The price of Microsoft's long-awaited Zune HD, the company's latest attempt to challenge Apple's iPod dominance in the portable media player space, leaked via Amazon today, giving us a glimpse (finally) at the sticker price: $220 for the 16GB model, $290 for the 32GB. That's significantly less expensive than Apple's iPod Touch (priced at $299 for 16GB in Apple's online store), which bodes well for the Zune HD's launch, though it's likely Apple will drop the price of the Touch at some point in the near future to keep things competitive.
Gizmodo also dropped some screenshots on the Web last night bolstering a previous rumor that the Zune HD would hit store shelves on September 8. Amazon doesn't give a shipping date on its pre-order page, which displays an error message if you attempt to click through; we're assuming it's on display by mistake. Whoops.
Both the Zune HD and iPod Touch have touchscreens, Wi-Fi, and HD video out support, and the Amazon page suggests the Zune HD will have gaming capabilities like the touch, though there's no telling what the quality will be like. Zune HD does offer the ability to stream music to a player via Wi-Fi, a feature the iPod can't touch, at least not out of the box. The Zune also has an HD radio receiver and can be used for external storage, the latter feature being only possible on jailbroken Touches.
During the 2008 campaign season, voters heard a lot about green jobs that were going to help reverse slipping employment numbers while reducing American dependence on foreign oil. America, it was said, would lead the world in creating a green economy that would triply silence threats to our economy, security, and environment. So where are all these green jobs? They're coming, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the Associated Press Monday, but don't hold your breath.
Employment in the green economy is limited to just one-half of 1% of all U.S. jobs, and while that number was climbing last summer, the economic downturn put a damper on many green initiatives. The freezing of credit markets and a plunge in fossil fuel prices undermined the funding for many planned green energy projects while at the same time robbing them of their urgency. Meanwhile, after talk of the U.S. leading the world toward a green economy, China has taken a decisive lead in creating "green collar" jobs, accounting for nearly a third of global solar cell production in 2008 and passing the U.S. in installed wind capacity in the first half of this year (China installed 4.5 Gw to the United States' 4 Gw). In installed solar, Spain and Germany both outpaced the United States by wide margins, though the U.S. still leads Europe in wind power demand.
But as the larger economy goes, so go the green jobs, and things are starting to look up for both. Unemployment numbers ceased their slide (at least briefly) in July, and venture capital investments in alternative energy rose 73% in the last three months compared to the first three months of the year. "Once you start seeing more investments made in our economy recovering, as we stabilize and we get people back to work, then I think there'll be more interest in expanding," Solis said of the push for green jobs. But as the economy finds its feet, is America's green renaissance upon us?
While the age of emission free motoring and renewable electrical power may be in its infancy, it's going to take a long time to mature. Many wind and solar companies have cut back on employees as the economic climate has eaten away at bottom lines, and a disconnect between state and federal officials regarding the best way to spur green job development creates bureaucratic obstacles to getting stimulus cash into the right hands.
But the funding is coming. Last week Obama announced $2.4 billion in grants to be distributed to various companies developing electric vehicles and more efficient battery technologies. Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week said $3 billion in renewable energy grants will boost green employment, and that while it's taking some time to review grant proposals, more federal dollars for green jobs are in queue.
What will these green jobs look like? Most will be in energy, at least initially, as America tries to divorce itself from fossil fuels--particularly foreign oil--but energy isn't all turbines and photovoltaics. Energy efficient building will go a long way toward curbing energy consumption to levels that allow renewable resources to sufficiently power the grid. Meanwhile, upgrading that grid via new infrastructure, resource management software, and energy-smart urban planning will sync the way we live up with the way we generate energy.
When Babe Ruth became the first player to hit 500 homeruns at Cleveland’s League Park 80 years ago, it was just another day at the office for the oft-smashing Bambino. But for baseball-crazy America, it was ballpark magic. Eight decades later, baseball isn’t doing quite as well. Audiences have declined this season, and while economic woes are partially to blame, there’s also a lack of compelling stories this season; no Barry Bonds controversy, no risen-from-the-ashes Devil Rays, no slugger seeking admittance to the 500 club. But going into the stretch, the tide is turning; division races are white hot in both the NL Central and the AL West, and Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle scored a congratulatory phone call from First Fan Barack Obama after pitching a perfect game a few weeks back. If that’s not a ringing fan endorsement, we don’t know what is.
A few months back, we wrote about a microcapsule-filled self-healing paint that repairs itself when scratched, putting corrosion fears in check while keeping up a surface's appearances. Now, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, are getting under the skin, developing a metal coating capable of repairing itself when damaged.
The 15-micrometers thick coating works much like self-healing paint; when the surface is scratched, tiny embedded capsules burst, releasing a polymer capable of filling any crack in the metal's surface. The capsules could also release anti-corrosives that keep damage confined to the superficial, or various other liquid solutions that perform various restorative or damage-controlling tasks.
The applications for the technology are vast. The self-healing metal can be electroplated--a process that actually fuses a thin layer of metal atop an existing piece of metal--making the protective/restorative layer part of the original rather than merely a topical coating. This technological first opens up opportunities in various spaces, including car manufacturing, construction, and pretty much any industry that manufactures steel machinery.
Once the process is perfected, self-healing isn't the only avenue the technology can take. For instance, ball bearings could be wrapped in capsules filled with lubricants that would burst when the bearing begins to wear, or airplane siding could be coated with capsules filled with colored liquids or scented oils that alert crew on the ground if a section of a fuselage is stressed.
The next step for the technology is developing the proper chemistries that show how ranges of materials can actually repair themselves. After that, the possibilities really start to become endless: Car parts that resist corrosion, building materials that release a scent (or change colors) when weakened while patching small stress cracks themselves, and machine parts that self lubricate to extend the life of the machine. Hey, maybe this should be what we do with all those clunkers being turned in for cash...
As the Kyoto Protocol nears its expiration in 2012, the deadline to hammer out new standards for climate change mitigation approaches. U.N. member nations and the parties to the Kyoto Protocol will sit down in Bonn this week to weigh proposals for slashing greenhouse gas emissions across the globe, as world leaders are racing to ratify a new set of internationally binding parameters at a Copenhagen summit in December. Past meetings have yielded little in the way of tangible progress toward a new agreement, so here's hoping that with a deadline breathing down their necks, leaders will be feeling the heat.
In the feel-good event of the summer, designers and researchers will gather in Beijing to swap the latest in research, theories and practices in the field of ergonomics and human factors engineering. Themed “Changes, Challenges and Opportunities,” the conference isn’t just looking for ways to improve the Aeron chair; they’re tackling everything from aerospace ergonomics to occupational agricultural problems in the third world. Knowing that top minds in engineering and design are putting their heads together to tackle such issues should make everyone a little more comfortable.
We reported yesterday that the National Football League is reviewing its social media policy with regards to players Tweeting from the sidelines of games. But now the ban on social media has expanded from the locker room to the press box and even the stands, as paranoid organizations don't want their training camp secrets becoming fodder for the Twittersphere.
At the Vanguard of the anti-social movement, the Miami Dolphins organization is prohibiting fans and media that attend the team's public training camp sessions from blogging, tweeting, or texting during team drills. At least six other teams are following their lead, fearing something like #TO's Ankle could become a trending topic on Twitter.
The Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, Detroit Lions, and New England Patriots have also cracked down on social media during team workouts. The Broncos have banned cell phones and laptops during workouts to stem tweeting and texting by fans and media. As a testament to the level of paranoia in the NFL, the Colts went as far as banning spiral bound reporter's notebooks briefly before later backpedaling on the rule.
The NFL has encouraged teams to allow players to Tweet from the sidelines during camp, but have passed down no rules concerning media and fans at training camp. The league has embraced social media as a way for players to connect with fans; NFL commissioner Roger Goodell tweeted from the NFL draft, and the league's Twitter account is approaching 800,000 followers. Still, keeping players focused in games is important to the league, and a ban on players using social media like Twitter during games is likely in the future. Besides, with video capability coming to more and more smartphones, handheld devices on the sideline could pose a cheating risk (remember the infamous Patriots/Jets camcorder incident?)
Other organizations have embraced new media rather than trying to keep it in a box. Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio has been known to text reporters, while the Philadelphia Eagles offer an air-conditioned trailer at their training camp for bloggers. Others, like the Dallas Cowboys, remain ambivalent toward social media, choosing to roll with the technological punches, and the rules that govern them, as they come. "When cell phones came in," Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips told the AP, "one team had a player on the sideline during a preseason game who was on a cell phone. So you have to come up with rules when these new technologies come out."
The Cowboys have not forbidden players from tweeting. Still, some teams are untrustworthy of both their own abilities to harness social media and of the social media environment itself, where rumors can run violently amok. But it seems they're more worried about information leaking from their own locker rooms than from fans or media watching a team practice. Dolphins coach Tony Sparano admitted to the AP he's not very knowledgeable about social media, but it's not his lack of savvy he's worried about as much as that of his players. "Something they think is innocent can really hurt an individual, can really hurt team chemistry, and maybe can lead to somewhere down the road a loss of a game," Sparano told the AP. "I believe that. I'm one of those guys that will try to take that variable out of the way if you can."
"But," Sparano added, "it doesn't look to me like something that can completely be controlled."
Pack your rucksack and catch the overnight freight to Britt this Saturday, where the National Hobo Convention will celebrate all things vagabond during a weekend of flea markets, hobo poetry, and even a hobo memorial service for those that caught the midnight train to glory. Bum a ride over to City Park by noon today to catch a free helping of Britt’s Mulligan Stew, a Hobo Convention tradition involving 20 stew pots, 450 pounds of beef, 900 pounds of potatoes, and 5,000 rail-weary wayfarers.
Social gaming company Zynga, creator of several popular Facebook games including FarmVille, is growing at a pace that would make even its most productive virtual agrarians jealous, adding 12 million players in the last two weeks. The 20% boost in overall users can largely be attributed to FarmVille's 5.3 million active users per day, the most on Facebook, though other Zynga titles like Mafia Wars and Texas Hold 'Em also contribute high traffic volumes.
Zynga's most recent growth spurt marks a 50% jump in users over the past month, a testament to social gaming's popularity on sites like MySpace and Facebook (especially the latter) where social gaming has jumped out ahead of traditional online retailing in both popularity and revenue. If Zynga's revenues have jumped proportionally to its user base, that should peg its annual net take at around $150 million, quite a feat considering the social network itself is expected to net just $550 million this year.
Of course, traditional enterprise isn't far behind on social networks. 1-800-flowers launched a Facebook storefront last week, and at least 20 more retailers are expected to open virtual storefronts inside the social network in the next two months. But for now, Facebook is still far more valuable as an entertainment platform. Put another way, we'd be quite surprised to see a traditional retailer growing revenue at the same tick Zynga appears to be. For the time being, growing virtual veggies will be more profitable than growing real flowers.
Wikipedia's ascendancy to the top of a large pool of online reference sites has come to an end, new research shows. But perhaps even more alarming to eleventh-hour term paper writers and lazy journalists everywhere, the user generated encyclopedia may have started a slow decline, as growth has leveled and the nature of the community has made it less welcoming to new contributors.
"It's easy to say that Wikipedia will always be here," says Dr. Ed Chi, a senior scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center, told New Scientist. "This research shows that is not a given."
Eight years after launching, Wikipedia contains nearly 3 million articles submitted by users themselves and edited by others in the Wikipedia community. But while the site is still wildly popular for those trying to figure out who played in Super Bowl XXII, the name of Pink Floyd's original frontman, or how a convection oven works, the explosive growth that characterized its early years leveled in 2006 at around 60,000 new articles per month, declining by nearly a third since then. But the trends within the community itself are far more troublesome. The year after the amount of new content flattened, the number of edits per month plateaued as well at around 5.5 million. Meanwhile, the number of users making edits leveled off at around 750,000 monthly.
The data suggest the Wikipedia community is becoming resistant to new content and new editors. Those passive editors who make just a single change per month see around a quarter of their changes erased or modified by other, more active editors (the rate was just 10% in 2003). The resulting exclusion of more varied contributions shifts the balance of power on Wikipedia to those fewer active editors, and in turn could make Wikipedia more like a fraternity than a community-driven social encyclopedia. Over time, the Palo Alto team warns, the quality of Wikipedia could degrade as there would be fewer editors checking for errors and correcting the vandalism that accompanies user-gen Web sites.
The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation responsible for running Wikipedia has launched an internal review to make sense of the data, but says the numbers could be deceiving. For instance, the higher number of modifications to passive contributors' edits could be the result of human editors removing promotional text added to articles by spam programs, an increasing problem on Wikipedia. In the meantime, the Palo Alto team will present its research at the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration this October, though Dr. Chi has already begun blogging about the team's analysis.
We reported 
