Some satellite radio subscribers woke up this morning wondering where their favorite station went. Sirius XM completed their network integration this week, combining all satellite radio stations into a single channel lineup. All cars equipped with satellite radio now have access to the same stations and in the same order, but it also means that some stations have been combined, renamed, or changed places on the dial.
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
Recap of our review of Apple’s new 27-inch iMac.
USB speakers aren’t exactly headline-grabbing gadgets these days, but the fact remains that most laptops could still use a little help on the audio end. If you’re in need of a quick fix for your weak-sounding machine, then Altec Lansing’s $49.95 Orbit USB Stereo (iML247) might be worth your consideration. As the name says for itself, both power and audio input are managed through one USB cord, meaning no batteries are required here. Better yet, when not in use, you can simply fold up the legs, stuff the cables into the hollow ends, and then twist the speakers together to form one smooth tube for storage. Of course, note that this Orbit won’t work with devices sporting the common 3.5mm headphone jack, and obviously don’t expect cinematic sound quality from these tiny canisters — hey, there’s always a trade-off. Hands-on pics in the gallery below.
Gallery: Altec Lansing Orbit USB Stereo
Altec Lansing’s Orbit USB Stereo trumps your laptop’s speakers, has split personality originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Those Sandy Bridge refreshes just keep on coming. Today, it’s HP’s turn, whose 14-inch Pavilion dm4 (which we reviewed last year) now comes standard with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M CPU. Curiously, it’s now the dm4x — a suffix you don’t usually see on HP notebooks. For that $730 starting price, you’ll also get Radeon HD 6470M graphics with 1GB of memory, 6GB of RAM, a 640GB 5,400RPM hard drive, and a six-cell battery. If money’s no object, you can trick yours out with a 2.7GHz Core i7-2620M processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 750GB 7,200RPM HDD. Oh, and for $25 you can opt for a “dark umber” color instead of “steel grey” (pictured). Not too shabby, but we just hope HP also fixed that wonky touchpad.
[Thanks, Sourabh]
HP Pavilion dm4x with Sandy Bridge goes on sale, starts at $730 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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In the iPhone's settings menu, Location Services can be flipped off to disable location-data collection. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Apple on Wednesday morning released a software update for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices, fixing a flawed location-storage method that raised privacy concerns last month.
The update, iOS version 4.3.3, reduces the size of the file that stores geodata on iOS devices — meaning it will no longer contain a history of location data going back as far as one year ago.
Additionally, with the update installed, iTunes won’t back up the iOS device’s location database file, meaning the geodata will no longer be stored on your computer.
Last, when customers disable the Location Services setting on their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, it deletes all the information stored in the location file, according to Apple.
The software update comes in response to a security issue illuminated by two data scientists, who discovered that an unprotected file inside Apple’s iOS software stores a log of geodata accompanied with time stamps, creating a digital trail of a customer’s general moves for the past year.
The Wall Street Journal later reported that even when location services were turned off on the iPhone, the device was still collecting geodata.
Apple eventually explained that iOS devices are not actually tracking a customer’s precise movements, but rather, iOS devices are collecting information about nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi access points, which helps speed up location services.
The company added that “bugs” caused iOS devices to continue storing location data even when location services were turned off. Apple also said it made a mistake by making the location database file too large.
The iOS 4.3.3 update is a free download available through iTunes. The download is 666 megabytes large.
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Unless you’ve been living in Tora Bora, you’ve undoubtedly heard that a few minor things happened this week. As such, for this week’s toolkit, we’ve rounded up nine objects that we think the U.S. military probably found helpful in their pursuit of Osama bin Laden. More »
You may laugh, but Dominic Wilcox is able to use his touchscreen phone in the bath without getting it wet. Photo courtesy Dominic Wilcox.
Designer Dominic Wilcox has come up with a Pinocchio-style “finger-nose stylus” that lets you navigate your touchscreen phone hands-free.
He came up with the design after he found that he wanted to use his touchphone in the bath. A wet hand is not a good touchscreen navigation device, so he found himself using his nose to scroll, but found it hard to see precisely where his nose was touching the screen.
The solution was to create a nose extension “finger” that would allow for navigation while holding the phone firmly in his one dry hand (he did not want to risk scrolling and holding with the same hand for fear of dropping the phone).
The stylus comprises a capacitive end point attached to a plaster nose measuring around five inches in length and affixed to the face with elastic. The elongated nose allows the user to navigate around the screen with accuracy.
In Wilcox’s inaugural nose-tweet from the bath he wanted to type “Hello I am tweeting with my nose”, but due to the phone’s auto-correct it came out as “hello I am meeting with my nose”. Apparently this caused him to lose twoTwitter followers.
Wilcox has a track record for creating extraordinary items such as luxury skimming stones that are covered in 24ct gold leaf and contained within a leather pouch. He has also created stickers that can be placed on bikes or cars to make them look as though they are rusty and old as an anti-theft device. Another notable product is “War Bowl“, a bowl made out of melted plastic toy soldiers.
Don’t miss Wired UK’s gallery of the nose stylus in action, and then check out some more of Wilcox’s weird and wonderful creations on his website.
This story originally appeared on Wired UK.
Which to buy: the Vixia HF M41 or one of its siblings, the M40 or M400?
Swiss company Empa has developed curtains that “swallow” noise. Their use could protect us from an endless supply of annoying sounds.
American Airlines would like you to pay for movies and shows you’re used to getting for free to give you a new way to keep yourselves entertained at 30,000 feet. The airline is testing Aircell’s forthcoming service that will let you stream flicks and TV programs to your own WiFi-enabled device. Aircell, the company behind Gogo in-flight WiFi, is curating the library of content, and for now, it’s unclear just how extensive the selection will be (last time we checked, the company was staying mum about content partners). And we definitely wonder how smooth the streaming will be on a crowded flight full of web surfers… you know, considering that Gogo already compresses JPEGs on everyday websites. And really, it had better be — otherwise, you’re better off with the complimentary shows and movies bundled into that built-in entertainment center right in front of you. All questions that will get answered when the service launches this fall.
American Airlines testing in-flight media streaming, staying curiously mum about content selection originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 13:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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