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Friday, March 04, 2011

VIA says Eden X2 is world's most power-efficient dual-core processor

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/04/via-says-eden-x2-is-worlds-most-power-efficient-dual-core-proce/

Following close behind the low-power Nano X2 comes the Eden X2, or what VIA is calling "the world's most power-efficient" fanless dual-core processor. While we've yet to see any official numbers, the original Eden did 500MHz on one watt of power, so we should see similarly thrifty specs here. Aside from that, the unit houses two 64-bit cores in a 21 x 21 millimeter package, is compatible with Windows CE and Linux operating systems, and was built using a 40-nanometer manufacturing process. The Eden X2 made its debut at the World Embedded conference this week, and should make it to the real world by the end of Q2. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading VIA says Eden X2 is world's most power-efficient dual-core processor

VIA says Eden X2 is world's most power-efficient dual-core processor originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel's SSD 510 reviewed, measures up well against Vertex 3

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/04/intels-ssd-510-reviewed-measures-up-well-against-vertex-3/

Been wondering how that new 6Gbps SATA interface and Marvell controller have been treating Intel's latest SSDs? The answer, it turns out, is really rather nicely. Faced off with OCZ's awesomely quick Vertex 3 drive, the 250GB SSD 510 from Intel more than holds its own, occasionally flashing ahead and taking the lead. Opting for Marvell's processing chip has improved Intel's sequential performance, but has actually led to it taking a ding on random read speeds -- the latter being arguably more important on a day-to-day basis. Still, this $584 drive is one of the finest the consumer world has yet had to feast upon and should encourage high expectations from Intel's 25nm G3 storage units, which are still to come. As to having the extra Serial ATA bandwidth, we'll leave it to Anand from AnandTech to summarize: "these next-generation SSDs not only use 6Gbps SATA, they really need it."

Intel's SSD 510 reviewed, measures up well against Vertex 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, March 03, 2011

Bing, one more nail (no, big huge wooden stake) in Groupon's coffin - http://ping.fm/Dv0Ur like I predicted here http://bit.ly/f6BcA5

via @ClickZ - The Confluence of Trends: Mobile, Location, Social, and Group; Implications for Marketing / Advertising - http://bit.ly/ifY7P6

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

My tool for sending photo greetings using millions of Creative Commons Flickr photos: phreetings (photo+greetings) - http://bit.ly/fhsJwO

Friday, February 25, 2011

Electric Bikes Are Now Wireless, and Can Charge Gadgets via USB [Bikes]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5770071/electric-bikes-are-now-wireless-and-can-charge-gadgets-via-usb

I loved riding about town when testing a GoCycle electric bike, but must admit the cable that snaked around the frame sometimes got in the way of the pedals, if I didn't do it up right. The Shadow Ebike is the first electric bike that houses its Daymak Drive controller in the front wheel, alongside a lithium-ion battery, motor, USB port, charging port and LED power display.

Why would you need a USB port, I hear you ask? Why, so you can charge gadgets. The wheel stores electricity, generated from activity. So, the more you cycle, the more you can charge your cellphone once you stop.

You can choose between a 250W motor, or something with a bit more grunt in it, at 350W. The battery, on the other hand, is a 36V 10AH lithium-ion one, which takes up to five hours to recharge, and is good for up to 25 miles.

The only problem I can see with Daymak's Shadow Ebike is the price: a rather steep $1,999. Not to mention the rather "safe" color... [Shadow Ebikes via Gizmag]

Sources: iPad 2 lands in thinner body with spec bump and cameras, SD slot and higher resolution display are out

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/sources-ipad-2-lands-in-thinner-body-with-spec-bump-and-cameras/

The Apple rumors game can be a volatile thing. Just as we'd heard about last minute alterations to the Apple TV before it hit the market, we've gotten word from sources that the iPad 2 slated to be announced next Wednesday will be sans a few of the features we'd previously reported. Notably, that SD card slot and higher resolution display won't make it into the new model (the latter we'd been hearing rumblings about for a little while). What's the cause of the switch? Well our sources weren't crystal clear on the exact reasons, but the gist of what was explained to us centered around vague "engineering issues" which may have forced some changes at the eleventh hour. It's worth noting once again that these sources have been dead right on specific Apple plans and specifications for unannounced products in the past, and we have no reason to believe these changes are due to anything more than legitimate engineering decisions made close to launch.

So what will we see on March 2nd? We're hearing it's most likely a thinner, spec-bumped variation of the original iPad with a screen size and resolution identical to the current model. More RAM (512MB) and a more powerful CPU (the A5) are expected as well. It's also a pretty safe bet the tablet will be sporting at least one camera up front -- though if some of those case mockups we've seen tell us anything, expect a shooter around back too. It's also almost guaranteed that we'll see the next version of iOS (number 5 in all likelihood, along with its SDK for devs), and an expansion of Apple's cloud services (that part is a little... foggy right now). Of course, that will perfectly set up Apple's announcement of the iPhone 5 in June, which is when iPad owners can likely expect to be using the new software. Regardless, we'll have the goods come next week, so stay tuned!

Sources: iPad 2 lands in thinner body with spec bump and cameras, SD slot and higher resolution display are out originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Xoom rooted in two hours flat, sinister transforming exoskeleton jetpack returns in Verizon ad

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/25/motorola-xoom-rooted-in-two-hours-flat-sinister-transforming-ex/

What's the first thing you're going to do with your Motorola Xoom? If you're Koush, the answer's clear -- install your very own ClockworkMod recovery image and ROM Manager, and grant the latter superuser permissions. That's right, on the very day of release, the Motorola Xoom's all but ready for custom builds of Android and all the joy they bring.

Meanwhile, Verizon's decided to bring us the latter half of the abruptly cut Xoom TV ad, which actually differs significantly depending on whether or not Spanish is your primary language. Either way, it's a fairly sordid affair, with no Iron Man feats of stratospheric skill to be found, merely a quick demonstration of gaming with the accelerometer and a few quick swipes through Honeycomb. You'll still watch it if we tell you it's after the break though, won't you?

Continue reading Motorola Xoom rooted in two hours flat, sinister transforming exoskeleton jetpack returns in Verizon ad

Motorola Xoom rooted in two hours flat, sinister transforming exoskeleton jetpack returns in Verizon ad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VerizonWireless (YouTube), Koushik Dutta | Email this | Comments

HTC Incredible S shipping this week in UK, will come with Froyo to start

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/htc-incredible-s-shipping-this-week-in-uk-will-come-with-froyo/

Though it'd originally been pegged for the second quarter, it seems HTC's bumping that up a smidge with the launch of its new flagship -- the Incredible S -- in the UK this week. Pre-orders are going on as we speak with shipments promised for tomorrow, but there's a catch: rather than shipping with Gingerbread, the phones will come with Froyo to start with an upgrade to Gingerbread promised for the near future. Buyers, we've got a little homework for you: if you're feeling adventurous and in a warranty-voiding mood, try to figure out what's going on with those auto-rotating capacitive buttons, alright?

HTC Incredible S shipping this week in UK, will come with Froyo to start originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GM shows off Terrain SUV with noise cancellation, says silence equals fuel efficiency

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/25/gm-shows-off-terrain-suv-with-noise-cancellation-says-silence-e/

GM claims its new Terrain has other SUVs beat when it comes to fuel efficiency, and they're citing active noise cancellation -- a concept near and dear to audiophiles everywhere -- as one of the driving factors that puts it 4MPG above the competition. Basically, the Terrain's enlisted a new one-touch "Eco mode" that allows its four-cylinder engine to run at a lower torque, decreasing engine speeds, and thus saving gas. The thing is, this increased fuel efficiency comes with a "low-end frequency boom," which is where the noise cancellation sets in: two microphones built in to the car's headliner detect the boom, prompting a frequency generator to pump counteracting sound waves through Terrain's speakers. Simply put, GM's just getting rid of an unpleasant hum. So a quieter car isn't necessarily a greener car, but we'll take a more fuel efficient SUV any day. If you're picking up what GM's laying down, check out the full PR after the jump.

Continue reading GM shows off Terrain SUV with noise cancellation, says silence equals fuel efficiency

GM shows off Terrain SUV with noise cancellation, says silence equals fuel efficiency originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, February 24, 2011

2011's new HDTVs from Samsung, Panasonic, LG start to arrive in stores, pricing leaks out

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/2011s-new-hdtvs-from-samsung-panasonic-lg-start-to-arrive-in/

After they strut their stuff on the CES runway the only thing left for 2011's latest & greatest HDTVs to do is take their act on the road and that's exactly what's happening. CNET's David Katzmaier has tweeted about finding a few Samsung and Panasonic models at various retailers already, though as usual it's the lower end models that are coming in first -- if you want a top of the line Panasonic VT30 instead of a 720p 3D Samsung D490 plasma (51-inch, $969), you'll have to wait. Still, it's good to ballpark what you'll have to budget and while HDGuru has followed up on previous Panasonic pricing leaks with MAP and specs for most of Samsung's line, cj1319 on AVSForum has early details on minimum advertised prices on LG's Nano LED lit LCDs & plasmas. Check the source links below for all the details,but don't expect any help from us while you're scraping together 10 g's for the 72-inch 72LZ9700 LG LCD pictured above.

2011's new HDTVs from Samsung, Panasonic, LG start to arrive in stores, pricing leaks out originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

@dkatzmaier | HDGuru, Samsung PN51D490A1 | Email this | Comments

Intel Thunderbolt: a closer look

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/intel-thunderbolt-a-closer-look/

So what's this Thunderbolt stuff, and why is it in your new MacBook Pro? Intel just broke it down for us, and now we'll do the same for you. Simply put, Thunderbolt's a familiar-looking port, a brand-new chip, and a cord, which allows devices to pipe two data streams simultaneously -- in both directions -- over a single cable at up to 10 gigabits per second to start, primarily using PCI Express x4 for data and DisplayPort for video. The Thunderbolt controller chip -- required for the system, but Intel says it's hardware-agnostic and doesn't require an Intel processor or chipset to use -- acts as a miniature router that rapidly switches between the two bidirectional channels of data.

Sounds great, but why would you want to buy into yet another copper cord? Intel defends that Thunderbolt will be backwards and forwards-compatible depending on the cable used. Representatives explained that the basic system can work with any other PCI Express 2.0-compatible I/O system with, say, a FireWire or eSATA adapter doing the dirty work --Intel wouldn't specifically comment on USB 3.0 -- and that the port you'll find in new MacBook Pros and storage devices can actually take an optical cable when those are cost-effective enough to roll out, because Intel will eventually bake the optical transceivers into the cables themselves. In the meanwhile, you can get up to three meters of range out of a basic cable, plus a fairly generous 10 watts of power over the bus, and since Thunderbolt devices are designed to be daisy-chained, you may be able to get another three meters for each device you add on that sports a pair of the ports.

Though Intel wasn't talking about likely prices for the chips or cables in even the most general terms, Promise and LaCie had prototype devices on hand headed to the market soon -- get a peek at them and a closer look at the cable in our gallery below, and we'll have video up in a little while too.

Update: Looks like LaCie's product now has a name and vague release date: it's the LaCie Little Big Disk, coming this summer, with a pair of solid state drives inside.

Gallery: Intel Thunderbolt close-up shots

Intel Thunderbolt: a closer look originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gmail Chat Exporter Makes Copying and Printing Chats Much Easier [Bookmarklets]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5769118/gmail-chat-exporter-makes-copying-and-printing-chats-much-easier

Gmail quietly, automatically saves your chat messages, as if they were emails. That makes copying, saving, or printing multiple chats across a few days pretty difficult. Enter Gmail Chat Exporter, a bookmarklet that creates a simple text chat history with any contact.

Gmail Chat Exporter Makes Copying and Printing Chats Much Easier You'll need to copy Jim Matteson's JavaScript code and create a bookmark for it (with the code as the URL). Once it's in place, click the bookmark while you've got Gmail or Google Apps mail open, and enter the name of a contact, exactly as they would appear in your Chat sidebar. Give the script a bit of time to work, as Matteson made it respectful of Google's servers. When it's all done, you'll see a text output that goes back quite a ways—but you can search out a date to find what you need.

Handy stuff. Got another way of grabbing your Google Talk chats for copying? Tell us in the comments.

Chrome 10 Now Lets Extensions Run in the Background [Updates]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5769168/chrome-extensions-now-allowed-to-run-in-the-background

Certain extensions—like Gmail notifiers, for example—are great when your browser is running, but can't run when it's closed. Chrome's added a new feature that will let extensions stay open, even if you don't have any open browser windows.

There aren't a ton of extensions using this feature yet, but it's fairly new. We expect that just like desktop extensions, a lot of developers will be adding this feature to their extensions very soon. Essentially, it allows you to start a process and close all your Chrome windows. The process (checking your Gmail, for instance) will stay open in your system tray (or the Dock, in OS X's case), so it can keep giving you desktop notifications even when you don't have any Chrome windows open. You can also access your background-enabled apps from the system tray or dock, which is pretty handy.

This feature actually has quite a few neat possibilities. For example, it also allows Chrome apps to load content in the background too, so apps can update in real time even when they're not open. That means in theory, something like Mint—which is right now, just a bookmark to Mint.com in the Chrome Web Store—could load all that information in the background, ready for you when you open it up, no waiting required.

We're pretty interested to see what developers do with this feature now that it's out. To test it out, you can check out the countdown timer app, which will send you notifications even when you've closed all your Chrome windows. You'll need Chrome 10 for the background feature to work. Hit the link for more information.

Background: Extending Your App's Life [Google Code Labs via ReadWriteWeb]

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

It's a Good Thing the World's Thinnest Phone Has a Gorilla Glass Screen [Phones]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5769024/its-a-good-thing-the-worlds-thinnest-phone-has-a-gorilla-glass-screen

Matching Monday's leaked pics perfectly, the NEC Medias actually looks really nice. When was the last time you could say that about an NEC product?

It'll run on Android 2.2 when it goes on sale mid-March with the NTT Docomo carrier, and will no doubt be a hit with Japanese girls (and slender businessmen who don't want to ruin the line of their suits.)

It's just 7.7mm thick, which topples the Samsung Galaxy S II from its pedestal—not a mean feat, you could say, when it only measured 8.49mm anyway. Other components that have been crammed into the 105g body include a 4-inch Gorilla Glass LCD screen with 854 x 480 resolution; a 5.1MP camera; 1Seg TV tuner; NFC tech, and the usual other sensors and connections.

Live outside of Japan? It's back to the Galaxy S II for you. [MobileCrunch]

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