Hasta La Gadget!

The only thing better than unannounced functionality is an automatic, surprise refund on your purchase. With the international version of Amazon’s 6-inch Kindle you get both. Several readers who ordered the $279 international Kindle have received the following email:

Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6″ Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don’t need to do anything to get the lower price–we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.

By “strong customer demand” we assume that Amazon means “we’re trying to stay competitive with the $259 Barnes and Noble Nook,” but that’s just a hunch. A hands-on at the Gadget Lab also reveals the inclusion of web browsing thought to have been disabled. For the most part it is disabled but Amazon does let you browse to the English version of Wikipedia and nowhere else. The hands-on also notes “dead slow” 3G performance and Amazon’s decision to ship the international Kindle with a US power plug regardless of destination. Weird.

[Thanks, Simon]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

Amazon’s international Kindle surprises owners with $20 refund, limited web browsing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, would you look at this little beaut from from the Web 2.0 summit. General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt swung by the event last night pocketing the not-quite-flip phone tricorder Vscan, which all kidding aside is one of the smallest functional ultrasound machines we’ve seen. The goal is for doctors to have better access to specialist tools, reducing the number of referrals and improving diagnoses, etc. — and we’re sure selling an absolute ton of these is probably on the to-do list as well. See a glimpse of it in action after the break.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

Continue reading GE VScan portable ultrasound earns the Leonard McCoy seal of approval

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

GE VScan portable ultrasound earns the Leonard McCoy seal of approval originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We can hardly believe it but the day has finally arrived: Toshiba just launched the first Dynario fuel-cell for portable consumer electronics. That’s right, the long promised and highly anticipated direct methanol fuel-cell (DMFC) with dedicated fuel cartridge for on-the-go refueling will go on sale October 29th in Japan for ¥29,800 (about $328) plus another ¥3,150 (about $34) for a set of five, 50ml fuel cartridges. Dynario takes about 20 seconds to fill its 14ml fuel tank with an injection of a concentrated methanol solution at which point it’s ready to charge USB-connected devices. Dynario’s hybrid structure uses a lithium-ion battery to store enough electricity to charge two typical cellphones, according to Tosh. That works out to be about $1 per recharge, if our calculations are correct, based on the fuel costs alone. We assume the battery can be charged via wall socket power too but this isn’t explicitly stated in the press release. The first run consists of only 3,000 units after which Toshiba will gauge consumer reaction before extending the launch outside of Japan. Boy oh boy, a new age in portability has begun.

Toshiba Dynario fuel-cell: the battery revolution begins October 29th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on July 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s CEO, announced on her blog today that Thunderbird hasn’t been receiving the attention that it deserves. As a result they are looking at a number of options to let Thunderbird continue to grow and flourish, but I don’t like how all of this sounds. Take a look at this snippet from the post:

The Thunderbird effort is dwarfed by the enormous energy and community focused on the web, Firefox and the ecosystem around it. As a result, Mozilla doesn’t focus on Thunderbird as much as we do browsing and Firefox and we don’t expect this to change in the foreseeable future.

To "help" Thunderbird they are looking at three different options that will give the project the attention it deserves. Here’s what can happen with it:

1. Create a new non-profit organization analogous to the Mozilla Foundation – a Thunderbird foundation. If it turns out Thunderbird generates a revenue model from the product as Firefox does, then a Thunderbird foundation could follow the Mozilla Foundation model and create a subsidiary.This model probably offers the maximum independence for Thunderbird. But it is also the most organizationally complex.
2. Create a new subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation for Thunderbird. This has less overhead, although it still requires a new company that serves the mission of the Mozilla Foundation. In this case the Mozilla Foundation board and personnel would remain involved in Thunderbird. The Thunderbird effort may therefore still end up with less focus and less flexibility.
3. Thunderbird is released as a community project much like SeaMonkey or Camino, and a small independent services and consulting company is formed by the Thunderbird developers to continue development and care for Thunderbird users. Many open source projects use this model.

So I’m not sure what this sounds like to you, but it almost sounds like they are wanting to get Thunderbird out of their hands so that they can focus solely on Firefox…because that’s where the money is at right now. As we reported earlier this year Mozilla had earned more than $52 million in 2005 while spending a frugal $8 million of that on expenses and salaries. I’m guessing that Mozilla only wants to focus on the projects that will make them money even though they have plenty put away for a rainy day.

The interesting part is that Mitchell goes on to say that they don’t want to forget about mail all together though:

We would also like to find contributors committed to creating and implementing a new vision of mail. We would like to have a roadmap that brings wild innovation, increasing richness and fundamental improvements to mail. And equally importantly, we would like to find people with relevant expertise who would join with Mozilla to make something happen.

To me this sounds like two people breaking up because something better has come along, where they just say that they "need their space." So I’m not overly hopeful anymore that we’ll see true innovation coming out of Thunderbird anymore. I honestly see that as being disappointing news, but I guess Mozilla has to do what’s best for the Foundation.

Let me know if I’m taking this the wrong way, or whether you see this as "the end" of Thunderbird as well.

Source: Mitchell Baker’s Blog [via Mozilla Links & Info World]

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

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The Lightroom 3 beta will look familiar to current users, but there are changes under the hood. In addition, Lightroom catalogs can be synchronized with Flickr.

(Credit:
Adobe Systems)

With the release of its first beta version of Photoshop Lightroom 3.0 on Wednesday night, Adobe Systems is trying to improve the heart of the photographic editing and cataloging software.

“With Lightroom 3, we’re looking at a performance and image quality rearchitecture,” said Product Manager Tom Hogarty. Those two goals are in opposition, since better image quality demands more computing horsepower. But Hogarty said the software is more responsive when moving among photos, and images look better with new noise reduction and sharpening abilities.

There are other changes, too, though: a revamped import process for importing photos into the software catalog; built-in connections to upload photos to online services and keep them in sync; a more flexible mechanism for laying out photos to be printed; new abilities for stamping watermarks onto photos; and the ability to export photos and music as a video file.

…

Originally posted at Deep Tech