Nikon D40 Digital Camera with 18-55mm lens

Great pictures used to require complicated and cumbersome equipment along with years of experience. Not any more. The D40 is compact, lightweight and designed specifically for ease of use, yet contains top-quality, high-performance technologies that you expect from a Nikon digital SLR. And with world-famous Nikkor lenses, you know you have a sharp and reliable optical performance. All in a camera light enough to carry with you everywhere. Beautiful photography has never been easier.

YouTube boosts full-length movies, TV show

Google Inc.'s YouTube said Thursday it is vastly expanding its library of full-length movies and TV shows it offers online, while also launching a new advertising service and adding about a dozen new content partners. The long-form videos will be housed on a unique page at http://www.youtube.com/shows and get a "Shows" tab on the main YouTube site. The offering, which went live late Thursday, marks a further departure from the fuzzy homemade clips that made the Web site popular and is the latest move in YouTube's attempt to boost sales and profits. Last week, YouTube announced it was teaming up with Universal Music Group to create an online music video venture. "It's a first step in a long commitment," said Shiva Rajaraman, a YouTube senior product manager, in a conference call with reporters. The company hopes to add to its movie and show content over time. The titles available at launch are mostly older fare that are already available elsewhere on the Web. It will offer for free hundreds of TV show titles including "Beverly Hillbillies" and "Married With Children," and hundreds of movies, including "Casino Royale" and "Cliffhanger." The service expands on YouTube's existing partnership with several studios, whose parents include Sony Corp., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., CBS Corp., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Liberty Media Corp. On Thursday it also announced new partnerships with 13 smaller companies such as Discovery Communications Inc., National Geographic and SnagFilms LLC. Advertising revenue will be shared with the content providers. The news came on the same day Mountain View-based Google said it earned $1.42 billion, or $4.49 per share, in the first quarter, up 9 percent from a year ago. Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion in late 2006 but it hasn't emerged as a major marketing vehicle and the company does not disclose its revenue figures. Analysts have estimated its revenue in 2008 at around $200 million. On Thursday, YouTube spokesman Chris Dale simply said a recent analyst estimate that said the site lost $500 million a year was "factually incorrect" and said its performance was better. As a way to bolster its ad revenue, YouTube also announced it is launching Google TV Ads Online, which will help advertisers target viewers of online content with video ads. Single video ads are planned to be inserted in scheduled breaks in shows and movies, Rajaraman said. Sometimes the ads will be sold by Google and sometimes by the content providers.

Source: tech.yahoo.com

Robot - and gardener: MIT droids tend plants

A class of undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a set of robots that can water, harvest and pollinate cherry tomato plants. The small, $3,000 robots, which move through the garden on a base similar to a Roomba vacuum, are networked to the plants. When the plants indicate they need water, the robots can sprinkle them from a water pump. When the plants have a ripe tomato, the machines use their arms to pluck the fruit. Even though robots have made few inroads into agriculture, these robots' creators hope their technology eventually could be used by farmers to reduce the natural resources and the difficult labor needed to tend crops. Last spring, Daniela Rus, a professor who runs the Distributed Robotics Lab at MIT, began a two-part course. In the first semester, the students learned the basics of creating and using robots. By the fall, the students were ready to have robots tackle a real-world problem. Rus and Nikolaus Correll, a postdoctoral assistant in Rus' lab, challenged the students to create a "distributed robotic garden" by the end of the semester. The 12 students broke into groups, each tasked with solving a different problem, such as creating the mechanical arm needed to harvest the tomatoes or perfecting the network that let the plants and robots share information. By the end of the fall term, the "garden" inside Rus' lab was green and growing. Now there are four cherry tomato plants nestled into a plywood base covered in fake grass. Next to each pot is a gray docking station for the robots.

AT&T Offer $50 Netbooks....!!!!!!

AT&T will begin selling netbooks with integrated wireless Internet cards, selling them for as low as $50 — with a data plan contract, of course. The rollout will begin in Atlanta and Philadelphia. AT&T is also looking to enter the e-book market, according a company exec quoted by Bloomberg at the recent trade show in Las Vegas hosted by industry organization CTIA Wireless: The Kindle, which lets users download books over Sprint Nextel Corp.'s network, has done a "phenomenal job," and AT&T wants to be part of that market, Glenn Lurie, head of emerging devices at AT&T, said today. — Bloomberg.com Verizon has also expressed interest in entering the e-reader fray, saying it had been approached by five (undisclosed) companies interested in a wireless connection like that of the Kindle. The takeaway: AT&T's netbook announcement, along with an earlier one from Verizon, suggests these tiny laptops are increasingly being positioned as much as an additional mobile network-connected device as a supplemental computer. It's unclear if the AT&T exec's remarks on e-readers are anything more than an off-the-cuff response to the success of the Kindle. But the notion of another carrier joining Sprint — the carrier the Kindle uses — in the e-book business is intriguing.



Wireless access to content is one of the most compelling aspects of the Kindle, giving it the edge over competitors like the Sony Reader (which we've covered in the past). The other is access to the huge library of e-content — Amazon's 250,000 Kindle titles in the case of the Kindle. And to offer a compelling option to the Kindle, AT&T, Verizon, or any other carrier, will need to find a content partner with a competitive library. It isn't immediately clear who might be able to offer that (perhaps other than Sony, with its Reader library.)

Audi S8 - 2009

The 2009 Audi S8 offers a good bundle of driver aids, including adaptive cruise control and blind spot detection. It has a good iPod interface, an excellent Bluetooth cell phone system, and an exceptional stereo--with the right kind of music. Its Quattro all-wheel-drive and air suspension deliver good control. The navigation system is badly in need of an update and offers no advanced features. Fuel economy is abysmal. The 2009 Audi S8 is a very powerful big sedan with some excellent handling features, but it doesn't offer all of the latest in-dash gizmos, and you trade a luxury ride for performance. Specifications: Body style: Sedan ; Trim levels: S8 ; Available Engine: Gas

Samsung (T-Mobile) SGH-T639

Product summary The good: The Samsung SGH-T639 has decent call quality and a solid feature set including Bluetooth, a speakerphone, and a music player. The bad: The Samsung SGH-T639 has flat controls and a sensitive audio sweet spot. Also, it lacks voice commands, and its 3G services are not yet operable.



The bottom line: Though it's not 3G quite yet, the Samsung SGH-T639 is a satisfying midrange phone in the meantime. Specifications: Band / mode: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) ; Talk time: Up to 240 min ; Combined with: With digital camera / digital player ;

HTC Mogul PPC-6800 (Sprint)....

Product summary The good: The Sprint Mogul by HTC runs the latest Windows Mobile 6, has more memory included, and has a thinner design. It also boasts Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and EV-DO support as well as a 2-megapixel camera. Sprint will also offer an over-the-air update post-launch that gives you access to the Sprint Music Store.



The bad: Some elements of the Mogul's hardware as well as speakerphone volume and quality is sub-par. A slower processor and limited program memory can sometimes slow down performance.



The bottom line: The Sprint Mogul by HTC brings some needed design and feature updates to its predecessor, and refreshes the carrier's staid lineup of smartphones. It has some performance issues, but is worth the upgrade. Specifications: OS provided: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional ; Installed RAM: 64 MB ; Processor: QUALCOMM 400 MHzMSM7500