Saturday, October 10, 2009

T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/t-mobile-we-probably-lost-all-your-sidekick-data/

Well, this is shaping up to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of cloud computing, and certainly the largest blow to Danger and the Sidekick platform: T-Mobile's now reporting that personal data stored on Sidekicks has "almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger." They're still looking for a way to recover it, but they're not giving users a lot of hope -- meanwhile, servers are still on the fritz and customers are being advised not to let their devices power down because anything that's still on there will be lost the next time the device is turned on. Another communique is promised from T-Mobile on Monday to give everyone a status update on the recovery efforts, but at this point, it's not looking good at all.

Update: Apparently T-Mobile has paused the sale of new Sidekicks, as all models are now listed as "temporarily out of stock" on the company's site. Additionally, a warning as been added to the post on T-Mobile's forum which reads: "Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power." Scary stuff, Sidekickers.

T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mitsubishi's modular, scalable OLED display goes 155-inches at CEATEC, could go way bigger (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/mitsubishis-modular-scalable-oled-display-goes-155-inches-at-c/

Something tells us that whenever we do round two of our Time Square signage Engadget Show, Mitsubishi's modular OLED display will be amongst the highlights. Aimed at outdoor applications (but obviously ready for your living room), the scalable prototype shown here at CEATEC was 155-inches in size. The wild part, however, is that it could grow infinitely larger -- at least in theory. The whole panel that you notice from afar is crafted from smaller OLED blocks that snap together like a puzzle; the more you add, the larger your screen can be. Unfortunately, resolution is still relatively low and longevity is a definite concern, but if you can manage to stand a few feet back, the result is simply stunning. Hop on past the break for a new take on "immersive."

Continue reading Mitsubishi's modular, scalable OLED display goes 155-inches at CEATEC, could go way bigger (video)

Filed under: Displays

Mitsubishi's modular, scalable OLED display goes 155-inches at CEATEC, could go way bigger (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eye-Fi bringing trio of WiFi-enabled SD cards to UK

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/10/eye-fi-bringing-trio-of-wifi-enabled-sd-cards-to-uk/

If you're an US-based company, you'd be kidding yourself if you said you didn't want to take advantage of the pound-to-dollar exchange rate. We can't say for certain that the current Forex ratings on currency is why Eye-Fi is suddenly barging into the British market place, but whatever the case, UKers can look forward to slapping a WiFi-enabled SD card into their digicam starting on October 19th. The Eye-Fi Home Video, Eye-Fi Share Video and Eye-Fi Pro will all be splashing down in 4GB flavors, with prices set for £49.99, £69.99 and £199.99 in order of mention. Got it, chum?

Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless, Storage

Eye-Fi bringing trio of WiFi-enabled SD cards to UK originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, October 09, 2009

Google Sites Adds Picasa Imports, Feeds, and Templates [Web Publishing]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/VFlRsu4ayug/google-sites-adds-picasa-imports-feeds-and-templates

Google Sites, the visual web site builder that's been fairly quiet since it launched publicly, just picked up a laundry list of features. Easy importing from Picasa, Docs and other Google apps, site RSS feeds, and templates have all landed.

For a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) web editor, having to manually insert HTML embed codes for a Picasa album slideshow, YouTube video, Google Doc, or other related apps seemed kind of perfunctory, and Google's obviously gotten hip to that. From the Insert menu on Sites' page editor, it's now pretty simple to drop any of those objects into a page or site element.

Google also allows Sites creators to offer up feeds for any page that regularly changes by adding posts.xml to the end of that URL. And if you're happy with what you've created on a Sites page, you can save a template to work off for other sites, or create sub-templates to maintain a consistent look across a site.

Picasa Web Albums integration, site feeds, and page templates in Google Sites [Official Google Docs Blog via Google Operating System]

CeeVee Creates Clean-Looks Resumes for Web or Print [Resume]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/hzRwxN5mf2E/ceevee-creates-clean+looks-resumes-for-web-or-print

Resume-making tools are a dime a dozen, but free webapp CeeVee has notable advantages. Auto-filling from Facebook profiles, easy print and PDF export, and simple editing tools make it more convenient than manhandling Word for an hour.

If you've filled out your work history on Facebook and connect with CeeVee through a Connect log-in, your resume is auto-filled with the most pertinent contact and experience portions. You'll definitely want to tweak those lines a bit, and CeeVee makes that easy, offering sectional editing that leaves the page looking good, even after you yank out that whole section about what a joke your internship was.

If you'd like to share your resume online, you get a ceevee.com/yournamehere URL, and embeddable badges for your site. The employer looking at your resume can easily print or save it to PDF, and you control what's seen publicly. All in all, it's a clean-looking edit tool that produces crisp resumes, and it seems worth the small time investment to try out. One complaint from a quick test, though—don't require the "Position at Company" structure. As you can see in the example, it requires freelancers to work "at will," or something similarly creative.

CeeVee is a free service, requires a sign-up to save a resume.

CeeVee [via Web Worker Daily]

DataMasher Serves up Government Data on a Map [Mashup]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/A1-GNI3OYqI/datamasher-serves-up-government-data-on-a-map

Mashups can be fascinating, layering data over maps to provide insight into trends and patterns. That kind of data manipulation would seem beyond the scope of the merely curious, but thanks to DataMasher you can instantly create a mashup.

DataMasher pulls from the enormous amount of data compiled and released by the U.S. Federal Government—data which often collects dust or makes brief appearances on charts stuffed in newspaper corners.

You can browse through mashups created by other users—like High School Education and Health Care Coverage or Federal Spending per Representative in Congress—or you can create your own mashup from the thousands of data sets available.

DataMasher won't guarantee the statistical validity of your mashups, if the data sets are available for number of toaster owners and number of dog owners nothing is stopping you from creating a mashup of the two, but nonetheless the service provides a simple and fascinating way to access large amounts of data usually too unweildy and tucked away for the average person to bother with.

DataMasher [via MakeUseOf]

The Circular Periodic Table of Elements [Science]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/36Fe1gjDOwM/the-circular-periodic-table-of-elements

Researcher Mohd Abubakr says that his circular periodic table is better than Mendeleev's. I'd have given him the Nobel in chemistry—if Obama hadn't got it first for mixing himself a whiskey with Red Bull onboard Air Force One.

Abubakr—who works at Microsoft Research in Hyderabad—says that if you arrange the table in circular form it gives you an idea of the size of the atoms. The closer to the center, the smaller the atom element would be. That's why hydrogen and helium—with less atomic weight—are the nearest to its center. His table also preserves the periods and groups, and manages to look neat and pretty at the same time.

The Physics arXiv Blog at MIT's Technology Review disagrees. They said that the table is flawed because it can only be read by rotating it—which doesn't make much sense, since you can easily rotate an image on the screen. Their other criticism is valid, however: They say that the genius of Mendeleev's table is that it can "predict the properties of undiscovered elements," arguing that Abubakr's table is not as intuitive.

Whatever MIT people, you chemistry dorks you, I just like how it looks. [Technology Review]

Tweetie 2 Review: The Best iPhone Twitter App, Period [Review]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KcA9jfrozk0/tweetie-2-review-the-best-iphone-twitter-app-period

Tweetie 2 is so far ahead of every other iPhone Twitter app, it's astounding.

It's the most polished Twitter app yet, oozing slickness with every swipe. Yet, it's exploding with new features, and still really fast. It manages to cram in every possible feature you could possibly want in a Twitter app—offline reading!—without feeling too complicated or bloated. Truthfully, it's a brand new, totally different app from the original, down to the core. If you already own Tweetie and don't buy Tweetie 2 because you feel like you shouldn't have to spend another $3, Alyssa Milano, it's your loss.

Form, Oh Shiny Form

The main Tweetie 2 interface feels just like the original—awesome—with two big differences: The chat bubbles are dead, replaced by a solid stream of tweets, and glowing notification orbs tell you when new tweets, mentions or direct messages are waiting for you. That's a huge functional leap over the original Tweetie, where you had to click over to each section to see if you had new messages. Plus, the orbs just look cool, like they're cut off by the bottom of the screen. The one flaw here is that sometimes it doesn't register you've read a message, so you'll wind up clearing the orb for the same message twice.

How do you refresh? When you hit the top of a timeline and keep pulling down, an arrow pops into sight that tells you to pull down, and as you down, it smoothly spins upward, telling you to release to refresh. It's simple, but slick. There's also a search bar up there, so you can look through all the tweets you have pulled up for something that caught your eye.

S! o Much F unction

The greatest new feature in Tweetie 2 is its offline powers. They're great. Not only does it cache tweets to read offline, but you have other Twitter capabilities, like adding favorites, which are synced up the next time you go back online. A basic drafts manager lets you store and edit tweets to send later.

You can set up virtual push notifications so you can see whenever somebody you follow drops a Tweet bomb, like RealTracyMorgan. (They show up as a text message from 40404, i.e., Twitter.) Sadly, this doesn't extend to @replies, but it's for following a particular person (or persons, if you want a lot of messages about tweets). Other new functional awesomeness includes auto-complete for @replying and direct messaging people who have confusing-ass usernames you can't remember (though you have to go to the user, and then compose a message to them), the ability to link people with address cards, a very pretty nearby tweet search, and integration with multiple services like Instapaper and Tweet Blocker.

Buy It Now

If you've never paid for a Twitter app or even if you have, Tweetie 2 is well worth the measly three bucks it costs. It's fast, it's got full offline powers and it's so polished your iPhone will slip out of your hand while you're using it. It's not perfect, but it's the closest yet.

Super smooth UI, gushing with polish and animations

Exceptionally good offline powers

Feature-packed without feeling bloated

No real syncing with desktop app

No real push notifications

[iTunes, Atebits]

Now Available [Now Available]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/paBP2q4AFpI/now-available

Archos 5 tablet models starts trickling out, Garmin's latest GPS is shipping, and best Buy rewards Zone members can get an HTC Hero on Sprint two days early.

• The 160GB Archos 5 tablet is leaving Amazon's warehouses now, but you'll have to wait if you want to pick up other capacities. The guys at T3 posted a review that out own Joanna Stern summarized. T3 called the Archos "pocketable" and "well-built," but the lack of a real app marketplace is a bummer. If that doesn't bother you, go ahead and grab one now for $390. [I4U]

• Garmin's nuvi 1690 is shipping, and comes bundled with 2 years of nuLink service. That gets you access to traffic, weather, and other internet connected goodies through AT&T's network. After the two years are up, though, you'll have to start paying $5 per month for the service. Keep that in mind as you stare down the 1690's steep $500 asking price. [GPS Track Log via Ubergizmo]

• A quick note to Best Buy Rewards Zone members: you can grab an HTC Hero on Sprint two days before the wide launch. (Thanks Charles!)

This Week's 10 Best iPhone Apps [IPhone Apps]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nnW9U4kMn1w/this-weeks-10-best-iphone-apps

In this week's net-neutral iPhone app roundup: Wild Things, physics games, Photoshop!, Twitter again (but that's ok!), horse music, human music, and much, much more.

The Best

Where the Wild Things Are: Promotional apps are normally garbage, and in a few areas, this is a little fluffy (though there's some neat media in here—it's fairly generous). But hey, the people marketing this movie know exactly whose heartstrings they're pulling at, and how to pull them. And the 3D monster toy is genuinely cool. Free.

iBlast Moki: A visually stunning physics-based platformer, with bombs. The levels are puzzles, but they don't feel like work at all. A very, very safe buy at a dollar.

Photoshop: This app bears almost no resemblance to the Photoshop we all know and ~~steal~~ love. That's fine though, because it's a serviceable photo-editing (on the iPhone, this means filters, cropping, and a few other tricks) app that is free, unlike virtually all of its competition.

Tweetie: Few people like Twitter as much as Matt, and Matt likes few things as much as Tweetie 2: The $3 app is described as

the most polished Twitter app yet, oozing slickness with every swipe. Yet, it's exploding with new features, and still really fast.

"Tweet tweet?" "Who's there?" "THE WORST JOKE YOU'VE EVER HEARD."

Weight Watchers: I've never thought about my diet too much, which means my life will be short, brutal and tasty. But I have seen people using WeightWatchers, and they seemed to sorta like it, and sometime get less fat! An iPhone app pretty much seems like the ideal tool for keeping a food journal, plus this one's free.

Pet Acoustics: Excuse me everyone, I've got an announcement: People write muzak for dogs. And cats. And horses! Then they put it in iPhone apps, so you can use it to soothe your stable of animals, uh, on the go? This makes me laugh, which makes me happy. (Though I have absolutely no idea if it works, because my Labrador only listens to gangsta rap.) Two dollars.

Command & Conquer: Red ! Alert: This one isn't out yet, but I defy you to name a game franchise that needs an iPhone title more than C&C. TouchArcade got an early hands-on, and they say it's fantastic—and surprisingly faithful to the original.

Rock Band: Another long-overdue addition to the store, Rock Band, the app, is kind of a jerk: While it was taking foreeever to show up, companies like Tapulous stepped in an made decent rhythm games to fill the void. Now that it's here, and it looks great—multiple instruments, a decent song list—it's going to poop on everyone else's party. It'll be here in a few weeks, price TBD.

MotionX Drive GPS: It's not brand-new, but it's too good a value not to mention here. $3 a month, or 25 per year is amazing for a turn-by-turn nav app, and Wilson enthusiastically deemed it to be fine:

I am not going to tell you this is the best turn-by-turn road navigation app in the world. The designers made some funny UI choices, there's no multi-destination or point-on-map routing, it doesn't have text-to-speech, and it only runs in portrait mode, taking up awkward space on my dashboard. Still, there's almost no reason not to get it.

Indeed.

iLickit: This app deserves more ! credit t han I can give it for being the first designed for use with the human tongue. Ho ho, you wacky app developers, what's next!? Wait, ugh, don't tell me. Not in the store, yet.

Honorable mentions

• Explore the New York City Which Could've Been With the Phantom City iPhone App

• PewPewPew (With Your iPhone): Ahem:

pewpewpewpew, bangbangbang boomPEW, swishpewpewpewpew.

Also, augmented reality. A dollar.

• iSheriff: It's a lot like that PewPew AR app above, rebalanced: It's free, which is cool; and it's not quite as playful: it puts people in zoomable crosshairs, and has gore effects, which makes it a little creepy.

• Good Things Do Come in Threes with Tap Tap Revenge 3

• MapQuest Stumbles Back Into the App Store With Budget Turn-by-Turn

• FHM: DUDE MAG, in an app. Lots of near-nakedness here, with daily updated FHM non-boob content too. $2.

• Let's Draw Some Sheep: No, really, let's draw some sheep! Because that's just about all you can do with this moderately charming little app. $1.

Other App News on Giz

• ChilliX, who makes all kinds of neat, usually paid iPhone apps, is giving away their entire ca! talog fo r free this weekend.

• Flash Apps to Come to the iPhone, But Not to Safari

• The iPhone App Store Gold Rush May Be Running Low on Gold

• Apocalypse Nigh, AT&T Opens Network for VoIP Over 3G on iPhone

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!

iriver's N20 DAP shuffles onto the scene, complete with PMOLED screen

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/irivers-n20-dap-shuffles-onto-the-scene-complete-with-pmoled-s/

We first caught sight of an N20 MP3 player from iriver way back in 2006, but it looks like the company is now back with another player that shares the same moniker, and thankfully boasts a few improvements over its predecessor. The biggest of those is a new greyscale PMOLED display, which is just big enough to display four lines of information, but small enough to keep the player for expanding beyond its 26 x 55.5 x 13mm dimensions. Otherwise, it looks like you can expect your choice of 2GB or 4GB capacities, a full range of supported audio formats (including FLAC and OGG), and even a built-in FM tuner despite its diminutive size. Still no official word over here, but it looks like folks in China will be able to pick this one up for 649 yuan or 749 yuan depending on the capacity, or roughly $95 or $110.

[Via PlayBites]

Filed under: Portable Audio

iriver's N20 DAP shuffles onto the scene, complete with PMOLED screen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Giorgio Armani and Samsung unveil Windows Mobile smartphone... with a little help from Steve Ballmer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/giorgio-armani-and-samsung-unveil-windows-mobile-smartphone-w/

Fashion fans, rejoice. Your two favorite labels have finally come together: Giorgio Armani... and Windows Mobile. Today in Milan, Armani's empire unveiled a new, €700 (or about $1030) smartphone built by Samsung, running Microsoft's latest 6.5 OS iteration. The device -- featuring a full touchscreen and slide-out, landscape QWERTY keyboard -- touts a 3.5-inch AMOLED display, a 5 megapixel camera, 8GB of internal storage, GPS chip, and microSD slot. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who spoke at the launch, says the device is "the most fashionable phone [he's] ever had a chance to talk about." We won't lie, there is something weirdly appealing about the bronze and black smartphone, though we don't see ourselves shelling out that kind of dough on this particular model. Oh, not because we don't want to, but it doesn't go with our shoes. Check out a couple of videos from the launch after the break, including a short clip with Ballmer.

Gallery: Giorgio Armani and Samsung's new Windows Mobile phone

Continue reading Giorgio Armani and Samsung unveil W! indows M obile smartphone... with a little help from Steve Ballmer

Filed under: Cellphones

Giorgio Armani and Samsung unveil Windows Mobile smartphone... with a little help from Steve Ballmer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maemo 6 UI concept revealed to include portrait mode, capacitive multitouch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/maemo-6-ui-concept-reveled-to-include-portrait-mode-capacitive/

Today at the Maemo Summit -- which we like to imagine happens in a lavish, remote mountain fortress somewhere in Finland -- Nokia dropped some interesting hints about what we can expect from Maemo 6. Look for both portrait and landscape support, multitouch, capacitive touchscreens, an "iconic user experience and integrated internet services in one aesthetic package" (as opposed to a user experience that lacks icons, integrated internet services, or aesthetics, we suppose), and a desktop significantly larger than the display, which can be navigated either vertically or horizontally: Nokia is calling this "the canvas principle," although we'd call it "possibly quite confusing" unless the design is particularly well implemented. But the designers have plenty of time for that: Maemo 6 probably won't see the light of day until late 2010. Hit the read link for plenty more mind-blowing slides.

[Via SlashGear]

Maemo 6 UI concept revealed to include portrait mode, capacitive multitouch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N900 video shows off 3D gaming, YouTube shenanigans, and more

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/nokia-n900-video-shows-off-3d-gaming-youtube-shenanigans-and-m/

Not satisfied with a video of the Nokia N900's browser, an in-depth look at its Maemo 5 operation system, or even a glimpse of it playing the odd SNES game? Then fear not, 'cause the device is on the scene at the now-happening Maemo Summit, and it's thankfully been caught on video once again for those not lucky enough to be in attendance. Highlights this time around include a look at the device's 3D gaming capabilities (demoed with a Marble Madness-type game called Bounce Evolution), and a demonstration of the device not only playing YouTube videos in a browser, but within a thumbnail in the Maemo interface -- not exactly the most practical thing in the world, but it sure is impressive on a mobile device. Head on past the break to see the whole thing for yourself.

[Thanks, Welly]

Continue reading Nokia N900 video shows off 3D gaming, YouTube shenanigans, and more

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N900 video shows off 3D gaming, YouTube shenanigans, and more originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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INQ working on Spotify-branded phone, possibly running Android?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/inq-working-on-spotify-branded-phone-possibly-runni/

While the Spotify music service continues to tease us US-bound folks from afar, there's word of a Spotify handset now to make us even more jealous. The phone is apparently being built for Swedish provider Telia (Spotify already accounts for 35 percent of digital music sales in Sweden), and according to TechCrunch, INQ is building the phone. Interestingly, the last thing we heard from INQ about future plans was a forthcoming Android handset, and we also have a source that says that Spotify probably wouldn't be placed onto a regular BREW-powered INQ handset, so the optimist in us would like to believe that this Spotify phone could be INQ's big Android play -- there is already an official Spotify Android app to make that whole process seem even more doable. Either way, Telia's Spotify handset should be on the market in a "couple of months."

[Via Pocket-lint]

Filed under: Cellphones

INQ working on Spotify-branded phone, possibly running Android? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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