Gadgets posts

Square, the long awaited iPhone payment system officially launched today, albeit only within the US. The brain child of Adam Lisagor, Square is a revolutionary payment system that lets you plug in a credit card scanner into your iPhone to make and accept payments simply and securely wherever you. This neat little video explains clearly how the system works. For a small fee of just under 3% and 15c per transaction, you can use your iPhone to manage payments previously only possible over the phone with larger organizations or with expensive equipment. Hopefully the idea will grow quickly to other…

Apple has a host of patents to its name, and rifling through them can offer some fascinating insights into the potential future of technology and the possibilities that are open to the company as it executes its vision for the future convergence culture. We’ve taken a look at some of the most recently published Apple patents and chosen six of the most exciting to tell you all about. 1. iSpecs: an advanced head-mounted display system for the iPhone or iPod This system (above) may even host its own video camera or be able to communicate with the camera that’s already inside the iPod touch or iPhone….

Electric robot lawnmowers? It’s been done to death. Nothing is cooler than eco-tech right now, but this gadget takes it one step further: Knight Industries Two Thousand could be out there cutting your lawn right now. The new Husqvarna Automower is sleek, cool and best of all, you don’t need a cheesy 80s mullet to own one. The Automower is rechargeable and has a solar panel on top for additional charging. Turbo Boost and a wrist watch remote control are sadly lacking. Husqvarna’s site details the feature list in full, but starting at $1299 you really would think you’d be able to jump in and drive on over…

Fresh in from the historical inevitability department comes news of a failed Adobe Flash demo — and an all-new video clip showing what the proprietary multimedia standard can do on an Android phone. Last week’s FlashCamp Seattle saw Flash Platform evangelist Ryan Stewart demo Flash Player 10.1 on a Nexus One phone during his opening keynote. It didn’t go well, wrote blogger, Jeff Croft. Here’s what happened: On his Mac, Ryan pulled up a site called Eco Zoo. It is, seemingly, a pretty intense example of Flash development — full of 3D rendering, rich interactions, and cute little characters….

Google has topped the iPhone in the race to become the best-selling operating system in the U.S. consumer smartphone market in the first quarter. While BlackBerry devices still hold the number one spot, both the Google Android and Apple’s iPhone are not far behind. According to the research firm NDP Group, BlackBerry accounted for 36 per cent of the units sold to U.S. consumers with the Android following with 28 per cent of units sold. The iPhone, which had previously held the number two spot, fell to third place with 21 per cent. Apple fanatics do have a scapegoat to explain for this step back in…

Next time you sit down for a slap-up meal out keep an eye on the waiter – he (or she) may well take your order with an iPad. This replaces older PDA-based ordering systems, and could mean diners can even take a look at luch full-colour pictures of what they are ordering. It may even help restaurants keep an eye on the stock they have in hand. System developed by 4asoft.com. Perhaps you’ll be paying for your meal using an iPad, too. Square today introduced an iPhone credit card payment system, following last month’s introduction of a similar system for the iPhone. Via: PocketLint. Thumbnail image…

Cool UK gadget retailer, Firebox, has begun selling the SmartSwipe, a handy USB device which reads, encrypts and transmits your personal credit card data directly to the online payment page. Now, there’s a lot of insecurity about these days. We’re told hackers and crackers and spammers and other enemies of the people are all working hard to undermine our security and get their hands on our credit card details. SmartSwipe should help beat them at their game. Shoppers just need to swipe their card and click ‘confirm’ usung the onscreen purchase wizard. Your banking details are then encrypted,…

The tragic Kurt Cobain might have left us but this doesn’t mean Nirvana’s record label don’t continue to seek out new opportunities to make money from the artist’s legacy — now it seems Tapulous has inked a deal to bring a dedicated Nirvana game to the iPhone. Nirvana Revenge will feature 13 of the band’s songs in a new variant of the well-recognised Tap Tap Revenge game. Songs will include Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are and Heart Shaped Box plus some live numbers from a UK rock festival. The app should be available later this week for $4.99 via the App Store. There’s a Bluetooth…

Forget preconceived ideas that the techi world’s digital destiny is run by the boys, for the boys – it looks like the girls are driving the digital home, with women downloading twice as much mobile content as men. Surprised? Perhaps, but these are the fresh findings found by US mobile ents firm, Myxer (a peddler of ringtones, wallpapers and video clips). Myxer claims its female users downloaded twice as much content in April as its male users. Women accounted for 67% of its content downloads for the month: 4.5 million in total. Men downloaded just 2.2 million items during the month. Myxer admits…

Universal axiom: things are way more awesome when they come in ball form. The Teague Radio Ball needs no explanation as to its function. A brilliantly-off-the-wall design concept, the Radio Ball is designed to recapture the serendipity of oldschool analog radio, stumbling across new and exciting things to listen to across the dial. As such, the Ball is controlled simply by rolling it, and seeing what you can find. Perhaps not the most precise method of new music discovery, but absolutely the coolest. Just try and tell me you don’t want one of these. Just try. Seriously. Comment form’s right there….