May 28
Boxee announces a new Wolfgang’s Vault live music app for their streaming media platform.
May 28
Boutique publishing house les éditions volumiques shows us that print is far, far from dead
Posted in: AppleIphone, Books, iPhone, Today's Chili
Say what you will about traditional media and the continually shrinking size of print magazines, but we’ve got some proof right here that good ‘ol pulp still has a lot of life left. French publishing house les éditions volumiques has been doing research into new and… interesting ways to use the print medium and to combine it with mobile devices. The company’s site is like a playground for bookistas, with short videos showing off all sorts of wondrous things. One project is The book that disappears, a volume printed on reactive paper that turns black after 20 minutes. Another is The Night of the Living Dead Pixels, a graphic novel (shown above) that allows you to choose your path, with terminal pages featuring QR codes that trigger videos on your smartphone. There’s a board game that uses iPhones for pawns, and even a book that turns its own pages. All are demonstrated at the company’s site (in Flash, so watch out for Steve), and most are destined to actually see print by the end of the year. We’ve already made room on our bookshelves.
Boutique publishing house les éditions volumiques shows us that print is far, far from dead originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
May 28
T’Light Gadget-Charging Desk Lamp: Bad Name, Great Idea
Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili
The t’Light, short for “The Most Talented Light” might be the worst gadget name ever, but the product it describes promises to sweep all the cables off your desk, and provide a low-powered work-light at the same time.
Well, it promises to shorten your cables at least. The t’Light has a 3 watt LED lamp up top, which should last for around 50,000 hours, but the action is down on the base. Just by snaking one cord off the desk and into the wall, you can power a host of desktop machines. The t’Light has a USB port, an iPhone dock and a jack which puts out enough power for a laptop. Ironically, given the Apple-centric feature set and marketing, there is no adapter available for a MacBook, thanks to Apple not allowing anyone else to make them.
The lamps are fashioned from “metal-alloy”, and can be had in any of eight colors, including the natural shiny metal finish seen above. They cost $90 each.
May 28
Stores open early June 4th for EVO 4G with mobile hotspot loophole
Posted in: 4G, exclusive, hotspot, HTC, mobile hotspot, MobileHotspot, Sprint, Today's Chili, WiMAX
When you’ve got the world’s most desired** handset, you don’t keep people waiting. As such, Sprint is recommending that its “preferred retailers” open extra early on June 4th. That should give you a bit of time to grab the new EVO 4G on the way to the office for some good ol’ fashioned bragging rights in the cubicle farm. At least until you remember that one-third of your life is spent working inside of a beige box. Oh and here’s a pro tip: according to the official EVO 4G Launch Guide we’re staring at, the mobile hotspot functionality that turns your EVO into a WiMax hotspot for up to 8 devices will initially work without paying the $29.99 monthly fee if you’re happy with using it on 4G only (no 3G). Sprint expects to correct this sometime in July after which the Sprint Mobile Hotspot add-on will require activation. Read the details for yourself after the break.
** assuming you have WiMax coverage
Continue reading Stores open early June 4th for EVO 4G with mobile hotspot loophole
Stores open early June 4th for EVO 4G with mobile hotspot loophole originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 08:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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May 28
The Bobino Cable Buddy certainly isn’t the only cable-holder you can buy, but it is the only one which has been added to the Gadget Lab Flickr Group. The Bobino is a soft, bendy spool onto which you wrap a cable. It comes in three sizes, the smallest and lightest for thin earbud wired and the biggest for hefty power and ethernet cables or, as suggested on the site, “baby phones” (whatever they may be).
The design has also won an iF design award, and its easy to see why. Although simple and brightly colored, the integrated cable-clamp and easy-in, not-coming-out slots look to be perfect for keeping the cable where it should be.
The prices run from €3 to €4 ($3.70 to $5) depending on size, and can be ordered now.
Bobino [Mybobino. Thanks, StarfishAndStella!]
Design Cable Gadget [Gadget Lab on Flickr]
May 28
Soon, New York’s midtown will play host to a restaurant with a 240-square-foot screen, displaying tweets and Foursquare check-ins.
May 28
Opera parodies Google’s Chrome speed tests mercilessly (video)
Posted in: Chrome, Google, Opera, Today's Chili, video
This, dear friends, is the height of comedy. Opera’s pair of Scandinavian browser testers are back, this time applying some extremely high-tech speed tests to determine whether the Norwegian browser is faster than boiling a potato. Seriously, if you’re not laughing at this, you either work for Google or you have a funny bone missing. In more concrete news, the acceptance of Opera Mini to the iPhone has accounted for a cool 70 percent of the Mini’s growth over the month of April, with 2.6 million Apple users downloading the software worldwide. But that’s not what you’re here for, you’re here to see the epic video, which awaits after the break along with Google’s original.
[Thanks, Ian G.]
Continue reading Opera parodies Google’s Chrome speed tests mercilessly (video)
Opera parodies Google’s Chrome speed tests mercilessly (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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May 28
Nokia N8 to launch on August 25 in UK, according to local store employee
Posted in: launch, nokia, Release Date, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom
As official confirmations go, this is the weakest kind. A Nokia store employee has informed Pocket-lint that the N8 hero device we’ve all been waiting for will be launching in the Queen’s backyard on Wednesday, August 25. That’s only a day off from the August 24 tip that we had and definitely seems to narrow down the release window, but let’s retain our signature skepticism. Until one of Nokia’s higher-ups or their PR team busts out an official release date, we’re still dealing with speculative information. Then again, if you wanna book that week of August off from work, we’d totally understand.
Nokia N8 to launch on August 25 in UK, according to local store employee originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 07:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
May 28
Kobo Beats iBooks with International iPad Bookstore, App
Posted in: e-readers, ipad, tablets, Today's Chili
If you’re one of the people around the world buying an iPad today, you might want to check out Apple’s iBooks e-reading app (you might also want to call in sick to work, as you won’t be getting much done today). But when you flip the virtual bookcase to enter the store, you’ll be disappointed: Launch-day is here, but all you can buy in the store outside the US is a pile of dusty public-domain titles. It seems that no deals have been inked with international publishers. UPDATE: The premium iBook Store has gone live in the UK. Spain is still down.
There is an alternative. Kobo, an e-reader app, is now iPad-ready and has stores in UK, Canada, Australia and (coming soon) New Zealand. Those of you outside those countries can still sign up and buy books: Unlike iTunes, Kindle or Barnes & Noble, there are no geographical restrictions. I bought a book from the US store back when Kobo was called ShortCovers and it still works fine.
The reader itself isn’t as glitzy (some might say chintzy) as iBooks, but it is good-looking, clean and functional. Versions are also available for Blackberry, iPhones, Android and even the Palm Pre. Using Adobe Digital editions you can read on the desktop, and using a browser you can even read on the Kobo website.
Once the reader software is taken care of (and Kobo is completely distraction-free, just like it should be) than catalog is the next most important thing. Kobo has a catalog of two million titles. Many of these are free public-domain titles, but there are plenty of new bestsellers and back-catalog books, too, at prices similar to those of Amazon.
Best of all, it’s free, so you can try it out as soon as you realize that iBooks is a big disappointment. It comes with five free books to start you off, too. Oh, and if you really have to, you can customize the bookshelf to use the same glitzy (chintzy) wood-effect you’ll find in iBooks.
Kobo [Kobobooks. Thanks, Sam!]
See Also:
- $150 Kobo eReader: The Real Kindle Killer?
- Kobo E-Reader First on iPad
- Kobo International E-Book Store Launches: Why Amazon Should Be …
May 28
UK iBookstore surprise: premium content appears
Posted in: Apple, apple ipad, AppleIpad, ipad, Today's Chili, uk
The iPad has officially hit Europe today (though some lucky duckies got theirs a bit early), and contrary to earlier descriptions of the iBookstore as being “US only” it seems UK virtual bookshelves are now receiving some decidedly in-copyright texts to fill in the gaps between the dusty, out-of-copyright volumes previously available. Prices are displayed in the local currency, nice for those living in fear of the NWO, and purchases are made in just two taps. So, UK owners, download yourself a new book, find a comfy chair, pour a nice cuppa, and enjoy your weekend with your new toy.
UK iBookstore surprise: premium content appears originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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