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You know, there are times when you have to part ways with your adorable kitties at home, and you might not be so keen on getting a cat sitter in case he or she touches your precious game consoles (even if it’s an old granny). We’ve seen the lazy man’s solution before, but Britain’s Mathew Newton has brought us a new DIY internet-enabled cat feeder just in time for a new decade. Rather than using a CD-ROM tray to push-release unknown quantities of cat food, Mathew’s version has a motor-driven cereal dispenser controlled by signal from port status LEDs on a Cisco switch — an ingenious way to avoid expensive Ethernet relay units. When it’s feeding time the user logs onto a web interface to choose the dispensing quantity, or you can also have an automatic feed schedule set up if you trust the system — Mathew said he “can rely on it 100%,” and his cats do appear to be healthy. Fortunately, you can always check the live video stream just in case you have doubts. All is explained in the video after the break.

Continue reading DIY cat feeder now enabled by a Cisco switch, streams food and video

DIY cat feeder now enabled by a Cisco switch, streams food and video originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen a couple of heavy-hitting matchups in our Faceoff series in the last couple of weeks, with Google Android smashing Apple’s iPhone and Verizon trouncing AT&T recently.

This week we have another clash of the titans, with Microsoft’s relatively new search contender Bing going head-to-head against incumbent Google for Mashable readers’ search supremacy.

Who will be the winner in this week’s faceoff? You’ll have to cast your vote below and tune in on Friday for the results. Be sure to get your opinion in by noon PST on Friday to make it in time for poll closing. Also please let us know in the comments who you chose the winner you did. For results from all of the past Faceoff matchups to date, see the end of this post. Happy voting!

Who would win in a fight: Google or Bing?(surveys)

Web Faceoff: Overall Results

Week 1:

- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome

- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:

- Tumblr vs. Posterous

- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:

- Pandora vs. Last.fm

- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:

- Twitter vs. Facebook

- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:

- WordPress vs. Typepad

- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:

- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard

- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:

- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop

- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:

- Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs

- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:

- Apple iPhone vs. Google Android

- WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:

- AT&T vs. Verizon

- WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Reviews: Bing, Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google, Google Docs, Mashable, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, WordPress

Tags: bing, Google, poll, Search, web faceoff

Those incredibly sexy (as far as portable storage capacities are concerned) 64GB SDXC cards coming on the horizon? You’re gonna want some hardware to work with it, and according to DailyTech, three of the largest computer manufacturers are looking to bring the upgrade with Intel’s forthcoming Arrandale CPUs. Lenovo, HP, and Dell are reportedly working on new designs that’ll contain both the new 32nm chipsets and SDXC readers. Not that we’re surprised to see new SDHC’s time running out, but it does give you something to look forward to.

Dell, HP, and Lenovo bringing SDXC to laptops alongside 32nm Intel chipsets? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This year marked the second annual Android Developer Challenge, in which third-party developers competed for up to a $250,000 purse for the overall winner, as well as sizeable $100k, $50k and $25k 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes in each of 10 app categories. Throughout September and October, participating official judges as well as thousands of Android user judges tested out and voted on submitted entries — and now the final winners are in.

Google posted not only the 30 winners in each of the 10 categories as well as the 3 overall winners, but have published an unabridged gallery of the top 200 apps in the challenge. Although some of these apps aren’t yet available in the Android Market, many of them are downloadable now and the rest surely will be shortly.

Categories included Education, Entertainment, two Gaming categories (for Arcade/Action and Casual/Puzzle), Lifestyle, Media, Productivity/Tools, Social Networking, Travel, and Miscellaneous. A comparison between last year’s Top 50 gallery and this year’s 200-strong showcase alone speaks to the growth of the Android platform over the past year. ADC1 also saw a wealth of location-based services take the top slots, while 2009’s categories approach provided a more diverse set of winning apps.

Have you had a chance to check out any of the winners yet? Are there any in the official winners list or the top 200 gallery you’re looking forward to picking up? Let us know in the comments.

Top 30 Android Apps, By Category

Overall Winners

- SweetDreams

- What the Doodle!?

- WaveSecure

Education/Reference Winners

- Plink Art

- Word Puzzle

- Celeste

Entertainment Winners

- A World of Photo

- SongDNA

- Solo

Games: Arcade/Action Winners

- Speed Forge 3D

- Graviturn

- Moto X Mayhem

Games: Casual/Puzzle Winners

- What the Doodle!?

- Totemo

- Mazeness

Lifestyle Winners

- SweetDreams

- SpecTrek

- FoxyRing

Media Winners

- Buzz Deck

- SPB TV

- FxCamera

Productivity/Tools Winners

- WaveSecure

- Hoccer

- Tasker

Social Networking Winners

- Ce:real – Everyday trends

- SocialMuse

- SpotMessage

Travel Winners

- Trip Journal

- iNap: Arrival Alert

- Car Locator

Misc Winners

- Rhythm Guitar

- Andrometer

- Calton Hill GPSCaddy

Reviews: Android, Android Market, Google

Tags: ADC, ADC2, android, android developer challenge, Android Market, Google

The path back to LCD leadership for Sharp begins at its just opened Sakai City manufacturing facility. Being a 10th generation facility means it can roll out more and bigger displays, producing six 60-inch LCDs from each glass substrate, 60% more than older 8g facilities. Check out the pics for a peek at where 72,000 substrates per month will be made, delivering those slim LED backlit televisions getting so much love, along with solar panels (also being installed on the roofs for that extra green vibe that’s in vogue these days) and a few of the more than 100,000 energy efficient LEDs lighting the factory itself. Whether your closest HDTV purchase is a turkey fueled memory from last weekend or yet to come, bargain hunters and AV fans alike can appreciate an eyeful of the robots and testing equipment slicing, dicing and stamping screens headed for shelves nearby, whether bearing an Aquos brand or any number of other nameplates.

Inside Sharp’s new LCD factory, we can see our next HDTV from here originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: InvisibleHand

Quick Pitch: InvisibleHand is a Firefox addon that shows a discreet notification when the product you’re browsing can be bought for a lower price elsewhere.

Genius Idea: While there’s no shortage of online tools designed to help consumers be better bargain shoppers, InvisibleHand works automatically while you browse to find you better deals on products from more than 100 top retailers in three different countries. It’s effortless comparison shopping that’s designed to work for you as a seamless addition to your standard browsing experience.

Say, for instance, that you’re shopping for a new LCD TV and you’re scouring the deals on Amazon.com. Should there be a lower price available for the item from another retailer, InvisibleHand will automatically alert you to the better deal with a notification that displays the savings, the lower price, an option to view all available offers, and a quick link to the online retailer where you can make the purchase.

Though InvisibleHand can’t account for every single product or retailer on the web, they do cover and support big names like Best Buy, Amazon, Borders, Buy.com, The Home Depot, New Egg, Sears, and Walmart. Products included range from everything like video games, toys, game consoles, and consumer electronic devices to cosmetics, books, and pharmaceuticals.

We’re pretty keen on the idea of saving money without additional effort, and InvisibleHand offers one of the most efficient means for doing so. Let us know what you think of the Firefox addon in the comments.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

Reviews: Firefox, PHP

Tags: firefox add-on, invisiblehand, online shopping