Hasta La Gadget!

This is weird. UK carrier O2 has decided to do exactly what we’ve been asking mobile operators to do for donkeys’ years — it’s going to allow users to chew through their data allowance in whatever fashion they like, without imposing artificial surcharges for tethering secondary devices to your phone. Up till now, you’d have had to swallow a salty £7.65 ($12.24) charge each month to get your tether on with O2, but for whatever reason, that has now been scrapped for subscribers on pay-monthly deals. Hit up the source link for a detailed list of O2’s new contract options — they don’t include any unlimited 3G data plans, unfortunately, but we’ll take what we can get for now.

[Thanks, Neerav]

O2 scraps mobile tethering surcharges, cheers up a whole United Kingdom originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  O2  | Email this | Comments

With LG tapped as the manufacturer, Google is reportedly working on a pure Android-based Nexus tablet that could debut by midsummer, according to Mobile-Review.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

A day after we reported rumors about Apple’s plans to incorporate cloud-based music storage into its rumored revamp of MobileMe–and the week after rumors swirled around a Google music streaming service–Amazon swoops in and launches its own music locker, in the form of Cloud Drive.

Mad Catz’s Airdrives sit outside your canal and let ambient sound in

This next sentence is going to drive some of you crazy: bike friendly headphones. But before you scroll past the rest of this post and start writing angry comments about road safety and how listening to music means cyclists deserve to die (whilst forgetting that you regularly balance a hot cup of Starbucks on your paunch while texting and driving), read a little longer.

The Airdrives are from Mad Catz, and they don’t block your ears at all. Unlike earbuds or over-ear designs, the Airdrives sit on that little cartilaginous nodule at the front of your ear-hole. The speaker is held there by the cord, which hooks over your ear and cinches tight. This also helps keep them in place, which is essential when doing sporting activities.

Because the sound is sent in from the outside, it’s no different from listening to the radio in your car. You can still hear ambient sounds, and identify the direction they come from. The design also combats listening fatigue, letting your ear shape and process the sound from the ‘buds as it would any other external sound.

I’m interested to try these out. Too-loud music will of course still be too loud, and drivers will still hate you for wearing them, but for podcasts they may just be ideal. The Airdrives also have inline controls and will answer your compatible phone. This last is probably a terrible idea, though. It’s one thing distracting yourself with a phone-call when you’re in a two-ton cage and can only kill others. When you’re on a bike, you can only kill yourself.

Still want to write a nasty comment? Go ahead. Just don’t say I deserve to die because I don’t use the same environmentally destructive form of transport as you do. From $15. Pictured model $50.

Airdrives product page [Mad Catz via London Cyclist]

Airdrives on Amazon [Amazon]

See Also:

• Budfits Keep Earbuds Where You Want Them
• Headphone Hat For Stealth Listening
• Awareness App Pipes Outside Sounds to Your Headphones
• Tunebug Turns Your Bike Helmet into a Speaker
• Bike Speakers Rock Your Commute
• Wireless Bike Speaker Beams Tunes From iPod To Handlebars
• Podio Bike Speakers Turn Cycling into “Enjoyable Melodious Tour …

Squizits — a toy for ADHD kids — is also great for stressed adults

Squizits are completely pointless. And that’s the whole point. Billed as a kit to give kids with ADHD something to do with their constantly fidgeting hands, the Squizits is equally suited to calming stressed-out adults.

If you have ever picked up an object from your desk and spent the next half hour twiddling it between your fingers, then you’ll love Squizits. The box contains nine wooden tiles, each with their own finger-friendly fiddling games. There’s a wheel with a handle, a silent zipper, a braid with a spring cord-grip, strings knotted and twisted through each other, a hinge with a satisfying cut-out, a tray of solitaire-like beads, a bulldog clip and some squidgy plugs that can be stuffed into holes.

It is, in short, a collection of the most fidget-able items in the world. My fingers are itching just looking at the pictures.

The idea is that Squizits are like pacifiers for the hands. If the child can work off mental energy by playing with these quiet, discreet toys, then his mind will be free to concentrate. But that doesn’t mean that Lavinia Chu’s concept design should be limited to kids. Put this thing in the “adult toy” section of any department store and it should sell a ton to people like us. Make it in black and chrome and you could tap the “executive” market, too.

For more information, check Chu’s page at the Emily Carr website (as of this writing, the site is down). In the meantime, tell us about your favorite stress-relieving toys. I really like to play with my Alupen stylus, which has no moving parts but does have a squashy rubber tip, a satisfying heft and lovely, precise corners on its pencil-like shaft. You?

Squizit – an assistive kit for children with ADHD [Lavinia Chu/Emily Carr University via Yanko]

See Also:

• Rolobox Puts Toy Wheels On Cardboard Boxes
• You Know, For Kids!
• Makedo Connects Junk Together. The Best Kid's Toy Ever?