GeekSugar

Daily Tech: A Star Wars Foosball Table Made of Legos

GeekSugar — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:15:02 PST

This fully-functional Star Wars foosball table is made entirely of Legos - Dvice
What would you do with five bucks? - Urlesque
Why every Windows Mobile phone is now obsolete - Gizmodo
Web news p0wns newspapers - Switched
New DSiWare title features motion-controlled 3D dioramas - Oh Gizmo!
Geeky stationary from Etsy - Unplggd
What will future Americans look like? - io9

Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone at Mobile World Congress

GeekSugar — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:24 PST

Microsoft dropped a bomb on the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, and it's called the Windows Phone 7 Series. If you're a Windows Mobile user, you can toss out everything you think you know about how this phone will look and feel - it's a whole new operating system for you to enjoy.

The Windows Phone comes with a touchscreen and a brand-new tiled interface that allows you to keep up with friends, photos (from your phone and from the cloud), music and videos, games from Xbox Live (including your animated avatar that you can customize right from your phone), Marketplace apps, and business-y stuff like Office easily from your home screen. But the most noticeable thing about the Windows Phone is that this thing looks pretty slick: everything from the background screen to the status update screen is minimal and totally "grown up."

View 5 Photos ›

Zune owners will sense some familiarity about the look and feel of the Windows Phone, but if you haven't been introduced, you can check out the demo video of the new handset and get availability details when you read more. The Windows Phone 7 Series will be available through a variety of different carriers - AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint - and will be ready to toss in your shopping cart by the time the holiday shopping season picks up at the end of this year.

HTC's Other (Other) Project: HTC HD2 Coming This Spring

GeekSugar — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:45:38 PST

I think it may have been an understatement to say that HTC was working overtime last year. Not only did the company assist in the launch of Google's Nexus One and is rumored to be whipping up a tablet, but yesterday at the Microsoft CES press conference, CEO Steve Ballmer introduced the HTC HD2, which will be released exclusively on T-Mobile. The super thin HD2 comes with a high-res 4.3-inch touch display featuring pinch and zoom functionality (which is great for resizing web pages and notes), and runs on Windows Mobile via a 1GHz Snapdragon processor (the same processor stocked on the Nexus One).

The smartphone comes standard with GPS and a 5MP camera with a dual LED flash to add extra light when you need it. The HD2 is slated to be released sometime in the Spring on T-Mobile, and you can sign up to be alerted when it drops.

Load Up These Apps on Your Windows Mobile Phone

GeekSugar — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:00:24 PST

You have a Windows Mobile phone, so you have to have a few apps from the Windows Marketplace, right? No!? Well, don't let all those iPhone, BlackBerry and Android apps fool you into thinking there aren't a number of fun and useful ones you should be loading up on your Windows phone as well. Stick with me my friends - I have you covered.

Are You Stoked About the Launch of Windows Mobile 6.5?

GeekSugar — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:05:03 PDT

There's a new batch of phones on the block, and they're out to steal away some market share from Apple. Launching on October 6, select phones on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint networks will begin running Windows Mobile 6.5 under the "Windows Phone" brand. Windows has seemingly taken a back seat in the cell phone department, with Blackberry, Apple, and Android obviously being the front runners to innovation and integration. I remember using Windows Mobile OS on my old T-Mobile MDA, and I have to be honest - it wasn't one of my favorite mobile experiences to date.

But now, Windows hopes to make a comeback in the mobile market with its newest operating system and Windows Marketplace, where you can browse and purchase apps for your phone. It's yet to be announced which devices will be available to run WM 6.5, but I'm curious to know - are you stoked about the launch this Fall?

Windows Mobile May Get Its Own App Store Soon

GeekSugar — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:30:48 PDT

No doubt, it may be torture some days to not be an iPhone or iPod Touch user and have to read about some cool new Chanel or Netflix app from iPhone's App Store when you're an avowed BlackBerry or Palm smartphone user. Windows Mobile may have its good points, but a cool feature like the App Store is not one of them. . . yet.

CNET reports that Microsoft is rumored to be preparing an application store that will be called "Skymarket" and offer developers the chance to distribute (and make money for) their applications in one place, like the App Store on iTunes.

No more jealousy over the iPhone! Well . . . maybe just less jealousy.

V-Day Date Gone Bad? Get Outta There With These Apps

GeekSugar — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:14:40 PST

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, and if you're headed out on a date you aren't 100 percent sure of, then download one of these apps for your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phones to fake an emergency call, and get the heck outta there - STAT!

The Kinect Board of Awesomeness

Kelly Schwarze — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:16:01 PST

We've been waiting for Kinect to acquire some practical purpose in everyday life. Sure, we love the virtual sports, and the dancing games make for adorable celebrity home movies, but we've got to be able to do something more with the amazing motion sensor technology!

Mobile app developer Chaotic Moon harnessed the power of Kinect along with the unreleased Samsung Windows 8 tablet to create a skateboard powered by the user's movements. They call it the Board of Awesomeness.

The science of the mechanics and engineering aside, the board moves when the riders push their hands forward to speed up and pull their hands back to slow down. It's exciting to think of a future with more motion-controlled devices; which products do you think need motion sensors?

Catch Up With Our 2012 CES Coverage So Far

Kristy Korcz — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:50:44 PST

We've left Las Vegas, but that doesn't mean we're done with CES. Missed any news, releases, or photos? Catch up with all of our CES coverage so far, and stay tuned for lots more gadget goodness!

Cameras

Polaroid adds WiFi to its new SC1630 Smart Camera.
Speaking of WiFi, the Sony Bloggie Live can livestream your videos with a connection.
Like Instagram? You'll love the new Panasonic Lumix GX1 that has photo filters, tilt-shift tools, and scene selections built in for easy photo editing. Just like Instagram.
Samsung helps you get the perfect self-portrait with the WiFi-enabled DV300F.

Tablets and Ultrabooks

The Samsung Galaxy Note: is it a tablet or is it a phone?
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 is slim and sleek.
We're drooling over the Gorilla Glass-backed HP Envy 14 Spectre ultrabook.
Acer is banking on ultrabooks in 2012 and beyond. They rolled out two new Timeline ultrabooks along with the world's thinnest ultrabook, the S5.

Smartphones

We're looking forward to the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone.
The LG Spectrum is the perfect phone for streaming-video lovers.
Sprint is getting two new 4G LTE phones soon: the Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper.
AT&T adds a whopping eight new Android and Windows Phone smartphones to its 2012 lineup.
Huawei hopes to break into the US mobile market with the Ascend PS 1: the world's thinnest smartphone.

See the latest on TVs, headphones, trends, celebrities, and more after the break.

Acer Rolls Out Its Own Cloud Storage and Transfer Service: AcerCloud

Kristy Korcz — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:15:16 PST

Cloud storage comes in handy when you want to access photos, video, and documents away from home. While there are lots of options when it comes to storing your goods in the cloud, Acer is planning to take on the iClouds and Google Docs of the world with its new cloud storage platform called AcerCloud.

Providing a secure and personal connection, AcerCloud connects all of your devices - from mobile phones to desktop PCs - allowing you to see your pics, vids, and Office documents (including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel) from anywhere. This free service works with Windows PCs and Android devices starting in Q2 of this year (Windows Mobile compatibility expected in Q4).

In order to access documents and media on the go, you'll first need to download the three AcerCloud apps - Clear.fi Photo, Clear.fi Media, and AcerCloud Docs - on your Android device. From there, you'll have a secure connection between your mobile device and your home PCs or laptops, even if your home computer is asleep or turned off. AcerCloud cashes your media and documents, so you'll always have access. Bonus: if you make changes to any docs from one device, the results are almost immediately available to view on your other devices. Snap a pic from your phone, and you'll instantly see it on your home computer; sorta like Eye-Fi, but with a longer leash.

AcerCloud is free for all Acer customers and is expected to go live in North America and China in Q2, with worldwide availability in Q4.