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Download today’s show. ~~~~~~~SDR2008-09-23~~~~~~~ This is SDR News for September 23, 2008. My name is Andy McCaskey, and this is a summary of recent news highlights from Slashdot, Digg and Reddit. Here's what's new on SDR News.
Android: Google's Dream, Apple's Nightmare?
On Tuesday, Google is going to unveil its new iPhone competitor: the HTC Dream smartphone from T-Mobile, which will run the Android operating system. It won't be as sleek as the iPhone, it promises to give mobile-phone users a lot more freedom and flexibility.
The biggest departure from the iPhone design is the inclusion of a physical keyboard, which apparently slides out from underneath the Dream's touchscreen. The Dream will also allow users to run multiple applications at once and more easily share contacts and data between them. Reports from developers TIME interviewed prove true, mobile-phone users will finally be able to cut and paste text in emails. All Android Market apps will be free. That includes BreadCrumbz, a picture-based navigation program that doesn't just give you a drawing of your route, but also includes real-world photos to keep you on track.
Other advantages over the iPhone operating system. While Apple takes a top-down approach to app development — the company must approve every app that makes it into its App Store — Google will allow creators to upload any application to the Android Market without its review. Of course, that means some duds will make it in, but it will also allow for a much more open and democratic way for favorites to evolve. On the downside, don't expect the Dream to be anywhere near as slick and shiny as the iPhone.
After 80 Years, Breakthrough For Electric Vehicles: LiFePO4 Batteries Soon, we’ll probably be seeing Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries being used in most electric cars and bikes. This new battery type is set to dominate the market. Our lithium cobalt dioxide (LiCoO2) batteries which are commonly used in laptops, mp3 players and cell phones.
For electric vehicles and plug-in electric cars, the LiFePO4 batteries will typically perform well in temperatures up to 400-degrees F, last for 6 to 7 years at a charge-discharge cycle of over 3,000. Most importantly, they do not contain any toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, nor any corrosive acids or alkalies thus making LiFePO4 batteries the most environmentally friendly battery chemistry available. What’s really impressive is this can be safely rapidly recharged — when fully discharged can be brought to a state of over 90% fully charged in 15 minutes. The biggest player in the LiFePO4 marketplace for electric vehicles, however, is A123 Systems that has teamed up with GM to develop these batteries for the Chevy Volt. Another big player is Lithium Technology Corporation who has been working with GM, Toyota and U. C. Davis to develop LiFePO4 batteries for all-electric and hybrid vehicles.
How Businesses Can Benefit From Social Networking For all the talk of businesses embracing Web 2.0 and social software tools, most companies are still at the very early stages of adoption, according to Jonathan Yarmis, an analyst at AMR Research who focuses on emerging technologies. In his latest research note on companies taking their first step into social media, he says that companies must dip into the social media pool carefully. Is that "you need to engage in the conversation" on a Facebook or Twitter. You need to ask yourself, why are you engaging in the conversation? What are you trying to accomplish by it? Merely engaging in the conversation doesn't make some kind of magical outcome occur.
In fact, there are some conversations that aren't a good use of your time and that will lead you down counterproductive paths. What he really like is what Comcast has done on Twitter. Cable companies, in general, do not do well with customer service. But there has been a lot of buzz around about how Comcast been using Twitter to foster customer service and answer questions about their service. That is a case of knowing what conversation to pick. Also, if you're a startup company, such as Allofme.com, there's nothing like getting on to the Twitterstream to attract the attention of people who make these things.
Techradar.com: 8 hacks to make Firefox ridiculously fast Double your browser's speed in just five minutes. Firefox has been outperforming IE in every department for years, and version 3 is speedier than ever. But tweak the right settings and you could make it faster still, more than doubling your speed in some situations. Step 1 is to enable pipelining. Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing; sort of changes the personality from Midwestern to Northeastern. Pipelining is a more aggressive technique that lets them send multiple requests before any responses are received. 2. Change to render quickly, instead of partial downloads and multiple renders. 3. Faster loading. If you haven't moved your mouse or touched the keyboard for 0.75 seconds to 0.5 seconds. Firefox then enters a low frequency interrupt mode, which means its interface becomes less responsive but your page loads more quickly. Sounds like some easy tweaks. YMMV.
Comcast's Throttling Plan Has 'Disconnect User' Option
Comcast's new people, not protocols scheme may mean high speed for some, but by no means all. It's also created a nuclear 'disconnect' option for use against anyone who fails to toe the Comcast line. Apparently Comcast’s throttling scheme also monitors dowload activity, but the chances of ever having an issue related to downloading congestion is very slim. Comcast’s network structure just isn’t prone to any downloading congestion. But Robb Topolski, the Net protocol expert who originally uncovered Comcast's blatant efforts to control its customers, the plan does offer key take-aways, telling P2P users on Comcast how to do what they do without the risk of corporate interference.
Comcast is still under pressure from the entertainment industry, with copyright infringement as their excuse, the entertainment industry has been trying to turn ISPs, of which is Comcast is America’s largest, into a vast network of copyright enforcement agencies basically paid for by subscribers.
Not having much success as they think: The Pirate Bay Tops 15 Million Peers Today, The Pirate Bay reached a new milestone, as they now have more than 3 million registered users. On top of that, they track close to 15 million unique peers. The largest BitTorrent tracker just keeps growing and growing, and there is no sign that this will be put to a halt anytime soon. It is estimated that The Pirate Bay currently returns results to between 7 and 8 million searches per day, roughly 230 million a month.
SanDisk, Music Publishers Are Pushing DRM-free SlotMusic Format
The LA Times and others are reporting the music industry is working with SanDisk to try unrestricted music files on microSD. Memory cards to improve sales of physical media, and will be featured at Wal-Mart. 'In addition to music, the slotMusic cards will come pre-loaded with other things, such as liner notes, album-cover artwork and sometimes video.' The important part: 'The music on slotMusic comes without copyright protection, so it can be used on almost all computers, mobile phones and music players — but it won't play on an iPod, which doesn't have a micro-SD memory slot.
It has one gigabyte of memory, and the music tracks are played back at high quality.' Could it be the labels have finally recognized that providing features and convenience to customers is preferable to suing them?" Most computers also don't have microSD slots; according to EMI's press release, there will be a "tiny USB sleeve" packaged with each card, and the "high quality" format means up to 320kbps MP3. From the given description, it seems like it would be pretty straightforward to transfer the tracks to an iPod (via a computer) than to most other players.
Om Malick is all over this making the point that SanDisk will open its store with a total of 29 albums on day one and that something like 5 Billion songs have been purchased through the Apple Store. He's not convinced it will last until Christmas. It was a really bad omen that the link to the LA Times feature on the technology had a photo of a model holding two matchbook sized Compact Flash modules, not the microSD fingernail sized slotmusic card. _______SDR2008-09-23_______ That's this episode of SDR News. My name is Andy McCaskey. I have no relationship to Slashdot, Digg, or Reddit other than a regular reader. You can check out show links and additional comments on today's news at SDRNews.com. Mobile distribution by Stitcher at Stitcher.com. SDRNEWS is also available through Blubrry SDRNews is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network at Blubrry.com Thanks for listening -- see you tomorrow.
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