gadgets

I've been blogging and tweeting about my experience in treatment for breast cancer, including what it's like to go through chemotherapy. The chemo drugs I received made all my hair fall out (not all kinds do, but mine did). I've been going around "commando," as people with cancer say—bald, no wigs, scarves or hats only when it's too cold or sunny to go bare.

You do whatever works for you to get through this. Going around bare-headed is what works for me.

Julie Zwillich just tweeted me this fantastic drawing for me by her four-year-old daughter: "The Bald Princess." If you know a woman or girl receiving chemotherapy, maybe you'd like to share this with them, too. Good days always follow the bad.

Sprint’s launch plans for the HTC EVO 4G LTE were ruined last week when shipments of their shiny new Android handset were held up by United States Customs, but we’re hearing that they may been hitting doorsteps and store shelves sooner than expected.

According to Sprint, the devices are now currently sitting safely in Sprint’s warehouses and are expected to start trickling out into the world “on or around May 24.” And rest easy, you faithful pre-orderers — the world from on high is that you’ll still be getting your devices first.

In case you’re new to this little shipping snafu, shipments of Sprint’s new EVO (along with those of their AT&T-based cousin, the One X) were prevented form entering the country thanks to an exclusion order handed down by the International Trade Commission. The entire convoluted story started last year, but here’s the tl;dr:

Back in July, HTC was found by ITC judge Carl Charneski to have infringed on one of Apple’s patents — specifically, it involved recognizing a particular structure within a set of data and binding it to a particular action. Sounds pretty dry, I know, but if your phone lets you directly a call a phone number by touching it in an email, you’ve seen the patent in action.

At the time, HTC stated that they were working on fixing the offending UI flourish, and part of the holdup for customers was apparently because the phones were being spot-checked for compliance.

With Sprint’s EVO shipments said to be on the move once more, now the question becomes whether or not shipments of AT&T’s One X are as well. I’ve reached out to AT&T for confirmation one way or the other, and I’ll be updating the post as I hear more.

It’s been revealed by a Wall Street Journal report this week that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was the highest payed person in his position throughout 2011 in the USA. The amount of cash he actually received in annual salary from Apple was 90 cents, this along with his annual incentives equaled out to be just $180 cents. So where does the massive $378 million stack of cash come from, this $300 million more than the next highest paid CEO in the USA?

Tim Cook is payed by Apple with one dollar and eighty cents each year plus a bit more massive an amount in restricted stock grants. The amount $376 million USD is based on Apple’s stock prices at the time, with the next highest-payed CEO in the country being Larry Ellison, the head of Oracle with $76 million a year. Next in line after that was CBS head Leslie Moonves with $69 million a year.

The WSJ study was conducted by the Hay Group and conducted the study on the top 300 US public companies based on revenue. Down the list after third you have JCPenny’s Ronald Johnson, the CEO of Citigroup, hand in fifth was Motorola Mobility’s CEO Sanjay Jha with $47 million for the year. In the last Apple earnings call it was made clear that the company’s shares had grown 29 percent year-on-year, this setting Cook up for another unheard-of cash-in for 2012.

[via AFP]

The friendly neighborhood of Cupertino, California have just been sent a brochure from Apple which details their possible future structure by the name of “Apple Campus 2.” This new headquarters for Apple would have space for 13,000 workers and looks to be a massive ring with more than a few future-looking aspects inside and out. This structure will prospectively replace 300,000 square feet of existing buildings in the area East of North Tantau Avenue and will be built up as 300,000 square feet of new research facilities for Apple.

The main building will be set back from the street and will be surrounded by trees, with thousands of new trees also set to be planted along the perimeter of the building and inside it as well. One of the greatest aspects of this campus is Apple’s plans to make it not a new structure that’s in any way an eyesore, but a revitalizing element for the community: “What’s currently a sea of asphalt will be transformed into nearly 120 acres of green space.” Have a peek at some pointed words from Apple to the Cupertino neighborhood here:

“The new campus site is bound to the west by Wolfe Road, to the north by Homestead Road, to the east by North Tantau Avenue, and to the south by Interstate 280. Today there are 26 aging buildings totaling approximately 2.65 million square feet on this 176-acre site. We plan to replace them with a single ring-shaped, four-story building of approximately 2.8 million square feet. We also plan to replace nearly 300,000 square feet of existing buildings east of North Tantau Avenue with 300,000 square feet of new research buildings. …

Respect for our neighbors was a priority as we designed Apple Campus 2. The main building will be set back from the street. By keeping the majority of existing trees along the perimeter — and planting additional perimeter trees and thousands of new ones throughout the interior — the building will fade into the landscape. What’s currently a sea of asphalt will be transformed into nearly 120 acres of green space.”

“We are also committed to protecting the environment. Apple Campus 2 will attain LEED certification, and we are confident it will exceed the City of Cupertino’s standards for environmental sustainability. The campus will be clean, with no manufacturing or heavy industrial activity onsite.

Apple Campus 2 will also include a restaurant, a fitness center, and other amenities to serve Apple employees and reduce automobile trips. As with the current site, Apple Campus 2 will not be open to the public. Infinite Loop will remain our corporate headquarters, and we will continue to occupy many of our existing buildings in Cupertino.” – Apple’s SVP and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer

We’ve had a couple of glances at this facility as far back as a couple of years ago, with Steve Jobs himself speaking with Cupertino on how it might be built. Have a peek at our timeline below on the subject to see how far this project has come. The pamphlet you see above and below comes from MacRumors where a tipster by the name of Hansen has provided the world with pics.

Law & Order & Food is a Tumblr with nothing but stills of the Law & Order cast eating, which is something they seem to do a lot of, because the're in NYC, which has some pretty badass takeout. Also: it's characterization.

Law & Order & Food (via MeFi)

In an attempt to directly compete with Rogers and Bell, Telus has launched its own low-cost plan that aims to entice customers interested in a voice and messaging plan.  The Voice and Messaging plan will only be available from now until May 31st and is offered to new and current customers looking to extend their contract.

The plan offers 200 anytime minutes, unlimited nationwide family calling, caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, conference call, unlimited early nights and weekends, unlimited SMS and MMS, and unlimited BBM for BlackBerry.  The only caveat to this plan is the fact that you will have to pay for data for every MB used, which could add up quickly.  The Voice and Messaging for $30 a month plan clearly appeals to those with a featurephone and looking for a nice text and voice plan.

Via [MobileSyrup]

My friend Sean Bonner just pointed me to a wonderful music history project, put together by Brian Stefans: at lapostpunk.blogspot.com, an MP3 compilation of post-punk and experimental pop music in the Los Angeles area from the mid-seventies through the mid-eighties.

I kind of think of this as a portrait of the city at the time more than a collection of tracks that will change the world (though more than a handful I think are unfairly neglected). I’m wondering if someone like Rhino Records would want to do a Nuggets-type collection from the period? They already have one of Los Angeles from 1965-1968 called Where The Action Is.

Incredibly comprehensive. What a labor of love. There's a Volume one, and a Volume two.

Now that the HTC EVO 4G LTE and the HTC One X have been released from customs – or so we’ve heard – we can start deciding which one we really want when we head to the store this week. What we’ve got here are two devices of the same mind, each with a 4.7-inch display, the same Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, and what very much appears the be the same camera on the back as well. The big difference then lies not in the hardware, but in the carrier – and with LTE on both devices, it might be a tough call – right?

Wrong – at the moment the AT&T 4G LTE network is spreading at a relatively high rate while the HTC EVO 4G LTE has just Baltimore and Kansas City to call its own for 4G – and that’s it. AT&T’s LTE, not to mention the rest of its data network on 3G and below, have worked a whole lot more reliably than any connection on the EVO 4G LTE – have a peek at our reviews of both devices we’re looking at at this point to get an idea of what the carriers have provided us as far as data coverage across the nation:

• HTC EVO 4G LTE Review • HTC One X (AT&T) Review

Then make sure to keep up with the HTC One S as well, if you’re up for it. This smartphone contains a whole lot of the same awesome specifications that these other two titans do, but it’s a bit smaller for those of you with human sized hands. Consider the fit!

• HTC One S (T-Mobile) Review

Then back to the main competition – the HTC EVO 4G LTE has a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution display, that being the same as the HTC One X, both of them with a fabulous 312 PPI in the end. The difference between these two in their displays though is the Super LCD technology in the EVO with just LCD tech in the X. Have a peek at the difference in the straight-on photos above and below (they’re all taken with full brightness on all screens.)

The EVO has the ability to carry microSD cards in its one slot with 32GB capacity, while the X has no storage and 32GB built-in. The EVO then has 16GB built-in which allows it to have up to 48GB of storage in all. The HTC One X weighs a bit less than the EVO (though both sit right around the X’s 130g, light!) To keep up with its slightly brighter display (we must assume,) the EVO has a bigger battery, with 2,000mAh instead of the X’s 1,800mAh.

Hands-on with the HTC EVO 4G LTE:

Hands-on with the HTC One X with AT&T:

Both devices run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, both run HTC’s own Sense 4.0, and both are extremely well put together. The EVO has a dedicated camera button where the X does not, the X comes in white while the EVO just comes in red/black, and both devices will end up costing you a bit over $150 if you can grab the right weekend deal. In this battle now more than ever you’re going to have to consider the data speed. If we had to choose solely based on data, we’d choose the HTC One X without question.

On the other hand, if we had to choose based solely on the amount of kickstand either device had, we’d have to go with the EVO – last kickstand in the west!

Incident took the stage this afternoon at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC and debuted the gTar. It’s safe to say that they are already a major contender for the Disrupt Cup.

The startup wowed the crowd with their iPhone-powered teaching guitar. The judges loved it. The crowd loved it. And most importantly, fans turned to the startup’s Kickstarter campaign where funding took off like a rocket. Prior to hitting the stage, the gTar had raised just a touch above $10,000. Now, almost exactly two hours after their Disrupt debut, their Kickstarter funding (a.k.a. pre-orders) is north of $42,000 and rising fast.

The gTar seems to hit home with most people who see the demo. It promises to take away the massive learning curve associated with playing guitar. With a progressive learning mode, the gTar essentially reinvents guitar lessons. Besides that, experienced players can rock out to the gTar’s synthesized instruments or simply play around with its LED fretboard.

There is a real chance that a hardware startup will win Disrupt NYC this year and that’s very exciting.

Well it was fun while it lasted right? Days after the APK for the Samsung Galaxy S III S Voice app was leaked, Samsung and Vlingo began blocking access from any device that isn’t a Galaxy S III. If the brick wall hasn’t hit S Voice on your device yet, it will soon enough.

The blocking isn’t happening to every device at once. This morning, S Voice was working fine on my phone. It stopped working at some point during the afternoon hours. Attempting to get any answers from S Voice is shot down by a network error message.

I wouldn’t say this is much of a loss because this version of S Voice wasn’t all that good. If you ever got it running on your device, you may have noticed it would not always respond when the microphone icon was touched. It behaved just like you’d expect leaked software to behave. Besides, S Voice is basically Vlingo anyway. Feel free to download Vlingo from Google Play for free regardless of your device.

Read [Phandroid] Also Read [Pocket Now]

Larger size here. And, Amazon link, if you're so inclined. (Thanks, Joe Sabia, via Reddit)

In a not all that surprising move from Spotify, they’ve continued their global assault on our eardrums with an invasion of a couple new spaces: Australia and New Zealand! Right here in these two new locations you’ll find a wholly unique experience as, Australia gets its own launch of a Triple J app for access to a swath of new hits on the Triple J Hitlist as well as local Hottest 100 countdowns. Both new regions also have their very own welcome playlists that’ll usher in this new Spotify age in style.

To access the G’day Australia playlist, head over to Spotify’s Australia jump-off spot, then for the New Zealand playlist hit up Kia Ora! There’s also a unique application for New Zealand as well, NZ Top 40, made for and by New Zealanders on Spotify for music sharing galore. Then hear this – pricing plans have been revealed as well. They’re not exactly the same as they are in the UK or in the USA of course, so have a peek:

Spotify Free: No cost! Spotify Unlimited: (ad free on your computer) $7.49 a month Spotify Premium: (complete with mobile access) $12.99 a month

Australians have both Unlimited and Premium options as well as $6.99 and $11.99 – just a bit cheaper there, better move!

“Spotify is a music lover’s heaven. It’s a great destination to legally discover and enjoy new artists and music.” Mark Poston, Chairman, EMI Music Australasia

Have a peek at our hands-on posts and reviews galore in the timeline below to see what Spotify is all about, and expect more from both countries soon!

This is the ultimate in aspirational automotive paintjobs, surely. It's more unsourced net.stuff -- anyone know where it originated?

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Microsoft has taken the covers off of their brand new “social searching” network in collaboration with Bing to bring you results that the whole social web generates. This is not a social network, nor is it a search engine – instead what you’ve got is a way to post news bits for your friends – or whatever you like, but mostly news bits we’re going to go ahead and guess, and Bing will power it all. What makes this engine different from any other news sharing service out there, then?

The reason So.cl exists, from what we’ve seen thus far, is to promote Bing search results in as visually appealing a manner as possible. What it does is to have you using Bing entirely exclusively to share whatever it is you’ve got to share, focusing on grabbing you what Bing suggests is the best source for your news tip. You can also read news feeds, of course, and you’ve got your own profile and can make your own posts – and there are Video Parties, too!

The Video Party is essentially what you’d be doing at a real party if you didn’t have the ability to physically speak with one another and had a TV in front of you with YouTube – only and it uses YouTube videos to do it, too. And you can chat by typing only – for now. The main idea here though isn’t to interact with your friends and colleagues like you have been doing on Facebook, Google+, and the like, it’s to use Bing.

Much in the same way you look for a topic of interest right now with whatever search engine you like to use most, click in to a link that brings you what you want, and share with your friends, So.cl cuts down the process. Now you’ve only got to search for what you like and hit the Share button from the story itself – but wait, you say, you can do that already in Google?

The whole So.cl platform is essentially a reformatting of what we currently do to share topics of interest with one another. Have a peek at the first official launch video to get a better idea of Microsoft’s aims with the platform, and sign up at So.cl soon!

In Wired, Robert McMillan profiles Rockstar, a world-class patent troll based in Canada, which was capitalized to buy up Nortel's "defensive" patent portfolio for billions of dollars and now does nothing but look for companies that make stuff that people like and use, so it can send them legal threats. Rockstar itself has no products, aside from legal threats. Reading this left me with the taste of sick in my mouth, and a sense that the patent system has to be reformed or taken down altogether, before it turns parasitism and lawsuits into the only viable technology business-models.

But Widdowson is a specialist. He’s one of 10 reverse-engineers working full time for a stealthy company funded by some of the biggest names in technology: Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony, and Ericsson. Called the Rockstar Consortium, the 32-person outfit has a single-minded mission: It examines successful products, like routers and smartphones, and it tries to find proof that these products infringe on a portfolio of over 4,000 technology patents once owned by one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies.

When a Rockstar engineer uncovers evidence of infringement, the company documents it, contacts the manufacturer, and demands licensing fees for the patents in question. The demand is backed by the implicit threat of a patent lawsuit in federal court. Eight of the company’s staff are lawyers. In the last two months, Rockstar has started negotiations with as many as 100 potential licensees. And with control of a patent portfolio covering core wireless communications technologies such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) and 3G, there is literally no end in sight.

“Pretty much anybody out there is infringing,” says John Veschi, Rockstar’s CEO. “It would be hard for me to envision that there are high-tech companies out there that don’t use some of the patents in our portfolio.”

How Apple and Microsoft Armed 4,000 Patent Warheads

Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in your front yard in a lawn chair, sipping lemonade while attempting to read the latest news on your WiFi-only iPad. You’re just out of range of your WiFi signal. Your neighbor’s signal is super strong, but that selfish hooligan didn’t leave it wide open for you to leach onto.

Relax. Depending on where you live and who your service provider is, you may be able to use your neighbor’s hotspot regardless of his futile attempts to lock it down someday soon.

A consortium of cable companies (Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., Bright House Networks LLC and Cox Communications Inc) have agreed to enable the sharing of WiFi hotspots at a grand scale, creating a large region of available signal, in select markets in the U.S.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a single hotspot name and sign on scenario will be used to make it easier for consumers to log in and use available spectrum to surf. It will be a perk for paying broadband account holders in the consortium, but certain providers like Time Warner will let you pay as you go if you like.

I assume there will be measures in place to prevent people from consuming all of the available bandwidth of someone else’s node, but they haven’t explicitly laid out how or when throttling will occur.

[via WSJ]

This week the folks at Ubisoft are bringing their upcoming hit Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, to the world of heavy-duty gaming – but before that, they’re bringing the series of Facebook. The newest game on the social networking platform is Ghost Recon: Commander, and it hits your senses like a small plastic bat. Of course this game is made in preparation for the big wallop of a club that is Future Soldier, so feel free to get your ammo stocked up here a day early!

This game is available for you, the Facebook user, to play here a full day before the real game in this epic series is released. In the real Future Soldier game you’ll be first-person shooting your way into the hearts of all your enemies with full deadly force and next-level tactics requirements galore. In this “Commander” entry into the series, you’re in a world that’s a whole lot closer to Pokemon than it is to the shooter’s natural form.

That said, it’s actually pretty fun, and you do indeed get to shoot, bomb, or otherwise annihilate your enemies in low-level graphics fashion. You can also team up with your Facebook fans and earn all kinds of loot, trade it in for advancements int he game or your own NPCs to follow you along. It’s all about teamwork and it’s out right now – how could you possibly resist?! Head to Facebook right this instant and start unloading.

Just a quick note to inform everyone in the US who are raring to get their hands on the new Samsung Galaxy S III, Amazon has just put the smartphone on pre-order status. Said Samsung Galaxy S III is the international, unlocked version and so it is inevitable that it will be sold for a higher price. Are you ready to depart with your $799? If so go ahead and follow the via link below which should direct you to the Amazon page for the white and blue models of the Samsung Galaxy S III. You’ll be better off to know as well that being an unlocked version, this device will work with AT&T but not with Verizon or Sprint since it is not a CDMA phone. The good news however is that you’ll be able to get 4G HSDPA+ but not LTE since the models available are not the LTE-capable units. So this news goes out to all AT&T subscribers or those who are planning to get a phone that will run on AT&T network. Amazon is promising to deliver the blue Samsung Galaxy S III on May 29 while the white one will be available on June 1. The question now is, are you willing to spend $799 for the unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy S3, or are you going to wait for other US carriers to offer on contract?

Via [Amazon] and [unwired view]

They told R2-D2 he could become anything he wanted. So he became everything… even a rain barrel.

There is an event called the Rainy Day Brush Off at the The Water Quality Forum. At that time, artists decorate 55 gallon rain barrels that are later auctioned off to raise money ... Continue Reading on Walyou

This week the folks at Motorola are doing their best to let the world know that their Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule is based not on their inability to upgrade their devices, but on how willing they are to do so. In a bit of a sting to those who purchased Android devices with Motorola manufacturing over the past year or so, expecting the next Android system upgrade as they did so, the manufacturer has sent out a message to users that if their device wouldn’t “improve” their devices, they would bot be updated. Have a peek at the full list below.

This update ushers in a near-final list of all the Android devices Motorola has on the market today. Included in the Android ICS upgrade list are all the devices you knew were going to upgrade in the first place – the DROID 4, DROID RAZR, and more, but what you might be surprised at are the list entries with DROID in the title that will be sticking with Gingerbread. Have a peek at everything between ICS and Gingerbread here:

Of particular interest to Motorola lovers will be the DROID 3, easily the highest powered device on the list that is not going to be upgraded. You’ll find that the Droid X2 as well as the Droid 2 are also on the list for Gingerbread only, while one phone sits in the “maybe yes, maybe no” category: the ELECTRIFY. Interestingly enough, the PHOTON 4G (essentially the same phone on a different carrier) is scheduled for ICS in the fourth quarter of this year – carrier clout, perhaps?

“You’re not alone. Good thing we’ve got a page for that. You can get the latest software upgrade news on our refreshed page.

You may be wondering why all devices aren’t being upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Here’s the deal. We work very closely with Google and cell phone carriers for every software update. And, obviously we want the new release to improve our devices. If we determine that can’t be done—well then, we’re not able to upgrade that particular device.

Happy upgrading!” – Motorola

Stick with us as each of these devices get their next (and in some cases, their last) update ever in 2012. And check Motorola’s full list for all the updates in all the countries across the earth – including such gems as the MOTOGLAM and the QUENCH!