Hasta La Gadget!

For this week’s giveaway, we’re serving up the slick Astro A30 headset.

Yesterday, a lot of commenters on the post about American “Dutch” city bikes thought that a $650 bicycle couldn’t be called cheap. This post is for you. Behold, the Men’s Mongoose Cachet Fixed-Speed Bike, a $150 “fixie” from Walmart. All you hipsters can cry into your PBR right now.

Let’s begin with the name. First, it is from Mongoose. Back in the BMX years of the 1980s, Mongoose was a quality brand. Now a quick Google shows that Mongoose equals cheap, department store tat. Better is the model name: Cachet. The irony is, of course, that naming anything Cachet immediately robs it of that same quality.

But the best part of the name is left to the end: fixed-speed. What could this mean? Does it run at just one speed? If so, what is that speed? Fast? More likely it is left-in-the-basement-zero-mph. We assume that it should read “fixed-gear”, but a look at the specs doesn’t help: the list says “single-speed”. This bike is more likely a freewheel, although it does have toe-clips and straps.

The specs themselves are neither shaming nor exciting. The frame is aluminum, which should make this bike lighter than many home-grown steel fixed-gears (although the shipping weight is a back-breaking 40-pounds. That must be a heavy cardboard box). It has two “calipur” brakes, and “high-profile colored rims” which “add urban style.”

We guess this bike could be okay. After all, the fixed-gear bike is so simple and so free of components that it should be cheap and good. Plus, as long as you put it together properly, there is almost nothing to go wrong. On the other hand, every cheap bike I have bought has fallen apart quickly. One thing is for sure: the days of the fixed-gear as hipster accessory are over. Thank God.

700C Men’s Mongoose Cachet Fixed-Speed Bike [Walmart via the Twitter]

See Also:

• Public Bikes: Fixed-Gear Style with Granny-Bike Ride
• The New SUV: Americans Heart Dutch Bikes
• Fixed-Gear Bikes an Urban Fixture
• Create Bikes v2.0: The Cheap Fixed-Gear Grows Up
• Coasties: Fixed-Gear Style, Only With Brakes
• Fixed-gear

Ready for a surreal way to start your day? Salt Lake City’s KSL News has a report out this morning detailing the baffling experience of AT&T subscribers trying to access emergency services in the city. Instead of being routed through to their local dispatcher, the urgent calls somehow found their way to Seattle’s 911 response center. Brought to the news team’s attention by one Tony Sams, this issue was originally thought to originate in his iPhone’s GPS system, as he was being identified as being located in the Seattle area, but then his local police also tried dialing their own number only to find themselves chatting it up with their Emerald City colleagues. Until they figure this out, we’d recommend using your landlines — if you still have one of those antiques — or just yelling at passersby for help. Hit the source for the full video report and the 10-digit direct number for Salt Lake City general dispatch.

Update: AT&T has been very nippy in getting this routing problem sorted out, and proper service has been restored. The company is now investigating the cause of this problemo.

[Thanks, Ryan]

AT&T redirecting 911 calls from Salt Lake City to Seattle, working on a fix (update: fix is in) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already talked (at length) about Palm’s failure to properly present its wares to the public. Using promotional campaigns that have fluctuated between gimmicky and creepy, the company has never allowed its superlative WebOS its time to shine. As if to illustrate our point to perfection, a loyal Pre user has put together his own, extremely professional, advert for the device, which manages to achieve — in a mere 30 seconds — what Palm has been struggling with for nearly a year. It shows off the handsome device, the effortless multitasking, the variety of apps, integrated services and video capabilities, and, most importantly, emphasizes the sheer beauty and ease of use of WebOS. See the video after the break.

[Thanks, Chris F]

Continue reading Fan-made Pre ad gets the point, why can’t Palm? (video)

Fan-made Pre ad gets the point, why can’t Palm? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it April 1st already or does Geohot actually have something real to show? There’s no way to be certain that what the self-promoting master of iPhone (and PS3) hacking is demoing is what he says:

“The jailbreak is all software based, and is as simple to use as blackra1n. It is completely untethered, works on all current tethered models(ipt2, 3gs, ipt3), and will probably work on iPad too.”

Given his track record, we’ll play along for now. The only thing we can say for sure is that the chosen music accompanying his iPod touch theatrics makes us want to break something, jailtime or not. See it go down after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Geohot teases untethered jailbreak that ‘will probably work on iPad’ (video)

Geohot teases untethered jailbreak that ‘will probably work on iPad’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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