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Make’s Redpark Breakout Pack lets you build iOS apps with Arduino assistance

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:32:00 +0000

In the mood for some homebrew iOS app-building fun? Well, Make's got a kit just for you that bundles the Redpark Serial Cable for iOS with an RS232-to-TTL board and the 60 plus component Minitronics Survival pack for $80. Hailing it as "the first general-purpose serial cable that Apple has approved," this limited supply pack will let you get your Arduino-tinkering hands all sorts of iPhone dirty -- jailbreak not required. And if you're the uninitiated type, the DIY magazine's also put together a helpful, hand-holding guide to walk you through some basic first-timer projects. Hit the source to order your own Jobs-certified cable.

[Thanks, Marc]

Make's Redpark Breakout Pack lets you build iOS apps with Arduino assistance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This iPhone Survived a 13,500-Foot Fall [Apple]

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:01:00 +0000

The iPhone 4 may shatter too easily but apparently its guts can sustain plenty of damage, as 37-year-old Minnesotan Jarrod McKinney discovered while skydiving at 13,500 feet (4.1 kilometers). More »

Future iPad 3 resolution could reach to 2048 x 1536

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:23:10 +0000

LG and Samsung would be helping Apple to test new Retina display for iPad. The resolution could reach 2048 x 1536. It’s just like the transition from iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4. It would be using high-resolution low temperature polysilicon material. Also, it would support QXGA that provide full HD experience. With such high resolution, will users’ eyes easily feel tired?

Source said even though Samsung are fighting with Apple because of lawsuits, they would still have a close relationship for producing the LCDs.

[via AppleInsider]

Robot band covers Marilyn Manson, renders sullen teenagers obsolete (video)

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:22:00 +0000

Sure, we've seen robot bands before. But even when insecure and egotistical, they never quite capture the youthful disaffection we want from our mechanical pop stars. Until now. End of Life is a robot band consisting of a cello, and electric guitar, drums, and, for some reason, a flat-bed scanner -- maybe he's the cute one? The group recently covered Marilyn Manson's three-string anthem "The Beautiful People," and it sounds almost exactly like you'd expect: we'll call it "raw, visceral, and uncensored." We can't wait to see them sneer at Rock Band-playing robots too lazy to learn a real instrument. Catch them in the video after the break, and you can tell all your less-cool friends you knew them back before they sold out.

Continue reading Robot band covers Marilyn Manson, renders sullen teenagers obsolete (video)

Robot band covers Marilyn Manson, renders sullen teenagers obsolete (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple To Launch iPhone 4S/iPhone 5 In Late August; Unlocked iPhone 3GS For $350?

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:09:19 +0000

BGR reports that according to their incredibly solid source, Apple will be introducing the next generation iPhone by end of the Summer, late August-ish. According to BGR’s source, Apple will also start offering iPhone 3GS without a contract for $350 to target the prepaid market with the launch of the fifth generation iPhone. BGR’s source is [...]

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: solar-powered Supertrees, hydrogen racecars and LED-studded shoes

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 22:19:00 +0000

The hot summer sun sparked blazing advances in solar energy this week as Inhabitat reported that a crop of incredible solar-powered Supertrees sprouted at Singapore's Gardens by the Bay conservatory. We also saw designers float plans for a series of gorgeous sun collecting water lily islands, and speaking of flowers, we learned that scientists are breeding cold-resistant super bees that can withstand mites and disease. Scotland made waves as well when it unveiled the next-generation Oyster 800 wave energy plant, and Japan's Prime Minister signaled a sea change as he called for a complete phase-out of nuclear power.

Several cities took steps away from car culture this week as a Spanish town offered residents lifetime tram passes in exchange for their cars, and JetBlue launched a set of dubious $4 flights to offset the closing of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles. We also took a look at the green technologies launched by NASA's soon to be extinct space shuttle program and we saw the unveiling of the world's first student-built hydrogen racecar.

In other news, we peered into the future of consumer tech as we counted down our six most desired green upgrades for the Phone 5 and we saw Jawbone launch an app-powered wristband that promotes healthy living. LED technology also lit up our lives as Philips rolled out a beautiful new breed of luminous wallpaper and Chanel kicked of its latest fashion show with a line of LED-studded shoes. Last but not least, we spotted a set of magnetic building blocks that help Honduran families, and this week gadget expert and Engadget founder Peter Rojas closed our Ask a Tech Geek column with a look at six great ways to charge your gadgets with renewable energy. If you're thirsting for more, don't miss Peter's posts about fine tuning your laptop to save energy, vanquishing vampire energy drain, and recycling your old cables and chargers!

Inhabitat's Week in Green: solar-powered Supertrees, hydrogen racecars and LED-studded shoes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best Free iPhone App of the Week: Dragon Go!

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:56:48 +0000

Dragon Go! for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) is a superb voice control app that lets you qucikly search for just about anything via voice. It’s a bit like Siri (which is also powered by Nuance) but it feels much faster and broader in its scope to me.

Just the listing of sources it will show you instant results from is impressive in its own right, and includes: Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter, Yelp, CNN and other major news outlets, and more.

The range of things you can say to get back excellent, spot-on relevant results is hugely impressive as well. You can use it to search for apps, books, nearby businesses (with a single tap to call on the results list) events, maps and directions, movies, music, news, photos, restaurants, people on social networks, and more.

Results are extremely intelligent and tend to nearly always get it right in terms of focusing on the most relevant sources in the page it shows you – and you can always swipe across to others as well of course.

One of the best things about the app is that it is just spectacularly good at getting what you say exactly right. I’ve tested it out with background music playing right near me at a sort of medium level, and still had near perfect results, for searches like:

‘tennis in Austin’

Labrador rescue …

Adele live in Austin …

And many others.

It’s an app you will quickly want in your dock or on your first home screen.

The app does have some requirements, which are worth noting:

1. Dragon Go! requires network connectivity (WiFi or 3G/EDGE).
2. Dragon Go! requires iOS 4 or later.
3. Dragon Go! works on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and on third and fourth generation iPod Touch (external microphone required).

Here’s an App Store link for Dragon Go!.

iUsers frees your iPad of monogamy, enables multiple user profiles

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:41:00 +0000

Share an iPad? A new tweak is on its way to that other app store that should make your life a little easier: user profiles for iOS. The mod, dubbed iUsers, adds a user login button to the iPad's lock screen. The tweak segregates application data and preferences between users, meaning that user A's Angry Birds score won't muddle and mix with User B's perfect three-star rating. App installations, music, and video content are currently shared between users, but the tweak's creators hope to remedy that in a future update. It's a jailbreak only mod, of course, but still a neat feature we'd love to see implemented in future versions of iOS. The iUsers tweak should be hitting Cydia soon, but folks who want an early peek can snag it now by following the instructions in the source link.

iUsers frees your iPad of monogamy, enables multiple user profiles originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foto Find: Geohot returns to his roots

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Hacker and programmer George "Geohot" Hotz recently took a job at Facebook after causing all sorts of trouble with Sony's PlayStation, but as you can see by the tweeted picture above, this weekend the guy went back to basics, working on iPhone programming and jailbreaking at the iOSDevCamp in San Jose.

We don't really know what he was working on or if it was anything of real consequence, but it's fun to see that, even if it's on a fun Sunday afternoon at a dev camp, Geohot hasn't forgotten the jailbreak that he originally came from.

[via iDownloadBlog]

Foto Find: Geohot returns to his roots originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vitamin Water bus-stop ad lets devices juice-up before the commute

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:27:00 +0000

Battery running low during the rush-hour commute? Glacéau's Vitamin Water Energy Bus Shelter by Crispin Porter & Bogusky wants to help you get charged while you're waiting to board. The new billboards feature a bottle of the vitamin / caffeine-packing drink, sporting a triple-USB port, which you can plug your devices into for some extra juice. Apparently, you'll be seeing these if your daily public-transit hustle takes you through the fine cities of Boston, New York, Chicago or Los Angeles -- we'd imagine owners of HTC's Thunderbolt will find them very useful.

Vitamin Water bus-stop ad lets devices juice-up before the commute originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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