A profanity-laced tirade at last summer’s U.S. Open has earned tennis star Serena Williams a record $82,500 US fine and two years of probation.
Arrington's CrunchPad Dies a Fiery Death
Michael Arrington announced the death of the CrunchPad on Monday morning in a blog post heavily spiced with angst and drama.
According to Arrignton, the Cruchpad — a 12-inch Web tablet expected to be priced at about $300 — was just days away from launch. At the last minute, however, Arrington received an email from Chandra Rathakrishnan, the chief executive of manufacturing partner Fusion Garage, apparently trying to cut Arrington out of the product on the eve of the launch. Fusion Garage, according to Arrington, would market the device itself under its own name.
“Err, what?” Arrington wrote. “This is the equivalent of Foxconn, who build the iPhone,
notifiying Apple a couple of days before launch that they’d be moving
ahead and selling the iPhone directly without any involvement from
Apple.”
Arrington claims that the company had overcome obstacles at every stage
in the business, securing preferred pricing for the Atom processor with
Intel, negotiating with a “major multi-billion-dollar retail partner”
for a retail launch and up-front payments, and securing venture capital and
angel investments to finance the company going forward.
“Mostly though I’m just sad,” Arrington wrote. “I never envisioned the CrunchPad as a huge
business. I just wanted a tablet computer that I could use to consume
the Internet while sitting on a couch. I’ve always pushed to open
source all or parts of the project. So this isn’t really about money.
It was about the thrill of building something with a team that had the
same vision. Now that’s going to be impossible.”
It's possible that the CrunchPad could still emerge in some form,
although Arrington has vowed to file multiple lawsuits against Fusion
Garage and its employees. For now, however, the CrunchPad will
inevitably take its place among the most heavily touted vaporware of 2009.
Quad Hits Cliff Crash
Nash picks Columbus over money: Inside Hockey
When it came down to discussing the dollar value for his eight-year, $62.4-million contract extension, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Rick Nash says he chose his team over money.
Man, We’ve Come a Long Way From Floppies [Infographic]
This infographic makes me so glad that we came up with storage methods other than floppy disks. Imagine replacing your 2TB hard drive with 1,422,222 floppies. No thank you. Update:
Reader Drew just noticed that the artist updated the graphic. I’ve replaced the image. Looks like the guide inconsistencies you all noticed have been fixed, at least for the most part. [Curtiss Spontelli via fellow Gizmodian Kyle. Thanks dude!]
911 tapes to be released from Tiger Woods crash
The Florida Highway Patrol said it expects to release tapes of the 911 call on Sunday and it will investigate Tiger Woods’ crash as a traffic accident.
Potash worker killed by bin collapse
A worker died early Saturday morning when a large storage bin broke apart and buried him in potash ore at a Mosaic Company facility near Esterhazy, Sask.
Week in Geek: The Create Shortcuts to Nearly Anything Edition
Over the years, we’ve written loads of articles about how to create shortcuts to system functions that aren’t easily accessible otherwise—and we’ve got a list of the best ones here.
Pretty much all of these shortcuts work in Windows 7 or Vista, but some of them also work in XP.
TinyHacker Random Geekery
This was a shorter week for our publishing schedule, so here’s a shorter list of fun stuff we found.
Super User QnA
Ever wondered if there’s an alternative Skype client out there? Well, there’s not really, but there are other interfaces you can use instead. Read on.
- Erase just the free space on my hard drive
- Which Linux edtion is more stable and reliable?
- Is there an alternative Skype client out there?
- Does HDMI cable “quality” actually affect transmission?
- What to do with spare USB thumb drive?
- Cheap < 150 dollar Computer for my dad that lives cross country
- In computer networks, when is a MAC address used and when is an IP Address used?
- How much more RAM does Windows 7 use than Windows XP?
- Lightweight GUI Linux distribution for really old computer
- I need to password protect the entire computer…
The How-To Geek’s Lifehacker Features
Over on Lifehacker, I’ve written quite a few lengthy articles in the last month covering keeping your system safe and secure, and making sure that you’ve properly backed up your data. Definitely worth a read.
The Geek Note
Hopefully all of you had a happy Thanksgiving and found a great Black Friday deal on a Nintendo Wii Fit to burn off the calories or gather dust.
NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on
Hey, remember that mystery tablet NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was pimping a mere couple of weeks ago? Well, it’s made its way to London, and woe betide the Engadget editor who didn’t get a hands-on with such an exclusive piece of hardware. So what we’re looking at here is a Windows CE-powered, resistive touchscreen display spanning somewhere around 15 to 16 inches, with the same Tegra internals as may be found in the Zune HD or one of them smartbook devices. As we reported earlier, the company behind the machine is ICD, and this particular unit was built to try and entice T-Mobile into placing a few orders.
Being a prototype, the device on hand was quite literally rough around the edges, but what we saw was appetite-whetting. The overall construction is under an inch thin, 720p video playback was excellent, and there’s even a terrific-looking wireless recharge station cum base accessory — think of Palm’s Touchstone, only enlarged and magnetized to the point where it can support the whole tablet in an upright position. If somebody marries all that hardware potential with the Stantum multitouch firmware and a more finger-friendly OS, this thing just might make the whole Apple tablet brouhaha utterly irrelevant. Video after the break.
Continue reading NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on
NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wal-Mart wins at Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that Wal-Mart Canada Corp. was within its rights when it shut down a store in Jonquière, Que., that had been unionized seven months earlier.
1st Ever Female NHL Play-by-Play Broadcast
On Wednesday night, New Jersey Devils broadcaster Sherry Ross made history when she became the first female broadcaster to provide play-by-play in English for an entire NHL game.
Royal visit cost Canada $2.57M
Canada spent more than $2.5 million on the royal visit by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla in November.
Microsoft’s Windows 7 Family Guy clips revealed
Before the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft teamed up with Fox to air a Family Guy episode to help create more buzz about the product prior to the launch. Not long after announcing the deal Microsoft pulled support for the episode because of “riffs on deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest”. Many thought that would be the end of the collaboration between the two companies, but, in a surprising move Microsoft has posted up clips from the sponsored show on to its official YouTube channel. The clips (seen here) attempt to show off how easy and powerful the operating system is with a Family Guy twist.
‘Legion’ Trailer HD
61 Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For [Downloads]
As we prepare to stuff our faces with a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, we turn our Thanksgiving spirit to the gobs of free software we love to say thank you to the developers, and to give our computers a feast of their own.
Earlier this week we asked you to share the free apps you’re most thankful for, and after rounding up thousands of your suggestions, considering our own favorites, and performing a little spreadsheet magic, we’ve cooked up our own cornucopia of excellent free software and webapps we’re extremely thankful for. So whether you’re an American celebrating the season or not, the selection of apps below is like gravy-drenched turkey and mashed potatoes for your computer. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
61 Free Desktop Applications, Webapps, and Tools We’re Most Thankful For
- Firefox (see also: Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3, Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features)
- VLC (see also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, VLC Hits 1.0 with Better Playback and File Support)
- CCleaner (see also: Five Best Windows Maintenance Tools)
- Dropbox (see also: Use Dropbox for More Than Just File Syncing, Sync Files and Folders Outside Your My Dropbox Folder)
- 7-Zip (see also: Five Best File Compression Tools)
- OpenOffice.org (see also: OpenOffice.org 3.1’s Usability Tweaks, OpenOffice.org Screenshots Preview a Ribbon-Like Toolbar)
- Google Chrome (see also: The Power User’s Guide to Google Chrome, 2009 Edition)
- µTorrent (see also: Tweak uTorrent’s Settings for Faster Downloads, Five Best BitTorrent Applications)
- Notepad++ (see also: Five Best Text Editors, AutoSave Adds Reassurance to Notepad++ Editing)
- Gmail (see also: Our full Gmail coverage)
- GIMP (see also: Gimp 2.7 Beta Improves Text Editing, Streamlines Saving)
- Paint.NET (see also: Paint.NET Releases Big Update, Still a Killer Photoshop Alternative, Paint.NET Plugin Lets You Open Photoshop Files)
- Microsoft Security Essentials (see also: Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus App Leaves Beta, Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft’s Security Tools Are Good Enough)
- Revo Uninstaller (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
- Evernote (see also: Evernote 3.5 Beta Brings Tons of Tiny Fixes to Windows, Expand Your Brain with Evernote)
- Thunderbird (see also: Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate Available for Download)
- Audacity (see also: Geek to Live: Make a ringtone from any MP3)
- ImgBurn (see also: Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster, Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
- Picasa (see also: Picasa 3.5 Organizes Your Photos with Facial Recognition)
- Skype (see also: Our full Skype coverage)
- Pidgin (see also: Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin, Five Best Instant Messengers)
- Ubuntu (see also: First Look at Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony)
- iTunes (see also: iTunes 9 Improves Syncing, Network Sharing, More)
- foobar2000 (see also: Screenshot Tour: The beautiful and varied world of foobar2000, Hack Attack: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000)
- Foxit Reader (see also: Five Best PDF Readers, Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads)
- FileZilla (see also: Five Best FTP Clients, Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla)
- VirtualBox (see also: The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox)
- TrueCrypt (see also: Geek to Live: Encrypt your data, Five Best Portable Applications)
- Avast! (see also: Five Best Antivirus Applications)
- Defraggler (see also: Five Best Disk Defragmenters)
- KeePass (see also: Eight Best KeePass Plug-Ins to Master Your Passwords, How to Use Dropbox as the Ultimate Password Syncer)
- Opera (see also: Opera 10.10 with Unite Media Server Released)
- AVG (see also: AVG 9 Free Now Available for Download)
- Digsby (see also: Five Best Instant Messengers, Digsby Sees the Light, Removes (Some) Bundled Crapware)
- Google Reader (see also: Our full Google Reader coverage)
- Winamp (see also: Win7shell Adds Windows 7 Jump List Support to Winamp)
- Google Earth (see also: Google Earth 5.1 Speeds Up Your World Browsing)
- TeraCopy (see also: Five Best Alternative File Copiers)
- Launchy (see also: Our full Launchy coverage)
- Transmission (see also: Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Mac Downloads)
- Eclipse IDE
- SpyBot Search & Destroy (see also: Five Best Malware Removal Tools)
- Adium (see also: Adium Updates with Security Fixes, Better Facebook Integration)
- PuTTY (see also: Add Tabs to PuTTY with PuTTY Connection Manager)
- Songbird (see also: Songbird 1.0 Release Official, Fixes Bugs, Plays iTunes Purchases, Killer Add-ons Make Songbird So Much Better)
- Sumatra PDF (see also: Sumatra 1.0 is a Blazing Fast Replacement for Adobe Reader)
- XBMC (see also: Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap, Customize XBMC with These Five Awesome Skins, Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation)
- Blender (see also: Learn Blender with free e-book)
- CDBurnerXP (see also: Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools)
- Everything (see also: Everything Finds Windows Files As You Type, Top 10 Tiny & Awesome Windows Utilities)
- HandBrake (see also: HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support)
- Rainmeter (see also: Rainmeter 1.0 Brings the Enigma Desktop to Everyone)
- AutoHotkey (see also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, Hack Attack: Knock down repetitive email with AutoHotKey)
- Google Calendar (see also: Our full Google Calendar coverage)
- MediaMonkey (see also: MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching)
- Quicksilver (see also: A beginner’s guide to Quicksilver)
- WinSCP
- Google Voice (see also: Make Unlimited Free Calls on Your Cellphone with Google Voice, How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice)
- Boxee (see also: Build a Cheap But Powerful Boxee Media Center, Boxee to Launch Beta with Loads of New Features)
- AdBlock Plus (see also: Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions, 2009 Edition)
- Media Player Classic (see also: Five Best Video Players)
In case you’re curious, here’s a broad look at how your votes broke down among the 10 most popular:
The list above represents every application that garnered roughly ten votes or above. The highest vote-earner, Firefox, pulled in a couple hundred. If you’re interested in how the full count went down, you can check out a Google Spreadsheet of the results here. Happy Thanksputering!
Swine flu ‘levelling off’ in Canada
The number of new cases of H1N1 influenza in many communities across Canada appears to be levelling off, federal health officials say.
HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support [Downloads]
Windows/Mac/Linux: If you ever have to rip DVDs to your desktop or convert video, you know how awesome open-source encoder HandBrake is. Well, it’s just been updated with over 1,000 changes since the last release, including 64-bit support.
The 64-bit support is probably the most notable change in this build, as it allows you to encode videos about 10% faster than the 32-bit builds—in a lot of cases, bringing encoding up to real-time or faster. And, note that Mac users don't need Snow Leopard to see this improvement, long as they have a 64-bit capable machine (Intel Core 2 Duo or later). Linux users will also be able to reap the benefits of the 64-bit build; unfortunately at this point there doesn't appear to be a 64-bit version for Windows users.
Other changes include soft subtitles (it rips subtitles that you can turn on or off), a live preview mode (so you don't waste your time encoding only to find you had a setting wrong), constant quality encoding (for better quality video and no need for 2-pass encoding), and some cleaning up of the settings. It looks like there are no more presets for PSP, PS3, or Xbox 360, just one "Normal" setting that, in theory, will work with anything that supports Main Profile H.264. Also, AVI, OGG/OGM and XviD encoding have been removed from the program—the HandBrake team has apparently decided to focus on H.264 encoding and get rid of old codecs.
HandBrake is a free, open source download.
How to Try the New Google Search [Google]
Confirmed. The rumors about Google’s redesign are true, and you can try it for yourself with a very simple method.
1. Go to Google.com.
2. Once it loads, enter this code into your web browser’s URL address field:
javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);
There shouldn’t be any http://google.com in front of that. Just that code.
3. Hit enter.
4. Reload or open a new Google.com page and you will have access to the new user interface.
It’s fast and sweet, although the changes don’t affect all the available sections. [Thanks Matt Karolian]
Test Out Google’s New Search Look [Google]
Google has, according to some Gizmodo readers, begun offering up a bolder but more condensed view of its home and search results pages to certain users. Take a full-size look, and try it out for yourself with some JavaScript magic.
Our own tips box isn’t lit up with readers seeing this new, more Google-Wave-like interface, but Gizmodo reader Matt Karolian sent over these pics that look a little bit too polished and thought out to be a reader joke (we’d hope/think). Most notable is the permanent sidebar being shown, which breaks searches down into “News,” “Maps,” “Everything,” and the more familiar drop-down “More” options.
Update: Google Blogoscoped already has a JavaScript tweak that gets anyone into Google’s new look test. Head to Blogoscoped, copy the code, paste it into your address bar, and refresh Google’s page. You may, like Phillip (and I), have to sign out and back in to get it to work, but it did eventually show up for me.
What do you think of Google’s maybe-new look? Could the search giant use a new coat of paint after all these years?
Wireless USB keyboard / touchpad is more than the sum of its parts
A free PDA that came with a magazine subscription in 2002? An early Peek prototype? No, this is the humbly named USB Wireless Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad that’s now available from USB Geek, and it just might be the sort of device you never knew you were looking for. As the folks at CrunchGear have noted, while the device is simply being marketed as an all-in-one wireless touchpad and keyboard, it actually has all the makings of an ideal HTPC controller — not to mention an entirely reasonable price of $62. No multitouch, no LCD — just a plain old trackpad, a wireless USB dongle, and a QWERTY keypad that should be adequate enough for tweeting your reaction to the TV show remake du jour. Video after the break.
Update: And here comes a review!
Continue reading Wireless USB keyboard / touchpad is more than the sum of its parts
Wireless USB keyboard / touchpad is more than the sum of its parts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
