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NetTalk TV to deliver la carte HD television programming? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PlayStation Phone sized up with numerous devices in another in-depth Chinese preview originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HTC EVO Shift 4G vs. Motorola Cliq 2... fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Editors Note: Today was a horrible day in Tucson, Arizona, and as far as the shooting itself, the criminal investigation and any political ramifications, we are not here to discuss any of that, and ourcondolencesand thoughts go out to all those killed, injured and to their families. We are here to discuss Twitter and breaking news.
Twitter needs an anchor or perhaps hundreds, thousands or millions of them.
A while back specifically when the world was transfixed by Tiger Woods crash on his lawn, an event that in really no way compares to todays events MG Siegler over on Techcrunch wrote a seminal piece saying that Twitter was the new Walter Cronkite, i.e. it has become the place that we all turn to get the most breaking of news. I thought a lot about that post during todays events, and I now feel that while the point that Twitter is the place to go for breaking news is beyond question, I think that saying that Twitter is the new Cronkite is going a bit too far I think that Twitter actually needs its own Cronkite, either standing alone or preferably with the aid of crowdsourced volunteers.
If you were not following the days events in real-time on Twitter today, then Ill give a quick recap of the roughly two hours on Twitter preceding the press conference at hospital where the victims were sent:
The conflicting reports upset many people, blaming Twitter/reporters/people sharing the news that they messed up. That, to me, wasnt the case news organizations were doing their best to get the story as straight as quickly as possible, and many on Twitter were also doing their best to constantly pass on the correct and most up-to-date information. In fact, if anything, it reminded me that news of John F. Kennedysassassinationwas handled in quite a similar fashion by Cronkite trying to sort through all of the conflicting reports as an anxious world watched in the real-time of the day.
It was a kind of crowdsourced editorial effort that has happened in some ways before on Twitter, but today seemed to me to be the starkest example of this Ive ever seen and that includes personally doing the same through multiple natural disasters including the Haiti earthquake nearly a year ago to the day.
If you were helping to find and pass on the most accurate information of the moment, you were part of one giant newsroom today.
However, there was one issue that keep coming up to me today, and it had to do specifically with some of the changes that Twitter has made over the last year, specifically the Top Tweet distinction on search. If you dont know what a Top Tweet does, basically, it is sticky at the top of the search results because it has had so many retweets. In most cases, this is perfectly fine. However, for a long while today, there was a Top Tweet by a CNN Political Director Sam Fiest (since deleted, I just found out, almost certainly by himself) that had both sides of the story, saying Giffords was taken the hospital and that asheriffhad said she was already dead. That tweet was stuck up near the top of Twitter search for awhile, even after it was b! ecoming very clear that Giffords was in fact alive.
While its impossible to tell if there was any kind of negative effect from the spreading of what turned out to be false info (though I of course Fiest was hardly the only one tweeting it out and I dont blame Fiest if that is what he was informed) that tweet had while millions of others were flying around Twitter, it opened up to me a need that I hope Twitter address adding some crisis situation editorial.
Twitter has stated quite clearly that it embraces its roll as the place that breaking news and indeed entire movements can take place on its service, but with that commitment has to come some kind of responsibility. There is a large difference between someone (or a news organization) tweeting out something that turns out to be untrue, to continuing to highlight that misinformation simply based on the number of times it has been retweeted (just to be clear, Im not suggesting that Twitter just delete tweets that would be censorship just removing the Top Tweet distinction, which can give a lot of weight to a tweet, regardless of its factual accuracy).
Noalgorithm can fix this only human beings can. As crowdsourcing projects such as CrisisCommons have shown (disclosure: Im an active volunteer with CrisisCommons), human gardening is very important to getting the story straight. In the worst-case, unattended misinformation could lead to obstructing official responses to crisis, including getting the most up-to-date and official news to everyone.
During todays crisis, NPRs Andy Carvin put up a Storify about the event, which was much appreciated, but Storify can only be used to collect, not to actually affect the news editorially on Twitter. So heres what Im suggesting for Twitter to at least consider: either hire an experienced editorial staff that can quickly make changes to direct people to the most! factual /official account of what is happening during a crisis, and/or develop amechanismwhere Twitter users can vote up or down tweets (or perhaps flag in a way?). Of course, a retweet itself is a kind of vote up, but there is no way to vote anything down
Yes, that sounds a lot like Quora, doesnt it? Somewhat surprisingly to me, Quora wasnt used this way today (I set up an experiment after the news had settled a bit even so). If Twitter doesnt do this, I can see citizen (and actual) reporters using Quora or a similar service in the future to get the story straight and spread the correct word. That said, Twitter has proven itself as the platform for this new generation of news, but were still waiting for old Walter to take his seat.
Its been another year of insane coverage from CES. Weve seen some great things, but the number of great things were heavily diminished by the number of oh, me too products on the market.
In 2011, we saw so many companies doing the exact same thing (and many of them doing it poorly) that its hard to even view this years CES in a positive light. Is the innovation gone? Has the consumer electronics market become so single-minded that theres simply nothing left to do? I dont think so, but it sure looked that way.
Of course, in 2010, one of the biggest stories of the year was the iPad. It truly was the game-changer that showed the slate to be a viable format both for consumption and production. But what we saw at CES was that everybody seemed to be making one, yet very few were actually making anything wed use.
The notable exception? The Xoom. The Motorola project, while still in early stages, appears to be very promising. However, even though the hardware is important, the real story is in the Android 3.0 operating system. This OS change didnt require CES in order to be a big deal. The fact that we first saw it at CES just means that more people saw it at the same time, but it would have been a big deal even on any random Tuesday.
Whats worse? Some of the manufacturers who came to CES didnt even have a prototype. Apparently gone are the days when we could walk into the Las Vegas convention center and drool over things that may or may not appear while we at least got to see a physical representation of a final product. It seems that now its perfectl! y accept able to show up with just an idea or a drawing and talk about what could be rather than showing us. For those of us who have become addicted to the bleeding edge of gadgets, this is unacceptable.
The real story, and the one that took over CES without even being there, came from Apple with its iPhone release on Verizon. But even that isnt some technological change from the norm. Its simply a CDMA version of an already-released phone.
While this is neither the time nor place to talk about what the next big things in mobile might be, its certainly the place to expressdisappointmentin the fact that we didnt see any of them this year.
Oh sure, there were robots. There are always robots. But why didnt we see anything that was truly new? Even the fabulous Courtney Boyd Myers, our robotaficionado, seemed a bit underwhelmed. While were not expecting 2011 to be the year that we all turn into The Jetsons, its always nice to walk a show floor and see the things that could eventually happen.
From everything that we saw this year, it was like a re-hash from years before. When the most exciting robot that weve seen thus far in 2011 actually got announced before CES, its like our childhood gadget dreams have just gone down the drain.
So Windows will eventually run on ARM processors. This actually is exciting, but only for a very small segment of the population. The rest of what we saw from the Microsoft camp, excluding the incredibly cool new Surface 2 table, was met with a pretty large amount of meh across the Internet.
Where is our completely connected house? Why are refrigerators suddenly a bigger deal that the things that we can actually play with? Lets face facts a second time technology and gadgets are supposed to be fun! Nobody actually needs these things in order to survive, we simply raise their necessity value in our own minds in order to justify our love for them. Microsoft, for years, has led the pack in providing us with eye candy that wed love to own but cant just yet. This year, aside from the Surface 2, that desire factor just wasnt there.
Whats really unfortunate about how things went down this year is that there are some incredibly cool, useful products out there. Things such as the iHealth system seem, at this point, to need a show of their own in order to really stand out. Yes, theyre still consumer electronics, but theyre electronics that make a difference in peoples lives instead of just being fun.
It gets more and more difficult with each passing year for products such as the iHealth to gain air time. Why? Because were constantly being inundated with bigger and better versions of products that already exist and so its hard to get face to face with those ones that dont. So that makes me wonder is the era coming to an end? Are so many companies worried about keeping up with the proverbial Joneses that it has stifled true innovation? Lets hope thats not the case.
Maybe between now and CES 2012, the tablet wars and 3D mania will die down and companies will be forced to truly innovate in order to impress the gadget-worshipingmasses. For now, if you want to check out all of the things that we found cool at this years CES, make sure to take a browse through TNW Gadgets.CES Image, CBM Robot
Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc seeing an April release? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Although Giffords was shot in the head, she has survived her injuries thus far.
Go to suspected gunman Jared Lee Loughners YouTube channel, and the first thing youll hear is a video the suspect has favorited, with angry music repeatedly shouting, Let the bodies hit the floor. Also on the channel are a few videos Loughner apparently cr! eated hi mself, spelling out his confusing, nonsensical philosophy in white text over a black background.
TwitPic users have reacted to the shootings with photos of the suspect, and another widely circulated graphic is Sarah Palins map of the U.S., with the slogan Its Time to Take a Stand, with gun sights depicted on certain areas, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Arizona district. (Incidentally, Tea Party reps condemned the shootings).
The Congresswoman, the wife of Astronaut Mark Kelly who is commander of the next U.S. space shuttle mission, tweeted just before she was shot, inviting her constituents to the event where the gunman opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 13:
My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by the let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later
Meanwhile, a firestorm of accusations and controversy erupted on Twitter, where liberal blogger and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas tweeted shortly after the incident, Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin.
More About: assassination attempt, facebook, Gabrielle Giffords, shooting, twitter
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VideoEFx box transforms your 2D content into 3D (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This week has been a big one for gadgets, with the madness that was CES 2011. Highlights include a 3D camcorder and some Polaroid-powered sunglass cameras presented by Lady Gaga itself.
Mashable staff have also been busy behind the scenes turning out some tools and resources to help you make sense of the digital world. Click through for a guide to the shiny new Mac app store, predictions for the web in 2011, and even some Sci-Fi technologies that are no longer just fiction.
Lo oking for even more social media resources? This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time.
For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashables social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashables business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
Image courtesy of Dawg House Design Studio
More About: business, facebook, Features Week In Review, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, small business, social media, tech, technology, twitter
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Complaints seem to be growing among some users that Windows Phone 7 is consuming an abnormally plump quantity of data when you're not doing anything. Granted, there's lots of stuff on the platform that might need data continuously -- email accounts and live tiles, for example -- but folks are reporting consumption measuring in multiple megabytes per hour, which can add up pretty quickly: 2MB per hour over a month is nearly 1.5GB, which can be a bummer for anyone with a 2GB data plan. The real issue, though, is that at least some of the data seems to be ignoring available WiFi networks and choosing 3G instead, so there's no great way to definitively avoid the leak even when you're in the comfortable confines of your own home. Our money -- our hopeful money, that is -- is on this being fixed in Microsoft's first big update that should be coming any day now, but in the meantime, users look to be getting at least some relief by setting mail accounts to manual update and turning off location services. Anyone out there seeing this?Windows Phone 7 using lots of 3G data while idle, even on WiFi? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We first played with the 3DS at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (better known as E3). Back then, we said that using the device felt like multiple layers of action are happening beneath the surface of the screen.
We got another chance to play with the device behind closed doors here at CES. This time, we could really explore some of its features, as well as take more pictures of the! device. Once again, Nintendo asked us not to take pictures of the screen turned on because of the near-impossibility of accurately depicting moving 3D images with 2D still photography.
Still, we got to play a few games (Pilotwings for one), checked out 3D movie trailers and played an augmented-reality demo in which we battled a 3D dragon that popped out of a playing card.
Its important to note that these are some of the same demos the company put on display at E3, but the extended time with the device helped us get a better sense of the device. The first thing that stands out to us is this: The 3D technology works remarkably well. Its not a gimmick, but a real dimension that adds to the game experience.
Fighting the dragon in the augmented-reality demo really was a sensational experience that we hope other companies will build upon. It also isnt as stressful on the eyes as most 3D glasses and screens.
The controls feel solid, thanks to the addition of the 360-degree joystick. It makes controlling the 3D experience much easier, and in fact the device wouldnt be usable without it.
All of the other controls are standard, except for the 3D toggle slider, which lets you move between 2D and 3D if you ever do feel your eyes are getting strained.
While we saw these same game demos before, we definitely can see the potential for some innovative gameplay involving 3D graphics and augmented reality, as well as the devices touch screen.
The device is also enhanced by its StreetPass and SpotPass features. StreetPass lets 3DS devices communicate and share information without the need to even open up your device, while SpotPass helps update your system and send you new stuff while its connected to Wi-Fi.
We couldnt get pricing info or a list of launch titles yet, but a lot of that information will be coming at a press conference in New York on January 19. Well be there to cover it all.
To whet your appetite until then, here are our close-up images of the device, plus a f! ew pics of me battling dragons and maneuvering rocket packs.
More About: CES , CES 2011, ces2011, ECSCES, Nintendo, nintendo 3ds
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