Sanho announces new HyperDrive line-up, still enough storage for your Frank Zappa discography

Surely you remember Sanho's HyperDrive lineup -- ya know, the only portable HDD that plays nicely with the iPad? Well, if you don't dig the $249 entry level price, you're in luck. The company just announced a bunch of new HDDs for you to take with you and your iPad on that road trip you've had planned for years. As we saw at CES, the new drives no longer sport the QVGA color display or the CF and SD card slots -- instead, the black case has two mini USB ports and a power socket. The HyperDrive doesn't come with the traditional AC adapter but instead a USB-to-DC cable and the user-replaceable battery will allow up to 40GB of transfers on a single charge. And if you're wondering why there's two USB ports, we really couldn't tell you. Perhaps if you choose the right port while connected to your PC and enter the Konami code, unicorns and fairy dust will pop out of your screen -- wishful thinking, we know. The HyperDrives ship in March (pre-ordering is available now) with prices starting at $99 for a bring-your-own-drive housing, 1TB for $349 and various sizes in-between. So, if your photo/video library is worth accessing at all times, well, props to you. Press release is after the break.

iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video)

Hijacking Power and Bandwidth from the Mobile Phone's Audio Interface - Integrated Prototype from Thomas Schmid on Vimeo.

Apple's proprietary dock connector may keep would-be peripheral manufacturers at bay, but if you want to build your own iOS companion devices, there's another way. You might have noticed that the Square credit card reader uses Apple's 3.5mm headset jack to transmit power and data at once, and gadgeteers at the University of Michigan are busy open-sourcing the same technique for all the DIY contraptions you can dream of. Project HiJack has already figured out how to pull 7.4 milliwatts out of a 22kHz audio tone, and built a series of prototype boards (including working EKG, temperature, humidity and motion sensors) that transmit data to and from an iOS app at up to 8.82 kbaud -- using just $2.34 worth of electronic components. See the basic principles at work in the video above, and -- as soon as the team updates Google Code -- find out how to build your own at the links below.

Ars Technica

Project HiJack

NVIDIA's faulty laptop GPU settlement starts paying out, file your repair and reimbursement claims now

Got an old Dell, HP or Apple laptop sitting around with a defective NVIDIA GPU? The company's finally ready to compensate you. That proposed class-action settlement from late last year has been approved by a California court, and the company's taking claims for repairs, replacements and reimbursements at a specially-designated website until March 14th. If you've got an affected Dell or Apple MacBook Pro, you can get the faulty chips replaced free of charge, while HP owners get a whole new replacement computer, though considering the choices there are the budget Compaq Presario CQ50 or an ASUS Eee PC T101MT, you might be better off selling your old parts on eBay. Finally, if you've already paid to get your components replaced and have the docs to prove it, you might be able to get refunded -- NVIDIA's set up a $2 million pool to be divided among all such reimbursements. Find everything you need at the links below.

[Thanks, Kalyan]
Via:Engadget

NVIDIA Settlement

Crytek seeking iOS developers, tries not to mention it's for games

Crytek, a developer that's built a reputation for creating game engines that make even the highest-end PC gaming rigs weep, is making a move into ... mobile development? In a job posting on Develop, the company has put the word out that it's looking for people with experience making iOS apps, specifically candidates who've shipped at least one product on the App Store.

You've probably noticed that we haven't mentioned games yet, and there's a reason: In its posting, Crytek is pretty careful not to use any language that would suggest that successful applicants will go on to create games for iPhone, IPad or iPod touch. Well, except for one line near the end of the "requirements" section: "Passion for video games."

The fact that we haven't heard any rumblings regarding iOS games from Crytek before, and that it's just now sounding the call for applications, leads us to believe that any mobile projects the company has -- games or otherwise -- must be pretty early in development. That, or it's just really taking its time coming up with the absolute best way to bring your iPhone's PowerVR GPU to its knees.
Via:Joystiq
Source: Develop

Goo'd deal: Word of Goo for iPad is now half-price

World of Goo, 2D Boy's sticky-stretchy indie puzzle platformer, has been available on iPad for a month, and to celebrate the occasion the game is now $4.99 for a limited time. At half off, it's an absolute steal for an outstanding game we included in our 2010 iOS buyer's guide.
Source: 2D Boy, World of Goo [App Store]

Apple’s Next iOS Improves Interface, Adds New Gestures

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Apple this week released a beta version of its next mobile operating system, iOS 4.3, for app developers. We got an early look at the OS, which has not been released to the public yet.

Among a pile of minor interface modifications, there are a few major new features under the hood.

Some new multitouch-gesture controls on the iPad are the biggest goodie. In the developer release we saw, at least, the feature is hidden until you use a Mac app to enable it. This new feature is awesome, and it's definitely something to look forward to when iOS 4.3 officially ships. (Apple has not disclosed a release date, but we're guessing soon).

The rest of the changes we found were interface-related — modifications to the iPad keyboard and the iOS multitasking tray, a new notebook font and more.

Here's a rundown of what's new in iOS 4.3 beta.

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Verizon iPhone has devs, analysts excited by increased audience

As expected, Verizon announced today that it would become the second US company to carry Apple's iPhone on its service, finally offering an alternative to AT&T, which up until now has had an iron grip on the popular device. Game developers are thrilled at the prospect of a whole new audience for a platform so friendly to mobile games, with some analysts and devs predicting mobile gaming revenue could double as soon as the end of this year.

Of course, devs are aware that there could be some issues, both with bringing scads of new customers onto the platform as well as transferring some customers from AT&T over to Verizon. But on the whole, they're giddy with optimism -- analysts are saying that as many as 13 million new iPhones could be sold on the Verizon service, and each one of those is a potential new customer for iOS developers.

Hackers claim to find Mac App Store loophole, pirating Angry Birds

Much like a gaggle of proud seamen, christening the bow of a shiny new ocean liner with a bottle of their most decadent champagne, the computer software pirating community has welcomed the Mac App Store into this world by reportedly discovering loopholes which allow them to plunder its wares for free. According to BBC News, one such loophole -- which only works on certain Apps and includes mobile darling Angry Birds -- simply requires the user to copy and paste the application's in-store purchase code. Why, that doesn't sound very difficult at all.

A group of hackers by the collective name of Hackulous also reported to BBC News that its developed a piece of software titled Kickback which can break the copy protection on any App on the store. A representative from the group told BBC, "We're not going to release Kickback until well after the store's been established," as they "don't want to devalue applications and frustrate developers."

Vertical Cinemas: Portrait Orient Your Monitors for Maximum Vertical Space

Widescreen monitors might be great for movies and tucking your IM windows on the sidebar, but they're not so great for reading and coding. Rotate your monitors for maximum vertical space.

At Technology blog Mortar & Pixel they wanted to get more out of their Apple Cinema Displays. Although portrait support isn't an officially supported or documented configuration for the Apple Cinema Display, they grabbed a towel (to protect it from scratches), an Allen wrench, and reattached the stand in the portrait configuration.

For people that have more pragmatic stands (and can simply rotate them instead of unbolting them and propping them up) it's even easier to switch to portrait mode and enjoy a taller virtual workspace. Visit the link below for more photos showing how they set up their Cinema Displays.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

Apple Cinema Display Gone Vertical [Mortar & Pixel]

Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.

How to Change the Cmd+Q Shortcut Key in OS X (to Stop Accidentally Closing Apps)

If you’ve spent any time using Mac OS X, you’ve figured out that the Cmd+W shortcut key closes a window or tab, while the Cmd+Q key quits the entire app. The problem? The keys are right next to each other, and way too easy to accidentally hit! Here’s how to change it.

This problem is compounded even more when you’re using an application like Google Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, where you’re opening or closing tabs all the time, and probably using the Cmd+W key to close just the current tab. If you aren’t careful, you’ll accidentally hit Cmd+Q instead, and your entire browser gets closed.

Remapping the Cmd+Q (Or Any) Shortcut Key

Open up the System Preferences window, and then head down into Keyboard.

Now switch to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, and then click the little plus symbol at the bottom of the window.

Select the application you’re going to remap the key for, type in the Exact title of the menu item into the Menu Title box, and then customize the keyboard shortcut to something that you’d like it to be.

Once you click the Add button, the change will be immediate—head back to the other application and look at the menu, where you’ll see the new key is in effect.

Unfortunately, you’ll need to customize this for each application separately, but at least it’s not that hard. In my case, there was really only one or two applications to bother with.