News - page 35

There isn’t anyone with a model catalog quite like Sony (how the hell do they keep track of these things?). The company has just refreshed their line of midpriced, bass-heavy MDR-XB headphones with three new models, replacing four previous ones.

The three new models, the XB800 ($150), XB600 ($100) and XB400 ($60), all follow Sony’s headphone design template: soup-bowl sized, perfectly circular cups attached to massive headbands (the headband on the XB800 is so formidable it looks like it could maybe double as a helicopter landing strut).

There’s so much wordplay to be had in this post that if I start now, I might just forget to write about the product itself. So if you want dick jokes and Star Wars references, you’ll find them at the end of this post. In the meantime, let’s take a look at Richard Solo’s horribly-named FreeWheelin Audio System For Helmets.

Google has started to index the contents of your e-mail attachments, and you can now search on them in the Gmail interface. This is new, and pretty great.

But if you’re using the iOS Mail app to wrangle your Gmail accounts, it works there too. I discovered this in the process testing out the browser version and — as you might expect — Apple’s version is both more elegant and less useful.

Remember when people used to say that the iPhone was useless for e-mail as it doesn't have a hardware keyboard? Think back: it was a while ago, around the same time that the iPhone was doomed for not supporting Flash.

Got it? Well, apparently some people somewhere still think that way, and this post is for them (if you know one of them, perhaps you could print out this article and fax it to them or something). Yes, you can now turn your state-of-the-art iPhone 5 into an also-ran BlackBerry.

Having spent far too much time and money trying to mount an iPad onto the handlebars of my bike, I know all about fastenings both simple and complex. And I also know when to quit with the DIY and just drop some cash.

The Satechi Bikemate Slim 3 isn't big enough for the iPad, but it will fit iPhones both tall and fat, and its mounting is both simple and easy to use.

Tripod and lighting supremo Manfrotto — the Italian company whose name seems to combine the words “man” and “frottage” — is finally getting in on the iPhonegraphy game. And its Klyp looks to be every bit as sturdy and well thought out as the rest of its products.

DJing on the iPad just got real. Or something. I'm not really sure if that's how disc jockeys speak. What I do know is that Algoriddim's Djay 1.6 adds some major new features thanks to iOS 6. What kind of features? Oh, you know… Just things like full dual stereo outputs for monitoring and playing different songs at the same time.

Missing Google Street View? Can't wait for it to be incorporated into a Flash-free, Mobile Safari-friendly version of the Google Maps web app? Then go download Live Street View, a Street View app which has just been updated to make it — frankly — awesome on the iPad.

Quietly, and with not so much as a dedicated press release to mark the occasion, Apple has started selling the iPhone 5 in new markets. As midnight rolled around last night (or this morning, depending on your point of view) online Apple Stores opened up for business.

And boy is this thing expensive.

I remember playing MechWarrior 2 in the mid 90s. Man, what thrill — I spent days piloting horribly destructive giant robots around a 3D battlefield, firing rockets, blasting anything that moved with terawatt lasers.

Of course, that was on my old 386 PC clone, back when I still followed the dark side of the force and hadn’t jumped onto a Mac yet. But the MechWarrior / BattleTech series of games has been around on Apple machines since day one — so I’m pretty jazzed to finally see the a MechWarrior game arrive for the iPad in the form of MechWarrior: Tactical Command.

It’s been nine months since Madfinger Games teased a multiplayer version of its hit title ShadowGun. An early build of the game was demoed at CES back in January along with a YouTube video showing off some in-game footage. A few lucky CES attendees received some hands-on with the game and MadFinger Games claimed a Q1 launch. Well, Q1 has long since passed with no sign or word on the future of ShadowGun Deadzone. That was until today.

Some of the most amazing moments of my life happened underwater at Hanaunama Bay in Hawaii. I can remember the serenity I felt swimming with sea turtles and simply losing myself in this underwater paradise. I’ve often told my wife about these adventures and now, thanks to the amazing Google Maps, I can relive them via the remarkable new underwater Street View imagery.

Gameloft is doing what it does best: teasing its upcoming titles. Next on their list is Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour and they’ve released quite the reveal trailer for us to drool over. Being released for Android and iOS this fall, the next installation in the Modern Combat series looks just as intense as the 3rd and chock full of guns, ammo and bloodshed.

iOS 6's Passbook app isn't just for big-business companies to use. Yes, you'll be able to use it to check in to your flights, and to get discounts at your favorite international coffee chain, but now mom and pop stores, your local food cart or even a stall at the local flea market will be able to offer you coupons and membership, using a new free app called People's Card.

The iPhone isn’t the only thing that looks more handsome when it gets taller and thinner. Bookbindery cases get better looking too, as you can see with event he quickest glance and Pad&Quill’s new Little Pocket Book. Stretched lengthwise and squashed a little depth-wise, it’s “thinnest we have ever made,” says P&Q honcho Brian Holmes.

Remember when Buster found an iPhone at the bottom of a river while he was floating down it on an inner-tube? The previous owner had the right idea: he sealed it in a plastic bag to keep out the elements. But he forgot one thing: Even in a bag, the short, heavy, ugly iPhone 4 will sink like, well, like last year's crappy iPhone.

What he should have used was Coghlan's Dry Pouch.

You're in a hotel room, and you want to hook up to the in-room Wi-Fi. And guess what? It sucks, just like at every other hotel you ever stayed at. So Instead you dig out your MacBook and hook it up to the hotel's Ethernet cable, and use internet sharing to generate your own wireless network.

Wait… The newest MacBooks Air don't have Ethernet ports. But don't worry: you can pick up the $60 mySpot from Kanex, a little dongle which takes an Ethernet connector and turns its sweet network payload into a wireless cloud, ready for all your iDevices and your non-Ethernet MacBook Air.

Some gadget accessories just keep coming back, getting useful again after they've been sat at the back of a kitchen drawer of a closet for a few months, or even a few years. I have an acrylic business-card display thingy which has done duty as an iPad 1 stand, a speaker hook, a phone charging station and –right now — an iPad 3 movie-watching stand. And I thought €8 was expensive for a piece of bent Perspex.

The ItFits looks like that kind of accessory. It bends to fit almost any small phone-sized gadget, and acts as both a stand and a clip. Let's take a look:

Adobe has launched new, simpler versions of its Elements editing apps for the desktop: Photoshop Elements (photos) and Premier elements (video). These are already cut-down versions of Photoshop and Premier, and are already simplified, but the newer versions go further still.

We’ve seen how fanatical the people at Rokform — an offshoot of Southern California-based motorcycle aftermarket outfit Two Brothers Racing — is about building the ultimate device case; back in 2011 we tested their aluminum Rokbed iPhone case and came away with the impression it was a hyper-engineered beauty.

For their new Roklock v3 iPad case, they’ve ditched the alloy in favor of polycarbonate and added more mounting options than…well, you read the headline.

Swampy the Alligator from the hit game Where’s My Water? is turning one tomorrow. To celebrate this milestone, Disney takes a look at Swampy’s first year and the over 2 billion showers he has taken. Bathe in Swampy’s achievements and then head into the game for an exclusive birthday-themed level (tap the birthday present).

Have a happy birthday tomorrow Swampy and thanks for the hours of fun!

After boarding a plane to Melbourne, Australia to be one of the first in the whole world to get their hands on an iPhone 5, the folks at iFixit have torn it apart and found that — surprise — the new iPhone seems to actually have been designed with easy repair in mind. Partially, at least.

Motorola is looking to bring down the ban hammer on almost every Apple product out there, including every Mac OSX computer. I have no idea if Motorola is just looking to throw spaghetti at the wall or what, but they have a long list of infringements that apparently the International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate.

A lot has been written over the last day or so about the crappy maps in iOS 6, and the fact that Apple’s new data engine doesn’t live up to its pretty new map tiles and spectacular flyover feature.

I thought exactly the same thing when I first installed a beta of iOS 6 on my iPad a month or two back. But while Apple’s maps are definitely a step back in many ways, it’s not all as bad as it seems. Not quite anyway.

But guess what? If you’re willing to use a couple extra apps until Apple fixes things, you can get everything back that you’re missing.

Got a set of those annoying lenses for your iPhone that attach via magnets? Me too. The results are great, but getting the magnets lined up to the metal donut surrounding the lens is a real pain.

And so the following news is mixed. It's bad news because it uses the same dumb attachment system, and it's good news because it's a polarizer for the iPhone. And not just any polarizer, either. This one is made by legendary filter-monger B+W.