Gadgets Mobile

Finally after one year of announcing that it will be opening its own online music store, Limewire has fulfilled its promise. Everybody’s once favorite peer-to-peer file sharing application joined the online music industry with its very own online music store. Limewire is making available its catalog of around 500,000 DRM-free music file for download at a price of $.99 per single track, similar to the price of many other online music stores today.

For users who want to download more than one music track, Limewire is also offering a 25 download per month package for $9.99, a 50 download for $14.99 and a 75 download for $19.99. So if you think you will be downloading full albums, you might as well take some of these packages. Those packages would save you some more money, which you could then spend on other digital tracks. Digital music available in the Limewire store is encoded at 256kbps and can be played on any media player since its DRM-free.

Currently in beta stage, the Limewire store is not connected with the LimeWire Basic or Limewire PRO interface, which are Limewire’s peer-to-peer file sharing application. So, users are assured that the music that they are buying is of high-quality and came from the legitimate source. Although Limewire is planning to introduce some kind of integration between the Limewire Music Store and the Limewire peer-to-peer application, I think it is no longer necessary if Limewire wants to stop music piracy on the web. Hopefully, Limewire just leave its two products as separate entities from each other.
The Limewire Store is currently available for the U.S. digital music consumers but Limewire promises to make the online store available to other countries later on.

Via [Download Squad] Via [P2P Blog]

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LG’s upcoming smartphone, the VX9700 has just passed rigorous tests set up by the FCC. Word from various sources claim that the VX9700 is tipped to be released at the end of this month, although you might see a delay to next month or even May. It will most likely feature a 3.2 megapixel camera with a Schneider Kreuznach lens, a microUSB port and support for microSDHC memory cards. The “VX” prefix in its model number will probably mean that Verizon will be carrying this handset. No idea on pricing, but it should cost a pretty penny.

When toy manufacturers make talking toys, they use the cheapest chips and speakers possible: 4-kilohertz audio samples played through a 30-cent piezo buzzer would be an extravagance in this industry. The makers profit when it comes to bean-counting. But they lose when the low quality sounds are misheard by the unscrupulous, the stupid and those who simply hear what they want to hear. Accordingly, here’s our gallery of the most chilling, offensive and/or ridiculous examples of inadvertently nasty-talking toys.

Elmo Wants You to Kill Yourself, James

The victim’s mom says "Kill James" is "exactly" what it’s saying, and describes how distraught she was after hearing it.

It sounds like typical garbled toy-speak, with a questioning tone at odds with the imperative suggestion it’s claimed to emit. Once you’re told it’s "Kill James," however, it’s hard to imagine what else it could be — but always remember Pavarotti’s classic performance of "Elephants, Yes!"

This particular toy can be also be custom-programmed with new statements, suggesting that it might be easy to get it to say bad things, either by design or because of bugs.

Leapfrog Alphabet Pal Just Wants to Relax

If you can barely make out what it’s alleged to be saying, let alone what it’s supposed to be saying, you wouldn’t be alone. Maybe we should all just frackin’ chill. Here’s more video, from an NBC affiliate. You’ll notice a theme here: reporters having to explain to the viewer what something is saying, or beeping it out so you have to take their word for it.

Heeeeeere’s Elmo! Again!

In another "Local news special," the Potty Time With Elmo talking book is heard to make a startling request: "Who wants to die?"

What is it with Elmo and the fallibility of the flesh? Existential Elmo needs to know.

The sound here is so vague and poorly recorded it could just as easily be "Who wants to try" or "Poop wants to fly." Perhaps this is the perfect example of Rorschach audio.

I’ve Got a Teletubby and I’m Prepared to Use it

"I’ve got a gun teletubby toast." Yeah, that’s definitely what it’s programmed to say.

Fans will know that this revolting little thing is saying "Again Again!," as it does on the show, but that doesn’t stop an ABC reporter claiming otherwise, as if it’s settled fact.

Here’s a unicorn chaser, of sorts: a teletubby openly touting the species’ much-ballyhooed gay agenda.

Furby Wants You to Come Over Here

Click the Furby for the movie evidence. It’s the desperate, fixed gaze that makes it truly terrifying.

Bratz Dolls Are Right Little Brats

Somewhere amid the stream of sonic garbage pouring from this nasty little toy is, some assert, foul language. CNN adds the beeps to make sure you can’t make up your own mind — but at least know where the trash talk is supposed to be.

Little Mermaid to Little Girls: "You’re A Slut"

There is, unfortunately, no video or audio to go with this story about the Little Mermaid that made unwarranted assumptions about its owner. Disney subsidiary ABC’s story does, at least, point out that to make it say "slut," the user has to press the speech button fast enough to deliberately garble multiple statements — and that neither they nor an independent analyst could reproduce it without a lot of effort.

Math Is Hard — For a Doll

What better way to sign off than a doll saying something horrible by design? Talking Barbie, most infamously, chirped "math class is tough," precipitating a crisis that set feminism back at least 50 days.

Kill Mommy, but Only in English

The ur-Chucky is 1982’s legendary "Kill Mommy" doll, which turned out to be a mis-imported Spanish-language product chirping "Quiero a Mami." It’s now hard to find online evidence of this particular example of suburban mothers looking for something to be scandalized by. But it’s still the original trash-talking toy scandal.

Posted Mar 17th 2008 11:33AM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: cellphones, Laptops You’ll have to take this one with the usual patent application caveats but, as Unwired View reports, one of Apple’s recent filings seems to indicate that it has at least considered the possibility of an iphone flip phone of sorts, among other dual-screen possibilities. The application itself is for what’s described as a “dual sided trackpad,” which would be translucent and boast touch sensitive panels on each side, allowing it to be used both when it’s opened or when it’s covering the main display. In the case of the iPhone, that would seem to offer yet another option for the oft-discussed iPhone nano, but the patent application doesn’t stop there, with it also offering up possibilities for laptops and tablets based around the technology. In the former case, the touchpad would open up a small window on the main display, allowing it to work like a SideShow display, while the tablet would boast a touchscreen encompassing the entire display. Needless to say, we wouldn’t recommend getting your hopes up for any of that just yet but, if you want to whet your appetite a bit further, you can get a rough idea of what they might look like by hitting up the read link below.

How much more corny can you get - this iPhone clone is known as ‘Cool999′, and surprisingly looks like the closest iPhone copy to date. You get Cupertino’s famous bitten fruit on either side of its 3.5″ display that features 320 x 240 resolution and a user interface that is somewhat reminiscent of the Apple iPhone. Ironically, it is powered by Windows Mobile 6.0 with Touch Flo technology - soemthing worth checking out to see if it is actually possible. Other features include a 2 megapixel camera, GPS navigation, video playback support and works where Java games are concerned. You will be able to pick up this clone iphone for $310, which would be a pretty dumb move considering the real McCoy is a mere $89 more expensive.

New Scientist’s found the trouble with swarm intelligence: software bugs. No, not the evolution of hate-filled robot consciousnesses. The interesting part is that that both scenarios represent unexpected emergent properties: perhaps it’s the ultimate expression of that old axiom about mistaking stupidity for malice.

The bugs here aren’t being seen as "stupidity," however, but as an opportunity to generate intelligence via some kind of evolutionary process.

"Software bugs are emergent properties," Alan Winfield, a researcher at Bristol University, told NS. "But today we think they’re bad and must be fixed. We need to know how to design the kind of emergent ‘bugs’ that produce swarm intelligence in nature."

It’s like lead and gold all over again!

The trouble with swarm intelligence [New Scientist]

See Also:

• Smart Dust To Colonize Space
• Air Force’s Mini-Drone Swarm
• The Swarmbots Are Coming

Posted Mar 17th 2008 1:05PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Wireless It won’t do much to complement the Time Capsule’s minimalist looks, but if you’ve been itching to get a bit more range of out thing, you now have a new option to consider from Quickertek, which recently introduced its new TriBand Antenna for the device. Available either as a self-install kit or pre-installed on the Time Capsule of your choice, the slightly janky-looking rig promises a 50% increase in range over a standard Time Capsule, with ample coaxial cabling provided to let you position it just right. As if that wasn’t enough, Quickertek is also promising that the antenna will let you reach speeds “much closer to the theoretical yield of 300 megabits per second,” although it apparently isn’t making any firm claims on that matter. If that sounds like the boost you’ve been looking for, you can grab the self-install kit now for $130, get Quickertek to install the antenna on your existing Time Capsule for $200, or get a 500GB or 1TB Time Capsule with it pre-installed for $500 or $700, respectively.

I suppose this is not a surprise given how many users Facebook has, but will it be successful? Will the millions of IM users currently on Yahoo!, AIM, MSN and even ICQ and GTalk also use the Facebook platform for Instant Messaging? I say Facebook needs to ensure that they’re Jabber compatible so that we can plug yet another IM service into one of the all-in-one IM clients (like Trillian, Pidgin, etc.). Once upon a time, I only had Yahoo Messenger, then once my IM friend space grew to more than just YIM, I simply had to throw away the model of having a separate application for each service. Enter Trillian (BTW, I can’t wait for the new version).

Now a lot of people already use Facebook’s messaging as if it were e-mail, and if they’re addicts, you could even say it’s a bit like IM. The only benefit to me is that perhaps this will encourage my Facebook buddies who are not IM-aficionados to get on the IM train.

I’m not a coffee drinker, I really can’t stand the stuff. I prefer to take my caffeine in Mountain Dew form. Frankly it tastes much better, and you don’t have to deal with those nasty coffee grinds at the bottom of the cup. Of course, that also means that I don’t ever have a reason to buy cool coffee mugs like this one.

While I wouldn’t actually buy this one for myself, I still think it’s a pretty cool design. The idea is that the further down you drink your coffee (or whatever is in the mug) the clearer the shape of a heart becomes. Since the outside of the cup looks quite ordinary, it would be a sneaky way to tell someone “I love you” well after you’ve left the room (after bringing them a fresh cup of Joe).

It’s only a concept design for now, but it is simple and brilliant. You know someone is going to make a mint off of these, as they would make great gifts.

Source: Yanko Design

Amazon.com increased the options you have when wanting to shop at the online retailer. Its latest expansion implements two new Facebook applications that allow users to see what items their friends would like and buy products direct from Amazon.com.

The first Facebook application is called Amazon Giver and basically displays Amazon wish lists on the social network. Friends can then view these lists and purchase items off it if they so wish. Giver also recommends items for purchase based on a user’s Facebook profile information.

The second application is called Amazon Grapevine. This differs, as it gives information on what friends have updated or added to Amazon.com. So, for example, your friends will get updated if you change your Amazon wish list, add a review about a product, or tag a product via News Feed updates.

Eva Manolis, vice president of Amazon.com, said of the new applications:

Amazon.com is pleased to bring the convenience of shopping on Amazon to our customers, many of whom are also Facebook users, with the Amazon Giver and Amazon Grapevine applications on Facebook Platform … By combining Amazon’s vast selection of products with Facebook’s millions of users, we are able to make activities like gift-giving more efficient and rewarding for Facebook users.

Amazon is also keen to stress that the information you share and who that information is shared with is in the control of the user through an opt-in mechanism.

Read more at Silicon.com and the Amazon.com press release.

Matthew’s Opinion

I think one of the main reasons Amazon.com has been so successful is because it continues to expand and diversify its offerings. This Facebook tie-in is just another example of that diversity.

It may seem like just a small extension, but when you consider the number of Facebook users and the simplicity this adds to buying products direct from Amazon through Facebook, you should see the potential for additional sales.

With recent problems relating to Facebook tracking user information, Amazon has made the right decision launching with an opt-in feature. People do not want their information automatically shared with other people and want to retain control over their personal details. I hope Amazon has given users total control to the point where they can have individual preferences per friend on Facebook.

If anyone has used either of Amazon’s Facebook apps, let us know your experiences in the comments below.