R2-D2 becomes gaming god. 8 consoles stuffed within. Projector and onboard sound system added bonus.

Love classic games do ya? Have a thing for old beeping robots and wars that take place near the stars? Super. If you fit the bill, you may want to contact the Brian De Vitis, the creator of the R2-D2 Gaming Haven, and get the blueprints/instructions on how to build your own. Owning a life-sized R2-D2 replica cooler is geeky enough. Adding a gaming console to his innards takes the geek factor a step further. However, squeezing in 7 more consoles, an onboard sound system, and a projector to boot makes you the god of all things geeky for sure. The creator of this magnificent piece of geekery took an R2-D2 cooler he had laying around and went to town on the coolest project (next to the Tweeting Kegerator known to man kind. Not only will you have ample gaming material to choose from at your next party, but you can bring the gaming goodness with you wherever you go thanks to the onboard projector and sound system. Yes folks, the creator, Brian De Vitis thought of everything. Brian De Vitis…you’re my hero. (Implied in a very un-creeper like sort of way)

Another pic inside of the head/projector removed giving us a gander at the chaos of wires and plastic inside..

Layer venturing into the third dimension come November

One of the coolest Android apps available currently available hands down is that of Layar. This seemingly average socially “aware” augmented reality browser displays real time info about various places using your phone’s camera, GPS, compass, etc. isn’t sitting still in terms of development and advancement. Come November, this nifty little app will be making a mighty large move into the third dimension. As you can see from the photo above, the possibilities and doors that can be heard opening in your head are quite expansive and large. The addition of 3D text and images is huge even though the initial examples such as the plane above are rather crude. Don’t discount this app or the team behind it though. A big shift in socially aware AR apps is coming and I can’t wait. Currently, developers of all walks are being encouraged to delve into Layer and it’s upcoming 3D feature as to expand the apps potential and functionality. The new 3D feature is reported to be coming to end users this November. I’m definitely on edge….November can’t come soon enough.

If you so choose (and I highly suggest you do so), a video inside gives you a quick demo of the 3D goodness.

Facebook 1.6 for BlackBerry released. Brings OS 5.0 compatibility. OS 5.0 imminent?

Sometimes, being on the up and up of technology means having to go without. Without your favorite accessory, your favorite theme/skin, or your favorite application. In the case of those loyal BlackBerry users who chuckle at constant reports of OS 5.0 “coming soon” as they’ve been using it for many weeks now, their cold hard reality of being that tech savvy has meant going without certain applications. Applications that currently aren’t compatible with the leaked beta versions of BB OS 5.0 floating around the inter webs. However, one particularly popular service called Facebook has made it’s grand appearance at the 5.0 party. Facebook 1.6 for BlackBerry is officially available with the biggest improvement being (I’m sure you can guess by now) BB OS 5.0 compatibility.

While we all know OS 5.0 is almost here, just how close remains to be seen. Though if big names such as Facebook are prepping for the big day, the big day can’t be that far can it? We can only hope…

• Get Facebook 1.6 for your BlackBerry (OTA Link)

CrackBerry

Canada gets it: 3/4 of Canadian children know what the internet is and how to use it by age 7.

In a sign that at least someone in this current age of digital walls, “protection schemes”, and a weird displays of some anti-internet mentality, a report based on a survey conducted by Canadian Telco, Telus, reveals that three-fourths of Canadian children are “internet savvy” by age 7. Out of the 4,466 participants, a full 69% believed that an early grasp of technology is a must in todays world. A notable admission to make! The report goes on saying that repetitious percentages aside, Canadians see the internet as more than just an entertainment medium. To them, the internet is a crucial part of daily life and how they communicate with friends and family. The internet, as the report claims, “has the ability to strengthen relationships and bring people closer together”. Also of interest from the survey, only 18% of respondents admitted to face-to-face contact with voice/phone communication taking a whopping 60%. Of course, with the spread of mobile phones these days, such a claim isn’t hard to imagine.

One particular thing that interests me is the fact that this survey was conducted online only, which will obviously as one could assume, present a larger, unrealistic view of “internet savviness” potentially skewing the results. What would the report reveal if the survey were conducted through not only an internet based model, but also print, phone, and possibly even TV? Such questions batter my brain. Am I alone?

**Survey conducted by Ipsos Reed

Cellular-News

Image Source

Well that didn’t go as planned: Palm gets spanked by USB Implementers Forum over “borrowing” of Apple USB Vendor ID

Remember the small saga that has been going back forth between Apple, Palm, the Pre, and iTunes? The whole Pre/iTunes syncing issue has been bantered back and forth by the two companies with each successive software update enabling/disabling one of the Pre’s most highly talked about launch features. Apple of course doesn’t like Palm hiding behind a mask, or in this case falsely identifying their device with Apple’s own USB vendor ID. Palm on the other hand has abysmal music syncing software and knows it, hence the vendor ID trickery with iTunes.

Apple’s heavy hand cause Palm to run crying to the USB Implementers Forum (IF) with a letter of disapproval. They claim that Apple is stifling innovation by misusing the USB standard to prevent forward thinking technologies and instead control current ones. However, the response they received from the USB-IF is hardly what they were expecting I’m sure. It goes on saying:

Internet Explo-rome: The frankenstein of the browser world

So your corporate IT policy requires you to use the ever popular though web standard deficient and downright pokey IE? Well, now’s your chance to give them the sly finger and have the last laugh. Google has released a rather clever little plugin for IE that will allow you to run Google Chrome 3 inside a frame within IE. The IE Google Chrome Plugin allows IE to make use of a whole host of open source technologies with one of the more popular goodies being HTML 5. Of course, IE isn’t really doing any work as it is again a full fledged version of Chrome running inside a frame.

On the developer end, adding a simple X-UA tag will allow the IE Trident rendering engine and the Google Chrome webkit engine to the tango peacefully with IE bowing out when said tag is read in giving rendering control to the far superior webkit beast within. While all of the high tech stuff that goes on behind the scenes is hardly high tech, the efficiency and peace of mind it brings to web developers and end users a like is enough reason to install the plugin. On one side you’ll get dramatically improved javascript performance, an actual web standards compliant browser, and an overall speed boost. On the other side, your IT department will be all the merrier knowing you’re still rockin’ their browser of choice.

Gizmodo > Ars Technica

Real PUSH finally graces Gmail service for all.

The bread and butter of BlackBerry is the robust messaging capabilities, especially the push email. So far, no one has replicated the ease or efficiency that RIM has brought forth with their little wonder Berry. Those lucky CrackBerry users were part of only a few select groups which had access to push Gmail. That was until today. Mark it in your calendars folks, today is the day Gmail become a much more useful email service. Freshly announced via their mobile blog, users of iPhone, Windows Mobile, and S60 devices will now have Gmail pushed to their mobile devices ala BlackBerry style. All I can say is F. I. N. A. L. L. Y.

If you already have a Gmail account on your iPhone, more likely than not you’re going to have to delete and re-add it. The simple fact being you have to add your Gmail account as a Microsoft Exchange account to get all pushy. Why the need for the Gmail/Exchange tom foolery? Apple hasn’t added Gmail push support to the stock Mail.app yet. Hence the Active Sync workaround. Also of importance, if you already are tied to an Exchange account for work, don’t think you’re going to be double dippin’ as the iPhone only allows one Exchange account at a time. Aw shucks.

Step on in for the how-to…