Latest Sprint teaser tweet all but confirms February 24th announcement is for Windows Phone 7

By Chris Ziegler posted Feb 23rd 2011 1:36PM How many mobile platforms can you think of that integrate "with your home game console, like Xbox?" Unless we're completely spacing something out, the answer is one: Windows Phone 7. We'd already figured the Thursday announcement that Sprint has been teasing this week on Twitter -- and that little Arrive leak all but confirmed it anyhow -- but if you needed any more evidence that the phone formerly known as the HTC 7 Pro would be formally announced in CDMA guise this week, here you have it. We'll know more tomorrow, hopefully.

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Calvin Klein To Launch Digital Campaign To Revive Iconic ’90s Brand

Calvin Klein will begin unveiling March 1 its largest digital initiative to date — a global multi-platform campaign that includes online, mobile, print, outdoor and plenty of social media.

The campaign is designed to transform ck one, previously the name of a line of unisex fragrances, into a global lifestyle brand that includes jeans, underwear and fragrances. It also aims to introduce a younger demographic to the ck one brand, which debuted in 1994.

The heart of the initiative will live on ckone.com, where visitors will be able to explore the brand, shop its products and learn about the more than 30 cast members featured in the campaign. Calvin Klein designed the website to be highly interactive. The company will invite users to contribute to the campaign by uploading their own videos to the site and and discussing the brand on-site and also off-site using Facebook, Twitter and other popular social networks (such as Ren Ren and Weibo, which are popular in China). The cast also will ask users questions.

Mobile apps have been created for iPhone, Android and Symbian devices to further the experience with additional content, augmented reality features and social media integration.

All of this won’t be fully available, however, until March 1. A teaser for the initiative debuted Wednesday on ckone.com. LED advertisements for the mobile apps will grace Calvin Klein’s landmark billboards in New York, Los Angeles and other major cities as well as at select subway locations beginning March 1. Print ads, featuring still shots of the videos and encouraging readers to connect on the web and via their mobile phones, will appear in the April editions of major magazines.

Although Calvin Klein has used technology creatively for marketing purposes in the past — particularly in the brand’s use of live streaming and its much-buzzed-about QR code billboard — the campaign marks a further commitment to social media than in past promotions. Users are connected to their networks and each other at every facet of the campaign and, like Burberry’s Art of the Trench, invited to become part of the campaign themselves.

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The Future of Your Wireless Home Network

David Henry is a senior director of product marketing for NETGEAR where he works on high performance, dependable and easy home networking, storage and digital media products to connect people with the Internet and their content and devices. You can follow NETGEAR on Twitter @NETGEAR.

The future of home networking will see multiple devices connected to the Internet and to each other. At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the emphasis was on Internet-enabled everything. Recent market studies also confirm this trend. The penetration of connected consumer electronic devices such as TVs, Blu-ray players, and smartphones are projected to grow 400% between 2010 and 2015, as shown in the chart below.

The introduction of so many new tablets is another indication that the demand for connected consumer electronics is surging. Consumer expectations about the quality of their connectivity is increasing as more and more of the devices are used for entertainment such as streaming movies or online gaming.

As these connected devices become part of future homes, home networking products will have to be ready to support them, with new features that enable the best possible experience.

Powerful routers, home gateways, centralized media servers, powerline network adapters, and wireless add-ons like Wi-Fi range-extenders will soon become the norm for the connected home. The future home network will have to be smart enough to adapt to changing priorities, dedicate more bandwidth to certain activities and switch between devices readily.

When looking for an interruption-free Internet experience in the home, consumers should keep an eye out for a router with dual band. These routers provide the kind of bandwidth required by the devices connecting to the home network and Internet. Dual band functionality provides twice the Wi-Fi bandwidth, giving the consumer two completely separate wireless networks within the home. The most used frequency is 2.4GHz, as it is ideal to support web surfing, e-mail and chat. However, having another band to select from (the 5GHz band) enables better video streaming. Fewer devices connecting on this band avoids wireless congestion and renders video streaming without jitters and lags. Consumers should look for this dual band capability from their wireless router at home especially if they are streaming video from sites like Netflix, YouTube or Hulu. Some dual band wireless routers even come with a special “Video Mode” that not only makes it easier to set up wireless for this type of video streaming but also uses video-centric algorithms that reduce video jitter and frame loss during streaming.

Built-in Quality of Service (QoS) is another feature being integrated in modern wireless routers. This feature allows prioritization of devices to deliver maximum Internet bandwidth and performance. This prioritization allows the dedication of more bandwidth to HD movies for flawless viewing. Once the priority is set in the router, the router recognizes the type of Internet traffic and prioritizes it, automatically. Some modern wireless routers come with the most popular applications already set up, auto-assigning priority to activities such as voice calls versus web surfing, e-mail or downloads.

The growth of high quality HD-video streaming is just one of the many reasons consumers need to understand the crucial role their home wireless router plays. As the number of activities occurring over wireless increase, better performance will be required from home Wi-Fi connections. Fortunately, home networking companies are rolling out the features that ensure high quality video streaming and other Wi-Fi activities almost daily.

By 2015, the average bandwidth to the home from DSL, cable, or wireless providers will grow exponentially. Consumers will continue to enjoy video content on various sized screens including flawless streaming to handheld devices. CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs will be used mostly by those who cherish physical media. However, streaming video from the Internet and from home media servers will more likely become the norm.

Consumers can see this trend today in the modern network attached storage (NAS) device that supports media serving capabilities. Advanced wireless routers have media servers built in, and have the ability to stream and share media stored on any connected external USB hard drive. As customers wish to have instant access to all of their media all of the time, whether at home or on smartphones and tablets, NAS devices and wireless routers need to support remote access. The most advanced NAS products today support this “anytime, anywhere” type of access as do advanced consumer wireless routers.

Home control and security monitoring will also be accessible from any Internet connection, and manageable from a smartphone, PC or tablet.

In today’s modern home, consumers are already seeing the growing trend of everything being connected to the Internet. In many cases, the amount of Internet-connected devices in the home outnumber the people in the household. This means more and more is demanded from home wireless networks and Internet connections. Thankfully, home networking companies are answering the call by innovating new wireless solutions and home router features that facilitate the connected entertainment experience people expect.

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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alengo

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HOW TO: Spend an Entire Year Giving to Charity

Try donating to a different charity every day for an entire year. Sounds hard, right? Well, it is, but that’s the exact goal that Carlo Garcia set for himself when he started Living Philanthropic, a one-year, one-man project to donate money 365 days in a row.

Every day, Garcia chooses a new charity and donates a small sum of money — usually around $10, but never less than $5. He then documents that day’s charity in a blog post on his Tumblr, where he describes the cause and provides some insights or personal stories to highlight its mission. Garcia, a Chicago-based actor and director, has minimal experience with blogging and social media but now relies on a suite of digital tools to spread his message, including a Twitter account, @deusexrockina, the hashtag #GiveEveryday, Facebook Page, and crowdrise profile.

Garcia admitted on his site that he doesn’t come from money, nor does he have an especially large bank account. The project was built on the belief that any support can make a difference. To make room for the donations, Garcia gave up some daily frills, like a cup of coffee or indulgent purchases like extra plaid shirts. Now on day 306, Garcia has given more than $3,500.

But Living Philanthropic is more than just a way for Garcia to feel good about himself. The project is as much about raising awareness as it is about the individual donations. Garcia’s daily blog posts serve to highlight and provide exposure for smaller non-profits like a Portland animal rescue or a school-building expedition in Mexico.

Garcia acknowledges that 365 days of disparate micro-donations won’t make as much of an impact as if he focused his attention (and money) on just a couple causes. Instead, the project acts as a kind of local charity tasting menu: By no means exhaustive but certainly expansive. Garcia hopes that in the different charities he features and supports, his users will find at least one charity that they love and will continue the chain of giving.

The outreach and positive messages have worked. According to his site, readers have donated more than $8,500 in support of Living Philanthropic’s mission. “The awareness and the power of the community that has built up around this grassroots idea is worth more than the actual money I can give,” Garcia said.

There are ways to donate even if you don’t have a ton of cash. Garcia’s tips for the everyday micro-philanthropist are: Start Locally: create a list of non-profits you want to support in your community.Start Small: You don’t need to go broke, donate what you can.Jar-to-jar: Set up a jar for loose change. At the end of the week, month or year, donate that amount to your chosen charity.Vetting: Make sure the non-profits are properly registered. You can use sites like Guidestar.org to do a quick, free search.Money Isn’t Everything: If you don’t have disposable cash, consider volunteering, raising awareness, or donating gently-used clothing and toys to local drives.The Great Opt-Out: After donating, ask to receive updates by e-mail rather than snail mail. You’ll keep your mailbox clean and save some trees while you’re at it.Give Anything: It doesn’t matter how small, every donation helps. If you miss a day, don’t give up.

What’s next? After this year is up, Garcia is launching YEAR TWO, a similar project for which he’ll donate all those daily savings to a different charity every month. The aim is to give those charities more time and ultimately more money.

What do you think of Garcia’s project? Can one person really hope to make a difference? Sound off in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, CarbonNYC

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Scosche's goBAT II portable battery pack handles two USB devices at once, including your iPad

We'll just keep it real simple for you: the object you're looking at above is the Revive II charger, but slimmer, and with a rechargeable battery pack thrown in rather than a wall / cigarette adapter. Got it? Good. The goBAT II contains a 5000mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery, and it offers a pair of USB ports for charging. One's a 10-watt (2.1 Amp) port capable of handling high-maintenance devices like Apple's iPad, while the other is a more conventional 5-watt (1 Amp) socket. Scosche is also throwing in a USB adapter for the Galaxy Tab, theoretically letting those with divided households charge both an iOS and Android tablet at the same time. Brain melting, we know. It also works with the company's Revive charging app, which indicates how long a device will take to charge on any of Scosche's chargers and can also be configured to send an email notification once a device has been fully charged. She's all yours down at the source link for $89.99.

Scosche Announces Availability of goBAT II – Dual USB Portable Charger & Backup Battery
2.1 AMP Port Perfect for iPad or Galaxy Tab

Oxnard, CA, – February 17, 2011 – Scosche Industries, award-winning innovator of consumer technology, is excited to announce the availability of the Scosche goBAT II, dual USB battery backup and charger. The goBAT II pairs a 5000mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery with dual USB outputs including a 10 Watt (2.1 Amp) port to meet the larger power requirements of tablets as well as a standard 5 Watt (1Amp) port for virtually everything else.

The goBAT II also ships with a USB adapter for the Galaxy Tab, maximizing tablet compatibility. It's 5 Watt (1 Amp) port allows users to simultaneously charge another USB powered device like an iPhone, Blackberry or Android device while powering up a tablet. The goBAT II also features a simple LED battery level indicator so users always know how much power is left. Also included is a micro USB cable for recharging the battery, which can also be used when charging any micro USB device from the goBAT II. The goBAT II also works with Scosche's free reVIVE charging app. The reVIVE app indicates how long a device will take to charge on any of Scosche's chargers and can also be configured to send an email notification once a device has been fully charged.

"The vast majority of our customers that own a tablet, also own a mobile phone that can be charged via a USB connection," said Kas Alves, Executive Vice President of Scosche Industries. "It only made sense for us to design a battery backup that could meet the demands of both types of mobile devices, eliminating the need to carry two chargers or battery back-ups."

The Scosche goBAT II is available now at Scosche.com for $89.99

Follow Scosche at twitter.com/scosche or facebook.com/scosche for the latest news on the company's complete line of portable power solutions and all of Scosche's award-winning products.

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Sharp's Intelligent Power Conditioner works with EVs to make your house a lean, mean, solar-powered machine

By Michael Gorman posted Feb 23rd 2011 1:13PM So, you've got your government-issued solar panels and you bought a plug-in EV, but being both a budget-minded and green-conscious geek, you're concerned that your home's power generation and consumption isn't exactly optimal. Put your worries aside, because Sharp has created the Intelligent Power Conditioner (IPC) to max out the electrical efficiency of your abode while working in conjunction with public utilities. It operates by temporarily storing the unused solar-generated juice from the daytime -- using both the system's batteries and the cells in your shiny new EV -- to deliver a steady stream of electrons at night. In tests with a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the system was able to use the EV to supply 8kW of power to a home, and doled out enough electricity (4kWh) to recharge the car in a scant 30 minutes. The IPC is still in the development phase, but Sharp is looking to make it commercially available "in the near future" -- which means the finishing touches on your ultimate eco-house will have to wait.

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DrChrono Makes The iPad A Doctor’s Best Friend In The Exam Room

As medical records move online, doctors are increasingly bringing laptops into the exam room to take notes, write prescriptions and more. But laptops can be cumbersome, and the iPad has emerged as a popular device for medical professionals. In fact, one out of every five doctors in a private practice owns an iPad. Enter DrChrono, a Y Combinator-backed startup that produces an iPad app and SaaS for doctors.

The free iPad app allows doctors to schedule patient appointments, write prescriptions and send them to pharmacies, enable reminders, take clinical notes, access lab results, and input electronic health records. The electronic medical records element is key because the Obama administration is currently offering strong incentives for doctors to start moving their health records online. DrChrono will help doctors start, finish and manage this process.

And DrChono is more than just a simple iPad app. For $99 and up, doctors can upgrade to more storage for records, and complete medical billing. The billing component is another win for doctors, who spend hundreds of dollars each month for medical billing processing. DrChrono’s system integrates with all U.S. insurance companies, even the insurance agents that only use paper billing.

The beauty of DrChrono is that the app itself is built natively for the iPad but also can be accesses via the web as well. Essentially the company wants to be the SAP for any doctors office. For now DrChrono is aiming its product at small private practices, with one to five doctors.

The fact is that here has never been a better time for DrChrono to launch its business to the medical community. iPads are still the hot new gadget, and doctors have major incentives to move to electronic medical records.

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