Now stabilized, Cannon is using his influence to help raise awareness for the disease as he hosts this year’s annual New York City Kidney Walk. He opened up on the life threatening experience during a recent appearance on HuffPost Live, as he explained treating his diagnosis.
It never ceases to irk me that I can check out parks and streets around the world from me, yet I can’t see my own neighborhood on Google Street View. The Google Street View car rolled past my neighborhood, but didn’t bother to come through. Personally, I’d like a chance to play a nice Street View prank.
While my neighborhood still lacks Street View detail, Google has announced the largest update to Street View in the feature’s history, having added 250,000 miles of roads around the world. The service has specifically increased coverage in Macau, Singapore, Sweden, the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Canada.
The covers also increased in specific tourist locations such as Catherine Palace in Russia and other locations in Taiwan, Vancouver, and other places around the world. That means you can explore parks and even castles in distant lands from the comfort of your desk chair – but still not my neighborhood in Texas.
Tim’s back! Remember him? We’re so excited to get the old team back together that we just couldn’t wait until 5:00 to do this week’s show. So join Tim, Brian and Dana tonight at 4PM ET tonight for gadgety goodness.
The world can be an upsetting place at times. But no matter how badly your day might be going, there’s one thing that can always bring a little cheer back into your life: dogs! Dogs fetching balls, dogs diving in pools, and dogs just being generally awesome at 1,000 frames per second. More »
It’s a rare opportunity that’s been taken advantage of this week with the now near-dead mobile operating system MeeGo’s former developers being rounded up and interviewed for a pack of information that gives us all a look into its short-lived dreams. It’s Finnish site Taskumuro that has this set of interviews turned into a history of MeeGo complete with what essentially amounts to confirmation that Nokia was planning on bringing the Nokia N9 with MeeGo to Verizon – and that they had a tablet in the works as well. Wouldn’t it be nice?
If you’ll take a look back at our original Nokia N9 review from several months ago, you’ll find that Chris Davies’ assessment of the device (“Seldom are we so reluctant to part with a review unit”) was more than just a little leaning towards the positive side. Because the software Nokia’s former MeeGo team were working on was – and in some cases, still is – so lovely and not like anything else out there at the moment, we’ve got to pause and wonder what might have been had it taken off. One of the items of big interest here is the Senna tablet.
This tablet was obviously meant to replicate the better points of the N9 with design cues galore, rounded corners and vast, simple movements in hardware all around. You’ve got the ability to shoot 1080p video on the back, a ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor U8500-based platform on its innards, and a public version of MeeGo right up front. The user interface is said to have been essentially the same as the N9, just blown up a bit.
The account also makes it clear that the Senna tablet was presented to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop back in 2010 where it was praised by him initially. Once the MeeGo strategy was stopped entirely, so went the tablet as well. Another of the bigger reveals here from Taskumuo is the existence of Nokia model RM-716. This device was essentially the Nokia N9 made for Verizon – but without 4G LTE, it was also doomed to fail before it got off the ground.
As we all know, Nokia went with Microsoft’s loving embrace less than a year ago, bringing forth a collection of Windows Phone devices here and there ever since. The newest range of Windows Phone 8 devices from Nokia have generated quite a bit of interest as far as we’ve seen, and we’re more than a bit pumped up about their delivery here in the Autumn of 2012. In this season we’ll likely see big movements in Nokia’s market share up or down – it’s all up to Windows Phone 8 and its ties with Windows 8 – and Microsoft backing the colorful manufacturer up, of course.
Apple‘s new Lightning interface has caused a bit of a ruckus ever since it debuted on the iPhone 5. It’s essentially been forcing previous-generation iPhone users to go out and buy all-new accessories. However, Apple released a Lightning adapter that allows 30-pin cables to be lugged into Lightning ports. One man was brave enough to open it up to see what was inside.
Peter, from Double Helix Cables, decided to earmark $30 towards an Apple dock connector that he would use to essentially destroy. However, he took pictures along the way and described the experience. First off, just opening up the connector was more difficult than expected, as a Dremel is about the only thing that’s able to pry it open.
One of the first things that Peter notices is that the connector is “beautifully manufactured like a cruel puzzle.” The lightning plug itself is steel reinforced, with a rubber dampening piece that wraps around it. Then, there’s a thin coating of epoxy that pretty much covers all of the circuitry, which makes it nearly impossible to tinker with. To top it all off, there’s a steel cage that encloses it all.
Peter mentions that in order to hack in a dock audio output cable to the Lightning connector, it “would require a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and specialized tools.” On top of that, the steel cage basically requires a tungsten carbide cutting blade in order to take everything apart in once piece. Plus, you have to chisel away at the epoxy that’s covering the chip itself. In the end, Peter said that it took him most of afternoon to take the adapter apart.
Revealed this week were the 2012 T3 Award winners. T3 – the UK’s leading consumer technology resource – once again pitted top manufacturers against each other in the biggest tech award show. Between the 7 judges and the 8th “reader vote” some surprises did arise.
ASUS came out on top as Tech Brand of the Year backed by awards for their Eee Pad Transformer Prime (Design Award) and Zenbook UX31 (Computer). ASUS also boosted their presence as the Google Nexus 7 they manufactured took home Gadget of the Year. Samsung and Apple – although heavily nominated – only saw success in Phone of the Year for the Galaxy S3 and Work Gadget of the Year for the iPhone 4S. The complete list of winners is below:
Innovation of the Year: Raspberry Pi Gaming Gadget of the Year: Sony PS Vita Gadget Accessory of the Year: Nike Fuelband App of the Year: Zeebox Retailer of the Year: Amazon Tech Personality of the Year: Rory Cellan-Jones Digital Media Service of the Year: Sky Go T3 Design Award: ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Commuter Gadget of the Year: Amazon Kindle 4 TV of the Year: Sony Bravia KDL-55HX853 Digital Camera of the Year: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 Work Gadget of the Year: Apple iPhone 4S Home Gadget of the Year: Nest Smart thermostat Computer of the Year: ASUS Zenbook UX31 Music Gadget of the Year: Bowers & Wilkins P3 Tablet of the Year: Google Nexus 7 By ASUS Tech Brand of the Year: ASUS Outstand Contribution to Tech: Lord Sugar Phone of the Year: Samsung Galaxy S3 Gadget of the Year: Google Nexus 7 By ASUS
An iPad (or any another tablet) is basically like a sheet of digital paper. A piece of paper that changes based on user input. That’s why there are so many greatdrawingapps coming out every day. While these apps generally use your greasy fingers for input, let’s not forget about the millennia-old technology of the stylus. If it helped the ancient Mesopotamians write accurate cuneiform, it can certainly help you boost your tablet drawing skills. More »
V-Moda’s been seriously edging for the audiophile crowd lately — namely with its Crossfade M-80 on-ear headphones, the VAMP headphone amp for the iPhone 4/4S, and a soon-to-be disclosed followup dubbed as Vamp Versa. That brings us to its soon-to-be released M-100 headphones, which haven’t really been a secret since their inception, making them a special set. Unlike many companies who strive for secrecy in regards to upcoming products, V-Moda’s taken a drastically different approach with its latest cans, with owner Val Kolton stating that they’re effectively the first crowd-sourced set of headphones.
Many headphone lovers out there likely know that Kolton’s been heavily in contact with the Head-Fi community, hoping to craft the best sounding, looking and fitting ear-gear possible. As he puts it, “the easter egg and inside joke is that the [M-100 headphones] can actually stand up. It is the first headphone that we know of that ‘stands above the rest’ and all others fall down/crawl. It also can stand on top of a few other new brand’s models almost like Cirque De Soleil.” It may be hard to tell based on the fashion-focused looks, but the company is adamant that its audio gear goes through more stringent research and testing than some of the biggest names out there, and that it’ll show in the end products. Most notably, its TrueHertz testing where, for the M-100, “six points from 5hZ to 12kHz are measured to be within [its] obsessive quality control levels.” According to Kolton, most companies only check at 1Khz, and allow for much wider variances. He followed up stating that “like fine wine, a headphone is only as good as its fit (taste buds) and its driver variances (grapes/cork). To us, all brands advertising ‘HD’ sound [aren’t being forthright] unless they believe or even know these key components are “‘fugazi.'”
For perspective, the M-100 is essentially the third iteration of the Crossfade LP over-ear headphones. Aside from a few tweaks to the design, it’s packing an audiophile-focused tuning (rather than DJ) that’s based on blending the voicings of its M-80 on-ears and the LP2 over-ears. It wouldn’t be unfair to say the company is aiming for a flat, yet fun sound — all in a package that’s fit to take to the streets like its earlier offerings. Those familiar may know that just under 150 of the first 200 production-quality models are currently floating around as early stock and test units for a final bit of real-world feedback before mass-production begins — and this editor’s been lucky enough to get his mitts on a set for some initial impressions. So, is the product shaping up to match all the hype? Click on past the break our take.
I was wrong. If you’ve been following along with the strategy Samsung has been working with over the past year, you’ve noticed that they’ve been doing rather well the Samsung Galaxy S III as a single hero smartphone across the globe with no design compromises. They’ve just thrown that all away with the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini. In a move that very well could have expanded the power of the Galaxy S III with a little cousin in the Mini, Samsung instead opted to tear off the skin and the nametag from the larger device and place it on a disappointingly low-level afterthought in this newer handset.
The only redeeming factor present in the Galaxy S III Mini is its inclusion of the newest Android system 4.1 Jelly Bean – and the Google Now system that comes with it. But we all know that the excitement one feels with a new Android system is fleeting – they’ll likely have another newer one in just a few weeks. Also included in this iPhone 4-sized pea-shooter is a 4S-inch Super AMOLED display running at WVGA 800 x 480 resolution, less than the original iPhone 4, and only equal to the original Galaxy S.
Above: the original Galaxy Note sits near the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note 10.1 – the Galaxy Note II alleviates the ugly duckling syndrome going on here, then the Galaxy S III Mini takes it another step by adding another size – but without the specs to back up its relation to the rest of this top-class family.
In fact, given the specifications this device is working with – other than its dual-core processor – we’ve essentially been shown the original Galaxy S all over again – this is a device that was originally shown off several years ago, long outdated by now. You do get Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, S-Beam, and is extremely portable, on the other hand. You’ve got just 111.5g of weight here at 121.55 x 63 x 9.85 mm – perfect for everything except playing games, watching movies, and snapping photos.
I say snapping photos because the back-facing camera here is a 5 megapixel shooter while the front-facing camera is VGA. This phone is clearly aimed at those who haven’t used a smartphone in the past – or if they have, haven’t had the pleasure of working with one of the 8 megapixel cameras that have been in devices mid-tier and upward for nearly two years. The device is able to do this:
That being working with S-Beam (as mentioned above) with the Galaxy S III. It’s not quite clear yet if this device will be working with AllShare Play as the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note 10.1, and Galaxy Note II do, but we’re going to go ahead and guess that yes, it will. That’s where the good news starts and ends.
Because even if you take the Galaxy S III Mini and say “this is part of the extended hero series,” you’ve got another device to answer for. It’s called the Samsung Galaxy Premier (without the “e”), and it’s basically kicking the Galaxy S III in the gut. The Samsung Galaxy Premier, a device with a dual-core 1.5Ghz processor, a 720p display, and an 8 megapixel camera on its back, is exactly what the Galaxy S III Mini should have been.
Instead Samsung is taking the awesome power it gained with a launch of the same Galaxy S III model across carriers, borders, and seas, and is tossing it in the ocean by taking what was built up and spreading it very, very thin. The hero brand power thins each time a new device comes out with a nature-themed casing by Samsung, I assure you.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
