GM’s Enhanced Windshield Uses Lasers to Make Your Road Trips Safer [Automotive]

March 17th, 2010

It makes it feel like you’re in the middle of Tron, but GM’s new heads-up display’s not just a way to play out childhood fantasies. The system projects laser-generated images onto windshields, providing a great looking enhanced vision display. More »

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Rob Crilly: Myths and Reality in Darfur

March 16th, 2010

Despite my best efforts, there is still plenty of guff being written about Sudan and Darfur. Some is written through simple ignorance. Never has so much been written about a place by so many people who have never been there. At the same time, there are lots of campaigners who should know better. For anyone thinking about writing Darfur in the next weeks as we approach important elections, here is my simple guide to some myths and realities about the place:


  1. Darfur is the size of Texas or France - A far better comparison is Spain (or Turkmenistan, if you want to be really pedantic)

  2. The conflict in Darfur is between Muslims and Christians - It is not. They are pretty much all Muslims

  3. The conflict is about oil - Nope. There is no oil in Darfur

  4. The Arabs are the bad guys - While some Arab militias have joined the Janjaweed, most Arabs stayed out of the conflict altogether but have still wound up as victims

  5. The rebels are the good guys - It would be nice if they were. But Africa is full of rebels who seized power only to repeat the abuses of the regimes they replaced. In Darfur, they use child soldiers, hijack aid and have been one of the barriers to peace

  6. Foreign Arabs have settled in villages vacated by persecuted tribes - There are plenty of reports, but little evidence. In some cases the Arabs have been described as foreign because hundreds of years ago their ancestors arrived from other countries. But today they are Darfuris

  7. The Arabs are light-skinned - it is nigh-on impossible to identify many people calling themselves Arab simply by skin colour. Some come from "African tribes" and adopt the name Arab to reflect their nomadic status. All Darfuris are black and African

  8. President Omar al-Bashir is a crazy, genocidal monster - he is a war criminal, yes, but he has pursued a clever - and at times pragmatic - strategy to hold on to power. That is how we should deal with him


Rob Crilly's book, Saving Darfur: Everyone's Favourite African War, is published by Reportage Press

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Microsoft confirms accuracy of old, pre-’reboot’ Windows Mobile 7 leaks

March 15th, 2010
Remember those old, allegedly leaked Windows Mobile 7 screen shots from way back in 2008? You know -- those ones that look absolutely nothing like the so-called Metro UI that Windows Phone 7 Series is actually using? Well, Microsoft's Albert Shum -- one of WP7S' chief designers who we had the pleasure of meeting back at MWC -- just confirmed the accuracy of those leaks in a session here at MIX10. Discussing the reboot of the WinMo 7 program that happened inside Microsoft about a year ago, Shum flashed a slide showing eight of those infamous shots featuring those crazy bottom-aligned battery and signal meters along with WinMo 6.x-ish ID oozing from every nook and cranny. Needless to say, a clean-slate approach was sorely needed, and that's exactly where Metro ended up coming into play -- but be honest: is there anyone out there that would've still preferred the old leak in a production device?

Microsoft confirms accuracy of old, pre-'reboot' Windows Mobile 7 leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity” (danah boyd)

March 14th, 2010

danah boyd:
“Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity”  —  [This is a rough unedited crib of the actual talk]  —  Citation: boyd, danah.  2010. “Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity.”  SXSW.  Austin, Texas, March 13.  —  Good afternoon!  —  Let me begin by saying that I'm tremendously honored to be here doing the welcoming keynote at SXSW.

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David Paterson: “Things started to go wrong… [What He Said]

March 13th, 2010

Zoom G2Nu and G2.1Nu guitar effects pedals offer direct USB recording

March 12th, 2010

Zoom is kind of like Mitsubishi — it sort of does it all. Months after shipping one of the greatest pocket audio recorders every known to man, the company is now hitting back with none other than a pair of guitar effects pedals. The G2Nu and G2.1Nu boards both feature 100 preset guitar sounds, 20 of which have purportedly been given the almighty thumbs-up from Steve Vai. If you’re curious about differences, the latter adds a built-in expression pedal for additional control, but frankly, the expected capabilities aren’t what we’re interested in. Both devices sport integrated USB ports that enable them to operate as audio interfaces; in other words, axe slingers can record directly to their computer through this box, and the 1.9-inch display helps you keep track of what’s going on. Regrettably, pricing and availability details have been conveniently omitted, but we suspect it’ll be hitting Sam Ash, Sweetwater and the rest of the gang soonish.

Continue reading Zoom G2Nu and G2.1Nu guitar effects pedals offer direct USB recording

Zoom G2Nu and G2.1Nu guitar effects pedals offer direct USB recording originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare’s Ray Muzyka on how to build a game company (video)

March 11th, 2010

Ray Muzyka, chief executive of popular video game-maker BioWare, spoke at our GamesBeat@GDC conference in San Francisco about building game franchises. While onstage, Muzyka talked about his Electronic Arts-owned company’s upcoming games in the Star Wars, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age franchises — all across BioWare’s “future portfolio,” he said it’s shifting toward selling games as an ongoing service rather than a standalone product.

Afterwards, I did a brief video interview with Muzyka, during which he elaborated on how his BioWare’s business model is changing, described the company’s new games and downloadable content (DLC), and offered his advice for up-and-coming game entrepreneurs.

See all our coverage from GamesBeat@GDC.

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New Flip cams to launch in early April?

March 10th, 2010

The details are slim to none on this one, but we’re all about a good pocket cam rumor. According to the usually-reliable Business Insider Cisco will launch a new set of Flip camcorders around the NAB show which runs from April 12-15, but we don’t have any specs yet. Come on Cisco, now you’ve got us guessing not only about the future of the Internet, but also if your newest Flip will support 1080p. Told you we didn’t know much, but we’ll obviously be keeping an eye out for more.

New Flip cams to launch in early April? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zune HD2 Will Be Like iPod Touch for Windows Phone 7 (Read: Apps! Also, Zune HD Is For Suckers) [Rumor]

March 9th, 2010

Sorry, everybody who bought a Zune HD! You screwed up. It won’t be a part of the XNA Game Studio 4.0 party—meaning it won’t play those new mobile Xbox Live games for Windows Phone 7—unlike the Zune HD2. More »

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TiVo Posts $10.2 Million Loss, We Contemplate Dusting Off Our Funeral Garb [TiVo]

March 8th, 2010

We’ve remarked in the past that TiVo is slowly dying and the latest numbers from the company aren’t making us any more optimistic: More »

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Live Blogging the Academy Awards, 2010 Edition [The Oscars]

March 7th, 2010

Everyone likes watching the Oscars at a party, and we’re having our very own! It’s going to be here in the comments section. You’re invited to come talk trash about Hollywood. Why? Because we like you, we really like you. More »



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The Body of a Tank, the Brain of an Android [Android]

March 6th, 2010

We’ve come across plenty of robots that were controlled by phones before, but usually those phones were being controlled by human hands. Some California hackers, however, are building bots that put Android to work for their robo-brainpower. More »

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The Apple Lawsuit Rampage We’d Love to See [Humor]

March 5th, 2010

Apple’s lawsuit against HTC made one thing clear: Steve. Jobs. Will. Cut You. And with all the patents they’ve got? Nobody’s safe. Here’s who’s next on the subpoena warpath: More »

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Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano says U.S. will move to anticipating cyber attacks

March 3rd, 2010

Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said today that the federal government is stepping up its efforts to protect Americans from increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. It will do so by preparing to prevent and preempt attacks, without compromising privacy, she said.

She said she met hockey star Wayne Gretzky during the recent final game for the Gold Medal in hockey at the Olympics, and she recalled how he said that he doesn’t skate to where the puck is, but where it will be. The same applies for anticipating cyber attacks.

Under President Obama, protection of the nation’s cyber infrastructure is viewed as both an issue of national and economic security, Napolitano said in a speech at the RSA security conference in San Francisco today. Her speech follows one yesterday by Howard Schmidt, the new White House national cybersecurity coordinator.

“We don’t live in a static world,” she said. “We have to evolve to deal with the threats.”

The federal government’s goal is to protect cyberspace, making it safe and secure and encouraging cyber security knowledge and innovation. It is working with private industries to protect infrastructure of the Internet that is owned by both federal and private parties.

One project is Einstein, an effort to protect federal agencies. Basic protection has been added under Einstein, but now the government is moving on to the idea of preventing attacks before they can happen. The effort mirrors attempts to anticipate terrorist attacks to head off the cyber equivalent of 9/11.

Napolitano said that the government is also reviewing the resiliency of networks to make sure that, if there are attacks, they can’t take down all of the network and that recovery can be quick. She said the collaborative work is happening, but was short on the details.

“We want to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security has the legal authority and financial resources to act and retain the top talent that it needs,” she said. “We have to make the system writ large, safe and secure.”

She asked the conference attendees to redouble efforts to increase security and improve their products so that the security is automatic and the reaction to attacks can happen at Internet speed. She wants the industry to make interoperable products and privacy-enhancing authentication. And she called for the industry to increase public awareness and set up a competition to do so. The DHS National Cyber Challenge contest closes on April 30 and details are on the DHS web site. The investment in this educational campaign will be big; Napolitano compared it to the scale of campaigns to stop smoking and prevent forest fires via Smoky the Bear.

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Backpack Power Plant: You ARE the Grid [Energy]

March 2nd, 2010

Bourne Energy’s BPP-2 puts a 30-pound, 500-watt generating hydroelectric plant on your back. That’s like being able to walk around with 60 solar panels. And when civilization finally collapses, I’ll be dragging mine to an as yet undisclosed location. More »

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