What looked like a drizzle last night seems to be turning into a full on downpour. The folks over at BlackBerry Leaks have gotten themselves even more facetime with that mysterious BlackBerry slider device -- and it looks a lot better than we thought. Right now the theories are flying about just exactly what kind of phone this is, with BBL suggesting it might be the next phone in the Storm family, while Kevin over at CrackBerry has it on good authority that this new handset will be part of the Bold line. Kevin also says that the rumors he's heard on this device call for a 360 x 480 touchscreen display (sans SurePress) and expectations for BlackBerry OS 6.0 to be onboard. The pictured phone apparently has a battery issue which is keeping it from powering up, but hopefully someone will find a way to spark this thing to life and we can get some more solid info. For now, check out one more pic after the break.

Continue reading More BlackBerry slider pics appear -- is this the next Bold?

More BlackBerry slider pics appear -- is this the next Bold? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Belkin may have kicked things off nice and proper, but c'mon, surely you're smart enough to avoid paying such insane premiums for a major label, right? With the USB-IF recently certifying a full 50 SuperSpeed USB products, it looks as if the little guys are getting in on the upgrade game as well, with Video Products, Inc. and Addonics being the latest to offer up USB 3.0 PCIe and ExpressCard adapters. As you'd expect, the respective devices bring USB 3.0 support to products that were born without it, with VPI charging $45 for its 2-port PCIe host card, $52 to $65 for USB 3.0 HDD enclosures and an undisclosed amount for its forthcoming USB 3.0 switch. Addonics is offering your aged desktop USB 3.0 compatibility for the lowly rate of $35, while the ExpressCard will do the same for your laptop at $49.99. In related news, the company is also doling out PCIe / ExpressCard adapters for adding SATA 6Gbps support ($39.99 a pop), and if we were the betting type, we'd say the flood gates were just about to bust wide open.

USB 3.0 PCIe and ExpressCard adapters flow from Addonics and VPI originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/AlYyHbaXaGE&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":412,"ratio":0.824,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube"} ); The bride: "We knew that we didn't want standard paper invites. We wanted something for people to keep and remember. We're geeks. We love video games. Why not have a video game invite?" You can play as the groom too:

newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Au6wKP2qZwI&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":412,"ratio":0.824,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube"} );

Darina and Niko, we all want to marry you now. Happy life! [Offbeatbride via Boing Boing via Twitter]

This is a little Asian girl dressed as Voltron in what may or may yes be a mall's food court. And as much as I despise robots (particularly ones that join together to form larger, even more menacing robots), I'll admit you really can't help but love her. Ha, I said you. I still hate her. voltron girl [angryasianman] Thanks to Ryan and Mustang Sanford, who know I don't really hate the little girl. It's her parents.

newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Nd0x49IplNc&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":412,"ratio":0.824,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube"} );Ooh la la! You can now update to version 1.1.0 of the Facebook app for webOS. It looks great and it brings an enhanced inbox, photo album access, more profile viewing options, events, and search. Finally!

According to Palm, this is the breakdown of the new features:

• Enhanced Inbox – Now, your inbox lets you compose, send, and reply, so you can always access your Facebook messages.
• Photo albums – Now you can view photo albums from all your friends, not just the photos in their news feeds. Uploading photos is easier as well, and includes the ability to add captions.
• Profiles – The new app lets you view users' profiles, whether they are your friends or not. View and post to their walls, view their information, and see their photo albums (subject to privacy settings, of course).
• Events and birthdays – Now you can see upcoming birthdays from your friend list as well as upcoming events.
• Friend search – Easily find your friends using the Friend Search feature. This takes you to their profile, where you can see and post to their wall, view their information, and look at their photos.

Anyone tried the update yet? How do you like it? [Palm via Engadget]

Well isn't this the most unlikely partnership of the year. Apparently world famous designer and maker of watches/belts Pierre Cardin thought the tablet selection in the world was lacking, and teamed up with a small Taiwanese OEM to bring some touchscreen devices to market. We checked out the line today, and though both the 7-inch PC729 and 8.9-inch PC819 tablets are rather thick the build quality is actually solid. The tablets pack resistive multitouch displays and include a stylus for navigating around Windows 7. Internally they're packing VIA's older C7-M processors which doesn't mean good things on the battery life front -- we can't imagine these things running for longer than two hours. All we know is that we're loving the attachable leather murse that opens up to reveal a rubbery physical keyboard. Whether you'd shell out $450 ($300 without Windows 7) for one of these really just depends on how much you love Pierre Cardin -- the man, not the tablet maker.

Continue reading Pierre Cardin tablets won't keep your pants up

Pierre Cardin tablets won't keep your pants up originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/2HVR-ZnzkZE&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":412,"ratio":0.824,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube"} ); There's been all sorts of hype about Dean Kamen's revolutionary prosthetic, robotic hand. But let me ask you a question, Dean: is your hand made of Legos? No? Well, thanks but no thanks, then. [NowhereElse via CrunchGear]

This is so brilliant, and so very wrong. Some poor soul in Baltimore has lost her iPod Touch, offering a $50 reward for its return. And some Bad Samaritan knows a bidding opportunity when he sees one.

Of course, the $148 estimate is just for an 8GB Touch. When you get into 64GB territory, you're looking at a grand savings of $348! I don't know exactly where these signs are posted, but that's probably for the best—it'd take no time at all to whip up my generous offer of $51.01. [The High Definite via The Daily What]

After a disappointing initial effort, Palm has unleashed version 1.1.0 of its webOS Facebook app. Currently only available via the update function but not the standard App Catalog, users will find new and improved access to their inbox, all their friends' photo albums, profiles, direct photo uploading, friend search and a list view for upcoming events and birthdays. The first thing we noticed was the initial news feed now matches the notification preferences set on the standard webpage stopping the inevitable flood of Farmville updates we blocked so long ago. Features still missing include chat, video and the ability to respond to friend requests but with a distinctly faster and tighter experience, it's certainly surpassed the mobile webpage as the best way to access Facebook on the Pre. Can't reach the update button right now? Check our gallery for a few more images or this video demo from PreCentral embedded after the break.

[Thanks, @Isaac]

Continue reading Facebook for webOS gets a much necessary, and much appreciated, 1.1.0 update

Facebook for webOS gets a much necessary, and much appreciated, 1.1.0 update originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This man says he invented over 3,000 things including floppies and springy-shoes—frequently while diving underwater until he almost died. He basically thinks Thomas Edison's an uneducated wimp who quit at 1,093 inventions. Sounds ridiculous? Watch this:

Part of me wants to believe that Yoshiro "Dr. NakaMats" Nakamatsus' story is just a cleverly spun tale, that no man can be this brilliant and prolific of an inventor while still maintaining a sense of humor. But then I recall some horrifying karaoke nights and realize that only an individual with a wicked taste for the absurd could've wrought such a horror.

Aside from karaoke machines, NakaMats also claims to have invented floppy disks, a weird golf putter, compact disc players, digital watches, springy-shoes, hydrogen-powered engines, a crazy arm chair that which may or may not have made some man's cancer worse, and a lot more. Sure, there's talk that he may be a complete loon who's just spouting lies and barely invented anything, but who cares? The man's amusing on video. [Motherboard]

Picture from NakaMats