Call us crazy, but we never had much faith in the power of The Impossible Project to bring back the legendary Polaroid instant-print film camera. Despite our doubts (and those of the world), that very group has evidently caused quite a stir in the offices of Summit Global, which has today announced that the film-based One Step Camera is on track for a mid-2010 release. The Impossible Project will be in charge of producing a limited number of Polaroid-branded color and B&W Instant Films along the way, and just in case film isn’t really your bag, Summit is planning to issue a Polaroid TWO — described as the “digital version of the traditional camera that produces instant digital photos” — sometime next year. It’s all about bringing sexy back, y’all.
We’ve given HD DVD’s bastard childChina Blue HD its due for a good start in its native land, but now that U.K. Importer GBAX has made a few units available it’s time for English language buyers to at least consider this Blu-ray alternative. Of course, with a £259.99 ($413.22 U.S.) pricetag for this plain TCL player, AV and HD cables, plus 14 CBHD movies (The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Invasion, The Island, Flood, Poseidon & 8 Chinese-only flicks) to get you started the barrier to entry is high, but as shown in the unboxing / preview video — embedded after the break, watch for ninjas — the experience is very familiar. As Format War Central points out, the 220/240Hz power cord makes things complicated for the U.S. and other places outside Europe, but hardcore HD DVD holdouts are used to a world filled with only Warner and Universal movies already, so why not give the other blue laser flavor a try?
We know what you’re thinking, how dare that new iPod nano have features your premium iPhone and iPod touch handhelds don’t? Well, if this 9 to 5 Mac rumor has any merit, Apple is right there with you and has a solution in the works. According to said whispers, a Radio app is in the works to capitalize on the recent models’ latent FM tuner. It’ll either be standalone or integrated into the iPod app, and either way it’ll be able to work in the background while you browse other, not so fortunate apps. The apparent cause for delay is work on a feature that’ll identify the songs and link you to the appropriate iTunes page for purchase. As always, this is just a rumor, so do yourself a favor and try not to dwell on it too much, k?
The gang at Android and Me seemed to have made quite a number of acquaintances on their sojourn through CTIA and MotoDev Summit. Specifically, there were three people along the way they reportedly talked to that led to the most tantalizing of rumors. First down the rabbit hole is a Sprint developer who claimed the first 4G (i.e. WiMAX) phone will be an Android device, which honestly wouldn’t be all that shocking given the company’s love for and recent history with the OS. Next up is a Samsung exec that intimated we shouldn’t expect Android 2.0 “Eclair” until Q2 2010 — interesting in its own right, but looks like those whispers of Sholes launching with anything beyond Donut isn’t gonna come to fruition now. Our third definitive individual is an INQ head employee who let slip its handsets would be finding its way onto a US carrier’s network in 2010 and would have a “pimped out” customized Android skin chock full of social networking the likes of Spotify, Skype, Facebook, etc. The rest of its report is much ado about nothing — no LG android phone this year, no TomTom app this year, and no standalone Google Maps navigation software. Yeah, that’s quite a number of Android rumors to digest, and unfortunately nothing definitive. Looking forward to the future?
We’ve certainly seen our fair share of crackpot theories regarding the Large Hadron Collider, and quite frankly the whole thing is becoming rather old hat. That said, when the New York Times comes up with something as far out as this, we most certainly have to share it with you. It seems that way back in July, 2007 two theoretical physicists (Danish string theory pioneer Holger Bech Nielsen and the Japanese physicist Masao Ninomiya), proposed an unlikely explanation as to why the LHC and the Superconducting Supercollider before it seem to be particularlyaccident prone. According to science writer Dennis Overbye, the Higgs boson (which the collider has been designed to observe) “might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.” Makes sense, right? Of course, we don’t have any idea how these elementary particles might actually conduct the business of destroying equipment, but that hasn’t stopped the duo from proposing a novel way to test this theory.
According to a paper published earlier this month, a simple deck of cards could be made, either out of construction paper or, if you’re feeling high tech, simulated on a computer. The deck would have one card indicating that the LHC should be shut down, and a much larger number of cards (maybe 100 million or so) that indicate that everything is good to go. If you draw the death card, as it were, you can bet that the shadowy hand of the Higgs boson is stretching back in time, telling you to halt the operation. Between all this and the proposed hyperdrive propulsion tests we came across a couple days ago, things are starting to get very Philip K. Dick over at CERN. Can we make one suggestion? Instead of a random number generator, why not Tarot cards? Or a Ouija board? You know, go for a Halloween vibe.
Impending Nikon announcements? You don’t have to tell the British Journal of Photography, who today published an article dated for tomorrow (oops!) all about its time with the as-of-yet unannounced D3s. So what can we glean from this report? For starters, standard ISO settings go as high as 12,800 (low is 200) and can be further boosted to an incredulous 102,400. The 12 megapixel DSLR also touts a 720p 24 frames per second HD video capture mode, and as far as price and release date are concerned, look for it this December, at least in the UK, for £4200 (about $6,685 in US). Nikon Rumors is expecting an official announcement from tonight, so perhaps we won’t be waiting too long — in the meantime, that site’s also hosting pics of the camera supposedly in the wild doing a photoshoot in Barcelona. Enjoy!
This article was written on September 05, 2007 by CyberNet.
Some of you may recall back in May when Palm announced their Linux-based notebook that was designed to be extremely portable and disk-less. Countless Palm fans were excited for the launch of Foleo which featured a 10-inch screen, a full-sized keyboard, and would connect wirelessly with your Palm smartphone. While there were plenty of fans, there were those like Engadget who just two weeks ago, wrote an open letter to Palm and suggested that they “stop wasting money on the Foleo – we all know it isn’t going anywhere.” As it turns out, Palm must have realized it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and so they’ve canceled the Foleo.
In the announcement, Ed Colligan, Palm’s CEO says “Because we were nearly at the point for shipping Foleo, this was a very tough decision. Yet I am convinced this is the right thing to do. Foleo is based on second platform and a separate development environment, and we need to focus our efforts on one platform.” While Palm is ditching the Foleo, their CEO did promise that a Foleo II would be coming at some point in the future, although he didn’t give any indication of when that would be. It would be based on the new platform he mentioned that they’re currently focusing all of their efforts on.
All I can say is that I really feel for the team who put all of the time and effort into developing the Foleo, only to watch all of their work go out the door so close to launch. That’s got to be a huge disappointment for them. And the fact that Palm just tossed out $10 million for this failed project has got to sting! I believe Palm has a rough road ahead as they compete with the BlackBerry and the iPhone. Hopefully their new platform will give them the boost that they need to get back into the game.
Well, that $10,000 “production fee” Apple was said to be charging labels for iTunes LPs certainly seemed a little over the top in more ways than one, and it looks like the company has now come out and denied that it’s the case at all, saying flat out that “there is no production fee charged by Apple.” What’s more, it also says that iTunes LPs will in fact be available to indie labels, noting that it’s “releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own.” Of course, that premium price for the iTunes LPs themselves is still totally in place, although the open specs could potentially at least lead to some more interesting options if the labels decide to really run with ’em.
Now look, we’re not calling you stupid or anything — but you don’t really know what to do with that phone… do you? Why don’t you make things easier on everyone and just pick up this handy tome, written by our in-house Dostoyevsky, Engadget Mobile lead Chris Ziegler. We don’t want to ruin anything for you here, but by the time you’re done with this sweet piece, you’ll be so handy with a Pre, Palm will call you for tech support. Is that overselling it? Nah.
Avast! There be a mighty tempest rocking the good ship Gadget Lab. OK, it’s just raining really hard in San Francisco and most of the Bay Area. But what better time to check off all those do-it-yourself gadget projects you’ve exiled to the bottom of your to-do list?
Sure, copious sunlight makes it hard to concentrate on backing up your data. But when it’s pouring and there’s nothing better to do than geek out, tasks like beautifying your iTunes library, turning your Mac Mini into the ultimate media center, or hacking your netbook can be a dorktastic blast.
Even if the skies are clear in your city, here’s a list of tech-centric activities you can take on when the weather is being a harsh mistress. Trust us — they’re a lot more fun than playing Monopoly or constructing a magical butterfly garden.
1. Straighten Out Your iTunes Library With TuneUp
Anybody with a sizable iTunes music collection is bound to have a bunch of albums with incorrect or ungrammatical song tracks (e.g., Track 01, Track 02, “here comes the sun,” etc). TuneUp is an awesome plug-in that hooks into an online database and analyzes your incorrect track titles and automatically renames them for you.
The TuneUp plug-in automatically launches with iTunes, and you drag a list of incorrect song tracks into the TuneUp menu to begin automatic renaming. The only drag is that it takes about 5 to 10 seconds per song, so if you have a ton of improperly named tracks, this can take a pretty long time.
Other than renaming songs, TuneUp can also identify any albums in your iTunes library that are missing cover art. Then, it will download that art from its database and automatically tag it onto the respective album.
TuneUp isn’t 100 percent reliable, especially when it comes to dealing with super-indie tracks, but it successfully fixed up about 80 percent of my iTunes library, which contains about 5,000 songs. Not bad. TuneUp costs $20 for a one-year license, or $30 for a lifetime license.
2. Turn Your Mac Mini Into the Ultimate Entertainment Box
Ever dream of a TV set-top box that offered every type of media you can imagine? An ultraversatile media machine doesn’t really exist yet on the market, but if you own a Mac Mini, you’ll like this solution. Sporting a gorgeous UI, Plex Media Center is a Mac app that serves your movies, TV shows, music and even content from websites such as Hulu and Netflix. It supports a large number of file formats, so even digital pirates will be pleased. Just install Plex on a Mac Mini, hook up the Mini to your TV and you’re gold. You can access and control Plex with your Apple remote, so forget about that shoddy keyboard-and-mouse experience.
Similar to TuneUp, Plex uses metadata from the internet to automatically retrieve art to accompany your media. In the screenshot above, Plex provides that slick Seinfeld background. One caveat: It’ll take some time to make Plex look just right. Plex can be pretty particular about just how you organize your files in order for it grab metadata for your media files. That means you’ll have to do lots of renaming of files and folders. Example: To load that Seinfeld menu, Plex required arranging the folders as such: Movies–>Seinfeld–> Season 3. Still, it’s worth the time and effort.
The best part? Plex is free.
3. Hack and Mod Your Netbook
Netbooks are popular not just because they’re so small and convenient to carry around everywhere; they’re surprisingly hackable. There’s a wealth of literature on the web that will teach you how to hack a netbook to run Mac OS X, or install mods such as an HDTV tuner, GPS or Bluetooth.
… the digital cloud that is the interwebs, of course. Indeed, cloud storage is the hip way to manage your data (unless you’re a T-Mobile Sidekick customer). By throwing your files into a cloud-based service such as Dropbox or Box.net, you’re automatically backing them up to protect against data loss. Not only that, you can enjoy access to your files from any computer with an internet connection. For example, on my office computer, I can listen to my entire iTunes library, which I copied into Dropbox.
The words “cloud storage” are pretty yawn-inducing, but once you get past that and start experimenting with the tech, it’s pretty fun. After trying out cloud backup services, you might consider throwing your notes into Evernote, an online note-taking service. Evernote has apps not only for the Mac and Windows, but also for several smartphones including the iPhone and RIM BlackBerry. When I find a recipe I like while browsing the web with my computer, I paste it into Evernote, hit Sync, and then on my iPhone I launch the Evernote app — and there’s the recipe. Pretty sweet.
5. Set Your iPhone Free
Apple plays gatekeeper for its iPhone, enforcing stringent control over what types of third-party software appear in its App Store. This, of course, has resulted in some questionable app rejections, most of which blew over after a short duration. But Apple crossed an invisible line when it rejected the Google Voice app, a service that enables users to rely on a single phone number to ring all their phones, while also delivering the gift of free text messages and voicemail service, as well as cheap international calls. Fortunately, there’s a way around Apple’s restrictions: Jailbreaking the iPhone.
Jailbreaking (i.e. hacking) the iPhone gives you access to an unauthorized app store called Cydia, which offers a Google Voice app among other wares Apple would forbid. Want to tether your iPhone? There’s a Cydia app for that. Want to download files larger than 10 megabytes on the 3G network? Yup, there’s an unauthorized app for that, too. Jailbreaking is also the first step you must take if you wish to unlock your iPhone to work on a different carrier, such as T-Mobile.
The drag about jailbreaking is that it just isn’t very convenient. Every time Apple releases a software update, you lose access to Cydia, and your unauthorized apps temporarily disappear. Then you must jailbreak and re-download those apps again. (If you paid for a Cydia app the first time, you don’t have to pay to download it again.) But if you actually have free time, having a jailbroken iPhone can be largely beneficial.
From our experience, the best tutorials on jailbreaking can be found at iClarified, and if you need more visual aids, plenty of YouTube users have posted tutorials as well. What are you waiting for? Jailbreak away!
What are the rainy day activities you enjoy with your gadgets? Post your suggestions in the comments below.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
Some of you may recall back in May when 
