Hasta La Gadget!

Now this, this is what we call exciting. Nokia has managed to scoop up Peter Skillman from the wreckage of the HP/Palm merger. One of the many senior VPs to leave Palm upon its assimilation into the HP empire, Peter spent 11 years with his previous employer and was in charge of the design team that produced the deliciously curvaceous Palm Pre. Now at Nokia, he’ll be heading up the user experience and services division for MeeGo, which means that if you weren’t excited for the platform already, you’ve now got a very good reason to be.

Update: We met with Marko Ahtisaari, Senior Vice President of Design at Nokia, to get comment on this story. His response? “Right, I just hired him.” So why not announce it, we asked, this is pretty big news? According to Marko, “We have products today, products are more interesting. Peter is looking after the user experience design of MeeGo and services and is a great new addition to the team.” Marko’s team, to be specific. To us this seems like another component that could help Nokia break into the US market with MeeGo.

[Thanks, Dave]

Continue reading Nokia hires Peter Skillman, former Palm Design VP, as MeeGo user experience chief (update: confirmed)

Nokia hires Peter Skillman, former Palm Design VP, as MeeGo user experience chief (update: confirmed) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No, seriously. Bloomberg is reporting that Apple head Steve Jobs got busted attempting to bring ninja stars (shuriken) onto his private plane. Ninja stars! According to reports, airport officials wouldn’t allow Jobs to get on the plane with the dangerous weapons in his carry-on luggage, after discovering them during a security scan.

I guess he failed to charm them with his whole “one more thing” approach to airport security.

The Apple CEO told the officials that hijacking his own plane wouldn’t make any sense. According to the story, Jobs said that he will never return to the country. Bloomberg confirmed that a passenger was stopped by airport security, but authorities refused to identify the individual,

Takeshi Uno, a spokesman at Kansai airport, said a passenger using a private jet was stopped at the end of July for carrying shuriken, the Japanese word for Ninja throwing stars. The passenger, whom Uno declined to identify because of the airport’s privacy policy, threw away the blades, he said.

A quick note to Jobs: if you do manage to get the ninja stars into the US at some point, holding them the wrong way can lead to disaster.

For less than a third of the price of the cheapest iPad, you can buy Barnes and Noble’s adorably-named, but often ignored e-reader: The Nook. One aspect of The Nook that is often overlooked is the fact that the little sucker is Android-powered. That’s open-source Android-powered. Which, if you think about it, kind of makes The Nook the very first Android-based tablets (or tablet-like gizmos) that the nerdosphere has been buzz–buzzing about.

Of course, The Nook’s scope is a far cry from heavy-duty tablet territory–it’s designed for basic e-reading first and foremost. However, with a few slight “adjustments” you can pimp your Nook with additional functionality such as a Pandora and Twitter app. For free.

Hackers had previously developed a method to RoboCop-up the humble e-reader that required performing some open-Nook surgery. However this newest non-invasive technique can all be accomplished with a spare microSD card and some simple software fanoogling. All under a half hour.

Note: this will definitely void your B&N warranty. However if you’re looking for a simple e-reader that will perform basic web functions without being forced to sacrifice food, rent, inoculations, etc. this may be a handy alternative.

Directions over at NookDevs.

hat tip to popsci

It’s a busy day in the smartphone world. In addition to Nokia’s new trio, LG launched two new Android-powered handsets, the Optimus One and the Chic. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20016353-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p

Starting this month, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) will begin the long process of matching each of its billion-plus citizens with a unique ID number. The number will be tied to three pieces of biometric data: fingerprints of all 10 digits, iris scans of both eyes, and facial recognition software. The system will be under the brand name “Aadhaar.”

The plan hopes to ID 600 million people within the next four years. Citizens will not be required to be digi-tagged (my word, not theirs), but you will need the ID number to sign-up for a growing array of state services.

Aadhaar is largely being sold as a means to empower the vast swath of the Indian population living below the poverty line. While to the western eye, this is a huge expansion of centralized power, the official website makes the contrary argument, that Aadhaar empowers the poor by using new technology to bypass traditional economic infrastructures to sync millions more into the new Indian economy.

The Unique Identification number (Aadhaar), which identifies individuals uniquely on the basis of their demographic information and biometrics will give individuals the means to clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the country. It will also create an opportunity to address the existing limitations in financial inclusion. The Aadhaar can help poor residents easily establish their identity to banks. As a result, banks will be able to scale up their branch-less banking deployments and reach out to a wider population at lower cost.

An efficient, cost effective payment solution is a dire necessity for promoting financial inclusion. The Aadhaar and the accompanying authentication mechanism coupled with rudimentary technology application can provide the desired micropayment solution. This can bring low-cost access to financial services to everyone, a short distance from their homes.

If the service becomes anywhere near ubiquitous (keeping in mind, even a fraction of India’s billion-and-growing population is far larger than the population of most countries), the service will inevitably evolve to facilitate other interactions including payments, marketing, and–possibly, frighteningly–tracking.

via Singularity Hub