Sunday, July 26, 2009

Netflix Prize Competition Comes to a Thrilling Conclusion [NetFlix]

Netflix Prize Competition Comes to a Thrilling Conclusion [NetFlix]

After a last-second buzzer beater put them in the front runner position for the Netflix Prize on Saturday, it appears as though "The Ensemble" has held off any late surges from other developers to take top honors in the competition.

The competition, which was kicked off by Netflix back in 2006 as a way to improve the accuracy of its movie recommendation algorithm, saw a flurry of activity in its final days between two development teams: The aforementioned Ensemble, and the previous leader, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos.

Up until Saturday, BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos was the leader, with work that surpassed the contest's 10% barrier by .08%. Their 10.08% score, submitted one month ago, kicked off a 30-day countdown meant to allow other teams to turn in last-minute improvements of their own. On the second to last day, The Ensemble swooped in with a 10.09% score and an all-but-assured victory.

However, Bellkor, not to be outdone when the prize was seemingly already in their grasp, submitted a lightning quick 10.09% match to tie and presumably share the $1 million prize.

But it was not to be. Twenty minutes after the tying submission was submitted, The Ensemble (perhaps with a secret reserve?) submitted a 10.10% submission with four minutes to spare.

With the contest closed, this is what Netflix had to say:

Contest Closed

Thank you for your interest in the Netflix Prize.

We are delighted to report that, after almost three years and more than 43,000 entries from over 5,100 teams in over 185 cou! ntries, the Netflix Prize Contest stopped accepting entries on 2009-07-26 18:42:37 UTC. The closing of the contest is in accordance with the Rules — thirty (30) days after a submitted prediction set achieved the Grand Prize qualifying RMSE on the quiz subset.

Team registration, team updates and the dataset download are also closed. The Contest Forum and Leaderboard remain open.

Qualified entries will be evaluated as described in the Rules. We look forward to awarding the Grand Prize, which we expect to announce in a few weeks. However if a Grand Prize cannot be awarded because no submission can be verified by the judges, the Contest will reopen. We will make an announcement on the Forum after the Contest judges reach a decision.

Once the Grand Prize is awarded, the ratings for the qualifying set will be released and the combined training data and qualifying sets will become available upon request at the Machine Learning Archive at UC Irvine.

Thank you again for your interest in the Netflix Prize. Keep checking this site for updates in the coming weeks.

Congrats are in order to the quick-thinking Ensemble team. They played this one to perfection. [TechCrunch via Slashdot]

FiiO PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker says 'buy more'

FiiO PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker says 'buy more'

$15 for a hunk of metal and plastic that makes noise and looks pretty cool? Sure, it's not quite that pink cube that OMM told you pick up on the way home from your occupation, but FiiO's PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker is just that right blend of retro and modern that makes us all weak in the knees. Let us be thankful we have commerce.

[Via technabob]

Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio

FiiO PS1110 Walkbox portable speaker says 'buy more' originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell Studio 14z hits the review bench, disc drive stays behind with few regrets

Dell Studio 14z hits the review bench, disc drive stays behind with few regrets

While ASUS is busy adding an optical drive to its Eee PC line, Dell is diving into the low-priced, optical-free, thin-and-light category with its new Studio 14z portable. The folks at Laptop Mag have taken the new laptop for a spin, and seem to like what they see. While its 4.4 pound weight isn't quite best in class, the 14z outperforms most of its brethren thanks to GeForce 9400M graphics and a "real" Core 2 Duo processor -- none of that weak sauce CULV stuff. The battery life isn't bad either, and for $750 it's easy on the wallet. You just have to ask yourself: can you live without instant access on-the-go to your limited edition set of Billy Joel hits on Compact Disc?

Filed under: Laptops

Dell Studio 14z hits the review bench, disc drive stays behind with few regrets originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

O, but I forgot that the orange was such an exciting color, that combined w/ the blue deathstar logo drove tons & tons of UNmeasurable sales

If brands had equity, then when AT&T flipped to Cingular and flopped back, they must've lost way more than the $120M paid to brand agencies.

The Big Picture Provides Intuitive Project Management [Project]

The Big Picture Provides Intuitive Project Management [Project]

The Big Picture is a project-management tool which fuses a calendar, task lists, and project creation tools with a mind-map style interface. The result is an intuitive click and drag interface that makes project management simple.

Whether you're creating an initial project or adding an event to your calendar, all you need to do is click and drag to create an entry. After the creation of every calendar event a suggestion box pops up allowing you to immediately associate the event on the calendar with one of your projects. You can move nearly everything in The Big Picture around by grabbing and sliding it to a new location. Watch the demonstration video below to see the interface in action:

Use The Big Picture? Use another tool with an easy to use interface? Share your favorite project-management tool in the comments.

The Big Picture [via Ian's Messy Desk]

Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart Updated [Hackintosh]

Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart Updated [Hackintosh]

Boing Boing Gadgets' fantastic ease-of-netbook-Hackintoshing chart just got updated with three new models (all pretty promising) and a smattering of changes throughout. If you're thinking about a Hackintoshed netbook, check it, and our guide, out. [Boing Boing Gadgets]

Apple tablet rumored for launch early next year, for serious this time: seriously

Apple tablet rumored for launch early next year, for serious this time: seriously

After what AppleInsider claims has been four years of development "riddled with setbacks," Apple is purportedly finalizing its long-rumored tablet for an early 2010 launch. AppleInsider claims to have been tracking the device get bounced back to the drawing board repeatedly over the past few years, but says that Steve Jobs is finally happy with the product and there's an internal go-ahead to get this thing ready for next year, barring any other setbacks. Purported specs include a 10-inch screen, 3G data and a custom ARM processor courtesy of its P.A. Semi purchase -- after previously considering Intel's Atom, as the story goes. Rumors elsewhere point to Verizon data instead of AT&T, but that might just be wishful thinking. While AppleInsider still claims the device is positioned somewhere between an iPhone and a laptop, its inside sources apparently didn't give the thumbs up to early artist renditions of the handheld, and so AI's new and "improved" render is above -- striking fear in the heart of aesthetes everywhere.

Sure, we've heard so many iterations of Apple tablet rumors over the years, with varying degrees of confidence behind them, that it's really hard to latch onto yet another promise of this supposedly inevitable device. Still, this is what it is: a decent rumor with some reasonable excuses for "delays" and a glorious promise of tablet nirvana right around the corner. What more could an Apple rumorphile want?

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Apple tablet rumored for launch early next year, for serious this time: seriously originally! appeare d on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung confirms a Tegra-based smartphone is in the works, all other details shrouded in mystery

Samsung confirms a Tegra-based smartphone is in the works, all other details shrouded in mystery

NVIDIA's Tegra chip has shown itself to be quite a gem, especially in the field of augmented reality zombie destruction. Looks like Samsung agrees with that sentiment, and has confirmed that it's currently developing a smartphone with the powerful processor. That's not a lot to go on, but knowing the capabilities of the CPU, we're excited. It's probably safe to assume an AMOLED touchscreen is a given, as well as a plethora of TouchWiz widgets, but whether or not the phone goes with Windows Mobile or Android is still a mystery. A recent rumor suggested one of the "top five" smartphone makers would be releasing a $199 GSM-based Tegra device by year's end -- no indication if these two reports are one in the same, but we'd love to see what Sammy has in store sooner rather than later.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung confirms a Tegra-based smartphone is in the works, all other details shrouded in mystery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How would you change MSI's X-Slim ultraportable line?

How would you change MSI's X-Slim ultraportable line?

MSI's seductive X-Slim lineup first dropped jaws back at CeBIT, and it's been tempting PC addicts ever since hitting the market a few months back. Many have argued that the X-Slim family looks just a bit too much like that other ultraslim lappie over there, but we'd say these are distinct enough to walk their own path. Catering to a wide range of potential customers, MSI has actually issued quite a few of these machines, from the X320 to the X340 to the X600. If you've been fortunate enough to pick one of these up for yourself, how has the user experience been? Is it as much a looker in person as you thought it'd be? Are you satisfied with performance? Anything missing for the price? Go on and get heard, won't you?

Filed under: Laptops

How would you change MSI's X-Slim ultraportable line? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OCZ's Colossus SSD comes out of its shell

OCZ's Colossus SSD comes out of its shell

We got a brief glimpse of OCZ's massive new Colossus SSD drive at Computex last month, and gotten the official word on most of the basic specs straight from OCZ itself, but we've only just now gotten a look inside that slightly mysterious-looking black box and, well, there's a whole bunch of SSD chips inside. Available in capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB, all of the drives boast a tightly packed design that includes a pair of Indilinx controllers and some associated DRAM cache for each, along with a dual-drive, single PCB implementation that makes it all appear as a single drive to the system. Still no word on a release date just yet, unfortunately, but it looks like these'll start at $299 for the 128GB drive.

Filed under: Storage

OCZ's Colossus SSD comes out of its shell originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, July 24, 2009

UPDATED: Normal average seasonality drives more lift in movie tix sales than 100s of millions of $s in advertising -- http://bit.ly/1tWlvj

Chromegestures Adds Mouse Gestures to Google Chrome [Downloads]

Chromegestures Adds Mouse Gestures to Google Chrome [Downloads]

Windows only: The experimental chromegestures extension for Google Chrome adds a full set of mouse gestures to those using the development releases of Chrome.

Installing the gestures requires first switching to the development channel, modifying your Google Chrome shortcut to include the --enable-extensions parameter, and then heading over to the download page to install the extension (by simply clicking on the ChromeGestures.crx link).

Once you've installed the extension and restarted the browser, you should be able to hold down the right mouse button and swipe the mouse right or left to navigate back and forward, Down -> Right for a new tab, or even up to search with the selected text. If you get stuck, you can use Up -> Right -> Down -> Left -> Down to open up the help file, or you can do Up -> Down to open the options dialog and tweak the sensitivity. If you're a big fan of mouse gestures, this is definitely worth the effort of getting it installed.

chromegestures [Google Code via gHacks]

Card.ly Creates Attractive Online Business Cards in a Jiffy [Address Book]

Card.ly Creates Attractive Online Business Cards in a Jiffy [Address Book]

Web site Card.ly allows you to collect all of your contact information—online and off—into one simple, linkable "business card" you can share with anyone.

The site's pretty simple. You just sign up, fill in whatever information you want to pull into a centralized "business card", and you're ready to go. When you're finished, you'll get a personalized link that looks something like http://card.ly/lifehacker. You can simply share that link with anyone you want to stay updated with you, or, if you really like it, Card.ly provides various embeddable options for placing your vCard on your web site, in your email, or anywhere you want to include it.

Even though this is the sort of thing that it seems most people use the likes of Facebook for these days, Card.ly is a fun and simple idea executed well. Still, we'd recommend grabbing your own domain and making a simple nameplate site if you're really interested in this kind of thing.

Samsung LED LCD UN46B7000 HDTV Lightning Review: Avoid! [HDTVs]

Samsung LED LCD UN46B7000 HDTV Lightning Review: Avoid! [HDTVs]

Generally, I love LED LCDs. The UN46B7000 is Samsung's set with 120Hz refresh and internet widgets. It's not backlit, like the XBR8, but sidelit, and is as thin as two of your fingers. You should avoid buying this set.

The Price: $3000

The Verdict: The problem is that this set dims the sidelights whenever the program material gets dark, and it does it in the most ungraceful way ever. Check out the menu that I popped on screen, merely to show you what happens to w! hite mat erial on screen when the backlight is dimmed to increase black level.

See how everything white goes dark, too?

So, if there's a scene in a movie where there's a moonlit night, the lighting in this set would crank everything down, including the moon itself. Backlit LED tvs can turn off individual lights to increase blacks, yet keep LEDs lit in the area around the on screen moon; this set idiotically turns everything off. (*Some other sets do this for energy savings, but there's always a way to set the backlight to a consistent brightness level.)

I didn't even benchmark the set after this, as there was no need for me to measure other features when the set had such a glaring problem, which Samsung claims is not a bug. Oddly, many technical reviewers glossed over this fact, giving this set editor choice awards while brushing away the issue.

My impressions of the rest of the set are here, however:
• The TV's colors are inflated like a lot of LCDs but the picture and motion handling are pretty damn comparable to any modern late model LCD.
• There are no buttons on the set, so if you lose your remote, you're fucked.
• The TV is about 1.2 inches thick, and all the ports are tucked nicely away on the side. But because the case is so thin, the speakers sound terribly thin. Worse than on an old 22 inch TV I have in the back of the house.
• The case's translucent edges are among the best designed cases of any modern gadget, in my opinion.
• The internet widgets and content take a long minute to boot up and include Flickr, twitter and weather apps. They aren't worth the $150-$200 over the 6000 series which eliminate these extras. There's a media streamer (which I didn't test) recipes, simple video games, exercises, art and animated children's songs, like this really freaky one about having the munchies.

• Off axis viewing isn't great, but isn't bad.
• If you have noise reduction on on this set, it will strip the grain from movies, practically, making everything look like it was shot on a cheap digital camcorder. Turn it off.
• It's worth repeating that this set is generally gorgeous.
• Like all LED sets, they're energy efficient. But again, there's no localized dimming with this set, which is side, not backlit.

The good news is that Samsung can fix this dimming issue by firmware. The bad news is that I haven't heard they even believe its an issue yet. I've never been so irritated by such a beautiful TV and recommend you steer clear.

A nice picture

Super thin

Dimming sidelight issues.

Sounds thin

Expensive

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