Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Clever marketing or sour grapes? Microsoft has rolled out the latest phase of its $300 million dollar marketing campaign, in the form of kiosks–at least one of which has been strategically parked directly outside an Apple store.

The kiosk lets Microsoft users record their own additions to the company’s “I’m a PC″ campaign. How about, “I’m a PC and I was just going over to the H&M, I swear.”

Original post by Brian Heater

One might list Gears of War and Halo as Microsoft’s most beloved franchises. One might also say that if Microsoft releases a special edition Zune for the release of one franchise, the other damn well better get the same! And so it shall be.

The Gamerscoreblog has recently informed the world of a Gears of War 2-themed Zune that will, probably not coincidentally, arrive at market the very same day as the game on November 7. Besides an aesthetically different backside, the device is “loaded up with more than 240 pieces of Gears of War and Gears of War 2 media, such as the original game soundtrack, behind-the-scenes videos, game trailers, concept art galleries, and more.” According to a post from Zune Insider, Microsoft’s official blog-style news site for the portable player, none of this content is exclusive.

If you’re planning on purchasing this little tie-in, be prepared to spend roughly $30-$50 more than the price of an average Zune. As of writing, Amazon has the basic 120 GB player on sale for $230.51, nearly $20 off of its original price of $249.99, and Wal-Mart has the same model for $229.54. Meanwhile both sites are selling the Gears of War model for $279.99. Apparently adding a new skin and downloading a bunch of data is expensive.

More in this story at our sister site, 1UP. Text by Kyle Stallock.

Original post by Mark Hachman

Not long after launching his bid for the White House, Barack Obama spoke about creating a new cabinet position–chief technology officer–an office that would seek to create more jobs through technology, an issue that is becoming all the more important as the economic climate continues to grow all the more dire.

So, who’s the ideal candidate for such a position, should Obama win the election in a couple of weeks? Well, as we noted yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been getting awfully friendly with the Obama campaign, and while the search engine chief insisted that his company would remain non-partisan, he has since begun stumping for the senator from Illinois.

Who else is on Obama′s shortlist? Businessweek has been doing some speculation of its own. The magazine mentioned another Google heavy hitter: chief Internet evangelist, Vint Cerf. Also on their list are Amazon’s CEO Jeffrey Bezos and Microsoft’s chief executive madman, Steve Ballmer.

Original post by Brian Heater

Weren’t things personal enough already? Apple has responded directly to the recent spate of Microsoft ads, which were in turn a direct response to Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads. Confusing, no?

Cupertino today came out with a couple of new ads aimed at Redmond’s $300 million ad push. The first, revolves around a visored John Hodgman divvying up a rather disproportionate amount of funds between advertising and fixing Vista.

The second, seemingly a shot at the campaign’s failure to mention the OS by name, has Hodgman buzzing his Mac counterpart, Justin Long, every time he attempts to utter the word Vista.

Microsoft’s new “I′m a PC” ads may not have established the company as the cool “Mac alternative” it no doubt hoped for, but clearly it’s ruffled Apple’s feathers–at least enough to get a shout out.

Original post by Brian Heater

NewEgg.com is currently offering a Kingston 4GB SD for around $8! The lowest price I’ve seen so far, and shipping’s free if you select the 3-7 day option. Just click on the picture above or the link below to get that much-needed item for your digital camera or handheld computer!

Kingston 4GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card

Tags: 4GB secure digital cards, HC, Kingston, SD, secure digital cards

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Original post by Rico

Whether you’re looking to liven up a dull business meeting or trying to make that road trip a bit more exciting, the Trav-L-Bar let’s the alcoholic in you feel right at home.

This is just a classic way to keep your booze by your side at all times….

DrinkoftheWeek.com
Amazon.com

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Original post by Mark

When it rains, it pours. Weed so strong it makes you crazy. Naturally, Tom wants to stop the insanity.

A blend of medical marijuana called “Tom Cruise Purple” may bring legal action from the actor, the New York Daily News reports.

Cannabis clubs in Northern California allegedly are selling vials of the marijuana with a picture of Cruise laughing hysterically, the Rush & Molloy column reports

Not a lot more to read at Report: ‘Tom Cruise Purple’ Medical Marijuana Has Actor Smoking Mad [Fox”News”]

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Original post by Jason

European Commission gives green light for inflight calls

Original post by Mike Slocombe

This wireless data exchange concept is very similar to a few designs we’ve seen already, but Postmachina is going to be manufacturing a wireless device called Project E that holds your personal information and swaps it when it comes into contact with another, similar device. In essence, it can hold all the info on your business card, plus other data (maybe even social networking information) and transfer it to other people you meet at trade shows or other events.

After doing tests with Bluetooth, Postmachina’s director, Renato Valdes Olmos, decided to make their own set of wireless protocols in order to swap information—which can then be synced with a computer and imported into various social networking sites like LinkedIn or Twitter. If this Project E can be made robust and foolproof that it will work without even thinking about it, we could see a huge market for it everywhere. But if Postmachina can take this tech and insert it into cellphones, something people already carry on them, that would be a revolution.

Original post by nafiz

This wireless data exchange concept is very similar to a few designs we’ve seen already, but Postmachina is going to be manufacturing a wireless device called Project E that holds your personal information and swaps it when it comes into contact with another, similar device. In essence, it can hold all the info on your business card, plus other data (maybe even social networking information) and transfer it to other people you meet at trade shows or other events.

     

 

After doing tests with Bluetooth, Postmachina’s director, Renato Valdes Olmos, decided to make their own set of wireless protocols in order to swap information—which can then be synced with a computer and imported into various social networking sites like LinkedIn or Twitter. If this Project E can be made robust and foolproof that it will work without even thinking about it, we could see a huge market for it everywhere. But if Postmachina can take this tech and insert it into cellphones, something people already carry on them, that would be a revolution.

Original post by nafiz

Uh. Get your protein on! New Meat Water claims to give you what it takes to build muscle — and it sounds delicious. Take their Ground Beef and Cheddar flavor for instance:

Ground Beef + aged Cheddar

As Samuel L. Jackson once said, ???Now that???s a tasty burger!??? How do you like yours? ???Cause when it???s cooked right, there???s nothing like a juicy burger with a thick slice of Vermont cheddar on top. You can even taste the ketchup!

Store it cool, but drink it warm!

If only this were real! Dethroner advertising dollars would go through the roof! (or Joel would trade it all away for a case of Fish ‘n Chips flavor.)

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Original post by Jason

A dethroner reader sent in a link to The Drops a toilet odor eliminator. I guess the idea is that in the event you predict or routinely present above average post-defecatory bouquet you can simply press a button as you take command from your personal throne of kings.

A guy I used to work with made the entire office wish he’d buy this chair cushion. I wonder if they’ll force him to try this?

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Original post by Jason

Since the 1980s, cities like Guiyu, China, have been taking in electronic waste from other countries for dismantlement and processing. It’s great for other countries, but takes a huge toll on the people managing the effort because of the “metal extraction of circuit boards” and “open dumping of waste and ash residue into open water”. It’s made the well water and ground water of Guiyu undrinkable, and has to be trucked in from other villages. The lead poisoning level in children is 69%.

Original post by nafiz

 

 

Since the 1980s, cities like Guiyu, China, have been taking in electronic waste from other countries for dismantlement and processing. It’s great for other countries, but takes a huge toll on the people managing the effort because of the “metal extraction of circuit boards” and “open dumping of waste and ash residue into open water”. It’s made the well water and ground water of Guiyu undrinkable, and has to be trucked in from other villages. The lead poisoning level in children is 69%.

Original post by nafiz

After some delays, the iPhone Pwnage tool—which is used to flash your iPhone with hacked firmware that will allow you to run any application, use it unlocked in any compatible cellphone network, and basically do whatever you want do to with it, is now available for download. I have been testing this and previous versions for a few weeks now and it works well, but you will need a 2.0 version of the iPhone firmware to try the latest and greatest.

Pwnage is extremely simple to use. First you have to back up your iPhone data using iTunes.

Then, connect the iPhone, select the firmware from your hard drive and iPwn the iPhone. Pwnage will upload the new firmware to the iPhone and that’s that: the tool will take care of everything and, in a few minutes, your iPhone will be ready to go.

I tried this with the latest modified version of iPhone firmware update 1.2.0 and it works as good as with the previous version. So go ahead, punks, and make Steve’s day.

Note: if by any chance you come across a pwned version of the latest 2.0 firmware, my advice is to use this version, as this Apple beta is not as stable as I wish. Instead, use the previous beta, which worked perfectly.

Original post by nafiz