Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-coming-may-17th-with-gorilla-glass-screen-an/
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 coming May 17th, with Gorilla Glass screen and spill-proof keyboard (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/motorola-xoom-wifi-to-get-android-3-1-update-within-the-next-se/
Continue reading Motorola Xoom WiFi to get Android 3.1 update within the 'next several weeks'
Motorola Xoom WiFi to get Android 3.1 update within the 'next several weeks' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 10:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/lg-optimus-black-review/
Continue reading LG Optimus Black review
LG Optimus Black review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 11:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/google-makes-chome-web-store-available-worldwide-adds-in-app-pu/
Google makes Chome Web Store available worldwide, adds in-app purchases and flat five percent fee originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | E mail this | CommentsSource: http://kotaku.com/5800705/kinect-has-finally-found-its-way-into-the-womens-change-room
European clothing giant TopShop ran a little test in a Moscow store recently: hook a Kinect camera up to a mirror and let the ladies try on clothes without having to actually try them on.
It sounds good in theory, and in some instances looks good in theory, but its practical use is limited somewhat by the fact they're at an actual store. With change rooms available, and the clothes actually in their hands. Why see a poorly-fitting virtual representation of an outfit when you can walk ten metres and see what it looks like in the flesh?
Still, it's a neat idea!
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5800597/google-music-an-island-in-the-cloud
It's basically the Skull Island of music services.
You know how it works: You take the music you already own and upload it to the Web where you can get at it from your phone or browser. Essentially, you're taking the island of music on your computer and dropping it in the cloud.
But it's still an island. It's still a self-contained unit. You have to manage it yourself. It won't grow unless you manually add tracks to it. There's no serendipitous discovery. No social component. No Pandora or Last.fm-style suggestions that drop tracks you've never heard before, but already love. Google isn't offering you a vast, new catalog. It's just offering to hold your shit for you.
You know what would have been a really exciting announcement? If Google announced that it was finally commoditizing music. That—not some online tune ghetto—is the next step for music services. That's the leap we need to make.
Consider NavTeq. Garmin, Magellan , Yahoo Maps, Mapquest, Lowrence, and even XM Radio all rely on the same NavTeq data set. Garmin and Magellan can set themselves apart with pricing, features and form factors, even though both use the same basic commodity to deliver what users ultimately want.
At some point in the future music services—like Rdio and Spotify and likely iTunes and God help me even fucking Rhapsody—will likely be completely commoditized. They'll all have the same catalogue, but will differentiate themselves by their discovery, sharing, interface and delivery features.
I don't want another place to simply store songs. I don't want to be isolated. I want to connect with new albums and people and artists. I don't want to just move from one island to another. I'm ready to be rescued.
*Assuming your library fits in Google or Amazon's locker. If it's too big, you're still going to have to keep some of it on that island in your desktop.
Image: Shutterstock
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5800628/the-first-amazing-android-tablet
It's the first tablet that's as immaterial as the iPad 2, in form and weight and feel. (In fact, it is slightly more so, by a gram and a millimeter.) That's amazing. What's more amazing, maybe, is the fact that it's amazing.
It's not quite as rigid, not as sturdy or deliberately constructed. That's because the back is plastic, glossy and thin. And like the Motorola Xoom, it's proportioned in a way that it's really meant to be used in landscape—it's too tall, too long in portrait mode. But it's still the first Android tablet, the first non-iPad tablet to feel the way that tablets this size should feel. (It's interesting how closely this resembles an iPad in practice, but anyways.) Every millimeter, every gram counts, and in the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the math is beautiful.
More on this later. But even if it's exactly the same as the Xoom and every other Android Honeycomb in terms of power, performance, features—this is the new Android tablet to buy. Because it's the first one to feel right.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/lighting-science-demos-android-home-bulbs-promises-dead-simpl/
Lighting Science demos Android @ Home bulbs, promises dead-simple home automation (hands-on) originally appeared on ! Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/charlotte-motor-speedway-panasonic-flip-the-switch-on-the-world/
Charlotte Motor Speedway, Panasonic flip the switch on the world's largest HD screen originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/microsofts-rock-and-rails-touchscreen-lets-you-massage-your-pho/
If you ever get tired of poking away at your smartphone's screen like a doorbell, you're not alone. The forward-looking folks over at Microsoft Research have been working away at a new touchscreen system designed pick up on more natural, whole-hand movements, effectively allowing users to break free from the finger-based paradigm that governs most tactile devices. Developed in coordination with engineers at Microsoft Surface, the company's Rock and Rails interface can detect three basic hand gestures: a balled fist, which holds items on the screen, an extended hand that can align objects (see the cell marked "d," on the right) and a curved paw, around which users can pivot images (see cell b). This taxonomy opens up new ways for users to crop, re-size or generally play around with their UI elements, though it remains unclear whether the display will trickle down to the consumer level anytime soon. For now, it appears to operate exclusively on the Surface, but more details should surface when the system's developers release a paper on their project, later this year. Hit the source links to see a video of the thing in action.Microsoft's Rock and Rails touchscreen lets you massage your photos with both hands originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our
CrunchGear | Microsoft Research (1), (2) | Email this | Comments
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/ziilabs-outs-dual-core-zms-20-and-quad-core-zms-40-chips-for-hon/
ZiiLabs outs dual-core ZMS-20 and quad-core ZMS-40 for Honeycomb tablets, clocks 'em at 1.5GHz originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkepiZENter | ZiiLabs | Email this | Comments
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/sharp-aquos-phone-sh-12c-has-3d-cameras-qhd-resolution-gingerb/
Sharp Aquos Phone SH-12C has 3D cameras, qHD resolution, Gingerbread filling originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 05:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/10/ballmer-bates-skype/
In the wake of today’s news that Microsoft is buying Skype for $8.5 billion, CEOs Steve Ballmer and Tony Bates just held a press conference to explain the deal and sell it to investors. The reaction has ben tepid, with Microsoft shares down about 1 percent so far today. As I’ve pointed out, Skype is a great company, but there are concerns that Microsoft paid too much.
In today’s press conference, Ballmer did a good job couching the deal in terms of Microsoft’s mission to bring people closer together through technology and make their lives better. “We will move beyond email and text to rich experiences. Talking to colleagues across the world will be as seamless as talking to them across the table,” he predicts.
From Skype’s point of view, the Microsoft deal could make it even more ubiquitous—from PCs to mobile phones to connected TVs. “This allows us to extend from hundreds of millions to billions of people,” says Skype CEO Bates. “We think this is a set of services that can reach everyone on the planet.”
Skype will become a new division of Microsoft, with Bates reporting to Ballmer. The product and brand will continue to exist, and Ballmer promised to “continue to support non-Microsoft devices.” So all of you Android and iPhone Skype users can breathe easy. But Skype will also become integrated into a variety of Microsoft products: Windows Phone, XBox Live and Kinnect, Outlook, Lync, Messenger, Hotmail.
It is clear that Microsoft sees Skype as more than just voice calls and IM. They made a point to note that 40 percent of Skype traffic is now video. (For instance, Ballmer imagines Skype and Xbox becoming “like a home video conferencing system, but one that costs just a few hundred bucks.”) Skype is being positioned as sitting at the nexus of mobile, social, and voice. Social is a bit of a stretch, but it does connect you to that “inner circle” of people you tend to talk to the most often.
In terms of why Microsoft did the deal, Ballmer confirms my earlier speculation that it was really bidding against the upcoming IPO and figured it was cheaper to buy it now. “Skype was on a path to IPO,” says Ballmer. “From our perspective it was better if we owned this company.” The offer was unsolicited, and went to SIlver Lake Partners, the lead investor of the syndicate that bought Skype from eBay 18 months ago.
Some Skype stats that were shared:
video chat is now 40% ofSKyep use
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/10/google-chrome-frame-ie-admin/
While this might not jump out at you as a huge thing, it’s big news for millions of users stuck working at offices or schools with older machines where admins won’t allow them to upgrade to newer, modern browsers. And some 30 percent of these users were not even able to install plug-ins for IE. Now there’s a way around that with the new dev build of Chrome Frame. You can install this within IE without needing admin access.
Huge.
Google has actually been working on this problem for months. While Chrome Frame was always a great idea for helping the world ween itself off IE6, 7, and 8, the admin issue remained a large one as users couldn’t do much without this access to install the plug-in. Google has finally figured out a way around that.
Russell was quick to note however that they also offer a range of tools for admins to use if they choose to, in order to set boundaries for Chrome Frame. But the admin issue was “a major roadblock” to the quick iterations that the entire Chrome team loves to do.
So how did the team get around this problem? “Let’s talk backstage,” Joshi said with a big smile when asked this question. He said it’s a bit of a technical discussion. Russell said at a high level it was just about getting the technology to work in the browser itself rather than being seen as a traditional plug-in.
When asked what Microsoft thought of this, neither Joshi nor Russell would comment. That probably says all you need to know right there.
Again, this new feature is a part of the new dev build of Chrome Frame right now. It will be tested here and then roll out to the beta channel and then the stable channel eventually.
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