(Credit: muratsuyur at deviantART)Some people love white chocolate. Others think it shouldn’t even be called chocolate because it insults the category. Whatever the case, I think the white chocolate keyboard as shown is super-cool, just for the geek factor alone.
This isn’t an actual product you can …
If you’re looking to craft an epic, 1,500 megapixel panorama image, something like the Gigapan Imager is your best bet. But, for those of us who want to capture a little wide-angle action and then move on before the tour bus abandons us, Sony’s upcoming DSC-HX1 could be the solution. The nine megapixel shooter, releasing in April, comes with a unique (for the moment) panorama mode that allows it to capture 224-degree horizontal or 154-degree vertical shots automatically. Just push the shutter release and then slowly sweep the 20x lens across that wondrous vista before you. The camera internally fuses everything together to create a single 7152 x 1080 image; no post-processing required. It’s demonstrated in a video below (on a quaint little diorama), and while $500 is on the pricey side for a non-SLR digi cam, if you’ve ever tried to stitch photos manually you might think it money well spent — assuming it still works that well without a tripod.
Continue reading Sony’s panorama-shooting DSC-HX1 camera handled on video
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Sony’s panorama-shooting DSC-HX1 camera handled on video originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Last week, Palm investor Roger McNamee said this in an interview with Bloomberg: “You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”
Gadget Lab reader Theglenvoid commented on the smack-talk with this rather acute observation: “Either this guy is A) just spitting fightin’ words for the sake of press, B) a dumbass, or C) all of the above.”
It seems that Palm itself agrees with Theglenvoid, and it has issued a statement distancing itself from SmackNamee’s embarrassing words. You can read the whole of the document, which mostly fusses over problems with Bloomberg’s original piece. Or you could read this single point, which is pure comedy gold:
The statement in the second paragraph of the article that “not one” person who bought an Apple, Inc. iPhone on the first shipment date “will still be using an iPhone a month” after the two-year anniversary of that day is an exaggerated prediction of consumer behavior pattern and is withdrawn.
Actually, the document is worth taking a look at as it includes a transcript of the entire interview with McNamee, which is chock-full of other gaffes. For example:
[Apple] make great products. For media, they’re fantastic, but our product, the Palm Pre [is] just going to run rings around them on the web. If you want to go to the web, it’s just going to be a million times—well, not a million times—several times faster. [emphasis added]
Free Writing Prospectus [Palm via Engadget]
Photo: Jon Snyder
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Remember wild-man McNamee’s predictions last week of death to the iPhone and all sorts of other Pre-related wonderment? We read and we chuckled and we moved on, but someone took his statements a little more seriously — Palm. Yes, the company Roger was talking up, the company in which his firm Elevation Partners owns a particularly large stake, submitted a document to the SEC that summarily disputes all of his hyperactive talking points. It’s full of facts and figures and is completely dry, but, like an episode of Yes Minister, is also full of comedic brilliance. Here’s the company’s reaction to our favorite bit, about the death of the iPhone:
The statement in the second paragraph of the article that “not one” person who bought an Apple, Inc. iPhone on the first shipment date “will still be using an iPhone a month” after the two-year anniversary of that day is an exaggerated prediction of consumer behavior pattern and is withdrawn.
It’s good to know that, even in these tough times, there’s still some comedy left in the corporate world. More boardroom humor after the break.
[Via Palm Infocenter]
Continue reading Roger McNamee’s wild predictions shot down — by Palm itself
Filed under: Cellphones
Roger McNamee’s wild predictions shot down — by Palm itself originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This picture shows, quite astonishingly, a real iPhone. It is one of two prototypes currently for sale on Ebay, although this is the only one that works.
The phone that works is pretty neat to use. It does make calls (with my ATT sim), and I can surf the net. However when I did get to web pages they were the mobile versions, not the regular versions. I can’t figure out how to set a ringtone, it is just silent right now. I can receive SMS but not compose my own, other than 5 included test messages. It doesn’t sync to itunes. Camera seems to work. It has tons of testing options.
Clearly the version of the OS that this iPhone is running was a very early test version, designed only to make sure that the hardware was working. Curiously, this one has a plastic screen (the broken one has the more familiar glass screen). We’re sure that just seeing this in the wild will send Steve Jobs into a purple rage — the whole UI is so damn ugly that it could be Windows Mobile running on there. Click through to see more pictures and even a video of the iPhone in action.
The current bid is $1,136.11 for the pair, and the auction ends tomorrow.
Auction page [Ebay via BBG]
Remember the Brush & Rinse? The novel toothbrush first came to our attention back in August of 2007, when a prototype could be had for a rather scary $1750. Now, Scott Amron has them in production at a much more comfortable $1.18 (It will rise to $5).
The Brush & Rinse is a lazy person’s toothbrush. Instead of having to lean down and put your mouth under the faucet just to rinse away the toothpaste, the device lets you lower your head to a position merely near the water. A clever internal tube takes the flowing water and redirects it as a small jet. The video shows it in action.
This is actually a very smart idea. At no cost (merely a modification of the plastic mold) you have a brand new toy to play with at bedtime. Now, if only it could somehow make the water coffee-flavored I could save an extra few minutes before going back to bed in the mornings to start work.
Product page [Moq7. Thanks, Scott!]
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Concept art for an Apple touch-screen Netbook.
(Credit: Gizmodo)
Updated at 4:09 a.m. PDT March 10 with new information from Dow Jones Newswire. This story was originally posted at 9:44 a.m. PDT March 9.
Take this for what you will, but the Apple rumor mill is …
Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today’s movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.
While Reese got grilled and Crews got one step closer to figuring out who stabbed him in the back decades ago, Robert Stark happened upon what Captain Tidwell thought was a small computer. Clearly, someone failed to tip him off on the fact that a Time Capsule isn’t in any way a Mac mini. Ah well, at least some gal finally convinced him to get a haircut.
Filed under: Wireless, Storage, Networking
Screen Grabs: Time Capsule holds all sorts of Life’s secrets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Yesterday’s Apple netbook rumor courtesy of the Commercial Times / DigiTimes combo just received a boost of credibility by sources (presumably independent) speaking to the Dow Jones Newswire. Citing “two people close to the situation,” the DJ pretty much regurgitates the same info: Wintek will provide the touch-screen display which Quanta will manufacture into an Apple netbook as early as the second half of the year. The only new bit of information is the screen size said to be between 9.7 and 10-inches.
[Thanks, Sam; Image courtesy of Frunny]
Filed under: Laptops
Apple’s touch-screen netbook gets another shot of rumor juice originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sprint hasn’t been coy about its love and adoration for all things WiMAX, and while it obviously has a vested interest in seeing the next-gen wireless protocol thrive, even it isn’t completely ignoring the possibility of dabbling in LTE. Or, at least that’s the impression we get from a recent spokesman answer to a question on whether it was “evaluating LTE equipment.” Speaking on behalf of the carrier, John Polivka wouldn’t go so far as to confirm nor deny whether it was actually dipping its toes into LTE testing while its Clearwire buddies weren’t looking, but he did affirm that “as a prudent technology development organization, [Sprint] is always collecting competitive information about various technologies / equipment to monitor and asses the competitive landscape and any potential impacts to Sprint’s plans.” We’ve already seen a few CDMA mainstays admit to siding with LTE for 4G, and honestly, we wouldn’t be shocked to see Sprint eventually cave too. Whatever stops the bleeding, right?
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Sprint keeping its options open with LTE? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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