Hasta La Gadget!

Is Apple loosening its strong anti-adult content stance? Playboy founder Hugh Hefner announced via Twitter today that his magazine’s content–all of it–will be hitting Apple’s popular tablet.

“Big news!” the robe-clad magazine magnate tweeted. “Playboy–both old & new–will be available on iPad beginning in March.” The content, Hefner confirmed in a follow up response, will be “uncensored,” including the “whole magazine from the first issue to the latest.”

Apple–particularly CEO Steve Jobs–has barred all adult content from its App Store. Last April, Jobs famously told the press, “You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go–so we’re not going to go there.”

No word on Apple’s end whether the company will be “going there” with Playboy.

We just came across a neat little iOS app called AirView which, as you can probably tell from the name, transforms your iOS devices into AirPlay video receivers. And since iOS can also output video via AirPlay, this means you can use AirView to either grab AirPlay streams from your computer’s iTunes, or you can stream videos from one iOS device to another (provided that they are both running iOS 4.2 and above, of course). Theoretically, little work is required to get the ball rolling — just launch the app, then play your desired video clip from the source, and finally pick your client device using the AirPlay button.

We say theoretically, because it took us awhile to figure out that none of our purchased videos worked, even though AirPlay supports DRM content — the assumption is that AirView lacks the component for receiving authorization key. Alas, we stuck with our, ahem, homemade videos which actually worked very well over both iTunes-to-iOS and iOS-to-iOS connections, although sometimes we had to relaunch AirView and the iPod app to start a new stream. Perhaps some folks will have better luck than us, so feel free to give this app a go — it is free, after all. Video demo after the break.

Continue reading App review: AirView

App review: AirView originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kensington’s PowerLift is a combo dock, stand and battery charger for the iPhone, with a 1200 mAh battery on board to add a good chunk of a day to the battery life of your phone.

How much extra time? Kensington says 3.5-hours of talk-time, 1.5-hours of FaceTime, 5-hours of video and 20 hours of music.

To fit in this big battery, Kensington ignored skinny-case or tiny pocket-dongle designs and went for a heftier dock. The PowerLift can hang off the bottom of your phone while you use it but if you flip up the stand and drop the thing onto a desk it looks a lot more natural. And if you are using it alongside a computer – or if you should chance across a power outlet on your rare travels through the corporate world – you can flip out a USB cable to charge or sync. What it doesn’t do – despite its name – is toss Alien Queens into airlocks. Available for pre-order, $50.

PowerLift product page [Kensington via Oh Gizmo]

See Also:

• Octopus Battery Charger Sucks Up to iPhone
• Powerskin iPhone Battery is Supermodel-Slim
• FlipSync Crams USB Dock Cable into Key-Fob
• Solar-Powered iPhone Battery Case: Apple Approves
• Mystery Charger Glows Like iPhone Battery Icon

Expanding a trial that had already been underway in a few markets, Starbucks is now rolling out its Starbucks Card mobile app nationally with payment capability built-in, meaning you needn’t reach into your wallet, pocketbook, or purse just because you’re jonesing for that midday caffeine fix. Instead, you can fire up the app — which supports the iPhone, iPod touch, and a number of BlackBerry models — and hold up a barcode on the screen to a scanner in the store, at which point monies will be automagically deducted from your Starbucks Card account and transferred back to the mothership in exchange for high-octane brew. The circle of life, as it were. Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Starbucks lets you pay for that Trenta with the iPhone in your shaking, overcaffeinated hands

Starbucks lets you pay for that Trenta with the iPhone in your shaking, overcaffeinated hands originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on April 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft has created a new bar code system that replaces the standard black and white vertical bars with specific patterns of colored triangles. By doing this they are able to pack in more information into such a small space.

The High Capacity Color Bar Code should start appearing on DVD’s already by the end of this year. Once implemented the bar code would be able to store information like URL’s and other information that could be related to the CD/DVD. This would be especially useful when deciding whether to purchase a movie or music CD because it can be attached to a computer at a store so that you can visit the homepage.

This does, of course, require special hardware to scan the bar code so the transition could be costly for companies. It even takes more costly hardware to print the bar codes which is something else that could drive the price of goods up.

Having worked at a retail store I can see real value in such a system. We came across people all of the time who tried to print their own UPC’s for products and place them over an item’s UPC. That way when the cashier rings up the item it is for something else at a much lower cost. Being able to replicate these new color bar codes could spell disaster for scammers utilizing this method of “bar code switching”.

Source: CNet

Thanks for the tip CoryC!

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