Apple bucked tradition and streamed Wednesday’s special event live, so that iPod and Apple TV enthusiasts (with well-equipped Macs, iPhones, or iPads) could...



Apple - IPhone - iPod - IPod Classic - Apple iPod

One hotly anticipated feature rolling out in next week's iOS 4.1 update is the new HDR (high dynamic range) option in the iPhone's built-in Camera app. The...



iPhone - High dynamic range imaging - Photography - Smartphones - Handhelds

Gone is the day when headphones could be respectable without some kind of corporate tie-in or Lady Gaga endorsement. Alas, even Harman's revered AKG division has roped in the venerable Quincy Jones for its new (wait for it) Quincy Jones Signature Line. We're talking three models here, ready for launch in October and ranging from the Q 701 "reference class" over-the-ear cans (pictured), the Q 460 lightweight headphones, and Q 350 buds. The Q 701 features ergonomically-shaped cushions of velvet, an "unbeatable" linear frequency response covering 10Hz to 39.8kHz, a 45-mm high excursion driver, and detachable 99-percent oxygen-free cables. The portable $229.99 Q 460 on-ear headphones feature a 3D-axis folding system and an iPhone compatible in-line remote with microphone and play, pause, and skip functions. The in-ear Q 350 also bring iPhone compatible and target the "audiophile on the go" with $149.99 to burn. Seems fitting for a man with 79 Grammy nominations (and 27 awards) to benefit from his name. And you can feel better about him selling out knowing that an undisclosed sum from every pair of headphones sold goes towards the Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium -- a foundation dediqated to eduqating Ameriqan kids about musiq. Ironic, because the Grammys might actually be relevant if American music corporations knew anything about good music.

Continue reading Harman AKG teams up with Quincy Jones on Signature Line of headphones

Harman AKG teams up with Quincy Jones on Signature Line of headphones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OpenFeint PlayTime brings cross-platform multiplayer gaming to iOS, Android originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iAd experience; iPod Touch 4; apps and jailbreaking

iPhone - Handhelds - Smartphones - Apple - IPod

Apple - IPhone - MacNN - Windows - Shareware

Macworld.com - One hotly anticipated feature rolling out in next week's iOS 4.1 update is the new HDR (high dynamic range) option in the iPhone's built-in Camera app. The results are subtly improved and realistic looking photos, as opposed to the fake, over-processed look that is often the hallmark of HDR.

As absurd as it might seem to dock a 9.7-inch tablet atop what amounts to a glorified boom box, let's be real: the iPad's meek speakers are easily outclassed by its ability to swallow gigabytes worth of music and high-quality video content. Sure enough, iPad-compatible docks are quickly becoming a thing now, and Philips is jumping head-first into the market with its Fidelio DS8550. Oh, but there's more than meets the eye here -- it's not just a speaker with a giant slot in front for a 30-pin connection, you see. You can either connect the iPad to let it charge and get a direct audio connection or roam with it and let it talk back to the dock over stereo Bluetooth, which was demoed to us as an awesome option for gaming -- as long as the Fidelio is within a few yards of you, games really become a more immersive experience when you've got thick, booming bass and virtually limitless volume nearby, and we found that you really don't notice that the sound is coming from "somewhere else."

The DS8550 also packs a handle on back and an internal battery, allegedly good for up to five hours of use off the grid so you'll be able to kick it old-school with the Fidelio slung over your shoulder in the subway station. The unit makes use of a unique spring-loaded pivot on its 30-pin connector, which Philips says allows you to connect any iPod, iPhone, or iPad without needing the typical adapters -- the device just sort of rests on the connector and the surrounding concave section of the speaker mesh. Check out a few more shots in the gallery!

Filed under: Handhelds, Home Entertainment

Philips Fidelio DS8550 iPad speaker dock hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new IDC study today has put Apple at the top of environmental friendliness for phone makers. It managed to challenge other, ostensibly greener companies through the scale of its iPhone efforts. It offers recycling in 95 percent of the countries where the iPhone is sold; the company also has tighter control over the efficiency of its supply chain, and its co-founder Steve Jobs is often directly involved....


IPhone - Apple - Smartphone - Nokia - Handhelds

A brief check of the Apple TV's technical specifications reveals that it is actually based on an A4 processor, like the iPad, iPhone 4 and the new iPod touch. The architecture is an ARM design customized by Apple, nominally with mobile products in mind. In the Apple TV it replaces a relatively low-grade Intel chipset....


Apple - AppleTV - Macintosh - IOS - Companies

In an unsurprising move, Apple has rebranded its developer program and portal for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch as the iOS Dev Center. The change from its previous "iPhone Dev Center" name follows a similar shift in the name of the device...

With multitasking, shared files, and wireless printing, Apple's 4.2 iOS upgrades iPad for business use.



Apple - IPad - IPhone - IOS - Steve Jobs

There was a time when Skyfire on Windows Mobile meant full Flash all the time. The 2.0 version on Android reigned that in a bit, really only supporting Flash video and little else, something Android 2.2 users no longer need to worry about. iOS users, however, do still spend their days ruing websites with such content, and so that's the market Skyfire is targeting next. The company has submitted a version of the browser for App Store approval, transcoding Flash video such that the phone only sees HTML5, with content coming in over H.264 adaptive streaming. As such, video is said to be compressed an average of 75 percent, in theory allaying any concerns about this thing being a bandwidth hog. In other words: there's no reason for this to not be approved, right? Right! However, something tells us things may not be so easy...

Continue reading Skyfire submits iPhone browser for App Store approval, we wait for the Flash to hit the fan

Skyfire submits iPhone browser for App Store approval, we wait for the Flash to hit the fan originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 4.1 adds an HDR (high dynamic range) option to the iPhone's built-in Camera app. The results are subtly improved and realistic looking photos.

Aliens have taken over the center of your screen and are intent on destroying Earth. Using your square, tennis-like paddles, you and a partner (the game is multiplayer only) must work together to deflect any missiles the aliens throw at our homeworld.

If you are tired of trying to keep up with Apple’s new iPod releases, upgrade your old iPod for free with Rockbox. Rockbox allows you to upgrade your aging iPod with new themes, fonts, games, and more.

Rockbox is a replacement firmware for the iPod, iriver, Cowon, and many other devices. What the firmware does is extends the functionality and features of your current digital music player.

Installing Rockbox

The first thing to do is download the Rockbox utility from their website.

Rockbox provides prebuilt binaries for Windows, OS X, and Linux so just download the one you need and run the program. The first time the software loads you will need to plug in your iPod and autodetect the model. If you know the model you can also browse to a mounted drive and then just select your model from the provided list.

Note: You may need administrative rights on the computer you are running the utility from to write to USB devices.

Installation is a one click affair. Simply click the complete installation button and the latest files will be downloaded and installed onto your iPod.

Note: The installation will not erase all of the music and pictures you have on your device. If everything works the way it should, it will simply replace the bootloader and add its own OS files where needed.

Once Rockbox is installed you can install any optional playback themes from the built in theme installer.

Or you can also install fonts or games from the Rockbox utility.

Using Rockbox

Once everything is installed, disconnect your iPod and reboot it. It should automatically load Rockbox. Usability of the iPod should be fairly the same with one of the big differences is now you will have some more utilities and menus. You can browse for pictures and music from the files browser or if you have your music tagged you can also use the database browser.

You can change the theme to one of the ones you installed by going to system -> themes and selecting the theme you want. The menu should change automatically and you will also notice the new theme during playback.

Some of the extra utilites are found under the plugins menu. If you go into that menu you will find any additional software and games you installed.

Of course, the option to play Doom is there if you installed the games option in Rockbox utility, and have a supported device. You will have to figure out how to actually control playing on your own.

Uninstalling Rockbox

If you want to switch back to the default OS that came with your iPod you can hold the menu+select button (menu+play on some devices) to hard reset the iPod. Once the iPod starts to boot again turn on the hold switch and the original OS will load.

If you actually want to remove Rockbox completely then you can go back to the Rockbox utility and just click uninstall.

So next time you are tempted to throw out your perfectly working old iPod because Apple told you it would be a good idea, try out Rockbox. It may have the missing apps you were looking for.

Rockbox homepage

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Continue reading Mercedes-Benz updates mbrace app with fancy pants 'Concierge' service

Mercedes-Benz updates mbrace app with fancy pants 'Concierge' service originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Would you like to make your blog look great on all devices, not just computers?  Smartphones and other mobile devices are increasing in popularity, so here’s how you can make sure your blog looks great no matter what people are reading it on.

WordPress is a great tool for creating a blog or traditional website for your business, organization, or simply to share pictures with family and friends.  You can make a free blog on WordPress.com, and if so, your blog will already be ready for most modern mobile device browsers.  Here’s our test WordPress.com site in Mobile Safari; WordPress.com automatically gave it an iOS style theme that’s easy to use on mobile devices.

However, if you want to tweak WordPress and make your site just like you want, you’ll need to use the Self-hosted WordPress.org.  If you’ve created a new WordPress site on your own server or hosting service manually or using an auto-installer such as Softaculous, you may be disappointed that your site looks the same on mobile browsers as it does on your computer.  This makes it difficult to use on small screens.

Thankfully, you can easily get the same iOS style theme on your blog for free with the WPtouch plugin.  Login to your WordPress Dashboard, and select Add New under Plugins on the left side menu.

On this page, enter WPtouch in the search box.

Now install and activate the plugin as normal.

Your site will now have a nice theme that works great on modern smartphones and other mobile devices, but will still show your own normal theme to visitors using computers.  If you’d like to preview how your new mobile theme looks on an iPhone, check out our article on Testing Mobile Websites in Safari for Windows.

Tweak WPtouch Settings

WPtouch works fine without any tweaking on most sites, but if you’d like, you can customize your mobile site and tweak WPtouch’s settings to get it working just like you want.  To do this, click WPtouch under Settings on the left menu.

Here you can tweak many settings, including the mobile theme’s background, fonts, icon, and more.

You can also add Google Analytics and Adsense to your mobile site, so you can monetize your traffic and know how many visitors you’re getting.  If you need to find you Google Analytics code, here’s how you can quickly find it.

You may need to tweak settings in other WordPress plugins, including WP Cache and W3 Cache, to make them work with WPtouch, so be sure to check the list at the bottom of the settings page.

Here’s Techinch.com with a customized logo, menu, and background using WPtouch.  Now your site looks just like you want, on PCs and mobile devices.

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Withings, the Paris-based company behind the famous tweeting wifi body scale, has just scored 3 million euros from French VC firm, Ventech. It's the company's first round of funding and will be used primarily for the development of 2 new products, which should come out within the next 6 months. For anyone who isn't already familiar with the company's first product, the tweeting wifi body scale, it's a terrific wifi-connected device that tracks your weight. May sound simple but it can recognize up to 8 users and allows you to transfer your weight information to a computer, iPhone or iPad - which is where the Tweeting comes from, obviously. The product launched officially last year on June 25 goes for €129 in France and is a great little way to track a fitness program or diet.