We'll be totally honest -- we pretty much blew Ruslan Kogan off when he proclaimed that he was about to push out a $199 Android phone by the year's end. And truthfully, the guy still hasn't totally delivered, but you won't find us kvetching about more Googlephones, regardless of MSRP. The Agora (AU$299; US$192) and Agora Pro (AU$399; US$256) are available for pre-order as we speak, though neither one is scheduled to ship out until the end of January. For those unfamiliar with Kogan, it's an online-only enterprise that has wares built specifically to its dimensions in China, and so far as we can tell, it's as legit as they come. As for specs, the Agora packs a 2.5-inch touchscreen (320 x 240), 3G networking, a backlit QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD card slot; the Pro adds in GPS, 2-megapixel camera and WiFi. So, with unsubsidized prices this low, are you willing to take a chance?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/03/k...ora-agora-pro/

Once you've remade John Carpenter's Halloweeen and The Fog, where else do you go? We've been hearing about an Escape from New York re-do for quite some time now, and we all know it's just a matter of time before someone re-remakes The Thing -- but what else? Starman? Could be. Big Trouble in Little China? Please, no. Prince of Darkness? Ye gods, no!

But They Live? Hmm, now there's a Carpenter favorite that actually COULD be good-lookin' in a shiny new suit. That's not a knock in the 1988 original, but I think the themes and ideas found in They Live could work extra-well in a modernized version. (For those who don't know, They Live is about decent homeless dude who happens to stumble across an outrageously elaborate "alien invasion.") Based on the Ray Nelson short story Eight O'Clock in the Morning, They Live has a fantastic concept and makes use of the consumer / comformity angle in rather clever fashion. Plus the flick has one of the nuttiest alleyway brawls you ever will see ... but the movie sort of falls apart in act III, doesn't it?

Anyway, The Hollywood Reporter informs us that Universal will bankroll the remake along with Strike Entertainment (who also did Dawn of the Dead and has the option on that remake of The Thing). No word yet on who'll do the writing or directing, but I could probably bang out a draft. Lord knows I've seen They Live enough times. And yes, Mr. Carpenter will be on board as a producer ... but he also wore that hat on The Fog and Halloween, so I don't think "quality control" is his main concern. Plus, how is the man ever going to feel inspired to make a NEW movie if people keep handing him checks for his OLD movies? Argh.

Filed under: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Remakes and Sequels

Permalink | Email this | Comments

There’s a new “gPhone” on the market, but its name is not G1, and it’s not subsidized by one of the wireless carriers. It’s called the Kogan Agora (or Agora Pro), and it’s available for pre-order now from an Internet-only manufacturer/retailer in Australia.

What’s interesting about the device – aside from the fact that most would probably agree it’s aesthetically an improvement from the G1 – is that it’s the first example of the actual vision for Android – an open source mobile operating system that any developer can use to build their own device.

As opposed to signing an exclusive deal with one of the carriers, or licensing an OS like Windows Mobile or Symbian, Kogan simply designed a device, had it manufactured in China, and loaded Android onto it. By eliminating those costs (as well as the huge expense of marketing and retail stores), Kogan can sell the device – without subsidies from the carriers – for the relatively modest price of $192-$256 (the more expensive version includes WiFi and camera).

For consumers, if this type of business model were to take off, it obviously means a lot more freedom in terms of devices. Currently, if you want to upgrade your handset, you need to wait for your contract to expire, or otherwise simply pay retail – often in the $400-$500 range for new PDAs with the capabilities of the Agora Pro. And, with most major carriers locking you into two-year minimum contracts, the developments of new technology are far outpacing consumers ability to upgrade. Cheap, carrier-agnostic devices with the latest technology are certainly a good thing.

Does this mean that Google will stop looking to mass market Android-powered devices with carriers? Obviously not – that’s the quickest way to gain market share in the mobile OS space. But Kogan’s model represents what Android could theoretically be – an OS that allows hundreds of developers to get into the device manufacturing game with little or no startup costs. And that’s a win for consumers.

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

VideoJug Partners With Polish Media Conglomerate Agora
Graspr’s gCard is an Embeddable Business Card for Video Producers

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/72532?ns=guardianpageName=Environment%3A+UK+engineers+call+for+green+power+from+household+wastech=Environmentc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Waste+%28Environment%29%2CAlternative+energy+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CEnergy+%28Environment%29%2CRecycling+%28Environment%29%2CUK+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CClimate+Change%2CEnergy%2CEthical+Livingc6=Alok+Jhac7=2008_12_04c8=1129032c9=articlec10=GUc11=Environmentc12=Wastec13=c14=h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FWaste" width="1" height="1" //divpHousehold rubbish should be used to produce green power rather than being sent for recycling, according to energy experts./ppAt a briefing today to launch a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on dealing with waste, the authors said that converting waste could provide up to a fifth of the UK's electricity needs in future and help the country meet its renewable energy targets./ppBut environmentalists have voiced concerns over the report, insisting that recycling rubbish is still the better option in terms of tackling climate change./ppThe UK produces more than 300m tonnes of waste every year, enough to fill the Albert Hall every two hours. Most of this is buried in landfill, though new EU legislation will require a 50% cut in the practice by 2013./pp"We can't afford to do that any more, we're running out of space for landfills," said Ian Arbon, a visiting professor in energy systems at Newcastle University and author of the new report. /pp"We see energy from waste as being one of the brightest hopes for reaching our 2020 target to source 15% of our energy requirements from renewables. /pp"We will not meet those targets without energy from waste."/ppEnergy can be harnessed from waste in several ways, depending on the type. The two proven methods are combustion, where waste is burned to produce electricity and heat, and anaerobic digestion, a biological process where waste is treated to produce methane, which can then be used for fuel. The former is most suitable for dry waste while the latter is best for wet or organic waste./ppThere are fewer than 50 small-scale energy-from-waste plants operating in the UK at the moment, a combination of combustion plants and anaerobic digesters. This compares to several thousand in countries such as Denmark and Germany./ppIn the past, burning waste in incinerators has been opposed by local residents worried about air pollution. But Arbon said that, using modern combustion methods which scrub out harmful particles from the gases vented by the power plant, every community in the UK could have a waste-processing facility on its doorstep. /pp"Then you're handling the community's waste locally and you're not having to transport waste large distances, which gets people upset."/ppGaynor Hartnell, deputy director of the Renewable Energy Association, added that converting all the country's household and commercial waste, around 75m tonnes per year, could provide significant benefits. "If it all went into electricity, you could get about 17% of the UK's electricity demand from waste [by 2020]."/ppBut Matthew Warhurst, senior resource and waste campaigner at Friends of the Earth, warned that building a new fleet of energy-from-waste plants would miss climate goals. "Household waste is a mixture of fossil-derived plastics and textiles and biologically-derived material, [burning it] you end up producing a lot of carbon dioxide."/ppAnother way of dealing with waste is to recycle it but Arbon urged caution on assuming this was the best option "In this country we have very few recycling plants. /pp"We do reasonably well with metals and we can handle some paper but, because we've lost most of our manufacturing might in the UK, we ship our waste to china - that process absorbs a lot of energy." /ppRecycling is an energy-intensive process, said Arbon, the opposite of producing energy from waste. "The energy that we use to recycle mainly comes from our existing energy-production systems, which are 90% fossil fuels. /pp"Let's get honest about recycling, about how well we do at that. For some things, it's the right thing to do, for others it isn't." /ppHowever, FoE's Warhurst said that stepping up recycling facilities was an urgent priority, as was avoiding putting things into landfill that could go on to produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. /pp"Rather than building huge plants to burn waste inefficiently, it is better for the climate to be building plants that compost the remains, remove further recyclables and then even if you end up putting what's left in landfill that is a better climate option."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/waste"Waste/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/alternativeenergy"Alternative energy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/energy"Energy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/recycling"Recycling/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/X3aE2uP5bNwShY0FzkSyB63LY5k/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/X3aE2uP5bNwShY0FzkSyB63LY5k/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Chinese authorities ban lip-synching from the nation's biggest TV show after the Beijing Olympics miming controversy.

Una de las características de la crisis que afecta a las economías de todo el mundo es su variabilidad y lo poco fiables que ha hecho las predicciones. Además, Bolsas y precios mundiales de alimentos y materias primas se han convertido en víctimas de la volatilidad, con grandes subidas y caídas similares en pocos días. Buen ejemplo de ello es el petróleo. Después de ser uno de los elementos claves de la crisis y llegar a principios de julio a los 146 dólares, ahora cotiza a 100 dólares menos, en torno a los 46 ayer y hoy en poco más de 44 tras caer otro 1,2% y quedar en su nivel más bajo en 4 años.

http://www.cheapsneakercn.com are professional wholesaler of the Nike sport shoes in china. Our main products are including NIKEAIRMAXTN/95/97/2003/2004/2005/2006/180/360,Shox:TL/R4/R3/NZ/OZ/BMW/Turbo,wholesale nike dunks,cheap nike jordan 1-23 and some other brands of PUMA, TIMBERLAND, PRADA, ADIDAS.. Etc.As we supply great A quality shoes only .all the shoes from us are authentic quality original box. With good service, hard working reasonable price .we get a big market is Europe and North American. We thank you for your attention and wish having a long time business.relation with all buyers from all over the world.br / Welcome to our website to obtain more information!Thank you!br / website: www.cheapsneakercn.combr / Email:cheapsneakercn@yahoo.com.cn

China is forcing Internet cafes to pay for Red Flag Linux, which may be the clearest evidence yet that freedom isnt to be found in a software license, open source or not.

China is forcing Internet cafes to pay for Red Flag Linux, which may be the clearest evidence yet that freedom isnt to be found in a software license, open source or not.

div style='clear:left;'img style="float:left;padding-right:5px;" src="http://www.faz.net/m/{8B7CEA90-0E35-48B6-B2B7-8A561B875EA8}File2.jpg" width=111 height=74 border=0 /Der chinesische Yuan notiert auf dem niedrigsten Stand seit fünf Monaten. „Sehr gut“ finden das chinesische Ökonomen. Weniger gut finden das Europäer und Amerikaner. Der Preisverfall chinesischer Waren passt ihnen gar nicht. Barack Obama hat China gar als „Währungsmanipulator“ bezeichnet.div style="margin: 5px 0 5px 0; border-top:1px solid #7A89CC; font: 10px arial; color: #7A89CC; clear: both;" a href="http://www.faz.net/s/homepage.html" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"FAZ.NET - Homepage/a a href="http://www.faz.net/politik" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Politik/a a href="http://www.faz.net/gesellschaft" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Gesellschaft/a a href="http://www.faz.net/wirtschaft" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Wirtschaft/a a href="http://www.faz.net/finanzmarkt" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Finanzmarkt/a a href="http://www.faz.net/sport" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Sport/a a href="http://www.faz.net/feuilleton" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Feuilleton/a a href="http://www.faz.net/reise" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Reise/a a href="http://www.faz.net/wissen" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Wissen/a a href="http://www.faz.net/auto" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Auto/a a href="http://www.faz.net/computer" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Computer/a /div /div

I am not sure why the author of this article is surprised that cyber café owners are being charged $725 for Linux, we are talking about the Chinese government after all.

What's not to like? It's estimated that China has an 82% software piracy rate. Getting businesses to go legal with a native Chinese Linux sounded like a win to me. Until, I saw the Red Flag Linux price tag: 5,000 yuan, that's $725 U.S. That's way over the line for a small Chinese business.

Comments

17Lamp.net: "TechFaith Wireless and Qigi Future Technology announced a smartphone that runs the Google Android mobile Linux stack. The i6-Goal is only the second Android phone to launch, and reportedly includes a 2.8-inch touchscreen, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and a two-megapixel camera."

Merrill Lynch warned that oil prices could fall as low as $25 a barrel next year if the recession affecting the US, Europe and Japan extended to China, the main driver of demand growth in commodity markets in recent years.

Zur Supermacht fehle die moralische Autorität

Microsoft Corp. today announced legal actions around the world against online auctioneers who allegedly orchestrated international marketing schemes and sold counterfeit software to unsuspecting customers. Legal actions were announced against auctioneers involved in numerous schemes, including the alleged fraudulent sale of so-called “Blue Edition,” counterfeit Windows XP software and illicit software components on online auction sites. In one case that demonstrates how global the trade-in fake software has become, counterfeiters in New Zealand allegedly sold counterfeit they obtained in China to customers in six countries.

Senior US officials are in China for economic talks, an event overshadowed by the global financial crisis.

Machairodus nos cuenta: #171;Acabo de leer la siguiente noticia: Una ciudad china obliga a instalar Linux en los PC de los cibercaf#233;s: "Seg#250;n inform#243; un diario de esa ciudad, el Jiangnan Metropoli News, desde hace dos a#241;os el gobierno de la ciudad est#225; forzando la instalaci#243;n en m#225;s de 600 locales de Internet de este sistema operativo, muy similar en aspecto al Windows XP, pese a las reticencias de los due#241;os de los cibercaf#233;s. El Linux Bandera Roja fue desarrollado desde 1999 por la Academia China de Ciencias, el principal organismo de investigaci#243;n estatal del pa#237;s asi#225;tico, y aunque en teor#237;a su instalaci#243;n en los ordenadores es gratuita, el gobierno local est#225; cobrando a los cibercaf#233;s unos 5.000 yuanes (unos 720 d#243;lares o 570 euros)". Personalmente opino que esto va en contra del software libre, puesto que ha de ser cada cual el que escoja aquello que le interesa#187;. En esta nota de la agencia AP (en ingl#233;s) se habla de Nanchang, no de Jiangnan.

China Super Power Saving annonce ses résultats semestriels 2008...img width='1' height='1' src='http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/268/f/3632/s/27f5cec/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2_fr.html?title=China Super Power Saving : résultat net semestriel de 4,022 MElink=http://www.boursier.com/dispatch/china-super-power-saving-resultat-net-semestriel-de-4-022-me-news-310680.htm" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/partagez.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark_fr.cfm?title=China Super Power Saving : résultat net semestriel de 4,022 MElink=http://www.boursier.com/dispatch/china-super-power-saving-resultat-net-semestriel-de-4-022-me-news-310680.htm" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853570157/u/89/f/3632/c/268/s/41901292/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853570157/u/89/f/3632/c/268/s/41901292/a2.img" border="0"//a

Des centaines de manifestants se sont réunis autour des immeubles de la China Central Television (CCTV), jeudi matin à Beijing pour la "journée nationale de la loi" et présenter leurs pétitions dont certaines étaient légales. Beaucoup de gens se sont...