nitrogen

Nestled amid all the tech products and services at CES this week is the Bravo TV booth, featuring cooking demos by former "Top Chef" contender Richard Blais. But Blais isn't totally out of place here: he applies a bit of science and tech to cook up his culinary delights.

Narrowly losing the Top Chef title in season four of the series, Blaise is well-known to fans of the fast-paced cooking show for his molecular gastronomy approach to food preparation, a process that dives into the chemical reactions that occur as different ingredients are combined.

One of Blaise'… Read more

The second permutation of Sharetones for Android 2.0 is here.

But what is it? If you're unfamiliar, Sharetones is an app that helps you coax ringtones out of songs you already own. At first blush, that sounds identical to Ringdroid, a free ringtone editor.

What's different here is that Sharetones caters to the lazy. Not everyone has the talent or time to make killer ringtones worth listening to time and again. Sharetones skirts the annoyance by comparing the songs you have on your phone with the songs it has in its user-generated online database. The Sharetones server … Read more

Here's how to take the guesswork out of ringtones. Start with your own music collection on the phone. Sharetones compares your list to its growing database of user-cut ringtones and returns matches. After previewing and picking, Sharetones will extract metadata information about the sample ringtone and rip your own song to match it, including fade-ins and fade-outs. Bottom line: the only person's music you touch is your own.

If that sounds complicated, don't worry. The application's interface is straightforward. You'll see the ringtone matches appear--tap one to preview or save and rate the song. If … Read more

Start with your own music collection on the phone. Sharetones compares your list to its growing database of user-cut ringtones and returns matches. After previewing and picking, Sharetones will extract metadata information about the sample ringtone and rip your own song to match it, including fade-ins and fade-outs. Bottom line: the only person's music you touch is your own.

The application's actual interface is a tad sparse. You can preview the ringtone, pausing or saving it. The menu button reveals options to sort by title or artist, to re-sync the library, and to view the ringtone, alarm, and … Read more

Three hundred eighty-five development hours, 3.5 median hours of sleep per night, 265 pounds of food, and roughly 4,000 cups of coffee. That's what it took for five teams to compete in last week's Microsoft's Mobile Incubation Week, an intense five-day hustle to create the best Windows Mobile application, from concept to finished product.

In the dark auditorium at Microsoft's modest Mountain View, Calif., offices last Friday, the breakneck development rate showed. Two bleary-eyed developers stepped onto a dark stage before a smattering of peers, press, and judges to present their showing: a Windows Mobile version of Brightkite, a location-based social network that lets you create a photo journal of your day that friends can track.

While Brightkite founder Martin May and his co-developer, Brady Becker, were the only team to take the stage without a finished application to demo, their mobile social networking application has two distinct real-world advantages over most of the other competitors--Brightkite's established user base and existing applications for iPhone, Google Android, BlackBerry, and the Web. All that's missing from the Brightkite lineup, May freely admitted, is a Windows Mobile app--even more essentially, the know-how to develop for Windows Mobile. Although Brightkite's Windows Mobile presentation consisted largely of prototype slides, the team is hoping they'll have a Windows Mobile client ready by the time Microsoft launches its Marketplace for Windows Mobile in the second half of 2009.

The cohort

Brightkite wasn't the only established company in the field. Networks In Motion, the brawn behind Verizon's VZ Navigator, AAA Mobile, and Yellowpages.com, was also there, introducing a first peek at Gokivo Navigator for Windows Mobile. It's the first NIM-branded turn-by-turn navigator that is already available for a subscription fee on AT&T phones, including the BlackBerry Bold.… Read more

Starting today, all Shell gas stations will be pumping a new fuel: Shell's nitrogen-enhanced gasoline.

Before you start speculating about the wonder fuel of tomorrow, understand that this nitrogen-enriched gasoline differs from the gas Shell was pumping yesterday in its engine-cleaning detergents and additives.

Shell claims that its nitrogen-enriched gasoline cleans better than before and protects better against engine buildup. Of note, all three grades of gasoline will contain the nitrogen-enriched detergents, with its V-Power premium grade containing five times the government-mandated amount. The results are fewer intake deposits, cleaner combustion chambers, and less fuel injector fouling and intake … Read more