Fingers Archive

  • Android Market is down, showing zero apps (update: fixed)

    Android Market is down, showing zero apps (update: fixed)

    Posted on June 23, 2010 | No Comments
    Look, we know that checking the Android Market for updates its a nervous habit during brief periods of downtime for many of us -- but for now, you're going to have to go back to chewing your nails or tapping your fingers on the table, because the Market's down. Well, that's only partially true -- you can still get into the Market app on your phone without any errors, you just won't see any apps in there, which renders it pretty useless by our estimation. Hang on, don't panic -- we imagine this won't last long.

    [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

    Update: It's still down for us on a Froyo Nexus One, but if you take a gander through our comments section, you'll see that a lot of folks are having no trouble at all -- so it's probably based on your location, your devices, and your operating system. As far as we can tell, it's not restricted to Froyo since we've received a number of tips on the issue and we're hearing of some Droids that can't see apps. Keep the observations coming, folks!

    Update 2: Google just reached out to us to let us know that it should be fixed and that the total outage was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 minutes. They're apologizing for the inconvenience -- but with the Droid X being announced today, can you really hold a grudge?

    Android Market is down, showing zero apps (update: fixed) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Nike’s giant LED screen in Johanesburg has people Tweeting support for their favorite World Cup stars

    Nike’s giant LED screen in Johanesburg has people Tweeting support for their favorite World Cup stars

    Posted on June 21, 2010 | No Comments
    Looks like Nike is up to quite a bit more in South Africa than making sure Landon Donovan (and the rest of Team USA) is well-dressed while taking first place in Group C. (Fingers crossed!) I just got word that the company has constructed the biggest interactive LED screen in the whole of Africa. It's on the Life Centre skyscraper that's in Johannesburg. Now, what would you want to do with an giant interactive LED screen in the middle of a major city?

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  • The Droid X gets real on Verizon (update: 720p video capture, not display)

    The Droid X gets real on Verizon (update: 720p video capture, not display)

    Posted on June 17, 2010 | 1 Comment
    digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/The_Droid_X_gets_real_on_Verizon'; Looks like Verizon and Motorola are coming clean with the Droid X a little earlier than planned -- it just appeared on the official Droid page, complete with comfirmation of that 4.3-inch screen size. Interestingly, rolling over the image reveals a box that says it has a "720p screen," which would be crazy -- especially since the Droid X prototype we played with had what looked to be the same 854 x 480 resolution as the original Droid, although we couldn't confirm it at the time. A true 720p screen res would also be far denser than the 800 x 480 panel on the EVO 4G, so we're thinking Verizon actually means 720p out over HDMI, not anything else. We'll see though -- the official launch event is still set for June 23, and we're still waiting to find out about the slider Droid 2, so there are a lot of potential surprises still to come.

    Update: We just confirmed that the Droid X prototype we saw had an 854 x 480 display, so we'll have to see if Motorola and Verizon have a serious surprise for us come Wednesday -- we know at least one Engadget editor who's crossing his fingers.

    Update 2: Sure enough, Verizon has changed the ad to read "Captures 720p" instead of "720p screen," so that would basically confirm the 854 x 480 display. A nerd can dream, though! See the revised site after the break.

    [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

    Continue reading The Droid X gets real on Verizon (update: 720p video capture, not display)

    The Droid X gets real on Verizon (update: 720p video capture, not display) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • We’re Awarding Goatse Security A Crunchie Award For Public Service

    We’re Awarding Goatse Security A Crunchie Award For Public Service

    Posted on June 14, 2010 | No Comments
    This iPad security breach story from last week continues to spin way out of control, and in our opinion fingers are being pointed in the wrong direction. The FBI is investigating the incident, and a few hours ago AT&T finally communicated with customers to tell them about the breach (I've reprinted the AT&T email below). Here's what happened: Goatse Security discovered a rather stupid vulnerability on the AT&T site that returned a customer email if a valid serial number for the iPAD SIm card was entered. An invalid number returned nothing, a valid number returned a customer email address. Goatse created a script and quickly downloaded 114,000 customer emails. They then turned all that over to Gawker, after, they say, AT&T was notified and the vulnerability was closed. Gawker published some of the data with the emails removed. Says Goatse: "All data was gathered from a public webserver with no password, accessible by anyone on the Internet. There was no breach, intrusion, or penetration, by any means of the word."

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  • HTC EVO 4G’s graphics capped at 30FPS?

    HTC EVO 4G’s graphics capped at 30FPS?

    Posted on June 10, 2010 | No Comments
    Reports are flying in from across the internet -- and by that we mean the xda-developers and Google Code forums -- that the EVO 4G might have something of a framerate issue. It seems that the device is "locked in" at 30 frames per second both in 2D (Canvas) and 3D (openGL) modes, while anecdotally, a phone like the Hero hits 54fps on average and has "smoother scrolling" in the menus. This apparently is visible both with the standard Sense UI installed and with the Froyo preview build, although in the latter case the Nexus One bootup video is 60fps before halving upon reaching the home screen.

    So, wherein lies the culprit? For Google's part, Android framework engineer "Romain Guy" responded to one thread reasserting the platform team's "target was, is and will be 60fps." We can't imagine it's related to the hardware given the EVO's impressive specs. Some fingers, ergo, are being pointed towards firmware. This wouldn't be the first time HTC's handsets have come under scrutiny for troubling graphical performance -- 2008 was not the company's finest year in that department. Whatever the reason is, we just want a quick resolve -- after all, it's just not fair when our Hero-carrying buddies are scoring better benchmarks.

    HTC EVO 4G's graphics capped at 30FPS? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Video: Yup, that’s Everquest running on a Motorola Droid

    Video: Yup, that’s Everquest running on a Motorola Droid

    Posted on May 21, 2010 | No Comments
    var AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000'; var AdBrite_Background_Color = 'FFFFFF'; var AdBrite_Border_Color = 'CCCCCC'; var AdBrite_URL_Color = '008000'; try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==''?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe='';var AdBrite_Referrer='';} document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(' src="http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=2053203&zs=3436385f3630&ifr='+AdBrite_Iframe+'&ref='+AdBrite_Referrer+'" type="text/javascript">');document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62)); The most important part of a mobile phone’s lifespan is when it’s hacked to run old video games. Few games are more classic than...

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  • Video: Toshiba’s amazing, tactile feedback-based UI solution for touchpanels

    Video: Toshiba’s amazing, tactile feedback-based UI solution for touchpanels

    Posted on May 21, 2010 | No Comments
    Many hardware makers, especially in the mobile device area, are betting high on touchscreens to let users interact with their products. Toshiba subsidiary Toshiba Information Systems has now developed the "New Sensation UI Solution", which is supposed to make user interaction via touchscreens more intuitive through tactile feedback. While this approach isn't new in itself, Toshiba's technology is different from other solutions as it doesn't actually "move" hardware through actuators. Instead, the system is based on a special film that's affixed to the touchpanel. That film, made by a Finnish company called Senseg, gives tactile feedback to the user when he or she touches the screen, charging the film.

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  • Japanese government believes in future full of mind-reading devices

    Japanese government believes in future full of mind-reading devices

    Posted on April 27, 2010 | No Comments
    Mind-reading devices are nothing really new, but Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) apparently sees a huge potential for that market in the near future. The MIC will join forces with selected private tech companies to develop and commercialize robots and consumer electronics that can be controlled through thought. The project kicks off this fiscal year and is supposed to end by 2020.

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  • Video: Droid Incredible does multi-touch better than the Nexus One

    Video: Droid Incredible does multi-touch better than the Nexus One

    Posted on April 26, 2010 | No Comments
    Nexus One owners, you might want to take a seat for this one. You know the HTC Incredible? That phone that popped up out of no where, matched or surpassed all of the Nexus’ specs, and then killed off any chance of a Nexus One for Verizon? Now, you recall that unfixable issue that the [...]

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  • Video: No-touch, mid-air 3D input interface for mobile devices

    Video: No-touch, mid-air 3D input interface for mobile devices

    Posted on April 26, 2010 | No Comments
    A lot of sophisticated, portable gadgets nowadays have a touchscreen, but what if you could operate those gadgets with your fingers - without touching the display or any part of the device itself? A research team led by Masatoshi Ishikawa, a professor at the University of Tokyo, has developed a way to operate mobile devices by moving your fingers in mid-air.

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  • Thanko’s USB-powered foot switch pedal

    Thanko’s USB-powered foot switch pedal

    Posted on April 23, 2010 | No Comments
    Long time no hear from Tokyo-based USB gadget maker Thanko. The company today announced foot switch pedals [JP] for use with Windows XP, 7 or Vista machines (I am aware this isn't a world's first, but the last Thanko post was too long ago). Just assign any key on your keyboard to one of the pedals, and you won't need your fingers to press that key ever again.

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  • Review: VC Audio Pro recording / audio editing app

    Review: VC Audio Pro recording / audio editing app

    Posted on April 21, 2010 | No Comments
    Most recording apps are fairly limited in what you can do with your recording once you’ve made it. VC Audio Pro from VeriCorder is the first multitrack audio editor for the iPlatform and is primarily aimed at journalists making field interviews and whatnot. While the editing and sharing capabilities are pretty powerful, VC Audio Pro [...]

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  • Palm stock sky rockets thanks to Lenovo buyout rumor

    Palm stock sky rockets thanks to Lenovo buyout rumor

    Posted on April 7, 2010 | No Comments
    The graph above pretty much says it all, but to throw in a bit of context: at around 10:30 EDT this morning, a rumor ripped through Wall Street indicating that Lenovo was considering snatching up Palm. In the roughly 3 hours or so that have passed, Palm stock has surged by just over 70 cents, [...]

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  • Mythical White BlackBerry 9700 caught on RIM’s own site

    Mythical White BlackBerry 9700 caught on RIM’s own site

    Posted on April 2, 2010 | No Comments
    The rumormill has been suggesting that a white variation of the BlackBerry 9700 was in the works for a few months now - but so far, it's managed to stay far from the visual reaches of any interested gadget gossiper with a camera. It's like Big Foot, except without all the crazy people looking for it.

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  • Full-page Braille screens on their way

    Full-page Braille screens on their way

    Posted on March 29, 2010 | No Comments
    Researchers at North Carolina State Univeristy have created a method to allow for full screen electronic Braille displays. Current Braille displays show one line at a time, severely limiting the value of the display. This will create a matrix of Braille readouts on a larger scale. The researchers have developed a concept called a “hydraulic [...]

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