Archive for November, 2009

Nokia N900 glitch leads to useful portrait mode, caught on video

File this under “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature” if true. According to Guyver at the maemo.org forums, some glitch in the OS caused his Nokia N900 to switch into portrait mode for everything, not just dialer and photo apps as previously allowed. We’d love to eliminate the need for two hands to run […]

iriver Story up for sale in the UK, can be imported to the US for contrarian amount

Other than a delightful-looking keyboard, it’s a little tough to tell what sets the iriver Story apart from its E Ink brethren (other than its complete lack of wireless), but the little issue of a $400 US pricetag for import versions doesn’t give us much reason to find out. Meanwhile, in the UK the somewhat […]

Sony outs world’s first TransferJet chips for short-range wireless transfer

Induction chargers like Palm’s Touchstone are great and all but they lack one significant feature long mastered by USB tethers: data transfer. That could soon change as Sony begins pushing out its first TransferJet LSI in hopes of obtaining broad industry adoption of this newest form of short-range wireless transmission technology. TransferJet, remember, allows for […]

ASUS Eee PC 1201HA now on sale in the US

A little later than mid-November, sure, but ASUS has finally unleashed to the US masses its 12.1-inch Eee PC 1201HA. Available at Best Buy for a penny under $330, it’s got all the standard affairs: 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520, 1GB RAM upgradeable to 2GB, 160GB HDD, WiFi, and a touted 6 hour, 38 minute battery […]

Netronix looking to Android, 3G for its e-book readers

Google’s little green man has been getting quite an education lately, popping up in a number of e-book readers (why hello there Nook, Alex, eDGe). Not to be left out, Netronix is reportedly also looking to work with Texas Instruments on assimilating Android into its product line, according to company chairman Arthur Lu (via DigiTimes). […]

Nook begins shipping, in select Barnes & Noble stores on December 7th

If you missed getting in your Nook pre-order there’s still hope to nab the dual-display Barnes & Noble reader in time for the holidays. A Wall Street Journal piece says that Nook will be “available for sale or for demonstration purposes” in select, high-volume B&N stores starting December 7th — a week later than expected […]

Samurai of Kuroda granted a cybernetic upgrade

Looking for a techno spin on the traditional, the Samurai of Kuroda have become assimilated into robot territory. They dance, they drink, they wield a great spear and use it to skewer flesh when you’re not looking — probably. Look for the creations at IREX 2009 and then after at RoboSquare in Kyushu. If you […]

Japan’s ‘Helicopter Boyz’ turn the Nikon S1000pj into something much more disturbing

We’re not going to chalk this one up to Japanese culture, the child rearing techniques of show-biz-addled parents, or the craze-inducing effects that come from the integration of a pico projector within a digital camera — this video is too big to have such trite little lines drawn around it. Basically it answers the age-old […]

HTC Hero caught running Android 2.1?

HTC promised the world an Android 2.0-based firmware for its Hero line once it figured out the nitty gritty details of porting Sense to Google’s latest code, leapfrogging Donut altogether — but now, it looks like they’re gonna do one better. Screenshots found today show a Hero running Android 2.1, which would dovetail nicely with […]

Holiday Roundup: Silverlight and iPhone, Handbrake, Black Friday Success and Cyber Monday

Here are a number of news items that have been circulating over the holiday weekend:
- One story that made headlines was a report that implied that Microsoft had Silverlight working on the iPhone. Silverlight is Microsoft’s Flash-comp…
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