FocuSoft Tech Blog |
| Motorola intros i465 Cluch, company’s first QWERTY iDEN device Posted: 01 May 2009 10:17 AM PDT Following the seemingly unstoppable trend toward QWERTY and heavy texting in the low end of the market, Motorola has announced its very first iDEN device to ever feature a full keyboard. The rumored i465 looks just a little better in glamorous press shots than it did before, and it’s picked up a name along the way — Clutch. Naturally, Boost Mobile is a perfect fit for the thing, and the Sprint division looks to be launching this quarter. Specs include Bluetooth 1.2, a 160 x 128 display, video capture via a VGA cam (hey, it’s low-end, what did you expect?), and mil-spec compliance for shock, vibration, and all that good stuff that you might need when your phone hits the pavement. Pricing will be announced closer to launch, but we don’t expect it to break the bank. Go here to see the original:
      |
| Engadget’s recession antidote: win a Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom! Posted: 01 May 2009 10:00 AM PDT This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got two Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zooms to give away. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff! Two more shots of the products after the break. Huge thanks to Joby for providing the gear!
The rest is here:
 |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 09:30 AM PDT  iPod in the Snow, by Bad RobotSay what you want about the cult of Apple and the insane proliferation of the iPod, but the little devices can take a licking and keep on ticking. Or rather, they can take a freezing, and keep on pleasing! Andrew Robulack found an iPod frozen into the ice, and pried it free. To his surprise, it worked!
Speaking for myself, I would have thawed it out before trying to turn it on, to make sure the mechanical components didn't get screwed up due to contraction from the cold. If this is your iPod, you have a week to claim it before Robert declares "Finder's keepers, losers weepers!" And for some reason, this little story reminds me of the very first nursery rhyme my dad ever taught me:
Yeah, my dad was a strange ranger. Read more:
 |
| How-to: set up dual-band WiFi (and juice your downloads) Posted: 01 May 2009 09:30 AM PDT  Yeah, we think you should make the switch. Let’s come right out with it — you should be running a dual-band 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi network. Why? Because the 2.4GHz spectrum is cluttered with everything from other networks to Bluetooth to cordless phones and microwaves, and all that RF interference slows everything down, making file transfers interminable and HD streaming nearly impossible. On the other hand, 5GHz 802.11n is clean and incredibly fast — we’re talking almost hardwire fast. But you can’t just move up to 5GHz without leaving your phones and other legacy devices behind, so you’ve got to keep 2.4 around as well — which is really easy if you’ve got a simultaneous dual-band router like Apple’s new Airport Extreme or something like the D-Link DIR-825, and only slightly harder if you don’t. And, as luck would have it, Apple just sent us a new AEBS to play with, so we thought we’d show you how to configure both kinds of setups. We promise you’ll thank us.  If this looks familiar, it’s time to go 5GHz. Okay, so first things first: you need to make sure your laptops and other devices support 5GHz 802.11n. If you’ve got a Mac with a Core 2 Duo, you’re all set. PC users will need to check their gear — you should be fine if you have a recent-vintage 802.11n WiFi chipset, but if not, you’ll have to pony up for a USB or PC Card adapter, which is ugly but worth it. Next, you’re going to need to decide if you want to run a two-router setup or consolidate to a single box. If you’ve got a newer 5GHz-capable router already installed and you like it, we’d say your best bet is to just add a cheap second unit — configuration isn’t that hard, and you’ll actually end up with a more flexible rig. On the other hand, if you’ve got an older router or you want the simplest possible networking setup, an upgrade to one of the new dual-bands on the market might be in order, since the experience is seamless — Apple’s AEBS will even auto-select the fastest connection for you. That said, after having run both setups, we’ve settled on having two routers — it’s a little messier, but the sysadmin in us secretly likes having redundant hardware in the house in case something goes awry. What can we say? We’re nerds. Single-router setup  And… that’s it. If you’ve got a Mac-only household, you don’t have to do anything else — your Macs will automatically use the 5GHz network and get the higher speeds, while your other devices will hop on at 2.4GHz. However, we’re guessing you’re more like us, and you’ve got lots of different systems to support, so you might want to back off the full-auto here and split out the 5GHz network with its own SSID:  It’s a little less seamless, but you’ll be able to manually set all your 5GHz-capable devices to use the faster network. Setup with any other dual-band router is more or less the same — just make sure you’ve got both radios going. Two-router setup  But what if you’ve already got a 5GHz-capable router that works well? It’s not going to be as easy as the single-box setup, but it’s not exactly hard, either — you just need to flip the right switches and plug in a good cheap router to serve as your 2.4GHz access point. We use a $30 Belkin, but you’ve got tons of options here — you don’t need any extra bells or whistles, just reliable operation. Configure your main router as you normally would, giving it a unique SSID and selecting 5GHz-only operation where appropriate. Generally this’ll be under a wireless settings menu, but different manufacturers put it in different places.  Next, make sure you’re set up to use “wide channels.” This bundles two 802.11n channels together, and it’s a big reason for the speed boost. Again, this can be hidden — on an Airport you have to click the “Wireless Options” button.  And that’s it — you can begin enjoying 5GHz immediately. You’ll notice that file transfers are much faster, HD video streaming is now a realistic possibility, and wonder of wonders, you’ve become much more attractive overnight. But what about your cellphones and older devices? Let’s get that 2.4GHz access point set up and bring them back online. Plug in your el-cheapo router and do what you need to do to skip the guided setup. You don’t need it. Connect to whatever default network it creates out of the box, point your browser to the setup screen (typically located at 10.0.1.1, 10.0.2.1, or 192.168.1.1), and look for the access point config screen:  The IP address here should be in the NAT range as the one used by your main router, so make sure you don’t put in a 10.0 address if you’re runnning a 192.168 network or vice versa. (Check your other network to make sure.) Other than that, all you really have to do is pick an unique SSID that’s different from your 5GHz network and set a password, and you’re all set. Connect a short Ethernet cable between the LAN (not WAN!) ports of both routers, and enjoy — you’ve got the best of both worlds. Whichever way you choose to go, we’re pretty sure you’ll be happier running at 5GHz — it makes wireless networking seem like a viable alternative to Ethernet, which is not something we ever thought we’d say. And besides, you needed a weekend project, right? Here is the original post:
 |
| Hobo Hut Features Solar Power, Is Nicer Than My Apartment [Architecture] Posted: 01 May 2009 09:10 AM PDT If you’re gonna be a hobo, you might as well be a hobo with the sweetest hobo house on the block, right? This hobo hutch, discovered in a homeless camp along a river in Tokyo, is outfitted with a solar panel to power the goodies inside, such as TV and radio. The guy who lives in it used to work for a camera company, so he knew his electronics well enough to put this together with found objects. Also, he claims it can float, making this the most terrifying houseboat ever. Sorry, MacGuyver hobo, but I don’t trust your skills that much. [0 Yen House via Neatorama] More:
 |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 09:00 AM PDT Dell are really going overboard with their Studio laptops, it's not that they had added any special features or more specs, the changes are in the choice of artwork with the Studio fifteen and seventeen inch laptop buyer visiting the Dell website can choose one of a hundred and twenty designs. This takes the total cover choice to over two hundred, is there such a thing as too much choice? The artwork covers have been divided into different categories such as artists including Filth, OBVLN, Deanne Cheuk, Maya Hayuk and Korakrit Arunanondchai, patterns and plain colours. Priced from $734 and rises to $1,184 Source [Tech Fresh]
The rest is here:
 |
| Posted: 01 May 2009 08:58 AM PDT
The best hacks don’t necessarily make a gadget any easier to use, or more discrete: they just make them cooler. That’s why this DIY glove phone is so awesome; it takes a Samsung A300 and a leather glove, and crafts a bizarre contraption that you dial by tapping buttons on the fingers, and use by holding your little finger to your mouth and your thumb to your ear. It’s not entirely ridiculous: as well as making Inspector Gadget-style calls, you can also compose SMS text messages with one hand. Best of all there’s an Instructable telling you how to make your own. In version 2, there’s going to be slightly less wire-explosion on the top, with a box to hold the main board, and a vibrate feature to keep everything nice and discrete. There’ll also be a more Steampunk theme going on, with copper and rivets, some artwork and perhaps a watch that does the vibro-alert. We just hope the precarious LCD display stays sticking up. [via Hack a Day] Relevant Entries on SlashGear
Continued here:
 |
| Palm Eos headed to Sprint as well? Posted: 01 May 2009 08:58 AM PDT  Okay everyone — grain of salt goggles on? According to PhoneNews, not only is a GSM version of the Palm Eos (AKA Mini Pre, AKA Pixie, AKA Castle) coming to AT&T sometime in the near future, but Sprint will be getting its version of the Centro-like device come Q3 2009. The site claims that “sources within Sprint” have “confirmed” the launch window for a phone with specs similar to those on the device we hit yesterday, and that said device is actually in testing right now. Of course, just as we mentioned with the Eos news, this isn’t actually confirmed by anyone at Palm (or even close) right now… and you know how much the internet loves a rumor. Still, this would make a lot of sense as Sprint and Palm are all but joined at the hip, and it helps jibe some of the differing reports we / the blogosphere has heard about carriers. Obviously there’s much, much more to this story — you’ll know about it when we do. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] View post:
 |
| Samsung Alias2 hitting Verizon May 11th with E Ink keys? Posted: 01 May 2009 08:50 AM PDT The Samsung Alias2 is tipped to be hitting Verizon store shelves on May 11th, according to sources at the carrier. The phone will be the first handset in the US to use E Ink for its keypad: as suggested when the first images of the Alias2 emerged, the dynamic keys can switch from landscape QWERTY to portrait numeric pad. The nature of E Ink means that using it for the Alias2's keyboard doesn't have a huge impact on battery life. E Ink only draws power when changing, not to maintain the display, and as there's no backlighting necessary in daylight situations that could actually see the Alias2 using less power than a comparable standard etched keyboard. Price is tipped to be $79 following rebates both instant and mail-in, though of course as with the date that's unconfirmed. Full specifications for the handset are unknown, but the camera is believed to be 2-megapixel resolution and the display QVGA. [Images via phoneArena] Relevant Entries on SlashGear
Go here to see the original:
 |
| Contest Reminder: Free Tekken 6 swag Posted: 01 May 2009 08:50 AM PDT Don't forget about our Tekken 6 contest. Some of the fellas on staff think this is too hard of a contest, so if you agree then sound off in comments and we'll change it up. Read the rest here:
 |
![solar zero yen house homeless japan Hobo Hut Features Solar Power, Is Nicer Than My Apartment [Architecture]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/05/solar-zero-yen-house-homeless-japan.jpg "Hobo Hut Features Solar Power, Is Nicer Than My Apartment [Architecture]")
![solar zero yen house homeless japan inside Hobo Hut Features Solar Power, Is Nicer Than My Apartment [Architecture]](http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/05/solar-zero-yen-house-homeless-japan-inside.jpg "Hobo Hut Features Solar Power, Is Nicer Than My Apartment [Architecture]")
| You are subscribed to email updates from FocuSoft Tech Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Inbox too full?  Subscribe to the feed version of FocuSoft Tech Blog in a feed reader. | |
| If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: FocuSoft Tech Blog, c/o Google, 20 W Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment