Continue reading Keepin' it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone

Keepin' it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We've gotten our first look at the new TiVo Premiere interface, and it sure is shiny. You sure wouldn't see that it's running in Flash at first blush, since the UI is quite responsive and "native" feeling, with live streams of video playing without a hitch. The biggest hint that there's a big amount of reliance on the internet is the fact that the choked connection here was causing thumbnails and even some UI icons to take a little while to pop in. The rep we spoke with said that TiVo is still considering what elements exactly they'll be caching.

The new ways to find and promote relevant content are pretty intuitive and helpful. Everything is "connected," so it's easy to start from a category like the "Oscars" or an actor like "Jack McBrayer" and end up on the other end of the universe, IMDB style. There's a certain amount of dumbing down, to be sure, and nothing's going to beat your laptop for speed or comprehensiveness in bopping around this sort of information. Although, TiVo helps out a bit in this department with the optional QWERTY remote. Unfortunately, while we appreciate the full QWERTY input, the sliding mechanism is utterly cheap and shoddy -- we're assured that it's a couple revisions away from a final design, and we certainly hope so! The QWERTY buttons themselves are rubbery and not very clicky, but perhaps they'll helped along as well by this promised revision.

Update: We've got video. It can be found after the break, though unfortunately you can't hear a single thing our helpful guide says because she's drowned out by the "fist pumping" good times of the party that TiVo's event devolved into.

Continue reading TiVo Premiere hands-on (update: video!)

TiVo Premiere hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you're the kind of person who puts off writing tasks until the last minute, it might be worth your time to check out Write or Die, a web app that exacts swift punishment for procrastination.

It's a straightforward enough interface: just tell Write or Die how many words you need to write in how many minutes (or hours). If you keep pace, no worries! If not, there are three degrees of vengeance:

* Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
* Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
* Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

Write or Die is also available on your desktop. The downside: it doesn't save your writing, so when you're done you have to copy and paste back into the word processor or text editor of your choosing. That's a bit of a hassle, but futzing around with your clipboard can be a great time waster.

Regardless, Write or Die works. Believe me. Or at least believe the most unpleasant sound ringing in my ears. [Write or Die via Geekosystem]

newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/asj8vYS7FgQ&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":412,"ratio":0.824,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube"} ); So you want to get some cycling practice but you're worried about all of the reckless drivers out there. But you don't want to resort to one of those lame stationary bikes, either. The solution? Free motion bicycle rollers.

I would love to bike more often, but the thought of cycling here in New York City is utterly daunting. This alternative, however, seems even more terrifying.

If you want to brave your unfinished basement on two wheels, a free motion set up only costs about $35 in parts and can be assembled by following this Instructable. Just don't say I didn't warn you. [Make and Instructables]

You can consider our minds completely and utterly blown tonight, as we've just stumbled upon these photos of what appears to be a new BlackBerry device... a vertical slider. The source (BlackBerry Leaks) doesn't seem to be able to confirm the legitimacy of the photos, but we're mostly convinced that this is some variation of a RIM device. While BB Leaks speculates on the possibility of this being the Storm 3, Kevin Michaluk over at CrackBerry suggests this might not be a device headed to market, rather an early version which has been scrapped, similar to that Magnum handset that floated onto the internet recently (though Kevin suggests that our friends in Canada may very well have plans for something in this form factor). What we can say with assurance, however, is that this device coupled with those new BIS 3.0 Gmail integration upgrades, that forthcoming RIM WebKit browser, and a rumored new OS would help push things into the territory of that dream smartphone we pleaded for back in 2008. Coincidence? We think not.

BlackBerry slider photos leak out! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's suing HTC for infringing on 20 iPhone patents, but what will this mean to the cellphone market?

According to Eric Von Hippel, a professor of technological innovation at MIT, it'll be bad news for consumers in the end:

It's a bad scene right now. The social value of patents was supposed to be to encourage innovation - that's what society gets out of it. The net effect is that they decrease innovation, and in the end, the public loses out.

It's doubtful that we'll find out how right Von Hippel is anytime soon though, because cases like this one "can last many years, sometimes five or 10," assuming they're not settled out of court. But I don't exactly see Apple or HTC being in a rush to settle here. [NY Times]

It's not pretty, but according to BBLeaks this is the Storm 3, also known as "Slider." Supposedly there's some video coming, so maybe we'll get a better idea of what might be RIM's newest offering soon. [BBLeaks via BGR]

Each month, the best new iPhone apps-and some older ones-are considered for Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die? Here's the best of the best from February.

For the full directory of Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps for 2009, click here. Here are the best of the month, and what we've added to the directory:

February's Best Apps

For a single-page view, click here.

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Essential App Directory Inductees

Camera Pro Plus: It isn't enough for a camera app to add options to still shooting. No, nowadays you need video.

Meebo: An ultra-slick messaging app that makes every other free entrant look either quaint or crappy.

Angry Birds: I could have gone outside last Saturday, but I didn't. I played Angry Birds instead. I have no regrets.

Siri: Rolls speech recognition, search, and intelligent text parsing into one semi-magical package.

Logitech Touch Mouse: Does 75% percent of what more expensive iPhone-as-a-touchpad apps do, for 0% of the price.

The Fallen

Fring: Because Meebo is that good.

Snapture: Replaced by Camera Pro Plus.

And that's it! What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we've missed anything huge, or you've got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We'll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!