On my eclipse tour’s last night in Xi’an, an ancient capitol of China that was once the world’s largest city, our leader told us that he had come across a man with a telescope showing people the planet Jupiter near the Drum Tower, a few blocks from our hotel. My curiosity piqued, I went for a walk through the city’s Muslim quarter where the Drum Tower stands, and eventually found a whole fleet of telescopes and a few other surprises.
Liquids and electronics don’t mix. Some of us have learned that the hard way. If you’ve got an Apple MacBook, look to iSkin’s new lines of ProTouch keyboard protectors to keep liquid, crumbs, and germs out of your circuitry.
All three lines fit MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs. They’re made of silicone and include bacteria-killing Microban protection. The lowest cost model, the ProTouch Classic, has a clear frosted look and sells for $24.99.
The next level up is the ProTouch FX, which lets your keyboard’s backlighting show through. Also, the keys are outlined with a glow-in-the-dark pigment so they’ll glow blue in the dark. The ProTouch FX sells for $29.99 and comes in three colors.
The top model is the ProTouch Vibes. This cover has keyboard shortcuts printed on the keys and has a larger font for easy viewing. Vibes comes in four colorful designs, each featuring big polka dots, and sells for $34.99.
All ProTouch models are sold only through the iSkin online store.
[Via Oh! Gizmo]
Filed under: Desktops
Gold, diamond-leafed Gaiser PCs might just bring Marie Antoinette back from the grave originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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See Google Ion Review.
Done? Good. This phone is exactly the same, except that the myTouch has a slightly different finish, and T-Mobile released an App Pack filled with two handfuls of essential apps on the Android Marketplace for it. That’s what we’re going to review today. Also, keep in mind that this is running on T-Mobile’s 3G network, which isn’t quite as good as if you imported the device and used it on, say, AT&T’s 3G network, which has more coverage.
FreshFace: A theming app for your Android. It has the ability to add small widgets like an RSS reader and a notepad onto your desktop. The FreshFace desktop pretty much takes over your real desktop, which is good, because FreshFace offers five pages of apps instead of three, but bad, because it’s buggy.
Adds a little bit more functionality and theming, including new icons
Themes are mediocre
Occasionally buggy
imeem Mobile: Free streaming internet radio.
Decent enough for a free app, but not outstanding, considering Pandora and LastFM do this kind of thing much better.
T-Mobile Mobile Backup: A free contact list backup service from T-Mobile. Kind of unnecessary, since your phone already syncs with your Google account.
Not really sure what this app does that your Google account syncing doesn’t already do. Maybe if you want to switch to another phone that’s not an Android phone?
Movies by Flixter: A movie showtimes app that also lets you watch trailers, read reviews and browse DVD catalogs.
Pretty decent movie catalog app that does as much as you’d expect
T-Mobile My Account: Quick and easy access to all your phone’s account info, including your activity billing, your plan and any alerts you may have. For some reason this only works over your cellular connection, so you’ll have to shut off Wi-Fi.
Easier than loading up the T-Mobile site
Phonebook by Voxmobili: A replacement phonebook that sorts your contacts into a more usable manner. Plus, it’s colorful.
Better, in many ways, than the official Android dialer. Definitely replace your contact list with this
Sherpa: A fancy Yelp-like app that can help you find local shops (eateries, theaters, cafes, grocery stores) using your phone’s GPS.
It’s just like Yelp, and quite useful if you’re trying to find stuff within walking distance
Visual Voicemail: It’s visual voicemail.
It’s visual voicemail.
WorldTour: Periodically sets your wallpaper to live webcams around the world, like Paris
A little bit goofy. Would be better if the wallpapers were higher quality
Top end mobile phones include a number of specialized (e.g., accelerometer, compass, GPS) and general purpose sensors (e.g., microphone, camera) that enable new people-centric sensing applications. Perhaps the most ubiquitous and unexploited sensor on mobile phones is the microphone — a powerful sensor that is capable of making sophisticated inferences about human activity, location, and social events from sound.
SoundSense, is a scalable framework for modeling sound events on mobile phones. SoundSense is implemented on the Apple iPhone and represents the first general purpose sound sensing system specifically designed to work on resource limited phones.
There was no official announcement of this one, but a look over Dell’s website will reveal the truth — it looks like the Mini 12 has been shuttered. It’s not hugely surprising news considering its companion, the Mini 9, was recently given the axe as well. We’ll miss them both. Sniffle.
[Thanks, Drew]
Filed under: Laptops
Dell Mini 12 quietly discontinued originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Science
Large Hadron Collider to run at half-power until end of 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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An analyst claims he has learned additional information suggesting a 2010 launch of Apple’s rumored tablet device.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said he has been in correspondence with an Asian component supplier working with Apple on its tablet.
“Last week we spoke with an Asian component supplier that has received orders from Apple for a touch-screen device to be fulfilled by late [calendar year] 09,” Munster wrote in a report. “This data point underscores our thesis that a tablet will likely launch in early [2010].”
Munster in May issued a detailed report summarizing his theories about Apple’s fabled tablet, about which little next to nothing is known beyond vague tips from anonymous sources. Today’s new report reinforces those theories and adds more speculation about the rumored device’s features:
Piper Jaffray produced a mock-up illustration (above) of what Munster believes the device will look like. Munster even proceeds to make an estimate of the number of tablets could ship: 2 million units at $600 each to generate $1.2 billion and add about 3 percent to Apple’s revenue stream in the calendar year of 2010. (A little early to be making such intricate projections about an unconfirmed product, isn’t it?)
Several rumor reports have recently surfaced citing anonymous sources who have come forward with purported details on Apple’s tablet. Some publications claim they’ve heard the tablet will hit stores as soon as this fall, while AppleInsider reported receiving a tip that the device will launch 2010.
Wired.com earlier speculated on what exactly an Apple tablet would do. We believe the device would have potential to be a major competitor against Amazon.com in the e-book market.
Wired.com also received a tip that other tech manufacturers, including Dell, Intel, HTC and Nokia are working on tablet devices as well. On top of that, TechCrunch is already working to rush out its Crunchpad touchscreen tablet. We believe 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the tablet.
Apple’s $1.2 billion tablet computer [Apple 2.0]
See Also:
Image: Piper Jaffray
As the undisputed heavyweight champion director of such classic ’80s flicks as “Sixteen Candles,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Weird Science,” “The Breakfast Club,” and more, John Hughes made a tremendous impact on the industry. We’re all still shocked by his passing, so we take a moment to discuss how his movies have affected our lives. You’ll be dearly missed, John!
Speaking of movies, Wilson checked out “Thirst,” and believe it or not, he actually enjoyed it! If you’re a fan of vampire movies or the unique directorial style of Park Chan-Wook, whose previous films include “Sympathy for Mr./Lady Vengeance” and “OldBoy,” you’ll definitely like this new thriller. Vampires: so hot right now.
The next segment is all about Netflix coming to the iPhone and movie rental kiosks in general. Somehow, Wilson had it in his head that the Netflix delivery service was on its way out two years ago, but he has the right idea predicting that soon, all movies will be delivered online instead of in person.
We also get to a few Calls from the Public, as well as the winner of our most recent “Choose Justin’s next pair of glasses” competition!” We think you’ll be happy with the winner, so be sure to watch the video for all the commentary–surprisingly, Jeff and Wilson actually agree with the decision!
Finally, don’t forget to check us out today on Gadgets and Games, LIVE at 2 p.m EDT. We’ll be chatting with our good buddy Clayton Morris, host of “Fox and Friends,” about tech, gaming, unboxings, etc. We’ll also post the show online next week, so don’t worry if you can’t watch it live. Have a great weekend everybody!
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Originally posted at The 404
Sony’s Party-shot dock does the swivel and twist at our Crave Asia offices. And, surprise, surprise, Sony’s new spaceship-looking Party-shot arrives just in time for our evening… party.
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