Motorola Officially Two Separate Companies Effective January 4th. #motorola

We knew it was coming for quite some time, and on January 4th it is official — Motorola will be two separate companies from here on out. The two new companies being formed will be called Motorola Solutions, Inc. and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. The former will be headed by Greg Brown and focus on Motorola’s hardware infrastructure (think more corporate-oriented devices and services). Meanwhile, the latter will be under the command of Sanjay Jha and focus on consumer devices.

To end users like you and I, the change won’t really materialize into anything noticeable or meaningful. However, the new found freedoms and re-structuring will hopefully allow the same type of innovation and execution that has been employed over the last 12 months.

2011 will definitely be a good year for Motorola Mobility Inc.

Help a nerd out: Vote for Jake Kirshner to gain blogging rights to CES and attend Winter Olympics in 2010

While I understand Jake Kirshner is a Gizmodo reader (no hate, I love reading Gizmodo too), I still find it worthwhile to mention his cause. You see, he’s one of the top finalists in Microsoft’s contest to send one lucky blogger/athlete to both CES and the Winter Olympics in 2010. As you can imagine, both are incredibly rare and exciting opportunities. Jake you see is a Computer Science major at the University of Utah (read: he’s a nerd), therefore the CES trip is more than needed. But not only is he a gadget nerd, he’ a competitive skier as well — hence the Winter Olympics tour — who happens to know how to blend his two loves together on his website, JakeCast. It is there that he posts videos from his helmet mounted POV cam to give us all a small taste of what he experiences each and every time he throws himself over the snow covered edge.

If you’re feeling a bit of kindheartedness this fine November morning, why not stop on by the official contest page and cast your vote for one Jake Kirshner to fulfill two of his biggest fantasies.

Gizmodo

Radio Shack => “The Shack”

Failing companies and businesses are a dime a dozen these days. It doesn’t matter how large or small a business is, the economic storm that has stalled over the U.S. isn’t showing any signs of letting up. For a washed up once popular store like Radio Shack, something has to be done in order to stay relevant (and keep the lights on). According to a bunch of leaked promotional material for Radio Shack, it appears that the troubled electronics retailer is going to go through a little name change. The new name in question: “The Shack”. This switcheroo is supposedly going to be finished by years end. Do you think a simple name change is going to give the once great retailer a second life? Also up on the rumor block is that Radio Shack The Shack will be moving more into mainstream consumer electronics and away from the misc., odd ball mixture of components and electronics that the retailer has been known for. Usually a drastic change in management and policies are needed to make any real turn around. Is this the start of more things to come or is it simply a thrashing of limbs to stay above the surface?

Source: Gear Log, Electronista

Raise an eyebrow with your spectacular eyebrow hat

If you’ve ever felt your eyebrows weren’t quite to your liking or you simply want to have a little DIY fun, the DIY Eyebrow Hat certainly won’t disappoint. While some may tinker with such common tinker toys as RC Cars or small gadgets, you can take pride in knowing you made not only a gadget, but one that many people will see on a daily basis if you so choose. The materials needed aren’t really that expensive nor does the whole project require too much effort. The parts list according to the hats’ creator, Tom Judd:

• 1 x Arduino Board – located within the controller

• 4 x mini servos – tailored into the front of the hat

• 2 x slide potentiometers (adjust height of each brow

• 2 x rotational potentiometers (adjust pitch of each brow)

• 1 x Bowler hat

• 2 x synthetic eyebrows

• 2 x skin coloured plasters (to disguise your original brows)

A little elbow grease and some other miscellaneous crafty tools and you’re good to go. Weekend project?

Source: The Awesomer, Tom Judd

CircuitCity.com resurrected

I’m sure a couple people must have been sad when the second biggest (here in the States) consumer electronics store, Circuit City, bid its final farewell a few months ago.  Time has quickly passed and many are already moving on to bigger and better things.  Some have moved to Best Buy while others have completely given up on brick and mortar stores altogether, instead opting to do more shopping from the comfort of their humble abodes.  However, it looks as if their will be an electronic Jesus as CircuitCity is coming back from the dead (thanks to Systemax Inc.).  The new online electronic super store will soon  yet again grace our computer screens and minds alike.  Are you ready to welcome them back with open arms?

Source: Crunch Gear

California: “Plasma/LCD TV’s use too much energy, therefore we are banning them”.

Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds.  California being the environmentally conscious state that it is, is taking a rather drastic and ridiculous step.  They are proposing banning the sale of certain “inefficient TV’s, mainly Plasma and LCD TV’s.  The strain on California’s power grid is apparently too much and they are looking for every possible means to reduce the load.  The LA Times is pushing hard the fact that LCD TV’s use 43% more power than traditional tube-style TV’s of yesteryear.  One thing the conveniently leave out of their report is that LCD TV’s, unlike the old tube TV’s, don’t look like absolute crap! (I guess they didn’t get that memo).