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Friday, July 25, 2008

Cowon P5 Portable Media Player Has 5-inch Touchscreen, Haptics, Usual Cowon Goodness [PMP]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/345065376/cowon-p5-portable-media-player-has-5+inch-touchscreen-haptics-usual-cowon-goodness

Cowon's upcoming P5 will improve on their A3 and Q5W portable media players (which we've both reviewed) with the addition of a haptics touch-feedback feature. The rest is fairly similar: a 800x480 screen, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, TV-out, stereo speakers, USB, extreme codec support and 40GB-80GB sizes. There will still be Wi-Fi, but you'll have to get it tacked on after the fact with a dongle. The Korean price is $430ish by the end of the month. No US info yet as far as we know. Maybe we can trade them an early sneak peek at Starcraft 3 for this? [Cowon via CNET]

NASA's First Solar-Sail Powered Craft Set to Ride on a Stream of Photons Next Week [Come Sail Away]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/345065372/nasas-first-solar+sail-powered-craft-set-to-ride-on-a-stream-of-photons-next-week

NASA's getting set to launch the NanoSail-D next week, its first solar-sail powered spacecraft which catches photons like wind on a 10 square-meter sail made of a thin metallic polymer. The craft uses a crazy Rube Goldberg-like method to deploy the sail that involves burning fishing line at critical moments to release the spring-loaded sail, which is getting shown off in the video here.

It is hoped that sails many times larger (we're talking football fields) will eventually propel long-range missions into deep space, with the help of lasers here on Earth firing light into their sails. The NanoSail-D is sticking in near-Earth orbit to perform its tests, which will inform later uses of the tech.

One caveat is that the launch is scheduled for July 29 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket, which like to go ka-boom and have yet to deliver a payload into orbit successfully. Our fingers are crossed for the little sailor. [Technology Review]

Lancer's Laqa3 Waterproof MP3 Player Takes Design Simplicity to New Levels [Mp3]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/345485459/lancers-laqa3-waterproof-mp3-player-takes-design-simplicity-to-new-levels

Maybe I'm not a slope-wise skier, but when I'm hurtling down a mountain I love to hear wind sounds—not music from my iPod. Other people are different, and this waterproof MP3 player from Lancer certainly fits the "rugged enough for big snowboard crashes" bill. The Laqa3's design is a plain metal tube. And... well, that's it. There's a headphone connector, and presumably controls somewhere, but other than that it's a plain metal tube. You may dig its industrial-look, or not, but it weighs just 25g, has IPX7 waterproofing so it's good for swimming, and comes with IPX7 silicon ear buds. It plays MP3s and WMAs, has an eight-hour lithium battery. It's released July 25th in Japan for about $185, which is lots considering it's 1GB. [AVWatch]

Western Digital intros 2.5-inch 10,000RPM VelociRaptor HDD

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/344087406/

Filed under: Storage

Western Digital has been flaunting its VelociRaptor for some time now, but the drive you've been slamming into towers is now available for low-power, high-performance blade server applications. The 2.5-inch, 10,000RPM enterprise SATA drive (WD3000BLFS) is specially designed to fit snugly within 1U and 2U rack servers, and aside from consuming 35% less power than the previous Raptor drive, this one is available with up to 300GB of capacity. You'll also find 16MB of cache and a 1.4 million mean time before failure rating, though you won't be able to procure one until later this month for an undisclosed price.

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Intel announces EP80579 system on a chip for MIDs and consumer electronics

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/344651554/

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops, Media PCs

Intel is looking to simplify things by adding more processors. Yeah, doesn't sound all that sensible to us, ether, but stay put. Okay. Ready for some acronyms? Their just-announced EP80579 Integrated Processor features a system on a chip design that integrate the Pentium M core with a Memory Controller Hub (MCH), I/O hub (ICH) and data path acceleration engines (among other things dependent upon model). They believe these new Integrated Architecture (IA) chips will simplify consumer electronics like set-top boxes and MIDs due to their consolidated design that will reduce incompatibility issues. Intel also says portable devices will benefit from the new processors' energy efficiency. Speeds run from 600MHz on up to 1.2GHz and all sport a 256KB L2 cache. As for when this new tech will end up in your cable box or MID, no news on that just yet. In other words, don't call your provider just yet.

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Toshiba working on a netbook / UMPC that's actually interesting

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/344757984/

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

We're almost totally over the whole netbook craze, but Toshiba's latest prototype shows there's still interesting things possible, even if it isn't a traditional laptop. The 5.6-inch touchscreen handheld runs Vista on Intel's Atom processor with a 64GB SSD and a GPS chip -- which like an awfully expensive setup, but Toshiba says they're aiming for netbook pricing. Of course, that means almost nothing, since netbooks are all over the map -- and that probably explains why Tosh says it's identified "six or seven" segments of the netbook / UMPC market, and that it might not compete directly with Eee-class machines. Sure -- but isn't an expensive handheld touchscreen netbook just a straight UMPC? Nice try, guys.

[Thanks, Pete]

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Samsung's i8510 INNOV8 gets official in Europe, shown off on video

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/344814471/

Filed under: Cellphones

We've already gotten word of most of the details of Samsung's i8510 INNOV8 (get it?) smartphone, but things just got a whole lot more official for the device in Europe and, coincidentally, a number of sites recently got to spend some time with the phone in NYC (despite the lack of an official US release). Of course, there's not a whole lot of surprises to be found, but it certainly seems like the phone will get the job done and then some, with its built in camera not only boasting an impressive 8 megapixels, but auto-focus, image stabilization, and a flash as well. The rest of the specs aren't too shabby either. Head on past the break to check out one video of the device courtesy of MobileBurn, and be sure to hit up the Laptop Mag link below for a second, higher-quality look at it.

Read - Press Release
Read - MobileBurn, "Samsung's i8510 Innov8 S60 smartphone"
Read - Laptop Mag, "Hands-on with the Samsung i8510"

Continue reading Samsung's i8510 INNOV8 gets official in Europe, shown off on video

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Intel getting ready to release Moblin source, working on Moblin 2

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/344858018/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds, Laptops

Intel's got big plans for Moblin, that Linux-based "core stack" that's being optimized for all sort of mobile devices, from MIDs to carputers, and a big part of those plans is letting the community play a part in its development -- the company is just about to release the source for the first version of Moblin, with an alpha-level release of Moblin 2 to follow. Intel says its focus right now is decidedly on Atom, but that it's looking forward to seeing the community drive Moblin in other directions. There's no word on what Moblin 2 will offer, but it sounds like Intel is hoping that by getting Moblin out in the open, it'll become a de facto standard. Not a bad idea, but we'll see how it goes.

Read - Intel getting ready to release Moblin source
Read - Intel working on Moblin 2

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Gigabyte's M912 swivel screen netbook gets unboxed on video

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/344919574/

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

If you've been ~~patiently~~ awaiting the arrival of Gigabyte's M912 convertible tablet / netbook hybrid, seeing some lucky fellow far, far from where you are unbox it isn't apt to make the wait any easier. Still, there's at least some level of comfort in knowing that these are indeed filtering out, and besides, it gives you a chance to really size up what you're about to get yourself into. Hop on past the break and press play whenever you're ready.

[Via SlashGear]

Continue reading Gigabyte's M912 swivel screen netbook gets unboxed on video

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