CrunchGear |  |
- Revo-Round: Bravely Saving China From the Square-Eye Menace
- Gateway Outs Three Affordable And Good Looking LED LCD Monitors
- MB&F HM3 JwlryMachine Watch
- Daily Crunch: Sun Dance Edition
- Hitatchi Announces Hybrid Optical Drive With SSD
- Qualcomm closes up FLO TV
- The ThinkPad Line Reaching 60 Million Sold Notebooks, Lenovo Celebrates With Modes Updates
- Frito-Lay Pulling Compostable Snack Bags Over Noise
- OLPC Expands Marvell Partnership For XO-3 Tablet
- Exclusive: Panasonic Jumps Back Into Gaming With A New Handheld: The Jungle
- OnLive Drops Monthly Access Fee
- Android gets its own totally unauthorized Windows Phone 7 theme
- Virgin Mobile officially goes Android with the Samsung Intercept
- Sprint Epic 4G bugfix starts rolling out (again)
- Left 4 Dead 2: The Sacrifice Shambling To The Mac Tomorrow
- Are You At Risk For “Toasted Skin Syndrome”?
- Tenba Insert Turns Your Messenger Bag Into A Camera Bag
- The Dube Has Just Made Your Old Percussion Instruments Obsolete
- The iLuv iMM747 Is a Speaker Dock For Your iPad or iPhone
- Video: AlphaUI Lets You Back-Type (Yeah, You’ll Need To Watch The Video)
| Revo-Round: Bravely Saving China From the Square-Eye Menace Posted: 05 Oct 2010 05:11 AM PDT
Yeah, you read that right. Square screens are causing Asians to lose their Epicanthic folds. Before you yell at me, read this:
That is the conclusion of Professor Zhou Hongan. Measurements done in research at around 150 000 Chinese babies in the last twenty years has shown that the position of the eyes relative to the whole face has changed. It seems that the Asian glance will disappear as it takes on more and more Western features. Although the changes are minor and hard to detect, the rate of change of the face is to such an extent that an evolutionary development can be identified. While I agree that the Pepper moth can change over time due to the soot spewing out of London factories during the Industrial Revolution, unless I’m mistaken evolutionary change in humans will not “select” for wider eyes due to computer screen usage, especially in the relatively short period computer screens have existed. It’s not like folks with bigger eyes are reproducing more, especially considering the one child per couple rules in Asia. Either this is an April Fool’s joke or someone really misunderstood Darwin. The specs are crazy too and the manufacturer seems to think this will be a Mac or a PC and that the “roundtop” will be used everywhere monitors are used including “billboards” on the street. We have an email in with these folks and we’ll see what they say. Maybe this is part of some odd, Chinese comedy show.
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| Gateway Outs Three Affordable And Good Looking LED LCD Monitors Posted: 05 Oct 2010 05:00 AM PDT
That makes the FHX series the must-buy, right? Well, no. If you’re not gaming, you may want to sacrifice the extra milliseconds and one inch. Why? Well, look at it. It’s embedded above. The FHX model looks down right pedestrian in comparison. NEW GATEWAY HIGH-DEFINITION, ULTRA-SLIM LED MONITORS DELIVER CRISP VISUAL QUALITY, POWER EFFICIENCY AND STYLISH DESIGNS IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 5, 2010 — Gateway today introduced three new high-definition LED The Gateway displays are available in three sizes – the Gateway FHX models are available "These new Gateway monitors give consumers a choice in style and functionality when Cutting-Edge Features and Sleek Design Additionally, the Gateway FHX models feature a rapid 2ms response times and the Gateway Each of the new displays ensure easy connectivity to home entertainment devices and office Combining style and functionality, the Gateway FHD2303L display was designed with finished in aluminum and black, which contrasts nicely with the slim base and panel. Earth-Friendly and Energy-Saving Technologies All of the new displays are RoHS and ENERGY STAR® qualified, the latest and most widely For consumers with community recycling programs, the monitors all come in highly recyclable Pricing and Availability
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| Posted: 05 Oct 2010 04:01 AM PDT  For the final exciting iteration of the Horological Machine No. 3, MB&F has partnered with world-renowned Boucheron to create the JwlryMachine. Swiss MB&F who celebrates the art of the machine combines their technology with French Boucheron who celebrates the art of jewelry. The result is an incredible work of three-dimensional art that will be made to order for those who want to add this stunning luxury to their collection.
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| Daily Crunch: Sun Dance Edition Posted: 05 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT |
| Hitatchi Announces Hybrid Optical Drive With SSD Posted: 04 Oct 2010 09:30 PM PDT
[via Akihabara News]
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| Posted: 04 Oct 2010 09:19 PM PDT
Well, it seems that Qualcomm have given up on the idea of selling it, as — according to Paid Content — president Bill Stone told staff last week that the consumer-direct service will wind down by the end of the year. The majority of FLO TV’s customers actually come from their “white label” wholesale service, which carriers use to create their own branded mobile TV service. This service will continue for now, however, Qualcomm are in negotiations with AT&T and Verizon about the future of this service. The most valuable asset that Qualcomm holds is the spectrum that FLO TV operates on — currently valued at $2 billion — and it’s possible that they will lease this spectrum out to other service/content providers. The demise of the service is blamed on the abundance of video-on-demand streaming services like Netflix and Hulu appearing on ubiquitous handheld devices, and their ability to pick-n-choose content, rather than watch what you’re given. Paid Content have also heard that Qualcomm are looking at ways to compensate current customers. [via Mobile Beat]
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| The ThinkPad Line Reaching 60 Million Sold Notebooks, Lenovo Celebrates With Modes Updates Posted: 04 Oct 2010 09:01 PM PDT
The ThinkPad has long been looked upon as the standard of PC notebooks. Partly because the line has been a staple since 1992, but also because they’re just so damn good. The notebook line will hit the 60 million mark sometime this month. That’s impressive and an achievement that should be celebrated with a bit of booze and bonuses for everyone involved. But Lenovo, the current owner of the brand after buying the rights from IBM in 2005, is keeping the line rolling towards the 100 million milestone with some nice updates. Hello, Nvidia Optimus.
Starting today, ThinkPad T410, T410s and T510 notebooks will be available with the Nivida Optimus technology. This platform allows the notebooks to seamlessly switch between high performance and energy saving modes. The result is 33% longer battery life, which Lenovo points out is about an extra hour of battery life. The refreshed notebooks are available starting today from Lenovo retailers with the T410 going for $1,299 and the $1,849 for the T410s. Lenovo Reaches Major Milestone – 60 Million ThinkPad Laptops Sold Introduces Industry's First Business-Focused Laptops with NVIDIA Optimus Technology RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – October 5, 2010: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced that sales of ThinkPad laptops will surpass 60 million this month. More than 14 ThinkPad laptops are now sold every 60 seconds, contributing to Lenovo's position as the fastest growing major PC company1. Throughout its evolution, begun 18 years ago to date, ThinkPad has recorded many ground-breaking innovation firsts like the first spill resistant keyboard and protective roll cage. Also today, Lenovo is elevating graphics performance by adding NVIDIA Optimus technology on ThinkPad T410, T410s and T510 laptops. "Long recognized as a hallmark for innovation and excellence, ThinkPad has been the trusted laptop brand for business users around the world for nearly two decades," said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Think Product Group, Lenovo. "With Lenovo, ThinkPad has grown even stronger for quality, reliability and performance, and we'll continue to drive our commitment to innovation further as we design future ThinkPad laptops." Record of Innovation · First modern laptop to fly in space · First with a spill-resistant keyboard · First with built-in CD-ROM · First with built-in DVD-ROM · First with built-in wireless · First with embedded security subsystem · First with built-in fingerprint reader · First dual screen mobile workstation Watch, Play and Win with ThinkPad in October Log onto Lenovo's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lenovo) to match major ThinkPad milestones to their date in history for a chance to win a ThinkPad laptop. Learn more at this page and watch a video about past and present innovations and what the future holds for ThinkPad design. And read personal stories about users' oldest ThinkPad laptops at Lenovo Blogs. Killer Graphics Performance Plus Extreme Battery Life "New technologies like NVIDIA Optimus are making ThinkPads even smarter," said Rene Haas, general manager, Notebook Products, NVIDIA. "Never before has there been a solution that so effectively eliminates the tradeoffs between riveting graphics performance and long battery life. Visual content is the most popular and important form of data today, and we've built the NVIDIA NVS 3100M graphics processor to be the perfect processor for the task." Visit Lenovo's Optimus website and Lenovo Blogs for more information. Pricing and Availability3 For the latest Lenovo news, subscribe to Lenovo RSS feeds or follow Lenovo on Twitter and Facebook. About Lenovo 1Based on IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker for 2Q 2010 compared to Dell, HP, Acer, Apple and Toshiba.
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| Frito-Lay Pulling Compostable Snack Bags Over Noise Posted: 04 Oct 2010 06:31 PM PDT
One of the writers at the Inspired Economist wrote to Frito-Lay to find out what the bags are made of. Frito-Lay responded that they were discontinuing the packaging. The new bags were 100% compostable, but the Frito-Lay website says they received so much feedback about the amount of noise when customers opened the bag that they decided to pull the packaging. The good news is that Frito-Lay is working on an improved version of the compostable packaging that will be quieter, just to hush up the whiners, so to speak. Good for Frito-Lay for coming out with a compostable product, and shame on people for whining about the bag being too loud. Seriously people?
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| OLPC Expands Marvell Partnership For XO-3 Tablet Posted: 04 Oct 2010 05:30 PM PDT
Marvell’s Moby tablet platform is already one of the leaders in low-cost tablet computing (for what that’s worth), and was already partnering with OLPC, but this will make it more solid than ever. The other major partnership appears to be with Pixel Qi, with which OLPC has had a close but tumultuous relationship over the years. They’ll be showing something at CES, but not the XO-3 tablet, though Marvell may show off their version of it, which is scheduled to be released first. We’ll be there to tell you either way.
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| Exclusive: Panasonic Jumps Back Into Gaming With A New Handheld: The Jungle Posted: 04 Oct 2010 05:00 PM PDT
With the iPhone and iPod Touch taking over bigger chunks of the portable gaming market each quarter and giants like Sony and Nintendo doing everything in their power to cling on to what they can, it seems pretty crazy to get into the portable gaming space right now. Well, someone call up the nut-house, because we’ve got a new contender: Panasonic. Yep. Almost 15 years after their 3DO gaming console (remember that?) suffered an early death, Panasonic is dipping their toes back into the gaming waters with the launch of a new Online Gaming-focused business segment called Panasonic Cloud Entertainment (or, as they call it, PCENT, which is an acronym I don’t think anyone on the product naming team tried reading aloud), with plans to launch at least one device — tentatively known as “The Jungle”.
Panasonic is keeping their cards really close to their chest here, as they’re seemingly not quite ready to completely announce it. With that said, we’ve been sent a copy of the text that should be going live at TheJungle.com later today, along with a copy of a video that will be embedded on the page. Here’s everything we know so far:
Check out the screenshots we grabbed (and brightened) from the video, which should be going live later this evening. We’ll have an embedded version of the video soon. Update: And here’s the video
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| OnLive Drops Monthly Access Fee Posted: 04 Oct 2010 03:00 PM PDT
You can sign up for a free trial right now, and see how the system works on a few demos before buying a “pass” to play the games for real. With no monthly fee, I can really see this working, as long as you don’t mind the inevitable video quality and lag issues. They keep saying it’s not a problem, but buddy, they’re not fooling anybody. It’s a nice alternative to spending $50 every week or two on a new game you’ll beat over the weekend.
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| Android gets its own totally unauthorized Windows Phone 7 theme Posted: 04 Oct 2010 02:30 PM PDT
Tired of your Android phone not looking vaguely like Windows Phone 7? Don’t worry — sometimes I go through crazy-spells, too. In a classic act of “because we can”, some resourceful modders have tossed together an Android skin thats sure to rub a few people in Redmond the wrong way. Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>
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| Virgin Mobile officially goes Android with the Samsung Intercept Posted: 04 Oct 2010 02:10 PM PDT
The marriage of Android with a pre-paid US carrier isn’t a brand new idea; Boost Mobile did it with the Motorola i1 a few months ago. Just because an idea isn’t brand new, however, doesn’t mean it’s not exciting. I mean, come on: an Android phone for $30 bucks a month? I’ll take one for each hand.. The latest pre-paid carrier to join the Android party? Virgin Mobile. Their weapon of choice? The Samsung Intercept.
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| Sprint Epic 4G bugfix starts rolling out (again) Posted: 04 Oct 2010 02:08 PM PDT  Like all phones, the Sprint Epic 4G wasn’t without some bugs at launch. A good chunk of these bugs (3G upload speeds, WiFi battery issues) were supposed to have been cleared up last week with a bugfix patch — but thanks to some administrative issues, it was all postponed. Well, it seems Sprint’s ready for take two.
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| Left 4 Dead 2: The Sacrifice Shambling To The Mac Tomorrow Posted: 04 Oct 2010 02:00 PM PDT Good news for Mac gamers: Left 4 Dead 2 is coming tomorrow. If you already own it for the PC, you will own it on the Mac. If you don’t own it yet, go buy it. Steam is including all of the previously released DLC as well, so you won’t miss out on any of the L4D2 gaming goodness. From the press release: Left 4 Dead 2 will be released on the Mac Tuesday October 5th. If you already own it on the PC, then you own it on the Mac. All you need to do is install it on your Mac and start playing.If you don't already own it, now is a great time to pick it up. Not only do you get Left 4 Dead 2 but steam owners get all the previously released DLC for free! So you get the original 5 Campaigns and "The Passing", "The Sacrifice" and "No Mercy." Best of all, there is already a thriving community and excellent community created campaigns waiting for you.Sorry Left 4 Dead owners, the Mac version is coming but we are running a little late. We hope to have it out in time to celebrate Halloween on the Mac. When released, L4D1 Mac players will receive the same great treatment. All the previous released updates and DLC for free and the ability to play an extensive library of community content. More information on the release date as it nears. [via 9to5 Mac]
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| Are You At Risk For “Toasted Skin Syndrome”? Posted: 04 Oct 2010 01:34 PM PDT
The Latin name for the syndrome is erythema ab igne, and it’s getting some attention today because the latest sufferer is only 12. This really brings up a couple things. First, where are the parents?! This kid has a hot laptop on his legs for enough hours a day to cause a rare disorder; don’t you think they might have objected, or at least had the common sense to say “hey, maybe you should have something between your legs and that burning-hot machine?” But no. Second, it’s interesting that it’s such a young kid — the idea that a 12-year-old spent so much time on a computer is indicative of the huge cultural change the world is going through. The crispy leg is also perhaps a suitable metaphor for the other dangers of overexposure to computers. The lesson here is really just to take things off your skin when they feel hot; more to the purpose, though, most laptops hover between 110 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit, so it’s always worthwhile to get a mat or pillow under there, or just work on a table.
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| Tenba Insert Turns Your Messenger Bag Into A Camera Bag Posted: 04 Oct 2010 12:57 PM PDT
It’s nothing fancy, but it may simplify your storage situation. [via Unpluggd and Lifehacker; image: Athlex on Flickr]
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| The Dube Has Just Made Your Old Percussion Instruments Obsolete Posted: 04 Oct 2010 11:45 AM PDT
Ladies and gentleman, please welcome The Dube into your lives. "What’s The Dube?" Glad you asked. It’ the brainchild of former English international Dion Dublin, best known for his goal-scoring ways at Coventry City and Aston Villa. It’s a percussion instrument&fully customizable, yeah?—that’s set to revolutionize~! the way you envision percussion instruments. The Dube is one letter away from its shape—a cube. Clever of me, yes. The point is, inside this self-contained cube is a proper instrument that, according to the blurbs on the site, is 100 percent perfect for all sorts of venues, from classroom music classes to late-night DJ sets. The Dube comes in different sizes, and it starts at just under £160 (around $250) for the 9-inch model. (It tops out at 18 inches.) I sincerely hope The Dube takes off. It’s pretty lame to see something as tepid as Google TV steal headlines today when you’ve got legitimate inventions out there not feeling any love.
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| The iLuv iMM747 Is a Speaker Dock For Your iPad or iPhone Posted: 04 Oct 2010 10:56 AM PDT
Sigh. iPad speaker docks. Asteroid. There isn’t much to this speaker dock. That doesn’t make it a bad, it’s just simple. And that’s fine. Speaker docks should be simple devices. The iLuv iMM747 features a three-way speaker setup with a dedicated radiator subwoofer handling the low-end. The usual iDevice products are dockable, including the iPad. Buy it right from iLuv within the coming weeks for $149.
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| Video: AlphaUI Lets You Back-Type (Yeah, You’ll Need To Watch The Video) Posted: 04 Oct 2010 10:40 AM PDT "I back-type my thoughts." Oh, do you? Pleased to hear it. So, back-typing. (I’m hyphenating the phrase because it’s easier to read that way.) It’s a concept developed by AlphaUI, and it’s supposed to be a brand new way to type, one that more efficiently uses all 10 digits. The video shows off the concept far better than words would be able to explain. What happens is you connect your tablet PC to the device, then type away—excuse me, you back-type away. It’s a little unusual, but that’s only because I’ve never really seen anything like it before. And if you’re so inclined, you can sign up for a beta test of the device. Well, provided you live in Paris or Brussels, where the Alpha UI prize closets are located. That’s why there’s YouTube: you type, I watch. End of.
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Hitatchi announced a new optical drive, a Hybrid SATA III which combines the optical technology with SSD.
Do you remember back in July when we reported that Qualcomm were looking to 
Last year, 
Everyone’s favorite game-streaming service, 
A new scourge threatens a generation of laptop users. “Toasted Skin Sydrome” is the result of having a hot laptop pressed to your skin for hundreds of hours. You say, “sure Devin but can’t they just put a pillow under it?” but I say, “Call the lawyers, we’re suing Blizzard and Dell for gross negligence.”
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