Created by NBC Universal and News Corp., Hulu is an on-demand streaming video service that offers television shows as well as movies available free online. Hulu’s custom flash interface is very nice. For an ad-supported player, you don’t feel bombarded with the ads. The player allows you to watch video in full screen mode and playback is smooth. Similar to YouTube, Hulu allows you to embed content within a web page, making it perfect for sites like MySpace and Facebook.The library is still very new, with TV shows from NBC, FOX, National Geographic, Sci-Fi, Bravo, and Oxygen to name just a few. Video titles are a little more limited with most titles coming from MGM and Warner Bros, but should grow in time. 

Apple today unveiled the iPhone and iPod Touch Software Development Kit (SDK) and Microsoft Exchange support

Software developers finally get a look at the iPhone SDK roadmap to create applications for the phone. Over a year after the iPhone was introduced, and a couple of week late, Apple has given developers the tools they have been asking for. Starting today Apple will be open up the same APIs and tools that they use internally to build iPhone software. Now third-party developers can now begin to officially produce legitimate software, not iPhone software hacks. The SDK will rely on Apple’s Xcode development environment for Mac OS X, but optimized for the iPhone. So basically, if you can develop applications for the Mac then you should be able to do the same for the iPhone.

The full featured SDK gives developers full access to the iPhone’s core OS including graphics and networking. Apple created something called Interface Builder, that “Makes building your user interface as simple as drag-and-drop” plus debugging and analysis tools. What does this mean for the average iPhone user? It mean there will be a host of new software including everything from games and instant messaging to powerful business applications. The applications will be exclusively distributed through iTunes and the new AppStore, a new wireless store for iPhone applications. You can search applications right from your phone and then download them via Wi-Fi or through the cellular network. The same software developed with the SDK will also run on the iPod Touch including all the new enterprise additions.

Apple also introduced Microsoft Exchange support built right into iPhone, removing the greatest barrier for adoption of the iPhone into the corporate world. Apple has licensed ActiveSync with Exchange server from Microsoft. Built into the next software update, the iPhone will have access to push email, push contacts with global address book, live calendar events and remote wipe plus additional security. Although IT managers will inevitably find something to complain about, the list will have been reduced significantly, making the iPhone an almost unstoppable business tool.

The iPhone 2.0 software update that will make all this happen will not be available until June, but developers and companies will get a beta SDK starting today.

This isn’t your ordinary flashlight. This is a Polarion. the Model PH40 currently holds the record for the world’s brightest flashlight with a brightness of 4100lm. It has an illumination distance of over 1 mile. Check out the corporate video below. A little dry, but it demonstrates the crazy power of this thing.

Imagine eating breakfast in Brussels and then dinner in Sydney – all in the same day. If the hypersonic AS concept plane is ever built, you may be able to do just that. Twice as long as the new Airbus A380, the A2 will carry up to 300 passengers, with rates promised to be comparable to a business class ticket. The plane will speed along at 3,900 miles per hour (Mach 5) or five times the speed of sound. That is twice as fast as the Concorde!

Modern air travel is a marvel. It’s also a source of endless delay, annoyance and planet-killing greenhouse gases. A proposed hydrogen-powered hypersonic airliner could change all that. The plane is Reaction Engines’s A2 concept, a Mach-5 (3,400mph) craft for 300 passengers funded in part by the European Union’s Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies project (Lapcat). Lapcat wants an airliner that can fly from Brussels to Sydney in less than four hours. If built, the A2 will do just that—without producing a trace of carbon emissions.

Engineers created the A2 with the failures of its doomed supersonic predecessor, the Concorde, very much in mind. Reaction Engines’s technical director, Richard Varvill, and his colleagues believe that the Concorde was phased out because of a couple major limitations. First, it couldn’t fly far enough. “The range was inadequate to do trans-Pacific routes, which is where a lot of the potential market is thought to be for a supersonic transport,” Varvill explains. Second, the Concorde’s engines were efficient only at its Mach-2 cruising speed, which meant that when it was poking along overland at Mach 0.9 to avoid producing sonic booms, it got horrible gas mileage. “The [A2] engine has two modes because we’re very conscious of the Concorde experience,” he says.

But an even greater asset than the A2′s speed is its negligible carbon footprint. It’s hydrogen-powered, so it produces only water vapor and a little bit of nitrous oxide as exhaust. And although a hypersonic jet loaded with liquid hydrogen might sound dangerous, hydrogen fuel is actually no more explosive than normal jet fuel.

Don’t look for the A2 anytime soon. The plane’s maker thinks this concept could become a reality within 25 years.

[via Popular Science]

It’s not softcore, not hardcore, it’s Nerdcore. G4tv has a great look at the girls of the 2008 Nerdcore Calendar. A safe for work way of saying ‘naked women dressed up a superheros’. Funny thing is if you watch the video, they don’t even know who they’re supposed to be. Called a celebration of geek culture, this year’s calendar’s theme is heros and villians. Features models Karlie Montana, and Rachel Biggs among others. Available at here.

Garmin did more than introduce a new GPS device today. The nüvifone adds a phone, web browser and touchscreen into a package about the size of the iPhone. This will not be the only comparison to the iPhone people will make to the nüvifone. Everything from the screen size and the shape of the icons to the touchscreen remind you of the iPhone. The nüvifone will be released later this year.

New York/January 30, 2008/PR Newswire — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN) and the world’s leading GPS manufacturer, today announced its entrance into the mobile phone market with the nüvifone, an all-in-one, sleek and slim, touchscreen device that combines a premium phone, mobile web-browser, and cutting-edge personal navigator. The nüvifone is a work of art in features, design and functionality and is destined to transform how individuals connect, communicate and navigate their life.

“The nüvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO. “This is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for — a single device that does it all.”

The nüvifone is an innovative mobile phone that has a wide range of advanced yet easy-to-use features. The all touchscreen device is the first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability with an internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device. When powered on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons — “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” which allow the user to effortlessly master the nüvifone’s functions.

The nüvifone is the ultimate multi-tasker. Calls are easily initiated by tapping the “Call” button and selecting a name from the contact list or by using the on-screen keypad. When the user is trying to juggle talking on their phone while entering their vehicle to start a trip, the nüvifone makes the transition simple. When the nüvifone is docked onto the vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so that the user never misses a beat in the conversation and is able to begin routing to their destination with ease.

Customers familiar with Garmin’s industry leading nüvi® product line will feel right at home using the nüvifone’s personal navigation features. It includes preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or both, and allows drivers to quickly find a specific street address, establishment’s name or search for a destination by category using the nüvifone’s built-in database with millions of points of interest. Turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions guide the user to their destination. If they miss a turn along the route, nüvifone automatically recalculates a route and gets them back on track, speaking the names of the streets along the way.

The nüvifone is Garmin’s first device to include Google local search capability, which harnesses the vast point of interest information available from the world wide web. Nüvifone users can search for locations like “coffee shops” and Google will sort the results based on the user’s current location and relevance. Information provided by Google includes a web-based rating so that users can select the most appropriate destination and route directly to it. In addition, the nüvifone includes a web browser incorporating premium features and touchscreen operation for an optimum mobile browsing experience. The nüvifone also includes personal messaging functions, including email, text, and instant messaging.

For the ultimate in safety, the “Where am I?” feature lets users touch the screen at any time to display the exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations. The nüvifone also helps drivers find their car in an unfamiliar spot or crowded parking lot by automatically marking the position in which it was last removed from the vehicle mount.

In addition to navigation, the nüvifone includes access to Garmin Online™, an online service offering constantly-updating information such as real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events and weather forecasts.

The nüvifone also includes numerous mobile entertainment applications. The built-in camera allows individuals to take a picture that will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude reference of where the image was taken. The user may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location. The nüvifone also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google’s Panoramio picture sharing site. The Panoramio photo search feature enhances the enjoyment and adventure of sightseeing in an otherwise unfamiliar location. Other multimedia functions of the nüvifone include a built-in video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC.

Garmin anticipates that the nüvifone will be available in the third quarter of 2008. Specific details about pricing and sales partners will be announced in the future. Additional information about nüvifone is available at www.garmin.com/nuvifone.

Ducati’s will soon begin delivery of it’s Superbike for 2008, the Desmosedici RR. With a limited production of only 1,500 bikes and price tag of over $72,000 you’ll need to be one of the elite (lucky) to get one. But if you do you’ll be able to hit speeds of 200 mph.

A number of ‘firsts’ for Ducati and production sport bike design have been introduced. The 848 and 1098 are the first to have a data acquisition system integrated as standard equipment and the first to use an ingenious construction method for its weight-saving single-sided swingarm.

More ‘firsts’ for a road-going Ducati include the direct application of MotoGP technology, like the power producing GP6-derived elliptical throttle bodies and the use of the information-rich instrumentation originally developed for the Desmosedici GP7. Furthermore, the 1098 is the first production motorcycle to have the amazing stopping power of Brembo Monobloc brakes.

Let’s just wait and see who’s the first guy to film himself doing over 200 on a freeway. Tom Cruise perhaps?

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