Hate it when leechers ruin your BitTorrent experience? A Harvard team has developed a client called Tribler that rewards uploaders with faster download speed and punishers leechers with death. Wait, hold on… No, not death, but with slower downloads. My mistake. The system introduces a sort of currency concept to downloading. Called “TV watching minutes” (damn that needs a better name), users would earn “minutes” by uploading a lot. Conversely, you’d “spend” your “minutes” whenever you download. Easy peasy, to quote Joel Johnson. Tribler [Harvard via The Beeb] → Read More
The iPhone’s touch screen is old news by now, so it’s time to move on to the next big thing, right? Of course it is. Sharp’s announcement of its latest LCD touch screen is making a few ripples and for good reason. This here touch screen is a mere 1mm thick, has optical sensors built into each pixel of the LCD and it has a scanner function. All of this on top of the multi-touch functionality we’ve all grown to love. Samples are being shipped out this September with production gearing up in the Spring. Press Release → Read More
Eli Whitney brought interchangeable parts to the U.S. a few years ago, condemning the South to an agriculture-based economy for much of its history. I doubt Whitney had spiffy-looking headphones in mind back then, though. From Sleek Audio comes the SA6 In-Ear Monitors, a pair of $250 headphones that use interchangeable parts. As the easy-to-follow diagram shows, you’re able to replace five parts including the tip and driver. This system makes is so that you can totally customize your music-listening experience. Listening to hip-hp or house and need more bass? Or what about jazz and rock, where the highs are a little more important? (I think— I’m pretty much exclusive to DJ mixes these days.) Just switch the desired port to your liking—Sleek will sell treble and bass tips alongside the SA6′s release—and you’re good to go. The headphones will be available something in the third quarter. If you pre-order them now you’ll save $30. Product Page [Sleek Audio via New Launches] → Read More
Shure’s headphones have been a popular upgrade for those crappy earbuds that came with your music player. But now that the E series has become the company’s professional line, the consumer-focused SE line has been lacking a counterpart to the $99 E2c — until now. The SE110 rounds out the bottom end of the price spectrum, and it holds up pretty well against the competition in the sub-$100 in-ear headphone category. But it has a few tricks up its sleeve that push it over the top, unless you’re the type of listener who absolutely needs pummeling bass. → Read More
I thought the ad I saw in London for the RAZR 2 was a bit much, but this is over the edge. The RAZR 2 will not get you laid nor will it incite a Bruce Lee inspired fight scene with a really hot chick. ‘Sharper Than Ever’, huh? How about lamer than ever. The music is good, Shiny Toy Guns, and the girl is hot, so I guess it’s par for the course. → Read More
You know how when you watch TV and the characters are clearly using an Apple laptop, but the distinctive piece of fruit is taped over or turned into a different fruit? (Drake and Josh uses a pear, for example.) Now, with a little elbow grease and the patience of a saint you’ll be able to carve your own fruit logo (or whatever else you want). Here, you’ll find the step-by-step directions needed to create and cut out your logo of choice. So when you head back to campus next week, you won’t be another dope with an Apple on your laptop; no, you’ll be the dope with the banana on it. Banana PC – Custom Laptop Logo [Instructables via MAKE] → Read More
Opera sure knows how to make a snazzy web browser. I know I love using it on my Helio devices and apparently even Sidekick users can get a taste if they’re in the developer community. So it’s nice to know that v2 of the 4.0 aka Dimension is now readily available. So what’s the fuss? Well, there’s now a landscape mode that rivals that of the Safari browser on the iPhone. The start page has gone all multi-search allowing for searches on multiple search engines. Redundant much? Crackberry users are getting a customized UI and enhanced support. Oh no they didn’t? Oh yes they did. Get it via your Java-enabled phone here. → Read More
Amazon looks to be getting into the digital music game, with the New York Post of all organizations claiming that the Web retailer will launch an online music store the week of September 17. That specific date is tentative, by the way. The store will have support from two of the Big Four record labels—Universal and EMI. (There will also be plenty of independent labels.) You’ll notice a lack of Sony BMG and Warner. That’s because that latter two still insist that their music be wrapped up in DRM, something the Amazon store won’t have. I repeat, the Amazon store won’t have any DRM; the songs will be DRM-free MP3s. That’s what the reports indicate, at least. → Read More
DivX and D-Link have mashed up to produce the D-Link DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player. WTF is that? It’s quite simple really, DivX Connected is being touted as a powerful, easy-to-use open platform that will allow you to stream your HD content from your PC to your TV thus making your already couch potato lifestyle complete. DivX Connected includes built-in support for Stage6 in case you were wondering. Again, we’re being screwed as the D-Link DSM-330 whatchamacallit is being launched in Germany, France and the UK sometime in the latter quarter of this year. DivX Connected [via Press Release] → Read More
When humankind first climbed out of the primordial sludge, they had a lot to do. They had to make the wheel, the breathstrip, and the airplane almost immediately, not to mention the codification of thoughts and actions through the written word and the codification of hotness through porn and Grey’s Anatomy. In all honesty, we haven’t had much time between now and then to make a Brush and Rinse toothbrush, but I’m glad that someone has finally put curing cancer aside for this pressing matter. → Read More
Hmmm. Not sure what to think about this one. Amazon has been known to leak many a thing, but they’ve also been known to make a snafu here and there. Apple seriously doesn’t think people will be paying $600+ for a new iPod, right? Why the difference in price between white and black? What say ye? Amazon Gives Away New iPod Pricing? [9to5Mac] → Read More
Grab ‘em while you can Great, another edition of “My member is bigger than your member.” NBC and Apple agreed to part ways last night, with NBC refusing to cede to Apple’s demands as it relates to publishing its high art on iTunes. In other words, you’ll no longer be able to download NBC shows off iTunes once December rolls around. (The previous contract runs through December.) Way to look out for the customer, guys. → Read More
I recently had the opportunity to try out a prototype of the upcoming flagship earphones from Ultimate Ears, the outrageously pricey UE-11 Pro‘s. For $1150, you get four drivers — including a subwoofer — in each custom-molded plastic earpiece, complete with custom artwork (see mine above). What you also get is a trip to the audiologist to get molds made of the insides of your ear canals, which is a pretty bizarre and… er… violating experience. Here’s a first-hand account of the UE custom experience, plus a look at how other companies do it. → Read More
We’re getting word that social bookmarking site Moblised has re-launched, or should we say re-launchised. The site will allow users to submit and tag links in various ways, while others can vote, comment and save to their favorites. In the future tag links can even be shared with friends, and of course the emphasis of all this is on the mobile Web, so users are “encouraged” to avoid those (i.e. bury) sites not viewable on mobile devices. Mobilised with have integration with Twitter, and users can submit and tag stories directly from a handset’s browser via SMS. Additionally users can search for links and sort the latest submissions. To vote on a site or bury it is allowed without login/authentication, but could be removed if abused. Not that we expect that to ever happen. Abuse in a social networking site, please! This is a site that might appeal to those that love to run with the crowd, but whether Mobilised will appeal to the masses still needs to be seen. Mobilised → Read More
This Labor Day weekend marks the 15th anniversary since I moved to New York City from the Midwest. In that time I’ve seen stuff that you’d only see in New York (or maybe Las Vegas or Venice Beach). In that time I’ve seen the rolling blading nuns, the jogging Elvis and a sad homeless woman whose only attire were garbage bags (the final one I’ve heard is a hoax, she’s really just scamming for the money). And I should add this isn’t during the infamous Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village. This is every day stuff that you see in New York, like the guys with fly fishing pools in Central Park – who happen to be nowhere near any water. In other words this is the stuff that makes me wish I had a camera with me. Thanks to my mobile phone, I do carry around a 2megapixel digital camera, but showing off the images to my friends is tedious. But today we at MobileCrunch heard about Phoja. This is a free “social photos discussion” site, where I can share the photos and then discuss with the rest of the community. Photos can be posted from a Web site as well, but the real key for people like me is that photos can be sent from a handheld. OK, sure we’ll see more photos of celebrities without their panties on. Who cares? I’m more excited that people will finally believe that I saw a guy who looked like he was wearing a South American dictator’s uniform while riding a three-speed bike. The generalismo might be in exile and waiting for his chance to return to power, and has to stay in shape for his eventual return. That’s my theory anyway. And now I’ll be able to see what others think as well. Phoja → Read More
Casio is using this year’s IFA trade show to almost unveil an experimental new digital camera. Preliminarily part of the Exilim line, Casio claims the camera will be able to shoot six-megapixel images at 60 frames per second. Not only that, but that it’ll be able to record VGA-quality video at 300 frames per second. And here I thought the human eye was unable to distinguish the difference between 30 and 60 frames per second, though seasoned first person shooter players may argue differently. → Read More
iPod Speaker Goes Retro German Restaurant Boots Waitstaff, Goes Completely Automated Dorktastic Wedding Cakes Pictavision Teleprint Review Wii-like Skateboard: Is The Term ‘Sidewalk Surfer’ Still Used? → Read More
Seems there’s a new epidemic going around at big box retailers that involves bilking people out of $30. Sales reps at Best Buy and Circuit City have been telling digitally impotent customers that they’d be wise to pony up some extra dough for recovery CDs — CDs that would cost twice as much from the manufacturer and can’t be made by the customers themselves. Birdshit. You can make the CDs yourself and it’s as easy as falling in love. As someone who’s worked in sales and/or tech support for Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA, I feel qualified to speak on the subject of how retailers encourage their salespeople to go about cheating you out of your hard earned money. Here are a few tips to help you avoid getting ripped off at stores like these. → Read More
Comments are the greasy oil that keeps the blog machine running. Here are three great (and 100% unedited) comments recently posted by your fellow readers. → Read More
Yahoo is reported to be working on a new social networking service that matches college students to employers. Yahoo Kickstart give users profile pages which are focused on the user’s resume, LinkedIn style, as opposed to a Facebook or MySpace profile. Corporations and wannabe employers are then provided with groups that users can join, but with a catch: to join a group you need an invite via a former student who works at that company. For those users who would prefer something a little more social, University pages are open to all students and include discussion forums, bulletins and events. According to CNet, Yahoo Kickstart is currently a concept only and may or may not see the light of day, either as a stand alone product or as part of an existing Yahoo property such as 360. Yahoo’s has been trying to deal itself in to the hot social networking space for some time, but with little or no success. The Yahoo 360 blogging come social networking product never took off and Yahoo failed to acquire Facebook. There were even rumors that Yahoo was trying to buy Bebo in May. More recently Yahoo was rumored to be working on a social networking product by the name of Yahoo Mosh. → Read More
