On this week’s installment of the Digital City, we discuss the Facebook koobface virus, PlayStation Home’s launch, sleazy old ’80s urban video game arcades, tech blog Gizmodo’s cool NYC retro gadget gallery, our New Year’s resolutions, and (seriously) Dance Dance Revolution: The Musical.
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Originally posted at Digital City Podcast
*From the Free MP3 archive* Hailing from the flats of Omaha, Neb., Conor Oberst delivers angst-filled songs with a quavering-yet-melodic lyrical style. He has the range to captivate a festival crowd with just his voice and an acoustic guitar as well as engage his dedicated following with a full-on band….
Originally posted at Crossfade
It’s been a long, long while since we’ve heard the words HP MediaSmart, and in fact, the last mention that was made wasn’t exactly positive. HP’s looking to put the past away and forge ahead with two new ones in the line: the Mac-friendly ex485 and ex487. Both devices are (of course) based on Microsoft’s Windows Home Server platform, and just like their predecessors, these are meant to automatically backup machines around the home and act as a network-accessible repository for all things media. The pair features HP’s Media Collector (used to schedule, copy and centralize digital files from networked PCs) and also acts as an iTunes server and an external backup device for Macs running Leopard and using Apple’s Time Machine software. As for specs, you’ll find a 2GHz Celeron CPU in each with 2GB of DDR2 RAM, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA jack and four internal HDD bays. The February-bound duo can be pre-ordered on January 5th for $599 (ex485; 750GB) / $749 (ex487; 1.5TB), and each can be scaled up to 9TB. Full release is after the break.
Continue reading HP debuts Mac-compatible MediaSmart ex485 / ex487 home servers
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage
HP debuts Mac-compatible MediaSmart ex485 / ex487 home servers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Here’s the new iPhone Pro, something that we don’t expect at MacWorld 2009 at all. However, we do expect something like this to come at a later date. Why? Because it just makes sense.
Click on image above for higher resolution version
This concept started as a Photoshop idea by Giz reader Mat Brady. He wants to get rid of his Nokia N95 but can’t get himself to buy an iPhone for the same reason other people don’t like the current iPhone. Lack of a physical keyboard, lack of a good camera, and not enough storage.
I’ve an iPhone 3G. I love it. In fact, now that I’m in Spain and I can’t use the 3G—because AT&T will nail me for the data roaming at a buck per megabyte—I miss a lot of things, from Maps to Facebook. But even while I can’t live without it, I can see those shortcomings. In fact, I’ve bitched about the camera and the storage quite a few times. Mat made his concept and called it iPhone Elite: an iPhone with 60GB of storage, true 16:9 aspect ratio, slide-out keyboard, one megapixel front camera for iChat, and a high quality camera, with good lenses, optical zoom, and video capability.
That’s good, but we thought it could be a bit better. We fixed the keyboard to make it more rational and compact, losing some unneeded keys. With the space, we added what it’s really needed to make the iPhone a true Nintendo DS competitor: A direction pad and two buttons. For the D-Pad, we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel and just copied Nintendo’s tried-and-proved design.
Is this doable now? Technologically, it is. We’ve seen designs by HTC that get close to this, although they don’t have the software and the final polish that this class of Apple product may have. Would it be more expensive too produce than the current iPhone 3G? Of course. Would we want to pay extra for it? Definitely yes.
Wouldn’t you? [Original design by Mat Brady]
C’mon folks, does it really take an in-depth research study to figure this one out? On the whole, per-use SMS rates have doubled from $0.10 to $0.20 in the span of three years, and carriers have shown no shame in pushing messaging packs (the “unlimited” one in particular) in an effort to snag more revenue per user. We already knew that Senator Herb Kohl was looking into the matter, and a new piece in The New York Times clearly explains just how lucrative these bite-sized messages are for carriers. We’re told that most consumers simply assume that it’s costing operators more each year as the volume of texts sent increases; according to University of Waterloo professor Srinivasan Keshav, “it doesn’t cost the carrier much more to transmit a hundred million messages than a million.” You see, SMS messages are elusively hidden within the so-called “control channel,” which is space already reserved for the operation of the wireless network. So long as messages are kept concise (say, 160 characters or less), they can be sent without any real implication on the channel. Will this epiphany somehow change the way we’re being gouged? Tough to say, but don’t think for a second that carriers won’t figure out another way to nickle-and-dime you if the hand is forced.
[Thanks, Jeevan]
Filed under: Cellphones
The obvious truth about text messaging: you’re getting ripped off originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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I’ll file this under “extreme endurance testing.” These guys in Russia put an iPhone through a rigorous battery of tests that include freezing, tumbling in a dryer, dunking in beer, dropping and more. The site is in Russian, but the marvel that is Google Translate makes the read worthwhile. For example:
The aluminum lid compartment nutrition allowed to stand the test of honor fall to the asphalt. We threw smartphone flat and at an angle. Before the asphalt was a mini-training on grass, where the phone was left unhurt, even if dropped from two meters, the same situation with the office and carpeting in it. Asphalt is left to the body of a vanishing ink. In addition, the cap has become a bit of waste, has a slight backlash. But it should be noted that other elements are not affected. With pleasure, the screen is not only remained operational, but very slightly scratched.
Can the iPhone withstand the “test of honor?” What about abuse like being rolled over by a car? Watch the video and find out.
I wonder if the Nokia folks would be upset if I tried this with the 6650?
From the looks of our tip jar, the iPhone went on sale at Walmart today for $197 / $297, just as we expected. The plan is to attract consumers who don’t shop at Best Buy, Apple, or AT&T stores, so basically Wally doesn’t care about anyone reading this. We love you too, Wally. No crazy $99 4GB model or iPhone nano in sight, but maybe Phil’s gonna blow us all away next week. (We doubt it.)
[Thanks to everyone — seriously, it was like all of you — who sent this in]
Read – iPhone on sale at Walmart
Read – Video of the display — yes, someone actually sent in a video of the display
Filed under: Cellphones
Yes, the iPhone went on sale at Walmart today originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Owing to, as Tom Lehrer would say, nepotism and intrigue, I found myself in the small town of Brenham, Texas, this Sunday on the very day that Apple’s iPhone was to go on sale at the Wal-Mart mega-chain (an outfit that I, as a native New Yorker, have had very little experience with).
Popping in to check out the action and snag some photos, I found a single iPhone display — it would be generous to call it a kiosk — with an activated iPhone and a handful of brochures. The price tags on display gave both the new customer/upgrade price, as well as the full retail price. A small paper sign taped to the wall announced that iPhone sales would commence at 9:00 am, and that customers should line up for access to limited stock.
I asked a sales clerk about first-day sales, and she said as far as she knew they hadn’t sold a single unit so far, “but maybe if they had started selling it before Christmas…” There was, however, a steady stream of gawkers checking out the display unit in the 10 or so minutes I spent in the electronics department.
Herewith some photos of the in-store Wal-Mart display:
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Originally posted at Digital City Podcast
Psion, Psion. We hadn’t really heard from the British portable maker since the halcyon days of the Series5, but it’s back and making waves with a series of nastygrams asserting its trademark of the word “netbook.” Psion’s legal team followed up with jkOnTheRun, and according to them, it’s only going after those sites and companies “making a direct, financial profit from use of the ‘Netbook’ trademark.” (As opposed to profit in kind, we suppose — did you know our advertisers pay us in toaster waffles and aviator sunglasses? True story.) Psion says it’s mostly focused on retailers and manufacturers using the term netbook to sell machines, not “straight blogs” and other sites. Of course, that means next to nothing, since Psion says it’ll still go after those sites that have sponsored ads or for-profit links containing the word “netbook” — including automatically-placed ads and links like AdSense and Amazon affiliate ads that site owners typically have no control over. +10 weasel, dudes. Anyway, considering the widespread adoption of “netbook” in the past year with nary a peep from Psion, we’d say the term is pretty well generic and no longer a valid trademark at this point — we’ll see how it goes when it drags the first heavy-hitter using the term (like Intel) into court.
Disclaimer: Nilay’s a lawyer and secret Asian netbook ODM, but he’s not your lawyer and this isn’t legal advice or analysis.
Filed under: Laptops
Psion says it’s only going after those “profiting” from the term netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’re getting way too many tips on AT&T being down for it to be a coincidence — how’s it going for you? Both EDGE and 3G are pretty spotty for us at the moment in Illinois, but they’re working in NYC, which jibes with reports of a Midwest-specific outage, but we’re also hearing there are troubles nationwide. We’ve pinged AT&T for an official statement, but in the meantime let us know if things are working for you wherever you are.
Update: Still haven’t heard from AT&T, but we just rolled back into Chicago at 5PM CST and we can’t connect on either EDGE or 3G. Let’s hope things get better, and soon.
Update 2: According to AT&T, a power failure in Bloomfield, Michigan is the culprit, and techs are working around the clock to get everything back up in the Midwest. We’re told rebooting phones may help — it didn’t do anything for us, but it might be worth a shot.
Update 3: It’s back up, at least in Chicago. How’d everyone spend their day off-grid? We mostly threw the sad face at our NO SERVICE display.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Filed under: Cellphones
Is AT&T down for you? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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