Well, any doubts of legitimacy have certainly been quelled: United Keys rushed us over an
OLED keyboard and keypad today, and they're certainly the real deal. We're naturally utterly un-blown-away by the product -- you get what you pay for -- but it's still a relatively unique and interesting product, and wears the mantle of "the poor man's
Optimus" quite well. Read on for our full impressions.
Continue reading United Keys OLED Display Keyboard and Keypad hands-on
Filed under: Peripherals
United Keys OLED Display Keyboard and Keypad hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Sure, we try to front as world-weary cynics, but when we pinged our folks at Nokia for a statement on that
suspiciously-awesome slide about a previously unseen touchscreen interface and device concept, we were totally hoping for a "oh, our bad, that's a real phone and it's awesome and it's being released in the States
tomorrow." Naturally, that was not the case. Here's what Nokia had to say on the matter:
"The story you sent over was from a non-public presentation that discussed some UI enhancements - NOT a new product. The form factor shown was a generic form factor and not meant to showcase a new device / product."
So, yeah. They're not really going to fess up to a lot here, but if we were to read between the lines we'd say these "UI enhancements" are much more likely to get real and official someday than whatever vaguely-hinted-at device was shown off beneath them. Maybe. Reading in further, we'd say it's a little odd that Nokia's demonstrating to
investors its "best in class touch" capabilities by using a mockup interface on top of a mockup device, but perhaps that's why we were never so good with "the monies."
Filed under: Cellphones
Nokia says touch interface and handset leaked in presentation don't point to new product originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ah yes -- another refreshing installment of the Engadget Podcast! This week the boys get in touch with their deep feelings on Palm's potential New-ness, Nokia's mystery touchscreen phone, fresh additions to the Open Handset Alliance, and news on the forthcoming reader meetup. You also get to hear Josh, Paul, and Nilay mix it up about their hopes for the future, next jewelry purchases, and Gmail contact syncing nightmares. Sounds badical, right?
01:20 -
Palm's New-ness, coming to CES13:38 -
Mysterious T-swivel handset appears on Korean site, keeps us guessing15:43 -
Mysterious new Nokia touchscreen interface and handset unveiled (sort of)26:39 -
Open Handset Alliance signs up 14 more Android-lovers, including Sony Ericsson, ASUS and Garmin51:00 -
Reader meetup update: 'Fallout 3' bundles, Nokia N-Gage / Ovi, Make, and more! Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Doctor Octoroc -
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Filed under: Podcasts
Engadget Podcast 121 - 12.12.2008 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Related media files: http://www.engadget.com/podcasts/Engadget_Podcast_121.mp3
According to extremely reliable and embarrassingly handsome Engadget sources, at an iPhone event held today, John Geleynse (AKA Director of Technology Evangelism at Apple) made some statements regarding the iPhone platform that should seriously raise a few eyebrows. During an ADC "iPhone Tech Talk" in San Jose, Geleynse apparently waxed excited about the potential for the handheld as a viable threat to the DS (and the PSP by proxy), calling the iPhone a "gaming console" and claiming that "it's not a phone, it's a console experience." Pretty bold talk about a device that has yet to really prove its gaming mettle, but nothing new from the Apple camp
as far as we're concerned. Considering these comments alongside those from a
recent interview in which Greg Joswiak compared the touch to the DS, it seems clear that the company is making a noticeable effort to push this angle. Adding some fuel to that fire is PR that just went out announcing a series of EA "sneak peek" events at Apple Stores around the US. In their words:
Throughout the month of December Apple Stores in New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago will host special "EA Games Sneak Peek" events where Electronic Arts will discuss why the iPod touch and iPhone are amazing platforms for mobile gaming...While there's no question the iPhone and touch have made inroads when it comes to gaming, it still isn't clear that there's going to be anything beyond a casual interest for these devices. Then again, if the Wii's success has proven anything, it's that there's plenty of cash in casual if you can make it appealing enough. And you know how Apple feels about appealing products and money.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds
Apple: "the iPhone is a gaming console" originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Mac cloning soap opera just keeps taking crazy twists and turns -- Art Studios Entertainment, makers of the EFi-X dongle, have shut down EFi-X USA's plans to sell "Millennium" machines capable of running OS X just hours after they were announced. ASE CEO Davide Rutigliano sent us a statement saying that EFi-X USA was misinterpreting ASE's EFi-X certification program, that ASE will "NEVER sell machines or condone the sale of machines that compete with any brand," and that he personally ordered the project abandoned. Indeed, a visit to EFi-X USA's page confirms that the machines have been killed, although we're unsure what the terse statement "EFi-X USA LLC fights the clones and the clonemakers" is supposed to mean. All part of another strange chapter in the Hackintosh saga, we suppose. Check ASE's full statement after the break.
Continue reading EFi-X shuts down EFi-X USA, says it doesn't support Mac clones
Filed under: Desktops
EFi-X shuts down EFi-X USA, says it doesn't support Mac clones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's pretty much common sense that when you're ditching your old cell phone you want to
erase your personal data, contacts and emails -- or at least try to. Oh sure, there are plenty of examples of
failing to do so, but this one's rather... shall we say, "special." Some operatives at Fox 5 in Washington, D.C. booked over to the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters' yard sale yesterday, and they saw some ultra cheap Blackberrys -- just $20 a pop, probably an
inventor's discount -- so they picked up a few, undoubtedly thinking they'd make nice holiday gifts. They were kind of surprised to find that, after giving the 'Berrys some juice, one of them had 50 contacts for "campaign leaders, politicians, lobbyists and journalists" as well as hundreds of emails. When reached for comment, a campaign spokesperson said that "procedures are being put in place to ensure all information is secure," followed minutes later by a blank email CC'd to his entire address book with the subject line "We're so screwed."
Filed under: Cellphones
Used BlackBerrys sold for $20 at McCain-Palin blowout, contacts and emails included originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, it looks like those keen to attempt their own
real life trek across Azeroth (or the virtual world of their choice) now have a fairly straightforward course of action to follow, as the originators of the MMO-connected treadmill have just posted some detailed plans for the rig on the ever-useful Instructables website. In case you didn't catch it the first time around, the setup simply uses a mouse (they recommend an MX Revolution) that's held in place against a mousepad affixed to a bicycle wheel, which itself is simply rested against the treadmill -- a joystick handles the directional control. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from taking things a few steps further and, if you do, be sure to let us know.
[Via
Hack a Day]
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Details on Azeroth-traversing treadmill revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Details on this one are freakishly scarce, but DigiTimes has it that a number of recognizable handset makers are looking to incorporate MEMS gyroscopes into their 2009 smartphones. It's anticipated that such devices would be used to sense motion in one form or another, with brands like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Apple (we know you're thinking, so stop) expected to welcome the tech with open arms. So, why the sudden interest in G-sensors? Falling prices, of course -- and the natural expectation of consumers for their future phones to be entirely more sensitive to their feelings than the one they're using currently.
[Via Pocket-lint]
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
MEMS gyroscopes rumored to hit array of phones in 2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Now, it's entirely possible that this isn't an official Barbie cellphone (or even an actual cellphone) but, if you're looking for something that's more Barbie-ish and, well, less cellphone-like than your usual phone, you may want to consider this new P520 model that recently turned up in China. Apparently, this one includes 2-inch,176 x 220 display, a 1.3 megapixel camera, "up to 2GB of expandable memory" (we're guessing a microSD card slot), built-in Bluetooth, not one but two SIM card slots and, yes, an actual mirror. Sold? Then you can apparently pick one up now for 780 yuan (or $114), although getting one over here will likely take a bit more doing.
[Thanks, Daniel]
Filed under: Cellphones
Barbie P520 cellphone turns up in China originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The University of Science and Technology in Taiwan's announced that they're putting on a very special performance of The Phantom of the Opera on December 27th, in which the two leads will be played by robots. The lead bots (named Thomas and Janet) can both walk, and have silicon facial "muscles" that help them mimic human expressions and mouth movements. There will be two additional
robotic thespians, Ringo, a jazz
drummer, and Pica, a
painter, that move on wheels. The Center for Intelligent Robots at the University says that while they've developed the robots for entertainment purposes, they plan to move toward applying them in
service fields. As if upstaging Sarah Brightman with a robot isn't service enough already.
[Thanks, Tim]
Filed under: Robots
Taiwan casts robots in Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber seen kicking himself repeatedly originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's sometimes easy to forget that
ASUS actually makes a whole host of non-Eee branded products, but the company has reminded us of is roots today with four new VH-series LCD monitors, each of which boast the desirable-to-some 16:9 aspect ratio. Those include the 18.5-inch VH192 model, the 21.5-inch VH222 and VH226 models, and the 23.6-inch VH242, the first of which packs a 1366x768 resolution while the latter three all offer full 1080p. All four also boast ASUS' "Smart Contrast Ratio" technology to deliver numbers from 10,000:1 to 20,000:1, and all but the low-end VH192 include an HDMI port, along with built-in speakers and, of course, the usual VGA and DVI ports. The VH226 also distinguishes itself a bit further with a slightly better 2ms response rate and a glossy finish. No word on a price or release date for any of 'em just yet, but we'd expect to start seeing them show up any day now.
Filed under: Displays
ASUS rolls out four new VH-series 16:9 LCD monitors originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Sony's
Walkman series of media players has done its best to keep stride, stuffing in new features and design refinements over the years, but touchscreen-dominated players are
clearly in vogue, and it looks like the company is finally ready to break down and get touchable. According to the Sony stalkers over at Sony Insider, there will be 16 and 32GB touchscreen Walkman players at CES 2009 this coming January. The literal and figurative centerpiece is to be a 3-inch OLED display (possibly that 3.3-inch panel making the rounds, or something more Sony specific), running a touch interface with many similarities to the current Walkman players. Also slated for inclusion is WiFi, enabling a YouTube app, over the air podcast downloads, built-in access to
Amazon's MP3 store and an unspecified web browser. The shots of the player above are obviously mockups, and the real hardware is supposed to have physical music control buttons -- and hopefully hold to some sort of reality-based conception of scale. All this info is exclusive to the Sony Insider ninjas, so we can't vouch for its veracity, but it's an obvious and welcome move from Sony, so we won't look a gift rumor in the mouth.
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Sony's long awaited touchscreen Walkman finally revealed? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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So the moment you and your second mortgage have been dreaming about is here -- though sadly, the price cut you might have wished for is not. For all those clamoring for the $2,000 AURA, Moto's store has it listed as in-stock and we've a sneaking suspicion that unlike the
BlackBerry Storm, these aren't going to sell through in hours. So take your time, ponder just how many
Xbox 360s,
PS3s, or
robots you could get instead, then, like we know you will, buy it and start showing it off.
[Via
phoneArena]
Filed under: Cellphones
AURA in stock at Motorola store, still fiercely expensive originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Nintendo's fended off
class-action lawsuits over "defective" Wiimote straps in the past, and if you remember, they also
replaced about 3.2 million of the straps (a/k/a "all of them") around the same time too -- way back in December of 2006. Well, the same lawyer's back for round two with a new, nearly identical suit, but this one also alleges that Nintendo knew that the defect existed and was negligent in their failure to report the problem to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Nintendo's probably not stoked about the news -- but we've got a feeling that the company's record-breaking sales will balm the wounds a little. According to NPD data just released, the company sold 2 million Wiis and 1.56 million DS units in November, an all-time hardware sales record for a month other than December. Yeah, who cares about a
few busted up TVs and
black eyes in the face of those numbers?
[Via
Gamecyte]
Read - Nintendo Slapped with Strap Lawsuit Once Again
Read - Wii and Nintendo DS Set Historic New US Sales Records
Filed under: Gaming
Nintendo faces class-action lawsuit, hotter-than-ever sales for Wii originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments We've always been intrigued by the EFI-X dongle that fools OS X into running on stock Intel machines, Software Update and all, and now it looks like the company a company called EFi-X USA is taking things one step further -- it's planning on shipping pre-built machines capable of running Apple's OS. The EFi-X Millennium 4 will sport an overclocked 3.8GHz Core 2 Quad, 4GB of RAM, and a GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card in an Antec P180 case, all for $1,899 plus the $199 EFi-X dongle. The idea is to avoid any Psystar-style legal troubles by leaving the purchase and installation of OS X up to the end user, but apparently no one at EFi-X USA has talked to a lawyer or even read our previous posts on the matter, since Apple's lawsuit against Psystar turns as much on contributory and induced copyright infringement as it does on Psystar's direct violation of Apple's OS X EULA. In other words, it's illegal to sell a product expressly designed to allow customers to infringe copyrights -- a principle Napster and Grokster made famous, you'll recall. Plus we're pretty certain there's a DMCA argument in there since the EFi-X dongle circumvents Apple's protections on OS X -- the validity of which Psystar is actually testing in its revised countersuit. We'll see how it goes -- we're seriously worried that these companies are doing far more harm to the OSx86 scene than good.
P.S.- Oh, and honestly, Apple, if you want this entire headache to go away, all you have to do is produce a reasonably-priced, configurable midrange tower. Think about it.
Update: We've just been pinged by the original EFi-X team, who tell us that EFi-X USA has nothing to do with them, that they have no plans to sell actual machines, and that they strongly disapprove of EFi-X USA. Shades of Psystar's use of netkas's work on OSx86 without permission, we'd say -- shady shady.
[Thanks, Mark]
Filed under: Desktops
EFi-X USA decides to tempt Apple's lawyers, will start shipping OS X-capable machines originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments If you're the sort who unconsciously twitches your leg when lost in thought, only to snap out of it abruptly when you realize the table in the conference room is shaking and everyone's scowling your way, you might be interested in this upcoming product from Maywa Denki, the crazy folks who love inventing "
nonsense machines." It's called Yurex, a USB-enabled garter that straps to your leg and counts the number of times you twitch during the day, displaying your running tally on a 10-digit LCD. When you get home you can sync the device up to a PC, which will calculate your own personal rhythm and, get this, create a little song based on your "creative beat pattern." The idea is you can listen to this song, twitch your leg in concert, and boost your brain power to new heights! You'll even be able to chart your restlessness against others online once the things go on-sale in January but, with only 3,000 of them set to be made, you'd better get that order-clicking finger moving too.
[Via
medGadget]
Continue reading Yurex: the stat-tracking, song-generating odometer for those with twitchy legs
Filed under: Wearables
Yurex: the stat-tracking, song-generating odometer for those with twitchy legs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Hang tight, kiddos -- Toshiba's about to take you on a wild, unpredictable ride through the untamed wilderness where
Qosmios are born. The outfit has just unleashed some 20 new Dynabook models over in Japan, with the most notable additions coming in the gamer-oriented Qosmio FX (15.4-inch) and GX (18.4-inch) and the SpursEngine-equipped G50 (18.4-inch). The GX / FX models boast a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo P8600 CPU, NVIDIA's GeForce 9600M GT, 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive. As for the G50, you'll find most of the same specs, though the inclusion of a
SpursEngine graphics system, an extra 250GB hard drive, a digital TV tuner, four USB ports, an eSATA socket, 1.3-megapixel camera, a fingerprint sensor and a dual-layer DVD burner makes it a touch more special. As for pricing on these three, expect 'em to cost between ¥210,000 ($2,327) and ¥340,000 ($3,767), and we're told the whole family will be available before the year's end.
Filed under: Laptops
Toshiba goes bonkers with Qosmio laptop upgrades: GX, FX and SpursEngine G50 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments You'd think with an
18.4-inch panel, the engineers at
Clevo could figure out a way to stretch the components within the case into a more horizontal orientation. Instead, this beast is as thick as ever (at least, it sure looks that way), but we suppose you need a good bit of breathing room when tucking a quad-core Intel processor, twin NVIDIA 9800M GTX GPUs and gigabytes upon gigabytes of RAM within a "portable" enclosure. Word on the street has it that the machine -- which also features a 1080p panel as well as a hybrid graphics system for times when hardcore frames-per-second pushing isn't necessary -- will be officially unveiled next March at CeBIT. Our initial thought is "wow, that's a long ways off," but maybe that'll give the size some time to grow on us.
[Via
NotebookReview, thanks VinÃcius]
Filed under: Laptops
Clevo's 18.4-inch M98xNU gaming laptop packs a lot of junk in its trunk originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Face it, kids. You missed the best time to be a teenager by around five or so years. As it stands now, technology is cutting into that adolescent fun, with device like Ford's
MyKey and this one here ensuring that you're actually safe behind the wheel. In all seriousness, the terribly named Key2SafeDriving is a fine concept (at least in the parent's eye), as it fuses a cellphone jammer (of sorts) into a key fob in order to put the kibosh on freeway conversations. Essentially, the signal blocking kicks into action anytime the "key" portion is flicked out, connecting to a handset via Bluetooth or RFID and forcing it into "driving mode." No actual
jamming, per se, is going on; it's more like a manual override of the ringer. Anyone who phones / texts you while you're safely driving will receive an automated response informing them of such, though we are told that handsfree devices can be utilized. Researchers at the University of Utah are hoping to see it on the market within six months via a private company "at a cost of less than $50 per key plus a yet-undetermined monthly service fee."
[Via
Gadgets-Weblog]
Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation
Cellphone jammer crammed into key fob, ends texting / talking while driving originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Speed bumps are supposed to punish the speeders and minimally offend those abiding by the legal limits. But, as all drivers know, crossing the things sucks at any speed and, regardless of how brightly painted they are, they're easy to miss until you're finding out the hard way just what kind of suspension travel your ride offers. A smarter bump from designers Jae-yun Kim and Jong-Su Lee could be the answer. Unlike the ones we've
covered in the past, this one stays up all the time, using a small damper inside to flatten out when a car drives over it at low speed. The higher force applied by a faster car would prevent the bump from lowering and, presumably, ruin that dastardly speeder's day. The things are also festooned with LEDs on the front, back, and sides, which might just mean you'd be able to see this one in time to save your dubs from destruction.
[Via
Techie Diva]
Filed under: Transportation
LED-encrusted speed bump flattens out when you're not flat-out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments 
Yeah, we've seen a similar question before, but this one's looking specifically at NAS devices that won't force you to liquidate half your assets to afford. We'll let David take it from here, and once you're done reading / responding, send in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com:
"I'm tempted to buy a NAS that centralizes all of my shared media, as well as act as a central backup. Redundancy is not a necessity as RAID0 will eventually fail and I'm not inclined to go RAID1 and waste the valuable disk storage space. I already have a few that I've been looking at, Buffalo's LinkStation and D-Link's DNS-323. What's people's opinion nowadays? Must-have features: UPnP support with transcoding (to media players, Xbox 360, PS3), torrent / NZB support with post processing, a nice GUI, a backup mechanism. Am I asking for too much?"
At first glance, we'd have to say "yeah, you just might be stretching it." But hey, maybe there's some perfect device hidden in the middle of nowhere that a kind reader will clue you in on. And if you're looking for dirt cheap, there's always the Addonics' USB-to-NAS adapter.
Filed under: Ask Engadget, Storage, Networking
Ask Engadget: What's the best budget NAS? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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After
failing to reach terms with Intel to put Nokia's HSDPA data chip inside
Santa Rosa laptops back in early 2007, Nokia is going it alone. Tapio Markki, Nokia's vice president for hardware platform components, told Reuters that Nokia will ship its first HSPA "Internet stick" (we presume that means USB and PC Card formats) in early 2009. Nokia would not provide price, only that its modems would be primarily sold through operators or bundled with services. More data is more better as they say in Espoo. No, really.
Update: It looks like the stick in question is the
CS-10 announced last week at Nokia World which you can check out on the Nokia site.
Filed under: Wireless
Nokia to launch HSPA modems in early 2009 -- take that Intel originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Now that the
FCC has forced its hand, Netgear has become rather forthcoming with information about its new
EVA9000-series Digital Entertainer Elite box set to be launched at CES. Today we get a first (brief) look at the rather svelte user interface driving YouTube 720p video over an 802.11n dual-band WiFi network. That's a good start, but there'd better be more content than just YouTube and Flickr before we lay down $400 for yet another living room box. Video after the break.
[Via
eHomeUpgrade]
Continue reading Video: First look at Netgear's EVA9000 streaming YouTube in HD
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Video: First look at Netgear's EVA9000 streaming YouTube in HD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Well what do you know, a real live
CherryPal has
finally made it into the wilds. TGDaily has the honors of having a first look at the $249 cloud computer. While impressed by the small size and fanless design, the build quality was "flimsy" making the device feel very much like pre-production product. The Xubuntu-based PC with Xfce desktop instantly recognized and connected to the reviewers WiFi network for quick login to the CherryPal cloud. Great, but things fell apart when loading Firefox onto the 400MHz Freescale processor -- the sluggish response experienced is a critical fail for a PC whose applications are stored in the cloud. Something that might be sorted out in future builds of Firefox... or not.
Filed under: Desktops
$249 CherryPal cloud PC taken for a listless spin originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Even if we could verify the claim, what's the point? The world's smallest mouse is likely to be as useful as the world's smallest keyboard. The Z-Nano USB mouse measures 42 x 21 x 17.65-mm and, amazingly, includes itty bitty left- and right-click and up- and down-scroll buttons. Available now for $60. See it in action after the break.
[Via
BBGadgets]
Continue reading Video: Z-Nano Mouse is world's smallest and most absurd
Filed under: Peripherals
Video: Z-Nano Mouse is world's smallest and most absurd originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments What if we told you the most beautiful phone in the world was a Lenovo? Reactions to that statement are likely going to oscillate between "Lenovo doesn't make cellphones" and "impossible, considering this is the country that gave us the
QKfone G998," -- but seriously, have a look. Even if you don't agree that it's one of the most attractive mobile devices you've ever laid eyes on, you're going to have a hard time making a cohesive argument that the Android-based slate doesn't run circles around the
G1 for physical design. 'Course, that just makes it all the more maddening that it's apparently nothing more than an early model of the "Ophone," a handset designed to comply to China Mobile's Open Mobile System that combines Android's core with support and apps for the carrier's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G network. Translation: we'll never see one outside China, so yeah, just lust from afar while you pray HTC and its comrades are busy cooking up some stellar gear.
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Lenovo's Android phone for China hotter than a G1 with a defective battery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Former Intel chairman, Andy Grove, has been a prominent supporter of plug-in hybrid automobiles ever since he left his post at Intel. Now, in his role as Intel advisor, Grove is pushing CEO, Paul Otellini, to diversify Intel by manufacturing advanced batteries for plug-in electric vehicles. His argument is two fold: 1) the market is potentially huge (read: big profits!) as the world seems to be at an eVehicle tipping point, 2) with such little manufacturing capacity left in the US (and US automakers in deep trouble), if someone like Intel doesn't take on the challenge then the market will left be to Chinese and Japanese interests like BYD motors and the soon-to-merge
Panasonic and Sanyo -- all of whom are positioning themselves to dominate the emerging battery market. While the move from silicon to battery tech might sound radical, it's worth remembering that Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones was once a wood-pulp mill. Of course, if Intel ever perfects
Tesla's its
wireless power technology then this whole battery argument is moot.
Filed under: Transportation
Andy Grove pushing Intel to manufacture electric car batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You know how the saying goes: "You've seen one
grasshopper robot, you've seen 'em all." Well,
actually, the one pictured above, called the Jollbot, is something kind of off the beaten path, even for grasshopper bots. The creation of PhD student Rhodri Armour at the University of Bath (yeah, the resort town with the natural hot springs), this robot is pretty multi-talented. Designed to be adept at handling multiple types of terrain, the Jollbot can jump up to a half meter in the air to avoid obstacles, but its spherical "cage" shape also allows it to roll in any direction. The robot uses electrical motors and stores energy in its skeleton. Just before a jump, the Jollbot collapses in on itself, then releases its energy in the jump. Armour theorizes that future versions of the machine could be solar powered. To see the robot in all of its glory, you'll probably want to check out the video after the break.
[Via
TFOT]
Continue reading Grasshopper-inspired Jollbot rolls, collapses, jumps, won't mutate and attack Chicago
Filed under: Robots
Grasshopper-inspired Jollbot rolls, collapses, jumps, won't mutate and attack Chicago originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sure, there are plenty of wacky and awesome
UAVs out there, but this one, the Blade CX2, or "Wash UAV" is quite charming in all of its wires-hanging-out glory. It's a complex little machine, too. Built using an Arduino Mini, ultrasonic sensors, and a compass module, the vehicle is able to fly autonomously and sense things like walls and the floor. Its flight is short-lived -- just six seconds -- but the video is rife with riveting commentary explaining how various parts of the Blade function, so check it out after the break.
Continue reading Blade CX2 UAV flies for six glorious seconds, crashes
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Blade CX2 UAV flies for six glorious seconds, crashes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Okay, we can't actually think of a single reason why you'd need a
KVM switch with a max range of 25 freaking miles, but we do know it's pretty insane that such a product even exists. Built on top of an
Icron ExtremeUSB chipset, the ThinkLogical VelocityKVM can pipe two 1920 x 1200 DVI signals, USB 1.1, serial, PS2 and stereo audio up to 40 kilometers over single-mode fiber with no loss in quality, and can be upgraded to support USB 2.0 as well. ThinkLogical doesn't even begin to list prices on its site, which probably means you'll need some deep pockets to get in on the action -- uh, yeah, we'll stick to VNC for now, thanks.
[Via
Wired]
Filed under: Peripherals
ThinkLogical debuts Velocity USB KVM -- with a 25-mile range originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Hey, remember that Acer Aspire One equipped with on-board 3G we
spied in a Radio Shack ad the other day? Well guess what? It's real -- and we've got the PR to prove it. Just as expected, the netbook is being offered for the teensy price of $99.99 (coupled with a lengthy and expensive contract with AT&T). The diminutive laptop comes equipped with a single mind-blowing gigabyte of memory and a decently sizeable 160GB hard drive. Besides doing its mobile broadband thing, it also sports 802.11b/g, weighs in at 2.44 lbs., and will never, ever seem worth it in the long run.
Filed under: Laptops
Acer Aspire One goes official on AT&T's 3G network originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Okay, so maybe
Android isn't ready for prime time -- we're not here to judge, at least not at the moment -- but Sprint's still fully committed to launching a Google-powered set down the road, as evidenced by
Miner's cameo at its developer conference tomorrow. That encouraging sign has been reinforced by new comments from Kevin Packingham, Sprint's veep of products and devices, who gloats that "We can, when the timing's right, pull the trigger." With the
G1 out the door, why isn't the "timing" right this very second? According to Packingham, "We've just got to make sure our customers are saying, 'If you had a phone like this, man, I would really be more interested in Sprint because of it. You want to go out with a bang, because you believe that your investment is one that's going to generate a lot of return with customers -- new customers." Isn't "go out with a bang" a bad choice of words for a company that
could realistically bite it?
[Via
Phone Scoop]
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Sprint keeping a watchful eye on G1, will offer Android when it's good and ready originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments We've always drooled after the top end of the
Ultimate Ears headphone line, and it looks like we've got a new lust-magnet -- the company just introduced the Triple.Fi 10vi in-ear buds with an iPhone and Blackberry-compatible mic / button. The triple-driver 'phones are said to have the same essential guts as UE's far more expensive custom monitors, and they'll kick out frequencies as low as 10Hz and top out at 17kHz. Yes, we want them. No, we can't justify spending $420 on them. Yes, we're totally thinking about it anyway.
[Via
iPodNN]
Filed under: Portable Audio
Ultimate Ears intros Triple.Fi 10vi headphones with built-in mic originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments It looks like Microsoft doesn't want a repeat of last year's post-holiday Xbox Live outages, when the service was
basically unusable for two weeks -- according to 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg, MS is "well prepared for the type of growth we expect this holiday," and that more Live staffers than ever before will be on hand to fix things if things do go bonkers. From what we've heard Live is more robust than ever now that the
NXE and the associated backend changes have been rolled out, so we're hoping things go well -- but we wouldn't necessarily say no to another
free Arcade game.
[Via
Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Filed under: Gaming
Microsoft promises to keep Xbox Live up through the holidays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments A team of Japanese scientists at ATR
Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, led by researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani, have successfully processed and displayed reconstructed images directly from the
ever-hackable human brain. In the experiments, the team first showed participants 400 different still images in order to suss out their visual thought patterns. They then showed them the letters that make up the word "neuron," and successfully reconstructed them via brain activity onto a screen. The full results of the tests are going to be published later this month in
Neuron, but Dr. F. Krueger at ATR says that they think the tech could someday be used to hack into people's dreams.
[Via
Register Hardware]Read - Dreams may no longer be secret with Japan computer screen
Read - Your dreams, images can be!
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Japanese researchers create images from thoughts using thoughts about images originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments Benjamin J. Heckendorn returns from a vision quest of
Xbox 360 laptop-building and
Jasper-hunting to share a new how-to project with Engadget readers. In this episode, he'll describe how to build one of his
Guitar Hero foot pedal controllers, which allows those with physical limitations to play their favorite guitar rhythm games using a foot pedal! Read on for the complete how-to.
Continue reading How-To: Build a 'Guitar Hero' foot pedal controller
Filed under: Gaming
How-To: Build a 'Guitar Hero' foot pedal controller originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Comments 
At just under two grand, NVIDIA's new
Quadro CX graphics card certainly isn't for everybody, but its ability to add some GPU acceleration to the apps in Adobe's Creative Suite 4 has no doubt piqued the interest of quite a few professionals out there and, according to PC Perspective, they likely won't be disappointed. On the card's big selling points, PC Perspective found that it mostly delivered as NVIDIA promised, with the stand-out result being a 2x speed increase in H.264 encoding times in Premiere CS4, something NVIDIA and Elemental eventually hope to increase to 10x with a few more updates to the RapidHD software. The card also expectedly provided a significant boost to Photoshop CS4 but, unlike with the RapidHD plug-in for Premiere, many of those performance gains can also be achieved with other OpenGL-supporting GPUs (though obviously not quite to the same degree). Hit up the link below for the complete rundown, plus a few videos that show just what the card (and a suitable system) are capable of.
[Thanks, Ryan]
Filed under: Desktops
Adobe-friendly NVIDIA Quadro CX gets reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Maximum PC's laid hands on that Logitech G13 Gamepad we
just saw a few days ago, and they've got plenty to say about it. They're fans of the gamepad's physical form and the layout of the keys, mouse buttons and the analog stick. The pad's got a color-customizable mini LCD and backlighting, and it's possible to bind up to 87 different macros at a time on it -- which the reviewer thinks will make this a totally sweet option for MMO-enthusiasts. The G13 is expected to run about $80 and to be released sometimes this month, but if you just can't wait until then for more glimpses of it, hit the read link.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Hand-on with Logitech's G13 Gameboard originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's no secret that multi-touch support is one of the stand-out features of
Windows 7, and it's also no surprise that plenty of companies seem eager to get
in on the action, one of the latest which is uber-manufacturer
Quanta Computer. Somewhat uniquely, however, Quanta is ditching the usual capacitive and resistive touch panels in favor of its new Optical Touch system, which simply uses two cameras placed at the top corners of the screen. That, Quanta says, still lets you perform all the usual multi-touch gestures in the same manner and, depending on the size of the display, could be significantly cheaper than a traditional touchscreen. Details on any actual products using the technology are expectedly a bit light at the moment, but Quanta says it plans to start mass production "soon," with some releases presumably planned to coincide with Windows 7's debut.
[Via
jkOnTheRun]
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
Quanta demos Optical Touch system with Windows 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The East Japan Railway Company has been running tests on a "power-generating floor" since the beginning of January 2007, but they've just installed the system for public testing in several areas of the Tokyo station. Using piezoelectrics similar to that we've seen before in a
UK discotheque, the Japanese company says the power-generating capacity of the flooring has increased ten-fold over its initial results, and they now expect to generate 1,400kW/sec per day. With that, they plan to power the display pictured above, which shows the power generatd by the floor. Sound a little redundant? Fear not: they plan on using the juice to operate automatic ticket gates in the future.
[Via
Inhabitat]
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Piezoelectrics installed in Tokyo railway station floors generate power, wastes it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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