It’s an update to the a physical map Peer1 did in 2011, that was also awesome, but thanks to the Android and iOS apps you can now play around with the map in a global view or a network view. The global view is like one of those satellite images of city lights at night with glowing dots representing connections. The network view is a bit more esoteric, clustering those with the most connections at one end.

The network view.

It’s pretty basic, focusing mostly on the names of the players and how many connections they have to others on the net. For example it shows Hurricane Electric and Level 3 with more than a thousand connections to other peers while Google has 59. Apple and Facebook have 32 and 17 respectively. The app also allows you to perform a traceroute to measure how long it takes packets to traverse the networks, but that function wasn’t working on the iOS version I downloaded.

A global view with provider info.

There’s also a little timeline where you can watch how the internet spreads with more providers and connection points popping up. As for why Peer1 did an app instead of a poster or even a web site, Rajan Sodhi of PEER 1 said via email:

“We decided to go with a mobile app for phones and tablets because we wanted to take advantage of the human gesturing – tapping, pinching, swiping, panning, rotating, etc – to make a more interactive and immersive experience for the user. The internet is complex, as the user can see, and we want to simplify or humanize it to make it more understandable.”

I can’t wait to show my daughter as just one more way to explain how we’re all connected using the internet. This isn’t an app you’d use every day, but it is a beautiful way to show someone what the internet looks like.

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What it shows is that censorship varies greatly across the world — some of which stretches the definition of what people usually define as censorship. For example, since the reports began in 2010, the United Kingdom has led the way with 97,891 removal requests, 96,280 of which were for Google’s AdWords.

But the majority of the U.K.’s removal requests occurred in 2010 at the behest of the U.K. Office of Fair trading, which asked for “the removal of fraudulent ads that linked to scams,” according to  the July-December 2010 report. Google removed nearly all of them, more than 93,000 items.

Other nations engage in a much more traditional — at least in a Western sense — censorship. Thailand, for example, has far fewer government removal requests (431), all of which are directed at YouTube for criticizing Thailand’s king. The latest numbers show in the last six months Turkey and the United States have led the world in data removal requests.

What’s perhaps most interesting about the data are the reasons Google was asked to take down content. They provide insight into a government’s priorities and rationale. While Brazil and Hong Kong are diligent about copyright requests, they are so for different reasons: Brazil had 11,613 removal requests directed at Picasa Web Albums, Hong Kong directed its 381 at YouTube. Countries across the world cited pornography as a reason for removal, with Turkey as the most aggressive (557).

And while defamation was the leading worldwide excuse for removal requests, the products that caused the defamation varied greatly, from Web Search to Blogger to AdWords. Take a look at each country to see its frequency and reasoning for petitioning Google.

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We’ll be talking more about Europe’s tech scene at Structure: Europe, our cloud-computing conference in Amsterdam on Tuesday and Wednesday. (You can see our list of Europe’s tech hotspots on a map here.)

Amsterdam

A rash of small startups have suddenly appeared, with small teams of developers building a wide range of apps and services.

Areas of specialty
Varied, but particularly strong around services for creative industries like video, publishing and advertising.

Major funding sources
The number of accelerators, and VC and angel investors is expanding.

Top startups
Layar, Adyen, Silk, WeTransfer

Notable exits
Soocial, Quova

Berlin

For years, Germany’s capital city has been an arty enclave with little or no industry. But now its startup scene is pushing hard, with a host of trendy startups and young entrepreneurs drawn in by low rents, an attractive lifestyle and easy access to Eastern European tech talent.

Areas of specialty
The city’s dominant tech force remain the three Samwer brothers, who built their empire by cloning American e-commerce businesses.The city is proving strong on digital media, social games and the quirky end of the consumer web.

Major funding sources
The angel network is still small, but international and European investors are increasingly drawn to Berlin, and some local VCs like Earlybird have shifted focus here from other German regions. Meanwhile, the Samwers’ Rocket Internet empire is happy to fund aggressive businesses in proven markets.

Top startups
Zalando, Wooga, Soundcloud, Eyeem, Gidsy, DeliveryHero

Notable exits
Citydeal, 12designer, Betreut, DailyDeal

Cambridge

Known as “Silicon Fen”, the tech industry here was built out of the venerable university’s research departments and has been strong for several generations. It’s home to hundreds of hard tech companies: not glamorous, but it’s scored some big hits.

Areas of specialty
Regional successes like ARM, Autonomy, Aveva and CSR give a good indication of what to expect: semiconductors, wireless, data and biotech are all strong here.

Major funding sources
Active alumni networks and connections to European VCs make Cambridge an attractive destination for investment, but proximity to London means most investors choose to visit rather than stick around.

Top startups
AlertMe, Bromium, Taptu, Jagex, Neul

Notable exits
Autonomy, CSR

Dublin

Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google and other American tech giants run big European operations from Dublin.

Areas of specialty


Many of Dublin’s biggest successes have been in B2B and SaaS, but there’s a wealth of different industries here, from gaming and apps to telecoms, big data and CRM software.

Major funding sources


Local venture firms and investors are growing, but the city’s startups are a big draw for investors from London and the US.

Top startups
Globoforce, Openet

Notable exits


Demonware, Polldaddy

Eindhoven, Netherlands

You may cringe at the “Brainport” name, given to the region around Eindhoven, but its High Tech Campus houses more than 100 local and international companies. Local giant Philips is not the force it once was in consumer electronics, but the region still has strong links to research and development.

Areas of specialty
Green technology is an increasing specialty here, along with healthcare, and smart materials.

Major funding sources
Much of the region’s access to cash comes through corporate investment or research funding.

Top startups
Anteryon

Notable exits
Liquavista

Helsinki

Nokia’s loss may just end up being Finland’s gain. As the mobile giant slowly implodes, it is releasing batches of smart, skillful entrepreneurs into the local economy and allowing them to build interesting companies.

Areas of specialty
Mobile is at the heart of most new businesses here, but there’s also a substantial gaming industry led by Rovio.

Major funding sources
Many former Nokians are funding each other’s business ideas, and the region has good access to VC networks across Scandinavia and the Baltics too.

Top startups
Rovio, Jolla, Kiosked, Steam Republic

Notable exits
Innobase, Jaiku

London

The area of the British capital jokingly dubbed “Silicon Roundabout” is stacked with consumer web services, online retailers and mobile development teams. Now it’s morphing into the larger Tech City, with the government trying to massage the region’s access to finance and support networks.

Areas of speciality
Skype and Last.fm paved the way for a large number of consumer web services, alongside strong digital media, e-commerce and finance sectors.

Major funding sources
Europe’s strongest VCs — Accel, Balderton and Index — call the city home, and there’s a growing number of earlier stage investors and angel money sloshing around over meetings in the city’s clubs and pubs.

Top startups
Moshi Monsters, Wonga, Huddle, Hailo, Housetrip, Just Eat

Notable exits
Betfair, Skype, Tweetdeck, Lovefilm, Playfish

M4 Corridor, England

A roughly 70-mile stretch along one of Britain’s busiest highways is book-ended by two important tech clusters: one in Berkshire, where Vodafone, Microsoft and Oracle have large office parks; and the other in “Silicon Gorge”, an area around Bristol with links to the semiconductor and microelectronics industry.

Areas of specialty
The region’s most talented businesses are roughly divided between large enterprise and data-focused outfits, and telecom and mobile R&D. There’s also a strong digital media scene in Bristol, which is where IMDB (now owned by Amazon) is based.

Major funding sources
Most of the money still comes through corporate channels, with startups tending to gravitate a few miles further east to London to score investment.

Top startups
DataSift

Notable exits
PicoChip

Moscow

Buoyed by the huge growth in the Russian internet market, the high earning capacity of Muscovites, and their voracious consumerism, a whole generation of tech startups is trying to find success right now. Watch particularly for entrepreneurs who have honed their skills overseas returning home to start their own businesses.

Areas of specialty
Russia is a law unto itself: While many ideas here are retreads from elsewhere, they’re more than just copycats: in many cases, there are specific tweaks that need to be made from them to work in the Russian market.

Major funding sources
Growing network of angels and seed investors is linking into big ticket funding from Germany, the U.S. and Scandinavia. The biggest individual Russian investors, however, tend to put their money into businesses elsewhere.

Top startups
KupiVIP, Ozon, Kaspersky Lab, Tinkoff Digital

Notable exits

Yandex, Mail.ru

Munich

Berlin may be provide the soul, and Rhein-Main may be the business center, but Germany’s venture capital industry is concentrated in the south of the country — not least because it’s the base for the nation’s ever-strong auto industry.

Areas of specialty
Rocket Internet calls Berlin home, but the company likes to recruit voracious Bavarian MBAs and consultants from Munich and turn them into hungry startup entrepreneurs. What they lack in originality, they make up for in precision.

Major funding sources
Two of Germany’s big startup investors — Hubert Burda Media and Holtzbrinck, which are both spinoffs of publishing companies — have their bases in Munich, and fund plenty of local and foreign entrepreneurs.

Top startups
Veact, Westwing, Trustyou

Notable exits
Tiramizoo, Amiando

Paris

Many investors think Paris has seen its best days, not least because the insular environment and punative tax regime send many entrepreneurs packing. But when startups work here, they go big.

Areas of specialty
Media, advertising, and e-commerce are strong, particularly in the segments where French brands can draw on the national obsession with haute-couture and luxury. Wireless is seeing some inventive activity too.

Major funding sources
There are some large venture companies, often tied to local telcos or software companies, but local investments tend to be inwardly focused.

Top startups
Criteo, DailyMotion, Deezer, Viadeo

Notable exits
Vente Privee, Netvibes, Joliebox

Silicon Glen, Scotland

The central belt of Scotland became known as “Silicon Glen” thanks to the presence of large international tech firms like IBM, Motorola and National Semiconductor. But it has struggled to keep up as China and South Korea have exerted their manufacturing power and is now significantly weaker than it used to be.

Areas of specialty

While the area was traditionally a stronghold for semiconductor makers, a decade of office closures, layoffs and pullouts have led to a shift towards software development, SaaS and games.

Major funding sources

There aren’t many indigenous sources of cash, but strong startups have few problems accessing money.

Top startups
Skyscanner, Rockstar North, FreeAgent

Notable Exits
oneDrum

The Software Cluster/Rhein-Main-Neckar, Germany

This roughly hewn region runs from Frankfurt, the country’s financial heart, in the north, to Walldorf, home of SAP, in the south. That means it’s a hot spot for smart, enterprise-focused companies that develop software for businesses — and even if it doesn’t grab the headlines often, it turns over a pile of cash big enough to make most eyes water.

Areas of specialty
This is one of the places where the software that makes the world run starts: SAP, Software AG are just a few of the names from this region. A bunch of gaming companies have started up here, too.

Major funding sources
Being at the financial center of Europe’s most robust economy has its benefits. Lots of private angel activity and good funding networks — though limited VC activity.

Top startups
Mindjet, Netbiscuits, Open-Xchange

Notable exits
Systemhaus (T-Systems), Phenomic

Stockholm

Sweden’s capital has a lot going for it: highly connected and inhabited by a cadre of global citizens. Local entrepreneurs have a tendency to think laterally and challenge the status quo, whether through legit means — like Spotify and MySQL — or in more controversial circumstances, like Kazaa and The Pirate Bay.

Areas of specialty
Telecoms and P2P are traditional strengths, but don’t expect those services to be delivered in the usual way: the Swedes have a tendency to come out of left field with their offerings.

Major funding sources
Swedish investors have been active recently, and local VCs Creandum and Northzone are strong right now. Meanwhile, investment group Kinnevik has been on a tear recently, funding businesses in Germany, Russia and across Scandinavia.

Top startups
Spotify, Rebtel, Klarna, Wrapp, iZettle, Toca Boca, Minecraft

Notable exits
Qliktech, Pricerunner

Tallinn, Estonia

With the government pursuing a high-growth, internet-enabled agenda for nearly 20 years,Estonia has developed a strong engineering culture and helped build major properties—most notably Skype. Many local entrepreneurs have moved elsewhere to start up on their own, but a strong scene remains in place.

Areas of specialty
With wizardly programmers everywhere you turn, Estonia’s built a strong base of enterprise-focused software, services and security.

Major funding sources
The top local seed investor is probably Ambient Sound, started by a group of former Skype employees. But Estonian firms are drawing money from around the continent thanks to strong links with people who have joined major companies.

Top startups
Erply, Fortuno, Defendec

Notable exits
Skype

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I picture the market like a game of Risk. Every week, the likes of Spotify, Rdio and Deezer are racing in to new countries with a new model — unlimited subscription access to millions of songs.

But, as the services embark on this VC-funded globalisation, which are the world’s most competitive, most lucrative and most digital music markets? Our clickable map has the details…

Takeaways:

• In China, digital music sales are a high proportion of the total (73 percent) because CD piracy is rife, unmonetised, in Asia.
• The UK is the world’s most competitive market, with 73 licensed digital services operating.
• Some Latin American countries have few music services, making iTunes Store, which recently rolled out there, influential.
• CDs still sell well in Germany and France, thanks partly to high sales of classical music.
• In the U.S. now, a majority of trade revenue from recorded music comes from digital – a globe-topping $2.2 billion.

Data sources: IFPI Digital Music Report 2011, Pro Music (Mar 2012), and services.

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Due to hefty 3G roaming rates, Apple’s Maps app just won’t cut it when you’re out of the country. The oMap app lets you download maps for offline viewing — dodging a shocking bill post-vacation.

The iPhone is an almost perfect companion for travels to distant lands. With a bit of foresight and time set aside for planning, it’s possible to mix and match the perfect blend of vacation apps, ensuring you make the most of your journey.

My own package of essential travel tools includes Evernote, QuadCamera, Gengo Flashcards and HearPlanet. Without a 3G connection overseas, though, Apple’s Maps app proves utterly redundant — if I can’t connect, I can’t use it.

oMaps brings offline mapping to the iPhone. The app includes GPS, multiple zoom levels, map bookmarking and search functionality.

Don’t Google It

Notably, oMaps doesn’t make use of Google Maps. The developer, Thomas Bonnin, cites licensing restrictions from Google as the reason. Instead, the app utilizes OpenStreetMap, a service referred to by Bonnin as “the Wikipedia of maps.”

Despite being a community-maintained mapping service — meaning that there may be lower detail in some areas — in practice, the maps seem to be accurate, detailed and certainly useful for tourists. Even better, OpenStreetMap includes restaurants, ATMs, bus stations and other notable landmarks — a boon for lone travelers.

Best of all, because oMaps makes use of an open-source solution, after purchasing the app, individual maps are free to download. Admittedly, in-app purchasing of new maps would have been a neat iPhone OS 3.0 feature, although for me to grumble about that is akin to performing extended dental work on a gift horse.

Making Your Map

To create a new offline map, you simply open the app, browse to the location you’d like to view later and click save. Maps can only be downloaded via Wi-Fi, due to potentially large download sizes (the app saves the current zoom level and each increasing level of detail beyond that).

Although the developer states that you can save unlimited maps, there is one major constraint. The app will only start saving a map from a certain level of detail. If you zoom too far out — in my case when trying to download all of Helsinki — oMaps will refuse to save.

Essentially, the app draws a line as to how much you’re able to download in one go. It certainly doesn’t ruin the app or its functionality, but it’s a seemingly arbitrary obstacle, surpassed simply by downloading a given area in several separate chunks.

On Your Travels

Downloading a useful portion of a given city takes time and requires a stable connection. To make the best use of oMaps, you’ll need to plan ahead and prepare at least a day or so before traveling.

Once you’re offline and on the move, the app comes into its own. For me, flipping the iPhone to Airplane Mode and opening oMaps felt like cartographical witchcraft — the app located me immediately and I could zoom in and out, viewing my surrounding area in various levels of detail.

It’s worth clarifying for less tech-savvy users how this works. Your data connection — 3G, Edge, GPRS — may cost money to use overseas, usually at an inflated rate. The GPS in your iPhone — used for locating you — is free. oMaps uses the GPS to locate you and requires no data connection because the data itself, the map, has already been downloaded and saved to your iPhone.

Just like Apple’s Maps app, oMaps includes a GPS button. Pressing the button will locate you, assuming you’ve downloaded the corresponding map for the area you’re occupying. There are a few differences and drawbacks, though.

Unlike Maps, once you’re on the move, there are no directions or search functionality. Directions may be an arguably complex function, however Search does seem like something that could have been achieved — even if it means downloading a little more data when initially saving the map.

Summing Up

The app has a few issues that, while irritating, don’t ruin the overall functionality. Saving multiple maps for one city can be a drag, but then it’s all free and can be used offline, even with GPS. Plus, the lack of search functionality means that you may have to do a little extra pre-planning before setting off.

Rather than comparing oMaps to Apple’s Google-powered Maps, it’s perhaps best to see the app as a replacement to a traditional map. It saves purchasing horrid foldout maps and, as such, is more discreet and agreeable for meandering tourists.

Most importantly though, oMaps is a time and money saver. Although it won’t prove useful at home, when you’re in foreign lands this really will be an essential app.

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We’ve added the company’s recent cancellation to our Biofuels Deathwatch map.

View Larger Map

In December Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) said it was suspending the building of its Imperial Valley plant near Calipatria, Calif., “until market conditions improve.” And that month news came out that the plans for ethanol plants from Panda Ethanol and Renewable Agricultural Energy wouldn’t see the light of day, either. Earlier in October, BioFuel Energy Corp. (BIOF) and VeraSun (VSE) both said they would suspend construction of ethanol facilities as well.

With so much public scrutiny on the environmental effects of corn-based ethanol, the permitting process will likely not get any easier. And even companies that are building plants to produce non-food-based cellulosic ethanol will have to go through rigorous permitting processes. In addition to permitting issues, mounting construction costs are putting the squeeze on the margins of corn-based ethanol producers, leading companies to make tough choices — like cutting back on planned plants.

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Call me a cynic, but there has to be more to the Web 2.0 story than accessorizing my Facebook page with one-dimensional pseudo applications. Sure, muscle memory may lead us to congregate, but I believe that the future is about satisfying our need to aggregate.

Isn’t this the moral of the story regarding iTunes, iPhoto and the iPod/iPhone? Namely, that whether blogging, YouTube’ing, Flickr’ing, Digg’ing or tweet’ing, the “forever” bucket is the bucket consisting of my content, my contacts, my contexts and my conversations.

This suggests that regardless of where any of these informational breadcrumbs may originate, each of us needs to think of ourselves as the center of our respective social map universes. In other words, the social map — in order for it to be considered a map – needs to systematically connect the dots between me, my content and my network. A map-lication of sorts.

But it suggests something else as well. That regardless of where my content and data originate, I have a right to pull this data into MY sandbox, a sandbox where I track my threads, organize my media, filter my views and push my content wherever and however I please. While this position seems to raise a virtual middle finger to almost every service provider’s terms of service, it should not be viewed as heretical.

After all, was it heretical that Google became Microsoft 2.0 by spidering the web of third-party web sites, and selling advertising on top of search returns generated using someone else’s data? I certainly remember wondering if Google was crossing an imaginary line between search/organize and monetize, but the market rightfully saw it as a democratizing force. Not only did Google-ification disrupt entire industries (like media and packaged software), but it operated like a tornado on business models, distribution, marketing and product lifecycles across many segments. History suggests, however, that it created a rising tide that lifted a lot of boats.

I bring Google into this equation for two reasons. One, to cite a tangible example of how the market goes about defining propriety and property rights in the information age. Two, because I believe that Google, as a benefactor of these rights, will need to share with consumers more of its social map of user clickstreams, engagement metrics and their correlates if it is to maintain the public trust. Akin to a credit report, I think consumers have a right to this data.

Therefore, what I envision is a consumer-friendly dashboard and analytics application that allows me to visualize the bigger picture by seeing the same contextual relationships that Google sees. Think zeitgeist-type reports that provide answers to the Top 10 questions relevant to MY universe (e.g., who read, commented, shared, how many) packaged in such a way that I can ask what-if questions to my heart’s content. To me, the social map is all about enabling applications that allow consumers to take back control of their data, help them to connect the dots between their various interests, orchestrate their brand and systematically engage their audience. This is the promise of the information age.

Given that, if information is the electricity of this era and information ABOUT information is the richest energy source of all (just ask Google), then shouldn’t we have universal access to this type of data? Heck, if Google wants my heart and soul vis-à-vis their AppEngine initiative, they need to give me a unified way to call upon and interact with all of the global data functions that they have cataloged (web pages, blogs, images, news, video, email, maps, calendars, etc.).

Facebook, Yahoo, and Microsoft: Couldn’t you disrupt the disrupter by doing the same? Is there any reason that you wouldn’t — or shouldn’t?

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Here’s the problem: if I want to get out on the road and stay connected to my applications in the cloud, I have a choice between using a laptop computer or using a mobile phone or PocketPC type device. If I choose a computer, I’m hauling around hard drives and CPU power that I don’t need to render web sites and make HTTP requests back to them. If I choose a mobile device, I have to deal with a teeny-tiny screen (and I don’t care how good your pocket browser and gesture-based software are, they’re still no substitute for actually seeing what I’m doing).With more and more processing power available in the cloud, we’re reaching a point in computer networks that reminds me of the old mainframe days: work is being performed centrally and only displayed remotely. For mainframes, the display device was the “green screen” terminal: keyboard, video display, the ability to talk to the mainframe, and not much else. Personally, I’m ready to see the analog of this idea come to our mobile world.

What would a portable dumb terminal look like? It would start with the screen from a decent laptop, but get rid of the hard drive, DVD drive, and most of the CPU and RAM. It would need good wireless connectivity, preferably over multiple ways of finding the net. It would still have a keyboard and pointing device, but not be a touchscreen or stylus-driven device. It would be light if you wanted, or allow you to attach an external battery pack that would bring it up to the weight of a laptop and give you hours and hours of connect time. It would have a topnotch browser in firmware, with javascript and Flash support.

I’ve seen some things that almost fit the bill, but not quite. The various “internet computers” of a few years back were all desktop-bound. The MacBook Air gets “small and light” right, but costs too much because it also carts around lots of processing power.

Would you buy such a device if it existed? What else would be in your dream mobile connectivity device? Or are you perfectly satisfied with the hardware choices that you have now?

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Size.  Looking at the one lonely photo of the 2133 you can make some pretty safe assumptions on the overall size of the beast.  One cool design attribute is how HP has the entire width of the device taken up by the keyboard.  The keyboard goes right up to the edge of the device which is how they can get a near full-sized keyboard into this small notebook.  We can get a feel for the overall size of the device by looking at that screen and bezel.  The screen is reported to be 8.9" diagonal and in the photo it looks to be a wide-screen format.  This would place the screen width at the same size as the Fujitsu P1610/1620 which has the same size screen.  The Fujitsu has a fairly narrow bezel around that screen however and the picture of the HP indicates a good 1 inch bezel around the sides and top of the screen.  This would make the HP a bit wider and taller than the Fujitsu and how they can get a bigger keyboard on the device than the Fujitsu.

Screen.  Speaking about the screen it is interesting that the reports have HP putting a very high-res 1366×768 screen on the 8.9" screen.  The aforementioned Fujitsu runs at 1280×768 on the same size screen and the higher resolution on the HP will make stuff awfully small on the same sized screen.  I don’t think things will be too small to read but they will be awfully tight.  It is good to see a web cam on that photo of the HP and it looks to me like there are very big speakers on each side of the screen.  HP could be aiming this 2133 to be a very portable multimedia powerhouse if those speakers are indeed as they appear in the photo.

Processor.  A report has surfaced today that the HP will have a Via processor but frankly I hope not.  The Via processor is too anemic for a quality sub-notebook like this and while I realize HP’s goal will be to keep the price of this device as low as possible I don’t think they’d go the Via route.  At least I hope they don’t.  What I wouldn’t be surprised to see HP use is a low-cost AMD processor since they’ve been using these in other notebooks for some time.  This processor would give decent performance and still keep the cost much lower than an Intel processor.  Remember you saw that here first about the AMD processor because I believe this is what HP should use.  I hope they have a 2 GB memory option in any event so if they put Vista on the 2133 it will run it decently.

Price.  Rumors have surfaced that this new HP will be priced at the $600 range which may be true.  It’s hard to guess how cheaply HP will be able to sell such a device since it looks like it’s constructed so nicely.  One thing is certain though, the EEE PC has shown us that consumers will jump on a small notebook if the price is cheap enough and frankly $600 may not be.  I think there is something magical about the $400 price range of the Asus and HP better come close or they may have a slow mover on their hands.  The rumors have HP positioning the 2133 as a lifestyle companion device and it better be cheaper than $500 to reach that market.

Software.  HP is in a unique position to put some of their proprietary software on the 2133 and I hope they do so.  They have some good multimedia software they have put on recent notebooks like the tx2000 and this size device would be perfect for that.  To position the 2133 as a companion device I would also like to see them put some real simple sync software so that consumers can keep their documents synchronized with their main computer just by connecting them via USB.  This would cement the intended purpose of such a small notebook and HP would be very wise to make that easy to do out of the box.

All of this is pure speculation as HP is not officially sharing any information about the 2133.  Take if for what it’s worth, which is not much as this point.

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The path to full exposure has been a short one. A shaky, six-minute-long video of the final cut scene from Halo 3 was posted on YouTube last week, revealing the fate of Master Chief. Although the spoiler video was pulled from YouTube when Microsoft claimed copyright infringement, it has since been reposted all over the web. Earlier this week a UK retailer broke the street date, selling “a small number” of real copies of the game.

The game can now be found on eBay, going for over $200. Then, sometime last night, copies of the entire game starting appearing on torrent sites. The game’s posting has been credited to the hacking group “Paradogs.”

This news comes shortly after the source code for MediaDefender’s trapping and decoy software was leaked online through a group called “MediaDefender-Defenders;” both are just the latest in the continuing escalation of content leaks. Earlier examples include the unprecedented leaks of the final book in the Harry Potter series earlier this summer and the leak of HD-DVD code.

Such an escalation hasn’t gone unnoticed by the higher-ups. Steve Jobs has said Apple (AAPL) will fight iPhone hackers in an ongoing “cat-and-mouse game,” according to ComputerWorld, while on the video front, Ars Technica quoted MPAA head Dan Glickman as saying the movie industry wants to “deepen” its relationship with ISPs in an effort to curtail piracy. Even governmental officers are pressuring ISPs to filter. Marybeth Peters, head of the U.S. Copyright Office, recently asked an audience at the Future of Music Policy Summit, “Shouldn’t you have to filter? Shouldn’t you have to take reasonable steps to make sure illegal stuff that went up comes down?”

If you’re getting bored pondering this question you could always queue up the 6.14 gigabyte Halo 3 leak. And if you’re planning your own Halo night, make sure to stock up on Mountain Dew’s special “Game Fuel,” because nothing washes down copyright infringement and piracy better than caffeine and Yellow 5. And maybe by chugging all that extra high-fructose corn syrup you’ll be helping to offset the losses NBC claims corn farmers are suffering due to movie piracy.

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