Recent Comments:
Researchers use Bluetooth to track festival goers, make fun of their 'hippie dancing' {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2009 4:37AM unneeded; we already give our personal information, interest, desires and life stories plainly and freely on social networks and blogs ;)
How would you change the Palm Pre? {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2009 4:26AM As a non-user of large, unpocketable-without-discomfort phones, I would like to give this phone the opportunity to be smaller.
Far smaller.
I suggest:
* half the screen size with normal, unslidey, in-your-face QWERTY.
* Speaking of face, I would like no Facebook and/or other social network nonsense on my phone; I don't care for it, and naturally, neither should they because the earth revolves around my needs :) When I see small great phones with great sound quality, reception and battery life, then I know there is a god.
* Speaking of god, (s)he approves of MicroSD, but Palm doesn't - and makes lame excuses for its non-inclusion:
http://www.precentral.net/palm-product-manager-comments-why-no-microsd-palm-pre
Therefore it's only logical to conclude that Palm may be considered un-god-like.
Usability:
I'm sure I'd have a lot of nit-picks but I haven't played with such a device yet. Make GSM version which is small, has great battery life, allows navigation with real buttons and d-pads and rock-solid reliability with no social network and internet distractions, thank you :)
Men of yesteryear had it right without this touchy slidey nonsense :)
With all due respect, congratulations on the removable battery.
Researchers use Bluetooth to track festival goers, make fun of their 'hippie dancing' {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2009 4:10AM cameraless, bluetoothless, anti-establishment (?) phones FTW.
Windows 7 release to manufacturing reportedly on track for July 13th {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2009 3:59AM Everyone knows Windows 2000 and Windows XP cannot be killed.
No matter how hard you try to convince the masses, and no matter how much weight and cushy deals you have with hardware manufacturers, and no matter how much you speak about DirectX, Internet Explorer, collaboration, 3D shenanigans, translucent windows, time-savings and productivity of the 'knowledge worker'.
See you in 2012 with Windows XP and Windows 2000. Har.
Regards,
Seen-It-All-Before
Captain Piccard unveils Solar Impulse HB-SIA solar-powered plane {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2009 3:32AM "...we can have a good quality of life in this world.
we can solve the financial crisis.
we can fight poverty and we can protect the environment
only by inventing the future with enough pioneering spirit
the technological solutions already exist
please don't listen to people that say it's not possible;
that we need more innovation, more development before we can have it on the market.
No; the solutions exist.
We need desperately: political courage...
Ambitious visions...in order to force the implementations of the solutions we already have.
Through smart regulations and ambitious incentives..."
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Quite an interesting video, and quite amazing ambitions - and quite amazing to amass all the partnerships.
The Solar Impulse aircraft is seen as a symbol to change the mentality of people's attitudes towards renewables. They know they are not going to fly passengers with the Solar Impulse but realise that will is the most important ingredient in changing the direction of the technological path we are travelling in (they also mention the days of early flights not flying passengers, then years later flying passengers...).
Some can disagree about their claims of carbon-free flight (especially when you consider transport and manufacturing 400KG of batteries, solar cells, frame, instrumentation, etc) but this is an awesome endeavour.
They sez:
* Sunpower solar cells at 22% efficiency provide best trade-off for weight and efficiency.
* Entire budget: 70 million Euros.
...with a second airplane in the works.
* 160KG total payload (seat, cockpit, food, pilot, oxygen...)
* Doubling the capacity of the batteries could allow 2 people in the plane.
* development of custom software on the plane
* they still have no partners within in the computer industry working with them but they are encouraged to join
Nice closing statements encouraging personal efforts at efficient energy use and pushing politicians for change.
iPhone facing potential trademark issues in China? {Engadget}
Jul 2nd 2009 5:32PM the article mentions they sold a phone under the i-phone trademark.
iPhone facing potential trademark issues in China? {Engadget}
Jul 2nd 2009 5:31PM The similarity of the name iPhone would make it illegal to sell Apple's smartphone under that name in China, said Wang Hao, general manager of BSFD, an intellectual property law agency in Beijing.
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There's something about this sentence that defies belief :)
But I like that a law firm starts with BS and leaves the F and D up to creative interpretation.
"Smuggled iPhones are already extremely popular among wealthy, urban Chinese. There are already over 1 million iPhones in China, according to an estimate from consulting firm Ovum."
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That's heaps (if true). Would be interesting to see how they got those stats.
Sega Toys makes indoor fireworks infinitely safer, to Elvis Costello's dismay {Engadget}
Jul 2nd 2009 5:02PM Hah! Hilarious.
The (incomplete?) website suggests custom (or pre-set?) messages and graphics being displayed too. Like Happy Birthday, etc. At least that's the impression I get from the graphics.
Crapgadget: 'Gee... thanks?' edition {Engadget}
Jul 2nd 2009 4:22PM The plane was fine until I saw the video and the noise it makes (and the chrome trim).
Canon similarly annoying (along with the chrome trim).
Octopus (Quadrapus?) is pretty practical.
Robots aren't so bad, but a USB drive competing with USB hubs is funny. The robot could plug into any of these.
SUPERTENDO portable SNES hack elevates an artform to something impressively commercial {Engadget}
Jul 2nd 2009 4:07PM http://retroactive.be/supertendo/making.html
Awesome. 5 inch LED-backlit LCD. Rounded shoulder buttons look comfy.
The lack of easily removing those 6x AAs is a no-no in a device that has only 2 hours of battery life, though.
Thinning out the edges would be nice, though; seems a bit too chunky at the edges to grip for a long game session without discomfort.
Start and Select buttons would be far better off below the LCD.
Aside from those niggles, fantastic effort.
