Mesmerizing Touch Wood SH-08C ad showcases Japan's beauty, mankind's ingenuity (video)

Sharp isn't apt to sell but 15,000 of its Touch Wood SH-08C handsets, but after watching the ad below, you can bet there will be demand for more. It's a bit baffling to think of the trouble Drill, Inc. went through in order to assemble the pieces necessary for a wooden ball to trickle down a homegrown marimba, particularly in the midst of Kyushu, Japan's woodlands. Kenjiro Matsuo was responsible for the creation of the instrument, while Morihiro Harano is being handed credit for the idea itself; in fact, he confirmed to The New York Times that no artificial music was added whatsoever, with only the background levels being adjusted up for effect. You may have never listened to a piece of classical music in your life, but you're sorely missing out if you ignore Bach's Cantata 147, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." Or, at least the version in that video below.

Continue reading Mesmerizing Touch Wood SH-08C ad showcases Japan's beauty, mankind's ingenuity (video)

Mesmerizing Touch Wood SH-08C ad showcases Japan's beauty, mankind's ingenuity (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Asus Claims People Do Genuinely Want Windows 7 on Tablets [Tablets]

Despite Asus offering up a couple of Android tablets, they're still finding that customers want nothing more than Windows 7—because that's what they're used to. While Asus may privately agree that Android—or iOS—provides a better tablet experience than Windows 7, the fact of the matter is they're "making Windows 7 tablets because we still get a lot of enquiries from corporate and end users who are just used to Windows," says an Asus rep. More »

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Chunky Cosmonaut, A Space-Pen for the iPad

Dan Provost and Tom Gerhardt, the makers of the super-successful Glif iPhone stand, are back. This time they have come up with a stylus for the iPad, and it’s called the Cosmonaut.
Unlike many thin styluses, the Cosmonaut is fat, designed to be the size and shape of a dry-erase marker. Tom and Dan did this [...]

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Skype 5 for Mac continues to frustrate -- how's it treating you?

It's rare that a new piece of software generates only positive feedback, but the world's most popular VoIP app has seemingly frustrated throngs of loyal Mac users, including a number of technologically savvy individuals within these very walls. A brilliant comparison of the old vs. new has emerged over at Ignore The Code (linked down below for your perusal), and it got us wondering -- are average consumers seeing this any differently? There's no question that Skype 5 for Mac looks a heck of a lot like the Windows build, but as the aforesaid article points out, it seems that the UI engineers lowered the standard of the OS X version rather than dragging the Windows variant up. What makes the new edition so difficult to swallow is just how ideal the prior model was -- now, it's a chore to spot contacts, initiate chats and handle the most basic of tasks that Skype should handle. So, we'll leave it to you: is Skype heading in the wrong direction in terms of usability and functionality, or should the collective world just get a grip?

View Poll

Skype 5 for Mac continues to frustrate -- how's it treating you? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Carbon nanotubes used to more easily detect cancer cells, HIV

Cancer's not slowing its march to ruining as many lives as it possibly can, so it's always pleasing to hear of any new developments that act as hurdles. The latest in the world of disease-prevention comes from Harvard University, where researches have created a dime-sized carbon nanotube forest (read: lots of nanotubes, like those shown above) that can be used to trap cancer cells when blood passes through. A few years back, Mehmet Toner, a biomedical engineering professor at Harvard, created a device similar to the nano-forest that was less effective because silicon was used instead of carbon tubes. Today, Toner has teamed up with Brian Wardle, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, who together have redesigned the original microfluid device to work eight times more efficiently than its predecessor. The carbon nanotubes make diagnosis a fair bit simpler, largely because of the antibodies attached to them that help trap cancer cells as they pass through -- something that's being tailored to work with HIV as well. Things are starting to look moderately promising for cancer-stricken individuals, as hospitals have already began using the original device to detect malignant cells and ultimately prevent them from spreading -- here's hoping it's qualified for mass adoption sooner rather than later.

Carbon nanotubes used to more easily detect cancer cells, HIV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 01:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MetroPCS lays the TapouT smackdown on Huawei's Ascend... gently

Is it really, truly possible to market a Froyo-based smartphone -- let alone one from 2010 -- to a demographic obsessed with Cauliflower ear? MetroPCS seems to think so, and its version of the Huawei Ascend just so happens to be "sanctioned" by TapouT. Hailed as the first brand to represent MMA, TapouT's roots are plastered all about the innards of the phone, with this Special Edition handset shipping with ten virtual training center videos, a dozen static wallpapers, six live wallpapers and a host of presumably violent Android applications. You'll also get a pair of interchangeable backs, a 2GB microSD card and support for the company's contract-free $50 / $60 smartphone plans. As for the cost of the phone itself? Free after a suplex + sleeper hold combo on the dude working the desk.

Continue reading MetroPCS lays the TapouT smackdown on Huawei's Ascend... gently

MetroPCS lays the TapouT smackdown on Huawei's Ascend... gently originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This year's hottest pocket mirror is also a USB 3.0 multi-format card reader

We always knew that the worlds of technology and popular culture were on a collision course of epic proportions, and if this isn't proof... well, you might say that proof simply doesn't exist. Brando's newest gizmo has an identity crisis that Charlie Sheen would simply salivate over, but if we had to guess, we'd surmise that a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed card reader -- complete with support for CompactFlash, SDXC and M2 cards -- does a lot more #winning with a mirror slapped onto the side. Pre-order yours today for the tidy sum of $25, or alternatively, a vial of #tigerblood.

This year's hottest pocket mirror is also a USB 3.0 multi-format card reader originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP rolling out webOS 3.0 beta to Early Access developers today

Interested in developing for HP's upcoming TouchPad? Sure you are -- but to play ball, you're going to need access to webOS version 3.0, which the company has announced will be getting delivered as part of the festivities at its webOS Connect event in London today. Of course, you can't just wander in off the street and get access to it: you'll need to be signed up for the Early Access program, which has been dropping early webOS SDK builds on eager devs for some time. Naturally, we'd prefer a real, actual, physical TouchPad to the mere idea of a TouchPad in emulation coming from the soft glow of our laptop displays... but we'll take what we can get while we wait for the June launch.

[Thanks, Michael]

HP rolling out webOS 3.0 beta to Early Access developers today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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