rain

A weakening Hurricane Irene was downgraded this morning as it inched through New York City and headed into New England.

Irene was packing sustained winds of about 60 mph this morning as it moved up the Eastern seaboard at a speed of 25 mph, prompting the National Hurricane Center to downgrade it from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm. The storm has been blamed for at least 11 deaths in six states, due mostly to car crashes and failing trees, and more than 4 million people have lost power due to the storm.

Despite the downgrade, the Federal … Read more

The Weather Channel app lets you access all the latest global weather information right from your Android mobile device. More than just a source for current weather readings, the app gives you hourly, 36-hour, and 10-day forecasts as well. And for those who travel frequently (or who like to keep tabs on the weather elsewhere) you can save multiple locations to a single page. Tap the Locations icon to get a quick glance of all of your saved locations, and tap any location to get more details. There's also a nifty Maps Screen, which overlays details like Temperature and … Read more

We're not quite sure what the Joy Factory was thinking when it named its waterproof case the RainBallet, but if you get past the silly name, you're looking at a rugged case that can apparently withstand a drop in the toilet or even the pool.

The promo materials for the RainBallet say something about dancing in the rain with your iPhone 4, but we suspect more people will be interested in using it around the pool, beach, or a construction site. The case has something called front and back Sharpvue lenses, which allegedly enable you to take "… Read more

Strange Rain is pretty hard to describe without actually playing with it, but we'll give it a shot. The primary function of the app is to give you a break from your hectic life by displaying a mesmerizing scene of rain falling from the sky. The iPhone screen acts as a skylight, so you're looking straight up as rain drops fall and hit the screen. You can slightly affect the raindrops as they fall by touching the screen and moving your iPhone, and tinkly music from a haunting melody plays amid soothing storm sounds, every time you touch … Read more

According to a recent study by IDC, the iPad has definitively dominated the tablet market, accounting for almost 90 percent of tablets shipped worldwide in the third quarter of 2010. It stands to reason that fourth-quarter results will probably be even higher after the big holiday season. Now that many of the early naysayers have come around to the larger iOS device, I have to think the launch of the iPad 2 in April will be leaps and bounds more successful right out of the gate.

I got the first-generation iPad when it came out for obvious reasons, and probably won't be buying the new iPad personally at launch time (though we will certainly have them here at CNET for testing). But what about you? Are you one of those who decided to wait for the second-generation iPad?

As usual, Apple is not telling us much about its shiny new device, but there have been plenty of rumors regarding a higher-resolution screen, front- and rear-facing cameras, and much more at the various rumor sites.

I'm interested to see who is planning to pull the trigger on the new iPad in April. Let us know your plans in the comments.

This week's apps include a strange interactive storytelling app and a shooting game that cleverly uses the iPhone 4's gyroscope technology.… Read more

What if your toothpaste could tell you whether you needed to leave the house carrying an umbrella? Or how hot the day was going to be?

Odd as it may sound, David Carr of MIT's Media Lab is working on just such a prototype product, "Tastes Like Rain."

Carr and his colleagues are focused on super-mechanicals, or the idea of taking a basic object and giving it dynamic properties (consider, for example, the Proverbial Wallets, also out of MIT's Media Lab, that know your financial state).

In this case, toothpaste is modified to dispense one of three flavors depending on the weather. If it's mint, you know it's colder out than yesterday. Cinnamon means it's hotter. Blue stripes indicate tartar precipitation.

The prototype is currently hooked up to a small Linux computer that pulls forecasts, using custom software to compare previous and current temperatures and divvy up the flavors.

Then, linear actuators squeeze out the proper variety of toothpaste through a heavily modded Mentadent dispenser. … Read more

The PlayStation Move might not be a huge success without the help of big name, hard-core games, Heavy Rain creator David Cage said in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

Cage told the publication that the success of Sony's motion controller, announced at E3 in June, will depend on software "because the hardware works really well." But he cautioned that a focus on casual games could marginalize the impact the PlayStation Move could have on the market.

"If it's only about casual entertainment and casual games, I don't think it's going to play … Read more

This week, we follow new developments in the system-wide PS3 meltdown, which knocked PS3 gamers off the grid for most of Monday. Then, we find out that a New York school administrator coincidentally named "Dan Ackerman" is spying on kids' laptops. Does this mean Dan now officially has an evil doppelganger?

HD video on a Netbook is something of a misnomer, but as we demonstrate, equiped with the right hardware and the latest beta Flash player from Adobe, you can play and stream HD video to a Netbook (with varying degrees of success). Finally, we engage in a … Read more

It seems that a major worldwide firmware bug has affected most PlayStation 3s, preventing the consoles from connecting to the PlayStation Network and in many cases (including our own) not allowing for offline game play. The problem, whatever it is, comprises all PS3 consoles aside from the newer PS3 Slim.

We've been keeping an eye on the official PlayStation Twitter feed and blog that claims Sony has narrowed down the issue, though 12 hours after the bug (error 8001050F) was first reported most systems remain paralyzed. At first it seemed the crisis centralized around trophy support, while other reports … Read more