A court in Taiwan this week ruled against a female food-blogger who said a local restaurant’s beef noodles “were too salty,” and that she’d seen cockroaches scurrying around in the restaurant. She gets 30 days in detention, two years of probation, and must pay 200,000 Taiwanese dollars (about $7K US dollars) in compensation to the restaurant. The court didn’t argue she was lying about the bugs, but ruled that “Ms. Liu should not have criticized that all the restaurant’s food as too salty because she only had one dish on her single visit.”

From the Taipei Times:

After visiting a Taichung beef noodle restaurant in July 2008, where she had dried noodles and side dishes, Liu wrote that the restaurant served food that was too salty, the place was unsanitary because there were cockroaches and that the owner was a “bully” because he let customers park their cars haphazardly, leading to traffic jams.

The restaurant owner said “he hoped the case would teach her a lesson.” Yeah right man…

Again, from the Taipei Times:

Huang Cheng-lee (黃呈利), a lawyer in Taichung, said that bloggers who post food reviews should remember to be truthful in their commentary and supplement their comments with photographs to protect themselves.

Yey! Lawyers now have a bigger market than ever!

SOURCE via Boing Boing

Do you watch US talent show “So You Think You Can Dance” and even critique the dancers on the hit reality show? Well here’s something done not on stage, but on the track! It’s a brand new style just created by two motorcycle racers at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France.

To do the Two-Bike Tango, one rider needs to spill in a turn, and the now-sliding bike will take out another unsuspecting rider. The two riders clear the raceway as their bikes join throttles, and proceed to spin around each other.

It’s not as sexy or forbidden as the Lambada, but onlookers can’t turn away. Click past the jump to experience… the Two-Bike Tango!

Read more…

When AMD came clean with its Fusion A-Series platform, the outfit was quick to admit that some manufacturers have already started slipping these hybrid CPU / GPU chips into their spankin’ new PCs. Still, at this early stage we still haven’t spotted many of ‘em — if anything, we have a better idea what’s on tap for later this summer. But here we have the Toshiba Satellite L750D-ST4N01, the first available Llano-packing notebook we’ve seen since the A-Series’ launch. At $699, this 15.6-incher might seem like a forgettable system with its 4GB of RAM, 640GB 5400RPM hard drive, 1366 x 768 panel, and three USB 2.0 ports. Heck, Toshiba barely even gave the L series lip service when it announced a slew of laptops last week. But, what makes this seemingly ho-hum machine special is that it packs AMD’s mid-range quad-core A6-3400M chip and an AMD Radeon HD 6520G graphics core — a combination that adds just $10 to the cost over a similarly configured Satellite L755-S5258 with a dual-core Core i5-2410M processor and integrated Intel graphics. The L750D isn’t for you? The deluge of A-Series systems hasn’t even begun yet, friends. And while the jury’s still out on real-world battery performance, this should make it crystal clear that if nothing else, AMD is taking no prisoners when it comes to pricing.

Microsoft is sending out a subtle reminder this week that, despite all of the fanfare surrounding its newly announced service, Apple isn’t the only game in the cloud. Redmond has unveiled updates to SkyDrive, including speed boosts, a revamped UI, and improvements to photo viewing.

The latest version of the almost four-year-old service has cut wait time on actions like clicking folders, from six to nine seconds down to 100 to 300 milliseconds. The updated software also features H.264 video playback, a navigation system more akin to desktop browsing, and a single view for files, docs, and photos.

Let Microsoft hold your hand through a video tour of its cloud below.

Read more…

Dry ice isn’t just great for keeping steaks cold and filling your bathtub with fog, it may also play a major role in producing the miracle material graphene. Researchers at Northern Illinois University have discovered that burning magnesium in frozen carbon dioxide produces a thin layer of the hyped-to-the-lattices carbon nanostructure. The so-called dry-ice method has several advantages over previous techniques, not the least of which is the ability to pump out the relative of pencil lead on a much larger scale. It also happens to be faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly compared with the lengthy processes involving hazardous chemicals used in most graphene production. It’s pretty great news but, honestly, all we want to know is when the stuff is going to start powering super-fast internet connections looking at how things around here work.

SOURCE via NIU Today

Future iCloud power user, take a gander at the MobileMe email from MacRumors above — that’s what to expect when you approach the 5GB storage limit. Apparently, automatic backups and your MobileMe account’s email traffic will pause until you delete some files or purchase more space via your iDevice or a computer — for an undisclosed cost. That’s one sliver of info which Apple’s remaining tight-lipped about despite unveiling the mostly free cloud service weeks ago. Also worth noting, as TUAW points out, is that content purchased within the iTunes ecosystem won’t impact your quota.

SOURCE via TUAW

PopCap, the company responsible for gaming gems such as Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle, could soon be acquired for as much as one billion dollars. And who’s buying? Well, it’s no other than the famous giant EA that loves to gobble up small game developer firms!

PopCap’s got a number of hugely successful games in its portfolio and it seem those hit titles have attracted the attention of a potential buyer. Rumours circulating in the blogosphere suggest that PopCap is in final stage acquisition talks with none other than Electronic Arts.

Surprising as this news is, the sum of money being discussed is probably the most jaw-dropping detail of all — according to TechCrunch sources, PopCap’s price tag is set at over $1 billion. With EA’s current market cap sitting at $7.25 billion, a billion dollar acquisition would be a huge purchase for the company. However, TC’s Jason Kincaid writes, “We’re hearing that this is a Hail Mary pass from EA to break into mobile and social gaming — areas where the company hasn’t done nearly as well as it has in the console arena.”

The rumours first surfaced last night, though the buyer wasn’t known at the time. EA, Zynga and Chinese company Tencent were all named as possibilities. However, it seems tongues have been wagging since that report first hit the wire as TechCrunch has heard from two sources that the buyer is EA.

SOURCE via Tech Crunch

Nokia was holding a closed door conference to unveil the N9, and an unknown prototype called the “Sea Ray”. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop foolishly asked a crowd of people to “put away their cameras” for the unveiling of something “super confidential”. Naturally, a few people ignored the plea for “no pictures please” and, indeed, someone leaked what appears to be a Nokia-produced video of the unveiling to the blogosphere.

Surprise! It’s Nokia’s first Windows Phone. While it looks nearly identical to the just announced N9, the different LED placement on the back (in line with the same 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens) confirms it’s a new device as does the additional hardware button (for shutter release, we presume) along the side. And the fact that it’s running Windows Phone 7 Mango seals the deal. See a few more shots and the full uncut video (and relevant snippet) after the break.

Read more…