How would you change ASUS' Transformer Pad Infinity?
ASUS'
Transformer Pad Infinity's awkwardly timed announcement sent a fair few
Transformer Prime buyers into fits of apoplexy -- after all, it was just a few weeks after the Prime went on sale. Fortunately, the company didn't release the Infinity for some time, but was it worth the wait? Our reviewer felt that its delayed journey to the market meant everyone else had a chance to get beyond it, meaning that the discounted Transformer Prime was enough for anyone who didn't mind the odd
GPS brownout. But what about if you bought one? Do you feel the same way? Settle down on the sofa and play armchair gadget designer for a moment, and tell us what you would change.
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ASUS
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PSA: Sprint LTE is now live in San Francisco
Imagine our surprise when, upon firing up Sprint's
Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 earlier today for some routine app updates, we saw the 4G logo light up (!) for the first tim
e ever. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it appears that sometime in the past few days, Sprint's finally deigned to flick the LTE switch in a significant market -- namely beautiful San Francisco. We immediately grabbed our
Optimus G and
EVO 4G LTE review units and hopped in the car for some quick tests. The verdict? We found pockets of LTE in Potrero Hill and SoMa, and nothing but CDMA in the Mission District. Speeds reached peaks of 16.7Mbps down and 9.4Mbps up with full signal but performance varied wildly, even block to block. Sprint had already enabled LTE in
parts of Silicon Valley and had marked the city by the bay as one of
its upcoming rollouts. Do you use Sprint and live in SF? Hit the comments and let us know if you're enjoying the sweet nectar of LTE in your area.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Tablets,
Mobile,
Sprint
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Refresh Roundup: week of February 11th, 2013
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!
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Cellphones,
Tablets,
Software,
Mobile
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LG's 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro is the first with a Snapdragon 600 quad-core CPU
LG finally showed off the XL 5.5-inch version of its upcoming
Optimus G Pro at the end of a Facebook promo
last week, and now it's revealed a launch date in Korea, more specs and a window for arrival in North America. Also of note? Its CPU is the just-announced quad-core
Snapdragon 600 running at 1.7Ghz. Announced at CES, the 600 is supposed to be a milder upgrade (compared to the potentially 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800) to its predecessor, the powerful
S4 Pro. New software tweaks include a dual record that uses both cameras simultaneously and VR Panorama that appears to be similar to Google's
Photo Sphere stitching.
Besides the expanded 1080p screen and updated internals, the larger version also sports a slightly larger battery than the Japanese version
announced previously by NTT Docomo with 3,140mAh compared to 3,000, but keeps the 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera, microSDXC slot and LTE. The phone will be released on local carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus on Wednesday for 968,000 won ($897), while a North American launch is mentioned for Q2 along with the Japanese release. We'll find out more about this phone -- and likely a few others -- at
MWC 2013 later this week, for now check out the press release after the break for more specs.
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Cellphones,
Mobile,
LG
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Source: LG Korea
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Livescribe 'helper' adds USB Evernote sync, removes some of the point
What? Yes, it's almost as puzzling as it sounds, but Livescribe is demonstrating its pragmatic approach to problem solving.
In our review of the WiFi Smartpen, we maligned the sometimes flakey
Evernote synchronisation process. Now you can sidestep the convenient (when it worked) wireless sync, and instead plug your WiFi pen into a nearby PC, download some software, and manually upload those hard earned audio snippets and doodles. While this method scribbles out one of the more useful features of a wireless pen, it does mean you'll never lose your notes. Like the important memo about the
product rebranding.
Filed under:
Peripherals,
Wireless
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The Weekly Roundup for 02.11.2013
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.
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Switched On: An ARM's race with Intel
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
As one would hope in dealing with two products that share the same name, Microsoft has maintained strong consistency between the Surface with
Windows RT and
Surface Pro. Allowing for a bit of girth variation, there's a similar industrial design as well as common features that have been nearly universally lauded (the snap-on keyboards) and lambasted (the underwhelming cameras). There's also an identical user interface as far as "modern" Windows apps are concerned.
This has created an interesting lab test to see what customers really want from a Windows tablet in 2013. The early and unsurprising results indicate that it's really backward compatibility -- even at a premium of half the battery life and nearly double the price. Lenovo, which offers its
Yoga 11 convertible as a Windows RT tablet, will also bring out the device in a Windows 8 version. Indeed, if one is attracted to some of the advantages that Windows RT offers on its ARM-based variants, such as the Snap and Share features, multiple devices with integrated keyboards, broad driver support and desktop Office compatibility, its toughest competitor is Windows 8.
Filed under:
Apple,
Microsoft
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Nexus 4 Wireless Charger hands-on
Palm's
Touchstone dock immediately came to mind when
we first saw LG's Nexus 4 Wireless Charger last fall (
now available for $60 in the
Play Store). Both devices are circular, with a micro-USB port in back and a slanted front surface on which to rest the phone. That's where the similarities end -- while the Touchstone is cylindrical and uses a proprietary wireless charging system, the Nexus 4 Wireless Charger is larger, spherical and
Qi-compatible. Another major difference is that Palm's dock uses permanent magnets to line up and secure the handset, and LG's accessory relies primarily on the friction / suction between a rubber ring and the glass back of
Google's flagship phone. Design-wise the Nexus 4 Wireless Charger looks similar to a smaller
Nexus Q cut in half, down to the matching recessed square connector cutout.
In the box you'll find a 5V 1.8A AC adapter (vs. 1.2A for the one supplied with the Nexus 4) along with a micro-USB cable (longer than the one provided with the handset). The manual warns to "use only the power adapter and micro-USB cable that come with your Nexus 4 Wireless Charger", but we didn't have any trouble with other USB power sources beyond longer charging times. We tested the dock with the Nexus 4,
Droid DNA,
Lumia 920 and
Lumia 822 (with the optional Wireless Charging Cover) -- basically, LG's accessory provides the same experience as Nokia's
Wireless Charging Plate ($50), which is also Qi-compatible. The $10 difference buys you a matching design and a spare USB power adapter and micro-USB cable (Nokia's plate comes with a proprietary AC adapter). It takes about 4 hours to fully charge Google's flagship phone using wireless power -- check out the gallery above for some action shots.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Peripherals,
Mobile,
Google,
LG
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IRL: Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 and the full-frame RX1
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.
Not too long ago, full-frame digital cameras were cumbersome, heavy and very expensive. They're still a long ways from making a home in the bargain bin, but Sony's new
RX1 definitely has size in check. In order to reduce the model's footprint, the Japanese camera maker added a fixed 35mm lens to this point-and-shoot-esque digicam, modeled after the company's gorgeous and versatile
RX100. Both of these flagship Cyber-shots offer tremendous bang for your buck, but they'll thin out your wallet faster than they'll capture 10 consecutive 20-plus-megapixel frames. Still, as you'll read after the break, our resident camera reviewer Zach Honig is very much in love.
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Cameras,
Misc,
Sony
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Halo creators unveil 'Destiny,' an MMO-like first-person-shooter for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
When
Halo creator Bungie managed to
steal away from Microsoft back in 2007, Master Chief's forefathers were afforded a few years to go dark and head down on a brand new gaming universe. Today, Bungie and its new benefactor, Activision, revealed that new franchise as "Destiny," an online-required persistent world first-person shooter. Even though the game's not due out this year, Bungie says it's headed to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with no mention of next-gen.
The online requirement extends to both single-player and multiplayer campaigns -- your character's achievements remain persistent, and your avatar will seamlessly populate friends' games (rather than futzing with menus and the like), allowing for on-the-fly pairings. Bungie's shying away from outright referring to
Destiny as an MMO, a la
World of Warcraft. "[The] amount of players you see is design controlled. It's not about stuffing as many people in there as possible," Bungie COO Pete Parsons told our sister site,
Joystiq. Of course, with next-gen sounding online connectivity, Bungie's silence on next-gen consoles is little more than a temporary vow --
Destiny seems a lock for (at very least) Sony and Microsoft's next consoles, if not also the PC (Wii U's looking unlikely).
Hard details on
Destiny are a bit scarce at the moment -- when it launches, if it's part of a series, how exactly the game will work -- but we've dropped concept art below and a debut video just beyond the break. The video goes into a bit more detail on the universe, and briefly touches on the smartphone tie-in that Destiny will have (think
Halo Waypoint), but for a more exhaustive approach to
Destiny's debut,
Joystiq's got you covered.
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Gaming,
Software,
HD
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Mophie Outride review: action-cam case for iPhone can't replace dedicated shooters
Over the years,
Mophie has become synonymous with extending the iPhone's battery life. The outfit's range of battery-filled iPhone cases has garnered rave reviews across the industry, and even I religiously
used one on an iPhone 3G. In more recent days, the company has cautiously expanded into a few new areas -- namely, building battery cases for
non-Apple phones, and creating the contraption shown above. The Mophie Outride is an action-cam case that's designed to be strapped onto helmets, automobile hoods and any other place where your average X Games wannabe would look to capture extreme sports footage.
But, unlike the myriad rivals on the market today, the
Outride doesn't actually include a camera. Instead, you're supposed to strap your iPhone 4 or 4S into it (an iPhone 5 model has yet to be announced), allowing the smartphone you already own to handle the bulk of the work. At first blush, it sounded like an ideal solution to me. After all, I'm generally in favor of convergence and consolidation, and as an avid traveler, having one less thing to carry (in this case, a dedicated camera) is a godsend. In practice, however, the Outride did little outside of convincing me that GoPro exists for a reason.
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Peripherals,
Mobile
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Source: Mophie
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Inhabitat's Week in Green: Biobot, Nintendo Power Glove and an inflatable bathroom bubble
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 President Barack Obama set the tone for the coming year in his
2013 State of the Union address, which advocated
3D printing and called for a speedy transition towards
renewable energy to help combat
climate change. The future of clean tech is already looking bright, as the world's
solar power capacity
just hit a record 101 gigawatts, and researchers found a new way to
charge batteries by harvesting ambient electromagnetic waves from thin air. Speaking of batteries, a
new lithium-ion battery developed by USC utilizes nano-sphere technology to store three times more energy while cutting charge time down to just 10 minutes. Clean tech is invading the kitchen as well -- behold the
Biobot, a tabletop device that converts waste cooking oil into biodiesel.
Filed under:
Misc,
Science
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Google Takeout now liberating Blogger and Google+ Pages
Google Takeout's export functions have slowly extended their reach from profiles and personal contacts to heftier material, such as
all our videos. However much we've been using that data portability, Google is eliminating what few gaps are left in its coverage: the company's Data Liberation Front has expanded Takeout to preserve both
Blogger content as well as
Google+ Pages. Web denizens can cherry-pick just the blogs or Pages they want if a whole-enchilada backup is too much. Regardless of how large a safety net we need, the new options are ready and waiting at the source links.
Filed under:
Internet,
Google
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Via: Android Central
Source: Data Liberation Front,
Google Takeout
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T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 LTE hotspot reportedly poses for a press image
We've previously had just a smattering of text to hint that T-Mobile might kick off its
formal LTE launch with a
Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot. Things just got more tangible this weekend through an apparent
TmoNews leak. The really-truly-4G pocket router has surfaced in a supposed press render that's fairly plain looking, but suggests a little sophistication through a color screen. We're still missing the rather important details of the Sonic 2.0's performance and price; if prior tips are on the mark, though, we'll have our answers (and more devices) in about six weeks.
Filed under:
Wireless,
Networking,
Mobile,
T-Mobile
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Source: TmoNews
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Rhapsody posts Windows Phone 8 app with offline playback
Just because
Rhapsody is an old hand at online music doesn't mean it has to lag behind: the company just posted a new version of its app tailored to
Windows Phone 8 listeners. Besides the native OS tie-ins, it adds offline downloads and access to the personalized My Music section. Windows Phone-focused listeners who've stuck to Rhapsody's $10-plus service through thick and thin -- or just aren't wedded to options from
Microsoft,
Nokia and
Spotify -- can hit the source for the new jukebox.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Portable Audio/Video,
Mobile
Comments
Via: VentureBeat
Source: Windows Phone Store
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