Archive for June, 2009
This past Saturday, an entire apartment building in Shanghai collapsed. To be fair, the building was under construction and thus unoccupied, but it’s still a minor miracle that there was only one fatality.
Sounds like there was a problem with some nearby flood prevention walls at the Dianpu River, but there’s no hard evidence as to why this huge building simply fell over. Anyway, here are some sweet pictures of the architectural carnage. [Cellar.org via Twitter]
Posted in 
SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever
June 30th, 2009
One of our favorite intellectual property rips of recent months is without a doubt the SciPhone Dream G2 from China. Having completely missed the point of Google’s open-source OS being, well, open-source and thus free for SciPhone’s use, the company instead chose to hack the G2′s “proprietory” OS to look like Android. The charger, however, built to look like the iconic Android mascot is pretty damn cute; enough so that the idea of paying $150 just to get our hands on the 100-240V USB charger has crossed our minds. See the Android’s naughty bits after the break.
[Thanks, Steven]
Continue reading SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever
Filed under: Cellphones
SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Navteq offers free traffic updates on your mobile phone
June 30th, 2009
It’s a good day to drive in San Francisco.
(Credit: CNET/NAVTEQ)
Navteq announced today it has released a new version of its free Navteq Traffic mobile Web site.
The mobile site is accessible from any Web-connected device (mobile phone, PDA, etc.) and offers free up-to-the-minute traffic flow and …
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
PS3 No Longer Supporting Hulu? [Hulu]
June 29th, 2009
As of last weekend, Hulu no longer plays in the PS3′s Flash-supported browser.
Neither Sony nor Hulu has come forth with an explanation, though the timing is linked to the PS3′s latest firmware 2.8 update and it’s hard to see the statement “the video is not available on your platform” as anything less than pointed.
But back when the PS3 did have Hulu, how well did it actually work? The few times I tested it out, the slightest misstep led to memory error messages and I’d need to restart. Is Sony improving the Hulu experience? Is Hulu blocking someone like they did Boxee. Or is Microsoft making deals to score Hulu exclusively on the 360?
Time will tell! [CrunchGear and Engadget via Kotaku]
AIRPod looks dorky, makes friends easily
June 29th, 2009
Following in the footsteps of its bigger brother, the AIRPod is a zero-emissions vehicle capable of reaching 50mph and requiring only air and your dignity for its fuel. Makers MDI are set to begin production by the end of the year, while Air France and KLM have already signed up to use the quirky-looking cars for airport shuttle duty. Nick Kurczewski of Inside Line got to test out a prototype and came away with mixed feelings, liking the 90 mile cruising range and “penny per mile” running costs, but finding the ride a bit bumpy. For his full impressions, as well as likely pricing and availability, hit the read link below.
[Via AutoblogGreen]
Filed under: Transportation
AIRPod looks dorky, makes friends easily originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Knitted-frog dissection skips the formaldehyde
June 29th, 2009
Kidney, check. Lungs, check.
(Credit: Etsy/CraftyHedgehog)
Not all of us were cut out for the graphic task of dissecting frogs–and that’s one reason we ended up majoring in liberal arts.
It's watching you…
(Credit: Etsy/CraftyHedgehog)
Maybe if we could have skipped the organ prodding and …
Computer-Controlled Air Compressor Alarm Clock Pounds Your Head Into Consciousness [Beds]
June 28th, 2009
The inventor of this head-pounding “alarm clock” is admittedly a bit quirky (“Hi Mom!” cliche, check!), but I’ll be damned if I don’t give him kudos for inventing the most violent, aggressive alarm clock I’ve ever seen.
Sadly, the source site doesn’t allow embedding, so I’ve assembled a series of screen grabs to try and capture the raw violence I saw in the original video. The same video, coincidentally, you can catch in the accompanying link. [TechEblog]
Windows Marketplace launching with 600 apps, or one bazillion times what the App Catalog has
June 28th, 2009
So Microsoft France’s product manager for Windows Mobile, Audrey Zolghadr, is saying that the company’s upcoming Windows Marketplace launch will be accompanied by around 600 apps certified and available on day one. Depending on your perspective, that’s either ridiculously anemic — the iPhone’s App Store has a couple orders of magnitude more currently available, for example — or a veritable cornucopia. Though the Ovi Store has no shortage of “items” to buy, an overwhelming majority of those are currently wallpapers, ringtones, and the like, and Palm’s App Catalog launched with so few apps that many folks (we’re not naming names) literally had every app installed within a few minutes of buying the phone. At the end of the day, it’s all about signal-to-noise ratio; if Microsoft can deliver 600 apps and half of those are terrific, they’re on the right track — though at this point, we’re thinking the next battle in Smartphone Platform Wars doesn’t really kick off until WinMo 7 swings by anyway.
[Via PhoneArena and WMExperts]
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Windows Marketplace launching with 600 apps, or one bazillion times what the App Catalog has originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nikkei, one of the largest media conglomerates in Japan, is reporting that Sony has been working on a combination cellphone/game system for nearly a year. It’s a rumor we’ve been hearing for years, so what’s different this time?
Well, not much, really. Nikkei is a very solid source, definitely not prone to tossing plausible ideas around as actual reports. And of course, it’s been such a persistent rumor because it makes so much sense: Sony is an important player in both the cellphone (with Sony Ericsson) and gaming worlds, though Sony Ericsson has been struggling in recent years. Now that Capcom and Square Enix are developing games for the iPhone platform, it’s just about time for Sony to jump into the game and play a little catch-up.
The rumor itself is very vague: Nikkei says it will directly compete with the iPhone, and that a project team was set up last July to start working on the console/phone hybrid. So basically, it’s the same rumor we’ve been hearing for years, except this time from a reliable source. Whether it’s got any truth to it remains to be seen. Note: The above image is a mockup. Seems obvious but sometimes you gotta say it out loud. [Reuters]
Spanish firm GeeksPhone launches "One" Android set
June 28th, 2009
It looks exactly like a Samsung Omnia, but don’t be fooled — what you’re actually looking at here is Spain’s first go at producing an Android handset (which is especially ironic considering we just reported on the andromnia project). Our colleagues from Engadget Spanish were live in Barcelona today for the grand unveiling of the GeeksPhone One, a Cupcake-powered phone featuring a 625MHz PXA310 core, quadband EDGE plus HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, AGPS, 3.2 megapixel primary camera plus a front-facing cam for video calling, and microSD expansion — sounds great, but the package is marred a bit by the fact that it’s rolling with a resistive 3.2-inch touchscreen. Hard to complain with the price, though — GeeksPhone expects to sell the set for somewhere between €250 and €300 (about $352 to $422) unlocked when it launches this fall.
[Via Engadget Spanish]
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Spanish firm GeeksPhone launches “One” Android set originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Go to Source