No, it's not white, it's "pearl."

We’re running our benchmark tests on the Dell Adamo right now, so stay tuned for a full review. In the meantime, check out these new pics of the new white Adamo and our original first look video.

We previously got an exclusive early hands-on look at the Dell Adamo, the new luxury 13-inch that’s one of the most buzzed-about new laptops of 2009. That was a pre-production model in black (Dell calls it “onyx”) and now our final shipping version of the Adamo has arrived, and this is the white “pearl” version.

Unboxing the Dell Adamo (Pearl)

There’s also no simple way to put a time limit on a challenge, such as the one the X Prize had on it. I think deadlines are important, but having them would force the issue of returning money to funders on the unfulfilled challenges.

One way to build a product is to take the idea for it, and go out and try to get someone to fund its development. That’s the philosophy the venture capital economy is based on. But ideas and money can flow in different directions. Prizes, for example, can fuel amazing innovation. In this development model, a bucket of money is set aside to fund a goal, and the first team to achieve the goal gets the money. The X Prize suborbital flight–funded by an insurance bond–is the currently-famous example of this. Also, Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic and won a prize.

Prizes range from social to technological.

Would you put money into a prize to encourage the development of a product or service you cared about?

( surveys)

It’s important to note that contributors’ funds for a challenge are not pledged or earmarked. They’re actually paid up front. If you want to fund a project, you transfer your money to BigCarrot. Some other similar systems, such as ThePoint, use pledges, but BigCarrot CEO J. Kent Pepper said it would be too hard to guarantee pledge deliveries, especially for challenges that take a long time to win. The interest on the escrowed money is BigCarrot’s revenue stream, so if this concept takes off, the company will become filthy rich. Pepper said he’d like it to become philanthropic.

Prizes are awarded based on the votes of the funders. Every person who contributes gets one vote (the amount of money people put in is not a factor). Once the community decides they have a winner, the escrowed funds are transferred.

So contributors will never get their money out, even if a challenge is never won. Pepper told me that if a challenge has no activity (in the forums on the site, among other places) for more than two years, the funds earmarked for it will get redeployed to a newer, hopefully related challenge.

Anyone can set up a challenge on BigCarrot and get other people to contribute to it. The site’s premier test case is the creation of a free, open-source .Mac competitor. A guy in Wisconsin, Ben Spink, won the challenge and collected the pool of money, $8,622, that 172 individual funders had put up for it. The average contribution to the “NotMac” fund was $25.

Here’s what prize funders directly get out of contributing to a challenge: Nothing. Yes, they can exercise their passion or beliefs by contributing money to causes that they like. And yes, if the challenge results in social change or the delivery of a product they like, they can benefit from it. But there’s no direct payback. Contributors don’t get shares in the inventions (at least not yet).

Now there’s BigCarrot, a social site designed to help individuals create their own challenges, contribute to other challenges, and evaluate the contestants before the prize money is awarded.

While I have strong doubts that BigCarrot will become the clearinghouse for incentive-driven invention and see a huge amount of cash flow through it, it a cool social experiment in direct action. Prizes can excite entrepreneurs to create clever solutions to any kind of problem, and letting individuals contribute gives them a piece of the satisfaction when the prize is won. I would hope to see more direct payback to the funders in the future, though.

That just changed.

Postgres Plus Advanced Server is a commercially licensed product that adds advanced capabilities to Postgres Plus, including robust Oracle compatibility, dynamic performance tuning, and sophisticated management and monitoring. The company also announced the availability of free tools, tutorials, and Web-based services for developers.

commentary

Postgres Plus is an open source distribution of the PostgreSQL database and includes significant performance benefits and important ease-of-use capabilities for developers and DBAs. Bundled into a one-click, cross-platform installer, Postgres Plus is targeted at developers of next-generation applications and sets a new standard for commercial distributions of open source databases.

Today EnterpriseDB announced that it is open sourcing its GridSQL business intelligence and data warehousing engine under the GNU General Public License Version 2. Previously proprietary, this move demonstrates a stronger commitment to open source.

Good things come in threes, as EnterpriseDB confirmed today. The company today announced that it has raised a $10 million Series C round, including backing from IBM. With $37.5 million in funding to date, EnterpriseDB isn’t hurting for cash.

In other words, EnterpriseDB deploys the same hybrid model as Zimbra, SugarCRM, Funambol, and others. While I’m not a big fan of hybrid models, the reality is that it’s an accepted, successful model within commercial open source. If it means that EnterpriseDB and these others also contribute ever growing mountains of open-source code, which it does, then I can accept that.

This is a good day for EnterpriseDB. PostgreSQL, with EnterpriseDB firmly behind it, now has a chance to make some noise. And with IBM backing EnterpriseDB (and, by extension, PostgreSQL), things look set to become very, very interesting in the open-source database market.

Additionally, the company has reintroduced its software under the Postgres Plus brand. This isn’t a big change, but it does highlight just how big of a role open source plays in EnterpriseDB’s plans:

Now tell me why I’m all wet.

For the record, Kraus says the company’s focus continues to be on Open Social. That’s the ballyhooed initiative announced late last year that uses open-source code to allow social media sites to incorporate common application program interfaces and create “universal” applications.

Joe Kraus

Brazil, the biggest nation in Latin America, has a number of firsts to its name. It’s got the world’s best football (soccer in the parlance of you Americans), the country is leagues ahead of everybody else on Planet Earth when it comes to alternative energy–and its citizenry have taken over Orkut. I’m still not clear why Brazilians so groove on this particular social network, but “quem sabe?”

Important, perhaps, but utterly boring. It would be so much more fun to watch Google try and rearrange the constellation of forces by starting a new social network. And since there seems no limit to the company’s ambitions, why suddenly become modest when the topic turns to social networking? Nobody’s yet confused Mark Zuckerberg with the second coming of Don Corleone.

If you want a precedent, consider what Google is doing with its application suite. I very much doubt Google’s managing troika believes it can destroy Microsoft’s Office franchise. Still, Google’s online applications are more than serviceable. Cyber-snobs may turn up their noses but Google’s apps offer a reasonably good–and free–alternative to Office. Even better, from a Google perspective, each new user means one extra wrinkle on Steve Ballmer’s forehead.

So would the same formula, tailored for a North American audience, work the same magic north of the border? I put the question to Joe Kraus, whom I bumped into Monday at Adobe’s San Francisco get-together. “Forget it” was the answer. Kraus should know: he directs product management at Google.

(Credit:
Archos)

Flash 9 video support: A free firmware upgrade available in May will enable the 605 WiFi and 705 WiFi to stream Flash 9 video. Using the built-in Opera browser, Archos users can go to any Web site using the latest iteration of Flash video (Hulu, ABC, CBS, YouTube, CNET TV–you name it) and watch the video of their choice. That’s a major advantage over the YouTube-only walled garden available on the
iPhone and
iPod Touch. (If you’re keeping score at home: full Flash support is on its way to Archos handhelds, while it remains unavailable on Apple’s flagship portables.)

The GPS accessory for the 605 WiFi was just the first of several product upgrades announced by Archos today. Also on deck are streaming Web video and audio and upgraded media support for the 605 WiFi and 705 WiFi; Slingbox-style placeshifting functionality for the Archos TV+ DVR; and a content deal with Paramount Digital Entertainment. Details are as follows:

CNET will be updating its reviews of the 605 WiFi, 705 WiFi, and publishing a new review of the Archos TV+; as soon as the relevant software updates become available. In the meantime: what do you think? Do these imminent upgrades make the portables a worthwhile alternative to the iPhone/iPod Touch? And does the TVportation feature make the TV+ a true competitor to a TiVo/Slingbox combo?

Streaming Web video is just one of several upgrades coming to the Archos line of video products.

Paramount Digital Entertainment partnership: Archos has inked a deal with Paramount, allowing selections from that studio’s movie library to be available on Archos video products. In addition to being added to Archos’ online Content Portal for purchase, future TV+ units will be sold with several dozen movies preloaded on the hard drive, where they can be unlocked (purchased) for instant viewing.

Streaming video, audio, and podcast support: Also on the way to the 605 and 705 is the “Web TV and Radio plug-in.” Not to be confused with the old Microsoft “Internet on TV” set-top box, this $20 software upgrade will add dedicated streaming video and Internet radio support to Archos handhelds. The company promises support for more than 600 video streams, 9,600 Web radio stations, and 110,000 podcasts–just for starters. However, unlike the freewheeling Flash video options, this is a walled garden, so you’re stuck with the content providers that Archos aggregates. For instance: the BCAT (Brooklyn Community Access TV) station in the photo above is a New York-area public access station–not exactly HBO.

Although Microsoft has said it isn’t building a ZunePhone, the company does want to be able to offer its Zune service on phones. However, Stephenson said that is a longer-term goal that will take at least until next year to fulfill.

“This is enough work for us this year,” he said. “Going forward, Zune will start to surface on multiple platforms across the ecosystem. Expect to see it pop up in many different places.”

Currently videos purchased via the Xbox can’t be played on a Zune, although both stores use a similar back-end infrastructure to serve up content. Over time, Stephenson said the goal is to move toward a world in which content purchased once can be played on a variety of devices.

Microsoft plans to offer the new Zune video service in a number of European markets, in addition to North America.

One of the big unanswered questions is what sort of gaming abilities the Zune HD will have. There has been speculation on the topic, but Microsoft refused to comment ahead of E3 saying it had no details to share at this time.

“This device is created to go head to head with the iPod Touch,” Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Microsoft Zune, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Zune buyers will also be able to play HD content on their TVs via a dock, Microsoft said.

As for the Zune HD, Microsoft is doubling down on its bet on a radio tuner as a distinguishing feature. Stephenson noted that the current Zune’s FM radio is its second most popular selling point. Adding support for HD Radio, a free over-the-air digital radio technology, represents both a risk and opportunity.

“Expect to see the Zune HD…become the definitive Zune product going forward,” Stephenson said. “You will continue to see the hard drive product in the market. (The Zune HD) will take over from existing flash devices.”

The software maker also said that at next week’s E3 trade show in Los Angeles it will announce details on a new Zune-branded video service for the
Xbox that will replace the current Xbox Live marketplace for TV and movies. The company didn’t announce details or specifically say that content will be playable on both Zunes and the Xbox.

The software maker did not announce pricing or capacity, though it said the device will use flash memory and attempt to take on Apple’s high-end iPod models.

The Zune HD, which will be available in the U.S. only starting this fall, features an HD Radio tuner as well as an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen, Microsoft said. It is based on Windows CE and will use a version of Internet Explorer customized for its touch screen, Microsoft said.

Microsoft plans to continue selling its hard drive-based model, which will have a software QWERTY keyboard, but said it plans to eventually discontinue its other flash models in favor of the Zune HD.

Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed its plans to take on the
iPod Touch with a new, touch-screen
Zune that will be able to surf the Web, play high-definition movies, and tune in to digital radio.

Microsoft's Zune HD will be released this fall in the U.S. The software maker has not announced pricing or capacity.

(Credit:
Microsoft )

If you want to play the “but they could have contracts with multiple companies!” game, then you can’t use the $15.42 multiplier. And not only for the incremental phones they’d gain, you can’t use it for phones they’ve already sold under contract. Why? Because you just threw exclusivity out the window.

… and that each unlocked iPhone results in Apple’s missing out on $370 in earnings over the phone’s two-year contract period.

That. Makes. No. Sense.

With jelly on it!

Right you are.

$370? Each?!

If these phones are in countries where Apple has no contract, the only thing you can say is that Apple should get an exclusive contract there faster (easier said than done). If they’re being used by people who just don’t like the exclusive provider Apple’s signed with, then these are people they’ll never get anyway.

Banana pony lollipop!

Much of the
iPhone’s profitability comes from revenue-sharing agreements that Apple has in place with AT&T Inc., as well as its three European wireless partners.

$370 over two years implies a $15.42/month revenue share per phone. There’s a lot of debate as to what the actual amount is Apple gets from AT&T — Scott Bourne of the Apple Phone Show thinks it’s around $9/month and Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray has estimated it as high as $18/month. So, $15.42 isn’t outrageous, but it’s a little on the high side. But the key thing to remember is that number is what it is because the contract is exclusive.

So, hey, let’s do some more math! Since it’s just multiplication of a bunch of numbers we read on the Intramets somewhere like Sacconaghi did! Remember, being an analyst is something you can try at home, kids!

Hey, kids! Do you like math?! Sure you do!

Just after the Macalope sent off some emails to the writers of the pieces Todd Sullivan linked to to ask who the heck these “analysts” were, he noticed this piece at MarketWatch.

This. Is. Not. Lost. Revenue.

Good god.

This may not be the same estimate referred to in those pieces, but the number’s around $1 billion, so let’s take a look at what horrid alchemy went into creating it.

Splort - chortle - hack - cough.

But the issue of users buying an iPhone only to “unlock” it from those carriers rose following Apple’s last quarterly earnings report. Analysts noted a discrepancy between sales figures provided by Apple and those from AT&T, and some concluded that as many as 1 million devices had been unlocked.

Arrrrgh.

Seriously! It’s apparently not as hard as it sounds! Let’s have a look!

Let’s try this one more time.

Oh, no, you dih-unt, girlfriend.

Again, please see the definition of opportunity cost and how it actually has to have a realistic opportunity, not a fantasy bozo lala gum drops opportunity.

[Bernstein Research analyst Toni] Sacconaghi estimated that between 25% and 30% of the more than 4 million iPhone units already sold have been unlocked to work on other wireless networks…

See? It’s an inverse relationship. For every X number of phones you can put on a revenue sharing contract by adding another cellular provider, you must reduce the monthly rate for all phones, and by a lot.

Well, sure. Of course they do! It’s only fair!

if you’ll excuse the Macalope, he’s going to go lie down and apply a cold compress right between the antlers.

The hell?!

Thanks to this report we can see Sacconaghi’s math and, hey, the Macalope’s 9th grade chemistry teacher (and the Macalope) was right! In a nutshell, Sacconaghi estimated that if Apple hit its target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, that would mean that something like 3 million of them would be unlocked. 3 million times $370 is 1.11 billion!

Indeed. It was kind of surprisingly large to everyone, including the Macalope.

Which is why — and, jeez, how many times does the Macalope have to say this? — it makes absolutely no sense to say that Apple is losing this money.

Apple doesn’t disclose how much revenue it gets from AT&T or its European partners, O2 in the U.K., T-Mobile in Germany and Orange in France. Those carriers each give Apple a payment every month for each customer that activates an iPhone on their its network.

If there are 400,000 unlocked iPhones in China — where Apple has no contract and may or may not be able to even get one — that’s 10% of all iPhones sold to date. So if Apple hits its target of 10 million phones, 1 million of them will be in China, unlocked.

Could be. No one knows for sure, but that’s possible.

Poof. There goes 1/3 of that $1 billion.

“In rich countries the internet is claiming a growing share of advertising — at the expense of traditional media, such as TV and print. There is still a gap between the time people spend online as a fraction of their media consumption (about a fifth) and the fraction of marketing budgets spent on the internet (about 7.5%). Many companies are trying to narrow the gap, which will sustain internet advertising during a downturn. Search advertising, the most effective kind of all, should be safest.”

The annual AdMedia survey of ad and marketing executives and private-equity investors claims that “respondents are surprisingly optimistic about the environment for M&A deals and M&A valuations in 2008.” Eighty percent of the executives surveyed expect their organizations will be involved in media mergers and acquisitions in 2008 despite widespread concerns about the prospects for the U.S. economy. According to the survey, M&A activity is likely to focus on sectors such as search marketing, mobile marketing, and viral marketing.

(Credit: AlwaysOn) I’m off to New York for the OnMedia conference from January 28-30. The two-and-a-half day event features technology CEOs from Silicon Valley leading presentations and debates with their counterparts in global advertising and media. It will be a dynamic crowd that’s coming together to discuss emerging user trends and new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries.

The list of speakers includes web 2.0 entrepreneurs such as Steve Rosenbaum (CEO, Magnify.net), Ami Kassar (Chief Innovation Officer, ideablob), and Matt Colebourne, (CEO, coComment); established content players such as Jim Spanfeller (President, Forbes.com) and Adam Berrey (SVP Marketing and Strategy, Brightcove); and investors such as Joshua Tanzer (Managing Director, Revolution Partners), and Andrew Cleland (Executive Director, Investments, Time Warner). The concluding panel on Wednesday, “Big Media Online. Now Comes the Hard Part: Sustaining Growth,” promises to be particularly interesting as it brings together such different figures as A-list blogger Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine) and Gordon McLeod, President of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.

This view is supported by an article in The Economist, which offers a differentiated but not overly gloomy perspective on the prospects of the advertising industry this year. According to the magazine, a possible recession will hit TV and print advertising sectors much harder than online advertising:

Several of these new devices were on display at the Intel Developer Forum. Many of the products are currently for sale in Asian countries, but some are coming to the U.S. later this year or early next. Click through to the embedded gallery for a tour.

But with Intel’s new low-power and low-cost Atom CPU, the prices for these machines are coming down to almost reasonable levels. And many vendors, realizing that no standard mouse-and-keyboard-based UI is suitable for this form factor, are releasing their products with new,
iPhone-like interfaces that are a better for their touch screen displays.

All the new ultramobiles come with wide-area networking technologies (either HSDPA, EVDO, or WiMax), which makes them potentially very interesting Web application platforms. To my knowledge, though, there are no HTML standards nor generally accepted guidelines for writing a Web app for a touch-screen interface, except for what Apple is doing. This will make using these products as Web clients frustrating at first.

Click here for full coverage of the Intel Developer Forum.

(Credit:
CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)

Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3

MP3 Mailbox Monday is a recurring feature where I answer a selection of questions about MP3 players and accessories, such as headphones, speakers, and music services and software. Check back often to see if the advice presented here might be of some use to you, or send your questions directly to me. (Note: We never include last names, but if you prefer to remain completely anonymous, please state as much in your e-mail.)

Is it just me, or do tech gadgets break down way too quickly and easily? I swear every cell phone I’ve ever owned starts petering out about the 372 day mark with sharply declining call quality. Then, there’s the screen and processor problems with MP3 players after about two years. One reader said that even some expensive headphones are calling it quits way too early. I may as well start driving a Fiat (again) and get it over with. Also: I may not be the FCC’s biggest fan, but I’m not one to encourage illegal activity either. Should you choose to partake in pirate radio activity, do so at your own risk.

(Credit:
Pirate Cat Radio)

A: Shure is certainly known for their excellent customer service and warranty policy. Also, I can honestly say that I’ve never received such a complaint about the company’s earphones consistently crapping out. Unfortunately, one thing we haven’t been able to do a lot of hands-on testing for here is durability. This is mostly a logistical problem, in that we have two headphone reviewers, and we are unable to put in the same hours of wear that a long-term user would into every set of headphones. While I can give a general assessment based on cable construction and user feedback research, I can’t say for certain what the most durable earphone is.

Sleek Audio SA6 earphones

I would appreciate your advice on where to invest my money on a pair of earphones that not only sound and feel great, but are also built for the long haul. I have been researching the new Klipsch, and the rubber/aluminum construction sounds great, but the fact that they don’t have really crisp highs puts me off. I have also just learned about the Sleek Audio SA-6 model, but haven’t seen much about their durability. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.–Craig, via e-mail.

Q: I read your article on finding open FM frequencies. What is missing? I like your thoughts, but I do not understand the process to actually grabbing an unused FM frequency. It is not clear on the entire process of broadcasting on public airwaves without a permit to occupy those public airwaves. I need some education since I was taught that there are heavy penalties for violating the rules, but I guess there is technology out there that sidesteps the legal issues on FM usage and ownership. I think it is great and grand for even local neighborhood programming. I am only aware of the squashing by Congress to permit such FM broadcasting after pressured by the big media corporations.–Tom, via e-mail

A: You’re initial reaction was correct: just grabbing an empty FM frequency for your own transmission is considered pirating, and there are laws against it. Although the airwaves theoretically belong to everyone, there is a strict application process required by the FCC. Personally, I agree that the current system at least appears to favor big media. Those who already own a license to broadcast certainly have an advantage. Still, people definitely get away with pirate broadcasting. In fact, we have a couple of stations here in San Francisco that have been on the air for quite some time relatively undisturbed.

Actually, though, the article that you pointed out isn’t meant to encourage pirating. It’s simply a tip on how to find the best frequency for transmitting your MP3 player’s music to your
car stereo via an FM transmitter.

That being said–and taking into account that the cable is the generally least-durable part of a set of headphones–I do have a recommendation for you: Ultimate Ears. The Super.fi 3, Super.fi 5 Pro, and Super.fi 5 EB all have earpieces that can be detached from the wire for cable-replacement. Like Shure, UE includes a two year warranty with its earphones. The Sleek Audio SA6 earphones also offer this feature, though Senior Editor Donald Bell expressed concern about the durability of the earpieces themselves, calling them “fragile.”