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We’re always a little hesitant to get too optimistic about changes to the App Store approval process, but it looks like there’s been a few hopeful changes to the way things are done in the past few days, which could well lead to some previously rejected apps becoming available. Perhaps the most encouraging sign is that Apple seems to actually be going back through rejected apps and contacting develops to resubmit their app (without any changes, mind you) for an “expedited review.” One such app is the Start Mobile Wallpaper Gallery, which was rejected for using Shepard Fairey’s famous “HOPE” image of Barack Obama on the grounds that it “ridicules public figures.” In other App Store news, the developer of the officially-licensed C64 emulator also says that it was contacted by a senior director at Apple, who reportedly said that there was “BIG news coming,” but didn’t elaborate any further. But, really, is there any news bigger than a C64 emulator?

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Apple reconsiders rejected iPhone apps, C64 emulator on the way?

The FCC’s next open committee is on Thursday, and maybe — just maybe — we’ll be able to get to the bottom of this whole ” App Store / Google Voice rejection ” mess. First, the committee plans to look into ways to “foster innovation and investment in the wireless communications market,” issues related to “truth-in-billing,” and exclusivity agreements between carriers and handset manufacturers, which critics say punish consumers in rural areas that the “big four” (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) don’t serve

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FCC to look into Google Voice, iPhone debacle next week?

Matching the goal set upon by the European Union, Australia is also gearing for a 20 percent renewable energy production come 2020. The Australian parliament has just approved a bill that requires 20 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources by the year 2020 – a huge leap from the current eight percent. This brings Australia up to speed with the United States and countries from the European Union, but such a lofty goal with just a little bit more than a decade to accomplish has its share of critics.

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Australia Aims for 20 Percent Renewables by 2020

It was all but inevitable that Microsoft was going to hit back at the PS3 Slim with its own $299 120GB console , and while we’re still waiting on official confirmation Microsoft, this purported Walmart ad clipping sure seems to know where the Xbox 360 Elite is headed. Watch out, folks, the video games aisle at your local big box retailer is about to get spicy . [Thanks, Randall] Filed under: Gaming Look out, Slim: Xbox 360 Elite showing $299 in new Walmart ad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:28:00 EST

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Look out, Slim: Xbox 360 Elite showing $299 in new Walmart ad

Jeremiah Owyang knows what he wants and he knows how to get it, fast. Just short of two years after joining Forrester , the second biggest professional analyst firm in the US, Owyang announced yesterday that he’s decided to leave. From working in the marketing department of Hitachi Data Systems to joining business podcast network startup Podtech to becoming the first blogger to be hired as an analyst – Owyang’s last five years have been a model of professional advancement through social media

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Why Jeremiah Owyang Is Leaving Forrester Research

They said it couldn’t be done: could these three men really repeat the on-air magic they conjured during last week’s live show ? The internet yelled a resounding “yes!” yesterday, as Josh, Paul and Nilay chatted up the PS3 Slim and all other manner of technological trivia

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Engadget Podcast 160 – 08.21.2009

Sirius XM itself may not be dropping many hints just yet (unless you count that iPhone app ), but rumors are building that the company is set to make a big push into iPhone / iPod touch territory at an event next week, where it’s reportedly set to introduce a slew of new hardware. The standout piece is a so-called “XM SkyDock,” which XMFan.com describes as a dock for your iPhone or iPod touch that effectively turns it into a full-fledged satellite radio

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Sirius XM readying SkyDock iPhone / iPod touch accessory and more?

To export your SQL database to a .bak file you can use Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express. This is found in the start menu in: Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 > SQL Server Management Studio Express OR Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2008 > SQL Server Management Studio Express If you don’t already have mssms installed then you can get it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/download/ Follow these steps to perform a backup: Open SQL Server Management Studio Express Connect to your database server Right click on the database you want to back up Select the Tasks menu item Select the Backup menu item In the Destination section of the Back Up Database window make sure you have selected Disk Click the Add button and type in a location for the backup Make sure you type the .bak on the end of the filename as it will not automatically add this in for you Click OK and the database will be backed up to the location you specified Note If you are connecting to a remote sql server the .bak file can only be saved to the file system of the sql server. I do not know of a way around this limitation so you will need to access to the file system via ftp or some other method in order to move your backup to a secure offsite location

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Backup your database using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (Export to .bak)

The launch of Wolfram Alpha in May is still one of the most exciting product launches we have witnessed so far this year, even if the enormous hype around it also meant that it disappointed a lot of people who expected a “Google killer.” In the last couple of months, however, the Wolfram Alpha team has been working quietly on improving Wolfram’s ‘computational knowledge engine.’ According to Stephen Wolfram’s latest post on the Wolfram Alpha blog, things are moving ahead as planned. The company has used the summer months to tweak and extend Wolfram Alpha quietly as it got ready for more people to use it more heavily once the fall semester begins in the US. Sponsor As Stephen Wolfram points out, the team wanted to launch Alpha before the summer, so that it could learn more about how users would use the system and enhance the code and data sources accordingly before the fall.

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Wolfram Alpha Gears Up for the Fall Semester

Dorthy.com , a site we’ve been hearing about since late last year, has just raised $4 million from angel investors for their “new agey” concept of a search engine for dreams. Currently in private alpha, the site makes fluffy claims about how they’re “reversing the traditional search process, continuously filtering and focusing the Universe of online content, to connect you with the best stuff around your interests and aspirations.” If you’re not clear on what exactly that means, don’t feel bad..

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Dorthy.com: A (Semantic) Search Engine for Dreams

Been holding off on that PS3 Slim pre-order, waiting for Sony to tell you that this whole PS2 backwards compatibility issue was just a big misunderstanding, and of course Sony will keep trying its best to reintroduce PS2 compatibility into the PS3? Well, you might want to rethink that strategy, cowboy, because Amazon is warning of “shortages of this product across the US.” It’s already limiting Slim sales to one per person, and has a more lax five-Slims-per-person strategy in the UK

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Amazon says PS3 Slim already facing supply shortages, Sony disagrees

We know how it is: you’ve paid $300 for your brand new copy of Windows 7 , but what a hassle to enter in that activation code! Well, you don’t have to worry about it now for a good four months after install: Microsoft has given its sort-of blessing to a simple hack to keep that non-activated copy of Windows 7 humming for a full 120 days before full-on nag mode sets in. All you have to do is enter “slmgr -rearm” into the command prompt at the end of every 30 day period, and your copy of Windows gets a whole new lease on life — an action that can be repeated three times

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Windows 7 runs free without activation for 120 days with simple command

Microsoft, its new pet dog Yahoo, and Amazon have decided to join together in the soon to be formed Open Book Alliance. You might expect this to be a revolutionary new collaborative effort at delivering the written word in a way that makes Google Books pale into insignificance, but you would, of course, be wrong. Far from trying to compete with Google, The OBA is set to act as the collective mouthpiece for all those opposed to Google’s recent $125 million settlement deal with book publishers and authors.

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Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo unite against Google Books

It’s hard not to like new-school tech named after old-school instruments, and so Logitech’s ( Slim-developed ) Squeezebox lineup has at least that going for it. Decently solid reviews, too, for the models we’ve seen thus-far, and thanks to our old friends at the FCC we know that a new model is coming soon. Dubbed the Squeezebox Radio X-R0001, it’s described as “a compact tabletop network music player and internet radio that lets you listen to virtually any internet radio station.” How it’ll handle the variety of streaming formats and functions remains to be seen, but it’ll also go fetch your local music collection over an internal network and play it all through its combination of 3/4-inch tweeters and 3-inch woofer.

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FCC reveals Logitech Squeezebox Radio, could make all those streamy dreams come true

Talking of light emitting technology , I recommend this fascinating post on BLDGBLOG (in fact, I recommend the entire blog, which is about architecture, urban spaces and the future). It points out the possibilities of using bioluminescent materials to light city spaces – including work from students at the Architectural Association that posited the idea of “bioluminescent bacterial billboard” – cells instead of pixels

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Bioluminescent bacterial billboards – ‘a petri dish hooked up to YouTube’

Hannspree’s efforts in the netbook market are finally coming to the US with today’s launch of the 10-inch HannsNote , and frankly, we’re still pining for something a little less vanilla from the company. Sure, it’s the same 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and assorted specs we’ve come to know and sort of like, but this is the company known for devising some of the most ridiculous televisions we’ve ever seen, including a whole series of plush animals with monitors in their bellies. A $380 price tag isn’t gonna win a lot of people over without a little flair, so please, do us all a favor and stick the components inside of a teddy bear, make his stomach the screen and his feet each one half of the keyboard.

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HANNSpree’s HANNSnote netbook now available in US, stuffed animal version hopefully in the pipeline

If Lord Byron had been hip to this newfangled computer thing way back in his day, this might just have been the sort of peripheral he’d have been sporting. Made from a real sheep’s skull — and real brass, though that’s somehow less interesting — this mouse has everything a megalomaniacal world conqueror needs to feel at home: fine ornamental detailing, the soothing texture of real bone, and the enticing mental image of crushing skulls every time you click.

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Steampunk mouse, now with 100 percent more skull

We didn’t even know there was such a thing as an “auscultation workflow” until we first encountered the FreedomScope , a Bluetooth-packing untethered stethoscope. The 3M Littmann Electronic Stethoscope also relies on Bluetooth for wireless communications, but its purpose is somewhat different. While it looks (and for the most part acts) just like a normal stethoscope, it also has noise canceling / sound augmenting technology alongside the ability to record heart and lung sounds, which may then be analyzed using the bundled Zargis StethAssist software.

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Littmann Electronic Stethoscope lets docs record, analyze heart rhythm

3M has partnered with Zargis Medical to develop a Bluetooth-enabled stethoscope with recording capabilities that can help physicians get more out of an exam. By being able to transfer recordings to a computer, one can assemble a historical set for analysis at a later time or share selective sounds with colleagues for a second opinion

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Littmann 3200 Bluetooth Stethoscope Brings Auscultation to PC for Sharing, Futher Review

Trig Medical Inc., a company out of Yokneam, Israel, wants to take childbirth experience on a multimedia trip. The main idea is to offer parturients a better visual understanding of the labor process in real time, and to offer clinicians “all labor progress parameters… accurately and objectively, based on ultrasound imaging, allowing the medical staff for better decision-making.” The company’s LaborPro technology has been playing well with investors, as Israel’s business newspaper Globes has recently reported .

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Trig’s LaborPro System Aims at Clinicians, Patients, and Little Babies