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The Titan of Tablets: Apple or Cisco?
AT&T’s conference call reveals interesting information on business users and the iPad.
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Triple-Core Acer Aspire AS4553 in the flesh
This Acer Aspire AS4553 laptop that comes with a triple-core CPU from AMD was reported here earlier and we now have the actual review unit with us. Acer Aspire AS4553 14.1″ display @ 1366×768 AMD Phenom II X3 N830 2.1GHz ATI Radeon HD5470 512MB 2.0GB DDR3 RAM 320GB HDD WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth, HDMI DVD+RW [...] Related posts: Acer Aspire AS4553: Triple Core for Cheap The latest entry about …
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Apple says the iPad is “magical and revolutionary,” but I don’t know if it’s worth losing a finger over. A man in Denver purchased an iPad for a business associate—he didn’t even know what an iPad was—and as he was exiting the mall another man came up to him and ripped the bag away, severing his finger in the process. Sigh.

The victim told a local TV channel:

The next thing I know, I’m spun around. I see this kid, his rear end almost on the ground, and he’s pulling it out of my hand. I just remember seeing this kid pulling and pulling and pulling till it got caught. Took the flesh right off and the tendons and everything. There was nothing but bone.

Mall security cameras—why do security cameras always have such low frames per second? Maybe one of you works in the security field and can clue me in—were able to record the entire ordeal, so it should be a little easier for police to nab the criminal.

There really isn’t anything I can add to this other than, well, I hope the criminal is caught sooner rather than later.

Stories like this, that school district in Pennsylvania, and that Wal-Mart Black Friday crush really make you say, “Really? I have to share the planet with these people? We can’t people be nice to each other? Is that so hard?”

Of two things I was always sure: that people would not talk to me at parties and that Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads would be around forever. I imagined showing my grandchildren the ads in 2040, explaining that once, a long time ago, the animated corpse of John Hodgman used to be a real man and now as he capers about on our 3D holoscreen talking about the PC’s lack of a fission reactor power supply, gobbets of preserved flesh strung up like a puppet on a skeleton of titanium, well, you can still see some of that same schlubby good humor in that soulless meat pop that I enjoyed back in 2010, before the Happening. That will never happen, people. Apple is discontinuing the campaign.

In an interview with AV Club Long said that Apple hasn’t brought them back into the studio in a long while and that he believes they’re going to “move on.”

Quoth he:

“You know, I think they might be done. In fact, I heard from John, I think they’re going to move on. I can’t say definitively, which is sad, because not only am I going to miss doing them, but also working with John. I’ve become very close with him, and he’s one of my dearest, greatest friends. It was so much fun to go do that job, because there’s not a lot to it for me. A lot of it is just keeping myself entertained between takes, and there’s no one I’d rather do it with than John.”

Goodbye, sweet princes.

via Giz

There was an interesting debate on today’s Ron and Fez that speaks to a subject we’ve been whinging about for some time now: digital delivery of content, specifically of music. Pink Floyd has won a court ruling that will put an end to places like iTunes selling its songs individually. The band feels that their music can only truly be appreciated in the album format, from start to finish, and it never liked people being able to pick and choose what songs they wanted to download.

I will say this right now: I’m not a Pink Floyd fan. I have nothing against them, but when kids were starting to get into bands like Pink Floyd, say around age 13 or 14, I was busy playing Final Fantasy. It’s a case of not being exposed to their music, and at this point, I’m not going to bother. My loss, I suppose. But don’t cry for me, because that’s makes me especially suited to write this story—I have no emotional attachment to the band in question.

The gist of the ruling—The High Court in the UK, to be exact—is that EMI, the band’s record label, won’t be allowed to sell individual songs from its catalog online. That means, from now on, you’ll only be able to buy The Wall as a full album online, and not merely “In The Flesh?” and “The Thin Ice.”

Yes, I had to Wiki that. Again, I wouldn’t know a Pink Floyd song if [insert cliché here].

That’s the debate: should consumers be allowed to buy whatever song they want without having to buy an entire album?

One side says, “Yes, consumers should be able to pick and choose whatever song they want without worrying about what any band says. Just because a band ’says’ its music can only be appreciated in album form doesn’t make it so. Is There Will Be Blood any less valuable when you’re watching the Blu-ray on your 60-inch plasma instead of at an actual movie theater?” (I’d say no, it’s not any less valuable, especially since I can control the viewing environment when I’m watching the Blu-ray—no having to worry about loud idiots texting back and forth with their mates.)

The other side says, “Well, Pink Floyd made the music, and only they know how it can be appreciated. If they intended for the songs to be listened to as an album, we as consumers should appreciate their artistic wishes.”

While I side with the first opinion, the fact is I really don’t care too passionately one way or the other. The band wants you to buy albums? Fine, whatever.

But surely Pink Floyd understands how music is consumed in the year 2010: people put their iPhone or iPod or Zune HD or whatever on shuffle mode, run on the treadmill at the gym for 20 minutes, and hear “Poker Face,” “Run This Town,” and “Lay in a Shimmer” all in a row. Young people ask, “What’s an album? I only listen to my Spotify playlist when I’m writing about what I did on my summer vacation.”

Don’t expect to see this trend—going back to album-based music sales—continue beyond Pink Floyd. The music industry knows people are already used to buying this or that song from iTunes, and it’s in no position to say, “Actually, we want album sales now. Sorry.” It’s grateful that people are buying music at all, let alone expecting people to buy entire albums.

This is where I throw it to y’all: is Pink Floyd in the right here? Should a band be allowed to dictate how its fans listen its music? Or is this a giant “who cares?” debate?

There are a few ways you can locate a slip steer loader that is for sale. To start with, you can look at the many alternative dealers who offer the slip steer loader as a new Skid Steer Loader machine. By going this route, you can take advantage of the warranty that you’ll receive, plus youwill have the satisfaction of knowing that this is a high quality machine that will last for many years to come ( with proper upkeep, naturally ).

You may look around for used slip steer loaders. Accept it or not, there are a large amount of these used loaders for sale on the market today. You have to grasp where and the way to find them. The advantage of purchasing a used one is that you are able to save cash, which is definitely a lot less complicated on the wallet.

However you may run into issues by going this route, if you donot know what you’re looking for in a skid steer loader. In order to ensure that you find a top-notch machine, you’ll want to take a look at it in the flesh, if at all possible. This will allow you to have a look over the slip steer loader to be sure that it is actually worth the money that they’re asking, that it works properly, that is has been sorted, plus much more . Never purchase a machine of this caliber, used, without looking at it yourself or having somebody else look at it for you.

If buying the slip steer loader is out of the question , then donot worry. You can always lease one. Rental firms all over offer these loaders to their clientele. You just pay up for the use of the machine either by the day or by the hour that you use the machine. This can help you to save quite a bit of money while also allowing you to perform the job that you need to with the machine. Just simply hire it, use it, and then take it back when you’re done. The Skid Steer Loader rental company is accountable for upkeep and repairs, so that is’s actually one less headache for you to need to stress about.

The slip steer loader is a flexible machine that may help you to get your work done even faster than doing it by hand. For those little roles or perhaps medium sized jobs, the skid steer loader can help out in a selection of other ways, and you will not have to smash your back doing all of the work by hand.

We started drooling about the HTC Supersonic as soon as we heard the words “Android” and “WiMax” in the same sentence. Once “4.3 inch display” got thrown into the mix, our salivary glands just couldn’t be stopped.

While HTC hasn’t made even the smallest of official peeps about this thing yet, it looks like someone out there has gotten their hands all over it – and just as anyone with early access to a new, unannounced cell phone should do, they took some video.

Check it out after the jump.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Since I came to New York, my romantic life has been a rollercoaster. A very fast one, with 9G turns. If there is a city in the world to flirt and date anywhere and anytime, it’s NYC. You don’t need the web to meet people. Every cafe, every bar, every party seems like a huge playground for singles to engage in conversations and start love affairs. However, the web can help while you are meeting people and after, all in real time, and face to face.

If you have enough confidence and you are fearless—remember: you have nothing to lose, since you will always have the “no”—any city in the world should be open for the same games. Here are some tips to use technology while meeting people in the real world.

The basic rules

Technology hasn’t changed real world flirting. Much. At the end of the day, it all depends on you, how charming you can be, and how much the other person likes you (tip: not everyone has to like you). However, web-based social services like Facebook and Twitter open a door that didn’t exist before. They are an opportunity to take the flirting to a new level when you first meet someone in the flesh, all without getting too personal. For some reason, exchanging Twitter or Facebook usernames doesn’t seem to be perceived as threatening or serious as exchanging phone numbers or email addresses. After all, Twitter is open and Facebook’s friend requests can be denied—or accepted and then canceled.

The web-based flirting can happen right at the moment you meet the other person or later. I remember my first party in the city, hosted by Gawker.tv’s Richard Blakeley, a couple of weeks after my arrival. A girl with the most hypnotic cleavage I’ve ever seen approached me and started to talk. Within a few minutes things started to get fun. A few minutes later, we moved into more suggestive terrain. While this was happening, I saw her Blackberry in her hand. She had her Facebook page open. Without her noticing, I looked her name up in my iPhone’s Facebook app as we were talking, and sent her a friend request on the spot. We kept talking and minutes later, when she checked her Facebook again, she found the request, smiled maliciously, and clicked yes saying “I guess we are now friends.”

That night was fun.

But it’s not always that easy. The key in that example is that it happened naturally, and the move matched the rhythm of the conversation. Taking the step to add someone to Facebook in real time is a risky one, so you have to measure yourself and be ready to gamble. That is the basic rule: Never force things, and learn to read the signs that the other person is giving you. If the conversation is playful, wait until you think is appropriate to incorporate something like Facebook into it.

Tweeting your pants off

Asking for a Twitter name during the conversation is a lot easier than making that Facebook move. After all, Twitter is open to everyone, and direct messaging is a perfect way to flirt—at least for me: I find its 140-character limitation challenging and exciting, and I love when people can be concise and clever in just one single phrase.

Once again, the medium is not important except as a way to reach your counterpart, allowing you to snip casually, responding to the other person’s comments. Doing it publicly is a very fine art, which can easily end in disaster, especially if the other person already has a lover. If you have enough wit and you are sensitive to the other person’s needs and circumstances, chances are that he or she will be interested in you, and something may happen down the line, as the play factor increases in your exchanges. Sometimes, this game also happens in real time.

One night I met a very pretty—and delightfully nerdy—girl at Delmano, one of my favorite bars here in Williamsburg. She knew Gizmodo and recognized me, so the conversation quickly got into technology. She confessed that she followed me on Twitter, so I asked what her nickname was to add her later. Minutes later, in fact: When she excused herself to the bathroom I sent her the first direct message. After that, we spent the whole night having two conversations, one actually speaking out loud, and the other taunting each with secret tweets. That night was fun too.

For sure, that’s also an exception, but it’s an example on how Twitter can be a nice way to flirt in real time, as long as you keep it natural and in context, just like you would in a real world conversation.

The next level

Once you have established a Twitter or Facebook beachhead it’s time to move it to the next level. You may decide to keep it in the online world, flirting until you feel comfortable to ask for a date. The alternative is to be a little bit more daring, and use Twitter or Facebook to interact with someone you met before, like you may be doing now using text messages. The difference is that Twitter and Facebook are a lot more useful than text messages, because they give you context. For example, you can learn what the other person is doing without asking for it or without the other person explicitly telling you about it.

I used to do that when I was going through my worse digital exhibitionist phase. A couple of times I tweeted or changed my Facebook status saying where I was, and the girl I was flirting with—the nerdy pretty one—sent me messages saying that she was around, wondering if we could hook up for a drink in the most casual way. Likewise, I did the same thing with other people. Of course, this doesn’t always work. You or the other person may have other plans in mind. Again, the key here is not to force things, and be as playful and natural as you can.

If you pass the initial filters, and your flirting turns into something a bit more serious, you may get an instant messaging nickname or a telephone number. Instant messaging is not very useful for real time flirting situations. Unlike Twitter or texting which allow you to be cute and playful in a parallel line to the actual conversation, instant messaging runs at a faster pace and requires more attention.

It’s only good in two situations. One may be when you are instant messaging with someone else (cue in lots of trips to the bathroom, stress, and a lot of guilt). Two—which is the only one I’ve practiced—having a sexual conversations in public, in a crowded place in which you can talk into the ear of your lover. This may also happen with Twitter or text messages, but instant messaging—using your favorite program for your smartphone—is my favorite way to do it. But then again, I am really fast typist.

The time it happened it was by chance. She and I started to talk dirty, casually while having dinner in a crowded restaurant, the typical romantic place illuminated only by candlelight and which shall remain nameless because I want to go there again. As our conversation started to get naughtier, we noticed that some people were listening to us, but instead of shutting up, I took out my iPhone and sent her an even racier message using BeejiveIM. Her iPhone vibrated thanks to Beejive’s push, she took it out, smiled, and replied back. We kept on talking about other things, with increasing difficulty as the IM conversation got completely explicit and we had a harder time concentrating on actually making sense in our audible conversation. At one point I asked her for something which made her open her eyes wide, giving me that “are you out of your fucking mind?” look of pure disbelief. I grinned and sent her another message. Surprised, she stood up, turned around, and left.

The next time my iPhone buzzed—about a minute later—it didn’t have any text. I clicked on the incoming file and a photo of her bare breasts appeared. A few seconds later, another one of her black lace knickers downloaded completely, as she was returning to the table from the bathroom. It ended being another fun night.

That, sexting, could be considered the top level of all these games, but it’s not usual to find someone who may want to do it outside a relationship, much less in a real time, face-to-face situations. When it happens, like it did as part of a larger context and conversation, it can be really fun,

Keep your mind open

Of course, things don’t always happen in this way. The above is not the norm, but it’s not the exception. The fact is that, if the opportunity arises, Twitter, Facebook, IM, or texting could be used as part of the flirting and sexual game not only in the privacy of your home, looking at your computer screen, but anywhere in the “real” world. And I have to say that it’s a lot more fun that way.

The irony of all this is that, even while I met my amazing wife through the internet, we never used Facebook or Twitter to flirt. We exchanged a couple of emails, she invited me out for coffee, and the most technology-related thing I did after that was to send her a text message, written as I was running to take the subway:

“It was lovely to meet you. I’m sorry I had to run out so earlier, but I really enjoyed talking to you. Would you like to have a proper date next week?”

She asked me to marry her two months later. And we will live happily ever after.

There isn’t much to be said about a few in-the-flesh images leaked about a device we’ve all heard of other than the confirmation of a few things. To start, it looks identical to renders seen in the past, and the images depicted in HTC’s handset line-up which was leaked back in early December.

Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch>>

Take the T-Mobile myTouch, and strap on a physical QWERTY keyboard. Give it a light tap with an ugly stick, and then convert the trackball into an optical trackpad. What do you get? The myTouch Slide.