Solid Technology News

Andy Garcia’s Hemingway Film Moves Forward with Hopkins and Bening in Lead Roles November 7, 2009

I don’t think we ever reported on it at the time, but back in March Andy Garcia was talking up a film called Hemingway and Fuentes, about the friendship between Ernest Hemingway and his fishing partner and longtime friend Gregorio Fuentes. At the time, Anthony Hopkins was loosely attached to play Hemingway. That casting has now firmed up, and the film will move forward with Annette Bening also aboard as Mary Hemingway.

Garcia wrote the script with Hemingway’s granddaughter HilarySource: SlashFilm RSS Feed

Secrets Updates for Snow Leopard, Still Tweaks Every Dark Corner of OS X [Downloads] November 7, 2009

Mac only: If you’re not a big fan of using the Terminal but love hidden features in OS X, Secrets is the preference pane for you. Secrets provides a list of hidden features (and descriptions of each) that can be easily toggled on and off with a simple click of a checkbox. It includes settings for about 40 different OS X applications as well, including third party applications. The utility has just been updated to work with Snow Leopard, no doubt with some new hidden tweaks for all youSource: TechBlogger RSS Feed

Verizon DROID ERIS officially announced for $99 after $100 rebate and contract November 5, 2009

The HTC-built DROID ERIS will go on sale tomorrow at Verizon stores for $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and two-year contract agreement. Equipped with HTC’s “Sense” user interface, the ERIS “offers customers the opportunity to customize a seven-panel wide home screen with a wide variety of widgets designed to bring the most important information to the surface.” On sale tomorrow at Verizon’s retail stores and website.

Source: CrunchGear RSS Feed

Gigabyte M1305 laptop has external GeForce GT220 graphics November 5, 2009

Gigabyte introduced a new 13.3″ ultraportable laptop named Booktop M1305, it uses Windows 7 Home Premium and is equipped with either an Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium, or Celeron ULV processor. The notebook uses 4500MHD integrated graphics from Intel to provide optimal battery life on the road, but what sets the M1305 apart from the pack is the included docking station which features a NVIDIA GeForce GT220 graphics card and several I/O ports. By connecting the notebook to this docking stationSource: DV Hardware RSS Feed

Ubisoft talks dancing, fitness and party games on Natal, PS3 Motion Controller November 5, 2009

On the conference call covering Ubisoft’s Q2 earnings, management had a chance to discuss its strategies for the company, including support for both Microsoft and Sony’s motion control accessories. “We will also be ready with some very nice innovations when Natal and Motion Controller are launched on the Xbox 360 and PS3 next year,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said, reminding us that a 2010 release for Project Natal is all but confirmed at this point. He later explained that Ubisoft willSource: Xbox 360 Fanboy RSS Feed

Frostruder MK2 November 5, 2009

Zach Hoeken wrote up a nice piece about the design of the MakerBot Frostruder MK2, currently in its second prototype. He talks about the challenges of designing a cheap, small device capable of computer-controlled cupcake frosting:

My first experiment was with some thick, chocolate frosting that you can find in nearly any grocery store. I simply wanted to see if it was possible to use air pressure to extrude frosting, so I wired up a solenoid to a switch and used thatSource: MAKE: Blog RSS Feed

A premium smartphone ‘Giorgio Armani’ comes in Korea November 3, 2009

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — Samsung Electronics announced the release of its premium smartphone ‘Giorgio Armani(model: SCH-W820/SPH-W8200)’ in Korea market.

Adopting a 3.1-inch WVGA(800*480) AMOLED display, the Giorgio Armani phone is equipped with the hybrid touch keyboard supporting both full touchscreen and numeric keypad. Other features included DivX function, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, a 5M camera, T-DMB, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, mp3 player, 8GB built-in memory and more.

Source: TechBlogger RSS Feed

Windows 7 Blows Past The 3% Mark – Knocking On The Door Of OSX November 3, 2009

The market share tracking firm Net Applications have made it known: Windows 7 grew past 3% market share, and on a weekend day no less.

With Windows 7 moving past the three percent mark, it is quickly running towards surpassing OSX. The popular, quality, and wonderful OSX has been growing, and now sits at 5.27% total market share. Given the trend in the direction of Windows 7, it seems that in short order Windows 7 will overtake Mac entirely.

This is hardly a surprise, given how Source: The Next Web RSS Feed

PUYL pumps tires, illuminates cycle track ahead November 2, 2009

Designer Kai Malter Roever has come up with a sparky little idea for cyclists — a tire pump-bike light hybrid. Just 20 seconds of pumping will (as well as toning your biceps) give the LED light attached to one end of the pump 45 minutes of illumination. Once it’s charged, just fix it onto the clamp, and adjust the beam either up or down.

The PUYL (Pump Up Your Light?) is, as yet, only a concept, but it’s a concept that won it this year’s design award at Eurobike, and there’s a patentSource: DVICE RSS Feed

Snow Leopard Update Blocks Intel Atom, Kills Hackintoshes November 2, 2009

Mac OS X Leopard 10.6.2 will break your hackintosh. The forthcoming OS update will not run on the Intel Atom processor, a rather petty move from Apple which, if true, will break many netbooks which have been hacked to run as more than passable Macs.

This news comes from Stellarola, the hacker who helped us out extensively with the original (and still the best) Gadget Lab hackintosh. Here’s what he has to say:

In the current developer build of 10.6.2, Apple appears to haveSource: Wired RSS Feed