4 years ago, a Verizon customer signed up for a plan. Said plan included 2 years of free data usage, which the customer did take advantage of, and use to tether his laptop. Then one day, disaster! → Read More
While cool, I dunno that I’d recommend wearing this very often. Particularly around law enforcement, since the bottle opener ring could definitely be mistaken for brass knuckles. → Read More
So this evening I’m going to take a shower and I grab my Zune HD to plug into my little shower speakers. Upon plugging it in, it begins playing immediately. I hit the screen on button and it alerts me of a low battery. I realized then that it had been playing continuously for the last 25 or 26 hours, since I unplugged the audio cord after I took a shower yesterday, expecting it to automatically pause (as it usually does). And I used it for a 2-hour drive home the day before! We’re looking at nearly 30 hours of play and it’s still going right now. Just had to share that. → Read More
At long last, a way to write off that paintball gun you’ve always wanted as “art supplies.” → Read More
After her quick appearance yesterday, everybody’s favourite Korean vanilla Android QWERTY handset, the LG Ally, has made her public début in an Iron Man 2 themed commercial.
There’s explosions. Boom! There’s weapons! Bam! There’s some hot Iron Man action! (that came out wrong…)
Check it out, after the break. You’ll love it. → Read More
After acquiring Tweetie, so they can launch an official Twitter app for iPhone, and after working with RIM to make an official Twitter app for BlackBerry, Twitter have now released an official app for Android.
Sadly, it is only compatible with Android 2.1 devices — the unfortunate side-effect of Android’s break-neck pace of development.
The app actually looks really good, both visually and feature-wise. → Read More
This device works like a teleprompter to redirect the image from a webcam so you can maintain eye contact. Just the thing for Chatroulette. → Read More
Why backlight when you can just glow? Sure, it needs to be light first… self-defeating, you say? Your face is self-defeating! → Read More
Earlier today Twitter released its official Twitter app for Android — a move that’s been expected since CEO Ev Williams announced that it was coming during Twitter’s Chirp conference. In our post, we mentioned that this was only going to be available for Android 2.1, and as others have pointed out, that means we have another case of Android’s lingering fragmentation problem rearing its ugly head. But just how bad is it? We don’t have to guess.
Two weeks ago, Google updated the Platform Versions section of the official Android website, which gives the most accurate breakdown of Android fragmentation you’re going to find — it looks at how many devices running each version of the OS have accessed the official Android Market. → Read More
We’ve been tracking super-simple publishing service Posterous for quite a while now, and for the most part they’ve turned us into big fans. Unfortunately, they’ve just committed a fairly serious blunder. In a post earlier today, one Posterous user stumbled across the fact that his site was automatically converting all of his links to affiliate links using VigLink. There isn’t anything sinister about VigLink — the service helps publishers generate revenue without having to manually insert affiliate links themselves, and has received funding from Google Ventures, First Round Capital, and some prominent angel investors. But Posterous neglected to inform its users that it was starting to monetize all of their links, which is a breach of user trust.
Co-founder Sachin Agarwal agrees — in a phone interview he conceded that Posterous should definitely have informed users about the change (they’re currently drafting a statement about the incident). Agarwal says that Posterous has actually been testing the VigLink integration for months, which means the links have gone unnoticed for quite a while. → Read More
Today in the U.S. people are getting their hands on the 3G version of the iPad for the first time. The hardware is supposed to be exactly the same as the WiFi-only version except, of course, it has a cell chip in it to receive data over AT&T’s 3G network when you’re not connected to WiFi. Since the hardware is basically the same, all the apps should function the same, right? Wrong.
Reports are already coming in that some of the most popular iPad apps — the ones that stream video — are being restricted on the new iPad 3G. Specifically, the YouTube app scales videos down to a “dramatically lower resolution over the cellular data connection,” according to iLounge. Worse, the ABC Player apparently won’t work at all unless you connect to a WiFi network, as a pop-up message informs the user. But apparently iTunes Store streaming video previews are working just fine in full resolution. No word on the Netflix app just yet. → Read More
Season one of Stargate Universe is wrapping up in the next few episodes. We’ve seen aliens, space battles, and more recently, huge eff’n spiders. Last week’s episode wasn’t too bad and tonight we’ll see if Eli, Matt, Chloe and Greer make it back to the ship. Up top is the trailer to get you pumped and below is a teaser trailer that shows a couple of plot twists if you’re into spoilers. → Read More
Been reading up on all the fun you can have with a jailbroken device, but were afraid your iPad 3G might be unhackable? Fear not. The “Spirit” jailbreak should work on the iPad 3G, just as soon as @comex releases a revision for the firmware shipping with the 3G. Just be sure to back up your blobs. That part seems to be very important. [via Gizmodo] → Read More
Roger Ebert. I love the guy, but love can be complicated. I respect and admire so much about him, from his honest take on movies to his courageous embrace of technology to replace his voice, that I feel obligated to give anything he says a fair shake. But his recent dismissal of games as art, and this attack on 3D cinema, demonstrate a curmudgeonly side of him that I wasn’t aware of (I’m well aware of my own). Nicholas already addressed the former position with aplomb, and I’m about to address the latter, not as a mere fan of 3D cinema (far from it) but as an evangelist for technology in general. → Read More
There isn’t any info on how this was pulled off, but this looks like a great way to play a few old-school games on my G1. Presumably it’s a straightforward mechanical hack: the buttons just press down on keys he’s designated in the emulator to do this or that. Not the best option for texting, but for Mario, it can’t be beat. Hard keyboard forever! [via Reddit and Make] → Read More
Yup, you read that right. An aftermarket iPad dash mount is coming real soon and we have a video demo. → Read More
If you notice this screen, adding 3G a la carte to the iPad is all or nothing. Either your account will automatically debit itself monthly for 250MB – or unlimited – or you’ll have to cancel the account and re-enter your information. It’s a pretty dire choice.
We have more images from the 3G set-up over at the original unboxing. → Read More
If you have 30 minutes to burn this Friday — and I know you do — watch these three videos on the North Korean film industry. → Read More
The online advertising industry saw growth accelerate in the first quarter, with the combined advertising revenues of the four largest players (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL) jumping almost 15 percent to $8.8 billion. This compares to 10 percent annual growth in the fourth quarter, and negative growth the first two quarters of last year (aka, the Great Advertising Recession of 2009).
Overall growth would have been even stronger if AOL didn’t have such a rough quarter. It was the only one of the four companies to show a decline in advertising revenues, down 19 percent. Google’s ad revenue was up 21.5 percent, Microsoft’s was up 8.8 percent, and Yahoo’s was up 3 percent (although the display portion was up 20 percent). As a result of AOL’s poor showing, the combined $8.8 billion total was down 2.6 percent from the fourth quarter’s $9 billion → Read More
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