On Web and iPhone, a Tool to Aid Careful Shopping

Hence GoodGuide, a Web site and iPhone application that lets consumers dig past the package’s marketing spiel by entering a product’s name and discovering its health, environmental and social impacts.

“What we’re trying to do is flip the whole marketing world on its head,” said Mr. O’Rourke. “Instead of companies telling you what to believe, customers are making the statements to the marketers about what they care about.”

A few years ago, Mr. O’Rourke noticed that at the end of his lectures, audience members were raising their hands to ask which kind of laptop or sneaker or lotion to buy. Americans are becoming increasingly interested in what is in the stuff they buy. (Mr. O’Rourke’s research caught mainstream interest once before when, in 1997, his report on Nike’s factories in Vietnam led to an uproar over that company’s labor conditions.)

Although the GoodGuide Web site, which started in September, had only 110,000 unique visitors in April, Mr. O’Rourke is encouraged that it is growing about 25 percent a month. Lately, interest in GoodGuide has begun to extend beyond techies and the Whole Foods crowd to the Wal-Mart crowd, as Mr. O’Rourke put it. One sign of that broader appeal: Apple recently featured the app in its iPhone ads.

www.nytimes.com

The new iPhone and the Palm Pre both launched

The new iPhone and the Palm Pre both launched this week, but bring few major features that haven't been seen before (Images: Courtesy of Apple and Palm). his week was a big one in the world of gadgets. Not only did the firm leading the smartphone market, Apple, unveil a a new iPhone; but a new contender, Palm, staked its reputation on a smartphone of its own.

Yet despite all the fanfare, neither phone offers much that is new. Each boasts a luscious full-colour, multi-touch-sensitive screen, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi access, a camera, light sensors and an accelerometer – as do their competitors the Blackberry Storm, HTC Magic and various others.

The core package of what makes up a smartphone has already been established and the competition between them will be, for now, over relative subtleties rather than unique, blockbusting hardware. Yet cutting-edge research is still suggesting genuinely novel additions to the smartphone package. Here are just a few of them.

www.newscientist.com

Second Start, Rossi meet Target

Doha - Valentino Rossi will start a series of MotoGP races in 2009 season of the two positions. However he is very happy because that is a target that already Dicanangkan since the beginning.

From the results of the qualification held sirkuti at Losail, Sunday (12 / 4) dinihari WIB, The Doctor must be satisfied in the second under Casey Stoner with a time difference 0473 seconds. Results are clearly not a surprise because during the free practice sessions and even since the pre season test of the Ducati always surpass Rossi.

So when not afford to grab pole for the race dinihari later, Rossi is not at all disappointed. Only the lines of the tone-a tone of satisfaction as sitting in the second start position so that the target since the beginning.

"(Position) is the second course that we expect, so we must reach our target. We are very close to Stoner, but a little slow in some places. So you have to understand how to improve it, this evening or tomorrow," said Rossi to Italia1 TV the dilansir Autosports.

"Start at the second position is important. Because our test results here are very bad and we have made a big improvement for the end of this weekend. In fact, there are increasing from afternoon to evening. So I am a little satisfied with that," he added.

At the same time also make Rossi menyoal issued new regulations that the International Motorcycle Federation (FIM), length of time-related changes in qualifications to be only 45 minutes, 60 minutes earlier. Rossi said the new regulations is a new challenge for himself and the other drivers if they can work quickly or not.

"My Opinion (time) a new kualfikasi not how bad. Time of 45 minutes is difficult because you have to do everything quickly. But we can manage the it quickly, so it's okay," pungkas rider is 30 years old.

( source : www.detiksport.com )