Motorola Droid X now on sale

Verizon’s latest Droid model is finally available. Will you pick up a Motorola Droid X? pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20010719-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p

Social site self-portraits–Jasmine’s Tech Dos Don’ts

Get schooled by CNET editor Jasmine France. This week she gives tips on taking self portraits to use on social networking (or even online dating) Web sites. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-20010690-49.html” class=”origPostedBlog”MP3 Insider/a/p

Apple, RIM, Google all bid on Palm?

We’re having a hell of a time believing this, but BusinessInsider’s Dan Frommer is citing “a source familiar with the negotiations” as saying that RIM, Google, and Apple — yes, Apple — were all in the mix for Palm at one point or another as the bidding war went on earlier this year. We all know how that story ended up playing out, but prior to HP’s winning bid, RIM allegedly made a generous offer and could’ve ultimately come away with the prize had it not failed to re-up the bid (and may have even reduced it, looking at Palm’s SEC filings) after HP made its move. For its part, Google apparently made some not-too-serious moves, primarily in a perceived head game with Apple.

Speaking of Apple, the company was said to be in it primarily for Palm’s sizable patent portfolio — but is claimed to have also been interested in keeping the platform alive, possibly in an effort to compete in the physical QWERTY market where the iPhone has not. Of course, if you look way back, it’s important to remember that Mac OS X itself is based on outside work (if you consider NeXT “outside”), so we guess that keeping webOS alive in some capacity after an Apple acquisition wouldn’t be totally unprecedented — but it’d still be really, really weird at best.

Apple, RIM, Google all bid on Palm? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Future of cooking: The interactive countertop

If you’re tired of your countertops just sitting there doing nothing except holding up the stuff you pile on them, don’t despair. If Intel Labs is right, soon your Formica will be interactive. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-20010445-32.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Appliances and Kitchen Gadgets/a/p

Android Market now has 100,000 apps, passes 1 billion download mark (update: Google says 70K)

Well, it may not come as a huge surprise considering all the steam Android‘s picked up over the past few years, but it’s a landmark nonetheless: according to AndroLib’s data, the Market now has 100,000 apps available for download. It’s also interesting to note that it took just under three months to get from 50,000 to the 100,000 mark. An even more impressive number, however, is the fact that over one billion applications have been downloaded. While it’s not clear if this number includes app updates or not, the number is massive either way, and they’re growing pretty steeply each month. AndroLib’s data also notes that over 14,000 applications became available during the month of June, and over 10,000 have appeared already in July. Hit up the source links for more stats, and a chance to see the numbers update in real time.

[Thanks, Eggo]

Update: By Google’s official count, they’ve only just passed 70,000; this isn’t the first time AndroLib and Google have had different numbers, so we’re figuring the discrepancy might be thanks to the international Markets. More on this as we get it.

Android Market now has 100,000 apps, passes 1 billion download mark (update: Google says 70K) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s Brewing Shitstorm [Apple]

Dave Winer—the father of blogging and the RSS—has published this article on Apple’s current situation. His prediction: The Reality Distortion Field bubble is “about to burst” and Apple is going to suffer the ugliest shitstorm you’ve ever seen. More »

Open Up a Cold One with the ThinkGeek BeerBot Bottle Opening Shirt

ThinkGeek - BeerBotThe summer heat is on, and if you’re like most people you’ll find yourself at a few outdoor events during the warm weather months enjoying a frosty beverage from an ice cold bottle. Unfortunately, at those parties, barbecues, and picnics, there’s an inevitable shortage of bottle openers. ThinkGeek comes to the rescue with the new BeerBot Bottle Opening Shirt, a t-shirt featuring a drunken robot printed on the front whose claw happens to also be a bottle opener that’s embedded right into the shirt.

Just put the bottle under the robot’s claw and twist it to open the cap. The bottle opener is sewn into the shirt and has fabric on the back so you don’t feel the bottle opener against your skin while you walk or move around. And the shirt is even machine-washable, so no need to worry about the aftereffects of those foam-overs.

The BeerBot shirt is available now from ThinkGeek.com for $19.99. 

HTC Desire HD rumored for October

With the dust finally settled around the Evo 4G, it’s time to start looking forward to HTC’s next handset. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20010704-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p

Ripxx exercise GPS adds Mac OS support to its other EXTREME! qualities

We’re all basically huge jocks here at Engadget </sarcasm>, so anytime we can combine our love of cross training with our love of consumer electronics it’s a pretty good day. Only a thousand times less interesting than Dancepants, the Ripxx Personal Measurement Device (as you may recall) integrates a GPS, accelerometers, and gyroscopes for tracking your performance and movement in all three dimensions. And now Apple users can get in on the game (or least train and then sit on the bench), with an upgraded Ripxx Suite Version 2.1 that includes not only full Mac support but Improved activity reports and graphs and lap time measurements. If this is your bag, hit up the PR after the break. As for us, we’re going to get back to this quart of Chunky Monkey and VHS copy of BASEketball.

Continue reading Ripxx exercise GPS adds Mac OS support to its other EXTREME! qualities

Ripxx exercise GPS adds Mac OS support to its other EXTREME! qualities originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Releases iPhone Update With Signal Bar ‘Fix’

Apple on Thursday afternoon released a minor software update for iPhones, which changes the appearance of signal bars. Apple has promised that this fix would alleviate the iPhone 4’s widely reported antenna problem — a claim nobody has believed.

The update (version 4.0.1) is 580-MB large, and the revised signal bar formula is the only tweak mentioned in the change log.

In iOS 4.0.1, the reception bars are slightly taller than they were previously (see images above).

Apple said in a press release that the iPhone 4’s reception loss was exaggerated by an inaccurate display of signal strength, and the company said a new software algorithm would alleviate the problem. However, some bloggers and antenna experts agree that the issue is related to hardware — a weak spot in the lower-left corner of the phone — and a software update is unlikely to fix resolve the problem.

From light testing, Wired.com has not seen a substantial difference in performance when the iPhone 4 is gripped covering the antenna gap in the lower-left corner, or left uncovered. We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, if you’ve installed the update, post your observations in the comments section.

Apple will be holding a press conference Friday morning regarding the iPhone 4. At this point it seems easy to predict that at the conference, Apple will focus on explaining why the software update is an adequate fix. Still, we’re betting the company will issue free bumpers for those claiming they are affected, and perhaps even silently revise the hardware in future shipments of the iPhone 4.

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