In a move not unlike the “Send2Car” feature on the Dash Express GPS navigator, Garmin has worked it so that people using Google Maps and MapQuest will easily be able to send the address they’re looking at to their navigator, to avoid typing it in all over again.

Google’s will be available starting tomorrow; the MapQuest version (explained here and shown above) will launch later in the month. Of course, for the time being this will require a USB connection—unlike the Dash, which does it all wirelessly—so to call this process “hassle free” would be giving it too much credit. We still anticipate the nuvifone will be the real answer to all our Garmin-related prayers. In case this sounded familiar, TomTom already has an identical Google Maps feature. [Google Press Release; MapQuest Press Release]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

I’m not a Personal computer gamer at all. I think the last game I played on a Personal computer was my freshmen year in college when the World wide web connection was blazing fast and everyone on my floor was into Unreal Tournament. Yeah, pretty sure that was the last I played a game on a PC. But there […]

I’m not a Computer gamer at all. I think the last game I played on a Personal computer was my freshmen year in college when the Internet connection was blazing fast and everyone on my floor was into Unreal Tournament. Yeah, pretty sure that was the last I played a game on a Personal computer. But there are millions of gamers out there and tons that are professional. I didn’t think about gaming peripherals until the Falcon Dust-Off Keyboard Quiver arrived at the CG office.

I pulled it out of the box and stated, “WTF is this?!” Why do I want a bag for my keyboard? It took a couple minutes before I realized who this was aimed at. Now I completely understand the plight gamers go through when they don’t have their own equipment. Given that professional gamers bring their own rigs to competitions they should have an easier way to bring peripherals other than a box, right? I think that’s what the guys on MTV’s True Life: I’m a Professional Gamer did, but I could be wrong.

The Keyboard Quiver provides ample room for keyboard, mouse, headphones and anything else you need when you’re fragging away. The main external compartment is expandable, too. A nice feature some might not even notice is the ability to switch which way the bag “slings.” Check out the gallery to see what I mean. In what seems to be the norm these days with any backpack, the KQ comes with a PMP dedicated pouch at the top and grommet (what the hell are these things called on backpacks?) for headphones. What’s comical about this bag are the retention straps for a bottle of Dust-Off blower spray. Of course, you can probably find something else to strap in there, but it’s funny nonetheless. And there’s a pocket on the strap for your cell phone.

While the Keyboard Quiver isn’t really my thing since I don’t game, I have the ability to see the practicality of it for those who do game. It’s perfect for that upcoming competition or your next LAN party.

Via [crunchgear]

Share This

Share This

Here’s a follow-up to Numair Faraz’s “Damn You All” letter to Meteorola’s Greg Brown, with the perspective of one of Moto’s ex-European Product Line Managers. Reading the alleged account of the whole Dilbertian mess is quite dramatic and sad:

I too used to work at Motorola and the incompetence of the execs was unbelievable.
Ron Garriques had a “number 1 in 1000 days” strategy which resulted in selling volume at all costs. Employees knew over a 18 months ago that Moto was heading for a train crash.

Several European middle managers submitted plans to make profit rather than sell volume and all were dismissed by the US VPs including Ray Roman (since gone) who declared that there was still significant demand for the original RAZR and anyone who wanted to halt selling it (in favour of more profitable phones) didn’t know what they were talking about.

Amer Hussaini (also gone) head of portfolio, declared that no one needed anything greater than 2MP cameraphones and that there was no future in sliders.

Ed Zander sold off Freescale despite there being a solus 3G chipset contract still being in place. Result, Moto couldn’t purchase cheaper Qualcomm chipsets, Freescale kept the price high and all of the Moto 3G devices were uncompetitively priced.

Shareholders rewarded these incompetents with golden parachutes whilst the hardworking employees who were passionate about Moto were made redundant (not me I hasten to add. I saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship.)

Moto execs are very short-termist and only look to the next product launch and have no strategic vision. Products are launched (late) without any succession planning. Staff are totally demoralised and all the good engineers are now gone.

Software strategy? Forget it. How many platforms are they still trying to support? MotoAjar, P2K, LinuxJava, Symbian/UIQ, Windows Mobile, plus ODM devices.

His description paints a rather pathetic picture of their top executives which, following Faraz’s mail, seems like the real thing. As he told us in a follow-up mail:

Personally I don’t know him (Faraz’s), however, his opinion is very valid. Previous execs were more interested in building their own tiny power bases and lining their pockets rather than the future of Motorola. Moto is full of warring tribes and it is now more vicious than ever as they try to ringfence their little empires from the swinging cuts that are coming.

e.g. Linux Java used to have ~8000 engineers. Now it is down to ~4000 and they still haven’t delivered an operator-compliant device. Yet the VP is still there, still earning mega-bucks, and it’s the engineers that get made redundant, not the senior leader. No accountability at a senior level for failure.

[Motorola in Gizmodo]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

Do you really need that light on to not trip over your coffee table and break your leg? Let’s find out, shall we? The Consumption Feedback Switch is a device that monitors your electricity usage. If it feels you’re within your light quota when you flip on the lights, you’ll see a small, harmless spark. But if you’ve been one of those dolphin-unsafe villains from Captain Planet, reading a few minutes too long at night, a gigantic stream of deadly electricity will mend your ways pending you not die.

Alright, we’re actually not sure that you feel a shock at all since the word “spark” might have been the choice of a liberal Google translation denoting “small glow.” But we’d recommend keeping wasteful electrical usage down just in case. [product via dvice]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

Cool gadget at the Sony store in Ginza

Share This

Share This

The apparently incombustible Meizu’s CEO Jack Wong has just announced that they’re going to add Live Messenger to their M8 cellphone, the rather pathetic and sad motherboard who wants to be an iPhone clone when it grows up (if it ever gets released.) In other words: new vaporware announced for vaporware. The usual cynics are probably asking themselves “why should I care about this crap?” Which is exactly what we’re asking ourselves right now. [Meizume—thanks Heartwork]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

We’re going to try to think like Creative here. Let’s say we, as Creative, insist that our drivers for our multimedia cards were Vista-ready. Let’s state they really weren’t, they were buggy drivers with missing features. Let’s say we had no real plans to fix this. We’re a large corporation with better things to do. So […]

We’re going to try to think like Creative here. Let’s state we, as Creative, insist that our drivers for our multimedia cards were Vista-ready. Let’s state they really weren’t, they were buggy drivers with missing features. Let’s state we had no real plans to fix this. We’re a large corporation with better things to do.

So let’s say a talented, independent developer takes it on himself to patch the buggy drivers to make things all work well in Vista. Let’s state he even posts links to these patched drivers, which he’s giving away to our customers for free, in our support forum.

This happened. And Creative, instead of certifying his drivers and rewarding him for his hard work in making our customers happy, has banned him — and other users — from the forums and took down the links to the superior drivers.

That’s just bad customer service.

Via [crunchgear]

Share This

Share This

Looks like the fellows at Gamestop let the pricing for Nintendo’s Wii Wheel slip, and $14.99 is the price you’ll be paying for each friend you’ve over on Mario Kart Wii day, (April 27th.) The game will retail at $49.99, which includes one Wii Wheel to boot, but for multiplayer mayhem, you’re going to have to fork out that little bit more. Friends suck…not in a good way. Jump to see a blown up shot of the flier with the figures. [Gamestop; Thanks, David W]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

This is just off the chain. I knew elephants were good painters, but filmmakers? A new BBC series used specially trained elephants to follow a group of tiger cubs and their mom around in a jungle for the duration of their cubhood. I’m not sure if you heard me correctly, they used specially trained elephants. […]

This is just off the chain. I knew elephants were good painters, but filmmakers? A new BBC series used specially trained elephants to follow a group of tiger cubs and their mom around in a jungle for the duration of their cubhood. I’m not sure if you heard me correctly, they used specially trained elephants. Elephants trained to frame shots and hold their mounted hi-def cameras steady. Replace “frame” with “aim” and “hi-def cameras” with “hi-powered lasers” and you’ve pretty much got this. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it sure is awesome.

Check out the trailer and more here.

Via [crunchgear]

Share This

Share This

After Vista’s release, Creative’s Audigy Sound Blaster series lost a lot of their in-built functionality. Developer, good-guy and all around hero, Daniel_K stepped up to the challenge, putting together his own drivers and asking for non-obligatory donations in recognition of his effort. Daniel_K’s drivers restored functionality, and added some extra features to boot. That’s great news, right? Apparently not; Creative is pissed.

We’re not too sure why Creative wouldn’t want their old products having proper cross OS support implemented. Sure, they do provide beta drivers, but word is they aren’t to stable, plus we’re guessing their newer, shinier and more high-priced replacement devices have something to do with it. Frankly, those won’t sell if some asshole is putting down his own, backward compatible drivers to bring old hardware up to speed. Checkout what Creative had to state below:

Daniel_K:

We’re aware that you have been assisting owners of our Creative sound cards for some time now, by providing unofficial driver packages for Vista that deliver more of the original functionality that was found in the equivalent XP packages for those sound cards. In principle we don’t have a problem with you helping users in this way, so long as they comprehend that any driver packages you supply are not supported by Creative. Where we do have a problem is when technology and IP owned by Creative or other companies that Creative has licensed from, are made to run on other products for which they’re not intended. We took action to remove your thread because, like you, Creative and its technology partners think it is only fair to be compensated for goods and services. The difference in this case is that we own the rights to the materials that you’re distributing. By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it wasn’t originally offered or intended, you’re in effect, stealing our goods. When you solicit donations for providing packages like this, you’re profiting from something that you don’t own. If we select to develop and provide host-based processing features with certain sound cards and not others, that’s a business decision that only we have the right to make.

Although you state you’ve discontinued your practice of distributing unauthorized software packages for Creative sound cards we have seen evidence of them elsewhere along with donation requests from you. We also note in a current post of yours on these forums, that you appear to be contemplating the release of further packages. To be clear, we are asking you to respect our legal rights in this matter and cease all further unauthorized distribution of our technology and IP. In addition we request that you observe our forum rules and respect our right to enforce those rules. If you are in any doubt as to what we would think about unacceptable then please request clarification through one of our forum moderators before posting.

Phil O’Shaughnessy
VP Corporate Communications
Creative Labs Inc.

How very, very greedy, Mr Creative. On a side note, I’ve been having a pretty bad CS experience with Creative myself; anyone calling in agreement / disagreement?

Update: DirkusMaximus has given us Phil’s email address (poshaughnessy at creativelabs.com.) Drop him a line to let him know how much this sucks. [Creative; Daniel_K Drivers. Picture via DK Images]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This