retroremakes
February 11th, 2010, 22:50
In today's Remainders: patience. Or at least, it's what's required by today's items, including Lumix camera pricing, Google's acquisition of Aardvark; LG's forthcoming e-reader, and the great Palm Pre manufacturing halt that wasn't.
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_socialvarks.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/socialvarks.jpg)Aardvark Party
Google has acquired Aardvark (http://vark.com/), a unique social search engine, for $50 million. With the internet still buzzing over Buzz, it isn't exactly surprising to see Google expanding further into the "space between you and every other human being on the planet," as Jason described it (http://gizmodo.com/5467199/google-wants-to-control-all-communication). For those who aren't familiar, Aardvark takes user's questions and, using artificial intelligence, distributes them to real live people who know something about the topic. For queries that don't have a simple, Google-able answer, this type of expert search engine could become a powerful tool. But we'll just have to wait to see how Google implements the technology, that is, to see if the experts' answers will be audible above the Buzz. [Technology Review (http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/24802/?ref=rss)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_500x_palmpreplus.jpgHalting the Halt
Earlier today there was a big head-scratcher: Palm, according to a report from OTR Global, was completely halting production on all Pres and Pixies. One of OTR's sources explained ominously:
The decision is very sudden, and Foxconn was told to reduce all February Pre forecast to zero on Wednesday and nobody knows whether shipment will resume in March.
Was Palm being bought by another company, Boy Genius wondered (http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/02/11/palm-orders-halt-on-production-of-palm-pre-plus-palm-pixi-plus/)? We furrowed our brows and feared the worst. But before we could really get worried, Engadget put everyone straight: no halt on production, just a brief hiatus for Chinese New Year. Ok, that makes a little more sense than a Palm buy-out. And with that, just as quickly as it started, the great forty-five minute Palm mystery came to a close. [Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/11/debunk-palm-not-halting-pre-pixi-production-just-on-hold-for/)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_lgreader22.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/lgreader22.jpg)LG Reads
LG wasn't about to let Kindle and Nook and iPad battle it out for E-Reader dominance in 2010, and today the company's CEO, KW KIM, announced that they will enter the fray with their own reader sometime in April. In recent months LG pushed out a solar-powered reader and showed off some nice flexible 19" E-Ink displays, so they might just end up coming out with something that has some sort of edge on the competition. But we're going to have to see it to believe it. [E-Reader Info (http://www.e-reader-info.com/lg-plans-introduce-their-own-e-reader-april)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_500x_ts2d_-_slant.jpgPanny's Prices
We love Panasonic's Lumix line of point and shoots, but we wish they'd just announce the prices along with the products. The most recent batch, including the rugged DMC-TS2 (http://gizmodo.com/5456903/panasonic-lumix-dmc+ts2-rugged-camera-the-clumsy-photographers-friend-could-be-the-best-in-class) and the geotagging-capable ZS7, (http://gizmodo.com/5456971/panasonic-lumix-zs7-super-zoom-camera-goes-12x-deep-while-geotagging) got our inner-adventurers all excited, and now we have some price tags to consider: Lumix TS2 and ZS7 will go for $399.95; the Lumix ZS5 and ZR3 will be $299.95. The whole bunch will be available by mid-March. Check out the original posts for full specs or follow the link to today's press release. [PR Newswire (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/panasonic-announces-pricing-for-new-lumix-models-including-rugged-gps-enabled-and-super-slim-digital-cameras---all-available-in-mid-march-84123532.html)]
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ve86U2fkpWA/)
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_socialvarks.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/socialvarks.jpg)Aardvark Party
Google has acquired Aardvark (http://vark.com/), a unique social search engine, for $50 million. With the internet still buzzing over Buzz, it isn't exactly surprising to see Google expanding further into the "space between you and every other human being on the planet," as Jason described it (http://gizmodo.com/5467199/google-wants-to-control-all-communication). For those who aren't familiar, Aardvark takes user's questions and, using artificial intelligence, distributes them to real live people who know something about the topic. For queries that don't have a simple, Google-able answer, this type of expert search engine could become a powerful tool. But we'll just have to wait to see how Google implements the technology, that is, to see if the experts' answers will be audible above the Buzz. [Technology Review (http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/24802/?ref=rss)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_500x_palmpreplus.jpgHalting the Halt
Earlier today there was a big head-scratcher: Palm, according to a report from OTR Global, was completely halting production on all Pres and Pixies. One of OTR's sources explained ominously:
The decision is very sudden, and Foxconn was told to reduce all February Pre forecast to zero on Wednesday and nobody knows whether shipment will resume in March.
Was Palm being bought by another company, Boy Genius wondered (http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/02/11/palm-orders-halt-on-production-of-palm-pre-plus-palm-pixi-plus/)? We furrowed our brows and feared the worst. But before we could really get worried, Engadget put everyone straight: no halt on production, just a brief hiatus for Chinese New Year. Ok, that makes a little more sense than a Palm buy-out. And with that, just as quickly as it started, the great forty-five minute Palm mystery came to a close. [Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/11/debunk-palm-not-halting-pre-pixi-production-just-on-hold-for/)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_lgreader22.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/lgreader22.jpg)LG Reads
LG wasn't about to let Kindle and Nook and iPad battle it out for E-Reader dominance in 2010, and today the company's CEO, KW KIM, announced that they will enter the fray with their own reader sometime in April. In recent months LG pushed out a solar-powered reader and showed off some nice flexible 19" E-Ink displays, so they might just end up coming out with something that has some sort of edge on the competition. But we're going to have to see it to believe it. [E-Reader Info (http://www.e-reader-info.com/lg-plans-introduce-their-own-e-reader-april)]
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/500x_500x_ts2d_-_slant.jpgPanny's Prices
We love Panasonic's Lumix line of point and shoots, but we wish they'd just announce the prices along with the products. The most recent batch, including the rugged DMC-TS2 (http://gizmodo.com/5456903/panasonic-lumix-dmc+ts2-rugged-camera-the-clumsy-photographers-friend-could-be-the-best-in-class) and the geotagging-capable ZS7, (http://gizmodo.com/5456971/panasonic-lumix-zs7-super-zoom-camera-goes-12x-deep-while-geotagging) got our inner-adventurers all excited, and now we have some price tags to consider: Lumix TS2 and ZS7 will go for $399.95; the Lumix ZS5 and ZR3 will be $299.95. The whole bunch will be available by mid-March. Check out the original posts for full specs or follow the link to today's press release. [PR Newswire (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/panasonic-announces-pricing-for-new-lumix-models-including-rugged-gps-enabled-and-super-slim-digital-cameras---all-available-in-mid-march-84123532.html)]
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More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ve86U2fkpWA/)