Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I'm getting ready to make the move to Android; would love to hear what y'all think -- what device should I get? http://bit.ly/9EoT4T

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Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon 'in the coming months'

Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon 'in the coming months'

And just like that, the rumor mill smirks. HP has just come clean with a device that we've been hearing more and more about over the past few weeks, and with it will come the next generation of webOS that we've been hearing about for even longer. The Palm Pre 2 will be the first device to ship with HP webOS 2.0, with the revamped and renamed (presumably to use on more than just Palm smartphones) mobile OS promising "true multitasking," Stacks (for organizing apps) Just Type, HP Synergy (links your email and social networking accounts), Exhibition (enabling users to run apps designed specifically for the Palm Touchstone Charging Dock) and support for Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 Beta. It's also bringing along a new Favorites tagging option, Skype Mobile (on the Verizon version only), text assist, integrated Quickoffice, VPN support, a redesigned launcher and full support for Bluetooth keyboards and SPP peripherals.

As for Pre 2 itself? Little is being revealed at the moment, but we're told to expect a 1GHz CPU, a five megapixel camera (LED flash, extended depth of field, geotagging, and video capture), glass display and a "sleeker, streamlined design" that still combines a touchpanel with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. In other words, it's a faster, slimmer Pre, and some would argue it's what the Pre Plus should've been. At any rate, SFR customers in France will get first dibs on Friday, with Verizon and an undisclosed carrier in Canada scheduled to get it "in the coming months." Oh, and as for US-based developers? They'll be able to purchase unlocked UMTS versions of the Pre 2 (!) in their homeland, though pricing remains elusive.

Update: The Pre 2 portal is now live, showcasing a 3.1-inch 480 x 320 (HVGA) multitouch display, a black enclosure, Exchange support, built-in GPS, ambient light / proximity sensors, an accelerometer, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 16GB of inbuilt storage space, a battery good for around 5.5 hours of talking and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Continue reading Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon 'in the coming months'

Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon 'in the coming months' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Attribution Reporting: The Most Overlooked Media Planning Tool via @hollisthomases on @clickz

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New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skin [Mad Biology]

New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skin [Mad Biology]

New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skinLEDs are, on small scales, the cheapest, most reliable, and most technologically powerful light sources out there. But their true potential is finally being unleashed. A new generation of LEDs can go anywhere - even into your body.


New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skin

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are often used for text and video displays, and their infrared counterparts are everywhere in remote control technology. You can't take a trip without running into an LED - traffic signals are all LEDs, as are most of the lights on a car dashboard. And anyone who has been to a rock concert has probably run into a few people going crazy with LED-powered glowsticks.

New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skin

Still, as researcher John Rogers of the University of Illinois points out, LEDs are brittle, meaning they can't be bent into different shapes. Well, no more, thanks to his new invention. He and his team have put tiny LEDs, each one smaller than the tip of a pen, on flexible electronic sheets. These sheets can be stretched and twisted up to 720 degrees without any loss in LED function, and they can hold up under soapy water or even underneath the skin, which they demonstrated by implant one sheet under the skin of mice.

New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skin

As scientist's tend to do, Rogers looks at this from the perspective of how it might benefit humanity. He sees great potential applications in using implanted LEDs for diagnostic purposes, and putting his LEDs on surgical gloves could allow doctors an even better view at what they're operating on.

New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skin

But let's be real here - the crazy awesome applications of this invention way outstrip the humanity-benefiting ones. Implanted LEDs can be the new tattoo - put red ones down your spine for the sexy Cylon look!) Take your boring old household pets and stick some LEDs in them - instant excitement with glowing kitties and puppies! New glowsticks could be twisted 720 degrees to look like double helixes of DNA and handed out to biologists, giving scientific conferences a refreshingly heavy metal feel. And you just know somebody is figuring out how to put these things on a condom.

New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs can be implanted under your skin

What crazy ideas do you have for these ultra-flexible LEDs? Here are some more awesome pictures of Rogers's LEDs in action to get your creative juices going.

[Nature Materials]

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Apple's Q4 earnings are out, records set for revenue, earnings, and sales (Update: earnings call liveblog!)

Apple's Q4 earnings are out, records set for revenue, earnings, and sales (Update: earnings call liveblog!)

Another Apple earnings report, another winner quarter for the company. Apple says its 2010 fiscal fourth quarter results are its "highest revenue and earnings ever," with records set for Mac, iPhone and iPad sales. Some of the highlight numbers include 14.1 million iPhones sold (up 91 percent over Q4 last year), 3.89 million Macs (up 27 percent), 9.05 million iPods (down 11 percent), and 4.19 million iPads. It all added up to an all-time record for Apple of $20.34 billion in revenue for a net profit of $4.31 billion. And of course, Apple couldn't resist stoking the upcoming-event-rumor flames a little bit: "We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year." Hit up the press release after the break. The earnings call is starting in a few minutes, we'll be liveblogging it right here!

Continue reading Apple's Q4 earnings are out, records set for revenue, earnings, and sales (Update: earnings call liveblog!)

Apple's Q4 earnings are out, records set for revenue, earnings, and sales (Update: earnings call liveblog!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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