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Filed under: Announcements, Gaming
Joystiq isn't going to stop until your inner
fanboy's been sated, and their latest assault on ignorance of the teensiest bits of minutiae regarding Sony's next
console (and at-work boredom, alike) is here: PS3 Fanboy. Go get your fanboy
on, even if it's delayed into the fall.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: HDTV
Filed under: Portable Audio
The
people spoke, and Apple listened -- while they still have their hearing that is. After facing that French iPod law (no,
not that one, the
other one regulating volume output in portable audio devices) and a lawsuit here in the states about
iPod-related hearing damage, Apple's apparently releasing a software update to allow for a personal volume threshold
option in your iPod. Meaning you can set it so your iPod can't get any louder than a certain pre-defined level --
though as long as that level is configurable, even if its placed out of the way in the device options, people will
still continue to set it to 11 and damage their hearing. Still, what's interesting here is that this move could be
construed as an admission of guilt in some sense, but hey, we appreciate the thought, Apple. Look at that guy in the
picture -- we wouldn't really want him screaming at full volume right into our ears, either.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs
Yeah,
there's a certain novelty to getting FCC shots and info -- it's usually nothing we've never seen before, but after all
those pristine press photos and well-buffed display units, that down and dirty FCC photography is jarring in a good way
-- kind of like tabloid shots of your favorite star a drunken wreck early Sunday morning. So if you wanted the lowdown,
the Q1's (still) got a Celeron M ULV, 256MB (upgradeable to 1GB), an
Intel 915GMS chipset, 60GB drive (up from 40GB!), Ethernet, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA out,
audio out, a 7-inch 800 x 480 display, and three cell battery. Like we said, not a lot there we didn't know. But if you
did want to snag a sneak peek at how all the Origami (aka Microsoft Touch Pack) and all that UMPC multimedia software
works, they've got a hefty 140-some-odd page user manual for you to peruse at your leisure (PDF links part 1
and part
2). Say goodbye to your afternoon.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
Notable curmudgeon John Dvorak raised hackles last
month when he suggested that an Intel-powered Apple would dump OS X and switch to Windows. Turns out he may have been
right -- sort of. Word is out now that Apple has joined BAPco, an industry group that does one thing and one thing
only: create benchmarks for testing the performance of Windows-based PCs. The move comes on top of rumors that Apple
will include VMWare-style virtualization capabilities in the
next version of OS X, which could enable the Mac OS to run Windows apps without requiring a third-party emulator or a reboot. While those rumors have yet to be confirmed, it does seem
possible that Apple is indeed working on a way for OS X users to run Windows apps, and wants to use BAPco's tools to
benchmark the Windows-on-OS X performance (though the tools are said not to work all that well in virtual
environments). Either that or they just want to confirm the rumors that the MacBookPro is the fastest Windows laptop
out there.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Laptops
Dell didn't just announce their new D620 and D820, no, no, sir. They've
also got a Precision M90 and M65 for you to sink your teeth into, featuring Core Duo chips (what else?), 512MB Quadro
FX graphics, IEEE 1394, an oversized three-inch touchpad, and a 17-inch 1920 x 1200 display on the M90; the M65
(pictured) will get a Quadro FX with TurboCache (no dedicated graphics memory), dual battery option, and a 15.4-inch
display. The Precisions, which we haven't heard from a little while, are intended to be a little higher end than your
run of the mill Latitudes, though, so expect to pay for the privilege with baseline price tags of $2,239 and $1,849,
respectively.
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Filed under: Storage
We're not exactly sure when BUSlink
launched a 64GB -- that's gigabyte, yes -- flash drive, but it's right there on their site, plain as day, handily and
smugly smacking down even the largest of flash drives,
available for purchase for $5,000. Apparently they've also got a 32GB (not shown) and 16GB drive for $1,500, but
seriously, if this isn't some kind of sick joke catering to our obsession with solid state memory, you know exactly
which one it is we'll be promptly devouring as soon as we can sell off enough excess gear and internal organs to afford
it. You can run an OS off a flash drive, right? Ok, good.
Filed under: Laptops
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio
Musicians
everywhere have reason to celebrate today -- Moog Products has just announced a
portable analog synthsethizer, which pays tribute to the company's founder, and perhaps just as importantly, will
finally bring professional quality synths down to prices that amateurs can afford. Music Thing's Tom Whitwell had told us to be on the lookout for a new product
from Moog -- the first one following Bob Moog's untimely death from a
brain tumor -- and although the legend might not approve of calling this tribute edition "Little Phatty," he
would certainly appreciate the style and reasonable $1,475 price tag. The Little Phatty features a 37-note keyboard, 2
ultra-stable oscillators, a Moog low pass ladder filter, and 4-stage analog envelope generators, all wrapped up in an
attractive package. Initially Moog Products will only be releasing 1,200 special edition LIttle Phattys, which come
with decorative side panels, the signature plate that you see above, a CD-ROM of the Bob Moog
Memorial Celebration Service, and a special poster for your studio to inspire you as you lay down those crazy
electronic tracks.
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
GPS is a nifty piece of technology. GPS hardware needs to have a clear view of the sky because it's satellite based, so
using your handheld unit can be a problem when the roof of your car is blocking signal reception. The obvious answer is
to add an external antenna. The catch-22 is that many GPS units lack external antenna jacks.
We wanted a low cost dedicated GPS receiver that could be mounted somewhere in the
guts of our vehicle. We picked up a cheap GPS device made for the Palm III and used the instructions from Walter at radiohound.com to remove the 12 channel GPS board from the unit. It's
just a matter of disassembling it and moving a few components around. The result is a stand alone GPS card. Power it up
and it starts spitting out NMEA sentences via the serial port.
Filed under: Laptops
We love a good viral gadget video as much as
the next guy, so what the hell, lost Lenovo test lab tapes
recovered from "a long standing acquaintance?" Ok, why not. Footage that shows the "Skywalker"
holographic projection unit (ala "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi"), a laptop dropped that lands gently thanks to
retractable rocket boosters, and Batman-esque armor plating that prevents coffee spills? Sure, what the hell. After
all, not too many people gonna argue that outside some especially ruggedized machines (Panasonic, we're looking your way), you don't get many
laptops more sturdy than a good ThinkPad. With armor.
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Filed under: Wireless
The Bluetooth Special
Interest Group, in search of a standard for its next version of Bluetooth, had already expressed its
intention to pick between the quarreling UWB factions:
WiMedia Alliance and the UWB Forum. Looks like WiMedia ended up fitting the bill best for bringing high speeds to
Bluetooth connections, and it's expected that most UWB
manufacturers will follow suit. Now the respective tech teams just need to sit down and hammer out the spec, which
Bluetooth SIG estimates will take about a year, with prototype chips becoming available around Q2 2007. There are some
distinct technological hurdles that must be jumped to get the 480mbps UWB interoperable with the 2.1mbps Bluetooth
connections, including the fact that UWB operates in the unlicensed spectrum above 6GHz, while Bluetooth hangs out at
2.4GHz. Even with those problems in front of them, Bluetooth SIG is confident that UWB fits the low power consumption
requirements of Bluetooth, and, of course, it's hard to scoff at the promised data rates.
Filed under: Laptops
Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops
We almost feel sorry for Nicholas Negroponte. No sooner does
he leave his cushy post at the MIT Media Lab to head the OLPC project on a full-time basis than he faces war drums from
all sides. First Bill Gates slapped him
down, declaring with man-of-the-year certainty that the developing world needs a good smartphone
more than a crank-up laptop. Now, Microsoft's sometime tag-team partner Intel has hit Negroponte from the other side,
declaring that the company has plans for a $400 laptop that will make Negroponte's box look like, well, a windup toy.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini chose Brazil to announce the Edu-Wise, which will be a full-fledged, Windows-powered mini-PC.
While the prototype Edu-Wise box Otellini showed off in São Paulo looked pretty good, we suspect that a $400
price tag will put it out of the price range of most developing world customers, unless it's heavily subsidized. We
also think there's a good chance that the $400 price won't even stick; after all, we seem to recall a recent Microsoft/Intel project for a small, full-Windows computer
that was initially meant to hit the market at about
$500. Last time we checked, those boxes were going for closer to a grand. Apply the same math
to this, and we don't see it coming in for any less than $750 -- not exactly pocket change for most developing world
students.
Filed under: Features, Gaming, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Podcasts
The Podcast is back! We've been
out of the action for a couple of weeks but we aren't going anywhere -- except to Vegas next week for CTIA. But we're
catching up this week on all the video game news and rumors surrounding the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution (or
should we say Go?), the first new TiVo we've seen in, well, a while, and Microsoft's latest delay for Vista, which puts
us squarely back to January 2007. We also decided to snag a couple of those emails you've been sending in and give 'em
some air time, so listen in to the latest ep, we'll do our best to make sure it's worth your wait.Get
the podcast
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast
directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the Engadget Podcast
feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically (MP3).
[MP3] Download the show (MP3).
[AAC] Download the show (enhanced AAC).
[OGG] Download the show (OGG).
[Vote] Vote for us on Podcast
Alley!
Hosts
Peter Rojas and Ryan Block
Producer
Randall
Bennett
Music
J J J - 'Suits' in Japan
Format
45:45, 20.9
MB, MP3
Program
01:50 - Vista delayed (for consumers) till early
2007
08:42 - Dell
buying Alienware for undisclosed price
13:35 - Nintendo Revolution = Nintendo GO?
18:30 - Sony confirms PS3
controller redesign
22:32 - Dual
tuner TiVo pic spotted?
25:27 - Cablevision to rollout
remote-storge DVR service
31:58 - Palm's 10th
anniversary
35:30 - Listener email
LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)
Contact the podcast: 1-888-ENGADGET, Engadget (Gizmo Project) or podcast at engadget dawt com
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Displays
Being the naive souls
that we are, we didn't know the main sought-after functionality for a gadget to be used in an educational institution
is theft deterrence, but Hitachi seems to be onto the game. By
painting their new ED-X10 projector a bright orange, they
hope they can dissuade a couple of Halo-hungry frat brothers from "repurposing" the unit. (Is that why
prisoners wear orange? So we don't steal them?) Hitachi has also packed in a transition detector that will lock the
projector if moved, requiring a pin-code to use it again. If all else fails, the projector includes a steel security
bar so you can just bolt the unit down and be done with it. Otherwise this orange thing sounds fairly average, with an
XGA resolution, 2000 ANSI lumens, and a 500:1 contrast ratio. The ED-X10 is available now in the UK for around $1200
US.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Desktops, Peripherals
In a surprising
turn of events, Belkin has decided not to style their
new Flip USB KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch after a Mac mini,
as seems to be the current trend. Instead, the Flip
features a little LED-sporting, puck-shaped switching button to signify which computer you're controlling. Sadly the
Flip doesn't break past the usual VGA capabilities of its predecessors, so you won't be taking advantage of those DVI
ports that are fairly common these days. At least the price is right; the Belkin Flip should cost around $60 and is due
for shelves this April.
Filed under: Portable Audio
If the RCA's Lyra line was harboring some sort of hidden cache of street cred,
we're not sure how much longer it'll last, thanks to this lackluster offering of low-end DAPs. The RD2112/2115/2117
players to the left are "splash proof" units with 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB of memory respectively. They all
feature two-line LCDs, but at least they're fairly cheap at around $110 for the 512MB version. The real excitement
begins with the RD2415 carabiner-styled unit. It's a 512MB offering for the same $110, and seems to mirror the rest of
the functionality offered by its peers, other than that sweet carabiner action, of course.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Laptops
Toshiba's throwing out three new Satellites today, people, so keep your ears perked: their A105 series, (which
includes the S2021, S4001, S4004 and S4014), P105 (with the S6014, and S6004), and M105 series have all gotten spec
bumps, in many cases to Intel Core Solo or Core Duo chips. They range in options from a sub-$900 Celeron equipped
A105-S2021 to the 17-inch $1,550 P105-6014 with a Core Duo T2300. Nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary for their
laptop lineup, but if you're looking to get dual core on the go, now you've got another option to get the job done.
They said they were gonna do
it, and now apparently they have (or are at least really close to it): Fujitsu's gearing up for a Q3 launch of the
first 200GB 2.5-inch drive, the MHV2200BT. We don't have any solid details on it (like whether it's the same 7200RPM
200GB drive they were talking about before), but the Reg seems to think it'll take 1.6W of juice, have a 1.5ms seek
time, and be SATA with NCQ. You know what we think? That's an awful lot of storage for a laptop, and you couldn't get
it to us fast enough.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Home Entertainment
We
were kind of hoping Pioneer would get a little ironic on us and throw some HDCP on their new HDMI-enabled DV-696AV,
490V, and 393, the highest end of which is capable of playing back DVD-R/W, DVD audio, and SACD (with full six channel
24 / 192 audio), as well as DivX on a burned disc. Yeah, it upconverts to 720p / 1080i, but we all know what the real
draw here is. Hey, they gotta keep selling DVD players somehow until their Blu-ray players hit the market,
right?Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Robots
The Layered-X RAYERD-X may have raised some eyebrows and spurred some Transformer reminiscence
at the Ninth annual Robo-One competition in Tokyo this week, but according to Robots Dreams the title (at least in the
Technical Competition) went to OMNIZERO.2, with its dashing nuvo-like good looks and QRIO-like running, posing, object tracking, and even the ability to
jump in place. Sure, this may seem a little rudimentary, but you won't be giggling so smugly when a gang of OMNIZERO.2s
tie you down in your sleep and start jumping on your chest. And they will, trust us -- we got a visit last night after
we originally decided not to run this story.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
As you may recall, way back over a year ago when Lenovo announced its intentions to buy IBM, congress stepped in to
call for an
investigation to make sure the Commies Chinese megacorp wasn't going to be getting access to
anything sensitive or secret in IBM's labs or R&D facilities. Well, obviously everything passed over
kosher, but now the US State Department's placing an order for 15,000 Lenovo PCs, and the US-China Economic and
Security Review Commission wants a thorough look through the machines to ensure they're not rigged with bugs and
spyware. Outside dismantling every single PC and freshly installing the OS themselves, we're not sure how they would
guarantee they'd be clean, which just goes to show you've really got to trust your PC manufacturer, especially if
you're the government. In all reality they're probably more likely to find a Sony backdoor than a Lenovo one,
anyway.
Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs
Ok, here we go folks, a UMPC with an
announced price, ready to order. First from the gates is the TabletKiosk V-700 or rather,
"eo" UMPC v7110. Now, forget what you heard about these pups dropping for around $500 to help position them
between the handheld and laptop market, mkay? This UMPC sportin' a VIA C7 NaNo 1.0GHz processor, XP Tablet PC edition,
30GB disk, 7-inch 800 x 480 TFT touch LCD, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, and 256MB RAM will hit the last week of April for, get
this, $900 freakin' dollars! Now consider for comparison, that you can get a Dell XPS
M140 laptop which also won't fit in your pocket but has twice the screen size, double the processing power, double
the RAM, and double the disk for $50 bucks less and we just gotta wonder... why TabletKiosk, why? Sure, prices will go
down with time, but that's not exactly the most auspicious start.
Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Freeview is taking the nation by storm! (Well, not our nation, but
that one across the ocean where some of us claim ancestry). The latest device to take advantage of this free OTA
digital programming is an upcoming LCD from Sanyo hiply-named the Y:TV, which Stuff UK reports will sport a 160GB DVR
for capturing all that free, free content. Stuff unfortunately forgets to include the size of the new display, but from
the model number (CE32LDY1) we can presume that it's a 32-incher. Also present are the obligatory component and HDMI
connections, interchangeable bezels (in case you get sick of the iPod white), as well as Timedomain speakers which
claim to do the virtual surround thing. We've got a release window for you -- early May -- but no word on how many
pounds you'll need to drop on this.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Peripherals, Storage
Filed under: Laptops, Wireless
Filed under: Displays, Transportation, Wireless
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Filed under: HDTV
Add Universal to the list of
studios that won't downsample content for owners of non-HDMI HD sets. The company follows Sony and several others in
announcing its decision not to use the Image Constraint Token to force owners of older HD sets to watch their films at
540p instead of the discs native resolution. The decision mainly affects owners of older analog HD sets, and shows
that, at least as far as the studios are concerned, it's important to show at least some willingness to meet consumers
(especially early adopters) half way in order to convince them to upgrade their gear to HD. Of course, Universal and
the others are under no obligation to maintain this position indefinitely, so we won't be surprised to see ICT
implemented across-the-board in a few years, after the format wars are over and we're all hooked on our new players.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Displays, Gaming, Peripherals
It might not be quite as
wiz bang cool as that NYU
Multi-Touch interface we saw last month, but this new DiamondTouch touch panel table interface has one thing NYU's
unit lacked: game. IGN has video of the DiamondTouch panel in action, and it really appears to be a glorified top-down
projection system -- which it is. The image is projected onto a white table, which contains the actual magic. By
touching the table you complete a circuit that sends a signal through your body with the X/Y position of your touch.
This means the table can handle multiple simultaneous touches, so you and your friends can all gather around and do
gaming as it was meant to be done, tabletop style. Mitsubishi's system also includes voice control, and they show it
all off with a fairly impressive demo of WarCraft III.
Filed under: Gaming
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Displays
Filed under: HDTV
It's not like DVD players
with HD upscaling are anything new, and we've seen our fair share of cheapo models, but
Samsung is hitting new highs (rather, new lows) with their DVD-HD860 which does 720p/1080i upscaling for a mere $100.
Not a lot more to say about it, there's HDMI output along with the usual component and RCA outs, but no HDMI cable is
included. Usually we'd recommend just saving your pennies for a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, but with the types of
delays we've been seeing with those formats, and cheap-as-free prices like this, it's hard to say no.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Filed under: Portable Audio
Denmark's largest telecom company, TDC, and
the Maersk shipping giant, have joined the French call for
Apple to open up its DRM to all players, with TDC's CEO saying that "we can only press for something like the
French, because it gives the consumers as many opportunities to shop for music." We're not sure if such calls
resonate with the Danish government; last time we checked, the Prince was still wandering around muttering something
about ghosts, and his pals were warning him that "something rotten" was going on at the top. And chances are
Steve Jobs isn't losing any sleep over this -- unless he's seeing ghosts as well -- since Denmark's population of about
5.4 million makes it one of Europe's smaller markets. Regardless of whether the corporate pronouncements translate into
actual law, they do seem to point to a growing trend in Europe to demand greater DRM interoperability. Elsewhere in
Europe, Apple's long-running battle with the surviving Beatles over the use of the name "Apple" is due back
in court this week, as Paul and Ringo continue to insist that the iPod and iTunes violate the terms of a 1991
settlement in which Apple agreed to stay out of the music business. Apple has defended itself by insisting that the
agreement with the Beatles' Apple Corps publishing company applied only to physical media and not "data
transmission," as Apple defines its products. Maybe Apple should try the same excuse on those melancholy Danes and
see if it'll be enough to get them to put down their slings and arrows.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Flexible paper batteries are by no means the
newest (or even the most exciting) take on energy storage in the last few years, but we're seeing more stabs at it these
days, like Enfucell's or Power Paper's flexible batteries. Besides the usual thin n' flexible selling angle, Enfucell's
batteries, while still in development, are apparently anticipated to be particularly cheap and environmentally friendly
due to a more off-the-shelf materials and manufacturing process of metals in a paper and laminate sandwich. Sure, it
may not produce a huge amount of juice, but when you're talking about very low-energy applications like e-ink, cheap,
flexible batteries could be power the digital newspapers of tomorrow before being thrown away with the day's rubbish.
And don't even get us started on Power Paper's PowerCosmetics line of products, which use these batteries to rejuvinate
wrinkling, sagging skin. What's going to happen to Botox and latte, Tuesdays, hm?Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Portable Audio
Nah, there's not much to it, just Transcend's latest
audio player, the T.sonic 610, which hits the ground running with up to 2GB of memory, an FM tuner, the usual codecs
(no sign of PlaysForSure), and an organic EL display. It'll run you ¥18,100 (about $155) over there, but if you
ever do see it this side of the Pacific, chances are it'll probably be under a different badge for a different price.
We suggest you don't get your hopes up even for that, though.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Storage
Filed under: Home Entertainment
See? We were
right -- nothing much exciting here (if this shot is, in fact, real), just a plain lookin' TiVo Series 2 box. Oh, sure,
it's got a little more black than usual, but the 180-hour TCD649180 and
80-hour TCD649080 aren't going to win any awards for radical (re-)design. Nope, this thing is all about the
integrated Ethernet, four USB ports, and the ability to record as two cable channels or one cable / one digital
simultaneously -- if it does all that stuff, that is. Frankly we'd just wait it out for the Series 3 (which is due out any year now), but hey, we
know how fiendish some TiVo users are.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Home Entertainment
If you've never
seen a Blu-ray or HD DVD demo, there's not really a lot to it. It's a high def picture playing off a disc instead of
your HD cable (or satellite) box -- pretty simple. But we haven't yet seen a Blu-ray demo running off a PC, and we
didn't expect Sony's Blu-ray
Vaios for a little a little while longer yet, though they've been showing 'em off to the otaku at Tokyo
Anime Fair this year. Good for them -- too bad we're getting a little restless about seeing this stuff demoed already.
Care to start getting these things on the market? HD DVD content is sputtering right
now, remember?Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Think DVR's
disruptive? What happens when your cable company starts in with hosted VOD of your DVR? Sure, cable companies already
have VOD for a lot of programming, but it's typically premium content like HBO, and doesn't have commercials anyway.
Well, not anymore; Cablevision's apparently testing a
time-shifted "remote-storage" DVR service so you can get the TiVo-effect without the TiVo, so to speak -- no
one would have to touch their cable box or equipment to use a DVR, and it would cost less, they claim, than the current
$9.95 they charge for DVR box rental. We don't know if it supports HD, but what strikes us as odd is that each
subscriber gets 80 hours of storage on their RS DVR -- surely everyone will record everything, and that'll result in
massive dupes and a less useful service than just keeping a single central recording of every channel's video feed, and
allowing all customers to browse through a completely 100% time-shifted television experience (like what Time Warner was
planning with Mystro). This is going to ruffle some feathers though, content providers are having a hard enough time
smiling through their teeth at DVR-wielding cable companies. But now making it that much easier and taking the box out
of the equation is sure to revive some of the old ire and arguments.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Displays, Laptops
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs
Got a Media Center PC, but don't feel like you're getting the most from it? Streaming loads of video around the house
but wondering why you've still got to drop more coin on a Sonos
or custom rig for a better audio streaming experience? Well, Exceptional Innovation wants to see you through this one
with their forthcoming release of Life|ware (which apparently will be shown off at the Electronic House Expo), that is
supposed to allow for proper third party bidirectional control and Media Center metadata transfer for multi-zoned
streaming home audio on cheap touchscreen panels. If you're not really with us on this one that's cool, but we have a
feeling there a few people out there who've been wanting a household-wide audio control system on the cheap(er) that
are going to be pretty stoked about this.
Engadget Japanese
Engadget Spanish
Engadget Chinese
Filed under: Portable Audio
Sure,
Sony may have taken a page out of the old screenless audio player book on their new E-series players, but hey, from the
sound of it these things may have some decent features and storage to 'em. Though to the best of our knowledge they
haven't been announced yet (which means, of course, they may not necessarily be real or materialize), it looks like
these new E-series flash players may have an FM tuner option and come in 512MB (NW-E002), 1GB (E003), and 2GB
capacities (E005) for up to 1,400 Kronor (about $180 US). Very doable, if you ask us.
Filed under: Robots
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals
Filed under: Robots
Filed under: Handhelds
Here's a unique one. A company named AbleNet is
busting out an interesting new handheld device called Tango! which does the "AAC" thing (Augmentative and
Alternative Communication -- new one on us) to help kids learn English, or for those that are hearing or speech
impaired, allowing for the easy creation of sentences. You can use predetermined phrases by punching through a few
sub-categories, or make your own with the device's intuitive interface. The Tango! also allows the creation of your own
items; the built-in camera can capture a new image to serve as an icon, and then an adult can record the correct phrase
for the item, even with a simulated child's voice. The device can expand its functionality via USB, CompactFlash, and
SD, with the option to use a keyboard, or even work over a cellphone down the line. Sadly the unit runs for a steep
$6899, but hopefully AbleNet can get some quantity orders in and cut that down a bit.
Filed under: Handhelds
Here's a unique one. A company named Blink
Twice is busting out an interesting new handheld device called Tango! which does the "AAC" thing
(Augmentative and Alternative Communication -- new one on us) to help kids learn English, or for those that are hearing
or speech impaired, allowing for the easy creation of sentences. You can use predetermined phrases by punching through a
few sub-categories, or make your own with the device's intuitive interface. The Tango! also allows the creation of your
own items; the built-in camera can capture a new image to serve as an icon, and then an adult can record the correct
phrase for the item, even with a simulated child's voice. The device can expand its functionality via USB,
CompactFlash, and SD, with the option to use a keyboard, or even work over a cellphone down the line. Sadly the unit
runs for a steep $6899, but hopefully Blink Twice can get some quantity orders in and cut that down a bit.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Features
Filed under: Laptops
You might want to skip over this drool
fest of a review if the $2800 asking price is a bit too steep, but Sony's new VAIO SZ line -- headlined by this here
VGN-SZ170P -- sure looks to be an attractive choice for those in the money. Powered by a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo T2400
processor, the 3.8 pound laptop has plenty of horsepower, and even manages to best Gateway's 6.3 pound Dual Core M465-E
in benchmark tests. The processor also runs surprisingly cool, which is always a good thing with a laptop that is actual
small enough to sit on your lap. At 1.2-inches thick, the notebook still manages a 13.3-inch 1280x800 widescreen
display, and also includes a DVD±RW optical drive, an EDGE radio for Cingular service, and a VGA webcam to fill
up its carbon fiber body. Perhaps the most interesting feature, the SZ's ability to switch between NVIDIA and Intel
integrated graphics for the sake of battery life, happens to be a bit of a letdown, since at 4 hours 15 minutes it only
offered a 42 minute improvement over the all out NVIDIA usage. PC Mag recommends a larger battery if you really want to
try and compete with Lenovo's 7 hour strong X60.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Displays
It's not as if these displays haven't gotten plenty of attention, with Apple's 30-inch Cinema Display
showing up in a category of its own in 2004, and Dell's UltraSharp 3007WFP causing quite a bit
of excitement at CES this year, but CNET figured they'd face off these two displays just to show they still care. Hate
to spoil it for you, but Apple's offering does win by a slim margin, due to its more accurate and vivid color, along
with its better grayscale differentiation. But the $300 cheaper 3007WFP held its own, with more input options and
better text performance. We guess it all comes down to whether you're going to be scanning Excel spreadsheets or
scanning for headshots, but it looks like both displays have plenty to offer.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Peripherals
Even though it won't look nearly as
good sitting next to your HTPC than the Vaios it was designed to complement, you can now pick up the Sony VGP-XL1B2 200
DVD changer that had previously limited to an optional add-on for the company's XL1 and XL2 Media Center PCs (or Digital
Living Systems, as Sony would prefer). The changer will work with any machine running Windows Media Center Edition 2005
Update Rollout 2, and is controllable through your system's FireWire port. Perhaps the best part of the $800 device is
its ability to daisy-chain with up to four more of its mates, giving you 1000 excuses to be like us and stay home every
Friday night.
Filed under: Networking
In the never ending search for better data
transmission over the fiber optic backbones that hold
our Internet together, Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications has teamed with Fujitsu to see how much data they could squeeze through one of
those glass pipes. The results sure look good; by pumping light at various wavelengths they managed to squeeze 60 DVDs
worth of data a second over a 100 mile link. The new 2.56tbps records smashes the old 1.28tbps record, and reminds us
once again how much our cable connection really sucks.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets
Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment:
It's like Karaoke gone
wrong. You sing into the mic, but something very different comes out of the speakers. It's a jerky, warped version of
MC Hammer trying to sing what you sang. Scrambled Hackz is a cobbled together mixture of ordinary hardware and
extraordinary software, running across three programming languages. 
The fun starts when new audio comes into the
system through the microphone. It is similarly sliced up, in real time. Each chunk is compared to the database, which
starts spitting out chunks of the original source track (and it's accompanying video) to match the audio input.
Filed under: Features, Portable Audio
Every week Stephen Speicher contributes The Clicker, an opinion column on entertainment and technology:
Filed under: Portable Video
Filed under: Gaming
After 11 years of existence as one of the
most popular consoles of all time, the PSone is finally getting the kibosh from Sony. The original PlayStation, through
its original and PSone iterations, has sold over 100 million units, and we're sure brought joy to millions of users
worldwide, ourselves included. (Oh come on, Syphon Filter? Final Fantasy Tactics? Parappa? These are true happiness.)
Of course, you'll always be able to grab a PSone on eBay if a Spyro urge hits, or just dive into your storage shed to
dredge up your original PlayStation, but can we ever truly go back to those days of our youth? The good news is that
Sony is working on a PSX emulator for the PSP, and you can always
pop an old game into your PS2 or PS3, so hopefully we'll never be far from a little bit of (relatively) old school
action.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
We're not sure how much we trust the "Microsoft insider" that apparently spoke to Australia's Smarthome
News, but the site claims that the source told them that up to 60% of the oft-delayed Windows Vista's code will
have to be rewritten over the next several months. Additionally, the company has apparently pulled developers from the
Xbox team in order to meet an internal deadline to launch the operating system at next year's CES in early January.
Smarthome also claims that Microsoft will also offer Media Center as an "optional package" with Vista, though
we suspect that this isn't a new development, but rather refers to the Vista Home Premium version of
the program, which will include Media Center and other goodies. We certainly hope that Smarthome's source is wrong
about the 60% rewrite; although Microsoft has reorganized its Vista team, bringing in Steven Sinofsky from the Office
group, rewriting that much code would take a lot longer than the nine months between now and CES (unless they're
talking about CES 2009, that is). Then again, the company could always hire narf and blanka; they seem to work pretty quickly, and certainly know
their way around Windows.
Filed under: Gaming
Filed under: Gaming
Well, as predicted,
Iwata-san didn't announce a price, date, or even officially name the Revolution at his keynote speech at GDC this year, but they did
announce one very interesting tidbit. Remember how the Revolution is going to play games from and emulate every Nintendo
home console to date, starting with the NES? Well, that's not all: they're also including emulation for the Sega Genesis
and Turbo Grafx. Seriously, who would have thought back in the 80s such bitter rivals would eventually become so
subsumed to the N as to become a retro software package? So if y'all been missing Bonk or Sonic and haven't been up to
the eBay hunt (or garage sale circuit) to get your fix, just hold out. Who knows, hold out long enough and maybe, just
maybe, we'll get some Saturn, 3DO, and Jaguar support, too.
Filed under: Household, Robots
Filed under: Home Entertainment
We know
you just can't resist a nice, old school Kloss-looking box, which is why we have to give some love to Evergreen's
MusicBaby DN-MPS100. It's not much more than a couple of speakers, a couple of knobs, an aux-in, and a USB port for
playing audio off your mass-storage compliant USB device, but kind of reminds us of another very simple box for playing digital audio. Except this one's
a few hundred less at 7,980 (about $67 US), and will play with more than one kind of device (if we're not talking about
using the aux port, anyway).Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds, Peripherals
So if you recall, way back at E3 2004
when Sony was showing off the PlayStation Portable for the first time in the US, they were also generating some buzz
with translucent keyboard and cellphone attachments. Of
course, those never materialized -- but they have in fact finally shown up online, albeit at the USPTO. In two filings
dated November 10, 2004 (and made public in late February 2006 and only three days ago, respectively), a gaggle of Sony
designers submitted applications for both "ornamental design[s]" for a keyboard and phone add-on for the PSP
-- and trust us, the patent filings couldn't have been much less verbose. So will we ever see these things get
manufactured and released? Eh, even though Sony's launched some unexpected PSP
accessories recently, we'd assume the phone attachment won't ever take off. However, Izumi Kawanishi has made it no
secret that he wants
email on the PSP, and a keyboard would be quite a nicety if that's in the cards.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
