Posted By RichC on June 30, 2011
Upgraded to WordPress to 3.1.4 ; fixes potential security issues:
This release fixes an issue that could allow a malicious Editor-level user to gain further access to the site. Version 3.1.4 also incorporates several other security fixes and hardening measures
Posted By RichC on June 30, 2011
Although Mr. Mossberg is rightly critical about some of the shortcomings regarding HP’s late entry into the tablet computing market with the webOS Touchpad, he had a few complements too (LINK).
Clever Interface
I like the interface a lot. Instead of a screen full of app icons, the main screen of the TouchPad’s operating system, called webOS, presents running apps as "cards"—large, live rectangles that you scroll through in a horizontal row.
When you tap a card, it fills the screen and is ready to use. To minimize it, you just swipe up on the bezel surrounding the screen. A second swipe takes you to a screen from which you can launch or download a new app. To get rid of a card, you just flick it upward, and it disappears. Multiple cards can run in the background.
And these cards are clever. For instance, the contacts and photo cards combine both local and online content, from sources like Google and Facebook; and cards with related functions, like an email message and an attachment you’ve opened, are stacked atop one another.
You can make Skype video and audio calls directly from the messaging apps. And if you buy a forthcoming H-P webOS smartphone, you can link it to the tablet wirelessly, and send and receive voice calls and text messages from the tablet, or transfer a Web page from the phone by tapping the phone on the tablet.
Here is what a few others are saying …
PC Magazine (Four out of five stars, "Very good")
Pros: Top-notch, intuitive user interface. Fast performance. 9.7-inch, 4:3 screen excellent for video and photos. Synergy features make integrating with social networks and websites easy. Strong Facebook app.
Cons: App is selection is limited at launch. No rear-facing camera or video-recording capabilities. Screen sometimes needs multiple taps. Almost twice as thick as the iPad 2.
Bottom Line: With solid hardware and a user-friendly operating system based around multitasking and intuitive organization, the HP TouchPad is the best non-Apple tablet we’ve tested. There aren’t a lot of apps yet, but Android Honeycomb tablet manufacturers should be a little nervous.
The TouchPad I’ve been using is downright buggy, and suffers from a shortage of key apps. Which is why my advice to anyone who wants to buy a tablet right now remains unchanged: Get an iPad 2.
One hardware department where the TouchPad is a leader is audio: It features Dr. Dre-approved "Beats" technology and stereo speakers rather than the iPad 2’s single speaker. Music sounded unusually good whether I was listening out loud or over headphones.
This tablet bears the burden of great potential; it’ll be a real shame if it turns out to be nothing more than yet another unsatisfying, unfinished iPad alternative.
Posted By RichC on June 30, 2011
While I continue to put of buying new technology including a phone, computer, a low cost e-reader (yesterday’s post), I continue to ogle the HP Touchpad and Apple iPad. Wouldn’t you know that HP is tempting me …
June 28, 2011
Early adopters: your new TouchPad just got $50 closer
When the first webOS phone came out, a lot of you took a chance on our new platform. We appreciate your support — as customers, as champions, and even occasionally as our most thoughtful critics — and we’d like to make it just a little easier for you to experience the latest version of the power of HP webOS.
Through July 31, you can get a $50 rebate on the purchase of a new 32GB TouchPad. Proof of ownership of a Palm Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi, or Pixi Plus (initially in the US or Canada) will be required. This mail-in rebate is good wherever you buy your TouchPad, including preorders and reservations. (Watch your email inbox for details.)
And to help showcase how the TouchPad “works like nothing else,” HP is giving you a chance to win free TouchPads or one of several “prizes like nothing else” (everything from the chance to experience zero gravity or to ride with racing legend Mario Andretti). Check out the virtual TouchPad LaunchLine on Facebook here.
Posted By RichC on June 29, 2011
At least for now, the Nook is in the lead. Even without its touch screen, the Nook has a few other features that the Kindle lacks. Its company-estimated battery life is two months when used for reading an hour a day with WiFi off, or twice as long as Amazon’s Kindle under the same circumstances. It enables lending books to friends directly from the Nook, while Kindle users must initiate lending books from a PC. And library books can be borrowed and read on the Nook (albeit using a side-loading procedure); an Amazon spokeswoman says library books are coming to Kindles later this year.
Posted By RichC on June 29, 2011
A friend of mine recently switched carriers from T-Mobile to Sprint after grumbling about service … and the cellphone subject gave me something to make small talk with to a few of my customers on Tuesday. What I realized is that no matter the carrier, every customer complained.
One plan did stand out … Virgin Mobile’s prepaid service (on the Sprint network) and an LG Optimus V Android phone without a contract. How does $25/mo for unlimited text and data and 300 minutes sound? I think I could live with it.
I really only need to use my cellphone for calls when I’m not at a desk phone, home NetTalk VOIP phone or computer connected talk (free Google phone calls and Skype connections). With a little discipline, I could reduce my minutes to the 300/month. My wife is already under the 300 minutes each month as well as the phone I give to my parents (shared minutes on our plan - originally was $10/mo now over $20). About the only real concerns are my two kids phones …one which should be off soon, but the other most likely will want to stay on our plan? Nevertheless, with a no contract $25/mo plan, we could all have our own and save money over separates … like over $100/month if my mental calculation are correct!
If you have used them and have an opinion as compared to Sprint, post a comment. Thanks.
Posted By RichC on June 29, 2011
The euro edged higher on Wednesday, supported by expectations that the Greek parliament would vote in favor of an austerity package, though wariness that this would only be a short-term solution to the country’s debt problems limited gains.
News Headlines
Posted By RichC on June 28, 2011
Last month I posted on a new start-up project raising funds for an engine oil analizer gadget … Lubricheck … and heard the @wsjthismorning radio spot/podcast talking about it.
Posted By RichC on June 28, 2011
How about topping this hypermiling diesel concept vehicle developed UK’s Cambridge Design Partnership and driven by an eleven-year old kid – 1,325 mpg.
When I told my parents how far this car could go on a gallon of fuel they were absolutely amazed! It wasn’t too hard. The Go system helped me use as little fuel as possible. It monitored the car’s performance, which helped us know when to stop the engine and start coasting.
Check out the company’s press release below.
CDP technology powers eco car
Cambridge Design Partnership uses technology derived from innovative military technology in eco-driving challenge.
Cambridge Design Partnership announces that it has reused elements of its own Lightweight Oxygen Concentrator, as well as various other technologies developed in-house, to contribute to a specialist vehicle capable of travelling 1,325 miles on a single gallon of diesel for this year’s Mileage Marathon Challenge. The small proof-of-concept car was driven by an eleven year old Cambridgeshire girl in partnership with a local school.The annual Mileage Marathon Challenge, which took place today at Mallory Park motor track near Leicester, is intended to promote engineering and technology to school and college students, as well as eco-friendly vehicle concepts.
As BBC TV reported earlier this year, Cambridge Design Partnership designed an oxygen-generator system to deliver oxygen to injured frontline soldiers. This system, powered by an innovative micro-diesel-engine, removed the need to take heavy and potentially explosive oxygen canisters onto the battlefield. This project involved Cambridge Design Partnership’s evaluation of a variety of miniature engines, one of which was selected to power this remarkable vehicle.
The vehicle also features low friction tyres to increase mileage, and was tracked using Cambridge Design Partnership’s ‘Go’ real-time tracking service. The Go technology allows live tracking to be integrated into products and services easier than ever before, and has previously been used to track the Tour of Britain cycle race and promotional vehicles for a novel marketing campaign around Paris. In this case, the live telemetry provided by Go allowed the team to optimise the race strategy for the eco-car, adding an impressive 150mpg to the specialist vehicle. It also made it more interesting for supporters, allowing them to see the live speed and location of the car using their Smartphone from wherever they happened to be.
The vehicle was driven by local schoolgirl Kitty Foster, 11, of Kings School, Ely. CDP extends its congratulations to Kitty and King’s School for such an impressive achievement.
"When I told my parents how far this car could go on a gallon of fuel they were absolutely amazed!" Kitty commented. "Actually, it wasn’t too hard. The Go system helped me use as little fuel as possible. It monitored the car’s performance which helped us know when to stop the engine and start coasting. The GPS information made a big difference and added 150 mpg. The whole car was great fun to drive. It’s good to see cars getting more environmentally friendly, and I’m really pleased we’ve done so well in the challenge’.
"This is about more than just an ultra-eco-friendly car," commented Stephen Lamb, the MoD project leader from CDP. "This supports what our technologies can achieve. We quickly realized that our R&D work for the MoD, creating an Oxygen generator, was highly applicable to the Mileage Marathon Challenge. Both required an extremely efficient system that used very low power and could run off diesel. Now I just need to figure out how to make my own car get the same kind of mileage!"
This project underlines the potential of the oxygen generator as a product for military and humanitarian applications. Where electricity is not readily available, for example on the battlefield, diesel can be a highly convenient form of power. The Oxygen generator is another example of how Cambridge Design Partnership focus on developing new products that use technology to meet genuine human needs.
Cambridge Design Partnership is available to apply its innovative research, design and development talents in a range of specialist fields, including consumer, healthcare, military, industrial and cleantech.
Posted By RichC on June 27, 2011
Posted By RichC on June 27, 2011
Why do only 53% of the citizenry of the United States of America pay federal income taxes? Something’s not quite right when nearly half of the people benefiting from from living in this country are voting for, but not funding, those who are elected to spend others peoples money.
This could change if congress eliminates the majority of the “credits” which keeps some families from paying federal income taxes … and once people have “skin in the game” they might think twice about how “their” money is being spent and redistributed in Washington DC.
A broad swath of Americans don’t pay taxes. Do they have ‘skin in the game’ in America’s success?
By Elaine Maag, Guest blogger / June 26, 2011
David Walker, a former Government Accountability Office head, thinks it’s a problem that half of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes. At the June 22 IRS-Tax Policy Center Research Conference, he argued that more people ought to have “skin in the game” when it comes to paying these taxes so they will be invested in our country’s future. I happen to think almost all of those people he’s talking about do have skin in the game—more than he or I, in fact.
For starters, most people do pay taxes. As Walker recognizes, they pay payroll taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, state income taxes–and more. Tax reform could easily involve some of these levies, so even people who don’t pay federal income taxes today could be affected by reform. And please don’t forget, while today’s credits and deductions do knock many low-income people off the tax rolls, those in the top brackets reap far greater benefits.
Also, as noted by my colleague Eric Toder, people don’t pay income taxes either because they have no taxable income (almost all of the elderly who don’t pay income tax, for instance), or because they qualify for credits that offset their tax liability. For the people in the second group, increases in tax rates could very well hit them in the wallet – either because they’ll owe net taxes or they’ll receive smaller refunds.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recent analysis of those who don’t pay federal income taxes jibes with TPC’s. The conclusion? Most are elderly, poor, or unemployed (including people who are too disabled to work). Whom, I wonder, should the tax man put on the block? And how much money is there to be gained by doing so?
The Earned Income Tax Credit keeps many off the tax roles. But it’s not keeping wealthy people from paying income taxes. TPC estimates that in 2010, about 80 percent of its benefits went to households with income under $30,000.
Furthermore, people tend to receive the EITC for only a couple of years at a time. It might move people off the tax role in some years, but not all years. So even many people who temporarily aren’t paying income tax, likely will in the near future.
If the EITC were run as a spending program rather than a tax subsidy, government could separate its revenue and spending functions. This might diffuse some complaints about people who pay “no taxes.” But that sort of thinking overlooks the real advantages to delivering work incentives through the tax system. It is administratively efficient, is more accessible to workers than traditional spending programs, and has increased work, especially among single parents. Why fix something that isn’t broken?
Of course, as a spending program it would be targeted for cost cutting while as a tax subsidy it has—so far—remained immune.
At a time when we have a serious budget problem, tax breaks should face the same serious review as spending. But tax breaks for low-income families should not be at the top of anybody’s target list. No matter what happens with tax reform, I know where my next meal is coming from. At least some of those who avoid federal income tax thanks to programs such as the EITC don’t. Adding to their income tax burden will not help.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Tax-VOX/2011/0626/Should-everybody-pay-income-taxes