The Tron-Inspired Light Cycle

The Lithium-power, Tron-inspired Motorcycle | The Smoking Section:

Florida-based start-up Parker Brothers Choppers and Evolve Motorcycles bring a bit of Hollywood to life with the creation of the Light Cycle, a totally-electric motorcycle modeled after the legendary Tron vehicles. The video highlights how green and eco-friendly the vehicle is, but f*ck, saving the environment is the last thing that I’d be thinking about when whipping around on one these. Gadgets like this exist to remind us that, even when your Xbox flashes the “red ring of death” or your computer craps out, technology is still very, very awesome.

Bill O'Reilly vs Tavis Smiley & Cornel West! (Best Reaction To O'Reilly Claiming US Banks Didn't Do Anything Illegal)

The Best External Hard Drives You Should Consider Buying [Gadget Corner]

The Best External Hard Drives You Should Consider Buying [Gadget Corner]:
Ah, the external hard drive. This unsung hero of the gadget world can be found on almost any geek’s desk, usually tucked away behind a monitor or stuffed in a drawer. Yet it’s of great importance, as it’s often used to back up critical data or store a library of music, videos and photos.
There are plenty of drives available, but most of us only need one or two, so let’s narrow down the choices and see which are really worth your money.

Best Budget Drive: Seagate 500GB Portable External Drive

This simple, portable hard drive offers 500GB of storage for a price of about $60 at most online retailers.
Features are few. The drive is a slower 5,400 RPM model, and USB 2.0 is the only connection option. With that said, this drive is quite portable, as it weighs about 160 grams and is under .7 inches (or 18mm) thick.
You’ll receive better value for your money if you pay a bit more, but if enhanced connectivity or better drive speeds are not a concern to you, this simple option will do the job.

Best Massive Drive: Seagate GoFlex 4TB External Drive

There are many options for people who want over a terabyte of space, but most are specialty solutions that become extremely expensive. At $249.99, this 4TB option manages to offer jaw-dropping capacity without a wallet-shattering price tag.
It’s more than just a big lug of a drive, however. It offers USB 3.0 as standard, and optional FireWire or USB 2.0 adapters can be purchased if desired (though I don’t know why you’d want to downgrade to USB 2.0). It’s compatible with both Windows and Mac OS X. And as if that weren’t enough, it’s a pretty fast drive, as well.
Yes, the price tag of $249.99 may sound like a lot, but you actually receive far more capacity per dollar than you would with the budget-minded 500GB Seagate drive previously recommended.

Best Backup Drive: Clickfree C6 Portable External Drive

All external drives are excellent ways to back up data, but not all drives make it equally easy to do so. One company that’s long had a leg up on the competition in this area is Clickfree, which ships its hard drives with custom firmware and software designed to make backing data easy.
The C6 even has the ability to image an entire PC hard drive, including the operating system, which means a computer can be completely restored from this drive if anything tragic happens to it. Otherwise, the Clickfree C6 is a fairly typical portable drive. It’s thin, it’s light, and it offers USB 3.0 as its sole connectivity option.
You do pay for the convenience of this drive. The 1TB portable version is $139.99, which is a fair bit more expensive than similarly equipped drive with less impressive (or any) backup features. Also, Mac users should be warned that this drive is allergic to computers designed in California.

Best Durable Drive: ioSafe Rugged Portable (Any Size) External Drive

Most of us will never place our external hard drives under much stress. Maybe the cat will tip it over – and that’s about it. Yet external drives are appealing to some people because of their portability, and if you are indeed going to be moving your data all over the globe, in a range of conditions, you’ll want a drive that won’t go belly-up.
That drive is the ioSafe Rugged Portable. Machined out of aluminum, this drive is watertight, chemical resistant and encases the mechanical drive itself in a shock housing that reduces the severity of impacts. The company that built it has even shown a demonstration video in which the drive was shot with a 12-gauge shotgun and survived.
A plethora of variants are available from 250GB to 1TB and varying “Data Recovery Services” that are offered by ioSafe to retrieve your data at no charge if the drive should somehow break. Mac users will have to purchase a version specific to that operating system.
All of the ioSafe drives are expensive, but did you think for a moment that a shotgun-proof external drive would be cheap?

Conclusion

External hard drives may not receive the attention of tablets or smartphones, but there have been huge improvements in their quality over the years. Drives like the ioSafe Rugged Portable are stunningly durable, while the capacity of the Seagate GoFlex 4TB should satisfy even readers addicted to torrenting HD videos.
Do you think there’s a drive that should have been listed here? Let us know in the comments!
The Best External Hard Drives You Should Consider Buying [Gadget Corner] is a post from: MakeUseOf

Street Fighter IV on Kinect - FAAST and GlovePIE

The Verizon iPhone

The Verizon iPhone: "

We've waited and waited, and now Apple and Verizon have made a million dreams come true: the iPhone is coming to Big Red. After talking up his new LTE network a bit, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam confirmed a CDMA (non-LTE) version of the iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon Wireless next month. Talks started way back in 2008, and the phone has been in testing for a year -- it sounds like they wanted to get this one right. Current Verizon customers will be able to pre-order on Feburary 3rd for the standard $200 price for the 16GB model on a two year agreement, $300 for the 32GB version -- everyone else can order on February 10th (see it compared with AT&T's iPhone 4). Just to clarify and put any wild rumors to bed, the phone is Verizon 3G (EV-DO) only, no 4G data or GSM roaming. It's not a world phone or an AT&T + Verizon phone, it's just a Verizon phone.

Outside of Verizon connectivity, the phone is basically unchanged, although Verizon's CDMA network doesn't support simultaneous voice and data as with the GSM version. It does have the new antenna design we were hearing about last week, but that's just because CMDA requires a different configuration of antennas. (Apple says they didn't go LTE just yet because first-gen chipsets would force unwanted design decisions, and customers want a Verizon device now.) That slight modification also equates to a slight bump in where the volume buttons and mute switch -- a new case might be required. Software-wise the big innovation is five user WiFi hotspot functionality, something that's standard on Android phones, while Apple has kept the iPhone only able to tether directly to one computer.

Check out our full hands-on with the Verizon iPhone right here, and stay tuned -- we've got lots more coming up.

Gallery: Verizon iPhone 4 full hands-on

Gallery: Verizon iPhone 4 detailed comparison shots

History lesson: the run-up to the Verizon iPhone

January 11, 2011 @ 11 AM ET

Verizon iPhone Liveblog

Verizon iPhone hands-on

Continue reading The Verizon iPhone

The Verizon iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

How The INTERNET Works

KinEmote Control Windows Media Center, Boxee, XBMC & more MicroSoft Kinect

The Open Internet: A Case for Net Neutrality

If you pay for internet access at home you should read this!!!!!!!!!!

The Open Internet: A Case for Net Neutrality

Google extends free Gmail voice calls through 2011

Google extends free Gmail voice calls through 2011: "Gmail's free phone service to numbers in the US and Canada has been extended until the end of 2011, according to the official Google Blog. Introduced earlier this year, the 'call phone' button lets US Gmail users dial any phone number using their Google Voice numbers. The service was already guaranteed free through 2010. Google hasn't announced what its eventual domestic rates will be or revealed any plans to extend the service to international Gmail users, but it now has another year to work out those details.

Google extends free Gmail voice calls through 2011 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments
"

Video Review: About.me lets you easily create a personal landing page

Video Review: About.me lets you easily create a personal landing page: "

About.me is a direct competitor of Flavors.me; both services try to help you create a personal landing page, hooked up to your 'social media presence' on other sites (Facebook, Flickr, et al).

About.me left of public beta a few days ago, and I decided to give it the video treatment today. I've put together an extensive review covering most of its features from a first-time user perspective. It's meant to be simple to use, and in the video you can see how friendly it is to non-techies. It basically allows you to create a beautiful page for yourself without writing a single line of code, and get a whole bunch of analytics while you're at it. Check out the video review after the jump!

At the end of the video you can see that Flickr integration did not work for me; that's not About.me's fault - it's because of my Flickr sharing configuration.

[Full Disclosure: About.me was purchased by Download Squad's parent company, AOL, shortly after Erez recorded his review. -- ed.]
Continue reading Video Review: About.me lets you easily create a personal landing page

Video Review: About.me lets you easily create a personal landing page originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Xbox 360 gets a limited edition orange Tron controller, because wired gamers need love too

Xbox 360 gets a limited edition orange Tron controller, because wired gamers need love too: "

In most circumstances, we'd argue a self-illuminating controller crisscrossed by bright bands of orange is a couple of notches over the top, but when it's Tron you're talking about, it all makes sense. This latest peripheral for the 360 is up for pre-order now at $39.99 and comes prepackaged with the smugness of knowing that each one sold will be part of a very limited 250-unit production run. It's officially licensed by Microsoft and arriving at snowy doorsteps some time later this month. A less exclusive blue brother should be joining it soon as well, in case the current hue's not quite to your liking.

Xbox 360 gets a limited edition orange Tron controller, because wired gamers need love too originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PDP |

Fossil Connected watch concept displays vital info from your Android or BlackBerry handset, looks great doing it

Fossil Connected watch concept displays vital info from your Android or BlackBerry handset, looks great doing it: "

Sure, companies haven't had too much success with connected watches -- remember SPOT? But don't lose hope! The Fossil Connected watch concept shows that at least somebody is still trying to bring wrist-based chronometers into the 21st century. This timepiece is designed to pair with your Android or BlackBerry handset via Bluetooth to display weather, caller ID info, text messages, so on and so forth. And unlike a lot of the watches we see in this space, it actually looks pretty damn good. It remains to be seen exactly when these will make it to market (currently the company is hashing out the concept and 'showing them around Silicon Valley,' according to Robert Scoble), but when they do they should sell for around $200. Get a closer look after the break.

Continue reading Fossil Connected watch concept displays vital info from your Android or BlackBerry handset, looks great doing it

Fossil Connected watch concept displays vital info from your Android or BlackBerry handset, looks great doing it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Geeky Gadgets | Scobleizer |

AllMyApps is a sexy download store for Windows

AllMyApps is a sexy download store for Windows: "

The Mac App Store is coming next month, but Windows users have a similar store they can enjoy right now. AllMyApps has just launched in beta, and it's ready to help you find, install, and share loads of great free (and eventually paid) software.

Apps are grouped by category such as utilities, security, office, video, and communication and you'll find just about every must-have free Windows app you can imagine in the AllMyApps catalog. Favorites like Firefox, Chrome, Skype, Dropbox, 7-zip, and Microsoft Security Essentials are all there for the downloading. The only one of my core apps I found absent was Sugarsync -- all of my other required apps are listed.

Program detail pages include basic information about their functionality, screenshots, relevant tweets, and other useful tidbits like the app's current version, number of downloads, and file size.

Continue reading AllMyApps is a sexy download store for Windows

AllMyApps is a sexy download store for Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry

Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry: "

The only way to open this editorial is to admit something I've been rather shy about on the pages of Engadget: I've been an avid BlackBerry fan and user for about six years now. I mean a real addict -- the kind who wakes up each morning looking for a blinking red LED, the kind who's refused to give up push email and BlackBerry Messenger in favor of more powerful, polished, and progressive mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, and webOS. In fact, when my Verizon contract was up last year I opted to get a Curve 8530 instead of the Motorola Droid or Palm Pre -- to say nothing of making the leap over to AT&T for the iPhone.



There were lots of reasons I didn't want to give up my BlackBerry, but five days ago I lost that very Curve in a San Fransisco cab. Then coincidentally, a day later I saw RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis speak at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference, where he almost embarrassingly avoided every question about the company's immediate smartphone strategy. I had always known that RIM was behind the curve (always a great pun!), but I also always had hope that the company would catch up with modern smartphones of today. Sadly, watching Mike dodge questions on the D stage took that hope away from me -- it's crystal clear that RIM won't have a solution to compete with those powerful smartphones anytime soon. So, what happens to a BlackBerry diehard like myself? Where do I go from here?
Continue reading Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry

Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.