Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock on Tuesday said "The [latest] software update improves communication with 3G networks," according to a USA Today article. Albeit concise, the statement implies that Apple is admitting that widely reported problems with 3G performance are at least partly tied to the handset itself.

To date, AT&T and other iPhone carriers have not taken responsibility for any of the handset's reported network issues. Experts have pointed out, however, that problems do exist with younger 3G networks such as that of AT&T, who has yet to optimize towers for 3G performance.

Though Apple's statement doesn't tell us all that much, I'm relieved the company has publicly said something. At some point the finger-pointing needs to stop, and Apple and AT&T should focus on devising a solution. Perhaps with Apple's statement, that time has come.

Also see:

• Video: AT&T Blames iPhone 3G For Network Issues
• Opinion: Firmware Update to Fix iPhone 3G? I Doubt It
• Participate in Wired.com's Global iPhone 3G Study
• What's Wrong With the 3G in iPhone 3G?
• IPhone 3G Users Heated Over Network Issues

Apple tries to de-bug iPhone [USA Today]

(Photo credit: Fr3d.org/Flickr)

My best pal Michael Schulte is a automative fanatic in every sense of the word: not just a prize-winning autocross racer, but an absolute nerd when it comes to maintenence and statistics of even his daily drivers. Mike's the kind of guy that starts a file folder for every day the day he purchases it, stashing away car brochures and magazine reviews on the off chance he might someday need to put his cars in a museum. After Fuelly.com launched, I knew a the website designed to help manage gas mileage and more would be right up his alley. I asked him to write up his impressions after a week or so using Fuelly. – Joel

In my driving infancy I relied on an Excel spreadsheet, logging gas mileage and fuel cost; I also kept a folder or pocket in the glove box for miscellaneous service paperwork that I thought I should archive. That idea has expanded over the years: at some point I developed a full blown obsessive/compulsive need to track total operational costs for my automobiles: framing — in clear plastic sheet protectors placed in a three-ring binder — every receipt of maintenance and every part purchased, the better to track things like insurance costs, 1/4-mile times, and even horsepower-per-dollar.

There's a full record available for each one of my cars, even the daily driver. I am fully aware of my disorder, but I have found over the years that there are thousands of gear heads, penny pinchers and green freaks that share part — if not all — of my obsession.

Thanks to a tip from Joel [My pleasure – Ed.], who is fully aware of my problem [Boy am I, Mr. What-Do-You-Mean-You-Lost-the-Receipt – Ed.], I took a peek at Fuelly.com.  Now I have been using Gas Buddy for a few years in addition to my other methods for tracking fuel economy and cost efficiency of my vehicles, so I was a bit reluctant to go through my personal records and input these figures into yet another site. Still, after browsing the barely launched site I noticed a lot of great features that made me pull out the numbers and start plugging them in. 

While knowing exactly what sort of mileage I get on average out of my car is nice, being able to share that data with others easily and compare it to people who might have the same car as me is fantastic. Even better: EPA Estimates for each particular model can also be compared.  Once you input a few fill-ups — being able to do this right from the pump via mobile web is awesome — it becomes clear exactly how useful this site is.

There are handy suggestions and techniques that tell how to get better economy and figures associated with the car that show exactly what I would’ve saved had I kept my foot a bit more shallow in the throttle. Statistics are right there in your face for "Average MPG", "Current MPG", "Your Best MPG" — as well as trending information with clean, concise graphs, total fuel-ups over the life of the car, best pricing and the ever-important fuel operating cost per mile. 

I’ve since spend a few minutes each day over the last week or so locking in my personal figures for each one of my cars. I started with my daily driver, a 2002 Honda Civic Si (Nickname: The Shoe), and put in all the my fill-ups for 2008. I moved on to the almost-brand-new 2008 Honda Civic EX-L that my soon-to-be-wife drives.

I’m currently in the process of sticking in the rest of the figures for The Shoe, although there are 158 fuel-ups in there already. There will be 100,000 miles of data soon. You can — if you dare! — sift through it. Try to find my experimental attempt to become a hyper-miler.

It’s not all about bottom-line fuel efficiency though. I guess it’s sort of fun for me to see the little graphs and figures, too. In a time where getting the most out of a gallon of gas is on everyone’s mind, I still happen to own two extremely inefficient Nissan 300ZXs that I take to the track, autocross and drag race. (I personally bring the overall average of the site down by several ticks.) Still, it’s interesting to see that if driven with a light right foot (as I try to do on my way to such events) that they too can achieve respectable mileage.

And though it sort of hurts, it’s interesting to know that I pay almost the same amount for regular pump gas today as I did for Aircraft fuel — the Racer's Friend™ — in 2004.

The website! [Fuelly.com]

Greatest Hits, the popular budget line of PlayStation titles have started to go on sale here in the US. Nine titles are available now, with a price tag of $30 each. PS3 Fanboy offers up some concise reviews for the initiated, giving only one title, Need For Speed Carbon, a flat out “don’t buy” rating, citing dated graphics. Two other titles, Call of Duty 3, and MotorStorm weren’t recommended, but due to upcoming sequels, rather than tired gameplay.

Complete list of the initial nine games below. Looks to be a pretty good cross section. Jump in now while you’re waiting for that game you’re waiting for.

* Warhawk
* MotorStorm
* Resistance: Fall of Man
* Call of Duty 3
* Need for Speed Carbon
* The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
* Ninja Gaiden Sigma
* Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
* Assassin’s Creed

so far, initial tests have shown that it works perfectly fine with the following mobile carriers - Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel, where each test took less than a couple of minutes in total. According to MobileSphere, Slydial is efficient enough to function flawlessly with all wireless phone carriers operating in the United States. There is a drawback, however, as Slydial cannot leave voicemails for landlines as well as those rocking to prepaid cell phones regardless of the carrier. That’s not too big of an issue to contend with since most people are already carrying at least one cell phone, and landlines are all but dead.

The service might be free to use, but those who want to do away with those short advertisements will, as usual, have to cough up a token amount. There are several options to choose from, including paying $0.15 each time a call is made to the service, $4.95 per month, or $29.95 for a one-year fee. Will you sign up for any of these plans?

Product Page via BetaNews
[ Slydial for folks who don’t like to talk copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

I think this image from iLounge showing the last three docks for Apple media players — iPods, the iPod EDGE, and the new iPhone 3G — is a concise indicator of where Apple's industrial design is going. Less basic geometric shapes, more soft arcs.

Apple iPhone 3G Dock [iLounge]

P.S. A full week in and I still don't have a 3G, Brownlee. How do you like them apples?

Wi-Spy is the world’s smallest 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer, and has been designed specifically for troubleshooting and analyzing Wi-Fi networks. It shows the signal strength for all Wi-Fi networks as well as Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz cordless phones, microwaves, Zigbee, and all other 2.4 GHz transmitters. At a glance you can see what Wi-Fi channels are quiet and what channels you should avoid if possible. This makes it easy to pick a quiet channel for your access point instead of picking your favorite number between 1 and 11.

The original Wi-Spy software was good, but the new and improved Chanalyzer 2.0 software features a completely redesigned interface that presents a more clear and concise view of your wireless landscape. Combined with the Wi-Spy spectrum analyzer, Chanalyzer will help you visualize, troubleshoot, and optimize your wireless network.

* Helps you identify wi-fi interference
* Frequency range is 2.400 - 2.485 GHz
* Record/playback data traces
* Frequency/amplitude marker
* Spectral, Topographic, and Planar Views
* View the user manual
* New Wi-Spy software available here (Windows and Mac OS X)
* Linux software

Post from: gadgettastic.com

Wi-Spy is the world’s smallest 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer

From Modality Netter's Anatomy product page:

Using outstanding anatomical illustrations from Netter's hugely popular Atlas of Human Anatomy (4th Edition), Netter's Anatomy allows you to carry the bestselling reference for human anatomy on your iPhone or iPod touch. Navigate through images with the flick of a finger, pinch to zoom, and tap to test your knowledge of muscles, bones, vessels, viscera and the joints. Use study mode to explore images at your own pace and quiz mode to test yourself on what you know.

The concise text reviews areas of origin, insertion, action, innervation, and anatomical relevance. The notes also include clinical correlations, where appropriate. A regional organization parallels Netter's atlas as well as most of today's anatomy courses.

Watch Modality showing off their software at the 2008 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Note: Modality's presentation starts at 45 minutes into the video...

Product page: Netter's Anatomy and the rest of Modality's medical packages...

Not only is it useless, it can kill you.

So concluded Anahad O'Connor, the world's most concise and elegant debunker, in his "Really?" column in the May 13, 2008 New York Times Science section.

Here's the piece.

The Claim: If You’re Hyperventilating, Breathe Into a Paper Bag

The Facts: Like a bandage for a cut or a crutch for a broken leg, the brown paper bag is a symbol for hyperventilation.

Grabbing a bag and breathing into it repeatedly, known in medical literature as “rebreathing,” has long been recommended to ease rapid, uncontrolled breathing. Some doctors even keep bags in the office for that reason. But most medical studies and experts suggest that the method, though accepted, is dangerous and should be retired.

The idea behind it is to increase carbon dioxide levels. Hyperventilation causes the body to expel too much carbon dioxide, and “rebreathing” exhaled air helps restore that lost gas.

The problem is that several medical conditions, like asthma and heart attacks, can be confused with hyperventilation. In such cases reducing oxygen and increasing carbon dioxide can be deadly. One study in The Annals of Emergency Medicine described three cases in which people having heart attacks thought, wrongly, that they were hyperventilating and died after losing oxygen while breathing into bags.

Another study said using a bag was no better at easing hyperventilation than using an open tube. For better results, experts say, stay calm and practice breathing slowly and deliberately.

The Bottom Line: Most studies advise against paper bags to treat hyperventilation.

Anahad O'Connor's March 11, 2008 "Really?" column in the New York Times Science section explains why in his typically elegant, concise fashion.

The Claim: Identical twins have identical DNA.

The Facts: It is a basic tenet of human biology, taught in grade schools everywhere: Identical twins come from the same fertilized egg and, thus, share identical genetic profiles.

But according to new research, though identical twins share very similar genes, identical they are not. The discovery opens a new understanding of why two people who hail from the same embryo can differ in phenotype, as biologists refer to a person's physical manifestation.

The new findings appear in the March issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, in a study conducted by scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and universities in Sweden and the Netherlands. The scientists examined the genes of 10 pairs of monozygotic, or identical, twins, including 9 pairs in which one twin showed signs of dementia or Parkinson's disease and the other did not.

It has long been known that identical twins develop differences that result from environment. And in recent years, it has also been shown that some of their differences can spring from unique changes in what are known as epigenetic factors, the chemical markers that attach to genes and affect how they are expressed — in some cases by slowing or shutting the genes off, and in others by increasing their output.

These epigenetic changes — which accumulate over a lifetime and can arise from things like diet and tobacco smoke — have been implicated in the development of cancer and behavioral traits like fearfulness and confidence, among other things. Epigenetic markers vary widely from one person to another, but identical twins were still considered genetically identical because epigenetics influence only the expression of a gene and not the underlying sequence of the gene itself.

''When we started this study, people were expecting that only epigenetics would differ greatly between twins,'' said Jan Dumanski, a professor of genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an author of the study. ''But what we found are changes on the genetic level, the DNA sequence itself.''

The specific changes that Dr. Dumanski and his colleagues identified are known as copy number variations, in which a gene exists in multiple copies, or a set of coding letters in DNA is missing. Not known, however, is whether these changes in identical twins occur at the embryonic level, as the twins age or both.

''Copy number variations were discovered only a few years ago, but they are immensely important,'' said Dr. Carl Bruder, another author of the study at the university. Certain copy variations have been shown in humans to confer protection against diseases like AIDS, while others are believed to contribute to autism, lupus and other conditions. By studying pairs of identical twins in which one sibling has a disease and the other does not, scientists should be able to identify more easily the genes involved in disease.

John Witte, a professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco, said the findings were part of a growing focus on genetic changes after the parents' template had been laid. This and other research, Dr. Witte said, shows ''you've got a little bit more genetic variation than previously thought.''

In the meantime, a lot of biology textbooks may need updating.

Dr. Dumanski pointed out, for example, that as his study was going to press, the following statement could be found on the Web site of the National Human Genome Research Institute, the group that financed the government project to decode the human genome: ''Most of any one person's DNA, some 99.9 percent, is exactly the same as any other person's DNA. (Identical twins are the exception, with 100 percent similarity).''

That, we now know, no longer appears to be the case.

The Bottom Line: Identical twins apparently do not have identical DNA.

Anne Casselman, in an April 3, 2008 story on the Scientific American website about these surprising new findings, explored the subject in more detail; her piece follows.

Identical Twins' Genes Are Not Identical

Twins may appear to be cut from the same cloth, but their genes reveal a different pattern

Identical twins are identical, right? After all, they derive from just one fertilized egg, which contains one set of genetic instructions, or genome, formed from combining the chromosomes of mother and father.

But experience shows that identical twins are rarely completely the same. Until recently, any differences between twins had largely been attributed to environmental influences (otherwise known as "nurture"), but a recent study contradicts that belief.

Geneticist Carl Bruder of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and his colleagues closely compared the genomes of 19 sets of adult identical twins. In some cases, one twin's DNA differed from the other's at various points on their genomes. At these sites of genetic divergence, one bore a different number of copies of the same gene, a genetic state called copy number variants.

Normally people carry two copies of every gene, one inherited from each parent. "There are, however, regions in the genome that deviate from that two-copy rule, and that's where you have copy number variants," Bruder explains. These regions can carry anywhere from zero to over 14 copies of a gene.

Scientists have long used twins to study the roles of nature and nurture in human genetics and how each affects disease, behavior, and conditions, such as obesity. But Bruder's findings suggest a new way to study the genetic and environmental roots of disease.

For example, one twin in Bruder's study was missing some genes on particular chromosomes that indicated a risk of leukemia, which he indeed suffered. The other twin did not.

Bruder therefore believes that the differences in identical twins can be used to identify specific genetic regions that coincide with specific diseases. Next, he plans to examine blood samples from twin pairs in which only one suffers from asthma or psoriasis to see whether he can find gene copy number changes that relate to either of these illnesses.

The result might also call into question the many findings of previous twin studies that assumed identical twins were indeed identical, Bruder notes. "It's pretty unlikely they're going to significantly change any of the results found so far," counters Kerry Jang, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who runs Canada's largest twin study. "We can adjust our models to take [genetic differences] into account in the same way we've adjusted for different environments."

The discovery of this genetic variation gives hope for an obscure but pressing issue in the case of a criminal suspect who is an identical twin. "If one twin is a suspect and the whereabouts of the other twin cannot be determined, then the jury is often left without the ability to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt" in cases that rely on DNA evidence, says Frederick Bieber, a pathologist at Harvard Medical School.

"If the twin issue comes up in a criminal investigation it's possible that if there are [copy number variants] that differ between the two twins that might help sort that out," Bieber says.

Given that there are 80 pairs of identical twins in Virginia's convicted offender database alone, this might not be as small an issue as it may sound. And such genetic variation also matters to the population at large.

Bruder speculates that such variation is a natural occurrence that accumulates with age in everyone. "I believe that the genome that you're born with is not the genome that you die with — at least not for all the cells in your body," he says.

Charles Lee, a geneticist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, agrees. Genetic variations can arise after a double strand of DNA breaks when exposed to ionizing radiation or carcinogens. "It reminds us to be careful about our environment because our environment can help to change our genome," he says.

Plus, these variations may predict age-related diseases. Lee adds: "As you age... your chances for having a genomic rearrangement that causes a certain disease increases all the time."

The differences between identical twins increase as they age, because environmentally triggered changes accumulate. But twins can also begin their lives with differences, according to Bruder's study, and that calls into question their very name.

"Maybe we shouldn't call them identical twins," Harvard's Bieber says. "We should call them 'one-egg twins.'"

Now that your brain's whirring, it's time for the abstract of the American Journal of Human Genetics paper cited above; it follows.

Phenotypically Concordant and Discordant Monozygotic Twins Display Different DNA Copy-Number-Variation Profiles

The exploration of copy-number variation (CNV), notably of somatic cells, is an understudied aspect of genome biology. Any differences in the genetic makeup between twins derived from the same zygote represent an irrefutable example of somatic mosaicism. We studied 19 pairs of monozygotic twins with either concordant or discordant phenotype by using two platforms for genome-wide CNV analyses and showed that CNVs exist within pairs in both groups. These findings have an impact on our views of genotypic and phenotypic diversity in monozygotic twins and suggest that CNV analysis in phenotypically discordant monozygotic twins may provide a powerful tool for identifying disease-predisposition loci. Our results also imply that caution should be exercised when interpreting disease causality of de novo CNVs found in patients based on analysis of a single tissue in routine disease-related DNA diagnostics.

Future twin studies will explore how environmental factors can alter one's genome, according to Charles Q. Choi's article on the subject that appeared in the May, 2008 issue of Scientific American.

He noted that Bruder's group is now investigating "... whether all of an individual's cells are genetically identical or whether, like twins, they diverge, making each of us mosaics of slightly different genomes."

As I consider these radically new views of the genome, I can't help but thing that Lysenko is up there looking down, smiling.

O'Connor's column heading this post represents the second time he's looked into a twin-related topic: the first was back on November 2, 2004, when he tackled the question of whether identical twins have identical fingerprints; that piece follows.

The Claim: Identical Twins Have Identical Fingerprints

The Facts: Identical twins often share personality traits, interests and habits. They come from the same fertilized egg and share the same genetic blueprint.

To a standard DNA test, they are indistinguishable. But any forensics expert will tell you that there is at least one surefire way to tell them apart: identical twins do not have matching fingerprints.

Like physical appearance and personality, fingerprints are largely shaped by a person's DNA and by a variety of environmental forces. Genetics helps determine the general patterns on a fingertip, which appear as arches, loops and whorls. An individual finger can have just one of these patterns or a mixture of them.

While a fetus is developing, the ridges along these patterns are influenced by a number of factors, including bone growth, pressures within the womb and contact with amniotic fluid.

These lead to unique ridge characteristics in each person and finger, said Gary W. Jones, a former fingerprint specialist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Often, identical twins will have a similar arrangement of patterns, but never the same minute details. "It's impossible for people to have identical fingerprints," said Mr. Jones, who now works as a private consultant in Summerfield, Fla.

"The study of fingerprints has been around for about 100 years, and in all that time, two people have never been found to have the same prints." The patterns on a person’s fingers, palms and feet are fully formed by roughly the fifth month of pregnancy.

They stay the same throughout life, barring any changes brought on by severe mutilation or a skin disease. But even then, they change very little.

John Dillinger, the notorious Depression- era gangster, famously tried to alter his facial features and obliterate his fingerprints with acid to elude authorities. After Dillinger died, experts discerned a few of his remaining ridge patterns and identified him easily.

The Bottom Line: Identical twins never have matching fingerprints.

PDA Reference for Medical Students by USBMIS is on a one week special offer of 25% discount.
Medical Student’s PDA Reference is a concise, yet comprehensive reference designed to provide clinically-relevant information in a portable, handheld format. It is designed for all medical students, interns, and other trainees and physicians working on clinical services.

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* Indications, classification, adverse reactions and mechanisms.
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