Windows 7 + Family Guy = Horror. Here’s the proof (Updated)

UPDATE: It appears there may never have been a Windows 7-sponsored Family Guy episode after all, as Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins points out on Silicon Angle. As a commenter on this post, Rob, points out these are actually short ads for Windows 7. Still, these Microsoft ads really do sully the Family Guy brand.

Finally we get to see the horror that would have been the Microsoft-sponsored episode of Family Guy.

A couple of months ago Microsoft planned to sponsor an episode of FamilySource: The Next Web RSS Feed

Facebook Tweaks Redesign Tests as It Plans More Roadmap Roll-Outs

The latest Facebook redesign test screenshots have surfaced on a few users’ accounts, and in many ways they look like what we’ve seen before. Key Facebook communication channels — notifications, requests and messages — are appearing on the left side of the top navigation bar, a change that went into live testing at least a month ago. The new left-hand bookmark bar now appears, which is something Facebook showed previews of during its developer roadmap event earlier this fall.

Source: Inside Facebook RSS Feed

Engadget's Black Friday giveaway, part ten: win an HP Envy 15!

Black Friday is one of those days you wish you could skip right over sometimes. The long lines, the disappointing deals, the stampedes and the arguments over Cabbage Patch Kids. We can sympathize. That's why we're hanging out here all day, with you! And we decided to pull out some things we stocked up on just to give away to you, our devoted readers. Read the full rules after the break and get commenting to win. Up now we have an HP Envy 15 on offer! You know you want it!
Keep checking back all day -- we're doing a giveaway each hour!
Special thanks to HP for providing the giveaway!

Continue reading Engadget's Black Friday giveaway, part ten: win an HP Envy 15!

Engadget's Black Friday giveaway, part ten: win an HP Envy 15! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | |Email this|Source: Engadget RSS Feed

Facebook Pranksters Gate-Crash White House Dinner, Meet Obama.

Michael and Tareq Salahi didn’t look out of place at Barack Obama’s White House state dinner.

Both smartly dressed and with the confidence of any wealthy socialite, they blagged their way into the state dinner in celebration of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s birthday.

They mingled with the likes of President Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, Indra Nooyi, the boss of Pepsi, and Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

But the couple were in fact wannabe Source: The Next Web RSS Feed

Xperia X10 to AT&T?

This is a hot looking Android phone and Engadget is speculating that it’s headed towards AT&T when it finally becomes available..

…the XPERIA X10, is still a long way from being released, but already we can narrow down the list of potential US carriers to just one: AT&T. The guys over at Phandroid were the first to spot the newly added UMTS frequency specs for the phone, and the available 800/850/1900/2100 bands fit only AT&T’s 3G network.

The prices floating around areSource: Mobility Site RSS Feed

Unannounced Sony Ericsson Kurara U5 gets previewed

The Sony Ericsson Kurara has not been officially announced (or confirmed), but that didn’t stop Eldar Murtazin from Mobile-review to publish an interesting preview of it.

Also called Sony Ericsson U5, the handset is certainly an interesting one and it will probably be one of SE’s flagship devices for 2010, together with the Xperia X10.

The main difference between Kurara and Xperia X10 is that the Kurara is a Symbian smartphone while the X10 is, of course, an Android one.

Source: Unwired View RSS Feed

The Howling To Be Reborn, And Where Have All the Werewolves Gone?

It seems that Joe Dante’s The Howling is now up for remaking. Tonight we’ve learned that Joe Nimziki, a former studio marketing executive, will be making his feature film debut with The Howling: Reborn. Nimziki also wrote the script. The original Howling spawned a series of sequels that, from what I can remember, were pretty much all crap. Could this remake be any better?

The original film was based upon a book of the same name by Gary Brandner, but apparently the film differedSource: SlashFilm RSS Feed

AOL Reveals Lame New Look & Logo

AOL will launch a new look and logo along with its official spinout from Time Warner on Dec. 10, as it tries to become a content-centric company. Wolff Olins, a global brand and innovation consultancy, worked on this new look and logo which seeks to replace the older, more iconic AOL branding. The minute I saw the logo (and its various interpretations), my first reaction was simple: lame. It is ambiguous at best, and as sexy as the obese, shapeless humans living on Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet in Pixar movie “WALL-E.”

Why such a visceral reaction? Perhaps because I grew up with the old AOL (all caps) and am mad at change — a malady normally associated with aging. Jokes aside, the new logo fails to capture what is going to be a smaller, nimbler AOL, one that is represented by a collection of smaller, iconic brands such as Engadget and Joystiq. AOL should ask for its money back!

Source: GigaOM RSS Feed

Two joysticks and 40 buttons: Steel Battalion controller as VJ tool

It might be silly to keep a giant Steel Battalion controller around for use with two games (Steel Battalion and ... the other Steel Battalion). But to use one for those two games and a custom VJ setup -- that's ... well, it's still kind of silly, but it's also pretty awesome.
One "visual performance unit" called Bonsajo rigged up one of Capcom's indulgent Xbox controllers to control an audiovisual display. It turns out that with all those crazy, light-up buttons, the controller is wellSource: Xbox 360 Fanboy RSS Feed

Hands On with Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10

Today we got to play around with the recently announced Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, which is their very first Android powered handset. Of all the Android handsets that have been released or announced so far, the Xperia X10 seems to have the best U.I. enhancements for music and multimedia though its MediaScape interface. Also, its 4 inch high-res 800 x 480 display is superb, and will make browsing the web and watching videos that much more enjoyable. In person, the device isn’t as big as weSource: Chip Chick RSS Feed

Are Black Holes Forbidden Mathematically? [Starts With A Bang]

In the comments on one of my posts, someone pointed me towards Stephen Crothers, who gives the following argument (in a nutshell) as to why black holes cannot possibly exist:

1. General Relativity is our theory of gravity, which relates the curvature of space to the gravitational acceleration of objects.
2. This theory only works in certain regimes; it breaks down at the point of singularities.
3. A black hole, as predicted by Schwarzschild, is a singularity.
Source: Thoughts from Kansas RSS Feed

MySpace Launches New Music Charts

Today MySpace announced the beta launch of MySpace Music Charts. This is the social networks' attempt at ranking musicians based on popularity.
"When it comes to users, our commitment to "interestingness' will drive engagement," says MySpace Music President Courtney Holt. "Our audience cares about two things- what's bubbling up and what's hot right now- and our editorial teams are focused on actively surfacing the most interesting and relevant artists, music and content to satisfySource: WebPro News RSS Feed

Google Takes us to Law School

As you know, Google's ultimate goal is to organize the world's information. With this in mind, it should be no surprise that Google is organizing full-text legal opinions from United States federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts. The company is using its Google Scholar service to do so.
"As many of us recall from our civics lessons in school, the United States is a common law country," says Google Distinguished Engineer Anurag Acharya. "That means when judges issueSource: WebPro News RSS Feed

Cyberwarfare Becoming A Reality

The possibility of global cyberwarfare has moved from fiction to reality, according to a new report from McAfee.
The report found that politically motivated cyberattacks have increased and five countries, including the United States, Russia, France, Israel and China, are now armed with cyberweapons.
"McAfee began to warn of the global cyberarms race more than two years ago, but now we're seeing increasing evidence that it's become real," said Dave DeWalt, McAfee president andSource: WebPro News RSS Feed

Reminder: Shuttle launch Monday at 19:28 GMT

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is set to roar into space today, Monday November 16, at 19:28 GMT (14:28 Eastern time). Unlike the last time, weather looks pretty good for an on-time launch.

Unfortunately, I’ll be sitting on an airplane during the launch so I’ll miss it, but lots of people are covering it on Twitter. Just search on the hashtag #nasatweetup to get all the info you need.

Image courtesy NASA.

Source: Bad Astronomy Blog RSS Feed

Dressed as Pokémon, Man Proposes to His Pikachu in Public

Between the hacked versions of 'Chrono Trigger,' the hidden messages in Google Street View, and the adorably lame Twitter messages, we figured the battle for geekiest marriage proposal would never end. But then we came across this video (after the jump) of Chris Herbert proposing to his girlfriend, Belle Starenchak... while at an anime convention... dressed as Pokon. Check and mate.
Herbert popped the question by opening a PokBall, revealing a ring to his bride-to-be, who wasSource: Switched RSS Feed

Diamond Dusted iPhones Up for Grabs on Billionaire’s eBay

Let’s say you’ve got $30 grand to blow on a gold and diamond iPhone but the idea of just buying one without the thrill of an auction bores you.

Two of these tricked out iPhones are up for sale from “bespoke luxury communications” (read: cell phones that go bling-bling along with ring-ring) purveyor Stuart Hughes on BillionaireXchange.com, a site that launched this week billing itself as the first online marketplace for, uh, billionaires.

The pink 3GS model above,Source: iPhone News Updated RSS Feed

BlackBerry Bold 9700 just $99 at Walmart, sort of

Many of you have been on the edge of your seats and sofas waiting for anxiously for the BlackBerry 9700 to drop. We already know it’s being released on November 16 on T-Mobile, but now you have a killer incentive to pick one up from Walmart. From November 14th to the 20th, Walmart is offering a $100 Walmart gift card with a new BlackBerry purchase — the only thing is it takes four to six weeks to get that card in the mail. It’s not exactly the same as getting a new BlackBerry 9700 forSource: TechBlogger RSS Feed

OOI Science Community Workshop, day 2 [Christina's LIS Rant]

Thursday was a half day covering first the cyberinfrastructure and then some discussions of another system that can provide lessons learned to the RSN (reminder: regional scale nodes, the long cabled sensors).

My notes are (of course) at work, but I'll reconstruct some of what I heard. I would recommend interested folks consult the final design document (oh no! it isn't where I found it the other day).

The CI is pretty complicated - in many places it's closer to the cuttingSource: Thoughts from Kansas RSS Feed

Readers pick best webcomic: The Price of Loyalty

Everyone knows that a dog is a man's best friend -- far fewer people know that a dog's best friend is cold, hard cash. "A man" isn't even on the dog's top five best friends, which are, in order: Cash, kibble, old socks, the sound kibble makes when it's applied to a food bowl, and fine cigars. To obtain these items, dogs won't hesitate to stealthily rob their owners -- a fact Penny Arcade recently highlighted in last week's Wrapup winner, "The Price of Loyalty." Don't forget: Your canineSource: Houstonist RSS Feed

The Daily Engadget: Xbox 360 Tweets and Pokes, Google OS Hits Next Week?

Our friends over at Engadget obsessively cover everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics, which is why we compile this daily roundup of their top stuff (or, at least, what we think is tops). For more details on any of these stories, click on the Engadget links in each story below.
Twitter and Facebook Integration Hits Xbox Live Next Week
It was announced over the summer and has been teased plenty since, but Microsoft is finally releasing the next big update to the Source: Switched RSS Feed

Weekend Project: Lost Screw Finder (PDF)

Ever have a screw loose? If so, you might need this easy to build attachment to help you find that screw -- including plastic ones that a magnet would miss.
Thanks go to Frank Ford for the original article in MAKE, Volume 13.
View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE Magazine for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.

| Permalink | Comments | articles in MAKE PDF | Digg this!

Source: MAKE: Blog RSS Feed

WIN! The ultimate Nvidia Vision 3D monitor and graphics setup

We've teamed up with Nvidia and MSI to give away the ultimate Nvidia 3D Vision setup. Not only will you get a MSI GeForce limited edition Harley Quinn graphics card from Batman: Arkham Asylum plus a copy of the game itself, but you'll also get an Nvidia 3D Vision glasses kit and Samsung 22-inch 3D Vision compatible monitor – all worth a combined total of £600.

The full prize is:

• Samsung 22-inch 3D Vision compatible monitor
• Nvidia 3D Vision glassesSource: TechRadar RSS Feed

Dare To Dream Luxury?

Recession time over or not, you need to pull up your socks and work your butt to afford the sweet luxuries of life. The happy Brady Bunch here makes no bones of the fact that their Vivace26 Concept Speed Boat is only for the Haves; poor folks be damned! The two-seater high-speed luxury vessel, boasts of specs that take into account technology advances that have already been discovered and developed.

V12 TDI diesel engines from the Audi Rio Lemans Prototype and using Arneson surfaceSource: Yanko Design RSS Feed

Samsung Creates its Open Mobile OS called Samsung bada

Samsung has announced the launch of its own open mobile platform, Samsung bada in December. The name ‘bada’, which means ‘ocean’ in Korean, was chosen to convey the limitless variety of potential applicationswhich can be created using the new platform.

Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics said, “By opening Samsung’s mobile platforms we will be able to provide rich mobile experiences on an increasing number ofSource: SlashPhone RSS Feed

Magnetiser Downloads Torrents When No Torrent File Is Available [Downloads]

Firefox: If you’ve used a BitTorrent search engine that lists lots of torrents but doesn’t actually host any torrent files (like Torrentz), most of the time you still have to go to other third-party sites for the download. Not so with Magnetiser.

When you search a torrent aggregation site like Torrentz, all you see are links to external sites hosting the torrent file. Most of the time that means you’ll need to click through to other sites to hunt for the download link to theSource: TechBlogger RSS Feed

GridPoint keeps acquisitions rolling with ADMMicro buy

GridPoint, the very generously-funded Smart Grid startup looking to get its foot in every door pertaining to the emergence of a cleaner, more efficient grid, is doing a good job of paying for progress. Its acquisition strategy continues today with the purchase of ADMMicro, a company that managed energy use for commercial and industrial customers.

At its core, GridPoint is a service and software vendor for utilities — giving them the tools they need to balance peak power loads, keep Source: Venture Beat RSS Feed

Free Wi-Fi for the Holidays

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and it’s always a delight when companies give back to us in the spirit of the season. Our friends at GottaBeMobile are pointing out not one company giving back, but three. It seems that Google is filling up 47 airports in the U.S. and flights on Virgin Air with free Wi-Fi through Jan. 15. Yahoo is lighting up Times Square all year in NYC with Wi-Fi action, and Microsoft is partnering with JiWire to give Wi-Fi in airports, as long as users make at Source: jkOnTheRun RSS Feed

For $6,500, It’s a Ballroom Biarritz [Nice Price Or Crack Pipe]

When gas prices increase for a prolonged period of time, car makers respond with more fuel-efficient products. Today,Nice Price or Crack Pipe has just such a Caddy from the ‘70s. And it comes with a can full of marbles.

The Eldorado had been a halo product for Cadillac, and a premier personal coupe for decades. The 1979 model year saw a number of changes for the Eldo, among which was a switch to a new platform - along with the Buick Riviera and Oldmobile Toronado - that positionedSource: Jalopnik RSS Feed

Toss The Crutches: Freedom Leg Gives Both Arms Back

The “Freedom Leg” is an “off-loading prosthetic” which lets you ditch the crutches and keep on walking, even with a broken leg. This takes a rather painful injury and makes it a little bit less inconvenient, and could even speed your recovery time.

The newly launched Freedom Leg is a stilt-like, leg mounted crutch. It straps to your thigh and the angled composite bars replace the rest of your leg, taking your weight and letting everything from the knee down dangle. Not onlySource: Wired RSS Feed

Avatar’s Budget is Almost $500 Million?! Can It Make a Profit?

In the current economic climate, simply typing a sentence about a film that, including marketing costs, now tallies up to a reported half-a-billion dollars is surreal enough to put Dr. Evil on stun. That’s the unprecedented figure being batted around in a new NYT report about the financial realities that lie ahead for James Cameron’s Avatar and 20th Century Fox. So, what exactly are the stakes and how much does the 3D sci-fi actioner and proclaimed cinematic game changer need to grossSource: SlashFilm RSS Feed

Noctua NH-U9B Special Edition HSF launched

Noctua has introduced a Special Edition of its NH-U9B processor cooler, this new model comes with two Noctua NF-B9 92mm fans and adds support for Intel LGA1156 and LGA1366 processors via the SecuFirm2 mounting system. The Noctua NH-UB SE2 will ship for $54.90 (46.90EUR), full specs can be found over here. "Many customers who are looking for a premium quality quiet cooler but can't accommodate our larger models are choosing our NH-U9B, which offers performance levels close to its biggerSource: DV Hardware RSS Feed

Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Console

The PlayStation 3 Slim Console is coming. 32% smaller, 36% lighter and consuming 34% less power than the original, the PLAYSTATION 3 Slim features video chat, internet access, digital photo viewing, and digital audio and video–making it likely to be the central component of yours and your site visitors media set-up.

First and foremost a powerful gaming console, the PLAYSTATION 3 Slim gives high definition power to the most recent games releases, including Call of Duty: Modern WarfareSource: News from gadget's world RSS Feed

Assistive Stuff launches on the web

Time to welcome another previously offline company to the wonderful world of the web! It’s hard to believe, but not everyone has always been on the web. Why is the launch of this particular website newsworthy on Gear Diary? Read on…

… [visit site to ]

:

1. Google Launches New Accessibility Website
2. Q-Chat vs Nextel Direct Connect Live Demo
3. Attn Baseball Fanatics: MLB.COM Offers NEW Instant Mobile Video Replay With Message Alert

Source: Gear Diary RSS Feed

Pixar and Luxo Settle Cute Lamp Dispute

Two months after Norwegian lamp manufacturers Luxo AS threatened surprise legal action, it seems that they and Pixar have settled their dispute over the hop-happy anglepoise mascot. Details are of course shrouded in the expected fog of corporate secrecy but, thankfully, there’s no longer going to be any need to get the courts involved.

If there was some kind of payment agreed, there’s not any indication of how much. There has been some kind of amicable agreement, however, and itSource: SlashFilm RSS Feed

Thursday Baby Blogging 110509 [Uncertain Principles]

For this week's Baby Blogging, we have a shot of Kate helping SteelyKid with her new favorite game:

It's called "Take off my shoes, and put them back on." She can play this for hours. It would be even cuter if she could do the putting on and taking off herself, but alas, she's still kind of unclear on the solidity of objects, and doesn't really grasp that her feet can only get into the shoes from the open end. She'll get there, though.

SteelyKid officially moved out of theSource: Thoughts from Kansas RSS Feed

FaithBook: Churches Use Facebook To Develop Online Congregations

While church-focused Facebook applications have been around for years, now real-life churches across the country are spreading their messages online, giving more people access to worship services and helping the churches reach a broader number of people.

A recent article by the Associated Press highlighted several churches that have increased their online presence, with several churches embracing Facebook as an effective way to reach people. These churches offer everything from videoSource: Inside Facebook RSS Feed

Vodafone’s Samsung H1 to have a Pizza Hut home delivery app

Available as of yesterday through Vodafone UK, the Samsung 360 H1 will soon get a Pizza Hut application. The app lets you order pizza directly from the H1 smartphone, but what’s interesting about it is that the orders will be charged on your phone bill.

Only orders of up to £30 are accepted, but you get a 20% discount every time.

The Pizza Hut app will use Vodafone’s location-based services to highlight the nearest Pizza Hut store so that customers can receive their orders Source: Unwired View RSS Feed

Black List Screenplay Once Upon a Time in Hell Bought by Phoenix Pictures

Ever since Sergio Leone made his pair of ‘Once Upon a Time…” movies (a masterful pair of films at that) other writers and directors have cribbed the title for their own work. Jet Li gained popularity with Once Upon a Time in China. Robert Rodriguez obviously nodded to Leone with Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Quentin Tarantino did the same with the title card and early tagline for Inglourious Basterds. (”Once Upon a Time in Occupied France…”) Now Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevySource: SlashFilm RSS Feed

New tools use social data to find iPhone apps

Apple’s big news today is the historic accomplishment of over100,000 applications in their App Store. With those numbers, it’s no surprise that the evolution of the iPhone user and how they find and use iPhone apps have progressively changed. Most recently, users have found that a simple search just doesn’t cut it anymore. There are just too many apps!

To solve this, companies have begun to get smart about helping users figure out which iPhone apps are right for them throughSource: Venture Beat RSS Feed

GPS Watch puts the real-time world on your wrist

Japan's Thanko proves that you don't have to look like a geek to employ powerful mobile technology with the introduction of the GPS Watch. Surprisingly conservative and unassuming, the watch houses a GPS device that logs your progress through the real world.

The watch also features lights indicating your current direction, USB connectivity and works on Windows Vista and XP. You can pick up your GPS Watch for just 17,800 yen ($197) here.

Via Thanko

Source: DVICE RSS Feed

byrd & belle’s gorgeous iphone cases are simple, yet ingenions

These smartly designed iPhone (3G/3GS/iPod Touch) cases embrace not only a simple and elegant design philosophy, they’re actually quite practical too.

Designed by Minneapolis textile artist Angie Davis of Byrd & Belle, these unique iPhone cases protect your precious digital cargo inside a thick and cushy blanket of Merino wool felt and a soft Egyptian cotton interior lining. The grey and orange fabric is set off nicely by a simple leather strap, which not only serves to secure yourSource: technabob RSS Feed

$40K DARPA "find the balloons" social networking challenge

Starting on December 5, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will award $40,000 to the first registered team to correctly report the location of ten eight-foot-diameter red weather balloons distributed randomly across the continental United States. From the challenge website:

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the role the Internet and social networking plays in the timelySource: MAKE: Blog RSS Feed

Call Graph Recording Plugin for Skype

Call Graph recording plugin for Skype is a desktop application. After you have downloaded and installed Call Graph Skype plugin it will connect to Skype application running on your PC and record your conversations in an mp3 or wav format.
Recorded files are stored on your My DocumentsMy Call Graphs folder by default and can be edited by any standard Audio Editor.
Call Graph Recording Plugin is ideally suited for recording podcasts and phone interviews since it can Source: iMESSENGR RSS Feed