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Daily Crunch: Dust In The Wind Edition

Posted: 21 May 2010 11:56 PM PDT

Quick look at the Sprint EVO 4G: OMG AMAZING

Posted: 21 May 2010 05:37 PM PDT

Guys. Seriously. This is a nice phone. This is like the HTC HD2 with a future and it has some amazing speed, screen size, and network capabilities. If you’re up in the air about the Droid and aren’t tied to a carrier, get this.

I’ll do a full review next week.

Music by Closely Watched Trains

Video: Yup, that’s Everquest running on a Motorola Droid

Posted: 21 May 2010 02:30 PM PDT

The most important part of a mobile phone's lifespan is when it's hacked to run old video games. Few games are more classic than Everquest, the game that brought the MMO to a mass audience. I think that's fair to say. Anyhow, today's the Droid's lucky day!


iPhone 4G rendered in delicious colors

Posted: 21 May 2010 01:30 PM PDT


Does Apple still have it in them to think different and out a multicolor iPhone 4G? If so, this is what it would look like. Too bad Apple’s latest designs are the modern day beige box. [iSpazio via 9 to 5 Mac]

Video: Nike proves once and for all the world needs a bearded Rooney

Posted: 21 May 2010 01:00 PM PDT

We’re about three weeks away from the beginning of the World Cup. You know this because I’ve mentioned it over and over again since 2008. Fancy Adidas this, super-advanced Nike that. And so on. Today’s edition: a three-minute Nike advert that was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (of “Babel” fame). Even if you have no idea who these people are—didn’t you read Vanity Fair this month?—I dare you to say, “Lame.” Because if you say “Lame” my heart will break into a million little pieces. Something along those lines.

Thoughts on the video:

1. Drogba scene needs more diving
2. Cannavaro hasn’t made a proper defensive play since the 2006 World Cup (back me up, Juve fans)
3. The world needs a bearded Rooney 24/7
4. I cannot imagine how upset Nike must have been when it found out that Ronaldinho didn’t make the Brazil squard (but he is an alternate in case someone gets injured in training this month)
5. I literally laughed out loud at Gael Garcia Bernal playing Crisitano Ronaldo. And I know the Internet has ruined the word “literally,” but I mean that in its strictest sense: I lol’d.

The question is now: will I take off for the duration of the World Cup? I’ve actually never taken a vacation here, which may explain why I’m pretty much crazy.

AT&T to nearly double early termination fees on smart phones

Posted: 21 May 2010 12:26 PM PDT

Thinking about snatching up an AT&T iPhone, unlocking it, breaking contract, and selling it on eBay for a small profit?

Yeah, that’s not gonna work anymore.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Three variations of the Three Wolves t-shirt meme

Posted: 21 May 2010 12:00 PM PDT


The Three Wolves shirt gained fame after it started collecting a bunch of clever reviews, and quickly became a bona fide meme. Once that happened, meta-memes sprang up around it. I liked the broken images variant the best. That is, until today, when I saw the Three Ewok shirt pictured here!

This appears to be a real shirt, available at the Star Wars Shop for $22. Be still my geeky heart!

Two other fun variants of the original Three Wolves shirt are available here and here.

The AD/HD t-shirt, everyone

Posted: 21 May 2010 11:00 AM PDT

Blame it on your parents, blame it video games, blame it on public schools, but some of you out there have ADHD and should warn the rest of us. $5.99 at tanga. (It’s a new site for me too)

No joke: There will be a Top Gun game for the PS3

Posted: 21 May 2010 10:30 AM PDT

Check your calendar. Mine says May 21, 2010. Just making sure, since Paramount has announced that there’s going to be a new Top Gun game. You know, the 1980s movie with Tom Cruise and the guy from “ER.” /me pinches self

Looks like it’s only going to be for the PS3, and it’s being developed by doublesix, the creators of Burn Zombie Burn.

As a commenter on Rock, Paper, Shotgun says, there really ought to be a volleyball mini-game. Not buying unless it’s there.

Here’s a humorous YouTube video on the subject of Top Gun:

/me taps nose

(What’s with all the IRC commands in this post?)

Scosche flipSync puts your iPhone charger on your keychain

Posted: 21 May 2010 10:08 AM PDT

We've all been there. You're out and about. You look down at your iPhone, and the battery indicator is screaming. No sweat; you'll just pop into your favorite spot and charge up. But wait! You forgot your charger at home! How are the honeys gonna hit you up on the two-way if the two-way is dead?

The Scosche flipSync, released today, solves all of our dead two-way (I'm seriously going to call it that from now on. Or at least the rest of this post.) problems, without bulking up your bag.

Video: This is a 22-megapixel MacBook Pro

Posted: 21 May 2010 10:00 AM PDT

And I thought my new monitor was fancy! (It certainly cost enough…) Here we have a plain ol’ MacBook Pro using a series of 28 projectors to create a 22-megapixel display. That works out to 7168×3072. Borderline insane, yes.

The project was put together by a group of students at a Norwegian university, led by one Daniel Stødle.

Aside from the fun video, the more interesting part is reading how Mac OS X handles all those windows. Apparently the window server has no problem handling up to 32 (!) displays. Actual performance isn’t so hot—you need a hefty amount of memory to handle all those pixels—but the fact that it works this well is impressive enough.

Suddenly, Modern Warfare 2 on six monitors doesn’t seen like such a big deal.


The “Get a Mac” Ads are gone

Posted: 21 May 2010 09:52 AM PDT

Friends, it happened. Those long-running ads featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long as PC and Mac, are over. They have been replaced by the “Why you’ll love a Mac” page featuring pictures of Macs and a number of roll-over peans to Mac’s greatness including “It’s designed to be a better computer” and “It runs Office and works with your existing PC files.”

Justin Long said that the ads were over way back in April but this seems like the final nail in the coffin. Most mention of the campaign has been removed and now all we have is memories.

I’m honestly not sure how effective those ads were. While they did bring Apple into the spotlight, I think most folks identified with Hodgman over Long and they were, in a sense, preaching to the choir. I think a move towards a more non-human approach is well in order although there is no mention of a new TV campaign on the site.

via MacRumors

Pac-Man greets Google visitors

Posted: 21 May 2010 09:25 AM PDT

An exciting thing happened to people who actually visit the Google homepage (rather than just using their Web browser’s built-in search box) today. They found Pac-Man, celebrating his 30th anniversary! The Penny-Arcade guys must be freaking out.

Update – Guess what? It works on the iPad.

You click “Insert Coin” and are thrown into a classic game of Pac-Man. I beat the first level and decided that was enough for me.

I do love the careful balance Google maintains between stomping all over your reasonable expectations of privacy and offering up electronic tiddlywinks.

UPDATE – I was curious as to whether this doodle would work on mobile browsers so I fired it up in the iPad. It sat there for a moment but when the Javascript loaded it started up and I was able to play the game by sliding my finger up, down, left, and right on the screen. Pretty fun.

Review: Two smokeless cigarette solutions, Green Nicotine and Ploom

Posted: 21 May 2010 09:00 AM PDT

I’m a bit of a smoker – cigars, mostly, and only when I feel like alienating all my friends – so I figured I’d try out some of these “electronic” cigarettes. I’ve already reviewed one similar to Green Nicotine, the SuperSmoker. However, Ploom is a bit different.

Ploom uses a little butane heater ignited by a piezo spark generator that heats the smoky goodness and vaporizes it. Obviously you have to use the pods so you can’t put your own stuff in there – I’d use fiberglass, personally – and the flavors include Cafe Noir and Blue Tea. Pretty hippy dippy.

Ploom is aiming for the fancy pants alterna-crowd – it costs $39.95 and pods cost about $5.95 for 12 – while GreenNicotine is going for the “folks who want to smoke on a plane” crowd. It costs $149 and each 10-pack of replacements costs $39. They also have a disposable cigar model for $40 which comes from crazy town.

If you’re a smoker and you’re trying to quit or you’re a smoker and you’re jonesing for a cig, these things make work for you. Check local laws and bylaws before you start blowing Blue Tea fumes into cops faces, however, friend.

As a bonus, I’ll send the GreenNicotine kit to a random commenter. I won’t send the Ploom because I already sucked on it.

Video music by The Underscore Orkestra.

Sega delays Sonic 4 till later this year (but there will now be an iPhone version!)

Posted: 21 May 2010 08:30 AM PDT

It would appear that Sonic 4 has been delayed until the “latter half of 2010.” That’s the bad news. The good news? One, there’s a new trailer. Two, it’ll also come out for the iPhone and iPod touch (in addition to the platforms we already knew about). Hear that, Nintendo?

The full title of the game is Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, which is something of a mouthful. I’ll just say Sonic 4 from here on out.

In any event, the game has been delayed in order to “allow for more careful focus on the design of each level and to provide additional polish that an important game like this demands, ultimately providing fans with an unrivaled classic Sonic feel.”

Sonic 4 is a perfect fit for the iPhone. I mean, the controls consist entirely of holding the D-Pad left then occasionally pressing the jump button.

It’s probably too late to call anything on the iPhone a “killer app,” but Sonic 4 certainly fits the mold.


Hard at work? Congress spends all day playing with the iPad

Posted: 21 May 2010 08:00 AM PDT

The iPad is a huge hit in the United States Congress. I mean, passing any sort of meaningful banking reform is apparently out of the question with these guys , but there’s always time for the iPad. Just amazing, really.

The story is that several members of Congress, including Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, are head-over-heels in love with the iPad. My immediate reaction was, “Um, you do know that the American people have a very low opinion of you guys right now, right? It’s probably not the time to be gloating about how your $500 toy is the new hotness. There’s a lot of people out there who are out of work and would love to have an extra $500 to blow on a shiny piece of plastic, but that’s not going to happen any time soon.”

That was my first reaction. Then I cooled down a bit and thought to myself, “Well, if they’re just using the iPad to replace their BlackBerry, reading and sending e-mail to their staff, checking their calendar, and so forth, then that’s probably not such a big deal.”

There’s an “iPad caucus,” too, which I guess is trying to extol the merits of the device. Said one member, Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia:

We are really trying to engage people about ways to apply this technology. This is definitely the wave of the future. … We're explaining to people that this could actually make us all more efficient, especially when you only have 24 hours in the day.

See? Innocent enough.

But then you read something like this:

A small crowd of lawmakers gathered last week in the House Republican cloakroom, cheering on Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) as he wildly steered Chaffetz's iPad in his hands, the tablet serving as the steering wheel for an iPad-compatible race car game.

Yeah, that’s pretty ridiculous.

Isn’t Congress great? I turn 25 next year, maybe I should run? My platform will be, “I won’t spend all day screwing around on my iPad. Oh, and I love America.”

HP Taiwan VP confirms webOS plans, indicates the Slate is on track for 2010 launch

Posted: 21 May 2010 07:20 AM PDT


Well this is good to know. An HP Taiwan VP apperently let it slip that HP is working on mobile devices powered by webOS. It’s a shocker, I know. You would think that after HP spent over a billion dollars buying Palm, they would archive all of the acquired intellectual properties and keep moving forward with Microsoft platforms.

Interestingly though, Mr. Monty Wong, VP of Personal Computer Systems Taiwan, did state that the Slate will be released before the fiscal years ends in October. Of course Monty didn’t indicate whether webOS will be present or it will still be released with Windows 7 contrary to previous reports. He also indicated that HP is keeping with its current netbook platforms rather than moving to webOS.

Geocachers take note: The Garmin GPSMAP 62 is the handheld you’ve been waiting for

Posted: 21 May 2010 06:12 AM PDT


Details are bit light right now as this thing is anything but official. GPSTracklog managed to dig up some details about the upcoming replacement to the beloved 60CSx and it seems to bring a whole bunch of new features to the form factor.

The new model brings a 2.6-inch 65K color touchscreen that’s designed to work in the bright of day. That’s important too as users will be able to load Garmin custom maps and BirdsEye aerial imagery onto the handheld. Some models even feature built-in topography maps along with tri-axial electronic compass and barometric altimeter.

It seems this guy will hit streets as early as July starting at $350 with a Canadan-spec’d model running $550.

iPhone HD faceplates popping up all over

Posted: 21 May 2010 05:49 AM PDT


UBreakiFix is ready to fix your iPhone HD! They’ve already received faceplates for the new phone complete with the front camera and it will come in two colors, black and white. That those aren’t actually colors is beside the point.

The hole for the camera is obviously visible, as well as the proximity sensor hole is very visible on the white one. It actually has small chrome squares that are transparent in one direction to allow light to travel to the proximity sensor. On the black glass it is more difficult to see. This glass shows that the iPhone again will be available in 2 colors, but this time the entire phone will be colored rather than just the backside. uBreakifix.com will be the first repair company to offer repairs to the 4G as of today, over a month before the phone is even officially announced.

Pretty exciting, right peeps?

HP developing “next-gen” wristwatch for the military

Posted: 21 May 2010 05:41 AM PDT

Printed circuitry on plastic isn’t very new, but what is interesting is that HP is commoditizing it and creating wristwatches using display elements and chips etched right onto a roll of soft plastic. The printed faces can also contain solar cells to power the watch.

HP Labs has been developing a process to “print” the plastic display components for 10 years. The company originally intended to use the technology in portable memory drives, but creating larger screens out of plastic turned out to be a more economical and feasible venture, Taussig said.

There aren’t any pictures of this magical military watch but don’t expect anything amazing. The real value-add here is the removal of glass or plastic crystal that can crack and break under heavy use.
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