Dell Adamo: a first look

Dan Ackerman, CNET, 17 Mar 2009

The 13.in. Adamo, toe-to-toe with Apple's MacBook Air (which is about 440g lighter).

One of the most buzzed-about new notebooks of 2009 is Dell's Adamo, a high-end, ultra-thin 13in. model that starts £1,649 and shares a design sensibility with the MacBook Air and HP's Voodoo Envy 133.

After teasing the system at CES 2009, Dell formally announced its availability for preorder online on 17 March, with shipping from 26 March. We've managed to get our hands on pre-production version of the hardware to bring you our initial impressions.

ZDNet UK's colleagues at CNET.com in the US have looked at a pre-production example of Dell's much-anticipated Adamo notebook.

At first glance, the Adamo, is a stark break from Dell's recent notebook designs, built into an aluminium case with unibody construction — similar to the current MacBooks. The model we have is black (Dell calls it 'onyx') and a white 'pearl' version is also available. The back of the lid and the keyboard tray are split between brushed metal and a fingerprint-attracting glossy finish.

About 1.65cm thick, Dell claims this is the thinnest notebook in the world. It's certainly thin, but going toe-to-toe with the MacBook Air, the true 'thinnest' title is open to interpretation. The tapered Air is thinner at its narrowest point, but slightly thicker at its widest point. In either case these are both very slim systems.

Picking up the Adamo, we were surprised at how heavy it felt. At 1.8kg, it's certainly lightweight, but based on the size, we were expecting something closer to the 1.36kg MacBook Air.

Dell is pitching the Adamo as a 'luxury brand notebook design for the luxury conscious consumer', which may not seem like the most timely of ideas, considering the current economic climate and the resultant growth in low-cost netbooks. While the timing may be unfortunate, products such as this generally have long, multi-year production cycles, from concept to release.

As a luxury notebook, the Adamo has plenty of high-end visual touches. The pearl finish has a wavy pattern etched into it, while our black model has a more traditional brushed metal look. Notably, the usual brand and regulatory stickers have been removed, in favour of etching the information directly into a panel on the bottom of the system.

Instead of the typical Christmas tree of lighting effects found on notebooks in all price ranges, the Adamo has only a handful of small LED lights — for the power button, the touch-sensitive media controls and the caps-lock button, as well as a backlit keyboard. Besides Adamo-branded desktop wallpaper, Dell also created a custom Windows Vista theme for the system, called Adamo Ice. Along with branded accessories Dell plans to offer, it's all part of a concept for the Adamo 'brand ecosystem'.

The keyboard itself is a big change from the typical Dell notebook keyboard, which has always had tall, tapered keys. This borrows more from the Dell Mini 9, with flat, closely spaced keys, similar in style to what you might find on a MacBook or Sony VAIO. We found the keyboard easy to use, but there's a little wasted space at either side of the keyboard tray that could have been used to space out the keys more. The keyboard itself has too much flex in the middle, and the keys are a little clacky — but these could be issues with our prototype hardware. The metal touchpad was very good — sometimes using non-traditional surfaces on a touchpad can add uncomfortable friction and finger drag, but that was not the case here.

The 1,366 by 768 LED-backlit display is behind a sheet of edge-to-edge glass, again similar to the current MacBook line. It's a sleek look, but very susceptible to glare and reflections. The screen hinge is set back about 2.5cm from the rear of the system, leaving what looks a bit like a small handle when the display is open.

Other than a headphone jack and a user-accessible SIM card slot on the right side, all the other ports and connections are on the rear edge. There are two USB ports, a USB/eSATA port and an Ethernet jack, plus a DisplayPort video output (although dongles to other video connections will be available).

Inside, this prototype unit has a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9300, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD hard drive — these components could change in the final shipping version of the Adamo, and we hear that a 128GB SSD will be standard.

With a low-voltage version of Intel's Core 2 Duo, it's not meant to be a speed demon, however, in anecdotal hands-on use, we found the Adamo to be perfectly fine for normal multitasking — web surfing, working on office documents and media playback — and we'll run a complete series of benchmark tests on the final shipping version. We haven't had time to run a full battery drain test yet, but the battery icon in the system tray claims more than three hours of battery life on a full charge at the default power settings.

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Innovation: Singapore Is No. 1, Well Ahead of the U.S.

Singapore's emphasis on science education and a highly talented workforce puts it well ahead of the U.S. in a new global ranking of innovation leaders

By Bruce Einhorn, Businessweek,

ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images

For anyone interested in working in an innovative environment, the U.S. has long been the top destination. The U.S. has the culture to support innovation: the best universities, the biggest venture capital funds, the most supportive financial markets. American companies from Silicon Valley are among the world's most inspiring success stories for entrepreneurs in China , India, and other emerging markets, with startup business leaders looking for inspiration to the likes of Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Intel (INTC), Apple (AAPL), and Google (GOOG).

According to a new report by Boston Consulting Group, though, the center of innovation is not in the U.S. BCG, working with the Manufacturing Institute of the Washington-based National Association of Manufacturers, last week released a survey of 110 countries worldwide looking at the ones with government policies and corporate performance most encouraging to innovation. The U.S. came in No. 8, ahead of Japan (No. 9) and Germany (No. 19) but well behind the two leaders, both of them so-called tiger economies from Asia: Singapore at No. 1 and South Korea at No. 2. (For more on how BCG conducted the survey, and the ranking of the top-performing countries, see the accompanying slide show.)

What accounts for the relatively lackluster performance of the U.S. compared to the Asian tigers? James P. Andrew, the leader of BCG's global innovation practice and co-author of the report, says "the quality of the workforce" in the U.S. is the biggest problem that many respondents had. As part of the survey, BCG questioned some 800 high-level executives at U.S. companies, and many put concerns about human resources at the top of the list of concerns. "Are we developing the skills at the high school level?" asks Andrew, explaining the responses researchers often encountered. "Are we making it easy for the best and brightest to study and stay in the U.S.?"

Read whole story ....

Google to roll out free tool to help save energy

Reuters, Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:31pm EDT

LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O) is soon to roll out free software which allows consumers to track their home electricity use and improve energy efficiency in a bid to help mitigate global warming.

Dan Reicher, Director for Climate Change and Energy Initiatives Google, told Reuters it was in talks with utilities companies in the United Sates, Europe and Asia to make the product available shortly to general consumers.

As part of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Google said in February it would use its software skills for the programme that will show home energy consumption in real time on a user's computer or a telephone.

"It will get rolled out very soon to regular energy consumers," Reicher said, without providing exact timings.

"When I began getting information about my own home, I discovered that I had a 35-year electric motor running for my heating system. That was using huge amount of electricity. I did not realise that's the change I need to make in my home."

The company cited studies showing that access to home energy information typically saves between 5 percent and 15 percent on monthly electricity bills.

"The beauty of the tool we are developing is that is going to be an open source," Reicher said. (Reporting by Nao Nakanishi; Editing by Keiron Henderson)

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Google Voice: Flawed but still awesome

CNet News, Larry Magid, March 12, 2009 6:47 PM PDT

Google's new Google Voice has a few rough edges but for many users, it could be a life-changing experience.

The service, a relaunch of GrandCentral, which Google bought in 2007, allows you to choose a local number, which will simultaneously ring up to six phones such as your cell phone, home phone, office phone, and the phone at that vacation home that most of us can only dream about.

In addition to forwarding your calls, it also takes voice messages that you can listen to on the Web, from a phone, or read, thanks to a new feature that transcribes voice messages and sends them as e-mail and text messages.

If you have multiple phones, having a single number to reach them all can make you and your callers' lives a bit easier, and it can save space on your business card by not having to list separate numbers. The concept is simple: people are trying to reach you--not one of your phones--and Google Voice lets you decide how to route the calls.

The simultaneous ring feature can also be used by groups. Team HOPE, a support network for families of missing children, gives callers a GrandCentral number that rings the phones of several staff members to ensure that calls are always answered.

I've been using a very similar "simulring" feature on Vonage for several years and like the fact that I get to control where my calls are forwarded. Both Google and Vonage let you configure forwarding from the Web, but Google also allows you to assign a temporary forwarding number directly from the phone. That could come in handy, if you suddenly find your cell phone out of range but have access to another number where you can be reached.

The call-recording feature is very cool. At any time during an incoming call, you can press 4 to start the recorder and 4 again to stop it. That can be handy if you're driving and someone is about to give you a phone number, address, or something else that you can't write down.

The recording feature can also be used by podcasters to record phone calls that can be exported as MP3 files. And yes, there is an announcement to inform the other party that you're recording the call.

You also get free conference calls. Up to four people can dial your phone number and can be patched into the call.

Cheap international calls

People who make occasional international calls from a cell phone will get incredible savings, compared to what the carriers charge. Using Google Voice to call a landline in London, for example, costs 2 cents a minute, compared to the whopping $1.49 that Verizon Wireless and AT&T charge, if you don't purchase an international calling plan.

Even with a calling plan, the carrier rates, though much cheaper, are still higher than what Google charges. Making calls could be easier. You dial your Google number, press 2, and then punch in 011 plus the country code and phone number.

Bugs and rough edges

I have encountered a few annoying bugs in my day 1 experience with the service. For one, I'm not able to delete voice mail from my cell phone, despite following the instructions to press 7 to "archive" messages. Every time I call my voice mail, those messages are still there, as if they were new. Although the voice mail transcription service works, the message isn't always delivered promptly. Sometimes it arrives in a few minutes, but at other times, it's taken up to 20 minutes.

Although not a bug and not Google's fault, it's unfortunate that you can't use your Google number as your outgoing caller ID when you dial directly from a cell phone. Although there are ways to spoof that, for security reasons, phone companies don't allow it.

The problem is that people are in the habit of you calling back on your caller ID, which makes it harder to train them to dial your Google number. Your Google caller ID will show up correctly, however, if you initiate the call from your Google Voice Web page or if you dial your own Google number and then press 2 to dial out and type in the number. This process, I suspect, is more of a hassle than it's worth.

There also isn't yet a way to transfer an existing phone number to Google, so you're stuck having to give out the new Google number. The service works only with U.S. phone numbers; you can't forward calls overseas.

Because it's an incoming service only, you can't record outbound calls, and you can't use Google Voice to add people to a call. They have to call you.

The service is currently available only to people who had previously signed up for GrandCentral. Google hasn't announced when others can sign up.

Still, despite some flaws and limitations, this could turn out to be one of Google's most beloved services. Being able to read your voice mail and having one number that rings all your phones is terrific, especially at the amazingly low price of free.

Obama CIO placed on leave after FBI raid

Vivek Kundra is told to stop work just days after accepting the job

Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, 14 Mar 2009

Just days after his appointment, the US chief information officer Vivek Kundra has been told to take leave, after the FBI swooped on his former employer, according to reports.

An employee of the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, and a private contractor were charged with corruption after an FBI raid.

Yusuf Acar, 40, acting chief security officer at the CTO’s office was charged with bribery of a public official, money laundering, wire fraud and conflict of interest, according to a report on Washington’s WTOP news site.

Sushil Bansal, president and CEO of Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation and a former government employee, is said to face the same charges.

Acar worked under CIO Kundra at the Columbia CTO’s office but it is not thought that the latter is implicated in any wrongdoing.

The news will nevertheless be a setback to the Obama administration, which has yet to appoint a chief technology officer to work alongside Kundra.

At the time of Kundra’s appointment on March 5, President Obama said he would play a key role in the “secure, open and efficient” running of the US government.

“I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations,” he added.

Kundra is on leave until further details of the case become known, a White House source told The Associated Press.

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1st iPhone 3G sale on March 20

The Jakarta Post, JAKARTA | Sat, 03/14/2009 1:09 PM

PT Telkomsel, the country’s largest cellular operator, is slated to sell the country’s first iPhone 3G mobile handset on March 20 at the Pacific Place shopping center in Jakarta.

In its statement late on Thursday, the company said the handset would be available also at GraPARI outlets with a price starting at Rp 2.62 million (US$188)

“iPhone 3G will redefine our consumers’ mobile phone experience,” said Telkomsel president director Sarwoto Atmosutarno.

iPhone 3G combines three products in one -- a mobile phone, widescreen iPod and internet device. It also includes fast 3G networking, GPS mapping and support for enterprise features including Microsoft Exchange.

iPhone 3G is available in over 70 countries worldwide.

In its statement, Telkomsel also said it would invest $1.5 billion this year to expand its 3G network.

Telkomsel was the first operator in Indonesia to launch 3G services in September 2006, and had the biggest 3G community with more than 9.2 million subscribers in more than 140 cities.

Telkomsel has 69 million subscribers or more than 50 percent of the market share.

Telkomsel is 65 percent owned by state-run PT Telkom, the country’s largest telecommunications company. The remaining 35 percent is owned by Singapore Telecom Mobile Pte Ltd.

Facilities embedded in iPhone 3G have put the gadget in competition with Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry and Nokia’s smart phones, which are designed for business users.

The arrival of the iPhone is likely to heat up competition among mobile operators tapping cash-rich business clients, who account for a smaller proportion of the market’s customer base.

Indonesia’s cellular operators primarily target the market of middle to lower-income users, which accounts for an average of more than 70 percent of the customer base for cellular providers.

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Battery that 'charges in seconds'

BBC News, Wednesday, 11 March 2009 

A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries could lead to smaller, lighter batteries that can be charged in just seconds.

Batteries that discharge just as quickly would be useful for electric and hybrid cars, where a quick jolt of charge is needed for acceleration.

The material is cheap, and batteries made
 with it are less likely to explode

The approach only requires simple changes to the production process of a well-known material.

The new research is reported in the scientific journal Nature.

Because of the electronic punch that they pack, gram for gram, lithium-ion batteries are the most common rechargeable batteries found in consumer electronics, such as laptops.

However, they take a long time to charge; researchers have assumed until now that there was a speed limit on the lithium ions and electrons that pass through the batteries to form an electrochemical circuit.

Tiny holes

Gerbrand Ceder, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, and his colleagues used a computer simulation to model the movements of ions and electrons in a variant of the standard lithium material known as lithium iron phosphate.

The simulation indicated that ions were moving at great speed.

"If transport of the lithium ions was so fast, something else had to be the problem," Professor Ceder said.

That problem turned out to be the way ions passed through the material.

They pass through minuscule tunnels, whose entrances are present at the surface of the material.

However, the team discovered that to get into these channels, the ions had to be positioned directly in front of the tunnel entrances - if they were not, they could not get through.

The solution, Ceder discovered, was to engineer the material such that it has a so-called "beltway" that guides the ions towards the tunnel entrances.

Traffic management

A prototype battery made using the new technique could be charged in less than 20 seconds - in comparison to six minutes with an untreated sample of the material.

Most commercial batteries use a material made up of lithium and cobalt, but lithium iron phosphate does not suffer from overheating - something that has affected laptop and mp3 player batteries in a number of incidents. 

Even though it is cheap, lithium iron phosphate has until now received little attention because lithium cobalt batteries can store slightly more charge for a given weight.

However, the researchers found that their new material does not lose its capacity to charge over time in the way that standard lithium ion batteries do.

That means that the excess material put into standard batteries to compensate for this loss over time is not necessary, leading to smaller, lighter batteries with phenomenal charging rates.

What is more, because there are relatively few changes to the standard manufacturing process, Professor Ceder believes the new battery material could make it to market within two to three years.

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SAP, Sybase plan iPhone, Windows Mobile software

By Jim Finkle , Reuters, Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:30am EDT  

 BOSTON, March 11 (Reuters) - Software makers SAP AG (SAPG.DE) and Sybase Inc (SY.N) have teamed up to make it easier for businesses to run SAP's business management software on mobile devices including Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone.

SAP (SAP.N), the world's biggest maker of business management software, is already working with Research in MotionLtd (RIM.TO) (RIMM.O) to develop programs for its BlackBerry devices. 

This is the first time the German software company has announced plans to customize its software for other devices.

Sybase, which already sells programs that let businesses "shrink" applications so they can more easily run on mobile devices, will customize its software to better work with SAP's complex business management programs.

The two companies, which announced the move on Wednesday, will initially focus on the iPhone and on smart phones that runon Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Windows Mobile operating system.

"SAP wants to provide customers a broad choice of mobile solutions," said company spokesman Saswato Das. "Ourpartnerships with Sybase and RIM will accelerate the transformation to a fully mobile workforce."

The SAP/Sybase products will be available in the second half of 2009, Das said.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, editing by Matthew Lewis)

Apple orders 10-inch touchscreens for third quarter: source

Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:15am EDT 

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Apple will take third-quarter delivery of newly developed 10-inch touchscreens from Taiwan, a source said on Wednesday, amid talk the U.S. firm is developing a touchscreen PC. 

Customers try out the MacBook Air at the Apple Store in New York February 1, 2008. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Taiwan touchscreen specialist Wintek already makes small screens for Apple iPhones, and has received orders for the larger ones that are roughly the same size as those used in mini PCs, said the source close to the Taiwan firm. He asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media. 

He added that he did not know what the final product would be, or who would make it. 

Wintek spokesman James Chen confirmed Apple was a major client of his company, but declined to comment on any new product development. 

Taiwan media reported this week that Apple, which has brought touchscreens to the forefront with the success of its iPhones, is currently developing a touchscreen PC, as lines begin to blur between sophisticated smartphones and traditional PCs. 

Some of those reports have said that Taiwan's Quanta Computer, the world's top contract laptop PC maker, would manufacture the actual PCs for Apple. 

Apple's Hong Kong spokeswoman, Jill Tan, said the company did not comment on market speculation, while a Quanta spokeswoman also declined to comment. 

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Doug Young and Lincoln Feast)

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Mojos, the ‘F’ word and the future of newspapers

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, THE JAKARTA POST, BANGKOK | Tue, 03/10/2009 10:10 AM  

Newspapers are an endangered species. Like the lumbering dinosaur, the cumbersome newsprint is making way to the more nimble genus and lithe platforms of new media. 

The fate of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Minneapolis Tribune and Denver’s Rocky Mountain News is akin to that of the 40-ton brachiosaurus. 

The global financial crisis is an extinction level event for traditional media in the same way that climactic changes obliterated the Mesozoic era. 

To our south, News Ltd. (part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.) which publishes The Australian,

and Fairfax, publisher of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, made several hundred retrenchments in the past six months with more likely to come. The Australian Financial Review is shutting its bureaus in Jakarta and London. 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stepped in by further subsidizing dwindling French newspaper subscription. In Britain, the government is debating aid for its regional papers, while in India several publications are effectively holding the election-facing government to ransom by “beseeching” tax breaks and sponsored advertising. 

The demise of print media is not all due to the Internet or the haughtiness of print journalism. Even online advertising rates are not what they used to be in the dotcom heyday of the late 1990s. 

The inability to adopt to new mindsets, a misguided interpretation of free information, and the conglomeration of media ownership seem to have been the catalysts for the downfall. 

Today, everyone is a journalist. 

Modern technology embodies the two essentials that characterize field reporting: speed and convenience. The pen may still be mightier than the sword, but the ubiquitous mobile phone is the quill of digital journalism. 

Most print organizations, especially in Asia, have only in the last few years begun to realize

the concept of Mojos – mobile journalists. 

Reporters capable of breaking news, in-depth stories and digital information (webcasts, blogs and video) all at once. Rather than rightsizing their young editorial staff to accommodate the new platforms, most organizations instead enlarge operations by creating separate entities, print and digital, which creates dualism and doubles overhead. 

Specialists – photojournalists, investigative reporters, op-ed writers – are essential elements, but the bulk should be platform-agnostic journalists who can convey the established values of conventional quality journalism in a new medium. 

Technology has allowed everyone to be a journalist. Citizen journalists are a qualified truth in modern journalism. However, it would be a mistake to allow the primary dissemination of information – the foundations of democratic society – to go to blogs and mailing lists permeated by rants and foolish outbursts. 

During the 150th anniversary of the Atlantic Monthly last year, editors argued that reading habits had not declined, but the way people were paying for their reading had changed. 

Despite technological advances, conventional and digital media retain the same model in generating revenue: page viewed advertising. When advertising tanks, so does the publication. 

When the Internet burst onto the scene, the (un)conventional wisdom was to provide everything for free. For anything other than premium porn, the “F” word (free) was the pervasive dictum on the Web. 

That precept is now seriously being re-examined. Good stories, good photography, good art and especially good journalism cannot pay for itself. 

Consumers act like one, by paying for it! 

The lessons of millions of songs, books, newspapers and movies sold on Apple’s iTunes, Amazon’s Kindle and Netflix are evidence that consumers are willing to pay, as long as a practical, safe payment system with immediate delivery options is readily available. 

Furthermore, the present perils of many newspapers may not necessarily be due to poor editorial quality or the absolute decline of readership, but the way big business have treated newspapers as a portfolio investment. 

Stephen Quinn, lecturer of journalism and media management at Deakin University in Australia, said that if a newspaper is on a backslide due to economic recession, it can survive with sound management and innovation. 

“If the issue is debt, then it’s difficult,” he remarked at an editors’ meeting over the weekend in Bangkok to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Asian Newspaper Network. 

Hence the doom that saw most American papers file for bankruptcy. 

The utmost concern for many newspaper editors, however, is not that they are a dying species, but that they may become a protected species under the aegis of the government. 

Developments in France and India are a sellout of the Fourth Estate. 

Mathias Döpfner, publisher of Bild in Germany, in a recent interview conceded that talk was rampant that the bailout model for banks and US carmakers should be extended to newspapers. 

“That would be a dark day for press freedom,” he said. 

“A bankrupt media company is better than a government-funded one.”

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