HP's McKinney hints that a flexible display Palm device could happen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Monday, July 12, 2010
HP's McKinney hints that a flexible display Palm device could happen
Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems -- and so do we
Of course, we couldn't sit around waiting for someone else to test the iPhone 4 in a more controlled way, so we actually asked our good friend Erica Sadun from TUAW to write us a bespoke signal strength app for iOS 4. Obviously we couldn't submit it to the App Store, but we've been running it on all of our phones here at Engadget and we can independently confirm Consumer Reports' finding that there's a serious signal attenuation issue with the iPhone 4's antenna -- every phone we've tested displays dropped signal when held with the bottom left corner covered. Now, what we don't know is whether that signal attenuation consistently affects call quality and data rates, which we suspect is more directly related to the network in the area; some of our iPhone 4s drop calls and experience low data rates with alarming frequency, while others -- like our review unit -- have almost never dropped a call and have had no data problems. However, now that we've confirmed and clarified that the antenna issue affects every iPhone 4, we can take on the next step, which is sorting out exactly when and where the issue is most severe. Either that, or Apple can do something to actually fix the issue -- we'll just have to wait and see. For now, check our app in action after the break.
Continue reading Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems -- and so do we
Consumer Reports confirms iPhone 4 antenna problems -- and so do we originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
EVO 4G shortages maybe hurting 4G adoption, giving customers in seven new cities the chance to be disappointed
It looks like Sprint's head start in the 4G service race may not be quite as big as the carrier would like. According to the Wall Street Journal, HTC EVO 4G handset shortages are mitigating whatever advantage the company should have, being first out of the gate with the technology. 'The early move to 4G has benefited Sprint from a marketing perspective, but it hasn't really proven out in a major way in subscriber growth,' said Dan Hays, an analyst for PRTM. Good news, perhaps, for both AT&T and Verizon, who looks to take its first, tentative steps into some markets later this year. In other news, Sprint has announced a handful of 4G rollouts, including such far-flung locales as Rochester and Syracuse, New York; Merced and Visalia, California; Eugene, Oregon; Tri-Cities and Yakima, Washington. Hopefully HTC can start providing the necessary handsets! PR after the break.
[Thanks, Vaha]
[Thanks, Vaha]
EVO 4G shortages maybe hurting 4G adoption, giving customers in seven new cities the chance to be disappointed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
On-Top Dog
What looks at first like the work of the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things is Flickr photographer how long it takes, whose dog Martin enjoys (or tolerates) being perched on objects all over New York City. With her mountain-goat footing and infinite patience, Martin’s fair and balanced all over town.
Fast-Food Mascot Performs Adorable Dance to Justin Bieber
Fast-Food Mascot Performs Adorable Dance to Justin Bieber: ... and Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, and Ke$ha. Filipino fast-food restaurant Jollibee trains its employees well.
Google Open Spot Let Android users to know where the availability of parking spaces (8 Message)
Category: Smartphone
Open Spot is a free App, approaching Marketplace to download it!
50 Great Apps for Your iPad
Wondering what apps to install on your iPad? Here are 50 of the apps I’ve installed on mine.
Take a look, and add to the list in the comments.
- Pages – Word processor. Sadly, not very compatible with MS Word (go figure) but suffices. $9.99.
- Keynote – Presentation tool. While I haven’t tried this yet, I’m hoping that this app may stop me from having to lug my laptop around to presentations. $9.99.
- Numbers – Spreadsheet tool. Enough said. $9.99.
- Dragon Dictation – Speech-to-text app. Makes dictating notes and ideas easy, and lets you text/email them quickly when you’re done. Free.
- Evernote – Wonderfully intuitive and easy to use. Integrates with the other interfaces (web, desktop, Blackberry etc). Free.
- LinkedIn – Sadly just an iPhone app for now. Hoping an iPad-optimized one is released soon. Free.
- Skype – It’s just an iPhone app right now so the interface isn’t great, but it lets you chat and call so who cares? Free.
- GoToMeeting – Lets you log into online meetings while on-the-go. Great way to save multi-task while travelling. Free.
- WebEx – Like GoToMeeting – lets you log into online meetings. Having both of these free apps will cover you for most meetings. Free.
- Dropbox – Lets you sync and share files online and across computers. Free.
- Dictionary.com – Dictionary for your iPad. Free.
- Adobe Ideas 1.0 – Sketchbook for your iPad. Great for jotting down ideas. Free.
News/RSS
- GoodReader – Integrates with Google Docs, Dropbox, box.net and other services. Lets you download and read multiple file formats including MS Office, iWork, HTML, images, audio, video and PDFs on your iPad. $0.99.
- Reeder – The best pure-play RSS reader I’ve found so far. $4.99.
- Pulse News Reader – This app alone has doubled how much news I consume. I sit down with this app and a cup of coffee every morning. $3.99.
- Instapaper – For all those posts you don’t have time to read in the office but want to later. $4.99.
- NYT Editors’ Choice – It’s the NYT. Free.
- BBC News – Great mobile interface for catching up on the latest news. Free.
- NPR – Another great news app. NPR content, in magazine format. Free.
Social Networking
- Twitterific – My favourite Twitter app for the iPad so far. Great interface. Free, or $4.99 for premium version.
- HelloTxt – Lets you update multiple social networks from one app. Free.
- TweetDeck – Interface could use some work, but still a good app. Free.
- TweetAgora – If you find yourself wanting to filter events out of your Twitter stream, this client is for you. Just an iPhone app for now, but hopeful that they’ll release an iPad version soon. Free.
- IM+ Lite – Integrates with multiple IM and social network tools. Free or $9.99 for upgraded version.
- WordPress – Reasonable interface for this iPad app, but editing features currently not as good as the web experience on a computer. Free.
- Darkslide – Another iPhone app; good for uploading photos to Flickr and browsing your friends’ latest photos. Free.
- Facebook – Still no iPad interface for this, which is surprising as Facebook could do great things with a bigger screen. Free.
Media
- Air Video – Converts and streams video from your computer, as well as being a nice interface for the iPad. Best $2.99 you’ll spend.
- Remote – Neat for controlling iTunes on your computer from the iPad. Free.
- Shazam – Figure out what that song on the radio is. Free.
Reading
- iBooks – Apple’s e-reader app. Almost no books available in Canada, but a nice interface if Apple ever decides to notice we exist up here. Free.
- Kobo HD – Another nice interface, but this one has books available too. Free.
- Kindle – App for Amazon’s e-reader. Free.
- Stanza – Another nice e-reader app. Free.
Location-based
- TwentyThree – Lets you access and update multiple location-based networks from one app, and see where your friends are. $0.99.
- TripIt – Popular app for organizing trips and seeing what your friends are up to. No iPad version for this yet. Free.
- TripCase – Like TripIt, another app for organizing and coordinating trips (note: associated with Travelocity.ca, which is a Thornley Fallis client). Free.
- Plancast – Let your friends know where you plan to be. Free.
- Foursquare – iPhone app for the popular location-based social network. Free.
- Gowalla – iPad app for the location-based social network. Free.
- Google Earth – Excellent port of the tool over to the iPad. Free.
- Kayak – Pulls in prices from numerous travel sites, including Travelocity (#client). Free.
- OpenTable – See which restaurants near you have tables available. Free.
- Urbanspoon – Check out reviews and ratings of restaurants near you. Great when you’re travelling in a new city. Free.
- Google – Suite of Google apps. Free.
- AccuWeather – Great, easy-to-use interface. Free.
- WeatherBug – Condenses a mind-boggling amount of information into a clean interface. Free.
Miscellaneous
- Epicurious – Recipes. On your iPad. Free.
- Craigsphone – Craigslist for iPad. Much better interface than the web version. Free.
- Digital Photo Frame – Another logical use for the monstrous storage capacity of the iPad – load your photos and off you go. Free
What about you? What apps have you liked so far?
Childhood paper airplane I finally found my (hand)
We must have a child Fighting off a plane , but looks like only one or two.
Now give you 13 kinds of fat, folding the paper airplane, to look them feeling of childhood.
Finally made a world record paper airplane to maintain - sky king. Takuo Toda of creating a paper airplane flying time of a new world record: 27.9 seconds, longer than the original time record of 0.3 seconds. He called his plane, paper plane "Sky King".
View details Comments: childhood paper airplane I finally found my (hand)
Original article link: http://www.u148.net/article/23851.html
T-Mobile Garminfone gets a much-needed price drop to $129
When we got a chance to let the Garmin-Asus Garminfone send us around town for a review, we found it to be about the best nav-focused smartphone on the market. But, its $200 price made it a tough sell compared to many far more powerful alternatives. Now it's finally dropping to a somewhat more easily palatable asking price of $129.99 with the usual contract restrictions. That's a great price for a great phone with great navigation, and while we're still guessing that users here will not get invited out for FroYo anytime in the future, at this price you can afford to buy yourself some real ice cream.
T-Mobile Garminfone gets a much-needed price drop to $129 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards
The act of scanning a photo generally entails something along the lines of placing the photo onto a device, loading some photo software, waiting while the scanner groans away, cropping the resulting image, and then shuffling the resulting bits off into a folder somewhere. Pandigital's latest, the Personal Photo Scanner/Converter, helps to cut down on that process -- a little bit, anyway. You can simply feed documents through it (up to 8.5 x 11 in size) and have them written straight to memory card (SD, Memory Stick, etc.) at 600dpi resolution, which could certainly speed up your workflow and let you run through reams of photos without lugging that dusty 'ol album to your computer. (You can still connect it via miniUSB and do it the old fashioned way, if you like.) The one thing we're not seeing in the specs is a battery, which would make this thing truly portable, but for $149.99 you can't have everything. It is, at least, available now.
Update: We've updated the post to include a pic of the new model.
Continue reading Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards
Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
May Contain Traces Of Messiah
(Smoothie Store | Davie, FL, USA)
Me: “Welcome to [Smoothie Store]! How can I help you today?”
Customer: “Good morning to you! I need the large blueberry please.”
Me: “Alright sir, Ill get those started for you. What kind of free boost would you like in your smoothies?”
Customer: “You know what my favorite and the best boost of all is?”
Me: “No sir, I don’t. I’m sorry.”
Customer: “Jesus.”
Me: “Oh, haha. You would like a Jesus boost?”
Customer: “Why yes, I like to boost my day with Jesus everyday! mAre you filled with the light, have you accepted Christ into your life?”
Me: “Yes sir, I have. So what boost would you like in your smoothie?”
Customer: “I told you already.”
Me: “I’m sorry sir, looks like were fresh out of Jesus today.”
Customer: “Oh that’s too bad. I’ll just have the whey protein, then.”
Taxing Faxing, Part 5
(Copy Shop | Fond du Lac, WI, USA)
Customer: “Can you make a copy of my fax papers?”
Me: “Sure.”
Customer: “Okay, now fax them.”
(I go over to the fax machine and send them; I come back with the papers.)
Customer: “I thought you were going to fax my papers?”
Me: “I just did.”
Customer: “Then why are the papers in your hands still?”
Me: “What are you talking about?”
Customer: “When you fax something, it sends the papers to them instantly doesn’t it?”
Me: “Yes, because it scans them and sends it.”
Customer: “Oh, I thought it sent the papers instantly to the number.”
Me: “Phone lines can’t do that.”
Customer: “Well I guess I didn’t need the copies then. Do I still have to pay for them if I give them back to you to get rid of?”
A Rude Retorte
(Bakery | Alabama, USA)
(I am a cake decorator in a bakery. I am closing up the department when the phone rings.)
Me: “This is the bakery, how may I help you?”
Customer: “Yes! Oh my god, please tell me you have the cake kit!”
Me: “Yes we do have the kit.”
Customer: “Finally! I’ve looked everywhere for it and you’re the only place that has it! Okay I need to order a cake.”
Me: “Alright, when you were going to need it?”
Customer: “In about thirty minutes.”
Me: “I’m sorry ma’am, but I would not be able to do that.”
Customer: “What? Why the h*** not?”
Me: “The bakery closes at 6:00 pm on Sundays and I’ve already clocked out for the day. I can place the order for tomorrow afternoon, though.”
Customer: “No! No! I need it now! It’s my son’s birthday today and I need a cake! I forgot to order the cake!”
Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. There’s nothing I can do.”
Customer: “You can make my son’s g**d*** cake is what you can do!”
Me: “I’m sorry. You can come and choose one from our case and I could write something on it for you.”
Customer: “No! I don’t want those cakes! That’s great! Just great! I hope you’re happy; you just ruined my baby’s first birthday!” *hangs up*
Stupidity Makes A Good Case
Stupidity Makes A Good Case: "
(Call Center | Online)
Customer: “I received an cell phone case in the mail today. You sent the wrong item.”
Me: “It looks like you ordered a neon green silicone case for 50 cents and shipping was $2.00. What did you receive?”
Customer: “A bright green phone case.”
Me: “What is the problem with it?”
Customer: “So the $2.50 wasn’t for a phone?”
"Time for some male bashing...
Google planning to launch a Facebook competitor called “Google Me”
Yesterday, Digg CEO Kevin Rose tweeted that he’d heard a “huge rumor” that Google was planning to launch a Facebook competitor called “Google Me”, sparking off a wave of speculative reports (Rose has since removed the tweet). Now Adam D’Angelo
, who was Facebook’s CTO for years and is now founder of hot Q&A service Quora, is weighing in with more details. And from what he’s hearing, Google Me is indeed very real, and it’s gunning for Facebook.Here is what I’ve pieced together from some reliable sources:
- This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.
- They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.
- Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
- They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.
This obviously has the potential to be huge, and Facebook needs a strong competitor. But even if Google has an amazing site in the pipeline, creating the next Facebook is going to be easier said than done — nearly 500 million people already have their content stored on Facebook, and despite what Facebook has claimed about being open, I doubt they’ll make it easy for anyone to jump into the arms of a competitor. Not to mention the fact that Google has had shortcomings with its social sites like Buzz, Wave, and Orkut. This could be a very interesting battle.
We’ll keep our ear to the ground for more about Google Me.
Fertilize Your Garden with Household Scraps
Don't throw away your tea bags, banana peels, egg shells, and other organic trash. Use them as nutrient-rich fertilizers instead!
I love getting to work on my flower beds every year, caring for my perennials and planting my annuals. It's such calming and fulfilling work. But I know it's not just the planting and weeding that's important. Fertilizing the soil is also crucial for adding nutrients and making plants strong enough to combat damage from pests and their environment, not to mention boost root, leaf and flower growth.
All you DIYers will be happy to know that you don't need to run to the store every time you want to fertilize your soil. You probably have some great, all-natural fertilizers right in the house. You can either add them to your compost -- or, if you're not the composting type, you can add these ingredients on their own. Then watch your garden flourish!
COFFEE GROUNDS
Coffee grounds add acidity to soil. After you brew a pot of coffee, sprinkle the grounds on the soil around any acid-loving plants, like azalea, hydrangea, and magnolia.
FIREPLACE ASHES
For plants that thrive in more alkaline soil -- such as yarrow , delphinium, and pink carnation-- sprinkle some fireplace ashes (if you happen to have any hanging around this time of year) around your plants.
NEWSPAPER
Nitrogen is a natural fertilizer and is produced in the waste of all garden creatures. Feed the creatures and you feed the soil. Worms love paper, so rather than sending the whole newspaper to the recycling bin when you've finished reading it, bury some around the base of your plants. The worms will eat it and help the soil to thrive.
SUGAR
Those beneficial garden insects will eat sugar too. In addition to sprinkling pure sugar in the soil on the soil, you can add foods that are high in sugar. Sugary cereal crumbs, for instance, have both sugar and other nutrients, so sprinkle the crumbs from the bottom of the box around your plants. Another easy sugar source is an energy drink. It will give you a one two punch: first, it feeds the organisms in the soil and second, it adds potassium -- a really important nutrient for plants!
BANANA PEELS
Another great source of potassium is banana peels. They're especially good for roses. Simply bury them at the base of the rose bush and watch those flowers bloom!
TEA BAGS
Used tea bags buried in the soil will release nutrients and the paper will decompose easily and feed those pests to help your plants thrive.
EGG SHELLS
Eggshells are composed of calcium and magnesium. Simply crush them up and sprinkle them around your plants. Not only do the shells infuse the soil with nutrients, but plant-eating slugs don't like to crawl over the sharp shells and will stay away.
SEE ALSO:
How to Make Compost
FarmVille is now available for the iPhone (FREE)
As announced by Zynga during Apple’s WWDC 2010, FarmVille has made it to the Apple iTunes App Store and can now be played on your Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
Plow, plant and harvest on the go 24/7! FarmVille, the most popular game on the web, is now available on your iPhone. Current FarmVille players can access their existing Facebook farm, and new users can create a farm.
Choose from a variety of seeds to grow beautiful fruits and vegetables. Earn coins and XP to decorate your farm or expand your acreage. Work faster with vehicles like tractors and seeders, and rear livestock including cows, sheep, and pigs. The more you help your neighbors, the faster you’ll level up. Exclusive iPhone/iPod items available.
You need a facebook account to play FarmVille.
FarmVille initially made its debut on the FB platform in 2009 and since then has added more than 85 million players becoming one of the most played games on Facebook.
iPhone version of FarmVille can be downloaded for FREE from the iTunes app Store (click here) and is around 9.7MB.
If you are an existing FarmVille player and login through your iPhone / iPod, any changes you make to your farm on the iPhone will be reflected on the Facebook farm as well and vice versa.
Do you play FarmVille on Facebook? Will you be downloading FarmVille app on your iPhone / iPod Touch?
By the way, if you aren’t already, you might just want to be a fan of Technofriends on Facebook. Click here to become a FAN of Technofriends on FACEBOOK.
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