Archive for September, 2010
- September 23, 2010 6:58 am
Yet another prized possession from ThinkGeek — the Star Trek Pizza Cutter. It’s so beautiful wrapped up in it’s little box, shiny and all. It’s almost too beautiful in that I don’t want to tarnish it’s face with garlic laden pizza sauce and chicken grease. But alas, I hate buying things I can’t use. Wear your geeky character loud and proud, right? For the record, if you cut your pizza with the Starship Enterprise, you are a massive geek.
[Product Page]
- September 23, 2010 6:45 am
The Armada 628. Learn it. Love it. Live by it. Well, live by it once it’s publicly available that is. If you’re still stuck on the dual-core ARM processors we’ve been hearing so many good things about, push those aside so you have room for this: three cores of fury. Yes, a triple-core processor for mobile devices. Specifically, two of the cores drift along at 1.5GHz a piece while the third brain is reserved for ultra-low power states, obviously operating a bit slower for when battery life is more precious. Speaking of spead, how’s 200 million triangles per second sound? Yeah, everything sounds so inferior in comparison.
The design is supposedly “low profile” enough to matter in the mobile market. On that note, the “hi/lo” approach to speed is a novel one that if orchestrated will offer up copious amounts of performance while also giving long run times away from electrical outlets. No matter how you look at it, this chip is nothing short of amazing…on paper at least. I’ll reserve final judgement until I actually hold a phone in my hand powered by one of these things. But something tells me I’ll be tickled pink.
- September 23, 2010 6:35 am
For the longest time, I had some weird fetish/affinity for physical keyboards. I swore off any device that was touchscreen only. And then I got the iPhone 3G back in 2008. It was a lovely time. A time in which I realized a lot of things, namely, that I didn’t need a physical keyboard to be happy. Moving past that to a Moto Droid once again brought up those physical feelings from inside, due more-so to the fact that the stock Android keyboard sucked. Replacement 3rd party keyboards were better, but still not “great”. And now I’m back to where it all started with an iPhone 4 — no keyboard.
But I could have a keyboard if I wanted. The iPhone supports Bluetooth peripherals. The picture above shows a Bluetooth keyboard. 1 + 1 = 2. Everyone is happy that wants to be happy. It’s a tad steep for an add-on accessory at $50. But for those who like to get all physical, it’s just what the doctor ordered. I have moved on from those early days when I had to “feel” everything. Many haven’t been able to cope with the separation, however. Just know that if you still need it, ThinkGeek is here to help.
[Product Page]
- September 23, 2010 6:17 am
Have £0.60 (~ $0.94) laying around? Why not put it to good use? No. That doesn’t mean going to Mickie D’s and getting something off their ever shrinking dollar menu. Instead, toss the devs of Swiftkey some change since the app is now officially out of beta. In case you’re unfamiliar with the app, Swiftkey is a supercharged Android keyboard that is light years ahead of the stock board by leaps and bounds. Over the last few weeks, those who’ve had experience with the app have noted it’s awesome text prediction capabilities. When you don’t have a physical keyboard are getting it all done solely by touch, having such an ability is a huge help — trust me.
As far as changes from beta to final version, the only real thing to mention are a slew of bug fixes. But that’s ok, because Swiftkey is already awesome as is. So stop reading this right now and go and download Swiftkey. You’ll be happy that you did. Hop inside for QR code/mobile download link and a video showing it all off…
- September 22, 2010 2:59 pm
Just in case you thought the new Nintendo 3DS wouldn’t have the gusto to power all of that new fangled 3D wizardry, a source “close to the matter” leaked to IGN UK the claimed spec list. It’s quite a trip: dual 266MHz ARM11 CPUs, a 133MHz GPU with 4MB of dedicated VRAM, 64MB of RAM, and 1.5GB of flash storage. I know what you’re thinking. 266MHz, even in a dual configuration, isn’t much to be impressed or excited about. To some extent you’re right. But you have to look at the company behind it. Nintendo hasn’t been on the bleeding edge of graphics or realism since the N64.
With that said, 3D is the new fad that everyone is obsessed with. And as far as mobile goes, Nintendo is way out in front. Gamers definitely have something to look forward to with the upcoming 3DS. While the eye candy won’t be as crisp as other options, it will be in multiple dimensions. For some, that’s the only thing that matters. Check back in the near future as the rumored November launch date approaches. We should be hearing more concrete evidence proving or disproving the claimed info above before long.
- September 22, 2010 1:04 pm
Thus far, the hardcore Droid line of devices has been black and red with hints of silver and grey. You know, manly man stuff. The upcoming Droid World Edition model has been said to be more or less the same as the D2 save for the addition of European-loving GSM radios. And now we see there’s another more striking difference between the local-only D2 and World Edition — white paint.
In a move that some will cry foul over, Motorola has chosen to adorn the upcoming globe trotter in a more urban/hipster hue (scientifically…the lack thereof). Personally, I like it. It’s fresh and looks good on the phone. Others will find it hideous and girlish. Whatever the case, that’s how it’s coming folks, so get used to it. Hop inside for a couple more shots of the new hotness…
Would you take this over the all black D2?
- September 22, 2010 12:46 pm
While I generally despise custom skins running atop Android, HTC’s Sense is one exception that (1) I actually like the styling of and (2) think it aids nicely to the general navigation of the device. Everything else — get it outta here. As nice as Sense UI is though, it’s growing long in the tooth. Well over 1+ years old, something fresh needed to come out of HTC labs. And wouldn’t you know it, HTC unveiled just that at their recent London mini-part/conference. Staying true to its roots, the HTC Desire HD provided quite the playground for nosey devs. One such dev at XDA, “DarkStone1337″, managed to get a hold of the Desire HD ROM and port it over to an HD2. On top of that, he was also kind enough to post it up for download.
While you wait for the Desire HD ROM download to finish, hop inside to check out a nice and detailed video showing off the latest and greatest that HTC has to offer all running inside an HD2. Eat you eyes out…