The Magic Fiddle iPad App Will Have You Making Sweet Music In Minutes [Video]

Smule, the maker of the popular Magic Piano iPad app, has just shared its new Magic Fiddle app with us. It's cleverly designed, produces lovely sounds, and will only briefly frustrate the hell out of those with non-existant musical talent.

Despite being initially frustrating for a beginner, the app will actually leave you fiddling a mellow tune in little time. Magic Fiddle guides you through the proper way to hold your iPad—yes, you're supposed to rest your chin on it—and then gradually walks you through some simple songs. Once you're confident in your fiddling skills, you can compete against folks around the world and work your way up the Magic Fiddle leaderboards.

The app's gonna cost you three bucks and is available in the iTunes store now. [iTunes]

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Amplify the iPhone 4's Volume Without Power: the Griffin AirCurve Play [IPhone Accessories]

One of the simplest gadgets ever is also one of my favorites. I'm talking about Griffin's original AirCurve, the acoustically-shaped amplifier that docks and increases the iPod/iPhone's volume. It's now been updated for iPhone 4s, increasing music 10dB louder.

Working specifically with iPhone 4s, it no longer sits the iPhone in the docked position, instead just resting it neatly inside (with a rubber area underneath to protect it). There's also now a metal kickstand for holding it either vertically or horizontally, and luckily the price hasn't changed either—it's $20. [Griffin via GearLog via OhGizmo]

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Lenovo slips out 12.5-inch IdeaPad U260 ultraportable, hopes you'll notice

Well, what have we here? In the sea of me-too ultraportables, it looks as if Lenovo is doing its darnedest to mix things up with a somewhat unorthodox screen size. The leaked IdeaPad U260 hasn't been confirmed by the mother company, but word on the street has it rocking a 12.5-inch display, 0.71-inch thickness and a total weight of just 3.04 pounds. Naturally, it's living life sans an optical drive, and we're told that it'll ship with an Ultra Low Voltage Core i3 or Core i5 CPU. There's no ExpressCard slot, but you will spot a four-cell battery, Bluetooth 2.1, VGA / HDMI outputs, WiFi, 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive and a couple of semi-vivacious color options (Mocha Brown and Clementine Orange). Mum's the word on a price, but you can catch one more glimpse of the heretofore unannounced rig just after the break.

Update: Ah, ha! Looks as if Lenovo has confirmed this one after all in a new PDF of its IdeaPad lineup. Still awaiting a product portal for purchasing, though. Thanks, Curtis!

Continue reading Lenovo slips out 12.5-inch IdeaPad U260 ultraportable, hopes you'll notice

Lenovo slips out 12.5-inch IdeaPad U260 ultraportable, hopes you'll notice originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple buys Wi-Gear, getting into the stereo Bluetooth headset game?

Apple hasn't always exactly been on the forefront when it comes to Bluetooth support, over the years creating quite an opportunity for third-party companies to make A2DP adapters for iPods and the like. One of those companies was Wi-Gear, which also made a stereo headset called the iMuffs and invited you to "Cut the cord and truly be free!" Sadly the use of such a device does not free you from the various responsibilities of modern day-to-day life, but an apparent acquisition appears to have helped the company's founders shed some of theirs. According to 9to5Mac, Apple has purchased Wi-Gear and brought the company's tech, and at least one of its co-founders, in-house. Michael Kim lists himself as an "iOS Bluetooth Engineer" at Apple now, while Wi-Gear itself has ceased operations according to its site. What's coming next remains to be seen, but if an Apple-branded stereo Bluetooth headset isn't the fruit of this partnership we'll eat our old A2DP dongles.

Apple buys Wi-Gear, getting into the stereo Bluetooth headset game? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 reviewed: 'what the GTX 480 should have been'

You saw the key specs slip out a little ahead of time, now it's the moment we've all been waiting for: the GeForce GTX 580 has been thoroughly benchmarked to see if its claim to being "the world's fastest DirectX 11 GPU" stands up to scrutiny. In short, yes it does. The unanimous conclusion reached among the reviewers was that the 580 cranks up the performance markedly relative to the GTX 480 -- with some citing gains between 10 and 20 percent and others finding up to 30 percent improvements -- while power draw, heat emissions, and noise were lowered across the board. ATI's AMD's Radeon HD 5870 wasn't completely crushed by the newcomer, but it was consistently behind NVIDIA's latest pixel pusher. Priced at $499, the GTX 580 is actually praised for offering good value, though its TDP of 244W might still require you to upgrade a few parts inside your rig to accommodate it, while current online prices are closer to $550. Anyhow, the pretty comparative bar charts await at the links below.

Read - HardOCP
Read - Tech Report
Read - Legit Reviews
Read - Bit-tech
Read - PC Perspective
Read - Hot Hardware

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 reviewed: 'what the GTX 480 should have been' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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