Pentagon prepping non-lethal "light and sound" weapon

from Engadget by Evan Blass

Blissfully unaware that it's up against a generation raised in the sensory madhouses known as techno clubs, the Pentagon is reportedly working on a non-lethal weapon that utilizes light and sound to sicken and disorient targets. Like Homeland Security's "pukelight," the so-called Distributed Sound and Light Array Debilitator being developed by Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory is meant to induce a feeling of nauseousness, in this case combining light patterns with "aversive noises." So yeah, like we said, sounds pretty effective unless you happen to run into a group of insurgents hardened by years of all-night raving and the accompanying neurological damage.

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Battleship Mtron: the absurdly fast SSD RAID array

from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

Listen, we know you think your RAID setup is pretty snazzy, and, truth be told, it probably makes our rig look silly by comparison. However, in the computer world, there's always someone out there with a bigger, nastier system -- and we've just spotted one of the nastiest of them all. Next Level Hardware is a site that specializes in putting outrageous setups to the test, and this time they haven't disappointed with their benchmarks on the Mtron 16GB SSD (reportedly the fastest SATA drive in the world). Oh, did we mention the test was on a RAID 0 array of nine drives? Dubbed the "Battleship Mtron," the sickening collection of hardware blazed past the competition (a WD Raptor, less stacked Mtron RAID setups), delivering mind-boggling data swaps like copying a 1GB folder in four seconds. You read that right: four seconds. Like where this is headed? Truck over to the test page and peep all the stats... seriously, it's upsetting.

[Thanks, David]

 

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Intel develops integrated WiFi / WiMAX / DVB-H chip

from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

Intel, clearly not wanting to be left in the dust by the slew of new wireless technologies that are starting to converge, nasty-like, inside our shiny new devices, has begun testing on a chip which can effortlessly swap between WiFi, WiMAX, and DVB-H. The idea is that the chip's radio would talk to your WiFi at home, hand over the data to WiMAX if you hit the road, and also allow you to pull down digital television while staying mobile -- without having to use an array of separate radios or silicon. This should open up a whole new vista of possibilities for time-wasting activities, so whenever manufacturers want to get this into our phones / laptops, just say the word. We're ready.

[Via Slashdot]

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Motorola's A1600 MING 2 surfaces

from Engadget by Darren Murph

What's that, you say? Reportedly, that picture you see above is the Motorola A1600, which could be the long-awaited successor to the A1200 MING. Granted, we've no proof to go along with it, but the design sure fits the mold. According to Chinese-based eNet, this bugger will sport quad-band GSM connectivity, a 3.2-megapixel camera (with autofocus), WiFi, assisted-GPS, a couple of built-in games, a "talking dictionary" and a Linux-based OS. Interestingly enough, that last tidbit certainly conflicts with other reports we've heard, but we suppose time will tell (look for a February launch) what system really ends up running the MING 2 show. [Via UnwiredView]

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iPhone gets video recording capabilities

from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

Thanks to another set of ambitious iPhone hackers, we've officially got video on Apple's wonder-device (that somehow omitted video to begin with). It's not much right now, but if you want, you can see your phone recording five succulent seconds of real-deal video at around 15 FPS. The developers say this is just a proof of concept, and they've been able to get up to 45 FPS on the device -- so hopefully we can expect a more robust version soon (like, say, one that lets you save the recording). Check the video after the break to see the gorgeous work in action.

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