Thursday, August 26, 2010

Airline Seating Chart Shows You Best Seat for Your Needs [Air Travel Tip]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5621876/airline-seating-chart-shows-you-best-seat-for-your-needs

Airline Seating Chart Shows You Best Seat for Your NeedsWhether you want more leg room, a better spot to stash your carry on bag, or to keep your elbows safe from the ravages of rickety drink carts, this handy diagram will help.

The above diagram comes to us courtesy of Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know Instructions for Life From the Everyday to the Exotic by Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom. The illustration offers a great visual guide to selecting seats for your next airline trip. Need a safe spot to stash your carry one? Pick a seat at the back, you'll board first and have your pick of the available bins. Want to bank on decent leg room? Grab a seat by the bulkhead or the back of the plane, seat pitch increases towards the back of many planes.

All that information doesn't help you if you can't actually book a seat that's specific to the sweet spots in the particular plane you're flying in, of course, so make sure you check out previously reviewed SeatGuru—you'll see where your potential seats are in relation to the specific plane you're flying on. Have a travel tip, trick, or infographic to share? Let's hear about it in the comments. Thanks Edward!

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Use Your Google Voice as a Long-Lasting, Far-Reaching Emergency Contact Number [Clever Uses]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5621911/use-your-google-voice-as-a-long+lasting-far+reaching-emergency-contact-number

Use Your Google Voice as a Long-Lasting, Far-Reaching Emergency Contact NumberWe've discussed how Google Voice makes a useful emergency contact number, but Michael at jammer(six) reminds us that, even if you don't use Voice as your primary number, you can use it as an emergency number for others to call you.

Background photo by Steve Snodgrass.

Google Voice is useful enough to have for its voicemail features alone, and if you haven't started using Voice as your primary phone number (it is rather difficult to get your friends to start using a new number), its advanced features can still be useful. Michael explains how to use it as your number for emergency contact:

One of the big things that they ask for at the beginning of the school year is emergency contact information. The problem with this is that, if your phone number changes, you'll have to change your emergency info all over town.

Enter Google Voice. . .You'll no longer have to provide you home, cell, and work numbers. You can just give your Google Voice number and set it up to ring all of your phones at once.

Not only that, but you can use it to ring multiple people (such as both you and your spouse), or prompt a different ringtone so you know something's an emergency before you even take it out of your pocket (you'd need to make sure Voice is set to come up on your caller ID as your Google Voice number, not the caller's, to do this though). Got any of your own clever uses for Google Voice? Share them in the comments.

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NEC builds a better bioplastic from plant stems and cashew nut shells

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/25/nec-builds-a-better-bioplastic-from-plant-stems-and-cashew-nut-s/

We've already seen cellphones made from corn and bioplastics used in other products, but NEC has now come up with what it says is an even better solution: a first-of-its-kind bioplastic that's based on non-edible plant resources. That's as opposed to bioplastics based on things like corn, which are better for the environment than traditional plastics but don't necessarily represent the best use of food. What's more, NEC's new bioplastic also boasts a high plant component ratio of more than 70% -- derived from plant stems and cashew nut shells -- and it's said to boast a high durability that makes it especially well suited to electronics. As you might expect, however, it's not quite ready to be used for electronics just yet, but it's not all that far off either -- NEC says it expects to put it into production for use in a "wide range of electronic equipment" within the 2013 fiscal year. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading NEC builds a better bioplastic from plant stems and cashew nut shells

NEC builds a better bioplastic from plant stems and cashew nut shells originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony delivers a new midrange 3DTV line with the NX810 series (updated with hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/25/sony-delivers-a-new-midrange-3dtv-line-with-the-nx810-series/

Sony's finally taken the wraps off its latest televisions for the US market, carrying the NX810 model number. Available in 60-, 55- and 46-inch sizes next month, these give a 3D spec bump (and around a $200 premium on the MSRP) to the existing NX800 series of Edge LED lit HDTVs that came out earlier this year. Like the NX800, these feature a slick monolith design, built-in WiFi, widgets and an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the picture in changing room conditions, but other than the 3D-readiness (and coupons for free Blu-ray 3D movies and PSN games, though it looks like you'll have to pay for the glasses on your own) it's hard to find any differences on paper. Football fans looking for a new 3D set may be tempted to jump on one and can check the specs and prices after the break, but we'll probably wait around to see what a Google TV might bring to the table -- and at what price.

Update: We got a chance to check out a few of these 3DTVs this evening at Sony's open house in NYC. As per usual, the BRAVIAs were stunning and made us want to save up some cash to get one of these into our living room. And yes, we put on the 3D glasses and watched an assortment of clips. It was like those cute little bears in the snowy picture below were at the swanky event with us. Go on, you know you want to look at the cuddly things, err screens...

Continue reading Sony delivers a new midrange 3DTV line with the NX810 series (updated with hands-on)

Sony delivers a new midrange 3DTV line with the NX810 series (updated with hands-on) originally appeared on ! Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony's Netbox streams Netflix, YouTube and other internet stuff for $130

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/25/sonys-netbox-streams-netflix-youtube-and-other-internet-stuff/

We can't say there's a real shortage of streaming, set-top boxes on the market, but that doesn't mean we won't welcome Sony's addition with open arms. Not to be confused with a netbook or a nettop, the Netbox streams Sony's Bravia Internet services -- YouTube, Netflix, DailyMotion, etc. -- as well as supports a "wide range" of video formats including DivX and MKV. Although it's got 802.11n WiFi baked in, the rather compact box has an Ethernet port around back as well as an USB jack on the front for hooking up an external hard drive for watching any of your legally-downloaded (obviously!) videos. Sadly, when we got to check out the Netbox earlier today it wasn't connected to a network -- go figure, with all those connectivity options -- but the software was up and running, and we got to take a peek at the remote app on an Xperia X10. Fret not, the free app will be available for the iPhone and other Android phones. Look, we'd understand holding out for a BRAVIA with Google TV, but all in all for $130 we wouldn't blame you for heading off to Sony right now and picking one of these little guys up.

Sony's Netbox streams Netflix, YouTube and other internet stuff for $130 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile G2 build leaks out, points to potent MSM7x30 chipset?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/t-mobile-g2-build-leaks-out-points-to-potent-msm7x30-chipset/

What's inside the T-Mobile G2, aside from fancy hinges and an HSPA+ capable modem? We can't say for sure, but this week saw a zip file from China set the Android community astir with visions of vanilla frozen yogurt heaped high atop a stack of powerful silicon. Android Guys discovered an allegedly leaked G2 Android 2.2 build (sans Sense) at the website of one 911sniper, last seen outing supposed HTC specs left and right, and our old friend Cyanogen took it upon himself to have a peek inside. What should he find but references to Qualcomm's MSM7x30 chipset, with all the silky-smooth 720p multimedia playback that brings, as well as the remote possibility of dual-mode HSPA+ / LTE support if the "x" in "MSM7x30" turns out to be a "6." There's no telling whether any of this is legit at this point, but we dare to dream.

T-Mobile G2 build leaks out, points to potent MSM7x30 chipset? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phandroid, Android Police  |  sourceAndroid Guys, @cyanogen (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments

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Mophie and Intuit partner to create Complete Card Solution for iPhone, try to make Square look square

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/mophie-and-intuit-partner-to-create-complete-card-solution-for-i/

Mophie and Intuit partner to create Complete Card Solution for iPhone, try to make Square look square
Who knew that credit card processing would be the new hotness for smartphones? The Square mobile payment system has been making waves by letting small businesses receive credit card payment directly on their smartphones. Now, mophie and Intuit are looking to get in on the same action with their Complete Card Solution for iPhone. It's a $179 package that includes both mophie's card-swiping phone case and the 3.0 version of Intuit's GoPayment app. After a quick application users are said to be approved (or, erm, declined) within 15 minutes and can immediately start accepting payments. Full details, including just how much users will be forking over in fees, after the break.

Continue reading Mophie and Intuit partner to create Complete Card Solution for iPhone, try to make Square look square

Mophie and Intuit partner to create Complete Card Solution for iPhone, try to make Square look square originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netflix adds iPhone and iPod touch compatibility in latest app version

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/netflix-adds-iphone-and-ipod-touch-compatibility-in-latest-app-v/

We knew this was coming and here it is: the Netflix application, heretofore reserved only for iPad users, has trickled down to iPhone and iPod touch devices. Version 1.1.0 makes the TV show and movie streaming app universal -- so long as your universe is known as iOS -- and looks to massively expand the available audience for Netflix's mobile effort. What are you waiting for, go get it already.

[Thanks, Michael A.]

Netflix adds iPhone and iPod touch compatibility in latest app version originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS prepping Eee PC 1015PN/PEM versions with new dual-core Atom

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/asus-prepping-eee-pc-1015pn-pme-versions-with-new-dual-core-atom/

When Intel released the details on its dual-core, mobile Atom N550 processor earlier this week ASUS was one of the first to raise its hand with a netbook sporting the new CPU. Well, now we've got a few more details on the forthcoming Eee PC and unsurprisingly -- as it is coming from ASUS -- there appears to be a couple of different versions. The first is the 1015PEM, and according to TechInStyle, the small lappie will be powered by the new 1.5GHz N550 CPU, support up to 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and be €349 ($440 US) when it hits the market. However, we've also heard from ASUS's North American team of the 1015PN, which will add NVIDIA's Ion 2 platform to the mix and be landing stateside in September. Sounds like it could be one of the most powerful 10-inch netbooks to ever grace the planet, but unfortunately we don't have the exact specs and pricing on the latter one as of yet. Of course, as soon as we find out or see it hit Amazon we'll be reporting back.

Update: ASUS has gone and made the 1015PEM official. Well, it did for a while, page seems to have been yanked. See the Notebook Italia coverage for confirmation of the specs.

ASUS prepping Eee PC 1015PN/PEM versions with new dual-core Atom originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Now I Feel Old: Schools to Get Multitouch Interactive Whiteboards [Whiteboards]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5621379/now-i-feel-old-schools-to-get-multitouch-interactive-whiteboards

Now I Feel Old: Schools to Get Multitouch Interactive WhiteboardsTime for a next-gen spin on the age-old debate of whether a blackboard or whiteboard is better in the classroom? I pose that question because Panasonic's interactive multitouch whiteboard comes days after we saw Sharp's LCD blackboard. Who feels old?

Measuring 77-inches, Panasonic's UB-T880 whiteboard can be used by three people at once (making it "multitouch"), though it's worth pointing out that one will be holding the electronic pen, with the other two using more primitive tools—their fingers.

Snazzy features such as the ability to write in FOUR DIFFERENT COLORS, highlight in THREE DIFFERENT COLORS, listen to audio on the speakers and even activate the board remotely to turn PowerPoint pages, for example, are surely worth the AU$2,869 price-tag (USD$2,500). All that's written/drawn on the whiteboard can be saved to Word, Excel or PowerPoint once the Panaboard software is installed. [Panasonic via Gizmodo AU]

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How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take Them [How To]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5621475/how-to-automatically-upload-pictures-to-the-internet-as-you-take-them

How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take ThemAlthough technological advances have made uploading photos easier over the years, it's still impossible to have pictures you take with your DSLR transmitted immediately and automatically to the internet. Or is it?

In this article, we'll share out top secret industry secret method, which lets you use two cool gadgets together to automatically upload your photos as you take them, no matter where you are.

In order to pull this off, you're going to need the items pictured above. Seeing all this stuff laid out may seem a little daunting, but the basic idea is simple: the Eye-Fi is a special SD card that has a Wi-Fi antenna and a processor inside that allows it to automatically upload pictures, over a Wi-Fi network, to an online service. The mobile hotspot generates a Wi-Fi network anywhere, using a 3G signal.

To begin, you're going to want to configure your wireless hotspot to work in conjunction with your mobile PC. To set up your mobile hotspot, simply plug the device into the USB port in your computer, and follow the on-screen prompts for a quick installation of your mobile hotspot Access Manager.
How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take Them
Configuring your mobile hotspot isn't that hard hard, but you will need to enter a few pieces of basic information including an SSID and Network Key to allow access from any mobile device. Once you've configured your settings and are given an IP address, simply punch that into the URL bar of your favorite browser to gain access to your mobile hotspot's settings menu.
How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take Them
Luckily, the default formatted settings should work just fine for what you're looking to do, though keep this window open somewhere on your desktop in-case you're having trouble—some minor hiccups could affect your data transfer, but we'll touch more on this a little later. Now that your laptop/netbook is configured to run from your mobile hotspot, it's time to configure your Eye-Fi card, which is a strikingly similar process to configuring your Mi-Fi.

Pop your SD card into your computer (if it's a laptop, there's a good chance you've got a built in slot, if not, you'll need an external SD card reader). If it's the very first time you're using your Eye-Fi card, your computer should default you to the Eye-Fi Manager Software download screen. If your card has been used before or previously configured, check out the download page here.
How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take Them
Your Eye-Fi Manager is a web based interface that will allow you to customize your available network connections and map other potential cloud based pages to 'forward' your photos to. Configure your Eye-Fi card to work with your mobile hotspot by clicking on Wireless Networks in your Settings tab, and selecting your mi-fi.
How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take Them
The Photo Destination tab will allow you to choose from one (or multiple) of many social networking sites like Flickr, Facebook and Picassa to function as a repository for any and all images you take while your Eye-Fi card is in the camera.
How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take Them
Once you've chosen which website you'd like to send your photos out to, you're ready to pop your Eye-Fi card into your camera, and begin shooting. Keep in mind, your camera must be on for the images to transfer (so don't turn it off immediately after snapping a shot and expect to find it online), and we recommend keeping your mobile hot spot in your pocket for if you plan on moving around a lot. Upload speed is good, as long as you're in an area with good 3G coverage.

The service we used, Flickr, took a bit longer to receive the images (five minutes or so), though that's still a lot better than the amount of time it would take to find a Wi-Fi access point, transfer the pictures to your computer, and upload them.

Some Quick Tips For First Time Users:

Keep your camera on while using Eye-Fi: Turning your camera off between taking pictures will disrupt the data flow. Most cameras (especially point and shoots) will automatically turn themselves off after a set period of time, though this can often be disabled in the settings menu. This helps segway into our next point...

Bring extra batteries: If you plan on importing all of the pictures you take from an event, and your camera has to remain on the whole time, chances are you're going to need a spare battery or two. Pack accordingly.

WEP/WPA Security Settings: By default the MiFi runs WPA security which the Eye-Fi should work fine with. Our Mi-Fi was tweaked to run WEP which is compatible with more devices. In the interest of full disclosure, if you want to also run WEP on your Eye-Fi and MiFi, you'll need to access the MiFi's hidden configuration page. To do this, connect a notebook to the MiFi using a wireless connection. Fire up a browser and go to http://192.168.1.1/adv802.html. From there, you can tweak several hidden features in the MiFi.

How To: Automatically Upload Pictures To the Internet as You Take ThemMaximum PC brings you the latest in PC news, reviews, and how-tos.

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Libox is Your Own Personal P2P Network [Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5621380/libox-is-your-own-personal-p2p-network

Libox is Your Own Personal P2P NetworkThe tiresome process of syncing your new stuff with your old stuff and your laptop stuff got a little easier today, with the launch of Libox—a personal P2P streaming application for all your media.

Libox has launched on iTunes, with an accompanying desktop client scanning the media content of your 'primary' computer, then distributing it all via a P2P network among your own devices. This could even beat Dropbox for modern media convenience. [Libox via TechCrunch]

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Evom Is a Minimal, Drag-and-Drop Video Converter [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5620334/evom-is-a-minimal-drag+and+drop-video-converter

Evom Is a Minimal, Drag-and-Drop Video Converter Mac OS X: The Mac has a few good and free video converters, but nothing is quite so simple and elegant as Evom. Backed by ffmpeg, it'll easily convert your video to the format you need with very little effort.

Evom Is a Minimal, Drag-and-Drop Video Converter

While Evom does a great of the standard operations you can get with most apps of its kind, it has a few minor features that really set it apart. Aside from its great, minimal interface it lets you convert video to audio (MP3 format). This is great if you want to use Evom's ability to pull music videos from the web and save the audio directly to iTunes. While Evom focuses on the iPod/iTunes standards, it can also help you create files that are upload-friendly for video sharing sites.

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Create Synchronicity Is a Tiny, Portable Backup and Sync Utility [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5620838/create-synchronicity-is-a-tiny-portable-backup-and-sync-utility

Create Synchronicity Is a Tiny, Portable Backup and Sync Utility Windows only: Portable, open-source backup utility Create Synchronicity is a tiny but powerful way to run backups or synchronize folders on your system, an external drive, or to another PC on your network.

Once you've launched the utility, you'll need to click on the New Profile icon and type in a name for the profile, which will open up the settings window where you can choose the source and destination folders and choose the other options you might want. Once you're done, you can easily run the backup profile, or setup scheduling options to happen automatically. Create Synchronicity is free and open source, works on Windows systems only.

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Change the Default Save Folder for Windows 7 Libraries to Something Else (Like Your Dropbox) [Windows Tip]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5620928/change-the-default-save-folder-for-windows-7-libraries-to-something-else-like-your-dropbox

change-default.jpgWhen you save a file into a Windows 7 library through the common "Save As" dialog, it ends up in just one of the folders that make up that library. Here's how to customize the default save location for any library.

As an example, if you were to save a Word document in your Documents library using the Save As dialog, it would end up in your My Documents folder by default. But what if you would prefer that the files get saved in a different folder that's still part of your Documents library? Like one of your Dropbox folders, for instance?

Change the Default Save Folder for Windows 7 Libraries to Something Else (Like Your Dropbox)

Changing Default Save Location: Method 1

You can simply click the "Includes 3 locations" in the Open/Save dialog to make your way into the quick properties window.

Change the Default Save Folder for Windows 7 Libraries to Something Else (Like Your Dropbox)

From here, you can easily add or remove library locations, and if you right-click on one of them, you can choose "Set as default save location". Useful!

Change the Default Save Folder for Windows 7 Libraries to Something Else (Like Your Dropbox)

Changing Default Save Location: Method 2

You can also head in Windows Explorer down to the Libraries section, right-click on any of the libraries, and choose Properties.

Change the Default Save Folder for Windows 7 Libraries to Something Else (Like Your Dropbox)

This will take you into the extended library properties window, where you can add or remove locations, and click the Set save location to set the default.

Change the Default Save Folder for Windows 7 Libraries to Something Else (Like Your Dropbox)

You'll note in the screenshots above that I've included my Dropbox documents folder—this is a really great way to include your Dropbox folders in the default libraries, and set the default location as your Dropbox instead of the regular folders.

Note: While we used the Documents library as the example here, this should work for any of your Windows 7 libraries.

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