In what is sure to be the start of a very big trend, JCPenny is announcing their new Facebook application that allows Facebook users to browse and purchase items directly from JC Penny’s Facebook page. Users will be able to browse and search JC Penny’s catalog, as well as “like” products and purchases. I’m not sure I see the point of “liking” your purchase of a new pair of boots, but then again I also don’t use Facebook. More details inside. → Read More
Short Version: Tracking your baby’s daily activities can be a time consuming process, but it yields some interesting and useful data to help you better understand everything that’s going on with your little one. The Onaroo Personal Baby Assistant is a stand-alone gadget to help you record the things your baby does: when and how much she eats, when and how long she naps, and what kind of dirty diapers she makes.
It’s much more convenient than writing the same information down in a log book — especially late at night — and it’s extremely easy to toss into a diaper bag to take with you around town. It might not be the right gadget for folks who fill their smartphones with baby-oriented apps, but it satisfies its niche pretty well. → Read More
I started a new full time job at about the same time that my 2-year AT&T contract ended. My new job provided me with a Blackberry Bold 9700, to chain me to the corporate teat. I opted not to renew my personal AT&T contract, officially retiring my iPhone 3G, as it didn’t make sense to carry two smartphones. The Blackberry is not a perfect device, but I’m wholeheartedly convinced that it’s a terrific smartphone, whereas the iPhone was a neat little computer that could make phone calls. For the most part, my transition to the Blackberry has been pretty smooth. Say what you will about the perils of “living in the cloud”, but apps like Evernote, Dropbox, PogoPlug, and TripIt have made the bulk of my transition relatively painless. I’ve given all my friends and family my Google Voice number, which rings my Blackberry, so no one really needs to know I’ve even changed platforms. → Read More
Isabella Products, the folks that brought you the Vizit interactive picture frame are planning to bring your children a 7″ tablet called the “Fable”. Aside from built-in mobile broadband and a camera, no real technical details are available. The product will incorporate the “carousel” interface used by the Vizit picture frame. Apps include an e-reader with children’s content from Houghton Mifflin, a drawing thingie, games, and a photo sharing thingie. → Read More
Evernote is rolling out version 2 of their app for Android phones, and it represents the biggest update to functionality on any platform in a single release. Updated home screen, tighter integration with the Google Search widget, background synchronization, and simpler sorting with improved views are all great new features, but the most interesting aspect of this update for current Evernote users will be the marked improvement in speed. → Read More
During my brief tour of the HP workstation lab, I was impressed by HP’s engineering history as well as the rigor they apply to testing and integrating hardware components. But as a customer, I know that what happens after the sale is just as important as what happens before the sale. You can have the best engineering discipline in the world, but your products will still wear out, or break, or experience weird and inexplicable failures. Long-term support for a significant financial investment like a workstation is a major consideration for customers. → Read More
When you think about it, building a computer isn’t that difficult today. Intel publishes reference designs for their motherboards, so a lot of the work has been done for you already. But to build a computer that you can guarantee will work in a number of potentially hostile environments requires a deep understanding of computers and electronics, but also requires the resources to test and monitor that computer’s reactions to various inputs. At the HP Workstation Lab in Ft. Collins, CO, every new workstation goes through a battery of rigorous tests to ensure it lives up to the HP name. → Read More
I recently had the pleasure of touring the HP Workstation facility in Ft. Collins, Colorado. I was there with a number of other journalists, both web and print, for a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the construction and support of HP workstations. The word “workstation” is often used interchangeably with the word “computer” in a lot of general conversations, and this is more true than ever with the hegemony of the x86 architecture; but the word “workstation” here describes a very specific class of computer. This is not your day-to-day office desktop for email and word processing. This is not your tricked out gaming rig for eeking out every last frame from World of Warcraft. Workstations are high-performance systems used for intense computing operations: CAD/CAM, medical imaging, scientific modeling, and computer animation, to name just a few. Workstations are used by organizations that rely heavily on their computing power, and for whom systems failure can result in catastrophic loss of productivity. → Read More
Since it’s launch, the PogoPlug has been an interesting little NAS device. The PogoPlug software has been continually updated with new features. There’s a vibrant developer community. And, most interestingly to me, the PogoPlug does not try to hide the fact that it runs Linux; indeed, they even tell you how to SSH into the thing! The recently released business-oriented PogoPlug Biz offered PogoPlug functionality to business users with new sharing controls, multiple users, and usage statistics. And today the PogoPlug Pro is unveiled. This version sports a black case and features built-in wireless networking. At $99, this gadget packs a lot of bang for the buck. → Read More
Do you feel compelled to look at your iPhone while simultaneously using your iPad? Or do you just miss the ability to actually multitask with either of your iDevices? Geeky Gadgets has instructions for making an iPhone dock for your iPad. This allows you to watch a movie on your phone while using your iPad. → Read More
Vinyl is not dead, friends, and the respected record player is not without modern updates. We’ve seen USB turntables before, but turntables have, historically, been pretty large edifices of technology. That changes today with the Crosley Revolution. Stripped of the cabinetry that traditionally accompanies a turntable, the Revolution is portable features a built-in handle, and can run on six AA batteries. It also features an integrated FM transmitter, so you can enjoy that warm vinyl sound on anything with an FM receiver: your fancy audio system at home or that Sansa in your pocket. Coming soon for $150. → Read More
Heading off to college? Here’s my suggestion: buy a used laptop from Craigslist and install Ubuntu onto it. Seriously. You don’t need a new computer for college. If you’re pursuing a liberal arts degree, you really don’t need a brand new computer just to write all the papers you’ll write. If you’re pursuing an engineering degree, the chances are high that your department’s computer labs are better than anything you can buy for yourself. → Read More
The most popular note type created by Evernote users is a webpage. It seems that people love to save webpages in Evernote! Now Evernote is making it even easier for sites to get saved into notes with the announcement of the Evernote Site Memory Button. This is something of a departure from the historical Evernote modus operandi, where the user invokes a client application or opens up the Evernote website: the Site Memory Button is a server-side implementation, and sites that want to use it need to specifically add it. Once added, though, any Evernote user can use the button to add the page to their list of notes. The note will be pre-populated with content selected by the site owner, including title, and even have tags helpfully suggested. → Read More
When I was in high school, “hacking” mostly meant wardialing the local phone numbers looking for BBSes, and occasionally downloading “warez” from the “elite” boards. I have a funny story about the time our own John Biggs wrote a trojan disguised as a blue box program. Mostly, we were killing time and not really doing any of the exploration and investigation commonly associated with the non-pejorative use of the word “hacking”. But things have changed a lot since then, what with the explosion of the consumer Internet, the commoditization of hardware, and the proliferation of open source software giving kids all manner of opportunities to learn the nitty-gritty of computers before they ever have their first kiss. In an effort to nurture kids toward the path of the white hat, NYU-Poly is hosting a suite of cyber-security games as part of their cyber-security awareness week. High school students “from the continental United States are eligible to win cash prizes, scholarships to NYU-Poly and travel grants to attend the final rounds at NYU-Poly’s Brooklyn campus on Oct. 28 and 29, 2010.” → Read More
The e-book world is slowly evolving into a number of fairly similar, homogenized ecosystems. No one wants to be shackled to using a single device to read their e-books: the Kindle is both a device and an app on your smartphone; Apple’s iBook’s is an app on your iPad and your iPhone. And today Kobo is following the trend with the announcement of the Kobo Desktop Application. Like its competitors, the Kobo Desktop Application allows you to consolidate your e-book purchases on your computer, shop for new titles that can be synchronized to your Kobo-powered e-readers, as well as read and bookmark your e-books. → Read More
Despite numerous advancements in printer technology, the fundamental failing of almost every consumer printer on the market today is the necessity to install printer drivers. Usually these drivers are accompanied by all manner of essentially junk software that “helpfully” pop up reminders when your printer is out of ink, or out of paper, or whatever. Hewlett Packard is making what appears to be an honest effort to remedy this situation with their new ePrint solution, as featured in the Photosmart D110a. For a hundred bucks you can email documents to your printer, without loading drivers of any sort. → Read More
StealthArmor, the fancy skin for your iPhone or iPad, is now available in red, pink, blue, yellow, orange, purple and green. I know you’ve been itching for a green iPad. If you want the boring carbon fiber look, you can have it, but that’s pretty old fashioned. We’ve got three to give away to lucky readers! → Read More
San Francisco, CA
