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Softening the blow that Apple struck yesterday, Palm has released its Mojo SDK for anybody to download. They’ll start taking app submissions for the App Catalog from all developers in the fall. https://gizmodo.com/confirmed-itunes-8-2-1-breaks-pre-syncing-5315386 That’s later than we’d like—the sooner the Pre starts building a robust developer community, the more likely the platform is to thrive—but…
How’s this for lucky timing! In the midst of our Gizmodo ’79 theme week, legendary power-pop act Cheap Trick is releasing their latest album (coincidentally entitled The Latest) on a very late-’70s medium: 8-track cassette. The retro format is pricier at $30 compared to the digital or CD formats, and not too many people still…
Huge investments as they were, 1970s TVs were subject to the same kind of bleary-eyed lusting as today’s hottest gadgets. Unlike now, though, cutting-edge features weren’t easily quantifiable. So what was there to drool over, if not specs? Plenty. https://gizmodo.com/why-you-cant-complain-about-the-price-of-todays-gadgets-5313690 First, we had design. No, not an obsession with thinness and flatness, but actual, romantic,…
Apple’s patent policy—filing for basically any idea that any employee is willing to sketch, ever—gives us an endless supply of speculation grist, some interesting, some not. Take this patent, which calls for flash microstorage in headsets and earbuds. The patent describes the sharing of device settings, preferences and even media between iPods and iPhones by…
The Polaroid SX-70 was not the first instant camera. Released in 1972, it was the first instant SLR, and the first to use Polaroid’s iconic integral print film that developed automatically. It folded up so it fit in your pocket. Multiple models followed the original SX-70, adding features like a rangefinder autofocus system. In the…
The latest beta of BlackBerry OS 5.0 has tabbed browsing. Great! Except “switching between two or more tabs is, quite frankly, a huge pain in the ass as there is no keyboard shortcut.” I’d rather have Javascript performance that isn’t completely shittastic, personally. [BGR] https://gizmodo.com/every-mobile-browser-should-give-up-and-just-go-webkit-5271098
Sure enough, that mysterious baby brick sitting next to the stretched-out BL40 is a direct followup to the last generation of LG Chocolates, called the BL42. The 3G slider is rumored to have a 240×320 display and a 5-megapixel camera. https://gizmodo.com/lg-chocolate-bl40-spy-shots-simultaneously-confirm-beau-5315875 The alleged specs aren’t much to get excited about, but make no mistake: This…
The official Guitar Hero 5 drumset has finally been unveiled! And it’s…it’s… exactly like the last one, except with rounder, Rock Band-y cymbals. No price yet, but it ought to be cheaper than Logitech’s. Full tracklist and more at Kotaku. https://gizmodo.com/logitechs-new-ps3-drums-high-quality-high-price-5315207
Matt declared their latest, greatest salvo in the smartphone wars a wide miss, and analysts chimed in to say that yes, Nokia’s high-end prospects are grim. Well, Nokia’s second quarter earnings are in, and boy, are they gruesome: profit is down 66% from the same time last year, market share is basically flat, and product-wise,…
In case you missed the link buried in our retrospective tech gods trivia-fest, here’s a glimpse back at Steve Wozniak in 1979, when he moonlit as an enthusiastic Datsun spokesperson. To quote the man himself, “It. Is. Awesome.” [YouTube] https://gizmodo.com/when-tech-gods-were-mortal-men-5315362/ Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the…
You can forget the teasers, promotional videos, and info leaks, because this is the real thing: Live, in-the-flesh shots of LG’s Chocolate BL40 phone. We knew it was long, but this handset looks like it’s been literally stretched. https://gizmodo.com/new-lg-chocolate-looks-good-enough-to-lick-bite-5309071 With the photos comes a spec list, which is only new in the sense that it…
Steven Levy reminded me that in 1979, VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program for personal computers and the app that turned the Apple II into a serious business machine. Here’s a DOS copy you can run today. [Wiki, briklin] Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age…
This is how you make a services app: Besides the obvious TV guide listings, Comcast’s mobile app gives you integrated access to your Comcast email, voicemail and missed calls and lets you sync iPhone’s address book. You can forward calls from your Comcast number to your iPhone, and it pulls voicemails from your Comcast home…
Wired’s new issue, featuring guest writer Brad Pitt promoting the newest Brad Pitt movie starring Brad Pitt, goes deep into social technology etiquette. Can you answer your phone while peeing? Is it okay to lie on Facebook? All is revealed. I don’t agree with everything in the issue—I will not accept Facebook friends I’ve never…
In 1976, Sony went to the National Stadium in Tokyo and lined up every single gadget they offered to photograph them. All were analog, mostly in radio, audio and TV. This is a photo of that. This was pre walkman and at the dawn of the age of the Betamax. Today, this would be impossible,…
I don’t know what that person on the balcony is thinking, but I need a change of underpants. And no, it’s not a photoshop, it’s a real, untouched photo by Steve Perez for the Associated Press. The photo was taken at a demonstration flight by the U.S. Navy during the 2009 Chrysler Jeep Superstores APBA…
With iPhone 3.0, websites can snag your location in Safari. Now if you search for something in Google and let it see your location, it’ll show you stuff nearby that matches, like coffeeshops here. It’s just the beginning, surely. [Google]
This table top stereo by famed Frog founder, Hartmut Esslinger, has a turntable, tape player and tuner. It was huge—speakers were separate—but gorgeous. From 1976. Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just…
Dell Still Might Have a Secret Smartphone Project…The Sexiest Clock Ever Made…A Gun Is Not a Toy (Except Sometimes)…An Anatomically Correct Space Invader… Memo to Dell VP Ron Garriques: Quit teasing about your dumb smartphone. We get it, you came from Motorola, so you have to prove you know how to make phones. But it’s…
When Microsoft COO Kevin Turner revealed Microsoft Stores will open next to Apple Stores and rain falls upward, he also talked about the “greatest single phone call in the history” he’s ever received: Apple crying about the Laptop Hunters ads. https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-opening-shops-right-next-to-apple-stores-this-5315454 And so we’ve been running these PC value ads. Just giving people saying, hey,…
