by Darren Murph, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 10:58AM We’re guessing the naming scheme here was quite intentional, though we’ll be the first to say Bandai’s Smart Berry has very, very little in common with RIM’s stockpile of handsets. Nevertheless, this “mobile communicator” joins the small crowd of other tween-centric chat handhelds with wireless capabilities that enable four of these things to talk to one another “for email, chat and online games within a 10-meter diameter.” For whatever reason, messages are limited to 64 characters (and you thought SMS was bad…), and in case that little tidbit grows increasingly frustrating, there’s a virtual pet on board to take your mind to a more blissful place. (Read the full post about ‘Bandai boldly introduces Smart Berry: the portable chat handheld for girls’…)
by Darren Murph, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 7:23AM It’s a common problem, really. You’re eager to get Windows 3.1 back into your life, but you’ve no N810 to install it on. Good news retro software aficionados — said internet tablet has just tumbled to $299.99 (at CompUSA, at least), a full $90 less than the price we cheered over in March. Yeah, that 800 x 480 resolution display, VGA camera and full QWERTY keyboard is more attainable than ever, but with the possibility of a bombastic successor just around the bend, would it pay off even more to wait? (Read the full post about ‘Nokia’s N810 stoops to a mouthwatering $299′…)
by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 7:44PM It seems like the endless legal struggle to be allowed to compete in the Olympics took its toll on cyborg sprinter Oscar Pistorious — he didn’t qualify for the South African Olympic team on Wednesday, after failing to run the 400 under the 45.55 second minimum required to make the trip to Beijing. Interestingly, Pistorious’s 46.25-second time was his best ever, even though critics claimed that the double-amputee’s “Cheetah” prosthetics allowed him to use only 25 percent of the energy used by traditional runners. That’s not the last we’ll see of Oscar, though — he says he’s happy with his season’s results, and he’ll be back to try out for the 2012 Games in London.Read PermalinkEmail this26 CommentsFiled under: Misc. (Read the full post about ‘Oscar Pistorius fails to qualify for the Olympics’…)
by Darren Murph, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 9:05AM It’s not that Electro Box’s miShake PMP looks especially like anything else we’ve seen, but it sure takes an awful lot of cues from, shall we say, more popular brands. We won’t even bother explaining the miShake name, but what is important to note is the 2.4-inch touchscreen, “explosive external loudspeaker,” 4GB of internal memory, miniSD expansion slot and support for a multitude of audio / video file formats. Oh, and don’t even bother fiddling through that questionable user interface to change tracks — just give it a good jerk (you know, like Sony’s Shake control) to hear the next jam begin abruptly. (Read the full post about ‘Electro Box’s miShake PMP enjoys being agitated’…)
Oakland is building a stadium for A’s that will be known as Cisco Field, and the builders are considering adding an interesting feature to every seat: interactive touchscreens. The purpose of these screens is to provide information to the spectators. For example, spectators can access player stats on whoever is up at bat, or in the field. They can also call up driving routes out of the park, so that once the game is over, they can find the fastest route home. It also has some great real-time information and services, as it can figure out where the shortest bathroom lines are. And if you want a hot dog or a cold drink, just order it up, and the refreshment man will personally come to your seat with your order. (Read the full post about ‘Touchscreens at Oakland A’s Stadium’…)
Could it be? The way of the computer mouse will soon become obsolete? That is what an IT analyst is predicting.
According to Steve Prentice, research analyst over at Gartner, an IT analytical and consulting firm, in 3-5 years the mouse will be replaced by other human interface devices. Prentice said:
The mouse works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it’s over.
The reason for the prediction as Prentice sees it is the development of touch screens, gaming controllers like those made for Guitar Hero, Panasonic technology that detects hand movements instead of using a remote, and facial recognition technology that allows interaction through expressions.
Not everyone, however, is ready to ditch the mouse which has been around for almost 40 years.
(Read the full post about ‘The computer mouse to be obsolete in 3-5 years?’…)
by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 8:36PM It’s hard enough for Motorola’s handset division to go about its business these days without losing talent, but losing executives to Apple’s iPhone team? That’s just a straight-up slap in the face, and Moto’s not gonna take it lying down. The We Generation has filed suit against Michael Fenger, the dude running its handset business for the EMEA market for six years until March this year, when he quit to take up a posh job as Apple’s veep of global iphone sales. That isn’t a problem in itself — businessfolk switch teams all the time — but it seems Mr. Fenger had an agreement in place not to work for a competitor inside of two years following his departure. (Read the full post about ‘Motorola sues former employee turned Apple exec for ganking trade secrets’…)
Waiting in line for the Dark Knight? Here’s something to help pass the time if you have an iPhone: The free HaHaHa app. Snap a photo of your friend and you can smear Joker makeup all over his face. Hahaha — sucker. What’ll really pass the time is the sheer difficulty of using this app: Mess up applying Joker makeup once and you have to start all over again. The e-mailing portion of the app isn’t integrated with iphone’s Mail, and it’s a real pain to use (requiring you to fill out your name and e-mail address as well as your friends’). I’m not sure how much Heath Ledger fans will appreciate this app. I guess this is Warner Bros’ way of cherishing his memory. Tags: speakers, consumer technology, amps, MP3 (Read the full post about ‘Free iPhone App Turns Your Friends into Joker’…)
I’m constantly striving to increase my productivity. Either by reading a ton of books or posts on Lifehacker, Webworkerdaily, or various other sites, I probably spend more time reading about being productive than actually being productive. Seriously though, one thing I found mentioned that if you’re a person who works primarily on the web, the bigger screen you have, the more productive you are. When I read that little nugget I was using a 20-inch widescreen LCD. Now I sit here writing this on Viewsonic’s 26-inch VP2650wb widescreen LCD. So, has my productivity increased? The interesting part about switching from a 20-inch monitor to a 26-inch monitor is how much more you can have open at a time. (Read the full post about ‘Increase productivity with Viewsonic’s 26-inch VP2650wb’…)
The Microsoft Xbox 360 has just lost its overall best-selling console position in the US to the Nintendo Wii, with 10.9 Wiis shifting since it was introduced in November a couple of years ago. This is pretty amazing, and it doesn’t look as though the Wii juggernaut will be slowing down anytime soon. Sony takes second place this time round, mainly due to the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 that saw it shift 405,500 PS3s compared to the Xbox 360 which sold for slightly more than half the PS3’s total this June. Great to see a more balanced spread of hardware this time round, meaning that all of them can co-exist peacefully with one another, offering quality entertainment no matter the platform. (Read the full post about ‘Wii Outsells Xbox 360 in US’…)
