Monthly Archives: July 2012

Cat Tunnel Sofa Gives Cats More Comfort Than Humans

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People love their pets. Oftentimes, they even treat them better than themselves or their own children, pampering them with toys, treats, clothing and even furniture of their own. Take, for example, the Cat Tunnel sofa.

cat tunnel sofa 1

This quirky and whimsical sofa by Korean designer Seungji Mun combines a sofa for people with a giant Habitrail for your feline friends (or very large hamsters.) By simply replacing the back and arms of the couch with a giant tube, kitty will have fun whether hanging out on your lap (and clawing out your eyeballs like mine likes to do) or racing around in the cat tunnel. While you can’t buy the Cat Tunnel sofa in any store yet, it looks like the design would be simple enough to copy from the image below:

cat tunnel sofa 2

It definitely doesn’t look like the most comfortable sofa for humans, but the Cat Tunnel sofa seems like a wonderful place for humans and cats to hang out together. The only thing better is if it were made up of that scratching post material. Or not.

[via PSFK]


Verizon to stop blocking tethering apps, settles with FCC for $1.25 million

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Verizon to stop blocking tethering apps, settles with FCC for $1.25

In May of last year, our free ride came to an end. US carriers started blocking third party tethering apps in the Android Market. Not long after, the built in feature was turned off on most phones. Our fortune may be reversing, however. The FCC has ruled that Verizon violated the rules governing the C Block of LTE spectrum by preventing consumers from using any application of their choice. The end result: Big Red will have to open up its airwaves and allow customers to circumvent its $20 a month tethering plan using apps from the Play store -- so long as you're on a "usage-based pricing plan." Though it's not explicitly stated, we assume that means those of you lucky enough to be grandfathered in to the unlimited data plans are left out. In addition to unblocking apps such as PdaNet and Barnacle, Verizon must pay a $1.25 million settlement to put an end to the investigation. For a few more details of the plan put in place to ensure compliance with the ruling, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Verizon to stop blocking tethering apps, settles with FCC for $1.25 million

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Verizon to stop blocking tethering apps, settles with FCC for $1.25 million originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASCII Street View: Look at the Matrix

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Here’s a fun and trippy hack made by programmer Peter Nitsch. Nitsch’s website converts feed from Google’s Street View to ASCII art in real time. You can also search for locations, just like in the vanilla web app. And yep, it has a “green mode.”

ascii street view by peter nitsch

Here’s a closer look at that shot:

ascii street view by peter nitsch 2

And here’s the Matrix mode:

ascii street view by peter nitsch 3

You really should see it for yourself. Nitsch recommends using Chrome or Firefox 8 and above. The characters change as the view slowly pans. It’s like looking at the world from the point of view of a computer.

[via Waxy]


Energy Sistem beefs up its budget i8 slate with Ice Cream Sandwich inside

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Energy Sistem

Low-cost tablets are a dime a dozen in the Android world, what with no name offerings from Ainovo to budget stalwarts like Archos. But there's always room for more competition and Energy Sistem seems intent on elbowing its way to a prominent place at the bottom. A mild update to its existing slate lineup, the Energy Tablet i8 keeps the same 8-inch LCD display and 1,024 x 768 resolution (in 4:3 aspect ratio) of its Gingerbread-baked predecessors, but this time packages it with Ice Cream Sandwich onboard. The tab also comes equipped with an Arm Cortex A8 processor clocked at 1GHz, VGA front-facing / 2-megapixel rear camera setup, 8GB of storage (expandable to 64GB via microSD), 1GB RAM, HDMI-out, a 3,800mAh battery and support for WiFi b/g/n. It's up for pre-order now on the company's site, with an official release slated for this August 23rd. But at €185 (about $227), you might be better off saving up a few extra bills and shelling out for the more premium Nexus 7. Official PR after the break.

Continue reading Energy Sistem beefs up its budget i8 slate with Ice Cream Sandwich inside

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Energy Sistem beefs up its budget i8 slate with Ice Cream Sandwich inside originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Xperia Tablet Exposed in Leaked Slides

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A group of Sony slides have leaked on the Internet today that show and unannounced tablet called the Sony Xperia Tablet. The slides outline the tablet with a Tegra 3 processor, Android 4.0 or later,...

Archos 97 Carbon Tablet Now Shipping

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Archos has announced that its 97 Carbon tablet is now available for purchase at $249.99. The tablet has a 9.7-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1024x768. The tablet has integrated...

Pandora channel gets refresh, version 3.0 arrives on Roku

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Pandora channel gets refresh, version 30 arrives on Roku

Pandora's music-sharing channel on Roku has been spruced up with a new station screen design and a few minor (but welcome) new features. Version 3.0 adds genre station functionality within a new grid interface, while the whole family (or at least up to five of them) can now connect their Pandora accounts to the same Roku hardware. For extended play, a new screen saver will display track details alongside album art and the renovated search will also display those album covers in results. Roku owners can expect their channel to auto-update in the next 48 hours, but anyone who hasn't yet sampled the delights of Pandora can pick up the free download from the streaming box's channel store.

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Pandora channel gets refresh, version 3.0 arrives on Roku originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Legend of Zelda prototype cartridge goes to auction: $150,000 proves your loyalty to Hyrule (video)

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Legend of Zelda prototype cartridge

And you thought that Nintendo World Championships gold cartridge would make a nice start to the retirement fund. An eBay auction from tjcurtin1 is offering a prototype NES cartridge for the US release of The Legend of Zelda at a Buy It Now price of $150,000, or roughly ten times more than the typical final bid that Price Charting quotes for a typical NWC cart. While it looks like an unassuming yellow chunk of plastic, it's actually a Nintendo of America copy from February 23, 1987 -- half a year before the definitive action adventure reached the US market. The game still plays and can even save its game on the still functional, industry-first battery backup. Just remember that it's not necessarily going to reveal any design secrets from Shigeru Miyamoto or Takashi Tezuka: the seller warns that he can't see any practical differences between the early copy and the (also included) shipping version. Anyone well-heeled enough to buy the prototype is therefore going solely for the collector's value. But for those determined to be the coolest kid on any block about 25 years late, there's only one way to go.

Continue reading Legend of Zelda prototype cartridge goes to auction: $150,000 proves your loyalty to Hyrule (video)

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Legend of Zelda prototype cartridge goes to auction: $150,000 proves your loyalty to Hyrule (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Power Pwn Powers Gadgets, Pwns Networks

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Pwnie Express first made waves in the hacking and cybersecurity community when they released the Pwn Plug, a device that looks like an electric air freshener but is actually a computer used for penetration testing, i.e. assessing a computer network’s security by attacking it. Their latest product is much bigger, but still covert.

power pwn pwnie express

The Power Pwn is a fully functioning power strip, with eight 120/240V AC outlets. But it’s also a “fully-integrated, enterprise-class penetration testing platform.” It runs Debian 6 and is loaded with tunneling and snooping software. It has internal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas, as well as a 3G external antenna for long distance pwning.

power pwn pwnie express 2 150x150 power pwn pwnie express 3 150x150 power pwn pwnie express 4 150x150 power pwn pwnie express 5 150x150 power pwn pwnie express 6 150x150 power pwn pwnie express 150x150

If you understood the previous paragraph – I certainly didn’t – you might want to head to Pwnie Express for more information or to pre-order the Power Pwn. It costs $1,295 (USD) and should be available by September 30. Meanwhile I’m going to check my power strips for Ethernet ports.

[Thanks, Sir Mason!]