Oct 15
Previously an Easter egg that was built into Kindle e-readers, a more flushed version of Mine Sweeper has now appeared in the Kindle Store.
Oct 15
15 Monstrous Mining Machines [Machines]
Posted in: Today's Chili, top
With the recent rescue of the 33 Chilean miners, we’ve got mining on the brain. How do they create those crazy tunnels deep in the earth? With these spinning, churning, crushing machines of mayhem and destruction, that’s how. More »
Oct 15
CTL 2goPad SL10 review
Posted in: intel atom, IntelAtom, review, slate, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, video, Windows, windows 7, Windows7
Last time we left off in the tale of Windows 7 tablets, we’d taken a look at Netbook Navigator’s Nav 9 slate, which by review’s end had us not only wanting to send it back as soon as humanly possible, but concluding that something better just had to be on the horizon. Well, as luck would have it, just a few days later CTL’s 10-inch 2goPad SL10 showed up on our doorstep with some very promising ingredients — a capacitive touchscreen, accelerometer, front facing camera, and a Win 7 software layer. As we said in our early hands-on, we’ve been more impressed with the $499 (it will go up to $599 in late October) 2goPad than we ever thought we would be, but ultimately its Atom N450 processor and its software stand in its way of being the Win 7 tablet to kill ’em all. You’ll want to hit the break to read all about it in our full review.
Gallery: CTL 2goPad SL10 review
Continue reading CTL 2goPad SL10 review
CTL 2goPad SL10 review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Oct 15
Study: 85 Percent of U.S. Customers Own Cellphones
Posted in: cellphones, Phones, research, Today's Chili
If you’re wondering why your cellphone reception sucks so badly, part of it is because so many people carry phones today. In fact, the cellphone is by far the most popular gadget in the United States.
A whopping 85 percent of U.S. adults and three quarters of teens now own a cellphone, according to a new research report by Pew. That compares to 59 percent of American adults who own a desktop computer, 52 percent who own a laptop, 47 percent with an MP3 player and 42 percent with a game console.
A mere 4 percent of U.S. adults own a tablet computer (i.e., the iPad), and about the same number own an e-book reader, according to Pew.
The report found that about 80 percent of U.S. adults own two or more devices in these categories. I’m mildly ashamed to admit I own at least one device in every single category — but hey, it’s my job to have things.
See Also:
- Survey: Most-Hated Wireless Company Isn’t AT&T, It’s Sprint …
- When Land Lines Will Be a Memory
- Survey Confirms iPhone Users Are Hard-Core Internet Junkies …
Graphic: Pew Research
Oct 15
RT the first message on our Twitter page for a chance to win this artwork, c/o Blake Stevenson
(Credit:
Blake Stevenson)
Pardon our dust, 404 video viewers! We’re right in the middle of a grand studio makeover! The 404 clubhouse is getting all new gear, including wide-angle lenses and a brand new HD tricaster so you can see our radio-friendly faces in high-definition! Actually, we’ll let you determine whether that’s good or bad, but bear with us for the next few days as we finish setting everything up.
To make it up to you (and in honor of our favorite holiday), we’re giving away original 404 art courtesy of the incredibly talented Blake Stevenson! If you just started listening to the show, Blake is the unofficial artist of The 404 that donated his talents to our official logo as well as many of the posters you see in our studio! He recently created the Halloween poster you see on this page and we’re really excited to give it away! To enter, all you have to do is follow Blake on Twitter and RT this message:
“RT this & follow @blakestevenson to get some original @the404 ink! http://goo.gl/1XXG”
…and that’s it! You have all weekend to do that for a chance to win some awesome art from your favorite podcast; we’ll announce the winners next week–good luck!
Now onto today’s stories. The first one is almost NSFW so I’ll skip that for now, but the next one raises controversy about the recently released first person-shooter game, Medal of Honor. The EA reboot is a gritty take on the current conflict in Afghanistan, and the prerelease even let you play as Taliban soldiers attacking the U.S. Special Forces.
EA has since renamed the Taliban the “opposing force,” but the post-censorship becomes a divisive issue for The 404. Jeff doesn’t have a problem with it, Wilson thinks it’s just “too real,” and I’m stuck in the middle like a preteen begging his parents to stop the madness. Tune into the first half to get the full story!
After the break, we hit another milestone for the show: our first ever listener-submitted VIDEO VOICE MAIL! As you know, listeners usually call in and leave an audio voice mail that we play on the air, but Blazer from Cincinnati had the genius idea to post a YouTube link to show us a skateboard trick he created and named after the show!
It’s a no-comply pressure flip that he calls The 404 Flip, and we’ll definitely show Tony Hawk when he returns to the show next Friday! In the meantime, we’d love to receive more video voice mails, so upload your best messages to YouTube and send us a link at the404(at)cnet(dot)com. Of course we understand that not everyone has access to a video/Web camera, so audio voice mails will certainly be accepted as well–the number’s the same: 1-866-404-CNET. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday for the triumphant return of Ms. Natali Del Conte!
Episode 688
Listen now:
Download today’s podcast
Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video
Follow us on Twitter!
Add us on Facebook!
Originally posted at The 404 Podcast
Oct 15
The white iPhone 4 has been delayed so long that some of you probably forgot the handset comes in two colors. Tech blog Pocket Lint offers the first plausible explanation for the delay, which comes from a lucky owner of the elusive device.
Pocket Lint spotted a man with a white iPhone 4 at a press event in New York, who explained that Apple HQ is actually swimming with white iPhones, and a friend of his “fixed him up” with his.
The reason for the delay? Asian suppliers shipped white iPhones with a white home button that doesn’t match the color of the face plate, according to Pocket Lint’s tipster. That’s one of those small but significant details that would make Steve Jobs shelve the device until it was done just right.
Indeed, Apple did acknowledge in a July press release that the white iPhone 4 has proven “more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected.”
Though many tech critics have praised the iPhone 4 with glowing reviews, the product’s launch has been rocky at best. Customer reports of an antenna flaw on the device culminated into a frenzy of negative press, which compelled Jobs to hold a conference announcing a free case program to alleviate the issue. The mysterious delay of the white iPhone 4 has also been uncharacteristic of Apple, which is typically solid with meeting its ship dates.
See Also:
- Photo Gallery: Hands-On With the iPhone 4
- Apple: No White iPhones for at Least Three Weeks
- Apple: White iPhone Delayed Until 'Later This Year'
Oct 15
Turkey’s $1 million humanoid SURALP robot gets a coming out party (video)
Posted in: robot, Today's Chili, video
Yet another country has a walking humanoid robot to call its own, joining the illustrious league of nations that most recently added Iran to its ranks. Turkey is the lucky ducky this time, officially unveiling the SURALP robot to the world. Yeah, that’s an acronym, “Sabanci University Robot Research Laboratory Platform,” but after seeing him in action we’ve taken to calling him SHAKY. The University has been posting videos of his progress for many moons now, an eight year project that has cost $1 million total so far, but he was only recently officially revealed to the world at a demonstration, wowing the crowd by handing someone a can and then, later, throwing that very same can into the trash. Maybe SHAKY 2.0 will learn to recycle — and to love.
Continue reading Turkey’s $1 million humanoid SURALP robot gets a coming out party (video)
Turkey’s $1 million humanoid SURALP robot gets a coming out party (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Oct 15
Keep that bottle of Purell handy for your iPhone or Droid display is a germ magnet, says a recent Stanford University study. Phone displays attract viruses and transfer it to finger tips, says the study.
“About 20 to 30 percent viruses transfer to the glass from someone’s fingers and about the same will transfer to a fingertip on contact,” Tim Julian, a doctoral student at Stanford who recently published a paper on the transfer of virus between finger pads and glass surfaces told Wired.com
Other researchers have shown that a similar amount, and possibly more, can go from the fingers to nose and lips. On average, people touch their lips or mouth around 10 to 25 times in an hour.
It’s not the first time cellphones have been shown to be germ-infested. In 2007, British mobile phone retailer Dial-a-phone swabbed objects such as toilet seats, keyboards and the bottoms of shoes and analyzed the bacteria in them. When compared with mobile devices, they found the average mobile phone contained more bacteria than a toilet seat.
The Sacramento Bee quotes an unspecified British study to say mobile phones harbor 18 times more bacteria than a flush handle in a typical men’s restroom.
Julian’s research, which was published recently in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, didn’t go that far. But, he says, it is clear that the viruses transmitted through displays have the potential to harm, though the risk remains low.
During the flu-season though, cellphone users may not be as much at risk because influenza and common cold are largely airborne.
There’s one way to stave off the germs: Washing hands before touching the screen can help reduce the amount of virus transmitted from and to the display, says the study.
See Also:
- Sharp Plans 3-D Cellphone This Year
- Android App Uses Cellphone Camera to Measure Air Pollution
- Apple Redefines Remote Control — Now, It’s Your Cellphone
- Carriers Get Serious about Cellphone Recycling
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
[via The Sacramento Bee via Engadget]
Oct 15
French Find Open Parking Spaces On Their Cellphones
Posted in: car, phone, R&D and Inventions, Today's Chili
The French city of Toulouse is testing a system that displays available parking spots on drivers’ smartphones. The system can also tell when someone is illegally parked or hasn’t fed the parking meter.
“This technology comes from space travel,” says Patrick Givanovitch. “They were supposed to help find landing spots on Venus.” The French space agency CNES and Givanovitch’s Toulouse-based start-up company Lyberta helped develop the street-level sensors and refit both their hardware and software to map urban parking spaces. Over time, they plan to add data from global positioning systems as well.
“We know in real time where there is parking available in the city,” Givanovitch says. In addition to helping drivers find spaces and easing congestion, the hope is that city planners will be able to use the data to optimize traffic flows and parking arrangements throughout the city.
The sensors actually work by electromagnetism. They’re placed just below the street and connected in a network using ordinary coaxial cable. An occupied parking spot has a different magnetic profile than an empty one. If a garbage bin or service truck is parked in the space, they can sense that too.
Since they can detect the exact time a car parks and leaves in a space, the sensors can bust meter-cheaters as easily as overhead intersection cameras can detect cars running red lights. Just as the information that a spot is open can be relayed to a driver looking for a space, information that a car’s gone over its time limit can be relayed to the police.
Toulouse’s pilot program will eventually be expanded to cover the entire city; city planners in Paris and Los Angeles are also interested in implementing the technology.
Relief for Harried Drivers: The Parking Space that Finds You [Der Spiegel]
Image by Stefan Simons for Der Spiegel
See Also:
- Groups Build Parks From Parking Spaces
- May 13, 1935: Enter the Parking Meter
- San Francisco Parking Meters Adjust Prices Depending on Demand …
- Smart Parking Meters Hacked — Free Parking For All!
- Our Bike Racks, Ourselves: Crowdsourcing Two-Wheeled Parking …
- "Smart" Parking Meter Implementations, Globalism, and You
- Cell Phones, Internet Bring Parking Meters into the 21st Century …
Oct 15
iPhone Band Rocks Out on NY Subway
Posted in: Apple, apps, iPhone, Music, Phones, Today's ChiliWhile riding the Subway this week, New York resident Brittany Tucker spotted the band Atomic Tom pulling a musical stunt on the train, jamming out their song “Take Me Out” on their iPhones. Each band member used an iPhone app to play a different part (drums, guitar, keyboard, vocals), and the end result is quite an ear worm.
Imagine if you were on that train. I’d be thinking, “Only in New York. Awesome.”
We’ve seen a number of geeky performers create experiment noises with iOS apps, and Atomic Tom’s performance is one of the better ones. Tune in by playing the video above.
See Also:
- iPhone, iPod Touch Musicians Cover MGMT
- Student Orchestra Performs Music With iPhones
- Hook Your Guitar to Your iPhone and Rock Out with iRig
- Rock Out: Fingerist Turns iPhone into Guitar
- Turn Your iPhone Into an Electric Guitar With iShred
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.