Crapgadget: 'blurring the line between comical and offensive' edition

Just because the flow of Crapgadgets has apparently slowed from an outpouring to a mere flood doesn't mean we haven't been dutifully collecting the worst of the bad over the past few months. Without further ado, we present to you the latest edition, complete with a handful of this quarter's most atrocious / splendiferous gadgets. Frankly, it's a chore just deciding where to start -- should we extol the portable speaker kit with an utterly unnecessary Core i5 label on the outside, or give priority to Thanko's heated mousepad / hand-engulfing cat face? On second thought, maybe it's the real wood stick-on that enables every smartphone owner to literally knock on wood whenever the mood strikes. Unfortunately for us, there's also an iPhone 4 steering wheel to consider, not to mention a stick figure speaker with a questionable audio jack and a retrofied telephone with an integrated reading light. Have a peek at each below, and let us know in the poll below which is most abhorrent. And remember, honesty really is the best policy.

Read - Portable speaker kit, Core i5-powered!
Read - Audiobot, who could use a zippered fly
Read - Thanko's cat face / mousepad / warmer
Read - Knock On Wood iPhone stick-on
Read - iPhone 4 steering wheel (with speakers!)
Read - USB retro telephone (with alarm clock!)

View Poll

Crapgadget: 'blurring the line between comical and offensive' edition originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/30/crapgadget-blurring-the-line-between-comical-and-offensive-ed/

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Big cable-backed broadband bill soars through NC House, one step closer to stifling ISP competition

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Time Warner Cable is made up of some insanely shady folks. And frankly, it's not just TWC to blame here -- CenturyLink, Embarq and a smattering of other big telecom companies are banding together in order to push the ironically-named H129 "Level Playing Field" bill straight into law. Unfortunately, said bill sailed through the clearly oblivious (or "persuaded") North Carolina House this week, with just 37 sane individuals voting against 81 delusional proponents. For those outside of the loop, the bill effectively suggests that commercial entities -- municipal ISPs like Wilson's own Greenlight that provide greater levels of service with lower costs -- are unfairly competing against for-profit monoliths. In short, that's an absolute joke. Rep. Bill Faison nailed it with this quote:
"This bill will make it practically impossible for cities to provide a fundamental service. Where's the bill to govern Time Warner? Let's be clear about whose bill this is. This is Time Warner's bill. You need to know who you're doing this for."
Yours truly just so happens to reside in the wonderful state of North Carolina, and knows first-hand what it's like to live in a major metropolitan area with a single high-speed broadband carrier. TWC has only recently announced impending DOCSIS 3.0 coverage, but early installations in the heart of Raleigh have been fraught with latency issues and router difficulties. Oh, and it's charging $99 per month for a service with 5Mbps up; for comparison's sake, Greenlight gives customers 10Mbps internet (in both directions), home phone and expanded basic cable for the exact same fare. So, NC lawmakers -- how exactly do your constituents gain access to that "level playing field?"

[Image courtesy of IndyWeek]

Big cable-backed broadband bill soars through NC House, one step closer to stifling ISP competition originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ArsTechnica  |  sourceWRAL  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/30/big-cable-backed-broadband-bill-soars-through-nc-house-one-step/

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Skyfire Web browser for iOS goes multiligual, adds related sites feature

Skyfire, the popular Flash-video-playing Web browser for iOS and Android, has released a new version for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users. The update includes a handful of important changes, including seven new localizations: French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

There's also an improved support process for when you need to submit feedback or bug reports to Skyfire's team of developers. User agent switching has been enhanced as well, allowing you to choose among desktop, iPad, and iPhone views of the websites you browse. Skyfire has added a 'related sites' feature, bringing a nice discovery element to the app, too.

You can find the new version of Skyfire in the App Store -- existing users can simply check for updates, of course.

Skyfire Web browser for iOS goes multiligual, adds related sites feature originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/skyfire-goes-multiligual-adds-related-sites-feature/

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Macally TurboTune Universal Stereo Speaker

Unlike many device-specific accessories, the Macally TurboTune external stereo speaker works with any audio player with a 3.5mm jack.  The TurboTune speaker has a built-in 760mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery that provides up to 8 hours of continuous play and recharges with USB.  The stereo speakers have 500mW of power per channel.  The TurboTune is $29.99 [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/03/27/macally-turbotune-universal-stereo-speaker/

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Amazon Cloud Player upsets Sony Music over streaming license, Amazon shrugs

In case you missed the news, last night Amazon gave us a little surprise by launching its free Cloud Player service, which lets you stream your music collection from the cloud to your computer or Android device. While this has no doubt put a smile on many faces (American ones only, for now), Sony Music isn't too happy about Amazon jumping the gun over licensing for streaming rights. The record label told Reuters that it's hoping Amazon "will reach a new license deal, but we're keeping all of our legal options open." Yikes. In retaliation, Amazon responded with the following statement to Ars Tehcnica:
"Cloud Player is an application that lets customers manage and play their own music. It's like any number of existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud Player available. The functionality of saving MP3s to Cloud Drive is the same as if a customer were to save their music to an external hard drive or even iTunes."
Of course, the bigger story here is that Amazon's free Cloud Player is going head-to-head with Sony's Music Unlimited streaming subscription service, which was pushed out last month after plenty of money talk with various record labels. Understandably, Sony isn't willing to let Amazon cut through the red tape here without a fight, and this may also affect similar music locker services like mSpot and MP3Tunes, albeit at a much smaller scale. In fact, Sony's already expressed its discomfort with those particular companies' mode of operation, so you can probably expect to see this tension boiling over to some form of legal action before long. Now that a big shot like Amazon's involved, it's almost inevitable.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Amazon Cloud Player upsets Sony Music over streaming license, Amazon shrugs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/TUzjOkMGuWU/

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Bing mobile search gets HTML5 enhancements for iOS and Android

bing mobile html5The Bing team has just delivered a major update to its mobile search. m.bing.com now utilizes HTML5 tech to deliver better image and iOS app search, as well as realtime directions and transit info to Android and iOS users.

It gets better, too. If the update situation for Windows Phone 7 wasn't bad enough, the official blog post offers this sad-trombone style news for WP7 users: "If you have a Windows Phone 7 device, don't worry, Windows Phone 7 just announced that it will support HTML5 later this year so these updates will work great at that time."

For a look at how the new Bing mobile works on Android and iOS -- or how it might eventually work on your WP7 device -- take the jump and check out the video.

Continue reading Bing mobile search gets HTML5 enhancements for iOS and Android

Bing mobile search gets HTML5 enhancements for iOS and Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/24/bing-mobile-search-gets-html5-enhancements-for-ios-and-android/

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Sigma confirms pricing and availabilty for DP2x compact camera: $800, late-April

Sigma provided most of the details for its new DP2x compact camera when it announced it back in February, but it left out two key ones: pricing and availability. It's now finally (mostly) come clean on both those counts, however, and announced that the high-end compact will run $800 and be available in "late April." As for the camera itself, you'll get a 14-megapixel FOVEON X3 sensor that's said to be twelve times larger than those found in similarly-sized cameras, along with a fixed 24.2mm F2.8 lens, full manual controls with RAW image support, and an new AF algorithm that promises "high-speed" autofocus. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Sigma confirms pricing and availabilty for DP2x compact camera: $800, late-April

Sigma confirms pricing and availabilty for DP2x compact camera: $800, late-April originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/29/sigma-confirms-pricing-and-availabilty-for-dp2x-compact-camera/

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LG working on the Optimus Big - 4.3-inch NOVA display, silly name

LG working on the Optimus Big - 4.3" NOVA display, silly name

Looks like LG is sticking to their Optimus naming conventions here, but we can't help but wonder how this one came about. The LG Optimus Big as it's been dubbed got caught up in some photos on its way to Korean carrier U+. 

The device itself has been noted as taking some of its styling queues from the LG Optimus 2X with the exception of the screen that now gets bumped up to 4.3 inches and of course makes use of NOVA technology.

Other specs call for a 1GHz single-core processor and a T-DMB TV tuner that leads us to believed we may never see this outside of Korea-- but time will tell. [XPortsNews via Phone Arena]

 

LG working on the Optimus Big - 4.3-inch NOVA display, silly name posted originally by Android Central

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/aZrKZpimLK0/lg-working-optimus-big-43-nova-display-silly-name

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Deeper Voice Recognition on iPhone, iPad? Yes, Please

Apple’s next-generation mobile operating system may include a more powerful voice recognition system, putting to use the company’s recent acquisition of an artificial-intelligence startup. Apple on Monday said it would announce details on the future of iOS, the software powering the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Expanded voice recognition [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/ios-5-voice-recognition/

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Top Facebook scams revealed by BitDefender (infographic)

Security company BitDefender -- which recently released the Safego app to protect your Facebook account -- has put together an infographic illustrating information about the state of scams on the social networking site.

At an impressive 7,532 pixels tall, the graphic offers plenty of insight into the dark underbelly of Facebook. The company found profile insight apps -- like those which promise to show you who's viewing your page and who deleted you -- to be the most widespread scam. BitDefender estimates that this particular type of scam has generated more than 1.4 million clickthroughs. Facebook's popular social games are a common trap as well, but are in a distant second, with less than half the clickthroughs.

Somewhat surprisingly, shocking image and video posts came in at number three on the list. We've seen so many of this type of scam appear in our security feeds that we thought they'd be the most common.

Top Facebook scams revealed by BitDefender (infographic) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/top-facebook-scams-revealed-by-bitdefender/

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