About a month ago, I noticed that several of the major camera companies were putting out some rugged, waterproof, and generally durable cameras, something I’ve always said is a very good thing. Everybody carries around their camera as if it were a three-hundred-dollar egg — why aren’t they sturdier? So now we’ve the fully ruggedized cameras from Casio, Fujifilm, and Olympus, along with the new Playsport pocket camcorder from Kodak. I’ll be subjecting to the usual image quality tests, and also checking their purported rough-and-tumble character. → Read More
The new Facebook for webOS application that launched earlier this month brought a massive overhaul and a laundry list of needed improvements, but it lacked one thing that users have been clamoring for since the beginning: notifications. webOS’ notifications system is one of its greatest strengths, allowing alerts to pop up on screen in a way that is unobtrusive while still allowing the user to quickly jump to the relevant screen if desired. An alert-heavy application like Facebook going sans-notifications definitely dampened the experience a bit. Well, Facebook notifications are coming. In fact, they’re already here, if you’re willing to dabble with Beta software. → Read More
3D is everywhere! There’s no use trying to stop it anymore! Soon we’ll all be wearing silly and expensive glasses just to watch Pat Sajak — or a neurosurgery operation. → Read More
In a post tinged with just a hint of spite, Apple pundit John Gruber has responded to today’s WSJ report of a forthcoming pair of new iPhones, one of which they say is headed for Verizon. His reaction? “Lame.” The reason it’s lame, says Gruber, is that it lacks details. Details which Gruber has. Maybe. → Read More
The first piece of software I ever wrote was on the TRS-80 Model 1. It was called “How To Juggle”, and it had 4K of memory. It was my version of “Hello World”, what every programmer first writes on a new piece of hardware. CLOAD Magazine purchased it for $75, they distributed it to their subscribers on a cassette (there weren’t disks for the TRS-80 yet). It was 1979. I was 15 years old, and I was a software entrepreneur. I still am.
Just five years later, I was an intern at Apple writing some of the first native assembly language on the Mac and working in a building called Bandley 4 with a pirate flag on the roof. Guy Kawasaki hired me to help developers write software on the Mac without using its predecessor, the Lisa (something that had been required when the Mac launched). My first example of how to write for the MDS 68000 development system manifested itself in a video game called “Raid on Armonk.” It was an allusion to IBM’s headquarters. They were the anti-Mac and we clicked and destroyed them. (Turns out they eventually clicked on themselves.) → Read More
While I doubt many of these kids know what they’re singing, it’s nice to see so many young minds perverted by the words of Jonathon Coulton and GLADOS. → Read More
Make magazine has a special place in my heart, partly because I love the crazy stuff they come up with, and partly because they want to help you build the crazy stuff they come up with. When I was a youngster, we made a rudimentary version of a catapult in scouts. Sure, it didn’t work very well, and it was powered by a rubber band made from an inner tube, but you could sure launch a walnut with it. That’s why when I see a kit like this, I’m filled with an overwhelming urge to buy one. → Read More
Consider the iPad OS locked, loaded, and ready to go. A few hours after the first few iPad shipments have trickled into the shipping warehouses, Apple has just released iPhone SDK 3.2 in it’s GM (or “Goldmaster”, a fancy industry way of saying “absolutely final. Like, seriously, seriously final.”) form. → Read More
Stargate shows have always featured aliens, but they weren’t alien-ish for the most part. The story line of SG-1 and Atlantis of course supported the creative (and budget) decision, but SGU is different. This time our cast is exploring exploring the very deepest parts of space and so the aliens should be different. And different they are. → Read More
Got a T-Mobile Cliq? Feeling lucky? Be sure to stick around T-Mobile’s community forum today at around 6 PST. According to our buddies over at TmoNews and this screenshot they obtained, 1,000 quick-fingered Cliq users will be getting early access to a software update that the rest of the Cliq-bearing public won’t see until next week.
Check after the jump for the patch notes. → Read More
I understand the desire to have your computer stuff look good, really I do. But things like this are just silly to me. They are obviously pointed at a market that doesn’t know any better, and buy things based on the appearance rather then the functionality. Brinell, the company that makes these fancy veneer clad drives, has even won a couple of design awards for their form over function. → Read More
There’s a very interesting rumor circulating around out there right now. Apparently, Google is about to announce some sort of new partnership involving its Chrome browser and Adobe’s Flash platform, CNET reported earlier today as a rumor.
Google isn’t talking, but what we’re hearing is that this could be related to the Open Screen Project that Google signed up for late last year. The project, started by Adobe a year ago, aims to give web developers a unified platform for content across a range of devices. The reason Google cares about this is its Android mobile operating system, and undoubtedly its future foray into netbooks with Chrome OS later this year. → Read More
Let’s face it, as our mobile computing devices get smaller and smaller, they get more fragile. To protect our precious gadgets, we wrap them in cushiony cases to protect them from a devastating fall to the ground. But these cases increase the bulk, reducing the convenience of the small form factor. One new option for iPhone — and now iPad — owners is Fusion of Idea’s StealthArmor. → Read More
The rumor mill is churning today as news of a CDMA iPhone running on Verizon will be manufactured by Pegatron in China while a whole new AT&T model, made by Foxconn, will also drop in the summer/fall timeframe. the Journal notes that the two new devices will be exactly the same except, obviously, the CDMA version will lack a SIM card. We’ve seen weird leaks of an iPhone 4G screen – something longer than the current iPhone screen with a front-facing camera – but nothing concrete. We also need to take this with a grain of salt. Asian manufacturers enjoy talking up their connections with certain companies because it gives them a slight boost in the equities markets, so this could be a pump and dump. → Read More
So what to make of this latest Call of Duty rumor? The seventh game in the series will be named Call of Duty: Black Ops, and will take place between the end of World War II and the present day. It won’t necessarily “be” a Vietnam War game, but will have missions that take place all over the world. Remember: it’s being developed by Treyarch (i.e. not Infinity Ward), the same dudes who developed Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War. → Read More
I’ve long suspected that the basic usage pattern for Twitter is that people try it, don’t get it or become discouraged because they don’t know anyone else on it, but it grows on them eventually until they start using it every day. Many people, of course, never come back, but for those who do, they need to get past that familiarity curve before it becomes an essential communications tool.
Now I have some data to back up my theory. Social media analytics company Sysomos just released some data based on its analysis of over one billion Tweets which shows the contribution of updates by how long people have been on the service. The most active users are those who joined Twitter more than nine months ago. They account for 41.6 percent of all Tweets. → Read More
It took a year for anyone to figure out that Forbes (now Newsweek) writer Dan Lyons was the guy behind the Fake Steve Jobs blog. Now, a couple of years later, the blog is still going strong. And it remains very, very funny.
Now Lyons’ success in writing about Steve Jobs may lead directly to the blog being shut down, we’ve heard. → Read More
It was only a few days ago that I mentioned that, you know, your data is never secure. So, this story isn’t surprising at all. It turns out that the records of more than 3.3 million student loans were stolen a few days ago. Data stolen includes names, Social Security numbers, and credit card numbers. Awesome. → Read More
The Wall Street Journal has just published an article that states that Apple is currently working on a new iPhone model to be released this summer. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone (the last three iPhones have all been released during either June or July) but the report also includes one big red juicy tidbit: there’s a CDMA iPhone in the works as well, and it’s scheduled for mass production in September by Pegatron Technology Corp.
CDMA is of course the wireless technology used by Verizon (AT&T and most other operators worldwide use GSM) — it’s the reason you can’t buy an unlocked iPhone and get it working on Verizon. The WSJ’s report notes that these CDMA phones are scheduled to be produced in September, but that it isn’t clear when Apple might make them available. → Read More
It’s no Kindle, but at $149 the Aluratek eBook Reader Pro is a pretty interesting device. It comes with a 2GB card and includes 100 public domain books including Wuthering Heights and The Bible.
It works with PDFs, ePubs, and Mobi files along with standard text files. The whole thing works quite well and it’s a nice, small size, especially for an inexpensive e-reader. It’s definitely a no-frills ereader solution but it may be good for folks who find ebooks online and not through the Kindle store. → Read More
