Month: January 2010

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Uncategorized

Build a Wall-Mounted Kitchen Computer

If you’ve been dreaming of having a computer in your kitchen but don’t like the idea of hanging it from a cabinet or having it clutter up the counter, this guide can help you build a sleek in-wall computer.

Putting a computer in your kitchen and having it look natural and part of the design is a big challenge. Ryan’s wife had been bugging him to put a computer in the kitchen so she could use it to access the internet, manage recipes, generate shopping lists and so on. She also had a pretty tall order when it came to the machine, she wanted it to be discrete, have a touch screen, be internet-enabled, with wires hidden and equipped with a barcode scanner for her to scan products and manage a kitchen database. Not dissuaded by such an ambitious list, Ryan set to work and built an in-wall computer that looks like it was designed and installed by a professional.

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Cellphone

Next Android version will be called Froyo, says Erick Tseng

Android’s next big iteration will be known as Froyo. That’s short for “frozen yogurt” and fits right in line with the zany naming scheme that has delivered us Cupcakes, Donuts, and Eclairs so far. If you had your money on Flan being next in that alphabetical order, sorry to disappoint. No additional info could be squeezed out of the Google man at present — such as how much further along Froyo will be from Android 2.1 (technically considered part of Eclair) or when we might expect the upgrade — but we’ve got a name and that should be plenty to get us started on another wonderful journey of soothsaying and speculation.

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Handhelds tablet

New York Times to begin charging for access… something something, Apple Tablet


Is it a stretch of logic, or purely logical? You be the one to judge. New York Magazine is reporting from what seems to be pretty solid word that the New York Times will starting charging online readers for its content. That’s all well and interesting for a media hound, but there’s additional word that the announcement of this in “a matter of weeks” might coincide with the rumored January 27th Apple launch. You know, the tablet thing. We already know (or are pretty sure) that Apple has shopped around a theoretical device to content providers, including almost assuredly the New York Times, so it makes “sense.” Still, we aren’t putting solid money down on a single thing until Steve Jobs pulls this device out of a largish pocket of his and shows it to our face.

Categories
Handhelds

ASUS DR-570 e-reader to sport 6-inch OLED color screen, 122 hours of battery life

Well, isn’t this a doozy. ASUS was a bit of a no-show in the e-reader arena at CES, but has dropped some knowledge on the Times Online’s InGear: it’s building a 6-inch color OLED e-reader, which flies in the face of previous rumors about an ASUS e-reader entry. The device, currently dubbed the DR-570 and pictured to the left, will play back Flash video, includes WiFi and 3G, and supposedly can last for 122 hours on one charge under “real world conditions.” It’s supposed to be released by the end of the year, and while from anybody else we’d assume this would cost an arm and a leg, the ASUS brand gives us some hope that we might actually be able to afford one when it hits.

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Video Game Statistics

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Cars

Pay It (Fast) Forward: Man reportedly gives away his Audi R8 V10 to pair of valets

It isn’t everyday that you see a beautiful black Audi R8 V10 on the road. But it happens. What never happens is a guy driving up to you in an Audi R8 V10 and walking up to you and handing you the keys. For keeps. That was probably true before a couple weeks ago, but we can’t say that is the case anymore. According to New Zealand’s Independent Online, an unknown businessman has literally given the keys to his R8 to a pair of men he had never met before because he had a dream telling him to take the vehicle to Table Mountain in South Africa.

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Cars

VIDEO: Audi R8 is the chosen chariot for snowy excursions

New York Times and Automobile contributor Ezra Dyer may have found the perfect German exotic for New England winters: the Audi R8. True, the R8 is pretty low to the ground, but it also makes good use of Audi’s superb Quattro all-wheel drive system and thanks to its mid-engine layout much of the weight sits over the rear wheels. But even the best AWD is useless when providing spin for four summer tires, so the snow white model Dyer was piloting around the northeast winter wonderland also had four of the widest winter tires you can find.

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Wireless

McDonald’s starts dishing out free WiFi at most of its U.S. restaurants

McDonald’s promised that it would be make its in-restaurant WiFi service available for free in “mid-January” and, right on cue, it’s now kicked things open to everyone with a laptop and a fast food craving starting today, January 15th. That service previously cost customers $2.95 for two hours of use, and it’s already available at 11,500 of the company’s 14,000 locations. Incidentally, that also makes McDonald’s one of the largest providers of WiFi hotspots (free or otherwise) in the United States, with the company itself claiming that no less than 16% of reported WiFi hotspots in the U.S. are located at McDonald’s.

source: Reuters

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Uncategorized

AT&T and Verizon Slash Their Prices in an All-Out Price War

If you thought AT&T and Verizon weren’t at war already, today will change your mind. In an effort to undercut each other, both networks have dropped the prices of their unlimited voice plans, including the unlimited plans of iPhone owners (but with a caveat).

Verizon was the first to strike. Earlier today they revealed a new set of nationwide plans for unlimited talk and text. An Unlimited Talk plan now costs $69.99, a full $29 cheaper per month. Unlimited Talk and Text now costs $89.99. Family plans and low-end data plans have also been overhauled (the $19.99 3G data package no longer exists). These new prices will not impact existing customers unless they change their plans (which requires no contract extension or penalty).

It didn’t take long for AT&T to respond, though. It just announced its own price cuts, matching the price of Verizon’s unlimited voice plan ($69.99) and unlimited talk and text ($89.99). The iPhone, labeled by AT&T as a smartphone, costs $99.99 for unlimited voice and data, while texting plans remain unchanged ($20 for unlimited). And just like Verizon, AT&T customers can switch to these new plans, starting on Monday, without penalty or contract extension.

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Uncategorized

Audi Turning To Nvidia Tegra Chipset To Make Their Dashboards Pop

If I had $80,000 to spend on a car, I would probably go with an Audi A8. And now I have even more reason to want one since they partnered with Nvidia for their dashboard graphics.

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