Common Paradox Tech Blog

The Barnes & Noble Senior VP of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Mary Ellen Keating, just confirmed to us that indeed some Nook orders were pushed back again. She claims that only a very small percentage of customers will not receive their Nook before Christmas though. B&N apparently offered affected customers both a holiday certificate in case the Nook was a gift and the $100 BN.com gift card we learned about from a commenter yesterday.

It’s hard to feel sympathetic to B&N. The bookseller obviously misjudged customer demand from the start, but inventory and supply management should have seen this latest shipping problem a lot earlier. Our tipster ordered his Nook back on November 12th and saw his order constantly pushed back at the last minute, which was no doubt a ploy by B&N to keep cancellations down to a minimum. All it takes to keep most consumers happy is timely, honest communication, not emails days after the delay is obvious.

Torchlight’s a fantastic game – no doubt – but let’s be honest here; the devilishly addictive Diablo clone only contains about three different types of objectives. Fortunately, Runic’s released an update that adds 60 Steam Achievements, which sounds like just the thing to spice up that fifth playthrough you’ve been mulling over.

In addition, for those who want to send their saves to the eternal save haven that is the Steam Cloud, Torchlight now supports that too. And, to sweeten this deal that we erroneously declared “spicy” only two sentences ago, Torchlight’s 50% off until Monday.

That puts one of the best PC-exclusives of the year at $10. If this doesn’t excite you, check your pulse, because you’re probably dead. Or you already own Torchlight, which would explain why it’s suddenly so intelligent in here.

Ripxx is a water and shock proof gadget that uses 3 accelerometers and 3 gyroscopes to record your path speed, vertical drops, spins and falls for playback on your computer later.

It also reports time of run, top acceleration, speed, jump data (time in air, distance, height), rolls (count and rate), top altitude and steepness of runs. The 3d playback of your data is done in third person, over 3d terrain.

You’d figure there would be an app for this already but there’s no doubt in my mind that if its good enough for the US bobsled team, all those sensors and gyroscope must be good enough for me. [ripxx via Popsci]

Since last week’s “Take Back Takeoff” post, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to executives & engineers from most of North America’s major airlines. First: the bad news.

The biggest airlines aren’t budging—yet. Here’s something Tim Smith of American Airlines sent me. It typifies the response from the big carriers:

The fact is (and as a technology expert you no doubt already know this) technology creates hundreds of new products each year at a pace that is so fast that we simply cannot keep up with it. We as a company do not have the time, nor the money to test every device that comes down the pike. Plus, even if we did that and one type of device were to be approved by testing, it adds a significant burden on our inflight staff to try and police whether something is actually an approved device or not. Many electronic devices and products often look alike – meaning it either takes an expert in such devices or someone who has the time to go from seat to seat with a list of devices trying to check the model numbers on each device prior to take-off or landing. That is not at all practical. There are many other things going on during that period of flight – several of them important, mandated safety-related steps.

Three obstacles are in the way:

• EMI, or electromagnetic interference, which most of the airlines are willing to admit is the least of their concerns.

• Regulation and the cost of compliance. Most of the airlines think that testing would be too expensive.

• Customer safety. More than anything, it seems most airlines are concerned with passengers being aware during safety briefings or in the case of an accident.

If things go to plan, I’ll be joining others in showing how EMI from small gadgets is a non-issue sometime in the next week or so. But even the airlines know that dozens of iPods and Kindles and other non-transmitting devices are functioning without issue in planes every day.

As far as regulation from the FAA is concerned, FAA 14 CFR 91.21B pretty much punts this to the airlines: “It should be noted that the responsibility for
permitting passenger use of a particular PED technology lies solely with the operator.”

And customer safety, well…it’s an issue. An issue for which I have a lot of sympathy with the airlines. You don’t want laptops flying around if there’s turbulence—but you don’t want that during any part of the flight, yet laptops are kosher at altitude. You want people to be able to listen to music or watch TV, but not miss announcements. As both a customer satisfaction and a customer safety issue, it gets murky very quickly.

But there is good news!

I’m happy to report that more than one airline responded to my queries with more than rote (if friendly) dismissal. And while nothing is for certain until it actually happens, it’s looking like there’s a chance the more progressive airlines are ready to take a look at the policy and question if it befits a modern airline with modern passengers.

More very soon. (With more terrible headlines.)

Just before news broke that Zynga had closed a whopping $180 million funding round, CEO Mark Pincus went on NBC Bay Area’s Press:Here to talk up the company. The format of the show is for tech reporters to grill CEOs, so he no doubt knew he’d face some hard Scamville questions and he did.

Among the hardest: Playing that YouTube video for him at the very top of the show and asking him exactly what he was thinking. He answers in the clip below. The whole show can be found here.

Your TV is trying to kill your children. Your DVD player is trying to kill your children. Your robot lawnmower is trying to kill your children. And now, your blinds—your soft roman blinds!—are trying to kill your children.

The recall, which covers virtually every roman shade and roller blind in the country, was prompted after a series of tragic strangulations—about eight over the last ten years, along with over a dozen injuries—were blamed on the blinds, which the children can become entangled in. In case you’re like most other human beings and don’t know the technical name for the thing that hanging in front of your windows, here’s what Roman and roller shades look like:

On both types, it’s the hanging drawstring that’s most dangerous to tots. On the Roman shades, the strings running down the length of the fabric can be safety hazards too.

It’s a recall prompted by some no-doubt horrible tragedies, and I’m sure the Consumer Product Safety Commission wouldn’t have negotiated a recall this massive unless there was a real risk here, but in a video breaking down the various dangers of these blinds with the chair of the CPSC, ABC somehow managed to make this Very Serious Thing seem ridiculous. I quote:

Any loop is the enemy of children.

Recall all loops! This is the only solution. [ABC]

At the end of last quarter’s financial results conference call, many analysts were taken aback by Palm’s prediction of lower sales for the quarter that is now drawing to a close. Palm’s stock has dropped some 30% in the last two months after strong launches by competitors on multiple networks, but now it’s looking like Palm’s expectations for their Q2 2010 results were mostly spot on.

Shaw Wu, a senior analyst at Kaufman Brothers, says that his checks through Palm’s supply and retail chain indicate that they’ve sold around 670,000 handsets in the past three months. Those 670,000 units include the Palm Pixi, but considering that launched just a few weeks ago, most of the 670,000 units are Palm Pre phones. The Pre’s higher price (Palm’s price to carriers, not the price charged by retailers) makes it the more lucrative of the two, and while Palm doesn’t break down their sales numbers by device, we expect they’re happy to have the Pre still selling well six months after its launch. While we aren’t certain what affect either event has had, the continuing price cuts for the Pre and the European launch on O2 no doubt blunted the expected US sales drop.

According to the Wall Street Journal, their survey of analysts revealed an average anticipated revenue for the quarter of $265.7 million. While that amounts to an increase of 39% over the same quarter last year, it still results in a projected loss of 32 cents a share, or $45 million total. Though any loss is not a good thing, it is considerably better than the 73 cents a share loss that Palm posted this time last year.

Where Palm goes from here results in mixed calls from analysts. Wu believes many investors have been “overly negative” and that Palm’s expansion onto new carriers in 2010 will help bolster the company’s success. On the other end is Tim Long of BMO Capital, who thinks that pressure from Android and poor response in Europe and to the Pixi “are creating challenges to Palm viability as a smart phone contender.” Who is right? We’ll find out on Thursday.

LG’s just stolen ahead in the 3D TV wars, claiming it will sell 400,000 3D TVs during 2010, and in the following year a mahoosive 3.4 million units.

Putting its money where its mouth is, LG’s also joined forces with the Korean SkyLife, one of the largest 3D TV broadcasters in the world. Aiming to create industry standards, and do for 3D TV what Sony did for Blu-ray, they’ll work together to ensure those ambitious sales targets are met.

Ultra-slim bezels are part of LG’s hook, which supposedly help the 3D image pop with more effect. No doubt we’ll be seeing more products launch next month at CES, such as these 42-72-inch models and 150-inch projectors which LG’s been spouting off about, as so far it’s only launched the 47-inch 47LH50 and 23-inch LCD monitor in Korea. [AVING]

Maybe it’s me; maybe it’s a fanboy thing; maybe it’s my desire to impose more text on screen about this, but when I read people calling an HTC HD2/Dragon/Passion device absent HTC branding “THE Google Phone” (now officially caught on camera, see above), I can’t help but think that if we go back to 2007 [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

So in 2007 if Apple Slapped a Logo on an HTC Excalibur, Would That Have Been “the iPhone”?

newVideoPlayer(“/giz-amazon.flv”, 500, 375,”"); We saw one of Amazon’s UK centers yesterday, but it’s nothing like this center in Coffeyville, Kansas, populated by dudes in RVs, no doubt lured by the promises of this epic promo video. But man, the jobs looks pretty rough:

During the peak holiday season, for $10.50 an hour during the day, or $11 at night, you need to be “able to stand on feet for 8-10 hours, walk 10-15 miles a day, must be able to repetitively lift, bend, stoop, and squat while selecting items.” If you’re in receiving, it doesn’t sound much better, standing “fairly stationary throughout shift for 8-10 hours” while being able lift, bend, stoop and squat repetitively.

I hope Santa Bezos is offering knee surgery for Christmas, even if there is free RV camping. [Express, via Joel]