Apple's Safari 3.1 to support downloadable web fonts, more

The ability to download and immediately render non-standard web fonts is just one of several advancements Apple Inc. has planned for Safari 3.1, a small but significant update to its share-gaining web browser for both the Mac and Windows PCs. The release, which underwent private testing this week, will tie in a number of other enhancements, most of

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Interview: XBox Media Center hits the Macintosh scene

Recently a team of programmers led by Elan Feingold decided that maybe an OSX version of the XBMC might have a market..as he puts it, "it seems like it's a confluence of people who like the best OS coupled with people who like the best media center".

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AT&T plans major 3G expansion ahead of second-gen iPhone

AT&T said Wednesday it plans a major expansion of its wireless network during the 2008 calendar year, including the deployment of third-generation (3G) wireless broadband service to more than 80 additional cities in the United States through the course of the year. The news comes just months before Apple is expected to announce availability of i

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Danish Police Befuddled by 1G iMac

The police wanted to confiscate the author's computer. When the author's roommate agreed to also let the police look at her first generation iMac, they were frustrated because they thought the iMac was just the screen. They wanted to know where the actual computer was and got rather heated about finding it.

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No spin: Ars reviews the MacBook Air with solid state drive

The MacBook Air's high-end model comes with 200 extra MHz and a solid state drive. Is it worth the extra $1,300 to upgrade? We compare the two Airs directly to find out whether the price is worth paying.

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Super Tuesday iPod touch Easter Egg

Perhaps Apple engineers wished they could vote for Lincoln this time around: if you own a jailbroken iPod touch and bought the January Software Upgrade, run your nikita_receipt.plist through your favorite Base64 decoder. Way to go Francis who figured this out!

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Top 100 Essential Mac Applications

An up to date list of the top 100 Apple Mac applications. These are the applications that every Mac should be installed with. Examples include the free to the not so free but all worth having for any Mac user.

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Official: 16GB iPhone available and 32GB iPod touch, $499

Out of the rumor mill comes the 16GB iPhone, now official. Ever since the 16GB iPod touch was announced in September, we all knew it was just a matter of time until Apple could bung the same NAND chip into their chubbier iPhone. The Surprise is a new 32GB iPod touch for the same $499. Both are available immediately.

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Thin is in: Ars Technica reviews the MacBook Air

The MacBook Air has finally made its way into the hands of the earliest adopters. Ars Technica likes the sexy, but digs into the nitty gritty to see whether being so thin is worth it.

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Build a Mac for $350

This guide shows you how to get a 100% working hackintosh for only $350! It is VERY easy to follow and uses no command line stuff!

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AT&T Has No Idea What Caused 9-Hour Outage

AT&T's EDGE and UMTS data networks went down yesterday at 2:30pm Pacific Time for BlackBerry, iPhone and other cell phone data customers in 18 states. Even now the company's technicians have NO IDEA WHAT CAUSED IT.

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Apple Launches How-To Site For New Mac Users

Apple has launched a subsection of its site that offers dozens of how-to videos to try to sway Windows users and to help new Mac customers get started.

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Android Hands-On Video: It's Fast, It's Still Not There

We have been playing with the Android prototypes scattered through the Mobile World Congress. ARM had theirs running on a humble ARM9 processor in a plain white prototype "to demonstrate the scalability of Android." It works, it's fast. But it's not there yet and the Qualcomm prototype demonstrates how far we are are from an actual product.

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First Hands On Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1

Playing with Xperia, Sony's Windows Mobile phone with a hiptop QWERTY, revealed a few interesting things...

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The Coffee Cup PC Concept.... Hot!

The coming flexible-screen industry is all fun and games until someone actually builds something like this (don't worry: It's still a concept only). The Yuno PC mug is a PC BUILT INTO A COFFEE CUP. It lets you get weather, time, traffic reports and stocks on a touch-screen display, right on the cup.

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Video: Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 "Panel Interface"

Wondering what the XPERIA X1's magical mystery "panel interface" is? Good, us too. Now we've got a preview courtesy of Sony Ericsson. If it functions this quick in hand as it does in the promotional video then Sony Ericsson might just be on to something here.

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Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 iPhone killing QWERTY

It's here, the XPERIA X1 QWERTY from Sony Ericsson. SE's new XPERIA brand will focus on multimedia and mobile web communication. The X1 then, brings a 3-inch wide VGA (800 x 480) touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera (with photo light), A2DP Bluetooth, aGPS, WiFi, and quad-band GSM/EDGE/HSDPA/HSUPA...

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Greener Gadgets Design Competition winners

In case you don't know, the Greener Gadgets Conference is a gathering in New York focused on cleaner, renewable, recyclable, or generally forward-thinking technology and design. They awarded first place to a DIY project which allows you to easily view how much energy an appliance is using.

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Nokia turns people into traffic sensors

100 UC Berkeley students took place in a test of a new technology that, among other things, will enable phones to "proactively say, I see you have a meeting that's coming up in an hour, the route you usually take is congested. You probably need to leave 15 minutes early." [Video Included]

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Short Range Personal Radar Device

A very small & portable radar device that uses an ir sensor & a pic microcontroller. This diy guide shows you how to build your own for less than $30.

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How To Solve A Rubik's Cube!

This instructable will teach YOU how to solve a Rubik's cube!I will also teach you algorithms that will enable you to make your cube "pretty", which will impress people!

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Huge Battles Using Hundreds of LEGO Star Wars Spaceships

Instead of building a huge Millennium Falcon out of thousands of LEGO pieces, Tim Goddard decided to use a thousand LEGO blocks to create 200 hundreds Star Wars mini-sets, from Star Destroyers to TIE Interceptors and Snow Speeders. He then uses these mini-scale ships to recreate famous movie scenes. Interview and HUGE galleries after the link

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Modu LEGO-Like Cellphone System Video Hands-On

Modu is a very small cellphone that carries your personal data everywhere and you can plug into "jackets", which are specialized hardware modules that transform it into all kinds of things, like multimedia players, a full-fledge PDA with full QWERTY keyboard, gaming handhelds, GPS and whatever you want. Seeing the concept work is quite cool.

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Top 10 Valentine's Day Gadget Gifts for Gals

Myth: Women hate gadget gifts. Truth: That isn't true. But where to start? That's where we come in. Guys, we've got 10 Valentine's Gifts for your sweetheart — from tech fashion to MP3 players made for romance — to help you navigate your way through this delicate obstacle course. Yes, buying gadgets for women can be done successfully.

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Tired of Paying to Cool Your Food When it's Cold Outside?

This simple DIY project will show you how to make an "ambient air fridge," which will keep your beer cold while using only a tiny amount of energy.

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20 toys for girls that don't look like, er, toys for girls

The problem with "personal massagers" is that they aren't something discerning girls want to be seen with. DVICE managed to find 20 discrete models that you can have lying around the house and, if they're uncovered, no one will be the wiser to your AAA activities.

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PSP Phone reference spotted in Sony Magazine

A page in an issue of Sony Magazine (an office favorite over here) makes passing mention of a "PSP-Style phone" which is supposedly in development, then casually suggests the device could be "in shops as early as February."

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Dorm-Necessity: Cook Two 12-Inch Pizzas in 90 Seconds

The Hammacher Schlemmer 90 Second Dual Pizza Oven can cook two 12" pizzas in 90 seconds. You read that right, 90 seconds as in 1 1/2 minutes. The real question is how long does it take for frozen pizzas?

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Speed Racer vs. Batmobile Zoomdown: Entire 2008 Toy Lineup

We've got Mattel's entire line of Batman and Speed Racer cars for 2008, and we hope the movies are as geekgasmic as the toys. The Batman lineup punches all of my little fanboy buttons, Speed Racer's got the Mach 5, its sleeker, zippier successor the Mach 6, plus a battle bus!

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HARV gives soldiers a robot's-eye view

While battlefield robots are certainly plenty capable with their current control systems, the folks at Chatten Associates seem to think they can do things one better, and they're now touting their so-called HARV (Head-Aimed Remote Viewer) system as a potential alternative.

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7 Lies You'll Hear From Salesmen At Electronics Stores

Future Shop is a Canadian consumer electronics retail chain. Charlie used to work there, and has now passed along the 7 most common lies he heard salesmen use on unsuspecting customers. Whether you have a Future Shop in your area or not, you'll find these lies familiar. (We ran into a lot of them back when The Wiz was still in NYC, in fact.)

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Inferno Speaker Stops Thieves, Terrorists, Makes them Vomit

Inferno is a "sonic barrier," a long metallic speakerbar that generates a sound made of four frequencies between 2 and 5 kilohertzs. It will stop anyone, making them vomit and feel incredibly ill just using sound. It can be installed in houses, shops and even vans and cars. It is being installed in Russian retired nuclear weapons depots.

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First Screens of Google Android's NEW User Interface

Google's evolved the Android UI and it looks a lot better than it did before, with animations and an overall look and feel that seems more iPhone/HipTop than Windows mobile. They keep improving like this, Android could really be great.

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Here come the teeny, tiny, mini-projectors

A new generation of tiny projectors will let us walk into a meeting and give a PowerPoint presentation using nothing but the gadgets in our pockets. Gone at last will be the need for a giant laptop and a heavy, hat box-sized projector.

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The Best Technologies You Can't Buy

True mobile TV. Connected cars. Personal robots. The coolest new gadgets and services are still found in the Land of the Rising Sun.Read More

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7 Products that Look Like Sex Toys But Aren't (Officially)

Valentine's Day is rabidly rapidly approaching, and most people are looking for one of two things: a present for a loved one, or a way to "love yourself". Don't look for these to safisfy either need. These products look sexual, but are made for other means... honestly!

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Mysteries Of Computer From 65BC Are Solved

The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.

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No more Analog Cell Phone Service as of Monday Feb 18 2008

The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will finally close down their analog networks on Monday. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital network, which uses TDMA technology. (Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA don't have analog networks.) Most rural operators also plan on shutting down their AMPS networks.

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U-M creates most intense laser in the universe

Rest assured, we've seen some wicked frickin' lasers in our day, but apparently, even the two-kilowatt rendition that heats coffee in mere seconds can't hold a candle ray of light to HERCULES. (...)

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recharge your ipod with your shirt

U.S. scientists have developed a microfiber fabric that generates its own electricity, making enough current to recharge a cell phone or ensure that a small MP3 music player never runs out of power.

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Inbuilt Solar Panel Powered Notebook Concept [Pics]

A solar-power notebook concept by Designer- Nikola Knezevic to save computer users the trouble of charging batteries by plugging them in, the notebook is powered with the help of powerful batteries that are recharged by wide Solar Panel attached to the computer.

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The Analog Cell Phone Timeline (PIC)

As of today, the analog cellphone is no more. Here's the complete timeline of its development, since Greece in 490BC to February 18, 2008, the day in which networks are no longer obligated to provide with analog cellphone coverage.

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Cameras that detect blood will catch lone drivers

Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains.

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Invisible Secret Service Headset for Extreme Communications

I really hate to put things even earbuds into my ears. Let me introduce a tiny device - the smallest of its kind. They call it “Secret Service Invisible 2-Way Micro Headset”, the micro-sized earbud is smaller than a hearing aid which fits snugly and securely in the ear canal. But, i don’t think we should call it ‘INVISIBLE’.

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Japanese Store Lets Customers Trade HDDVD players for BluRay

The Japanese electronics retailer Edion is deeply ashamed it sold its customers HD DVD gear. So ashamed they that they're allowing buyers to swap in Toshiba HD DVD boxes for Blu-ray players. A little more investigation reveals that the trade must occur during March, and consumers only need pay the price difference.

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When good toys go bad X: Elmo makes death threats to toddler

Sure, it seemed like after the years of hard drinking, petty crime, and run-ins with the law, Elmo had cleaned up his act -- but a shocking report out of Tampa Bay, Florida, says otherwise. A two-year-old's life has been turned upside down by vicious talk coming from his favorite toy, Elmo Knows Your Name.

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Engadget Finally Tests the Optimus Maximus

It's the damndest thing: years after seeing the renders we're actually finally writing this post on our very own Optimus Maximus. We've had ours for a few weeks for testing, but we weren't able to do a whole lot with it until we got some later firmware updates. Here's the preliminary report:

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ThePirateBay.org files charges against media companies

"Thanks to the email-leakage from MediaDefender-Defenders we now have proof of the things we've been suspecting; the big record and movie labels are paying professional hackers, saboteurs and ddosers to destroy our trackers. While browsing through the email we identified the companies that are also active in Sweden". TPB reported this to the police

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HD-DVD key fiasco is an example of 21st century digital revolt

It's the most circulated number of the week. Sixteen hexadecimal digits that unlock the wonder of most currently released HD-DVD titles from the surly clutches of the AACS revenue content protection system. Sixteen digits that have been posted in so many places -- and in many cases, removed only to be reposted -- that they're hard to avoid.

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Sketsa SVG Editor 5.1 Released

KIYUT just released Sketsa SVG Editor 5.1, a cross platform vector drawing application based on SVG. It features various tools for optimizing content creation, giving designers unsurpassed support for creativity. These tools include property palette, source editor, resources editor, SVG specific shape tools, transformation tools, and additional illustration tools. Sketsa uses SVG as a native file format.

What's new:

• Updated Apache Batik 1.7
• Add Path Element Change Point Type
• Add Embed as base64 options for Insert Image
• Improved Insert Image Dialog
• Improved SVG Code Formatter (Pretty Print)
• Improved Zoom (ctrl-key) and Pan (shift-key) with MouseWheel support
• Improved Toolbox Tool constraint (shift-key)
• Fix NPE related to PATHSEG_CURVETO_CUBIC_SMOOTH_REL
• Other bug fixes

Features:

• SVG native file format
• Produces clean SVG without proprietary namespace
• Support SVG Profile Full
• Property palette
• DOM Editor
• Source Editor
• Defs Editor: gradient and filter
• SVG specific shape tools rect, ellipse, line, polyline, polygon
• Additional illustration tools: Pencil tool for freeform shape and Pen tool for curve shape
• Transformation tool: rotate, skew, scale, and translate
• Basic Text Tool
• Export or rasterize to JPEG, PNG, and PDF (with Plugins)
• Plugins Support
• Build on top Netbeans Platform
• Written entirely in Java

Sketsa SVG Editor Information:

Product Page
Features Page
Screenshots Page

[News source - svg.org ]

SMIL 3.0 Candidate Recommendation

The W3C Synchronized Multimedia Working Group has posted the candidate recommendation of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language 3.0 (SMIL 3.0). SMIL 3.0 has four goals:

• Define an XML-based language that allows authors to write interactive multimedia presentations. Using SMIL, an author can describe the temporal behaviour of a multimedia presentation, associate hyperlinks with media objects and describe the layout of the presentation on a screen.


• Extend the functionalities contained in the SMIL 2.1 into new or revised SMIL 3.0 modules.


• Allow reusing of SMIL syntax and semantics in other XML-based languages, in particular those who need to represent timing and synchronization. For example, SMIL components are used for integrating timing into XHTML and into SVG.


• Define new SMIL 3.0 Profiles incorporating features useful within the industry.

Source - cafeconleche.org

Saxon 9.0.0.3 Released

Michael Kay has released version 9.0.0.3 of Saxon, his XSLT 2.0 and XQuery processor for Java and .NET. This is a bug fix release. This is a "Maintenance Release clearing all known bugs up to 18 Jan 2008."

Saxon is published in two versions for both of which Java 1.4 or later (or .NET) is required. Saxon 9.0B is an open source product published under the Mozilla Public License 1.0 that "implements the 'basic' conformance level for XSLT 2.0 and XQuery."

Saxon 9.0 SA is a ?250.00 payware version that "allows stylesheets and queries to import an XML Schema, to validate input and output trees against a schema, and to select elements and attributes based on their schema-defined type. Saxon-SA also incorporates a free-standard XML Schema validator.

In addition Saxon-SA incorporates some advanced extensions not available in the Saxon-B product. These include a try/catch capability for catching dynamic errors, improved error diagnostics, support for higher-order functions, and additional facilities in XQuery including support for grouping, advanced regular expression analysis, and formatting of dates and numbers."

Source - cafeconleche.org

Scalable Vector Graphics SVG Tiny 1.2 Specification

Scalable Vector Graphics Specification defines the features and syntax for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny, Version 1.2 - a modularized language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML.

SVG Tiny 1.2 is the baseline profile of SVG, implementable on a range of SVG enabled devices: from mobile devices like cellphones and PDAs to desktop and laptop computers, and is the core of SVG 1.2. Other SVG 1.2 specifications will extend this functionality to form supersets.