RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)
Sprint, you’re a sneaky one. Without much fanfare or, frankly, even a peep, the carrier released a cameraless version of its RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i.
The smartphone is available now for $149.99 with a two-year contract and comes without the …
Here’s the challenge of being a "green" consumer: You have to be fairly familiar with the city and its businesses to know where you can eat organic food or shop for sustainable products. Take a vacation in a foreign city and you’ll likely break your green routine. That’s the issue a new iPhone app is trying to address.
3rdWhale Mobile is best described as a green Yelp. The app uses the iPhone’s GPS to locate green businesses nearby; tapping a business enables a user to look up reviews on the greenness of the business, represented by whale icons. The highest rating is three Whales.
Each listing
also includes tags explaining what makes the business
green, such as "organic," "vegan," or "socially responsible." Currently the app contains business listings for about 100 major cities, and the company’s goal is to expand to 1,000 cities.
3rdWhale faces its own challenge: building a user base. I checked 20 business listings near my current location, and none of them had any reviews submitted; ratings were all set at 1 Whale as a default. We like the idea of this app, but there’s a lot of work by the users to be done in order for it to be useful. One major hurdle for 3rdWhale is getting users to participate in another business-reviewing site in addition to Yelp, which is already vastly popular.
That’s where you guys can pitch in. Have an iPhone? Download 3rdWhale and submit reviews for your favorite green businesses. The app is free through the App Store.
Download Link [iTunes via Treehugger]
[Via Wired]
Read – Amazon: Please make the text darker on Kindle 2
Read – Unicode Fonts Hack
Filed under: Handhelds
Kindle 2 users complain of eye strain, mull over possible solutions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dell has been dropping more than a few not-so-subtle hints about an upcoming smartphone, and while tech rags have been buzzing about the possibility, word is that American and European wireless carriers are a touch less excited. Dell reportedly shopped the phone around to providers last month at the Mobile World Congress, but was unable to find any takers.
“The carriers, who see products from all the leading handset vendors, have decided to pass on Dell’s handset,” Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar said today. “Some carriers are citing a noncompelling product with a road map that lags competition.”
The company is apparently looking for an alternative method for selling the phone, perhaps in a full-price, unsubsidized form.
(Credit: Bandai)Once in a while, toy maker Bandai gains some designer street cred with lifestyle products like its A.i.R. (Art in the Room) Project, or conceived by Japanese media artist Taro Suzuki as “art created from wind and light.” You can’t miss this in the home …
We’ve heard whispers of Netflix heading to other, non-Xbox 360 game consoles before, and now adding to the susurrus is a job listing from the company for Engineering Lead – Gaming Platforms. The description calls for someone familiar with the technical hurdles of current-gen consoles for building a small team to “rapidly prototype and iterate on a variety of platforms.” Whether or not this means we’ll be seeing PlayStation 3 or Wii services in the near (or even distant) future is anyone’s guess, but with Microsoft’s version so far a streaming success, we wouldn’t be surprised if the company took a few steps to increase the probability that 3 billionth delivered flick is digital.
[Via Joystiq]
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment
Netflix on the lookout for gaming platforms engineering guru originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s been a busy, busy day for Palm Pre watchers as blogs and forums burn up with speculation on the launch date for the device and the Pre accessories that could be in the works among other things.
We bring you a wrap up of all the Pre rumors of the day:
Pre Likely to Launch on May 17 or June 29
On Friday, we mentioned how Sprint, the exclusive carrier for the Pre, has started training its employees on the Pre. Now a leaked Sprint planning document suggest the company may be moving towards a May 17 launch date, says Engadget. Sprint has also reportedly put a freeze on vacation for its employees in May, a move similar to what AT&T did before the launch of the iPhone. Another possible Pre launch date could be June 29, suggests Gizmodo, if Sprint can’t get all its Pre inventory in place by May. Palm has previously said it plans to launch Pre by the middle of the year. So June 30 is the official deadline for the Pre that the companies need to beat.
Touchstone Carries a Hefty Price
When Palm first introduced the Pre at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas it also showed a wireless charger for the phone called Touchstone. The Touchstone allows Pre users to attach a magnetic back cover to their phone and then drop it on the Touchstone dock to charge it wirelessly. It’s a nifty device but Palm has not said how much Touchstone will cost. Now online buzz suggests it may be priced at $70. Is that too expensive?
Palm Plans More Touchstone Accessories
There are also reports that the Touchstone brand represents a new family of accessories for the Pre. We suggest some ideas such as wireless car charger and USB dock as potential new products from Palm.
Pre Spotted in the Wild
And finally there are some new photos of the Pre in the wild. Despite trotting it out at conferences, Palm has been closely guarding access to the device and hasn’t allowed bloggers or journalists to independently play with it. So it is surprising to see two young men in a park with a Pre that they claim to have had for a few weeks. Check out the photos and let us know if you have spotted a Pre.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
The twit that got Amanda a free movie ticket.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)
Ever since the end of the original Napster, it’s been a known fact that music labels and movie studios watch and monitor what Internet users download. What’s less known is how closely they are doing …
Sick of Pre rumors? We certainly hope not, because some magical font of believable Pre data seems to have started gushing fresh information recently with no signs of slowing down. Latest to the table is a sticker price for the Touchstone dock, an inductive charger that’ll work with a special magnetized non-stick battery cover for the Pre to juice your baby’s batteries without a plug — and it looks like you’re going to have to pony up some serious cash for the pleasure. Screens on some computer somewhere deep inside Sprint are apparently pegging the Touchstone at a stiff $69.99, which is an awful lot to pay to simply charge your phone in style; cool, sure, but $70 worth of cool?
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Touchstone dock for Palm Pre to run $69.99? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Oop, it looks like Japanese retailer Softmap pulled the trigger on its Nikon D5000 page a little early — it went briefly live earlier today, confirming that the rumored DSLR with articulating 2.7-inch display is indeed real, and most likely set to be announced at tomorrow’s Austrian press event. Apart from the movable screen, it looks like the D5000 will be a pretty hot blend of the D60 and D90, complete with D-movie mode, 11-point AF system, and ISO 3200 sensitivity, all for a body-only price of ¥76,320 ($762). Whether or not that pricing will make it to the US and tempt would-be Canon T1i buyers right out of their shoes remains to be seen — we’ll let you know as soon as we find out.
[Via Electronista]
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Nikon D5000 with articulating display leaks out on Japanese retailer’s site originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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