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Monday February 8, 2010
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Google has dropped the "equipment recovery fee" it charges for early returns on the Nexus One smartphone from $350 to $150. The company made headlines when it was revealed that customers who cancel or downgrade their service plans within 120 days of purchase (minus the 14-day initial trial period) would be charged a $350 equipment recovery fee on top of the $175 early termination fee (ETF) charged by T-Mobile.
Google said in its terms of sale that the fee was "for liquidated damages Google will incur as a result of such cancellation." The company has now altered that fee. Customers canceling or downgrading service within 120 days will have to pay a $150 fee, plus any ETF charged by T-Mobile, according to revised terms of sale. If you're upgrading your service, you will have to pay a $50 equipment recovery fee.
"We've been working with T-Mobile to improve our customers' overall Nexus One experience through a reduction in the equipment recovery fee (ERF) associated with purchasing the Nexus One with a T-Mobile service plan," Google said in a statement. "Starting today, new T-Mobile customers who want to cancel service after 14 days, but before 120 days, will be charged $150 by Google, instead of the original $350 fee. Upgrade customers will now be charged $50 by Google, instead of the original $25 fee. Google continues to provide the same upfront discounts to customers who buy Nexus One phones with T-Mobile service."
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Monday February 8, 2010
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Might want to hold off on that iPad purchase. Analysts believe that Apple might quickly drop the price of its much-hyped tablet. If sales are not to Apple's liking, the company could cut prices much as it did with the iPhone, according to Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope, who met with Apple executives.
"While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated)," Shope wrote, according to Wired.
Two months after the debut of the iPhone, Apple dropped the price $200 and offered early adopters a $100 rebate. Will the same thing happen with the iPad?
Analysts expected that Apple will sell between one million and five million iPads in its first year, Wired said.
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Monday February 8, 2010
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 For Mac owners who love the mobility of a laptop yet crave the comfort of a desktop, Wisair is announcing an easy wireless solution that delivers the best of both worlds. The Wisair Wireless USB DisplayDock Set for MacBooks lets you link to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers without running any wires to your computer. Plug the USB adapter into your MacBook and you can start typing with whatever keyboard you choose and get a bigger view with an external monitor. The company promises plug and play ease, so there shouldn't be a complicated setup. The set's wireless USB can communicate up to 30-feet, letting you place your MacBook wherever is convenient. The set will be available at the end of March from four OEM vendors: Lenexpo, Source R&D, Cables Unlimited, and Olidata (in Europe). The price hasn't been given yet.
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Monday February 8, 2010
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 NASA has decided to extend the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft mission, which is currently exploring Saturn and its moons, through the year 2017. The agency's 2011 budget provides $60 million per year to continue studying the ringed planet. "This is a mission that never stops providing us surprising scientific results and showing us eye popping new vistas," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement. "The historic traveler's stunning discoveries and images have revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its moons." Cassini first launched in 1997, swung around Venus a couple of times in a nifty slingshot maneuver (called gravity assist) in order to gain speed, and finally arrived at Saturn in 2004. The mission was originally scheduled to end in 2008, before being extended once through 2010 and now again through 2017.
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Monday February 8, 2010
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 It's not exactly the same as teleporting matter. But physics researchers in Japan have demonstrated that it's possible to teleport energy, much in the same way that physicists proved the teleportation of information is possible five years ago. Popular Science reports that according to the theory, researchers can stretch a series of entangled particles across an infinite amount of space. Then, when you induce an energy change in one particle, the others would also change. Finally, the original particle would be destroyed, passing its energy to the final particle in the chain--and therefore preserving conservation of energy. The report said that the development could lead to practical, significant changes in energy distribution, as well as advance the idea of quantum computing.
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Monday February 8, 2010
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Linus Torvalds hates phones. He finds them "irritating and
[disturbing] as you work or read or whatever."
"I love the concept of having a phone that runs Linux," the
Linux founder wrote in a blog post over the weekend, "and I've had a number of
them over the years (in addition to the G1, I had one of the early China-only
Motorola Linux phones) etc. But my hatred of phones ends up resulting in me not
really ever using them."
The Google Nexus One, on the other hand, seems to have won him over. "I have to admit," he added, "the Nexus One is a winner."
Multi-touch, GPS, Google Maps--the whole package was enough to convince him.
"I no longer feel like I'm dragging a phone with me 'just in
case' I would need to get in touch with somebody," he wrote. "Now I'm having a
useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead."
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Monday February 8, 2010
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Kia ran just one ad during the Super Bowl and it was best car ad of Super Bowl 44. The ad for the Kia Sorento, called Joyride, shows Sock Puppet, a teddy bear, and other animated toys enjoying themselves on a cross-country trip, stopping to jet-ski and relax in a hot tub, with a final stop in Las Vegas. (Reference to Las Vegas has been a big no-no in the past, on account of the word "Las Vegas" suggesting people might gamble on the Super Bowl.) The ad ends with the toys no longer animated, in the back seat of the Sorento, as a child climbs in, fastens his seat belt, then mom presses the Sorento's start button and drives away. Fun, nostalgia, a blonde in a hot tub and a brunette in a nightclub, cute kid, motherhood - everything you want in a car commercial - and at just the right time for Kia.
With its pending Uvo Bluetooth and entertainment system (think Ford Sync on steroids), Kia is a car company about to be noticed this year. The ad couldn't be better. More on the automotive-related cars of Super Bowl 44 (XLIV for traditionalists) where the game (New Orleans 31, Indianapolis 17) actually was better than the commercials, after the jump.
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Friday February 5, 2010
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 Quietly, Microsoft has lowered the price of its two Zune HD players by $20, according to official pricing on Microsoft's own site. The 32-Gbyte HD model now costs $269.99, while the 16-GB version now is priced at $199.99. If you visit those links, you'll also find comparison pricing that puts Amazon and other retailers even lower. What's the justification for the price cuts? A hardware refresh is always the most likely suspect. But so far, Microsoft's kept mum about any updates. Credit goes to gdgt.com, via Ars Technica.
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Friday February 5, 2010
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Yesterday I blogged about next Tuesday's launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which I'll be attending as a Twitter correspondent, and the spate of educational events and tweetups around the world that will accompany the launch. So why is this mission important enough to garner all this attention, and for NASA to deem it the crown jewel of its solar science space fleet?
THe SDO will image the Sun at a far greater resolution than previous missions, and take images and measurements at much shorter intervals. This will let scientists look at short-term changes in the Sun's brightness, appearance, and magnetic field in unprecedented detail, and should allow them to better understand the processes that drive solar activity and produce the "space weather" that can, upon reaching our world, cause geomagnetic storms that endanger astronauts and satellites, disrupt radio communications, and cause power surges or blackouts.
Posted By:
Tony Hoffman
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Friday February 5, 2010
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 Gelaskins, which makes artist-designed protective coverings for cell phones, notebooks, and other devices, already has an impressive stable of talent, but the addition of six Frank Miller designs makes a comic geek's heart beat a little faster. The portfolio includes four black-and-white images from Sin City and two color images from 300. The horizontal images can be made into gel covers for 13- to 15.4-inch laptops, while the vertical images work great as iPhone covers. Prices range from $14.95 for an iPhone cover to $29.95 for a laptop cover. The covers use 3M adhesive technology and can be easily removed if you want to sell your laptop or simply use a different cover. All six Frank Miller designs are available now.
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Friday February 5, 2010
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Motorola Droid owners: it's time for you to freak out. Google just dropped a new version of Google Maps and it offers pinch-to-zoom multitouch. Simply go into the Android Market, search for Google Maps and you'll be given the option to download the update for your Motorola Droid.
The Motorola Droid's web browser and picture gallery still do not support the pinching gesture, though that's likely to change very soon. As reported earlier this morning, Google has updated the Android 2.1 OS to support he gesture in the web browser and picture gallery applications, but that will most likely require Motorola to push out an OS update to the Droid (which they said is the works.) Sprint subscribers will see Android 2.1 on the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment sometime later this year.
Posted By:
PJ Jacobowitz
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Friday February 5, 2010
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 Microsoft has decided to stop supporting first-generation Xbox games and consoles on its Xbox Live service, Microsoft disclosed on Friday. Microsoft "did not make this decision lightly," the company's Major Nelson blog said, but it's apparently final: gamers who used the Xbox Live matchmaking service for games of "Halo," for example, will have to find another way to connect with their friends. The prohibition also applies to Xbox games played on Xbox 360 consoles. Why did Microsoft make the change? According to Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten, the company plans upgrades to the Live service that are simply incompatible with the older games and consoles. Whitten did not reveal the proposed upgrades, but mentioned Microsoft's Project Natal, scheduled to be rolled out by the holiday season of 2010. I believe we'll look back on 2010 as a landmark
year in gaming and home entertainment, and I couldn't be more excited
about what we have in store with "Project Natal" and LIVE," Whitten wrote
in a blog post. "We will contact the Xbox LIVE members directly impacted by this change and if this includes you, I encourage you to check your LIVE messages and associated e-mail account over the coming weeks for more details and opportunities," Whitten wrote. "We view you as a partner in this process."
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Friday February 5, 2010
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 The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is about to embark on a non-stop run through late 2011 at up to 7 tera-electron volts (TeV) in order to find the elusive Higgs Boson particle, Reuters reports. Scientists at CERN hope that the particle will appear sometime during the lengthy experiment, once they power up the LHC again. The goal is to shed light on gives mass to matter. The report said that even if scientists don't see the particle, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist; scientists are also planning a longer run at the LHC's highest possible energy level, 14 TeV, beginning in 2013. The LHC ran into some trouble after an explosion caused significant damage back in 2008, shortly after powering up for the first time. (Image credit: CERN)
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Friday February 5, 2010
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 Could it be revenge for being demoted to "dwarf planet" status in 2006? New Hubble Space Telescope photos show that Pluto has turned redder--as if it were angry--and its ice sheets are also shifting around, according to the Associated Press. In recent photos, Pluto is turning up significantly redder than it has during the past several decades. It still looks vaguely yellow-orange, but astronomers claim there is about 20 percent more red pigment in there than there was before, the report said. This is despite the fact that a "season" lasts 120 years in some regions of the planet.
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Friday February 5, 2010
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 Most gaming seats are built to rest on the floor and connect to your console or stereo system in order to give you full surround sound audio in the seat or a comfortable way to sit upright in front of the TV while you're getting your game on.
Playseat's new lineup of gaming chairs come in all shapes and sizes, but a few common threads run among them: they're all designed after the actual racing seat in a Formula One racer, and some are cleverly colored and designed to look and feel like regular office chairs when you're not using them for gaming. This means that you don't have to go grab your special gaming chair when you want to relax, and switch out for an office chair when you want to work.
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