Manliest Man-Bags Ever Resemble Gun-Holsters

man-sacks

The hotness of the product is doused somewhat by the shots of bed-haired male models prancing in Wallpaper-style interiors, but in the end it triumphs. After all, what could be cooler than a leather gun-holster style case for your cellphone?

Sadly, the pitch is even lamer than the lifestyle photos:

It is not just a handbag for men but more a very special accessory for businessmen à la 007 and anyone else who values elegance.

The man-bags, from German company Koffski, are fashioned from calfskin leather and, with their angular shapes, resemble small pistols. The logo is burned into the leather, which is manly enough to make me beat my chest and roar.

Now, the trick lies in how you wear the bag. You can hook it onto a belt (please don’t) or sling it crosswise over your pumped-up pecs. But real men will go for the concealed holster-style strap which looks both comfortable and awesome. As a certain editor may have said on the Twitter, “If the Nazis had cell phone holsters, they’d probably look like this.”

Want one? Then you’d better brush up on your poker skills and win some cash. The bag is €350 ($500) and the strap another €100 ($140), or you can go downmarket for the No.2 bag and pay just €200 ($290) plus €60 ($85) for the holster strap.

Product page [Koffski]


Qualcomm forbidden to use “smartbook” by order of German court

And so it goes. In similar fashion to the psion “netbook” debacle, the German entity of Qualcomm was just hit with a restraining order for its use of the term “smartbook” as followup to the smackdown issued on a German blogging site over the weekend. The preliminary injunction issued by a German court comes at the request of Germany-based Smartbook AG that claims it is being confronted with an “absurd” and “bold attack” on its brand name. The decision calls for a €250,000 fine in case of non-compliance with risk of arrest for contempt. Really Smartbook AG, arrest? We imagine a number of vendors are frantically scribbling out the term “smartbook” from its placards that will be on display at the big IFA show in Berlin later this week.

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Qualcomm forbidden to use “smartbook” by order of German court originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leica ‘Teaser’ Promises M9 Next Week

The worst kind of puzzle is the one that is too easy to answer. Leica’s new teaser is this kind of “conundrum”. See if you can work it out.

The event will take place next week, on September 9th, 2009. That’s 9/9/09. Leica says that we shall “witness the unveiling of the next generation of Leica Cameras.” To me, this must be the M9, the follow-up to the German company’s first fitful foray into the digital rangefinder realm with the M8.

Rumors have been swirling about the M9. Some say it will have a full-frame sensor, others that this sensor will be the same as found inside the Canon 5D MkII. This would mean that all of Leica’s wonderful old lenses would be useful again, and that its M8 crop-sensor lenses would fade quickly into the mists of obsolescence. The Canon sensor seems unlikely, though, as one of the big problems with digital rangefinders is that the lens is so close to the sensor. Film doesn’t care what angle light comes from, but digital sensors are more fussy about anything that doesn’t hit almost straight-on.

The announcement (at 9AM EST, natch) will come via a webcast, rather than by the dusty fax we might expect. It hints at several new products, for both novice and pro, so we might also see Leica’s large sensor behemoth, the S2.

Press release [Leica]

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Nokia Comes with Music US launch smartly pushed back to 2010

Not that most Americans could care, but Nokia is pushing back the US launch of its DRM-laden Comes with Music service into 2010. CWM, you’ll recall, is Nokia’s “free” all-you-can-eat music service that bundles the 12-18 month music subscription cost into the inflated handset price — although like any DRM music scheme, solutions already exist to break the CWM shackles. The delay is probably a wise move considering the weak state of Nokia’s US partnerships required to offset consumer costs, lukewarm response to its latest handsets, and the fact that most US consumers share a broad distaste for DRM music. We’d rather see Nokia launch late but with a compelling proposition than launch now in blind adherence to a timeline.

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Nokia Comes with Music US launch smartly pushed back to 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canon’s New 18 Megapixel Monster, The EOS 7D

canon 7d

True to form, yesterday’s Chinese forum leak was swiftly followed by an official announcement from Canon, just as hunger comes a few hours after eating Chinese takeaway.

The camera is of course the brand new 7D, a crop-sensor (1.6x) body set square against Nikon’s D300s, and in the Canon line the 7D sits above the to-be-continued 5D. In fact, it is so closely pitched at the D300s that we put together a comparison table:

7DD300s
Sensor (MP)1812.3
ISO100-6400200-3200
Video1080p MOV, 24fps720p AVI, Motion jpg, 24 fps
Shooting speed (fps)88
Focus19 points (all cross)51 points (15 cross)
Viewfinder100%, 1.0x100%, 0.94x
ProcessorDual DIGIC 4, 14bit A/DEXPEED, 14bit A/D
Remote flashYes, E-TTL IIYes, i-TTL
Price$1700$1800

Other differences are the dual card slots of the D300s (one each of CF and SD) and an optional Wi-Fi adapter for the Canon which fixes to the base and also acts as a vertical grip. On its own this looks rather limited in use, especially as it won’t fit on any other camera, but in addition to slow old 802.11 a,b and g it has an Ethernet port and USB capability for hooking up to, say, a GPS unit.

This is a strong-looking camera, and we’ll have one soon to test. We don’t expect anything other than excellent: at this level, both Canon and Nikon are playing an good game, and it doesn’t look like either of them is going to slip first.

636332804_96p2s-l

Lenses

Also from Canon today are a clutch of new lenses. The first are for the crop-sensor cameras, and, as ever, the names tell you all you need to know. The EF-S 15-85mm ƒ3.5-5.6 IS USM ($800) and the EF-S 18-135mm ƒ3.5-5.6 IS USM ($500), both have four stop image stabilization and both have small, dark maximum apertures, worsening as you zoom. This is the reason I hardly ever use zooms: for a depth-of-field limiting aperture of, say, ƒ2.8 throughout the range, you’ll pay a fortune. Sure, carrying a couple of primes with you is less convenient, but its a lot cheaper, too. Especially if you buy second-hand.

The new EF 100mm ƒ2.8L IS USM is such a lens, and is the first to feature Canon’s brand new Hybrid IS stabilization, giving four more stops on an already wide-open lens, and up to two stops when shooting in macro mode. The price is $1050.

Canon EOS 7D Preview [DP Review]

Press release [Canon]

Lens press release [Canon]


Popular developer’s stats suggest you can’t make a living off the Android Market — yet

For every rags-to-riches story in Apple’s App Store, every amazing tale of Joe Coder in his basement turning a dead-simple idea into a few thousand dollars a day, there are… well, zero in the Android Market. At least, that’s the impression we’re getting by digging into revenue stats published this week by mobile game house Larva Labs, lamenting the stark disparity in the economics between the two mobile distribution platforms. Despite having two apps prominently featured on the Market’s home screen and racking up sales rankings of 5 and 12 overall, Larva Labs’ $4.99 RetroDefense and Battle for Mars games are grossing between about $30 and $110 a day for the company — with a scant $62 average. As they wryly note, it’s “very difficult to buy the summer home at this rate.” Sure, granted, there’s plenty of garbage in the hopelessly overcrowded App Store — stuff that’ll never earn a dime — but what’s a little shocking here is that both of these apps are Android Market superstars and they’re still not able to cover the rent.

The problem is twofold: first, the target audience is smaller. Android simply hasn’t achieved the global market penetration that the iPhone has — at least, not yet. Globally, Android sales to consumers have totaled in the seven figures — 5 million might be a reasonable guess — whereas Apple’s pushed another order of magnitude worth of devices, something on the order of 25 million iPhones, and if you tack on the iPod touch (which you should for the purpose of running these numbers) you’re totaling over 30 million. Second, Larva Labs mentions a number of systematic problems with the Market — teething problems that Google’s yet to address — including a lack of screenshots in app descriptions, a dearth of payment methods, the seemingly preferential treatment free apps receive, and a litany of miscellaneous bugs and issues (Android owners will fondly recall the inability to find updated apps a couple months back, for instance).

And now the million-dollar question, if you’ll forgive our pun: will the Market get to the point where it’s a logical business proposition for devs? In all likelihood, yes — but it’s going to take plenty of additional commitment from manufacturers, carriers, and Google itself to make the place a friendly joint for buyers and sellers alike. In the meantime, thanks to the wonders of modern capitalism, Android’s app variety is fated to place a distant second, third, or fourth.

[Via Daring Fireball]

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Popular developer’s stats suggest you can’t make a living off the Android Market — yet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Opera 10 promises Turbo browsing using Scandinavian flat-packing knowhow

We’ve got to hand it to the kids at Opera who somehow manage to maintain relevance while battling Microsoft, Apple, Google and Mozilla for browser market-share. Opera 10 is now available for download featuring a redesigned UI, a resizable tab bar with Visual Tab thumbnail previews of each loaded page, and Opera Link synchronization for keeping bookmarks and more synchronized between all your Opera devices. It’s biggest feature, however, is Opera Turbo: a new compression technology that Ikea flat-packs web pages for fast transport over slow connections. See it demonstrated in the video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Opera 10 promises Turbo browsing using Scandinavian flat-packing knowhow

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Video: Opera 10 promises Turbo browsing using Scandinavian flat-packing knowhow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CyberNotes: Collection of Geeky Attire

This article was written on March 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Fun Friday

Today’s Fun Friday is an encore to the “T-Shirts for Geeks” article that we put together back last June. This time around we are taking a look at not only shirts but “other” attire as well. Enjoy!

Linux Inside

geeky atire 1

Source

Geek?

geeky atire 2

Source

8-bit Tie

geeky attire 3

Source

The Duct Tape Wallet

geeky atire 4

Source

Patches

geeky attire 5

Srolling LED Belt Buckle

geeky atire 6

Source

Got Root?

geeky atire 7

Source

1up

geeky attire 8

Source

Insufficient Memory

insufficient memory

Source

Wi-Fi Detector Shirt

It actually detects and then shows the current wi-fi signal strength!

geeky atire 10

Source

I Facebooked Your Mom

geeky atire 11

Source

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Hitachi ships 500GB Travelstar 7K500: 7200RPMs in a 2.5-inch form factor

Itching for a speedy and spacious new upgrade for your laptop? Ain’t got the cheddar required to pop in a 512GB SSD? Then have a look at Hitachi‘s latest, a half-terabyte drive that spins at 7200RPMs yet draws just 0.69 watts when idle and 1.8 watts during read / write operations. The Travelstar 7K500 plays nice with the SATA interface and promises 16 percent better application performance than its predecessor, and for the paranoid in attendance, you can rest easy knowing that a BDE (Bulk Data Encryption) option enables users to have each and every byte encrypted as it’s written. As of now, it’s only shipping in “limited quantities” to top tier OEMs, but whenever it strolls into retail it’ll land for $159.99.

Continue reading Hitachi ships 500GB Travelstar 7K500: 7200RPMs in a 2.5-inch form factor

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Hitachi ships 500GB Travelstar 7K500: 7200RPMs in a 2.5-inch form factor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epson Stylus Pro 3880 gets Vivid, tackles metamerism

(Credit: Epson America)

Epson is replacing its Stylus Pro 3800 medium format (17×22) printer with the 3880, rolling its latest set of technologies down the product line from the Stylus Pro 4880, as well as introducing a new version of its screening architecture.

The 3880 is getting the 8-color UltraChrome …