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Christmas eve bus carnage in Ecuador, 41 dead (AFP) : Technet |
- Christmas eve bus carnage in Ecuador, 41 dead (AFP)
- Quadrotor Plays Christmas Carols on a Piano (PC World)
- CES 2011: Smartphone Trends to Watch (PC World)
- Facebook Offers Tips On Being Popular (PC World)
- Santa Trackers at NORAD Keep an Eye on the Big Guy (NewsFactor)
- Geolocation App Lets Fans Keep Up With Their Favorite Bands (Mashable)
- IBM Unveils Memory Technology Breakthough (NewsFactor)
- Simon LeBon says Duran Duran was part of industry demise (Reuters)
| Christmas eve bus carnage in Ecuador, 41 dead (AFP) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 06:38 PM PST QUITO (AFP) – A coach journey by passengers heading home for family Christmas celebrations in Ecuador turned tragic when the overcrowded vehicle plunged off the road, killing at least 41, officials said. Seven children were among the dead, a spokesman for the Ecuadoran Red Cross, Fernando Gandarillas, told AFP. Rescue officials said around 30 passengers survived, but were injured, some of them badly. "There's been a very serious accident with approximately 41 people killed," National Transport Council (CNT) director Ricardo Anton told reporters. Earlier reports put the death toll at 35. Gandarillas said the bus had been traveling from the capital Quito to the eastern towns of Chone and San Isidro, a trip of more than 250 kilometers (180 miles), when it fell into a ravine as it negotiated a descent. A police chief from a nearby town of El Carmen, Diego Iniguez, told media the bus had been filled over capacity and appeared to have experienced a gearbox problem before the driver lost control. The national emergency service said the dead included seven children and 13 women. At least 31 other passengers were hurt. President Rafael Correa regretted the loss of life. "It's a well-designed highway," he told a Christmas meeting with his staff, adding that the accident was due to "the irresponsibility of the driver who crashed with more than 70 passengers" on board. "He picked up passengers along the road, which is prohibited," Correa added. One survivor told television station Ecuavisa that, just before the accident, a woman at the front of the bus started screaming that the driver "can't shift gears." He said the driver appeared to attempt to keep control of the vehicle, but failed and the bus rolled over for some 200 meters (yards) before hitting a tree then dropping into the ravine. Another survivor, Juan Pablo Alcivar, told Radio Quito how the bus's gears were heard grinding as the driver tried to downshift. The police traffic accident service said it was at the scene of the carnage to try to determine what went wrong. The injured were taken to several hospitals in the area, while the bodies were piled up inside police vans and delivered to morgues. The bus belonged to the east Ecuadoran coach company Reina del Camino, which the CNT director said has been shut down temporarily. "There was a terrible mistake made in this accident," Anton told reporters, adding that he was asking police for "the reason the bus was allowed to leave with too many passengers." The accident occurred on a busy day on the South American nation's roads, as thousands of Ecuadorans streamed back to home towns to share in family Christmas gatherings. The country has a poor road safety record, and Ecuadorans are known for their aggressive driving habits. Attorney General Washington Pesantez said there was a traffic fatality on average every three hours, generating 500 million dollars in costs to society every year. In August a coach fell into a 100-meter (330-foot) ravine in southern Ecuador, killing 38 people and injuring 12. Road accidents were the second-biggest cause of death in the country of 13 million people. The government, which has been pushing a driver awareness campaign, says 3,000 fatalities were recorded this year to November, in 43,000 reported accidents. |
| Quadrotor Plays Christmas Carols on a Piano (PC World) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 04:48 PM PST Quadrotors, those tiny remote-controlled aircraft with four sets of helicopter rotors, can do just about anything these days, and they can even be controlled via iPhone! We thought we'd seen it all with quadrotors until we witnessed one playing (what we think is) Jingle Bells on a piano. The last few seconds of the video above show that humanity should be safe from SkyNet, at least for the near future. What's your favorite video of a remote-controlled aircraft? Let us know in the comments. Merry Geekmas, and enjoy! [Via Oshkosh 365] You may also enjoy...
Alessondra Springmann's remote-controlled planes were mostly used for divebombing the lacrosse team during high school rather than playing an instrument. Follow her and GeekTech on Twitter. |
| CES 2011: Smartphone Trends to Watch (PC World) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 05:00 PM PST LTE iPhone 4 on Verizon. But hey, stranger things have happened. Read on to find out some more plausible trends at this year's show. 4G/LTE Phones We've been hearing about 4G for a few years now, but there really has been very little movement in terms of 4G phones. This year's CES, however, will be the year for LTE/4G phones. A few days ago, Verizon tweeted "Jan 6 at #CES: #Android and #LTE - could it be like peanut butter and chocolate? YUM!" There have been a lot of rumors swirling around the blogosphere about what these devices could be. We think there's a possibility of the unnamed-and-sort-of-announced Motorola tablet coming in a Verizon-LTE flavor, as well as a new LTE Droid phone. We've also seen leaked images of a Samsung Galaxy S LTE phone and a possible LTE follow-up to the HTC Droid Incredible (codenamed Mecha, though some blogs are calling it the Incredible HD). Sprint has been rolling out its WiMAX-based network in various U.S. cities all year, but only two phones that support the network came out this year (HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G). We're expecting to see a few more 4G devices including a possible update to the HTC EVO 4G. The rumored EVO Shift 4G looks pretty similar to EVO except with a full-QWERTY keyboard. T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, which it's calling "4G", has also been gaining traction; the new technology will have been turned on in 100 cities by year-end, the company says. We've heard rumors of T-Mobile trotting out a new HSPA+ tablet at CES, but we're also hoping for a few more HSPA+ phones to add to the T-Mobile myTouch 4G and G2 that are currently available. As for AT&T, we're not expecting any 4G devices quite yet as the carrier has said that it won't be rolling out its LTE network until spring 2011. Front-facing cameras One of the many new features in the Android 2.3 (aka "Gingerbread") update is support for multiple cameras on a device. In the camera interface, you can click a small icon at the bottom of the screen and switch between the front-facing or back-facing camera. A few of the rumored phones we've seen, like that LTE Galaxy S phone, sport front-facing cameras. These phones will all be on 4G networks, too, since video chat is much smoother over a faster connection. More Windows Phone 7 HTC 7 Pro coming to Sprint, which was announced in October, but expect it to officially launch at CES. The 7 Pro has a QWERTY keyboard, a 3.6-inch display and a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video capture. The other hot rumored Windows Phone is the HTC 7 Trophy, supposedly coming to Verizon. According to leaked promotional material from Microsoft, the Trophy has a 3.8-inch display but no physical keyboard. Microsoft has confirmed a January Windows Phone 7 update, which will deliver copy and paste functionalities, among other undisclosed new features. We're expecting at least the details about the update to be revealed at CES. A Better Gaming Experience With the Nexus S sporting a gyroscope (much like the one found in the iPhone 4), we will probably see more and more Android phones equipped with one as well. Gyroscopes allow for more accurate controls in games, which, when coupled with the new Nvidia Tegra processors we expect to see at CES, opens the door for a much better gaming experience than what is currently being offered on the platform. The Tegra processors couple the CPU with the GPU (graphics processing unit), giving you smoother and cleaner 3D graphics and video playback. With better controls and graphics, developers may begin to see these Tegra-powered phones as entertainment powerhouses. Lower End/Pre-Paid Smartphones LG's Optimus line has made Android more affordable for smartphone buyers on a limited budget. It's a largely untapped market that the other big-name phone manufacturers would be foolish to ignore. Chances are high that others besides LG will try to get a slice of the budget Android action and debut some lower end phones alongside their existing hardware. Recent trends suggest that we are seeing the end of "dumbphones" (non smartphones) in favor of low end Android powered devices. Even pre-paid carriers are jumping onto the smartphone bandwagon. MetroPCS has now turned on its new LTE network in nine cities, so it would not be surprising to see a few low-priced, LTE-compatible Android phones make their way to the contract-free carrier. What phones are you keeping your fingers crossed for at CES? Sound off in the comments below. |
| Facebook Offers Tips On Being Popular (PC World) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 11:51 AM PST Want to be the most popular person on Facebook? All you have to do is write longer status updates, talk about music and sports, don't be overly emotional, don't talk about your family, don't refer to time and use the word "you" a lot. That's according to a recent Facebook study that took a look at the way people write and react to status updates. Facebook analyzed the word usage for about one million status updates from its US English speakers. The social network said all identifiable information was stripped from the status updates before they were analyzed, and Facebook team members did not read your status updates for the purposes of this study. Once the updates were anonymized, the words were organized into 68 different word categories based on the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC)--a text analysis software program created by James W. Pennebaker, Roger J. Booth, and Martha E. Francis. Some examples of word categories used in the study include past tense verbs, prepositions, religion and positive feelings. Here's a look at some of the study's findings. Angry Youth Facebook youth are an angry, foul-mouthed, selfish bunch, according to the Facebook study. The company found that young people express more negative emotions than their elders, swear more and use personal pronouns such as "I" and "Me" more often. Older Facebook folk, meanwhile, write longer prose in their updates, talk about others more often and pepper their language with more prepositions (to, in, at) and articles (a, the, some). Morning People Turns out, most folks on Facebook are morning people. The study found that status updates expressing positive emotions were highest in the morning, and became increasingly negative as the day wore on. So basically, we Facebook users--at least the U.S. English speakers, anyway--start the day in a good mood, but as the day goes on and the coffee wears off we become increasingly demoralized. How clichéd can you get? The Blogger's Secret Facebook's study also confirms something that bloggers and Fox News have known for years: negative comments produce more online activity. Sure, Facebook users might click the like button more often on updates expressing positive emotion. But Facebook found you can't beat negativity for user engagement, as dismal status updates garnered more comments than positive ones. People are also less likely to comment on religious status updates, and rarely comment or like status updates referring to sleep. Confirming that it's best to avoid religious topics when in polite company, and that no one else you know is ever awake when you are dealing with a bout of insomnia. You can find out more about Facebook's status update study here, including the revelation that you and your friend's tend to talk about the same stuff. Confirming that, while addictive, Facebook can sometimes get a little boring. Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul) and Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis. |
| Santa Trackers at NORAD Keep an Eye on the Big Guy (NewsFactor) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 05:38 PM PST |
| Geolocation App Lets Fans Keep Up With Their Favorite Bands (Mashable) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 03:00 PM PST The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Flowd Quick Pitch: Flowd is a location-based mobile app that facilitates closer connections and rewards between bands and their fans. Genius Idea: More and more bands are getting into the social space via tools like Twitter and Facebook, but location remains a truly untapped realm when it comes to promotion. Imagine getting an accurate gauge of how many fans attended a gig, real-time comments from said gig and the ability to host giveaways and promotions tied to that gig, all in one app. That's the gist of Flowd, a fan outreach tool that's basically Foursquare for bands. This app launched at the beginning of December as a free iPhone [iTunes link] and Android app developed by Digia Ventures. Any band -- from up-and-comers to established acts -- can sign up for Flowd via its website, where they can set up a profile complete with a bio, photo, skins that fans can apply to their own app pages (which can vary from device to device) and a welcome message that fans will receive upon following the artist in question. That artist can also add tour dates via an integration with Google Maps that pins the event in question to a physical location. Fans can then check in to that location.
By creating events such as this, artists can also host contests that reward fans for attending and checking in. Right now, that functionality is rather bare-bones: Bands enter in contest details manually to the "info" field and check back with Flowd to see who checks in. There's no real way to update fans on whether or not they're won, aside from manually messaging them. Fans, for their part, can download the Flowd app -- or register in-browser -- in order to follow their favorite bands (and send them private messages) and their friends. In this way, users can keep up with where bands are performing by checking their "Flow" or news feed and check in to shows in order to garner rewards. Users can also foster social interactions with friends and followers (which can be found via Facebook) by updating their statuses with pictures and comments via what Flowd is calling a "Shout" (yes, that is a direct rip from Foursquare) and commenting on friends' Shouts and checkins. One can also push Shouts to Facebook and Twitter. In theory, this is a clever idea and could be extremely popular with music lovers. In practice, the app is extremely new and populated by a mere handful of lesser-known bands. Locations also need to be added, as it is hardly as populated as Foursquare and other, more established services. (In truth, it may have been smarter to build this app on Foursquare's API.) Still, Flowd offers a specialized experience that more overarching apps like Foursquare do not. Yes, you can create an Event checkin on Foursquare, but that's not really the purpose of the app. It just remains to be seen whether such a specialized, fledgling service can take flight in an already crowded flock. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Bliz
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSparkBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. |
| IBM Unveils Memory Technology Breakthough (NewsFactor) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 10:34 AM PST IBM is developing a new type of ultra-low-cost solid-state memory featuring a storage capacity that vastly exceeds what today's hard disk drives can provide. Called racetrack memory, the technology may one day replace hard disk drives in PCs, laptops and servers as well as displace flash memory chips in smartphones, digital cameras, and tablets. The radically new type of storage memory is based on a breakthrough technology known as spintronics, which manipulates the two types of independent electrons found in electrical current -- called the "spin-up" and "spin-down" electrons. The goal is to enable computing devices to store bits of information by manipulating the magnetic state of a region within a nanowire that is just a few tens of nanometers wide. "We discovered that domain walls don't hit peak acceleration as soon as the current is turned on -- it takes them exactly the same time and distance to hit peak acceleration as it does to decelerate and eventually come to a stop," said IBM Research Fellow Dr. Stuart Parkin on Thursday. "Now we know domain walls can be positioned precisely along the racetrack simply by varying the length of the current pulses, even though the walls have mass." Astounding Memory Capacities Conventional hard disk drives remain popular because they are cheap, but the technology is also slow, prone to read/write errors, and can suffer irreversible damage if dropped or hit. Though solid-state memory chips are superfast and far more reliable, they also cost about 100 times more per gigabyte of memory than hard disk counterparts. Nanowire racetrack technology promises to bring the benefits of solid-state construction to PC and server memory storage without a comparable boost in cost, IBM researchers observed. Even mobile handheld devices may one day ship with astounding amounts of storage memory, they added. By sliding magnetic bits of information back and forth along the nanowire racetrack, computing devices can read changes to the magnetic states of the domain walls. Despite moving at speeds in the hundreds of miles per hour, they also can be commanded to stop precisely at the position needed. As a result, computing devices will be able to access massive amounts of stored information in less than a billionth of a second, IBM researchers said. A Year's Worth of Movies Big Blue's goal is to boost device storage capacities by a factor of 100 times greater that what is currently available today from conventional memory devices. This would enable hardware makers to design portable gadgets capable of storing all the movies produced worldwide in a single year -- and with room to spare, IBM researchers said. To make such memory densities possible, however, the domain walls of the nanowire racetrack must be manipulated at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour to atomically precise positions along the tracks. According to IBM researchers, the timescales in the tens of nanoseconds and the distances in micrometers are surprisingly long, given that research efforts over the past 50 years were unable to detect them. "This was previously undiscovered in part because it was not clear whether the domain walls actually had mass, and how the effects of acceleration and deceleration could exactly compensate one another," Parkin said. IBM researchers have just published their results in the Dec. 24 issue of Science. The paper by Luc Thomas, Rai Moriya, Charles Rettner, and Stuart Parkin of IBM Research is entitled, "Dynamics of magnetic domain walls under their own inertia." |
| Simon LeBon says Duran Duran was part of industry demise (Reuters) Posted: 24 Dec 2010 11:44 AM PST LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Thirteen could be Duran Duran's lucky number. The music video pioneers and pop icons, who are one of the few bands to transition from '80s pinups to legitimate, chart-topping artists, have seen success in every decade since their monumental 1981 album was released. Their latest, and 13th, album "All You Need Is Now" (released on iTunes December 21), looks poised to do the same. Produced by longtime Duran Duran devotee Mark Ronson, it's already being hailed as a return to form and promises to be the closest today's fans can get to that "New Romantic" sound they fell in love with all those years ago. Helping the band execute their musical vision are several guests, including Kelis, Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronic and Arcade Fire's Owen Pallett, but in embracing the sounds of the future for "All You Need Is Now," they also reference bits of their past -- a "Chauffeur"-like synth, the instantly recognizable bass-line -- to great effect. If you like that sort of thing, of course. The four original members, singer Simon LeBon, bassist John Taylor, keyboard whiz and programer Nick Rhodes, and drummer Roger Taylor, are counting on a least a few million people who do. The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Duran Duran's frontman Simon LeBon just as the single and title track, available for free, shot to No. 1 on iTunes' pop download chart. THR: "All You Need is Now" is your first iTunes exclusive release and it's a nine-track "LP," can you explain the methodology behind this roll-out? Simon LeBon: "We'll be releasing physical product at the end of February, which will be in CD form and vinyl and will have 14 tracks, but we felt that we wanted to put something out very essential on iTunes. Rather than doing the traditional deal with a record label, we went to the company who was most excited about Duran Duran, and that was iTunes -- they had the best ideas, a campaign in mind, and the best thrust. As far as the nine tracks, Mark thought it was a very good number because 'Rio' only has nine tracks on it." THR: The "Rio" comparison, originally made by Mark, seems to be getting a lot of traction... LeBon: "People have said this is the follow up to 'Rio,' but it's important to stress that it's not supposed to sound like that. This is not an album that sounds like it came from the 80s, but it does, to some extent, have the spirit of Duran Duran from that period. I think that's what we were trying to recapture with Mark." THR: When people say it's reminiscent of old Duran Duran, does that in a way negate everything you've done post-"Rio"? LeBon: "You do say to yourself, did we only ever make two decent albums? Of course, we all know that's not the case, however, for people who did really get into us in the beginning -- and Mark was one of them -- 'Seven' and the 'Ragged Tiger' did not fulfill the promise that had been made in the first two albums. So that's what Mark means when he says to go back to that Duran. Also, now you have a lot of bands playing electronic music and writing music that's not R&B based, and he said, 'This is Duran Duran's territory, you have to own this.'" THR: Are you surprised by the resurgence of vinyl? LeBon: "Not really. Digital music boils down the actual musical experience. The digital industry had really distilled music to its essential form, which is a signal. Because you've got this, if you're going to buy something physical, you want the most beautiful product you can get. There's no question that a vinyl record is a lot nicer than a CD. It's nicer to hold in your hands, you can do more with it. My kids love vinyl, I had to teach them how to put the needle on the records. Now they're worried about scratching the records, but it's incredible!" THR: Looking back at the years you spent releasing albums on major labels, how would you describe Duran's experience? LeBon: "We were part of the demise of the old-fashioned record industry. We witnessed it first-hand, and it was very interesting, but it wasn't a great experience. To go from the days when people used to get grand pianos delivered to their doorstep to a time when label executives are being laid off left, right, and center is quite extreme." THR: Duran Duran was signed to Capitol first, which is owned by EMI, then had a stint at Sony/Epic, was there any substantial difference between the two majors or are they all the same? LeBon: "They're pretty much the same, to be honest. Mainly because you've worked with one chief executive at one company, and a couple years later, he's an executive at another company. One of the things that keeps the majors down is an old school attitude that likes the big expense accounts and isn't able to economize or pare down. You're starting to see new record companies and business models taking shape, but it takes time." THR: With "All You Need is Now," what would quantify as success for you? LeBon: "I'm not sure we're thinking in numbers, because of the way music is downloaded and shared, I don't know. Really, it's more about getting the music to people's lives. That's why 'All You Need is Now' is a free download, because we want to spread the word. We're quite prepared to sacrifice the financial gain from selling it; we want to get this song heard. I'd rather five million people hear it for free than have one million who pay for it. We want to do a tour. We have to get back into mainstream musical culture." THR: Mark Ronson has had an amazing run the last five years, what's his secret? LeBon: "He's the first producer who sat down with us and discussed musical direction before we recorded anything. He put so much time into the album. Sometimes, the lyrics just weren't coming to me, and he'd be asleep on the sofa but we would go out to get fresh air and some new perspective. Once we went to an art gallery and there was a Venus De Milo figure with her arms around a big mound of secondhand clothing, and I said, "Write down 'other peoples' lives,' " and he did and when we got back to the studio, it became a song. He's a fan of the band and he cares very much about what it sounds like and he has a blueprint to turn those ideas and concepts into actual sounds. Mark fits in with Duran Duran the way we fit with each other. It's like having another member in the band, really." THR: Mark Ronson as the fifth member of Duran Duran, he would probably be stoked. LeBon: "He wouldn't want to be a permanent member. The thing about Mark is that he's so independent, but we'll do live shows together, no doubt about that. He's going to go on tour with us." THR: Roger Taylor said in an interview that this could be Duran's last record. Is that the case? LeBon: "We hope it's not going to be that, but we didn't have a good experience after we made the last album, "Red Carpet Massacre." It was disappointing. We loved that record and thought we made some really great music, but it didn't succeed in the way we hoped. If you have two of those in a row, at this stage in our career, I don't know how long it can last But for me, this is the year when we completed one of the most major, important projects of Duran Duran's career. I've had my head down as have the other boys and we've really been working hard on this. We've got a nice Christmas present for everybody." (Editing by Bob Tourtellotte) |
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