CrunchGear

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• Daily Crunch: It Came From Burbank Edition
• Hands-on with the HP Envy 13
• The iPhone App and Daniel Johnston
• NASA announces a contest to choose the next contest
• Belkin wants to save the boobs
• New Microsoft Courier video shows more of interface, suggests limitations
• Funambol: open source mobile cloud sync (with contest!)
• The Verizon Hub has been discontinued, try not to get upset
• Holiday Xbox 360 bundles ahoy: Lego Batman + Pure
• Review: 3M MPro 120 pico-projector
• Use a guitar controller to play poker
• Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn back with more EFX magic
• Make music: The PSP version of Beaterator is available today. iPhone users have to wait a little while yet.
• T-Mobile Moto CLIQ to cost $200 on a two-year contract
• Cool $40 HTPC remote features trackpad, QWERTY keypad
• The Eigenharp: Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on here either
• This is the Samsung W880: It’s a phone with a 12-megapixel camera. Because why not?
• FOTOBOX Plus promises dead simple photo slideshow creation
• Video: Curb Your Enthusiam illustrates how hard it is to open a box in the year 2009
• Epson Japan announces Dreamio projector with built-in DVD player

Daily Crunch: It Came From Burbank Edition Posted: 30 Sep 2009 12:00 AM PDT Paperboy: The Movie is actually a better idea than Hollywood's had in years Strange CPU monitor is not a tumor Disney to put an end to those pesky "paper" books Funambol: open source mobile cloud sync (with contest!) VholdR ups its ContourHD action-cam up to 1080p

Hands-on with the HP Envy 13 Posted: 29 Sep 2009 09:01 PM PDT We’ll have more on this little gem this week but I present to you the HP Envy 13, the first netbook I’d actually consider buying. It hit 2813 on Geekbench, lasted about three hours on one charge, and is smaller and lighter than a MacBook. Best of all it runs Windows 7 Professional like a champ and has HP’s instant-on technology for quick media and communications applications. Hot, hot stuff. Click through for a gallery and expect a review on Friday.

The iPhone App and Daniel Johnston Posted: 29 Sep 2009 07:43 PM PDT Fans of Daniel Johnston, rejoice! There is now a beautifully cell-shaded, tilt-controlled puzzle game just for you. "Hi, How Are You?" features images and music from the man himself, enclosed in a iPhone app that proves to actually be an entertaining game. The surreal, carefree experience perfectly captures Johnston, while still loosely adhering to the laws of physics. You get to run around as several of the indie icon’s bizarre creations, post your achievements to Facebook, even defeat Satan. Better grab it while it’s hot.

NASA announces a contest to choose the next contest Posted: 29 Sep 2009 05:00 PM PDT Apparently you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to help NASA. The space agency just posted a request for suggestions for future prize contests on their website, and anyone may submit an idea. Of course you won’t be credited for your suggestions, but wouldn’t it be cool to know that you were the one who came up with the idea for a prize for capturing alien technology? Previous prizes have included the Astronaut Glove, the Lunar Lander, and the Power Beaming contest, all of which had substantial cash prizes. So go tell NASA your crazy idea, and who knows.. it’s might be your contest they run with.

Belkin wants to save the boobs Posted: 29 Sep 2009 04:30 PM PDT Belkin announced two new iPod related products today, a adjustable arm strap, and a protective case. What makes these special? Both are branded with the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure logo, and a portion of the sales go to the prevention of breast cancer. The cases retail for $29.95 each, and Belkin will donate $2.50 each time you buy one. I would suggest buying two, for obvious reasons. From the press release: September 29, 2009 – Maintaining the fight against breast cancer, Belkin introduces new designs of its pink-ribbon cases for the iPod touch. For each DualFit and Grip case for iPod touch sold, Belkin will donate $2.50 to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure (with a minimum guaranteed donation of $100,000). To date, Belkin has donated over $375,000 toward breast cancer research to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. AVAILABILITY Mid-October 2009 in the US DualFit for the Cure (F8Z523BKPSGKBBY) – $29.99 * Adjustable dual-fit system allows for best fit on any arm; maximizes sizing * Clear screen protector allows for easy navigation * Key pocket for convenient storage while at the gym or outdoors * Reflective material for use during nighttime * Hand-washable Grip for the Cure (F8Z532BKPSGKBBY) – $29.99 * Textured exterior provides better grip * Form-fitting construction allows charging while in sleeve and minimizes bulk This Accessory is compatible with the following iPod models: * iPod touch 2nd generation, models 32GB and 64GB For more information please visit www.belkin.com/forthecure

New Microsoft Courier video shows more of interface, suggests limitations Posted: 29 Sep 2009 04:15 PM PDT The trickle of news about Microsoft’s Courier device continues, and this time there’s a bit more of a realistic walkthrough. The device is being shown to be much more of a next-generation notepad than all-purpose tablet, and that’s probably for the best; Microsoft overreaching with a device like this could result in a real crash and burn. I suppose the best way to picture the Courier is just as a web-connected organizer — you know, one of those leather-bound ones that business people used to have, and which the Courier seems clearly designed after. Of course, with an internet connection and full-color touchscreen, much more is enabled and the device becomes much more complicated. Microsoft’s (and Pioneer’s) task has been to pare that down to a product, and it really looks like they’ve done it right. You’ll note that the video above shows absolutely no reference to music or media, and the minimal menus shown don’t show any connection to such functionality, although to be sure there could be a gesture they haven’t shown us which hides and shows the media player. There is a camera on the back, though, so there must be at least rudimentary photo organization. The one exception is a “watch” button next to an incoming item in the calendar mode, so it will have playback capability, which implies audio as well. The preceding limitation sets it apart from our own CrunchPad and other all-purpose tablets, which are designed for light internet use and web apps, and the Apple Tablet, which is presumably is orientated toward media playback and possibly some gaming. See, we can all get along. The default interface appears to be the “infinite journal,” which can hold rich content and be shared, searched, and downloaded. An endless piece of paper, or really corkboard, to which you can attach web clips, pictures, notes, and so on. Aside from that there appear to be standard gestures for displaying your calendar, displaying a paint application, and so on. The center area works as a clipboard, which is a very smart way of utilizing the dead space necessitated by a folding device. The actual physical interface (the touchscreen, that is) remains a mystery. The finger gestures are pretty coarse, but that doesn’t mean it’s all resistive. But the pen is clearly a resistive tool, so it’s not all capacitive. There is the possibility that it is both, like what RIM was working on. In fact, if a design team were given a dual-touch-mode screen, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Courier-type hybrid was the first product they devised for it. That’s just fantasy, though; I’d expect it’s a fully resistive screen, more like a Wacom tablet with “fat touch” optimizing than anything else. Oops — as Lee points out in the comments, the Wacom does not use a resistive screen but incorporates an intelligent stylus and a capacitive screen that is aware by other means of the stylus’ exact location. That could certainly be the case here. One last detail, confirmed by Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet, is that the Courier runs Windows 7, as I’d have expected. After all, 7 has touch interfaces integrated on the ground level, much of which was pioneered by the Surface team and later added to the OS proper. Building this device on 7 is really the best and only course of action, especially considering its certain communication with Live services. While it appears to have more limitations than we thought when it first broke, it still is an impressive piece of work. I’m running my Microsoft contacts to ground, but it’s pretty clear they’ve already reached a secret agreement with Gizmodo to put out a morsel every once in a while. I’m headed down to Microsoft Hardware HQ tomorrow anyway, though, so I’ll do a little sleuthing.

Funambol: open source mobile cloud sync (with contest!) Posted: 29 Sep 2009 04:00 PM PDT Smartphones are great. Ubiquitous data access is great. Mobile computing is great. Unfortunately, each smartphone represents its own little walled garden of convenience. Apple’s iPhone is tied tightly with iTunes and various other Apple services. Android is tied tightly with Google services. Each manufacturer makes a modicum of effort to allow their smartphone to sync with someone else’s services, but as is too often the case, such integration is usually lacking some important functionality. After all, there’s little business incentive to allow your users to use someone else’s services, right? Enter Funambol, and their open source mobile cloud sync. “Mobile cloud sync” aims to be an independent solution to the walled garden problem of smartphones. I admit that I haven’t had a chance to use this yet, so I don’t know how well it works, but I like the idea of an open system handling all my data synchronization. Funambol is the world’s leading open source solution that keeps user data and content in sync across billions of mobile devices, personal computers, email systems and social networks. It is the ultimate white label solution for delivering next-gen mobile cloud sync and push email. Its state-of-the-art AJAX portal makes it easy for users to access data and content in the cloud, using any modern browser. Funambol is an open source project, allowing you to host your own sync server. Great for DIY-ers and control freaks. If you’re not ready to manage your own sync server, you can use the MyFunambol portal, which is a hosted version of their solution. myFUNAMBOL is a free 90 day open source mobile cloud sync and push email demo service. It provides mobile email and over-the-air sync of contacts and calendars. It supports billions of devices, including the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and feature phones. It lets phones sync with email clients such as Outlook and get email from Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail as well as POP and IMAP servers. It performs over-the-air setup of many phones and includes a web-based address book and calendar for viewing and managing this information online. Like I said, I haven’t had a chance to use this service yet, so I don’t know how well it actually works. The iPhone app reviews are, predictably, a mixed bag. I just signed up for an account, and will be testing it shortly. If you sign up, and find it useful, come back and let us know! Contest Funambol is giving away 10 free, unlimited usage accounts to CrunchGear readers. All you need to do is sign up over at the MyFunambol portal, then come back here to leave a comment. Be sure to tell us your Funambol user name, and — just for fun — what model handset you’re using. Ten random winners will be selected Friday morning!

The Verizon Hub has been discontinued, try not to get upset Posted: 29 Sep 2009 03:30 PM PDT Oh, the Verizon Hub. You came to the market just a few years too late. There was a time when a VoIP device with instant messaging capabilities would have been welcomed into the kitchens everywhere but that time was 2006 and not 2009. Now, that market has primarily moved onto full featured smartphones and somewhat killing the need for a home base type device. And so the Hub is no more. Verizon has official canceled the product. It’s been a slow death. The Hub was pulled from VZW stores a few months ago and went online only. It’s kind of hard to sell suck a device without actually seeing it. And the $200 price plus $35 a month service charge probably didn’t help. Maybe if the hardware was free and all it cost was $35, Verizon would probably have moved more units. But it doesn’t matter anymore. The Hub is done. RIP.

Holiday Xbox 360 bundles ahoy: Lego Batman + Pure Posted: 29 Sep 2009 03:00 PM PDT While I’m sure many of you hang onto Major Nelson’s every word, you might have missed these new holiday bundles that Microsoft is cooking up. There’s the Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle, and the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Game Pack. What do these bundles contain???? • The Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundles comes with an Xbox 360 Elite, and retail copies of Lego Batman and Pure. Such a bundle will cost $299. It goes on sale today. • The Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Game Pack comes with a wireless black controller, and copies of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Lumines LIVE!, Bomberman LIVE! and a downloadable token for Ms Pac-Man. I heartily endorse Lumines, but the rest of those games I cannot speak to. If they’re bundle-worthy then they’re probably OK.

Review: 3M MPro 120 pico-projector Posted: 29 Sep 2009 02:30 PM PDT The pico-projector market is a new one, and the products are still evolving. It really wasn’t very long ago that this product’s predecessor, the MPro 110, hit the market. It got pretty lame reviews (before which I prematurely called it awesome), but that isn’t really indicative of the worth of this kind of device. A projector you can keep in your pocket? Genius. Now they just need to get it right. The MPro 120 takes some major steps towards doing that, but that still doesn’t quite elevate it from niche product to must-buy. For those of you unfamiliar with the tech, what we’ve got here is a tiny little battery-powered DLP projector with a 12-lumen brightness — which, let’s be honest, isn’t very bright at all. But I don’t think anybody expected a pocket projector to be able to throw up a 50-inch screen on a day-lit wall. No, the application here is for when you can control your light: in a closed office, dark bar, or in your home at night. I was very pleasantly surprised at the brightness, clarity, and size of the image it threw out once the lighting (or lack thereof) was correct. Here’s a long exposure so you can see the dimensions more clearly: The picture was remarkably clear, and at five feet the image was about 40 inches in 4:3. One fun thing I want to add is that this creates an entirely new kind of party: having beers with a couple friends and trying to play Street Fighter II Turbo while someone moves the projector around the room. Also, incidentally, Mortal Kombat II is blowing it. We did those fatalities exactly right and not one of them worked. Not the projector’s fault, but I needed to get that out. The perceptive among you may notice that all three RCA cables are going into the projector — yes, this thing has stereo speakers. Not good ones, mind you, but good enough that you can hear dialogue and effects clearly and loudly, though bass is pretty much absent. They tended to clip a lot at max volume — imagine two of the speakers in your phone and how that would sound. Limited and tinny as they are, they’re a welcome addition (the MPro 110 had none). Battery life was surprisingly good. I’d give it about three hours at full brightness from full to fully empty; I beat StarFox and had a good hour and a half of Street Fighter II with my friends before it was down to low battery status, after which it probably had about 20 minutes left. More life can be gotten, of course, by changing the brightness or not blasting the sound. Inputs are few but fairly universal: RCA and VGA. If you can’t find a combination of adapters to work something out, you disappoint me. Both pictures were perfectly sharp, and although the fidelity will obviously be lower if you play a 720p movie through a 640×480 projector, it didn’t cripple it or downsize it in any horrible way. Controls are simple and clear: volume, brightness, power, and a focus dial. All work as expected. 3M thoughtfully includes a sturdy little flexi-tripod that was extremely handy in positioning the projector. It has a little flip-down foot at the front, but that only elevates it by half an inch, so the tripod stays on for the most part. The Bottom Line Having a projector with you sounds pretty cool, but the truth is it’s pretty rare that you actually need one on the run. Combine that with its poor performance in anything but the darkest of situations, and you have a pretty limited tool. That said, within its narrow set of parameters, this is a great little device. The downside is its cost: at $350, it’s a whole bill more than its closest competitor, the Optoma PK102, which has the benefit of 4GB of internal space — possibly a killer feature. At the rate they’re improving these things, I can’t really recommend buying one unless it really fills a need you have. Maybe you give presentations on the go. Maybe you’re a guerrilla film-shower. But I have a feeling that in six months there’s going to be one of these that’s even better, and this one will be a hundred dollars cheaper. A great little device, but at the moment, a bit ahead of its time. MPro120 at 3M

Use a guitar controller to play poker Posted: 29 Sep 2009 02:00 PM PDT   Bored? Lazy? Trendy? All of the above? You can turn a run-of-the-mill Guitar Hero or Rock Band controller into a weapon used for checking, folding, calling, raising, lowering, and more – YES! You can play online poker with a guitar controller! Finally! The How-To over at PokerListings.com lays out button configurations for PokerStars and Full Tilt versions but you're basically plugging a guitar into your PC's USB port, letting Windows detect it as a game controller, and then using software like Xpadder to re-map the buttons. This ought to work straight away with just about any old corded guitar controller, or you could use one of the newer wireless ones provided you have a PC USB adapter – there's this one for Xbox 360, but I'm not certain about one for the PS3. Rad How-To: Play Poker with Your Rock Band Guitar [Poker Listings via Slashdot]

Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn back with more EFX magic Posted: 29 Sep 2009 01:56 PM PDT MMy favoritest guy who plays who I’ve met recently, Jack Conte, has put together a nice version of Single Ladies by Beyonce with Nataly Dawn. While he and Nataly don’t dress up in leotards and heels – they didn’t get a huge budget for this – they do involve a Polaroid camera and a bowl of Coco Puffs. Great fun all around. More from these crazy kids at PomplamooseMusic

Make music: The PSP version of Beaterator is available today. iPhone users have to wait a little while yet. Posted: 29 Sep 2009 01:30 PM PDT Rockstar’s Beaterator comes out today (and so does Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days… you couldn’t find two more different publishers in Rockstar and Square Enix) for the PSP. We’ve highlighted it in the past because A) Timbaland is one of the better "big name" producers out there and B) I have spent more than a few hours in Ableton Live and the like. It’s familiar territory, in other words. There’s but so much I can say now not having played it yet—give me a few days to fool around with it—but I will embed this video entirely because Pete Rock is in it for a split-second. You know, as I type this, I am wondering what type of music y’all listen to. Like, I can drop the name "Pete Rock," but if three of you even know who I’m talking about, without first going to Wikipedia, then we have a problem. Although the other day one of you guys caught my Eric B. & Rakim reference, which was beyond awesome. But back to Beaterator. I should have clarified that to say that the PSP version comes out today, but that the iPhone (and iPod touch) version is still in production.

T-Mobile Moto CLIQ to cost $200 on a two-year contract Posted: 29 Sep 2009 01:24 PM PDT Even after the pre-sale countdown for the Moto CLIQ began this morning, we were left with two burning questions: How much would it cost, and when would we get'em? Fortunately, T-Mobile didn't leave us hanging for too long.

Cool $40 HTPC remote features trackpad, QWERTY keypad Posted: 29 Sep 2009 01:00 PM PDT Photographer: Do we want to clip Jim's fingernails before we take this photo? Company: No. Photographer: You sure? Looks kinda creepy from here. Company: Take the picture, Brian. Here's what you get when you take a BlackBerry and replace the screen with a trackpad – a nice remote control for an HTPC. It's compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac and uses wireless RF signals to communicate with an included USB receiver. Apparently "it can also be used on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii games consoles. etc." That's exactly how it's typed on the product page and I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that my rightmost eyebrow is crookedly raised in disbelief. Available in white or black for $40, plus $5 shipping to the US. Wireless Keyboard – HTPC Remote [EFO via OhGizmo!]

The Eigenharp: Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on here either Posted: 29 Sep 2009 12:30 PM PDT So this is apparently an electronic instrument, handmade in England, that has been in the works for 7 years. It seems to be a cross between a piano and a harp with a set of keys and a strip controller for handling pitch bending. It seems there’s also a built-in arranger as well as a drum machine. You can also pitch-bend the keys as you play. You can sign up for the release info at their website but until it’s out let’s just revel in its strangeness. More video after the jump.

This is the Samsung W880: It’s a phone with a 12-megapixel camera. Because why not? Posted: 29 Sep 2009 12:00 PM PDT And here I thought the megapixel race was over! Guess not, what with Samsung showing off, for the very first time, the SCH-W880, the world's first cellphone with a 12-megapixel camera. Because how many times have you said to yourself, "Man, I want to take a photo of this unusual drink, but only have the iPhone's rubbish camera"?

FOTOBOX Plus promises dead simple photo slideshow creation Posted: 29 Sep 2009 11:30 AM PDT Interesting. This little doodad is called FOTOBOX Plus. It's an $80 USB apparatus that reads SD cards from your digital camera. The idea is that you take a bunch of photos on your digital camera and then pop the SD card into the FOTOBOX Plus, which goes into your computer's USB port. At that point, built-in slideshow software builds an automatic slideshow from your photos. Of course, making a photo slideshow isn't rocket science for most of you who read this site but think of your parents! They love slideshows! Assuming the built-in software is indeed easy to use, they could build their own slideshows with a few clicks (provided they can figure out how to eject the SD card from their camera). There's an "Easy Mode" which consists of importing photos, selecting a theme, and then publishing the finished slideshow to one of the various available formats (YouTube, iPod, CD, DVD, popular video codecs). There's also "Advanced Mode" which features photo editing, music, narration, and special effects options – real space age stuff. FOTOBOX Plus will be available at most popular retailers sometime in October for $80. Might make a nice gift idea for the holidays. FOTOBOX Plus [Honest Technology]

Video: Curb Your Enthusiam illustrates how hard it is to open a box in the year 2009 Posted: 29 Sep 2009 11:00 AM PDT My sincerest apologies for not putting this on here sooner, but I’ve been busying Fearing people in Warsong Gulch. If only I were joking, sigh. Anyhow, here we have one of the funniest men on Planet Earth (along with Louis CK and Ron Bennington), Larry David, in the opening scene of this week’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, dealing with something that we’ve all had to deal with: opening that damn plastic shell that surrounds our electronics. Who among us hasn’t initially tried to open the plastic shell with our bare hands, then, realizing the futility of our efforts, darted into the kitchen drawer, looking for a knife or a really sharp pen? And not even that works! I remember once I literally smashed a shell against the wall. It still didn’t open, but it felt Mad Good. We are all in debt to Larry David for bringing this issue finally into the national debate. Was it ever explained why plastic shells became so damn hard to open over the years? What purpose does it server?

Epson Japan announces Dreamio projector with built-in DVD player Posted: 29 Sep 2009 10:41 AM PDT Only very few home electronics companies dare selling projectors housing a DVD player. There’s a good reason for this: The things aren’t really a picnic for the eyes, as this example from last month shows. And even established brands like Epson fail to deliver well-designed hardware in this niche. Case in point: Their new dreamio EH-DM30 [JP]. The projector actually houses not only a DVD player but also speakers (10W×2ch). It produces 720p images (1,280×800 resolution), features a 3,000:1 contrast ratio and 2,500 lumens brightness. The built-in DVD player supports JPEG/MP3/WMA and DivX/DivX Ultra files. Plug your USB stick with movies you got off the web into the projector and you can watch them directly via the stick. Needless to say, the EH-DM30 also features an HDMI interface. Epson plans to start selling the device in Japan on October 29 for $1,300. The company hasn’t said yet whether it will offer the projector outside Japan as well.

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