Griffin gets an iPhone all up in your car’s OBD-II port with the CarTrip Bluetooth adapter

Garmin gets an iPhone all up in your car's ODBII port with the CarTrip Bluetooth adapter

If you’re not a car person there’s a good chance you don’t know much about the OBD-II lurking mysteriously beneath your dash. It’s there — if your car was built since the first Bush administration, anyway. Usually its needs go unfulfilled until your check-engine light pops on and some mechanic with greasy paws clumsily stuffs a code checker in there, but more and more tools are coming out to change that. The Autobot Mavia is one, and now Griffin is doing similar with the CarTrip. It’s an OBD-II adapter that connects wirelessly to an iOS device or writes directly to SD card, storing information on information related to car mileage, even giving you a real-time efficiency readout on your display with the CleanDrive app. And, yes, it’ll even pull warning codes and the like if things aren’t quite running how they should. All that for $89.99, a fair bit less than the Mavia will potentially be and available sooner — sometime before the first quarter is through.

Griffin gets an iPhone all up in your car’s OBD-II port with the CarTrip Bluetooth adapter originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Orbitsound T14 soundbar debuts at CES, will take its sweet time getting to market (hands-on)

You’ll be forgiven for being a little misty on who exactly Orbitsound is — the British company has only sold its T12 soundbar in the domestic market — but today it’s reminding everyone of its presence with a brand new product for CES-goers in the T14 you see above. The company’s patented “spatial stereo” sound is still the big selling point, promising a revolutionary aural experience that eliminates the need to occupy the traditional sweet spot for enjoying stereo sound. That’s achieved via six 2.5-inch drivers and a studio-class amp that “senses” surrounding acoustic conditions and calibrates output for best results. A bold claim, to be sure, but you’d expect no less for something that will cost $600 when it becomes Orbitsound’s first global launch later this year. Wireless technology is also put to good use, with the T14 communicating through the air with its accompanying subwoofer and wireless iPod / iPhone dock. We’ll be tracking one down while here in Vegas and trying to figure out just how spaced out its sound really is.

Continue reading Orbitsound T14 soundbar debuts at CES, will take its sweet time getting to market (hands-on)

Orbitsound T14 soundbar debuts at CES, will take its sweet time getting to market (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OverDrive Media Console app for iOS now features free e-book downloads

OverDrive, a digital media company that specializes in digital content distribution, has recently announced an update to its Media Console for iOS. As well as giving you access to audiobooks from something like 13,000 libraries and educational institutions the world o’er, the new app offers — wait for it — free e-book downloads! Free app, free e-books (as long as you have a library card, of course), and access to the world’s great literature: it doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Hit the source link to try it for yourself. We suggest that you start with Under The Volcano — we always thought you looked drank like a young Malcolm Lowry.

OverDrive Media Console app for iOS now features free e-book downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iHealth blood pressure iPod dock: another sort of Apple to keep the doctor away

Back in March 2009 at the iPhone OS 3.0 debut event, Apple’s Scott Forstall pointed out medical devices specifically as one of the more interesting class of peripherals that could leverage the new custom app interface capabilities. And while it’s certainly an interesting concept — keeping tabs on your general health from the comfort of your own home — we haven’t really seen it catch on (only a couple of products come to mind). That isn’t stopping iHealth; the company’s blood pressure dock, available today from its online store (we’re told it should be filtering through Apple’s own channels later this month) ties in with a specialized iPhone / iPod touch / iPad app to monitor and track blood pressure from the comfort of your home, where theoretically there shouldn’t be a stranger in a white coat making you extra nervous. In our brief time with the device, the interface seemed fairly intuitive and the whole process simple and not at all intimidating. The cost of entry is $99.95 for the hardware; the free app should be hitting iTunes today. Press release after the break.

Continue reading iHealth blood pressure iPod dock: another sort of Apple to keep the doctor away

iHealth blood pressure iPod dock: another sort of Apple to keep the doctor away originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spiderpodium Tablet stand will haunt your desktop on January 12th

Breffo chose CES to announce a big nasty friend for its existing Spiderpodium grip for handheld gadgets. Spiderpodium Tablet features eight flexible “secured and assured hold” notched legs designed to hold small- and medium-sized tablets including the iPad which we assume fits into the latter category. Otherwise, it folds down compact for toting about in a jacket pocket or bag when not in use. It’ll be on sale starting January 12th for an undisclosed price. Don’t worry though, we’ll grab a hands-on when the show opens and get back to you with the details.

Continue reading Spiderpodium Tablet stand will haunt your desktop on January 12th

Spiderpodium Tablet stand will haunt your desktop on January 12th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iomega SuperHero iPhone dock backs up contacts and photos to SD card (video)

In addition to Boxee-addled media devices and the customary run of new storage solutions, Iomega‘s got its own take on the iPod dock to show off. The SuperHero can back up photos and contacts from your iPhone (3G model and up) and iPod touch (second-gen and up) to an SD card — no apps or music, unfortunately, due to restrictions in the API. The associated app pops up automatically when you slot in the device, and there’s a few options for fine-tuning what exactly gets saved. A smart idea, but it’d be nice if we had more output options like audio (for an elegant stereo solution) or USB (just in case you did have a computer handy, with or without iTunes). SuperHero’ll set you back $69.99 and comes bundled with a 4GB SDHC card, but more importantly, there’s an amusing video ad to see. It’s after the break.

Continue reading Iomega SuperHero iPhone dock backs up contacts and photos to SD card (video)

Iomega SuperHero iPhone dock backs up contacts and photos to SD card (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple worth more than $300 billion, your first iPod barely pushing $20 on eBay

Remember when Apple edged past Microsoft in the market capitalization game, way back in 2010? We were young and innocent, and AAPL was only trading at $249.99 a share. Fast forward seven months and Apple has left Microsoft in the dust, with a share price at $329.75 that puts the company’s market capitalization at more than $300 billion — making it one of only two companies worth that much in the stock market’s eyes. Naturally, market cap isn’t the only game afoot — Exxon Mobil still rules the top spot, and we can’t think of the last time oil did any hard work revolutionizing device UI — but it’s a pretty nice mark for a little Cupertino firm that would’ve been called the tech industry underdog just a decade ago.

Apple worth more than $300 billion, your first iPod barely pushing $20 on eBay originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MiLi HD iPhone / iPad charging dock boasts internal speaker, HDMI output

MiLi Power — the same guys who pushed out the thinnest iPhone battery case earlier this year — are back in Las Vegas, but this introduction represents quite the deviation. The MiLi HD is fairly simplistic in nature, and we get the feeling that iPhone and iPad owners may actually appreciate the understated motif. Aside from being a fully-featured charging dock, this here device also includes an internal speaker, a mini-USB connector and an HDMI output to boot. The goal here is to pipe those iTunes downloads from your iDevice right onto your television sans an Apple TV, and if that’s exactly what you’ve been hunting for, you can seek it out shortly for $99.99.

Continue reading MiLi HD iPhone / iPad charging dock boasts internal speaker, HDMI output

MiLi HD iPhone / iPad charging dock boasts internal speaker, HDMI output originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone alarms still not working, worlds crashing left and right

Hey, you — it’s January 3rd. You know, the day you’re supposed to return to work / school / life. And the day you’re supposed to catch a flight you’ve had booked for three months. And probably a day that you’re supposed to accomplish lots of other tasks. Unfortunately for you, you actually believed that your iPhone alarm would fix itself when today rolled around, but based on hordes of complaints seen on Twitter and Facebook, said fix is still hibernating. And thus, you’re still sleeping. Even here at Engadget HQ, we’ve seen iPhone 4 handsets not wake us as promised (on non-recurring alarms), so who knows when Apple will step up to the plate and address the issue. In the meantime, go ahead and set up a recurring alarm while gently crossing your fingers and toes. Or, you know, buy a battery-powered alarm clock off of your grandmother.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iPhone alarms still not working, worlds crashing left and right originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad 2 Drawings Point to Camera, USB/SD Slot

The iPad 2 is coming–we (think we) know that much. Images of cases from third party accessory designers have been popping up a bit over the past couple of weeks, seemingly confirming this all but certain fact. Over the past week, Apple fansite 9to5 Mac managed to get its hands on case mold drawings from an unnamed company described only as “an Asian case supplier.”

The site was asked to “not so nicely” pull the drawings from its site, seeing as how they are someone else’s property–someone who, seemingly, could get into a lot of hot water if the source were traced back. 9to5 Mac complied.

What we do know from the drawing is the iPad 2 (assuming, of course, that these are accurate) will have a tapered back, are a rear camera. There’s also a new port on the device, which is assumed to either be an SD card slot or either a mini- or standard USB port.