The price of early adoption is well-known. Just talk to all the people about to receive iPads… in six months, when they release the iPad Video. Electric cars have it just as bad. The EV1 was aborted, the Tesla is expensive as hell, and pretty much everything else has such low production numbers that you could call them limited editions.
The Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt are the front-runners for the first generation of popular, affordable electrics. The Volt’s predicted price is somewhere around $32,500… not exactly a bargain buy. But Nissan just revealed that the price of its electric will be a comparably reasonable $25,000. → Read More
With the apparent lack of Flash on the iPad, video hosting platforms like Brightcove, Ooyala and Kyte are throwing their support for HTML5 playback on the device. Encoding.com, , a SaaS video encoding platform, is also announcing its support for HTTP streaming, to enable streaming of its video on iPhone and iPad devices. → Read More
The maze he’s been running around in for 30 years must be the size of the solar system! And the dots — Asteroids? Another connection! And the ghosts — Space Ghosts! My god, it all makes sense! [via 1up] → Read More
Short version: Nintendo’s new DSi XL is aimed squarely at the older generation of casual gamers. People that appreciate something that’s a little easier to read. The people who wear their reading glasses while they sit down for their morning glass of fiber and read their copy of the AARP Journal. And heaven help me, I like it. → Read More
Back in fall 2008, when the App Store was less than 100 days old, I wrote about an incredibly trippy and innovative application called RjDj (iTunes link). The app is a bit hard to describe, but it essentially takes audio or motion input from your iPhone, passes it through a variety of filters, and outputs music that’s customized to your surroundings (you really need to try it for yourself to see what it’s like). Now, RjDj is taking its application to the next level: the company has released a new desktop app called RJC1000 that allows Mac users to easily build their own reactive music for use on any of RjDj’s growing roster of applications.
To take a step back, when you use RjDj, you listen to what’s called a “Scene” — a combination of filters that determine what your reactive music sounds like. A Scene can pay attention to your iPhone’s microphone, accelerometer (so it can ‘hear’ motion), and even your GPS position. It then interprets those inputs to generate a dynamic music soundtrack. → Read More
The new 1001PX from Asus isn’t particularly noteworthy spec-wise. 250GB hard drive, 1.66GHz Atom processor… you know the drill. But it’s got a matte screen! I really don’t understand why people want these glossy screens so bad. Just give me the option, whether it’s cheaper or more expensive — I’m tired of staring into a mirror-like surface whenever I’m trying to write. Now, if they could just put this on the much-sexier 1005PR… → Read More
The second half of SGU‘s first season starts this Friday. We already know it should be a good one thanks to the MGM teaser showing off that ugly baddie. But some crazy fans might hold off until June 13 when the Blu-ray is released sans all the commericals and probably with high-quality picture and sound. But that’s not me. → Read More
Short version: There’s lots of mass produced, low quality, netbook sleeves and bags out there. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. But what about something made by one guy, his sewing machine, and a dream? Can a home made product sold on the internet hold up to the same standards as products made by Crumpler, or Timbuk2? Can the little guy be competitive in the market with companies that spend more on staples than what he spends on materials a year? I say: yes. → Read More
A few years ago, I was in Paris during the summer, and it was so intolerably hot that I needed to stay in for the middle of the day. My friend Mike, whose family I was staying with, was also there, and just as tired of the heat. We resolved to put our MacBook Pros on an ad hoc network and play through Quake — you know, instead of visiting the Louvre or something. And I recalled then just how awesome that game is. → Read More
Back in September of last year, Starbucks made it possible to pay for your daily caffeine hit with their Starbucks Card Mobile iPhone app. The entire concept is pretty simple: punch in your Starbucks Card info, verify some details, and BAM! The iPhone app becomes the gift card, presenting a secure QR code for the Barista to scan when it comes time to pay up.
Here’s the catch: out of Starbucks’ roughly 74 billion locations, only a few have started accepting the mobile payment system. As in very few. As in sixteen. Until today! → Read More
Before we begin by announcing the winner of the T-Mobile HTC HD2, let’s pour a little out for the smartphoneless. We feel for you. We do. We went through a whole lot of tales of woe. Lots of people literally deserved phones for the trouble they’ve been through and I’m going to encourage T-Mo to go through the comments to address some of the T-Mo customers who feel they’re being unfairly treated. However, we had to pick one and we picked a young man with a sad phone and an even sadder tale of woe. He wrote: My laptop was stolen three weeks ago. I subsequently got food poisoning at Red Lobster. Also subsequently, I was rejected from my transfer college of choice. This week my iPod classic committed suicide from inside my car and leaped onto a major road. Needless to say, it is very, very dead. My phone has no outer shell. It broke last year. I have a skeleton. → Read More
When Steve Jobs tells the technology industry to get in line, it gets in line pretty quick. All the initial hair-pulling and angst surrounding Apple’s decision to not support Flash on the iPad is already mattering less and less. At least for video, most of the major online video platforms such as Brightcove and Ooyala are supporting HTML5 playback in the iPad browser. YouTube might eventually get there as well.
Now Kyte is jumping on the HTML5 bandwagon. Kyte videos will stream in an HTML5 player in the iPad browser using the same embed code that triggers a Flash player on other computers. But Kyte is also going to release a software developer kit (SDK) which will let its media partners create apps specifically for the iPad. The SDK will also let them create versions of the same apps for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. This will replace the iPhone framework Kyte released last year. → Read More
Proving once again that duct tape is capable of almost anything, here’s a little DIY project for you. It looks fairly simple to build your own projector, even if it’s not particularly aesthetically pleasing. → Read More
If you’ll pardon the pun, SimpleGeo has positioned itself well.
With a frenzy of activity surrounding location-based services, more and more startups are launching ideas that rely heavily on location. But implementing location is still a relatively complicated process. And that’s where SimpleGeo comes in.
We’ve written about the service a number of times over the past several months. Basically, they provide the infrastructure and tools to allow other services to add location elements with ease. In fact, since they launched in beta late last year, they already have some 5,000 developers on board using their service. And tomorrow at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, CA, they’re opening up their platform for all to use. → Read More
Short version: The price is right, and it is rugged, but form factor problems may sink this camera’s chances. → Read More
There was a wee bit of chaos amongst iPhone jailbreakers after this morning’s iTunes 9.1 update hit. Seemingly out of nowhere, “tethered” jailbreaks (the slightly-less-convenient type necessary for newer iPhones) stopped working. Panic!
Fortunately, the endlessly resourceful army behind the jailbreaking effort has already isolated the problem, and a fix is in the works. → Read More
Tunes 9.1 just went live. I’m digging through to see what’s new in this version, but iTunes just updated to 9.1. It seems you actually have to go to the Apple.com/itunes site to download it because my System Update and the Update Software command in iTunes didn’t catch it. → Read More
Soldats, je suis contents de vous! EA and DICE just released the second VIP map pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I take it I’m the only person on Planet Earth to buy the game strictly for the single-player mode, but go ahead and have fun without me! → Read More
I’ll keep this short and to the point, if only because I’m sensing the “outrage” surrounding DRM has sorta died down. The movement ran out of fuel, I mean. Anyway, gamers in Australia have been unable to play Settlers 7, which uses that silly DRM nonsense that requires you be to constantly connected to the Internet, because Ubisoft‘s servers have been unreachable. Who saw this coming? Oh, right: everyone but the Ubisoft executives in Paris. /Le sigh. → Read More
