Porsche Design Mobile Group unveils P'9521 handhset

from Engadget by Darren Murph

While the unlicensed version of Porsche's mobile handset still holds a special place in our hearts, it looks like the Porsche Design Mobile Group finally took it upon themselves to join the growing fray and introduce its own co-branded device. The group has already slapped the luxurious logo on a sat nav device as well as a portable XM radio, but Stephane Bret (the group's director) was caught showing off a new mobile in Essen. Unfortunately, details on the phone are all but nil, but we do know that the P'9521 was unveiled at the Red Dot Design Museum and will rock a squarish flip-phone design, integrated camera, and multimedia player. No word just yet on when (or if, actually) this sure-to-be-overpriced handset will hit store shelves, but we can't help but notice that a few formidable opponents are quite a few laps ahead at this point. Click on through for a few more shots.

Continue reading Porsche Design Mobile Group unveils P'9521 handhset

Read More...

Summary only...

Tiny thermoacoustic engines pave the way for screaming gadgets

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

Looks like all that heat generated by your laptop may finally be useful for something other than frying eggs -- a group of grad students led by professor Orest Symko at the University of Utah has unveiled an array of "thermoacoustic" engines that turn heat into sound, which can be directed at a piezoelectric mechanism to produce electricity. The US Army-funded research seems promising but is obviously still in its infancy -- one of the designs the researchers demonstrated is half the size of a penny but pumps out 120dB of noise (about the same as a siren), while another bumped out over 135dB, (which is roughly equivalent to a jackhammer). The team expects that future, smaller designs will work at ultrasonic frequencies outside the range of human hearing. Although we're not expecting hybrid-siren-powered laptops to hit anytime soon, you Utes out there may want to invest in some earplugs -- Professor Symko says they'll be testing these designs at the University's water-heating facility in the next year. [Via InformationWeek]

Read More...

Summary only...

Google and Salesforce Tightly Integrate Adwords Products

from TechCrunch by Nick Gonzalez

There’s been a lot of speculation about Salesforce and Google lately. Tomorrow the two companies will announce a marketing and distribution alliance that will tightly bind Google Adwords to existing Salesforce tools that track sales from online advertising.

Salesforce and Google will be starting an extended partnership encompassing marketing and distribution of their products across 43 countries. It will begin with the integration of Google Adwords and Salesforce’s lead generation tools into a new application called “Group Edition”, available here. Group edition replaces Salseforces earlier version Team edition.

Group Edition will enable Adwords users to track Adsense referrals to their site and build up a customer profile based on a the data a user enters into a site and their navigation path. Businesses will handle their Adwords campaigns through Google, as usual, but Salesforce takes over from there. When potential customers click through to the businesses site, Google tells Salesforce what search terms brought the user to the page and where they navigate throughout the site.

It is our understanding that the technology behind the salesforce side of the deal comes from Kieden, an company that they acquired late last year.

Site owners can also drop “web lead forms” onto the site, which can collect any other customer information (names, email, phone numbers) and bundle it into customer profile. All of this data is enumerated on a dashboard view, which you data on lead generation, sales, and growth. As with any other Salesforce application, users will also be able to mash up the data with other AppExchange Apps. The application will cost $600 for 5 user accounts and come with $50 of Adwords credits.

Read More...

Summary only...

Private equity buying big piece of Nextag

from GigaOM by Om Malik

Having snapped up whatever there was to buy in the brick and mortar world, the private equity investors are now turning their attention to technology sector. Cadance has been linked with big private equity money. Add comparison-shopping engine Nextag to the list.

Some private equity investors, one of them rumored to be Providence Equity Partners, are looking to buy 66% of Nextag for between $1 and $1.2 billion. Of course these are all rumors for now, and while contacted Nextag, we are yet to hear back from their press relations department.

Nextag is said to be doing about $200 million in revenues, with a lucrative mortgage and other lead generation business being the rocket that is driving the company. Internet giants for example – have taken out its peers – MySimon, PriceGrabber, Shopping.com and Shopzilla. Comparison Engines has a great overview of the market so far and news about this deal.

Read More...

Summary only...

Video of tot solving Rubik's Cube

from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

David Pescovitz: This video seems to depict a cute child solving a Rubik's Cube in less than two minutes. Link (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!) Previously on BB: • Michel Gondry "solves" Rubik's Cube with his feet Link • Rubik's Cube solved in 11.13 seconds Link • Rubik's Cube folk art Link

Read More...

Summary only...