They say that sub-$400 netbooks are 20 percent more likely to fail in the first year. But no real surprises there.

SquareTrade says it randomly selected over 30,000 laptops and netbooks covered by its warranty plans for the study. Brands with a minimum of 1000 laptops included Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. Accidental damage and software issues handled by the retailer were not included in the numbers.

Summary below, while the full report can be found at: [SquareTrade]

• Over 31 percent of laptops will fail in the first three years of ownership.
• Of these failures, two-thirds came from hardware malfunctions (20.4 percent) and one-third (10.6 percent) was reported as accidental damage.
• Asus and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16 percent having a hardware malfunction over three years.
• Netbooks are projected to have a 20 percent higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers.
• Manufacturers proved to be a more reliable determinant of reliability than the type of laptop and should be a greater factor in making a purchase decision.

The HDTVs included models from the top-tier brands of (alphabetically) LG, Samsung, Sharp and Sony - from the mid-line to top-of-the-line models. All of the units were from the 2008 model year. Differences between the 2008 and 2009 models are primarily in their marketing hype. For this article we had three flagship top-of-the line LCD models from Samsung (LN-T5281F), Sharp (LC-52D92U) and Sony (KDL-52XBR4). By studying the top-of-the-line models from the market leaders we were assured of examining the state-of-the-art for each display technology and each manufacturer. The consumer mid-line models included LG (42LG50), Samsung (LN40A550P3F), and Sony (KDL-40V3000). The remaining two LCD units were consumer HDTVs but not commercially available models.

The top-of-the-line Sony XBR and Sharp units had 120 Hz screen refresh, the top-of-the-line Samsung had strobed LED backlighting, and all of the other units had standard 60 Hz screen refresh. The goal was to determine the degree to which this varied advanced technology affected visible motion blur.

DisplayMate analyzed the blur using moving test patterns, moving photographs and live video (a Nikon D90 DSLR with a shutter speed of 1/160th a second was used for the photography) and found that no actual motion blur detectable in any of the live video content—although there were incidents that were passed off as defects in the source video or temporary optical illusions.

After extensive side-by-side objective testing with moving test patterns, moving photographs and live video we found that there was no visually detectable difference in motion blur performance for current mid to top-of-the-line LCD HDTVs, regardless of their Response Time, 60 or 120 Hz refresh rates, strobed LED backlighting, or motion enhancement processing. While there was considerable motion blur in the moving test patterns, motion blur was simply not visually detectable in real live video content during our extensive side-by-side testing. With only a handful of minor exceptions, whenever blur was seen in live video we always found it to be in the source content or a temporary visual illusion that disappeared when the segments in question were reviewed. This is undoubtedly due to the way the brain processes and extracts essential information from dynamic and complex moving images.

In other words, DisplayMate thinks you are probably seeing things. Don't be fooled by manufacturers charging extra for fancy motion blur technologies or claims of exceptional response times. If you purchased a mid to top tier model you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Of course, this test doesn't remotely cover all of the LCD brands out there, so I have to ask—based on your experience, do you believe that LCD makers have finally tamed the motion blur beast? [DisplayMate]

The 2% figure is extrapolated from NPD's less direct assessment:

[A]pproximately 12 percent of all U.S. computer owning households own an Apple computer, up from 9 percent in 2008. While Apple ownership is growing, those households are decidedly in favor of mixed system environments. Of those 12 percent, nearly 85 percent also own a Windows-based PC.

At first glance, these stats almost seem wrong, but when you start think about it, they make sense: The survey polled "households," which, on account of grandma's Compaq or your roommate's gaming PC, clobbers the exclusivity figure. (I live in what any reasonable person would call a "Mac household"—three people who use Macs almost exclusively—but that little Acer netbook sitting on the table means we're not.)

Plus, PCs are cheap and they linger, and Macs, being pricier, tend to find their way into richer households, where more than one computer is almost a given. That, combined the fact that most Macs sold are laptops, and therefore a little more likely to be a supplemental computer, makes the 2% figure look a little less crazy, but still, 2%? Fanboys, you're slacking. [NPD via Macrumors]

Researches at the University of Tokyo have found that the brain pauses for up to 450 milliseconds with every blink, meaning we miss up to 6 seconds of visual info for every minute—or about 15 minutes for a 150 minute film.

In tracking the eye movements of volunteers, the team also found that moviegoers can sometimes begin to blink in unison; an external manifestation of sharing a common experience. Apparently, the synchronized blinks seem to happen at "non-critical" points, like after an explosion, or whenever Megan Fox is off screen. [University of Tokyo via New Scientist]

Apparently, the job pays as much as $160 a day—which means I could earn an extra $5,000 per month writing for Giz while lying down and peeing into a bedpan. Sounds like a dream come true, but I will not be signing up. You see, these "pillownauts" experience nasty side effects like sore feet, muscle weakness, headaches, toothaches and runny noses/eyes. Plus, I would think that lying on your back for weeks on end like that would drive you to madness.

Still, this is what our astronauts will have to contend with should we make extended trips to the Moon and, eventually, Mars—so it is a necessary evil. But the question remains: could you handle this for a month in the name of science? [PopSci]

According to a new 800-participant joint study by Children's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School, before the age of three, DVDs like "BabyGenius," "Brainy Baby" and "Baby Einstein" are of no cognitive benefit to children.

Unbelievable, we know. But it gets worse.

Another study published recently in Pediatrics points out that not only is this video content not beneficial—it could even hinder the development of your child. Children who watched such DVDs were found to have smaller vocabularies than those who didn't.

A Boston researcher from the Pediatrics-published study explained:

At the very best, they steal time from much more productive cognitive developmental activities. Ultimately, what it's about is to make parents not feel guilty about an electronic baby sitter.

And things don't get any better if you hit the link and read the whole story. [CNN]

Five related studies were performed in which participants had to choose between two items in various categories, including digital cameras, towels, sesame oil, cell phones, and potato chips. And in every study, the participants preferred the items with the most specifications.

The study's author concludes that there is indeed a practical lesson for marketers here, though I'm pretty sure that digital cameras alone have pretty much proven that point already. [Lab Spaces Thanks Elizabeth!]

In fact, the only people who tend not to reply in messaging form were those above the age of 65. I guess people under that age haven't gotten stuck in the habit of listening to a voice on the other line. I personally hate answering voice mails – very few people know how to be concise and clear on the phone, especially when they're essentially talking to themselves. Why listen to your friend Jane hem and haw about a good time to meet up when you could've spent three seconds reading “Im in da city. U free 2 meet?” [Wireless and Mobile News]

I actually find it kind of strange that there's only a 2% difference between getting angry and swearing to flinging your cellphone across the room when it locks up. Is it really that small a leap from anger to wanton destructing and hissy fits? And I'd also like to know what percentage of people who drank when they couldn't get their computer working ended up figuring out the problem and fixing it while hammered. I bet it's a larger percentage than you'd think!

How's about you guys? Does malfunctioning tech piss you off, drive you to drink or leave you as calm as pigs in an Israeli slaughterhouse? [Pocket Lint via PSFK]

According to a study by the Ponemon Institute and Dell, only 30 percent or so lost laptops are ever recovered. Los Angeles' LAX airport reported having the most lost laptops out of any other airport, with 1,200 going missing every week. The most likely place for you to lose your computer is at security checkpoints and departure gates—so no matter how many beers you downed this weekend, try to be a little more alert while going through those areas, yeah? [Newlaunches]

picture credit: Mike Reger

Obviously, this report is not the last word on the subject and we will surely see more studies in the years to come. And my guess is most of these studies will be in conflict with one another. Hell, we have already seen one incident where a Taser may have helped someone with a heart condition. What's next? A study that finds Canadian criminals are more sensitive to electrocution than American criminals? [CBC News via Digg]

One, since when does your wife ask you to determine whether somethings is true or false, repeatedly, while having a conversation? It's usually just talking about picking up milk or the crazy broad at work—a decidedly easier activity.

Two, did these volunteers actually get drunk and take the same test? Or were the researchers just saying that the errors made while on the phone were similar to the ones made theoretically while drunk. Because their study report doesn't seem like the subjects liquored up and did some driving. It's pretty difficult to come to the conclusion that talking on the phone is as dangerous as driving, but you can conclude that it's more dangerous than just driving normally. [Consumer Affairs via Textually]

Rothman points out that Mythbusters did their own test in Episode 33 (he's a big fan) and actually did get drunk and drove around. Any MB lovers see that one?

As it goes, our preparation consisted of only listening to our tunes, which wasn't nearly as much help as the flashcards would have been. Retailing at $59.99, with 1GB memory for tunes and index cards, 2.5-inch monochrome screen with display mounted controls, Mac and PC compatible software suite and an included Spanish translator, the Crammer finally makes revision cool. Remember kids, you may not need fancy gadgets to do well at school, but you will need them if you want to impress girls and be popular. It worked for us, right? (Rhetorical question.) [Boing Boing]

•First of all, Mean Time Between Failure rates mean nothing.
•Secondly, SMART hardware monitoring missed 36% of all uh-ohs.
•Third, overworked drives fail similarly to standard drives after the first year.
•Fourth, Hard drive age means less than you think.
•Fifth, failure does not go up when temperatures are higher than usual (unless super high.)

Google even has insight on which brand that had the longest life.

But decided to leave it out because that data "wasn't useful in understanding the effects of disk age on failure rates."

That's the main jist of it. Some of this you probably knew, some of this may be myth-busting, but regardless, this is definitely important information that needed to get out to the general public. It's nice to see an impartial group that has the resources to perform a large-scale study like this shed light on this topic.–Alexander Yoon

Failure Trends Study(pdf) [via StorageMojo]

Cell phones don't raise cancer risk: study [Reuters]

As the resident Gizmodo intern and college student I will strongly disagree with this study. Sure, my iPod is great and it usually never leaves my pocket, but nothing—and I mean absolutely nothing—could be more "in" than drinking extremely cheap domestic beer in large quantities. – Travis Hudson

Survey: iPods more popular than beer [The Detroit News]

One of the products with the most growth is satellite radio. Satellite radio ownership has hit 10-percent of households. Satellite radio giants, XM and Sirius, have surpassed 10 million subscribers.

Average Household has 26 CE products [DesignTechnica]

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