Author: Terren

thresca: Remember the time I needed to escape? That was the day I realized this.

The Doctors introduced us to a new form of underwear that clamps on to your nether-regions in lieu of a thong. It’s like an underwire bra-meets-headband that you wear in your crotch area instead. Or something? More »

Facebook has launched a new “login approvals” feature that can further secure your Facebook account. This adds a second step to the login process if you try to access Facebook from an unrecognized device. More »

Over at Salon, there’s a great article by Peter Finocchiaro about all those mysterious billboards and ads online about how the world is going to end on May 21 – a week from tomorrow. Apparently, they’re the work of a splinter group of Christians who follow Harold Camping. Though decades ago Camping incorrectly identified 1994 as the year that the world would end, that hasn’t deterred him or his followers. They are convinced now that May 21 is the day. Here’s Camping’s evidence, as summed up by Finocchiaro: More »

Everyone knows that a bad night’s sleep leads to a terrible day after, but not everyone pays attention to the position they wind up in while getting there. Health Magazine’s laid out the best and worst of sleep positions over at CNN Health, and some of the findings might make you second-guess your own sleeping habits. More »

It’s a well-known fact that LG’s already dominated the pixel density race in the smartphone market thanks to the Retina Display inside the iPhone 4, but we’ve yet to see similar technologies making their way to larger devices. That could change very soon, however, with Samsung and LG both announcing larger high-density panels to be showcased at SID 2011 next week. From Samsung we’ll be seeing its 10.1-inch 300ppi prototype LCD panel, which rakes up an astonishing resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 under the battery-friendly PenTile RGBW matrix (not to be confused with AMOLED and Super AMOLED’s RGBG arrangement). What’s more, Samsung also teases “commercial availability” for this technology later this year.

Things are a bit vague with LG — no specific resolutions are mentioned in the pre-show announcement, but we’re told that the company will introduce “a full line-up” of “ultra-high resolution” Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching (AH-IPS) products, including 3.5-, 4.5-, 7-, 9.7, 55-, and 84-inch panels, with a “greater number of pixels than the PPI that can be recognized by the human eye at a typical distance” — a proclamation typically reserved for the iPhone 4’s 326ppi Retina Display. Of course, LG could be misleading here — the 9.7-inch panel brought up in the press release could just be the exact same 1,024 x 768 IPS display on the iPad, but we’d be surprised if LG doesn’t have a similarly-sized prototype to fire back at Samsung’s 10.1-inch 300ppi panel. Well, keep an eye out for our SID 2011 coverage next week and we’ll let you know what goodies we find.

Continue reading Samsung and LG to showcase high pixel density LCD panels for tablets at SID 2011

Samsung and LG to showcase high pixel density LCD panels for tablets at SID 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 02:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Called the Flashbang Bra Holster, it’s a gun holster tucked into a woman’s bra. The video shows a pretty girl (who supposedly doesn’t have any experience totin’ guns) pulling out her weapon in less than a second and a half. More »

File-sharing software company LimeWire has reached a $105-million US out-of-court settlement with major record labels.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Chromebook’s debut couldn’t have been more timely, for its irony — one day before today’s expiration of Microsoft antitrust oversight that allowed Google to do what Netscape wanted: To build a browser-based platform rivaling Windows.

It’s been saying that it was coming “soon” since March, and Adobe has now finally delivered Flash Player 10.3 to compatible Android devices. As expected, it brings mostly bug fixes and optimizations, the biggest of which appears to be NEON optimizations for OMAP4 (or Cortex A-9) processors, which should be good news for BlackBerry PlayBook owners (and those that eventually get their hands on an Optimus 3D). Otherwise, you can expect to find the usual batch of security improvements, and a few fixes for specific problems on Galaxy S phones, the HTC Evo, and various Motorola devices.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Adobe’s also now brought the desktop version of Flash Player 10.3 out of beta for Windows, Mac and Linux, and it’s confirmed that the Android update does indeed include support for Android 3.1. Hit up the links below for the complete details.

Flash Player 10.3 hits Android with optimizations, bug fixes aplenty (update: desktops too) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 16:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: TV News

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter has just confirmed that Ashton Kutcher will replace Charlie Sheen on ‘Two and a Half Men.’ The Hollywood trade reported that “two sources close to the deal-making (said) that the actor is putting the final touches on a deal to replace Charlie Sheen … The exact dollar figure he will be paid is not known but a source says Kutcher is getting a ‘huge payday’.”

Earlier: The soap opera known as ‘Two and a Half Men’ keeps getting better and better. No, we don’t mean the TV show, we mean the behind-the-scenes casting show.

TV Squad previously reported that Brit Hugh Grant had been in negotiations to replace errant Charlie Sheen in the blockbuster series that has been gilding Warner Bros.’ and CBS’ coffers for years. The latest news, however, is that Grant is out and — ready for this? — Ashton Kutcher is next in line for the role.

Grant’s name reportedly came up about a month ago and CBS boss Les Moonves and CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler thought it was a good idea. Talks began and, allegedly, Grant was offered $1 million per episode (though later, insiders at WB downplayed that figure). Grant was close to sealing a deal when the thought of the grind of TV series work made him reconsider and he backed away.

 

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The world’s largest HDTV is 200 feet wide and 80 feet tall. The 16,000-square-foot screen is made up of 158 panels, weighing 165,000 pounds. It’s lit up by 9 million LED lamps. But it’s only 720p. More »

Google announced yesterday that they’ll be releasing their Chrome OS-equipped netbooks this summer, dubbed Chromebooks. If you aren’t a fan of their hardware (or you don’t want to pay $500 for one), you can easily make your own. More »

Well, it looks like the LG Revolution won’t be the first Android phone to get Netflix after all. The app has just hit the Android Market and is currently available for the HTC Incredible, Nexus One, Evo 4G, and G2, plus the Samsung Nexus S. As you might expect, there’s not a lot of surprises in terms of functionality — you can resume watching where you left off on your TV or computer, and the app will allow you to manage your instant queue in addition to letting you simply browse movies. On its official blog, Netflix explains that while the app is currently limited to phones with “requisite playback support,” it anticipates that many of the “technical challenges will be resolved in the coming months,” and that it will be able to “provide a Netflix application that will work on a large majority of Android phones.” That’s some curious wording, to be sure, and a notable change from earlier talk that suggested only certain Qualcomm processors would support the necessary DRM for Netflix. Also not supported at the moment: Canada. If none of that precludes you, however, you can hit up the Android Market link below to try it out for yourself.

In other Netflix news, the company has also rolled out a little gift for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users — the iOS app now finally boasts support for subtitles.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Netflix releases Android app for select HTC phones, Samsung Nexus S originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 15:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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