WSJ: Android Is A Giant, Delayed Flustercuck, iPhone Easier to Develop For [...

Now you talk about it. Google do not get usability like apple does. Infact no one ever gets like apple does. thats why iPhone is piece of work and Android based phones and apps will take lot of effort to get there.

via Gizmodo by matt buchanan on 6/23/08

Oh, Android delays, let us count the ways: T-Mobile will probably deliver an Android phone by the end of the year, but the WSJ says that working with T-Mo is sucking up so much Google juice that Sprint will have to wait until 2009 (and its Android phone might not play on EV-DO, but WiMax). AT&T is still holding off. China Mobile, the world's largest carrier, wanted one by fall, but it's looking more like 2009. Software developers are struggling to pump out programs and say that the iPhone is way easier to develop for. So, uh, what's going on in Googleland?

A lot of has to do with the fact that Android itself is still baking—it's hard to develop for an OS that isn't totally set and firm to the touch. So, even though Google has lotsa cool prototypes like one "a long touch-screen, similar to the Apple iPhone, a swivel-out full keyboard, and a trackball for navigation similar to the kind on some BlackBerrys," developers are having to constantly rewrite apps because the OS is in flux.

The Weather Channel admits it has already had to "rewrite a few things," and the latest version of Android is going to require some of the biggest revisions yet. The iPhone's SDK on the other hand, is ready to go, and many developers are already familiar with OS X. (And if developers are choosing one platform over the other, that's where Android's real trouble starts.) Topping it off, phonemakers like Samsung aren't having a jolly time integrating it either.

Sprint's woes are in part due to the fact it wants an Android phone with Sprint services, rather than a generic Google-y one. Because of the pushback, they might skip over a 3G Android phone and just do a WiMax one (though that doesn't make much sense to us—the EV-DO footprint is and will be way bigger than gimpy WiMax's, even in the first half of 2009, and that's being optimistic). Curiously, no word on the newly open Verizon's front, but given how messy Android is right now, even with all of its promise, we can't really blame AT&T for sitting it out for now. [WSJ]

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Daft Punk's Designer Shows DIY Glowing Outfit Tricks [Glow]

via Gizmodo by Kit Eaton on 6/23/08

Almost as famous as Daft Punk's electro-tunes are their glowing electro-outfits. And now, thanks to the chap who made clothes for their 2007 Alive tour, and an Instructables DIY page you too could don glowing gear. It looks fairly easy, as long as you're nifty with a needle and thread: the hardest part seems to be soldering the wire's electric contacts. There're a bunch of tips on wire placing and sewing, and photos of EL wire patterns on everything from boots to hats. And now, if you excuse me, I'm off to persuade my missus of the benefits of a glowing bra. [Instructables via Hacknmod]

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College Confessional: Growing Up With a Feminist Father

via Daily Bedpost by Em & Lo on 6/17/08

With Father's Day this past Sunday, our intern Ariel Servadio talks about how cool dads don't freak when you work here:

When I was little, my father read me a book from his childhood, Friday the Arapaho Indian by A.M. Anderson. I heard the "true story" of a young Native American girl named Friday and her historical adventures. But if you've ever read Anderson's book, you'll know what I discovered when I was much older and my dad confessed the truth: Friday the Indian was a boy.

As a sleepy child, I heard the story of a powerful and adventurous young woman doing extraordinary things--and I believed it. As my father painstakingly changed pronouns and altered sex-related details while reading to me every night before bed, he planted the seed of limitless possibilities in my brain. It wasn't until I was nine years old that that idea was challenged: It was the end of third grade and the elementary-school music teacher was preparing our class for joining the school band the next year. When we were asked what instruments we would like to play, I raised my hand and said I wanted to play the bass guitar. "No," the music teacher replied, "I need big, strong boys to play the guitar next year." So I got stuck playing the alto saxophone. At least it wasn't the flute, I guess...

This idea of boys being big and strong and able to do things that girls couldn't was new to me. Both my parents took a proactive role in teaching me I was capable of anything and everything, but my dad went above and beyond what was usually expected of a father-daughter relationship. He taught me skills that many would reserve for only a son: I know how to fire a gun, drive a dirt bike, skin an animal, clean a fish, rappel down a tree, fight with martial arts and defensive tactics--the list goes on. He bought me just as many chemistry sets and microscopes and sports supplies as he did Easy-Bake Ovens. He wasn't afraid to talk to me about sex or the processes of the female reproductive system, either.

I distinctly remember being about four when I watched my first informative video about the birds and the bees--a cartoon featuring a man and woman with squiggly-drawn genitalia. My mother says that was all my father's idea. And when I got my first period at 11 years old, my mother was in the hospital busy having my little brother, so I had to go home and tell my father what had happened to me in school that day. For many of my peers it would no doubt have been a traumatic event, yet for me it was completely comfortable and natural to talk about it with my dad. Because he never made sex ed weird, or made me feel ashamed about going through puberty, I think I've always had a healthy outlook on sex--one that's made me curious and confident and responsible (and, needless to say, brave enough to intern at a sex blog).

I grew up thinking that the world was my oyster, thanks in particular to my father. I don't think he would actually ever describe himself as a feminist--I've rarely heard him use the word. But I know that he is, because I am.

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Great British Sex Slip-Ups

(danctags british sex slip-ups)

via Daily Bedpost by Em & Lo on 6/16/08

Maybe it's because we've been making a TV show about sex with a bunch of Brits for the past couple of months (they just have a way of talking about butt plugs that's so charming), but we actually found ourselves forwarding a "Check out this it's hilarious!!!!" e-mail this week: It's titled "12 of the finest (unintentional) double-entendres ever aired on British TV and radio" and, well, it kind of speaks for itself. For the record, "fanny" (#12) doesn't mean quite the same thing over here in Blighty, and one certainly doesn't speak of "fanny packs" in polite company. You're welcome.

1. Pat Glenn, weightlifting commentator:
"And this is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning and it was amazing!"

2. New Zealand rugby commentator:
"Andrew Mehrtens loves it when Daryl Gibson comes inside of him."

3. Ted Walsh, horseracing commentator:
"This is really a lovely horse. I once rode her mother."

4. Harry Carpenter at the 1977 Oxford-Cambridge boat race:
"Ah, isn't that nice. The wife of the Cambridge president is kissing the cox of the Oxford crew."

5. US PGA commentator:
"One of the reasons Arnie [Arnold Palmer] is playing so well is that, before each tee shot, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them. ... Oh my god!! What have I just said??"

6. Carenza Lewis on Time Team Live, about finding food in the Middle Ages:
"You'd eat beaver if you could get it."

7. A female news anchor, to the weatherman, the day after it was supposed to snow and didn't:
"So, Bob, where's that eight inches you promised me last night?"

8. Steve Ryder covering the US Masters:
"Ballesteros felt much better today after a 69 yesterday."

9. Clare Frisby on Look North, talking about a jumbo hot dog:
"There's nothing like a big hot sausage inside you on a cold night like this."

10 Mike Hallett on Sky Sports, discussing missed snooker shots:
"Stephen Hendry jumps on Steve Davis's misses every chance he gets."

11. Michael Buerk on watching Philippa Forrester cuddle up to a male astronomer for warmth during BBC1's UK eclipse coverage:
"They seem cold out there. They're rubbing each other and he's only come in his shorts."

12. Ken Brown on golfer Nick Faldo and his caddie Fanny Sunesson lining up shots at the Scottish Open:
"Some weeks Nick likes to use Fanny; other weeks he prefers to do it by himself."

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Advice: Booty Call Tips for the Ladies

via Daily Bedpost by Em & Lo on 6/18/08

Dear Em & Lo,
I read your "Sex Advice Review: Worst Booty Call Tips Ever" with amusement and agreement. But what are YOUR booty call tips, for a woman?  
Thanks,
Keeping it Casual

Dear K.I.C.,

Wow, where to start? We could go on all day about booty call etiquette (in fact, we have: Check out our book Sex Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen if you want the unabridged version of our answer). But here are just a few highlights that we think are particularly pertinent to the ladies:

• A regular booty call partner can be much more satisfying for a woman than a string of one-night stands, because it usually takes a few sessions to teach a new man the various routes to your happy place. And if you're not demanding orgasms from your casual sex, then you're kinda missing the point, aren't ya?

• You've got to be attracted to your booty call partner, and it helps if you can have a laugh together, but you don't need to have anything else in common. (And you certainly don't have to seek out "inner beauty.") So go ahead and call that himbo. In fact, the less like "boyfriend material" he is, the better suited he is to be your booty call.

• Don't limit your booty-calling to just exes. Sure, an ex can make a great booty call candidate, but just because you're over him enough to want just booty, it doesn't mean he is (though he may pretend he is just for the chance to be in your presence again). Don't break his heart all over again, the poor little lamb! And you should definitely steer clear of booty-calling an ex who broke YOUR heart.
 
• We know you like to plan, but never make a booty call more than a day in advance. An hour or two is considered foreplay, any longer feels too relationshippy.

• Make sure you're alternating who calls whom so that mutual interest is constantly re-established. If you've been the initiator more than three times without reciprocation, give it a rest.

• Tipsy is good, stumbling drunk is bad.
 
• BOTH parties should be armed with prophylactics at all times. Yep, that includes you.
 
• Faking belongs in dysfunctional relationships and miserable one-night stands only. In the modern booty call, everyone gets at least one real one, whether delivered by oneself or by the second party.

• Don't call your fuck buddy just to say "hi" (unless you were friends for more than a month before you started swapping favors). Save the niceties for email.
 
• If nothing is discussed, you've got to assume that you're not the only booty call in your fuck buddy's life. If you want to be in a monogamous booty call situation, then say so!
 
• Do not think that six months of booty-calling each other connotes progression. Duration never implies acceleration, change, or growth--it is simply the same dirty thing happening over and over. A booty call matures into a bona fide relationship about as often as Fox's 11 p.m. headlining news item is truly newsworthy.

Keeping it real,

Em & Lo
 

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(What I Know About) My Parents' Sex Life

via Daily Bedpost by Em & Lo on 6/19/08

Photo: Justine Cooper

Christen Clifford is a performer and writer whose controversial show BabyLove (it's about motherhood and sexuality...more on that next week) is now Off Broadway. Her newest show, (What I Know About) My Parents' Sex Life goes to the other end of the spectrum: elder sex. (We hear you saying "ewww" in the back row there.) It runs for four performances starting tonight at soloNOVA at P.S. 122 in NYC.

Em & Lo: Can you describe this show in a nutshell?

Christen Clifford: It's a mixture of what I know about my parents' sex life, what I imagine about it, my erotic feelings toward them, and also about elderly sexuality in the U.S. in general.
 
Why do you think so many people are grossed out by elder sex? Were you, when you first started thinking about this show?

I'm not grossed out by it at all. Sexuality and sensuality don't disappear as you age.  I don't want to give up my sexual life just because of age and the medical difficulties that it sometimes brings.

And why do you think so many people have a problem with the idea of their own parents having sex in particular? We should be happy for them, right? Yet why do so many of us find it so disturbing?

I can't speak for anyone else, but like most people, I thought of my parents as sexless. Then when my father died I found his medical records, which showed that he had requested a prescription for Viagra not long after my mother died. He stated that he had not had sex since she went into a nursing home, and that meant they had been having sex before she went into the nursing home, when she was quite ill.

I was definitely disturbed by this, but then fascinated and happy for them that their sexual life had continued through old age and illness. It's certainly what I would want for myself, though it took a bit of thinking to come to this conclusion!

Is this why there is so little research into mature sexuality?

I think older people are seen as sexless in our society. The first large-scale study of sexuality in adults over the age of 57 (the largest growing segment of the U.S. population) was just released last year.  And I think societal attitudes equate sexuality with youth and fertility, and the media certainly reinforces this idea, when in truth everyone has a sexual life that changes throughout the course of a lifetime.

Do you think senior citizens are having more sex these days? If so, what are some of the consequences of this change?

People are living longer, healthier lives. This does bring about problems: NBC reported that 20 percent of new HIV cases are in senior citizens! Most doctors don't ask if their older patients are sexually active or teach them about STDs. They should.

So, Viagra: a good thing for elder sex, or a bummer for women who thought they were done with sex with their husbands?

Dunno, it depends, I've heard both sides of that argument. I just think it would be nice if a little bit of that research money were put into women's sexual response.

So, we have to ask: what's the deal with granny porn?

My favorite title is "Fuck Me Like It's 1945."  It's reassuring in some way.

Do you think you'll still be having sex with you're 70? 80? 90?

I hope so.  Maybe my husband and I will get into a sexually permissive nursing home!   We'll put on some Prince and I'll say "Fuck me like it's 1999, honey, only be careful of your heart."

Which do you think you're more likely to be indulging in as a senior citizen: sex or masturbation? Or a healthy balance of the two?

I suspect I'll still be doing both, just like I do now. The libido never gives up.

P.S. 122 and soloNOVA present
 
(What I Know About) My Parents' Sex Life

a.k.a. Fuck Me Like It's 1945

written and performed by Christen Clifford

Thursday, June 19 @ 9 p.m.

Saturday, June 21 @ 9 p.m.

Sunday, June 22 @ 4 p.m.

Wednesday, June 25 @ 9 p.m.

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Sugasm: The Way to Know What's Happening on Other Sex Blogs

via Daily Bedpost by DailyBedpost.com on 6/20/08

The best of this week's blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #137? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the link list within a week and you're all set.

This Week's Picks
69
"Frozen, I wait for your next move."

Balanced on the tip of my tongue
"Pushing her into the bedroom, I stripped her bare swiftly, laid her out on the bed."

Impertinent Question: Do You Enjoy Spanking?
"That's what we call Wednesday night!"

Mr. Sugasm Himself
Sugar Bank

Editor's Choice
The Source of All Waters

More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm

See also: Fleshbot's Sex Blog Roundup each Tuesday and Friday.

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