Hasta La Gadget!

For just $285, you too can own an iPhone-charging saucepan

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “boiling water in a saucepan over an open fire is so wasteful. If only there were some way to use that excess heat to charge my phone…” Luckily for you, dear Gadget Lab reader, I have unearthed the perfect solution: The Hitochaja HC-5 is a pan which generates electricity.

As the water boils, the pan uses excess heat to generate electricity. The maximum output is 400mA, and it will provide a five volt DC, 2 watt supply to your chosen device. This is enough to charge an iPhone in “just” 3-5 hours.

I guess if you keep a pot boiling on a fire anyway, this might be a good solution. I can’t help think that all of the water and wood involved in keeping this thing going for five hours is more than a little wasteful, though. Weird as it may seem, the Hitochaja HC-5 is actually on sale in Japan, for ¥23,000, or $285. What?!

Hitochaja HC-5 product page [Mycom via Asaijin]

See Also:

• Camping Kits Stows Inside Single Saucepan
• Uni-taskers
• 'Lid with Wings' Is a Clever Kitchen Upgrade
• Bang Bang, Your Egg: Kitchen Uni-Tasker Is No Yolk

Indie developers turned to the Web hours after receiving warning letters from Lodsys last month, but larger devs took a more traditional approach, leaving the communication and finger-pointing to lawyers instead. Two such companies, the New York Times and OpinionLabs, came to light after filing suit against the patent troll yesterday, seeking declaratory judgements to invalidate Lodsys’s patents. A nine-page complaint filed by NYT lists four Lodsys patents, including 7,222,078, which had previously been used to target smaller developers. NYT’s ad click-through system and OpinionLabs’ surveys were both also targeted, and if the suits are successful, Lodsys would be responsible for all legal expenses, and wouldn’t be allowed to collect on its patents in the future.

We spoke with Julie Samuels of the EFF, who explained that filing for a declaratory judgment could theoretically enable NYT and OpinionLabs to have trials held in California and Illinois, where the declaratory judgments were filed, instead of the Eastern District of Texas — the notoriously plaintiff-friendly court where Lodsys filed its suit against seven devs on May 31st. Other devs who received letters but have not yet been sued can also do the same. The suits brought by NYT and OpinionLabs formally call the validity of Lodsys’s patents into question, but unfortunately don’t change the game for devs Lodsys already sued, who would still be responsible for licensing fees and other damages if the court determines the patents to be valid (and their apps to be infringing).

New York Times, OpinionLab sue Lodsys seeking declaratory judgement originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  The New York Times Company  | Email this | Comments

Take photos not just with the iPhone’s volume switch, but also the switch on your headphones

There’s one very neat new feature that will come to every iPhone and iPad 2 with iOS 5: a free remote cable release. According to Brian Sweet of the Cult of Mac blog, the volume button on the iPhone’s headphone cord works just as well as the volume button on the iPhone when it comes to triggering the camera app.

This means you can stick the iPhone on one of many, many tripods or stands and snap a blur-free shot. It’s a shame that you can’t control the shutter speed manually for proper long, low light shots as you can with a real camera, but we’ll settle for what we can get — bear in mind that any camera made in the last 10-15 years requires an expensive, proprietary remote to do this, whether by cable or IR.

And remember, this volume-button trick works for shooting video, too.

Snap Pictures With Your iPhone’s Headset Using iOS 5 [Cult of Mac]

See Also:

• Breaking: iPhone 3GS Camera Doesn't Suck
• Why the iPhone 4 Camera Is So Promising
• What Will iOS 5 Bring for Photographers?

Can you believe that an iRumor has come true, for once—and early? Apple’s started selling unlocked iPhone 4 phones in the US, with the 16GB model (in both black and white) costing $650, and the 32GB models coming in at $750.

More »

Apple’s iOS is great at displaying content already on a device, but transferring documents from your computer to your iPhone or iPad has traditionally been a tedious, inefficient process. SugarSync’s new mobile device management sets out to help change that, allowing you to send files directly to your smartphone or tablet using a simple web interface. After selecting a connected device from the sidebar, you can click to upload content, booting it directly to your handheld. A push notification will appear, prompting you to download any or all of the files you uploaded, which will also remain in the cloud — so you’ll be able to access files synched with the SugarSync app from the Web, even when your device is offline. The feature is rolling out for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this week, and will be available for Android and BlackBerry soon. It looks like the concept of emailing documents to yourself just to access them on the go is about to follow iTunes sync and tethered updates to a permanent group home in the sky.

Continue reading SugarSync adds mobile device management, lets you push digital delights directly to iOS (video)

SugarSync adds mobile device management, lets you push digital delights directly to iOS (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CrunchGear  |  SugarSync  | Email this | Comments