Ask Engadget: best Android PC on a stick?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's
Ask Engadget inquiry is from Chris, who wants to find a low-cost way of getting his wife online. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at
ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
"My family's already invested in Android, and my as wife isn't the most computer literate, I thought an Android PC stick would get her online without any fuss. However, there are so many available, I thought I'd ask which one's worth my time, if any? Thanks!"
Well, when it comes to Android sticks, you're spoilt for choice. After all, you've got enterprise-level offerings like
Project Ophelia through to the
FAVI Streaming Stick, the
GameStick,
Always Innovating and, of course, the humble
MK802. When it comes to which one you should buy? Let's leave that up to the mood of the vox populi, who will be sharing their opinions below the break.
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Home Entertainment
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Mobile Miscellany: week of April 1st, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, Samsung introduced a new crop of smartphones for China and India, the Lumia 520 hit store shelves and Verizon introduced an LTE router... of all things. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore
all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of April 1st, 2013.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Wireless,
Mobile
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Facebook Home 'Airplane' ad brings one traveler's News Feed aboard -- literally
Sure, Facebook had a
weird ad with Blink-182 for the HTC Status, but its sneak peek at its newest TV spot for the
First and
Home is on another level. Posted today on its Facebook profile, the campy piece literally brings one traveler's feed to life inside the cabin of his flight during boarding. We won't spoil the goods for you, but it's interesting to see Facebook's first thrust at marketing this skin and smartphone combo out to the masses. Catch the full clip after the break.
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Cellphones,
Misc,
Software,
Mobile,
HTC,
Facebook
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Source: Facebook
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Early-backer GameStick consoles delayed to June, dev units now shipping
Fancied
PlayJams' GameStick Android gaming console enough to back it on Kickstarter
earlier this year? The good news is that Dev units have been shipping to the roughly 600 who signed up, with the remaining ones set to head out within a week. The bad news? The early-backer versions are now set to arrive at doorsteps in late June
instead of April because of high-demand, according to PlayJam. As its latest Kickstarter update details, the units will need stronger tooling than the silicon-based molds of the dev units to ensure that "tens of thousands" of them can be successfully made. Additionally, this will apparently force the company to ship these larger factory yields via sea transport rather than air, which also slows things down.
A case of success causing
slowdowns it seems. Hopefully not much longer than these new estimates, too -- while this breakout underdog is set to hit retailers like
GameStop, that other Android-based console,
OUYA, is already shipping out to backers -- and its retail units are planned in June. You'll find the full update from PlayJam at the source link.
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Gaming
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Source: PlayJam (Kickstarter)
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Alt-week 4.7.13: Skylab II, reading your dreams and addiction fighting lasers
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.
Evolution, devolution, review-lution. Okay, so we made that last one up. But if they ever do invent a machine that can re-view your dreams in full HD, we're betting that's what they'll be calling it. The even better news is that that's possibly not as crazy as it sounds as we learn this week. What week? Why, alt-week of course.
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Science,
Alt
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The Engadget Interview: Mark Setrakian of Syfy's Robot Combat League (video)
From the latest harbinger of the
robopocalypse from
Boston Dynamics to more friendly looking machines like
Romo, Engadget has a longstanding love affair with all forms of robots. Syfy channel's newest show, Robot Combat League (RCL), has provided us with twelve new objects of robotic affection --and the best part is, we get to watch them destroy each other in gladiatorial fashion. RCL isn't the first show to have 'bots do battle on TV, of course, but it is the first to have the robots be humanoid avatars that mimic the movements of the people operating them. Mark Setrakian is the man who designed and built the dozen robots on the show, and we recently got the opportunity to chat with him about how he did it.
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Robots,
HD
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Animal Planet critter livestreams arrive on Samsung Smart TVs, coming to Roku and Xbox Live
Say goodbye to the passé virtual aquarium. Animal Planet has launched a collection of 11 HD 24/7
Ustream-powered live streams under the banner Animal Planet L!VE, which feature animals ranging from beluga whales to cockroaches. The free critter footage is already being piped to APL.tv and Samsung Smart TVs Viewers can choose between watching ants, calves, chicks, cockroaches, beluga whales, fish swimming about in a pacific coral reef, kittens, penguins, puppies, sea nettles and wild birds. In case catching them on your smart TV or browser weren't enough, the cable channel's creature casts are coming to
Roku and Xbox Live "in the coming months."
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Home Entertainment,
HD,
Samsung
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Via: Ubergizmo
Source: Bites @ Animal Planet
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US Cellular now letting you sample its network without signing a contract
Taking a play-before-you-pay approach, for a limited time, US Cellular is giving prospective customers the option to try its network without committing to a service agreement. This offer is available in select markets, including Eureka, CA, Klamath Falls, OR and Knoxville, TN. While this may sound similar to what most carriers offer, the differences here are that you're not required to sign a service contract and that you don't have to pay for any equipment. Instead, US Cellular provides a loaner device (the
Motorola Electrify M, Samsung Chrono 2 or
Samsung Galaxy Metrix) for eight days with an allotment of 500 minutes, 500 texts and 1GB of data. While this program doesn't feature the most elite handsets, it does give potential patrons a preview of the regional carrier without having to exchange any vows.
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Cellphones,
Wireless,
Mobile
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Via: Fierce Wireless
Source: US Cellular
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Adobe Premiere Pro on Windows to boast OpenCL support
Premiere Pro has already been tearing through video with
OpenCL on Macs
for a year, and now AMD and Adobe have teamed up to bring support for the open standard to Windows with the software's next version. Not only does the duo claim it's the first time Microsoft's OS has been graced with hardware-accelerated video editing using OpenCL, but they boast that exporting video replete with effects from a source to a final format can now be done up to 4.3 times faster. There's no word on when the fresh release of Premiere Pro will arrive, but if it's any consolation, Adobe says it's set to unveil some "incredible enhancements" to its video editing tools at NAB next week.
Filed under:
Software,
AMD
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Source: AMD
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Webkit's Chromium-specific code to be removed in effort to streamline
Now that Chromium has
pledged its allegiance to Google's new
Blink rendering engine, Webkit is set to have the now-unnecessary Chrome-specific code stripped from it. Apple
Webkit developer Geoffrey Garen kicked off a conversation on the project's mailing list about removing the Mountain View-centric cruft, saying that it would streamline things and hopefully "make development easier and more coherent for everyone." Garen adds that Googlers Adam Barth and Eric Seidel have already offered to pitch in with the clean up, but he asks that devs who will continue using the engine tidy things up as well. Over the next few weeks, code in Webkit related to the search giant's browser, such as the V8 JavaScript engine, will be put up on the chopping block. With a Blink-infused Chrome slated to arrive in roughly 10 weeks, these changes shouldn't mean much for the average web surfer, save for Webkit being a bit trimmer under the hood.
Filed under:
Misc,
Internet,
Software,
Apple,
Google
Comments
Via: Slashdot
Source: Webkit Developer Mailing List
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Samsung SPH-L500 saunters by the FCC with Sprint-friendly LTE, hefty dimensions
Uncle Sam just played host to Samsung's SPH-L500 smartphone at the FCC, and it looks like the handset's next stop will be Sprint. With a 850 / 1900 CDMA radio and support for Band 25 LTE / SVLTE (simultaneous voice and data), the South Korean-designed smartphone carries the requisite kit to operate on the
Now Network, and also packs WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth and NFC. Though other details are scant, digging into the government paperwork reveals one major clue: size. Measuring up at roughly 5.2 inches tall and 2.6 inches wide, it's clear that we're in store for a hefty device, as it's ever so slightly smaller than the
Galaxy S 4. Big Yellow and Samsung haven't made the hardware official just yet, but that's likely to change soon as it's cleared one of the final hurdles left between it and US availability.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Mobile,
Samsung,
Sprint
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Source: FCC
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Rumors suggest Austin, Texas is next up for a Google Fiber rollout (update: so does its website)
The major problem most of us have with
Google Fiber is that we can't get it, but that could change soon for residents of Austin, Texas. According to reports by
VentureBeat and KVUE News in Austin, invites are going out for an event on Tuesday at 11 AM put on by Google and the city. Anonymous sources indicate that's where the two will announce plans to bring the TV and high speed internet hookup's plans for expansion Until we hear differently however, Google Fiber's rollout is still only confirmed for the Kansas City area, so plan your living arrangements accordingly.
Update: A tipster informs us that the news section on the Google Fiber "Cities" page is currently (3AM ET) flashing a "Google Fiber's Next Stop: Austin, Texas" header. While author "SoAndSo" is not particularly well known, we'd figure this removes any remaining doubt where the service is landing next.
[Thanks, Chris]
Filed under:
Home Entertainment,
Internet,
HD,
Google
Comments
Source: Venture Beat,
KVUE,
Google Fiber
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