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Go Back To The Future Doc And Marty With This iPhone 4 Flux Capacitor Decal

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 05:23 AM PST


Time circuits on. Flux capacitor iPhone 4 decal… fluxxing. Engine running. All right! $6 on Etsy. [via Geeky-Gadgets]

Presenting The Poop Phone

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 05:21 AM PST


According to one of our Asia contacts, there is a range of phones in China by a manufacturer called OPPO and they’re selling quite well. Not to be outdone, members of the Shanzai have created a knock-off model for those who want a little class in their lives. Not content to just copy verbatim, they changed things a round a bit to create the exciting new POOP line of cellphones.

No word on feature set or price, but I’m hoping to get a box of them so we can POOP our way around CES this year.

Thanks to quad-band-phones

DSC_1072 DSC_1074


IN MEDIA Announces $399 Windows 7 Tablet PC, Shipping Early 2011

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 03:20 AM PST

Whether or not Windows 7 has a place on tablets or not, it isn’t stopping some brave companies from releasing consumer-oriented slate computers running Redmond’s latest operating system. Today, IN MEDIA announced the release of the uncreatively named “Windows 7 Tablet PC”.

Powered by a 1.66GHZ Intel Atom processor, the tablet sports an HDMI interface, a forward-facing camera, an 11 1⁄4 by 6 inch LCD screen, built-in eReader functionality and a 160GB hard drive.

IN Media CEO Nick Karnik in a press statement touted the device’s ability to play Flash videos, too.

IN MEDIA’s Windows 7 Tablet PC is scheduled for shipment in Q1 2011 and will roll out in Asia and the United States with at a suggested retail price of $399.

Don’t look for this one to give the iPad a run for its money just yet.

No pictures, videos or hand drawn cartoons of the tablet were made available.

CrunchBase Information
Windows 7
Information provided by CrunchBase

Daily Crunch: Spring Forth Edition

Posted: 22 Dec 2010 12:00 AM PST

2010 Kindle Sales May Be As High As 8 Million

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 08:22 PM PST

For whatever reason, Amazon won’t come out and say just how many Kindles it has sold. Other companies, like Apple and Samsung, tend to crow about it every time they hit a milestone, but Amazon has stayed mum for years. Estimates have been made before, and they’ll be made again, and — why, here is one right now!

“Two people who are aware of the company’s sales projections” have made bold to say that sales have exceeded said projections by a quite a large amount, and actually fix 8 million as a rough estimate of how many Kindles will have been sold in 2010.

It’s not really surprising, when you think about it. It’s not only the best-known e-reader on the market, but for a while it was also the cheapest of the majors, and is still extremely competitive price-wise. It’s the “default” buy for people looking to get into e-books. That may change later, but for now Amazon’s league is too substantial to expect anything else.

What about 2011? That depends a lot. Will tablets take a bite out of e-reader sales? Or will prices drop below $99 and sales explode? I’m guessing the latter, especially if color e-readers take off or the monochrome screens improve much further. Only time will tell, however.

[via CNET]

Is This The iPad Mini?

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 06:18 PM PST


Is that man right there holding an iPad mini? He seems to think so. But seeing how this pic originated in the fertile gadget fields of China, it’s more likely to be a smaller knock-off than the real deal. But if it is real , DreamerJimmy better watch out for Steve Job’s cronies who will likely take his beautiful flock of hair as a prize. [via AkihabaraNews]

Adventures In Planned Corporate Leaks And Espionage, HTC Mystery Phone Edition

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 05:58 PM PST

Psst. Wanna know a secret? Most of the blurrycam pics and backroom shots are really planned leaks. They’re not taken by some reader loyal to specific blog that’s willing to risk his job just to pass on something cool. No, most are taken by some random PR flack whose manager then decides what outlet gets the pics and when. Think of it as corporate “astroturfing.” Everyone does it.

Most of these leaks are even planned as part of a given product’s marketing strategy nowadays as marketers know us blogs will help their cause along. Even a little pic of an unannounced BlackBerry spreads around fan sites quicker than the online celebrity tabloids can report the latest juicy scandal. So generally a few months prior to the official announcement, a blurrycam pic of a mildly hot device will appear in the inbox of some niche website, who will quickly watermark the pic as their own and post it. Then the medium to large blogs pick up on it, followed by the news aggregators, who will keep the story alive for weeks.

That’s how it’s supposed to work. But HTC clearly slept through the class when all this was explained. You see, us, along with several other sites all got slightly different pics of the same device tonight. They are all like pieces of a puzzle with the final picture making some random HTC cell phone instead of a unicorn prancing over a river of rainbows — or a mystery device from Microsoft, who tried this technique when promoting the Arc Touch Mouse.

Let’s begin with our pics, which as per the rules of engagement listed above, are watermarked with our logos.

Fancy, eh? A rounded corner that looks a lot like the G2 and then a skewed pic of the microSDHC slot.


Engadget got the same one as we did, as well as one showing the Micro USB port.


SlashGear got the screen one too, but also got a pic showing the naked backside.


AndroidCentral got one of the power button. Exciting stuff.


Gizmodo got in on the fun too: the main corner pic plus one of the lens and dual flashes. Notice they didn’t play by the rules and watermark their pics. Model bloggers right there.

So what is this thing? Gizmodo points to a BGR post from August 27th as the device in question, which seems to fit the leak timeline. The device got a good amount of press back then, but now that we’re nearing CES 2011 when it’s probably going to be released, HTC needed to quickly drum up some coverage and so released the puzzle pieces above. Classy, aren’t they?

And yes, I do see the irony of this post.

Random Giveaway: NEO-GEO Games For Your PS3 (And It’s Over!)

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 05:30 PM PST


FREE PLAY

How much do I love you guys? Enough that when SNK Playmore sent along review codes for the big batch of NEO-GEO games coming to the PS3, my only question was “are these giftable?” That’s how much.

Do you want to play some Samurai Shodown or Metal Slug on your PS3? All you have to do is ask. But I only have one copy of each game, so it’s first-come, first-served! Here’s the selection:


Fatal Fury
Alpha Mission II
The King Of Fighters ’94
Samurai Shodown
Baseball Stars Professional
Magician Lord
Metal Slug
League Bowling
Super Sidekicks
Art Of Fighting

Plus NEO-GEO Heroes for the PSP, a new game made from pieces of old NEO-GEO games.

Just leave a comment below saying what game you want and why — the first one to request each game gets it! Just be sure to use your real email address so I can send you the code.

And if you’re looking for more giveaways, you’ll want to keep an eye on our 12 Days of Christmas tag.

Update: They’re all gone, guys! Thanks for reading!

Is Your Cover Crashing Your Kindle 3? Here’s Why

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 05:04 PM PST

Kindle 3 giving you problems? It just might be your cover. There’s been quite a few users reporting problems with Kindle crashes, and they all seem to have the same thing in common: they are all using a case that connects to the Kindle using the side hooks.

Well, it turns out that the problem may be the hooks themselves, rather then any problem with the Kindle itself. The CEO of Connectify discovered that the hooks in official leather cover are made of metal. The hooks are painted in the version without the light, but the problem is that eventually, the paint wears off. Then you end up with a conductive point (remember the cover with the light uses those hooks to power the light) which causes the Kindle to crash.

For whatever reason he’s pulled his post with all the facts, but fortunately nothing completely disappears from the internet.

There are a couple of options available to you in order to fix the problem; you can either repaint the metal hooks yourself, or Amazon is offering a refund on the defective cases.

[via The Escapist]

PrimeSense, Co-Creator Of Kinect, To Lead Open Gesture Tech Organization

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 04:17 PM PST


The Kinect, hit-or-miss as it may be when it comes to actual gaming, has certainly inspired the community. Everything from multi-touch surfaces to feeling up a virtual lady has been created, in just the two short months since the accessory’s release. As you may know, PrimeSense is the company that came up with the Kinect before it was the Kinect. And now they’re looking to start something new… and open.

PrimeSense is putting together an Open Natural Interaction consortium, presumably to establish some basic standards for Kinect-like devices to operate by, get a few libraries for developers to use, and promote new hardware. The “OpenNI” project is still pretty much in its gestational phase, but PrimeSense is probably the right company to lead it right now. With luck they can get some of the majors on board and get, say, OpenCL or CUDA support for depth information processing, that kind of thing. Originally I had in the headline that it was open source, but that’s not really specified. We can hope, but since they don’t mention it at the outset, I doubt it’s going to be totally open.

Man, I can’t wait until I can clear the desktop by waving my hand, rotate photos with a gesture, and so on. Loving it.

‘New Life’ Scientists Defend Study, Say More Information Is Forthcoming

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 02:30 PM PST

One of the authors of the scientific paper that described an arsenic-using microbe has asked everyone to calm down for a moment, and said that everything will be cleared up in the days ahead. Felisa Wolfe-Simon, the scientist whose paper (co-written with several others) genuinely ignited America's interest in science for a day or two (a gigantic achievement in and of itself) had come under fire from a number of scientists, most prominently one at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, who claimed that the study was a load of bunk, and that we've all been had. It didn't help that Wolfe-Simon and her partners refused to talk to the media (as if some cable news anchor can convey whats' going on here in a 15-second sound bite), which contributed to the backlash.

Wolfe-Simon has given an interview to the news department of Science, the academic journal where the paper ("A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus") was first published. In it we discover a few things, including that all of the hoopla (the Nasa news conference and so forth) surrounding the paper's publication was never intended by the authors, and that the subsequent negative reaction by some will be addressed in future editions of Science. It will also be addressed scientifically, which is key: what good does it do the authors, never mind the science behind the paper, to appear on Cable News Shout-Fest to defend her claims in front of people whose sole skill is the ability to TALK LOUDLY at people? (Not even to people, but at them!) It'd be a waste of time, time that could be better used to publish materials for a community that would actually understand what's going on.

In the interview, Wolfe-Simon says the team wants to address people's concerns on the record, and hosting press conferences and answering random questions from random people isn't exactly conducive to what they're trying to accomplish.

Wolfe-Simon also refutes that idea that the team's discovery could merely be attributed to dirty slides, as some had suggested. (That complaint always seemed silly to me: as if a team of PhDs doesn't know how to properly clean their slides!)

Let's face it: it's Christmas week and there's not a whole lot going on, so do yourself the favor of reading the interview in its entirety before you completely write off the team's discovery. At the very least wait until it publishes further material before jumping to conclusions.

Netgear’s New Push 2 TV Wireless Display Extender Peeped By The FCC

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 01:28 PM PST


Well well, what have we here? An unreleased product from Netgear that lets you wirelessly push your computer’s display signal to an HDTV? Yes, I believe that’s it. This little guy just showed up at the FCC, manual and all, and I’m guessing they’re going to be showing it off at CES. It’s a little wireless adapter that uses Intel Wireless Display to make extending your desktop to your flat screen super easy. Update: Oh yeah, there’s one like this already. But THIS one does 1080p, as it notes in the manual.

It’s called Push 2 TV, and it looks to be a dead-simple way to make your vanilla PC a home theater PC. We’ve seen a big rise in streaming set-top boxes, but depending on the pricing, this could be an attractive option as well. You know, this would be really nice with an air mouse — browsing a gigantic internet while waving your hand around like a fool.

The device itself will sit by your TV and output through either HDMI or RCA. You set it up on your laptop once and then you should be able to turn it on and off with a click. There are some solutions like this out there, but display switching has always been a pain and hopefully this will make it easier.

Is it a better idea than a Roku or Apple TV? Depends on the price and what you want to do. Much of what you can do on one of those devices, you can do on your laptop with a little know-how, plus playing local media is a snap. We’ll find out more at CES, I’m sure, and give you a hands-on there.

Review: Microvision ShowWX+ Pico Projector

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 01:03 PM PST


Short version: It’s hard to beat the ShowWX on portability and convenience, but on brightness and image quality it falls short of the competition.

Features:

  • PicoP laser-based projection system
  • No focus required
  • Easy connection to iOS devices
  • 15 lumens
  • MSRP: $450

Pros:

  • Easy setup, no tripod required
  • No focus means no worries (some slight calibration may be required)
  • Very compact

Cons:

  • Image has a strange quality to it
  • Not particularly bright
  • No way to store or play files

Full review:

The pico projector field is getting pretty packed, and although it’s still an expensive one to buy into, the proliferation of new technologies like the PicoP driver should help competition and push prices down. It functions on a different principle from normal projectors, using a laser light source being bounced off a resonating mirror. Because there’s no lens, there’s no risk of distortion and no need to focus. Unfortunately, it also prevents the projector from being particularly bright.

As you can see from the picture, it’s quite a small device. It’s about the size and weight of a largish smartphone — smaller even than the Optoma PK201 I recently reviewed. It’ll easily fit into a pocket and takes up almost no room in a bag.

The smallness seems to go along with a lack of features, though. Unlike the 3M and Optoma projectors on the market, there’s no room for a MicroSD card or any internal storage. I mean, it’s certainly reasonable to keep things simple, and of course if you’re using it as a projector for your iPhone, that’s where the media is going to be. But the portability really makes you want to have it to show off this or that photo or presentation, and that isn’t an option without an input. It’s really not that big of a deal to keep this stuff on your phone or computer, but it would be nice to be able to have some rudimentary file support.

There’s also no speaker, which I think is both good and bad. I mean, the speakers on every pico projector I’ve used so far have been just awful. But if you’re playing a YouTube video or NES game on your wall, you don’t really care. Luckily, the ShowWX+ has a 3.5mm-out, and again, since you’re going to be using a phone or laptop as the playback device anyway, it’s likely you already have a sound device. So really, it’s streamlining.

Operation is simple. You turn it on, it gives you a splash screen after a few seconds, where you can make any adjustments to gamma or alignment you need to make. The image is projected at an upward angle, so it can sit flat on a table and you’ll still get a whole image, unlike the 3M MPro series, which has a short throw that goes out equally far up and down from the lens — necessitating a tripod. So no tripod necessary with the ShowWX+, again making it the more convenient option. The operational principle of the display means that no focus is necessary, although if the image seems fuzzy you may need to do a slight adjustment via the menus.

It comes with a connection cable for iPad, iPhone, and iPod. It worked like a charm after I connected it, though there’s no indication on the image that it’s changed sources; you have to watch for your iOS device to say it’ll play through “the TV.” You can buy a separate cable for VGA connections. The default connection is composite, which produces about as middling of an image as you’d expect. Its resolution is 848×480, which is perfectly fine for most TV shows and movies.

The trouble for me with the ShowWX is really in the image itself. Right off the bat it’s clear that it’s not particularly bright, but all of these projectors are under 50 lumens right now, which is peanuts compared with the cheapest traditional projectors. So going pico projector, you’re already prepared for a dim image, or rather one that requires a dark room. So The ShowWX+ has about 15 lumens, which isn’t much but can make a decent large-TV-sized image in a dark room.

There’s something about the image, though, that bugs me. It has a transparent, shimmery quality to it that other projectors don’t, even at the same lumen level. It must be the way the image is produced. I may just be overly sensitive to this, but it feels like the image is less substantial, and you can see through it to the backdrop more easily. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I know it’s there, and it’d distracting. I mean, it’s sharp, and the colors are nice, but the whole thing has this indefinable quality of… barely being there.

Conclusion

If you already rely on your iPhone or iPad as a presentation or media device, the shortcomings of the ShowWX+ probably won’t bother you. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive projection package, check out the competition. I’m extra sensitive to image quality issues, so you may want to take my objection on that count with a grain of salt, but I definitely felt I got a better image with the 3M and Optoma devices, though they are of course significantly larger.

Product page: Microvision ShowWX+

‘Air Conditioned’ 2022 World Cup In Jeopardy As Players’ Union Calls For Winter Tournament

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:30 PM PST

We’re still a hot 11+ years away from the 2022 Fifa World Cup, but the parade of moaning continues. The latest bit of gossip suggests that the tournament could be played during the wintertime in order to combat the extreme temperatures usually present in Qatar during the summertime. So much for developing a new stadium cooling technology that could then be exported to other countries.

What’s going on is that various people in and around football (I’m calling soccer football in the post for convenience’s sake) have come out against the Qatar World Cup not because of Qatar’s spotty record vis-à-vis women, homosexuals, workers’ rights, etc. but because it’s so hot there during the summer. (Never mind that it was hot as Hades during the 1994 World Cup here in the US!) The Qatar bid has promised to develop a new type of cooling technology to ensure the stadia aren’t 8 million degrees as the players are scampering around the pitch. That’s not enough, it seems.

FIFPro, the international footballers’ union, has come out against the idea of trying to play the World Cup in Qatar during the summer. (You’d think these complaints would have surfaced before Sepp Blatter’s big announcement a few weeks ago!) Instead, the union has come out in favor of playing the tournament in the wintertime, to be played in January, 2022.

Needless to say the various professional leagues around the world would have to re-jigger their schedule that year in order to accommodate a January World Cup. (The World Cup usually occurs in June.)

Aresnal coach Arsène Wenger has gone even further, asking that the England’s Premier League be played from February to November every year. Granted, this is more to do with England’s inability to deal with a few inches of snow, forcing the cancellation of several games at the weekend, but it shows that a top-tier coach is fine with the idea of adjusting the playing schedule to meet changing conditions.

And if Wenger, who generally likes to moan about every. little. thing. is fine with changing the calendar, why shouldn’t we be?

Me? I honestly don’t care when the World Cup is played. As long as it happens, I’m cool.

Is This The PalmPad HP Will Announce At CES 2011? Nope.

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 11:54 AM PST


Hello, PalmPad! Well, maybe. Clayton Morris over at FoxNews just posted images of what is labeled as the PalmPad that’s set to debut at CES 2011. But I’m not so sure. I mean, sure, Clayton could have seen the PalmPad but these exclusive photos are not it. That’s the HP Slate.

Look at the drawings and then look at the HP Slate. The buttons are the same, the contours of the case are the same, and the HP logo is in the same spot. Even the dock is the same. The only indication on the photo about the PalmPad is the little note at the bottom saying this is the PalmPad. Sure, it’s a possibility that HP is using the same exact casing for its two totally seperate tablet product lines, but that’s about as possible as an asteroid crashing into Las Vegas a week prior to CES.

Clayton goes on to explain that HP will announce three separate PalmPad at the show with all the models running webOS 2.5.1. and at least one model will ship with a Sprint 4G modem. The whole lot will have a mini HDMI port, front- and rear-facing camera, and USB 3.0 ports. Supposable there’s even a fourth incarnation in the works. This one is meant specifically for the education market, but is said not to bow at CES 2011.

So there you are. The first major leak/rumor concerning the PalmPad. The report’s a bit dubous to us, but please, jump over and come to your own conclusion.

Note: Clayton, you might want to fact check this statement. There’s a Add to Cart button right on the Slate’s product page and a quick Google search will prove that they’re in paying customer’s hands right now.

All three will run a new iteration of the WebOS operating system, version 2.5.1; they’re collectively a spin-off of the never-released HP Slate.

Net Neutrality Passes And *Nobody* Is Happy With It!

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 11:30 AM PST

With a 3 to 2 vote earlier today, the FCC has put its stamp of approval on Net Neutrality. The funny thing is that it seems both "sides" of the debate are upset. On one hand you’ve got the detractors who say it’s nothing but an "unholy scheme" designed to bring the Internet under the unnecessary (if not unlawful) control of the government. A bit dramatic, but OK. On the other hand you’ve got Net Neutrality proponents who say the new rules don’t go far enough to protect consumers from abuse.

We’re already familiar with what the detractors have to say: this is a government takeover, and we’re all one step closer to a Hugo Chavez-style takeover over the media. Or, less hysterically, the Internet isn’t "broken," so why should the FCC—which may not even have the legal authority for evoke Net Neutrality—waste time trying to "fix" it?

Proponents of Net Neutrality are just as disappointed with the ruling. The Free Press, a "national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media," says that this is nothing less than a "squandered opportunity."

Says the origination’s managing director, Craig Aaron:

We are deeply disappointed that the chairman chose to ignore the overwhelming public support for real Net Neutrality, instead moving forward with industry-written rules that will for the first time in Internet history allow discrimination online. This proceeding was a squandered opportunity to enact clear, meaningful rules to safeguard the Internet's level playing field and protect consumers.

The new rules are riddled with loopholes, evidence that the chairman sought approval from AT&T instead of listening to the millions of Americans who asked for real Net Neutrality. These rules don’t do enough to stop the phone and cable companies from dividing the Internet into fast and slow lanes, and they fail to protect wireless users from discrimination. No longer can you get to the same Internet via your mobile device as you can via your laptop. The rules pave the way for AT&T to block your access to third-party applications and to require you to use its own preferred applications.

Harsh words, to be sure.

The New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity [PDF]has also expressed disappointment, calling the new rules "tepid," and has focused on one specific aspect of the decision: managed services. What in the nine hecks are "managed services"?

The new but not-yet-properly-defined "managed service" exemption may amount to the first step down a slippery slope of non-neutral Internet service. The exemption should be carefully tailored to address only a small number of special categories of applications that cannot operate under the existing open framework.

Ars Technica discussed "managed services" at length a few days ago. In short, a "managed service" could be construed to mean things like VPNs, VoIP, and video streaming. The problem with Net Neutrality, as it was just passed, pays no attention to these services whatsoever. It lets companies do whatever they want with last-mile traffic. If your local cable company, which just so happens to be the only Internet Service Provider in the area, decides to charge, I don’t know, $5 per month for the ability to make VoIP call on its network, well, it can! (You’re free, of course, to sign up for the cable company’s "triple play," which includes free VoIP from its preferred provider.)

In other words, there really aren’t any winners today. To some people, we’re some step closer to having Big Brother punch us in the face every morning, and to others the FCC has just wasted a whole bunch of time and energy doing a whole lot of nothing.

Pretty awesome.


Review: SteelSeries World Of Warcraft Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 10:15 AM PST

SteelSeries' second go at creating such a mouse, the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse (yes, it’s a mouthful) could make a fine gift this holiday season for the WoW player in your life. It certainly helps if said WoW player has hands the size of Andre the Giant’s.

Features:

• 14 programmable buttons
• On-board memory to store multiple profiles
• PC and Mac compatible software
• Nifty built-in flashing LED
• Blizzard’s blessing as it’s a fully licensed WoW product

Pro:

• Plenty of buttons that you can configure however you see fit
• Driver software works for Mac on Day One this time around
• SteelSeries’ typical solid build quality

Con:

• It’s gigantic (or maybe I just have small hands?)
• Pretty much a one-game (or one genre) mouse—it’s probably overkill and/or inappropriate for browsing the Web or playing the latest FPS
• Inner thumb buttons a little difficult to reach (but again, maybe I have Princess Zelda hands)

Raise Curtain

SteelSeries’ World of Warcraft Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse should probably come with a sticker on it that says the mouse equivalent of "must be this tall to ride the ride." It’s a very big mouse, but that ensures your hands aren’t too squished together when trying to access all 14 buttons. It works as advertised, which is really all you can ask, but it will definitely take some getting used to, particularly if you, like me, have Princess Zelda hands.

The first thing you notice about the mouse is, "Hey, that actually looks pretty great." It looks like a WoW mouse. I’m confident you could show it to a non-WoW person and they’d remarks, "Do you use that to play that online game you play all the time?"

Why yes, yes I do.

Beyond the aesthetics—note that there’s an LED in there that flashes and pulses to your specification. It’s merely eye candy but it’s not like there’s something inherently wrong with eye candy, per se—the mouse works about as well as any other high-end gaming mouse. Nothing feels cheap here.

Why have so many buttons on a mouse? MMO players know that to effectively control your toon you need to be cognizant of approximately 900 keyboard and mouse combination, with shift- and alt- modifiers further complicating matters. Anyone who’s sunk any amount of time into games like WoW will no doubt have gotten the hang of it, but it’s nothing something you can pick up in an afternoon. (Blizzard said in a recent interview with Edge magazine that a full 50 percent of people who play the free 10-day WoW trial don’t make it past level 10. These games take time and dedication to play, let alone play well.) If you can offload some of the less cerebral commands from the keyboard to the mouse you’ll have made the game slightly less confusing to play.

The mouse’s default driver settings map the buttons thus:

Being a tinker, I wiped those setting as soon as I launched the game.

I had the mouse’s buttons programmed like this for the past few days:

As a new priest, I had already settled on a pretty good casting sequence. I have no idea if the sequence is Elitist Jerks-approved, but the order made sense to me. Plus, in the early levels of WoW all you’re really doing is killing mobs one at a time—nothing too strenuous or chaotic. As the picture shows, I had mapped the button underneath the scroll wheel to my main casting macro. The slender button to the immediate left of the scroll wheel was set to "nearest target" (causing you to target the nearest enemy), and the slender button to the immediate right was set to open all of my bags. Why move my left hand all the way from its WASD home when I can merely use my right ring finger to bring up the bags?

I left the other buttons unmapped because it wasn’t necessary to map ‘em so early in the game. If you’re a level 80+ and you’re raiding or PVP-ing and you have three of four action bars worth of talents you need at the ready, then yeah: map away. The extra buttons certainly come in handy.

As this embedded video shows, the mouse certainly makes it easier to kill mobs. (The video is a parody if all those "epic" videos that many guilds upload to YouTube that are accompanied, for seemingly no reason, by irrelevant trance music.) My left hand never once leaves WASD (with my thumb on the space bar to jump for fun), leaving my right hand—my mouse hand—free to kill those jerk trolls.

In short, the mouse worked.

I’ve two concerns with the mouse.

One, again, it’s a little on the big side. Razer’s MMO mouse has a whole bunch of buttons without being the size of a Cadillac. Maybe I have small hands, I don’t know. But keep that in mind before you buy.

Two, it’s definitely overkill for daily mousing. (This is unlike SteelSeries’ highest end mouse, the Xai, which is great for first-person shooting and everyday mousing.) This ties into its size, but you might have to be prepared to dual mouse: use this mouse when you’re battling those Horde/Alliance fiends, but then switch over to your regular mouse when it’s time to hop on the forums to learn how to best min-max your toon.

In short, she’s a fine mouse that works as advertised, and that’s great, but it will definitely take getting used to. You’ll need to teach yourself how to split your workload between the keyboard and mouse, and you’ll have to get used to the size. She’s a big one.

Verizon Releases FiOS iPad App: Control Your FiOS DVR From Your Lap

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 09:36 AM PST


If you are one of the lucky few with FiOS TV, you can now download an iPad app with will control your FiOS DVR from the comfort of your home and barn. The app “lets customers manage their DVRs and browse FiOS video-on-demand (VOD) offers remotely, plus turn their iPad into a remote control for their HD set-top boxes.” Press release after the jump.

Verizon Extends Free FiOS Mobile App to Apple iPad

FiOS TV Customers With Apple iPads Can Now Remotely Control Their DVRs, Plus Use iPad as a TV Remote Control; More Features Soon to Come
NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon continues to create the future of TV by bringing to consumers more advanced mobile-entertainment capabilities on more devices. FiOS TV customers who also have Apple’s iPad can now download and use Verizon’s free FiOS Mobile application, which lets customers manage their DVRs and browse FiOS video-on-demand (VOD) offers remotely, plus turn their iPad into a remote control for their HD set-top boxes.
“Verizon is pushing the boundaries of TV with innovative technology that continues to spur the industry’s evolution,” said Eric Bruno, vice president of product management for Verizon. “We’re giving customers more control over their TV entertainment whenever and wherever they want it. Extending our FiOS Mobile app to customers using iPads gives more subscribers more ways to conveniently manage their FiOS TV services.”
Verizon started offering customers the ability to use their mobile device as a remote control earlier this year. The feature is available on more than 40 mobile devices running Android software v.2.1 or above or that support Wi-Fi. It is also available on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
Now, FiOS TV subscribers can use their iPad as a virtual television remote control for their HD set top boxes. The application automatically personalizes options based on the tablet connected to the set-top box, enabling customized favorites and other preferences, and has virtually the same functionality as the standard FiOS TV remote.
Customers can change channels; manage parental controls; and pause, rewind and fast forward or record a TV show. Subscribers can also click on the video-on-demand (VOD) button and browse and search on-demand titles; or click on the FiOS TV button and jump to live TV when watching recorded programs.
With FiOS Mobile, FiOS TV customers can use their iPad to remotely manage their DVR settings whether they are in their home and away from the TV set, or on the go. Subscribers can review, change or add recording requests; record an entire series; delete recorded programs; browse and search TV and VOD listings; set parental controls; check their DVR recorder status; and more.
Verizon plans to add new features to the FiOS Mobile application over the next few months, including photo flicking for the iPad, which allows customers to use their tablet to flick stored photos from the iPad to the TV, one photo at a time.
Verizon offers interactive applications across multiple carriers and mobile platforms. To use the iPad mobile remote feature, customers simply go to the FiOS TV Widget’s main menu, click on “Mobile Remote,” find the mobile device on the list of supported phones, and follow the instructions for pairing it to the HD set-top box. The customer will be prompted to install the Mobile Remote application through the Apple App Store.
Verizon Wireless offers three bundles, all featuring an iPad Wi-Fi model and a Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot. The MiFi 2200 is small enough to fit in a pocket and allows customers to create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 3G Mobile Broadband network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
The bundles begin at a suggested retail price of $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB plus MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB plus MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB plus MiFi. Verizon Wireless is offering a monthly access plan to iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for just $20 a month. In addition, Verizon Wireless will also offer all three iPad Wi-Fi models on a stand-alone basis.
FiOS provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; social-networking, news and entertainment widgets; Internet videos on TV; streaming of personal videos, photos and music from home computers to the TV; and many others.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, serving more than 93 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 195,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $107 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.


Tesla’s Latest “Model” Even Smaller Than The Roadster, Perfect For Barbie Joyrides

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 08:40 AM PST

Tesla Roadster owners get all the cool toys, don’t they? Not only do they hoon around in one of the hottest EVs ever made, but it seems the company is shipping special RC Tesla Roadsters to owners for the holidays. Bah! Humbug! Click through for one owner’s demo reel.

[Tesla Motors Club via Autoblog]

January 11: DC Universe Online Open For Business

Posted: 21 Dec 2010 08:30 AM PST

DC Universe Online now has a proper release date: January 11. That’s for both the PC and PS3 version, mind you. The MMO, which is based on the DC Comics universe, had for some time been marred by delays and whatnot, but all is forgiven. Come January 11, you’ll be fighting alongside the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman, trying to take down that jerk Brainiac.

IGN scored an interview with Sony Online Entertainment that sheds more light on the game.

It’ll cost $15 per month to play, or you can opt for a lifetime subscription for $199. The game itself will be $49 for the PC version, $59 for the PS3.

That means if you play the game for just over a year you’ll have gotten one over on the folks paying by the month.

Players who have been involved in the beta will have to start over when the game officially goes live. So if you had just-the-perfect name for your hero (or villain) you’d better log on right-quick once the servers go live.
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