Archive

Archive for April, 2009

iPod nano GPS hack ensures that you and your MP3s make it home safely

April 30th, 2009 23:57

We've seen iPod hacks run the gamut, from the useful to the just plain absurd, but no matter how rough around the edges such a project may seem, we always get a kick out of the ingenuity and hard work involved. Today's DIY wonder comes from a cat named Benjamin Kokes, who's using his engineering chops to put together a GPS peripheral for the iPod nano. As the project stands right now, he's taken a reference board sporting a Nemerix GPS and written a screen driver for it, allowing it to do its thing on the handheld. Apparently, all this bad boy is capable of doing right now is finding a satellite and displaying your latitude and longitude -- but we'd like to see your old nano do that! Hit the read link for the whole, sordid tale in geek-tastic detail, or to speak with the developer if you'd like to give this a shot your own self. Tell him Engadget sent you.

[Via Technabob]

Filed under: GPS, Portable Audio

iPod nano GPS hack ensures that you and your MP3s make it home safely originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fuente: Engadget

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone

Apple Netbook Concept

April 30th, 2009 23:16

Check out this Apple netbook concept that looks set to move a gazillion units if it were ever to be released, so hopefully some boffin from Cupertino would be reading this and head straight to the drawing board to come up with something similarly stunning. The concept will boast a portable Home directory, where your entire Home folder is stored in a cloud on Apple's servers. Files that are most frequently accessed will be cached locally, and it will be powered by the iPhone OS which ought to be sufficient for everyday use. You can also dock the Apple netbook to recharge it as well as increase its flexibility with a whole host of USB and FireWire ports thrown in for good measure. There is also an option to connect a keyboard if you want to do a fair bit of typing on this. Anyone wishes this is a concept device that ought to see the light of day?

Permalink: Apple Netbook Concept from Ubergizmo | Cheap | Hot: Apple's Netbook | Hot (FR): Test du Palm Pre


Fuente: Ubergizmo

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone

Nokia Takes A Beating Online About Slow N97 Processor

April 30th, 2009 21:55

Nokia is feeling the heat today when people on all sides lashed on the Arm11 434Mhz that it is using in the flagship N97 phone. Given the high tag price of the device ($600 without contract?), critics are right to complain the Arm11 architecture is quite old, I think that PDAs actually ran with that a while back. Now we usually don't care about the Mhz themselves, but there's one thing that is intolerable: a non-responsive phone.

Nokia might work some magic to avoid having a sluggish phone, but it seems difficult at this point and their hardware isn't helping for sure. The iPhone is currently using a 667Mhz Arm-based CPU.

Permalink: Nokia Takes A Beating Online About Slow N97 Processor from Ubergizmo | Cheap | Hot: Apple's Netbook | Hot (FR): Test du Palm Pre


Fuente: Ubergizmo

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone

Switching to a Mac: One Month In [Mac Vs Pc]

April 30th, 2009 17:00

About a month ago, after multiple laptop disasters that in all likelihood were my fault, I decided to switch to a Mac after a lifetime of PC use. How's it been?

It's been pretty good. Here's a quick rundown of some of my experiences.

• Expose and Spaces are great for someone who usually has over a dozen windows and programs open at once. Having Photoshop isolated to its own space to reduce clutter is great, and being able to swipe down and see everything at once is also really nice. One issue I've run into, however, is that spaces makes dragging and dropping across programs harder. Sure, you can drag down to the icon, but if I want to drag album artwork from Firefox into the proper section of iTunes rather than importing the image, I can't do it across spaces. Not a huge deal, however.

• I really like the multitouch trackpad...most of the time. It's great for using expose and for right-clicking with two fingers, but it also often misfires, especially in programs like Photoshop. Photoshop thinks I want to rotate the image every damned time I put more than one finger on the trackpad. This gets very annoying.

• Some functions and options are just buried way too deep. For example, whenever I plug my iPhone in, iPhoto opens. I in no way want this to happen. In order to turn this off, I had to Google it and get instructions from a message board. It involved fiddling with the Image Capture app, which is not really that intuitive. How would a non-expert figure this out?

• One of my favorite programs is Connect 360, which serves media to my Xbox 360 from my MBP. It's actually amazingly ironic that this works so much better on a Mac, seeing that Microsoft makes the Xbox 360. But I tried multiple times to do this on my PC, and it always involved downloading new versions of Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player, getting codes from my Xbox and putting them into my computer and multiple restarts. Even then, it never worked. For $20 I bought Connect 360 and it was working in 3 minutes. Microsoft, what the hell are you doing that this is the case?

• Growl is a nice little notification service that lets programs deliver pop-up messages in a way that's unified across the system. It's great for stuff like the Gmail notifier, but a lot of apps abuse this thing. No, Last.fm, I don't want a pop-up notification every time a new song starts. Annoyingly enough, you can't control these notifications inside the preferences of the apps that use it. Instead, you need to go to System Preferences and go to Growl's pane. Not a huge annoyance, but I had to search around through all of Last.fm's menus before trying a different approach. Not too intuitive.

• Every single Mac app costs money. Where's the freeware on Macs? On the PC, I used Texter to create macros for things I type a lot, which is free. On the Mac, there's TextExpander, and it's $30. There are loads of free FTP clients for the PC. On Mac, you use Transmit, and it's $30. Tweetie is a nice enough Twitter client, but it sure isn't $15 worth of nice. TextMate is a great, robust text editor, but no text editor is worth $54.

Paying $30 for one app that provides a great value is fine, but paying $30 each for 10 basic apps that aren't all that important on their own adds up pretty fast.

Overall, the learning curve on the switch was really gentle. I feel like I've figured out most of the important stuff, and I've been enjoying my experience for the most part. But the fact remains that this was a damned expensive computer. MacBook Pros start at a solid $2,000. Is it worth it in this recession?

I'd say that if you are happy with your PC and don't have any serious issues, no. There's no real reason to justify the switch and the difference in price. But if you're sick of your PC, are curious or just feel like switching things up, I haven't run across any dealbreakers that would make a former Windows user run for the hills. It's a slick machine that's very stable and has lots of nice perks, but switching isn't going to change anybody's life all that much.



Fuente: Gizmondo

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone

Apple Is Serious About Gaming: Steals Xbox Senior Director of Strategy [Apple]

April 30th, 2009 16:50

Anybody who said Apple wasn't serious about gaming can swallow their pundit nuggets right now: They just hired Richard Teversham, Xbox Europe's (now former) senior director of business, insights and strategy.

It's especially interesting when you take into consideration Apple's other recent major hire, ATI's former graphics CTO, the guy who designed the GameCube's graphics card.

For the love of all that is holy and Jobsian, however, it doesn't mean they're going to make a MacBoxStationCube 1080—the iPhone (and maybe that tablet/pad thing) is Apple's gaming platform. 15 of the top 20 paid apps of all time are games. There are over 9,000 games in the App Store. And there are 37 million iPod touches and iPhone out there—still below the PSP's 50 million and the DS's 100 million, but consider these are consoles that have been out at least twice as long as the iPhone platform.

It's not just the numbers, either. The argument that the production value of games doesn't match those on on the PSP or DS, is slowly becoming more irrelevant—not simply because extremely short-form gaming, which the iPhone handily beats the PSP and DS at, is becoming more interesting, but because the iPhone is picking up fare like Metal Gear Solid Touch, even if hardcore gamers can't replace their dedicated portable consoles yet. (Bad sign though: I'm a huge gamer, but haven't touched my DS Lite in months. I do play an iPhone game at least a couple minutes every day I'm on the move.)

Apple's got a very real gaming platform, they've got their own chips in place, and now they have a legit gaming strategist. If Nintendo and Sony weren't concerned at all previously, I imagine at least a bead or two of sweat is dripping down their forehead now, even if direct, bloody conflict between their consoles and the iPhone is still a generation or two away. [MCV via 9to5Mac]



Fuente: Gizmondo

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone

NEWS: £23k iPhone gets solid gold back

April 30th, 2009 16:22

When plating just isn't enough...

Just plating something in precious metals isn't enough to grab headlines anymore evidently, as one Liverpool-based designer has taken an iPhone to the next level. ...

Read £23k iPhone gets solid gold back on Pocket-lint now

Fuente: Pocket-lint

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone

Ericsson hit by losses at Sony venture

April 30th, 2009 16:00
World's leading maker of mobile phone equipment reported a sharp fall in first quarter net income as it absorbed losses from its joint venture with Sony that makes mobile phones

Market Economy

Fresh gains add to markets rally

April 30th, 2009 16:00
A powerful rebound in the world's stock markets gained fresh impetus in spite of poor economic data, deteriorating company results and the threat of a swine flu pandemic

Market Economy

NEWS: GEAR4 launches CMD-100 micro system

April 30th, 2009 14:45

CD player with iPod dock

GEAR4 has announced the first of a new "diversified product range" for the company, the CDM-100, a CD micro system with dock for iPod and as well as an FM/AM radio. ...

Read GEAR4 launches CMD-100 micro system on Pocket-lint now

Fuente: Pocket-lint

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone

NEWS: Palm prepping Mini-Pre for autumn launch

April 30th, 2009 12:32

Pre-Nano could compete with iPhone Lite

Palm launched the Pre and its WebOS as a platform, as well as a smartphone, so it's hardly surprising to hear that the company has plans for a second model, although what might raise eyebrows is that it's due as early as autumn. ...

Read Palm prepping Mini-Pre for autumn launch on Pocket-lint now

Fuente: Pocket-lint

Gadgets: iPod + iPhone