Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, March 12, 2010

Springpad Turns Your iPhone Into a Scrapbook for Everything [IPhone Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5491450/springpad-turns-your-iphone-into-a-scrapbook-for-everything

Are you one of those people who collects stuff? Not material items, but little tiny scraps of information, be they photos, places, products, text snippets, ideas, or plans? Then maybe, maybe, you should try Springpad.

Springpad is a free iPhone app in the vein of Evernote, except with a broader scope. You can dump just about anything you encounter in here: photos are easily snapped and categorized; barcodes are scanned and filed; restaurants and stores are identified by manual or geo-based search; notes are pecked and saved; every input field, nearly, is augmented by a "search" option; and all your material syncs to the service's desktop web interface.

Since the app's promise—to make collecting and organizing little scraps of information super-easy—is so appealing, it's disappointing to find some interface awkwardness here; there's never anything missing, really, but you often find yourself pausing to look for the next command longer than you should have to. Regardless, information hoarders and relentless scrapbookers should probably give Springpad a chance—it's free, and for a first release, it does a lot. [Springpad]

United Airlines Claims In-Flight Videochat to Be Illegal [Travel]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5491312/united-airlines-claims-in+flight-videochat-to-be-illegal

John Battelle was on a Wi-Fi-enabled fight with United Airlines last night, and he decided to use videochat to say goodnight to his kids. Unfortunately, a flight attendant told him it was illegal.

The reasoning? Videochat could be used to coordinate terrorist attacks. Good thing he didn't have email or IM access!

So what's a curious guy to do? To the Internet! Which is exactly what I did. Responses starting pouring in. Including one from a pal at the State Department, who echoed my basic goal: To use video chat to tuck my kids into bed isn't a crime. Or at least, shouldn't be.

The flight attendant just showed me the United policy manual which prohibits "two way devices" from communicating with the ground. However, the PLANE HAS WIFI. To combat this, not unlike China, United and other airlines have blocked Skype and other known video chat offenders. Apparently, they missed Apple iChat. Oops.

The reason that in-flight videochat is frowned about is because it's annoying to fellow passengers, not because of terrorists. But who needs to know that when you can just claim something is against the law? [Battelle Media via Boing Boing]

ASUS Cine5 is 'world's most compact' five-channel speaker, doesn't forget the blue LEDs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/11/asus-cine5-is-worlds-most-compact-five-channel-speaker-doesn/

Seriously, who told manufacturers that we're in love with garish LED status lights?ASUS has strapped a glowing orb of unnecessariness around the volume knob of the Cine5 -- an otherwise perfectly acceptable and appreciably diminutive PC soundbar. With an array of speaker drivers integrated into that curvy body, ASUS claims the Cine5 produces realistic multidirectional surround sound, but does admit it's mostly intended for smaller spaces such as study rooms. The announcement also includes a nod to FPS gamers, with claims that the improved positional audio on offer will benefit both gameplay immersion and accuracy when identifying a sound source, though we reckon the biggest boon will still be the elimination of the extra cables and speakers one usually needs to get one's surround sound on. Price and availability have not yet been made public, but knowing ASUS both should be in the reasonable range of the market.

ASUS Cine5 is 'world's most compact' five-channel speaker, doesn't forget the blue LEDs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/11/opera-mini-5-on-android-mini-review/

Opera's Mini 5 beta finally hit Android in the wee hours of this morning and, while writing about what it looks like is nice, we thought a little walk-through to demonstrate the impressive speed of the thing was worthwhile. So we have a short video for you below, with a comparison against the stock Android browser, plus some impressions of just how it is to use. So, click on through, won't you?

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Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/11/92-md500-android-tablet-from-hott-actually-looks-pretty-cool/

Hott's $92 MD500 Android tablet actually looks pretty cool

At this point we really need another tablet like we need another hole in the head, but when this one could cost around $100 and still look quite good, well, it's worth talking about. It's the Hott MD500, an Android device with a 4.8-inch, 800 x 480 screen and plenty of OS customizations to make it rather more media-friendly, including the ability to "play every codec" according to the guy doing the demonstration. We'll believe that when we see it, but it is shown playing a 720p clip from the cinematic masterpiece Tokyo Drift without too much trouble. The somewhat iPhone-esque design looks very nice and is much smaller than a comparable Archos 5. The price is $92 to distributors without any flash memory and, since you can get a 4GB microSD card for a few bucks these days (even a legit one), we wouldn't be surprised if these sell for $115 or $120. Whether they'll ever hit retail in the US is, of course, another question. Video demonstration is embedded below if you want to hear the hype, just try not to lose your breakfast every time this is enthusiastically called an iPad killer.

Continue reading $92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool

$92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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