Hasta La Gadget!

Nuu Mini Key didn’t satisfy your desire for a physical keyboard on your iPhone? Try this TK-421 QWERTY case instead, which sexes up the formula with a swiveling package that hearkens back to the T-Mobile Sidekick. There’s still no extra battery life to be had here, and yes, the keypad connects via Bluetooth, but we’re willing to sacrifice a good bit for a totally awesome hinge and a dedicated number row. Invented, designed and sold by ThinkGeek, gadget stocking stuffer seller extraordinaire, the unit’s priced at a very reasonable $50. Shame it’s not slated to ship till “mid-November” and only then in limited quantities, else we’d snap up two right now. Watch that screen spin right round after the break.

Continue reading TK-421 abandons his post, brings us this flip-out QWERTY case for iPhone

TK-421 abandons his post, brings us this flip-out QWERTY case for iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netflix certainly didn’t have much trouble attracting interest in its Canadian launch today — the country’s waited long enough, after all — but it looks like it nonetheless went a bit too far in its efforts to build up buzz at its press event. It turns out that many of the onlookers at the event were actually actors hired by Netflix, at least some of whom went as far as to talk to the press and pass themselves off as regular people — regular people who happen to be really enthusiastic about Netflix, of course. An information sheet handed out to the extras reportedly even told them to “play types” and “behave as members of the public” who just “happen upon a street event for Netflix and stop by to check it out.” After word of the shenanigans got out, Netflix quickly issued an apology, of sorts — the company’s VP of corporate communications, Steve Swasey, said that he was “unaware” that a script was handed out to the extras, and that “some people got carried away and it’s embarrassing to Netflix.”

Netflix busted for using actors in crowd at Canadian launch event originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The bra–an invention worthy of an Ig Nobel Prize in 2009–is now commercially available in a sexy, life-saving, Red Cross shade of red. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20017344-247.html” class=”origPostedBlog”News – Health Tech/a/p

The good news is that Netflix is helping to keep struggling actors working. The bad news is that those actors are apparently taking their work a little too seriously.

To celebrate its launch in the Great White North, the movie delivery/streaming service hired a group of extras to fill out a kickoff event. The company put out an ad for actors to portray “mothers, film buffs, tech geeks, couch potatoes etc.”

Netflix handed out an informational sheet to the actors, stating, “extras are to behave as members of the public, out and about enjoying their day-to-day life, who happen upon a street event for Netflix and stop by to check it out.”

During the event, reporters began interviewing attendees, apparently not realizing that they were speaking with actors. News of the apparent mix up spread quickly, thanks to Twitter, leading Netflix to issue an apology, calling the event “embarrassing.”

If there’s a Photokina around, you can bet your bottom dollar that Sanyo will be there. Boasting a booth chock full of camcorders and pocketable cameras, we waded through to find three new Xacti camcorders (VPC-CG21, VPC-PD1 and VPC-GH3) on display alongside a simplistic new shooter, the VPC-E1500TP. Starting with the latter, this one brings just the basics in a fairly vanilla enclosure: a 14 megapixel CMOS sensor, 720p video, a 4x optical zoom, 3-inch rear touchpanel, 32MB of internal storage space, an SD / SDHC expansion slot, ISO range from 100 to 3200 and USB connectivity. Pricing and availability wasn’t offered for this fellow, but we’re betting it’s below $150 and in stores tomorrowish.

Moving on to the camcorders, the CG21 ($149) is a typical pistol-grip machine with a 10 megapixel sensor, the ability to capture 1080i, a 10x optical zoomer and an SDXC card slot. The $199 GH3 looks more like your mother’s Handycam of old, offering a similar 10 megapixel sensor, SDHC card slot, 10x optical zoom and 1080i video capture. The starlet was the $199 PD1, a Flip Video-styled camcorder with dual microphones, 10 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom, SDXC card slot, 1080/30p recording, an integrated USB arm and a rather impressive rear LCD. The whole lot is making its way out to dealers now, so feel free to start poking and prodding if you must. Galleries are below, per usual.

Sanyo debuts E1500TP point-and-shoot alongside Xacti CG21, PD1 and GH3 camcorders originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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