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Two things: the iPad is inching closer to being hacked, and people are starting to see why hacking it is a good idea

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 05:53 PM PDT


Every day, we’re getting closer to a truly hacked iPad. I support this endeavor, but there are many who would say that Apple has our best interests in mind by limiting the iPad to what they think it should do. Well. Lately we’ve learned about apps being rejected for having “pad” in the name, apps being rejected because they weren’t written in the right coding environment (regardless of compatibility), a dashboard app that was rejected because it “contradicts the iPad user experience.” It’s going to become increasingly clear over the next few weeks and months just how carefully delineated Apple means the iPad experience to be. So the question is, are you just going to take it?

If your answer is yes, then have fun with that, you have a device you are satisfied with. But for everyone else, we’re moving towards a solution that would allow people to use the device they bought in whatever way they see fit. Sure, it’ll void the warranty, and of course the risk is all yours, but he who dares, wins, right? Thousands and thousands of people have been jailbreaking their iPhones for a long time now and swear by it.

I can appreciate wanting to go along with the Apple philosophy now, but it’s akin to going along with it in the early iPhone days. Once the platform opens up a bit and the other side of the fence (that is to say the forbidden side) starts to look a little greener, you might find yourself doubting your constancy. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Video: spring cleaning time for your PC

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 04:44 PM PDT


I was just reminded by a spring cleaning article that it’s been quite a while since I checked under the hood of my PC. Enthusiasts know and love the process of getting air-flow-reducing dust bunnies out of their cases, but a lot of people out there (and perhaps some readers) may have never even tried it. It’s actually quite easy and you should give it a shot — I put together a video this afternoon just to show the basics.

It’s a bit long because I didn’t want to cut anything out — I wanted it to be clear that this whole process really only does take less than ten minutes and anyone can do it. All you need is a can of compressed air, which should be available at your local hardware store.

If you’re interested in getting a little more grungy, you can unplug everything, take out the hard drives and PCI cards, and give them a good going-over. A little oil on the bearings of your fans will also make everything run a little quieter. But the main thing is to just get the accumulation of dust and fuzz out of there.

I know, I know, it’s all pretty obvious to most of our readers, but hopefully it’ll make things a little easier for some.

Pen and finger interface on a Surface looks extremely Courier-like

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 04:09 PM PDT


Hmm. What does this remind me of? Oh, that’s right, the Courier. The ability to use both finger and pen on the Courier concept seems like it would benefit from these UI elements — and probably is. I doubt the two projects could be working on ideas so complementary and not be aware of each other. Or could they? Whatever the case, it looks pretty cool. When I talk about touch-based interfaces, I think of stuff like that little pull-out toolbar and natural gestures like holding something down with one hand and tapping it with another — not the multi-touch-for-baby of the iPad/iPhone interface.

This is why I continue to be excited for the Courier despite having no indication that it’s ever going to actually come out. These things seem to work fine on the Surface as well, but when am I going to ever have one of those in my apartment?

[via WMPowerUser]

Laser beam clock tells time with mirrors

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 03:30 PM PDT

Those wacky artists at Art Lebedev are at it again. This time, they’ve created a concept clock that uses a single laser beam directed by 60 rotating mirrors to tell us what time it is.

The bad news is, as cool at it would be to have, the Reflectius (is that a spell in Harry Potter?) is just a concept. And I’m entirely sure that it will ever be made. Lasers are notoriously sensitive about heat, and having a laser on all the time just to be used a clock just isn’t practical. Of course, when was the last time you saw a product from Art Lebedev that was?

[via Endgadget]

Look at that, someone (Super Talent) has finally thought to release relatively inexpensive SSDs

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 02:00 PM PDT

All the cool kids in the neighborhood are building their PCs with solid state drives these days. Who wants to use a plain old hard disk drive, what with its icky moving parts, when you can cruise along on a drive with zero moving parts? I mean, it’s no contest. Problem: SSDs are usually what I like to call “mad expensive.” You’re paying a heck of a lot for a fairly small drive… until now~! Super Talent has a brand new line of “value” SSDs that are low-ish in price. It’s all the benefit of an SSD without the incredibly high price. At least that’s the idea.

I think Matt may have benchmarked some SSDs a little while back—well, just one, it turns out—, and Dave did a nice little round-up, but the idea behind them is that they’re really quite fast, much faster than a traditional hard disk drive. No moving parts and all that, giving them read/write speeds in the high double digits/low 100s in MB/s. You know what I mean.

So, back to the Super Talents. There’s four models, ranging in size from 8 to 64GB. Since SSDs are still sorta on the small side—you can find 2TB drives for around $150—you’re probably only going to be able to install Windows and maybe a game or two on there. You’re not going to put all of your MP3s and movies on there. And why would you want to, I wonder? You want Windows to load as quickly as possible, so you stick it on an SSD. You want World of Warcraft to load zones as quickly as possible, so you stick in on an SSD. Conversly, how long does it take to launch foobar2000 and play an MP3 or FLAC? An SSD would sorta be overkill there, no?

Price. Well, the 8GB version is $65 while the 64GB version is $175. Not too bad as far as SSDs go.

On a side note, I’m terribly sorry it’s been rathing boring today. I think we’re all a little hung over from the iPad and iPhone OS 4.0 news. Plus it’s chilly and cloudy outside.

Phil Torrone etches flying toasters into his iPad

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 01:56 PM PDT

Never ones to let any aluminum surface go unsullied, PT and Ladyada just etched their first iPad and it came out marvelously. These guys etch all sorts of things but their real claim to fame is in DIY electronics, of which their website offers in surfeit.

Very cool stuff if you don’t mind voiding your warranty.

Magnetic communicator could help rescuers talk through solid rock

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 01:30 PM PDT


Radio waves are nice and all, but when you think that your Wi-Fi signal weakens when you go into another room, just think about what would happen if there were 30 solid feet of rock between you and the router. And if lives depend on your signal, what you really need is something for which barriers like that are no worry. For instance, magnetic fields, which “propagate” differently, and can be tuned to basically ignore intervening structures.

Think about it. A compass can “see” magnetic north through the entire world, there have to be other ways to use such unique properties. As it turns out, a company called Ferro Solutions is working on a set of communication devices that allows for interference-free exchange of information — though it’s not clear what kind of bandwidth we’re looking at.

The system relies on two or more stations being tuned to the same resonant frequency, and by a series of transduction elements, a radio signal can be converted into a series of magnetic oscillations, which would be detected by all devices on the same frequency. Could be useful for a lot of things — not least in the case of disasters, where rescue teams must stay in constant contact with the surface (and those in need of rescue) but often have a ton of interfering objects in the way. I’m looking forward to hearing more about this tech.

[image: Popular Mechanics]

Nvidia GTX 400 series trickling out a few days early

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 01:00 PM PDT

Looks like the Nvidia GTX 400 series GPUs are starting to trickle onto various sites several days before the official release. Well, at least one big site. Take that paycheck and pump it right into Direct X 11 goodness~!

The only card available right now is the GTX 470, the little brother to the GTX 480. (Or, in ATI terms, it’s the Radeon 5850 to the Radeon 5870.) It’s not even that expensive at $349. Video cards can easily go for twice as much.

Cards from EVGA and Gigabyte are on Newegg. They’re not available to buy right now, but rather they’re on Auto-Notify duty.

And now we wait for Crysis 2 to really test out these companies’ latest.


Zune HD 64GB available early

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 12:20 PM PDT

Good news if you were waiting on the Zune HD 64GB. It just came up as available on the Zune Originals website, much earlier then the previously expected April 12th.

Everything else is true: the price is $349.99, the 64GB model is running firmware 4.5, and you can pick it up here, now. What wasn’t expected was that the 16GB version is now $200, and the 32GB version is now $270. Not a bad deal, eh?

Bullet hell shooter Espgaluda II to be released for iPhone

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 12:00 PM PDT

Bullet hell shooting games (aka maniac shooters) are, according to Wikipedia, shoot ‘em ups “in which the entire screen is often almost completely filled with enemy bullets”. And one of these games is Espgaluda II, developed by Japan-based Cave, released for arcade machines back in 2005 and now one day away of seeing a release in the App Store.

That’s right, the iPhone, not really suitable for such games (control-wise), gets a fast-paced 2D shooting game Japanese style. I am doubting the controls will be good, but the first videos and screenshots actually look quite cool. This appears to be much better than my favorite shooting game for the iPhone so far, Glandarius.

Espgaluda II is scheduled to appear in the App Store tomorrow (including a new “iPhone mode”) and will be initially priced at $4.99 (Cave will increase the price to $8.99 later). Too bad the game is compatible only to the 3GS and certain iPod touch models.

Here’s a clip showing gameplay scenes:

Video Review: Belkin Play Max Wireless-N Router

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 12:00 PM PDT

Setting up a router should be the easiest part of your day. There is no reason the average person needs to think about SSIDs, WPA, and pre-shared keys. Thankfully, folks like Belkin are looking out for us morons.

Their new line of routers feature four step set-up as well as a little card containing everything you need to know about your router on one card. You plug it into the cable modem or DSL box, plug the router into the wall, and select your wireless network. That’s literally all you need to worry about.

Granted this is nothing new and any sane person would be able to install a wireless networking device, but Belkin’s zero set-up system is quite handy.

In terms of speed this $129 router runs at N+N, which means it can support two N streams at the same time, one for video, say, and the other for web browsing. It has a theoretical speed of 300Mbps but in practice you’ll see considerably less. However, the router offered nice whole-home coverage and the dual access points will help speed up the network load considerably.

Regardless, it’s a great router for the non-technically inclined and the extra features – including torrent downloading support and some media utilities included on the install disk – are just the icing to a strong cake.

Product Page

Video music by Bacalao.

Don’t worry: The Halo movie is still gonna happen

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 11:00 AM PDT

Whew, I was worried there for a minute. Microsoft has confirmed that the Halo movie is still in development, putting at ease dozens of people around the world.

The Halo movie has been in development since practically forever, only to be delayed, stalled, re-booted, etc. That’s usually not a good sign…

Microsoft says that it’ll make the movie when “the time is right. We own the IP. If we want to make a movie, the scale of all the other stuff that we do changes dramatically. We make tens and tens of millions of dollars on ancillary stuff, toys, apparel, music and publishing. If we do a movie all of that will grow exponentially. We have some numbers if we do a movie, but it changes everything. It also changes our target and age demographic.”

That last part speaks to me, I think. I was 15 when the first Halo game came out, and I’m pretty sure I would have been OK with the idea of a movie based on the game. Now? Ha! No chance, dogsie. I’d rather play the game (well…) if only because I know the movie will be pretty rank.

You young kids can let me know how it turns out.

via Toms Guide


Sanyo outs two new full HD Xacti “dual cameras”

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 10:03 AM PDT

Sanyo announced two new “dual cameras” (camcorder and digital camera in one) for the Japanese market yesterday, the Xacti DMX-CG100 (that’s the pistol-grip model) and the Xacti DMX-GH1. Both feature an extra-compact body and the ability to record video in full HD and take 14MP pictures.

Both also come with Sanyo's proprietary “Double Range Zoom” function, which allows users to instantly switch between “Wide Mode” (40 mm to 240 mm) and “Tele Mode” (80 mm to 480 mm) with the push of a button (see graphic below).

The two cameras are equipped with a 2.7-inch TFT LCD, a 1/2.33 inch CMOS sensor, 5x optical zoom, SD/SDHC card support (up to 32GB), SDXC card support (up to 64GB), 50MB of internal memory, USB 2.0/mini HDMI ports, and Eye-Fi support.

The pistol-grip model weighs 176 g, while the DMX-GH1 weighs 172 g (including battery and SD card). Apart from the weight and different form factors (obviously), both of these Xactis are more or less identical.

They’ll hit Japanese stores on April 16, and both are priced at $390.

PS3 owner gets $130 rebate because of Linux removal

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 10:00 AM PDT

Y’all know that Sony killed Linux support on the PS3 with the latest firmware update (and had previously killed it with the introduction of the PS3 Slim), yes? Yes. A European PS3 owner has received a £84.00 (around $130) rebate from Amazon for removing support for the free and open source operating system. Win~!

The user, who’s an admin on the ever-popular NeoGAF message board, brought the issue—Sony’s removal of Linux support—to Amazon, citing EU regulations. Sony had sold the original PS3 touting its support for Linux. When the company killed said support, it ended up running afoul of EU regulations, at least in Amazon’s estimation.

We are writing to confirm that we have processed your refund in the amount of £84.00 for your Order 666-5327564-4432412.
Item Refund: £71.49
Item Tax Refund: £12.51
This refund is for the following item(s):
Item: Sony PlayStation 3 Console (60GB Premium Version)
Quantity: 1
ASIN: B0007SV734
Reason for refund: Account adjustment
The following is the breakdown of your refund for this item

So, bam, $130 rebate.

Truly a victory for the little guy.

Flickr

Video: iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 1 jailbroken in no time flat

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 09:19 AM PDT

Late last night, we put up a post debunking the idea going around the Bloggerdom that the iPhone OS 4.0 Beta had already been jailbroken, because, well, it hadn’t.

But now it has.
Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Gears of War 3 accidentally announced: April 2011, Xbox 360

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 09:01 AM PDT

Yup, Gears of War 3. Who saw that coming? Oh, right: everyone.

This ad was spotted on Xbox Live last night, despite the fact that Cliff Bleszinski was supposed to reveal it this coming Monday.

April 2011.

Keep in mind the Xbox 360 has been around since November, 2005. This thing just won’t die, will it?


Lawmakers have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to technology

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 08:00 AM PDT


Oh, dear…

Oh. My. God. Over in the UK, they’re in the process of passing the Digital Economy Bill, which three seconds of research suggests is analogous to the DMCA here in the U.S. Better people than I have already written extensively about why it’s Truly Evil, but this is pretty funny. “Copyright owners are currently able to go on-line, look for material to which they hold the copyright and identify unauthorised sources for that material. They can then seek to download a copy of that material and in so doing capture information about the source including the Intellectual Property (IP) address…” Pretty sure “IP” stands for “Internet Protocol,” but what are you gonna do?

Now, my experience with the British political system includes several episodes of “Yes Minister” and the movie “In the Loop,” so I don’t know where the MPs go for their computer training. (Do you guys in the UK have the Video Professor?) But come on, confusing “Intellectual Property” with “Internet Protocol” just reeks of, “I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m just writing what the lobbyist tells me to write.”

I should probably explain that quoted sentence. It’s a letter written by one Stephen Timms, the Minister for Digital Britain, sent to some other Member of Parliament, MP in the parlance of Whitehall. Timms is basically saying, “We must pass the Digital Economy Bill, for the sake of the Mankind.”

UK readers are encouraged to whinge about the bill in the comments.


Nikkei, Japan’s business newspaper, pulls some 2001 anti-linking tricks

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 07:30 AM PDT

Remember back during the days of Netscape when folks tried to use Javascript to prevent you from copying their images? You’d get a little window that says “YOU ARE A THIEF! HOME HOTLINKING IS KILLING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!” and then you’d view source, grab the image tag, and be on your way? Well Nikkei just pulled out its Learn HTML 1.0 in 48 Hours book and is now preventing links to its articles and severely limiting right clicking on its exciting home page.

According to the NYT, Nikkei not only stops right clicking but now requires a written application to link to its news, citing issues with the free vs. paid model that has essentially destroyed American news-gathering as well as concerns that its precious news will end up in pump and dump scams.

Obviously any self-respecting pump-and-dumper will figure out how to bypass these scripting tricks but it’s interesting to see other news organizations in other countries essentially flipping out as they watch the bloodbath that we are currently facing. In all honestly, however, this won’t work. What publishers will have to do is convince the next generation to pay for digital content and, thanks to a number of factors, I think they will succeed. For all the lip-service paid to the “rise of the amateur” and the magic of curated content, the world will be a dull and sad-eyed place without a certain number of savvy media producers. Although most local papers add little of interest to their readers day – my hometown paper, the Columbus Dispatch, is basically a collection of AP stories and fluff and is now as thick as a pamphlet – folks like WSJ and the New York Times, while dinosaurs, are highly-evolved dinosaurs with a full set of skills, resources, and sources at their disposal.

So let Nikkei build up walls. We’ll work around them.

Hulk Hogan gets his own show on Sirius XM, brother

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 07:00 AM PDT

Whatcha gonna do, brother, when you sign a one-year contract with TNA Wrestling, but still want to keep your name in the news? You get a radio show on Sirius XM, of course, dude. That’s right: starting this Monday, you, me, and anyone else with Sirius XM will be able to hear Hulk Hogan—wait, wait, Terry (I forgot, I’m shooting just like they do in TNA)—at 7pm ET on Howard 101. It’s called “Hulk Hogan: Uncensored,” and I’m looking forward to hearing him explain how he wrestled more than 400 days per year back in the 1980s. Yes, he actually claimed that in his latest book. Ridiculous.

It’s a well-known fact that Hogan is good friends with Sirius XM’s Bubba The Love Sponge, someone fans of Opie and Anthony should be familiar with (because he stinks on ice). In fact, Mr. Love Sponge is a recurring character on TNA Wrestling, the wrestling promotion that Hogan hitched his wagon to a few months ago. They’re not doing too great in the ratings, being regularly trounced by WWE on Monday nights on Spike TV. It got so bad that Spike had to move the show, TNA Impact, from the 9-11pm time slot to the 8-10pm time slot, thinking that the one unopposed hour will even out the damage done to the lone opposed (to WWE Monday Night Raw) hour. It’s a good idea, but a better idea would be to go back to Thursday nights. At least that’s cheaper than running live shows ever other week on Mondays.

Hogan isn’t exactly a radio newcomer. He’s a frequent guest on the aforementioned Bubba The Love Sponge Show, and has proven over the past 90 years that, if nothing else, he’s a good talker. A great talker, even. Well, he’s no Ric Flair, but that’s an unfair comparison—nobody is better than Flair on the mic.

Then again, people thought David Lee Roth was a good talker, too, but look how his show on CBS Radio wound up—it wound up dead, that’s what.

The Howard 101 Web site says the show will consist of Hogan “[talking] about his life in and out of the ring.” (It may end up being a permanent deal if it does well, however Sirius XM chooses to measure success here.) The name alone implies that the show has the potential to be interesting—Lord knows he was on the road long enough to have a couple of stories to share with the Howard 101 audience.

I’ll give it a shot. I mean, it’s not like I’m doing anything else Mondays at 7pm.

UPDATE Ron & Fez, 11-3

Is this the first home controlled solely by iPads and iPhones?

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT

I said it a few days ago and I’ll say it again, the iPad is the future of home automation. I’m clearly not alone in this thinking, either. At least one installer has already embraced the iPad and rolled out what could be the first whole-house system controlled by two iPads and one iPhone. This includes everything from the security systems, HVAC, cameras, three media servers, a Russound audio system, to even the pool can be controlled via these devices.

The installer has seen the future and it includes lots of iPads and money. via CEPro,

“My plan is to sell many more automation systems,” he says. “The stumbling block for clients in the past hasn’t been the control system, it’s always been the cost of the user interface. With the iPad, this problem has been completely removed. This is a tremendous victory for the future of my business. I don’t have to sell expensive products that don’t multitask. And I get to charge each time I program an iPad or add one to the system.”

Click through to see a video of the system in action.
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