The Memorex TouchMP brings touch-screen tech to the penny-pinching masses.
(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)
Touch screens are all the rage, gracing everything from cell phones to roulette tables. Trouble is, when you hear the words “touch screen” the dollar signs immediately start rolling in your head.
But you don’…
Griffin has been on fire recently, releasing all sorts of simple but ingenious gizmos for the iPod and iPhone. Well, almost on fire — the TuneBuds Mobile earbuds were plain awful. The trend looks to continue (the good trend, that is) with a couple of new chargers. The PowerBlock and PowerJolt Reserves.
These acta as regular chargers for an iPod, iPhone or other USB device (one for the car and one for the home) and are around the same size as the Apple-made version. The twist is that there is a little battery pack in there, too, which charges at the same time as your device. When the juice runs low, pop off the spare and clip it into the dock-connector for a few extra hours of use. The spare battery pack only works with iPods, and if you have a Nano or a Touch, you won’t be listening to any music while it’s plugged in — these models have their headphone jacks down by the dock and this dongle blocks the hole.
Both the car and wall-wart version cost $40, and there is a double pack with both for $60. At so little above the cost of a white, Apple-branded charger, we’d say that this is almost a no-brainer. Available “soon”.
Product page [PowerBlock, Griffin]
Product page [PowerJolt, Griffin]
Yeah, we know you. You devoured all 50+ pages of licensing agreements and developer regulations that Microsoft posted on its Marketplace for Mobile developer page yesterday, and now you’re just itching for more. How about 45 minutes and 45 seconds of hot roundtable, Windows Mobile 6.5 developer action from TechEd 2009? Jorge Peraza and John Bruno from MS talk up widgets, which will be simple little gadgets that run within the UI, yet will still be treated like full apps from a developer perspective, meaning they’ll be signed, secured, and only be able to be submitted by certified developers (those who have paid their $99 fee). Also discussed is the reasoning behind 6.5’s less than groundbreaking UI, which comes down to deadlines. Eight or nine months were all the team had to write the OS; not nearly enough time for a complete presentation overhaul — or for any Silverlight integration for that matter. Coming in version 7.0? Wouldn’t surprise us. Full vid after the break.
Continue reading More Windows Mobile 6.5 app information from Microsoft’s TechEd 2009
Filed under: Cellphones
More Windows Mobile 6.5 app information from Microsoft’s TechEd 2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 May 2009 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Let’s say you’re interested in getting together with a few people and creating a video game. Now let’s say said game is a sequel to a known, copyrighted property and you’d be using assets from the original game. Logic dictates at this point that you’d …
These are the Xbox-Alpha-Dunks, a one-off modded pair of shoes which, even counting the McFly HyperDunk 2015s, are the coolest sneakers I have seen in the last year.
The custom job is by Sole Junkie, and features a moulded Xbox logo on the side of the heel. This logo is loaded with an fiber optic and lights which can be set to strobe or just shine, and both battery and switch are hidden in the tongue.
Why would you want these? C’mon. Glowing Xbox sneakers? Who wouldn’t want them? The only problem is price. At $2500 you won’t be wearing these shoes outside. Size 11.
Auction page [Ebay]
Oh hey, guess what else Engadget Chinese got hands-on with today? The MSI Wind U200 that leaked yesterday. Official specs on the Wind U100 followup are just like we said: 12-inch, 1366 x 768 pixel LED-backlit display, Celeron ULV SFF 723 processor, GMA 4500M graphics, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 2GB of DDR2 memory, and 250GB disk, and 1.4-kg with 3-cell battery. Still no pricing or release but we’re sure that Computex (kicking off June 2nd) will change all that.
Filed under: Laptops
MSI Wind U200 gets official, handled in Taipei originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 May 2009 06:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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(Credit: Radius Products)Looks matter. If you don’t think so, maybe the new iPod Nano 4G isn’t for you.
Radius Products unveiled Wednesday its new TruTune earbuds. The ‘buds are designed specifically to match the iPod Nano 4G and its nine different colors.
The earphones have Y-style cables …
Here’s a rather odd little tidbit regarding Apple’s latest update to OS X. While it doesn’t bring many new features to the Mac, consisting as it does of mostly bug-fixes, OS X 10.5.7 apparently gives a significant boost to battery-life on hackintoshes. Reports from the MSI Wind forums are claiming a boost up to 33%, from 3 hr 45 min to a shade over five hours, using a six-cell 4400 mAh battery.
The writer, Dalton63841, has tested this to make sure it’s not just over-optimistic reporting by the OS. Another poster is also seeing a boost from three and a half to four and a half hours.
It’s entirely possible that the OS update contains better power management for the Mac. What is surprising, though, is that it is having such an impact on these hackintoshes, which are notoriously bad for battery usage when running OS X. Needless to say, I’m grabbing the huge (729MB) update for my Wind right now. With its monster nine-cell battery, I’m hoping to get around ten hours of use out of it. I’ll let you know how it goes.
10.5.7 Battery Life [MSI Wind Forums]
Step One: Photograph Kindle.
Step Two: Trace photo to produce vector art.
Step Three: Send the art to the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and have them run a chunk of wood through the laser cutter.
Step Four: Admire your new, wooden Kindling.
Step Five: Burn.
Introducing Kindling, the Wireless Wooden Reading Device! [Cockeyed]
Hey, if you can take Google’s open source OS for mobile telephones and chunk it into a netbook, then why not digital photo frames? Fujitsu and Japan’s Macnica have teamed up on what they’re calling a “Software Platform for Home Network Digital Photo Frames” based on Google’s Android. In other words, it’s a software platform for home network digital photo frames based on Google’s Android. Uh, riiight. The prototype frame above was on display in Japan yesterday running slideshows off a standard DLNA network. Honestly, we don’t care what OS is running at the core of those cheap, off-brand digital photo frames cluttering big box shelves every holiday — just make the navigation intuitive and we’re happy. Android seems like a good (and free!) start along the road to standardization.
Filed under: Displays
Fujitsu and Macnica embed Android into digital photo frames — WalMart, you listening? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 May 2009 05:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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