Author: Kyle VanHemert

In today’s Remainders: headaches. Microsoft’s browser ballot is a headache for the little guys; CereProc talks about the painstaking process of rebuilding Ebert’s voice; WiMax taxis in Taiwan get me a little steamed; a magical migraine-diminishing wand, and more.

Talk To Me
Since we first read about the Scottish company CereProc and their effort to give Roger Ebert his voice back, we’ve been eager to get the scoop on the tech behind the scenes. Ebert’s computerized voice was debuted on Oprah earlier this week, and while it was far from a perfect recreation, no one could deny that at some points the voice was distinctly his own. Now, CNET has an in-depth talk with CereProc which sheds some light on the process behind their incredible product. It has some interesting bits, like how they usually require 15 hours of recordings to recreate a voice, though they rebuilt Ebert’s from only four hours of clips. If you have even a passing interest in Ebert’s incredible story, the interview’s worth a read. [CNET]

Analysis
Analysts! You can’t live with ’em, you can’t live without ’em. Actually, you could almost certainly live without them, but then you wouldn’t have little nuggets like this to consider before you toss them into your mental recycling bin: Apple, who already commands 1/3 of the entire supply of NAND flash memory, might eat up even more of that supply with all these iPads of theirs, delaying the greater PC migration to SSD in the process. The thinking is that with iPad grabbing all the NAND memory, their prices could be driven up and those of SSDs would go up along with them. Maybe, maybe not, but for now there are too many unknowns in this equation—iPad demand being a big one—to worry just yet.[DigiTimes]

Glass Windows
Secunia, a security firm, released the results of a new study that might give pause to Windows users. It suggests that if you use Windows and have software from more than 22 different vendors, you need to install a security patch every five days to keep your computer safe from all those nasty viruses. That’s pretty often. Here’s what gives me pause, though: Secunia, the company issuing this warning, conveniently has a program called Personal Software Inspector that presumably protects you from just these threats. Hmmm. OK, sure, their software is free (for now), but you can’t imagine that it’d hurt their business to drive a whole herd of panicked users to their inspector software. In either case, I guess there’s something to raise an eyebrow at here. [BoingBoing]

Stuffing the Ballot Box
We recently got our first look at Microsoft’s browser ballot, a new system that gives European Windows users the chance to choose their own browser as opposed to being force-fed Internet Explorer from the get go. The system, which arose from an antitrust investigation by the European Commission, was the source of much confusion and consternation throughout the whole process, but we figured that everyone would be happy with the final screen we saw the other day. We were wrong. The ballot offers new installers with 12 choices, but only the five most popular—IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera—are visible on the screen from the start. To take a look at the other seven—AvantBrowser, Flock, K-Meleon, GreenBrowser, Maxthon, Sleipnir, and SlimBrowser—you have to scroll your way to the right. As Ars Technica explains, “The unpopularity of horizontal scrolling is well-known,” and “the importance of this ballot to minority browsers is hard to overstate,” (I think they just did). The ballot screen will be rolling out in the next 90 days, and in the mean time you can bet that the little guys will be fighting against the clock to save themselves from sideways scrolling obscurity. [Ars Technica]

Hello Geeks
Here we have an Apple-centric parody of Old Spice’s wildly popular The Man Your Man Could Smell Like ad. Often times, parodies grow to eclipse the original item they riff on. That will not be the case here. 1. the spoof uses CGI where the original did not. 2. It is less sort of funny where the original was not. The original was extremely funny. So just watch the original. But watch this one too, because it will make you love the original all the more. [The Awesomer]

A Headache
“Neuralieve Headache Management System,” Redferret’s headline reads for this particular gadget, “is this the beginning of the end for migraines?” No, no it isn’t, because even if the Neuralieve does rid people of their headaches, there’s no way anyone’s going to use this ridiculous, gigantic piece of machinery to alleviate them. The Neuralieve beams a “single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation” into your brain, supposedly halting the headache in its tracks. While it may provide some relief in the short term, I’m not sure that letting some sketchy handheld gizmo pump magnetic pulses directly into your head is necessarily going to pan out so well in the long run. [Red Ferret]

WiMaxi
Starting March 9, 1000 taxis in Taiwan will be equipped with free WiMax. Great. Whatever. Taxi WiMax I can live without. But is it took much to ask to just get it somewhere in my city? Somewhere in the state of New York? [UberGizmo]

Four Point Oooooh
Bluetooth 3.0 is old and busted; Bluetooth 4.0 is the new hotness. The improvements will supposedly let the technology work with devices that consume less power, and today’s news is that it could make its way into those types of devices by the end of this year. Well, a Bluetooth-enabled pedometer doesn’t seem too cool to me to begin with, so having one by the end of the year doesn’t get me all that excited either.

A man hassled a neighbor over his Wi-Fi allergies, and we dismissed him as a member of the tin-foil hat brigade. Now we’re reading PopSci’s look at the Electro-hypersensitivity—the real deal gadget allergy—and we’re feeling sorta like assholes.

The article opens with an anecdote of Per Segerbäck, a serious electro-hypersensitive who lives in a cottage north of Stockholm. He can be rendered unconscious by a single cell phone call.

The sickness stems not from the gadgets themselves but from the electromagnetic radiation they produce; it seeps from phones, computers, televisions, and pretty much anything else that you’d say defines our modern society as modern. Making matters even worse for Segerbäck and the similarly afflicted is that the science on electro-hypersensitivity is far from a consensus.

Still, fainting from a phone call is hard to argue with. Check out PopSci’s article for the full story of people who really can’t stomach gadgets. [PopSci]

OK, I’ll admit it: it’s rare that I come across a do-it-yourself project that even for a moment makes me consider getting off my lazy ass to actually make something. But this compass-inlaid table points me in that direction.

The Compass Table is a project from Instructables that puts 500 mini compasses underneath a glass tabletop. That alone looks awesome. Add rare earth magnet coasters to the mix and watch as the compass roses spin you into geek furniture rapture.

Compasses are cool for, like, finding your way around and all that, but none of my personal usage has ever rivaled the undulating awesomeness displayed in that video.

Another benefit of the Compass Table: it’s the only one I know of that makes your guests want to use coasters. And that’s worth something. [Instructables]

I’ve successfully removed my Ultimate Ears MetroFi 220 earphones thousands of times in the few months I’ve had them. Today, however, I botched the operation.

The whole thing transpired at the Gizmodo office in New York City this afternoon. Right when I removed my earphones I knew something was wrong. I quickly looked down at the cords in my fist and saw one earbud’s driver, naked, without its protective rubber sleeve. My fear tightened into a knot in my stomach.

Without thinking I tried to pinch the plastic cup out with my nails, but this only pushed it deeper into my ear canal. At this point I started to panic a little—I could feel the piece of plastic deep in my ear and was experiencing that unique discomfort that comes with having a foreign object in your body when you don’t want it there.

Determined, I kept pinching at it with my fingers, but that only drove it deeper and deeper. My imagination turned against me. “What if I can’t get this thing out,” I wondered. “What if this ruins my hearing,” I thought. I tried pushing on the back of my ear, where it connects to the skull, hoping to get up behind the earbud and push it out from the inside. That didn’t work either.

At this point I could hardly even reach the plastic piece with my finger. As you can see in the photograph above, only a sliver could be seen peeking out of my ear canal, like a crescent moon.

Through all of this, I tried to keep the problem discreet, but eventually I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t going to get this fucker out by myself. Reluctantly, I let the two Gizmodo interns in on my shameful secret.

I proposed the idea that we fish it out with a ballpoint pen, but they quickly dismissed that (apparently the earbud was pressing against the problem solving part of my brain, because this was clearly a terrible idea). Intern Kevin leaped into action and after some rooting around in the office returned with a pair of plastic tweezers.

As he bent my head to the side, he said something about having shaky hands, but at that point I was hardly lucid. I felt the plastic push deeper for a moment, and then felt it wiggle side to side for a little longer. Then, finally, I felt my ear canal breath for the first time in minutes that had seemed like hours. The earbud was removed!

So let this be a lesson to you all: treat your earphones gently. Most of the time it’s great that they fit so snugly in your ear. But some of the time that perfect fit can be a nightmare.

Around 600 million metric tons of water ice were discovered in shadowy craters at the moon’s north pole. How much is that, in terms that mean something to you? Possibly enough to sustain a mother-F-ing moon base, that’s how much.

A piece of NASA radar equipment hitching a ride on an Indian probe made the discovery, which was reported earlier today. It was only last September that water ice was confirmed to exist on the moon’s south pole, but these significant deposits bring us that much closer to the ultimate space nerd dream of a base on the moon.

“The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought,” said Paul Spudis, a NASA engineer who works with the Mini-SAR radar equipment.

Scientists say the water, which may be more readily available than that found at the south pole, could be mined for fuel and oxygen or distilled into drinking water for lunar dwellers.

Sure, there’s that whole issue with the budget and how its steering our space program away from the moon. But 600 million tons is a lot of water, especially for a nation thirsty for some new space adventures. [Space.com via PopSci]

So you want some cycling practice but you’re worried about all of the reckless drivers out there. You don’t want to resort to one of those lame stationary bikes, either. The solution? Free motion bicycle rollers. Updated: More danger!

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]

Update: Giz reader Daniel and his buddies laugh at free motion bicycle roller danger. Why’s that? Because they get down with free motion moped roller danger.

Thank you Daniel, I’m glad you are still alive to share that with us.

In today’s Remainders: disappearing acts. TigerText, a new iPhone app, makes your illicit text messages vanish; an official HTC video shows you how to disassemble an HD2; Intel’s new Convertible Classroom netbook makes its keyboard go “Poof!” and more.

Grrrr
Incriminating text messages, as a thing, aren’t going away any time soon. That is, unless they do go away, which is the whole point of TigerText, a new messaging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets illicit texters set a expiration for date for their messages. After that time texts disappear—Poof!—and your affair continues without a trace. A fine idea for iPhone-wielding slimeballs, but there’s one jungle cat-sized catch: both phones need to have TigerText installed for it to function. So while you don’t want your spouse to come across naughty texts on your phone, you don’t really want them coming across an app designed explicitly for hiding naughty texts either, do you? [Wired]

Colorful
Here’s a video showing some nifty (but only nifty) hacks for the Nexus One, and they both involve colors. The first adds a “sexy colors” setting for the little zooming pixels on the phone’s default live wallpaper. The other allows you to set the LED notification button to different colors. It definitely looks pretty glowing blue or purple, but it’s sort of a one trick pony—let us know when you can set different colors for different notifications. There’s no explanation for how to implement the hacks yourself, but if you really want to color in your drab life, you might be able to snag the Twitter names from the video and work backwards to the original Tweets. [Make]

Disassembly
Here we have an “official” video showing you how to disassemble an HD2 step by step (earlier today Apple showed us how to disassemble an HTC step by step). But this official video comes to your computer unofficially, probably by way of some third party repair shop. So it’s not the most exciting leak, and it’s not the most exciting phone, but it’s a nice curiosity nonetheless. [CrunchGear]

Classmates.com
Today Intel showed off its new Convertible Classmate netbook, which lets you swivel its screen to turn the underperforming netbook into a slightly less noticeably underperforming tablet. Folding over the 10.1″ touch screen will make it easier to flick through e-books, which are an emphasis in this newest iteration of the machine (Intel released another transforming tablet/netbook combo back in 2008). Intel has their sights set on classrooms in developing countries, hoping the device can serve as both an e-reader and a more fully functioning computer for those students. Whereas the last One Laptop Per Child update showed off a fantasy slate, Intel’s new device has a physical keyboard and, you know, the benefit of being real. [PC World]

Here’s an illustrated guide to the 20 iPhone patents that Apple’s suing HTC over. They’re kind of a doozy.

To look at the specific claims, check out the full Delaware District Court and International Trade Commission filings.

If you want to view the entire cockpunch on one page, click here.

U.S. PATENT NO. 7,657,849
Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image
A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture.

U.S. PATENT NO. 7,362,331
Time-based, non-constant translation of user interface objects between states
The present invention relates to a method for moving objects within the graphical user interface (GUI) of an operating system in a manner that provides a transitional effect between window states, which is pleasing to the user. This transitional effect includes changing the shape of a window while scaling and moving the window between two different sizes and positions. In one embodiment of the present invention, the transitional effect may be employed as a window is minimized into an icon, or restored from an icon. In another embodiment of the present invention, the transitional effect is employed as a window is minimized within its title bar, or restored therefrom. The rate of movement of objects is controlled in a non-linear manner, to further enhance the pleasing effect.

U.S. PATENT NO. 7,479,949
Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics
A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command. The one or more heuristics comprise: a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command, a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a two-dimensional screen translation command, and a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a command to transition from displaying a respective item in a set of items to displaying a next item in the set of items.

U.S. PATENT NO. 7,469,381
List scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display
In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a device with a touch screen display is disclosed. In the method, a movement of an object on or near the touch screen display is detected. In response to detecting the movement, an electronic document displayed on the touch screen display is translated in a first direction. If an edge of the electronic document is reached while translating the electronic document in the first direction while the object is still detected on or near the touch screen display, an area beyond the edge of the document is displayed. In response to detecting that the object is no longer on or near the touch screen display, the document is translated in a second direction until the area beyond the edge of the document is no longer displayed.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,920,726
System and method for managing power conditions within a digital camera device
Digital cameras and methods that provide for a rapid camera power-on sequence. A warm-sleep state is defined in which the camera and nearly all of its internal components are shut down, yet just enough information is retained within high speed volatile storage and processing units to rapidly return the camera to full operating state. The warm-sleep state is managed to consume a minimum amount of power to keep the vital information intact. Upon receipt of a power-on indication, the camera then transitions from the warm-sleep state to full operation by simply activating the processing units, and continuing operation from the state it was in immediately prior to the power-off request.

U.S. PATENT NO. 7,633,076
Automated response to and sensing of user activity in portable devices
The various methods and devices described herein relate to devices which, in at least certain embodiments, may include one or more sensors for providing data relating to user activity and at least one processor for causing the device to respond based on the user activity which was determined, at least in part, through the sensors. The response by the device may include a change of state of the device, and the response may be automatically performed after the user activity is determined.

U.S. PATENT NO. 7,383,453
Automated response to and sensing of user activity in portable devices
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates reducing static power consumption of a processor. During operation, the system receives a signal indicating that instruction execution within the processor is to be temporarily halted. In response to this signal, the system halts an instruction- processing portion of the processor, and reduces the voltage supplied to the instruction-processing portion of the processor. Full voltage is maintained to a remaining portion of the processor, so that the remaining portion of the processor can continue to operate while the instruction-processing portion of the processor is in reduced power mode.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,455,599
Object-oriented graphic system
An object-oriented graphic system is disclosed including a processor with an attached display, storage and object-oriented operating system. The graphic system builds a component object in the storage of the processor for managing graphic processing. The processor includes an object for connecting one or more graphic devices to various objects responsible for tasks such as graphic accelerators, frame buffers, page description languages, and vector engines. The system is fully extensible and includes polymorphic processing built into each of the support objects.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,848,105
GMSK signal processors for improved communications capacity and quality
A method and apparatus for separating and removing distortion from interfering co-channel signals and suppressing adjacent-channel interfering signals of the Gaussian Minimum-Shift Keyed (GMSK) or other MSK type with filtering structures that exploit the cyclostationarity of the received GMSK or other MSK signals in order to accommodate a greater number (or the same number, but with greater quality) of transmitted signals received by one or more antennas than can be accommodated by existing filters. The parameters in these filtering structures are adapted by either of two adaptation apparatus that exploit both the known training sequence that is transmitted in most wireless communications systems, and the constant modulus property exhibited by each of the transmitted GMSK or other MSK signals.

U.S. PATENT NO. 6,424,354
Object-oriented event notification system with listener registration of both interests and methods
An event notification system for propagating object-change information. The notification system supports change notification without queues in an object-based application or operating system and can be scaled to propagate large numbers of events among a large plurality of objects. The event notification system interconnects a plurality of event source and event receiver objects. Any object, such as a command object, may operate as either an event receiver object, an event source object or both. A notification object is created by a source object to transport, from a source to a receiver, descriptive information about a change, which includes a particular receiver object method and a pointer to the source object that sent the notification. A receiver object must register with a connection object its “interest” in receiving notification of changes; specifying both the event type and the particular source object of interest. After establishing such connections, the receiver object receives only the events of the specified type for the source objects “of interest” and no others. This delegation of event selection avoids central event queuing altogether and so limits receiver object event processing that the invention can be scaled to large systems operating large numbers of objects.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,481,721
Method for providing automatic and dynamic translation of object oriented programming language-based message passing into operation system message passing using proxy objects
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for the distribution of objects and the sending of messages between objects that are located in different processes. Initially, a “proxy” object is created in the same process as a sender object. This proxy acts as a local receiver for all objects in the local program. When the proxy receives a message, the message is encoded and transmitted between programs as a stream of bytes. In the remote process, the message is decoded and executed as if the sender was remote. The result follows the same path, encoded, transmitted, and then decoded back in the local process. The result is then provided to the sending object.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,519,867
Object-oriented multitasking system
An apparatus for enabling an object-oriented application to access in an object-oriented manner a procedural operating system having a native procedural interface is disclosed. The apparatus includes a computer and a memory component in the computer. A code library is stored in the memory component. The code library includes computer program logic implementing an object-oriented class library. The object-oriented class library comprises related object-oriented classes for enabling the application to access in an object-oriented manner services provided by the operating system. The object-oriented classes include methods for accessing the operating system services using procedural function calls compatible with the native procedural interface of the operating system. The computer processes object-oriented statements contained in the application and defined by the class library by executing methods from the class library corresponding to the object-oriented statements. The object-oriented application includes support for multi-tasking.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,566,337
Method and apparatus for distributing events in an operating system
In a computer including an operating system, an event producer for generating an event and detecting that an event has occurred in the computer and an event consumer which need to be informed when events occur in the computer, a system for distributing events including a store for storing a specific set of events of which the at least one event consumer is to be informed, an event manager control unit for receiving the event from the event producer, comparing the received event to the stored set of events, and distributing an appropriate event to an appropriate event consumer, and a distributor for receiving the event from the control unit and directing the control unit to distribute an appropriate event to an appropriate event consumer.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,929,852
Encapsulated network entity reference of a network component system
A network-oriented component system efficiently accesses information from a network resource located on a computer network by creating an encapsulated network entity that contains a reference to that resource. The encapsulated entity is preferably implemented as a network component stored on a computer remotely displaced from the referenced resource. In addition, the encapsulated entity may be manifested as a visual object on a graphical user interface of a computer screen. Such visual manifestation allows a user to easily manipulate the entity in order to display the contents of the resource on the screen or to electronically forward the entity over the network.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,946,647
System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data
A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data. The system provides an analyzer server, an application program interface, a user interface and an action processor. The analyzer server receives from an application running concurrently data having recognizable structures, uses a pattern analysis unit, such as a parser or fast string search function, to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. The application program interface communicates with the application running concurrently, and transmits relevant information to the user interface. Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected structures, and upon selection of a detected structure, present the linked candidate actions. Upon selection of an action, the action processor performs the action on the detected structure.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,969,705
Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program
Method and apparatus for a first process operative in a computer system controlling a user interface on a computer system display under control of a second process operative in the computer system. An event handler is installed for the second process, the event handler servicing events generated for controlling the user interface display under control of the second process. The first process may then perform a first set of functions in the computer system. The first process generates events for controlling the user interface display, the events related to the functions performed by the first process. The event handler receives the events generated by the first process and updates the user interface on the computer system display according to the events generated by the first process and received by the event handler.

U.S. PATENT NO. 6,275,983
Object-oriented operating system
An apparatus for enabling an object-oriented application to access in an object-oriented manner a procedural operating system having a native procedural interface is disclosed. The apparatus includes a computer and a memory component in the computer. A code library is stored in the memory component. The code library includes computer program logic implementing an object-oriented class library. The object-oriented class library comprises related object-oriented classes for enabling the application to access in an object-oriented manner services provided by the operating system. The object-oriented classes include methods for accessing the operating system services using procedural function calls compatible with the native procedural interface of the operating system. The computer processes object-oriented statements contained in the application and defined by the class library by executing methods from the class library corresponding to the object-oriented statements.

U.S. PATENT NO. 6,343,263
Real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data
A data transmission system having a real-time data engine for processing isochronous streams of data includes an interface device that provides a physical and logical connection of a computer to any one or more of a variety of different types of data networks. Data received at this device is presented to a serial driver, which disassembles different streams of data for presentation to appropriate data managers. A device handler associated with the interface device sets up data flow paths, and also presents data and commands from the data managers to a real-time data processing engine. Flexibility to handle any type of data, such as voice, facsimile, video and the like, that is transmitted over any type of communication network with any type of real-time engine is made possible by abstracting the functions of each of the elements of the system from one another. This abstraction is provided through suitable interfaces that isolate the transmission medium, the data manager and the real-time engine from one another.

U.S. PATENT NO. 5,915,131
Method and apparatus for handling I/O requests utilizing separate programming interfaces to access separate I/O services
A computer system handling multiple applications wherein groups of I/O services are accessible through separate application programming interfaces. Each application has multiple application programming interfaces by which to access different families of I/O services, such as I/O devices.

U.S. PATENT NO. RE39,486
Extensible, replaceable network component system
An extensible and replaceable network-oriented component system provides a platform for developing networking navigation components that operate on a variety of hardware and software computer systems. These navigation components include key integrating components along with components configured to deliver conventional services directed to computer networks, such as Gopher-specific and Web-specific components. Communication among these components is achieved through novel application programming interfaces (APIs) to facilitate integration with an underlying software component architecture. Such a high-modular cooperating layered-arrangement between the network component system and the component architecture allows any existing component to be replaced, and allows new components to be added, without affecting operation of the network component system.

A new study found a direct link between the time teenagers spent staring at screens and their inability to have meaningful relationships with their parents and peers. This study obviously was conducted before that Russian kid blessed us with Chatroulette.

You’ve likely been at one end of this debate—either you were a teenage TV zombie being told by your parents to go play outside, or you were that parent trying to keep your kid from spending another mindless hour on the Internet. In this battle, it turns out, the wisdom of age prevails.

The study, published in this month’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found that every hour of TV watched increased the teen’s likelihood of detachment from friends and family 4% and each hour of Internet increased it 5%. Let’s break that down: If you’re 16 and watch 4 episodes of 24 after school, you’re 20% more likely not to like hanging out with your parents.

So it’s true, being glued to screens deprives kids of all those emotions that aren’t represented with emoticons. Thankfully, in the intervening months since this study was completed, Chatroulette has come and totally renewed young people’s interest in interacting with other human beings. And their genitals. [PhysOrg]

Capitalism! Sprint was cool offering Palm Pixi for $100, until Verizon’s Palm Pixi Plus slid in underneath at $79. Well Sprint’s having none of that, slashing the original Palm Pixi’s price to a mere $50 for new customers, after all of the rebates and contracts and what have you. Remember, the candybar Pixi doesn’t have Wi-Fi and has a slightly smaller screen than the Pre, but if you or someone you know isn’t quite ready for a big boy phone, a $50 Pixi could be hard to resist. Also remember, hard times ahead for Palm. [Sprint]

It’s possible that you’ve been reading reports of Microsoft’s body-capturing Project Natal with some skepticism, wondering, “how well can this cockamamie setup possibly work?” Well, going by this video of it perfectly tracking a guy breakdancing, pretty damn well.

As best we can guess, Natal will be making its way to Xboxes sometime this fall. That means we’ve still got a good deal of waiting ahead of us, so every once in a while it’s nice to have a reminder of why we’re so excited. February’s reminder: this video of Natal perfectly tracking a dude dancing during the requisite playground ball demo game.

The video isn’t as much of a slam dunk on the lag factor. At some points it looks like there’s a definite delay between the dancer’s movements and those of his avatar on screen, and at other times the lag seems imperceptible. It’s hard to say for sure. But as for the motion capture itself, even in low light situations, it appears to be undeniably smooth. [Project Natal Games – Thanks, Jordan!]

Aaron Woodman, the director of consumer experiences for Microsoft’s mobile division, was a guest on today’s Engadget Show, and he had a nice surprise for everyone: a prototype of LG’s Windows Phone 7 Series phone.

There’s not a whole lot in the way of details—it’s a slider that’s a bit thicker than the iPhone, it has a 5MP camera, and sports six hardware buttons—but it’s still exciting to see the new operating system on a branded device for the first time.

Woodman wouldn’t confirm nor deny if Windows Phone 7 Series would support Mac OS, only mentioning that it was a topic the team was currently discussing. Hey, at least the notion hasn’t been shut down out of hand, so we’ll take this as a no news is good news type of thing for now.

Head over to Engadget for more pictures and a quick video clip of the LG phone in the round. [Engadget]

When the iPad was unveiled in January, everyone could agree on one thing: it did look a lot like a big iPhone. Begeek.fr extends Apple’s consistent design to its logical conclusion in the company’s next two revolutionary devices.

I hear the iBoard’s going to implement twenty finger multi-touch and the iMat’s even going to support Flash. [BeGeek.fr]

If the iPad seems extravagant and the JooJoo’s sordid past turns you off, the 7″ Mini HAL might be up your alley. It’s no powerhouse, but at least you’ll be able to say you own a tablet. Updated. Scam alert!

The 600MHz VIA CPU isn’t blazing fast and the 7″ touch screen isn’t luxuriously wide. The 2GB of flash memory isn’t great. The Android 1.6 OS isn’t ideal.

But if you just want a tablet without all the bells and whistles for doing some surfing from the couch or reading some documents in bed, the HAL seems like a fine option, especially considering the $199 price tag.

And anyway, the storage is expandable via SD card and the OS is upgradable. It has Wi-Fi, 128MB of RAM, a USB port, and claims a 16 hour battery life. Best of all, Haleron says it’s shipping the HAL on March 1st. So, if only for a few weeks, you can be the first of your friends to be officially on the tablet bandwagon. [Haleron via Ubergizmo]

Update: Hold the phone! A commenter going by “Brad” over at Pocketables has done some sleuthing and it seems like things aren’t quite adding up with Haleron. Here’s what he had to say:

In an attempt to verify Haleron a month or two ago, I tracked the iLet design back to a french company which has an active forum. They in fact do sell the design to be remanufactured abroad. I inquired if they had licensed to Haleron, and received a solid NO.

If you look at the whois on the haleron domain, it is registered to a shipping district office in Miami Fl. Google the CEO’s name and you get several other failed companies, and a business bankruptcy filing in Colorado.

Based on my research, I believe the company is a scam.

Fishy indeed. Here’s Brad again, in a second comment:

the french company is eviGroup and their devices have several real reviews… and sorry, the whois is connected to an apartment building in Savannah GA.

It was another website that directs to haleron that was registered to a miami ship hole. Offices in Columbia and Ecuador? Pu-lease.

After some checking up, I’m inclined to agree with Brad; I can’t find anything that makes me think that Haleron is a legitimate organization. If anyone has any further info either way send it along in an e-mail or post it in the comments.

We recently heard that Android 2.1 was on its way to the Droid, but now sources tell AndroidandMe that all U.S. Android phones will be receiving Android 2.1 firmware in coming months, though some will require a wipe to upgrade.

As we’ve heard is the case with the Droid, some niceties like animated wallpapers probably won’t make the jump, but if the updates come to fruition, increased text-to-speech support and enhanced widgets will likely come along with them. The price of getting up to date, Androidandme explains, might be wiping your phone clean. A bummer, but that’s life.

Google has shown its awareness that fragmentation is a serious issue for Android, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to make things a little more even across the board. The G1 and MyTouch are supposedly candidates for the first wave of updates, so keep an eye out for confirmation in coming weeks. [AndroidandMe]

February has not been a good month for the Apple supply chain. After the assault, the arson, and the poisonings, now Apple’s annual supplier report reveals that this year 11 minors were found working in factories that manufacture their products.

The 24-page report is full of bad news. The worst of it: three different factories Apple uses to manufacture parts employed 15 year old workers, 11 minors total, in countries that had a minimum working age of 16.

Other unsavory findings include over 50 factories keeping workers on the job for longer than the maximum 60 hour work week and at least 24 factories paying workers less than the minimum wage. Stuff that would be bad normally but doesn’t seem quite as bad in light of the child labor: only 61% of the factories Apple uses were following correct safety regulations and only 57% had the necessary environmental permits for operation.

Apple didn’t reveal which factories were culpable, or the nations in which these facilities were located—they contract independent factories in China, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic and the United States—but they are still using them to manufacture their products. Apple confirmed that the child laborers are no longer employed.

Apple’s no stranger to supply chain controversy, and all of these details come right from their own supplier responsibility report. You’d imagine that at some point people would stop gawking at Apple’s supply chain scandals and actually put pressure on them to make some significant changes in their manufacturing. Hopefully these latest discoveries are enough to start that process. [Telegraph and Bloomberg]

Update:
Many commenters have made some good points about Apple’s report and how it should be received. To be fair, these discoveries did come from Apple’s own audits of the factories it uses. I changed the title of the post to better reflect that. But the reason they’re performing those audits in the first place is to rectify their image when it comes to overseas labor. It’s great that Apple’s putting more resources into finding these problems, and it’s admirable that the company is making this process public. But with such a long running history of ugly supply chain incidents, it’s discouraging that the audits found conditions to still be as unfavorable as they are.

We got an eye-opening look at Apple’s attitude toward manufacturing when a tipster recently told us Steve Jobs’ mantra circa 1996: “Apple will be the Nike of consumer electronics.” I’m glad that the company’s trying to clean up their act, but with a legacy like that, it’s hard for me to applaud them for admitting they found underage workers.

Image credit gnta

Hammacher Schlemmer, purveyors of expensive, goofy gadgets, are now peddling the Foldaway Massage Chair, a shapeshifting piece of furniture that will keep your muscles relaxed, your apartment uncluttered, and your buyers remorse so potent you can almost taste it.

Picture a Transformer. But instead of being a really cool car that turns into an ass-kicking robot, it’s a little red cooler that doesn’t actually keep things cold that turns into a mediocre massage chair. That should help you capture the essence of the Foldaway Massage Chair. I can’t attest to how well it massages, but if I had to guess, I’d say not very well.

The folding design makes it easy to stow away, though even if you manage to keep your friends and family from finding out you spent $800 on a folding massage chair from Hammacher Schlemmer, deep down you will always know that you did. And you will regret it. And regret you can’t just fold away. [CrunchGear]