You had to know this was coming. That Android 2.1 OS that’s been circulating inside the Google‘s ultra-exclusive Nexus One has hit the internet, and thanks to some clever hackery, you can now theoretically put the update on your Droid handset. We say theoretically, of course, because it’s not quite a perfect rip. DIY instructions were briefly posted on Sholes.info but have since been replaced with a curt advisory to wait for a ROM that properly preserves file system permissions, else risking some serious breaking. The original image file is still available, but don’t say we didn’t warn you. Separately and perhaps unrelated, a video has surfaced of the Nexus One’s boot animation running on Droid — feel free to enjoy that instead, after the break.
Sure, there are viable commercial options for taking photos in three dimensions, but if you really want to capture 3D images (and you happen to be attached to a major university) you can always go the route of Associate Professor Ishino Youzirou and company. The camera that they developed at the Nagoya Institute of Technology sports 158 lenses arranged on an 18.5-inch aluminum arc frame. The school’s combustion engineers will use it to study irregular flames — all the while content in the knowledge that they’ve entered the Guinness Book of World Records for building the camera with the most lenses. This is certainly safer than Youzirou’s other attempt to enter the Guinness book, Most Live Rattlesnakes Held in the Mouth (the record for that, by the way, is ten).
Bluetooth connectivity between phones and SYNC-equipped Fords is nothing new, but the problem is that a good number of handsets out there in the wild don’t support phonebook download (seriously, check the compatibility chart) which means you can’t dial names by voice — and what’s the fun in calling anyone if there isn’t at least a small chance of your car confusing “Dad” for “Vlad“? That’s where Ford’s all-new SYNCMyRide comes into play, an app for Windows and Mac machines that’ll take the names and numbers (up to 2,000) off your lame vintage handset and stick ’em on a USB drive; from there, you just plug the drive into your SYNC’s port and kick off an upload. It’s compatible with every SYNC-equipped car on the road today, so we’ve hooked you up with a link to go grab it — but only begrudgingly, since we’d obviously love to see you upgrade to a better phone instead.
Verizon introduces new software called V Cast Media Manager to help customers managing multimedia between their phone and PC. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-10415448-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p
Red, green, blue, yellow. They aren’t just four of the bestest shades in Roy G. Biv — to anyone with a computer and a soul, that particular color combo is permanently etched in the brain as the unchanging constituents of the Windows logo in its many, many forms over the years; Google’s logo happens to use them, true, but so far, Android’s been green to the bone. Anyhow, you may have already noticed that some of the shots of the Nexus One clearly show a boot screen with a cross pattern colored thusly, and it turns out there’s an Android 2.1 dump floating around that’s got the animation on board. Of course, dumped ROMs have a tendency to get pulled apart like a turkey at Thanksgiving dinner in a matter of mere hours, and the animation’s already found its way onto YouTube. Just because it’s in a hacked Flan ROM doesn’t mean you should expect to see it on every Android phone under the sun next year — the animation portrays a nexus, of sorts, which would fit in nicely with a phone of the same name.
Seriously though, check out the wait cursor in Windows Mobile 6.5 for comparison after the break (along with a video of the Nexus One’s lovely boot sequence in action).
While the speculation is that graphics issues have forced Apple to delay shipments of its 27-inch iMacs, new data from NPD suggests high sales volumes could be to blame. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10415418-37.html” class=”origPostedBlog”News – Apple/a/p
We’ve featured hundreds of free Windows applications over the course of 2009 that we hoped might bolster your productivity, workflow, or your PC usefulness in one form or another. Here’s a look back at the most popular Windows downloads of the year.
As with 2008’s most popular free Windows downloads, keep in mind that the apps featured here are chosen by the popularity of the associated post we published in 2009. Many were new, some were improvements to already loved apps, and others were simply new-to-us. Here’s a quick look back at the 19 or so most popular Windows downloads of 2009:
Windows 7—from Beta to Release Candidate and So On
2009 was a big year for Windows, and Windows 7 was the most important ingredient in Windows’ solid year. (In fact, you’ll notice that several of this year’s most popular downloads are related to Windows 7 in one way or another.) Sure it’s not exactly an application but rather a full-blown operating system, but it only makes sense that a new version of Windows would top the list of Windows downloads for the year. It started with the Windows 7 beta download in January, which had a ton of hiccups. It was released, then pulled, then released again, then extended because of the trouble Microsoft had handling the demand. (Actually, we just think they underestimated the web.) Later, in May, Microsoft released the Windows 7 release candidate. You even jumped on the chance to try Windows 7’s beautiful new themes.
One of our very own readers released his popular desktop configuration as a installable utility that brings a handful of great customization and productivity tools to your desktop. It’s called Enigma 2.0. Then Rainmeter, another very popular desktop customization tool, set Enigma as its default desktop. Fancy pants.
Ever wish you could enjoy some of the finer tools available to Linux but stay comfortably in your Windows desktop? Sure you could run a virtual machine, but Portable Ubuntu for Windows runs an entire Linux OS as a Windows application. Better yet, it’s portable.
The release of Windows 7 left a lot of XP users wishing they could get in on some of that snazzy new eye candy. Seven Remix XP is a free utility that does its best to bring Windows 7’s comely looks to XP.
Another result of the Windows 7 launch: A whole lot of us were rebuilding systems from the ground up, which often means a lot of tedious downloading and installing one app at a time. Ninite makes it easy, streamlining the download and installation processes for tons of the most popular free Windows apps, including most of our 2009 Lifehacker Pack.
Apart from all the new eye candy, Windows 7 really tickled our fancy with tons of incredible new keyboard shortcuts. For folks still chilling out with XP or Vista, we released Windows 7 Shortcuts, a lightweight utility written to bring some of the best new shortcuts of Windows 7 to previous versions of Windows.
By virtue of reading Lifehacker, you’re more likely than not the most schooled person among your friends and family when it comes to fixing a bum PC. It’s a dubious honor, because it also means you generally are the person who gets called when something goes wrong. Computer Repair Utility Kit puts a handful of useful PC repair utilities in one handy, portable suite. Update: It appears the surge of readers looking to download this one brought down the server; luckily helpful reader Richard offers a mirror of the download on his own server here.
Like to keep items you want to access frequently easily accessible on your desktop but don’t want to deal with the added clutter? Fences arranges your cluttered desktop icons into containers so you can clean up the mess into useful groups of shortcuts—or optionally hide them altogether.
Hulu Video Downloader was a fun little app that lasted about as long as you could say Hu… that is, it doesn’t work anymore. But when it did, it grabbed videos from the popular video service for your offline viewing pleasure, and you were eager to try it out.
Safari‘s 4.0 beta release for Windows came with a lot of bugs and some serious eye candy, but despite the interest at release, we can’t imagine many people still stick with Safari on Windows over, say, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.
Google very recently announced a free DNS service they boasted as fast, but rather than take their word for it, we pointed you toward namebench (and several readers also pointed toward the excellent DNS Name Server Benchmark). It tests various popular DNS servers to find what’s really going to be the fastest choice for your system.
We’re sort of junkies for maps and 3D, so when Google Earth 5 was released, we were pleased as punch. The update featured historical imagery, ocean maps, and improved world touring capabilities. Maybe we just like saving ourselves some dough in these tough economic times with a little Google Earth sightseeing.
And Then There Was Firefox
The notorious Firefox memory slow-downs may have some of us down on the reliable old ‘fox, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t all still eager to grab the latest and greatest releases and stick with it as our default browser—whether it’s the big Firefox 3.5 release or the Firefox 3.6 beta (1, 2, 3, or 4). We’re looking forward to more great Firefox’ing in 2010.
If your webcam is sitting around collecting dust, try out Motion Detection, a free, motion-detecting security camera application. It’ll snap pics and video when it detects movement, can upload the results via FTP, and more fun at-home security stuffs.
Sure it was two years since Thunderbird‘s 2.0 release, but at least they didn’t disappoint. Thunderbird 3.0 comes with solid new search and filtering tools, better looks, and a great new tabbed interface.
Free, open-source DVD ripping and encoding tool HandBrake released a pretty saucy update last month with a ton of fixes and improvements. It’s no coincidence that it’s always been our reader’s favorite video encoder, and this year’s big-ish (but still not 1.0) update should only help keep it there.
Linux users have a killer desktop management tool called Compiz Fusion that puts multiple desktop management on a 3D cube that we’ve always been jealous of on Windows. Open-source application DeskHedron brings a similar three-dimensional desktop management tool to Windows users.
Now, for fun:
Got a favorite Windows download from 2009 that you’d add to your list of favorites? Let’s hear about it in the comments. If you’re craving still more popular Windows downloads, you can also take a look back at the most popular free Windows downloads of 2008.
Slowly but surely, General Motors looks like it’s pushing Autonet Mobile’s in-car WiFi option to each and every one of the vehicles it sells, and while we recently heard that it was making its way into a few other autocars for the not-at-all-appealing price of $500 (up front), this offer sounds a wee bit more palatable. Dubbed “Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile,” the add-on is now certified for installation in the Equinox, Traverse, Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Avalanche and Express, and if you get in before December 31st, you’ll be able to add internet to your ride for $199 after mail-in rebate — though a 2-year service agreement (at $29 per month) is also required. Just think how silent your kids will be on that cross-country trek to visit the in-laws this Christmas, though. Totally worth it.
Asustek has informed the Taiwanese Stock Exchange that it will completely spin off its motherboard and graphics card subsidiary, Pegatron, in July 2010. The split is driven by the parent company’s desire to continue its competition against the likes of HP and Dell under the ASUS brandname, while still collecting ODM and motherboard orders from those same companies for its manufacturing business. For its part, the newly self-governing Pegatron will be expected to advance the ASRock brand up from its current entry-level position and into the mainstream. We don’t know how well that’s going to go down, but at least the mobo market will be primed to embrace a new name after the heartbreak of losing old stalwarts like Abit and now ASUS.
This article was written on December 14, 2006 by CyberNet.
Earlier today Bill gates sat down with some of the top bloggers on the Web and Steve Rubel was included in that list. I could only imagine what it would have felt like to meet Bill Gates but I am sure there was a lot of energy in the room. The session lasted just one hour and each of the 14 bloggers were allowed to ask one question. Steve has a nice rundown of the questions on his post but I’ll highlight a few of them here (the answers are not direct quotes):
———-
Q) What did you want to be when you grew up? A) A lawyer. I admired the work that (my father) did. When I got enthralled with math, I thought I would go into mathematics. Then computers came along. I became confused but eventually, it all became crystal clear in my freshman year. I also thought about being an economist.
Q) Will the $100 laptop be a success and are you behind it? Will it help developing countries? A) There are people who think PCs solve the world’s problems. PCs have a role to play…you need to pick the right places, it’s easy to be overblown.
Q) What does the OS look like in 3-4 years? Where does consumer Windows fit in? A) In three to four years it won’t change dramatically, but it will evolve faster. It will be more user centric as you move from machine to machine. It will replicate trivial stuff up to the cloud and back, cross-PC and cross-device.
———-
There was apparently a lot of Mac laptops in the room as well. Bill Gates said that he was happy about it because they sell a lot of software for Macs, which I could see but I’m sure deep down he started to wonder why so many bloggers use Macs. Personally, my primary PC runs Windows and it also dual-boots into OpenSUSE Linux, but lately I have had a craving to tinker with a new Mac and I would probably have one if they weren’t so expensive. If the price on those things come down I’ll surely give it some strong consideration.
Congratulations to the 14 bloggers who were among the select few chosen…maybe one day I’ll get the chance to be in their shoes and meet Bill Gates.
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.
You had to know this was coming. That Android 2.1 OS that’s been circulating inside the Google‘s ultra-exclusive Nexus One has hit the internet, and thanks to some clever hackery, you can now theoretically put the update on your Droid handset. We say theoretically, of course, because it’s not quite a perfect rip. DIY instructions were briefly posted on Sholes.info but have since been replaced with a curt advisory to wait for a ROM that properly preserves file system permissions, else risking some serious breaking. The original image file is still available, but don’t say we didn’t warn you. Separately and perhaps unrelated, a video has surfaced of the Nexus One’s boot animation running on Droid — feel free to enjoy that instead, after the break.
We’ve featured hundreds of free Windows applications over the course of 2009 that we hoped might bolster your productivity, workflow, or your PC usefulness in one form or another. Here’s a look back at the most popular Windows downloads of the year.
2009 was a big year for Windows, and Windows 7 was the most important ingredient in Windows’ solid year. (In fact, you’ll notice that several of this year’s most popular downloads are related to Windows 7 in one way or another.) Sure it’s not exactly an application but rather a full-blown operating system, but it only makes sense that a new version of Windows would top the list of Windows downloads for the year. It started with the 
Another result of the Windows 7 launch: A whole lot of us were rebuilding systems from the ground up, which often means a lot of tedious downloading and installing one app at a time. 
We’re of the mind that 
Google very recently 
We’re sort of junkies for maps and 3D, so when 
The notorious 
If your webcam is sitting around collecting dust, try out 
Sure it was two years since 
Asustek has informed the Taiwanese Stock Exchange that it will completely spin off its motherboard and graphics card subsidiary, 
Earlier today Bill gates sat down with some of the top bloggers on the Web and Steve Rubel was included in that list. I could only imagine what it would have felt like to meet Bill Gates but I am sure there was a lot of energy in the room. The session lasted just one hour and each of the 14 bloggers were allowed to ask one question. 
