DXG to offer $600 3D Pocket Camcorder

DXG to offer $600 3D Pocket Camcorder - Yahoo! News: "With 3D movies gaining acceptance and 3D HDTVs on the market, it was only a matter of time before a 3D camcorder for the masses hit the market. DXG hopes to be at the forefront of the 3D camcorder trend with its $600 DXG-5D7V 3D Pocket Camcorder.

The DXG-5D7V creates an anaglyph image inside the camcorder by shooting with a pair of lenses. The camcorder’s 3.25-inch display has a parallax overlay so you to see the DXG-5D7V’s 3D video without special glasses.

The DXG-5D7V is also capable of shooting 2D video. However, all video (3D and 2D) is shot at 640 by 480 resolution—the camcorder does not shoot high-definition video.

To watch the DXG-5D7V’s 3D video outside of the camcorder, DXG includes in a bundle its 3D Media Player, a 7-inch TFT display with a parallax overlay; no special glasses are required. The 3D Media Player looks like a digital picture frame, with control keys on the right side of its bezel. The 3D Media Player also has speakers and includes a remote control.

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Camera Sutra iPhone app not sexy, but does the job

Camera Sutra iPhone app not sexy, but does the job - iPhone app review - Dan Kricke | Appolicious ™ iPhone App Directory: "Armed with a clever name and a handful of neat effects, the $1.99 Camera Sutra iPhone app could be an fine addition to a novice photographer’s app collection.

Don’t be misled though -- despite sharing part of its name with the classic sexuality text, the Kama Sutra, there’s nothing scandalous about Camera Sutra. It is simply a no-frills photo effects app designed primarily for folks unaccustomed to putting filters on their pictures.

Camera Sutra’s interface could not be simpler. Once you open up the app, it looks like just the iPhone’s camera. Tapping anywhere on the screen opens up the wheel of effects you can use for your photo, and selecting an effect is as easy as sliding the wheel to the effect you want.

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YouTube Increases Video Time Limit to 15 Minutes

YouTube Increases Video Time Limit to 15 Minutes - Yahoo! News: "Good news for everyone out there who's ever thought to themselves: 'A 10-minute video of my cat eating ribs on the kitchen floor is just too short.' YouTube announced today that it has increased its upload limit from 10 minutes to 15 for non-partners. So get kitty lookin' pretty and start rolling!

So why add the extra five-spot now? Well, on the YouTube blog, the video-sharing site explains that it's been beefing up its copyright protection tools of late, i.e. the Content ID system (which lets copyright holders have more control over their content). Therefore, it's less likely that users can, say, upload large chunks of movies and TV shows without permission.

In celebration of this added time, YouTube is also launching a contest of sorts called '15 Minutes of Fame.' Basically, all users have to do is film a 15-minute vid, tag it with “yt15minutes,” and upload it by Wednesday, August 4. The chosen videos will be featured on the YouTube homepage.

We wonder what effect -- if any -- this new time limit will have on initiatives like YouTube Leanback. Do you think the extra five minutes will equate to better content, or merely more room to rant about video games, Twilight and the like? Let us know!

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SendStuffNow app now available for iPhone, iPad

SendStuffNow app now available for iPhone, iPad - Yahoo! News: "Last week we covered SendStuffNow, a new file sharing service designed for small-to-medium businesses and professionals who need an easier way to share and manage files. One of the main attractions of the service—an iPhone and iPad app—is now available.

SendStuffNow allows you to upload files to the company’s “cloud” storage servers, then securely share them with clients, get notified when a client finishes a download, or even revoke access to files.

The company’s universal iPhone and iPad app allows users to manage their files and account on-the-go. You can view your files, send sharing invitations, change a file’s expiration date, or immediately revoke all privileges and make it private again. You can also upload photos and videos from your iOS device’s Photos app.

SendStuffNow’s iPhone and iPad app is available now in the App Store for free. SendStuffNow accounts also start at the low price of free, with paid plans that offer more storage, more monthly download bandwidth, and phone support starting at $120 per year.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Best Beach Cameras Roundup

Best Beach Cameras - Best Beach Cameras Roundup | PCMag.com: "Technology and water don't mix. Delicate circuitry doesn't like to get wet, but it's summer and photo ops abound. If you want to capture photos or video of your outdoor adventures, a rugged, waterproof digital camera could be for you.

A fairly new product category, many point-and-shoot camera manufacturers are only on their first or second waterproof, ruggedized model. While they continue to get better with each iteration, you'll often have to pay more and make some sacrifices for a camera you can swim with. Our Editors Choice, the practically bulletproof Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2, for example, is a leaps-and-bounds improvement over its predecessor, last year's DMC-TS1, which had image-quality issues and problems with its waterproof casing. This year's model captures top-notch still images and HD video, but it'll cost you $400.

Rugged, waterproof cameras can also be bulky. Canon's first entrant in this category, the $300 PowerShot D10, takes beautiful pictures, but it's almost twice as thick as most of its competitors. The $230 Casio Exilim G EX-G1, on the other hand, is the slimmest waterproof camera we've seen, but it suffers in the image-quality department.

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7-inch, $150 Android tablet set to go on sale

7-inch, $150 Android tablet set to go on sale - Yahoo! News: "Rather not spend $500 on an iPad or $550 on Dell’s 5-inch Android tablet? Is Archos’s $200 Android slate still a tad too rich for your blood? Then try this on for size: a 7-inch, $150 Android tablet, coming soon to a K-Mart near you.

Set to go on sale this week, according to Kmart circulars spotted by Engadget, Augen’s GenTouch78 makes for one of the cheapest full-on tablet devices I’ve seen yet (well, except maybe for this one), and according to the manufacturer’s spec sheet, it’s got some pretty solid features to go along with the bargain price tag.

Running on version 2.1 of the Android OS (slightly behind Android 2.2, which is starting to roll out on the latest Android smartphones), the GenTouch sports a 7-inch, 800-by-480 TFT touch display, plus an 800MHz processoor under the hood, 256MB of RAM, 2GB of internal storage, an SD/MMC memory card slot (good for expanding the tablet’s storage capacity by another 16GB), and — naturally — Wi-Fi support.

The GenTouch’s media player can handle video files up to 720p (which would have to be downscaled for the WVGA display) and supports e-books in text, PDF, ePub, and HTML formats. Even better, the GenTouch product page claims that you’ll be able to download apps from the Android Marketplace onto the tablet — although I’d like to see this in person, given that Google has supposedly restricted Android Marketplace access on “non-smartphones' like Archos’s Android tablet.

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How to Avoid Malware: Good Practices to Follow and Tools That Can Help

How to Avoid Malware: Good Practices to Follow and Tools That Can Help: "In today’s computer world, PCs are becoming the target for a lot of different scams. Your personal information is being constantly tracked in new and more creative ways every day. One of the most common is the advent of spyware or viruses. These two together make up what computer administrators call “Malware”. Here are a few simple ways to reduce your chances of being infected.

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Twitter CEO celebrates dramatic growth in Japan

Twitter CEO celebrates dramatic growth in Japan - Yahoo! News: "Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams celebrated the dramatic growth of the microblogging service he co-founded at a dinner event Friday with 500 Japanese fans and promised to learn from them.

'We've come a long way in two years especially in Japan,' he told a cheering crowd at a Tokyo hall.

Twitter has been a huge hit in Japan. As Williams noted in his presentation, Japanese tweeters set a world record when the whistle blew in the World Cup game in which Japan beat Denmark at 3,283 tweets per second, mostly believed to have been Japanese.

Williams — appearing in a T-shirt with the Twitter trademark bird set in a red circle, the symbol of the Japanese flag — said when Twitter held a similar event in 2008, only 40 people came.

He mingled with tweeters to find out how they were using the technology, in what he said was an effort to make the service better for his important market.

He thanked the crowd in Japanese and offered a celebratory toast with beer, as the crowd cheered.

Noriaki Takayama, who translates imported software and has 2,500 followers on Twitter, said he has made dozens of friends through Twitter.

'It's a great way to expand your network, and one connection leads to another,' he said.

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Droid X First Look

30 - Gizmo gives you the first look at the Motorola Droid X a huge upgrade from the previous version! Includes comparison shots with many popular phones as well!

Virus, Spyware & Malware Protection | Microsoft Security Essentials

Virus, Spyware & Malware Protection Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Nook App Is Another Sign of Android Ascent

Nook App Is Another Sign of Android Ascent - PCWorld: "Barnes and Noble just couldn't afford to ignore Nook for Android any longer.

For months, Barnes & Noble has promised a Nook digital book reader app for Android, even though the bookseller's eReader app for iPhone and BlackBerry phones actually launched a year ago, long before the Nook's debut. I don't know why the Android version took so long, but with Android reader apps already available from Amazon, Kobo and Borders, it's about time Barnes & Noble caught up.

Nook's Android app has all the features of its iOS counterpart. You can launch Barnes & Noble's e-book store from within the app, let other people sample your library with LendMe and sync purchases and page counts across multiple devices. The Android app is also Barnes & Noble's first to get Nook branding; according to Electronista, the B&N eReader apps on other platforms will be rebranded in the future.

I'm guessing Barnes & Noble had to hustle on Android with all its competitors already on board, but the bigger picture is that all these new e-reader apps are a sign of Android development heating up. For reader apps specifically, it makes sense to start supporting Android now, with the large-screen Droid X and HTC Evo 4G on the market, and with Android tablets on the way.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

App helps San Fran police track stolen iPhone fast

App helps San Fran police track stolen iPhone fast - Yahoo! News: "A man accused of swiping an Apple iPhone out of a woman's hand in San Francisco may have been shocked when police found him only nine minutes later. It turns out the phone had been tracking his every move.

The iPhone was being used to test a new, real-time GPS tracking application, and the woman holding it was an intern for the software's maker, Mountain View-based Covia Labs.

Covia CEO David Khan had sent the intern into the street to demonstrate the software. Police say Horatio Toure snatched it and sped away on a bicycle.

Khan was watching a live map of the phone's location on a computer and says he was immediately struck by how quickly the image began moving down the street.

Police arrested Toure nine minutes later, and the intern identified him as the thief.

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Walmart, Best Buy in Sub-$300 Laptop Price War

Walmart, Best Buy in Sub-$300 Laptop Price War - Yahoo! News: "Walmart and Best Buy appear to have kicked off a price war in time for the back-to-school shopping season, with both retailers offering Compaq laptops with 15.6-inch screens for under US$300.

Walmart is selling Hewlett-Packard's Compaq Presario CQ62-219WM for $298 through its online store. Best Buy is selling a Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX for $299 on its website.

The laptops have similar specifications. Both come with a single-core Intel Celeron 900 processor running at 2.2GHz and include 2GB of DDR2 memory. They also have 250GB hard drives, wired and 802.11 b/g/ wireless networking capabilities, DVD burners and Intel's 4500M integrated graphics.

The systems come with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS and include other applications often referred to as bloatware. One notable feature absent from the laptops is a webcam.

Best Buy is also selling a $299 Toshiba Satellite C655-S5049 laptop on its website. That laptop also has a 15.6-inch screen and Celeron 900 processor, but includes 2GB of the faster DDR3 memory type.

The price war is similar to one that broke out before last year's back-to-school season, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at The NPD Group. That battle ignited last July when Best Buy offered an Acer laptop for $299, and Walmart undercut the price by $1 with a Compaq machine.

'They are selling them because they drive traffic into the stores, provide great value to their customers [and] help each other compete against one another,' Baker said.

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Netgear WNDR3700 Dual Band Gigabit Wireless-N Router

Nice video overview of this terrific wireless router from Netgear that is now NerdBoyTV's router of choice! Definitely delivers blazing-fast wireless data transfers.

Netgear WNDR3700 Range Max Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router

This is the new router that NerdBoyTV is now using. It has super-easy setup and transfers data wirelessly at blazingly fast speeds. With gigabit port ethernet connections, Internet data really flies! Once again, Netgear sets the standard in wireless routers.

What Are Bots, Viruses, Malware, and Spyware?

What Are Bots, Viruses, Malware, and Spyware? Jimmy Ray Purser explains. http://www.cisco.com/smallbusiness

Geektionary: What is Malware?

vIn this Two Minute Miracles, Geek Squad Agents Daniel Campbell and Gerald "Chip" Underwood will define the "geektionary" term malware, and what kind of forms it can take.

Leo Laporte's First Impressions of the Droid X

The Tech Guy Labs - Leo Laporte, "The Tech Guy" on the Premiere Radio Networks: "Leo got a Droid X just before they sold out and loves it. First impressions: Beautiful 4.3″ screen. Typical battery life for a smart phone. Great syncing with Google. However, from Uncle Bic and our caller Kathy, there’s a problem in Google Contacts which doubles up from the phone. Better to merge them online and then sync to your phone. Great built in camera features including panoramas - up to six pictures - automatically.

There is some controversy over the “e-fuse.” If hackers attempt to “root” or jailbreak the phone, it is said there’s a switch will kill the phone. Leo thinks this is reprehensible. If people buy a phone, they should be allowed to do whatever they want with it. They may be able to argue that putting a phone on their network gives them a right to protect their network, but Leo says it’s his phone, he has the right to tweak it as he wants.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Hands-on with the Dell Streak Android tablet

Hands-on with the Dell Streak Android tablet | Crave - CNET: "Yesterday, I spent the better part of an afternoon with the Streak, Dell's ambitious foray into the world of Android tablets. It was an illuminating experience, with plenty of takeaways--both good and bad.

With its release in the UK over a month ago, chances are, you're already aware of what the Streak has to offer. Apart from its larger dimensions, the Streak's tech specs read like typical high-end smart phone. There's built-in 3G and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), along with Bluetooth 2.1 support. The 800x480 resolution screen uses capacitive touch technology, supports multi-touch and is helped along by a fast 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. You get microSIM memory expansion (16GB included), and a removable/replaceable battery. There's both a speaker and microphone designed for voice calls, as well as a 5 megapixel camera that includes auto-focus and flash. And if that weren't enough, Dell threw in a VGA resolution front facing camera, enabling video chat and self-portrait antics.

Now take all of those specs, super-size it with a 5-inch screen, and you've got the Dell Streak. It's a giant smart phone and a scrawny tablet all rolled into one. It's awkward, it's fun, it's a freak of nature, it's your new best friend, it's a paradox wrapped in an enigma. In all seriousness, we're still a little conflicted over whether to recommend this superphone/microtablet--partly because of its unique size, but mostly because we haven't been given all the facts.

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Apple fiscal 3Q net income jumps 78 percent

Apple fiscal 3Q net income jumps 78 percent - Yahoo! News: "SEATTLE – Apple Inc. blew past expectations with its latest quarterly report on Tuesday, selling almost as many of its new iPad tablets as it sold Mac computers.

Apple also gave higher revenue guidance than Wall Street was expecting, something the company rarely does. Investors sent shares up in after-hours trading.

Apple said net income rose 78 percent to $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per share, from $1.8 billion, or $2.01 per share a year ago.

Revenue for the April-to-June period rose 61 percent from last year to $15.7 billion, making it the company's highest quarterly revenue ever, even beating the latest holiday season.

That's better than Wall Street predicted. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast net income of $3.11 per share on $14.7 billion in revenue.

Apple sold 8.4 million iPhones, up 61 percent from last year, even though the company stopped shipping more of the previous-generation iPhones after the updated model, the iPhone 4, was announced in early June. Apple sold 1.7 million of the newest iPhone 4 during the last three days of the quarter.

Apple also said it sold about 3.3 million iPads in the gadget's first three months on the market.

Both the iPad and iPhone 4 have been out of stock in most stores and take a few weeks to ship to new buyers. During the conference call, an analyst asked whether Apple intentionally makes too few of the gadgets.

'We do not purposefully create a shortage for buzz,' said Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. 'We are currently still selling both of those products as fast as we can make them.'

Cook said he doesn't know when Apple will have enough of the gadgets on hand to meet demand.

Some analysts had worried that the release of the iPad, which can be used to surf the Web, check e-mail, watch movies and read books among other tasks, would lure people who might otherwise buy a Macintosh computer.

The fear seems to have been unfounded: Mac unit sales jumped 33 percent to 3.5 million, helped by what CFO Peter Oppenheimer called record sales to educational institutions in the quarter.

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How to Avoid Malware on Facebook and Twitter: 8 Best Practices

How to Avoid Malware on Facebook and Twitter: 8 Best Practices: "Thanks to the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, it's a given that malicious hackers will devise ways to exploit the sites' numerous users in order to infect their computers with malware. This unwanted software is designed to do a number of terrible things ranging from identity theft to turning computer into remote-controllable 'zombie' machines.

Without sufficient anti-virus and malware protection programs installed, social networking users can easily become victims to these ever-evolving attacks. However, the best way to avoid becoming a victim yourself is to be aware of what's out there and what sorts of things you should avoid. Below are the best practices which you should use on Facebook and Twitter in order to keep yourself safe.

One of the most common vectors for attacks are malicious links posted either to Twitter or to your Facebook wall. In the past, such as with the malware known as Kooface, the troublesome links could be easily identified because they would often use a consistent phrase followed by a URL. For example, in August, Koobface was posting links that read 'my home video :)' which was followed by a URL and then a random component on the end such as 'HA-HA-HA!!', 'W.O.W.', 'WOW', 'L.O.L.', 'LOL', ';)' or 'OMFG!!!'

Although the end piece changed from tweet to tweet, the message itself remained the same. However, security researcher Costin Raiu of Kaspersky Lab tells us that easy-to-identify messages are not as common anymore. Today, it's much harder to identify malicious links thanks to two newer techniques being used by hackers. Below those two newer methods are described in more detail as is the tried-and-true method of spreading malware via email.

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Five Best Malware Removal Tools

Five Best Malware Removal Tools: "On Thursday we asked you to share your favorite tool for purging malware from your computer. We've tallied the votes and we're back with the top five contenders for best malware removal tool.

The internet—unfortunately—isn't a never-ending buffet of secure open-source software and Bollywood-style musicals starring LOLCats. There are people and organizations that delight in stealing your personal data, hijacking your computer, and making a general nuisance of themselves through malicious software. This week we're highlighting the top five tools for removing software with ill-intentions from you PC.

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Malware: what it is and how to prevent it

NerdBoyTV NOTE: Got a BAD case of malware the other day! Slowed my web browsing down to a crawl. Thought it was the COMCAST Internet modem—wrong. Then, thought it was my new Netgear Dual Channel N Router—wrong. Then, I thought it was Windows 7 holding on to a bad IP adresss—wrong. As it turned out, it all came down to finding 27 (yup 27) objects infected with various Trojan horses and malware. Thought it might be timely to post this about what malware is and how to rid your computer of it. Be sure to click on the link to read more.

Malware: what it is and how to prevent it: "Along with viruses, one of the biggest threats to computer users on the Internet today is malware. It can hijack your browser, redirect your search attempts, serve up nasty pop-up ads, track what web sites you visit, and generally screw things up. Malware programs are usually poorly-programmed and can cause your computer to become unbearably slow and unstable in addition to all the other havoc they wreak.

Many of them will reinstall themselves even after you think you have removed them, or hide themselves deep within Windows, making them very difficult to clean. This guide will detail the different varieties of malware along with basic preventive measures. In a follow-up article, we will examine the removal process and review a set of spyware removers. Although also considered to be malware, programs such as viruses, worms, trojans, and everything else generally detected by anti-virus software will not be discussed here, and the use of the word malware will only explicitly refer to software that fits in the categories listed below.

You can get infected by malware in several ways. Malware often comes bundled with other programs (Kazaa, iMesh, and other file sharing programs seem to be the biggest bundlers). These malware programs usually pop-up ads, sending revenue from the ads to the program's authors. Others are installed from websites, pretending to be software needed to view the website. Still others, most notably some of the CoolWebSearch variants, install themselves through holes in Internet Explorer like a virus would, requiring you to do nothing but visit the wrong web page to get infected.

The vast majority, however, must be installed by the user. Unfortunately, getting infected with malware is usually much easier than getting rid of it, and once you get malware on your computer it tends to multiply.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

NEW Motorola Droid X Review

A Hands on Review of the New Motorola Droid X. The 3rd & newest addition to the Droid Family of smart phones for Verizon! This is a Google Android smartphone with a 4.3-inch touchscreen and HD video capability. Came out five days ago on July 15th and is already sold out in many Verizon stores. Looks like another winner Android smartphone.

Google's Android army: Droid X 'sold out'; Nexus One sales to end

Google's Android army: Droid X 'sold out'; Nexus One sales to end - San Jose Mercury News: "Motorola's Droid X — the newest smartphone running Google's Android operating system — 'sold out virtually everywhere' over the weekend at Verizon Wireless stores, an analyst reported Monday.

In an e-mail to clients, Gleacher & Co. analyst Mark McKechnie said his team called 20 Verizon stores across the country over the weekend to find the phone sold out by Friday or Saturday at most locations. All 20 stores were sold out by Sunday, McKechnie said. The Droid X debuted Thursday.

'We are encouraged by positive early feedback, strong initial demand, and general acceptance of Motorola's Droid X,' McKechnie wrote. 'Our first weekend checks, along with expectations for a Droid 2 follow-on for the holidays, increase our confidence that Motorola can meet or exceed its 12- to 14 million unit target' for Android phones sold this year.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Review: Motorola's Droid X

The first thing you'll notice about Motorola's new phone is its size, Mark Milian says. Read his review at http://bit.ly/c6my36

Google Voice newbies, start here

Google Voice newbies, start here | Webware - CNET: "Google Voice is best known for its visual voice mail features. If you miss a call, Google Voice uses computers to transcribe the voice message into text, which it can send to you via SMS or e-mail.

You can read or listen to messages in any order you like and the messages, which are stored online on Google's servers, and are accessible from any browser, including the browser on your mobile phone (see video at left for more details.)

If you already use Gmail, you'll notice that you can manage your online Google Voice in-box just as you would your e-mail.

Adding phone numbers from callers to your Google contacts list is a bonus, so you've always got an up-to-date address book stored online. In addition, you'll be able to record multiple custom voice mail greeting for individuals or groups of callers.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

30 great games you can play on a Netbook

Updated: 30 great games you can play on a Netbook | Crave - CNET: "It's time to add a new selection of entries to our list of PC games well-suited for Netbooks. Especially as we expect to see many of these low-cost, low-power laptops in the hands of students during the back-to-school season, it's important to have a little action/RPG/adventure/puzzle break handy when one gets tired of taking lecture notes.

As usual, many of these entries are re-releases of classic games, originally available when even high-end computer hardware was at best comparable with today's entry-level systems. Online services such as Good Old Games and Steam are great resources for these.

One important exception is the new online gaming service OnLive, which takes current high-end PC games, renders the 3D graphics remotely, then streams you the video as you play. It sounds like a crazy idea, but it actually works pretty well, even on Netbooks. Check out our extensive hands-on look at OnLive here.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Firefox 4 Beta 1 Released

Firefox 4 Beta 1 Released: "It’s finally here: Mozilla has released the first beta for Firefox 4.

The new iteration of the world’s second most popular web browser, which can be downloaded here, has been hotly anticipated for almost a year. Today however, it transitions from concept to reality, with many more betas to come until its official release at the end of the year.

As we have reported in the past, Firefox 4 is a major upgrade from its predecessors. It not only includes a redesign of the user interface (tabs are now on top except for the Mac version), but a wave of additional features, including enhanced HTML5 support, hardware-accelerated HD video, WebSockets and enhanced add-on support via Jetpack.

There’s a lot more to Firefox (Firefox) 4, most of which you can see in this feature spotlight the Mozilla team put together to highlight the many upgrades the new browser contains. However, we want to stress that this is an early beta of the browser — it will crash and frustrate you, which is exactly what Mozilla is hoping to catch now before its final release.

Mozilla needs Firefox 4 to be a winner; in recent months, Google Chrome has been stealing browser marketshare at Firefox’s expense. The new version could either reverse the downtrend or accelerate its fall.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

National competition seeks best Wii gamers

National competition seeks best Wii gamers - CNN.com: "Are you a wiz at Wii bowling? Do you have mad Mario Kart skills? Here's your chance to prove it.

Nintendo is seeking the best Wii gamers via a national competition featuring five of its popular games.

Beginning July 16, the Wii Games: Summer 2010 competition will be open to all gamers in theme parks and shopping malls in 24 cities.

Players will do battle as two- and four-player teams organized by age groups. They will compete in five games: basketball and bowling in 'Wii Sports Resort,' the Hula Hoop challenge from 'Wii Fit Plus,' and two adventure games, 'New Super Mario Bros. Wii' and 'Mario Kart Wii.'

Scores from the games will be combined to determine winners. The competition concludes with a national championship event on September 3-5 in Los Angeles, California.

Olympic medalist Shawn Johnson will be the ambassador for the competition and appear at some events.

'I play Wii games with my friends and family all the time,' Johnson, a medal-winning gymnast at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, said in a statement. 'I'm looking forward to watching people from all over the country coming together to have fun and compete.'

Winners will receive an entertainment package that includes a flat-screen television and surround system, a new Wii console with Nintendo games and a Netflix membership. Winners in the family category also will receive a cruise for the entire team.

For rules and information, click here.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Goodbye Kin, Sidekick and 'Social Phones'

NerdBoyTV NOTE: I agree TOTALLY with this PCWorld article. This is exactly why iPhone and Droid phones are taking off and leaving all others in the dust.

Goodbye Kin, Sidekick and 'Social Phones' - Yahoo! News: "If there's any correlation between the recently killed Kin and discontinued T-Mobile Sidekick -- aside from Microsoft having a hand in both discontinued phones -- it's that they tried to distinguish themselves from both high-powered smartphones and simpler feature phones.

That idea will soon become irrelevant, and here's why:

Social networking is clearly a hot trend in smartphones. Palm's WebOS phones led the pack with Synergy, a program that lumps contacts from e-mail, messaging applications and social networks into one view, while also merging instant messages and SMS into a single feed. Then came Motorola's Motoblur, a user interface that merged Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other networks into a single feed on the homescreen.

Now, it seems like everyone's getting on board. HTC's Sense interface gained Friend Stream, whose function is self-explanatory. Motorola's Droid X won't back Motoblur specifically, but something like it. Down the line, you'll see Windows Phone 7's People Hub, a running feed of status updates and photos from friends. Even the buttoned-up BlackBerry is joining the fun, as the BlackBerry 6 operating system will include a 'social networking feeds' application.

The problem is that smartphones require expensive data plans that turn off people who want less. The Kin, which Microsoft called a 'social phone,' was an outright failure largely because its $30 monthly data plan didn't sync with the Kin's lack of features. The Sidekick had special price tiers that included data and text, and it had a long and healthy run -- last year's data snafu notwithstanding.

Increasingly, it's becoming possible to get a smartphone for the same monthly cost as a Sidekick. Earlier this month, AT&T put an end to unlimited smartphone data plans, but it also introduced a low price tier of $15 per month for 200 MB of data. That's not ideal for watching video or streaming music, but it can certainly handle Facebook and Twitter, thereby making smartphones more accessible than ever. Other networks may follow AT&T; Verizon is already considering it.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

'Stunned' Apple to fix iPhone signal problem

'Stunned' Apple to fix iPhone signal problem - Jul. 2, 2010: "The iPhone 4 'grip of death' signal-strength problem stems from a bug that has been with Apple's bestselling smart phone all the way back to the original iPhone, Apple announced Friday, saying it had found a 'simple and surprising' cause for the widely reported reception issues.

But Apple's 'explanation' raised more questions than it answered.

'Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong,' the company wrote in a statement posted on its website. 'Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.'

That means, for example, that iPhones sometimes display four bars when they should be displaying two. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) said users reporting a significant drop in bars when they hold their iPhone 4 are probably in an area of 'very weak signal strength' but were unaware of that because the phone displayed four to five bars.

'Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place,' the company said.

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T-Mobile's Sidekick to ride off into the sunset

T-Mobile's Sidekick to ride off into the sunset - Yahoo! News

Once the darling of the youth set and a regular on the red carpet (Paris Hilton, anyone?), the Sidekick has gradually fallen behind the times, and T-Mobile has just announced that it'll stop selling the handset as of Friday.

But while the carrier is holding out hope for the "next chapter" of the brand, maybe it's time to simply give the Sidekick the 21-gun salute it deserves.

As of Friday morning, the most recent Sidekick — last year's LX, which was (believe it or not) the first Sidekick to support 3G — was still on sale, for a deeply discounted $49.99.But after Friday, the Sidekick will disappear from T-Mobile's online and retail stores, the carrier said. (You might find a few stragglers at third-party resellers.)

If you've still got a Sidekick, don't worry — T-Mobile says it'll still offer service and support for your phone. And it coyly adds that we should watch for "the next chapter of our storied Sidekick franchise."

Microsoft to kill off Kin messaging phones

Microsoft to kill off Kin messaging phones - Yahoo! News: "In a stunningly swift about-face, Microsoft has reportedly decided to stick a fork in its youth-oriented Kin messaging phones, not even two months after the handsets went on sale and just two days after Verizon slashed prices on the devices.

Microsoft will cease development on the phones, instead focusing its energies on its upcoming Windows Phone 7 handsets, according to CNET's Ina Fried, who adds that Microsoft has nixed the Kin's planned debut in Europe.

In a statement to CNET, Microsoft confirmed that the development team behind the Kin will be folded into the Windows Phone 7 group. That said, Microsoft will 'continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current Kin phones.'

Rumors have been swirling for weeks that the Kin One and Kin Two, a pair of QWERTY slider phones aimed at young, social-networking-savvy mobile users, had seen disastrously low sales, with some estimates as low as a mere 500 units.

Microsoft hasn't given out precise sales figures for the two Kins, but on Monday, Verizon Wireless slashed the two-year contract price of the formerly $99 Kin Two in half, while the Kin One saw a 40 percent price cut, to just $29 with service.

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