When set up against the job of making an ad for a motor saw manufacturer, most of us will probably think of lightly-clad girls, muscular men and the jungle.
According to DirectDaily, the folks at the chainsaw manufacturer STIHL went a different way. They created a self-updating paper calendar, which is pictured below:
Not much to add here…
The iPhone’s lack of stylus was praised when the unit first came out – unfortunately, having no stylus makes using the unit with gloves difficult.
Koreans discovered that a popular type of snack sausage could be used as stylus – and an innovative vendor has now capitalized on their findings. His “sausage” is non-edible, but can be used as a stylus for long times without fear of “degeneration”:
Those of you who feel like taking a stab can do so for the acceptable price of 1 USD – further information is at the URL below:
http://www.casecrown.com/iphone/accessories/iphone-1g-3g-3gs-sausage-screen-stylus
Mobile Business Briefing reports the following:
The European Commission announced yesterday new moves intended to protect consumers from building up large bills when roaming in other EU countries. Mobile operators are now obliged to offer their customers a monthly cut-off limit of EUR50, and can also offer any other limit. Users will receive a warning when they hit 80 percent of the chosen limit. Until 1 July, customers need to make a deliberate choice in order to benefit from a cut-off limit. But if they don’t make a choice by July 1, the cut-off will be set at EUR50 by default from that date.
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From my point of view, this definitely is a good step. However, it IMHO won’t really do much – the party will start only when one of the big networks declares itself as “one”. Hutchison 3G does that for some time, but is too small (7 countries) to have meaningful impact.
On the other hand, former governmental operators like A1 (who have since joined the VodaFone network) could do this to protect themselves from competition by cheaper, small operators – forcing others to follow suite…
As quite a few of you are visiting the Tamoggemon Content network from a Windows-powered desktop or notebook, I felt like sharing this with all of you.
Microsoft has just warned that the End-of-Support time for Windows XP SP2 and the initial release of Windows Vista is nearing:
If you currently use one of the above-mentioned operating systems, you will no longer receive updates and patches after the specified dates. Fortunately, the solution is easy: install the latest service pack…
P.S. Windows 2000 heads: your EOL time is in July…irregardless of the service pack you use!
Microsoft has traditionally used the Catalonia Plaza hotel in Barcelona as its “base” during the congress – it offers better logistics and cleaner, better-managed venues. This year, they really overdid it though – and transformed the entire hotel into a huge Windows Mobile 7 ad.
During the day, the clock was always set to Seven:
And at night, it got really funny. Not much to add to the shot below:
Kojishinsa’s dual-screen netbook was the first “dual-screen” notebook – while extremely expensive, it set an extremely interesting precedent. The 1k5 box showed that it is possible to add more than one screen into a notebook…and GScreen now follows suite.
The picture below shows their 17 inch SpaceBook:
Specs-wise, the device es extremely powerful:
Dual 17.3-inch LED-backlit display screens
Intel® Core™ i7- 620M 4M Cache 2.66 Ghz Processor
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional
Hard Drive 320-500 SATA HDD 7200rpm
Memory: 4GB DDR3
Video: 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 150M GPU
Hard drive. 250G-500 . Support SATA II HDD.1 x 2.5” (9.5mm) HDD, 7200rpm
Optical drive: DVD dual (DVD + / -rw) , super multi (DVD + / -rw + DVD- RAM) .Communication
Intel pro / wireless (802. 11b / g / n) network connection.
6-in-1 media card reader: SD / MMC / MS / MS Pro/MiniSD/RS-MMC Memory Card
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Speaker: Build-in speakers,1.5W. I/ O.
1 x DC-in jack
1 x HeadPhone out(with S/PDIF)
1 x Mic-in
1 x RJ45 LAN (w/ metal shielding)
1 x RJ11 Modem connector
3 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x eSATA (+USB)
1 x IEEE Firewire
1 x HDMI
1 x MMC/SD/MS/MS Pro memory card slotBattery: 9 Cell, li-ion.
Packing accessories:
Support CD (driver, utility, manual) , ac adapter, power cord, battery pack.1-Year Basic Limited Warranty
100% North American Sales and Tech support for all gScreen laptop computers sold in North America
Further information on this 3000$ unit can be had at the URL below:
http://www.gscreencorp.com/
For most of us, GPS is a no-brainer – if we need to know where we are, we fire up that transmitter and are good to go. Unfortunately, this could change in the not-so-far future.
The British BBC reports the following:
The Sun’s irregular activity can wreak havoc with the weak sat-nav signals we use.
The last time the Sun reached a peak in activity, satellite navigation was barely a consumer product.
But the Sun is on its way to another solar maximum, which could generate large and unpredictable sat-nav errors.
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Even though many of us distrust large media services when it comes to tech, their story looks very ok to me. The image below is from the NASA, and shows the earth’s magnetic field.
If the sun now emits a magnetic cloud of its own, the fields get distorted – which confuses the system. Of course, we don’t quite know how strong this will really become…
Coming from Austria, yours truly has a healthy dislike of government agencies – wherever the government gets involved, idiocy and bloat usually follow suite.
Travelers and gadget heads in the USA will soon enjoy even more of the above-mentioned. PCWorld reports the following:
Buying your next laptop computer or smartphone online could suddenly get a lot more expensive if a little-known U.S. Department of Transportation proposal to tighten rules around the shipment of small, battery-powered devices by air goes through, says an industry group opposing the move.
Airline passengers would be affected too, as rules banning spare lithium-ion batteries in checked-in luggage would also be extended to alkaline and nickel metal-hydride batteries, argues George Kerchner, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Portable Rechargeable Battery Association.
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For air travelers, this means that you are no longer allowed to put batteries or accumulators into checked luggage – which is just insane. More on that can be had at the URL above.
P.S. This is a non-political blog. However, I think that the Terrorists have already won their “war” with us – air travel is such a hassle nowadays that many evaluate taking the train more and more. One can always circumvent security measures if one really wants to.
File this straight into the “weird crap” folder: Nokia has just erected a huge interactive arrow in London.
Individuals passing by can (or, rather, could) send messages to it – which were then displayed prominently:
One beer to whoever had the idea – it really IS strange, after all…
Apple’s announcement to use a micro SIM in its iPad caused quite a bit of waves in the mobile industry – no other box has used this smaller format so far.
The illustration on the left shows the site difference – and CNET reports the following:
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The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which sets the standards for SIM cards, tells us that except for the size of the plastic around the chip, micro SIM cards are identical to the SIM cards we normally find in phones.
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This means that you can cut existing SIM cards to size – have fun, tinkerers!
Big acquisitions do happen in mobile – but they usually take place between hardware manufacturers. Don’t ask me why and how the folks at HandMark’s managed to buy up Astraware two years ago – but the company is now solo again.
A press release has just gone out. It states the following:
KANSAS CITY, MO and LONDON, UK – January 27, 2010 – Handmark®, the world’s leading developer and distributor of mobile applications and services, today announced it has spun off its mobile games studio, Astraware, as the company streamlines its business to focus on other strategic areas of mobile development and support.
Astraware returns to the management of Howard Tomlinson and David Oakley, two of the original founders, and will remain a Handmark preferred partner. Handmark will continue to support Astraware on a variety of distribution and promotional opportunities.
“We saw a great opportunity to join forces with Astraware to help create and extend a collection of fun, well-designed mobile games titles to a new audience, and we did just that,” said Paul Reddick, Handmark CEO. “I still see a great opportunity for their team to continue proving their leadership as a major player in mobile games and we will continue to work alongside them.”
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The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
P.S. I asked them about specifics of the deal at a tradeshow two years ago – and got a really really pissed off HandMark manager on my back…
This one could be useful for (former) AT&T customers – there’s a class action lawsuit against AT&T’s ETF provisions which could also provide a benefit to people who never paid an ETF.
The web site explains it as follows:
This Settlement will provide the benefits discussed below to qualifying former customers of AT&T Mobility or its predecessors who were charged a flat-rate ETF between and including January 1, 1998 and November 4, 2009, and qualifying current customers of AT&T Mobility who had a flat-rate ETF provision in their subscriber agreement(s) as of November 4, 2009. YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR BENEFITS WHETHER OR NOT YOU PAID A FLAT-RATE ETF. Three categories of benefits are available. Submit your claim under the category that describes your situation. Even if you have multiple claims, you may choose only ONE of the categories and ONE of the benefits under that category. The benefit amounts shown are the highest possible amounts. In the event that the claims for cash exceed the available settlement funds, the cash benefit amounts will be reduced pro rata in order to allow the maximum number of claims. In the event that the value of claims for non-cash benefits (other than the prorated ETF benefit) exceeds $2,000,000, the non-cash benefit amounts (other than the prorated ETF benefit) will be reduced pro rata in order to allow the maximum number of claims.
The Court has not decided whether the claims in the lawsuit have any merit. However, if you are a member of the Settlement Class, you have a choice to make now.
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Further information can be had below – if you were or are an AT&T customer and have a few minutes to spare, why not give it a click:
http://www.attmetfsettlement.com/
MobileEntertainment has received the invitation below:
As of now, nobody knows what its all about – stay tuned for further info as we get it!
Looks like the ebook game has just started off for good – Amazon reports that it sold more Kindle books than hardcopy books on the 24th of December.
The release goes as follows:
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that Kindle has become the most gifted item in Amazon’s history. On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books. The Kindle Store now includes over 390,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases.
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Not much to add here…
It’s the end of the year. This means next to no news, and loads of top-XYZ lists.
While we usually ignore these beautiful critters on the Tamoggemon Content network, Gizmodo’s most-useless gadgets of the decade list struck my interest.
While most of the victims are weird, largely useless gadgets, the following boxen also made it on the list:
Feel that the ratings are justified? Let us know in the comments!
