If you happen to be in London on April 19th you have a chance to own a piece of history. A Marconi type–702 television set, which was built using England’s then secret radar research, is going up for auction at Bonhams Mechanical Music and Scientific Instruments sale. Built in 1936, the set is believed to be the oldest working television in Britain. From the article: “The machine was bought for almost £100 three weeks after television transmissions began. But Mr GB Davis of Dulwich, south–east London would have only been able to able to watch it for a few hours. The nearby Crystal Palace and its transmitter burned down three days after Mr Davis bought the Marconi type–702 set on November 26. The area could not receive pictures again until 1946.”

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rabidmuskrat writes “Are we too obsessed with Facebook? With 500 million users and a CNBC story about it, the answer would seem to be yes. PostRandomonium notes the media’s obsession with Facebook, and how it impacts their news coverage — in particular, that of CNN. One out of every 13 Earthlings and three out of four Americans is on Facebook, and one out of 26 signs into Facebook on a daily basis.”

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On Saturday we ran a story about the 30th Anniversary of the Osborne Computer, and today we have an amusing head-to-head: Osborne 1 vs the iPad 2.
StormDriver starts: “At first, they seem to belong in completely different weight categories. Osborne 1 is just under 11 kg, enough to pull your arm out of the socket, if you’re a skinny geek. That’s roughly 20 times more than an iPad, or about the same as whole suitcase of them But what about the processing power? Osbourne 1 was sporting a Z80 CPU, running at a stunning frequency of 4.0 MHz. You cannot compare the different architectures directly, but iPad’s CPU is a dual core A5, clocked at up to 1 GHz. That’s approximately three hundred times more, not counting in the vastly superior architecture. Z80 CPU was supported by whooping 64KB of system memory. Surprisingly, it was enough to run databases, word processors and complex, professional software. Today’s iPad is equipped with 512MB of RAM (roughly one thousand times more), and some reviewers complain it’s a bit on the low side.”

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Malard writes “XBMC users can rejoice, developers from the team have partnered with Motorola to re-develop their previously announced Nyxboard remote with RF, programmable IR and full support on Windows, Mac, Linux and Original Apple TVs.”

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retroworks writes “Fareed Zakaria (Editor of Time, CNN GPS) writes that one in 50 USA combatants in Afghanistan is now a robot. There are more fighting robots than elevators in the country. Article has links to film of robots in action, allusions to Terminator films.”

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An anonymous reader writes “A federal judge has reversed a $625.5 million judgement against Apple in a patent infringement lawsuit pertaining to Apple’s Cover Flow feature. The lawsuit was filed by Mirror Worlds, a company founded by Yale professor Dave Gelertner. ‘Mirror Worlds may have painted an appealing picture for the jury, but it failed to lay a solid foundation sufficient to support important elements it was required to establish under the law,’ US District Judge Leonard Davis explained in his decision.”

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Sam writes “Nintendo executive Reggie Fil-Amie today revealed US availability and pricing for the Nintendo 3DS at an event in the Nintendo World store in New York City. The 3DS will launch on March 27, 2011 with a retail price of $250 and will be available in two flavors: Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black. There will be roughly 30 games released between the launch day and E3 2011 (June 7 to June 9). These include Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Madden NFL Football, The Sims 3, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D, and LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. The device will have the same form-factor as the DSi and will be backwards compatible with both DS and DSi games. Users will also be able to download games via an online store, called the eShop. In Europe, the 3DS will launch on March 25, 2011. While Europeans will get the device two days early, pricing is not good news. Nintendo held a second event in Amsterdam today and said that pricing would be left up to retailers. Retailers in the UK are reportedly planning a £229.99 ($367.64) price tag, while other European retailers are going with €249 ($336.00).”

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itwbennett writes “The FBI issued a warning Wednesday about a new twist on a long-running computer fraud technique, known as Automated Clearing House fraud. With ACH fraud, criminals install malware on a small business’ computer and use it to log into the company’s online bank account. In this latest twist on the scam, the criminals are apparently looking for companies that are hiring online and then sending malicious software programs that are doctored to look like job applications. One unnamed company recently lost $150,000 in this way, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. ‘The malware was embedded in an e-mail response to a job posting the business placed on an employment website,’ the FBI said in a press release. The malware, a variant of the Bredolab Trojan, ‘allowed the attacker to obtain the online banking credentials of the person who was authorized to conduct financial transactions within the company.’”

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RichiH writes “From Techdirt: ‘A group of companies sent a letter to to Attorney General Eric Holder and ICE boss John Morton (with cc’s to VP Joe Biden, Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano, IP Czar Victoria Espinel, Rep. Lamar Smith, Rep. John Conyers, Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Charles Grassley), supporting the continued seizure of domain names they don’t like, as well as the new COICA censorship bill, despite the serious Constitutional questions raised about how such seizures violate due process and free speech principles.’ A full list of companies who you might want to avoid buying from is included, as well.”

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jeffmeden writes “‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ proclaims Motorola, maker of the popular Android smartphones such as the Droid 2 and Droid X. At least, not if you have any intention of loading a customized operating system. According to Motorola’s own YouTube channel, ‘If you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we’ll continue with our strategy that is working thanks.’ The strategy they are referring to is a feature Motorola pioneered called ‘e-fuse’, the ability for the phone’s CPU to stop working if it detects unauthorized software running.”

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