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Logitech outs Apple-friendly Wireless Solar Keyboard K760, we go hands-on

Logitech outs Apple-friendly Wireless Solar Keyboard K760, we go hands-on

Earlier this May, Logitech unveiled its Solar Keyboard Folio for the new iPad and iPad 2, and the accessory maker is rounding out the month by adding another sun-powered peripheral to its stable. Like the Keyboard Folio, the just-announced Wireless Solar Keyboard K760 works with iPads, but it’s also compatible with Macs and iPhones. The K760 has Bluetooth for pairing up to three devices at a time, and it features Mac-specific keys such as Brightness, Command and Eject. Users should get about three months of use after the keyboard is fully charged up via sun or indoor light. We got to do a bit of typing with the K760, and are happy to report that it’s a fairly well-built little grid. The deck feels solid, and the keys have a decent depth to them when pressed. Plus, the spun metal power button and the silver flake paint job lend a premium appearance. It’ll cost $80 when it goes on sale next month, and you can get a closer look at what those dollars will buy in our gallery below. Head past the break for the full PR.

Gallery: Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K760

Michael Gorman contributed to this report

Continue reading Logitech outs Apple-friendly Wireless Solar Keyboard K760, we go hands-on

Logitech outs Apple-friendly Wireless Solar Keyboard K760, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 May 2012 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Retickr turns your RSS feed into a desktop news-ticker

If you feel that your Mac’s desktop is missing a news ticker displing top stories and your RSS feed, Retickr has got you covered. The company announced Reticker 2.0 and a $1.5 million round of funding.

Retickr is a simple app with a news ticker bar that scrolls headlines across your desktop. You can control what types of news you see, specify RSS feeds from Google Reader, and control the speed of ticker. You can also make the ticker stay on top of all other windows (which can be distracting unless you have a large screen) or you can hide it when you minimize the app.

The colors, orange, black, and navy can be a bit jarring and the app had a hard time pulling the correct thumbnails and titles of the blogs I follow in Google Reader. It seems Retickr works better with the already-available news sources you can choose from when you set it up.

Retickr’s team, co-founders Travis Truett, Brian Trautschold, Adam Haney, and Jared Houghton bootstrapped the business before raising $150,000 in seed money in 2011. The first version of the app was released in August 2011 and faced some mixed reviews from Apple users on the App Store, saying it negatively affected battery life. The company spent the last six months working on improving the app and released 2.0 today.

A search of the Mac App Store reveals that there aren’t many other apps that do what Retickr does. News Ticker for Mac comes close, but just scrolls headlines across your desktop, and it costs 99 cents (Retickr is free for the foreseeable future). No such extension is available for Chrome, and the closest match for Firefox is RSS Ticker, an add-on that displays headlines from your bookmarked sites in your bookmark toolbar.

Now, the company has raised a first round of institutional funding from the same venture capital firm the gave it its seed round, a small incubator in Tennessee called Lamp Post Group. Retickr hopes to use the money to improve upon its product and expand its team.

Retickr is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee and has a team of six employees. It has raised a total of around $1.65 million in funding.

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How to get Windows 7’s best features on Mac OS X

Lifehacker has a nice post that shows you how to add some Windows 7 features to your Mac OS X computer. One of the nicest hacks is the ability to show a preview of an app when it’s in the dock just like Windows 7 does with its Aero interface. There’s also a way to remap your keyboard to use Windows-Style keyboard shortcuts. Most of the features are added via applications that cost less than US$20 each. Point your browser to the article for the rest of the tips. Enjoy!

How to get Windows 7’s best features on Mac OS X originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Chrome Canary About To Hit OS X — Chrome 16 Due Before End Of Year

Users of Google Chrome are probably aware of the three channels you can use depending on how cutting edge you want to be (and how much you mind bugs): Dev, Beta, Stable. But ever since last year, there’s actually been a fourth channel as well that’s less publicized: Canary. Sadly, it has been a Windows-only build until now. But it looks like that’s about to change.

Given the talk in the Chromium development forums, it looks as if Google is just about ready to push out a Canary build of Chrome for OS X as well. In fact, it looks to already be working, they just need to add a download link somewhere so that people can actually get it. And that seems likely to happen soon.

Peter Beverloo, a developer who tracks Chrome and Chromium closely (and appropriately will soon be working at Google on the Chrome team) pointed out this morning that Chrome version 13 should be the first one to gain Canary status on OS X. As Beverloo notes:

While it has not been released yet, Google does seem to be ready to release Google Chrome Canary for Mac OS X systems. The browser cannot be made the default browser through the preferences and the release monitor says that the latest version was released today, using the same revision as Windows’ Canary.

Sure enough, looking over the “OmahaProxy” numbers that Google uses to keep track of Chrome progress across all platforms, there is now a “mac canary” build. And yes, it’s 13.0752.0 — just like the Windows branch. Both were updated today.

We’ve reached out to Google about the possibility of Canary finally coming to OS X, but have yet to hear back. But there are even more clues that this in the case tucked away inside threads on the development forums. For example, here you can see a screenshot of the Canary welcome screen on OS X — you’ll note the all-yellow icon, the key visual cue to let users know which build they’re using.

Why care about Canary? Well, if you want to absolutely be on the bleeding edge of Chrome, it’s the place to be. Technically, Canary is a pre-Dev build of the software that gets automatically updated daily (or so) with the best stuff from Chromium. Sure, you could just download Chromium itself, but that is far less stable as it’s updated many times a day. And you have to manually upgrade it. And plug-in and codec support can often be lacking.

Plus, the entire point of Canary is that you can install it and run it alongside another version of Chrome. This means that you could keep the stable version on your system for your real work, and load up Canary when you want to play with the new Chrome features that won’t be released for weeks or months. For example, Google has just released Chrome 11, but Canary is already on Chrome 13.

Of course, Google has been trying to downplay the version numbers now that they’re upgrading the browser every six weeks or so. But this hasn’t stopped them from touting new releases every so often.

And one more thing: looking over the Chromium development calendar, it looks as if the plan right now is to at least get to Chromium version 16 before the end of this year. That’s set to branch in October, which should give Google plenty of time to get Chrome 16 out the door before the new year. For some context, last May, Google unveiled Chrome 5.

Update: Yep, Google Just Pushed Chrome Canary For Mac Out Of The Nest

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