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Monday, April 09, 2012

Acer's C120 pico projector goes on sale, ready to be powered by your PC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/09/acers-c120-pico-projector-goes-on-sale-ready-to-be-powered-by/

Unless you had a particularly keen eye for tiny projectors, you may well have missed the announcement of Acer's C120, back at CES. The palm-sized pico projector has now hit the market, weighing in at an ultraportable 6.34 ounces. The peripheral features a USB connection, which can be used to power the device when it's plugged into a PC. The C120's also got a quick-starting LED lamp, which can display presentations in WVGA or WXGA. Business people, teachers and lovers of tiny projectors alike can pick this guy up now for $259. Not sold? Watch a projection-worthy video presentation from CES, after the break.

Continue reading Acer's C120 pico projector goes on sale, ready to be powered by your PC

Acer's C120 pico projector goes on sale, ready to be powered by your PC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An early look at Ivy Bridge motherboards: or, the side order without the main

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/09/an-early-look-at-ivy-bridge-motherboards/

An early look at Ivy Bridge motherboards: or, the side order without the main

Ssshh. Ivy Bridge is officially still a mystery, remember? Nevertheless, through some quirk of chronology, the accompanying Z77 chipset for motherboards has already been announced. If there's a reason for this early entrance, it's probably because Z77 is backwards compatible with Sandy Bridge, which means that the latest crop of motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI can be considered fully-fledged products in their own right. Well, kind of, anyway. In reality, some of the key selling points of Z77 won't get activated until you clamp on Ivy Bridge silicon -- including PCIe 3.0 support (hitherto only found on X79 big-momma-boards), so the real testing can't begin in earnest until the new kid arrives. With that caveat out of the way, read on for a quick review round-up.

Continue reading An early look at Ivy Bridge motherboards: or, the side order without the main

An early look at Ivy Bridge motherboards: or, the side order without the main originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HotHardware, Tom's Hardware, ExtremeTech, The Tech Report | Email this | Comments

15-inch Samsung Series 9 review (2012)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/09/15-inch-samsung-series-9-review-2012/

Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review

Samsung unveils redesigned Series 9 laptops with 13- and 15-inch displays, starting at $1,399

Spotted: the elusive 15-inch Samsung Series 9

Before there were Ultrabooks, there was the Samsung Series 9. When it arrived on the scene last year, measuring .64 inches thick, weighing 2.8 pounds and packing a blazing SSD, it seemed to offer Windows users the closest thing to a no-compromise experience -- provided, of course, they were willing to pony up the requisite $1,649. As it turns out, the Series 9 was great -- memorable, even -- but not without flaws. It lacked an SD slot, the trackpad was jumpy and the display resolution topped out at a humdrum 1366 x 768.

A year later, Samsung is back with a second-generation laptop that promises to correct all of these shortcomings, and ushers in an even thinner, even lighter design. Make that two laptops: Sammy's selling a 15-inch Ultrabook, too. And truly, there's nothing quite like it: nothing quite this thin, with this large a screen. (Consider for a moment that it measures just .08 ! inches t hicker than the new 13-inch Series 9, which is already thinner than most other Ultrabooks on the market.) As always, though, luxury doesn't come cheap. The 15-inch Series 9 will cost $1,500 when it ships at the end of this month (the 13-inch version is available for an also-pricey $1,400, though we haven't gotten to take that model for a spin yet.) Ultimately, then, are the Series 9's elegant aluminum design and 1600 x 900 matte display enough to justify the premium you'll pay over other Ultrabooks? And does the 15-inch version offer long enough battery life to match its larger size? Let's find out.

Gallery: 15-inch Samsung Series 9 review (2012)

Continue reading 15-inch Samsung Series 9 review (2012)

15-inch Samsung Series 9 review (2012) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumored LG D1L targets high-end with dual-core Snapdragon and LTE

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/09/rumored-lg-d1l-targets-high-end-with-dual-core-snapdragon-and-lt/

Rumored LG D1L targets high-end

If a spiritual and titular successor to LG's Optimus 2X has you a little hesitant, then maybe its rumored relative the D1L might make you feel more comfortable. The spec sheet makes it clear that this machine is a high-end affair, though it trades in the 4X HD's quad-core Tegra 3 for a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 and an LTE radio. Otherwise it sounds quite a bit like that other LG flagship announced at MWC, including a 4.7-inch 720p display and Ice Cream Sandwich. Of course, there's no guarantee such a phone will ever see the light of day, none the less here in the US. Lets just hope if and when the D1L lands, it does so with fewer bugs than the much maligned G2X.

Rumored LG D1L targets high-end with dual-core Snapdragon and LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ubergizmo | source

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DDaily | Email this | Comments

Google's Android emulator gets updated with GPU support, better CPU performance

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/09/googles-android-emulator-gets-updated-with-gpu-support-better/

Google brought some improvements to its Android emulator when it updated the SDK last month, but it's now back with an even bigger update that's sure to please developers. The latest version finally adds built-in GPU support, which Google says will help the emulator better keep pace with current smartphones that rely so heavily on GPUs themselves. Along with that, Google is also promising better performance across the board (including improved CPU performance), as well as emulation of more hardware features, including the ability to tap into the sensors and multitouch input of a tethered Android device (Bluetooth and NFC support are apparently next in line). Head on past the break for a quick video showing off some of the improvements, and hit the source link below for the full rundown on all the updates.

Continue reading Google's Android emulator gets updated with GPU support, better CPU performance

Google's Android emulator gets updated with GPU support, better CPU performance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 Gigantic Mega-Cap Stocks That Yield Way More Than Treasuries

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-gigantic-mega-cap-stocks-that-yield-way-more-than-treasuries-2012-4

Bank of America's Stephen Suttmeier is out with a list of companies that combine two of their favorite themes: Global mega-caps and high yields.

They note that mega caps generally, are set for a long period of dominance reversing a long underperformance trend.

mega cap

As for the high yielders, they are:

BMW (Market Cap $55.5 5 billion, Dividend Yield 3.45%)
ConocoPhillips (Market Cap $97.1 billion, Dividend Yield 3.46%)
Du Pont (Market Cap $49.3 billion Dividend Yield 3.10%)
GlaxoSmithKline (Market Cap $112.8 billion, Dividend Yield 5.50%)
Imperial Tobacco (Market Cap $39.6 billion, Dividend Yield 4.24%)
Nestle (Market Cap $202 billion, Dividend Yield 3.46%)
Procter & Gamble (Market Cap: $184.9 billion, Dividend Yield 3.13%)
Ricket Benckiser (Market Cap $40.6 billion, Dividend Yield 3.95%)
Toronto Dominion (Market Cap $75.7 billion, Dividend Yield 3.47%)
Vodafone Group (Market Cap $134.9 billion, Dividend Yield 5.88%)

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Saturday, April 07, 2012

Intel 313 SSDs bring improved caching to ultrabooks, desktops, life in general

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/06/intel-313-cache-ssd/

Intel 313 cache SSD

Just like Intel's older 311 batch of small cache SSDs, the new 313 series is designed to sit alongside a traditional spinning HDD in order provide a tasty blend of speed and capacity. These newer drives are still SATA II, so there's no 6Gbps action here, but they use superior 25nm SLC flash, offer faster speeds for the same price (starting at $120 for 20GB) and are explicitly approved for use in the coming wave of Ultrabooks -- so don't be surprised if that's where you meet 'em next.

Intel 313 SSDs bring improved caching to ultrabooks, desktops, life in general originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PC World | source

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Amped Wireless High Power R10000G Router and Smart Repeater hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/06/amped-wireless-high-power-r10000g-router-and-smart-repeater-hand/

Until now, Amped Wireless has been best known for its industrial networking gear, capable of maintaining a signal up to 1.5 miles away from the base station. Now, though, the outfit's also selling some equipment for folks with a more modest setup: the R10000G Home Router and SR10000 Smart Repeater, which promise to coat 10,000 square feet of your abode / office in robust, high-quality WiFi. Of course, we just had to test these claims out for ourselves, and see if these units really were formidable enough to leave our own router crying in the corner. We devised three simple experiments to see how they hold up in the real world -- head on past the break to find out how they fared.

Gallery: Amped Wireless R10000G Router and Smart Repeater hands-on

Amped Wireless R10000G Router Unboxing

Continue reading Amped Wireless High Power R10000G Router and Smart Repeater hands-on

Amped Wireless High Power R10000G Router and Smart Repeater hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google offers Floor Plan Marker app to businesses so they can improve indoor mapping

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/06/google-floor-plan-marker-app-indoor-mapping/

Google offers Floor Plan Marker app to businesses so they can improve indoor mapping

Are folks still getting lost in the faux marble expanse of your airport or shopping mall, even after you've uploaded the floor plan to Google Maps? Then maybe it's time you went the extra mile and improved indoor mapping using the official Floor Plan Marker app. It instructs you to walk around the "entire surface" of your place of interest, while gathering position data from GPS, public WiFi signals and cell towers. Once added to Google's database, this extra info will allow the familiar blue dot to function on your customers' Android phones even when your actually-concrete building gets in the way of their satellite signal. The app's already available at Google Play, so go ahead -- make the schlep now so that others don't have to.

Google offers Floor Plan Marker app to businesses so they can improve indoor mapping originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toray unveils new self-repairing film for devices, fixes scratches in under 10 seconds

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/06/toray-unveils-new-self-repairing-film-for-devices-fixes-scratch/

Toray's advanced film department has finished its new self-cure coating and is set to start using it as a decorative layer on a series of as-yet unannounced notebooks. Fortunately, the company is already chasing down more pervasive uses on smartphones and touch-panels. The science involves a wet coating method that adds a special recovering layer to PET film. Alongside that ~~mutant~~ healing factor, the layer responsible also throws in some elastic and cushioning properties. During Toray's demonstration (what, no video?) scratches made with a metal brush apparently repaired themselves, resulting in the rehabilitated glossy surface you see above. According to the Japanese manufacturer, the ability to heal improves at lower temperatures, but room temperature is apparently enough to make scratches disappear in 10 seconds or less -- more than fast enough to differentiate Toray's offering from existing solutions. The film can repair itself around 20,000 times in succession, although if pierced beyond the layer, it's -- unsurprisingly -- unable to recover any damage done. The screen is also softer than the typical protective surfaces found to devices. Maybe Toray and Gorilla Glass should get together. GorillToray?

Toray unveils new self-repairing film for devices, fixes scratches in under 10 seconds originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, April 06, 2012

ASUS placates Transformer Prime owners with free GPS Extension Kit add-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/05/Asus-to-offer-free-Transformer-Prime-GPS-Dongle/

ASUS took a few OTA stabs at fixing the Transformer Prime's satellite blindness, sure, but now the outfit is taking a more direct approach at fixing its GPS reception woes: hardware. New Prime owners registering their slab on ASUS' member site are now being greeted with an application for a GPS Extension Kit, a free dongle that "may help improve signal reception and optimize the user experience." According to a series of emails posted by an XDA forums user, the kit is due to ship in mid-April, and will "be a flush fit on the bottom of the unit if held in landscape, matching the color of your Prime Chassis." ASUS says the dongle will be available to all customers who picked up the tablet, and carefully notes that the accessory does not "replace, alter or amend any existing warranties." Fair enough. Now, what if we want to type while we find our way around the world?

Gallery: Transformer Prime GPS Extension Kit Application

ASUS placates Transformer Prime owners with free GPS Extension Kit add-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:16:00 ED! T. Plea se see our terms for use of feeds.

Land of Droid | source

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Thursday, April 05, 2012

Flickr adopting Aviary for photo edits, waves goodbye to Picnik

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/05/flickr-adopting-aviary-photo-editor/

Flickr adopting Aviary for photo edits, waves goodbye to Picnik

With Google set to close the Picnik shop on April 19th, it was obvious that Flickr had to go out and seek a fresh replacement. Today, the Yahoo-owned service is announcing Aviary (a Jeff Bezos-backed startup) as the new photo editing tool on its site. Along with promising to be simpler and speedier than its soon-to-be deceased predecessor, Aviary brings expected features like cropping, rotating, sharpening, red-eye reduction and cosmetic whitening, just to mention a few. Of note, Aviary is written in HTML5, opening the doors to become useful on a handful of slates and handsets. Flickr is set to commence the rollout later today, though it may take a few days until you can check out the changes.

Flickr adopting Aviary for photo edits, waves goodbye to Picnik originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Electronista | source

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Do You Care How Ugly the Google Glasses Are? [Qotd]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5899190/do-you-care-how-ugly-the-google-glasses-are

The internet, it is divided! Some people are disgusted by the Google Glass look—it is pretty goddamn nerdy. On the other hand, if it actually works as well as that snazzy demo video, does it even matter?

Yes and no! Presumably, Google's computer glasses will have to look at least not-stupid enough for you to wear them without feeling enough shame to immediately take them off. But they're a device, right? So they should be judged on the merits of how well they work? On how well they can augment that ol' reality? A bit of an android chicken and the cybernetic egg it was e-hatched from, we think.

But tell us what you think. Do looks matter?

Do you care how the Google Glasses look, even if they WORK amazingly well?

Self-sculpting 'smart sand' can assume any shape, create instant prototypes (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/04/self-sculpting-smart-sand/

A new algorithm developed by the Distributed Robotics Laboratory at MIT's Computer Science could lead to an exciting fast prototyping tool, being dubbed "smart sand." Immerse an object in the sand, tiny cubes that send simple proximity messages to each other, which relay through the swarm and determine which blocks are adjacent to the object to be modeled, and those that aren't. Using this data, it's possible to create a map of the subject to be replicated. Initial tests were performed using 2D models, but has also been shown to work reliably with 3D shapes also. While true smart sand would need "grains" much smaller than currently possible, it's said that this isn't an "insurmountable obstacle." The paper will be presented at the IEEE conference in May, or keep going past the break for the explanatory video.

Continue reading Self-sculpting 'smart sand' can assume any shape, create instant prototypes (video)

Self-sculpting 'smart sand' can assume any shape, create instant prototypes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers create incredibly thin solar cells flexible enough to wrap around a human hair

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/04/thin-flexible-solar-cells/

You've probably heard that the sun is strong enough to power our planet many times over, but without a practical method of harnessing that energy, there's no way to take full advantage. An incredibly thin and light solar cell could go a long way to accomplishing that on a smaller scale, however, making the latest device from researchers from the University of Austria and the University of Tokyo a fairly significant discovery. Scientists were able to create an ultra-thin solar cell that measures just 1.9 micrometers thick -- roughly one-tenth the size of the next device. Not only is the sample slim -- composed of electrodes mounted on plastic foil, rather than glass -- it's also incredibly flexible, able to be wrapped around a single strand of human hair (which, believe it or not, is nearly 20 times thicker). The scalable cell could replace batteries in lighting, display and medical applications, and may be ready to be put to use in as few as five years. There's a bounty of physical measurement and efficiency data at the source link below, so grab those reading glasses and click on past the break.

Researchers create incredibly thin solar cells flexible enough to wrap around a human hair originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PhysOrg | source

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