All about heading

Debut Wanted trailer curves its way into our hearts

- 23 hours and 9 minutes ago

pFiled under: a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/pc/" rel="tag"PC/a, a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/ps3/" rel="tag"Sony PlayStation 3/a, a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/xbox360/" rel="tag"Microsoft Xbox 360/a, a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/action/" rel="tag"Action/a/pdiv style="text-align: center;"a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42987.html?type=mov"img hspace="0" border="1" vspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/gam_wantedbulletcurve_490.jpg" alt="" //abr //div Those among you who saw emWanted/em in theaters probably spent most of the 110-minute bullet-fest wondering how well the game would hold up when it made its seemingly inevitable journey to the Land of Licensed Video Games. Your inquisitive mind may have been eased by reading a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/16/wanted-heading-for-next-gen-bullet-curving/"our glowing write-up of our time with the game at E3/a earlier this year -- then again, you've never been much of a reader, have you? You're probably not even reading this right now, meaning we can call you a stupid jerk without fear of repercussion. Here goes -- emyou're a stupid jerk/em.br /br /If you emare/em still with us, we apologize for needlessly insulting you, and offer you a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42987.html?type=mov"the debut trailer for emWanted: Weapons of Fate/em/a (posted after the jump) as a humble peace offering. It is emproudly /emNSFW, and chock-full of awesome -- though it is sorely lacking in Morgan Freeman appearances. Looks like we'll have to wait for Bungie's upcoming adaptation of emThe Bucket List/em to fulfill that particular fancy.pa href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/22/debut-wanted-trailer-curves-its-way-into-our-hearts/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emDebut Wanted trailer curves its way into our hearts/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/22/debut-wanted-trailer-curves-its-way-into-our-hearts/"Debut Wanted trailer curves its way into our hearts/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.joystiq.com"Joystiq/a on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:15:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./pp style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"nbsp;/ppa href=http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42987.html?type=movRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/22/debut-wanted-trailer-curves-its-way-into-our-hearts/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/forward/1380228/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/22/debut-wanted-trailer-curves-its-way-into-our-hearts/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/03i7oaDAO8G7F8WPGhK5kIzQBg8/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/03i7oaDAO8G7F8WPGhK5kIzQBg8/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=2A9mPGXd"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=2A9mPGXd" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=o8bU8eep"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=o8bU8eep" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~4/4-ahnH94Ap4" height="1" width="1"/

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Android-powered G1 Going To Philippines

Extreme Hotrod Heading to Burnout Paradise

You've Got Supper Goes from a Paid Subscription to a Free Service

The Slow Home

365 tomorrows

- 1 days and 11 hours ago

Author : Glenn Blakeslee

At four in the morning the alarms went off. Lois hardly stirred, but I went downstairs to the kitchen, started a pot of coffee, and then slogged my sorry ass to the control console, next to the laundry room.

Red lights glared from the temperature control panel. The needles showed an overtemp in the secondary thermocouple but normal temperatures in the primary, so I couldn’t tell if the relay was actually over-heating or if the secondary had failed again. I dialed down the master motor-control rheostat a couple of notches â€”losing precious speedâ€” but the warning light didn’t go out, so instead of doing anything more I went to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee, and waited until dawn.

I spent most of the day under the home. Replacing the thermocouple dimmed the warning light but I could feel, just by a touch on its titanium casing, that the number three stepper motor was running much too hot. I took the motor offline and spent a few hours tightening and replacing coolant lines. I inspected the narrow yard-tall wheels on the rear outboard truck assembly and ended up replacing the bearings on two of the twelve wheels.

Around noon Lois came down the stairs, shook her head and grinned at me. “Come on up for lunch, Herb,” she said. It was a nice day, cool for summer, so we ate sandwiches and watermelon on the veranda.

After lunch I climbed to the roof, and in the strong midday sun I dusted off the solar panels and checked the alignment on the control linkage. I stood for a while admiring our new cupola, built a few weeks ago toward the front of the house. It was expensive, but Lois and I both believed the cupola completed our home.

Lois invited the Smiths from next-door over for supper. I grilled steaks on the patio while Bill Smith drank my beer and Lois and Dorothy Smith sat gossiping. “Nice cupola, Herb,” Bill said, gloating.

“Yeah?” I said.

“Sure,” Bill said. “That thing must weigh a couple tons.” Bill’s home had been inching past mine for the last year. He’d gained nearly half a house on me.

“Lois and I love the cupola,” I said.

“You should have gotten the high-performance relays instead. Like I did,” Bill said.

“I think the cupola is beautiful!” Dorothy said with a smile.

After the Smiths left we cleaned up, and I went to the control console and moved the master rheostat up a notch. No warning lights came on. The indicators showed that we’d moved a little less than thirty-three inches that day.

At dusk Lois and I climbed the stairs to the cupola. We opened the windows, let the breeze in. “Bill isn’t racing you, you know,” Lois said.

I put my arm around her shoulders. “The hell he isn’t,” I replied, and I kissed her.

From the cupola we could see the neighborhood as it stretched toward the horizon, each home moving at its own good speed. We were heading toward the sunset, the sky before us streaked with red and gold and salmon. I was happy.

From the cupola I could see that, from here, it was all down hill.

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WRUP meets the zombie apocalypse

Joystiq

- 1 days and 17 hours ago

pFiled under: a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/meta-about-joystiq/" rel="tag"Meta (about Joystiq)/a/pdiv align="center"img width="490" vspace="4" hspace="0" height="264" border="0" align="top" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/rossmissing.jpg" /br //div Wow, we're all pretty much playing (or wishing we could play) emLeft 4 Dead/em this weekend. We knew it was going to be good, but the Smoker's tongue-grip it has on us is a little strong. If you're looking for some comrades in the zombie slaughtering/surviving festivities, be sure to check out a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/19/joystiqs-official-left-4-dead-survivors-uber-list/"Joystiq's official Left 4 Dead survivors uuml;ber-list/a. br / ul lia href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/05/meet-the-team-alexander-sliwinski/"strongAlexander Sliwinski/strong/a: Playing emLeft 4 Dead/em with teammates who hopefully know not to pull the shotgun trigger with the barrel facing me. Really want to finally beat the Mercy Hospital rooftop on Advanced. Might do some Horde or insane campaign co-op in emGears 2/em. Perhaps a nice trip to Northrend for relaxation./li listrongChristopher Grant: /strongI'm traveling (with my Xbox!) but since every hotel I manage to stay at has a television dating back to the Carter administration, I haven't cracked open this copy of emLeft 4 Dead/em that I snagged from a random GameCrazy in Texas. br //li listronga href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/03/meet-the-team-griffin-mcelroy/"Griffin McElroy/a/strong: I'll probably be tackling the last two campaigns onem Left 4 Dead/em, making futile efforts to sneak by witches as my fellow survivors either try to shoot them in the head or set them on fire./li listronga href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/17/meet-the-team-kevin-kelly/"Kevin Kelly/a/strong: I'm heading out of town for Thanksgiving, so it'll be a gaming free week... if not for the fact that I finally decided to take the plunge into the emWorld of Warcraft/em. I've installed the new WoW Battlechest, and Wrath of the Lich King, and I'm starting a character from zero! Whee ha! Also, I'll be board gaming it up this weekend at the a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/bggcon.php"Board Game Geek Convention in Dallas/a, hopefully playing some Power Grid or Agricola./li listronga href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/10/meet-the-team-james-ransom-wiley/"James Ransom-Wiley/a/strong: Oh ... Hi Mom! I almost forgot you were visiting this weekend ... What's that? You'd like to go to the art museum? Sure, that sounds fun!/li lia href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/20/meet-the-team-jason-dobson/"strongJason Dobson/strong/astrong: /strongCurrently driving over zombies in the road on his way back to Oklahoma./li listronga href="http://%20http//www.joystiq.com/2008/05/08/meet-the-team-justin-mcelroy/"Justin McElroy/a/strong: I'm going to play some emLeft 4 Dead/em if I get the chance to play, which I won't./li listronga href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/22/meet-the-team-ludwig-kietzmann/"Ludwig Kietzmann/a/strong: When I'm not busy making the undead deader in emLeft 4 Dead/em, I'll be refining my time trials in emMirror's Edge/em. I mean, I'm pretty satisfied with them already, but I do enjoy making James work even harder to catch up. What a slowpoke!br //li listronga href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/27/meet-the-team-randy-nelson/"Randy Nelson/a/strong: I too will be attempting for the umpteenth time to escape from Mercy Hospital's rooftop in emLeft 4 Dead/em. Perhaps with my tactics and Alexander's combined we can finally pull it off on Advanced. When I'm not killing zombies, I'll be playing emPrince of Persia/em. Wait - I will. Oh yes, I will.br //li lia href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/13/meet-the-team-ross-miller/"strongRoss Miller/strong/a: Waiting in some utility room for us to let him out./li /ulp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/21/wrup-meets-the-zombie-apocalypse/"WRUP meets the zombie apocalypse/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.joystiq.com"Joystiq/a on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./pp style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"nbsp;/ppa href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/21/wrup-meets-the-zombie-apocalypse/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/forward/1379910/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/21/wrup-meets-the-zombie-apocalypse/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/wQgb859DitsSDAot2nlkTFW2nw4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/wQgb859DitsSDAot2nlkTFW2nw4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=rteasVSV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=rteasVSV" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=IVTChmNN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=IVTChmNN" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~4/23GFYu80j7k" height="1" width="1"/

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survivors,festivities,persia,email,zombie

Extreme Hotrod Heading to Burnout Paradise

Jordi Mallach: Chimo Bayo... live!

Launchpad News: Launchpad offline 03.00 UTC 24th November

Why bees are the most invaluable species

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 23 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/72797?ns=guardianpageName=Environment%3A+Why+bees+are+the+most+invaluable+speciesch=Environmentc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Wildlife+%28Environment%29%2CEndangered+species+%28Environment%29%2CConservation+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironmentc5=Environment+Conservation%2CClimate+Change%2CEthical+Livingc6=Alison+Benjaminc7=2008_11_21c8=1122033c9=articlec10=GUc11=Environmentc12=blogc13=c14=Environment+blogh2=GU%2FEnvironment%2Fblog%2FEnvironment+blog" width="1" height="1" //divpBees were last night declared the most invaluable species on the planet at the a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2008/nov/14/endangeredspecies-conservation"annual Earthwatch debate/a. The audience heard from five eminent scientists who battled it out for fungi, bats, plankton, primates and bees. /ppWhile of course all species are invaluable for our ecosystem, the debate is designed to raise awareness about conservation by asking the audience to vote for just one of the species to receive a fictitious cheque for one trillion pounds to be spent on their conservation./ppIt comes us no surprise that the audience voted to save the bees. Who would want a world without honey, flowers, and third of everything we eat including chocolate and coffee? Not me./ppSome 250,000 species of flowering plants depend on bees for pollination. Many of these are crucial to world agriculture. a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/conservation.pollution"Bees increase the yields of around 90 crops/a, such as apples, blueberries and cucumbers by up to 30%, so many fruits and vegetables would become scarce and prohibitively expensive. /ppIn addition, many of our medicines, both conventional and alternative remedies, come from flowering plants. And cotton is another essential product pollinated by the bee, so we could say goodbye to cheap T-shirts and jeans./ppBut it's not just the human race that would suffer. Spare a thought for the poor birds and small mammals that feed off the berries and seeds that rely on bee pollination. They would die of hunger and in turn their predators â€“ the omnivores or carnivores that continue the food chain would also starve. We could survive on wind-pollinated grains and fish, but there would be wars for control of dwindling food supplies. South America's ancient Mayan civilisation is thought to have died of starvation. /ppAlthough other insects and animals do pollinate â€“ such as bats, butterflies and even wasps â€“ none is designed like the bee as a pollinator machine. br /There are 20,000 bee species around the world including solitary bees, bumblebees and honeybees. Many are monoletic â€“ pollinate one plant â€“ others like bumblebees and honeybees are polylectic. While bumblebees live in colonies of a few hundred, the sheer number of honeybees in a hive â€“ up to 50,000 in the summer - and their ability to be managed, manipulated and transported by man makes them the most valuable pollinator. /ppUnfortunately all bees are already under serious Industrialised farming with its monocultures and pesticides has destroyed biodiversity and robbed the majority of bees of their habitat and food. While across the globe, the western honeybee â€“ bred for its gentle nature and prolific honey making and pollination â€“ is plagued by parasites and viruses, and also jeopardised by modern agricultural practices. More than a third of honeybees were wiped out in the US this year by Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease which is thought to be a combination of these assailants./ppAs Dr George McGavin, who was batting for the bees said: "Bee populations are in freefall. A world without bees would be totally catastrophic."/ppThe Earthwatch audience should be applauded for heading his call and voting to save them, and itself as well./pp· Alison Benjamin is co-author of a href="http://www.guardianbooks.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10401_25501_128593_?cm_mmc=Guardian%20Home-_-Product%20Sell-_-Bottom%20Flash-_-A%20World%20Without%20Bees%205VJG"A World without Bees/a/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife"Wildlife/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/endangeredspecies"Endangered species/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/"Conservation/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Environmentcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227288015027112117240433070"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Environmentcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227288015027112117240433070" border="0" //a/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

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pollutions,freefall,t shirts,crops,bats

Showdown of the Top 5 smartphone OSes

InfoWorld: Top News

- 2 days and 1 hours ago

div class="rxbodyfield"p page="1" class="ArticleBody"Remember when a phone was just a phone? You#39;d no more give thought to its operating system than you would to the one that your microwave oven ran. Boy, have times changed./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Today#39;s smartphones are pocketable, Net-connected personal computers, and the OSes they use have a huge impact on their power and their personality. Buy a phone, and you#39;re committing to a platform just as surely as you are when you choose a PC or a Mac./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"b[ Check out Neil McAllister#39;s#160;a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/fatalexception/archives/2008/09/sdk_shootout_an.html?source=fssr"SDK shoot-out of Android vs. iPhone/a#160;as well as InfoWorld#39;s Test Center review of#160;#160;a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/15/42TC-t-mobile-g1_4.html?source=fssr"Android, Google#39;s iPhone killer/a. And discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the a href="http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/?source=fssr"InfoWorld Test Center/a. ]/b/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"To see how today#39;s smartphone OSes stack up, I spent time with five leading ones as experienced on phones that show them to good advantage: Apple#39;s iPhone OS (which I tried on the iPhone 3G, using ATamp;T#39;s network), Google#39;s Android (on T-Mobile#39;s G1), Microsoft#39;s Windows Mobile (on HTC#39;s Touch Diamond, using Sprint), Nokia#39;s S60 3rd Edition on Symbian (on the company#39;s N96, sold only in unlocked form), and RIM#39;s BlackBerry OS (on the company#39;s own BlackBerry Bold, using ATamp;T)./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"(Consult a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/125397/top_10_smart_phones.html"PC World#39;s Top 10 Smart Phones chart/a to see how the hardware compares.)/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"I judged the five operating systems on their capabilities, ease of use, and visual panache, and considered both their standard applications and third-party programs./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"strongThe Winnersbr//strongThe two most impressive operating systems were the two with the briefest histories: iPhone OS and Android./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Both are built for Internet-centric devices, both are not only functional but fun, and both make extending your phone#39;s capabilities with new applications extremely easy. At the moment, a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/149415/blog_apple_updates_iphone_os_thwarts_hackers_fixes_flaws.html"iPhone OS/a beats the a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007790.html"newer, rougher Google OS/a ; over time, a href="http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007815.html"Android#39;s open-source design/a and lack of restrictions on third-party developers could give it an edge over Apple#39;s more locked-down approach./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Among the old-timers, the a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007731.html"BlackBerry OS/a is doing a solid job of preserving the strengths that made it popular in the first place while keeping up with the times. In contrast, I regret to report, a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/144024/microsoft_updates_windows_mobile_ie_mobile.html?tk=rel_news"Windows Mobile/a and a target="_blank" href="http://www.s60.com/life"S60 3rd Edition/a are aging badly. Let#39;s delve more deeply./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"strongApple iPhone OSbr//strongemWhat it is:/em iPhone OS is a pocket-size version of the a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/138964/review_mac_os_x_leopard.html"Mac#39;s OS X/a , shrunk down and redesigned to power the iPhone 3G./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"emHow it works:/em As you zip your way around the iPhone 3G#39;s multitouch interface with your fingertips, hardware and software blur into one pleasing experience. With other OSs, it#39;s all too easy to get lost in menus or forget how to accomplish simple tasks; a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007238.html"iPhone apps/a , however, are remarkably sleek and consistent. The OS#39;s most infamous omission is cut-and-paste capability -- but to tell the truth, I haven#39;t missed it yet./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"emHow it looks:/em Terrific. Everything from the sophisticated typography to the smooth animation effects contributes to the richest, most attractive environment ever put on a handheld device./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"emBuilt-in applications:/em What#39;s good is great--especially the a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006651.html"Safari browser/a , which makes navigating around sites that were never designed to be viewed on a phone remarkably simple. And the OS#39;s music and video programs truly are of iPod caliber. But as a productivity tool, the iPhone lacks depth: You can#39;t search e-mail, and you get no apps for editing documents or managing a to-do list./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emThird-party stuff:/em Just months after Apple opened up the iPhone to other developers, thousands of programs are available, and downloading them directly via the App Store is a cakewalk. The best ones, a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007515.html"such as Facebook/a and a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/149833/top_five_free_iphone_productivity_apps.html"the Evernote note-taker/a , are outstanding. But the a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/143552/apple_waitlists_wouldbe_iphone_developers.html"limitations that Apple puts on third-party apps/a -- they can#39;t run in the background or access data other than their own -- place major obstacles in the way of everything from instant messengers to office suites. And Apple, the sole distributor of iPhone software, has declined to make available some useful applications that developers have submitted./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emBottom line:/em iPhone OS is easily the most enjoyable and intuitive phone operating system in existence, but its growth could be stunted unless Apple keeps its control-freak tendencies in check./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"strongGoogle Android/strongbr/emWhat it is:/em Google#39;s new phone OS is an ambitious open-source platform intended to let companies customize it to their liking for an array of handsets. So far, however, it#39;s available on just one model, a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/39727/review/g1.html"T-Mobile#39;s G1/a ./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emHow it works:/em On the G1, Android#39;s interface feels like an iPhone/BlackBerry mashup -- much of it uses the touch screen, but you get a trackball and Menu, Home, and Back buttons, too. The highly customizable desktop is a plus. Overall, it compares well to older platforms but isn#39;t as effortless as the iPhone./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emHow it looks:/em Android isn#39;t an aesthetic masterpiece like iPhone OS, but it#39;s fresh and appealing, and it makes good use of the G1#39;s high-resolution screen./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emBuilt-in applications:/em They#39;re tightly integrated with a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/140513/six_easy_ways_to_conquer_gmail.html"Google services such as Gmail/a and a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/145844/26_tricks_to_help_you_tame_google_calendar.html"Google Calendar/a -- the first thing you do when you turn on the phone for the first time is to give it your a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/153055/google_moves_to_openid.html"Google account info/a . (That#39;s fine as long as you#39;re not dependent on alternatives such as a target="_blank" href="http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/082608-exchange-replacements.html"Microsoft Exchange/a .)/pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"Android#39;s browser lacks the iPhone#39;s multitouch navigation but is otherwise a close rival. The best thing about its music features is the ability to download a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/130853/four_ways_to_reclaim_your_digital_rights.html"DRM-free/a songs from Amazon. The only videos it can play are YouTube clips, alas./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emThird-party stuff:/em Developers are just beginning to hop on the Android bandwagon. The a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/152613/google_launches_android_market.html"iPhone-like Market service/a lets you download apps directly to the phone from Google; unlike with the iPhone, you can also snag programs from third-party merchants a target="_blank" href="http://www.handango.com/homepage/Homepage.jsp?storeId=2218w.handango.com/homepage/Homepage.jsp?storeId=2218"such as Handango/a ./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emBottom line:/em Android#39;s potential is gigantic, especially if it winds up on scads of phones. On the G1, it#39;s a promising work in progress./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"strongRIM BlackBerry OS/strongbr/emWhat it is:/em This software powers RIM#39;s BlackBerry smart phones, including the a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/29994/review/blackberry_8300_curve.html"Curve/a , a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/29346/review/blackberry_pearl.html"Pearl/a , and a href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/29846/review/blackberry_8800.html"8800/a , as well as the new a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/43074/review/rim_blackberry_bold.html"Bold/a and a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/153773/verizon_wireless_to_launch_blackberry_storm_next_week.html"Storm/a models./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"emHow it works:/em The basic concepts behind the BlackBerry interface have changed remarkably little in a decade. And why should they? In its own way, the BlackBerry interface is just as logical and consistent as the iPhone#39;s: On most models you perform almost every function in every application with a trackball, a Menu button, and a button that lets you back out to the previous screen./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Master those three actions, and you can whip around the OS with extreme speed. (I haven#39;t tried the Storm, which replaces the standard BlackBerry controls with an iPhone-style touch screen.)/pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"emHow it looks:/em The BlackBerry OS is fairly mundane and text-centric, although recent models such as the Bold dress it up with crisper fonts and slicker icons./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"emBuilt-in applications:/em The BlackBerry#39;s e-mail and calendaring applications still set the standard for efficient design and reliable real-time connectivity with widely used messaging systems such as Microsoft Exchange./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"The Bold introduces a much-improved new browser that rivals iPhone OS and Android in its ability to display sites the way their designers intended; its music and video apps are serviceable enough but still secondary to the productivity tools./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"emThird-party stuff:/em Once upon a time, users didn#39;t have many BlackBerry programs to choose from, but recently the market has boomed--thousands, from productivity apps to games, are available now. Windows Mobile and S60 have even more bountiful selections, though./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Currently BlackBerry has no over-the-air storefront comparable to Apple#39;s App Store or Android Market. a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/154131/8_reasons_to_pick_iphone_over_blackberry_storm.html"RIM#39;s BlackBerry storefront/a is expected to launch in March 2009./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"emBottom line:/em The BlackBerry OS is an old dog, but a smart one -- and one that#39;s proving itself capable of learning new tricks./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"strongMicrosoft Windows Mobile/strongbr/emWhat it is:/em As its name makes clear, this is Microsoft#39;s mobile edition of Windows. Version 6.1 ships on a dozen phones from manufacturers such as HTC (with its a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/32187/review/touch_diamond.html"Touch Diamond/a ), Motorola, Palm, and Samsung./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Here#39;s a video showing the best of the new features of Windows Mobile 6.1./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Some manufacturers -- including HTC with the Diamond, Palm, and Samsung -- supplement Windows Mobile with their own software layer or tweaks to the underlying Windows Mobile OS./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"emHow it works:/em Surprisingly, Windows Mobile acts like a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/browse.html?cat=2207amp;type=2"full-strength Windows/a , complete with a Start menu and system tray. That isn#39;t a virtue -- who wants to squint at tiny icons on devices meant for on-the-go use? The Touch Diamond covers up part of Microsoft#39;s stylus-oriented interface with a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/43890/review/fuze.html"a fingertip-driven system called TouchFLO/a that#39;s nowhere near as elegant and intuitive as the iPhone./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"emHow it looks:/em It#39;s workmanlike. But it falls far, far short of iPhone OS#39;s surface gloss./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Built-in applications: The version of Internet Explorer on current phones is profoundly archaic; the Touch Diamond dumps it for a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006440.html"Opera Mobile/a . (Microsoft has released a new version of IE, but it isn#39;t yet available on any phones.) On the other hand, the productivity apps -- basic versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint -- aren#39;t bad./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"emThird-party stuff:/em The best thing about this OS is the sheer variety of available applications in every category. Utilities such as a target="_blank" href="http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/"Lakeridge Software#39;s WisBar Advance/a let you tweak the interface#39;s look, feel, and functionality, compensating for some of its deficiencies. But you get no built-in app store #224; la iPhone OS and Android./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"emBottom line:/em Windows Mobile has fallen behind the times on multiple fronts. Microsoft#39;s next major overhaul isn#39;t expected until late 2009 or 2010; by then, version 6.1 will be all but irrelevant./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"strongNokia S60 3rd Edition on Symbian/strongbr/emWhat it is:/em S60 3rd Edition is the version of the venerable Symbian mobile OS found in a variety of smart phones, not only from Nokia (including a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150606/nokia_ships_first_units_of_n96.html"its new N96/a) but also LG and Samsung./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"emHow it works:/em S60#39;s interface dates from the days when even the smartest phones sported only a numeric keypad and a few other buttons, and it tends to make you shuffle through menus one laborious item at a time. (The BlackBerry OS does a much better job of making non-touch-screen devices fast and efficient.)/pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"emHow it looks:/em It#39;s pretty old-fashioned by today#39;s standards, with blocky fonts and retro icons./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"emBuilt-in applications:/em The programs vary from phone to phone. The N96 I tried includes a reasonably comprehensive suite of apps, and judged purely on available features, they#39;re respectable; the browser, for instance, has a zoom-in/zoom-out interface that#39;s theoretically similar to the one in iPhone OS#39;s Safari. But the clunky interface leaves them feeling less powerful than the apps on any other phone I tried for this article./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"emThird-party stuff:/em A profusion of useful S60-compatible applications is available at sites such as Handango -- one of the deepest libraries for any platform, thanks to Symbian#39;s long life span and wide usage./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"emBottom line:/em S60 3rd Edition is stale in comparison with iPhone OS and Android, but it#39;s also heading for retirement. The new a target="_blank" href="http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/8203_S60_5th_Edition-touch_and_sens.php"S60 5th Edition/a brings the OS up-to-date with features such as touch-screen support; a target="_blank" href="http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1256590"Nokia#39;s 5800 XpressMusic/a , the first phone to use it, won#39;t arrive in the United States until early next year./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"emFormer PC World editor in chief Harry McCracken now blogs at his own site,/em a target="_blank" href="http://technologizer.com/"emTechnologizer/em/a. ema target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/"PC World/a is an InfoWorld affiliate./em/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=4e53c84712d9565c4450c151b54af6f2p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=4e53c84712d9565c4450c151b54af6f2p=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=4e53c84712d9565c4450c151b54af6f2 style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

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Citigroup stock down again despite sales talk

Yahoo Staffer Launches Management Buyout

Silicon Alley Insider

- 2 days and 1 hours ago

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=48626c8d14b9b9be00feede9maxX=320maxY=264" border="0" alt="yahoo-hq.jpg" title="yahoo-hq.jpg" width="320" height="264" /When Yahoo's stock hit $12, we said it was ridiculously cheap. Now it's below $9. Given that no one else seems to want to buy and fix this once-great and still amazingly valuable company, we're now offering to do it ourselves./p pWe have the privilege of being a co-host of Yahoo's "TechTicker" financial show. So that makes this an employee-led turnaround plan. To execute the plan, we're going to need the support of many other Yahoo employees, including Jerry Yang, David Filo, and the Board, so we're just going to call this a management buyout. Cool?/p pWe've structured our proposal to be as simple and easy as possible: No need for shareholder votes. No need to raise billions of dollars of capital (who has time for that?). No need for interminable, angst-ridden negotiations. We're also making the proposal completely transparent, so our fellow Yahoos and shareholders know what's coming./p pHere's the plan:/p ul listrongYahoo will buy our parent company, Silicon Alley Media, for, say, $100 million in stock./strong We already own some YHOO, and we're willing to put more money where our mouth is: Specifically, we're willing to bet our entire company on our YHOO turnaround plan.br //li listrongYahoo will appoint us as acting CEO. /strongNo worries: We will not take this job to become yet another fat CEO pig at the trough. In fact, we're so excited about this opportunity that we'll do it for Jerry's salary: $1 a year (okay, maybe we could add some zeroes there, to preserve our marriage. But not six. Or, god forbid, eight). Believe it or not, we also have no ambition to hold this post indefinitely. Several folks in the business world are more qualified to run a global Fortune 500 company than we are, and when the time is right, we will gladly hand the reins to one of them. Unlike many incoming Yahoo CEO candidates, however, we know what Yahoo needs right now, and there's no sense wasting time CEO-hunting when we can start the process today.br //li listrongWe will immediately resize the company, cutting approximately one-quarter to one-third of the cost base./strong Even now, with its bloated cost structure, Yahoo is still making money. Our cuts will ensure that Yahoo is positioned to survive a major online ad downturn and still have plenty of cash flow to reinvest in the business. One big reduction instead of several small ones will also ensure that Yahoo doesn't go down the road it is heading down now, which is the demoralizing death by a thousand cuts./li listrongWe will do a search deal with Microsoft. /strongYahoo has lost the search game, and it is senseless for the company to throw more good money after bad. Yahoo will continue to maintain a significant if declining share of emsearch queries /emfor the next few years, but these can be monetized better with economies of scale, and the company can avoid mindless and expensive duplication of effort. Microsoft is great at engineering and desperately wants to show Google who's boss. We'll sell Yahoo's search technology to Microsoft and do a multi-year revenue deal with them. And when it comes up for renewal, we will play Microsoft and Google off one another./li listrongWe'll step up Yahoo's focus on content aggregation./strong Algorithms cannot create the best user experience for every application. Yahoo highest and best opportunity is to do what Tim Koogle used to talk about in the 1990s and Jerry has been suggesting over the past year: Become the first stop for anyone looking for an intelligent, organized view of the world. The company has made great strides in this effort over the past 14 years, but it has gotten distracted of late. We'll fix that./li listrongWe'll increase Yahoo's production of lightweight, high-velocity online content, through programs like TechTicker, blogs, fantasy sports leagues, etc./strong With a distribution platform that reaches 500 million global users a month, Yahoo can make a killing on low-cost content production. We wileml not /emturn Yahoo into the New York Times (which is a dying print business.) Instead, we will hire a few more folks emfrom/em the New York Times and other excellent content-production companies (people who get the Internet). These folks will help edit, curate, and organize all the great content that's already out there and produce some good original stuff. (But not TV shows or magazine articles. TechTicker works because it takes advantage of what the Internet can do better than other media, not because it tries to clone CNBC or a newspaper). br //li listrongWe will buy or build small consumer subscription businesses that produce content that people will pay for...and then we will plug them into Yahoo's massive global distribution engine./strong In several years, we will build subscriptions into a major contributor to revenue, not the afterthought they are today./li listrongWe will fix Yahoo's communications platform, in part by buying and integrating AOL (and, if we can help Steve Ballmer see the light, MSN). /strongAs long-term Yahoo Mail users, we are appalled that Yahoo has fallen behind in this area. We don't want to switch to Gmail, but if nothing changes, we may have to. Once we've integrated AIM and the AOL mail user base, we will once again have a dominant share of online communications. We'll probably buy Skype, too, just to round out the package.br //li listrongMost importantly, we will finally revolutionize online display advertising, which hasn't innovated since 1995./strong We can't tell you how tired we are of hearing advertisers complain that their display ads aren't "performing" because people aren't clicking on them. The same advertisers still line up around the block to buy unclickable ads in newspapers that get tossed on the back stoop without even being glanced at. It is time for the online ad industry to start developing better BRAND and STORYTELLING solutions. These ads can be big. They can be beautiful. They can be fun. They DO NOT need to be clicked on. If we do this intelligently, users should even come to value and/or enjoy them. No company is in a better position to lead this online ad revolution than Yahoo, and we can't wait to drive this initiative forward./li /ul pSound good? We think so. We're not guaranteeing much of a turnaround in the stock price until the global economy recovers, but we're going to position the company to coin money when it does. We're going to stop Yahoo from trying to boil the ocean and compete in businesses it has already lost (search engineering). We're going to take advantage of what Yahoo does better than anyone: content organization and display advertising. We're going to inspire what used to be one of the industry's most passionate and competitive teams./p pDespite its demolishied stock price and demoralized staff, Yahoo remains a one-of-a-kind global media platform. With the right turnaround plan, we think the company's best days (and possibly even best stock prices) are ahead of it. We would be honored and privileged to lead this revolution from within!/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/wnJ8T1nGqYPP2tF3vinMdPAX1ok/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/wnJ8T1nGqYPP2tF3vinMdPAX1ok/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=EulVdSnk"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=EulVdSnk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=aIHnFoB2"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=f7GiXeKA"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=ylhkfpiN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=ylhkfpiN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=wMFgiZh7"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=hQ4BhxJi"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=6kXhOqIw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Vc38RbAN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/kVtOz4odAus" height="1" width="1"/

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