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- Video Impressions Of Google TV On Logitech Revue Hardware
- Why Is There A Pony In The Apple Store?
- Klipsch Shows Off Ruggedized In-Ears, First Over-Ear Headphones
- A Closer Look At Apple’s Latest Patents
- Not-so-Stealthy StealthArmor: COLOR Series giveaway
- Looks Like Dyson, Priced Like A Knock-off, Still Blows
- Confirmed! Duke Nukem Forever Coming To Consoles And PCs, Playable At PAX
- Come to the Dock Side, Luke: R2-D2 Edition Droid 2 gets its own matching dock
- Twee Altoids Tin BBQ Grill For Micro-Cookouts
- O2 Now Beaming Android 2.1 To Awaiting Dell Streaks
- IFA 2010 Video: Plex Running On LG TV
- Duke Nukem Forever Somewhat Confirmed For PAX (Really)
- ESPN Thanks Sony For ESPN 3D Help, Says ‘People Who See 3D Can’t Get Enough Of It’
- iSAVE: Airbags Attached To The Outside Of Cars
- Plex Inks A Deal With LG, Could Be The Start Of Something Huge For Both Companies
- Video: Just Some Kids And A Rube Goldberg Contraption
- The Samsung Galaxy Tab Can Set Its Own Price, No Need To Directly Compete With The iPad’s $500 Price
- Video: Thanko’s New Spy Watch Is Waterproof
- Logitech Outs Three New PC Gamepads For Your Enjoyment
- Sony Presents Two Great (And Expensive) Headphones
| Video Impressions Of Google TV On Logitech Revue Hardware Posted: 03 Sep 2010 05:26 PM PDT
The interface looks more or less the same as when it was introduced: nested menu items starting on the left, search bar able to be evoked at any time. There are a few minor visual differences, for instance the bookmarks layout and thumbnails have been tweaked. Interestingly, “Applications” is listed twice.
The “What’s On TV” category looks handy; apparently it works as long as your cable or satellite provider has some category metadata, which is most if not all of them. I also note an Amazon menu item, which means you’ll be able to get those 99c TV downloads we heard about almost immediately after the Apple TV announcement. I pictured a world without two data pipes coming into your house, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen just yet. This is too effective a way to watch regular TV.
Navigation is effected with the keyboard pictured above, which has a built-in trackpad and d-pad, or via any Harmony controller, including the Harmony Connect app.
The Logitech hardware looks solid; I like the two USB ports plus HDMI in. That means sharing what you’ve got around the house, be it on your camcorder or a five-year-old USB drive. Unfortunately our narrator did not demonstrate anything as far as searching or navigating recorded shows, or talk about the experience of having shows backed up to the cloud. Let’s hope for a sequel. I have to say, it’s looking pretty nice. I doubt it will cost as little as the Apple TV, but I wouldn’t put it beyond Google to work something out by which it is very competitive. After all, it stands to make a lot of money off owning your TV as well as your browser, your email, your phone, and… you know, your everything. [via Engadget]
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| Why Is There A Pony In The Apple Store? Posted: 03 Sep 2010 03:52 PM PDT |
| Klipsch Shows Off Ruggedized In-Ears, First Over-Ear Headphones Posted: 03 Sep 2010 03:45 PM PDT
The ones I’m most excited about are the Image S5i Rugged (top). The S5i is a nice mid-to-high-end pair of headphones designed for use with your iPhone. The new version is “extremely durable” and has a moisture-resistant rubberized in-line remote. These aren’t waterproof or bulletproof or anything, but you won’t have to worry about sweat or rain ruining your favorite pair of in-ears. They’ll be $130.
The Image One is the first pair of traditional “on-ear” headphones from Klipsch. They too work with the iPhone and have in-line controls. We’re going to have to check these out; debut products like this are always interesting. $150 for these; they and the S5is will be available in November. There is also a cheaper pair of in-ears being announced, the Image S3, for $50. They don’t sound too exciting — probably decent, but eh. I think good headphones are one of the things worth dropping a little cash on. Here’s the full press release, if you’re interested.
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| A Closer Look At Apple’s Latest Patents Posted: 03 Sep 2010 02:35 PM PDT
I’m not going to get in the habit of analyzing in detail every patent that comes our way, but in light of recent lawsuits and all the noise being made about software patents specifically, it seems worthwhile to take a closer peek now and then.  7,788,582 (filed September 6, 2005): This appears to be a patent for part of the cascading “search assistant” in iTunes, which lets you narrow your search to one of several categories (music, videos, podcasts, and “all” are claimed), and presents dependent parameters like artist, author, etc., to further limit search results. It’s no secret that many popular players have adopted this type of search, but if Apple decides to take them up on it, it may be that trivial changes or improvements will be all that is warranted to make others’ search methods distinct. 7,788,248 (filed March 8, 2005): This patent claims a method for automatically displaying search results when a user is typing into a search box if the user pauses or hits space. There are also claims for UI elements for setting parameters like search delay manually. The claims list is quite long, but much of it is boilerplate pertaining to including the keyboard, computer, and code in the patent. Obviously Google and others have been using this for some time (Apple in fact uses Google as their example in the illustrations); I wouldn’t be surprised if live search results have appeared in other, earlier patents. Apple’s appears to be limited to “an internet search engine,” but does that refer to any search engine accessed through a browser, or what? If this is a piggyback service offered through Safari, it would make more sense (i.e. automatically submitting search queries multiple times client-side instead of server-side displaying results for partial input). 7,788,656 (filed December 15, 2005): A technical patent for reducing GPU or CPU load when performing transformations on an image. Essentially combines two filters or other operations, eliminating redundant calculations and storage. It appears to combine to produce a third program program procedurally. This would accelerate color corrections in video and photo editing. Pretty cut and dry.
7,788,585: More editing-related claims, this time for a user-friendly way to do split editing — i.e. separately editing video and audio from adjacent or overlapping clips. Nothing too interesting here.
I’m guessing these are only a few of hundreds of similar patents Apple has regarding UI items for OS X and iOS. It’s probably not an unreasonable assumption to consider this group a representative sample: the rest probably shares a similar proportion of well-deserved, questionable, and absurd claims. Of course, what matters is whether Apple will be satisfied to let these lie as protective against exact duplication, or whether they will start suing people for using rollover graphics in their icons. It’s worth noting that most large companies file many patents and likely (as a commenter notes below) also have good and bad ones. Apple’s just happened to be granted in a bundle this week, so I thought I’d examine them. Again, I am not a lawyer, and these are just my impressions on looking at the claims and illustrations provided. I didn’t look into the referenced patents and whatnot, but I felt my summary of the claims might actually be more informative than the baked-in descriptions.
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| Not-so-Stealthy StealthArmor: COLOR Series giveaway Posted: 03 Sep 2010 01:50 PM PDT
How do you win? Simply leave a comment on this post telling us what clever nickname you’ll now use for your colored device. That green iPad is clearly a lilly pad, right? Be creative, gang. Be sure to use your real email address when you comment, so that we can send you an email to let you know you’ve won. The winner gets to pick the color of their choice, for the product of their choice (iPhone or iPad). We’ll pick three random winners on Monday afternoon. Here’s the full press release:
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| Looks Like Dyson, Priced Like A Knock-off, Still Blows Posted: 03 Sep 2010 01:30 PM PDT
So they changed the color, removed that pesky logo, and now you too can have a desk fan that doesn’t use blades. The buttons are in the same place, and the fan will probably work the same way as the Dyson. It’s still expensive though – the real version is $300, the knockoff is still a wallet draining $223. For $75, you can have the real thing. I’m guessing you won’t find this fan in any US retail outlets, though I’m sure you can find it for sale on the internet if you look hard enough. [via Crave]
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| Confirmed! Duke Nukem Forever Coming To Consoles And PCs, Playable At PAX Posted: 03 Sep 2010 12:36 PM PDT The hints from yesterday and really obvious hint from today were not nonsense. Duke Nukem Forever is being finished by Gearbox, who confirmed in a Wall Street Journal report that they have “put the pieces together” and intend to release the game next year.
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| Come to the Dock Side, Luke: R2-D2 Edition Droid 2 gets its own matching dock Posted: 03 Sep 2010 12:31 PM PDT
Verizon’s got this crazy challenge going on over at the teaser page for the R2-D2 Edition Droid 2, wherein users are given clues that lead to special codes. Once one person finds and inputs one of these special codes, everyone gains access to a new section of the site, and the original finder scores themselves a free handset. Fortunately for D2-devotees everywhere, the force was strong with a gent known only as David H.
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| Twee Altoids Tin BBQ Grill For Micro-Cookouts Posted: 03 Sep 2010 12:08 PM PDT
[via Laughing Squid and Gizmodo]
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| O2 Now Beaming Android 2.1 To Awaiting Dell Streaks Posted: 03 Sep 2010 11:27 AM PDT
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| IFA 2010 Video: Plex Running On LG TV Posted: 03 Sep 2010 11:00 AM PDT Plex, taking over the world. Only a few days after releasing Plex/Nine and Plex for iOS, the media center announced a partnership with LG to include a version of the software on its Internet-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players. But you knew that already. Wouldn’t you know it, I have here a brief video demo. Who loves ya? The deal basically means that you’ll soon be able to find the familiar Plex interface, and plug-ins, on LG’s TVs. You can view Internet content right on your TV, using only your TV, or have your TV network with a Plex instance running on your computer.
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| Duke Nukem Forever Somewhat Confirmed For PAX (Really) Posted: 03 Sep 2010 10:48 AM PDT
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| ESPN Thanks Sony For ESPN 3D Help, Says ‘People Who See 3D Can’t Get Enough Of It’ Posted: 03 Sep 2010 10:00 AM PDT
Without Sony's support ESPN "probably would not have launched" ESPN 3D. So said Bryan Burns, Vice-President of ESPN, at IFA earlier today. Burns, talking before a reasonably crowded auditorium, reiterated ESPN’s commitment to 3D sports broadcasting while fully recognizing what we’ve all been going on about for months now: nobody’s going to buy an expensive 3D TV—have you seen the unemployment numbers of late?—when there’s nearly zero 3D content to be found. Burns—and perhaps this is indicative of ESPN as a whole—seemingly forgot he was talking before a primarily European audience, with the 3D sports chosen to highlight including American college football and the Harlem Globetrotters. Pretty sure no one in Europe gives a toss about either of those, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re in Europe, and show footage of the World Cup? Maybe one or two of the German goals, you know? No, let’s keep showing clips of Some College against Some Other College, that’ll keep the Europeans interested. Perhaps Sky should host a press conference in Iowa and shows scenes of a Liverpool darts competition. ESPN, Burns noted, launched HDTV service back in 2002, and it wasn’t until enough HD content was available that its viewers began to buy HDTVs. That matters quite a bit because, on the whole, sports fans tend to be, if not the early adopters, then the trend-setters when it comes to home entertainment. Show a person a nature documentary in HD (or 3D) and you might get a polite shrug. Show that same person an NFL game or a World Cup game and they’ll say, "Now that’s awesome~!" An interesting stat: still only 63 percent of households in the U.S. have an HDTV (and of those, 83 percent watch sports in HD). That leaves 37 percent of the households out there haven’t upgraded from their SDTV to an HDTV—perhaps they’ll skip HDTV and go straight to 3DTV? (Not at these prices, they won’t, the average price of a 3DTV currently projected to be in the $800s by 2015.) ESPN 3D currently broadcasts to 60 million homes, including the addition of 15 or so million that will now have the channel on Time Warner. "People who have seen 3D can’t get enough of it," said Burns, no doubt looking forward to next week’s mass in-store demo. That’s right: next week, more than 1,000 retail stores in the U.S. will show ESPN 3D. And since ESPN "simply cannot avoid 3D," they’d better hope people see those 3D images and lose their minds in a giant OMG I NEED THIS flurry of excitement.
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| iSAVE: Airbags Attached To The Outside Of Cars Posted: 03 Sep 2010 08:40 AM PDT
I am not sure if this is a good way to protect pedestrians, but a team of Japanese researchers developed them: airbags for use on the outside of vehicles. It may sound bizarre at first, but this is not some silly experiment. The air bags (or special car body panels, to be more exact) are the brain child of several Hiroshima-based companies and the local university. Dubbed iSAVE (sigh…), the airbags deflate rapidly upon impact, just like conventional airbags, to soften the effects of a crash for pedestrians. The prototype car equipped with iSAVE that you can see on the pic above was shown earlier this week and is said to be the first of its kind. iSAVE can be used with electric cars only. The research team behind the airbags says it expects to sell up to 50 units by year end for 3-wheeled cars before fully commercializing them in 2011 for four-wheeled vehicles. The iSAVE system for 4-wheeled cars will likely be priced at $17,800. Sorry to say there’s no video available at this point (I looked everywhere). Via Asahi Shimbun [JP]
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| Plex Inks A Deal With LG, Could Be The Start Of Something Huge For Both Companies Posted: 03 Sep 2010 08:11 AM PDT
After all, Plex already works with Netflix, Hulu, BBC’s iPlayer, and supports playback of just about every media format ever created via the best interface in the business. There’s even an iOS remote viewing app coming soon. Forget about having an extra box sitting on your TV stand just to stream random content, it’s going to be built into your HDTV. Welcome to the future, ladies and gentleman. Plex is not only gorgeous, but also robust. The underpinnings have been around for most of this decade as it’s built on Mplayer, the same basis for Boxee and others. It can playback nearly anything, including 1080p content with ease. It’s traditionally a Mac-only program, but this partnership with LG makes our mind swirl with all sorts of possibilities. Chances are the software will be included as an App within the LG products and the whole TV or Blu-ray player itself will not run on Plex — although that would be astounding. However, having Plex integrated within the TV will eliminate the need for other boxes such as the Apple TV or Boxee Box because the TV itself will actually have more functions. Hopefully there will be enough raw processing power to provide a smooth interface and the same sort of media playback. Without that, most of the appeal would be lost. The LG HDTVs and Blu-ray players are scheduled for a 2011 launch and will no doubt be one of the highlights of the company’s CES 2011 booth. Hopefully the deal isn’t exclusive to LG and deals with other manufacturers are coming soon as well. PLEX TO ENABLE NEXT GENERATION OF NETCAST™ CONNECTED TV'S San Francisco, CA & Berlin, Germany (IFA) – September 3, 2010 – Today, Plex (www.plexapp.com), a leading software provider of an open platform for media management and consumption, announced the availability of the newest version of Plex, the first open, three-screen media platform (PC, TV and mobile) designed to simplify and improve the way people experience personal, commercial and streaming content sources across a range of connected devices. Additionally, Plex revealed that LG Electronics will be integrating the Plex platform technology into its 2011 Netcast™ enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray devices, making media and applications accessible through a range of products. "After considering many alternative solutions, LG Electronics chose to utilize Plex's media server platform technology as a part of its next generation NetCast™ enabled home entertainment products because of the breadth of available applications and content and the ease of developing new services," said Hojun Nam, Director of LCD TV R&D at LG Electronics. "Plex's capabilities offer our customers' additional methods of displaying their content on LG's next generation TVs and that is exciting to us." With its rapidly expanding open platform, Plex is the first and only truly comprehensive digital media management solution that spans both personal and online content. The solution's simple-to-use and intuitive user interface allows consumers to search, navigate, consume, store and sync digital content from multiple platforms and devices. It requires no additional hardware or technology knowledge, ensuring even the most novice user will easily be able to access their favorite TV programs, movies, photos and more – no matter where they are or what device they want to access it with. "Plex was developed to provide a simple solution for navigating an increasingly complex digital media landscape. As our access to a greater variety of high-quality content continues to grow and we create more of our own content, it is clear that we need a new way to enjoy and provide a consistent experience across the expanding universe of disparate content sources," said Cayce Ullman, CEO and co-founder, Plex. "Plex enables LG to more easily offer a wide variety of content sources to consumers using the NetCast™ services." Compatibility with mainstream mobile devices, such as iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone products, and soon to be announced Android based products including mobile phones and tablets, ensures that the Plex solution is the industry's first truly integrated three-screen media platform, allowing a seamless experience across devices and media sources. Plex's mobile compatibility also allows users access to their content from anywhere, making content consumption and management seamless across all device types – whenever and wherever users prefer. "We've been working hard to build this killer platform, and we have an amazing community who has enabled access to over one hundred online content sources to date" noted Elan Feingold, CTO and co-founder, Plex. "It's exciting that this content will now be available in a seamless manner on LG's 2011 NetCast™ enabled TVs and Blu-ray players." Third-party developers and owners of content have the ability to develop Plex plug-ins, which will then be available to all Plex users across all devices. Currently, there are nearly 200 plug-ins available through Plex's service including iTunes, Netflix, CNN, Revision3, YouTube, and many others. Plex for OS X is downloadable for free, with a Windows version to be available later this year. For more information, please visit www.plexapp.com.
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| Video: Just Some Kids And A Rube Goldberg Contraption Posted: 03 Sep 2010 07:47 AM PDT How did your kids spend the summer? Mine? So far by watching Phineas And Ferb about a thousand times, but this video has inspired me to build a Rube Goldberg machine over the holiday weekend. I doubt you’ll ever find a group of kids so happy about putting a beach ball in a bucket. Awesome. [via Gearlog]
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| The Samsung Galaxy Tab Can Set Its Own Price, No Need To Directly Compete With The iPad’s $500 Price Posted: 03 Sep 2010 07:24 AM PDT
Rumors have popped up over the last 24 hours about the Tab’s price. Some European retailer’s pricing has leaked out although Samsung is saying it’s all speculative because the official pricing hasn’t been announced just yet. But still, it makes you think. The pricing ranges from €699 ($890) to €799 ($1,020) for the 16GB and 32GB respectively. Remember, the Galaxy Tab comes with a 3G modem and there likely will not be a WiFi-only model because Google requires cellular capability for the Android Market. But for a quick minute, forget that the iPad offers a bigger screen and twice the storage for the same price. It doesn’t matter. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is something special. It might not be special enough to be called an iPad-killer, but seems to be everything we want in an Android tablet. It’s sexy, powerful, and versatile. In fact, it makes me hopefully that Android tablets have a chance to sneak some marketshare away from the iPad. It’s that nice and why Samsung can pretty much price it however the company wants. But the pricing will write the Tab’s future. The iPad was an instant hit because of its near-impulse $500 price. Of course Samsung will move more Tabs if the price is lower, but more importantly, a higher price will push the tablet away from the mainstream crowd and into a niche market. That’s probably fine for the Tab itself as there are no doubt enough rabid Android fanboys that have waited for a proper tablet to make it ultimately successful, but the niche market isn’t where Android tablets deserve to be. Android is finally becoming a proper mobile OS. I still feel it’s more “work” living with an Android phone than an iPhone or BlackBerry device, but the sheer capabilities are being refined and better packaged as manufacturers learn the system. Eventually Android will be superior to even iOS, but consumers are fickle and for better or worse, it’s up to the Tab to show the world that an Android tablet can work. Samsung’s been quiet about the Tab’s price and launch details, but it seems that the Tab will get a world-wide launch. It’s being showcased at IFA in Europe and Samsung is a major force in Asia. Even here in the states there’s been rumors that it will launch sometime soon on CDMA carries of Verizon and Sprint. No doubt the Tab will be available for direct purchase in Europe and Asia just like most cell phones, while it seems as if it will be available via carrier subsidies in the US. It just feels as if Samsung is prepping for a multi-market launch, which is a bit different from the iPad’s slow roll-out and probably possible because of the Tab’s lower sales estimates. Let’s not forget Samsung knows what it’s doing. High or low, the Galaxy Tab will probably be priced right. Now, this price might not be right per your expectations, but rather the bean counters at Samsung who know a little more about these things than us.
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| Video: Thanko’s New Spy Watch Is Waterproof Posted: 03 Sep 2010 06:40 AM PDT
For reasons unknown, Tokyo-based accessory maker Thanko keeps churning out “spy” gadgets. This time we get a watch [JP] that looks quite bland from the outside but features a micro camera that can shoot both pictures and video. Another selling point is that it’s Thanko’s first spy watch that’s waterproof (IPX8 certification) – isn’t that great?
Videos can be recorded in 640×480 resolution at 30fps, while the watch shoots JPEGs in up to 1,600×1,200 resolution. Other features include 4GB of internal memory, a USB port, and compatibility to computers with Windows XP / Vista / 7 / Mac OS 10.5 on board.
The watch, which weighs 86g, can be ordered over at Geek Stuff 4 U for $158.95. Here’s a video that was shot with it:
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| Logitech Outs Three New PC Gamepads For Your Enjoyment Posted: 03 Sep 2010 06:07 AM PDT
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| Sony Presents Two Great (And Expensive) Headphones Posted: 03 Sep 2010 05:40 AM PDT
Sony in Japan introduced [JP] two high-end headphones today, the MDR-Z1000 and the MDR-EX1000 (an in-ear model). And both models boast some pretty good specs. The MDR-Z1000, which is pictured above, features 5Hz – 80kHz frequency response, 24Ω impedance, and 108dB/mW sensitivity. Here’s another shot of the MDR-Z1000:
The in-ear MDR-EX1000 (pictured below) features 5Hz – 30kHz frequency response, 32Ω impedance, and 108dB/mW sensitivity.
The MDR-Z1000 will hit Japanese stores on November 10, while the EX1000 goes on sale on October 23. Both models will carry the same price tag: $735.
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Not content to stick to the cheap imitation of tablets and other computers, the clever copiers at Abiko have produced a “homage” model of the Dyson bladeless fan. Keep in mind that the knock off isn’t of 
OMG. Look at this: Duke Nukem Forever PAX 
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