The year was 1994. Figure skating fans all over the globe were reeling from the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding incident, O.J. Simpson learned the hard way that a single Ford Bronco can’t outrun every police car and helicopter in the Los Angeles area, and Timex released one of the weirdest-yet-coolest watches in the history of …
Gadgets
YouTube ‘Leanback’ Promises Effortless Video Viewing
YouTube’s new Leanback feature is pretty much just like it sounds. You fire it up (youtube.com/leanback) and lean back in your chair. Do NOT lean forward! You’ll be treated to a non-stop barrage of YouTube videos that play in full screen, one after another “based on your YouTube settings and preferences, including content from your …
Belkin’s Conserve Valet Does Green The Smart Way
It’s the little things.
Very few things in the CE world get me excited these days. And for whatever reason Belkin’s Conserve Valet USB charging station has me all worked up today. The $40 hub charges up to 4 devices at one time and automatically shuts itself off once each device is fully charged or unplugged. Belkin also claims …
Two Minute Video: Wireless E-book Reader Showdown
The e-book wars are in full swing, with Barnes & Noble firing the first shot by dumping the price of its 3G-enabled Nook to $199 and introducing a Wi-Fi only Nook at $149. Amazon swiftly responded by cutting the price of the Kindle to $189 and eventually dropped the price of the Kindle DX to $379. Sony took its time but finally …
New YouTube Mobile Site Handles HTML5 Quite Nicely
Goodbye, YouTube apps on my iPhone and Android devices. The fine folks at YouTube have put together a nicely revamped mobile site at m.youtube.com that works with a fair amount of smartphones, leveraging HTML5 videos instead of Flash videos.
The new mobile site is currently accessible on iPhones and Android phones and, according to a …
iTunes Hacked By Vietnamese Comics Pirate, Others
Apple is currently dealing with the public fallout from the discovery that someone had hacked iTunes accounts to fake purchases for 41 of his comic apps in the bookstore – comic apps that were, themselves, stolen intellectual property. The trail began with the discovery this weekend that 41 out of Apple’s top 50 book apps belonged to …
Android-Powered Motorola Charm Coming To T-Mobile
After a recent leak, Motorola has officially unveiled the full QWERTY Charm for T-Mobile. The latest from Motorola features Android 2.1 (seriously?), a tiny 2.8-inch touchscreen, 3-megapixel camera, something called “Backtrack”, CrystalTalk and Motoblur. Look for it this summer.
Hit the jump for the full press release.
Gateway’s 11.6-inch LT32 Netbook Powered by AMD
Gateway has announced the 11.6-inch LT32 netbook for $450. Here’s the quick and dirty:
– AMD Athlon II Neo CPU at 1.7GHz
– Windows 7 Home Premium
– 2GB of DDR3 RAM
– 250GB hard drive
– Up to 5.5 hours of battery life
– ATI Radeon HD 4225 GPU with up to 384MB of shared system memory
– 11.6-inch 1366×768 LED-backlit display
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JavaScript Showdown: Android 2.2 vs iOS4
The gents at Ars did a little JavaScript testing on Google’s Android 2.2 versus Apple’s iOS4 to see which platform had a speedier Web browser. Based on SunSpider and V8 benchmarks, Froyo blew the doors off iOS4 and Éclair. According to said benchmark tests, Froyo is nearly three times faster than Éclair and three times better …
First Beta Version of Firefox 4 Web Browser Now Available
Popular open source web browser, Firefox, has just hit the early stages of its fourth iteration, aptly called Firefox 4. The beta version is available for download and “gives an early look at what’s planned for Firefox 4,” according to a company blog post.
The most notable change from past Firefox versions is a new visual layout, …
This Wallet Gets Harder to Open As Your Bank Account Depletes
The MIT-developed Proverbial Wallet appears similar to an ordinary wallet except for the slightly odd looking apparatus in the middle. That’s where all the action happens, though.
Aside from holding your money and plastic, three variations of the Proverbial Wallet each do three main things: One vibrates when you make a purchase using …
Sony Lowers Price of ‘Daily Edition’ E-book Reader to $300
For those of you keeping score in the Intergalactic Championship for Most Aggressively Priced Wireless Electronic Book Reader, Sony has recently made a bid to get back on the playing field by dropping the price of its “Reader Daily Edition” to $300.
The company faces stiff competition from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, who both …