Section: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous Us Americans live in a sea of technology. As I sit here typing this, I have the TV on with my Xbox in standby mode, my iPod Touch going through my radio, and my Sprint Instinct next to me waiting for a text message. And according to a University of California, San Diego, study, this is typical of the average American. In total, all the words we hear every day, which happens to be about 100,000, plus everything else we read or listen too, totals up to a whopping 34GB a day. The study then goes on to break down where all this information comes from. Coming out on top, as would be expected, is television with nearly 45%. Next up is computers with 27%, then radio, and then print with 8.61%. There is a total of 8 different things that make up that 34GB, the smallest of which is movies at .2%. Personally, I don’t watch that much TV at all. Maybe a show a week? Most of my time is spent on this laptop. I know, no life, but at least its spent doing something besides watching “Days of Our Lives.” Does this compare to you guys? Or are the people down in California just crazy. Read [NYT] Via [Mashable] Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones  Those who have used any Android phone before, most likely know of the benefits of rooting. By gaining root access to the phones, users can do just about anything they want with them. There is a very active community base around modding Android, and now the Motorola Droid can join in the fun.
The news comes from popular Android modder Cyanogen, who sent the message to everyone through Twitter. The actual exploit was found by Zinx Verituse, who posted the information on the page Cyanogen linked to. Since the exploit is so new, there aren’t any ROMs out for the Droid yet, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see a few pop up in the coming days and weeks. It wouldn’t be surprising to see ROMs with multitouch enabled, which is arguably the one thing the Droid is currently missing. For most current phones, adaptations of HTC’s Sense UI (like the Hero and Droid Eris) have proven popular, though a simple Android 2.0 wouldn’t be surprising for the Droid. Maybe even an adaptation of Sony’s UI once its released, if possible. As with all rooting or jailbreaking, it is worth noting that doing so could void your warranty, and could violate the carrier’s Terms of Service. The risk/reward may not be worth it for some people. There’s also the possibility of bricking your fancy new phone, which would be terrible. If you’re willing to take the risk, however, customized ROMs can be much better, and more easily customizable than the stock Android. Read [Wired] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Audio, Car Audio, Portable Audio, Satellite / HD Radio, Communications, Mobile 
Internet streaming service Pandora appears to be looking at partnering up with auto makers in an attempt to gain marketshare. Pandora believes many users work around their car stereo systems to stream the services music. An offering from auto makers would reduce clutter and hassles for many users, according to Pandora’s remarks at the SF Music Tech Summit. Tom Conrad, CTO for Pandora explained that half of it’s customers already use Pandora in their mobile phone or iPod touch devices to listen while in the car. Pandora’s phase one looks to be a tethered system, relying on the phone’s data connection to stream music. Phase two looks to be bringing data services to the cars stereo unit, forgoing the mobile device altogether. Conrad sees Phase 2 coming together in two years. Pandora’s plan present an interesting jumping off point. Instead of just competing with satellite radio, as comes standard in many cars for a free trial period, Pandora could be one of many connected services. Pandora could help create an app store of sorts for connected cars. I am sure forward-looking companies like TeleNav might have interest in getting in vehicles to provide navigation. Other apps, like those from gas stations, hotels, attractions, audio books, Yelp, GoodRec, Opentable, etc would likely beat down the door to get in. If played correctly, this could be a boon for the auto industry. When the industry thinks of convergence, the mobile smartphone is often the carrier device. Could it be the smartphone’s reign will last only until everything is connected? Read: [GigaOm] Disclosure: While writing this post, I was listening to Pandora. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Gadgets / Other, Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking  Students at a university in Belgium have come up with a prototype gadget that allows toddlers to post to their very own Twitter accounts-and to communicate with other toddlers. The device, dubbed a "Twoddler", is made from a modified Fisher Price Activity Center. It features an Ardino board and photos of the toddler's family and friends. When the child presses a photo, the device captures that data and posts a predefined Tweet linked to that data to the child's Twitter account. The device also lets toddlers communicate with other Twoddler owners by pressing buttons that activate lights and other effects on them. It connects to the Internet and other Twoddlers via ZigBee and beat 40 other entries to win the 2009 Innovative and Creative Applications Competition.
Could the Twoddler be the hot holiday gadget of the future? Or perhaps a better question is, do three year olds really need to be tweeting and socially networking? Whatever happened to kids just being kids? Read [CNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Web, Web Apps, Google 
Recently, Google has been trying to do everything it can to speed up the internet for its users. We can add one more thing to that list now with Speed Tracer for the Google Web Toolkit. Speed Tracer comes in the form of one of the new Google Chrome extensions. In fact, you can download it here, if you have Google Chrome. Speed Tracer allows web app developers to see how sluggish or speedy their apps are when they are in use. Simple things like mouse movement or clicks, all the way to parsing of the HTML are logged by Speed Tracer in a simple graph. If points in the graph are high, your app is starting to act sluggish; if they are low, its speedy. All developers need to do to use this is click the icon in the top-right corner and then go about testing their web-app. Then, when they are done, they can go back to the graph and see how it did. Speed Tracer also tries to help you determine what is slowing down by giving hints. Hints come in three colors: green, yellow, and red. They work just like a traffic light. Speed Tracer will hopefully make web-apps even more efficient so we can have even lower load times then we already do. Download [Speed Tracer] Via [Google] Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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