Do your own iPad Stand (for Free)

Just got your iPad and have no way to make it stand?
How about using its own packaging to create an iPad stand?

Considering you can make up to four stands per iPad package, you can even sell the remaining 3 on eBay and get rich with it (or not! :)

So not sure if you should get an ipad? Then maybe you should pick up an iphone, it's like a smaller ipad at the end of the day!

What lies beneath a Tweet?

It's no secret most people think a Twitter message (a tweet) is a simple string of 140 letters (a limitation that comes from the limitation of SMS message sizes.)

However, there's a lot behind those 140chars, lots of information that are usually hidden from sight and have been growing every time Twitter implements new features.

Besides the140 bytes for the text message, there's a lot going in there: user names and id codes, timestamp fields, places, coordinates, number of favorites and followers, and lots extra stuff.

And we're not yet considering what's to come. If you feel 140chars is a bit short, Twitter is working on a fix with their new "Annotations" - which will allow a tweet to contain up to 2KB (2000 chars) of text or any other type of information.

Google Maps Earth View

Taking it one step closer to Google's own Google Earth,  the 3D Earth view is now available in Google Maps.

It's a pity you still the Google Earth plugin (I'd love to see Google using this as another step to push WebGL and HTML5 forward) but, I'll settle with being able to do most of the stuff we do in Google Earth without leaving the browser window.

How to Install Android on the iPhone

If you recall seeing a 1st gen iPhone dual-booting Android along side it's quasi-original iPhone OS, you've probably wondered how they did it. Well, you can now find a detailed step-by-step guide, along with a instructional video to help you achieve the same result.

How to put Android on your iPhone



Guide to Installing Android on iPhone 2G from AndroidALot on Vimeo.

CanvasMol - 3D Chemistry

Ever wondered how some of molecules look in 3D? With this CanvasMol you can do it right in your browser windows, and you don't even need Flash as it is all done using HTML5's canvas element.

It has never been easier to see how Aspirin, caffeine, glucose, or even a Diamond, DNA, or adenovirus looks like in 3D.

(It goes without saying that you'll need an HTML5 compatible browser, of course.)

VIA ARTiGO A1100 Barebone

If you're looking for a tiny silent computer to do "whatever you want", this VIA ARTiGO A1100 might be just what you need. It comes with a 1.2Ghz Via Nano coupled with a VX855 media processor allowing it to handle 1080p video without a problem. You'll also find the regular VGA, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, 5 USB ports and optional wifi..

As a "barebone", ram and hard drive is up to you...

Microsoft Deskterity - Touch + Pen

From Microsoft's Research Labs arrives Manual Deskterity, a project that combines multitouch with pen based operation for a simpler and more intuitive way to do some tasks.

Watch the video and imagine how thing will be able to be done in the future:

Why the iPhone shows 9:42 in Apple Ads - and the iPad 9:41

Ever wondered why time stands still at 9:42 AM on every picture of every iPhone in Apple ads?

This was one secret one would expect never to be revealed, but indeed it has:

According to Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, the answer is simple:

We design the (product launch) keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation. When the big image of the product appears on screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience's watches. But we know we won't hit 40 minutes exactly.

He also explains why it time was slightly tweaked on the iPad.

Yeah! And for the iPhone, we made it 42 minutes. It turned out we were pretty accurate with that estimate, so for the iPad, we made it 41 minutes.

There you have it: the reason for the mysterious magic time secret in the iPhone and the iPad.

Google Maps Navigation arrives at the UK

Looks like Google is expanding their Google Maps navigation service across the Atlantic, as it is now working in Androids in the UK.

I sure hope this service would see its way to the iPhone, but considering the tense relationship between Apple and Google, I think this will be one of the first services to offer a better "Google Experience" in their own devices, leaving the iPhone users out in the cold and having to buy a navigation App in the App Store.

On the other hand, navigation software heavyweights like TomTom, Ndrive and others, might not be too fond of having to compete with a free product offering GPS navigation... though I think that would serve as an incentive to truly differentiate themselves, having to offer a true "value-for-money" to attract customers.

Android on the iPhone

It's done! The unthinkable has happened. If you thought jailbreaking your iPhone wasn't enough, how about runnin Android nos on your iPhones?

Even in a first gen iPhone Android is running perfectly, and you don't even have to ditch your iPhone OS - thanks to OpeniBoot you can multiboot, selecting which OS you want to load at startup

Really great news! I just hope they can get some kind of easy-to-use install package so lots more people can enjoy both OS's at will. :)

Multitoe - Multitouch with your feet

Imagine you enter your home, carrying grocery bags and have no way to touch something (like your touchscreen automatic house interface)... How about using your feet?

That's what this Multitoe project from Hassno Platter Institute explores, and the results are quite interesting.

The following video shows this concept in action, and makes me wonder just how many more thing people would learn to use if/when this type of technology finally gets into our homes.

iPad 3G Arrives on April 30th

Good news for everyone waiting for the 3G version of the "magical iPad" (as Apple itself puts it.)
After being scheduled for May 7th, Apple now announces it will be delivered on April 30th, and will be available at the stores that same day.

The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available on April 30 in the US for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.

Alice in iPad land

Still wondering how digital ebooks can attract the youngsters?

Check this example of things to come with the amaziong Alice in Wonderland for iPad:

Better see it in action:

New iPhone 4G Discovered?

While I do my best to keep you away from regular rumors, this one seems to have enough credibility to it.

Looks like this will be indeed the next iPhone 4G!

Gizmodo claims to have put their hands on this prototype model, allegedly lost by Apple - a dubious story, though stranger things have happened; not to mention this might be a ploy to keep the buzz around Apple's products in high gear for the upcoming weeks.

The fact is, according to what's reported, when opened up this device has indeed new Apple hardware, front camera, flash on the back, higher resolution screen, microSIM - all that was expected.

It even had the iPhone OS 4.0 (before it was presented to the public) which seems to indicate this is for real though it has since been remotely locked, and all it does now it show the "connecto to iTunes" activation screen.

I personally thought Apple would keep the 3G/S look for one more year, but I must admit the current look does feel dated when put side-by-side with this new model.

What do you think: is this for real? Do you like it better than the current iPhone?

Augmented Driving with your iPhone

Augmented reality, driving, iPhone. Three interesting words that become even more interesting when combined.

I present you Augmented Driving for the iPhone. An app that shows just how much augmented reality applications can do for you.

While some cars now have expensive radar and camera systems that help the driver, why can't we use our powerful smartphones for the same effect?
While it's up to the driver to be responsible enough to keep an eye on the road, any alert system that can prevent an accident whenever the driver's attention slipped away for a moment, is definitely worth having.

This Augmented Driving does some interesting image recognition in real time, allowing the App to identify the lane you're driving in as well as any vehicles in front of you.



Check it in action in the following video:

High Power 500 LEDs Flashlight

If you love LEDs and have some free time in your hands, how about putting it to good use and do something like a... 500 LED flashlight?

Watch the following video:



Truly impressive, though it looks more like a "light cannon" than an actual flashlight - and at 50W, I don't get you'll get much time of battery life out of it at full power (and those leds sure are bound to heat up considerably.)

Never the less, it's worth the watch.

Now... anyone up to making a 1000 LED flashlight? :)

Drobo FS - NAS at Last

My search for the perfect NAS might now be a little closer to fruition than before. Data Robotics has finally announced the Drobo FS.

With five hard drive bays, this Drobo FS is very similar to the existing models... except for the added (and very needed) gigabit Ethernet port in its back.

With its new dual-core CPU and added RAM acrescida, Data Robotics says we can expect 30-40MB/s transfer rates - and of course, you still the amazing replacing/exchange/expansion capabilities that made the Drobo famous.

Prices start at $699 for an empty Drobo FS... I hope they soon get it under $500, and they'll have a customer for life!

Gmail gets Drag and Drop Attachments

At last! We can now simply drag and drop files into Gmail messages in your Browser to attach them automatically.

No longer will you have to "add attachment->browse for file->etc."

For now, you'll need to use Chrome or Firefox 3.6 to be able to use this feature, but it's expected to show up in other browsers, as soon as they allow it.

Segways for Sniper practice

If you doubt the military have all the fun toys, check out this amazing sniper practice range for the Australian army where your targets are dummys mounted on top of robotic segway platforms from Marathon Robotics. Now you just need to link those to real Modern Warfare 2 players, and we'll even the odds! :)

Steve Jobs Lies - iPad Delayed

Sad but true, it seems Steve Jobs messed up completely.
In the recent iPhone OS launch, Steve was asked whether iPad's success would impact its international launch dates.

Steve Jobs answer was simple and to the point:

"No, we said we're launching internationally later in April, and we're launching later in April."

But, it seems it was nothing but a lie, if we're to believe Apple's press release stating the international iPad lauch will be delayed one month:

Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10.

Bad news for all international customers hoping to have an iPad in the next couple of weeks; and very bad press for Steve for telling us a lie...

Old Pixels in New York

Amazing video showing some well known classic video game characters going rogue in New York. Definitely a must watch! :)

Solar Powered Plane - Solar Impulse

It sounds incredible... To be able to fly without fossil fuels. Can you imagine a future where solar airplanes cross the skies?

In that sense, Solar Impulse might be just one of the first steps. A plane that needs nothing but light itself to power its electric engines and fly around the world non-stop..

Let's hope it won't take long for this kind of technology to evolve even further and become the norm for the rest of the aviation fleets.

Opera Mini for iPhone Approved

Hell didn't freeze over, but it's no secret millions were surprised to see Opera Mini in the iPhone App Store today.

After 20 days, 8 hours and 31 minutes, Opera Mini was finally approved by Apple's App Store - proving Opera was right when they claimed their browser complied with every rule in the App Store's book (guess that duplicate functionality thing is just to be enforced when Apple feels like it.)

It's a happy day nonetheless, and iPhone users all around the world will be able to try out for themselves the browsing acceleration techniques in Opera Mini, that should provide a faster browsing experience - even though it still has some glitches.

Try it, is just a couple touches away in your App Store!

YDreams Spices Up Santander Visitor Center

The portuguese company YDreams is well known for its "futuristic" works. Now, it has put all its experience to use in its largest project to date: the Visitor Center in Group Santander's huge complex near Madrid.

From guidance autonomous robots to digital interactive walls and augmented reality models, this project is sure to grab every visitor's attention for the time to come.

Photoshop CS5 Puppet Warp

It may not be as amazing as the magical fill I showed you the other day, but just like the real content aware fill in  Photoshop CS5, this puppet warp is sure to make digital image manipulation a lot easier to a lot of people.

Dropbox gets 10GB free

It's never too late to tell you about Dropbox.

If you don't want to worry about backups, and want to keep files in sync across multiple computers (even with different operating systems) this is the best service you could possible have - and you can use up to 2GB of space for free.

Not enough for you? No problem... by referring friends, you can now get up to 10GB free space.
If you haven't done it yet, start using Dropbox today, and I can assure you won't regret it. :)

P.S. Don't forget to check the Dropbox  iPhone App - and now there's also one for Android.

Tweetie to become Twitter for iPhone/iPad

In the past couple of weeks, a growing uneasy feeling regarding Loren Brichter - developer of Tweetie, the most popular Twitter App on the iPhone - was brewing.
His lack of replies, him missing the chance to launch a Tweetie for iPad on launch, and several other strange behaviors were cause for concern... but now we know why.

Twitter has acquired Atebits, the company behind Tweetie!

In the upcoming weeks Tweetie will become Twitter for iPhone... the official twitter App and. best of all, it will be tfree.

After that, a Twitter for iPad app is soon expected.


This was expected after Twitter's intentions were revealed in the past couple of days, that they wanted to get in the action, providing those services that quickly became essential for Twitter's success and were provided by 3rd party developers: url shortening sevices, photo and video sharing, and even gaming!

Of course, many developers are not very happy about this. They helped Twitter become what it is now, and will now be forced to compete with official similar services provided by Twitter itself? It's doesn't sound fair. But that's why some people think you shouldn't be dependent on a single plataform - or risk facing the consequences.

Let's see how it goes. Twitter has its first developer conference Chirp, coming next week. Let's see if they'll ease (or increase) the tension between them and 3rd party developers.

iPhone OS 4.0

The new iPhone OS 4.0 is coming, and it looks like Steve Jobs has heard some of my requests! :)

So, here are some of the new stuff you can expect to enjoy in your iPhone soon.

There are over 1500 new APIs opening up an entire new range of possibilities for App development.

You can also expect bluetooth keyboard support, tap to focus on video, App access to SMS/Calendar/Photo/Video/Contacts, Wake-up-on-Wifi and many other stuff.

For the Apple presentation however, only 7 of its major innovations were talked about:

Multitasking

Yes, it's finally here. Like copy-paste, they took their time but they say they've done it right.

How do they do it, in order not to hog the CPU use or drain battery life? They provide seven background services that ensure developers "have" to do it right.

1. Background audio - for Pandora type apps
2. VoIP services - for Skype like Apps
3. Background location - for GPS navigation and sorts
4. PUSH notifications
5. Local Notifications
6. Task Completion - allows an App to keep doing what it has to do until it finishes (like uploading something or other lenghty operation)
7. Fast App Switching - gets you right into the App, exactly as you left it.

Unfortunately for older iPhone owners, multitasking will only be available for the 3GS forwards. Previous models lack the hardware to do it right (half the ram, slower CPU.)


Folders for Apps

YES! We'll finally be able to better organize our iPhones by grouping together Apps. Just drag one on top of another and you'll get a folder. From 180 apps you can now have 2160 at hand!

Enhanced Email

As expected: unified inbox, multiple exchange accounts, can open attachments with Apps, etc.

iBooks on iPhone

Not as useful as on the iPad, you can now buy an "iBook" and read it on any device, and it even keeps your bookmarks and pages in sync. :)

Enterprise

Looks like Apple wants the iPhone to become a better enterprise tool... But not much that interests "us".

Social Gaming Network

Think of a Xbox live on the iPhone. Automated matchmaking, leaderboards, the works. Let's see how Nintendo feels about this, as they continually choose to ignore the iPhone as a mobile gaming threat...

iAd - Apple's Revenge

Apple couldn't miss the chance to tackle Google, and they've done it where it hurts: in the ads section.
The new iAd platform offers interactive Ads that don't disrupt the user experience (you don't get thrown out of the App as other ads do), and it "kicks" Adobe's Flash as well, as everything is done in HTML5 (and offering video, full interactivity, the works!)



And that's about it. There are lots more stuff that we'll be finding in the next weeks, but that pretty much covers the most important stuff.

If you want to check the keynote video: it's available here!



[photos via GDGT]

Google Nexus One Car Dock

While some people struggle to get their iPads in a dashboard, Google has made it easier to install your Nexus One in your car with an official car dock.

The dock allows you to easily rotate the Nexus into portrait or landscape mode, charges it, has integrated speakers and volume controls, and gives you an easier access to Maps and Navigation, Voice Search, Contacts and Music thanks to the Car Home App that is automatically launched when you put your Nexus in the car dock.

Even if you plan to use another car dock with your Nexus One, you can still use the Car Home app; give it a try.

Butns - Easy Multi-site Linking

Ever had the need to link to multiple sites from a single link?

Than, how about doing something like this: automobiles (hover the mouse pointer over the link.)

It might look complicated, but it's actually quite easy to achieve using Butns.
Just enter the text, select its styling, select which sites to include, and you get a snippit of HTML code you can insert into any webpage. It's just that easy.

LookTel - Artifical Vision for the Blind

Have you ever thought how much is still left to do for all those people that need technology the most?
Take the blind or the visually impaired people... We currently have some much processing power in a regular smartphone; couldn't it be put to use to aid them in their daily life?

That's exactly what LookTel wants to do, and it seem to be doing a pretty good job at it - as you can see in the following video:



At the moment, most of the hard work is done in a remote desktop computer, but as technology evolves it0s just a matter of time before it could all be done in the smartphone itself (or maybe using standard web services in the cloud.)

iPad is Here at Last

Once the World's best kept secret, the iPad is finally out.

As you would expect iFixIt didn't wait long to completely dissemble the iPad and show its secrets: it doesn't have a surprise hidden camera (frack!) and it has just 256MB Ram, the same as the iPhone 3GS (half what a Nexus One has):

You can also see its much larger battery, offering about 5x more power than the iPhone's. This might also cause some issues when charging the iPad on older "low power" USB ports.

The iPad launch was better than anticipated, with 600-700 thousand iPads sold on the first day.

Even Steve Jobs couldn't miss the opportunity to see it in person:

As you would expect, the first reviews confirm it: the iPad is a small wonder offering an unbeatable "tablet" experience.

As for the Apps, Scrabble is a perfect App that shows how much the iPad (and other tablets) can change our lives in the future:

Board games will never be the same... Just imagine how a "Magic the Gathering" could work using this same system! :)

Marvel hasn't missed a beat either, and shows us how comic books are bound to become:



However, as one might expect, most people are standing by iPad's free Apps. Considering the higher App prices for the iPad it comes as no surprise. It's easier to convince someone to pay $500 for a tablet than $100 for an App.
Even more ridiculous, some content providers prove to be completely insane, charging $5 a week and saying it's justified because they offer:

Unique interactivity including landscape and portrait mode, scroll navigation and customizable font size

Are these people for real!?!
 

One thing's for sure, with higher prices more and more people will be tempted to jailbreak their iPad. Let's hope they realize lower prices (or should I say: fair!) will benefit everyone, and do it before it's too late.

Of course, the closed App Store market is still highly criticed by some while others prefer to see it differently... But this is something each one will have to decide and stand by themselves.


In a perfect world, content would all be web-based, and iPad optimized sites are already popping up.

Even Google now has iPad optimized services:

And last, but not least... if you're planning on dropping your iPad or use it for baseball practice... don't: