Hasta La Gadget!

Pretty handy: The iPad 2’s Smart Cover can stick to refrigerators and other metal surfaces. Photo: Gizmodo

Gadget Lab Notes is an eclectic roundup of gadget news briefs and intriguing products that catch our eye.

Your iPad 2 Can Stick to Your Fridge
Be careful trying this one at home in case your fridge isn’t quite as magnetic, but several people have found that the new iPad’s Smart Cover will stick to metallic, magnetic surfaces like a fridge. This could make it very convenient to look at recipes online or watch videos in the kitchen as you cook. This is a much more reasonable application for the iPad’s magnetic capabilities than as an oversized clock dangling from your neck.

Smartcover Doubles As an iPad Fridge Magnet [9to5 Mac via the Giz]

Burglar Blaster Shoots Pepper Spray to Ward Off Intruders
The wailing alarm and the threat of police on the way aren’t enough to keep some criminals from robbing you blind. Set up an alarm they’ll never forget: the Burglar Blaster. When this passive infrared detection system is triggered, the canister’s 4 oz squirt contains enough juice to coat 2,000 square feet in its eye-searing contents. $600 will get you the system, but you’ll probably have to shell out extra for a cleaning service if it ever does go off.

Burglar Blaster [BedBunker via Oh Gizmo]

Samsung 55-inch Glasses-Free 3-D TV Prototype Has 9 Different Viewing Angles
A prototype 55-inch 3-D TV from Samsung features 9 different viewing angles, so you and 8 friends could strategically sit around it and enjoy the same 3-D experience. It can also easily be switched into 2-D mode by altering the optical refraction index of an LCD panel on top of the TV’s LCD. Samsung hopes to use an LED backlight in the finished product—right now it uses a CCFL backlight.

Samsung 55-inch Glasses Free 3-D Prototype [Tech On! via Engadget]

Ford Goes Green with SmartGauge With EcoGuide Patent
The SmartGauge with EcoGuide helps drivers maximize their miles per gallon, alerting drivers when they could be driving more efficiently (ie when they’ve put the pedal to the metal). The EcoGuide displays vines and leaves that “react” to short-term driving behaviors. The SmartGauge displays what mode hybrid vehicle drivers are operating in, shows information related to gas and electric power use, and lets drivers monitor their level of driving efficiency.

Ford Receives Patents for SmartGauge with EcoGuide [Crunchgear]

Western Digital’s My Book Studio Edition II Stores 6TB, But Lacks Thunderbolt
The My Book Studio Edition II is an external dual-drive array with a storage capacity of up to 6TB with RAID 0 (but can also be set to RAID 1 to help ensure you won’t lose any data). It can connect through FireWire 400, FireWire 800, eSATA, and USB 2.0, and is Time Machine compatible, but it lacks Thunderbolt. You can get it now for $550.

Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II [Slashgear]

Pinball Magic Transforms Your iPhone into a Mini-Pinball Machine
Now you can sure play a mean pinball (The Who, anyone?) on your iPhone or iPod, as long as it’s running iOS 3 or higher. The iDevice accessory works with a free pinball app from Apple’s App Store. It’s not quite the same as the real thing, but it looks pretty fun anyways.

Pinball Magic for iPhone and iPod Touch [Mobile Fun via Ubergizmo]

Worried that the fancy-schmancy SYNC system you just ordered up in your Mustang will soon be outlawed? Fret not, speed demon. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will reportedly not push for restrictions on handsfree phones or in-car technology until “the government conducts further research.” There are generally two prevailing trains of thought: one feels that any type of calling — be it handsfree or otherwise — is a terrible distraction to the driver, while the other feels that properly integrated technology is safe enough for use on the road. As the story goes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating whether systems like SYNC post a “cognitive distraction,” while some automakers suggest that motorists are going to goof off with their phone anyway — might as well make it as safe as possible for ’em. Of course, things could change in short order once this so-called “research” gets finalized, but for now, feel free to request that your OnStar system read on to the next post. Your OnStar system can read Engadget, right?

Transportation secretary Ray LaHood: no restrictions (yet) on in-car information originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford may be jumping into the electric vehicle market with an EV Focus set to be released towards the end of the year, but it seems as though the company is still skeptical about the future of electric cars. At least if you go by the comments of executive chairman Bill Ford.

“We’ve made a big bet on electric, and I think it has a really interesting future,” Henry Ford said at the recent Eco:nomics conference. “But the pace of which it develops, I think anybody that tells you [what that is], is lying. You just throw a dart.”

The main issue, according to Ford, is the lack of infrastructure, especially in North America, where charging stations are hard to come by. But the company will still be looking into various types of alternative vehicles, in spite of the skepticism, which includes biofuel and hydrogen.

Via PlugInCars.com

Something you already knew to be true has just been confirmed by Omnicom’s Interbrand brand consultancy division: Apple reigns supreme in Hollywood films. Interbrand’s Brandchannel website dug deep into the fetid bowels of product placement to reveal Hollywood’s preferences (paid or personal) in the 33 films that hit the US box office number one slot in 2010. Brandchannel identified 591 total brand or product appearances for an average of 17.9 placements per film, with Apple appearing in ten of the top films for a 30 percent share — Nike, Chevrolet, and Ford each appeared in eight. Incidentally, Iron Man 2 won the dubious distinction of being cluttered with the most identifiable brands (64) in 2010. Apple is actually off from its peak of 50 percent of number one films in 2008 and 44 percent in 2009 as demonstrated in the chart after the break. But it’s not for a lack of trying. Brandchannel contends that the competition for brand placement has simply intensified resulting in fewer appearances of Janoff’s U+F8FF.

Continue reading Shocker! Apple product placements dominate Hollywood

Shocker! Apple product placements dominate Hollywood originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Within a few years, your car may become a hub of interconnected devices, media and online services.

And you thought it was for getting you around town.

I spent a little time recently in a tricked-out 2009 Corvette whose dashboard included some proof-of-concept technology to integrate the car with a smartphone, a tablet and the internet.

The console was created by QNX, the company that makes the operating system underlying GM’s OnStar systems, Toyota’s upcoming Entune and other vehicles. It’s similar to these systems, except it extends them by adding even more integration with the consumer devices you’re carrying.

In this car, the dashboard can interact with other devices in your car, such as your iPhone, a BlackBerry or RIM’s upcoming tablet — the BlackBerry PlayBook. It can play media from all of the above, or connect to the internet (by 3G) to stream music from Pandora.

Because QNX also makes the operating system underlying the PlayBook, there’s also a possibility that developers can create software for your car as easily as they can for the tablet, using HTML5, Java and other tools familiar to app developers.

I take a look in this video at some of the ways cars will soon gain even more sophisticated connectivity.