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IRL: Goal Zero Sherpa 50 and the HTC One on Rogers
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. For every Engadget editor who's gotten to test an HTC One (that'd be five of us so far), there are two more waiting to take it for a spin. Well, you can cross Mr. Fingas off the list, at least: he's been playing with the One on Canada's Rogers network, snapping photos in the lowest-lit places Ottawa has to offer. James Trew, meanwhile, is excited to finally use Goal Zero's Sherpa 50 solar charger, mostly because it means England is finally getting some decent weather.
The Game Archaeologist and the Quest for Camelot: A talk with Mark Jacobs
Life is full of serendipitous moments. For example, the other day I found the Holy Grail at a garage sale while looking through a box of half-broken Transformers. Who would have thought? If only the Knights Templar took a few Saturdays off from their epic quest to do a bit of bargain shopping. Consider also that this month we've been reminiscing about Dark Age of Camelot in this column -- looking at the history, the devs, and the players -- and then, out of nowhere (well, technically Virginia) one of the key figures of this title returned from a year-long sabbatical. Mark Jacobs, who was let go from EA last June, recently popped back up on his personal blog to talk about everything under the sun. Hey -- isn't DAoC under the sun? Why yes, yes it is. So I threw on my hiking boots, strapped a machete to my thigh, hired a Sherpa, and then composed a quick message to see if Mr. Jacobs would be willing to be interviewed by the eccentric media. He agreed, as long as we stuck to the topic at hand and didn't veer into his plans for world domination. Whoops... I've said too much. Hit the jump before I get into hot water. My Sherpa hates hot water.
The best of WoW.com: September 22-29, 2009
The World of Warcraft is a strange and savage place: not only is there continually some Orc or Murloc or crazed cult attacking whatever various settlement you choose to spend your time in, but you've also got to deal with patch releases, forum trolls and the occasional crazed developer too! That's why you should be reading WoW.com -- we're your own personal sherpa for the biggest MMO around.Peep our roundup of ten popular posts from the past week after the break.
T-Mobile's AppPack and Sherpa for Android leak out
The myTouch 3G is all well and good, but seeing how the Magic on which it's based has already launched virtually everywhere else in the world, the phone itself isn't really the big news -- it's more the strong commitment T-Mobile seems to be making to Android apps with the value-add pack it's prepping. So far, shots and hands-on time with T-Mobile's so called AppPack have been hard to come by, but xda-developers has just happened to "come across" a build that's now available to anyone who wants to install it. Problem is, the AppPack doesn't currently include Sherpa -- the location-based entertainment app T-Mobile has really been pushing hard -- apparently due to some last-minute problems T-Mob's having, so for that, we turn to another corner of xda-developers for an installable APK. It's expected that the carrier will be making the AppPack available to G1 owners, but just in case they had a last minute change of heart... well, let's just say that's not a concern anymore, if you know what we mean.[Via HTC Source, thanks DW and Matt D.]Read - AppPackRead - Sherpa
T-Mobile pushing apps hard with myTouch 3G; Sherpa pictured, detailed
Though the myTouch 3G is really just an HTC Magic at its core, T-Mobile seems to be doing everything it can to gussy it up with as much crapware bloatware value-add software that it can. All kidding aside, this really isn't crapware -- the carrier is apparently quite serious about calling out best-in-class apps in the Android Market, going so far as to create a separate "app pack" application that'll drill down stuff it wants to highlight. T-Mobile tells us this might even include T-Mobile's own visual voicemail application, which is currently in development, but whether that's available at launch or not, nothing in the app pack won't be findable in the regular Android Market, so there's no reason to worry.The crown jewel in the myTouch 3G's arsenal will be Sherpa, an entertainment discovery app that learns your preferences in food, stores, and attractions over time based on your ratings and bubbles them to the top so they're easier for you to find. Naturally, it's location-based so that you can find things around you; it'll be interesting to see how well this works in practice, but at a glance, we're excited to give it a shot so that we can finally stop eating In-N-Out seven nights a week (not to say there's anything wrong with that).
