Laser triggered photography

Popped balloons or gun’s firing into apples, anyone can photograph with a quick sound based camera rig. Lasers have been used forever in motion detection. And even door bell chimes have been used before for remote camera shutter releases. No, [SaskView] wanted to go further and created his Laser Triggered High-Speed Photography setup, to photograph (of all things) milk splashes. We liked the simplicity of the project however;  requiring no programmed microchips or overlySource: Hack A Day RSS Feed

iPhone Application Sketch Book Rights Sold to Apress Publishing [TheAppleBlog]

Little more than a month after releasing the iPhone Application Sketch Book its creator, Dean Kaplan, has already sold the publishing rights to Apress Publishing House for an undisclosed amount. Kaplan says the move will allow the book to reach a broader market and free up some more time to work on “other projects that will compliment the sketchbook.”

According to Kaplan, future publications of the sketchbook will remain largely the same except for a few minor changesSource: GigaOM Network RSS Feed

Microsoft Free Antivirus Releasing Today

Microsoft has been working for a long time now in giving a good and reliable antivirus platform for all users.  And when I say “for all users” I mean a free one. Seems that the dream is about to become true today: Microsoft Security Essentials will be release to the public as the free antivirus solution from Microsoft.

Microsoft Security Essentials will be replacing Windows Live OneCare as the security suite for viruses and malware. The suite can be installed inSource: Crenk.com RSS Feed

Yes, you may tweet from the North Pole

Twitter’s uses get stranger and stranger as people outfit hardware to tweet on the social network.

There’s a device that that will tweet when bread is ready out of a baker’s oven and Kickbee’s a product that tweets whenever a baby kicks inside its pregnant mother. Now there’s a crew of explorers navigating through the quickly-opening Northwest Passage that have outfitted their ship to tweet its coordinates from far beyond where mobile carriers can reach.

The NorthwestSource: VentureBeat RSS Feed

Jalopnik's 9 Favorite Vintage Mazda Commercials [Classic Ad Watch]

When an automaker builds a car named the Cosmo Big Run Genteel, you know they're going to make some good television advertisements. Yes, we're talking about Mazda here!

We've got babes eating flowers, elephants climbing onto flatbed trucks, Patsy Cline singing, and James Garner!
When you're done here, you might enjoy our favorite Datsun ads, then continue with our top Toyota, Renault, General Motors, British Leyland, Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, Honda, Citroën, AMC/Jeep,Source: Jalopnik RSS Feed

Engadget Podcast 164 - 09.27.2009

It's been a crazy week in news, and after a couple cross-country flights the podcast crew is together and ready to break it all down. Join Josh, Paul and Nilay as they take on Microsoft's Courier tablet concept and rumored Pink smartphones, dish on the HTC Leo and Windows Mobile, debate the finer points of net neutrality, and talk over the highlights from the Intel Developer Forum and the Tokyo Game Show. Yeah, there's a ton here -- grab a snack and tune in!
Hosts: Joshua Topolsky,Source: Engadget RSS Feed

Weird Tech: Too lazy to order coffee? There's an app for that

iPhone users and Starbucks fans, AKA the twin pillars of smugness, are being combined into one super-smug entity that will out-smug everything for years to come - thanks to the coffee chain embracing Apple App Store.

Starbucks, which has already made the news for its "free" Wi-Fi offer to UK loyalty members this week, has launched another achingly modern and fashionable scheme for its hipster fans in the form of a trial app that lets users pay for their coffee via barcode.

IfSource: TechRadar RSS Feed

TomTom iPhone Kit Costs $120, Includes More Than Meets The Eye, Though (video)

At first glance it would appear that TomTom wants to sucker you out of $120 for a car vehicle mount that at best sticks your iPhone to your car’s windshield.  Not so.

For $120 you not only get the aforementioned windshield suction cup mount, but a built-in microphone, speaker, stereo audio out, a USB port for charging and get this: built-in GPS for enhanced performance.  It’s not clear if the built-in GPS works in tandem with the iPhone’s, but it should provide faster and more Source: Gadget Review RSS Feed

Top 10 Investment / Finance Websites: August 2009

Marketing Charts submits:

click to enlarge

Note: The Hitwise data featured is based on US market share of visits as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market Source: SeekingAlpha RSS Feed

Clearwire renaming itself CLEAR, getting a logo makeover too

Clearwire's far too young of a company to be dealing with a mid-life crisis, but just a year or so after it really began rolling out its Clear WiMAX services in select portions of America, it appears that the outfit is changing names. Confusingly enough, the company (currently Clearwire) will be renaming itself as the service (currently Clear), leaving us to wonder what exactly CLEAR (the rebranded company) will call its WiMAX offerings. There's no indication on the company's website Source: Engadget RSS Feed

JCPenney, Purina, and Red Bull See Facebook Page Growth

Facebook occasionally folds unofficial pages of brands into official ones. That is what seems to have given JCPenney, Petcentric by Purina, and Red Bull some  significant fan boosts around a week ago, according to PageData. Each of these companies is actively updating their Pages however in order to engage their fans.

Retailer JCPenney has perhaps the most interesting Facebook implementation out of the three. It is running a contest on its page where it asks users to post photos ofSource: Inside Facebook RSS Feed

Google Introduces Universal Commenting System: Sidewiki

Sidewiki Screenshot

Help and learn from others a you browse is the mantra Google is propagating with its latest creation – a universal commenting system called Sidewiki. My initial thoughts were that it has introduced something like Intense Debate but that isn’t the case. Sidewiki instead is a feature on Google Toolbar that appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page.

Sidewiki lets users comment about the content of any webSource: WATblog RSS Feed

The Macallan Releases a 57 Year Old Whisky with Lalique Crystal Decanter

There’s nothing more top notch than The Macallan, the Masters of Spirit and Wood. Combine that with Lalique, the Masters of Crystal, and you have something to really take notice.

The Macallan Single Malt is launching the third decanter in a series of six within The Macallan in Lalique Six Pillars Collection. The limited-edition, hand-crafted bottle contains an exceptionally rare 57 years old single malt Scotch whisky – the second oldest whisky ever to be released by TheSource: Remove The Labels RSS Feed

Microsoft Packs The New Zune HD With Bells, Whistles And Plenty of Style [The Mossberg Solution]

At long last, Microsoft has made a portable media player that you can be proud to carry around: the Zune HD.

This fourth-generation Zune (Zune.net) is ultra thin and has a stunningly vivid 3.3-inch touch screen that covers most of its surface, doing away with the old device’s touchpad. It comes in one small size rather than the older large and small versions, and has capacities of 16 and 32 gigabytes for $220 and $290, respectively.

The Zune HD does a nice job of integrating Source: All Things Digital RSS Feed

Verizon starts selling the Motorola Entice W766

Earlier this month, we saw the Motorola Entice W766 making an appearance at Moto’s official website, and now the phone is finally available for purchase through Verizon Wireless.

Coming as the successor of Moto W755 (which is now free at Verizon), the Motorola Entice W766 is an entry-level clamshell presented as being “uncomplicated and uncompromising.”

The W766 features a 2.2 inch internal display with 176 x 220 pixels, external music controls, VZ Navigator,Source: Unwired View RSS Feed

Use Google Chrome in Internet Explorer

If you can't install Google Chrome and you must use Internet Explorer, there's a way to use Google Chrome's rendering engine inside IE: Google Chrome Frame. After installing the plug-in, you can test it by adding cf: in front of any URL from the address bar.
Google Chrome Frame is an interesting option for the developers that write web applications and use HTML or CSS features that are available in any modern browser, except IE. They can add a meta tag at the top of a web page and enableSource: Google Operating System RSS Feed

Misdiagnosing the live and the dead [Neuron Culture]

"One in six patients 'wrongly diagnosed by NHS doctors'," shouts the Daily Mail (via EvidenceMatters. This should not surprise us: Autopsies have been finding a similar percentage of misdiagnosis among the dead for decades. Doctors will always miss some diagnoses. Progress is a matter of ever narrowing the list of things doctors miss -- so the other problems can be diagnosed and treated, letting the patients live longer (till they did of something incurable -- orSource: Thoughts from Kansas RSS Feed

The New York Times, Brought to You–Literally–by Twitter [MediaMemo]

It has been easy enough to be skeptical about Twitter’s influence and staying power–I do it all the time. But there’s no denying that Twitter has become a powerful driver of Web traffic.

Just ask the New York Times (NYT), which says Twitter is about to become one of the top 10 referral sources to the paper’s site.

Impressive. But what exactly does this mean?

There was a flurry of excitement this afternoon on Twitter–of course–whenSource: All Things Digital RSS Feed

Macally BT Keyboard for Mac

I love my wireless BT keyboard for my iMac.  There’s two things though, that I find fault with.

One, the wired version is full sized.  It has the extra numerical keypad on the right side where as the smaller wireless … [visit site to ]

Related posts:

1. Review: iSkin Pro Touch for Apple Keyboard & Mouse
2. 17″ iMac announced prematurely by Apple or merely wishful Photoshop?
3. Take Control of Time Machine

Source: Gear Diary RSS Feed

Video game characters come to life, destroy humanity in Cloverbrawl

What if your favorite video game characters came to life? You'd think it would be a cause for celebration, but Cloverbrawl, the latest film from the geniuses behind LittleBigRevenge, suggests otherwise. The two-part 20-minute film touts some impressive special effects, splicing in characters from a myriad of games, from Smash Bros, to LocoRoco, to Left 4 Dead, and more. Thoroughly imaginative and brilliantly executed, this is a must-watch for all gamers.
Check it out after the break.Source: PS3 Fanboy RSS Feed

HP and Dell make 3D notebook orders

According to the Chinese-language Commercial Times, the PC giants HPand Dell have made orders for 3D notebooks from parts maker Wistron, who is also currently in negotiations with Lenovo and Sony for a similar orders.
Interestingly, Wistron's 3D notebooks uses 3D systems from their own patents, cutting much of the costs of licensing, and leaving the 3D notebooks at a price not much higher than traditional notebooks.
There were little other details, but many expect at least a few Source: AfterDawn.com RSS Feed

Mommy Blogger Turns Hate Mail Into Gold

We have to hand it to mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, of Dooce fame. She beat us to the punch. We've been tossing around the idea of rounding up our favorite hate-ments on Switched for some time now, but have never actually acted on it. Armstrong, who recently made it to number 26 on Forbes's list of the most influential women in media, decided to assemble the piles of hateful, nasty comments that are inevitable when writing a popular blog, post them to a single page, load it up withSource: Switched RSS Feed

BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 9-13-2009

Section:

We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…

• Appletell reviews the Gorillapod mobile
• If you simply must have an iPhone keyboard
• Best Buy outs Wacom’s secret Bamboo Touch multitouch tablet
• How-to video: iDevice app management in iTunes 9
• Inside the iTunes LP

Full Story | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Source: Gadgetell RSS Feed

The Popcorn Hour C-200 media streamer makes its way into the wild

Filed under: Blu-ray, Media streamers, Players, Others

It looks like Popcorn Hour's C-200 media streamer is making its way into end-users' hands, so prepare yourself for a flurry of reviews. Our friend Brent over at GeekTonic should be jumping into the fray soon, and has kicked things off with a preview. Yeah, the C-200 is bigger than its sibling A-100, but it brings so much to the table that we'd say Popcorn Hour has packed in just as much -- if not more -- goodness per cubic inch.Source: Engadget HD RSS Feed

Denon DBP-4010UDCI Universal Blu-ray Disc Player

Pictured above is Denon’s latest Blu-ray player – the DBP-4010UDCI Universal Blu-ray Disc Player – which features many of the latest technologies and enhancements found in their DVD-A1UDCI player yet at a lower price point (though at $1999, the DBP-4010UDCI is still not for the faint of heart).

The DBP-4010UDCI features:

• Profile 2.0 support
• BD Live and “Bonus View” support
• Plays back DVD-Audio and SACD discs withSource: Krunker RSS Feed

Video Game Review: Gran Turismo for PSP

Here's a new feature on Straightline -- a video game review written not just by a hard-core gamer, but a gamer who's also a hard-core car guy. Let us know what you think. --Your Editor

In May 2004, Gran Turismo 4 Mobile was announced for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) game system. After five years, all who purchased PSPs hoping to enjoy GT anywhere can finally dust them off. Gran Turismo for the PSP hits retail stores in Universal Media Disc (UMD)Source: Straightline RSS Feed

Newsstand: Probably the Best iPhone News Reader

RSS is a great way to read news, especially if reading news is your job. Until recently, I used NewNewsWire, on both the desktop and an iPod Touch (handy for starting work while still in bed), but a recent (and rather sudden) death of the backend service meant I couldn’t keep the pair in sync. Enter Newsstand for iPhone, recently updated to v2.0 and probably the best mobile RSS reader I have used.

Newsstand syncs with Google Reader, as does the latest versionSource: Wired RSS Feed

GM Still Plans To Re-Badge Holden Commodore As U.S. Cop Car [Over The Back Fence]

GM CEO Fritz Henderson says the General’s still looking to win a contract to supply re-badged Holden Commodores (formerly re-badged as the Pontiac G8 and once rumored to be re-badged as the Chevy Caprice) to US law enforcement agencies.

In an exclusive interview with the Aussie hoons at Drive.com.au at the Frankfurt Motor Show yesterday, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said the company was making good progress with a plan to sell the Commodore to US law enforcement agencies.Source: Worlwide Cars News RSS Feed

Custom Arkham Asylum skins unmask Batman's identity issues

One of the incentives to play Batman: Arkham Asylum on PC (outside of a lower price and PhysX graffix) is the ability to create custom skins. The community has quickly gotten to work and flooded the official forums with screen grabs of the various outfits modders have designed. Aside from the obvious The Dark Knight and classic Bats skins, there's a neat Green Lantern variation and, pictured above, a recession-conscious Batman opting for Old Navy-esque cargos instead of the usualSource: Houstonist RSS Feed

Dell finally fined $4 million in NY fraud case

Remember back in May 2008 when Dell was found guilty of "engaging in deceptive business practices related to financing promotions for its computers and technical support?" Yeah, those were the days, and now just 15 and a half months after the verdict, the computer maker is now paying up to the tune of $4 million -- not as paltry as its $30,000 Taiwan fine, but still less than one percent of its quarterly profits. We know, it's the thought the counts.

Filed under: Desktops,Source: Engadget RSS Feed

HP Envy has landed– Best Display on any Notebook [jkOnTheRun]

HP Envy 13

The VooDoo notebook would have been one of the thinnest and most powerful laptops around, had it ever hit the market. HP stepped in and bought the VooDoo line and we’ve been waiting to see what they would do with it. The wait is over as HP has introduced the first two models in the new line, the Envy 13 and Envy 15. The two new notebooks have a lot crammed in a very thin form, and sport a 13-inch and 15-inch screen respectively. Word has been leaking outSource: GigaOM Network RSS Feed

Internet Explorer 8: Best Browser for Your Battery?

Filed under: Computers, Web

The War of the Web Browsers mostly takes place on one battlefield: speed. And while Google's Chrome is the clear winner on that front, there are other skirmishes -- like those over add-ons and resource usage -- of which Firefox is the clear victor.
Until now the only victories that Internet Explorer could claim were 'Largest Install Base' and 'Most Vulnerable to Hackers.' But tech blog AnandTech decided to pit the browsers against each otherSource: Switched RSS Feed

Fuel Economy: A Feature Not Bound by Economics

In recent years a greater emphasis on MPG during car shopping has emerged. Between fluctuating gasoline prices, a broader selection of hybrid vehicles, and the promise of plug-ins and battery electric vehicles, and mandated increases in CAFE standards, fuel economy is becoming an important vehicle characteristic for many consumers.

Makers of ICEs are looking to accentuate the efficiency of many of their "traditional" models to meet federal requirements and better compete with hybridSource: Matter Magazine RSS Feed

Never Ask a Teen-Ager How To Use Twitter

Update 6/1/09 A new study from Pace University and the Participatory Marketing Project shows that only 22 percent of Gen Y (The Millenials) are using Twitter The blurb on the study goes on to say that Gen Y has to be convinced of the value of Twitter Um, if you have to convince them so hard, then maybe it's a medium that they don't need right now--they may need it as they get older and can't text from their workplace. Sheesh! Apps, though, are hot for everyone Thanx C-Net for the link end
Source: the Constant Observer RSS Feed

Scribblenauts launch today at New York City

Those who've been waiting for Scribblenauts might be able to get their hands on the remarkable, award-winning anything-generator a bit early - that is if they happen to be in NYC right now. Scribblenauts is launching early today at Nintendo World, so DS owners should be crowding the area in queue right now.

Scribblenauts will officially launch all over two days later, but lucky folks who happen to be in NYC can get their copy now, that is if it's still inSource: QJ.NET RSS Feed

Carrie Prejean brings 'opposite marriage' message to NC Conservative Leadership Conference

Dammit, instead of going to the animal shelter to see the dogs, Kate and I should have taken the opportunity to rub shoulders with the queen of Opposite Marriage in the wingnut movement, disgraced Miss California Carrie Prejean, who was in the Triangle to stimulate intellectual discussion during her lunch keynote at the 4th Annual NC Conservative Leadership Conference, sponsored by the John William Pope Civitas Institute.

This is a gathering of the good-old-boy set andSource: Pam's House Blend RSS Feed

DIY garage railgun

Colorado Springs, CO maker Ravi Gaddipati has been working on a railgun for the better part of a year. The photo above shows a shot from version one -- with the projectile going plasma! Now he's now working on version two, which packs an even more impressive capacitor bank -- forty caps each rated at 400v and 3900µf.

Interested in learning more? Check out Ravi's fascinating build log and Flickr page.

| Permalink | Comments | articles in

Third-party Google Voice client hits the webOS App Catalog

Filed under: Software, Palm

It looks like it isn't just bluster from Palm when it comes to thinking differently about its app approval policy. Besides taking a pretty healthy stance on applications that deviate from its current standards, today 10 new titles have shown up for download... a Google Voice app being one of them. gDial Pro, a piece of software which started its life as a homebrew application, is now an official part of the beta store. The program lets you access Google