[WEB2] Citrix completes XenSource virtualization buy
[WEB2] Why you shouldn't buy an Xbox 360 Arcade
Does anyone really want me?And just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any more different trim lines for the Xbox 360, Microsoft goes and releases the worst kept secret in all of gaming, the Xbox 360 Arcade. While it's essentially just a souped-up version of the Core, the Arcade 360 does come with a few extras that may attract some uninformed buyers. Plus, the $280 price tag is awfully close to the Wii's cost of $250--so in theory, speaking in terms of price, an Xbox 360 Arcade would be...
[WEB2] AT&T embraces citywide Wi-Fi, sort of
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That seems to be the philosophy AT&T has taken when it comes to citywide Wi-Fi. Only a few years ago, AT&T was lobbying in city councils and statehouses around the country trying to prevent cities from building their own broadband networks. AT&T and other service providers argued that these new networks would compete unfairly with their own broadband services. But a little over a year ago, the company had a change of heart. And instead of battling local gov...
[WEB2] Twittering while California burns
(Credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response) Disasters are social: They affect large groups of people, all thrown together by circumstance or location. So when I was at a dinner with Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale two weeks ago and he said, "The next disaster will be Twittered," I thought he was spot on. What better use could there be for a social media site like Twitter than to support people with a dire need to connect to each other and share information? So how's social media doing i...
[WEB2] Mozilla's 2006 revenue: $66.8 million
Mozilla, the group behind the open-source Firefox Web browser, disclosed its 2006 revenue Monday night: $66,840,850. That's a 26 percent bump up from the $52.9 million that Mozilla garnered in 2005. And with 2006 expenses slicing off only $19.8 million, Mozilla has a tidy sum left at its disposal, even if it's no Microsoft. Mozilla backs the development of both the Firefox Web browser and the Thunderbird e-mail client.(Credit: Mozilla) "The highlight is that Mozilla remains financia...
[WEB2] CTIA attendees ponder the iPhone
Influence is tough to measure, but it's one of those things where you know it when you see it. Apple's influence on the mobile phone industry after just over 90 days as a player was evident at the CTIA show Tuesday. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn't mention the iPhone specifically in his keynote address, but noted that Apple "has done some nice work." After Ballmer's keynote, a friend of some staffers in Microsoft's booth enthusiastically demonstrated his iPhone for an audience checking out th...
[WEB2] iPhone could drive citywide Wi-Fi
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Apple's iPhone and other Wi-Fi enabled handsets coming into the market could boost demand for citywide Wi-Fi networks, said experts Tuesday at the MuniWireless conference. As cell phone operators push their 3G data services, new cell phones outfitted with Wi-Fi capability are also being introduced. Apple's iPhone was one of the first to reach the American market. And so far the phone has gotten rave reviews for Web surfing when it's on a Wi-Fi network. Conversely, crit...
[WEB2] New meets old: CompactFlash RAID card
In the old days, you'd buy a RAID adapter card to let your computer attach to multiple hard drives that provided data capacity and protection. Nowadays, with flash memory, the storage fits right on the card. Addonics' RAID adapter fits four Compact Flash cards.(Credit: Addonics) Addonics Technologies announced a $50 PCI card Tuesday that's got four CompactFlash card slots. The cards can be configured as four individual drives, a single large volume, or set up with RAID (redundant arr...
[WEB2] Apple: 250,000 iPhones bought to unlock
Throughout all the hoopla over the hacking of the iPhone, it was never very clear how many people were actually trying to escape from AT&T. Apple ventured a guess on Monday. During a conference call to discuss the company's blowout fourth quarter, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said that of the 1.4 million iPhones sold since June 29, 250,000 were bought with unlocking in mind.As many as 250,000 iPhones might have been bought last quarter and unlocked, Apple said Monday.(Credit: CN...
[WEB2] Thinking small with tidal power
A lot of wave and tidal power systems being proposed these days will be capable of generating megawatts of power. Puget Sound Tidal Power is aiming for 10 to 15 kilowatts with its turbine--barely enough for five homes--but the lower power output also means a lower price tag, according to company President Burton Hamner. The total cost of a single turbine from Puget Sound in mass manufacturing will come to around $10,000 or so, he said. The budget on larger turbines often runs into the million...
[WEB2] Start-up says it can make solar panels out of dirty silicon
You can make solar panels with impure silicon, claims Roy Johnson. You just have to know how to isolate the undesirables. CaliSolar, a solar start-up that derives from research originally conducted at UC Berkeley, has come up with a way to make solar cells out of upgraded metallurgical silicon, which is less pure and less costly than the industry standard electrical grade silicon, according to Johnson, the company's CEO, at a meeting at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference ...
[WEB2] GestureTek: Wiimote powers for cell phones. Just maybe not your phone.
GestureTek Mobile bestows cell phones with the powers of movement-based navigation popularized by the Nintendo Wii, with one crucial difference--no Wii tennis elbow. Since the technology in GestureTek Mobile's EyeMobile Engine is purely optic rather than hardware-based, unlike the accelerometer that tells iPhone when to jump into landscape mode, wrist motion is powerful and specific. Here's an example from the demo: just click the soft key to zoom in on the map and tilt the phone back...
[WEB2] Calling tech support for help with stolen printer
Sometimes calling tech support can be a real pain--like when you can't get a hard-to-obtain printer that was just reported stolen to work for you. That's apparently the experience of Timothy Scott Short, who was arrested earlier this month after allegedly stealing a computer and printer used for producing driver's licenses and then calling Digimarc's tech support line a couple of times seeking software for the same model printer, according to a report from IDG. Short was charged with felony...
[WEB2] Google TV Ads to get Nielsen data
Google is partnering with Nielsen so that companies that buy its Google TV Ads can find out how many people actually watch the ads. Nielsen's metering devices are installed in a large number of households across the U.S., enabling the company to keep track of which TV programs are the most popular. Now, Google will have access to Nielsen's demographic data from aggregated set-top boxes so advertisers can see what ads are effective and get additional aggregate information about the view...
[WEB2] Does Senate FISA bill immunize FBI 'black-bag jobs'?
A few decades ago, the FBI regularly conducted "black-bag jobs" that involved sneaking into homes, hotel rooms and offices with the cooperation of the building's owner or even a neighbor with a spare key. Locks were picked otherwise. Because no judge had authorized the FBI's black-bag job, they were incredibly illegal. In the mid-1970s, the Church Committee famously disclosed the bureau's clandestine operations. (Credit: Declan McCullagh/mccullagh.org) Now President Bush...
[WEB2] Ticketless baseball fans in Denver
What if you threw a World Series and no one came because they couldn't buy tickets? That is the dilemma facing the Colorado Rockies on Monday after the baseball team suspended online ticket sales because servers were overwhelmed by traffic. "We are as frustrated and disappointed as (fans) are," Jay Alves told The Denver Post, adding that team officials had no idea so many people would try to use the Web site. The team said it would honor the several hundred tickets already sold but i...
[WEB2] Is your date a player? Send a text and find out
You get asked out at a party, but you can't help but wonder if the guy is actually the stable, reliable charmer he appears to be. A new SMS and Web-based service called PlayerBlock lets you sneak off with your cell phone, send a text message and get the dirt faster than he can say, "How 'bout a movie?" (Credit: PlayerBook.com) Based on the highly optimistic starting assumption that "people cheat and lie while dating and in relationships," PlayerBlock claims to be the first ever tex...
[WEB2] Apple earnings soar, 1.4 million iPhones sold to date
UPDATED 3:42 p.m.--Added a few more details, numbers, and statements from Apple executives from the conference call. Apple reported another stellar quarter Monday, exceeding estimates in just about every facet of its business. For the company's fourth fiscal quarter, which ended September 29, the company reported revenue of $6.22 billion and profit of $904 million, or $1.01 in earnings per share. Wall Street analysts had expected Apple to report revenue of $6.1 billion and earnings per share o...
[WEB2] Space elevator teams inch along
So far, no one has won NASA's $500,000 space elevator challenge after five days of bad weather in Salt Lake City, Utah, and more than enough snafus. As of Monday, three finalist teams--the Kansas City Space Pirates, The University of Saskatchewan (USST) and the Technology Tycons (high-school kids from California)--were scheduled to perform two tests each of their self-built robotic climbers. To win the prize money, the teams' robots must be able to hoist up a thin carbon tether 100 meters wi...
[WEB2] RealNetworks patches exploited security hole
To address a security hole being exploited by hackers, RealNetworks has issued a security fix for the Windows versions of RealOne Player, RealOne Player version 2, RealPlayer 10.5 and RealPlayer 11 beta. The Windows versions of RealPlayer 8 and earlier versions of RealNetworks are not vulnerable. Linux and Macintosh versions of RealPlayer are also not affected. The attack targets an ActiveX object installed by RealPlayer, and affects how that object interacts with the Internet Explorer bro...