Hasta La Gadget!

The folks at Boy Genius Report got to spend ten minutes with RIM’s Julian Dolce, who gave them a thorough demo of the new BlackBerry PlayBook in action. It’s pretty damn sweet. Take a look:

The tablet looks very responsive, just like the iPad. The first really neat, I-love-it feature is the “docking” mode, which lets you minimize open apps into a Cover Flow-esque row of icons. This is a much nicer way to browse open apps than the tiny iOS multitasking dock at the bottom of the iPad’s screen, and video even carries on playing in the background (you can switch this off to save battery life).

Another way to switch apps is to actually swipe on the bezel around the screen. This could be neat or confusing, depending on implementation: swiping from the top bezel into the screen can bring down a menu, for example.

The PlayBook clearly takes its home-screen UI cues from iOS, but then departs, and adds in a lot of nice extras: notifications can be displayed in the menubar, for example. I’m actually pretty impressed, especially by device that is still months away from launch.

One thing, though, is conspicuously absent from the demo. Adobe® Flash®. Could it be that it doesn’t work so well, or was it just that the demo-room has no internet connection?

BlackBerry PlayBook hands-on video demo [Boy Genius]

See Also:

• RIM Unveils Tethered Tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook
• Tablet Wars: How the BlackBerry PlayBook Measures Up
• PlayBook Smokes iPad Browser in Blackberry Speed-Test Video …

These days man and stork-kind get along pretty well. They deliver our babies and promote our pickles and in return, we don’t eat them at Thanksgiving. Tens of thousands of years ago, however, things weren’t quite so simple. Remember those “hobbit” fossils that scientists found on an Indonesia island, back in 2003? Turns out that they may have been delicious appetizers for a species of giant storks.

Scientist also discovered fossils of giant birds alongside the diminutive human remains. The leg and wing bones date back 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. The birds in question were likely around six-feet-tall–far taller than the humans they shared the cave with.

“From the size of its bones, we initially were expecting a giant raptor, which are commonly found on islands, not a stork,” one of the paleontologists told MSNBC.

The storks likely grew to that size due to a lack of lack of mammal predators like wolves, lions, and hyenas. The stork most likely did most of its hunting on land, due to its large size, thick bones, and weight, which is estimated to be around 35 pounds. Its diet most likely consisted of fish, birds, and lizards.

There may well have been some juvenile hobbits in the stork food pyramid, as well, “although we have no evidence for that,” said the scientist, adding, “these birds are opportunistic carnivores — if you give them plenty of prey items, they’ll hunt all of them.”

According to the scientists, there is no evidence that the storks were hunted by the tiny humans either.

I have a friend (let’s call him Dave) who used to joke that his wallet was so fat that it gave him spine trouble from sitting with it, swollen, in his back pocket. But what of those bill-packed status symbols in the age of electronic money? It’s not like your debit-card gets fatter the higher your bank balance.

Enter the free-wheeling innovators of MIT’s Media Lab, who have come up with three billfolds that give tactile feedback based on your transactions. These “Proverbial Wallets” hook up to your cellphone via Bluetooth to grab details from your bank account, and then perform for you.

The Bumblebee buzzes its vibrator with every transaction, giving you a physical reminder that money is entering and leaving your bank account. Put it in the correct pocket and you’ll get a little thrill every time you spend.

The Mother Bear is more thrifty. Its hinge gets tougher to prize open the more you spend. As your balance ticks closer to zero, the Mother Bear shuts up tight like an oyster.

Finally, the Peacock, the perfect gift for Dave. The Peacock swells proudly depending on the size of your balance. As the video voiceover says, “Your assets will be on display to attract potential mates.” Quite.

Proverbial Wallets [MIT Information Ecology]

See Also:

• When Cash Is Only Skin Deep
• Paper or Plastic?
• French Railway Trials USB Tickets
• You’ve Got Bills!

The Earthlings here at Engadget HQ are still patiently awaiting their own Cr-48s, but it looks as if those who were quick on the trigger have just received a Chrome OS laptop to cuddle with. If you’ll recall, Google opened up a Chrome OS Pilot Program Tuesday, and for those who registered early (and got awfully lucky), they’re being treated to a Cr-48 on their doorsteps. One gracious tipster has already sent over a trio of unboxing shots (while another provided the video after the break), and we’ll be sure to give the low-down (you know — video, impressions, etc.) once our own arrives. Anytime now, FedEx…

[Thanks, Dan and Michael]

Continue reading Google Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop now shipping to the lucky few

Google Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop now shipping to the lucky few originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Gorillaz mastermind Damon Album has been hard work on a follow up to March’s Plastic Beach. The former Blur frontman has eschewed all of that fancy studio nonsense, recording the thing on the road at piecing it together on his iPad. Last month he told NME, “I’ve made it on an iPad–I hope I’ll be making the first record on an iPad. I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I’ve made a completely different kind of record.”

In that interview, Albarn said that he was attempting to get the thing out before Christmas. According to a new interview with Gorillaz co-founder cartoonist Jamie Hewlett, however, it looks like we’re going to have to settle for on Christmas,

At the moment, we’ve got an Advent calendar on our website, and there is a daily door that opens to reveal a gift. On Christmas Eve, a video for one of the new songs from the iPad album will be released. Then, on Christmas Day, fans get the whole album downloaded to their computer for free as a gift.

Albarn, also taking part in the interview, added,

I wanted to make sure that it came out at the end of the tour because I don’t want anyone to think I’d tampered with it. I literally made it on the road in America over a month. I didn’t write it before; I didn’t prepare it. I just did it day by day as a kind of diary of my experience in America. If I left it until the New Year to release it, then the cynics out there would say, “Oh well, it’s been tampered with.” But if I put it out now, they’d know that I haven’t done anything because I’ve been on tour ever since.

There you have it, Cynics, no tampering. Now merry Christmas.