Tech News Today

Although not a soul alive is shocked by the news, today Verizon Wireless announced it will be releasing the HTC Imagio — its first Windows Mobile 6.5 device — online starting October 6th. The Imagio, known to most by its codename Whitestone, will feature the following key specs: 3.6″ WVGA touchscreen display (resistive, of course), 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, Wi-Fi, EV-DO Rev. A, quad-band EDGE and 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA for international roaming. Being a WinMo device from HTC, TouchFLO 3D is naturally included while Verizon will be chipping in MediaFLO support for those who are willing to part with an extra $15 per month. So what will the Imagio cost come its big day? $199.99 on a 2-year deal after a $100 MIR which isn’t all that shabby, all things considered.

Read

True, it’s just an ordinary netbook from an ordinary company, but the Gateway LT2106u is now official and brings with it a contractual obligation to Verizon Wireless in return for a discount off the claimed $500 retail price. Just don’t get too excited about your new found frugality since you’ll still be forking over monthly access fees as high as $60 per month for 5GB of data. The netbook itself packs 3G data (presumably via Qualcomm’s world-wide Gobi) and the usual N270 Atom proc, 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, WiFi, and up to 6 hours of battery life if you shut everything down but the 3-in-1 memory card reader. Available October 4th for $150 after mail-in rebate.

Filed under: Laptops

Verizon’s Gateway LT2106u 3G netbook is working for the weekend originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A few weeks ago, we wrote about Swedish startup Twingly and its stealth memetracker Twingly Channels. Tonight, Twingly is launching in closed beta. In the past, Twingly has brought us a microblogging search tool, a search engine for blogs, and a global ranking system for blogs. Twingly Channels essentially lets users to create their own personalized real-time memetracker. To sign up for an invite, click here with the code “TechCrunch.”

As we wrote previously, Twingly is a mix between Digg and FriendFeed. Twingly Channels lets users to create their own personalized social memetracker by collecting feeds and search terms covering any topic or event into a channel they share with others. And the site has real-time functionality. Users can post links posted by users, content from RSS feeds, and real-time search results for terms from blogs and microblogs (i.e. Twitter). The resulting stream is filtered into a Friendfeed-like channel where people can comment on, like, or dislike incoming items.

Channels will be public by default, but to comment or subscribe you will need to sign up. Twingly will also employ a ranking system to filter content using a proprietary alogorithm. Every item coming into the channel is continuously ranked using links from blogs, Tweets, user comments and likes. The highest ranked items are shown in the Popular view. Twingly Channels can also be used by companies for brand tracking and social media monitoring and can be kept private for these purposes.

The site could be useful for aggregating RSS feeds, tracking specific content on blogs and microblogs and then sharing that content with others, all on one site. The blog/microblog search is powered by Twingly’s search engine which tracks close to 26 million blogs around the world. It’s similar in some ways to Streamy.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Beaterator (PSP)
Just beat it.

Fill up at almost any pump today and you’re likely to see a reminder that what you think of as gasoline can contain up to 10 percent ethanol.
The effect of that much ethanol on your car is relatively benign; it’s been allowed since 1978 and over more than three decades the ethanol, mostly sourced from U.S. corn, has helped reduce our reliance ..

Joining the NFL and other sports organizations in the raining-on-our-parade camp, the NBA has declared pre-, post-, and mid-game social media verboten, according to a Sports Illustrated post this evening.

According to a memo sent out to teams today, no mobile or other communication devices are to be used from 45 minutes before a game starts until after the players have finished performing their athletic duties, including postgame locker room interviews. The ban affects players, coaches, and “basketball operations personnel.” We are unclear whether cheerleaders are included in this perplexingly named category.

Sponsor

We’re also not sure whether this ban applies to the official NBA Twitter account, which has more than 1.4 million followers, or to any of the myriad team Twitter accounts. What we do know is that the NBA will now be treating social media content the same way it would treat comments made to traditional media outlets.

The complete list of NBA players affected by this decision is staggering, but the ban also applies to other forms of social media, such as Facebook status updates. It would even prohibit the sending of text messages and emails during the prescribed time limits.

And although tweeting on the job is generally considered bad form, like all Twitter users who choose to make their professional lives part of their social stream, these NBA players are doing monumental things for engagement, brand ambassadorship, and real-time promotion. We consider the NBA’s decision to make basketball less fun short-sighted and generally uncool.

However, the memo may be welcomed by many coaches and other team executives, who often prohibit the use of electronic communication devices at various times during team activities. Teams such as the L.A. Clippers and the Miami Heat already have guidelines in place that are much stricter than what was outlined in the NBA memo.

Many thanks to Mathew Ingram for the pointer and for inspiring our headline.

Does the NBA’s call make sense to you? Or did the out-of-touch leadership go over the line? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Discuss

Google just started handing out Wave invites, and they’re planning to dish out more all day. The door is open to 100,000 new users; if you’re one of the lucky ones, you can share the love (and your invites) here.

It’s 11am in Sydney, Australia, where the Wave team is based, so “all day” means they’ll be handing out invites for quite a few more hours to come. From what I’ve heard, they seem to be sending out those invitations by hand (that is, it’s not an automated push to every single user), so it will probably take some time.

If you were lucky enough to get an invite, you’ll also score eight invitations of your own that you can hand out to your friends and colleagues. If you’re interested in sharing the love with your fellow Lifehacker readers (and scoring some serious geek karma points), post a comment and let others know you’ve got an invitation or two to share. Users who don’t mind putting their email in a public place (we always type it out like tips at lifehacker.com, though you could use something like previously mentioned Scr.im) can reply to the offer and invites could go out on a first-come, first-serve basis. It’s not the best system in the world, but hopefully it’ll help get out some invites to some hungry-for-wave users.

Keep in mind that right now they’re just sending out the initial batch of 100,000, so even if someone invites you, it’s not going to be an instantaneous approval. In fact, if you were in the developer sandbox or you think you applied for an invitation early enough that you may be one of the 100,000, you may want to wait rather than waste an invite. If you’re not sure whether you’re interested in Wave one way or another, check out our Google Wave first look.

Either way, good luck, everybody!

Not long ago, we broke the news that Google has started sending invites for Google Wave. The run-up to the launch of Google’s real-time communication tool has dominated both social media and mainstream media chatter for the last few days. Twitter users have been clamoring for invites (or trying to buy invites on eBay).

So what should you expect when you first get your invite and enter Google Wave? Well we know the answer. Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove is the first member of our team to receive a Google Wave invite. And what was the first thing to greet her as she entered Google’s magical wonderland? Why, none other than Google’s friendly tutor, Dr. Wave!

When you open up the Wave interface, you will be greeted by Greg, one of Google Wave’s product manager. Or, as he is apparently known around the office, “Dr. Wave.” He introduces you to Google Wave in a very fun and very informative 2 and a half minute video, which we’ve embedded below.

Before you watch it though, one note: the video’s meant to be watched while within Google Wave. Thus, when you see him pointing, he’s supposed to be pointing at the Wave interface. So you might get a bit disoriented. In any case, here’s Dr. Wave:

Please: let us know what you think of Dr. Wave and his tutorial in the comments.

BONUS: Extensions Gallery Intro

Here’s yet another intro video fro mthe Wave team, this on on Google Wave extensions:

BONUS #2: Google Wave Sudoku Extension

They even demonstrate one of the standard extensions, Sudoku. Who wants to play me tomorrow?

Tags: Google, Google Wave

Filed under: Humor, Software, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends

We’ve mentioned Throwboy here on the site before — they make handmade pillows, usually in the shape of Mac-related icons. And they just recently sent word about a brand new line of pillows: just in time for Halloween, they’ve branded the Finder and related icons with a little October 31st flavor. Sure, they’re silly and pretty useless (really — who buys a pillow for a one day-a-year holiday?), but just look at them! The FrankenFinder especially is pretty darn charming.

As usual, they’re $29 each, or $100 for the whole set of four, which includes the Finderstein, Count Macula, Mac-o-lantern, and the great-looking Spooker. Shipping takes around 3-6 weeks, though if you order ASAP, they can probably make sure and get it to you before Halloween this year (and they’re only available until 10/31 anyway, so pick yours up soon). Each pillow is 9″ by 11″ and made of comfy fleece, plus seriously, they’re scarily cute.

TUAWThrowboy releases Halloween Finder pillows originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments