Konica Minolta has taken the first step towards that roll-to-roll printing of OLED screens by unveiling the world’s first inkjet printhead capable of printing the displays. The printhead is called the KM128SNG-MB, and it is a high-precision inkjet printhead for printed electronics and OLED displays. The drop size the printhead produces is one picoliter.

Konica Minolta uses silicon MEMS technology to manufacture the printhead. That same technology is we used in semiconductor processing and allows the development of a small printhead measuring 38mm wide with 128 nozzles a row capable of ejecting tiny drops of ink. Konica Minolta says that the MEMS technology will allow the printhead to be made even smaller in the future. The printhead is optimized for resistance to the inks used and for low viscosity inks that are used in industrial applications. The printhead will go on sale in sample quantities this spring.

[via OLED-display]

The LS3 prototype is equipped with sensors that allow it to distinguish between trees, rocks, soldiers, and other obstacles in the terrain. An 18-month test will start in July before the LS3 is deployed in an actual field exercise for the US Marines. The LS3 will continue to be refined during this period and ultimately must be able to carry 400lbs for 20 miles without refueling within 24 hours.

Its vision sensors will be tested and refined to ensure that it can properly detect obstacles and autonomously correct its course as needed. Hearing sensors will be added so that the LS3 can follow verbal commands from soldiers. It also serves as an auxiliary power source that soldiers can use to recharge batteries for handheld devices.

[via Armed with Science]

Google has shown off cars that drive themselves in the past using GPS and other tech that didn’t need a driver at all. Google is hardly the only company working on such technology, and this new BMW prototype is another example of a car that removes the driver from the equation, at least in part. The BMW car is not fully automated like the Google car. BMW calls its car highly automated, and the driver still has to take over the automated systems when needed. The automation only kicks in on highways if the BMW system designers have fully mapped out the highway ahead of time.

The car uses a myriad of sensors, radar, cameras, lasers, and ultrasound to allow it to determine where it is on the road and how close it is to other vehicles. The vehicle also has a database that knows the speed limit on a given road and will stick to that speed. BMW is still in the development phase with the highly automated vehicle. However, the prototype has logged 5000 km on the road already. Once the technology is proven sound, BMW may begin to roll the tech out to production vehicles. BMW’s highly automated vehicle can determine, for instance, if a slower car is in your lane and can then pass that slower vehicle safely on its own. That sounds cool and I can certainly see that in a vehicle as a much smarter system for cruise control.

[via Yahoo News]

The technology in this implementation can transfer a full DVD video from the tablet to the in-car system in only 60 seconds on a 60Hz frequency band, boasting data transfer rates of up to 7Gbps. That’s pretty impressive considering the much touted high-speed Thunderbolt wired ports offer 10Gbps transfer speeds, though bi-directional.

However, the wireless range is limited to 1 to 3 meters, which means it won’t be replacing current WiFi standards, which can offer a range of up to 30 meters. But in Panasonic’s in-vehicle application, the technology could offer great entertainment solutions. The company hopes to commercialize the WiGig SD cards for in-vehicle use by summer of 2013.

[via TechCrunch]

Chopra’s appointment was part of Obama’s “Strategy for American Innovation” initiative, in which he hoped to examine ways that technology would spur innovations to help the government be more efficient in job creation, reducing health care costs, and protecting the homeland.

During Chopra’s nearly three years as the nation’s CTO, he helped design the President’s National Wireless Initiative, developed a nationwide public safety broadband network, and established a set of Internet Policy Principles, among a “dizzying array of accomplishments.”

Although the White House did not specify a reason for Chopra’s departure, the Washington Post reports that he is leaving to pursue a new political career and possibly run for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

[via White House]

The project will last for two years, and the home will be built with all the green tech that is available today. The home will feature smart thermostats, solar panels, and green lighting and appliances. The expected completion date for the green home is this March. There has been no indication of what the home will look like at this time.

BMW is providing the EV and Tendril is providing the green home management system. Tendril has an interface that sits between the home and the power grid and adds control and flexibility to the inflexible grid. Tendril has an app that will allow the user to monitor all aspects of the electricity use in the home and to choose how and when to charge the EV. For instance, the Tendril platform will allow the driver of an EV to set a charge based on mileage needs for the day and to charge when electricity is the cheapest.

[via NYT]

However, ThinFilm has apparently been in talks with automotive suppliers about alternative uses of the technology, including tracking the wear on brakes and sending out warnings as to when they need to be replaced. Entertainment is also a possibility, with interactive toys using the inexpensive labels already in the pipeline.

The functionality will be much improved when wireless mesh networking is added, something ThinFilm expects to happen in 2013 or 2014. That would allow NFC communication between the tags and smartphones, for instance, or the central processor in a car.

Roughly 3 x 1.5 inches in size and consisting of five layers sandwiched in a roll-to-roll production process, the ThinFilm labels use the company’s own ferroelectric polymer technology for storing information. Chains of non-toxic polymers can be flipped between two orientations – representing binary “0″ and “1″ – to store non-volatile data; by adding in PARC printed transistors, meanwhile, the tags can collect information themselves and process it.

Cost per tag is around 30 cents, according to the company, which argues that’s cheaper – along with being more accurate – than using alarms in shipping containers for more generic monitoring of perishable goods. They’ll first be deployed in South Africa, but could soon be linking more devices up with the internet of things.

[via CNET]

For CES 2012 collections, we’ve got the almighty Ultrabook Round-up at the head of things, then a Smart TV Round-up to keep your displays wishing they had some more intuitive bits of software behind them. The tag team of Tablet Round-up and Smartphone Round-up brings the mobile to the party, and our gigantic Best of CES 2012 will let you in on the top excellence. I also invite you to come with me on a journey through the week with your humble narrator and his gear (my backpack included) in a column called My CES 2012.

Our week this week then started with an announcement of sorts from Microsoft that Skype on Windows Phone would finally be hitting the public – soon – and it may be their wild card, so says Chris Davies. Meanwhile there’s a brand new Nissan self-healing iPhone case on the streets, and Android lovers had a field day with Steve Wozniak’s comments on what he thought was better than iOS in the Google mobile operating system.

In hacking news there was one whole heck of a lot to be had, starting with the Zappos break-in, moving on to the 6pm break-in, and our subsequent PSA SlashGear 101: Basic Password Security. We saw $6.7 million USD stolen in a cyber bank robbery. We then started relatively early in taking on SOPA and PIPA with an explanatory post by the name of SlashGear 101: SOPA and PIPA explained in plain English. We also took a very clear stand in SOPA and PIPA are the Wrong Way to Tackle Piracy and the video by Clay Shirky for TED tells it like it is as well. As it turns out, the Internet won and SOPA and PIPA were delayed indefinitely.

The next bill by the main SOPA sponsor is 1981, and is much scarier.

The next hammer to fall was Megaupload being knocked out amid piracy indictments. In response to this, Anonymous DDoS attacked the Department of Justice, the RIAA, the MPAA, and Universal Music. The Megaupload team spoke out, followed by Anonymous becoming more vocal on #OpMegaUpload.

Apple was the first tech company to join the Fair Labor Association, the “Icons” Steve Jobs action figure was completely axed, and it’s looking like Scott Forstall is aiming for the CEO spot soon. There’s been a bit of a tip that the iPad 3 will come February while the iPad 2 remains on sale. There’s another rumor out there that says the iPad 2S is up next while the iPad 3 gets pushed back.

Another tablet out there this month that will be no competition for the iPad at all whatsoever was the Hongpaiyihao Chinese “government official” slate which costs more than any other tablet on the market and has next to nothing appealing in or on it. A more real competitor is continuing to take shape in the Windows 8 Tablet space, Microsoft releasing hardware requirements for manufacturers to start the year off right. The Acer Ultrabook lineup is also set to take off.

The education world was hit with a few announcements from Apple with iBooks 2 and textbooks, the price point of $14.99 for textbooks, and iBooks Author – free for download. We got hands-on with iBooks Author, iTunes U, and iBooks 2. You can get the whole Apple education roundup at once. Also read up on what Philip Berne has to say in The Problem with Tech and Teaching.

Microsoft also came correct with an early preview of System Center 2012 which will be hitting your private cloud sooner than later! Michael Crider reviewed the new HP Folio 13. Alienware revealed the fabulous Alienware X51 crossover device. The folks at Scientology are creating a new Super Power Building with their followers’ cash, the fifth oldest tree in the world The Senator spontaneously combusted, and the Costa Concordia cruise ship fell on its side and went halfway under off the Tuscan coast. You can see it from outer space or from under the sea.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is being pushed to tablets. BlackBerry got told by Chris Davies in a column called RIM should think Type not Touch for the new PlayBook. Samsung is walking a narrow road with their update to Ice Cream Sandwich with their Galaxy devices, keeping with a Value Pack instead of a full upgrade for older models. Samsung is also working on a bada / Tizen merge that’s not yet final. Microsoft and ZTE gave each other a high five and us a preview hands-on with the ZTE Tania running Windows Phone. Meanwhile there was a strange silence from Microsoft on Windows Phone in their quarterly financial results announcement.

There was a bit of a change as AT&T amped up their prices and T-Mobile followed suit. The social network Facebook updated its Timeline to spread to everyone. Kodak went bankrupt. Resident Evil 6 was announced. Don Reisinger columned about the next PlayStation and how HBO Go is the next Netflix.

Music keeps getting more and more serious in the mobile realm, especially with iPad, starting with the Auria 48-track recording system app. There’s a set of three Behringer iPad mixers out there now, and the Akai MPC Fly turns your iPad into a portable beats center. The Numak IDJ PRO DJ Controller sits your iPad at the center of all the fun. Gotta catch em all!

[Image credit: Maryland State Archives]

Every single witch was naked. And Polanski didn’t stop at the three witches in the script. There were dozens of them. Naked, cackling, ancient, overweight witches caked in dirt and grime, stirring cauldrons. I was obviously worried about showing this movie, unedited, to my tenth graders. But I asked my principal for permission first. I pulled up the scene and she and I watched it together.

“Do you see anything sexual here? Because I wouldn’t want to show them anything sexual,” she said. What I saw on the screen was probably the least sexual scene I had ever witnessed in a movie. It’s the kind of scene I’d call to mind if I wanted to hold out a little longer, if you know what I mean. So I showed it.

I didn’t just show it. I presented it. I played it on my class projector. I didn’t need a screen because my walls were painted white, so I threw the movie large from floor to ceiling. I pumped the sound through my nice 2.1 speaker system. Because I had ripped the movie to my hard drive (I’m claiming fair use as a teacher), I could stop and start easily so we could discuss scenes.

At one point I stop and stood in front of the room, asking basic recall questions to make sure my students were paying attention. They were staring straight at me, but they weren’t answering my questions. They were holding back laughter. Of course, I had stopped on one of the witches scenes without thinking. I hadn’t turned the projector off, and it was aimed directly at me. Where my pasty white face should have been hovering before them, instead I was plastered with a gigantic, ancient nipple the size of a serving platter. I was a boob in front of the room, trying to get 20 or so fifteen year olds to take me seriously. When I realized, even I cracked up.

Now let me back up and explain what’s really happening here. In my classroom, I had two computers. I had an old bondi blue iMac, the very first on the market, on my desk. I used it only for attendance and internal email correspondence with other staff members. It could hardly manage much else. The movie file was stored on my personal 17-inch Powerbook, a holdover from my days working in production at dotcoms. The speakers were my personal set. The projector I used was the only one in the school. Most of the computers did not have the proper VGA connection to hook up to the projector, and even if they did, most of the teachers, who were young and fresh and extremely bright, could not troubleshoot the connection, anyway. There was little competition for the projector, and it stayed in my classroom for most of the year.

My school had one computer lab, with just enough computers so that everyone in a class got a seat. They were Internet connected, but there was no internal server, so students couldn’t store their work in a central location. If they forgot on which computer they started a report, they might lose it forever. If a malicious student came along next and deleted the files, there was nothing we could do. The students couldn’t afford flash drives, and the school couldn’t afford to provide thumb drives for them. Some students had floppy disks, but there were only two USB floppy drives that would work with our computers, and one of those was usually broken. Try telling a room full of students that it’s time to pack up and head to their next class, then watch them pass the floppy drive around while they frantically save their work.

I taught at one of the better schools in the city. It was a successful charter school, so in addition to the public funding, we raised extra money ourselves. This was still the best technology we could manage. I can’t imagine what the average school had to use, let alone the schools in the neighborhoods where property values provided the lowest level of taxes to support education. Did you know most school funds come from property taxes? If you live in a neighborhood with expensive houses, your school has more money. So it goes.

When our school got a little bit of extra money, we fixed things. We added new whiteboards, or bought new chairs. When we got more money, we hired people. We hired teachers, or tutors, or special educators. Students took five courses, all the same. Every student took English, Math, Science, History, and Spanish. We offered no other languages, no art, no physical education. No music. When the school raised a ton of money after years of successful fundraising, we bought a new building and moved out of the basement of the YMCA, where we shared space with homeless veterans and a women’s shelter.

Technology, like new computers, was low on the list. Very low. It’s not that the school didn’t care about technology, it just couldn’t be a priority. The teachers were not trained in new gadgets, and we didn’t have the time to train ourselves. The students did not live in a world of mp3 players and tablet computers. They had computers at home, but many of them lacked an Internet connection, or a printer. Some had to rely on the local public library to use a connected machine.

There are red herrings in the arguments over teaching. There are easy targets that most people agree need to be changed dramatically. Textbooks are one of these. It’s easy to look at the sorry state of textbooks and decide that they could use an upgrade. When you see a kid carrying 30 pounds of paper and cardboard on her back, this seems like an obvious fix. But in my five years teaching in urban schools, in schools where 90% or more of the students qualified for a free lunch, I never once pointed to textbooks as a priority that I would like to change. I never felt that my lack of technology in the classroom was the main issue holding us back.

The problem with education is, and always will be, a human issue. When I start arguing the topic, and it’s hard for me to refrain from jumping into an argument about education, I’m often asked what needs to change to fix our education problems. Is it the students? The parents? The administration and the budgets? The school district and the federal regulations? The teachers? What is it?

It’s everything. It is every last one of those things. But I promise you that everything you think you know about the problems in education is wrong. Maybe you’ve heard that the students are lazy and don’t have any ambition. Maybe you’ve heard that the parents don’t care, or they care too much and stifle the teachers. Maybe you’ve seen administrative bloat and budgets that need to be trimmed back before they are increased. Perhaps you’ve heard the term “teaching to the test.” Most of all, you’ve definitely heard about the teacher’s unions protecting bad teachers while the good ones leave the profession early because they are so underpaid.

I could write a column on any one of those issues. The idea that students are lazy hurts me the most. Lazy is a code word. When someone calls a student lazy, they are dismissing that student. I never met a lazy student. There was always something else going on. There was something missing from their lives, or something missing from my teaching, that made them behave in ways ignorant critics would deem lazy.

I never met a parent who didn’t care, though I met many who never showed up to school meetings, mostly because they were working night shifts and 16 hour days to make ends meet. As far as teachers leaving, teachers should definitely be paid more, but that’s not why I left the profession, and I suspect it’s not why most teachers quit within 5 years of starting out. I left teaching to take a job that paid half as much. So I’ll tell you why I left.

I could never do enough for my students. I worked 12 hour days, and always on weekends. I graded dozens, even hundreds of papers in a week. I could never plan enough. I could never provide enough feedback. And I wasn’t remotely the best teacher at my school. I can’t imagine how the best teachers tortured themselves, and many of them are still teaching.

If you want to reinvent the textbook, by all means, go ahead. I’m sure that college students will love the fancier books, and professors will make even more money publishing endless revisions and selling the fresh copies without losing money to an intermediary publisher. I have no quarrel with that.

But don’t think that will fix our public education problems in any way. If you want to fix education, you won’t be able to do it with software and technology. You need to start with the people. Help them. Respect them and support them. But most importantly, hire as many of them as you possibly can. There is unimaginable work to be done.

On Sunday, I’m going to fly from Dallas to Las Vegas. I’m not going to have time to check into my hotel, because I have to go directly to my first meeting. I’ll be sitting in meetings for at least 8 hours. The next four days, I’ll wake up at 8AM and start working. I won’t stop until late into the evening. On many nights, I won’t get back to my hotel room until after midnight.

I’ll be at the Consumer Electronics Show, of course. The Super Bowl of gadgets. Except it lasts for days and days, and there is no football, just commercials. It’s so huge that it takes place not only at the Las Vegas Convention Center, but also the Hilton next door, and the Sands convention center connected to the Venetian hotel. A friend wore a pedometer at the show one year and discovered that she walked 4-6 miles a day, every day.

Sounds grueling, right? Hardly. Let me fill in the blanks.

My first meeting is with a good friend and drinking buddy. Every subsequent meeting I have will be with technology journalists, analysts, and other industry professionals. These are people who are interested in the exact same thing I’m interested in. We’ll have plenty to talk about, on professional and personal levels. It’s not like going to the office, it’s more like hanging out in a college dorm, arguing politics over pizza until late in the night. But instead of pizza, it’s all about gadgets.

My day job, and the sponsor of my trip, is with Samsung. My meetings will involve talking about Samsung products and showing off the coolest stuff we have. I’ll be carrying around a bag full of awesome gadgets throughout the show. During the meetings, we’ll play. There will be questions, photographs, hands-on videos. But mostly, we’ll play.

At night, we’ll head to corporate and PR sponsored events. These are usually nice meals, parties at night clubs, or mini trade shows with free alcohol and plenty of fried food. Since CES always happens after New Year’s, usually we’ll hear anecdotes from the club workers about how Britney Spears or Paris Hilton passed out in this VIP room, or threw up in that elevated bathtub. I’ll go to the most exclusive clubs in Vegas, the places that wouldn’t let me in wearing the same outfit a week later. There will be music, dancing, free pens and baseball caps, and more time hanging out with some of my favorite people in the world.

I love my job. I loved my job when I was a journalist. I love it now that I’m on the corporate side. If you’re working at your cubicle, or from the cab of your truck, or from anywhere that does not send you on an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas once a year, I hope you see I’m not trying to brag. I appreciate my job and the opportunities it gives me. I work hard at it, and I worked hard to get here. I put in the hours. I will never complain about it. I know exactly how lucky I am.

I wish everyone in my business were so self aware. I’ve seen column after column on other technology Web sites complaining about having to make the trek to CES. Some folks even revel in the fact that they have never attended the show, all the while dismissing what’s there, as if they have any idea.

Is CES a dying animal? No way. Microsoft is scaling back. Other companies have stopped exhibiting at trade shows, preferring their own, invariably more exclusive corporate events. There is certainly a time and a place for that strategy, but CES serves a definite purpose.

First, it’s a mile marker for our industry. It’s a way to stop after the holidays, look around, and try to figure out where this giant ship is sailing. It’s a way to spot icebergs and jet streams.

The Consumer Electronics Association, the group that runs CES, exists to promote consumer electronics. No trade show in existence does a better job promoting its category than CES. Sure, you may have read about the adult entertainment show that used to run concurrently with CES. But have you heard of the pizza maker’s trade show in Las Vegas? Have you seen coverage of the Construction Expo that happens once every 3 years? In fact, can you name any other major trade show convention that is covered by all major TV networks, all forms of print and online publications, and supports an entire category of bloggers and Web sites? Of course not. This isn’t just a testimony to the popularity of technology. It’s a testament to the hard work and sheer spectacle of CEA at CES.

Second, CES lets in the little guy. At some point during the show, all journalists run out of steam and decide to walk the floor. Everybody wants to find the little guy, the cool products hidden in the back of the convention center. I’ve played video games with my mind. I’ve watched movies that smell. I’ve watched body painting and drag racing and all sorts of fascinating pageantry.

The weirdest thing about technology journalists is that many of them think they have hard jobs. They think that CES is difficult. They complain about the walking, the long nights, the bad food (okay, too much fried, not enough fresh). If you follow tech journalists on Twitter, be prepared for a full week of complaining about flight delays, poorly designed airports, hotel errors, shuttle delays, blistered feet, missed meetings, and more.

Feel free to tell any and all of them where they can stick it.

I’ve never had a true manual labor job, but I have had jobs that were actually difficult. Tedious jobs that were repetitive and dull. Retail jobs over the holiday time. I worked 12 hour days as a teacher in inner-city schools. My students were awesome, and they were the reason I woke up every day. But there was endless paperwork, long hours, a complete lack of appreciation on every level, and heartbreak. Try grading 200 papers in a weekend and tell me how difficult CES can be. Try calling a single working parent to tell them their child would be expelled for a stupid rule infraction, then tell me how much you hate going to parties every single night.

Or don’t. Enjoy it. Love it. Have a great time. If you’re so jaded that you really hate the Consumer Electronics Show, you probably need a new career. But I warn you, you’re going to be very disappointed with what you find. There are very few openings for people with expertise in playing with gadgets, drinking heavily, and hanging with friends.

Kanye is looking for some geeks to help launch his new company called DONDA. What exactly DONDA will do is unknown, but it’s clear the company has a tech bent. If you are the sort of guy (I assume women can apply as well) that has some tech skills you might be able to work for Kanye.

Kanye is looking for a slew of people in addition to app and tech guys (we assume he means programmers when he says tech guys). Kanye is also looking for game developers, car designers, graphic designers and a bunch more. Check out the official listing below.

I am assembling a team of architects, graphic designers, directors musicians, producers, AnRs, writers, publicist, social media experts, app guys, managers, car designers, clothing designers, DJs, video game designers, publishers, tech guys, lawyers, bankers, nutritionist, doctors, scientist,teachers. DONDA will be comprised of over 22 divisions with a goal to make products and experiences that people want and can afford. I want to put creatives in a room together with like minds that are all waaaay doper than me. We want to help simplify and aesthetically improve everything we see hear, touch, taste and feel… To dream of, create, advertise and produce products driven equally by emotional want and utilitarian need.. To marry our wants and needs.

[via Betabeat]

Their unseen event lasts an incredibly tiny of a second. The event was hidden for a mere 40 picoseconds (trillionths of a second), according to a study the journal Nature. We see events by the light that hits them returning to our eyes. This usually happens in a continuous flow of light. However, the scientists were able to disrupt the flow, even if it was just for a short period of time.

Whereas previous scientists disrupted where the light was distributed, which allowed for invisibility, the group at Cornell changed how fast the light moves. With this change in speed, to surveillance cameras, Ethan Hunt’s event, for example, never took place. However, until the science is able to allow for longer than split seconds of time, Etan Hunt will have to stick to his faux-transparency screen.

[via Physorg]

How does CES work?

CES is a show, this meaning that there are several elements in play, the first being the main show floor. On the floor there will be hoards of visitors walking through hundreds of stands that brands have set up to show off their wares. We’ll be running through the floor from time to time, but for the most part we’ll be at events. The other big element in a show such as this is events – keynote speeches and town-hall meetings. Essentially anything where someone or a set of people stand on stage and talk to the audience that stands before them. That’s where the big products will be revealed, and that’s where we’ll be primarily.

There are also meetings that occur between us, the press, and the brands that want to show off their products up close and personal to you, the user and the consumer. We’ve got meetings set up with all the big brands (as well as a bunch of up-and-coming brands) that have excellent goodies to let us in on.

Who will be there?

Everyone and their tech-loving grandmother will be there. For example AT&T will be there, LG, Intel, Sharp, and Pioneer, Panasonic, Sony Ericsson, and Qualcomm. There’s Fujifilm, the DISH Network, Casio, Texas Instrument, NVIDIA, and Ford. Verizon will be there, AUDI, Microsoft, Samsung, and Sharp. And that’s only a small spattering. There’s so many people here your eyes will bleed when you’re done reading all the posts we’ll be putting up over the next week – you can bank on it!

How will I know what to watch for?

I would direct you back to the post we’ve got up about the CES mobile application for that sort of knowledge. You can tell us what you’d like us to inspect, or you can follow along with the schedule of all the main events from your smartphone or tablet, then watch SlashGear as we bring you the best coverage of each of those events as they occur! Furthermore, we’ll continue to have “what we’ll see at CES 2012″ posts up until the event itself – check out our CES 2012 Leaks post for now!

Can I filter SlashGear to give me only CES 2012 news?

You sure can, all you’ve got to do is head to our [CES 2012 portal] to see all the news before, during, and after the show! It’s just that easy!

BONUS: for a look at how we’ll be covering the events as well as a glimpse of how far-spanning the CES events end up being in effect, check out our [CES 2011 portal] from last year!

This month Snoop Dogg took part in a week long promotion on The Price is Right in which he and other celebrities appeared on the show to raise money for their charity of choice. As he shows up behind a curtain which also reveals a fabulously stylish vehicle in which he rides, the contestant up at the time on the show loses her mind in appreciation of his being there to play the game with her. Much in the same way, many readers of tech blogs both read and contribute to the blogs they love because they find themselves tied to them with some innate form of loyalty.

The same can be said about many people’s favorite tech reporters. Many of your favorite tips and leaked sets of images have been passed on to specific writers rather than the blogs they writer for because they feel that these specific people are the one’s they want to see reporting the news they’ve got to offer. Snoop Dogg didn’t seek out The Price is Right, the producers of the show sought out him. They wanted to reach the viewers they know he lights up well with (young people, mostly,) and he said certainly, as with each disparate appearance his audience doth grow.

So I ask you this, reader: do you read specific blogs, writers, or neither?

[video via MTV]

We started out with a genuine Don Reisinger article all about the future of Apple vs Samsung in TVs. Apple used Santa for Siri. The company known as Fusion Garage implodes. Eric Schmidt teased a Nexus tablet in the next 6 months. The Galaxy Nexus went Ninja. Officials stalled on SOPA.

We started out very own Lumia 800 giveaway! Tips led to Google Terminator glasses. Samsung promised Bada 2.0 for 2012 The AT&T T-Mobile merger was dropped entirely. We reviewed the DROID XYBOARD accessories as well as the XYBOARD 8.9 and 10.1. Samsung said GSII and Note for ICS in Q1, 2012. The MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic was officially launched. Apple purchased Anobit for Flash Memory futures.

The PlayStation Vita was apologized for. Sony detailed ICS updates for XPERIA. Google used Santa for Nexus. Microsoft said CES 2012 would be their last. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 Series GPU was announced. We did a lovely review of the tiny Pogoplug Mobile, as well as the TP-LINK TL-SC4171G Wi-fi IP camera.

Steve Jobs won a Grammy. We discussed why Google+ works, for now. We reviewed the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. We reviewed the Three Wi-fi hub XTE MF10. Don Reisinger explained why he considers Netflix 2011′s Biggest Loser. We reviewed the Philips goLITE BLU Energy Light. Xerox PARC founder Jacob Goldman passed away.

We wished you a Happy Holidays. We guided you towards a Galaxy S II for Christmas. Avi Greengart noted how Apple’s Grand Central Station Store is and will be the Future of Retail. There very well may have been a leak of the Galaxy S III. We let you know what to do with your crappy Android tablet. Chris Davies instructed you on Geek Speak and Holiday Headaches.

LG updated us on their Android ICS schedule. Nokia showed off a fancy nametag. We showed you what to buy for your new iPad 2 or your new Android device. Windows Phone’s Market hit 50k applications. Samsung changed their mind several times on their Galaxy line ICS update schedule. There was a tip that said iPhone 5 would be coming and that water was wet. Don Reisinger let us know why he wanted Video Games for Christmas. The CyanongenMod team released info on their ICS launcher.

We reviewed the year 2011 in Android Developers. A tip dropped about two new iPads in January 2012. We got really super mad about Twitter kids. Verizon was down a whole lot this month. We got our own look at the Intel 32nm Medfield SoC reference tablet. We were assured anew that the Raspberry Pi $25 USD computer was on schedule for January. Comscore assured us that Android and iOS were still on top. Stanford University revealed bits of their massive Apple archive. The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic had missing brake pads.

Windows had an emergency patch released. China decided they’d be heading to space. Don Reisinger told us all about 32-37-inch Apple TVs. We heard about a possible LG/Intel collaboration at CES. The Acer Iconia Tab A700 was revealed to possibly be coming with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. A shadow joke of an app Siri for Android appeared on the market. An iPad 3 Retina Display appeared in a Korean forum. Philip Berne let us know that it was Time to Upgrade his Parents. We got our hands on a brand new HP ENVY 15. Philip Berne let us know his New Year’s Meta-Tech Resolutions. And of course, we wished you a Happy New Year’s!

What you’re going to see can be prefaced by what we saw in years past, those events and products easily found inside [CES 2011] and [MWC 2011] tags, those leading you to Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress from early last year. This year we’ll be using 2012 tags like so: [CES 2012] and [MWC 2012], and the keys are yours! We’ve already got a whole batch of teasers in both categories setting up the shows without a doubt!

As for big hits this past year, the tops on SlashGear when you consider post views only are thus:

1. Massive networks of stripes appear in Chinese Desert
2. Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera has us seeing spherical potential
3. iPad 2 vs iPad 1 [Original]
4. iPhone 4S Review
5. iPad 2 Review

After that it’s such masterpieces as the Samsung Galaxy S II review, a comparison post by the name of HTC Sensation vs Samsung Galaxy S II, and one of our first glimpses at the hero phone of today: Samsung Galaxy Nexus Pictured Clear as Day. Slightly more popular than the Galaxy Nexus post, believe it or not, is a post comparing the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer vs Acer Iconia Tab A500. You must remember, of course, that when those two tablets were released, the only other comparable Android was the Motorola XOOM. That said, our Galaxy Nexus Review isn’t far behind, and a warzone of a comments post in the “iPhone 5″ leak by Cincinnati Bell surprised us all with its tenacity. We’ll be exploring the significance of the top five in an upcoming post this week!

Then for your yearly wrap-up posts: stick around SlashGear here in the main news feed for all the “best of” posts you can handle! Everything from Apple to Android, Music to Magical Machines, you’ll know what we’ve brought to you in a vast set of nutshells. Enjoy!

Mashable has a listed of the nine oddest questions that interviewees were asked when trying to land a job at a tech firm in 2011. Some of them are really strange. It’s easy enough to figure out that what the interviewers are trying to do is throw the candidates off and get a real answer rather than something they have been practicing for a while.

Google reportedly asked one person at an interview, “A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?” I would wager he ran out of gas in Vegas. Other strange questions include, one asked by Qualcomm, “Given 20 ‘destructible’ light bulbs (which break at a certain height), and a building with 100 floors, how do you determine the height that the light bulbs break?” I’d ride the elevator to the top floor with one in hand and see when it popped. Check out the other odd questions below and share your answers in the comments to see if you would be worth hiring.

“How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30 p.m. on a Friday?” — Asked at Google, Vendor Relations Manager candidate

“If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” — Asked at Hewlett-Packard, Product Marketing Manager candidate

“Given 20 ‘destructible’ light bulbs (which break at a certain height), and a building with 100 floors, how do you determine the height that the light bulbs break?” — Asked at Qualcomm, Engineering candidate

“How would you cure world hunger?” — Asked at Amazon.com, Software Developer candidate

“You’re in a row boat, which is in a large tank filled with water. You have an anchor on board, which you throw overboard (the chain is long enough so the anchor rests completely on the bottom of the tank). Does the water level in the tank rise or fall?” — Asked at Tesla Motors, Mechanical Engineer candidate

“Please spell ‘diverticulitis’.” — Asked at EMSI Engineering, Account Manager candidate

“You have a bouquet of flowers. All but two are roses, all but two are daisies, and all but two are tulips. How many flowers do you have?” — Asked at Epic Systems, Corporation Project Manager/Implementation Consultant candidate

“How do you feel about those jokers at Congress?” — Asked at Consolidated Electrical, Management Trainee candidate

“If you were a Microsoft Office program, which one would you be?” — Asked at Summit Racing Equipment, Ecommerce candidate

[via Mashable]

[Image credit: Julian B]

I’m away from my family this holiday, and it seemed an excellent time to take advantage of Skype for a video call or two on Christmas day. The tech world may have raced ahead, but carriers and roaming phone calls still lag behind, and using my cellphone to ring could easily rack up a bill greater than I was spending on gifts. Trying to install Skype onto a regular Windows laptop, though, proved to be an irritant greater than forgetting to defrost the turkey.

My parents aren’t stupid, or even particularly tech-naive. They’ve managed to install routers and printers – something, along with scanners, almost guaranteed to get my blood boiling – by themselves before now, and they know how to run regular anti-virus and malware scans and keep their PCs in shapely condition.

Installing Skype, then, ought to have been an easy matter: we should’ve been video chatting within minutes. In actual fact, though, the convoluted online registration process – page after page of setting up a new account, uncertainty over what personal information was mandatory and what wasn’t (and being thrown back to the beginning when something was inadvertently left out, with no obvious indicator of why), then installing the app and being forced to put in that account information again, peppered with Skype’s attempts to encourage them to buy SkypeOut credit – stretched out what should’ve been a quick “make a connection” moment into a homework-like chore for my family and a remote frustration for me on the other end of the phone.

We take for granted that some elements of the technology world come more easily to us than others. We overlook elements of bad UI or confusing installer decisions, perhaps don’t even “see” them, because we generally understand what the designers “meant” to say. Those who aren’t immersed within this world suffer for that blasé attitude, are made to feel stupid or inept.

Technology can be wonderful: when all the pieces had finally slotted together, I quietly marveled at how my Galaxy Nexus could give me a clear view into my family’s living room several thousand miles away. I used Skype over WiFi on my phone to make several voice calls, too, at rates a fraction of what O2 would’ve charged me to roam onto T-Mobile USA’s network. But to have that video call with my family on Christmas Day, I had to create a new Skype account for them on my phone and read the login details out: the new account Skype had made for them simply wouldn’t let them log in.

Skype could have won some devoted customers over the holidays. Imagine an undemanding webpage – holiday themed, perhaps – promoting the simplicity and convenience of video calling, created in HTML5 maybe or using the same quick plugin as Skype made for Facebook’s video chat integration. A couple of clicks, a temporary username, and you’re talking with and waving to loved ones many miles away. At the end of the call, you’d have the option to convert that temporary account into a permanent one, perhaps receive a little tester SkypeOut credit with the prompt to “call a landline this Christmas.” Nothing overwhelming when people are stuffed full of festive food and simply want to connect. Show them how it works, demonstrate why they should want it, rather than making them jump through dozens of hoops first.

(In actual fact, the company ran a “free airport WiFi” promotion across the US. I used it myself in Detroit; there was no promotional material in the airport or when you connected to the network pointing out you could have an hour of free access, you had to guess to log in via Skype WiFi in the app itself rather than putting your Skype username into the Boingo roaming page, and, even when you’d done all that, it was still unclear whether you were going to be charged. Every ten minutes a warning dialog popped up asking if I wanted to extend my session, cautioning it would probably cost me each time (it didn’t). Even as a frequent hotspot user I was confused, and it would hardly have made a good impression with a novice.)

The barrier to geek nirvana is still too high. Previously it was a matter of price: a computer, or a smartphone, was expensive. Those who could afford them inevitably spent the time understanding their intricacies, to “make the most” of the functionality on offer. As prices have diminished, though, the headaches and confusions have persisted. The barrier is a more pervasive now, too, and the wonderful promises phones, tablets, computers and other tech make are all too often locked behind poor communication, unnecessary gimmicks and an over-emphasis on something looking good rather than being straightforward to use. I find myself wondering how many people will end their holidays satisfied and enthused about the gadgets they received, and how many will be disillusioned.

Companies and analysts haven’t tired of telling us how 2011 has been a difficult year for those trying to sell hardware, software and services to an increasingly cost-conscious public. Turning every user into an evangelist is worth a hundred expensive advertising campaigns; 2012 could be the year when simplicity and usability catch up with feature promises and geek hyperbole.

The man behind the giant robot is building up to a really, really big bot. Apparently he wants to build a Gundam that actually moves around. The first robot built by Hajime Sakamoto was 7-feet tall, the latest is 13-feet tall and eventually he will build a 26-foot tall bot. The ultimate goal is to build a 59-foot tall bot that is the size of a Gundam suit.

That sounds pretty cool and all. I’d rather see a full size Mad Cat personally. Check out the video below to see his interim 13-foot tall bot in action. It looks interesting; I can only imagine a giant 60-footer moving like that.

[via PlasticPals]

Researchers at IBM are working on ways to connect the human mind to computers and smartphones, such that phone calls can be placed by simply thinking. IBM has been working on bioinformatics headsets that can read electrical brain activity and recognize facial expressions and see this technology applied first in gaming and entertainment within the next five years.

The company also sees recycling kinetic energy, such as capturing heat from a computer, walking, jogging, or cycling to be able to help power homes, cities, and workplaces. It believes that passwords will be a thing of the past, with computers being able to use eye-sensing or voice recognition technology to authenticate biometric data.

Additionally, it believes that 80 percent of the global population will have a mobile device by 2017 as both the poor and rich will have more access to mobile technology. And lastly, IBM predicts the end of junk mail because ads will become so personalized to users that they will no longer be considered spam.

[via IBM]

Now the bots can make salami and cheese sandwiches and stovetop popcorn as well. That means the bot can now make your breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack. Eh bots are able to do all the little steps including turning the oven on and have impressive dexterity. The bots are able to respond to orders like make me a sandwich.

They use the Kinect visual detection system to assess the surroundings and make the food. The sandwich command even gets you toasted bread. It’s impressive that these robots can perform these tasks from voice commands only. Check out the videos to see the bots in action.

[via PhysOrg]

That evidence presents as a set of consistent spikes or “modest excess of events” that occur between 115 and 127 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), with the prediction that the multiple independent measurements at 124 to 126 GeV are the most likely to be signs of the Higgs boson, if it exists. If they can identify it, the hope is that CERN scientists could lead the way in developing a new physics model to replace or augment the existing Standard Model, the theory of fundamental particles and forces.

Such a new model would address the huge amount of the universe that is invisible, though the experiments set to continue in 2012 will only open the door to that rather than prove anything conclusive.

“Higgs bosons, if they exist, are very short lived and can decay in many different ways. Discovery relies on observing the particles they decay into rather than the Higgs itself. Both ATLAS and CMS have analysed several decay channels, and the experiments see small excesses in the low mass region that has not yet been excluded” CERN

“Tantalising hints have been seen by both experiments in this mass region,” the teams conclude, “but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery.” Full papers on the results are expected to be presented by the end of January 2012, and CERN expects to have the full answer by the end of next year.

The statue will be erected on December 21 and is intended to celebrate the vision and leadership of Jobs. Jobs and Graphisoft founder Gabor Bojar met in 1984 when Graphisoft had unveiled the ArchiCAD 3D design software for the Apple Lisa computer. Jobs apparently offered marketing and financial support for the company.

The statue is being made by sculptor Erno Toth and shows Jobs in his trademark clothing. The bronze Jobs is wearing the mock turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers along with the round glasses and stubbly beard Jobs sported. The stature shows Jobs with one hand out holding a device that looks like an iPhone. The US Patent Office Museum has a Steve Jobs exhibit.

[via Times of India]

The announcement is expected to be announced with a fairly high degree of certainty the particle had been observed. With science of this sort, there are grades of certainty before the particle is declared discovered. To make the discovery official the certainty has to be sigma level of five. According to the rumors, the certainty at the LHC so far is 2.5 to 3.5 sigma certainty.

That would work out to 96% to 99.9% certainty. The discovery of this particle apparently will mostly only confirm what physicists have thought about particles for a long time. However, the more interesting possibility with the Higgs boson particle would be to find it doesn’t exist or has odd behavior. If the particle doesn’t exist Extremetech reports that physics books would have to be rewritten. There are rumors that the observed Higgs boson particles have acted strangely. If the rumors are true, the particles were observed at 125GeV. If that is the case, there will be some changes to be made in physics books, but not as physics altering as the particles not existing.

[via Extremetech]

Already about 100,000 of the domains have been sold in a restricted sale that started in September. At least two of the big porn firms online have filed suit over the sale of .xxx domains. The ICM registry that oversaw the sale claims that the suits are without merit. The two suits claim that the industry didn’t need an .xxx domain and the decision to make one was flawed.

The two firms suing are Manwin Licensing and Digital Playground. Manwin runs Playboy websites. Part of the complaint is that the ICM Registry is charging $60 per address, which is about ten times the cost of other top-level domains. The ICM also claims that the .xxx sites will be safer because they will be scanned daily by security firm McAfee.

[via BBC News]

The chart that the astronauts on the ill-fated mission used to determine their location in space went up for auction recently. Without the chart the crew of Apollo 13 would not been able to get back home in their damaged ship. The chart has the handwriting of commander James Lovell used to determine the correct angle of descent for the spacecraft back into Earth’s atmosphere.

The huge $380,000 price paid for the piece of space history makes it the highest selling price for an item from a moon mission that never actually made it to the moon. I find myself wondering if that list is still considered government property along the lines of the moon rocks that returned on all the moon missions.

[via The Australian]

The system uses a cold fog as the projection screen and then projects the images onto the fog that you see. The motion control comes from an infrared camera and the system is accurate enough to capture fine movements of the hands. The entire system was developed by a college student living in a dorm room. It has only 0.2-second lag time between the motion and the movement of the display.

The Kinect has 0.1 seconds for comparison. The system has 1500 points of multitouch control with an accuracy down to 1cm. When the system is made in quantity the thought is that it could sell for somewhere in the massive range of $4,000 to $30,000. The system can be scaled for projections of 40-inches to 140-inches.

[via eu.techcrunch]

The material is comprised 99.99% of air alone and is a microlattice cellular architecture that is made from nickel. Apparently, the material can be made from other materials as well. However, nickel was the easiest material to use. The composition of the lattice is 90% nickel.

The chunk of the material you see in the photo is so light it sits atop a dandelion and doesn’t crush the weed. The scientists are studying exactly what to use the material for. Some thoughts are things like impact protection and various things in the aerospace industry. Apparently, the material floats down like a feature if you toss it in the air and takes ten seconds to reach the ground when dropped from shoulder height. Sounds like a Splinter Cell device for floating cameras to me.

[via LA Times]

The shock mount would be designed to instantly inflate when the device senses a drop as determined by its accelerometer. This would be used in combination with stronger glass materials such as alumino silicate glass, also known commercially as Gorilla Glass, or with sodalime and borosilicate materials that are resistant to thermal shock.

The shock mount itself would be made of a polymer, foam, gel, silicone rubber, or other viscoelastic material and could be filled with a special fluid as an inflatable bladder or airbag. The idea sounds almost as whacky as the patent filed by Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos for smartphone airbags, springs, and compressed air thrusters. Both aim to protect portable devices from impact and were filed around the same time towards the beginning of 2010.

[via Patently Apple]

The boost comes from an adjustment in the charging materials used. Traditional lithium-ion batteries charge by moving electrons from the electrolyte into the anode, which is usually made of graphene. An alternative and more efficient material is silicon, which allows four lithium atoms per one silicon atom while the graphene allows only one lithium atom per six carbon atoms.

Although superior, silicon has a tendency to expand and contract during charging, causing damage to the battery. Hence, to address this, the Northwestern University research team sandwiched clusters of silicon with graphene sheets, which would avoid battery fragmentation.

The researchers also drilled tiny holes of 10- to 20-nm in the sheets to speed up recharging time. The next step for the team is to improve the cathode and electrolyte so that the battery can automatically shut off to prevent fires or explosions should the battery temperature get too high.

[via PhoneArena]

The coolest of the offerings is the MOD Live set that runs Android and comes with four new apps that can be viewed on the little screen. The apps include buddy tracking, smartphone connectivity, and a navigation app with a database of trails. The Live version also has a POV app for use with future POV cams.

The MOD version also has the GPS navigation capability and both models show speed, jump analytics, vertical, altitude, location, distance, and temp among other things. The MOD set sells for $299 and the MOD Live sells for $399. If you have an eye dominance problem, just fix it Tommy Lee Jones style with a periscope and a pair of panties on your head. Sadly, none of my fellow SlashGeeks came close to catching that movie reference.

That 5.9 is a three spot gain for HP making it the greenest around. Dell is second with a score of 5.1, a rise of eight places, but Dell still scores poorly on green products. Nokia is at 4.9, down two places from its previous top spot. Apple ranks at 4.6. Philips takes fifth with a 4.5, Sony Ericsson is sixth at 4.2, and Samsung takes the seventh sport at 4.1.

Rounding out the top ten are eight place Lenovo at 3.8, Panasonic at ninth with 3.6 and Sony at tenth with 3.6. It’s not clear how with the same score Greenpeace decided which of those two landed at what spot. The lowest scoring firm on the Greenpeace list is RIM at only 1.6 in the 15th spot. Apparently, RIMs poor placement has to do with failure to disclose environmental factors.

The three new elements are 110, 111, and 112. The elements are darmstadtium (Ds), roentgenium (Rg), and copernicium (Cn). The elements are large and unstable. That instability means that they break down quickly into other elements. Apparently, the names of the elements were chosen by consulting with physicists around the world.

Copernicium was discovered in 1996 in Germany when zinc and lead were smashed together. The name comes from a Prussian astronomer that died in 1543. Roentgenium was discovered in 1994 and was named after German physicist Conrad Roentgen. The same folks that discovered the Roentgentium discovered Darmstadtium. Darmstadtium was discovered in 1994 and named after the city Darmstadt where the GSI Helmholtz Centre is located.

[via Telegraph]

IBM will be buying back another $7 billion worth of its stock and has declared a dividend. That $7 billion in additional buyback is on top of the $5.2 billion that IBM had announced it would buy back at the end of September. Apparently IBM still isn’t done gathering its own stock back up.

The technology giant is expected to ask its board for permission to buy back more stock in a board meeting set for next April. The quarterly dividend that was announced is 75 cents and will be paid to shareholders on December 10 that were on record as of November 10.

[via Business Week]

The way the patent outlines the new gift card the person giving the card would be able to recommend items that the person receiving the card might like. The giver would also be able to limit the purchases to specific things. Presumably that would mean if you don’t want the receiver to use it for video games you could restrict that category.

The part that is a bit more intrusive for the receiver of the gift card is that the sender can get a report back on what the person they gave the card to actually purchased. I can see the use for the restrictions. If an uncle for instance wants to send an 11-year-old a virtual gift card for Christmas, but wants to be sure the kid uses it for books or toys and not violent video games this would allow that.

[via Geekwire]

TI has announced a new highly efficient boost charger IC for nano power energy harvesting that is able to harvest energy in the microwatts to milliwatts range. The IC can harvest energy from a variety of sources including solar, thermoelectric, electromagnetic, and vibration. That energy can be stored in things like batteries and super capacitors. The new IC is called the bq25503.

TI says that when the new IC is used in a solar panel powering a handheld device operating in indoor light conditions the new boost charger can increase the usable energy harvest by 30 to 70% compared to a linear regulator. That allows the size of the solar panel to be reduced making the products cheaper to produce and more compact. The IC is available now for $2.10 each in quantities of 1,000.

The hope is that a LENR reactor might be fitted inside an extremely large aircraft that would stay in flight on a semi-permanent basis. The aircraft would fly using its LENR power plant with a normal chemical fuel reservoir for backup energy. The aircraft in the concept drawing above has two landing strips on its back. The flying machine has such a massive size that other normally sized aircraft could take off from the ground, land on the back of the giant LENR aircraft and then fly close to their destination.

Once near their destination the conventional aircraft could take back off from the back of the giant LENR machine and then land on the ground. The thought is that an air transport scheme like this could save 40% of the fuel required for a conventional flight on a 1000km route and on a longer 10,000km route; the savings could be as high as 85-90%. That sounds pretty good to me, but we have a long way to go before a LENR aircraft can prowl the skies. The main problem is that so far no LENR device has been demonstrated that can be turned on and off at will.

[via Aviationweek]

The agreement at hand will have Vuzix performing research and development for see-through waveguide optics and near-eye display systems for products for their own line, but will also have Nokia able to access these products and components for use in their OWN products. Could this mean that MeeGo will go into my goggles in no time? Nokia, listen to Paul Travers, Vuzix President and CEO, and see the future for Nokia worldwide!

“Integrate this Nokia technology with Vuzix’s advanced display engine developments with partners like Fraunhofer IPMS, and we expect to be able to offer the video glasses that Hollywood and Sci-Fi writers have only been able to imagine.” – Travers

For those of you that’ve never heard of Vuzix before, you’re in for a treat. We’ve got more than a couple stories surrounding their wild video-glasses past and even have a lovely video showing off one of their more live concepts in action. You can see the Vuzix Wrap 1200VR video glasses on the market right now, the same being true of the Vuzix WRAP 920AR augmented reality glasses, and you can check out our Vuzix portal for all the awesome glasses technology your heart can handle as well. Then we’ve got the Vuzix STAR 1200 augmented reality headset hands-on video right here, straight from IFA 2011. A far cry from the ol’ 920AR set from back at CES 2010. Have a peek at the STAR 1200s here:

First there’s MC Hammer, former rapper and current tech enthusiast, having in the past couple of years re-surged to the news front via his very successful Twitter account, now speaking at schools across the country about the power of mobile media. This week he’s promoting “Deep Search” through a group called “WireDoo.” Hammer demoed this system this week at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, showing how a single keyword search like “car” can bring you information on insurance, location, crime rates, and shopping. His tagline for this project is “Search once, see what relates!”

Next there’s this week’s appearance of celebrity sportsman Dean Karnazes at the Motorola event in New York City. We were there when this awesomely powerful maniac of humanity stepped on stage to say how he’d just run from the other side of the country to tell us that the Motorola MOTOACTV is the coolest device for his daily sports activity on earth AND he later stood behind the counter and did a hands-on video for the device. Have a look at how suave this fellow is:

Then there’s the recent T-Mobile event that took place in NYC as well, this time for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Amaze 4G. This event was promoted as a music extravaganza and reality TV blast featuring Nur Khan of Electric Room, Rassi Mazdack of Milk Gallery, and Hillary Kerr & Katherine Power of Who What Wear. Then The Black Keys performed a short concert as well. John Simon got some rather close-up and fine video of that performance that you can take a peek at here:

What do you think? Does it make sense for this celebrity endorsement to occur for smartphones, gadgets of all sorts, and technology in general?

GM has been showing off some new and interesting tech that will help those of us that already drive well be even safer. The system is called Dedicated Short Range Communications or DSRC. Vehicles using this tech would be able to communicate with each other over short distances. This would allow the driver to know if there is traffic slow down ahead or if the police are on the scene of an accident.

The device would also be able to alert the driver from up to a quarter of a mile ahead if a construction zone is nearby and it can even tell the driver if the vehicles up ahead are having traction control activate. The big feature is that the device would be able to signal when two vehicles are on a collision course at an intersection. Smartphones with the tech could also broadcast warnings to drivers. For instance, a parent could warn that kids are playing near the road. The tech could be retrofitted into older vehicles as well.

[via Wired]