Windows drivers for Apple Magic Mouse nicked

The origins of hacking grow from healthy enthusiasm to add functionality to hardware by tweaking program code. So this is not the case. However, getting Windows drivers for Apple Magic Mouse in a way that turns out pretty easy makes us thing you'll find it interesting and striking a bit. The big news here is only that Windows 7 and XP machines have had their drivers extracted from regular software update for Macs with MS operating system running on Boot Camp to take its cover in hostile environment. As for Vista drivers, they should probably be backwards compatible from Win7. This all brings to the "why?" question. Why to spend 70 dollars on not-so touch sensitive mouse, I mean you still have to click it and it feels odd. Get this question resolved and there you are – Magic Mouse will be there for you.

New at Verizon Wireless: Samsung Rogue and Samsung Intesity

Verizon Wireless has announced availability of two new Samsung messaging phones. The cheaper model is Samsung Intensity. This one is a straight forward messenger with a sliding side full QWERTY, 1.3 megapixel cam, web and IM capabilities and 29.99 bucks on the tag. The other one, Samsung Rogue, is a whole different mobile phone however. The only thing it has in common with Intensity is a keyboard. Everything else is from a completely different division.

First and the best thing about Rogue is its AMOLED display. A 3.1 inch WVGA touchscreen promises to deliver state-of-art image and blazing response time. Good job Rouge has VCAST video on demand support, video recording and editing features. MicroSD slot limited to 16GB and 3.0 camera seem a bit yesterday, but who wants pictures on the go in hi-res anyway. I have mentioned above messaging trend of both, so AMOLED display, QWERTY and camera, all come on purpose of social networking. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other widgets are on their place in Rogue. Price is (just) 99.99 USD.

Samsung i8910 Omnia HD Review: It’s a Media Monster

Samsung has its eyes set on the number one mobile handset manufacturer spot. It has been pumping out handsets by the dozen (almost) recently in its bid to get ahead in that race. While it certainly has been gaining more popularity in recent times, it certainly has a long way to go. With the likes of the iPhone 3GS, the HTC Touch Pro2 and the Palm Pre, it is not going to reach the top spot any time soon. Not to mention the slowly emerging Android phones that are really making their presence felt.

Samsung’s latest attempt is the i8910 Omnia HD phone that has a lot of things going for it. It is a rather large phone. I mean it is positively huge when compared to other phones like it. But is also a phone that packs a lot of punch when it comes to media capabilities. You don’t have to take my word for it really, just look at the AMOLED screen and the HD camera that it comes with. Yes, that is an AMOLED screen. So should you expect all the great things you that you have heard about AMOLED? Continue to the other side to find out.

Specifications

Processor: 600Mhz

RAM: 256MB

Internal Memory: 16GB

Expansion: MicroSD

Sensor: Accelometer, Proximity Sensor

Camera: 8MP, LED flash, Video Recording, Video calls

Battery: 1500mAh

Compass: Yes

OS: Symbian v9.4, Series 60 5th Edition

Form Factor: Candy bar

Network: HSDPA (900/1900/2100), GSM Quadband (850/900/1800/1900), Integrated GPS, EDGE Class 12, FM RDS, GPRS

Display: Touch Screen, 360×640, 16 million, OLED

Talk Time: 10 hours

Stand-by time: 430h

Connectivity: USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0, 3.5mm Audio Connector, HDMI out

Build

The build of the Samsung i8910 HD is pretty solid. It feels every bit as tough as it ought to be to take regular abuse. The chassis is a large one and weighs more than your average smartphones. However, at 148g it is not heavy enough to make you feel uncomfortable while using it.

Design
The phone has a simple minimalistic design without any extra graphics or accents. There is a chrome ring around the display and the face is mostly taken up by the large 3.7 AMOLED display. The three buttons on the face have a low profile and also chrome finished. The phone has a shiny black finish and the camera is quite prominently displayed on the back along with the flash.
The expansion slot for microSD cards is on the left side of the phone along with the volume keys. The right side has the lock button, the camera key (activate/shutter) and a micro USB port. The top has a covered 3.5mm headphone out.
Display
The display on the Samsung i8910 is actually one of its strong points. You pay for the AMOLED display with the price and the bulk but it is worth it. The bright and vibrant screen brings images and videos to life. Webpages also look great on the screen. However, despite all the talk about AMOLED being really bright, it does not remain very usable under direct sunlight.
The 3.7inch display is a capacitive touchscreen, so it is free from the hang-ups that resistive touch screens like the ones on the Touch Pro2 and the N97 face. The accelerometer works well and the switch is almost immediate. The proximity sensor locks the phone from accidental inputs when it detects that you are holding the phone very close like when you are on a call. The accelerometer is available withinin all the apps.
UI
The TouchWiz interface that was debuted in the earlier touch phones from Samsung, receives an upgrade in the i8910. There is the same tray on the side that allows you to drag and drop apps to your home screen for quick access. Now however, you have two more panels to work with so that your home screen does not get crowded and cluttered. There are also more apps to choose from thanks to the expansion that Samsung has made to the app catalogue.
There is a permanent toolbar that is positioned at the bottom of the screen. It gives you instant access to the phone app, contacts. Text entry can be done via an onscreen keyboard in the landscape mode or through an alphanumeric one in the portrait mode.
Performance

The  Samsung i8910 Omnia HD is a media centric device. It has an 8-megapixel camera that can record HD video. The camera has six shooting modes, 14 scene settings and 8 resolutions to choose from. There is also ISO and blink detection. You can also record video in one of the four available resolutions. Features like image correction, white balance and Wide Dynamic range are available while shooting both still and video.
The picture quality of the i8910 is rather impressive. The images shot with the phone are extremely sharp and well defined and the colors are accurate. The richness of the colors could’ve been a bit more pronounced. This can be corrected afterwards though.
Video on the i8910 is also pretty good. The videos come out with great clarity and without too much blurring and pixelation. In bright sunlight however, the video may be overexposed.
The built-in media browser makes for an easy way to browse around for the photos and videos that are present on the phone. The accelerometer lets you browse by tilting the phone left or right. You can also upload directly to social networks like Facebook, MySpace, etc. The DLNA standard is also supported for hooking it up with a TV that has DLNA.
The i8910 supports all the common audio and video formats. So you won’t run short of entertainment on the device. With 5.1 surround sound, an equalizer, sound effects and visualizations, this is one great phone for media applications.
Conclusion
If you have the budget for it and want to carry around a full-blown media-playing device with an HD camcorder in it, the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD will work for you.

Emergency flashlight to be a kinetic charge torch

You never know when real emergency situation can arise. Whenever you may need an emergency gadget you might find your device gone flat so that will not fit the bill. But industrial designer Jon Thai came up with a concept that makes the difference. Dubbed the Emergency flashlight, this helpful gadget operates without batteries while ensuring continuous operation.

This smart flash light can be easily charged while shaking. This is possible thanks to a coil, a magnet and a capacitor fixed inside the flash light so once the flash light is well shaken, the magnet will move through the coil to produce power intended to be stored in the capacitor. So as you start using the flash light in those emergency situations, the accumulated power in the capacitor will be used.

The Emergency flash light can be lit for around 30 minutes before it requires another shaking charge. No more bulbs changing as this clever flash light requires no batteries and offer bright white LED light. Taking into consideration that this is an emergency gadget, you will be able to store the energy until there is an emergency situation.

This kinetic charge flash light seems to be an ideal gadget in many situations and compared to conventional batteries that may drain any minute, you may feel free using the flash light that appears to be environmentally friendly gizmo. So why not live a secure life while keeping environment clean.

Nokia N97 Review

So, guess what Nokia came up with as a follow up for their Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Touchscreen phone? The Nokia N97, a Google G1 phone look-alike that sports a 3.5 inch touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Here is a review by cellphone-reviews.co.uk

Design

The Nokia N97 looks like a cross between a lot of different phones from the iPhone to the Google G1 Phone to the AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTN II). Up front, the Nokia N97's 3.5 inch screen dominates the whole front of the phone except for the little button on the bottom left side corner which serves as the shortcut key to the N series multimedia applications. The call and end buttons are touch sensitive like ROKR E8. On the top of the Nokia N97 is the 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. The Nokia N97 is just a tad bit larger and thicker than the iPhone and when you slide out the QWERTY keypad, you're reminded of the HTC TyTN II with it's angled screen. The Nokia N97 feels solid enough to hold though it just feels a bit too large especially if you have small hands.

The QWERTY keypad is evenly spaced and you won't have trouble typing nor would you have to worry about pressing two buttons at a time. The buttons are very minimal compared with other QWERTY keypads from HTC or Blackberry. I guess this is to make room for the directional pad on the left side. The sliding mechanism feels solid enough though I'm a bit worried about the hinge that connects the screen and the keypad since it looks thin and breakable.


Features and Performance

The performance of the Nokia N97 is based purely on the demo version but I have to say I'm quite impressed. It looks like Nokia has fine tuned the Symbian OS to work well with touchscreen. On the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, you won't get much of the swiping and flicking finger action but they've refined it so that you can get that much out of the Nokia N97. Also, compared with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic demo version, the Nokia N97 interface is quite fast and responsive. You can barely see any hiccup on the accelerometer transition or when you're navigating the Symbian OS. The user interface on the Nokia N97 is also quite new but is still very user-friendly. Like I said, it's touch optimized and there are a lot of widgets you can play with. The built-in browser also looks promising though I wasn't able to see if it supports YouTube desktop PC version. Scrolling through webpages isn't as smooth and fluid as when you're surfing the Safari Browser on the iPhone but the webpages renders quickly though I don't know if that's because the pages that the person demonstrating the phone is already saved and bookmarked on the phone's memory.

The Nokia N97 also supports TV Out, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio, and a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. If the camera on the Nokia N97 is as good as that on the Nokia N95 then I'm sure that the Nokia N97 won't have any problems when it comes to its camera software. The Nokia N97 runs on Quadband GSM networks and supports 3G/HSDPA.

It's just too bad that Nokia decided to go with Resistive touchcreen instead of capacitive like that on the iPhone. I'm sure with a bit of development, they'll be able to come up with a lot of good applications that can make use of capacitive touchscreen.

Outlook

Hmm, looks like Nokia got it right on their second try. I like the Nokia N97 better than their Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and I hope that they'll be able to incorporate the user interface of the N97 on the 5800 XpressMusic though I highly doubt that since the Nokia N97 is aimed at the high end market while the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic borders on the midrange to high-end phone segment. From the looks of the demo version, the Nokia N97 looks promising enough. It's fast and responsive. I don't know what processor or RAM they've used on this device but I guess they were able to make use of the new Symbian OS. All in all, it looks like the iPhone, Google G1 Phone and the Blackberry Storm has a new competitor to watch out for. And knowing that there are a lot of Nokia fanatics, I think that the Nokia N97 will definitely take a large part of the smartphone market.

Samsung Propel - green (AT&T) by Nicole Lee

The name might not indicate it, but the Samsung Propel is one of the latest in a line of AT&T messaging phones (the Pantech Matrix is another one), perhaps as a response to the recent text messaging craze that is sweeping the nation. Equipped with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the Propel is not a smartphone, but that doesn't mean it's without features. In fact, the Propel's multimedia and 3G offerings are quite compelling, even if we weren't pleased with the keypad design. The Samsung Propel is available for $79.95 with a two-year service agreement and after a mail-in rebate.

Design
The Propel has a similar design to that of the Verizon Wireless Blitz. They both have a somewhat square shape, and both slide up to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. The similarities end there, however. Measuring 3.85 inches long by 2.33 inches wide by 0.58 inch thick, the Propel is much thinner than the Blitz, with a flatter front design. Though it is slightly bowed on the left and right side, the Propel is also much less curvy than its competitor. So while the Blitz appears cute and cuddly, the Propel is more lean and mean.




The Samsung Propel has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.


On the front of the Propel is a nice 2.2-inch display with support for only 65,000 colors, which is quite a disappointment by our standards. The screen looks decent enough, but colors looked muted and dull. The menu interface is typical Samsung and is easy to use. You can adjust the backlight time, the dialing font (type, size, color, and background color), brightness, and the menu style.

The navigation array consists of two skinny soft keys, a round toggle with a middle confirmation key, a dedicated text message key, a Clear key, and the Talk and End/Power keys. The round toggle can be pressed in four directions, each of which doubles as four user-defined shortcuts. The middle confirmation key also acts as a shortcut to the Web browser. Though the two soft keys are raised above the surface, the rest of the keys are completely flat (with the exception of the round toggle). We didn't like the feel of the flat slippery keys and would've liked a bit more texture.







The Samsung Propel has a 1.3-megapixel camera lens next to a self-portrait mirror.

Slide the phone open and you'll reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard didn't feel either cramped or roomy; sort of somewhere in-between. The individual keys, however, were small and felt quite slippery--we would've preferred a bit more grip or texture on the keys. Aside from the typical function and Caps/Shift keys, the keyboard also has dedicated keys for the camera, AT&T's Cellular Video service, and the phone's sound profile.

The left spine of the Propel is home to a volume rocker and microSD card slot, while the right spine is home to a charger jack as well as a Shortcuts key. The Shortcuts key toggles between the phone, the messaging menu, the Media Net browser, the music player, and the games and applications folder. When the phone is slid open, you'll find the camera lens and self-portrait mirror on the back.

Features
The Samsung Propel has a generous 1,000-entry phonebook with room in each entry for two phone numbers, an e-mail address, an instant-messaging handle, and notes. You can also organize your contacts by caller groups, or pair them with a photo or one of 11 polyphonic ring tones for a customized ring. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a to-do list, a notepad, a calculator, a tip calculator, a unit converter, a world time clock, a timer, a stopwatch, and a voice recorder. On the higher end, you also get a wireless Web browser, stereo Bluetooth, mobile e-mail, instant-messenger support (AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo) and A-GPS. Because of the A-GPS feature, the Propel comes with AT&T Navigator, AT&T's turn-by-turn direction service.

The Propel is a 3G/HSDPA phone, meaning it has access to AT&T's full array of broadband services and applications. They include AT&T's Cellular Video, a streaming video service with content partners like NBC and ESPN, and AT&T Mobile Music. The Propel is also compatible with AT&T Video Share, which lets you stream live one-way video to another Video Share-compatible phone.

One of the Propel's features is access to AT&T Mobile Music, which is a big umbrella of features that include the built-in music player, the capability to stream and download music from Napster and eMusic, access to MusicID (a song identification service), XM radio, and streaming music videos. If you wish, you can also upload songs directly to the built-in music player via USB. The player supports MP3, MIDI, MMF, WAV, SMAF, and AAC+ file formats. The interface itself is fairly generic, with the expected functions like play, pause, and skip tracks. Other music player options include a preset equalizer, repeat and shuffle modes, and the capability to create and edit playlists. The Propel comes with 50MB of shared memory between the camera and the music player, but there's a microSD card slot if you want additional storage.

The Samsung Propel has pretty good photo quality.

The Propel comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera. It can take pictures in three resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240), five white-balance settings, four color effects, and three quality settings. Other camera settings include 3x zoom, brightness, a self-timer, three shutter sounds with a silent option, six shot modes (single shot, multishot, mosaic shot, frame shot, and panorama), and a night mode. Photo quality was pretty good. Images looked sharp and bright. However, colors looked muted. There's also a built-in camcorder that can record in two resolutions--short video for MMS, and longer ones for whatever amount of storage is available. The only available resolution is 176x144. Other camcorder settings are the same as the still camera.

You can customize the Samsung Propel with a variety of graphics and sounds to suit your taste. If you want more, you can download them via AT&T's Media Mall store. The Propel comes with games and applications like Mobile Banking, MobiTV, the Weather Channel, WikiMobile, Guitar Hero III, JewelQuest 2, Midnight Bowling 2, and Tetris. If you want more games and applications, you can download more via the same store.

Performance
We tested the quad-band GSM and dual-band UMTS/HSDPA Samsung Propel with AT&T in San Francisco. We were impressed with the call quality. Although we could hear the occasional static, we could still hear our callers loud and clear. We thought they sounded very natural, on both landline and cell phone calls. Callers reported the same thing--they said our voices sounded quite natural, as if we were calling from a landline. Speakerphone quality was surprisingly good--callers couldn't hear much of a difference, though we thought they sounded tinny with quite a bit of echo.

We were impressed with the HSDPA speeds on the Propel. We downloaded a song in about 50 seconds, and streaming video had little to no buffering issues. Loading Web pages took only a few seconds, too.

The Samsung Propel has a rated battery life of 5 hours talk time and 10.4 days standby time. According to FCC radiation tests, the Matrix has a digital SAR rating of 0.968 watts per kilogram.

UPDATE

How to get GMAIL on the Samsung Propel a767

I was disappointed to see that the built in "mobile email" providers did not include GMAIL, which in my opinion is by far the best free email service available.

The built in accounts are for Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, AIM, AT&T Yahoo, Bellsouth, Comcast, Earthlink, Juno, MindSpring, and Netzero. All of these, but no GMAIL!?!?!?

So my mission has started to get gmail to work on this thing. Here is how to do it.

The easiest way is to download GMAIL mobile from Google. Here is the address:

http://www.google.com/mobile/default/mail.html

Enter your number in the field and you will receive a text with a link to install the client.

Once the client is installed just set up your login and password to gmail and your ready to roll.

It is free, like most things from google. It is extremely well written (better than the built in email apps on the Propel)

I have also found a couple other programs that sort of work, but the google supplied client is by far the best so far.

CitySailer two-wheeler to cruise on public roads

Have you ever imagined sailing on public roads? Christened the CitySailer, this splendiferous two-wheeler seems to push the envelope. This out of this world vehicle is powered by fuel cells while still offering a safe city driving even if you do not like wearing helmets. This artfully designed vehicle features a sail like windshield that is able to power the scooter using wind power. So why not start using green transportation that is so much beneficial to our environment.

This ecologically friendly wonder seems to live up to expectations for those who are tired of constant traffic jams as the design of the CitySailer is quite slender that take maneuverability to the next level. Engineered by industrial designer Christopher Kuh, this outstanding vehicle uses the combination of highly productive fuel cells and drive-by-wire technology.

The CitySailer two-wheeler runs on an electric engine positioned inside the rear wheel. In order to park this sustainable scooter, there are some special steering levers the driver will need to pull. Additionally, the driver’s safety is ensured by seat belt and airbags that makes it possible to drive without need of helmet. Optionally, the driver will be able to use a large backpack mounted into the vehicle to provide some storing capacity.

Samsung Omnia Pro B7330 has leaked, only not priced

Well, it looks like we finally got our selves a leak from Samsung of their upcoming replacement for Omnia PRO B7320. The B7330 has been rumored around the Web for a while now, so we know that most of specs represent a steady progress of its predecessor. And now fresh photos do the same thing with design. So far, we can say B7330 is less thick, has a slightly bigger screen, keyboard has been changed a bit but still is a QWERTY. Omnia PRO B7330 will come out in October for a price we can only guess. Specs follow.

I might have intrigued you saying about bigger screen. So it is, but not by much. Future Omnia has a 320 x 320 2.63 inch TFT display. Operating system was upgraded from Windows Mobile 6.1 to 6.5 version. Rest is pretty standard: Wi-Fi, HSDPA, Bluetooth, MicroSD expansion slot. Onboard memory you get out of stock is 320MB. Could be worse, but I'm just interested in the upper limit of its expansion. Anyway, in addition to all of that B7330 features a 3.2 megapixel camera and 1500mAh battery. Now it's your word, guys, how much of your own money would you give for it?

Razer announces MMO gaming orientated Naga mouse

News from Gamescom 2009 and indeed good news because we forever had been thinking of how many buttons can there be on a mouse? Razer is right there with a new gaming Naga mouse. Do want to have a guess how many buttons they have stuffed on it? Wrong – its 17. The thing is Naga is not covered randomly with them, on left side it has a full 12 piece numeric keyboard which is there to help with gaming so you don’t have to roam all around the actual keyboard and keep the left hand exclusively on movement controls.

Behind the new design we find a familiar 5600dpi engine with 1ms response time. Enough for MMO games really, but in addition to Naga, Razer offers Add On software which allows Naga users to create unlimited number of profiles all with unique commands and key presets. And, finally, to sum up gaming enthusiasm, Razer also offers a Megasoma gaming mouse mat. This will suit optical and laser units for 49.99 USD. Razer Naga for size runs up to 79.99 USD. Well, who said MMO gaming is cheap?

T-Mobile Pulse is set for October with 257 EUR on the tag

Remember the Huawei U8220? Do you like the idea to bring it to Europe as a T-Mobile Pulse? If so, you then will be pleased to hear some recently appeared details on that. First, we have a new picture of it differs from the old, especially the bottom console keys, they are now placed vertically and the overall shape is smoothed out. In addition, the color scheme is also different. I liked the old one better I should say, but anyway, T-Mobile Pulse, as it was recently presented at a Dutch e-store preorder list, sports a cool black and white body. Price at the same place is 257 EUR. Specs after the jump.

So, here's what we have on T-Mobile Pulse:


* Touch sensitive 320 x 480 3.5 inch display

* 3.2 megapixel camera

* HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps

* Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0
* MicroSD slot



T-Mobile Pulse will arrive in Europe in October with Android locked to T-Mobile network. There is a sense in the air that this is not the final information.