Eli Milchman - page 28

With all the Apple hoopla yesterday, we missed the fact that Epson announced a new all-in-one printer it says is the “fastest in its class.”

The wifi-equipped all-in-one Epson Stylus NX625 printer will run at a blazing 15 pages/minute in black (but only 7.2 in color) — compare that with the Artisan 710 we tested late last year which clocked in at 9.5 ppm in black and 9 in color.

The NX625 will retail for $150 and should be available later this month. See the press release for all the details we omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPfCZC4VHnE

Its name suggests it might be a ’70s-era diet soda laced with LSD, but the Galaxy Tab is actually the latest iPad challenger from Samsung — a 7-inch tablet unveiled today at Germany’s version of CES.

Seems Samsung’s stuffed the Android-powered Galaxy Tab (giggle) with enough hardware to make it a worthy challenger: a bright 1024×600 WSVGA screen, a fast processor and 3G (GSM), wifi and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity. But it also includes stuff that might make  iPad owners envious — like a all the whiz-bang sensors of the iPhone 4 (including the gyroscope), a front-facing and a rear-facing camera, and a micro-SD card slot for memory upgrades.

Samsung says it’ll hit the UK first “in the coming months.” No word on pricing or a Stateside launch.

[via Engadget]

Ok, maybe the little black box won’t arrive in every single home, but unlike the 1st-gen AppleTV, the 2nd-gen announced today is going to sell like buttery hotcakes slathered in maple syrup.

The iPhone’s strong nod to photography just got more emphatic with the introduction of HDR in today’s iOS 4.1 update.

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, combines the best parts of an underexposed image with the best parts of an overexposed image — so it’s really three images in one.

The results can be stunning, and up till now the effect was only available on the iPhone through third-party apps. It’s another sign that the iPhone is more than just a photographic toy, and it’s a big deal that Apple saw fit to include it in iOS 4.1.

Apple is live-streaming today’s big announcement, so you’ll be able to see the new iPod firsthand. The link isn’t live yet, but should be soon — Apple takes the stage at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

Here’s the link: https://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1009qpeijrfn/event

Update: It’s now live!

iPad-slash-Pogoplug users, quit yer whining that your iPad doesn’t print, find an iPad-sans-Pogoplug user and launch into an obnoxious victory dance in their immediate vicinity.

That’s right, Pogoplug has just begun rolling out a firmware update that’ll enable printing from any iDevice (so iPhone/iPt users get to shake a little booty also) to any 2005-or-newer vintage Epson or HP printer. The release says the rollout will stretch out over a week, so be patient.

All-business, pink-hating Pogopluggers and ‘Pluggers with their ‘Plugs way over on the other side of the room from their routers will be happy to hear that the $300 Pogoplug Biz (which ditches the hot pink highlights for stark grey and comes with a whole bunch of enterprise upgrades) and the $30 Wireless Extender (a USB dongle that obviously obviates the need for an ethernet cable connection) ship today. More good news: Current Pogoplug owners get the Wireless Extender for free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxCNyR5NfmU

I’ve always thought time-lapse snapshots were a neat way to visually track change over time. Bay Area-based developer Redbot thinks so too, and they’ve created a Time Lapse Photo Journal for the iPhone that makes it easy to create time-lapse albums and share them with hapless victims your friends.

Use the app to resize and reposition each shot, set reminders to take shots of the subject and fine-tune the slideshows. The results can be shared via email, YouTube or on Facebook. No word on pricing, and the app isn’t available yet but should hit the App Store next week.

It may be somewhat hard to remember — what with sporadically poor call performance, lots of other hardware to play around with and all those apps — that the iPhone is more-or-less primarily a tool for voice communication. And there’s no better or cheaper way to use that tool than through the Skype app.

My dad was a magician at sniffing out great places to eat. We’d drive by some hole-in-the-wall we’d never seen before, and he’d point and say, “that’s where we’ll  eat, it’s good.” Then I’d scramble to check out the hole-in-the-wall’s rating using the Yelp app on my iPhone, to see if he was right. The result was always the same: me shaking my head in disbelief as Yelp’s vast community of raters would invariably agree with him.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have a magic nose. But that’s ok — we’ve got Yelp.

Dealing with overheating engines by running cold air over them is fine for old Volkswagen Beetles with almost the horsepower of an electric toothbrush and weird French cars (I know, the word “weird” there is redundant). As engines have become more powerful though, air-cooling has become less attractive — at least, in the automotive world. Computers still lag behind though. Mostly.

Zack Fanning, who handles (surprise) marketing for computer cooling system expert Asetek, asked the outfit’s engineers to mod his Mac Pro with a liquid cooling system. The results are pretty interesting: He’s able to overclock his 2.8 ghz Mac Pro to 3.18 while reducing noise — due to the fan not having to work as hard — by 13 decibels over a strictly air-cooled Mac Pro running at the same speed. Pretty cool.

Want one? While Zack’s is a one-off, lovingly handcrafted custom job, Corsair’s H50 liquid cooling system (actually made for them by Asetek) can be had for about $80; just make sure to check first about compatibility, because the H50’ll only work with later-model Mac Pros.

When we reviewed ID8-Mobile’s sneaky little MoGo Talk XD a month ago, we mentioned that it was only available for the 3G/s, but ID8-Mobile said they had an iPhone 4 version in the works. Turns out they weren’t kidding.

The iPhone 4 MoGo Talk — which hides a thin Bluetooth headset in a sleek case —  is a little lumpier than its predecessor due to the fact that they’ve dropped the problematic flip-up charging port in favor of a port completely housed within the case; on the other hand, the case is still better-looking than a bumper.

At $99, the iPhone 4 MoGo Talk XD is $30 less than the older version; current owners of the older case can upgrade to the iPhone 4 case for $20 through the company’s website.

One of the first — if not the first — apps to take advantage of the iPhone 4’s forward-facing camera for security purposes should appeal to users with nosey coworkers and paranoid types alike.

Free app Big Brother keeps grubby mitts (that aren’t yours) from defiling your iPhone 4 by launching the passcode screen if someone attempts access while the app is running, then emits a blaring alarm if the passcode is botched; it also takes two photos and records the GPS coordinates if the alarm is triggered — and emails you the info — so you can maybe identify who’s prying, and where the attempted access occurred.

It’s no realtime GPS iPhone tracker, but it could act as a deterrent — or possibly help locate a stolen iPhone in cases where the iPhone is snatched and then fiddled with later.

This app requires practically a Best Buy full of hardware: not just an iPhone, a TV and a Wii as well. But if you’re already set up — or eager enough to run out and pop for the hardware because of this app — for $3, WiiPhoto will connect the dots and let you display photos on your TV from the iPhone via a wifi connection.

The app will also let users pull images from a Flickr, Facebook or SmugMug account, or from a Mac attached to the same local network, and throw them up on the screen  — with all these sources easily accessed from within the app. Pretty cool idea for easy image-surfing from the couch.

Want to play a bunch of imaginary drums in the air around you? Who doesn’t! Buy an iPhone 4.

That’s right, developer Logic Consulting has created an app called Gyro Air Drums that leverages the iPhone 4’s gyroscope to create a virtual drum kit positioned in a two-tier, 300-degree arc around the user, then turns the iPhone itself into the drumstick. The $3 set includes a snare, hi-hat, hi and low toms, a finger-controlled bass pedal, the all-important cowbell and even a taiko drum

Judging by the demo in the clip above, the app isn’t sophisticated enough for any Dave Grohl-style drumming delight, and you’ll still look like a dork, waving your iPhone around  — but it doesn’t matter; the idea is so cool, you’ll get dates anyway.

Either Steve Jobs is so ticked off with the media, he’s spending his off-hours fiendishly drilling fake holes into forthcoming iPod Touch parts and leaking them (which is…well, who knows) — or we really are about to get a FaceTime-capable iPt when iPod unveiling-time rolls around, traditionally in early September.

MacRumors is brandishing these photos, leaked to them by an iDevice repair service, as further proof of earlier whispers that the imminent next-gen iPt will have a forward-facing camera. In the photo of the bezel above, the small hole on the right would likely be where the forward-facing camera would sit.

We know what you’re asking: How the heck did a repair service get ahold of future iPt bezels, and why does their website look so sketchy ? We don’t know. We’re just giddy that the new iPt is going to have FaceTime. Probably.

In yet another example of art imitating life — or imitating an iPhone app, or whatever — nefariously addictive app Pocket God is now a digital comic book, available at the App Store.

But developer Bolt Creative says the comic will also materialize as an honest-to-goodness printed comic, with a feature in the app helping users find comic-book stores stocking the title. Digital issues are a buck, and future issues will be available as in-app purchases; no details on the printed version yet.

And just in case you missed it, the comic’s first issue is accompanied by Pocket God’s — wow — 33rd  episode, which has our little half-pint islanders evading a massive gorilla in the jungle and performing rituals. Sound familiar?

Like we mentioned a few weeks ago, we’re pretty excited about the potential for the iPhone morphing into all kinds of contraptions through hooking up with a little extra hardware. New Potato is one of the lead outfits in this area, and they’ve just introduced a kit that turns the iPhone into a bike super-computer. Rad.

The $99 kit contains a rather large cadence/speed sensor, ruggedized rubber iPhone mount, mounting hardware and a dongle that the iPhone uses to communicate with the sensor; combine the  kit with the free LiveRider app, and presto — a cycling computer with all the standard functions (speed along with max and average, time, distance, cadence, pace) and more advanced functions like competing against a chase bike, ride map and speed graph.

Being the bike geeks we are here at the Cult, we’ve already started playing around with a test unit and we’ll have a full report up soon. Can’t wait? LiveRider is available from retailer J&R or directly from New Potato.

Ever tried asking a cow about the weather?  Because they’re not really the most informative beasts (about the weather, anyway).

“Cow, it looks like it might rain sometime today — any idea when?” Cud-chewing.

“How strong d’you think the wind will be later?” More cud-chewing, accompanied by blank staring.

“Look, cow, can you at least tell me if there are any severe weather advisories I should be aware of?” Cud-chewing stops, then resumes a few seconds later; blank stare may or may not actually be a look of terror.

Using the iPhone’s native Weather app is like asking a cow about the weather: it’s cute and harmless, but not very informative. Unless you’re exceptionally partial to cows and/or don’t mind walking off into the occasional surprise thunderstorm, it should be banished to the back page and replaced with The Weather Channel’s app.

In the wake of the flood of Apple toys launched earlier this week, we missed the launch yesterday of the The $500 HDC-SDX1 by Panasonic, which they’re calling the world’s lightest 1080i HD camcorder.

Besides a dry weight of 185 grams — about the same weight as the first iPod — the camcorder can be attached to a Mac and used as a webcam (albeit an expensive one). And like the much-less expensive HM-TA1 we mentioned yesterday, the SDX1 supports Apple’s iFrame format introduced last October.

Other stuff worth noting includes a 35.8mm wide-angle lens, 23x zoom and a new optical-electrical hybrid image-stabilization system.

Here’s one more trick exclusive to the iPhone 4: Launch new app You Gotta See This, pan the camera over a large subject and the app will create a panograph — a collage of still photographs that together form a larger image — using the series of still images just captured while you were waving your iPhone around. The key to this wizardry is the 4’s gyroscope, which helps the app place the images exactly where they should be — which is why the app won’t work on any iPhone but the 4.

Once created, masterpieces can be saved, emailed or shared via Twitter or Facebook.

You Gotta See This is $2; hopefully the developers will use some of the profits to buy the app a better name.

Newton Peripherals carved out a niche in the gadget-universe, guided by the simple principle that the best gadget is the one you take with you — because that’s the one you’ll use. They created the MoGo Mouse, a mouse-remote hybrid that tucks away into a laptop’s pc-card slot, then followed it with the MoGo Talk: an ultra-slim Bluetooth headset that resides in — and actually forms part of — a case which attaches to the back of the iPhone 3G/s.

But while the design concept is brilliant, engineering-wise, the Talk wasn’t quite ready for prime-time when originally released; complaints surfaced that the headset was difficult to eject from the case, and more alarmingly, that the case’s pop-up charging port was fragile and often broke, removing the only method available for charging the headset.

ID8-Mobile has since snapped up Newton Peripherals, addressed the Talk’s problems, made a few other minor improvements to the case (while leaving the headset unchanged) and re-released it as the MoGo Talk XD. So did they get it right?

Email and texting is so yesterday; we’re all down with Twitter and Facebook and whatnot these days, so it only makes sense that the new 2.0 update for Nuance‘s speech-recognition app for the iPhone, Dragon Dictation, now adds the ability to send messages as status updates and tweets instead of just as emails or texts.

Another, smaller improvement, is the ability to instantly paste the transcript into the body of a text message.

Finally, in addition to standard Yankee English, the app now also supports “Engish (United Kingdom),” which presumably means it’ll insert the letter “u” randomly into words throughout the message. More languages arriving soon, including German in a few weeks and Italian, French and Spanish by the year’s end.

[via Macworld]

Nothing like dropping a little ninja into a spoiling dish to spice things up. In this case, the dish is a game like Tap-Tap Revenge, and the ninja is…well, it’s a ninja. Sorta.

Rhythm Spirit ($2) lets you control a little rendered cartoon-ninja named Toshi as he battles through ten levels of Japanese-ish folklore after being “empowered by a spirit.” The art and soundtrack look and sound tasty, but it’s the way you control Toshi — through tapping out fight (or flight) commands to the rhythm of the soundtrack— that makes this game stand out from the crowd.

Try the free version if you’re still not sold after watching the vid.

Tanoshii’n da!

While it sounds like it might provide hands-free texting, currently, Text’nDrive doesn’t — although the developer says that’ll change when support for texts arrives in October.

What the app does right now though, is make emailing a completely hands-free affair, by reading each incoming email and allowing the user to reply by dictating an email back to the app, which it then translates into text — kind of like having your own personal secretary. The app also supports Bluetooth devices, which should reduce garbled emails.

Even with the price slashed in half to $10 yesterday — the app was $20 when it was launched on Tuesday — it’s still a pretty big leap to take, so there’s a free version that limits the text-to-speech function to 45 words per email; unfortunately, it also drops the speech-to-text function completely, so there’s no way to test how well the app’ll interpret your speech.

Perhaps it took a little longer than expected, but promise of background VoIP via the Giant Blue S has finally been fulfilled: With the Skype app’s 2.0.1 update, it’ll now run in the background (on any iPhone updated to iOS4, of course). Launch it, leave it running, and it’ll function just like your AT&T account — as long as the incoming call is from a Skype account, or you’ve paid for a Skype online number.

It also means that you’ll be able to switch the screen off or mess around with other apps on your iPhone while gabbing away on Skype.

The update arrives barely a week after Fring users suddenly lost the ability to make calls with Fring using their Skype accounts.