Jordan McRae’s B-Squares

Jordan McRae’s B-Squares

Do you know Jordan McRa?He is a designer who devotes himself to integrating solar energy . After months of experimentation he came up with the design for B-Squares.

Do you want to know what he descibes his product?

B-Squares is a 3D modular electronics system with an emphasis on (but not limited to) solar power and expandable energy storage. Each Square has a magnetic contact on each of the corners which allows the Squares to easily snap together without wires. The magnetic contacts are also used to transmit electric signals between the Squares. This design allows users to quickly assemble Squares into arrays, with power flowing through the array via the corner contact, without wiring or soldering. Also, due to the use of multiple magnetic contacts on each Square, the overall circuit of the array can quickly be changed simply by rotating one of the Squares – for instance, the color of the LED Square can change with a flip or a rotation.

To date, the project includes squares for a 0.25 W solar panel, a AAA battery power pack and multi-color LEDs. Other squares accommodate iPhone/iPod docking as well as an Arduino square and a proto-square.

Cobra iRadar detection system will come to Android next month

iPhone users have been able to avoid radar speed guns using Cobra's iRadar system since late last year, and it looks like Android users will soon finally be able to get in on the act as well. Cobra used the gdgt Live event at SXSW to announce that iRadar will be available for Android phones sometime in April. That consists of a standard dash-mounted radar detector and, of course, an app, which also takes advantage of your phone's built-in GPS capabilities to provide warnings of photo enforcement zones and other potential impediments to your inability to drive 55 -- you'll apparently soon even be able to share radar alerts with other iRadar users. Head on past the break for a video of the iPhone version.

Lifelapse app promising to turn your iPhone into a life-logger

We've seen a few dedicated "life-logging" devices that let you record your every waking moment, but why spend a couple of hundred bucks on something when you're already carrying around a perfectly capable smartphone? That's the thinking of the folks behind the Lifelapse iPhone app which, like the Vicon Revue we've tested, promises to simply record a time-lapse video of your entire day -- they've even developed a "LifePouch" so you can conveniently wear your iPhone around your neck (no iPad version just yet). Unfortunately, the developers aren't offering a peek at the app itself just yet, but they are now accepting applications for those that wish to participate in the beta.

GarageBand and iMovie coming to iPad, iPhone gets iMovie refresh

If you occupy the planet Earth, you're probably aware that last week saw the unveiling of the iPad2. During said reveal, Steve Jobs made a couple of other, perhaps not as monumental, but no doubt notable announcements: specifically that the new slate will offer iMovie and GarageBand. Well, it looks like they've decided to let the cats, or apps, as it were, out of the bag a day early. That's right, Mac movie makers and rock star hopefuls can download them now for $5 a pop -- and, this just in, it looks like iMovie for iPhone's getting a simultaneous upgrade. If you've already started rockin' or docin', let us know what you think in the comments.

West Penn Allegheny Health System creating an emergency responder app, placing your life in far better hands

Creating a health-minded application for those who are unconscious, dead, or creeping awfully close to death might not do much good, but creating a health-minded application for those who care for the near-dead... now that's a novel concept! The West Penn Allegheny Health System has just churned out the EMS Field Partner app for iPod touch and iPhone, giving emergency medical services (EMS) professionals and other first responders the ability to easily sift through a variety of emergency conditions or complaints -- such as chest pain, stroke symptoms or fall injury, etc. -- and be directed to the closest WPAHS hospital that is most qualified to treat the patient. It also provides an interface with Google Maps and directions to the System's hospitals, not to mention "up to the minute traffic information as well." For more serious encounters, there's a direct link to West Penn Allegheny's LifeFlight Command Center, with the built-in location system telling the backend where to send an emergency helicopter. The app's available for free as we speak, but many of the features (like the chopper request, we're guessing) will require registration. We know, we know -- you had all sorts of crazy ideas.

iVillage Launching App Network; Adds BN.com’s Gottlieb

For over the past year, Comcast/NBC (NSDQ: CMCSA) Universal’s iVillage has been overhauling its sites and expanding its international presence. Now it is moving more forcefully into mobile with the launch of its app network. As part of its push into mobile, the company has named former Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) digital exec Douglas Gottlieb as VP for “User Experience.”

The hiring of Gottlieb represents something of a reunion for the former VP of Digital Products at BN.com, as he joins Mike Skagerlind, iVillage’s SVP/GM arrived at the company last June after serving as VP, head of content at B&N.

By the end of this year, the iVillage mobile network will include between a half-dozen and a dozen apps. The first one, Red Carpet Fever, was released over a week ago to capitalize on the Academy Awards. The app will continue to evolve into a general celebrity events offering photo galleries, real-time chats and connections to Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools.

The start of the rollout reflects the added emphasis iVillage has placed on entertainment as part of its vast restructuring that began a year-and-a-half ago.

“We did a lot of rebuilding last year and that has strengthened the relationship with our users,” said Skagerlind in an interview with paidContent. The PC-based site network already claims a reach of 30-plus million users a month. “While the mobile wap site has been around for some time. It was our plan to do a more extensive mobile strategy after that was set.”

Later this month, the company will launch its “main” iVillage app. Other apps to follow include the mom-aimed My Pregnancy and Newborn Milestones apps. The initial phase will be rounded out by apps for Health & Fitness are also set to roll out, which will center around iVillage’s successful ‘Community Challenge’ franchise

While iVillage’s site network has some experiments in paid content, the company has no plans to charge for its mobile apps. As Gottlieb told us, the focus right now is on building community and the “user experience.” There is some excitement within the company around iVillage’s work with iPad—they’re exploring the advancements associated with the second version of that device—as well as Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android in addition to the iPhone. Doing it all simultaneously is a big part of the effort, along with finding multiple ways to pay for it all.

“We’re looking at a variety of revenue models,” Skagerlind said.“We like the ‘freemium’ model, which could include enhancements you’ll be able to buy. But we believe in advertising.”

While it makes sense that iVillage didn’t want to take on too much and roll out its apps earlier, as it unveiled its various sites and channels over the past year. But you can’t help but wonder, what took so long. Skagerlind has an answer: “We are doing this as early as we could. You only have to look around at how suddenly impactful the mobile revolution has been from a user and advertising vantage—but it’s all still very early for most people. Certainly within a year or two, the amount of broadband access and the number of women using smartphones to access our content will grow tremendously. But we’re not abandoning the web, of course, we’re looking for ways we can be original and complementary at the same time.”

BlackBerry Messenger Now Coming to Android, iPhone?

Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) may be contemplating offering a version of one of its most popular applications—BlackBerry Messenger—for a rival phone.

So say little birdies whispering in the ear of the Boy Genius Report, which wrote Thursday that RIM is getting ready to release a version of BlackBerry Messenger for Google’s Android software, and is also contemplating porting the app to Apple’s iOS. Representatives from RIM declined to comment, but the move makes a certain amount of sense.

BlackBerry is still huge in North America, tied with Apple in the U.S. when it comes to smartphone share measured by hardware vendors. But this is a market it once owned, and it’s fair to say that there has been a lack of enthusiasm and excitement around BlackBerry for quite some time as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Android rose to prominence among consumers and developers.

Still, there’s one thing that RIM and the BlackBerry do really well: group communication. BlackBerry Messenger is an app that lets BlackBerry subscribers trade instant messages, photos, and other updates with one another, and at the moment it’s only available to BlackBerry owners.

But opening up BlackBerry Messenger to other phones could allow RIM to get a lot more new people using its services. GigaOm rightly wonders if “a move to open up BBM may be a sign that RIM realizes its strengths now lie in its network and in providing back-end services to enterprise users, and not in making phones, at least not anymore,” comparing the possibility to IBM ditching PC hardware in favor of concentrating on providing services to big businesses.

At the moment RIM is trying to move past its good-hardware-crappy-software reputation by focusing on its QNX software that will run atop the forthcoming Playbook tablet. But selectively bringing the most compelling parts of the BlackBerry experience to other phones might be an interesting way of creating a spark without having to make a huge investment.

Verizon Being Slated To Cancel Unlimited iPhone Data

According to Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo, speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, Verizon’s current unlimited data plan is untenable and cannot remain in place forever, a bit of news that is disconcerting at worst and obvious at best.

The operator currently offers a $30/month “unlimited” (but potentially throttled) data plan.

According to a Cellular News report, Shammo said “Why did we do the unlimited $30 plan on the iPhone? Well, the reason we did that was we didn’t really want to put up a barrier to anybody who wanted to come over and experience the Verizon Wireless network. So we felt it was important to go out at the $30.”

Considering Verizon is moving towards a faster LTE network, the pricing will change over the next few months. Verizon customers could lose their unlimited plans as early as this summer, however, making for a class-action-lawsuit-worthy month of July.

The iPad 2 was just announced for a March 11th release on Verizon, but the plans for that device weren’t announced. Chances are unlimited data will not be carrying over to Verizon’s tablet selection.

Visualized: if the apple and iPhone had happened in an alternate reality

This collection of devices -- from Germany's SKS Hinkel, and winner of an iF Product Design Award this year -- is really a video intercom system. But if you use your imagination, from left to right, it looks like an iPod shuffle, an iPod classic, an iPhone shuffle, and an iPhone classic all developed in some awesome alternate dimension where coiled phone cords are still cool.

A Look At The iPad 2: Running Faster, Thinner, And With Two Cameras

The iPad 2 is official: as thought, it’s faster and thinner than the original version.

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new device Wednesday. It is about the thickness of the iPhone 4, about one-third as thick as the first iPad. Graphics performance was improved by about 9 times over the original, and a new dual-core chip called the A5 powers the device.

Two cameras are on the iPad 2, one facing the front and one facing the rear. They can capture video as well.

Apple will ship the new iPad 2 next week and it will be available in two colors—black and white—for the same prices as the original iPad, starting at $499. It will run on both Verizon and AT&T’s 3G network when it ships on March 11.

Apple also developed a series of “smart covers,” thin covers for the iPad screen that attach via magnets and come in a variety of colors. When the cover is lifted away from the screen, the iPad automatically wakes from sleep mode, and the cover can also be folded up to act as a stand for the device.

Users can still expect 10 hours of battery life on the device despite the more powerful hardware, Apple said.

Study: 'death grip' hits all phones, cases don't always help

The University of Bristol in a study issued Monday simultaneously supported and criticized Apple in arguments over the affects of the human hand on phone antenna. It saw a "100-fold" drop in the reception a signal on a test device's antenna when covered either by a thumb or by a material simulating the effect. Putting a plastic insulator such as a phone surface or a case didn't necessarily restore the signal, the discoverers Beach, Gibbins and Webb found.

They cautioned that phone makers could control how likely it was to happen. The position of the antenna could make obstruction more common.

The research helped support Apple's view that signal drops weren't limited to the iPhone 4. After receiving criticism on the AT&T launch, it attempted to minimize the impact by singling out phones like the Droid X that could suffer the same symptoms, even when their manufacturers claimed they were immune. Many users began looking for the problems themselves and found them in the HD7 and others.

Critics have noted that Apple's design is still an exception since it moves the antenna to the outer frame and has an easily blocked gap that bridges the cellular antenna with others, cutting off the signal much more rapidly. It only usually has an impact for those whose hold naturally covers the gap and who live in areas with low reception, where a tight grip could cut off data and voice altogether.

Doubts have existed over the exact reasons, but the iPhone antenna issue may have led to Mark Papermaster's ouster after the iPhone 4 design tarnished Apple's public image.

Gaming-GDC 2011: The future of Imangi Studios

The husband and wife team of Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova make up Imangi Studios, the iPhone developer behind line-drawing hit Harbor Master. We've been following the duo for a while now, andlast talked to them at WWDC, when they were pretty far along in development with a game called Max Adventure, a dual-stick shooter with a plucky kid with a laser gun for a hero.

Max Adventure was released last December (and has since been updated), and Imangi tells me at GDC that the launch went well -- mostly. "It was the best launch we've had on our own," says Shepherd, adding that both the ratings and sales numbers were great after the game released in mid-December. "But then," says Luckyanova, trailing off. Then, it turns out, came the EA sale, filling the App Store charts with 99-cent sales of premium EA titles, and Imangi's carefully crafted Max Adventure got "crushed" in the Christmas rush.

But the best part of the story is what happened next: a little while after Imangi had a blue Christmas, EA called them. The company liked Imangi's games, and maybe wanted to talk about a publishing deal.

Nothing has come about (yet), but Shepherd and Luckyanova said they asked EA the same question they ask all potential publishers: What can you do for us? What do you bring to the table? And EA replied, just a short time after rushing the Christmas App Store to the chagrin of independent devs, "Well, have you seen the top 100?"

To be fair, EA didn't say that with malice. Imangi doesn't hold either EA or Apple responsible for getting lost in the Christmas rush. In fact, they hold themselves responsible. "In retrospect," they say, "launching at Christmas was a mistake." Since then, Imangi's gone back to updating both Harbor Master and Max Adventure, and sales have picked back up. The recent update brought some new arenas to play, and fans are asking for "more story levels," says Luckyanova. "They want more, so that's a good sign."

Imangi has a few ideas for other content, including "some neat ideas for challenge levels," though they're not yet sure if they want to do free upgrades, maybe create some paid content packs (Harbor Master sells various maps for in-app purchases) or maybe push for a whole new sequel. Imangi is also working on another new game, though we won't hear more about that for a little while.

I asked if the two-person studio (they also have a designer for hire that they use frequently) is interested in growing, and Shepherd confirmed that they "would like to be a little bit bigger." They're looking add two or more developers onto the team, both to help out with creating content for already-released titles, and to help release Imangi games on other platforms and in other languages. Shepherd says that "what's important to us is not growing too fast." They're happy with what they're doing, and any growth, either in terms of bringing on more employees or even being acquired by a larger company, will be carefully considered going forward.

Financial Times may quit iPad without reader details

The Financial Times' publisher Pearson late Monday warned it might leave the iPad and iPhone if it couldn't get reader information. CEO Marjorie Scardino was adamant on an investors' call that Pearson was "still talking" to Apple but was concerned that its iTunes subscription rules wouldn't let her newspaper get demographic information to target ads. If it couldn't get what it wanted, it might jump ship to Android tablets and other platforms where that information was readily available.

"The important thing to remember is there are many, many tablets coming out and multiple devices," Scardino said. "If Apple are not happy to give us customer data then maybe we will get it somewhere else."

Apple has so far allowed a handful of information to go through, such as names and area codes, but is making it a strictly opt-in process that users can decline while still signing up. Publishers have vocally opposed the strategy since it creates a much less complete picture of readers, limited only to eager subscribers who wouldn't necessarily represent the majority of the reader base. Although not mentioned by Pearson's chief during the call, the 30 percent cut has also been contentious for publishers that didn't have the leeway in their business models to cede that much revenue.

The FTC is believed to be investigating Apple's policies for possible anti-competitiveness, mostly over terms that force companies to offer their best deal through iTunes and to prevent them from using any of their existing subscription systems or even acknowledging that they exist in the app.

The FT and other publications, if they refuse to accept Apple terms, are very likely to switch or stick to Android through Google's One Pass system or a method of their own. The approach hands publishers more customer information and also takes a much smaller cut of in-app purchases. They may also get a smaller but equally receptive base through the HP TouchPad. 

News : Completely Redesigned Evernote 4 for iPhone Is Now Available

Evernote for iPhone launched with the Apple App Store, and the app has ungone a number of evolutionary steps in the years since. Today Evernote is unveiling version 4 of their iPhone app and the changes, while maybe not revolutionary, are certainly substantial. The home screen, for example, is completely revamped to show snippets of notes making the app useful as soon as you launch it.

The changes to the home screen look great. Most of the time when I launched Evernote I wanted to look at a note I had previously made, so being able to access this information immediately is a huge time saver.

Creating a new note in Evernote version 4 has been upgraded, too. You can type text as normal, but from the same screen you can now embed images from your photo roll, take new pictures, and record audio. Multiple media types can be added to the same note at the same time, which makes Evernote notes much more useful. From the Evernote blog: “So, if you’re sitting in a meeting or lecture, you can have notes, recorded audio and a whiteboard snapshot all in a single note.”

For folks that use multiple notebooks, you can now view a list of notes in a specific notebook. You can also view a list of all the tags you’ve assigned to notes across all notebooks, so you can find that note you made three months ago tagged “Important” but have since completely forgotten what you titled it.

iPad owners may be a little disappointed that Evernote 4 is currently only for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. The changes should trickle into the iPad version soon, though.

I think it’s important to note that almost all — if not all — of the Evernote 4 features are the direct result of user feedback. The folks at Evernote listen to their users, and incorporate useful feedback into a better app for everyone, even the freeloaders like me using the free version.

The Console Cable Leting You Fix Your Cisco Router From Your iPhone (Because You Should Totally Be Doing That)

Just a quick stop. That’s all it is. You left your “STFU” hat (the one you like to wear on weekends) in your office, and it’s totally (kind of) on the way to the family reunion anyway. Just a quick stop.

Crap! The company’s router is acting up! Imagine how much business they might lose! They’re going to call you up while you’re at the reunion anyway — you might as well just fix it now. But all you have is your iPhone, and you’ll need a wired connection to fix this. If only you could connect your iPhone to the router via some sort of crazy, specialized cable!

Well, friend, your ultra-nerdy, ultra-niche, probably-non-existent wish has been answered.

Redpark, the same company that came out with that crazy specialized iPhone cable for controlling telescopes, is back with another one: The Console Cable.

The $69 Console cable is essentially a dock connector on one end and a 6-foot RJ-45 ethernet cable on the other. Plug the RJ-45 end into the Cisco router’s console port, pop the dock connector into your iOS device, then load up the company’s $10 Get Console app — bam! You’re fixin’ the Intertubes from your iPad, and you’re just about ready to head off to the family reunion. Once you’ve figured out why Mary-from-HR’s computer keeps resetting itself, of course.

Verizon now targeting mid-summer for tiered data plans, doesn't yet know what kinds of tiers they'll be

Verizon's made no secret of the fact that $30 unlimited smartphone data wouldn't last forever, but CFO Fran Shammo just made things a little more interesting today at the same Morgan Stanley conferenceSanjay Jha rocked yesterday: turns out they're targeting "mid-summer" to rearrange the carrier's data pricing. Interestingly, Shammo says they're still working through the details and that they don't yet know whether the tiers will be based on speed, bit buckets, or some combination of the two. Of course, Verizon's already dipped its toes in the tiered game with a $15 / 150MB option that evaporated around the time that the CDMA iPhone launched. Speaking of the iPhone, Shammo notes that the unlimited data plan was kept around to draw users into the iPhone fold -- iPhone users tend to consume a lot of data, after all -- so it'd seem that they might comfortable with that one-time conquest before parting ways with unlimited for good.

China Unicom launching WoPhone Linux platform, because the world can't get enough of Tux

Another day, another Linux mobile platform launched. The latest flavor hails all the way from China Unicom -- Apple's sole iPhone partner in China thanks to its WCDMA network -- who's just announced the WoPhone platform to, ironically, "break up the foreign smartphone platform monopoly." Of course, this isn't the first time that a Chinese carrier has pushed out its own OS -- TD-SCDMA operator China Mobile already has OPhone, though it's really just a bastardized Android; whereas China Unicom claims that WoPhone's an entirely new OS built around the Linux core. That said, some of WoPhone's UI elements do look awfully familiar.

While we don't expect to see this new OS trickling out to the rest of the world any time soon, a big handful of manufacturers -- namely Motorola, Samsung, HTC, TCL, K-Touch, ZTE, Huawei, etc. -- and cloud service partners were present at yesterday's launch event to show off the first batch of devices, including the K-Touch U2 pictured above. Head over to ifeng for more hands-on pics.

Comcast releasing Xfinity TV remote control app for Android devices

After debuting on the iPad and iPhone, Comcast has finally released its Xfinity TV app for Android. Right now it only supports basic features like remote controlling cable boxes, scheduling DVR recordings and searching the VOD library but other features like video streaming to the app and tuning to VOD on the TV will be add later, just like on iOS. Unfortunately right now it's optimized for phones, according to the notes it should work on tablets too but official support isn't ready yet. Features on their way to both platforms include recommendations and better filtering of watchlists and personalized TV listings. Other than having to turn our cable box off and on at first, we got it to work without a hitch, for now it's at least one more option to use a cool new device when you can't find the regular remote -- have you looked on top of the refrigerator?

Report: Verizon To End Unlimited iPhone Data Planning This Summer

That didn’t last very long: Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), with just one month of iPhone sales under its belt, plans to phase out unlimited data plans this summer, right around the time Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is expected to launch the iPhone 5.

Bloomberg caught comments by Verizon’s Fran Shammo, the company’s chief financial officer, during a conference held by Morgan Stanley in which he said unlimited data plans for the iPhone are “not a long-term solution” and said Verizon plans to end the practice this summer. It’s not clear if existing Verizon iPhone customers on unlimited data plans will be able to keep their plans, as AT&T (NYSE: T) allowed unlimited data plan iPhone customers to do when it also announced plans to phase out the practice last summer.

It’s also not clear how much the new Verizon plans will cost, although Shammo said that he expects the majority of Verizon’s data customers to eventually spend between $30 a month and $50 a month, according to the report. Verizon currently offers a $29.99 a month unlimited data package for all of its 3G smartphones, including the iPhone.

The report implied that Verizon’s new plans will only apply to iPhone customers. A Verizon representative did not immediately respond to a request for clarification, but the company had hinted such a move was coming after its event in January to introduce the iPhone on Verizon’s network, telling reporters the unlimited plans would be available for an unspecified “limited time.”

However, the details and timing of this strategy are certainly interesting, not just because Verizon has only been selling the iPhone for a month, but because if Apple’s usual summer iPhone rollout strategy is in store for this year, the new plans could be timed to arrive along with that device. Data consumption has gone up every year that a new iPhone has been announced, and at some point Verizon probably concluded that unlimited plans stop making business senseat a certain level of consumption, perhaps one tied to the iPhone 5.

Shammo wouldn’t divulge how many iPhone 4 units Verizon has sold since sales began in early February.

UPDATE: A Verizon Wireless representative declined to elaborate on Shammo’s comments but pointed out this transcript of his comments (PDF).

MobileNotifier: iPhone alerting improved

If you haven't jailbroken your iPhone yet then MobileNotifier might just push you over the edge -- a place you're probably already teetering upon given Apple's pathetic push notification implementation. MobileNotifier beta v3 is a free open-source rewrite of iOS' notifications from Peter Hajas (lead developer) and Kyle Adams (UI and UX). Perhaps the biggest feature of MobileNotifier is the addition of unobtrusive alerts that appear at the top of your existing app. Unlike Apple's interfering popups, MobileNotifier alerts can be ignored, leaving them on the display without inhibiting use of the device. You can also take immediate action on alerts or tap them away for later. Pending alerts can be found in the AlertDashboard -- the previously unused area above the app switcher, accessible with a double-press of the iPhone's home button. Pending alert counts are also displayed as a line item on the Lockscreen. We've been running MobileNotifier for a few hours. While it's not perfect (opaque windows?) we have no plans to remove it either. At least not until we see what Apple has in store for iOS 5 which, with any luck, will be revealed on Wednesday for a summer launch. Another screenshot and demo video can be found after the break.