Nov 02

Boot Bag Is a Stylish Trunk for Your Bike

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili

The Boot Bag in rich Argentinian leather

Problem: You want a bag that will also fit on your bike, but all bike-mounting bags are ugly. Solution: Hebie’s Boot Bag.

The Boot Bag is semi-stiff, open-top shopping bag for your bike. With a wide shoulder strap, you can carry it around the market as you shop. Then, back at the bike, it clips directly to the top of a front or rear luggage rack, ready to roll.

The Boot Bag comes in plastic or leather, and the lop-sided shape means that it stays away from either your butt (rear rack) or your various gear and brake cables (front rack). I’m not quite sure where the name comes from, but my guess is that it’s named after a car “boot”, which is the UK English word for “trunk.” That Hebie is a German company suggests that it could also mean “boat,” but I doubt it.

The price difference between leather and plastic bags is almost comically huge. The multi-colored plastic Boots go for around €28 ($39), and the “handmade Argentinian leather” version costs €260, or $360. You’ll also need an adapter for your carrier (Hebie or universal) for another €15 ($21) and a shoulder strap, for €11 ($15).

The Boot Bag is available now.

Boot Bag product page [Hebie]


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Nov 02

Maybe Foxit isn’t the Best PDF Reader?

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Newly Released, performance, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on November 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

I’ve always been pretty big on the Foxit Reader because it’s not only free, but it takes under 3 seconds to open up. When you’re trying to read a PDF the last thing you want to do is wait forever for it to load, and that’s why Adobe Acrobat is the last thing that I recommend for people to use.

I do realize that some of you have had troubles with printing in Foxit, and today I want to introduce you to a different PDF reader that will hopefully solve your problems. PDF-XChange Viewer has all of the features you would expect from the even the best PDF reader, plus it has a few things that you can only find in a purchased copy of Foxit!

I’m sure you’re wondering what this could possibly do that your copy of Foxit doesn’t include. Have you ever tried to add a sticky note or type some text on an existing PDF in Foxit? If you have you’ll see a warning that says an “evaluation mark” will be added to the document to signal that you haven’t purchased the program. With PDF-XChange Viewer you can draw, add notes, type text, and do all kinds of things with no unwanted marks being placed on your document:

PDF-XChange Viewer
Click to Enlarge

But then there’s the speed issue, right? After all, we ditched Acrobat because of how darn slow the thing was. Don’t worry, you’re not sacrificing speed for features this time around. In my tests it opened just as fast as Foxit, or in the worst case it took one second longer. One thing that I didn’t like was the splash screen, but you can disable that in the options. Doing so also appears to make the program load faster.

The tabbed interface is also really nice for when you have multiple documents open. PDF-XChange Viewer has a feature like Internet Explorer 7 where you can view all of the open documents in a grid-like fashion. It will show a thumbnail for each of them, which is often much easier to distinguish between than just file names.

Did I say how good this program looks, too? They’ve definitely got a leg up Foxit when it comes to graphics, and I think that’s apparent just by looking at how nice the preferences screen looks:

PDF-XChange Viewer Preferences
Click to Enlarge

For the time being I’m going to be switching away from Foxit because I really like this program better. It looks nicer, has more features, and is the same performance-wise as Foxit. I’ll let you be your own judge, but I think you’ll agree with me that this is currently the best pdf reader.

PDF-XChange Viewer [via Digital Alchemy]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Nov 02

Photograph and Track Your Food Habits With Eatery

Posted in: Software and Operating Systems, Today's Chili

Track your food and share the pictures. Just like Twitter, only people actually care

You know how people are always posting pictures of their meals on Twitter? Well, now there’s a (proper) app for that. It’s called Eatery, and it’s like a cross between Foursquare and Instagram, for food.

There are other apps for tracking your calorie intake, and that’s not really what Eatery is for. It works like this: You snap a photo of your latest snack, dinner or drink and rate its healthiness by dragging a slider. Zero stars for a deep-fried Mars Bar and 11 stars for a plate of celery, for instance.

And that’s it. Your pictures are shared friends who are following you, and they can rate an comment on your dietary choices. The app does most of the work behind the scenes, remembering when and where you ate, and then showing it all on handy graphs. You can see all of the dishes you ate at your pizza place, for instance, or see just how healthily you have been eating for the last week.

You can even while away some time rating photos other people have snapped, kind of like an anonymous Hot or Not. For food.

My only complaint is that you have to connect to Facebook to use the social aspects. Still, I’ll try it out for a week and see if I lose any weight. I have a feeling that posting a photo half a bottle of whisky every night might guilt me into drinking a little less, at least.

The Eatery is available now for the iPhone, and is free.

The Eatery [Massive Health]


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Nov 02

Nokia Maps to be available for all Windows Phone handsets, sans voice navigation

Posted in: app, download, free, maps, mobilepostmini, navigation, nokia, Software, Today's Chili, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

Just because you don’t have a new Lumia handset doesn’t mean you won’t be able to use Nokia Maps — or most of it, anyway. According to ZDNet, Windows Phone users should expect to see Nokia Maps pop up as a free app on the Windows Phone Marketplace “within the next couple of weeks,” though offline voice navigation feature will remain restricted to the Lumia 710 and 800, in the form of Nokia Drive. No word yet on when the app will officially hit the market, but we’ll definitely keep a close eye on it.

Nokia Maps to be available for all Windows Phone handsets, sans voice navigation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhoneArena, My Nokia Blog  |  sourceZDNet  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 02

PlugBug USB Charger Piggybacks On MagSafe Adapter

Posted in: charger, ipad, macbook, Miscellaneous, Today's Chili

Even Apple’s formidable legal team might have trouble shutting down the Plug Bug

I can hear you. “What?” you say, “Another damn power adapter? What’s wrong with you, Sorrel?” But before you nod off, give me a second. This power adapter is very, very clever.

It’s called the PlugBug, and it charges both your iPad and your MacBook at the same time. That sounds easy, but the problem is that Apple won’t let anyone else make MagSafe adapters. So TwelveSouth, the company behind the PlugBug, didn’t even bother to make this part of the charger. Instead, the little red unit replaces the removable two-prong adapter unit on your existing MacBook power brick.

Ingenious, right? I have always liked Apple’s chargers because it’s so easy to swap in the correct set of prongs when you travel, but this makes it even more useful, especially at trade shows like CES where plug-space can be hard to come by.

The PlugBug can also work as a standalone 10-watt USB charger, and comes with its own cover so the innards aren’t exposed while you use it.

The PlugBug is available now, for $35.

PlugBug product page [TwelveSouth via Chris Herbert]


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Nov 02

DIY unmanned airship soars 95,000 feet above Earth, lays claim to new record (video)

Posted in: diy, launch, space, Today's Chili, video
Are you entertaining dreams of launching your own private spacecraft? All you need is about 30 grand in your bank account, and lots of spare time. Last weekend, a company called JP Aerospace sent its unmanned Tandem airship 95,085 feet above the ground — a height that, according to the company, establishes a new record for remotely controlled airships. In fact, JP Aerospace says this altitude is a full four miles higher than any other airship has ever flown. To pull this off, the team strapped its 30-foot-long aircraft with two balloons, and packed it with a pair of electric motors that manipulated the Tandem’s specially designed propellers. It’s a relatively simple method, and one that didn’t exactly break the bank, either. All told, it took about five years and some $30,000 to launch the aircraft, as part of the company’s Airship to Orbit project. The long-term goal is to use the Tandem or similar airships as a launch pad for rockets or other interstellar aircraft. No word yet on when that could happen, but you can float past the break for a brief video on the Tandem, coupled with a brief PR.

Continue reading DIY unmanned airship soars 95,000 feet above Earth, lays claim to new record (video)

DIY unmanned airship soars 95,000 feet above Earth, lays claim to new record (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWired  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 02

ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor to power Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, loosens Qualcomm’s grip

Posted in: arm, business, deal, dual-core, mobilepostcross, nokia, processor, qualcomm, Today's Chili, windows phone, WindowsPhone
Earlier this year, as you may recall, we learned that at least some of Nokia’s Windows Phone devices would be powered by a dual-core chip from ST-Ericsson. At the time, this report came as something of a surprise, considering the fact that Qualcomm had long enjoyed hegemony over the Windows Phone market. Today, however, it becomes official, as Nokia has now selected ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor platform as its Windows Phone supplier. There is no sign, however, that this deal will be exclusive, so it’s likely that the manufacturer will continue to use Qualcomm silicon in addition to ST-Ericsson’s ARM-based line of U9500, U8500, and U5500 dual-core CPUs. We also have yet to hear any confirmation on the specific devices that these chips will power, or when they’ll go into production, though we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we get word. Skip past the break for a really short press release.

Continue reading ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor to power Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, loosens Qualcomm’s grip

ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor to power Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, loosens Qualcomm’s grip originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 02

Firefox 3.1 Introduces More Address Bar Improvements

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Pre-Release, Reviews, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

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Mozilla is working hard on Firefox 3.1 which is slated for release later this year, and with it will come several improvements. For starters it will include a Control+Tab replacement that makes switching between tabs a bit more fancy. It will also come packed with numerous improvements to the address bar to help please those of you who don’t like how it currently handles itself.

What they’ve added in the current nightly releases is a way to restrict what kind of results are shown in the address bar by using customizable characters. I’ve highlighted the corresponding options in the about:config that I’m about to talk about:

firefox 3 urlbar config.png

So what do these five new options do for you? I’ve got several screenshots below that show exactly how they work, but here is an overview of what each one does:

  • browser.urlbar.match.title: Returns results that match the text in the title.
  • browser.urlbar.match.url: Returns results that match the text in the URL.
  • browser.urlbar.restrict.bookmark: Returns only results that are from the bookmarks.
  • browser.urlbar.restrict.history: Returns only results that are from the browser’s history.
  • browser.urlbar.restrict.tag: Returns only results that have been tagged.

How do these work? It’s actually pretty simple. Just include the character anywhere in the address bar (separated by spaces) to have it restrict what results are displayed. Here’s an example of using the asterisk to only return results that are bookmarks:

firefox 3 restrict bookmarks.png

Including a pound sign in the address bar will only have it scan the titles of results, thereby ignoring the URL when searching:

firefox 3 restrict titles.png

Mix and match baby! This example will only search the titles of your bookmarks for matches since I’ve included both the pound sign and asterisk:

firefox 3 restrict title bookmark.png

How does all of this benefit those of you who hate bookmarks/tags showing up in the results? Hop on over to the about:config, find the browser.urlbar.restrict.history value, and delete the character that is assigned to the value. What that does is tell Firefox to only return history results when no special character is recognized. Then delete the browser.urlbar.match.url character while you’re at it if you don’t want the page titles being searched (meaning only URL’s will be scanned). You might have to give the browser time for the changes to take affect since some of your searches get cached due to performance reasons.

Hopefully this will make you a bit more fond of the address bar introduced in Firefox 3. Don’t forget to grab CyberSearch to supercharge the address bar even more, and the latest release of the extension adds Firefox 3.1 compatibility.

P.S. We’ve got a rather big update for CyberSearch coming up in the next few days. A HUGE thanks goes out to everyone that has been giving CyberSearch stellar reviews! Our extension currently has a 4.60/5.00 rating from 33 reviews. That’s awesome!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Nov 02

Lenovo posts Q2 earnings, sees increase in profits, shipments and market share

Posted in: business, earnings, financials, lenovo, money, sales, Today's Chili

The quarterly earnings stats just keep rolling in today — this time, from Lenovo, which has just posted yet another stellar report. According to the company, profits for the second quarter of this year reached $145 million, marking an 89 percent increase over the same period last year. Consolidated sales, meanwhile, rose by 35.8 percent to a record $7.8 billion, giving Lenovo a worldwide quarterly market share of 13.5 percent, also its highest ever. Laptops, not surprisingly, were at the forefront of this surge, accounting for 57.5 percent of the company’s total revenue, with PC shipments rising 35.4 percent over the year. Lenovo also saw a 25.4 percent increase in shipments to China, as well as a 54.5 percent year-over-year increase in shipments to mature markets, including Western Europe and the US. For more statistical delights, check out the full PR, after the break.

Continue reading Lenovo posts Q2 earnings, sees increase in profits, shipments and market share

Lenovo posts Q2 earnings, sees increase in profits, shipments and market share originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 02

Pepsi’s ‘Sound of Football’ project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video)

Posted in: camera, game, iPhone, sound, Sports, Today's Chili, video

One one side of the field was a team of former pro soccer players. On the other, a squad of visually impaired amateurs. The two sides laced ’em up, stretched out their quads and went head to head in a scrimmage, though the matchup was a lot more even than you might expect. It’s all part of something called the “Sound of Football” — the latest experiment from the Pepsi Refresh Project. The idea was to level the playing field, so to speak, by forcing both teams to play a match using only their ears, and a pretty nifty tracking system. Created by Tracab, this system was comprised of 16 cameras covering the entire pitch (including two stereovision cameras placed at mid-field), and used jersey colors to distinguish the home team from the away team, and to identify the referees. This set up, which was deployed during the last World Cup, essentially tracked the position of each player in real-time. This information was then funneled into an iPhone attached to each player’s headset, and converted into a surround-sound landscape, using an app created by a company called Society 46. Unique sounds were assigned to both the ball and the goal; turning your head in the direction of one goal would produce one sound, facing the ball would result in another. This allowed each player to get a better idea of his surroundings and of his spatial positioning, though, as many of the pros found out, it wasn’t quite as easy as it looked. The designers of this system are now looking to use their technology in other, non-sports arenas, in the hopes of helping the blind and visually impaired “see” more of the world around them. Check out a pair of videos on the match and the technology behind it, after the break.

[Thanks, Martin]

Continue reading Pepsi’s ‘Sound of Football’ project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video)

Pepsi’s ‘Sound of Football’ project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Sound of Football  | Email this | Comments

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