Art Lebedev's Reflectius clock tells time with a singe laser beam Art Lebedev managed to impress us with its
Segmentus analog clock last month, but it looks like the prolific design firm has now already outdone itself with its new Reflectius clock concept, which uses a single laser beam and sixty rotating mirrors to display the time. That impressive mechanism is matched by the clock's angular exterior (pictured after the break), which Art Lebedev describes as "a complex triangulated surface that reminds of the complicated trajectory the beam of light travels in no time." Unfortunately, it is still just a concept, but you can at least get your usual glimpse of Art Lebedev's design process at the source link below.
Continue reading Art Lebedev's Reflectius clock tells time with a singe laser beam
Art Lebedev's Reflectius clock tells time with a singe laser beam originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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ASUS EeeKeyboard finally shipping at the end of April We'll give you a few seconds to re-read that headline and recover from the initial shock, but yes, after almost a
year of delays the
EeeKeyboard is in fact ready for prime time -- ASUS confirmed that the Atom-based HTPC keyboard will go on sale in the US in three weeks. We don't have firm details on pricing, but we're assuming the battery-powered PC with an integrated five-inch touchscreen, HDMI-out, and
UWB will range
somewhere between $500 to $600. We should know more soon as well as have a real-life review unit, but we're curious, will you actually be putting some Eee in your living room? Oh and there's a new EeeKeyboard promo video after the break in case you've missed our
numerous hands-on vids.
Continue reading ASUS EeeKeyboard finally shipping at the end of April
ASUS EeeKeyboard finally shipping at the end of April originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Verizon teasing a Microsoft Pink announcement for Monday? So
Phandroid has scored some internal Verizon rah-rah type material teasing a device announcement on Monday, and they're thinking it's the upcoming
HTC Incredible -- but we're not so sure. This lines up all too well with
Microsoft's mysterious event in San Francisco, an event that we've heard repeatedly from a multitude of respected sources (Paul Thurrott and Ina Fried, to name a couple) would be for Microsoft's long-rumored
Pink handsets, likely for launch on Verizon. Couple that with Verizon's verbiage here -- "it's new, it's unique, living
exclusively on... Verizon Wireless" -- and we kinda think that a device as similar to phones already in the marketplace as the Incredible is doesn't warrant the hype. Fortunately, we'll have this all sorted out in less than 72 hours' time.
[Thanks, Tom]
Verizon teasing a Microsoft Pink announcement for Monday? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Zune HD 64 goes on sale early Well, it's not
April 12th, but it looks like you can now order a
Zune HD 64 nonetheless -- straight from the Zune Originals website, at least. As expected, the device runs $349.99, and the 16GB and 32GB models have now also been knocked down to $200 and $270, respectively -- all of which are naturally available in the usual range of different colors, and with custom designs for an extra $15. You'll also, of course, get the latest v4.5 firmware pre-loaded on the device, which packs new features like SmartDJ that Microsoft was recently kind enough to
demonstrate for us.
[Thanks, Henry and Jonathan]
Zune HD 64 goes on sale early originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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webOS port of Xorg in the works, OpenOffice support the inevitable result In the absence of a full, editable version of Documents To Go (DataViz still hasn't released it), this might be of some serious interest to the Palm community -- or those that are willing to muck around a bit, anyway. X.org's X server implementation has been successfully shoehorned onto a
Pre, meaning that we're well on our way to being able to run arbitrary Linux-based X11 apps on our phones -- including the mighty OpenOffice, as demonstrated here. It seems we're still a ways off yet; the devs have some file system issues to work through, which they say will likely take "weeks to months, rather than days" to fix, but it's a promising start. What, you'd never dreamed of running a desktop office suite on a 3.1-inch display? Follow the break for video.
Continue reading webOS port of Xorg in the works, OpenOffice support the inevitable result
webOS port of Xorg in the works, OpenOffice support the inevitable result originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Engadget test-drives Festo AirMotion Ride, humiliates self (video) Festo may've already stirred up plenty of attention with its mesmerizing
AirPenguin blimp, but let's not forget its other weapon --
fluidic muscles (elastomer tubes that contract when filled with fluid). At
The Gadget Show Live in the UK, this German company was also showing off its AirMotion Ride car-racing simulator -- essentially a driver's seat suspended from just six fluidic muscles for the six degrees of freedom, while sound and vision are handled by its 5.1 surround sound speakers and a projector. The company claims that each of these lightweight muscles can generate forces of up to 1,600N, and since there are no mechanical parts inside, they make an ideal replacement for conventional hydraulic plungers as used on
Force Dynamics' and
Motion-Sim's simulators. You can see Festo's machine in action after the break, but promise us that you won't judge our driving ability.
Continue reading Engadget test-drives Festo AirMotion Ride, humiliates self (video)
Engadget test-drives Festo AirMotion Ride, humiliates self (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft's Manual Deskterity project reveals pen and touch input, Courier's future?
Apple may have made its thoughts on the stylus
clearer than ever at its iPhone OS 4 event, but it looks like Microsoft Research is intent on redefining what's possible with a little pen-based input and, if this recently-revealed video is any indication, we're not about to stop them. Dubbed Manual Deskterity, the project is currently based around a
Microsoft Surface device, and shows how pen and touch input can be combined for a range of tasks that wouldn't be possible with just one or the other -- using a photo as a straight-edge (as seen above), for example, or using the pen as an X-acto knife to cut a photo while you hold it in place with your finger. Of course, while the project is currently using a Surface, it's hard not to see how it could also be applied to something like
Courier, especially considering the strong emphasis on
creativity that echoes the Courier demo videos. Head on past the break to check out the whole thing for yourself.
Continue reading Microsoft's Manual Deskterity project reveals pen and touch input, Courier's future?
Microsoft's Manual Deskterity project reveals pen and touch input, Courier's future? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone GPS navigation head-to-head review Nobody likes getting lost, and nobody likes paying too much for a reheated lunch at a franchise restaurant when there's a mouthwatering family joint hiding just around the corner. Wouldn't you know it, there's an app that solves those problems -- quite a few of the things, as it turns out. We took a look at the top iPhone navigation choices in the App Store and narrowed it down to the five below, then threw in a no charge option for kicks, covering a range of prices from free to to upwards of $120 per year. As it turns out there's a very tangible difference between the discount and the "premium" options here, but is that extra really worth it? Read on to find out.
Continue reading iPhone GPS navigation head-to-head review
iPhone GPS navigation head-to-head review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone Dev Team's MuscleNerd shows off VNC on iPhone OS 4 beta, hints at jailbreak We can't get a straight answer on the exact jailbroken status of iPhone OS 4, but MuscleNerd of the
iPhone Dev Team (and
recent iPad hacking fame) is sure hinting heavily. He's got Veency (a VNC server) and Cydia running on iPhone OS 4 on video, something he claims "you'll only find on JB 4.0." Of course, he also has the dev tools at his disposal and all the bugs and loopholes of an early beta, so we can't be exactly sure what's going on. There's also not much point to releasing an OS 4 beta jailbreak to the public, and MuscleNerd himself recommends not bothering with the betas, as they're "very buggy." Still, it's fun to see these tools alive and well on the newfangled multitasking OS. Check out the video after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading iPhone Dev Team's MuscleNerd shows off VNC on iPhone OS 4 beta, hints at jailbreak
iPhone Dev Team's MuscleNerd shows off VNC on iPhone OS 4 beta, hints at jailbreak originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Adobe says iPhone / iPad adoption and 'alternative technologies' (cough, HTML5) could harm its business Adobe might continue to crow about Flash and its importance on both the desktop and mobile devices, but there's no lying to investors, and the company is pretty blunt about the threat of the iPhone and iPad in the end-of-quarter Form 10-Q it just filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission: it flatly says that "to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed."
Now, Adobe has to make doom-and-gloom statements in its SEC filings -- it also says that slowing PC sales or a failure to keep up with desktop OS development could harm its business -- but the timing is crazy here, since just yesterday Apple
changed the iPhone OS 4 SDK agreement to block devs from using the upcoming
Flash CS5 iPhone cross-compiler to build iPhone apps. What's more, Apple's also using HTML5 for its new
iAd platform, which could potentially undo Flash's stranglehold on online advertising as well. Yeah, we'd say all that plus the recent push for HTML5 video across the web -- and
from Microsoft -- could harm Adobe's business just a
little. Better hope that
final version of Flash Player 10.1 is everything we'd hoped and dreamed of, because Adobe's going to have to make a real stand here.
Adobe says iPhone / iPad adoption and 'alternative technologies' (cough, HTML5) could harm its business originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google's Chromium project ported to N900 Web browsing fiends of the world already have enough reason to envy
N900 owners on account of the built-in browser's excellence and the
availability of an official Firefox release -- both with full Flash support -- but if that's enough, there's now another name-brand option in the works. Well, sort of. You see, Chromium for Maemo isn't an official port -- but the Maemo community is filled with tinkerers, and that has inevitably led to the availability of a hacked version of the Debian release that apparently works quite wonderfully on the N900 (yes, including Flash) with a 100 score on the elusive Acid test. It's said to be a little buggy at the moment, so hopefully that'll improve over time; you've got to download and install the package manually rather than going through a repo, but as an N900 owner, odds are pretty good that you're familiar with the tactic already. Perhaps Google wants to take this little project over?
[Thanks, Sp4mer]
Google's Chromium project ported to N900 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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DIY motion feedback MP3 player gets louder as you jump rope and do stuff (video) Music helps the weary exerciser work harder and, according to a hacker named Steve, the louder the music the more vigorously you work. So, he grabbed a motion sensor and an DIY
MP3 player, stuffed them both into a disused French Vanilla Cafe coffehouse beverage drink container (ooh, la la), then wired the works together to pump out the jams louder when you're really burning those calories -- or to get quieter when you stop for a breather. It's all fearlessly demonstrated in a video after the break featuring Steve, a jump rope, and a little bit of Bono. Make sure you stay through the credits for a deleted scene!
Continue reading DIY motion feedback MP3 player gets louder as you jump rope and do stuff (video)
DIY motion feedback MP3 player gets louder as you jump rope and do stuff (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Enso's zenPad is vaporware, get refunds while they last (update) Did you order a
Enso zenPad? If so, you'll be happy to hear that the company has decided on a concrete release date; its website is now ticking down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until May 8th, when Enso claims they'll finally ship the
rebranded Smit MID. Problem is, if you ordered your zenPad on March 22nd -- the day
we wrote about it -- you will have waited 47 days by the time the device ships, exactly two days too many to get a PayPal refund. But more importantly, manufacturer Smit has now
disavowed any knowledge of a deal, and Enso itself has admitted that the zenPad as such does not currently exist. We've done quite a bit of digging and even spoke with an Enso founder to get the whole story. Enough promises have now been broken and lies told that if we were you, we'd request refunds ASAP, but if you still want to hang on for a chance at a $155 Android tablet, you can hear the whole tale right after the break.
Update: We just spoke to Enso CEO Alberto Armandi, who says that the company has now secured the necessary funding to make good on orders, and promises that he will ship us a zenPad for review within two weeks. We'll revisit this story then. Meanwhile, read how we got to this juncture after the break.
Continue reading Enso's zenPad is vaporware, get refunds while they last (update)
Enso's zenPad is vaporware, get refunds while they last (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lenovo Skylight launch pushed off to July, IdeaPad U1 Hybrid still on track
Today in announced-at-CES product delays, we bring you the
Lenovo Skylight. Last week when we inquired about the whereabouts of our review unit (or even an order page), we were told that the Skylight's April release date had been pushed, but
Laptop has uncovered that the super thin, Snapdragon-powered smartbook has actually been significantly delayed until July. According to the a Lenovo spokesperson, the company is still working to get things just right, and we're actually not surprised considering the software
we saw at CES was far from fully-baked. Oh, but there's good news! The
IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, that awesome tablet / laptop combo, we also checked out at CES seems to be right on track for its June release date. Given that the tablet part of the U1 runs the same Skylight Linux OS as the smartbook, we're a bit skeptical on that one, but the that doesn't mean we aren't hoping and praying to get it in our hands ASAP.
Lenovo Skylight launch pushed off to July, IdeaPad U1 Hybrid still on track originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPad gets ColorWare'd, your retinas and savings may never recover (video) You thought $500 to start for a
silly tablet was bad? How about another $410 to get the thing in some other color than raw aluminum? Yes indeed,
ColorWare is at it again, this time dunking the back of iPads into giant vats of Technicolor dreams -- or nightmares, depending on what combination of hues you choose. You can make your own design, with separate colors for the back, logo, and home button, but there's no escaping that $410 service charge -- or you can pay $910 for a new, painted 16GB model. The 64GB model is a whopping $1110, but the inspirational promo video after the break is entirely free.
Continue reading iPad gets ColorWare'd, your retinas and savings may never recover (video)
iPad gets ColorWare'd, your retinas and savings may never recover (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Netflix inks with Universal and Twentieth Century Fox: first TV streams, more films, and 28 day rental delay
Everyone's streaming media darling, Netflix, has just reached terms with both Universal and Twentieth Century Fox. Both agreements beef up Netflix's streaming content while limiting Netflix to renting DVD and Blu-ray discs 28 days after the retail street date -- yup,
just like with Warner Brothers. To put that into perspective, while Twentieth Century Fox's "Avatar" DVD/Blu-ray will hit shelves on April 22nd it won't be available for Netflix rental until the end of May. On the plus side we've got a first time, Netflix TV streaming agreement with TCF -- albeit, released in a window it decides. Content includes the complete prior seasons of shows like "24," "Bones," and "Lie to Me" in addition to older library titles like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Can't say we didn't
see this one coming.
Netflix inks with Universal and Twentieth Century Fox: first TV streams, more films, and 28 day rental delay originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MIT Media Lab's Surround Vision brings virtual reality to a tablet (video) Sure,
3D adds a little more dimensionality to your couch-bound viewing experience, but it's far from the truly immersive virtual reality people have promising for decades. Surround Vision isn't quite VR either, but it's an interesting way of breaking the perception barrier, allowing a viewer to pan around a scene outside the perspective offered by one display. It's a project by Santiago Alfaro, graduate student at MIT's Media Lab, and relies on a tablet with a compass. In his demo he filmed video from three perspectives and is able to display the center perspective on the main TV while panning around to the other two with the tablet. It's an interesting idea to bring some aspect of interactivity to the viewing process, but we could see Hollywood turning it into the
next big gimmick, with the leading man pointing off screen dramatically and saying "Oh my god, what's that?" before waiting patiently for a few seconds while the audience scrambles to pan around and find the horror. Yeah, we've got your number, Michael Bay. Immersive video demonstration after the break for you to lose yourself in.
Continue reading MIT Media Lab's Surround Vision brings virtual reality to a tablet (video)
MIT Media Lab's Surround Vision brings virtual reality to a tablet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Adobe distances itself from JooJoo, cites lack of 'direct relationship' Well, this is just a
huge surprise. In response to our not entirely glowing
review of the JooJoo, Adobe's PR team has gotten in touch to inform us that Fusion Garage "has no direct relationship with Adobe." Citing the young startup's non-participation in the
Open Screen Project and use of "a public beta release [of
Flash] designed only for desktop use," Adobe is drawing a thick line between itself and the JooJoo, and urges us to instead look at the alternatives from its partners like HP, Dell and Lenovo. Mind you, not one of those companies is (
as yet) selling a competing tablet, and it's not like there's some magical formula that will make 720p Flash video run smoothly on a bare Atom CPU (remember,
Ion GPU acceleration is
not yet available for the Linux-based JooJoo), but who are we to stand in the way of a carefully worded damage limitation statement? Click past the break for the entire thing.
Continue reading Adobe distances itself from JooJoo, cites lack of 'direct relationship'
Adobe distances itself from JooJoo, cites lack of 'direct relationship' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPad LapDock asks why you'd ever need a laptop, we can think of a few answers (video) Don't act like you haven't thought about it, every
slate device is just begging for the
perfect keyboard accessory that can also function as a hard case. Some industrious souls have gotten on the case of building just such a contraption for the iPad, titled it the LapDock, and given it no lesser a goal than to completely obviate the need for laptops. Shh, no need to ruin their halcyonic existence with talk of the added connectivity, functionality, and versatility of laptops, just let it slide. As to the current state of affairs, well, the LapDock looks like a nicely carved wooden case with room for your iPad and Apple Bluetooth keyboard and that's about it. Not the highest of high-tech implementations, but it's still at the, ahem, prototype stage. Go after the break to see if it catches your fancy.
Continue reading iPad LapDock asks why you'd ever need a laptop, we can think of a few answers (video)
iPad LapDock asks why you'd ever need a laptop, we can think of a few answers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Samsung announces 1080p in-bezel CMOS sensor, webcam spying going HD Next time you hit your local electronics emporium, you might just find the
HD moniker attached to an unfamiliar category: bezel-integrated webcams. Samsung's newly announced S5K6A1 CMOS sensor can perform 720p video recording at 30fps or shoot 1.3 megapixel images, while its senior sibling S5K5B3 elevates those values to 1080p / 30fps and 2.1 megapixels, respectively. Touting an autofocus feature that helps with reading barcodes and business cards as well as improved low-light performance, Samsung tells us these new must-have laptop parts are set for mass production in the second quarter of this year. Samples are available today, so if your name's
Michael Dell or
Arimasa Naitoh, why not give Sammy a call?
Samsung announces 1080p in-bezel CMOS sensor, webcam spying going HD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PS3 owners eligible for cash refund after 'Other OS' removal? Admit it, most of you don't use the "Other OS" option on your PS3, do you? That's ok, we don't either, at least not regularly. Nevertheless, it's irksome, nay, vexing that Sony had the
audacity to pull it; that feature was part of the deal bargained when we purchased the unit after all. Forum moderator, "lapetus," over at
NeoGAF decided to take on the man by invoking European directive 1999/44/EC, a consumer protection law that requires goods to be "fit for the purpose which the consumer requires them and which was made known to the seller at the time of purchase." That little tactic earned lapetus a refund of £84.00 from Amazon without physically returning the console even though his (?) PS3 was well out of warranty. Oh just you never mind that Sony's user agreement claims the ability to revise settings and features
without limitation to, "prevent access to unauthorized or pirated content, or use of unauthorized hardware or software in connection with the PS3 system." In other words, request your refund
before installing
Geohot's hacked 3.21 firmware.
PS3 owners eligible for cash refund after 'Other OS' removal? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Flip S1240W priced at $280 in Best Buy's systems, reads an awful lot like 'Slide HD' to us Our army of Best Buy informants has struck again, this time delivering an internal systems entry that references an S1240W model from
Cisco's consumer division, described as a digital camcorder. Aside from the obvious appearance of the Flip name in the top right corner, the retail box dimensions listed herein -- 7.7 by 1.5 by 3.6 inches -- seem an almost perfect match for the recently spied
Flip Slide HD product box. At that time, we were furnished with supplemental pics pointing out 16GB of built-in storage for up to four hours of video, and today we can add a price and potential release date to the dossier. April 18 is the reputed "in stock" date for this Flip shooter, with a $280 "regular retail" price shown on the other snapshot we've come across (see it after the break). That means we've only got a few days of mystery left before Cisco flips the covers away.
[Thanks, Jae]
Continue reading Flip S1240W priced at $280 in Best Buy's systems, reads an awful lot like 'Slide HD' to us
Flip S1240W priced at $280 in Best Buy's systems, reads an awful lot like 'Slide HD' to us originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Archos 7 Home Tablet sized up by FCC Now that everyone and their grandpappy's thoroughly caught up in
tablet frenzy, it's time for some of the lesser beasts to start coming out of the woodwork. Next up? The Archos 7 Home Tablet, which just garnered the last bit of FCC approval it needs to see a
late April release. With a comparatively slow 600 MHz Rockchip RK2808 inside, don't expect the Home Tablet to
set speed records like its younger brother, but do look forward to a
reasonably competitive price when the video-friendly Android device arrives stateside. See what it looks like with a paintjob (and sans "Ewe" logo) in our video
from CeBIT after the break, or peek pics of an government-sponsored teardown at the source link.
Continue reading Archos 7 Home Tablet sized up by FCC
Archos 7 Home Tablet sized up by FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iChat video with front facing camera evidence mounts in iPhone OS 4 Of the 1,500 or so new developer APIs and over 100 new user features mentioned by
Steve and Co. yesterday, only a handful were covered in any detail. As usual, Apple was careful not to reveal anything about the next generation iPhone hardware expected to launch this summer. Fortunately we can spelunk the iPhone OS 4 SDK developer preview for hints of what's to come.
TUAW found a new "iChatAgent" process running on OS 4 devices -- purpose, unknown -- but surely an indicator that Apple's finally set to launch a mobile iChat app. The fact that Apple hasn't already is one of those great iPhone / iPad / iPod touch mysteries. We've also peeled back the SDK to find evidence supporting those
rumors of a front-facing camera (AVCaptureDevicePositionFront), flash (AVCaptureFlashModeOn/Off/auto), and torch/flashlight (AVCaptureTorchModeOn/Off/Auto) all declared in the AVCaptureDevice.h. Who cares, right? Front-facing video cameras have been implemented on a variety of mobile devices for years. Trouble is, how many people actually use them to video conference? And if Apple's late contribution to copy and paste can be used as a guide for setting expectations (and it can), then we expect Apple's iChat implementation to be done with the same grace and ease of use -- something that should have its carrier partners a bit worried if it's allowed to function over 3G data.
[Thanks, Anonymous]
iChat video with front facing camera evidence mounts in iPhone OS 4 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus could be coming to Europe by the end of this month Time to get those speculative juices flowing again.
Pre Central have unearthed the above O2 Germany promotional poster displaying a
Palm Pixi stood in front of such smartphone luminaries as Sony Ericsson's X10 and Motorola's Milestone. Given that the Pixi has yet to make the hop over the Atlantic, their supposition is that we're looking at
its Plus variant and that this early flier is indicative of a soon-ish release for the
Euro-bound Plus devices from Palm. Can we be any more specific than that? Why yes we can, thanks to Laurent Guyot, a French PR chap, who indicates an April 27th launch date for the Pre and Pixi Plus on the SFR network. Put as much trust into this info as you feel appropriate, though it does look like a resoundingly logical time to get these handsets out into eager European hands.
[Thanks, Garth]
Continue reading Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus could be coming to Europe by the end of this month
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus could be coming to Europe by the end of this month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Stylish Sony Walkman docks sport WiFi radio, ludicrous sheen Thermos audio wasn't the only idea Sony Japan introduced this week; there's also the company's glossy new speaker docks, the NAS-V5 and NAS-V7M, whose intense reflection make us remember that time mom told us never to stare at the sun. Unfortunately, NAS doesn't stand for
Network Attached Storage here, but the ¥50,000 (about $535) NAS-V7M
does have 16GB of internal memory onto which you can
rip audio CDs with a single touch, and both it and the ¥40,000 ($428) NAS-V5 have internal WiFi that'll have your Japanese counterparts pumping
internet radio jingles from Shoutcast, vTuner, your PC and anything else with a compatible wireless audio stream when they hit Akihabara on June 26. They both feature 32-bit DSPs for what we can only guess will be crisp, clean audio quality, have all the standard AM-FM radio features you've come to expect, and include an AUX jack and a powered USB port. Oh, and lest we forget amidst all the bedside table aural goodness -- they're also Walkman docks. Hear a deep, soothing Japanese voice explain why you need one, after the break.
Continue reading Stylish Sony Walkman docks sport WiFi radio, ludicrous sheen
Stylish Sony Walkman docks sport WiFi radio, ludicrous sheen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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15-inch MacBook Pros MIA on BestBuy.com, long-awaited refresh really, truly coming April 13th? iPhone,
iPhone,
iPhone... wait, what's that? You're still pining for those refreshed, possibly
Core i5- /
i7-equipped MacBook Pros that
have been long rumored? If a source close to
Australian MacWorld has any merit, we'll finally be seeing updates to the laptop line -- Pro and Air, allegedly -- this Tuesday, April 13th. No word on what the new models would feature if true, but without an event all its own, the best we can expect is probably a spec boost. Best Buy seems to be adding some fuel to the fire, first by showing a proverbial
mark of death in its database last month, and now by making the 15-inch model unavailable on BestBuy.com. Undoubtedly the retailer's waiting for a new shipment of potent portables, but the question remains, what will they run under the hood?
[Thanks, Ryan]
Update: UK retailer John Lewis is also
showing its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air options as out of stock, though it suffers no such shortages with MacBooks. Draw your own conclusions [Thanks, Ben].
15-inch MacBook Pros MIA on BestBuy.com, long-awaited refresh really, truly coming April 13th? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ask Engadget: best method or product for organizing wall outlets? We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's
Ask Engadget question is coming to us from deciBels, who is sick and tired of only being able to utilize 4 of the 7 outlets in a conventional power strip. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at
ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
"I am absolutely dying to know what the best product(s) are to maximize and organize power outlets. I have 9 cables at one outlet (big nest of cables). I ran out of space there and had to go to a completely different wall to find 2 more vacancies. That's without actually plugging in everything I would like to. I'm not a fan of having to compromise but when it comes to outlets, I'm being beat! Help me Engadget!"
You heard the man, help him! Anyone know of any consumer-friendly power strips that allow for larger wall warts? Any tricks the trade to maximizing space down there? Sharing is caring, y'all.
Ask Engadget: best method or product for organizing wall outlets? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple announces WebKit2 with Chrome-like process splitting Apple's big announcement of the day might have been
iPhone OS 4, but another reveal that's gone slightly under the radar might actually turn out to be a bigger deal: WebKit2, which now runs browser elements as separate processes, much like Google Chrome. Actually, Apple's devs say it goes a little farther than Chrome, since the process model is built into the foundation so other non-Safari clients can use it. That's pretty wild stuff, considering how prevalent WebKit has become across the mobile space and the fact that Chrome itself uses the rendering engine. No word on when this will all go final, but hey -- it's all open source, and you can actually grab Mac and Windows binaries right now. Let us know how it goes, won't you?
Apple announces WebKit2 with Chrome-like process splitting originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple's iPhone lockdown: apps must be written in one of three languages, Adobe in the hurt locker
Apple's already got a veritable novella describing things you can't do with the iPhone as a developer -- create apps that execute their own code is the biggie, obviously, blocking technologies Flash and Java in the absence of a loophole -- but it seems they've locked down the ecosystem just a little further today with the release of the
iPhone OS 4 beta SDK. Check out this snippet from the developer's agreement:
Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that technologies like
Adobe's iPhone compiler in Flash CS5 won't be allowed, simply because the source code of the app that you're writing isn't in a language Apple's comfortable with. The compiler had been seen as a potential boon for Flash devs that had already been blocked out of the iPhone ecosystem for lack of a true Flash player, but Apple's found a way to block even this workaround -- technically you don't need to be using Apple's own tools, but you've got be using one of three variants of a single programming language. It's hard to say why Apple cares, exactly, but we suspect that the company would have to analyze your app pretty closely to detect variances in how the compiler produced your machine code in order to determine that you'd violated the rule.
This could be a blow to publishers -- Condé Nast included -- who'd been banking on Adobe Air to lead the digital push, since those guys presumably won't be able to bring their issues to the iPhone (and, more importantly, the iPad) without violating the terms of Apple's agreement. Protectionism is a core element of the iPhone's success, in Apple's view -- but ultimately, this might come out as a decision that's difficult to defend, unnecessarily sours publishers to the platform, and turns Flash devs' heads just a little grayer than they already were.
Apple's iPhone lockdown: apps must be written in one of three languages, Adobe in the hurt locker originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone OS 4.0 spotlight lets you directly search web, Wikipedia Apple did quite a bit today bringing its iPhone OS up to feature parity (and sometimes beyond) when compared with other modern smartphone platforms, and here's one piece not discussed today that we've been long wanting: web and Wikipedia search directly from Spotlight.
WebOS and
Windows Phone 7 have had it since inception, and Android's had it
since Donut, and we're pretty happy to say that our
OS 4.0-equipped iPhone is now also among the ranks, just 13 months after it
first got a search bar. There you have it, folks, iPhone Spotlight is now useful.
[Thanks, Randy]
iPhone OS 4.0 spotlight lets you directly search web, Wikipedia originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Creative debuts ZEN X-Fi Style, ZEN Style portable media players
Creative isn't exactly breaking the mold with these, but the company has just announced its new ZEN X-Fi Style and ZEN Style series of portable media players, which both keep things fairly simple and inexpensive. The ZEN X-Fi Style (pictured above) is the higher end of the two, with it packing a 2.4-inch non-touchscreen display, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage, a built-in speaker, microphone and TV out, and the usual X-Fi sound enhancement -- not to mention support for "playback" of downloaded RSS feeds, but no other apparent internet capabilities. It's joined by the ZEN Style 100 and 300, which each pack a 1.8-inch display and 4GB, 8GB or 16GB of storage, along with an added speaker and FM radio on the ZEN Style 300 (pictured after the break). Look for the ZEN X-Fi Style to start shipping on April 14th at prices between $80 and $170, while the two ZEN Style players are available right now for between $50 and $80.
[Thanks, Ruben]
Continue reading Creative debuts ZEN X-Fi Style, ZEN Style portable media players
Creative debuts ZEN X-Fi Style, ZEN Style portable media players originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sanyo's DMX-CG100 and DMX-GH1 camcorders do 1080p up in here Another day, another little
camcorder that can fill up memory cards quick with 1080p on tap. Sanyo's DMX-CG100 and DMX-GH1 can record 30fps progressively at 12Mbps, or 60 at 16Mbps if you don't mind interlacing, through 5x optical zoom lenses with two separate ranges: 40mm at the widest end and 480mm on the telephoto side. Both offer SDXC support for up to 64GB of storage and the only real difference between them is design, with the CG100 (above) offering a vertical style and the GH1 (after the break) going for the more traditional (and apparently
less comfortable) horizontal design. Both start shooting in Japan next week, but Sanyo's not saying how much you'll need to pay for admission to this party. Hands-on photos of the CG100 (VPC-CG100 in Europe) from the UK's
The Gadget Show Live below.
Continue reading Sanyo's DMX-CG100 and DMX-GH1 camcorders do 1080p up in here
Sanyo's DMX-CG100 and DMX-GH1 camcorders do 1080p up in here originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lenovo ThinkPad W701, W701ds and dual-core X100e shipping to trackpoint lovers Not getting a rest there, huh, Lenovo? On the heels of the availability of the
IdeaPad S10-3s and
C200, big L has also been prepping to box and send off some fresh ThinkPads. If the 17-inch, Wacom-equipped W701 and W701ds (dual screen) caught your eye when they were
first introduced two months ago we hope you set aside a chunk of change --
the Core i7 / NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M rig rings up at
$3,668.00. Add in that dual screen and you're up to
$4,343. On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, that X100e which we
recently reviewed is available with a
1.6GHz AMD Turion Neo X2 Dual-Core CPU. We doubt that'll do the sub-four hour battery life any good, but if power in a small package is what you're after it's definitely worth a click on the source link. As for that picture of the X100e with a floppy disk that really has nothing to do with the news, we just came across it on Lenovo's blog and really liked it.
Lenovo ThinkPad W701, W701ds and dual-core X100e shipping to trackpoint lovers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone OS 4 keynote video now online Sure, you devoured
every word of the liveblog (or perhaps just casually refreshed throughout the day, who are we to judge), but if you want to see the Steve Jobs-delivered iPhone OS 4 keynote with your own two eyes, the streaming video is now online. Multitask your way on over!
iPhone OS 4 keynote video now online originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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T-Mobile's myTouch Slide earns its FCC wings? Seeing HTC leak a shot of a product through a confidential FCC filing is about as rare as a confirmed yeti sighting, so you can imagine our excitement with this fresh meat that just landed in the Fed's files today. What is it, exactly? Well, it's a smartphone running 3G on WCDMA Band IV, which -- for those who don't have their bands memorized -- is the
AWS spectrum that T-Mobile uses. In other words, we'd bet our bottom dollar that this is the rumored Android-equipped
myTouch Slide that we're looking at here -- and with a Spring launch window having been rumored in the past, this certification looks like it's running right on time. Your move, T-Mobile.
T-Mobile's myTouch Slide earns its FCC wings? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone OS 4 hands-on (updated with video!) Okay, so we're currently holding our breath while the developer preview of
iPhone OS 4 installs on our 3GS -- a process that seems to be, uh, not going so well, but we wanted to share these quick shots we took from the simulator in the meantime. The dock is now 3D, like the one in Snow Leopard and on the iPad,
multitasking works just like you'd expect -- you can swipe left and right to see more open apps -- and the
Game Center app is present, although not functional. There's also Events and Faces in the Photos app, which you'd expect after the iPad version got them. We've got our fingers crossed that our latest restore attempt is going to work, so check back in a few for a video walkthrough, but hit the gallery below in the meantime!
Update: Wonder of wonders, we actually got the bugger working! We're doing video right now, let us know what you want to see -- and check out some on-device shots below.
Update 2: Video time! We also added some impressions, it's all after the break.
Continue reading iPhone OS 4 hands-on (updated with video!)
iPhone OS 4 hands-on (updated with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone OS 4 versus Windows Phone 7: the tale of the tape So now that Apple's finally
addressed (well, sort of addressed) the 800-pound gorilla known as multitasking, it's time to take a good, hard look at how
iPhone OS 4 stacks up against Redmond's completely redesigned mobile monster that's destined to hit handsets toward the end of the year. Though the two companies have taken vastly different paths to get to where they are with their mobile strategies today, there are some striking similarities between the platforms; take that multitasking we already mentioned, for example -- both iPhone OS and Windows Phone are looking to keep processor and battery utilization to a minimum by putting the emphasis on managed services for background apps rather than just letting them run roughshod over your fragile hardware. Of course, there are some striking differences, too -- so let's have a look, shall we?
Continue reading iPhone OS 4 versus Windows Phone 7: the tale of the tape
iPhone OS 4 versus Windows Phone 7: the tale of the tape originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Alienware M11x getting NVIDIA Optimus and new Intel CPUs this summer? Either someone at Alienware is reading our reviews or the engineers over there happen to be as smart as us. What was our top
complaint about the M11x? The lack of
NVIDIA Optimus to automatically switch between the IGP and the GT335M GPU to help save battery life, of course. Well, if Notebook Review forum commenter Darkhan, who apparently has some affiliation with Alienware, is to be believed the company is working on adding just that to an updated M11x. Said to be released in the June / July time frame, the refreshed 11.6-inch laptop will apparently also be getting some new Intel Core 2010 CPUs. It does seems a bit early to update a product that
started shipping just a month ago, but we wouldn't put it past those crazy gamers. Dell wouldn't comment on the rumor, so the only thing we can promise at this time is that we'll be keeping an ear to the ground on this one.
Updated: Darkhan has updated the Notebook Review forum page saying that he isn't an employee of Dell or Alienware and that he just hears rumors like everyone else. We still have a hunch that some sort of update is headed to the M11x, but to reemphasize it is all just wishful thinking at this point.
Alienware M11x getting NVIDIA Optimus and new Intel CPUs this summer? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mitsubishi's Unisen LCD HDTVs, now with more speakers, LED, WiFi, apps, cowbell Just in case you prefer a slimmer profile to your television viewing experience without all that 3D nonsense, Mitsubishi has also refreshed its
Unisen LCD HDTVs. All the new models have StreamTV a.k.a.
VUDU Apps built in, plus playback from USB devices, and edge LED backlighting. While the LT-55154 drops a few speakers (if you brought your own), the step-up 164 line is sized from 40- to 55-inches including 16 speakers built in, integrated WiFi, Bluetooth streaming and more while the top of the line 265 models add two more speakers to the mix and upgrade to 240 Hz motion, an iPhone remote control app plus a few other configuration tweaks for the high end. Check after the break for prices (between $1,699 & $3,199) and more specs, though exact shipping information is still TBA.
Continue reading Mitsubishi's Unisen LCD HDTVs, now with more speakers, LED, WiFi, apps, cowbell
Mitsubishi's Unisen LCD HDTVs, now with more speakers, LED, WiFi, apps, cowbell originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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