The Magnetic Poles Switching Places Will Create Planetary Superstorms?

The latest crazy doomsday theory is upon us, and unlike the two suns story, there isn't even really a grain of truth behind this one. This new theory says that the magnetic poles will shift in the near future (which, in all likelihood, they won't, at least not in human time scales), and that this will change our climate (which maybe it could, but not nearly as much as the drastic change we're already experiencing), all this will somehow create superstorms, and this somehow probably all ties into 2012 somehow.  

 

 

Acer debuts GN245HQ monitor with HDMI 3D support from NVIDIA

Acer's already rolled out a few 3D-capable monitors (among other products), but none quite like it's new GN245HQ model, which the company notes is the "first 3D monitor in the world" to support NVIDIA's HDMI 3D solution. That means you'll be able to view 3D content from a connected set-top box or Blu-ray player in addition to a PC connected via DVI-DL, and do so with the included active shutter glasses that work in conjunction with the monitor's built-in IR emitter.

 As for the monitor itself, you'll get the usual 1920 x 1080 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, along with a 2ms response time, a pair of built-in 2W speakers, and LED backlighting that uses two lamps instead of four for a promised 68% savings in power consumption. No official word on a US release just yet, but you can look for this one to hit the UK in mid-March for £419.99 (or about $675).

Samsung Preparing a 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab 2 with Honeycomb for this Sunday?

Samsung's MWC 2011 presentation is this Sunday, at 6PM Central European Time (midday for those on the American east coast). It will feature a dual-core evolution to the Galaxy S smartphone and there'll be at least one new tablet on show.

Samsung is stepping right up to Motorola, whose Xoom still looks likely to be the first Honeycomb tablet to ship, and saying it can do better. It might just be able to do it, too, as the new and unnamed Tab is said to be physically smaller than Apple's iPad in spite of having a slightly larger display.

 Somewhat less believable is the mention of a dual-core Qualcomm processor as the thing to power Samsung's new tablet -- can you really see Samsung undermining the future success of its Orion / Exynos chip by using a competitor's hardware? Then again, weirder things have happened.

RIP: Symbian

This slide was just presented by Stephen Elop and Nokia CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, at Nokia's Capital Markets Day. Although there's no date listed, it's clear that Symbian -- a "franchise" OS that Nokia will "harvest" -- will be wholly consumed by Windows Phone on Nokia devices just as soon as Nokia and Microsoft can complete the transition. It won't be immediate, but it seems like 2012 will be the year that Nokia pulls the cord on life support. Regardless of the actual date, who in their right minds would invest their development time or consumer dollars in a smartphone OS that has no future within the company? One more slide showing the post-Symbian reductions in R&D spending after the break.

 

 

These Valentine’s Flowers Will Never Wilt

If you're going to be far away from your loved one this Valentine's Day, you could send them real flowers, which will smell good but will inevitably wilt after a few days, or you could send them these beautiful newsprint flowers from itunube, which won't smell like anything in particular but will last forever—well, only as long as the Earth lasts, I suppose—and, better yet, will remind your loved one that you're a little bit differentfrom the average guy, that you think outside of the box, or have a decent sense of design or appreciation for quirk, though come to think of it sending her these beautiful newsprint flowers might set the bar a little too high for future romantic holidays.

 

 

Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available To Download

The Internet Explorer 9 beta pleasantly surprised us with Microsoft's renewed competitiveness in the web browser wars, and the pinnable, hardware-accelerated experience is getting even better today -- you can download the IE9 release candidate right now, which streamlines and beautifies the tabbed browsing layout considerably, adds those previously promised, fully customizable tracking protection lists for privacy and freely toggled ActiveX filters, as well as an updated Javascript engine, geolocation support via HTML5, the ability to pin web apps to the taskbar, and a host of assorted speed and functionality improvements here.

Is This the Future of Cameraphones?

Imagine that instead of a single camera, the module carried an array of 25 micro-cameras. Pelican Imaging promises just that with their camera module, and they think they have what it takes to revolutionize cameraphones.

GigaOM says the secret behind Pelican's technology isn't unlike the HDR feature found on the iPhone. the hardware captures multiple images (or sets of data), and then uses post-processing software to assemble it all into one high-quality photograph. Pelican is less obsessed with cramming more megapixels into the phone, and more interested in finding the best way to pair a sensor with a lens (or lenses, in this case).

Pelican plans to license their technology component manufacturerers and handset makers, similar to what ARM does with their processors. Can't wait to see this pop up in an actual phone.

 

 

Gramophone Style Comes to iPhone

The ArkCanary II is an analog acoustic iPhone speaker, designed rather like an updated antique gramophone. The maker plans to get it to retail for around $13.

Researchers Already Have a Twitter Generator That Predicts How You’ll Tweet

Twitter is great for making friends and sharing links, but researchers are also increasingly using it to study human interactions. This is more difficult than it sounds, since privacy settings and caps on server access can make it hard to gather research data from social networking sites.

Social Network Write Generator (SONG) generates data that closely replicates the behaviour of genuine tweeters. The team gathered 12 million tweets written by 2.4 million people between November 25 and December 4 2008. They cut out the 75% of users who didn't send a single tweet during the 19 day period and filtered for spammers by looking for accounts with a high tweet-to-followers ratio, leaving them with a dataset of around 350,000 users.

Analysing these users revealed a number of properties that the team replicated in SONG. They found that general tweeting levels build up during the day then die down at night, but also fluctuate in a predictable way from second to second and hour to hour.

The researchers also discovered that both the time between an individual's tweets and the variation between prolific tweeters and lurkers - non-active Twitter users - follows a standard mathematical model called the log-normal distribution.

Plugging these findings in to SONG let Erramilli and colleagues run their own version of Twitter on a network of 16 computers. By gradually increasing the number of tweets per second they discovered that CPU overload caused the network to falter at over 100 tweets per second and totally collapse at around 150. Presumably this means Twitter owns more than 16 computers.

The researchers say that this proof-of-concept shows that SONG can be used to accurately model Twitter, though beefier hardware might be necessary to get close to the real thing. They plan to release the code for SONG soon to let other researchers build their own virtual Twitters and model "what-if" scenarios such as high loads caused by trending topics or a sudden rise in popularity in particular geographical regions.

 

 

Verizon iPhone 4 Now Available to Order/Reserve For In-Store Pickup

Apple and Verizon's long-awaited partnership is nearly upon us, folks, and the final piece to the puzzle is general availability of the hallowed iPhone 4. You're now able to order or reserve your own at the online stores of both carrier and phone maker, though shipping dates for early orders are listed at a distant February 18th.

Dell promises a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet later this year

Dell's just announced that it's planning to bring a 10-inchWindows 7 tablet to market later this year. According to the press release, it will be aimed at commercial and enterprise markets. Sound familiar? Yep, it sounds like a HP Slate in the making, but let's hope this one is faster and sticks to its shipping schedule. 

 

 

Kyocera Double-Headed Echo Phone

The Kyocera Echo is the strangest phone I've ever seen. Inside, it's just mundane—but on the outside, it's a batshit bizarre, morphing, dual screen stab at DS form with iPad function.

Where it could have reveled in its strangeness, it's entirely weighed down by it. If you're adding a second full-size screen, it sure as hell better do something worthwhile. Extra space for your email. More space for contacts. It's slow. It's wasteful. It's essentially two average Androids stitched together.

It's just more glass. Multitasking—a term Kyocera and Sprint are hawking like a child who just learned a swear word for the first time is important. What's not important? Hypertasking and simultasking, two made up non-terms that Kyocera is flinging around.

Pentax reveals Optio WG-1 and WG-1 GPS rugged cameras, limited edition K-5 DSLR

Who woulda thunk it? Half a year ago, finding a conventional point-and-shoot with integrated GPS was a chore, but these days, it's growing tougher and tougher to find one without it. Pentax is joining thegeotagging frenzy this evening with its Optio WG-1 GPS, a rugged 14 megapixel shooter that's waterproof up to 33 feet, shockproof in nature and engineered with a "crushproof" body that can withstand weight force of up to 220 pounds (but not another Black Eyed Peas halftime show).

 You'll also get integrated face detection technology, the ability to snap in sub-freezing temperatures, a 5x optical zoom lens and a 2.7-inch rear LCD. There's also a 720p movie mode, HDMI output, IR control compatibility and support for Eye-Fi's wireless SD card. It'll ship this April in black or yellow-green for $399.95, and if you're uncomfortable remembering where you took each and every photograph, the GPS-less Optio WG-1 will also be available (in black or purple) for $50 less.

Nokia E7 Phone Finally Hitting Stores This Week

The smartphone that Nokia has been touting as its new "flagship" business model will finally reach consumers this week.

Nokia's announcement was mum on a number of launch details. However, a Nokia representative said that the E7 will be released first in Finland, the company's home turf.

The E7 includes the Symbian 3 operating system, a 4-inch AMOLED ClearBack touch screen designed to improve outdoor visibility, a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, an 8-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and HD video capture, USB and HDMI connections, and 16GB of flash memory.

Geared for the business crowd, the phone offers built-in synchronization with Microsoft Exchange and comes with Office Communicator Mobile, a corporate instant messaging app developed by Microsoft specifically for Nokia smartphones.

Although still the world's leading mobile phone maker, Nokia has watched its dominance slowly slip over the past couple of years. Losing market share and sales to Apple and Android devices, the company reported lower earnings yet again in the fourth quarter of 2010. The E7 costs 495 euros ($674).

 

 

Inner City Bike Mates Simplicity with a Unicycle and a Fixie

The folks at Inner City Bikes put a fixie and a unicycle into a dark, sexy room, played some light jazz and let nature happen. Out popped this minimalist, chain-less bike. Practical? We'll see, but she's certainly a looker.

Now, whether that look you're giving is one of love or disgust probably depends on your propensity toward wearing a suit, Pumas and a beard while riding a bike.

She lacks the mechanical gear-shifting apparatus of her 21-speed cousins, and even the chain of her more closely related fixie brethren, but her bicycle heritage is unmistakable.

"Military Grade" iPhone Case Could Probably Take a Bullet

This one-of-a-kind $99 case, you see, is comprised of a variety of military-grade shock absorption and vibration-reducing materials.

 

 

The Seven Types of iPhone Users

Simplistic Horodron Watch Concept Hides Subtle E-Ink Secret

A concept for now, the time is displayed in white along the bottom.

 

 

Turn Your iPhone 4 Into A Video-Watching Monster With This Kickstand Battery Case

The iPhone isn't ideal for watching videos for a long period, it drains battery and is uncomfortable. The iKit Nu Charge's built-in battery and kickstand fix that.

It gives you 1400 mAh of power that can be switched on when needed. LED lights on the front show you how much power is left too.

The Nu Charge ships in March for $65 for both Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4.

 

 

The Moment You Wish You'd Paid for a Bigger Screen

The Sensation Urban lounger, by designer Alexander Christoff, looks ridiculously relaxing. That is, until you realize that looking at a 4-inch display from 6-feet away is basically the antithesis of comfort.