Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft has quietly added browser-based versions of four PopCap games to Xbox.com that are playable for free. Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled 3, Zuma’s Revenge and Text Twist 2 have all been placed on a new section within Xbox.com labeled Xbox Live Web Games. All four are free, ad-supported, and are essentially trial versions of the […]

MeeGo machines are a little hard to come by here in the states, but our friends in the Indian subcontinent are getting some cartoony Linux love from the fine folks at Samsung. The company’s new N100 netbook (similar to the N150 above) comes packing a 1.33GHz, dual-core Atom N435 and 1GB of DDR3 RAM for pushing the formerly Nokia-bound OS to a matte 10.1-inch screen. Inside that svelte 2.27-pound package is also a 250GB hard drive and a meager 3-cell battery. If you happen to strolling the streets of Hyderabad you’ll be able to pick up one of these lithe lappies for 12,290 rupees, or about $276.

[Thanks, Lau]

Samsung’s ultralight N100 delivers Atom-powered MeeGo to the Indian masses originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no question that cloud computing has hit the mainstream — even the US federal government, which isn’t typically a front-runner when it comes to tech adoption, has taken the plunge. Now, Taiwanese hardware maker Acer, the world’s second largest PC manufacturer, has just joined the ranks of the sky-high elite, purchasing Silicon Valley-based iGware for $320 million. Acer’s acquisition of the little-known cloud computing firm will reportedly allow it to launch a cloud product next year, and is seen as a long-term strategic move for the tech giant. Despite its limited name recognition, iGware provides services that support more than 100 million consumer devices, including Nintendo gaming systems — the two companies are reportedly in talks over potential cooperation after the acquisition is complete. iGware may be a major player in the cloud computing space, but its single-page Microsoft Publisher-designed website doesn’t exactly scream nine-figure acquisition — we hope the company at least tied a pair of mylar balloons to the mailbox before Acer came knocking at Suite 100.

Acer buys iGware, makes a $320 million bet on the cloud originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fotoboard is flawed, but a great way to sort and view photo albums on the iPad

Even with the new features coming in iOS5, the iPad (and iPhone) Photos app is pretty poor for actually viewing photos — the very reason for its existence. If you use iPhoto to organize your photos on your computer (Mac-only), then you can have it generate albums of faces and places, but most of the time you’re left scrolling through the “Photos” section, which contains everything, just to find one photo.

Fotoboard is an iPad app which creates albums. You can make these manually, or you can browse a calendar which lets you go see all the photos you took on, say, your birthday two years ago. This alone would be worth the price of the app (currently free) if it weren’t for a couple of annoyances (more on those in a minute).

You can’t drag to re-order, but the app sure looks great

Creating your own albums is easy. You click the “plus” sign, add a title and then choose the photos in a batch from the familiar iOS photo-picker. You can add more photos later, too, as well as removing them.

You can view the images individually and swipe through them. In this case you see the pictures on a neat wood-style background, along with a piece of paper with limited metadata displayed (a map will also show up if there is geo-data in the image file). You can also add captions, and send photos via email, Facebook or Twitter.

You can also start a slideshow, choosing either the same wooden-table view, or a fullscreen mode. Finally, you can share photos with other Fotoboard users on your local network via Wi-Fi.

Fotoboard is still very young, and there are some big omissions. You can’t re-order photos in an album, for example. But the biggest pain is the behavior of the calendar view.

It defaults to the oldest picture in your library, and to page through dates you need to tap the tiny arrows which flip you one month at a time. Exit the calendar and re-enter and you have to start over. Fotoboard desperately needs a better way to navigate dates.

That said, its easily the prettiest and easiest to use Album app I have yet found (and I have tried a lot). And right now it is also free, which means that iPad-toting photographers have no excuse not to try it out.

Fotoboard for iPad [iTunes]

See Also:

• Sony Photo Album Updates The Humble Shoebox
• FX Photo Studio for iPad: Amazing Filters, Amazing Facts
• Instagram Hacks: How to Get More Out of (and Into) the Electronic …
• Everything You Need to Know About Google Plus and Photos

AT&T this morning offered up some earnings tidbits, and there’s some good news in there for the iPhone-wielding mobile network. In its best-ever second quarter for smartphone sales, the company moved more than 5.6 million of the devices. AT&T raked in consolidated revenues of $31.5 billion for the quarter, up $680 million over last year. The Former Mrs. Bell also revealed that it is “confident” that, much to the chagrin of Sprint and others, its planned purchase of T-Mobile is set to be completed by the first quarter of 2012. AT&T will be offering up more financial details in an earnings call later today, including, no doubt, the much-rumored plans for magenta carpeting in its global headquarters.

Update: The company didn’t talk too much about its interior decorating plans, but it did insist that it is “look[ing] forward to working with the FCC,” and while it still has “work to do, we remain confident that we can satisfy the FCC and DOJ.” AT&T also happily pointed out support from governors of 26 states. The acquisition, it added, will offer “enormous efficiencies” and “is the surest and fastest way to address the unique network constraints and spectrum shortages affecting AT&T.”

AT&T ‘confident’ T-Mobile deal to close in Q1 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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