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Fancy yourself a DJ of sorts, but not willing to plunk down the cash for turntables and professional software and all of that nonsense? Good news, you can get your remix on with your iPhone–granted, it’s only one song at a time, but heck, everyone’s got to start somewhere.
The two year contract is a blessing and a curse, but looking at these updated prices from AT&T we’re thinking those upgrading early and doing so to a one year contract are quite simply doomed. AT&T has upped the price on all early-upgrade one year commitment smartphones by a whopping $150. That’s painful, but the early-upgrades are at least a little less painful. Smartphones like the iPhone are jumping by a relatively meager $50, meaning a new 32GB iPhone 4 will cost you $549 vs the previous $449. Or you could, you know, just suck it up for another 12 months.
Update: As it turns out the $150 premium is unrelated to upgrading — if you want a one year contract you’re stuck with the $150 premium, regardless.
AT&T bumps early-upgrade prices for all smartphones, reminds that patience is a virtue originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Steadycam Pro is an iPhone 4 app which does exactly what it says it does: works as a software steadycam to iron out the bumps and wobbles in handheld video.
Not only that, the app also corrects for the horrible rolling-shutter effect you get when shooting video on a camera without a real hardware shutter. If you ever looked at some footage you’d shot and saw everything turn to jelly as you panned the camera, you’ll be familiar with the rolling shutter. But enough talk. Check out the video to see how well it does:
The app uses everything in the iPhone 4 to do its stuff, which is why it will only work on the iPhone 4 and nothing else. Digital signal processing along with info from gyroscopes and accelerometers lets Steadycam Pro correct the video in real-time, as you shoot.
Skeptical? It doesn’t matter: the app is free to download, so go grab it and try it out. And try not to be too scared of the app’s icon, which looks a little too much like 2001’s HAL 9000 for my liking.
Introducing SteadyCam: the first real-time video stabilization app for your iPhone [Midnox. thanks, Alex!]
SteadyCam Pro product page [iTunes]
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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a plan to make it easier to get a ride. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
It’s pouring outside, I have an appointment across town in 30 minutes, and my car’s in the shop. To make matters worse, the rain means all the cabs near me are already taken.
Desperate to hitch a ride, I launch the Uber app on my iPhone and tap a button to track my location. In four minutes, a black sedan pulls up to my house, and a driver opens the rear door, welcoming me in.
Fifteen minutes later, I arrive at my destination and step out of the car. I don’t have to hand over the $25 fare or tip, because I’ve already paid through the app. Yes, it was pricey, but it was worth it.
For me, Uber was simple: Request a ride, get in a car and go. But to get the car to my door, Uber’s system first had to crunch through an array of complex mathematical formulas created by its team of computer scientists, all in an attempt to solve a decades-old economics problem plaguing the cab industry: how to optimize driving routes — and provide enough cars — to pick up the most customers in the least amount of time.
“It’s really fun, sexy math,” says Travis Kalanick, Uber’s fearless CEO. He sounds cocky and self-assured, but without giving the impression that he’s trying to sell something. It’s math with real-world benefits, he explains.
“We are not just moving bits,” Kalanick said. “We’re moving people.”
Uber is not a cab business — the app hires luxury sedans — but it offers a compelling alternative to the traditional cab. The cab business is ruthless for everyone, especially the drivers. In order to legally drive a cab, every driver in most American cities must display a “medallion,” a city-issued badge that permits him or her to pick up people on the street when they wave their hands.
For about 80 years, cities’ transportation agencies have enforced the medallion system to regulate the quantity and quality of cabs zooming up and down the streets. The problem is, in most cities, the number of medallions has remained stagnant even as human population and traffic balloon.
Because of the limited number of medallions, the competition among drivers for obtaining a medallion is fierce. Cab drivers camp on waiting lists for nearly 20 years just to grab a badge. Once you’ve got one, the potential payoff is big: Some medallion owners auction off their badges for as much as $600,000 apiece, while others lease their medallions to cab drivers for $100 to $200 per shift.
And because a city’s cab supply is scarce, the competition for hailing a cab on the street is likewise intense, especially on a night like New Year’s Eve, or the minute the bars shout, “Last call!”
With technology, Uber offers an app-powered car service that helps drivers earn money outside the medallion system, which amounts to more vehicles to fill more people.
A startup based in downtown San Francisco, Uber launched in June 2010. The startup has partnered with dozens of sedan services to hire their drivers and hook them up with iPhones containing the Uber drivers’ app. Uber customers can hire drivers using the Uber app available on both iPhone and Android, or anybody with a cellphone can hail an Uber car by sending a text message containing the pick-up address to Uber’s number. Once riders make a request, they receive an ETA from the driver.
When a driver receives a request, it appears on his iPhone, along with GPS coordinates of the rider. From here on, riders can call the driver if they need to make any special requests. Customers are required to enter their credit card information through the Uber app or website prior to requesting a car, so when they step out, there’s no need to yank out their wallets. Riders can rate their drivers with a rating of 1 to 5, so if someone reports a negative experience, Uber can discipline (or fire) delinquent drivers.
Uber so far is only deployed in San Francisco, but over 10,000 customers have registered for the service already. The service will become available in New York “very soon,” according to Kalanick.
There’s no charge for the app, but customers pay a premium each time they book an Uber car — about 40 percent more than a regular cab fare.
To justify the premium, Uber guarantees that anybody who asks for a ride will get a car in a timely manner no matter what. Morevoer, Kalanick promises, the entire experience will be “über.”
“We want a more über experience,” Kalanick said. “Giving somebody you don’t know your credit card is not uber.”
The trick is, it’s not easy being “über.” It takes some really complicated math.
Hasbro is looking to break out of the kids market. The company is introducing a new line of 3D glasses for the iPhone that will be marketed towards gadget fans. While it sounds like a smart move to make it does come with one issue, the My 3D glasses are awkward to say at the least.
The black, and, blue glasses look more like a child’s toy than a new electronic accessory. However, Hasbro claims that this pair will allow users to turn an iPhone or iPod into a 3D gadget. No word on if it will work on the iPad.
The My 3D kit costs around $34.99.
Via TG Daily
Hackers have cracked opened the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system to install unauthorized apps on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Available from the famous Dev-Team jailbreakers, the iOS 4.3.1 exploit will work on most iOS devices, excluding the Verizon iPhone and iPad 2. That includes:
Most customers primarily jailbreak their iOS devices to install Cydia, an underground app store serving unauthorized software. Especially popular in Cydia are utilities to enable free tethering to share an iOS device’s 3G internet connection with other devices. However, be forewarned that AT&T recently started cracking down on free tethering users, warning them that they will be charged if they don’t sign up for a legitimate tethering plan for at least $20 per month.
Owners of the Apple TV 2 will probably be jailbreaking their devices to install XBMC, an app that enables playback of almost every type of media file, including 1080p high-definition Blu-Ray rips. XBMC also enables customers to install add-ons for widgets, so it’s basically a mini app store for the Apple TV.
The ADE Joy forces two disparate gadgets into the same box
It’s always nice to start the week with a little frivolous nonsense, before we realize the reality of our soul-crushing jobs: that we’ll spend almost every day of our lives doing the same thing, over and over again, until we’re 65 and ready to die. Happy Monday.
Today’s piece of superficial silliness is a kitchen scale, with a built-in iPod dock. That’s right. A precision kitchen workhorse, one of a serious cook’s most important gadgets, has been “improved” by adding a dock and speaker. The dock is up front, where you can easily touch screens or click-wheels with greasy fingers, and the speaker is underneath the glass weighing platform, ready to shake some bass as you try to delicately measure ingredients in 1 gram (0.04 ounces) increments (up to 5 kg or 0.0055 short tons).
Your first concern is addressed: The dock comes with a tight-fitting cover plate to seal it against liquids and mess. Otherwise, you are buying one gadget that would play nicer as two separate items. To prove that this marriage is indeed forced, both bride and groom bring their own power supplies: a CR2032 button cell for the scale and a power socket and cable for the speaker.
“But,” you say, “I have a tiny kitchen. Wouldn’t this save space?” Not unless you regularly leave out your scale despite you teeny countertop. Better to buy a speaker and put it on a high shelf or the top of the fridge and keep your (much smaller) scale tucked away. What next? A refrigerator with an iPod dock? Wait… What?
The price for this crazy mongrel of a tool? $100
ADE Joy scale and iPod dock [ADE Frieling via Oh Gizmo]
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Those who know how humid and disgustingly sweaty Japan can get in the height of summer won’t be looking forward to the possibility of no air conditioning as the looming threat of blackouts extends into the season of three shirts a day. Various power saving efforts are being introduced and around town you can see convenience stores doing their bit with only half the store lights on, and even the iconic Shibuya TV screens were turned off until recently. Tapping into this, a university professor Inoue Akihito the author of Japanese blog Critique of Games has come up with a power saving game that is catching on on twitter called #Denkimeter”.
The basic rules are simple and involve the player locating and checking the reading on their electric meter at home or in the office. You can take a photo of the meter and the player must tweet the reading along with the time and date using the hashtag #Denkimeter. Players then update the reading periodically throughout the day and determine how much power they have used based on the change in reading from the previous tweet. Each person is encouraged to update after events such as preparing dinner or doing the laundry to get an idea of how we can cut down on our electricity usage. Your final reading on how much energy is saved is given as your “戦闘力” or “combat power”.
When players enter their power savings into the Denkimeter site they receive a motivational or amusing derogatory comment back based on how well or poor they are doing. Displayed publicly on twitter also, there is added incentive for players to up their “combat power” by dropping their electricity usage and gain social kudos while at it.
The popularity of the game has also spawned an iPhone app that allows players to enter the wattage and tweet directly from the app which calculates energy difference since your last entry.
Alternative ways that Japan could save a ton of energy however would also be to just close all the pachinko parlors, now there is an idea.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
