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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Nokia's N86 8MP cruises through the FCC's database

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/21/nokias-n86-8mp-cruises-through-fccs-database/

When Nokia unveiled its N86 back in February, we Yanks were given no hope whatsoever that a US release was in the cards. We're doing our best to stifle our excitement, but it sure looks like a stateside launch is a lot closer now that said handset has made its way through the dark and murky halls of the FCC. Seen here in a lovely, washed-out shade of black, the 8 megapixel, OLED-equipped dual-slider seems no different than the one we toyed with in Barcelona, save for the whole US-friendly aspect, of course. C'mon Nokia, come clean with the price and ship date, won'tcha?

[Thanks, eleminop

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia's N86 8MP cruises through the FCC's database originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 06:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic's Class 10 SDHC cards make the wait for SDXC easier

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/21/panasonics-class-10-sdhc-cards-make-the-wait-for-sdxc-easier/

A full 15 months after Panasonic dropped jaws with its 32GB Class 6 SDHC card, the company is hitting us up with another world's first. Announced today over in Europe, the outfit has revealed a new line of SDHC memory cards that boast a Class 10 speed rating. Said spec was recently given the green light as part of the SD Card Specification v3.0, and as you could likely surmise, the increase in transfer rates should enable the cards to better handle all that HD video your DSLR seems to be capturing these days. Still, the boost is relatively minimal (particularly compared to the forthcoming SDXC format), with Class 10 promising maximum speeds of 22MB/sec and Class 6 cards already offering top-end rates of 20MB/sec. Mum's the word on price, but Panny expects these to ship next month in the UK before heading to other markets sometime later.

Filed under: Storage

Panasonic's Class 10 SDHC cards make the wait for SDXC easier originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FLOW is like the Ikea bookshelf of Android phones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/21/flow-is-like-the-ikea-bookshelf-of-android-phones/

"You know, I could build a better phone than this." We've probably all uttered something to that effect in our past in a fit of frustrated rage -- some more than others -- but are you ready to put your money where your mouth is? If so, you can now part with some cash and cobble together a bunch of modules to create a do-it-yourself Android phone called FLOW -- just be aware that it's probably not going to solve your troubles. At nearly $500 for the bare minimum hardware, you're not saving any money over a phone expertly manufactured by an Asian OEM, and no offense, sport, but something tells us the OEM's craftsmanship is in a different league. Putting away the practical concerns for a moment, the project seems like it'd be a blast -- so the only trick is finding someone willing to use a phone that looks like this clunky and geeky day in and day out. G1 owners, care to step forward?

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

FLOW is like the Ikea bookshelf of Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 08:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG's 50PS70 and 60PS70 plasmas get 160GB Time Machine functionality

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/21/lgs-50ps70-and-60ps70-plasmas-get-160gb-time-machine-functional/

The jury's still out on whether inbuilt DVRs are good for HDTVs, but LG's obviously hot to trot on the whole idea. Nearly a year after first introducing sets with an integrated Time Machine, the outfit is hitting back with two new big-screen plasmas that each posses a 160GB internal hard drive. The X Canvas 50PS70 (50-inch) and 60PS70 (60-inch) panels also boast 600Hz dejudder technology and can record overflow onto external drives connected via USB 2.0. Additional details (price, screen resolution, availability, etc.) are scant, but we'll be sure to keep an ear to the ground.

[Via Akihabara News]

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

LG's 50PS70 and 60PS70 plasmas get 160GB Time Machine functionality originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp's MIDtastic RD-PM10 electronic dictionary

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/21/sharps-midtastic-rd-pm10-electronic-dictionary/

Sure, it's no Zaurus, but Sharp's new RD-PM10 certainly is a looker. It packs a 4.3-inch WQVGA screen, QWERTY keyboard and 8GB of storage into a pretty delightful form factor, and while it's only designed for light e-dictionary and media playback duties, with Windows CE 5.0 as the backbone, we could imagine it doing a whole lot more with a bit of extra oomph under the hood. There's a microSD slot for expansion, pretty great codec support, and a 360,000 KRW (about $288 US) list price.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Handhelds

Sharp's MIDtastic RD-PM10 electronic dictionary originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Absurd Liquid-Cooled Desk Computer Is a Tribute to Mod Excess [Mods]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/k4ysbhZP2yo/absurd-liquid+cooled-desk-computer-is-a-tribute-to-mod-excess

One year ago, some Popular Mechanics editors set out with the broad goal of building the most ridiculously extravagant PC mod they could. This is what they came up with.

PopMech's quad-core beast is loaded with just the kind of pricey hardware you'd expect from such a flamboyant mod—4 GB of Kingston HyperX DDR3 RAM, a GeForce GTX 280 graphics card, two 300GB, 10,000RPM VelociRaptor HDDs, and an Antex kilowatt power supply—all centered around an 3.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor. It's the case, though, that's the star of the show.

The main structure of the desk is made up of two massive panels of acrylic, bolted to a custom-built aluminum frame. A glycol liquid cooling system snakes through the whole of the machine, stopping off to suck heat away from both the main processor and the graphics card. Built into the top is a custom-built Synaptics touchpad—a mostly useless but nonetheless cool design flourish.

PopMech has included a short how-to with their story, but it's less of an instructional guide than a point-by-point summary of why you can't build one of these yourself. [PopMech]

Dragonfly Skyscraper Farm Will Give Pigs the Best Views of Manhattan [Architecture]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/o1FJO8Tg8XE/dragonfly-skyscraper-farm-will-give-pigs-the-best-views-of-manhattan

First they launched the Swine Flu attack at a global scale, and now they are opening their headquarters in New York. This is the Dragonfly Vertical Farm, a skyscraper designed for animals and agricultural production.

Sitting on the southern part of Roosevelt Island—on the East River—the building is based on the shape of a dragonfly's wings. It extends 132 floors 600 meters up in the air, totalling 360,000 square meters.

The Dragonfly Vertical Farm is designed to produce fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, and dairy. It will also include public spaces, so people can visit the animals as they get ready to first take over Manhattan, and then take over Berlin. It will probably also result in the most expensive milk and bacon in the planet, which is probably why it is never going to be built.

Yes, the end is near. [Design Boom]

Video: Tele Atlas' photorealistic city models to aid navigation, terrorism

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/20/video-tele-atlas-photorealistic-city-models-to-aid-navigation/

Navigation devices are everywhere and just keep getting better and better thanks to the 3D maps provided by the likes of Tele Atlas (owned by TomTom) and NAVTEQ (owned by Nokia). Now Tele Atlas is announcing its photorealistic "Advanced City Models" destined for in-car and portable navigation systems and mobile devices. In June, Tele Atlas will release 40 maps based on BLOM arial imagery for cities across Europe -- hundreds more cities, including those in North America and Asia, will be available in 2010. Remember, Google already has laid ink to paper to give it rights to Tele Atlas maps for use in Google's mobile, desktop, and on-line offerings. And with Tele Atlas maps loaded on PSPs and navigators from Pioneer, Mio, and of course TomTom, just think of this as a hint of what's to come.

Continue reading Video: Tele Atlas' photorealistic city models to aid navigation, terrorism

Filed under: GPS, Handhelds

Video: Tele Atlas' photorealistic city models to aid navigation, terrorism originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 May 2009 06:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google announces first PowerMeter partners, we beg for more

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/20/google-announces-first-powermeter-partners-we-beg-for-more/

At last, we have the first partners in Google's quest to make your personal power consumption visible on your home computer. As the thinking goes, if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. So Google wants to give consumers near real-time visibility to their consumption and usage patterns via Google's PowerMeter software and utility-supplied "smart meters." The hope here, is that those aware of their energy consumption habits will change them to save money, and in turn, the planet. The initial list of partner utilities represent millions of homes spread across cities and country-sides in the US, Canada, and India:

San Diego Gas & Electric(R) (California)
TXU Energy (Texas) JEA (Florida)
Reliance Energy (India)
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin)
White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri)
Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited (Canada)
Glasgow EPB (Kentucky)

Google has also partnered with Itron to embed its PowerMeter software into Itron smart meters. While we applaud the effort, seeing energy consumption for the entire house, only, is far too macro (though a good first step). What we're waiting for is the marriage of this with home automation and monitoring solutions based on Z-Wave and ZigbBee, for example, so we can gain visibility and control down to the device level. Imagine a single software view that lets you drill all the way down to see how much energy your computer, lights, or home theater projector is consuming and then shut 'em down when not in use or to avoid vampire drain. Hey Nokia, you're working on a Home Control Center... you reading this? Google's looking for partners.

Filed under: Household

Google announces first PowerMeter partners, we beg for more originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 May 2009 03:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

E&S' 8K Laser Projectors Also Display 3D Content in HD [Projectors]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Pk3XwK_VNnA/es-8k-laser-projectors-also-display-3d-content-in-hd

Fresh off of JVC's 8K projectors announcement, Evans & Sutherland's newest laser projector, the ESLP 8K, not only displays a resolution of 8K in 2D, but also projects visuals in 3D as well.

Different from other lamp-drive projectors, the ESLP 8K laser projector displays quality that is apparently sixteen times 1080p HD resolution, with a 200% wider color spectrum, smoother playback and a miniscule environmental footprint. This laser projector is also the first one to display 3D content in 4K x 4K resolution, using only a single projector.

For those interested in checking out these high definition projectors for themselves, the ESLP 8K will be demonstrated at InfoComm this year, and will also be available on the market sometime during the second half of 2009. [E&S]

LG world's thinnest LCD is only 0.23 inches thick

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/lg-worlds-thinnest-lcd-is-only-0-23-inches-thick-/

Looks like we've got a new record holder for world's thinnest LCD, as LG pegs its new 42- and 47-inch models at only 5.9mm thick. Apparently lacking an iPhone for the accepted measurement of thinness, this model was reduced to holding up a coin for an example of LG's edge LED lit prowess. Though you may prefer local dimming LEDs, DisplayBlog is hopeful we'll see a combo of the two lighting schemes bringing thinness and high picture quality next year. Meanwhile, compare these to JVC's magnetically mounted former champ, measuring a now-widebody 7mm thick, but at only 5kg, still holding a weight edge over these two at 6.1 and 7.3kg, respectively. LG promises 120Hz refresh technology and 80% of the NTSC color gamut, up from 72% on standard models, on these, but we'll wait for them to go from the demo stand to the store shelf before revisiting the question of whether thinner and more energy efficient is actually better.

[Via DisplayBlog]

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

LG world's thinnest LCD is only 0.23 inches thick originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 01:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp's solar 936SH and 934SH with "memory LCD" headline latest SoftBank lineup

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/sharps-solar-936sh-and-934sh-with-memory-lcd-headline-latest/

As you might expect, Japanese carrier SoftBank's summer 2009 lineup contains the usual science-fiction array of ridiculously well-equipped handsets -- plus 3G photo frames and a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 with embedded WWAN -- but the real news here might be a pair of lovelies from Sharp. The mirumo 934SH (pictured left) features a 3-inch external display that can display time, date, weather, news, and other information without consuming any power between changes; sounds like E-Ink, though Sharp describes it simply as a "memory LCD." You've also got an 8 megapixel camera, a waterproof shell, and a UV sensor that can help you determine just how quickly you need to slather on the SPF 30. Next up is the Solar Hybrid 936SH, a phone suspiciously similar in concept to the device Sharp is working on for SoftBank competitor KDDI au. Clearly the big draw here is the big solar array up front that'll give you one minute of call time or two hours of standby per 10 minutes of charging, but you've still got IPX7 water resistance, an 8 megapixel camera, and a full wide VGA display at your disposal. Look for the 934SH in June and the 936SH in August -- if you happen to be in Japan, anyhow.

Filed under: Cellphones

Sharp's solar 936SH and 934SH with "memory LCD" headline latest SoftBank lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 02:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp AQUOS SHOT 933SH offers 10 megapixels on a silver cellular platter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/sharp-aquos-shot-933sh-offers-10-megapixels-on-a-silver-cellular/

Is it a phone? Is it a camera? Does it really matter anymore? If neither the mirumo 934SH nor the Solar Hybrid 936SH are quite to your liking, feast your eyes on this other wonder from Sharp that's hitting SoftBank Mobile in Japan this summer, the AQUOS SHOT 933SH. The headlining feature on this sucker would be the massive optics combined with a 10 megapixel low-noise CCD sensor, which is made infinitely easier to use as an actual camera thanks to a rotating touchscreen display -- just flip it around, snap it facing outwards, and voilà, your old point-and-shoot is on notice. Otherwise, you've got a 3.3-inch WVGA display (perfect for viewing one-seg television) and global roaming capability, so don't be surprised if we try to smuggle one of these stateside when it launches in late May, alright?

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras

Sharp AQUOS SHOT 933SH offers 10 megapixels on a silver cellular platter originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 04:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Atheros AR6002 makes NEC's N-06A dual-mode handset a WiFi access point

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/atheros-ar6002-makes-necs-n-06a-dual-mode-handset-a-wifi-access/

We've seen oodles of dual-mode handsets, but none quite like this. Rather than boasting two radios, two keyboards or two faces, NEC's N-06A -- which is gearing up to debut on NTT DoCoMo over in Japan -- actually has two purposes. Aside from making calls on the carrier's FOMA network, the phone can actually double as a wireless access point when AP Mode is enabled. The handset packs a cutting-edge Atheros AR6002 module, which enables handsets to operate in infrastructure mode, the primary wireless connectivity framework employed in access points, routers, laptops and other WLAN devices. In other words, your netbook (and seven other WiFi-enabled devices) can hop online via your handset, and it's far easier than the wacky tethering methods we deal with today. Other specs include an 8.1 megapixel camera, HSDPA / WLAN models and a miraculous 3.2-inch touchscreen with an 854 x 480 resolution. There's no mention of a price or ship date for the handset, but more than that, we're thirsty for details on when this chipset will be featured in a handset that's headed to US soil. Check the full release after the break.

Gallery: NEC's N-06A dual-mode handset acts like a WiFi access point

Continue reading Atheros AR6002 makes NEC's N-06A dual-mode handset a WiFi access point

Filed under: Cellphones

Atheros AR6002 makes NEC's N-06A dual-mode handset a WiFi access point originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TransferJet completes close-proximity specs, now wants members, respect

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/transferjet-completes-close-proximity-specifics-now-wants-membe/

TransferJet completes close-proximity specifications, wants members, respect

Wahey! It's been awhile since we've heard from you, TransferJet, the high-speed but low-range wireless would-be standard that promises 560Mbps over a near-adjacent range of just 3cm. Sony kicked off the initiative, but now has about 15 others playing along who have all managed to put aside their differences to finalize the specs on both the physical and connection layers. All they need now is hardware, and so starting today they're graciously asking for more members to join their consortium -- not that they would have turned you away yesterday. Still no sign of when actual devices using this technology will hit retail, but where there's a spec there's always a prototype.

Filed under: Wireless

TransferJet completes close-proximity specs, now wants members, respect originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 08:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OCZ's Z-Drive priced at Amazon: $1,561 and way up

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/oczs-z-drive-priced-at-amazon-1-561-and-way-up/

The kind folks at OCZ Technology's CeBIT booth told us that they expected the forthcoming Z-Drive to be priced between $1,500 and $2,000, and unfortunately for consumers, they were obviously just talking about the starting tag. Today, the much-hyped PCI-Express SSD card -- which strings a few blocks of flash memory together on a wicked fast PCI-E pipeline -- has been listed at Amazon, and the asking prices are downright eye-popping. The drive is slated to ship in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB flavors, with Amazon demanding $1,561.30, $2,450.50 and $3,368.99 for each in order of mention. We know read rates up to 500MB/sec and write rates of up to 470MB/sec are appealing and all, but damn.

[Thanks, Gary]

Read - 250GB Z-Drive listing
Read - 500GB Z-Drive listing
Read - 1TB Z-Drive listing

Filed under: Storage

OCZ's Z-Drive priced at Amazon: $1,561 and way up originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 09:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sanyo's 802.11n-enabled PLC-WXU700 gets official for the US

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/sanyos-802-11n-enabled-plc-wxu700-gets-official-for-the-us/

Sanyo already announced its PLC-WXU700 for Japan last week (or LP-WX700, as it's known there) but the company has now finally gotten official about its availability over here, and cleared up a bit of confusion in the process. In case you missed it, this one is apparently the world's first projector to pack built-in 802.11n WiFi, which should come in particularly handy with the projector's video streaming functionality. Otherwise, you can expect to get the standard WGXA resolution, along with a decent 3,800 lumens, a 500:1 contrast ratio, all the basic inputs, a USB port, and a plain old LAN port in case you get stuck in a conference room without WiFi. The key detail that's been up in the air, however, is the price, which it turns out is neither $642 or $6,445 but an expectedly disappointing $2,995. Look for it to be available sometime next month.

Filed under: Displays

Sanyo's 802.11n-enabled PLC-WXU700 gets official for the US originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DigiFi and Kleer debut Digital Opera S2, S5 wireless earbuds

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/digifi-and-kleer-debut-digital-opera-s2-s5-wireless-earbuds/

We haven't heard much from the Kleer / DigiFi combo since they finally brought their first Opera wireless earbuds to the US at the beginning of the year, but they're now back with not one but two new sets of 'phones, including the follow-up Digital Opera S2 and the Made for iPod Digital Opera S5. As you might suspect, both models are mostly identical, and pack the same 32 foot range and ten hours of playtime as before, along with the usual promise of uncompressed, CD quality audio. The S5 model, however, adds an iPod-compatible transmitter and some control buttons right on the headphones themselves, while the S2 opts for a basic 3.5mm-based transmitter to accomodate your non-Apple gadgets. No word on pricing just yet, but both should be available on June 20th.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Wearables

DigiFi and Kleer debut Digital Opera S2, S5 wireless earbuds originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 May 2009 14:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, May 18, 2009

NEC Japan announces its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 controller

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/nec-japan-announces-its-superspeed-usb-3-0-controller/

Have you got that USB 3.0 cable on your hope chest, just killing time until your SuperSpeed dreams become a reality? Well, that day is almost at hand: NEC has just announced details for the first USB 3.0 controller. The µPD720200 chip is backwards compatible with USB 1.1 and USB 2.0, with the company making samples available this June at $15 a pop (including Windows drivers). Look forward to seeing peripherals hit the streets soon after. Until then? Like the rest of us, you'll just have to keep on keepin' on.

[Via Everything USB]

Filed under: Peripherals

NEC Japan announces its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 controller originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 May 2009 14:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EeeRotate Orients Your Laptop Screen for Easy Reading [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/erSCXYVKmAg/eeerotate-orients-your-laptop-screen-for-easy-reading

Windows only: With the proliferation of lightweight and wide-screen notebooks, it was only a matter of time before someone realized that they make decent e-book readers when they're sideways. EeeRotate makes swapping orientation easy.

Photo by TeleRead.

Once installed, the tiny application rotates your screen and trackpad input using keyboard shortcuts. CTRL+ALT+RIGHT rotates your screen and touchpad input 90 degrees clockwise, CTRL+ALT+UP returns it to normal. Interestingly, in our tests EeeRotate would rotate the touchpad input, but not the input from the USB mouse plugged into the laptop. The navigation wasn't difficult using either one of them, and you'd likely not have an external mouse plugged in if you were using it as an e-book reader, but it's worth noting. Next time you find yourself reading lengthy documents on your wide screen laptop or netbook, EeeRotate can help you take advantage of your expansive screen space. EeeRotate is freeware, Windows only.

EeeRotate [via TeleRead]

Rendeznew Locates a Midway Point for Multiple Travelers [Travel]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/whlIZZjZV-4/rendeznew-locates-a-midway-point-for-multiple-travelers

You and some friends need to meet up. Free webapp Rendeznew eliminates the ten-minute arguments about fair driving distances and provides a list of equi-distant meeting spots.

Unlike previously reviewed MeetInBetweenUs and Mezzoman, which only allow for two addresses, Rendeznew allows you to enter up to four addresses in order to find a middle ground between all of the locations.

For the screenshot above, we put together a hypothetical Lifehacker Editors' Road Trip, which would—fingers crossed!—end with us arriving at a turkey ranch in Kansas. You can drill down through local listings to find various spots like coffee shops, bars, museums, restaurants and more. If the midway point ends up being, well, not exactly an inspiring destination—ours was 40 miles north of Wichita— you can simply drag the big green arrow to a new location. Each search has a unique link you can share with your friends, and every suggested midway point has a set of directions for each of the four addresses. Rendeznew is a Google Maps mashup with search results provided by Google and Yelp.

Rendeznew [via MakeUseOf]

How Do You Get Your News? [Ask The Readers]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/kDoAx-6gW5A/how-do-you-get-your-news

With the multitude of competing mediums these days, it's easy to pick and choose your information inputs. Newspapers, television, RSS, Twitter—how do you mix and pick your news sources?

Thomas Baekdal details the patterns of communication over the last hundred years and the shifts that have occurred. If your great-grandparents wanted to stay current on the news, for instance, they had to make a conscious effort to be places where people were talking about it. Now you can have it streamed, beamed, and delivered.

Where do you fall on the chart pictured above? Newspaper reader? Avid talk radio listener? All internet news, all the time? Tell us how you get your news, and where you think you'll be getting it in years to come, in the comments.

Where is Everyone? [via Digital Inspiration]

ColorRotate Creates Design Color Palettes [Design]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/IBPM1RuibKU/colorrotate-creates-design-color-palettes

Need a new color palette for your next design project? ColorRotate is a color palette generator with a heavy dose of eye candy and easy-to-use controls.

The default setup for ColorRotate is a 3D diamond shape, which you use to set the tint, hue, and the blending for your palette. If you prefer a more traditional appearance, you can switch it over to a series of sliders. You can create a completely new palette or browse through popular user-created palettes, or modify them. If you create an account, you can save your palettes, but even without an account you can export palettes in .ACT format, which allows for import into Adobe products.

Palettes can be created in a variety of color schemes including RGB, CMYK, and LAB. For another interesting way to generate a color palette, check out Color Palette Generator which extracts a color palette from an image.

ColorRotate [via Download Squad]

Why Should I Want This MID

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/yankodesign/~3/cfRUS87jROo/

Really, why would I want this MID (Mobile Internet Device) over the current iPhone I use? Lord! I know you're up to your neck with Apple banging, so for a change let's compare it to an LG Arena, Samsung I7500 or even BlackBerry Storm 2. Where does this MID score over the rest of these Internet efficient phones? Two places: Prime Real Estate i.e. a three screen setup that opens to 210 x 210 mm and an Integrated Stand.

On the flip side, this MID is merely a concept, but is pompous enough to include a clip-like anti-theft mechanism! I'm not going to get into the tech-specs, coz any dandy designer can pump out just about anything they like these days. So my focus stays on the screen.

How important is the screen of a mobile phone anyways. Plenty! Those who chanced on the LG Arena etc. will have to admit, that when you are using a device that small for net browsing, you wished for that moment the screen was a bit larger. Unfortunately I do need to quote Apple here, but damn; the panning in and out on the iPhone, sure compensates for not having a large computer screen handy. So yeah, a mobile device with a three tier screen layout giving easy keyboard access to fat fingers really scores, even if it's a concept!

Designer: Petr Kubík

No Tags

Second-Tier FiOS Providers Undercut Verizon, Are Verizon [FiOS]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/h-HdOwETaS0/second+tier-fios-providers-undercut-verizon-are-verizon

Verizon FiOS, which can pipe the internet into your home at 50mbps, is something like bliss. It's also hideously expensive. Luckily, smaller ISPs are offering the same service for less. The exact same service.

Midsize ISP DSLExtreme has announced that it will be offering a 50mbps service in 17 states at an introductory rate of $100/mo. This will climb to $105 after the first year, but still undercuts Verizon's standard price (in most markets) of $145/mo. The weird thing? DSLExtreme is beating Verizon's prices on Verizon's own service. The ISP has become a FiOS wholesaler, meaning that DSLExtreme's service operates on their fiber, through their network.

That makes it all the more odd that they can undercut a giant like Verizon, but they're doing it anyway. ~~Voodoo!~~ Economics! [Ars Technica]

Killer Xeno Pro Network Card Lightning Review [Lightning Review]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VA7Kb_RbdfM/killer-xeno-pro-network-card-lightning-review

A specialized networking card—with blingtastic LIGHTS—designed to murder lag for gamers, the $130 Killer Xeno Pro practically screams "snake oil." It's not quite.

If you've got a crappy ISP, obviously, a special thingamajig on your end won't help you—it can't fix the whole internet, and it doesn't claim to. What it claims is that network traffic running through it bypasses the Windows network stack, so it's a more direct connection to your game, and less load on your CPU, resulting in less lag and theoretically a higher framerate. Different from the older Killer cards, this also has a built-in voice processor to offload chat. You can customize network and bandwidth priority, app by app—giving your games the highest priority, obvs—so theoretically you can leave your torrents running and game normally.

Did it work? No and yes. I really didn't notice any difference in my framerates or latency playing Team Fortress 2. I keep the game's netgraph feature running by default, and I always play on the same server, so I have a pretty solid grip on what's typical of my machine in terms of framerate and latency. Playing 10 minutes on my standard connection and then switching immediately to the Killer Xeno for 10 minutes, and repeating this sequence three times, it was about the same every time—if it improved my connection or framerate, I couldn't taste it.

It does do a pretty decent job as a local QoS (quality of service) client. I ran a bunch of torrents and my game played perfectly okay, just like if I wasn't downl! oading a whole bunch of crap. However, if you've got a decent router, you could do the same thing if you know what you're doing. And really, router-level QoS is the only way to deal with your roommate's crazy torrent habits—the Killer Xeno Pro can't do anything about what the other people on your network are doing, so even then, its application is fairly limited.

Is it worth $130? If your computer's crappy enough, getting back that slight amount of overhead used by the Windows network stack and your usual chat client could make a difference. And if you can't figure out QoS, its software is pretty easy to use. But if your computer's that crappy, why are you spending $130 on a network card? [Killer Xeno Pro]

AMD to flood Computex with mainstream Tigris laptops, reveal Danube?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/amd-to-flood-computex-with-tigris-notebooks-reveal-danube/

Besides being overwhelmed by Intel's CULV thin-and-lights at Computex, it looks like AMD will use the event to punish Engadget editors and readers with the launch of its Tigris platform. Since you've most likely supplanted any memory of Tigris with something useful, let us remind you that Tigris is AMD's mainstream laptop platform built around a dual-core 45-nm Caspian processor supporting 800MHz DDR2 memory and ATI M9x series graphics. The Commercial Times is also reporting that Computex might even bring a possible unveiling of AMD's next-generation Danube laptop platform featuring a quad-core Champlain processor with support for DDR3 memory. Unfortunately, Champlain won't be available for consumers until 2010 -- 2009 is all about Tigris laptops and the Athlon Neo thin-and-lights for AMD. Where's the AMD netbook? Oh they ceded that market to Intel a long time ago; a bad move now that Atom-based netbooks are plundering mainstream laptop marketshare that AMD was betting on with Tigris.

Filed under: Laptops

AMD to flood Computex with mainstream Tigris laptops, reveal Danube? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 May 2009 06:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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