Yup, Apple is Holding an Event on January 27th. Join Us There!

If the rumor that Apple was holding a press event on January 27th had turned out to be false, we would have had to reassess everything we think we sort of know about its tablet device. But the event is on, as confirmed by the invitation that went out this morning to members of the media.

Of course, the invitation doesn’t say what the creation in question is–Apple’s invites never get too specific. On the other hand, they’re never deceptive, either. And the fact that this one refers to a single creation and doesn’t even hint at a focus such as music may be evidence that this is, indeed, the tablet. Or at least it’s not evidence that it isn’t the tablet. (How’s that for brilliant tea-leaf reading?)

One way or another, all will be known next week. I’ll be sitting in the audience at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and as usual, I’ll share everything I learn just as fast as I learn it. Please join me a week from Wednesday at 10am for our live coverage. Barring unforeseen circumstances–the new creation isn’t an exciting new iPod sock, is it?–this promises to be a lot of fun.

Dangerous Tweeting

Joking about terrorism on Twitter can get you in deep trouble. (Weirdest part of this story: It involves an airport named after Robin Hood. Say, wasn’t he a terrorist?)

Asus’s E-Reader Breakthrough?

A “6in, high-brightness, OLED colour screen that should run for a whopping 122 hours on one battery charge“? That’s either one of the biggest breakthroughs in display technology in eons, or a misunderstanding, or partial information that doesn’t mention some gigantic gotcha. I hope it’s the first of these possibilities, but I’m not placing any bets…

Jawbone Icon: Finally, a Bluetooth Headset I Can Love?

Whenever I write about Aliph’s Jawbone Bluetooth headsets, I start by explaining that I’ve never met a Bluetooth headset I really wanted to use. The company is releasing a new version of the Jawbone it’s calling the Jawbone Icon–and this major update addresses all of the gripes I’ve always held about the category, and adds some multiple other nifty features as well.

The most immediately striking thing about the Icon is something I don’t care that much about: It’s available in six stylish versions. The last Jawbone version, the Jawbone Prime, came in multiple colors, but the Icon tops that by offering six distinct industrial designs in different colors and textures,, with versions designed to appeal to both women and men, and both highly blingy and relatively subdued versions. They’re known as the Hero, the Rogue, the Thinker, the Ace, the Bombshell, and the Catch.

Here they are:

Continue reading this story…

My Beef With SarcMark

Period, question mark, exclamation point — the written word has done just fine with these three sentence-ending punctuations, but Sarcasm, Inc. reckons there’s room for one more.

The SarcMark aims to make sarcasm easier to express online, essentially by beating the reader over the head with it. Add the squiggly and dot to the end of a sentence, and you’ll know your words won’t be interpreted as genuine. Make no mistake, the SarcMark is a real product, selling for $2 if you want to type it on your Mac, Windows or Blackberry keyboard by holding Ctrl and pressing “.”

If you can’t tell from the tone of my words alone, I’m not convinced the world needs a SarcMark. For that matter I’m not certain the very concept isn’t a work of sarcasm.

The problem with SarcMark is partly technical. Unless the idea catches on in the mainstream, you’ll have to explain its meaning to everyone who sees it. So you’re explaining a punctuation that’s explaining sarcasm. That’s not redundant or anything.

But the bigger issue is that sarcasm doesn’t deserve the easy pass, even if the problem it’s trying to solve is genuine. There are plenty of emotions that are tough to convey in words alone, such as dejection, skepticism, urgency and calm. Why should sarcasm, above all, get its own punctuation?

Let’s just give sarcasm an emoticon and call it a day.

Still More on Google and China

Clearing up confusion on Google’s China move (the company isn’t a flop in that country, and hasn’t already begun uncensoring its search results).

Veghte Leaves Microsoft

Microsoft has announced that Bill Veghte, a 19-year veteran of the company, will be leaving to pursue his own interests. The move is not all that surprising considering no announcement had been made of his role in the Windows division of the company following Steven Sinofsky’s promotion to president.

It is rumored that Veghte wasn’t too happy with being passed over by Sinofsky, who had previously served as vice president of the engineering group within Windows. He served as senior vice president of the global Windows business, and had been instrumental in orchestrating Microsoft’s Windows 7 launch. It would almost seem as if he would have been the logical choice to ascend to the top spot in Microsoft’s Windows division, but that was not meant to be.

Mary Jo Foley reports that Veghte told her in a phone interview that he did attempt to find a new role within the company, but in the end decided leaving was the best option.

The Newton Revisited

Nice piece by John Gruber on what he calls the original tablet–the Apple Newton-and what those who would make or covet slate computers can learn from it. (Unless my memory decieves me, however, the Newton’s problem wasn’t that it stated the same (unpocketable) size and kept the same (high) price–the later Newtons were actually larger and more expensive than the first ones. Palm came along and made a Newton-like gizmo that was smaller and cheaper, and the rest is–well, you get the idea…

The Wii is Back, Baby!

Sales figures can be kind of drab to talk about, but wow, the Wii absolutely crushed in December 2009.

According to The NPD Group (via Wired), Nintendo moved 3.81 million Wii consoles in North America last month. That’s 1.66 million more units than December 2008, and the record for most consoles sold in a single month. No surprise, then, that the games industry had a record month overall, besting December 2008 by 4 percent.

When you compare those sales with the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, which by any other standard had a good month, it’s just embarrassing. The Wii sold almost three times as many units last month as either of the other two consoles.

Nintendo had just as bountiful a month on the software side. The top-selling games of December were New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2.82 million), followed by Wii Fit Plus (2.41 million), followed by Wii Sports Resort (1.79 million). Only then came the blockbuster Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, selling 1.63 million and 1.12 million units, respectively. A couple months ago, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich predicted that the new Mario game’s lifetime sales would eventually surpass those of Modern Warfare 2. He’s on track to be dead-on.

A couple other things to note:

-To date, Wii Sports Resort has sold over 4.5 million units. That means there are at least that many homes with an accuracy-boosting Wii MotionPlus attachment, and probably more when you consider other pack-in games such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. That bodes well for more titles that support the peripheral down the road, especially when the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 introduce their own motion control devices this year.

-Third-party Wii titles are nowhere to be found in the top 10, as has been the case since The Beatles: Rock Band debuted in September. That’s got to be frustrating for publishers, and could be a problem for gamers if third-party support wanes — provided they ever get tired of Mario, Zelda and the sight of their own Mii characters.

Comcast DVR Remote Scheduling is Here! (For Some)

Dave broke the news back in August that Comcast would be coming out with a new remote DVR scheduling feature in the near future. Since then, I’ve kept an eye on the myDVR page in hopes I’d get a heads-up on regional availability. Today, after reading about guide updates over on the Comcast blog, I revisited the bookmarked URL and hit the jackpot. I can now manage all of my DVR recordings online. It appears that I’m in one of the early market rollouts, but the rest of Comcast’s digital subscribers with a Motorola set-top should get the upgrade over the next several months.

In addition to letting me manage recordings, the new myDVR Manager site includes decent search functionality with content filters (HD, sports, movies, etc.) and keyword results that incorporate both live broadcasts and on-demand offerings. The UI is easy to use and even anticipates what I might need next. A search on Duke, for example, let me quickly isolate just the Duke college basketball games.

The series recording options are also much easier to manage than they are on the traditional guide. See further pics after the jump for a look at menus and options.

(This post is republished from Zatz Not Funny.)

Continue reading this story…

Google’s Nexus One Phone: Evolution (Not Revolution) at Work

[A NOTE FROM HARRY: A few weeks ago, I took on a fun part-time gig--writing a weekly technology column for FoxNews.com. The column appears each Tuesday in the site's Scitech section. I'll also run them here on Technologizer later in the week. Here's this week's column--a review of Google's Nexus One smartphone.]

Last week’s Consumer Electronics Show packed Las Vegas to the brim with new technology products, from 3D HDTVs to e-readers. But the week’s most talked-about new gizmo didn’t make its debut at the conference.

The day before CES got underway, Google cleverly swiped the spotlight by unveiling the Nexus One, the first phone the company is selling itself. After years of scuttlebutt that a “Googlephone” might be on the way, there’s finally a model that deserves that moniker.

Based on Google’s own Android mobile operating system and built by Taiwanese phone giant HTC, the Nexus One isn’t the tradition-busting breakthrough that some tech watchers expected. (There were those who wondered if the company might give it away and turn a profit via on-screen ads.)

Nor is it the mythical iPhone killer that pundits love to fantasize about. But like most of the Android phones that have debuted since the T-Mobile G1 in November 2008, the Nexus One is a clear evolutionary improvement on its predecessors. It displaces Verizon Wireless’s Droid as the top Android model to date, and is one of the most impressive smartphones on the market, period.

Continue reading this story…

Take a Moment, Make a Difference

If you’re human, your heart is going out to the people in Haiti in the wake of this week’s earthquake and its awful aftermath. And if you’re reading this, chances are that you’re in a position to chip in to help.

My friend Xavier Lanier of Notebooks.com stepped up to the plate by offering $500 in matching funds for contributions by readers who donate $10 to Haitian recovery via SMS. Several other bloggers joined in with additional matching funds. And I’m adding another $250 to the pot. (It’s a small gesture considering how unimaginably lucky I am–and have I mentioned that the San Andreas Fault runs right by my home?)

Here’s how the Technologizer community can contribute and help ensure that the maximum amount of relief money gets donated, as explained by Xavier:

To donate via SMS, just send a text message to “90999″ with the word “HAITI” in the body. You’ll receive a confirmation message confirming that you want to donate $10 to the Red Cross. Reply with the word “Yes” and you’ll get a $10 charge on your next bill.

Once you’ve made the donation, head to Xavier’s post at Notebooks.com and leave a comment so he can track total donations. Thanks in advance.

More on Google and China

Excellent editorial from the Washington Post on the Google-China situation (one of many, not all coming to the same conclusions).

Electronic Paper Gets Flexible

When I first saw E-Ink electronic paper more than a decade ago at MIT’s Media Lab, it was in the form of a big, ad banner that was as flexible as a piece of dead-tree paper. These days, E-Ink is pervasive–or at least as pervasive as e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are–but so far, it’s always been enclosed in a rigid case.

But here are some fascinating photos of a 19-inch LG electronic paper display that looks like a floppy piece of newspaper. I’m not clear what an e-reading device based on this screen would look like–processors, memory, and batteries aren’t so flexible–but the idea of an electronic newspaper you can fold up is entertaining, at least. Even though I’m not sure offhand what the benefit would be.

So are you intrigued?

5Words: More About the Chinese Attacks

Chinese attackers targeted Acrobat vulnerability.

China: foreigners welcome, censorship mandatory.

Looks like Yahoo was hacked.

Mossberg reviews wireless Sony e-reader.

Haiti imagery in Google Earth.

Facebook-using crook nabbed, finally.

Are digital music prices fixed?

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Needed: An All-New Microsoft Browser

I tend to agree with Jason Cross’s contention that Microsoft’s browser would benefit from a reboot, not an update, and I like his proposals for doing so. (For the record, though, Ford is still flogging the Taurus–in fact, it tried to do away with it and then brought it back. Which is a sobering case study in how hard it is to reboot a venerable, pervasive brand.)