Binatone’s Brick phone was acceptable in the ’80s (hands-on)

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“If you’re an ’80s guy like me, then you know it’s important to be a shark. That means getting up, choking down a double espresso and listening to Huey Lewis. Then it’s time to hit the trading floor and make a cool hundred mil or something before dinner. Lunch? Lunch is for wimps. Talking about wimps, those hipsters who use Native Union’s Pop retro smartphone handset are scum. Me? I’m all about the Binatone Brick. Cram in a SIM card and you can make calls on this thing AND play Snake (I mean, we are living in the future) even while riding the elevator. But pair it over Bluetooth to your smartphone, and you’ll impress everyone when you’re walking and talking. It’ll launch soon for you mere mortals, priced at £50 in the UK with a 1,000mAh battery, but for a big-shot like me who’s always making deals, I’m holding out for the 2,000mAh version that’ll come later for £80. Oh, and one more thing — in the time it took you to read this, I just bought San Marino.”

-G. Gekko

Mr. Gekko’s views are entirely his own and do not reflect those of Engadget or AOL.

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Dana Wollman learned during this report that greed, for want of a better word, is good.

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Source: Binatone

Some Pebble smartwatches bricking after shutdown, company replacing faulty units

It appears that Pebble’s smartwatch is officially feeling its largest growing pain since debuting just two months ago. A five-page long (and growing) thread on the company’s forum has some owners describing a bug that’s leaving their Pebbles pebbled bricked after shutdown. Pebble’s Eric Migicovsky let us know that the company is actively replacing affected units, while examining those being sent in to find out the root cause:

We’ve had reports of this issue, and we understand of course that it’s annoying for users. We’re replacing any Pebbles for users who report this issue. We’re reviewing the Pebbles that get returned, working to get to the bottom of the issue. We have our support team ready to follow up to any user that reports this issue.

As it stands, there’s no word on whether firmware update 1.9 has any role in keeping the devices from turning on after being shut down. Owners have further reported that no amount of charging their Pebble will help it to actually come back to life. We’ve reached out to the company for more info on the matter (including nailing down how many units the company has replaced so far), and we’ll be sure to keep you updated. For now, let us know whether your experience with Pebble has been rocky at all so far.

Update: That was fast — apparently Pebble has received about 30 reports of this issue since Friday. Here’s the official word from Migicovsky:

We’re tracking a few reports of this issue. Up to Friday, we’ve had 20-30 reports (out of 30,000+ pebbles in the field). We’ve gotten several back to the office, and we’re getting to the bottom of it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Pebble (forum)

These 55 Amazing Lego Riddles Will Push Your Brain to the Limit

A few of these Lego brick riddles can be easily solved. The rest? Not so much. In fact, some of them are really hard—but definitely doable. They just require a little bit of imagination. Give them a try and post your answers in the comments. We will send a nice Lego set to the first person who gets them all right. More »

Solid Gold LEGO Brick Costs Almost $15,000

If you’ve recently won the Powerball jackpot and don’t know what to blow your money on, consider this solid gold LEGO brick that will cost you $14,449.99(USD). It’s an official building piece from LEGO, so it isn’t just some knockoff.
Gold Lego
This brick is 25.65g of 14K gold and it is the same size and shape as the original 2×4 LEGO brick. It’s just worth a heck of a lot more. These bricks were given to LEGO employees that had 25 years of employment at the Hohenwestedt, Germany factory from about 1979-1981, when gold wasn’t worth as much.

gold lego brick back

This one is for sale if you have the money to spare and need some bling added to your LEGO creations. At least it comes with a nice box to store it in.

solid gold lego

[via Geekologie]


Apple TV 5.1 update causing issues for many, downgrading cited as popular solution

Apple TV 51 update causing issues for many, downgrading cited as popular solution

Whenever you get the urge to ingest an update without doing a bit of research, just remember: things don’t always end with streamers falling and glasses raised. Such is the case with the latest Apple TV update, which arrived back in September as v5.1. At the time, it promised users the ability to tap into Shared Photo Streams and to easily switch between iTunes accounts. Now, however, Apple’s support boards are rolling with comments about the update. In fact, many users are reporting that the update has killed their device entirely, with most everyone else hitting up links to downgrade in an attempt to dodge the Reaper. Are you amongst the troubled? Let us know how things are going for you in comments below — particularly if you’ve stumbled upon a bulletproof solution.

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Via: TUAW

Source: Apple Support Forums

Galaxy Note 10.1 just hitting shelves, already said to be rooted

DNP Galaxy Note 101 said to already be rooted, not many around for corroboration

Only two days after Samsung announced the availability of the Galaxy Note 10.1 (and its source code), it appears to already have been rooted. An XDA user named Zedomax claims to have pulled off the feat by injecting root into the stock European firmware, then installing the superuser’d version in conventional ODIN fashion. With the usual bricking caveats, that’ll let you start installing unsanctioned apps to the pen-enabled beast, while apparently still getting OTA updates from the mother company. We’d love to verify it ourselves with our own GT-N8000, but we don’t have one yet — and neither does hardly anyone else, so you may want to wait for some other brave soul to confirm it before going ahead.

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Galaxy Note 10.1 just hitting shelves, already said to be rooted originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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