air

Amazon has kicked off its first mobile game, and one that can be played on both Android and iOS devices.

Taking to the skies today, Air Patriots lets you command a squad of planes by moving your finger around the screen. Drawing paths on the screen manuevers the planes to the right spots to defend your territory and battle the enemy.

You can outfit your fleet with 13 different types of planes. The game offers 28 levels and 7 different maps (the first 3 maps are free). The more victories you score, the more gears you collect, which can unlock … Read more

I was on a video shoot recently, helping haul equipment over the hills and river rocks in the Gold Country of California. A metal slider rail for the camera was an especially challenging piece to move around due to its size and weight.

There will soon be an inflatable alternative. AirTracks is a blow-up camera track and dolly designed to hold 8 pounds of equipment. It deflates down to fit into a small stuff sack so you can pack it into the backwoods and still get smooth tracking shots.… Read more

The U.S. Air Force said today that an experimental test in August of its hypersonic X-51A Waverider failed due to a fin inadvertently unlocking and sending the aircraft into a corkscrew that ended in a crash into the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, the Air Force said only that the August flight had ended with the crash, but didn't reveal what had been at fault. But in a conference call today, X-51A program manager Charlie Brink explained what he and his colleagues have learned over a couple of months of investigation.

The August flight was the third of … Read more

It seems hard to believe now, but a few years ago the notion that Apple might actually release a device with a clunky name like the "iPad" was openly mocked -- until it came to dominate the category of consumer technology that it created nearly by itself.

Now, the smaller iPad that Apple is expected to announce at a media event tomorrow is stirring similar discussions.

The anticipated 7.8-inch slate with specs comparable to the second-generation iPad has been most commonly referred to as the "iPad Mini" in the onslaught of rumors over the past six months. But we've also heard that it might be called the "iPad Air" in a nod to its MacBook cousin.… Read more

Could Hewlett-Packard trump the iPad?

With Windows 8 general release due on October 26, it's a good opportunity to take a look at the competition coming down the pike.

In this case, from Apple's Silicon Valley neighbor, HP.

It took way too long -- Apple announced the iPad in 2010 -- but HP now has a real iPad alternative -- the Envy x2.

Or, put another way, should I think about swapping my iPad for the x2?

Personal musings aside, HP has a different design philosophy from Apple -- so it's not simply a question (for me … Read more

Airprint Activator, now known as handyPrint, is an app that lets you put Airprint support on older printing devices that do not natively support this protocol. Designed to run on iOS and Mac OS X, handyPrint may be a great solution for those who either have older printers, or find that Airprint support has been lost during an OS upgrade. We couldn't find handyPrint on the App Store, but there are several sites, including the publisher's (netputing.com), that offer downloads.

handyPrint installs on your favorite iDevice easily enough. It integrates with the menu bar, adding a new &… Read more

Apple has once again hit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with some patent applications.

First up is AirPlay Mirroring: Called "Gesture visualization and sharing between electronic devices and remote displays," the patent application describes a method by which onscreen information is sent wirelessly to another display. Apple's patent application, which was first discovered by Patently Apple, assumes that the first device, which will send the onscreen visuals to the second display, comes with a touch screen, seemingly limiting the patented technology to its iPhone or iPad.

"Size and resource limitations may prevent users of … Read more

An environmental standards group that rates electronics for their environmental friendliness cleared five ultrathin laptops as conforming to its "green" standards, including Apple's MacBook Air.

The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) announced Friday that its investigation of notebooks sold by Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba met the group's review criteria and as such were in compliance with its "green rating." Specific areas of concern for the government-backed group included whether products were upgradeable, whether upgrades could be accomplished with commonly available tools, and whether materials such as batteries could be easily removed.

"… Read more

What does a 120-year-old Thomas Edison cylinder record player have in common with a brand-new $299 Big Jambox Bluetooth speaker? Both play music in monophonic sound. Everything old is new again.

Home audio was strictly a single-speaker pursuit from the dawn of recorded sound through the late 1950s, when stereo changed the way we listen to music. Multichannel home theater's popularity peaked in the late 1990s, but starting with iPods and sound-bar speakers, mono was back in style. More recently sales of battery-powered, mono Bluetooth speakers started to take off. While these lo-fi systems may contain stereo pairs of … Read more