And here we thought that electricity was only good for reanimating monsters.
Continue reading Erase a CD like a boss (video)
Erase a CD like a boss (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HardOCP | 
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The Moleskine iOS app ignores everything that is good about the original paper notebook
If the Moleskine notebook is simple, well made and very easy to use, then the Moleskine iOS app is the opposite: confusing, hard to fathom and almost impossible to use quickly.
The Moleskine app is a note-taking app, with a wealth of features. To get an idea of how it works, let me walk you through opening the app and creating a note.
Launch the app and you get a vertical splash screen that looks like a Moleskine notebook cover. This can not be viewed horizontally and you have to touch it to access your notes. Every. Time. You. Open. The. App. Next, you see a list of your “thoughts”. Touch the little plus sign to create a new one. You are prompted to give it a name. Do this.
Now, the screen darkens and a band covers it, like a paper barrier. Here you see buttons for “categories”, “new” and “assign”. New? didn’t we just create a new note? Worse, the first two of these words have arrows underneath. “categories” has a left-pointing arrow, and “new” has one which points down.
Touch “categories” and you come to a full, lined page surrounded by yet more cryptic icons. Could this be the actual note page? Then why did I tap the word “categories”?. You can insert images, change categories (via two more button presses, one of which duplicates the one you made to get to this section) and change the paper style. What you can’t do is start writing. Or can you?
Press the back button and you are sent to the beginning, the list of your “thoughts”. Let’s try again. Tap one of your “thoughts” and it opens. Maybe I should double-tap to start writing? It works! At last I am writing. Now, what was it I wanted to say?
There is plenty more here. You can, as mentioned above, insert images. You can also draw on the page, add your note to a map, and browse by those ever-important categories. You can also shop online from within the app and buy real stationery. But of course, all of this is as convoluted as just starting a note.
The app does have one big advantage over the expensive paper notebooks: it’s free. I’m sure it will be the perfect app for for some people, but it just frustrates me. Add to this that there has been a spiritual equivalent of the Moleskine in the app store for a long time. It’s called Penultimate, and it does one thing: lets you write on the page with a finger or stylus. It has the elegance of a real Moleskine, and is beautifully made. Better, it costs just $2. You should probably check it out.
Moleskine app [iTunes]
App for iPhone/iPad [Moleskine]
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Are you familiar with the HBO Go online streaming service that lets subscribers catch up on HBO’s award-winning and ass-kicking TV content? Well, ‘appy news for you, dear reader, for it’s about to hit smartphones and tablets early next month. Android and iOS HBO Go apps have been teased by a new video on HBO’s YouTube channel, with promises of “instant and unlimited access” to “every episode of every season” of your favorite shows, garnished with a selection of hit movies. The apps and streaming will be free to HBO subscribers, who’ll be able to get their Sopranos nostalgia on over 3G as well as WiFi. May 2nd is the date on which the teaser video ends, though it doesn’t explicitly say that the service will be enlivened then. We’ll just have to wait and see.
[Thanks, Joe]
Continue reading HBO Go app set to stream its way to iPhones, iPads and Android devices
HBO Go app set to stream its way to iPhones, iPads and Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
In the $1.375 billion transaction, Seagate gets Samsung’s hard-drive unit, Samsung gets a stake in Seagate, and the hard-drive industry consolidates even more.
Originally posted at Deep Tech
MIC Gadget’s new iHub has lawyer bait written all over it. Not only does the four-port USB hub come in the same shape as an Apple TV, it has Apple’s own logo right up there on the top.
The hub really does look like an actual Apple product. The lines are clean, and the cut-out logo actually lights up when you plug it in, just like the logo on the back of your MacBook. Even the packaging is Apple inspired, looking a lot like an oversized iPod Nano box.
The iHub comes in black or white, and also has a little cut-out in the corner for threading it onto a lanyard.
I am posting a gallery of product shots here for a couple of reasons. First, so you can get an idea of just how much “inspiration” the MIC Gadget folks have taken from Apple. And second, as a kind of image archive so you can still see the thing after Apple sics its law dogs in MIC Gadget’s ass. Available now for $10.
iHub product page [MIC Gadget via MIC Gadget blog]
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We’re firmly of the belief that SSDs are our future and Samsung would seem to agree. The Korean electronics giant has just announced that it’s selling its hard disk drive-manufacturing arm to Seagate Technology for a neat $1.375 billion in equal measures of cash and stocks. As a result, Samsung Electronics will own approximately 9.6 percent of Seagate and get to nominate one new member to join Seagate’s Board of Directors, while the two companies have further agreed to deepen their strategic relationship with related cross-licensing and supply stipulations. Samsung will provision Seagate’s solid state drives with NAND flash memory, whereas Seagate will furnish Samsung’s PCs and consumer electronics products with hard disk storage. The deal is expected to complete in full by year’s end and you can read all about it in Seagate’s press release after the break.
[Thanks, Pavel]
Continue reading Samsung sells HDD division to Seagate for $1.375 billion
Samsung sells HDD division to Seagate for $1.375 billion originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve never questioned the rigidity of Panasonic’s Toughbook line — after all, we’ve been shown just how rugged these things are time and time again — but a new video from the company is just too clever to pass over. Sure, it hardly makes any clearer what’s already clear, but just in case you were still having doubts, Panny’s Toughbook line is mighty tough. As in, tough enough to survive being towed behind a snowmobile in bitterly cold conditions. Unfortunately, the company only shows the screen lighting up after the ride’s done, so there’s still the possibility that the keyboard is totally shot — but hey, props for being alive at all, right? Have a look yourself in the video above.
[Thanks, Tsuyoshi]
Panasonic chains Toughbook to a snowmobile, shows signs of life post-torture (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Want some numerical context to last night’s revelation that Apple is suing Samsung Electronics for copying the iPhone and iPad? How does $5.7 billion sound? That’s how much Apple spent on buying up parts from Samsung last year, according to the AFP, which cites the Cupertino company as Samsung’s second-biggest client after Sony. Given the breadth of Samsung’s component manufacturing, these expenditures can and probably do span everything from flash storage and RAM to processing chips to displays. What’s fascinating here — and illustrative of the psychopathic nature of corporations — is that in spite of this massive interdependency, Apple’s lodged a broadly worded patent assault on a major prong of Samsung’s business (smartphones and tablets) and now Samsung’s been quoted as saying it has “no choice but [to] respond strongly.” A company official has apparently expressed the belief that Apple may be infringing on some of Samsung’s wireless patents, which means we can probably look forward to another fat batch of papers being submitted to the Northern District of California court. Lovely.
Apple spent nearly $5.7b on Samsung parts in 2010, faces ‘strong’ response to its patent suit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This article was written on June 14, 2007 by CyberNet.
Tutorial Thursday
One of the best features that I have found in Vista is the nicely designed Windows Explorer. It makes it easy to navigate through your folders, and allows you to put frequently used folders in the sidebar on the left side. Best of all is the great breadcrumb navigation that allows you to navigate backwards through folders with ease.
Getting those breadcrumbs in Windows XP is actually very easy, thanks to a free application that was just released last week called QT Address Bar (Download Mirror). If the name sounds familiar, that’s because we previously wrote about a program they make called QT TabBar which puts tabs in Windows Explorer.
So now back to the breadcrumbs. I’ve only seen one other application (found on Lifehacker) that did something like this, but it didn’t take on the same appearance of Vista’s Windows Explorer. QT Address Bar is about as close as it gets, and here’s the simple steps needed to set it up:
There ya go, now everyone still using XP can benefit from one of my favorite things in Vista’s Windows Explorer. Let us know if you have any other tips on how you bring some of Vista’s features into Windows XP!
QT Address Bar (Download Mirror)
Thanks to the anonymous tipster for pointing out this program!
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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We’ve seen some rather nightmare-inducing robots inspired by insects, but, once again, the folks at Germany’s Bielefeld University have managed to turn something inherently creepy into a rather lighthearted affair. HECTOR, or hexapod cognitive autonomously operating robot, was designed to help its creators understand how exactly real animals manage to move so gracefully. Physically speaking, HECTOR sports six legs, with 18 joints in total, that protrude from an exoskeleton made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Its legs are given a rather life-like range of motion provided by a special set of “elastic joint drives” and a series of “biologically inspired” algorithms, and its exoskeleton can carry a load weighing 30 kilograms — the robot itself weighs a mere 12 kilograms. What’s more, HECTOR’s built to learn from its experiences. Okay, so a three foot robotic insect that can carry nearly three times its weight does sound kind of creepy in retrospect, but HECTOR really does have some smooth moves. You can see at least one of its legs in action after the break.
Continue reading HECTOR insect-inspired hexapod walking robot is a smooth operator (video)
HECTOR insect-inspired hexapod walking robot is a smooth operator (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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