If you think that the LG KH5200 Andro-1 phone looks rather familiar, you’re right, as it seems that this phone is a rebadged version of the LG GW620 that we’ve seen before. The KH5200 will be launching in Korea via KT as soon as next week, and should be going for about 600,000 won ($531). What makes it more interesting is the rumblings of a plan that will allow you to get the phone for free, if you’re on a plan of 45,000 ($40) won and above. It the rumors are true, the KH5200 will become KT’s first smartphone that will be offered for free on contract. Specifications of the LG KH5200 Andro-1 should include:

• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• 5-megapixel camera
• Bluetooth
• 3-inch 320 x 480 resolution display

Permalink: KT To Offer The LG KH5200 Andro-1 In Korea from Ubergizmo | RSS Sponsor: Win a Fellowes Microshred Paper Shredder!

Nokia has made it clear that it will revamp the user interface (UI) of its Symbian phones, and you might have seen the video above during Mobile World Congress. However, what`s more interesting is that Nokia has removed a ton of legacy code and APIs, to make the clean break that was long overdue. We`re getting closer to what was available on the N900 and some of the qualities are the same (the app switching UI is excellent), but the new UI is seemingly much faster and more fluid. With the new software architecture, comes new code that is not built to deal with last decade`s problems such as lack of graphics hardware or horrible memory constraints.

The net result should be much more responsive Nokia phones and interfaces. I`m glad that Nokia (and others) are seeing the light, because Apple and Microsoft sure did too. Now, we`re waiting for the actual hardware that we suspect might come out this summer at Nokia World.

Permalink: Symbian 3 gets new design goes further than skin deep from Ubergizmo | RSS Sponsor: Win a Fellowes Microshred Paper Shredder!

Our DJ friends Mrs Blythe and Clove will spin their magic during GDC on Thursday March 11, at 111 Minna in San Francisco, during Alexis A. photography exhibition "A Troubled Night..." Come with us after a hard day checking out the latest video games and gaming accessories at the Moscone, you may be able to meet Hubert, co-founder of Ubergizmo. Event details and RSVP email address on the Facebook event page, cover: $5 at the door.

Permalink: Troubled Night Event During GDC at 111 Minna in SF from Ubergizmo | RSS Sponsor: Win a Fellowes Microshred Paper Shredder!

SAN FRANCISCO — At a GDC event today, Sony showed off its new PlayStation Move controller, along with a number of games. The audience response was positive, but the demos shown, including sports games and sword-and-shield-style battles, seemed both inspired and informed by what the Wii has done before.

In fact, while Sony claimed that for under $100 you`ll be able to get the PlayStation Eye, a motion controller, and a game, almost all the demos were played with two motion controllers. There is also a second controller, much like the nunchuk, used during the SOCOM beta. Sony, it seems, will require you to have two Moves, and the secondary controller. 

The demos included archery, boxing, and golf, all of which are things we`ve seen on the Wii, and which will be bundled together in a game called, as of now, "Sports Champions." The other demo game looked very much like Eyetoy, but with augmented reality. You hold the controller, but on the screen you see a paintbrush or a tennis racket. It`s very impressive technology, and seems very solid. Another game turns the controller into a fan you use to blow chicks into bird nests. Very cute.

LittleBigPlanet is another Move demo; the player with the PlayStation Move helps the Sackboy get to the next area. "Motion Fighters," which is, again, a working title, is a fighting game. You can lean to make the fighter move, and you have to actually punch. The Move Subcontroller is the nunchuk, so you`ll need one of those as well. (This is getting expensive.)

SOCOM 4 is coming to the PS3, and you`ll be able to play with the Move and the Subcontroller. It looks just like Wii first- and third-person shooters, at least in terms of controls. The technology was integrated "very quickly, with very little overhead."

We`ll have a chance to go hands-on with these games at the event`s conclusion, so expect impressions and photos later. The technology looks solid, it`s real, but it all looks like things we`re already used to from the Wii. Sony is banking on consumers buying these products to get a motion-controlled experience with high-definition graphics. A risky gamble.

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By now, it`s practically a mantra that the biggest problem with corporate IT security is the employees themselves. However, we usually assume that`s due to ignorant users or poorly enforced policies. Not so for a chunk of the US working population—according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 12 percent admitted to knowingly violating IT policy in order to get work done.

The survey of 1,347 employed adults was conducted on behalf of Fiberlink, a company that hawks services that "help enterprises connect, control and secure laptops and mobile devices." Needless to say, the survey results fit perfectly into the company`s agenda, but they are hardly surprising. After all, how many of us know someone who has left a work laptop in an unattended vehicle, sent unencrypted e-mails without permission, or reused the same three passwords over and over instead of choosing new ones every 90 days?

Fiberlink CEO Jim Sheward warned of the obvious. "IT departments nationwide spend a lot of time and money on their compliance, usage, and access policies, but they only work if people follow the rules," he said in an e-mailed statement. [C]ompanies could face dangerous breaches that include the loss of sensitive data, competitive intelligence, or customers’ private information."

Harris` findings are supported by previous reports saying that leaky employees are a bigger threat than malware, that employees (not hackers) cause the most corporate data loss, and that employees` online activities pose the greatest threat to IT security. With 12 percent of those people actively working outside of stated IT policy (and plenty more who do so out of ignorance), IT admins certainly have their work cut out for them if they want to maintain a tight ship.

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Plastics became ubiquitous during the 20th century. They were hot topicsof industrial and academic research, and saw innumerable consumerapplications. While plastics can have a wide variety of mechanicalproperties, they are almost universally good insulators,both of heat and electricity. But a paper out of the Pappalardo Microand Nano Engineering Laboratories reports on a novel processingtechnique that aligns the polymer chains of polyethylene, which results in amaterial that has both a high thermal capacitance and a highelectrical resistance.

The researchers forced the polyethylene to form into this aligned morphology by slowly drawing the fiber out of solution using the tip of an atomic force microscope. Thenew fibrous form of polyethylene conducts heat well along thedirection of the fibers—so well, it beats out many pure metals, including ironand platinum.The resulting fiber was about 300 times more thermally conductive than normal polyethylene.This surprising ability to move heat could find uses in any number oftechnologies that currently rely on metal as a heat transfer medium.

Thisnew method differs from previous attempts at creating a more heat-conductive plastic in that it transforms the morphology of theunderlying material instead of using an additive. These prior attempts, while scalable, resulted in onlymodest gains, since there was high thermal resistance at theinterface between the plastic and additive. 

It`s not currently known how well, if at all, the process will beable to scale up to production. So far, the team has only producedsingle fibers in the laboratory, but they hope to be able to scale upto macro-scale production of entire sheets of this material.

Nature Nanotechnology, 2010. DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2010.27  (About DOIs).

Read the comments on this post

SAN FRANCISCO — At a GDC event today, Sony showed off its new PlayStation Move controller, along with a number of games. The audience response was positive, but the demos shown, including sports games and sword-and-shield-style battles, seemed both inspired and informed by what the Wii has done before.

In fact, while Sony claimed that for under $100 you`ll be able to get the PlayStation Eye, a motion controller, and a game, almost all the demos were played with two motion controllers. There is also a second controller, much like the nunchuk, used during the SOCOM beta. Sony, it seems, will require you to have two Moves, and the secondary controller. 

The demos included archery, boxing, and golf, all of which are things we`ve seen on the Wii, and which will be bundled together in a game called, as of now, "Sports Champions." The other demo game looked very much like Eyetoy, but with augmented reality. You hold the controller, but on the screen you see a paintbrush or a tennis racket. It`s very impressive technology, and seems very solid. Another game turns the controller into a fan you use to blow chicks into bird nests. Very cute.

LittleBigPlanet is another Move demo; the player with the PlayStation Move helps the Sackboy get to the next area. "Motion Fighters," which is, again, a working title, is a fighting game. You can lean to make the fighter move, and you have to actually punch. The Move Subcontroller is the nunchuk, so you`ll need one of those as well. (This is getting expensive.)

SOCOM 4 is coming to the PS3, and you`ll be able to play with the Move and the Subcontroller. It looks just like Wii first- and third-person shooters, at least in terms of controls. The technology was integrated "very quickly, with very little overhead."

We`ll have a chance to go hands-on with these games at the event`s conclusion, so expect impressions and photos later. The technology looks solid, it`s real, but it all looks like things we`re already used to from the Wii. Sony is banking on consumers buying these products to get a motion-controlled experience with high-definition graphics. A risky gamble.

Read the comments on this post

By now, it`s practically a mantra that the biggest problem with corporate IT security is the employees themselves. However, we usually assume that`s due to ignorant users or poorly enforced policies. Not so for a chunk of the US working population—according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 12 percent admitted to knowingly violating IT policy in order to get work done.

The survey of 1,347 employed adults was conducted on behalf of Fiberlink, a company that hawks services that "help enterprises connect, control and secure laptops and mobile devices." Needless to say, the survey results fit perfectly into the company`s agenda, but they are hardly surprising. After all, how many of us know someone who has left a work laptop in an unattended vehicle, sent unencrypted e-mails without permission, or reused the same three passwords over and over instead of choosing new ones every 90 days?

Fiberlink CEO Jim Sheward warned of the obvious. "IT departments nationwide spend a lot of time and money on their compliance, usage, and access policies, but they only work if people follow the rules," he said in an e-mailed statement. [C]ompanies could face dangerous breaches that include the loss of sensitive data, competitive intelligence, or customers’ private information."

Harris` findings are supported by previous reports saying that leaky employees are a bigger threat than malware, that employees (not hackers) cause the most corporate data loss, and that employees` online activities pose the greatest threat to IT security. With 12 percent of those people actively working outside of stated IT policy (and plenty more who do so out of ignorance), IT admins certainly have their work cut out for them if they want to maintain a tight ship.

Read the comments on this post

Plastics became ubiquitous during the 20th century. They were hot topicsof industrial and academic research, and saw innumerable consumerapplications. While plastics can have a wide variety of mechanicalproperties, they are almost universally good insulators,both of heat and electricity. But a paper out of the Pappalardo Microand Nano Engineering Laboratories reports on a novel processingtechnique that aligns the polymer chains of polyethylene, which results in amaterial that has both a high thermal capacitance and a highelectrical resistance.

The researchers forced the polyethylene to form into this aligned morphology by slowly drawing the fiber out of solution using the tip of an atomic force microscope. Thenew fibrous form of polyethylene conducts heat well along thedirection of the fibers—so well, it beats out many pure metals, including ironand platinum.The resulting fiber was about 300 times more thermally conductive than normal polyethylene.This surprising ability to move heat could find uses in any number oftechnologies that currently rely on metal as a heat transfer medium.

Thisnew method differs from previous attempts at creating a more heat-conductive plastic in that it transforms the morphology of theunderlying material instead of using an additive. These prior attempts, while scalable, resulted in onlymodest gains, since there was high thermal resistance at theinterface between the plastic and additive. 

It`s not currently known how well, if at all, the process will beable to scale up to production. So far, the team has only producedsingle fibers in the laboratory, but they hope to be able to scale upto macro-scale production of entire sheets of this material.

Nature Nanotechnology, 2010. DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2010.27  (About DOIs).

Read the comments on this post

Former FCC Chair Martin Says More Fiber Will Help Wireless Crunch pcworld.com
Since Three Strikes Went Into Effect, Unauthorized File Trading Has Increased In France techdirt.com
RIM silent on data outages in North America, UK computerworld.com
Overwhelming Majority Of EU Parliament Votes Against ACTA techdirt.com
Smartphones are booming, but is there room for all the players? fiercewireless.com
The Case for Mobile Broadband Offloading xchangemag.com
Y2.01K hits Garmin satnav theregister.co.uk
Researchers use light from LEDs to send data wirelessly; Speeds of 230Mbit/sec. reported computerworld.com
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As we`ve recently noted, the cable industry`s own data indicates that cable service passes roughly 125 million U.S. homes. Upgrading the majority of those users can be done relatively inexpensively with DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades, which a Comcast executive once stated could be completed with "couch change." Cablevision was able to upgrade their entire service area with DOCSIS 3.0 for $300 million, with enough money left over to offer free Wi-Fi to users as well. Executives for European operator Liberty Global seem to agree with the idea that DOCSIS 3.0 provides a lot of bang for the buck:

As we`ve been exploring, Verizon has all-but completed their first wave of FiOS deployment with the exception in major cities where they`ve recently signed franchise agreements. Verizon has made it clear they want to pause for a while and market the service more heavily to markets where they`ve installed the fiber to the home service. Cities that were left out of this initial wave (like Baltimore) are of course left wondering when and if they`ll see the upgrades.

According to the Washington Business Journal, Alexandria, Virginia is another city that`s been overlooked by the Verizon FiOS fairy. City leaders expected to see FiOS deployment shortly after signing a new phone franchise agreement with the company, but network upgrades never arrived. Verizon meanwhile is telling the city they don`t know if that will change any time soon:

As we recently noted, Time Warner Cable is a little behind in terms of DOCSIS 3.0 cable upgrades, and has sold faster 50 Mbps broadband service to just 2,000 users in parts of New York City. However, the company is poised for a fairly quick push into a number of additional markets over the next few weeks. One Time Warner Cable employee familiar with the plans tells Broadband Reports that Time Warner Cable signed up their first DOCSIS 3.0 customer in Buffalo, New York today.

Other markets should be launching in quick succession, so expect a wave of official announcements either this week or next.

Another supposed live-but-unannounced market is Dallas, where users in our forums are the first to note that the service is up and running, and should be live for everyone in the market by the nineteenth of this month (aka late next week). Users interested in the fastest speeds these upgrades offer will of course need to upgrade to a new DOCSIS 3.0-compliant modem.

Users in upgraded markets can sign up for a new 30 Mbps downstream 5 Mbps upstream tier that costs $25 over Time Warner Cable`s standard plan (which can vary in price and speed by market depending on competition). Users also have the choice of signing up for a 50 Mbps downstream 5 Mbps upstream tier for $99 a month. That`s less expensive than Verizon`s 50 Mbps FiOS tier, which costs $140 bundled, or $145 standalone. That $99 price tag is the same for Time Warner Cable whether you bundle additional services or not.

Regional promotional pages have been popping up in Time Warner Cable markets the company plans to upgrade. The carrier has long stated that these upgrades will be "surgical" in nature -- which when translated means markets where Time Warner Cable sees competition from Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-Verse (and that`s roughly about a third of Time Warner Cable`s market). Those interested should take a look at Time Warner Cable`s Wideband FAQ.
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According to an FCC announcement (pdf), the FCC will officially unveil our first ever national broadband plan at an FCC meeting next Tuesday, March 16, at 10:30 EST. That`s one day earlier than the plan was supposed to be unveiled before Congress, though technically it`s about a month behind its originally-scheduled unveiling date. The plan is expected to put a heavy emphasis on delivering more spectrum to incumbent wireless carriers, the construction of a national wireless emergency network and "digital literacy" efforts. However, early glimpses indicate the plan does little to shake up a stagnant U.S. duopoly market or to seriously tackle limited competition and high prices.
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The entertainment industry`s efforts to impose U.S.-style DMCA copyright law on the globe (and push ISPs toward being network content nannies) has suffered a bit of a setback. EU Parliamant has voted overwhelmingly against the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) to the tune of 663 to 13. According to the EU the agreement, hashed out largely in secret between the entertainment industry and world governments, "flouts agreed EU laws on counterfeiting and piracy online." One EU lawmaker put his disdain of the entertainment industry`s end-around this way: