Dell Venue Pro finally available to order: $99 on contract, shipping December 9th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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I’m not really sure this research is as revealing as it seems to be. Take a look at the diagram. The take-away is that since the introduction of the iPad, the Kindle’s share of the e-reader market has dropped from 68% to 40%. This suggests that sales of the Kindle are dropping, or that Amazon is losing ground to Apple. But the simple nature of the study suggests a different conclusion.
Today, SoundCloud, an audio platform that has concentrated on music makers so far, makes a significant pivot into the wider sphere of audio sharing. Up until now SoundCloud has done a pretty incredible job of attracting well known artists to its platform such as The Foo Fighters, Kylie, Deadmau5, Moby and Caribou, who have used it to effectively socialise their music. But today Soundcloud releases the ability to record sound direct via the site, and via it’s updated iPhone app. That puts it into the realm of pure audio sharing platforms such as Cinch and Audioboo. In other news SoundCloud has also passed two million users.
SoundCloud’s new record facility on the site or iPhone apps lets users capture sound anywhere and put it into their waveform player to share it across social networks, websites, the SoundCloud community or privately between friends. The iPhone app also has the ability to add an image and location to the sound recording. This is exactly what Audioboo and Cinch do already for instance, but the social features on SoundCloud may well trump any existing player right now. Check out the screen grabs below. Having looked at the app I can see that I may shift my own audio recording to SoundCloud because the experience is really very good.
If you’re the sort of person whose been living in the Western world over say, the past 30 years, you’ve seen or at least know about the first Star Wars movie: A New Hope. In this movie they speak briefly about this bit of technology called a moisture vaporator. It collects water in a way opposite of the evaporation process that sucked the land dry of its watery resources. In a very similar gesture, designers Chun Yen Tsao and Hsing-Tan Yang have created “Swater.”
What Swater does is use sunlight to collect clean distilled water from the condensation that builds up inside of the device. It’s eco friendly and probably will one day save the entire world. The awl-shaped cap has a solar panel that generates the energy needed to run the electrical heating tube and disinfecting light. Sounds reasonable, sounds fabulous. Skywalker approved, I’d bet.
Designers: Chun Yen Tsao and Hsing-Tan Yang
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For starters, you can only stream media from iOS devices and Mac or PC computers with iTunes to an Apple TV (or an AirPort express, if you're dealing with just audio). This means that only certain devices can send media and other devices can only receive media. For example, you cannot stream video from an Apple TV to an iOS device, an iOS device to a computer, or a computer to an iOS device. Additionally, AirPlay streaming is limited to MPEG4 and H.264 videos that are encoded to Apple's specifications. You can't stream, for example, an AVI or MKV file even if your Apple device can handle the media without issue. Finally, AirPlay only works with Apple devices. This may change in the future, as AirPlay can be implemented by third parties, but currently it's Apple-only. While AirPlay is definitely cool and has its uses, these are pretty significant drawbacks for many people. As a result, we wanted to take a look at the best alternatives you have to streaming your media. You can check out your top options below or just skip to our choice setup.
One of the best ways to stream media to your television is with a Home Theater PC (HTPC) and a media server. If you want complete control over practically everything, this is the way to go. In many cases you can control your HTPC with your smartphone or tablet and, in some cases, even stream media to your portable devices as well. File format support is virtually endless and everything will work just as you set it up. With a HTPC and media server you can do virtually everything you want, but it comes with the drawbacks of a (sometimes) higher price tag and a bit more work (at least in setting it up) than other solutions.
For more help in choosing the right media center software for your HTPC, check out Which Media Center Is Right for You: Boxee, XBMC, and Windows Media Center Compared.
There are a number of advantages to choosing a NAS. To name a few, NAS devices generally use significantly less power than the average computer, aren't much larger than the disks you put in them, should operate without making hardly a sound at all, and take little work to set up. A decent NAS will generally run you about $200 plus the cost of disks you'll put in it. I've used a few different kinds of NAS devices and they all have worked reasonably well. If you decide to buy a NAS, make sure it has the number of drive bays you want (two and four are the most common), has RAID support (if you want it), utilizes the network protocols you need (CIFS/SMB, NFS, SSH, and AFP should work well for all), and is compatible with all the types of computers you have on your network. If you plan to stream to devices other than your HTPCs, you'll want to make sure your NAS is Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) certified to ensure broader compatibility.
If you have an old computer that's reasonably fast and has plenty of hard disk space (which can, of course, be added internally or externally), or there's a good and cheap one you can buy, you can use it as your server instead of a NAS device. While an actual computer is generally going to be larger, more power-hungry, and in many cases overkill, it does come with some distinct advantages. While many newer NAS devices can download from BitTorrent and Usenet, you gain much more control over the process if you let your server do it. This speaks to the main advantage of using a computer: the control you have to install anything you want. While a NAS comes with a set of features that probably won't change much (if at all) over its lifetime, an actual computer can adapt to your needs pretty easily. This is particularly useful for the mobile streaming options we'll get into next.
For more storage solutions, check out Lifehacker Readers' Best Solutions for Massive, Multi-Terabyte Storage.
When it comes to streaming media from your phone to a television, you're currently stuck with AirPlay if you're running iOS. If you're an Android user, however, you have a few more options in the form of DLNA media server apps. TwonkyServer Mobile is a (currently) free option that serves your phone's media up to your DLNA-certified device. Compatibility isn't always assured, so give DLNA MediaServer a shot if you need an alternative.
TVersity is your best bet for streaming to DLNA-compliant devices like your gaming console of choice. TVersity can also handle streaming media to practically any other device, such as iPhones, PSPs, the Blackberry Curve, and more. Though free, a Pro version ($40) is available and adds a bunch of other options, such as streaming Hulu and other "premium web content." It's a versatile way to handle any streaming to any DLNA-compliant devices.
If you'd like to stick with an entirely free product, however, PS3 Media Server will handle your transcoding and streaming needs for PS3, while Orb can handle not only the PS3 but the Xbox 360 and Wii as well (here are instructions for setting up Orb on the Wii).
The nice thing about using DLNA-compliant devices is that you can put together a really inexpensive streaming setup. While a computer as a dedicated server or NAS device is often going to provide an ideal solution, you can also pick up something as simple as a single-disk DLNA-compliant network drive (e.g. Lacie's Network Space or Wireless Space).
Since our last look at iSendr they've added in bulk file transfer as well as QR codes for file uploading to Android phones (iPhones also support QR codes but the iSendr transfer app is flash-based which rules out iOS products). You can skip zipping up your files before starting the transfer, just highlight them all and share the link or QR code with as many friends as you want. Just like the original iSendr, all the files are hosted on your local machine, iSendr simply facilitates the transfer between your computer and the remote peer.
iSendr is a free service and requires no registration or login.
If you're looking for the tallest tree in America, visit Phoenix. Looking for the heaviest? Hitch a ride on over to San Francisco. Well surely, the brightest tree must be in the Big Apple, right? Nuh uh: Salt Lake City. In fact, despite its undeniably awesomeness, the only superlative that New York's Norway Spruce can rightfully own is that it uses the most electricity. Click on the image above for a supersized, super-in-depth view of the Nation's most favored pines.
In response to the recent flurry of aggressive takedowns against P2P and piracy-related websites, a group of programmers is working on a new, decentralized system that would make domains untouchable. The Dot-P2P project is partially powered, appropriately enough, by BitTorrent.
The problem—if you're either running or patronizing a website that runs afoul of US copyright law—is that it's extremely easy for your site to be knocked offline, should a court give the OK. It might sound like a gross generalization, but an enormous part of the internet is essentially owned by the United States. ICANN, responsible for handing out and maintaining the domain suffixes (.com, .org, and the rest) is part of the US Department of Commerce, and works closely with domain registrars. So when a US court decided that rap music sharing site OnSmash.com (among others) had leaked its last album, yanking the domain from under its feet was a cinch.
The alternative system would direct browsers to .p2p domains, through a decentralized, BitTorrent-style system. No ICANN, no court interference, and, presumably, no takedowns. The project already has the backing of major internet rebels like Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde and torrent powerhouse EZTV. Dot-P2P is still in its infancy, but, as Sunde himself commented, is sending a clarion message: "If they try anything, we have weapons of making it harder for them to abuse it. If they then back down, we win." Just how righteous a battle this is depends on your views of copyright law, but it's an interesting take on web liberties nonetheless. [TorrentFreak]
Duh. While you can pick up an iPhone 3GS on the cheap, there's no reason to. Saving $100, you lose out on the iPhone 4's frankly a-mazing screen, killer camera, faster speed (for better gaming) and FaceTime. When it comes to iOS, there is only one choice: iPhone 4. And really you should get the 32GB model. Why? Because apps, HD video and 5-megapixel photos can take a lot of space, and you're gonna be stuck with this thing for two years.
Picking the perfect Android phone is a little trickier. But that's part of the beauty of the platform: There are so damn many of them. Do you want a keyboard? A smaller phone or a bigger screen? A clean Google experience, or one that's been tweaked and molded by phone makers and carriers?
So we're going to cheat and pick two: The Epic 4G on Sprint, because it's got a massive keyboard—for people who have to have a keyboard—WiMax powers, an awesome camera, sweet Super AMOLED screen, and Samsung's skin is pretty tolerable for most people.
For the second, we've still got a soft spot for the HTC Incredible on Verizon. It's a little more pocketable than most of the hulking Android phones coming out right now, it's got a solid (though not stellar) camera, and HTC's is one of the better Android skinjobs out there. Plus, it's just $150—a little cheaper than most of the other top-end Android phones at the moment.
The early Windows Phone 7 phones are a fairly generic bunch, but the phone that stands out the most is the Samsung Focus. The Super AMOLED screen really shines with Windows Phone's technicolor interface, the camera's decent and it seems to do the best job of getting out of the way of the OS, which is the real star of the show.
BlackBerry's touchscreen experience is still haphazard at best, so if you're going to go BlackBerry you should stick with the phones they're best at: the traditional BlackBerry. The Bold 9780 is their top-of-the-line BlackBerry, a refreshed version of the existing Bold, with a better camera, more RAM and most importantly, BlackBerry OS 6, so you'll be able to run all of the new apps coming out written for it.
Getting your hands on a Pre 2 isn't as easy as walking into the AT&T store and walking out, but you can buy it for just $450 unlocked—which is fairly cheap as far as unlocked phones go. Bonus: You're not tied to an two-year contract. (That said, it's coming to Verizon soonish for those in need of commitment.) The Pre 2's not a revolutionary lunge from the original Pre, but the tweaks add up to a better phone: a faster 1GHz processor, redesigned case materials and longer battery life. Oh, and it comes with webOS 2.0 right out of the gate, which is a none-too-shabby update to webOS, with fancier multitasking and a bunch of other new features.
Continue reading Dell Inspiron Duo review
Dell Inspiron Duo review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The prototype doesn't use the most sophisticated guts—relying on cameras and clunky projectors instead of an actual capacitive touch surface—but looks pretty snappy from the video demo. It may be chunky, but the results are slick. As well, the bottom part of the BendDesk can be used as—gasp!—an actual desk. Which is pretty great, really, as it would free up room for low-tech work, with plenty of screen real estate left over for pinching and pushing digital stuff. Right now the BendDesk is confined to the labs of Germany's RWTH Aachen University, but we hope this kind of clever design slinks its way out of academia. [Core77 via Engadget]
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