Filed under: Technology

According to Google's Mobile blog, the company distributed a new mobile phone running the Android platform as part of its mobile lab -- a process they call "dogfooding." The employees will test the beta-version smart phone in an attempt to improve it.

Continue reading Google's new phone may be for sale by January

Google's new phone may be for sale by January originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PennLive.com

Owner of East Pennsboro business destroyed by fire offers free NASCAR diecast ... PennLive.com CHRIS A. COUROGEN, Of The Patriot-NewsMark Myers arranges some of the inventory of NASCAR diecast collectibles he has ...

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Never mind the best books, comics, movies or TV shows of the last ten years, which new character made the biggest impact in your hearts and minds? We want to know what you think, and I have my own suggestions...

In this era of franchises based on pre-existing... well, franchises, really, it should be tough for brand new characters to make any significant impression, but I feel like we've been spoiled for choice in some ways; beyond the five mentioned below, I could've also gone for Y The Last Man's Yorick Brown, Scott Pilgrim's Kim Pine (Because, really, it's all about Kim. Admit it), Fringe's Walter Bishop or Dollhouse's Adelle DeWitt, to name just a few more. I'm not talking about the most important characters of the last ten years, or even the most popular, please understand; this is purely a (selfish and subjective) question of quality, for once. These, however, are my top 5:

Benjamin Linus
Color me one of those people who drifted in and out of Lost throughout the first two seasons of the show... Well, until Ben entered the picture. Michael Emerson's smarmy, knowing performance as "Henry Gale" brought something that the show had needed since the beginning: A Bad Guy. Or, at least, someone who we didn't know much about, but were pretty sure we shouldn't be trusting nonetheless. As we've learned more about the character since then, it's been Emerson's performance that's led the way, convincing us about a control freak who likes to think that he's one step ahead of everyone even though he's lost sight of the bigger picture. In a show filled with great characters - Locke was so close to making my top 5 - Ben stands apart as the best of them all.

Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture
Cynical, selfish and entirely delusional when it comes to his importance in the world, The Venture Bros.'s patriarchal figure may be one of the most oddly complex, nuanced character on television these days. On the surface, he's a self-centered coward emotionally scarred from a childhood as a Boy Adventurer who resents his life, his family and pretty much the rest of the world, but the longer the show goes on, the more we see a different Rusty: The father who's grooming Dean in his image - because there's no way that could go wrong - excited about sharing his passion for prog rock and science (and, surprisingly, offering support and advice in times of need), for one thing, or the man who's so pissed off by trouble ruining his plans that he ends up doing heroic deeds just to make his own life easier. Never mind that he's also genius enough to successfully clone his kids for years, replacing them if and when they died... Rusty Venture isn't the kind of man you could rely on, but he certainly makes for entertaining viewing.

Gaius Baltar
And talking of people you can't rely on, Battlestar Galactica's Baltar may have been chosen by God/The Gods/Some Higher Power/Ronald D. Moore to lead humanity towards its new home, along the way discovering a spiritual side, falling in love and growing as a human being, but that wasn't why we loved him so much. No, with Baltar, it was all about the weasel. Whether he was trying to maneuver himself into even greater positions of power, trying to stay alive after surrendering the colonies to the cylons on New Caprica or just trying to seduce whatever character had caught his attentions that week, Baltar was never better than when he was being weak and giving in to his worst impulses. James Callis' performance was one of the best things throughout the entire series, giving us a character that we Loved To Hate To Love, as well as some of the few moments of genuine comedy throughout the entire run. You just know that he'd have given up that whole farming thing within a month of the finale, don't you?

Donna Noble
She didn't fall in love with the Doctor. It's worth repeating: She didn't fall in love with the Doctor. After Rose and Martha, that fact alone made this particular Doctor Who companion feel like a breath of fresh air, but there was so much more to her than that: Her enthusiasm, and heart. Her ability to say the wrong thing in almost any occasion. Her self-confidence, misplacing in many ways, but making her feel like the Doctor's peer and friend instead of someone who believes everything he says and puts him on a pedestal (Catherine Tate deserves all credit for making that charming and irritating at once). Given her (intentionally) annoying first appearance in "The Runaway Bride," it's surprising that Donna turned into the companion I'll miss most from this new run, but it's definitely true; her exit was heartbreaking, entirely fitting and proof that Russell T. Davies loved her too much to kill her off. I'm selfishly hoping she survives "The End Of Time," too.

Kate Kane/Batwoman
Still relatively new, there's something fascinating about DC Comics' latest Batman spin-off. Under writer Greg Rucka's control - and, given her few appearances elsewhere, only under Rucka's control - Kate Kane is at once a reminder of, and refusal of, Bat-cliches. Yes, she was born of family tragedy, but her response wasn't to focus her entire life towards justice, but instead run off the rails in self-destructive behavior. Like Batman, she sees herself as a soldier, but she actually approaches her missions in that mindset, no doubt helped by her father and their shared military background. Most refreshingly, Batwoman is wonderfully fallible - Misunderstanding a prophecy to be about her own death in the recent "Elegy" storyline - and, at times, unlikable. Given her relatively few appearances since her debut in 2006's 52, it's surprising that she comes across as so rounded and real a character, but she does - and we hope her career is as long-lived as her male counterpart.

But enough about our love of Dr. Zachary Smith updates and redheaded women - What're your choices for the character who's made the greatest impression on you after appearing for the first time at some point during the last ten years? The comments are there for a purpose, after all...

Read More... [Source: io9: top]

Filed under: Software, Holidays

Have you completed your holiday shopping yet? Neither have I. Well, if your friends or loved ones have a particular affinity for LEGO's construction toys, consider using LEGO Digital Designer to order a customized building block set for them. Via LEGO's DESIGNbyME, Mindstorms, and Creator-based themes, users can choose a starter model as the foundation of their design, or use the free build option to design something from scratch (for the more imaginative ones out there). Using a DESIGNbyME template, I customized (pictured above) a Penske Racing-looking LEGO IndyCar. As an IndyCar needs a driver, I figured I'd throw in one that looks like the Joker from The Dark Knight (in the scene when he was dressed as a nurse). This building block set came out to about USD $22.

LEGO Digital Designer is available as a free download [download link] at LEGO's website.

TUAWBuild customized LEGO packs with LEGO Digital Designer originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply). After all, Time Is Money.

The new Dungeon Finder that was added in Patch 3.3 has been garnering a lot of attention lately - and for good reason! But did you know that you could use it to make money?

Continue reading Time Is Money: Dungeon finder

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, How-tos, Instances, Features, Guides, Making money, Time Is Money

Time Is Money: Dungeon finder originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading University of Antwerp stuffs 13 GPUs into FASTRA II supercomputer

University of Antwerp stuffs 13 GPUs into FASTRA II supercomputer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Company News, Investing, Exxon Mobil, General Electric , Google , Kraft Foods, Morgan Stanley , Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sun Microsystems, Comcast, Amazon.com Inc., Citigroup

Citigroup Inc. (C) said Monday it is repaying $20 billion in bailout money of the $45 billion it received from the Treasury Department. Citi doesn't need to pay the remaining $25 billion, as the government has converted it into a 34% stake in the bank. Paying back the TARP money would help Citi at least reduce the government's influence over its actions, and give it more control over executive compensation. Citigroup shares dropped about 3.5% ahead of the bell.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) will acquire XTO Energy Inc. (XTO) in a $31 billion all-stock agreement. The deal will boost Exxon's presence in the natural gas industry at a time of low prices for the commodity. Exxon Mobil shares declined 1.3% in pre-market trading; XTO's soared about 20%.

Continue reading Stocks in the news: Citigroup, Exxon Mobil, Google, Visa

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Filed under: Economy, Investing

U.S. stocks are poised Friday to continue Thursday's rally. While on Thursday investors mulled through jobs, housing and budget data, this morning the focus is on retail sales data. The Commerce Department is to release the November figures an hour before the opening bell. The general expectations are for a good report, but if the data disappoint, it could affect the general mood of the market.

Meanwhile, overseas markets were higher after data out of China showed industrial production and imports are still strong and exports are recovering, indicating stronger demand in and out of the mainland.

More here: Before the bell: Futures higher ahead of retail sales data

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Although the FCC has recently realized that CableCARD is a failure, it'll be years before anything changes; and even when things do change, the cable industry is probably going to support it for years to come. So we are still happy to see that Panasonic is continuing to try to push tru2way into more homes. Currently only available in Comcast areas of Chicago, Denver and Atlanta; Panasonic plans to add Boston to that list. The interesting twist here is that apparently Panasonic has given up on HDTVs with tru2way built in, and is instead pushing a set-back solution. Basically it would be a box designed to attach to the back of a Panasonic TV and presumably require it's own power but only one connection to the TV via HDMI. Then it would work just like the function was built into the TV -- this kind of defeats the purpose of tru2way, but it is better than a traditional set-top box sitting under the TV with its own remote. The problem is the set-back box doesn't have an analog tuner, which crazy enough is a FCC requirement, so Panasonic is also asking the FCC to waive this requirement, and honestly this is one waiver we would agree needs to be granted.

Panasonic to make Boston the fourth tru2way market originally appeared on Engadget HD on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Business models, Economy, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Academic

There's a strong sense in most free-to-play games that the playerbase consists of two people: those who refuse to pay any money unless absolutely necessary, and those who will happily part with their income on a voluntary basis. This is largely true. What's apparently less true is the notion which goes hand-in-hand, that there are a decided minority of players forking over cash for in-game perks. As it turns out, according to a recent survey, 58% of users in free-to-play games have bought items through the in-game store. On average, users who did pay apparently dropped around $75 over the period of one year.

Traditional pay-to-play MMOs have a significantly lower amount in terms of both revenue generated by in-game purchases and average amount spent. Of course, the debate that could be brought up is the question of how much of the money in free-to-play games went toward purchasing content that, in a subscription game, would have been included in the price. Those with an inclination toward math might also note that the monthly price for such a game comes out to just over eight dollars a month, versus the larger and more regular distribution of subscriptions. Still, it starts to raise questions about how accurate the image of the paying minority in free-to-play games really is, especially as the business model picks up steam.

[ via Gamasutra ]

Nearly three-fifths of users buy items in free-to-play games originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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