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Category: Gadgets

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iPad wings

iPad with wings!I’ve been calmly waiting in the iPad wings (see what I did there?) for all of the iPad hype to slow down before I added my ¢2 to the blahgosphere.

Now that we’ve all had a chance to absorb (I did it again!) a super amount of blue-dyed water information about the iPad, I can skip all of the preliminary information on what it is & such. Call me lazy if you like — I call it outsourcing.

In short, I’d buy one if it were $299.

Apple’s created a really interesting consumer consumption device. There are all sorts of people trying to stretch this thing to fit their productivity-shaped holes, or even their traveling-based needs; they’re wrong. This thing is meant to stay at home and serve you your iTunes media. I use the term iTunes media loosely, covering the music, video, books and apps that you store in iTunes. If it ain’t iTunes compatible, Mr. Jobs doesn’t want it on your iPad.

I see what you did there.Don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame Apple for wanting to control your experience. I actually applaud them for offering such a completely closed and pleasant experience. The trouble is that they unflinchingly serve their target audience and happily turn away any outsiders. If you’re looking to do something the non-Apple way, Apple would rather you try a different platform.
Plain & simple, right?

Does that sound arrogant? Yes. Is that bad? Not really.

Apple narrowly defines what a device does; naysayers point out what it doesn’t.
– Me.

Do you want usb ports? Go somewhere else. Camera? Flash? Multitasking? Open app store? You get the point. Steve Jobs’ maniacal attention to detail will not be ruined by loose ends. If that bugs you, this isn’t for you.

Me? I want one. iPad 2.0 will work nicely. Or a cheaper 1.0.

categories Gadgets

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New Audio Controls

I was really pleased to find a few controls added to the audiobook (and podcast!) iPod controls in last night’s iPhone 3.0 update.

The small “30″ with the arrow moving in a circle takes you back 30 seconds; quite handy when you’ve missed something that was just said.

The “2x” is a speed toggle; clicking it multiple times will change between double, normal and half speed. Prior to this, you had to take a trip onto the Settings app to change it. Handy!

Lastly, you now get visual feedback when you scrub back and forth in a track. The way this works is hard to explain, but it works like this: if you grab the play head and start dragging it to the right, you move forward in the track. This is fine for relatively short tracks, like a five minute song, since each pixel only represents a few seconds on the scrub bar. On longer tracks (take a two hour podcast, for example), each pixel then represents a huge chunk of time and it becomes very difficult to skip back a few seconds (though the new 30-second skip alleviates that need!). Apple’s solution is for you to keep your finger on the screen, but to move it lower on the screen, completely off of the scrub bar; the lower on the screen you go, the finer the control you have! Fantastic! This used to work in past versions, but it wasn’t as well implemented, and had no UI.

categories Gadgets, Software

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Palm Pre theme for iPhone

categories Gadgets, Software

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PS3 to finally bow down to The One Remote

Harmony PS3 Adapter next to an iPhone

Harmony PS3 Adapter next to an iPhone (Photo source: Engadget)

I just read on Engadget HD that Logitech’s finally releasing their official PS3/Harmony adapter!

Pretty much every device I care about in my house is controlled through my Harmony 890:  360, TVs, stereos, lights, my bedroom fan… with one exception.  The PS3′s Bluetooth remote was the stumbling block; the 890 speaks infrared and radio frequency, but not Bluetooth.

Once I get this thing ($60, available this month!), the PS3 will feel less like a gimmick/toy.  I suppose it’s a little unfair, since the 360 already controls fine w/ the Harmony, but watching HD-DVDs on that thing (w/ the optional drive that you had to buy seperately) always feels juvenile because of the 360′s intentionally youthful UI.  The PS3′s Cross Media Bar (XMB) shows a lot more restraint, maturity and elegance.  Even the startup routines and sounds on the PS3 are more refined, avoiding the 360′s playful and cliche’ “I’M EXTREME!” attitude.  Wrap it up with a sleek, jet black piano finish (don’t forget the quiet fans!) and you’ve got one secksie beast!

Let’s face it:  Bluray is still so new to most people that it’s a treat for me to share the new tech w/ them.  Showing off your man den is a long standing tradition.  Today, tech is a huge part of the man den.  When you have a universal remote that bends all of your commands into one button press, deftly turning on all of your different devices, dimming your lights to just the right level and switching everything into GO! mode… you look like a tool when you have to pick up a Dual Shock to press play.

categories Gadgets, Hardware, Movies

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Apple’s finally taken an official stance on jailbreaking

Macworld is running a story today about how Apple has changed the conditions of the latest iPhone OS 3.0 NDA to explicitly denounce jailbreaking.

Apple is taking a more aggressive stance against developers who create apps for “jailbroken” iPhones. According to a new report, the Cupertino-based company recently updated its “iPhone Developer Program License Agreement” – the agreement to which all iPhone developers are required to adhere — to explicitly disallow jailbreaking, assisting in jailbreaking, and developing and distributing jailbreak apps. The Ars Technica report says that while previous agreements forbade the creation of apps that violate privacy, facilitate crimes, or violate intellectual property laws, the new one restricts developers from jailbreaking their own phones.

This is complete bullshit. One of the greatest things about OS X is the inclusion of the developer’s tools, allowing you to completely build whatever app you want for yourself if what Apple offers doesn’t suit your needs. Yes, the learning curve is steep, but even if you don’t necessarily have the chops to crank out an app on your own, the ability is there, and the challenge is often taken up by other developers. I happen to buy a LOT of software for OS X, something I nearly never did when I was a pc user, so many years ago.

With this latest move, Apple isn’t actively denying the same functionality on the iPhone — you can download the iPhone dev tools just as easily as you can the Mac ones — but there’s a not-so-subtle difference in the iPhone world. Censorship. Apple controls what apps get put onto the iPhone app store.

My developer argument is purely academic, as I’ve never written an app for either of the platforms, but as a consumer, I’ve been using a lot of the jailbreak functionality in ways that do no harm to Apple. I use a shell program that I prefer over the other free ones on the app store, a calculator that supports RPN, and a backgrounding app that allows my shell to stay open when I need to check my mail (I’ve given up the Super Mario theme and Zelda sound sets I was using last week).

None of these pieces of functionality compete with Apple or take any revenue away from third parties. There are, admittedly, apps in Cydia that do, which brings us to the whole issue here.

Apple has a track record of not allowing apps on the app store that compete w/ them. I get it — it’s their system, they control what’s allowed to go on it. You might be thinking, “If you don’t like it, don’t use the product”. That’s not a bad point, but as a consumer, it’s also our responsibility to voice our displeasure (this counterpoint was made by someone on Buzz Out Loud when a discussion about some other company being heavy-handed came up)

Eff you Apple. Eff you up the a.

categories Gadgets, Software

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iPhone + Kindle = Pretty Cool!


Source — Lifehacker.com

I have to admit, I was really skeptical, but the selection’s pretty compelling! Now if that text to speech option available, I think it’s be a must have!

categories Gadgets, Software

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5-Row QWERTY Keyboard for iPhone

5 Row

Saweeet.  I’m installing it right now.

IPhone Apps: 5-Row QWERTY Jailbreak App Fixes One of the iPhone Keyboard’s Most Annoying Flaws:
You can find this app listed under “5-Row QWERTY Keyboard” in Cydia.

categories Gadgets, Software

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Third-party browsers on iPhone are official

iPodNN | Apple greenlights third-party iPhone browsers:
Apple greenlights third-party iPhone browsers
A slate of new third-party web browsers has unexpectedly appeared at the App Store, reports indicate.

Fantastic.  I hope this leads to a mobile version of Firefox that supports addons.

categories Gadgets, Software, iNet

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iPhone JailBreak is available for 2.2

blog.iphone-dev.org | The man from DelMonte – He say Yes!:
There’s an app that’ll backup all of your jailbreak apps so that you don’t have to reinstall them all after the update, but I kinda wanna start from scratch.  Right now I can think of about 2 apps that I’ll re-install.  Well, maybe 3.

Crap.  It’s about 6, but it’ll still be easier for me to start from scratch.

Happy JailBreaking!

categories Gadgets

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wth is the point of THIS?

Seriously. I don’t get it.

categories Funny, Gadgets

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