An iPad stand like the Zerochroma Vario is one half of a solution for luxuriously watching movies on your iPad at half the cost of another unit we know of. But there’s a catch.
Originally posted at iPad Atlas
Is the self-proclaimed King of All Media ready to jump ship yet again? According to a tweet from a Sirius stock Twitter account, Howard Stern is ready to abandon satellite radio in favor of contract with iTunes,
Howard Stern on the verge of signing $600 million 3 year agreement with Apple to host an Internet/TV/iTunes broadcast.
Stern’s contract with Sirius is up in January of 2011, and the shock jock hasn’t announced where he intends to land after that time period. An exclusivity contract with iTunes seems like an odd fit–though staying off of terrestrial radio would certainly help him continue to run his mouth outside of the watchful gaze of the FCC.
But it’s hard to take too much stock in such a high priced rumor–after all, the aforementioned Twitter account doesn’t appear to have any formal conection to Sirius–and if did, it likely wouldn’t announce the department of one of the country’s best known radio personalities, right?
Look, we don’t know anything about World Cup bids. They probably have a lot to do with “infrastructure” and “taking turns” and stuff like that. But really, world? You couldn’t pick Japan just this once? Japan’s incredibly great 2022 World Cup bid involved projecting 3D holograms of the games live onto soccer football fields around the world, allowing folks that can’t make it to Japan for the actual games to get a pretty great simulacrum, while standing next to people that look like them and are probably rooting for the same team. “I have to admit that the idea of this blows my mind away,” said Japan’s committee chief Kohzo Tashima. Did you get that, world? Japan was offering you 3D holographic full field broadcasts, and you just turned a cold shoulder. Congrats, Qatar, we hope you’re happy with 2022, and we’re sure you earned it based on whatever arbitrary metrics FIFA uses to select World Cup countries. But you’ll never earn our hearts. Video of Japan’s bid is after the break.
Continue reading World disappoints us once again: Japan loses 2022 3D holographic World Cup bid
World disappoints us once again: Japan loses 2022 3D holographic World Cup bid originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Every year, kids across the world mail out letters addressed to Santa head up to the North Pole, but how many kids receive a response from Santa? Could you imagine the look on a child’s face when he finds a postcard from Santa in the mailbox addressed to him. Well, there’s an app for that.
The Postcards From Santa app lets you send a real postcard addressed from Santa with your iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Android device. It’s simple; you pick out a Santa image, chose either a pre-written message or write your own, and enter the child’s name and mailing address,and, viola, a personalized postcard from Santa is on its way. It takes 3 to 5 days to reach U.S. and Canadian addresses and 5 to 14 days to reach the rest of the world. the cards are printed on high quality, thick paper and the images are high resolution with a glossy finish.
The app, which USAToday calls a “Top Tech Gift of 2010,” is available in the App Store and the Android Market for free or you can now also make one online with an app like simulator if you don’t have an Apple or Android device. Each postcard costs $1.99 including postage. So for only the price of that you can dig out of your couch cushions, you can help spread the excitement and spirit of Christmas by sending a personalized gift that a child will remember forever. Or you send one to an adult that’s still a kid at heart or swears to still believe in Santa.
As folks who follow such things may be aware, there’s been some dispute over the origin of Square’s card reader technology more or less since the company (led by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey) went public with it last year. That dispute has now gotten even more contentious, however, with Square and its chairman, James McKelvey, taking aim at REM Holdings and Robert Morley, who actually holds the patent to the technology. The key issue is that McKelvey is not listed as one of the inventors in the patent, despite claims that he was the one that actually conceived the idea in a “flash of inventive insight,” and that he and Morley worked together to develop the idea (and later discussed obtaining patent protection with Jack Dorsey). And that’s pretty much where things stand at the moment — Square is requesting a court order to add McKelvey as a co-inventor on the patent, but there’s no indication as to when or if that will happen.
Dispute over Square card reader patent gets litigious originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
After we reviewed the DropCam Echo a few weeks back and found ourselves generally unimpressed, we received an e-mail from someone at D-Link saying something to the effect of: “Dude, you have to try out our thing, because our thing is totally better than their thing and costs a heck of a lot less too.” We took them up on that offer and, while unfortunately D-Link’s thing has a much less catchy name, DCS-930L Wireless N Camera hardly rolling off the tongue, the sub-$100 device does indeed live up to its billing — for the most part.
Continue reading D-Link DCS-930L Wireless N Network Camera review
D-Link DCS-930L Wireless N Network Camera review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google seems to just be tossing the billions around, these days. The company was said to have offered $6 billion to be Groupon late last month, and now it has apparently purchased a 2.9 million square foot building on Eighth Ave in Manhattan. According to The Wall Street Journal, the $1.9 billion is the largest sum paid for a building in 2010.
Google also rents out property in the building–500,000 square feet, at present. The building was purchased from the New York State Common Retirement Fund, Jamestown (a real-estate company), and Taconic Investment Partners .
The 18 story building at 111 Eight Avenue is said to be the fourth largest office building in New York City. Google has yet to confirm the purchase of the property.
Oh, sure, funny-ha-ha. There’s an Engadget Podcast Bingo app available now, which lets you play a relevant game of bingo on your iPhone while you listen to Engadget, Engadget Mobile, or Engadget HD podcasts stored on your phone, or stream one live from your computer. It’s full of funny jokes. But you know what the thing is about humor? Every humor thing has an element of truth in it. That’s what makes it funny! But that’s also what makes it hurt people’s feelings. Sure, you might tap “Nilay Gets Fired” on your phone while chuckling quietly to yourself, but how do you think it makes Nilay feel? Or when someone accuses Chris of being “Paid by Apple,” all Chris can think of is his poor upbringing where he didn’t even have shoes to wear, and how he wishes someone would pay him for his mobile expertise. Or how when someone in chat says to somebody “can you be quiet for another 4 minutes” just because they want to fill in another bingo square. How do you think that makes that somebody, you know, theoretically, feel? How much psychic pain are you willing to cause? Go ahead, download the app, we don’t mind. We’re just robots, anyway.
Engadget Podcast Bingo gets an app; nobody’s feelings get hurt because we’re all made out of rubber originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Okay, so there’s no actual way to phone up Sad Keanu Reeves and confirm that the Mercedes-Benz BIOME is indeed on sale in the “real world,” but it should be. Revealed in The Matrix’s own LA Auto Show, this here vehicle has a theoretical weight of just 875.5 pounds, but it’s likely far too wide to cruise on this planet’s existing roadway system. The vehicle was imagined by designers from the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studios in Carlsbad, California, and it’s said to be “fully integrated into the ecosystem, from the moment of its creation right through to the end of its service life.” How so? It’s grown “in a completely organic environment from seeds sown in a nursery,” and just being totally frank here, we’ve no idea what that means. But hey, if M-B can figure out how to grow cars in Morpheus’ backyard, who are we to question the reality of it?
Continue reading Mercedes-Benz BIOME concept car grows in a nursery, on sale now in Zion
Mercedes-Benz BIOME concept car grows in a nursery, on sale now in Zion originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Meet Oleg Nikolaenko. You probably don’t recognize his name, but odds are pretty good that you’ve received an e-mail from him at some point. The 23-year-old Russian man goes by the handle “Docent,” and the FBI believes that he’s behind roughly one-third of the world’s spam.
Nikolaenko is suspected to be the person behind Mega-D, a botnet that has infected 500,000, sending out thousands of spam messages about things like Rolex and prescription pills. The Moscow resident is the first person named in connection with Mega-D.
The FBI nabbed financial records showing that Nikolaenko managed to pull in $500,000 in six months via Lance Atkinson, a spammer who was sentenced to prison last year.
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