Archive for: June 19, 2008

June 19, 2008

Mars Phoenix lander discovers ice on Mars

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
It’s only fitting that the glorious news of water ice on Mars was broke by Twitter that evening, via the Mars Phoenix lander’s own first-person ramblings. Apparently Mars Phoenix was keeping an eye on some white patches it uncovered the other day, only to discover they’d d…

Guitar Hero World Tour’s new gear gets previewed

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
We’ve already seen plenty of Guitar Hero World Tour’s drums, but while we’ve heard rumblings of a touchpad for the new guitar, that is the first duration we’ve seen it in the flesh. IGN has a preview of all the new gear, and says the strip will be used for fiddling a…

Ask Engadget: Best backpack for traveling with gadgets?

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Ask Engadget, Misc. GadgetsIt’s that duration of year again, folks (yes, summertime). Which plus means vacation moment for many USers, and that could very well pose a problem. All those gadgets you can’t leave behind have to be toted along somehow, so we’ll let Brendan explain his quand…

A brief chat with STARMAC, the killer, quadrotor flying robot

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Robots
The folks at Engineering TV recently asked the creators of STARMAC (the flying bot that attacked Scoble) all those standard, nerd-extravaganza questions they’re known for, which is all well and good, but we thought we’d pose a few questions to the killer bot itself:So, STARMAC, d…

Mercedes-Benz introduces new iPhone integration kit

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Transportation
Mercedes-Benz’s current iPod integration kit is pretty weak sauce, particularly since the new COMAND nav / multimedia system is so well done, but it looks like the automaker’s newest iPhone cradle will take steps to address some…

Wii Menu 3.3 already hacked, patch forthcoming

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Gaming
Although the Wii Menu 3.3 update didn’t undo the Twilight Hack for those who had already installed it, it did prevent new would-be homebrewers from getting their game on — but like all attempts to outfox the hackers, it’s fallen short, and in record date. According to hackmii, w…

Create Floating Definitions in Word

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008
Create Floating Definitions in Word

Q: I have a large Word document in which I want to insert a definition for a word or phrase, which you can read by hovering over the word or phrase with the definition becoming visible or via pop-up. For example, take the sentence, "The Governing Body is meeting to compose a vision for future expansion and direction of construction". When you hover over the underlined phrase, I would like this definition to appear: "A group of individuals that has the legal authority to make decisions for a company". The second problem is replacing the non-underlined phrase "Governing Body" with the definition-equipped Governing Body. I am using Word 2003, but also have Word 2000 and Word 2007. - Michael Fairshter.

A: While this type of popup definition is fairly common in Web pages, it's not something that's built into Word. However, by making use of the tools Word does offer, you can come very close. Here's how you'd do it in Word 2007:

Highlight the phrase to be defined and copy it to the clipboard Click the Insert tab Click Bookmark in the ribbon Paste the phrase in as the bookmark name, replacing any spaces with underscores Click Add Click Hyperlink in the ribbon In the Hyperlink dialog click the Bookmark button Select the bookmark you just created and click OK Click the Screen Tip button and enter your definition. Click OK

That's it. When the reader hovers with the mouse over the underlined phrase the screen tip will appear. The phrase "Ctrl+click to follow link" will also appear, but by linking the phrase to the bookmark we've ensured nothing bad will happen if ...

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Mad Catz apt to release Rock Band instruments next week

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Whoa, wait a minute — Mad Catz signed on to produce Rock Band instruments? certain ample, the deal was announced shortly before CES 2008 consumed our lives, and now we’re hearing whispers that the first products from said agreement could hit stores as early as next …

Hands On: Viddix Impressive Presentations

Filed under: Review, cool_web_sites - 19 Jun 2008

logo_viddix.jpgI found a site which really impressed me. That's a good way to start a review. I'm impressed by Viddix.com, a website which allows you to "connect all kinds of content to the timeline of videos." Think of this as a Powerpoint presentation where your normally live part is digitized too.

Based in the Netherlands, this is a startup that's remained basically under-the-radar. In fact, back in October of '07 their own site proclaimed:

"While still testing, we will not be attracting too much attention to our concept. We will show it to some people and will see what happens. We think it's cool (although we have a lot to do) and hope you will come to like it too."

I've got a quick demo at the bottom of this entry which will explain this online application much better than I ever could. What I can tell you before you watch is, my Viddix presentation was really easy to do. I sat down in front of a camera, spoke for around a minute, uploaded my video, then watched it, stopping it to add cuepoints. The cuepoints can trigger links, text, images, RSS feeds, custom XML feeds or polls.

It's intuitive and incredibly simple to operate. Adding my cuepoints and custom iPanel content only took a few minutes. I wish there was a way to bring content on and off instead of leaving it until the next cuepoint is reached and that there was more control over the size and positioning of text, but those are small points. Viddix is free to use after registering....

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Sony Europe president talks PSP piracy, promises clampdown

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: GamingSony Europe president David Reeves has never been one to shy absent from making bold statements in the past, and he’s now come out and weighed in on another sensitive subject, with him flatly telling attendees at the DevStation conference in London that “there is a piracy problem …

Broadstar Windsystem’s AeroCam wind turbines break elusive price barrier

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household
As wind energy becomes a practical necessity, designers are scrambling to build the giant spinny things as visually inoffensive as possible. Some are small, some are off in the sea where we can’t be bothered, and some just look really pretty. In that case, Bro…

Study finds that we’re all arrogant jerks, can probably fix its own damn iPod next time

Filed under: Review - 19 Jun 2008

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Hey you — yeah, you. The one reading that here gadget site. You know what? You’re a jerk. A total kneebiter. That’s the conclusion of a recent study conducted by Mindset Media and Nielsen Research, which evaluated the “mindsets” of 25,000 American adults and found that te…

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