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California approves Flywheel's attempt at modernizing taxis
Flywheel's plan to bring taxis into the 21st century just got the all clear. California regulators have approved TaxiOS, the smartphone-based Flywheel platform that lets cabbies ditch their clunky conventional meters in favor of GPS and other modern luxuries. While the company had been limited to trying out its software in just 70 San Francisco cabs, this lets it expand to virtually everywhere in the state. All 200-plus Flywheel-badged San Francisco cabs will be using TaxiOS by February, and it won't be surprising if its other Californian coverage areas (currently Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego) follow suit.
Google's Meter turns your home screen into an active widget
Google's Creative Lab has released an interesting, and potentially super-helpful, new app on Tuesday called Meter. It transforms your boring, static wallpaper into a functional Material Design widget displaying either your remaining battery life, Wi-Fi signal strength or number of pending notifications. The widgets cycle whenever you turn off the screen so you'll never get stuck counting reception bars. But don't worry, the OS info bar isn't going anywhere The app is free and, being a Creative Lab joint, is open sourced on GitHub.
NaNoWriMo progress meter uses Arduino to fight writer's block, may be its own distraction (video)
We've all had that moment where we sit in front of the keyboard and have trouble just getting started. It can be an especially dire problem when the 30-day deadline of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) looms overhead, and that was enough for inventor Steve Hoefer to craft his own USB progress meter. The Arduino-based contraption advances a real-world dial or gauge as the word count reaches the NaNoWriMo servers, giving that extra incentive to meet a daily goal or hit the ultimate 50,000-word mark on time. Hoefer characterizes it as a simple project for those who know their way around an Arduino controller; the toughest part for them may just be constructing the box that keeps the meter presentable. Full instructions are available after the break, although we'd hurry to build the meter before November starts. It could all too easily be the source of the very procrastination we're trying to avoid.
NYC to trial mobile payment parking system, Lovely Rita looks for a new gig
Tired of burning your hard earned cash on parking fines? You might wanna move to New York City, where the Department of Transportation will soon begin testing a "pay by phone" parking system. The mobile payment technology, which has already been introduced in cities like Washington, DC and Atlanta, essentially allows drivers to pay for their parking spots without ever having to interact with those menacing, metallic meters. After registering online, users would be able to pay for curbside real estate by entering the number of the nearest meter and the amount of time they'd like to purchase into a customized app, or by texting it to the city's Department of Transportation. The system would also alert users whenever their allotted time is about to expire, allowing them to add more money directly from their handsets, rather than trudge back their cars. At this point, the plan is to roll out the pilot program to some 300 parking spots over the next few months, most likely in outer borough neighborhoods with plenty of commercial outlets and, presumably, automobiles.
T-Mobile's new plans get official: starting at $60 for unlimited everything, throttling included
T-Mobile's just gone official with the new unlimited plans we caught wind of a few days ago, and while they are truly unlimited by numbers, they're not completely unlimited in functionality. The plans cost $79.99 for Even More customers (buy a subsidized device on contract) and $59.99 for Even More Plus subscribers (bring your own phone commitment-free). Either way this gets you unlimited data, domestic calling, and domestic messaging, with a $5 surcharge for BlackBerry users. Unlike Sprint's similar offering, once you pass the 2GB bandwidth mark, "data speeds will be reduced for the remainder of that bill cycle," essentially informing users that throttling will most certainly take place. In all, we're pleased to see the compromise T-Mo's put in place for data (whereas most other carriers are simply axing the unlimited option altogether), and we hope some of the competition takes heed. It does sound like a pretty sweet deal for those of you not grandfathered in on unlimited data plans. Still, for those of you interested, we suggest getting a jump on, as the (potentially leaked) press release reveals that these plans might only be available for a limited time.
Belkin Conserve lineup will make you feel even worse about all the electricity you're wasting
Belkin's just made four new Conserve products available for pre-order. The Conserve Insight tracks your actual devices' electrical usage and tells you how much they cost you on a yearly basis. It also calculates CO2 emissions produced by usage of a given device on either a monthly or yearly basis. The Conserve Smart AV is a greener power strip with five regular outlets and one green outlet for your television, which can auto-detect the power state of your teevee and turn off your peripherals. The conserve Valet is a four device capacity charging station which turns off automatically once devices are finished juicing up. Finally, the Conserve Socket is plugged into your wall outlet and boasts a timer for automatic power offs. The Conserve products will all ship mid-July, and they range in price from $9.99 to $39.99. Gallery of all four devices below.
Intel's experimental sensor analyzes appliance power consumption from single outlet
It's pretty much set in silicon -- in the future, you will monitor your home power consumption, and perhaps even enjoy doing so. Futuristic touchscreen panels and free monitoring software abound, each designed to reward you with a warm, fuzzy Captain Planet feeling and a reduced energy bill when you finally turn off that blasted light. Thing is, unless you've got a home automation system, you won't know which switch to flip. Intel wants to change that with a new wireless sensor that can identify each individual appliance in your house by their unique electrical signal, just by plugging into a single outlet in your house. The reportedly low-cost sensor works by simply recognizing voltage drop patterns when devices are turned on and off, and doesn't require special appliances to function; Intel demonstrated it on a standard toaster, microwave and fridge in Beijing this week. Demonstrate your supreme demand for this "why didn't I think of that" idea by directing traffic to our source link -- you can jump to 20:10 to see the sensor in action. Update: Come to think of it, that looks just like a wireless version of Marvell's SheevaPlug.
Nintendo re-applies for Eternal Darkness trademark
Nintendo has filed for a trademark on the phrase "Eternal Darkness," the title of the GameCube's Silicon Knights-developed psychological horror game. It tricked us by doing things like pretending to reset the console or lowering a fake volume indicator on the TV screen, due to a low in-game "sanity" meter. Apparently the trademark lapsed recently, and while we'd love to tell you that this means someone is working on a brand new version of Eternal Darkness for the Wii, it likely just means that Nintendo is covering its trademarked bases. Besides, if you just want a Wii game that will drive you nuts, try some SPOGS Racing. That game is so bad it's crazy.
Comcast delivers data usage meter in Portland, Oregon
The lucky residents of Portland, Oregon are the first to test out Comcast's just deployed and long-expected data usage meter for its customers. The interface is self-explanatory, but customers who have long been trying to guesstimate how close they are to their 250GB limit should be jumping for joy right about now. Comcast says the data is refreshed about every three hours, and that the median usage of its customers is somewhere around 2 - 4GB per month. No word on further rollout of the usage meter -- but we'll keep our eyes peeled for you. [Thanks, Jerry]
BlizzCon 2009 ticket sales are done
BlizzCon 2009 tickets went on sale for the last time on Saturday at 10am PST, and were reported as sold out less than 30 minutes later. As expected, there were lots of disappointed Blizzard fans, but compared to the way things worked last year, this year's system was much more fair and much less frustrating. Unfortunately, you had to be quick -- while the sellout time was actually around 10:24, tickets really sold out in a matter of seconds, because if you clicked the buy button even 30 seconds to a minute after it went live, you were too far back in the queue to buy tickets at all. But even though it was a very small window of chance, it was at least a fair chance -- Blizzard's meter for tickets left on Saturday started at around 50%, which indicates that they split the two days of sales right down the middle. As long as you showed up and clicked at the right time, you had as much chance as anyone else. At least we got a great game out of it.If you have tickets, enjoy the show (and don't forget: our meetup will be on Thursday night!). But if you don't, what now? The DirecTV stream will be available both via their service and on the Internet. And even if you don't jump in on that deal, we'll of course have plenty of up-to-date coverage, as will lots of folks in the community. And if you want to go a little black market, tickets will probably be available online in a few different places. We've already heard that Blizzard is starting to crack down on eBay, but certainly there are other places tickets will appear for sale. And as time goes on, we're sure people who were planning to go won't be able to make it, contests will be held in various places, and a few more tickets will free up.So all hope may not be lost. But unless you want to call in a favor or pay a premium, BlizzCon tickets are sold. We say: the fourth weekend in August can't come soon enough.
A faster, better, stronger threatmeter
KLHThreatMeter (more commonly known as KTM) is definitely one of the most required addons out there for raiding guilds. With the addon installed on every member of the raid, the threatmeter can give a heads up to both tanks and DPS when aggro is getting unbalanced. But KTM is an older addon, and as a result, it's gotten a little shaky-- it's a bit of a resource hog, and some readings from it (especially when not everyone has it installed) can be a little off.Enter Omen, a relatively new addon (part of the Ace set) that the hype says is a KTM-killer. The author says it's fast and clean and it seems much more customizable than KTM-- you can even pull out specific threat bars to watch. It'll also hook up to KTM, so if everyone else in your raid is using KTM, Omen will still work for you-- and probably better. One big drawback is that it won't distinguish threat between same-named mobs, but KTM doesn't do that either (it's a failure of the addon API), and there's not too many situations where you'd need something like that.Lots of guilds have already switched over to Omen, and apparently more all the time. Have you used it yet? Does it match up to the hype? I haven't had a chance to get it running in a raid, but the next time my guild heads into Karazhan, I'll be watching to see how it works. If KTM hasn't been running as quickly as you've wanted lately (and you're looking for something harder, faster, better, and stronger), Omen might be worth checking out as a new way to handle threat.
Sanrio offers up Hello Kitty body fat meter
For those of you still itching to get in on the Wii Sports exercise regimen, but are without any way to measure how many pounds you'll actually melt off, Sanrio's got you covered. Sure, you could waltz right into just about any retailer and pick up a vanilla scale, but the Hello Kitty body fat meter weighs your body in a whole new dimension of cute. Available in a trio of versions ranging from digital to analog to an actual "cooking" version, the device doesn't actually function any differently than the non-adorable varieties, but who wouldn't be motivated to shed a few pounds and have Hello Kitty smile back at you in celebration? The BF-071-KT scale (pictured) should be available in Japan soon for a price (¥6,000; $49) that only the passionate could appreciate.[Via UberGizmo]
