PBS news show Frontline recently aired a great Digital Nation feature, in which attention spans and multi-tasking were a notable topic. One talker asks a valid question: Is your attention span actually all that worse now, or are your distractions just different?

New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan relates in the above video the notion that seems to permeate any discussion of focus, attention spans, and related matters: the idea that, these days, our minds move from place to place far too quickly, our tasks get only a few blips of attention each, and deep, quiet things, like reading a book, seem impossible.

Other speakers, like M.I.T. professors and The Flickering Mind author Todd Oppenheimer suggest that those growing up in the digital age are conditioned for instant gratification and entertainment, and suffer from an inability to focus as a result. Heffernan suggests we just distract ourselves with different things these days: instant messages instead of window staring, emails instead of book jacket reading.

We thought we'd put it to our readers, many of whom can remember studying and working before Wi-Fi, 3G, BlackBerry contracts, and SMS put our work, and distractions, literally everywhere. Tell us how you feel in the poll below, and offer up your more verbose take on whether living in the Digital Nation has really changed how your mind works.

Did You Have Better Focus Before the Ubiquitous Net?(opinion)

FRONTLINE: digital nation - life on the virtual frontier [PBS]

Kevin Purdy

How the hell did X2 think they could name their tablet PC the "iTablet," and get away with it? Sure, Apple may not be using the name, but did X2 think we weren't paying attention to all those rumors?

Nonetheless, the iTablet—which hails from the UK—actually sounds very decent. For a tablet taking on the iPad, anyway. It runs Windows 7 (alright, naysayers, keep it down in the back), and is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel processor. It's available in two sizes, of 10.2 and 12.1-inches (both 35mm thick, which sounds horrendously thick, given the iPad is 13.4mm deep), and each model contains 250GB of internal storage, a 3G chip and Bluetooth.

While the iPad was an oversized iPod Touch, the iTablet actually manages to be a proper computer by the sounds of it, with three USB ports and HDMI-out, along with a 1.3-megapixel webcam. Out in April, prices haven't been announced just yet, but given some of the aforementioned components, I would think they'd struggle to price it lower than the iPad. [X2 via Electricpig]

Kat Hannaford

 

We've been home for a week, but I've had trouble getting my act together to post.  You know how it is after a holiday, it takes a little while to get back into 'real life'.

 

I overestimated the time and energy I would have during our travels to devote to my little doodle drawings.  But I did chip away at it here and there.  I think I have a 1/4 of the little book filled now.

I started doing whole page 'designs' rather than exploring a particular idea multiple times on one page.  But I think I'll try to go back to the messier explorations which quickly push ideas in lots of different directions.

I hope I'll have a couple of hours this weekend to do some tea towel stencilling.  I'm itching to get them done now so I can move on to other projects.

Claire

LG's only sold two netbooks since entering the market in 2008—that's two models, not two units, though I wouldn't be surprised if the sales figures aren't too far off, considering they were pretty average. Enter the X20.

Leaked via an FCC outing, the LG X20 has an Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor (joining HP's Mini 210, Toshiba's NB300 and NB305, MSI's Wind U130 and U135, and Acer's 532h ) and runs on Windows 7. It may look small due to the pics, but the screen measures 10.1-inches supposedly, with the LCD a 1366 x 768 pixels job. Up to 2GB of RAM and a 250GB HDD, the listing claims there's also an Intel 3150 GMA graphics card, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 1.3-megapixel webcam—plus HSPA 3G-compatible.

Due to its very-much-unconfirmed nature, there's no further info or photos of the X20, but apparently it'll come in five variations of the model name—in the US, it'll be the X20, but in Canada, Europe, Australia and Asian countries it'll have either the X200, XB200, XD200 or XV200 model name. Tricksy.

LG announced the X300 at CES just a few weeks ago, which is a skinny 11.6-inch 1GB RAM machine. Looks like they're offering up two choices for 2010—style, or substance. [FCC via Wireless Goodness via SlashGear]

Kat Hannaford

New York State's Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, has subpoenaed a number of online retailers, including GameStop, Barnes & Noble, Ticketmaster and Staples, over the way they pass information to marketing firms while processing transactions. MSNBC explains the scenario thus: "You're on the site of a well-know retailer and you make a purchase. As soon as you complete the transaction a pop-up window appears. It offers a discount on your next purchase. Click on the ad and you are automatically redirected to another company's site where you are signed up for a buying club, travel club or credit card protection service. The yearly cost is usually $100 to $145. Here's where things really get smarmy. Even though you did not give that second company any account information, they will bill the credit or debit card number you used to make the original purchase. You didn't have to provide your account number because the 'trusted' retailer gave it to them for a cut of the action." While there is no law preventing this sort of behavior, Cuomo hopes the investigation will pressure these companies to change their ways, or at least inform customers when their information might be shared.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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A bombing in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi which targeted Shiite Muslims on a crowded bus killed 12 people and wounded 40, hospital officials said.

"We have received 12 bodies and 40 wounded. Most of them have head wounds," Simi Jamali, a senior doctor at Karachi hospital, told a television station.(author unknown)

NRL star Greg Bird says he is eager to move on with his life and career after being acquitted of assaulting a woman in a Cronulla nightclub.(author unknown)

At least 20 people were killed and 75 wounded when two car bombs blew up in Iraq's holy city of Karbala as hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims observed a major religious rite, hospital sources said.(author unknown)

Pre-ordered Nooks have only just started arriving on people's doorsteps, but already Barnes & Noble is planning firmware update 1.2 for new units, with already-bought models having to wait a little while longer. No clues on what 1.2 will hold for the ebook reading-customers, but it's apparently being released "this week." Tick, tock. [Engadget]

Kat Hannaford

In a win for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) this week (not that we here at Games On Net condone such activity!), an Australian judge has ruled that ISPs will not be held liable for illegal downloads by their customers.(author unknown)

A bomb planted in a motorcycle in southern Afghanistan's most dangerous province has killed two people and wounded at least 26, provincial officials say.(author unknown)

You don't need that rumored Toshiba phone that "acts like a secretary," or even Maggie Gyllenhaal (though that would be nice), to have help when organizing your social life. Siri uses "speech recognition with a brain," according to its CEO.

To use the iPhone app, you just have to say aloud a command like "Book a table for six at 7pm at McDonalds" (I'm sure you're classier than that, but let's stick with it for now), and then using speech-recognition technology and the iPhone's GPS capabilities, your command is translated and processed by the app, responding with confirmation of booking—or lack of availability.

Siri, which has ties with Stanford Research Institude and DARPA, has collaborated with OpenTable, MovieTickets, StubHub, CitySearch and TaxiMagic to help with bookings and information, which pretty much wipes out the reason why you'd want to download any of those services' apps individually.

It's free to download on the iPhone now, but fear not, Android and BlackBerry users of the world—Siri plans on giving you a little phone secretary of your very own at some point. [Siri via NY Times]

Kat Hannaford

Pakistan turned on its best bowling and fielding of the summer, taking 6 for 38 at one stage to restrict Australia to 127 in their Twenty20 international at the MCG on Friday night.(author unknown)

eldavojohn writes "MIT researchers have built and demonstrated the first room-temperature germanium laser that can produce light at wavelengths suited for communication. This achievement has two parts: '[U]nlike the materials typically used in lasers, germanium is easy to incorporate into existing processes for manufacturing silicon chips. So the result could prove an important step toward computers that move data — and maybe even perform calculations — using light instead of electricity. But more fundamentally, the researchers have shown that, contrary to prior belief, a class of materials called indirect-band-gap semiconductors can yield practical lasers.' While these are only the initial steps in what may become optical computing devices, the article paints it as very promising. The painful details will be published in the journal Optics Letters."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Northern Ireland's leaders have announced a hard-fought accord to transfer key remaining powers from London to Belfast, hailed as opening a "new chapter" in the long-troubled province.(author unknown)

Read full story for latest details.(author unknown)

Google's updated 35 European cities devastated by WWII with aerial photos taken in between 1935 and 1945, so people can compare it to current-day shots. If only Street View had been around when I was studying history at school!

Locations include Warsaw in Poland; Stuttgart, Germany; Naples, Italy; and Lyon, France. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you've got school exams coming up, kiddywinks. [Google Lat Long Blog]

Kat Hannaford145919551485096644120694470932119307327309658708019249776442

Toyota Australia says faults with some of its cars will not affect Australian customers, despite the parent company recalling more than eight million vehicles in the United States and Europe.(author unknown)

Victoria Police believe a man who robbed a mother and her child at knifepoint in Melton, in Melbourne's outer-west, has struck again.(author unknown)

A Sydney brain surgeon charged over the deaths of two women remains in custody after he faced court today.(author unknown)