With the Apple CEO stepping down, it seemed only fitting that the remains of the day assemble a collection of tidbits from around the Web about the legendary tech maven.

Macworld

Some of you could don’t forget that a long time ago I wrote an post that had 18 little tidbits that could aid your phone last longer. This post will be updating it considering that the post is now dated. If you still wish to see it, you can locate it here. In a day in age where how lengthy one thing lasts seems to be the be all finish all (zing), you may find yourself in a spot exactly where you want to stretch your batteries life as far as you can. Regardless of whether it be for a lengthy auto/plane ride, lack of a charger for a lengthy time, or whatever your reason is, we’ve all had those times exactly where we’ve monitored our battery like an individual was attempting to steal it.  There are suggestions for new users, far more experienced users, and even root users. Read More…

Android 101.06: A lot more Than 20 Battery Guidelines And Tricks Each Android User Need to Know About

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

We’ve seen many apps and games on the PlayBook that are geared towards children. I’m guessing developers are focussing on the Play in PlayBook. Honestly, a good tablet is a tablet that the whole family can share and enjoy. If you need another excuse to put a PlayBook in the hands of your child, then have a read. The Tots application helps your kids learn their letters and numbers and spelling, match upper and lower case letters and help them practice writing letters and numbers. It currently offers two themes; dinosaurs and flowers. It also has 4 different games to choose from – a whack-a-mole type game, catch letters to spell a word, write numbers and letters and associate upper case letters with their lower case versions.

To aid in the learning process, Tots provides both visual and audio positive reinforcement with each correct answer. The dangling light bulb in the right corner can be turned on or off to activate or deactivate in-game hints. The background music plays with simple childish levity that gives a fast paced feel to the game play. Isn’t it great when a game helps educate your child even when they don’t know it (or don’t want to be)? Tots is available for $ 2.99 from BlackBerry App World.

More information/download Tots for the BlackBerry PlayBook

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Tots for the BlackBerry PlayBook helps teach your kids about letters and numbers

CrackBerry.com blogs

I really enjoyed playing with the Nokia E7 at Nokia World last Fall and was thinking I might pick one up. My orange Nokia N8 is performing quite well at the moment and I cannot justify the $800+ likely unlocked price of the E7 so unless Nokia sends out an eval unit for a bit I won’t be writing a review here on Nokia Experts. However, my buddies over at All About Symbian will indeed be providing full coverage of the device and now that the E7 is shipping you can check out Rafe’s first part that covers an overview of the hardware and some first impressions.

In the past, the Eseries devices have all been priced quite low compared to Nseries smartphones, but with the E7 that looks to have flip-flopped. Rafe’s first part is very detailed and after reading it I started trying to figure out what I could sell to pick one up for myself

I have to try the keyboard though to see if that is enough for me to give up the better camera, smaller form factor, and expandable memory of the lovely N8. As great as the E7 looks, I am not sold that a physical QWERTY keyboard justifies getting rid of my N8.

How many readers are planning to pick up an E7 when they become available?

View full post on Nokia Experts

HTC’s main business is cellphones sold their wireless partners, but they keep their product catalog spread out among carriers and provide enough options in terms of software and hardware to justify a storefront pedaling only their shwag. Turns out, that is exactly what the manufacturer is considering. Following in the footsteps of Apple, Microsoft, and Nokia, HTC has plans to open three flagship stores in Taiwan. Judging on their success, the company would want to further expand with 100 additional retail outlets.

It is unclear whether any of these stores would make it outside of Asia, but we’d imagine the major international markets like New York and London might get their own. The move would encourage people to purchase their next phone based more on product selection rather than carrier, but we still think HTC would need to diversify their lineup a bit more to make the enterprise successful. A tablet might be a good way to start traveling down that road…

[via IntoMobile]

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Fear not, gamers: Epic Games hasn’t changed their stance on Android. The problem is the stance itself: fragmentation sucks, and the lack of it on iOS doesn’t suck. Thus, iOS will continue to be their primary focus. They showed a demo of Epic Citadel running on Android in an interview with Slowdown.vg, so it’s not like they’re just saying this stuff – they just want to wait until they get their iOS aspirations situated before they deal with the challenges that present themselves with Android. [via AC]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

There was a rumor going ’round that the US-based Galaxy S phones weren’t going to see the Froyo update, and that it was a cost/political issue.   While we never really bought it here at Talkandroid, it was a popular rumor until a few days ago, when Phonescoop reported otherwise. We were pleased to hear that rumor was bogus, not only because it never really made sense, but because it would’ve been pretty underhanded of everyone involved. Well, today, both T-Mobile and Sprint have made statements regarding Froyo updates on their Galaxy S devices.
Read More…

Sprint and T-Mobile Speak Out About Froyo Updates for Galaxy S: Coming Soon

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Could this be the year that Sony Ericsson (SE) finally get’s it right! Only time will tell, but they are certainly heading in the right direction. During the SE press breakfast at CES in Las Vegas I had the chance to chat with Steve Walker, the head of global marketing for SE. He certainly indicated that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was just the first in a line of high end super phones that they feel target the market much better than the previous devices have done.

The previous SE range of Android phones had excellent design characteristics but may have failed somewhat on the software front. SE were criticized for being slow on the distribution of updates and the delays were blamed on the software. Those phones tightly integrated the software with the operating system which meant releasing updates was very complex and time consuming.

Enter the next generation of Android super phones from SE; the Xperia Arc is the first SE Android super phone that treats the software additions as separate applications.  What does this mean to the end user?  It means that the underlying operating system and the applications themselves can be updated independently and should allow SE to distribute updates in a more timely manner.

Will the Xperia Arc change the user’s perception of SE and make U.S. adoption of their devices more widespread?  Only time will tell.  There are missing components that may hinder the popularity of the soon to be released Xperia Arc.  The radio inside the Xperia Arc only supports HSDPA and not the high bandwidth 4G being released by the major carriers this year.  It also fails to include a Front Facing Camera and I personally see this year a big year for video chat. As the bandwidth increases through the carriers, the video chat experience should be much cleaner for the end users.  Also missing in the unit we played with was an ambient light sensor and Near Field Communications  (NFC) compatibility.  None of these exclusions are show stoppers, but you would have expected Sony Ericsson to pull out the big guns for the first device of the year in it’s super phone category.

Sony Ericsson Arc

According to Steve Walker, Sony Ericsson wanted to focus on the form factor of the device by making something that is slim, light and incredibly comfortable to use.  We certainly can’t criticize them for that and they have succeeded extremely well with the Xperia Arc.

We also know about the other ‘minor’ device they sprang on the world at the end of last year and is set to be released early this year, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. The first Android phone designed as a game machine with a slide out game controller and we are assuming, PlayStation game compatibility similar to the Sony PSP.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play with Sony PSP

This year is sure to be an interesting year for Sony Ericsson. They are very popular in other countries around the world, but have so far failed to impress it’s U.S. audience. I for one am eager to try out the range of devices they plan to develop and release throughout the year.

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Verizon first announced their 4G LTE service back in December with 38 initial markets, including cities like Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York. Now it seems that information has emerged about an additional 49 markets slated for 4G coverage before the first half of 2011.

Verizon made a huge splash at CES this year with the announcement of four LTE ready Android smartphones, and two LTE ready Android tablets. However, one thing we have yet to learn is how much they will charge for 4G mobile data. Big Red currently charges $50 for 5 GB and $80 for 10 GB for their 4G USB modems, but it’s unclear if there will be an unlimited option like there is with the current 3G service.

Continue after the break to see the list of upcoming Verizon 4G LTE markets.

Read More…

Verizon releases info about an additional 49 markets to get 4G LTE in the first half of 2011

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Image: Quest Visual

I’m not an iPhone app junky. I only download apps I’m sure I’ll use, and I promptly delete any that disappoint me. And I certainly never pay for full versions of apps without first checking the reviews. What can I say? I’m a picky user.

Then one day, a new language translation app exploded onto the scene with an unbelievable YouTube demo video. So unbelievable that I actually doubted its veracity. But because my Twitter-friends wouldn’t stop retweeting about it, I decided to investigate. I may be picky, but my friends rarely steer me wrong.

According to the official video demo, Word Lens uses the iPhone’s camera to visually translate words and phrases from one language to another. Just open the app, point your iPhone at a sign or a label, and the words change before your eyes.

[Read more of Kay Holt's review of Word Lens over at GeekMom!]

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GeekDad Tron Week, images from Disney

The philosophy of Tron is an inspiration for parents everywhere. (source: laughingsquid)

Once upon a time, arcade owner Kevin Flynn journeyed through a virtual world to emerge the CEO of the largest computer company in the world. Before the decade had ended, however, Flynn was missing and presumed dead (except in Dayton), giving rise to a disenchanted son and a sequel to a 1982 classic science fiction film.

Tron: Legacy opens this weekend as the next chapter in the Flynn chronicles. You don’t have to hit me with a digitizing laser to see all the parenting lessons to be learned from life on and off The Grid. So, put down your copy of Digital Frontier, crank up the Daft Punk, and follow this bouncing Bit for a few cycles.

On the Other Side of the Screen, It All Looks So Easy

Kevin Flynn has this revelation not long after experiencing the life-and-death struggles of programs on The Grid. Standing at a screen with a joystick and a few buttons is a lot less stressful than wrapping a light cycle around your armored body and running through walls. Most parents have a similar insight sometime between the first ultrasound and the first RSV scare. Many of our best intentions and careful planning before kids become irrelevant in the field. We spend much of our time out of our comfort zone dealing with the unexpected and saying things we never thought we’d say, like: “Your sister is not a weapon!”

Bring In the Logic Probe

Sark has ways of getting information from uncooperative programs, but such devices don’t exist for kids. In fact, there is little resembling logic in their arguments for why shoes aren’t needed in blizzards or how it’s possible to watch a whole Mythbusters in the five minutes before bedtime. Our rational explanations about why cheese puffs are not an adequate source of protein are at odds with the facts that the bag is already open and we keep the peanut butter in the other room. Especially when our children are upset and bubbling with emotion, kid logic needs translation in both directions.

I’ve Gotten 2,415 Times Smarter Since Then

When CEO Ed Dillinger reminds his program who wrote it, the Master Control Program responds with the snarky implication that it has outgrown its creator. Even Flynn has this problem with his CLU program. For anyone who has watched a son or daughter run into their school without looking back, dealing with this kind of separation—although far less ominous and adversarial than the threats of the MCP—is a part of being a parent. We hope that our kids become smarter than we are, equipped with the tools needed to thrive in the world without us. The tradeoff can be a sense of obsoletion, though probably not the literal kind that gets us fired from our cushy VP job.

I Shouldn’t Have Written All Those Tank Programs

Not everything a User does is according to plan. Like Kevin Flynn’s first visit to the virtual world, we parents reap what we sow. What we say can have unintended outcomes, and what we do today establishes the norms of tomorrow. When we notice our bad behavior in our kids, we have to be self-aware enough to understand the culture we helped create. Changing our children requires a willingness to be changed ourselves.

Survive

In the new movie, Flynn’s orphaned son Sam follows his dad’s path into The Grid and poses an important newbie question: “What am I supposed to do?” Siren Jem’s response is good advice for parents, too, who find that question to be a daily mantra. The practical reality of raising kids is that each day brings a different challenge. Consider it a successful day whenever everyone winds up asleep in their beds at night. As Tron excitedly proclaims during their journey to defeat the MCP, “We made it!… this far.” Maybe that’s all life can ask of us.

End of line.

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As someone who has subscribed to National Geographic frequently through the years, amassed several shelves of the magazine, reaches for it first at any dentist office visit (my dentist doesn’t subscribe to Wired) and continues to make use of the magazine in my kids’ school projects, I was quite interested when the offer came through to test out the latest library release from the publisher. This version ships on an external hard drive, negating the inconvenience factor of swapping out a bunch of CDs or DVDs. Gadgetlab had a look at this last Christmas, but I thought it was worth revisiting.

The Complete Gational Geographic on 160 GB Hard Drive (image from National Geographic)

The Complete National Geographic houses every issue of the magazine from 1888 through 2009 on a compact external hard drive and retails for $199.99. It’s a 160 GB USB 2 drive measuring approximately 3″ by 5″ and 3/4″ tall, powered by your computer’s USB port, so no power brick to worry about. It includes a Mini USB to dual USB 2.0 connectors Y-style cable, so if one port on your computer is insufficient to power the drive, you can plug the second USB cable in. I only needed one cable on the iMacs and a MacBook Pro I tried it with. Computer requirements are quite modest (minimum OSX 10.4.11 and a 1GHz PowerPC processor on the Mac side and 1 GHz Pentium III with Windows XP for PC users).

The installation process was a little rough -at least on a Mac. It’s a simple enough, double-click installation with the usual licensing agreements (including for Adobe Air), but once it started, the progress bar trundled away until it hit the midway point, where it remained frozen for about five minutes.  Just when I was wondering if it had crashed, the installer finally popped up a dialog box for the Adobe Air installation, after which it suddenly jumped ahead to 3/4 complete. Adding to the confusion, components of the installation throw up their own progress windows, so there are sometimes two installation/progress windows on screen at the same time.

When you launch, you’re greeted by the familiar National Geographic refrain (if you don’t like having sound, it’s easily turned off with a toggle switch).

The interface could use some work. It’s very busy and not exactly intuitive, however once you actually open an issue and begin reading, the process is straightforward. Flipping pages is accomplished with prominent forward and back arrows. Mousing over a page reveals additional controls, including zoom, bookmarking and print, however there’s also a magnifying glass icon. Most of us have become conditioned to think of that magnifying glass as a zoom, but in this case it’s used to search for related articles. I found that if I re-size the window, it would result in a sketchy “preview” version with a “Loading Page please be patient” icon on top. I’m a pretty patient guy, but even on a decently powered machine, loading this page was taking forever. If I gave up and flipped to the next page, everything was fine- instantaneous rendering of both text and photos. I think this may be an Adobe Air issue.

Quibbles about the UI aside, it’s incredible to have every issue of National Geographic, from 1888 through 2009 contained on a single volume, complete with text, photos, maps and even the advertisements. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 articles and 200,000 photos from over 1,400 issues. As a parent, this is an invaluable school resource. As someone adopting a digital lifestyle, it’s even more space saved on the bookshelves -too bad I can’t export these onto my eBook reader…

Search functions are quite powerful (with the ability to drill down to maps, advertisers and contributors on top of expected options like feature articles). You can choose to browse by year, choose an Issue browsing option that anyone familiar with iTunes will recognize as being very similar to Coverflow and you can also use a Microsoft bing powered geobrowsing option. There are useful extras such as a Trivia game, bookmarking, reading lists and print capability. A bonus DVD is also included that includes photography tips and other useful information. There is an update function for software, but the one thing I’m not sure about is whether the collection can be extended by purchasing digital copies of issues after the 2009 collection cut-off. If I find out the answer to this one, I’ll let you know.

The Complete National Geographic: UI is visually appealing, but confusing (screencapture by Brad Moon)

While doing so may run contrary to licensing agreements, it’s quite simple to duplicate the drive as a disk image on your laptop or computer (not that we’re recommending you do so), so you have full access to the content without having to drag the external hard drive everywhere (while it’s a 160 GB drive, the actual data volume of the drive is considerably smaller, making for a 63 GB disk image). Doing so also makes the application considerably snappier in performance. Those looking for a less expensive alternative could pick up the same collection on DVD-Rom through Amazon for $79.99 or less and either deal with the disc shuffling or try a local install. Portable USB 2.0 hard drives of this capacity go for around fifty bucks, so at $200, basically you’re paying around a $70 premium for the convenience/cool factor of hard drive over optical disc.

Disclosure: National Geographic supplied a Complete National Geographic hard drive for this review.

Wired: Every National Geographic ever on your computer!  You get a pretty useful little external USB drive that can be re-purposed.

Tired: Installation process is far from smooth, user interface is a bit of a confusing mess, considerably more expensive than DVD-Rom version.

View full post on GeekDad

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Some more details have emerged about the upcoming changes to the Android UI that are coming with 2.3 (Gingerbread). A lot of these changes are somewhat technical in nature, but an important one is the fact that Gingerbread is finally bringing true 32 bit imaging support to Android.

If you’re a developer or are just really into the hardcore technical aspects of Android, you may want to hit up this link for some more juicy details.

More details emerge about Gingerbread UI changes

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Gaming on Android devices have grown significantly in the past year and recently we’ve been hearing about a Sony PlayStation phone running the Android OS. According to the guys over at MobileCrunch, they have spoken with a much trusted source and are reporting the following:

• Yes, it’s absolutely real.
• The screen is “mind-blowing”, on-par (at least by the tipster’s eye) with the iPhone 4′s retina display. The person giving them the rundown on the display indicated that some of Sony’s Bravia technology has trickled in here, with Sony Ericsson considering leveraging the Bravia brand when highlighting the display.
• It won’t ship in time for the holidays, with our tipster saying it was “no where near ready”. According to their Sony-Ericsson rep, the company is off-the-record-officially aiming for February. At this point, a launch scheduled around Mobile World Congress is nearly certain.
• Sony Ericsson currently has the off-contract price floating somewhere around $500, with that purchase including 5 free games.
• It’s unclear whether the “Playstation Phone” is capable of running actual (downloaded) PSP games — I’d wager that it’s not, given what I’ve heard and the amount of emulation work that would be required. We’re likely looking at a new, independent line-up of games built specifically for this platform, which might explain why Sony Ericsson is reportedly planning on pushing this handset with the XPERIA brand rather than the more recognizable Playstation brand. Sony Ericsson is heavily leveraging Sony’s licensing partnerships, though, with names like Tekken being thrown around.
• Games will purportedly be priced like mobile games, not like PSP games. In other words, expect sub-$10, not sub-$40.
• The tipster confirmed that the “Z-System” name so oft thrown around the rumor mill around is still in play, and that Sony-Ericsson reps used it to describe both the gaming platform and the distribution center. It’s still unclear (even to Sony-Ericsson, it sounds like) whether the game distribution will be done in a standalone application or through the Android Market, but our tipster was told that Google was working closely with Sony Ericsson to try and bring it all into a section of the Android market exclusive to these devices. It’d be highly beneficial for Sony Ericsson to have Google on their side, here, given that the latter has considerably more experience with payment processing (and relationships for things like carrier billing).

If you skimmed the above quoted text and missed it, the source says that Sony Ericsson is pushing for a release around the time of the Mobile World Congress event help in Spain in mid-February but we could possibly wait a little longer.

As with every other word of mouth rumor, we’ll must take this information with a grain of salt and hopefully we’ll hear some facts in the coming months. Anyone looking to pick up a PlayStation phone when it launches?

Via: MobileCrunch

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Disney’s latest fairy tale film, Tangled, gets released into theaters on today. The movie is Disney’s take on the Grimm’s fairy tale, Rapunzel, and stars the voices of Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi. Before you head off to the theater, here are a few things parents will want to know about the 50th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

Is it worth paying extra for 3-D?

Not really. There are only a couple of times that the 3-D effect is especially noticable. The rest of the time, the 3-D only helps to set the foreground off from the backgrounds and the difference is negligble. Another downside to the 3-D is that there are quite a few scenes that take place in dimly lit environments. Because the current iteration of 3-D darkens pictures, I think 3-D actually worsened our viewing experience.

This is the first fairy tale movie Disney has created in CGI. Does it look good?

It looks fantastic! The animation is very good. The textures in some places were magnificent, like the frescos and the outdoor environments surrounding Rapunzel’s castle. Disney went to great lengths to try to mimic hand-drawn techniques in its CGI, and used a rendering process that emphasized textures and lighting. I thought it worked really well throughout most of the film.

Will all of my kids like it?

The movie was written especially with boys in mind. Disney knew they’d get the female audience, but wanted to make the film appealing to boys, as well. So there’s plenty of emphasis on the dashing thief, Flynn Rider, in Tangled. What’s more, the movie was originally titled Rapunzel, but was changed to have a greater appeal to boys. In the end, I think it only partly works. My eight-year-old son refused to go, but I think he would have enjoyed it (though not as much as the sci-fi and action movies he prefers now) It will be interesting to see if this strategy pays off for Disney because the audience I watched the movie with was almost entirely moms and daughters.

Is there anything scary?

Nope. First of all, it’s a Disney animated movie, so you should know exactly what to expect. Second, when I saw the film, the audience was largely made up of 4 to 7-year-old girls and I heard no screams, crying or anything else that would make you think anyone was scared.

When’s the best time for a bathroom break?

The movie runs for about 100 minutes and between the continuously flowing stoyline and some fun action scenes, it’s tough to figure out when a good time to sneak away is. I thought the best time for a bathroom break was after the chase scene at about the 50 minute mark when Flynn Rider heads out to get firewood. There’s a scene that builds on a previous scene, so, if you duck out, you won’t have missed much.

Are the songs any good?

One of the hallmarks of any Disney animated film are the songs and this one was no different. There are about a half dozen, a couple of which are sung multiple times. It’s clear that Disney knows how to work them in because they fit seamlessly, without interrupting the flow of the movie. While no song seems instantly classic, our favorite came earlier on when Rapunzel and Flynn visit a tavern, The Snuggly Duckling. It’s a wonderfully fun and memorable scene and an even better song.

Will I want to see it again?

Maybe on DVD. We left the theater and laughed quite a bit about Rapunzel’s quiet chameleon companion, Pascal, who was a bit of a scene-stealer, but after we got home we didn’t talk much about the movie again. Usually if a movie is one we will see again, there is a lot of talk about it for days after.

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More rumors have leaked regarding the Sony Ericsson “Playstation Phone” and it’s exciting news that makes this hybrid phone/portable gaming device look more and more promising.  First off, the source says that this device is in fact real, and is expected to come to market sometime in February of 2010.  Hardware-wise, the screen is supposedly on par if not superior to iPhone 4’s retina display, possibly utilizing technology from Sony’s Bravia line of displays.  Which if so, would be a leveraging highlight to boast when marketing the device – especially since it’s a gaming device.

Read More…

More details leak out about the Sony Ericsson “Playstation Phone”

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Copyright © Warner Bros. Pictures

1. It’s rated PG-13. For what ages of kids is the movie really appropriate?

Well, my son is almost ten and my daughter is eight, and they were both fine. There were a few moments where they grabbed my or my wife’s arm, but they passed quickly enough and on the whole they loved it.

Whether the same will be true of other kids depends on many things, of course. I should note that we’d read the entire book about a year ago, and in preparation for the movie’s release reread the first twenty or so chapters. So my kids had the benefit of knowing what was going to happen; if your kids aren’t familiar with the story going in, there are some parts of the film that will likely be more traumatic for them than they were for mine. There are a number of very intense  scenes and a little sexuality, but nothing particularly gory or explicit. It is a bit on the loud side at times, so if your kids are sensitive to noise I recommend getting them some earplugs to lower the volume.

2. How closely does it adhere to the book?

(I’m trying very hard not to be spoilery here. If you haven’t read the book, there may be a very slight spoiler ahead.)

It certainly gets a lot closer than any of the last four films have, but that’s not setting the bar too high. They cut some corners, as of course they had to, but very little of consequence was changed. Some of the scenes that were taken directly from the book were done brilliantly, like the Seven Potters, and some of the things they changed were great, like Dobby’s last lines to Bellatrix (many of my fellow audience members applauded). Some of the changes were a bit bewildering, like Harry showing up at the wedding as himself and Griphook being at Malfoy Manor without any clear reason.

On the whole: Very well done.

3. So, how was it as a movie?

Excellent, though of course it would be utterly incomprehensible to anyone who didn’t know the previous movies/books. It’s really quite amazing to see what fine actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have grown into. I mean, maybe it’s just that they know these characters so well they’re like a second skin, but if they can keep up the level they reach in this film they’ll have brilliant careers … not that they need to work for the rest of their lives, of course, after the money they’ve made.

And of course the supporting cast, composed as always of some of the finest British actors alive, is wonderful. Ralph Fiennes is wonderfully over-the-top as Voldemort, Bill Nighy is brilliant in the short but important role of Rufus Scrimgeour, Jason Isaacs shows his range as Lucius Malfoy is finally called upon to be something other than supercilious and Helena Bonham Carter is at her crazy, scene-stealing best as Bellatrix.

4. When’s the best time for a bathroom break?

There’s no particularly great time, but as the film’s nearly two-and-a-half hours long, holding it may not be possible for everyone. Probably the best time is when Harry, Ron and Hermione infiltrate the Ministry of Magic — you’ll miss several good scenes, but not  a huge amount of plot development.

5. Is it worth paying more for IMAX?

Yes, absolutely. There are some shots in the film that are just gorgeous, and seeing them on IMAX makes them all the more powerful. I haven’t seen it on a regular screen for comparison, but I will say that I was blown away by the visuals on the IMAX screen. You can really see how much the Harry Potter films have improved over time on IMAX, especially when it comes to CGI — if I didn’t know better I would swear that the elves Kreacher and Dobby were as real as the human actors.

6. Do I need to sit through the credits for a bonus scene at the end?

No, which is hardly surprising for the first part of a two-part story.

7. Will I want to see it again?

If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter movies, I’m certain you will. I know I certainly do, and on the way out of the theater my eight-year-old daughter asked me if we could buy the film on DVD when it comes out.

8. Any good previews?

Sadly, I am not in a position to say. My family went to see the film at the IMAX theater at the Air and Space Museum, so there were no previews.

9. Is there anything you wish the film-makers had done that they didn’t do, or vice-versa?

Yes! I was really disappointed at the end of Half-Blood Prince, when they didn’t show Dumbledore’s funeral, because it was such a beautiful, moving scene in the book. I had heard, some months ago (though I’ve no recollection of where) that this movie was going to begin with the funeral. So I was disappointed, yet again, to discover that there was no funeral scene in this film, either.

The only other thing I can think of is that it would’ve been nice to have had some explanation of how The Burrow (the Weasleys’ home) got rebuilt after the fire in the last movie.

10. So, where in the story does Part I end, and how long do we have to wait for Part II?

If you’re familiar with the book, Part I ends (avoiding spoilers)  just as Voldemort finds the item for which he searches for much of the first two-thirds of the book — specifically, at the end of Chapter 24, although the protagonists’ storyline isn’t quite at that point yet.

Part II is set to come out July 15, 2011 — so the answer is: a fair while. Unfortunately, Part II will be in 3D, meaning the beautiful cinematography seen in Part I will be darkened. Maybe they’ll see how successful Part I is without 3D and decide to scrap it for Part II as well. Hey, a guy can hope, can’t he?

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Photo: Oxford University Press

I love geology. I’ve always been interested in rocks, the Earth and changes to the land. My mom’s rock identification book was one that I pored over as a child. My favorite rock looked like an Oreo. That may or may not have been a coincidence. I had quite a rock collection with plenty of mica (we lived in Tucson, Arizona, where mica practically grew on trees), and my daughter follows me by having a rock collection of her own.

It wasn’t until I got older and learned more about geology that I finally thought of the changing Earth as being part of a big cycle. Stand-alone concepts such as weathering, erosion, sediment, mid-ocean rifts, subduction zones and volcanoes now became mere parts of a whole.

The new book The Planet in a Pebble: A Journey into Earth’s Deep History by Jan Zalasiewicz takes us on several different parts of that cycle. Mr. Zalasiewicz is a field geologist, paleontologist and stratigrapher. For this book, he uses a forensic approach to Earth science.

This book starts out with the big bang and goes through the formation of the universe, our galaxy, our solar system and our planet. It discusses what you can learn from a pebble: more than most people might think. The book encompasses many branches of science, not just geology. Chemistry, biology and astronomy are well represented, not to mention the scientific method and scientific inquiry in general.

The Planet in a Pebble takes us on 13 different paths that hypothetical pebbles could have taken on their journeys through the rock cycle. The first journey, Stardust, takes us back farther than the rock cycle itself to the time of ancient stars. It deconstructs the pebble, teaching us about its component parts and its chemistry. Journeys that follow include pebbles forming from deep inside the Earth, from sediment, with pressure, filled with microfossils or made from magnetic material. The whole book is as much contemplative and poetic as it is scientific.

There is a short Further Reading section at the end of the book. I highly recommend perusing this section if you are interested in learning more about this topic. Thanks to the magic of Google, we’re even able to read the first one listed for free: Thoughts on a Pebble by Gideon Mantell, written almost 200 years ago. There are about a dozen other books listed that are about similar or related topics.

The Planet in a Pebble has 13 journeys in all, for our hypothetical pebbles. Valuable or commonplace, pebbles have taken quite a variety of journeys to get to where they are today. And they will continue to go on and on, through the cycle of rock.

The Planet in a Pebble came out just this month in hardback, and it retails for $27.95. And as with other Oxford University Press books that I have read, this one never failed to bring a smile to my face.

Note: I received a copy of this book for review purposes.

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Image: Kate Miller

Over at GeekMom, both Andrea Schwalm and Kate Miller have quite a lot to say on the subject of talking sex with kids. Their humorous, and poignant, takes on raising kids in this day and age is a must-read for all parents, Dad and Mom alike.

From Andrea’s post, Cultural Condomnation: Let’s Talk About Sex (With Our Kids)

So there we were in rush hour, driving down the Long Island Expressway, and from the eleven year old in the back seat comes the question:

“So, Mom, if guys can get erections, I’m wondering, does anything like that happen to girls?”

I’ve got to admit, when I get these questions—and these days they are coming with an insistent, rhythmic regularity—my first instinct is to look around for my husband and suggest a guy’s night out. Or, better yet: a weekend. Hey! I’ll supply the informational pamphlets!

And from Kate’s post, Confessions of a Sex-Ed Addict:

I love talking about sex. With kids.

As a social scientist, I’ve spent my career researching women’s health in sub-Saharan Africa and the US. I’ve seen great health care and health care so crappy you wouldn’t wish it on a dog. I’ve presented publicly on sexual behavior, discussed vaginal secretions with colleagues of both genders, and published papers on contraception, abortion, infertility, sexually-transmitted infections, you name it. The stuff comes easy to me.

Yes, with kids.

Hear that noise? That’s the sound of America calling Child Protective Services on my ass right now. Please hang up, America. At least hear me out.

So head on over and get some tips about going there.

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The Twitter account GoogleMobile tweeted today that their ‘cafes are baking something sweet’, along with the above picture uploaded to TwitPic. What with the Google Nexus One getting the Gingerbread OS this week, the update is bound to happen for other devices across the Android spectrum soon. As of now, the latest rumor about Android 2.3 is that it will be released November 15th. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Om nom nom. Those Gingerbread Andy’s look delicious.

Google dropping more hints about release of highly anticipated Gingerbread OS

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I told you I was going to be on a new podcast with Jason Harris, Jenna Gonzalez, and Sloan Bowman last week. I have been on the road and traveling quite a bit so I did not yet have the chance to circle back and let you know that you can now listen to the show. There was a technical glitch so we do not have a downloadable copy of the show and you will have to play the Ustream version (embedded below). If there are future shows, we will try to work this out and make sure you can get a copy to take with you on your Nokia device.

We ended up talking about various aspects of the N8 and Nokia in North American on the show and I hope you find it entertaining and informative. I thought it went pretty well, but I do think it can be better in the future. It is tough to record a show with four people in four different parts of the country or world and I am a bit picky when it comes to high quality podcasts

What would you like to hear discussed in the future? Maybe I can get a Nokia Experts podcast launched here in 2011. What do you think about that idea?

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1. Will my kids like it?

Yes! There’s plenty of slapstick to keep kids of nearly any age amused, and only a few short bits that are sad or show the characters in peril. And those bits are all pretty quickly undercut by humor, anyway. My nearly-ten-year-old son would like me to say that Megamind is “not just funny — extremely funny.”

2. Will I like it?

Very probably, yes, though you won’t love it. The movie makers manage to keep the slapstick from from degenerating into juvenile, which all too often happens in kids’ movies — witness the Shrek films, for example. There are also plenty of little jokes (many of them musical) aimed squarely at grownups, which is always a pleasure to see — I will never understand why so many makers of kids’ movies neglect to do this, despite the knowledge that most kids will not be going to the movie alone or with their own money.

That being said, the film does suffer from the knowledge of what it could have been, because it is impossible not to compare it to The Incredibles, and not just because the hero Metro Man is very similar to Mr. Incredible. A lot of the jokes in Megamind seem very derivative of the Pixar film, and suffer by comparison.

3. When’s the best time for a bathroom break?

The film is 96 minutes long, and moves fairly quickly, so waiting until the end is best if possible. If not, the best time is probably when Megamind is disguised as Bernard and is talking to Roxanne (this will make sense when you see the film) — my kids agreed that that was the least interesting bit of the movie.

4. Is it worth paying more for 3D? How about IMAX?

No to 3D. My family saw it in 2D, and it was just fine. And there’s a lot of detail in the backgrounds which could easily be missed because of the distraction of the foreground in 3D or because of the darkening effect modern 3D technology has on everything. Save your money and see it in 2D.

As for IMAX, I really can’t imagine it would enhance the film much, especially since you’d have to see it in 3D.

5. Do I need to sit through the credits for a bonus scene at the end?

There are two parts to the credits: a fairly short animated bit and a much longer traditional scrolling bit. There is a quick, funny scene in between the two parts that you should stay for, but nothing at the very end.

6. Will I want to see it again?

Maybe, though I’d be willing to bet your kids will. It’s a refreshingly good film, especially for Dreamworks, whose animated films I tend to think fail to live up to their hype. That being said, it will never be considered a classic the way The Incredibles will be (and to some extent already is). It’s a lot of fun, but (at least in my case) a lot of the fun came from the little surprises here and there aimed at grownups, and I’m pretty sure they’ll lose a lot when they aren’t a surprise.

7. Is it loud or scary?

Not really. My son has always been sensitive to loud noises, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even flinch once.

8. How’s the animation?

It’s very Dreamworks, by which I mean that the animation is in many ways the central point of the movie — as opposed to Pixar, where the story and characters are always the foundation. Everything is showy and clever, often to the point of distraction. Megamind, in particular, is to a great extent defined by the way he moves and his facial expressions. In fact — and my wife and I came to the same conclusion completely independently — I’m not sure that Neil Patrick Harris couldn’t legitimately sue Dreamworks for making Megamind a virtual copy of him (only blue and with a huge cranium and Leno-like chin).

9. What about the voices?

The voice talent was excellent. Brad Pitt was the perfect choice for Metro Man, although I’m not sure he wasn’t doing a George Clooney impression in the role. Will Ferrell did a great job as Megamind, especially since he didn’t play it as Will Ferrell — since if you’ve seen his movies you know he pretty much can play only one character. Tina Fey was a standout as the Lois Lane-esque Roxanne Ritchi, managing to convey the character’s sarcasm without making her a caricature.

10. Any good trailers?

Well, there was one for Tangled, which I’m sure will be a decent (if not great) film. There was one for the Jack Black Gulliver’s Travels, which looks pretty terrible. There was one for Yogi Bear, which looks even worse. I’m pretty sure there were at least two more, but they weren’t memorable enough that anyone in my family can recall them.

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It’s Smarter Than You Think

Despite its tiny footprint, the Kinect is loaded with sensors. To track players in real time it employs an RGB camera, an infrared camera, five microphones and a motorized subsystem. All these systems communicate with the Xbox through either a dedicated port (for the new Xbox 360 S), or a dongle for older models.

It Recognizes Your Identity and Tracks Your Skeleton

What makes the Kinect different from other motion-tracking systems like the Wii and the Playstation Move is how it scans its players. Unlike other motion-sensing consoles, the Kinect’s array of sensors maps the room, its characteristics, and its inhabitants. It rules out stationary objects, determining what’s a flesh-and-blood gamer and what’s a potted plant. And because the software knows the gist of a human form (head, shoulders, various joints), it can effectively distinguish between different people.

The Software Has Been Tweaked, Too

Along with the hardware, Microsoft has rolled out some major software updates. The Kinect dashboard serves as the hub for configuring, exploring and interacting with Kinect-ready content. Though it’s a little barren today,  Microsoft says we can expect to see a number of apps leveraging Kinect in the near future. Hellooo, voice-activated Netflix app.

There Are Decent Games, Just Not Many

Kinect is launching with a modest selection of 12 games. Though Kinect Sports and Dance Central were office favorites, the selection of hard-core titles is practically nil. Developers like Lionhead Studios are integrating Kinect capabilities into existing titles like Fable 3, so we expect more in the future.

It’s Not All Perfect: There Are Limitations

In our tests, Kinect straddles a line between delight and disappointment. In the tight confines of the Gadget Lab (roughly 7 feet deep), Kinect Sports had trouble “seeing” our feet during the soccer minigame. However, when we moved our setup to the Wired kitchen, we gained more space (and motion-capturing reliability), but lost voice-recognition accuracy because of the atmospheric din.

See the Kinect in Action

Terrence Russell (@terrencerussell) contributed to Wired UK’s November cover story on the Kinect.

For more on the Kinect, please read our extensive coverage on Game Life and Gadget Lab.

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

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