Another optical wireless experiment shows us that LEDs will beam your future downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 187 - 03.13.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TomTom iPhone app hits 1.3, gains real-time traffic and Google local search originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Dead iPad battery? Never mind replacing it, Apple just sends another iPad for $99

Dead iPad battery? Never mind replacing it, Apple just sends another iPad for $99 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

BlackBerry Slider undergoes further undercover inspection, side shots emerge originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ceton's quad CableCARD tuner for Media Center available for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget HD on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Lian Li's PC-T1R Spider case crawls towards a release originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Packard Bell Studio ST media playback drive invades Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PlayStation Move requires only 2MB of RAM, developers breathe sigh of relief originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Scientists discover method for rapid charging Li-ion batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Make your Magic Mouse oh-so-ergonomic with this pasty silicone grip

Make your Magic Mouse oh-so-ergonomic with this pasty silicone grip originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Odroid handheld game console due early March sportin' Android 2.1

Odroid handheld game console due early March sportin' Android 2.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change Nokia's N900? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading One man band rocks the iPod touch, rescues the MIDI clarinet from obscurity

One man band rocks the iPod touch, rescues the MIDI clarinet from obscurity originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Palm offering discounted contract-free phones to developers -- too bad they're carrier locked originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Battery Replacement Service FAQ on Apple's site outlines their policy for handling iPads with diminished battery capacity, and its surprisingly generous: for a $99 service fee, they'll send you a brand new iPad.

The first two items on the FAQ lay it out plain and simple:

If your iPad requires service due to the battery's diminished ability to hold an electrical charge, Apple will replace your iPad for a service fee.

Note: Your iPad is not eligible for Battery Replacement Service if the product has been damaged, for example, as result of an accident, liquid contact, disassembly, unauthorized service or unauthorized modifications, or if the product is not operating correctly as a result of a component failure. Please review Apple's Repair Terms and Conditions for further details.

As to how much it costs:

The service costs $99, plus $6.95 shipping. The total cost is $105.95 per unit.
All fees are in U.S. dollars and are subject to local tax.

If you're still skeptical, they spell it out in a section on backing up your data:

You will receive a replacement iPad that will not contain any of your personal data.

Batteries losing their ability to hold a charge is just a sad fact of gadget life, but this policy should make it a whole lot easier to bear. [Loop Insight]

When you use a site like Gmail, you have to decide: Do I want to use the service's website, or do I want to use it through an app, like Outlook? Here's how to get the best of both worlds.

What I'm talking about is something called site-specific browsers, which are essentially dedicated apps derived from the browsers already installed on your system, designed to load up a single web app. Nothing else. The thing is, limiting the app's functionality to a single website means it can do native-like things, like have its own icon, serve up notifications in the OS X dock, and be launched from Spotlight or the Start Menu like a regular, native program. It's also a great way to run multiple instances of the same service—like two Gmail accounts—without one forcing the other to log out.

And hell, you use web apps like Facebook, Last.fm and Gmail just as much and just as hard as you do regular apps, so haven't they earned their own icons? Their own windows, so they don't get lost in a sea of tabs? Their own notifications? Their own places in your application menus? Their own system processes, so a browser crash won't knock them out, too? Their own lives? Yeah, sure they have. Here's how to make it happen.

Mac OS X: Fluid

The best tool for creating site-specific apps in OS X is called Fluid. It's a free framework for creating your own site-specific apps, based on WebKit, like Apple's Safari or Google's Chrome. So!

1. Download it Fluid here, and drag the app over to your Applications folder.

2. Since the site-specific browsers you'll be creating will have their own icons, you'll need to download those. If you don't, Fluid will pull the site's favorites icon to use as the system icon, which is fine, but can look a bit rough, especially if you run your OS X dock large, or use CoverFlow a lot. This Flickr group has hundreds of available icons, covering just about any site you can imagine. To use them, download the full-size .PNG from Flickr.

3. Create your app! When you open Fluid, You'll be prompted with a window asking you for a URL, a site name (Which will be the app's name, as far as your OS is concerned), a place to save the app (the Applications folder by default) and an option to either use the site's favicon or a custom icon. Fill the fields out, and hit create.

4. Launch your app. The first time you start the app, you'll be prompted to log into the service. After the initial login, though, Fluid will remember your details, so that when you start the app again, it'll be all ready to go.

5. Customize! Ok, so you've got your web app—now it's time to tweak. If you want to change the look of the site, or how certain parts of it function, Fluid supports client-side userscripts, which basically let you reformat the page, or add functionality to it, however you want. From within a Fluid app, click the Script icon in the Menu Bar, and click "Browse Userscripts.org" and see if you find anything you like. If you do, the script should be downloaded and copied to YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Fluid/SSB/YourApp'sName/Userscripts.

There are also a small number of Fluid plugins, which give Fluid greater native app-like powers. These are scattered around the internet, and a good central resource is hard to come by. This Google string tends to work pretty well for finding them, though.

In addition, Fluid itself has some application settings to play around with, most of which are self-explanatory. One that's not, and that comes in handy a lot, is the "Allow Browsing to any URL" option under Settings > Advanced: This prevents new windows opened in Fluid from opening in your default browser instead, and cures most of the issues I've come across with using Fluid with less popular sites that may not have automatic presets built into Fluid.

Windows: Prism

Prism takes a slightly different approach to the creation of site-specific browsers, in that it's an extension for Firefox, not its own app. The creation process, though, isn't terribly different. Here's the routine:

1. Download the Prism extension for Firefox here. (Note: some people have issues with Prism freezing during the setup process, or find core functions, like minimizing to the system tray, missing in this version. In that case, download the last version of Prism right here—it should fix everything, without sacrificing any major features.)
2. Navigate to the webpage you want to convert into an app, let it load, and select "Convert Website to Application" from the Tools menu in Firefox. You'll be prompted with these options. Fill them out as you please:

If you'd like to use a custom icon, as opposed to the website's favorite's icon, you should download a full-res .PNG file from this Flickr group. These are icons created with Fluid (above) in mind, so some may have an OS X-like aesthetic, but they will work, and in the context of Windows 7, they usually look pretty great.

And that's it! Prism isn't as immediately customizable as Fluid for OS X, but it gets the job done.

Alternative: Prism supports something called "Bundles", which automatically apply settings and application icons for popular websites with a single click. Here are a few to try.

Alternative II:Chrome for Windows offers similar functionality to Prism, albeit in a rather basic, stripped-down form. If your only goal is to isolate web apps in their own windows, though, this'll work fine, and takes just a few seconds: newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/R0Mgf66GOr4&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":412,"ratio":0.824,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube"} );

Hat tip to Lifehacker for introducing us to Prism.

And that's it! If you've got any great icon, user script or Prism bundle resources to share, throw them in the comments—your feedback is hugely important to our Saturday How To guides. And if you have any topics you'd like to see covered here, please let me know. Happy web-app-Pinocchio-ing, folks!

Yesterday, Netflix announced that they're pulling the plug on the sequel to their supercool Netflix Prize in which teams competed to improve the company's recommendation algorithm for a million dollar reward. Privacy: can't live with it, can't live without it.

In December, a woman filed a lawsuit against Netflix in which she claimed that their identity (as well as her movie-watching history) could be divined from the huge, anonymous data set Netflix provided to contest participants.

That suit brought Netflix's contest to the attention of the FTC, who raised more questions about all this privacy business, and yesterday Neil Hunt, Netflix's Chief Product Officer, said they were cancelling the contest for good.

This is a bummer! I guess if I thought my movie rentals reflected some part of my personality that I wanted to keep hidden—like if I just happened to be exclusively renting movies that featured very attractive animated female characters, like Space Jam or Who Framed Roger Rabbit—I wouldn't want people digging around in my Netflix history either. But the Netflix Prize was a cool intersection of geekery and business, and I'm sad to see it go. [New York Times]

Image credit gitsul

We're no strangers to the work of Lego master Nathan Sawaya, but his latest creation achieved the impossible: making a Blackberry exciting. It incorporates a working flat screen TV for comfortably displaying video. Clearly he took some artistic liberties.

Hey! Just kidding. I'm a proud—well, not proud, but not like totally ashamed either—Blackberry Bold owner and it works for sending text messages and using Google Maps to keep me oriented. And let's not forget that RIM is doing just fine, thank you very much. But it's true, I've never once watched a video on my Bold.

Sawaya's man-size Blackberry Tour was commissioned for the BlackBerry Developer Conference, where it will be the only thing attendees will be able to recall of the event in 5 years. [Brick Artist via TechnaBob]

In addition to the orientation-lock button, yesterday's pre-order commencement delivered another surprise nugget: the iPad will read all EPUB books out loud. If you remember the shitstorm that surrounded Kindle's text-to-voice feature, you'll know that this is a bold move.

Wired noticed that on its updated iBooks page, under a heading "Change your reading habits," Apple explains that "iBooks works with VoiceOver, the screen reader in iPad, so it can read you the contents of any page." While it may not spark a widespread change in reading habits, for many vision-impaired users it's an essential feature.

But the authors of the books themselves aren't so hot on the idea of being read aloud without their permission, deeming these recitals as "derivative works" for which they deserve additional audio-licensing fees. This battle flared up around Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature, which resulted in an ugly clash between the Authors Guild and the National Federation of the Blind and ultimately in Amazon making the feature optional for authors.

Even in the event that Apple has already received permission from publishers to run the e-books its sells through its text-to-speech software, we know that iBooks will work with any non-DRM EPUB books, which means they, too, can be read aloud and are subject to the derivative works objection.

From a legal standpoint, all of this is a little bit hazy. Amazon touted Kindle's text-to-speech as an dedicated e-book reading feature, whereas Apple's VoiceOver, already included on the iPhone, is an accessibility software that can read the text of any screen. Still, by mentioning it in a section that encourages you to "change your reading habits," its hard to imagine that the Authors Guild will stay mum on the topic. [Wired]

Though the last we heard, Google was nearing a compromise that would allow them to stop censoring their Google.cn results, the Financial Times is reporting that they are almost certainly going to close their Chinese search engine. Since their initial ultimatum in January, Google and China have traded vague statements about reaching a compromise, but, unsurprisingly, talks haven't produced a mutually agreeable solution. [Financial Times]

The Magic Mouse, for all of its sleek lines and multitouch, uh, magic, can feel a little awkward in the hand. MMFixed has the solution: a stick-on hump that gives your fingers some leverage and your palm some lovin'.

I'm in a good place with my trackpad right now. I've finally mastered the multitouch gestures and I'm scrolling, expose-ing, and twisting through tabs like never before. At the same time, it's hard to resist the Magic Mouse's seduction. It's like the Ferrari of mice. You know you don't need it but you can't help wanting it.

newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9261700&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":375,"ratio":0.75,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"vimeo"} );

If that's the case, using the MMFixed hump—a soft, silicone nub that uses a suction cup to attach to the mouse—is like putting one of those funny surfboard-shaped storage things on top of your Ferrari. It might diminish the sex appeal, but if you need the functionality, you need it.

So if you love the Magic Mouse but are worried about your hand forming into a permanent claw from the weird contortions it requires, your fix has arrived. It'll cost you $10 and months of wondering if this is how things were supposed to be. [MM Fixed]

As the intertubes overtake boob tubes and telephone tubes as our primary mode of communication, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that access is available and affordable for all Americans. The FCC's ambitious new plan looks to do just that.

The plan, which will likely be proposed to Congress on Tuesday, got the front page treatment in today's New York Times. We'd heard snatches of the FCC's vision for a National Broadband Plan, and now, it seems, the long push toward implementation is about to begin.

The Federal Communications Commission's plan includes a variety of measures to ensure the strength of our nation's internet infrastructure over the next decade, including giving subsidies to companies who extend their networks into rural areas and developing a universal set-top box to streamline cable TV and internet access.

All of this probably sounds good to you, John Q. Internet Using Public, but it won't be come without a fight from the likes of Comcast and AT&T, who will undoubtedly push back as they try to maintain their control (and bottom lines).

Yesterday, the FCC released their own online speed test, encouraging users to report their results and keep their ISPs in check. Perhaps not the most diplomatic move, but it shows that the Commission understands that not everyone will remain a friend as they put their ambitious proposal in motion. [New York Times]

Image credit INCH

There's no shortage of cutesy portable speakers for listening to music when you're out and about. But if you want something that doesn't feel like it's going to snap in two, the Audio-Technica BoogieBox will do you a solid.

The BoogieBox houses two 70mm speakers in its toolbox body and includes protective bumpers in case your sweaty paw can't keep a grip on its handle.

It has a stereo mini-jack plug so you can play music from whatever device you've got with you and claims a 10 hour battery life. If you're using the BoogieBox to provide a soundtrack for your day at the beach, apparently you'll want to turn in for the day before it does.

Hopefully its sound is as solid as its design; the BoogieBox can be had in red, black, or camouflage for $160 at AudioCubes [AudioCubes via Uncrate]

When we discussed the iPad and whether it was worth giving in to the peer pressure and pre-ordering it, a commenter decided to remind us of his reason for resisting: No Flash. And yes, it can make things look sad.

Of course these screenshots are from an iPhone, but the iPad presently has the same unfortunate lack of Flash support as the iPhone, so the images are a pretty reasonable representation of what we would see.

gawkerGallery(5492412,12,'');

Images originally posted by whatNow

As part of a graduate show at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, students built miniature cities out of common household objects—including this power strip. They're just missing mini-people. [Spoon Tamago via Crib Candy via Boing Boing]

Several star commenters have noted recently that the troll factor is rising again. This post is reminder that all comments wasting words and the comment moderator's time wondering about such issues as "why does gizmodo love/hate/get paid by company XYZ?" may result in zero warnings and then a ban. And whatever happens to your comment account, remember: it's not my fault if you lose your account because you said something stupid. Black Ninja Monday is when the action goes down, so you've got two days to turn things around. The obvious choices: You can have fun in troll hell, or join the ranks of the thoughtful, starred, proud and clever commenters everyone appreciates. Again, Monday: that's when there'll be internet blood everywhere. But it won't be mine.

What if computers could be turned into a worldwide earthquake detecting network? With the Quake Catcher software and your laptop's built-in accelerometer, that might just be possible.

Elizabeth Cochran, an earth scientist at UC Riverside, has already managed to get about 1,000 people to install Quake Catcher and has been tracking the date submitted by the software—including disruptions from the recent magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile.

The system isn't perfect as it's limited by the sensitivity of accelerometers built into computers or ones connected by USB, but at least it does have a mechanism in place to ignore vibrations that are limited to a single machine. This means that accidentally letting your laptop fall off the desk won't make anyone assume there's an earthquake. Now if you coordinated such a drop with a bunch of people in your geographic area on the other hand, we might manage to upset Ms. Cochran a bit. [LA Times via Pop Sci]

It's been a long week and we could use a laugh. We've already started worrying about taxes and pre-ordering iPads, among other stresses. To sum it all up, here are some illustrations from a cartoon maestro called Lunchbreath.

Tobias Lunchbreath is the award-worthy author of numerous contributions to the prestigious IMDB "2Fast2Furious user comments" section, including "Paul WalkEr takes THA $$$ & THA RespeKT" and "Michelle Rodriguez R Eva Mndez? DISCUSS". His talents include hagiography, phrenology, hagio-phrenology, and mutton. In his free time he designs circles. You can follow him on Twitter or see more of his work on Flickr.

Some images may have originally appeared on Core77.

Instead of harpooning a whale for samples, wouldn't it be easier to just collect their snot using an R/C helicopter?

It seems like we're close to a point where all field scientists should be paired up with robotic research assistants. [Make via BB]