Archive for July 30th, 2009

We on the web are a simple folk — especially us males. We need but two things to keep us happy: Explosions and boobs. And thank God someone has finally cut through all the BS, and given us exactly what we want in one brilliant site called yes, Explosions and Boobs.

The site is actually more elaborate than it may seem at first glorious glance. If you click on either the explosion picture or the picture of the boobs, you will get new pictures of explosions and boobs! Brilliant. It’s hours of endless fun waiting to happen. Who needs to sit through an entire Michael Bay movie when you have this?

Feeling a little envious of the Android-based Samsung Galaxy now available in Germany and soon to be available in other parts of Europe? Then you’re in luck, sort of, as a new “A3LGTI7500L” model complete with US 3G has now sailed through the FCC. Unfortunately for those of us ’round these parts, that “L” at the end of the model name signifies that this particular model is intended for Latin America, but it’s still about as close as you’ll get to a practical option for the time being — at least until those T-Mobile rumors pan out.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Galaxy with US 3G clears the FCC, but it’s not what you think originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mozilla’s Firefox browser is about to hit a major milestone: 1 billion total downloads. As you can see on this Twitter account set up to monitor the download numbers, it just crossed the 999,000,000 threshold earlier today. Judging by the rate at which it’s increasing, it could hit the milestone as early as tomorrow.

And Mozilla is preparing for the big day with a new site (not live yet), called www.onebillionplusyou.com, which will go live on Monday. There, you’ll find information about the one billion downloads Firefox has seen, we’re told. When the browser hits the milestone, more information should also be available here.

So I was out of town last week when Apple and Palm got into it over the Pre syncing with iTunes, and the more I think about it, the more ridiculous the situation has become. If you’ll remember, the Pre shipped with a hack that allowed it to appear as an iPod, which was inevitably blocked by Apple, and Palm’s latest move was to spoof the Pre’s USB Vendor ID to make it look like an Apple product while simultaneously complaining to the USB Implementor’s Forum that Apple improperly uses the field. Yeah, it’s messy, and the end result is that while Palm is getting a lot of attention for jabbing at Apple, Pre owners are being left with a jury-rigged hack of a solution that will almost certainly be blocked by the next iTunes update — and Palm’s official advice is that you should hold off on updating iTunes to ensure Pre compatibility.

Let’s just say it: this is insane.

Continue reading Editorial: Palm, iTunes, and the ties that don’t bind

Filed under: Cellphones

Editorial: Palm, iTunes, and the ties that don’t bind originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may seem like only yesterday (or a couple of months ago) that Acer was rolling out its very first Timeline laptops to much fanfare, but it’s now already turned things around and kicked out a whole new addition to the line-up: the 8000 series. Apparently aimed at both business users and average folk, this one will be available in 13.3-, 14- and 15.6-inch variations, and pack the usual Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Solo ULV processors, 4GB or 8GB of RAM, a 160GB or 500GB hard drive (or even an 80GB Intel X25-M SSD, for those looking to go all out), and either some basic Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics or a ATI’s 4330 dedicated GPU — not to mention some bonuses like a multitouch trackpad and optional 3G (at a later date, it seems). No word on pricing or availability just yet, but it seems safe to bet that at least the entry-level models will be sub-$1000, if the current Timelines are any indication.

Filed under: Laptops

Acer further bolsters Timeline lineup with new 8000 Series originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Poor Pirate Bay, all it ever wanted to do was thumb its nose at the music and movie industries, enable software piracy for people all over the world, play cat-and-mouse games with the Swedish authorities, and maybe make a little money along the way. Now, hot on the heels of a verdict that sees four of its founders headed to prison (that is, if they don’t win their appeals) three of the group have been ordered by a court in the Netherlands to block all traffic between the site and its country. If this doesn’t happen in the next ten days, each of the defendants faces a charge of €30,000 ($42,000) for each day they don’t comply. According to the AP, it’s “not clear how the court expected the site’s operators to block traffic to the site, or whether it can enforce its order if they decline,” but soon it looks like the Dutch just might have to learn to buy their Rave Or Die! Mix Series CDs at the Record Exchange like the rest of us. Good luck going legit, guys!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Networking

Court gives Pirate Bay ten days to scuttle connection to Netherlands originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NewsGator Online, one of the first online RSS readers I used back in the day, is being tossed in the deadpool by its parent company in a move that signals its newfound focus on desktop applications and social computing tools for businesses.

Users of the online feed reader are kindly requested to migrate their subscriptions over to Google Reader before August 31, and NewsGator will provide step-by-step instructions and in-product reminders to make sure all goes smoothly.

Speaking of NewsGator’s desktop RSS readers, which include FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for Macs, they have both been updated to a new version. Users of the software programs are asked to download the updated versions in the next 30 days, and in another testament to the company’s friendly relationship with Mountain View it is mostly touting the new synchronization feature with Google Reader as a selling point.

You know the drill — service manuals get posted for new / unannounced products, the kids in the forums pounce, and then Sony makes ‘em disappear (the documents, that is — Sony doesn’t rub people out, at least not yet). In this case, user ‘berboris’ over at The Electronic Book found details for two Sony Readers as yet unheard of: The PRS-300 features a 5-inch display, roughly 440MB storage after system files are accounted for, and that’s about it — no touchscreen, no audio output, no card slots. The PRS-600, however, sports a 6-inch touchscreen, audio output (presumably for MP3 audiobooks and the like), SD/MS slots, and 380MB storage when all’s said and done. The manuals don’t mention any sort of lighting for the units or any kind of wireless connection, although both models will apparently be available in silver, red, and black — which you can peep, conveniently enough, after the break.

[Via Mobile Read]

Read – Forum post
Read – More info and PDFs at Sony Insider

Continue reading New Sony Reader PRS-300 and PRS-600 details leaked

Filed under: Handhelds

New Sony Reader PRS-300 and PRS-600 details leaked originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

Last week, fellow columnist Ross Rubin talked about the state of mobile platforms and how the era for launching new platforms has come to an end. I tend to take a different view of the mobile market. There are currently six major platforms vying for the hearts and minds of users and third party applications developers — RIM’s Blackberry, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Apple’s iPhone, Nokia’s s60, Palm’s WebOS and Google’s Android — and there’s simply no way the market will support that many device ecosystems. But there may yet be opportunity for other players to enter the market.

This is not a new phenomenon. In the early 80s there were a multitude of personal computing platforms. Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, Apple and even Timex (yes, Timex) all were in the personal computing business, long before IBM entered the game. All survived for a period of time selling to an enthusiast market with a focus on out of the box featuresets. Once the target became the mass market, however, user expectations changed from the out of box experience (which essentially meant programming in Basic) to additional capabilities provided by third party software. The success or failure of each PC platform was decided in no small part by the availability of third party software. Exclusive titles, best of breed titles, and titles that appeared on a given platform first determined winners and losers. The same thing is happening today in the mobile space.

Continue reading Entelligence: Six is much too much

Entelligence: Six is much too much originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The XY technique of placing two mics together, pointing in contrasting directions, gives excellent field separation while eliminating phase problems — and it also looks pretty cool. Exactly which of those benefits Logitec had in mind when developing the LIC-WMREC03P (for Sony’s Walkman) and LIC-iREC03P (for the iPod/iPhone) microphone attachments is unknown to us, but it certainly looks a fair bit more impressive than last year’s LIC-iREC01. The devices have a frequency response of 20Hz to 16kHz, sport a pair of simple toggles for adjusting sound levels, offer 3.5mm and USB inputs, and come with a pair of wind socks if things get breezy — or if they just don’t look pudgy enough for you. Both are expected to hit Japan in January, each at an expected price of ¥7,980 (or about $84).

[Via Akihabara News]

Read – LIC-WMREC03P for Sony Walkman
Read – LIC-iREC03P for Apple iPod/iPhone

Filed under: Portable Audio

Logitec introduces cross-eyed XY stereo microphones for your Walkman or iPod recording pleasures originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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