13 People Cursing Hurricane Sandy—For Delaying Their iPhone Deliveries

There's been a lot of news coverage about how Sandy could endanger peoples lives, cause all kinds of horrible property damage, and leave many homeless. But we've been overlooking the biggest problem; Sandy's delaying iPhone 5 shipments. Here are 13 folks who think that's the end of the world. And that swearing at the weather is always the answer. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7VKSS9VQX9Q/13-people-cursing-hurricane-sandy+for-delaying-their-iphone-deliveries

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Konstruct for iOS creates generative augmented reality art with your voice

Konstruct generative augmented reality art for iOS
If you have an artistic temperament, but you weren't blessed with steady hands or an eye for color, Konstruct might be the app for you. Not only does the iPhone app let you produce generative art using words, warbles and whistles, but it also uses augmented reality to bring your artistic creation to life.

To get started, you first need to print out the Konstruct marker and place it wherever you'd like to create your AR sculpture -- it could be on your living room wall, or on the floor of your bathroom, it doesn't matter. Open the app, point your iPhone at the marker, and start making some noises! Once you're done, you can save your creation, or simply wipe the slate clean and start again.

The volume of your voice affects the size of the shapes that are drawn on the screen, and you can move your head around to alter the path of your 'brush' -- but to change the shape of your brush or modify the color palette you have to use a menu. Without knowledge of the app's internal workings, it's hard to say what the actual difference between whistling, talking and singing is -- and judging by the developer's affinity for whistling in the demo video (after the break), the app probably doesn't perform that much analysis on your input.

Still, Konstruct is just a prototype! A later version could do away with menus and rely entirely on the location, tonality, quality and amplitude of your voice -- and judging by the the words of the developer, James Alliban, there is definitely more in store for Konstruct: "The idea of transforming entire cities into user generated virtual art galleries really appeals to me. I see Konstruct as an early prototype that will hopefully be realised in this form in the future."

Download Konstruct for free from the App Store (iPhone 3GS and 4 only)

[Thanks to Richard for the tip!]

Continue reading Konstruct for iOS creates generative augmented reality art with your voice

Konstruct for iOS creates generative augmented reality art with your voice originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/konstruct-for-ios-creates-generative-augmented-reality-art-with/

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CamelBak All Clear and Eddy Bottle review

The CamelBak All Clear UV purification system and Eddy everyday/outdoor bottle offer you two choices in portable liquid haulers. Both bottles consist of all BPA-free and ruggedly-constructed materials.They come with lifetime guarantees that don’t cover damage due to use, just defects – but CamelBak does stand behind their products.

Eddy: More Than A Basic Bottle

Since the Eddy is the low-tech bottle, let’s take a look at it first. You can get the Eddy in 0.75 or 1L  capacities. The only difference is the size of the bottle, the opening/top/straw/bite valve is the same for both. In the picture below you can see the exploded parts:

The bottle is fairly thick and rigid, PBA-free plastic that didn’t seem to mind getting tossed around at all. The straw and bite valve are thick and pliant with some give. According to the marketing materials, the bite value is “medical grade silicone” – which seems plausible. The bite valve requires firm but not insane bite pressure to open. I had no issues sucking down water mid-workout with this thing. The top has the flip down value that the bite valve slips over. It provided a completely spill-proof closure when flipped down. When flipped up, the bite valve provides nearly the same level of spill proof protection, but you can get some drops out if you try hard enough. The loop on top is rugged enough to carry the weight of a full bottle dangling off a carabiner hooked onto your backpack.

Drinking 101

You can use the Eddy with the straw, as a bite and sip through the straw bottle. Or you can remove the straw and tilt/pull to drink. Either worked fine. Clean-up was as easy as disassembling everything and tossing it all into the dishwasher. You can freeze the Eddy with liquid it in (leave about a quarter empty to avoid exploding the bottle.) The FAQs warn against using it with hot liquids because it’s not a great idea to suck hot drinks into your mouth.

All Clear UV Microbiological Water Purifier: When You Don’t Trust the Water

The All Clear is a little harder for me to figure out. Functionally, it’s made with the same materials as the Eddy, with the same performance. The All Clear comes with two tops – one is a basic screw on lid without any valve or straw – you’re not meant to drink directly out of the All Clear it seems. The other top is the “business end” – it is a fairly bulky UV light with a decent-sized battery. On top is a LCD display showing the charge/battery status. There is an optional pre-filtration cap available for $15 (I did not get a review unit), which I would suggest adding on if you plan on using this in the field.

 

The UV top charges via USB; the cable is provided, but you must supply AC/Auto to USB power adaptor or use a powered USB port to charge it.  Charge times were a few hours with 1A power sources; obviously this may vary if you are using less powerful sources.

Once it’s charged up, you’re ready to go. Fully charged, it delivered twenty 60-second purification cycles before the battery level moved a notch, which was enough to convince me you could expect to be able to process more than 20 litres on a charge – enough for several days away from power. If you are planning a longer stint away from the grid, a solar charger might come in handy.

Shaken, Not Stirred

The All Clear states that it is able to “neutralize microbiological contaminants to EPA standards” in 60 seconds. In order to do that the liquid you are processing must be clear, free of ice, and you must agitate the bottle to move the water to the top of the bottle where the UV light is during the 60 second cycle. The UV light has a hard lifetime of 10,000 cycles – which is several years of daily use. The actual process of purifying water is simple enough and very fast – fill, attach the top, press power, and then flip the All Clear up and down for 60 seconds.

I would trust this to purify tap water, well water, and very clear river/lake water that is known pollution-free, but it won’t take care of pollutants, nor will it filter out anything (hence the suggestion to get the filter add-on.) You’re also going to need to take care to not contaminate the just purified water since the only water that is processed is the water inside the bottle. The low-tech solution to purification is to use any one of a number of tablet systems – these work about as well, but can take up to four hours to safely kill everything in a litre of water. There are other systems that use a combination of ultra-filtration and carbon filtration to remove chemicals and other pollutants in addition to pathogens. With the All Clear you won’t get that second processing step – your water will be free of living critters, but whatever else was dissolved in it will still be present after processing.

Stay Thirsty

The CamelBak bottles provide high quality liquid hauling and purification options for your hydration needs. If you’ve run through several inexpensive drug store water bottles and aren’t happy with how they hold up to daily use, you’ll find Eddy a far more durable bottle. If you do a lot of travelling where there is access to unpolluted but poorly treated water, the All Clear is a relatively compact and fast way to zap your water before drinking it.

Product Information

Price:Eddy .75L $15 (other models vary from $13 to $30); All Clear $99
Manufacturer:CamelBak
Requirements:
  • Liquid (for the All Clear, sketchy liquid)
  • USB power to charge the All Clear.
Pros:
  • Eddy: high quality PBA-free liquid transporter with sport/spill resistant top.
  • All Clear: high quality water purification using UV light in a minute.
Cons:
  • With the All Clear, uou really want to be sure about everything else that might be in that water before you drink it (this is a purification system, not a filtration system!)

Filed in categories: Fitness, Sports, Reviews, Travel Gear

Tagged:

CamelBak All Clear and Eddy Bottle review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 28, 2012 at 11:00 am.

Shot Shot Pirate is a fun, simple physics game

shotshotpirate
Shot Shot Pirate is very satisfying, because each level is short and to the point. You know what you have to do and you just do it.

As you may have gathered from the name, you're cast in the role of a pirate. Your goal is to shoot at a diamond and make it fall off a tower of bricks. The height of the tower changes as you progress through the levels. It's not enough to just make the diamond fall off the tower of bricks - it has to fall below a certain line (drawn on the screen) for the level to be completed.

There are also different kinds of bricks, with some heavier than others, and different kinds of ammo. You only get a certain amount of ammo for each level, and when it's gone, you lose. But don't worry! If you don't make it on the first try, it's very easy to restart the level and just give it another shot (or three).

All in all it's a cute game. I've seen similar games with better graphics and music, but the game delivers on its main promise - a few minutes of pure time wasting!

Shot Shot Pirate is a fun, simple physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/24/shot-shot-pirate-is-a-fun-simple-physics-game/

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Acer's Windows 8 all-in-ones cause big fuss in Taiwan, we go hands-on to find out why (video)

Acers Aspire 5600U and 7600U hands-on

Although Microsoft's Windows 8 launch will very likely go down in history as a positive turning point for the company, it wasn't without it glitches. Specifically, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Microsoft reps in Taipei found it difficult to navigate their own OS due to hardware issues with their demo devices -- namely, new all-in-one PCs from Acer and ASUS. There were said to be issues with opening and closing apps, possibly due to the implementation of touch on such large screen sizes of 23-inches and over.

Well, we've just been fingers-on with both the 23-inch Acer Aspire 5600U and the 27-inch 7600U in London, and we can report that the touch interface was totally fluid. Moreover, the LCD displays maintained their natural colors very well when switching from an almost vertical 80-degree orientation to an almost-flat 30 degrees. These models come with Ultrabook innards starting with low-voltage versions of the Core i5 and the NVIDIA 630M, and they also come with HDMI-in and optional TV tuners so they can be used in a living room or kitchen situation. Pricing in Europe begins at 1,000 Euros for the 23-inch model, rising to 2,000 Euros for the full-spec 27-incher. Check out the video after the break and you'll see that we asked our Acer rep for his view on what happened in Taiwan and, although he didn't have first-hand knowledge of the event in question, he insisted that it was a storm in a teacup. Given our experience of the devices so far, we're inclined to believe him.

Continue reading Acer's Windows 8 all-in-ones cause big fuss in Taiwan, we go hands-on to find out why (video)

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Acer's Windows 8 all-in-ones cause big fuss in Taiwan, we go hands-on to find out why (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/g-jCN1Izv4Q/

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ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear

ChromeLite ASCII extension
Have you ever wondered what the Web was like before the Mosaic Web browser? If you were born in the last 20-odd years, or you only discovered your inner geek recently, did you miss out on monochrome monitors and the dial-up BBS era? Well, here's your chance to get a sneak peek at history: grab the ChromeLite extension and marvel as the entire Web is transformed into ASCII characters.

Now, ChromeLite isn't really all that functional. For the most part, it simply strips images and converts text into a monospaced terminal font. There are a few Easter eggs inserted -- such as a fun message at the bottom of YouTube (image after the break) -- and some fun ASCII art, but that's about it. Rather oddly, most JavaScript continues to work -- so you can still enjoy Google Instant Search!

ChromeLite was actually made by Google as an April Fools' joke -- and indeed, an annoying 'you can uninstall this!' message appears at the top of every page -- but we're kind of hoping that Google, or another developer, takes ChromeLite and turns it into a real ASCII browsing extension with configurable settings. If anything, it will provide an easy way to save bandwidth and CPU time.

Continue reading ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear

ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/chromelite-experience-the-ascii-web-of-yesteryear/

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Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google Blogger Mosaic Dynamic View
Google, as part of its ongoing and much-needed overhaul of its popular Blogger platform, has just enabled five dynamic, HTML5ish, AJAXy 'Dynamic Views'. There's a video introducing the new layouts after the break.

The five new views provide fresh and interesting ways to explore your favorite Blogger blogs. The Mosaic view, for example, creates a wall of thumbnails -- click one, and it zooms to fill the screen; click it again and it minimizes. Flipcard is similar to Mosaic, but not quite as eclectic. Sidebar, Timeslide and Snapshot round off the new views, with each one obviously targeted at different types of content, from photo blogs, to text-only philosophy blogs, and everything in between.

For now, you have to visit a Blogger blog and add /view to the URL to enable the new Dynamic Views. If you own a Blogger blog, you can disable the new views -- and really, why weren't they disabled by default?

If feedback is positive -- which we're sure it will be -- these Dynamic Views will soon be enabled by default. You'll also be able to edit the views in much the same way as current Blogger templates.

Continue reading Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-blogger-platform-introduces-five-new-html5-dynamic-views/

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Scare Trick-or-Treaters Senseless With a Shrieking MP3 Doorbell

Your front lawn is full of gravestones, skeletons hang from the trees, and a haze of cobwebs coats your porch. Yup, you've gone all out this Halloween to make your house the spookiest on the block. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qvlQipF4tkQ/scare-trick+or+treaters-senseless-with-a-shrieking-mp3-doorbell

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How The iPad Keeps You Connected with Wi-Fi or 3G

Apple have done a great job of marketing their iPad device. Their strategies have gone a long way in convincing consumers that the device is the best on the market when it comes to browsing the Web or watching online streaming videos. The same can be said of connecting with friends via any social networking services according to the manufacturers.

These claims are backed up with some very sophisticated apps, features and services. The overall opinion of many industry pundits is that the device is a worthy competitor to netbooks. They believe that Steve Jobs and his team did a great job in developing the iPad even though there was a lot of scepticism when it was first launched onto the market.

The device is very fast and easy to use. It has built-in, high-speed 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi which makes downloading files and streaming videos a cinch. Even when there is heavy gateway traffic or too many subscribers using the network, the device copes well making the experience a pleasant one. This is all thanks to the beefed-up Safari app and the latest Wi-Fi standard the device uses.

Apple claims that Safari is the fastest browser around which makes browsing the Internet a simple task that happens at lightening speed. One of the great features the iPad offers users is it’s capability to work on Wi-Fi as well as 3G. This means users will always be able to get on the Internet wherever they happen to be and don’t have to rely on ‘hot spots’ to stay connected.

Most Internet providers these days have 3G service and this means that iPad users can seamlessly swap over from Wi-Fi to 3G in an instant when they need to without having to contact another provider in order to do so.

Whenever an iPad user comes to the end of their surfing minutes, there’s an interactive push notification that pops up to let them know they need to either upgrade to the next data plan or switch to the latest Wi-Fi standard in their vicinity. Of course it goes without saying that the device has it’s own app to monitor and manage data usage.

Source: http://tabletbuzzblog.com/how-the-ipad-keeps-you-connected-with-wi-fi-or-3g/

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