The new Verizon Motorola Droid will be available next month but the ads released to promote this new Android 2.0 phone are clearly anti-iPhone. The aggressive advertising campaign is titled “Droid Does” directly attacks iPhone’s vulnerabilities:

“iDon’t have a real keyboard, iDon’t run simultaneous apps, iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures, iDon’t customize, iDon’t run widgets, iDon’t allow open development, iDon’t take pictures in the dark, iDon’t have interchangeable batteries,

Everything iDon’t, DROID DOES!”

This new phone seems to be another option for those who think iPhone is overrated (iDo!) but I don’t see any real innovation here… my smartphone already does most of that and what it doesn’t do, I don’t really need!

The Motorola Droid is a Google Android 2.0 OS with physical and touch screen keyboards, a 5-megapixel camera, supports flash and supports multi-tasking.

Droid Does: Verizon Motorola Droid Ad

Twitter announced yesterday that they are test driving a new ‘Lists’ feature that they plan to unveil to the Tweet masses in the weeks ahead.  The feature plays off of their controversial ‘Suggested User List’ that features popular and celebrity Twitter users.  The ‘Lists’ feature will allow you to create your own similar lists.

The ability to subscribe to your Twitter buddies’ lists means you can check in on groups of users without actually following them. In the test version, tweets from users on a list you follow don’t show up in your main stream, but rather in a separate list stream.

Only a select few privileged users are currently able to use and test out the new feature.  Users create and add fellow users to their lists.  Your friends or followers can then subscribe to those ‘lists.’  Once the kinks are worked out it will be available to all Tweeters.

[source: latimes]

Google promises a new communication revolution with the launch of Google Wave, which is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more (watch video demo below).

Google Wave was launched today (September 30) but it will only available for a small group of 100,000 lucky new users. These tests users will include public users who signed up early to test, developers, and a select group of Google Apps users, plus each new user will have 8 invitations to send out to their family and friends (these secondary users will not be given any invitation).

You can sign for an invitation here but don’t expect to get one today. As for the official public launch, Google Wave should be available to everyone on first half of 2010.

Google Wave Pictures

Google Wave Demo Video

[images: techcrunch]

It has took nearly a year, but music videos from Warner Music Group artists like Madonna, Green Day, Metallica and others will be returning to online video giant YouTube.

Warner Music, which was the first of the major labels to strike a deal with YouTube, will be able to sell advertising surrounding its artists’ work and split the proceeds with the website. The label can also identify its songs on user-created videos, and make money on these videos.

Fans of Warner Music artists can expect to see music videos from their favorite artists back on YouTube before the end of the year.  All Warner Music videos were removed last December when the dispute arose about how much the content is worth.

Facebook Inc. is ready to launch a new service called Facebook Lite, which at first looks like a simplified rip off Twitter and FriendFeed. This new service was offered to several users (offered to some by mistake!), beta testers, but is still not completely functional yet.

Facebook released the following statement about Facebook Lite:

We are currently testing a simplified alternative to Facebook.com that loads a specific set of features quickly and efficiently. Similar to the Facebook experience you get on your mobile phones, Facebook “Lite” is a fast-loading, simplified version of Facebook that enables people to make comments, accept Friend requests, write on people’s Walls, and look at photos and Status updates. We are currently testing Facebook Lite in countries where we are seeing lots of new users coming to Facebook for the first time and are looking to start off with a more simple experience.

This evening, the test was temporarily exposed to a larger set of users by mistake. We have not opened up access to lite.facebook.com to all users at this time. People who are not part of the test and are trying to access “Lite” will be directed to Facebook.com as usual.

Facebook is just trying to simplify an already pretty simple service!?! Yeah, right! It definitely sounds to me they are trying to create a new service that is actually a Twitter rip off.

Google is getting ready to launch a new service, Google Voice, which was built with technology obtained through its 2007 acquisition of Internet telephony company GrandCentral and has been tested by a privileged group of GrandCentral users.

The new Google Voice service will give users a single phone number that can seamlessly route calls to their existing phones or even offer number portability, enabling consumers to move their existing phone numbers to Google’s infrastructure.

Some of the incredible features of this new service include voicemail that can be accessed from any phone or through a browser, with GMail-like archiving features, automatic message transcription that can be forwarded to preferred e-mail account, free SMS delivery and much more.

Google has recently obtained over one million new phone numbers from backbone operator Level 3 therefore Google’s new phone service is expected to be launched for a broader audience soon.

iPhone users can finally download your iPhone 3.0 update for free for your phone or $9.95 for your iPod Touch today (June 17) from Apple’s website (click here). There is still no confirmation on the release time of this update.

This new software update include all the features from previous updates plus brand new and much anticipated features like cut, copy and paste, landscape keyboard, MMS messages with video, photos, audio, spotlight search, record voice memos and buy movies, TV shows and audiobooks.

Download iPhone 3.0 Update At Apple.com>>

Apple announced today the new features that will make up the iPhone OS 3.0 at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the new features in iPhone OS 3.0:

• Ability to cut, copy and paste text will be available for e-mails, Web pages and other programs.
• Ability to send photos (not videos) by text (MMS).
• Ability to search through emails and contacts.
• Ability to view documents and emails in ‘landscape’ or ‘horizontal’ mode.
• Ability for voice-based GPS directions.
• Ability to have peer-to-peer connectivity for gamers.

Copy & paste is long over due and the ability to send photos via MMS and text is nice, although I send most of mine through email on my iPhone.  I guess the added copy & paste feature is enough to make this upgrade worth it, but overall I don’t really see much that is all that exciting in 3.0.

The upgrade will be free for iPhone users and cost $9.99 for iTouch users.  Most of the upgrades won’t be available to those using first generation iPhones that were sold in 2007.

After much resistance I have fallen to temptation and am now on Twitter and addicted.  You can add me and get live feeds on Bumpshack stories, as well as my ramblings, quick opinions, and links to other sites that I find amusing or interesting.

Start Following Our Tweets on Twitter

Click HERE and then ‘Follow’ or click the Twitter logo above and click click ‘Follow’ to add Joshua Holmes to your Twitter.

If you don’t Twitter then stay away!!  You will become an addict like me and millions of others.  It is quickly becoming the #1 social networking tool and has lapped MySpace and is about even with Facebook and will pass Facebook in just a couple of months.

If you are new to Twitter then you will want to try out the TweetDeck that makes it really easy to sort and keep track of all of your Tweets.

Wired.com is reporting that retail super-giant Wal-Mart will start selling Apple’s iPhone starting in late December.  The iPhone is still tied exclusively to it’s deal with the evil AT&T.

Employees in the cellphone departments of five California stores said they were training to start selling the device by the end of December, according to Bloomberg.

Gadget blog The Boy Genius Report was the first to leak rumors about Walmart carrying iPhones. The publication also hinted at the possibility of Walmart selling a 4GB iPhone for $99. However, this rumor is appearing unlikely to be true: MacRumors reports it received training and advertising materials for Walmart’s iPhone, and there are no indications of a $99 model.

Walmart will become the second mass-market retail chain to carry Apple’s phenomenally successful iPhone. In September, electronics retailer Best Buy was the first to do the honors.

Wal-Mart is back on top. They are one of the few retail giants still turning a profit even in these rough economic waters.  Apple will take over an even bigger chunk of the cell phone market with this move.

20-year old college student David Kernell is in one big heap of poop.  He has bragged on several message boards as being the person who hacked into V.P. candidate Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! email account.  Now he has the FBI, Secret Service and likely the Attorney General knocking on his door.

David is the son of Mike Kernell, who is a Democrat State Representative from the great state of Tennessee.

Here is what young David had to say after hacking into Palin’s email to find dirt on the Alaska governor:

“I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family.”

College kids make mistakes all the time.  If he was directed by his father or any Democrat to do what he did, then they all should be punished to the fullest letter of the law.  If not and he acted on his own, then he should be punished, but nothing like life in prison or razor blade cuts filled with lemon juice.

If anything he should be punished most harshly for being an idiot about bragging of his hacking feat on internet message boards and doing a horrible job of covering his tracks.  But what do you really expect from a student at the University of Tennessee?  At least he is already use to wear orange.

Maybe he should have to babysit Palin’s kids for a weekend.  Because his dad is an “important” person he won’t get punished all that hard.   If he had been a Chinese student studying computer science at Cornell then it would be a different story.

Pundits should refer to Kernell as the Unibrower since the Unabomber tag is taken.

Game maker Hasbro has shut down Scrabulous on Facebook in the U.S. and Canada after filing suit against the popular Facebook game in New York court.  Mattel is leading the way with numerous other suits in counties outside the U.S./Canada.

Hasbro scored big in its legal match against the popular but unauthorized version of Scrabble that’s played online by millions of Facebook members. The creators of Scrabulous today shut down the game to players in the United States and Canada, where Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble.

Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble elsewhere, has filed suit in India, where the two brothers behind Scrabulous, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, reside.

Good luck to Rajat and Jayant in pursing this case.  Hasbro and Mattel would still be clueless about Facebook and expanding Scrabble to Facebook if it weren’t for the Agarwalla brothers.

The Bumpwife was just telling me days ago about how her L.A. doctor friends are addicted to this game on Facebook.  Well, I didn’t get a chance to try it out. Thanks Hasbro!  And NO I won’t be playing your version for sure!

Former Google nerds Anna Patterson and her husband Tom Costello have created, what is being dubbed the newest and best search engin, Cuil (www.cuil.com).

Patterson and Costello were very influential in developing Google’s top rated search engine.

A holder of a computer science doctorate and mother of four, Patterson said search engines can’t keep up with the explosive growth of the Internet or with the needs of users, who often get frustrated sifting through random results. Cuil says it has come up with a search engine that indexes 120 billion Web pages, ranks results by relevance instead of popularity, organizes the results by ideas and protects the privacy of its users.

Cuil has what Patterson called a magazine layout, with tabs and images for subjects. It offers suggestions to assist in searches. And it does not collect personal data, so your search history is always private, she said. Advertising, to be added later, will be based on the content, not on people’s surfing habits.

My earlier test of Cuil leaves a lot to be desired. Just typing in the word ‘Bumpshack’ led to 12 other sites besides Bumpshack.com. But Patterson and Costello have mastered the search engine game before, so I won’t bet against them this early on in the infant steps of Cuil.

Cuil is pronounced ‘Cool’.

There currently isn’t any CUIL stock but if the SE explodes you can for sure expect an IPO down the road.

Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens has proposed ‘The Pickens Plan’ to help come up with a way to reduce the United States dependence on foreign oil.

The United States currently imports 1/4th of the world’s oil production for just 4% of the world’s population.

The plan calls for the implementation of wind power to power 20% of the country’s electricity needs.  Then the natural gas that is used to operate the power plants could be used to replace a large portion of the gasoline and diesel used to power automobiles in the United States.

Here are the three biggest components of ‘The Pickens Plan’ proposed by T. Boone:

• Step #1: Using the United States’ wind corridor, private industry will fund the installation of thousands of wind turbines in the wind belt, generating enough power to provide 20 percent or more of the country’s electricity supply
• Step #2: Again funded by the private sector, electric power transmission lines will be built, connecting these wind power generating sites with power plants providing energy to the population centers in the Midwest, South and Western regions of the country.
• Step #3: With the energy from wind now available to operate power plants serving the large population centers in key areas of the country, the natural gas that was historically utilized to fuel these power plants can be redirected and used to replace imported gasoline and diesel as a fuel for thousands of vehicles in the transportation system.

T. Boone has made billions of dollars in his lifetime.  The reason for his wealth being he is an extremely smart man and is usually ahead of the curve.  Hopefully Congress and the next Presidential administration will put Boone’s proposal into action.

Read more about ‘The Pickens Plan’ at PickensPlan.com

Read more about T. Boone Pickens at BoonePickens.com

Google changed their homepage logo on Monday (July 7th) to honor and remember the art of Marc Chagall on what would have been Chagall’s 120th birthday.  Chagall was born in 1887 and died in 1985.

His art was associated with the modern movements era.

He was known for using symbolism in his art to help tell a story through his masterpieces. For example horses meant freedom and a tree meant life in his work.

Sam’s Club is one of the grocery (like) chains leading the way with a new redesigned milk jug.  The jugs are designed to fit closer together during shipping.  This will allow more jugs on a truck and reduce the amount of gas used to ship milk.  It will also save on the water that was used to wash the old jugs.

“Because of the shape, traditional milk jugs can’t be stacked, so they’re shipped in milk crates. But they waste space on delivery trucks and millions of gallons of water are used to keep them clean.”

The new flat-top jugs can simply be stacked and shrink-wrapped. No need for washing.

The new containers also store 50 percent more milk per cubic foot than the old jugs. That means more milk on each truck - reducing delivery trips and fuel costs.

“We’re estimating it could be up to 11,000 trucks we’re reducing on the road this year,” said Daniel Book, marketing manager for Sam’s Club.

Many who have tried the jugs say they don’t like them.  Several consumers said that the new jugs made pouring more difficult.  After spending 30 years with the old milk jugs, I am sure I will have an adjustment period myself.  But, if the new jugs are better for the environment and help keep milk prices down then that is enough for me to get over it.

I posted earlier today about the September release date for ‘Rock Band 2.’  I thought some of you might want to see the song list of all of the songs included in the original ‘Rock Band’ along with the songs that can be downloaded for play on RB.

Aerosmith’s ‘Train Kept a Rollin’ and Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ are the two most challenging games I have come across so far on the game.

Read Full Post for Tracklist

go on reading »

Fans of the popular ‘Rock Band’ series can start to get excited as the second version of the music video game will be released later this year in September. ‘Rock Band 2′ will be compatible with the previous release and is destined to be a mega-seller.

This “Rock Band” sequel is a departure from recent music game sequels and spin-offs, including entries in the competing “Guitar Hero” franchise, which do not always sync up to the originals. For example, the new “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” coming out this week does not work with downloadable content marked for “Guitar Hero III,” according to a report on gaming blog Joystiq.

“Rock Band 2,” goes the other way, as it appears to be set to work smoothly with its predecessor. In fact, it has been announced to be so compatible with the first game’s music and instruments that an IGN reporter who was interviewing the sequel’s lead designer Dan Teasdale was compelled to ask why owners of the first game would feel the need to buy the second game.

” ‘Rock Band 2′ takes all the lessons we’ve learned from making a multi-instrument music game, addresses them, then adds some amazing new ways for you to experience your music library that have never been seen in a music game before,” Teasdale told IGN.

This game is an addiction that keeps me up way too deep into the night. I received the game for Father’s Day and my sleep has suffered since I started playing RB. The game makes even the most untalented person (see me) feel like they are jamming and thrashing to some of the best metal/rock songs of all-time.

I am already awaiting for RB2.  I still have plenty of songs to unlock and levels to reach before September.  The game comes with a microphone, guitar, drum set and the actual video game.  I bought an additional guitar that can double as a bass so four people can play at the same time.

Have you played?  If so drop a comment with your thoughts about ‘Rock Band’.

Apple is unveiling its new iphone 2.0 later today at the Apple Conference. It is expected to do a vast array of new functions, but the biggest new factor will be the price. Apple is dropping the price from $399 down to $199. It is also expected to be much faster and include a better camera.

So get ready for iPhone 2.0: On Monday Apple (AAPL) is widely expected to introduce a zippier version that will operate on both a faster AT&T network, and speedier networks internationally. The price also will rock: $199, according to people with knowledge of the matter, down from the current $399 and $499.

The BumpWife has had an iPhone since last Christmas. She loves it and uses it for about everything imaginable. I often have to threaten to take it away from her on long road trips so I won’t fall asleep at the wheel. The new version should make it even faster and more affordable for millions of more potential buyers.

“Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.”