T-Mobile USA is expected to announce details around a new phone powered by Google’s Android operating system next week, say people familiar with the matter.

The new Android-based phone is slated to be called myTouch 3G, those people say. Like its predecessor, known as the G1, the follow-on device uses Android and is made by HTC. It is expected to go on sale in the U.S. this summer, making it the second Android-based phone to hit the market from a major carrier in the U.S. Google executives have said that more such phones are on the way, forecasting that at least 18 Android phones from a variety of manufacturers will hit the market this year.

T-Mobile has talked about plans to offer a second Android device for a while and a spokesman for the wireless carrier said Tuesday that it would have more details to share soon. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment, except to say the company was “pleased to see more Android-powered devices coming to market.”

Judging by what we’ve seen floating around in the hands of early users at parties lately, the new phone is much slicker than the first. That’s good news for Google, which is trying to drive use of its Android platform and the applications and services being built for it to steal share from rivals and eventually sell more mobile ads.

The myTouch 3G is essentially the same design as the HTC Magic — an Android-based phone that carrier Vodafone sells in the UK. Like Apple’s iPhone, the new phone has a touchscreen but no physical keyboard. The myTouch 3G is also smaller than the iPhone and is slightly rounded on the back and comes with a glossy look.

Partly because it did away with a keyboard, the myTouch 3G is much thinner than the G1, which has a clunky swivel-out keyboard. The navigation buttons and trackball for the new phone are in the same place as the G1 — at the bottom of the phone — which curves up slightly so thumbs can easily rest on it.

The software will be familiar, though there are some enhancements. A voice-activated search function, for example, was able to process a search for a local restaurant from inside a crowded bar and deliver the correct result. The new phone records video as well.

It’s going to be quite a summer for smart phones. The myTouch 3G will have to compete with AT&T’s new iPhone model, Sprint’s Palm Pre, and a new model from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, which announced its new BlackBerry Tour smart phone Tuesday.

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Nvidia today lifts the lid off five laptop graphics processors that will grace everything from cost-conscious computers to enthusiast gamer machines, promising its new 200M series laptop GPUs will deliver twice the power and half the battery drain of last year’s GPU.

While the GeForce GTX 280M and GTX 260M remain Nvidia’s top dogs, you’re now going to find a whole bunch of flavors filling out the line. They range from the GTS 260M (with 1GB of GDDR5 RAM) down to the G210M (with 512MB of GDDR3 RAM). These new 40nm chips support DirectX 10.1 and run CUDA applications, and all except the G210M offer built-in Nvidia PhysX tech for GPU-bound physics calculations. For a full breakdown of what these new GPUs offer, look below.

But rather than get razzle-dazzled by the spokespeople, let’s cut to the chase. These GPUs, certainly the lower-powered ones, could make a big difference in cracking the mainstream market. That is, we’re already hearing about Ion-based notebooks coming out later this summer, but how about something with a little more oomph? You could soon see an affordable all-purpose laptop that’s capable of running an HD movie without breaking a sweat. And, yeah, playing more than solitaire or a game from 16 years ago (not that there’s anything wrong with X-Com) wouldn’t hurt, either.

Who will provide those laptops down the line, and how much will they cost? Expect the usual suspects–Nvidia claims “100 new design wins.” Matt Wuebbling, senior product manager for notebooks GPUs at Nvidia, says that we should “imagine a notebook in the $600-to-$700 price range six months ago with a discrete GPU [the G210M] that now has twice the graphics power versus the G110M.” But the price, obviously, is up to the laptop maker. Wuebbling expects to see notebooks showing up as early as July; Asus and Acer are confirmed to be the first players bringing the 200M series to market in new notebooks. While I can’t extol the performance virtues of these chips just yet, I can at least eyeball the specs below and look forward to kicking the tires on a couple of 200M-fueled laptops soon enough.

By the Numbers

GTS 260M396 gigaflops; 96 processor cores; 550MHz graphics clock; 1375MHz processor clock; 1800MHz; 1GB GDDR5 RAM; 128-bit memory width; 38-watt TDP

GTS 250M360 gigaflops; 96 processor cores; 500MHz graphics clock; 1250MHz processor clock; 1600MHz; 1GB GDDR5 RAM; 128-bit memory width; 28-watt TDP

GT 240M174 gigaflops; 48 processor cores; 550MHz graphics clock; 1210MHz processor clock; 800MHz; 1GB GDDR3 RAM; 128-bit memory width; 23-watt TDP

GT 230M158 gigaflops; 48 processor cores; 500MHz graphics clock; 1100MHz processor clock; 800MHz; 1GB GDDR3 RAM; 128-bit memory width; 23-watt TDP

GT 210M72 gigaflops; 16 processor cores; 625MHz graphics clock; 1500MHz processor clock; 800MHz; 512MB GDDR3 RAM; 64-bit memory width; 14-watt TDP

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WolframAlpha Launched Monday May 18th, 2009

Making the world’s knowledge computable

Today’s Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. You enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer. Based on a new kind of knowledge-based computing… more>>

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We knew it was too good to be true, eternal curmudgeonly pessimists that we are — and sure enough, T-Mobile USA has putthe kibosh on the start of its Android 1.5 rollout to G1 users. It seems that the build is still being “optimized” to “ensure optimal functionality and smooth delivery,” which doesn’t necessarily explain why T-Mobile UK users are already enjoying this stuff — but then again, we’re not the engineers and tech support folks that have to put up with the fallout from a failed launch. The carrier thinks everything will be delayed by about a week, which means that we’re now looking at early June before everyone gets it.

Sources: 1,  2

Alpha 680, one of the first netbooks to use Android, has generated quite an interest among the netbook aficionados. The netbook is based on an ARM11 CPU running at 533 MHz and sports a 7″ LCD screen at 800 by 480 pixels, 128MB DDR2 RAM (expandable to 256 MB), 1GB SSD drive (expandable to 4 GB), Wi-Fi, keyboard and touch pad. On the downside there’s the incompatibility with some of the Android apps in the Market. It is expected to hit the market in Q3 for around $250.

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Name that fish

I was stumbling through the oddities when I can across this behemoth… Can you name that fish? Try not to cheat even though I have made it pretty easy if you click around… hint, hint…

“The Simpsons” got their own postal stamps on Thursday, becoming the first television series to be featured as the sole subject of a U.S. stamp set while still in primetime production.

The set of five stamps depicting Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson were issued to celebrate the 20th season of U.S. television’s longest-running comedy.

“We are emotionally moved by the Postal Service selecting us rather than making the lazy choice of someone who has benefited society,” quipped James L. Brooks, the executive producer of the animated series.

“It’s only supposed to be dead people on stamps. Somehow we were able to overcome that.”

“The Simpsons” debuted as a series in December 1989 with a Christmas-themes episode called “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”

It went on to win 24 primetime Emmys and was renewed by Fox television earlier this year for two more seasons.

Go  to USPS.com and vote for your favorite Simpsons stamp.

An X-ray shows multiple nails embedded in the skull of 27-year-old Chen (Anthony) Liu that homicide squad detectives allege were fired from a high-powered nail gun in this police handout image made available April 24, 2009. Police believe Chen, whose decomposing body was discovered in Sydney’s Georges River in November 2008, was killed by being shot repeatedly in the head with a high-powered nail gun.
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Why are many resistant to experience Wii games the way they are meant to be?

One thing I hear a lot about that kind of annoys me is the constant call for Wii games to support the Classic or GameCube Controllers. It seems like every new game or continuation of a series that gets announces is expected to cater to everyone’s whims control-wise. Why is everyone so afraid of motion controls? Without them, what makes a Wii game unique? When you take away the basic advantage of the system for all the big releases you severely weaken the position of those games on the platform. I think the strengths of a platform should be leveraged, not shunned.

What would Wii Sports have been without motion control? The word “boring” comes to mind immediately. It would been an awful looking mash-up of various sports with no reason for people to give it a second look. Of course, games like Wii Sports aren’t the types of games that fall prey to the demand for standard controls. Instead, it is the big releases that cater to the self-described “hardcore” gamers that are often the subject of motion control sickness. People demanded analog stick support for Mario Kart Wii; some even wanted it for Super Mario Galaxy. You know what you get when you play Mario Kart Wii with a GameCube controller? Double Dash! It takes away the unique aspects of the game, which is why the developers pushed the Wii Wheel so hard. Why they caved to the pressure to include older control-schemes in the first place is a mystery to me.

It’s one thing when a game has no valid use for motion controls to have some options, like Super Smash Bros. Brawl for example, where the only difference is the button configuration, though that does beg the question as to why the Wii’s motion control wasn’t integrated into the game a little better. That’s a big reason why Brawl feels a lot like Melee and is a little lacking in originality. Perhaps if Sakurai-san had done something really unique with motion controls, we’d have a fresher experience. Many will argue in favor of including more control options by saying that variety and giving the player a choice is really the best thing, but I would say that when those choices alter the basic game mechanics and experience, then it’s really doing more harm than good.

The thing is that all players already have a choice: they can choose not to play the game. And if they really have a problem with motion controls, then there are other consoles out there that they may prefer. Players need to evolve with the times. Believe it or not, some people never caught the dual-analog wave, and refuse to play games that use it. Should all games have been required to keep digital control just to appease them? I know it doesn’t hurt my experience in any way, but I find it annoying when players think they can tell the game developers what’s best for their games, and in some cases threaten boycotts if they don’t get it. Toughen up. Play the game the way it’s meant to be played, and if you don’t like that, then go find something else to do.
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The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.