Hasta La Gadget!

Strangely, the Austrian city of Klagenfurt doesn’t have a public library, even though it hosts the Festival of German-Language Literature. However, an initiative dubbed Project Ingeborg is turning the municipality into a book repository of sorts with 70 QR code and NFC chip-equipped stickers. Plastered throughout town, they direct users to web pages where they can download public domain works, largely from Project Gutenberg. Oftentimes, e-books will be located in relevant locations — so you’ll be sure to find Arthur Schnitzler’s The Killer near the police station, for example. Come August, the team behind the effort will partner with local talent to distribute books, music and other digital content too. In an effort to build a stronger bond to the location, the organizers have prevented search engines from indexing the links, so you’ll have to visit Klagenfurt to access the curated goods. If you’d like to turn your city into a library, the group hopes to release instructions for replicating their system soon.

[Thanks, Michael]

Filed under: Cellphones

Austrian city builds public library with nothing but QR codes, NFC and stickers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe papercuts aren’t a part of the creator’s master plan, after all — not at the Hotel Indigo’s Newcastle location, at least, which is ditching the standard hardcover bible in favor of a Kindle edition. The hotel’s GM says the move, which brings Amazon’s e-reader to its 148 rooms, is keeping with the city’s rich publishing history. The device will come pre-loaded with the bible, with other religious texts available for the download. Customers can also download non-religious texts, which will be added to their bill. The move is currently being assessed under a trial basis, which will be revisited on July 16th. No word on whether the promotion will be expanded to other hotels in the chain.

UK hotel ditching paper bibles for Kindles, Rocky Raccoon to get acquainted with the benefits of e-ink originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Android Market became Google Play to focus on how it pushes media, and now it’s adding a few new options. On stage at Google I/O 2012 the company just announced it’s adding support for the purchase of movies, as well as TV shows by episode or by season, and even magazines all available today. That’s in addition to the existing apps, movie rentals, music and books. Oh, and look, Google just introduced a new tablet that you can use to access all of that content. We’ll keep an eye out for an exact list of all the new media partners, although mentioned on stage were magazines including Hearst, Conde Nast and Meredith long with TV networks Disney / ABC, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures and Paramount . Check out our Google I/O live blog for even more details as they’re announced, and look after the break for video introductions.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Continue reading Google Play starts selling movies, TV shows (single episode or full season) and magazines today

Google Play starts selling movies, TV shows (single episode or full season) and magazines today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been quite some time since we’ve heard from Improv Electronics, maker of writing tablets such as the Boogie Board Rip. The company was on hand at CEA today to tease its latest device, the Boogie Board Jot, which like the Rip sports a reflex LCD display that doesn’t require power to record your scribbles. In fact, the device only uses energy when you hit the eraser button, which means the battery should get you through some 50,000 erases.

Unlike the Rip, this model has no on-board storage, which explains the cheaper $40 price. Another new feature is the redesigned stylus, which acts as a stand for the device when docked in the onboard slot. Improv Electronics will launch the Jot in September, but you can catch some of those back-to-school vibes in our hands-on video below the break.

Continue reading Boogie Board Jot eWriting pad hands-on (video)

Boogie Board Jot eWriting pad hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen a fair share of Kindle Jailbreaks over the past few years, but Yifan Lu’s (evidently the first) for the Kindle Touch is certainly novel in its approach. As The Digital Reader points out, a sizeable chunk of the Touch’s software is essentially a string of pseudo HTML5 and JavaScript webpages — differentiating it from Kindles prior — which led Lu to notice an exploit rooted in its browser. It’s there where he found a function titled nativeBridge.dbgCmd(), which’ll run any ol’ shell command as root. Armed with that knowledge, Lu crafted the jailbreak by cramming his payload of HTML and JavaScript into the ID3 tags of an easily downloadable MP3 file. There isn’t much to be gained from “playing” that MP3 just yet, but Lu’s looking forward to developers using the tools needed to write programs for the device. Full details about the jailbreak can be found at source link below, but before you head off, you can catch the video proof after the break.

Continue reading Yifan Lu jailbreaks Kindle Touch, uses a special MP3 file to do so (video)

Yifan Lu jailbreaks Kindle Touch, uses a special MP3 file to do so (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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