Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category
“It’s the hyperlink in the physical world” says a Microsoft PR man, giving us the most succinct definition of what Redmond’s Tag initiative is all about. Having announced its alternative take on the barcode at CES 2009, Microsoft has been working behind the scenes on proliferating the use of these multicolored Tags, which are designed to be snapped by nearby cameraphones. Once the pattern is recognized, you can obtain digital content directly on your phone — whether it be a website link, YouTube video, or whatever — and the uses are pretty much limitless: business cards, product packaging, magazines, anything that can benefit from supplemental online content and has a flat surface is a candidate to be Tagged. Such is the theory anyhow, and Microsoft’s doing all it can to make it happen, with software for most mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Video demonstration after the break.
Continue reading Microsoft Tag makes a video appearance, still seeking popularity
Microsoft Tag makes a video appearance, still seeking popularity originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Okay, folks, you know the drill: here lies new hardware, may we see it hacked to run unintended software. Today’s contestant is Pandora, once thought to be relegated to the realm of vaporware and now in full production. One of the lucky, open source-friendly buyers decided that the native Linux distribution was just not for his liking, and instead opted for Google’s little green man mobile OS. Touchscreen support isn’t there yet, but you gotta start somewhere, right? Video of Android on Pandora after the break. Now we wait until the time we can gleefully say “Pandora (the app) on Android on Pandora” while we listen to some rocking streamed tunes.
Continue reading Android ported to Pandora, in the name of science or something
Android ported to Pandora, in the name of science or something originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Sure, the iPad happened this week, but we also caught sight of several hot green gadgets and clean tech innovations this week that stand to shape the future of green consumer technology.
First off, design star Philippe Starck brought haute design to clean tech with two novel designs for home wind turbines. Starck’s high-profile products have made him a household name, so we’re interested to see if his latest creations kick off a trend towards “designer” wind power.
We were also impressed by researchers at Princeton University who recently found a way to integrate piezoelectric chips into flexible, durable rubber-based circuits. We’ve seen piezo power sources before, but applications for the new chips are sure to put bounce in your step: energy generating shoes, movement-powered microsurgical devices, and self-charging pacemakers are right around the corner.
Interest in green transportation is building as Florida rides high on the government’s recently announced grants for high speed rail — the sunshine state is set to blaze a trail with $1.25 billion in funding. And for those with a soda habit, Takara Tomy’s cola-powered RC car is one sweet ride. The biobattery-powered car can convert any sugary liquid to energy, so pour in some Jolt and you’re good to go.
Finally, love it or hate it — the launch of Apple’s iPad has dominated the newswires all week. While we appreciate the device’s toxin-free, recyclable construction and impressive battery life, we have to ask: is it really green?
Inhabitat’s Week in Green: turbines, rubber circuits, and cola-powered cars originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It was quite the week for Apple, first with its best-ever earnings and then the launch of the iPad. While Apple didn’t create this category of device, it did answer the fundamental question of why this form factor needs to exist. The meta lesson is that the story told is as important as the hardware, software and services being sold — and while everyone may not be convinced, I do think Apple will win over the majority of a skeptical audience with high expectations. But there’s also four important lessons that Apple taught the market this week, as it enters a space that’s been mostly a failure.
1. Define what your product does. The first thing Apple did was answer that question immediately and then define what the product needed to do. Apple explained what capabilities need to be in the this class of device and then went on to show how each of those features not only worked but were optimized for the iPad. That’s something we’ve seen lacking in this category to date.
2. Leverage what you’ve done before. I believe the iPad is likely to do well with consumers as it leverages Apple’s previous successes with the iPod and the iPhone. At the base level, that’s compatibility and synchronization with iTunes as well as backward compatibility with existing applications. That’s important — as a user I can use my existing content library and my application collection. It also means that iPad has 140,000-plus applications at launch. But it’s more than that. Apple is not only leveraging its ecosystem of devices and software, it’s leveraging the lessons it spent a decade teaching consumers. Apple taught its market about MP3 players, digital music, smartphones, capacitive multitouch screens and mobile apps. It can now go directly to selling the form factor, as well as new features such as productivity and e-books.
Continue reading Entelligence: Lessons from the iPad launch
Entelligence: Lessons from the iPad launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Macmillan’s US CEO, John Sargent just confirmed that Amazon pulled its inventory of Macmillan books in a powerful response to Macmillan’s new pricing demands. Macmillan offered the new pricing on Thursday, just a day after Apple announced Macmillan as a major publishing partner in its new iBookstore — a revelation that certainly factored into the discussions along with Skiff and other emerging e-book distribution and publishing models. During the meeting with Amazon in Seattle, Sargent outlined what he calls an “agency model” that will go into effect in early March. Under the terms offered, if Amazon chose to stay with its existing terms of sale then it would suffer “extensive and deep windowing of titles.” Amazon’s hardball response was to pull all of Macmillan’s titles from its Kindle site and Amazon.com by the time Sargent arrived back in New York.
Macmillan claims that its new model is meant to keep retailers, publishers, and authors profitable in the emerging electronic frontier while encouraging competition amongst new devices and new stores. It gives retailers a 30% commission and sets the price for each book individually: digital editions of most adult trade books will be priced from $5.99 to $14.99 while first releases will “almost always” hit the electronic shelves day on date with the physical hardcover release and be priced between $12.99 and $14.99 — pricing that will be dynamic over time. So when Steve Jobs said that Apple’s and Amazon’s prices would be the same, he was almost certainly referring to the $12.99 to $14.99 e-book pricing originally rumored by the New York Times — not the $9.99 price that Amazon customers have been enjoying so far. Funny how Jobs, the man who once refused to grant the music labels’ request for variable pricing on digital music so that Apple could maintain a low fixed $0.99 price per track, is suddenly the best friend of a new breed of content owners. Guess the old dog just learned a new trick, eh?
Update: Amazon has conceded, but not willfully. It has decided to give the consumer the option of paying too much for a bestseller, and frankly, that’s the right thing to do. Let ‘em vote with their wallets, we say. The full response is after the break.
Amazon pulled Macmillan titles due to price conflict — confirmed (update: they’re back!) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This may come as a surprise to you (although probably not, you smart devil), but it turns out that plenty of people are dissatisfied with their current e-reader options — according to a recent study conducted at the University of Georgia. The study was conducted over a six-month period where participants read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on a Kindle, then provided feedback. The results were, well — not entirely shocking. Younger adults found the Kindle to be lacking because it had no touchscreen or other applications (though to be fair, neither does the print version of the paper), while older adults seemed more satisfied, but also reported missing the crossword puzzles and comics of a real, live newspaper. Pretty much everyone agreed that the screen was nice and comfortable to read on, but almost no one was a fan of the price. All in all, there’s not terribly much here that we think is overly telling — besides (of course) the fact that paper rules.
Study finds people want more from their Kindles, less from their newspapers originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
As if you needed any more evidence of the tech supremacy of your Nokia N900 or N810, here’s Firefox making its official mobile debut on the most righteous Maemo OS. Available for download right now, version 1.0 will come with a pretty sweet feature named Weave Sync, which harmonizes your bookmarks, tabs, history and passwords across devices, making for a seamless transition between your desktop computer and your mobile one. We reckon we could get used to that. Alas, Flash support is still somewhat shaky, and does not come enabled by default, though you’re free to flip the switch and ride the lightning as it were. We’re sure Mozilla will appreciate any crash reports you might want to throw its way as well. So come on already, download the darn thing and let us know if it improves on the already spectacular browsing experience of the N900.
[Thanks, Ross M.]
Firefox for Mobile makes Maemo its first home originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Confirmed_iPhone_OS_3_2_has_support_for_video_calling_SMS’; The iPad may not have a camera in its current incarnation, but Apple’s at least laying the foundation for one: we just confirmed with extremely trusted sources that iPhone OS 3.2 contains rudimentary support for video calling, which could explain that mysterious space at the top of the device in our leaked pics. We’re told that there are hooks to accept and decline a video conference, flip a video feed (which suggests a front-facing camera) and — most importantly — run the video call in either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen. That means you’ll be able to chat and do other things at the same time, which could mean there’s at least some type of multitasking going on here.
We can also confirm that iPhone OS 3.2 supports file downloads and local storage in the browser, which means you’ll be able to pull files off the web and use them in other apps, and there’s at least the beginnings of SMS support buried within the code — a fact we were able to verify with noted iPhone jailbreaker chpwn, who sent in the above screenshot from a hacked-up copy of the iPad simulator. (The simulator always says “iPhone simulator” in the menu bar, but that’s the iPad.) chpwn also tells us he’s found some inklings of actual phone support, there’s a spellchecker, and that both the new landscape orientation for the homescreen and keyboard support appear to be destined for the iPhone itself when 3.2 comes out.
We’re not sure what any of this means at this point, or if any of it will ever be implemented, but we’re definitely starting to get the impression that Apple didn’t tell us everything there is to know about the iPad on Wednesday — and we’re even more curious to find out what iPhone OS 4.0 will look like when it arrives.
P.S.- chpwn was also able to port iPhone multitasking hacks ProSwitcher and Backgrounder to the iPad simulator, which is certainly going to be useful if an iPad jailbreak exploit is eventually discovered. Check out a shot of it going in the gallery below, along with some other settings panels the coder dug up.
Update: We just got another tip from iPhone jailbreak dev Ryan Petrich, confirming that there’s a spell checker with multiple dictionaries and user-added entries (huzzah!), much richer text support for apps, the ability to selectively draw to external displays (using the VGA or component adapters, we’d imagine), location-aware ads in Maps and possibly other programs that use the Maps API, file upload ability in Safari, a modifiable cut / copy / paste menu, and, most interestingly, prototype support for a “handwriting keyboard.” Maybe we’ll see some stylus action on this thing after all. Peep Ryan’s take after the break.
Confirmed: iPhone OS 3.2 has support for video calling, file downloads, and SMS (update: handwriting keyboard?) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Man, Adobe and its kin are not letting up here. In addition to the company releasing a terse, carefully worded response to the Apple iPad’s apparent lack of Flash, the Flash Blog took a much more truculent approach. Exhibit A: a post entitled “The iPad provides the ultimate browsing experience?” followed by several mockups of sites laden with the infamous Blue Lego Block of Ambiguity[TM]. Adding to the conversation in the comments, Adobe employee / platform evangelist Lee Brimelow accuses Apple of not wanting the Flash player to succeed, and that the company’s tried to work with Cupertino since the iPhone. ”
They don’t want you to go to Hulu or play Flash games because they worry that you won’t buy their apps,” he says. Frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case, and while we understand Adobe’s frustration, this probably isn’t gonna help relations between the two tech firms. Hey Adobe, trust us, we feel your pain — we really want Hulu on the iPad, too.
In other, more amusing news, it seems Apple’s official iPad promo has slipped up a bit in showing off what the tablet can really do. Namely, one clip of the New York Times and an article on 31 places to go in 2010. Here it clearly shows a Flash-based module up top, inaccessible without the plugin. We’re not thinking this is a sign of things to come — if anything, it’s probably just a mistake by the producers. Don’t get your hopes up, folks.
Update: Clarified relation of The Flash Blog to Adobe.
Adobe employee ups passive aggressive stance on iPad while Apple promo forgets its limits originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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By now you’ve probably read more on Apple’s iPad then you ever dreamed possible. In the last few days we’ve covered a lot of angles on the tablet and compiled a lot of data. Still, we felt that we hadn’t given you clear hands-on impressions and collected the myriad details about the device in one, easy-to-reach place. So we’ve decided to bundle all of that info into a single feature, joining our first-hand encounters with the iPad together with all of the data and details you should be aware of — including specs, plans, release schedules, pics, and video. So read on for everything we know (so far) about Cupertino’s first tablet!
Gallery: The Apple iPad
Continue reading Apple iPad: The definitive guide (so far)
Apple iPad: The definitive guide (so far) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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