Waterproof Headphones Fear No Puny Washing Machine

Running your iPod through a washing machine cycle might not be fatal, but it’s certainly not a good idea. On the other hand, sometimes I wish I could wash the earbuds I use with it, especially after they get to be a few months old and end up caked with wax and fluff. So I’m very [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/06/waterproof-headphones-fear-no-puny-washing-machine/

Angelika Frey Mika Bernhardt Ingeburg Liebermann Elsa Alexander Furtmann

Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again)

Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again)
They're a growing threat, these simple games with their simple designs, simple controls, and simple graphics. They don't offer the full, premium experience that the real gamers want. They aren't hardcore enough. They aren't serious enough. They're just too... casual.

In the '90s these were all complaints used to describe the strengthening console menace. Back then, a younger me squandered his meager income at the local Babbage's or Electronics Boutique, stores full of PC games in cardboard boxes -- console titles relegated to a few little shelves. It wouldn't take long for those consoles to take over those stores and, along the way, the entire industry. Between just 1998 and 2006 console software sales more than doubled, from $2.5 billion to $6.7 billion, while PC game sales dropped from $1.8 billion to $970 million. Even the FPS, once exclusive domain of the PC, is now a console enterprise, with Call of Duty: Black Ops launching on 4.9 million sales on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The PC version, meanwhile, sold less than 400,000 copies (the NPD lumped them in with sales of the Nintendo DS and Wii versions).

Who cares about ancient history? If you're a gamer you should, because it's happening again. This time, though, its console gamers lobbing the same lamentations at Angry Bird players, Words With Friends addicts, and ever-sneaky Fruit Ninjas. As smartphones and tablets get more powerful, the dedicated gaming machine looks more and more quaint. Where once software supported hardware in one big, happy family, it's all becoming rather more... disjointed. For a gamer like me, that's a little troubling. If app gaming does for consoles what those consoles did to the PC scene a decade ago, a lot of big game studios are going to be in trouble, and a lot of gamers are going to be pining for the good 'ol days.

Continue reading Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again)

Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/6M3KlCokn9U/

Gabriela Schnee Rita Imhof Angelika Frey Mika Bernhardt

Sony Music Unlimited hits Android, hopes you don't know why 'Qriocity' sounds so familiar

Sony didn't make a big to do about the arrival of its Music Unlimited service on Android -- perhaps it's the fact that the market for streaming music on mobile devices is getting a bit crowded these days, with recent arrivals from Apple, Google, and Amazon. Or maybe it's that the mention of Qriocity, the service that powers the offering, is still likely to leave a bad taste in the mouths of lots of folks, after the whole, well, you know. Whatever the case may be, the app is now available as a free download for those with Google's dessert-based operating system on their handsets, plus either the $4 a month basic or $10 a month premium plan.

[Thanks, Archon810]

Sony Music Unlimited hits Android, hopes you don't know why 'Qriocity' sounds so familiar originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Police  |  sourceAndroid Market  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/15/sony-music-unlimited-hits-android-hopes-you-dont-know-why-qri/

Heidemarie Stegmann Annika Schäffer Edgar Betz Antonia Koppe

Email-Reminder Sends Notifications the Good Old-Fashioned Way

Technology growth has a subtle way of turning useful apps into obsolete solutions. For instance, Web-based services like Google Calendar, Remember the Milkand the FireFox Web browser add-on ReminderFox go a long way to rendering unnecessary standalone apps to send reminders to your computer desktop.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72645.html

Finja Kerkhoff Sascha Dörr Kristin Gehrmann Annette Lechner

Add playback hotkeys to Amazon Cloud Player with a Chrome extension

Sure, Amazon's Cloud Player works -- as long as you're in the U.S. or willing to do some tinkering -- but it's fairly simplistic at the moment. There are plenty of features missing which we'd like to see added -- but since Cloud Player is a Web app we don't have to wait for Amazon!

Google Chrome users, for example, can add playback hotkeys with an extension called keyMazony. Once installed, you'll have keyboard control of your Amazon Cloud Player queue. keyMazony commands will work as long as you're in the same Chrome window as Cloud Player, even if its tab doesn't have focus. The key combinations are customizable as well -- just make sure you don't set up a combo that conflicts with another extension or Chrome's built-in keyboard shortcuts.

Add playback hotkeys to Amazon Cloud Player with a Chrome extension originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/add-playback-hotkeys-to-amazon-cloud-player-with-a-chrome-extens/

Carola Auer Luca Liebe Finja Kerkhoff Sascha Dörr

Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again)

Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again)
They're a growing threat, these simple games with their simple designs, simple controls, and simple graphics. They don't offer the full, premium experience that the real gamers want. They aren't hardcore enough. They aren't serious enough. They're just too... casual.

In the '90s these were all complaints used to describe the strengthening console menace. Back then, a younger me squandered his meager income at the local Babbage's or Electronics Boutique, stores full of PC games in cardboard boxes -- console titles relegated to a few little shelves. It wouldn't take long for those consoles to take over those stores and, along the way, the entire industry. Between just 1998 and 2006 console software sales more than doubled, from $2.5 billion to $6.7 billion, while PC game sales dropped from $1.8 billion to $970 million. Even the FPS, once exclusive domain of the PC, is now a console enterprise, with Call of Duty: Black Ops launching on 4.9 million sales on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The PC version, meanwhile, sold less than 400,000 copies (the NPD lumped them in with sales of the Nintendo DS and Wii versions).

Who cares about ancient history? If you're a gamer you should, because it's happening again. This time, though, its console gamers lobbing the same lamentations at Angry Bird players, Words With Friends addicts, and ever-sneaky Fruit Ninjas. As smartphones and tablets get more powerful, the dedicated gaming machine looks more and more quaint. Where once software supported hardware in one big, happy family, it's all becoming rather more... disjointed. For a gamer like me, that's a little troubling. If app gaming does for consoles what those consoles did to the PC scene a decade ago, a lot of big game studios are going to be in trouble, and a lot of gamers are going to be pining for the good 'ol days.

Continue reading Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again)

Console vs. PC redux: how mobile gaming will reshape the industry (again) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/6M3KlCokn9U/

Antonia Koppe Gertrud Hölzl Ulrike Kellner Nicola Kohnen

Hang Your Keys Almost Anywhere With Hookeychain

Sometimes it’s hard being a gadget lover.  Here at The Gadgeteer, we’ve told you about and/or reviewed a ton of keychain tools over the years, and I’d be lying if I told you that for at least half of them, I’ve found myself flush with new-gadget-frenzy, my cursor hovering over the “buy” button, only to [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/06/15/hang-your-keys-almost-anywhere-with-hookeychain/

Lutz Yalcin Birte Höß Kerstin Klos Dieter Schreiter

ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear

ChromeLite ASCII extension
Have you ever wondered what the Web was like before the Mosaic Web browser? If you were born in the last 20-odd years, or you only discovered your inner geek recently, did you miss out on monochrome monitors and the dial-up BBS era? Well, here's your chance to get a sneak peek at history: grab the ChromeLite extension and marvel as the entire Web is transformed into ASCII characters.

Now, ChromeLite isn't really all that functional. For the most part, it simply strips images and converts text into a monospaced terminal font. There are a few Easter eggs inserted -- such as a fun message at the bottom of YouTube (image after the break) -- and some fun ASCII art, but that's about it. Rather oddly, most JavaScript continues to work -- so you can still enjoy Google Instant Search!

ChromeLite was actually made by Google as an April Fools' joke -- and indeed, an annoying 'you can uninstall this!' message appears at the top of every page -- but we're kind of hoping that Google, or another developer, takes ChromeLite and turns it into a real ASCII browsing extension with configurable settings. If anything, it will provide an easy way to save bandwidth and CPU time.

Continue reading ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear

ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/chromelite-experience-the-ascii-web-of-yesteryear/

Rita Imhof Angelika Frey Mika Bernhardt Ingeburg Liebermann

TiPb Answers: How iMessage works [FAQ]

TiPb Answers: How iMessage worksWe’re getting tons and tons of questions about iOS 5‘s new iMessage, how it works, where it sends to, and how to avoid sending to the wrong person or device. Apple hasn’t given out a lot of details about it yet, but based on what they showed on the keynote and how they’ve previously handled [...]

TiPb Answers: How iMessage works [FAQ] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/A6eRxlqqsXY/

Oliver Büdenbender Christa Eymann Ingrid Schur Emily Trautmann

Acer lowers forecast for tablet, notebook shipments, blames limping European economy

Acer had high hopes for 2011, but it looks like its expectations may have been a bit too optimistic. Today, the company issued revised forecasts for shipments of its tablet PCs, predicting to move between 2.5 and three million units by year's end -- down from the five to seven million it projected earlier. Acer chairman J.T. Wang expects current quarter notebook shipments to dip by ten percent from their Q1 levels, before stabilizing or slightly increasing during Q3. According to the new-look firm, these downward revisions are largely due to lagging economic growth in Europe, though its Asian and US markets "remain healthy." European inventories are expected to decrease to normal levels by the end of this month, which should allow the company's market share to rebound during the second half of this year. It's certainly not a dire outlook, but it's probably not the start new Corporate President Jim Wong was looking to get off to, either.

Acer lowers forecast for tablet, notebook shipments, blames limping European economy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/15/acer-lowers-forecast-for-tablet-notebook-shipments-blames-limp/

Finja Kerkhoff Sascha Dörr Kristin Gehrmann Annette Lechner