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You are lucky if you are living in India, because Vodafone Essar will launch the solar-powered Vodafone 247 in August 2010. Priced at just Rs. 1500 ($32), the phone requires 8 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge. Once a battery is fully charged, it will provide around 8 days of standby time or 4 hours of talk time. The Vodafone 247 will enable wireless communication even where there is never any electricity. Additional features include an FM radio and a torch. [UnwiredView]

One of the first games I downloaded when I got my iPhone 3G was Let’s Golf and I couldn’t believe how good it looked on the small iPhone screen. I was a big fan of Hot Shots golf on PlayStation 2, the console game that Let’s Golf seems to be largely based upon, so seeing the familiar graphics and gameplay on the iPhone screen was truly a delight.

About a week ago Gameloft released Let’s Golf 2 ($4.99), and it is even more beautiful graphically (optimized for the iPhone 4’s Retina display) and adds to the already solid gameplay of the original. The cartoon-like graphics are more detailed in the sequel and you get more of everything that was good about the original–more golfers to unlock, new courses to play on, and extra features to keep the game interesting.

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You get an aerial view of each hole before you take your first shot so plan accordingly.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Let’s Golf 2 comes with 108 holes to play across six uniquely designed courses, all in dramatic settings. The courses all have their own specific feel, with features like Aztec temples, forest landscapes, snow-covered vistas, and even a Safari-themed course that lets you play rounds in Kenya. But the scenery isn’t the only reason you should plunk down $4.99 for this golf game.

In Let’s Golf 2, you now have six golfers to choose from (once they are unlocked in career mode), each with a unique ability that becomes available once you make several successful shots in a row. The default character, Vincent, lets you add extra power to a shot once you’ve filled up the skill meter, for example. Depending on the setting and what hole you’re playing, this means you might be able to reach the green in less shots than you would otherwise. The skill for the character named Chris lets you reduce wind speed to zero, which might make an otherwise very difficult shot in strong winds a much easier undertaking.

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Customize your character with different outfits, hairstyles, and golf balls to adjust skill points.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

The game mechanics are mostly the same as the original: aim your shot by tapping the left or right side of the touch screen; tap once to start your shot; tap again when you reach your desired power; then tap again to hit the ball cleanly (it’s much easier than it sounds). But in Let’s Golf 2, the designers have reworked the stroke interface to make it a bit easier to get a good shot off and the character-based special skill will help to make your shots even better.

In addition to the character-specific skill upgrades, there are now several more outfits to unlock, each giving you small bonus skills like shot power, accuracy, recovery (better shots from traps), and putting. This means that with the right outfit, hairstyle, sunglasses, and special ball, you can customize a character that’s perfect for the challenges of a specific course.

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Once the meter is full, hitting the character icon in the upper left activates his special skill (which is followed by an animation).

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

To round out the feature set, Let’s Golf 2 gives you options to play against your friends over shared Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or an online mode through Gameloft Live. The first two modes worked fine in my testing, but I was never able to find a game in Gameloft Live so perhaps the company is still working out a few kinks. Aside from that issue, in every other way, Let’s Golf 2 is a very polished arcade golf game, with plenty of replay value across the many courses and character choices. For more variation, you also can play the Challenge mode that lets you compete in situational minigames–such as longest putt competitions or “Birdie or bust” holes–for better equipment.

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Beautiful courses (like Her Majesty’s Course in England) offer unique challenges to tackle.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Overall, if you liked the original Let’s Golf, Let’s Golf 2 adds optimized graphics, more courses, more characters with unique skills, and enough features to make it worth the $4.99 price tag. Even if you never played the original, this game will be fun for any golf fan. If the company gets the online component working, maybe I’ll see you on the course!

Apple today released Safari 5.0.1 and introduced the Safari Extensions Gallery. Extensions allow users to quickly add powerful new features to Safari — from toolbars that display live web feeds to sophisticated programs that filter web content. Users can download and install extensions either from the Safari Extensions Gallery or directly from a developer’s site.

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(Credit:
Screenshot by Polina Polishchuk/CNET)

If you are like me, you have trouble pouring a cup of water in the morning, let alone hastily navigating through what seems like an endless stream of computer programs and sites. Start My Day is a desktop application that is supposed to clear your computer’s morning fog by opening your selected favorite programs, Web sites, and music simultaneously. Though its main function is useful, the program has multiple bugs that make it less than satisfactory.

Once SMD is open, two messages will pop up before the application is visible. The first states that the “publisher cannot be verified,” which you can choose not to see again, and the other message reads, “unhandled exception has occurred in your application.” You can disregard this curious message by clicking “continue.” To add programs, Web sites, and music for SMD to run simultaneously, simply click on the respective tab and select “add.” When you want to run the programs, click “run all.” Before they start, a message will appear saying “cannot start processes,” even though they begin moments after.

The program is extremely intuitive, but it has problems with some of its attributes. A function that would have been useful is the option to set an alarm for SMD to start running. This does not work. However, there is an option to run SMD upon computer start-up.

If or when the publishers decide to fix the above glitches, Start My Day will be extremely useful. For now, the option to run multiple programs at the same time is handy, but the random messages are frustrating.

Let’s be honest — you saw this one coming, didn’t you? Today Amazon is introducing a new reading device for e-book aficionados dubbed simply… the Kindle. The new handheld — slated to be released on August 27th — is 21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter than the previous model, has a 20 percent faster refresh rate on its E Ink (yep, still E Ink) screen, and will now come in two colors (graphite, like its big brother the DX, and the original white). In addition to the color changes, there will be two radio configurations available: a $139 WiFi only version, and a $189 3G version (utilizing AT&T’s network, just like the last model). The screen will remain the same 6-inch size as the last two Kindles, though the company claims page turns are faster and contrast is improved. The internal storage on the device has been cranked to 4GB, and the battery life is now rated at a month with no wireless, and 10 days with wireless switched on. The company also announced plans for a UK-localized version at £109 and £149, respectively, as well as a UK e-book store.

Along with the big changes, there have been minor tweaks as well — the keyboard and five-way controls have been streamlined and altered slightly. The rocker is now more compact and flush with the device, and the side buttons have been modified in length to emphasize the forward paddles, while the back buttons have been downsized. Software wise, there are some interesting new features, the most notable being the inclusion of an “experimental” Webkit-based browser. If you’re expecting future iterations to go even bolder with their multimedia capabilities, we kindly direct you to some choice quotes by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, care of WSJ: “For the vast majority of books, adding video and animation is not going to be helpful. It is distracting rather than enhancing. You are not going to improve Hemingway by adding video snippets,” adding later, “there are going to be 100 companies making LCD [screen] tablets… why would we want to be 101? I like building a purpose-built reading device. I think that is where we can make a real contribution.”

We had a chance to play with the device for a short while during a meeting with the company, and we can report that the Kindle is still very much the reading device you know and love (or hate, depending on your preferences). The build quality and materials used did seem slightly more polished than the previous version, and we really liked the new, more subtle rocker. We can also attest to screen refreshes and overall navigation feeling noticeably more responsive and snappy compared with the previous generation. Amazon was showing off a jacket accessory which will be made available at launch that includes a small, pull-out light for late-night reading sessions. We’re sure it will please a lot of folks eager to keep their partners undisturbed while they tear through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. We’ll have a full review as soon as we can get our hands on the device, but for now, check out all the details in the video and PR after the break, and feast your eyes on the handful of press shots in the gallery below.

Continue reading New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK

New Amazon Kindle announced: $139 WiFi-only version and $189 3G model available August 27th in the US and UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Graphics chip supplier pares back revenue predictions, blaming increased memory costs and economic weakness in Europe and China.

Originally posted at Nanotech – The Circuits Blog

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A number of people have complained about Safari often crashing on their systems. While Apple’s latest Safari update (5.0.1) is supposed to address some stability issues with the program,  a number of people are complaining of crashes. Here are some things you can try to hopefully clear these problems.

General maintenance
There are some general maintenance routines you can run both on Safari and on the system to help clear problems. In Safari, try clearing cookies and caches, among other items in the “Reset Safari” option in the Safari menu. You can also run general maintenance on your system to clear user account and system caches that could be contributing to the problem.

Adobe Flash
Since installing Safari 5, I have had numerous crashes that were Flash-related. You can see this when Flash and Adobe are referenced among the functions being run in the crashed thread in the crash report.

Try removing Flash from the /Macintosh HD/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ folder to see if that helps. After that, if you need Flash, you can install the latest version from Adobe’s Web site.

You may also benefit from using a Flash-blocking utility such as Click2Flash that will disable Flash components on Web pages unless you specifically enable them.

In addition to flash, if you have other plug-ins that you’ve installed, you might try uninstalling or updating them. Be sure they have been tested with your version of Safari before ruling them out as a cause for the crashes, and also be sure to manually troubleshoot them (remove them one-by-one and relaunch and test Safari each time you do this).

Input  managers
Third-party input managers–Saft, Inquisitor, PithHelmet, SafariStand, and so on–can also cause crashes in Safari. Try either updating them or removing them from the system. They should be located in one of the following folders, but you should use an uninstaller if one is available.

/username/Library/Input Managers

/Macintosh HD/Library/Input Managers

/Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support

A commonly used input manager is SIMBL, which may load numerous plug-ins that may also be contributing to the crashes, so be sure to test them as well. We recently wrote an article on managing SIMBL with Safari 5.0.

Clear preferences
In addition to using Safari’s “Reset” feature, you may be having problems a corrupt Safari’s preferences file. Locate the file “com.apple.Safari.plist” in the /username/Library/Preferences/ folder and remove it. When you relaunch Safari, it will recreate the file. (Keep in mind custom settings in Safari’s preferences will be reverted to default after doing this).

Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or e-mail us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

Originally posted at MacFixIt

What once seemed to simply be a ridiculously extravagant concept for a plug-in hybrid has now become a ridiculously extravagant reality — Porsche has just announced that it’s putting the 918 Spyder into production. First unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year, the car (in concept form, at least) packs a 500-horsepower V8 and a pair of 109-horsepower electric motors that should let you get about 78 miles per gallon, or a total of 16 miles of driving straight from the lithium-ion battery back. The cost? That hasn’t been officially announced yet, but estimates peg it around the $650,000 mark. Don’t worry, though — it’ll be eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit. Head on past the break for the full (but brief) press release.

Continue reading Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid headed for production

Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid headed for production originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew it was coming, and now it’s official: Rogers Wireless has today launched its entry-level “chatr” wireless brand for Canadians everywhere — and by “everywhere,” we mean Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa (Montreal is coming soon, as is possibly elsewhere). Two plans are available: $45 monthly for unlimited talk-and-text and $35 for unlimited talk and 50 free texts. As of now, the official website’s showing four devices to choose from, available at full price only (no subsidizing). On the low end, relatively speaking, there’s the Nokia 1661 candybar for $60, followed by the LG GB125R flip for $75, the Nokia 2680 portrait QWERTY slider for $95, and Samsung’s Gravity landscape QWERTY slider sitting at the top of the chain for $130. Rogers — whose name appears nowhere in Chatr’s branding so far — expects “hundreds” of chatr kiosks to be rolled out at Future Shops, Best Buys, Costcos, and other retail outlets.

The brand will compete with other budget-conscious options from the likes of Wind Mobile and Mobilicity, but this one’s got the advantage of Rogers’ more established, wider-reaching network. According to The Globe and Mail and CBC News, Wind will be offering a whopping $150 credit for those who switch to its network from Rogers / chatr. Mobilicity’s chairman John Bitove has a different strategy altogether, threatening to complain to the Competition Bureau that Rogers’ possible goal here is to drive other discount phone brands out of business before dissolving chatr and leaving the market with only a higher-priced segment. And if you were wondering where Telus and Bell Mobility stand, well, both companies are reportedly expected to follow suit with entry-level brands of their own. Data plan-averse Canadians should have quite the selection from which to choose.

Rogers’ budget-friendly chatr brand launches in Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony talked up its cylindrical no-glasses 3D 360-degree prototype display last fall, and now it’s showing off the tech, dubbed RayModeler 3D, on US soil at SIGGRAPH 2010 through tomorrow. A major bonus of that showcase is an English language video — embedded after the break, plus a hands on including a game of Pong Breakout from Core77 and our videos from the Japanese exhibition — showing how it all works, including the eight-camera rig and turntable that capture objects in 45-degree separations before they are interpolated to create a continuous 360-degree motion image. Sony claims this is the first of its type capable of high quality images, full color and interactive live motion — check it out and imagine keeping a tiny 3D pet or floating, disembodied head on your bedside table, where it can respond and react to your every gesture. We wouldn’t want our blip-verts any other way.

Continue reading Sony’s 360-degree RayModeler 3D display brings its glasses-free act to LA, plays Breakout (video)

Sony’s 360-degree RayModeler 3D display brings its glasses-free act to LA, plays Breakout (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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