According to an article in The Economist, culture has a big impact on cell phone use. CNET brings you the highlights. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-10435549-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p
As hard as the world has worked to get away from styli and toward fingers, HTC — in all its quiet brilliance — decided that it’d still make a poker available for its mighty, capacitive HD2; after all, how else are you going to pinch and zoom with those adorable mittens on? After some delays, at least one British retailer now has those official HTC-branded units in stock — you won’t have any place inside the phone to stow it, of course, but we’re sure you’ll figure something out. Heck, even if you do end up losing it, they’ll be more than happy to charge you 17 quid (about $28) for another, so rest easy and keep those digits toasty.
Official HTC capacitive stylus for HD2 now shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Verizon alters monthly rates for unlimited voice, unlimited voice and text, prepaid, and data plans.
Kolelinia is a high-wire for bikes, a skinny, suspended cycle-lane which lets riders glide over traffic, flying above the streets. It is amazing sci-fi, and is either a brilliant, forward thinking idea or the most ridiculously stupid traffic scheme yet concocted.
The Kolelinia consists of two parts, both suspended high above the street. The first part is a gutter in which you ride, a half-tube channel that keeps your wheels from falling off the thin track. The second part is a guide cable that runs alongside the rider at handlebar height. You attach a tethering device to your handlebar and it runs along the able like a safety line on a boat, with a neat mechanism to let it pass right over the supporting poles. In theory, this should work.
The Kolelinia isn’t meant to be a full length bike route. Instead, it is a way to pass problem junctions, or to offer a high-rise tourist route. But the flaws are many. First, if you have ever ridden your bike too close to the curb, almost touching the sidewalk, you’ll know that the bike feels very unstable. You need a little wiggle room to the right in order to turn left — the bike needs to be tilted slightly underneath you to shift the center of gravity into the turn. The restrictive gutter wouldn’t allow this.
Second, your handlebar is also fixed, another wobble-inducing nightmare. And if you do hop the track, or if you just freak out and fall off your bike, you will be headed quickly road-ward as the bike dangles above. A safety cable would stop you actually hitting the pavement, but I can think of easier ways to spend a commute.
We suspect that the scheme is doomed. Not that we don’t like it. Flying over cars would be awesome. Is’s just that this doesn’t appear to be the way to do it. A real flying bike on the other hand…
Kolelinia sky-bike lane [Kolelinia via Urban Velo]
IE security flaw exploited in recent Google attacks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of the bright spots of CES 2010 was the projector scene. Home theater, gaming, and and 3D projectors were abundant. So were pico projectors, which are getting brighter, higher resolution, and adding innovative flourishes.
Although the televisions being shown at CES generated most of the 3D buzz, we were pleased to also see the introduction of several 3D-ready projectors, for both home-theater and educational use. The ViewSonic PJD6531w is a 3,000-lumen DLP projector capable of either 2D or 3D operation. It’s designed for tabletop use, but can also be mounted on a ceiling for use in a classroom or meeting room. Along with the pico projectors mentioned below, Optoma announced the first two models in its GameTime projector line. Both the GT360 and GT720 are 3D-ready and optimized for use with gaming platforms, the GT360 for the Nintendo Wii and the GT720 for the Wii, Microsoft Xbox, and Sony PlayStation. Optoma plans to launch half a dozen additional 3D-ready projectors in the first six months of 2010.
In case you didn’t catch the preshow, today’s show title is in honor of Jeff and Wilson both visiting the doctor…here’s hoping they’re at the same time. Before we get to the show, be sure to head out for your free tacos from Taco Bell, then come back for another hilarious Friday episode of CNET’s The 404 Podcast.
We’ve always been valiant supporters of Conan O’Brien, so it’s very disappointing to see that NBC is supposedly giving Leno the 11:30 p.m. spot and pushing The Tonight Show back to 12:05 a.m. Jeff and Wilson definitely feel more vehemently about the decision than I do, but I’m starting to see Jay in a similarly desperate light–whatever happened to bowing out with respect? We’re hoping this was actually posted by Conan, but someone put The Tonight Show on Craigslist. Listed as “barely-used” and up for sale to the highest bidder, the ad spells out a hilariously specific requirement: the buyer must honor the scheduled Barry Manilow booking for next Thursday.
With all the tablet rumors surrounding the next Apple Event on January 26, it’s refreshing to hear that the next iPhone might feature a touch-sensitive back. According to Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen, the fourth-gen iPhone might come with a case similar to the Apple Magic Mouse that you can pinch, pull, and tap. A “touch-sensitive back,” you say? The jokes almost write themselves….but you better believe we still go there.
We also spend some time in the second half of the show on the earthquake disaster in Haiti. Much thanks and support to the soldier who called in with a voice mail about the effort! We’re urging everyone to do their part and text HAITI to 90999 to give $10 to the Red Cross. Also, please help us spread the word that American Airlines is taking volunteer doctors and nurses to Haiti for free, just call 212-697-9767 for more details. Red Cross also needs more Creole-speaking volunteers for their 24-hour phone bank, so get in touch with them if you can.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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Originally posted at The 404 Podcast
The people behind Moleskine, not content with the $20 they manage to get in exchange for a blank notebook, have come up with a new money-making scheme, a way to part us poor, fashionable fools with even more of our cash.
A grand product deserves a grand name, and the $40 Moleskine 2010 Color A Month Daily Planner Volant Box Set
delivers. It consists of twelve of the softcover Volant notebooks, tiny, slim pamphlets of just 54 pages each which normally come in sets of two, delivered in a box also equipped with all the stickers and bookmarks the obsessive organizer could want.
As you can see from the opening lines of this post, I fully intended to mock this overpriced wad of paper and thin, smooth, perfectly textured card, but I can’t. The strong stationery fetish that all geeks harbor within themselves has been drawn out and now I want to buy this full set, even though I almost never set pen to paper anymore. Just look at those colors!
I’ll leave quietly now, while I still have a little pride left intact. I’ll see you all over at the Amazon Moleskine Store. Yes, there’s an Amazon Moleskine Store.
Moleskine 2010 Color A Month Daily Planner [Moleskine]
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T-Mobile and Google have come together to configure a new pricing scheme for existing T-Mobile customers…sort of. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-10435907-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p
Filed under: Gaming
NPD: Wii leads video game industry to ‘biggest sales month ever’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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