Archive for August 14th, 2009

When Robert Scoble, lover of all things web, says something is lame, you know it must be really lame. And that’s what he’s saying about a new Yahoo site, Know Your Mojo! — and he’s right.

The site claims to tell you what kind of “social mojo” you possess by analyzing your tweets. It’s a very simple site, below the big “What’s Your Social Mojo?” question it asks you to put in your Twitter username. You then hit the submission button and it takes you through an animation of a series of pipes. You’re spit on on the other end with what kind of Twitter user you are. The only problem? It’s different just about every time you put in your user name.

We know you’re jealous of your friends’ ability to charge up their RAZRs and iPhones sans wires, so how would you feel if we told you that WildCharge’s newest solution — the PowerDisc — would allow you to use its WildCharger with literally hundreds of devices? It’s true! All you need to charge your previously incompatible hardware wirelessly is this one little wire that attaches the PowerDisc to the PowerLink adapter for your Nokia, Palm, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Micro USB, or Mini USB device. Available on its own for $19.99 or bundled with the WildCharge pad for $64.99. And it looks like the PowerDisc also includes a lanyard — we know how much you love lanyards! So, have you ordered one yet or what?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

WildCharge brings ‘wireless’ charging to hundreds of devices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Powerglove – Tetris

Hear the podcast

00:03:23 – Zune HD lands September 15th, up for pre-order today
00:19:55 – Windows 7 review
00:23:45 – How-To: Install Windows 7 and live to tell about it
00:28:05 – Dell’s Zino HD crams desktop parts into miniature enclosure
00:38:46 – Dell’s slim new Inspiron Z family is totally carb free
00:47:02 – Dell Mini 3i smartphone captured in pair of spy shots
00:54:20 – Video: Samsung’s TL220 and TL225 cameras add a LCD in front to help with your self-portraits
00:55:20 – Samsung’s new compacts in person: front LCDs, GPS and WiFi don’t go to waste
00:59:50 – Samsung crams WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth 2.0 into well-specced CL65 point-and-shoot
01:08:15 – Apple might be planning keynote for week of September 7th, might have new products on offer

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 159 – 08.14.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s some excitement around the web today among a certain group of high profile techies. What are they so excited about? Something called WebFinger, and the fact that Google is apparently getting serious about supporting it. So what is it?

It’s an extension of something called the “finger protocol” that was used in the earlier days of the web to identify people by their email addresses. As the web expanded, the finger protocol faded out, but the idea of needing a unified way to identify yourself has not. That’s why you keep hearing about OpenID and the like all the time.

But those standards, while open, have failed to latch on in a meaningful way with the public at large. One of the holdups is that you have to set up a website or service you use to be your OpenID. It’s relatively easy to do, and you may already have one ready to go, but just not realize it. But it’s still kind of tricky to explain to a regular web user — wait, you login with your website?

No surprise that the Zune HD announcement has resulted in a flurry of iPod rumors, and there’s a couple good ones going around today. Obviously the big news is a set of photos purporting to show a next-gen touch with a camera — the sourcing and the backdrop in some of the pics make it feel like it’s a publicity stunt, but the shots of the motherboard next to a current-gen touch’s board seem convincing — especially because of Apple’s recent propensity to leak this sort of thing. The other piece of news? CNET says that whatever Apple does next month, the new Cocktail “next-generation album cover” will be a part of it, at least according to “multiple music industry sources.” That might link into the major labels’ CMX initiative, it might have something to do with iTunes 9, it might be a fun little Tom Cruise movie, or it might be nothing at all — but it sure seems like we’re in for a hell of a September.

Update: As commenter Joseph pointed out, these look pretty fake when you zoom in Photoshop — there’s a distinct square of pixels around the lens. Nice publicity stunt, guys — we’ll totally start listening to your show now.

Update 2: After seeing some high res versions of these pics, we think we can safely rule out the JPG artifacting as the tell-tale sign that these are fake. You know what we can’t rule out? The really bad looking Photoshop work around the lens. Much clearer pic after the break. [Thanks for the pic, Manny]

Read – The Covino and Rich Show blog post with iPod touch photos
Read – iPod touch photos on Flickr in higher-res
Read – CNET on Cocktail

Continue reading Next-gen iPod touch photos supposedly leak out; Cocktail part of Apple announcement? (Updated)

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Next-gen iPod touch photos supposedly leak out; Cocktail part of Apple announcement? (Updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Via Gizmag]

Continue reading Paul Sr. demonstrates OCC’s electric chopper, Fox News seems mystified

Filed under: Transportation

Paul Sr. demonstrates OCC’s electric chopper, Fox News seems mystified originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analytics firm comScore has just released its latest statistics for video streaming sites in the United States for the month of June, and at first glance the results are quite surprising: the top video sites have seen a major shakeup, with many of the top sites abruptly falling in the rankings.

The cause, of course, is the Michael Jackson effect — media organizations around the world dedicated huge amounts of coverage to the pop star’s tragic death on June 25, and many people turned to the web to learn more. Other breaking news that month, including the Iranian election controversy, also likely contributed to the growth seen by news properties.

Hulu, which has ranked as the third most popular video site in the United States for the past few months, has dropped down to seventh. Likewise, Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace, has dropped from second to fifth.

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXXXI: Nokla E97 probably looks much better than it performs

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXXXI: Nokla E97 probably looks much better than it performs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you need proof that the stream makes complex services more accessible, take a look at Glide Engage. Launched last week, Glide Engage is a stream front-end for the Glide, a Web OS which offers a suite of integrated Web Apps including docs, spreadsheets, photo and music uploading and sharing, calendar, email, Website creation and collaboration tools. Glide can be overwhelming. There is a lot there. But it has attracted its own loyal following of about one million registered users.

With Glide Engage, the various features of the Glide OS become available on an as-needed basis and gives a better entry point for the service. At first glance, Glide Engage is a micro-messaging service on steroids. You can follow (“engage” with) other people in Glide, add comments to your stream, share links and files, create discussion groups and bring different media and people into online meeting spaces. In the left-hand column you can also set up news alerts and see the latest articles being shared on Glide about those topics.

What makes Glide particularly interesting is that it is also a Twitter client. You can import your Twitter stream and read it within Engage like you can with other Web-based Twitter apps. You can Tweet out messages, but also add links to photos, documents, playable music files and videos which bring people back into Glide. Imagine if Seesmic or Tweetdeck hosted their own photos, videos, and other shared files, and had a Web productivity and communication suite as well.

Big Red’s flexing its 4G muscle today, announcing that it has successfully completed the first true tests on its nascent LTE network — end-to-end data calls that presumably approximate real-world usage. The action actually happened way back on July 15 in Seattle, while Boston just went down today — the two markets where Verizon said it’d be running the first trials — both on 700MHz spectrum won not terribly long ago. LG and Samsung provided the mysterious, unspecified “trial devices,” but don’t worry, Motorola fans — Verizon says they’ve got devices in the pipeline as well. Both Seattle and Boston currently have ten LTE cell sites live as the carrier trudges toward a 2010 date with destiny when it’ll take “up to 30″ markets live, at which point EV-DO and HSPA will theoretically feel like trying to send packets via carrier pigeon. Progress!

Update: We just spoke with Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone to expand a bit on the trials. Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Though they’re not talking speeds with these trials specifically, they’re confident in saying that everything’s in line for 7-12Mbps down and 3-5Mbps up at launch.
• The trials are being conducted on commercial LTE base station hardware, but everything else is prototype (and changing very rapidly). The end-user equipment doesn’t currently resemble anything you’d actually buy.
• Data modems will be the priority at launch, which makes sense considering the amount of industry flux with regard to voice over LTE. Though Verizon believes the solution will ultimately be some form of VoIP, there are several outstanding issues, including handling of 911 calls.
• Everything in the trial so far leads Verizon to believe that they’re on track for a 30-market launch in 2010.
• This doesn’t spell the end of EV-DO deployments — far from it. Melone says that upgrades could continue all the way through to the initial LTE launch and beyond.

Filed under: Wireless

Verizon tests first data connections on LTE network in Seattle and Boston originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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