Hasta La Gadget!

In non-Soviet Russia… presidents tend to receive some pretty swanky high-tech gifts. Dmitry Medvedev, leader of the good people of Russia and one of the few men to successfully rock denims with a suit jacket, has been bestowed with a fresh new iPad 2 and his facial expression seems to suggest he was immediately irradiated with blasts of magic, fairy dust, and the smiles of innocent children from across the world. We just hope he hasn’t seen the crummy camera yet, he is something of a tablet photography connoisseur.

Darren: “Why, lookie there! I can see Alaska from my iPad 2!”
Joe: “I can’t believe I’m playing chess with Gary Kasparov!”
Jose: “I wonder if Barack also likes to play Risk on his iPad.”
Josh F.: “See? The cat is talking but he’s saying ‘has’ instead of ‘have!'”
Don: “Kickin’ in the front seat, sittin’ in the back seat, gotta make my mind up, which seat can I take?”
Tim: “Look, it already has Words with Comrades installed!”
Vlad: “And this has push notifications for when Mr. Putin has instructions for me, yes?”
Richard Lawler: “10,000 apps and it’s still cheaper than buying the New Jersey Nets.”
Myriam: “And so if I tap here, it opens the door to the shark tank… and over here are the laser controls. Cool, eh?”
Richard Lai: “Hullo Anna!”

Caption Contest: Russian prez is impressed by iPad 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Touchscreen gaming’s like cheese pizza — a generally tasty treat, but significantly improved by an addition or two. Good thing Donya’s got some new toppings for your touchy-feely display: a set of physical buttons and D-pads. Available in Japan for ¥999 (about twelve bucks) you get single, dual, and triple button stickers along with two D-pads to bring some much needed physicality to your handheld experience without sacrificing pocketability. We’re not sure what marvel of modern science makes these tactile additions cling to your screen, but we do know they make firing off a few Hadoukens quite a bit easier. That plus a few Hurricane Kicks after the break.

Continue reading Donya wish your touchscreen had buttons like these? (video)

Donya wish your touchscreen had buttons like these? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The real Photoshop for iPad exists. Adobe showed it yesterday and it looks like a solid digital darkroom. But, more importantly, it marks another step in the ongoing evolution that is changing the way humans interact with machines. One that, in fact, is putting back our human nature into computing. More »

You’d think that after all the bickering between Apple and Adobe about banning Flash from iOS, Adobe would never want to be seen touching an iPad in public. But alas, in the video above, Adobe demonstrates its flagship product, Photoshop, working on an iPad.

The Photoshop app is just a concept, so it’s unclear whether it will become a real product. But it’s refreshing to see how Photoshop might work on a tablet. The image takes over the screen, your fingers replace the mouse pointer, and all those ugly, squint-inducing tool boxes in the desktop version of Photoshop have been replaced with nice bubbly menu icons.

Let’s hope Photoshop eventually does land on tablets, including Android and the iPad. It would be a long-overdue makeover. Talk to any designer and they’ll agree that Photoshop is an atrociously unfriendly interface that has remained fundamentally unchanged for years. Designers and creative types would love Photoshop remade for tablets.

From Photography Bay

Witness uses your Mac’s iSight camera to detect movement and sound the alarm

If you own both a Mac and an iPad, it’s a fair bet that you also have a home stuffed with other electronic gear, the kind of gear that burglars like to, well, burglarize. Luckily, there’s an app for that.

It’s called Witness, and it turns your Mac into a motion-activated security camera. When running, it monitors your room with using the iSight camera, and when it detects movement it sends an alert to your iPhone or iPad.

Included with the alert are photos and videos, so you can either rest easy knowing that Kitty has jumped up on the desk again, or watch in horror as your home is emptied miles from where you are standing.

Forgot to activate the alarm? You can do it remotely from the phone.

Witness seems like a great idea, but for a couple of things: you need to leave your Mac running 24/7 while you are away, which is something of a waste of electricity. It also requires an internet connection, so the smart thief could just cut the power on entry — it’s pretty unlikely that your Mac is out in the hallway where the breakers are often kept.

Aside from this, though, it’s nice not to be worrying about the house when you’re out. The Mac App costs $40, and the companion iOS app is free.

Witness product page [Orbicule]

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