Apr 23

X-mini Happy arrives for quasi-spherical MP3 playback

Posted in: mp3 player, Mp3Player, speaker, Today's Chili

There’s just something slightly alien to the X-mini, and this latest “Happy” model does little to assuage our unfounded fears of it. What’s new this time around is MP3 playback, thanks to an SD card slot. Size and shape-wise it’s almost identical to its X-mini II predecessor. Happy can handle about 6 hours of playback, or 11 hours of speaker work, on a charge, and the USB cable not only charges the ball but also allows the unit to work as a slightly-less-difficult-to-misplace SD card reader. You can also still daisy chain Happy speakers like with the X-mini II. Happy is currently in prototype stage, and should hit the market sometime around Q3.

[Thanks, Yutaka]

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X-mini Happy arrives for quasi-spherical MP3 playback originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 23

Apples Tim Cook: Were Not Interested in the Netbook Space

Posted in: Apple, netbook, Today's Chili

Steve Jobs isn’t the only one at Apple who isn’t in love with the whole netbook phenomenon. COO Tim Cook, who’s running things during Jobs’ health leave, seems equally unimpressed by the selection of low-priced notebooks, slamming the devices during yesterday’s earning report.

For us, it’s about doing great products. When I look at netbooks, I see cracked keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens. It’s just not a good consumer experience and not something we would put the Mac brand on. It’s a segment we would not choose to play in.

The comments certainly seem to put a damper on all of that talk of a 10-inch touchscreen netbook rumored for a summer release along side the iPhone. But then “not playing” that space doesn’t necessarily rule out a low-priced tablet, does it?

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Apr 23

Smart Faucet pours personalized water–e-mail too

Posted in: Today's Chili
Smart Faucet(Credit: iHouse)

You didn’t know you needed this one–a tap that identifies you using facial screening, then pours water at a preset pressure and temperature catered to your preferences.

And that’s not all. While you wash your hands, the integrated touch screen on top shows a glimpse of …

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Apr 23

Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton make QR codes fun again

Posted in: Japan, japanese, Today's Chili

Bland, black and white QR codes got you down? Well leave it to artist Takashi Murakami to shake things up. Creative agency SET has laced the psychedelic-anime expert’s playful, colorful imagery into versions of the machine-readable code for Louis Vuitton that — amazingly — still work. The company has also done similar work for Coca-Cola, though nothing quite as luxuriously squeezable as this multi-colored panda. Now, if someone could just dress up those drab bar codes…

[Via DVICE]

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Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton make QR codes fun again originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 23

Tweetlog: Aliph Jawbone Prime

Posted in: bluetooth, Today's Chili

jawbone prime.jpgThe Aliph Jawbone Prime (http://tinyurl.com/ctw7c7) looks just like the last Jawbone headset, but appearances can be deceiving: This one’s better.

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Apr 23

Sonic shoves Qflix DVD burners into more Dell desktops

Posted in: desktop, Movies, Today's Chili

We know you’re struggling to believe your eyes, but those Qflix burners actually are still hanging around. For those who missed all the action last year, these devices enable users to download a DRM-laced film onto their PC and burn it onto a specially-keyed DVD for playback. In other words, you can forget about toasting flicks to that dusty stack of DVD-Rs you’ve got laying around from late ’05. For whatever reason, Dell has seen fit to extend its partnership with Sonic Solutions by offering internal Qflix drives on the Studio XPS Desktop, Studio XPS 435, Studio Desktop and Studio Slim Desktop. The wild part? Its actually charging more for having you clean out its inventory.

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Sonic shoves Qflix DVD burners into more Dell desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 23

Panasonic plasma gives great blacks for less

Posted in: Today's Chili

Although it requires more than a few picture quality tradeoffs, the Panasonic TC-P50X1 delivers the best black-levels-to-dollars ratio of any HDTV we've tested.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

The capability of a TV to reproduce a dark shade of black is the number-one criteria for awarding a good picture quality …

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Apr 23

ASUS EeeBox PC B208 with discrete graphics, HDMI-out in June?

Posted in: ASUS, nettop, rumor, Today's Chili, uk

If we’re to believe a pre-sales agent’s response to a query about the availability of the EeeBox PC B208, then ASUS’ little HD nettop with dual-core Atom 330 processor, ATI Radeon HD 4530 graphics, and HDMI-out should pop for retail in June — for the UK anyway. A box that looks to be the ideal low-cost ($500ish), quiet (26dB), home theater PC riding your in-house 802.11n WiFi or gigabit Ethernet network. With Acer’s Ion-powered AspireRevo hitting the UK in May, ASUS had better hope for a June launch at the latest.

[Thanks, Thomas C.]

ASUS EeeBox PC B208 with discrete graphics, HDMI-out in June? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 23

Online PDF Reader Viewer

Posted in: Screenshots, Today's Chili, Web Sites


This article was written on November 27, 2007 by CyberNet.

Online PDF Reader 

Have you ever been on a computer at a cafe, library, or school that doesn’t have a PDF reader? In cases like that you need a handy online PDF viewer that will do the dirty work for you, without installing a single thing on the computer.

Samuraj Data is the perfect online PDF reader because it doesn’t require any registration, and it’s fast! All you have to do is specify the location of the PDF file, which can be on the Web or a file on the computer, and then hit the View button. You’ll instantly see the download and conversion status on the screen in a terminal-like fashion. All PDF’s are converted to images, and after the download is completed the process will wrap up rather quickly. It took under 30 seconds for it to download and convert most of the PDF’s that I threw at it.

As you can see in the screenshot above the interface for navigating a PDF is rather bare, but in return you get a fast and intuitive experience. There are keyboard shortcuts available to navigate from one page to another, or you can click the View All link to have all of the pages displayed one after another. And clicking on an image will bring up the full-size version.

There might be better online PDF readers or viewers out there, but it will be hard to find one that is as simple and fast as Samuraj Data. And in addition to handling PDF files it can also open PostScript and Microsoft Word DOC files.

I would give it a 10 out of 10 if they offered a slightly better interface and more than 256 colors when viewing the PDF’s. ;)

Samuraj Data [via Techie Buzz]

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Apr 23

Canon Firmware Update Fixes 50D Noise Problems

Posted in: Today's Chili

50d_big_2

Canon has issued firmware updates for the EOS 50D, 450D and 1000D. Unless you are planning on using them with the Speedlight 270 EX flash, you needn’t bother with the update — all it does is add support for the AF-assist beam in this strobe (which you shouldn’t use anyway unless you hate the people you are photographing and enjoy blinding them with blinkenlights).

All except the 50D. If you have one of these you’ll want to run the update — it fixes some banding issues, specifically the little-known "vertical banding noise phenomenon". Canon is characteristically quiet on the precise details but, you know, noisy banding is bad and fixes are good.

50D [Canon]
450D [Canon]

1000D [Canon]

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