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- EC Opens Antitrust Proceedings To Investigate Apple, E-book Publishers ‘Cartel’
- Daily Crunch: Magic Cable
- Watch The Dance Of The Flying Builderbots
- Asus: Netbooks Outsold Tablets Nearly 3 To 1 In 2011, Big Things In Store For 2012
- LEGO And Minecraft: Made For Each Other
- Historic UK Tube Station Bans DSLRs But Not Other Cameras
- New Nissan Leaf Models Will Feature Wireless Charging And Other Electrical Advances
- $99 Chinese Tablet Is MIPS-Based, Runs Android 4.0
- DARPA Contest Winners Prove Shredders Aren’t Quite As Safe As You Think
- The TouchFire Chronicles: How Two Guys Raised $100K To Make A Magical Keyboard
- 50 Cent Debuts His New Cans: Street And Sync By 50 (Video)
- This Red MacBook Is Real, But It’s Not What You Think
- Is Dell Finally Walking Away From The Android Tablet Game?
- DIY Printable Strandbeest
| EC Opens Antitrust Proceedings To Investigate Apple, E-book Publishers ‘Cartel’ Posted: 06 Dec 2011 03:06 AM PST  The European Commission this morning announced that it has opened formal antitrust proceedings to investigate whether a number of international ebook publishers have engaged in anti-competitive practices affecting the sale of e-books in Europe, “possibly with the help of Apple” (which offers an e-book storefront called iBooks). According to the press release, the opening of proceedings means that the EC will “treat the case as a matter of priority”. The publishers that were identified in the announcement of the antitrust probe are Hachette Livre (Lagardère Publishing, France), Harper Collins (News Corp., USA), Simon & Schuster (CBS Corp., USA), Penguin (Pearson Group, United Kingdom) and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck (owner of inter alia Macmillan, Germany). The Commission says it will, in particular, investigate whether these publishers and Apple have engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would “have the object or the effect of restricting competition” in the European Union or in the European Economic Area (EEA). The commission is also looking into “agency agreements” between the publishers and e-book retailers, in collaboration with the UK Office of Fair Trading. The EC says it is concerned whether some of the publishers’ and Apple’s practices “may breach EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices”. The opening of the proceedings follows unannounced inspections that were carried out by the Commission at the premises of several e-book publishers in March 2011. Serious stuff, in other words. (Image courtesy of Flickr user alancleaver_2000) Here’s the full press release:
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| Posted: 06 Dec 2011 01:00 AM PST |
| Watch The Dance Of The Flying Builderbots Posted: 05 Dec 2011 07:39 PM PST When I first wrote about the dancing quadcopters last week, I noted there was no video. Well, now there’s video. The IEEE has a great collection of photos and a fresh video from the exhibit showing how the robots work in concert to build a fun little tower. It’s a wild project and a wild technology and, more important, these monsters can scale to build bigger buildings. Could robots one day build our houses or, more in keeping with the theme of future robotic uprisings, tear them down using demolition bots.
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| Asus: Netbooks Outsold Tablets Nearly 3 To 1 In 2011, Big Things In Store For 2012 Posted: 05 Dec 2011 07:16 PM PST  Netbooks are still big business for Asustek. So much so that the hotness from 2009 outsold Asus tablets in 2011. Per numbers released at the company’s global sales meeting (and relayed by Digitimes), Asustek expects to ship 4.8 netbooks by the end of 2011 but only 1.8 million tablets. But that’s expected to change in 2012. The roles will be reversed and Asus sees big things for next year. Once upon a time, the Eee PC was the netbook to own. It was loved by moms and modders alike. It was (and still is) cheap, well-equipped, and widely available at a number of retailers. In 2010 the Eee PC owned 20% of the netbook market and it’s estimated that Asus shipped 6-8 million units that year alone. But netbooks were always a stopgap product of sorts and never expected to be with us forever. With shipments predictable down in 2011, the company is likely looking to tablets to pick up the slack. Asus offered basically one tablet model in 2011: the hot Eee Pad Transformer. This tablet was announced at CES 2011 where it instantly won over geeks with impressive specs but an even more tasty $399 MSRP. Even though it didn’t hit the retail market until May, it apparently sold pretty well for an Android device. It must have made up the bulk of Asus’ tablet sales. Besides the Transformer, there’s the Eee Pad Slider and the brand new Transformer Prime. But those three tablets stood tall against the company’s established but shrinking Eee PC product line. Asus is predicting a total shipment amount of 1.8 million tablets this year. That number is expected to rise to 3 million next year, picking up the slack of the dying netbook, but also, per Asus, surpassing Samsung’s tablets. Yep, Asus expects to beat the Samsung Galaxy Tab army. That would be, in case you can’t keep up, the Samsung Galaxy Note, the GalTab 7.0, the 7.7, the 8.9, the 10.1 and all the different variations between them — those are just the models announced this year. If Asus follows its own recent path, it expects to best Samsung with a much more simple offering. Netbooks shot Asus into the primetime and established the company as a consumer brand. But netbooks are quickly getting killed off by tablets. If Asus stays its course and things go as they hope, the journey between netbooks and tablets should be relatively painless.
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| LEGO And Minecraft: Made For Each Other Posted: 05 Dec 2011 06:01 PM PST  While this can’t be the first time LEGO and indie hit Minecraft have been mentioned in the same breath, I think it’s the first time they’ve really been mixed to this degree. Mojang, the developer of the multi-million-selling mining and adventuring game has put up a project on LEGO’s CUUSOO site, which allows people to submit LEGO projects and get royalties from them if they’re selected for production. As a player of Minecraft, I can actually see some utility in this, in addition to the fact that it’s just plain cool and a good fit. Minecraft’s blocks are a regular size and these blocks could actually be used to plan out the fabulous palaces and apparati we all have planned for our little worlds. I’d also love a Creeper minifig. In order for this to be reviewed by LEGO, the design needs 10,000 votes. Right now there are actually two projects, one submitted by Mojang and one by a fan. The former has about 4000 votes and the latter has almost 6000, so they could both use your support if you’re interested in this at all. You can sign in with Facebook or get an account at the site, which is actually quite neat. Perhaps this was the project Minecraft lead dev Notch was moving on to?
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| Historic UK Tube Station Bans DSLRs But Not Other Cameras Posted: 05 Dec 2011 05:31 PM PST  Here’s an odd little quirk of the modern age you’re not likely to see again soon. South of Holborn in London (many nice bookstores in the area), there’s a tube station that has been out of use for decades. Aldwych (previously Strand) station has been preserved as an historical landmark and used in a number of films and shows. Just recently it was opened up to the public for tours: £20 for entry, doubtless an interesting spectacle popular among both tourists and locals. And just outside, a sign reading: “Due to their combination of high-quality sensor and high resolution, digital SLR cameras are unfortunately not permitted inside the station.” How delightfully absurd! Now, naturally there must be some restrictions on recording equipment. You mustn’t use flash photography on the Mona Lisa, and professional videographers and photographers apply for licenses for off-hours shoots and so on. So it’s not like you can bring your tripod, flash umbrella, models and stylists to do an impromptu shoot wherever you like. But really, now. A wholesale ban on an extremely popular device very likely to be possessed by the people coming to this location? And of course the DSLR format is by no means a guarantee of quality pictures, if preventing quality is the aim of this policy. A mobile phone will take better pictures than DSLRs from a few years back if used properly. And compact high-quality cameras are gaining ground as well: would the security guards confiscate an X100 or Olympus PEN camera? In the case of a museum or tour, in which the property is in fact private and you are paying for admission, you must agree to their silly rules, though I expect such rules will soon be dropped as they are recognized as pointless and ineffective. But this kind of ignorant restriction is of a piece with the more disturbing ones we see placed on public photography, in which entire buildings are supposedly immune to picture-taking from the street. The rules are imaginary, of course, or at best arbitrary, as shown here. It’s not even worth arguing about how you might circumvent it. This sign is something you can just shake your head at and buy a postcard to make up for a lack of photos, but the mindset behind it — aggressive ignorance — is dangerous. [via Amateur Photographer and PetaPixel]
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| New Nissan Leaf Models Will Feature Wireless Charging And Other Electrical Advances Posted: 05 Dec 2011 02:52 PM PST  We like the Leaf. It’s not a good choice for everyone, but it’s a great second car or city car, set back the most perhaps by the trouble one has to take in charging it. At home you are advised to spring for a high-capacity outlet, and abroad you must plan your trips to coincide with existing charge points. Anything that can make adding power to these cars easier will increase their marketability. To that end, Nissan has announced that the next generation of Leafs (Leaves?) will feature a wireless charging mechanism that, they say, will charge as fast as a normal wall outlet. That’s still 8 hours for the fast charger, of course, but it’s something an average consumer will enjoy: park the car and it’s already charging. More importantly, it means that Nissan, a major force in the electric car market right now, has chosen a style and vendor for wireless charging, and others may follow suit. You’ll notice that cars all have the same size fuel intake, so you can fill up at any gas station. Why should it be any different for wireless electrical charging going forward? We’ve seen solutions of this type before, even some that seemed outlandish (a charging lane?), but Nissan hasn’t dropped any names, nor, on the other hand, implied that the technology is internal. But whatever it is, it will have a competitive advantage in being one of the first to hit the consumer market. Unfortunately it will not be able to be installed on old models. Early adopters take note. Another improvement for the new Leaf is a mode where it stores energy at night, when the rates are cheaper, and uses it to power your home during the day. It will be too expensive for most to install at first (probably around $7500-$8000) but it’s an interesting idea. The range should be increased as well, and lower costs for batteries and components should bring the price down a grand or two. The changes are expected to be rolled out in the 2013 model. We’ll be seeing many other full-electric vehicles debut before then, including Tesla’s affordable Model S and lots of entries from Nissan’s other branches and other vehicle makers as well. Whether inductive charging and home power plant capability will become standard is a question to revisit in a few years’ time. Here’s a vehicle explaining things in a little more detail:
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| $99 Chinese Tablet Is MIPS-Based, Runs Android 4.0 Posted: 05 Dec 2011 01:10 PM PST  You could be forgiven for overlooking the Ainovo Novo7, a 7-inch Chinese Android tablet, as likely just another me-too device to be sold in electronics districts next to fake iPhones and bulk cables. And in a way, that’s what it is: at $100, it can’t possibly be as well-built as the iPad or newer Galaxy Tabs, and the size and design aren’t going to impress anyone. But it’s got two things going for it: Ice Cream Sandwich and MIPS. Naturally to many people neither of those terms signify much of anything. Most people only care whether it runs Netflix and Angry Birds. But both these features point at an interesting breakage between the China and US markets, one that will only widen with time. First, there is Ice Cream Sandwich, with which our readers are probably already familiar. With a number of new features, performance improvements, and so on, it’s the next generation of Android and the hope is that it will help to unify the disparate platforms stuck at this or that previous version. It’s making its debut on the Galaxy Nexus, which is shipping as I write this. Yet it made its real debut in China on a clone device last week, and now it’s on another, perhaps more interesting one. There will be a flood of ICS devices soon, sure, but it’s really indicative of how totally disconnected the Chinese and US markets are, to say nothing of the European, Australian, Indian, Korean, and so on. It’s humorous that while the immense machinery of the US marketing machine is warming up, preparing to ship, and running prime-time ads, there are devices available for purchase outright for a few bills on the street in China. And these aren’t pirate devices: the Novo7 is the real thing, with access to Google services, though Market access is restricted in China. Andy Rubin even praised the device as a “big win.” Part of why Rubin called out the device was its MIPS architecture. Without getting too technical, suffice it to say that MIPS is an alternative to x86 (which we find on our computers) and ARM (which we find in our phones and tablets) architectures. Why should that matter? Because China wants it to matter. Back in March we heard about China’s Loongson processor series, which is totally homegrown in an effort to avoid reliance on western-owned technologies. The Loongsons use a MIPS architecture as well, and it’s likely that China’s government is heavily subsidizing this research and companies that produce MIPS chips in order to further cut the cords that tie China to the west. Indeed, Ingenic, the manufacturer of the chip inside the Novo7, is Chinese (not a big surprise) and specializes in MIPS architecture. These China-specific devices are going to be more difficult to internationalize, but cheaper to produce and sell locally. It’s sort of protectionism via R&D. This is only the beginning, though, as MIPS architecture is still a ways behind ARM and Intel in efficiency and speed. But seeing a tablet like this really does drive home the differences between our countries which may shape the consumer electronics trade for decades to come. [via ComputerWorld]
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| DARPA Contest Winners Prove Shredders Aren’t Quite As Safe As You Think Posted: 05 Dec 2011 10:02 AM PST  DARPA’s Shredder Challenge, a contest to reconstruct documents from a slurry of shredded paper, has been solved, suggesting that my grandmother may be barking up the wrong tree when she shreds the Campmor catalog. Three scientists with experience in computer vision and mobile technology, Otavio Good, Luke Alonso, and Keith Walker, scanned each chunk for unique characteristics that allowed them to reconstruct the documents automatically on screen. They then put the pages back together by hand. Their team won a $50,000 prize. The contest consisted of five different documents (you can try a demo here but rest assured the real ones were a bit harder) and teams were a race to reconstruct them as quickly as possible. So should gam-gam – or you – keep shredding documents? Good told the New Scientist: So with DARPA’s documents reconstructed, are shredders now insecure? No, says Good. “The challenges that DARPA gave us were actually simple compared to if you have a bin full of lots of shredded pieces of paper. Reconstructing these documents was not easy at all. I don’t think you have much to worry about with your shredded documents.” Looks like your secrets are safe… for now.
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| The TouchFire Chronicles: How Two Guys Raised $100K To Make A Magical Keyboard Posted: 05 Dec 2011 09:30 AM PST  This week we’re running a three part series by Steven Isaac, a programmer with an amazing resume including stints at Sun, Microsoft, and even a hardware start-up that brought the first (non-portable) tablets. For years he’s dreamed of an easy-to-use device with a full keyboard that slides out when needed and, together with a designer, he built the Touchfire, a fully funded Kickstarter project that has only 10 days to go before production begins. I asked him to create a series of short posts about his experience with the Kickstarter process and offer you, the hardware hackers out there, some advice and best practices. My love affair with tablet computers began in 1988, when I became the seventh employee at a secretive startup called GO. I came from Sun Microsystems, where I led the team that made Sun's Network File System (NFS) an industry standard. We succeeded beyond all expectations, and I had become restless. A new, scrappy startup like GO seemed like the perfect antidote. GO was building one of the world's first tablet computers, both the hardware and an entire operating system called PenPoint from scratch. My job was to write the mobility and connectivity software. Irresistible! AT&T bought EO, then EO bought GO, and then AT&T shut the whole thing down. Tragic! But truthfully, PenPoint was all about the pen as the input device, and handwriting wasn't the greatest way to get information into a computer. We had failed. I went on to Microsoft, where I worked on a series of 1.0 products – Microsoft's first mobile operating system Windows CE, Internet Explorer 1.0, the first MSN.com, and ASP.NET 1.0. I left Microsoft in 2000 to start my own consulting company. The years went by. Then in the spring of 2010, Apple released the iPad. I felt as if I had stepped into a time machine. The iPad was everything we hoped for and dreamed of 20 years ago, done to perfection. Well, almost perfect. Multi-touch typing was much better than every previous tablet input approach. But it still wasn't great. Even Apple said that the iPad was primarily a consumption device. But I wanted to use my new iPad for everything – taking notes in real time, writing long emails, blogging, etc. I realized that it was essential for the tactile layer to disappear when the user was finished typing. And it had to be stored within the tablet somehow, so it would always be available. How to do this? I started prototyping ideas, settling on an approach that used stacks of thin elastic material. I didn't know how the magic disappearing act would be done, but I thought that something lightweight and flexible stood the best chance.
When he saw what I had made, he wasn’t impressed. "The prototype is pretty bad", Brad said. "But you are a software guy and the concept could really rock if done right. Let's get going on this.” Next: The Year Of The Prototypes Project Page
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| 50 Cent Debuts His New Cans: Street And Sync By 50 (Video) Posted: 05 Dec 2011 09:18 AM PST  While we weren’t “In Da Club”, the Candy Shop, or the Disco Inferno, 50 Cent himself made some time this morning to meet us in downtown Manhattan and show off his brand new line of headphones. If you don’t already know, 50 originally tried to get the ball rolling in the audio biz with Sleek Audio earlier this year, until some licensing issues led him to become CEO of his own company, SMS Audio. This morning we were lucky enough to see the fruits of his labor in the form of two new sets of cans, Street by 50 (wired) and Sync by 50 (wireless). 50 also mentioned that he’d be at CES, so we’ll certainly be paying him a visit come January. In the meantime, let’s go over the deets on these new headphones. As far as the innards go, Sync by 50 (wireless) headphones use 40mm drivers with Kleer wireless technology integration. In other words, they’re the only wireless headphone set to incorporate full on-board controls. The wireless headphones can be used by up to four people listening from one source (Hey! Silent raves for everyone!) at up to 50 feet away. The integration of Kleer technology offers 16-bit digital sound, which should give you clear quality even without all the wires. Sync by 50 headphones can be had in both black and white. Street by 50 headphones also use 40mm drivers and come in black and blue flavors. I actually got a chance to go ears-on with both the Sync and Street models while chillin’ with 50 in the studio (cause we’re tight now), and I have to say bass was impressive without losing the mids and highs. I didn’t get enough time to do a proper review, but did notice that the Street by 50 headphones, made of ultra-flexible polymer, seem pretty durable and bend every which way when stressed. All in all, I’d say these are some pretty solid options if you’re in the market for a new set of high-performance cans. Street by 50 and Sync by 50 headphones are available now for $299.95 and $399.95 respectively, so if you’re interested go ahead and start saving now.
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| This Red MacBook Is Real, But It’s Not What You Think Posted: 05 Dec 2011 08:49 AM PST  Gizchina has the scoop on a fake MacBook clad in red alloy, a look that I wouldn’t kick out of bed for eating crackers but, obviously, is marred by not being a real MacBook. This is a 1.8GHz Atom device with 2GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive and they couldn’t stick an optical disk in there without making it huge. It’s slightly thinner than a real MacBook and it has a delightful Apple logo right on the front there so everyone can enjoy your refusal to fall for Apple’s high prices but your desire to mimic Apple’s cool. I mean at $275 how can you go wrong? No, this will never reach our shores, but it’s fun to look at.
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| Is Dell Finally Walking Away From The Android Tablet Game? Posted: 05 Dec 2011 07:30 AM PST  Nearly one year ago at CES 2011, Dell introduced the Streak 7 Android tablet. The 7-inch tab was an oversized brother to the older Streak 5 tabletphone. Much like the Streak 5, the Streak 7 featured a mobile radio, making it a versatile tablet. Plus, costing only $200 on-contract at T-Mobile, the Streak 7 was actually affordable. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Dell just killed its last Android tablet dead. The Dell Streak tablets always felt like a “me too” product. Dell never threw its weight behind the devices. They simply tossed them out into the market and let mother nature work. The EVO 4G completely overshadowed the Streak 5 back in the summer of 2010, and despite the Streak 7′s attractive price and feature set, it’s hard for consumers to buy something they didn’t know exist. The company quietly discontinued the original Streak 5 over the summer. Then, just yesterday, Dell halted online sales of the Streak 7 even though it’s still available in select markets. Dell of late is slow to react to trends. The company’s Windows Phone 7 offering has received the same lack of attention as the Android tablets. The Dell Venue Pro was the very last WinPhone 7 on the market to receive the much-praised Mango system update. Dell doesn’t seem to know how to handle the fast moving mobile scene — or maybe it doesn’t care. The company is reportedly still committed to mobile per a statement they provided to Engadget. That said, recent moves, or rather, lack thereof, seems to say something entirely different.
Dell has never strayed far from its original mission of building PCs. Dell is a PC company first and everything else seems to be just a hobby. They stick to what they know: boring, yet capible personal computers. Even when the company entered the gaming market by buying Alienware, they have seemingly left the new division alone. Alienware today has the same anti-establishment appeal as the Alienware of old. However, the company has always dabbled in the latest short-term trends. The Axim line competed with Palm and Windows Mobile PDAs like the iPAQ. The short-lived Adamo XPS demonstrated that the company had competent designers. And then, just recently, the Streak line of Android tablets allowed Dell to compete but only in a limited capacity. That said, Dell has always remained on its main story arc and didn’t let trendy items dictate the company’s path. If the Streak 7 is indeed Dell’s last Android tablet, this event will be just a blip on Android’s story line. Dell has never been a major player in the field and probably for good reason. Android tablets haven’t managed to break into the mainstream despite major efforts from Samsung, Motorola, LG, Asus, Acer, and Toshiba. Maybe this was Dell’s plan all along: let other companies exert great effort in chipping away a foothold in the iPad mountain. If they were successful, Dell would be ready with its established Streak line, but if not, their small offering could be killed quietly. CES 2012 is less than a month away. If Dell isn’t done with Android tablets in the short term, the company will likely use the massive trade show to launch its latest and greatest. Dell has never had a huge presence at CES, but they haven’t been shy about introducing hot products in Vegas — that’s where the Streak 7 was announced. Don’t count Dell out entirely here. If anything, the Streak experiment has shown that Dell doesn’t waste much time or money on products without a profitable future.
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| Posted: 05 Dec 2011 07:22 AM PST Theo Jansen is an artist who makes wild animated, wind-powered robots that seem to have a life of their own. Once you set them up on a beach and let them go, they undulate, slide, and coil across the sand like some sort of steampunk gazelle. 3D printing service Shapeways is now offering two Jansen designs for sale, including a propellor-powered motor for getting your beest to move. You can purchased the pre-printed beests for about $100 and the propeller add-on for $40. They are about six inches long. Jansen will update the designs as he perfects his larger beests and upload them as they change. You can pick up your own beest here but sadly I can’t find a 3D file so you can print your own at home.
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