FocuSoft Tech Blog

LaCie intros Core4 and Core7 USB hubs, various HDD bags
Zune 30 upgrade plan keeps old Zunatics in the Zuneosphere
Need A Witty “App For That” Phrase? There’s An App For That.
iRiver P35 headed to the US this fall
The next DLC for GTA IV is The Ballad of Gay Tony
Get Girls Half-Naked in Your iPhone [IPhone]
iRobot’s new Roomba patent could clean those hard to reach areas, get stuck there
Contenture Launches. Micropayment-Based Freemium Models For All. (If People Use It.)
NFL Red Zone Channel may not be free on Comcast after all
The First iPhone Clock App I Actually Paid Money For [IPhone Apps]

LaCie intros Core4 and Core7 USB hubs, various HDD bags

Posted: 26 May 2009 05:07 PM PDT

aecaeea3a9y bags LaCie intros Core4 and Core7 USB hubs, various HDD bags

LaCie is outing a few new wares today, and despite your best wishes, they ain’t hard drives. Up first, we’ve got the Core4 and Core7 USB hubs, both of which are modeled after the Sam Hecht-designed LaCie Little Disk. As the model names indicate, the Core4 includes four USB ports and a built-in mini-USB cable, while the Core7 packs six USB sockets as well as a built-in extractable mini-USB cable.

Both devices are shipping now in Warm Gray, Blue and Orange for $9.99 and $19.99 in order of mention. In related, somewhat less titillating news, the company is also introducing three new lines of mobile and desktop hard drive bags: the LaCie Cover, LaCie Coat and LaCie Cozy.

The trio arrives in a rainbow of hues and models for 2.5- and 3.5-inch HDDs, with prices starting at $8.90. Huzzah?

Read - Core4 and Core7 USB hubs
Read - LaCie HDD bags

Filed under: Storage

LaCie intros Core4 and Core7 USB hubs, various HDD bags originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 May 2009 19:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zune 30 upgrade plan keeps old Zunatics in the Zuneosphere

Posted: 26 May 2009 04:30 PM PDT

Ain't nothing wrong with Zunes, but you could be forgiven for a few covetous glances at your friend's iPod Touch or Samsung P3. Touchscreen, widgets, apps… sure, they're tempting, but they're also expensive, space-limited and the music playing functionality isn't any better. But Microsoft understands why you might be considering cheating on them with another media player when your Zune 30 croaks or runs out of warranty.

So they're offering you a deal: trade in your aging Zune 30 and get a significant price break on new Zunes. Sounds good, but what if they're just trying to offload inventory before the ZuneHD comes out?

We'll know when the plan is actually launched in June. The nitty gritty cash breakdown is this: trade in your Zune 30 and get $70 off a Zune 120, 80, or 16GB, $40 off an 8GB, or $30 off a 4GB. Zune 80 for $160? That's a sweet deal. We'll update you when it all goes live.

[via Zune Scene]

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Zune 30 upgrade plan keeps old Zunatics in the Zuneosphere

Need A Witty “App For That” Phrase? There’s An App For That.

Posted: 26 May 2009 04:27 PM PDT

picture-102

I'm a big fan of coming up with ridiculous "App For That" headlines. You know, the kind that mock Apple's iPhone App Store commercials that basically proclaim there's an app for everything you could ever possibly want to do. So it brings me great pleasure today to report that the next time I need one of those headlines: There's an app for that.

App For That, is a website that gives you a series of user submitted "App For That" jokes, which you can vote on, tweet out, email, etc. The service looks like the iPhone's text app, with submissions written in chat bubbles. Below that is a submission form for your own jokes.

Oddly enough, this is a web app, and not an actual iPhone app. (Come on guys, get on that — the joke cannot come full circle until you have one.) But here are a few of my favorites:

"If you just murdered your friend and need to find the nearest city dump, there's an app for that."
"Your momma's so fat, there's an app for that."
"If you want to write an app that makes fun of apps, there's an app for that."
"If you want to get your drunk roommate out of bed, there's an app for that."
"If your reading this, there's an app for that."

[thanks Nick]

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Need A Witty "App For That" Phrase? There's An App For That.

iRiver P35 headed to the US this fall

Posted: 26 May 2009 04:26 PM PDT

It certainly doesn’t seem to have been in a rush to bring it to these shores, but iriver has now finally announced (in teaser form) that its P35 PMP will indeed be getting an official US release… this fall.

That will version will obviously ditch the DMB TV found in its Korean counterpart, but it should be otherwise identical, including up to 16GB of storage (plus an SDHC card slot), a 4.3-inch WQVGA touchscreen, a full-fledged web browser (on the WiFi version, at least), a promised 16 hours of battery life (or seven for video) and, of course, iriver’s trademark SPINN controls.

No word on pricing just yet, as you might have guessed, but the Korean version started at the local equivalent of $286.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

iRiver P35 headed to the US this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 May 2009 18:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The next DLC for GTA IV is The Ballad of Gay Tony

Posted: 26 May 2009 04:00 PM PDT

Not much info to give, but we (and just about every other Web site in existence) just got notice from Rockstar that a new DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV will be released this fall for the Xbox 360. That's the rather festive logo right there for Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Here's how Rockstar describes the DLC, which will be released in the fall for 1,600 Microsoft Points (or at retail for $20):

Grand Theft Auto IV's second downloadable episode, The Ballad of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka "Gay Tony"), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.

There's also going to be a pack called Episodes from Liberty City that has both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on it. That'll be $40 and doesn't require you to have GTA IV to play.

I cannot wait till controversy erupts over the name.

See more here:
The next DLC for GTA IV is The Ballad of Gay Tony

Get Girls Half-Naked in Your iPhone [IPhone]

Posted: 26 May 2009 04:00 PM PDT

I’m not a fan of the Suicide Girls—although I’ve a crush for Gwen, a waitress at the Blackbird Parlour who looks like one, only prettier—but I love their iPhone application.

It works like those naughty pens with pin ups that fascinated me when I was 11 years old. They were one of my first fetishes: Turn them around and the girl will go from dressed to naked instantly. The ones I was obsessed with used water and floating french lingerie, which disappeared magically, thanks to Archimedes’ principle, at the flick of the wrist. The day I saw one of these, I became obsessed with pin ups and corsets… but I digress here.

Instead of water, the Suicide Girl application uses the giroscope in the iPhone. When you flip the iPhone the girl will get half-naked, turning around at the same time. I wish I could tell you that if you flip it again, she would get completely naked, but no, it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t even allow you to pinch either, which is basically the main reason why the pinching gesture was invented. You know, Steve got one of the first iPhones and asked the dev team why the hell he could touch Diane Keaton’s boobies but she could pinch her. And right there, the pinch gesture was born.

I know. Too much wine for lunch. [iTunes App Store]

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Get Girls Half-Naked in Your iPhone [IPhone]

iRobot’s new Roomba patent could clean those hard to reach areas, get stuck there

Posted: 26 May 2009 03:47 PM PDT

When most kids our age were cutting class to play Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, the latch key kids over at Robot Stock News were taking apart their step father’s vacuum. And as we grew up, all the while developing relationships with cellphone tipsters and eventually becoming successful tech bloggers in our own right, the Robot Stock News kids were also able to take their obsessive geek tendencies and make a name for themselves — combing the interwebs, paying off high priced vacuum ninjas, and scouring the US Patent database for any and all news featuring many of our country’s leading autonomous vacuum cleaners.

They must have been really stoked to stumble upon a patent filed in November 2008, entitled “Compact Autonomous Coverage Robot.” As far as we can tell, this document (filed by iRobot) details a Roomba with a squared off front, designed to hit those hard to reach corners that the traditional circular device cannot.

This design change, while it seems minor, actually lends a level of complexity to the device: a square robot requires more complex programming, lest it get stuck in a niche that its round faced predecessor could never reach in the first place. Of course, there’s no telling when (or if) this one will see the light of day, but you’ll know as soon as we do. Promise.

[Via Robot Stock News]

Filed under: Household

iRobot’s new Roomba patent could clean those hard to reach areas, get stuck there originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 May 2009 17:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Contenture Launches. Micropayment-Based Freemium Models For All. (If People Use It.)

Posted: 26 May 2009 03:44 PM PDT

picture-313 A few weeks ago, we wrote about the impending launch of Contenture, a monetization network for sites built around micropayments. The idea is that while traditional online advertising models work for some sites, others are better suited for custom-tailored approaches — and that's what Contenture can offer. Today, it has launched its service is giving TechCrunch readers a special deal.

If a website owner signs up with the promotional code "techcrunch," they will receive double affiliate commissions for a full year. A pretty good deal considering that because the way the network works, it's in your interest to have more site owners sign up. That's because the larger the network is, the more likely it will be that users sign up for Contenture accounts. And the more that do, the more you're likely to get paid.

Contenture users pay a minimum of $5.99 a month, but can offer to pay more if they choose. Site publishers keep 80% of the money coming in to Contenture, while it keeps the other 20%, which is a pretty solid deal compared to other monetization networks.

The core of the service is similar to the idea behind TipJoy. That is, users paying a small amount of money to a site owner. But Contenture goes further, allowing sites to switch to a full-on "freemium" model, giving them the option to toggle certain features on and off depending on if a user has paid.

But because it is based around a monthly-fee, we could be looking at a chicken-or-the-egg situation. Users may not want to sign up for the service because of the limited number of sites available — while sites not want to sign up because of the limited number of users. But Contenture has made it very simple for a site to install and use their service — it's just a small snippet of JavaScript that can turn on or off features based on if a user visiting the site has a Contenture account.

This type of model is no doubt a gamble, but it's an intriguing one. As I wrote about a few days ago, I have no problem paying a certain number of sites that I visit often and love. But those were all web services, and not necessarily content-oriented sites. The large web services are likely to want to run their own freemium models — like what Pandora is doing. Contenture would be perfect for content-oriented sites, but a lot of users have hang ups about paying for content on the web.

That's not to say that won't even change in some form, but today that's a tough sell. Micropayments could be a key to unlocking such a model, but a monthly fee is a barrier to entry.

Disclosure: Contenture sponsored our CrunchCam for a few hours a couple weeks ago.

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Contenture Launches. Micropayment-Based Freemium Models For All. (If People Use It.)

NFL Red Zone Channel may not be free on Comcast after all

Posted: 26 May 2009 03:40 PM PDT

You may recall that exactly one week ago, your old buddy Doug got all bonered up about NFL Network and Comcast finally reaching an amicable agreement. In particular, it was starting to sound like Comcast subscribers would not only get NFL network at no extra charge, but that we'd also get the very-excellent Red Zone Channel for free as well. I mentioned that it "seems way too good to be true" and, as it turns out, it looks like it is indeed too good to be true.

Sports Illustrated's Peter King recently said the following:

"Clarifying one thing about the Red Zone Channel on Comcast. Last week I said the league's smart deal with the cable giant would put the Red Zone Channel (the one that jumps from game to game on Sundays, showing scoring opportunities) on Comcast's digital tier. No so, most likely.

Other cable outfits who make deals to put NFL Network on their digital cable tiers will probably place Red Zone on a pay tier similar to the one the league argued the NFL Network shouldn't be on. The reason is because the Red Zone Channel is added value, not something the league wanted to give Big Cable as part of the deal to make the Network more widely distributed on the regular digital tier. So if you've got Comcast and you want this premium channel, you'll likely have to pay an additional $7 or so per month to get it, which, over a four-month term, is probably a reasonable cost if you're an NFL devotee who loves immediacy and can't wait for the halftime or post-game highlights."

So King may have been wrong about it being free. Now hopefully he's wrong about being wrong. In all honesty, paying $7 per month for the Red Zone Channel is still going to make it seem like a good deal to anyone who's already excited about it. Free would make it oustanding, though — Comcastic, even.

[via Consumerist]

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NFL Red Zone Channel may not be free on Comcast after all

The First iPhone Clock App I Actually Paid Money For [IPhone Apps]

Posted: 26 May 2009 03:30 PM PDT

FlipTime is a clock and calendar app designed to look and work and go *clickclickclickclick* like the old-school flippy information boards at train stations and airports. Simple, but watch and see why I paid 99 cents.