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Communications

Newton's Ghost Haunts Apple's iPhone 381

Posted by kdawson from the hubris-and-the-handheld dept.
PetManimal writes "David Haskin has looked back at why the Newton failed in the early PDA market, and warns that Apple may be setting itself up for a similar failure with the iPhone. The iPhone shares with the Newton a hefty starting price, and Joe Public may not be so keen on the cost, as recent survey data suggests. Moreover, the iPhone will have to deal with two additional factors that were not issues for the Newton: Competition, and wireless service providers: 'Besides overcharging for iPhone, Apple faces significant competition, something it didn't face in 1993 when it launched Newton. And you can bet that competition from the likes of Samsung and LG will both be good (although probably not as good as iPhone) and most assuredly cheaper... I'm more convinced than ever that, after an initial frenzy of publicity and sales to early adopters, iPhone sales will be unspectacular. If Apple doesn't respond quickly by lowering the price and making nice to AT&T..., iPhone may well become Apple's next Newton.'"

Linux-powered Robots From France? Oui! 198

Posted by timothy from the hobart-college-dept-of-egnineering dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A French start-up created to build autonomous, easily programmable, affordable humanoid robots expects to ship its first product — a humanoid household service robot running Linux — in early 2007. The walking, talking, WiFi-enabled Nao household robot will stand 21.6 inches tall, and will feature 23 "degrees of freedom" of motion — three more than the 14-inch tall Choromet android announced earlier this week by four Japanese companies. Nao's extra degrees of freedom appear to come in the form of gripping hands."

Patriot Act Bypasses Facebook Privacy 562

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the if-you-don't-want-it-published dept.
Geoffreyerffoeg writes "An article from the National Association of Colleges and Employers contains yet another horror story about a prospective hire's Facebook being checked — with a different twist. The interviewee had enabled privacy on his profile, '[b]ut, during the interview, something he was not prepared for happened. The interviewer began asking specific questions about the content on his Facebook.com listing and the situation became very awkward and uncomfortable. The son had thought only those he allowed to access his profile would be able to do so. But, the interviewer explained that as a state agency, recruiters accessed his Facebook account under the auspices of the Patriot Act.' How can a 'state agency' use the Patriot Act to subpoena a Facebook profile?"

Microsoft Developing Robotics Software 282

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the robot-in-every-home dept.
s31523 writes to tell us Microsoft recently announced the launch of their new Microsoft Robotics Group and the first product release, a software program to help robotics developers. Despite the timing this has nothing to do with the recent abdication by Gates, and was actually instigated by Gates before his departure. From the article "It might take many years, but Microsoft believes robotics could present a big opportunity as the market grows, said Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group. He cited estimates predicting that consumer robotics alone will grow into a multibillion-dollar industry in five to 10 years."

New Clues for Antikythera Mechanism 183

Posted by timothy from the there-is-a-season-turn-turn-turn dept.
fuzzybunny writes "The Register reports that British and Dutch scientists located a previously undetected word on the Antikythera Mechanism which seems to confirm its nature as a tool for astronomical prediction. This device is one of the world's first known geared devices; while its purpose is still not 100% clear, according to the article, 'Athens university researcher Xenophon Moussas is reported as saying the "newly discovered text seems to confirm that the mechanism was used to track planetary bodies."'"

French PM Unreceptive To RMS 534

Posted by Hemos from the poor-reception dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Six month after the publication of very bad amendments to French DRM law proposal, Richard Stallman has been pushed back by the chief of security team of French Prime minister. On Friday 9th of June 2006 at 3.30pm, Richard Stallman, president of Free Software Foundation, led a delegation composed by Frédéric Couchet (Free Software Foundation France) and Christophe Espern (EUCD.INFO initiative) to meet the French Prime minister in order to talk about the French DRM law proposal and to deliver the EUCD.INFO petition signed by more than 165,000 French residents. Richard Stallman and his friends were pushed back by the chief of security team. "

On Point On Slacking 524

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-listen-to dept.
Wellington Grey writes "This week the NPR show On Point has an excellent episode exploring slacking and the American work ethic. (note that it's audio) It touches on some issues that may be of interest to geeks such as outsourcing, the church of the subgenius and the eternal conflict between wanting to be a lazy bum and wanting to work hard. What do slashdotters think: does America need more slack or more work?" It is summer vacation after all, right?

Will OSX Build In Torrenting? 285

Posted by CmdrTaco from the imagine-that-itunes-catalog dept.
Cjattwood writes "Mac OS rumors has an article describing a possible implementation of a Bittorrent client into Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard", including a unique sharing reward system where the user can share bandwidth and get rewards, such as credit in the iTunes store."

ARM Offers First Clockless Processor Core 351

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the timeless-decisions dept.
Sam Haine '95 writes "EETimes is reporting that ARM Holdings have developed an asynchronous processor based on the ARM9 core. The ARM996HS is thought to be the world's first commercial clockless processor. ARM announced they were developing the processor back in October 2004, along with an unnamed lead customer, which it appears could be Philips. The processor is especially suitable for automotive, medical and deeply embedded control applications. Although reduced power consumption, due to the lack of clock circuitry, is one benefit the clockless design also produces a low electromagnetic signature because of the diffuse nature of digital transitions within the chip. Because clockless processors consume zero dynamic power when there is no activity, they can significantly extend battery life compared with clocked equivalents."

Diebold Threatens Wary Voting Clerk 632

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-read dept.
An anonymous reader writes "From the Salt Lake Tribune: a wary county clerk called in BlackBoxVoting.org to test the integrity of Diebold voting fraud machines, part of a recent $27 million statewide purchase (to make sure that only the "Right" candidates win). Diebold goon says machines are now jinxed and it may cost up to $40,000 to fly in a company witch-doctor to make sure there were no warranty violations. Since EVERY SINGLE VOTER who uses these machines is a potential hacker looking to alter election results, why is Diebold so concerned? "

Comment Well I switched to an iBook recently (Score 1) 27

by flonejek (#11114148) Attached to: Sell me on a new Mac whilst I drone on...
I had a 3.2 Ghz P4 at the beginning of the year, with a gig of ram and a 120 Gb hardrive. Its been running linux for a while, but when the time came to get a computer for my sister, the best option I thought would be to get myself a mac and pass it on to her. I still use it occasionally (mainly for BZFlag spanned across 2 19" CRT's, she runs fedora), but I find my iBook perfectly capable of handling the rest of my life. I can even play BZFlag on it, but I'm too slow and sweaty with the trackpad (its 40 degrees Celsius mostly down here in aust).

I find the best thing about getting this iBook is now I'm hooked on learning Objective-C and Cocoa (I've always wanted to learn C), and it performs far snappier than my sisters p4 box even though its only a 1.2ghz g4 (768 megs of ram). The UI's great, and its just a pleasure to use (apart form the fact my hands are too big for the keyboard). If you had the option to get a G5 over a pc, I'd definately go for a G5, the only mac I wouldn't reccomend over a pc at the moment would be a powerbook, the iBook's are better value, and you can get a far sweeter laptop from voodoopc.com.

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