iPhones aren’t cool. You know what’s cool? Shooting your friends with your iPhone, mounted into a laser blaster. A couple of phone-based friend-blasting systems have crossed our radar this week — one for iPhone, one for any smartphone. First came news that Hasbro is updating Lazer Tag (remember that?) for the app-obsessed 21st century. Its 2012 edition guns, hitting toy [...]
There was a time when streaming audio meant sacrificing fidelity. Many early Internet radio stations delivered an AM-quality 64Kbps stream, while the “good ones” topped out at 128Kbps. Even Spotify for iOS, the app version of the popular music service (which CNET called “the best free music option since stealing”), could muster only 160Kbps–a bit better than FM [...]
This North Carolina dad became an Internet star over night when he resorted to some pretty unorthodox disciplinary methods to reign in his 15-year-old daughter. After Tommy Jordan’s little girl posted a rude and crude letter airing various grievances with her parents on Facebook, he decided to take away her laptop privileges… with extreme prejudice. [...]
One of Anonymous’ Twitter mouthpieces claims the hacker collective just took down CIA.gov. It’s definitely down. If this is what it looks like, it could be Anon’s greatest hit so far. The attack—so far cosigned by two of the largest Anon Twitter accounts with a combined 600,000 followers—would fall in line with the group’s increasingly ambitious hit list of large corporate [...]
John Paczkowski of AllThingsD is claiming that Apple will hold a press event in the beginning of March to announce the new iPad, which he calls “iPad 3″ (noting that might not be its official name). Paczkowski expects the announcement to take place in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where Apple has held [...]
Facebook is the place we look at photos online. And for years, those photos have been constrained to tiny boxes and ugly, low-resolution uploads. No more! Facebook’s new picture browser is here: your life is now giant and pretty. The new format also takes comments and tags and swings them over to the righthand side instead of [...]
According to a slide uncovered by the Verge, Best Buy is asking its customers for thoughts on a 42-inch, $1,500 Apple HDTV. And it sounds dreamy: runs iOS, full App Store and iCloud support, an iSight camera. Too bad it’s all probably just a guess. For all the goodness (click to embiggen) packed into the hypothetical [...]
Apple has just appointed John Browett, chief executive of UK electronics retailer Dixons, as its new vice-president of retail. It’s the first external senior-executive appointment by Tim Cook, and will see Browett take over the whole of Apple’s already incredibly successful retail strategy. No pressure, John. ➤ The Guardian via Gizmodo
Darts has always struck us as an odd bar game. It’s not because we don’t like playing—we love to—but because sharp objects and alcohol don’t seem to mesh. No time is this more evident then when you’re walking over to the chalkboard to update the score and a dart comes inches from your face courtesy of [...]
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook could file paperwork on Wednesday that would finally open the company up for public trading. The move is expected to raise $10 billion, giving Facebook an IPO evaluation of anywhere from $75 to $100 billion. It would rank as the biggest tech IPO ever and fourth highest overall–behind only [...]
New from the Department of Things I Didn’t Know I Wanted But Now Can’t Live Without: Bondi. This cute little gizmo is designed to hold and hang your smartphone. It has feet at the bottom, “hands” that hug your device, and a hanger-style head. All these limbs can bend any which way, meaning Bondi is actually [...]
Remember back when Apple first introduced the Apple TV, and the company said that it was designed to be a hobby device? Well, in 2010, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, after unveiling a new version of the device, said it was no longer a hobby. Now, though, it appears it is again, since Apple’s new CEO Tim [...]
Speaking to reporters in Osaka after Nintendo’s earnings release today, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata offered the most specific information about the Wii U’s various international release windows yet — revealing that they’re all roughly similar. According to Reuters, Iwata said that the console will be released in the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan “for the year-end season.” Previous windows have [...]
We like Spotify as more than friends, but man, it’s been doing nothing but losing money for a while now. So it’s pretty good—and really surprising—news that it’s now got three million people paying for its service. That three million figure is actually more impressive because it’s 20 percent of everyone using Spotify, which is a [...]
Nothing ruins a road trip like having to ford flooded rivers and dodge oncoming tornadoes. Thankfully, Google Map’s new Public Alerts system should help keep you out of the path of Mother Nature’s rage. The alert system debuted today and pulls disaster warnings from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather [...]
Anyone who grew up reading comic books, was probably tempted to splurge a buck of their lawn mowing money on a pair of those X-ray specs advertised in the back. While any hope of seeing under people’s clothes was quickly dashed once you tried them on, now there’s a solution that actually works. This time instead of [...]
Apple’s next emerging market might not be in Asia, but in South America. During the company’s recent earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook identified Brazil as one of Apple’s future growth areas. “I think there’s a huge opportunity for us there, and we’ve more than begun to go deeper into Brazil,” Cook said. “But [...]
The answer is pretty obvious, right? It’s cheaper labor! But is that the only reason why Apple (and other companies) outsource its workforce to China as opposed to keeping them in America? No. There’s more. The NY Times has an excellent report on why Apple ignores America when it comes to making the iPhone and how that’s [...]
Wait wait wait, we’re talking about 5G mobile data now?! Ugh, but we just got 4G squared away. In any case, the ball is already rolling on the next generation of cellular technology, so we might as well figure out what in the hell IMT-Advanced is. IMT-Advanced is the prototype of what 5G mobile broadband will be… [...]
Luxury London retailer Harrods is reportedly next in line to get an Apple Store in among its regular shelves, with sources at the famous toff shop saying Apple’s pale wooden benches will soon be nestling in among the 1m square foot showfloor. The new section is set to be larger than the oasis of Apple currently found at [...]
