MSI Wind U270 netbook emerges with 1.6GHz AMD Zacate processor

We weren't actually expecting to see any Zacate-based machines until CES 2011 kicked off in earnest, but it looks as if MSI is hoping to snag a little wind from the sails of its competitors. In a small Taipei-based event, the outfit quietly snuck out a machine that we can only assume will become official in the coming days -- the Wind U270 netbook is an 11.6-incher with a 1.6GHz Zacate processor, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive and no optical drive to speak of. Other specs include a VGA output, two USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 socket, a Kensington lock port, 4-in-1 card reader, Ethernet jack and an overly glossy 1366 x 768 resolution panel. Courtesy of Netbook News' hands-on, we've spotted a traditional chiclet keyboard, a split mouse button (huzzah!) and a trackpad that may very well not exist if it were any smaller. MSI wasn't about to spill any details on a ship date or price, but feel free to get yourself acquainted with the aesthetic in the video just past the break.

Continue reading MSI Wind U270 netbook emerges with 1.6GHz AMD Zacate processor

MSI Wind U270 netbook emerges with 1.6GHz AMD Zacate processor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Disney imagineering long lines out of theme parks with military-grade monitoring systems

They've got a monorail system, IRL Muppets, and a house from the future, so we're not surprised that Disneyland is kicking its line-monitoring system into technological overdrive. Beneath Cinderella's iconic castle, a NORAD-style operation dedicated to eradicating downtime for visitors to the Magic Kingdom has sprung up, with a whole team tracking wait times, average number of rides ridden, and a whole bevy of other visitor-happiness metrics all over the park. From there, they can do things like re-route foot traffic to less-populated areas of the park with a mini-parade, adjust personnel at different attractions, or dispatch Jack Sparrow himself to liven up a Pirates line-waiter's afternoon. Chief Creative Executive Imagineer Bruce E. Vaughan dreams of "a day where there is memory built into these characters - they will know that they've seen you four or five times before and that your name is Bobby." Sounds delightfully frightening to us. But hey, it's all in the name of increasing visitor happiness, which we're sure goes hand in hand with visitor brokeness by the time they leave the park.

Disney imagineering long lines out of theme parks with military-grade monitoring systems originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Thunderbolt with LTE for Verizon pictured ahead of CES unveiling?

So, that lovely 4.3-inch LTE smartphone with Android for Verizon we've been calling the Mecha and the Droid Incredible HD? Looks like it might come to market as the Thunderbolt, so says Droid Life -- and we tend to put some weight on the rumor considering that they've just run twelve leaked shots of the thing. As you can see, this is clearly Verizon's head-on answer to the EVO 4G, featuring similar stylings and, in all likelihood, an LTE modem swapped in for the EVO's WiMAX one. Sure looks like that "controlled" leak from a few days back, doesn't it? More on this at Verizon's press conference next week, we presume.

HTC Thunderbolt with LTE for Verizon pictured ahead of CES unveiling? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EngKey telepresence robot teaches English to Koreans by way of the Philippines

You know, for all the hubbub we've been hearing about le robots (the robots), you'd think we'd see them put to better uses than chasing our pets and killing people. Right? Right. Well, the best use we can think of is education, and that's exactly what they're doing at an elementary school in Daegu, South Korea. Developed by the Korea Institute of Science of Technology (KIST), EngKey is just under three-and-a-half feet high, features a video display for a face, and seems hell bent on taking all those "teach English in Korea" jobs away from shiftless American college grads looking to postpone responsibility for one or two more desperate years. There are currently twenty-nine such devices, which -- get this -- are actually operated remotely by teachers in the Philippines. Is this the end result of globalism? Not quite yet: for the time being, the robots are still too cumbersome to operate and expensive to justify putting into production. But who knows? Maybe someday, kids.

EngKey telepresence robot teaches English to Koreans by way of the Philippines originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gigantic 1,500-Pound Camera Captures First X-Ray Images of Lightning [Image Cache]

Some madly brilliant scientists recently used a gigantic 1,500-pound camera to capture x-ray images of lightning—which they triggered artificially using wires and rockets. Crazy? Maybe, but it's definitely a beautiful experiment.

As a result of having a camera which could capture a lightning bolt traveling at one-sixth the speed of light, scientists have been able to discover that there's "a bright ball of x-rays at the head of the bolt, with almost no lingering radiation along the bolt's trail." This means that we now better understand where the radiation carried by lightning bolts comes from—and that we'll soon have some more crazy-looking images to use as desktop wallpapers. [National Geographic]

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