How would you change Sony's Xperia P?
Sony's problem (or at least, one of 'em), is its slavish devotion to Gingerbread that goes above and beyond that of its smartphone rivals. As a consequence, its
Xperia P came out humbled with an aged OS and a promise of a
future upgrade. It's a shame, because we found it to have real charm, good build quality (one of Sony's strengths) and a display that can hold its own against the light. If you bought one, you've had a good five or six months to get to know and love it, so how do you feel? Is it the phone for you, or do you wish you'd gone elsewhere? This week,
How Would You Change lets you play amateur smartphone designer, so head into the comments and let your imagination run riot.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Mobile,
Sony
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XBMC 12 Beta 2 rolls out, brings first Android beta APK
The second official beta of
XBMC 12 "Frodo" is ready for testing, and if you've been waiting to move up
from the nightlies you finally can -- as long as it meets a few requirements, like supporting Neon processor code (most HTC and Samsung devices do). There's a compatibility list of devices known to work, although there are known issues with Android 4.2 that won't be addressed until Beta 3. Also improved in this version is support for the Xbox 360 controller, no matter what platform you're using it on, along with some audio fixes and other tweaks. Hit the source link for the full list of updates or just go straight to the download page if your media device can't wait.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment,
HD
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Source: XBMC,
Download
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Mitsubishi is ending rear-projection TVs, ceases production of DLP and laser models
It's time for someone over at IDC to pop the champagne, as its
2007 projection about the end of
rear-projection TVs turned out to be only a year off, now that the last company still making them has announced it's getting out of the game. As first reported by
CE Pro, Mitsubishi is finally ceding to competition from flat-panels which have grown to equally ridiculous size, and cut prices so sharply that it "can no longer sustain our business in its current form." The company's official statement is after the break, confirming that its DLP and
LaserVue models are no more however "existing customer relations and parts and services departments will remain in place along with existing authorized service centers" which should be good news for current owners. There's an in-depth retrospective of the technology at the source link, looking back to Samsung's exit that left Mitsubishi alone in the segment three years ago, long after others like
Sony and
Hitachi fled for thinner-framed climates.
Mitsubishi also made a go of it in flat-panels, but
ditched those efforts last year and will now focus on the professional market and home-theater projectors here in the US. In recent years the tech has improved with thinner models, integrated soundbars and even larger screens available. The slowing economy may have extended RPTV's lease on life with a size bang for buck that's tough to beat, but ultimately customers opted for bright flashy flat-panel HDTVs that offer easier wall-mounting options while seeming to get bigger, lighter and cheaper every year. We're sure there are more than a few super-sized rear-projection TVs that will continue to bring the big game to basements and dens everywhere, feel free to celebrate an old friend in the comments below.
Continue reading Mitsubishi is ending rear-projection TVs, ceases production of DLP and laser models
Filed under:
Home Entertainment,
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Source: CE Pro
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Refresh Roundup: week of November 26th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient
roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of November 26th, 2012
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Software,
Mobile
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The Weekly Roundup for 11.26.2012
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 7 days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Continue reading The Weekly Roundup for 11.26.2012
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Switched On: The fork, the ficus and the flandoodle
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
As sensors and crowdsourcing give us ever more granular data into the norms and deviations of the world around us, enterprising developers and hardware companies have trotted out various combinations of atoms and bits to package that awareness, sometimes paired with recommendations, into products. Back in March,
Switched On discussed a number of Kickstarter projects (all of which have now shipped) that extended sensor-based monitoring and notification to remote locations (provided there was WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity). Where does it end? Three recent product announcements enable us to know more about things that we might not ever have thought to track in the past.
Continue reading Switched On: The fork, the ficus and the flandoodle
Filed under:
Misc,
Science
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Rome to bring Formula E to Europe, joins a growing eco-racing scene
Although
Formula E racing is still very much in its infancy, all the ingredients are quickly coming into place: Rome has just volunteered itself as the first European city to host the electric-only circuit. It's just the second city to enlist for the league following Rio de Janeiro's move in August, but it gives the league a truly international reach as well as a fifth of the 10 urban racetracks it needs for the initial 2014 season. Additional cities are expected in the weeks ahead, and should quickly lead to a solidified race itinerary, the
FIA says. Having Rome onside won't get cars to the starting line any sooner, but it may underscore Formula E's advantages in noise and pollution over gas-powered leagues -- when its cars can race around the Colosseum without creating a ruckus, other cities (and spectators) might just follow suit.
Continue reading Rome to bring Formula E to Europe, joins a growing eco-racing scene
Filed under:
Transportation
Comments
Via: Phys.org
Source: Formula E News
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IRL: Klipsch Image X7i, Razer BlackShark and BlueAnt's Embrace headphones
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.
Just call this IRL: the headphone edition. This week, it's all about audio -- everything from a gaming headset to in-ears to a pair of leather-cushioned cans. Read on to find out what we're using, and how it's working out for us
Continue reading IRL: Klipsch Image X7i, Razer BlackShark and BlueAnt's Embrace headphones
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Suunto Ambit update lets athletes build their own GPS watch apps
Extending watches with apps is one thing if you're building for a
smartphone companion with a traditional, developer-centric app model. It's quite another when it's a
GPS watch, and athletes are building their own apps -- yet that's what Suunto has managed with a 2.0 firmware update to its Ambit outdoor watch. The revamp uses a simple web interface to let us build free sports apps based on criteria as simple as distance and speed through to more specific measurements like heart rate and pressure. Adding predictive routines and arbitrary values allows for situation-specific code we might not get elsewhere, whether it's estimating the finish time of a marathon or guessing just how much post-run beer is possible before the guilt sets in. On top of the new software platform, the 2.0 update brings a handful of major extensions from Suunto itself, including support for
ANT+ and Foot POD sensors as well as an interval timer. The apps and upgrades help justify a relatively steep $500 price for the Ambit by turning it into a
Swiss Army Knife for the wrist; when features are dictated more by imagination than a developer's whims, they might just save the cost of an early hardware replacement.
Continue reading Suunto Ambit update lets athletes build their own GPS watch apps
Filed under:
GPS,
Wearables
Comments
Source: Suunto (PDF),
Movescount
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Netgear's NeoTV Prime (GTV100) is the latest Google TV box outed by FCC filings (update: pictures!)
Just like the suddenly inescapable
4K, it appears
Google TV will be a buzzword for multiple new devices at CES like this Netgear NeoTV Prime (model # GTV100) which
GTV Hacker discovered via a pair of curious FCC testing documents. It actually snuck through the FCC before the just-leaked
ASUS Qube (more on that in a moment), revealed via a documents for both its Bluetooth-connected remote control and a wireless component, although the box itself remains under wraps. The remote packs a QWERTY keyboard, while up front there's a touchpad plus the usual assortment of control buttons augmented with several app shortcuts for Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, HBO Go and Crackle. It may be wishful thinking, but here's hoping the inclusion of Amazon and HBO Go buttons mean dedicated apps are on the way, instead of the current website shortcuts. The wireless module is less revealing, only confirming the name, 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a lack of ad-hoc wireless network support. Check after the break for a couple of more pics, and info on where Google TV may be headed.
Update: We've heard a bit more about the box which is apparently in beta testing. At least at the moment, those button shortcuts are still tied to the webapps and some testers are complaining about overheating. We also have pictures of the box itself next to its remote, although it's possible the design could change before launch.
[Thanks, anonymous]
Continue reading Netgear's NeoTV Prime (GTV100) is the latest Google TV box outed by FCC filings (update: pictures!)
Filed under:
Home Entertainment,
HD,
Google
Comments
Source: GTV Hacker,
NeoTV Prime remote (FCC),
NeoTV wireless (FCC)
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Inhabitat's Week in Green: vertical farm, solar energy funnel and a brainwave monitor
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
This week Inhabitat reported live from the
Los Angeles Auto Show as we brought you the hottest new
green cars -- beginning with
the 2013 Fiat 500e electric vehicle. We're also eagerly awaiting
the unveiling of BMW's new i3 Coupe concept. In other green transportation news,
JR Tokai unveiled Japan's new lightning-fast 310 MPH MagLev train, while Amtrak announced that
trains traveling between Chicago and St. Louis were cleared to accelerate to 110 MPH on a short stretch of track. It's no MagLev, but we'll take it! Designer Jeffrey Eyster also unveiled the MRV-1,
a recreational vehicle that doubles as a sustainable nature retreat.
Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: vertical farm, solar energy funnel and a brainwave monitor
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Misc,
Science
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Benchmarks hint at budget ASUS ME172V Jelly Bean tablet, 1GHz processor Mali 400 GPU
ASUS has been a strong force in the tablet game even before it set a new price-to-quality standard with Google's
Nexus 7. It looks like the firm could be tightening the budget screw even further, if some recent GLBenchmarks are to be believed. The details are sparse, but outline a product with model number ME172V (which follows from its pre-Nexus
smaller tablet line), that runs Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, sports a 1,024 x 552 (likely 1,024 x 600) resolution powered by a Mali 400 GPU and 1GHz chip. There's no indication on the number of cores, or, well, much else for that matter. Various rumors are keen to suggest there'd be support for microSD, which if true, would make it unlikely to be a Nexus. But a budget tablet by the same manufacturer, is likely enough for many people all the same.
Filed under:
Tablets,
ASUS,
Google
Comments
Via: Pocket Now
Source: GLBenchmark
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Hardkernel reveals pair of quad-core Exynos ODROID-U developer boards, starting at $69
One area where Moore's law can be seen alive and well seems to be the developer and small project computer world. Whether it's the ubiquitous
Raspberry Pi,
Intel's NUC, or any number of
similar products. There's one more name to add to this list, and that's the ODROID-U from
Hardkernel. The boards are a little more expensive than Raspberry Pi's impressively cheap Model A and Model B, but you are getting some bang for that buck. The $69 ODROID-U comes with a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 processor (as found in the
Galaxy S III and Note II, 1GB of RAM, quad-core Mali 400 graphics, micro-HDMI, a brace of USB ports, a headphone jack and Ethernet. If you want a little more oomph, for an extra $20 you can have the RAM doubled, and a 1.7GHz core with the ODROID-U2 model. There's one stat you might notice missing which is flash memory. There's no onboard storage, so you'll have to bring your own memory for the built-in microSD slot. As the ODROID name suggests, the boards can run Android, as well as a variety of Linux flavours. Sound good? In a reverse of what you might expect, the ODROID-U2 will be available first, starting December 21st, with the cheaper board pencilled in to arrive on January 16th.
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Desktops
Comments
Via: Android Community
Source: Hardkernel
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Acer extends $199 C7 Chromebook distribution to NewEgg, TigerDirect, Staples.com
If you're absolutely stuck on not spending a penny more than $199 on a laptop, then you've probably had your eye on Acer's
C7 Chromebook. The barebones machine won't be taking home any awards for performance, battery life or build quality this holiday season, but it does fit the bill at just shy of 200 bucks, including 100 gigs of
Google Drive storage for the first two years (a $120 value). NewEgg, TigerDirect and Staples.com have now joined the ranks of proud C7 distributors, in addition to Google Play and Best Buy, giving you a few more e-tailer options to choose from when it comes time to hand over your pair of Franklins for the 3.05-pound "stocking stuffer."
Continue reading Acer extends $199 C7 Chromebook distribution to NewEgg, TigerDirect, Staples.com
Filed under:
Laptops,
Google,
Acer
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