Globalstar’s SPOT personal GPS tracker made waves amongst outdoorsmen and argonauts the world over when it was introduced back in 2007, and now the outfit is finally gearing up to ship the second iteration. The newly revamped SPOT is some 30 percent smaller than the previous model, and it also boasts an enhanced antenna for picking up signal whilst deep in the brush, a GPS acquisition light, “Message Sending” indicator light, illuminated buttons and a dedicated pre-programmable Custom Message button. There’s also a protective cover over the all-important S.O.S. button to prevent inadvertent message transmissions (wouldn’t want that, now would we?), and in a move to give fashionistas a choice, this one will be available in both silver and orange. It’s expected to be available in select retailers this fall, but you’ll have to wait until then to get a handle on pricing.
Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Prizefight you’ve all been waiting for: the Apple iPhone 3GS versus the Palm Pre. These two touch-screen smartphone heavyweights have been duking it out on …
Sure, it seems like a no-brainer, but when Sky News in the UK dropped a brand new laptop off at several repair shops in London (equipped with a key logger and sneaky video recording software) they caught employees accessing personal data, hacking accounts for banking and social networking sites, and charging for unnecessary work. Who would’ve thunk it, right? For their next report, the news team is going to investigate whether or not the iPozh is actually manufactured by Apple.
We finally posted our review of Maingear’s power-efficient Pulse gaming PC and we’re sad to say that it didn’t deliver the system we hoped for. We do give Maingear credit for trying to build on the greenified gaming idea started by HP’s Firebird, but efficient components …
Cool Tools: Green Toys’ Indoor Gardening Kit all made their way into our home as gifts and then won us over across generational lines. They’re constructed of recycled milk cartons (high-density polyethylene), have a clean, attractive, colorful-but-not-garish aesthetic and are just shy of bulletproof.
The gardening kit’s a pleasure because it requires parental involvement (for the recently post-toddler set, at least), and patience from grownups and kids, alike: Plant a seed and watch it grow is a long-term activity, after all. The kit comes with three seed options – basil, sunflower and zinnias — if you don’t already have a supply on hand. Your child gets to choose what she wants to plant and take some ownership in the process.
Our Recession Antidote series has been firing on all cylinders for awhile now, but today we’re breaking things up a bit with an extra special giveaway. In case you couldn’t guess, we’ll be transferring ownership of our very own custom-built HTPC — which was featured yesterday in a ‘How to build an HTPC for under $1,000′ guide — and one lucky reader will be able to wrap their arms around a shiny new entertainment rig. We won’t bother breaking down the specs (just check out yesterday’s piece for that), but we will bother thanking the outfits who made this come together as well as point you to the fine print below for instructions on how to drop your name in the hat.
Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
Winner will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) custom-built HTPC. Approximate value is $1,000. That special Engadget Touch is provided gratis.
If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
Entries can be submitted until Wednesday, July 22nd, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
This is the last time we let Wilson choose the show title. Good news–The 404 Wikipedia page is BACK! Edit away, but please don’t redirect the page. Today we talk about a fake bus stop in Germany, a “green” iPhone app, the iPhone 4G prototype, the “World of Warcraft” movie, and Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia.
That’s right folks, our Wikipedia page is back up, and we’re praying it’s permanent this time! Big ups to our buddy Darth Paxton for helping us out, so go ahead and edit it all you like (we can’t edit it ourselves) with inside jokes, characters, guests, etc., but please don’t edit the redirections, those need to stay in place. Whoo! We’re notable!!!
Also, do not attempt to adjust your monitor, the photo to the left is indeed our first look at Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia. With those two swords in his hands and that red sash around his waist, he looks more like a chef at a Chinese restaurant than the video game hero.
Speaking of bad video game movies, we’re afraid to see what Sam Raimi has in store for the “World of Warcraft” movie adaptation, although it’d be pretty funny to just have a half an hour of peons mining and chopping wood.
A quick disclaimer: there are two stories in today’s rundown that some might deem offensive, but although they’re both a little dark, the beauty of The 404 is being able to find a lighthearted (and sometimes tasteless) joke in everything! For example, here’s a funny story about a fake bus stop in a clinic that’s designed to keep its Alzheimer’s patients from escaping. Sounds awful, right? I agree–maybe all the money they spent on building this “net” could have been used to pay more nurses and doctors to determine the reason why the patients are trying desperately to escape in the first place!
Will Arthas make an appearance in the "Warcraft" movie? Probably not the first one…
(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment)
Last Friday, as I sat through the lame movie trailers before the latest “Harry Potter” movie, I was saddened to realize there are only a few films in development that I’…
You know you’re living in the digital age when even DJs start ogling capacitive touchscreens with glee and turntables can be replaced by pocket DJ systems. Aiding this trend along is the newly announced Audio 2 DJ, which packs studio-grade 24-bit / 96 KHz Cirrus Logic converters inside an impossibly svelte and stylish package. This USB-powered device can best be understood as a supercharged sound card: two 1/4-inch stereo outputs are amplified to a “pristine” +9.7 dBu, while low-latency OS drivers ensure rapid responsiveness. The best thing about the Audio 2 DJ, though, might just be the price — at $119, it’s reasonable enough to make the product appealing to non-professionals too. Should you care about souped-up sound on the move, there’s not long to wait now, with availability set for September 1.
In the first significant improvement Canon’s made in its optical stabilization technology in a few years–I think the last major update was the SuperRange OIS in its camcorders–the company announced a new Hybrid IS technology that adds angular velocity sensing to its current bag of OIS …
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