Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/casio-gzone-brigade-brings-whole-new-level-of-rugged-insanity-t/
Filed under: Cellphones
Casio G'zOne Brigade brings whole new level of rugged insanity to the QWERTY clamshell originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/vudu-brings-pandora-picasa-and-flickr-to-connected-hdtv-promis/
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Software
VUDU brings Pandora, Picasa and Flickr to connected HDTVs, promises more apps soon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/motorola-droid-goes-on-sale-a-little-early-at-best-buy-mobile/
Continue reading Motorola DROID goes on sale a little early at Best Buy Mobile
Filed under: Cellphones
Motorola DROID goes on sale a little early at Best Buy Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/dell-adamo-xps-coming-in-time-for-the-holidays-for-1799-unbo/
Filed under: Laptops
Dell Adamo XPS coming 'in time for the holidays' for $1799 (unboxing and hands-on video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/saygus-vphone-v1-hits-the-fcc-headed-for-verizon-next/
Filed under: Cellphones
Saygus VPhone V1 hits the FCC, headed for Verizon next? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/acer-liquid-handled-evaluated-not-too-shabby/
Filed under: Cellphones
Acer Liquid handled, evaluated, 'not too shabby' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/palm-demos-web-based-ares-sdk-for-webos/
Currently, mobile entrepreneurs wishing to hawk their wares on the Pre (or Pixi, or unnamed webOS device of the future) use a software development kit from Palm called Mojo, a stack of Java-based tools that must be installed, studied, understood, loved, and respected before serious development can get underway. Palm sees that as a barrier of entry for web-oriented developers who want to make the leap to mobile apps, though, which is why they've crafted a new SDK called Ares that's based entirely on web technologies -- in fact, there's no install at all, apparently. Much of the interface is said to be drag-and-drop with enough JavaScript exposed to make your local .com designer feel right at home, potentially opening the app landscape to a whole new set of folks -- and considering that the App Catalog is tens of thousands of goodies behind the App Store and Android Market, they can use every loyal dev they get.Filed under: Cellphones
Palm demos web-based Ares SDK for webOS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MediaWiki is arguably the most advanced, install-it-yourself, free wiki package available. A wiki is an editable web site; you can change each page's content without having to log into a content management system like WordPress or access the server via FTP or other means—you just hit the edit button. While MediaWiki is built for public web sites that anyone can update, like Wikipedia, you can customize it to limit access to certain users. Like WordPress and Firefox, MediaWiki is extendable via plug-ins that add functionality. MediaWiki is also skinnable, which means your wiki can sport a custom theme so it doesn't look just like Wikipedia.
Recently, Adam and I used MediaWiki to write, publish, and expand a book-in-progress using MediaWiki. Check it out to get a feel for what a non-Wikipedia web site using MediaWiki can look like.
To use MediaWiki, you'll need a web server with PHP and MySQL available and some experience installing web applications. If you've installed WordPress before, you'll have no problem installing MediaWiki. To do some of the customizations below, you'll have to be comfortable adding files to your installation, doing some light PHP file editing, and in the case of skins, know how to tweak HTML and CSS to get your skin to look how you want.
Back in 2006, we covered how to install MediaWiki and that article still stands up. (However, you can't go wrong getting instructions from the horse's mouth—here are MediaWiki's latest installation instructions.) If you don't want to deal with the hassle of setting up a web server with PHP and MySQL and MediaWiki, check out the quick-setup BitNami installer for MediaWiki.
Once MediaWiki's installed, you can start adding and editing pages to your wiki. Wiki pages aren't made of HTML like regular pages, they're made of special wiki markup. Here's a rundown of the most common bits of wiki markup you'll need to know. To see wiki markup in action, hit the play button to watch a five-minute screencast demonstrating how to edit and create pages ("chapters") of a novel in MediaWiki.
< img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2009/11/6gbMNhnl1SU.jpg" class="left image340" width="340" style="display: none;"/>
Out of the box, MediaWiki comes with the look and feel you're so used to from Wikipedia; this MediaWiki skin is called MonoBook, and it's popular and immediately recognizable. However, if you log into your MediaWiki installation and click on preferences, and then the Skins tab, you can dress up your wiki in various other looks. With a little elbow grease, you can also create your own custom skin and assign it as the default to the wiki.
All your wiki's skin files are located in the /path-to-your-wiki/skins/ directory, where "path-to-your-wiki" is the directory where MediaWiki is installed. A skin is made up of a single PHP file, and a directory with its CSS files and images. For example, a skin called "My Great Skin" will consist of /path-to-your-wiki/skins/MyGreatSkin.php and /path-to-your-wiki/skins/mygreatskin. Unlike WordPress, you have to update your skin files by hand on your MediaWiki server. Be sure to back up your entire working installation before you start, just in case something goes wrong.
Newbie MediaWiki skin developers would do well to start with a copy of the MonoBook skin files and modify them. WikiHow (another MediaWiki-based site!) offers a simple tutorial on how to do that: How to Create a MediaWiki Skin Based on the MonoBook Skin. You can always preview a skin in your user Preferences->Skins area as you develop to make sure things look how you want. The (X)HTML markup for your skin will be located in its .php file and the CSS files will be located in the skin's folder. Be sure to save any skin-specific images in the skin's folder as well.
!Once your skin development is complete, you want to set it as the default for everyone who looks at your wiki, whether or not they're logged in. To do so, in /path-to-your-wiki/LocalSettings.php, set the $wgDefaultSkin variable to to the name of your custom skin and refresh your wiki.
LocalSettings.php file.
Three MediaWiki extensions you may find useful include:
These three extensions are just the beginning. See MediaWiki's list of extensions by category for more.
To install an extension, download its zip file and extract it to the /path-to-your-wiki/extensions/ directory. Then, in your LocalSettings.php file, add a line that includes the extension file. For example, to activate the Cite extension, you'd use the line require_once("$IP/extensions/Cite/Cite.php");. (Each extension's homepage will provide the line of code ! you'll n eed to install it, and how to use the extension once it is installed.)
For example, MediaWiki comes with a mechanism to register users, so people can create an account at your wiki and log in. This comes in handy if you want to restrict edit access to only people who are logged into your wiki. Likewise, you can "protect" pages on your wiki and grant only certain users "editprotected" page access.
To set your MediaWiki user permissions, you have to edit the LocalSettings.php file. For example, to disable the ability for anyone who visits your wiki to edit its pages, create pages, or add to talk pages, use this code:
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createtalk'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createpage'] = false;
Above, the * represents all users.
A default group called "user" refers to visitors who have created an account and logged into your wiki. To give them edit privileges, add the following to your LocalSettings.php file:
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = true;
You can even restrict edit access only to users who have created an account AND verified their email address with this code in LocalSettings.php:
# Disable for everyone.
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
# Disable for users, too: by default 'user' is allowed to edit, even if '*! ' is not .
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = false;
# Make it so users with confirmed e-mail addresses are in the group.
$wgAutopromote['emailconfirmed'] = APCOND_EMAILCONFIRMED;
# Hide group from user list.
$wgImplicitGroups[] = 'emailconfirmed';
# Finally, set it to true for the desired group.
$wgGroupPermissions['emailconfirmed']['edit'] = true;
MediaWiki's user rights scheme is complex but deeply customizable. See the Manual's User Rights page for a full list of rights, default groups, and how to create your own groups with custom access privileges.
This overview of skins, extensions, and user permissions is just a broad look at what's possible in the world of MediaWiki customization. Here are links to a few more common tweaks you might make to your wiki:
/index.php?title=Your_Page, but an .htaccess file tweak can make them look like Wikipedia's clean /wiki/Your_Page links.$wgReadOnly variable to an explanatory string in your LocalSettings.php file. For example, the line $wgReadOnly = "Wiki locked for maintenance"; will disable editing of all pages, and display that message to anyone who tries to edit a page.What are your favorite MediaWiki customizations, extensions, or skins? Share 'em in the comments.
Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, is very excited to finally co-author a book for real using MediaWiki. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
The premise of Cheapism is this: You don't want the absolute best and premium priced item, you just want the best value among the cheaper options.
When you visit Cheapism you can browse their top picks for categories, read product reviews for products with budget-friendly prices, and read up on what to look for in economical products in the category you're researching. The latter might be the most valuable part of the site, the guides are quite detailed and offer lots of great information on shopping in the zone above cheaper-than-dirt and below ultra-premium—they even provide a scale for each product category showing where the common price divisions fall for that particular product.
Check out the link below to explore product reviews on everything from printers to coffee makers. Have a favorite site for finding great deals and comparison shopping? Let's hear about it in the comments.
After choosing the documents you want to compare, CompareMyDocs will choose one and highlight areas that have been changed in other versions of the document. You can accept or reject those changes by hovering over and clicking one of the buttons that pops up. The app also has a very basic text editor built-in, so you can add, delete, or do minor formatting on text within the document. After you're happy with all the changes, you can save the final version as a document for further work in your desktop word processor.
At the moment, the web app is a bit basic—which is a problem if you have more complicated documents. If, for example, it contains things like tables, images, or footnotes, they may be lost or reformatted in in the process. However, for simpler documents, the program is an easy, intuitive way to edit your way through a mass of revisions, and an interesting alternative to Word's built-in revision tracking.
CompareMyDocs is a free web service.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/04/t-mobile-7-2mbps-hspa-rolling-out-now/
Reports are coming in, by and large it seems via Android and Me, that T-Mobile's begun its rollout of its 7.2Mbps HSPA network for some extra speedy mobile browsing. We've done some testing in the listed cities, notably Chicago and New York, but so far are coming up with the usual, mundane speeds. It'd certainly make up for yesterday's snafu (almost), but at this point we're classifying as unconfirmed. Anyone else having better luck?Filed under: Cellphones
T-Mobile 7.2Mbps HSPA rolling out now? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/olympus-e-p2-official-patches-over-e-p1-problems-and-jacks-up-t/
Continue reading Olympus E-P2 official, patches over E-P1 problems and jacks up the price
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Olympus E-P2 official, patches over E-P1 problems and jacks up the price originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/toshibas-320gb-hard-disk-is-worlds-largest-1-8-incher/
Filed under: Storage
Toshiba's 320GB hard disk is world's largest 1.8-incher originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/05/isabella-products-vizit-first-2-way-touchscreen-photo-frame-he/
Filed under: Displays
Isabella Products' Vizit: first 2-way touchscreen photo frame headed to AT&T in early 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSource: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qhfNZkEkfmc/is-the-crunchpad-dead
The fact is that the timeline for the Crunchpad thus far reads like a vaporware gadget or the financially-challeged launch of the OLPC project. First, the Crunchpad was $200, then it became $300, then there was supposed to be an announcement in July or August. Of course, that never happened, but another summertime rumor placed the launch in November for $400. That was months ago—and nothing has materialized so far.
Rumors are rumors, but if rising costs are a major issue, that does not bode well—especially with the threat of a sub $1000 Apple Tablet looming. [Silicon Alley]
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