From dealmac – Most Recent Deals: Wireless Bluetooth Retro Phone Handset for $20 + free shipping

How cool is that?!!
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CellularFactory offers the Wireless Bluetooth Retro Phone Handset in seven colors for $19.98. Coupon code “FREESHIP” yields free shipping. That’s the lowest total price we could find by $16. (We mentioned a wired model for the same price three weeks ago.)

from dealmac – Most Recent Deals

From Ars Technica: Engineered E. coli produce biofuel from seaweed

While I think it is awesome to get biofuel, I just shudder at what could go wrong if E. coli got out to public…
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Biofuels may hold the key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil and cutting down on our greenhouse gas emissions. Ethanol is currently the biofuel of choice, with almost all gasoline bought at the pump in the United States containing 10 percent ethanol. Right now, though, most ethanol comes from corn and sugarcane, and there are concerns that growing our fuel from these crops could drive up food prices (“food versus fuel”).

Biofuels made from macroalgae, aka seaweed, avoid this problem. Seaweeds do not require arable land, fertilizer, or fresh water, and they are already cultivated as food (though not a staple crop like corn), animal feed, fertilizers, and sources of polymers. Traditionally, scientists ignored seaweed as a biofuel source because its main sugar component was too difficult to process. A recent paper published by Science describes how researchers genetically-engineered a microbe that is capable of producing ethanol from seaweed.

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from Ars Technica

From Ars Technica: Review: Republic Wireless and its $19/month cell service

I hope the best for this cell phone start up, Republic Wireless. $19/month is hands down best price for unlimited voice AND data… granted they want you to use Wifi as much as possible…
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Republic Wireless is an upstart taking on some of the biggest behemoths in American industry—the major cell carriers—armed with WiFi as its main weapon. Republic keeps costs low by encouraging the use of WiFi on cell phones, though customers can still access 3G voice and data services, if needed. Though the service has some drawbacks, including a high startup cost, the previously limited service no longer has formal limits on usage, and it could pose a serious challenge to the standard carrier contract.

Did we mention it costs only $19 a month?

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from Ars Technica

From Ars Technica: Parcel Gamer wants to share used game profits with publishers

While I think this could save the used games market, I also shudder at the thought that the game publishers will effectively get paid more than once if this happened… I’m torn…
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At the heart of the great used game debate are legitimate fears—on both sides of the divide. Gamers are worried about their right to buy and sell games they legally bought without technological hindrance or lost content. Publishers are afraid new game sales are unsustainable when cheaper, functionally identical used versions are available mere days after release. Meanwhile, major retailer GameStop rakes in what’s estimated to be billions of dollars from the used game market.

Is there a better way? Mike Kennedy seems to think so. He’s setting up a new used game trading site called Parcel Gamer that he thinks can satisfy both publishers and gamers,  while also undercutting GameStop’s high-margin business model.

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from Ars Technica

From Engadget: Pirate Bay founders lose final appeal in Sweden, prison looms on the horizon

It looks like Pirate Bay‘s legal drama has finally come to a close in Sweden, where the Supreme Court today turned down the site’s final appeal. At the center of the case are the file sharing site’s founders — Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström — who have been battling Swedish prosecutors for quite a few years now. After being convicted of facilitating copyright infringement, the trio was initially sentenced to prison. They appealed the ruling in 2010 and, though they failed to overturn it, managed to see their 12-month sentences reduced by between two and eight months. Today, though, their final attempts were shot down, with the Court’s dismissal. The fines and prison terms remain the same: ten months for Neij, eight months for Sunde and four for Lundström. There’s also a fourth co-founder involved, Gottfrid Svartholm, who has been absent from several hearings. Under today’s ruling, his original 12-month sentence will stand, and the four men will have to pay a total of $6.8 million in damages. Because the case has dragged on for at least five years, however, there’s a chance that the sentences could be reduced by 12 months (bringing them down to zero), as is common in the Swedish legal system. The decision on this matter, however, remains with the court. TorrentFreakreports that at least one defendant intends to appeal to the European Court of Justice, though the results wouldn’t have any effect on Sweden’s decision.

 

from Engadget