Hasta La Gadget!

At first look, $150 seems a ridiculous price for a Bluetooth dongle that lets you control your SLR from your cellphone, but digging into the specs shows that it ends up as quite a bargain. But first, what does it do?

Named the BlueSLR, the little box plugs into your Nikon SLR via one of its ports (there are three identically priced models with different plugs) and talks to your phone via Bluetooth. From a companion app, you can control the camera’s focus, shutter speed, and self-timer, or fire remotely from “up to 300-feet away” (that must be some powerful Bluetooth in there).

That alone might be worth it for some pros, but we tend to ask a little more of our gadgets. The BlueSLR also has a GPS unit to geotag your photos, writing the GPS data directly into the RAW of JPEG file. Given that GPS-only widgets go for around the same price, the BlueSLR starts to look cheap.

Right now the device is Nikon and iOS-only, with support for Canon, Android and Blackberry (!) coming soon. The iOS app is a free download. Wow. I think I just sold myself on this thing…

BlueSLR product page [BlueSLR]

BlueSLR app [iTunes]

See Also:

• DSLR Camera Remote HD for iPad
• Remote Display Lets You Use Camera from 500 Feet
• Downgrade Your Camera With The Gigtube Remote Viewfinder
• Unleashed: Bluetooth GPS for Nikon Cameras

Ah, the games that grown-ups play. It’s a situation that’s beginning to feel an awful lot like the Google Voice fiasco that made the rounds in mid-2009, but if it ends in a similar fashion, you won’t find us kvetching about the teases. As the story goes, a bona fine Google Latitude app made its appearance in Japan’s App Store hours ago, only to be yanked before it could sashay over to any other nation. TechCrunch reckons that it was El Goog doing the pulling — it’s quite possible that the folks in Mountain View weren’t quite ready to publicly reveal it, and with all that Chrome action going down yesterday, it’s not hard to imagine how an impending launch was overlooked. At any rate, the description of the app as well as most of the screenshots were in English, so we’re cautiously optimistic that it’ll resurface in the near future once a few Is are dotted and Ts crossed. With iOS 4 supporting background location, there’s hardly a reason to wait any longer, right?

Google Latitude makes brief appearance in App Store, gets yanked post-haste originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hardly a surprise that there’s a cadre of individuals who aren’t too fond of Google’s seemingly omnipresent Street View fleet, but the ending of this dispute is downright absurd. Back in 2008, Aaron and Christine Boring were looking for a little excitement, and decided to find it in a courtroom; the duo sued Google for trespassing on their property while collecting photographs for Street View. According to them, Google’s Street View car ignored the “No Trespassing” sign planted out front, and while they noted that that would’ve accepted a simple apology letter, they had no qualms pushing for damages when that wish fell upon deaf ears. The payout? A single dollar. Let’s repeat that: 100 pennies. A buck. Barely enough to buy a Whopper Jr. in Portland, and definitely not enough to do so across the way in Vancouver. We suspect both parties are eager to put the whole mess behind ’em, but if you’ve been looking for a story to prove that America actually isn’t as aimlessly litigious as the world thinks they are… well, this one ain’t it.

Street View Shocker! Google pays Boring couple $1 for trespassing originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 20:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on January 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

All you Europeans out there will be quick to tell us North Americaners about how you’ve already had 3D navigation maps thanks to the Nav N Go iGO8. Sure, you got the iPhone after we did, but there are a lot of things that Europeans get before we do – and 3D maps on GPS devices are one of them. That’s likely about to change soon  though with an announcement at CES that Nav N Go will be making their software suite available to manufacturers. Unless there’s some reason I’m unaware of, I’m sure U.S. manufacturers will jump at the chance to include the 3D software on their devices.

So when we hear 3D navigation maps, what all does that mean? Well, it means that not only will you be able to see landmarks and buildings in 3D, the roads will be elevated, terrain is shown, and you can see up to 13 miles in a single view. Impressive, isn’t it? Additionally, according to Mobile Magazine, the software comes with pre-installed games, travel guides, and a built-in music and video player. It’s not that the 3D buildings really make a difference in terms of getting from point A to point B — the GPS works just fine without.  It is nice though to be able to see the landmarks and the buildings as they are approaching. The image above shows you what you’d see if you were driving down Las Vegas Blvd. Notice the “Eiffel Tower?” To get an even better idea of what a 3D GPS experience would be like, the YouTube video below is worth watching.

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TomTom has joined forces with LucasArts to introduce a line of Star Wars-branded GPS devices. The navigation systems let the user chose from three Star Wars voices, including Darth Vader, C-3PO, Yoda, and Han Solo.

The voices can also be downloaded to other non-Star Wars-branded TomTom devices for $12.95, exclusively at the company’s site. Over there you’ll find samples from all of the aforementioned characters, free Star Wars content (including startup screens, icons, and sounds), and a contest featuring a customized Yoda voice.

On Monday, TomTom will be offering a special Cyber Monday deal on the devices at $5 off their normal price, plus a free Star Wars voice. Footage from Darth Vader in the recording studio, after the jump.