Archive for the 'Technology' Category
September 4th, 2009, 1:49 pm by Jayson Peters
Amazon is trying to pacify those Kindle owners who were outraged when George Orwell novels were ripped away after the company discovered it did not have the rights to distribute the works.
 According to The Associated Press, the e-tailer — which now says the rights issue has been resolved — is offering free books or $30 to customers who lost their copies of 1984 and Animal Farm in July.
Later that month a high school student sued, claiming the content’s removal also destroyed notes taken for school assignments.
From Friday’s AP report:
In an e-mail sent Thursday to Kindle owners whose books were erased, Amazon offered to redeliver the titles to their e-readers for free, along with any annotations users had made. Or the customers can get a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate or a $30 check - which could be worth much more than two Kindle books, because many of them cost $10 or less.
The Kindle is no stranger to controversy. In June, Arizona State University found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit when advocates for the blind alleged discrimination because the school was offering textbooks in the Kindle format. While the device has the ability to read to the blind, its interface has no audio or Braille functionality to let them navigate the menus.
Posted in: Books • Technology • Amazon • Business • e-books • George Orwell • Kindle | Post a Comment »
September 1st, 2009, 11:24 am by Jayson Peters
 Texting and driving isn’t specifically illegal in Arizona — yet — but drinking and driving definitely is, which is why cab companies clean up around holidays like the upcoming Labor Day weekend.
Just in time for the party, Discount Cab is rolling out a new service that lets Arizona residents send the company a text message with a pickup address and instantly reserve a ride.
Using you cell phone or smart phone, just text an address to 777222. The request is received by Discount Cab and instantly confirmed. While you wait, you can text STATUS to check on your ride. If you need to cancel the cab ride, simply text CANCEL.
As usual, if you take a Discount cab home after a night on the town, the company will give you a free ride back to your vehicle the next day.
Image: PhotoSpin
Posted in: Technology • Business • Holidays | Post a Comment »
August 25th, 2009, 10:38 am by Jayson Peters
I know it’s a cheesy name, but I’m sticking with it until something better comes along, OK?
• Microsoft has started hiring for its first two retail stores, one of which will be at Scottsdale Fashion Square (story).
• If you don’t have a smart phone, Microsoft wants you to feel smart anyway with access to “apps.”
• Yahoo may have given in and accepted Bing as its search-engine lord, but that won’t stop the Web portal from rolling out a series of upgrades before the end of the year, months before Microsoft takes over powering Yahoo’s search results.
• Barnes & Noble recently announced a partnership with a Dutch firm, iRex, to provide e-books for a new reader device, hoping to steal some of Amazon’s Kindle thunder (story). And now Sony plans to offer an e-reader with wireless download ability.
• Nokia is joining the netbook bandwagon, announcing Monday it will produce a small, light laptop similar to those that PC manufacturers are selling through wireless carriers.
• Who owns the copyright to the Unix operating system? The matter is heading to trial.
• Apple’s Snow Leopard OS goes on sale Friday.
Posted in: Technology • Apple • e-books • Microsoft • Tech Bytes | Post a Comment »
August 24th, 2009, 10:38 pm by Jayson Peters
E-book readers like Amazon’s Kindle are going to get some more competition later this year when Dutch company iRex, partnering with Barnes & Noble for content, launches its own e-reader.
Posted in: Books • Technology • Barnes & Noble • e-books | Post a Comment »
August 23rd, 2009, 1:44 pm by Chris "KeL" Adams
Mankind’s inevitable overthrow by killer robots just got a little closer. The hand throwing and catching the cellphone is the scariest thing I’ve seen all day.
Posted in: Technology • robots | Post a Comment »
August 21st, 2009, 3:56 pm by Jayson Peters
 Twentieth Century Fox While the world has been clamoring to get a sneek peek at the highly anticipated sci-fi epic Avatar, director James Cameron has been busy wheeling and dealing to bring television into the third dimension — and, no doubt, make himself even richer.
A deal announced Friday will put Avatar in several trailers that will haul Panasonic’s big-screen, 3-D TVs around the U.S. and Europe next month.
Avatar is shot entirely in 3-D, and it will be the first major motion picture to debut in both 2-D and 3-D when it is released in theaters Dec. 18. But the technology — both in homes and at theaters — is so new that it is sorely lacking in content and has no clear direction when it comes to disc and broadcast formats. Cameron’s name will give Panasonic a major edge in the coming dimensional war.
Because, in a recession, the first thing on people’s minds is this: “Gosh, I need to get me a better TV.”
Posted in: Movies • Sci-Fi & Fantasy • Technology • Television • 3-D • avatar • Business • James Cameron • Nerd rage • Panasonic | Post a Comment »
August 19th, 2009, 6:24 pm by Jayson Peters
Entertainment Weekly subscribers in New York and Los Angeles will get a little hipper when they open up their Sept. 18 issues. That’s because they’ll be the first ever to watch a video ad embedded in a print publication.
CNET News (a CBS publication) has a report on the technology behind the groundbreaking advertisement, which will promote CBS’ fall TV season in concert with Pepsi Max soda:
 The screen, which is 2.7 millimeters thick, has a 320×240 resolution. The battery lasts for about 65 to 70 minutes, and can be recharged, believe it or not, with a mini USB cord–there’s a jack on the back of it. The screen, which uses thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) technology, is enforced by protective polycarbonate.
Run! The walls of reality are breaking down!
Posted in: Technology • Advertising • CBS • Entertainment Weekly • Media • video | Post a Comment »
August 19th, 2009, 10:30 am by Jayson Peters
 Diggnation, the weekly tech/web culture show based on the top news stories on the social bookmarking site Digg.com, will record before a live audience 7 p.m. today at the Tempe Center for the Arts.
The sometimes-irreverant show is hosted by Digg founder Kevin Rose and actor Alex Albrecht (both pictured). Both were hosts for the former TechTV (now G4) show The Screen Savers, a forerunner to G4’s current program Attack of the Show.
You can RSVP for the event at www.facebook.com/diggnation, but entry is first-come, first served so it’s advised to get there early.
Posted in: Technology • AotS • Digg • Diggnation • G4 • Podcasts • Tempe | Post a Comment »
August 17th, 2009, 11:31 am by Jayson Peters
 Researchers in Denmark and London are trying to test the limits of artificial intelligence by seeing if a computer can beat the original Super Mario Bros. video game.
It won’t be quite the same as the Nintendo classic. They’re having to mixing it up with a random level generator because the original levels were deemed too easy for the AI. (Now that’s some content I’d like to see on the Wii’s Virtual Console!)
The real test will be whether the computer turns homicidal and destroys humanity when it beats Bowser, only to be told “Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!”
Via Discovery News
Posted in: Gaming • Nintendo • Technology • AI • Mario • Science | Post a Comment »
August 16th, 2009, 10:02 am by Jayson Peters
Do you want to turn your iPhone into a Nintendo DS? There’s an app for that.
Via CNET News
Posted in: Gaming • Nintendo • Technology • Apple • apps • iPhone | Post a Comment »
August 15th, 2009, 10:33 am by Jayson Peters
 TRIBUNE FILE Scottsdale-based Taser International is suing the Canadian government over the findings of an official inquiry that resulted in strict limits on how and when stun guns can be used by law enforcement officers in British Columbia.
See also:
Posted in: Technology • Business • lawsuit • Scottsdale • Taser | Post a Comment »
August 13th, 2009, 1:01 pm by Jayson Peters
A report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, co-authored by an ASU researcher, reveals that early humans somehow learned the secret of making stone tools sturdier by treating them in fire — 45,000 years before such technology was previously thought to exist.
 Image: PhotoSpin Curtis Marean, a paleoanthropologist at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, described the importance of the discovery in a statement to the media, reported by The Associated Press: “Heat treatment technology begins with a genius moment — someone discovers that heating stone makes it easier to flake.”
The research, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Hyde Family Trust and ASU, was conducted at an archaeological site in South Africa’s Pinnacle Point, overlooking the Indian Ocean.
Posted in: Technology • Arizona • Science | Post a Comment »
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Anthony Daniels, who was the voice of C-3PO in all six Star Wars films and is now traveling the country with “Star Wars in Concert,” has added Twitter to his famed 6 million forms of communication. The British actor, who narrates the musical tribute to the saga at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, uses the handle ADaniels3PO.
