Hasta La Gadget!

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) took a heck of a shot at Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) Friday on a conference call organized by the Obama campaign following the Supreme Court’s health care ruling.

“The only health care mandate they can embrace are transvaginal probes for women,” he said of Republicans. McDonnell signed a mandatory ultrasound bill in March that required women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion. The bill was later revised, allowing women to opt for an abdominal ultrasound.

The primary focus of the call was whether or not the individual mandate constituted a tax or a penalty. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) , who was also on the call, insisted on the latter. O’Malley spent his time arguing that the mandate would only affect some 2 percent of the country.

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As more than a million tons of trash and debris from last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan float toward the West Coast, everyone’s worried about what it will mean for the region’s beaches and public health.
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Microsoft has so alienated Windows RT tablet manufacturers with its own-brand Surface that OEMs are abandoning the platform, insiders claim, with HP leading the way in ditching its roadmap. The PC company had intended to launch a number of Qualcomm-powered Windows RT models, it’s said, but according to SemiAccurate‘s sources HP dropped its plans after Microsoft’s handling of Surface and OS licensing.

Rumors that Microsoft’s Surface agenda was fueled by a general sense of disappointment over what it saw OEMs developing broke earlier this week, with analyst’s sources claiming that apathy had been the company’s motivation to go it alone. “If Microsoft had seen compelling enough plans from [PC makers],” Moor Insights & Strategy’s Patrick Moor said, after talks with Windows RT OEMs, ”they wouldn’t have needed to do this.”

However, this new batch of rumors suggests that rather than just prepare Surface as a “Plan B” of sorts, Microsoft actively took what it knew of each OEM’s Windows RT tablet – and what flaws in each it had identified – and used that knowledge to prepare its own range. Meanwhile, Microsoft also supposedly liberated its own designers and engineers from having to abide by the same restrictions that third-party OEMs were required to operate under.

Surface also stands a chance of being priced more competitively than rival Windows RT tablets, because Microsoft supposedly will not be paying the roughly $90-per-unit licensing fee. In short, a decision that was seemingly intended to motivate OEMs into being more imaginative with their Windows hardware could well have backfired spectacularly.

HP is not the last to jump ship, it’s said. Although no other specific names are mentioned, the sources apparently claim that “just about every OEM out there is scrapping one or more [Windows RT] designs, with most renewing Android efforts with every resource at their disposal.”

Update: HP confirms the decision; more here.

HP reportedly first to ditch Windows RT tablet plans over Microsoft’s Surface is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Facebook developer Tom Waddington has stumbled on a Want button in the latest Facebook SDK. As you know the Like button has been a universal hit, and it is clear that a Want button could generate data that would make a lot of advertisers and marketing agencies drool (and pay) over. Facebook’s intentions are even more clear as the new Want button seems to work only on objects described as “products” to the API. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook Pages Management Improvements, Facebook to speed up iPhone app, says report,

After proving that a 1080p webcam on USB 3.0 was possible, to the surprise of none, Point Grey’s latest addition is a little more impressive, This “ice-cube sized” camera can pipe 4,096 x 2,160 images through that capacious USB 3.0 port, using Sony’s new IMX1221 Exmor R sensor. Thanks to its size, the camera is geared toward business-centric applications, including broadcasting and high-resolution optical inspection — which goes some way to explaining the $945 retail price. The full technical spec sheet waits in the press release, right after the break.

Continue reading World’s smallest 4K USB 3.0 camera delivers 21 frames per second, fits in pockets

World’s smallest 4K USB 3.0 camera delivers 21 frames per second, fits in pockets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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