The month-long saga of the Borg (in FSJ’s words) assimilating Yahoo might finally be coming to a close, with the two finally entering into actual merger negotiations, according to the NY Times. Microsoft has reportedly upped its original $44.6 billion bid by several billion. The deal might still fall apart, but they’re actively doing the dance. Looks like this could actually happen, folks. [NYT]
Following up Apple’s same-day DVD release purchasing announcement, they’ve added a feature to buy movies directly on Apple TV without the need for a computer. Before this, you could only rent on your Apple TV and have to buy movies on your computer first, then stream it. [MacRumors]
Japanese bureaucrats apparently have the most amazing multi-tasking powers on earth. Topping the dude who basically wrote the Gundam Wikipedia while at work, a 57-year-old civil servant in Kinokawa was busted for beating it to 780,000 porn pages in nine months. That’s 10,000 a day, 20 a minute at his most furious fapping. All on the job (maybe he could stop time, like Hiro). He was finally busted when he had tech support look at his computer after he picked up a virus—his coworkers thought nothing of the weird noises emanating from his cubicle. For nine months. The best part? The dude was only demoted. Probably for not being efficient enough. [The Inquirer]
Besides some benchmarks, CNET’s review of the Psystar Open Computer doesn’t really tell us anything new that we didn’t already know before. It’s definitely fast for the price, especially compared with the tiny Mac Mini. However, it’s missing stuff like iLife, Bluetooth, an IR receiver, DVD burning and the ability to update your computer. If you’re fine with using this one particular version of Leopard for all eternity, the Open Computer looks like a decent deal for the money on paper. But as we pointed out yesterday, there are too many reasons why you shouldn’t buy this to justify giving them your cash. [CNET]
Not much we don’t already know in what BGR is calling the final spec list for the BlackBerry 9000—3G HSDPA in the 850/1900/2100MHz bands, Wi-Fi, GPS and 480×320 LCD, etc.. The big nugget is that AT&T will be the first carrier to launch worldwide, as well have it exclusively in the US. So, T-Mo users are gonna have a bit of a wait The sorta good news for you is that one of the HSDPA bands the 9000 supports, 2100MHz, is one of T-Mobile’s two 3G bands (1700MHz is the other), so if you’re in an area covered by it, you can grab some 3G goodness on an unlocked phone. Otherwise, and they better get cuddly with EDGE if they’re thinking about unlocking. Update: Astute commenters have pointed out that the way T-Mobile splits its 3G bands, you’re actually still screwed on 3G here. [BGR]
Face it, that box you live in ain’t no palace. When you can pee in the toilet from the living room, it’s time to start finding ways to maximise your precious square footage. I may not be able to convince you to throw out your old, ratty chairs or your college textbooks that refer to the US as having 48 states, but in this week’s Thank Giz It’s Friday roundup, I can offer you some insanely clever space-saving ideas that will help make some sense of the chaos.
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Hey, we just got one of those Livescribe Pulse Smartpens. You remember these, right? The Pulse is one of my favourite gadgets from the past year, because it’ll do basic computing like math and translation via a paper UI. But more importantly for a reporter or student, or anyone who takes notes, it’ll record voice notes that you can play back by clicking on the text you wrote at that moment. Pretty insane. More to come in a bit.
newVideoPlayer("exoskelsuit2.flv", 463, 387,""); The Sarcos-Raytheon joint effort Exoskeleton has been around for a while, but the companies are trotting it out in honour of the Iron Man movie. This XOS seems really agile and powerful at the same time, but those hooks-for-hands really might be dangerous if you forget you have them on. But as you can see when their own roboman lifts those 90 kilos with barely any effort, it’s really really useful. If they can kinda enclose up this suit so the whole thing is bulletproof, flameproof and Iron Monger-proof, we’d be first in line. [Raytheon]
