Are the Israel Defense Forces deliberately being less careful about civilian casualties than they were before? That’s the implication from this article by Amos Harel, a well-respected military correspondent for Ha’Aretz.

The incident in which some 40 Palestinian civilians were killed when Israel Defense Forces mortar shells hit an UNRWA school in the Jabalya refugee camp Tuesday surprised no one who has been following events in Gaza in recent days. Senior officers admit that the IDF has been using enormous firepower.

"For us, being cautious means being aggressive," explained one. "From the minute we entered, we’ve acted like we’re at war. That creates enormous damage on the ground … I just hope those who have fled the area of Gaza City in which we are operating will describe the shock. Maybe someone there will sober up before it continues."

During the Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, "reports circulated
that growing concern over casualties caused IDF commanders to become
overly cautious," a U.S. Army historian later observed. After the conflict, many in Jerusalem’s leadership felt that Israel "had been too
restrained, too careful about distinguishing between Hezbollah and the
state of Lebanon," the New York Times notes. The perception was that Israeli soldiers were killed, as a result.

"Following the trauma of the war in Lebanon in 2006, the army
realized that heavy IDF casualties would erode public (and especially
political) support for the war and limit its ability to achieve its
goals," Harel writes. "Therefore, it is using aggressive tactics to
save soldiers’ lives. And the cabinet took this into account when it
approved the ground operation last Friday, so it has no reason to
change its mind now."

This dovetails with another decision, made in the wake of 2006: keeping the press out of Gaza. Not
only does it keep valuable information out of Hamas’ hands, the logic
goes. The media blackout also blunts some of the damage when a terror
group sets up shop inside a school or hospital — and then parades
around civilians’ bodies, when Israel hits the place.At least, that was the calculus, before today’s deadly strike.

[Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters]

ALSO:

• Gaza Ground Campaign Mirrors Battle of Sadr City?
• Israeli Chemical ‘Atrocities’ in Gaza? Not So Fast
• Fallout from Gaza Assault Reaches Afghanistan
• New Gaza War Reports Combine Tweets, Maps, SMS
• Israelis Take Over Hamas’ TV Station
• Gaza Ground War Begins
• Bad Katyusha Poetry
• Israel Calls Gazans Before Bombing
• Has Israel Learned From the Hezbollah War?
• YouTube, Twitter: Weapons in Israel’s Info War
• Israeli Jets Drop ‘Small Smart Bomb’ in Gaza Strikes
• Israel Targets ‘Terror Tunnels’ (and Viagra Highway)
• Paper: Gaza Campaign Planned Months in Advance
• Israel’s Anti-Rocket Defenses Still Taking Shape
• Hamas Fighters ‘Using Hezbollah as a Model’
• Israel Unleashes Retaliatory Air Armada

One of the coolest product categories we’ll get to see at CES this week will be wrist mounted touch screen displays.

Among the most anticipated is Universal Display’s flexible 4-inch OLED prototype. Universal Display is one of the companies at the forefront of the flexible display business and so far, they’ve been working with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a few real-world applications. But as with many other technologies, what starts as a government project eventually leads to the private sector of consumer electronics.

But what really matters to us is that it will end up in our wrist and will make those TokyoFlash watches Danny favors seem like a baby’s toy.

Universal Display says the OLED ‘watch’ display is made out of a one-sheet metal foil, and that its malleability will allow it to be quite comfortable. It’s considered to be a direct communications device, which means it will likely also include the 3G, HSDPA capability of the prototype to be unveiled by LG during the conference.

LG’s GD910 will have a smaller touch screen, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and a camera for taking pictures and video. Universal Displays has developed its OLED display in collaboration with the LG Display division, but the larger showcase display is clearly meant to show the possibilities of the technology.

Neither watch is quite at the level of some of the best nor most fanciful designs we’ve seen before (see below), but it’s really only now a matter of time before they’re made.

See also:

• TokyoFlash "Infection" Watch Attracts/
  Repels The Ladies

 

Online video-sharing sites are scoring another major legal victory, as a federal judge is ruling that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects such sites from copyright violations if they abide by takedown notices as the DMCA prescribes.

The case was brought by Universal Music Group, which claimed that San Diego-based
Veoh– financially backed by Time Warner and Michael Eisner – engaged in wanton copyright infringement because it allowed users to upload and store the music concern’s copyrighted videos. U.S. District Judge Howard Matz agreed with Veoh that its business model complied with the
1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act’sso-called safe harbor provisions.

The case is similar to other suits targeting YouTube, MySpace, MP3Tunes and others. And it marks just the second time that a federal judge has ruled the DMCA protects video-sharing sites – even user-generated sites like Veoh that transform user-uploaded content into flash-formatted videos that can later be accessed by users.

U.S. District Judge Howard Matz, citing the DMCA’s language,
ruled(.pdf) that copyright law precludes monetary liability on a service provider “for infringement of copyright by reason of the storage at the discretion of a user of material that resides on a system or network controlled or operated by or for the service provider.”

Matz noted that in order to win immunity under the DMCA, the service provider, in this case Veoh, must not have “actual knowledge” of the infringing material and, among other things, “must expeditiously remove or disable access to material if it is notified that the material is infringing or is the subject of infringing activity.”

Veoh scored its first victory in August, when a
San Jose magistrate dismisseda lawsuit with similar allegations brought by porn company IO Group.

Both rulings are not binding on other judges, however. And neither the U.S. appellate courts nor the U.S. Supreme Court has directly addressed the issue.

Check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s
takeby Fred von Lohmann on the topic.

See Also:

• YouTube to McCain: You Made Your DMCA Bed, Lie in It
• 10 Years Later, Misunderstood DMCA is the Law That Saved the Web …
• Universal Says DMCA Takedown Notices Can Ignore ‘Fair Use …
• Hackers, Others Seek DMCA Exemptions
• Google, EFF Applaud Veoh DMCA Ruling
• Air Force Cyber Command’s New Weapon: DMCA Notices
• Coupon Hacker Defeats DMCA Suit
• Stifled by Copyright, McCain Asks YouTube to Consider Fair Use …
• Judge Who Signed ‘Torture Memo’ Blasts DMCA Sentence
• DMCA ‘Terror’ Case Dismissed

Energy efficient, thin, bright. These three qualities perfectly describe a woman I know, and no, I’m not trying to get any brownie points here. But it’s not a mistake that makers of television sets are also eager to embody such a description for their improved designs. Simply, a set that is well-put together rises above the crowd.

But thinness only? That usually matters only to the eye of the beholder.

At CES this week, we’ll see plenty of manufacturers trying to reach ever thinner levels, while daring discriminating techies like us to find a loss in visual quality.

JVC will preview, in a private event outside the show floor, what it is calling the ‘world’s lightest 32-inch LCD TV’ at only .28 inches (or about 7mm). According to the company, designers managed to build this small set by offloading many of the heavy duty components to a separate box and by building a new optical back light system.

Apparently, JVC designers created one of the thinnest LED back lights out there and placed it behind the LCD panel for a more efficient application and quality contrasts. Other TVs use thicker LED modules with fluorescent lights. By focusing on the LEDs, the set is physically smaller and uses less harmful materials.

As for the cool-looking swirl that serves as the base of the set, we don’t know what it is made out of but it certainly lends it a futuristic air.

But Samsung is apparently willing to battle JVC for the thinnest LCD TV at the show. Early reports say that the Koran giant will show a 6.5mm-thick LCD, also using the same type of back light technology,

Both of these would beat Philips’ 8mm LCD prototype that was shown earlier this year. Still, none of these will likely beat the OLEDs that are in store for the show.

As we’ve noted before, the physical construction of OLEDs allows them to be thinner than any other display as well as more colorful. Since each pixel makes its own light, there’s no need for extra bulk. Both Samsung and Sony are expected to show larger OLEDs at CES, between 18-inches and 37-inches.

Shure, known for making pro-quality mics that seem to work just fine after being subjected to the rigors of stage and studio, have turned their attention to bedroom musicians, podcasters and others who record direct-to-computer with a new line of high-quality USB microphones that will work with any computer made in the past decade. (Everything after Windows 98 First Edition has the requisite USB Audio profile.)

These cardioid microphones, announced Tuesday at Macworld and to be displayed later this week at CES, can be directed to pick up sound from a specific source to provide some natural sound isolation — unlike omnidirectional mics, which pick up sound from all directions. And these are condensor mics, meaning that they require power from the computer but are more sensitive than mics that don’t (that’s why you’ll find condenser mics in recording studios worldwide).

Shure says these mics have zero latency. A helpful monitor mix control lets you hear what’s being recorded in real time as it sounds in the rest of the mix, in order to make mic placement, mixing level, EQ, and other adjustments. Meanwhile, an integrated preamp controls the volume of the signal in your monitor headphones.

Shure’s new line of USB microphones contains two models. The Shure PG27USB ($200 retail,
pictured) "features a flat, neutral frequency response for natural
reproduction of a wide variety of instrument and vocal sound sources."
If you’re looking for a USB replacement for the trusty, versatile Shure SM57, this sounds like it. Choose this one if you want to use it to record anything and have it sound decent.

The other model in the line, the PG42USB ($250 retail), "was
specifically engineered to reproduce the subtle nuances of lead vocals"
with a larger diaphragm (for increased sensitivity), a low-cut filter
for cutting out hums and other noise, and an external shock-mount.

If you already have one or more favorite microphones, Shure has you covered
with the X2u XLR-to-USB Adapter ($130 retail), which adds the same features included with the above two models to any mic with a standard XLR connection. The X2u
includes phantom power for use with condenser mics.

See Also:

• Wired.com Covers CES 2009
• Sony Announces Stereo ‘Walkman’ Mic with Features of Yesteryear
• A USB Microphone with Studio-Quality Specs
• Video: Got Two Cassette Decks and No Microphone

Thiel will demonstrate the IP-addressable speakers are part of its zöet system, which it calls "the first truly plug and play, multi-room, premium quality distributed audio and home theater system that anyone can set up and use in under an hour."

Sonos, whose multi-room digital audio system also uses a wireless mesh network, might beg to differ, but Thiel’s approach looks pretty slick. And unlike Sonos’ system, it sends sounds directly to speakers rather than requiring a head unit in each room and streams in surround sound and stereo modes.

Both threaten to disrupt the home audio installation business by offering well-synchronized, lossless multi-room audio that otherwise must be installed by professionals, and also to expand the market for multi-room audio to include digital music consumers who may not have already invested in high quality sound.

An ethernet-only version of the Thiel zöet will be available in 2009
(pricing TBD) with a wireless mesh model to follow. Both will ship
with a set of Thiel’s IP-addressable stereo or surround sound speakers,
which build on the company’s extensive experience with traditional
speaker manufacture. Supported surround sound codecs include PCM, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital and DTS.

"zöet is a ‘front-burner’ project and everyone at Thiel is working
with
intense focus to deliver zöet as early in 2009 as possible," said a
spokeswoman for the company via e-mail. The company plans to
determine which of its higher-end speakers should get Ethernet and
wireless capabilities over the coming year.

The system uses two-way communication with each speaker, so you
can point the remote at any speaker in the house to control what’s
playing. You can use the included remote, but more promisingly, the company has already
developed an app for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows either to control the system via WiFi. Other nifty features include automated
subwoofer integration and surround sound mixdowns to 2- or 2.1-channel
audio when needed.

The front panel of the Thiel zöet db1 sports a clean, modern look:

But the back panel packs in a bevvy of useful ports, including HDMI pass-through and enough inputs and outputs to send various
configurations of stereo, 5.1- and 7.1-channel audio to up to 64
channels-worth of zones within the house (32 sets of stereo zones, ten
5.1-channel zones, eight 7.1-channel zones or a combination of those):

See Also:

• iPhone, Free Radio Enhance Sonos Multi-Room Music System
• CES 2008 Preview: Home and Portable Audio to Gain Wireless Features
• Radiient Technology Touts Wireless Audiophile Speaker Solution
• Own Your Own Remote Control Castle Today!

The last Apple keynote at Macworld also was the first in many years not to feature a now-ailing Steve Jobs. Stand-in Phil Schiller took over emcee duties and offered up these tidbits in an informative but slightly clunky presentation. (We miss you already, big Steve!) First off the huge news:

• Starting immediately, iTunes will be DRM-free.

• In April, iTunes will have a three-tiered pricing structure. Songs will be either be 69 cents, 99
  cents or $1.29. Apple claims that there will be more songs falling into the 69-cent category rather than the $1.29.

• iPhone 3G owners will be able to  preview and purchase every single item from the iTunes music catalog on the 3G network instead of only being able to use Wi-Fi.

• On the hardware front, Apple announced a new 17-inch MacBook Pro. Like its 13-inch and 15-inch brethren, the $2800 notebook will have a chassis milled from a solid block of aluminum. It will also feature a nonremovable battery that claims 8 hours of continuous life. The Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93-GHz powered beast will be available in January.

• iLife, GarageBand and iWork have also received updates. iLife will have true facial recognition and better video editing features. GarageBand will feature tutorials from actual rock stars (Sting teaches you to play guitar!). iWork is going all online with group editing and file hosting services. You know, kinda like Google docs. Ahem.

• Conspicuously lacking was any mention of an AppleTV update. WTF, guys? Want to read the keynote as it happened? Scroll on down to read the live blog as it unfurled.

10:37 a.m.

Standing ovation for Bennett.

That’s our show for Macworld 2009, says Phil. I want to thank everyone in my family, and the people at Apple. Enjoy the rest of the show.

That’s it.

These are the sort of announcements that normally would have been in a press release.

10:34 a.m.

Singing "The Best is Yet to Come."

Message there?

It’s a mortal lock he’s going to sing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

And here it is.

As Apple says goodbye to Macworld.

10:30 a.m.

"This is a really big step for wireless music on cellphones."
Starting today.

Ending on music, and in many of our keynotes, we try and make sure to remember why we do this.

It’s fitting that we end our last Macworld keynote with an artist
who has some amazing music, and is a true legend. 15 Grammys, 2 Emmys.

Tony Bennett.

McClusky: We started iTunes six years ago.

Sold 6 billion songs.

10 million songs available.

75 million accounts.

iTunes is the largest music retailer in the United States.
What’s new for 2009?

Price: We’ve worked with the companies. Over the past six years, we’ve had just one price. Starting April, 69 cents, 99 cents, and $1.29.

Three-tiered pricing.

More songs will be offered at 69 cents than $1.29.

Second thing: iTunes Plus.

That’s how we offer DRM-free music.

Also encoded better.

What’s new: all the major labels. 8 million songs DRM-free.

By end of the quarter, all 10 million songs on iTunes will be DRM-free. Every song in the catalog.

Third new thing has to do with the iPhone.

We’ve got the iTunes Music Store on the phone.

You can now use Wi-Fi and 3G for the Music Store.

Same price, same selection.

10:24 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: $2800 for the 17-inch MacBook Pro

Starts shipping late January.

Where’s my Mac Mini? I’m going to be humiliated if it isn’t real.

10:22 a.m.

Mark McClusky: If this is the last announcement, this is a very underwhelming keynote.

Integrated battery, nonremovable.

Custom battery fabrication, nonremovable so it takes up all the space possible.

New chemistry, chip-managed charging.

Claiming 8-hour battery life on the integrated graphics.

10:20 a.m.

They’re going off on their environmental spiel. They’re saying
the battery lacks harmful toxins. And because it lasts five years
that’s fewer batteries purchased and disposed.

10:15 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: It will have three times the number of recharges, three times the lifespan compared to the industry standard.

Brian X. Chen: 320-GB hard drive, you can upgrade up to 256-GB solid state drive.

And of course it works with the new LED cinema display (through the display port connector).

They’ve worked on the battery to "deliver the longest lasting battery life ever."

They’re showing us a video on how they made a longer lasting
battery. They had to make a bigger battery. The challenge was finding
where to find the space to put it. They created a notebook with a 40
percent larger battery that lasted 8 hours on a single charge.

10:10 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: "At 6.6 pounds it’s the world’s lightest 17-inch notebook."

1920 x 1200 pixel resolution.

700:1 contrast ratio.

60 percent greater color gamut than the previous model.

$50 Anti-Glare option.

Magsafe, FireWire 800, Ethernet USB, express card 34.

There’s no FireWire 400. That’s notable.

It’s got the glass trackpad just like the rest of the new MacBook family.

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93-GHz Processor. (Not a quad-core like some people were speculating.) Up to 8 GB memory.

GeForce 9400M.

Brian X. Chen: One more thing — the third thing is the new 17-inch MacBook Pro.

10:05 a.m.

Mark McClusky: OK, that’s it for iWork. Will there be some hardware now?
iWork shipping today.

iWork.com beta.

Share docs and notify people. View docs online. Add comments and Notes. Download a copy of a doc.

But seems like no real editing tools online.

This might be cool if there wasn’t — you know — Google Docs.

I’m sorry, but a demo of commenting and notes on a document might be
the most boring thing in the world. If I wanted to look at a document,
I’d be at my desk, Phil.

10:01 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: Another new feature is Dynamic Outlines. Different fonts and image options to make dynamic looking outlines…

There are also 40 new templates for newsletters, posters, fliers, certificates, business letters and so on.

Third product in iWork ‘09 is Numbers ‘09.

Spreadsheet app (think Apple’s equivalent to Excel)

A new feature is Table categories. There are new options to organize categories…
There are some advanced chart options … charts with multiple axes, trend lines and bar graphs. (zzz)

He’s done talking about iWork ‘09. It’s $99 for Family Pack; $79 for a single user.
You get iWork for $49 with the purchase of a new Mac.

There’s also a new Mac Box Set to get iLife, iWork and OS X Leopard for $170.

The box set will ship in late January along with iWork and iLife.

10:00 a.m.

Leander Kahney: Oh no, Phil’s doing spreadsheets. I’m totally falling asleep —
Where’s the hardware?

I want my AppleTV.

9:55 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: OK we’re done with iLife, thank God. Let’s hope we’re moving on to hardware.

iLife ‘09 ships late January.

$80.

Not hardware — they’re talking about the iWork ‘09 suite, starting with Keynote ‘09 (a presentation tool).

Object Transitions is a new feature — just fancier transitions for slides.
Keynote ‘09 also has some new presentation modes for charts. Nice looking 3-D charts and animations.

Here’s something cooler: There’s a Keynote app for iPhone. So you can control your slide presentations via the iPhone.

You can see the slideshow on your iPhone and just move it around with your finger. The app will cost 99 cents in the App Store.

Next: new app Pages ‘09 — Apple’s word processor.

There’s a view mode where you can see just the document and all the other toolbars and everything disappear. (Gasp.)

Leander Kahney: Clever — GarageBand now has a new revenue stream — celebrity music lessons.

It’s the iTunes model — extra media purchased online

$5 each — people are saying "woah" like it’s a bit high.

Mark McClusky: The energy level bumps up a little with the Artists Lessons in GarageBand. But it’s flat in this room.

Done with iLife section: $79 upgrade. $99 family pack.

Ships late January.

Remember when it was always "Shipping Today"?

Number two announcement: New iWork.

The whole crowd just sighed.

Announcement three: new HyperCard.

Just kidding!

The phrase of the day: "smattering of applause."

9:46 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: Now he’s showing us Themes. Photo Album for
example, goes in to a video and adds some transitions and effects that
make your video look like a motion photo album — an album with little
frames of video and turns pages to cut to new scenes.

They’re wrapping up iMovie ‘09. Now they’re talking about one last iLife app: GarageBand.
Specifically
one feature in the GarageBand music editor. The feature is called
Learn to Play. You get a new user interface — you can learn guitar or
keyboards. You see an instructor and below the instrument facing you.

So you load a lesson and an instructor walks you through the basics
of playing an instrument. In the demo the instructor is showing us
basic guitar chords.

You see where your fingers go and just follow the instructions.

Now for piano, they’re also showing how to read sheet music.

So with GarageBand it includes 9 free lessons for guitar and 9 free lessons for piano.
There are also lessons taught by artists. Some examples include John Fogerty and Colbie Caillat, Patrick Stump, Sting.

There’s a built-in store in GarageBand. So that’s where you would purchase the artist lessons.

9:39 a.m.

Mark McClusky: Damn, this is really slick. Much more powerful editing tools. Is it possible that I might actually edit some of my videos now?

If I was a theater director, I’d be screaming about pacing right now. We’re 40 minutes in, and dragging a bit.

 

9:37 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: More interesting feature is video
stabilization. When you apply it to a series of clips, iMovie analyzes
each frame of your video and looks at the motion in one frame and the
other and figures out where all the motion is.

Stabilization is a feature we see in professional video editing apps. It’s kind of cool that it’s in iMovie.

He also shows how to change video speeds (e.g., slow motion). Not a big deal at all.
He
shows off some filters, such as Aged Film, to automatically change the
overall composition of your video. Those features were in iMovie before
version ‘08. People were complaining that these features disappeared.
So now they’re back. Hurrah.

Leander Kahney: It’s cool the stuff they are showing but presentation is pedestrian.
They don’t have Jobs’ natural enthusiasm.

Interesting though that they’re trotting out engineers — they haven’t done that for years.

9:31 a.m.

Mark McClusky: That’s the end of the iPhoto ‘09 demo. Over 20 minutes.

First guest star: Randy Ubillos, the engineer who came up with the new iMovie to do the demo of the app.

9:29 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: iMovie ‘09. You might recall they rewrote iMovie in 2008. ‘09 is an upgrade of that version.

Summary of what’s in this: precision editor, advanced drag and drop, dynamic themes, animated travel maps, video stabilization.

Schiller says it’s hard to talk about video, so he’s demoing all this stuff instead.

Randy Ubillos, chief architect of video applications, is demoing it.

9:28 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: Next: New version of iMovie.

iMovie ‘09. You might recall they rewrote iMovie in 2008. ‘09 is an upgrade of that version.

9:22 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: Just an observation: All of this seems pretty
processor-heavy. You probably won’t be able to handle this with a
non-Intel Mac (e.g., G4 or slower G5). I’m guessing the system
requirements are pretty hefty.

He’s demoing the app. Pretty straightforward and repetitive. (Yawn.)

 

Mark McClusky: Biggest reaction of the day so far — slideshow themes. Admittedly, they look cool, but wow, really, prettier slideshows?

Oh my God, now he’s going to demo it as well. We’ve been on this for 15 minutes.

For all of my making fun of it, this looks like a really lovely
update. Face detection, geotagging, Facebook and Flickr integration.

 

9:20 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: So those are the two new features in iPhoto: Faces and Places.
Whoops there’s more.

Facebook and Flickr.

Direct integration into Facebook and Flickr. You can automatically
upload a photo to Facebook for you to share with your friends.

And it even syncs the face detection tags. You can do the same thing for Flickr.
What’s also cool is Flickr has geotagging. So you can see the places Geotags in Flickr.
Places.

Another new feature: Slideshow themes.

So with slideshows you can pick certain themes that fit with
whatever you took pictures of. For example, the ballet theme plays
Charlie Brown music. Besides that, the software uses face detection to
determine how to position the photos. You can also save the slideshows
directly to your iPhone. And they’ll play back the same.

Another new feature is called Travel Book.

It creates a digital scrapbook of your photos and geotag locations.

Mark McClusky: This is a long long walkthrough of new iPhoto features. What this tells me is that we don’t have a lot of products to cover.

9:15 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: iLife: iPhoto, Garagband, iDVD, iMovie is the old stuff. What’s new in iLife ‘09? iPhoto ‘09.

In iLife ‘08 you could view photos in events. A birthday party, a
vacation you go on. It’s turned out to be very successful; customers
love it. We’re adding another way for you to manage photos called Faces.

iPhoto ‘09 allows you to organize your photos by your favorite
people. Click on Faces you get this cork board with snapshots of all
your favorite people. Faces uses face-detection technology.

For example: Click on a picture, face detection detects the face.
Then you type in the name. That’s all you have to do to tell iPhoto
whose face you want to track.

Also has face recognition. To find the same photo across multiple photos.
If the face recognition incorrectly detects a face you can double click it and the software gets more sophisticated.

There’s also a feature called Places.

iPhoto can organize your photos around where they were taken.

When you click on Places you see a map. That map has pins where all your photos were taken.

Places uses GPS geotagging technology.

Cameras with GPS devices such as iPhone embed a geotag into photos
you take. That contains the latitude and longitude of the photo you
took.

Pretty sophisticated — if you’re in the Eiffel Tower, for example,
it won’t just say you’re in France. It’ll say you’re in the Eiffel
Tower.

These maps come from the Google Maps service.

So if you know how to use Google Maps you know exactly how to use this map.

In addition to street maps there’s also satellite imagery.

9:07 a.m.

Mark McClusky: The costuming is very different, blue dress shirt and jeans. Causal like Steve, but a little more formal.

But then we open with information about Apple retail stores. Not the sexiest material to draw in the audience.

"Today we’re going to talk all about the Mac." Polite clapping, but not a lot of buzz.
The first announcement: new iLife.

Hopefully we’re building to a climax, because that’s just not that earth-shattering.
On new iPhoto screenshots, there’s Facebook and Flickr icons.

9:07am

Brian X. Chen: "Each and every week now 3.4 million customers
visit an Apple Store around the world," Schiller says. "That’s 100
Macworlds each and every week going on in our Apple Stores. It’s no
longer that what’s happening with these stores is just so important to
us."

"Today what I’m going to talk to you about is all about the
Mac. Last fiscal year we had the biggest year in Mac sales. We sold 9.7
million macs. We’re so proud of that and work so hard."

"Three new things to tell you about." "First number one. An entire new version of iLife. iLife ‘09."

9:05 a.m.

Brian X. Chen: Phil Schiller is on stage. "I can’t tell you how excited I am to be the one delivering the keynote at this Macworld."

"It’s an incredibly exciting time at Apple.
There is so much going on across all of our businesses all around the
world. You can feel it so many ways probably no better than all these
incredible stores." He shows a slide of an Apple Store in Beijing
China,  Munich Germany, and Sydney Australia."

"Just look at the crowds of people lining up in that store. When I
look at this photo and I look at that gorgeous glowing Apple I think,
what other company’s logo could you ever imagine in that photo? I can’t
think of any other company in the world to have a store that beautiful."

9:02 a.m.

Mark McClusky: Macworld’s not just about the information —
it’s about the presentation of it. I’m going to do theater criticism of
this year’s non-Stevenote. Can Phil Schiller turn in the sort of
performance that the Laurence Olivier of presentations usually does?

Brian X. Chen: They’re welcoming us. "Welcome to Macworld
2009. At this time we ask you to please take a moment to silence all
cellphones and pager devices as a courtesy to all the attenders. Thank
you very much." Pagers? Wonder how many doctors are here.

The Wired live blog team is on the ground at the MacWorld Expo. Brian
Chen is getting settled in. Mark McClusky will be providing theater-critic-type commentary. Leander Kahney will be providing various
support in text and pic form. And here’s the first few pics from Jim
Merithew.

Apple will announce new products during a Tuesday morning keynote at
San Francisco’s Macworld Expo. Wired.com will be live-blogging the event
on site.

Apple’s vice president of marketing Phil Schiller (no, not Steve
Jobs) will be delivering the keynote starting 9 a.m. PDT Tuesday.
Wired.com’s James Merithew, Mark McClusky and Leander Kahney will be
there with yours truly, blogging up a storm. At that time, revisit this
post to track our coverage and in-depth analysis.

In the mean time, read our pre-Macworld reports to get caught up on what’s expected at the show. 

See Also:

• Steve Jobs Cites Treatable Hormone Imbalance for Weight Loss …
• Jobs Won’t Appear at Macworld 2009 to Be Apple’s Last Show …
• Apple Says Farewell to Macworld, Hello to the Big Time
• Fans Plan Silent Protest for Steve-less Macworld
• Rumor Roundup: What to Expect at Macworld Expo 2009

Photo: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

UnitedKey’s OLED-enhanced keyboard is an Optimus Maximus wannabe, but it does something the latter cannot imagine: Leave you with a few extra dollar bills to pay the rent.

The $260 keyboard has nine large moddable OLED keys on its left-hand side, and each tiny display has a pixel resolution of 64 x 64 and each emits only one color — yellow. That’s wack. Compared to the full-color orgasmia that the 133 tiny OLEDs the Maximus are able to provide, this accessory seems to pale like a stick.

But some early owners of the keyboards are actually enjoying its ability to improve a user’s efficiency. Like the Maximus, the UnitedKey pad can be individually programmed to display different applications, and for this one, it’s set up to create ‘layer’ commands for computer processes.

One of the examples of layering that’s cited by the company is the ability to place a Gmail icon on the display, and when it’s selected, you can build a sub-grid with nine new Gmail-appropriate tasks.

The keyboard comes with the appropriate software needed to mod your keys but like the Maximus, it appears that the full process to mod each display requires a lot of patience. And since not everyone wants to spend a few hours creating the layer in order to save time later, it will be hard to catch on as a must-have.

In addition, some early owners are also saying that while the keyboard works great with Windows XP, it’s not quite compatible with Vista yet. But that’s just another unsurprising notch on the belt of the latest Microsoft OS.

The full UnitedKeys’ keyboard is now available for $260, but the company also sells the nine-paneled OLED keypad separately for $200. Art Lebedev is planning on releasing a similar version of the Maximus Optimus this year, the Pultius, with 15 OLED keys.

Photos: UnitedKeys, Oled-Info

Bloggers: If you suddenly find Air Force officers leaving barbed comments after one of your posts, don’t be surprised. They’re just following the service’s new "counter-blogging" flow chart. In a twelve-point plan, put together by the emerging technology division of the Air Force’s public affairs arm, airmen are given guidance on how to handle "trolls," "ragers" — and even well-informed online writers, too. It’s all part of an Air Force push to "counter the people out there in the blogosphere who
have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force," Captain David Faggard says.

Over the last couple of years, the armed forces have tried, in fits and starts, to connect more with bloggers. The Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense now hold regular "bloggers’ roundatbles" with generals, colonels, and key civilian leaders. The Navy invited a group of bloggers to embed with them on a humanitarian mission to Central and South America, last summer. Military blogger Michael Yon recently traveled to Afghanistan with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In contrast, the Air Force has largely kept the blogosphere at arms’ length. Most of the sites are banned from Air Force networks. And the service has largely stayed away from the Pentagon’s blog outreach efforts. Captain Faggard, who’s become the Air Force Public Affairs Agency’s designated social media guru, has slowly been trying to shift things. The air service now has a Twitter feed, a blog of its own — and marching orders, for how to comment on other sites. "We’re trying to get people to people to understand that they can do this," he tells Danger Room.

The flow chart lays out a range of possible responses to a blog
post. Airmen can offer a "factual and well-cited response [that] is not
factually erroneous, a rant or rage, bashing or negative in nature."
They can "let the post stand — no response." Or they cancan "fix the facts," offering up fresh perspective.
No matter what, the chart says, airmen should "disclose your Air Force
connection," "respond in a tone that reflects high on the rich heritage
of the Air Force," and "focus on the most-used sites related to the Air
Force."

Despite the chart’s sometimes-stiff language, former military spokesman Steven Field says he’s "a fan." Field,
who’s been occasionally critical of the armed services’ blog outreach
efforts, tells Danger Room: "I’ve always thought that a military-like
process would be a
good bridge to connect the services with the blogosphere. There’s a
field manual for everything in the military, so this flow-chart
presents online communications in a DoD [Department of Defense]
friendly format.

One stipulation — While it should be a guide of communications, it
shouldn’t become a ball-and-chain. Online comms require some level of
nimble, on-your-feet response. As long as the Air Force doesn’t use the
"evaluate" phase to get approval from every Tom, Dick and Harry in the
Pentagon, it should be a good tool.

"Now they just need to lift those damn IP [Internet Protocol] filters," Field adds, so airmen can actually read those blogs that they’re supposed to respond to.

ALSO:

• Air Force Blocks Access to Many Blogs
• Who Gets Through the Air Force’s Blog Block?
• Air Force Backtracks on Social Network Ban
• No More YouTube, MySpace for U.S. Troops
• Top General: Let Soldiers Blog
• If You’re Gonna Get Blocked by the Air Force…
• Army Audits: Official Sites, Not Blogs, Breach Security
• Army: Milblogging is "Therapy," Media is "Threat"
• New Army Rules Could Kill G.I. Blogs (Maybe E-mail, Too)