Hasta La Gadget!

The current Swine Flu pandemic headlines read like those flashing through the intro sequence of a post-apocalyptical movie. Now you can see the cases spreading in real time—as the WHO declares them—in Google Maps. Updated

In case you have not been paying attention to the news during the last few days, there’s a pandemia going on. A spike of infections of the H1N1 Swine Flu—a mutation of a pork virus that jumped from pigs to humans—happened in the city of Mexico (103 dead already) and it is quickly spreading through the world now, thanks to airline connections.

Reading the map is very simple: We are all going to dieThe pink markers are suspect, the purple markers are confirmed, and deaths don’t have a black dot in the marker. The yellow markers are negative, but I don’t see any.

Have fun watching. While you can (added another map, which is getting updated faster.)

View 2009 Swine Flu (H1N1) Outbreak Map in a larger map

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

P.S. Stupid Apophis can’t reach us in time! Hahahaha. Ha. But it looks like pigs are getting their revenge for all these centuries of crispy bacon and pork buns. [Google Maps]

Bonus post soundtrack:

Here you go, the first USB 3.0 cable that we’re aware of has gone on sale over at USBfever. Interestingly, the cable’s feature list says, “it is 10 times faster than USB 2.0.” Sure, as long as it’s hooked up to a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed host which it won’t be until 2010. USBfever: So hot we’re hallucinating.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

USB 3.0 cables go on sale one year early originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are horologes, and then there’s La Machine à Ecrire le Temps, known less formally as “The Machine that Writes the Time” — which is exactly, literally what it does. This stunning masterpiece was recently unveiled at Baselworld 2009, and while only those obsessed with time will really appreciate the 1,200 components needed to make this thing tick, anyone into whiz-bang gadgetry will find themselves impressed by the vid of just past the break. Oh, and if you’re looking to buy one to dress up your new sitting room, you should be fully prepared to liquidate nearly $350,000 of whatever you have left to squeeze.

[Via OhGizmo]

Continue reading Video: La Machine à Ecrire le Temps writes time, mesmerizes brains

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Video: La Machine à Ecrire le Temps writes time, mesmerizes brains originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you wanted a Flip camcorder and high-definition video, you had one choice — the Mino HD, a $230 pocket camera at the top of the Flip range. And according to Flip and its website, that’s still the only option.

Unless you head down to Bestbuy, where a brand new Flip Ultra HD can be had for just $200. This still unofficial camcorder was picked up by a fellow named Gary Cannon, and he has posted the unboxing pics to prove it. We’re not sure if the new Ultra HD picks up some of its big brothers functions such as fast forward and rewind, or h.264 compression, but we do know that it will shoot for two hours (twice that of any other Flip), it has a supplied rechargeable battery which can be removed and replaced with a coiuple of AAs.

It also has an HDMI-out, which means that — if that is an uncompressed signal — this could be used as a very cheap front-end for a big video capture setup. We’ll be keeping an eye on the Flip site for the official details.

Flip Ultra Hd Unboxing [Gaxonline via Engadget]

See Also:

• Hands On With the New Flip Mino
• Flip Mino Camcorder Shoots for High-Def
• Review: Little Flip Mino Clone is a Plastic Piece of Poo

Samsung hasn’t been shy about their Android ambitions, but they have been extremely vague. Well, here’s their first handset, the I7500. With a capacitive AMOLED touchscreen, clean styling, and larger-than-average battery, it looks fantastic. UPDATED

Here’s the spec breakdown: HSDPA at 7.2Mbps, GPRS/EDGE on 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies, a 3.2″, 320×480 AMOLED screen, a 5-megapixel camera, 1500mAh battery (to the G1’s 1200mAh), and 8GB of internal memory (with support for 32GB of additional SDHC expansion), 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, GPS and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s about 12mm thick, which is a hair slimmer than the HTC Magic, its obvious rival.

This contradicts rumors rumors that the S8000 would be Sammy’s first foray into Android handsettery, but only sort of: the handsets are styled differently, but share almost identical guts. In that sense, this handset isn’t much of a surprise, unlike the release date, which will fall somewhere in June for European carriers. There’s no US release date, nor is there any sign of a US release at all, so we’ll just have to hope that the I7500 will eventually trod the same transatlantic path as the HTC Magic. Full release below.

UPDATE: Mobile Review has a few hands-on shots that give us a nice view of the device in profile, and from the back:

Samsung launches I7500, The Company’s First Android-Powered Mobile Phone
Seoul (Korea Newswire) April 27, 2009 05:08 PM — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today unveiled the I7500, its first Android-powered mobile phone. With a launch of I7500, Samsung became the first company among the global top three mobile phone manufacturers to unveil an Android-powered phone.

“Samsung is among the earliest members of the Open Handset Alliance and has been actively moving forward to introduce the most innovative Android mobile phone,” said JK Shin, Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile Communication Division in Samsung Electronics. “With Samsung’s accumulated technology leadership in mobile phone industry and our consistent strategy to support every existing operating system, I believe that Samsung provides the better choices and benefits to our consumers” he added.

The Samsung I7500 is a cutting-edge smartphone, featuring a 3.2″ AMOLED full touch screen and 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, giving users access to Google™ Mobile services and full web browsing at blazing speeds.

The Samsung I7500 offers users access to the full suite of Google services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Calendar™, and Google Talk™. The integrated GPS receiver enables the comprehensive use of Google Maps features, such as My Location, Google Latitude, Street View, local search and detailed route description. Hundreds of other applications are available in Android Market. For example, the application Wikitude, a mobile travel guide, allows consumers to access details of unknown sights via location-based Wikipedia articles.

Based on Samsung’s proven product leadership, Samsung I7500 comes with latest multimedia features. The large and vivid 3.2″AMOLED display ensures the brilliant representation of multimedia content and enjoyable full touch mobile experience. Along with supporting a 5-megapixel camera and various multimedia codec formats, the I7500 also provides a long enough battery life (1500mAh) and generous memory capacity up to 40GB (Internal memory: 8GB, External memory: Up to 32GB) to enjoy all the applications and multimedia content. The phone also boasts its slim and compact design with mere 11.9mm thickness.

The Samsung I7500 will be available in major European countries from June, 2009.

News Source: Samsung Electronics