Thursday, April 07, 2011

A Single Tweet Led to the Highest-Altitude Dance Party Ever [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5789784/a-single-tweet-led-to-the-highest+altitude-dance-party-ever

A Single Tweet Led to the Highest-Altitude Dance Party EverNeed proof of Twitter's power? This heart-warming story is it. Of course, old school companies' values such as KLM airline's willingness to help—and the Guinness book of world records' keenness to always be where the action is were the deciding factors in today's lovely little tale of the world's highest-altitude dance party.

It all began when KLM airline announced they'd be doing direct flights from Amsterdam to Miami at the end of March, and Dutch DJ Seid van Riel and producer Wilco Jung replied, asking them to about the possibility of moving the flight one week ahead of schedule, so they could get to Miami for a music festival.

Keen to help (or grab some headlines), KLM replied with the daunting challenge—if they could find enough people to fill the plane to capacity, they would oblige by moving the inaugural flight forwards. Naturally the DJ and producer managed to find fellow passengers, and as you can see in the video below, the whole thing was documented by the press, and won them the Guinness record for the highest altitude dance party. The record to beat now stands at 10km above sea level. [Social-Times]

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Gartner: Android grabbing over 38 percent of smartphone market in 2011 on Symbian's demise

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/07/gartner-android-grabbing-over-38-percent-of-smartphone-market-i/

We like, ok, love poking fun at analysts' long term forecasts given the volatility of the smartphone market. Nobody, neither Gartner nor IDC, predicted the meteoric rise of Android and iOS, thus making their four-year projections (measured to a decimal point) laughable, to say the least. Shorten that timeline to the end of the year, however, and the accuracy of these forecasts tends to increase dramatically.

Gartner just released its smartphone projections that align very closely with the numbers released by IDC a few weeks ago. Both research firms see Nokia hemorrhaging its smartphone dominance in 2011 after announcing plans to adopt the Windows Phone platform. Gartner sees Symbian pulling in a remarkably low 19.2 percent (down from 37.6 percent in 2010 or an impressive 46.9 percent share held back in 2009) regardless of Nokia's insistence that it still has some 150 million Symbian handsets to ship -- IDC, as you'll recall, was a bit more gracious with a 20.9 percent projection for Symbian in 2011. Like IDC, Gartner sees Microsoft making a dramatic comeback just as soon as Nokia can flood its global channels with mid-tier handsets by the end of 2012 with the Windows Phone operating system ultimately rising to the number two spot in global marketshare (Gartner says 19.5 percent to IDC's 20.9 percent) by, eh hem, 2015. Gartner expects the iOS smartphone slice to peak with a 19.4 percent share (to IDC's 15.7 percent) in 2011 before dipping a bit under the strain of an Android juggernaut and Apple's reluctance to sacrifice margins (and profits) for market share. Gartner expects Android to increase the 22.7 market share it enjoyed in 2010 to 38.5 percent in 2011 (compared to the IDC's slightly more aggressive 39.5 percent share) on the way to dominating the competition with a 49.2 percent share in 2012. Bringing up the rear then is RIM with an estimated chunk of just 13.4 percent in 2011 (compared to 16 percent in 2010) with further declines through 2015 even after the BlackBerry maker migrates to QNX in 2012. Ouch.

As for WebOS: sorry HP, you're in the "other" category along with Bada.

Continue reading Gartner: Android grabbing over 38 percent of smartphone market in 2011 on Symbian's demise

Gartner: Android grabbing over 38 percent of smartphone market in 2011 on Symbian's demise originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Polaris produces 9300xi Sport poolbot, does your underwater scum sucking for you

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/07/polaris-produces-9300xi-sport-poolbot-does-your-underwater-scum/

Has your cabana boy, Sergio, been shirking his aquatic responsibilities, sipping Mai Tais and tanning instead of skimming leaves? Well, pool possessors, it may be time to fire the laggard and replace him with the new Polaris 9300xi Sport. This newest Polaris poolbot can be programmed to perform its janitorial duties for up to six hours at a time of your choosing, and has a remote control for spot-specific scrubbing. Not only that, it combines water-jet propulsion with wheels that can climb walls and steps to spruce up every nook and cranny of your backyard basin in true Spiderman-style. Of course, such underwater robotic wizardry doesn't come cheap, as the 9300xi has an MSRP of $1499. That makes the iRobot Verro 500 and its $999 price look like a robot bargain by comparison, but it's still cheaper than Sergio, right?

Continue reading Polaris produces 9300xi Sport poolbot, does your underwater scum sucking for you

Polaris produces 9300xi Sport poolbot, does your underwater scum sucking for you originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google adding touchscreen-friendly tweaks to Chrome OS, still has tablets on its mind

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/07/google-adding-touchscreen-friendly-tweaks-to-chrome-os-still-ha/

When a tablet version of Chrome OS was teased back in February of last year, we found it a legitimately exciting proposition. Now that we have Android's Honeycomb iteration designed specifically for slates, however, we're having to wonder just why Google's still chasing that keyboard-less dream with its web-centric OS. CNET has been doing some snooping in and around the latest iterations of Chrome OS, where it's discovered numerous pieces of circumstantial evidence, such as a new onscreen keyboard, suggesting tablets are still very much on the menu. Chrome OS kicked off life on the development device known as Cr-48 and will resume availability this summer courtesy of Acer and Samsung, though we'd kind of assumed it would stick to notebooks now that Android's making a sincere effort on devices bigger than an EVO. Mountain View has responded to CNET's queries with a pretty inconclusive statement, saying only that "We are engaging in early open-source work for the tablet form factor, but we have nothing new to announce at this time." Check out last year's concept video after the break.

Continue reading Google adding touchscreen-friendly tweaks to Chrome OS, still has tablets on its mind

Google adding touchscreen-friendly tweaks to Chrome OS, still has tablets on its mind originally appeared o! n Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Add Custom Webapps to Chrome's New Tab Page [Webapps]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5789383/add-custom-webapps-to-chromes-new-tab-page

Add Custom Webapps to Chrome's New Tab PageWhile custom new tab pages like previously mentioned Myfav.es are great, some of you may prefer Chrome's default for its easy access to Chrome-only webapps. Here's how to add your other favorite pages to Chrome's new tab page.

By default, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to just add any old web site to Chrome's new tab page. If you want just as quick access to, say, Lifehacker as you do the New York Times or TweetDeck, reader andrew.yeh.10 shows us how:

You can create webapps for the Chrome new tab page even if they're not in the Chrome Web Store.

Make a new folder and create a new text file called "manifest.json" inside it. Fill in the name, description, urls, and launch page:

  { "name": "Name_of_web_app", "description": "Description of web app", "version": "1.0", "icons": { "128": "128.png" }, "app": { "urls": [ "http://yourwebsitehere.com" ], "launch": { "web_url": "http://yourwebsitehere.com" } }, "permissions": [ "unlimitedStorage", "notifications" ] } 

Then, in the same folder, save a 128x128 png image as "128.png." This will be used as the webapp's icon.

After this is done, go to chrome://extensions/. Open up the developer mode (top right) and "Load unpacked extension." Navigate to the folder you created and hit OK.

Alternatively, you can "Pack extension" by clicking the option and navigating to the folder. This will create an installable .crx file.

Dropbox can keep your personal chrome web apps in sync between computers.

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