Zombies, hearses and monster trucks mark Windows Phone 7 celebration

So what do you do when you want to launch a new smart phone operating system in a market crowded with fierce competitors who have at least two years’ head start on you?
You have a parade!

Or at least you do if you’re Microsoft.
Friday on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, scores of people, dancing zombies and at least one monster truck that said "Windows Phone Pride" filled the streets to celebrate the Windows Phone 7 operating system.
The zombies seemed too busy walking like zombies and doing the "Thriller" dance to consider that the battle for market share would be uphill — up a very steep hill.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture between NBC Universal and a parade-throwing Microsoft. Our headquarters is on the Microsoft campus, which is why I was able to enjoy the celebration from our newsroom.)
For a moment I thought that the corporate pride-building parade was actually a funeral procession when I saw a hearse.
Then I realized that there were pallbearers behind it carrying an iPhone.

Consumer Reports says it still won't recommend iPhone 4

Consumer Reports says it still won't recommend the iPhone 4 — especially now that Apple said it will end its free "bumper" program for everyone Sept. 30.
"Putting the onus on any owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us," the magazine said on its electronics blog Monday. "We therefore continue not to recommend the iPhone 4, and to call on Apple to provide a permanent fix for the phone's reception issues."
Apple said Friday it is discontinuing the bumper program at the end of this month for all new iPhone 4 purchasers because the number of users having problems related to the phone's antenna and reception "is even smaller than we originally thought." However, "a small percentage of iPhone 4 users need a case, and we want to continue providing them a Bumper case for free," the company said on its website.
"For everyone else, we are discontinuing the free case program on all iPhone 4s sold after Sept. 30, 2010. We are also returning to our normal returns policy for all iPhone 4s sold after Sept. 30. Users experiencing antenna issues should call AppleCare to request a free Bumper case."
In July, Consumer Reports surprised many when it said would not recommend the iPhone 4 because of the antenna issue. At that time, it said Apple needed to come up with "a permanent — and free — fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4."
The antenna on the phone, unlike those in the three previous models, is wrapped around the phone's casing. Some have described it as a design flaw because those who grip it in the lower left corner can cover part of the antenna, diminishing the phone's reception. Rubber bumpers, or phone cases, provide a barrier to that human interference.
Days later, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would offer free rubber bumpers — a retail value of $29 each — to anyone who bought an iPhone 4 in order to fix the problem.
At that time, Jobs said that the free bumper program would only last until Sept. 30.
But Consumer Reports is not mollified, calling the requirements for consumers who will still be able to get a free bumper more onerous.
"The offer that takes effect next month is less consumer-friendly in several respects," the magazine said. "First, if you are 'experiencing antenna issues' with your iPhone 4, Apple says, you'll need to call the company to request a case. And where the current program allows owners a choice of seven cases, including some from third-party manufacturers, the new program only offers Apple's own Bumper, a frame-like cover that runs around the edge of the phone."
Consumer Reports said the bumper works, and works well: It "successfully mitigates the iPhone 4's reception issue, which was a weak point in the phone's otherwise-stellar performance in our tests. And we agree with Apple that not all iPhone 4 owners will experience reception difficulties with the device."
But asking owners to find a solution to a product problem — instead of a company doing so — is unacceptable, the magazine said.

Boxee Box ditches NVIDIA's Tegra 2 for Intel CE4100, pre-orders start today at $199

The wait for the Boxee Box is nearly over -- pre-orders begin today -- but before you drop a stack of change on D-Link's half-sunk cube, know that there's no longer an NVIDIA Tegra 2 under that tiny hood. At the last minute, Boxee switched to the Intel Atom CE4100, the same up-to-1.2GHz Sodaville chip powering Google TV. That's not all, as manufacturer D-Link told us our good friend Avner Ronen may not be able to keep his promise -- though the company still expects the Box to hit the streets at under $200, we're now looking at a $229 suggested retail price. What could possibly have happened to make these drastic changes? We visited Boxee in person to get an explanation, and you'll find the surprisingly simple (yet NVIDIA-damning) answer right after the break.

Update: We just learned that Amazon will be selling it for $199, though the MSRP will remain $229.
At a rendezvous in San Francisco, Avner Ronen told us the decision to abandon Tegra 2 was about performance and nothing more: "The major problem we had with the Tegra 2 was support for high-profile HD playback," he said. "You can do high-profile VC-1 with Tegra 2, but not H.264." It was a problem of bitrate, he told us, and while NVIDIA's dual-core Tegra T20 was apparently not up to the task, the team had internally tested Intel's CE4100 decoding streams at up to 90 megabits per second. The newly revamped Boxee Box is now capable of 1080p H.264 playback at 60fps, and... well, that's actually about it. While you'd think that gutting a system might involve a few more tweaks, we were informed that otherwise the Boxee experience is exactly the same, and and you can see for yourself just how little has changed hardware-wise in our gallery above. There's still hardware-accelerated Flash 10.1 playback, the same speedy UI and codecs, the same QWERTY-packing RF remote and all the same ports -- though it does have a freshly updated tally of over 400 apps, plus that new HTML5-compliant WebKit browser.

UC Berkeley researchers craft ultra-sensitive artificial skin, robots dream of holding eggs

Researchers and engineers have been toiling on synthetic skins for years now, but most of 'em have run into one major problem: the fact that organic materials are poor semiconductors. In other words, older skins have required high levels of power to operate, and those using inorganic materials have traditionally been too fragile for use on prosthetics. Thanks to a team of researchers at UC Berkeley, though, we're looking at a new "pressure-sensitive electronic material from semiconductor nanowires." The new 'e-skin' is supposedly the first material made out of inorganic single crystalline semiconductors, and at least in theory, it could be widely used in at least two applications. First off, robots could use this skin to accurately determine how much force should be applied (or not applied, as the case may be) to hold a given object. Secondly, this skin could give touch back to those with artificial hands and limbs, though that would first require "significant advances in the integration of electronic sensors with the human nervous system. Dollars to donuts this gets tested on the gridiron when UCLA and / or Stanford comes to town.

Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki resigns, the search for a new smartphone chief begins

Holy moly, it's all gone topsy turvy over in Nokia's camp. After Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was given his marching orders on Friday, this week it's the turn of Anssi Vanjoki -- who only recently became the company's Mobile Solutions leader -- to announce his departure. Anssi has handed in his requisite six-month notice along with the following statement:

"I felt the time has come to seek new opportunities in my life. At the same time, I am one hundred per cent committed to doing my best for Nokia until my very last working day. I am also really looking forward to this year's Nokia World and sharing news about exciting new devices and solutions."

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to recognize that Anssi's sudden desire to explore new opportunities is at least in part motivated by Nokia's choice to install Stephen Elop as its future CEO at the expense of good old OPK. Still, you've got to think there could've been a better time to announce such heart-stopping news, maybe after your company's most pivotal Nokia World convention in recent memory?

[Thanks, Ted] Anssi Vanjoki resigns from Nokia
September 13, 2010


Nokia Corporation
Stock Exchange Release
September 13, 2010 at 9.30 (CET +1)

Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced today that Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and a member of Nokia Group Executive Board has given notice of resignation from Nokia. Vanjoki, who currently heads Nokia's Mobile Solutions unit, has six months notice period and he will continue in his current tasks for the time being.

"I felt the time has come to seek new opportunities in my life," Anssi Vanjoki says. "At the same time, I am one hundred per cent committed to doing my best for Nokia until my very last working day. I am also really looking forward to this year's Nokia World and sharing news about exciting new devices and solutions."

iPad headed to Target on October 3rd?

It's not quite the definitive proof that some boxes spotted in the wild would be, but a tipster has sent us a few pieces of a puzzle that seem to suggest that Apple could be expanding the iPad's retail presence into Target stores just in time for the holiday shopping season. That includes a list featuring a mysteriously unnamed product that's set to become available on October 3rd (in six different versions, no less), and a series of images from a Target PDA (like the one pictured above) that seemingly show that the item numbers match the iPad prices exactly, and that it will be located in the Digital Audio section -- that's apparently also how e-readers like the Kindle are classified, in addition to iPods. Smoking gun? Not exactly, but it's certainly enough to get us to keep our eye on this one.