Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Software
SlingPlayer Mobile Now On Symbian UIQ Phones
11:59PM Mark Wilson | If that headline made no sense to you, no worries. Carry on with your cushioned world of neutered iPhone apps. If it did, then you may be pleased to know that SlingPlayer Mobile is now available on Symbian phones running the UIQ interface. And just because we’re so thoughtful, we pasted the currently supported phones after the jump. More »
Software
Blindingly Fast Touchscreen Text Entry System Gets a Push By Creator of T9
11:45PM John Mahoney | Everyone who has owned a mobile phone over the last 10 years should at some point pour one out in thanks to Cliff Kushler, one of the inventors of the T9 text entry system that knows you mean “DONKEY” when you type 366539 in an SMS. Now Cliff is smartly shifting his focus on touchscreens with Swype–a way to type blindingly fast on a touchscreen by tracing your finger or stylus over the letters you want without lifting up, connect-the-dots style. It looks frankly amazing in a demo–so amazing that we remembered we’ve seen it somewhere before. Thankfully, it could be heading to the iPhone and Android really, really soon. More »
Games
Installed Xbox 360 Games: Old Titles Load Much Faster, New Ones Not So Much
11:21PM Mark Wilson | When The New Xbox Experience update hits at an unspecified time this fall, gamers will be able to install full titles to their system hard drives. And there’s no doubt—every game will load faster because of the faster transfer times compared to DVD. But some will see marked improvements while others will be moderate to unnoticeable. Microsoft Germany explains: More »
Software
iTunes 8 Disables Disabling Store Links, Here’s the Fix
11:00PM Mark Wilson | Freedom isn’t free, my friends, so sooner or later you knew that you’d be paying for iTunes. In iTunes 8, Apple has disabled the option to turn off those little arrow links that point your music tracks to the iTunes Store. Upon upgrading, one of our readers suddenly found himself inundated with arrows, lost in a sea of sales icons. Luckily, there’s a 5-second workaround for Mac users. More »
Science
LHC First Beam Test Image, All Systems Go for First Collision Event
10:45PM Jesus Diaz | This is the first groovy image produced by the Large Hadron Collider, showing some of the first protons accelerated today at 1028h Central European Time (0428h Eastern Time), the exact time when CERN scientists successfully fired up the LHC for the first time. As we told you earlier this morning, this wasn’t the heads-on collision experiment, which will come later in the year. More »
Networks
Air Canada to Be First International Airline With Aircell In-Flight Wi-Fi
10:36PM John Mahoney | Aircell, the company behind American Airlines and later Delta’s in-flight Wi-Fi services, has just signed up Air Canada to be the next airline to offer its passengers the web in the air via Gogo. They’ll soon begin fitting their Airbus A319s with the necessary gear, and the service will begin on select flights that cross the border to the south starting in the spring of 2009, guaranteeing no Canuck is without live NHL score updates and news about their bad-arse socialised health care for more than a few minutes at a time. Phew.
Deals
Anti-Dealzmodo: New iPods Don’t Qualify for Apple Back to School Promo
10:16PM Mark Wilson | If you tuned into Giz yesterday, you may have noticed, if you looked really hard, that Apple released a few new iPods. And if you are a college student, maybe you realised that since the new iPods were available as of yesterday, they slipped right in for Apple’s Back to School promotion (buy a new Mac, get an 8GB nano/touch free) that goes through Sept 15th. Unfortunately, a call to Apple retail revealed that Apple will not be honouring new iPods in this deal despite similar pricing. Sorry, college kids, I guess you’ll just have to be happy with copious amounts of casual sex and inexpensive beer instead. [robreed] More »
Gadgets
FitBit is Clip-On Wireless Exercise-Tracker, Monitors Your Sleep Too
7:59PM Kit Eaton | The FitBit’s just been unveiled at the TechCrunch 50 event, and it’s an interesting gizmo: it’s designed to clip to your clothing where it tracks your exercise activity, a bit like Nike+. But unlike the iPod/Nike combo, it wirelessly connects to its charger/basestation which sends data to an online database that tracks your performance. And it comes with a wrist-strap so you can wear it at night. Apparently as you slip into REM sleep your wrist will tremor slightly, and the FitBit uses this to work out your sleep quality. These prototypes have no screen, but the final product will have an OLED one that includes a Tamagotchi-style avatar that’ll symbolise your health status. It’s due in December for US$99. [Gearlog via BBG] More »
Computers
HP Vivienne Tam Special Edition Laptop Gets Fashionable Debut on NYC Catwalk
7:14PM Kit Eaton | New York City fashion week may be a strange place to debut the average new laptop, but it’s very fitting for HP’s Vivienne Tam Special Edition machine. She was approached by HP to design them a new laptop, and she came up with something that’s apparently a “true reflection of the needs of a modern woman who cares about fashion but is also passionate about her technology.” Updated: More data has emerged on the machine More »
Phones
