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Samsung and pretty much everyone else is taking a long hard look at their clumsy UIs as consumer electronics continue to commodify. We’ve certainly seen that demonstrated with striking effect with the Samsung F480’s unfortunately named TouchWiz interface. Now take a look at the UI for Samsung’s NV24HD. Besides shooting 720p video, this 10.2 megapixel shooter with 24-mm ultra-wide angle lens features a series of touch-sensitive buttons surrounding a brilliant 2.5-inch AMOLED display. An interesting twist on the lifeless touch-screens we’ve seen on other cameras. However, it does so at the expense of screen size on a crowded back panel. Still, we’re a bit smitten by the user experience which we quickly got the hang of. See for yourself in the video after the break.

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Daimler AG expects to spend more than $21 billion on research and development of new technology over the next years, the company’s chief executive said during the company’s annual meeting in Berlin. “These efforts are all the more important because there is no single technology that’s clearly superior to all of the others,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told the company’s shareholders. “There are several routes to the mobility of tomorrow,” said Zetsche, who noted number of automobiles in the world is expected to grow five times faster than the population. In 2007, Daimler invested more than $6 billion in research and development and another $2.7 million for environmental protection. “In the coming years we’ll increase these budgets even more and by 2010 we’ll invest ($21 billion) in research and development,” he said. “To date, Daimler has made more progress with fuel cell technology than any another automaker and we plan to expand our lead in this area,” Zetsche added.

“We’ve also achieved a major breakthrough in battery technology,” said Zetsche, who noted until recently lithium-ion batteries used in laptops , phones and digital cameras couldn’t handle automotive applications. “But Daimler has solved the problem. Thanks to the integration of the vehicle’s cooling system, the batteries can now operate continually at optimal system temperatures. This maximizes their power output; extends their service life, and make it possible to use this high-performance technology in automotive applications. We’ve protected this innovation with 25 patents,” he said. “But it’s equally clear that we won’t be changing our strategy and building only small cars from now on now on. Our route to sustainable mobility is based on technological innovations, not renunciation. To give you a concrete example, we aim to offer at least one model in each of the Mercedes-Benz core model series that a leader in fuel consumption,” he said.

Zetsche also said the other part of the Daimler’s strategy is to expand sales in Brazil, Russia, China and India, which now account for 20 percent of all new passenger car registration in the world. In addition, Daimler is looking at so-called “downstream” businesses, such as insurance and service, said Zetsche, who also disclosed the company had a set up a new “Business Innovation Team” to identify and exploit new growth opportunities along the entire value chain,” Zetsche said. By Joseph Szczesny

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Pizza.com is cooking and nearly done. The current bid is a nice US$2,605,000 with almost 34 hours to go in the Sedo auction before bidding closes. There have been 76 bids to date with two bidders, listed as bidders “22” and “23” currently slugging it out. Pizza.com is cooking and nearly done. The current bid is a nice US$2,605,000 with almost 34 hours to go in the Sedo auction before bidding closes. There have been 76 bids to date with two bidders, listed as bidders “22” and “23” currently slugging it out.

To check out the current bid price, see http://www.sedo.com/auction/auction_history.php?language=e&auction_id=27887.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has released a statement on its mid-term review of the Joint Project Agreement between itself and ICANN. The review found “there was general consensus on the need to preserve the security and stability of the DNS and the recognition that ICANN is the appropriate technical coordinator of the Internet DNS.”
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has released a statement on its mid-term review of the Joint Project Agreement between itself and ICANN. The review found “there was general consensus on the need to preserve the security and stability of the DNS and the recognition that ICANN is the appropriate technical coordinator of the Internet DNS.”

Statement on the Mid-Term Review of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) Between NTIA and ICANN
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), on behalf of the Department of Commerce, recently conducted a mid-term review of the Department’s Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The JPA is a continuation of a series of agreements between the Department and ICANN to facilitate the transition of the technical coordination of the management functions related to the Internet domain name and addressing system (DNS) to the private sector.

Although views during the midterm review represent diverse perspectives, there was general consensus on the need to preserve the security and stability of the DNS and the recognition that ICANN is the appropriate technical coordinator of the Internet DNS. ICANN has made significant progress in several key areas, but most participants agree that important work remains to increase institutional confidence through implementing effective processes that will enable: long term stability; accountability; responsiveness; continued private sector leadership, stakeholder participation; increased contract compliance; and enhanced competition. It is important to note that the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions contract was not part of the JPA mid-term review.

Over the next eighteen months, NTIA will continue to monitor ICANN’s performance in meeting the ten responsibilities articulated in the annex to the JPA. Furthermore, NTIA remains fully committed to the 2005 U.S. Principles on the Internet’s Domain Name and Addressing System.

NTIA would like to gratefully acknowledge the ICANN community’s efforts to provide well-reasoned and substantive contributions to the mid-term review of the JPA. NTIA considers all of the contributions and perspectives shared as invaluable elements of this review and looks forward to further discussions on the topic.

This statement was sourced from www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/ICANN_JPA_080402.html.
 

Check it out, ’cause you’re looking at what must be the world’s smallest QWERTY device capable of running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. At least it will be when it makes its debut in Japan come June. Measuring just 188 x 84 x 25.9mm and 470grams, all that power / battery conservation / smallness of the Willcom D4 (aka, Sharp-built WS016SH) comes courtesy of a 1.3-GHz Atom processor pumping away beneath that sliding / tilting 5-inch, 262k color, LED-backlit 1,024 x 600 touchscreen hiding a 64-key QWERTY keyboard. Inside you’ll find 1GB of memory, a 1.8-inch 40GB disk, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, microSD slot, HD audio codec with mono-speaker, and Opera browser riding atop Japanese PHS (W-SIM) or 802.11b/g WiFi. Hitting Japan for ¥128,600 (about $1,254) — a lot less with 2 year contract. And with Willcom experimenting with Android, don’t be surprised to find this released in an alternate form later in the year or early ‘09. Engadget Japanese is at the launch event with plenty of hands-on images in the gallery below.

Update: Whoa, weird. Our Japanese colleagues are telling us that there’s an optional Bluetooth, companion handset for making calls over W-SIM. Gallery updated with new pics.

source:engadget

Following up yesterday’s trash talk with a little action, NVIDIA has disclosed plans to create a sub-$45 processing platform which the GPU-maker is calling, “The World’s Most Affordable Vista Premium PC.” The architecture will combine VIA’s Isaiah processor with an integrated NVIDIA graphics chipset, which the company claims outperforms Intel’s Celeron-based, 945 IGP/ICH4 setup handily. Apparently, the combo is capable of 36 GFLOPS versus Intel’s 6.4GFLOPS — which we shouldn’t have to tell you is a ton of GFLOPS. We’re excited about the prospect of better performance in an integrated chipset (we’ve all suffered at the hands of the GMA950), but we don’t want to see this end in a back-alley knife fight. Keep your cool, guys.

source:engadget

We’re not sure who nodded off in the art department, but we’re fairly certain they’re going to be wide awake come Monday morning. Apparently, Radio Shack is running circulars this week featuring the iPod touch… with the Installer and MobileChat icons. We’re sure Apple will be stoked to discover that a jailbroken iPod is hanging out in one of America’s most-viewed ads, and we’re equally sure that buyers will be pleased to learn they don’t really get an IM application with their purchase. Champagne for everyone!

Update: Take a look at a screen grab from the circular after the break.

source:engadget

So you might have heard that Apple and New York City are currently in a little scuffle over the city’s apple-shaped GreeNYC logo — NYC wants to trademark the logo, and Apple would prefer that didn’t happen. The story’s gotten pretty wild out there, and while it’s not worth a full-blown Know Your Rights, we thought we’d try and clear up what’s happening, since, you know, +10 lawyer.

Unlike all those previous Apple trademark disputes, this isn’t a true lawsuit, and Apple hasn’t sued anyone — the city of New York has filed a trademark application for the GreeNYC apple-shaped logo with the Patent and Trademark Office, and Apple has filed its opposition to that application. That’s an important part of the trademark registration process, actually: every single trademark application has to go through a 30-day opposition period during which interested third parties can raise their objections. We’d say it’s pretty obvious that Apple’s got an interest in other apple-shaped trademarks, so it’s not particularly surprising that it’s taking the first available opportunity to speak up about this one.

After the trademark applicant responds to the objection in writing (what some people have been wrongly calling NYC’s “counterclaim”), the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board gathers evidence and makes a decision. We’d almost be willing to bet that that never happens, though — after all the lawyers are done strutting around and promising victory, it’s likely that Apple and NYC simply come to an amicable licensing agreement. Bottom line? This is exactly how the system is supposed to work, and Apple is just protecting its billion-dollar brand as best it can — thousands of these oppositions are filed by all sorts of companies each year. We know, not very fun at all — anyone care to start a Jobs vs. Bloomberg slapboxing petition?

Disclaimer: Nilay’s a lawyer and a formidable slapboxer, but he’s not your lawyer, and none of this is legal advice or analysis.

source:engadget

While many of you have likely forgotten all about the retail SCV1 backseat TV tuner that Sirius announced way back in August of last year (and promised for Q4 2007), those hooked from the word go will be elated to know that they can finally get their hands on one. As of right now, Sirius partners are finally stocking (and shipping) the SCV1 Backseat TV System. The pain? $299.99 for the unit itself and $6.99 per month for TV service. In other words, an absolute bargain to maintain sanity on that upcoming 18 hour road trip.

source:engadget

As unlikely as this sounds, rivals Time Warner Cable and Comcast are apparently in talks with Sprint and Clearwire over establishing a nationwide WiMAX network. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the companies are scrambling to get a deal wrapped up by CTIA — which takes place at the beginning of April — and could see an influx of cash from both Google and Intel in excess of $1 billion. It seems the odd-couple partners are keen to cut into heavyweights Verizon and AT&T’s ever-expanding range of at-home and mobile services by offering their own take on a high-speed data and voice system to consumers. Clearly this combination would deflate AT&T and Verizon’s big FCC bandwidth-nabs a little (and it explains why the cable players weren’t interested in the 700MHz auction), but it’s questionable whether this rag-tag team of wild card players would seriously court the public’s eye. They say America loves an underdog — even if it’s a gigantic, super-rich, corporate underdog.

source:engadget