by Terrence O'Brien on January 8, 2011 at 05:00 PM
![Sphero Lets You Play Ball with Your Phone](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2011/01/playballiph_180x129.jpg)
The Sphero, from Orbotix, is one of the toy hits of CES 2011. Like the AR Drone, the toy hit of CES 2010, you control the Sphero with your smartphone (a remote control app is available for iOS and Android). Your phone connects to the Sphero via Bluetooth, and to control the ball you can use a virtual joystick or the accelerometer (simply tilt your phone). In our brief hands on, the Sphero proved ...
by Terrence O'Brien on January 6, 2011 at 12:45 PM
![Eyes on With Samsung](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2011/01/sam_180x129.jpg)
The Samsung D8000 is the company's new top-of-the-line TV, and it's a stunner. It's a miraculously thin, Internet-connected, 3-D, LED-backlit piece of beauty. It even comes with a touchscreen remote that lets you watch video and check your social networking accounts. But the most impressive things about the D8000 are the incredible viewing angles (the picture being almost perfect even from the ...
by Thomas Houston on December 14, 2010 at 01:50 PM
![The Process: Michael Surtees Reconsiders the Weather (App)](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/12/2010.12.07surt-1292359301_180x129.jpg)
We're thrilled to announce a new video series that examines the modern creative process employed by designers, writers, typographers, artists and more. We wanted to explore how people work today, shuffling between sketching by hand and testing on tablets -- seamlessly moving between the digital and analog. In each episode, we'll give each subject a unique challenge, and explore how they ...
by Max Willens on December 10, 2010 at 09:25 AM
![YouTube Extends Video Time Limits for Obedient Users](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/12/youtubelogo_180x129.jpg)
Less than five months after extending video time limits to 15 minutes, YouTube has decided to lengthen them again. YouTube product manager Joshua Siegel wrote in a blog post that the streaming giant chose to drop its time limit thanks to "advances in Content ID," the system that scans every video uploaded to YouTube, and compares its data with data provided by copyright holders. As of right now, ...
by Terrence O'Brien on December 6, 2010 at 05:15 PM
![Google eBooks for Android: Hands-On](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/12/eb2010.12.06_180x129.jpg)
While we've been waiting for the iPad and iPhone versions of Google eBooks to land in the App Store, we put the Android version through the paces. While it's not the most feature-filled e-reading app available on Android, it is slick, polished and easily the best non-NOOK and non-Kindle e-reading app for the platform. There are some limitations, like the lack of simple bookmarking and the absence ...
by Matthew Zuras on October 22, 2010 at 03:20 PM
![Jim Campbell](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/10/scatteredlight2-1287779086_180x129.jpg)
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"Most of these works -- if you pause them -- you can't tell what you're looking at," says artist Jim Campbell, as his newest installation flickers in the background. 'Scattered Light' is a 50-foot-long array on an 80-foot wide, 16-foot-high and 16-foot-deep structure supporting over 1,600 lightbulbs fitted with LEDs, which are programmed to display a low-resolution, moving image as ...
by Matthew Zuras on October 22, 2010 at 10:56 AM
![Last Night at The Guggenheim: YouTube Play Opens to Fanfare, Yet Flops](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/10/youtubeplay_180x129.jpg)
How do we rate YouTube Play? We've been struggling to answer that question since last night, when we attended the opening at the Guggenheim and got our first look at the 25 videos chosen for the exhibition. Culled from over 23,000 submissions worldwide and narrowed to a shortlist of 125, the final 25 were picked by a rock-star jury of artists, designers and filmmakers. To say it bluntly, the show ...
by Matthew Zuras on September 11, 2010 at 01:00 PM
![Jennifer Steinkamp, Digital Artist, Talks Animation and Abstraction](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/09/premature_180x129.jpg)
"Computers always want to be annoying," says Los Angeles-base artist Jennifer Steinkamp, as we discuss the installation of her current solo show in New York. She has ample reason to to worry about technology, given that her chosen medium -- 3-D animation -- is entirely computer based. Still, she takes the glitches in stride, as natural consequences of reliance on the digital. "It's just ...
by Evan Shamoon on August 27, 2010 at 11:40 AM
![Hype Check: Neato Robotics XV-11 Sucks, In All the Right Ways](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/08/robo1_180x129.jpg)
What it is: Until now, iRobot's Roomba has been the only janitorial gadget worth employing. Enter Neato Robotics' XV-11, which, after several months' delay, has finally hit the market. The results are impressive; while perhaps not powerful or thorough enough to render your manual vacuum obsolete, it does represent a solid step forward for automated cleaning technology (otherwise known as Machines ...
by Terrence O'Brien on July 7, 2010 at 02:00 PM
![Is Google](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/06/whatisnexus1_180x129.jpg)
When Google launched the Nexus One way back in January, the smartphone was supposed to be a serious contender against the iPhone, and was expected to serve as exemplar of the Android handset. By circumventing the carriers' brick-and-mortar stores, Google also hoped to usher in a new era in cell phone sales; however, it appears to have doomed itself to obscurity, instead. With no presence in ...
by Switched Staff on January 10, 2010 at 06:01 PM
![We Ask, CES Tells:](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/01/2010.01.10worcs-1263305041_180x129.jpg)
Plowing through booth after booth in search of the best new gadgets, apps, and tech at CES always results in finding a few clunkers. We've got our list (coming soon), of course, but we decided to take the question of the worst to the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Frequently mentioned was 3-D TV, which seems to be splitting attendees; many listed it as a product they'd be buying in the ...
by Switched Staff on January 7, 2010 at 07:40 PM
![Does Vegas Buy the 3-D TV Hype?](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2010/01/2010.01.07_3dtv_180x129.jpg)
Timed barely a month after the release of James Cameron's 3-D behemoth 'Avatar,' CES picked a great time to display the latest and greatest 3-D TV technologies. We've seen some impressive setups so far, but we took to the sidewalks of Vegas to poll the public. Despite having to overcome the clunky glasses, the high costs (during a recession, no less), and the label of gimmick, 3-D TV didn't ...
by Leila Brillson on January 7, 2010 at 05:25 PM
![Polaroid Hires Her, Monster Endorses Her, But We Just Love Lady Gaga](https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101957im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.switched.com/media/micro-nothumb.png)
She could team up with any industry in the world, but songstress and superstar Lady Gaga has a taste for tech. "Pokerface" debuted with her Heartbeats headphones, and a Wii even appeared in "Bad Romance." But yesterday, Polaroid announced that the platinum provocateur will be its new creative director, shifting parts of the brand back to the instant film development that made it ...