Apple announced this year that they would no longer attend the decade-old Macworld conference, leading some to speculate that the company would shift their focus to CES. Well, the CEA is now shifting their focus to Apple, but why?

The floorplan for CES 2010 sees the iLounge—the section for Mac accessory retailers—expanded to six times its previous size. Why would they do this? Macworld, despite Apple’s absence, is still happening, albeit one month later, so it’s not like CES is addressing a trade show void. On the surface, it looks like the CEA might actually be trying to seduce Apple into attending their conference.

But just as before, something about such rumors is odd: Apple left Macworld because it didn’t need Macworld, so a move to CES, which they need even less, would be hard to understand. A more likely explanation is that CES is just trying to kill what remains of Macworld. There might not be a void in the Apple tradeshow world right now, but that doesn’t mean the CEA wouldn’t like to create one, which they would gladly fill in 2011. [CNET]

Chrome 2.0 isn’t that different from Chrome 1.0, despite what its bold new version number might imply. It is, however, a healthy upgrade: rendering speed is up a full 25-35%, stability is improved, true full-screen has been enabled, and the smart New Tab Page and autofill functions have been revamped. Mac and Linux users, however, are still on their own. [Google via Lifehacker]

When the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report saying that worldwide GPS performance is prone to degrade in the next few years, lot of people, public and private, kinda flipped. Cue the inevitable about-face, right about…now.

The Air Force recently held a Twitter news conference to a—wait, what?

Force Space Command’s subject-matter-expert on the Global Positioning System (GPS) program will Twitter on the command’s site, www.twitter.com/AFSpace, in response to the current Government Accountability Office report on the GPS program.

Apparently, the F-22 Raptor was only phased out to free up some funds to buy everyone Twitterific licenses. Anyway.

The conference was intended to assuage the people’s fears of haywire satnavs and inconsistence Loopt performance. This was apparent from the start:

The issue is under control. We are working hard to get out the word. The issue isn’t whether GPS will stop working. There’s only a small risk we will not continue to exceed our performance standard. Concur w/ GAO thr’s a potential risk, but GPS isn’t falling out of the sky—we have plans 2 mitigate risk & prevent a gap.

But that’s not terribly specific, and they more-or-less said that they agree with the previous report. Well, not totally:

We have 30+ satellites on orbit now. We’ll launch another in Aug 09, and again early 10. Going below 24 won’t happen.

Dropping below 24 satellites was the central concern of the initial report, and the subject of all its various probability calculations: when reporters talk about the 90% chance of GPS degradation by 2017, they were actually referring to the chances of the satellite constellation dipping below 24.

So the Air Force is pretty sure they have the ability to prevent that, now that they know. That’s reassuring, but also exactly what they kind of have to state, being that GPS is a critical tool not just for gadget enthusiasts, but for militaries and corporations around the world. [Computer World via TechRadar]

As Matt explained last year, batteries are holding up laptops, cellphones and PMPs from lasting long enough and running fast enough to get things done properly on the go. What’s my solution? Portable battery packs.

I’ve reviewed a few iPhone battery packs and a few laptop battery packs, and the common conclusion is that these are fantastic for the person who needs to work from the field.

The current battery I’m looking at—the HyperMac External Battery—actually delivers an extra eight hours of power to the MacBook Pro. If we had a MacBook Air, it might even deliver up to their claimed 32 extra hours.

So why do I love these so much when it’s another thing to carry around? There aren’t always outlets to plug into when blogging from the field, and Apple Liveblogs are a perfect example where you’ve to keep going while sustaining an EVDO connection and transferring images every few sections to your laptop. That’s not a time for your equipment to die. Eight extra hours of power? Yes please.

As for phones, there’s always a need for extra power for smartphones. I welcome the extra heft if it means that many more songs, or movies, or emails or tweets. Until batteries get good enough that we have the ability to either charge them in a few seconds (capacitors), or dump a few ounces of liquid inside (fuel cells), I’m going to stock up on external battery packs.

U.K. security firm Sophos has re-released their Threat Detection Test software, but with a slight tweak to use the new Star Trek’s popularity to its advantage: The software has been translated entirely into the Klingon language.

The updated software, nicknamed Klingon Anti-Virus (KAV), only runs on Windows and is marketed as being the application to use when monitoring subspace transmissions “due to Romulan incursion into the Khitomer system.” Surprisingly, the entire software was translated from English to Klingon by a person, “naHQun,” not a machine. KAV will be available to download for free for the next 18 months, but unlike a full-featured anti-malware software, the free KAV download is just a malware scanner—not actually protection—so it won’t be able to stop viruses from telling your Personal computer that it neH Daq Sop lIj ghupu’. [Klingon Anti-Virus via ComputerWorld]

Google’s developed an algorithm that tells them which employees are most likely to quit. That’s creepy.

Think about it: It’s a formula designed to let a machine essentially wriggle around inside your head to extract your true intentions—intentions you might not even realize you’ve yet—to reveal them to the company bean counters, who are basically machines themselves. Who can then take the Pre-Crime approach and shitcan you before you quit—if you were really going to quit at all.

Google developed the algorithm in response to its best employees bailing, so presumably at least some of the unhappy people would be wooed, not written off. But this is just the beginning. Today, a personal knows if you’re going to quit. Next, a personal calculates if you should be hired at all. Which is only a few generations removed from determining if all people shouldn’t be fired, but like, permanently. From earth.

The uprising is coming, and Google will be where it begins. [WSJ]

That Oprah, always using product tie-ins in new and different ways, this time jiving with the commander of the USS Louisville “The Slugger” submarine—which is 60 feet underwater off the coast of Hawaii—via Skype.

They claim this is the first time anybody has video Skyped from a submarine to anyone, let alone Her Oprahness. If you get past the commander’s canned speech at the beginning, and the obvious advertorial nature of the promo, you actually get a cool glimpse of life aboard a submarine, with 146 dudes, no ladies and just six toilets. They connect to the internet via their periscope antenna, which sticks up above the water and grabs some network (presumably satellite, but that close to Hawaii, it could be cellular). It’s crazy stuff, so have a listen. [Oprah]

By adjusting its posture and wiggling its eyes and lips, this plucky android conveys several emotions. From the looks of it, they run the gamut from joy to absolute disgust. More photos after the jump.

I find it curious that KOBIAN is being developed for use in care facilities such as nursing homes. I’m not sure how much of this dramatic little robot the elderly (or anyone else) can handle. [Nikkei Net via Pink Tentacle]

This timepiece oozes with the same classiness found in 1930’s era lighters and watches. The caliber-582 movement is so sensitive that small changes in temperature are enough to power the clock for days. [Acquire Mag]

Never, ever, ever attempt to fight a meat grinder. The following photos, from rotten.com, illustrate why. (Do not click through if you are squeamish.)

There are more detailed shots below, in the gallery, but do not blame me if you vomit.

From Wikipedia:

A meat grinder or meat mincer is a kitchen appliance for grinding, fine mincing or mixing raw or cooked meat, fish, vegetables or similar food. It replaces tools like the mincing knife, for example, which has been used to produce minced meat, filling etc. The producer puts the minced food into a funnel, which is put on the top of the grinder. From there the material goes on a horizontal screw conveyor. This screw conveyor, that can be powered by a hand wheel or an electric motor, squashes and partially mixes the food. At the end of the screw conveyor there’s a knife installed directly in front of the fixed hole plate. At this opening the minced meat comes out of the machine. The fineness of the meat depends on the size of the holes of the plate.

Four out of Five Gizmodo editors didn’t have the stomach to post this. I can’t say I blame them.

[where else?]