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Contract talks extended, no cable TV interruption (AP) : Technet

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• Contract talks extended, no cable TV interruption (AP)
• Tablets galore on tap at major CES gadget fest (AFP)
• Google Takes Heat Over Android Tablet OS (PC World)
• Trial involving tech giants delayed (Investor's Business Daily)
• 10 Media Predictions for 2011, from Facebook to Katie Couric (The Daily Beast)
• The YouTube Videos That Made Our Year In Viral Views 15 (PC World)
• The Top 8 Web Development Highlights of 2010 (Mashable)
• Remote Conductor app makes iPad a Mac input device (Macworld)
• New virus threatens phones using Android (AFP)
• 5 Reasons to Try Zorin OS Linux (PC World)
• Skype could be designated illegal in China (Reuters)

Contract talks extended, no cable TV interruption (AP) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 08:35 PM PST By DAVID KOENIG and ANDREW VANACORE, AP Business Writers David Koenig And Andrew Vanacore, Ap Business Writers – 43 mins ago Sinclair Broadcast Group and two cable TV companies announced an agreement late Friday to extend a midnight deadline for a new contract until Jan. 14, averting for now an interruption of some programming to millions of cable customers. Sinclair and the two companies — Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks — issued news releases late Friday saying contract talks would continue. "We have an extension" for two weeks, said Karen J. Morena, a Time Warner spokeswoman. "It will mean no interruption in programming for our customers." Steve Miron, CEO of Bright House Networks, said in a statement: "We will continue to work toward a fair deal for our customers." Hunt Valley, Md.-based Sinclair said the extension means Time Warner and Bright House will continue to carry programs from 33 of its television stations. "We are pleased Time Warner and Bright House recognized the importance of providing their subscribers with access to the valuable and popular programming" provided on Sinclair stations, said Barry Faber, executive vice president and general counsel of Sinclair. "We intend to continue our good faith negotiations during this period with the intent of finalizing a longer-term agreement at pricing that reflects the higher cost of programming we are faced with today." The parties have been bogged down in negotiations over how much the cable companies should pay to carry Sinclair TV stations in markets around the country. Local Sinclair stations — including affiliates of NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox — would have been dropped from channel lineups for roughly 4 million Time Warner customers and an unknown number of Bright House customers after midnight Friday without the extension. Earlier Friday, Time Warner had vowed to provide its cable customers with network TV stations from other cities if it lost the rights to carry local stations owned by Sinclair. Viewers likely would have gotten access to major network programming — including Saturday's Outback Bowl game on ABC between the Florida Gators and the Penn State Nittany Lions — had Sinclair pulled its signals once the deadline passed. Viewers would have lost local programs, such as the news. Syndicated shows such as "Seinfeld" could have been moved to a different time. The tactic threatens to undercut local broadcast companies in these types of negotiations in the future. Time Warner spokeswoman Maureen Huff said earlier Friday that even if the dispute with Sinclair were to drag on, Time Warner customers in Sinclair cities would still see all NFL playoff games and the Super Bowl and "most if not all" would see the full assortment of college football bowls. Time Warner had not said which stations it would borrow signals from. Time Warner has been doing that in upstate New York because of a similar dispute with Smith Media. Viewers get the network evening shows but see out-of-market local newscasts and syndicated fare. Bright House had said it, too, would carry feeds from other cities if the dispute with Sinclair remained unresolved. The cable TV companies' threatened end-run around Sinclair represents the latest twist in a long-running struggle between TV broadcasters and the cable and satellite operators that carry their signals into customers' homes. Bound by existing contract terms with Sinclair, Time Warner can only replace Sinclair stations with broadcast signals from other cities until late February. A separate deal with Fox owner News Corp. would allow Time Warner to carry that network for longer. But it would be a major risk for Sinclair to pull its signals for that long. TV stations promise local advertisers that their commercials will reach a certain size audience, and that audience would be diminished without Time Warner and Bright House customers. In the meantime, Sinclair's only bargaining chip would be access to locally produced news and other programming. Before the contract extension was announced, Sinclair's Faber said Time Warner's approach would "simply give their customers ample time" to find a different pay TV provider, such as satellite. Disputes between broadcasters and the cable and satellite operators are cropping up more often. Broadcast companies used to let cable providers carry their channels for free while making their money selling advertising time. But the recession caused some advertisers to cut spending, and the broadcasters are trying to charge cable operators higher fees to carry their programming. In some cases, cable companies have resisted the broadcasters' demands, leaving TV viewers in the dark. One of the longest blackouts occurred in 2005, when about 75,000 cable customers in Texas, Missouri and Louisiana went without local NBC and ABC affiliate programming for nearly the entire year because of an impasse between the stations' owner, Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc., and cable systems. Broadcasters had long been believed to hold the upper hand in negotiating fees with cable and satellite providers because blacked-out customers usually called the cable company to complain. The cable and satellite operators have appealed for help from federal regulators. In October, Cablevision Systems Corp. asked the Federal Communications Commission to force Fox stations to keep providing programming while Cablevision sought arbitration to settle a dispute over fees. The FCC declined to get involved, and Cablevision wound up swallowing Fox's terms, after its customers lost Fox programs for two weeks, including two World Series games. But Time Warner's most recent tactics could give cable providers more clout and even the upper hand. For broadcasters such as Sinclair, the stakes are big. More advertising dollars are shifting to the Web and the growing number of cable networks means increasing competition for the money that is still going into TV. So local stations see fees from Time Warner and other pay TV providers as a crucial second source of income. Sinclair owns 33 stations carried by Time Warner around the country, and others in the South — though not many network affiliates — carried on Bright House. Bright House spokeswoman Kimberly Maki said before Friday night's announcement that the company had arranged to provide the feed from another ABC station to customers in the Florida Panhandle so they wouldn't miss Saturday's Outback Bowl. "We've got it covered," she said at the time. Most of the Sinclair stations carried on Bright House systems are on minor networks. Maki said then she was holding out hope the company could get an extension from Sinclair for those stations while negotiations continued. Before Time Warner and Bright House said they would turn to signals from other cities, some Florida football fans were making backup plans in case they couldn't watch their favorite team at home. In Cantonment, Fla., Jennifer Stokes adorned her SUV with a Florida Gators front license plate. The Bright House subscriber said she and her family and friends refused to miss the Outback Bowl. "We will just go somewhere else and watch it," she said. "It's a big deal." Time Warner shares fell 8 cents to close Friday at $66.03, while Sinclair shares added 5 cents to $8.18. ___ AP Writer Melissa Nelson in Cantonment, Fla., contributed to this report.

Tablets galore on tap at major CES gadget fest (AFP) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 06:10 PM PST by Glenn Chapman Glenn Chapman – Fri Dec 31, 9:10 pm ET SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Tablet computers will lead a host of "smart" gadgets in the Nevada desert this week at a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) spotlighting slick new devices on the horizon. CES attendance in Las Vegas should top the 126,000 figure from the annual event last January and the roster of exhibitors has climbed 2,000 to 2,700. Internet software will fuse with televisions, cars and even household appliances at CES, where an army of tablets will be unleashed to challenge Apple's winning iPads. "Certainly the Number One trend will be tablets," said NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker. "I think every smartphone and PC (personal computer) company will either have one on their show floor; be showing them behind closed doors, or announcing things." CES organizers said that from 40 to 80 tablets could debut at the event that runs from Thursday through Sunday. Apple sold more than eight million iPads since the California company introduced the tablets in April and year-end sales could surpass 10 million. Tablets being unveiled at CES weren't expected to pose a threat to the iPad, a second-generation version of which is likely to be announced this year. Android and Windows "won't be right" for tablets for at least a year, giving iPad time to secure its throne against tablets based on the operating software from Google and Microsoft, respectively. "We are going to be up to our armpits in crappy tablets, and I do mean crappy," said independent Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle. Among the more promising tablets are a Hewlett-Packard model that might not be introduced at the show and a Notion Ink Atom made by a small company out of Israel that crafted its own operating software. Apple has become a defining force at CES despite the fact that it shuns the gathering. "Right now, in the consumer electronics space, Apple is the shining star that everyone and their brother are chasing," Enderle said. "CES is increasingly becoming an Apple show even though Apple is not there." A sold-out "iLounge" spanning 50,000 square feet (4,645 square meters) will be crammed with accessories and software for iPads, iPhones, and iPods. A kit for installing iPads in cars will be among myriad covers, cases, headsets, docks, and applications for Apple devices. "There is a whole Apple empire," CES spokeswoman Tara Dunion said of the iLounge portion of an exposition floor spanning a total of 1.6 million square feet. An "On the Go" section of the show floor will be a hotspot for tablets, smartphones and e-readers. Internet connectivity will be an overriding theme at CES, with dumb gadgets from television sets to appliances being made "smart" with software that cuts energy consumption or shares information using the Web. For the first time, home appliance colossus General Electric will be among CES exhibitors. "It's Internet everything," Dunion said. "The Internet will be in all products from cameras to smart appliances and cars." 3D TVs that were stars at last year's CES will return, but this time with an emphasis on partnerships with film and television studios providing content intended to make such screens worth buying. "In a connected world, hardware doesn't do much good without content," Baker said. "More and more we'll see and hear about how the hardware and the content work together." TV makers will play up flat-screens that let people access the Internet without set-top boxes, according to analysts. "Pretty much everything in the next year or two will sell with a connectivity option," Baker said of TV hardware. Microsoft is expected to provide the first look at Windows 7 media software for Internet televisions "better than what Apple and Google brought to market," according to Enderle. A keynote presentation on Wednesday by Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer could include a glimpse at the successor to the Windows 7 operating system released in 2009. "There is enough smoke around this particular fire that it is likely we will see our first glimpse of Windows 8 at the show," Enderle said. Telecom titans such as Verizon and AT&T will announce speedier wireless Internet networks crafted as highways for tablets and smartphones displayed at the gathering, according to Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps. Cars infused with Internet technology for entertainment, driver safety and fuel efficiency will also be stars of the show, according to analysts. "A lot of wild work has been going into automotive," Enderle said. "This will probably be the show for automotive technology going forward."

Google Takes Heat Over Android Tablet OS (PC World) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:30 PM PST Dan Nystedt Dan Nystedt – Fri Dec 31, 5:30 pm ET Android device makers around the world are anticipating great things from the next version of Google's mobile software, and they need the boost. Apple has a strong head start with sales of its popular iPad, while the App Store and iTunes give it apps and content, to boot. But after a year of prodding Google, device makers think they've finally won with the upcoming "Honeycomb" upgrade to Android, which is expected by the end of the first quarter and is supposed to be the first version of the software designed for tablets instead of smartphones. Earlier this year, for example, Samsung Electronics, had to fight to have the Android Market app, which connects users to the software's online treasure trove of over 150,000 apps, on its Galaxy Tab, according to one executive who asked not to be named due to his company's close relationship with Google. At the time that Samsung was developing the Galaxy Tab to use Android, Google was struggling to decide if it wanted to put its upcoming Chrome OS in tablets and make Android exclusive to smartphones. The Chrome OS better fits Google's Cloud strategy, the executive said. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the issue. Google's decision to make a tablet-friendly version of Android became a must after Apple launched its groundbreaking iPad, analysts say. "Earlier in the year, Google probably thought that Chrome OS might be the right platform for tablets. However, the importance of the compatibility of apps across smartphones and tablets, evident from the iPad experience, has created the need for Google to ensure that the commercial success of apps can be preserved in the tablet proposition," said Martin Bradley, an analyst at Strategy Analytics. Apple sold nearly 8 million iPads through the end of September, making it one of the hottest products of the year. (That tally is from official Apple figures from its quarterly earnings conference call and doesn't include holiday sales.) By being first, Apple has set the tone for the entire market. Tablet makers need to put out the same OS for their smartphones and tablets so apps can be shared on either device. Even more important, apps specifically designed for tablets need to be made available, to take advantage of the larger screens, more powerful processors and expanded memory on board. Of the 300,000 or so apps available to Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users, 40,000 are specifically designed for the iPad, and they are marketed that way on Apple's App Store. By contrast, Google's Android Market does not offer any tablet-only apps to users, only smartphone apps. However, upstart Appslib is filling the void with its own tablet-only app store for Android lovers. Appslib is not affiliated with Google. The importance of tweaking a version of Android specifically for tablets and putting tablet-only apps on the Android Market cannot be overstated. Companies expect tablet sales to reach up to 60 million devices in 2011, with Android and Apple's iOS the leading software in the devices. Market researcher Ovum expects Android and Apple's iOS to take about 71 percent of the total market for tablets and other mobile Internet devices by 2015, while the also-rans, BlackBerry tablet OS, Hewlett-Packard's WebOS, Intel's and Nokia's MeeGo, and Microsoft Windows making up the rest of the share. "It's difficult to see past iOS and Android in tablets at the moment," said Tony Cripps, principal analyst of devices and platforms at Ovum. Competition between Apple and Android's backers is so intense that lawsuits are already flying back and forth between them. But infighting in the Android camp could be the worst problem at the moment. Companies gripe about a number of issues in working with Google. "Android is not yet ready for pads and the user experience on currently available products is suffering," said Tim Coulling, analyst at Canalys. He also predicted it will become a leading OS in the pad/tablet space once Honeycomb is out. There is also some controversy about how Honeycomb is to be launched. Google worked with device maker Motorola and chip maker Nvidia on a tablet device designed for Honeycomb, which was shown off at the D: Dive Into Mobile Conference in San Francisco early this month. The Internet giant's penchant for working with a specific device maker and chip maker on each major design change for Android has gone on for at least the past three upgrades to Android. With version 2.2 of Android, dubbed Froyo, Google worked with smartphone maker HTC and chip designer Qualcomm to create the Nexus One. In Android 2.3, Gingerbread, Google worked with Samsung Electronics on both the phone design and chips, Samsung's Hummingbird processor, for the Nexus S. But the strategy is unfair to other Android device makers because it gives the chosen ones about a four- to five-month head start over others, said Glen Burchers, head of marketing at Freescale Semiconductor's consumer chip division. "This puts processor guys at a big disadvantage and the system guys at such a big disadvantage," he said. "The industry is not thrilled with this game Google is playing." Don't mistake this frustration for mutiny. Nobody is talking about dumping Android. Overall, companies using Android in smartphones and tablets are tickled with Google's development efforts. What they wanted earlier this year was a speedier decision to use Android in tablets so they could put out iPad-rivals ahead of the holiday season. What device makers are really saying is: Come on Google. Help us compete against Apple. Unleash the dogs of war with a tablet version of the Android OS and tablet apps on the Android Market. Google appears to have had a troubling time with Android device developers over the past year. Part of the issue is diverging strategies. Device makers want to win market share in product categories, from netbooks and smartbooks to tablets, while Google remains cloud-centric. One thing holding device makers back from using Android as they please, since it is open source software, is Google's certification effort. Any company that fails to follow Google's rules will not be certified, meaning they can't use Google's name or logo on the product or in advertising, nor do they have access to apps in the Android Market, or gain other performance extras and software upgrades offered via certification. The Google name alone means immediate brand recognition. The lack of camaraderie in the Android camp has hurt Google and device makers alike. While Google mulled a decision on Android versus Chrome OS in netbooks, Windows ran away with that popular device category. In tablets, Apple has run off to a huge head start, while the Android camp nearly failed to put out strong rival devices before the holidays until Samsung pushed for app support in the Galaxy Tab. "Android represents a way to safeguard Google's position given that the tablet market has now arrived," said Bradley. Android may also ultimately pave the way for the Chrome OS in mobile devices. Ovum's Cripps believes Chrome OS and Android will converge over time, "especially in terms of bringing the Chrome Web browser to Android. The Chrome browser is really the heart of Chrome OS from a developer perspective and it would make sense to bring it to Android," he said. Now if the Android camp can find a way to work together better, they may give Apple a run for its money in the tablet market.

Trial involving tech giants delayed (Investor's Business Daily) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:40 PM PST – Fri Dec 31, 5:40 pm ET Canadian wireless broadband licenser Wi-Lan won a last-minute delay in the trial in a patent suit as it seeks a settlement with tech leaders. The complaint alleges Apple (NMS:AAPL), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY - News), Dell (NMS:DELL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ - News), Intel (NMS:INTC), Sony (NYSE:SNE - News) and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN - News) infringed on its rights. Wi-Lan has more than 970 patents tied to Wi-Fi and DSL.

10 Media Predictions for 2011, from Facebook to Katie Couric (The Daily Beast) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 03:32 PM PST

The YouTube Videos That Made Our Year In Viral Views 15 (PC World) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 03:15 PM PST Armando Rodriguez Armando Rodriguez – Fri Dec 31, 6:15 pm ET Hello and welcome to the final Viral Views of 2010 (woo)! I know we weren't with you the entire year, but I feel like we've developed a sort of internet bond. It's either that or we have indigestion from all the holiday food we've been having. Regardless we hope you had a great year and are looking forward to seeing you again in 2011. Pull up a chair, get out that popcorn, and enjoy the YouTube videos that made our year. Kitten Riding Turtle I don't think I've ever seen anything more adorable than this kitten cruising on a turtle. Either this cat has enslaved a poor reptile to do his bidding, or they are playing hide and seek and the cat found the one place the turtle would never find him. Yoshida Brothers I want these guys to write the soundtrack to my life. Then everything I did would just feel that much more awesome. I could be buying milk at the grocery store and still feel like I was in an action movie. Zuckerberg's Facebook Apology I'm glad Mark Zuckerberg finally apologized for all those Facebook privacy issues. I mean just because someone uploads a video of them being drunk and bad mouthing their boss to the internet, doesn't mean they want everyone to see it. It's also definitely not their fault that the video went viral and they were fired.....right? Stair Walk After Michael Jackson passed away, I searched relentlessly for the one who would be crowned the new "King Of Pop". After many months of searching, I believe I have found him. Who needs to know how to moon walk when you can do this: Mini MJ Well, I guess that last guy has some pretty stiff competition. I mean this guy is already drawing in the crowds. Maybe the two of them could team up and become an unstoppable dancing force! Party Like These Guys If you need help learning how to behave at a party, just take a gander at these festive fellows. They definitely know how to get down, just don't end up like this guy: MushMouth I think I have discovered the worst board game to play with a group of strangers. Especially if you end up being partners with that one guy who never washes his hands. Better have some hand sanitizer ready before playing this one. How Tough Are NES Games? Always wondered how tough your NES games were, but didn't have the heart to torture them to find out? Lucky for you these folks wondered the same thing and put a handful of cartridges through a gauntlet of stress tests. Now you can sleep much more peacefully knowing your copy of Earthbound could probably survive going through the wash. Concealed Weapons This kid is the TSA's worst nightmare. After watching this video I now understand why airport security is so tight these days. I mean if all of that was just in his pants, who knows what his shoes might be hiding. Snakes In Math Class Turns out all those doodles you were doing in math class were almost as complex as your calculus homework. I think I learned more drawing random squiggles on my notes than I ever did in my 13+ years of math. (Note: Apologies to my math teachers who may see this. Doodling was just more entertaining than solving differential equations). I hope you enjoyed this week's Viral Views. It's been a fun last couple of months together and I can't wait to see what great things we'll find next year. Have a classy New Year's Eve and we will see you in 2011. Like this? Visit GeekTech every Friday afternoon for more Viral Views; for best results, follow @viral_views on Twitter (that's with an underscore).

The Top 8 Web Development Highlights of 2010 (Mashable) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 11:34 AM PST Jolie O'Dell Jolie O'dell – Fri Dec 31, 2:34 pm ET The Web Development Series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace's hosting solutions here. This year brought quite a few headlines of note to the developer world. While we each have our favorites, from new releases of classic tools to astounding announcements from tech companies, here in no particular order are a few stories that stood out to us this year. In the comments, we'd love to know what stories stood out most to you this year, partly to indulge our sense of gratuitous end-of-year nostalgia and partly to help us hone our coverage for 2011, when we hope to bring you more fascinating web dev news than ever before. What were your favorite dev-related headlines of 2010? 1. The Release of Rails 3.0 Early in February, the Ruby on Rails core team took the wraps off Rails 3.0, a long-awaited release of the popular Ruby framework. Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson wrote on the Rails blog, "We've had more than 250 people help with the release and we've been through almost 4,000 commits since 2.3 to get here. Yet still the new version feels lighter, more agile, and easier to understand. "It's a great day to be a Rails developer." 2. Salesforce's Acquisition of Heroku Earlier this month, Salesforce bought Heroku for a staggering $212 million, giving another token of legitimacy to the growing Ruby community as well as to cloud-based programming tools. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said at the time, “The next era of cloud computing is social, mobile and real-time... Ruby is the language of Cloud 2, and Heroku is the leading Ruby application platform-as-a-service for Cloud 2 that is fueling this growing community. We think this acquisition will uniquely position Salesforce.com as the cornerstone for the next generation of app developers.†3. Facebook's Release of HipHop for PHP In February, Facebook rolled out HipHop, an internal open-source project intended to speed up PHP for large-scale applications. HipHop isn't quite a compiler. "Rather," wrote Facebook engineer Haiping Zhao, "it is a source code transformer. HipHop programmatically transforms your PHP source code into highly optimized C++ and then uses g++ to compile it." The project was the culmination of two years of work by a small team of engineers; in the end, it got a thumbs-up from PHP creator Rasmus Lerdorf, who said, ""I think it is a cool project and it will certainly be a good option for some sites." 4. The Rise of Node.js Node.js has been around for a couple years, but 2010 was the year awareness and use of the JavaScript framework really blew up. Commits have grown, as has the number of committers. Traffic to the project website has steadily climbed through the year, and downloads for Node.js from GitHub have predictably grown, as well. As the organizers of the annual Node Knockout wrote, "It’s at the bleeding edge of a technology stack that allows developers to blur the lines between software, the web and the new like never before." 5. Microsoft's Release of Visual Studio 2010 The latest version of Microsoft's Visual Studio, a big release by any standards, launched this year to impressive reviews from all corners of the web. InfoWorld said the release "marks a major advance in functionality and ease," and The Register wrote, "It is hard not to be impressed by Microsoft's tool suite." The IDE was overhauled, completely rewritten from the ground up. Support for Silverlight was added, and Microsoft also took this opportunity to release F#, a new programming language developed by Microsoft Research. 6. Facebook's Release of the Open Graph API Facebook and social app developers have long wrestled with Facebook integration for third parties. In the spring at its Open Graph, Facebook's changes brought instant gratification and familiarity for Facebook users as they surfed the web -- and they brought a fast and easy way for devs to integrate with the social network, as easy as a single line of HTML in many cases. 7. The Android/Java/Oracle Saga What a year it's been for Java! Not only is the language a key part in the programming stack of the fastest-growing mobile OS out there; it's also the star of a big, potentially spendy lawsuit between two of the giants of the tech industry. Sun, which developed the language in-house back in the dark ages, was acquired by Oracle. That deal became official in January, and Oracle wasted no time in getting litigious with Google over that company's use of Java in the Android platform and the Dalvik virtual machine that stands in for the JVM on mobile OSes. The lawsuit began in August with Oracle claiming that Google "knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property." Google quickly countered that it was shocked -- shocked! -- that Oracle would make such claims over an open-source technology. It followed with the assertions that Oracle's patents are unenforceable and that if there had been "any use in the Android platform of any protected elements" of Java, Google itself "is not liable" due to the face that such violations would have been committed by third parties and without Google's knowledge. We'll continue to keep an eye on the lawsuit and on Java's role in the Android platform throughout 2011. 8. Apple Declares War on Flash Tensions between Apple and Adobe ran high this year, beginning in January when the iPad launched without support for Flash. Then in February, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told employees why: "No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5." These were the words that launched a thousand blog posts. Throughout the spring, the two companies waged a war of words -- and one sweet antitrust inquiry with the Department of Justice over Apple's banning of Flash for iPhone app devs. Steve Jobs dropped the bomb of the year in a passive-aggressive missive on Flash in which the Apple co-founder stated that Adobe's programming technology "no longer necessary" and waxed hypocritical about open technologies. But while he may have been passive-aggressive and hypocritical, he also may have been right. With HTML5 making a strong showing early in its lifetime, it was only a matter of time before a public figure of Jobs's stature would make a statement or two about the death of Flash. Of course, this tension has made for a convenient cozying-up between Google and Adobe along the way. What Are Your Picks? Again, let us know in the comments what your favorite stories of 2010 were -- and Happy New Year from the geeks at Mashable! With special thanks to our Twitter friends who made suggestions for this list: Jordan Runnin, Leon Gersing and Jeremy Bray.

Remote Conductor app makes iPad a Mac input device (Macworld) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 01:17 PM PST Jeff Porten Jeff Porten – Fri Dec 31, 4:17 pm ET Mobile software developer m3me has released the $10 Remote Conductor app for iPad, which makes your iPad a new input device for your Mac. The app has three modes. In Trackpad mode, the entire iPad surface becomes a large trackpad, with support for multitouch actions. In Launch mode, a master list of all of your applications, organized by folder, is displayed onscreen to provide you with rapid access to these icons. (An added nice touch: your Dock is replicated on the iPad for even faster access.) But in my opinion, the pièce de résistance is Switch mode, which displays all of your Mac's windows in a horizontal tree inspired by Exposé. Scroll left and right to see application windows organized by application; scroll up and down if a single application has more windows than can be displayed onscreen. Switch covers windows you've minimized, as well as windows in any additional Spaces you're running, so it's easy to find windows you've temporarily misplaced. Tap on a window to bring it to the front on your Mac; tap on the application icon to do the same for all of the application's windows. Remote Conductor requires an iPad running iOS 3.2 or higher and a Mac running Snow Leopard. (It works via Conductor Server for Mac, which is a free download, but requires Mac OS X 10.6.) The Mac and the iPad must be on the same Wi-Fi network.

New virus threatens phones using Android (AFP) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 06:03 AM PST – Fri Dec 31, 9:03 am ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – A virus infecting mobile phones using Google's Android operating system has emerged in China that can allow a hacker to gain access to personal data, US security experts said. A report this week from Lookout Mobile Security said the new Trojan affecting Android devices has been dubbed "Geinimi" and "can compromise a significant amount of personal data on a user?s phone and send it to remote servers." The firm called the virus "the most sophisticated Android malware we've seen to date." "Once the malware is installed on a user's phone, it has the potential to receive commands from a remote server that allow the owner of that server to control the phone," Lookout said. "Geinimi's author(s) have raised the sophistication bar significantly over and above previously observed Android malware by employing techniques to obfuscate its activities." The motive for the virus was not clear, accoring the Lookout, which added that this could be used for anything from "a malicious ad-network to an attempt to create an Android botnet." But the company said the only users likely to be affected are those downloading Android apps from China. The infected apps included repackaged versions sold in China of Monkey Jump 2, Sex Positions, President vs. Aliens, City Defense and Baseball Superstars 2010. "It is important to remember that even though there are instances of the games repackaged with the Trojan, the original versions available in the official Google Android Market have not been affected," the security firm said.

5 Reasons to Try Zorin OS Linux (PC World) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 06:30 AM PST Katherine Noyes Katherine Noyes – Fri Dec 31, 9:30 am ET One of the best features of the open source Linux operating system is that there are so many distributions to choose from. Ubuntu gets by far the lion's share of the media's attention, it's true--largely by virtue of its top ranking at the top of DistroWatch's popularity list--but there are hundreds of other options out there as well, many tailored to particular kinds of users and situations. I've already looked briefly at several of the Ubuntu derivatives that are available and more specifically at Linux Mint, which is currently third in popularity. Today, however, I'd like to make a pitch for Zorin OS, an Ubuntu-based distribution that offers a number of advantages with particular appeal for Windows users. Zorin OS 4 was just released earlier this month. Why should you consider it? Here are just a few reasons. 1. A Seamless Transition Much like the Ubuntu base that underlies it, Zorin OS is designed especially for newcomers to Linux. It has a Windows-like graphical user interface and many programs similar to those found in Windows. Zorin OS also comes with software including Wine and PlayOnLinux that let users run many Windows programs. The distribution's ultimate goal is "to provide a Linux alternative to Windows and let Windows users enjoy all the features of Linux without complications," in the project's own words. What this means, of course, is that Zorin OS is a great distribution for those who are comfortable with the look and feel of Windows, but still want to see what Linux is all about. Alternatively, it can be perfect for employees or coworkers who don't like change. 2. It Can Mimic Windows Zorin OS comes with the ever-popular GNOME interface familiar to countless Ubuntu users, but it also offers a number of alternatives direct from the proprietary world. Specifically, the operating system features a unique "Look Changer" program that lets users change the software's interface at the touch of a button. All users need do is click on the Windows 7 or Windows XP option, for example, and their desktop looks and behaves accordingly. Premium versions of Zorin OS--targeting gaming and multimedia uses, for example--also include interfaces mimicking those of Mac OS X, Windows Vista and Windows 2000. 3. The Comfort of GNOME Those of us who have gotten used to Ubuntu have become accustomed to its default GNOME desktop. For those anxious about the distribution's upcoming switch to the touch-enabled Unity interface, Zorin OS offers an option for sticking with what's familiar. Also like Ubuntu, Zorin OS comes pre-installed with OpenOffice, Firefox, the Evolution e-mail client, the Rhythmbox music player, the Totem video player, the GIMP image editor, lots of multimedia codecs, and more. 4. It's Fast When speed is of the essence, Zorin OS really shines. Not only is its latest version faster than Ubuntu, its makers say, but it clocks in at a full four times faster than Windows 7. That's pretty impressive. With the help of Wine and PlayOnLinux, meanwhile, Zorin OS even runs many Windows apps faster than Windows does, the project says. It's also available in more than 55 languages. 5. There's No Commitment As always in the Linux world, you can take the free Zorin OS for a test drive without committing to it until you're ready. The Zorin OS 4 Core release is available for free download from the project's site. Alternatively, Zorin OS 4 Gaming and Multimedia releases each cost 10 euros, while Zorin OS 4 Ultimate is 15 euros from the project's store. So many users come to Linux from the Windows world, it makes a great deal of sense to offer them a little familiarity to help ease the transition. If that sounds like something your business could benefit from, why not give Zorin OS a try? Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk.

Skype could be designated illegal in China (Reuters) Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:16 PM PST By Terril Yue Jones and Jennifer Saba Terril Yue Jones And Jennifer Saba – Fri Dec 31, 5:16 pm ET BEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The popular Internet telephone service Skype could be dealt a major setback in one of the world's largest markets as the Chinese government cracks down on what it called illegal Internet telephone providers. A Chinese government circular from the powerful Ministry of Information and Industry Technology called for a crackdown "on illegal VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) telephone services" and said it was collecting evidence for legal cases against them. It did not name any phone companies. Skype was still available in China on Friday evening through its joint venture partner TOM Online. Skype had not yet been contacted by Chinese government officials, a Skype spokesman said on Friday in the United States. The timing of a ban in one of the world's fastest growing markets could dampen investor enthusiasm for Skype as it prepares a 2011 initial public offering. The Luxembourg-based company, which has about 124 million users worldwide, is expected to be valued at about $1 billion in the IPO. The Chinese move appeared to be aimed at protecting three government-controlled phone carriers -- China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile -- that provide the bulk of China's telephone services. The South China Morning Post quoted an unidentified ministry official on Thursday as saying VoIP services could only be provided by the big three Chinese operators. China has been known to play hardball with foreign businesses. After a months-long stand-off over censorship, China finally gave Google approval in July to keep operating its Chinese search page. Skype has 20 million users in Asia Pacific, or 16 percent of the company's total users as of the end of June, according to a U.S. regulatory filing. The filing did not break out China's user numbers and a Skype spokesman in the United States said he did not know how many Chinese users it had. No single country other than the United States represented more than 7 percent of Skype's average monthly user, according to the filing. The latest news is another setback after Skype's global service outage last week, which cast doubts on the reliability of the service. In 2005, Skype was blocked in parts of China as the government sought to ban phone calls made over the Internet. Skype, partly owned by Web retailer eBay Inc, has been growing in popularity among Chinese users and businesses to make cheap or free international phone calls over the Internet. "Nearly 1 in 6 people in the world live in China, and a great many of them rely on Skype to connect with families and friends, run businesses, and call people around the world," wrote Skype's Josh Silverman in an October blog post about Chinese privacy. The Chinese circular, dated December 10, did not say what amounted to illegal services and did not name any VoIP providers it considered to be breaking the law. Representatives of the ministry and the ministry's office gathering information for the campaign did not answer telephone calls on Friday. Representatives of China Telecom and China Unicom did not answer phone calls on Friday. A spokeswoman for China Mobile, reached in Beijing, referred calls to the firm's Hong Kong office. Attempts to reach the Hong Kong office were not successful. VoIP calls allow users to make international calls for much less than commercial providers, or even for free if both parties are using VoIP. Many businesses that use VoIP services to cut down on their international telephone costs could lose access to the cheaper alternative. (Additional reporting by Sui-lee Wee; Editing by Alex Richardson, Derek Caney, Gary Hill)

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Ford launches Sync Destinations app for iPhone, Android Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:41 AM PST Posted by Chris Smith on Fri 31 Dec 2010 Real time traffic updates keeps drivers abreast of problems. Ford has released a Sync Destinations app for iPhone and Android phones which allows access to live traffic updates and elements of its in-car navigational and entertainment system.   The free-to-download app works alongside Sync-equipped  2010 and 2011 Ford cars. The Sync service features the Travel Destination and Information interface that offers turn-by-turn navigation, live traffic updates, handsfree calling and media control.   More from the T3 App Chart Best iPad apps Navigation apps reviewed Best apps: 50 Mobile apps to change your life Our top rated iPhone apps The app will allow drivers to programme up to 25 destinations into their handsets and access live traffic information. So, for example, if you're on your way back to the car after work, you can check for delays along your route.   Any new routes or changes to your programmed routes will sync back to the car. It'll also offer up estimated travel times based on traffic.   The app will shut itself off when you return to your vehicle you begin travelling at over 5mph, and that's when the in-car system will take over. It's free on Android and iOS devices with a BlackBerry app scheduled for the New Year.   Link: SyncMyRide (via CNET) This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Could Chinese become the main language of the internet? Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:40 PM PST Posted by Devina Divecha on Fri 31 Dec 2010 Is the use of English online under any threat? According to an infographic on TheNextWeb, based on data from The Internet World Stats, Chinese language has gained so many users on the internet that it could be less than five years before it surpasses English as the main language on the internet. Related links Translate for Nokia app review New Chrome version offers auto-translation Talk to Me for Android app review Google Translate for Android app review First non-Latin domains launched Word Lens app translates using augmented reality In the last year, 36 million additional users of the internet were gained in China, and there are now over 440 million internet users in the country. The website predicts that Chinese language could become the dominant language of the internet in the next five years. Over 536 million users use English as their primary language on the internet and Spanish is in third spot with 153 million users. The difference between English and Chinese language users on the internet, according to this data, is 91 million. Will the difference be breached, and within 5 years? Let's just wait and watch. Do you think English will become the secondary language on the internet? Post your thoughts over at T3's Twitter and Facebook pages (currently in English) and follow us to get your tech updates everyday. Via: ITProPortal     This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Satnavs aware of driver's moods in the works Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:20 PM PST Posted by Devina Divecha on Fri 31 Dec 2010 Could the days of emotionless satnavs be numbered? A professor at Cambridge University is developing a range of smart computers capable of knowing the user's mood and one application of this technology could be in satnav systems. Related links Sat Nav disasters Bike Hub sat nav for cyclists pp comes to Android Best iPhone travel apps MioNavman V505 TV: satnav review Group test: Sat Navs Skobbler GPS Navigation app review The futuristic satnav systems could know when the driver is upset and react accordingly. According to Professor Peter Robinson, head of emotional robotics at Cambridge University, "We're building emotionally intelligent computers that can read my mind and know how I feel." He added, "Computers are really good at understanding what someone is typing or saying. But they need to understand not just what I'm saying, but how I'm saying it." The new technology would use a number of sensors to detect facial expression, hand gestures and understand the tone of voices. Judging whether a driver was stressed, an emotionally attuned satnav could even turn the radio off or stop mobile phones from ringing. Initial experiments are underway. Would you exchange your current navigational system for something that can tell when you're stressed out? Share your thoughts on the emotionally aware satnavs over at T3's Twitter and Facebook pages and follow us for regular tech news. Via: The Telegraph     This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Facebook is the most searched term of 2010 Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:11 PM PST Posted by Devina Divecha on Fri 31 Dec 2010 It was all about Facebook in 2010 Facebook has become the most searched item on the internet in 2010, according to research by Experian Hitwise, accounting for 2.11% of all searches. Related links Facebook for Android app review The biggest Facebook winners and losers Facebook v1.1 for Windows Phone 7 app review Facebook reveals how to be more popular Facebook for BlackBerry app review Facebook credits to be offered in-store by UK retailers The top 1000 search items for 2010 were analyzed and Facebook was the top-searched term overall, making it the second time the social networking website snatched the title. Impressively enough, four variations of Facebook were to be found in the top 10 search terms - Facebook, Facebook login, Facebook.com and www.facebook.com - making up 3.48% of overall searches. Analysis of the search terms also revealed that social networking dominated 2010, with 4.18% of the top 50 searches relating to them. Other data showed that in the US, searches for Facebook also accounted for 3.48% of all searches among the top 50 search terms, showing a 207% increase from 2009. Facebook is also the new top-visited website for the first time in the US. If you're one of the reasons Facebook made it to the top, contribute to its steady rise further by heading over to T3's Twitter and Facebook  and telling us what you've been searching for in 2010. Follow us for your daily dosage of tech news.     This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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• New image of Olympus E-PL2 leaks, shows off macro spotlight
• Kodachrome film is seriously at the end of its life -- again
• Android still has horrible text messaging bugs that'll get you fired, busted, or otherwise embarrassed
• Just got a Windows Phone 7 handset? The best apps, accessories, and tips
• The world's first shipped RED EPIC gets stolen in home break-in
• iPhonECG case monitors your heart rate to make sure you're appropriately excited about CES
• Game Boy, HTC Aria and fake iPhone 4 combined for your amusement, is also possibly art
• FastMac U-Socket delayed yet again, now supposedly shipping in January
• Authentic NASA artifacts, Buzz Aldrin's dinner set for auction
• Ask Engadget: best sound system / soundbar for around $100?
• SBN Tech to show off Android-based IP Video Phone at CES
• Archos 7 Home Tablet sees revision 2, with Android 2.1 and faster 800MHz CPU
• 2010: The Year in Alt
• Clear iSpot discontinued already
• The Engadget Podcast, live at 4:45PM EST!
• Engadget's biggest stories of 2010
• How to connect and set up your new HDTV: all the cables, content, and calibration you need
• HTC HD2 gets a stable stock Android build for internal storage

New image of Olympus E-PL2 leaks, shows off macro spotlight Posted: 31 Dec 2010 10:14 AM PST We've already seen leaked images of the Olympus E-PL2, the much talked about follow up to the E-PL1. The Micro Four Thirds is expected to boast a new 14-42mm f/3.5 - 5.6 kit lens, a 'direct movie' button, a high-resolution 3-inch display, and an optional Bluetooth model. From the new image above, however, we can see that there will also be an optional 'Medusa' version of the cam with a closeup spotlight for all those insane macro shots you'll undoubtedly be taking. The adjustable LED will also not require an extra battery, so this is one add-on we'll definitely be seriously considering.

Kodachrome film is seriously at the end of its life -- again Posted: 31 Dec 2010 09:45 AM PST Kodachrome film is iconic enough that there have now been several 'goodbye, Kodachrome' news stories, and we just couldn't resist one more. This time, our tale is of Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas (which we've had occasion to reference once before), a film processing store which has the distinction of being the final place to accept Kodachrome for development. The problem? The store has been flooded with packages of undeveloped film from all over the world as the window for its processing comes to an end. It turns out that having that distinction will get you hundreds of rolls of film a day, and Dwayne's Photo said that it would not process any films that arrived after Thursday. Yes, that was yesterday, though the mail is undoubtedly still arriving.

Android still has horrible text messaging bugs that'll get you fired, busted, or otherwise embarrassed Posted: 31 Dec 2010 09:12 AM PST Pardon us if the headline is a little sensational, but this is one that we've personally experienced -- and it's not pretty. For at least the last couple versions, Android has been plagued with a couple extremely serious bugs in its text messaging subsystem that can ultimately end up causing you to text the wrong contact -- even contacts that you've never texted before. There appear to be a few failure modes; the one we definitely experience on the Gingerbread-powered Nexus S involves being routed to the wrong thread when you tap it either in the Notifications list or the master thread list in the Messaging application, so if you don't notice, you'll end up firing a message to the wrong person. More seriously, though, there's also an open issue in Android's bug tracking system -- inexplicably marked "medium" priority -- where sent text messages can appear to be in the correct thread and still end up being sent to another contact altogether. In other words, unless you pull up the Message Details screen after the fact, you might not even know the grievous act you've committed until your boss, significant other, or best friend -- make that former best friend -- texts you back. There seem to have been some attempts on Google's part over the year to fix it; we can't confirm that it still happens in 2.3, but for what it's worth, the issue hasn't been marked resolved in Google Code... and it was opened some six months ago. This is akin to an alarm clock that occasionally won't go off (we've been there) or a car that randomly won't let you turn the steering wheel -- you simply cannot have a phone that you can't trust to communicate with the right people. It's a deal-breaker. We're pretty shocked that these issues weren't tied up and blasted to all affected phones as an over-the-air patch months ago, but whatever the reason, we'd like to see Google, manufacturers, and carriers drop every other Android update they're working on and make sure this is completely resolved immediately. Want to see this fixed as much as we do? Scroll to the bottom of the Google Code page and hit "Vote for this issue and get email change notifications."

Just got a Windows Phone 7 handset? The best apps, accessories, and tips Posted: 31 Dec 2010 07:56 AM PST Ah, so you've just been given a Windows Phone 7 handset. If that's what you'd been begging for all this time, then many congratulations; but if not, don't hit eBay just yet -- sure, WP7's range of apps is comparatively limited with its recent 5,000 milestone, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? Even at its infancy, WP7 has proven to be a nice alternative choice if you want to stand out from the rest of the smartphone crowd, and don't forget its two powerful weapons: Zune and Xbox Live integration. Until WP7 gets its major upgrade early next year, our holiday guide should keep you and your new phone going for a little longer. Go ahead and read on. Essential apps Twitter (free) and Seesmic (free). You won't find many Twitter apps on the WP7 marketplace, but fortunately, Twitter's own app isn't bad at all, and Seesmic stands out too (as usual). The usual geotagging and picture uploading are included in both apps, but there's no classic "comment" retweeting in Twitter's official client. Seesmic has a bit of a leg up since you can add multiple accounts (including Facebook -- nice if you want to avoid jumping into and out of a lot of apps). Unfortunately for both, you'll need to manually check in every now and then for new mentions and DMs, as there's no background notification -- here's looking at you, Microsoft. If you're looking for a better solution right now... Beezz (free). Try Beezz! It's a really classy looking Twitter app that does proper notifications on your WP7 device. Like Twitter and Seesmic, it still feels slow on updating when you're in the app, but it's a slickly designed piece of software that works as advertised... and it's free! Highly recommended. Facebook (free). WP7 may have a pretty good Facebook integration, but that only covers the very basic features, so hardcore Facebookers will be needing this official app to get the most of out of Zuckerberg's beast of a social platform. The latest version also comes with Places and photo tagging, if you dig those things. Flixster (free). If you're residing in supported cities, this handy app can help you decide which film to watch in nearby cinemas. In fact, out of all the Flixster mobile apps, this is probably our favorite flavor here in terms of style and intuitiveness. The Weather Channel (free). We've been through a handful of weather apps for Windows Phone 7, but the Weather Channel provides the best and most consistent experience for getting basic weather info quickly. We're big, big fans of the live tile, which seems to update with a decent amount of frequency. If we had one complaint, it's that the app is a little on the... er, ugly side, but we can live with it. GoVoice ($2.99). If you're a Google Voice user, you need to get this app. Not only does it give you a clean, clear interface for checking and managing your Voice account, but if you buy the full version and go through a slightly complicated setup process, you can get push notifications to your device when new voicemail or messages arrive. Well worth the money. Pictures Lab ($1.99). We had some trouble with this during our review period with Windows Phone 7 at launch, but the app seems to be working fine, and has become a must-have for WP7 devices. Basically, the program provides a set of amazing effects and tweaks for your photos, but the nicest thing about Pictures Lab is the way it integrates with the native photo browser, allowing you to quickly jump into a photo and start messing around. Netflix (free). If you're a Netflix account holder, you'll want this app. We've actually found that videos tend to start playback quicker than on other mobile devices we've tested, which may be a testament to the company's heavy use of Silverlight. Regardless, getting all of your Instant Queue goodness on the go with your new phone is really, really amazing. WPTumblr ($1.29). There's no official Tumblr app for WP7 just yet, so here's a third party release that we recommend. It's not perfect, though -- there's no way to browse through each person's own posts within the app; but other than that, all the essential features are there to keep you Tumblring. Kickbox ($3.99). In case you're not already familiar with Dropbox, it's a popular file hosting service offering 2GB of storage space for free, and then 50GB or 100GB for $9.99 per month or $19.99 per month, respectively. As a third party Dropbox app, Kickbox is surprisingly well made -- you can view many files (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, text, and audio files; unsupported formats can still be opened as text files), although uploading is limited to pictures only due to WP7 restriction. Morfo ($1.99). This app is simply hilarious -- get a close-up shot of someone's face, then map the various facial features and you get a 3D avatar that blinks and nods. You can even watch it headbanging to your music collection as well. Fruit Ninja ($2.99). Until Angry Birds lands on WP7, this is probably the next best thing to fuel your game addiction for the time being. Strike as many fruit combos as possible without triggering the bombs to score. Bejeweled ($4.99). Classic addictive puzzle game from the PDA era, never gets old. Simply line up three or more gems of the same color to eliminate them before time runs out, or switch to classic mode to work on your score until there are no more moves. Monopoly ($4.99). This needs no introduction. Perfect time killer despite the price. Trine's Hangman ($2.99). Hangman! We didn't expect much from this game, but surprisingly, it didn't take long before the built-in leaderboard sucked us in as we progressed up the ladder. The background music (although repetitive) and Wikipedia look-up feature are also nice additions. Daisy Mae's Alien Buffet ($3.99). Girl, guns, and aliens. Yep, sounds like a fun recipe for an action game. The objective is simple: just run and shoot, so your two thumbs will be hard at work throughout this game. Too bad this isn't an Xbox Live game, but on the bright side, there's no better way to ease your stress than shooting aliens while listening to some funky electronic soundtrack. Twin Blades: The Reaping ($2.99). We love a good zombie slasher, and Twin Blades doesn't disappoint. There aren't many traditional platformers for Windows Phone 7 just yet, but even if this was a crowded category, we're pretty sure this title would stand head and shoulders above others. A really solid Arcade entry. Accessories External battery. You won't find many dedicated internal high capacity batteries and cases for the few WP7 devices right now, but we do recommend getting a USB external battery like the PhoneSuit Primo Battery Cube or a small HyperMac that'll also play nice with your other gadgets. Seriously, you'll never regret having a little backup power source in your bag -- there's no telling how much juice those Justin Bieber OTA downloads might suck up. Cleaning. There's nothing wrong with giving your phone some extra TLC, so it's totally acceptable for you to buy dedicated gadget cleaning kits. We've already shamelessly confessed our love for the Brasso Gadget Care polish, but even a handy lint-free cloth will do for some post-meal buffing. Tips and tricks In case you haven't already noticed, WP7's camera app captures VGA video by default, so always remember to switch to 720p before you film your precious moments. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next OS update. Some people don't realise this, but the back button can take you from the home screen back to the previous running app or settings page or web page. Pretty handy, eh? Most of the games on the marketplace let you try before you buy, which is very useful considering not many publishers offer limited-time refunds like Android does. You WP7 handset's camera roll is automatically backed up to your Windows Live SkyDrive, which gives you 25GB of storage space for free. You can jump right into the camera on a locked device by holding down the camera button Like iOS and Android, you won't be charged again for apps that you've already paid for previously. Syncing media files with the Zune desktop client can be tedious sometimes, but a simple Windows registry hack can allow you grab or drop media files as if your WP7 device is a mass storage device. Sorry, no hack for Macs yet. The above selection of apps, accessories, and tips are just a smattering of what's out there. If you've got some picks or tweaks you'd like to share, sound off in comments!

The world's first shipped RED EPIC gets stolen in home break-in Posted: 31 Dec 2010 06:42 AM PST Remember just earlier this month when OffHollywood studio head Mark Pederson became the first man to own a RED EPIC? Well, now his $58,000 über camera is gone. According to REDUSER forums, the EPIC was heisted last night along with some cash from Pederson's chalet in France while he and his family were sleeping. Pederson shares on the forum that "there was a forced entry through the front door. The thieves actually entered the master bedroom while my in-laws were sleeping, and standing a foot from their bed - emptied wallet and purse. There were 6 children and 8 adults sleeping in the house." That's a scary caper worthy of a Hollywood script for sure, but thankfully no one was hurt. Here's hoping the movie-like storyline continues now with law enforcement gumshoes actually cracking the case. In the meantime, maybe Peter Jackson can lend Pederson one of his 30 RED EPICs until his own baby returns. [Thanks, Derek]

iPhonECG case monitors your heart rate to make sure you're appropriately excited about CES Posted: 31 Dec 2010 04:19 AM PST CES isn't just about incrementally thinner or faster hardware, you know. Some people like to bring legitimately innovative ideas to the show, such as this iPhonECG case, which does what its name suggests: it takes an ECG (electrocardiogram) reading of your heart's activity through a pair of electrodes and then communicates its findings to an iPhone 4 it can be attached to. We say it can be attached to an iPhone as communication is done wirelessly, so you'll probably be able to monitor your ticker's rhythm without the Applephone pressed against your bosom. Then again, maybe you like that. It's a free world, we don't judge. We'll be sending out our most hairy-chested editor to give this thing a proper test at the Las Vegas convention next week. Until then, scope out the video after the break.

Game Boy, HTC Aria and fake iPhone 4 combined for your amusement, is also possibly art Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:31 AM PST We're not sure what happened to Japanese tech mashup artist Goteking that inspired him to stuff an Android phone and a KIRF iPhone 4 into the back of a Game Boy Pocket, but stuff them he did, along with a bank of battery-powered LEDs that -- if we're not mistaken -- spell out a Tokyo train schedule. Perhaps it's designed to be a mind trip through and through, or perhaps it's a homage to the joint forces of nostalgia and geekdom that spark daily flame wars all around the world.

FastMac U-Socket delayed yet again, now supposedly shipping in January Posted: 31 Dec 2010 12:18 AM PST Remember the $10 FastMac U-Socket that first turned up way back in December of 2009 and was then beset by a number of delays that most recently led to a promised October ship date and inflated $20 price tag? Well, it didn't ship then either, but the company is now apparently telling customers that it's really, finally getting ready to ship the USB-equipped power socket sometime next month (despite a note on the company's website that still says it's shipping "mid-December"). Anyone ordering one now will apparently still have to wait a bit longer, though -- the company apparently only expects things to return to "normal" by February. [Thanks, Greg]

Authentic NASA artifacts, Buzz Aldrin's dinner set for auction Posted: 30 Dec 2010 10:08 PM PST Your long-held desire to own some authentic, Apollo-era vacuum-sealed, freeze-dried pot roast is about to be fulfilled. That's right: RR Auction is, well, auctioning artifacts from the Golden Age of the space program this upcoming January, including Gordon Cooper's father's gold and diamond 32nd degree Masonic ring and some random part of a Mercury capsule that's been mounted on a commemorative plaque. But that ain't all! To see a complete list of all five hundred items, or to get in on the action yourself, hit the source link.

Ask Engadget: best sound system / soundbar for around $100? Posted: 30 Dec 2010 06:33 PM PST We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Colin, who needs his jams on the cheap. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I have been looking for a decent set of speakers that can kick out fairly good sound. Ideally, I'd use these in a bedroom, mostly for television viewing and Xbox gaming. I don't need anything too powerful as I'm not filling a gigantic room with sound. I've heard good things about Logitech boxed kits, but have also heard that soundbars are great space-saving alternatives. I'm open to pretty much anything: HTIB, soundbars, etc, but am hoping to spend around $100 or less. Thank you!" We know, you're looking to pinch pennies in order to take that special someone out on a fantastically fine date tomorrow. We get it. But these days, $100 can actually buy you quite a bit of sound. We'd echo those positive sentiments on Logitech's boxed kits, but if anyone has any other input, comments are open down below.

SBN Tech to show off Android-based IP Video Phone at CES Posted: 30 Dec 2010 05:01 PM PST Haven't heard of SBN Tech? You're not alone, but it looks like the company is now set to make the rather valiant attempt of trying to stand out from the pack of Android tablets at CES next week. Its hook, however, is that its tablet isn't actually a tablet, but an "IP Video Phone," which may or may not be similar to the device pictured above that the company's been showing off recently. Of course, while the company may be touting it as a "video phone" first and foremost, the device appears to be a fairly standard Android tablet underneath that guise -- it packs a 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 screen, an SD card slot for expansion, and the company notes that you'll also be able to use it for email, Twitter, Facebook and all your usual Android apps. Still no word on pricing or availability, but those details should be making themselves known soon enough.

Archos 7 Home Tablet sees revision 2, with Android 2.1 and faster 800MHz CPU Posted: 30 Dec 2010 03:13 PM PST The Archos 7 Home Tablet was something of a disappointment, and Archos has shipped bigger and better things since, but the firm isn't done with the original affordable Android slate quite yet. We've confirmed with Archos that a "v2" revision is now shipping in Europe with three things the original lacked -- an accelerometer, a relatively recent version of Android (2.1) and an 800MHz Rockchip CPU. Make no mistake, those are still budget specs, and you'll almost certainly still have to hack your own Android Market on to get a full quota of apps, but it's not like you're paying any more for the extra oomph. The updated version has been spotted at Expansys for the same $200, which might actually might make it one of the best bang-for-the-buck tablets out there. Look how far we've come. [Thanks, Marien]

2010: The Year in Alt Posted: 30 Dec 2010 02:16 PM PST Engadget Alt, the most recent addition to the site, is something near and dear to our hearts. This a place where we can comment on (and draw attention to) things that don't exactly fit into the main stream of our coverage, yet resonate with us as writers -- and with you as readers. So, what did we learn this year? Spacecraft are prone to hardware failure, it seems, and Ozzy Osbourne's genome is a wonderful resource for scientists. And one editor-in-chief really, really digs eBoy. Aside from all that, this space has seen a number of feature articles and columns that we're especially proud of. Cruise on past the break for some of our favorites. Growing Up Geek A consistent fan favorite, Growing up Geek is where Engadget editors and friends of the site reflect on their youth, and help answer the one question we get asked almost every day: "how did y'all end up like this?" Veronica Belmont Paul Miller Clayton Morris Thomas Ricker Darren Murph Ross Rubin Chris Ziegler Vlad Savov Who Should I Follow on Twitter? Beautifully crafted, well thought out, themed Twitter lists with resources for Microsoft fanboys, gaming aficianados, and more. Engadget editors on Twitter Cellphone edition Laptops / mobile computing Gaming edition: part one All about Microsoft Apple fans Women in tech Seriously into HD edition Android edition Travels and (mis)adventures Our editors have chatted it up with Google's Amit Singhal, traveled to San Jose to ferret out the state of the electric auto at Plug-In 2010, and finally learned the correct pronunciation of ASUS. Maker Faire 2010, in pictures Google's Amit Singhal tells us about the dreams search engines are made of The state of the electric automobile, in pictures How to pronounce ASUS Rants and raves Man, do we have opinions! On everything from Android fragmentation to rabid fanboyism to the mental health dangers inherent in Solipskier. A modest proposal: the Continuous Client Solipskier is ruining my life It's not my fault your favorite brand sucks Fragmentation won't destroy Android after all Rechargeable batteries are a vintage gadget's Achilles' heel And finally, geek downtime... Even confirmed workaholics like ourselves have to put down the breaking news and gadget reviews once in a while and just... you know, chill out for a while. Sometimes that might mean that it's time to switch gears and indulge our fancies for Photoshop trickery, literature, or just kickin' back and playing some tunes. Engadget's Photoshops: a retrospective Fear Of A Nerd Planet: A Hip Hop Retrospective Engadget's celebrity iPhone app showdown Book Review: You Are Not a Gadget Book Review: How To Wreck A Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop App Review: Djay for iPad Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S4 review

Clear iSpot discontinued already Posted: 30 Dec 2010 01:13 PM PST Well, that certainly didn't last very long, did it? Looks like Clear is already sending its unusual iSpot product to the great WiMAX network in the sky less than five months after its introduction. As a refresher, the iSpot's claim to fame is that it was designed to work only with iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads -- and in exchange for the crazy restriction, Clear would charge you less than $100 for the hotspot itself and just $25 a month for unlimited 4G access capped at 6Mbps down. Of course, it's easy to understand why Clear would want to forget the iSpot ever existed: its MAC address filtering was easily defeated and plagued with reports that even approved devices were being denied access, suggesting that the concept probably wasn't a solid one in the first place. For what it's worth, Clear retail stores are still selling through remaining stock if you're interested -- and the company will maintain a supply of units for warranty replacements -- but otherwise, you're out of luck. [Thanks, rand]

The Engadget Podcast, live at 4:45PM EST! Posted: 30 Dec 2010 12:15 PM PST It's the end of the year, so it's time for the boys to look back and reflect on the... oh, who are we kidding, we'll probably just do more skits. Join us below! P.S. And don't forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone clients as well, if you're out and about and you can't join in on the Flash-based fun below.

Engadget's biggest stories of 2010 Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:45 AM PST What a year it's been! It makes us dizzy just thinking about it, so we did what we do best: we made a list. It was a year of significant upheaval for the industry, with new categories blossoming and rampant obsolescence looming for everything else. Still, the usual suspects seemed to be to blame for most of the hubbub, with Apple, Google, and Microsoft dominating the headlines. Follow along after the break as we run you through what happened, just in case, you know, you just woke up from a 365 day coma. Or maybe you like lists. Or touching retrospectives. We don't care, just click. The iPad arrives. The iPad would've been the biggest tech story this year even if it hadn't been a runaway success. No product has been more heavily rumored in the short history of gadget blogging, or in the slightly longer history of gadget punditry. Look, we even made a chart. What was perhaps more interesting than the fact that it actually launched, however, was the fact that consumers actually wanted to buy it. The iPad has been a major success, and has proved surprisingly difficult to replicate. Big challengers are on the horizon, however, so we'll see how long Apple can reign alone. Engadget's iPad review The PlayStation Phone leaks out. We've been waiting on a PSP 2 for a long while, but our first glimpse at a true PSP sequel (no, the PSP Go doesn't count), turned out to be an Android phone. We started out with a description and mockup of the slider handset, but before the year was out we had photos and video. The device has been all but confirmed by Sony at this point, and now all we have to do is wait. The PlayStation Phone The iPhone 4's rollercoaster of journalistic emotions. What might've been a "routine" iPhone refresh has been anything but. First we got pre-release photos of the phone, then Gizmodo got its hands on an actual device left in a bar, kicking off a volley of legal drama and espionage intrigue. Almost lost in the kerfuffle was the iPhone 4 itself, which turned out to be a pretty great phone. Then people started noticing antenna problems, which threw the tech world into another tizzy, and required another Apple press conference to calm everyone down. Both episodes of drama are hardly remembered by most iPhone users these days, but let the gadget world's penchant for hysterics never be forgotten. Also, we still don't have a white iPhone, and we're totally bitter. Engadget's iPhone 4 review Windows Phone 7: the comeback kid. Microsoft did it. After taking a long, serious look at itself in a cracked Windows Mobile 6.5 mirror, Microsoft threw everything out and started fresh. Its brand new phone operating system, Windows Phone 7, has received strong reviews and moderate early commercial success -- now we'll see if Microsoft can keep the momentum going and truly compete with the titans of Android and iOS. Engadget's Windows Phone 7 review The life and death of the Courier. Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away. After months of leaks and premature anticipation, Microsoft confirmed this year that it had been working on a dual-screen tablet project dubbed Courier, but that it wasn't going anywhere. And there was much weeping. Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details Microsoft confirms and kills the Courier in one fell swoop Android takes off, the superphone cometh. Last year's Droid might've been the platform's first runaway success, but this year it seemed like every Android phone was a runaway success. "Superphones" like the EVO 4G showed the lust of the Android base for specs, and delivered a multitude of exclusive features (front-facing camera, 4G data, screen as large as a football field). Google also launched "Froyo," a significant update to the OS that really set Android apart. Sales followed, and Android's market share has ballooned to rival just about everybody. Everything you wanted to know about Froyo Engadget's EVO 4G review Engadget's Droid X review Engadget's Droid 2 review Engadget's T-Mobile G2 review Motion gaming goes next-gen. If you ask Nintendo, motion gaming is so 2006, but Microsoft and Sony finally got on board with their own competing products: Kinect and PlayStation Move. Both are system add-ons, and both have been selling great, though truly great games have still yet to arrive. Engadget's PlayStation Move review Engadget's Kinect review The internet TV box breaks through. The internet has been threatening to take over our TV viewing experience for decades, but this year it finally got a taste of victory. Thanks primarily to the ubiquity of Netflix, we've been watching a lot less cable this year. Of course, hardware helped as well, with Google TV, Apple TV, Boxee Box, and Roku products all making a bid for living room primacy. No one has the perfect box just yet, but it feels so close we can taste it. Engadget's Roku review Engadget's Apple TV review Engadget's Google TV review Engadget's Boxee Box review The infamous rise and fall of the Kin. While Microsoft's cancellation of the Courier was a disappointment, the entire Kin saga is just plain embarrassing. Microsoft's splintered, competitive corporate culture pushed a sub-par product to market, and nobody but Microsoft's top brass seemed surprised that it was an utter failure at retail and as a product. Engadget's Kin review Microsoft Kin is dead The Life and Death of the Kin: the inside story Foxconn and a little bit of perspective. While we got plenty of goodies this year, we also saw a bit of the "seedy underbelly" of how our $200 supercomputers get made. Reports of suicides at Foxconn (who produces most Apple products, among many other things) raised the issue of low wages, long hours, and difficult working conditions. After months of bad press (and innumerable "exposes"), Foxconn raised wages and improved conditions somewhat. It's still hard to feel fully satisfied with the results, but our prickly collective conscience seems somewhat sated for now. The fate of a generation of workers: Foxconn undercover Google's little Nexus experiment. When we scored the very first Nexus One review it was hard to tell where we were going with this phone: was Google really going to reinvent the phone distribution model and circumvent the carriers at last? Turns out, not so much. Google backed off its "experiment," and has been playing super nice with carriers ever since. Now the Nexus S is here, a T-Mobile and Best Buy exclusive, to show that Google isn't out of the self-branded phone game, it's just not planning on winning. Engadget's Nexus One review Engadget's Nexus S review HP buys Palm, disinherits the Slate. HP has been chafing at its Windows bonds for a while now, and 2010 made the tension clear. After letting Steve Ballmer show off the Slate tablet at CES, in a weak sort of "we have a tablet, too" before the iPad arrived, HP ended up buying a struggling Palm and changing its tune entirely. The Slate turned into an enterprise-oriented device (after being shown displaying a copy of Twilight at CES, as pictured above), and HP started gearing up for webOS-based tablets. We're still waiting for Palm to build a phone that can fulfill the promise of webOS, and the jury's still out as to whether HP is a knight in shining armor, or a too-large, printers-obsessed millstone for this once darling of the industry. Android tablets crowd at the gates. Apple re-purposed its touchscreen operating system for use on the iPad, so it made sense that Android tablets would rise as a natural competitor. The story has been much more complicated than that, however, with a tension between manufacturers who are perfectly capable of building tablet hardware (and boy are they trying), and Google, who has yet to realize a tablet-specific version of Android. Caught in the crossfire was the Galaxy Tab, a good tablet that wasn't quite a great tablet. Next year will bring Motorola's first tablet and the major Android overhaul dubbed "Honeycomb," but for now the time of the Android tablet is not at hand. Engadget's Archos 7 Home Tablet review Engadget's Galaxy Tab review The e-reader price war. While innovations like the Nook Color and the ever-improving Kindle did much to bolster e-reader sales, the biggest innovation was much more simple: price. Amazon and Barnes & Noble engaged in a bloody price war, and the consumers won. Amazon just announced that its latest Kindle (now as cheap as $139) has vaulted past the seventh Harry Potter book as Amazon's best selling product ever, a mark well into the tens of millions. Engadget's Kindle (2010) review Engadget's Nook Color review 3D tries for the living room. This was the year that you thought about buying a 3D TV but didn't. Or, this is the year where you bought a nice TV and later found out it was 3D-capable. For the most part, none of us could afford the premium 3D models, or the 3D glasses necessary to enjoy them, but we all could've bought a 3D TV set, 3D Blu-ray player (like a PS3), and a set of glasses and gone to town if we'd wanted to. And that's gotta count for something, right? Engadget's 3DTV faceoff Nintendo's 3DS takes off the glasses. We might look back on 2010 and 2009 as the years that Sony and Nintendo lost their duopoly on the handheld gaming market, as iOS and Android entered scene, but Nintendo is hardly out yet. It unveiled the 3DS this year, a handheld gaming device with a glasses-free 3D screen. It was a sign of significant innovation and risk taking from a company that seems to do those things only a few times a decade. Engadget's 3DS preview 4G and "4G." So 3D is a tough sell -- we have to pay for it outright -- but we've been paying carriers for years (in the form of big, hefty margins) to build out next-generation networks, and it really started to happen this year. Sprint launched its WiMAX network in a big way (including phones like the EVO and Epic), T-Mobile redubbed its HSPA+ efforts "4G," and Verizon just turned on some LTE. It's a whole lot of bandwidth, and we're finding plenty of use for it, trust us. Nokia stumbles and bumbles. If you took a cursory glance at our year in coverage of Nokia, you might think we have it in for the company. Unfortunately, it's really been that bad of a year for the Finnish giant, struggling to maintain mindshare in the smartphone market, even as it dominates the low-end. CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was pushed out, The Symbian Foundation failed in its shepherding of the OS, and Nokia's flagship N8 handset was received poorly by reviewers and consumers who wanted something a bit more modern. The great hope for next year is MeeGo, but Nokia has a lot of ground to cover in a smartphone market that already feels overcrowded. Engadget's N900 review Engadget's N8 review Video calling is cool again. Just when we thought we were bored with video calls and the awkward faux-eyecontact they entail, phones started getting front-facing cameras and putting us back in the video call saddle. Sprint was at the forefront, with its EVO 4G and Epic 4G, while T-Mobile's MyTouch 4G joined in later on (all relying on Qik for service). Apple's lack of 4G kept the iPhone 4 to WiFi calls only (at least, unless you hack it), but Apple easily won the award for "most adorable video calling ad." And that's it from us, but we're sure there's something you'd like to add. That's what comments are for! Let us know what stories made 2010 for you.

How to connect and set up your new HDTV: all the cables, content, and calibration you need Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:18 AM PST Whether you're taking the wraps off of your first HDTV or your fifth there's a few easily avoidable hurdles that can prevent you from enjoying that brand new display at its best. Now, with new internet connected TVs and 3DTVs in the mix, there's even more to consider, but we'll walk you through the minefield of figuring out how to hook that new TV up, what to connect it to and even throw in a few suggestions on where to find the stuff you like to watch most. Cables First on your list? Making sure everything is hooked up correctly. Surveys show an appalling number of HDTV owners have the right TV and the right services, but despite thinking they're watching high definition television, they actually aren't. When it comes to HD video cabling, these days you have two options, HDMI or component (red/green/blue) and in most cases, HDMI is going to be the only one you need/can use. If you haven't purchased a new display or receiver yet, figuring out how many HDMI inputs you'll need going in is one of the most important questions to get answered. HDMI carries audio and video on the same cable, so if you go that route, you'll just need one cable per device. Make sure they're long enough and able to fit your setup -- specialty connectors like ones with 90-degree L shaped heads designed for wall mounted displays are easy to find as long as you check before you order. Once you're committed to procuring the proper connectors, the biggest danger is being ripped off on the pricing. While any experienced buyer will tell you to stick to online sources (Monoprice, Amazon) for cheap wiring, if you're pressed for time you can look locally but beware -- for HDMI, if you're paying more than $10 for a typical 2-3m cable you've overpaid, if the pricetag is over $20 you're being robbed and the same scale applies for most analog component wires. In the case of HDMI, its digital signal will either work or not work, it doesn't get "better" because of what the cable is made from, and unless your wiring is stretched an incredible distance the only one who sees a benefit from premium wires is the person selling them. Feel free to go back and review our mentions of various forms of cable scams but just remember -- friends don't let friends buy Monster. Wondering about plugging in one of the new 3D capable TVs? Don't worry, your old HDMI cables will likely still work just fine (component works for older devices, but for any sources of 3D, you'll want to go digital.) During our roundup we threw more than one set of the cheapest, specless wires we could find at 3DTVs and none of them broke a sweat. Your main consideration could be elsewhere in your home theater, if you have a receiver that's not HDMI 1.4a compatible, it won't be able to pass through the 3D video properly and you'll need to replace or work around it. Source Just as important as how you plug in your new HDTV is what you're connecting to it -- more than a decade after high definition first came on the scene there's more ways than ever to watch. If all you want to do is watch broadcast TV, there's antenna (try AntennaWeb to see what your options for reception are like), or cable (don't assume you need a set-top box everywhere, most HDTVs have integrated tuners that can pull a few stations directly from the coax, though which ones you get will vary by area and service provider check out our explanation of what QAM means for more details) and of course satellite. Even if you have it set up by your service provider or another professional, you'll need to make sure it's been done right. Did they use the right cables? (See section above) Yellow composite video or S-video won't get the job done. Are you tuned to HD channels? They should be marked in the channel guide, and HD programming will usually say so as well Make sure they're truly widescreen, and not just the standard definition channels stretched to fit -- faces and logos are the easiest indicators. (note - channels like TBS, TNT, FUSE, HGTV and far too many others frequently stretch video by themselves, so pick one of the major network, movie or sports channels to check.) Check if you're seeing the whole picture and that it's not cropped, station IDs and tickers should be all the way within the viewable area If you have surround sound, is it activated, is there any sound coming from the rear channels? Blu-ray players are actually easier in their basic setup since they're designed specifically to work with HDTVs. There's remarkably little chance of messing things up and in almost all situations they'll automatically detect the capabilities of whatever you plug them into and deliver the appropriate content. If you're ready for the best in audio quality, make sure you've selected the lossless audio tracks on Blu-ray discs that include them. For the most part this applies for videogame consoles as well -- with one centralized setting for HD, every game you play afterwards will follow it on Xbox and PS3 without having to check the configuration each time. The only thing to be wary of is that neither console ships with HD cables in the box, so if you didn't grab some already then guess what, you're not playing in high definition. If you're making the jump to 3D, things get a little more complicated. As mentioned above, cable requirements won't be any different but each device in the chain (source, receiver, display) will need to support 3D for it to work. Many of the new Blu-ray players released this year support 3D out of the box or after an upgrade, all PS3s do 3D gaming and Blu-ray 3D (with a few restrictions) and HDMI-equipped Xbox 360s will play 3D games. Getting 3D via satellite or cable can require a new box, but it doesn't always so check with your provider first. Newer hardware like the PS3, DirecTV's satellite receivers and most Blu-ray players will automatically detect and configure your display to play whatever form of 3D content you're watching so all you have to do is put on the glasses and lean back, but some older cable boxes and the Xbox 360 won't. This means manually selecting the right format each time, which can vary from one channel or game to another. The most common and yet avoidable 3D mistake we've seen novices make? Switching on 2D-to-3D conversion on your display and thinking that's real 3D. While many TVs -- most notably those from Samsung but also newer ones from other manufacturers support the feature -- it just won't compare to anything that was originally made in 3D. Double check your settings to make sure you're getting the real thing -- The Daily Show isn't in 3D...yet. Calibration Once you've got the right hardware and it's all connected correctly, the next big step to make sure you're getting the most out of your TV is to calibrate it all properly. The easiest choice you can make is to be sure your TV isn't set to the wrong display mode. While some displays have decent settings out of the box, it's possible yours arrived in a mode probably marked "vivid" or "bright." While cranking up the brightness might help it stick out on store shelves under huge halogen lights, it's just blowing out the picture and wasting electricity in your more reasonably lit living room. Switching to "natural" or "movie" mode when applicable is the absolute least you can do, although you probably already have the tools to go a step or two further. THX certified DVDs and Blu-ray like the ones from Pixar come with calibration software built in that can help get all the settings at their best levels, while gamers can look for calibration help in the menus of many games they play (preferred settings often vary widely from one title to another) and Xbox 360 owners can find a calibration app in the indie game marketplace. One other wrinkle for gamers is processing lag, while some screens are faster than others, check to see if your has a game mode that should minimize the time between when the video signal arrives and it appears on screen as it could add a kill or two to your score and definitely make a difference in games like Super Street Fighter IV. If you're not sure whether or not lag is affecting your setup, music games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Def Jam Rapstar all have built in tools to measure the difference that can come in handy. If you have one of the new connected TVs with widgets or other internet features built in, it's probably best to check for the latest firmware updates before doing anything else. Not only can it potentially affect the results or options available to you, but with some manufacturers updates can wipe out your customized settings (Samsung we're looking at you here.) Another function to look out for is motion processing, while 120Hz and 240Hz TVs often have technology that can blend one frame into another, over 50% of our readers say they prefer life without it, so unless you like "soap opera effect" -- turn it off. The next step beyond that is to use a special purpose calibration disc to configure all aspects of your home theater and there's more than few options to choose from. The Spears & Munsil, Digital Video Essentials and Disney: World of Wonder discs come to mind as effective options usable even by relative novices. If seeing helps you get an idea of the benefits of calibration better than just us telling you about it, in the following video, our friend Robert Heron from HDNation goes over some of the options available, using the free AVS HD 709 test disc to check for 1:1 pixel mapping and measuring colors.