GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

If you dont like shiny, glossy screens on notebooks, but have just bought a 15-inch MacBook Pro despite this, then its time to start whining about how Apple hates you. The company has just reinstated the option to choose a matte-finish on the 15-inch MBP, bringing it into line with its big 17-inch brother. The option to kill reflections will cost you an extra $50 on top of the regular price.

You still dont have the choice on the slightly more portable 13-inch model, but you never know, it may come one day. I actually prefer the shiny screen, but I work in a darkened basement, dripping with damp and where I am only allowed a one-candle-a-day ration, so glare doesnt bother me. The funniest part of Apples capitulation is the petulance with which it describes the difference between the two screens:

Choose a standard glossy display that lets you view graphics, photos, and videos with richer colors and deeper blacks, or an optional antiglare display.

Product page [Apple]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

CourseSmart is a provider of e-textbooks, or textbooks converted to a format that can be viewed on a computer. Now, it has brought students everywhere something even more useful: an iPhone application.

CourseSmart is free, but requires an account with the company. If you already use the service you just sign in and have immediate access to all the books you have bought. Browsing the reviews in the App Store, it looks to be a rather well focused first effort there are some navigation issues, notably no double-tap to zoom, but apparently the texts are clear, and the search works very well.

There are no note-taking functions, but this is possibly outweighed by the biggest advantage: you dont have to carry any books with you. It is perfectly possible to read long-form text on the iPhone, you just have to get over the psychological barrier. I read less and less on paper, because I always have my iPod Touch in my pocket, although my e-books are held offline, and it appears that CourseSmart needs a constant connection for access.

One commenter, Ed Freeman, makes a very good point, and one which Amazon should take note of. Kindle is nice, he says, but it makes a ton of sense to put books on a platform (iPhone) already in the hands of millions of people. When iTablet is released, this will be even sweeter. Then just out the only thing Kindle has going for it is battery life.

Product page [iTunes]

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Tilt-shift photography is all what all the cool kids are doing right now. Originally (and still) used to control the plane of focus by tilting the front part of the lens, or shifting it up and down, the tilt-shift lens finds use in architectural and high-end product photography.

It also makes some amazing special effects, enabling you to make a real-life scene look like a tiny model, for example, and is so popular that there is even an iPhone app to apply the effect in post. But the real lenses give the best results, mostly because of the analog unpredictability they introduce. The problem is they cost a fortune.

The Plungercam is a DIY version, using a second-hand lens, a T-mount (camera lens-mount adapter) and some plumbing supplies (hence the name). Version 1.0 used a plastic body-cap to hold the assembly in place, but the T-mount means it is now much more secure on the camera. The lens itself is squished around inside the rubber tubing until you get the effect you want, and is strictly just a tilt-lens (no shift up or down). Think of this as a home-made Lensbaby and youll know what to expect.

It was made by Flickr user Captin Nod, and here on his photostream you can see the results of this lens shooting video on a DSLR.

Plungercam 2: cheaper and more predictable [Cow Mooh via Make]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

This is an oldie, but most certainly a goody, and if you have never heard of the Topeak PropShock, youre going to like it. The pump is designed to re-pressurize the shock-absorbers in your bike, and can deliver pressure of up to 300 psi.

So far, so normal. But there is a secret function, too. See the eyelets on either end? If your rear shock fails, those holes let you swap in the PropShock and limp home. The pump won a Eurobike award a few years back, but as the folks at Bike Radar just recently tested it out, we thought it was worth digging up. $55.

Product page [Topeak via Bike Radar]

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This drill-powered rubber-band gun can spit hundreds of stretchy, stinging projectiles in a few seconds. The rather weak rubber-bands it is loaded with have trouble taking out a pile of frail and featherlight paper cups a single, decent sized band fired from the fingers would probably do better.

But thats not the point here. First, marvel at the ingeniously simple firing mechanism. The electric drill simply rotates a cylinder around which is coiled a cord. As this cord unfurls, it gently pops the bands off their pins, one by one. Simple, neat and foolproof. The design and execution are by a Mr. Nakamura of the Japan Rubber Band Shooting Association. Yes, such an organization exists.

And those individual pins bring us to the other point. This thing holds 200 shots, which means stretching 200 rubber bands over the nails. This makes my latest DIY endeavor building the Death Star from matchsticks look like an afternoon project. Even after my neighbor, Luke, snuck in one night and smashed up the first version. The idiot.

Rubber band machine gun [Japan Probe via the Giz]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Phone design creativity has pretty much gone straight downhill since the 1980s.

Sure, your Palm Pre may look like a futuristic Zen pebble, and your iPhone can run any one of 60,000 individual apps (no more than 10,000 of which make fart sounds), but really: Can you top the saccharine cuteness that is the Kermit the Frog phone? Does your BlackBerry look like a football? We think not.

Wired photo editor Jim Merithew recently photographed a collection of old novelty phones, and while his gallery is excellent, it’s hardly the last word on these kitschy gadgets. We think that you, Gadget Lab readers, can do much better.

Use the form below to nominate your own novelty phones. Be sure to include a link to a photograph. And vote on your favorites in the list right here.

The photo must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit images that are relatively large, the ideal size being 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side. Please include a description of your photo.

We don’t host the photos, so you’ll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you’re using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image file directly and not just the photo page where it’s displayed. Using an online photo service that requires that you log in will not work. If your photo doesn’t show up, it’s because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).

Please bookmark this page and check back periodically over the next two weeks to vote on new submissions!

Top photo credit: Jim Merithew / Wired.com

Show phones that are: hot | new | top-rated or submit your own

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Posted under Gadget Reviews

The USAA bank will soon let you deposit a check with your iPhone. Many banks have iPhone apps that allow online banking, but USAA, from its single branch in San Antonio, will be the first to dispatch with the decidedly old-school check.

Using the application, customers photograph the front and back of the check with the iPhones camera. Hit send and the check is whisked off into the clearing system. The paper check itself never needs to go to the bank, and you can just tear it up and toss it away (or, for the more paranoid, file it in a safe place). The service will be appear in an update to the already available iPhone app sometime this week. The application will also steer you to your nearest ATM, show you where the nearest car rental joint is and, weirdly, record accident details to help you file a claim.

What surprises us is that people still use checks. In Spain, cash is still king, but more and more people use debit cards that work just like checks, only without the dead trees. I almost never see checks, to the extent that when I do spot one being written, I stare and point. The app is free, and available now.
Product page [USAA via NYT]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

If only wed heard of this earlier! Our own Brian Chen killed his iPhone by carelessly tossing a glass of water at it and confounded the mistake by weeping cry-baby tears all over the thing. If hed been using this inflatable, waterproof iPhone case, though, hed still have his trusty 3G.

The case lets you use the phone as normal, too. You can plug in some waterproof headphones to a clever slot which routes electricity and not water to the actual jack, you can use both the home and the off button and the camera has a window to peek out of. You can even use the touch-screen through the plastic cover.

A lanyard means you can swim with your iPhone round your neck, an armband is a little more practical for the same thing, and the earbuds also come in the box. A bargain at 3,280, or $34. Or you could, you know, wait until you have already dunked your phone and then put it in a box of rice, like Brian. The same rice that manages to stay dry for months even in a humid climate. How did that work out for you, Brian?

Product page [Sanwa via The Giz]

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This tiny little plug might look like an ordinary microSD card reader, and it is. The catch? Buffalos diminutive device will cost you $160, although for that the company throws in a 16GB microSD card.

Thats actually quite a good deal, and will turn your cellphone into a pocket media center, allowing you to share music just like the generous kids in my town. They share their tunes on buses, trains and even in the street, blasting tinnily distorted noise through tiny cellphone speakers. And if its too expensive, you can always opt for a smaller and cheaper 4GB version, for just $36.

These things are becoming so small that we wonder if the full-sized USB plug is too big. Is there any (technical) reason why the side of my MacBook couldnt have a row of four mini USB ports on the side in the place of the two honking great holes there now? Wouldnt that be a lot better?

Product page [GeekStuff4U]

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Halo is a beautiful device for spraying light. Shaped like a spray-can, the glass tube has an LED in the cap which shines when pressed. The form factor lets graffiti artists use their existing muscle memory to tag and draw.

Couple this with a camera set at a low shutter speed and you get some great effects, and the caps can be swapped to switch colors. The best part, though, is way you charge it. Inside, designer Assa Logerot has put a copper coil and some magnets on a spring. When the lamps finally dim and wink out, you shake the can, just like you would if you were mixing paint, and the battery is charged. Ingenious, and sadly not for sale.

Product page [Assa Logerot via Geekologie]

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I had this dream from childhood of not needing to climb mountains anymore. I wanted to go to school in my own flying machine.

This was the childhood dream of Wu Zhongyuan, of Chinas Henan province. It is also, quite likely, a childhood dream of most you, dear Gadget Lab readers. Unlike you, though, Zhongyuan actually did something about it. He built his own helicopter.

The device, which likely breaks almost every airspace and safety law simultaneously, is made from steel scaffold, has blades cut from Elm and is powered by an old motorcycle engine. Zhongyuan says that the copter, which took three months and around $1600 to build, can soar to 800 meters (2600 feet). Were not sure if it can even get airborne, though, as currently the machine is grounded by Chinese authorities.

How did he come up with his ramshackle design? The internet, of course. I didnt have a design. The only source for me to get relevant knowledge was surfing the internet via my mobile phone, he said to news site Ananova. We love it. A personal helicopter is a fantastic project, and we wish Zhongyuan luck getting it off the ground. Of course, wed never go near the thing. Imagine being half a mile up and when the engine cuts out on you. No thanks.

Farmers home-made helicopter [Ananova via DVICE]

Chinese farmer builds a working wooden helicopter [Auto Motto]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Unlike pretty much every other cassette tape hack we have covered (and there have been a lot) the Cassette Tape USB Hub is an actual, real, factory made product, and not an old tape with a few electronic gubbins stuffed inside. And why not? After all, USB hubs are almost universally dull (or hideous novelty designs).

The hubs case is an exact copy of the old-style cassette, right down to spinning wheels inside. Itll even fit inside an old cassette box, if you still have one laying around. The catch is that this hub costs $25, which is a little steep for something likely to spend most of its time tucked behind a monitor, hidden from view.

Product page [Vat 19 via BBG]

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Hacking your iPhone to run unofficial, third-party apps may seem unnecessary since Apple hosts its own App Store. But the corporation’s recently enforced prohibitions on some apps, such as the banning of Google Voice, are reviving the incentive for customers to jailbreak their iPhones once again.

Thanks to Cydia, an unauthorized app store open to jailbroken iPhones, consumers can still access some software that Apple won’t allow. Think free text-messaging and cheap international calls thanks to a Google Voice app that Apple banned. Or features that we can’t have yet, such as multimedia messaging and tethering. Here, we round up a list of the most compelling reasons to jailbreak your iPhone.

1. Google Voice
Apple recently rejected and banned Google Voice apps from its App Store. The apps would have augmented the search giant’s new voice service, which enables users to rely on a single phone number to ring all their phones, while also delivering the gift of free text messages, voicemail service and cheap international calls. The move stirred so much controversy that even the Federal Communications Commission is inquiring about the prohibition.

Thankfully in the Cydia store there’s GV Mobile, an unofficial Google Voice app. In light of Apple’s blanket ban of Google Voice apps, GV Mobile is the no. 1 reason to jailbreak your iPhone (if you weren’t one of the lucky few to grab a copy before Apple banned it). Overall the app is really sweet, despite having room to improve in terms of performance (connecting to Google’s server each time you launch the app can be a drag). Your contacts list is nicely integrated into the phone dialer and SMS sender; the overall UI is slick and cool. After a few minutes you’ll be sending free text messages, and maybe even dialing your relatives in Taiwan for once with cheap international VOIP calls. The best part? The app’s free.

2. Unrestricted 3G Privileges
AT&T iPhone owners pay $20 per month for “unlimited” 3G data access. But your access isn’t truly unlimited, thanks to restrictions that Apple imposed on some apps. SlingPlayer, an app that streams television from a Slingbox device, was crippled to work only on a Wi-Fi connection at the request of Apple and AT&T. And the Skype VOIP app only works on Wi-Fi, too, rendering it impractical.

This is where 3G Unrestrictor comes in handy. The $2 app enables jailbroken iPhone users to select any app that they wish to use over 3G, including Skype and SlingPlayer. Also, by default the App Store won’t let you download files larger than 10MB on the 3G network, and 3G Unrestrictor will remove that regulation, too. Free your apps and download away!

3. Tethering
Apple promised the new iPhone 3.0 OS would deliver tethering, but AT&T customers have yet to see that promise fulfilled. AT&T promised tethering would arrive “late summer.” Well, we’re waiting, and it’s not here yet. Some iPhone 3.0 users have figured out a roundabout way to turn on tethering without hacking, but that solution is only temporary.

Guess what? There’s a tethering app in Cydia, too. It’s a $5 app called Tether. The steps on setting up tethering aren’t as simple as Apple’s, but hey, you don’t even have to pay a monthly fee to use the service. The app even includes a feature to set a data cap in case you’re worried about extra charges incurred on your account if AT&T catches you tethering. It’s a little rough around the edges thanks to the network setup taking a few minutes, but we still love it.

4. Overseas Travel
Need to travel? Your iPhone can only go so far thanks to its carrier-tied SIM card, unless you wish to receive bills up the nostril thanks to international roaming costs. Jailbreaking will actually enable you to follow a process to unlock your iPhone to work with other carriers’ SIM cards overseas.

5. Pissing off Apple
Whether you’re a developer who has a beef with Apple, or if you’re a consumer who’s pissed at Apple, or if you’re a kid whose puppy was run over by an employee of Apple, then you may want to exact revenge by jailbreaking your iPhone. That’s because Apple clearly doesn’t like it when users jailbreak their iPhones. The company claims the process is illegal, and goes as far as to say jailbreaking will crash cellphone towers. So far these are empty threats, although buyer beware: Future court decisions, laws or FCC regulations may put teeth into Apple’s claims.

6. Pissing off AT&T

Frustrated with AT&T’s brainless customer service, spotty network reception and passive-aggressive totalitarian rule over the App Store? Jailbreaking for any of the reasons above will piss off AT&T, mostly by enabling your applications to use its 3G network without restriction. Or, if you like, you can take your protest a step further and unlock your jailbroken phone, enabling it to with with T-Mobile or any other GSM-based carrier. It’s not a tea party, it’s an AT&T party!

So what are you waiting for? We won’t tell you how to jailbreak your phone, but you can find the necessary tools and instructions on iPhone Dev-Team’s blog. We also found YouTube user Rizzo893’s video really helpful, too.

Photo: William Hook/Flickr, Kalleboo/Flickr, Jason-Morrison/Flickr

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The sound of a fingernail raking across a table or a board may be enough to drive most people crazy. But get past that annoyance and it could become a way to answer your phone, silence a call or turn up the volume.

Scratch Input, a computer input technique developed by researchers at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, uses the sound produced when a fingernail is dragged over the surface of any textured material such as wood, fabric or wall paint. The technology was demonstrated at the Siggraph graphics conference this year.

“It’s kind of a crazy idea but a simple one,” says Chris Harrison, one of the researchers on the project. “If you have a cellphone in your pocket and want to silence an incoming call, you don’t have to pull it out of your pocket. You could just drag your fingernail on your jeans.”

As researchers study how people can interact in simpler and more innovative ways with computers and gadgets, going beyond the traditional keyboard, mouse and keypad has become important. Earlier this year, Harrison and his team demonstrated a touch screen where pop-up buttons and keypads can dynamically appear and disappear. That allows the user to experience the physical feel of buttons on a touchscreen.

Scratch Input is another way to explore how we can interact with devices, says Harrison. Harrison, along with a colleague Julia Schwarz, and his professor Scott Hudson started working on the idea a year ago. Scratch Input works with almost any kind of surface except glass and a few other materials that are extremely smooth.

“With this we can start to think of every flat surface as an potential input area,” says Daniel Wigdor, user experience architect at Microsoft and curator of the emerging technology demos at Siggraph. “Imagine a cellphone with a mini projector. You can now turn an entire surface into a screen for the projector and use the surface to control it.”

Scratch Input works by isolating and identifying the sound of a fingernail dragging on an area.

“All the sound happening in the environment like people putting coffee cups on the table, cars going by or children screaming, we know what frequencies they are in,” says Harrison.

A fingernail on a surface produces a frequency between 6000Hz and 13,000 Hz. Compare that to voice, which is typically in the range of 90 Hz to 300Hz, or noise from a refrigerator compressor or air conditioning hum, which is in the range of 50 or 60Hz.

“It makes it easy for us to throw away all the other acoustic information and just listen to what your nail sounds like,” says Harrison.

Harrison and his team used that principle to rig up a system for Scratch Input. They attached a modified stethoscope to a microphone that converts the sound into an electrical signal. The signal is amplified and connected to a computer through the audio-input jack.

“If mass produced, this sensor could cost less than a dollar,” says Harrison.

Scratch Input also supports simple gesture recognition. Tracing the letter ‘S,’ for instance produces an acoustic imprint that the system can be trained to identify. The idea has its limitations. For instance, many letters that are written differently, sound very similar such as M, W, V, L, X or T. Scratch Input cannot accurately distinguish between these gestures. But still Harrison says the system can respond with about 90 percent accuracy.

Another problem is that the system cannot determine the spatial location of the input, says Wigdor. “For instance, with volume control, it can hear your finger spin in the appropriate gesture but the system can’t see it so sometimes it does not have enough information to react.”

Despite the limitations, the technology holds enough promise to make it into the hands of consumers, says Wigdor. “It is exciting because it is so low cost,” he says. “This idea has the potential to go beyond just a research project.”

Check out this video demo of Scratch Input:

Photo: Chris Harrison

Posted under Gadget Reviews

After nearly five years in draft, the next-generation Wi-Fi standard is set to be finalized in September. Officially known as 802.11n and often referred to as “Wireless N,” the new standard paves the way for blazing fast high definition video and data at home.

Products based on the final 802.11 n standard could offer up to 600 Mbps connectivity speeds, plus the ability to have up to four simultaneous streams of high-definition video, voice and data through the house. The standard also promises easy backward compatibility, which means new devices will work smoothly with older products.

For consumers, the difference in speed and range will be palpable, says Will Strauss, an analyst with Forward Concepts. “Speed is everything and videos are the main driver for this technology,” he says. “When you are home you want to get to YouTube fast and watch video and have a phone connection and surf.”

The 802.11n standard is the successor to the 802.11g Wi-Fi protocol, which offers speeds of up to 54 Mbps. The 802.11n standard’s most important addition has been the multiple-input multiple-output capability, also known as MIMO. MIMO allows for multiple antennas to resolve more information quickly.

Although 802.11n won’t be final until next month, manufacturers have been making products based on a draft version of the standard for several years. These typically offer two or three channels to send and receive data or voice respectively. They also limit the overall speed to much less than the 600 Mbps that newer standard offers.

“So far we have had products based on the version of 802.11n that is fairly basic,” says Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director for the W-Fi alliance. “Now we are likely to see more devices that have all the bells and whistles in place.”

Chip makers are racing to deliver on that promise. At the Computex show last month, Qualcomm introduced a chip that could make 802.11n a dream standard for users. Qualcomm’s chip offers 4×4 transmit and receive capability, meaning that it uses four separate streams to distribute concurrent voice, video and data in either the 5GHz or 2.4 GHz radio bands.

“At the least we can get six times the speed of the current 802.11g standard,” says Mike Concannon, senior vice president of connectivity and wireless modules for Qualcomm. “That means we can transmit high definition video across multiple rooms in a pretty large house with just one access point.”

The chip, WCN 1320, is expected to be available in consumer devices, such as routers and set-top boxes, early next year.

Qualcomm competitors such as Broadcom and Atheros are fighting to catch up. The latter have chips based on the 802.11n draft standard but only with 2×2 or 3×3 MIMO capability, for either two or three simultaneous data channels.

Qualcomm’s latest chip also promises coverage of a 4,000 square feet with a single access point, compared to the two or more repeaters or boosters that would be required to cover the same area with 802.11g products.

“The challenge with today’s Wi-Fi is rate vs. range,” says Concannon. “In your house if you are right next to the access point you can get really good data rate but if you go around the corner not so much.” So if you have a McMansion or just a weird layout, that means adding repeaters or multiple access points to boost the range.

There is some fine print. The high speeds and MIMO capability work best only when devices such as notebooks and routers support it. Though the standard is be backward compatible, supporting older devices will cramp its style.

“To have true 4×4 MIMO capability, both ends of the connection need to support that feature,” says Strauss. “The notebooks and desktops that we have today won’t help.”

Qualcomm says it is working with device makers to help bring the chips to upcoming products.

Photo: (Florian/Flickr)

Posted under Gadget Reviews

An analyst claims he has learned additional information suggesting a 2010 launch of Apple’s rumored tablet device.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said he has been in correspondence with an Asian component supplier working with Apple on its tablet.

Last week we spoke with an Asian component supplier that has received orders from Apple for a touch-screen device to be fulfilled by late [calendar year] 09, Munster wrote in a report. This data point underscores our thesis that a tablet will likely launch in early [2010].

Munster in May issued a detailed report summarizing his theories about Apple’s fabled tablet, about which little next to nothing is known beyond vague tips from anonymous sources. Today’s new report reinforces those theories and adds more speculation about the rumored device’s features:

• The device will most likely be a larger format iPod Touch, measuring between 7 to 10 inches
• The tablet will be used primarily for web surfing, e-mail and digital media
• Pricing should be between $500 and $700, positioning the tablet between an iPhone and a MacBook
• A carrier (either AT&T or Verizon) will likely subsidize the device, which will include a 3G cellular modem

Piper Jaffray produced a mock-up illustration (above) of what Munster believes the device will look like. Munster even proceeds to make an estimate of the number of tablets could ship: 2 million units at $600 each to generate $1.2 billion and add about 3 percent to Apples revenue stream in the calendar year of 2010. (A little early to be making such intricate projections about an unconfirmed product, isn’t it?)

Several rumor reports have recently surfaced citing anonymous sources who have come forward with purported details on Apple’s tablet. Some publications claim they’ve heard the tablet will hit stores as soon as this fall, while AppleInsider reported receiving a tip that the device will launch 2010.

Wired.com earlier speculated on what exactly an Apple tablet would do. We believe the device would have potential to be a major competitor against Amazon.com in the e-book market.

Wired.com also received a tip that other tech manufacturers, including Dell, Intel, HTC and Nokia are working on tablet devices as well. On top of that, TechCrunch is already working to rush out its Crunchpad touchscreen tablet. We believe 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the tablet.

Apples $1.2 billion tablet computer [Apple 2.0]

Image: Piper Jaffray

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Put your Sony camera onto the Party Shot and it will, Sony says, act as your personal photographer. The little mount is controlled by the camera and will tilt and zoom, seeking out any people in the room using the face detection in the camera.

Once it has locked on to its target, a deadly laser shoots out and, wait, no. Once on target it waits until it sees a big grin before tripping the shutter. It only works with the Cybershots TX1 and WX1, two otherwise humdrum but capable cameras announced yesterday by Sony.

This is a rather nice idea. Usually, party photos suck. They are blurred, the flash turns everybody into a chalk-faced ghost and everyone feels like they need to fix a rictus gash of teeth across their squint-eyed faces. This little gizmo would sit quietly on a table and, forgotten by the guests, silently pick out shots like some kind of robotic Cartier Bresson sniper.

Im interested to see how well it does. Sony says that the robot even composes pictures using the rule-of-thirds, which wont make for exciting photos but itll still be a lot better than what most people manage when they stick their gurning subject smack in the middle. $150.

Product page [Sony Style]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Shapaeways, the 3D printing shop, has added stainless steel to its lineup of materials, meaning you can now design spare parts for machines and have them made up and sent to you in the mail. Heres how it works:

Stainless Steel printing is a completely new technology stainless steel powder is deposited in thin layers, combined with a binding material, and built one layer at a time to the specifications of its designer. The final product is infused with bronze and oven-cured, and a variety of finish and color options are available.

Essentially, its like an inkjet printer, only instead of making a 2D image by laying down ink line-by-line, it makes a 3D object by laying down powdered metal one layer at a time. What could you use this for? Almost anything. The video shows a couple of ants on a Mbius Strip, but you could just as easily make low-stress parts for bikes and cars, or well, come on, you can make anything. Have some imagination here. And add this to a 3D scanner and you can duplicate just about anything, except, sadly, tea, Earl Grey, hot.

Product page [Shapeways. Thanks, John!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Getting kids on bikes early is a great way to keep them cycling for life. I got my first big-boys bike when I was around five. It had stabilizers (training wheels), solid rubber tires and was a copy of a Raleigh Chopper cruiser. I loved it, I often crashed it, and I painted it a hideous 1970s shade of dark blue. In between than and now I have hardly been without a bicycle.

And the QuadraByke would have let me start even younger. It begins as a four-wheeled transport, suitable for any toddler to take for a spin around the yard. As they grow older and more confident, the kids can remove wheels one at a time, running through a trike and up to a bike. Best of all, they can do it themselves, and without tools, meaning that they not only learn to ride, they learn to tinker, too.

An enclosed chain keeps tiny fingers safe, and the axle design is the key. It allows you to put a wheel on each side of the frame, or inside the forks. Better, its inexpensive (ish). At 110 ($185), its not the cheapest kids bike, but then, it is three kids bikes.

Product page [Q-Byke via Bike Radar]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

This rumor is brought to you by Xitek, a Chinese photography forum. It shows a Pen-style interchangeable lens camera from Panasonic, apparently called the GF-1.

The pictures come from a PDF detailing the camera, and are either a rather good fake or the real deal. Theres nothing odd in the specs, for example, and the camera follows Panasonics Lumix design style perfectly. Standout differences between this and Olympus micro four thirds camera are a lack of in-body stabilization and the addition of a pop-up flash (it slides out whole from the type, just like the LX-3).

Those lenses are from Leica, by the way, which gets us very hot and bothered the will fit on the Pen (EP-1) too, remember. In fact, we have a feeling that unless Leica can knock one out of the park with the M9 body, it should do a semi-Sega and give up on cameras, concentrating on kick-ass lenses for MFT. After all, the Pen is essentially to todays DSLR what the original Leica was to the unwieldy Speed Graphics of its time.

All links to the original forum page now go nowhere, but the discussion lives in the DP Review forums and some details are preserved by Photo Rumors. It will have a 12.1 effective megapixels sensor, a three-inch, 460,000 dot screen, 720p video mode and dust removal. Size is 119mm x 71mm x 36.3mm, almost exactly the same as the Pen (120.6mm x 69.9mm x 36.4 mm). One odd thing to note is that little mini-USB shaped hole on the back, below the hotshoe? Is it for an optical add-on viewfinder? I sure hope not.

Panasonic GF1 (Micro Four Thirds) [Photo Rumors]

Panasonic new M4/3 GF1 [DP Review]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

This lovely pair of jugs updates the measuring cup, although theyll end up being a rather useless investment. Why? Batteries. The SmartMeasure Cup weighs whatever is inside and gives the readout on an angled LCD screen on the handle. This makes it essentially a usefully-shaped weighing scale.

But when the battery runs out, itll be just the same as every other jug in the cupboard, and you probably wont ever get around to buying a replacement button-cell. The evidence: I have an excellent glass and metal digital scale from Salter. I have owned it for many years, and yet I almost never use it, despite its convenience, accuracy and good looks. The batteries died long ago and the only time I ever remember this is when I need to weigh something. I will never, ever remember to buy new ones when am out shopping, so I may as well toss the thing.

At least the jug will still work manually, but why go to the expense for a few months worth of digital action? Available this fall.

Really Really Smart [Yanko]

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A Japanese noodle shop is using two robots to create perfect bowls of ramen. At the Fuamen Ramen noodle shop, two robotic arms work in sync to create up to 800 bowls of noodles on a busy day.

As the video shows, the robots ladle the broth, boil the noodles and toss it in, and sprinkle the toppings. And the entire process take about one minute and 40 seconds for a bowl. It’s fascinating to watch them at work, so precise in their movements.

Apparently the benefits of using a ramen robot are ” the accuracy of timing in boiling noodles, precise movements in adding toppings and consistency in the taste.”

When there’s a lull in orders, the robots ‘play’ with each other and do some neat tricks to keep the customers entertained.

The noodle shop is still keeping some human employees around to take orders and serve the prepared bowls to customers. Wonder how long before those jobs disappear.

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Apple is the exclusive gatekeeper to its iPhone App Store, able to reject apps at will — as it did July 28 with Google Voice. But some developers aren’t taking the rejection lying down: They’re turning instead to an unauthorized app store called Cydia, where forbidden wares continue to exist — and even earn developers some money.

That store is operated by Jay Freeman, more fondly known in the iPhone “Jailbreak” community as Saurik. Only five months old, his app store Cydia specializes in selling apps that Apple would reject or ban (or already has). To use Cydia or the apps available through it, customers need to jailbreak their phones — hack them to work around Apple-imposed restrictions — a process that Apple claims is illegal.

Indeed, you can even get a Google Voice app, GV Mobile, through Cydia. After Apple pulled the app from its App Store, developer Sean Kovacs (who is not affiliated with Google) made it available for free through Cydia.

It’s difficult to get accurate data on how many customers have jailbroken their iPhones. But based on the number of unique device identifiers tracked on his server, Freeman claims that about 4 million, or 10 percent of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners to date, have installed Cydia. On a recent day, he said 470,000 people were connecting to the Cydia store, up from 350,000 per day just a few months ago. Among many free apps, there are also 15 paid apps in Cydia, and the store has earned $220,000 in overall sales in just five months.

“People are so annoyed by Apple and their shit, and if you give them opportunity to go around it, then they’ll even pay for it,” said Kim Streich, a developer whose app 3G Unrestrictor earned $19,000 in sales in just two weeks through Cydia.

Though Cydia is relatively young, the underground “Jailbreak” community has existed since the first iPhone launched in 2007. That year, Apple didn’t yet have an app store for its iPhone, stifling the true potential of the device. This limitation inspired digital rebels to hack away at the iPhone’s closed platform in an effort to free its mind. The result? An app called Installer, opening a door for early iPhone owners to add games, utilities and other third-party software coded by developers.

It wasn’t until 2008 that Apple offered a software development kit for third-party coders to make programs for its iPhone. That led to the opening of the official App Store in July 2008. Apple’s store grew rapidly, accumulating 65,000 apps and serving over 1.5 billion downloads to date. Many developers abandoned Installer for the more popular App Store, leaving behind an underground space where unauthorized wares could continue to exist. Installer died and became reborn as Cydia, which evolved from an app library into a store in March 2009.

To gain access to Cydia, iPhone owners must jailbreak their smartphones using some freely available tools courtesy of the hacker group iPhone Dev-Team. Given the nature of this procedure, it’s clear Cydia’s primary audience consists of nerdy rebels wishing to utilize the full power of their iPhones, restriction-free.

Cydia’s numbers appear small compared to the rare stories we hear about developers turning into millionaires with hot sales of their iPhone apps in the App Store. But the idea behind a store like Cydia is that you don’t have to be huge to make money. With a smaller market, fewer competitors and a reasonably large customer base, each developer has a higher chance for making a quick buck, Freeman said. Plus, you get more personal attention: Developers submitting their app through Cydia need only contact Freeman, and their app can be made available almost immediately. That’s an enticing alternative to Apple’s approval process, which can take months and is notoriously opaque: Some App Store developers have faced difficulty getting answers to simple questions from Apple about their apps.

It’s obvious what’s driving iPhone customers toward Cydia: Apple’s rejections and restrictions of major iPhone apps. Most notably, Apple recently banned apps supporting Google Voice, the search giant’s internet-based phone enhancement service that can provide cellphone users with free text messaging and transcribed voicemail.

Angry consumers and developers theorize that Apple banned the Google Voice apps so as not to detract business from its partner AT&T’s phone services. The incident has brewed so much controversy that even the Federal Communications Commission has gotten involved, sending letters to AT&T, Apple and Google inquiring about the reasons for the rejections.

“Looks like Apple and AT&T pissed off a lot of people,” Kovacs wrote in a July 28 blog post. “I’ll be releasing GV Mobile v1.2 on Cydia for free today or tomorrow.”

Another high-profile App Store regulation involves SlingPlayer, an app that enables iPhone users to stream video from a Slingbox device hooked up to a TV. When Sling originally submitted the app, it was capable of streaming over both Wi-Fi and the cellular 3G connection. However, Apple requested Sling to modify the app to work on Wi-Fi only. AT&T said this was a necessary move to prevent congestion on its 3G network.

That restriction spawned the most successful Cydia app to date, 3G Unrestrictor, developed by Streich. 3G Unrestrictor, a $2 app that has sold 9,500 copies, allows the iPhone to circumvent any network limitations imposed by Apple. For example, the app enables SlingPlayer users to stream TV over 3G as well as Wi-Fi; and when using the VOIP app Skype to place phone calls, customers can also use the cellular connection, whereas normally the app only enables users to dial over Wi-Fi.

“It’s just amazing what you can do on such a little cellphone, and Apple just forbids customers from doing these things, and it’s just a shame,” Streich said. “That’s why I’m so happy there’s a Cydia store.”

Another developer who reports positive experiences with Cydia is Jonathan Zdziarski, who said he has made more money through the unauthorized store than Apple’s App Store. In February, his app iWipe sold 694 copies in Cydia, compared to 91 copies of iErase in the App Store.

“I guess you could say the App Store is kind of like Wal-Mart, with more crap than you’d ever want to buy,” Zdziarski said. “And Cydia is like the general store that has everything you want and need, from fresh cuts of meat to those homemade cookies you can’t get anywhere else.”

Though some developers say they’re having better experiences selling apps through Cydia, it’s unlikely they will succeed on a longer term, said Rana Sobhany, vice president of Medialets, an iPhone app analytics company. She said the average consumer would prefer to purchase apps through a well trusted source such as Apple.

“There have been all these apps downloaded in the App Store because it’s easy for consumers to find, download and pay for apps,” Sobhany said. “This model is new because Apple has been training people how to download music to their iPods for years.”

However, even in the case of the App Store, developers who strike it rich still face challenges recreating their success, said Phillip Ryu, co-creator of the popular e-book reader Classics.

“If you’re hoping to reach the mainstream, the best you can hope for is your app catches on fire and charts high enough for you to make a windfall,” Ryu said. “Essentially you aim for the jackpot, and if you don’t hit that, it’s not going to make you a living.”

Freeman said it was too soon to tell whether Cydia would provide developers stable incomes, but he recommends they give it a try, considering the successes some are experiencing. He admits, however, he isn’t making much money as the creator of Cydia: Like Apple, he takes 30 percent of each app sale to cover taxes.

“I don’t make much money off this project, but I value the community, and I look forward to how this changes the device landscape,” Freeman said.

Photo: William Hook/Flickr

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Eco-friendly phones are all the rage among handset makers now. Samsung became the third phone manufacturer, after Motorola and Sony Ericsson, to offer a device made from biodegradable materials.

The new Samsung phone called Reclaim is a slider-style phone with a QWERTY keyboard and a 2-megapixel camera. The phone will be available on Sprint’s wireless network starting Aug. 16 for about $50, after rebates, and with a two-year contract.

Green phones have taken off this year. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Motorola showed its W233 Renew handset whose plastic casing is made of recycled water bottles. In June, Sony Ericsson announced two new eco-friendly phones.

Reclaim follows that trend. The phone is made from 80 percent recyclable materials, said Samsung. A bio-plastic material made from corn makes up about 40 percent of the phone’s outer casing. The device is also free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and nearly free of brominated flame retardants (BFR)–materials that organizations such as Greenpeace have been actively lobbying to eliminate from gadgets.

The packaging for the phone and the phone tray inside the box are made from 70 percent recycled materials, claims Samsung. Images and text on the box as well as the phone warranty information are printed with soy-based ink. And there will be no thick paper user manual offered with the phone. Reclaim’s charger is also Energy Star approved to meet efficiency standards.

Sprint said it has established a set of environmental design criteria for future devices and accessories.

Photo: Samsung Reclaim/Sprint

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You have to be seriously paranoid to put anti-theft software on a desktop computer, but for one lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) GadgetTrak customer, it turned out to be a good idea.

The iMac laded with the tracking software went missing in New York two weeks ago. Everything went quiet. Then, last wekend, things lit up. The MacTrak software started beaming SOS signals to world in the form of a photo of the new user (sent to Flickr), and the location data, IP address and even the iMacs position on a Google Map, were sent to New Yorks finest, who dropped by and picked up the lost machine.

But you wouldnt want this running all the time, and giving away your position to some faceless company,right? It appears that MacTrak sits, waiting, and checking to see if you have sounded the alert. If you log in to the web page and give the alarm, only then will the computer start beaming its information out to the world. $25 per year.

GadgetTrak Recovers Stolen iMac In New York [GadgetTrak blog. Thanks, Ken!]

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