cynergygroup.com

The Britney-and-Brangelina crowd may shed a tear (or not): Gawker reported Thursday that the New York Post has closed down PageSix.com, the online arm of its famed gossip page, after just three months in business.

And as a Gawker commenter pointed out, Salon.com ironically published an article about the end of the golden age of celebrity gossip on the same day that PageSix.com closed its doors.

Denton also pointed out that PageSix.com’s traffic didn’t exactly take off. Here’s the thing: With behemoths like AOL’s TMZ.com, Sugar Publishing’s PopSugar, and the infamous Perez Hilton, online celebrity gossip is a completely saturated market. Despite Page Six’s print reputation, it apparently just couldn’t compete with Perez’s rainbow hair and Microsoft Paint captions.

Citing tough economic conditions, PageSix.com Senior Vice President Jennifer Jehn confirmed the shutdown to Gawker’s Nick Denton. “Given the difficulty in the economy, it was not the right time for this launch,” Jehn reportedly said, adding that the decision would be accompanied by 18 layoffs.

Nick Denton probably isn’t mourning. Gawker Media, which he founded in 2002, operates a number of gossip titles from the eponymous New York media rag to the Hollywood-focused Defamer, and the closing of PageSix.com means one fewer competitor in the mix. But if, as Denton speculates, PageSix.com fell at the hands of an advertising downturn, that could hurt the rest of the gossip press too.

You gotta love a good Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (S-PVA)-based display, don’t you? Well, you’re obviously not required to love them, but with their deep blacks, good viewing angles, and, for the most part, accurate colors, they certainly make it difficult to dislike them.

(Credit:
Josh P. Miller/CNET)

See? The black hardly shifts from this angle…

A monitor needs to have more than just great performance, however, to justify its price. Extra features and connection options can work wonders toward a monitor’s overall worth. With Dell recently lowering the price of its feature-rich, 24-inch UltraSharp 2408WFP to $450, can the 22-inch NEC be expected to compete?

Case in point: the NEC MultiSync P221W is a 22-inch, $390 S-PVA display that includes the aforementioned perks of most S-PVAs.

Check out the review to find out. Also, be sure to take a look at more monitor reviews with new ones added every week.

The following product is available:

On Sale Now: $405.36 - $549.99
View the latest prices for NEC MultiSync P221W

We’ve handpicked four services that have pretty lenient size limits and that don’t force you to download software clients just to graduate up to the higher caps. To be fair, we’re also comparing all four to the YouTube status quo.

The five sites we put through the ringer were: YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, Facebook, and Veoh. All let you add files in excess of 200MB.

2. Real-world upload time.

So here’s the deal. We took a source video of just less than 2 minutes at full VGA quality at 30 frames per second. It came off a recent-model Canon digital camera that saved it as an approximately 200MB AVI file. Your results for source material may vary, but based on the popularity charts on Flickr, Canons rule the roost both overall and in the point-and-shoot camera category, so we felt that it was a good control.

Source      
Facebook      
Viddler      
Veoh      
Vimeo      
YouTube      

Fast

Viddler (29 min.) Viddler was by far the fastest of the uploaders. Your results will vary, though.

Facebook (36 min.) Facebook slurped up our video quickly, and it even gives an estimation for when the video will be done.

We’ve rated each site on its feel from slow, medium, to fast along with a time of how long each site took to ingest the file. This is based on a standard, domestic Comcast cable modem connection (8MB/s). At the time, we had an instant-messaging application running, along with a browser window that had about 10 tabs open, and no other concurrent uploads or downloads.

Next, we uploaded to each site using its Web uploader. Not some standalone software application, but the interface that any Joe Shmo has to use when adding videos to the site.

The three things we’re testing today are: 1) Ease of interface when having to add titles, tags, and other information
2) Real-world speed of upload 3) End quality

There’s another problem at hand: size. Video files are big, and a lot of the most popular services place tedious size restrictions. Those restrictions mean that you are either going to have to compress your video through third-party software before uploading or make smaller, lower-quality source recordings to begin with.

Listen:

| Download
MP3

Medium

YouTube (42 min.) Not bad, but not great, either. YouTube also has a multivideo uploader that lets you load your videos in batches.

A picture’s worth a thousand words, so here are full-quality screencaps from all five services, including a baseline of the source video in its native resolution. Since the various players either stretch or resize the source content to fit the player, black space has been added around the outside to balance. The services have been ordered from largest to smallest, starting with the source material.

YouTube may be the best-known mainstream video-hosting site on the Web, but it’s certainly not winning any awards for the visual quality of its content. YouTube’s creators have said higher-resolution videos are on the way, but until then, there are a handful of other services that do a much better job at making your uploaded video look a little less Webby.

YouTube. YouTube has by far the most amount of “paperwork” you can fill out before you can begin uploading, but there are only a couple of required fields, and the opportunity for categorization goes deeper than most. There are a ton of boxes to click and drop-down menus to choose from, including a geographical map of where the video was taken and privacy controls to let you tweak what others can do with your video.

Viddler was the best of breed for its interface, which is all business. It lets you pick your video and start uploading before filling out any forms. When it’s actually time to fill it in, tagging and categorization are simple and intuitive.

Vimeo. Vimeo’s uploader was a cinch to use. You can start uploading your video file without even having to give it a name.

Facebook. Very easy to get going, unless you’ve got a lot of people in the video. Facebook’s prowess over the others is that you can tag people who are in it, which doesn’t take long, using the built-in search-as-you-type box. It also lets you start uploading before filling anything out. The one caveat is that you have to sign up for Facebook first, but you’re on there anyway, right?

Veoh. Simple setup, though like others, you have to do the naming, tagging, and categorization before beginning the upload.

For smaller-resolution stuff that hovers around VGA, you’re better off with Veoh. Veoh manages to retain a good amount of detail in your video stream, as long as you’re willing to put up with the lengthly uploading time. If you’re lucky enough to be the proud owner of an HD-capable camcorder or digital camera, pass go and check out Vimeo, which is the only service that’s ready, willing, and able to handle HD video, if you’ve got it. Now go forth and upload.

Slow

Vimeo (1 hr 19 min.) Vimeo was the second-longest to upload, though it provides a simple 100 percent counter to let you know how far it’s gotten.
Veoh (1 hr 21 min.) Veoh was the slowest of the bunch. You better have something good to do, or leave it going overnight.

It’s worth noting that Casio has several models of digital cameras with “YouTube capture” modes, though these are simply recording video in MPEG-4 H.264 at smaller resolutions, which takes up less space. You can accomplish a similar feat, albeit using a different video codec, if your camera has a “compact” or “e-mail ready” video-capturing mode.

Note: To compare, just mouse over the name of each service below the picture. It might take a second or two to load, depending on your connection.

2/6 Update: I was lucky enough to get some time to talk about these tests on the News.com podcast with Erica Ogg earlier today. You can read the show notes and get links to the mentioned stories on this page, or listen to the entire thing with the embedded player below. If you like what you hear, you can also become a subscriber of the show via iTunes. One thing to note is I managed to mix up Vimeo with Viddler when talking about the two quality winners, so keep that in mind.

2/5 Update: Several users have noted the similarities in Veoh and Vimeo, and it’s definitely a close call. I stand by my judgment of Veoh, as I’ve listed in the comments, but the difference will be negligible for most users. We’re definitely planning on doing a follow-up with another crop of services, so if you’ve got a favorite that fits the specs for our test file, then leave it in the comments or shoot me an e-mail.

Final thoughts

1. Ease of use.
How easy it is to navigate the uploader and add things such as title, tags, and categories?

3. Quality

“So,” she continues, not mincing words, “if you bought the HD (DVD) player like me, I’d retire it to the bedroom, kid’s playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a (Blu-Ray Disc) player.”

A buyer in Wal-Mart’s video division wrote this morning on her Wal-Mart Checkout blog that the retail giant had made the decision following Netflix and Best Buy’s high-profile announcements that they will exclusively stock Blu-ray products.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that consumers will automatically start buying Blu-ray players. As mentioned many times before here, prices will have to continue to fall on both Blu-ray players and packaged media for there to be any sort of mainstream adoption of the format.

There are rumors that Toshiba might soon be declaring defeat: The Hollywood Reporter has sources telling it that Toshiba, the main backer of HD DVD, might drop its allegiance with the format in the next few weeks.

That might be the best option at this point, as the dominoes keep falling in Blu-ray’s favor. While Netflix and Best Buy were pretty damning evidence that the end was near, now it’s glaringly obvious: it’s over for HD DVD.

Toshiba denies it, but stay tuned. There’s likely much more to come in this drama.

Things have gone from bad to worse for HD DVD in the space of one week.

(Credit:
Crave UK)

Wal-Mart Stores announced on Friday morning that it, too, has chosen a side in the battle for high-definition video supremacy: by June, it will stock only Blu-ray Disc players.

Wrote Susan Chronister of Wal-Mart: “By June, Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines and, of course, standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players.”

Garmin's Nuvi 5000 mobile GPS.

(Credit:
Garmin)

Roughly one year ago, Garmin and Mapquest launched application programming interfaces intended to encourage developers to write applications linking GPS systems to online services.

Starting Tuesday, people using Google Maps to plan trips will be able to send location data to their Garmin GPS systems, the companies announced on Monday. The feature, called “Send-to-Garmin”, will eliminate the need to re-key route information into GPS devices.

Likewise, Garmin has inked a deal with Mapquest to send mapping information from that online service to Garmin’s GPS products. The service is expected to launch in April. Mapquest already lets people send mapping information to mobile phones.

The link between online mapping services and global positioning devices is growing stronger.

Sven Rafferty provides us the Skinny on Why the iPhone Update Lacked Cut-n-Paste and Exchange Support… if you dare to read it!

The deal is, Apple is aware of the desire for this option and it is working on it in the labs as we speak. The trouble it is having is implementation.

The answer Sven got for Exchange integration was equally exacting in it’s detail:

Yes, I can understand the difficulty in believing all of this…

Hey, wait a minute! That’s the same thing the cold fusion guys said!

Make love to it! Become one with it! Belong to it in a way that it owns your very soul! Let it keep you up at night! Waste vast reams of paper writing your cut-and-paste manifesto! Let your beard grow out!

But, shhh. Sven’s about to tell us how many Bothans died to bring us this information.

But what bugged me more than anything was the lack of something and that something was the missing feature of Cut-n-Paste in the
iPhone.

That’s an interesting perspective on it. As in, oh, isn’t that guy in the leotard shouting about the “gubbermint” on the street corner interesting?

… however, other sites have been sued and shutdown by Apple with little more than I’ve revealed.

I can’t understand why there isn’t more of an uproar about this must-have option in such a versatile device.

Behold my mighty pet peeve! Bow down before it! Worship it as your one true god as I do!

“Apple’s aware of the Exchange need.”

I stand by what I have stated here and those that know me know I would not make up anything printed here.

You know what? It would be cool if the iPhone had cut-and-paste. But it’s not exactly the debilitating flaw Sven makes it out to be.

With recent posts from former Apple employees whom speak of the ‘Fear of Steve’ from leaking any information, even after leaving the company, I’m not even going to reveal my source.

“Even after leaving the company”? Is Sven suggesting Steve has had people whacked?

Uh, didn’t you just say nothing groundbreaking happened other than…

Tell us about the people Steve Jobs had whacked, crazy cut-and-paste guy!

Right. Well, except for that last bit.

While there is a slew of other unanswered features many have called for since day one, such as voice dialing, these two were my main concern and I was glad to at least get some kind of answer.

In my book…

It gets even funnier in the comments where Sven ominously notes:

Is your book by any chance this book?

He’s a regular Carl Bernstein, isn’t he?

Sven, we believe it, we just don’t care.

Macworld was a great time last week even if nothing ground breaking happened other than a very thin and a very expensive laptop was released.

No matter how obvious and non-committal it was.

And that answer was “Please go away crazy cut-and-paste man.”

… Apple TVs update and HD movie rentals was the big news.

Well, I hunted someone down at Macworld to give me the answers and after a long search and pass off after pass off from Apple employee to Apple employee, I finally got an answer.

You know what? Never mind. Just continue.

10:53 a.m.: Modality is the next company that Apple is showing off. These folks, represented by Dr. S. Mark Williams, have developed an application that helps medical students ditch their flash cards and use an iPhone to view anatomical images of the body that are very detailed, down to the arteries and veins, and can quiz students on the various parts of the heart, for example. Within weeks of the App Store launching, the company will have about a dozen applications available for various health-care needs.

10:45 a.m.: More applications! Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software comes up to show off two games the company ported from Mac OS X to the iPhone, Enigmo, a 3D puzzle game, is very CPU-intensive, says Greenstone, and it doesn’t miss a beat in the demo. Cro-Mag Rally, which is apparently a caveman racing game, is the other game shown off. Driving looks hard, but he is racing on snow, and people from California don’t know how to drive in the snow. Both games will cost $9.99.

—

Steve Jobs unveils the new 3G iPhone at Apple’s WWDC.

11:48 a.m.: Jobs moves into the new ad for the 3G iPhone, which pokes fun at Apple’s secretive nature. The demo gods finally make their presence felt as the audio skips on the replay of the video.

(Credit:
Apple)

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

10:23 a.m.: His mock application is going to merge the contacts databases and location-aware services. He’s taking us through the actual development experience, dragging and dropping icons that represent things like the iPhone’s search bar around the development environment. Once the application is done, the developer can test it right on a Mac for bugs or to make different aesthetic choices, such as whether to put things in the toolbar or within the regular fields.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

iPhone developer tools

10:06 a.m.: We’ve been revisiting the ’50s and ’60s this morning with the warm-up music, running through Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the like. No Green Day or U2 yet, which either means something totally profound, or it doesn’t. Spotted up front: Apple board member Al Gore; Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook; marketing chief Phil Schiller; and Greg Joswiak, head of
iPhone and
iPod marketing. Lights are dimming on “Great Ball of Fire,” and WWDC 2008 is under way.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

Developer shows off music application on the iPhone.

11:46 a.m.: Twenty-two countries will get the 3G iPhone first, and they’ll all get it at the same time. And it’s not coming until July 11. The “late” rumors win.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

11:18 a.m.: Schiller shows how e-mail and calendar info can go back and forth from the device to the Internet. Apple has also built AJAX applications as part of the service. The Web e-mail application looks like iTunes in a way, sorting your e-mail where your songs would normally be. The idea is you can access contacts and calendars from any Mac, PC, or iPhone. There will be an option in the 2.0 software that lets you send photos right to the MobileMe service, in addition.

10:07 a.m.: Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage to widespread applause. Standard outfit. “We’ve been working real hard on some great stuff that we can’t wait to share with you.” A record 5,200 attendees are attending the conference this year. 147 sessions are planned for developers, 85 or so for the
Mac, and 61 or so for the iPhone. The numbers flew by quickly.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

10:26 a.m.: The application finds your friends within a certain radius, but Forstall says nothing about whether the application was designed for the current iPhone, which uses a Wi-Fi/cell tower type of location-aware application, or the new iPhone, which is expected to have GPS. Forstall reads off a few quotes from corporate developer partners like Disney–once again–and Fox Interactive.

11:28 a.m.: Jobs retakes the stage. “Now I’d like to talk about something that’s near and dear to my heart, the iPhone.”

11:45 a.m.: The 16GB model will cost $299, and that model will also be available in white.

11:30 a.m.: They’re showing pictures of the iPhone launch day, almost one year ago. “It’s widely believed that this is the phone that has changed phones forever.” But the thing Jobs really likes is that users love their iPhones, quoting 90 percent customer satisfaction numbers. Ninety-eight percent of iPhone users are browsing, and 80 percent are using 10 or more features. Steve says they have sold 6 million iPhones to date, since they ran out a few weeks ago.

11:13 a.m.: “Now, we’ve got something entirely new, and we’re very excited about this. It’s called MobileMe.”

11:20 a.m.: It’s time for the formal demo. Schiller fires up the service, logs in, and arrives at his e-mail inbox. There are icons at the top that let you scroll between e-mail, contacts, and calendars. You can drag and drop e-mails in the Web interface, send off quick replies to e-mails without opening the entire message, and move through your contacts and calendars.

10:50 a.m.: MLB.com is getting in on the action, so we can watch the tortured season of the New York Mets on our iPhones. Jeremy Schoenherr shows off At-Bat, as we check out the Royals-Yankees game. You can see who’s at bat, who’s pitching, the count, and the score: Mussina’s off to a decent start this morning. You can get real-time video highlights of the Yankees turning a double play. They aren’t really “real-time” since the highlights arrive after the fact, but still.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

10:12 a.m.: Customers told Apple they wanted to hook the iPhone up to Exchange, and they did that with 2.0, Jobs says. The new software uses Cisco’s VPN software. Thirty-five percent of the Fortune 500 participated in the beta program, including the top 5 commercial banks and securities firms. Higher education has also jumped on board, such as Duke, Stanford, and the University of Texas. A demo video is being shown about some of those enterprise customers, such as Disney, where Jobs resides on the board, and an international law firm.

11:07 a.m.: This will be available in September, but developers will get a chance to start playing with it soon. Forstall leaves the stage saying Apple has updated the SDK, but doesn’t say much else about it. Jobs retakes the stage to talk about a few new features in the software: contact search, full support for iWork documents, and support for Microsoft documents, adding PowerPoint to the already supported Word and Excel.

11:10 a.m.: Jobs runs through the capabilities of the App Store, which is the only way to get third-party applications onto the iPhone. The App Store has been expanded to 63 countries that will have access, up from 20-something countries. A 10MB app or less can be downloaded over the air, but you can only use Wi-Fi or iTunes for applications larger than that.

11:15 a.m.: Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, takes the stage to discuss MobileMe. He says it’s “Exchange for the rest of us.” Schiller “slips,” referring to ActiveSync as ActiveStink. MobileMe delivers push e-mail, contacts, and calendars to iPhones. This sounds very much like the revamp of .Mac that has been discussed for months, where information is stored in the “cloud” from Macs, iPhones, or Windows PC. E-mail automatically gets pushed all devices that you register with the service, and pulls calendar updates from one device to another.

eBay application on iPhone.

11:00 a.m.: Forstall promises that Digital Legends Entertainment is the last demo for this morning. These guys built a game in two weeks, and Xavier Carrillo Costa shows off his game. Their game is called Kroll, and it’s another caveman adventure game where you battle enemies, swing across rope bridges, and solve problems. They expect to have the game ready by September.

11:44 a.m.: On to the price. The first iPhone was $599 and now sells for $399. The new, 3G iPhone will sell for $199 for 8GB of storage.

10:15 a.m.: Apple doesn’t usually do these kinds of enterprise-oriented videos at its events, with marketing and IT folks from large organizations singing the praises of the iPhone over a pleasing generic elevator-music-style backdrop. These things are a staple of most IT industry events, though.

10:10 a.m.: But first, the iPhone. In the first 95 days, 250,000 people downloaded the iPhone SDK. 25,000 developers applied, and 4,000 were admitted. He goes into the various parts of the iPhone 2.0 software, including the enterprise features, the SDK, and some other new features.

11:43 a.m.: Jobs moves into enterprise support, which was covered in detail earlier today, as well as third-party applications. When it comes to more countries, the 3G iPhone will be available in dozens of them, as a video with “A Small World After All” plays with the iPhone working its way through South America and Europe. No love for Venezuela or China, but India and Australia are added for a total of 70 countries. It will roll out to those places over the next several months.

11:28 a.m.: Schiller’s now showing how you can access your photo galleries stored in MobileMe through the iPhone, switching back and forth between the iPhone and the Mac to show how quickly photos can be uploaded and accessed from either device. Apple’s keeping the price the same as .Mac: $99 a year, but upping the storage to 20GB. It will be available with the iPhone 2.0 software, and Schiller confirms that MobileMe will replace .Mac. All the .Mac stuff will still work, but .Mac users will be automatically upgraded to the new service.

That’s going to be it from the show floor, but stay with us all day as we take a look at iPhone applications, ponder the 3G model, and post tons of pictures and videos. Thanks for letting us bring you WWDC 2008.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

11:35 a.m.: Jobs goes over the 3G support first. Faster downloads are a no-brainer, he says. He does a side-by-side comparison of a Web page loading on EDGE vs. one on 3G. The National Geographic’s home page downloads in 21 seconds on the 3G network, and the EDGE one is taking forever. Twenty-one seconds is a lot, but this is a pretty photo-heavy Web page. It took 59 seconds on EDGE. The 3G speeds are close to Wi-Fi, Jobs said.

A bustling crowd waits for Steve Jobs' keynote to start.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com) —

The new 3G iPhone, which is thinner at the edges, has a black plastic back and metal buttons on the side, has a flush-headphone jack, and comes in white.

11:09 a.m.: The software will be released in early July, a slip from March’s expectations. iPod Touch users will have to pay $9.99 for the iPhone 2.0 software, which is a price reduction.

E-mail in MobileMe.

10:48 a.m.: It’s a parade of developers. An app called Band was made by a solo developer named Mark Terry, whereas all the other apps so far have been corporate-developed. Band lets you create music on the iPhone, with a touch-screen piano, and the demo guy cranks out a passable version of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” There are also drums and a 12-bar blues creation app, which lays down a bass line while you play guitar over the track, and a bass guitar, which is used to play the slinky bass line from Pink Floyd’s “Money.” There’s other stuff, but time is limited. Terry says Band will appear on the App Store in a few weeks’ time.

10:17 a.m.: The video ends, and Jobs retakes the stage to talk about the SDK, before deferring to Scott Forstall. Forstall goes into a discussion of the APIs in the SDK, which are the same APIs that Apple uses internally to develop applications. Some of this is a repeat from March, where Forstall explained the similarities between the iPhone’s operating system and Mac OS X. The bottom layers of the OS are essentially the same, but the Cocoa programming environment has been tweaked for a touchscreen.

Wearing his standard attire, Steve Jobs takes the stage to kick off Apple’s 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

10:09 a.m.: “So, let’s get started.” Jobs revisits the three parts of Apple: the Mac, the music business, and the iPhone. “I’m going to take this morning to talk about the iPhone.” Recently promoted executive Scott Forstall and Phil Schiller will help Jobs out. He confirms that 10.6 will be on the agenda for the week, and Snow Leopard is confirmed as the new code name.

10:57 a.m.: Mimvista has another medical application that builds on their niche, medical-imaging software. Mark Cain is representing Mimvista, and he says developing one of their types of applications before the iPhone wasn’t going to work. The idea is to connect doctors with their workstations, so they can evaluate medical imaging from the golf course. The application, like Modality’s, can show extremely detailed pictures of the human system, as well as moving images. “The iPhone has created a new direction for our company.”

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

11:24 a.m.: The application, like .Mac, ties into your iLife applications, where you can share photo galleries with others. iDisk is still around, allowing you to store files online. Schiller shows how the iPhone accesses the same MobileMe account, where you can check your e-mail, and save a new contact to your contacts database.

10:39 a.m.: TypePad is next up, for the mobile bloggers in the audience. Michael Sippey of TypePad shows off what they’ve put together, with a simple interface that lets you create a post, take a photo, or add a photo. You can take photos with the iPhone’s camera and add them to a post, as well as add photos from your library on your iPhone. This will be yet another free application.

11:38 a.m.: Jobs compares the 3G iPhone to the Nokia N95 and Treo 750, two other 3G phones, and says the 3G iPhone is 36 percent faster to download the same Web page. In an iPhone 1.0 to iPhone 2.0 comparison, an e-mail attachment downloads in 5 seconds on the 3G model, and 18 seconds on EDGE. Jobs says the 3G iPhone will allow 300 hours of standby time, improved from 8 to 10 hours of talk time on the 2G iPhone, and he’s quoting 5 hours of 3G talk time. Browsing should give you 5-6 hours, video 7 hours, and audio 24 hours of continuous operation.

Jobs announced the new iPhone will offer GPS.

11:32 a.m.: “Today we’re introducing the iPhone 3G.”

10:33 a.m.: eBay is the next developer to show off an application, and Ken Sun of eBay comes onstage to show off Auctions on the iPhone. The iPhone is already the primary mobile device used on eBay’s Web site, he says. The app has a basic front door with options to track auctions you’ve bid on, see whether you’ve been outbid, and to place new bids. You can also pick up the photos from the auction listings, and blow them up to full screen. eBay is making this app available for free.

11:50 a.m.: Jobs asks Tony Fadell, Scott Forstall, and their employees to stand up and take a bow, which they do to thunderous applause. It appears we’re winding down here, as Steve revisits the sessions that are planned for the week’s worth of conference events. And we close, to Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline.”

11:52 a.m.: A quick recap: the 3G iPhone is here, but it’s late. It’s not clear the slip will mean too much to Apple’s goal of shipping 10 million phones in 2008, but the price cuts will probably more than offset any two-week delay in iPhone sales. Still, this means there will have been no iPhones available for about six weeks, from the middle/end of May to early July.

3G iPhone speed test.

10:19 a.m.: He goes into the development tools that those in attendance will be using to build applications, such as Xcode and Interface Builder. He also discusses a tool called Instruments, which is a performance optimization tool. Forstall moves into a demo of how to build a user interface for the iPhone using Interface Builder.

10:36 a.m.: Loopt is the third company to demo, and it’s talking about a location-based application. Again, no distinction is made whether this is an application using GPS or the current location-based service on the iPhone. Loopt blends your social networks with the Maps application, so you can see where your friends are. You can also go to their journal to see what they’ve been doing today, what pictures they’ve added, and so on. This app will also be free.

11:12 a.m.: However, there will now be a third way: Ad Hoc. The example Jobs uses is a professor who wants to use iPhone applications within a classroom. The developer certification program can now be expanded to 100 iPhones, so apps can be shared within a development house or university environment.

11:39 a.m.: “Location services is going to be a really big deal on the iPhone.” GPS data allows you to do tracking. Apple recorded an iPhone traveling in a car going down San Francisco’s famously crooked Lombard Street, showing how precisely the iPhone can be tracked as it navigates the curves.

Jobs shows off iPhone's scientific calculator.

SAN FRANCISCO–At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference here, CEO Steve Jobs took the stage just after 10 a.m. PDT. This is a live blog of news from his keynote speech as it happened. For a summary of highlights written after the fact, go here.

10:29 a.m.: Forstall is bringing third-party developers onstage to talk about their application, and Sega revisits the stage. They demoed a game called Super Monkey Ball in March, and they’ve refined it. Ethan Einhorn of Sega comes up onstage to talk about the app. The initial game had four stages developed in two weeks, now they’ve got 110 stages, with all four classic monkeys.

10:41 a.m.: Our good friends at the Associated Press also have an application to show off. Benjamin Mosse of the AP is showing off the application, which is essentially a reader-style app that focuses on local news. This is another location-aware application that sends you local news based on where you are. You can customize the feeds for your favorite sports teams, and browse AP photos and video. Those stores can be shared via text or e-mail, and civilians can upload their own stories and pictures to the AP from the iPhone, and continuing with the trend, it will be free.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

E-mail messages can be deleted in bulk, and you can save e-mailed photos to your photo library. The calculator now works in landscape mode, adding scientific calculator buttons. Parental controls and language support have also been added, including two forms of Japanese and Chinese entry. The Chinese language characters can be drawn with your finger.

11:02 a.m.: Forstall’s back. He thanks all the developers who demonstrated their applications. He mentions one feature request from developers: instant-messaging developers want to deliver notifications even when the application isn’t running. This is the background-running issue that arrived after the March event. Forstall says background processes are bad for a number of reasons, such as battery life and performance. He uses the opportunity to ding Windows Mobile’s task manager for handling background processes the way desktop Windows does, to widespread laughter and applause.

11:04 a.m.: “We have come up with a far better solution.” Apple is going to provide a push notification service to all developers, which doesn’t quite go as far as background processes. When users quit an application, they disconnect from the server, but Apple is going have its own application server that maintains a connection to the iPhone. You can push badges such as “how many e-mail messages do I have,” custom alert sounds, and custom text alerts. Forstall claims the design scales, but this puts an awful lot of dependence on Apple’s own Web services.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

Showing tilt control on Sega games.

Jobs confirms the new iPhone will have GPS.

11:31 a.m.: “We did figure out what our next challenges are.” 3G networking, as you might have heard, is that first challenge. Enterprise support is the second, third is third-party application support, fourth is international support–as Jobs jokes about the unlocked iPhones all over the world–and fifth, everybody wants an iPhone, but we need to make it more affordable.

11:33 a.m.: “We’ve learned so much with the first iPhone.” Jobs shows off the pictures; it’s thinner at the edges, and has a black plastic back and metal buttons on the side. It’s the same screen, with a camera, a flush-headphone jack (which gets wild applause), and improved audio.

The 8G iPhone will go for $199, Jobs says.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

MLB on the iPhone

11:11 a.m.: Enterprises, however, wanted their own App Stores unique to their phones. Enterprises can authorize iPhones in their company and create apps that only run on those phones, Jobs says. Those applications can be distributed through a corporate intranet, and synced through iTunes.

Push notification service on the iPhone.

9:53 a.m.: Welcome once again to Moscone West, site of so many Apple events over the past few years. The members of the press are mostly seated, and all seem to have managed to make it to the stage without being trampled, although I guarantee that’s the fastest some of them have moved in 20 years. Warm-up music so far is skewing old-school, with a Bo Diddley song to kick things off.

10:30 a.m.: This demo is showing off the capabilities of the accelerometer, where the iPhone can be tilted back and forth to accelerate or brake. The tester gets a nice hand from the audience for hurling Baby Monkey through the goal. Super Monkey Ball will be available at the launch of the App Store for $9.99.

In a CNN article that’s been updated on at least one occasion, Mallory Simon details the activity on Dupre’s profiles at both MySpace and Facebook since the time her identity was publicized by the New York Times earlier in the week. According to Simon, “It seemed she was trying to stay one step ahead of journalists, attempting to limit what information they could access.”

This instantaneous obsession with Ashley Alexandra Dupre is insane, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Back in 1995 when Hugh Grant was caught in a compromising position with Divine Brown, she too became a fleeting celebrity and was reportedly able to milk $1.65 million out of the controversy.

The damage control was not limited to deleting scantily clad photographs and embarrassing comments from the past but also involved deleting contacts in her network as well. Simon points out that both Facebook and My Space are used by journalists to gleam background information on their subjects and suggests that, “She was seemingly aware that the press would have access to her friends and every word, photo and comment on her profiles, so she began by deleting connections between her friends on Facebook.”

Then again, I’m sure he wishes he would’ve fallen sick and canceled the rendezvous. The question is:

It’s unclear whether Dupre will be able to sustain her role in popular culture, or even if she intends to try, but she’s probably the only person not accused of a vicious crime who has ever had their online activity followed so closely by the media and she’ll always have that, just like her and Eliot will always have Washington DC.

Does she?

(Credit: MySpace)
For most people, updating your MySpace or Facebook profile is not news. Sure, it might appear in your news feed on the site, but that’s just about as far as the story is likely to travel. For Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the woman who reportedly worked as an escort and whose clients included former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, not only has her social networking become a significant news item, but it’s even possible that her life-long dream of becoming a professional singer may turn into a reality as a result of getting caught in the prostitution ring that brought down a New York Governor.

In addition to citing the views of two experts on internet privacy, Mallory Simon provides what almost amounts to a play-by-play of Dupre’s internet activity stating that “she was staying up all night cleaning up her profile,” and outlining the posts she made at both 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. Simon concludes her account by noting that the profiles from both Facebook and MySpace had been deleted by 2:30 p.m. on Thursday but that they “reappeared Friday.” It looks like only the MySpace profile is currently active so perhaps Simon is overdue for an update on her investigative profile.

Clearly the culture is more infatuated with celebrities, both traditional and unconventional, than ever before and it seems that Ms. Dupre may be able to continue riding that wave for at least a while longer. Her single, “What We Want” has been downloaded by several million people and the track managed to get radio airplay in New York, but according to MTV News the song’s radio play is already fading fast.

The US Department of Justice has actually wrung confessions out of two Nigerian men and one Senegalese man (who maybe thought he was Nigerian).

I love their aliases:

commentary

Ah, the injustice of it all!

Pleading guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York were Nnamdi Chizuba Anisiobi, whose aliases include Yellowman, Abdul Rahman, Michael Anderson, Edmund Walter, Nancy White, Jiggaman and Namo, age 31, of Nigeria; Anthony Friday Ehis, also known as John J. Smith, Toni N. Amokwu and Mr. T, age 34, of Senegal; and Kesandu Egwuonwu, also known as KeKe, Joey Martin Maxwell, David Mark and Helmut Schkinger, age 35, of Nigeria.

Who says entrepreneurship is dead in Nigeria? If these guys built a website that lets you share slides to rob VCs of a massive valuation they’d be rich. But because they send spam, they get jail.

Wow. Who knew that Nigerians were actually behind those Nigerian spam attacks (at least some of them)? Nigeria should certify and trademark its spam the way Florida does its orange juice.

Niche buster?

The HP-licensing deal is another sign of the active crossover of technologies and of people between clean tech and information technology. IBM, which has a Big Green Innovations initiative, is adapting chip fabrication techniques to solar power, including concentrators.

Click on the image to see a photo gallery of utilty-scale concentrating solar power technologies.

Typically, these trackers are mechanical devices such as ground-mounting systems that position cells to follow the light during the course of the day.

“So long as concentrating PV uses mechanical trackers, it’s going to be niche,” he said.

(Credit:
Amonix)

It intends to have a first-generation solar array aimed at utilities available in 12 months, he said. A product for corporate rooftops is also in the works.

“I firmly believe (CPV) is a market that will be very large, but it doesn’t have the ability to work in every market,” Bradford said.

The full design calls for a multilayered solar panel with the transparent electronic tracker, a plastic “internal reflection” concentrator, and a high-efficiency solar cell.

The deal, announced Wednesday, allows Livermore, Calif.-based Xtreme Energetics to use HP-developed transparent transistors to bend light in concentrating photovoltaic, or CPV, solar arrays. CPV systems squeeze more electricity from panels by maximizing the light that hits solar cells.

The company is in the process of raising an “imminent” $5 million series A round of venture funding, and it anticipates a series B $35 million round, CEO Colin Williams said.

The transistor materials–made of environmentally benign zinc and tin–and related manufacturing techniques could still be used for very large flat displays, said Dan Croft, director of intellectual-property licensing at HP.

Hewlett-Packard is licensing flat-panel display technology to a start-up that could lead to dramatically more productive–and aesthetically pleasing–solar panels.

At a seminar put on by Greentech Media last week, solar expert and Prometheus Institute President Travis Bradford forecast that concentrating solar power–both concentrating solar thermal and CPV–will account for tens of gigawatts of electricity in the next decade, primarily in utility-scale solar-power plants .

Because the tracker and concentrator are transparent, an artistic pattern could be put onto the panel, making it possible to use it on a building facade, Williams said.

Xtreme says HP’s electronics can do the same task of pointing light. But because it’s not a motor-driven steel mount, the company will be able reduce the costs of CPV, Williams said.

(Credit:
SolFocus)

Xtreme Energetics has yet to build a product or prototype. Yet its electronic-tracker design could give the budding CPV marketplace a boost.

As a result, he said the extent of the role solar-concentrating power will play in the future is uncertain.

CPV, specifically, remains relatively expensive and, unlike solar-thermal technology, cannot store electricity, Bradford noted. Also, concentrating solar technology works in areas of the globe with the best irradiance, or solar radiation, including the southwest United States, southern Spain, and North Africa.

Xtreme Energetics will use the technology to create an electronic “tracker” that directs sunlight to hit solar cells straight-on to maximize exposure.

Xtreme Energetics’ Williams said the electronic tracker tackles one of the biggest concerns with concentrating photovoltaics: the high costs associated with lenses and mounting equipment.

Click on the image to see a photo gallery of concentrating photovoltaic arrays.

“The fact that we are using an electronic mechanism to do tracking means the cost scaling in volume manufacturing will go much more like the cost scaling in the electronics industry, rather than (the) mechanical-manufacturing industry,” he said.