Reality Bites
Fast Company got some preview time with the Internet Explorer 9 beta, due out today. The big change-up? IE9 will offer customized, stand-alone app-like experiences through Microsoft’s partners, like Amazon, Twitter, IMDB, and others, along with fuller HTML5 support. More »
Shootouts will be a little less important in the NHL next season as the league’s board of governors approved a bylaw revision Tuesday for use when teams are tied in the standings at the end of the season.
Boy, did Dell show just off the craziest device on stage at Intel’s IDF 2010 day two keynote. What started as a tablet device converted to a netbook just by opening to the keyboard and literally swiveling the screen from within the frame. This hybrid’s got a 10-inch screen, houses a dual-core Atom N550 and runs Windows 7 Premium. And if it looks at all familiar, that’s because we saw something eerily similar in a leak from April (hello, Sparta). No price given and Dell isn’t providing us any more details, but it should be released by the end of this year.
Update: It ain’t pretty, but we managed to bum rush the stage and get some footage of the Inspiron Duo during as it made its transformations to and from a keyboard-equipped existence. It’s after the break… along with a press photo!
Update 2: And now we’ve got a much clearer video for your enjoyment. Check it out!
Update 3: Dell sent over a pretty hefty press photo, so we decided to break it down piece-by-piece. To the gallery!
Dell’s Atom-powered Inspiron Duo: 10-inch netbook / tablet hybrid with a crazy swivel (update: more video and detailed press photo!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Windows and Mac OS X: Insync is a new syncing and backup service similar to Dropbox (a Lifehacker favorite), but comes with a bunch of great additional features, like syncing your Google Docs and Gmail contacts. More »
Microsoft‘s Principal Researcher recently sat down for a very long interview with The Globe and Mail. The next big thing in tech, he says, is something like Microsoft’s already available (but super expensive) Surface. So what does the next version of the Surface look like? Well, it’s going to be much thinner — “no thicker than a sheet of glass,” but most importantly, it will cost much much less. The man who helped design what ultimately became Surface says that soon enough, the cameras will be embedded within the device itself, making it a low-cost, in home product rather than the niche product it is today. Buxton also said in the interview that he thinks we’ll begin seeing home implementation within the next three years. We sure hope that he’s correct.
Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton: Surface will be in homes within three years originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Posted by Jonathan Sposato, Product Management — Photos Team
It used to be all or nothing when it came to sharing a new Picasa Web Album in Buzz. If you created a public album in Picasa Web Albums, it created a public Google Buzz post. That was great for when you wanted to share your photos broadly. But for those times when you wanted to share with a smaller circle — no Buzz.
Now when you create a private album, the select people you choose to share your photo album with will see a notification in Google Buzz as well.
Just make sure you have Picasa Web Album as one of your connected sites in Buzz to take advantage of this easy way to share your albums.
One of the primary features that kept me using Outlook’s calendar was the desktop notifications that popped up to remind me when it was time for another boring meeting. Now with Google Calendar and Chrome notifications, I’ll never miss the chance to sleep through another meeting.
Seriously, meetings are boring.
But more to the point, if you’re using Google Chrome there’s a built-in desktop notifications feature, and all you have to do is enable a Labs feature in Google Calendar to get it to start showing notifications on your desktop.
The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure that Chrome is set to allow desktop notifications. Head into Tools –> Options –> Under the Hood –> Content settings.
Next, select Notifications on the left-hand side, and then make sure the middle option for “Ask me when a site wants to show desktop notifications” is selected. You may want to click on the Exceptions button and make sure Google Calendar isn’t blocked in there.
Now that we’ve made sure Chrome is configured properly, you’ll want to head into Google Calendar, open up the Settings link in the top right, and then go to the Labs section.
Find the “Gentle Reminders” item in the list, click the Enable button, and then Save at the bottom. If the option is already enabled but you aren’t getting desktop notifications, you should disable it, Save, and then Enable it again.
Once you’ve clicked the Save button you’ll see a bar show up across the top of the window, and you’ll need to click the Allow button.
As soon as you do, you’ll see a sample notification to show up on the bottom of the screen.
You’ll have to manually close out of the notifications, which is slightly annoying sometimes, but it’s probably a good thing so you won’t miss an important reminder.
Almost 60 per cent of Canadians live paycheque to paycheque and say they’d be in financial difficulty if their paycheque were a week late.
It pales in comparison to Sigbritt Löthberg's home internet connection, but it sure makes Comcast’s Extreme 105Mbps broadband package look downright sluggish. EPB Fiber Optics (Chattanooga’s municipally-owned fiber-to-the-premises network) and Alcatel-Lucent have teamed up to offer America’s “fastest” home broadband service — a service that brings 1Gbps (or 1000Mbps, if that strikes you better) directly to your PC. Best of all, the service is actually on sale starting today, and every single home and business within EPB’s 600 square-mile, nine-county service area will be able to access the network. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, this actually isn’t affiliated in any way with Google’s own proposed 1Gbps service, which likely means that this record will only sit in southeast Tennessee for a few months. Still, we hear this place is some kind of beautiful in the fall, but make sure you’re cool with a $350 monthly charge before pulling the trigger on a relocation.
Update: Tipster Jens notes that he can get a 1Gbps connection for 900 SEK per month in Stockholm, or around $126. Baby steps, we Americans are taking.
Continue reading Chattanooga becomes home to 1Gbps internet service, just $350 per month
Chattanooga becomes home to 1Gbps internet service, just $350 per month originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
On September 13, 1985, Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan, meaning the world’s most famous plumber’s most famous game is now 25 years old. Happy birthday! More »
It’s not quite the same as the results-as-you-type-every-letter Google Instant, but Chrome’s Dev channel and Canary builds offer a switch that turns on a kind of instant search for Chrome’s Omnibar, which you may find really helpful or kind of distracting. More »
When you’re dealing with an application that displays data in a set of columns, it’s often frustrating to have to resize each column separately—but today we’ve got a great trick for you that resizes all the columns with a single keystroke.
The secret keystroke to use is Ctrl and the Numpad’s + key, and it only works if you have a separate number pad on your PC—but we’ve also found a workaround for that as well. Keep reading.
To better illustrate exactly how this trick works, we’ve put together a short video that shows the keyboard shortcut in action.
In case you can’t load the video, here’s how it works—if you look at this example window, you’ll see how the columns are all bunched up, and you can’t see all of the data in them without resizing them, which can be frustrating.
Simply press the Ctrl key and the Numpad + key together, and you’ll see all of the columns instantly resized to fit the content:
Very useful in many situations!
Sometimes you don’t want to resize all the columns, but you’d like to resize a single column to fit the content. All you need to do in this case is double-click on the separator between the columns, and it will instantly be resized to fit.
This trick works in just about every application that we’ve ever used.
And now we get to the good stuff, for all those of us who use a laptop and don’t have a number key pad—in fact, I had to pull out a dusty keyboard just to test out this trick. The simple solution for all of us is to simply setup an AutoHotkey key mapping to map another keystroke to send Ctrl+NumpadAdd instead.
For instance, I’ve assigned the shortcut key combination Alt + to resize the columns, but of course, you could assign anything to it:
!=::Send,{LCtrl down}{NumpadAdd}{LCtrl up}
All you’ll need to do is create a new AutoHotkey script, paste in that single line, and then double-click on it for it to work.
Thanks for pointing out the original tip goes to WinSuperSite
Eric Tillman will be the new general manager of the Edmonton Eskimos, according to the Edmonton Journal’s website.
![Click here to read How Bing Could've Almost Beaten Google to "Instant" a Year Ago](http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/09/160x120_bing-live-search.jpg "Click here to read How Bing Could've Almost Beaten Google to "Instant" a Year Ago")
Google’s shouting loudly about it’s new almost-as-fast-as-you-think Instant search powers, and it is indeed clever. But a programmer worked out how to do this for Microsoft a year ago. Could Bing have beaten Google? More »
They’re not official Google creations, but a few third-party developers have already adapted the idea of Google Instant’s real time search results to two other services: YouTube and Maps. More »
Microsoft is set to launch its Zune Pass subscription service internationally, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans.
The subscription service is currently only available in the United States. Company officials are working day and night to secure Zune Pass internationally in various markets. Neowin understands that the UK will…
The keen eyes over at Liveside.net have spotted that Microsoft have a few tweaks and additions coming to the Windows Live websites’ header, as well as Web Messenger.
Only a few weeks ago Microsoft released a beta refresh for Windows Live Essentials which saw a new feature in Messenger allowing people…
If women playing games, especially pretty women, weren’t still such a rarity, it’d be a less interesting Google search. And even though, as a medium, video gaming is a lot more equal than it’s been in the past, it’s still a tall order to fire up Xbox Live and come across a player of the female gender. Plus for some reason, all women on Xbox Live have the exact same voice and sound like 12-year-old boys. I’m not sure what that’s about.
Anyway, girl gamers do exist, and there are plenty to drool over. For your convenience, we’ve stripped (get it?) the “wandering blindly through the plains of the Internet” portion of the process of finding them, and gone straight to the “staring at pictures” part.
The Frag Dolls
A rotating group of Ubisoft-sponsored female pro-gamers. Let me reiterate: Rotating. Female. Pro. Gamers. The Frag Dolls show up on Xbox Live every Friday for your multiplayer enjoyment, and from the sounds of things, they splatter many of us amateur miscreants all over cyberspace. These aren’t just women who happen to know their way around a controller; these are women who know their way around rocket launchers. Tanks. Car theft. Gunslinger duels. Bare-knuckle boxing. Sounds like a great date – even if you’re losing.
Morgan Webb
TV host, columnist – Morgan Webb plays a lot of video games and could probably kick your ass at many of them. She co-hosts X-Play on G4, which hit 1,000 episodes this year, and reviews enough games to put on episodes three times a week. She also hosts G4 Underground.
Michele Boyd
If being an actress (she plays Riley on The Guild) and snowboarder weren’t enough, Michele is crazy smart. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior from the University of California – Davis, which means she knows more about your brain than you do. Michele games, watches stuff like Battlestar Galactica, and probably understands the science behind Warp drive and those worms that crawl in your ear in Wrath of Kahn. Is it getting hot in here?
Zooey Daschanel
Indie queen Zooey’s position on nerd love lists has never been exactly low. She even took the starring role in the formerly SciFi Channel’s miniseries “Tinman,” an update of the Wizard of Oz that was…well, somewhat dreadful. Turns out, though, in addition to leading her own band, taking on cool indie film roles, and generally being a super-cool girl next door, Zooey is a huge fan of – wait for it – The Legend of Zelda. And not just any Zelda: the SNES sequel A Link to the Past, arguably THE BEST Zelda. I don’t know about you, but for me, potential 16-bit makeout music would raise any woman’s stock.
Milynn Sarley
Spreading her love of games and nerd culture throughout the Internet via her YouTube channel is what landed Milynn (pronounced My Lynn, not “your Lynn”) her a gig hosting for EA TV. Clearly you know what you’re talking about when the gaming industry calls you for a job. Also, if you needed more evidence of her awesomeness, Milynn is working on her black belt in Shotokan – so she can hand you your ass both digitally and in real life.
Jessica Chobot
Not only does Jessica share your affinity for video games, she writes for and does hosting at IGN.com – so she’s knowledgeable. She’s like having a hot player’s guide, or a hot new release calendar. Here’s a woman who not only will play games with you and talk games with you – she can teach you a few things as well. And maybe not just about games. (She writes a blog for Maxim. Totally what I meant.)
Mila Kunis
What’s cooler than starring in the lackluster Mark Wahlberg adaptation of Max Payne? Well, lots of things – but having some digital street cred at least is cool. Mila earns hers setting people on fire in World of Warcraft. In addition to hilarious turns on That 70′s Show and Family Guy, she spends her time vanquishing monsters as a mage in the MMO. Cue about 900 thinly veiled innuendos about magic missiles.
Felicia Day
A woman so deeply entrenched in the MMO culture, she was able to write, direct, produce and star in a hugely successful web show about it called The Guild. And she’s a redhead. And she’s hilarious. And she’ll dress up with you when you go to Comic Con. Or for other special occasions, like every Wednesday night.
Clare Grant
Having Seth Green for a husband gives Clare a ton of nerd cred at the outset – she’s married to Scott Evil, people – so when she says video games are her hobby, it’s probably fair to say she can rock an energy sword as well as a zergling rush. She’s an actress who has appeared in Black Snake Moan and Walk the Line, but Clare’s coolest role must be producing and starring in Saber, an award-winning Star Wars fan film along with…
Rileah Vanderbilt
…who also wields a lightsaber with more skill than both Kenobi and Vader in A New Hope. Rileah also is an actress who has appeared in movies such as Hatchet and Hatchet 2 and Frozen, which was a Sundance 2010 selection, and she’s into comics, video games and Star Wars (obviously). Really, that video linked in Clare’s profile should be plenty, but if not, know that Rileah is also one-fourth of the mysterious Team Unicorn, along with Clare, Michele and Milynn.
Jenny McCarthy
She shows up in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Your Shape on Wii – and she’s been playing games since Pac-Man. And apparently in addition to acting in Command and Conquer, Jenny’s an avid player. So she’s funny, sexy and an adept military strategist. Sounds ideal for the inevitable zombie apocalypse – and you’d have someone to play games with, too.
Megan Fox
Imagine a digital femme fatale who could rip off her face and set you aflame with her fire breath as “Finish Him!” echoes in your ears – that’s Megan, a devout Mortal Kombat fan. Before she was appearing in perpetual sunset as robots wail on each other care of Michael Bay, she was playing games – her first system was the Super Nintendo.
Grace Park
She’s the sexy science fiction icon best known for her turn as the killer Cylon robot model Number Eight, who was also a fighter pilot, in the 2003 Battlestar Galactica update. Even better(!) – she’s an old-school gamer. Grace is into Donkey Kong and the all-time most-likely-to-lead-to-things date game, Super Mario Kart. It doesn’t get much hotter than that.
Your Girlfriend, Idiot
Especially if she’s in the room right now, looking over your shoulder, your girlfriend is the hottest woman gamer there is. And that’s what you should tell her. Specifically if she plays with you, and can stand you. Seriously – she’s real, and that’s a pretty big boon. Don’t have a girlfriend? You should get on that. Hop on Xbox Live on Friday nights and try to impress a Frag Doll. (Note: You may have to practice your abilities, and charms, beforehand.)
