What’s so hard about this, guys? I mean, obviously you can’t make a controller that works with all the games out there, but if you make a good, cheap, basic one, plenty of developers will add a control option that accommodates it. Instead, we get garbage like the Game Grip and this plastic Batarang-looking thing. → Read More
It’s almost January 1st, 2010 and we’ve been mulling over our favorites of 2009 – and the previous decade. Here we present another installment in our “Of the Decade” lists. Winner: Apple iPod and the iTunes Store No matter how you feel about Apple products, there’s no denying that the original iPod – released in October 2001 – made a huge impact on the digital music world. Before the iPod, MP3 players were clunky, had atrocious interfaces, and awful battery life. Geeks like us had the early models from Archos and Diamond but you’d never see a common luddite carrying one around. Then came this stark white, minimalist music player with – GASP! – a wheel? And a program called iTunes that made it easy to transfer music? → Read More
The Xbox Live Arcade port of Perfect Dark still carries that frustratingly (well…) vague “winter 2010″ release date, but we’re beginning to see more and more screenshots trickle out from wherever these things trickle out from. Who knows. Anyhow, there’s a series of new screenshots on some dude’s Photobucket that may interest you. → Read More
January 5. That’s the day we’ll learn all we want to know about the Nexus One. Google didn’t explicitly say anything about the device in its invites today for an “Android press gathering,” but we all know what is coming. And T-Mobile, which will be the initial carrier option for the Nexus One, does too. And while other Android devices such as the G1, the myTouch 3G, and most recently, the Droid have garnered a lot of buzz, the Nexus One could be different. And its unveiling should mark an interesting moment in the brief history of the Android platform.
Google is unveiling the Nexus One just two months (nearly to the day) after the Verizon Droid was released. The Droid, of course, was seen as the Android platform’s Messiah by some, and the one phone that could maybe hold a candle to the iPhone. Sales have been good, and the general consensus is that the phone is a winner. But now, just two months later, we have a new Android phone that by just about every account is better than it. In fact, the only real upsides for the Droid over the Nexus One is that it runs on Verizon’s network, and that it has a physical keyboard. The Verizon point is certainly a fair one — there’s a reason why everyone is clamoring for a Verizon iPhone. But the physical keyboard argument seems moot, as the consensus is that the Droid keyboard is a pretty poor one. → Read More
Try to remember the last time you bought shoes based on a movie or TV show. Judge Dredd boots? No. The Road raggedy bag-shoes? No… You were probably a kid and had a pair with Taz on them. I doubt you’d wear them now, and until today I thought any tie-in shoes or “inspired by” collections were worthless as fashion items. Apparently I was wrong, because Adidas is putting out some Star Wars kicks that are completely brilliant. As of this week you can actually order ‘em, too. → Read More
Back in 2007, we wrote about Groovle, a site that lets you skin Google with your favorite image, and serves results through Google’s Custom Search. It seems that Google wasn’t much of a fan though: the search giant sought to take control over the domain name, alleging that it would confuse users. Today comes word that their request has been denied by the National Arbitration Forum, in what Groovle believes is only Google’s second such defeat.
Google initially sent Groovle an Email on July 29 demanding that they hand the domain over. In response to Google’s initial complaints, Groovle modified the site design to make it more distinct and added a disclaimer to explicitly say it was not affiliated with Google, but that wasn’t enough to placate them. It’s not hard to guess why Google was concerned. Groovle, while not simply a typo away from Google’s name, does share quite a few letters in common, and the primary purpose of the site is to search Google’s index. → Read More
This episode is actually a lot more informative than the first one. Watch and learn, friends. Unless, of course, you’re still boycotting MW2. → Read More
There’s more fallout from that botched Christmas Day terror plot, and it’s something regular readers will be familiar with. It looks like the man who tried to blow up that airplane had explosives stitched into his underpants. The result? A push for more widespread use of those full body scanners we’ve been talking about for some time now. → Read More
Groping women in trains (or anywhere, really) isn’t only happening in Japan, but this country with its big cities with trains that are full of people (=easy bait for gropers) everyday has a particularly big problem with molesters. It’s a crime, and it’s reported 2,000 times yearly to police stations in Tokyo alone, prompting a big Japanese railway operator to think about installing security cameras within trains in order to catch gropers just recently. → Read More
Students at the University of Colorado at Boulder will soon be constructing a tiny spacecraft to observe space weather in the near-Earth orbit. The project is funded by a $840k grant from the National Science Foundation and is just the latest project in a long line of student-built spacecraft over the last 50 years for LASP, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. → Read More
For developers, the Web is increasingly becoming a rich trove of data which can be plucked and used as the foundation to build new services and applications. The data on the Web is becoming increasingly accessible through application programming interfaces (APIs), and some of the richest APIs come from the biggest sites on the Web: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. But just as these APIs give life to tens of thousands of developers, they can also be limiting. Ron Ilan, the developer and entrepreneur behind the children’s video site Totlol, learned the hard way that if you live by the API, you can also die by the API.
Totlol is a site filled with children’s’ videos from YouTube curated by parents. Think of it as a safe, white-listed, children’s version of YouTube. It is built entirely on top of YouTube’s APIs. But a change in the terms of service (TOS) of those APIs caused Ron to shut down the free version of his site six months ago and move to a subscription model which never really became a going concern.
Ron clearly blames YouTube for his woes. → Read More
If you saw the post yesterday about the 10-port USB hub and thought to yourself, “We’re getting there but I still need MORE!” then here’s your answer. It’s a 24-port USB hub. If 24 ports isn’t enough for you then I give up. → Read More
Everybody has a damn iPhone app nowadays, and why should NCAA programs be any different? Row27 Studios, a design firm that has 58 NCAA clients including the Cal Bears, UNC Tar Heels and Florida Gators, has begun to fill that void. They’ve created an iPhone app that is perfect for University sports programs, and provides them with a way of reaching their fans through the mobile device we all know and love (or not). They launched their first app for the University of Kansas Jayhawks, and it boasts great features such as live scoring, RSS feeds of team news and a couple cool minigames to occupy you during half-time. The Kansas Jayhawks app is just the first iteration of this platform, which can be re-purposed for any other NCAA sports program. According to Creative Director Jonathan Dusing, due to Row27′s close relationships with other NCAA sports teams, their iPhone app will probably soon be appear under many other college sports names. → Read More
LCD TVs have taken over the world. Market research firm DisplaySearch estimates in a new report that of the 205 million total TVs shipped in 2009, 140.5 million, or 69 percent, were LCD TVs (the rest were plasma and CRTs). In 2010, that percentage is forecast to rise to 78 percent for LCD TVs, when total shipments will rise to 218 million.
Total TV shipments have actually been on the decline since mid-2008 as demand for older CRT TVs plummeted. Only in the third quarter did the increase in shipments of LCD TVs make up for the decline in other kinds of TVs. For the year as a whole, DisplaySearch still expects a 1 percent decline in shipments in 2009, followed by a 6 percent increase in 2010.
Worldwide TV revenues fell an estimated 10 percent to $101 billion, from $112 billion in 2008. But revenues are expected to rise in the first quarter of 2010 for the first time in six quarters. → Read More
Guys! Sshhhhh! Listen. It was Linus “Linux” Torvalds birthday yesterday and we forgot to buy him a present. What we need to do is give him so more market share in the desktop OS market so here’s what we’re going to do: we’re all going to install and learn out to use Linux, even you guys back there running Windows 7. Just free up a little disk space – maybe delete a DLL? – and install something like Ubuntu or the like. → Read More
As more and more social app directories launch, data concerning the most shared and recommended mobile apps is beginning to emerge. We recently wrote about Chorus, an iPhone app that helps you discover other apps, which revealed the most recommended apps from their community. Today, Mplayit, a recently launched Facebook app that allows users to discover, share and recommend a variety of mobile apps, is releasing a list of its most shared apps on the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Mobile (Java) devices.
Mplayit’s directory of apps includes a dedicated page for each app where Mplayit will post videos of the app (created either by the developer or pulled from YouTube), a detailed description of the app and reviews. You can also click to buy the app from various app markets, including Apple’s App Store and the Android Market. Once you start clicking on various app and downloading apps, Mplayit will begin to recommend apps to you based on your behavior on the site. And you can share apps on Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page also shows the activity that’s taking place in other app marketplaces, such as Apple’s App Store or the Android Market, to show users what apps are receiving the most downloads, reviews and more. Users will also be able to see the “apptivity” within their social network, so they can clearly see what apps their friends and family are most interested in. → Read More
My penmanship is withered chicken scratch thanks to years of paperless endeavors, but this bullet pen looks intriguing for the two or three times each year that I need to write something down on paper. → Read More
There have been whispers around the rumor mill for roughly a week now that Google was planning on throwing a press shindig right before CES – and sure enough, the invites just went out. → Read More
Oh boy, here’s the perfect digital photo frame for grandma, grandpa, or anyone else who’s deathly afraid of technology. Aside from the $200 price tag, it’s actually not a bad idea. It’s a digital photo frame with an integrated 4×6 photo scanner. → Read More
Get ready for the USB 3.0 flash drive enslaught. PQI has launched its first salvo and it looks mighty strong. The Cool Drive U366 comes equipped with a 64GB capacity and speeds up to 5Gbps/sec. That’s ten times faster than USB 2.0, kiddies. Previously the only way to get that type of speed on a portable drive is to opt for an eSATA flash drive — if you can find one — and even then, most aren’t as fast as this drive from PQI. → Read More
