Gadgets Connect

You already know the main features of iPhone 1.1.3 from our hands-on and from the keynote, but there are a few interesting tweaks that got lost in all the other Apple coverage. • The SMS storage has been upped from 1,000 to 75,000, which means you probably won’t need to ever clear a conversation unless you really enjoy texting. • The keyboard now allows two-finger typing, so holding shift + a key lets you type caps. • GMail on the phone automatically defaults to IMAP, which means deleting messages on your phone affects stuff server-side. • Various bugs hit on Bluetooth and email checks, but workarounds have been found. (Read the full post about ‘iPhone 1.1.3’s Lesser-Known Features [Cellphones]’…)

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Posted Jan 17th 2008 3:49PM by Donald MelansonFiled under: Wearables We’ve seen plenty of newfangled contact lenses in the past, but it looks like a team of researchers at the University of Washington may have outdone them all, with their latest creation promising not only heads-up displays, but “superhuman vision.” That’s apparently possible thanks to a combination of lights and circuits, which they’ve managed to cram onto lens no larger than your average contact — though it doesn’t even do so much as light up in its current state (that’s promises “soon”). (Read the full post about ‘Researchers put circuits on contact lenses, freak out rabbits’…)

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I was pretty harsh on Apple’s new Macbook Air yesterday, which feels a little odd for me. I’m generally an Apple enthusiast and give them the benefit of the doubt on new products. However, that doesn’t mean that I won’t go on a rant when they release something like this that just doesn’t seem like a logical purchase. Anyway, I thought I’d give an update on one negative feature that I pointed out in my post yesterday concerning the battery. While it is true that the battery is not user-replaceable, Apple isn’t going to charge you an arm and a leg to get it replaced. The cost for a new battery is $129, which includes installation. (Read the full post about ‘New battery and installation for MacBook Air will only run $129′…)

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Posted Jan 17th 2008 1:01PM by Darren MurphFiled under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video Yeah, the BBC seems to be quite the indecisive bunch, but according to a recent blog posting by Ashley Highfield (Director, BBC Future Media And Technology), its iPlayer may actually see face time on Apple’s revised Apple TV platform. Quite frankly, details are far too thin to actually make anything of this just yet, but he does note that the “effective relaunch of the AppleTV… (Read the full post about ‘BBC thinking of bringing iPlayer to revamped Apple TV?’…)

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We took an early look at the upcoming PS2 title Twisted Metal: Head On: Extra Twisted Edition at the Sony 2008 Preview event back in mid-December. It’s one of those titles that is a big thank-you to fans, featuring all the kinds of behind-the-scenes extras we’ve come to expect in DVDs.

David Jaffe–as you may know–is responsible for God of War and God of War II, Calling All Cars, and, of course, the Twisted Metal series. He founded the independent studio Eat, Sleep, Play, but he’s still very closely tied to Sony.

(Read the full post about ‘David Jaffe blogs about Twisted Metal’…)

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They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But sometimes, a crummy copy is just a crummy copy. Take for example, this poor Taiwanese knock-off of the Apple iPhone. This thing makes no bones about its source of inspiration. Heck, they couldn’t even come up with an original name and just called it the iFone. This wannabe version of the iPhone copies the basic case design of Apple’s beauty, but certainly falls short on the details. For starters, there’s no glass face or durable aluminum back here. We’re talking cheap plastic and shiny chrome plate. Plus, it looks like it’s about twice as thick as the real iPhone. Under the hood, you won’t do too much better. (Read the full post about ‘ifone is one phony iphone’…)

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newVideoPlayer(”dysonball.flv”, 475, 376,”");The DC24 Dyson vac being introduced today is the first since the large DC15 to roll around the floor on a big orange ball instead of wheels, making it super maneuverable. It’s a little vac with a typically high price tag ($400 for DC24; $470 for its larger sibling, the DC25). In many ways it’s just another vacuum cleaner, but in its design, it does mark the return of James Dyson’s ball. When you think of Dyson—if you think of the expensive British vacs at all—you probably think “suction.” After all, the slogan “doesn’t lose suction” is plastered on all of the Dyson vac marketing material. But James Dyson’s first innovations were not in vacuums, but in wheelbarrows of all things. (Read the full post about ‘Dyson DC24 Vac: Sir James Brings His Ball Back [Big Ball, More Suck]’…)

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Posted Jan 17th 2008 11:14AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Misc. Gadgets Wait up, hang on here — you’re telling us a personality profiling conducted on 7,500 people at Apple’s biggest tub-thumping event of the year, Macworld, yielded results that would suggest Apple users “are more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large.” And this so-called survey says Apple users have high indexes for “low modesty,” “high perfectionism,” and “high superiority”? Lies and half truths. We don’t know a single Apple user that fits anything remotely similar to that profile. (Read the full post about ‘Survey finds Apple users have sense of superiority — no wait, hear us out’…)

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PC Tools launch Spyware DoctorVersion 5.5. New features include enhanced rootkit detection and removal, enhanced real-time protection at the kernel level, network guard enhancements and automated threat evaluation. Also, Spyware Doctor 5.5 consume less memory than previous versions of it.

In previous versions of Spyware Doctor unnecessary warnings may have occurred with inactive traces of threats rated as high risk.

(Read the full post about ‘Spyware Doctor 5.5 launched’…)

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Puppy Wireless Spy Camera Hitachi says 1.5 is here! (Read the full post about ‘Another Gallery of Posts’…)

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