Found Footage: Google's ad, Mac style

Happy weekend! Google may have won some hearts with its Super Bowl ad a little while back, but we all know that Apple is the king of advertising when it comes to technology, so YouTuber allenmonroeiii decided to make a little parody of the Google ad and promote the Mac instead. Strangely, it actually works -- while the audio is straight from the Google ad (which tells the story of a guy who finds love in Paris by searching on Google), the music serves just as well to tell the story of someone frustrated by a Windows PC purchase. No, this probably won't sell any computers (it's for us Mac heads...

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Apple gives Vancouver Olympic visitors a rare treasure

For some fans of the Olympic Winter Games, it's all about the beauty and grace of figure skating. For others, it's the organized chaos of short-track speed skating, or the aerial bravado of the half-pipe. And for some, it has nothing to do with the sports of winter. Instead, they're intent on pin trading and collecting. While this may sound like an odd pastime, for some Olympic fans pin collecting is a huge deal. The official Vancouver 2010 website store lists 459 different pins for collecting...

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Dell Mini 5 to be the vanguard of 'a family of tablets'

Well isn't this good to know. The Mini 5 isn't even coming out for at least another month, yet already we're hearing Dell has big plans for what's to follow. Wired has the dish straight from Neeraj Choubey, GM of Dell's tablet division, that there will be "a family of tablets" which will "scale up to a variety of sizes." It appears there will be a common feature set throughout the forthcoming portfolio, so it's likely going to be Android all the way, while Choubey also shared his company's intention...

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Shuttle's XS35 nettop is 3.3cm thin, too nice to hide behind your HDTV

Nettops keep getting better, and thinner too if Shuttle's latest is anything to go by. It's the XS35, a 3.3cm thin affair packing a a dual-core Intel Atom D510 at 1.6GHz and Ion 2 graphics with HDMI output for easy connectivity to your high definition display of choice. Somehow the company has also found room for five USB ports, VGA and discrete audio outputs, an Ethernet jack, and a card reader. It's passively cooled, so the only noise you'll hear will be the spinning platters of its 2.5-inch...

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Haleron's 7-inch iLet Mini HAL costs $199, ships March 1

Want a tablet computer sans all the brand loyalty drama and eye-opening prices? Haleron's got just the thing for you with its iLet Mini HAL. Its humble spec brings only a 600MHz VIA CPU and 128MB of DDR2 RAM to the table, but it runs Android 1.6 and if all you want is a tablet to access the web with, do you really need more? Additionally, the onboard 2GB of flash storage is augmented with 10GB of cloud storage and the cheap expandability that's on offer via flash memory cards or USB drives. The...

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Mac 101: Navigating OS X with your keyboard

Let's face it: unless you're just casually surfing the Internet or playing a game, chances are pretty good that your hands are on the keyboard most of the time when you're at the computer. Sure, the mouse is only a few inches away, but wouldn't it just be easier if you didn't have to keep going back and forth from the mouse to the keyboard? Enter the world of keyboard shortcuts. A keyboard shortcut is exactly what the name implies: a way of using the keys on your keyboard to quickly perform...

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AT&T announces expanded availability of 3G MicroCell

It may not be the news that folks in some particularly problematic areas have been waiting for, but AT&T has now announced that it's finally expanded availability of its 3G MicroCell beyond its initial testbed of North Carolina. The new markets apparently include some additional areas of North Carolina, along with at least some parts of South Carolina and Georgia, plus San Diego and Las Vegas. Hit up the link below to punch in your zipcode for exact availability, and all the necessary details...

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Sharp PB20ZU gets FCC approval -- is this 'Pure' from Microsoft's Project Pink?

The puzzle pieces are all fitting together now, aren't they? Just a few days after regulatory passage of the PB10ZU from Sharp -- a device that could very well be the pebble-shaped Turtle -- we're now seeing a separate filing for the PB20ZU. The label document isn't terribly detailed here, but if you squint your eyes, you can definitely see how this lines up perfectly with the concept of a landscape QWERTY slider which is exactly what Project Pink's rumored second phone, the Pure, is expected to...

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Philips intros new Ambilight HDTVs, speakers and other AV wares

Philips ain't much for introducing new gear here on US soil, but for those fortunate enough to buy their milk with Euros, the company has a cornucopiaof new kit to tempt you with. It seems as if the company chose to skip right over CES and do its own thing here in late February, with the "2010 Consumer Lifestyle" event bringing to us a refreshed lineup of LED-backlit Ambilight HDTVs (7000, 8000 and 9000 series), a new Immersive Sound home theater system (with tri-speaker satellites) and the aluminum-tinged...

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Full text searches on the iPhone? There WAS an app for that.

Sometimes you can't win for losing. A few weeks ago, I was talking to fellow blogger and all-around genius Brett Terpstra about how I wished there was a full-text search for iPhone mail. He told me that there was, and it was called reMail. I immediately downloaded the free app, paid the US $3.99 for the in-app feature of using IMAP mailboxes, and reMail started downloading copies of all my mail. This took overnight, but so what? When done, I could search on any word or term just like the Macintosh...

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Microsoft: Windows Phone 7 upgrades will be possible, up to OEMs to make them happen

Alright, keep your socks on here, this is as noncommittal a statement as Redmond can make on the matter, but when asked directly about the likelihood and possibility of Windows Mobile 6.5 phones being transitioned to the new hotness that is Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft's Alex Reeve had this to say: It's early days yet, and that's really for our hardware partners to think about. As the Director of the company's UK Mobile Business Group, he's well positioned to know what's going to happen...

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Pentax makes all-weather Optio W90 and superzoom X90 official

Pentax is going for broke with its take on the rugged camera, the W90, which is unlikely to ever be confused for a svelte and stylish point-and-shoot. What it loses in looks, it gains in usability, however, as the 12.1 megapixel shooter can withstand shocks from a height of four feet, go nearly 20 feet under water, and withstand temperatures as slow as -10 degrees Celsius. The dustproofing is just topping on that rugged cake, though it still offers things like 720p / 30fps video recording and 5x...

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Palm sales 'lower than expected,' revenues to miss targets

Ruh-roh. Palm just confirmed what we heard from analysts yesterday: sales aren't going so well. The company's updated its third quarter financial guidance to say that consumer adoption of its products is "taking longer than expected," leading to lowered order volumes from carriers and deferral of some orders to "future periods." That certainly puts that "Chinese New Year" Pre / Pixi work stoppage in a slightly different context, doesn't it? Looking at the new numbers, Palm says it expects non-GAAP...

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MoProUSA shows off fully integrated Wiimote pistols, tempts investors

As a Nintendo Wii owner, you've certainly got a smattering of options when it comes time to fire up the light gun, but even Nintendo's Wii Zapper can't hold a candle to this. Moishe Levison of MoProUSA has given us an inside look at what he's been working on for the past few years, and while everything is obviously still in prototype form, we can't help but be impressed. In short, he's looking to create a new range of free gaming pistols, including one that requires no additional Wiimote and Nunchuk...

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Desktop PC components get rated for power efficiency, Intel rules the roost

With all the antitrust noise, threats to AMD, and conflicts with NVIDIA, it's hard to feel too charmed with Intel at the moment. But, if you're looking for the best combination of performance and power consumption possible, you'll have to swallow any animosity and put an Intel inside, with an efficiency piece at bit-tech.net finding that chips from that manufacturer were, on average, considerably more efficient than their AMD counterparts. That's just part of the story, the site testing everything...

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After a four year absence, the next version of Quicken for the Mac is here. It's called Quicken Essentials for Mac and is a ground up Cocoa rewrite. I've been using the program for a few weeks now. Is it worth the wait? Well that depends what you need in your financial software. When I interviewed Aaron Patzer, VP/GM of Intuit's Personal Finance Group, he was quick to point out that it's called Quicken Essentials for a reason: "It's called Essentials because it's what we consider to be essential...

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Steve Jobs turns 55

It's February 24, 2010, which means that Steve Jobs has his 55th birthday today. Not many people get to start up a company and then develop several completely new markets during their lives. Steve Jobs has been intimately involved with popularizing a number of devices during his lifetime: the personal computer (Apple II and Mac), the MP3 player (iPod), the smartphone (iPhone), and now the media tablet (iPad). All of the Apple fans here at TUAW wish Steve a happy birthday and many more years...

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Tune Runner rises to the top on a wave of free

There's been some interesting discussion in our comments section lately about Ngmoco's freemium model -- first they made headlines by endorsing it even to the detriment of one of their most popular games, and then they bought Freeverse and the conversation started up again. But while customers don't seem to like the freemium model very much, there's a growing number of examples that go the other way, and here's another: Appy Entertainment is a company that's been doing fairly well with a game called...

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Microsoft offers three new BlueTrack mice on the cheap

Microsoft's BlueTrack technology may have led to some pretty impressive mice, but they so far haven't dipped much under the $50 mark. That's now changed with the company's new Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500, Wireless Mouse 2000 and Comfort Mouse 4500, however, which all come in at less than $30, and promise many of the same advantages as Microsoft's pricier mice. As you can probably figure out, the three mice cover the cordless, portable, and corded bases and, with the exception of the gray-only Wireless...

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Switch 101: A guide to using OS X

As the resident Mac expert for my family and friends, I often find myself fielding questions from the recent switchers in my life. A lot of those questions come in the form of "how do I ?" Apparently Apple's support folk have also encountered this phenomenon as Apple has created a knowledge base article to tackle many of these questions. The article, entitled "Switch 101: On Windows I used to..." is part of Apple's Switch 101 series which is directly aimed at getting recent switchers comfortable...

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10 billionth iTunes download going down today

Obama Pacman has done the math, and they claim that the 10 billionth song download on iTunes (which Apple is paying out a $10k gift card for) is going to happen today, February 24th. So if you've been waiting to buy some music, today's the day to do it -- go pick up some songs in the early to late evening, and you might end up being the lucky winner. Plus, contest aside, this means Apple will have sold 10 billion songs on their store. That's an incredible number, and it's a number that has...

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Carry the Moon in your pocket with this free iPhone app

Last week I was pleased to suggest some free astronomy programs of interest to star-gazers. This week, I'm at it again hoping that space or science buffs get a look at Moon Globe. This very handy app gives you a complete map of our nearest space neighbor, showing you what is visible on any night and from any location. The on-screen display of the moon at the current phase is striking, and very detailed. You can zoom in or out with the usual pinch and stretch moves you are familiar with. It's...

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Aperture 3.0.1 available now in Software Update

Although Aperture 3 introduced a lot of new features, it also introduced a lot of bugs. Apple's support forums have been abuzz with reports of memory leaks and issues with the new Faces functionality. Aperture 3.0.1 has arrived in Software Update, and Apple's support document for the update details several fixes for its flagship photo-processing program. Hopefully it addresses the two biggest issues users have faced: virtual memory growing out of control and consuming all free space on the hard...

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GoGear Muse refresh sports touchscreen, Songbird media player, HDMI output

Looks like the Android-powered Connect isn't the only bit of GoGear news coming out of the armed Philips compound as of late. The Pocket-lint gang have got their hands on a refresh of the GoGear Muse and we should say that the thing looks pretty sweet. In addition to a rare new modern interface solution called "touchscreen," this bad boy eschews Windows Media Player in favor of the open source Songbird player, and sports an FM radio, iPlayer, Audible, FLAC, and APE support. As for video playback,...

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Cablevision's new 'PC to TV Media Relay' slings PC media to your cable box, fuzzy on the details

It's been done before, and in many ways, but Cablevision's new plan for slinging what's on your PC to your TV might be one of the most interesting tries yet. Dubbed "PC to TV Media Relay," the new service will let subscribers that get their broadband internet and cable TV from Cablevision load up a bit of software on their Windows PC (a Mac version is forthcoming) that pushes whatever is on the computer through to a dedicated channel on the cable box. The real win here is the absolute lack of new...

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Apple serves up 10 billionth iTune, smiles all the way to the bank

Whether you love it or loathe it, there is now no way to deny the spectacular success of Apple's iTunes Store. The proprietary digital media player, organizer and salesperson has just now recorded its 10 billionth song download, marking a truly unique achievement in the still nascent world of digital distribution. Congratulations to Apple, whose response has been to thank you all for spending so much cash and making El Steve look like the techno pied piper. Hit the source link to find out what...

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Bloom 'Box' Energy Server hands-on (literally) with video!

So here it is, the now-famous (that was fast) Bloom "Box" Energy Servers -- all five of 'em -- working their magic at eBay's north campus. Not much to look at, but we're happy to say it retains a low temperature -- the only heat we really found was due to direct exposure to the light -- and remains quiet while running. There are vents just underneath the sides where cool air was being pumped out. Of course, its raison d'etre is its ability to more efficiently deliver power, which is not something...

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iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 3 available now

The new beta version of the 3.2 SDK (beta 3, for those of you keeping track) is now available for download. The Apple developer site will likely be getting slammed over the next hour or two, so plan your downloads accordingly. The beta is available to all paid members of the iPhone developer program, with at least the $99/year membership. You will need your credentials to sign in and download the new SDK. As usual, the new beta SDK is under NDA, so please go check out the details for yourself...

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MagicJack sues Boing Boing, gets bounced out of court

The MagicJack is a VoIP dongle that hooks ye olde landline telephone up to the world of tomorrow via a humble computer. By all accounts, it seems to work pretty well and does the job it promises. Sadly, it doesn't seem like we can say the same about its management team. A post on Boing Boing in April 2008 addressed some pretty concerning aspects of the MagicJack EULA: it demands that you cede your right to sue the company and give it permission to "analyze" the numbers you call, but even more worrying...

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Google executives found guilty of violating privacy of student bullied on video

Hold tight kids, internet privacy laws just got flipped upside down. An Italian judge found three Google executives guilty of violating the privacy of an Italian student who was bullied in a 2006 video posted on Google Video. The video resided on the site for two months before it was brought to Google's attention and pulled. None of the executives were involved in any way in the making of the abhorrent video. Nevertheless, Italian judge Oscar Magi sentenced the execs to a six-month prison sentence...

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ARM and Globalfoundries partner up for 28nm Cortex-A9 SOCs, invite great expectations

This one slipped the net during the excitement that was MWC this year, but it's such a promising development that we have to give it its due attention. ARM and Globalfoundries have announced plans to start building new systems-on-chip using the latter's ultramodern 28nm high-k metal gate production process, with the resultant chips offering up to 40 percent greater computational power, 30 percent greater power efficiency, and a terrific 100 percent improvement in battery longevity relative to their...

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Spring Design's Alex pushed to first week of March

February 22nd came and went with nary a word from Spring Design about its Alex availability. Now, after a bit of prodding, we're being told to check back during the first week of March; that's when you'll be able to order your dual-screen, 3.5-inch Android and 6-inch EPD e-Reader. So, $359 for Alex or $499 for the iPad launching just a few weeks later... decisions, decisio...

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MagiTact hands-free phone control makes multitouch seem absolutely passe

Are you sick of your needy cellphone, always asking that you pick it up in order to perform essential tasks? Well, the brain wizards at Deutsche Telekom (pictured above) have just the thing for you: MagiTact is an app that uses your phone's compass (provided your phone has a compass) to track changes in the magnetic field around the device. This creates the possibility of a whole host of gesture-based commands, such as silencing a ringing phone or terminating a call, without having physical contact...

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Apple earns 5.5 percent total market share in France

Apple had a great holiday sales quarter in the US and now research firm Gartner is reporting similar good news from Europe. Specifically, Apple shipped 182,000 machines in the fourth quarter of 2009, giving it a 5.5 percent total market share in France. It should be noted that Apple didn't reach the top five in any other European country. Overall PC sales declined throughout Europe in 2009, while Mac sales in the U.K. increased from 3.8 percent in 3Q 2008 to 5 percent in 3Q 2009. Gartner attributed...

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MSI announces GT660 gaming laptop ahead of CeBIT

We've already heard about some of the systems MSI has in store for CeBIT -- including a 3D-capable Wind Top -- but it looks like the company still has bit more lined up, including this new GT660 gaming laptop. In addition to the requisite red accents to make it go faster, this one packs a quad-core Core i7 processor, along with GeForce GTX 285M and, just as notably, some USB 3.0 ports to ensure your peripherals are just as speedy. Still no word on a price or other specifics, but MSI is promising...

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iPad confirmed to use PowerVR SGX graphics, Apple job posting suggests A4 chip will hit other products

It may not be as big a surprise as the A4 itself was, but Apple has now confirmed via the latest iPad SDK Beta 3 documentation that the iPad does indeed use PowerVR SGX graphics hardware as part of its custom system-on-a-chip, which flatly contradicts previous reports of A4 using Mali, and lines up with what our pal Anand Shimpi has been telling us lately. What Apple doesn't confirm, unfortunately, is exactly which chip in the PowerVR SGX family the iPad uses, so it's still at least possible that...

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YouTube Drops IE6 Support on March 13th

In a move that may actually impact people who're still using Internet Explorer 6, YouTube has set a date for the last day they'll support IE6: March 13th. And while that doesn't mean YouTube videos will stop playing after the 13th, the big warning on YouTube could have a big influence on getting people to upgrade. So what exactly will the impact be on IE6 users? Stopped support essentially means that some future features on YouTube will be rolled out that won't work in older browse...

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Juniper Networks Establishes $50 Million Venture Fund

Tech giant Juniper Networks this morning introduced the $50 million Junos Innovation Fund, a new corporate venture capital initiative that will invest primarily in VC-backed technology companies in early or growth stage. The fund builds up on Juniper’s efforts to establish an ecosystem of technologies, software and applications built on its cross-network software platform Junos, the company said. According to the press release, the Junos Innovation Fund will invest in companies over the next...

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The AP Is Using Twitter To Send People To Facebook. Wait. What?

Oh the Associated Press, our most favorite banned new source. It seems almost monthly they do something that defies logic and/or looks to be a suicidal act. And today brings another oddity. The AP is using their Twitter feed to tweet out their stories — nothing new there, obviously — but every single one of them links to the story on their Facebook Notes page. It’s not clear how long they’ve been doing this, but Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan noted the oddness of this, and how annoying it...

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There’s a new Hero in town: HTC announces the Legend

As we expected after the leaks last night, HTC has just dropped the good word on three brand new handsets at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The first up is the Android 2.1-powered HTC Legend, which is essentially a spiritual successor to the much-loved HTC Hero. Outside of its slick new shell (which, by the way, is almost entirely one seamless piece of aluminum, similar to Apple’s uni-body Mac Books), the primary changes from the Hero to the Legend would be the upgrade to Android 2.1,...

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Windows Phone 7 Series: Our Take

So the next generation of Windows Mobile, now Windows Phone, has been unveiled at MWC in Barcelona. Greg has already gotten his mitts all over it, and has posted his in-depth impressions over at MobileCrunch, but we thought it was worthwhile to post our thoughts on Microsoft’s new look and feel. Beautiful? Ugly? Too little, too late? Feel free to add your opinions to the pile. John: Windows Mobile 7 is an interesting move for Microsoft. They need this to be a success but, as we now see, they’ve...

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Amazon Wants To Give A Free Kindle To All Amazon Prime Subscribers

In January Amazon offered select customers a free Kindle of sorts – they had to pay for it, but if they didn’t like it they could get a full refund and keep the device. It turns out that was just a test run for a much more ambitious program. A reliable source tells us Amazon wants to give a free Kindle to every Amazon Prime subscriber. Just as soon as they can work out how to do it without losing money. Amazon Prime is a subscription product that gives customers free two day shipping...

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Panic Ensues As Palm Halts Pre, Pre Plus Production For Chinese New Year

If you read the OTR Global report today that said that Palm was halting its production lines for its webOS products, you might have sold off all your Palm stock. Thing is, it's all about a holiday, not bad news from Palm. Many global firms are experiencing this: anything going on in China will be halted next week for Chines New Year. Thus, this shutdown shouldn't be used as a reason to panic, but rather evidence that globalization has its bumps. Here's the official statement. It should be...

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Hachette Publishing Axes $9.99 E-Books

It started with Macmillan, or rather, it started with the iPad, but now it seems there’s no way any publisher is going to sit still for a $9.99 e-book price. On Friday, Amazon’s Hachette became the third major publisher, following Macmillan and HarperCollins, to push for the agency model, in which the publisher sets the ebook prices, and the bookseller takes a cut. Amazon.com, smartly realizing the way to get e-book adoption going was to keep prices low, as well as realizing having a one-size-fits-all...

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Google veut éliminer toutes les failles de Chrome

Google versera jusqu’à 1337 dollars à toute personne découvrant une faille de sécurité dans le navigateur web Chrome, ou son dérivé open source Chromium.PublicitéLe navigateur web Google Chrome intègre un bac à sable qui réduit à néant la portée de la plupart des failles de sécurité. Toutefois, une petite partie du logiciel n’est pas protégée. De plus, qu’elle ait un impact important ou faible, une faille de sécurité reste toujours potentiellement dangereuse.La popularité croissante de ce butineur...

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Free et SFR à la rescousse de France Télécom?

Free et SFR à la rescousse de France Télécom?Le nouvel impôt qui frappe France Télécom pour palier la disparition de la taxe professionnelle, pourrait indirectement toucher les concurrents, et néanmoins clients, de l'opérateur historique.PublicitéLa suppression de la taxe professionnelle, appliquée depuis le 1er janvier, a des conséquences inattendues. Notamment du côté des opérateurs télécoms que l'on a connu moins solidaires. En effet, Free et SFR pourraient voler au secours de France Télécom...

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mozilla_firefox

Le navigateur web firefox est maintenant disponible en version d�finitive sur les terminaux mobiles Nokia N810 et N...

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