Gadgets

2009 articles on Gadgets

• Decanter Allows Anyone to Easily Create Interactive Storybooks
  Have you ever flipped through an interactive storybook on your tablet and thought you would love to be able to tell a story like that, but you don't have the faintest idea how to begin programming something like an animated e-book? An upcoming piece of software from Podotree has you covered.
  07.19.12

• Hands-On With Twist, the App That Tells People You'll Be Horribly Late
  Whether you have a habit of arriving awkwardly early or annoyingly late for meetings, an app called Twist is here to help. The new location-based app launched on Wednesday is like a more useful Find My Friends that notifies your family, friends or colleagues when you're going to arrive at a specific location.
  07.18.12

• Listen: The Awesomely Low-Tech, Mouth-Made Videogame Soundtrack
  When Amanita Design released Botanicula earlier this year, fans knew the game was going to be good. The indie game maker had a track record; in 2009 they released a point and click puzzle game called Machinarium that won them heaps of awards and a dedicated fan base. Botanicula¿s early art was promising -- a cross between a avant guarde kids book and indie band cover art -- but what ultimately pushed it over the edge were its noises, created by the Czech band DVA.
  07.18.12

• Bop It! Smash: Lightning-Quick Reflexes Not Included
  That weird dumbbell-shaped gizmo is the latest incarnation of Hasbro's popular Bop It! toy. The older models had various things to bop, twirl, pull, and tweak ¿ all set to various sound effects and a voice shouting instructions at you. The Bop It! Smash takes the basic "bop" control and boils it down to a game of fast reflexes.
  07.18.12

• Form vs. Function: Wood Shell and KidSafe Cases for iPhone 4S
  I love a good iPhone case, but as my junk drawer fills up with more and more options it becomes that much harder for a simple phone cover to make a proper impression. Still, there are those at work crafting innovative new shells for the ubiquitous iPhone 4/4S, even if what sets them apart also limits their overall utility.
  07.18.12

• House Party! The 3-D Light Show You Can Control With an iPad or Wii
  There was a time when concertgoers were perfectly happy just listening to the band play. Not anymore. Today fans expect to see pyrotechnic spectacles with elaborate lighting and special effects for the price of admission. When the time came to create the visuals for Floating -- a new album by Danish electronic artist Rumpistol / Red Baron -- design studio Futura Epsis 1 made something that was a bit of both.
  07.17.12

• Apple Wins a User-Interface Patent That Smartphone Copycats Should Fear
  Today Apple was granted a notable addition to its IP arsenal: a patent for its method of displaying documents and lists -- and a whole manner of other things -- on a portable electronic device.
  07.17.12

• Kytephone App Makes Android Phones Kid-Safe
  Keeping kids safe is a priority for parents, especially when it comes to sharing information online. Everyone is worried about some creepy stalker setting up a meeting, or getting their information and whisking them away from a playground or a schoolyard. Many parents opt to keep them away from things like smartphones for fear of their making dangerous connections. The problem is that there are times most of us would like our kids to have a ready means of contacting us in a pinch. Kytephone aims to provide a way for parents to give their children phones and keep them safe.
  07.17.12

• Review: Game of Life: Zapped Edition for iPad
  The Game of Life was first created over 40 years ago by Reuben Klamer. Since its creation, the game has undergone some changes to keep up with the times. None of the changes have been quite as drastic as they are in the latest edition, The Game of Life: zAPPed Edition for iPad .
  07.17.12

• Why You're Still Stuck Using Microsoft Office
  "The Microsoft Office for Windows" debuted in 1990. Since then, nothing has come close to unseating it.
  07.17.12

• Images of Purported White iPhone 5 Front Panel Emerge
  A purported leaked image of the next iPhone's front panel emerged early Monday, possibly giving us a more complete view of what Apple's next-generation phone could look like.
  07.16.12

• Oracle Rejected in Bid to Resuscitate Google Trial
  If Oracle wants to win its lawsuit against Google over the Android mobile operating system ¿ and it does ¿ it will have to file an appeal. On Friday, Judge William Alsup denied Oracle's motion for a new trial after a San Francisco jury returned an incomplete verdict the first time around.
  07.16.12

• Hands-On With Motorola's Atrix HD: Affordable Phone With a Killer Display
  Motorola has produced many attractive, powerful and well-built Android smartphones over the last few years, but none have had the killer feature of the new Atrix HD: a 4.5-inch, 331ppi, 1280 x 720 display.
  07.16.12

• The Wow Wireless Bluetooth Speaker: Style and Sound
  Here's a crowdfunding project for all you audiophiles. It's the Wow Wireless bluetooth speaker and it not only sounds great, but looks great, too. Despite the huge number of speakers out there, most of them look a lot alike. They're generally little cubes or little rectangles made of shiny metal and plastic. It's not that they're ugly, but they're just not very pretty. This little speaker delivers not only great sound, but a genuinely stylish design that will add to your room.
  07.16.12

• Disney's The Aristocats App Lets Down the Brand
  For true lovers of the film The Aristocats is a pleasant enough app but it's a let-down for a company which usually makes such wonderful, entertaining games.
  07.16.12

• Open-Source Game Console Closes in on $5M of Kickstarter Funding
  It's been less than a week since the OUYA open-source video game console first debuted on Kickstarter, and the project is already closing in on the $5,000,000 mark. And yes, you read that right -- 5 million dollars.
  07.16.12

• Russell Quinn — The World's Most Wired Storyteller
  In some ways, Russell Quinn has spent his life running from technology, in search of connection. The son of a punch card-era computer scientist who died three months before he was born, Quinn grew up an only child in Cheltenham, a small town in Southwest England, with very little to do. So in 1984, when he was 5, his mother bought him a BBC Microcomputer — one of the United Kingdom's earliest PCs — and Quinn taught himself how to program. "The BBC computer found its way into every school," he says, "so I ended up staying after class and teaching my teachers how to use them. It was second nature to me."
  07.16.12

• Club Caveman Raises the Bar for iPad Storytelling
  By expanding the scope of user interaction and raising game animation to movie quality, Club Caveman hopes to elevate kids¿ engagement with narrative and push the limits on what an iPad does with storytelling. Ben Sweat of Caffeine-Free talks about his current Kickstarter project.
  07.16.12

• GeekDad HipTrax #91 (GeekDad Weekly Rewind)
  I am well aware of the summer concert season, but apparently there is also a summer album season. As it seems that everybody is dropping one this month!
  07.15.12

• Google Starts Shipping Nexus 7 Tablet
  To all of you who ordered a Nexus 7 in the last few weeks, you can expect a 7-inch package delivery on your doorstep soon. Google announced that it has started shipping the pre-orders of its first self-branded tablet on Friday.
  07.13.12

• Inside Google's Fascinating Stash of 10,000 Indoor Maps
  10,000 indoor maps. You can consider this proof positive that Google is making headway in its effort to chart every nook and cranny of navigable terrain, even if this includes carpet and linoleum.
  07.13.12

• Report: iPhone 5 Will Be Announced August 7
  If the latest reports end up proving true, we could be seeing the next iPhone launch sooner than expected. A "reliable industry source" told KnowYourMobile that the next iPhone would be launched at an August 7 keynote speech.
  07.13.12

• Apple Does About-Face on Green EPEAT Ratings
  Just two days after dropping out of the green EPEAT ratings system for electronics manufacturers, Apple has decided it¿s not so bad after all.
  07.13.12

• Dongle Makes Any iPod Dock a Bluetooth Speaker
  Bring those old speaker docks out of the closet and make them Bluetooth-capable with a new Kickstarter project.
  07.13.12

• Powerbag Backpack by F¿l: Carry Your Stuff, Charge Your Gadgets
  It can be a pain when you're on the move and don't want to stuff a charger and a bunch of cables and connectors into your bag. That's where the Powerbag Backpack 3000 comes into play. It provides not only a sturdy backpack with plenty of pockets for all your stuff, but a built in charger and connectors so you can charge no matter where you go.
  07.13.12

• Amazing Alex: Hands-On with Rovio's Newest Game That Isn't Angry Birds
  Raise your hand if you're sick of Angry Birds. Yeah, we thought so. Now that Rovio has saturated the market with Angry Birds-branded games, toys, clothing and even fruit snacks, the developer has set its sights on a boy named Alex and his Rube Goldberg-esque shenanigans.
  07.13.12

• Free iPads! and Other Sales Tactics of the Rich and Famous
  For interior designer and budding restaurateur DeeAnna Staats (lots of vowels, yes, but two names), it all begins with the iPad. And, as with every great Hollywood story, goes fantastically over the top from there.
  07.13.12