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The stylus, as you might have noticed, is making a slight comeback this year, and it’s now also moved into throwback territory with the Big Big Cursor. Available in both arrow and pointer varieties, the cursor is designed for use on capacative touchscreens, and it packs some handy magnets that let you affix it to certain magnet-friendly tablets or cases — or your fridge, for that matter. and it’s yours — video is after the break.

Continue reading Big Big Cursor: the tablet stylus that’s also a fridge magnet

Big Big Cursor: the tablet stylus that’s also a fridge magnet originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Bushnell BackTrack D-Tour personal GPS takes you home, shows you how it got you there

Bushnell BackTrack D-Tour personal GPS takes you home, shows you how it got you there originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stay with me, here. I mean, we can all admit that a Chrome OS tablet would be pretty limited if it really was to be just Google web apps. In the meantime they’ve got all this support for Android… but Android isn’t built for tablets. I guess if anyone can bridge the gap, it’s Google. A sort of crossover OS with access to Android apps but suitable for the larger form factor, multi-touch capabilities, and browser-centric tablet platform would be a natural step to take.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit like aping Apple there — grow your mobile OS to fit the needs of a tablet OS. The best you can come up with is a sort of melange, as Apple seems to have shown. But can they sell that melange? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

People at work know you even though they haven’t met you. “Oh, Carl? Yeah, the keyboard guy. Dude LOVES keyboards. Won’t shut up about them. I heard he’s crazy. Like, Judo crazy. Like, don’t say anything bad about keyboards or he’ll put you in some weird Judo hold.”

If that sounds like you, Carl, then get $14 ready.

Actually, sorry, you’ll need $56 – please don’t put me in a Judo hold! That’s because there are four USB keyboard lights, each with a different whimsical keyboard key adorning the top. And being that everyone at work knows you as The Keyboard Guy, for you to not buy all four would arouse suspicion in everyone at work from Accounting to Zoology.

All your favorites are here: Del, Esc, Ctrl, and Shift. The Shift key even has the little arrow!!! The lights are powered via USB and a simple downward press illuminates the built-in LED bulb.

USB Keypress Light [USB Geek]

I remember when Android was the cool hip new thing. Well, it still is, but the Behold II marks the end of when Android phones are unique. Every feature on this phone has already been done the same or better by someone else.

Let’s start with the body. The phone is a bit heavier than my HTC Hero, but for some reason it feels cheaper. It’s just a hair taller and about the same width and thickness. You have 6 dedicated function buttons on the front, along with a 8-way directional selector. The left side has a volume rocker, and the right holds two buttons. One for the camera and one attached to the screen lock. The top holds the microUSB port and headphone jack. An expandable microSD slot is behind the battery door, and there is no physical keyboard.

The interface was nothing to get excited about. You get three customizable home screens and a Google search bar. But the tab to access your apps is that arrow on the left side of the screen. It takes some deft maneuvering not the hit that when you’re trying to go the left screen. Perhaps the most unique feature on this device is the Cube. I’ll just let that sink in for a moment. The Cube is, as you might have guessed, a cube with a different multimedia function on each face. With a flick of a finger you can spin the cube and select the function you wish to activate. You can’t customize it however, so you’re stuck with YouTube, the Amazon MP3 store, Facebook, your photo folder,  your audio player, and the video player. About the funnest thing you can do is swing the phone, and since the Cube is tied to the accelerometer, it’ll spin. Good for maybe two minutes of chuckles.

So at the end of it all, its just another Android phone under T-mobile’s belt. It hit stores last week if you want to go grab one, but why when you can get the Droid for cheaper? The Behold II is $229.99 with a two-year contract.

It’s the most polished Twitter app yet, oozing slickness with every swipe. Yet, it’s exploding with new features, and still really fast. It manages to cram in every possible feature you could possibly want in a Twitter app—offline reading!—without feeling too complicated or bloated. Truthfully, it’s a brand new, totally different app from the original, down to the core. If you already own Tweetie and don’t buy Tweetie 2 because you feel like you shouldn’t have to spend another $3, Alyssa Milano, it’s your loss.

Form, Oh Shiny Form

The main Tweetie 2 interface feels just like the original—awesome—with two big differences: The chat bubbles are dead, replaced by a solid stream of tweets, and glowing notification orbs tell you when new tweets, mentions or direct messages are waiting for you. That’s a huge functional leap over the original Tweetie, where you had to click over to each section to see if you had new messages. Plus, the orbs just look cool, like they’re cut off by the bottom of the screen. The one flaw here is that sometimes it doesn’t register you’ve read a message, so you’ll wind up clearing the orb for the same message twice.

How do you refresh? When you hit the top of a timeline and keep pulling down, an arrow pops into sight that tells you to pull down, and as you down, it smoothly spins upward, telling you to release to refresh. It’s simple, but slick. There’s also a search bar up there, so you can look through all the tweets you have pulled up for something that caught your eye.

So Much Function

The greatest new feature in Tweetie 2 is its offline powers. They’re great. Not only does it cache tweets to read offline, but you have other Twitter capabilities, like adding favorites, which are synced up the next time you go back online. A basic drafts manager lets you store and edit tweets to send later.

You can set up virtual push notifications so you can see whenever somebody you follow drops a Tweet bomb, like RealTracyMorgan. (They show up as a text message from 40404, i.e., Twitter.) Sadly, this doesn’t extend to @replies, but it’s for following a particular person (or persons, if you want a lot of messages about tweets). Other new functional awesomeness includes auto-complete for @replying and direct messaging people who have confusing-ass usernames you can’t remember (though you have to go to the user, and then compose a message to them), the ability to link people with address cards, a very pretty nearby tweet search, and integration with multiple services like Instapaper and Tweet Blocker.

Buy It Now

If you’ve never paid for a Twitter app or even if you have, Tweetie 2 is well worth the measly three bucks it costs. It’s fast, it’s got full offline powers and it’s so polished your iPhone will slip out of your hand while you’re using it. It’s not perfect, but it’s the closest yet.

Super smooth UI, gushing with polish and animations


Exceptionally good offline powers


Feature-packed without feeling bloated


No real syncing with desktop app


No real push notifications


[iTunes, Atebits]

I mention this only because of the tale of Garry Lee Damon. Damon is currently …

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

By David Ponce

We like it when designers re-invent the wheel elegantly. In this case, someone’s re-invented the bookmark and actually made it more useful. The Bookmark II is a simple rubber band with an arrow on one side and a “Bookmark” tab on the other. The arrow allows you to point to the line you were last reading and the tab to open the book up to the appropriate page. It’s simple.

Unfortunately, we don’t know how to get a hold of one, though it’s allegedly made by Propaganda. We can’t find a reference to it on the site though. Hit the jump for another image. (Incidentally, we think they made an interesting choice of line on the picture above)

[ Product Page ] VIA [ MoCoLoco ]

The idea, as you can see, is that the strap goes all the way around your book and the little arrow you put on the line where you left off reading. Elegant, although essentially a tarted-up string with a dot on it. The elastic nature of this particular string, however, lets it fit everything from a trigesimo-secundo to a folio.

I’ll stick with my “scrap of napkin,” but I appreciate what they’ve done here. Fortunately, the unavailability of this thing (not in production as far as I can tell) saves you the trouble of asking yourself whether it’s worth it or not.

[via LikeCool]