Thursday, January 5, 2012

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The Logitech Cube Attempts To Redefine The Humble Mouse Top
logitech-cube2Somewhere deep in the bowels of Logitech, a committee, attempting to think outside of the box, created a box. It's called the Cube (even though it's clearly not a cube) and it's a mouse. And a presenter. I think.
 
Daily Crunch: Smarter Top
1513Here are some recent Gadgets stories: Mogees: Multitouch On Any Surface With A Contact Microphone Cubelets Promise Robotic Good Times Velocity Micro Shows Its New Tablets And Pico Projector Before CES Roku's Streaming Stick Makes Your Dumb TV Much Smarter Kodak Reportedly Preparing For Bankruptcy Auction Of Patents
 
Lenovo Debuts A Pair Of Ultrabooks, The $1599 ThinkPad X1 Hybrid And $849 ThinkPad T430u Top
thinkpad-x1-hybridLenovo is serious about ultrabooks. The company just introduced two new ultrabooks that will live alongside the company's existing model, the ThinkPad X1. These three models put Lenovo in a unique position in the ultrabook game. While other companies are releasing their first ultrabooks, here's Lenovo, with a relatively large product offering including a high-end model and an attractive entry-level model.
 
Fujifilm Reveals 19 New Cameras For CES – Here Are Some Of Them Top
headerThe compulsion in camera makers to release a dozen or more cameras at a time is understandable, I guess. Get 'em all out of the way so the PR company isn't always worrying about this or that release date, embargo time, or what have you. But for your humble blogger, it is something of a trial. In this case Fujifilm has revealed their CES lineup of point-and-shoots, and there are no less than 19 of them. And that's not counting the rumored X1 interchangeable-lens camera we are also expecting. Let's take a little sample of Fuji's offering. There's nothing groundbreaking, just so you know, but if you're in the market for a point and shoot, take a quick look. If you'd like more complete specs and the whole lineup, go to Fuji's CES page; these are just our highlights.
 
Apple Reportedly Butting Heads With Content Producers Over iTV Top
itvThere's a problem with the idea of an iTV, rumors of which have been sloshing about for a long time, but with greater intensity since Steve Jobs' biography hinted at one. Unlike an Apple TV, an iPhone, an iPad, or other devices, an Apple TV wouldn't be tied to a Mac, and it wouldn't take advantage of iTunes the way those devices do. It'll be related, of course, but it doesn't promote the "hub" idea that drives iPhone owners to buy Macs, Mac owners to buy iPhones, and all the other crossover purchases that interweave the Apple ecosystem. Instead, it would be an Apple-designed window into content that Apple has very little control over. And while you can bring a new idea to the TV space, as set-top boxes and Google TV have, you can't make the TV space play nice. Google learned that the hard way. And it looks like Apple may be facing a similar challenge.
 
Fly Or Die: The Nokia Lumia 710 And The Meizu MX Top
scaledwm-img_4446I've been playing with the Lumia 710 for a week or so now and I'm pleased to report that Nokia may have a chance. The phone, while a bit chintzy, is inexpensive, fast, and feature-rich. I doubt you'd be able to find a device as easy to use and comfortable as the 710 at a $50 price with two year contract. We also tried the Meizu MX and came away, well, un-awed. It's a cool phone, it's only available in China right now, and there are a few bugs to work out before it could consider a second life on this side of the pond. I was more kind to it than Erick, but we're both equally trepidatious.
 
Google Ventures, Mark Cuban And Others Invest $1M In Social CRM Startup Nimble Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-04 at 8.23.35 PMCustomer relationship management startup Nimble has raised $1 million in funding from notable investors Mark Cuban, Jason Calacanis, Don Dodge, Dharmesh Shah and more! Nimble CEO Jon Ferrara views Nimble as a combination Hootsuite, Yammer and Salesforce. Unlike CRM tools like Salesforce, which Ferrara equates to stagnant databases of customers, Nimble takes into account that today's salespeople are social.
 
Do Blogs Need Comment Reels? Yes, and Here's How Top
Gag The TrollsCommenting on blogs is broken. But what we need is a solution, not an abandonment of the concept. The question comes up every few months, but new social commenting technology means there are better answers now than ever before. Over the last day MG Siegler, MacStories, and mobile developer Mike Gemell have all written about choosing the nuclear option and turning off comments entirely on their sites. Their key reasons for doing so seem to be: 1. Comment reels are full of trolls, bile, and spam links 2. There's no way for popular sites to keep up with comments on old posts 3. Comment reels give random people too much visibility and distract from primary content Here are my proposed solutions to these problems.
 
Why Is Aol Still Charging People For "Email"? Top
Screen Shot 2012-01-04 at 7.19.39 PMNow this is just hilarious. Apparently this Arizona woman has been paying for "email" for almost a decade -- even though it's been available free for a while and free for Aol users since 2006.  According to a year-old "New Yorker" article by Ken Auletta, over 75% of the dial-up portion of Aol's 3.5 million subscribers are like Traci Casale. So why are these idiots people still paying for email? I mean you know things are bad when a publication called "Arizona Family" is making fun of you.
 
Why Don't Smartphones Have A "Guest Mode"? Top
Guest Home"Hey, can I see your phone real quick?" Oh, crap. What tabs did you leave open in Safari? Did you delete those photos (you know, those photos. The ones you promised her you'd delete?) That My Little Pony app that you totally-installed-just-to-test-your-download-speed-seriously-shut-up... is it still there? Quick, hand it over before you pique their curiosity! Or say "no" and be the weirdo who wouldn't hand their phone over to a friend for a second. If only there were some sort of on-the-fly middle ground — a "Guest Mode", if you will.
 
Colin Gillis: Yahoo's Business Model Is "Looking Increasingly Archaic" Top
Colin GillisWall Street was not super-impressed with today's announcement of Yahoo's new CEO Scott Thompson. The stock was down 2 percent in the morning and ended the day down 3 percent. I spoke with analyst Colin Gillis of BGC Financial in the video above who says the drumming the stock got was "less a vote on Scott's ability" than a "vote on Yahoo not going private."
 
Not So Evil: Google Penalizes Chrome's PageRank For Policy Violation Top
Google Medal of Honor"I love the name of honor, more than I fear death" - Julius Caesar. Google does too, apparently. The company has lowered the PageRank of its Chrome download page after violating its own paid link policy during a sponsored blog post campaign for the browser by Google's ad agency Unruly Media. Google's head of webspam Matt Cutts responded to criticism of the campaign last night, saying his team "has taken manual action to demote www.google.com/chrome for at least 60 days". Some accuse Google of lying about not knowing it was buying sponsored blog posts through Unruly. I argue it might have thought it was buying StumbleUpon Paid Discovery or other legitimate ads.
 
Mogees: Multitouch On Any Surface With A Contact Microphone Top
gestHere's an interesting little project that, while it's unlikely to grow into a major product, nevertheless demonstrates the potential of alternative interfaces. Bruno Zamborlin's Mogees (an abbreviation of "mosaicing gestural surface") takes input from a contact microphone and analyzes it to determine the placement and direction of gestures on any surface through which vibrations can be detected. I wrote a while back about how the "finger on a glass touchscreen" wasn't the be-all and end-all of user interaction. The stylus, for example, has much life left in it. And interfaces we haven't even thought of will emerge as well. Why not a puck that turns your table into a touchable surface? It really has to be seen to be understood.
 
Healthcare Field of Dreams In Idaho: Health System Opens Innovation Center Top
imageFifteen years ago the Internet was revolutionizing global communications and computing so companies were looking for the most advanced markets to test their technologies. Locales such as Korea and Singapore portended the future. Today, no less than reinvention of healthcare is taking place. A key question is which locales will provide a similar testbed for healthtech. It's not always the obvious places. Healthcare providers such as the Mayo Clinic have been at the vanguard of adopting new technologies and approaches. However, this remains a provider-centric approach and the Mayo Clinic has far more resources than a community hospital or clinic. Ultimately, a broader community-focused effort can demonstrate how new approaches can scale nationally across a wide array of settings. That is, an approach that spans all income and demographic sectors as well as a range from urban to rural settings.
 
Groupon Merchant Center Now Shows If Customers Love or Hate Your Deals Top
Groupon Customer SatisfactionTo combat the lack of transparency around customer satisfaction with daily deals, Groupon today launched a new version of its Merchant Center. It includes the real-time percentage of deal customers who would recommend the business to a friend, plus their comments. Customer satisfaction is a big question for merchants wondering if they should start or continue running daily deals. Data on satisfaction rates is scarce, though. Worse,  a 2010 study showed that just 36% of customers spend more than the value of a deal, and just 20% return to the business. The feature could be a double-edged sword, encouraging retention or desertion depending on a merchant's feedback.
 
Microsoft's Newest Flight Simulator Goes Freemium Top
1In the gaming world, there are gamers, there are hardcore gamers... and then there are flight sim players. These guys exist on a plane of dedication that they reside on almost exclusively, with a degree of commitment matched only by their spiritual brothers: the train sim players. Alas, no level of dedication can pay to keep the lights on if the fan base simply isn't big enough... hence the layoff of Microsoft's entire Flight Simulator team back in 2009. Looking to start afresh and bring new blood (and new wallets) into the fan base, Microsoft's taking a different approach with their latest game, Flight: it's going freemium.
 
Kodak Reportedly Preparing For Bankruptcy Auction Of Patents Top
Kodak+Film+Pack_01Poor Kodak. At this point, they're just along for the ride. The last few years have been rough on them, and they've made a few big decisions that haven't panned out. I must admit that while my unsolicited advice to them was sound, it probably would have to have been put in place a decade ago for them to have avoided the current state of things. As it is, the WSJ has word that they are planning to file Chapter 11 and do a court-supervised auction of their many digital imaging patents. It's sad, but the truth is that while Kodak is very much still a valuable company, it's simply not a viable business any more. Their efforts to change the business they're in came too late — and now they're in the business of going under.
 
Credit Karma Launches Free Credit Monitoring, Enrolls 100,000 Users In A Day Top
credit-karma-logoCredit Karma, the online service for keeping track of your credit score, has launched a new feature: free credit monitoring. Within the first day of its existence (the option became available just yesterday), the company has managed to enroll an impressive 100,000 users for the opt-in credit monitoring service. The move brings Credit Karma's total user base to over 4 million.
 
Are You The World's Best Programmer? Compete In Facebook's 2012 Hacker Cup Top
Screen shot 2012-01-04 at 11.54.37 AMFacebook has announced its 2012 Hacker Cup, a global computer programming competition. The event will serve as an important recruiting tool to attract great coders to the company, which is constantly battling for fresh engineering talent with other tech giants. In each round, competitors will try to solve complex algorithmic problems as quickly and accurately as possible. Finalists are flown to Facebook HQ, with the winner named the world's best hacker. Hopefully, the event will go smoother than last year, where instructions were vague and scattered, leading to confusion and frustration.
 
Microsoft, OEMs Pledging $200 Million For Windows Phone Marketing Push Top
windows-phone-7If you're not a Windows fan, then these next few months may not be too pleasant for you. WinSupersite's Paul Thurrott reports that Microsoft and OEM friends like Nokia and Samsung will be spending around $200 million in order give Windows Phone a big marketing push in early 2012.
 

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