Acer to unveil 10-inch Windows 7 and 7-inch Android 2.2 tablets today? [TNW Mobile]

According to Digitimes, Acer is expected to unveil two new tablets at a press conference held in New York, making official a 10-inch Intel-powered Windows 7 model and a 7-inch Android 2.2 (Froyo), directly competing with Samsung?s new Galaxy Tab and trying to capture a share of the market from Apple.

It is thought that Acer has battled internal pressures in regards to its Android tablet devices ? the company deciding whether it should delay the launch of its device to wait for the release of a more tablet-friendly Android firmware in Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) or push its device into the market to provide competition to Samsung?s 7-inch Galaxy Tab and Toshiba?s Folio 100.

Therein lies the dilemma. Tablet manufacturers are so worried about missing out on the upcoming festive sales period they are rushing out tablets even though Google itself has already confirmed that existing Android firmwares do not play well with devices that have larger screens.

By holding its press conference in New York, Acer is signalling its intention to take the fight to Apple in a country where its iPad enjoys a huge market share.

By rushing its product off the production-line, its highly likely that Acer could be crippling its future success in the tablet market. If Acer was to wait for the release of a more tablet-friendly Android OS, it could concentrate on incorporating industry-leading features, instead of releasing a ?me-too? tablet that is purely aimed at capturing consumers cash instead of hearts.

Stay tuned, we will update you as soon as Acer releases any new information.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/11/23/acer-to-unveil-10-inch-windows-7-and-7-inch-android-2-2-tablets-today/

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How Mobile Phones Jump-Start Developing Economies

As one of the fastest-spreading technologies in history, the mobile phone has been transformative for the billions of people in the developing world who never had a landline or an Internet connection. One of the most unexpected benefits is its ability to deliver banking services.

Veronica Suarez, like some 2.5 billion other adults on the planet, has no bank account of her own. Suarez and her husband run a small grocery store in Quito, Ecuador, a city of about 1.4 million people on a plateau ringed with dormant volcanoes. In the past, she would often spend half a day traveling to pay bills in cash. But since June, she has been testing a mobile banking service called Mony, which is run by the Panama-based startup YellowPepper Holding. Now she can simply type out text messages that zap payments to the phones of the delivery men who bring cases of Coca-Cola and boxes of vegetable oil to her shop. That could enable her to save travel time, reduce the risk of getting robbed, and run her business more efficiently.

"It works pretty well," says Suarez, whose store is one of 52 mom-and-pop shops in Ecuador taking part in the tests. "But sometimes I am $50 short to pay the delivery man. It would be better if they loaned money, too."

Soon, they might. Worldwide, dozens of companies are introducing mobile wallets that store money in cell phones instead of bank accounts. Such schemes help the vast ranks of the "unbanked"?those huddled masses who yearn to easily send funds to distant family members, pay bills, or even take out small loans, but don't have access to financial services. "The mobile wallet can be transformational," says YellowPepper's founder and president, Serge Elkiner, who was in Ecuador in November demonstrating his system to officials from neighboring Colombia. "We have the chance to bring hundreds of millions into the banking system."

Entrepreneurs say mobile wallets are feasible thanks to the rapid expansion of cell-phone use in poorer regions of the world. In the past five years, operators have added more than two billion mobile accounts in developing and poor nations, according to data from the International Telecommunication Union. That compares to 435 million new accounts in wealthy nations (see chart).

As a result, even in poor regions without clean water or electricity, most adults are now connected. "In pretty much any developing country, in any rural area, you can get the four Cs: Coca-Cola, cigarettes, condoms, and cell phones," says Robert Katz, an associate with the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit that invests in companies trying to address poverty. "The cell-phone companies have been successful in creating ubiquity, so the challenge for the next generation of startup companies and entrepreneurs is leveraging that installed base to deliver real economic and social value to the poor."

There's no shortage of ideas for how to do that. One company in India is offering basic medical diagnoses over the phone to people who live far from a doctor; patients can pay with phone credits. Others are trying to deliver market information to farmers or fishermen, so they can take their goods to the places where they are in demand.

In Ecuador, the Mony service is filling a real need, says Elkiner. According to the consulting firm Bankable Frontier Associates, more than 75 percent of Ecuadorians have a cell phone but only 35 percent have a bank account, about average for poor and developing nations. To open a conventional bank account in Ecuador, you need several hundred dollars and proof of address?two things many Ecuadorians don't have. To sign up for a YellowPepper mobile account, all that's needed is an ID, a $5 deposit, and a cell phone. The service is slated for launch in 2011 in partnership with mobile-phone company Porta and a local bank.

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Blog - Why Life Is Physics, Not Chemistry

In the history of science, there are many examples of simple changes in perspective that lead to profound insights into the nature of the cosmos. The invention of the telescope is perhaps one example. Another is the realisation that chemical energy, thermodynamic energy, kinetic energy and the like are all manifestations of the same stuff. You can surely supply your own favourite instances here.

One of the more important examples in 20th centruy science is that biology is the result of evolution, not the other way round. By that way if thinking, evolution is a process, an algorithm even; albeit one with unimaginable power. Exploit evolution and there is little you cannot achieve.

In recent years, computer scientists have begun to exploit evolution's amazing power. One thing they have experienced time and time again is evolution's blind progress. Put a genetic algorithm to work and it will explore the evolutionary landscape, looking for local minima. When it finds one, there is no knowing whether it is the best possible solution of whether it sits within touching distance of an evolutionary abyss that represents a solution of an entirely different order of magnitude.

That hints at the possibility that life as it has evolved on Earth is but a local minima in a vast landscape of evolutionary possibilities. If that's the case, biologists are studying a pitifully small fraction of something bigger. Much bigger.

Today, we get an important insight into this state of affairs thanks to a fascinating paper by Nigel Goldenfeld and Carl Woese at the University of Illinois. Goldenfeld is a physicist by training while Woese, also a physicist, is one of the great revolutionary figures in biology. In the 1970s, he defined a new kingdom of life, the Archae, and developed a theory of the origin of life called the RNA world hypothesis, which has gained much fame or notoriety depending on your viewpoint.

Together they suggest that biologists need to think about their field in a radical new way: as a branch of condensed matter physics. Their basic conjecture is that life is an emergent phenomena that occurs in systems that are far out of equilibrium. If you accept this premise, then two questions immediately arise: what laws describe such systems and how are we to get at them.

Goldenfeld and Woese say that biologists' closed way of thinking on this topic is embodied by the phrase: all life is chemistry. Nothing could be further from the truth, they say.

They have an interesting analogy to help press their case: the example of superconductivity. It would be easy to look at superconductivity and imagine that it can be fully explained by the properties of electrons as they transfer in and out of the outer atomic orbitals. You might go further and say that superconductivity is all atoms and chemistry.

And yet the real explanation is much more interesting and profound. It turns out that many of the problems of superconductivity are explained by a theory which describes the relationship between electromagnetic fields and long range order. When the symmetry in this relationship breaks down, the result is superconductivity.

And it doesn't just happen in materials on Earth. This kind of symmetry breaking emerges in other exotic places such as the cores of quark stars. Superconductivity is an emergent phenomenon and has little to do with the behaviour of atoms. A chemist would be flabbergasted.

According to Goldenfeld and Woese, life is like superconductivity. It is an emergent phenomenon and we need to understand the fundamental laws of physics that govern its behaviour. Consequently, only a discipline akin to physics can reveal such laws and biology as it is practised today does not fall into this category.

That's a brave and provocative idea that may not come as a complete surprise to the latest generation of biophysicists. For the others, it should be a call to arms.

We'll be watching the results with interest.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1011.4125: Life Is Physics: Evolution As A Collective Phenomenon Far From Equilibrium


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New Trade Group?s Focus Will Be Marijuana Industry

Now, flush with financial clout, and with their eyes on pushing Congress to further loosen laws, medical marijuana industry leaders are forming a national trade association. While there are smaller, local trade groups, organizers around the country say this will be the first business organization working on the national level.

Based in Washington, the group, the National Cannabis Industry Association, will focus primarily on lobbying, but will also help medical marijuana businesses navigate a patchwork of laws that differ depending on location.

?This is an industry that is emerging ? from the dispensaries to the ancillary businesses that are now coming out of the shadows,? said Aaron Smith, a medical marijuana advocate in Phoenix and the group?s executive director. ?While there is good work being done, there isn?t anyone out there representing the industry?s interests directly.?

The group?s board members, which include some of the more prominent names in the medical marijuana industry, say the need for a national association has become increasingly apparent with the explosion of the legal marijuana business. Such businesses include dispensaries, growing facilities and equipment suppliers.

J. B. Woods, a former insurance agent for Allstate who now sells property and product-liability insurance to medical marijuana businesses in Colorado and other states, is one of the 23 board members. Mr. Woods said the industry had grown so quickly and laws had changed so rapidly that it can be difficult for medical marijuana businesses ? and the property owners and banks they deal with ? to know if they are operating legally.

?A lot of times these dispensaries can make a huge capital investment only to find out that the local municipality changed its rules, and they have to close down,? he said. ?You are in an industry that is very complicated, and ultimately it?s about having a source of credible information.?

The group will officially begin at a national convention in Denver next month.

?This is an industry in its infancy,? said Bob Selan, a board member and chief executive of Kush magazine, a medical marijuana lifestyle publication. ?But it is an industry now.?

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Instapaper for iOS updated to support AirPrint and more [TNW Apple]

One of our favorite services and iOS apps, Instapaper, has bumped up the iOS version of the app (the paid one) to 3.2.1 and one of the key new feature enhancements is support for AirPrint.

Marco has also updated the share panel to show the icons that you can share with?assuming you have them installed (I don?t seem to have any of the apps installed!). The list of apps you can share with has gotten pretty impressive:

  • Twitter apps:
    • Twitter, Twitterrific, Echofon, Twittelator, Seesmic, SimplyTweet, Birdhouse.
  • Sharing apps:
    • Tumblr, Shareables, Yummy, Delibar.
  • Reading apps:
    • QuickReader, GoodReader.
  • Productivity apps:
    • OmniFocus, Appigo ToDo, Firetask, Ideawell, Notitas, Notebooks, Terminology.
  • Utilities:
    • Pastebot, Print Magic.
  • Alternative browsers:
    • iCab Mobile, 360 Web Browser, Atomic Web Browser, Full Screen Browser, Sopods Full Screen Web Browser, Offline Pages.

This update also seems a little ?peppier? than even the last update (which was supposed to have a noticeable speed improvement), so if you haven?t updated, hop on over to iTunes and update (or over over the air on your device). If you haven?t paid the $5 for Instapaper on the iPad, I think it?s worth the price. For me, Instapaper is an essential part of my workflow. Either here on my main machine to stash things for later or, and more importantly, on my mobile devices to use here when I need to write up the news.

Looking at how Instapaper is going, what would the next ?Sent to/Share with? apps would be on your list?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/11/23/instapaper-for-ios-updated-to-support-airprint-and-more/

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This Land: At Checkpoint, Looking for Threats and, Now, at Testy Travelers

Behind an unmarked door, in a cluttered break room of half-eaten lunches and morale-boosting posters, a dozen Transportation Security Administration officers listened to their airport supervisor deliver another much-needed pep talk that contained the reminder: ?I get paid to be paranoid, and so do you.?

The supervisor, Philip Burdette, the federal security director at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, quickly addressed the recent criticism that the agency?s stepped-up security measures had gone too far; that passing through a checkpoint for a routine flight to Newark was now like entering a maximum-security prison for a protracted stay.

?Pat-downs have changed because of what?? he asked, searching for answers that might then be shared with inquisitive, even annoyed, passengers.

?Threat?? someone softly volunteered.

?Threat,? Mr. Burdette agreed. ?Especially after Abdulmutallab.? That is, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian whose alleged attempt last Christmas to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane with plastic explosives hidden in his underwear has transformed air travel in the United States.

The supervisor moved on to discuss reports of an organized opt-out day on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, one of the year?s busiest for travelers. Some protesters ? who seem to be grossly overestimating the patience of their fellow passengers ? plan to disrupt the flow at checkpoints by choosing the slower, more deliberate pat-downs instead of passing through the full-body scanners, which critics consider to be too invasive.

?That?s their right,? Mr. Burdette said. ?I don?t know if it?s 10 people or 10,000 people. Just be professional. Assume you?re being videotaped.?

With that, Mr. Burdette reminded everyone to remain vigilant, wished them a ?good shift? and opened the unmarked door to a pre-holiday flow of travelers oblivious to the many worries for their safety.

It can be argued that the T.S.A. has failed in customer relations, that in its zeal to anticipate every conceivable threat, it has forgotten to take a deep breath and calmly explain why it does what it does to us ? for us.

For example, the agency recently intensified its pat-down procedures, but, for what it says are security reasons, has declined to answer basic questions that might allay concerns that the new pat-downs are glorified grope sessions. How are these different from the old pat-down procedure? No comment. How are the officers trained to conduct these pat-downs? No comment.

The void created by the unanswered questions is filled, then, by libertarian complaints about privacy and ?Saturday Night Live? skits that mock front-line transportation security officers for following government orders, while administrators far removed from checkpoints in Baltimore and Seattle, Miami and Green Bay, Wis., struggle to make the right moves in a high-stakes game of Risk.

Patrick Smith, who writes the ?Ask the Pilot? column for Salon.com, is among many who argue against treating people as potential terrorists ? ?bullying people,? he says ? simply because they want to fly. He said the T.S.A. should streamline its checkpoint operations and reallocate officers to conduct more thorough scanning of luggage for bombs and explosives.

?We can?t protect ourselves from every conceivable threat, and we need to acknowledge that,? Mr. Smith said. ?There?s always going to be a way for a resourceful enough perpetrator to skirt whatever measures we put in place.?

But Mr. Burdette said this type of thinking reflected post-Sept. 11 amnesia. He said each security measure, from the new pat-down procedures to the increased use of body scanners, was driven by intelligence, not by a desire to create busywork.

Mr. Burdette, 41, is a former Marine and counterterrorism investigator who keeps his hair short and his dark-blue suits crisp. As the supervisor of the 700 or so officers at B.W.I. who screen as many as 40,000 travelers a day ? of whom fewer than 3 percent request pat-downs ? he takes the morale of his troops seriously, and resents any smirking dismissal of them as burger-flippers in toy-cop uniforms.

This perception was once so pervasive, and the officers were feeling so beleaguered, that two years ago the T.S.A. changed their uniform shirts to blue from white, and issued gold badges to replace their badge-shaped patches. The agency also began an internal campaign called I.G.Y.B. ? for ?I?ve Got Your Back.?

For government benefits and a salary that starts at $12.85 an hour, these unarmed officers swallow the irritation of others, apply security methods that intensify by the day, stifle the awkwardness they might have about touching other people ? oh, and be on alert for bombs, liquid containers holding more than 3.4 ounces, sharp objects, explosive ingredients and the next Abdulmutallab.

?I want them to think Abdulmutallab with every pat-down,? Mr. Burdette said.

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Blog - NASA Launches Nanosatellite to Study Life in Space

Here's a video of the launch of O/OREOS:


"With O/OREOS we can analyse the stability of organics in the local space environment in real-time and test flight hardware that can be used for future payloads to address fundamental astrobiology objectives," said Pascale Ehrenfreund, O/OREOS project scientist at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, in a NASA press release.

Researchers will be able to make contact with the nanosatellite 12.5 hours after it reaches low Earth orbit. It's mission will last 6 months. During that time the satellite will conduct experiments autonomously and will receive commands from a ground station in California to which it will relay data daily.

O/OREOS will be conducting two experiments. One will characterize the growth, activity of health of microorganisms in a space environment, which includes exposure to radiation and weightlessness. A second experiment will monitor the stability and changes in different organic molecules as they are exposed to these space conditions.

The new nanosatellite adds to NASA's collection of loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft. Last year the agency launched PharmSat to test antifungal drugs in orbit, and in 2006 it sent GeneSat to space to test how E. coli bacteria behave in space. "Secondary payload nanosatellites, like O/OREOS are an innovative way to extend and enhance scientists' opportunities to conduct research in low Earth orbit by providing an alternative to the International Space Station or space shuttle investigations," said Ehrenfreund.

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Blog - Why Life Is Physics, Not Chemistry

In the history of science, there are many examples of simple changes in perspective that lead to profound insights into the nature of the cosmos. The invention of the telescope is perhaps one example. Another is the realisation that chemical energy, thermodynamic energy, kinetic energy and the like are all manifestations of the same stuff. You can surely supply your own favourite instances here.

One of the more important examples in 20th centruy science is that biology is the result of evolution, not the other way round. By that way if thinking, evolution is a process, an algorithm even; albeit one with unimaginable power. Exploit evolution and there is little you cannot achieve.

In recent years, computer scientists have begun to exploit evolution's amazing power. One thing they have experienced time and time again is evolution's blind progress. Put a genetic algorithm to work and it will explore the evolutionary landscape, looking for local minima. When it finds one, there is no knowing whether it is the best possible solution of whether it sits within touching distance of an evolutionary abyss that represents a solution of an entirely different order of magnitude.

That hints at the possibility that life as it has evolved on Earth is but a local minima in a vast landscape of evolutionary possibilities. If that's the case, biologists are studying a pitifully small fraction of something bigger. Much bigger.

Today, we get an important insight into this state of affairs thanks to a fascinating paper by Nigel Goldenfeld and Carl Woese at the University of Illinois. Goldenfeld is a physicist by training while Woese, also a physicist, is one of the great revolutionary figures in biology. In the 1970s, he defined a new kingdom of life, the Archae, and developed a theory of the origin of life called the RNA world hypothesis, which has gained much fame or notoriety depending on your viewpoint.

Together they suggest that biologists need to think about their field in a radical new way: as a branch of condensed matter physics. Their basic conjecture is that life is an emergent phenomena that occurs in systems that are far out of equilibrium. If you accept this premise, then two questions immediately arise: what laws describe such systems and how are we to get at them.

Goldenfeld and Woese say that biologists' closed way of thinking on this topic is embodied by the phrase: all life is chemistry. Nothing could be further from the truth, they say.

They have an interesting analogy to help press their case: the example of superconductivity. It would be easy to look at superconductivity and imagine that it can be fully explained by the properties of electrons as they transfer in and out of the outer atomic orbitals. You might go further and say that superconductivity is all atoms and chemistry.

And yet the real explanation is much more interesting and profound. It turns out that many of the problems of superconductivity are explained by a theory which describes the relationship between electromagnetic fields and long range order. When the symmetry in this relationship breaks down, the result is superconductivity.

And it doesn't just happen in materials on Earth. This kind of symmetry breaking emerges in other exotic places such as the cores of quark stars. Superconductivity is an emergent phenomenon and has little to do with the behaviour of atoms. A chemist would be flabbergasted.

According to Goldenfeld and Woese, life is like superconductivity. It is an emergent phenomenon and we need to understand the fundamental laws of physics that govern its behaviour. Consequently, only a discipline akin to physics can reveal such laws and biology as it is practised today does not fall into this category.

That's a brave and provocative idea that may not come as a complete surprise to the latest generation of biophysicists. For the others, it should be a call to arms.

We'll be watching the results with interest.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1011.4125: Life Is Physics: Evolution As A Collective Phenomenon Far From Equilibrium


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