Author: Ty Dunitz

The Great Signal Caper continues. Is it alright to call it a caper now? More things should be called capers. Anyway, Apple has responded to customers’ never-ending pleas for an end to the iPhone 4′s signal issue by offering an accessory previously unbethunkable: the iHand. Taking a more utilitarian approach to product design, the iHand is all about function. Simply slot your iPhone 4 into the iHand’s hand, hold the iHand’s hand in your hand, dial a number, and enjoy worry-free calls of the clearest crystal clarity! Truly, Cupertino’s been boiling midnight oil BP-style on this. The iHand is available…

I don’t get what’s so great about the mobile web. It’s like a harder-to-see, harder-to-use version of the real internet. I dunno, call me old. You’d be wrong, but I guess I’d deserve it. I just really like real computers, as opposed to little phones that do phone-sized things. Be that as it may, I do like YouTube, and with the rollout of its new phone-sized thing, I’m coloured impressed. Boasting the entire functionality of YouTube Regular, the revamped mobile version sucks a verified 400% less than that previous garbage you thought was passable for a mobile YouTube experience. Man, remember that?…

You’re one of the five people in the civilized world who own a Zune, right? Well, good news – you may soon be able to sync it with iTunes. Seriously. This is a thing. In an attempt to save the world and all its inhabitants, three Mortal Kombatants have been chosen the European Union has drafted up a document it’s calling the Digital Agenda, the function of which is to serve the cause of interoperability, openness, and innovation in the tech world. I, for one, am precisely the opposite of not all for that. Behold, an excerpt: Since not all pervasive technologies are based on standards the benefits of interoperability…

No one ever said YouTube didn’t run interesting contests. If someone did say that, they’re clearly being ridiculous. Following up YouTube’s artsy-fartsy Guggenheim contest, the site has now courted director Ridley Scott , who will be executive-producing a project called Life In A Day. If you’re unfamiliar with Scott, he’s the guy behind Gladiator, Blade Runner, and the upcoming Monopoly. Ridley Scott’s Monopoly. I swear that’s a thing. Anyway, the ‘Day’ in question is July 24th, and YouTube wants you to participate by recording that day. It doesn’t have to be special or fancy (though I’m going…

I sat here for too long trying to come up with a headline about Firefox, and Chrome, and reflections. I got nothing. It’s the thought that counts. But it’s true – Firefox 4′s beta is out, and so far, it’s looking an awful lot like a certain other browser that’s been taking the Internet by storm in the last year. Immediately noticeable is the much-overhauled interface, the biggest change of which is the new tabs-above-address dealie, again, taken from Chrome. Personally, I always kind of preferred the tabs below – easier to get to via mouse, and all that. Though I guess as a definite ‘power user’, I should…

Blake Bevin is some kind of hero-person. I’ve never quite handled tying my own shoes – I mean, like, sure I can do it easily enough, but it’s always kind of sloppy, y’know? Nothing I’d wear to a fancy party. Actually, to be honest, I probably wouldn’t wear Blake’s design to a fancy party, either. But she’s certainly on the right track. Check it out! Apparently, these were in Back to the Future II or something – I only saw the film once, and I was, like, 11. But my failure as a geek aside, these shoes rule. Rocking the Arduino, Blake has replaced the knowledge required to tie one’s shoes with a force sensor that…

Having acknowledged the now-infamous iPhone 4 ‘death grip’, Apple has rushed an update out the door that… well, it doesn’t really solve the problem at all. What the update does do is fix an apparent second problem that was displaying signal bars incorrectly. Apparently, your iPhone 4 has been lying to you, optimistically displaying four or five bars sometimes when it should be displaying one or two. Apple tells us it had something to do with the algorithm governing the definition of each level of strength. Great. So, in a nutshell, this means that my hypothetical iPhone 4 can now more accurately…

Earlier today, I posted a piece on a group of researchers who have discovered a major security flaw with any and all USB accessories. Suffice it to say this is a novel solution: why not remove an accessory from the equation? Computer mice are old hat. They haven’t had a major design breakthrough in a long while. Besides moving to optical and sporting ever-finer resolutions, they’re pretty much done evolving. It could be argued that mice, therefore, have reached the pinnacle of their evolution – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But whatever, let’s throw our mice out anyway. But what will we use instead?…

Alright, alright, calm down – no, Big Steve still gets all frowny when you mention Adobe. But assuming you have a jailbroken iPad (I would), Flash can finally be yours with Frash. From the folks that brought you the Spirit jailbreak, and running on a compatibility layer, Frash is… well, it’s Flash, with an R. Finally, that half of the internet you weren’t able to see while lazing on the couch doing that… iPad… thing… whatever people do with iPads. Tapping things? – is suddenly again rendered visible. Time to take back Robot Unicorn Attack. The release isn’t stable yet, so if you aren’t a developer,…

Better switch back to your old, yellowed PS/2 mouse. A trio of researchers have shown that USB devices represent in and of themselves a potential security risk. Your data will never be safe again! Well, this is true and it isn’t. Would you notice if, say, your keyboard was switched out for another one? Potential data thieves would have a hard time replicating the filth patterns on my keyboard, that’s for sure. But say they did, successfully. John Clark, Sylvian Leblanc and Scott Knight of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada have discovered that there’s a rather simple exploit…