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| Acer Aspire Timeline found in the wild, chilling in Canada
May 25, 2009 at 7:15 pm
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|   Acer's been largely mum about its new Apisre Timeline laptop since its initial unveiling back in early April, but now it looks like the company's getting ready to roll out the portable to the customer base at large, if these spy shots from a from a Canadian-based Future Shop store are any indication...  Google has recently made two big changes regarding trademark usage within AdWords. One is a shift in the number of countries where trademarked words are allowed as keywords.  Craigslist is going head-to-head with the state of South Carolina in what can only be described as a bizarre legal battle. The online classifieds company is suing Attorney...  British firms are pitching retro-futuristic transport ideas for future energy projects intended to exploit the "oil sands" of Canada's Alberta province. Two ideas being touted are riverine "hover barges" and monster heavy-lift "hybrid" airships.
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| 300 Things I'd Like To See From Twitter Before A TV Show
May 25, 2009 at 6:56 pm
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|   It's not a bad joke, Twitter is apparently somehow involved in a new TV show. Among other things, this earns it our rarely used "WTF" in sign language image.
 There are plenty of ways to share images and videos on Twitter. But if you're looking to share other types of files with your Twitter friends, then the new service FileTwt will definitely come in handy.  Twitter is crossing mediums to develop a TV show, according to a Variety report. Joining forces with LA-based production companies Reveille Productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners...  Brevity is one of Twitter's strong points. Restricting updates to 140 characters of text, including any hypertext links, forces Twitterers to write tightly. It keeps users from boring each other.  Twitter and production companies Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment are joining to come out with a TV show that is about "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.  FileTwt is a new service that enables files transfers using Twitter, from presentations and rich text documents to ebooks and music files. At the moment, the UI is a bit clunky and the file sizes are capped at 20MB...
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| Top 20 YouTube and Video Memes of All Time
May 25, 2009 at 6:39 pm
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|   Even before the rise of YouTube as a central hub for video, we've been obsessed as a culture with sharing funny and amazing videos with our friends. While most videos get a couple views and fade into the background, a select few not only gain tens of millions of views, but make a lasting impact on culture as well. These videos quickly become Internet memes that nobody can ever seem to stop talking about.  Susan Boyle, the frumpy Scotswoman who became a worldwide singing sensation last month, may wind up as the winner this week of "Britain's Got Talent," the hit ITV show.  Farkie is a free online tool that lets you extract and download multimedia content from websites and social networking services, including videos from YouTube and MP3 files from MySpace playlists.  Here are the two answers to the key questions you might have about Susan Boyle's return appearance on "Britain's Got Talent" last night: Yes and yes. As in: Did the Scottish singing (and Web) sensation nail it again? And...
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| Cartier kerfuffle bags bogus bangles
May 25, 2009 at 6:34 pm
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|   French jeweler / watchmaker Cartier provided some unexpected humor over the long Memorial Day weekend after the company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Apple regarding two iPhone apps. The lawsuit and the quick response by Apple were covered by the Wall Street Journal in several posts and noted briefly in our weekend news roundup.  The first Android phone without a hardware keyboard, Samsung's L750 is also the first with a five megapixel camera. But its winning feature may be the I7500's live folders...  Yesterday developer Rick Strom wrote a blog posted titled "The Incredible App Store Hype", in which he detailed some of the revenue stats he was seeing from the iPhone...  Apple's WWDC 2009 is almost here. On the menu: Definitely Snow Leopard and a even-stronger-than-before focus on the iPhone OS, as the sessions schedule and the promotion show.
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| Groups: Turn Information Overload Into an Asset
May 25, 2009 at 6:33 pm
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|   This post originally ran under the title Groups: The Secret Weapon of the Social Web. Since it's a holiday in the US and things are slow today, we thought readers might appreciate seeing this post again. Today might be a good day for you to take some time to create some key groups for yourself.
There are plenty of ways to share images and videos on Twitter. But if you're looking to share other types of files with your Twitter friends, then the new service FileTwt will definitely come in handy.  VentureLoop has partnered with Widgetbox to advertise the jobs available at startups that have been funded by VentureLoop's venture capital clients. VentureLoop hosts career sites for venture capital firms.  It has been a week and almost every few hours, I am getting messages from my Facebook acquaintances with links to some phishing sites. These are not even very sophisticated messages, instead random links to utterly evil sites such as atreps.  FlockFlock reviews's tagline is "the social web browser," and as such, it has to continually adapt to wherever the social web is heading next. In new version 2.5, their...
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| Nokia next-gen "Rover" tablet unveiled?
May 25, 2009 at 6:03 pm
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|  After the spec rundown this morning of the long-rumored Maemo 5 tablet from Nokia, we've now got ourselves a potential name and image to pair with the wonderful promise of 3G and OMAP3. According to this shot obtained by Cellpassion, the next-generation Internet Tablet device is taking quite a bit of an N-series turn, with that 3.5-inch WVGA screen (instead of the 4-inch display on the N810), three-row QWERTY keyboard and other refinements making this look to be much more a smartphone than a tablet -- which is presumably exactly what Nokia is going for.  An image has surfaced in the latest beta of the iPhone SDK that appears to confirm a new model but also few apparent cosmetic changes. Discovered by a member of the MacTalk forums...  You might recall that this happened right about this time last year when we were all patiently waiting for the iPhone 3G to be announced, and once again, it's been discovered...  The boys over at Engadget Mobile managed to get their hands on what appears to be a slide deck showcasing just about every smartphone headed to AT&T this year. Some of the slides may be a bit off as far as launch dates are concerned but wow...
- Icon for iPhone 2,1 appears in latest iPhone SDK
- iPhone SDK contains icon for unreleased model -- again
- Leaked AT&T slide deck reveals Android, webOS, BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile goodness
- Nokia's N810 successor coming later this year with 3G and Maemo 5?
- KDDI au unveils summer '09 lineup: e-books, solar power, and 720p recording
- Motorola's Sawgrass, Android-powered Heron do the vertical slide onto AT&T?
- Everything There Is To Know About Nokia's Next Tablet
- Nokia Grouper, Mako, Snapper, and Thresher rolling deep on AT&T
- Blackberry Magnum, Onyx, Pearl 3G, and Gemini to harmonize on AT&T
- Weekend Update, 05.23.09
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| Palm Pre: more of everything you ever wanted to know
May 25, 2009 at 5:58 pm
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|  It's been a tense bunch of months between the Palm Pre's January unveiling and the almost palpable launch next month, with fears of delays and a fairly tight-lipped Palm keeping us on the edge of our seats. But with the launch finally just two weeks away, we thought we'd revisit our "everything you ever wanted to know" feature on the device and work in everything we've learned since.
Acer's been largely mum about its new Apisre Timeline laptop since its initial unveiling back in early April, but now it looks like the company's getting ready to roll out the portable to the customer base at large...  Still looking for something else to go with that transforming mouse and USB drive? Then you may want to try to get your hands on this seemingly official Qosmio laptop, which transforms into everyone's favorite cassette-playing Autobot, Blaster.  Warm up that last aftermarket inkjet cartridge you've been milking for the past two years: we've got a leaked copy of the Palm Pre Gesture Guide, a handy little brochure that's sure to make you a professional app-switcher in minutes.  The immediate casualty of the media hype surrounding a new primate fossil is the joy of a new and beautiful discovery, but science may also come out of the episode with some lingering bruises.
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| Samsung I7500 is first Android phone with iPhone-like keyboard
May 25, 2009 at 5:49 pm
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|  The first Android phone without a hardware keyboard, Samsung's L750 is also the first with a five megapixel camera. But its winning feature may be the I7500's live folders, which let phone apps fill your phone with data in the background so you can access it later, even without a connection. Yes, this is a Twitter phone.  You have your Twitter. And your Facebook. And your Flickr. And your MySpace. And, if you're like most people, the list of Web sites you use to share information with your friends, family, and the world at large probably goes on, too.  An AT&T upgrade program for BlackBerries has listed a 32GB iPhone as a trade-in option. Simultaneously, Canadian cellular provider Rogers may be preparing for another summer iPhone release.  She did it again! After having her phone's address book cracked a few years ago, Famous-for-being-famous heiress Paris Hilton lost her BlackBerry Thursday night at this week's Festival de Cannes film convention in the south of France.
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| How to: add features to Firefox with Mozilla's new Jetpack
May 25, 2009 at 5:34 pm
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|   Mozilla's new Jetpack project makes it easy to enhance the Firefox web browser by using conventional HTML and JavaScript. In this hands-on tutorial, we introduce you to Jetpack and use it to add a Digg counter to the browser's statusbar. Mozilla Labs has announced a new project called Jetpack to provide an easy way for users and developers to enhance the Firefox web browser...  Ask people what they like most about the Firefox browser and the answer is almost unanimous: The add-ons. Though blamed for slowing browser performance, the downloads allow users to customize the Firefox experience.  The browser wars are heating up once more. Google yesterday released a new version of Chrome and announced that the browser was out of beta (quite a rapid development...  Yesterday Mozilla introduced a new Firefox project, called JetPack, that could revolutionize the extensibility of Firefox. Currently available as a Firefox extension, JetPack allows users to extend their browser using regular HTML...
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| Transforming Qosmio laptop is actually less than meets the eye
May 25, 2009 at 5:09 pm
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| Still looking for something else to go with that transforming mouse and USB drive? Then you may want to try to get your hands on this seemingly official Qosmio laptop, which transforms into everyone's favorite cassette-playing Autobot, Blaster.  We've got to hand it to 'em -- these guys aren't ashamed to be clearing out excess inventory, and honestly, we're still fond of the choice. Sure, HD DVD may be defunct...  AOL wants its blog network MediaGlow to be a Hearst or Time Inc. for the 21st century, executives tell us. Now the Time Warner (TWX) online subsidiary is asking a former Condé Nast writer to help them get there.  Cute Sharp, real cute. Brag about releasing the world's first 20-inch LCD HDTV with a built-in Blu-ray player, but don't even mention to consumers that they won't have the luxury of seeing their flicks in full resolution.  People are already using Canon's groundbreaking 5D Mark II to shoot feature films, but we never thought we'd see the next Jaws captured with a DSLR. 'Course, whether or not Mr.
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| Payoff Over a Web Sensation Is Elusive
May 25, 2009 at 4:50 pm
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|  Susan Boyle, the frumpy Scotswoman who became a worldwide singing sensation last month, may wind up as the winner this week of "Britain's Got Talent," the hit ITV show. After a six-week absence, she returned on Sunday night to sing "Memory" from the musical "Cats," wowing the crowd and advancing to Saturday's finale. The producers immediately posted her performance on the Internet for the rest of the world to see. Even before the rise of YouTube as a central hub for video, we've been obsessed as a culture with sharing funny and amazing videos with our friends. While most videos get a couple views and fade into the background... Farkie is a free online tool that lets you extract and download multimedia content from websites and social networking services, including videos from YouTube and MP3 files from MySpace playlists. Here are the two answers to the key questions you might have about Susan Boyle's return appearance on "Britain's Got Talent" last night: Yes and yes. As in: Did the Scottish singing (and Web) sensation nail it again? And...
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| The App Store Hype Gets A Dose Of Reality
May 25, 2009 at 4:48 pm
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| Yesterday developer Rick Strom wrote a blog posted titled "The Incredible App Store Hype", in which he detailed some of the revenue stats he was seeing from the iPhone applications that he had released (some of which rank on the App Store's top apps lists), and what other developers could expect to make accordingly. His conclusion? That most of the 36,000 applications on the App Store aren't selling at all - for many apps, most days go by without a single sale.  The soon-to-be-released iPhone 3.0 software will offer a slew of new capabilities to iPhone developers. With that sea change in mind, we thought now would be a good time...  In the latest sign that the iPhone is emerging as the platform of choice for companies big and small, Yahoo on Wednesday will reportedly cease work on its Mobile app for...
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| FileTwt: Fast File Sharing on Twitter
May 25, 2009 at 4:46 pm
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| There are plenty of ways to share images and videos on Twitter. But if you're looking to share other types of files with your Twitter friends, then the new service FileTwt will definitely come in handy. FileTwt, a beta service for file sharing on Twitter, is a basic but convenient utility for quickly sharing any file, up to 20MB, with your entire Twitter network or just a single user. Twitter is crossing mediums to develop a TV show, according to a Variety report. Joining forces with LA-based production companies Reveille Productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners... Brevity is one of Twitter's strong points. Restricting updates to 140 characters of text, including any hypertext links, forces Twitterers to write tightly. It keeps users from boring each other. Twitter and production companies Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment are joining to come out with a TV show that is about "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.  Omgili, which we reviewed in 2007 as a top alt search engine, has focused on culling results from the weird corners of the web: Forums, boards, discussion groups - basically, anywhere you'd find purely or mostly subjective information.
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| The OpenTable Binge and Purge
May 25, 2009 at 4:31 pm
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|   Anyone remember Foodline.com? Judging from the performance of OpenTable's IPO last week, it would seem few do. Like OpenTable, Foodline was an online restaurant reservation business. And it too boasted some high-profile investors–Zagat, American Express (AXP). But it never went public. It went bankrupt in 2001, leaving the online restaurant market to OpenTable, which survived the bust to try its luck on the open market a few years later.  The OpenTable (NSDQ: OPEN) IPO, the first venture-backed public offering since August, popped an impressive 60 percent on the first day of trading. We'll find out over...  Everyone justifiably cheered when OpenTable (OPEN) went public yesterday. In a horrific economy, with wreckage as far as the eye can see, the debut of a real business with a 60% stock pop brought back memories of a happier era.  Noted venture capitalist Tim Draper is teaming up with investors to fund a private exchange for institutional investors to trade shares of start-up companies, calling it a "springboard" to an IPO.
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| Shuttle goes low-end with VIA-powered ES series nettops
May 25, 2009 at 4:28 pm
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|  Shuttle's small form factor PCs aren't generally the lowest-end options around, but the company looks to be getting down to the basics with its new ES (or Embedded Slim) series nettops, which are apparently set to make their official debut at Computex next week.  As if we didn't see this one coming, the Palm Pre has made its official debut on Best Buy's website. The handset is sporting a super-high $849 price tag which is apparently a deterrent.  Why use a USB flash drive as a mere data shuttle? The free CodySafe is one of the cleverest ways you can find to turn a USB flash drive into what the developer calls a "computer on a stick.  Compared to technologies such as Wireless USB, DisplayLink has actually done fairly well for itself. Nah, it's no worldwide phenomenon, but it definitely has enough traction to really shine once USB 3.  Need some further proof that Dell is working on an Android-powered netbook? How about a video featuring Doug Anson, Dell's Technology Strategist, sitting next to a Mini 10v that's running Android? And it's not just any flavor of Google's OS -- oh no...
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| Take Control of Maintaining, Troubleshooting your Mac
May 25, 2009 at 4:21 pm
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|  Author Joe Kissell has been informing and entertaining Mac users for years through his books, TidBITS columns and Macworld articles. He's recently finished a pair of books for the Take Control ebook series that will help you learn how to keep your Mac running at its most efficient pace, as well as tell you what to do when something does go wrong.  I'm lucky enough to be heading out to E3 next week, so I'll be puttering around the show looking for great iPhone apps and games to tell you all about, but it looks like...  Most Americans felt the burn of volatile gas prices over the past year, especially last summer. For those people who use their car frequently for work or vacation, spikes in the cost of gas can be frustrating and costly.  If Macworld isn't on its last legs after Apple's withdrawal from the event, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is clearly hoping it will be soon. The group...  When it comes to auctions on the web, users rarely have any kind of control beyond setting the maximum price they're willing to pay. If, for example, you wanted to buy a power supply on eBay...
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| Users switch to online classifieds, leave papers in the dust
May 25, 2009 at 4:06 pm
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|  Classified advertising has all but collapsed for many newspapers, down from $17 billion in 2005 to less than $1 billion today. Why? Blame online alternatives like Craigslist.Online classified ads are growing in popularity among Internet-using adults, sapping newspapers of a major revenue source. The shift isn't surprising, though, given the demographics of those who use such ads. Farkie is a free online tool that lets you extract and download multimedia content from websites and social networking services, including videos from YouTube and MP3 files from MySpace playlists.  Agency recruiters, employers and prospects now have a free online professional reference automation and collaboration tool to help them do their jobs better. ReferenceBot was launched recently and adds a "social 2.  I'm still not exactly sure why Google (GOOG) has become the chief suspect in the "Who Killed Newspapers" investigation playing out before our very eyes. Because it's quite clear to me that the real baddie here is bespectacled...
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| VentureLoop advertises venture-funded startup jobs
May 25, 2009 at 4:00 pm
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| VentureLoop has partnered with Widgetbox to advertise the jobs available at startups that have been funded by VentureLoop's venture capital clients. VentureLoop hosts career sites for venture capital firms. It will use Widgetbox (a widget maker that reaches 90 million people) to post job openings on Facebook, blogs and other social networks. Widgetbox's Blidget and Blidget Pro tools let publishers and marketers convert feeds into custom branded widgets.  All advertisers are seeking the Holy Grail of social media success, if for no other reason than cost-efficiency. It’s not pixie dust, according to William Faust and Leigh Householder, of Ologie.  When the WSJ broke the story about Russian tech investment group Digital Sky Technologies looking to buy a stake in Facebook for $200 million - a deal that would value...
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| Nokia N900 "Rover" tablet gets pictured, spec'd
May 25, 2009 at 3:59 pm
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|   What a Memorial Day weekend, huh? The river of leaks just won't stop flowing as the first image of Nokia's successor to the N810 Internet Tablet has been uncovered along with reported specs. It's hard to get overly excited about the N900 "Rover" because, well, it's a Nokia tablet. This is most definitely Nokia's most capable tablet to date and it packs HSPA connectivity but in the age of the smartphone we have to ask: Why? The specs: French jeweler / watchmaker Cartier provided some unexpected humor over the long Memorial Day weekend after the company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Apple regarding two iPhone apps.  What better way to remember all of those people who died when the moon and the stars were destroyed by the King of All Cosmos than a Memorial Day game of Katamari? Rather than continue to half-ass it with her PlayStation controller...  Usually, Sundays don't get too crazy at Engadget -- after all, even super-nerds need to rest. That wasn't the case yesterday, however, as we found ourselves knee-deep in a handful of seriously sweet smartphone leaks.
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| Google geeks shaking with excitement over this week's Android surprise
May 25, 2009 at 3:51 pm
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|  Arrogance isn't a word you would use to describe Andy Rubin and his team of engineers who build Google's Android software for mobile phones. Rubin, who developed handheld gadgets for Apple and Danger before Google beamed him aboard, isn't one to call his own work revolutionary. Until now. Four years after the Android project began in Mountain View, insiders are telling VentureBeat that we can't miss this week's Google I/O developer conference, which runs Wednesday through Thursday at San Francisco's Moscone West venue...  Microsoft's new search engine is reportedly dumping its codename, Kumo, in favor of the brand name Bing. To get the word out Microsoft is planning a massive advertising campaign to launch its new search brand.  Here are two charts from Pew that pretty much explain all you need to know about why newspapers are in so much trouble. The first shows newspaper classifieds revenue from 1980 to 2008. Google has recently made two big changes regarding trademark usage within AdWords. One is a shift in the number of countries where trademarked words are allowed as keywords.  Microsoft, acknowledging its weakness in the web search market, plans a major ad campaign and rebrand for its Live Search product this Spring, essentially mounting an ad war against GoogleGoogle reviews and Yahoo.
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| Can you believe it? New Yorker cover done on iPhone app.
May 25, 2009 at 1:51 pm
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|  Looking at the cover of the June 1 New Yorker Magazine it is pretty hard to believe that it was created with a US$4.99 app on an iPhone. The app is Brushes [App Store] and it allows painting on the iPhone /iPod touch screen using your fingers and a variety of brush styles. If you have a Mac, you can export your work at resolutions up to 1920x2880. The app also saves a record of your brushstrokes and other actions and can replay them on your Mac. The artist who did the New Yorker cover, Jorge Colombo, obviously has impressive talent. You can see some of his other iPhone work here.  Artist Jorge Colombo took about an hour to fingerpaint an intricate Times Square scene on his iPhone using Brushes, a $4.99 iPhone drawing app. Now, it's the June 1st cover for The New Yorker. I'm lucky enough to be heading out to E3 next week, so I'll be puttering around the show looking for great iPhone apps and games to tell you all about, but it looks like...
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| Leaked Palm Pre Gesture Guide lets you get some finger-flicking practice in early
May 25, 2009 at 1:44 pm
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| Warm up that last aftermarket inkjet cartridge you've been milking for the past two years: we've got a leaked copy of the Palm Pre Gesture Guide, a handy little brochure that's sure to make you a professional app-switcher in minutes. Not many surprises, but it's a nice little refresher to run through while you wait for your sleeping bag to get back from the cleaners. Usually, Sundays don't get too crazy at Engadget -- after all, even super-nerds need to rest. That wasn't the case yesterday, however, as we found ourselves knee-deep in a handful of seriously sweet smartphone leaks.  The universal acclaim for BenQ's GP1 LED projector is deafening. Naturally, some trade-offs were made in brightness, contrast, and resolution in order to squeeze things down to a palm-sized 5.  Engadget apparently hit upon the motherload of AT&T powerpoints: Slides detailing the Palm Eos, a new HP iPaq and probably most thrilling, HTC Lancaster (aka the Android phone we've been waiting for).
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| Toshiba shows off in-car facial recognition system
May 25, 2009 at 1:41 pm
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|  We've seen plenty of systems that rely on facial recognition for an interface, but they've so far been a decidedly rarer occurrence when it comes to in-car systems. Toshiba looks set to change that, however, with it now showing off a new system that'll not only let you control the A/C or radio with the glance of your eye, but alert you if you happen to take your eyes off the road for too long. That's done with the aid of a camera mounted above the steering wheel that's used to identify and map out the driver's face,  Japanese carrier KDDI au has now followed Softbank and NTT DoCoMo in pulling the red velvet cover off its summer 2009 devices, and as always, there are some neat tricks in here. Omgili, which we reviewed in 2007 as a top alt search engine, has focused on culling results from the weird corners of the web: Forums, boards, discussion groups - basically, anywhere you'd find purely or mostly subjective information.  If you have more online accounts than you can track, these tools will put you back in control. With the help of these tips for Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites...  Palm Pre secrets? That's very quickly becoming a thing of the past. After getting some pretty good shots of webOS last week, the "invisible man" from PalmPreForum.org has uploaded an absolute ton of videos -- fifteen in all...
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| Write4net lets you tweet past 140 characters
May 25, 2009 at 1:18 pm
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| Brevity is one of Twitter's strong points. Restricting updates to 140 characters of text, including any hypertext links, forces Twitterers to write tightly. It keeps users from boring each other. But sometimes, 140 characters isn't enough for even a master of verbal compression. If you don't already have a blog to which you can link for a longer post, what do you do?  The combination of Twitter and real-time video is nirvana for the socialite. What else more would you want than to be able to sit there and tweet videos of yourself in rapid fire, all day long? Now TwitVid.  A San Francisco company has just launched Twidvid.com, an easy way to stream videos when you tweet. But it does more than just lets you link to a video when you tweet.  There are thousands of authors on Twitter across numerous genres. In a recent post we featured 100, focusing for the most part on fiction. From writers focused on business to those devoted to history...  Yes, there is very likely a new iPhone coming very soon. Probably to be unveiled at WWDC and launched sometime in July. But it's easy to forget those are all still rumors...  TBuzz is an interesting new tool that fosters Twitter buzz around web pages. The concept is incredibly simple: drag a button into your browser bookmarks and hit it whenever you visit a web page you'd like to talk about on Twitter.
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| A Problem Has Been Detected With Your Classified Mission. Windows Has been Shut Down to Prevent Damage to Your Computer
May 25, 2009 at 1:11 pm
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|  How slow are government agencies at adopting new technologies? So slow that the U.S. Army is planning a major upgrade of its information systems - to Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Vista OS. Though Windows 7 is expected at market by the end of the year, the United States military has set that as a deadline for its migration from Windows XP to the "worthy, but largely unexciting" Windows Vista and Office 2003 to Office 2007.  One step forward, one step back: just as we were getting ready to celebrate Microsoft's decision to remove the three-app limit from Windows 7 Starter Edition, we're hearing...  You didn't think Microsoft was going to ship Windows 7 with that same tired Vista-esque branding it's been using on the betas and RCs, did you? No way, man -- and if those crazy-cool wallpapers didn't prove it to you...  Upendra Shardanand is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Daylife, which helps publishers add content and inventory without additional staff or engineering. He also co-founded Firefly Network...
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| June 1st New Yorker Cover Drawn Entirely on the iPhone
May 25, 2009 at 1:07 pm
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|  Artist Jorge Colombo took about an hour to fingerpaint an intricate Times Square scene on his iPhone using Brushes, a $4.99 iPhone drawing app. Now, it's the June 1st cover for The New Yorker. I'm guessing the editors of the magazine saw some kind of weighty symbolism in such a stunt, but landing a New Yorker cover is the kind of honor that would define an entire career for many illustrators... I'm lucky enough to be heading out to E3 next week, so I'll be puttering around the show looking for great iPhone apps and games to tell you all about, but it looks like...  Well, what do you know? It looks like our favorite fingerpainter is really making a name for himself with his handset artwork. Like his other New York City-scapes, Jorge Colombo's cover for the June 1...
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| The "Ida" fossil: on missing links and media circuses
May 25, 2009 at 1:05 pm
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| The immediate casualty of the media hype surrounding a new primate fossil is the joy of a new and beautiful discovery, but science may also come out of the episode with some lingering bruises. Is it safe to write about Darwinius masillae yet? It has been about a week since news first started leaking out about a fossil that some were calling a "missing link." Last week saw a dramatic unveiling at a press conference, and the arguing hasn't abated since. Warm up that last aftermarket inkjet cartridge you've been milking for the past two years: we've got a leaked copy of the Palm Pre Gesture Guide, a handy little brochure that's sure to make you a professional app-switcher in minutes. We've seen plenty of systems that rely on facial recognition for an interface, but they've so far been a decidedly rarer occurrence when it comes to in-car systems. Toshiba looks set to change that... How slow are government agencies at adopting new technologies? So slow that the U.S. Army is planning a major upgrade of its information systems - to Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Vista OS.  Google's use of a "fossil" doodle this week sparked a bit of controversy, but that's nothing new for the company. Its cute pictures have been angering (a few) people for years.
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| Quick Hit out to tackle Madden football game market
May 25, 2009 at 1:00 pm
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|  As summer inches closer, Madden NFL Football from Electronic Arts is arriving in video game stores almost like clockwork. Lots of rivals have failed to tackle Madden, which has become a multi-billion-dollar franchise.  As we highlighted last week, social gaming is on the rise. A big reason for this is because playing video games is often a social activity that relies on teamwork, collaboration, and a shared experience.  The newest addition to Electronic Arts' mega-franchise The Sims has reportedly been leaked online two weeks before the video game's official release. It certainly didn't take long for EA's The Sims 3...  VoxPop.TV, a San Francisco-based startup that creates embeddable pop culture contextual games for publishers like Entertainment Weekly, E! Online, and Maxim, has raised $1.  While EA may be backing off the practice of using invasive DRM in its games, piracy continues. The newest casualty? Sims 3 has leaked to the torrent sites two weeks before the game's release.  Microsoft wants to bring live game shows-complete with an actual host, scheduled episodes, and digital prizes-to Xbox Live. We play the beta of 1 vs. 100 and interview the game's developer.
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| CES expands iPod, iPhone exhibit space at next year's show
May 25, 2009 at 12:56 pm
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| I'm lucky enough to be heading out to E3 next week, so I'll be puttering around the show looking for great iPhone apps and games to tell you all about, but it looks like CES might be the place to be for iPhone software in 2010: the show is going to expand the exhibit space for Apple's mobile platforms by 5x... The soon-to-be-released iPhone 3.0 software will offer a slew of new capabilities to iPhone developers. With that sea change in mind, we thought now would be a good time... If Macworld isn't on its last legs after Apple's withdrawal from the event, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is clearly hoping it will be soon. The group...  More evidence of the Apple Tablet surfaced today. We first wrote about the device at the end of last year when OEMs in China started hearing about the device. Details are still thin, although probably not because of a lack of leaks.
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| Connect Your Thoughts To The Mindex With Imindi
May 25, 2009 at 12:32 pm
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|  What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger. Adam Lindemann learned that the hard way with iMindi, a startup trying to create a "thought engine" that was skewered by our judges at last year's TechCrunch50. "It almost destroyed us," says Lindemann. But he and his team have completely redesigned the product, which creates a mind map of your thoughts based on semantic indexing technology, and lets you "merge" those thought maps with related ones created by other people. Warm up that last aftermarket inkjet cartridge you've been milking for the past two years: we've got a leaked copy of the Palm Pre Gesture Guide, a handy little brochure that's sure to make you a professional app-switcher in minutes. We've seen plenty of systems that rely on facial recognition for an interface, but they've so far been a decidedly rarer occurrence when it comes to in-car systems. Toshiba looks set to change that... How slow are government agencies at adopting new technologies? So slow that the U.S. Army is planning a major upgrade of its information systems - to Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Vista OS.  Watchitoo is launching a collaboration site today that lets friends watch YouTube videos, share slide shows, and otherwise collaborate through a common online window. It...
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| Nokia's Ovi store makes soft landing in a few markets, might be headed to your neck of the woods soon
May 25, 2009 at 12:31 pm
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|  With that May launch window closing fast, it looks like Nokia might get Ovi Store in under the proverbial wire: it just went live on Vodafone in Australia, which was soon followed by other carriers, and then Ireland and Singapore.  In the eyes of imaginative and opportunistic advertisers and marketers, bloggers and online influencers are the new celebrities and athletes. Brands are showering them with endorsement deals rich with products...  Android, the mobile phone platform launched by Google last year, is still ramping up, but it's already caused ripples throughout the smartphone world. We think it's going to be a major player in the space so to that end...  One of Apple's authorized wireless carriers said this week that the high-end iPhone 3G has been end-of-lifed. Meanwhile, a new report appears to be backing rumors of several features due in next-gen models expected to arrive shortly.  It's official: Ireland is about to fall to Street View's all-seeing eye, as this photograph from Tramore, County Waterford, proves: The sighting confirms local reports that Street View is operating in Cork...
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| Twitter Plans to Conquer The Tube
May 25, 2009 at 12:13 pm
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|  TwitterTwitter reviews has had its share of TV appearances over the years. We've seen it on CSI two years ago, as well as MTV and Current.TV. It never had its own TV show though, and - according to The New York Times - that's about to change.
 Must Tweet TV? Maybe. Twitter is lending its name to a to-be-developed TV game show that "would harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive... Twitter and production companies Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment are joining to come out with a TV show that is about "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.  Oh, social media: we had such high hopes for you! From helping non-profits to saving newspapers to getting us back into employment. Alas, your paradigm shift turned out to be a revolutionary new way to gossip about reality TV shows.
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| Motorola Heron and Sawgrass headed to AT&T
May 25, 2009 at 12:10 pm
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|  The AT&T leakfest wraps up with two Motorola offerings. Be ready for names and relationships that will befuddle even the most ardent genealogist. First up is the Android-based Heron which we scooped back in April as the IRONMAN.  Well, what do we have here? Apparently the Symbian OS won't be left out of the fray this year with AT&T as a previously unknown S60 handset has been revealed in the same deck we reported earlier.  The previously rumored Motorola portrait QWERTY slider Iron Man has popped up again, this time as the AT&T-bound Heron, with listed specs being a 2.8-inch touch screen...
- AT&T to land four new Nokia handsets in 2009
- Motorola's Sawgrass, Android-powered Heron do the vertical slide onto AT&T?
- Nokia Grouper, Mako, Snapper, and Thresher rolling deep on AT&T
- Blackberry Magnum, Onyx, Pearl 3G, and Gemini to harmonize on AT&T
- HTC Lancaster is a QWERTY slider with Android for AT&T
- Motorola Alexander back in action, dubbed Somerset
- Imobile phoneV588 makes calls, could hold your foundation
- "Morrison" confirmed as another Android phone from Motorola
- Motorola's handheld self abuse continues
- Swiveling Nokia handset passes through the FCC, headed to Verizon Wireless
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| 10 Killer DIY Projects for Your Extra Day Off
May 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm
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|   The year's not quite half over, but already we've featured buckets of amazing DIY projects. Here's a quick look at a few of the best, most popular projects you may want to undertake on your extra day off. The First-Timer's Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch If you've never done it before, the idea of building a computer from the ground up can seem very intimidating-but it's one of the most satisfying projects a tech enthusiast can take on.  Review Praised for combining quality optics with top-notch phone features, Sony Ericsson's 'C for camera' series has raised the bar again with the C905 Plus. It's basically an upgrade of the existing C905 8. Most Americans felt the burn of volatile gas prices over the past year, especially last summer. For those people who use their car frequently for work or vacation, spikes in the cost of gas can be frustrating and costly.
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| SOA Governance Determines Success in the Cloud
May 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm
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|   The high-profile success of services such as Salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services has led many businesses to undertake cloud computing initiatives. Moving to "the cloud," however, entails a variety of security, management and compliance risks that corporate executives may be unwilling to assume without having the proper governance mechanisms in place.  Okay, we're not a gossip sheet, nor do we care too much about reality television. That said, the specter of Jon & Kate Plus 8 fascinates us because we didn't realize the fertile...  Online restaurant reservation site OpenTable (trading as OPEN) has stunned the market with the best IPO performance of any company since 2007 (Orion Energy Systems), reaping a 59 percent gain with share prices closing at $31.  "At a time when capital is precious, big-ticket software purchases just don't make sense." Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff coughed up that oyster of a sound bite back in February...
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| Don't Touch That Dial: TwitterTV Coming To a Screen Near You (Maybe)
May 25, 2009 at 11:55 am
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| Must Tweet TV? Maybe. Twitter is lending its name to a to-be-developed TV game show that "would harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format," according to this AP report, which doesn't have many details, presumably because the show is still in an embryonic form. Twitter and production companies Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment are joining to come out with a TV show that is about "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.  While direct movie and TV show downloads on the iPhone certainly seems like a reasonable enough proposition (over WiFi, at least), we're not completely convinced that a rogue ad in the Twitterfon app is the first place such a feature would leak out.
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| Sunday scoops: Android on AT&T, Palm Eos details, BlackBerry Magnum, and more
May 25, 2009 at 11:54 am
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| Usually, Sundays don't get too crazy at Engadget -- after all, even super-nerds need to rest. That wasn't the case yesterday, however, as we found ourselves knee-deep in a handful of seriously sweet smartphone leaks. Most of the news centered around AT&T's upcoming devices (you know, like its first Android phones, brand new BlackBerry offerings, and... the Palm Eos), but we also saw a few new angles on the Pre. Do yourself a favor and hit all the links below -- you won't be sorry.  AT&T has been keeping quiet on its plans to adopt the Google Android platform so far. But with rumors that Verizon might steal its iPhone exclusivity and several high-end handset manufacturers already set to deliver Android phones...  Looking very, very much like the now-infamous Idou Sony Ericsson announced for 2H, the same source that let us all in on the VZW/Pro2 party has floated a live shot of an upcoming SE phone that obviously grabs our attention.
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| ACDSee Pro Beta Finally Launched for Mac
May 25, 2009 at 11:50 am
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|  A Windows version of the ACDSee photography software has been around for a dozen years. Last week, ACD Systems saw fit to make a Mac version available to the public. On Wednesday, he company made a beat version of ACDSee Pro for Mac available to the public. One of the application's main features is that it apparently skips the step of importing files from various drives as it automatically detects various devices and drives, and lets users drag-and-drop images instantly... You might recall that this happened right about this time last year when we were all patiently waiting for the iPhone 3G to be announced, and once again, it's been discovered...  Think you've found the ultimate fitness regime to attain the body of a Greek god? ZodBod, a new fitness startup that launched last month, wants to help you share your secrets to success - and possibly make some money in the process.
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| Cartier Sues Apple for Trademark Infringement
May 25, 2009 at 11:50 am
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| French jeweler and watchmaker Cartier sued Apple on Friday for infringing on its trademark, according to The Associated Press, Dow Jones, and others. According to the reports, the suit--filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan--contends that Digitopolis' Fake Watch and Fake Watch Gold Edition time-displaying iPhone apps improperly use Cartier's trademarks. Apple is being sued for allowing the apps for download on its App Store. Looking at the cover of the June 1 New Yorker Magazine it is pretty hard to believe that it was created with a US$4.99 app on an iPhone. The app is Brushes [App Store]... Artist Jorge Colombo took about an hour to fingerpaint an intricate Times Square scene on his iPhone using Brushes, a $4.99 iPhone drawing app. Now, it's the June 1st cover for The New Yorker.
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| IAchieve for IPhone
May 25, 2009 at 11:50 am
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| iAchieve, a $3 star chart app from Goce Petrovski, is cute but limited. The app aims to let you track any daily activities--like going smoke-free, remembering to exercise, or taking your vitamins. You can set up as many users as you'd like to track within iAchieve, and each user can set an unlimited number achievements to track. Parents might find that the app is useful for charting their kids' chores or successes, but frankly, my own 2-and-a-half-year-old prefers the magnetic chart in the kitchen to this digital counterpart. Artist Jorge Colombo took about an hour to fingerpaint an intricate Times Square scene on his iPhone using Brushes, a $4.99 iPhone drawing app. Now, it's the June 1st cover for The New Yorker. I'm lucky enough to be heading out to E3 next week, so I'll be puttering around the show looking for great iPhone apps and games to tell you all about, but it looks like...  The iPhone is quickly becoming the platform of choice for nostalgia-inspiring classic games, with releases like Myst and Wolfenstein now landing on a regular basis. The latest addition...
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| iPhone SDK contains icon for unreleased model -- again
May 25, 2009 at 8:02 am
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| You might recall that this happened right about this time last year when we were all patiently waiting for the iPhone 3G to be announced, and once again, it's been discovered that the latest beta of the iPhone SDK has icons for an unreleased version of Cupertino's finest. We've been able to verify that two icons tucked away in a deep folder refer to black and white versions of the "iPhone2,1" (black is pictured above), which is one of the internal model codes we've been hearing get thrown around for a while now.  MobileCrunch claims to have pictures (which it can't publish for security reasons, unfortunately) and complete specs for Nokia's next-gen internet tablet -- and although we don't have any corroborating evidence to back up the story... The previously rumored Motorola portrait QWERTY slider Iron Man has popped up again, this time as the AT&T-bound Heron, with listed specs being a 2.8-inch touch screen...
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| Pillar Data - Larry Ellison's other storage company
May 25, 2009 at 7:58 am
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|  Analysis Oracle buying Sun Microsystems has caused people to wonder about the future of Pillar Data, Larry's other storage company. Pillar Data is backed by Larry Ellison's personal investment vehicle, Tako Ventures, possibly to the tune of half a billion dollars. Oracle has its own hardware ventures, notably the database machine developed in partnership with HP. And now it is buying Sun, which has its own significant storage offering.  Cheap valuations and glimmers of economic recovery are tempting cash-rich technology companies to seek acquisitions, and the second half of 2009 could see some steady dealmaking.  Several marketers pledge seven-figure spends with Google TV [PaidContent] What it's like to work for Twitter [PaidContent] Google wants to renew MySpace deal for $50 - $75 million per year...
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| KOBIAN humanoid robot packs full range of emotions to creep you out
May 25, 2009 at 7:52 am
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|  Japan's Tmsuk and Waseda University have certainly proven themselves capable of pushing the boundaries of robotics on their own, but few could have been prepared for what they were able devise when they teamed up, their creation itself included. That somewhat startled face you see above is the KOBIAN Emotional Humanoid Robot, which is not only able to walk about and interact with humans, but use its entire body in addition to its facial expressions to display a full range of emotions.  Ah, a childhood favorite revisited. Years back, our hearts were taken by the one and only Robo Catcher, and now it seems the famed toy snatching game has seen a revamping that features JR Robotics' RB2000 as the main grabber.  We don't expect this to be indicative of any near-term projects for the now financially hindered phone maker, but one of Sony Ericsson's recently unearthed patents paves the way for some interesting uses.  Robots are officially on the battlefield—UAVs like the Predator and Reaper patrol the skies while militarized bomb-disposal robots like the Talon detonate explosives on the ground.  T-Mobile USA announced today a new campaign dedicated to helping people save money on their wireless service, and the carrier is not only using the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones as the face of the campaign again...
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| Leaked AT&T slide deck reveals Android, webOS, BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile goodness
May 25, 2009 at 7:41 am
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| The boys over at Engadget Mobile managed to get their hands on what appears to be a slide deck showcasing just about every smartphone headed to AT&T this year. Some of the slides may be a bit off as far as launch dates are concerned but wow, what a lineup AT&T has in store for its customers. We have a few obligatory Windows Mobile devices - the HTC Fortress (Touch Pro2), HTC Warhawk (Touch Diamond2) and the HP iPAQ K3 which will run Windows Mobile 6.5. The expected BlackBerry offerings will include the Onyx, the Magnum, the Gemini and the non-flip Pearl 3G.  Are you a druggie? A hipster? A white-collar suburbanite? Good news: the Pre might be for you. If you're an "IT Centric business user," though, steer clear -- the Treo Pro might be a better fit.  We know that Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile are all getting versions of the Touch Pro2, but what about little ol' AT&T? Turns out that device is codenamed "Fortress...  Note-taking, cataloging, and bookmarking service Evernote divides people. Either people love it or meh...not so much. Many of us fell into the latter category and never...
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| There's No Silver Bullet For Social Media
May 25, 2009 at 7:30 am
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|  All advertisers are seeking the Holy Grail of social media success, if for no other reason than cost-efficiency. It’s not pixie dust, according to William Faust and Leigh Householder, of Ologie. The pair recently published an article outlining the keys to success for brands looking to extend themselves via the magic of Facebook or any of the other major social network sites. When the WSJ broke the story about Russian tech investment group Digital Sky Technologies looking to buy a stake in Facebook for $200 million - a deal that would value... If you have more online accounts than you can track, these tools will put you back in control. With the help of these tips for Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites...  Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian Internet-investment group, has offered to invest $200 million in Facebook, the WSJ is reporting, and which our own sources close to the company have since said is "accurate.
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| Russian Investment Firm Poking Facebook For Board Seat
May 25, 2009 at 7:23 am
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| When the WSJ broke the story about Russian tech investment group Digital Sky Technologies looking to buy a stake in Facebook for $200 million - a deal that would value the private company at $10 billion in preferred stock - there was still some uncertainty about whether the firm was gunning for a seat on Facebook's board of directors as part of the investment offer, of if they'd be happy with just purchasing equity. All advertisers are seeking the Holy Grail of social media success, if for no other reason than cost-efficiency. It’s not pixie dust, according to William Faust and Leigh Householder, of Ologie. If you have more online accounts than you can track, these tools will put you back in control. With the help of these tips for Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites... Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian Internet-investment group, has offered to invest $200 million in Facebook, the WSJ is reporting, and which our own sources close to the company have since said is "accurate.
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| Sony Canada hints at Alpha A500 series of DSLRs
May 25, 2009 at 7:16 am
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|  All we've got are these model numbers to go by, but it's pretty clear that Sony's cooking up a new series of Alpha DSLRs. The screengrab above (which we replicated ourselves) comes courtesy of SonyStyle Canada's registration page. A field populated by a well-meaning, yet misguided soul since Sony has yet to announce DSLRs carrying the A500, A500S, A550, A550S monikers. It's just a guess, but Sony's lineup has a glaring omission when compared to the competition in the consumer DSLR space: HD Video. Japan's Tmsuk and Waseda University have certainly proven themselves capable of pushing the boundaries of robotics on their own, but few could have been prepared for what they were able devise when they teamed up, their creation itself included. You might recall that this happened right about this time last year when we were all patiently waiting for the iPhone 3G to be announced, and once again, it's been discovered...  Admit it, you weren't satisfied by those initial concept images of DJ Hero's button-laden turntable. Yeah, us neither, but thanks to a screengrab reportedly from a television promo for Spike / GameTrailer's E3 2009 coverage...
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| Revenge Of The D-List Celebrities
May 25, 2009 at 7:00 am
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| Okay, we're not a gossip sheet, nor do we care too much about reality television. That said, the specter of Jon & Kate Plus 8 fascinates us because we didn't realize the fertile, but seemingly cranky, under-sexed (at least with each other and who could blame them after 8 kids) couple were big enough to carry the cover of Us Weekly for a whole month. In the eyes of imaginative and opportunistic advertisers and marketers, bloggers and online influencers are the new celebrities and athletes. Brands are showering them with endorsement deals rich with products...  YouTube has removed thousands of pornographic videos from its servers following a coordinated attack which succeeded in uploading a catalogue of inappropriate clips to the video-sharing site.  Celebrities get impersonated on the web. They're famous - everyone is anonymous - it happens. Most celebrities just ignore it; but some get pissed off. Kanye West got mad as hell about Twitter users pretending to be him last week.
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| Lenovo Targets Netbooks With Ultrathin Laptop
May 25, 2009 at 6:50 am
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| In an attempt to upset the netbook applecart, Lenovo on Monday planned to introduced a small and affordable laptop that can deliver full PC functionality without compromising features. The IdeaPad U350 is the first in Lenovo's new line of inexpensive ultraportable laptops, which will include low-power processors Intel has designed for small and affordable laptops. The laptops will be as light as netbooks but include larger screens and offer more functionality.  With the IdeaPad S12, Lenovo, as rumored, is first out of the gates with a netbook based on Nvidia's Ion chipset, and it's a hell of a promising start: this 12-inch netbook promises the whole HD-playing...  We've seen NVIDIA's Ion placed within a nettop, a motherboard, and now (at long last), a laptop. Yep, the machine you're inevitably peering at above (Lenovo's S12) is both the company's first 12.  The IdeaPad S12 isn't the only new kit flowing from RTP today, as Lenovo is also choosing to celebrate Memorial Day with two new lappies and an all-in-one desktop. Starting things off is the IdeaPad U350 (shown above)...  When Nvidia launched its Ion graphics platform for netbooks and small laptops in December, it landed with a thud. But today, the company is announcing that Lenovo is going...
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| Lenovo gets budget-friendly with IdeaPad U350, G550 and IdeaCentre C300
May 25, 2009 at 6:49 am
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| The IdeaPad S12 isn't the only new kit flowing from RTP today, as Lenovo is also choosing to celebrate Memorial Day with two new lappies and an all-in-one desktop. Starting things off is the IdeaPad U350 (shown above), a thin-and-light machine that packs a 13. We've seen NVIDIA's Ion placed within a nettop, a motherboard, and now (at long last), a laptop. Yep, the machine you're inevitably peering at above (Lenovo's S12) is both the company's first 12. When Nvidia launched its Ion graphics platform for netbooks and small laptops in December, it landed with a thud. But today, the company is announcing that Lenovo is going...  We don't have a lot of information at the moment, but CNET is reporting that Lenovo is getting ready to launch the world's first ION-based netbook. While CNET doesn't give it a model number...
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