Paul Allen s Evri whips up a semantic widget

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Evri, a Seattle-based semantic-Web project backed by Paul Allen s Vulcan Capital, has thrown open the doors on its beta site and on Evri s Garden, a sandbox for researchers and interested bystanders.

Formerly known as Hypertext Solutions, Evri s first widget offering in the Garden is a pop-up that examines the words it finds significant generally nouns on a page and returns various related articles, images, and video, and if sufficient connections are available a circle-and spoke chart, showing terms with which a given word has a close connection. An automatically generated chart might link, for example, Barack Obama with Joe Biden, or Beverly Hills with Ed McMahon, or Mariners with failure. I may have made that last one up. You can check for yourself on Evri s site or download the widget for your own uses.

Like Google News, the search process is entirely algorithm-driven, drawing its links from a variety of highly regarded information services, very nearly in real time. By parsing the semantics of the information it finds, Evri aims to provide better context than a search engine might -- guiding you to, for instance, articles on Madonna the singer rather than Madonna the religious figure. One of those Madonnas is, by the way, Evri-linked directly to Bill Clinton. Guess.

An early version of the search widget originally saw daylight at last May s All Things D conference. During his demonstration there, CEO Neil Roseman, formerly VP of technology at Amazon, described the widget s MO as search less, understand more.

I question whether Evri entirely understands my most profound search needs; a check for the television show Pushing Daisies passed back on-point images, news, connections and a Wikipedia-based show synopsis, but the duplicate photos of the show-inspired crochet afghan may have been a bit random. Still, it works, and could add a little semantic sparkle to many a dull Web page.
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OEM SOFTWARE

Circuit City looks to better customer experience after another loss

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The struggling consumer electronics retail chain today blamed its continuing financial losses on a weakened brand image, together with competitive pressures and the faltering economy.

US retailer Circuit City plans to put more emphasis on improving the customer experience in its stores, in the wake of a 162.7 million loss for the second quarter of its 2009 fiscal year. Earlier efforts to do that haven t been sufficient to reverse our overall business results, acknowledged Bruce H. Besanko, executive VP and CFO.

Circuit City has been gaining traction in bettering the customer experience, as well as in rebuilding its selling culture and improving its close rates on sales, Besanko said in a statement today.

However, the consumer electronics retail chain has undergone a significant decline in traffic, Besanko said, placing the blame on a weakened brand position along with competitive pressures and a worsening of the overall economy.

Circuit City did show some growth in home theater installations over the same quarter last year. But these gains were offset by a decline in its Firedog PC services. The retailer also felt double-digit losses in notebook and desktop PCs, audio, and digital imaging products such as camcorders and DVD hardware, although losses were only in the single digits in some other categories, such as video gaming, flat panel TVs, and navigation products.

Yet it seems to singing a more frantic tune right now than over the two previous quarters, when its sales also slid downwards.

Two quarters ago, the chain s sales numbers showed some progress, and we expect continued improvement from our turnaround strategy for fiscal year 2009, said CEO and Chairman Philip J. Schoonover, in a conference call with analysts in early April.

Then, in a statement issued after the close of the first fiscal quarter, Schoonover maintained that Circuit City seemed to be delivering an improved customer experience at the time, based on the result of scores of third-party mystery tests -- a type of test in which paid personnel typically pose as actual shoppers and then report back on their experiences.

In response to its second quarter loss, Circuit City plans to undertake a comprehensive review of the business, and the company has already identified key initiatives to drive performance in the holiday season, according to today s statement.
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OEM SOFTWARE

Nokia tablets get 3G, company says 'software comes first!'

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At Open Source in Mobile (OSIM) in Berlin this week, Nokia announced that future iterations of its Internet Tablet OS will support 3G HSPA. Are Nokia tablets becoming better PCs than 'tablet PCs?'

Worldwide mobile device leader Nokia predicted earlier this month that its dominant position in the market would soften as consumer confidence weakens. Meanwhile, the company presses ever harder into the software sector.

This week, the Finnish company upgraded its status in the nonprofit Linux Foundation to "Gold" sponsorship status. Nokia's recent innovations to its Internet Tablet OS, the most recent of which it's calling Maemo 5, represent the first code of its kind to be included in the standards-founding group. Nokia has developed Linux kernel code related to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) connectivity for Texas Instruments OMAP3 processors.

This crucial development will give future iterations of Nokia's Internet Tablets -- progenies of the N800 -- cellular broadband connectivity. While there is a WiMAX-equipped version of the N810 tablet in Nokia's upcoming release schedule, any future tablets running Maemo 5 will be equipped with OMAP3 chips to facilitate 3G connectivity. These are an upgrade to the current 400 MHz OMAP 2420. TI claims this can improve performance up to three times. Nokia also announced added support for high definition cameras and optics, in keeping with OMAP3's purported strengths.

Nokia reps said that the company does not yet have a successor to the N810 ready for announcement. Since its OS will be open-source, however, "software comes first, and then products based on it may come later."





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Eee maker Asus to produce Skype's first dedicated phone

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After a premature rollout by Asus earlier this week, Skype gave the first glimpses of Asus' first phone -- a videophone with a built-in webcam -- at events yesterday on both sides of the Atlantic.

NEW YORK, NY (BetaNews) -- Skype celebrated its fifth birthday yesterday by announcing in both New York and London that Asus, maker of the pioneering Eee ultramobile (PC), will produce the first Skype-certified videophone.

In addition to previewing Asus' AiGuru SV1 at a birthday bash in the UK, Skype showed the phone at a Pepcom-sponsored press event in the US.

Earlier in the week week, Asus jumped the gun on Skype's phone launch, first issuing and then retracting a press release about the SV1. Yet on Thursday night, the new phone was plainly visible in Skype's booth at Pepcom's Holiday Spectacular holiday gifts preview in Manhattan, right next to a dish of elaborately decorated birthday cupcakes.

A Skype spokesperson presiding over that company's booth at the Pepcom show told BetaNews that, although the exact date hasn't been decided upon, the SV1 is scheduled to ship at some point in October.

The first phone to be produced by Asus, this standalone device has its own 7-inch, 800-by-400 display, along with Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for a PC connection.

Purportedly aimed at ease of use, the SV1 also integrates a webcam, speaker, and microphone, and is designed mostly for desktop use. Although the device can also be used as a portable videophone, it offers only around 20 minutes of battery life. Expected pricing is about $300.





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