Oct 26
Having already splashed down on the iPad last month, VLC is now available for iPhone as well, making virtually all video formats playable without conversion.
Originally posted at iPhone Atlas
Oct 26
In what is undoubtedly an attempt to steal the wind from Sony’s sails on the PlayStation Move, Nintendo has revealed that it’s sold more than 65.3 million Wii Remotes in the U.S. alone.
Originally posted at The Digital Home
Oct 26
Car manufacturers like to give out estimates for how far their electric vehicles can go on a single charge, but those estimates aren’t always very accurate. But it looks like Nissan’s claim that the upcoming Leaf EV can go between 62 and 138 miles on a single charge may be true.
PluginCars.com recently had the opportunity to take the car on a test drive and managed to go 116 miles on a single charge. The trip included travel over various types of terrain, and for most of the trip the air conditioning was on. The report also says that the car provides ample warning to alert you when the battery is getting low, and when things get really desperate, the car will even enter into a “turtle” mode where it limits your speed.
Oct 26
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuberberg “Most Influential Men”
Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, steve jobs, Today's Chili
Who’s more influential than Barack Obama? Lots of people, apparently. According to a new survey by the slightly less than scientific research firm/dudes interest Website, Ask.men, there are roughly 20 men who who wield more influence than the President.
The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart took the top spot for 2010. He’s joined in the top ten by a few tech luminaries. Bill Gates scored surprisingly high at number two on the list–interesting given the fact that he is no longer in charge of the software empire he helped build, instead turning his full-time attention to the charitable works of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg came in at number three. The combination of a wildly popular social network and a successful–if unflattering–hit movie based on your life is pretty hard to beat.
Steve Jobs came in at number four–a fact that he’s most likely rubbing in the face of RIM and Google’s Android team, as we speak.
Rapper Kayne West rounded out the top five, which surely means that’ll we’ll be seeing a lot more dudes running our with their bottom teeth replaced with diamonds.
Oct 26
China’s Shanghai-Hangzhou rail line opens, hits record breaking speed of 262mph
Posted in: chinese, Today's Chili, Transportation, Travel
High speed railways, particularly in Asia, have been soaring at around 200 miles per hour for quite some time now, but given just how much pride the Chinese have in their own rail system, it’s no shock to hear the entire nation gloating about a new speed record. Of course, we’re pretty partial to records ourselves, so we’ll happily open up a round of applause when a bullet train hits 262 miles per hour without imploding. The newfangled Shanghai-Hangzhou connection (which connects Hongqiao and Hangzhou) has gone into service today, with most riders treated to a top speed of only 220 miles per hour. Officials have already stated that they’re hoping to improve speeds to over 312 miles per hour, with other nations reportedly anxious to get ahold of their technology. Oh, and if you’re curious about details, the CRH380 train covers 126 miles in just 45 minutes, with seats starting as low as $12.
Update: We’ve learned that a maglev train in China has been known to hit around 268 miles per hour as recently as two months ago — we’re sure semantics are too blame here.
China’s Shanghai-Hangzhou rail line opens, hits record breaking speed of 262mph originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 26
A new green bed design ensures that you can still produce energy even while asleep. Or, um, doing other things. From the mind of Arthur Xin, the bed features a built-in battery that can turn all of your in-bed movement into stored energy.
The bed also doubles as an exercise machine, with a number of straps and pulleys located on the side so that you can workout. This physical activity can also be transformed into energy. There’s also overhead reading lights, built-in speakers, and an LED lit planter so that you can add a touch of greenery to your nightlife.
Via Inhabitat.
Oct 26
Video: Adobe Air, Flash Demonstrated on RIM PlayBook Tablet
Posted in: adobe, Apple, flash, playbook, RIM, steve jobs, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's ChiliMaybe Flash on a tablet isn’t as bad as Steve Jobs says it is. That’s what Adobe and Research In Motion want you to think after watching the video below.
Taped at Adobe’s MAX conference this week, the segment shows the BlackBerry PlayBook running media apps coded in Adobe Air, which is based partly on Flash. The video also shows YouTube.com playing a video with Flash 10.1 player.
“We’re not trying to dumb down the internet for a small mobile device,” says Mike Lazaridis, RIM’S CEO, during the PlayBook demonstration. “What we’re trying to do is bring up the performance and capability of the mobile device to the internet.”
Though there is no mention of Apple in the video, the comments about dumbing down the internet appear to target the iPad, which does not support Flash. In a famous blog post published April, Apple CEO Jobs explained why Apple was leaving Flash out of its mobile operating system, citing issues such as application crashes and battery drain. Later, when Flash debuted on the Android OS, some independent tests found that Flash was causing crashes on Android devices and that performance was sluggish, but battery drain was not significant.
The BlackBerry PlayBook will ship early next year. RIM has not announced a price.
See Also:
- Steve Jobs Claims Flash Will Kill the Mobile Web
- Adobe Parries Steve Jobs' Flash Thrust, Point for Point …
- Adobe CEO, Ex-Adobe Engineers Weigh In on Jobs' Flash Attack …
- New MacBook Air Disses Adobe Flash
- Apple Slaps Adobe's Flash with iPad-Friendly HTML5 Showcase …
- Google's 'Don't Be Evil' Mantra Is 'Bullshit,' Adobe Is Lazy …
Oct 26
Keio University developing ‘olfactory printer,’ AromaRama due for a resurgence
Posted in: Today's Chili
We’re not entirely sure why people keep trying to bring back Smell-O-Vision, although Keio University’s success in printing scents using a modified printer gives us hope that this sort of thing might someday be somewhat feasible — and useful. It works by using an off-the-shelf Canon printer that’s been given a “scent jet,” Kenichi Okada told New Scientist. “We are using the ink-jet printer’s ability to eject tiny pulses of material to achieve precise control.” The scent dissipates quickly, after one or two human breaths. And while specific scents can be printed, there is as of yet no way to build a general purpose device. According to the University of Glasgow’s Stephen Brewster: “We don’t yet know how to synthesize all the scents we want. There is no red-green-blue for smell — there are thousands of components needed.” That’s OK with us. In our experience, it’s usually better that people keep their smells to themselves.
Keio University developing ‘olfactory printer,’ AromaRama due for a resurgence originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Oct 26
Company’s updated Apple Store app for the iPhone reveals ability to reserve white iPhone 4–a function taken down quickly after its discovery.
Originally posted at The Digital Home
Oct 26
BlackBerry PlayBook demoed courtesy of RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Adobe’s Kevin Lynch
Posted in: adobe, BlackBerry, flash, playbook, tablet, Today's Chili, video
RIM has now uploaded the full video of its PlayBook’s brief stint in the limelight during Adobe MAX yesterday, where Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch and none other than Mr. BlackBerry himself, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, take the “professional tablet” through its very first public test drive on the keynote stage. The duo run through an MRI scan viewing app — presumably in an attempt to woo the lucrative medical market — along with the PlayBook’s Air-based video player and browser-embedded Flash player, both of which seem to work pretty well. We also get a quick look at the tablet’s multitasking cards, where we see that apps continue to function even from within their card views; it looks pretty nice, but at a glance, it doesn’t do any tricks webOS wasn’t pulling off a year ago.
Interestingly, the edited video has a number of cuts — some seem like harmless attempts to cut out boring parts, but there are a couple suspicious ones where we suspect something unsavory happened on the PlayBook or it ran just a little slower than RIM would’ve liked (of course, with the PlayBook’s release still months out, they’ve got plenty of time to tighten that up while they wait for developers to submit their wares in exchange for a free PlayBook of their own). At the end, Lazaridis expertly skirts Lynch’s question of when exactly the device will be released… and he didn’t even need a seasoned PR rep standing next to him to deflect it! Follow the break for the full demo.
Continue reading BlackBerry PlayBook demoed courtesy of RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Adobe’s Kevin Lynch
BlackBerry PlayBook demoed courtesy of RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Adobe’s Kevin Lynch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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