Love sleeping with earbuds in? Hate setting your smartphone in its alarm dock before you go to bed? The folks at Thanko have unveiled a little something called EARINALM which may be right up your alley. The premise is pretty straightforward: it’s a set of earbuds that contains an alarm clock, stopwatch, and a calendar. The package includes a USB adapter of charging. Yours now for a mere
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Love sleeping with earbuds in? Hate setting your smartphone in its alarm dock before you go to bed? The folks at Thanko have unveiled a little something called EARINALM which may be right up your alley. The premise is pretty straightforward: it’s a set of earbuds that contains an alarm clock, stopwatch, and a calendar. The package includes a USB adapter of charging. Yours now for a mere
Continue reading …West Penn Allegheny Health System creates an emergency responder app, placing your life in far better hands
March 5, 2011 No Comment
Creating a health-minded application for those who are unconscious, dead, or creeping awfully close to death might not do much good, but creating a health-minded application for those who care for the near-dead… now that’s a novel concept! The West Penn Allegheny Health System has just churned out the EMS Field Partner app for iPod touch and iPhone , giving emergency medical services (EMS) professionals and other first responders the ability to easily sift through a variety of emergency conditions or complaints — such as chest pain, stroke symptoms or fall injury, etc. — and be directed to the closest WPAHS hospital that is most qualified to treat the patient. It also provides an interface with Google Maps and directions to the System’s hospitals, not to mention “up to the minute traffic information as well.” For more serious encounters, there’s a direct link to West Penn Allegheny’s LifeFlight Command Center, with the built-in location system telling the backend where to send an emergency helicopter. The app’s available for free as we speak, but many of the features (like the chopper request, we’re guessing) will require registration. We know, we know — you had all sorts of crazy ideas. [Thanks, Ryan] West Penn Allegheny Health System creates an emergency responder app, placing your life in far better hands originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Skyhook brings location-awareness to the Sony NGP, including WiFi-only models
March 5, 2011 No Comment
The news got a bit overshadowed by some augmented reality demos and a little game called Uncharted , but Sony also talked a bit about the NGP’s location-aware capabilities at GDC this past week , which we now know will rely on Skyhook’s Core Engine system. What’s more, that functionality will apparently be included on WiFi-only models in addition to those with 3G, which means that all NGP users will be able to play location-aware games and take advantage of other various social applications. As explained by Sony at GDC, that could include things like the ability to find nearby NGP users and see what they’re playing, and even more elaborate things like real-life treasure hunts — all of which can presumably be switched off if you prefer to keep your mobile gaming habits to yourself. Continue reading Skyhook brings location-awareness to the Sony NGP, including WiFi-only models Skyhook brings location-awareness to the Sony NGP, including WiFi-only models originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Seagate ships 7,200RPM 3TB Barracuda XT internal hard drive, we wonder what took so long
March 5, 2011 No Comment
We’ve been hearing about Seagate’s plans to offer an unencumbered 3TB hard drive since May of last year, but despite promises of a 2010 launch and the release of similarly large HDDs from companies like Western Digital and Hitachi , we’re only now seeing the 3TB Barracuda XT shipping all on its own. We won’t claim to have an explanation for the delay, but it’s possible that the company’s proprietary software — which breaks the 2.1TB legacy OS barrier and enables this guy to function within Windows XP — could have something to do with it. It might be tardy to the party, but the new Barracuda can definitely hold its own when stacked against the competition — it spins at 7,200RPM, touts a 64MB cache, and plays nice with the 6Gbps SATA interface. It ain’t the only 3TB fish in the sea, but at $280, it’s definitely not dead in the water. Seagate ships 7,200RPM 3TB Barracuda XT internal hard drive, we wonder what took so long originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Motorola Atrix docks literally and figuratively torn apart, hack enables Webtop over HDMI port
March 5, 2011 No Comment
Motorola’s got a fine smartphone in the Atrix 4G , but a mildly unsatisfactory pair of modular docks. Good thing, then, that you can gain the most intriguing functionality they add without buying one! Fenny of xda-developers reportedly figured out a way to modify the phone’s APK files to activate Webtop mode over a standard HDMI cable — with no dock needed as a go-between — allowing you to experience the Atrix’s PC-like functionality when connected to any HDMI-ready computer monitor or TV. Of course, you’ll need a rooted and deodexed phone to give it a try, but we hear those aren’t monumentally difficult to come by. While Fenny’s hack could potentially make the desktop dock obsolete — assuming you’ve got a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard handy — Motorola’s LapDock is still something else. It’s razor-thin, it doesn’t require a separate monitor, and it charges your phone. So, before you write it off entirely, you might at least want to indulge your morbid curiosity about what’s inside, and thus there’s a complete teardown video after the break to show you what the guts look like. Enjoy! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Continue reading Motorola Atrix docks literally and figuratively torn apart, hack enables Webtop over HDMI port Motorola Atrix docks literally and figuratively torn apart, hack enables Webtop over HDMI port originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Samsung may have been humbled by Apple’s iPad 2, but the company’s apparently not letting that affect its plans — without directly refuting statements by a Samsung VP that the upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1 was “inadequate” or might be priced cheaper than originally intended, the company told the Yonhap News Agency that the tablet will be released on schedule. In other words, the Honeycomb tablet’s not getting any thinner or lighter, but something’s gotta give, and Samsung’s not quite ready to say just what that is. Samsung says Galaxy Tab 10.1 is still on schedule, iPad 2 be darned originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Aquafairy AF-M3000 might finally make consumer fuel cell charging a disappointing reality (video)
March 5, 2011 No Comment
We’ve been promised portable fuel cells for ages, now. Ages! Finally one is only months away from release — but its performance seems so limited we’re not sure we care anymore. It’s the Aquafairy AF-M3000 and, despite its name, it’s powered not by water but by ethanol fuel packs. Here’s where the bad news comes in: a single fuel pack only provides enough current to get an iPhone up to a 50 percent charge, and it’ll take 90 minutes at that. So, you’ll need two cartridges and three hours of your time just to bring a dead mobile back to life, and given each pack costs around $6 (it’s 2,625 yen, about $32 for a pack of five), the entire proposition is rather expensive . That doesn’t even factor in the cost of the unit itself: 26,250 yen or about $320. It’s set to ship in Japan in April, so get ready to finally enter the future. Nobody said it’d necessarily be a great place to be. Continue reading Aquafairy AF-M3000 might finally make consumer fuel cell charging a disappointing reality (video) Aquafairy AF-M3000 might finally make consumer fuel cell charging a disappointing reality (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Aquafairy AF-M3000 might finally make consumer fuel cell charging a disappointing reality (video)
March 5, 2011 No CommentWe’ve been promised portable fuel cells for ages, now. Ages! Finally one is only months away from release — but its performance seems so limited we’re not sure we care anymore. It’s the Aquafairy AF-M3000 and, despite its name, it’s powered not by water but by ethanol fuel packs. Here’s where the bad news comes in: a single fuel pack only provides enough current to get an iPhone up to a 50 percent charge, and it’ll take 90 minutes at that. So, you’ll need two cartridges and three hours of your time just to bring a dead mobile back to life, and given each pack costs around $6 (it’s 2,625 yen, about $32 for a pack of five), the entire proposition is rather expensive . That doesn’t even factor in the cost of the unit itself: 26,250 yen or about $320. It’s set to ship in Japan in April, so get ready to finally enter the future. Nobody said it’d necessarily be a great place to be. Continue reading Aquafairy AF-M3000 might finally make consumer fuel cell charging a disappointing reality (video) Aquafairy AF-M3000 might finally make consumer fuel cell charging a disappointing reality (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …We won’t read too much into this, but it comes at an interesting time — with only a month left before RIM is expected to debut the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the company’s chief marketing officer has resigned. The Wall Street Journal reports that RIM CMO Keith Pardy (formerly with Nokia) will leave due to “personal reasons” after a six-month transition period is up. The publication’s anonymous sources add that Pardy actually made the decision a month ago, and that the move “reflects larger turmoil” within RIM — as opposed to any sort of knee-jerk reaction over the iPad 2 launch, we suppose. To be frank, we’re a little worried about the fate of the PlayBook if it’s indeed close to launch — when we tried a prototype at the Game Developer’s Conference this past week in San Francisco, the hardware was still pretty solid, but the software was a bit sparse, and what was there felt like it needed more than a few coats of polish. [Thanks, Jonathan W.] RIM’s chief marketing officer resigns originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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