Toshiba wants to buck the laptop trend with the U500-1EX, eschewing the overall move towards Apple-like looks and super-slim design. Not to mention loading it up with touchscreen tech that some manufacturers just don’t seem too keen on. Does this make it a winner? Read our Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review.

Read the rest of our Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review:

Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: design and build
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: speed and performance
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: multi-touch screen

As soon as you look at the lid of the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX you realise you have something out of the ordinary – it’s a sort of DSi XL chocolate brown but with a textured feel like an executive briefcase. Maybe brown is going to be this year’s white.

Whereas everyone else is heading towards feather lightness, the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX is a relatively chunky monkey at 2.2 kg with a fat bottomed 38.2 mm and 29.5 mm at the front. You won’t have much difficulty stuffing it into a rucksack or luggage rack but you may have to reduce the number of sandwiches you pack with it.

There’s much to admire about the styling – the cool chrome strip round the edge that pools into the mouse keys, the brilliant white backlit EasyControl Bar, the similar burst of light at the top of the touchpad and the jet black full-size keyboard, all make the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX a cool machine you’d be glad to show off. However, the keys are too shiny for totally comfortable typing, even though they’re broad and responsive.

Part of the reason for the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX’s weight is the inclusion of a DVD Super Multi drive which unlike the one in the ViewSonic Viewbook Pro can’t be swapped out for extra battery power. No shortage of interfaces, though, which number a 5-in-1 card reader, an ExpressCard slot, VGA, HDMI, 2 USB 2.0’s and a combined eSATA/USB 2.0 which is perfect for fast transfers to flash cards or simply charging up your iPhone.

All the usual suspects are there for connectivity (Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) but it’s when we come to the display of the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX that the first cracks start to appear in this glowing façade. It’s described as a 13.3-inch TruBrite WXGA TFT High Brightness screen and yet brightness (with a maximum resolution of just 1280 x 800) is the heart of the problem. The backlit keyboard control buttons have twice the brightness of this dull affair.

Which brings us straight to the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX’s supposed trump card – the multitouch Control system. Yes you can have fun making water ripples, zooming into the Earth and making photo montages using the supplied Microsoft Touch Pack. You can also copy all the iPhone style moves easily and use Toshiba’s own ReelTime app to call up documents and photos swiftly, but smaller icons often need a mouse to locate precisely.

The real strength of the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX is in its performance power, as it houses the latest Intel Core i3-330 CPU, clocking at 2.13GHz with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and 320GB storage. Although the native Intel GMA HD graphics card is not up with the big boys from NVIDIA and ATI, we could still run shooters like the F.E.A.R. without too much trouble, even though it’s clearly not meant to be a gaming machine.

On the down side, battery life is poor – even Toshiba only claim a maximum life of 3 hours and 15 minutes and you’ll be lucky if you manage more than half of that at relatively light usage, unlike the MacBook Pro or Acer Timeline series.

Read the rest of our Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review:

Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: design and build
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: speed and performance
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: multi-touch screen

The Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX can handle some nifty tricks with its multi-touch capability. We also know it looks funky and cool at the same time with is textured chocolate lid and chrome gilding. But it’s what’s inside that counts, right? Read our Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: speed & performance and find out if this micro machine can live up to our lofty expectations.

Read the rest of our Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review:

Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: overall verdict
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: design and build
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: multi-touch screen

The Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX has the latest Intel Core i3-330M processors under the hood, clocked at 2.13GHz and with 4GB of DDR3 1,066MHz RAM. This takes it well out of Atom netbook country and firmly into serious notebook territory and it achieved a very respectable PCMark05 benchmark score of 5423.

Having a speedy processor is one thing but if you have a three-toed sloth for a graphics card then you end up with a naff overall performance. The Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX uses Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator HD which clocks at a maximum 766 MHz. Clearly this isn’t a full-on gaming graphics card but it can handle a popular shooter like the first F.E.A.R. with no lagging or fragging.

It’s a totally different story if you want to spend hours on Modern Warfare 2 but as this is primarily a business notebook, any decent gaming possibilities are a bonus. Unsurprisingly, the GMA HD didn’t score more than 2314 on the PCMark05 test.

Similarly, the DVD Super Multi drive has no problem running 720p HD movies and blockbusters like Iron Man and Transformers flowed smoothly – even the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX’s low resolution screen couldn’t mask the fact that the underlying contrast and sharpness appeared sound.

Battery life, though, is a different story as the most basic set-up of Internet browsing, music file playing in the background and typing up a document saw the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX’s lithium-ion power cell grind to a halt in two hours 52 minutes – considerably less than the three hours 15 minutes heralded on the label. When you move into heavy use – gaming, movies, several apps open at once – you can barely scrape much more than an hour and a half.

However, like all of the U500 range, the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX has an Eco button which pops up a control slide to let you manage how much energy you’re using while the laptop’s in operation, as well as both Sleep and Hibernation modes which enable quick start-ups and data save. All well and good for your carbon footprint but far from ideal at providing more oomph for your battery.

This is where the dilemma comes with the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX. If you want to keep it mostly powered to the wall as a principal PC, it doesn’t have the overall graphics power for all your needs. On the other hand, if you want to take it on the road for presentations and seminars, it will manage the work effortlessly but will still be tight on operating time. Plus it’s heavier than many of its contemporaries like the MacBook Pro.

Read the rest of our Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review:

Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: overall verdict
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: design and build
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX review: multi-touch screen

The Notepad for Notes

The next market Apple should set its sights on is the $31 billion television set market, writes Gene Munster and his team at Piper Jaffray in a note for clients today.

As televisions become fully connected devices in the next 2-4 years, Apple is well positioned to take advantage says Gene.

Consumers are shelling out over $2,000 for their television, blu-ray, cable package/cable box, gaming system and stereo equipment. Apple could deliver a comparable television with all those features built in for $2,000 according to Gene's estimates.

Right now, Apple's cheapest 27″ iMac goes for $1,700, so it might a little optimistic to think we'd get a 40″ Apple TV for $2,000 in two years. Of course, the TV could be stripped down a bit in terms of power.

A high price tag wouldn't have to be a killer, though. Gene notes Apple has a rabid following and a history of selling electronics at a premium price. Don't forget, in 2005, most outsiders wouldn't have thought it could sell a smartphone for $600 a pop. But then the iPhone came along.

A big hurdle would be live television. Add in a cable package and Apple's value proposition goes down. Gene thinks Apple could try creating an iTunes TV Pass at $50-$90 per month to compensate.

The challenge there: So far, no big television or movie studios are willing to get on board with Apple.

Plus, that doesn't address the real problem — no LIVE television. People love watching sports on their HD TVs. Apple could add a port in the back for cable, but that isn't Steve Jobs' style. He's sort of a control freak.

Here's more reasons Apple should sell a TV:

• It's great at building software. A nice operating system with a browser combined with iTunes on a television would be something Apple could do better than, say, LG.
• Google's already making moves into the TV market. Apple doesn't want to give up ground.
• It could integrate gaming, which is becoming a big part of Apple's business through the iPhone and possibly the iPad.
• An Apple TV could work with iPhones, iPods, and iPads offering customers a portable television solution.
• Apple is a huge company. Finding new lines of business that can contribute seriously to revenue is hard. Selling televisions would work.

As a parting shot, Apple COO Tim Cook recently said of Apple TV, “we fundamentally believe there is something there for us in the future.” Of course, he also said, “Today, the go-to-market model for Apple TV is very difficult. Because it would seem that that go-to-market model would lead to the TV. And we have no interest in being in the TV market.”

As Dan Frommer wrote at the time, 'This means that Apple will either continue to stay out of the TV market, or will come out with a TV in a year and proclaim that it's the greatest TV of all time.'

The Open Rights Group is looking for British individuals and organisations to sign onto its comments to the UK TV regulator, who is on the verge of giving into blackmail from the BBC and an offshore DRM cartel, crippling TV in Britain forever.

The BBC has asked Ofcom, the UK telcoms regulator, to give it permission to put DRM on digital TV signals. Anyone who wants to make a receiver that can unscramble the DRM will have to sign up with an offshore consortium called DTLA, agreeing to a whole raft of DRM requirements, including a ban on making TV receivers and recorders that users can modify (which amounts to a ban on free/open TV equipment like MythTV, as well as free/open drivers for laptop TV cards).

This is a bad idea for lots of reasons: it's our TV, paid for with the license fee. The BBC claims that some unspecified rightsholders will withhold some unspecified programming from TV if they don't get this, but so far, no one's come forward to specifically say, “I won't release the following programmes,” so we're just left with this kind of vague, nonspecific threat.

If that wasn't bad enough, the BBC hasn't identified anyone who has promised to make programmes available if the DRM is added — so we're being asked to turn regulatory control over the public service broadcaster to a corporate cartel without even being promised anything in return!

Worst of all: the BBC's DRM scrambles a block of data that includes the assistive information used by visually impaired and hearing impaired people to watch TV, meaning that it will be harder than ever to deliver low-cost, robust technologies for these audiences. Fancy using blind and deaf people as human shields in the copyright wars! Now that's public service!

The rightsholder companies made the same threats in 2003 when the USA was considering adding DRM to its digital TV, and none of them followed through. The idea that broadcasters will simply stop airing programmes, or that new suppliers won't show up to sell shows if old ones boycott the system, is just ludicrous. These businesses have shareholders who want to see a return on their investment, not a public tantrum.

ORG has written a thorough response to the Ofcom consultation on BBC DRM, and now we're looking for individuals and organisations to sign on to it. We've already got sign-on from the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Somethin' Else, and many other consumer rights groups, tech groups, and entertainment companies are considering signing up.

We're open to signons from any license payer or UK resident, but we're especially interested in:

• Programmers, especially those who work on digital TV technologies
• Video creators, especially BBC suppliers
• MythTV users and users of tuner cards with open/free drivers
• People with visual and hearing disabilities
• Teachers and tinkerers who play with receiver technology
• People who travel within the EU and would have to buy a second TV or card specifically to receive DRM broadcasts from the BBC
• Anyone else who feels an especially strong connection to the public service value of open platforms

Stop BBC “Digital Rights Management” from disabling your HD TV

Our Little Blog

Earlier today during an Italian press event Acer unveiled not only two new notebooks, but a new series of notebooks. The new notebooks will fall under the Acer Aspire Ethos brand and are carrying the model numbers of 8943G and 5943G. Both come sporting a sleek looking metallic design and touting premium features.

First up we have the Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G which has an 18.4 inch display with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 and that is followed by the Acer Aspire Ethos 5943G with its 15.6 inch display and 1366 x 768 HD resolution, both of which are LED backlit. Other features of the two notebooks include a side to side chiclet style keyboard, options for either an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD500 series graphics, a fingerprint reader as well as a choice between either a DVD or Blu-ray optical drive.

Both model notebooks will also have Dolby Home Theater sound with a 5.1 channel speaker system and those speakers are all internal. Moving on, you also have the more commonly found features which include a built in webcam, integrated microphone, card reader, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, USB, eSata, Firewire, gigabit Ethernet as well as HDMI and VGA outputs. In terms of storage, the Ethos 8943G will be able to offer a massive “up to” 1.28TB. Yes, terabyte as in more than 1000GB’s. Of course that is broken up into two 640GB drives.

The notebooks also ship with optimizations that make playback of HD video better, allow users to easily convert video files and easily upload to sites like YouTube and Facebook and Flickr.

But perhaps the most important item is left for last — the pricing and availability. Unfortunately neither of those have been announced as of yet. However, based on where these were announced it looks like they will (at least) initially be available only in Italy and possibly Europe.

There’s a lot of excitement around the idea of affordable tablet PCs such as the upcoming iPad and dozens of other ARM-based tablets running Google Android or other Linux distributions. But tablets have been around for years — it’s just that most of them have fit Microsoft’s earlier vision of the tablet PC, which is a powerful laptop computer with a full sized keyboard and a touchscreen display that you can fold down over the keyboard for use in tablet mode — often with an active digitizer to enable handwriting recognition.

The Acer Aspire 1825PT tablet falls somewhere in between. It looks like a traditional Windows tablet, with a keyboard and touchscreen. And runs Windows 7. But it’s part of Acer’s budget thin and light laptop line and it features a capacitive touchscreen display that can handle multitouch input.

So what exactly do you use a tablet like the Aspire 1825PT for? It’s clearly meant for more than just surfing the web. And Acer a journalist has put together a 10 minute promotional video that gives you a good look at just what this computer can do — as well as an extended look at a bunch of rocks, for some reason.

For one thing, you can treat the Aspire 1825PT like a traditional laptop and set it on a tablet to get some work done. It’s a fully functional Windows 7 computer capable of running Office, Photoshop, and other work and productivity tools. You can also rotate the screen and hold the tablet in your hands while surfing the web, looking at images, or drawing pictures.

But more than 2/3rds of Acer’s promotional video focuses on the physical design of the computer rather than its capabilities. And I think there are two good reasons for that. First, most people already know what to expect from a Windows machine. And second, what they don’t expect is a bunch of touch-friendly applications, because truth be told, there aren’t really that many of them yet.

While there are tens of thousands of touch-friendly apps for the Apple iPad and Google Android tablets (because they were developed first for touchscreen smartphones), there isn’t the same kind of touch-focused ecosystem for Windows tablets yet. Basically, when you add a touchscreen to a Windows 7 computer you expect to be able to use all your usual Windows apps by tapping on them instead of using a mouse and keyboard — despite the fact that these apps were designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind.

And that’s a large part of the reason that tablets fitting the Microsoft model have remained niche products in recent years and why people are talking so excitedly about the iPad and similar tablets. But here’s the thing — if you’d prefer a single device that can function as a full computer and a tablet, a machine like the Acer Aspire 1825PT fits the bill and leaves you with one less gadget to carry around. I just don’t think they’ll sell in large numbers until we start to see more touch-friendly, iPhone-like apps designed to run on Windows tablets. I’m not saying we need an App Store for Windows touchscreen notebooks. We just need more apps.

You can check out Acer’s full demo video after the break.

via NewGadgets.de

the Lil Journal

My perspective on television is probably different than most. For one, I wasn't allowed to watch television growing up as a child. It was never part of my daily routine, never part of the discourse between friends and classmates who seemed to be weaned on “Happy Days” as much as anything else in our culture. On the other hand, I often had a close and sometimes very intimate entrée to the inner most workings of the television model. More than a few noteworthy, and sometimes surreptitious, meetings took place quite literally in my own backyard. My father, the late Leonard Goldenson, was the founding chairman of ABC Networks, back when television was still a nascent industry. Over time, he grew his business considerably up until the day he sold it in 1986. The television business continued to expand, and soon cable television would as well. As choices grew from three channels to well over a hundred, so did the complexities and costs of the business. It became more elaborate, more bureaucratic, you could even say unwieldy.

Today, I believe like many others that the business of television, whether you define that as network, cable, satellite and/or Internet and mobile, is on the verge of historic and exceedingly uncertain change. Old models have been put into question and new ones have yet to be proven. For me though, the issue is not TV versus Internet TV. Rather it is that distinction, the wall that separates the two that will soon melt away. Very determined companies both big and small (Apple, Cablevision, Boxee and Sling among others), are intent on making the process of watching either type of content on your home TV possible, and perhaps more importantly, effortless. The ability to watch NBC's “The Office” on a flatscreen TV will ultimately be as easy as it is to watch an Internet series made without the involvement of any major network or studio. That series may likely star many of the same TV actors, too. Soon the American viewer will decide not among hundreds of channels, but an infinite possibility of options when he or she turns on the TV. Moreover, the desire to scroll through Facebook on that flatscreen may be more tempting than all of the above. One will in time no longer have to choose between the TV screen and the computer screen, there will only, and finally, be just a screen.

However, the real sleeping giant, I believe, is the advent of video on mobile devices. The US lags painfully behind much of the developed world. I've spent some time in Asia and am exasperated by the gap between their mobile experience and ours. Watching video on a phone is nothing unusual there; you could go so far as to call it commonplace. The difference grows increasingly disparate and alarming as time goes on. It's something our country needs to address and hopefully resolve. When the telecom obstacles stalling our nation (the subject of another article altogether) ultimately do subside, mobile will present another sizable, if not monumental, ingredient to the TV viewing alchemy cauldron. Its impact will be perhaps the most transformative.

As president of MWG Entertainment, a digital production company, our challenge is two-fold. We must try to predict what is over the horizon, and then, how best to position our business to take advantage of it. It's a challenging, but thrilling opportunity. We must remind ourselves that the Internet will always be at its core an active medium, television a passive one. They have commonalities of course, but it is this fundamental distinction that I believe holds the key to success for those in the profession of making Internet and mobile programming viable. The more we learn to let the viewer actively participate and to dig into a series, to converse with it, to make it their own experience, the more options we'll find ourselves with both financially and creatively.

This afternoon, I'm in Los Angeles sitting with a friend as I watch my eight year-old daughter play in the park (I do let her watch TV, but just on the weekends). I wonder what entertainment will look like through her eyes as she grows into a young woman, and later through her grandchildren's eyes. I hope that she will find programming in whatever form it may take that will shape her childhood positively, and that she will find her version of “Happy Days.”

LG's 15-Inch OLED TV On Sale In UK For $3,000

Already on sale in its native Korea, LG's 15-inch EL9500 OLED TV (the ultra-styled origami-like set) has been listed on Amazon UK for £1,970—or $2,966.

Sony's 11-inch XEL-1 can now be picked up for $1,699 on Amazon.com as “used,” almost a grand less than the original $2,500 price-tag. As you know though, the XEL-1 won't be around for long now they've discontinued OLED manufacturing altogether in Japan.

LG's EL9500 has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and 1366 x 768 resolution, with the screen measuring just 1.7mm thick. [Amazon via OLED-Info]

Send an email to Kat Hannaford, the author of this post, at khannaford@gizmodo.com.

Here Great HeadQuarters

We knew a standalone version of Microsoft’s 250GB hard drive for the Xbox 360 was coming, and Microsoft has just announced that you can now purchase the 250GB version.

Previously the 250GB Xbox 360 hard drive was only sold with certain Xbox 360 console and game bundles, but now all existing Xbox 360 owners can get their hands on one.

The 250GB Xbox 360 hard drive is now available for $130, and Microsoft has also dropped the price of the 120GB hard drive from $130 to $100. This is great news for Xbox 360 owners who have already filled up their Xbox hard drive space.

Especially since Microsoft’s has expanded its Zune service to the Xbox, and 250GB is enough space to store quite a bit of music and videos that have been downloaded from the service.

via Game Spot

Add another tombstone to the increasingly populated Xbox MMO graveyard. The Xbox 360 port of Champions Online is seemingly kaput. A forum user known as Jackalope — Cryptic Studios CCO Jack Emmert, according to TeamXbox — responded in a thread regarding the beleaguered port, saying, “100% of our focus is on making the current PC product the best it can be. There are no current plans for a console version of Champions.”

Previously, the Xbox 360 version of the MMO had seen its share of setbacks. In August last year, Emmert laid the blame for the delay squarely on Microsoft. “It just takes time for the big beast known as Microsoft to get moving,” he said at the time, adding that “it's as baffling to developers as it is to everyone else.”

This marks the latest in a long string of failed-to-launch MMOs for the Xbox platform: Ensemble's Halo MMO, True Fantasy Live Online for the original Xbox, Marvel Universe Online, Age of Conan, Huxley — all of them either canceled or in development limbo. Thus far, the only traditional MMO to see the light of day on the Xbox 360 has been Final Fantasy XI. We can only speculate as to what the bottleneck is for MMOs on the Xbox 360 but, given the litany of failed projects from multiple developers, Microsoft certainly appears to be the common thread.

[Original photo source: Qole Pejorian]

Here Awesome Blogger

Originally published on Youthradio.org, the premier source for youth generated news throughout the globe.

By: Emily Beaver

For young adults, health reform will bring big changes — with some changes happening as soon as this year. Later this year, health care reform would begin to allow young adults, the age group most likely to be uninsured, to stay on their parents' insurance plans until age 26. By 2014, more young people without children will be able to qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for poor and low-income people. Young adults who don't get health insurance at work will be able to buy insurance through a health insurance exchange, even if they have pre-existing health conditions like asthma or diabetes.

Even for young people, who have a lot to gain from reform, there will be a cost. For the first time, everyone will have to get insurance — so the “young invincibles” who don't buy insurance because they're young and healthy won't be able to skip out on insurance any more – or they'll be fined.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been a major player in passing health reform, said in a speech before the vote that health reform will “unleash an entrepreneurial spirit” in America. Now, people who want to leave their jobs will be able to keep their health insurance, and people who want to start their own businesses will be able to get insurance she said.

For young adults, who are less likely to get insurance through work, being able to change jobs or create their own job without worrying about health insurance is important. But having access to health insurance might mean something more — it might mean pursuing the dream of becoming a musician, not having to choose between buying winter boots or going to the doctor, or getting the critical scans and tests to make sure your cancer is still in remission.

“For all Americans, but particularly young Americans, this is a historic moment that guarantees affordable, stable health care for all,” said Aaron Smith, co-founder of the health reform advocacy group Young Invincibles, in a statement released Monday. “This bill will provide our generation with the opportunity to pursue our dreams without fear of a lack of health insurance.”

Youth Radio/Youth Media International (YMI) is youth-driven converged media production company that delivers the best youth news, culture and undiscovered talent to a cross section of audiences. To read more youth news from around the globe and explore high quality audio and video features, visit Youthradio.org

Putting all your eggs in one basket is a good thing when it's Easter. In politics, though? Not so much.

The Republican Party put all its eggs in the “Tear Down President Barack Obama and Defeat Health Care Reform” basket. This was a questionable action at best. At worst, they could end up breaking their own kneecaps.

Unanimously fighting health care reform was questionable at best because few in America didn't think the health care system had to be fixed in at least some way.

But at worst – yipes.

Yipes, because the President of the United States won the election campaigning on it. Both houses of Congress won majorities campaigning on it. And from the start, polls showed that the majority of the public wanted some kind of health care reform. Including a public option.

Yet in the face of all this, the Republican Party in Congress put every single one of its fragile eggs in a single basket and chose to unanimously fight health care reform.

The bill contained over 200 Republican proposals, and Republicans still unanimously voted against it.

The GOP was simply going to do whatever they could – unanimously – to defeat health care reform and bring down President Obama. Turn “Yes, We Can” into “No, He Can't.” Republicans didn't just want the seats a party out of power traditionally picks up in an off-year election. They wanted it all. Majorities in 2010. The White House in 2012. At any cost. They got greedy. They were going all in – holding just a lowly pair of threes. Everything in one basket, no matter how flimsy that basket was.

Blinded by hatred, fear and pure politics, Republicans saw only their improbable reward. They ignored the profound risk.

No doubt the Republican Party thought things were going well. They had road blocks all over health care reform. They broke the Democrats' 60-vote super majority. Polls showed the American public unhappy with gridlock in Washington, unhappy too with the health care bill – as presented to them by the GOP Message Machine.

All the eggs were in one basket.

And the basket crumbled. And all the eggs crashed.

The problem is that Republican leadership believed their own lies. They forgot that they knew there weren't actually Death Panels in the bill, that it was still illegal to get federally-funded abortions, that everyone can really keep their private insurance, that the new proposals actually brought deficit down – by eventually trillions of dollars. And forgot that the public was, in fact, for health care reform. And for the public option.

When polls showed that Americans were unhappy with the health care reform bill, GOP leadership forgot that some were unhappy because It Didn't Go Far Enough. And others were unhappy because they simply didn't understand the bill. When similar polls explained the bill, the results showed that the public was… in favor of it! Just like at the beginning.

But more, Republicans thought they had an ace up their sleeve. They ignored that they didn't even have a sleeve.

Republicans thought that once the health care reform bill passed, they could campaign on repealing it. “It” being a bill the American public supported. Because it improved their health care. Republicans thought this plan was A Winner.

Winner?

Imagine giving a new kidney to someone, and then later saying, “We'd like it back.”

Campaigning on repealing health care reform would be like campaigning to repeal Social Security, Medicare or Civil Rights. Even the most radically-reactionary Republicans aren't foolish enough to do that.

Once people have health care reform – even many who were against the bill – they will be loathe to give it up. Benefits will be seen immediately. Like reduced costs of prescription medication. Like small businesses getting tax credit. Covering all children. Not allowing insurance companies to drop you because you got sick. Like letting young people stay on their parent's policy until they're 26. Right now, this year. Give that up? Take back health care reform, once someone has it? Republicans actually, really, seriously want to campaign on this.

And so they may well have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Where once the GOP saw dreams of a majority in November, they may be lucky now to squeak by with that traditional handful of new seats.

You see, that whole “gridlocked Congress” and “Democrats had a majority and couldn't get anything done” thing – it's now gone. Out the window. The Democrats broke the Republican-forced gridlock. They passed the first-ever, comprehensive health care reform bill. By themselves. With no Republican support.

Republicans had a chance to claim a share of the reform. But they cut themselves out. By choice. They never even offered an alternate bill! Because they were putting all their eggs in one basket.

And the basket crumbled.

The public will now see the Democrats as alone being able to provide deeply-needed reform. And the public will now see the Republicans as the block that wants to take it away.

While Republicans are campaigning to repeal health care reform, Democrats will make the case, “Yes, the bill isn't perfect. So, elect more Democrats to get the improvements and also get the public option. That you want. If you elect Republicans, they will take away what you now have – they've told you so!”

But it's actually worse than that for Republicans. Because Republicans, who are usually so good at coming up with fake catch-phrases like “Death Taxes” made their biggest gaffe of all. Gargantuan.

You see…for the past year, Republicans have called this bill (say it all together now) – “ObamaCare.”

Health care reform is now known to everyone – thanks to Republican Talking Points – forevermore as ObamaCare.

They gave President Barack Obama full name credit.

ObamaCare. ObamaCare. ObamaCare. ObamaCare.

Care.

President Barack Obama – cares.

And the Republican Party is the one who told you, who drilled it deep into your consciousness.

And the Republican Party in its blocking unanimity released Barack Obama. Faced with the reality of zero Republican support, the president finally took to the road and energized the Democratic Party. And energized himself. He kept his word to the public. He got a health care bill. And “Yes, we can” was proven. His Gallup poll numbers have already improved seven points.

The Republicans did it all to themselves. They put all their eggs in one basket. And in the end, the eggs were rotten. And the basket crumbled.

This Well informed Poster

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Another day, another dock for the iPod and iPhone family – this time round we have DICE Electronics to thank for their G2 Cradle. Meant to see action in a vehicle, the G2 will boast a pass-through Dock Connector port which hooks up the cradle to a car integration kit, charger, or rear-seat entertainment system. Coming in a black and brushed aluminum design, you get half a dozen interchangeable cradles for the iPod classic, first-, second-, and third-generation iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS. Expect to pick this puppy up for $60.

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We could be set to enter a golden age of cell phone gaming (one could argue that, thanks to the abundance of iPhone and Android based gaming titles we already are of course) thanks to a new software technology, known as MonoTouch, which has just been showcased by Novell, which facilitates the relatively easy porting of Xbox gaming titles to the iPhone and android based handsets.

The new technology, which has paved the way for a new Indiana Jones game (which Microsoft is currently showcasing for both the Xbox and Windows Phone 7) works by recognising the XNA 4.0 kit required for the Xbox and Windows Phone 7 whilst also having the ability to convert the Microsoft libraries to offer compatibility for both the iPhone and android based handsets. And whilst MS are, understandably, only intent on bringing gaming titles to Windows Phone 7 based devices Novell appear set to push the new software technology to allow for Xbox games to be ported to both Apple and Google based phones.

Potentially set to offer gamers and, of course, developers a great deal more scope in terms of handset gaming, the new MonoTouch could (obviously) also prove to be a great asset for developers looking to port gaming titles to Apple’s iPad tablet.

The Android specific version of MonoTouch is presently in development whilst its said that the iPhone specific version of MonoTouch is pretty well advanced, so should hit sooner.

So, out of interest, what Xbox games would you specifically like to see ported to either the iPhone or Android based handsets?

[via Geeky Gadgets]

Just a little while ago we confirmed that Project Natal was en route and on schedule for a holiday season release. Actually Steve Ballmer did all the confirming for us but he also mentioned that a new Xbox 360 might be in the works. At the time we assumed that Microsoft is looking to make a slimmer version of its current console, just like Sony did with its PlayStation3 Slim.

Right now we know that Project Natal will work together with any of the current Xbox 360 models so we won’t really need a new one. Microsoft confirmed that one too many times and I doubt they will change their mind particularly now. But I am sure that a lot of Xbox 360 fans will be interested in getting the new model once it comes out especially if Microsoft would start selling it by Christmas time.

Today we have more proof that Redmond is working on a new, undisclosed yet, Xbox 360 model. The picture above supposedly shows the new motherboard of the new Xbox 360 which has been apparently spotted in the wild. Or conveniently leaked by the folks at Microsoft in order to convince us not to invest any money in the PS3 or the Wii.

Considering that Sony has just unveiled its PlayStation Move we wouldn’t be that surprised to see Microsoft try to generate some buzz around its console gaming future too.

The motherboard in the picture, codenamed “Valhalla” has been leaked on a Chinese forum and it will tour the web as all Xbox 360 enthusiasts will be interested to see it while wondering about the design of the new game console.

If this picture is indeed showing us the real deal, we are looking at a slimmer motherboard that will feature a CPU/GPU combo chip, a smaller heatsink and a SATA port. We’d like to receive more details from Microsoft on the matter but I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

There is a hint that does suggest the fact that Microsoft is working on a new Xbox 360 though. The company is looking for a Motherboard Design Engineer for the Xbox 360 Console Development team whose role would be to “specifying, designing, implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line.” In case you first heard about the job from us and then got hired then, by all means, remember to share some love and conveniently leak a few things about the next Xbox 360. Wait a second, did I just say that out loud?

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