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Speculation that Wal-Mart Stores would sell a $99
iPhone was put to rest on Friday when the official announcement came out sans the double digits.

OK, OK, it’s not new. But refurbished is close enough.

The refurbished 16GB model in black or white is also being sold for a $50 discount with a $199 price tag. But that doesn’t have the magical ring to it of $99.

However, all hope is not lost.

(Credit:
AT&T)

AT&T is selling a refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G in black for $99 with a two-year service contract through Wednesday, New Year’s Eve. That beats AT&T’s previous price tag of $149.

Meanwhile, Freescale Semiconductor has indicated that it will bring out a very-low-power ARM chip that features a dual-core graphics engine targeted at Netbook-like laptops.

Via Technologies is planning a very low-power, dual-core Nano 3000 processor, according to Chinese-language Web site HKEPC.

Via’s C7-M processor is used in Hewlett-Packard’s 2133 Mini-Note, which preceded the crop of Netbooks based on the Atom CPU. Via processors, however, were subsequently eclipsed by Intel’s Atom.

(Correction: the Via Nano 3000 will not be dual-core. The dual-core version of Nano will ship in the second half of 2009.)

Updated on January 6 at 11:20 a.m. PST with correction about Nano 3000.

The dual-core version of the Via Nano–due in late 2009 or 2010–may use a Fujitsu 45-nanometer or TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) 40-nanometer manufacturing process, according to HKEPC. The Intel Atom is based on 45-nanometer process technology.

Via Nano procesor

Dual-core Intel Atom rivals are in the works.

All of these developments indicate that the market for ultra-small devices and laptops should heat up in 2009.

The Via chip may also include SSE4 instruction support, HKEPC said. Generally, SSE4 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 4) instructions speed up multimedia applications.

Advanced Micro Devices will target its low-power dual-core “Conesus” at the laptop market segment above Atom’s Netbook-centric space.

Via is also slated to bring out other improved Nano processors in 2009, according to the report.

(Credit:
Via Technologies)

Intel currently offers the dual-core Atom 330 that is targeted at Nettops–small desktop computers.

Dice, based on a survey of more than 19,000 respondents taken between August and November, found that certain sectors and job titles posted even higher percentage gains over the previous year.

As a result, he expects the overall growth rate for tech salaries to shrink in 2009, though he declined to estimate how much the percentage will retract.

“The skills that are needed in technology change quickly, and employers realize they need workers with the most up-to-date skills,” said Tom Silver, Dice.com’s chief marketing officer.

Correction at 7 a.m. PST January 23: The 2006 growth rate in tech salaries was slightly off. It was 1.7 percent.

Salaries of tech professionals managed to spike up an average of 4.6 percent last year to $78,035, according to survey results released Thursday by tech career site Dice.com.

The survey results, ironically, come at a time when companies across corporate America are announcing layoffs, freezing wages, and even going so far as to temporarily institute wage cuts, like Advanced Micro Devices.

“In another survey, we asked employers what they think will happen to salaries in 2009. About 25 percent said they will reduce salaries for new hires they bring in,” Silver said.

Technology salaries in the computer hardware sector posted the largest growth last year, which climbed an average of 9.4 percent over the previous year. That was followed by the Internet services sector with an 8.8 percent increase, and the medical/pharmaceutical industry with a 7 percent gain.

He added that employers, as a result, are willing to pay a higher salary for such employees, especially if those skills aid the company in controlling costs.

Back in 2006, the growth rate in tech salaries was a mere 1.7 percent increase over the previous year. And in 2004, it actually declined 2.6 percent over the previous year.

The average annual salary for security analysts jumped 8.4 percent, compared with last year, while software engineers followed closely with a 7 percent gain, and applications developers rose 6.6 percent.

But while the growth rate for technology salaries rose, on average, 4.6 percent last year, job seekers may not be as lucky in the new year.

A provision was also added to the bill by Congress to promote Internet safety for children. The law requires the Federal Trade Commission to establish a nationwide campaign “to increase public awareness and provide education regarding strategies to promote the safe use of the Internet by children.”

President Bush on Friday signed into law a bill that would facilitate the collection of data regarding broadband access in the United States, though most of the actions required by the law have already been accomplished by federal regulators.

The Broadband Data Act directs the Federal Communications Commission to redefine broadband, which was largely achieved earlier this year. The commission in March voted to consider 768Kbps, which is the entry-level speed offered by major DSL providers like Verizon, the low end of “basic broadband,” a range that extends to under 1.5Mbps. For years, the commission had considered 200Kbps service to be “high speed.”

A few studies are required by the new law, such as an evaluation by the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy on the impact of broadband speed and price on small businesses. The bill also establishes a grant program for organizations to track and promote Internet usage.

The new law, introduced by Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, in 2007, requires Internet service providers to give the FCC more detailed reports so the FCC can identify the actual numbers of broadband connections by customer type and geographic area. The FCC adopted this measure in March as well, though the act requires the commission to use the reports to collect demographic data for geographical areas without advanced telecommunications capabilities.

Implementation issues aside, Eldon and Siegler write, “the overall idea behind it is the right one.” Beyond that, they say:

Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves…Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?

Zuckerberg is not listening to you because you don’t get how Facebook is going to make billions.

From here, Facebook needs to figure out what might be worth bringing back from the old feed, like items about your friends making new friends, events, profile picture changes, etc.

Over at VentureBeat, Eric Eldon and MG Siegler offer an in-depth appraisal of the redesign, and lay out their share of criticism–including paying more attention to how users might might react:

Facebook should listen to its users in some regards - but if every company only listened to its users, there would be no innovation. If the changes made are ultimately for the better, as Facebook clearly believes, then it needs to suck it up and get through this growing pain. And so do its users.

How happy can CEO Mark Zuckerberg be with the griping by users over the latest Facebook redesign?

Update at 1:34 p.m PDT: Several readers have objected that this story makes it seem like everyone hates the Facebook redesign, which wasn’t the intent. Facebook has 175 million users, a number that’s vastly greater than the 600,000-plus comments on the company’s “Vote on the new Facebook layout” application.

Somewhere along the line, it seems the folks at Facebook didn’t internalize this fundamental difference in the social context that differentiates user to user relationships on Twitter versus Facebook. This to me is a big mistake.

It wouldn’t be at all surprising if Facebook’s response to the bad vibes elicited its latest redesign were straight out of the 1970 comic war movie “Kelly’s Heroes.” To wit, we give you just one of the refrains from Donald Sutherland’s tanker/proto-hippie character, Oddball:

Still, among those who’ve voiced their opinion on the redesign, the sentiment has largely been somewhere on the side of disappointment.

Anyway, all those who are saying the new design sucks should NOT be listened to. Yeah, I know a lot of people are going to get mad at me for saying that. After all, how can a blogger say to not listen to the masses? Easy: I’ve seen the advice the masses are giving and most of it isn’t very good for Facebook’s business interests…

But some folks are trying to find a silver lining.

We’ve reached out to the folks at Facebook for comment on the purported Zuckerberg missive and, just in general, for how they’re reacting to users’ boos. No response yet, but we’ll let you know if we do hear anything back on this first springtime Sunday afternoon.

The negativity has continued into the weekend, fueled in part by a Valleywag item alleging that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent an e-mail to employees suggesting that it’s folly for a disruptive company to listen to its customers.

Perhaps most importantly though, Facebook needs to do a better job easing users into this redesign. If it wants people to do their own filtering using lists, it needs to make sure they know how. That’s why above the feed filters, there should be two options: One to show you the news feed after the redesign, and one “legacy feed” below to show you just the core Facebook elements that were previously in the news feed prior to the redesign. In effect, this would be the “training” mechanism described above, and again, is critical before the real flood of information starts coming in through Facebook Connect.

Hopeful, positive comments from Facebook users have been awfully hard to come by in recent days since the powerhouse social-networking site pushed out a redesign that seems inspired, at least in part, by the up-and-coming Twitter service. To pick just one newly voiced opinion from the company’s “Vote on the new Facebook layout” app, which seems in keeping with consensus among the 624,665 comments there so far: “this one is really confusing… the home page look like every one is kinda takin to you!!!!! the previous one was really nice… would feel better if it was changed to the previous version…”

One person in the comments section below offers this positive assessment: “I actually find the new design more pleasing. It is more functional and manageable. I can select what I want to view instead of everything as a hodgepodge on one page. all they need now is the ability to make my feeds as rss and watch other walls as rss. It is a more advanced design. Probably best for advanced users.”

When your application becomes an integral part of your customers lives and identities, it is almost expected that they protest any major changes to the user experience. The problem is that you may eventually become jaded about negative feedback because you assume that for the most part the protests are simply people’s natural resistance to change…

High-profile blogger Robert Scoble definitely seems to be in the tough-love camp when it comes to users’ gripes:

Writes Dare Obasanjo, using the Valleywag post as a starting point:

The results showed that 77 percent of people with Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones are completely or very satisfied with their devices. Among those who have Wi-Fi on their phones, 74 percent use the feature, and 77 percent say they will also seek Wi-Fi connectivity in their next phone.

According to Edgar Figueroa, executive director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, since 2000, the group has completed more than 5,000 certifications of consumer and enterprise devices. To date, 311 handsets–including smartphones–have been recognized as Wi-Fi Certified.

According to the study, about 44 percent of smartphones currently have the Wi-Fi feature. This figure is expected to increase to 90 percent by 2014. This is interesting, as almost 60 percent of those owning Wi-Fi-enabled phones have had their phones for less than a year.

How about you? Which Wi-Fi phone do you use, and how often do you turn the Wi-Fi feature on?

A Windows Mobile smartphone with Wi-Fi connectivity.

Personally, I think that Wi-Fi connectivity is a great feature for smartphones, as long as vendors can solve the problem of the feature draining a phone’s battery quickly. Nonetheless, I use my
iPhone 3G’s Wi-Fi features all the time–especially considering that my phone’s 3G mode hardly works well in the San Francisco Bay Area.

More and more people expect Wi-Fi from their cell phones, according to a survey released Wednesday by ABI Research.

The survey was conducted in February, with more than 1,000 U.S. mobile-phone users between the ages of 18 and 59 participating.

(Credit:
CNET)

These findings fall in line with a report earlier this year by the Wi-Fi Alliance stating that despite the economic downturn, the Wi-Fi industry would continue to grow. The Wi-Fi Alliance tests and issues the Wi-Fi Certified certification to ensure that Wi-Fi products from different vendors can work well with one another.

The Integra/Klipsch system would be way, way more dynamic, with vastly greater clarity for movies and music (single-speaker systems never quite sound right for music). To be fair, the Yamaha big claim to fame is its ability to produce a facsimile of surround sound from the single speaker, and it’s the best of its type (I’ve reviewed a ton of single-speaker surround systems for CNET–both units with built-in video connectivity and those without–so I should know). The Integra/Klipsch is strictly stereo, but it’ll be really good stereo. Big and wide, with a great sense of depth and spatiality.

Fifty watts may not seem like much, but Integra components sound pretty good; pair the DSR-4.8 with efficient speakers you’d get a big sound. Klipsch’s RB-61 bookshelf speakers ($499/pair) would be ideal and make better and more powerful bass than the YSP-4000, so some of you won’t have to get a sub. But if you’re thinking about going whole hog, I like Klipsch’s Sub-12 subwoofer ($500). That’s all together a $1,600 MSRP system, so it’s at least $500 less expensive than the Yamaha system.

You could put together a much better sounding system with Integra’s DSR-4.8 DVD/AV receiver ($600) and a nice pair of speakers and possibly a subwoofer. It’s a stereo receiver with 50 watts per channel with a built-in DVD/DVD-Audio/SACD player; video connectivity includes a 1080p HDMI output, one HDMI input, and two composite inputs. (You can multiply the usefulness of that single HDMI input by adding an inexpensive HDMI switcher that multiplies the number of available outputs.)

I’ve written about Home Theater 2.0 before, but to recap: it’s a whole lot easier to set up, it eliminates stringing wires across your room, and it focuses your speaker budget, whatever it is, on two rather than five speakers. That way you wind up with better sounding speakers for the same investment as you were planning on dropping on five. It’s a quality over quantity approach to home theater. A room full of lower quality speakers will produce more so-so sound; two higher quality speakers will always sound better.

Home-theater-in-a-box systems ease the pain somewhat, but you still have to run wires to five speakers and a subwoofer. Single-speaker sound bar systems? Sure, they eliminate the tangle of wires, but they’re just glorified stereo bars and never really sound all that good. You can get much better sound from a decent set of stereo speakers.

Let’s face it, setting up a home theater with five speakers and a subwoofer is a hassle.

(Credit:
Klipsch)

Hey, you pays your money, you makes your choices. If five speakers and a sub, or even a sound bar don’t cut it Home Theater 2.0 or 2.1 is at least worth thinking about.

But the Integra is really intended for audiophiles; it has good stuff like 192 hHz/24-bit digital to analog converters and plays SACD and DVD-Audio discs. That’s a big plus for those of you who already have large collections of high-resolution audio discs. Building a system around the DSR-4.8, maybe for a bedroom or office system, would make a lot of sense.

Let’s compare and contrast an Integra DSR-4.8 based system with Yamaha’s YSP-4000 single-speaker surround system ($1,800). The Yamaha is self-powered so it doesn’t need an AV receiver, but it doesn’t make much bass. So, you’ll need to add a subwoofer, like Yamaha’s YST-FSW150 ($280) and a DVD or Blu-ray player.

(Credit:
Integra)

“It really pushed us to understand our characters further,” said Fede, who started fooling around with her dad’s Beta camera at age 8.

(Credit:
Michelle Meyers/CNET News)

A panel of Sundance programmers narrowed down the selection to 10, and then it was up to the YouTube community to choose the winners.

Edwards and Fede, who both aspire to a career in film, are here along with their team of “collaborators,” (aka Edward’s talented housemates, who road-tripped in from Charlotte) and are excited for the chance to network with industry leaders.

Project:Direct winners Erin Fede, top center, Blake Edwards, bottom left, and their team of collaborators, aka Edward's housemates.

“It’s great access for a filmmaker,” said Sara Pollack, YouTube’s product marketing manager for film. She added that the overall quality of submissions was better this year than last. Second place and $2,500 went to Ben Goldenberg and Jason Gossbee, of Toronto, for their film White Collar Criminals. Third place and $1,000 went to Avery Auer of Santa Monica, Calif., for her film, Good Deeds and the Damage Done. DVDs of all three films are being distributed to industry executives here.

One of the goals of the contest, Pollack said, is to discover hidden talent. And last year it succeeded in doing just that, she said. The daughter of last year’s Brazilian winner, who starred in her mom’s short, is now starring in one of the biggest Brazilian soap operas, Pollack said.
Maybe we’ll see Erin on Young and the Restless, Pollack said.

(Credit:
Michelle Meyers/CNET News)

Four months ago, Blake Edwards and Erin Fede met as new cubiclemates at a Charlotte, N.C.-based religious TV network. Today, they’re here at the Sundance Film Festival with a short film Edwards directed and Fede wrote and acted in.

Blake Edwards, director, and Erin Fede, writer and actor, won a trip to the Sundance Film Festival by coming in first place in YouTube's short film contest, Project: Direct.

Edwards and Fede are the winners of YouTube’s Project: Direct, a short film competition now in its second year, in which the prize is a trip to Sundance. The contest this year called upon filmmakers to create shorts that in some way incorporate two props that represent the most memorable films in the Sundance Film Festival’s 25 years. (Edwards and Fede chose a wedding dress and a soccer ball). The films also had to incorporate the iconic red phone associated with contest sponsor Moviefone.

Edwards and Fede’s ?Perfecto! was the grand prize winner, for which they got $2,500 in addition to the five-day stay here. Their film, which is about an international spy who finds love with a down-home country girl, is also screening at an official festival party for short filmmakers.

Fede actually came in second place last year with a Project:Direct film she wrote and acted in called Gone in a Flash. So when she heard about this year’s contest, Fede, who works as a graphic designer, immediately went to Edwards, a video producer, to seek his partnership.

This post was updated at 5:12 p.m. PST to fix an inconsistency in the spelling of Fede’s name and clarify the filmmakers’ contributions.

They took a different path to Park City than the 96 other filmmakers screening short films at the festival. They got here via YouTube, a site some associate more with crazy cat home videos than the work of future Scorseses.

“We did it, from conception to submission, in one month,” Edwards said.
They tipped the hat to their collaborators and Fede appreciated Edwards’ quizzing the main actors about their characters so that they would come off clearer and more developed.

Edwards said his attitude toward being here is similar to his attitude toward making the film to begin with. “We were given an opportunity and we can either do as little or as much with it as possible,” he said. Making the most of opportunities as become a sort of mantra for the group, he added.

The following are the three winning shorts:

PARK CITY, Utah–It could be one of the quickest known ascents to fame for a filmmaking team.

An Ohio man used a friend’s cell phone to get back his car, cell phone, and cash, all of which were stolen in a car jacking, according to a local TV report. Alan Heuss was sitting in his running BMW in Columbus on Wednesday when an armed man opened a passenger door, stuck a gun in his face, and made off with his stuff.

The carjacking suspects fell for the ruse and went to an address sent to them by Heuss’ friend just seven hours after the carjacking. But instead of the “hot chick with drugs” they were expecting, they were met with by cops with cuffs.

“He said, ‘I’m going to text these guys, I’m going to blow some smoke their way,’” Heuss told the station. “He said, ‘I’m going to tell them I’ve got a bunch of hot chicks, as if I’m texting you, and that we’ve got some drugs, too.’”

If texting is dangerous while driving a
car, it’s downright idiotic while stealing one.

After filing a police report, Heuss was meeting with some friends to drown his sorrows when one suggested that they try to contact the thieves by texting Heuss’ stolen cell phone.

And to make things easier for the officers, the suspects showed up in the stolen car.