Hasta La Gadget!

Tweeting about the obnoxious individuals you share a tube platform with was expected to be a one-time thing if you weren’t a Virgin Media customer. The Branson-backed provider had said that, once the summer games had finished, it would make the service exclusive to its own broadband subscribers. Now, however, the company has reversed that decision, extending the free period through until the end of the year. The Telegraph is reporting that the turnaround is in part thanks to wholesale talks with other ISPs, who are keen to offer the service as part of their own packages. Given that we’re unlikely to make it into the stratosphere or the bottom of the ocean any time soon, we’ll settle for pretending we’re a daring explorer of the Piccadilly line.

Continue reading Virgin Media extends free tube WiFi for all until 2013

Filed under: Wireless, Internet

Virgin Media extends free tube WiFi for all until 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If a seemingly infinitely programmable mini computer like the Raspberry Pi is just too… limiting, we’ve got good news: the Gertboard extender has started shipping. The $48 companion board reaching customers’ doorsteps converts analog to digital and back for Raspberry Pi fans developing home automation, robotics and just about anything else that needs a translation between the computing world and less intelligent objects. The one catch, as you’d sometimes expect from a homebrew project, is the need for some assembly — you’ll have to solder together Gert van Loo’s Arduino-controlled invention on your own. We imagine the DIY crowd won’t mind, though, as long as they can find the fast-selling Gertboard in the first place.

[Image credit: Stuart Green, Flickr]

Filed under: Misc

Gertboard extender for Raspberry Pi ships to advanced tinkerers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 03:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite Contour offering some stiff competition of recent time, think of an action cam, and the name GoPro probably comes to mind. The company is trying to cement that reputation with the Hero3, which claims to be smaller, lighter and record better quality footage than its predecessor. More »

Apple has acquired the relatively new creative consulting company Particle, which is based in San Francisco. Particle, founded in 2008, specializes in marketing and Web applications that are HTML5-centric. Actor/singer Justin Timberlake is an investor who helped fund the company’s Robo.to social video network.

This move gained Apple a small roster of new HTML5-savvy workers, although some of Particle’s workers elected to leave. The ones who remained to board Apple’s ship will likely be used to expand Apple’s Web applications for the likes of iCloud.com, various company product pages, and iAd advertising. Based on info found on various public profiles and the company’s About page, Particle’s employees have impressive past work experience, with several who were part of Yahoo’s user experience design group.

Here’s a clip from Particle’s “About” page:

HTML5 and the WebKit rendering engine already drive the web experience on devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Android, but are increasingly becoming the lowest common denomination on the desktop web in next generation browsers like Google’s Chrome, and Apple’s Safari. Particle has chosen to focus on this technology so intensely because we believe it will soon be the rendering engine that powers a new universe of light weight and embedded applications from set top boxes to game consoles to Chrome OS and Android devices to portable telephony and media devices of all kinds.

It’s the last sentence that is most interesting, perhaps indicating one of the reasons Apple acquired the small company. Clients listed on company’s website include Google, Motorola, and Sony, for which Particle has helped develop, define, and execute HTML5 entry and strategy, among other things. The deal between the Apple and Particle was reached in September for an unknown sum.

[via Apple Insider]

Apple acquires creative Web application consulting firm Particle is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

At long last, HTC has decided to take the plunge into the phablet market by introducing the 5-inch HTC J Butterfly (aka HTL21), where it was unveiled by KDDI in Japan although there were whispers of a 5” HTC device that was meant to arrive on Verizon Wireless since July this year. The HTC J Butterfly will be powered by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system right out of the box, where it comes with a 5” Full HD “Super LCD 3” display at an incredible 440ppi pixel density, with a rather able 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064 processor underneath the hood.

At the back, you will not find anything more than a two-digit megapixel count for its camera, as it carries an 8-megapixel shooter which should be enough to get the job done, even handling 1080p video recording with aplomb. In front, there is a 2.1-megapixel camera for your video calls and vanity shots. Additional hardware specifications include 2GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a microSDHC memory card slot just in case the aforementioned 16GB is not enough, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), NFC, LTE and CDMA/GSM/UMTS/GPRS connectivity, all coming in a waterproof (IPX5-rated) and 140 gram package. Hopefully the 2,020mAh battery is able to last the distance with the kind of performance figures the LCD display churns out. No idea on pricing, but it should be out in KDDI Japan early December in either red, white or black colors.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Leaked T-Mobile road map points at LG Optimus L9 and HTC Windows Phone 8X release dates, HTC to bow out of US Android tablet market – for now,