Sunbook thinks netbook with a sun readable screen is worth $800

The last time we checked in with the fantastic sun readable Pixel Qi screen, it was just a DIY hack. Now it's a full-blown netbook made to order.
Using a "state-of-the-art" LED backlit transflective LCD display, the SunBook is similar to looking at an e-reader's E Ink screen in direct sunlight — it has virtually no glare.

Just how big is the Internet?

How much do you rely on the Internet? Here's a nifty infographic that gives you stats on how we stay connected every day.

Tiny DreamPlug PC plugs directly into the power outlet

The trend to shrink the already miniaturized continues with the DreamPlug — a PC that is crammed inside of a plug that's even smaller than the tiny four-inch Xi3.
Globalscale Technologies claims their DreamPlug PC can save up to 96% on energy costs alone thanks to its five watts of power draw.
For $150, what do you get? A 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva ARM processor, 512MB of DDR-2-800MHz RAM, 1GB of microSD storage for system files, two gigabit ethernet ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA 2.0 port, SD card slot, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth and a headphone jack.

Thanko USB cat face mask shields germs, filters in fresh air

Whether you have a cold or just don't want to catch any germs yourself, wearing a face mask is probably good option. Thanko's USB cat filter mask makes it easier to breathe while protecting you from virulent germs.
Thanko's cat face mask is embedded with a tiny and quiet, internal fan that filters in clean air, so you don't need to keep breathing in your own lunch breath. The mask can be USB-powered or battery-powered. This thing just looks so silly. Thanko says the idea stemmed from people who had a discomfort with breathing with face masks on.
Guaranteed to make you the talk of the town, you can buy one of these feline-themed filters for about $24 on Thanko's Japanese website. LINK
Thanko, via Akihabara News

Russia Working on Mysterious Space Plane of Its Own

It’s official: the space race is on again.

54 years after the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik I satellite, sparking the original space race — and 20 years after the USSR’s collapse left America as the sole space superpower — the Russians are back on track. The Kremlin’s military space chief Oleg Ostapenko just announced that Russia is developing a small, maneuverable, reusable space plane to match the U.S. Air Force’s mysterious X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle.

Russian industry has already outlined the craft’s design, Ostapenko said. “As to whether we will use it, only time will tell,” he added coyly.

Samuel Jackson says Nick Fury will be in Captain America and Thor

We've known for a while that Nick Fury would be popping up in Captain America, and hoped and assumed that he'd be appearing in Thor, too. But we weren't 100 percent sure until we heard Samuel L. Jackson say it himself.
Jackson appeared last night on Jimmy Fallon Live, where he dropped the news:

Batman vs.—Galactus?

Kristen Stewart turned down Lois Lane role in Superman reboot

We told you about 11 women who COULD be Lois Lane in Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman reboot—now comes word of one would who couldn't ... couldn't care less, that is.
According to the New York Daily News, Stewart met with Snyder to discuss the part, but "ultimately passed," supposedly because she did not want to jump into another Twilight-size blockbuster film franchise so soon, instead preferring to add a few "smaller, independent films" to her resume.

NASA satellite TRIPLES number of known planets in the universe

NASA's awesomely named deep-space observatory, the Kepler Planet Hunter, has been designed to scour space for planets less massive than Earth. The latest data, released on Feb. 2, is an astronomer's dream come true: The Planet Hunter has tagged 1,235 objects as possible planets.
That's three times as many planets as we'd known about before.

Superman's cast—now meet 11 women who could be his Lois Lane

Now that Zach Snyder and Christopher Nolan have settled on Henry Cavill for their Man of Steel, the question remains: Who'll play the dazzling urbanite journalist who'll capture his heart?
The Daily Planet's second-most-famous reporter has been played lots of ways over the years: From the screwball comedy of Margot Kidder in 1978's Superman to the flighty no-way-we're-buying-that-you-won-a-Pulitzer daffiness of Kate Bosworth in 2006'sSuperman Returns. But Ms. Lane needs to have two qualities: the restless intelligence of a killer newshound and an inner tenacity. Which of today's actresses can fit the bill?

Invisibility cloak makes objects disappear using giant crystals

The last few invisibility cloaks we've seen have relied on metamaterials to make tiny objects invisible to a specific wavelength of light. This "carpet cloak," from MIT, uses some calcite crystals to make much larger objects disappear in the visible spectrum.
The picture above basically tells the whole story: two calcite crystal prisms are glued together in such a way that a little wedge of space is created underneath. When an object, in this case a roll of pink paper, is placed inside the wedge, it vanishes. The whole point of this cloak is that the object isn't simply covered up; when you look at the crystal, it appears as though it's completely empty with a visible and flat bottom surface.

Rupert Murdoch unveils The Daily news app for the iPad

Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorps is going all-in on tablet news with The Daily, a new subscription-based app for the iPad that's aiming to become the new newspaper.

Flexible crosswalk lights that wrap around trees are a no brainer

Bustling urban metropolises require a good amount of crosswalk lights to be installed everywhere for pedestrian safety, but they could stand to use a lot more trees. This flexible LED crosswalk light that can be fastened around a tree could kill two birds with one stone.

Bizarre (but hilarious) Battlestar: Blood & Chrome audition

How far would you go to get a part in Syfy's upcoming Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome series? Probably not as far as Michelle Coyle, who—while making the bold claim to be "one of ten people that watched Caprica"—tells Ronald D. Moore that if he hires she's willing to do anything. Even ... become Canadian.

22 new Outcasts images reveal more of Battlestar's Jamie Bamber

The BBC's newest sci-fi series, Outcasts, is finally getting some air time in the U.K. next week, and we've got a nice set of 22 cool new pics to show you. The best thing about it? MORE Jamie Bamber.
The new BBC pics are from episodes one and two and showcase (among others) Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica) as Mitchell Hoban—our likely hero, Hermione Norris (Spooks, Cold Feet) as Stella Ise—the head of Protection and Security on Carpathia (PAS)—and Liam Cunningham (Clash of the Titans) as President Richard Tate.

Meet the 19 highest paid Hollywood sci-fi power players of 2010

As the entertainment industry takes one final look back at 2010—and stars' accountants start to prepare for Income Tax Day—we've got a survey of who made how much last year. And an iron man, a tawny werewolf and the king of the world made out pretty well.
In compiling lists like these, with figures like these, its important to realize that royalties, residuals and profit participation play a big role in what someone like Christopher Nolan, for example, takes home from writing, producing and directing Inception. He'll be making money off that one for years and years to come.

Is this the wallet for the Facebook generation?

For those who haven't heard of WaterField, it's a San Francisco company founded by a former Boston bike messenger and professed "bagophile." The company takes pride in the fact that its bags are made in San Francisco, "where rent is high, labor is expensive and competition is intense," and made a bit of a name for itself with with its Cargo Bag. However, more recently it's branched into a lot of gadget categories, including the iPad and Kindle.

Create ringtones right on your iPhone

Ever wish you could turn a certain Grammy-nominated Cee Lo Green song--you know the one I mean--into a ringtone for your iPhone?

There are apps for that--lots of them, in fact, all capable of converting virtually any track in your song library (not just the hilariously NSFW ones) into a ringtone or calendar/alarm tone.

If you want a few extra features not found in the freebie ringtone makers, check out Ringtone Remix Pro. It's a simple, elegant tool that makes the process painless.

All you do is choose any DRM-free song stored on your iPhone, then slide a pair of selectors along an audio waveform to choose the section you want. The app lets you zoom in on the waveform so you can get ultraprecise with your selection, making sure the ringtone starts exactly where you want it.

There's also a magic-wand icon that chooses a song chunk for you, deftly avoiding quiet spots in the audio--but not necessarily choosing an optimal start point for the ringtone. My advice: choose it manually.

Unique music video surfaces, courtesy of Kinect

The Kinect hacks keep coming. And the latest is one of the more musical we've seen.

A band called Echo Lake has released a music video for its song "Young Silence." But rather than shoot the video the traditional way with a camcorder, the band used Microsoft's motion-gaming peripheral.

According to Dan Nixon, the person who produced the video for the band, it took seven weeks to complete the project. He used "custom applications developed by Cinder" to capture the video and create technicolor, ghost-like images of the band members. He said he believed Echo Lake's music video was the first to use Kinect.

Dell Streak 7 (T-Mobile) - DOA

More like a dirty butt Streak than an iPad competitor...
EDITOR RATINGfair

As we await Google's Honeycomb operating system to properly usher in the Android tablet era, new tablets—with earlier, less tablet-friendly versions of Android—continue to appear. The Dell Streak 7 ($199.99 with a 2-year T-Mobile contract) runs a re-skinned version of Android 2.2, and its 7-inch capacitive multi-touch-enabled screen makes it a direct competitor of the Samsung Galaxy Tab($399.99, 3.5 stars). Despite the Streak 7 being a 4G tablet and the first with the speedy Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, it suffers from some serious shortcomings. Download and upload speed tests netted results more fitting for a 3G device. The photo and video viewing experience is weak, and video chatting is abysmal. Honeycomb may be on the horizon, but in the meantime, Android lacks a viable competitor to the top-notch Apple iPad ($499-$829, 4 stars).

Honeycomb Is The First Shot Fired Along Apple’s Bow

Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb means Google is now officially at war with Apple. The lines are drawn. The sides chosen. This is going to get nasty, but there doesn’t have to be a clear winner for consumers to win.

The Apple iPad stood alone in 2010 while Google was finalizing Android for the slate form factor. If this were a race, the iPad would be miles ahead while Android was still packing carbs. But it’s not a race. It’s a fictional war, and while Google might be a bit behind in both market share and consumer awareness, it’s never too late to introduce a new, major platform like Android 3.0.

But how can the upcoming Honeycomb devices — the Motorola Xoom and the LG G-Slate — stand strong against not the current iPad, but the upcoming second generation?

Intel recalls 8 million Sandy Bridge chipsets due to design flaw

Intel has just confirmed a design flaw in the latest generation of its Sandy Bridge chipsets. It's stopped shipments of the new chips, and setting things straight is going to involve recalls and replacements and $700 million or so. Ouch.

The issue that Intel has identified isn't with the Sandy Bridge microprocessor itself, but rather with the SATA ports within the chipset, which are the things that talk to your hard drive or DVD drive. Over time, these ports can degrade, possibly leading to sluggish performance and eventually data loss. Unfortunately, it's not a software bug, it's a problem with the silicon chipset itself, meaning that the only way to fix it is to design a new chip and physically replace all of the effected systems. Intel says that they'll get this rolling by February, implying that the new chips will start shipping in April.

Newegg pulls Sandy Bridge CPUs and P67 MBs while NVIDIA snickers quietly

We have already begun fielding questions on twitter andin the forums about what to do with existing systems and plans that readers had to build a Sandy Bridge system in the near future.  In a sense, we were given our answer when a user pointed out that Newegg has pulled both the 2nd Gen Core i5/i7 processors and motherboards based on the P67/H67 chipsets. 

Greatest fan-made lightsaber battle ever gets even BETTER sequel

Even though "Ryan vs. Dorkman" is considered a fan film, there's no doubt that it and its sequels were professionally made: in addition to filming force lightning, floating lightsabers and limb loss, Ryan and Dorkman hired a 57-piece orchestra to score the soundtrack.

Now the latest fan film, brought to you by Ryan, a.k.a. Ryan Wieber, along with his pal Brandon, multiplies the fun. Literally.

Patrick Stewart reveals that his favorite scene was CUT from X-Men

As far as we're concerned, Patrick Stewart was the perfect Professor Xavier in the X-Menmovie franchise. So imagine how we felt when we learned the actor's personal favorite moment as that character—and how we NEVER got to see it!

Speaking to the L.A. Times' Hero Complex during the Screen Actors Guild Awards' red carpet, Stewart talked (in what the journalist Geoff Boucher calls a half-serious tone) about a particular scene in one of the X-Men films (it's not revealed which) that he really practiced hard for, but that in the end never made the cut:

Turn your unused netbook into a sweet arcade cabinet

Do you have a netbook kicking around? Do you ever use it? Yeah, didn't think so. Why not give it some new life by turning it into a little arcade cabinet?

With the Nanocade kit, you'll get everything you need to turn that underpowered computer into a badass tabletop gaming system. Sure, at $350 it's probably more expensive than the netbook itself, and the instructions are a little intimidating, but it sure beats just letting that thing collect dust somewhere, right?

Nanocade via Gizmodo

Apple to Crack Down on Newspaper, Magazine App Payments

Developers of magazine and newspaper apps have received notice from Apple Inc. that beginning on March 31, any app that does not take payments through its iTunes store will be rejected.

The move could have major implications for a number of vendors that live on iTunes but route customers through their own billing systems. By circumventing Apple’s payment platform, those vendors avoid having to share 30% of sales with Apple.

While the rule is not new, strict enforcement of it is. Apple’s push to crack down on developers may be a reflection of how important these revenues have become for Apple. Apple rejected a digital-book application from Sony Corp. in a sign that Apple already is enforcing stricter terms for booksellers.

Real-time voice translator smashes down language barriers

If you travel to different countries a lot, you know that language barriers can be a real problem when trying to do things overseas. This real-time voice translator from Samsung aims to end that problem, by translating your spoken words and displaying them as text on a transparent screen.

iPad 2 screen revealed?

Everybody's curious to know what the new display on the next iPad will be and 9to5Mac claims to know what it is.

We don't know how the screen ended up in the hands of 9to5Mac, but the site says, "We have been able to acquire what we believe is an iPad 2 LCD, fresh out of China. At this point, we cannot tell if the resolution is higher (or "Retina") but it is definitely higher quality in terms of its build. The iPad 2's display is also lighter, and over a mm thinner than the current iPad's display with a smaller surrounding frame. This is a dream for a product designer like Jony Ive who now has some more tapering options for what looks to be a significantly lighter iPad 2."

Magic lens delivers invisible anti-counterfeit solution

Just because China is the hottest new number two economy doesn't mean the country's rep as a counterfeit goods hub has improved, which is why Fujifilm's latest innovation is a welcome arrival.
The ForgeGuard system is anti-counterfeiting technology that displays the text and full-color images hidden on product surfaces when a special lens is passed over the marked area.

All cellphones should charge up in 30 seconds like the Flexiphone

British designer, Philip Pearce's Flexiphone concept is a doozy. While the concept phone is anything but elegant, the idea that its battery can charge itself up in 30 seconds would be remarkable — not to mention, a real life saver in many realistic situations.

T-Mobile unveils LG G-Slate tablet with 3D, Honeycomb and 4G

The rumors were partly correct — the LG G-Slate has twin cameras for 3D photos and video recording as well as a 3D screen. Already mouthing off to your buds about its 3D overload? Don't forget to tell them the 8.9-inch screen tablet requires stereoscopic 3D glasses.

Image of the Day: gorgeous sunspot simulation

Okay, no. This isn't a real sunspot…but doesn't that make this image that much more impressive? Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research used a 76-teraflop supercomputer — and about 2 billion data points to create this lovely simulation.
Via Discover Magazine

Study finds perks of gaming for girls--if parent joins

When researchers at Brigham Young University's School of Family Life decided to investigate the role parents play in gaming with their adolescent kids, they discovered a statistically significant gender divide.

For boys, gaming with a parent did not have much of an effect on positive behavior, aggression, family connection, and mental health. But for girls, gaming with a parent resulted in as much as a 20 percent variation on those outcomes--specifically, improving positive behavior, mental health, and family connections.

Fooducate for iPhone: Dude, drop the Twinkies

The departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services yesterday announced new dietary guidelines for Americans that include eating less sugar, fat, and salt--no surprises there. But following such recommendations can be hard; many products labeled low in fat or high in fiber may also be brimming with sodium or additives. Nutritional labels don't always tell people what they need to know.

That's where Fooducate, a new iPhone app (Android version is "in the oven," the makers say) comes in. It uses the iPhone's camera to scan the bar codes on 200,000 food products in supermarkets and convenience stores.

It then brings up nutritional info--and not just the stuff required on the label. It also displays information about high-fructose corn syrup, food coloring, controversial additives like butylated hydroxytoluene, and healthier alternatives (instead of Super Sugar Choco Nugs, perhaps Grape Nuts?). The app's Web site uses as an example Apple Jacks cereal. It gets a D+ rating, which surprised me (something with fruit in the title must be good for you, right?!).

Wrap-a-Nap turns your head into a pillow

When it comes to nap time, I usually just go the Quaalude route, but some people don't have the same friendly doctor I have. So I would like the rest of you to meet the Wrap-a-Nap, or WAN for short. It's a combination blindfold/pillow/earmuffs that you wrap around your head to seal out the world around and have a soft place to rest your melon.

Police researchers lift fingerprints from fabric

Scottish researchers say they're having success getting fingerprints from fabric, a feat that traditionally has been difficult for forensic sleuths.

The researcher at the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) and the University of Abertay, Dundee, are experimenting with gold and zinc in a technique called vacuum metal deposition, which is used to find prints on smooth surfaces such as glass and plastic.

AT&T gets aggressive with anti-Verizon iPhone ads

One difference between CDMA and GSM networks (and, of course, handsets) is that with GSM, people can browse the Web on their phone while talking; with CDMA, they can't. That's just how the technology works. And AT&T wants iPhone customers to know it.

Why Aronofsky wants Hugh Jackman to eat 6,000 calories a day

As Wolverine, Hugh Jackman's a tall, lean muscle machine. However, in the Marvel comics, Wolverine's really quite a short and stocky (and VERY muscular) guy. So for The Wolverine, director Darren Aronofsky told the Australian actor to really beef it up in order to match the comic-book character's more massive look.
So what's a guy to do? Pack on many, many calories.

Bumblebee does his thing in sneak peek of Transformers Super Bowl ad

If you don't want to wait until July to see a Transformer transform in Dark of the Moon, and you're even too impatient to hang on until Sunday to catch Bumblebee do his thing in a Super Bowl ad, you're in luck.

IBM celebrates 100 years of creating awesomeness

IBM isn't a name that you hear being kicked around very regularly these days, at least not in the consumer market, but it has a long and rich history of enabling many of the technologies that you know and love. This documentary covers IBM's culture, some of its past highlights, and its future. If you like tech, it's a must-see.

An Apple E-Book Rule Tightens

When you see people flipping through e-books on iPads or iPhones, there is a good chance they bought the books through Amazon.com, not Apple.

Now, Apple wants to change that.

Apple confirmed Tuesday that it would require app developers that sell e-books outside of their iPad and iPhone apps — through a Web site, for example — to also sell the books inside those apps. And purchases that originate in the app must be made through Apple, which keeps a 30 percent cut.

Apple said it was newly enforcing an existing rule, one that will force Amazon, Sony, Google and other e-book sellers to change the way their apps work.

Cisco sees 26-fold wireless data increase in 5 years

Wireless carriers will see mobile data traffic increase 26 times between 2010 and 2015 according to Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index Forecast. Will wireless operators be ready for it?

That's the big question. The prediction of steep increases in traffic load are not entirely unexpected. Wireless carriers have been preparing for traffic increases by adding more capacity not only to their radio networks, but also in the back-haul networks that carry the traffic from the radio towers to the Internet.

By 2015, Cisco says that mobile data traffic will grow to 6.3 exabytes of data or about 1 billion gigabytes of data per month. The report indicates that two-thirds of the mobile data traffic on carrier networks in 2015 will come from video services.

Hints of new physics postpones LHC upgrade

The Large Hadron Collider, CERN's particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is due to shut down for a major upgrade later than expected, after managers concluded the current rate of operational improvements could reveal new physical phenomena.

The LHC is a mammoth tool best known for its search for the Higgs boson--or more likely, some believe, a suite of them--and its other probes of the bizarre realm of subatomic physics. By colliding particles in two high-energy beams of protons, or more recently lead ions, physicists can re-create conditions present near the Big Bang.

Currently the LHC runs with two beams moving in opposite directions around its 27-kilometer circumference, with the particles in each beam accelerated to an energy of 3.5 tera-electron-volts or TeV.

‘Why I Flattened Three Afghan Villages’

 
When the day began for Lt. Col. David Flynn on Oct. 6, Taliban insurgents were using three southern Afghanistan hamlets as bomb factories. By the time the next day ended, Tarok Kolache, Khosrow Sofla and Lower Babur had been eradicated from the valley where they once stood.
Flynn had ordered tens of thousands of pounds of bombs to rain down on the villages. Tarok Kolache was completely flattened, and there wasn’t much left of the other two.
Flynn says that he had little choice but to take the extreme step. The Taliban had rigged bombs all through the compounds in the villages, and placed tons of explosives in the vegetated fields nearby.
Efforts at clearing the villages of homemade bombs during the previous three months had failed. The fighters had evicted the villagers from their land, telling them, “you can’t get to the fields this year,” in preparation for the U.S. troop surge. Few residents still retained hope that they’d ever get to move back home.

5,500 Mercs to Protect U.S. Fortresses in Iraq

 
In September 2007, Blackwater guards working for the U.S. State Department killed 17 Iraqis at Baghdad’s Nisour Square, one of the most controversial episodes in the long war there. But State isn’t backing away from its mercs. With American troops scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of the year, the ambassador to Iraq will become a de facto general of a huge, for-hire army — one larger than a U.S. Army heavy combat brigade.

Jihadi ‘Media Whores’ Piggybacking on Egypt Unrest

Listen to some “terrorism” analysts on the tee vee, and you’d think that the protests in Egypt and Tunisia have been led by Osama Bin Laden himself. But don’t buy the spin. These jihadi posers are trying to squeeze as much media attention out of the Middle East upheaval as the pundits you see popping up on cable news.

iPod touch takes over Sprint with 3G add-on case

Remember that case that turns an iPod touch into an iPhone? Yeah, that ZTE Peel is coming to U.S. shores after only being sold in China — to Sprint. Who needs to wait for CDMA iPhone?
The ZTE Peel will arrive on November 14. For $30, you will have access to 1GB of data on Sprint's 3G network — all without a contract. Not exactly cheap considering you can get 2GB of data for $25 on AT&T. But if you only need to check e-mails and do some light browsing on the go and want to be connected at all times, then making the data plan stretch shouldn't be much of a problem.

Build a ghetto iPhone with an iPod Touch and its packaging

 
Sure, you can buy a ZTE Peel and transform that iPod Touch into a pseudo-iPhone, but why even spend more money on a plastic shell? With a little ingenuity, you can turn that packaging your iPod Touch came in, into an iPhone.

New TSA body scanners show outlines only, no private parts

 

Concerned about airport scanners showing some loutish TSA agent your most private of bits? Well, worry no more. New TSA scanning software shows a person's genital-free outline, highlighting potential threats with a bullseye.

According to physics, World of Warcraft is a tiny Dyson sphere

For those of us who spend unhealthy amounts of time playing World of Warcraft, the land of Azeroth seems like an awfully big place. A level 85 human warlock named Daelyn (who also happens to be a physics and applied math major) decided to perform some in-game experiments and calculations to figure out just what sort of world WoW is.

How to fly a paper airplane from Germany to Australia

The distance from Germany to Australia is approximately 10,000 miles. This seems like rather a long way for a paper airplane to fly. As it turns out, it's really not so hard, if you just launch a hundred of 'em from 20 miles up.

Samsung Galaxy Tab has 16% return rate, Apple's iPad just 2%

According to a new survey, 16 percent of those who bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab have returned the device to the store since its launch, compared with just 2 percent of buyers of Apple's iPad.

According to the Digital Daily, the Galaxy Tab had a 16 percent return ratefrom its launch in November through Jan. 15, based on data collected by ITG Investment Research. The return rate was found through a survey from nearly 6,000 wireless stores in the U.S.

The return rate for the Galaxy Tab was said to be 13 percent in December 2010, but the rate increased after the holidays. Return rates through Jan. 15 increased to 16 percent, according to the poll.

Liquid Damage May Not Kill Your Replacement Chances with Apple Products

There's a small light-colored dot inside many gadgets, including iPods, that turns pink or red if the device's internals seem to have been exposed to water or significant moisture. Generally, they're put there so that a service technician can end their search for the cause right there.

Global CIO: HP Calls Out Apple In CEO's Quest To Be Coolest Of All

New CEO Leo Apotheker finally talks about HP's future but says nothing about the enterprise. Instead, he says HP will out-cool Apple. Word up. 

By Bob Evans ,  InformationWeek 
February 1, 2011 08:00 AM

On the one hand, you've got to admire HP CEO Leo Apotheker's brashness in calling out Apple, a company whose market cap is more than three times that of HP, whose revenue is rapidly approximating that of HP, whose brand recognition and image are far stronger than those of HP, and whose "coolness" factor is light years beyond that of HP.

But if vision without execution is hallucination (thank you, Thomas Edison), then brashness without strategic clarity is silliness.