to recognize when one should give way or simply isn’t applicable.

Microsoft is working hard at this, and you’d better believe that Apple is too, though they aren’t nearly as open about their research. And for once, they seem to actually be missing a piece of the technology pie: Microsoft has a head start on them in the world of NUI, having purchased and developed depth and personal sensors for at least two years now. Apple can always throw money at the problem, but it’s pretty clear that Microsoft has perceived this rare advantage and will be using it as a wedge wherever possible.

This shouldn’t be taken as an indication that Windows 8 is going to be anything other than advertised, but I think it will be a test bed for some major changes coming down the line. Microsoft wants to change the way people interact with computers because it sees, hopefully not too late, that the old way, the PC way, treating a computer like a box that computes things, is on its way out in a hurry. So if computers are going to be a part of the real world, they need to be able to live in that world. Eyes, ears, and who knows what else. It’s only creepy until you can’t live without it.

[images: Matthew Fisher/Stanford, Wolfgang Herfuntner]

Circuit Playground App Helps Makers Build Electronics

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:26 AM PST

If you don’t know a resistor from a Mister Mister, this is the app for you. Built by Adafruit, creators of DIY Arduino gear, Circuit Playground is a $2.99 app designed to help you identify and understand various electronic components. For example, the app includes a resistor identification system based on the colored bands painted on the casing as well as a field guide to many electrical components.

The rest of the tools – including converters, calculators, and datasheet storage systems – just makes things a little bit easier when you’re building an electronics project. I’m terrible at this stuff so it would be a boon for me and my slow-witted monkey mind.

Decipher resistor & capacitor codes with ease
Calculate power, resistance, current, and voltage with the Ohm's Law & Power Calc modules
Quickly convert between decimal, hexadecimal, binary or even ASCII characters
Calculate values for multiple resistors or capacitors in series & parallel configurations
Store, search, and view PDF datasheets
Access exclusive sneak peaks, deals & discounts at Adafruit Industries

The app is available now for the iPhone and iPad.

Product Page

Amazon Incarnate: Bezos The Book Giant Is Planning A Store In Seattle

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:46 AM PST

According to GoodEReader, Amazon is planning to open a retail store in Seattle this year where they will sell Amazon-exclusive books and, more importantly, Kindles of all kinds. While this looks to be more of a pop-up retail presence than a fully-fledged store, if I were in publishing I’d be circling the wagons right now.

To be fair, Amazon’s own publishing offerings are pretty wonky so far. There haven’t been many runaway successes coming out of the house although Seth Godin and Tim Ferris will soon be bringing their own brand of publishing success and there are some interesting cross-cultural titles coming out. But that’s not why publishing has to worry.

The Kindle was Amazon incarnate, a way for Amazon to bring its online presence into the real world. A physical Kindle store – one that exists in a mall or popular area, even for a short period – is like the third coming. It’s basically a chance for Amazon to grab every else they have missed during the initial run up in Kindle popularity. We’re talking older folks, luddites, grumps, and folks who claim that “reading it in paper” is better. To have them walk up to a display of working Kindles, newly minted and displaying the latest Stephen King book, is the only way Amazon will convince them that going digital is the only way to go.

This will also encourage the movement from the agent-publisher-distributor model of book publishing into a direct to consumer model that Amazon will spearhead. By showing potential authors that they can get their books bound in handsome Kindle editions, they’ll be more likely to go that route instead of pounding fruitlessly against the gates of big publishing. It’s obviously a no-brainer to many of us, but old paradigms die hard.

As I said before, the Fire is Amazon’s Trojan Horse. However, rather than the wary hold-outs bringing in Amazon’s market by buying the fire, Amazon will bring the Trojans to their own branded stores.

The store will appear in Settle in the next few months and presumably be the first of a nation-wide roll-out. I suspect it will be a bit of a loss for Amazon but hopefully it will convert the last hold-outs to the benefits of ereading.

LL Cool G: Ladies Love Cool Gadgets Too, Says Study

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:18 AM PST

As the only girl on the Gadgets team, I often get asked to write what I call “lady-rants” about products targeted toward women. I have a problem with most of them, as the products themselves are either being forced into a demographic by marketers (like the HTC Rhyme, which would’ve been a fine phone for anyone if marketed that way) or they’re simply painted pink in the hopes that pink is, in fact, what all women have been looking for in their consumer electronics.

The truth of the matter is, men have spent more money on consumer electronics in the past and, as a result, women have unfortunately been left with ads targeted towards men or pink versions of everything. But no more.

According to a study out of the CEA, the same folks that brought you that over-sized week of madness called CES, more and more women are showing an interest in consumer electronics than they were in the past.

Specifically, eight in ten women expressed an interest in gadgets, up 10 percentage points from the same time in 2007. Of those women, 41 percent said they were “very interested” in consumer electronics. But it gets more interesting than that.

In 2007, the spending gap between men and women in the CE space was around $200, with men obviously spending more. Now, men spend an average of $728 over the course of a year, as opposed to women spending an average of $667 during the same period. That’s a difference of just $61.

But even if women spend a bit less and show less interest than guys, women are still a part of the picture when it comes to their man’s gadgetry. According to the study, 61 percent of women either initiate or are involved in the decision-making when it comes to consumer electronics purchases.

Both men and women look at the same things when purchasing a product, most important of which is price, followed by ease of use, warranty, and multiple functionality. Where men and women differ, however, is on size (shocker!). Speaking from the standpoint of someone who wears girls’ jeans, size is pretty important to women when it comes to mobile gadgetry like smartphones and tablets, a sentiment echoed by the study.

And perhaps the most important thing we can take away from this study comes out of the mouth of CEA manager of strategic research Jessica Boothe:

Forget pink. Women don't want to be catered to with ultra-feminine looking products; they simply prefer lightweight devices that can fit smaller hands and smaller body frames. Women play many roles, like mother, spouse and career women, and CE products that can perform many functions are a necessity.

[IMG Credit: ShutterStock]

Brinno Peephole Viewer Is A Viewer For Peepholes

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:17 AM PST

My Dad, bless his heart, spends all day on the Internet and, like a reverse Cat’s In The Cradle, my dad is just like me in that he loves to find wild junk that he thinks is interesting. To wit: he just found the Brinno Peephole Viewer, an electronic system for looking through a peephole.

To be fair, this is definitely something people need. My parents are getting up in years so they’re getting both blind and paranoid, so anything to assuage those two situations is a plus. This thing attaches to your normal peephole and then displays the scene behind the peephole on an LCD screen. It runs on two AA batteries and costs about $90.

The viewer also reduces fish-eye distortion found with regular, non-LCD peepholes.

It’s definitely not new nor is it particularly high tech, but if you, like me, are dealing with a set of parents who are getting up there in years and need a leg up, it might be a nice investment. Besides, it’s fun to say peephole.

Product Page

Report: Samsung Planning A Full Line Of Galaxy S3 Phones, First Model To Hit This May

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 07:13 AM PST

Samsung’s next flagship smartphone needs to be huge, iPhone 4 huge. It needs to be as competitive as the Galaxy S II as its set to go head-to-head with the iPhone 5. But success won’t be found as easily this time. Samsung had nearly a full year to design and release Galaxy S II after the iPhone 4′s release. The company doesn’t have that luxury this time around.

South Korean news outlet Electronic Times News just published a report that pegs the S3 as a superphone on a diet. The report states that printed circuit boards, chips and connectors allowed for an overall thickness (or thinness) of just 7mm. That’s 1.9mm thinner than the current Galaxy SII — not that several millimeters really mater. But even though the phone is thinner overall, Samsung is reportedly packing their next flagship to the gills.

Inside the svelte body is a quad-core CPU of unknown pedigree or clock speed running Android 4.0. The new model will use the same 8MP camera as the S II, which will result in a slight extrusion on the phone’s backplate. Inside is the usually assortment of an LTE radio, WiFi, GPS, and, although not specifically mentioned in this report, NFC is highly likely. No word on screen size.

But early adaptors might want to hold off. Samsung is reportedly set to launch a large line of Galaxy S3 phones in 2012.

etnews states that Samsung is preparing several S3 flavors. One model will have a better camera and one will use a stylus (like the Note!). There will even be 3D variation. The exact release schedule is not mentioned but expect a steady stream of S3 phones this year and early next.

The Samsung Galaxy S II was a massive success but it could have been better. The company announced the phone at MWC in late February 2011 but it didn’t hit markets until May/June. The company is seeking to eliminate that lag by not launching the S3 at MWC this year. The phone will instead get its own event closer to launch, and if etnews is to be believed, the phone will be released this coming May.

The scene is set. The lines are drawn. The summer of 2012 is set to play host to a massive battle: the iPhone 5 vs the Samsung Galaxy S III. But don’t get caught up in the nonsense war. Stand on the sideline and watch as two, likely awesome, smartphones trade shots. In the end it doesn’t really matter. The consumer wins no matter what.

Google Alert - hot trends

2012-02-06T11:27:00.001-08:00

News

6 new results for hot trends

Super Bowl XLVI, Citigroup: Hot Trends
TheStreetTV
Super Bowl XLVI, Citigroup: Hot Trends.
See all stories on this topic »

8 CRM trends you need to watch
ITworld.com
By Jennifer Lonoff Schiff , CIO | Software Add a new comment February 06, 2012, 7:54 AM — Last year, the two hot customer relationship management trends to watchÂ— and adopt Â— were social CRM and mobile CRM. To find out whether they will continue ...
See all stories on this topic »

Who's Hot Who's Not – The 57th Filmfare Awards
Bollywood Spice
Verdict – Bipasha Basu looks hot but her outfit is Not Hot! Farhan Akhtar has opted for the bow tie suit look and I think he looks great. I do like this his wife Adhuna Akhtar has decided to be different and work the androgynous trend but it really ...
See all stories on this topic »

Bollywood Spice

Monthly Crime Report: Street Robberies & Copper Theft Continue to Trend
Patch.com
By Judy Mottl One of the top crime trends in the First Precinct during January continued to be street robberies in which assailants steal valuable mobile devices such as smartphones and iPods. Another trend, according to police, continues to be home ...
See all stories on this topic »

Fashion trends Spring-Summer 2012
Bulgarian fashion directory
If you want to be in fashion for Spring and Summer you can also add to your wardrobe fringe, pleats and perforated fabrics. Dresses made entirely from lace are also a nice choice. Total white look is another hot trend that you can rely on for ...
See all stories on this topic »

Top 5 Workforce Management Priorities for 2012
RIS News (blog)
They must take into consideration variables such as seasonality, buying trends and the emergence of hot items. They can't just schedule for next week or next month; they need to look across the year at what has happened in the past, what is desired to ...
See all stories on this topic »

Web

4 new results for hot trends

Scarf savvy: hot trends of 2012 | Gay News for Gay Denver :: Out ...
There are many styles to choose from but we've found some of the hottest trends to wrap you up in style. Whether you prefer high-end accessories from a ...
outfrontcolorado.com/.../life.../scarf-savvy-hot-trends-of-2012...

Hot Trends of 2012: Blue Sapphire and Diamond Wedding Ring ...
Trends show continued use of this blending of styles and colors, and with the countless options available, there is bound to be something for every couple.
www.thediamondauthority.org/sapphire-and-diamond-weddin...

Two Americans Kidnapped In Egypt | US Hot Trends
Gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula kidnapped two American women in an apparent attempt to hold them for ransom, security sources said.
ushottrends.com/2012/02/.../two-americans-kidnapped-in-egy...

Google Trends | Hot Trends
2012 Trends · Celebrity Trends · Fashion Trends · Google Trends · Hot Trends · New Trends · Top Trends · UK Trends · USA Trends · 2012 fashion trends ...
hottrendsfinder.com/tag/google-trends

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