Saturday, December 04, 2010
Why Google Maps Doesn't Make You Want to Tear Your Eyes Out [Google Maps]
Why Google Maps Doesn't Make You Want to Tear Your Eyes Out [Google Maps]
Justin O'Beirne lays out (and handily illustrates) the three major reasons Google Maps is more readable than the competition: White outlines, "a greater number/diversity of label classes" (more labels that are different sizes), and different label shadings. In other words, it's a lot of little things that add up to make it a nicer experience (hey look, Google can do design).
Once you see everything laid out, it makes total sense, so do check out all of the illustrations: [41Latitude via Techmeme]
Verizon trials Home Phone Connect, turns your landline into a cellphone
Verizon trials Home Phone Connect, turns your landline into a cellphone
We're aware of a few third-party products that pull off this trick by connecting to your cellphone via Bluetooth, but Verizon's throwing weight behind its own system called Home Phone Connect that'll connect your home phone into its wireless network. The system -- which seems to be available only to residents of New York and Connecticut at the moment -- includes some sort of base station that connects to Verizon's network on one end and your existing landline on the other; T-Mobile's now-defunct @Home service was similar, but used your internet connection to route the calls rather than the cellular airwaves. Subscribers pay $9.99 to add the landline to a Verizon family plan or $19.99 to grant it unlimited domestic minutes, which seems poised to cut into Verizon's legacy landline business just as much (if not more) than the unique Hub unit that got killed off a while back. Hard to say when (or even if) Home Phone Connect will go national, but these trials are often set up to test the pricing model just as much as they are the underlying technology -- so the question becomes, would you pay $10 more on your Verizon Wireless bill to use your old-school Slimline?Verizon t! rials Ho me Phone Connect, turns your landline into a cellphone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NetworkWorld | 
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Sigma's mirrorless camera spotted, announcement coming later today? (Update: just a mod)
Sigma's mirrorless camera spotted, announcement coming later today? (Update: just a mod)
Update: We tracked down the source and turns out this is just an enthusiast's modded Sigma DP1, which has been given a Leica M mount. Quite a daring mod, if we may say so.
Sigma's mirrorless camera spotted, announcement coming later today? (Update: just a mod) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkPhoto Rumors | Digital Photography Review | Email this | Comments
Sources: Google-branded Chrome OS netbook to launch on December 7th
Sources: Google-branded Chrome OS netbook to launch on December 7th
Of course, this all lines up with TechCrunch's report that Google will be launching its Chrome Web / App Store very soon, as well as yesterday's launch of Chrome 8, which supports those aforementioned Chrome apps. (Companies like TweetDeck have already started demoing their browser apps.) Don't forget that those apps are going to be a large part of the OS, so it would make sense for Google to talk about 'em in tandem. The pieces sure do seem to be fitting together quite well, and while we still have lots of unanswered questions, we're feeling confident that we'll be getting some official answers on all this Chrome-ness very soon.
Update: AllThingsD has also heard a similar December 7th launch date of the Chrome Web Store. The evidence seems to be mounting here...
Update 2: Well, there you have it, Google just sent out invites for its December 7th Chrome event! We will be there!
Image note: As we said last time, that picture above is just our own mockup of what a Chromebook may look like. We even added a Chrome key!
Sources: Google-branded Chrome OS netbook to launch on December 7th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsApp Review: Djay for iPad
App Review: Djay for iPad
Continue reading App Review: Djay for iPad
App Review: Djay for iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsCorsair Force series gets 90GB and 180GB brothers, middle child syndrome inevitable
Corsair Force series gets 90GB and 180GB brothers, middle child syndrome inevitable
Corsair has added new 90GB and 180GB sizes to its blazin' fast Force Series of SSDs, growing the happy family which already included 60, 120, and 240GB versions in addition to the original 100GB and 200GB options released back in the spring. Unlike its previous siblings, both the F90 and F180 are also available immediately from Corsair dealers for suggested MSRPs of $255 and $430, respectively. Built around the lauded SandForce SF-1200 controller and capable of beastly 285MB/sec read speeds and 275MB/sec write rates, these latest releases are not too small and not too big, making them the perfect Goldie Locks drives of the SSD world. To hear the news straight from Corsair's mouth, check out the press release after the break.Continue reading Corsair Force series gets 90GB and 180GB brothers, middle child syndrome inevitable
Corsair Force series gets 90GB and 180GB brothers, middle child syndrome inevitable originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 01:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkTrusted Reviews | Corsair | Email this | Comments
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Splashtop Instant-On OS Boots You Into Chromium Quickly (on Some HP Laptops) [Video]
Splashtop Instant-On OS Boots You Into Chromium Quickly (on Some HP Laptops) [Video]
Windows only: Splashtop, an instant-on, web-focused OS with Chromium, formerly pre-installed on laptops alongside Windows, has gone and made itself a free download. The catch? It's mostly HP Mini and Pavilion laptops, and one Compaq, that can run it, for now.
Which HP/Compaq laptops? Here's the compatibility list. For those who happened to pick up the right kind of PC, though, Splashtop does look pretty handy. It books quickly to a minimalist OS that features Chromium, the open-source version of Chrome, with Flash pre-installed. There's a search bar powered by Bing. Two big buttons make it easy to get back to Windows or power off/sleep the system, and your Chrome start tab panels make up your desktop.
If you're able to give Splashtop a go in its new download form, tell us how you like it in the comments. It's a free download, and installs through Windows.
Splashtop OS beta [via Tested]
Right Click to Link to a YouTube Video at a Specific Time [Video]
Right Click to Link to a YouTube Video at a Specific Time [Video]
You've always been able to hack a YouTube URL to link to a specific time, but now all it takes is a right click.
This is a very simple trick. Load up any YouTube video, seek to a specific time, pause the video, and right click. Then you'll be able to choose "Copy video URL at current time" and end up with a URL in your clipboard that'll start the video at the time you chose. Currently this only works on YouTube.com, but hopefully it'll roll out to embedded players on other sites in the future.
Thanks for the tip, HahSohrob!
FindTheBest Compares Almost Anything Online to Find Your Best Option [Video]
FindTheBest Compares Almost Anything Online to Find Your Best Option [Video]
FindTheBest is a comparison engine that lets you browse or search for almost anything and provides an unbiased overview of your options so you can choose the right one for you.
In the way travel sites like Hipmunk provide unbiased flight search results, FindTheBest attempts to do that for practically anything on the web. Suppose you're looking for the best blogging platform and our Hive Five on the subject didn't quite do it for you. Search for blogging software in FindTheBest and you'll end up with a page like the following:
(Click to enlarge.)
At first it's a pretty daunting list of your options, but on the left side of the page you'll see a list of checkboxes, a cost slider, and other options so you can narrow down your comparison grid based on things that matter to you.
FindTheBest isn't limited to just technology stuff. You can search and compare just about anything, from pet breeds to vacation spots to the best colleges for a particular course of study. Of course, if you're shopping for the holidays and want to compare a few products it can definitely handle that as well. FindTheBest is currently in beta and available to use now for free.
FindTheBest [via Mashable]
Needle Is a Smart and Efficient Research Assistant [Video]
Needle Is a Smart and Efficient Research Assistant [Video]
If you've ever spent hours clicking through web pages collecting data—whether you're planning a vacation or culling data for academic research—webapp Needle (presumably so-named with the haystack in mind) collects and organizes data from any source, online or off.
We could painstakingly explain Needle, but your best bet is to watch the video demo above. Basically you teach Needle how to understand a data source—and it's incredibly good at learning how a data source works, even if it's a tedious-to-navigate web site—and then, once its got the hang of the source, Needle collects all the data you ask for automatically, sorting it into an easy-to-parse format. Once you've got it, you can search, map, chart, and analyze the data however you see fit.
Again, check out the video to see it in action. Needle's definitely not a tool for everyone, but if you do a lot of research online, it seems like a lifesaver. (ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick sure thinks so.) Either way, you can't deny that it's a cleverly built tool. Needle is free for personal use.
Needle [via ReadWriteWeb]
Stream Any Video to Your Apple TV, No Pre-Conversion Required [Video]
Stream Any Video to Your Apple TV, No Pre-Conversion Required [Video]
AirPlay is great if your video collection is in the right format, otherwise you can only stream Apple-approved videos from your iOS device to your Apple TV. Here's how to circumvent that limitation and how to get the best results.
AirPlay is Apple's great new media streaming technology that lets you stream your music, video, and photos from your iOS device to your Apple TV. Air Video is an iOS app that lets you stream any video from your Mac or PC to your iOS device, converting it on-the-fly if necessary. Wouldn't it be great if you could combine these two things? Then you could stream any video in any format from your computer to your iPad to your Apple TV. Because AirPlay's APIs aren't yet available, Air Video's developer says he can't add this functionality to the application. Fortunately, if you want to jailbreak your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can install a little hack that'll let you stream anything from Air Video directly to your Apple TV.
This is very easy to do. Here are the steps:
- First, you need an iOS device running iOS 4.2 or greater. You'll need to jailbreak your device, and the currently redsn0w is the jailbreak method of choice for iOS 4.2. (Here's how to do it.)
- Once you're jailbroken, you need to jump into Cydia—that's the package manager that should now be installed on your device—and download AidVideoEnabler. You don't need to add any special repositories. You should be able to just search for it, download, and install.
- Reboot your device.
That's all you need to do to make this work. It doesn't work perfectly, however, so let's take a quick look at how you can get the best experience.
That's it! Enjoy streaming all your videos!
GameString demos its streaming, custom World of Warcraft UI by raiding on an HTC Desire (video)
GameString demos its streaming, custom World of Warcraft UI by raiding on an HTC Desire (video)
GameString demos its streaming, custom World of Warcraft UI by raiding on an HTC Desire (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Droid Gamers | YouTube | Email this | Comments
PeeWee PC netbook moves to 2.0, rated to take the worst your tot can deliver
PeeWee PC netbook moves to 2.0, rated to take the worst your tot can deliver
Continue reading PeeWee PC netbook moves to 2.0, rated to take the worst your tot can deliver
PeeWee PC netbook moves to 2.0, rated to take the worst your tot can deliver originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |PeeWee PC | Email this | Comments
Apple granted patents for glasses-free, multi-viewer 3D system, colorful keyboard backlighting
Apple granted patents for glasses-free, multi-viewer 3D system, colorful keyboard backlighting
Speaking of aspirations, Apple's approach clearly seeks to fix many common 3D issues at once. The most obvious is literally taking 3D glasses of the picture -- which we firmly support. On the flip side, the design addresses common faults with current glasses-free options too such as: ghosting and narrow viewing angles, while still keeping commercial viability in mind. That sounds magical to us, but considering the patent was filed back in 2006, we still expect 3D to be handled the old fashion way for quite a while to come.
While we're on the subject of patents, a handful more popped in by way of Apple related to keyboard backlighting. Think multiple colors, individually lit, customizable by the user or automated based on environmental conditions and you get the gist. Hey, if it means a return for the Bondi Blue late 90's iMac design (with bright, matching keyboards), then we're excited. But it doesn't.
Apple granted patents for glasses-free, multi-viewer 3D system, colorful keyboard backlighting originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkThe Register, Apple Insider | USPTO (1), (2), (3) | Email this | Comments
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