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Charlie Sorrel - page 152

TaskBadges Adds Counter To Icon Of Plain-Text ToDo Lists

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Nice and simple, just like plain text files

Are you a fan of plain-text files? Are you nerdy enough to stuff your todo lists into a todo.txt file? What if I told you that you could bring a lick of modernity to the your old-fashioned, candlelit ways? It’s called TaskBadges, and it adds a numbered badge to any plain-text list telling you how many uncompleted tasks are left inside.

Tuidle, A Case For Giving Your iPhone The Finger

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Tuidle lets you twiddle with your iPhone

There’s probably only one thing you should be doing while you are using your iPhone, and that’s sitting down, or standing politely off to one side of the sidewalk. Anything else is likely a danger to both you and to passersby. The folks behind the Tuidle iPhone case though, think otherwise.

The Tuidle (pronounced “twiddle”) is billed as a case that will let you “multitask with one hand.” The schoolboy in me thinks that that sounds pretty dirty, but in fact it looks very handy indeed.

Interactive iBook Teaches You iPhoto

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'Hello iPhoto' is a supposedly interactive guide to iOS and OS X versions of there app

If you’re confused by iPhoto for iOS, then you’re not alone. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the cluttered and complex interface. There is light at the end of this long and painful tunnel, though, in the form of a very powerful photo cataloging and editing app. And a new book, called Hello iPhoto for iPad & iPhone, will help you get there.

Sony Launches New NEX And Alpha Cameras

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The neat new NEX has a flip up LCD.

Sony has announced a pair of new cameras today. One is the A37, an “SLT” (like an SLR, but without the flipping mirror) and the other is the NEX F3, a new mirrorless model.

We have our full review ready and coming to your screens in a few hours (11:30 PST), but for a quick look at the details, read on.

Hand Stylus Comes With Retractable, Replaceable Tips

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The Hand Stylus might be the last stylus you ever need

You might like to think that Cult of Mac deputy editor John Brownlee is a beacon of intelligence in the world of Apple news, but sometimes he can be as dumb as the rest of us. Example: When staying with the Lady and I recently, John came to meet me in a local bar.

I pulled out my brand-new, just-bought Wacom Bamboo stylus to show him, and mentioned that it had a super clean, easy-glide tip. I handed it over and watched as John absent-mindedly stabbed the virgin rubber repeatedly onto the filthy, sticky bar table. Thanks a lot, John.

If I had had the Hand Stylus, though, I needn’t have suffered. The biggest feature of the Hand is its retractable tip, but there’s more to it than that.

City Slicker Is A Slim MacBook Air Sleeve From San Francisco

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Believe it or not, some people still carry around laptops. Sure, those laptops are ultra-thin MacBook Airs, but they’re laptops nonetheless, used in ignorance of the real future of portable work — the iPad paired up with a Bluetooth keyboard.

Still, we don’t judge you luddites out there. And to prove it, we bring you this sleek little sleeve made just for your MacBook Air. It’s called the City Slicker, and it comes from SF Bags in San Francisco.

See-Through Digital Photo Frame Cost More Than Your iPad

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoB2BvA0nZ0

The Parrot DIA (pronounced like the Spanish for “day”) is a weird little gadget that also manages to be very cool indeed. Its main purpose is as a digital photo frame, but even there it fails to be dull — the screen is actually transparent, so it displays your photos like old-school film slides.

Carbon 49 MIDI Controller: Is Your iPad Ready For Its Keyboard Solo?

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GarageBand’s velocity-sensitive drums and keyboards — which use the iPad’s accelerometers to know how hard you hit the screen — are nothing short of amazing. But just as you wouldn’t want to write a novel on a virtual keyboard, neither would a musician want to perform by trying to hit the little on-screen keys.

Enter The Carbon 49, a USB MIDI keyboard controller for the iPad. The controller, from Samson, connects to the tablet using your camera connection kit and has a slot up top to keep the iPad snug and safe as you play.

How A Camera CCD Works [Video]

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When snapping digital photos with our cameras and phones, it’s easy to forget what’s actually happening inside to get the light from your subject into the camera, and then up on its way to Instagram. So, if you ever wondered how a CCD sensor actually works, and how light is turned into electricity and shifted off the sensor, watch this great video by Engineer Guy Bill Hammack.

The Best Mac and iPhone Speakers [Best Of]

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Our iPhones, iPad and Macs all come equipped to pump out music and movies, and yet the built-in speakers are merely adequate. Depending on whether you travel or stay at home, whether you use a Mac or an iPod to listen to your music, or whether you live in the countryside or cooped up with easy-to-rile neighbors, there is a speaker just for you. And here’s our list of the best.

Plantronics BackBeat Go, Th Cordless Earbuds… With A Cord

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Only in the world of technology could a company get away with calling these earbuds “wireless.” The product is called the BackBeat Go, and the company is Plantronics, and to anybody with more than zero eyes, it’s clear that they are connected by a wire.

Not so, according to the product blurb: “No wires, no hassle, no compromise,” it says. To which we might add “no brains.” Even better, just a few lines later you can read this sentence: “Inline controls let you pause music to take a call, change volume, or skip tracks.”

New Jersey Town May Fine You For Texting While Walking

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iPhone app 'Email 'n Walk' lets you e-mail and walk at the same time

Do you hate those morons who wander through the streets whilst tapping text messages into their phones? Do you want to knock the stupid handset out of their hands every time you’re forced to swerve or step aside to avoid them? Then you might consider moving to Fort Lee, New Jersey, where police have started fining pedestrians who they catch texting while they walk.

Perian Will Get One More Update Before Being Sent Off To Die

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Ninety days after the next update, Perian will be retired

Perian, the six-year old play-anything video package for the Mac, is about to be retired. It won’t be taken out round the back of the farm, forced to stand by an old bathtub and then shot in the back of the head and sprinkled with lime, but it’s close — the project will be donated to the open-source community.

Thumbs-On With Targus’ ‘Fling’ Game Controller For iPad [Review]

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If the Targus joystick would just stick, it would be awesome. Photos Charlie Sorrel (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

I love playing games on my iPad, but I hate playing games with on-screen joysticks. Your finger drifts away from where it’s supposed to be, and you end up flailing around at a crucial moment. If only there was a way to put an actual, physical thumb pad on your iPad’s screen?

Of course, there is. It’s called the Fling, and was debuted some time ago by Ten One Design. I recently picked up the European version, which is the same thing only it’s sold by Targus, and comes in ugly packaging. I have been putting it through its paces in Grand Theft Auto III, Streetfighter 2 and others. How does it do?

Burned, Frozen And Thrown Down Stairs, The Canon 7D Keeps On Shooting [Video]

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I have a love/hate relationship with destruction videos. Love because, well, who doesn’t love seeing how tough our gadgets really are? And hate because smashing up perfectly good items shows everything that is shameful and bad about our wasteful modern society.

So it is with mixed feelings that I bring you Kai W of DigitalRev TV and his series of ever-more-cruel ordeals for the Canon 7D SLR.

$50,000 Leica Special Edition M9-P

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This expensive bauble is destined never to be used

Leica seems to be on a roll, at least when it comes to making up crazier and crazier prices for its cameras. And nothing screams “overpriced” more than a special edition. Well, nothing except a special edition with “Hermes” in its name.

OK. There is one thing more expensive, a special edition Leica, with “Hermes” in its name, and with the whole thing written in French. Behold: the “Leica M9-P ‘Edition Hermès Jean-Louis Dumas’,” a camera that costs just $50,000.

Spigen’s Zipack iPad Case Is Either Brilliant Or Stupid [Review]

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Good or bad? Who knows? Photos Charlie Sorrel (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

As a rule, I don’t like thick folio-style iPad cases, and especially not ones that zip closed. So when I spied the Spigen Zipack in a consignment of cases that arrived some weeks ago, I put it on the bottom of the “to review” pile and ignored it.

However, it turns out that the Zipack’s combination of weird features, featherlight weight and decent amount of protection is a winning one. As there will likely be many folio-haters like me out there who would pass over this case on principal, I thought I’d give it a chance to be seen.