Hasta La Gadget!

For less than a third of the price of the cheapest iPad, you can buy Barnes and Noble’s adorably-named, but often ignored e-reader: The Nook. One aspect of The Nook that is often overlooked is the fact that the little sucker is Android-powered. That’s open-source Android-powered. Which, if you think about it, kind of makes The Nook the very first Android-based tablets (or tablet-like gizmos) that the nerdosphere has been buzz–buzzing about.

Of course, The Nook’s scope is a far cry from heavy-duty tablet territory–it’s designed for basic e-reading first and foremost. However, with a few slight “adjustments” you can pimp your Nook with additional functionality such as a Pandora and Twitter app. For free.

Hackers had previously developed a method to RoboCop-up the humble e-reader that required performing some open-Nook surgery. However this newest non-invasive technique can all be accomplished with a spare microSD card and some simple software fanoogling. All under a half hour.

Note: this will definitely void your B&N warranty. However if you’re looking for a simple e-reader that will perform basic web functions without being forced to sacrifice food, rent, inoculations, etc. this may be a handy alternative.

Directions over at NookDevs.

hat tip to popsci

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Furthermore, you can locate your favorite Engadget editors by using this handy chart. So what are you waiting for? Get friending!

Engadget on Facebook and Twitter! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Sep 2010 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Sanyo launches Xacti VPC-GH4 full HD camcorder with YouTube, Facebook integration

Sanyo launches Xacti VPC-GH4 full HD camcorder with YouTube, Facebook integration originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A journalist captured in Afghanistan told the world he was still alive by tweeting with a prison guard’s cellphone.

This remarkable tale about a tweet kicks off a new meme here at Gadget Lab that we’re calling Tweet of the Day, where we’ll post our favorite tweets from just about anybody in our orbit: gadget customers, pundits, analysts, journalists, Silicon Valley bigwigs and so on. Each Tuesday and Thursday, we’ll be handpicking tweets that we find especially fascinating, enlightening, hilarious, moving or sad — anything that really gets us buzzing.

Today’s tweet comes from Kosuke Tsuneoka, a Japanese freelance journalist who was released from five months of captivity in Afghanistan over the weekend. Since he was captured April 1, no one had heard a single word from Tsuneoka, but on Sept. 3 he managed to send out a tweet: “i am still allive, but in jail.”

Speaking at a press conference today in Tokyo, Tsuneoka recounted the story of how he managed to trick his captors into allowing him to tweet. A low-ranking soldier had just gotten a new cellphone, a Nokia N70, and was asking Tsuneoka how to use it.

The guard had heard of the internet but didn’t know what it was, so Tsuneoka called customer care to activate the phone and configure it for internet access. He showed the guard how to perform a Google search of “Al Jazeera,” and then he talked about Twitter.

“But if you are going to do anything, you should use Twitter,” he said he told the guard. “They asked what that was. And I told them that if you write something on it, then you can reach many Japanese journalists. So they said, ‘Try it.’”

And just like that, Tsuneoka was able to communicate to the world that he was still alive. This is a truly amazing story originally reported by IDG News that underscores the power of a web-connected gadget and social networking while telling us a bit about the disconnected culture of Afghanistan.

A hat tip to Mary H.K. Choi (@choitotheworld) for spotting and sharing this story.

Seen any especially awesome tweets you’d like us to feature? Share them with Gadget Lab by Twitter.

The official Twitter app for iPad is finally here, and star developer Loren Brichter has polished yet another gem. Twitter for iPad sports a really elegant interface that’s significantly faster and more intuitive than competing Twitter clients we’ve tested (such as Twitterific and Tweetdeck).

Formerly called Tweetie, Brichter’s popular iPhone app impressed the big wigs at Twitter headquarters who ultimately hired the talented coder to produce native Twitter software in house. Twitter for iPad is his first brand new creation since the acquisition, and from the looks of this app, it was clearly a wise investment.

Loading and sending tweets feels almost instant, and the overall design is very pleasant. When you’re creating a new tweet, for example, the app brings up a notepad-style compose window, which is plain cute.

It also introduces some functionality we haven’t seen before: tap on a tweet with a link, and the content loads in a browser pane (pictured above); pinch a person’s tweet to get more details on the author, and swipe down with two fingers to view the threaded conversation. The paned view of content was very cool and surprisingly fast with loading photos and web pages. However, the pinch and two-finger swipe functions are awfully gimmicky: simply tapping on a person’s tweet with a single finger shows profile details and threaded conversations as well, rendering the pinch and double-swipe redundant (screenshot below).

When composing a new tweet, there’s a location-pin button to share where you’re tweeting from, as well as a paperclip icon to attach a photo. The photo-sharing feature worked in a snap, but after multiple attempts I couldn’t seem to get the location feature to work properly. I’ve put in a query to Brichter about this issue, and I’ll post an update when I receive a response.

All in all, it’s a sweet update, and it’s free. Download the Twitter app in the iPad’s App Store.

See Also:

• With Tweetie Acquisition, Twitter Locks On Mobile
• Hands-On: Tweetie for Mac Shakes Up Twitterverse
• Tweetie 2 for iPhone Flutters Into the App Store