Hasta La Gadget!

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

Going back to a physical medium isn’t just for vinyl lovers. The Impossible Project (TIP) wants to make our iPhone photos equally concrete through its extra-simple Impossible Instant Lab. Don’t worry about setting up AirPrint or otherwise jumping through software hoops: the Lab captures the screen and prints it to Polaroid-compatible instant film as a keepsake. The design is even collapsible and battery-powered in the event you’d like to hand out hard copies on the spot. It’s no hobbyist effort, either, with a Leica designer and a former Polaroid factory both involved in making the Lab a reality. TIP is planning to move beyond its initial iPhone 4 and 4S support to include future iPhones and, if all goes well, more commonplace Android hardware.

Investing in this Kickstarter project sidesteps novelties like t-shirts in favor of the real product — and provides a very strong incentive to buy early. Backers quick on the trigger can pay as little as $149 for a Lab with a voucher for free film, or about half the $299 retail price. Pay the full cost and you’ll get a special black version with an extra voucher, while $2,000 will provide both a gold edition and a trip to the ex-Polaroid factory in Enschede, The Netherlands. Cameras could be in retro photographers’ hands as soon as February, but only if TIP reaches its $250,000 funding goal by October 8th. If your parents would like a little more than a Facebook photo gallery as a souvenir, or Instagram just isn’t nostalgic enough, you can hit the source link to show support and make the Instant Lab real.

Continue reading Insert Coin: Impossible Instant Lab makes iPhone photos tangible

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras

Insert Coin: Impossible Instant Lab makes iPhone photos tangible originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Kickstarter  | Email this | Comments

The next iPhone’s unveiling date is safely locked down. Whether or not it arrives at every US carrier simultaneously is up in the air, however, and there’s signs that Sprint’s model might not ship as quickly as we’d like. Carrier training documents obtained by iSource, which we’ve since verified are real, would require that sales staff and technicians all be ready to offer “in-store Apple support” on October 15th, wrapping up their earliest training by the 30th — that’s up to a month after the introductory event, which would reduce the chances of a simultaneous launch if the first wave of iPhone availability is as close as the rumors would have you believe. Before you start plotting a carrier switch out of impatience, we’ll add that there’s a few disclaimers at play. First is simply that October 15th is a Monday, which is very out of step with Apple’s habit of launching iPhones on Fridays. We’d see that day as the target for training alone, and that’s assuming that Sprint needs everyone on the same page before the iPhone is in stores. More importantly, we know from our own tips that Sprint’s internal calendar is in flux: the provider may not have concrete plans until after Apple’s executives leave the event stage next week. As such, we’d treat the document leak more as a heads-up than a guarantee of trouble in Sprint’s schedule.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Sprint training docs cast doubt on 2012 iPhone launch timing, but don’t panic yet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 02:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  iSource  | Email this | Comments

A few weeks backs Runat Japan announces a new series of Disney iPhone4 and iPhone4s cases that includes two stunning yet largely un-usable a Stitch and Toy Story’s Alien design that will surely give a unique touch to your phone.
As you can see (Gallery below) these cases are quite bulky but at least they come with a nice little cradle and they will definitively discourage anyone to steal your phone unless of course the thief is a five year old addicted to Stitch!

Apple has just invited members of the press to attend a San Francisco-based product launch event on September 12th, where the next generation iPhone is expected to be officially unveiled. As rumored, it seems as if the company’s prior iPod-focused fall events may be split off into two. It’s been reported that an October event may follow this one, with a miniaturized 7-inch iPad on the docket for that. This event, however, seems a lock for the iPhone 5 — or “new iPhone,” or whatever it ends up being coined — and while CEO Tim Cook confessed at D10 that it would be doubling down on secrecy, leakers seem to have doubled down on tipping the world off on what’s to come. The keynote kicks off at 10AM PT in SF, and you can bet we’ll be there covering every second of it live. Didn’t have any “lunch” plans for 9/12? Looks like you do now.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

Apple announces presumed iPhone 5 launch event for September 12th; we’ll be there live! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Apple  | Email this | Comments

There’s been a trend towards big smartphones. Sometimes, really big. Even so, concerns have persisted that the cart is driving the horse — that customers are buying big phones because that’s what’s available, not because they have a preference. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech might not put that issue to bed once and for all, but its latest study suggests that there’s at least some appeal to all that extra glass. Among Android phones sold in the past three months across eight countries, 29 percent of them had a screen larger than 4.5 inches. Their owners were unsurprisingly more active as well, using the internet and watching videos more often than those whose phones have more modest displays.

Market share might be following suit. Throughout the countries Kantar is tracking, Android still has roughly half or more of the market, ranging from 46.8 percent in Brazil to a staggering 86.8 percent of Spain. In Europe alone, it was up by just over a fifth from a year ago. We know iOS is taking a beating outside of the US as a result. Before anyone calls the trend irreversible, however, remember that we’re on the edge of an unpredictable period: we know some mobile fans have been holding out for a new iPhone, and all the apparent rumors have Apple choosing a bigger screen that might satisfy some outstanding gripes with screen sizes. We’re also anticipating at least a few Windows Phone wildcards that could shake up the status quo and make this a three-horse race.

Continue reading Shocker: smartphone users like bigger screens, market share may respond accordingly

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Shocker: smartphone users like bigger screens, market share may respond accordingly originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  Kantar Worldpanel ComTech  | Email this | Comments