Doug Aamoth…

Anyone over the age of 30 may fondly remember Earl Weaver Baseball for Amiga, DOS, and the Apple II. I myself had an Apple IIc and split most of my time between Earl Weaver Baseball and Hardball! during my formative elementary school years. Now we’re hearing that one of Earl Weaver Baseball’s original designers, Eddie Dombrower, is porting the game to the iPhone.

According to an interview with Dombrower on Game Stooge, the game will be called “EWB Baseball” — pronounced “yewb” since Earl Weaver still retains naming rights — and will contain the original game engine, which is owned by Dombrower.

The game will be released with a relatively simplistic design at first and, assuming it makes enough money, will be followed by a more advanced version later. Says Dombrower:

For the first release, I intend to leave them pretty much as you see them in the screen shots. If time allows for the initial release, I’ll begin to add texture mapping to fill in the stands, improve the look of the grass and dirt. The animations are, in my opinion, strong enough for the resolution of this device.

Now, assuming that the game gets some traction and proves to generate some “real” revenue, here’s the second phase of the plan:

• convert the hand-created flat polygon renderings of the field and stadiums to openGL technology (which I can use elsewhere too)
• spend some time re-engineering the “Director” to pick better shots
• provide users with additional options for visual playback using the camera (the engine supports user defined camera positioning, but this was turned off for igiBall)

The “background” behind the stadium uses photos to provide city scapes and mountain scapes, and so on, and I plan to allow users to put their own photos behind the stadiums (currently 2 photos per stadium). That should allow us to, as a community, create the feel of the actual cities these ballparks live in.

Some beefed up graphics would be nice, yes, but it’ll only cost $4.99 and it oughta provide enough nostalgia for anyone who like the original game.

Here’s a shot from the DOS version:

And, of course, the original box. Who could forget the box?

A Baseball Classic Hits iPhone [Game Stooge via Kotaku]

The Wii Cordless Keyboard from Logitech is eligible for a $20 mail-in rebate until March 7th. Amazon carries the keyboard for $39.99 before the rebate, although it’s currently out of stock. If you don’t mind waiting a bit, though, you can buy it now and Amazon will ship it to you when it’s back in stock.

If you’re not the patient type, Newegg’s got it in stock for $44.99 before rebate although shipping adds about eight bucks. Buy.com has it for $49.99 before rebate with free shipping, though, so that might be your best bet if you want it quickly.

That $20 rebate (PDF link) is good on more than just the Wii keyboard, too. It works for a few of Logitech’s cordless mice, the MX Revolution and Wave keyboards, the X-540 speakers, and the Driving Force Wireless steering wheel.

Wii Logitech Cordless Keyboard [Amazon.com]

And here we go again. After Dell (and later Intel) petitioned to have Psion’s “netbook” trademark canceled, claiming it was a generic term and that Psion wasn’t even selling anything called a “netbook” any more, Psion responded by saying it’s been actively selling the “Netbook Pro” (above photo) even though the machine is no longer manufactured.

jkOnTheRun received the following from Psion:

In 2006, Psion in fact had multi-million dollar sales of the Netbook ® Pro computer in both the US and the EU.  The bulk of sales were (and continue to be) in the highly specialised supply chain logistics area – perhaps not the easiest thing for third parties to get visibility on, but nevertheless, real sales to real customers in the US.  And those real sales to real customers in the US continue even to this day.  Attached is a typical Netbook ® Pro sales flyer (not included here), so you can see that Psion really were (and are) branding this computer as a ‘Netbook’.

I can quite understand why people might have assumed that sales ceased a while back – it’s not as if the product has been in Best Buy.  But those people simply had no access to Psion’s confidential sales information.

So the facts are that, although manufacture has been discontinued, sales in the US and EU have not.    And its continuing sales that are important to preventing a trademark from becoming abandoned.  We’ll of course be setting the record straight in our court filings.

Incidentally, manufacture of the Netbook ® Pro had to cease prematurely not because of any lack of demand.  It was because supplies of a replacement for a specialised chip controller could not be found – the Netbook ® Pro had very sophisticated power management, given it 8 hours of runtime and 10 days in standby, as well as instant-on (still an amazing feature in a laptop).  Because of the sophisticated nature of the Netbook ® Pro design, a simple replacement controller could not be found and that meant that manufacture had to cease once those supplies of controllers were exhausted; it was a great pity.

I hope this clarifies the situation; Psion continues to sell the Netbook ® Pro computer.  It’s got all the invoices to prove multi-million dollar sales in the US in 2006, and sales that continue even to this day.  There’s been no abandonment of the trademark.

Just because we’re not selling tens of thousands through Best Buy doesn’t mean we’re not entitled to our trademark.

So this will be interesting to watch; can a product that’s not manufactured any more but is still sold have its trademarked name protected? Whatever the case, Psion has a pretty strong argument here if it can indeed secure its trademark for a while longer.

Psion responds to Intel/ Dell trademark scuffle- we still sell the Netbook Pro, it’s not abandoned [jkOnTheRun]

Flickr

A disheartening report in the Orlando Sentinel finds that some people are switching from broadband to dial-up in order to save money. Sad but true, it seems. Those who are switching are “not the iPod crowd,” according to NetZero CEO Mark Goldstein, but mostly people from older generations who use the internet for very basic e-mail and light web surfing.

And you can kind of see where they’re coming from, I guess. It’s either at least $30 per month for broadband or around ten bucks for dial-up. As ludicrous as it sounds, some people don’t “need” the internet enough to justify the cost of broadband. Blasphemy, I know.

Think how much you could save by cutting out cable TV and broadband. We’d pocket about $200 here in the Aamoth household. But then we’d have to “talk” or “read books” and “go to bed early” – not to mention how difficult it’d be for me to get any work done. “Hey, check out this YouTube video. It’s been buffering for three hours on my computer, but I’m sure you guys would like it (maybe, probably).” But a lot of people have high-speed internet at work and could probably go without it at home if things got really tight.

Both Earthlink-owned PeoplePC (starting at $7.95 per month) and NetZero (starting at $9.95 per month) have seen an increase in subscribers, although adoption rates for dial-up are still at less than ten percent of American households, while broadband is at 57 percent according to the Pew Research Center. Indeed, an Orlando-area ISP says that its seen a “spike” in dial-up users although “it’s still not a robust, growing segment of the Internet-service business.”

Anyone here made the switch? Actually, you’re probably not reading this if you have. For everyone else: How bad would things have to get for you to switch from broadband to dial-up?

Consumers return to dial-up to save [Orlando Sentinel]

Apparently Bill Clinton was mere moments away from picking up chicks experiencing the finest in green transportation all over Burbank, California in a Telsa Roadster. Jeremy Snyder, general manager of the Los Angeles Tesla Store, handed a set of keys to Mr. Clinton at the end of a President’s Day luncheon after the former president expressed interest in driving a Roadster.

At that point, however, secret service agents informed Clinton that it was time to leave. Come on, Secret Service – it was President’s Day! That’s like your bonus birthday if you’ve ever been the president before. Let the guy have a little fun, eh? Apparently during lunch “President Clinton announced he was eager to take the Roadster for a ride around the block.”

Around the block – come on!

President’s Day with a President [Tesla Motors Blog via TreeHugger]

In what may qualify as nostalgia overload, an enterprising Canadian has replaced the insides of an old all-in-one iMac with a Sega Dreamcast console. The end result is the iCast.

The process is detailed here on the CGCC forums by user “Logicdustbin,” who says:

“I had a couple G3’s laying around, and for some reason I had a 15″ LCD monitor. As I was cleaning up my workshop, these to things were sitting beside each other, the LCD looked to be about the same size.

So I started taking shit apart. Dropped about 100 pounds of CRT monitor out of the iMac, and in went the LCD, fit just perfect.

Since that fit in nicely, it was an easy decision to slap a Dreamcast inside. The hard part was figuring out where to place it. I didn’t want to cut a big hole in the side of the case (although I was debating on turning the handle on the back of the case to an access port for the disks), but, I ended up doing a ‘PS1 upside down mod’ – its not great, but it works pretty good.

He then extended the controller ports, allowing him to plug the controllers into the front of the iMac, followed by the arduous tasks of getting the power button to work with the new monitor and rigging up an amp to push sound through the iMac speakers. It all appears to be well worth it, though, as this is one nice looking mod for any Dreamcast fan.

Here’s video of everything in action:

iCast [CGCC.ca via hack a day]

No surprise here, but VIA’s issued a press release officially announcing that Samsung’s NC20, the 12-inch successor to the NC10 netbook, does indeed have a VIA Nano CPU – a fact that’s been known for quite some time now. Along with the news, we’ve got some official specs for the soon-to-be-released computer, although we still don’t have official pricing or launch dates.

First, the specs:

• 12.1-inch LED WXGA (1280 x 800) screen
• VIA Nano™ ULV Processor U2250 (1.3+GHz, 800MHz)
• Integrated VIA Chrome9 graphics
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• 1GB DDR2 RAM (1*SODMM)
• 160GB HDD (9.5mmH 2.5”HDD, SATA)
• 1.3 MP web camera
• Ethernet/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
• Three USB ports, 3-in-1 card reader
• Six-cell battery good for up to 6.5 hours
• Weighs 3.3 pounds

Hopefully that RAM is easily upgradeable. The Nano chipset can apparently handle up to 4GB of RAM and people might want more than 1GB to play with. Also – and I never thought I’d say this about a laptop – that 3.3-pound weight actually seems a bit heavy for a netbook. It’s probably a small price to pay for a six-cell battery, though, if you’re looking for almost day-long computing without needing to recharge.

Again, no official word on pricing and availability here in the US, although Amazon UK has the machine listed at £379.54 (just under $550 US) with a March 1st in-stock date.

Here’s the full press release:

Samsung Adopts VIA Nano Processor for the Samsung NC20 12.1″ Mini-Notebook

VIA Nano processor platform enables the Samsung NC20 to deliver superior performance and battery life in a sleek 12.1″ mini-notebook form factor

Taipei, Taiwan, 27 February 2009 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced that Samsung has adopted the VIA Nano processor in the new Samsung NC20 mini-notebook.

Combining the power efficient 1.3+GHz VIA Nano™ processor with the highly-integrated VIA VX800 system media processor, the Samsung NC20 also features a stunning 1280×800 12.1″ display, ensuring an outstanding video experience and enabling a full-size 12″ notebook keyboard with optimized 18.5mm key spacing and larger touchpad in a highly portable device that weighs just 1.52kg.

Mobility is enhanced by 802.11b/g and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and a six-cell battery that provides up to 6.5 hours of use independent of any power supply, while storage options include either a solid state disk or a SATA hard disk drive. Other features include an integrated 1.3 mega pixel digital motion camera, 3-in-1 memory card reader and three built-in USB ports.

“We are delighted that Samsung has adopted the VIA Nano processor for the Samsung NC20,” said Richard Brown, Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “This is a truly ground-breaking product that sets the new industry standard for consumer mini-notes and clearly demonstrates the advanced performance of our VIA Nano processor platform.”

Samsung NC20 Mini-Notebook Specifications

Screen:              12.1″ LED WXGA (1280 x 800)
CPU:                  VIA Nano™ ULV Processor U2250 (1.3+GHz, 800MHz)
Chipset:              VIA VX800 Unified Digital Media IGP Chipset
Graphics:            Integrated VIA Chrome9™ with DirectX 9.0 3D graphics support and hardware video acceleration
OS:                     Microsoft?R Windows?R XP Home Edition
Memory:            1GB DDR2  (1*SODMM)
Storage:            160GB HDD (9.5mmH 2.5”HDD, SATA)
Webcam:           1.3 Mega pixels web camera
LAN:                   10/100Mbps LAN
Wireless:            Atheros 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth:           2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
I/O Ports:            USB2.0 x 3, Ethernet LAN, 3-in-1 card reader
Battery:               6 cells Li-ion Battery Standard
Dimensions:      292.4mm x 217mm x 30.7mm
Weight:              1.52kg
Special
Features:            6.5 hours battery life
Colours:              White

About the VIA Nano Processor Platform
The first 64-bit, superscalar processors in VIA’s x86 platform portfolio, VIA Nano processors have been specifically designed to revitalize traditional desktop and notebook PC markets, delivering truly optimized performance and security for the most demanding computing, entertainment and connectivity applications. The VIA Nano processor is coupled with the VIA VX800 system media processor with support for full Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 3D graphics, high definition video and audio playback, and up to 4GB of DDR2 system memory.

The VIA Nano processor family leverages advanced 65 nanometer process technology for enhanced power efficiency, and augments that with aggressive power and thermal management features within the compact 21mm x 21mm nanoBGA2 package for an idle power as low as 100mW (0.1W), extending the reach of power efficient green and silent PCs, thin and light notebooks and mini-notes around the world. For further information on the VIA Nano processor family, please visit the VIA website at:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/nano/

File this one in the “good ideas” folder (if you use the tickler system, file it in the “February” folder). Brando is selling a mini-USB cable with an inline SD card reader sitting smack-dab between point A and point B. It allows you to transfer files from an SD card while at the same time charging your cell phone or other portable device.

Inserting an SD card will disable transfers from whichever device is hooked up to the mini-USB end to make way for SD card transfers, but the cable will keep charging the device in the meantime. Once the card is removed, you’ll again be able to shuttle files between your computer and your phone (or whatever’s hooked up).

Compatible cards: SDHC / SD / MMC II / RS MMC / Ultra II SD / Extreme SD / Extreme III SD / *MiniSD / *T-Flash / *MicroSD / *MicroSDHC (*Adapter is required). There’s also a MicroSD version available as well. Both cables cost $12.

2-in-1 SD(HC) Card Reader Cable [Brando]

Happy Friday, deal hunters. You can pick up a Dell Mini 9 netbook for $199 today. Can’t you find a little extra room near your couch for an inexpensive netbook? Won’t you give the Mini 9 a decent home?!

If you can find it in your heart to adopt this computer, you’ll find it has the following specs:

• Intel Atom N270 CPU (1.6GHz)
• 8.9-inch LCD at 1024×600
• 4-cell battery
• Ubuntu Linux
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB solid state drive
• No Bluetooth, no camera

So it’s not a powerhouse by any means but, hey, couch + netbook = never having to get up.

Inspiron Mini 9 [Dell.com via technabob]

Apparently if you work at LEGO, you get a miniaturized LEGO person of yourself with your contact info on the back. Then when someone asks for your business card, you hand them the figure. That is — how you say — outstanding. Never mind the gigantic bulge of LEGO figures in everyone’s pockets and the incessant noise that must fill every hallway at LEGO headquarters when people walk around, it’s the principle of the idea that makes it so wonderful.

It’d be fun to work at LEGO long enough to collect a paycheck and a sack full of mini Dougs, just so I can cross that off my list of things to do before I die.

Coolest business card ever [PositiveSharing.com via Geekologie/Wired]