If a report from TheStreet.com has it right, Verizon won’t be picking up the Palm Pre after all. Showcased at this year’s CES, Palm’s flagship phone garnered quite the following, and was praised as a potential iPhone killer. Just prior to its official debut on Sprint’s network in June, Verizon said it would offer the smartphone within six months.Sprint replied by saying it held exclusive rights to the Pre through 2009, which left most with the impression that the handset would be available via Verizon in January 2010. Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein recently fueled that anticipation when he said the…
Business
Verizon passing on the Pre after all?
Hack
Hacking USB serial port adapters
The folks at Openschemes.com have written up an article on how to convert a USB serial port adapter to a low voltage serial interface for interfacing with microcontrollers. Though you can always just buy one, this is a fairly quick and cheap solution, especially if you are in a pinch or don’t have access to a retailer. The specific models you should watch for, are the ones with two chips, a microcontroller and a line translater.They go through the process of finding exactly where to patch in to add an extra interface. It only takes a couple wires and…
Forex
Forex – British Pound
I’d like to take a long term view of the British Pound to help put things into perspective. In the above chart you will notice that the rally which began in January of this year has abruptly stopped dead in its tracks at the 170.00 level. What is so significant about the 170 level? Well if you look back a few years you will notice that a major low was made in Novemeber 2005. This low is now
Hack
Ubuntu developer week
Next week, August 31 through September 4, is Ubuntu Developer Week. If you’ve always wanted to help out with an open source project but didn’t know how to get into it, this is your chance. The week consists of 25 one-hour sessions held interactively through IRC and led by some of the best of the Ubuntu development team. Participate in as many or as few sessions as you want. Check out the Ubuntu Developer Week page or their fancy brochure (PDF) for more information.
Want to see what it’s all about before committing to a live session? You can…
Hack
Push potentiometer from spares
In an effort to simplify his interface, [danwagoner] cobbled together this push potentiometer. It utilizes a potentiometer mounted directly above a push button with a spring mounted around it. This way the user has only one item to deal with. They can twist the knob and press down on it to push the button. We love seeing people come up with ways of creating their own items instead of buying something. This was fairly inventive and reminds us of the LED buttons we saw back in January. Great job [danwagoner].
Internet
“The Changing Internet Community”
According to NielsenNetRatings,http:www.eratings.comproducts, more people than ever beforeare now accessing and using the Internet. In January of this year, over million Americans had Internetaccess, which is up almost million from January . That isa significant percent rise just in American Internet users. The average age of Internet surfers, reports ZDNet,http:www.zdnet.com is years, and rising. The baby-boomersare coming on strong.The average level of education shows that percent hold acollege degree, yet overall, this number is actually falling. Can you guess which is the fastest-growing segment of Webnewbies? It is Americans over years old with working-class incomes andmiddle-class ideals that are the…
Internet
The Best Internet Marketing eBooks I’ve Bought This Year.
Before I start waxing lyrical about these three books, I muststate for the record that this is my opinion only. I have boughtmaybe or ebooks this year yes, I truly believe ininvesting in my own education, and these three stand out in mymind. Another reader, with other passions may choose differently.And, this article is only concerned with ebooks that I havepurchased from January to June . The best book of all,dollar for dollar, is the very excellent ‘Make Your Site Sell’by Ken Evoy. But that came out in . You can download a freetrial version of this book, to give…
Facebook
Affiliate Marketers Flock To Facebook And Click Fraud Skyrockets
Over the past few weeks, big affiliate advertisers on Facebook have reported a spike in fake clicks, but this is only part of where Facebook has faced challenges within its ad network over the past few months. The reason for the surge in fake clicks is a result of a number of things including the creation of Facebook ad scrapers that are being used to track advertisers’ ads on the site and what pages the ads are linking to.
An Affiliate Land Rush Begins
Prior to exploring the current claims for click fraud, I thought it would be important to…
Facebook
Facebook Starts Testing New Version Of Search, It’s A Huge Upgrade
This evening Facebook has announced that they’ve begun testing out a new version of Facebook search. The latest version of search is a huge upgrade from the previous version. Now, rather than just seeing pages and people for a given search query, Facebook will search through content that’s posted by people, organizations, and public figures. According to Kari Lee, “With the test, you will be able to search your News Feed for the most recent status updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you’re a fan.”
This upgrade is nothing…
Automotive
The right way to buy a car
Your no-nonsense guide to getting the right car at the rightprice. Buying a car can be quite daunting. With so many makes, modelsand finance options available and other decisions, it can bedifficult to find the deal that leaves you happy. However,the following pointers should help you make an educated decisionwhen buying a new or used car. Where to buy?There are number of ways to buy a new or used car ‘ a cardealership isn’t your only option. For example, there areindependent dealers, importers, brokers, auction, online, carsupermarkets or privately.Here we weigh up the pros and cons of each of them:Car…
Facebook
OraBrush Wins Bidding War With Hershey Over Facebook “Kisses” Page
How much would you pay for a Facebook fan? That’s a question that many are determining as they look at potential Facebook fan page acquisition opportunities. Today Orabrush, a tongue cleaning product, will announce that they’ve acquired the “Kisses” Facebook page which has over 1.15 million fans. The page was acquired from Dominic Holland who created the page back in January. While the company won’t say the exact price that the page was acquired for, fans that were acquired since the Facebook redesign are selling at a premium to old fans.
The price per fan depends on their location. One…
Facebook
Topsy Brings Us One Step Closer To Social Search, Where’s Facebook?
This afternoon Mike Arrington posted about a new search engine called Topsy. The new service is built on the back of Twitter’s API and combines information like retweets, and general user influence to produce relatively accurate search results. It uses a similar algorithm to the one I suggested Facebook should use back in January. Since then, Facebook has made little progress in regards to search, at least that’s publicly known.
While the company is actively developing new products and improving existing ones to help people communicate more effectively, search doesn’t currently appear to be part of the company’s primary vision.…
