Hasta La Gadget!

Gizmodo reader Tal Ater agreed that Facebook’s new chat system is a clusterzuck of confusion, so he created a little program to fix it! It will take off the list anyone who’s offline. Here’s how to do it: More »

Just when the snarkbot in me wanted to giggle at Borders like a great big jerk, they go and send this genuinely heartfelt farewell message. In summary: they got their butts kicked, and they’re sorry. So am I. More »

Until you turn it on, the BeBook eReader is pretty good looking

Quick. Name me five e-readers without asking Google. Tricky, right? After the big names — Kindle, Nook and Sony — you might remember Kobo, but then you’ll be left scouring your memory. That’s not to say there aren’t any other e-readers. It’s just that in the U.S the market is already dominated by these big brands.

Over in Europe it’s a different story. On a recent trip to London, I saw a lot of Kindles, but the U.K has its own Kindle store on Amazon. Back in Spain, I see no-name readers and Sony readers, and not much else. According to Gadget Lab reader Virginia, the BeBook Neo eReader is another very popular e-reader.

Up until you switch it on, the BeBook looks just fine. When you hit the power, though, the full force of its ugly UI assaults you. Its Wacom touch-panel is controlled by a stylus, and the interface is designed to match. Drop-down menus remind you more of a Palm Pilot than a modern tablet, and the tiny, over-detailed icons only add to this.

If you can get past the fugliness, though, you have a capable device. It can read pretty much any non-DRM text format you throw at it (EPUB, PDF, TXT, HTML, RTF, MOBI, CHM and PDB) plus EPUB and PDF files locked up with Adobe’s Digital Editions DRM.

It’ll also play MP3s, but in this case you might want to stick in an SD card as the reader only has 512MB of on-board storage.

Finally, and a testament to its international credentials, the BeBook lets you view a world map, click on a country and see what e-book stores it offers.

I’ll be sticking with my Kindle for now, as pretty much everything else I have tried is clunky in comparison. If you’re not happy getting your hands dirty and converting foreign-language texts to MOBI format, though, you might take a look at the BeBook, despite its rather steep $250 price tag.

BeBook Neo eReader [eBook Mall. Thanks, Virginia]

See Also:

• BeBook E-Reader Is Over-Priced and Under-Powered
• Buying Guide: How to Choose an E-Book Reader
• E-Book Reader Roundup: Samsung's Papyrus Joins the Crowd
• Showdown: Kindle 2 vs. Sony Reader

The Brompton Dock lets you grab a folding bike and take it on the train

The Brompton Dock is a clever take on Park and Ride schemes. Instead of parking your car on the edge of town and taking the bus to the center, you rock up at a railway station, check out a Brompton folding bike and hop on the train. Then, when you reach your stop, you unfold the bike and go on your way.

The scheme is being tested by South West trains in England. 40 Bromptons are stored in a block of lockers on the platform. You swipe your membership card and take a bike. From there you get to keep it for the whole day before returning it on your way home. Each bank of lockers holds 40 bikes.

The fees are tiny. You pay £50 ($80) per year to join, and as little as £1.60 ($2.60) per day for rental (prices rise to £4 ($6.50) per day if you don’t opt for a weekly or monthly plan, but this is still dirt cheap). Given that a Brompton starts at around £760 ($1,220), you could ride every day for a year and a half before you spent as much.

The big question is how do you get to the station to begin with? Maybe you drive, or walk if you can. But if you’re going to ride a Brompton every day, why not just buy one and ride it to the station as well? If you’re going straight to the office, the bike will probably never get stolen.

In fact, the hardest part of this scheme might be nothing to do with the bikes themselves. Instead, the real problem could be convincing your boss to install showers at the office.

Brompton Dock [Brompton Dock via EcoVelo]

See Also:

• Review: Brompton M6L Folding Bicycle
• Tern Folding Bike Company Breaks Away From Dahon
• Five Ways To Make Bike Commuting Easy
• Commuter Cycle Concept is Bike and Briefcase
• Bailout Bill Gives Bicyclists a Tax Break

Hot on the heels of AT&T’s happy earnings tidbits yesterday, VZW’s latest figures also show that it’s raking the money in nice and regular. Total operating revenues in Q2 were $27.5 billion — that’s up half a billion on Q1 2011 and 6.3 percent on Q2 2010 (on a non-GAAP basis). The Big Red claims 2.2 million net additions to its wireless customer base, contributing to a 6.6 percent year-on-year increase in wireless service revenues and a 22.2 percent increase in wireless data revenues.

Company execs were especially pleased with the sale of 2.3 million iPhones during the spring, despite the iPhone 5 “being delayed by more than a quarter.” Unfortunately they didn’t clarify whether the next iPhone was really delayed, or just likely to arrive later than they expected. LTE phones and dongles also proved popular, shifting 1.2 million units and helping to boost Verizon’s average revenue per unit. Together, LTE and iPhone devices accounted for 69 percent of new additions. Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg summed it all up as “one of Verizon’s best quarters since the 2008 economic downturn.” You’ll find the full earnings report after the break.

Continue reading Verizon has best quarter since 2008, thanks largely to iPhones and LTE

Verizon has best quarter since 2008, thanks largely to iPhones and LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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