If you’ve read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (or either of its sequels), you’re probably aware of the fact that its characters have a striking and awesome penchant for gadgets. The thing is, those gadgets are from… 2002. While reading through the books, we took the chance to jot down all that name dropped gear, and what we’ve got here’s both a list of that gear and a walk down memory lane. Author Stieg Larsson (who was the first writer to sell one million Kindle e-books) often gives out actual lists of specs, which we find to be pretty endearing, but where he’s left anything to the imagination we’ve tried to use context clues to fill in the gaps. Like we stated, the action takes place in Sweden in 2002 (the books were published in Sweden in 2005, though Larsson died in late 2004 so they were likely written somewhere between 2002 and 2003), so the options were… a little more limited. There are some mild spoilers below, so if you plan on reading the books and don’t want to know what kind of gadgets await you, then beware. Otherwise, join us, won’t you?

Continue reading The Girl with the Insanely Long Gear List

The Girl with the Insanely Long Gear List originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto
by Jaron Lanier (January, 2010)
Alfred A. Knopf, 209 pages, $24.95

I’m often accused of being a Luddite — mostly based on my fervent and affectionate clinging to several physical objects that are quickly becoming cultural artifacts: the ink pen, the paper book, and the vinyl record — but those items haven’t been the only ‘evidence’ my accusers have historically cited. In addition to that physical evidence, there has always been my suspicion that some of the things I valued in life — listening to a whole album, reading an entire novel in one sitting before grabbing another off the shelf — were also going the way of Betamax, and being replaced by short attention-spanned, sound-bited fragments of conversation that didn’t convey knowledge or ideas in nearly the same way. This suspicion, this “feeling” if you’ll — obviously doesn’t originate with me, and it’s often diluted (by the internet) into some version of “the internet is making us dumber” argument. Of course, that’s not really the argument at all, but who needs to be bogged down with details these days? Enter You Are Not a Gadget, which I review below.

Continue reading Book Review: You Are Not a Gadget

Book Review: You Are Not a Gadget originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

You’ve undoubtedly seen iFixit’s teardowns — but you might not know anything about the men (and women?) who do the actual work. The company was started about 7 years ago, and currently employs 25 people. Its founders, Kyle Wiens and Luke Soules started after meeting at Cal Poly, and sell electronics parts to DIY-ers. They told the LA Times that iFixit’s teardowns are actually “PR stunts” to attract potential customers. Still, iFixit’s expertise and attention to detail has certainly grown over time, and we’re really glad they have the heart to rip apart all the things we love, so that we don’t have to.

iFixit: a teardown of the guys behind the teardowns originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Guess what kiddos? That recession that harshed your mellow all last year is officially over and done with… according to the Consumer Electronics Association, anyway. Based on a new report put out this day by the CEA (you know, that organization that sets up CES each year?), the average US household spent $1,380 on consumer electronics over the past dozen months, which represents an increase of $151 from last year. The report also found that the average household spent 12 percent more on CE devices over the past year, and individual consumer spending shot up 10 percent year-over-year. Other tidbits included: ladies spent more on CE wares than the did last year (but still trail the guys overall), and the average home reported owning 25 consumer electronic products, up from 23 in 2009. We’re also told that 86 percent of all US households own at least one computer, making it the third most owned CE product behind Televisions and DVD players. Oh, and as for those pesky netbooks? 12 percent of US households own one of those, while 58 percent own “laptops” of some sort. Head on past the break for the full skinny — we hope you’re in the mood for good news, ’cause that’s all you’re getting.

[Image courtesy of TooMuchNick / WireImage]

Continue reading Shocker: CEA’s spending report finds Americans buying more technology

Shocker: CEA’s spending report finds Americans buying more technology originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Might 2010 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Want your stolen gear back? Don’t call some gung-ho superhero who’s as likely to blow up your small grocery store as he is to catch those perps, call GadgetTrak instead. The tiny startup company has grown since we last heard of it back in 2007, and is now operating a $25 per year tracking service that has delivered a statistically significant 95 percent success rate on reuniting gadgets with their owners. Available for Mac OS and Windows laptops, as well as mobile phones (BlackBerrys, WinMo, and iPhone) and even removable USB storage, the software’s intelligent enough to remotely activate your webcam and ping the incriminating info back directly to you — no data is sent to GadgetTrak. Check out some current news coverage of the software and its implementation in local schools after the break.

Continue reading GadgetTrak retrieves 95 percent of stolen laptops, puts RoboCop to shame (video)

GadgetTrak retrieves 95 percent of stolen laptops, puts RoboCop to shame (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

We know it’s a really busy week, but we wanted to take a moment and remind all of you that there’s still time left to nominate your favorite gadgets of last year for the 2009 Engadget Awards!

For your voting (and nominating) pleasure, we present the sixth annual Engadget Awards! The premise is simple: 2009 may have slipped through our fingers, but all the memories of gadgets-past are still with us (some in a more favorable light than others). Here’s your chance to sound off on what you loved in 2009, and tell us what you’re psyched about for 2010.

This year we’ve got 24 categories up for grabs, with 48 total awards to be decided. All finalists for Engadget Awards are reader-nominated, and the editors of Engadget will then select the best of those nominations (usually somewhere between 4-6 devices or technologies) as finalists.

There are two awards per category, Reader’s Choice (voted on by you!), and Editors’ Choice (selected by us). The vote will take place in a few weeks once the nominees are picked, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

You can find all the info and nominees on a landing page we’ve built this year which should make it easier to get all your selections in (and vote once we’ve picked the finalists). Just click right here.

You’ve got until 11:59PM ET on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 to get your entries in. Now, go nominate, or use the handy list after the break!

Continue reading Reminder: nominate your favorite gadgets in the 2009 Engadget Awards!

Filed under: Announcements

Reminder: nominate your favorite gadgets in the 2009 Engadget Awards! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

One of the challenges for companies trying to build across the “three screens” of the TV, Personal computer and cell phone is adapting their distinctive technologies to those platforms. Apple showed strong early momentum on the Mac with its widget architecture, but is falling behind some rivals in bringing glanceable utility to other platforms.

Introduced with Mac OS X Tiger, Dashboard widgets (or “gadgets” as Google and Microsoft call them) are small, simple applets intended to convey swift bits of information or provide a swift change of settings. Veteran Mac users recognized them as the reincarnation of desk accessories, which provided functions such as an alarm clock and note pad when the Mac could run only one program at a time. Apple aggregates thousands of widgets on a special web page, and Leopard brought a new feature called Web Clips to provide an simple way for consumers to create their own widgets from part of a Web page in addition to the more traditional Dashcode development tool.

Dashboard earned its own button on the Mac keyboard. It drew some criticism due to its modal nature, but its ability to swiftly display or hide a screenful of widgets without having to mess with window arrangements made it more convenient than the gadget implementation in Windows Vista and even Windows 7, which has freed gadgets from the Sidebar and now displays them on the desktop — a throwback to the Active Desktop feature of Windows 95.

Continue reading Switched On: Apple wanes in the widget wars

Filed under: Software

Switched On: Apple wanes in the widget wars originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

You know, when you’re the editor-in-chief of a site like Engadget, you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. Companies send you all kinds of interesting promotional materials, gadgets, swag, etc. It’s great. Sometimes, though, you just let it pile up in your living room for years and years, then, when a new editor-in-chief takes over, you send all that stuff to him in about ten big boxes. Luckily, we’ve got a way of dealing with this other than just throwing it in storage — we’re giving a ton of it away. That’s right, you could be one of the lucky readers to win a massive stash of gear recently jettisoned toward New York by Mr. Ryan Block. Here’s what’s up for grabs in this round:

Ooma VOIP box, Aliph Jawbone, Sansa e260 4GB PMP, Ramos RM550 1GB PMP, Enermax Caesar Aluminum Keyboard, SageTV Hauppauge Media Extender, Wowwee Butterfly, Microsoft Notebook Optical Mouse 3000, Microsoft Lifecam VX-5000, PSP A/V cable, Nikon 1GB flash drive, Trendset USB WiFi card, and more!

Interested? Here are the rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but a description of what percentage you plan to keep versus what you’ll have to sell off, or any fond memory of a Ryan Block post is good too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we’ve robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 Says, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you’ve to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get a large amount of gadget related goods. Packages represent a brief history of Ryan Block’s tenure as editor-in-chief. Approximate value is incalculable (but no more than $600).
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, August 29th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Storage

The editor-in-chief giveaway: Win Ryan Block’s gadgets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

The verdict is still out on whether what we’ve been seeing is indeed some precursor to Android 2.0 “Donut,” or (more likely) some elaborate HTC skin designed bring HTC’s Android home screen experience up to par with its extensive Windows Mobile reskinning. Either way, things are shaping up quite nicely for the HTC Hero, with another leaked build showing widget functionality galore, including weather widgets that actually show the weather. Interestingly, this isn’t a complete replacement for the existing home screen, since in the add widget dialogue you can pick an HTC Gadget, a Google Gadget, or other regular things like Shortcuts, and most everything seems to cohabitate well in the example video. With the rate these leaks are coming, we’re guessing we’ll be hearing more about the HTC Hero before too long, and if not we’ve always got the nouveau cocktail jazz electro crossover stylings of Air to keep us calm. Video is after the break.

[Via Android Guys]

Continue reading New video of HTC Hero’s Android build offers Frenchy vision of widget utopia

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

New video of HTC Hero’s Android build offers Frenchy vision of widget utopia originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Might 2009 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Sure, it’s important to know Candidate A’s position on the environment or how Candidate B plans to handle our international affairs, but when it comes to the issue of character, we’ll recommend that there’s no single attribute more telling than a presidential hopeful’s electronic devices of choice. For instance, an Xbox-lover might engage the country even more deeply in the gears of war, while a Roomba owner would likely work to ensure the cleanliness of our national roads and parks. So what, then, does the AP’s poll of the 2008 presidential candidates’ favorite gadgets state about this current crop of potential world leaders? Unfortunately, that they’re a pretty boring bunch: six of the nine respondents could only manage to come up with run-of-mill iPods and BlackBerries (and couldn’t anyone at least give us some model names to work with — we can’t live without knowing if Hillary likes the 3G nano to the 2G). Only Republicans Giuliani, Huckabee, and McCain strayed from the pack here, even though America’s Mayor seems a tiny behind the times with his “CD player,” and Senator McCain certainly won’t be getting much work done with one hand on his cherished Television remote. Anyway, all of this has got us wondering: what do you think that some of today’s popular gadgets might indicate about their owner’s character?

[Thanks, Mike T.]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Presidential candidates finally address important issue: their gadgets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This