IBLOG SPACE

This week the EU’s list of mergers and takeovers includes no less than an approval for Japan’s Sony to acquire sole control of the mobile phone company called Sony Ericsson. This company had thus far been co-owned by both Sony and Ericsson, and has been approved on the 26th of January to be owned only be Sony. This comes just one week after the company Sony Ericsson posted a $318 million USD loss in their 4th quarter earnings report. The company now enveloped by Sony noted that they had a sour economy, price erosion, restructuring charges, and a whole lot of Thailand flooding to blame when they spoke of their loss earlier this month. Sony Ericsson also announced a relatively clear pathway for 2012 to update their device line to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, this leading consumers perhaps to pick up their devices in 2012 to stay ahead of the pack. New devices showing up at CES 2012 showed the company to be well on track for creating new and innovative Android-based smartphones for the

The folks at Mercedes-Benz have given us a demonstration and hands-on look at their second-generation in-car technology environment mbrace2, here with a set of built-in apps as well as a mobile application working on an iPhone connected directly with the vehicle. In the group’s brand new SL-Class we get to check out how a fabulous looking set of menus will bring us everything we could possibly need or want to the drivers seat of our car. No need for a dongle anymore also, as mbrace2 brings with it a brand new mobile application that is able to control your car from your iPhone. iPhone apps First have a peek at the mobile application. Though we do not have a fully working model here in person, we’ve got all the functionality built-in to this setup anyway. First you’ll get a glimpse of the smartphone-based out-of-car controls, then we’ll step into the vehicle for another connection. Here you’ll get a taste of what connecting your car directly to your iPhone for a fully immersive and inte

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook could file its initial public offering as early as next week. The social network is currently being valued between $75 billion to $100 billion with Morgan Stanley close to winning the lead against rival Goldman Sachs as underwriter for the IPO. Citing a source familiar with the situation, the WSJ reveals that Facebook could file the documents with the SEC as early as next Wednesday. However, the source also noted the possibility that the company would file a few weeks later, although previous rumors suggested a filing sometime in May. Facebook could raise as much as $10 billion, which would put it in fourth place among US companies, behind Visa, General Motors and AT&T. It’s $100 billion valuation is worth nearly the same as McDonalds and almost half of Google. The social network currently boasts 800 million users with 500 million actively logging in everyday.a

Not since their last brief appearance in early 2011 have the folks as Lumigon A/S come forth with any details on their first near-invisible Android device, the Lumigon T1. Now we’re seeing that they’re most definitely going to be making an appearance at no less than Mobile World Congress 2012. The countdown has begun on an Android phone that last looked to have more buttons than any average Android-loving smartphone user could possible make use of. In its original configuration, the T1 had specifications that by todays standards look positively low-end: 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 chipset with an “optional” Qualcomm HSDPA modem in back of a 3.5-inch 480 x 800 capacitive touchscreen LCD. On the back was a dual-flash having 5 megapixel camera and under the hood was bluetooth, FM radio, and A-GPS. It wasn’t these features even then that looked appealing, it was the bonus features dealing with multimedia galore that had us interested. You had an HDMI dock (not unheard of at this point in hist

The PlayStation Vita portable is set for a US launch in less than a month and to ensure a good lineup on opening day, Sony has announced two limited edition bundles. These bundles are being called “extremely limited” and will be available only to those “who brave the cold to stand in line on February 22.” The first deal called the PS Vita First Edition Bundle has already been available for pre-orders. It initially included the PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi hardware plus a limited edition case, a 4GB PS Vita Memory Card, and Little Deviants game, but now Sony is adding an AT&T DataConnect Session Pass good for one free 250MB session and a PlayStation Network game, both of which you’ll receive upon 3G activation. And if you’ve already pre-ordered you will still be getting it all a week ahead of launch. The new bundle meant to draw the masses on launch day, packs the PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi hardware, an 8GB PS Vita Memory Card, an AT&T Data Connect Session Pass, and a PlayStation Network game all for

Today there’s a story floating around about an online dealer of products in auction websites known as “VIP Deals” which has been knocked out of business after its owner was found to be giving products away in exchange for good product reviews. While this might seem like a fair deal to those who come into said auction and multi-item sales just for the one item and out, the rules behind such sites expressly forbid such an action. Because this sort of situation leads to scams in which great ratings are trusted when they’re not precisely true, researchers like Bing Liu [seated at his desk in the image below] are on the case to stop the problem before it advances further. What VIP Deals did was to take a $60 case for a tablet, reduce the price down to $10 USD, then include in the box in which it was shipped a slip of paper. This slip of paper noted how the person receiving the item might get a $10 refund (the entire list price) if they simply leave a review on the site they purchased it fro

A group created by scientists and research institutes, universities and industrial partners in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, and the USA has been formed and called NEOShield, created for the express purpose of investigating and executing asteroid threat-reduction techniques to avoid the apocalypse. Not necessarily the end of the world, mind you, but the prevention of massively negative events in the face of humankind upon impact of asteroids from space. This commission hasn’t issued any threats thus far, and they’ve not formed because there’s an inordinate amount of asteroids headed for Earth right this second, but they are formed, and they are preparing. It is Leonard David from Space that lets us in on the commission being formed here, telling the world that it’s NEOs, or near-Earth objects that they’re studying. Not in regards to collecting and saving them for their rock collection, but how they might be destroyed if any too large to be ignored come towards the

There’s a brand new studio-grade condenser microphone in town for both USB and iPad, and it comes from Blue Microphones. This mic goes by the name Spark Digital and is able to produce darn-near completely excellent sounds with a the same amount of high-quality craftsmanship that went into the company’s other excellent comparable mic, the Spark XLR. What this Spark Digital unit does is take the same studio-grade condenser capsule plus hand-tuned components and sets you up for whatever you want to record – be it a podcast, music, location recording and more! In this device you’ve got built-in focus control, this offering you two different sonic options with the tap of a physical button. A lovely blue light up front of the device lets you know when you’re rolling, and an adjustable desk stand and built-in shockmount allows you to get the grade audio you want wherever you may roam. You get y-cables for each platform you want to work with as well as a headphone jack so you can listen in on

There’s nothing quite like a lazy afternoon flying your remote-controlled airplane, helicopter, or in this case, ornithopter, around the back yard. The airwaves are aflutter today as everyone outside the RC circuit realizes that not only are ornithopters a reality now for at-home enthusiasts, they’ve been around for over a decade. The video you’re about to see, in fact, features an original model Sean Kinkade Park Hawk, originally released all the way back in 1993 and purchased just this week by RC lover, Nuvaero Flight System’s Robert Eaton. This device is controlled with a couple of knobs on a relatively standard control unit and communicates wirelessly as you fly it through the sky in an impressive display of flapping, turning, and flapping some more. The newest version of this original Park Hawk will run you right around $289 if you want one right this second. You’ve also for one whole heck of a lot of other options from stores like Flapping Flight if you’re in the mood for some di

Attendees exploring CES 2012 earlier this month traveling through the automotive section of the convention would have had a difficult time not at least glimpsing the Mercedez-Benz DICE Interior Concept. In a giant mirrored box sat a completely cushiony set of seats with car dashboard and driving wheel as well as a front windshield, both the windshield and the dashboard proving themselves instantly to be more than meets the eye. This was the DICE, or Dynamic and Intuitive Control Experience, and it was with gestures that one controlled this futuristic dream technology. We got the opportunity to take a ride in the vehicle as a Mercedes-Benz assistant helped us along. Your humble narrator was shown how the front screen and the control scheme worked together to create a fully immersive experience for the driver. You’ll see in the video how menus sat on carrousels, selections were made with a push forward on the atmosphere in front of one’s hand, and at no point was there any doubt that the

The FCC has revealed a bit on ZTE’s upcoming strategy in the mobile department, notably with a 7-inch tablet that looks to be running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Android is certainly running on this device tentatively titled ZTE V66, and it’s definitely got Bluetooth, and not one whole heck of a lot else has been dropped in this newest leak but the image. What we’ve heard in the past, on the other hand, is that this device is coming to the market with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (likely Texas Instruments OMAP in kind) and a 7-inch 1200×800 pixel resolution display. This device has been tipped to be coming out on Verizon’s network with 4G LTE intact, this making it the first 7-inch LTE device on the market – just so long as it comes out before the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 this spring. The image above indicates that this tablet is refined up to a point where it can be tested and soon sent out as review units with a release soon after. Whether or not it will actually be released on Verizon is s

If you’ve ever used Steam to purchase games, converse with your friends, or get information and news on the developers you love, you know that it lends itself to a mobile environment without even asking about it. Thats why now that Steam is moving into the mobile environment with both iOS and Android, it seems as though both mobile and gaming are in for a mash-up that’s destined for winning glory. What we’ve got here is a trusted environment for gamers, one that hordes of gamers trust, inserted into the smartphone and tablet world where it can thrive on a whole new level. There are four basic tenants to the applications as they stand now in beta form: chat, groups, shopping, and news. As you meet up with friends through the same profile you’ve used on Steam in the past, you’ll come to realize that this is not a separate ecosystem from the desktop-based Steam, it’s the same group of people and feeds! In this you’ll find that Steam users will immediately feel at home and will head straig

There’s an update to one of the most awesome high definition games ever to grace the iOS platform in Id Software’s Rage HD 2.0. This upgrade tosses the original 2010 game in the dust with such excellent features as HDMI output (via the same converter cable you use to get Netflix on your HDTV) and higher-resolution models across the board. What’s best is that this game not only costs you less than a sandwich at your local sub shop, it’ll work on most any iOS device you’ve got! This game is able to work with devices all the way back to the iPhone 3GS, that including the third generation iPod Touch as well, and can send your original iPad some love too! You’ll need 1.19GB of storage space to make the whole game work on your device, which might hinder you plans a bit, but just empty out the rest of your media for a great time had by all. This game is a first-person shooter, so also beware of that when you put it on your device which your small child also messes around with on the daily.

Two students from Toronto have made a bit leap into the final frontier for Lego-kind, sending a Canadian-flag wielding Lego man into space with just a helium balloon and four cameras to record the whole event. Seventeen-year-olds Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad simply attached a helium balloon to four cameras and a Lego strip connected to a Lego man and his cool tiny Canada flag and let them fly. Once the whole rig descended back to Earth, the collection was made and the videos were viewed. When the videos were loaded and the photos they took were reviewed, the teens started screaming. This feat has brought fourth the attention of Lego themselves, who sent a congratulatory letter to the boys complimenting their ingenuity and thanking them for using Lego to do the deed. “We are always amazed by the creative ways in which Lego fans use our products, and humbled by how many unsuspecting places we appear, like attached to a helium balloon in … space,” said Lego’s brand relations director Micha

Jon Rubinstein, the ex Palm CEO who joined Hewlett Packard after the company acquired Palm back in April 2010, has left the company. No reason for the executive’s departure has been given, though according to AllThingsD Rubinstein leaves HP effective today; “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well,” HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan said of the news. Rubinstein had been chief of the webOS division within HP, but was subsequently moved to a more generic “product innovation role.” HP subsequently decided to release webOS as an open-source package, turning its focus back to PCs, laptops and Windows-based tablets. However, while many have blamed HP for mishandling the webOS acquisition and the few devices the company launched running the software, Rubinstein himself has also been fingered for some of the blame. Sources within the company claim he selected WebKit for the underlying engine for webOS with little understanding of the technical challenges that would involve. “We j

Over the last year when it came to Windows Phone, we saw a lovely looking user interface fall victim to less than stellar engagement and interest on the part of the public – Stephen Elop this week says that it’s the work of the salesmen, not the manufacturer, to make the final drop of the device into the hands on the consumer. Without a doubt there’s a certain flair to the Lumia line of smartphones being released both here in the USA and abroad this year, but without the folks in the stores actually pointing people to the hands-on equipment, there’s certainly no chance of a big hit in the engagement environment. Elop let the world know in Nokia’s sales call what he expects from store employees in the very near future. Without that final point-of-sale touch, all else will certainly fail, at least that’s what Nokia’s top minds seem to be saying this week. Though the devices are perfectly legitimate in their build and execution, and the advertisements surrounding them may be lovely, there

This month we got the opportunity to speak with Qualcomm on a technology of theirs by the name of AllJoyn, made to allow proximity-based device-to-device communication possible without the use of an intermediary server. We’ve got hands-on looks with smartphone games, tablet games, music and document applications, and some tablet-to-television action as well all lined up for you here. Discover what makes Qualcomm’s all-inclusive framework surrounding this powerful technology so great! With AllJoyn, most of the work is done by developers before you, the user, ever gets it in your hands – this is part of what makes AllJoyn so excellent – you barely even need to know it’s there! The next thing that makes AllJoyn so enticing is its ability to connect devices together without a middle-man – you’ll see several different examples of ways this is happening in the videos below. Then there’s the support developers get from Qualcomm when developing with AllJoyn – there’s nothing like having an ult

Samsung‘s second 3G/UMTS patent strike against Apple has been thrown out of court, with a German judge apparently deciding the Korean firm had no leg to stand on in its claims that the iPhone and other devices infringed its patented technology. Judge Andreas Voss did not explain his reasoning for rejecting the suit, FOSSPatents reports, though the justifications are expected to be in line with the last week’s ruling. Two distinct possibilities have been suggested for the court’s rejection of the cases. Apple could have presented a sufficient technical explanation for the judge’s decision, countering Samsung’s allegations of IP misuse. Alternatively, Apple could have been deemed to in fact have a license to use the technology, most likely gaining coverage under its supplier deal with Qualcomm. Samsung has sought access to Apple’s contracts with Qualcomm but so far been refused. The Korean firm alleges that Apple is not, in fact, covered by any deal with Qualcomm; meanwhile, Apple has fi

Twitter’s decision to allow censorship of some tweets in certain countries has met not only with indignation from users but a speedy workaround that promises to unmask redacted content. In fact, Twitter itself prompted the idea; TNW spotted that by changing the manual country selection setting to a different location, in Twitter’s own settings pages, social networkers can force the system to ignore IP address and reveal censored messages. Twitter argued that the selective-censoring system was a better option than the company’s existing approach, where locations that do not allow free-speech were simply blocked from seeing all of a users’ tweets. However, privacy and free-speech advocates were quick to criticize the social network, claiming the decision would prevent future uses of Twitter as seen during the “Arab Spring” of 2011, when the site became a hub for communication when state-run methods were locked down. The simplicity of this workaround – forcing Twitter to assume you are in

Microsoft is testing prototypes of Kinect-enabled notebooks using motion-sensing as an interface for Windows 8, it’s been revealed, ahead of what are believed to be plans to license the technology to laptop vendors. Specially modified ASUS netbooks are being used to demonstrate the system, which builds on Microsoft’s freshly-announced Kinect for Windows hardware, The Daily reports; the ultraportables replace the single webcam above the screen with a row of sensors that can track movement. Running along the bottom edge is “a set of what appear to be LEDs” the report continues. Insiders at Microsoft have supposedly confirmed that the modified netbooks are indeed official demo units, though the expectation is that – unlike the original Kinect for the Xbox 360 – Microsoft will not itself be building computers with Kinect baked in. Instead, the company is expected to license the Kinect system as an add-on to Windows 8. Gaming is one possibility – especially as we already know Xbox LIVE will

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins may only have been in the big chair since Monday, but the new chief exec is already coming out swinging, blasting Android devices as “all the same” and rejecting suggestions that the struggling Canadian company should be sold off. Asked about persistent recommendations that RIM should ditch its ownBlackBerry 10 plans and adopt Android instead, Heins argued to Crackberry that “there is just no room for differentiation because [Android phones] are all the same.” As for concerns by investors and BlackBerry enthusiasts alike that the CEO seemingly thought RIM was on a secure path as-is and requires no changes, Heins blamed poor communication for what’s apparently a misunderstanding. “I was talking about drastic or seismic changes” he countered. “What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold.” Prior to previous co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie relinquishing the reins of the company to Heins,

Apple has edged past Samsung again in global smartphone shipments, according to new research, reclaiming the smartphone top-spot in Q4 2011 thanks to huge demand for the iPhone 4S. The Cupertino company shipped 37m devices in Q4, versus 36.5m for Samsung, Strategy Analytics reckons, giving Apple 0.4-percent more marketshare worldwide than its Korean rivals. However, when the numbers are crunched for 2011 as a whole, Samsung still comes out ahead. For the full year, Samsung shipped 97.4m smartphones versus Apple’s 93m, making their marketshare 19.9-percent and 19-percent respectively. In contrast, Nokia dawdled in third place, with 15.8-percent of the market over 2011 and shipping a dwindling number of devices. The race for the smartphone top spot sees Apple take the lead even as it loses marketshare in tablets. According to figures earlier this week, Apple’s iPad has 57.6-percent of the worldwide tablet market in Q4, down from almost 70-percent the year previous. The strong iPhone sale

I would wager that there are a bunch of you out there that like Star Trek as much as I do. I’m not dressing up in pointy ears or anything, but I can appreciate some awesome Star Trek gear when I see it. Take this coffee table for instance. If there was ever a cooler project for a geek with a wood working background, I haven’t seen it. He must have a wife that likes Star Trek too since it is in the living room. When I wanted to put my Star Wars Wampa rug in the game room, the wife shot me down. I was able to return the favor when she wanted to decorate the closet with another Coach purse though. According to the wood artist maker, Barry Shields, the project took him a month to complete. The wooden model is a replica of the NCC-1701-C. The glass on top is even cut in a shape that follows the lines of the ship and reminds me of the Star Trek badges. Me likey. You can buy one from the guy, if you have $3,100 lying around.

After all the drama with the Phobos-grunt failure for Russia, it has to be a bit nerve racking to the ISS astronauts that need food, water and parts when a Russian supply ship takes off. If the ship had failed, it would be longer before fresh supply is arrived. The good news is that the liftoff of the Progress 46 unmanned ship went off without a hitch this week and the supply vessel is on the way to the ISS. The Progress 46 ship lifted off atop a Soyuz rocket from the Central Asian Spaceport called Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Tuesday morning local time. It was the first space mission of the year for Russia and the supply ship will arrive late today with a huge amount of cargo onboard. Progress 46 has a total of 2.9 tons of cargo for the 6-man crew of the ISS. The ship holds 2,050 pounds of fuel, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water, and 2,778 pounds of spare parts and other gear. The Progress ships are disposable and burn up in the atmosphere on reentry.

If you are using a Windows Phone Mango smartphone Google has updated some of its offerings to work better on your device and with new features. The updates include improvements for calendar and email services on Mango. The mango smartphone user can now get up to 25 different calendars in the phones integrated calendar app. You have to set the system up to get those multiple calendars to work, and it sounds like that is a challenge at times. Engadget reports that in testing, one of the devices synchronized the multiple calendars just fine. However, the other devices weren’t able to sync to the calendars until the Google account was reassigned to that phone. Other new features in addition to the calendars include the ability to enable the send mail as feature if you are using multiple email addresses. You can also delete emails you don’t want rather than having to archive. Right now, it seems that there are a few rough edges, but for the most part the updates will be welcomed by users.

If you have wanted a new tablet and had your eye on the TouchPad in hopes it would come back around at a good price, the tablet is on Woot again. You can pick up the tablet for $219.99 with $5 for shipping. The catch is that this time out the tablets are refurb units. It might not sit too well with some of you that HP has directly offered the 32GB model for $149.99 in the past. The Woot offer is for a 32GB unit with WiFi. The screen is a 9.7-inch capacitive LCD and the tablet rocks webOS 3.0 and has Bluetooth 2.1. With the TouchPad being discontinued, I don’t know how many folks will be interested. You can run Android on the tablet if you are the hacking sort. The tablet has a 90-day warranty from HP so even though it’s a refurb, if it breaks in the first three months you are good. What do you think? The price is higher than we have seen in the past, but if you want a TouchPad, you might need to go this route.

HTC has already said it plans to focus on quality not quantity with its 2012 range, but it seems the company has some significant software changes in the pipeline too with HTC Sense 4.0. The Android reskin initially offered a far more usable interface than the native OS, but Google’s successive iterations narrowed the gap and HTC failed to keep pace with its own services. Now, according to some preview playtime by Pocketnow, that’s changing: gone is the unnecessary heft, replaced with a pared-down UI, better typography and improved apps such as email and DropBox integration. Some of the changes are said to address common complaints like landscape homescreen orientation support and putting notification menu access into the lockscreen (as well as alerts, shortcuts to apps and contacts, and task lists). However there are also more fundamental improvements, such as 50GB of free DropBox space automatically granted when you first activate your phone, and treated as another “local” drive by a

The NASA team that operates the Kepler space telescope has used their all-seeing eye to find 11 new planetary systems. The new discovery brings the total number of planets that have been discovered by the Kepler team to 60. In all, there are 729 confirmed extra-solar planets. As always, the team uses regular changes in the light of the star to tell if planets are orbiting. The most interesting of the planetary systems in the newly discovered group is called Kepler-33. This star is bigger and older than our sun. It has five planets and the cool part is that all five of the planets orbit the parent star at a distance closer to that of Mars to the Sun. The planets are all larger than Earth as well ranging from 1.5 times the Earth’s diameter to five times Earth diameter. At this point, the scientists studying the planets don’t know if they are rocky planets like Earth and Mars or if they are gas giants like Saturn or Jupiter. There are 2,300 other planet candidates that the scientists stil

Google has struck back at outcry around its newly-combined privacy policy, insisting users “still have choice and control”, amid demands by the US Congress for answers on data use and collection. “You can use as much or as little of Google as you want” policy manager Betsy Masiello said on the search company’s Public Policy blog, reiterating that Google is “not collecting more data about you.” However, US lawmakers are alreadyinsisting on answers [pdf link] as to whether users can take advantage of Google services without leaving an unexpected data trail. “While Google suggests that the purpose of this shift in policy is to make the consumer experience simpler, we want to make sure it does not make protecting consumer privacy more completed” eight members of Congress have said in a letter to Google this week. The lawmakers, including representatives from subcommittees on Commerce, Manufacturing & Trade, and Overside & Investigations, are apparently concerned that Google’s heft

Warner Brothers and some of the other major movie studios are making it really hard on people that rent movies via Netflix and other services. The moviemakers are trying to force users to go back to the old days of movie rentals where you went into a store to rent or just bought the movie. The world has moved on, but Hollywood refuses to see that for the most part. Not too long ago Warner Brothers decided that the key to more revenue was to not allow video rental services like Blockbuster and Netflix to access its films for rentals until 56 days after the videos have been on sale in stores. Apparently, even that wasn’t enough to make Warner Bros. feel content with their movie fiefdom. Warner has now come back and decided that blocking rentals for 56-days isn’t enough. The studio will also be blocking Netflix user’s from adding the movie to their rental queue for 28 days after the movie goes on sale in stores. Adding the movies to the queue is a way for Netflix users to help ensure the

Google has launched a major update for the cool Google Earth program. The update brings with it higher quality images that look much, much better than they used to. Google Earth now offers users a seamless experience. Rather than a patchwork of images like those that it used to offer, Google Earth now has one giant seamless image for you to peruse. I would like to know how Google is able to render the images into the seamless shots we see now. I always understood that the reason the images were patchy was because the satellites flew over and snapped the shots at different times of day and in different weather conditions. Better image quality isn’t all the update brings.

LG Display will begin mass-production of its large-scale OLED panels, such as those used in the 55-inch OLED HDTV the company demonstrated at CES earlier this month, in July 2012. CFO Jeong Ho-young confirmed the production plans after LG Display revealed its Q4 2011 financial results, Korean site Asia Economies reports, with the line capable of up to 48,000 panels per month. Initially, though, production will be more conservative, ramping up from around 8,000 panels per month. LG Display will use the time to make a decision on investment into its 8G OLED production facilities, expecting to decide in Q3 this year whether to pump cash into large-scale production in 2013. The panels will be slotted into high-end sets like the LG 55EM9600, launched at CES. Less than 4mm thick and weighing just 16 pounds, the TV supports passive 3D and Full HD resolution, though LG is yet to say exactly what it – or production variants – will cost. More details on the 55EM9600 in our eyes-on report. LG Dis

A team of students from Boise State University that participate in automotive projects announced this week that they intend to go for an existing land speed record for petroleum powered trucks of 215mph. The team is called Greenspeed and they are aiming at the 215mph record with a diesel truck using fuel derived from vegetable oil. If the team is able to hit more than the 215mph mark, they will own the land speed record for the diesel truck classification, including trucks that burn traditional diesel fuel. The first attempt by the Greenspeed team to take the record will be attempted at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The team is using a modified 1998 Chevrolet S-10 truck. The truck already broke the 98mph record for vegetable oil-fueled vehicles this past November by putting down a top speed of 139mph on a dry lakebed in El Mirage in the Mojave Desert at a Southern California Timing Association Race. The goal of the Greenspeed team is to prove you don’t have to give up performance

Polish politicians donned Guy Fawkes masks in parliament this week, in protest of a SOPA-style anti-piracy agreement signed by the government. Members of the leftwing Palikot’s Movement produced apparently home-made masks – popularized by comic-turned-film V for Vendetta and now largely associated with hack-collective Anonymous - to show their disdain for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) the AP reports. ACTA was signed by the US and Canada last year, with Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Greece all joining Poland in agreeing to the act this year. However, despite the governmental support, internet users and privacy activists have been outspoken in their opposition. The Act, they say, removes safeguards that currently protect an ISP from the activity of its subscribers, something that is expected to increase the likelihood of internet providers reducing user privacy so as to avoid incriminating themselves. The Free Software Foundation has alleged tha

If you are using Google Music Manager, you know that it is easy, even if time consuming, to upload all your tracks to the cloud. The thing was that once uploaded if you wanted to download those songs back to another device, like a new computer or mobile, you were only able to do that one track at a time. That was tedious in the extreme. Google has updated the Music Manager system and it now allows you to grab all your tracks at one time. That includes the ability to download tracks that you purchased on the Android Market. This is a nice new feature for sure. Being able to download all of your tracks at once will round out the features list with something that many have wanted since launch. I like that this service will protect all the tunes I have collected over the years too. If you get a new tablet or smartphone, you can download the files to it. If your computer crashes, you still have all your music too. If you aren’t using this already, it might be time to check it out.