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Daily Crunch: Hip Idea Edition

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

These Schott “Motorcycle Jacket” All-Stars May Put Me Back In Converse

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 07:30 PM PST


These aren’t gadgets exactly, but with all those zippers and leather, you have to admit that they’re gear. I haven’t worn All-Stars in a good 15 years, but these Schott crossovers might be the pair that brings me back to the flock.

They’re made of “motorcycle jacket leather,” which I suppose is just extra thick and tough, and have zippers lining the tongue and on the back. That’s right, these shoes are rear-entry.

Too bad they cost a bundle. $200 is a lot to pay for Chucks, though these will probably last a lot longer than the garden-variety canvas versions. You can pick them up at the Converse First String retail stores.

UI Improvements For Boxee Box Incoming

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 07:12 PM PST


While the interface wasn’t on our list of no-nos in our Boxee Box review, there’s always room for improvement. Boxee has announced in their forums that they’ll be updating the box’s firmware with a few changes that should make it smoother overall.

Here’s what’s going down:

  • An initial setup screen that lets you choose whether Boxee should focus on local content or stuff pulled from the web, addressing a common complaint amongst the geekier crowds that the Boxee Box UI put too much emphasis on web content.
  • More sort and filter options in the browse screens
  • Alphabetical navigation (skip to letters)
  • Mark watched/unwatched, browse only one or the other
  • Hourly and manual scan options

Sounds like a substantial update. Hopefully Boxee will continue to support the software and add features like these.

Files by Genre Hourly Initial Selection


Video: Screw Call Of Duty. All The Cool Kids Play Techno Kitten Adventure.

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 06:02 PM PST

For some inexplicable reason (shock, perhaps), I’m unable to conjure up anything resembling a standard post for this. Instead, I’m going to share the train of thought I had while watching this video. A not-so-live blog, of sorts.

  • [0:00-0:10] Pfft, Black Ops wallpaper. Nerd alert. (Walks over to 360, gets rid of the Black Ops wallpaper its been running for weeks)
  • [0:10] Techno Kitten Adventure, eh? Loading screen.. here it comes.
  • [0:13] Oh.. oh my god.
  • [0:17] Purchased.

I spent the remaning 4 minutes dancing. Does this video need to be nearly 4 1/2 minutes long? Nope. But the Lord Of The Rings trilogy didn’t need to be 9 hours long, either; furry-footed dudes go for a walk, hang out with some little drug-addled hunchback, throw the ring into Mt. Doom, roll credits. (BTW, spoiler alert.) It’s only 80 Xbox credits, which I think works out to like 38 Chuck E. Cheese tickets or something (read: It’s a buck). If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to get my Techno Kitten on.

[Via Reddit]

DIY: Make Your Own TSA Scanner

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 05:30 PM PST


Curious about exactly how the TSA manages to see you naked? Well, the actual technology is pretty high end (and proprietary), but it is possible to come up with something close. The process is quite complicated, and the person who worked out the process hasn’t documented it completely, but you can get the basic idea from the video.

The project uses a hand scanner, as well as multiple feed horns from satellite dishes; one is reversed to transmit, and the others are left as receivers, allowing the radar to see objects at a centimeter level instead of a millimeter level (but it still works). Quite the interesting project really, and it shows how the future of scanning technology may come from the enthusiast sector rather then your typical security sources.

[via Hack A Day]

Playstation Phone “Zeus” In Legit Hands-On Video

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 04:42 PM PST


Earlier in the week we had what I might consider the worst spy video I’ve ever seen, of the so-called Playstation Phone, the Zeus. It looked like it was shot with a featurephone camera with 15x digital zoom. This one, however, is clear and to the point. It shows the Zeus running Gingerbread, responding to the usual pokes and prods… but not running any games or anything in the Z-System we’ve heard rumors of.

Continue reading…

The ONA Union Street Messenger Bag Looks Waxily Amazing

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:55 PM PST


I’ve been on the lookout for a nice waxed canvas messenger bag over the last few weeks, and this one from ONA looks like it might really hit the spot. Waxwear finish, removable laptop compartment, brass fittings… it’s like they pulled it fully formed from my mind.

SlashGear has a nice hands-on, which alerted me to the bag’s existence, and we might even have a review ourselves one of these days.

Of course, it’s expensive: $279. But that’s really par for the course when you’re talking about waxed canvas bags. You can easily pay twice that for a smaller bag if you go for Jack Spade or other high-end retailers. I just can’t get enough of that finish, though! I’d drape myself in waxed canvas if it were socially acceptable. But that might make me look a little too rugged.

TDK’s Retro-Futuristic Boomboxes Look Sweet

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:45 PM PST


TDK recently relaunched itself as a modern tech and audio brand, so stop thinking of them as the people who made your cassette tapes, and start thinking of them as the people who made these awesome boomboxes. These are the coolest digital audio amps I’ve seen since the A-Box. They cost a grip, though, as you might expect.

There are two versions: the “Three-Speaker Boombox” and the “Two-Speaker Boombox.” Can you tell which is which? I knew you could.

The three-speaker one has that dedicated 15W subwoofer channel in between the 10W speakers, there, but the two-speaker one has a shoulder strap for easy portability/bothering bystanders. They both have USB and line in, plus touch-sensitive buttons and a little display for song titles and such.

Too bad the two-speaker one costs $399 and the other one $499. That’s a lot of cash — but at least they look it. The piano black/brass style definitely works. They’ll be available in early 2011.

GE’s 17-Year LED Bulb Now For Sale

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:23 PM PST

Back in April, we heard about GE’s effort at creating The One Bulb for replacing the common 40-60W incandescent. Their design is disturbingly Mordor-esque, but the 17-year lifespan can’t be argued with. We heard they’d be available in early 2011, but it looks like GE just couldn’t wait.

You can buy them now, but be aware that this isn’t a bargain product. Even though they last many times as long as an incandescent, they also cost many times as much. And at $50, they cost more than existing LED bulbs.

GE says that these last longer, use less energy, and distribute light better than Brand X, however, so maybe it’s worth the money. If you’re made of money, that is.

Nook Color SDK Released, Go Get Your Develop On

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 02:27 PM PST

The Nook Color is starting to make minor waves (in spite of my prejudice) as it’s really quite a lot of machine for $250. And now the SDK has been opened up, which should allow the usual suspects to adapt their existing Android apps to the Nook’s hardware.

It’s not like the Nook Color is some undiscovered country, though, filled with exotic future tech. It’s just a mid-range tablet with a nice shell and some custom stacks. And it’s already been hacked to pieces.

Continue reading…

Droid 2 Mysteriously (And Allegedly) Blows Up In Some Guy’s Ear

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 01:14 PM PST

As someone who plays with phones for a living, having a phone blow up in my face is quite honestly one of my worst fears. The list pretty much goes:

      1. Have my passport stolen at some international tradeshow
      2. Show up to CES without pants on
      3. Have a cell phone explode in my face

This guy is (allegedly) living my nightmare. No, no, not the whole CES-without-pants thing; the third one. According to this Fox 4 report (video behind the cut), his Motorola Droid 2 decided to cut his conversation off early.. by bursting (again, allegedly) next to his ear.

Yahtzee on iPhone Games

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 12:46 PM PST

Fish + Knowledge = Octopus!

Apple: Demo Software Won’t Be Allowed On Mac App Store

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 12:00 PM PST


Photo’d

This is no secret, but developers will have to play by Apple’s rules if they want their Apps to live on the Mac App Store in the future. Apple notes that developers should only submit finished products to the store, and that demos or trials of any kind should instead be made available on developers’ Web sites. This may also apply to "lite" editions of Apps.

Or, in Apple’s own words:

Your website is the best place to provide demos, trial versions, or betas of your software for customers to explore. The apps you submit to be reviewed for the Mac App Store should be fully functional, retail versions of your app.

While that does signify a change in the way Apple’s App Store works—clearly the App Store is filled with all sorts of "lite" iPhone software—it may make a little bit of sense when you consider the Mac App Store is dealing with desktop software. You may be willing to put up with a trial version of an iPhone App because, well, it’s "just" an iPhone App, but perhaps Apple doesn’t want the perception to be out there that Mac OS X software is nothing but half-finished demoware and whatnot?

But it does speak to what I alluded to some weeks ago (now featured in a Yale class!), that an Apple-controlled Mac App Store will very much change people’s perception of what Mac OS X software can, and should, be.

I leave it up to you if that’s a or bad thing.

It may also mean that the Mac App Store will be less about free-wheeling exploration of software and more about the simplified delivery of software.

It’s sort of the opposite of what you find on so many e-book stores these days. Many books have at least a chapter available for free to see whether you like it or not.

But, this is Apple’s store, and it can do what it likes. Such is the life of a closed platform.

Well met, traveler. From Parts Unknown, Nicholas Deleon is probably watching the Lazio-Inter game right now. Send well wishes to his Twitter. Or not, whatever.

Our Favorite Things: The World Football Daily Podcast

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 11:45 AM PST

As part of our gift guide stuff this year we’re also doing something called "Our Favorite Things." I think these things can be from all walks of life and not exclusively tech-y. In any event, one of my favorite things, then, is the World Football Daily podcast. I know I’ve mentioned it before in passing, but I guess this is my opportunity to say why it’s one of my Favorite Things™.

World Football Daily (here’s their Twitter) is a daily soccer podcast hosted right here in the US of A. Los Angeles, to be exact. It’s a premium podcast, so you have to cough up something like $40 per year to listen. But really, that works out to 11 cents per day. You couldn’t buy two drops of coffee for 11 cents.

It’s hosted by two fine gentleman, Steven Cohen, by way of England, and Kenny Hassan, by way of Scotland. I am in agreement with Cohen that this incarnation of FC Barcelona is one of the best teams in history. It’s certainly the best team I’ve ever seen. It’s kinda difficult to watch some random, mid-table Premier League game after having seen Barcelona over the past three years.

I guess I could consider myself a longtime listener, going back several years to its swinging bachelor days on Sirius.

The best is that it’s not just a podcast where the hosts blather on and on about their chosen subject, something endemic to many podcasts out there, but they actually talk to people. Proper soccer journalists—off the top of my head, you’ve got Phil Ball, Andy Brassell, Tim Vickery, Oliver Kay, and Neil Ashton—to talk about the sport.

If none of those names mean anything to you, well, that’s why you listen to the show. Trust me when I say these guys, and all the other guests they have, truly know their stuff.

Yesterday they had some English sports-business guy who tried to explain why Fifa picked Russia ahead of England to host the 2018 World Cup. Just as Formula 1 is now looking eastward to new markets, so, too, is Fifa. What’s so wrong about wanting to build up the game in Russia?

Same thing with Qatar. I laugh at people who think Qatar won’t have the most advanced stadiums in the world at the 2022 World Cup, or that somehow the tournament will now be an unmitigated disaster just because it’s hosted in the Middle East. Again, F1 says hi, and I don’t see Bernie Ecclestone complaining about the facilities over there.

More to the point, it’s the World Cup, not the Western World Cup. Spread that baby around! Spending a few weeks in a place I’ve never been before sounds infinitely more exciting than riding the Path train from Penn Station to Red Bull Arena again.

But yeah, World Football Daily is certainly one of my Favorite Things™ out there, and I highly recommend it.

Well met, traveler. From Parts Unknown, Nicholas Deleon has already run out of clever things to say down here. But this is his Twitter. It’s shiny.

Sega’s Golden Axe for iPhone Finally Worthy Of Its Name, Gets Co-Op Play

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 11:22 AM PST

You kids today (I’m in my mid-20s, which as everyone knows is the age at which you get to start speaking condescendingly about your youth) and your real-time multiplayer co-op gaming at home. Halo? Pffft. Lego Star Wars? Bah! In my day, we had to tromp our arses over to an arcade to find a machine capable of handling all that multi-person action at once. All I needed were a few buds, a pocket of quarters, and a Golden Axe machine, and I was set.

That’s why I’m beyond jazzed about some news out of Sega HQ this morning…

Read the rest at MobileCrunch, and we’ll slay Death Adder together >>

Our Favorite Things: Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 11:18 AM PST


Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke
MSRP: $25
Product Page
Good For: People who love thoughtful graphic novels like 100 Bullets and American Splendor
Could Be Good For: Mystery and thriller fans.
Not for: Anime fans

The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke is based on Richard Stark’s Parker novels. Set in the roaring ’50s, Parker is a career criminal who only hurts the folks who deserve it. The closest cultural analog would be a noble ninja, righting wrongs and getting a piece on the side for himself. This book takes one of the early books in the series and turns it into a graphic novel that takes its artistic queues from 1950s poster art, road maps, and advertising. It is, in short, one of the best comic adaptions of a novel I’ve read.


The same artist created a version of The Hunter,, the first Parker book. If you’ve seen the movies Point Blank with Lee Marvin or Payback with Mel Gibson, you’ve basically seen this story. If you’re not into graphic novels, check out the books. Great stuff.

Must Watch: The Back To The Future Video Game Debut Trailer

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 10:32 AM PST

Just watch and be amazed that the kid doing the voice work for Marty McFly isn’t Michael J. Fox, but rather some kid named. A. J. Locascio. Oh, and yeah, the game will either be a hit or a miss. Probably a miss.

Wikileaks Now Fighting Its DNS Provider. Some Coincidence, No?

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 09:30 AM PST

Another day, another bit of Wikileaks. It seems The Guardian slightly misunderstood the way the Internet works in claiming that Wikileaks had its domain name revoked by its hosts. Not quite. What seems to have happened is that its DNS server has stopped providing the DNS service. The domain name is still there, handled by Dynadot, it’s just that Wikileaks would need to find someone else to handle the DNS translation.

Of course, this is until Dynadot, which is US-based, feels the pressure for keeping the Wikileaks name flying high.

The moral of the story is, don’t upset Uncle Sam. He doesn’t like it when his actions, done in the name of the citizens of the United States, are exposed to those very citizens. That’s crazy talk.

Openness = bad.

Assange has actually conducted an interview on the Guardian, too, that may be worth your time.

I see this playing out much the way mass online piracy has played out. You take out Napster, Kazaa and Gnutella pop up. Those die, then there’e eDonkey. That dies, up pops BitTorrent-based distribution. Then release blogs, Rapidshare and Hotfile.

Should Wikileaks die—and who really doesn’t expect that at this point?—I’d be shocked if TwitterLeaks (or whatever) doesn’t pop up.

It’s very difficult to kill an idea, is all.

Well met, traveller. From Parts Unknown, Nicholas Deleon is happy to see that justice was served in Chael Sonnen’s California State Athletic Commission hearing yesterday. He would have tweeted it, but who’d listen? Nobody, hopefully.

Beijing Customs Hadoukened 10,000 Knockoff Phones And Watches Yesterday

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 09:00 AM PST


Did you feel a slight tremor in the Force yesterday? That was Chinese custom hitmen bringing the banhammer down on 10,000 knockoff phones and watches collected since 2009. Actually, the destruction was carried out by a hydraulic punch to disable, but also preserve the phone for recycling. The smashing party included virtual Whos Who of products, too. Products were present supposedly from Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Nokia, Rolex, Patek Philippe, and nearly any company that carries a good name that some Chinese manufacturing house can rip. If post-recycling wasn’t a requirement, this shredder would have made quick work of the devices, but you know, the treehuggers need their warm fuzzies. (Avoid Google Image Searching warm fuzzies, btw. NSFW)

These cell phones and watches are just a small portion of the counterband seized by Chinese authorities who have taken around 6.5 million pieces of goods from baddies since just 2005. That’s a street value of 145 million RMB or 21 million US dollars. [M.I.C. Gadget via Tech.163]

Matt Burns loves writing, gadgets, and puppies. Stalk him on Twitter or contact him direct at Matt@CrunchGear.com.

1 Million Galaxy Tabs Sold: W2G Samsung!

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 08:30 AM PST

Well look at that! Samsung just sold 1 million units, which isn’t too shabby. We liked the Gal Tab plenty, so it’s good that it’s gaining some traction.

Samsung hopes to sell at least 1.5 million by the end of the year, a noble goal.

via Daum via UnwiredReview


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