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| CUBE B52HD PMP handles codecs galore, HD out for silly cheap Posted: 12 Apr 2009 06:34 AM PDT  It’s not like we’re ever going to bump into this in our local electronics store, but boy is this CUBE B52HD portable media player tempting. The thing has a 5-inch 480 x 272 LCD, all the codecs we could ask for (including fan faves like FLAC, OGG, along with plenty of video options), 1280 x 720 video out, 8GB of built-in storage and an expansion slot of some sort. We’re not sure about input methods, but hopefully the interface involves Brendan Fraser to some extent. The best news? All this can be theoretically yours for a mere 499 yuan, about $73 US. [Via PMP Today] Read more here: |
| Steam powered USB charger keeps your iPod alive with Victorian sensibility Posted: 12 Apr 2009 03:41 AM PDT
We love this steam powered USB charging device. It’s well built, useful, loud, and totally anachronistic — the same could be said of many of our editors here. According to the inventor, the thing is based on a Jensen #75 steam engine, which is used to drive a Lego Technic motor. The motor, in turn, feeds into a voltage regulator circuit, providing a continuous 5V charge to which ever USB device you might connect to it. This prompts us to ask a few obvious questions, including: “when is someone going to build us an appropriate steampunk PMP to go with the thing?” And, of course, “aren’t Legos awesome?” Video after the break.
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| Some Of Our Favorite Easter Eggs Posted: 12 Apr 2009 02:00 AM PDT
Just as children love hunting for Easter eggs, we love finding virtual Easter eggs in software and Web apps—those intentional hidden messages, features or jokes built into the software that users in the know may stumble upon at some point during their experience with the application. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite software Easter eggs of all-time (in no given order) in light of today’s holiday. Of course, there are many more Easter eggs out there. Tell us us your favorites in the comments! 1. Atari: The first ever software Easter egg is speculated to have occurred in 1979 in an Atari game. Apparently, programmer identities were kept behind locked doors in the easly days of software development, with companies not wanting staff to gain more celebrity status than their brands. Warren Robinett, a programmer for Atari sneaked his name into the Atari 2600 game Adventure. Here’s the YouTube video showing the egg:
2. Google’s Picasa Teddy Bears: Image editing software Picasa has an entertaining teddy bear Easter egg. If you open Picasa and press Ctrl-Shift-Y, a teddy bear will pop up. 3. The Book of Mozilla: If you type “about:mozilla” in the address bar of any version of Firefox, you will be led to a page with a quote from the “Book of Mozilla” about the birth of Firefox. 4. Google Earth Flight Simulator: If you open Google Earth, version 4.2, and press Ctrl-Alt-A (”Command” “Option” “A” on a Mac), Google inserted a flight simulator that lets you simulate being in the cockpit of a F16 fighter jet ot a lightweight SR22 propeller plane. 5. The Dark Castle on the iPhone/iPod Touch: According to this report, a teenager in the UK managed to discover this egg, the classic Mac game "Dark Castle", in its entirety, available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Activating this game is a bit complicated but, here are the directions.
6. Google’s Mobile App: Google unveiled a surprise Easter egg for its Mobile App for the iPhone earlier this year. If you click on the settings tab, scroll to the bottom and keep swiping upwards until a secret option dubbed 'Bells and Whistles' appears (this also works in the foreign language versions of the app). The hidden menu lets you change the theme color of the app and its default sounds to chicken or monkey noises. 7. Microsoft’s Volcano: Microsoft inserted a volcano Easter egg in all Windows Operating Systems prior to XP. If you go to control panel display, click on the screen savers tab, select “3D Text,” then click on settings and in the graphics text box type “volcano.” The screen saver then shows names of all the volcanoes in the U.S.
8. Google’s holiday Easter eggs: Last holiday season, Google put Easter Eggs next to the sponsored link search results for terms like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa Gifts, Christmas Sweaters, Hanukkah Sweaters, etc. 9. Mac OS X “Here's to the Crazy Ones”: If you open Finder and go to Applications, look for TextEdit. If you enlarge the icon in CoverFlow, you'll see a letter from John Appleseed quoting the text from Apple's "Think Different" advertising campaign. 10. Goldeneye Breakdance: This egg was recently discovered. Apparently when playing Goldeneye 007, if the user tilts the cartridge during gameplay, this causes the characters to breakdance. It’s pretty funny-see the YouTube video of the dance below: Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Here is the original post: |
| Dream Cheeky’s USS Enterprise webcam exudes charm and class Posted: 12 Apr 2009 12:11 AM PDT
Now that it’s legal for George Takei to get married in Iowa, what better way to celebrate than by letting your “Trek flag” fly in your home or office? The USS Enterprise-themed USB webcam features an adjustable focus, and the red engine lights (or whatever they are) actually, you know, light up. For maximum realism, we guess. And the cable is adorned with the Star Fleet Insignia although, sadly, it will not function as a communicator. It is just a TV series, you know. No word on release date or price, but we’re keeping our eyes peeled. Read the rest here: |
| Does Google Really Control The News? Posted: 11 Apr 2009 09:19 PM PDT
Once again, Google is the favorite bogeyman responsible for the rapid deterioration in the health of the news industry. This time it is Nick Carr doing the finger-pointing, describing Google as the most powerful middleman in news:
So how powerful is Google when it comes to parceling out traffic to news sites? If you are talking about Google News, the answer is that it is not quite as powerful as you might think. In the U.S., Google News is overshadowed by both Yahoo News and even the sites controlled by the New York Times (which includes NYTimes.com, Boston.com, HeraldTribune.com, and several other newspaper sites). According to comScore, Google News attracted 16.2 million unique visitors in the U.S. in February, compared to 42.3 million for Yahoo News and 46.2 million for the sites operated by New York Times Digital. So Google News is not the middleman here. Let's just put that notion to rest. Yahoo News is three times as large, and Yahoo sends even more traffic to newspaper sites from other parts of Yahoo through its online newspaper consortium. The bigger question is whether Google as a search engine is controlling access to news sites. That really seems to be Carr's main concern, although it is not clear because he uses a Google News search as his main example. Nevertheless, Google's main search engine is certainly a major source of traffic to information sites of all stripes. At TechCrunch, for instance, it is the single largest source of traffic, accounting for about a third of the total. I have no idea whether this is representative of other news sites, but it wouldn't surprise me. Google search is a very important middleman indeed. Does that make Google like Wal-Mart, as Carr suggests, a middleman of such might that it squeezes everybody else's margins? Does that give it "monopoly control over content distribution," as Scott Karp tries to argue? Not exactly. Information economics work slightly differently than retail economics. Let me stick with the TechCrunch example. One third is a lot, but it is not a monopoly. Google sends us all of that traffic because many of our posts rank highly for the topics they cover. We don't pay them for that traffic. We are not buying keywords. Yes, Google makes money from other ads shown besides any searches where TechCrunch posts shows up as results. But the money Google makes from those ads does not detract from our revenues. Quite the opposite. Those searches send a considerable amount of traffic to our site, where we have our own ads. The more people who see those ads, the more we can charge for them. It's all good. Google does not control the news, it exposes it. The retail/distributor analogy is all wrong. Information is not the same as a flat-screen TV or a blender. It does not become less valuable the more available it is because all news is not the same. Information dissemination is not a zero-sum game. Carr and Karp would have you believe otherwise. Karp writes:
Again, that is not how it works. Google doesn't force suppliers of information to charge less for it as Wal-Mart does with suppliers of packaged goods. The money Google makes from its search ads is not necessarily money that would have otherwise gone to a "news" or content site. If Google didn't exist, those ad dollars might have gone to an e-commerce site or a travel site or a real estate site or any number of other places. News sites have no claim to those search advertising dollars. It is incumbent upon each of us to attract an audience by having something original or interesting to say. When news sites do that, other sites link to them, and then they rank more highly in Google search results, which sends new readers their way. And then once those readers do find a news source they trust, you know what? Some of them actually keep coming back on their own volition without Google telling them what to do. That is called direct traffic. Or they come through other sites. Google isn't the only one who benefits from all those links. If you want to be known as an authoritative source of news, it is no longer good enough to simply proclaim yourself to be one. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. See original here: |
| Solar boat crew heading out on a fantastic voyage around the world Posted: 11 Apr 2009 08:50 PM PDT
The project is being funded by Swiss company Rivendell Holding AG, that has committed to investing in green technology. The group hopes to set sail sometime next year from Marseilles, France, with various stops off along the way. They will undoubtedly tire of hearing that Daft Punk song long before they ever leave the shore. Check out a sweet render of the boat after the break. View original post here: |
| Gamer Turns Coffee Table into Wireless Arcade Joystick Posted: 11 Apr 2009 07:00 PM PDT
What do you do when you need an arcade joystick for Street Fighter, have spare joystick parts laying around, a small coffee table, and can’t find one in stores? You put your skills to use and build a custom stick of course. Continue reading for a video of it in-action. (Thanks, Madison) Go here to read the rest: |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2009 06:56 PM PDT  Master gadget hacker KipKay unveils his latest creation, the Spy Megaphone. To start, you’ll need: a megaphone, “1/8″ audio jack, pair of headphones/earbuds, some wire and standard tools — soldering iron, snips, etc.” Video after the break. [via Instructables]
Originally posted here: |
| Researchers develop laser-guided microhoverbot, Engadget coins new word Posted: 11 Apr 2009 06:38 PM PDT
The device is monitored by laser sensors and by camera, and since the it floats free of any sort of wiring (and power is supplied from outside the robot) it is ideal for working in clean rooms or hazardous environments. Not too shabby, eh? At the very least, we got to use the word “microhoverbot.” [Via CNet] Read the original post: |
| Posted: 11 Apr 2009 05:07 PM PDT  Here’s an inside look at the incredible Google Zurich office. Their “team is strong in all things maps and geo, even more so after having integrated several dozen specialists from Swiss company Endoxon, which Google acquired.” Video after the break. Click here for first picture in gallery.
[via Picasa - Lunchoverip] Read the original: |
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