New Apple TV units for 20% off on eBay

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Home Entertainment, Hot Deals,

Just a quick public service announcement for anyone interested in the second-generation Apple TV--we noticed this morning that a bunch of them are on eBay starting at $79 brand new (20% off) with Buy It Now prices of $89 (which is still 10% off.) With all the new AirPlay-enabled apps that have been dropping lately, we're finding that the Apple TV is becoming a must-have device for anyone who owns an iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone. Check out the Apple TV on eBay for some great deals.

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Angry Birds Seasons brings the Easter goodness

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Games, App Updates, $0.99,

Click to continue reading Angry Birds Seasons brings the Easter goodness

HP to tie in music and movie service to TouchPad?

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Rumors,

Hewlett-Packard is reportedly preparing a movie and music service that would be tied to the upcoming HP TouchPad, according to a report.

According to PreCentral, HP sent out a PowerPoint presentation to some people who signed up for email notices about the HP TouchPad. That presentation included details about an upcoming HP Music Store and HP Movie Store.

The presentation included two mockups that showed, well, movies and music. A copy of the slide that PreCentral published, however, did not include any pricing.

The presentation apparently included one interesting feature, however, a sort of predictive caching.

"According to that slide, the TouchPad will come with a music syncing solution built-in that utilizes cloud servers to sync and remotely store your music," the site wrote. "More than that, it will leverage a 'smart algorithm' to ensure that the music the user is most likely to listen to is cached locally on the device. This service will also allow TouchPad owners to stream music that they don't yet own. There's also mention that this service will allow you to stream music to HP smartphones, presumably once they too are updated to webOS 3.0 like the TouchPad."

Click to continue reading HP to tie in music and movie service to TouchPad?

Newegg Deal: $25 off $100 for new customers

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Internet,

Newegg‘s got a nice deal to entice new customers to give them a try with a $25 off coupon on orders of $100 or more. If you're unfamiliar with Newegg, we love them as our default place to order electronics, games, and computer accessories. They've got things that even Amazon doesn't have, and their prices are fantastic. We had to share the coupon with those who've never ordered from Newegg before, because they're that good. Use Newegg promo code NEWTAX25 when checking out.

As always, you can find all sorts of Newegg promo code and deals on our forums.

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Jesse Jackson Jr. calls iPad a job-killer

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds,

What a difference a month makes. In March, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) was pushing for the federal government to provide every student in the U.S. with an Apple iPad. This week, Rep. Jackson complained that iPads were "probably responsible for eliminating thousands of jobs."

Somewhere along the line, he seems to have discovered that iPads are manufactured in China, not in the U.S.—a;nd; it had him hopping mad (see video below). Here's what Rep. Jackson said Friday afternoon on the House floor:

"In the 112th congress, unemployment is at 9 percent. And not a single piece of legislation considered by the 112th congress has done anything to address 13 million unemployed Americans.

"A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad and said that I happened to believe, Mr. Speaker, that at some point in time this new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs ... now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your book, download your newspaper, download your magazine.

Click to continue reading Jesse Jackson Jr. calls iPad a job-killer

Weekend Reading: Dark Horse, Tokyopop, Borders, Glut & Apes

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Dark Horse Comics, TokyoPop,

So, not a great week for comic book publishers as Tokyopop finally called it quits. If you have a project over there, it's a good time to get a lawyer to look over your contract and see about rights reversion when the publisher goes away without declaring bankruptcy (yet) or getting sold.

Then Dark Horse laid off a bunch of employees, many of them beloved and had been there a long time.

But at least the US Government is stepping in to try to stop Borders executives from looting the stores they’ve already ruined.

Rise: I love the way the new Planet of the Apes comic book from Boom! is looking. The Scoop has a sneak preview of the first issue, on sale April 27.

Victor: Here’s a great interview with writer Don Glut that’s mostly about Frankensten. “Why don't I do a series of Frankenstein novels that would be based on the movies and all of these other things? In each one I would bring in some other character from fiction or whatever. I would create this whole Frankenstein universe.”

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Dark Horse, Tokyopop, Borders, Glut & Apes

Bleeding Edge TV 379: HTC Thunderbolt review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Cell Phones, Features, Podcasts, Product Reviews, Videocasts, Videos,

The HTC Thunderbolt is the world's first 4G LTE smartphone. It's available on Verizon Wireless in the US, and also acts as a 4G mobile hotspot, allowing you to connect up to 5 Wi-Fi devices to the 4G signal. It ships with Android 2.2, sports a 4.3-inch display, and even has a kickstand around back. In this video we give you a look at the Thunderbolt, perform a speed test, and also do a speed test comparison with an iPhone 4 on AT&T.

As you'll see, the device is ridiculously fast, especially when compared against an AT&T 3G smartphone like the iPhone 4. The screen looks great, and the phone feels good in your hand. If you're a Verizon Wireless customer, this is definitely one to consider, as long as you have a charger in the car and/or at the office, as this thing will eat through a battery like it's nothing. Check the video for the full scoop.

Big thank you to JackThreads for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out, we've got exclusive invite codes that give you $5 to use towards anything you'd like.

Apple releases 11A430e update for Lion Developer Preview 2

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Software,

Apple just released a Lion Developer Preview Update through Software Update for testers running Lion Developer Preview 2. The download for the update to the Preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is almost 1 GB in size, but (at least at first glance) doesn't seem to incorporate any obvious new features. We're guessing this is just an update to squash some bugs. In fact, we now find that a bunch of apps that previously crashed almost immediately after launch (like Chrome and Evernote,) now run normally as expected. Now if only they'd fix the weird multiple monitor blank screen startup issue that forces me to unplug 2 of my 3 displays whenever I boot into Lion...

BlackBerry Playbook review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Product Reviews,

After months and months of anticipation, Research In Motion's debut tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, is finally here. The good news is that the user interface for the new BlackBerry Tablet OS is beautiful, graceful, and operates with a simplicity that rivals that of the Apple iPad 2 ($499) and bests the Motorola Xoom's ($599-$799) oft-cluttered screens. The bad news is that, at launch, there's a lot missing. First, there's no native e-mail support. (Didn't the RIM usher in the era of mobile e-mail with the BlackBerry?) The PlayBook also suffers from a dearth of compelling—or smooth-functioning—apps. Then there's the absence of should-be-standard features—why include a front-facing camera, but no video-chat app? Updates, RIM promises, will bring much of what's missing to the PlayBook in the near future. Throw in some better app selection, too, and the PlayBook may be worth revisiting down the road, but right now, it's unfinished.

The Wi-Fi-only BlackBerry PlayBook comes in three storage capacities—16GB ($499), 32GB ($599), and 64GB ($699). The PlayBook is priced identically to the Wi-Fi-only Apple iPad 2 for the same storage capacities. Currently there's no version with cellular service, though BlackBerry users can use their smartphones as hotspots for the tablet at no extra charge. RIM has announced a 4G PlayBook that's scheduled to launch this summer, along with LTE and HSPA+ versions that will be available later this year. Sprint has confirmed it will carry the WiMAX 4G model, and Verizon and AT&T are widely rumored to pick up the LTE and HSPA+ models respectively.

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Tweetbot review: New king of the Twitter mountain

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, New Apps, Reviews, Videos, Free Apps,

We've spent the last half-day or so completely enamored with the latest release from the fine peeps over at Tapbot, Tweetbot. Typically, a new Twitter client isn't anything we would get excited about, as there are probably hundreds out there, and the free Twitter for iPhone does the job well enough anyway. However, we've been impressed with every other app that Tapbot has put out. We're talking about things like Calcbot, Weightbot, Pastebot, and the awesome Convertbot. So when they released Tweetbot after working on it for over a year, we had to check it out.

It's difficult to describe everything that Tweetbot does, but if I had to sum it up with one statement, I'd say "It just makes sense." Oh, and also, it's a joy to use. While the official Twitter app has been suffering from feature bloat (going so far as to try and force a trend bar on us,) Tweetbot is a refreshing throwback to what made Tweetie great in the first place. They've even managed to make lists actually useable and convenient, rather than a clunky add-on, by giving each its own timeline.

We highly recommend Tweetbot -- get a look at the video above that walks through its interface. Pretty slick, right? You can get it now for $1.99 in the App Store.

Read More | Tweetbot