Live from Blackberry Jam Americas 2012!

Details about BlackBerry 10 have been trickling out for months now, but BlackBerry Jam Americas 2012 is finally here, and we’re hoping to get a longer look at RIM’s next-gen OS. Company CEO Thorsten Heins is kicking things off with his keynote this morning, so join us after the break as we bring it to you live.

September 25, 2012 11:30 AM EDT

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Live from Blackberry Jam Americas 2012! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile can’t wait for November, adds Windows Phone 8X sign-up sheet to its site

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T-Mobile is whetting our appetites for HTC’s ridiculously named yet highly attractive Windows Phone 8X with a sign-up sheet on its website. The manufacturer confirmed that it’s aiming for a November launch for the (surprise, surprise) Windows Phone 8 handset, and we’ve also heard whispers that it’ll retail for $199 when it arrives. If those two factoids haven’t gotten you excited enough, you can always see how it compares to its rivals in our comparison feature.

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T-Mobile can’t wait for November, adds Windows Phone 8X sign-up sheet to its site originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Deadly Inventions That Killed Their Creators [Collection]

Technological progress is not the iPhone 5 or the Nexus 7. Technological progress is creating things that nobody has ever seen before, things that push humanity forward. You know, like building a machine heavier than air that freaking flies. Sadly, some times these quests end in disaster. More »

The Ostrich Pillow: Because Who Doesn’t Love A Good Nap?

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I tend to take naps everywhere — on park benches, at my kitchen table after lunch, and most certainly on the subway. In fact, I’m convinced that I have some sort of sleep disorder, despite my doctor’s insistence to the contrary. But with or without some official diagnosis, I seem to have stumbled across the sweet elixir to my napping happiness.

It’s called the Ostrich Pillow, and even though it’s been around for about a year, it only recently made its way on to Kickstarter. It’s essentially a giant oversized hat, that stretches all the way from the top of your head down to the crown of your shoulders, with a small hole for your nose and mouth, and holes up top for your hands.

The idea is that, as napping becomes more and more commonplace in work environments, users can strap on their ostrich pillow and doze off for a power nap. It seems to have everything covered, except it appears to lack proper neck support. I’ll need to get my hands (err.. head?) in one to find out, but based on the pictures you may wake up with quite the crick.

Here at TechCrunch, one of our fearless leaders has discovered that a solid nap during the work day actually improves performance, much to her surprise.

Other companies are also jumping on the nap time bandwagon, including Google and Cisco. According to Fortune, 6 percent of companies included nap rooms in their facilities in 2011, and 34 percent of ~1,500 respondents were allowed to nap at work.

Oh, I almost forgot… Romain, our intern, also sleeps at work.

It’s the beginning of a new era my friends.

Click to view slideshow.


You Won’t Believe How Amazing This Wildlife Photography Contest Winner Is [Video]

Wildlife photography can be grueling, tedious work, but the payoff is sometimes you get something as amazing as this British Wildlife Photography Awards winner. It’s of gannets (birds), diving into the sea off the coast of north Scotland. And it’s breathtaking. More »

Chicago mayor targets affordable gigabit broadband, free WiFi throughout city parks

Chicago mayor targets affordable gigabit broadband, free WiFi throughout city parks and plazas

If Rahm Emanuel has his way, then Chicago’s broadband access may very well give Kansas City a run for its money. The mayor of the Windy City has now revealed a rather ambitious initiative that would (ideally) overhaul the city’s broadband infrastructure and provide affordable, gigabit-class fiber internet to areas that primarily serve industry, higher education and entrepreneurial startups. The idea came to Emanuel through Eric Schmidt, who suggested the upgrade be coordinated alongside the city’s overhaul of its aging water / sewer system. Before any of this can happen, however, Chicago must first secure commitments from companies that would be willing to install and pay for the new upgrades. As a potential incentive, it’s been suggested by Crain’s Chicago Business that the city may offer some of its own unused fiber resources on a favorable lease.

In addition to the hopes for ultra-fast broadband, Emanuel’s project, dubbed the Chicago Broadband Challenge, also seeks to extend low-cost, high-speed internet to underserved areas of the city and to bring free WiFi access to all public spaces such as parks and plazas. Although mostly a token gesture, mayor Emanuel announced the immediate availability of free WiFi in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The city is currently soliciting plans and proposals of how to approach the ambitious project, and you’re invited to become a bit more familiar with these grand ambitions with the PR and source links below.

[Chicago photo credit: Nimesh M / Flickr]

Continue reading Chicago mayor targets affordable gigabit broadband, free WiFi throughout city parks

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Chicago mayor targets affordable gigabit broadband, free WiFi throughout city parks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s Schiller On #ScratchGate: Aluminum Scratching Is Normal

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Apple SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller has reportedly responded to a customer complaint regarding the scratching border of a black and slate iPhone 5, via an email received by 9to5Mac this morning. Schiller apparently responded to concerns by pointing out that aluminum is naturally subject to scratches, and that minor chips over time are to be expected with the iPhone 5′s construction materials.

9t05Mac received the complete email, and verified the headers to make sure that it was indeed a legitimate email coming from the Apple exec. The body of the email from Schiller reads:

Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.

As we reported yesterday, aluminum is relatively soft, especially compared to glass, and will scratch more easily than more durable materials. If you have an iPad or MacBook Air/Pro, you can probably personally attest to aluminum’s susceptibility to surface scratches. One of the big problems appears to be that Apple has opted to use aluminum with a black surface coating on the darker iPhone 5 model, leading to higher visibility of scratches as the aluminum’s natural color shows through when it’s damaged.

The use of aluminum has a pretty considerable upside, however, since drop tests have generally shown that it’s far more resistant to significant damage from taking tumbles. Dings and dents are one thing, but a shattered back is something that’s hard to come back from, at least barring expensive repairs. Really, Schiller is just pointing out the obvious, but this is the first comment we’ve seen about the issue from Apple leadership.

We’ve reached out to Apple for additional comment and will update if they provide any.


Google Play Books gets Maps integration plus cloud annotation

Google has updated its ereading app, Google Play Books, with integration with Google Maps, along with translation support, and annotation tools. The new version of the Android software now allows readers to tap locations within the text, and see a pop-up info card powered by Google Maps, along with links to more information from Google or Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, there’s still dictionary support, with tapping on a word bringing up a definition. Translation tools can convert foreign texts into your native language on the fly, though only on a per-paragraph basis rather than of the whole book in its entirety.

As for highlighting, that’s done pretty much as we’ve seen it on other ereading apps, with draggable brackets to select a section and then a choice of colors for the highlight itself. It’s also possible to append notes and reminders to those sections, and Google will push out any highlights or annotations to all linked devices.

Finally, there’s a sepia color theme, 2D sliding page-turn animations, and support for reading Japanese texts in a vertical, left-to-right layout, flipping the pages from right to left too. You can download Google Play Books from from the Play Store.


Google Play Books gets Maps integration plus cloud annotation is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Chest Sensor Produces Instant Floor Plans for Emergency Personnel [Video]

Researchers at MIT have found yet another use for Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. They’ve stripped it down, tacked on a sophisticated laser rangefinder, added wireless functionality, and turned it into a wearable sensor that will automatically map the inside of a building as the wearer moves through it. More »

Visualized: Nokia’s Asha 308, 309 in-house lunchtime launch

Visualized Nokia's Asha 308, 309 inhouse lunchtime launch

Typically, when OEMs launch the next generation of their mobile wares, we’re treated to painstakingly choreographed industry parties (that we chronicle in great detail). In fact, we can think of a recent one in particular that saw several tech journos corralled into a blue-hued freight elevator and then let loose on three levels of demos. Well, if you thought new product excitement began and ended with select press events or that executive-level enthusiasm was all just a by-product of intense media training, think again. As you can see from the image above, lunch time at Nokia’s glass-walled HQ saw a crowd of curious employees noshing on the assortment of cafeteria delights while also sampling the newly announced Asha 308 and 309. It’s that company-wide, inside-out passion for all things Nokia we’ve seen evidence of again and again throughout our time in Espoo. And because of that, we feel justified in saying there’s clearly something in the Finnish water.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

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Visualized: Nokia’s Asha 308, 309 in-house lunchtime launch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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