It its always rumored that Facebook will make their own phone but check it out.... Mozilla might make one!

Presenting... The Mozilla Seabird!



The Mozilla Seabird Concept will be having the following specifications; an 8 megapixel camera, Onboard Bluetooth dongle, 2 side pico projectors, and a wireless charging and it will be using an Android Operating System.

See the pictures below:

The Mozilla Seabird  3D Phone

Mozilla Seabird Holographic Keyboard+Display

 

Check out this cool product from Tomauri, HiSaver a Motion-Detector-Equipped Power Killer that cuts off power of your room or office or even your house as you leave it.

 HiSaver works by cutting off power when no motion within the room is detected within 10 minutes (but what about when the user is sleeping? hahah!)

 Check out the video below:

Source: Engadget

The Ferrari of the projector world kicks off its version of 3D at CEDIA with the 3Dimension Series projectors which surprisingly use passive glasses instead of the battery operated active ones. The big catch of course is the price of $49,995 for the D-73 pictured above, and the fact that the glasses are proprietary and not the standard RealD glasses you've used at your local cinema. Obviously there are a wide range of inputs and controls including HDMI 1.4 (no 1.4a?) and RS-232 for the home automation fans. The D-73 starts shipping in the fourth quarter for those lucky enough to afford such luxuries and the full press release is available after the break while you wait.

 

An 17-year old Australian is taking responsibility for unwittingly causing yesterday's Twitter bug. While the teen didn't directly bring the flood of spam and porn retweets, he burst open the dam. I guess that passes for precociousness these days?
The trouble began when the Melbourne-based high school student decide to test the security flaw that created the havoc by tweeting some onMouseOver Javascript code. The vulnerability had first been brought to Twitter's attention a month ago</a? by the Japanese developer who first discovered it.

But when this high school student tested it out for himself, more unsavory elements—specifically, his followers, according to Netcraft— quickly identified it as a means to a prank:

"After that, it seems like some of my followers realised the power of this vulnerability, and within a matter of minutes scripts had taken over my timeline," [the teen] said.

Which ultimately led to a worm that greeted visitors to Twitter.com with this:

 

You can't really blame the kid for his idle curiosity; if anything it forced Twitter to patch a vulnerability before something truly malicious took advantage of it. Let's hope we're so lucky next time

Source: Gizmodo

Firefox has long been the go-to web browser among power users for its impressive feature set, extensibility, and openness. But Google's nimble, light, also extensible and open browser, Chrome, has won over Firefox's core user base. Here's why:
On Monday, we asked Lifehacker readers to share their current browser of choice, and the results were surprising. While we'd expected to see a jump in Chrome usage since our last poll (in which Firefox was favored by 57 percent of respondents to Chrome's 21 percent), we didn't expect Chrome to have surpassed Firefox usage by almost 10 percent. Specifically, out of 40,000 responses, 42 percent chose Chrome as their browser of choice; 33 percent chose Firefox.


We've championed Firefox at Lifehacker HQ since we opened our doors back in 2005, and we may never be able to adequately express the love we feel toward Firefox for rescuing us from the clutches of Internet Explorer. But if our poll is any indication, there may be a new sheriff in town. Here's how and why Chrome is overtaking Firefox among power users.

Solving Unnoticed Problems

Chrome has fixed problems and made improvements to the browser experience many of us didn't recognize until Chrome fixed them. You can install and start using Chrome extensions without restarting your browser; Chrome isolates tabs into separate processes so if one tab crashes, your browser stays up; or one of the smallest of my favorites: When I close a tab, the remaining tabs don't resize until my mouse leaves the tab bar, meaning I don't have to worry about hitting moving targets. (Try it; it's pretty smart.)
Chrome's bringing a lot of creative new solutions to browsers from a user interface perspective (consolidating the search box and address bar seems so obvious), and they're good enough that Firefox somehow feels like it's playing catch-up on a lot of fronts, and switching between the two, Firefox can start to feel downright clunky. That's not to say Firefox isn't still innovating—for example, a clever new tabbed-browsing interface, called Firefox Panorama, is on its way in the upcoming Firefox 4 release. But Firefox's innovation can feel stale (and slow—see next point) when compared to Chrome.

Frequent, Incremental Updates

As of July, Chrome has accelerated their release cycle so that a shiny new version of Chrome's stable release is available every six weeks. The benefit to the user? Instead of waiting for a massive release to consolidate a laundry list of updates, new features end up in your browser as soon as they're ready, a few at a time. From a user-experience perspective, this is great. Your browser gets incrementally better, and rather than learning to use a laundry list of new features each time there's a major release, you can familiarize yourself with one or two new features at a time.
The upshot: You don't have to run the bleeding edge beta or developer releases to get new features shortly after they're developed.

User Experience Is Everything

Every few months, we pit the latest and greatest versions of the most popular web browsers against each other in a series of performance tests, and almost every time, Chrome comes out on top. Firefox has made leaps and bounds in speed over the past few years, and despite coming out on top in memory use in the last round of tests, Firefox has one very big problem: Firefox users think Firefox is growing progressively slower and more bloated, and at the end of the day, user perception is always more important than all the speed tests in the world.
I can attest to this: When I use Chrome, it feels faster, and that's all that matters. I'd attribute that feeling to more than just interface design (though I wouldn't be surprised if Chrome's sleeker design does color my perception, too). At the end of the day, I want the browser that's going to deliver web sites and information quickly and pain-free. The extensions and other niceties are just jelly; the browser needs to be fast and serviceable before the other stuff really matters. For users who want speed, functionality, and extensibility, Chrome is turning a lot of eyes from Firefox.

Browser Sync

Power users love things that sync. Synchronization means you can work from any computer and expect the same basic environment. Chrome started integrating sync into the browser about a year ago (not long after its first birthday), and as of June of this year, it had conquered the final frontier of browser syncing—extension syncing.

Yes, Mozilla has their own browser-syncing tool that they plan on integrating in future releases of Firefox, but it still doesn't do extension syncing, and word of its integration came some seven months after Chrome had started built-in sync.

(It's worth noting that a new Firefox extension, called Siphon, can sync extensions across Firefox installs. Also, other third-party tools offer better syncing functionality than either Chrome or Firefox—see Xmarks for bookmark sync and LastPass for password sync—but Chrome's still leading on these in-browser features while remaining lightweight.)

Integration with Google Services

If you're a big Google fan, Chrome has a lot to offer. First, it can sync all your browser data (see more below), and tie it all together with your Google account. If you're a Gmail user, Chrome got first access to drag-and-drop attachment uploads, drag and drop picture insertion, and drag and drop attachment downloads. If you're an Android user, the new Chrome to Phone app-plus-extension lets you instantly beam stuff from your browser to your Android device. Android2Cloud (not an official Google tool) pushes stuff from your phone back to your computer.

When Chrome OS comes out with a stable release, you'll be able to sync your full computing experience by just logging in with your Google account. It's not there yet, but it's all part of where Chrome is going.

Where Firefox Still Wins

Chrome hasn't outdone Firefox at every turn, and it certainly doesn't outdo Firefox on every front. Take, for example, Firefox's best and most robust extensions.

• As a web developer, I haven't found anything on Chrome that can compare with Firebug (though Firebug Lite for Chrome is a start, and Chrome's Developer Tools are way better than what's built into Firefox). Update: Giving Chrome's Developer Tools another look, they're actually much more impressive than I'd remembered.
• I don't block ads on the web, but from what I've heard from Chrome users, no ad-blocking Chrome extension stacks up to Adblock Plus for Firefox.
• If you download a lot of content from the web, you won't find a better tool for streamlining your downloads than DownThemAll. It's only available for Firefox, it's not coming to Chrome any time soon, and I miss it the minute I start downloading a large file in Chrome.

The privacy concerns that follow Google around everywhere they go probably play a more important role here. If you're a big Google user, the search giant is already handling your web queries, email, chat, documents, and calendar. For some, eschewing Chrome for Firefox is simply a matter of not putting too many eggs in one basket (and despite Google's "don't be evil" mantra, they're really not evil-proof). Google's got a tempting basket, too, since the more eggs you put in it, the better it works.

---

Your reasons for sticking with the browser you love may vary drastically, but if our readership is any indication of trends among early adopters, Chrome is the new big browser in town.
You could look at that and think it's sad. I've been a devout Firefox fan for years, and I still use Firefox as my primary browser; I initially had that reaction. But then you'd want to remember that regardless of who's currently in favor, competition almost always benefits the user. And it's hard to complain about that.

Republished: Lifehacker

Looks like Toshiba's dipping its toes a little bit deeper into that pool known as WiMAX-ready laptops. In addition to the previously-announced Satellite U405, we've now got a quartet of older models with a new 4G flair: Satellite E205, M645 and A665, and Protege R705. All have prices starting between $760 and $1,080 and will hit retail around September 26th. Just make sure you double-check the laptop you're picking up is the newer version with the right antennas. All the additional info you seek can be found in the press release after the break.

SOURCE: Engadget

Let's try to untangle this Facebook mobile phone mess, shall we? Mark Zuckerberg has recently sat down with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch -- the source of the original rumor -- to try and dispel some of the confusion that has arisen as a result. The first thing the Zuckmeister says is that Facebook isn't looking to build its own OS or hardware and is absolutely opposed to competing with the likes of the iPhone and Android. What Zuckerberg wants is deeper social integration, positing the question, "What could we do if we also started hacking at a deeper level?" While there'll be no single answer or solution for all phones, Mark firmly believes that social elements have to be designed in from the start:

On phones we can actually do something better. We can do a single sign-on if we do a good integration with a phone, rather than just doing something where you go to an app and it's automatically social or having to sign into each app individually. Those are the two options on the web. Why not for mobile? Just make it so that you log into your phone once, and then everything that you do on your phone is social.

Notably, he fails to deny rumors of such deeply integrated devices being in the pipeline, and Bloomberg has trotted out a trio of insider sources who claim INQ Mobile has been engaged to produce two smartphones with just that purpose in mind. One is said to feature a QWERTY keypad and a touchscreen while the other is an all touch affair, and both are reputedly headed for an early 2011 launch in Europe, followed by a late 2011 arrival in the USA. AT&T is the carrier that's closest to picking them up, we're told, though deals haven't been finalized on what could be sub-$100 phones after subsidies are distributed. So, whatever happens, we're staring down the barrel of a couple of glorified featurephones with deep social integration. Kin 2.0, anyone? Anyone? hahah!


SOURCE: Techcrunch, Bloomberg

It's been awhile since we've heard from Dell  on the home entertainment front, but don't you worry, the guys in Round Rock have been right on top of it. First up is the brand new Zino HD home theater PC, which like we'd heard  is being updated with an AMD quad-core Phenom II processor that's more than capable of pumping out full HD to your HDTV. In typical Dell spirit there's tons of configuration options, including one for 1GB of ATI discrete graphics, a Blu-ray drive, and up to a terabyte of storage. For $299, we're a bit giddy about this little one considering it packs more power than any of those Ion nettops and it comes with a wireless keyboard and IR remote control.

If a large touchscreen all-in-one is more your thing, the Inspiron One can be configured with similar parts -- an AMD Athlon II X4 processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450, Blu-ray, and up to 1TB are all on the list. To us, the real appeal of this one is its 1920x1080 resolution, 23-inch display, which produced some pretty stunning HD playback when we saw it in action last month. Dell's put a lot of energy into its new Stage touch interface, which consists of different tiled applications. It's actually more than eye candy as we're betting those Netflix and CinemaNow tiles will see plenty of tapping. The One starts at $799 and will be available this coming weekend -- but before you yank out the wallet, we'd suggest flipping through the galleries below and hitting the break for a read of the press release.

Check out end try this TK-421 QWERTY case, which sexes up the formula with a swiveling package that hearkens back to the T-Mobile Sidekick. There's still no extra battery life to be had here, and yes, the keypad connects via Bluetooth, but we're willing to sacrifice a good bit for a totally awesome hinge and a dedicated number row. Invented, designed and sold by ThinkGeek, gadget stocking stuffer seller extraordinaire, the unit's priced at a very reasonable $50 (Php 2200). Shame it's not slated to ship till "mid-November" and only then in limited quantities, else we'd snap up two right now. Watch that screen spin right round after the break.

I much prefer the look of Quirky's Trek Support backpack to Voltaic's solar-powered backpack from years ago, and if enough people agree with me and pre-order it (for $130), they'll even put it into production.
Just like the rest of Quirky's products, the backpack design has been crowdsourced, but it just needs enough people to pre-order it before putting it on the factory line. It's about half the price of a solar-powered backpack, and doesn't have the obvious panels on the front—choosing, instead, a subtle grey and blue color-scheme.
Various pockets have been stitched in, with the main compartment large enough for a 15-inch laptop. The rechargeable battery, housed in a lower compartment, can charge up the gadgets via USB. It might not be as planet-friendly as the solar backpacks, but at least you can ensure your iPod won't run out of juice on a winter's day

We use computers almost everyday and every time. But do you have any idea about their trivia?

I have gathered some Computer trivia from several websites; and this is what all I've got and Enjoy reading :) :

What must -read magazine for computer fans bit the dust in 1999?
A: Byte.
What nationwide movie guide and ticket business became part of the AOL family in 1999?
A: MovieFone.com.
What Amazon founder was the first-dot-com exec to be named Time's Person of the Year?
 A: Jeff Bezos.
What Apple portable debuted in a choice of two fruity color schemes, Blueberry or Tangerine?
A: The iBook.

What Outlook macro virus, with a dainty female name, was the first to infect a million computers?
A: Melissa.
What rural state provided WiFi for all residents, earning it a Yahoo "Most Wired City in America" award?
A: Nevada.
What Windows virus damaged 500,000 hard drives on the 13th anniversary of Russia's deadliest nuclear disaster?
A: Chernobyl.
What movie did Apple use to hype its new QuickTime4 format, sparking a net-clogging 25 million downloads of the trailer?
A: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
What nasty 1999 computer worm, named after a lap dancer, first appeared inside a list of passwords to pornographic websites?
A: Melissa.
What communications giant owned Palm Computing when it produced the first handheld with integrated wireless Internet connectivity?
A: 3com.
What online service got slapped with a lawsuit by volunteer "Community Leaders" who said they were really employees and deserved back wages?
A: America Online.
What game system, the first to come equipped with a modern, clogged up phone lines in Europe as many purchasers got online for the first time?
A: Dreamcast.
What computer outfit's ad 1984, run only once during Super Bowl XVIII, did TV Guide declare to be the best commercial of all time, in 1999?
A: Apple's.
What Apple media file format became the basis for MPGE-4 files?
A: QuickTime.
What did critics dub the glitchy  USB "plug and play" feature of Windows 98?
A: "Plug and pray".
What file-sharing software was named for creator Shawn Fanning's frizzy hair?
A: Napster.
What high-tech upgrade did the New York Times dub "$90 Worth of Duct Tape" in 1998?
A: Windows 98.
What  was the first fast-food restaurant to offer patrons 20 free minutes of Internet time?
A: Burger King.
What Pixar release was the first feature film to be entirely computer-animated?
A: Toy Story.
What high-tech mogul appeared on a 1995 cover of Time headlined "Master of the Universe"?
A: Bill Gates.
What website did the founder of the Echo Bay Technology Group register, when he found that echobay.com was already taken?
A: eBay.com.
What U.S. state capital's space-age new airport was plagued by software problems that kept dumping baggage all over the basement?
A: Denver's.
What company, while still called AuctionWeb, registered its first sale when bidding for a busted laser pointer topped out at $14?
A: eBay.com.
What search engine did Digital Equipment Corporation develop to manage its old e-mail?
A: Alta Vista.
What does the "W" stand for on a WAP phone?
A: Wireless.
What type of computer programs did the Dark Avenger Mutation Engine promise to make more powerful?
A: Viruses.
What computer accessory did Apple try splitting in two in 1993, in an attempt to reduce injuries?
A: The Keyboard.

 

The Philippines' favorite gadget bargain bag is at it again. Mac fanboys and wannabes, take heed: CD-R King now has its own version of the Apple keyboard. Simply called the "Slim Keyboard," this sexy accessory looks every bit as good as the real thing.

At P550, the slim keyboard sports a Windows icon instead of a command button and the "CD-R King" branding appears prominently on the top left portion, boo. If you're not a stickler for detail, however, this is a good deal and would add some much-needed class to your PC.

We're not sure if it works with Macs, but knowing how Apple fanatics are purists and wouldn't be caught dead using one of these with their fancy iMacs, it doesn't matter if it does anyway. Now, if CD-R King comes out with a knockoff of the Magic Trackpad, that would be just swell.

Let us just hope that this CD-R KING product will be a tough one... (If you know what I mean..... hahaha)

Nintendo 3DS

It is reported that the new Nintendo 3DS will have two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs, a 133MHz GPU, 4MB dedicated VRAM, 64MB RAM, and 1.5GB flash storage (in addition to the previously-known SD card expansion). If based on ARM11 architecture, it'd certainly be in good (if not wildly disparate) company: iPhone (original and 3G), the first two generations of iPod touch, all Amazon Kindles, Palm Pixi, a plethora of Nokia handsets, and... the Kin One and Zune HD. Two separate processors isn't too far fetched, either, as the original DS had both a 67MHz ARM9 and a 33.5MHz ARM7. That's got a maximum speed of 200MHz, which according to this rumor is being underclocked.

So, nothing that runs counter to the admittedly little we got via the 3DS' FCC leak, and still nothing to keep the Tegra 2 hopeful in check (poor souls). Those with a need to know so passionate it runs through their very being will, as we said before, probably have to wait until it hits retail. And we should find out when that is next week.

Canon Philippines yesterday launched 7 new products in their digital imaging line. Among them is the much-anticipated Canon 60D and the new Powershot G12.

Canon EOS 60D specs:
18MP CMOS sensor
Full HD 1080p video
9 AF points
ISO 100 – 6400 (12800 via Custom Function)
1/8000 to 30 sec shutter speed
5.3fps shooting speed
SD/SDHC/SDXC card
Canon EF lenses (including EF-S lenses)
The suggested retail price of the Canon 60D is Php57,950 (body only). As for the Powershot G12, it will go for Php31,950.
Here’s the complete line of new Canon cameras and Selphy printer with their corresponding SRP:
PowerShot SX130 – Php15,950
PowerShot SX30 – Php28,950
PowerShot S95 – Php27,950
PowerShot G12 – Php31,950
IXUS 1000 HS – Php26,950
Selphy CP800 – Php7,950




Canon Launches Seven New Premium Products
Canon Philippines launched their newest milestones with their seven premium imaging products in a media launch at EDSA Shangri-la Manila.
The launching of the products was holiday-inspired as we all know that the yuletide season is nearly coming. Themed as “Winter Wonderland”, the event was snowed by different creatively designed booths featuring the main attractions- the 7 Canon products.
First on the list is a bunch of compact camera shooters unveiled with smart high-performance functions. Lighting condition is one of the major difficulties a photographer faces especially when the area is low light. Worry no more because the Ixus 1000HS, PowerShot S95 and PowerShot SX130 IS solve the problem plus other technical advantages over other shooters.
The world’s slimmest, fully-flat compact digital camera with a 10x optical zoom lens in the name of Ixus 1000HS has its Best Image Selection mode which automatically selects the best shot among five continuously taken shots. Tripod is not necessary to capture sharp night scenes. Also, capturing critical action shots has been made easier with up to 8.8 frames per second.
The PowerShot S95 is slimmer thus bringing a lightweight device which prevents camera shake that causes blurring. Plus Tracking Auto Focus feature helps to track and focus on moving subjects with ease.
The other PowerShot, SX130 IS, has a 28mm wide-angle lens which supports up to 12x optical zoom giving you a wide scenes.
New Canon G-Series camera, the PowerShot G12 and the PowerShot SX30 IS, will be handed down next. These two support high-definition movie recording with stereo sound compatibility. The Canon-proprietary DIGIC 4 imaging processor, which is the common feature among the new released products, enables new high-sensitivity sensor which produces photos with minimal noise and sharp details.
While G12 includes high dynamic range shooting mode that can take three different exposure levels of the same scene to create a single image, the SX30 supports new Zoom Framing Assist function (a combination of high speed zoom with high speed AF).
The event also featured the newest DSLR known as EOS 60D with overflowing pro features. Notable is its wide Vari-Angle 3-inch LCD monitor that can be twisted and turned in almost any direction, providing unparalleled flexibility. The ISO level is expandable up to 12800 ranging from 100-6400. “Toy camera Effect,” “Soft focus,” and “Miniature Effect,” are added for effect. The EOS 60D also captures video at full HD video (1920 x 1080), HD Ready (1280 x 720), and standard TV (640 x 480).
Also introduced in the event is the Canon Selphy CP800 which “Shoot-Print-Share”. CP800, the revamped CP780, offers Photo Collage Layout and Skin Smooth Effect. PC is not a requirement to edit your pictures immediately. ID Photo Layout adds business reason for you to buy the product. Combining dye-sublimation technology with Canon’s imaging expertise, Selphy printers can achieve professional, lab-quality photos.

You might want to stay off of Twitter.com for a while until this all gets sorted out, but apparently plenty of people (myself included) are finding that simply hovering the mouse cursor over links on Twitter's site is causing random spam-like popups, retweets, and other bad stuff to happen.

According to Sophos.com:

"The Twitter website is being widely exploited by users who have stumbled across a flaw which allows messages to pop-up and third-party websites to open in your browser just by moving your mouse over a link. Messages are also spreading virally exploiting the vulnerability without the consent of users."

It doesn't appear to be affecting software applications that access Twitter (Seesmic, TweetDeck, etc.), but going directly to Twitter.com has been causing problems for some users.


UPDATE: Looks like things might be back under control. It still may be a good idea to stay off Twitter.com until we hear something official, though.

UPDATE 2: Directly from Twitter, posted at around 9:43 AM Eastern:

"We've identified and are patching a XSS attack; as always, please message @safety if you have info regarding such an exploit.

We expect the patch to be fully rolled out shortly and will update again when it is."

UPDATE 3: Per Twitter: "Update (6:50 PDT, 13:50 UTC): The exploit is fully patched."

Analyst predicts new model coming soon

We've already heard rumours that Apple is working on a 7-inch version of its iPad to build on the success of the first version and fend off challenges from the likes of Samsung and it's Galaxy Tab tablet, but now more information has come to light.

According to a research note put out by Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar this morning Apple, may be looking to develop a new version of iPad, this one with a 7-inch screen in 2011 reports Gigaom.
Kumar claims that based on his research the second generation iPad will have both front and rear facing cameras to make it easier for video conferencing on the device, using Apple’s Facetime.
It's not the first time analysts have suggested a smaller version of the iPad is coming.

In April Digitimes Research whose senior analyst Mingchi Kuo, believes that's what's on Apple's mind too.
Digitimes is reporting that "Kuo, citing talks with upstream component sources, said Apple's smaller-size iPad will be priced below US$400 and will target the highly-portable mobile device market and consumers that focus mainly on reading and do not have a high demand for text input".


At the time Digitimes suggested a 2011 launch as well.

What do you think?

We know you've seen Mini-ITX motherboards before, but how many have managed to fit in a PCI Express x16 lane, two full-sized DIMM slots, and Intel's LGA1156 socket? Gigabyte has done just that with its H55 circuit slab, squeezing the basic requirements for a gaming rig into a 6.7- x 6.7-inch footprint, and the lads over at Tech Report have taken notice. Pairing that tiny rig with a Silverstone SG07 small form factor case, they set out to discover if the PC craze of the Naughties -- SFF computing, mostly sparked off by Shuttle's efforts -- can be resurrected with more modern gear. What they found was that the SG07's 600W PSU stood up to the power demands of a GeForce GTX 470, all parts were somehow maintained in an acceptably cool state without making the enclosure sound like a wind tunnel, and gaming performance was highly satisfactory. Of course, there were some compromises and flaws to both the motherboard and case, but overall it turned out to be "one heck of a midget gaming system." 5Y7JTKXTR4WK

A new Facebook clickjacking attack is on the loose today, affecting thousands of users and spreading like wildfire through their status updates.
The scam comes in the form of a status update containing a link with the words: “OMG This GUY Went A Little To Far WITH His Revenge On His EX Girlfriend.”
As with all similar scams, after users click on the link, they’re asked to go through a fake captcha-style mechanism to see any content.
The fake captcha (pictured above) asks users to click on two colored boxes, which are actually linked to Facebook’s Share and “Like” buttons, effectively causing users to “Like” the page, as well as post the aforementioned status update to their own walls.
It doesn’t appear that this clickjacking attack spreads malware, but it’s a clear case of spam, and thus annoying to most users. If you or someone you know fell for the trick, we advise you to remove the status update and the related links from your “Likes” section on your Facebook profile page

Here's what you could be driving... if only you lived in Europe. Mercedes-Benz has announced, and promptly sold, a limited production run of 500 electric A-Class hatchbacks. Bearing the same E-Cell designation as the somewhat tastier-looking SLS  model from the Deutsch automaker, this little goer squeezes 95 horsepower and a 93mph top speed out of a 70kW motor. Those are relatively humble specs, but they also mean the electrified A-Class can last a healthy 124 miles between recharges. So long as this thing doesn't go all Tata Nano  on us -- and Mercedes says its thermomanagement is top notch -- we wouldn't mind seeing a few more electro hatchbacks rolling off the assembly line and maybe even reaching markets outside the present France, Germany and Netherlands. Let's make it happen, Daimler!

Uh oh! Today, Japanese magazine Spa! reported that back in July, Apple CEO Steve Jobs attempted to board his private plane at Kansai International Airport in Osaka for a return to the United States after a family vacation in Kyoto. All was well until...airport security discovered ninja throwing stars in Jobs' luggage, and would not allow him to take them home...yes, even aboard his private plane.
As a result of this ruling, Jobs allegedly declared that he'd "never visit Japan again," which is a tall statement coming from the head of the world's most influential technology companies. Spa! notes that Jobs "said it wouldn’t make sense for a person to try to hijack his own plane," which is totally true, but still. Throwing stars are legally weapons. A report was filed on the incident and Apple declines to comment.
A Kansai Airport spokesman said that the passenger (the airport refuses to name Jobs due to their privacy policy) eventually threw away the stars and boarded the flight to the US without the weapons. Ha—he threw out the throwing stars! Doesn't Jobs know that you can buy these things for like, $5 at the local mall's Asian imports store? And yes, the sharp and fancy ones too, though those cost a little more.

It's not just oddly random Android tablet-based printers  for HP today -- the company also announced two new all-in-one PCs, the TouchSmart 310 (pictured above) and the Omni100. The TouchSmart 310 is obviously the latest in the TouchSmart  line, with a 2.8GHz Athlon II 240e dual-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, Radeon HD 4270 integrated graphics, a 1TB drive and a 20-inch 1600x1900 touchscreen running the latest version of HP's Windows 7 touch overlay with custom interfaces for Facebook, Hulu, Netflix, Twitter, and HP's built-in HDTV tuner. Not bad -- but we'll see how much all those options cost above the $699 base price. On the non-touch front, the Omni100 also has a 20-inch 1600x1900 display, but it's running HP's MediaSmart Windows 7 overlay on a 1.8GHz Athlon II 260u with 3GB of RAM, a 500GB drive and the same Radeon HD 4270 integrated graphics. It's also cheaper, starting at $499 -- we're definitely a little concerned that HP's cheaped out on display quality at those prices, but we'll have to see things in person first. We'll find out soon enough -- both of these hit on the 22nd.

When I saw this website, I played with it and made fun with it! You can attach you own picture with you friend's picture here! And animate them! (http://sendables.jibjab.com)

Check out some previews below:

High tech architecture took the spotlight this week as Aedas unveiled a set of photovoltaic crystalline honeycomb skyscrapers for Abu Dhabi and San Francisco unfurled plans for a sail-shaped solar stadium for the America's Cup yacht race. We also took an exclusive look inside a high-tech solar home  that actually produces more energy than it consumes, and spotted a new technology that can transform any home's electrical wiring into an information-transmitting antenna.

We also showcased some of the world's most efficient vehicles as the winners of the $10 million Automotive X-Prize were announced, and we were excited to hear that the first factory-built Fisker Karma supercar will be rolling up to the Paris Auto Show next month. Finally, we peek inside Jay Leno's envy-inducing green garage in this week's episode of Green Overdrive.

In other news, MIT made waves on the renewable energy front as they revealed a new "solar funnel" technology that could increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells 100 times. We also took a first look at Eddy GT's new streamlined city-friendly wind turbine, and we saw Tesla batteries jump-start residential solar systems by storing excess energy.

A friend of mine opened his PC's power supply to clean it. Now it doesn't work.

Power supply units (PSUs) aren't really meant to be opened and messed with on the inside. Most likely you accidentally broke something or put it together wrong.

Since you've already done the deed, you might as well try it again to make sure nothing is broken or out-of-place. Pay particular attention to dull-colored, cold solder connections, to see if they're damaged.

But I wouldn't put too much effort into it. Desktop power supplies are cheap, and unless you enjoy tinkering, trying to repair one probably isn't worth the time.

 

We're big fans of private entities giving away big chunks of cash to fund cool research, and the X Prize foundation seems to be making the most waves lately. Most recent is the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, a $10 million total purse going to cars able to score at least an equivalent MPG of 100. There were two main classes and three total prizes, all of which recently found winners. Besting them all was the Team Edison2 Very Light Car, taking home $5 million thanks to its four-passenger configuration clocking in at 102.5MPGe running on E85 ethanol. There were also two "alternative" winners, each scoring $2.5 million: Team Li-On's two-seater Wave-II EV (187MPGe) and Team X-Tracer Switzerland's E-Tracer, an awesome and electric two-wheeled enclosed motorcycle with auto-deploying outrigger wheels. That sucker, pictured above, managed 205.3MPGe and will do 0 - 60 in under seven seconds, something that certainly can't be said of the rest. But, none of them are exactly what you'd call four star safety rated nor can any be found on dealer lots. In other words: it remains to be seen when mere mortal commuters will get to be the winners of this contest.

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A report from TechCrunch today claims that Facebook may be working on a phone of its own to compete in the ever-warming smartphone race. According to a "source who has knowledge of the project," the social networking site has put two high level employees to the task of creating a smartphone which will allow deep integration with Facebook contacts. Apparently, says the source, Facebook has been concerned that Apple and Google represent some kind of threat as competitors, though there is rather deep Facebook integration in the Android platform, and even the iPhone app allows for contact merging. Additionally, the site speculates that the device could be targeted at the low end of the market ($50 or less), which would not place it as a direct competitor to anything but featurephones. The article goes as far to suggest that Facebook and Spotify investor Li Ka-Shing (who apparently had a hand in the Spotify featurephone with INQ) may have started putting those efforts and relationships into the Facebook handset. But, INQ's been down this road with Facebook already.

Still, TechCrunch says that Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos are "secretly working on the project," which is being kept tightly under wraps; even Facebook employees are in the dark about the plan. Hewitt and Papakipos have certainly both worked in this space: the former created the Facebook iPhone app, and the latter was head of Google's Chrome OS team until June. But the article strangely leaves out what could be the most telling piece of the puzzle -- the departure of Android's lead project manager, Erick Tseng. After leaving the company in May, he went directly to Facebook to take on the job of head of mobile products. Keep in mind, Erick was high-up enough at Android to act as a spokesperson for the brand -- even appearing on the Engadget Show to talk about the platform.

But does this make for a Facebook Phone in our future? That's not so clear -- the idea that the company would see an opportunity in an already overcrowded smartphone marketplace is questionable, and if it's truly worried about the major players, it wouldn't be targeting a low end handset. We also may be giving the company a little too much credit to think that it can pull off being a heavy hitter in the social networking space (platform and all), and make a dent in the hardware and services game (remember, the competition is Microsoft, Apple, Google, RIM, and Nokia). Like all rumor and speculation in the gadget world, take it with a grain of salt, but you can be sure we'll be putting our feelers out to get a concrete answer on this one.

Update: Facebook wasted no time today shooting the idea down: "The story, which originated in Techcrunch, is not accurate," a spokesperson told Mashable. "Facebook is not building a phone." The company told the publication that it's focusing on "deep integration" with existing mobile platforms, but that "building phones is just not what we do."

 

It’s always cool when a totally big-ass milestone is hit on something, sort of like Twitter’s 20 billionth tweet, which… well, I… posted about it awhile ago, but for the life of me, can’t find. Whatever. It was a boring tweet anyway. It’s just cool to nose in on the big milestones, whatever they may be.
And that’s exactly what this is: Flickr’s 5 billionth photo, uploaded by user Aaron Yeo – a view of the Woodward’s building in Vancouver, Canada.
According to Media Culpa, a blog that has enough time on its hands to track these stats, Flickr adds about a billion photos per year. So, with that in mind, let’s meet back here in 365 and see what’s up, yeah?
Frankly, I’m just happy the five billionth happened to be an interesting photo of reasonable artistry, and not… y’know, a drunken party photo. Not that Flickr tends to have terribly many of those – just sayin’.
Though, really, that would have been kind of funny, too.

 

The Department of Defense and Southern Methodist University have teamed up to develop prosthetics that use two-way fiber optic communication between artificial limbs and peripheral nerves to essentially give these devices the ability to feel pressure or temperature. The technology is called neurophotonics, and it will someday allow hi-speed communication between the brain and artificial limbs. But that's just the beginning -- the work being done at SMU's Neurophotonics Research Center might someday lead to brain implants that control tremors, neuro-modulators for chronic pain management, implants for treating spinal cord injuries, and more. And since we can't have a post about DARPA-funded research without the following trope, Dean Orsak of the SMU Lyle School of Engineering points out that "[s]cience fiction writers have long imagined the day when the understanding and intuition of the human brain could be enhanced by the lightning speed of computing technologies. With this remarkable research initiative, we are truly beginning a journey into the future that will provide immeasurable benefits to humanity." Truly.