Hasta La Gadget!

A while back, you probably splurged for that insert–iPod–sound–system–here thinking you’d get some pretty good mileage out of it. If you also jumped ship at some point along the way (read: switched to Android), CableJive can help keep your bookshelf system cranking for a little while longer. The dockBoss+ adapter features micro-USB and audio plugs opposite a 30-pin connector, the latter of which fits nicely in one of the eight quadrillion iOS-compatible sound systems currently on the market. Now, you can port that valuable charging action to your existing handset — plus, the accessory also features a built-in charge converter for FireWire-enabled cables and docking stations, if needed. Not only that, but the dockBoss+ will also work in tandem with your iOS-centric car or home stereo — unless you’re still clinging to the factory head unit in your VW Beetle… bummer. Those looking to pick one up can do so starting September 28th for $30; a handful of Lincolns is much easier on the ol’ wallet than a brand new one of these, that’s for sure.

*Assuming, of course, that you’re cool with a few cables hanging out, and that your handset actually uses micro-USB.

[Thanks, Gregor]

dockBoss+ adapter brings iOS speaker dock compatibility to Android, BlackBerry and WP7 handsets* originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lonely and living in the city, but don’t have the patience or maturity for Man’s Best Friend? Well, you could always take a TankBot under your wing. Desk Pets’ palm-sized four-wheeler first whirred into our hands earlier this year at the International Toy Fair, promising a variety of play modes and iOS control. Now, the team behind the roving gizmo has finally released it to retailers’ shelves, tacking on a $25 price tag and adding Android compatibility. The mini-bot operates in a trio of configurations: an autonomous mode that makes use of its infrared sensors to navigate obstacles, a free-roaming option that’ll have it wandering aimlessly and, most importantly, a free mobile app that puts dual joystick control on your Apple device’s screen or universal remote (connected via headphone jack) for steering on an Android phone. Don’t expect to squeeze hours of fun out of this little tchotchke, though, as its retractable USB port only gets you about 15 minutes of gee whizzery. Skip past the break to watch a video demo of the lil’ guy en vivo.

Continue reading Desk Pets’ TankBot rolls out with Android and iOS support, is the tiny racer in your hand

Desk Pets’ TankBot rolls out with Android and iOS support, is the tiny racer in your hand originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Belkin’s trio of kitchen-friendly iPad stands seem adequate

Belkin has launched a range of iPad kitchen accessories, to make cooking with your tablet a little easier and safer. That’s the idea anyway: at least one of these products looks a little dangerous.

That product is the Fridge Mount, a $40 bracket which attaches to the refrigerator door with a pair of sticky 3M Command Strips. The iPad 2 then sits on a small bottom shelf and is held at the top by its own magnets. And that’s the possibly dangerous part. The iPad’s magnets are great at holding a cover on, but I’d bet a good slam of that door could shake them loose.

The other products are the Chef Stand, weighted countertop stand with a chunky stylus for using the tablet whilst sticky-fingered ($40) and the Kitchen Cabinet Mount which clamps onto any shelf or cabinet ($50). All of these are available now, or you could just opt for the almost-free Gadget Lab ghetto version, the Ziploc-bag-and-business-card-stand.

Belkin iPad Kitchen Stands [Belkin]

See Also:

• Gadget Lab Reader Makes iPad Kitchen Stand, Starts Business …
• How-To Make a Waterproof, Kitchen-Proof iPad Case and Stand …
• Wooden iPad Stand Doubles as Kitchen Accessory
• Chef Sleeves: Disposable iPad Prophylactics
• Genius: FridgePad Turns iPad into Giant Fridge-Magnet

‘It’s playing’ will let you delete a handful of junker apps from your iPad

Move over CineXPlayer: There’s a new iPad video player in town. That should probably read “yet another new iPad video player,” but as most of those are junk, this new app really stands out.

It’s called “It’s playing 2.0,” and it’s another one of those video players which will take pretty much any file you can throw at it and play it without conversions to an iOS-friendly format first. My long-time favorite, thanks to ease of use and reliability, has been CineXPlayer, but it lacks crucial support for AC3 sound. It’s playing adds this and a lot more.

Files can be added via iTunes, or from any other app in iOS which supports the “Open In…” command (Mail and Dropbox are amongst these). Files in roughly one zillion* formats are supported, including FLV, AVI, MKV, OGG and WMV. Also supported are subtitles in separate files, and AC3 audio.

Tap the file in the source list to the left and you can either play it or tweak it. Pressing the info button lets you rename the file, choose a subtitle file (if the subtitle has the same filename as the movie, it will be added automatically). You can also pick subtitle font sizes, and adjust playback quality. “Automatic” is the default, and works fine. I tested it with a 720 x 416 AVI of a Sopranos episode and both the audio and video are smooth and clear.

It’s playing doesn’t use the standard Apple playback controls, and there’s no AirPlay support, but you can do variable-speed scrubbing on the timeline control. Move your finger further from the timeline as you scrub and the speed will slow, just like native iOS audio scrubbing. One and two-fingered swipes will skip forward and back by 30 seconds or five minutes.

But the biggest feature, and one which I haven’t seen elsewhere, is on-the-fly video adjustment and volume boost. You can adjust color, contrast and brightness using sliders in real time as the video plays. And even more important, you can boost the volume up to 200%, VLC-style. I could have done with this last week as the Lady and I struggled to hear the soundtrack of Deadwood as we recovered from food poisoning in a hotel room somewhere in Tunis, Tunisia.

Whether or not you prefer this app to others is down to choice. CineXPlayer’s subtitle selection is easier faster, for example, and Buzz player adds network streaming. But for smooth playback of high-def video, and the excellent picture and volume adjustments, It’s playing is the current champ. Bonus: it costs just $2. Available now.

It’s playing product page [It’s playing.app. Thanks, Diogo!]

* Full list of file formats and codecs below.

See Also:

• CineXPlayer Adds 3-D Conversion, Now 100% Less Ugly
• How To: Stream Video to iPad From Network Drive Without a …
• Hands-On With VLC Movie Player for iPad
• iPad Buzz Player Streams and Converts Movies From Network …

FILE EXTENSIONS
flv, gvp, xspf, xa, pls, m3u, m3u8, asx, b4s, ape, flac, wv, tta, mpc, ram, rm, rmvb, mod, xm, it, xm, aiff, aif, amr, aob, dts, spx, sdp, wav, vob, a52, ac3, aac, ogm, ogg, oga, ogv, ogx, oma, voc, vqf, anx, axa, axv, gxf, mxf, avi, mov, moov, qt, divx, dv, asf, wma, wmv, wm, mpg, mpeg, mpeg1, mpeg2, m1v, m2a, mp1, mp2, mp3, m2p, ps, ts, m2ts, mts, mt2s, m2v, mpv, mpa, mp4, mpeg4, m4v, m4a, 3gp, mid, mlp, mka, mkv, webm, rec, rmi, s3m, vro, tod, mks, nsv, nuv, ssa, ass, usf, utf, srt, rt, smi, aqt, jss, pjs, psb, sub, mpsub

FORMATS
3GP2 format, 3GP format, 4X Technologies format, IFF format, Funcom ISS format, MTV format, raw id RoQ format, a64 – video for Commodore 64, raw ADTS AAC, raw AC-3, ADTS AAC, MD STUDIO audio, Audio IFF, PCM A-law format, 3GPP AMR file format, Deluxe Paint Animation, CRYO APC format, Monkey’s Audio, Apple HTTP Live Streaming format, ASF format, ASF format, Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle format, SUN AU format, AVI format, Flash 9 (AVM2) format, AVS format, Bethesda Softworks VID format, Brute Force & Ignorance, Bink, Interplay C93, Apple Core Audio Format, raw Chinese AVS video, CD Graphics Format, CRC testing format, D-Cinema audio format, Chronomaster DFA, raw Dirac, raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3), Delphine Software International CIN format, raw DTS, DV video format, MPEG-2 PS format (DVD VOB), DXA, Electronic Arts Multimedia Format, Electronic Arts cdata, raw E-AC-3, PCM 32 bit floating-point big-endian format, PCM 32 bit floating-point little-endian format, PCM 64 bit floating-point big-endian format, PCM 64 bit floating-point little-endian format, FFM (FFserver live feed) format, FFmpeg metadata in text format, Sega FILM/CPK format, Adobe Filmstrip, raw FLAC, FLI/FLC/FLX animation format, FLV format, framecrc testing format, Per-frame MD5 testing format, raw G.722, GIF Animation, raw GSM, GXF format, raw H.261, raw H.263, raw H.264 video format, id Cinematic format, image2 sequence, piped image2 sequence, raw Ingenient MJPEG, Interplay MVE format, iPod H.264 MP4 format, A format generated by IndigoVision 8000 video server, On2 IVF, Bitmap Brothers JV, lmlm4 raw format, VR native stream format (LXF), raw MPEG-4 video format, Matroska file format, Matroska/WebM file format, MD5 testing format, MicroDVD subtitle format, raw MJPEG video, raw MLP, American Laser Games MM format, Yamaha SMAF, MOV format, 3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format, MPEG audio layer 2, MPEG audio layer 3, MP4 format, Musepack, Musepack SV8, MPEG-1 System format, raw MPEG-1 video, raw MPEG-2 video, MPEG-2 transport stream format, MPEG-2 raw transport stream format, raw MPEG video, MIME multipart JPEG format, MSN TCP Webcam stream, PCM mu-law format, Motion Pixels MVI format, Material eXchange Format, Material eXchange Format, D-10 Mapping, MxPEG clip file format, NC camera feed format, Nullsoft Streaming Video, raw null video format, NUT format, NuppelVideo format, Ogg, Sony OpenMG audio, Playstation Portable PMP format, PSP MP4 format, Sony Playstation STR format, TechnoTrend PVA file and stream format, QCP format, REDCODE R3D format, raw video format, VC-1 test bitstream, RL2 format, RealMedia format, RPL/ARMovie format, Lego Mindstorms RSO format, RTP output format, RTSP output format, PCM signed 16 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 16 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 24 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 24 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 32 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 32 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 8 bit format, SAP output format, SDL output device, SDP, raw Shorten, Beam Software SIFF, Smacker video, Sierra SOL format, SoX native format, IEC 61937 (used on S/PDIF – IEC958), SubRip subtitle format, MPEG-2 PS format (VOB), Flash format, THP, Tiertex Limited SEQ format, 8088flex TMV, raw TrueHD, True Audio, Tele-typewriter, Renderware TeXture Dictionary, PCM unsigned 16 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 16 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 24 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 24 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 32 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 32 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 8 bit format, raw VC-1, VC-1 test bitstream format, MPEG-1 System format (VCD), Sierra VMD format, MPEG-2 PS format (VOB), Creative Voice file format, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) TwinVQ, Sony Wave64 format, WAV format, Wing Commander III movie format, WebM file format, Westwood Studios audio format, Westwood Studios VQA format, Windows Television (WTV), WavPack, Maxis XA File Format, Microsoft xWMA, Psygnosis YOP Format, YUV4MPEG pipe format

CODECS
4X Movie, QuickTime 8BPS video, 8SVX exponential, 8SVX fibonacci, 8SVX rawaudio, Multicolor charset for Commodore 64, Multicolor charset for Commodore 64, extended with 5th color (colram), Advanced Audio Coding, AAC LATM (Advanced Audio Codec LATM syntax), Autodesk RLE, ATSC A/52A (AC-3), ATSC A/52A (AC-3), ADPCM 4X Movie, SEGA CRI ADX ADPCM, ADPCM Creative Technology, ADPCM Electronic Arts, a ADPCM Electronic Arts Maxis CDROM XA, ADPCM Electronic Arts R1, ADPCM Electronic Arts R2, ADPCM Electronic Arts R3, ADPCM Electronic Arts XAS, ADPCM IMA AMV, ADPCM IMA Duck DK3, ADPCM IMA Duck DK4, s ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts EACS, d ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts SEAD, ADPCM IMA Funcom ISS, ADPCM IMA QuickTime, ADPCM IMA Loki SDL MJPEG, ADPCM IMA WAV, ADPCM IMA Westwood, ADPCM Microsoft, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2-bit, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2.6-bit, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 4-bit, ADPCM Shockwave Flash, ADPCM Nintendo Gamecube THP, ADPCM CDROM XA, ADPCM Yamaha, ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), Adaptive Multi-Rate NarrowBand, Adaptive Multi-Rate WideBand, AMV Video, Deluxe Paint Animation, ASCII/ANSI art, Monkey’s Audio, Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle, ASUS V1, ASUS V2, Atrac 1 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding), Atrac 3 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding 3), Auravision AURA, Auravision Aura 2, AVS (Audio Video Standard) video, Bethesda VID video, Brute Force & Ignorance, Bink Audio (DCT), Bink Audio (RDFT), Bink video, BMP image, Interplay C93, CamStudio, TechSmith Screen Capture Codec, Chinese AVS video (AVS1-P2, JiZhun profile), CD Graphics video, Cinepak, Cirrus Logic AccuPak, COOK, Creative YUV (CYUV), , Chronomaster DFA, VC3/DNxHD, DPX image, Delphine Software International CIN audio, Delphine Software International CIN video, DVB subtitles, DVD subtitles, DV (Digital Video), Feeble Files/ScummVM DXA, ATSC A/52 E-AC-3, Electronic Arts CMV video, Electronic Arts Madcow Video, Electronic Arts TGQ video, Electronic Arts TGV video, Electronic Arts TQI Video, Escape 124, FFmpeg video codec #1, Huffyuv FFmpeg variant, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Flash Screen Video, Flash Screen Video Version 2, Autodesk Animator Flic video, Flash Video (FLV) / Sorenson Spark / Sorenson H.263, Fraps, Forward Uncompressed, G.722 ADPCM, G.726 ADPCM, GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), GSM, GSM Microsoft variant, H.261, H.263 / H.263-1996, Intel H.263, H.263+ / H.263-1998 / H.263 version 2, H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10, Huffyuv / HuffYUV, id Quake II CIN video, IFF ByteRun1, IFF ILBM, IMC (Intel Music Coder), Intel Indeo 2, Intel Indeo 3, Intel Indeo Video Interactive 5, DPCM Interplay, Interplay MVE video, , JPEG-LS, Bitmap Brothers JV video, Kega Game Video, Karl Morton’s video codec, Lagarith lossless, libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10, Lossless JPEG, LOCO, MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 3:1, MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 6:1, Sony PlayStation MDEC (Motion DECoder), Mimic, MJPEG (Motion JPEG), Apple MJPEG-B, MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing), American Laser Games MM Video, Motion Pixels video, MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1), MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1), MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2), MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2), MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), MP3onMP4, MP3onMP4, Musepack SV7, Musepack SV8, MPEG-1 video, MPEG-2 video, MPEG-4 part 2, MPEG-1 video, MPEG-1/2 video XvMC (X-Video Motion Compensation), MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 3, MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 1, MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 2, Microsoft RLE, Microsoft Video-1, LCL (LossLess Codec Library) MSZH, Mobotix MxPEG video, Nellymoser Asao, NuppelVideo/RTJPEG, PAM (Portable AnyMap) image, PBM (Portable BitMap) image, PCM A-law, PCM signed 16|20|24-bit big-endian for Blu-ray media, PCM signed 20|24-bit big-endian, PCM 32-bit floating point big-endian, PCM 32-bit floating point little-endian, PCM 64-bit floating point big-endian, PCM 64-bit floating point little-endian, PCM signed 20-bit little-endian planar, PCM mu-law, PCM signed 16-bit big-endian, PCM signed 16-bit little-endian, PCM 16-bit little-endian planar, PCM signed 24-bit big-endian, PCM D-Cinema audio signed 24-bit, PCM signed 24-bit little-endian, PCM signed 32-bit big-endian, PCM signed 32-bit little-endian, PCM signed 8-bit, PCM unsigned 16-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 16-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 24-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 24-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 32-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 32-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 8-bit, PCM Zork, PC Paintbrush PCX image, PGM (Portable GrayMap) image, PGMYUV (Portable GrayMap YUV) image, HDMV Presentation Graphic Stream subtitles, Pictor/PC Paint, PNG image, PPM (Portable PixelMap) image, V.Flash PTX image, QCELP / PureVoice, QDesign Music Codec 2, Apple QuickDraw, Q-team QPEG, QuickTime Animation (RLE) video, AJA Kona 10-bit RGB Codec, Uncompressed RGB 10-bit, raw video, RealAudio 1.0 (14.4K) encoder, RealAudio 2.0 (28.8K), RL2 video, id RoQ DPCM, id RoQ video, QuickTime video (RPZA), RealVideo 1.0, RealVideo 2.0, RealVideo 3.0, RealVideo 4.0, SMPTE 302M, SGI image, Shorten, RealAudio SIPR / ACELP.NET, Smacker audio, Smacker video, QuickTime Graphics (SMC), Snow, DPCM Sol, Sonic, Sonic lossless, Sunplus JPEG (SP5X), SubRip subtitle, Sun Rasterfile image, Sorenson Vector Quantizer 1 / Sorenson Video 1 / SVQ1, Sorenson Vector Quantizer 3 / Sorenson Video 3 / SVQ3, Truevision Targa image, Theora, Nintendo Gamecube THP video, Tiertex Limited SEQ video, TIFF image, 8088flex TMV, TrueHD, Duck TrueMotion 1.0, Duck TrueMotion 2.0, DSP Group TrueSpeech, True Audio (TTA), VQF TwinVQ, Renderware TXD (TeXture Dictionary) image, IBM UltiMotion, Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit, Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit, Beam Software VB, SMPTE VC-1, ATI VCR1, Sierra VMD audio, Sierra VMD video, VMware Screen Codec / VMware Video, Vorbis, On2 VP3, On2 VP5, On2 VP6, On2 VP6 (Flash version, with alpha channel), On2 VP6 (Flash version), On2 VP8, Westwood Studios VQA (Vector Quantized Animation) video, WavPack, Windows Media Audio 9 Professional, Windows Media Audio 1, Windows Media Audio 2, Windows Media Audio Voice, Windows Media Video 7, Windows Media Video 8, Windows Media Video 9, Winnov WNV1, Westwood Audio (SND1), DPCM Xan, Wing Commander III / Xan, Wing Commander IV / Xxan, Miro VideoXL, DivX subtitles (XSUB), Psygnosis YOP Video, LCL (LossLess Codec Library) ZLIB, Zip Motion Blocks Video

Man. Exciting stuff, here. Stuff like lawyers yelling at each other in varied continents because “your stuff looks too much like my theoretical stuff.” The long, winding and increasingly mind-numbing battle between Samsung and Apple has taken yet another turn in Australia, with the former slapping the latter with a bold countersuit. According to The Wall Street Journal, Sammy feels that the iPhone and iPad 2 both “violate a number of wireless technology patents held by Samsung.” Spokesman Nam Ki-yung stated the following: “To defend our intellectual property, Samsung filed a cross claim for Apple’s violation of Samsung’s wireless technology patents.” The suit is being filed just days / weeks before a ruling will decide on whether the Galaxy Tab 10.1 can be legally sold Down Under, and in related news, Samsung is also appealing a recent ruling back in Germany. If ever the world needed an out-of-court settlement…

Samsung countersues Apple in Australia, claims iPhone / iPad 2 violate its patents originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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