May 10
Satoru Iwata has declared war on Steve Jobs, but he’d better shore up a few of Nintendo’s most annoying quirks first if he wants to take his best shot.
May 10
Wired Video: Zombie Bashing and Other Wicked iPad Apps
Posted in: Apple, apps, ipad, Today's Chili, videos
The iPad has been selling for only a month, and there are already 5,000 iPad apps in the App Store. In this episode of the Gadget Lab video podcast, I highlight four apps I’ve become attached to since I bought my iPad.
The first is a game called Plants vs. Zombies HD. It’s a gorgeous 2-D tower-defense game that involves planting pea pods, potatoes and other bizarre flora to defend your lawn against a horde of invading zombies. If they reach your house, you lose. It’s a charmingly simple game, which makes it enjoyable for people of all ages. Plants vs. Zombies HD costs $10. Download Link
I also cover IM+, the first decent multiclient instant messaging app available for the iPad. It’s a little buggy, but the overall UI makes excellent use of the iPad’s touchscreen. In looks best in landscape mode, where it displays your buddy list alongside your chats. The app costs $10. Download Link
The third app I use more than anything else on my iPad: Comic Zeal, an open comic book reader. You can download any open comics you find on the web and easily load them into this app through iTunes. That’s very liberating compared to the Marvel app, which limits you to downloading only Marvel comics. Comic Zeal is eight bucks in the App Store. Download Link
Finally, I give a shoutout to the Dropbox iPad app. Dropbox is a popular storage service that gives you a folder that’s stored on the internet (aka the cloud). You can drop various types of media in your Dropbox and then access the folder on any device running a Dropbox app, including smartphones, computers and now the iPad. The iPad version is beautiful and extremely useful for carrying your life on the go. I use it a lot for work. The Dropbox service is free for 2 GB of storage per month. It costs $10 a month for 50 GB and $20 per month for 100 GB. The iPad app is free in the App Store. Download Link
This episode of the Gadget Lab podcast was produced by Annaliza Savage, with camerawork by Michael Lennon and editing by Fernando Cardoso. For more video from Wired.com, go to www.wired.com/video.
See Also:
- Video: 5 Sweet Apps to Break in Your iPad
- 15 iPad Apps You Should Download Today
- Apple’s iPad Tablet: Full Coverage
May 10
Just when we think that platter-based storage is on its way out it keeps on coming back with a vengeance. A few years ago it was perpendicular recording boosting storage densities by a few orders of magnitude, now it’s a pair of new techniques that could push things much further. Your average disk today can manage a couple-hundred GB per square inch while still delivering reliable writes, but if all goes to plan the write methods called bit-patterned recording (BPR) and thermally-assisted recording (TAR) could raise that to 1TB per inch initially and upwards of 10TB per inch down the road. BPR relies on segregating the disk sectors with lithographed “islands” while TAR relies on heating and cooling techniques that preserve the data in nearby sectors. When these Wonder Twins combine, disk sectors can be as small as 15nm in diameter and write speeds can hit 250Mb/sec. Yes, that’s megabits, so while you’ll be able to store a lot more data than on conventional platters, you won’t be able to do so any more quickly than now.
New HDD writing methods could boost platter densities by 5x or more originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
May 10
German company HMB-TEC has listed some apps which, together with accompanying hardware, will turn your iPhone into a fan, flashlight, laser pointer, and even a stethoscope.
May 10
HP Slate Could Get a Makeover With Palm’s WebOS
Posted in: HP, Media Players, palm, rumor, slate, tablets, Today's Chili, webos
The acquisition of smartphone maker Palm could have an impact on HP’s plans for its “Slate” tablet.
The Slate could be re-branded “Hurricane” and released with a new operating system based on Palm’s WebOS, according to a blog post on the Examiner.com web site. The Hurricane could be released in the third quarter of the year.
For tablet enthusiasts who want a device that’s not created by Apple, the HP Slate — a tablet with iPad-like styling — seems like a promising alternative. But the Slate’s development has been slow and rocky. Apple has already sold more than 1 million iPads while HP has been trying to finish its product.
HP introduced the Slate to gadget enthusiasts through a video in March. The company didn’t announce technical specifications for the device, but it released two short video clips that indicated the device would run Windows 7.
The Slate would also have a built-in camera, video-recording capability, USB port, an SD card reader and support for Adobe Flash — features pointedly aimed at the iPad, which lacks all five. A leaked company document suggested the Slate would cost $550 or $600 for the 32-GB and 64-GB models, respectively.
But late last month, HP said it was acquiring smartphone maker Palm. Jack Gold, an analyst with J. Gold associates says Palm’s new operating system, WebOS, created for its Palm Pre and Pixi phones could be a good fit for the HP tablet. Later, TechCrunch reported that HP could kill its Windows 7 tablet and instead find a way to launch a product that would use WebOS.
The latest suggestion that HP might re-brand the Slate as Hurricane seems to bear out the rumors of a WebOS-based tablet.
A HP spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company does not talk about “rumors and speculation.” The HP and Palm acquisition closes in July, and till then, the two companies are expected to continue to act independently, according to government rules.
Examiner.com doesn’t have a track record when it comes to gadget rumors but, if you take into account the buzz from different sources, it is likely that HP is re-evaluating its plans for the Slate. The question is, how long can the company afford to wait with Apple already charging ahead with the iPad?
See Also:
- HP’s Windows 7 Slate Strikes at the iPad
- Leaked HP Slate Fails to Impress in Early Peek
- HP Offers Another Peek at Its Tablet, Specs Leaked?
- Gallery: 8 Tablets That Aren’t Made by Apple
Photo: HP
May 10
Remember when Creative just made sound cards? Those were the days. The company has lost its way (and its market share) since then, but is trying to trump the competition again with the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD soundcard. It’s a PCIe powerhouse, an upgrade from the previous Fatal1ty-branded model thanks to its golden connectors and better onboard circuitry. What kind of circuitry? There’s a NJM4556A dual op-amp, the same used by Grado’s headphone amps, two National LME49710 op-amps, and a Burr-Brown PCM1794 DAC. If that’s all a meaningless stream of letters and brands to you, don’t worry: your on-board audio outputs will continue to do just fine. For those looking for a little more, all that remains to be seen is how Creative’s HD offering will stack up against other audiophile-grade soundcards. We hope to be hearing about that very soon.
[Thanks, Wayne]
Creative’s Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD gets audiophile preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 13:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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May 10
Cox ‘Plus Package’ brings advanced Trio UI, 500GB multiroom DVR and more HD channels
Posted in: cisco, dvr, set-top-box, Today's Chili, ui, video
Cox is ready to make a major leap forward in its user interface — goodbye SARA and Passport, we won’t miss you — with the newly developed “Plus Package” rolling out in limited areas during Q2 and throughout its service area by the end of the year. For the hardware Cox is bringing a Whole Home DVR solution to bear based on a Cisco 8642 HD/DVR with 500GB (3x more than the sizes currently offered) of storage, and MoCA-connected 1642 HD receivers, which are also necessary to tune to the new HD channels on the way delivered over Switched Digital Video (SDV) in the 860-MHz band.
The star of the show however is the new “Trio” program guide (video embedded after the break), a 16:9 interface that spaces out program info over three panes — channels on the left, programs in the middle, details on the right. TV programs can also be sorted grid-style, by themes, HD-only or favorite channels, while VOD lists titles, box art and detailed info in the three window style. There’s personalization for up to eight members of a household, as well as TiVo-style suggestions and related programming searches based on metadata. An exec told Multichannel News the new tru2way-built software started by realizing that “our guides were, in fact, broken” and this all-new approach is a step towards fixing that. Besides the TiVos and Moxis of the world, other service providers with similar setups include DirecTV, FiOS, Dish Network and U-verse and while we’d definitely like to see that middle pane expanded a bit to show more of each title, Cox could be the first cable company offering a set-top box that actually competes with any of them.
Gallery: Cox Advanced TV Plus Package
Cox ‘Plus Package’ brings advanced Trio UI, 500GB multiroom DVR and more HD channels originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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May 10
Leave it to Wilson to make the rest of us all look bad on Mother’s Day. While the rest of us were scrambling to make it to Duane Reade before closing time on Saturday, Wilson had already ordered a Fed Ex truck to deliver all the presents to his Mother down in Florida. We hope the rest of you had a fun weekend, but don’t forget that just because Mother’s Day is over doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook for the rest of the year; keep up the love!
President Barack Obama gave a commencement speech at Hampton University over the weekend where he warned the graduates about the dangers of a “24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content…some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter.”
We were in complete agreement with everything Obama was saying…until he openly admitted to not knowing how to use an Apple iPod/iPad, an XBox, or a Playstation. It’s no surprise that our Commander-in-Chief has bigger issues to worry about than dead pixels, but if a 99-year-old Grandma can pinch and pull her way around an iPad, what’s Obama’s excuse?
Objects in scanner are smaller than they appear.
Don’t forget to don your lead underwear the next time you get in line for a body scan at the airport. Rolando Negrin, a 44 year old attendant with the TSA learned that lesson the hard way when he threatened a colleague with a police baton after the bully allegedly made fun of his exposed genitalia during a routine training session at a Miami Airport.
The lesson began with Negin showing a group of trainees how to use the full body scanner, but the session soon turned into a roast when his colleagues started poking fun at the smaller-than-average size of his junk. In the bully’s defense, it’s completely possible that the first joke was made to relieve the tension of seeing his boss in his birthday suit, and Negin shouldn’t have gotten so pissed- I’m sure they keep the air condition on pretty high during Spring and Summer.
Check out the full episode by clicking on the player below. You can also subscribe to our iTunes feed in audio and video form, and don’t forget to e-mail at the404(at)cnet(dot)com or leave a voicemail on 1-866-404-CNET to share your thoughts with us!
EPISODE 577
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Originally posted at The 404 Podcast
May 10
Taxes Push Overseas iPad Prices Up
Posted in: ipad, Today's Chili
Apple has set the pricing for the international versions of the iPad and begun accepting orders for shipment by May 28, which has allowed foreign buyers to compare their prices to what Apple has charged Americans.
Naturally, some aren’t happy with the comparison.
In Canada, for example, the price on the Wi-Fi iPad ranges from $549 to $749 Canadian; prices for the 3G version range from $679 to $879. In the U.K., where the government tacks on a 17.5 value-added tax (VAT), the Wi-Fi iPad is priced from £429 to £599, while the 3G version range from £529.00 to £699.00.
In the U.S., of course, prices range from $499 to $699 for the Wi-Fi model, and from $629 to $829 for the iPad 3G. That means that U.K. buyers are paying a 27 percent premium for the high-end 3G model, on top of what they might be paying for wireless plans from O2 and Orange.
May 10
According to Sony, the sequel, due in winter, will one-up its adorable predecessor by letting players create not just game levels, but games themselves.
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