Category: Tech news

In April 2007, Google launched a feature that, for the time, was very nifty: a free, fully automated 411 service called Goog-411 that would accept verbal commands to look up business listings. Today, after over three years of dutifully doling out free information to millions of phones, Google is announcing that it will be shuttering the service on November 12.

As Google alludes to in its blog post, the 411 service didn’t exist solely because Google wanted to help people out — it also gave Google a vast amount of voice data, allowing it to improve its speech recognition technology for the voice services that are now present throughout Android and on many other phones, including the iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia S60, and Windows.

In the blog post, Google also hints that we’ll be seeing much more voice functionality on the way:

Our success encouraged us to aim for more innovation. Thus, we’re putting all of our resources into speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages.

Here’s how we described the service back when it first launched.

Goog-411 can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411. The product is completely automated and there is no way to talk to a human for additional or clarifying information. You tell it your city and state, and then ask for a specific business or business category. In my tests the product was excellent. Although the voice recognition was only working at about 70% efficiency, I just said “back” and retried when it didn’t understand what I said. Results are spoken back or text messaged back to you, and you are automatically put through to the phone number requested.

Video advertising and analytics startup TubeMogul closed a $10 million Series B financing. The round was led by Foundation Capital, with existing investors Trinity Ventures and Knight’s Bridge Capital Partners (where WallStrip and StockTwits founder Howard Lindzon is a partner) also putting in more money. Previously, the company raised $5.4 million. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is a board member and one of its angel investors.

TubeMogul is best known as an online video analytics service, but it makes its money as a data-driven video ad platform. CEO Brett Wilson projects revenues this year will hit $10 million, up from $2.6 million in 2009. “We just did a $1.1 million month in September,” he says.

Most of those revenues are coming from TubeMogul’s PlayTime video ad platform, which only launched last March, but is already one of the broadest reaching video ad networks. It is really less of a cookie-cutter ad networks than it is an ad optimization and management system. Because its video analytics are so widespread across video publishers (TubeMogul made them free in July), whenever you watch a video somewhere on the Web, chances are pretty good that TubeMogul is dropping a cookie on your browser. So it knows what kinds of videos you watched and shared elsewhere.

It uses this data to determine whether and how much to bid for video ad inventory on other sites through PlayTime. Wilson claims to posses the “world’s largest proprietary database of video viewership.” TubeMogul combines that database with collaborative filtering to figure out which viewers watch videos the longest and what kinds of ads they might want to see. “In the time it takes an ad to load,” he explains, “we are looking at the site and who the person is. Do we know them? Do we want to serve them an ad? We are picking off impressions in realtime.”

TubeMogul doesn’t just buy bulk video ad inventory. It decides on an viewer-by-viewer basis whether to buy that inventory and show them an ad. And brand advertisers seem to like it. Some of them just use TubeMogul for the data and buy their own ads directly. TubeMogul shows them the same granular analytics it offers video publishers. It can show them video ads by number of views, number of viewers, geography, time of day, time watched, clickthroughs, and sharing on social sites like Twitter and Facebook. In an era when brand advertisers especially are more interested in measuring engagement than anything else, whoever can give them the best data will win.

Nokia has had it rough lately. But with the feature-packed N8, the Finnish handset maker has finally earned a spot at the cool kids table.

Okay, so…maybe not at the head of the table.

The N8 delivers most of what we’ve come to expect from a flagship smartphone. The company’s usual soft key-driven design has been ditched in favor of the eye-candy du jour—a bright 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen. The 640 x 360 resolution falls just shy of its dazzling competitors, but the N8 sports one of the best screens we’ve seen on a Nokia device (and does a solid job of video playback). With the screen eating up the majority of the 4.5 x 2.3 x 0.51-inch handset, the sides and top are populated with a host of buttons and ports: Mini-HDMI, mini-USB, hot-swappable microSD, 3.5mm headphone, and elegantly flushed volume and lock rockers. Though we were impressed by the image quality from the surprisingly sharp 12MP Carl Zeiss lens situated on the back, it distends a great deal and is somewhat of an eyesore. While the rest of the handset is relatively svelte (and light at 4.8 ounces), the protruding lens highjacks the profile and has a habit of getting stuck in pockets.

Powering Nokia’s ‘Great Grey Hope’ is a smartly leveraged 680MHz processor. Our knee-jerk reaction was to groan at this sub-1GHz powerplant, but the N8 savvily pairs it with a load-bearing Broadcomm GPU. This division of labor bore a great deal of fruit; finger-whisking through the spanking new Symbian^3 OS home screens was mostly smooth, and recording and off-loading 720p video at 25fps hardly felt like heavy lifting. Even the N8’s (comparatively lacking) 256MB of RAM didn’t hold performance back as much as we were expecting. Switching apps on the fly was painless, and exposing the device to multitasking torture didn’t produce a complete meltdown—at least not right away. Despite these admirable workhorse qualities, we feel like the N8 could’ve pushed the envelope a bit further. Just like the Droid and iPhone before it, the N8 experienced occasional lag while updating background processes like news and weather widgets. We suspect these hiccups could’ve been avoided with a little more horsepower, and quite frankly, we expect more from a ‘throne-reclaiming’ flagship device. As much as this irks us, we can’t deny the N8’s pragmatic appeal–between its decent call quality, responsive accelerometers, and light heft it’s a great plain-vanilla phone.

Of course, crossing the finish line doesn’t necessarily mean one made good time. It’s clear Nokia engineered the N8 as a punchy, tightly-constructed competitor, but it easily falls shy of market leadership. In its current state, Symbian^3 OS resembles Android OS in some of its roughest stages, and though Nokia’s navigation app is ahead of the curve with its locally-stored maps, the OVI App store as a whole leaves a lot to be desired. To be fair, these gripes could be resolved by a groundswell in Nokia’s development community and a few OS updates. But between its non-subsidized pricing in the U.S. market and the passable-but-not-exemplary performance, we feel like this is more of a Hail Mary than a touchdown.

WIRED Anodized aluminum body easily makes this one of Nokia’s sleekest designs. Ships with multimedia cables. Does a fantastic job at multimedia playback. Video chat-ready with a front-facing VGA camera. Mini-HDMI port pumps out video and Dolby Digital Plus audio. Some of the best (non-Google) navigation we’ve seen on a smartphone. Don’t call it a comeback—Nokia’s been here for years.

TIRED Competitive with the Pros (iPhone, Android, Windows 7), but clearly won’t convert the entrenched. Non-removable battery = two steps back. Symbian^3 OS’s lack of polish puts a hurt on quick navigation. Dual card bay (one for memory, one for sim) is a hassle to close.. No U.S. carrier subsidies or CDMA support will put a hurt on popularity. Don’t call it a comeback! Nokia’s been here for…years.

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like,” Steve Jobs once mused, “design is how it works.” With that criteria in mind — because Jobs is a notorious bicycle fanboy — we looked beyond the aesthetics of the iF-Mode folding bike. The short of it: Despite a relatively smooth ride and some really clever design touches, we’re not certain this visually-arresting two-wheeler is worth $2,500.

Yeah yeah yeah, Mark Sanders won an iF Gold Award in 2009 for the bike—the same year El Jobso was honored for the iPhone 3G, Nano, iPod and Macbook Air. With its sleek aluminum monofork, hidden chain, and minimalist 26-inch alloy rims, the if-Mode certainly looks different from every other folding bike we’ve ever had the pleasure or displeasure of riding. The “integrated folder” boasts a fairly smooth and efficient folding mechanism: One lever frees a dual-hinge at the frame’s mid-point, allowing the bike to collapse, literally, in half. Magnets hold the wheels together. The pedals and handlebars also fold to create a pretty narrow footprint. All of this makes the bike easier to stash, but not necessarily carry.

This eye candy is a whopping 32 pounds! And that’s not our only beef.

Despite the BMX vibe, the iF-Mode is actually a dual-speed, not single-speed. Not a huge help on mega-hills, but appreciated. Ingeniously, the shifter is integrated into the bottom bracket, requiring you to heel-kick either the left or right side to change gears. It’s a unique design, but not easy to master. Even after a week, we found it a tad difficult to hit the sweet spot without looking which, of course, takes your eyes off the road. We can’t speak for Jobs, but we’ll go out on a limb and say running the bike into a parked car while shifting gears qualifies as one demerit on the ol’ “how it works” scorecard.
WIRED Solid integrated stem/fork instead of a flimsy, adjustable post. Disc brakes stop on a dime. Twenty-six-inch tires and thick aluminum monocoque frame distract from the bike’s folder-ness.

TIRED $2,500?! For a plastic crankset?! Pleather saddle and handle grips that look cheaper than a Cracker Jack prize. Out of the box, handle bar folding mechanism was beyond finicky and, well, defective (ours stopped working after five or six folds).

Steve Jobs is a very smart guy, and last spring he gave some incisive reasons why Apple and everybody else in Silicon Valley who tried to improve the television experience failed to get traction. “The TV industry has a subsidized model that gives everyone a set-top box … and that pretty much undermines innovation in the sector,” he said. “The only way this is going to change is if you start from scratch, tear up the box, redesign and get it to the consumer in a way that they want to buy it.” He didn’t mention it, but it was understood that along with that roadblock was the problem of getting programming in the face of all sorts of licensing and cost barriers. That’s why, he concluded, Apple TV is a hobby, not a crucial business for his company.

But a guy needs a hobby, doesn’t he? So Apple is now back with a new version of Apple TV. Instead of the previous model that looked like a flatter AirPort, had a built-in hard drive, and cost $230, this one is a smaller black device that looks like a squared-off hockey puck, has no hard drive and cost only $100. And, of course, it has new software and a set of new services. It some ways it surpasses the previous model and, in other ways, does less.

As we’ve come to expect with Apple, the set-up is a dream. Simply plug it in the wall (bonus! no bulky power supply on the cord) and plug the HDMI cord you’ve paid extra for into the TV. (If you don’t have an HDTV stop reading, and go watch a DVD.) It’s dead simple to make a Wi-Fi connection, and log into iTunes. Now you’re ready to stream.

That’s the mindset you need for the Apple TV. Because there’s no hard drive, the box is a traffic cop handling digital content from various sources—the internet, your computer, the Apple store, your iPhone or iPad. For a lot of people, this can be pretty useful, though a lot of the sources are available with other devices, including the $60 Roku box—things like Netflix (a huge and wonderful addition to the Apple TV experience), YouTube, and internet radio. But only the Apple TV gives you iTunes, and since many millions use iTunes, that’s a big plus.

The signature experience of an Apple TV is using its straightforward, austere interface to call up the iTune store and watch videos. It loads easily and gives you a nice display of the choices available. Once you pick a video or movie trailer, it loads fairly briskly, and then you’re watching in excellent quality. (My living room Wi-Fi signal isn’t too strong, but interruptions were brief and infrequent.) The video streaming also worked great on Netflix, and it is sweet that the Apple TV interface hosts the Netflix instant-viewing feature. There’s also YouTube, which is fun to watch in a lean-back mode. Apple says that its API is open and if something Hulu wanted to get, in theory, that wouldn’t be a problem. (Same with iTunes music competitors like Rhapsody or Spotify—something that Apple TV cries for, since iTunes has no similar cloud-streaming service.) Of course, in theory, there shouldn’t be restrictive licenses that screw up just about every third-party attempt to innovate in the television space. But there are, so I’m not holding my breath for Hulu as a menu choice on the Apple TV.

Here’s a bigger catch: you can’t buy anything on Apple TV. Since you have no storage, you can only rent. That’s too bad, because only Fox and ABC offer shows for rental. It’s certainly a bad break if you want to see Breaking Bad. For the Fox and ABC shows, the one-dollar price is more than fair, but if multiple family members want to see the episode, everyone better be there because 48 hours after starting the show (24 hours for a movie), the rights disappear. And if you rent a video intending to watch it later that day and don’t get around to it, after 30 days, it’s gone. (Here’s hoping there’s a place in hell for the media lawyers who make these rules. A very special corner of hell where they know everyone can watch Breaking Bad but them.) There’s also frustration when you want to see certain movies that are on sale on iTunes but not yet rentable—often there’s a window where that happens. Yes, that mess is the fault of those fire and brimstone-bound media lawyers, but it’s Apple’s problem.

In those cases, there is a workaround—you can go to your computer, boot up iTunes, and buy the show or movie. Then you can use the Apple TV’s Home Sharing to stream from your computer to watch the video. Of course, if the owner of the laptop computer leaves the house, anyone left in the living room loses the benefit of that content.

That stream-from-computer function is also the way you can listen to your iTunes music collection on the Apple TV, via the Home Sharing function. It works well enough, but I miss the great default screensaver slideshow from the old Apple TV that featured all your album covers. On the new version, the default is a bunch of generic fuzzy-animal pictures. After you’re fed up with polar bears, you can change it to a Flickr collection or a few other options, but I want my album covers back. Also, the controls are so limited on the sleek aluminum remote that comes with the device, that in big music collections, it’s really hard to quickly locate the song you want to hear. Home Sharing also lets you watch your photo collection on the big flat screen.

Apple has software called AirPlay that allows you to stream the content (music, photos, video) from any computer within range, including those of visiting friends—it would also allow you to get internet content (Hulu/Rhapsody/Spotify, etc.) on the TV. AirPlay won’t be fully implemented until November, so I didn’t test it. I did try out a new version of the Remote app that allows you to control the Apple TV from your iPhone or iPad. It improves navigation and you can sit on the couch and control an iTunes music collection from the iPad more effectively.

Even with its limitations, the Apple TV will be a welcome stocking-stuffer for anyone with an iTunes collection who has not previously sprung for a device that connects a TV to the internet. But if the Apple TV indeed has (as reported) a built-in iOS that can run iPad and iPhone apps, turning it on would change the equation dramatically. That would open up the Apple TV to any number of cool applications—basically every kind of digital content would be available via the Apple TV menu. A creative community unleashing thousands of clever apps could make Apple TV much more than a hobby.

Sony hasn’t exactly upstaged anyone in e-reader theater. But, the company’s pocket-sized PRS-350 is looking to change that. The impetus was clear: Make an attractive, travel-sized, idiot-simple e-reader for the masses.

Unfortunately, though the PRS-350 does many things right, there’s still a lot of room to kvetch.

Sony clearly nailed the hardware on the PRS-350. As the company’s flagship pocket reader, it’s small and feather-light at 5.5 ounces, while also supporting a spanking new 800 x 600 e-ink Pearl display. Nestled into the frame is a functional (yet cheap-feeling) stylus, and resting below the five-inch screen is a set of functional (yet cheap-feeling) soft keys. An aluminum and plastic chassis and an infrared-driven touchscreen add a touch of class, and at a little over four inches wide, the device sat comfortably in our hands during marathon reading sessions.

A lot of the PRS-350’s hardware high-points come with counterpoints. Though reading text on the screen is a delight thanks to 16 adjustable contrast levels, getting titles onto the device’s 2 GB of memory via a mini-USB cable and clunky proprietary software is old hat. And while it sports meat-and-potatoes ePUB, PDF, and TXT support, the Sony Reader Store pales in comparison to its competitors. As if that weren’t bad enough, the PRS-350’s lack of 3G or even Wi-Fi connectivity underscores all these issues.

Despite our issues with the PRS-350 as an all-around gadget, we can’t deny it’s a solid e-reader. Not only does it feel comfortable when you’re actively poking through the menus — or better yet, double-tapping words to pull up the integrated dictionary — but it also completely disappears into the background while you’re reading. Turning pages with mere finger whisks became second nature, and transitions were smooth thanks to a capable processor. Complaints aside, this is essentially what one wants in an e-reader, so we can’t fault Sony too much for its utilitarian delivery.

Of course, there’s the two-ton e-reading elephant in the room: How does the PRS-350 stack up against competitors like the Kindle and Nook? When it comes to important features like connectivity and software, Sony is clearly outmatched. But if you’re looking for an aesthetically pleasing bare-bones reader you can certainly do worse.

WIRED Compact design is both eye-catching and travel-friendly. Touchscreen makes highlighting passages and notation a breeze. Sixteen contrast levels makes outdoor reading a cinch. Screen stays smudge-free even after numerous swipes. Battery only needs a quick bi-weekly charge.

TIRED Missing Wi-Fi and 3G makes it $50 too expensive. Sony’s online store leaves a lot to be desired. Comes in robotic silver or cartoonish pink. No headphone jack means no audio books. Cheap-feeling buttons and stylus are unforgivable.

Some musicians have a hard time saying no to new (or vintage) gear, and their arsenals end up looking a lot like Rick Wakeman’s keyboard corner in Yes.

Of course, getting superb and subsonic synth sounds in 2010 doesn’t have to make you go bankrupt or make your studio look like a still life from Hoarders. Korg’s Monotron, a tiny analog ribbon controller, is miniaturization done right. Images and YouTube videos don’t quite capture the deceptively diminutive dimensions of this music box. Trust us: The Monotron is small enough to lose, but expansive enough to lose yourself in.

Like Schroeder’s pico piano in Peanuts, the Monotron requires nimbleness and ultra-skinny fingers to play standalone. The single-octave keyboard is a flat beveled plane about 4 inches across, with printed lines between the keys and white rectangles to make sharps and flats visually pop out. A stylus would make things much easier, but Korg doesn’t include one in the box.

That’s actually fine, because the Monotron’s core strength comes from its innards — specifically its analog filter, nearly identical to the one in the much bulkier, knobbier Korg MS-20 (check out this video comparison). At the turn of its plastic dials, the Monotron oscillates from smooth to screeching, and pulsing to droning, rising through a built-in speaker as a sawtooth wave (named for its sharp, up-and-down modulation).

On the back of the Monotron are jacks for headphones and better yet, an 1/8-inch stereo cable. During our tests, we routed in a Line 6 DL-4 stompbox to create heady loops with the Monotron, and plugged in a Vox tube amp as a preamp to turn a Fender Telecaster into a fuzz axe. An evening of wacky jamming ensued.

Since the Monotron came out, videos have also surfaced showing users routing in iPhones, iPads, the Korg Kaossilator and other external audio sources, revealing the broad analog capacity of the little synth. Some DIY tinkerers have even revealed some (relatively) easy soldering mods for the Monotron. We haven’t attempted surgery yet, but it looks fun. Replacing the quick-draining AAA batteries for an external power adapter?

Uhh, yes, please.

WIRED Analog filter is a steal for the price. Minimal dials make sound manipulation super accessible.

TIRED Granular keyboard bites for sausage fingers. Battery life is what you’d expect with two AAAs: brief. We’d like to see a ¼-inch stereo input.

LEDs have long been hyped as guilt-free, supergreen successors to squiggly compact fluorescents. One problem: They usually suck, casting a dim bluish light. Not anymore. The glow from the Philips EnduraLED is as comforting as Mom’s cooking, thanks to a special phosphor coating that absorbs the blue glare and transforms the light into a warm, golden hue — 2,700 degrees on the Kelvin scale. And using just 12 watts, the lamp matches the brightness of a 60-watt incandescent. Yet putting out all that shine exposes the LED’s kryptonite: heat. If diodes get too toasty, they’ll go supernova. So the Endura features cast-aluminum heat sinks to dissipate thermal energy from the LED panels. The result is a bulb that can screw into any socket, turn on instantly, and last 25 times longer than an equivalent incandescent, all while using 80 percent less power. Brilliant!

No question, there is lots to love about Sony’s Z-Series Vaio, model VPCZ125GX/B.

Performance is blazing, nearly at the top of the charts and surprising for a machine this diminutive: The 13.1-inch notebook weighs a paltry 3.1 pounds, yet it packs a high-end 2.4-GHz Core i5 CPU, 6 GB (yes, six) of RAM, optical drive, and switchable graphics, courtesy of an Nvidia GeForce GT 330M. All of this gives the Vaio Z-Series not just power enough to tear up a spreadsheet, but plenty of juice for gaming, too. Seriously, this unit can outperform all but the most dedicated gaming notebooks during frag-time.

But wait, there’s more! How about integrated Verizon WWAN? A backlit keyboard? A 256-GB solid state hard drive? Three and a half hours of battery life? SD and Memory Stick slots? Even upgraded screen resolution, to 1600 x 900 pixels?

Why, there’s so much to like about the Z-Series that one almost overlooks its flaws. That is, until they come roaring back to punch you in the teeth.

Said flaws number two, and they’re rather large. First is the display. LED backlighting is appreciated, as is the enhanced resolution, but there’s no explanation why, at full brightness, the screen remains one of the dimmest we’ve ever reviewed, beaming a dull gray-blue color where we expect to see vibrant white. It’s a glaring and frankly unacceptable flaw on an otherwise knockout system.

As bad as that is, the second issue is probably of greater concern to the average sub-billionaire shopper. At $2,349, this laptop is one of the most expensive we’ve tested all year. Yes, it performs like a high-end gaming notebook, but it’s priced like one too. For a machine that will likely be positioned as an executive toy, that’s an impossibly tough sell, but if you really need ultimate power at an absolute minimum weight, you’ve found it.

WIRED A powerhouse computer in an ultra-thin and light package. Looks good. Filled with features above and beyond the call of duty.

TIRED Ungodly expensive. Ultra-dim display is baffling and wrong. Wireless toggle switch is easy to bump off. Keys are a little small, touch-typing can be rocky. LCD is disconcertingly floppy.

The only explanation I can guess at for why the MSI GX660 looks the way it does is that someone made a bet with an MSI engineer, challenging him to design the most horrendously ugly computer possible.

This engineer has succeeded admirably. Not since the original Dell Inspiron XPS has a computer this fugly been unleashed upon America.

It is a throwback to an era that has never actually existed except in the minds of ’70s sci-fi enthusiasts, with harsh angles, weird textures, and a combination of automotive inspirations and goofy octagonal designs attempting to live together.

It’s like someone saw a Battlestar Galactica highlight reel and just didn’t get it. Even the Windows desktop wallpaper is hideous.

And MSI, known for its dirt-cheap yet capable machines, wants to convince you to fork over $1,750 for this monstrosity.

Pushing past the design aesthetic, here’s what MSI is giving you for your investment: a high-res, 1920 x 1080-pixel, 15.6-inch LCD; a 1.73-GHz Core i7 Q740 CPU; two 320-GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration; 6 GB of RAM; and an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card. Hey, looks pretty good.

Designed as a gaming laptop (complete with arrows on the WASD keys), the GX660 is powerful, but hardly a record-setter. Benchmarks were on target for a high-end machine, but we’ve gotten better numbers on both general apps and games out of a ThinkPad.

Props to MSI for at least putting a real battery in the system. With 1 hour, 51 minutes of battery life, the MSI is genuinely portable in ways that few gaming rigs are. Its mere 7.6-pound weight is positively gossamer for this category, too.

We also liked the MSI’s touch-sensitive control panel along the top of the base. These seem to be all the rage, but most barely work. The MSI’s icons are actually easy to comprehend, and they perform as expected.

We were less thrilled with the much-touted Dynaudio speaker setup, which puts very visible, oversized speakers on both corners of the base. They’re nothing to write home about. In fact, it would have been nice if they’d been even louder, so as to drown out the jet-engine–class fan that’s installed to cool the dang thing.

WIRED Quite affordable for a gaming notebook — it’s just too bad the performance isn’t top-notch, too. Dual USB 3.0 ports. Light and long-lived, considering the category.

TIRED So ugly you’ll keep it in a paper bag. Weak keyboard, with boneheaded numeric keypad layout.

Warhol was only half-right. Sure everyone is famous these days, but only for 15 seconds and in 15 fps.

At least that’s what the Looxcie, a wearable video camera, presumes. Integrated into a flashy Bluetooth headset, the device is meant for capturing happenstance moments where whipping out a phone or cheap portable camcorder may not suffice. It also pairs with a mobile app that transforms your cell phone into a viewfinder, in case you want to frame specific shots. Still, it’s not for documentary films, just quick clips (up to 4-GB of ‘em). Which is supposedly why Looxcie only shoots HVGA in 15 fps, instead of anything even close to HD.

In theory, it makes sense. With a quick double-tap of an easy-to-find button on top of the headset, we were able to record almost five hours of random footage from a variety of places: buses, trains, crosswalks, the office (the bathroom!). It’s particularly solid for driving or other hands-free tasks you might want to document like, say, deconstructing and fixing a gadget (hat tip: @Alanwordguy ). In all of these instances, 15 fps is perfectly “good enough.”

Outdoor clips are noticeably grainy and pixilated, the sensor adjusts to bright sunlight very slowly, and the color contrast is pretty disappointing. However, it’s worth noting we found our indoor footage comparable, more or less, when tested side-by-side with an iPhone 3GS.

In practice, Looxcie still doesn’t seem quite ready for its close-up. The entire headset is less than 28 grams and fairly comfortable—until you really start moving around with it on. A light jog crossing the street required holding the camera in place. Every time we bent the flexible boom to frame a shot, the whole package jerks out of ear. The problem isn’t just hardware, either. Looxcie’s app is easy-to-use: Short clips are e-mailed within a minute. But for now, it’s compatible with Android phones (sorry iDrones). Plus, you can only share footage via e-mail and Facebook (BlackBerry and Apple compatibility along with Twitter/YouTube shortcuts are purportedly on the way, but until then, it’s a limitation worth noting).

A more bitter hindrance is the $200 price tag. Consider that a GoPro 960 helmet cam comes with a waterproof casing and various mounts suitable to a plethora of conditions. It costs only $180. Oh, and it captures a 170-degree field of view … in HD (60 fps). We’re not saying you shouldn’t buy the Looxcie. If you’re a Bluetooth headset kind of a person to begin with, killing two birds could be sensible. If not, well, you’re already carrying a smart phone that shoots 15 fps. Is using one of your hands that raw a deal, guys?

WIRED Alert every 30 seconds to remind you you’re filming. Lightweight at less than an ounce. Filming, viewing, editing a clip and sharing is a breeze. No limitation on clip duration. Excellent range (33 feet as advertised: CONFIRMED).

TIRED Sharing only works for short clips (30-minutes, 183 MB? No dice.). Terrible camera stabilization—some footage looked like deleted scenes from Cloverfield. Lackluster, muffled sound quality. No zoom. Harder to configure than a Rubik’s cube: two WIRED staffers couldn’t figure out how to adjust it to wear in left ear. Behind-the-ear battery looks like a hearing aid. Sorry nerds, cannot be worn comfortably with thicker-rimmed glasses.

Summer is for dilettantes. Surfing is increasingly becoming a winter sport, since the cold-month storms bring bigger and better waves. We tested four new cold-weather suits to see which would keep you shredding, not shivering.

1. O’Neill Psychofreak

The designs of wet suit pioneer Jack O’Neill have been soaking the competition ever since the early ’50s. The Psychofreak offers a number of subtle refinements to the standard design: sealed wrist and neck openings, premium closed-cell neoprene, a (mostly) watertight zipper, and a plush lining. The result is one of the warmest unpowered suits on the market.

WIRED Easy on and off. Patented zipper-bib will funnel interior water away from the body. More details than a Wes Anderson flick: abrasion-proof neck closure, small leg pocket for car key, and polyurethane sealant on every seam.

TIRED Design complexity can backfire: Easy to put a leg through that patented bib while suiting up—especially in the groggy darkness of an early-morning dawn patrol. Not that we did this.

$530, oneill.com

2. XCEL Infiniti Drylock

Made of plump, air-pocketed neoprene with a comfy inner liner, the XCEL was the warmest unpowered suit in our test. It was also harder to get into and out of than a 20-foot shore break. The supertight “drylock” neck and wrist closures more than live up to their name, keeping water out but also completely locking you into the suit. We love surfing too, but come on—you’ve gotta leave the beach eventually.

WIRED Layer of fuzzy bamboo fabric bonded to the inside works just as well as the wool that other suits use, without the scratchiness.

TIRED Poking your noggin through the collar can be particularly vexing. Lining can conspire against you—it’s almost impossible to get the thing on if you’re the slightest bit wet.

$440, xcelwetsuits.com

3. Matuse Tumo

Matuse is a boutique outfit that focuses on build quality and materials: Its suits are cut from the highest-quality nitrogen-blown, titanium-coated, limestone-based geoprene instead of what it calls “mouse-pad rubber.” OK, sure. We loved the way it fit—others have a suit-of-armor feel, but the Matuse makes you feel like you’ve been dipped in plastic. After a long, cold morning, though, we were longing for mouse-pad rubber.

WIRED Won’t waterlog, making it much lighter than a standard suit when wet. Exceptional cut and fit. Easiest to paddle and pop up in—like not wearing a wet suit at all.

TIRED Like not wearing a wet suit at all: Warmth-for-mobility trade-off worth it only for exceptionally hardy, performance-oriented surfers.

$475, matuse.com

4. Rip Curl H-Bomb

The H-Bomb represents the wave of the future: powered wet suits. Twin, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in the lumbar pouch provide enough juice to stay warm in frigid waters for up to two and a half hours. The heating element is localized on your back, and the theory is that the heater will warm the water sloshing around inside the suit. If you’re surfing in Arctic waters, keeping your torso warm is vital to staving off hypothermia. But otherwise, you might feel like a total dork walking around with a bunch of electronics stuffed down your swim jumper.

WIRED Batteries pump out an incredible amount of warmth—up to 124 degrees Fahrenheit.

TIRED In practice, it can feel like someone is ironing your spine.

$1,000, ripcurl.com

The Verizon iPhone rumor is as old as the iPhone itself. So whenever anyone trots it out, you take it with a grain of salt. It’s like The Beatles coming to iTunes. It will happen eventually, but who knows when. That said, today’s Wall Street Journal report about Verizon readying to launch the iPhone in early 2011 has all the makings of a good old Apple-controlled leak once again. And so it may be time to really believe.

Now, I of course don’t know for sure that Apple fed WSJ this story — but let’s look at the recent history. In January, as rumors were swirling about the iPad, the WSJ had a story suggesting the tablet computer could run around $1,000. At the time, I pointed out why this reeked of Apple setting expectations low so they could blow them out of the water. A few days later, a former Marketing Manager at Apple backed this up. The result? Steve Jobs on stage announcing the iPad would start at just $499. Boom.

This past July, rumors were swirling that Apple would have to recall the iPhone 4 due to its antenna. When Apple called a surprise press conference, these rumors only intensified. But one day before the event, there was the WSJ again with the story that Apple would not be recalling the device. Again, this seemed to be all about setting expectations. The next day, did Apple recall the device? Nope. But no one panicked because everyone knew they weren’t going to.

If you go back to last year, on June 19, Apple had their most successful product launch ever (at the time) with the iPhone 3GS. That night, after the stock market had closed, WSJ broke the news that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had undergone a liver transplant months earlier while on his medical leave of absence. The timing of such a scoop was curious at best — and there’s no denying that the timing was advantageous to Apple. Jobs was said to be fine, and returning to work shortly.

What did all of those stories have in common? Each was authored or co-authored by WSJ reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane. And guess who co-authored today’s Verizon iPhone story as well? Yep.

So why would Apple want to leak such news? Well that’s obvious. News of a Verizon iPhone would quickly quiet all the talk of Android’s momentum against the iPhone in the U.S. marketplace. That talk, backed up by report after report after report, is louder than it has ever been. Android is clearly outpacing the iPhone in terms of sales in this country. And the media is latching on to that story big time.

Considering the disproportionate amount of money Apple makes from the iPhone (billions) versus what Google makes so far from Android (next to nothing), you might think Apple wouldn’t care about this. But indications are that they do. Jobs takes thinly veiled shots at Android all the time (often in response to not-so-thinly veiled shots from Google). And his leaked talk with employees at the beginning of the year makes it clear that he feels threatened by Android.

Again, given Apple’s success and proven model, they probably shouldn’t care. It’s simply not really a fair fight. But they do. And the Verizon iPhone is proof of that.

And today marks a particularly interesting day because there is a tidal wave of new Android devices that have been announced at or around CTIA here in San Francisco. In the mobile world right now, it’s Android, Android, Android. And it’s not just consumers that are sensing this — it’s the all-important developers too. And considering that Apple only puts out new phones once a year, in the Summer, they have nothing to counter with. Except the Verizon iPhone.

The WSJ story also notes that a fifth generation iPhone is in the works as well. But that’s obvious. That’s on the same schedule as all of the previous iPhones. In fact, this fifth generation iPhone has probably been in the works for two years now. The key to the story is that Pegatron will be mass-producing a CDMA iPhone by the end of the year, and Verizon will be selling it.

This is actually the second Verizon iPhone rumor Kane has reported in recent months. But the first one, in March, was careful not to specifically say that Verizon would be getting the iPhone — just that Apple was working on a CDMA version of the device. All indications are that this is true, and has been true for some time — we’ve heard the same thing. But that story may have just been to whet people’s appetite with the hint of Verizon. Today’s is the meat.

And interestingly enough, the original version of today’s story said the exact same thing: just that a CDMA version of the iPhone was coming. It was later changed to specifically name Verizon as the provider it would appear on. Some people weren’t getting the message clearly enough, it seems.

Some of the Verizon-specific additions:

Apple Inc. is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year

Verizon Wireless has been meeting with Apple, adding capacity and testing its networks to prepare for the heavy data load by iPhone users, according to one person familiar with the matter. The carrier is seeking to avoid the kind of public-relations hit that AT&T took when the boom in data-hungry iPhones overtaxed its network, especially in New York and San Francisco.

Apple originally decided against developing a phone for Verizon to focus on a version based on GSM, a more prevalent mobile technology used by AT&T and most mobile operators in the world, people familiar with the decisions have said.

Verizon, in those earlier discussions, balked at Apple’s requirement that Verizon not allow its retail partners to sell the phone, people familiar with the discussion said at the time. Verizon also declined to give up its ability to sell content like music and videos through its proprietary service, these people said.

That last part in particular scares me. While I will absolutely be the first person in line to buy an iPhone that runs on Verizon’s network. There’s a difference between that and a Verizon iPhone. The iPhone that Verizon wants to sell undoubtedly is loaded up with the same crap they now load on their Android phones. Since Verizon has leverage now with Android’s popularity, will Apple have to give in to some of Verizon’s demands? I hope not, but I’m worried.

If Apple really does care about U.S. market share — and again, indications are that they actually do — they need Verizon more than Verizon needs them. And that’s a bad place to be in — and one Apple isn’t used to in recent years.

Is it possible that if this is a leak, Apple is simply using it as a negotiating ploy once again? Maybe. But it seems like there’s too much smoke — all the CDMA reports, AT&T saying dumb things about how they’re not scared to lose the iPhone, and the fact that Apple really does need another carrier if it wants to continue growing in the U.S. — for there not to be truth to the rumors this time.

So I’m cautiously optimistic now that come January I’ll have a phone that actually works as a phone. It just better not have that V CAST crap on it. And it better come in white.

Google has Google Instant. Bing has guided search and (soon) swimming whale videos on its home page. Yahoo, well, Yahoo now has an expanding accordion search box. Starting today, when you do searches related to music, movies, or news, a set of results will be packaged together at the top in a box with vertical tabs along the side. It is similar to Google’s Universal Search Onebox and the Bing Box, except that the vertical tabs create four or five expanding search boxes in one.

When you do a search for “Lady Gaga,” for instance, the default box is an overview with an excerpt from her bio, link to her official site, and photos, but there are also tabs for nearby events, albums, videos, and Twitter. The Twitter tab is further divided into her official Tweets, Tweets from Hollywood Insiders, and Tweets from “Everyone” (although it is not really from everyone, Yahoo filters out spam and bots).

Similarly, for news, the tabs are divided into stories, images, videos, and Twitter. And for movies, you get an overview with links to trailers, and a tab with showtimes near you. Yahoo also has a partnership with Netflix to link directly to that movie on Netflix, where it can be added to your queue. (Yahoo won’t get paid for each movie that people add to their Netflix list, but will get paid a bounty for new members who sign up for Netflix). These tabs will also be for sale to search advertisers who may want to sponsor one.

If you do a search for a trending search topic, chances are you will get a slideshow in the search box, along with photo sand information. (Yahoo loves search-generated slideshows). Yahoo is also adding slideshow results to its image search. The top result will now often show a box with related slideshows from different public domain image banks such as Flickr.

Finally, Yahoo’s mobile search is adopting HTML5 so that it can show better looking tabs, image search results, and stock charts when applicable.

It looks like Digg is trying to resurrect inactive users, according to an email sent to us by a reader. Apparently Digg sent out the email to users in hopes of trying to get those who are inactive back to the site. As the email states, “Come Alive On Digg. A Lot Has Changed Since You Were Last On Digg. Resurrect Yourself.”

It could be a joke alluding to Halloween, which is just around the corner. But even if it is a play on the upcoming holiday, the image is a little morbid considering the recent course of events for Digg. Since Digg launched its new site design in August, the site has been plagued with trouble, including backlash from users, downtime and an executive shuffle. According to ComScore, Digg’s U.S. unique visitors dropped from 14.3 million in January to 8.8 million in August.

Digg’s Kevin Rose took the stage recently at TechCrunch Disrupt last week, admitting that he’s made a lot of mistakes but also seemed optimistic about future product enhancements.