Hasta La Gadget!

I’m not sure what’s my favorite part of this GPS-dongle for cars. Maybe its that it makes it impossible to misplace your car, or perhaps it is that fact that it’s called the AutoBot, clearly the most Transformer-tastic name for a car accessory ever.

Hooking into the car’s on-board diagnostic brain via an OBD-II-port, the AutoBot works with a partner-app in your Android phone or iPhone. From here you can get walking directions to the car, or tap into the diagnostics for in-depth info on what’s happening under the hood.

Even better, the dongle will also let you track a stolen car (or sound an alarm when your kids drive to the local make-out spot instead of going to music lessons), and will send your location to both family members and 911 should your airbags deploy. The AutoBot will be in stores early next year for “less than $300″.

There is one catch. The monthly service comes in exchange for spam. If you don’t pay to opt-out, you’ll get “offers” based on what it going on with your car. Ominously, “AutoBot knows when you need an oil change, tires rotated, and how many miles you’ve driven,” and will “share this information with our partners.” No thanks.

AutoBot product page [Mavizon Tech via The Giz]

See Also:

• Remote Control Your Car With Your iPhone
• Start Your Car From Your iPhone
• Car Thieves Use GPS Jammers to Make Clean Getaway

David Reese, or Artisanal Pencil Sharpening in New York, New York, will send you a brand new, hand-sharpened pencil for $12. Inside the box you’ll also find the shavings, bagged and tagged for posterity, along with a “signed and dated certificate authenticating that it is now a dangerous object.”

Dumb? Expensive? Elitist? Maybe, but the one thing it isn’t is a joke. David protests this point perhaps a little too much on the APS site, but if anyone knows a joke, it’s him: Reese used to be a political cartoonist.

You can send your own blunt and chewed-off stick to be freshened up, but if you’re going to spend $15, why not get a new pencil? David prefers a #2 pencil, and will whittle it to a fine-point with either a box cutter or – more recently – a fancy German-made “single-blade hand-sharpener.”

Could you do this yourself? Sure. And you probably should hand-sharpen your pencils with a knife, the way a real artist would. A mechanical sharpener may give a nice conical point, but the thin tip will break in seconds. Better to get a nice thick lead held in a chunky, hand-carved piece of wood: it’ll last a lot longer.

David’s pencils are probably best given as gifts, and if you’re feeling really flush, you can opt for the $50 package which includes the 12½ x 18-inch “Man Vs. Machine” print seen above. Awesome.

Hand Sharpened Pencils [Artisanal Pencil Sharpening via the Guardian]

See Also:

• Pencils
• Sharpie Reinvents Pen with Liquid Pencil
• Drumstick Pencils Could Ruin Your Life
• The Pencil iPad Stand: Smart Enough to Impress a New Yorker …
• Continuous Pencil Means No More Stubs

Despite being hamstrung by an operating system designed for the smaller screen of a smartphone, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has sold an impressive 600,000 units in less than a month. That’s pretty close to the iPad’s initial sales, which reached one million in 28 days.

It’s important to remember that the iPad’s first month was largely confined to the domestic U.S market, whereas the 7-inch Tab has been available all over the world since launch. In fact, according to the Korea Herald, Samsung has shifted just 30,000 Tabs in its own home market of Korea.

Remember, too, that a large proportion of these sales will have been subsidized by telcos, lowering the ~$600 price-tag in exchange for a data-contract.

But these numbers are impressive by any standards, and show that there is a huge demand out there for super-portable computers with the battery life and connectivity of a cellphone. It seems that the Galaxy Tab really is a real rival to the iPad, just like we thought.

Galaxy Tab global sales top 600,000 units [Korea Herald]

Photo: Jon “Michelangelo’s David” Snyder

See Also:

• Samsung's Galaxy Tab: iPad's First Solid Contender
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Garners Favorable Reviews
• Samsung Galaxy Tab: Cheaper Than iPad, But Not Really

This article was written on August 11, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft/Mac Monday

In the past we’ve mentioned Messenger Plus a few times. It’s an add-on for Windows Live Messenger (WLM) that adds all kinds of features and extras. There are millions of people who use WLM yet don’t know that Messenger Plus exists, so we thought we’d take some time today to explain the benefits of the add-on and all that it offers.

Before we dive-in, we wanted to point out that Messenger Plus! is considered Adware and that’s because when you are installing the application, it will ask you if you would like to become a part of their “Sponsor” program. By default it is NOT checked. They explain that their sponsor program is adware that helps keep Messenger Plus running. I don’t know many people who enjoy adware on their computers, so be sure you pay attention. If you do, you will have no issues.

In the past, people have asked if there are any spyware concerns with the program and there aren’t. Messenger Plus is a reputable application that has been around for a long time so there’s really nothing to worry about, other than paying attention during installation. But that’s something you should always do.

Background info:

For 7 years now, Messenger Plus has been available to Windows Live Messenger users. As of mid-July, 50 million people use the add-on on a daily basis. The current version is 4.6, and it’s a free download that you can find here. Installation is quick and painless, but again, make sure you pay attention while doing it. When you launch Windows Messenger for the first time after installing Messenger Plus, you’ll be taken through the configuration process.

Now on to the benefits of using Messenger Plus!…

Tabbed Chats

For those of you who enjoy a tabbed browser which seems to be the norm these days (Firefox, IE7, Opera, to name a few), you may find that you’ll enjoy a tabbed chat window. Grouping all of your chat windows will save you space in the taskbar and make it easier for you to keep track of all of your conversations. You decide where you want the tabs to be, whether it’s on the top or the side.

Skinning

Skinning is another important part of Messenger Plus because you can select different skins to make the application look unique. They have a whole online database where you can browse through the options and find the one you’d like, and then import it.

To access the skins, just go the the Preferences, then the Customize tab up at the top, and then the skins tab on the side. Or you can just follow this link to the skins database. They have them divided up into different categories or you can browse by downloads, ratings, or date added.

The highest rated skin based upon downloads is Vista Ultimate. It works with Messenger 8.5 only and makes your messenger fit right in with Windows Vista as far as looks go. For Mac fans, there’s an “Apple Live Messenger” that will make your messenger look like it’s a Mac application. It too has been downloaded many times and is rated fairly high.

Quick Texts

Quick Texts is a text replacement feature that can turn your shorthand jibberish into complete sentences:

For example, you could set it up so that anytime you typed TTYL it would automatically replace that text with “Talk to you later!.”

Polygamy

If you have multiple Windows Live accounts that you would like to have open at the same time in messenger, Messenger Plus will allow that to happen. It’s just a matter of going to the Preferences, then going to the “Customize!” tab. Under the “General” tab on the left, look at the “Multiple Accounts” section and check the box that says “Allow me to connect to several accounts simultaneously.”

Show Contacts on the Desktop

This is one of those features that you have to try and actually use before you appreciate it. Contacts on the Desktop allows you to select certain contacts that you would like to keep a close eye on, and then it places them on your desktop. This makes it easier for you to keep track of what they are doing – when they are online or when they are away, etc. Instead of always having to navigate to Messenger to check, you can just take a quick look at your desktop.

Messenger Lock

This is for those times when you’re on Messenger but you’re not supposed to be (e.g., work or school). With Messenger Plus, with one shortcut all of your windows instantly hide.

Scripting

Scripting isn’t a feature for the inexperienced. It’s a scripting system that will allow people with programming experience to add their own features to the application. Below is the interface of what you’ll see should you decide to add your own features:

Other Features:

• Custom sounds
• Personalized Status
• HTML Chat logs that are searchable
• Color and formatting options
• Event viewer and logging
• Contact list clean-up (deletes duplicate contacts)
• and more…

Get Messenger Plus Here

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Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryMicrosoft Gains Messenger Users with “I’m” InitiativeMessenger Plus! Live Soon To Be Released?MySpace Has An Instant Messenger, Too!Windows Live Messenger Available To The Public

Remember how confusing it was back in May when ASUS introduced a bunch of tablets it called Pads and a sort of digital notepad it called a Tablet? At least some of that messy naming scheme has now been rectified thanks to the merciful renaming of the Eee Tablet to the new Eee Note EA800 moniker. It’s still the same 8-inch (768 x 1024) monochrome display, offering 64 levels of gray and 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, backed by 4GB of integrated storage, a 2 megapixel camera, voice recorder, and built-in stylus silo. WiFi is of course a given, and there’s a microSD slot and a 3700mAh battery somewhere inside that matte black shell as well. If things do go to plan this time, we should be seeing plenty more of the Eee Note at January’s CES. We’re penciling it in already.

Continue reading ASUS Eee Note is the surprisingly sensible new name for the Eee Tablet

ASUS Eee Note is the surprisingly sensible new name for the Eee Tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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