<![CDATA[Gizmodo: shocker]]> http://tags.gizmodo.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: shocker]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/shocker http://gizmodo.com/tag/shocker <![CDATA[Motorola's "Focus On Android" Won't Yield an Actual Phone Before Christmas 2009]]> So yesterday, Motorola comes out with some optimistic sounding news (well, unless you're getting the axe) of streamlining the operation and shifting focus to Android, an OS that is built specifically for its relative ease to bring to market. And then, one day later on their quarterly earnings call (in which they announced a staggering loss of $400 million in one quarter), new president Sanjay Jha says we won't see the first Android-powered Moto phone until Christmas of next year, notwithstanding any further delays? Yeah, I guess that's about right.

So Jha wasn't joking when he said the earliest Motorola could start to turn things around is in the second half of 2009. But to be so thoroughly tripped up on Android, a platform that is built specifically to be easily mated with a diverse range of devices with relatively few engineering headaches (and zero licensing costs, remember) is kind of shocking. I guess there is some merit in waiting until you get things right, but wow—you'd think they'd have been preparing for this since the Android SDKs have been out for, oh, a year or so already?

According to Moconews, who was on the call, Jha explained his company's sluggishness thusly:

One of the things that we need to do better is execution on software strategy. Execution has been poor. Talent we are looking for is software execution. Have great software talent around the world. Ex Good Technology staff working on forward-looking developments. In terms of time to market, once we get these platforms solidified and delivering products, will have much better oiled machine and will be competitive with other folks in the industry.

Goes to show how difficult it is to overcome the intertia of failure a wrecked corporate culture can generate. [Silicon Alley Insider, Moconews]

]]>
http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5070898&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[Prototype Remote-Activated Wrist Stun-Device Shocks You For Airplane Security]]> This story from the Washington Times seems more ridiculous than ridiculously awesome, but the base of it is that some official in the Department of Homeland Security has "expressed great interest" in a wrist bracelet that can be remotely activated to stun the wearer. It works by taking the place of a boarding pass, which you then wear on your wrist so the flight attendants can know who you are, where you are, and even shock you if you're misbehaving. What makes this thing completely absurd is the diagram after the jump. A man threatens a crew member with a knife. The crew member shocks the man into submission, then SHOCKS EVERYONE ELSE as punishment for sitting passively by while he was being threatened.

Update: Sorry, that last panel looks like a Photoshop. You fooled us, guy with rudimentary knowledge of the human anatomy!

[Washington Times via Consumerist]

]]>
http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5022614&view=rss&microfeed=true