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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Emo Labs concocts its own invisible speaker technology

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/27/emo-labs-concocts-its-own-invisible-speaker-technology/

Emo Labs didn't stir up too much commotion while CES was going on, but apparently it did have a tiny presence in Vegas. The crew at Technologizer was able to listen to a sneak preview of the startup's Edge Motion technology, and if the demo is indicative of the end result, we could be onto something special. Much like NXT's SoundVu tech that seemed to fizzle out about as quickly as it hit the scene in 2005, this system creates a so-called invisible speaker by "using arrays of motors to wiggle the edges of a clear membrane." Gurus at the company are hoping to have it integrated into panels of TVs by the end of this year, though it'll be a bit longer before the same can happen on space-constrained laptops.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Emo Labs concocts its own invisible speaker technology originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shelby's amazing Aero EV: 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds, 10 minute recharge

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/27/shelbys-amazing-aero-ev-0-to-60-in-2-5-seconds-10-minute-rech/

Man juices in a boil? No shame, that's Shelby Super Cars' Aero EV in pursuit of the "world's fastest production electric car" title. SSC just came clean with the details behind its All-Electric Scalable Powertrain (AESP) producing 1,000 horsepower and 800 lb-ft of torque that rips the Aero EV through 0 to 60 in just 2.5 seconds at a 208mph top speed. Compare that to the Tesla Roadster's 0-60 in 3.9 seconds (or 3.7 for the 2009 sport model) and you'll understand all the hubbub, bub. Better yet, the 150-220 mile battery can be refilled in just 10 minutes (Tesla takes 3.5 hours) from a 220V service thanks to what SSC calls its "Charge on the Run" onboard charging system -- something that nearly eliminates (or at least minimizes) the need for a battery swapping infrastructure. The first full-scale, pre-production Ultimate Aero EV should be on the streets before June with production deliveries expected in the fourth quarter. Now we just need a price.

Gallery: Shelby's amazing Aero EV: 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds, 10 minute recharge

[Via inhabitat]

Shelby's amazing Aero EV: 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds, 10 minute recharge originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Western Digital's 2TB Caviar Green hard drive launches, gets previewed

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/27/western-digitals-2tb-caviar-green-hard-drive-launches-gets-pre/

There's no veil of secrecy covering this one, but Western Digital has finally come clean with the industry's first 2TB internal hard drive. Launched today in the USA, the planet's highest capacity single HDD -- otherwise known as the 2TB Caviar Green ($299; available now) -- sits on a 3.5-inch platform, includes 32MB of cache and is based around WD's 500GB per platter technology (with 400Gb/in2 areal density). HotHardware was able to take a sneak peek at this here device (a pre-engineering sample, as it were), and was gracious enough to host up some juicy benchmark results for those eager to see how this capacious beast performed. Against the formidable Spinpoint F1 (Samsung) and Barracuda 7200.11 (Seagate), the WD managed to hold its own, which is saying a lot for a drive of this magnitude. Check the full release after the break.

Continue reading Western Digital's 2TB Caviar Green hard drive launches, gets previewed

Filed under: Storage

Western Digital's 2TB Caviar Green hard drive launches, gets previewed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP's six-cell battery for Mini 1000 offers twice the battery life, a fraction of the value

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/27/hps-six-cell-battery-for-mini-1000-offers-twice-the-battery-lif/

$HP's six-cell battery for Mini 1000 offers twice the battery life, a fraction of the value$

Mr. Blurrycam never lies, so when he caught sight of a six-cell battery for HP's Mini 1000 we knew one would be coming soon. Sure enough, three weeks later it's up for sale on HP's site selling for a bargain (gulp) price of $153.90. That's almost half the cost of an entire machine (which currently start at $350) and as of now you can't pay the difference to upgrade from the stock three-cell when customizing a new netbook. That's an awful lot of bank for twice the battery life, but don't let us rain on your parade if you're looking to do your part to help the economy.

Filed under: Laptops

HP's six-cell battery for Mini 1000 offers twice the battery life, a fraction of the value originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, January 26, 2009

Atom-powered MSI WindBOX nearly ready to ride your LCD

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/26/atom-powered-msi-windbox-nearly-ready-to-ride-your-lcd/

Finally, a nettop we can really support. Rather than forcing consumers to deal with yet another underpowered box on their desk, MSI is enabling Earthlings to totally conceal said underpowered box so long as they have an LCD monitor with a VESA-compatible mount. The WindBOX, which actually broke cover back in November, is now completely official, and within the slim slab will be a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, Intel's GMA 950 graphics set, 802.11b/g WiFi, audio in / out, three USB 2.0 sockets, a VGA port and a 3-in-1 multicard reader for good measure. There's no mention of a price, but it should start filtering out later this quarter. Better tell your LCD to start working out, don't you think?

Filed under: Desktops

Atom-powered MSI WindBOX nearly ready to ride your LCD originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Portable Wii mod renders this Wii portable, modded

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/26/portable-wii-mod-renders-this-wii-portable-modded/

Better keep an eye out, Mr. Heckendorn -- we know that the modding community is pretty cut throat -- just like the Ice Pirates in that movie, uh, Ice Pirates -- and now it looks like there's another young hotshot on the scene. Fifteen year old modista Xteaphn (that's pronounced Steven, folks) has a little sideline going on custom-made portable hardware, with several mods to his name -- including this pint-sized, battery-powered Wii. The thing is tiny -- it's dwarfed by a 13-inch notebook -- and a full charge will give it about an hour of play. Stunning video after the break.

Continue reading Portable Wii mod renders this Wii portable, modded

Filed under: Gaming

Portable Wii mod renders this Wii portable, modded originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Red Tape, Greed Blocking Widespread U.S. Cell Phone Credit Card Transactions [Cell Phones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/MhEkPn5gQ9E/red-tape-greed-blocking-widespread-us-cell-phone-credit-card-transactions

In Japan, paying for things with a wave of a cell phone is old hat. Clothing, food, movies, loose women—you name it, they've bought it using a phone. Americans? Not so much. Here's why.

The short answer is "red tape." There are simply far too many entities, players, middlemen and suits that each want a piece of the pie to make such a system practical in the U.S., for now. Indeed, popular and proven programs already exist in some major cities, like Atlanta, New York and San Francisco, but the effect has yet to grow into anything we could seriously call "critical mass."

In Japan however, the New York Times reports that the major players simply said, "this is how it will be" in the early stages, and moved on from there. The result is that a single carrier, NTT DoCoMo, accounted for more than half of the Japanese market from the moment of inception. Their leverage as the majority player "motivated" the system to take off among the financial institutions and handset manufacturers, but I have a hard time believing such practices, anathema to U.S. capitalism, would ever take hold Stateside.

Still, the same technology driving drive-by Japanese cell phone purchases in Akihabara is still managing to leak into other countries, albeit in different form factors. In London, for example, the Times reports that "Oyster" cards used for transportation feature the same Near Field Communication (NFC) short-range tech as Japanese phones. In the U.S., MasterCard's PayPass terminals allow consumers to wave their card instead of swipe it.

But these outlets only allow on CC# per card. Japanese phones, the nirvana of drive-by transactions, allow users to select from several accounts, and use the one they want.

The obvious fraud and theft issue is also addressed in the article ("safe" say experts), although with all the big time ID theft stories we've seen t! his past year the stigma will remain regardless of how many Kevin Fu's there are saying cell phone transactions are A-OK.

Fu is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His claim to fame is discovering a huge security hole in PayPass-type credit card transactions in 2006. His research led card companies to overhaul the system and institute fixes over the past three years.

One upside of this discussion (if you're in the pro-cell phone CC camp) is that MasterCard has already come out and said there will be no additional fees for these transactions, should they see a massive deployment. Of course, we're in the middle of a huge global recession right now, so we'll see if the credit card industry, often criticized as synonymous with the phrase "hidden fees and finance charges" will keep their promise.

If you're a betting person, the magic date for cell phone credit card transactions is 2012, when Key Pousttchi, head of the Wi-mobile research group at the University of Augsburg in Germany, says NFC tech will be in pretty much every cell phone on the market (and netbooks? Or will they have converged with cell phone by then? The article doesn't say).

Now, call me a Luddite traditionalist all you want, but I still don't mind reaching for my wallet. The moths that fly out of it when opened, well, that's another story. [New York Times - Thanks, Matt!]

Who Needs Netbooks? Acer Plans Detail Mobile Internet Device [Acer]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/u4Z9LGqLUk8/who-needs-netbooks-acer-plans-detail-mobile-internet-device

Acer, makers of the 10-inch Aspire One netbook coming later this year, could be prepared to take business in a new direction, if a recent U.S. patent filing is to be believed.

Of course, tech companies file patents these days the way I go through squares of TP after a night out eating Mexican, so don't think an Acer MID or tablet or whatever is coming tomorrow. Still, we have some details about what such a hypothetical device might entail thanks to the filing (gleaned by Electronic Pulp):

Arif Maskatia is the person listed as its inventor, which I take as to mean that he was the one who designed this MID. I can't tell you what features this Acer MID will have exactly, but from what has been revealed in the design, it has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, a pretty sizable screen (that I think supports touch), and a dock connector.

An Intel Atom chip powering the insides would also be a good guess. [Patent via Electronic Pulp

Get your hack on: unofficial multi-touch support released for Android

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/25/get-your-hack-on-unofficial-multi-touch-support-released-for-an/

We've been hearing for months now that both Android and the T-Mobile G1 hardware have some magical, top secret low-level support for multi-touch, but unless we can... you know, do something with it, it really isn't doing anyone any favors. That's where the lovely people in the ever-industrious dev community come into play, throwing together demos on their way to a full release that you -- yes, you -- can finally install on a G1 of your very own. It's still in the proof-of-concept phase, but the load does include a multi-touch version of Android's excellent browser, probably the single app that could use two fingertips more than any other. Needless to say, you should be installing this jazz at your own risk -- but considering the number of hoops you need to jump through to get it up and running (hint: you need to start by gaining root access), the whole process should be enough of a deterrent for the casual types who can't take a hiccup here and there. Video of the included multi-touch map browser app (among others) in action after the break.

[Thanks, Ryan G.]

Continue reading Get your hack on: unofficial multi-touch support released for Android

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Get your hack on: unofficial multi-touch support released for Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:12:00 EST. Please see! our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD sees distinction between netbooks and laptops vanishing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/25/amd-sees-distinction-between-netbooks-and-laptops-vanishing/

Before you get all riled up, remember, this is just a man in a suit speaking his mind. Got it? Good. On AMD's most recent earnings call, CEO Dirk Meyer casually confessed that "the distinction between what is a netbook and what is a laptop is going to go away," and he continued by saying that there would be "a continuum of price points and form factors." Now, we're not about to believe that the whole netbook category will simply dry up and vanish in the near future -- much to the chagrin of Psion Teklogix, we assume -- but it's not like we haven't heard equally odd remarks from the CEOs of Intel and RIM. On second thought, shove a Core 2 Quad CPU, twin GPUs and 4GB of RAM into a Mini 10 chassis while nixing any and all heat issues, and you can call it whatever you damn well please.

Filed under: Laptops

AMD sees distinction between netbooks and laptops vanishing originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gigapan Imager used to craft 1,474 megapixel image of Obama's inauguration

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/25/gigapan-imager-used-to-craft-1-474-megapixel-image-of-obamas-in/

In theory, at least, we already knew that the Gigapan Imager was capable of some amazing things. This, friends, is proof. David Bergman strapped the device and his Canon G10 onto a rail at Barack Obama's inauguration and snapped 220 images. After giving his MacBook Pro 6.5 hours to compile a two gigabyte image, he hosted it up on his website for people to zoom around on. We'll caution you -- you can easy kill a few hours checking out faces and such if you end up visiting the read link, but it's totally worth it.

[Via Gadling]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Gigapan Imager used to craft 1,474 megapixel image of Obama's inauguration originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hack provides Liveview Canon EOS DSLRs with video recording

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/25/hack-provides-liveview-canon-eos-dslrs-with-video-recording/

If you're just now starting to come to grips with the fact that Canon's utterly succulent EOS 5D Mark II is just way, way out of reach, here's a little something to lessen the impact of your inferiority complex. An enterprising young buck with a passion to bring video capture abilities to other EOS cameras figured out a way to enable that very capability on all Liveview EOS DSLRs. Of course, there's still the whole "manual focus" requirement -- which means that the bulk of your captures will be way out of focus -- but it's a new feature for your existing camera nonetheless. Now that the cat's out of the bag, why don't you just push out an official update to add this into more cams, Canon? We mean, can you imagine the look on Nikon's face if you really came through?

Read - The hack
Read - Video capture from a Canon EOS 40D

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Hack provides Liveview Canon EOS DSLRs with video recording originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Details on AT&T's 3G MicroCell: everything but the date and price

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/25/details-on-atandts-3g-microcell-everything-but-the-date-and-pric/

T-Mobile has HotSpot @Home, Sprint has AIRAVE, and Verizon has its Wireless Network Extender, leaving just AT&T among the States' big four carriers without a launched WiFi or femtocell solution for extending signals into the home -- but it looks like that's finally getting close to changing. We know that they've been in the process of trialing some units recently, and tipsters have observed that there's now a pretty slick site launched on AT&T's domain for its 3G MicroCell, an indication that they might be looking to go retail eventually. There's quite a bit of detail here; from the picture, we can make out that the unit comes from Cisco (versus Samsung for Sprint and Verizon), and like its competitors, the MicroCell will require a broadband connection to operate. It'll cover up to 5,000 square feet, allow up to four simultaneous voice or data connections (locked down so that your neighbors can't pilfer the signal), and most interestingly, will only work with 3G phones. We've heard that femtocells are more difficult to manage in a 2G GSM environment than in CDMA and WCDMA -- hence the 3G requirement -- but the cells offered by Sprint and Samsung only offer 2G coverage, so AT&T's arguably got an advantage here. We still don't know exactly when this is coming or for how much dough, but the site makes mention of a "3G MicroCell service plan," so we'd count on a fee for the pleasure of extending AT&T's network on their behalf. Follow the break for AT&T's full rundown of the device.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Details on AT&T's 3G MicroCell: everything but the date and price

Filed under: Cellphones

Details on AT&T's 3G MicroCell: everything but the date and price originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visenta V1 multitouch wireless keyboard gets the hands-on treatment

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/26/visenta-v1-multitouch-wireless-keyboard-gets-the-hands-on-treatm/

It may not exactly boast the HTPC-friendly looks of something like the diNovo Edge, but if you're looking for a basic wireless keyboard with a bit of added multitouch, you may want to keep an eye out for this V1 model from Visenta, which the folks at Engadget Chinese recently managed to get their hands on. This one makes use of the tried-and-true 2.4GHz band to give you a range of up to 20 meters (hence the dongle), and includes ten dedicated Vista Media Center buttons, plus all the usual energy saving measures you'd expect to help you get the most from the required four AAA batteries. What's more, while there's no official word on a release 'round here just yet, it looks like some are already turning up on eBay for $130 (plus shipping from China, naturally). Be sure to hit up the link below for a closer look.

Filed under: Peripherals

Visenta V1 multitouch wireless keyboard gets the hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD's Phenom II pushed to 6.5GHz, 3DMark record demolished

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/26/amds-phenom-ii-pushed-to-6-5ghz-3dmark-record-demolished/

Ha, and you thought a 3DMark06 score of 5,086 was intense when AMD's Phenom II was overclocked to a blistering 3.85GHz. Just after CES, a team of hardcore speed freaks with access to liquid nitrogen and liquid helium created an environment for OC'ing one of AMD's latest Phenom II X4 chips in -232 degrees Celsius weather. Once the silicon was appropriately chilled, they proceeded to push the clock speed to a staggering 6.5GHz, which proved nimble enough to deliver a patently absurd 45,474 3DMark05 score. The best part? The adoring public was there to bear witness, and every nail-biting second of it is hosted up in the video just past the break.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading AMD's Phenom II pushed to 6.5GHz, 3DMark record demolished

Filed under: Gaming

AMD's Phenom II pushed to 6.5GHz, 3DMark record demolished originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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