Hasta La Gadget!

We love Apple’s minimalist ethic, and usually it means not just cleaner lines, but an easier-to-use gadget, like the iPhone. But sometimes Apple just goes too far. Exhibit A. The third-gen iPod Shuffle. Its buttonless design means that you have to either use Apple’s own earbuds or search out a pair of ultra-rare third-party headphones. Even then, you’ll need to learn the Shuffle’s proprietary version of Morse Code to tap out coded instructions, again all with a single button.

Which brings us to a product from Scosche, the splashproof Tapstick. It is a case for the Shuffle which adds buttons. This should be ridiculous, and in another universe we would rightly poke fun, but the fact is that Apple’s insane simplification makes this a genuinely useful stick of plastic. The buttons mimic those on the Shuffle’s ‘buds, so you’ll still have to learn the tappity-tap instructions, but one you have the case you can buy any headphones you like.

Better, the diminutive size of the Shuffle means that even when encased in polycarbonate, it is still tiny. It’ll cost you $30, or the same as a pair of replacement Apple earbuds.

Product page [Scosche. Thanks, Mark!]

Joystiq has an excellent interview with independent noise harnessers, Trent Reznor and Rob Sheridan, of Nine Inch Nails fame. Unlikely guests for the ‘stiq until they begin reminiscing about their Pong roots and flame-baiting the PS3 and Xbox 360 faithful. They also hint at near-term plans to develop “some entertainment-based video game-type stuff” while lambasting a record industry looking to Rock Band and Guitar Hero for its salvation. You get the idea, gaming nerds nerding-out about gaming only using a few more expletives than moms would probably like.

The interview goes much deeper than you might have realized. The “lost questions” are now posted on Dustin Burg’s personal blog. There you’ll find Trent (a man who successfully trail-blazed riches at the dawn of the digital age without major label support) and Rob discussing modern music distribution techniques, the limitations of social media for engaging fans, and software application development on modern smartphones. Fascinating insight for both consumers and the industry executives controlling the music, video, and apps we crave from the artists that create them.

For example, in discussing why people steal music, Trent soberly notes that, “People aren’t stealing music to make money. They steal because they love music.” This isn’t about bootlegging anymore. Accepting this, Reznor chose to engage his fans in a new way instead of fighting them:

“…that’s why we released our recent records for free. That’s why we came up with the pricing tiers that we did, giving people something that had value for their money if they wanted it. But we gave it away for those who aren’t going to pay anyway and figured that maybe we can at least get their email address and let them know when our next record is coming out. Or, maybe, we can let them know when our next concert is coming up.”

Pretty savvy. More after the break.

Continue reading Joystiq interviews Trent Reznor

Filed under: Interviews

Joystiq interviews Trent Reznor originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on March 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

It seems like yesterday that Adobe released Apollo, oh, wait that was just two-days ago. To help commemorate the event YourMinis has just released an Apollo application that will bring online widgets into your offline world!

YourMinis is a website that offers a ton of widgets for you to place on a homepage. They have a wonderful tabbed interface that helps prevent too many widgets from cluttering up one page, and best of all is that they offer an extension for Firefox so that your widgets can be accessed in just one click.

Now, however, you can take your favorite widgets offline with you as you add them to your desktop. In order to use the widgets outside of your browser you’ll first need to get the Apollo runtime which is available for both Windows and Mac.  Then, like any normal application, you’ll need to install the yourminis air file by downloading and running it. You should see a window similar to this when you execute the “air” file:

Apollo treats this as if you were installing a real application. An entry for the YourMinis Widget Manager will even be added to the uninstall screen (Add/Remove Programs in Windows XP) in case you decide to remove it later on.

After setup completes you’ll see some default widgets already placed on your desktop. After a little configuration you can start to get things just how you like them:

In the upper-right corner you’ll see the Widget Manager. I like to refer to it as the light switch for the widgets. Each widget is represented as a little box, and clicking on one of the boxes will show/hide that widget.

The coolest thing is that you should be able to go to the YourMinis Widget site and select any widget to “copy to desktop”. That’s how it should theoretically work, but on my Vista machine the entire Widget Manager application crashed every time that I tried to load a new widget from the site. That was extremely disappointing because there are a few widgets that I would have liked to use on my computer.

The other thing that this desperately needs in order to become a “real” widget application is a shortcut key to show/hide all of the widgets. When people want to see their widgets they don’t want to go scrounging around looking for an icon or minimizing their windows…they just want to hit a key and have them popup.

I’m sure the YourMinis team will be getting around to adding more great things later on, and hopefully fixing the bug that I found. Maybe they’ll even start offering some sort of option where you can display the tabs from your customized start page. Right now you have to add the gadgets that you want because the application is completely independent of your online settings. Also, a tabbed interface for a desktop widget program, similar to what they offer for their online version, would give them something that no other gadget/widget application currently offers. After all, tabs are the hot thing these days…all the kids are doing it!

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Related Posts:

How Many Gadget/Widget Tools do we Need?Adobe Apollo Alpha: For Rich Internet ApplicationsCyberNotes: Does Firefox Need Widgets?YourMinis.com: A Personal Homepage With A Unique FeatureAdobe Air-based Xdrive Desktop Lite Launches

Look here, bub. Do you own an ATI Digital Cable Tuner? Has your Windows Media Center PC been waiting for a firmware update, since like, forever ago? If so, you should already know that SDV and Copy Freely support has been added to Windows 7 Media Center, which is the software coding equivalent of all of your dreams coming true. Of course, getting used to all this new functionality is a daunting task, but that’s why Engadget HD is breaking things down to make it fit for digestion. Ready to get schooled? Well, head on over!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software

Curious about SDV and Copy Freely support in Windows 7 Media Center? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ben Heck. Just the mere mention of the name brings chills to the spines of all who mod, and if today’s the first day you’ve ever come into contact with those seven letters, prepare to be changed. Forever. The Great Modder’s latest gig involved the creation of a one-handed Xbox 360 controller, but the catch was that it required completion within a ridiculously short period of time. Essentially, the left analog stick was repositioned to fit on the underside of the controller, enabling the user to operate that with his / her leg while handling the right side of the pad as usual. Check out a video of the admittedly raw looking final product after the break, and feel free to grab some inspiration while you’re there.

[Via HackADay]

Continue reading Ben Heck throws together one-handed Xbox 360 controller, probably with one hand

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Ben Heck throws together one-handed Xbox 360 controller, probably with one hand originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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