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iPhone 3.1.3 firmware unlock coming soon

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 05:30 AM PST

Been waiting to upgrade your iPhone? Can't because it's unlocked? Well, wait no longer. Sherif Hashim, an iPhone hacker, has discovered an exploit that seems to unlock the latest baseband. Not a lot of other information other than now the exploit is in the Dev Team's hands and they will, like some creaky Soviet politburo, release the unlock to the masses.


Sony’s Swarovski crystal-studded photo frames

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 05:00 AM PST

For some reason, Austrian luxury brand Swarovski loves cooperating with Japanese electronics makers. Now Sony has announced [JP] a total of six 7-inch digital photo frames for the Japanese market, two of which (the DPF-D75 (WZ) in white and the DPF-D75 (BQ) in black) were jointly designed with the Austrians.

Spec-wise, the two Swarovski models feature WVGA (800×480) resolution, Sony's TruBlack Technology, a 16:10 aspect ratio, slideshow function, JPEG/BMP/TIFF/RAW file support, 256 of internal memory (enough for about 500 pictures), an SDHC/SD slot, a memory stick (duo) slot, and a USB port.

Sony says they designed they used so-called CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski Elements to decorate the front panel, stones with a more beautiful sparkle than ordinary Swarovski crystals.

The Japan-only Swarovski photo frames will go on sale on March 5. Prices: $220 for the white model and $200 for the black model. If you’re interested but live outside Japan, ask Geek Stuff 4U if they can get one for you.

Coming soon: Postage stamp-sized 1TB SSDs

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 02:00 AM PST

SSDs haven’t found their way into the mass market yet, but a team of Japanese researchers is already trying to make them more worthwhile. The team claims it has developed a technology that helps to shrink the size of SSDs by no less than 90%, makes them cheaper and boosts energy efficiency by 70%.

The research group is comprised of people from a handful of different institutions, i. e. Toshiba or Keio University in Tokyo (where Professor Tadahiro Kuroda is the main person responsible).

The new technology makes it possible to produce 1TB SSDs that are as small as a postage stamp. The current prototype (pictured) is sized just like that and made of 128 NAND flash memory chips and one controller chip. It boasts a data transfer speed of 2Gbps and is based on radio communication, which (according to the researchers) leads to lower production costs.

A practical version is expected to be ready by 2012.

Via The Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Apple is definitely NOT going to lose money making the iPad

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 11:30 PM PST

Well, iSuppli is at it again, and this time they are deconstructing the iPad. Admittedly they aren’t 100% sure about what exactly is inside the new device, they are taking their best shot at it and the numbers are pretty impressive. It doesn’t surprise me when an company makes money (in fact I’m more surprised when they don’t), Apple stands to make quite a bit with each tablet sold.

Interestingly enough, the most expensive part of the iPad is the screen; iSuppli estimates that each screen costs Apple around $80. The $499 iPad (with 16GB of memory) costs Apple approximately $219.35, and $10 to manufacture. The $699 64GB version will cost Apple about $335, and the mid-range version will cost $287. Any way you look at it, the iPad is pretty much going to print money for Apple once it’s available for purchase. Analysts are predicting that Apple will sell between 2 to 5 million units in the first year. Looks like the estimate that we told you about a few weeks ago was right.

[via Reuters]

How to mod your original NES to epic levels

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:00 PM PST

Some hardware is just so dear to a geeks heart that they can’t let it just die. Take for example the original NES system. Some enthusiasts take modding them to a whole new level. I mean, I like to play Mario Bros. as much as the next guy, but this is getting extreme.

One particular modder has set up an entire webpage dedicating to fixing up his NES. He’s got a laundry list of modifications, along with detailed instructions on the best way to install them. This guy can tell you how to install a remote reset button, build your own controller, replace the power supply, install a blue power LED – the list goes on and on. And while you have to respect his enthusiasm, I can’t help but question the wisdom of doing this. Of course, if I could find Tetris for the original NES, I might be tempted..

[via Retrothing]

Gates weighs in on the iPad: nice, but not real nice

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 08:30 PM PST


There’s been a lot of criticism of Microsoft’s alleged lack of innovation lately, but they’ve got an excuse: the lethargy of the mega-corporation. Apple’s no nimble startup, but they’ve made a point of doing just a few things well, and innovation and refinement have been their strong points. The iPad seems to be merely refined, and that’s a relief to Bill Gates. I actually am not familiar to Gates’ reaction to the iPhone, but he sums it up here well enough as well. Here’s his take:

You know, I'm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard – in other words a netbook – will be the mainstream on that," he said. "So, it's not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough.' It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'

That pretty much sums it up, right? I think he’s right on the money. It’s going to be a great device, but it’s very limited when you compare it to the aspirations of other tablet makers, and people at Google who want to put an lightweight and complete OS on a tablet. Microsoft can actually breathe easier now that the iPad is a known quantity — they feel they can do better, unlike (as Bill seems to imply) with the iPhone, which totally rattled them.

The author of the piece (who quotes Bill from conversation) seems to think Apple has invented a new class of devices. Well, no, that class has been around for a while, they just haven’t really worked. Apple’s works, but it’s not really in the class. Think of laptops as “formal” and smartphones as “casual” — what we want is semi-formal or business casual, but instead we have the iPad: a tuxedo t-shirt.

Holy crap – the Ukranians have robots

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 08:00 PM PST

Fair warning to anyone trying to do evil in Odessa, Ukraine – they have a giant robot guarding the port. While he doesn’t seem to move much, I don’t think he has to. This silent sentry warns anyone coming in to Odessa to be good, or he will smite you with his mighty steel rod.

The giant steel robot doesn’t actually move, because he can’t. He’s built from scrap cars and whatever other material the people who put him together could find. I haven’t found any other information about this amazing creation, but if you live in the Ukraine and know his story, please put it in the comments.

Windows 8 “will be mind-blowing”

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 07:30 PM PST


I’m prepared to forgive some hyperbole from someone who is very excited about a project he’s working on, but still, it’s probably a good sign that these guys are calling Windows 8 “mind-blowing” and not, say, “evolutionary.” Between the breathless praise of 7 and Microsoft’s quarterly results, you can actually sense people who are actually pumped about something. There’s not a lot of substance, but it’s kind of nice to have some positive noise around the project.

Panasonic’s Toughbook H1: a tablet for you and your favorite hazardous environment

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 07:00 PM PST


Pretend you’re Gordon Freeman. Who am I kidding, you’ve been doing that for years — so this should be easy. The lab is self-destructing around you, a resonance cascade has just torn open a hole in the universe, and there are soldiers everywhere with orders to kill you on sight. You need a tablet, but what with the rocket launcher and seven other weapons, your HEV suit can only fit one. Before you are an iPad and a Toughbook H1 Field. What do you do?

Man, are you kidding me, you get the damn H1! What, are you going to show the headcrabs your neatly organized iPhoto galleries? Hell no! You need this thing to pwing bullets off of, and to calculate dimensional radiance points and stuff! iPad go home!

So this new Toughbook tablet looks pretty great — Atom Z240 clocked to 1.86GHz, 2GB of RAM, 64GB SSD, GPS, WWAN, camera, and everything else a guerrilla scientist might need while gallivanting across a secret government facility.

Spider-Man reboot to be shot in 3D (!!!)

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 06:30 PM PST

No matter how you feel about the Spider-Man franchise going a new direction without Toby Maguire, you have to admit that a 3D Spider-Man movie has at least potential to be awesome. If soaring through the word of Avatar made you sick, just think what web-slinging through the streets of NYC will feel like. Yeah, you’re going to love it — or hate it.

But hopefully the 3D effects doesn’t compensate for a lackluster story line. After all the fact that the film is set to follow Peter Parker through his high-school years leaves already leaves a queasy feeling in a lot nerd’s stomach. I mean, outside of seeing all the films, watching the cartons and reading some random Spider-Man comics, I’m not a Spider-Man expert, but doesn’t that timeline place the film before he’s bit by the radioactive spider while attending NYU?

Square-Enix semi-announces new Deus Ex game

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 06:00 PM PST


A trademark filing by Square-Enix in Europe has revealed the title of the next game in the Deus Ex series. Sure, that’s not big news in and of itself, but now that they’ve settled on a name (Deus Ex: Human Revolution), you can bet they’ll get some title art and a cinematic trailer out quick as a flash. GDC maybe? Or E3?

I think we can all agree that Deus Ex: Invisible War was a bit of a letdown. Hopefully the next one will open things up a little more. It always seems a little silly to me when people remove what made a game sell in the first place and expect people to buy it anyway. With Sonic it was the speed, with Final Fantasy it was the sprawl, and with Deus Ex it’s the complexity. Bring it back, people!

[via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Microsoft: Too big for its own good?

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 05:30 PM PST


There’s an interesting and thought provoking essay at BetaNews by Joe Wilcox entitled “Why former employees say Microsoft can’t innovate“. It’s a rather myopic examination of the middle-management woes and culture of job protectionism that is harming Microsoft’s ability to truly create. Microsoft has grown a lot in the last couple years, and they’re up to almost 100,000 employees now. Any company that size is going to face specific challenges, and they simply can’t be as nimble as a three man startup in someone’s garage. Also, the software they create is used and relied upon every day by some very important clients, so there’s a natural amount of aversion to risk that should be prevalent in their culture. But has it gone too far?

The article concludes with

[N]o company’s organizational structure is perfect, because too many people put their personal ambitions before the company they work for. But companies can encourage mismanagement by the organizational structure, corporate culture and review and compensation processes. Based on my communications with dozens of former and current Microsoft employees over the last couple months, Microsoft needs to streamline its management processes, empower small groups to act like startups, reward risk-taking innovation and sharply reduce the number of middle managers.

I’m not a Microsoft apologist, but I think it would have been interesting had Wilcox talked to some folks who think that the current Microsoft culture is working well. Maybe he tried, and simply couldn’t find any?

I shared the link with a former Microsoft employee, who observed that much of the problem lies with unintended redundancy: as the company continues to grow, it’s harder and harder to keep track of who’s doing — or already done — what, so efforts are duplicated. “There is a lot of redundancy across product groups”, says my contact. “It is a big problem that frustrates the employees when they have a cool idea and are crippled to move into a particular space because it would potentially compete with another team.” The end result? Mediocrity.

According to my contact:

In addition to the inefficiency, there were some cases where teams ended up competing internally for ownership. At that size, for some teams, it could also be challenging to fully own their space in efforts to avoid cannibalizing another business within the company.

As I said, an organization as large as Microsoft must take some care to avoid unnecessary disruption to its customers. But given the incredible number of markets in which Microsoft participates, a one-size-fits-all culture to development and innovation simply can’t work for the long term. The kind of risks that the operating system and SQL server groups face are different from those on the entertainment or mobile groups. Maybe the problem lies deeper, in how Microsoft chooses to align its product groups? Business, Entertainment & Devices, Online Services, Server & Tools and Windows & Windows Live … entertainment includes the XBox, clearly, but does all the Windows Mobile stuff fall under “devices”? Does it make sense to lump all of entertainment together with all of “devices”? I’m not sure.

What do you think? Does Microsoft’s culture provide them the stability they need to maintain their existence for the next ten years, or is it hampering their ability to effectively compete?

The AigoPad tablet computer runs Android and that’s all you need to know

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 05:00 PM PST


The AigoPad is just another example that 2010 will be the year of tablet computers. Not much is known about the slate just yet. All we really know is that the Chinese manufacturer states that Android will power the device and that’s good enough for us. Hopefully it will end up looking something like the concept shown here and less like the fugly iPad.

The AigoPad is likely just part of the first wave of Android-powered tablet computers we’ll see this year. Manufacturers are probably using all the positive, but mostly negative, reactions to the Apple iPad to carve out their own tablet computers. Android is the most obvious choice to power these computer too due to its low hardware requirements and already proven touch interface. Expect to see many more tablets just like this one the next few months and even years. [Zol.com via PMP Today]

StorE TV: Oh look, another home media server, this time from Toshiba

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 04:30 PM PST

The good gents over at Electric Pig were one of the first people to see the Toshiba StorE TV, a home server for all your digital media files. It combines local storage (up to 2TB) with streaming to ensure that you’re able to play that totally legally acquired movie on your big screen HDTV.

You’re probably already familiar with the basic concept. You place the StorE TV—no idea how to pronounce that, by the way—next to your TV, then either stream files (video, photos, music, etc.) to it, or place said files on the built-in hard drive. Nothing too complicated.

There’s also hints of “Internet services.” What could that be? Presumably things like Picasa integration.

My guess is that this thing will live and die by its price and how “user-friendly” it is. People need their tech spoon fed to them lest they freak out.

The server will be available in September, at least in the UK. What’s the sense in staggered release dates these days?

Flying high on Club Mate

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 04:00 PM PST

I’ve been led to believe that Club Mate (pronounced: ma-tay) is the drink in the international hacker community. Being a fan of the international hacker community—and by “hacker” I don’t mean stupid idiots who DDOS Web sites for lulz, but rather people who enjoy tinkering with the world around them—I decided to buy a case.

What the devil is Club Mate? First off, it’s not Corona; there’s no alcohol in there! It’s a caffeinated iced tea drink that’s produced in Germany. Hackers (coders, tinkers, and the like) enjoy it because you get a nice portion of caffeine (20 mg per ml, or about 96ish mg per bottle) without having to deal with cubic tonnes of sugar like you might have to with traditional energy drinks (32ish mg per bottle). The secret ingredient, as the name suggests, is mate, a South American plant that’s traditionally used in awesome drinks down there, as seen in the movie The Motorcycle Diaries.

The bottles that 2600 Magazine sells—2600 Magazine is the U.S. distributor of the drink—are of the 500 ml variety. That’s a lot of mate. Smaller bottles are available, but I don’t know where you’d get those. It’s about 150 calories per bottle. I don’t know if you’d consider that high or not.

On to the taste!

It’s not bad! I fully expected the drink to taste like grim death, but it really doesn’t. I mean, it is a tea, so I really shouldn’t be surprised, but I’m not very familiar with German drinks, South American influenced or not, so I had no idea. That was a hell of a sentence right there. It sorta tastes like your standard issue green tea. I don’t know, do people dislike the taste of tea?

The big draw, though, is the caffeine. I’m about a quarter of the way through with the bottle in that there photo, and I’m already all jumpy. That means it’s working! I imagine if you’d drink the whole bottle in double-quick time you’d end up like Fry did in that one episode of Futurama. Put on a some trance—I love World of Warcraft guild Vodka’s videos specifically because of the music they use—and you’re flying through space and time.

Another bonus: all the caffeine you could want without the teeth-staining properties of coffee.

So yeah, I like Club Mate quite a bit. It’s a little expensive at $45 (plus shipping) per 12 pack, but last I checked a large coffee in New York is like $3.00, so it’s really not all that crazy.

Zero Punctuation: Borderlands

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 03:30 PM PST


Personally, I loved Borderlands but Yahtzee clearly doesn’t share my enthusiasm. I found the game fresh, exciting, and all around fun, but I do agree with the analogy to Jason and all the little Jason aliens.

Spinning solar powered battle robots. Make your own!

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 03:10 PM PST

Do you not have enough clutter on your desk? Not quite badass enough for BattleBots? Solarbotics has posted instructions on how to create these rather adorable solar-powered symets, so you can battle the 20 other people who probably make this sort of thing.

[Instructables] via [Make: Online]

Hands-on: D&D on the Microsoft Surface

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:45 PM PST


I just returned from the Microsoft campus (well, I stopped for a panini), where students from Carnegie Mellon University are showing off their awesome project, a version of D&D that runs on the Surface. Now, before you start rolling your eyes, just recognize that this isn’t just a holy grail for tabletop gaming nerds. I mean, it’s that too, but really it’s a proof of concept that shows how fun and intuitive something like this can be, and how accessible a team can make it. I honestly think that if they had these things scattered around like Golden Tee cabinets, they’d get a huge following.

The build we played with was last semester’s (it’s a student project, not a professional development), and since then there’s been a lot of bug-squashing and feature-adding, but the newest build isn’t playable. So they’ve got a short little scenario where we went from a zoomable map screen to a town where we… spotted some orcs! Roll for initiative!

They’ve really taken advantage of the Surface’s ability to recognize the little tags, and your “control” token lets you place your inventory, actions, and so on wherever is convenient. The game keeps track of your guy even if, say, you spill a drink and have to move him and clean up. There’s actually a whole dungeon-master backend on a separate screen that can be manipulated in real time, adding or subtracting monsters, guiding the characters, and so on.

Combat was straightforward, and they noted that a lot of that is being beefed up in the new version. Lots more moves, better dice, and so on. Of course there’s work to be done, but it seems really promising, and remember this is a project put together by a handful of students. They have some stated goals, but with some of the students graduating, the future of the project is uncertain (but not dire). I’m guessing Wizards of the Coast is going to pay through the nose for it — I’m sure they see what it could be with a budget and an extra couple devs working on it.

Now the take-away point here isn’t really “wow, you can play D&D on a touchscreen!” No — that’s very cool, but the point is that this kind of collaborative, intuitive gaming is something I can easily see in bars, lounges, and even schools all over the place. It doesn’t have to be D&D, though the game does lend itself to the medium well. The Surface lends itself to social activities around a table, and you could even connect multiple Surfaces over the net. This game is really just one of the first robust apps to take advantage of this in a cool, nerdy way, and I’m really looking forward to seeing more stuff like this.

Unfortunately, the cost (and bulk) of Surface units kind of limits the places to which they can be deployed. We know they’re going to have a cheaper, flatter version at some point, and it might be hard for something like this to hit critical mass before that happens.


The CMU Surface D&D will be at GDC and PAX East, if you’re dying to check it out.

Tiny netbook charger features auto and home plugs, retractable cord

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:30 PM PST

Emerge Technologies has an intriguing universal netbook adapter on its hands with this 40-watt car and wall charger. Aside from the adapter's tiny size, it's got just a single retractable cord for connection to your netbook and an extra USB port for charging up a mobile device.

The adapter comes with seven tips and plugs directly into a wall or car outlet (the car connection flips out from the base). It's priced at $70 – not too bad considering it might be the only adapter you need to bring with you.

Universal Netbook Car and Wall Charger [Emerge via SlashGear]

Be careful where you upload your data, you might not get it back

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 02:00 PM PST

Wired has a neat little article that talks about something I really don’t see mentioned on all those “social media” Web sites: what happens when you want to move your data from Site A to Site B? It’s a by-product of moving more and more of our data to cloud-based services:do we retain ownership of our data, and if so, what’s the best way to take that data back?

A simple example: you upload all of your photos to Flickr so that your friends and family can marvel at all of your cool photos. Fair enough, good for you. A year goes by and you want to take all those photos you uploaded and move them to Some Other Site. Does Flickr make it easy to export these photos to another site, or make it easy to bulk download the raw, untouched photos? You can, but it’s not easy.

The same goes for any other cloud service that you upload data to (so, not like a Zune Marketplace where you’re essentially renting access to on-demand music): you want to be able to easily move your text documents, spreadsheets, and other such important stuff when you want, where you want.

The sense in hosting your important data on someone else’s servers, especially when storage space is so cheap these days, can be debated. After all, who uploads their photos to Flickr then deletes the orignial files from your local hard drive? That sounds like a recipe for disaster.

There really wasn’t a point to this, per se, just to remind y’all to be careful with your data and where you remotely store it. It may be convenient to be able to log into Cool Document Site Dot Com from anywhere in the world, but what happens if they go out of business, or if their servers are stolen by aliens?


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