Gadgets

1677 articles on Gadgets

• Gamebook Adventures Make Fantasy Reading Interactive and Fun (Plus a Big Giveaway)
  You pull away the debris until there is enough space to crawl through the blockage. On the far side of the barricade you find a  chilling discovery. It is the corpse of a roughly dressed man, whose dessicated form looks like it has been dried and left here for generations. The hide and leather worn ...
  05.24.11

• Launching Today: iPad Subscriptions
  Finally. A year ago, when we launched the Wired iPad app, we promised that subscriptions were on their way. And indeed they were¿it just took a while for the right path to become clear (much traveling between New York and Cupertino paid off). Today, I'm pleased to announce that we've arrived. If you want Wired ...
  05.24.11

• Clip-On SoundJaw Fixes iPad 2's Terrible Speaker
  SoundJaw is a small plastic widget that fixes one of the worst things about the iPad 2 -- its stupid, tinny backwards-facing speaker. It clips onto the bottom of the iPad 2 (and also the iPad 1) and bounces the sound back towards you, greatly increasing its volume. The original iPad sounded pretty great for something ...
  05.24.11

• App Shrinks iPhone Data Usage System-Wide
  Onavo is an app which cuts your cellphone data use drastically. Amazingly, it works in the background even on the iPhone and iPad, which sounds like some kind of impossible voodoo given Apple's strict multitasking rules. It turns out that the app does actually compress data, but not how you think. Once installed, it performs some ...
  05.24.11

• Trubador Case Holds iPad Like a Guitar
  At the end of a post about Pix and Stix, the conductive guitar pick and drumsticks for the iPad, I joked that "I¿m sure that the inevitable guitar-shaped iPad holder is already on a designers drawing board somewhere." Well, it turns out that this was (partially) true. The Trubador is an iPad case which holds the ...
  05.24.11

• Apple Defends App Programmers in Patent Dispute
  Apple's legal team has fired back at a patent-owning firm that was threatening to sue iPhone app programmers over usage of in-app payment technology. Apple stated in no uncertain terms that it planned to protect Apple developers. "Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license," wrote Bruce Sewell, ...
  05.23.11

• Google Blocks Rooted Android Devices From Renting Movies
  For many Android enthusiasts, having total control is part of the platform's attraction. But Google is imposing some annoying new restrictions for those who want to be superusers on their own phones. Google is blocking access to its new Android Market movie rental service for those using rooted Android devices. If you try to access a ...
  05.23.11

• Rumor Roundup: iPhone 5 to Include Curved Glass, Faster Processor
  Apple might be planning to adopt curved glass on the next iPhone, according to a report. Taiwanese publication DigiTimes claims that Apple has purchased about 300 glass-cutting machines in preparation for producing curved cover glass for the iPhone 5. It's unclear what role curved glass would play on an iPhone, though it's worth noting that the previous-generation ...
  05.23.11

• N.Y. Transit Authority Approaches Apple About Grand Central Space: Report
  The agency responsible for Grand Central Terminal has approached Apple about opening a retail store in the marquee location through which thousands of commuters and tourists pass every day, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Apple had no comment for the story but the Journal quotes Metropolitan Transportation Authority Jeremy Soffin as saying the MTA had ...
  05.23.11

• Level Up: A Graphic Novel About Videogames and Asian Parenting
  Do you ever feel like you're a disappointment to your parents? Or that they have extremely high expectations for you, plans for your life that never included your own preferences or desires? If so, chances are high that you were raised by immigrant parents, possibly Asians. Now, I don't mean to say that all Asian (or ...
  05.23.11

• Curvy, Slim Xperia Arc Is Leggy Supermodel of Smartphones
  Despite some rough edges, Sony Ericsson's new Android phone is worth taking a look at for its great design, beautiful display and excellent camera.
  05.23.11

• Nook Hook: Liberty Media Eyes E-Books With $1 Billion Bid for Barnes & Noble
  Economist Joseph Schumpeter called it "creative destruction" -- the process by which technological innovation disrupts, and in many cases destroys, old business models, paving the way for new ones to emerge. It was little more than a decade ago that bibliophiles were bemoaning the loss of traditional neighborhood bookstores, crushed by big-box behemoths like Barnes ...
  05.20.11

• iPhone Customer Sues AT&T; Over 'Rigged' Data Charges
  An iPhone customer has filed a lawsuit against AT&T, claiming that the telecom company is overcharging him for data services. Filed by Patrick Hendricks in the Northern District of California, the lawsuit seeks class-action status, alleging that AT&T is committing unlawful and fraudulent business practices by regularly overbilling customers for data transactions. "AT&T's billing system for iPhone ...
  05.20.11

• Third Rail Case Adds Removable Battery to iPhone
  The Third Rail case is much less dangerous than it sounds. Instead of being a huge metal beam that carries a gazillion volts with the dual purpose of powering underground trains and terrifying children, the Third Rail is an accessory battery pack for your iPhone. It's not just another chunky juice-pack style case, either. While the ...
  05.20.11

• New Mac Malware Fools Customers, But Threat Still Relatively Small
  A new piece of malware has caused an uptick in Apple customers reporting infected machines, renewing a timeless debate on the state of Macintosh security versus Windows. The trojan horse is called Mac Defender. It's a web pop-up containing a spoof message that tells customers their machines are infected by a virus and they must install ...
  05.19.11

• Modders Make Android Work the Way You Want
  CyanogenMod is one of the biggest hacks to ever hit the Android mobile platform. It's got an estimated 500,000 users. Many Android programmers use it as a starting point for their own coding projects. And according to the project's founder, a number of Google employees have it installed on their Android devices. Essentially, CyanogenMod is a tricked-out ...
  05.19.11

• Wooden Dock Turns iPhone into Retro-Tastic Alarm Clock
  For $40 you can turn your sleek, modern iPhone into a retro-styled nightstand alarm clock. The Alarm Dock from Areaware is nothing but a hollow block of beechwood with a slot for your sliver of glass and steel, and yet -- in conjunction with the right clock app -- it manages to perfectly evoke those ...
  05.19.11

• Verizon Readies Its First Dual-Core Smartphone, Droid X2
  Good news for Verizon customers waiting for powerful hardware: Dual-core is coming to town. Motorola's Droid X2 smartphone hits stores on May 26, and you'll be able to pre-order it online beginning May 19. The phone is powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 dual-core 1 GHz processor, the powerful chip found in a number of recent ...
  05.18.11

• AT&T; Removes Android Restrictions -- Thanks, Amazon
  After years of restrictions, AT&T will now allow Android smartphone customers to install applications downloaded outside the official Android Market. The recently launched Samsung Infuse is the first of AT&T's phones capable of installing apps from outside sources, including unofficial app stores or web links, a process called sideloading. Eventually after some software updates, all AT&T Android ...
  05.18.11

• Apple's Tiny SIM Card Could Help Gadgets Slim Down
  Apple wants future iPhones and iPads to be even thinner, according to a report, and to do that, the telecom industry will need to use smaller SIM cards. That's what Reuters heard from European carrier Orange, at least. The publication claims that Apple proposed to standardize a thinner SIM, and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) ...
  05.18.11

• AirPlay App Projects iPhone Browser Onto Your TV
  Tap Media's Web Browser for Apple TV is about as plainly-named as it gets. The iPhone app uses AirPlay to beam its web browser over onto your television via Apple TV. Simple, and probably very useful, the app lets you browse the web for anything you like and then throw it up on the big screen ...
  05.18.11

• Hot Wheels Racers, Now With Driver's-Eye Video Camera
  When I was a kid, I used to wonder just what the drivers of toy cars might see. Just before I sent my Hot Wheels (or the 1970s UK equivalent) car plunging down its long, long ramp for a date with terminal velocity, extreme G-force and the inevitable bone-snapping impact, I considered what the experience ...
  05.18.11

• Apple, Samsung Win Praise for Display Technologies
  Apple and Samsung this week won awards for display technologies on their mobile devices. Apple's iPhone and iPad earned gold Display of the Year and Display Application of the Year awards from the Society for Information Display. Both devices received praise for their usage of in-plane switching technology, in which crystal molecules are oriented so their motion ...
  05.17.11

• Apple Stores Unlikely to Launch New Product This Weekend
  Multiple publications report that Apple retail outlets are preparing "something big" this weekend in celebration of the 10th anniversary since the opening of the first Apple store, and that might involve a product launch. But it's more likely nothing. Apple stores are holding all-hands meetings with retail employees this weekend, according to independent reports from MacStories, ...
  05.17.11

• Report: Amazon Readying Dual and Quad-Core Tablets
  Amazon may release two tablet devices by the end of 2011, according to a report based on an anonymous tipster. The first device, code-named "Coyote," will reportedly run on Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor, like many of the current generation of Android tablets being released this year, according to The Boy Genius Report. The second tablet, according to ...
  05.17.11

• Remote-Control Helicopter Driven by iPhone
  IRemoco is a remote-control toy helicopter that you drive with your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The $100 kit contains the chopper itself, along with a dongle which plugs into the dock connector of your iDevice and sends your instructions to the helicopter. The project -- currently seeking funding on Kickstarter -- differs from other ...
  05.17.11

• Visa Digital Wallet Accelerates Mobile-Payments Race
  Electronic point-of-sale mobile payments at retail locations aren't quite ready for prime-time -- but they're getting closer. The latest heavy-hitter to enter the fray is Visa, the ubiquitous financial services company, which has announced plans for a digital wallet based on Near Field Communication, or NFC, technology. Visa's announcement accelerates the all-out race over digital payments. Major ...
  05.16.11