Items by Charlie Sorrel
Wired: Top Stories
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Ears-On With Skype for iPhone
Posted: March 31st, 2009, 6:37am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Skype for iPhone is probably even better than the desktop version. -
Canon 500D: Hi-Def Video for Under a Grand
Posted: March 25th, 2009, 6:49am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Canon announces the 15.1 megapixel Rebel T1i, a response to Nikon’s D90. The high-end consumer model shoots HD video and some nifty features, like 'Creative Auto' which lets the camera handle all the main settings while letting you make small adjustments. -
How-To: Adding RAM to Unibody MacBooks
Posted: February 20th, 2009, 10:12am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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What's the first thing you do after buying a new computer? For me, the first online purchase with a new Mac is RAM, and after picking up a shiny new unabomber MacBook I made the traditional trip to Crucial.com, memory suppliers to the smart and beautiful. -
How to Turn a Netbook Into a Net Jukebox
Posted: February 9th, 2009, 4:20pm EST by Charlie Sorrel
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With the right software, an underpowered netbook can be made into a surprisingly capable internet-connected music machine, giving you the ability to play nearly any song on demand. -
India's $10 Laptop is Neither
Posted: February 4th, 2009, 7:42am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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There's a reason that India's $10 Sakshat computer is just $10. It does almost nothing. What we thought would be a humming notebook equipped with Wi-Fi and 2GB RAM turns out to be little more than a box with sockets -- no keyboard, no monitor. -
'Perfectly Accurate' Voice Recognition Phone 'Too Secret' to See
Posted: January 30th, 2009, 6:53am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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To look at it, the Zumba is modest, at best: it's a giant, flat plastic ear and a rather retro looking box with a pie-chart shaped set of buttons on the front. Designer Dean McEvoy is dyslexic, and so designed the phone to be used without any typing or reading, ever. Sadly, the handset is too secret to even demonstrate. Or possibly, too not-working to show. -
Is the Sony Vaio P a Netbook By Any Other Name?
Posted: January 22nd, 2009, 7:35am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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Sony unveiled the Vaio P at CES, but we still aren't really sure what the heck it is. Gadgets at the edge are always hard to define, so we're taking a stab at what it really means to be a netbook, the fastest growing group of computers.
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30GB Zunes Killing Themselves In Droves
Posted: December 31st, 2008, 10:02am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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The internet is awash with reports that the 30GB Zune is committing suicide across the planet. Not just one of them, either. It seems that some weird bug is simultaneously killing the music players, like lemmings leaping from a cliff.
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The Apocalyse is Coming: What You Need to Pack
Posted: December 31st, 2008, 9:00am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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Crisis schmisis. It’s nothing more than a crisis of consumer confidence. But what happens in a real crisis, the kind where the world stops working, the electricity stops working and (gasp) the internet stops working? What might you need? Consulting my huge back catalog of post-apocalyptic science fiction, I came up with the following list of true essentials.
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Macworld Expo May Disappear, But Steve Jobs' Keynotes Won't
Posted: December 17th, 2008, 6:14am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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Even though Apple says it's no longer going to participate in the annual Macworld trade show, Steve Jobs is likely to continue delivering high-impact keynotes. He just won't be doing it every January.
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World's First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years
Posted: December 16th, 2008, 7:00am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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A British museum curator has built a complete, working reproduction of the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old Greek device for computing future eclipses, Olympic games and the locations of the planets.
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Apple Unlikely to Sell $99 iPhone, Netbook or Tablet
Posted: December 9th, 2008, 10:50am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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Apple's PC market share continues to grow, even as the iPhone is killing its competitors. Even "expensive" MacBooks are doing fine in a shaky economy. That means Apple has little reason to undercut its own successful product line.
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Five Geeky Things to Do This Holiday Weekend
Posted: November 26th, 2008, 8:27am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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The orgy of spending that is The Holiday Season begins in the U.S. this weekend. Sure, you might enjoy spending the four-day weekend locked up in the house with the in-laws and stuffing yourself with leftovers, but why not escape? Here we give you five suggestions for healthier, cheaper, nerdier and, above all, funner things to do this holiday.
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British Accent Bollocks to Google iPhone App
Posted: November 20th, 2008, 7:50am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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Google's voice-recognition mobile app for the iPhone has trouble with British accents, it would seem. Unless when say "MySpace" you mean "sex."
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Seven (More) Gadgets Killed by the Cellphone
Posted: November 18th, 2008, 8:04am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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Yesterday's list of Five Gadgets That Were Killed by the Cellphone proved rather popular. It also provoked a lot of response and some suggestions for yet more victims of the cellphone's relentless growth. Here are few of the things we didn't include, yet have certainly been clobbered by the gadget widow-maker that is the mobile phone.
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Hands On With the Nikon D700
Posted: November 14th, 2008, 7:56am EST by Charlie Sorrel
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There are plenty of reviews and incredibly detailed spec-sheets for the D700 already online, so we'll just cover a few of the quirks and delights. In short, though, the D700 kicks ass. It's easy to use, and takes an incredible picture, even in the dark.
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What's Inside? MacBook Pro Stripped Bare by iFixit
Posted: October 16th, 2008, 6:57am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Once you've peeled the packaging away from your shiny new MacBook Pro, what's next? If you are iFixit, you just keep on going, cracking open the case to see what's inside.
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Lenovo Notebook Hacked to Run OS X
Posted: October 15th, 2008, 7:31am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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There's been a spate of netbooks hacked lately to run OS X but none have been quite as stately as the Lenovo S10. Our recent top pick in the netbook category has been hacked to run our favorite OS. Looks like we don't have to wait around until Steve Jobs sees the light and makes a a sub-$500 lappie.
Wired.com -
Apple's New Notebooks: What We Should Expect
Posted: October 13th, 2008, 8:14am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Tomorrow sees the unveiling of Apple’s new notebooks. What can we expect? The official invitation, sent out just last Thursday, doesn’t offer much. We get the slogan, “The spotlight turns to notebooks” and a picture of a notebook, probably metal, partially illuminated by – you guessed it – a spotlight.
Wired.com -
Sega Getting Back into the Hardware Game
Posted: October 6th, 2008, 7:29am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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According to the Register, Sega plans to launch a new handheld console next year, and it won't just play games. The new console, called the Vision, will also play music and movies, have a built in camera, TV-Tuner and display e-books. We speculate that the battery pack will come in a separate, suitcase-sized box.
Wired.com -
IPhone 2.2: Safari Redesign, Possible Cut and Paste
Posted: September 26th, 2008, 7:26am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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With the iPhone v2.1 software out of the door, Apple is hard at work on v2.2. From this first glimpse it looks like Apple, now the major bugs have been squashed, is adding some new features.
Wired.com -
Five Things That Netbooks Need Now
Posted: September 19th, 2008, 9:52am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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The pint-sized mini-notebooks known as "netbooks" have taken the tech world by storm -- but to really hit the big-time, manufacturers need to fix a few things. Here's what netbooks need to really succeed.
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Panasonic Launches First 'Micro Four Thirds' Camera
Posted: September 12th, 2008, 8:24am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Back in August, Olympus and Panasonic announced a new camera standard called Micro Four Thirds. Today Panasonic has launched the first camera using this standard, and it looks very interesting, if flawed. Micro Four Thirds does away with the SLR mirror, making the camera much smaller. But you can still change lenses, just like an SLR.
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Network Location Turns Your Mac into a GPS Box
Posted: September 12th, 2008, 6:21am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Network Location is a Mac application that has been around for some time. It's main purpose is to change your Mac's settings when you move around: Connect to the server automatically when you get to the office, switch off your email when you get home, lock the keychain at the coffee shop and so on. New in v.3, though, is support for Skyhook, the Wi-Fi triangulation service used by the iPhone and iPod Touch.
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Massive iPhone Security Flaw Exposes All Private Data
Posted: August 27th, 2008, 8:59am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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A simple, two-step workaround makes it easy to bypass the iPhone 3G's passcode lock, if you're using version 2.0.2 of the iPhone operating system.
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Comic Books on the iPhone? No Thanks
Posted: August 26th, 2008, 8:18am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Wired.com's Gadget Lab looks at two applications for reading comics and graphic novels on Apple's iPhone, and finds both wanting.
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Apple Sells 60 Million IPhone Apps, Jobs Confirms Kill Switch
Posted: August 11th, 2008, 6:10am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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Steve Jobs tell the Wall Street Journal that there were 60 million downloads from the iPhone app store in the first month for a total of $30 million. Jobs also confirmed the remote kill switch. "Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."
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Bike Multitool Packs a Big Kit Into a Tiny Package
Posted: July 23rd, 2008, 8:27am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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The sturdy Topeak Hexus includes 16 different bicycle repair tools in one compact package, making it an excellent choice for on-the-road repairs.
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Diving Knife Stabs, Pumps Out Explosive Ball of Frozen Gas
Posted: July 23rd, 2008, 6:48am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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The Wasp Injector Knife has a CO2 cartridge in the handle. Stab it into an unsuspecting underwater predator, and the knife instantly pumps out a basketball-size bolus of frigid CO2 gas, freezing the target's internal organs (and blood) and carrying it harmlessly to the surface. See the video in Gadget Lab.
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Hackers Unlock iPhone 2.0, Now You Can, Too
Posted: July 21st, 2008, 6:13am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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The iPhone Dev Team has released its Pwnage 2.0 software, which lets anyone unlock an iPhone or iPod Touch running the iPhone 2.0 operating system. See how it works, in Gadget Lab.
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Five Things to Do With Your Old iPhone
Posted: July 18th, 2008, 11:35am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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So you've made the plunge to the iPhone 3G -- what about your old, first-generation iPhone or iPod Touch? Here are five ways to turn it from yesterday's news into something useful, from a multitouch controller for your Mac or Windows PC to a mini media server for your kitchen.
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Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella Splits Watermelons, Defends Presidents
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 7:36am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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The entourage of the Philippine president employs an unusual defense weapon -- umbrellas. Not ordinary umbrellas, but unbreakable fighting umbrellas.
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Forget Psyster: Mac OS X Leopard Running On OQO
Posted: April 29th, 2008, 9:21am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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