Hasta La Gadget!

We can’t confirm this Verizon Infomanager screen at this point, but if true, when the BlackBerry Storm 2 launches on the network, one of the big touted features will be its MiFi capabilities for sharing 3G internet over WiFi. It’d be smart branding move, sure, but MiFi is also the name Novatel uses for its hardware, so either we’re talking here about an application of some sort or it’s just internal communications short-hand. Also mentioned here is an October 21st launch, although it’s been noted by Crackberry that the date’s apparently been replaced with TBA. Without a doubt, we can confidently say we’ll know for sure in the next, oh, 52 hours or so.

[Thanks, Marc-Anthony S.]

Read – Intranet snapshot
Read – Launch date pulled

Filed under: Cellphones

Storm 2 hitting Verizon with ‘MiFi capability?’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Springwise: It’s been more than a decade since online diaries first appeared, and during that time most have transformed into communications of a much more public sort than the paper counterparts that inspired them. Aiming to restore some of the original privacy to today’s ubiquitous blog, Toronto-based Penzu offers a secure online journaling medium that’s private by default.

Penzu is an online diary and personal journal that is focused on privacy. The core component of Penzu’s interface is what it calls “the pad,” resembling a sheet of blank journal paper. Users begin by signing up—basic use is free. After that they can begin writing immediately on the pad, and Penzu saves their work automatically. Entries can be searched, sorted, filtered, renamed or discarded at any time, and photos can be uploaded from the user’s computer or from Flickr. Most distinguishing of all, however, is that all entries made on the site are private by default, with an additional password-protection option for those who desire it. When users do decide to share their work, they can do so via email or a public link that opens it up to comments. The basic service is free, and there’s also a premium version (Penzu Pro) that’s priced at USD 19 per year.

An online diary that’s private by default [Springwise]

There I was watching the Yankees suck yet another victory from the very duodenum of defeat, when along came a rather sweet Apple TV spot.

You know, music that makes you glad your lungs function even after a night on the tequila, and a white background with a soothing typeface …

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Oh, brother. As we all know so well, the office can be a draining place. But devices such as these could make even the most burnt-out middle manager excited to clock in. The USB PC Prankster looks like a stock flash drive, but as you can clearly see above, a few toggle switches enable it to become quite the headache. Once plugged in, the unlucky PC that it’s attached to will have its Caps Lock enabled and disabled at random, see garbled text splattered about quarterly reports and be victim to uncontrollable, erratic cursor movements. Thankfully, the drive will never activate the Enter key nor close or save documents, so you can rest assured that it’s all in good fun. Turning your office up on its head costs just £19.99 ($33), but you’ll have to wait a tick ’til it comes back in stock.

[Via Switched]

Filed under: Peripherals

USB PC Prankster: guaranteed to freak out, enrage your cubicle mates originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since today really needs a good heap of news to somewhat balance out yesterday’s glut, HP has updated its online store to give it an abundance of new and revised Windows 7 machines, including the Envy series (Beats edition and all), Pavilion dm3 with AMD Neo or Intel CULV chips, Core i7-packing dv6t/ dv7t / dv8t Quad editions, and the not-so-netbook CQ61. We’re still not seeing the previously-leaked dm1 ultraportable anywhere, but the Mini 311 and a slightly updated Mini 110 are, with the option to jump from Windows XP to 7 for a cool $50 / $30 respectively. Most everything in the store, desktops and laptops, has been updated to at least include Windows 7 as the standard shipping OS, and while all claim free 2-day shipping, estimated shipping dates begin sometime the week after 7’s Oct 22nd launch — no early chances here, folks. Browse the read links and keep an eye on the shiny red “new” icons (no flashing GIFs, we’re afraid) for the entire revised lineup.

Update: As a number of you have pointed, the Envy product page is a bit, well, sloppy. Typos and missing commas notwithstanding, it seems to biggest laugh is the cost of customization, i.e. $800 more to downgrade from a 500GB HDD to 320GB or 250GB (same price), or $900 more to downgrade from 6GB or 4GB of DDR3 memory. Yeah, it might be best to hold off on that one until HP get the kinks worked out.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Read – Desktop lineup
Read – Laptop lineup
Read – Envy series lineup

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

HP Envy, dv8 Quad, Mini 311, and numerous other Windows 7 machines now available to order originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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